Yesterday was the last day of school (yey!).

No more 4 hrs of tranversing for 2 hrs of lessons! Great!

While we wil have bigger worries come next monday, at least transport will no longer be an issue.

That being said, yest was a gathering of sorts for my class.

Ard 14-15 of us met tog after class for 4 games of Captain's ball (well, u can actually say 4.5 games but I dun think that is the crux of the issue).

Great fun but man....I was already huffing and puffing after 1 game.

owned...

Thankfully breaks were pretty long in between so we all could catch our breath.

The games were really fun though (1 good mode of destress) and hopefully after our battle ended come May, we can all meet together for more of such games!

Everyone played veri well and we are had great fun!

Lunch was more of a simplistic affair.

The usual crapping but CY brought up a super funny incident. One prof can actually decipher fonts! Power!
Each of us hand up a 10 page assignment on average, with each page ard 20 lines.
Since there are ard 20 of us, that means she has to go through 10X20X20=4000 lines of equations and words. Yet, she managed to spot that one particular line of font is diff from another line!

Superhuman ability!
All of us were veri veri impressed!

Today was spent on recuperating.

From?

Of cos its due to the er...well...overnight lesson on probabilities (see previous post).

I spent the whole monday snoring my head off (10am to 6pm) but was still feeling sore all over.

Lesson learnt: When u are taking key lessons in probabilities, sit properly! Do not lie on the bed! If you choose to lie on bed, at least lie in a comfy position!

Tuesday was spent going to my grandma's place and on shopping. Actually, Vic invited me to his home on that day (more bridge + movie I think) but I was still so sore and tired from the overnight thingy that I decided that I had better not go (not nice to go snoring in other pple's places lor! though I must admit here that I have slept in Vic's place b4. >_<)

Today was spent on snoring (again!) but I must happily admit I have finally recovered. (PHEW!)

I did more than sleep today though-ate a ton of cookies my sister baked.

She baked a ton (really a lot!) of cranberry, chocolate, walnut and cashew nut chips.

Orh! They are good but hey! Why are there no blueberry cookies! Darn! Too bad my sis dun share my craze over blueberries.

And the cookies that Kel pass me were chocolate cookies too! Why didnt she pass me blueberry ones! Haha...

Anyway, all the cookies were veri nice. Veri impressed since I know nuts abt baking cookies. Thanks Kel and my sis!

Well, there is a saying that one of the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. Hey, mayb that's rite afterall, esp if the guy cannot cook well (well, I can cook simple dishes such as spaghetti, eggs or vegetables but I cannot cook my favourite soft shell crab, unagi or wanton noodles so no count!).

Mayb I shld really go take up some simple cooking lessons! Now, the key thing is to find time for it! If i really go for cooking lessons, there isn't any doubt that I will probably go for lessons on Japanese crusine...Yumz... =)

TIRING!

Slept only at 6am this morning!

And I still feel the side-effects! Man...I am really getting old!
Arching all over. Man!

So wat happen?

As stated in my last entry, I went to my sec sch friend (SC)'s chalet.

6 of us: SC, his soon to be wife (JY), SC's bro (SY), G, D and myself.

Well...all 6 of us were examining and self-learning probability wif a deck of cards. Well....the lesson was rather long...from 8pm to 6am...haha...I shld say that I enjoy bridge more though, for that game is not so dependent on luck (depends a lot of how the other 3 play, more particularly ur partner). Even the card game I played wif my cousins is better but since all my sec sch friends dunno how to play bridge, examining probabilities it is then!

JY didnt really attempt to learn more abt probabilities, rather, she was in charge of "collecting" the lesson fees. She left veri early too...ard 11.30pm.

Still, something she said was rather interesting for us. She is completing her part-time degree in accountacy soon. With this deg and her diploma, she will get $3k in her new job as an accountant. Now, compare to a normal gal (for a fair comparison as guys will get extra NS pay) who ploughed though FULL TIME in NUS or NTU for 4 years. Assuming u have a second upper, ur pay will be only ard $2.5k. Eh, if u dun have second upper (or hons for that matter), plse automatically take off $0.3k ($0.5k).

See how pathetic it is? that NUS/NTU gal waste 4 yr ( 3yrs without hons) to get a starting pay of only $2.5k. A dip/part-time deg have 2 years of working exp (she work part time ma!) to get a pay of $3k. If u factor in the money she made in her part-time job (say $2k a mth), it seems that some of us have made the wrong choice in how we planned our life. ok. I didnt really take into account of that extra year in the diploma as some pple can go for a jc education b4 hopping in NUS/NTU but i think that will not compensate a single thing.

Mayb its high time we (be it guy or lady) all go apply for a part-time accoutancy degree? Its not really too late....I guess its never too late to change ur life ard...Hmmm...

Anyway, we were all learning probabilities late into the nite...until SC gave up and "retire" at 3am. SY retired at 4am whilst myself, D and G retired at 5am.

D, G and I spent 1 hr to talk abt the old times b4 we slept at 6am.

Well...while i rarely stay up not to sleep, I used to be able to do it effortlessly one lor....Sigh...Maybe I am really getting old... =(

Today is the first day of the Lunar Chinese New Year so as to tradition, most (if not, all) chinese will go to pay respects to the elders or visit their relatives.

So I went to my grandma's place.
We reached at ard 12 noon.
By then, some of my relatives have already came and left.

To be rather truthful, I do not have a lot of relatives...I know... I know...I am envious of the rest of u who have many ang paos. Sobs.

Anyway, when my family was there, there were only mostly my aunties and uncles with 2 cousins who I rarely conversed wif. Dun ask me why, I really have no idea y this is so too. Just not close? Hmmm....

Anyway, eventually, another family of relatives came along.
This time, my cousin (X), her husband (H) and her younger bro (W) came together (my cousin has another bro but he went Thailand so didnt tag along today).
As a sidenote, I mentioned cousin X in a veri early blog entry before (think 1-2 yrs back. Cannot rem! Haha). She is without doubt the prettiest cousin among all my relatives (to be truthful, in my opinion, prettier than all the gals I meet in NUS or my current sch now). The typical model look with huge eyes (though she wasnt veri tall-ard 165cm). She was married ard a yr back so we got our red packets from her. =)

Our usual clique has gathered. Off it was to a empty room.
As usual....
Cards is the name of the game.
So we played
and played...
and
played...

Until one of my relatives come along.
Now, I haven seen this family in 3 years.
Some issues among our relatives is prob the cause of this but lets not go into this...

Anyway, so the aunt came in (give red packets to myself and W. X and H will not be having any red packets, rem?).

She easily recognise X, W and H...mayb they haven changed that much in looks within 3 years.

Chancing upon me, she looked puzzled.
Almost instinctively, she asked who I was.
I was eh...shocked. Erm....I didnt change that much rite? Or did I really? Hmmm....

X was faster than me.
She replied nonchantly, "oh, he's my new boyfriend."
W kept quiet. Surprisingly, H also kept quiet.
Well...if u know me well enuff, u will have expected my reply.
I played along and said:"Yup, I am her new bf".
The most amazing thing (other than H keeping quiet) must be my aunt believing it and walking out of the room.
Super amazing!
Power!

I seriously wonder if my looks have changed so much...I really wonder though....Hmmm...

Anyway, rushing out! Going for an overnight chalet! So no more blogging for tonight!

I will end with this: A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE! Stay happy!

Today (New year's eve), I was invited to my ex-tutee's place (He is awaitng to go NTU).
Another friend was invited too-some genius with computers. We shld all kowtow to him. Assigning him the title computer expert is not really doing him justice but still....call him CE then. easy for me to type. =)

So all 4 of us were hiding in a room. 4 of us: Me, CE, my ex-tutee, Victor (Vic) and Vic's younger sister, Belicia (Bels). I also tutor Bels b4 (thats wat i call her anyway...rarely do I call her Belicia). To be rather truthful, there really isn't a need to tutor Bels...She's a super hard working (6 pointer for her 'O's) mugger. More on this issue of Wisdom vs Hard Work in a subsequent post-today's post is on noob!

One thing I realize on today's trip was that Bels (she's in her J2) is surprisingly a very easy person to converse with. She is obviously intelligent (well, she is in RJC afterall, so academic wise-she is one of the better ones) and she does think before she engages her mouth.... a big plus point (A rare find these days. See previous post...When i was in NUS, i dun have this prob lor...oh well). Her claims are at least well reasoned and well thought thru...definately more mature than some jokers who are 4-7 older than her. Arcueid (another person who at least bother to think b4 she speak) claimed that this issue is due to e college school environment. Interesting view which she has some pretty well backed-up points. Perhaps I will blog about it sometime in the near future.

Perhaps its just too bad I never get the chance to talk to Bels more often. The last time I talked to her was in dec 30th 2006 (Vic's birthday) and tat day was overshadowed by the incident of Slyvia (a 15 year old who is 174 cm with model looks) and another guy friend who was a mere 12 cm shorter than her. Unfortunately, that contribute to a lot of "suaning" which basically expends all our attention on (but my friend is super fit...42 chins up in a minute-though that somehow resulted in more "suanings". Haha.). The suanings also stems from a single incident-his refusal to stand besides her in photo-taking wif the birthday boy. Push me(force is a better word) to stand besides Slyvia (I've no issues with taking a photo besides a 174 cm gal) which led to all sorts of ribbing for him.

Still, got to talk to her quite a bit today. Anyway, I dun think anyone is interested to know abt relationship matters, career matters, ideal partners matters or any other boring matter so no pt blogging abt them here rite?
Fine. Lets move on.

Oh...poor Bels also kenna quite a lot of suanings from the other 3 guys abt her height today.
A mere 15 cm shorter than Slyvia (go do the maths!), it is unfortunate that we 3 guys, Vic (172 cm), CE (177 cm) and myself (180 cm) are slightly taller. A lot of ochibi (japanese for little short person) and shorty jokes. Good thing Bels was a good sport and never slaughter the 3 of us. =) If I have the time, i will blog on an incident related to that issue that happen today too. =)

B4 moving on to the noob joke, I must say that I have fallen in love with cold soba and unagi! All 4 of us ate at the ichiban sushi store (as usual, on Vic's insistence...Like me, he is nuts over japanese food too.) Cold soba and unagi...YUMZ! A little weird though....through out the 90 mins lunch...all 4 of us hardly converse as a gp. Vic and CE tend to talk to one another while Bels and I was chirping away on other topics. Weird....oh well... but Vic is also another good person to talk to...though he differs very much from his sis...though i admit this: there are some character qualities that Vic has that both Bels and I desire so much to have. In this era, I think Vic is one of those rare breeds left....Haha...even his mom thinks so...

So what did the 4 of us do today?
We initially wanna catch a show but in the end, choose to play bridge (a card game).
Now, this game requires a little brain power (go check out the game urself-I'm veri lazy to explain the rules of the game). Now, Vic is a veri reckless (or read as optimistic if u r veri politically correct) player whilst the other 3 of us are extremely cautious players. Since bridge is a 2 against 2 game, this usu spawns a number of table banging and laughs whenever Vic won the bid.
Note: In bridge, the player who won the bid get to pick a partner, thereby condemning (or in this case, gifting) the remaining 2 players to colloborate. The game is more complicated than this rule and u will need to read up more (or play wif experienced friends) to get ahead in the game.

For most of the games, Vic will win the bid (since he is an optimistic player ma!) which usu have less than desirable effects for his partner that he chose (lose the game and have to wash the cards!). Time and time, u can obviously see clearly who Vic's partner is (if Vic won the bid) as that person will unwittingly flinch when his/her card is called out (and most of the time, ultimately lose the game). The other 2 will have a veri relieved look on their face and proceed to thrash Vic and partner senseless. As a result, this lead to a lot of sabotaged bids just to prevent Vic from winning the bid, which veri often than not will spell trouble for that antagonist. Quite easy to see. Vic is an optimisitic bidder, if u outbid him, probably mean u have outbid ur chance of winning, unless u have super good cards. If u manage to outbid Vic and unwittingly choose him as ur partner....Austin Powers "Yeah, baby, yeah!" will haunt u forever....CE is the one who often chose to antagnise Vic. Haha...power. Guts of steel...

There was so much laughing in the games that Bels finally coin (not really coin since that word was veri frequently used) a word to describle her bro's bridge skills-NOOB! And that word haunt Vic for the rest of the day. Every single action of his is considered noobish. Super funny la!

I really enjoyed myself today though...it may be unfortunate that I didnt talk much to Vic's mom today...too engrossed in the games! Haha...

then I am happy for u.

That's my philosophy. As simple and clean as that.

To me, as long as someone is happy wif his/her mindsets and ideals, then it should be fine (e.g. see previous posts). I dun have a right to judge if u r right or wrong but I have the right to note if I shld follow u or avoid the route u have taken la.

I usu just leave pple alone to make their own decisions ba. After all, it is THEIR decisions and not mine. Not fair for me to disrupt it unless upon request. Surprisingly, over the last few days, a few pple have tried to impose their ideals upon me.

Simply irritating. YES! I am referring especially to you! YOU! Ms +T!

I have my own ideals. If it doesn’t affect you and u dun wish to follow…. Fine. Dun have to impose ur grandiose ideals upon me. U r wat u are. I am wat I am. Do not be a silly tape-recorder, repeating urself time and time again.

Argh! I shld just ignore those losers.

Anyway, as to my philosophy, I will probably have to thank Ms CY for that.
U help me more than simply changing my philosophy.
Thanks for all the encouragement and help 18 mths back.
Without ur guidance then, I will never be as motivated as I am now.
Thanks! =)

Haven post in quite a while.
was veri busy wif assts and tests.
To cut a long story short, it is all over! (part of the reason I got time to post!)

Anyway, wanna spend my time to blog on sth...
This was actually a conversation between 2 of my classmates last week (too bad got no time to post then).
Lets call the gal G and the guy B (easy to rem ma!)

Note that this is wholly based on our opinions. No mud-slinging or anything. Just our honest opinions.

Having clear that up, lets move on.

All 3 of us were in a small room. We were talking about marriage so naturally G's impending marriage pops up (getting married in end '08). U know typical singaporeans-housing is veri impt in marriage. Both B and I asked. G replied that she and her bf are looking at condos.
Natually, B and I were rather curious and asked her y she never consider a HDB flat.

Reason G gave?

Bf cannot tahan living in a hdb flat.

Nothing wrong wif that. But i guess both B and I were stunned into submission. We both kept quiet. Very quiet.
G proceeded to add that both her bf and herself wun get a car as they feel that a car is just an additional burden that we all dun need.
To that, both B and I readily nods (surprising since B is pretty well-off).
All 3 of us agreed that a car literally is a black hole to suck up ur money. Veri useful if u r rich....but if u r not (as in if you can barely make ends meet), then its not useful at all. G made a good pt here though- a condo is a better investment than a car. Once u buy a car, its selling price will deteoriate as much as u open its doors for the first time.

Both B and I soon left for city hall. On the bus, we talked more abt the issue again. B will never consider a condo. I am more divided abt the issue but I admit I wun consider a condo in the near future. Same for the car.

Truth be told, I can afford a car. Sure. Y not? Most of my friends and I can. Its a matter of how much u save per month only.

But seriously, I really dun wanna to get a car and is forced to eat grass for the next few years. I know friends who arent that well off buy a car (for bragging rights none the less!) and can barely save a single cent a month. Impressive? Erm, not really.
I know grass is good for health (9 vitamins I think) but I will rather not chose that route. Unless I seriously need it (e.g. a job that requires constant moving ard), I wun consider it now.

Frankly speaking, I wun be wif a gal who cannot envision that. Knows a few female friends who die die insist on getting a car with various reasons (some already gotten it) even though they are not really that well-off. Not really humored. I will prefer to enjoy a simple life (but no grass grazing man!). A car may be good but I will get it when I can live comfortably.

I seriously dun wanna to graze grass even if u may argue that u can drive to the other side of the town to graze the greener grass there.

Sometimes, action speaks louder than words.

I arrived for my test late. I left the earliest.

Everyone taking the test was stunned into submission.

Dun for a moment think I am some super human who can do everything.

I cant... Simply because I dun have enuff time. Barely finishing the required syllabus with no practice. And it tells...cos I struggled to come up with a few simple answers.

Oh man...Still...Results wun be released so soon but lets not think too much abt it. =)
If I pass, I pass. If I do well, I do well. Its not the end of the world if something unexpected comes up. =)

There was an old adage that cheats never prosper.

True?

Nah...try asking Christino Ronaldo. He dived blantantly, won that never-should-have-been-given penalty, score the goal and his team won the match.

Wonderful.

Give that man a tiger.


Is cheating good?

In my opinion, no.

Does a lot of pple cheat?

Why yes, of cos. Do I really need to say it? However, some PC pple will deem it as alternative routes, rather than cheating. Not much that I wanna comment on that. But there are a lot of variants. I once saw a female boss crying just to get her superior's sympathy. Well, I dunno abt u guys but some of u wun call it cheating. Wats that phrase? Oh yeah, U will do anything to win.

Is cheating necessary?

I dunno. Ask Ronaldo. He deemed it necessary. Ask that female boss. She became popular wif her boss as a result (but unpopular wif fellow colleagues but I guess she doesnt care since she has since became the second-in-command as a result. Sad but its a fact.)

Is winning by cheating glamourous?

Well....wat Ronaldo earns in a year, u prob wun even see in ur next 20 lifetimes so thats 'nuff said. But they do have this another old adage: it doesnt matter how u win as long as u win. It can be beautiful or down right ugly but a win IS a win. Besides, that female boss owns 3 condos. Wat abt u? U may not even have a single condo to brag about (of cos, u may have but I'm referring to most of my friends).

Do I approve of cheating?

NO! but I do recognise that there are pple who swear by cheating. If u're the kind who deem everyone to be nice and gracious like in the fairy tales, good luck. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Y do I bother wif this post?

Haha. Cos I am annoyed wif Ronaldo's goal. Veri annoyed. I'm also annoyed by pple who preached to me that we are surrounded by saints. There are of cos numerous saints around but if u feel tat everyone is ONE, fine. Keep ur opinions to urself. Sometimes, pple have to be pragmatic and realistic. Talking to those who are crazily idealistic sometimes sadden me. To me, that's partly the reason y some cheats (I'm sure not all) prosper.

Yey!
Spore won!
Watched the whole match at the expense of my impending examinations...
Wha ha ha...now confirmed no time for studying already. D-day tmr wor....
But its great that spore won!
Cheers!