the journey continues

bye bye

2010-07-06T12:03:00.000+08:00

i've moved. well, hopefully i can sustain a new blog. =)

http://theendangeredsartorialist.wordpress.com/

consumer ironies

2010-06-14T10:54:00.003+08:00

hmm have been spending my time in NYC and now DC with my parents, which is kinda like viewing these cities in a more energy-conservative/broader-money perspective (ie. my parents can pay but can't go many places). i've considered some ironies of life this trip..

-why manufacture sports clothing in xxxl? honestly its kind of exasperating to traipse up to like filene's basement (yes, i know cheapskate) and see rows of rows of athletic apparel with no sizes less than xl... gee

-on a related point, i was sorely tempted to buy a bought talking about the psychology of consumerism at the strand (apparently some cheaper, rare-book repository on route to east village. hmm.. how are u supposed to sell a book like buy-ology?

-whoever designed the national mall in DC must have so giant-blood or something. honestly, with the brutal weather of 33 degrees, it is kinda tough to walk the stretch of the mall even once. but then, its kinda perfect for a good run at night -- scenic and iconic.

- i had my french food fix! and surprisingly, it was at the cafe at national gallery, serving a french buffet with coq au vin, chocolate mousse, ratatouille, fromages , quiche and onion soup.. le chomp, le chomp, le yummmm

reminiscing ctown food =)

2010-05-30T14:07:00.003+08:00

its the last night before graduation. before everyone leaves and heads off to do their own shit.. omg.. its starting to hit

jeff katz convocation speech got me thinking really about these four years. what i would remember, and what i would treasure from these four years.

i remember..

cafe pacific, for the meetup with the paris gals, hearing slyvia's endlessly entertaining stories and teasing caitlin relentlessly. =)

aladdins, for justine's mispronunciation, bringing my elder sis there to eat

plum tree, for trying out all the amazing fusion sushi with evelyn, for that cweepy server, for sake bombing experiences, the first in freshmen year that resulting in the hilarity of ernest blind wrestling people and the second in senior year of which caitlin was too embarrased too eat. lol

sangam's for the weekly after-church lunches, wen jun finally finding his mamak food replacement @ ithaca, celebrating heidi's bday dinner

four seasons for the first ever meal out in freshmen year with huilin and other seniors, and then the many many many times we went to eat the bento box during lunches, and of course, justin copying me in getting soon tofu chige everytime

vic/bern/shihao's house for the amazing parties and awesomest food, from the delicious cheesecake brownie to the recent lobster. mmm

for apollo, despite everyone's misgivings for it, i stayed through to it and it fed me for two years straight, and with the freshies insisting on going there for routine midnight snacks

for vietnam, with hk people routinely bringing me there, lester intro-ing me to beef cubes, getting discounts via hksa =)

for little thai house, the one time we bravely decided to try it wasnt that bad eh, michelle?

for ruloffs, hmm senior week brunch champagne sucked, i remember a meal there with sheryl in which we lamented/bitched/complained about everything under the sun, oh! and for the surprisingly entertaining sink the pitcher sessions with hksa

for CTB, bringing the freshies there, intro-ing jy to bronx bagel, intro-ing leonard to my fav tuna melt, getting my favourite lox with cream cheese as well as yoghurt parfait, and thinking all the way back to first day of prepare in freshmen year where i first met christina/sheryl/jm and co.. and yeah i thought sheryl was so dao then.. but she was just sleepy, for the outdoors beer/sangria drinking sessions with amanda/justin/lester/steph/ronald/ken kuk and justin insisting on playing with my camera or playing angry birds. lol

for green cafe, the many chill out sessions with alex, the endless smoothies and then the eventual fall of it

hmm.. did i miss out any? oh.. coco's for budae jigae, asian noodle house for an initial good impression followed by the souring with alex's inedible chicken rice and then just plain annoyance at the owner's apparent hatred from asians. lol.. oh.. jack's grill for pulled pork sandwich at midnight

haha.. what fun times.. =)

parting thoughts, part 1

2010-05-20T12:01:00.005+08:00

well.. im sitting at the blue lounge typing this shit whilst waiting for my download of windows 7 to finish.. lol.. getting everything i can get before time runs out.

so many thoughts of these four years, so many different experiences, so many different people, so many changes.. i've wondered how to start a semi-reflection of these years.. hmmz.. maybe i'll just do the top 10 most memorable things in my cornell life. (try) can't even rank them it seems

(not in any order)

#1 - tfd to paris

omg.. the city of love, so baguettes, crepes, strawberry tarts, angelina's amazing hot chocolate, the latin quartier cafe where we had amazing french salad, the zomggg chocolate place near centre pompidou, the most amazing experience of climbing up the eiffel tower at night with the sparkly lights, then racing down with caitlin and getting a nutella drenched waffle right by the riverside, the many epiphanies whilst gasping at the many familiar impressionist paintings in the Musee D'orsay, our many escapades AT NIGHT walking back from marais half dazed and trying to figure out where parmentier was. =) really, the epic highlight of that summer, nothing tops paris. i think that justified the whopping cost (sigh) and the choice to do A&S.. hmm steph, leonard, jy, cheehao im so so envious of u guys.

#2 - iceland trip

singing jay chou songs in Reykjavik whilst trying to hobble back to our amazing hostel, the many hot dogs, the breathtaking, awesome scenery especially at the falls, our many mishaps with the stupid cars getting stuck in snow and sand, our ridiculous time-wasting car games naming movies, sheryl getting drunk and finding jm's face inexplicably funny, the blue lagoon experience where interestingly the guys stayed much longer than the girls, the miserable first day. =)

hmm.. my d/l seems to be done.. =) k more soon.

epic slope day

2010-05-09T08:26:00.002+08:00

and its not because of drake.

ahh.. i don't wanna grow up. =) so funnn

last two weeks

2010-04-26T12:59:00.003+08:00

can i say something.. i'm so glad, grateful for this semester and the many things that have happened when i just contrast it to last yr spring. thank God. seriously.

the last two weeks of my academic career sees me potentially having to hobble to school everyday with a sprained ankle (*grumble fun in the sun grumble), rushing out 2 presentations, 2 more final papers, 1 mega-project, going for grad night, grad night after-party, slope day and the many little events that perhaps will make everything seemingly come full circle.

then its graduation and a whole new life soon. work life.

one part of me wants to move forward in life, knowing that 4 years has really been quite enough.. there arent any other courses I really want to take anymore, my interests have settled, i've done enough on the list of to-dos in cornell to be satisfied, and well.. i think it's time.

yet one part of me misses the solid bunch of friends i've made this yr, friends i will leave behind, the amazing breathtaking scenery, the need to wear fashionable cool fall/winter clothes, going on silly road-trips, playing 3 hour tennis, having 'tonite's gonna be a good nite' house parties for no real reason whatsoever.. hmm... haha its really been a fun year.

i came into this year telling myself i would do everything that's needed, meet with everyone left so that my experience here would be rich and fulfilling.. but honestly, i've come to realise that what matters is really enjoying and savoring the every minute left here regardless of what you do, what food you eat etc.. there's a point in compelling yourself to complete everything on the cornell to-do list, but there's an equivalently strong point to still relax.. chill and just hang out with friends you're gonna miss. =)

life's interesting.

things i will miss from cornell

2010-04-15T14:08:00.004+08:00

#1 clocktower

maybe this blog still has some life in it

2010-03-02T04:26:00.001+08:00

omg.. i was looking back at some posts of the yesteryear... how nostalgic!!!!

haha.. ok maybe i'll continue this for future memory sake.. =)

of snowstorms and gastronostorms

2010-03-02T04:13:00.003+08:00

omg.. its been so long that the blog is dead. but i guess im kinda nostalgic today =) (read: bored out of my wits studying from behavioral econ)

some things of note

(1) hobz made some pretty darn delicious almond jelly + white fungus + tangerine concoction that managed to make me willing to make the trek all the way up north despite having a prelim the next morning. call that dedication to good food. heh

(2) somehow, things somewhat do come full circle. a snowstorm harkening back to the days of 2007 when school was cancelled [but my ece 2100 lab wasn't] hit ithaca this year, dumping tons of snow back on the terrain. interestingly, the snow at greek peak SUCKED, giving me my first minor injury of the season with some strained arm muscles (*annoyed). well, i did what i didnt do in 2007, went sledding, snowball fighting and what have you not. life does give you second chances it seems. =)

(3) party @ vic and bern's place was pretty chill, though it was more a gastronomic thing that a alcoholic thing.. lol. loved the marble cheesecake brownies and i vow to try to make it someday. along with that pineapple cheesecake that amanda made. grr..

(4) did i mention i'm bored of studying? lol. though, the realization that i pretty much have only 3 months more to study is kinda appalling. z0mg

(5) photography class rules!

--frank

quick! before i forget

2009-10-17T00:37:00.002+08:00

things i learnt from my chicago roadtrip

1. don't explain miraculous one hour gains by daylight savings. you'll regret it on the way back. lolz
2. CHECK the frigging weather forecast. (cf sheryl)
3. bring spare tires. zomg.
4. policemen are CUNNING at night. when kanna tailgate by any car, just slow down.

must say.. despite all the mishaps.. this was a super fun trip!

something old, something new

2009-08-25T09:06:00.003+08:00

so its been a week back in ithaca.. omg.. how things feel different yet so familiar at the same time.. its like me peering into 130c and yet not feeling a sense of comfort of home anymore, or strolling round collegetown realizing home is a literal stone throw's away. =)

school's starting in a few days. i can't help saying it, but im actually excited. =)

reflections from the tortured soul

2009-08-14T23:58:00.002+08:00

its 3 days before i head back to ithaca.. really mixed feelings though, for those who know me, i pretty much went off the deep end the previous semester and carried all the festering issues to paris and subsequently back to singapore..

singapore has been great though. i've learnt alot. had alot of quiet time, lots of time to think, dissect, understand, feel hurt, resolve issues by myself.

things i have realised.

1. i am super competitive. some people might go 'duh' at this statement but honestly, i figure im so competitive that it actually hurts me. i dun enjoy what would otherwise be leisure sports, i compete in practically every possible thing. you know whats funny, (and to point 2) there was a particular person i once criticised/gossiped in jc to have ruined our friendship by his incessant comparisons and the boiling point was when he blew up when he realised we had similar cca scores even though he felt he hard worked much harder for it (well i don't deny that.. blame the system dun blame me) . competitiveness.. hmm.. i figure it actually stems from a sense of pride. pride that, instead of being manifested outward, is directed inward into a form of self-loathing, self berating and never allowing one to feel like.. 'ok you tried your best, frank, chill.' no, its a never-ending self chatisement, sense of incompleteness and incompetence, and of course it was not helped by the fact that i was honestly awed by the achievements of my close friends last semester.

thing is, it really boils down to pride. honestly, when we consider ourselves unworthy even when God has specifically said that he loves us the way we are.. then.. i wonder what sort of message we are trying to establish. what can't I accept myself as a beautiful, completed-with-God product that can be fully used as a vessel for Christ as long as I am willing to submit my will to Him?

2. it leads to the fact that I've come to recognise there's alot of bitterness within me, even as I establish a congenial, happy, and at times nonchalant demeanor. the bitterness manifests in one manner - my incessant gossiping and badmouthing of other individuals. i told sheryl that I got the feeling that we start gossiping mainly when we had a sense of bitterness and insecurity within our hearts and more often than not the exact topic we gossip about, or the people we gossip about are the exact issues that we often feel bitter about. its either that, or that there's a really twisted karmic retribution effect that attempts to place us in the exact situation of the people we gossiped previously of. i felt this so definitely this semester that it was like a proverbial slap across the face everytime i realised how my gossiping came back full circle to inflict itself on my life.

3. i have an obsessive complex with friends. boils down to my insecurity with being sociable, being within the 'popular crowd', being in the loop of matters. i once told someone i traced this complex to an incident of the past, where i had invited my primary school friends for my birthday party that was to be held in my house. not one came. ok im not being melodramatic, but honestly, it was a confluence of bad planning, a date that coincided with most people's travelling plans or maybe i was really that unlikeable, but it left a scar with me. (i mean it wasnt so bad since all my relatives and stuff where there, and i hadnt like invited alot of friends, but still.. well you get the idea) this lead to a few consequences: (1) i dont hold birthday parties anymore. (2) im deeply insecure about this, and to friends i honestly treasure, i become super neurotic. i expect that the amount of effort, energy, time that i put in would be reciprocated. of course, such a way of throwing my own neuroticisms onto others effective means that i become oversensitive toward my friend's perceived callousness and of course, I get hurt. kinda like a vicious cycle thingy. the thing is, last semester, it really hurt. i don't know when things started deterioriating, maybe when I kept sharing, but you kept placing barriers, walls, barricades, refused to share anything about yourself. then when i started getting neurotic.. well..

4. i really don't give up. honestly, it might seem like a good trait, but when its pretty obvious that the bus have left, the town has shut down and i'm the only one left on the train station, well.. i should errm wake up. thing is, i think i refused to submit to God's will and basically tried every single human alternative to make things work, but of course, things didn't work. in my mind, there's always this fantasy alternative that things would work out, that stuff would be reciprocated, that things could effectively change in an instant. but im wrong. its not that easy, and sometimes, we really have to kill that fantasy alternative and start living our realities.

am i ready for the next semester? well.. God, help me.

reconnecting to singapore

2009-06-08T08:25:00.002+08:00

nope, contrary to the post title, i'm far from being done in paris but, it was just a growing realization that i haven't exactly been away from singapore for that long a period temporally, but psychologically, the jump this semester seems particularly pronounced.. maybe its just comes with spending more years away, or maybe its the crowd i've been mixing with, where the collective identity of my batch has shifted away from singapore after being away for so long. i tried to explain it as a sense of growing up and maturing much in us such a way that a quintessential part of my current constructed identity is now inextricably linked to us.. oh wellz.. haha

so, in bid to stop the jargon, errm, i attempted to reconnect with my singaporeaness, by going to xiaxue's blog. (cue massive roll eyes)..

really, apparently the memo that asian's dont do the blonde look well hasn't reached poor miss xiaxue, who honestly looks errm, kinda washed out and just odd. plasticky and fake sprang up to my mind. nevertheless, i trudged on, avoiding the videos, attempting to read some acerbic, catty comments that so characterised her previous entries (errm.. i think i last read them 2 years ago). to my apparent disappointment, the next entry was insanely LONG and just so filled with dross and crap about her prattling about her new blackberry and how she glitzed it up, with non essential photos and just a neverending nightmare of text. man.

gave up with the rest of the blog and attempted to see how lian she actually was when she spoke by watching one of the videos. my verdict? pleasantly surprised. she actually comes off still as pretty genuine and straight up, instead of what i would have expected (along with her look) to be a vapid, self-absorbed, english-mangling lian. i was actually entertained by her honest comments and offhand humoured comments. haha. but aiya.. this isnt exactly the way to connect to singapore... whatefs

paris misadventures - the dance edition

2009-06-04T06:56:00.004+08:00

now i know i should be sleeping and stuff, considering i need to clamber out of bed at around 8+ to get rid breakfast/lunch before heading off to tour a whole slew of sites in paris (hehe.. that's homework btw to the jealous cohorts) but then heck it lets recap the few days

this has been nothing but wow.. a whirlwind ride of fun, a sense of having to push ones boundaries, push myself outta my little meek self and haha.. well, a chance to heal from the bruising last semester has brought about. i'm getting there i suppose.

street jazz class was an insane blitz of cardio but a very cool phrase that errm.. honestly i couldn't coordinate my arms and feet too properly for several movements but nonetheless, it was super fun. man, i really wish i could be even remotely flexible, because as it stands, i feel damn paiseh to be like looking as though i'm not even trying when doing some stretches simply because i can't do it and in actuality i'm shaking all over. lol

the alvin-ailey inspired jazz class was the next one i chose to take. it said debutant, which i took to mean easy-peasy warmup introduction to stuff. color me all forms of wtf-ness and just pure shock when the instructor launched into an insane assortments of balletic combinations (given up trying to write them in french) as warmup. note: warmup. -_-. but honestly, the movement phrase was really smooth and beautiful, mixing martial arts fluidity with a certain strength and power in movement. woweee.. i really like it, even though for a second succesive lesson, I was tired and just completely spent.

haha.. hmm that's it for now i guess.. 8 more dance classes to try out different styles.. wonder what i should go for next. lol

more paris misadventures (and yeah i should probably talk about paris itself soon) coming up

regrets and cherishes

2009-05-28T14:51:00.002+08:00

hey guys, long time no see/here/talk. i'm currently skulking in a mcdonalds in paris after dejectedly leaving several cafes that featured the most fabulous-looking patisseries and tartes but shocking non-anglais speaking waitresses. boy, i really need to learn french.

its been quite a whirlwind ride from ithaca to frankfurt to london and now paris. crossing the channel on a bus on a train was an interesting ordeal. note i say ordeal because the bus switched off the ventilation and left us in quite a paltry, hot condition. hmm, i dunno, somehow having alot of time in the bus alone set me off reminiscing the past semesters and just.. well cherishing and regretting stuff i guess.

i regret not spending more time with the 909 crowd. lol.. ok that's not taking away the awesome time spent with my housemates and batchmates but just, there's some je nai sais quo (my favourite phrase currently) within the mix and the conversation flows so easy. haiz.. it's upon a sad realization that next semester will feature not one 909-ner or people from my batch/cherie-ian's batch that somewhat feels.. empty. hmmm

i regret being so bloody emo this semester. well, for most part it couldn't be helped. there was emotional trauma and work needed to be done, but somehow i really wish i had been more obvious, active in what i wanted and also not so confused with direction in my life for the most part. the good thing, i think i found my direction in the end. i'll wait for you. =)

i wish i had been more money-smart and not frivolous to the point that money seemt to be like growing from apple trees. it's one thing to act atas for a day and splurge and another to completely believe in the hype and really live it up. my collective bank accounts are screaming out at my recklessness.. =(

hmm that being said, i cherish tons and tons of stuff. to my great friends that characterised my semesters in cornell so far, hats off to you. alex, joel, sheryl, gj, christina haha.. all the crazy nights, the cool meals will be stuff i will remember for quite a long while. =) sadly, most of u will not be around next semester liao.. =( to my dear pals in london as well, ryan, lipen, xiuf, ziyang and so on, wow.. london has been so so so fun with you guys especially at a time where i just need closure and retrospective space. =)

oh wellz.. its time to head on i guess.. paris, ready or not.. here i come.

mental notes to self

2009-04-12T11:09:00.003+08:00

1. DO NOT order anything with proscuitto ham in it. proscuitto = salty, salty, salty that not even good restaurants in ithaca and san fran could save it. (well, then again see point 2)

2. the heights is still overrated. both in terms of service and food. i think i'm seriously contemplating never heading back to that place again. first it was the near inedible pork roast dish oozing with tons of fat, then it was forgetting my caramelized sea scallops entree and then dishing up a overly salty proscuitto ham laced chicken with potato gnocchi.

3. maybe its the gnocchi. zzz

4. DO NOT overload the dryer in vp despite how tempting it might be to try to save money and stuff clothes aplenty into the dryer. just because there is space doesnt mean that clothes should be thrown in. zzz

5. if u intend to study, frank, then please switch msn and all other social networking stuff OFF.

6. when we say a short session of tennis, it usually means a minimum of 2 hrs. lol.

i so need to study. omg.

the frank talk show

2009-04-02T13:01:00.003+08:00

something annoys me. i honestly have caught the horrible senioritis bug from various sources and boy its chewing my time away by the hours... i blame joel for this mostly. but wow.. in school im in this 'OMG.. I HAVE SO MUCH READING, SO MUCH WORK TO CATCH UP" and yet when i get home i'm watching heroes, playing symphonia, settling bills, going to the gym (not that i mind that), watching make me a supermodel (which is not worth watching) and just.. wasting. my. time. it's as though the singaporean switch i once had has been shut permanently off, or like as though I have like been run off the 'asian' success treadmill. -_-. ah wadever.

aniwez, color me surprised that for yet another week, i floved heroes (thanks fuller!), got annoyed with thalia, got bored by amazing race (though I stood up cheering when tweedledee and dum got slapped with TWO time penalties.. ha ha ha you guys completely deserved it). and heroes.. wow.. i mean, i really felt the dialogue going on, loved peter's speech at the church.. i'm impressed, though slightly annoyed that mohinder is gonna plague my screens next week based on the previews

speaking of senioritis, i mark tuesday's adult psychopathology test as the first test in cornell i could not finish studying due to a confluence of factors. one being i was in a shitty mood. two being i realised in my studies that being depressed meant the shrinking of the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (yeah this is the part you go wtf frank is SUCH a geek. screw you), which basically implies that our attention span is sapped as a result. -_- three being i was way too tired after the philly trip over the weekend which was yet again a hosts of firsts for me.

philly was a bittersweet experience. went to morimoto for an exorbitant dinner of 150 bucks per pax and thoroughly enjoyed it despite sheryl conviently kopping my term and calling the food underwhelming. went to mambo party in a considerably annoyed mood which led to an aftermath that led people calling me an emo-drunk. I SO AM NOT. and i wasn't drunk. -_- enjoyed the fine company nonetheless, it was such a crazy night. i've realised what a big hypocrite i am (i'm saying this so no one can go reading this and scoff and say the exact same critique of me), but like i realised i've been so condemining of going partying, drinking somewhat because it is something precisely that i don't get to do much. and so when i actually get the chance, err.. hmm.. i kinda plunge headlong. which kinda makes me a bit sad. i did think that it was a pretty shitty testimony i put out during some parts of the trip. oh wellz. it's also kinda scary because i was telling joel that actually i would be willing to try pretty much anything (ok CHILL IT, i don't exactly mean it, or at least it's not like i would have much of a chance)

i think this sem in general has really been like having a hard HARD look at myself and like understand the shit that goes on in me. i'm super flawed in many ways. i get obsessive with friends way too easily. i talk too much. way too much and gets misintepreted as being annoying. or maybe i'm just plain annoying. lol. i hate keeping secrets but love hearing them. lol. i could care less about alot of people. it's perhaps in a very candid way i say these things, but yeah.. i have much to learn, to change. i'm so easily influenced by people, despite me saying i want it MY WAY. i'm super confused about ALOT of things. alex can testify to that. joel probably can too.

haha.. ok im gonna sleep. zonked out.

america's next top maid

2009-03-26T03:25:00.004+08:00

yay i'm back! back emotionally at least.. wow.. this semester has really been.. well.. i think interesting is too mild to describe. well, it's been filled with pain, sorrow, anguish but yeah, hopefully now it's time for renewal, healing and chockful of God's grace and love. lol... ok i'm being cryptic.

aniwez, here's some rants i've stored up from watching a whole slew of TV shows

- thalia would you PLEASE LEAVE MY SCREEN. honestly, i'm not trying to be insensitive to burn victims but the fact remains that if you WEREN'T a burn victim, your chance of getting onto ANTM would be MUCH lesser than is the case now. you're NOT modelesque, so just look into the mirror, face the facts and stop whining! omg.. thalia makes me think the M of the show's title is Maid. -_-

- amazing race bores me. moving along. and btw, i still wanna rant about CBS' inane decision to put TAR at 8.00pm sundays because it ANNOYS the heck out of me that i try to watch the show at 8.00pm but get to see old farts on 60 minutes spew verbose trash at me for nearly an hour.

- heroes seems to be finally getting back on course thanks to a certain mr fuller. loved tracy's frozen carpark scene but HATES the fact that just about every single interesting, fun, female in the show has been killed (r.i.p elle, daphne, tracy, nikki, eden, candace) whilst who have a whole slew of useless males running amok on the streets (yes I mean you Mohinder)

- big bang theory. yay for nerds! haha

i KNOW i'm supposed to blog about my trip. but i really do have tons of work. so we'll see. zzz

the anatomy of an spring break - photo-preview

2009-03-22T20:46:00.003+08:00

haha.. hopefully i can finally actually blog out my spring break without it halting at the first slew of people-less shots. i humbly present the grande tour to iceland.. =)

pingvellir, or what they call parliament rock. i had to take my emo dusk shots

view atop pingvellir

visitor center atop pingvellir. my first attempt at this was a disaster bcos my 'models' just stood there without any hand motions and the likes. lol

nice shoes

lake @ pingvellir. apparently singapore is 8 times the size of this lake.

our rented cars. there was so much drama over the cars, from getting stuck in mud, snow, sand, getting parking tickets, getting stopped by police, getting impounded. you get the idea

gulfoss. amazingly beautiful place

some random bridge in the middle of nowhere

skogar falls peeking out

i spy a rainbow

view from climbing skogar

nippon paint skies, rainbow, waterfall. what more could u ask for?

emo shot 2 @ black sand beach

another perspective. here was where i took my super-poser shot that's now proudly on my facebook. shameless aint i

hali

ice lagoon. we went there to see seals, but the scenery was pretty remarkable. it was like walking in a snow desert

shadow shot number 2

snow desert part 2

some people found the buildings in iceland boring. i felt they perfectly complemented the surroundings

shadow shot number 3! this time in skatafel whilst walking on a glacier

ice cave

omg we walked 4 hours for this shot of an unknown canyon -_-

in Tjornin, Reykjavik

view from a kitschy restaurant where i had fish number 1: cod. (fyi, the next meal was halibut, followed by pliace, followed by wolf fish, followed by salmon. ahhh life)

swan lake. ok lame

around blue lagoon. i couldn't be bothered taking picture within blue lagoon cos it was just. so. damn. shiok to just relax around the waters

cutesy Reykjavik art

the landmark of Reykjavik in scaffolding. -_-.. off-season foibles

more Tjornin

ok thats it for the peopleless shots. hopefully more coming up

paints and psychoanalysis

2009-02-10T12:54:00.003+08:00

hmm.. i feel like readers of my blog have endured so much flak of me being melodrama, cryptic and such that its time i write something that hopefully is really heartfelt (something that I have probably not done for awhile)

i realise how interesting life is with emotions. it is as though life is a blank canvas with our daily events sketched on by an artist's pen before emotions come to give it the color, the bravura, the fortissimos and the pianissimos. but yet we do have to realise, as emotional people, that our color palettes dont only consist of the brightest of hues but also the impenetrable darkness of blacks and greys. somedays we get the bright hues, but we all do noe that there are certain issues that come a-knocking at times that upsets the entire jar of black ink and sloshes the canvas with a murky black that seems to cover everything. nothing seems to be working. everything seems tainted.

hmm.. i dunno how to continue this. but i think the thing is - i dun regret the way i am made up. yes, the inky blackness seems irrational and melodramatic. but i get to taste the poignant sorrows of other people's issues, i get to emphatize with others in their sorrows, and i also get the contrasting joys. and i like that. something tells me i really wanna be a psychotherapist. a christian psychotehrapist. is that possible?

haha. enuff said. if i made u worried over my previous post, i'm sorry. i'm really really fine now. =)

on failure

2009-02-08T08:53:00.004+08:00

sometimes i'm so melodramatic. *rolls eyes

something happened in cornell..

2009-02-07T15:00:00.003+08:00

i was just looking through facebook photos.. and lo and behold.. just two and a half years ago, i looked like this:

and now..

i dunno.. maybe its the hair. i think something happened in cornell. (arggh.. and my face grew fatter!!!)

random musings, part deux

2009-02-04T00:21:00.002+08:00

1. im gonna be late for school in 10 minutes

2. i love how washing my hair right before sleeping allows me to wake up with pretty cool "just-woken' up look hair - somedays it looks perfect (like today - no extra styling needed!), on others it just makes me feel like washing my hair all over again.

3. ice hotel. hmm. i was so cold it wasn't too fun. but still i paid 250 bucks for a survival experience. lol.. more photos coming soon

TBC... (im seriously late)

vegas, san fran, LA baby!

2009-01-12T11:22:00.004+08:00

(otherwise titled the people-less, i-like-those-shots edition)

Alcatraz

Transamerica Pyramid

Vespa along Russian Hill

view walking up Telegraph Hill

walking along sf streets

looking out from embacardero ferry building

golden gate disappearing into the mist

golden gate park

some LA financial district building

walt disney concert hall. interesting we had just watched steve carrell's get smart the day before coming here

more curves

marina del rey beach

the docks

trees. lol

cactus garden in the getty center

getty center. i like this shot. it gave me a very 'big fish' kinda feel

central garden @ the getty

view along mullholland drive. apparently ben stiller's house was across the hill. err ok.

bottles in an italian restaurant in hollywood

me waiting impatiently for the pasadena rose tournament float viewing

flower power

more 'people' photos coming up lest my sis complains i dun send her any

being mean

2008-12-06T06:37:00.002+08:00

ok time to blog again after a pretty interesting thanksgiving and a horrid follow up week trying desperately to clear multiple projects.

PH 329 = nerd central. hmm, on second thoughts, it should be called the united nations of geeks. omg.. the people there are so irritating at times that i had to blast my pandora whilst working on my stupid stupid final report. that being said, me staying at nerd central till 3.00am yesterday makes me pretty darn sad as well. =(

black friday stampede = really retarded. honestly discounts don't exactly mean free, so poor guy. aniwez, i think i suck at getting bargains so black friday traditionally irritates me as i lament quite abit over the state of events of my wardrobe. ahhh.. whatever

amazing race 12 clearly casts for idiots when u have retard dan and bumbledrew getting into final 3. ok honestly, the marching fiasco could be considered as one of the most inept displays of psycho-motor capabilities. he even made epileptic people look more athletic than him. (ok thats being mean to epileptic people)

the days go by

2008-11-14T12:25:00.004+08:00

i am so addicted to katy perry's hot and cold.

tried out mahogany grill today.. had some superb sweet potato fries with a delish basil pesto beef burger.. yum!

hmm.. honestly this week feels wierd.. cos it's midweek and i was surprisingly stripped off most of my work.. kinda aimless surfing the net, not knowing what to do.. lol! but yeah.. i'm SUPER PISSED that i missed boxing as well as quite an important computer vision class cos i apparently overslept.

i don't get it actually. i woke at 7.00am with a start remembering that i had forgotten to set the alarm, so i set it for 8.00am and went back to snooze. next thing i knew.. it was 10.30 -_-. my boxing partner isn't gonna be very pleased considering i berated him for not appearing last lesson.. lol.

cw's stylista and antm is honestly a pile of dog doodoo. seriously, stop eliminating talented contestants for absolute duds (Samantha) and utter super mega evil bitches(Megan), borderline neurotic alternates (Ashlie) and yeah, the borderline retarded (Kate).

in other reality tv news, terrance and sarah have officially become my favorite team in an otherwise pretty dull-ish vershion of TAR. i remember last season where i was pretty miffed when christina and ron lost. -_- why do i like T&S? let's see... cos they are unintentionally funny, borderline neurotic and utterly stupid at times.. be it searching through bird shit/seeds for clues, commenting about the evil chilli peppers man who refused to relent despite seeing the 'obvious suffering' they were enduring, running half the town trying to search for marked cars... ahh.. comic relief.

i want to go out this weekend. lol. i missed the decemberists last weekend cos (a) i had a psych prelim the next day (b) everyone pang-sehed me at the last minute. -_- so yeah i ended up drowning my boredom-induced sorrows with amazing race and brenda's housewarming party.. OK it was fun.. i take that back.

haha.. aniwez i tried some quiz on facebook once regarding sounds on my playlists.. hmm.. let's see.. songs that elicit some form of emotion in me:

top spun songs on my ruckus playlist
viva la vida, coldplay: i dunno. i like it.
you and me, lifehouse: i want to ice-dance to this song, do a triple waltz jump or something
cold shoulder, adele: sounds pretty bitter eh
damaged, danity kane: there must be a reason why girl bands never work out.
feels like tonight, daughtry: i so wanna perform this song, complete with rotating cameras and some emotional montage running on the background
stop and stare, one republic: love love love it
open your eyes, snow patrol: i dunno.. perhaps because of youtube videos i've watched, this song is just.. emotional

grace a-visiting

2008-11-09T13:08:00.003+08:00

so my eldest sis came to visit me in nice, warm ithaca (i'm not kidding) for the weekend.. and i must say, it was such a blessing and such fun.. =). i mean i've kinda reached a sad realization that the past few weekends consisted of rushing for projects, getting stressed over 4 prelims or something along the same vein.

but yeah, despite the fact that two prelims LOOM ahead early next week, i took time off this weekend to bring my sis for a tour around beautiful ithaca, and the weather gladly complied to bring about the most smashing outdoorsy weather one could hope for.. i mean, if ithaca was like this everyday, you wouldn't see me studying at all!

aniwez, it was fun to revisit favourite places like farmer's market, andrew d.white library, taste of thai lol.. i kinda see how matching my sis and her husband are.. with their fascination for technological gadgets (they tried to buy the i-robot, some floor-cleaning robot that set me off from an AI-perspective -_-), and also their liking for photography etc..

ok so aniwez, some comments. the heights has gone down the proverbial drain in my epicurean notions, after the nightmarish serving of disgustingly fatty beef. i mean, there's like chicken wings glistening in fat and there is just.. disgusting fat, the type that conjures up images of fat bastard in austin powers.. EWWWW.

farmer's market is so quaint, and is like the accidental tourist attraction. uber-cool. carriage house is delish but i quickly realized that eating brunch at 10.00am just means eating breakfast at 10.00am. -_- oh, and i love taste of thai's kai-kua.

gastronomy aside, buttermilk falls is on my list of places to explore once the weather goes warm again.. hiking anyone?

so yeah.. that was about it. stupid prelims and my conscience prevented me from continuing the journey with them to new york city, but i hope they have fun traipsing down 5th ave and watching altarboyz.. lol..

artificial intelligence tedium

2008-11-05T04:31:00.003+08:00

makanmania has come and gone.. i floved the designs that the design team did and i think the atmosphere we generated was amazing.. kinda really did hit it out of the park this time holding it in Duffield... yay!

i HATE Sudoku, AI, and anything that remotely connects to it.. my Halloween weekend was spent at the mercies of an AI homework, relentlessly coding and debugging and running tests on our Sudoku puzzle, whilst the general populace gallivanted and dressed up as a smorgasbord of characters like Greek gods, boxers, Fred Flintstone, native dancers and the likes.. how fun..

crossword puzzles are fast becoming my new addiction. my limit is still at wednesday puzzles.. thursday puzzles kill me with the impossible connections that they make.. re, holdup man? = atlas.. wow

geez.. i sound so boring.. hopefully i can finish my shitload of work this week and get to go to NYC with my sis this weekend.. =)

when it rains, it pours

2008-10-23T09:10:00.002+08:00

ithaca is bitterly cold after a sequence of non-stop rain showers these two days. which means that our efforts in chalking have gone down the proverbial drain.. zzz oh wellz

makanmania is gonna happen soon. oct 25th. come if you are around the region. lol

i am now a confirmed psychology and electrical engineering major. woot! i just kinda cannot surpress this burst of happiness when i look at my next semester's schedule and see things like:

psych 3470 - psychology of visual communication
psych 3250 - adult psychopathology
cis 3000 - computer game design
dance 2240 - dance technique workshop

honestly, God is great. it really feels super good to take courses i actually like. =) well, i hope i can get into all the courses.. and err.. that isn't my complete schedule, i still have ece courses of course.. duh!

speaking of which, i've also settled my apartment for next year.. gonna stay in eddygate with some hong kong dudes.. quite a change i guess, but i think it'll be genuinely fun and different. =)

i danced a choreographed piece for evelyn this tuesday for her dance composition class and felt super wierdish at first.. haha but i realise i got this 'concentration-mode' where i block out everything and just.. dance. haha.. was a cool experience. this coupled with me agonizing over leaps on monday's dance class, agonizing over my failed block and upper-cuts during tuesday's boxing class and agonizing over painful blisters in my feet due to wednesday's dance class amounts to a very tired frank.

i wonder how next semester will be. =)

oh.. and now that project runway has ended on such a nice note.. I HAVE LOST MY WEDNESDAY ENTERTAINMENT!!! argggh!

because fall pictures are never enough

2008-10-18T02:58:00.003+08:00

fall in ithaca.. swoonsome

pre-fall nyc trip

2008-10-13T07:46:00.003+08:00

so it's time to catch up on updating, and i'll start with my pre-fall nyc trip with my sis which was loads of fun! (besides the fact that my sis didn't seem entirely too impressed with the places i brought her to.. ahh wellz..)

i'll let the photos speak for themselves

nyc skyscape
bryant park in the summer
more bryant park.. how tranquil
times square
my sis looking ponderously out of MoMa
MoMa exhibit.. cool shit
guggenheim
met.. i think this was the grecian piece that inspired Rami in PR4
me and my sis.. cool people.. hahahahah
outdoor gallery in met

wowza... back from sabbathical

2008-10-12T08:18:00.003+08:00

woo hoo.. that was a long gap.. i think no one's here anymore, but yeah.. here's tons of updates.

i'm officially a dual degree student!!! yup.. psych and electrical engineering. i'm a electrifying psychologist. haha... i mean, i really thank God that he gave me a chance to do this, because honestly, it was one of my dreams to really have a varied education in both the arts and sciences. i love alot of my classes this semester even though i've been really stretched to the limit these few weeks with relentless homeworks, essays, projects and prelims flying at me...

the only reason i could take a breather was cos it's FALL BREAK! so glad there's a break even though the idea of break here in US seems to be just a paltry, miserable TWO DAYS along with two days of weekend. how stingy man. aniwez, i've spent the first day of fall break dutifully trying to cure myself of jetlag, and of course, prepping up MY NEW COMPUTER!! eat your heart out linken as i now have the latest sony vaio in my hand.. woohoo.. =) (btw, linken, i think mariah's new song sucks big time, i kept hearing "i like to be a chicken neck" in here song or something.. wierd)

hmm.. what else to say? i've been dabbling in so many interesting ventures this semester, going regularly for fellowship with campus crusades, designing tons of publicity material for makanmania, and thoroughly enjoying my PE courses! i'm taking dance technique and boxing this semester and haha.. i feel kinda like billy elliot.

but it's SO FUN. somehow i feel my own self-censure, lack of courage and the general singaporean close-minded and opportunity-limited scene would have rejected my attempts to just enjoy myself and do things i like. i love trying to do choreography, just enjoying dance, and then the next day switching gears and work out the stress by punching people.. lol.. it's been really really fun. something i really have to say about the singaporean education is that everything has to have a purpose, you join a CCA to compete in nationals, to gain points, to have a good resume, and if you suck, well too bad at that. everything is measured by accolades, SYFs, gold medals and the likes, and somehow, enjoying a sport or enjoying yourself just went out of the window. i don't like that..

hmm.. alritez.. i'm leaving you guys with my publicity materials for makanmania!!

this was my first, lichtenstein-inspired poster.. but some people said it was self-indulgent and too esoteric.. geez.. engineers...

this was my third, warhol-inspired poster.. it's warhol because of the iterations and the funky colors.. i think this will be our main poster.. notice i fail to mention the second, "tailored-to-everyone", the boring, simple poster that just slaps pictures of food and advertises the event. HONESTLY, you couldn't spell trite and boring better than that.. but oh well, there was some point in the fact that makanmania should be more about the food... FINE. so i'm now the misunderstood artist. lol

this is the quartercard design, which just did a variation of the third poster, and made it more 'underground' and dirty.. i absolutely adore this design somehow, but everyone else seems to think the quartercard misses the point cos it looks like it is advertising some underground dance performance or some zouk event.. sigh..

long time no blog

2008-08-06T21:17:00.002+08:00

oops.. bad frank.. so caught up with work that he has no time to blog.

...

yeah right. lol.. somehow being at home turf doesn't inspire much blogging it seems. my dad seems to be begging me to blog.. lol.. wonder why.

oh, in case i have not regaled the issue ad nauseum to you, MY DAD IS ON FACEBOOK. and is very, very intent on getting more friends. my initial reaction to this piece of nice was abject horror commingled with a bewildering sense of panic. but after much thought, it's actually pretty cool to have techno-savvy parents whom are articulate about skype, facebook, youtube and the likes! haha..

aniwez, singapore has this certain allure that attracts me after just a few weeks and now that i'm one week away from leaving this beautiful island, its just a bottle of mixed feelings. the great american experience beckons once again, but singapore is still unique, with all my friends, family and memories. how cool. =)

internship has been generally boring, but it alludes to the general working life eventually, to which i'm glad i have a great bunch of friends that will eventually share this experience with me, along with tennis-buddies, gym-buddies and the likes.

haven't done much this time round, just.. settling back in, buying stuff once again (yeah, breaking my resolve to NOT shop. -_-), having exorbitant haircuts that look quite similar to those you get in QB (haha.. but i think the experience is cool), going for atas lunches, dinners and get frightened of soy products and carbs in general.

time just moves too fast. oh well. i'll wait for eternity. lol

the months in summary

2008-07-06T21:17:00.002+08:00

people have been commenting that i've not been updating.. so here goes.. photo-blog style yet again.

new attitude @ lousiville

southern ridges treetop walk

hort park

singapore skies

my dad gawping @ the treetop walk

near home

somehow the focus was a bit off

lakeview skyscape

american boy

2008-06-22T21:12:00.004+08:00

so it's been 3 weeks.

work has been particular frustrating, not because it's especially difficult or frenetic, but that it's characterized by a nauseating, "armyesque" tediousness and mundaneness. honestly, i do feel like complaining, but on realising that (a) it's neither the fault of my nice colleagues, mentors or buddies but rather, the system (b) i kinda really have to suck it up since i obviously can't quit, and being a soppy miserable twat ain't gonna improve anything, i think i better just adopt a new attitude. =)

but wow. no wonder people don't like working once they've started. thankfully i still have 2 more years to considerable bliss. yippee! thing is, even if u do nothing much @ work, monday blues are still excruciating and you just feel apeshit tired after every day of work that one can't function properly except to head home eagerly and collaspe on the sofa or something. geez, dun get me started (weeping) on my fitness. =(

aniwez, i think the last waves of reverse culture shock has all but ebbed away as I prepare to be completely assimilated into the singapore culture. already, i'm starting to 'talk' right. lol.

this weekend was my church's 35th mission convention and lemme just say, for a small church like mine, contributing 13 million in 35 years and being so faithful in missions is no small boast. but well, glory to God. =)

i feel like i've learnt so much and have grown so much closer to God this year.wow. thank God! i'm starting to see how beautiful heaven is, how urgent the 'mission' is and how everything is beautiful in God's time. more updates to follow if things actually come to pass. the thing is, i think its really a paradigm shift, where i realise the importance of God's work as compared to everything else. =)

alright.. that's enough of updates now. i really need to bring my camera round to take pictures of singapore scenescape. it's.. so architecturally invigorating.

oh. and i love my music, thanks to ruckus. and i cannot live without surfthechannel. =) lol.

before i forget..

2008-06-16T14:29:00.002+08:00

so it's been two weeks since i've come back, and i think i've finally gotten used to the life here in singapore again. the constant showers amidst the feel of slick perspiration, the slaughtered mangled english, the sudden population explosion and labyrinthine developments @ orchard road and the likes.

things have changed. they really have. and i'm kinda a bit dejected by the fact that i spent so little effort in maintaining the frienships here. it feels like a reverse culture shock, something familiar yet so disconnected. but well, i'm not going to complain, there's much much more in my mind now to contend with, lots of prayers and communications required with God as I iron out issues. =)

NewAttitude
was a blast. how can it not be when you have a motley crew of John Piper, Joshua Harris and CJ Mahaney all coming to one convention and speaking. but what made me all the more overjoyed was the amount of christian support and fellowship i experienced with the group i travelled with. everyone was so passionate, mature and loving and it made the trip all the more fun. I honestly started the trip with slight trepidation but fully believing God's ways are wonderful. and it was indeed. we went as a group of strangers and we came back have sharing much of ourselves and having prayed much for each other. it was indeed a period of fellowship and growth for me. =)

the conference also made me confront many issues that I had been struggling with for quite awhile i would say.. and well.. i got answers and help. but the uncomfortable truth is, somehow i still struggle with the idea of doing what I believe in and saying. it seems like a lifelong lesson...

well.. back to work for now. =)

new attitude

2008-06-03T20:34:00.004+08:00

i think pictures say it all. what a blessed and fun trip it was!

the road trip of a lifetime.. lol..ithaca --> louisville, kentucky and back

the way overdue grad nite post

2008-05-31T20:31:00.007+08:00

ok jianmin has been pestering me to do since everyday since grad nite ended, and since I'm grasping between acclimatizing to singapore's slick humidity, torrid crowds and my own jet-lagged induced ill-ease, I shall do everyone a favour and just write it.

here goes:

the theme was supposed to be 'Search for the Lost/New World' with visions of Indiana Jones inspired equitation/outdoors solid-sy kinda fashion scheme. which obviously everyone promptly ignored and turned up in the oh-so-normal black suits, ties and party dresses. I don't blame anyone. Considering pyramid mall is like our orchard road and that even abecrombie has forsaken that place, we're kinda sunk in a fashion-less quagmire. oh well, let's not digress.

so yeah, the theme was that, and it was held @ the deceptively looking Olivia restaurant. i say deceptive because the restaurant facade brings up suspicions of entering an abandoned warehouse. but no, in it was a cozy lounging area for cocktails, and a backyard decorated inconspicuosly (sigh) with flowers as well as non-working heater-lamps. alrite, let's not mention that as well.

people started arriving around five-ish onwards and the lounge was soon packed with eager seniors taking many photos and well as a few precious freshmen who were conned into coming (lol). jac/cheewei/christina hogged the prime photo spot and ian went all-in at the bar counter whilst the rest gulped their cocktails, wines and the occasional root beer (yes, yankai, you). though i must say i found the riesling destestable. geez.

Dinner was served cold outside (again another roll eyes) but the food was deemed good by our resident michelin-starred chef junch (yay!). Amidst the merry drinking and eating we threw in a few nostalgic games of taboo (recall cny dinner) as well as the question game (recall last yr). taboo was a riotous table-vs-table battle of wits and laughs (well, especially with zee's well-intentioned hints) that was closely fought. we had the noisiest guy and the most talented actress of the batch, HY and Christina act out a short sequence which became intepreted as Posh Spice and David Beckham arguing over buying a house on the moon (!?). Nice try guys, we were actually opting for the more conservative 'British couple aruging about houses in the British countryside?' But yeah, that was creative and good job to the actor/actress duo.

the question game was pretty obvious in parts and surprising in others. cheewei won most likely to have a nose-job and nearly swept most likely to be picked up in the gay bar, which landed in the arms of our resident young-boy joel. (cheewei is still miffed that joel had a larger entourage than he did) joel's roomie, junch won 'most likely to be the first millionaire', our dear old prez, GJ won 'most likely to retire to malaysia' and the list goes on.

we moved back indoors when the cold threatened to really spoil the mood, and had dessert bites whilst watching the requisite grad nite video thanks to the hardwork of jm and jessie. the video made several points - HY is the noisiest guy, zee is the funniest guy, and Yonglin only seeks beauty, not brains. After that it was more chillin' and checking out the grad nite gift courtesy of josh/gq which consisted of informative cards of the personalities of the senior batch before the night finally wore down and we bade farewells.. and headed for afterparty!

-- frank

newattitude

2008-05-31T14:57:00.002+08:00

was SO fun! and so rewarding...

i kinda realized it was only the prompting of the holy spirit that made me so willing to go for the conference, and wow.. i'm thankful of having made the trip. to be amongst so many peers who had such heart and passion for God, to worship with such meaningful songs, and to listen to sermons by Joshua Harris, John Piper etc but most importantly, to hear God speak to me, and just re-express my love and longing for a deep relationship with God.

and the company was so great that it made everything much more fun as well! roadtrippin' 14++ hrs was pretty 'unique' (ha!) as well, but all in all.. so glad to have been there. =)

blog revamp

2008-05-24T09:01:00.002+08:00

you know, i've been wondering what my blog is accomplishing these few days. with my tag board defunct and me honestly not caring to get another, and with absolutely no comments for any posts whatsoever.. i'm starting to wonder whether i'm talking to myself to a wall or something. well, i do know this is a portal for people in singapore to get a glimpse of my life, and yeah, it gives me a chance to reflect on life, and respond to what God wants me to do in my life.

more and more, I become conflicted of whether to write my deepest thoughts and my quiet time reflections about God and about issues, considering how exposed they will make me. but honestly, i think I'll be more of a blessing sharing stuff important to me, than to hide everything. so yeah.. this is the tone i'll adopt.

if you wonder why the previous post was brief and not in depth in anyway, well it's cos i was conflicted in what to include and what to not.

thing is, I felt absolutely blessed and in fact a little ashamed that God acceded to my insecurities and pleas to 'fit in' and to experience the 'American life' -- something that seems to me so fake, shallow and just, insecure. honestly, i thank God again and again for just giving me this opportunity that though the activities mean nothing much, and the stuff i did seem commonplace, but somewhat whole a huge significance in my life.

you see, I came to America with silly motives. one was (literally) to join survivor and amazing race and win. another was bcos I want to take other courses besides my own major. the finally, I think one I refused to admit was that I was enamoured with the american lifestyle. it's something you want to feel 'entitled' and to be connected with. so yeah, 3 meaningless, senseless reasons brought me to the states.

but then, things became pretty clear that no. 2 was not gonna be possible. and as I sank deeper and deeper into my psychological quagmire of the singaporean community in Cornell, i realised how my life was so out of America despite physically being there. I had practically no non-Asian friends/acquaintances and yeah, didn't even need to talk to anyone within my own secure bubble. so there goes no. 1 and 3.

but then this semester made me realise why God brought me to US -- it was to reconcile with my own thoughts of Christianity and for me to mature spiritually. left to my own devices, i owe it to everyone's prayers and God's grace that I actually never left God despite so many distractions.

God showed me so many amazing things in US. He exposed my insecurities in fellowship, with the sad conclusion of FCS and my lack of attendance until this semester. He told me how America might seem decadent and no longer God-fearing on the media, but that it was a nation of opportunity, of God-fearing people, of worship, spiritual growth and such great Christian network. Finally I realised why I had come - the opportunities were so great - the Ivy Congress, next week's New Attitude, the great people I met and will be meeting. And honestly, I thank God constantly whenever I worship in the different churches across America and the world that I have experience because I truly feel and understand what it means to be part of God's great family.

which leads me to the trip to Franklin, something completely random and honestly, pretty wierd. I came from Cornell, attending the Ivy Congress, Andrew pretty much crashed the Congress after his global health seminar, coming from UNC Chapel Hill. So yeah, we met at Yale, talked for one night and then in a few months I flew over to visit him. If you ask me, that's pretty random.

The thing is, I thank God for his friendly spontaneous offer and just the few days I spent with his large family and his friends, doing things that was truly 'American' and things I realised I just ignored despite spending two years here. I mentioned not having touched a football, I mentioned not understanding what the deal was with children in children books complarining about yard work and mowing the lawn. But it was more than the American experience, God bringing me to such a large family, showed me what a blessing it was to have siblings that were of the close age and to be able to fool around/play around. And it's just all these random reflections that made the trip so memorable.

and I really thank Andrew for extending such a warm welcome, as well as all the people I met in Franklin. Andrew is seriously a great guy with a disarming smile and has the similar tendencies like my second sis to want to please every single person around him. haha. but yeah, thanks for all the 'talking about God' sessions and just having someone (finally!) to just chat about life, about God despite us being from two different worlds.

So yeah.. that's about it I share now.. my life is still a work a progress, hopefully that I will give it up for God to shape and chisel. =)

next stop: Louisville, Kentucky

destination: franklin

2008-05-23T00:05:00.003+08:00

wow.. what a frenetic few weeks.

exams are done and hopefully i've done well. i aimed too high this semester which kinda is causing heartache but oh well..

went to franklin, NC for the past few days to see andrew and kinda meet his friends/family etc and honestly it was a blast. honestly, i'm kinda astounded how i've been in the US for 2 years and counting and yet have never (i) touched a football (ii) done yard work (iii) crashed an american house for meals.. etc etc..

so honestly, i was intrigued by the simplest things and yeah.. it was great cultural exchange. we went rock climbing, cliff jumping, went behind a waterfall (that was so cool), chilling at local cafes, doing yardwork (haha!) and just.. well, to me it was kinda the quintessential american experience.. which kinda was the best thing for me since coming to US. haha!

and it's just so random when i look back at it. kinda really is God's hand and God's grace involved.. yeah.. Thank God!

grad nite + after party

2008-05-06T13:49:00.003+08:00

grad nite was fun! after party was wild! and yeah.. it's time to study so everything's gonna be on hold.

joseph, me, jessie (yup, my new cousin.. hehe), crazy ian, marvin

just in time for spring

2008-04-26T05:14:00.002+08:00

i've kinda forgotten how bitterly cold and miserable ithaca is 90% of the time, considering how smashing the weather is these few days. finally!

flowers galore!

i love the macro function. haha

sitting at the creek. we should seriously have a barbeque there one day.. swimming + barbeque.. ahh

we built the stonehenge. and destroyed it in a shotput challenge

ahhh.. some rants though, i think american weather + haistylists do not agree with asian hair at all. there are only two kinds of hair days here. the bad, and the plain freaky. geez.

of barbeques, tennis and sunglasses

2008-04-18T06:20:00.002+08:00

just finished a whole slew of coding/work/homework/studying.

i could finish up my blogging about the conference @ yale, my london trip, but honestly, now all i want to do is GET OUT THERE AND ENJOY THE SUN!

Woot!

oh yeah.. go listen to circleslide.. somehow i'm looping their music in my computer (thanks to the ivy congress).. how interesting it is that the first rockish type of band performance i had was in a high class hotel amidst a chirstian conference.. haha

Living For Your Glory

2008-04-14T07:36:00.002+08:00

What good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?
What good is it to make a sweet sound, but remain proud?
In view of God’s mercy, I offer my all

And take my life, let it be everything, all of me
Here I am, use me for Your glory
In everything I say and do, let my life honor You
Here I am living for Your glory

The road I’m on that leads nowhere without You
And the life I live that finds meaning and surrender
In view of God’s mercy, I offer my all

Seeking first the Kingdom
Seeking first the Kingdom of my Lord

-- this song really moved me to tears at the Ivy League Conference today, with a culmination of inspiring speeches and heart wrenching pleas from the persecuted. I'm SO glad i came to the states. I'm so humbled and thankful for the fact that I have been so blessed. Take my life, God.

not a-mused

2008-04-03T07:02:00.002+08:00

sometimes nothing serves better as a wake up call than a badly done prelim. hmmz

london journeys, part two

2008-03-26T12:34:00.002+08:00

Day 2
so the riverside sojourn continues and honestly, i kinda fell in love with london at that point. everything was so.. romantic and just artsy and bohemian. lol

architecture heaven

prerequisite artsy dock-shot

i wouldn't mind a stroll down here everyday

tamesa oxo for our dinner! kinda pricey but omg... they serve THE BEST CREME BRULEE EVER. forget about madeleine's chocolate creme brulee, here they serve apricot creme brulee which honestly, was heavenly.

us rushing across to head toward covent garden for a night of ballet! haha.. honestly i was impressed. the ballet WAS good. and yeah 'sleeping beauty' got ian pretty sleepy as well.. lol

intermission time

the theatre is pretty grand.. something that looked like it was plucked out the phantom of the opera.

so after some great ballet, we headed back to the hostel where i had a most interesting conversation with my roommates, niall and marcellus. basically, a singaporean, an irish and a argentine talking about stuff from art to photography so the best city in the world and the worst. niall was just completely dismayed to be in london due to the horrid weather especially after vacationing in nice whereas I was just coming out one of the most beautiful walks in london. so yeah.. fun times. =)

haha.. this is going so slowly, but im gonna go sleep. nitez!

blogging about london, part one

2008-03-24T00:22:00.003+08:00

london was a blast! here's a shout out to weihan, ziyang, ben, xiuf, lipen, william and so on so forth who were so welcoming and 'educational' in telling me where to go.

the trip honestly turned out more fun than expected and london just makes me wish I had chosen imperial to study in. lol.. i'm such a city kid.

day1 - south kensington - v&a, natural history museum, covent garden, riverside

day1 was pretty much a bummer because i was shagged out by no only the time diff and also because airindia has pretty much killed 80% of my brain cells by switching off the bloody ventilation for half of the flight. meaning it was as hot and stuff as India for half of the flight. wasn't too pleased.

well aniwez, we didn't want to waste the afternoon away, so we traipsed down to v&a for some modern art infusion.

entering via the subway entrance

when you have that as your centerpiece, you scream modern.

view from above

spot me? this was the balcony that allowed us to see the casting courts, which contained amazing reproductions of stuff like trajan's column, to david, to the school of athens. it's quite amazing seeing all of them in one same room.

this is really pretty amazing

view from outside. if you notice a difference in picture quality, YESS.. it's because i'm ripping off from brenda's photo collection, which is so uber good. haha

next up was natural history museum, where honestly i was so wiped out i was searching more for benches to rest and sleep rather than at exhibits

after night at the museum, nat history museums will never be the same again

this was the jewel gallery. pretty amazing shit here, but i was too comatose to enjoy.

i was in this slanted-shot and back-of-scuplture mood whilst taking photos.

we then traipsed to harrods before i left the motley crew to go find weihan. who hasn't really changed. haha. aniwez, he brought me to my favourite place in london - covent garden, where the bohemian spirit commingled with this sense of extravagance, where you had glitzy shopping boutiques right next to west end theatres with pret a mangers and street performances thrown in as well. uber cool.

day 2- sensing my enthusiam for covent garden, it's not surprising the next day i dragged everyone down to covent garden for more. =) well, not before a brief detour to bayswater for the legendary duck rice. well, it was good. haha... i think my tongue has been too exposed to good food that legendary is rarely part of my food vocabulary.

glancing at the royal ballet theatre brochure to decide what to watch. we actually headed to book tickets for sleeping beauty that night. the dancing was so amazing. both the male and female leads were just amazing.

then upon my suggestion we headed down to tate modern. when i say headed, it means we spent 3 - 4 hours detouring round trafalgar square, bankside, crossing the bridges, taking tons of pictures and yeah, reaching tate modern when it was about to close.

i thought u only saw such things in france

EMO SHOT! haha.. i couldn't resist. stupid henry spoilt the first shot though

the riverside is seriously awesome

EMO SHOT NO. 2! This place just screamed bohemian with the run-down brick wall facade and scribblings of the various muses of arts and culture.

true to form, we decided to head to this tamesa oxo place for dinner, which not only offered delish food, but a smashing view of the river thames. more of it later.

tamesa oxo in daylight

FINALLY, tate modern. this was the turbine room, which somehow reminded me of a concentration camp with the dark imposing steel columns and general starkness.

me foooling around with the crack on the floor in the turbine room

tate modern is my favourite museum in london. =)

more soon.. i guess, when more photos are up.

memories of NYC

2008-03-15T05:52:00.004+08:00

wow.. time really flies, as I am clutching my jackets and figuring out what jeans to bring to London for spring break i kinda reminisce the awesome winter break i had traipsing round orlando, NYC and van.

Didn't really have high hopes since
a) I wasn't a disney person as sheryl put it, and well, I kinda went more for the rides.. which made me utter "dis..appointing at ever turn"..

b) NYC was dead. to. me. having been there 4 times or more and just having been to ever single free destination that was around, I was getting sick of it.

c) Van wasn't particularly appealing either. lol.

but hey! i guess going with low expectations helped out ALOT. I thoroughly enjoyed myself in all phases of the trip and yeah.. it was a blast.

NYC revealed herself much more to me thanks to cw guiding us around for 'photo assignments' as well as introducing great food places from momofuku (yummy tsukemen and overrated BBQ pork bun -_-), to the home-reminding nonya, to that quirky japanese restaurant where we over-ordered like crazy, then chilling at joints like brgr (ironic that we didn't even TRY their burger), as well as jamba juice (where i prompty took at dump at their toilets after drinking so much juice.. ok u didn't need to know that)

not forgetting the places, and even the gem of a hotel i found. gerswhin hotel was uber-kitsch and just a nice find, so well-located near to the flatiron district that shopping was literally a stone throw's away. we pushed some wierd cube at k-town in the middle of the night (instigated by cw), went shopping at every single possible shopping place, hit greenwich village (i still cannot pronounce that word) and quarreling with cw over which movie to watch at that meteorically expensive theatres at Times Square (i wanted to watch National Treasure 2 and he insisted on Sweeney Todd.. and we ended up watching the disaster of Beowulf-3D which honestly.. sucked.)

oh oh! and i think i went on a realty-tv contestant spotting streak (think linken's gonna think i'm a complete pathetic sod but hehe.. who cares).. saw Malan from PR3 shopping at Marc Ecko and then saw Neil from SYTYCD2 (i think) at the theatres queueing for.. Sweeney Todd. haha.. i think i'm wasting my memory on utterly useless stuff.

so yeah, i actually miss NYC.. glad to be able to spend half a day there before I head to yet another metropolis called london. =).. wish me luck!

games night and post-party fun

2008-03-03T14:21:00.003+08:00

games night came and went amidst yet another week of frantic scrambling to finish work and prelims alike. honestly not doing too well and getting too stressed over it, but well, i think i needa chill. lol.

well, had my usual dose of tennis and snowboarding to keep me happy, though snowboarding on friday was a commingled mess of abject misery + pain as well as exhilration. pain because i didn't wear a beanie and scarf which meant that when i sped down the hill, snow and cold sleet smacked and slapped my face so hard I had troubled speaking coherently upon finishing the black slopes. thank goodness for my ski goggles. we 'tried' going down hercules, apparently the toughest black slope that greek peak could offer, and honestly, when i reached the edge of the 'cliff', i just sat down and pretty much panicked the same way i did at odessey. then i pushed myself off, starting sliding down the slop on my butt, and laughed all the way down this way. this was so reminiscent of our kiddie slides just much bigger, much steeper and much more fun... lol.. yeah, so i didn't actually manage to go down hercules. oh well.

aniwez, so saturday was games night, started off slow, but as critical mass of people came, things were pretty fun, i skipped dota to play a game of bang! in which i had to battle the combined wits of 3 outlaws intent on killing the sheriff who couldn't quite protect himself and with a vice who was sheryl. nuff' said. lol.

too bad it had to end at 11, but it was pretty obvious that various groups were still intent on playing. headed back with the 909 gang, not before stopping for bubble tea in the middle of the cold night and also talking alot of crap.. lol. spent nearly 4 hours playing citadels (or.. in the case of me and zee, we spent 4 hours trying to explain and progress the game). it was pretty interesting. we had gamers like joshua and joel who were reading every single rule within the book to find out winning strats, we had guojian and cheewei who were more intent on being kings/architects and then exclaiming about them.. lol..

i must says it was fun, different kinds of fun with different groups.. which to me.. was real cool. haha.. will quite obviously miss such times when the semester ends and u guys have to leave.. lol.. oh wellz

tennis tennis tennis tennis

2008-02-23T14:44:00.003+08:00

ok that networks thing was just a castoff from another blog post that i was required to write for my class. I hate how when grading comes in everything that was once fun becomes so mandatory and un-fun.

but who am i to complain.. lol.. when i see cheewei mentioning about his thetr class and how it's it most fun class.. i kinda look at my classes and weep. The only remotely fun class is my networks class, but even that is saddled with a ridiculous amount of math, game theory and shits. and all i like is social network theory and how to analyze game plays of survivors using Social Network Theory and the likes.. geez.. i am so not an engineering student. (oh and if you haven't realized, the network shown is the favs tribe this season, with Yau-man getting the boot)

the week has been crazily busy, with two prelims back-to-back and a hell lot of homework. spent 2 hours yesterday agonizing over one question from my networks homework (my housemates said they heard me) and yeah.. realized it was a stupid reading error. omg.

speaking of non-academic stuff, i LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE tennis. it was a superb idea to get tennis lessons and then free up my whole tuesdays and thursdays morning. now (upon skipping 310 sections), my schedule on tuesdays and thursdays look like:

Wake up @ 9.00am -- Cook Breakfast -- Dawdle, QT, study -- Drive to Reis Tennis center at 11.00am -- Play till 12.00nn -- Head home, bathe and then saunter up to school.

WOOT! and honestly have i mentioned (yet again) that tennis is SO ABSOLUTELY FUN. imho it beats snowboarding even. the sense of accomplishment after ripping a winner down the court is.. wowz. that being said i kinda needa work on removing my prior badminton influences, like twisting my racket, not locking my wrist and stuff.. sheesh..

ok gonna sleep.

networks

2008-02-23T11:12:00.003+08:00

anyone can figure out what this network represents? GY should be able to guess this.

wipeout

2008-02-14T13:13:00.002+08:00

i had my first winter wipeout as I was attempting to run out of the house to get to the gym. slipped and fell flat, clutching my iphone desperately to save it. and yeah, in the process found myself sprawled on the floor, knees scrapped by the cruddy snow and keys strewned across the white mess.

i hate snow. they say that the first winter is the worst. bullshit. every winter is SO miserable, and the notorious february 14th snow that cancelled school last winter has unfortunately decided to spread itself out thin and slather the whole place with mounds and mounds of snow. which then melts slightly due to the salting of pavements, but then ices back into semi-skating rinks in the cold night. geez.

speaking of wipeouts, well, snowboard has been REALLY REALLY FUN. it's like a breath of fresh air and confidence to zoom down mountains relatively confidently, feel the cold breeze commingled with a sense of adrenaline embrace u, and just.. the thrill of black/blue slopes. =) perhaps the only joy of winter.

i was telling everyone how i wished it would only snow on friday such that we go boarding on saturday, then snow melts on sunday, and we have summery days for the rest of the week. rinse, lather and repeat. oh wellz. wishful thinking

happy cny guys!

2008-02-08T13:58:00.000+08:00

well.. what can i say, time really flies when you're busy and well.. haha this sem is proving to be really hectic, with me waking up at ungodly hours of around 7 - 8 and then only returning home at around 6 - 7. geez. 12 hours at sch.. bleah

that being said, my courses certainly look more manageable and i thank God that I have been able to cope well with my work so far, clear my homework debt that piled up in the weekend, enjoy a pretty social cny dinner, had steamboat, joined a project team, taking ballroom dancing and tennis lessons (whoopee!), and basically having a blast of a time snowboarding and stuff

i kinda feel like this semester is the way i wanna spend my time - frenetic but with a point. lol. but well, the downside is that i kinda needa catch up on my sleep.

so yeah. nitez

now for the serious stuff

2008-01-27T04:39:00.000+08:00

first week has nearly expired itself and honestly i find my resolve weakening (yet again), faced rejection yet again and well.. find myself scarily staring at what would be a repeat of last semester's doldrums. i don't want to give up.

thing is, sometimes i wish God would just show me my path in life, so we don't have to face the hurt of rejection, we don't expand energy chasing dreams that aren't meant to be for us, and instead channeling time towards things that actually make a significance.

well, through the experience i guess i DO thank God for certain things - for allowing me the strength and courage to try, for giving me sufficiently leverage to break my fall, to have time to think and not get permanently scarred. i KNOW that there are God's best plans for me still, i just.. haven't found it yet or realized it yet maybe..but yeah.. now's the time to reflect, to let the hurt ebb away. =)

yesterday was a cool potluck and post-postluck singspiration plus two rounds of wild picture games where an original message of 'a rolling stone gathers no moss' evolves to 'shit rolling down the hill does not smash into wall' and to the eventual 'snowman cannot jump over wall'. lol. honestly the most hilarious thing in awhile.

i'm not going to be contented about certain stuff. i'll try on and on i guess, and well, hope for the best and hope my heart can take the hurt from the rejections. =) why must i keep getting denied?

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9)

reality show updates

2008-01-27T04:24:00.000+08:00

- i think aryn is pretty and did not deserve her bottom 3 placement. jay should be kicked off.

- methinks ronnie and shannon did the best job, with ronnie's pic being the absolute best. honestly, perry/casey's hardly made any sense and well.. wasn't in anyway sexual chemistry.

- amazing race lives up to it's reputation of having amazingly SHITTY endings. That's 12 seasons I've watched and so far the only winner I've supported was rob and brennan from the original TAR.

- PR's ricky needs to stop crying, and thank goodness that sourplum of a Victorya is gone.

- Survivor Micronesia is gearing up soon. and I am rooting for my past favourite, Ami. And FYI, Mark Burnett, I scarcely would think Amanda and.. omg what's that black guy's name ARE NOT favourites. give that to peih-gee.

- TAR:Asia sucks so badly this time round it isn't even worth watching. It is NOT the Marc and Rovilson show please.

- JDMA actually edits janice dickinson to be quite a real, caring character. i'm surprised that i'm actually rooting for her to succeed.

- American Idol is boring with a capital B. Just gimme my top 12 to skewer already.

sigh. all that's said and done, crushed dreams are the most fragile things of all.

musings

2008-01-21T08:25:00.000+08:00

hmm.. just a few more footnotes..

1. today's sermon was pretty good, with a really moving story at the end that was greatly motivating and inspiring. it is where the goal of our lives is such that when people talk about our lives, they can't help but talk about God. that in essence is the life we should live.

2. i did a pretty cool salad inspired from my final meal at Burgoos. Yup, it is Spinach salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Here goes:
fresh spinach leaves
slices of bacon
cherry tomatoes
feta cheese
red onions

sauce-
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp grd black pepper
1/8 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette sauce

so basically cook the bacon, then use the oil remaining to fry the onions and the sauce, and then spray the whole thing onto the spinach leaves, add feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and bacon and voila!

traipsing round vancouver

2008-01-21T05:39:00.000+08:00

1. For some suspension bridge thrills, go to Lynn Valley instead of Capiliano. Capiliano costs money and seems more gimmicky. Well actually unless you're starved for options to sightsee, don't bother about these two. My mom poohed at the suspension bridge saying it was like the MacRitchie Treetop Walk whereas me and my sis were clearly not quite enjoying the walk across. I wonder who gave us the gene for fear of heights.

2. I learnt one more function of my camera! whoppee! (lol to Liksin)Well, aniwez I was pretty impreseed with Ian's photos and yeah wanted to learn a skill and two. Finally figured out how to blur the scenery behind the object of focus. (Yeah, I am writing this knowing I risk sounding ditzy, but oh well.. lol)

Kitsilano Beach.. honestly this was taken at like 12.00nn and the suns already making its way slowly down.. what a depressing feeling.

another view of Kitsilano

Up Mount Seymour for snowboarding!! Honestly, anything done on a mountain trumps Greek Peak soundly.

View on the roads near my sis' house

tons of snow geese in the parks

i like.

more indulgence in photo taking

i think those were nests.

i love the dusk shots

this is in victoria. which honestly is not worth going in the winter. and i don't think they encourage tourists as well considering how the planted the ugly crane there to destroy people's photo shots...

miniature world! possibly the few things worth seeing in vancouver, but we rushed through it cos there wasn't enough time. I HATE PACKAGED TOURS.

aniwez my camera kinda got a bit full with all the images.. so that's about it. school starts tmr! i'm kinda hyped up for it somewhat but what with the horrid schedule i have, and idea of waking up at 7+ every morning.. man..

things i learnt about disneyland

2008-01-20T02:22:00.000+08:00

1. the Osborne family define the words extravagance and decadence. but hey, the christmas light up sponsored by them was fan-freakking-tastic.

2. the only rides worth mentioning are everest and fast-track. the rest serve to tickle you slightly.

this is everest. whoppee.

3. be AS kiddie as possible, go try everything, go pose with everything you can see, ignoring the glances whatsoever of other disenfrachised parents saddled with their kids and whatsnot. lol. ok, but draw the line at pink power ranger. -_-

we waited 1 1/2 hours for this. geez.

4. wolfgang puck is overrated.

5. despite knowing from psych class that the castle is only 3 levels high, it still is pretty awesome.

6. epcot yields gorgeous scenic shots.

see what i mean

my favourite shot

i think this was 'little' italy

7. epcot scores again for emo shots.

i like this shot cos it feels very 'in the moment' and 'high fashion' lol. taken in epcot's 'france'

i dunno what to say.. lol

notice how it's always guy-girl shots? hehe.. wonder why? think along the lines of the prev disneyland post. lol

8. bring a good camera to the safari. else just forget about the shots and enjoy the ride.

9. on that note, animal kingdom is a pretty good place for shots as well. otherwise it's outstandingly.. underwhelming.

ducks caught kissing

10. stay for all the fireworks display. they're the reason for the exorbitant cost of things in disney.

the shopaholic laments

2008-01-17T03:34:00.000+08:00

it's kinda quite sad to hear people dismissively talking about how engineering students dress shabbily to school and the likes... and then realize you're pretty much an offender of it as well.. geez..

thing is, it's easily to wear things in singapore. a decent tee and jeans kinda rules the day. and i don't means fake abercrombie or wad. if things get too boring, slap on a jacket, a choker or something of that variant and you'd fit in pretty well and fell pretty good. (for accessories, just ask guang yi or sunnypal.. lol)

problem is, coming to US, you kinda have to contend with more stuff, which i obviously didn't realize till recently. you can't just import your singaporean wardrobe over, then slather on various disparate but nice pieces and expect to 'make it work'. furthermore, you have to contend with the fact that style comes at a price, whereas warm clothing comes at another. meaning the combination of both fetches a pretty scary price... and it also means this stupid, vapid dumb guy here pretty much only has stylish/nice-looking but impractical clothing, or warm clothing that look like it came from the eighties.. ok i'm exaggerating that.

and then some clothes are just meant for summer and not for winter and vice versa.. so it's been pretty agonizing. well, not actually, but since i've had the time to pretty much reflect about everything in life, i was also contemplating this fact and had an epiphany, albeit a very stupif and overused one - go for looks instead of pieces! voila. duh.

haha.. it kinda means i needa go stock up on essential basics and then apply the healthy lessons of layering and what's it not.. or honestly, (which im more inclined to do since i'm that lazy and honestly by now am lamenting the amount of money i've spent on ..impractical clothing), i'm just not gonna care. lol..

aniwez, this babble was all generated whilst i was talking to my sis whilst we were walking back from UBC after crashing two of her courses, one being an intro to the course of christian thought and culture and the other being the chapel service, which was really pretty good! though in my unc kum-heng influenced deviant mindset i was chuckling at my own joke that the chapel was pretty much so holy that angels were expected to burst out in chorus any minute.. lol.. ok lame.

aniwez yeah, kinda will miss the place when i head back to ithaca tmr. living here has been fun, meeting her friends, chatting silly things.. =). oh yeah.. and getting dissed by her when i said i wanted to try to pull off the the looks mentioned below.. one which is too exorbitantly expensive and that other she just said was.. gay.. which on hindsight, pretty much is.. oh wellz.. lol.

i kinda like the sunglasses. but i doubt i would be caught dead in them. and i can't be bothered to paste the other picture.. cheewei recommended it from the rugby, ralph lauren website..

american chinese food

2008-01-16T15:41:00.000+08:00

you know, after eating vancouver chinese food (well, practically weeping in joy over its authenticity and flavour), i've come to the conclusion that american chinese food belong to one special category of its own. haha.. right between tv dinners and badly cooked food.

ok i'm being mean, but honestly i think chinese american food has deviated so far from its original inspirations, then it honestly forms another whole food genre of its own..

the food you encounter in american chinese cuisine:

1. pork roll - translates to measly pork balls stuffed into bandages of unpalatable flour and fied in stale oil. avoid at all costs. honestly.

2. soup before the meal - only 3 choices, either wonton, hot and sour soup or the puzzlingly named egg drop. when i mentioned egg dropped to my sis, she said it reminded her of bird droppings.. so.. hmmz.

3. some form of poultry or farm animal. usually either chicken with general tso's sauce, sweet and sour sauce, sesame sauce, or some other tangy, sticky paste that's a variant of the above. honestly, sometimes i can't taste the difference and probably there isn't any. the sauce attempts to be so thick and overpowering that you taste nothing else besides it. and honestly, who is general tso?? honestly, at the rate his chicken is being served at chinese restaurants, i think he would be the most famous chinese personality in the US

4. JUMBO shrimp - which means a normal prawn. which i then would wonder what they would call a tiger prawn. the shrimp that ate manhattan? ...

5. dessert - what do you expect? fortune cookies. well actually fortune cookies are quite delicious unless of course you get those that have been stashed in some box for millions of years and taste like stale plastic. eww..

6. moo goo gai pan. don't ask me. i never figured out whether this was a mispelling typical of such places or i dunno. maybe moo goo was the wife of mr. tso?

7. the chopsticks!! honestly this issue was discussed in my freshmen writing class once and we had a great laugh about it. its found everywhere where chinese food is served and is unmissable with its gawdy red and yellow coloring. one side teaches the individual how to use the chopsticks whilst the other slaps of some chinese ideograms and has words going like - welcome to the Chinese culture. enjoy the hertiage and glorious culutre as you enjoy the foo.

yeah.. some variant of it or what...

but well.. what can i say? beggars ain't choosers and so when i head back to paltry ithaca and crave for my chinese food, guess where i'd be heading? lol...

reflections of the past semester

2008-01-12T15:09:00.000+08:00

-emo post alert-

time in vancouver has been invaluable and incredibly refreshing, time spent with my parents and sis (thou i sorely miss my eldest sis as well) and without my own computer and dota, i have had more time to reflect and just appreciate stuff

honestly, i wasn't really happy with the previous semester because to me i accomplished zilch besides my academics stuff.. i kinda preload my semester with expectations and resolutions then lack the courage and determination to carry it through. plus for the semester, i spent most my spent worrying about my tutorials, doing my tutorials then reeling from the disaster that was my tutorials.. and also being lazy at home.. this kinda is not what i signed up for, not what i sold 6 years of my life for and certainly not the reason why i came to america for.

plus, what disappoints me was how i threw all concern of spiritual stuff and physical health stuff outta the window this semester and just blitzed past everything..

so yeah, it is with such thoughts that i brace myself for the upcoming semester. it's not hard to guess what things i'm gonna be resolu-ting for.. so i wouldn't bother. what i would be bothered, would be to really give thanks to God for my family and really appreciate them...

during one QT session, i wrote this down on my iphone-

if there is anything i really thank God for, it is for the amazingly great family he has put me into - each building me up in different ways- my mum being the pivotal support in my formative years and for inculcating good discipline as well as being steadfast in God and being such a diligent, smart and yet humble and thoughtful mother. for Dad, with his self sacrificial ways and his great love for his children, and his undivided love for God. my elder sis, for showing me how human love between husband and wife is such a beautiful and amazing thing that it shapes both individuals to be more christlike. and finally for my emotive lovable secod sis, who has struggled through so much in her life yet through her life and her chatter, has taught me many valauble lessons about God.

of course, at this point i kinda realize how i've been super lazy about appreciating others who have done so much for me and yet i've been quite the jerk in procrastinating and not replying to emails, gifts and stuff

to alvin and co (you know who u all are), thanks for the great support through the JC and post-JC years and being there for me even when i was being difficult and stuff, and especially alvin, for showing me how a great devoted friend ought to be with his cards and stuff. really, sometimes i complain and get so hurt about investing much in friendships and stuff and then i realise i'm also a great perpertrator in such acts as well.. so forgive me as well.. =)

to my cousin chrystal, who always bought me stuff and listened to me yak about silly pop-culture stuff, i really thank you for being such a great couz and friend and yeah, i will pray for you for your growth in God.

to friends that I've gone hi-bye with through msn, army, sch and stuff and just haven't had the time to re-connect and rejuvenate the friendship, i truly apologize and really hope that yeah.. there's the emotional space and time to maintain such great friendships and memories

---
i've was complaining in orlando florida that i have had issues, that i was being emo and that i had childhood scars, but honestly, reflecting so much on my life, i realize how blessed i am and how unfair am i to say such stuff about my 'childhood'. indeed, i felt like i never lived up to any thing in RI/RJ and was distraught with my physical inabilites, and just overall pasty, unfavourable demeanor. but then i remember the good friends i made, and just the experiences and lessons i have learnt and am i still learning and yeah.. maybe there is a point to it. indeed, i was extremely distraught with my not being able to join odac in rj, and then the being sent to obese company in army but then as i was recounting my time in gryphon coy, i really enjoyed my time there, made GREAT friends and never once felt insecure about my weight/image or stuff. indeed, there was a regrettable sense of superiority that times which i am disgusted as ii reflect, because you guys there built me up as well and we supported each other towards common goals, so yeah, forgive me as well if u felt slighted by me..

... wow.. feels like pandora box is opened.. lol.. but well.. i'm glad i can share such stuff. these ARE my many 'childhood scars' and issues as i so have proclaimed but well.. i think these are more like obstacles and stepping stones that i had to navigate in order to grow up and really learn to be more like Christ. i am proud to say that going to gryphon was probably one of the best gifts God gave me even though i was so chagrined when i initially heard of it. but i do realize that there are many hurts that are still hurting, that i cannot yet resolve. ri chronicles still hurt honestly sometimes.. because i felt like i did nothing except get fat and study. the whole friendship falling out thing hurts like HELL and i'm still learning.

i'm still work in progress, but well, who isn't? may the next sem be more illumianting and may 2008 be a year where i follow closely to God's words and lead a disciplined lifestyle.

-end of emo post- lol.

relishing vancouver's food

2008-01-07T14:09:00.000+08:00

had dinner at a fabulous restaurant near my sis' house today that consisted of butternut squash soup, fondue of cheese with white wine and beef bourl- smth.. yummy! loved the ambience too - some smoky, authentic dim-lit taverna-ish place that proved too dim for any photo-shots.. geez

still, if u get me and my mom in agreement that the food is good.. you've struck gold.. lol. oh and lunch was fantastic as well with the most authentic dim sum i've have had in 6 months.. swoonsome man, especially the crunchy uber-delicious bbq pork!! haha.. sometimes i think vancouver is even more asian and chinese than singapore man.. honestly i've spoken more cantonese here than i have in singapore.. and it's like the people here assume you speak canto.. lol

alrite.. cue the amazing race music..

from the snowy suburban terrain of ithaca, new york

to the gawdy overdone but nevertheless spectacular light-ups @ orlando, disneyland

heading west toward dreary, sleepy vancouver

to the snow-tipped regions in japan.. (yah rite!! this was in vancouver as well)

back to the cosmopolitan-ish cityscape of sing.. vancouver!

lol.. what a journey it has been.. more fotos when i finally reunite with my com... honestly.. using my dad's inept LG computer and the equally baffling and useless iMac courtesy of my sis is like entering computer-purgatory.. geez. lol

a rundown of things

2007-12-30T15:35:00.000+08:00

these few days have been more of a frenzied hustle than a rest period for me.. geez.. with my parents arriving and fussing over the cold, my sis currently acting like a complete retard (that she is - further confirmed today.. hehehe)　

now she's threatening to throw me out of the her room. geez.

vancouver has been absolutely bleary and miserable (despite what cody insists) with the weather varying from miserable drizzle to lin-ken type of moping downpour (not that i am least bit laughing at him. hehe). honestly, and with the sun setting at 5pm there hasn't been much fun in the sun and i haven't been able to take much shots of places like granville island and the likes.

oh wellz.. i realise the most fun part of things is meeting people, interacting with them and man.. preventing my dad from overinteracting with them. had a fabulous christmas dinner @ my sister's friend's place with much christmas caroling, silly games and comparing canada, america and singapore.. then it was meeting up with my dad's old friend who honestly has a personality that pendulum-swings between utmoust piousness and schoolboy mischeviousness.. and yeah.. he's an absolute riot and fun to be with.

so yeah whilst the location is disappointing, the company is a blast. =).. plus i get to have my 'me' time occasionally and start planning world domination next semester.. hehehe.. as i have always said before a semester, you're gonna see a new frank next semester.

lol.. let's see whether even an iota of that statement above would ring true

the fun of it all

2007-12-26T04:10:00.000+08:00

really have had so much fun these few days, first with the rekindling of the youthful side of everyone @ disneyworld, getting overwhelmed by the fantastic fireworks and light-ups everynight, me + cheewei laughing at sheryl's photo-shots, taking silly emo shots around epcot's world showcase. then heading to NYC, chillin' at an uber-cool trendy gershwin hotel, hitting the streets around soho, east village, greenwich village, chinatown, eating delicious jap food + fusion jap food, having a blast of a shopping time with new found great shopping pals, then arguing like crazy over movies to watch and concluding that we ain't movie pals. then finally it's a complete 360 degrees change in vancouver, staying at my sis' place and enjoying the much better weather, relaxing and chillin' at her place, going for fantastic christmas eve parties and the likes..

ahh.. life.

reflections

2007-12-14T15:58:00.000+08:00

well.. this sem is officially over, from the moment i put down my pencil in disgust over the 303 paper and laughed my way whilst handing it in. oh well. hahahaha

aniwez, things really went by way too fast this sem. was completely steeped in work and wow.. can't say i really enjoyed the sem much. geez. hopefully the next will be better.. kinda wanna do more stuff and have WAY more fun.

but yeah.. now for the hols first!

cold and miserable

2007-12-06T14:00:00.001+08:00

it's a frigid -9 degrees out there and the snow has blanketed everything, transforming the scenery into yet another white winter wonderland. i'm honestly still in awe at the way the snow just magically makes everything so.. beautiful, so pure, so rustic and so untouched. you feel as if life itself has deserted the area somewhat.

oh wellz. though the cold is a dratted thing.

aniwez i'm in the midst of studying in the final week, and i'm currently ONE DAY BEHIND schedule. arggh. doesn't bode well for me. i'm torn behind hastening my psych studies or just plunging into them and clearing the first hurdle first. hmmz. ok, you don't need to hear me yak about this. hehe.

i'm more frustrated with just how things have turned out this sem. i'm honestly not the sentimentalist. i'm like the pathetic mimic. the guy that wants to be something yet honestly cannot fathom why he wants to be that. the guy that pulls so much psychological ploys and plays yet wonders what the heck he does that for. the guy who orchestrates schemes and plans to do this and that, yet wonders if ultimately, we are shackled by our inherent choices, behavior and nature.

i can't make things reconcile. and i'm paying for it. i just feel.. sigh. confused.

back to the slopes! (and the books)

2007-12-02T14:03:00.000+08:00

woot! final week of this sem just ended! besides several glimpses of fun this sem has been DREARY with the capital D. but well, now it's time to regroup study hard and do well for finals! =)

played like 4 hours of settler's yesterday and hit the slopes today @ greek peak to fill my fun quota before a week of mugging.. heehee.. settlers, to me, is one of the fun-nest games ever cos there's so much psychology involved in the game and it's so much of talk. and snowboarding was pretty painful and disheartening initially, as we only attempted alpha slope (noob man!) and fell like crazy initially on the icy slopes. ouch! but well.. then the muscle memory kicked in and things became much better.

so well.. 3 finals to go! countdown starts!

photos ed

2007-11-23T10:43:00.000+08:00

random stuff done through the semester...

our 303 class prelim 2 scores curve... amazingly low and the prof is very proud of it

dinner at banfi's.. courtesy of desmond and josh.. hehe

our school changing color

making apple pies

then today's thanksgiving dinner.. courtesy of all our master chefs.. le chomp le chomp le yum! our menu included:

my dish! - smoke salmon bruschetta with pesto sauce and tomatoes

asparagus wrapped in smoked bacon with hollandaise sauce

tur-duck-ken.. chicken stuffed in duck stuffed in turkey.. omg.. this is good

there's just too much food to name.. but there was also ribs, haddock, salmon with lemon pepper sauce, brownies, pasta and much much more..

haha.. we still have tons of food left behind.. and my two days of gym has been officially wasted.. lol.. oh wellz.. yum!

the pre-thanksgiving edition

2007-11-22T13:07:00.000+08:00

thanksgiving dinner is the only glimmer amidst one of the bleakest thanksgiving celebrations for me yet again.. as much as i dislike travelling and get all tired out, staying at ithaca isnt exactly fun...

oh well, up to me to carve something fun for myself i guess... =) i'm gonna be doing some salmon bruschetta for thanksgiving tmr.. hopefully things pan out, then it's black friday shopping!!! woot!

last black friday was kinda a letdown because we went to jersey gardens and gq got all pukey and sick and we wasted tons of time, plus all the winter wear i wanted wasnt in the stores.. so it was kinda bummer...

this time i think im sticking to the simple pmall and seeing what i can get SLOWLY. i kinda browsed through the online store catalogues and found one ensemble that i wanna create for this winter.. lol.. and yeah, i needa find the salvation army dump place to recycle my old clothes... lol

oh.. and today was yet another ian/cherie/yk/sam etc outing to madeleine's! food was pretty good, but according to me, a bit little considering what i had at zaza's the day before (pan seared duck + creme brulee).. josh/me/yk shared a duck two-fit dish and diver scallops then splurged on the most scrumptious desserts ever - chocolate mousse cake, some fantastic three-tiered cake filled with grand mariner, baileys and whiskey and oh.. chocolate creme brulee.. which pretty much filled me with ecstasy cos it was so good.. lol.. yum!

300th post!

2007-11-18T14:25:00.001+08:00

apple pie-mania!

snow started falling this weekend in cheery (yah rite) welcome of ian and cindy from stanford).. geez. aniwez we went applie-pie making at mike and marsha's house today and well.. it was fun + a great reunion!.. though the poking wasnt exactly fun.

rehashed in the army-favourite foosball, played some wierd trading game in which cindy kept winning, ate tons of delicious squash soup with garlic bread! yum! yeah, then was the apple pie making in which i managed to mangle several apples, roll a pretty decent dough crust and then trim the sides of the pie etc.. yeah but i couldn't do the ribbon design somehow.. -_-

the pies turned out delicious. joshie disagrees with me saying that it was too sweet but.. haha.. to me anything with cinammon = good. oh yeah.. and we also played with the absolutely friendly dog, toby. darn.. really wish i had a dog.

at nite was a hotpot celebration with hksa and ctas pple for the asia dragon's thing held last sat. i have to admit that whilst the organization wasnt exactly very good, the interaction was good la.. real fun mixing around with the hk pple and taiwan pple.. haha.. though it makes me really wanna go to hong kong!

hmm.. ok nothing much left to say.. so so glad that all my prelims are done with this sem.. can relac a bit, take a breather till the finals.. bleah..

the completely wrong time edition

2007-11-14T12:52:00.000+08:00

this is so completely the wrong time to be blogging, considering i'm sandwiched between two horrific prelims, one that i have pretty much already tanked to the bottom of the ocean and the other still looms one day ahead.

geez. this is so sad.

aniwez, some very irrelevant trivia that I always wanted to know but never bothered to ask. (linken don't bother replying)

1. how to guys actually pull off wearing a scarf? as in.. how to fold until the seh way and not the way that marks you neck look enlarged?

2. how in the world do u pose for photos and ensure you don't look like a complete idiot/loser/fug. haha.. honestly, i think i shall shy away from photos from now on.. hehe.. it's just.. horrid. lol

arrgggh.. i'm going to sleep.

as per the pumpkin carving stint again.. this time i went for a more narcissistic and declarative pumpkin. lol

the materialistic and completely irreverant edition

2007-11-11T13:17:00.001+08:00

hmm.. asia dragons just ended.. honestly i don't really ever want to do a food/organizing/entertainment thing for awhile.. it's.. tiring. i dunno whether its fulfilling but it's just kinda sad to be filled with stuff to do and see people eating... oh wellz.. i kinda just wanna enjoy the event once. haha

aniwez it was fun to see and chat with friends from hksa/ctas.. i kinda wanted to do this event just for this.. haha.. so oh wellz.. i'm not gonna complain anymore. =)

next week's hell week beckons. lab + ece 303 + ece 315 prelims. wheee. but well.. good news is that i'm 2 prelims and 3 finals away from orlando then vancouver! yippee

oh.. and my snowboard arrived few days ago.. i like! haha.. spent kinda quite alot this month with the phone and board.. but err.. hope it pays off and well.. i really have fun with it. =)

ok.. REALLY tired. gonna kunz.

oh. and on a side note, i'm kinda worried cos i slang way too much nowadays.. even with sgporeans.. wah.. go back sg sure kena suan.. haha

sick like a duck

2007-11-01T10:09:00.001+08:00

typical.

the only week i'm free I go and fall sick.

maybe it's cos despite my proclamations that i was gonna sleep early every night, I inevitably wind up sleeping at 1++... stupid iphone is destroying my life with my incessant watching of youtube past sleeping hours.. lol

but i must say the iphone is an amazing distraction during class espcially if your TA insists on droning on and on about ridiculous stuff and tries to emulate the prof by saying stuff like "use intuition"... geez.

the materialistic life.. not.

2007-10-28T08:59:00.000+08:00

haha... i've FINALLY struggled through the semester to reach a rest-stop... one week free of prelims. FINALLY. man.. i really thought i would pass out on friday after enduring YET another 3am - 4am night.

bleah. this IS really the worst semester for ECEs i think. really really hope things would get better next time. =)

aniwez, i haven't really updated but wow.. things HAVE happened. =)

makanmania came and flew by, consuming YET another few tens of hours of sleep with preparation and then slogging it out for the event itself. being the emcee was.. hmmz.. fun in a way, but it kinda sucks when your audience kinda doesn't pay attention. it kinda feels like you're whoring yourself out for attention. lol

then i lost my phone for the fall break. -_-.. and under pretty biased circumstances, i got the i-phone. which honestly i think, kinda fulfills what lik sin said about me owning gadgets that are pretty much smarter than me. haha.. it's really really cool, though the cost still hurts my pocket but.. wowz.. all the functions, the sleekness, the all-in-one entertainment and just the seh-ness in flicking buttons on the screen and so on.. wheee.. haha

what else? hmmz.. i'm gonna go get my snowboard soon.. can't wait for snow but kinda hating that it's getting cold. haha.. it's back to the preppy look of sweaters, collars and stuff. =)

oh yeah, then there was this whole turmoil with wanting to take a dual-degree in psych and ECE and me actually really nearing taking that step. but then after 3 whole hours on schedulizer trying to find a plausible schedule i gave up. thing is, psych courses are fun. and i think i like psych and am good at psych. but to ask me to take 48 upper level credits and 100 bloody arts credit just to get the psych major just ain't worth it. so i've decided that i'm just going to enroll for a surplus of psych classes and just enjoy myself. =) i kinda find that psych courses really suits people like me who tend not to be too technical, yet still wants to find out about of what like anti-aliasing and stuff mean. so yeah. =)

talking about double degree also makes me talk about how i really wanna spend my remaining years in cornell - not just studying away. it kinda really pisses me off and makes me sad the way this sem is completely going down the drain due to the appalling load from TWO courses. -_-. but well.. i dunno.. what do i want? i really do wanna mix around, know more people, hang out at starbucks (lol) and just.. really enjoy an enriching education here at cornell. watching caroline's concert today really really made me wanna do something in cornell. have an impact, and not just accelerate through 3 years and get outta here. i don't wanna do that. hmmz.. i dunno.. i'll just do my apply-for-tons of thing strategy again i think and see what God provides.. hmmz..

fall break?

2007-10-11T03:14:00.000+08:00

pictures galore!

appelfest @ ithaca commons

caramelized apple, fry bread with apples and loads more! yum!

so then we set off for our road trip/fall break.

idyllic clayton, situated right next to the thousand islands..

dock to the thousand islands. we clarified a few things there: 1. an island is defined as any patch of rock with vegetation on it. 2. there are 18000 islands in the region of thousand islands actually 3. thousand island dressing DID come from here

fresh bread anyone?

up north, fall was indeed coming

we reached montreal @ 9+ and then headed straightaway for dinner!! here's the famous crepe suzette

our meal in full glory - crepes + fondue!

visiting montreal - notre dame cathedral

cobbled stone streets again!

inside notre dame basilica. it's kind of sad how commercialized the whole thing has become.

along the streets of montreal

pumpkins at atwater market

our days in montreal were short-lived, and somehow we all needed that dose of crappy capitalism. -_-. so we headed for vermont's famous ben and jerry's ice cream factory

peace, love and ice cream this way

ice cream graveyard - where rejected ice cream flavours lay. this ice cream met its demise because kahlua got too expensive. damn.

next up, lake placid @ adirondacks!

the required artsy shot

ruffles came along

driving round the adirondacks

these are flowers to sheryl. hehehe

nice contrast

lake placid

mirror lake.. no prized guessing how the name came about

great retirement spot here i guess..

so its back to the drudgery of deadlines and homeworks. geez

catch

2007-10-03T12:36:00.001+08:00

is chasing my dreams that hard?

does being different entail earning less?

these clothes have feelings

2007-09-24T08:37:00.002+08:00

today after doing laundry i had one HARD look at my closet.

sigh.. then i started counting the number of fashion missteps and wayward buys i made, and all the more I feel like calling a garage sale and selling all the crap i have amassed in just one year of frivolous shopping in the USA. and no, i'm not a shopaholic. you see, IF i were a shopaholic, then shopping alot would mean my buying skills would improve. since they still kinda stink, well.. i'm NOT. or i'm just a lousy shopaholic. which sounds worse.

aniwez, most of the errors spawned from the fateful frenzied day at woodsbury where time was so tight and I was just like crashing into stores to get like the necessary winter items.

when i say necessary, i think i meant a-bit-ugly-also-can-forgive. which on hindsight, kinda means ugly-until-i-won't-wear-it-the-next-season. -_-.

geez, let's count.

1. one ugly fcuk jacket that i was estatic at chancing upon cos it was so cheap. hmm, the hoodie is too small (makes me get headache) and the sleeves are slightly short. plus it's ugly. with a capital U.

2. a denim jacket from CK. i think the brand CK kinda sealed the deal for me at that point. yah.. and i have worn it a grand total of like.. 4 times? cos i think i cannot coordinate it with ANYTHING since most of the times i wear jeans of that tinge. -_-

3. the hideous monstrosity of a bright traffic-light red big overcoat. honestly, i think i was slightly crazy when i bought it. oh.. i remember, i started panicking cos i couldn't find a SINGLE decent jacket in woodsbury cos north face and stuff were sold out. so i settled for a "different" style, nautica orange jacket. which i dare not reveal unless I go like snowboarding and its absolutely required.

ah heck. i'm not going to like recount all these crap. it's really disappointing for one.. i think it kinda teaches me a few lessons.

1. never EVER shop on a tight schedule. even if it means you do not get a winter coat, you still can get it other ways, eg. online.

2. try, try, try. spend like 10mins in the fitting room and ensure you want to live in those clothes. -_-

3. do not think woodsbury is like the mecca of all shopping and delay buying anything till then. cos it ain't that great. for a great point, the quiksilver jeans i bought there have gotten a ripped look thanks to their poor quality. geez

oh well.. i'm supposedly going woodsbury again next saturday. THIS time round I'm going to window shop and REALLY take my time at stuff.

geez.

i'm still writing..

2007-09-22T13:49:00.000+08:00

i kinda think i've lost my writer's inspiration.. maybe it's too much darnded essays.... but heck, i'd write whatever comes to mind. =)

i kinda realize i like teaching stuff.. ok maybe not really teaching, but explaining stuff to people and like understanding it better in the process? I kinda quite enjoy my AEW sessions already because I feel like I am actually doing something useful.. lol.. it's like some childhood desire of wanting to be the teacher, setting questions, teaching stuff and so on.. yeah.. it's kinda quite fun actually.

hmm, other musings? after reading ziyang's blog and seeing his resolutions.. yeah.. i wanna make it my own resolutions as well... get to know more non-Singaporeans, get to know more non-Asians, and yah, just be more sociable. lol..

i noe some of you all reading this must think i'm siao and think i'm already sociable and talk too much already but.. hmm i think i'm like the adapted sociable person.. like i need to feel comfortable and assured before i actually socialize and start talking. which made the first year quite frustrating and difficult, in terms of making more non-sg frens and just being more open.

it's the situation we're in also i guess. like i'm surrounded by singaporeans throughout my lesson and it leaves no gap for others to sit around, discuss questions etc.. i dunno, i somehow feel we're in like a bubble amongst ourselves.. wonder if that's what others think about us as well..

so yeah.. i think i really quite screwed my dorm living, ending up closing my door most of the times, just not socializing (partially also cos i can't stand partying till the wees hours and being crazy..) but yeah.. hopefully this sem i can like put down the wariness and just reach out, talk to more people and stuff. i mean, that's also part of uni life..

alritey.. i'm gonna kunz now.. it's soon time to study for that miserable crap called 202

poetic

2007-09-20T12:38:00.001+08:00

waiting impatiently for Survivor:China to begin

getting really nervous about ece 303.

loving the song hosanna by hillsong united.

i take back what i said about my literature class. well, it seems like today something struck me when I read about Annie Yung and how she went crazy in trying to transform herself into a cowgirl and just adopting various cultural artifacts to mimic the stereotypes she desired.

how true. sigh. why judge others by the stuff they wear, things they say, bags they sling, attitude they try to pull off? just as we start viewing everyone in a one dimensional way, tagging them from their outward look and then assessing whether they're worth our interaction, we become one dimensional ourselves.

and we stop to seek for the true person lost amongst the cultural objects and commodities. have i become like that at times? hmmz

zaza's

2007-09-16T12:27:00.000+08:00

today was paintball. and i didn't go. lol. yeah, part of it was cos i wanted to save money, part of it was cos i told everyone i didn't want to soil another set of clothing, and part of it was just.. inertia. lol

oh wellz, i think paintball is somewhat a once off experience liao can liao kind of thing. but wah, i spent the time agonizing over my FWS essay and having brain block. shit man. i realized that not all FWS are created equal (lol). my first FWS was a gem of a find la, with the writing style completely complementing mine. now this FWS demands me to like investigate a simple text in depth and like find itsy bitsy information to conclude something applicable to real world. -_- sheesh man, reminds me of why i hated literature. this over-analyzing and self-indulgent behavior of thinking that there's of so much worth going into some portion of text, when i could have just blabbed out utter shit because I felt like it in that exact moment

yeah, can u imagine if people tried to analyze what perspective i adopted whilst writing this blog entry. laughable man.

aniwez, i'm spat enough writer's venom. today was damn nice cos we (meaning me, josh, ian, cherie, cindy, marvin, sheryl) went to zaza's to eat!!! wah.. VERY NICE!!

the creme brulee was fluffy and just right in terms of custard sweetness
the lobster risotto was not too tomato-ey and not too thick, and the shrimp and lobster bits were just heavenly.

too bad i forgot to bring my cam. sigh. couldn't do my favourite pastime of taking pics of my food.

ahh.. great company, great food, what more to expect? =)too bad mr ian is going to stanford to study liao.. haha

career fairs mania

2007-09-14T13:29:00.000+08:00

hmm.. seems like the whole internship/career fair thing has swept across campus.. career fairs are pretty draining affairs to me.. first you have to wear up nice nice and make a good impression, then its all the extroverted-ness you have to muster, then its standing around and waiting in line to hand in your resume, missing lunch and a couple of lessons at that. geez

aniwez its really opened my eyes wide wide. companies like abercrombie and fitch(!), microsoft, google, morgan stanley etc.. WAH.. its quite cool to pick up their brochures, ask them about their internship products and so on. it makes you really really wanna get an internship.. hehe

aniwez, i saw some really cheapo people milling around koping like millions of stuff from the booths, ranging from P&G toilet rolls (imagine that!) to tons and tons of bags and gifts from various companies. honestly.. kiasuism isn't really an sg trait lor.. all the singaporeans i saw dress nice nice, act demure and distinguished and really seriously talk to those recruiters lor..

well aniwez all this talk makes me feel like my resume sucks big time. geez.. time to pump in more effort into making my resume better. =)

henin style

2007-09-10T11:55:00.000+08:00

watching henin win the US open was nice, especially after last year's disappointment.

and straight away watching, we headed down to hnh and played hours of badminton trying the henin style. lol. damn seh.

arrgh.. school's so bleak. =(

summertime fun!

2007-08-27T02:27:00.000+08:00

kinda proving that ithaca ain't that boring afterall.. lol

ducks at cayuga lake

dock leading out from farmer's market

ithaca falls

applebee's food! our favourite haunt of the summer. that was the delicious bruschetta burger

homemade chicken rice!

my own cooking - teriyaki salmon, brinjal, meatballs!

the amazing maize maze!

within the maze.. not as easy as it looks!

help from above if desperate!

lost amongst the maize

coldstone creamery!

food glorious food @ cheesecake factory!

ECE courses piss me off

2007-08-25T11:13:00.000+08:00

honestly, i'm getting real pissed with all the ECE courses i'm enrolled in. what with the sudden changes in scheduling, the inexplicably long section timings, the ridiculous shrinking and shifting of courses. EH, WE NEED TO PLAN OUR TIMETABLE U KNOW.

it's as though they think we only have one course to take this sem. -_-

well, at least my problems are LARGELY solved, thank God i got my FWS after sending a pleading letter to the A&S college. hehe. aniwez i'm back to my pondering-whether-i-should-take-psych mode, where the psych course i'm taking currently trumps all other courses in terms of interest and fun. gee. seriously, sometimes i really wonder whether i should just take the leap of faith and jump.

but then again.. haiz.. reality IS reality. and i dun dare.

the shopping bug called. and brought frens.

2007-08-21T08:51:00.000+08:00

sheesh. what a horrid time to fall sick. can't remember the last time i've fallen ill but it's definately the first time abroad that i've fallen ill. and whoever commented that being sick overseas feels much more miserable is ABSOLUTELY correct.

i miss being fussed in bed by my mom. being hauled to the doctor's by my dad. i even miss those home-cooked sick food that my mom would prepare and I would complain. sigh. oh wellz. i guess it is part of the "growing-up" process... but still, i kinda miss the fussing.

oh wellz. so what to do? a few precious days of holidays where I would have to waste away by being trapped in bed and catching up on the past year's of sleep. maybe it's really my whole body revolting against me for ill-treatment for dunno how long. geez.

if you're wondering why my title even mentions the shopping bug. err, its cos i kinda splurge a bit on hollister and a&f again. and honestly, i'm quite pissed hearing how there's so much imitation a&f going around in business fac in NUS. eeks man. and if linken sees this he'll probably be laughing his ass off at my "teeny-booperish" or
mediocrity" as he so puts it. but heck him, he's pathetic. heehee

update

2007-08-18T00:21:00.001+08:00

past few days have been pretty tiring, bustling around helping the new international students with buying stuff, fitting in etc. kinda feel a bit guilty that i ended up having tons of fun - more fun than the freshies i think, and also that i din actually get to noe that many sg freshies afterall... hmmz

haha.. oh wellz, it was a blast. i somehow think the volunteers benefit more from this than the freshies simply bcos we're more used to the place, more relax and hence just more open to talk to people, chill and enjoy. reflecting on last year, hmmz, yeah it was pretty scary having too fit in, make friends, get all the stuff we needed before school started and still be sociable.

oh wellz.. this kinda means sch will actually be starting soon. argggh. and winter will follow on soon. -_-

meet ruffles

2007-08-12T11:52:00.000+08:00

some things are just cute. haha

on relationships

2007-08-08T13:20:00.000+08:00

hmmz, it's 1.20am on the first day post-exams and i just can't go to sleep. somehow the supposedly fun and summery two weeks after the exams seems to me like an interminably long period cos yeah i've NO company!! haha.. oh wellz, joshie is still studying, GQ is caught up with his relationship, wj is going for surgery.. haiz

maybe it's some good time for me to go find some solitude, toss rocks at six mile creek, run around the area, have some quiet time. so interesting. first time in ithaca with two weeks with pretty much nothing to do. =)

bittersweet feelings bah. sometimes i honestly ache for some lasting committed friendship like those i left behind in singapore, which probably now has been supplanted by a inane urge to "eh, go look for a gf."

then i suddenly realise how immature and silly that sounds. a relationship is ultimately two way, and its not just meant to satisfy oneself or to "fill up time". and perhaps the one thing i truly learnt from my sis getting married to qiyong was the fact that she changed for the better, and REALLY the better. (err, not that she was bad to start with..hehe) it's like a real synergy thing that makes each other better individuals ultimately, more knowing of what it means to love, and hence being better able to love God.

if there's anything, that's definitely the type of relationship i want. and i guess i'll wait for it. even though sometimes the world tells you to go get a life and a gf, it's not worth making the rash decision and ending up with someone whom you poured your heart to and yet now just drifts apart. so yeah, i'll just wait and...

hee.. go exercise. -_- that's like my perpetual goal.

we're gonna need to the some cleanin'

2007-07-28T14:04:00.000+08:00

hee, today i cooked yet again! somehow, i think its somewhat an achievement everytime i cooked without burning down the kitchen or stuff.. sigh.. haha.. and dunno, just particularly heartened to know that i very nearly managed to recreate one of my favourite dishes of spinach+box thorn+eggs dish.

even though somehow the soup turned out too greenish. but.. hmmz. it's amazing how just add chicken stock, eggs and spinach i can get good soup! =) so happy.

haha. oh wellz, summer is really zooming by. it's gonna be the last week already next week and haha, haven really accomplished much, but heyz, it's been fun. =) and yeah, the house is becoming quite dirty despite my haughty proclamations that we would keep the place sparkling clean.

hehe. this calls for some spring cleaning. hopefully it'll work. =)

skaneateles

2007-07-22T12:35:00.000+08:00

well, woke up groggy and tired after ploughing through the entire potter finale and thoroughly enjoying it. dun feel connected with any of the characters though, so their deaths didnt quite matter, hmmz.. wellz except one.. but haha.. wun spoil the book.

we went skaneateles today! wierd spelling and wierd name for a place that's basically a crystal clear lake with a row of shops.. lol.. nice place though to rent a boat/sail and just careem off towards the center of the lake and enjoy.

pretty as a picture

the skies.. are just real pretty

sailing anyone? lol

had doug's fish fry for lunch.. where the best thing was probably the root beer float.. lol

potter mania

2007-07-21T13:46:00.000+08:00

yay! i have the last book! and yeah, i was one of those crazy people who went queuing at the stroke of midnight at borders to get my book, but haha.. there was such fanfare inside the bookstore! people were wearing all sorts of witches costumes and splitting into factions supporting snape or not, saw rita skeeter and mad eye moody lol.. can see that the pple here are equally crazy. the queue was crazy too. haha.. kinda din expect it.

aniwez, before that i went to eat a sumptuous dinner at applebee's and then headed to watch the potter movie, which in my opinion was just mystifyingly disjointed. and after the first scene i gave up trying to point out discrepancies. it was obvious that there was no hell's way that the book could be squeezed into a movie. oh wellz, at leastluna was enigmatically charming...

alritey, tmr gonna go roadtrippin' to some lake and then heading to syracuse.. haha, summer's been fun!

glimpses of ithaca

2007-07-12T13:09:00.000+08:00

i cooked! haha! i managed to serve up two dishes of quasi-japanese stuff for my first stab at cooking and oh my.. i'm so glad yankai didn't die of laughing at my stupidity in the kitchen. it err.. was very reminscient of sissy song in the teenage workbook. -_-

but hey.. it turned out alrite! i loved the omurice with ketchup combi (though yankai fried the eggs) and though the curry turned out errm stewy.. but it was delicious and "drinkable"! hee..

too bad i forgot to take photo of the end product, but mom, i think you would be proud of me. =).. haha.. and i guess my sis would be giggling gleefully when they realise i finally have to get my hands down and dirty and start cooking, washing up at the likes.. lol...

curry at one pot, ingredients for omurice in the other pan

my room!

choices

2007-07-10T12:37:00.000+08:00

man! summer has really just blown past and i'm now like in the mid-term of summer school with work piled high and prelims looming ahead. -_-

oh well i deserved it. i kinda played played played way too much dota and zelda till the point i woke up from a dream thinking i was in hyrule castle. -_- haha ok time to switch gears and earn my worth. =)

u noe i kinda wonder whether my this current attitude towards things actually does me good. like last sem i was hell bent to make the most use out of my time in summer, get a job, get a research, fill my time up etc..

yet, when it came to the crunch, i mostly dun wanna fill my time up. i wanna be able to relax at home, play wii, chill with frens, go six mile creek, play tennis, watch the pros from the other courts play tennis and wistfully wondering when i can ever (if possible) be as good etc.

i have this idea that life is too short to just frantically work away and slog away for that elusive goal of cluttering up one's resume or just to make one's standing better when he/she comes out into society. not that being self motivated or self driven is wrong.. but.. hmmz.. maybe i'm just making excuses for being slack, but i kinda think that's not really the path i want. =)

oh wellz.. that being said, i still needa get work done. so back to the books (for the first time in weeks... hmmz)

death by cherries

2007-07-01T10:58:00.000+08:00

phew.. just finished my first CS assignment. took waay too long man, i finally have some time to (a) finish the book i bought in the airport, (b) start really arranging my room (henry said it looked it a storeroom -_- and (c) start catching up on my physics. lol.. forgot everything liao.

aniwez, today we managed to find time to go to the nearby (nearby= 1/2 hr ride) farms to pick cherries and strawberries!

this way for berries!

ripe for picking!

climbing cherry trees. i distinctly remembered an episode involving my dad climbing a tree at a park near thomson plaza and then falling, causing my mom to convulse with worry and insist he go to a clinic.. lol

harvest!!

cute little boy sitting amidst the trees eating apple cider donuts!! yummy!!

next up: strawberries!

pictures paint a thousand words

2007-06-30T08:19:00.000+08:00

eh hmmm.. here's the last edition of the photos.

berlin day 2-- used camera phone cos i was too tired the night before and forgot to charge. -_-

Schloss Charlottensburg

gardens @ Schloss Charlottensburg

part of the massive Pergamon Altar

Jewish Museum - stunning, understated and powerful architecture

day 4 bamberg

ducks along the river

castle atop a hill

day 5, 6, 7 - munich

gas chamber, dachau concentration camp

glorious decorations abound in the Residenz

porcelain cabinet @ residenz

ancestral gallery @ residenz

munchen marienplatz!

eating flammekuchen, bratwurst, drinking riesling, helles and being merry

rococo splendour in asamkirche, munich

chinese teahaus, 2nd largest beer gardens in the WORLD. first is of course where Oktoberfest is held

day 8 - neuschwanstein, fussen

the fabled castle peeking through the trees

my current desktop wallpaper

dinner @ fussen, schitnzel, blaukraut and bread pudding - local specialities

day 9 - ausburg *yawn

cathedral overlooking our favourite cafe

my msn pic - rathausplatz in ausburg

more yummy stuff!

king ludwig beer! and NO, i wasn't red cos i was drunk. i was burnt

gardens at schwartz palace, ausburg

two churches - one catholic, one protestant

day 10, 11 - along the romantic road - dinsklebuhl, nordlingen, rothenburg

ducks along cobbled alleyways

i love the quaint town feel

clothesline along an alleyway

rothenburg - the quintessinal medieval old town

rothenburg streets

door in the wall surrounding the city

food glorious food!and their wine speciality!

the christmas village @ rothenburg - the most fantastic, beautiful place that is made of stuff that fills children's dreams.

rothenburg's picturesque streets

we were getting bored waiting for food.. lol

day 12, 13, 14 - frankfurt zzz

romerburg - heart of the old city

bridge linking old and new frankfurt

my last dinner there - rosti with smoked salmon and sour cream @ Eckahus. yummy!

photos galore!

2007-06-29T09:41:00.000+08:00

day 3 in Berlin - San Souci Palace Grounds

park below the palace

the amazing Chinese teahouse

my dream italian house

in my opinion, THE most beautiful palace in Germany - Neue Palace with the stupendous Grotto Hall -- a must see.

palace under construction (actually a university)

remnants of the Wall in Postdamplatz

day 4 - beautiful Bamberg!

Bamberg's beautiful roses and their beautiful gardens

my mom would so love this

the crypt of a church in Bamberg

back in ithaca!

2007-06-26T12:26:00.000+08:00

yay! i'm back and settling in into my new house @ Valentine Place. It's a decent place though i dunno why my room seems slightly hotter than others (though not as bad as the oven @ the loft.. lol) school has started but the notion hasn't sunk in yet.. i'm still inclined to whip out my camera to snap a nice image along the way.. lol.. oh wellz.. must concentrate le lah

ok.. so since i'm lazy, i'll just slowly post photos by the fives.. cos of the flickr uploading rate also.. -_-

Karl Marx and pal watching the Berlin tower

signs galore along the old part of Berlin

i dunno.. i just like this shot.. it reminds me of Seurat's painting of bather's on a beach or smth..

Brandenburg Gate close up

statues along a bridge leading to lustgarten

dome of Reichstag

frank does not like binding beer

2007-06-24T02:22:00.000+08:00

frankfurt is not agreeing with me in many counts it seems.

the weather has been bleary, drizzling the whole day long and just being in a linken-mode... (ie. pms plus brain cancer)

spent the morning heading to the art museum where i painfully parted with 10 fricking euros to see the exhibition. i kinda think i'm mad. spent 3 hours there admiring paintings until i got sick of madonnas, altar paintings and silly contemporary paitings resembling splatters and lines on the wall before heading to eat a meal near the hostel.

then headed down to bergerstrasse where *surprise! frankfurtens also can have a helluva fun! everyone was thronging the streets, listening to street perfomances, drinking tons of not-very-tasty binding beer, eating different kinds of german food as well as the odd sushi/wok bar.

so yeah.. i finally found some life in frankfurt after two dismal days of prancing the streets, wanting to return to munich for a hofsbrau brew and a schintzel.. lol.. frankfurt ain't very interesting still but oh wellz.. tmr is time to head back to the land of the free and.. study. -_-

frank in frankfurt

2007-06-22T19:20:00.000+08:00

last two days of my german tour liaoz.. finally back at frankfurt.. and for a city that uses my name, it's kinda.. drab. lol

staying at a hostel situated right next to the hauptbanhof after sending joshie off to the aiport. yeah.. i'm officially traveling alone now.. haha.. and going broke as well. -_- not a nice situation to be in..

oh wellz.. it's not so bad.. probably will be walking around the city, sniffing the trees (right, ernie?) and yeah, NO MORE BEER. lol.. so damn ex, haha... i'm sticking to plain tap water liaoz i think.. lol

more photos soon i guess, once i have the energy to upload everything and so on.. which means probably in US le.. i've thoroughly enjoyed myself in germany, with the pretty waitresses, great (but ex) food, quaint medieval cities, dream castles.. haha.. and grimy frankfurt. =)

oh.. and in response of someone's blog post..

the mandatory surfing shot?.. lol