the materialistic life.. not.

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?

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

is chasing my dreams that hard?

does being different entail earning less?

these clothes have feelings

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..

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

some things are just cute. haha

on relationships

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'

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

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

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

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

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)