photo blog #02

un image de panne..
je l'ai pris le premier dimanche que j'ai arrivé à troyes.. j'ai fait un petit promenade au centre ville tout seul.. 

photo blog #01

a partir d'aujourhui, je commence le 'photo blog', ca-veut-dire que j'ecris quelque chose qvec l'image que j'ai pris et l'ai pose sur mon blog..
cette image, je l'avait pris en aout l'annee derniere, quand j'etait en train de rentrer chez moi de l'universite. c'etait le dernier jour que j'etait a singapour, avant j'etait partis au france pour le program internationale.. 

esmirada x2

had a sumptuous dinner with jonathan and his mom at esmirada of orchard hotel..
it was just outstanding..

what left me such a good impression was the ambience of the restaurant..
wrought iron pillars filled with numerous wine bottles which acts as a walk-in cellar,
mediterranean paintings all over the wall, candle lights simmered the whole place on iron chandeliers, finally topped with a mobile live band playing jazz..

the food: simply superb..
i had grilled mushrooms with butter and spices, followed by couscous in vegetable stew..
their serving are really generous, i was so shocked by the mere size of my bowl of couscous when it was served!
although i was quite filled at the end, nothing really stopped me from having lemon creme brule with berries.. it was heaven..
all with courtesy by jonathan's mom.. and of course jonnie too..

the funny thing was that jonathan and i were at exactly the same place on tuesday night when we met up for a drink in the evening..
we were at the bar located just beside the restaurant owned by the same company..
we commented what a good ambience the restaurant before we were leaving and that it would be really good if we could dine there in the future..
and voila, there we were dining away last night. sometimes there are so many things that is so coincidental, but is it really?? food for a thought..

oh well, so today, i shall just spare my tummy with some plain porridge..
a+

the lady: aung sang suu kyi

today is the 60th birthday of a very special lady who stops at nothing to stand up for what she believes: democracy..
she'e been under house arrest since 2002, that no one can visit her save for a doctor who gives her check-up only once a month or something like that..
not even her family nor relatives and celebrate her birthday, 60 being a special year for a person in myanmar's beliefs..

just caught some poems written by her..

In The Quiet Land
(By Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)

In the Quiet Land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening
for secrets they can sell.
The informers are paid in the blood of the land
and no one dares speak what the tyrants won't stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out loud.
In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the crowd

In the Quiet Land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming
to carry them away.
The Chinese want a road; the French want the oil;
the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...

In the Quiet Land....
In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder
and covered up with fear.
But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound
that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown.

Free bird towards a free Burma
(By Daw Aung San Suu Kyi)

My home...
where I was born and raised
used to be warm and lovely
now filled with darkness and horror.

My family...
whom I had grown with
used to be cheerful and lively
now living with fear and terror.

My friends...
whom I shared my life with
used to be pure and merry
now living with wounded heart.

A free bird...
which is just freed
used to be caged
now flying with an olive branch
for the place it loves.

A free bird towards a Free Burma.

i just felt she is a very determined and strong lady with very clear convictions who had fought for her countrymen against tyranny in her country..
i think all of us has that sense of justice inside of us, just that it has not had the chance to be released. waiting, anticipating..
so when the call for you comes, what would you do?

wet n wild saturday

 
yes, wet n wild it was indeed!
yesterday, we had cable ski in batam, courtesy of our organiser dan wen..
here's the lot of us: priscilla, mark(pris' boyfriend), jian ming, dan wen, moi and jun xiong..

 
cable skiing is somewhat similar to wakeboarding that we use the same equipments for the sport, minus the boat..
so in place of that, we have the cables pulling us around a freshwater lake which has the shape of a running track, covering around 750m each round..

we started of with knee-board, which simply means that we knee down and ski instead of standing(hey, sounds so insulting if you need explanation for that! haha)..
it was quite fun, but we were all anticipating the real thing..
and so finally after lunch, here we are, ready for cable skiing!!

 
here's jian ming and mark..

 
dan wen..


 
priscilla..


 
jian ming..


 
and finally, yours truly..

it was much difficult than we thought, and in the end only mark and jun xiong managed to stand up.. grr.. i was just not satisfied..


 
guess what's this local dude going to do with this chair??


 
voila! these guys can ski with almost anything that can float..


t 
we decided to try something funny before the end of the session..
it's not what you think it is!! we are straight guys and he's got a girlfriend!

 
really, it's not.. (hard to believe with me in that position)


 
it's going to be painful..

it's quite cheap for a day's session: s$75 for the whole package which includes the 2-way ferry, lunch, full access to the equipments and training.. pas mal..
and if you want, you can stay at the local chalets for a very reasonable price..
and yes i'm doing advertising for this package and this company, which i think is really worth the money and trip, and the boss is very friendly too..
here's the link: cable-ski
check it out!! it's obligatory..
and they are currently doing another project to bring cable-ski to singapore, it'll be updated here regularly, stay tuned!!

singaporean...

let me share what i read from friend's blog.. a very typical view about singaporean..

There once was a very good old barber in New York. One day a florist goes to him for a haircut. After the cut, he goes to pay the barber and the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The Florist is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting at his door. A policeman goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The cop is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting at his door. A Singaporean software engineer goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: "I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service." The Singaporean software engineer is happy and leaves. The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, guess what he finds there... Can you guess? ..... a dozen Singaporeans waiting for a free haircut!

here's singaporean to you! cheers
a+

another lazy day at work

it's been rather quiet these 2 days at work..
been surfing alot and some other illegal stuffs.. haha..
of what i don't intend to reveal, in fear of prosecution..

i'm gg cable ski in bintan this saturday..
with dan wen with his 2 friends and priscilla, whom i have not met for more than a year..
dan wen's going usa for a summer camp for 10 weeks, which i have interest in embarking on too after i graduate..

oh well, that's all for today..
be going for a world blood donor day's dinner and movie screening this evening..
have a chance to see fellow beings who has too much blood to spare.. haha
a+

is csi for real?

just read article about the drama csi.. which i find quite interesting to watch..

Is CSI For Real?
by Paul D. Rosevear
There's no doubt about it: The forensic science on the television drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is highly contagious. The hit show has inspired spin-offs and exploded enrollments in forensics programs at many colleges and universities.

But is the line between entertainment and education getting blurred? Read on to explore the difference between forensics and faux-rensics ...

The Prosecution
In light of the public's rabid appetite for CSI and programs like it, experts have mixed feelings on the impact the show's popularity is having. "CSI is getting more people interested in the science, which is fantastic," explains Dr. Jennifer Thompson, program director of multidisciplinary studies at University of Nevada, which offers a forensic science degree program. (In fact, one of UNLV's professors, Daniel Holstein, is the real-life inspiration for Gil Grissom, CSI's leading character.) "The shows themselves are idealized versions of the field. They've got wonderful technology that just isn't available in real life, and everything gets solved in a neat and tidy hour!"

If it seems a little bit unrealistic that each episode's investigators spend time collecting data at crime scenes, conducting tests and experiments at laboratories, reviewing evidence at police departments, and questioning suspects, it's because it is. In reality, there are highly trained specialists who do each of these tasks separately, and case resolution is often far from TV-perfect.

Data analysis often takes weeks or even months. "It's the speed and the specificity more than anything," says Dr. Stephen Theberge, assistant professor of chemistry at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. Theberge teaches a forensic analysis course and offers a forensics concentration for chemistry majors.

"You don't just stick something into a machine and immediately find out it's got Maybelline lipstick on it, color 42. It's just not that easy," he says. Characters on forensic TV shows often possess the skills of many different kinds of specialists--it's much more exciting to see the countless aspects of the field crammed into one supercharged investigator. "The investigator position on TV is an amalgam of a police officer/detective and lab scientist. In reality, this position doesn't exist."

The Defense
Though some of the miraculous tactics and technologies used to solve crimes on TV and in movies don't really exist, you'd probably be surprised to find out just how many of them actually do. James Lucas, adjunct faculty member at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, teaches law enforcement students about the equipment used by the FBI and other crime-solving institutions.

"We are the first college-level forensics course in the U.S. to feature instruction using the Intergraph Video Analyst System," he says. This system utilizes NASA-developed VISAR (Video Stabilization and Registration) technology to examine video. "Very often, it's never more than a tattoo, or a kind of sneaker, that is needed to identify a criminal from video footage," he explains, so in that sense, there is some truth to TV plots. "This was the same technology that was able to identify the Ryder truck used in the Oklahoma bombing."

Like Thompson and Theberge, Lucas acknowledges that TV's depiction of the ease with which forensic technologies can yield results is usually exaggerated--but that plenty of amazing gadgetry does exist. "In addition to the video system, we'll teach students something called Faces 1.0, a program that creates composite facial drawings," he says. "The full-fledged police version has 2,000 extra choices for eyes, features, aging, and more." Another device Lucas mentions is AFIX 5.0, a desktop automatic fingerprint and palm print comparison system--something many Hollywood criminal justice fans are familiar with from movies.

What's the Big Deal?
At the end of the day, is it really such a serious crime if shows like CSI project an embellished version of forensics work in the name of entertainment? Probably not. But the public's growing awareness is indeed making its way into the courtroom.

"Nowadays, juries expect to see amazing forensic stuff," says Melissa Connor, adjunct forensic science professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University (Lincoln, NE). "They've seen all of the expensive techniques and they want to be wowed."

For the forensic enthusiast who wants a more accurate look into crime solving, there are some shows that are more fact than fiction. "When I started Forensic Files, over 10 years ago, it was because of what I saw going on in the O. J. Simpson trial," explains the show's executive producer and creator Paul Dowling. During each episode, the show reviews real-life cases and the techniques used to solve them. "My perception was that we had a bunch of jurors who were asked to try to understand very complicated genetic science and DNA. I wanted to show people what can be done with forensic science, as well as what can't be done."

A Real-Life Look
While the forensics you see on television may be enhanced to keep things action-packed, there is plenty of real-life action happening every single day. Jessica Mondero, a recent graduate of the master's program in forensic science at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, was called out to Iraq as part of a team Professor Connor assembled to exhume and analyze human remains from mass graves. The evidence culled will most likely be used in Saddam Hussein's trial. Talk about real-world application!

"I was there for three months while I was finishing my degree," she explains. "There was a little hesitation on my part to go over there--just because you know it's not a peaceful place. But the fact that there is a United States military presence over there made me feel more secure."

Mondero, Connor, and the rest of their team set up camp right outside the grave sites, along with roughly 30 other specialists from the United States. Iraqi forensics workers were also present, learning techniques from the U.S. team so they could continue the work after the American workers moved on.

"I worked in the morgue, which was located inside of a U.S. camp," explains Mondero. "I analyzed artifacts that were recovered with the bodies in the grave. It was my job to go through clothing, jewelry, IDs, blindfolds, gags, ligatures--anything that didn't deal with the bone."

Though Mondero didn't deal with bones, her experience may be considered bone-chilling by many. "It takes a certain personality to be in this field," she admits. "But I really enjoy problem-solving and investigative work. A lot of what we'd do in the master's program would be via e-mail or the Internet, but the most exhilarating stuff was hands-on. I love to piece together the story of how something actually happened."

oh well, nontheless, it's one of the rare dramas i would watch, like 24 hours.. but i'm taking it slow too, 1 episode each week, even when my sis got the vcds..

another busy week had gone..
it had been rather tiring..
with 5 more weeks to the end of my IA, i'm feeling the lethargy of going back to school again..
working life is not bad, just that you only have your nights and weekends free..
studying life is fun, but you have those irritating exams and lab reports..

nothing in the world is all fun or all work, it's always somewhere in between..
it's how you look at it and how you accept it..
i was still grumbling about having failed a course in the 3rd year and have to retake that course again in the next semester, then i heard one of my friend might need to retake most of the subjects he had taken in paris but was not approved by ntu, and he might just well have his scholarship retracted because of that.. then i felt that my case was nothing compared to his..

i think no matter what situation we are in, we should always look for that silver lining amidst the gray clouds looming over you, and thank god for that, because it is a lesson that god want us to learn, that god want us to know..
it's sometimes hard to know what god wants to tell you, and most of the times it may not be what you want to hear, but it is what you need..

what do you think?