derrick - the ground's the limit..

new chapter, new blog

2010-04-13T19:18:00.002+08:00

hi all, i'll be shifting to a new blog, for the next chapter of my life..

i would like to thank blogger for providing me with a such wonderful tool, and my friends and all of you who had supported and visited this blog..

please visit my new blog, and give comments generously ya? cheers!

I'm a High Green

2010-03-24T12:59:00.002+08:00

came across this when i was reading a book.. it talked about how people differ in terms of communication styles and how to communicate and bring our the best in them..
there are 4 types in all, and we ourselves can discover which type are we in just by completing a short questionnaire.. this is the link: iMA Questionnaire
i'm a high green, as you can see from the bottom.. ;)

iMA High Green

Tips on how to get to know me better

Be time disciplined
Be logical
Be prepared
Be respectful of rules
Be supportive of my thoughts
Be structured and well organised
Be precise

High Greens are:

Dependable
Independent
Organised
Analytical
Persistent
Detail oriented
Problem solvers

rather true, i like problem solving, that's why i like programming, until i started working as one!! lol.. not too sure about being organized - my table is always messy, 3 days after tidying it up!

take the questionnaire and discover more about yourselves and others! cheers
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test blog

2010-02-11T10:57:00.001+08:00

this is a test blog to see if it can be linked to my google buzz..

with a video link to the clash of the titans trailer embedded below..

2010 resolutions

2010-01-11T18:10:00.003+08:00

i have not really accomplished any resolutions in the past years since i was young.. as long as i can remember, i think i only managed to complete a couple of them..

but this year is different, because i am going to be a new me!! yes, a NEW me, so here are some highlights (in manner of importance) which i will set up to accomplish by 31st dec, 2010:

1) to complete my little still-secret project by 30th november (details of which would be revealed when more things are confirmed);

2) to pull off 25 chin-ups (yes, crazy; but no, attainable);

3) to put on a sustainable 5 kg (i'm rather underweight as of date); and

4) to read 12 books of my interest.

i put it up so that you can help me to monitor and remind me of my targets, if i started to in any way or another waiver off from my track..

anyway, just came back from gym training.. ran 2 rounds of 1.2km, and did some machine work.. i think i would sore tomorrow, but i'm still on my ict, so ample time to rest for another work-out tomorrow.. i would rest on wednesday to prep for ippt test on thursday morning..

my target: gold award and $400 as a reward.. not bad ya??

alright, to the bathroom now..

2009-12-21T09:04:00.002+08:00

finally, the long awaited break, 2 weeks of it, after 12 weeks of coaching..

but i'm not resting as yet, with some stuffs lined up for this week:

1. barista workshop over 2 nights at highlander cafe;

2. 3-day first-aid course at st john's;

3. x'mas gathering on 25th;

4. rock-climbing the day after.

and at all other time, i will be researching on a small project, which for now, would be confidential..

it's a good time for me to rest and hope that my upper back have ample time to recover from the aches and sores and strains accumulated over the weeks, and years before that..

but today, i would just treat myself nice and go and watch ninja assassin at plaza singapura with my brother and our neighbour in about an hour's time..

so ciao!

busy weekend

2009-12-06T22:26:00.002+08:00

my in-laws were in town for the weekend, so we had booked a chalet for them at east coast park..

luckily i start work in the noon on friday, so i had the morning to help my wife to prepare the food for the bbq that evening.. we made fillings for cup crackers and honey mustard salad, which took us the whole morning.. i left for work while my wife met them at bukit batok to be picked up by her brother, who drove in from malaysia..

but it was not all that smooth sailing, he got lost while driving from bukit batok to east coast park and had to call me for directions.. all thanks to the internet, i was able to guide them using streetdirectory.com from balestier road, funny how they got to balestier from bukit batok, haha..

i got there rather late, so i got only the leftovers.. at least better than nothing.. at 10pm, things got interesting: it started with some loud bangs and shoutings, followed by lots of people running and chasing.. we thought it was a police exercise or something - i personally thought it was gang fight, but rather weird to hold it at a holiday chalet.. we saw some policemen guarding the chalet just two rooms from us, soon more and more plainclothes policemen came and the whole situation became rather tense.. we saw a lot of them going in sporadically but none were coming out, and the stand-off attracted more and more onlookers (we were among them, haha)..

nothing much progressed so we went back to sleep.. we found out the next day that it was in fact a police raid on an illegal gambling den just opposite our chalet!! around 43 people were arrested, and some 60 policemen were involved in the raid, most of them looked like they just finished their jc or poly.. it was quite hard for me to imagine so many people in such a small place..

anyway, on saturday, we were planning to go sentosa but was hampered by the sudden change in the weather, so we roamed around harbourfront before heading to the new ion, which alas, was not to their taste, which was actually a place where kids can have fun.. i thought they would be curious with the new place and everything, well at least my brother-in-law was interested in the design..

we had dinner at the whole earth in tanjong pagar, a thai and perankan vegetarian restaurant.. the food was not bad, but the servings were rather small for the price, and the service was rather passive.. we had to ask for our water and rice to be served up, and they served the food a tad too fast, so our tables were like overflooded with plates and bowls..

all in all, rather interesting weekend but very tiring.. well nothing beats seeing my in-laws enjoying themselves here, apart from the rain that dampered our spirits as they were really looking forward to it.. so, to the bed now!!

let's make coffee

2009-12-02T14:19:00.005+08:00

getting acquaintance with coffee making again..

yesterday was my first day of barista training at bon cafe.. yep, after a hiatus of five years, i've decided to go back to my calling, making coffee..

we were given a lively and practical introduction to the history of coffee, its origins and its taste, how it is been roasted and cupping, and also how the espresso machine and grinder work, and how to maintain it in its pristine condition, all by barista and trainer henry and master roaster eric..

too bad i had to leave halfway through the class, just after henry made us some espresso and lattes.. nonetheless, i will have another lesson next tuesday, again for half a day..

anyway, just an update: i'm going to work as a part-time barista at the soon-opening tom n toms cafe, located in icon village, somewhere in tanjong pagar.. it's a korean cafe, making its entry into singapore's f&b scene, with collaboration with lexicon pte ltd.. apart from coffee making, i would do pretzels too, which is something new and interesting, for a cafe, and for me too..

i missed the lesson today, so i have to make up for tomorrow.. and there's a test also!!

just side-tracking, my mom-in-law and my wife's sister and brother are all coming visit us this weekend, and we are going chalet at east coast park!! so it is going to be helluva weekend!! super busy, bouncing from work to training to joining them.. but i'm happy.. :)

coco avant chanel

2009-09-02T09:23:00.000+08:00

went to watch coco before chanel last night with my wife yumei..

it was the first time we went to a cinema after our marriage, also the first time in this year.. has been so long since i stepped into one, since i get my movie fixes from my laptop, where i get to watch them online..

just wanted to enjoy cinema going, queueing up for tickets, and munching popcorns

been anticipating this show since the announcement last year that audrey tautou would be acting in this show.. being some sort of her fan since les fabuleux destins d'amelie poulain, and watching most of her shows since then like the spanish apartment; he loves me, he loves me not; the very long engagement; save for da vinci code..

i like the unique-ness in her acting, makes you seem as though it was not ficticious..

coco avant chanel retells the story of gabrielle "coco" chanel, the soul behind the international fashion name chanel.. it showcased the period before she was famous: her hardships while making ends meet, sewing clothes in the day and singing in a bar at night; how she met this rich guy who was easy with the ladies, and wanted the status and lifestyle of being associated with him; how she met the 'boy', who would be the turning point of her life, as a woman and as someone who had a vision for clothings for woman of that era.. the show ended at the beginning of her success in the high class fashion for the socialites..l

the show was slow, and not too much screen time that focused on how her childhood affected her adulthood - only went as far as to say she waited every sunday for her dad to show up at the orphanage to pick her up.. mostly it focused on her time at the rich guy, balsan's mansion, and her acquaintance with the boy.. and some snippets of her taste and discomfort with the restrictions and pompousity of the ladies clothes that time, how she felt how women clothes should be, although she had no formal designing lessons.. it was all about her rebel spirit and daringness to be different.. her acting was not disappointing, but also nothing new, claimed the critics..

despite that, i enjoyed the film.. i praised her courage and her strong will to see through all the misfortunes to become a successful designer.. there is no easy way to success, and if you are able to bear through all that, you would be able to see the light eventually at the end of the tunnel.. but how many are willing to face the uncertainties and the chances? something i ponder constantly, as one who really wanted to break through the boundaries of employementhood to pursue his entrepreneur spirit.. but talk is not enough.. i need actions!!

who knows what tomorrow brings?
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hasa comp 1.0

2009-08-14T13:29:00.003+08:00

just bought a second-hand bicycle, introducing hasa comp 1.0..

been hunting for one on the local cycling forums for weeks, i was hoping to get a polygon or gt bike, but most were selling entry-level mountain bikes from $300 onwards..

finally saw a seller selling this hasa for $200 negotiable, and he is staying in yishun, which is a good combination because i'm living so near and is within my budget for a second-hand one..

arranged for a meeting last friday evening, but didn't meet up due to bad communication: my handphone went flat as i have forgotten to charge it that day, and so was his, so he couldn't pick up my call.. i thought we have arranged for an earlier time since i finished my tuition earlier than expected, so after waiting for some time and not seeing him coming, i left for another appointment.. but he arrived 5 minutes after i left! that was from his message sent to me when i was able on my phone after reaching home..

called immediately to apologise and arranged for another meeting the next morning.. it looked new with little scratches.. tested it: brakes and suspension are fine, gear shifting is smooth.. looked like this is it! and he is throwing in the speedometer for free..

after some haggling, managed to reduce the price to $180.. now it's resting in my place, waiting to be taken out for a ride..
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and august came..

2009-08-03T09:32:00.000+08:00

july came and went..
and my honeymoon photos aren't up yet!!

has been very busy settling down and back to work..
i think the marriage has made me less procrastinating, and more active..
with one more person in your life to think about, you can take too long to plan..

so while coaching is fun, i don't see myself relaxing any longer..
time for a career review, and i'm seeing what's on the market right now, despite the economic downturn..
in the meanwhile, i'm enjoying it while i can..

alright, end of monday morning blubber..
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back from honeymoon

2009-07-06T17:18:00.001+08:00

yes, i'm back to the sunny little red dot on the map, and many things to settle before i would start to write about my honeymoon trip and upload the pictures from my wedding onto facebook.. watch this space!!

mobile blog

2009-06-15T19:25:00.002+08:00

这是我的第一个从手机写的部落格。

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

countdown to wedding: day 18

2009-06-03T09:30:00.002+08:00

i am so guilty of not updating as regularly as promised eariler, too tired and too busy to keep up.. rest is more important for this period.. ha..

things i have done over the past week or so:
1. the itinerary cofirmed for the paris part of the honeymoon, including the flight to rome;
2. names of guests drawn out; the wedding invites collected, written and most sent out, save for my relatives;
3. the event sequence drafted for that day, including the night before when my brothers and i enter malaysia;
4. two more bedsheets bought from Cozy in IMM;
5. jewellery for the bride settled finally yesterday, after the purchase of the bracelet;
6. transport for the brothers, sisters and bride's family members arranged, after much rearrangement;
7. the wedding memorial booklet designed and sent for commentary.

but still much more things to do:
1. the itinerary for the rome and milan part, most likely visiting venice also, since we will be in milan;
2. the layout of the wedding ceremony venue for the buffet;
3. the sending of the invites to my relatives;
4. the delivery of the gifts to the bride's mom, happening next thursday;

more and more people are now asking me this question: are you nervous? excited?
my reply was: quite ok, too much stuff in my mind to think about that now; perhaps only when most things are settled would the feelings set in, i think..

only hope now is for my grandmom to have good health, she has not been in a good shape lately, going in and out of the hospital, weaker by the weeks.. praying everyday for her..
and now, back to work..
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countdown to W-Day: day 28

2009-05-22T23:55:00.005+08:00

this morning was spent still on finding hostels to stay while in paris.. have sent emails to them, Le Village Hostel and Modern Hotel, regarding our very early arrival in paris, that are we able to check-in, even though their websites said after noon? well, they have replied! actually we are not allowed to check in as the rooms are to be cleaned during a certain period, but we are allowed to place our luggages in their luggage room so we can roam around sans our heavy luggages and come back and check in when the rooms are ready..

i think i would settle for Le Village Hostel, for the availability of a kitchen, and its ambience - according to the website, many poets, artists frequent its vincinity.. i will book the hostel first, then tomorrow, book the flight to rome on ryanair.com, and of course the bus ticket from pershing bus stop to beauvais airport.. thinking of this bus ride would send shiver down my spine, for i have bad memories of it.. nothing with the bus, but rather poor planning.. yet, that is a blog for another time..

with that thing settled, i can now focus on planning the itinerary for the next leg of the trip: italy.. but now, i could get some sleep..

2009-05-22T12:09:00.001+08:00

W-Day : day 29 on www.yiqingbiji.blogspot.com

countdown to W-Day: day 30

2009-05-20T23:50:00.004+08:00

in less than ten minutes, i will be married in a month's time..

yes, i will be entering into another phase of adult's life, it is not a necessary stage where all adults go through, but a stage where two persons , after courtship and couplehood, decide to move on to the next level of being together..

to prepare for the big event, we two and many of our friends who are involved in one ways or another had been rather busy with trying to tie up all loose ends.. and yet, still many things are left unfinished, and we are trying our best to finish it as soon as possible to be able to catch some breath before the big day.. i am very touched by their sincerity in offering the much-needed help.. i would save the acknowledgements to after the wedding, or after all things settled and i have time to write them up.. but again, thank you guys! and gals!

with our newly renovated room ready and all furniture arrived and fixed up, i have one less thing to be concerned about.. i just have to find time and place for all the stuff that were taken out of the room prior the renovation.. many would get the boot i reckon, i would rather a less crowded room than it could have been by simply putting all the stuff back in again.. i just couldn't imagine the gross look of the room if it happened, not mentioning my wife-to-be's reaction, nor my mom's, nor the guests'..

things left to complete by the end of this week:

the final guest list for the wedding ceremony and the lunch buffet;

the transportation plan for that day (always a dread for me to look at it, such complex manoevre);

the event flow for that day (just completed, but from the look of it, much revision are in store)..

hope i have not left anything out, and meanwhile, we still have to shop around, utilising the well-timed great singapore sale to look for offers for bed sheets, new clothes and stuff for the wedding.. the house is also in need for some cleaning and tidying up, which i hope would not be in the scale of spring cleanging, that would be very time-consuming..

my countdown blog would - i hope genuinely - trigger between mandarin and english, which means you can check out my mandarin blog tomorrow for updates on my wedding's preparation no matter if you are concerned, bored, nosy.. just joking, and i discovered i have used participle phrases for two of my paragraphs.. well, it makes no sense to you, i know, just a little observation..

time to hit the bed now!

a fresh coat of paint!

2009-04-26T22:46:00.004+08:00

yes.. but take a look of my room before the painting..

and presto, with the twitch of the finger (actually it was hours of laborious painting and touching up, till around 9pm), my room is now washed with a fresh coat of cool lime..

(yes, my darling is still now satisfied with my touching up, so she re-touches the sides of the lamp switch)

we were rather worried when we started off with this color as it was seldom seen to be used by orientals for their rooms.. it was so striking, especially with the sun shining into our room.. we should have gotten the classical apple green or the neo-classic jade green, we thought..

but in the end, when the bookshelf was back in place and the blue blinds fixed back, it didn't seem that striking anymore, but rather, the dark finish of the bookshelf and the light blue of the blinds stood out from the green.. this cool lime has the effect of making other colors stand out.. so we were contented.. but pretty exhausted..

next to come: the wardrobe, the storage shelves and the bed.. too excited..
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we are 2!

2009-03-30T09:43:00.004+08:00

yes, we are 2 years into our romance, and many more years to come..

well, it was in fact on the 19th of this month, but was too busy to upload the pics onto my blog..

we went to delivege in chinatown for a simple dinner for the special occasion.. it is a vegetarian restaurant with italian, japanese and asian dishes on its menu.. i had baked rice with 'c' food (seafood without the sea creatures), which my darling had a japanese set meal which name i've already forgotten, and a dish of tempura 'prawns'..

2 years, seems like the passing of the clouds..

2 years, seems like the blink of the eye..

2 years, seems like the beat of the heart..

2 years..

in this short span of time, we've grown to understand each other better and more deeply..

through sweet and sour, laughter and tears, ups and downs, kind words and hard reminders, we've grown to love each other more..

love, is a very abtract noun, if you say "i love you", what does it mean? what is 'love'? without any actions, it is just a state of being.. unless you mean it, and you are able to show it, through actions, saying 'i love you' would be making logical sounds through the nasal passage.. 3 simple words, with such deep and profound meaning, something i've learnt in these 2 years..

2 years, and many more to come.. i can't wait..

2009-03-20T13:45:00.002+08:00

some pictures i had taken during a trip to my girlfriend's place in yong peng..

her father's jeep, which he had used since the 70s.. he used to tow vehicle like cars and buses and trucks (yes, even trucks!!) which had broken down or fallen into the ditch..

so don't ever judge a book by its cover..

he now tows only when the need arises due to his age and ailing health.. but he still goes to his little workshop everyday without fail, even on that sunday when i was there..

trip to IT show

2009-03-13T14:08:00.001+08:00

went to IT show just now to help my dad get a laptop to replace the ailing one at home.. reached there around 12pm, just before the official opening hour, and man was it crowded..
so many people there to get advantages of the free gifts and special promotional prices.. luckily i did my homework prior going there, else i would be stuck there for hours deciding which one to buy.. i went to hardwarezone.com's forum to check out potential brands and their prices.. it boiled down to acer, axioo, and levono..
after checking out their booths and the laptops physically, i decided on acer aspire 2920Z, the one which suits my dad's budget and requirements. and so off i went, in less than 30 minutes..
with the advent of internet, one could really get loads of information with just a click of the mouse.. the IT show started only yesterday, but this morning, i could get full review of the show by showcasing all the major brands and good deals they are having now, really saved me tons of time..
but internet, like all technological advances, is a double-sided knife, each with advantages and disadvantages.. hoped more are leaning towards to better ones..
back to configuring the lappie..
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2009-03-08T09:16:00.004+08:00

went to a temple with my mom last friday, and i saw this bronze urn with very intricate carvings..
thought of sharing with you guys..

a brownish urn with a square rooftop for putting incense sticks, each pillar bearing a dragon each, the three legs are of the form of dragon or tiger..

you can see that the dragon is holding a bell in its mouth, wonder what does it signifies?

more close-up look of the intricacies of the carvings on the dragon's body..

traditional lion's face holding a ring in its mouth..

the two dragons at the side of the sun, guarding it..

i think it is the delicate of the craftsmanship that made this urn a very good piece of art, each scale, each hair are all sculpted carefully.. it brought out the life of the mystical creatures..

i like sculptures, be it bronze or ceramics, and its amazing what people can create from these two mediums.. personally, i like to collect ceramic teapots and teacups, and figurines..

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well-thought gift

2009-02-23T08:02:00.003+08:00

it was my good friend ben's wedding last saturday, and the gift for the guests was... a picnic cloth!

i thought it was the most well-thought and useful wedding gift i have received so far... it was a far cry from the normal chocolate or the candle or the paper weight i have seen in the past, but it is not my intention to undervalue those previous gifts too..

i think as the host of the dinner, the gift for the guest is very important too, and sometimes the owner of the restaurant or the hotel did not plan it well.. so it's really up to the couple to decide whether to find their own gift...

and i liked what was written on the note accompanying the gift:

"this little gift is chosen especially for you to share something close to our heart - picnic. God created earth, people and love for us to dwell in his presence and to marvel at his wonderful creation. a picnic provides an unhurried time with our loved ones to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and to nurture meaningful relationships through the preparation and enjoyment process. may you find joy using this picnic mat while sharing precious moments with your family and friends. God bless and thank you for being part of our joy in celebrating god's love here with us today."

thank you, ben and jeanie!! and hope you have a wonderful marriage.. it is just the beginning!!
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2009-02-20T14:29:00.002+08:00

been some while since i blogged.. it's my nature to procrastinate.. but, but i am going to be less of a procrastinator this year.. you can say its one of my resolutions..

after watching ip man (not i.p. man, but yip mann as in cantonese), i'm thinking to learn martial arts again, after a long hiatus from capoeira.. i think the show has revived the interest in martials arts again, with more and more people enquiring about the Wing Chun classes conducted in singapore.. it was the same style used by donnie yan in the show..

capoeira is interesting, but the fee was rather high, and you pay ridiculous price for the grading-cum-workshop which take place annually.. maybe it is because capoeira is still in its infancy in singapore, not many instructors are available, so they can afford to charge exorbitant fees for the lessons and uniforms.. i hope with more and more groups starting up here, the fees would reduce eventually.. in economics, the lack of alternatives gives rise to the power to control the price, some sort like a monopoly..

there is going to have a wing chun demostration at the national library next month on the 7th mar, i might make a trip down to have a look.. who knows, i might sign up for a try-out.. check out here..

un viaggio in italia

2008-12-19T22:33:00.001+08:00

check out my trip to italy here.
a presto!!

the thursday of my break

2008-09-25T15:28:00.002+08:00

my how time flies, especially when you are having a break.. it's thursday already..
went for a swim in the morning. really wanted to do some exercises (yes, i've been lazing around for the first three days..)but something not too hard for my shoulders and back. still trying to recover from an old injury.. it felt good, i actually felt my muscles working..

what was interesting about the morning is that i've got a chance to see a commotion commencing in front of me.. two man, a chinese and a malay, was walking opposite my direction. i was on my bike on my way home. the chinese, whose in the front, put down his bag near the pillar first and turned to face the malay. he said something to the malay, and you can see that the chinese guy was quite annoyed.. he said something like "so you think you are quite cheng just now right? ...", the rest i couldn't make it out. then it began, the chinese threw the first punch at the malay, and he replied to his invitation.. they scruffled around, taking turns to punch each other.. me, as your not-so-typical singaporean, did what i should do - i shouted for them to stop.. no avail, still fighting..

another bicycle-rider who happened to pass by, stopped and demanded them to go away.. at that time, the chinese was one point behind the malay with blood gushing from his nose.. they didn't stop immediately, but the passer-by demanded again, this time asking the malay guy to go away.. they paused for a while, the chinese didn't seem to have enough of the fight, but was less agitated in the presence of another person.. the malay guy picked up his bag and spectacles and walked away.. i left too.. the episode ended as abruptly as it started.. lesson from this little commotion: pick a fight when you are really sure you can win without breaking your nose or your life. if you don't know martial arts, fight with someone who knows no martial arts, save yourself from a broken limb or brain damage..

had lunch with jiaxian near his workplace in chinatown.. had been busy during the evenings so i thought, why not meet up during lunch, since i'm free this week.. second interesting thing happened as we were walking to hong lim market for some desserts.. i wanted to buy some mi-jian-kwey(mandarin pancakes) recommended by my friend but because the place was quite big and rather confusing, it was hard to find.. then i felt a tap on my shoulder: my friend who recommended me to the snack!! such coincidence!! he directed me to the place proper and we saved lots of time.. now as i'm punching away at the keyboard, i'm munching on the pancake.. it was as if he was placed there by a higher power to give me direction.. haha..

my good friend gave me a small yet thoughtful gift he brought during his recent trip to taiwan.. a small box of cards with zen inspirations on each one.. really short, something you can finish reading in 5 seconds, but something you can ponder upon for days and days.. thanks again!!

alright, got to go now..
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2008-08-23T08:15:00.002+08:00

some pics i took on the bus while travelling to toa payoh, trying out black & white with high iso setting..

2008-08-19T00:10:00.002+08:00

here's the italian bread that we have made, quite nice eh.. taste good too..

baking bread

2008-08-18T14:23:00.002+08:00

attended a 2-night course on home bread-baking with my girlfriend recently..
did our own practical yesterday, with just one dough recipe we made three different kinds of bread: italian bread with spices, man tou (chinese bun with no fillings), and tibetian bread..
the breads came out really nice, but the man tous were a tad dry and small, couldn't understand how they didn't proof well..
not that hard, as i thought it would be, just some muscling to make the dough, but at least its much healthier than the ones you get commercially outside, like the bread shop whose breads can talk, they had out much other additives which i think is rather healthy, just visually attractive that's all..
some pics..
after we perfected this variant, we would venture into other kinds as well, like ciabatta bread..
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razortv goes undercover on mrt

2008-08-11T22:29:00.005+08:00

an interesting video about how the razortv went undercover on the mrt to see how singaporeans fare when in need to give up their seats for others.. ugly..

seems like the 20 odd years of courtesy campaign by our "beloved" government has not seep through the tough and ignorant skulls of alot singaporeans.. i agree that not all behaved like that, but there are always black sheeps bleeping out there..
pretty soon, i would not have to see them anymore i hope, in one way or another..
like what the commentator said: "the quality of the people can be an indication of how developed a country is," i feel we still have a mighty long way to go..
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sweetness threshold

2008-08-05T12:57:00.004+08:00

i don't know if there's anything called sweetness threshold, but i have had a similar experience of such two sundays ago..
my girlfriend and i were having desserts with my old schoolfriend jian xiong at breeks in causeway point - the idea of having desserts after meal had a long and intricate history which i shall not bore anyone with - and i ordered hot hazelnut chocolate for her and chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream for myself..
my girlfriend's got a peculiar sense of sight, she can tell something about the food just by looking at them! serious! i was rather suspicious about it, i mean how can you know anything about the food if you have not tasted it? well, she can and she hits the jackpot most of the time - 99% actually.. she said that the brownie looks too sweet, but because it was heated up prior serving to us, it would be less sweet, and the vanilla, being a mild flavour, would dampen the sweetness as well, which is a good thing.. the hot chocolate looks fine too, but really, looks can be deceiving. because on top of the chocolate drink, there's a generous serving of unmelted sweet chocolate cached in the cup, unknown to us until much later..
all seemed fine but as we ate, i found myself forcing myself to finish the brownie as it seemed somehow the brownie became sweeter and sweeter.. to a point near the end, i found the sweetness so overbearing that i felt nauseous once i put it in my mouth.. my girlfriend had the same feeling when drinking the chocolate.. i wonder if the desserts are too sweet for its good, of our sweetness threshold are not that high..
oh well, perhaps we were quite full already, and the feeling of fullness triggers the throwing up mechanism.. but i would not put my stomach at risk to go through the same unpleasantness again..
a+

stephen king and ...muffins?

2008-06-30T23:48:00.005+08:00

without knowing it, it's the start of the second week of my break.. been busy, think busier than during the term! haha..

managed to only finish one novel by stephen king: lisey's story.. i can shamelessly say that i'm a big fan of his stories.. ever since i started on his needful things - the first novel i read i think - i am just hooked on them.. and one after another i would borrowed from the library.. it, carrie, cujo, the dark tower series, nightmares and dreamscapes, the green mile, the girl who loved tom gordon, the stand, hearts in atlantis, midnight shift, the dark half, the list goes on.. then i went on a hiatus after polytechnic.. felt that i need to read other stuffs as well.. haha..

well, lisey's story is about a woman who lost her husband and that's when their love story is starting its next chapter - as the book put it that way - when she looks back at their times together, while at the same time a crazy man, a dark prince of the incunks, one of the freesia who wants to end all this ding-dong for her, demands her to hand over her dead husband's stuffs - his manuscripts - to a certain man or else he would do something nasty to her, and it's really nasty.. and you can count of the master of horror storytelling to add in all the supernatural and scary stuffs in between which is sometimes too familiar to us all at some times.. the fear of stuffs that appear momentarily at the side of the mirror at night.. fear of the unexplained..

what i really enjoyed about this story is how he intertwined stories of 3 different periods together and you can feel the relation between all of them.. and "the pool" he describes in it that we all can "go down and have a drink or cast a net", the "pool" which really means the places where we constantly learn from.. at least it seems to me.. it's really up to anyone's interpretation of that pool..

got my tickets to kl today at golden mile complex this noon and ate at the hawker nearby, which is the "army market" at the third level, and saw this interesting stall that sells nothing but fresh muffins, yep fresh from the oven just within the stall.. it's called SLII MUFFIN and it's located on the second level.. just on the left of the center staircase up.. got half-dozen of them.. and i must say they are really good..

it has quite a selection to choose from: chocolate chip, raisins, blueberries, durian(yep that too!), banana, strawberries, almonds.. etc. it's not very sweet, and it's very soft inside; not too hard or oily like the ones i've tried from delifrance.. reasonable price: $1.20 per muffin, and you get one free for every five you buy.. go try if possible and tell me what you think of them.. i give them a 4/5 rating..
a+

lotr and matrix

2008-06-19T22:04:00.003+08:00

finally, the arrival of the matrix ultimate collection and the lord of the rings extended version collection..
my sister was going to the usa for her honeymoon, so i took the chance to get her help me buy these 2 sets of dvds..
my plan to get these 2 sets finally materialized, i had wanted to get them for years already, but it was still very expensive then to buy them..
but even so, i think i could have saved more if i had ordered them through amazon. i made the mistake of not checking the online price before asking me sister to buy them.. in total, i spent $40 more by not ordering from amazon..
oh well, a painful lesson for me to learn.. and if you guys ever wanted to get dvds, i mean original ones (haha), do get them from amazon.. i got my 300 from it with my colleagues last year.. we pre-ordered it before the release, so it was cheaper and its the code 1 version, so nothing was cut.. and there is also the insertion of some scenes not shown in the cinema..
for some dvds, i would get them from somewhere up north, you will be smiling if you understand what i meant.. but some i would get the real mccoy.. so if you ever want to find someone to buy dvds with from amazon, find me alright?
now, i'm just waititng for my break to come so i can start watching them.. i can smell it already.. cheers..
a+..

new hobby (part 2)

2008-05-13T20:23:00.002+08:00

as continued from part 1, i showed up the next day at skygym to be understudy for my new part-time job, at least at that time. i wasn't sure then if i would be up to the job, nor if i would enjoy it..
the first lesson was gymtots, which means the kids are around 2 years old! yes, very young, and were accompanied with their moms or dads or helpers, domestically.. mind you, if you work for an expat family long enough, your english would improve by leaps and bounds.. and with an accent!!
it was free play for the first half-an-hour where the kids were free to roam around and play with whatever apparatus they like.. like the trampoline, the big bouncy plastic balls, the mini flying fox with safety seat attached, etc...
my role was to ensure the tots don't get too wild and injure themselves, but sometimes they still do, when too many tots get onto the trampoline and bounce into one another.. it was really fun watching them run around, trying out the toys and fumbling all over, laughing in sheer enjoyment when you chase after them, giggling when tickled by their mothers or helpers.. i don't think any job get any better than that.. i mean seeing kids having fun is one very therapeutic session for adults, because we adults don't know what is true fun.. we tend to see things too pragmatically, we are too bounded by gains and losses that we missed out finding true happiness.. i would recommend you sign up for session with us just to hang around and you know what i mean..
the warm-up was just as fun, if not better.. all the kids would go get a fish-shaped mat to sit on, forming a circle with me and kevin in the front.. we started by getting the tots to introduce themselves.. their heavenly voices and cute responses just get to you.. they can be so wild when playing, but when you get them to say their own names, they become so shy, so hiding into their moms' bosoms for comfort..
the music came along and we did lots of warm-up exercises, like rocking side to side, cycling in the air, doing splits, forming table using their bellies, rolling back and forth.. its a feat if you can get 70% of them to follow you, with their moms' or helpers' help!!
following that is a sing-along session as they follow actions.. really cute how they imitate us.. after which, it was free-and-easy again for them for the last 15-mins.. me for the first time, i still lack the bond with the tots, as they tend to shun strangers, which is good in its sense.. sometimes i wonder around to see if all is okay.. don't know what to talk to the moms about, so i just smiled.. haha.. nothing much i could really do..
time is running out for me, at least for now.. i still haven't got to the play school session yet!! the wild level has gone from mild to extremely high.. that for the next time..
a+
(to be continued)

2008-05-05T11:14:00.001+08:00

mr hoon (1949 - 2008)

i mourn the passing of a great teacher, a caring mentor, a close friend, and an understanding brother... his riches are not materialistic, but spiritual; his wealth does not come from how much he donates, but how much he cares for others... he does not give us his money, but his time, his ears, his encouragements, his guidances... his journey has not ended, but just beginning, in another level, in another plane, in another world... godspeed, my friend!!

new hobby (part 1)

2008-04-22T08:26:00.004+08:00

as of last saturday, i have started a new full-time hobby, it's called gymnastics coaching..

gymnastics has been one of my passion in life, since i started training for it competitively in primary three, and still is, in one way or another.. it was quite a coincidental start, since i just joined it under my mom's influence to try out one of its saturday's session.. my memories of it are quite sketchy now, but i remembered doing lots and lots of warming up, the straddles, bridges, push-ups sit-ups (yes, they are considered warming up exercises too, weird)... followed by lots of games for us, like forward-rolling through the hula-hoop and stuffs like that.. and the fun part: chilling isotonic drink. i mean, everyone would rush to queue up to get a cup of it after the long and strenuous warm-up..

anyway, back to my hobby, how did i get to know about it: i received a call from one of my secondary school gym comrades, ceying, asking me if i'm still doing.. insurances?? i went "what?
when did i ever started doing insurances?" i don't mean to be rude to my friends who are in the financial planning sector, i mean they are one the best guys in the world who could help you manage your money, and putting them wherever suits your current needs.. she went on asking me if i'm interested in doing coaching, so i said "how coincidental because i am currently employment-deprived but i'm still not too sure about coaching" especially when she said it's about coaching little kids.. i can coach bigger kids, but little tots? despite that, i promised her that i would go down the her gym, skygym, to take a look..

located in the old premises of the turf city, it has almost all facilities needed for competitive gymnastics training, but with more play-toys and all cushioned up.. well, when you are dealing with tots, you must ensure they don't go home with cuts and knocks on them, it is economically unwise.. so ceying was telling me what they do there, and i got to see how they run a session.. lots of laughing and cheering generally.. they have a 10-min warming up, going from head to toe while the coach teasing them, followed by a sing-along for the smaller kids (it was "head and shoulder" that week), then 3 stations focusing on certain parts of the body, and ending with some games..

interesting, fun and a good work-out for the kids.. kevin, another owner of skygym, invited me for a understudy session with him the next day, for me to have a feel of it firsthand and to see if i think it is something for me.. and i happily obliged..

(to be continued...)

7th day

2008-04-09T00:14:00.003+08:00

well, 7th day into unemployment.. time sure flies like cessnas doing dogfight.. whatever it may mean..
but that does not mean i am relaxing at home, sipping cappuccino and watching desperate housewives, which by the way is a show that i will never, ever watch in my lifetime as i think it sucks.. i mean, who would ever want to watch about some housewives being desperate?? the title itself is a mistake: sounds just like the ideal title for a x-rated flick. so by contradiction, this statement is false; which is to say i am really relaxing at home, sipping cappuccino, and not watching desperate housewives..
been shifting stuffs around my house, with mom and dad away in the land of the rising sun, i reign over this little domain called my home.. i have decided to do away with the extra bed and study table left by my sister ever since she got married.. and happily left her stuffs here for us ever after.. so, by getting rid of them, including some of her books and stuffs, i would make more space in our study room and my room, which was annexed by my brother.. he has agreed to move into her room, after some clearing up..
never knew there were so many things kept but not used, and it's either because it was not of any use at the moment, or it had already gone pass its usability period by at least 8 years.. i mean i still have cds around usable only on a windows 95 setup! gosh! but its really fun, especially the interesting things you can unearth through such a dig-up..
as i write, the things are being tidied up and/or cleared away, much to my relief. there are more stuff to be stored away, as soon the bed and table are gone.. i would not say i am a very meticulous person when it comes to my own dwelling, but i do like a sense of tidiness. just that i am too lazy when it comes to tidying.. i truly believe i need to get into the mood to start tidying things, else i would just give up have way and leave it as it is.. i would start to check my hormone levels and body heat, compare with the astrology recommendations for the day and the almanac. if all goes well, then i would consult my inner consciousness for some advice, and i could only start doing the chores if i get it's blessings.. well, on the other hand, i would do so just because my missus says so, or i have impeding visits in the near future that require my immediate attention.. well, time to get back to more clearing up and tidying away..
a+

2008-03-27T06:41:00.004+08:00

it has been 9 months since we last met up in orchard road. friday saw us in chinatown. mai son, lujin, zaiming and me decided to go to this teahouse called tea chapter, located in the far end of chinatown, along kreta ayer road. surprisingly, it was their first time there..

the tea-drinking travellers: li jun, zaiming, mai son and moi..

topic for the night is about employment, how a far cry from the things we chatted about in the past. it really shows how working life has an effect on the topics we talked about when we meet.. it is just a normal process which i hoped to break from.. son had got a new job, the rest are planning to change ours to try to go to son's.. haha.. at least not for me.. well at least we managed to talk about other things of course, like travelling.. all of us are travellers in one way or another.. all of them travelled from china or vietnam to study here.. all, save for zaiming, had studied in france for six months..
we had rose tea and gui hua tea.. gui hua has a mild sweet after-taste.. i liked it alot.. rose has a strong fragrance, but guys can't have too much of it as it would alter our hormonal level, haha.. a good way to punish a guy..

mai son is the tea-pouring man of the night..

2008-02-12T23:39:00.000+08:00

touching clip about 74-year-old lady pedaling a 500kg load.. reason: to see her grandson through secondary education.. reason: son deserted his own son.. how many years more? many many years.. and topping that with a husband with cancer who needs her attention and care..

angels are always around us, they don't have a pair of wings but a pair of kind hands; they don't have a halo but an enduring heart; they don't play harp but warm our hearts.. and we already have 2 angels around us since our birth.. some may have one and some two, but it doesn't matter; some may look stern and strict but it doesn't really matter.. what matter is that they have spent the good years of their lives bringing us up.. so they next time you are about to be mean to your angels for some things that they didn't do or forgotten to do, just think about what they have already done..

i am still learning..
a+

2008-01-30T17:07:00.000+08:00

even without the arrival of chinese new year, i've started feasting on the only thing which i think symbolizes it, standing out from the rest of the festive treats: the pineapple tarts..

ever since years ago that my mom started buying these duck-shaped pineapple tarts, i started to change my appreciation of it.. the ready-made flower-shaped tarts with fillings in the center that we buy from the shops often come with the fillings which are rather hard and too sweet..
but the home-made duck-shaped ones from my mom's friend is truly heavenly.. the crust melts in your mouth, fillings are not too sweet and very soft, which fits my taste..

been feasting on a tub of them when my colleague brought it into the office on monday, and now it's empty.. the one i brought in on tuesday has only 1 of its 5 layers remaining.. that's about 12 tarts per layer! well, not all by me, but mostly those from my colleague's..

i wonder what's the relation between the pineapple tarts and chinese new year, since most are sold by the malays.. like the duck-shaped tarts that my mom bought.. or just because it's nice to eat during cny?? i wonder.. oh well, i shall investigate it as i munch on them, perhaps inspiration will come to me as they digest happily in my stomach..

a+

2008-01-18T01:07:00.000+08:00

seriously, of late i found myself rather lack of enthusiasm and to write anything at all.. well, it was a pretty long break, judging that the last entry was last november... i was more into writing in mandarin since i had a module of chinese writing last year-end.. you are read them at www.yiqingbiji.blogspot.com, that's my mandarin blog... hardly refreshed since the last update..
i was rather busy and just couldn't get myself to quietly sit down and do some writing, although i have promised myself, time and time again, to write regularly, be it blog or not.. but oh well, i haven't been well-disciplined enough..
first big thing of the new year, quitting my current holding after a year-and-a-half.. there is no one major particular reason but an accumulation of a few.. time and distance plays a big part in it.. i have decided that life isn't at all just about work and sleep, but more in between, and this current job doesn't allow me to do the stuffs i want to so.. and since peaking into the crystal ball, i don't see myself dwelling in the it industry for the rest of my life.. what lies ahead, no one knows for sure, i'm just following the gut feeling which i have which would lead me to the path i need to take..
that's all fot now.. hopefully i could upload some pictures from my best friend, yuxiong's wedding which took place last friday, which is like exactly a week ago.. till then
a+

google goes black, environment goes green

2007-08-18T00:32:00.000+08:00

the title was an abstraction from an article from lianhe zaobao..
in tandem with the eco-friendly ideas to combat global warming, toby heap created the blackle, a google-powered search engine featuring a black background and almost everything in black. according to the founder, a screen which is pre-dominantly white requires more energy to display than a dark or black screen.. thus by adopting a black background, we can all help to reduce the energy usage, given our high power usage due to our long time in front of the pc, surfing the net or what not..
so let's do our little part in reducing the energy usage, because a little energy saved by everyone of us goes a long way.. cheers..
it's coming, tomorrow..
a+

2007-08-15T23:16:00.000+08:00

it's here!!
a+

back to school..

2007-08-11T00:06:00.000+08:00

perhaps some may have known, i am back in school, no less than a year of hiatus from my university education in ntu..

i once commented that i had enough of education already, at least my computer engineering course made me think so.. the endless hours of programming and mugging for exams made me ponder what education is really about.. is it really about studying just to pass the exams? no wonder my good friend Gunn and Son hardly attend the lectures.. sometimes and most of the time, they are quite pointless.. haha..i only truly enjoy artificial intelligence and database management.. that's about it.. but, the course does has its benefits, if i can duely remember them..

things just all crossed at the same juncture at that particular time and i happened to be there and i jumped on the bandwagon.. had been thinking about it, peers had mentioned about it, newspapers were talking about it, SIM is promoting it.. so as a natural course of events, i registered for it: degree in translation and interpretation.. in english and mandarin, of course..

my affinity with languages, especially my mother tongue and my first language starts really really late, as late as 10 years ago.. i have no interest in languages whatsoever when i was a student.. studying them were worse than a chore, a punishment rather.. adjectives and prepositions aren't my close friends really, and it was a miracle that i actually passed them.. a sure tell-tale that god actually exists.. not that i have doubted its existence, just for exaggeration purposes..

my mandarin improved after my secondary education from my years of workshops in my tao centers, still far from good.. my english only because i read quite alot also during my poly years.. met french, fall in love with it, as far as to participate in a student exchange programme to france..

about the translation course, my motivation is that i wouldn't want to do programming for the rest of my life, nor to be in the it sector.. i am interested in literary works, about doing translation so that people from the east and the west are able to appreciate more works from both continents, and that there are so many works that are been poorly translated by untrained people.. which is really a pity in my own opinion..

there was a chinese saying that goes: its only when you start learning that you realize you have still so much to learn. that's my thought after two weeks of attending the lessons.. but not now, now i want to sleep..
a+

i live in singapura

2007-08-07T10:51:00.001+08:00

in the spirit of our impeding national day celebration, here's a parody of our little red dot we call singapura..

in case you don't know of the words used in the clip, feel free to pm me.. cheers!
enjoy..

2007-08-06T23:38:00.000+08:00

some pictures taken over the weekend for my trip down to kl..

some pictures taken over the weekend for my trip down to kl..

pictures from perth (2)

2007-07-03T00:57:00.001+08:00

taken from perth harbour at the evening, can see the lights trying to burst through the clouds..
my darling's effort to take a close-up photo of the seagull, i clapped couple of times to frighten it, trying to make it take flight.. thus such fantastic effect..

another flower macro shot.. taken at king's park..

more coming..
a+

pictures from perth

2007-06-29T00:32:00.000+08:00

finally got the pictures taken from perth arranged and so i'll post it up those better taken ones.. haha.. all from canon a70 digital camera, sans photoshop..

roses from peiyi's garden.. the light is a bit harsh, but the red is very vivid..

a composition taught by jian xiong, that's to put the camera close to the ground and shoot upwards, and to have the ground covering 1/3 and the sky or background 2/3 of the photo.. this was the third photo taken after two successful ones..

a lot of pigeons at the grass walkways of perth city, so i tried the same composition but this time with the ground covering 1/2 the photo..

2007-05-26T12:02:00.000+08:00

just started a new blog which would be in mandarin: www.yiqingbiji.blogspot.com..
so that english blogs can still be written here, and those who prefer mandarin can go visit the other one..

siege of gaixia (translation of 垓下之困)

2007-04-21T00:11:00.000+08:00

Xianyu, king of Chu, set up his camp in Gai Xia, which is now the province of Ling Bi at the south-western of An Hui. he was left with very few men and much of his rations were depleted, and he was surrounded heavily by the Han army and their generals.

during the night, Xianyu heard songs of Chu sung by the Han army from all four directions of his camp. he was deeply startled, and said: "Chu has fallen onto the hands of Han! if not, why are there so many Chu people in the Han?"

he then rose and went to his wine parlor for a drink. he had a very beautiful concubine named Wu, whom accompanied him all the time , and a fine steed called Zui, on which he rode very often. in his sorrow, he made a poem for himself: "i have the strength which can move mountains, and the courage which can cover the sky; but the time's not right and my steed Zui do not wish to gallop; if my steed do not wish to gallop, what can i do? oh, my dear Wu, what am i to do with you?"

Xianyu repeated the poem continuously, and Wu joined in with him. he repeated the poem until he was overwhelmed with emotions and cried, and those in the wine parlor could not bear but cry also. finally, Xianyu mounted on his steed. he decided to bring his warriors, some eight hundred of them, to break out of the siege during the night towards the south.

i welcome all criticisms and comments.. a+
(to be continued..)

垓下之困

2007-04-11T23:12:00.000+08:00

項王軍壁垓下。兵少食盡。
漢軍及諸侯兵圍之數重。
夜聞漢軍四面皆楚歌。
項王乃大驚曰：
「漢皆已得楚乎。是何楚人之多也。」
項王則夜起飲帳中。
美人名虞。常幸從。
駿馬名騅。常騎之。
於是項王乃悲歌忼慨。
自為詩曰：
「力拔山兮氣蓋世。時不利兮騅不逝。
騅不逝兮可奈何。虞兮虞兮奈若何。」
歌數闋。美人和之。項王泣數行下。
左右皆泣。莫能仰視之。
於是項王乃上馬騎。麾下壯士騎從者人八百餘人。
直夜潰圍南出馳走。
平明漢軍乃覺之。令騎將灌嬰以五千騎追之。
項王渡淮。騎能屬者百餘人耳。
項王至陰陵。迷失道。
問一田父。田父給曰。左。
左乃陷大澤中。以故漢追及之。
項王乃復引兵而東。至東城。
乃有二十八騎。漢騎追者數千人。
項王自度不得脫。謂其騎曰：
「吾起兵至今八歲矣。身七十餘戰。
所當者破。所擊者服。未嘗敗北。
遂霸有天下。然今卒困於此。
此天之亡我。非戰之罪也。
今日固決死。願為諸君決戰。必三勝之。
為諸君潰圍。斬將刈旗。
令諸君知天亡我。非戰之罪也。」
乃分其騎。以為四隊。四嚮。
漢軍圍之數重。項王謂其騎曰：
「吾為公取彼一將。」
令四面騎馳下。期山東為三處。
於是項王大呼馳下。漢軍皆披靡。
遂斬漢將一將。是時赤泉侯為騎將。
追項王。項王瞋目叱之。赤泉侯人馬俱驚。
辟易數里。與其騎會為三處。
漢軍不知項王所在。乃分軍為三。復圍之。
項王乃馳。復斬漢將一都尉。殺數十百人。
復聚其騎。亡其兩騎耳。
乃謂其騎曰：「如何。」
騎皆伏曰：「如大王言。」
於是項王欲東渡烏江。烏江亭長檥船待。
謂項王曰：
「江東雖小。地方千里。眾數十萬人。亦足王也。
願大王急渡。今獨臣有船。漢軍至。無以渡。」
項王笑曰：
「天之亡我。我何渡為。
且籍與江東子弟八千人。渡江而西。今無一人還。
縱江東父兄憐而王我。我何面目見之。
縱彼不言。籍獨不愧於心乎。」
乃謂亭長曰：
「吾知公長者。吾騎其馬五歲。
所當無敵。嘗一日行千里。不忍殺之。以賜公。」
乃今騎皆下馬步行。持短兵接戰。獨籍所殺漢軍數百人。
項王身亦被十餘創。顧見漢騎司馬呂馬童。曰。
「若非吾故人乎。」
馬童面之。指王翳曰：
「此項王也。」
項王乃曰：
「吾聞漢購我頭。千金邑萬戶。吾為若德。」
乃自刎而死。
- 取之史記

a day's break from work

2007-04-10T11:02:00.000+08:00

an unofficial day break from work, due to flu..

i can take the chance to clean up my table and read some stuffs, even though doctor's advice is to rest more and take more fluids.. which i would.. cleaning up the table doesn't take much effort anyway..

had been rather busy the last week and not much rest, perhaps that caused the weakening of my immune system and rendered me more vulnerable to virus.. ample rest is a necessity but sometimes a luxury which i can't afford sometimes.. a balance must be struck nonetheless.. like today haha..

a+

2007-04-03T13:40:00.000+08:00

went guang ming monastery to pay respect to my ancestors with my parents and relatives..
tons and tons of people there.. each bringing along boxes and boxes of offerings to their ancestors..
years ago, it was just paper cars, then came all kinds of luxury cars like mercedes benz or limo..
then came the pagers (like you really like to page someone from the netherworlds, or you would expect them to return the page!), then the handphones (those big enough to be used as a water bottle in those days), then all sorts of jewellery, then tv, then laptop! (hey, you can even msn you departed ones now!)..
and now louis vuitton bags, gucci bags, you name it, they've got it..
it really seems to me that actually hell is a better place than earth, you get to have the luxury goods you don't get when you are alive and you don't need to pay any coe, petrol, insurances, electricity bills and water bills.. and you get to go for high tea and a cuppa touting your louis vuitton tote while you are at it.. flant it off to the brother cow-head and horse-face in hell.. maybe give them a lift to the hades palace in your latest bmw 3.0 series.. do video conferencing with your loved ones still on earth, show them how hell looks like.. ask them when they are coming down to join them in this 'paradise' of theirs..
but wait, aren't we missing something really essential here? they are in the netherworld isn't it? or the so-called hell as we know it. and it's a place without and pleasures and enjoyment. and unless we are so confident that our loved ones were so holy in their lifes lived, had done no bad deeds whatsoever, they should not be in the netherworld in the first place, ain't it so? and if they are in a better place than here on earth, then i don't think they even need those material offerings to enjoy their stay there. but why do we so paradoxically know that they are in a place called netherworld, know that there are bound to be sufferings, and yet burn them so many luxuries, thinking that they need such 'worldly' pleasures as well, to have a better 'life' down there.. this is a part i don't understand.. do they do it so as to have a peace of mind, 'knowing' that they have done their part for their loved ones, providing for them in their afterlife, because they did not do so when they were alive?? i don't know either.. but i don't need any answer, because there ain't any..
i'm just making fun of people.. bad as i am, doesn't it make us stop and ponder?? perhaps not.. i don't care either.. shall i care?
a+

2007-03-27T22:35:00.000+08:00

here's the macro photo i took at sungei buloh reserve park which is the start of my getting lost in the park..

of course, i stopped along the way for some other shots, such as the one above..

of weights and bad luck

2007-03-19T17:40:00.001+08:00

finally bought my first pair of dumbells on saturday after thinking about it for some 6 months.. since i don't really have the time to frequent the gym regularly, why not invest in some weights so i can pump some iron whenever i could before i go work or before i sleep.. my colleagues had suggested me to put them in the office so we could do it before lunches.. haha.. not a bad suggestion i thought.. the next thing to get would be the bench so that i could do exercises focusing on the chest muscles..

sunday for me was rather unlucky.. and as words had it that they normally come in pairs.. well, mine do..
forgot to bring out my ez-link card, and only realize it when i was at the train station. but it was too late to go back and get it because i would be rather late.. was to meet richie, caroll, amanda, ryan, roger and celine for a morning "stroll" in sungei buloh wetland reserve.. i always have to tendacy to forget to bring out stuffs when i go out.. ez-link card or wallet.. had enough of that and i have made numerous mental reminders on that matter, but it still happened.. what the fish man..

the sungei buloh reserve "stroll" was rather pleasant: sky was overcast, so it was not hot; humid with mild wind.. but there was really nothing much to see apart from some migratory birds from a distant.. the aerie was another little disappointment because it is not very high so you can't really see much of the whole reserve.. probably if they build it any higher, nobody would climb that high up.. we singaporeans are simply too pampered and loo lazy to make the effort.. so sue me if i'm wrong.. i don't care..
notice the "stroll" was parathesed. not without reason. it was meant to be a gentle stroll. meant. time for us to head back to the car because they have booked to play badminton in half an hour's time. i saw some butterflies and would like to take some macro pictures of them so i asked them to go first. after satisfying myself with two of them, i started walking back. somehow in one way or another, i missed the right turn to the visitor centre and walked straight.. i finally realised something's amiss after i hit the signboard that says "visitor centre: 800m".. i was like, no way.. yes way, said the sign.. impossible, i thought.. possible, the sign replied.. then richie called me, asking me to hurry up.. i said i'm making my way back.. after walking for 800 metres, i did not reach the centre but another observatory hide and another sign which said "visitor centre: 1600 metres." i went "what?!?".. "you are lost" laughed the sign.. i start to fasten my pace as time wasn't on my side, nor on richie's side.. i started to run when i he called me again, and before he called.. with my slippers and camera and all.. and i passed a group of people making a shoot twice, they must have thought i'm crazy or something.. haha..
was panting like hell when i finally reach back to the visitor centre.. and sweating like a pig.. so the stroll became a 1.6km run that left me so tired and dehyrated for the rest of the day..
moral of the story : bad luck travels in pairs.. believe that.. haha.. nah just one of those days.. but anyway, tomorrow is payday so , who cares!! time to contribute to singapore's economy.. ciao
a+

2007-03-08T12:26:00.000+08:00

last sunday, attended a gathering of my secondary school's gymnasts alumni.. well, sort of because only a close knit of them gathered, basically just the seniors until my batch.. and only me from my batch.. jonathan was too indulged in his hang-over state to come.. haha..
we gathered at the place of our former teacher-in-charge, ms lin. even though i have not seen her before, there's not sense of distance between us.. it's as if she already knew me as one of her students long time ago.. i liked the gathering, get to meet those seniors i have not meet for at least 10 years.. like juwanda, ren jun, li si, lina and raymond.. all those memories just flow back like tap water, all those hell-trainings by them, and of course the after-training outings, meals.. now, all the ladies who came, save lina, are already married with kids.. time really flies..
all was fine till we watched some self-made videos taken by them during one of their trainings, when one segment showed one of our friend who have since left us all.. everyone turned rather quiet, as if choked by something everyone of us felt but dared not speak out.. a moment which seemed eternal..
what i enjoyed most about this gathering was, which was also well-said by richie, the kind of relationship which does not contain any motives nor agenda, pure and almost child-like.. i certainly hope that all or most relationships are like that.. wholeheartedly and sincerely..
cheers..
a+

2007-03-03T13:20:00.000+08:00

i don't like telling bad news, or things that would hurt them..
but sometimes i had to do it.. much to my displeasure..
my nature is that no matter how i dislike a person or how i don't agree with the things to do,
i would try my best to give advice or say something encouraging,
because i don't like to feeling of other people feeling bad by what i say or do..
perhaps i may seemed naive or too impractical to be so nice to people, maybe because of my librian traits, always trying the create a balance in everything..
i broke a news to someone i respect, although in some way i don't agree his ways of managing something. to him, i felt it's an unpleasant news but i had to tell him, eventually..
he replied rather simply, which seemed to me, the more simply, the more pain he felt inside..
i'm rather saddened, but i've to learn to deal with matters like that..
a+

2007-02-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

i don't think i'm a very lucky guy.. perhaps i just got lucky..

during the chinese new year gathering at ST office two fridays ago, we had a competition to design some doublets for the company.. our group made a rather unique design for it, and i, being a busybody, offered to do the calligraphy for the doublets using marker pen.. i wrote them in zuan style, which is a rather old style of calligraphy and partly because of that and the unique design, we won the first prize.. and lots of people praised the nice calligraphy, but of course not many knew it was me.. they probably would find it hard for a young guy like me to be proficient in calligraphy.. haha.. i was just happy that my art was appreciated..

tonight was the chinese new year dinner at roland restaurant, which i must really admit, bad service and poor food fare.. all the veggies were located at one table, which was far from my colleagues, i asked a service crew whether they could make arrangement such that they serve the veggie food to me at my colleague's table, he simply replied "i don't know." okay, fair enough, he can't make such decision. so i asked him to whom can i direct the question, and he simply replied again, in his matter-of-state manner "i don't know." bad answer, i've decided straight away that this restaurant's service is well below average.. the food's nothing to brag about either.. mostly fried stuff, and the noodles were too salty.. alright, enough about negative parts..
i actually won the 8th prize during the lucky draw, which was really rare.. the prize was pretty cool, $80 ntuc voucher, enough to keep my office's pantry full for 8 months, on top of the $5 pantry allowance monthly from my company.. and my winning number happens to be part of my project manager's mobile number, to which she said is very lucky.. very lucky indeed..

oh well.. luck is just part and puzzle of a person's life.. it comes and goes.. nothing to open a party for, but something not to take granted of either.. be grateful when you have it, and when you don't, just take it in great strides.. life goes on..
cheers..
a+

entertaining weekend

2007-02-14T15:10:00.000+08:00

had an outstanding and entertaining weekend..
saturday saw me with a couple of internationalities, a couple of chinese, a vietnamese and a french..
it was a rendez-vous that was long due and finally took place, sadly son couldn't attend..
as usual the first half an hour was used to wait for late comers, luckily i was the first to arrive there, which was quite seldom.. apart from the usual gunn, lijun and dd, there were others whom i met for the first time, and of course cyrelle from france, who is here for industrial attachment..
my chance to use french finally, which started out rather bad because it had been months since i used it.. if not for gunn who sometimes do the translation for us, we would have died trying to figure out each other..
headed for takashimaya for dinner, dd suggested fei chui restaurant but it was too full, so i bought them instead to a vegetarian restaurant, much to gunn's dismay.. but oh well, they rather enjoyed it, forcefully even.. especially cyrelle who didn't think much of the shitake mushrooms due to its dark color..
but by the end of the evening, my french was much more fluent but still in bits and pieces, but much much better.. headed to another place for some drinks and chilli crabs.. but in the end only 2 ordered them..
lessons learnt: always book a restaurant during the weekends if you don't want to end up in a vegetarian restaurant, but even so the vegetarian restaurant was almost full too; always practise your french, you will never know when you would use it..

sunday: table-tennis at richie's place..
he's got a new table-tennis table, no puns intended, and we all gathered there for a thrashing, by him of course..
never knew he played it during his primary school days, and the rest too!! damn, jonathan and ryan are so good at it that i almost felt out of place, out of league!!
jonathan played it during his primary and secondary school days, and ryan was in school team before.. me?? i only knew how to hit it.. that's all.. haha
but it was a good workout, as i slowly but surely pick up the pace again.. and the loser had to do the gardening for richie too..
he just had some water features installed in the small garden with some water plants along with some guppies.. but alas some of them died even before the end of the day.. think it was due to not getting used to the water with the plants.. so sad.. they were living so peacefully at the shop until we brought them there..
we graced the vegetarian stall of a friend of richie for dinner, he's got good culinary skills and very hardworking, but lacks the luck to be spotted for his talent.. so we decided that we would frequent and support his stall more often from now on..
oh yes, i forgot to declare the official commencement of tohyi entertainment club beginning sunday.. to more table-tennis sessions, barbeques, slacking sessions to come, cheers..

so enjoyable and tiring weekend..
a+

2007-01-23T01:10:00.002+08:00

一巴仙成功一百分努力
唯求後有良　不求自身安
倘受池魚殃　也坦然無悔
但望冷眼君　憐我把輔起

yesterday

2007-01-20T12:40:00.002+08:00

yesterday by guns n roses

Yesterday... there was so many things I was never told,
Now that I'm starting to learn, I feel I'm growing old,

'Cause yesterday's got nothing for me,
Old pictures that I'll always see,
Time just fades the pages in my book of memories,

Prayers in my pocket, and no hand in destiny,
I'll keep on moving along with no time to plant my feet,

'Cause yesterday's got nothing for me,
Old pictures that I'll always see,
Some things could be better if we'd all just let them be,

Oooh yesterday has got nothing for me,
Yesterday... oooh has got nothing for me,
Got nothing for me,

Yesterday... there was so many things I was never shown,
Suddenly this time I found, I'm on the streets and I'm all alone,

Yesterday's got nothing for me,
Old pictures that I'll always see,
I ain't got time, to reminisce old novelties,

Oooh yesterday has got nothing for me,
Yesterday... oooh has got nothing for me,
Yesterday has got nothing for me,
Yesterday,

Yesterday...

yesterday's got lots of memories in all of us, some happy, other sad..
when you look back some day and reminiscence them again, you start thinking how wonderful it might have been.. those times, those faces, those places..
i think i'm a sentimental person who likes to look back into the past again, trying to relinquish those memories..
some might say we must always look at the present and future, i do agree but i think the past is also something we must keep with us.. something that we can take out of the little drawer and say 'hey, look at all these stuffs that i did man..'
well, the lyrics of this song doesn't really reflect what i've said but i picked it for the title and the nice rymthm..
enjoy and cheers..
a+

T 4 X I

2007-01-20T07:55:00.000+08:00

voilà, l'arrivé de quartrième film de taxi, taxi 4...

et tu peux voir le bande-announce ici..
le cast sont tout le même, avec le flic par frédéric diefenthal, le cab-chauffeur par sami naceri, et le commissaire par bernard farcy, et bien sûr le général et l'amour du flic par jean-christophe bouvet et emma sjoberg..

après avoir vu le bande-announce, je crois qu'il serait un bonne film d'action et de comédie, surtout lequel du commissaire et ses folies. peut-être pas l'histoire mais ça ne fait rien, hein..

je l'attends..
a+

6 months before..

2007-01-18T23:28:00.000+08:00

6 months before, it was the first day of my job at ST. fresh in shirt and pants, there i was reporting to my workplace in amk, where i would be stationed at for the week before i start my project at depot road..

the week passed slowly as i get myself acquaintance with ada, no not the secretary for god's sake, but the programming code which i will deal with for the rest of this project.. not as hard as i thought it would be, and in fact much more robust than c++ in real-time programming.. more than 6 months ago, the only fact i know about ada programming is that its just a language used by defense department of usa and nothing else.. never knew i would use it and the fact is that we are about the only ones in singapore who know how to use it makes me sound more important.. yet the very same fact is that there's no other market which we can port this language to, except perhaps the airlines..

and finally the day came for me to meet my new team-mates and colleagues in depot road.. and never did i expect to meet my primary-school friend when i step into the lab.. such small world it is! kian siong was from one of my class which neither of us remember anymore. my fondest memory which serves me still was that we used to play computer games together.. at least now i know someone in the new environment which does not make it hard to blend in.. or so i thought..

of course, not to mention james, ginny, sik jeong, weeling, hazel, damien, of whom the latter four have since left the project for greener pastures, seeking their fortunes in other areas.. and i would be team mates with james and ginny, and the start of our friendship-cum-comrades..

my job is software development for modules which would become GUI units for the whole system and oh man, i never expect the real-world implementations of programming can be so much different and complex than the ones we have learn from our uni.. the next few months were spent learning all the sub-systems and how to communicate between each of them.. and is still doing now.. haha..

on the other hand, work is not all work and no play.. we do have our gatherings, farewell lunches, team-building sessions and the most important, the FOS sessions.. FOS is simply Full Of Shit, so you could easily guess that we crap alot.. alot.. of course we do gossip as well, though i never thought i could such a good gossip listener.. haha.. but i guess its inevitable that in any place with people, there's bound to be p-relationships.. go figure this yourself.. and it's very important to know who can we joke with and who we can't mess around with.. it does get boring after awhile, that problems still exist without solutions or attempts made to solve them..

looking back, i have learnt alot and yet lots to learn.. and why this 6th month is so important, its because that's when i start to get my programming language allowance, that's why!! haha..
and of course, another bonus will be coming from introducing a friend to the company, who have since being posted to another project in another site.. hang in there brother!! for my sake.. haha..

job is fun, challenging yet frustrating at times, when bugs don't seem to go away no matter how we try to solve them.. but nothing beats having fun and good colleagues, being a little crazy doesn't hurt too.. haha.. with much in store in the coming months, i'm filled to the head..

oh well, i write alot when i started to.. and so i must stop now..
cheers..
a+

photos de noel

2007-01-10T13:30:00.000+08:00

here finally, the photos taken during the christmas dinner at yuxiong's place, his kitchen has a chic retro marble table with benches.. which is really cool..

here's the steamboat that we had, I'm so touched because his wife, jocelyn, has taken the pain to prepare a vegetarian pot exclusively for me.. i'm so touched and forever in your debts..

after that, we entertained ourselves by play "ugly dolls"..
a simple game where all the cards are placed face-down on the table, each would take a turn to open a card, when three cards of the same kind are found, we would try to grab them. at the end of game, the one with most cards win, naturally..

as for the loser, either he has to finish a drink while acting cute..

or wear all the party hats and blow all the beepers simultaneously..

prèmier blog de l'année 2007

2007-01-03T23:30:00.000+08:00

normalement, je ne crios pas de résolutions du nouvel année, mais cette année, je me promets à recommencer ma blog... ça fait très longtemps que je le fais, en fait il y a 5 mois déjà..
j'aime ecrire, mais trop parresseux pour le faire souvent.. et quelquefois j'écris trop.. bizzare, non?
pour quelque de derniers semaines, j'ai le chance pour rencontrer avec mes amis qui je n'ai pas vu il y a plus de 6 mois... mes amis de école sécondaire de whitley.. on a fait une soirée de noël chez yu xiong, on a mangé "steamboat"(je ne sais pas comment on dit en francais), et il en a preparé un végétarien pour moi, merci beaucoup, on a joué, et on a mangé encore.. mes bonnes amis: yak, jonathan, dennis et cho meng, avec . il était un très bonne soirée..
un autre groupe d'amis soit roger, richie.. on a rencontré pour plusieurs fois pour manger, voir les films, faire du bbq..
bien sûr que je n'ai pas assez de temps pour tous mes amis, par exemple mes comarades de l'armée de l'air.. il a déjà fait quelque rendezvous mais je suis occupé en cette moment.. avec un peu de temps, je souhaits que on peut rencontrer pour le nouvel an chinois..
fin, ça fait plus que trente minutes pour un courte blog comme ça.. oulala.. pas facile quoi..
à plus..

in english: normally i don't believe in new year resolutions but this year i've decided to start blogging again this year.. hopefully it would last..
in the last few weeks, i have the chance to meet my friends whom i have not met for more than six months already.. had a steamboat dinner at yuxiong's new place for x'mas, it was indeed a memorable one.. the rest of the gang being: yak, jonathan, dennis and cho meng.. and their wives and girlfriends as well..
then there's roger and richie, had couple rounds of dinner and movies and bbq..
but of course, i have not had the chance to meet up with my comrades from the air forces when they have made couple of meet-ups already.. sorry man.. hopefully we can have one during the chinese new year?
i was just commenting that it took more than thirty minutes to compose a short blog like this.. but at least its a good start no? haha.. alright then..
a+

Plog #012

2006-08-12T23:24:00.000+08:00

Plog #011

2006-08-11T00:40:00.000+08:00

one of the numerous scriptures we found as we trotted along the ruins..

Plog #010

2006-08-04T07:01:00.000+08:00

Plog #009

2006-08-02T23:50:00.000+08:00

you have to have your foundation go deeper if you wished to attain higher..

Plog #008

2006-07-28T00:17:00.000+08:00

around the outer perimeter of angkor wat temple, there's a stretch of craved picture depicting the war of the gods versus the demons in ancient indian mythology..
as we know, the evil always surpasses the good, but good always prevails over evil.. there's always a balance between the two.. are you in balance with yourself?
a+

Plog #007

2006-07-24T07:43:00.000+08:00

reflections: dual meaning, the reflection of the angkor wat on the water; the guy reflecting..

to start of the monday, i saw a joke on comedy's central:

Marriage Made In Heaven

A couple were driving to a church to get married. On the way, they got into a car accident and died. When they arrive in heaven, they see St. Peter at the gate. They ask him if he could arrange it so they could marry in heaven.

St. Peter tells them that he'll do his best to work on it for them.

Three months pass by and the couple hear nothing. They bump into St. Peter and ask him about the marriage.

He says, "I'm still working on it."

Two years pass by and no marriage.
St. Peter again assures them that he's working on it.

Finally after twenty long years, St. Peter comes running with a priest and tells the couple it's time for their wedding.

The couple marry and live happily for a while. But after a few months the couple go and find St. Peter and tell him things are not working out, and that they want to get a divorce.

"Can you arrange it for us?" they ask.

St. Peter replies, "Are you kidding?!! It took me twenty years to find a priest up here. How am I gonna find you a lawyer?"

get it?? enjoy your day.. a+

Plog #006

2006-07-10T23:34:00.000+08:00

nicely-sculpted shrub in siem reap.. saw it on the way to the city area from our guesthouse..

a+

Plog #005

2006-07-07T10:17:00.000+08:00

position of the subject between vertical columns to focus the viewer's eye on our pretty yixin in the picture..

a+

plog #004

2006-07-05T23:48:00.000+08:00

joyeux annivérsaire!

au mois que 4 minutes, ça sera l'annivérsaire de mon amie, jia min weeheehee.. jouyeux anniversaire!!
ça, je l'ai pris au plage de sihanokville, au cambodge.. c'est après un jour de la tour de 'snorkling'.. nous nous amusons sur la plage avec des mouvements de capoeira.. nous nous semblons fous avant des gens et des enfants environ nous.. mais ça nous sont égal!! haha..

it will be jia min's 21th birthday in less than 4 minutes.. absolutely happy birthday!!
taken at the beach of sihanokville in cambodia.. we were having fun after a snorkling trip during the day.. what else but showing off capoeira stunts, as usual.. i think the cambodians think we are crazy.. but who cares?

a+

plog #004

2006-07-04T00:35:00.000+08:00

夕陽無限好,只是限黃昏.

plog #003

2006-07-03T09:00:00.000+08:00

the collection of skulls dug out from the mass graves.. in the monument, they skills are classified by their age group and sex..

a+

plog #002

2006-07-01T16:18:00.000+08:00

je l'ai pris au cambodge la mois derniere, après mes examens finales.. c'est une monument pour les victimes de khmer rouge.. elle contient des os de gens qui ont été tués pendant l'occupation de khmer rouge..

it is a monument for the victims who were killed by the khmer rouge. it contains skulls dug out of the mass graves at the outskirt of phnom penh.. a really sad place.. i can't help but feel an air of oppression there..

a+

Plog #001

2006-06-30T11:49:00.000+08:00

what is plog? just another ripoff from blog, so it's picture-log.. which simply means a picture with descriptions.. that's all.. well, who said we can't be imaginative and come up with new words of our own, since it's the net and we are free to say and do what we want, isn't it??

why i want to start this plog? well, i was motivated by my friend, chaoyi's a photo a day website which shows a picture he had taken during that day, which is simply fabulous, so i decided that i would start my own.. well perhaps not everyday, but i would try, starting my pictures i had taken from the past.. cheapskate i am.. haha..

une méduse dans l'eau

en français: c'est une méduse que je l'ai pris au monde de sous-marin de sentosa l'année dernier, en fait le jour avant noël.. je pense que elle est très belle, doux et élégant quand elle nage lentement dans l'eau..

i have to keep practicing my french.. it is a jellyfish taken at underwater world in sentosa.. really elegant the way it swims in the water.. it really stands out against the blue background..

oh well, that's it..
a+

ok.. i give you everything.. ms swan video galore

2006-05-21T11:04:00.000+08:00

here you go.. the hottest youtube superstar.. i just do you guys the favor of compiling all her videos here, but you can of course go to youtube.com

ms swan the eyewitness

ms swan sharpest

ms swan at starbucks

ms swan lowers expectations

ms swan the dancing queen

ms swan at the bar

ms swan at the movies

ms swan gimme a clue

ms swan in the plane

ms swan at the drive-thru

ms swan dating game

ms swan the vampire slayer

ms swan at the video store

ms swan at the custom

ms swan the x-files

ms swan at the hypnotist

ms swan the salon interview

ms swan the sex hotline

ms swan at halloween

ms swan at dmv

ms swan at the atm

ms swan meets her father part 1

ms swan meets her father part 2

the days after..

2006-05-11T23:26:00.000+08:00

finally, i've reached the terminus of my academic period.. fours years passed neither fast nor slow.. another chapter in my life closing, while another is opening..

i feeling less motivated to write as much as i would like than before.. perhaps it is my laziness.. maybe the hype has passed me.. oh well..

anyway, be leaving for a short backpack trip to cambodia from 12th to 19th may..
expect lots of pictures from the trip.. thanks to the memory reader by dehua..

somehow there is the lack of authentic motivation from my side.. i wonder it has something to do with the fact that i have not secure myself with a job yet.. perhaps, perhaps.. but don't worry, i'm not upset or anything.. and i'm going to enjoy this trip..

alright, i've reached the point where i felt like stopping to write anymore.. so be back for more updates after the week! cheers..
a+

the french do it the best!

2006-03-31T18:52:00.000+08:00

if you think i'm talking about sex.. well, maybe they are romantic, but there's something they definitely do better than the REST of the world!! that's going on strike! haha..

"en raison d’un mot d’ordre de grève, les programmes habituels de RFI peuvent être perturbés."

translation: in reason of an order of the strike, the usual programmes of RFI can be interrupted.

yes, even the radio presenters go on strike too.. so that's why i keep hearing only music when i tune in to their online radio station.. i kept wondering why they keep playing music when it's an information channel rather than a music channel, even at every hour when i expected to hear news, i only get some programmed voices reporting the time that's all..

apparently, they are on strike because the government is going to cut down the subsidies of the radio stations or something.. that i need confirmation..

but then again, it's the french.. they can happily work for their employers for one minute and go on strike against their government the next.. haha..

disruptive, maybe.. mais c'est la vie de france.. i have never seen a strike while i was in france, but during my last few days in france, i heard that my hosting university need to drive all the way to airport charles de gaulle because the train drivers were on strike.. haha.. lucky buggers, i paid $44 or that trip from paris to troyes, lugging behind me 2 suitcases.. man..

a+

coincidence or fate..?

2006-03-31T00:22:00.000+08:00

i think it's something which would happen to everyone of us along our path in life..

see, i had been looking for a job as a programmer for couple of gaming studios for now.. well, 2 has replied to my application and i have met them couple of times already..

my highlight is on one of the 2 companies called ksatria gameworks.. a new startup game studio.. and guess what is so unique, and so coincidental? it's a french company.. and my tactic was simple: on my resume, i simply wrote down that i've been studying french and I've actually stayed here for 6 months, to which he found interesting, so therefore the interview.. it was last november..

we have agreed to meet again in end march as its much nearer to my graduation date, or the last day in the god-forsaken place.. well, close.. don't you agree?
i met up with them on tuesday, and they have since moved to a bigger office to accommodate more staffs, and more place for them to drink coffee.. well, they are french afterall.. no.. i was just joking about the last part.. they have quite a number of singaporean employees.. a young and energetic lot of them..

well, we were at the end of the 'business' talk and i asked him what game is the company currently working on, some fps-rpg game based on some old gamebook he said, so i asked is it lone wolf, and he was surprised on the fact that knew.. i kind of cheated because i've already saw some of the lone wolf books in the room that we were talking..

here comes the bang: i was an avid fan of the gamebook series lone wolf!! and the coincidence or fate that they are working on it now just make it more fascinating..
for the uninitiated, lone wolf is a very old yet amazing game book series in the 80's, along with other series like 'the way of the tiger' and another game whose name i've forgotten.. couple of us are playing it like crazy during our primary school days.. it follows a lone survivor of a massacre of the kai disciples, and his mission is to hunt down the man or thing behind that massacre and bring order back to sommerlund again, while at the same time training to up his level of the kai order.. by now you might have imagined that i'm talking french now.. something illiterate to most who had not played it before..

such coincidence.. or should i say fate has unconsciously worked its way around that i would chance upon this company which did not advertise on more typical medium like the classified ads.. i found this company at the forum of igda.. now the more i wish i could be employed into that company, so i could have the chance to contribute to my favourite game.. surely there's a higher being up there reading all this no?

oh well, on top of that, i must concentrate on getting through those exams and a final oral presentation of my project.. then could i be considered free.. oh well.. the light at the end of the dark cave is nigh.. i can feel it..

a+

smooch..

2006-03-20T13:43:00.000+08:00

read this article about kissing from my best gal friend's blogsite months ago which is really interesting, so i decided to dump the whole thing here for the sake of convenience..
hope you don't mind bev.. haha

“A kiss is hardly just a kiss”.

Described as a “bizarre activity”, kissing is said to be one of the most expressive gestures in the human repertoire. “Taxonomists of the kiss have long laboured to make sense of its many meanings.

The Romans distinguished among the friendly oscula, the loving basia and the passionate suavia.

”The German language has words for 30 different kinds of kisses, including nachkuessen, which is defined as a kiss 'making up for kisses that have been omitted'.”

One single act, acting as a medium for many messages.

“How did a single act become a medium for so many messages?
There are two possibilities: Either the kiss is a human universal, one of the constellation of innate traits, including language and laughter, that unites us as a species, or it is an invention, like fire or wearing clothes, an idea so good that it was bound to metastasise across the globe.

Scientists have found evidence for both hypotheses. Other species engage in behaviour that looks an awful lot like the smooch (though without its erotic overtones), which implies that kissing might be just as animalistic an impulse as it sometimes feels.
Snails caress each other with their antennae, birds touch beaks and many mammals lick each other's snouts. Chimpanzees even give platonic pecks on the lips. But only humans and our lascivious primate cousins, the bonobos, engage in full-fledged, tongue-on-tongue tonsil-hockey.

Even though all of this might suggest that kissing is in our genes, not all human cultures do it. Charles Darwin was one of the first to point this out. In his book, The Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals, he noted that kissing 'is replaced in various parts of the world by the rubbing of noses'.

Early explorers of the Arctic dubbed this the Eskimo kiss although, as it turns out, the Inuit were not merely rubbing noses but were smelling each other's cheeks.

All across Africa, the Pacific and the Americas, we find cultures that did not know about mouth kissing until their first contact with European explorers. And the attraction was not always immediately apparent.

Most considered the act of exchanging saliva revolting. Among the Lapps of northern Finland, both sexes would bathe together in a state of complete nudity, but kissing was regarded as beyond the pale.

To this day, public kissing is still seen as indecent in many parts of the world.
In 1990, the Beijing-based Workers Daily advised its readers that 'the invasive Europeans brought the kissing custom to China, but it is regarded as a vulgar practice which is all too suggestive of cannibalism'.

If kissing is not universal, then someone must have invented it. Vaughn Bryant, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University, has traced the first recorded kiss back to India, somewhere around 1500BC, when early Vedic scriptures started to mention people 'sniffing' with their mouths, and later texts describe lovers 'setting mouth to mouth'. From there, he hypothesises, the kiss spread westward when Alexander the Great conquered the Punjab in 326BC.

The Romans were inveterate kissers and, along with Latin, the kiss became one of their chief exports. Not long after, early Christians invented the notion of the ritualistic 'holy kiss' and incorporated it into the Eucharist ceremony.

According to some cultural historians, it is only within the last 800 years, with the advent of effective dentistry and the triumph over halitosis (the condition of having bad or foul-smelling breath), that the lips were freed to become an erogenous zone.
For Sigmund Freud, the famous 19th-century psychoanalyst, kissing was a subconscious return to suckling at the mother's breast. Other commentators have noted that the lips bear a striking resemblance to the labia, and that women across the world go to great lengths to make their lips look bigger and redder than they really are to simulate the appearance of sexual arousal, like animals in heat.

A few anthropologists have suggested that mouth kissing is a 'relic gesture', with evolutionary origins in the mouth-to-mouth feeding that occurred between mother and baby in an age before baby foods, and that still takes place in a few parts of the world today.

It can hardly be a coincidence, they note, that in several languages the word for kissing is synonymous with pre-mastication, or that 'sweet' is the epithet most commonly applied to kisses.

But kissing may be more closely linked to our sense of smell than taste. Almost everyone has a distinct scent that is all one's own. Some people can even recognise their relatives in a dark room simply by their body odour (some relatives more than others).

Kissing could have begun as a way of sniffing out who's who. From a whiff to a kiss was just a short trip across the face.

Whatever its origins, kissing seems to be advantageous. A study conducted during the 1980s found that men who kiss their wives before leaving for work live longer, get into fewer car accidents and have a higher income than married men who do not.
So put down this newspaper and pucker up. It does a body good.”
-Joshua Foer-

that said, i have kissed enough girls(on the cheeks only!) during my stay in france to conclude that it does do wonders to one's well-being.. sadly, i can't replicate that back here in singapore.. perhaps that's why i'm feeling more down here than in france.. just jokin..

i would love to kiss my wife everyday just to get out of accidents.. if anyone wants to be that lucky one, just get your queue number now.. cheers

here's how to peel an egg

2006-02-23T09:16:00.000+08:00

remember i mentioned before about a fast way to peel an egg, which most of my friends thought that i was crazy..
well here it is..

mario bros electric guitar version

2006-02-22T11:12:00.000+08:00

found this interesting clip of a japanese dude jamming mario bros on his electric guitar.. way cool..
enjoy.. cheers

fire poi

2006-02-20T19:46:00.000+08:00

a friend of mine took this video couple of years ago.. always fascinated by how he played his poi..

you can also download from here..
enjoy..

chinese new year

2006-02-08T12:57:00.000+08:00

finally got down to re-cap my chinese new year in my friend's place in yong peng, malaysia.. here we were preparing the 'lo hei'..
it's a dish with spices, fruits, crackers, peanuts, and things the names i don't know, but tastes good anyway..
we'll all mix the dish with our chopsticks, at the same time saying auspicious words to give everyone presence good wishes in the new year..

here's the actions.. yours truly is not in the pic, why? because i was the one taking the pictures.. d'uh..

pictures taken on the day we were departing back to singapore..
she and her family..
yufen, her fourth sister, and dehua, her husband, and yixin, their new-born;
her mom carrying chun-jia, the 3rd child of her third sister on the right;
she with chun-zhi, 1st child of her third sister; her bro, jian xiong;
and yulan, her third sister with ting ting, her 2nd child..

yes, our 3-month-old yixin can stand!! and look how she appreciates the flowers..
it was just a joke, she can't stand as yet, but carryed by her dad from the side and terrific photograpic angle by yours truly..

me wishing her a good new year with mandarin oranges..
looked as though we were holding hands.. i wished we were.. haha
wishful thoughts..

me and jian xiong with another candid shot..
seemed like we are gangsters of some sort..

yixin again, looking at more flowers..
don't seem to appreciate them.. like in deep thoughts rather..

hey.. what you taking my pictures for eh?

mom, she's molesting my butt.. and i'm a girl!!..

all hail the best blonde joke

2006-01-18T12:23:00.000+08:00

i'm not really into sexist jokes, but this just got me rolling off the ground, it is just too hilarious:
the best blonde joke

cheers..

bizarre egg dream

2006-01-18T08:38:00.000+08:00

last night, i had one of the most bizarre dream ever..

was watching a short clip sent via email by my sister about a guy who could peel a boiled egg by blowing out the egg! how? he just peeled off a small portion of the top and bottom of the egg, and blow really hard into of the holes. and out came the egg from the other.. haha

then, in my dream, i just kept doing it!! i was somewhere, with some people i can vaguely recall now, and somehow there were boiled eggs..
so somehow, i used the same method to blow out the eggs for them.. man..
talk about strange dreams..

people said that you would dream of things you had thought about in the day, especially of some importance to you.. but eggs?? c'est bizarre quoi, non?

oh well, some interesting things to start your day with.. haha

foot wip

2006-01-14T12:21:00.000+08:00

salut a tous..
after battling with bad topologies and redos, my basic foot is done! well, alomst..
here's a basic shot of it, definitely in need of refinement, especially the ankle part and the general geometry..
but i'm quite done for today..
cheers..

front view

back view

hand wip 2

2006-01-14T01:24:00.000+08:00

finally, the hand is done..
there was a part that the topology was quite messy, so i spent most of the time tidying it up.. but it was a good practice to learn to clean up mistakes you have made earlier so that it would not affect the animation later on..

now, my bed beckons..
cheers..

hand wip

2006-01-13T19:52:00.000+08:00

just an update on my hands i'm working on in the morning..
done with the palm, but still many adjustments to do before its complete..
cheers..

fingers wip

2006-01-13T11:43:00.000+08:00

made these fingers in about an hour's time, following some guidelines by a book i've borrowed from my art director ron..
it may not be the fastest way to do it, but i think it suffices for me as a beginner in modelling fingers and feet..
some screenshots below..

now i need to do a reference hand so as to make them to scale with my male character..
it will eat up the rest of the day and tomorrow, hopefully by then i would have finished its rigging and animation..

my wip

2006-01-13T09:54:00.000+08:00

i will try to start blogging again.. haha..
after a break of so many months, i think it would be a good start for year 2006..
it would be a diary for my animation project also..
something for me to keep track of what i've done so far..

i was doing some technical research for modelling, rigging and animating a character..
here's some pics of what i've reach so far..
i pray for your comments and critics also.. cheers

front view

45 degree front view

side view

45 degree back view

back view

close up of the head..
today i'll start on his palms and feet..
cheers..

2005-12-21T21:19:00.000+08:00

2005-12-19T14:38:00.000+08:00

2005-12-19T14:27:00.000+08:00

have a nice day

2005-10-03T10:57:00.000+08:00

the new bon jovi album truly rocks.. i've been listening to their songs since, what, 14 years ago, and i must say, rock n roll never dies..

although i'm not a die-hard fan of them, but i like most of the ballads they have made, like bed of roses, i'll be there for you and so on.. i'm not really into the faster ones, but helpful when i need the extra jolt of energy.. haha..

my personal favorites are have a 'nice day', 'i am' and 'story of my life', for the faster ones, 'complicated' and 'unbreakble'.. the rest are fine too..

enjoy the samples..
a+

buzzword of the day - attempting suicide

2005-09-19T15:24:00.000+08:00

yessire, and in the heart of nie, that is..

was crossing over to nie for a noon gym seesion, wanted to pass the open area between two buildings when the security shoved me into the corridor. and i saw the other security officials doing the same thing to other students..
then i saw that area been cordoned off with white-and-red tape. knew something amiss. i thought they were trying something dangerous stunts or something like that, but somehow everything doesn't seemed right..
then i saw lots of people looking up at something.. perhaps they are hanging up something high above but i didn't see anything huge as i walked further and further.. until i popped my head out from the corridor. to my shock: a man, early twenties, fair, t-shirt and jeans, sitting just outside the window, with little footing under him..
i was like:" oh man.."
the crowd was gathering, but i just went on my way, not out of indifference, but there's really nothing i could do but watch, so i carried on.. but i really hoped he wouldn't jump at all.. so i popped out my head once every 20 metres, to see if he was still up there, and luckily he was..
after an hour's gym, gone. the man's gone, the tape's gone, everything went on as if nothing had happened, although you could hear whisperings as you walked along that corridor.. saw no blood on the ground, no police, no undertakers. luckily no jump took place, much to my relief..
morale? if you have something pressured up in you, left it out, find someone, there's at least 1 person in the world who you can talk to.. me for example..
suicide is a means, a silly one also.. impeding exams, unreasonable and idiotic fyp supervisor, broken relationship.. whatever, really unwise to end it all just because you can't take it anymore..

cheers

in your face

2005-09-16T11:53:00.000+08:00

let's do capoeira!!

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

c'mon, eh!! gin...ga, gin...ga, gin..ga, ...

my 1st capo-robot.. haha..
after a few days of modelling, a morning of texturing, an hour of posing, and voila, he is born!! and posing in the ginga posture, ready to kick your ass!

rigging still need to be done, before i can do some animation.. but for now, he's cool, and i'm bloody busy..

back to my fyp, which is far from done, and the deadline for the concept art is today.. man..

enjoy,
cheers