finished the last project for Financial Management and can finally get down to studying for exams... phew... fortunately have been able to really focus when I study and not get distracted by noise, the lure of food or sleep... I think people do get better at studying as they grow older. must be because of the lack of time... or maybe because i'm studying something i enjoy.. love Marketing Mgmt... :)

suddenly find myself swamped with a hundred and one things that need my attention - @ work, @ study and time for sorting out personal stuff - haven't paid my credit card, phone etc bills..and there are all these bits here and there that i need to get around to sorting out.. a bit disorganised... and all the time i feel i need to get down to my books and study... need to manage my time..... think i should really try to be super-efficient and finish up my work-stuff at work (and not think about bringing it home) and make it a habit to sleep on time and then wake up a bit earlier to study... and make sure i get all these annoying administrative stuff out of the way..

haha.. thanks for reading about my time management thoughts...you really do have a lot of time on your hands, eh?

btw, forgot to blog about my watching of The Thing yesterday on vcd.. 80s alien movie starring Kurt Russell.. really cool.. the alien in the movie (which could manifest itself in myriad forms) was really scary, full of tentacles, scaly and all that..they don't make them like that anymore.. just checked it out online.. turns out 2002 is exactly the 20th anniversary of the movie.. wow!

back from an inspiring evening with "best-selling author" robert kiyosaki and am now mulling over his radical ideas on "you don't need money to make money", the concept of wealth, the simple definitions of assets and liabilities, and importance of financial literacy, how schools actually teach you how to be an employee (E) or to be a Self-Employed Person (S) so you will never actually be "financially free" as the government actually discriminates against people in these quadrants...etc etc.. quite a charismatic and yet humble and real (describes himself as "terrible with spelliing - can't write - flunk his exams") guy.. you can almost imagine yourself sitting down to have tea with him... definitely an eye-opener for an "investment virgin" like myself, especially when he goes into talking about stuff like options, real estates etc.. . and especially when he makes us all fill up this worksheet to let us examine how much these so called "assets" (stuff that puts money in your wallet whether or not you are working) we have at the moment... quite thought provoking.... it's definitely a good start..

his definition of what sort of skills we should have in order to become real "Business Owners" would also be a good lesson for many of us arrrogant young punks who think the world of ourselves.. he believes in listening and paying good money to real experts to provide solid advice (and warns against getting "free advice" from third auntie, fourth uncle etc and hanging around with "stupid people"... i.e. people who speak a lot but don't know nuts about investments). He also believes good selling skills are essential, because everything is related to selling (ideas to investors, schemes to employees, products to customers..)..

makes me feel good about being in the sales line.. :)

going for robert kiyosaki's seminar later!! have been waiting for it since jan! will blog about this later...

just went for the amazing MPH booksale off Yio Chu Kang Rd (Tagore Dr - until tomorrow) and bought 7 new Lonely Planet Guidebooks for only $10 each!! When will I have the time to go West Africa, Southern Africa, South America, SW China, Mexico, Maldives (maybe end of the year? :)) and India?? : p maybe i will find out how and when after I attend the seminar?? :D haha... better not expect this to create miracles...

bought a new Oral-B toothbrush yesterday called the Cross Action - quite cool.. it comes with three types of bristles and was apparently developed by Oral-B after some couple of million US$ of R&D. heard about it from my Marketing Class after one of the groups did a project presentation on Oral-B as a company and how they come up with new products and pricing. According to my Marketing lecturer, consumers can be divided into different categories depending on how quickly they rush out to check out a new product in the market - the quickest are these people called "innovators" (like my friend Daniel who is always the first to get novel and innovative products - like the NetMD and Xbox) once it hits the market and on the other end of the scale are these "laggards" who only buy the products when they are tried and tested to death by the majority of the people...

i think i fall somewhere in between..err... ya?

Good Friday is the day that Christians around the world remember the crucifixion of Jesus. (Matthew 27:32-56; Mark 14:25-41; Luke 23:26-56; John 19:16-42) Good Friday is probably a corruption of the name, "God's Friday", although paradoxically His death was for our ultimate good.
Peter preached to the crowd on the day of Pentecost to explain what had happened when Jesus was crucified. He explained that Jesus was accredited by God by miracles, wonders and signs to show that He was the Messiah, who was promised to the Jewish nation through the prophets. Peter added that Jesus was handed over to them by God's set purpose and foreknowledge (Isaiah 53:10).

Why would God sacrifice His only begotton Son? Jesus did nothing to deserve death. He was sinless. He died for our sins. Scripture tells us in John 3:16 that God loved the world so much that He gave His Son (as a sin offering) so that whoever believes in Jesus (believes that His death and resurrection paid our debt of sin to God) will have everlasting life. God raised Jesus to life and declared to Him the title of Christ, the Anointed One, which is to say the Messiah.

Peter went on to say that everyone in the crowd should repent and be baptized, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call."

That means the promise is for you also, if you want peace with God. Jesus is our Peace.

At His Last Supper, Jesus told His disciples, "This is My Body. This is My Blood." We recognize His Body and Blood in the sacrament of The Lord's Supper. We also remember the price at which our salvation was bought.

Bad Dive Practices in Singapore

A friend of mine almost died on a dive trip last week. A sweet young girl in her twenties, at the prime of her life, excitedly going on the second dive trip of her life … a trip that almost became the last one she will ever take. As I write this, I find myself quivering… not with fear, not with restraint sadness and relief.. but with anger. With anger at the people who made her think she was ready to go diving, but who didn’t make sure she was mentally, physically, theoretically and technically trained for it… and who didn’t make sure she would be safe... the stupid, incompetent and ill-trained people who make diving, this great love of mine appear dangerous to the rest of the world...this was what happened... (and i will write about what the correct practice should have been in italics..)

an inexperienced diver (probably on her third or fourth actual open water dive), she was nonetheless made on the first dive of her trip to dive with someone who was obviously not very experienced as well (judging from his wrong/non-reactions and almost zero help rendered to her throughout her whole ordeal) - durrh??? and to dive to a ridiculously deep level of 28metres (when she was by right only allowed to dive, based on her qualification and experience, and since this was the first dive of the trip - what we would normally term a "check-out dive" - to dive to no more than 18metres). As she was descending, she apparently felt herself descending too quickly to the bottom. She then rose to the surface again and then descended again. For some reason, she felt herself descending too fast again and came up again and went down again. (I don't know how quickly she descended (cos quick descends are not really a problem - the maximum allowed is 30m a minutes - which i doubt she exceeded - though what she did was really really stupid - almost amounting to suicide. In diving, one of the biggest dangers to divers is this condition known as "Decompression Sickness" (or DCS) which is caused by sudden ascents giving little time for nitrogen that is dissolved into body tissues (due to increased pressure at descend) to leave the tissues and to reenter the blood stream safely. What happens hence are that these nitrogen bubbles form in the tissues and can cause disorders - the worst of which are paralysis and death. Going up and down repeatedly is like an insane practice in pumping nitrogen in and out of the body tissues..

anyhow, more was to come. when she reached the bottom, she suddenly found her regulator (which is the mouthpiece bit) filled with water. this is actually not a serious thing and we are all taught during training how to purposely take it out (after which it fills with water), purge the water out and then put it back in. Even now, I do intentionally occasionally take out my mouthpiece during a dive to rinse my dry throat. Nonetheless, the poor girl panicked and thought her equipment faulty. She signaled a panic "No air" signal to her buddy who then came over and handed her his alternative air source ("octopus"). The octopus was of course also filled with water (since it was hanging in the water all this time) and the poor girl now thought both pieces were faulty (I don't know why her buddy didn't reassure her all this while.. I blame him... I really do..)

With her air supply now cut off from her (and mentally and actually running out of air..), she then started to do a rapid ascent to the surface in a state of panic. (Remember what I said about rapid ascents? The correct speed is a slow 15m per minute, followed by a 3min wait at 5m, and finally another 1 full minute to reach the surface) .. but the poor girl didn’t realize how deep 28metres is (it is about 7 to 8 storeys of an HDB flat) and she felt herself taking forever.. which didn’t help with her state of panic and feeling of doom. She then started to swallow water and by the time she reached the surface, they found her pale, her lips purplish, unconscious and foaming at the mouth.

It took a while before they could revive her and by then, she was hysterical, crying, vomiting and all that…

I don’t know if she will ever dive again.. but I detest how badly some divers are trained in Singapore… especially those dive schools that promise a certification after only a weekend of training. I took almost six months to complete my own dive training – did more than 12 sessions in the pool, attended 20 lectures, did many theory and diving competency tests before I actually entered the sea for the first time.. and even then I was accompanied by a qualified trainer until I was competent enough to rescue even my dive buddy…

I hate the bad dive schools in Singapore. I hate those people who make diving look so dangerous and risky when they are actually just stupid and arrogant and badly trained..

another great reason and way to travel!!

Check out "Degree Confluence Project" - the goal of the project is "to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location" and then post them and the stories on the website.. :D - sorry... did i just lose you? :p ok ok... "integer degree intersections are points such as 35°S 60°W or 106°N 6°E, basically intersection points made up of whole numbers (just in case you forgot what integers are... ). There are literally thousands of such locations in the world (12,776 to be exact - excluding those in the ocean and near the poles & many of them probably inaccessible - i.e. in the middle of the dense amazon or mountain top!) but one such chap has obviously thought this a good idea and reckons crazed GPS device folks like himself (and us too! :D) would be mad enough to go for it... HE'S PROBABLY RIGHT!!! He seems to be quite successful - there are tons of stories and pictures online..

singapore isn't on it.. unfortunately.. i just realised we are something like 1° 18' N 103° 50' E ...ya, seems like the whole of this "Little Red Dot" has in fact got just one intersection point for all to share.. might check out the Malaysian ones after the exams.. :)

The Problem With Asian Parents

The relationship of an Asian mother with her daughter is, in my opinion, one of the most volatile and complicated relationships between any two people. Recall the story of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club - a well-known story revolving around the different mother-daughter relationships between the characters. In the book, the problem of communication and lack of understanding between mothers and daughters is emphasized. The stories are rife with mother-daughter conflicts, often tearful, often unresolved even till deathbed. While trying not to be a little overdramatic here, I see this constant conflict of opinions, ideas, beliefs and frequent (and often violent)disagreements on what is considered right and wrong behaviour and overprotectionistic behaviour a pretty common source of disharmony and stress even among my peer - girlfriends around me and their mothers.

My relationship with my mother is itself a classic example of one such relationship. In every way, my mother is the typical Chinese mother, caring, protective and ever ready with every meal, doing the washing and cleaning, and making sure the house is spick and span. A very house-proud mother, if you could say. You will ask: So what are your complaints, you ingrate!? I have only one: the fact that almost three decades from the day I was born, my mother still does not ever seem to notice that I have grown up, I have my own experiences now, and I have my own way of interpreting and experiencing the world. The world that I am experiencing now is alien to my mother, just as hers will be alien to me should I ever travel back in a time machine. Yet, my mother (and she is not the only mother to think this way, from a random survey of girlfriends' mothers around) believes that as long as her daughter (i.e. me) is not married (no matter whether I am 15,25,35 or 45 or :O...), I will always have to abide by the rules for which she has imposed on me from the day I started walking. These rules include curfews, living habits, opinions and sometimes even things like hobbies (which for me fortunately I have been able to get away with, having started diving and skiing since the UK and am now beyond her reach).

I don't think she and the others will ever know how little difference that will make to whether we do end up experiencing what we really want to in this vast and exciting world - guided no longer by their protective arms but by our own beliefs, intuitions and principles. Instead, what they will end up with are merely rebellious children who will choose to share less and less with them as time goes by...

just read this at Motley Fool:

Invest Your Passing Windfall

What a joyous day it is when money you didn't expect shows up on your doorstep. Such luck comes in many forms: a rebate, refund, birthday check, victorious lawsuit against an automobile manufacturer that didn't properly warn you that cars don't float, and so on.

Many a Fool makes it a rule to always invest found money. Smart move. After all, the money wasn't expected, and -- as long as you're living below your means -- you don't need it. Let's say you get a tax refund check of $300 this year. If you add that to a regular investment account now, and the investment you choose averages a return of 10% a year, you'll have more than $2,000 in 2022. Your retired self will thank you.

Unfortunately, windfalls are unreliable and difficult to plan for. ("If Great Uncle Thurston dies in three years, and leaves us $100,000, then we can retire.") The good news is you can create your own bonanza. No, we're not encouraging you to line your uncle's walkway with banana peels. Try these boon-makers:

1. Any time you get a raise, stick to your current budget and invest the extra.

2. Once a debt is paid off -- a school loan or car payment, for example -- keep writing that check, but send it to your retirement or brokerage account.

3. Search every cabinet, closet, and crawlspace for stuff you don't need. Perhaps you could sell some of your "collectibles" to Mary Anne's Cheeky Antiques down the street. And let's not forget hawking your wares on eBay or Half.com -- a great way to decrease your clutter and increase your wealth.

4. The old standby: When you get home, put all your loose change and maybe some bills in a jar. Every few months, roll the coins and make a bank deposit.

5. Forgo a regular expense -- cable TV, magazine subscriptions, that extra cell phone -- and sign up for a dividend reinvestment plan.

Building wealth through windfalls is a two-fold commitment: 1) Resolve to invest all unexpected money, and 2) seek out ways to find "hidden" money. A little effort will get the windfalls blowing your way.

someone, please tell me what this is all about...

hahahhahaha.. :,D



see earlier pic

so what do you fret about if you are a "Housewife in Houston"?... cockroaches and lemons?? :p



back from watching remarkably beautiful show.. err.. "A Beautiful Mind" - starring Russell Crowe as mathematical genius - cum - Nobel prize winner John Nash. Another multi-Academy award nominated movie, Russell Crowe put up a simply superb and stirring performance in a movie that was gripping with the start, well-paced, thrilling at times and at the end of it, touching, meaningful and very human in dimension. Loved it. *sniff* Never been much of a mathematical person myself but have to admit I am pretty impressed by all these Nobel prize winners and their genius.. after all, I am just a "gifted borderline genius" myself.. :p

Read up a little more about the real John Nash - truely remarkable character... see this also..

blogger has been so incredibly unstable tonight... was about to give up except that am stuck anyway at computer trying to sort out Finance project.. panic panic...

very interesting discussion with three friends yesterday - one a newly-born Christian, one an agnostic (who is nonetheless keen on the powers of crystals and yoga) and the last a "true atheist" - at least that's the way she describes herself (but who believes in karma). And what better topic to discuss than "What is the meaning of life?" (which was a great way to share the gospel with our two unbelieving friends - two people who can be considered fairly successful in life but nonetheless have wondered if there is more to this life).

I like the way how this page clearly summarises what a Christian believes in when it comes to the question of "Meaning & Purpose of Life" - A tree does not have to "try" to fulfill its purpose in life. It does what God meant it to do (i.e. provide shade and shelter and fruits) and it has fulfilled what it was destined for in this life. In the same way, only by knowing what the will of our Creator is for us - the blueprint He has planned for us in our earthly existence - can we truely find our meaning in life and the peace that we so desire. And in every step of the way, God will be with us, guiding, empowering and blessing us as we fulfill the purpose of why we were brought into this world.

Of course along the way came the question of: "If God really does exist, why doesn't he just make everyone believe in him?"

Can God force upon us this decision or this gift? Not if He is a loving and just God. As with all gifts, there are only three ways you can deal with it: You receive it, you deny it, or you ignore it. If you believe in Him and pray with a genuine heart to receive His gift and allow Him to change your life, He will embrace you and forgive you. If you reject Him outright, or pretend you don't need Him, He will let you have your way. Neither can He deny it to any, as a loving God would not create beings destined to go to Hell without hope. By accepting Christ's gift into your life you acknowledge that you are imperfect and need God in your life to help you. You submit to Him and are no longer rebellious. However, a soul that never acknowledges need for God remains in rebellion against Him. Hell is where the rebellious souls go when they die, and heaven is for those who have repented of their sin. Hell is eternal separation from God in a place where there will be great pain and suffering. Those in heaven enjoying God's presence will rejoice eternally having full knowledge of what they deserve, and basking in what joy they experience in God's awesome presence. They will be so overwhelmed with joy, love, peace, and happiness that they will have no other desire than to praise God for eternity- which they will of course choose to do.

It's quite simple. Think about it. And if you find that you can't accept this (or are getting annoyed reading this), for a moment just consider if this is something to do with your own selfish-pride.. if it is, then perhaps you are denying yourself the chance to know the truth and to know peace.. is it really worth it?

took the IQtest and found that i am a "Gifted Borderline Genius"... whatever...

my ticket to london has been booked and confirmed!! :D

didn't tell you guys about this really yummy Fishhead Steamboat place at Whampoa Drive that alb & I discovered about a month back. Has been there twice in the last two weeks in my quest to complete the (almost) impossible task/lifetime mission of trying out all the food stalls that are listed in the Makansutra book. :p

Xin Heng Feng Guo Tia Tan located at #01-599, Block 90 Whampoa Drive - open 4.30 to 9.30 pm (don't go to the wrong one at the opposite block (not really wrong lah, just that it has a lower rating - this one called Chye Lee Fishhead Steamboat 91 Whampoa Drive #01-773 - also not bad but compare the ratings!! >> :p)

You can even go there when you are with just one other person and they give you a smaller charcoal steamboat pot filled with fresh stingray fish slices, vegetables, hot steaming soup (with the most amazing flavour of well-made broth).. my mouth waters just thinking about it... :) don't go too late... they sell out really quickly...

people loved the kitty!! :)

this is quite fun... check this out to see what's wrong with this picture (click) you may need some time before you find it.. but persevere!!

Turn on the volume! :p

click for buttercup a-la "The Ring" starring my dearest sister

am in a mood for the macabre..

actually maybe just feeling moody and contemplative and at the same time highly suffocated...

sorry.. hope this cheers you up..

just watched the much hyped about movie Ice Age and have to admit that I am a tad bit disappointed.

True to the hype, the graphics were awesome and realistic, especially for the scenes where they had flowing lava, falling avalanches and blizzards. The movements of the well-drawn characters were pretty darn good too. But for some reason, I found the movie lacking in plot, somewhat slow-moving, and with way too much slapstick humour for my liking. There was hardly any other type of humour in the show (i.e. witty, unexpected ones that I like) and I concluded that the show was probably targeted at kids (successfully as I can tell, judging from the excitement from the kid sitting two seats away from me, repeating every other line spoken by the characters - which looked anyway like they were looted from any typical Disney cartoon - especially the wicked Diego and silly loser Sid)... but I guess it's still worth watching, just for the graphics I suppose...

btw..just found this on the web, apparently someone important enough said it..

"As you pass through the portals of RGS, our vision is that you will not be content to be mere passive inheritors of this fine tradition but will aspire, strive and dare to be active creators of a better age for all. In this way, each generation will truly be Daughters Of A Better Age. Filiae Melioris Aevi."

.. wow....inspiring..

We shall henceforth remember this weekend as either a “gourmet” weekend or a “stuff-face” weekend or worse still, an indigestion weekend :p.. I have just ingested two tabs of Rennie (medication for indigestion) and I still don’t feel much better. Burp!

After the afternoon lunch session, all of us were sure we didn’t need food again until, err… probably Monday or something :p. But guess we had underestimated our appetites. By the time we got to Brewerkz in the evening and found lay before us chips of a thousand different flavours (tortilla, tapioca, keropok, etc etc) as well as nicely grilled bbq wings, onion rings, pizzas and what-nots, we found ourselves eating again. I am convinced we are indeed gluttons.….

Solemnisation and celebrations went like a breeze, except for a short (and amusing) moment when the lovely Justice of Peace’s feathers were ruffled when she was (in her own words) “for the very first time” called the "JOP" (instead of the usual JP). Hahaha..

On our part, I think we made the night memorable for our dear friend (and maybe for ourselves as well), breaking into a rendition of our much loved RGS song & motto “Filiae Melioris Aevi” (Daughters of A Better Age) - sung opera-style (with the appropriate accompanying handhold), followed by an impromptu acapella “Stand By Me” with swinging, swagging and finger clicking…it was fun and at the same time sentimentally nostalgic... of course we would all have loved to sing the actual RGS school song, except that none of us could really remember past the first line - "From High Olympus flows to us the glory... err...err...".. :p found it online anyway..

:)

back for a rest after stuffing face at friend's wedding lunch at Peranakan Restaurant Blue Ginger. Just couldn't stop eating cos the food was so tasty, the company was great and we were just so hungry after a morning of activity - including the bargaining process at the door where the groom was made to eat a series of "food items" consisting of the four dominant tastes - sweet (sugar syrup poured over kueh lapis). sour (pure lemon with vinegar concoction), bitter (cross-sectional slices of bittergourd) and spicy/hot (chilli sambal sandwiches). We also came up with a "yucky" - raw egg with mayonnaise and soya sauce. He was also made to do a series of embarrassing actions (including sing - which turned out to be his weakness). Quite fun. Groom was quite impressive and took everything in his stride.. looks like he is really eager to marry our dearest friend.. :) glad for her...

recovering now (with the help of Eno and Earl Grey Tea) from the stuff-face session. The free flow of pong tauhu, kueh pai tee, ayam panggan blue ginger, otak otak, steamed tiger prawns, ayam buah keluak, assam fish, oyster vegetable, babi pong tay, durian chendol and gula melaka, , coupled with our being hungry and greedy made us just eat and eat and eat (like there is no tomorrow - as the wise ones always say..:))..

think i will go for a walk/run before showering and going down to Brewerz to continue the celebrations!

read something good today.. it says:

"The value of any week is not limited to what we do in it; it's also in what we learn from it."

how true. sometimes, we just pack our days, weeks and years with as many activities as we can, thinking we are making the best use of our time. in actual fact, if we go through it all without learning anything from it, or without influencing anyone else's life in a positive way, it is actually all quite meaningless..

don't you think so?



btw, I think this is really nicely done and meaningful....Check out "The Miniature Earth"

things seem to be looking up again :)

a couple of close friends (unfortunately not all yet) around me who have been depressed, uncertain or feeling "stuck" in this current phase of their lives (what I termed at that time as "age of emotional turmoil", a symptom of the much talked-about "quarter-life crisis") have since adopted various and all positive steps and outlooks to move along with their lives.

Maybe it is to do with this being March, the point in the year when you realise that three full months have passed and you take stock of what you have done with your life this year until now. Suddenly, fear grips you and you realise that if you don't start to make some changes in your life from this moment on, think positive and enjoy and maximise your time with the people around you who are close to you - this whole year could just pass you by... Worse still, your whole life could pass you by without notice! :O The good thing is, there are still nine more months to go (for 2002), so you decide that enough is enough and it is time to make the most of the rest of the year (and you think this could be the start of something if you really could put your mind to it). One friend has decided to stop procrastinating and to do all the unpleasant (but have to do) tasks that he has been putting off for a while and to really live every moment in the best way possible. Actually felt really glad to hear that.

Whatever is the reason, i'm glad the gloomy mood has lifted on a whole... :)

I've finally gotten my Lomo Kompact Automat (LCA) camera (in short "lomo")!!! Welcome to lomo land :) It's so genuinely Russian Original that it even has the word "LOMO" in front of it in Cyrillic (not like the one in the picture above - see mine)!! bought it at a great bargain at this shop in Orchard Plaza (grubby-smelling building right next to where I work) and it has apparently been sitting in the window for quite a while since "a Russian" sold it to the shop owner "quite some time ago". the guy obviously doesn't know how much it is worth in the market (i.e. $330 - if you buy it from the Lomographic Society of Singapore) and I got it for a fabulous $150!!! It's in perfect working condition!! :D he was a bit surprised when i finally told him how much the Vienna-made one sells for! now i have two lomo cameras - this and the one i bought in Sept last year! i think i am obsessed with cameras - i have one slr, two compacts, two polariods, one digital and now two lomos!! :O

think i will probably be bringing just my new lomo and my slr to london.. yes!! i'll finally be going back to london after 5 years! (if all things turn out as planned)... i'm actually feeling a lump in my throat as i'm saying this...

:) i really love london...

went for yummy dinner at popular Old Airport Road hawker centre yesterday and could hardly find parking space - that place has the most amazing collection of stalls with newspaper-cuttings, banners and photos of City Beat's visit, Makansutra, Streats, Life etc etc recommendations and so on.. ended up eating Hua Kee Wanton Mee and Ngoh Hiang after sifting through the overwhelming variety available. yum! :)

i like this!! i really really like it!! hahahaha.... :D

discovered a copy of Sept 12 2001's Today last week. Front page had a huge picture of the twin towers of WTC on fire before they both collapsed. There were more pictures inside showing the two kamikaze planes actually flying into the twin towers and then the buildings catching fire after that. It still feels spooky looking at these pics even though it has been (almost) exactly half a year since the event that shook the world happened.. :( such an impact on the world that i'm sure its going to be spoken in the same breath as the Holocaust even many many generations from now..

- click on it to see this page by Reuters photographer Sean Adair

Karen, Is this the My Virtual Model you are talking about?

got my new "Illicit Green" Nokia handphone cover yesterday - check it out.. cool huh? :)started a new album to keep pics of stuff that are damaged.. come to think of it, it sounds quite spooky.. like I am trying to keep a photographic reminder of these "dead and gone" things ... eeks.. like my car key that broke today just when i was trying to drive to school. fortunately the nice key lady (err... sounds like the tea lady :p.. oh ya, they are called "locksmiths"!) managed to make a replacement nonetheless from the two separate parts.. umm.. wonder who else on the web puts up something like that.. ? quite morbid huh...

cracked my 8250 cover barely a week after getting the phone back from Nokia Care Centre! :O Now will have to incur extra expenses getting a replacement one (check out what you can find in other countries! They even have a Joystick cover for the 3310 so you can play the game Space Impact more efficiently! :D ).. anyway, think i will go and get the Buttercup green one i have been eyeing for a while.. :p

have been told that my changing of the colour of my links has made them virtually invisible.. what to do...? I think i am colour-challenged..

have gotten myself in a frenzy trying to get a grasp of acrylic painting! :p will be teaching it to a bunch of kids come mid-March (hopefully over the March holidays) and as usual I am trying to make sure I know enough to teach them so they get their money's worth! It is a lot more tricky than oil painting 'cos acrylic paints dry so quickly and it is hard to blend them after that.. as they say ""The major advantage of acrylics is that they dry really fast. The major disadvantage of acrylics is that they dry really fast!" durrh... maybe that's why they are so popular with the modern yuppie in their twenties - we get a lot of them coming into our shop buying acrylic paints to do abstract stuff - see this wonderful bunch of acrylic works by one of our customers.

still, managed to get talented artist-friend tonight to teach me about using guiding lines (short straight lines drawn at various points to divide up the picture) while doing sketches to ensure that proportions are kept right, painting from darker colours to lighter colours (instead of the other way round), being generous with paints, ensuring the placement of materials around you is correct while painting and what sort of brushes to use and all that. Very impressed considering he has never taught before..

Quite fun. Think I can paint acrylic painting now.. :p

Realised that I actually know a lot of people around me who are really talented in all sorts of different areas (from sports to computers to art, philosophy, photography and all that) and I can actually learn of lot of stuff from them as long as I take the trouble (and muster the guts) to sincerely ask them... :)

quite a fulfilling weekend.. actually got some studying done today as well (managed to really focus on my notes and books for a good hour and a half even though my progress is still amazingly slow - i only managed to cover one topic!!). On top of that, stole time out to relax over coffee and scone for part of the afternoon outside Borders, collected my 8250 finally (I'm walking on the blue side again! :)) and just managed to go East Coast to blade for about an hour or so..

that's how weekends should be.. a mix of books, entertainment, fitness and good company... :)

Went for very minimalist lomo exhibition at Atelier Frank and Lee Contemporary Art Gallery last Thursday – organized by Lomographic Society Singapore. Exhibited shots were taken over nine nights by a bunch of kompact lomo-wielding photographers “walking that labyrinthine night of Singapore” displayed in old Perankan shophouse with huge rainwater-airwell – quite interesting.. super-saturated “arty-looking” (i.e. blurry/distorted but in a pleasant sort of way) pics look even more amazing pieced together on the stark white wall in a kind of random jigsaw puzzle. Just might buy the Lomo Kompact after all if I ever manage to save up for it.. : p – don’t our material appetites ever get satisfied?

Finally started sort-of studying for exams yesterday, spending 3 hours at the freezing cold SIM library going through my notes– realised my built-in “kiasu Singaporean” state of mind had kicked in after I woke up every morning thinking about the exams and about not having past exam papers. Studying in a cold cubicle in a quiet library just reminds me of my University days, my JC days and all the other times I studied in the past. Realised I actually like studying. Don’t like exams. Just like studying. Why don’t they let people like us have exemptions and just do projects instead? :| … I wouldn’t mind…

Check out my new Oakleys!! And see how they cleverly reflects McDonald’s in their lenses! :) - yay! Managed to wait till I got this month’s paycheck before buying them.. not bad huh?

Watched “5 Academy-award nominee” (that’s what they are all described as now) The Shipping News yesterday starring Kevin Spacey and a bunch of other quite well-known names. Very pleasant evenly-paced movie with beautiful scenery (umm.. where’s Newfoundland?) and quite a gripping plot. Alb describes it as a movie for a relaxing Sunday afternoon after which people go home and cook a meal at home. Huh?

things turned out ok in the end yesterday... Thank God.... in retrospect, things were really not spiralling so out of control - but I really surprised myself with how easily i just "lost it" and started to fret and mope.. along the way, I got so irritable that I just basically "yelled" at everyone who came in contact with me.. so unpleasant.. :( .... pms? :p durh.. lame excuse.... i think this is quite a weakness of mine...

met up with a whole bunch of different people today - had lunch with friend from JC who has "settled down" (i.e. married and with stable job) and is now a bit restless in his job (too bad bright chap is "bonded" as a scholar - another 6 years to go! I don't even know what's going to happen in 6 days..:p) and dinner with friends (whom I meet once every 6 months) from Sec School band who are either married, in the transition being so, or doing nothing much (so it appears..).. Also said farewell to Mich, part of my close bunch of friends from Sec School, who will be beginning a sort of new life (even if it is only for a year or so) overseas in Houston with her hubby who is on overseas attachment.

Suddenly dawned on me this philosophical thought that the world probably does feel like it is going on even faster if you are standing still yourself…