Went for a buffet lunch today at Genghis Khan. The stuff quite okay for it's price; at least it's much better than the Charcoal BBQ at Orchard Shopping Centre; the food there is too expensive although it's an unusual experience.

Anyway, I don't really like buffet, think it's the Singaporean mentality; if we go to buffet, we have to really eat till it's worth it... :( Don't really like to do that sort of thing but can't help it; that's why I have been avoiding Buffets unless it's some special occasion.

Went to the COMEX 2004. Definitely a big crowd there and you don't really get to walk - I hate squeezing in the crowd unless I needed to get something. Anyway, been searching high and low for Sandisk booth but it seems that I'm blinded from it. Until I bought the 512MB Transcend USB Flash Stick, which my dad needed, from Memory World, did I see the big letters "SANDISK" right in front of me - and I have been searching around the fair for a full 30 mins. Sigh~ Hate that sort of situation. Well, at least the Transcend USB is just $12 more expensive - taking into account of the USB extension sort of made it up for the price. Anyway, the difference is more than made up when I got the TDK DVD Writer, that is the main reason that I'm at the trade fair, at $149 which is a last min price slashing. I used the difference to get myself 25 piece of TDK DVD -R at $40 which is cheaper than getting the 10 pcs if I bought it at the $199 package.

Back at home - Tried out the DVD Writer; saved more than 8GB of space after dumping my Anime into it~ Hehe, HDD a lot of space again~

Just finished watching the Olympic rhythmic gymnasium, I was quite amazed by some of the routines performed, the grasp of timing, the song's rhythm~ Could see that the skills and the timing acquired are through much sweat and blood. Indeed, I think the Olympic has shown us that being an athelete is by no means an easy feat; success does not only come through time and time of continual practice, years and years of sweat and blood. It also requires the mental determination of desiring to win and the strive for excellence. This really reflect the mentality of successful people in their fields and are worth learning if we too want to achieve excellence in what we do.

Daily Reflection~

Sigh~ Missed my morning class... must control the timing that I go to bed... it is definitely a toll on pathway to achieving As for this coming exams.

Attended the PAYM tea reception this afternoon; really get to know more about PAYM and YEC. I'm kind of tempted to join it, had not my commitments to other activities in school and of coz, my usual term time stay in the hostel and the application for GIP. Really interested in organising a forum for student leaders or any youth who's interested in education matters to a forum that focus on the education of future Singapore. Definitely one of my agenda in the future.

Went to the Z-POP concert after that, it seems that there are a lot of Ho Yeow Sun's fan around; she seemed to get more support than any other of my favourite artiste; something must be really wrong....

Went to the TCC in Boat Quay, nice ambience but unfortunately relatively expensive to Dome, Bishan for the stuff that I get; could be the rental. They do however, have a great menu with many different types of coffee.... Still, I think the prices could still be adjusted if they are going to target the student population.

Today~

Had hell lot of problem with the SC206 Lab, despite staying overnight till 5am to wire wrap the Target Development Board as good as possible, still find problem; luckily Michael had a copy of Formal Report of 206... keke~ Still spend more time than expected and we haven't began with Lab 2.... Sigh~ Must catch up next week.

Having major problem with SC205 lessons. Think I need to spend more time revising it. :(

Went for IIC sub-comm meeting~ Actually not really considered meeting, more like carrying out tasks assigned, pasted most of the advert promoting the financial talk on Tues. Hmm, bad thing about it~ They need to be teared down by Wed.

Went to JP and shopped for a bit while waiting for Wee Beng to collect the Fedora Core 2 CDs. Seemed to have some problem with my skin, it seemed to seeping lots of oil, cleaned it twice with facial paper and it took less than 30mins for the problem to return. Sigh~ perhaps should cut down fatty subtances in my diet.

While transfering files to Eric Computer, realised that his laptop is not properly patched, did the windows update thing but it seemed to fail to download. I think I should start learning more on Win XP and troubleshooting skills~ Still not up to par as yet, spent at least 2 hours of my time, not including him looking bored and stuff there~ Sigh~ Sorry Eric, couldn't help much as yet. Wait till I bring my tools from home and blast the stupid registry back to normal next week~ Keke~

Well, 3am now. Time to rest~

Let's see, what's one for today~

For once, I managed to get up on time for class... Yeah, a step improvement from yesterday, perhaps I should stick to the 7hrs sleep rule; seem to work most of the time~

Well, about today class~ Sourin still bores me~ he's getting too technical in what he teach and fails to spike my interest in one of the most interesting subject; 3D graphics~ Sigh~ I think there a gap in my communication with him; must depend on myself....

Peter Low still manages to catch my attention now and then, but I do hope he could improve in bring practical relevance to the subject. I think the biggest problem still lies with the NTU SCE, teaching already obsolete stuff to us; how to bring relevance~ Sigh~ If only I knew it were like that, I would complete my NS and do a part time Degree with SIM or Informatics; practicality and theory at the same time; then again, I would have missed out the fun that I derive from knowing more people in NTU and having a solid undergrad experience~

Coming to the interesting subject of the day; GP13 personal mastery of managing change; at least it ain't a mundane subject like the rest were; I still prefer stuff that bring relevance to our everyday life~ keke~ I'm a practical person afterall.

Quite interesting stuff we learnt today- about Security/Control to Learning/Discovery; on the hindsight, there isn't much relevance in what we learnt earlier on in the class, seemed to have touched on one's beliefs system and rephasing situations, hmm, reminds me of NLP; better find time this weekend to brush up on that.

In the later part, we talked about the 2 assumptions of the world; 1 - The world is stable, predictable and controllable; basically like what it was a century ago, 2 - The world is a complex system and changes happen all the time, like what it is at this point of time. The concepts are quite interesting and true to the fact; definitely deserves studying. We also talked about the control paradox, ie. The more we exert control over the events of our lives, the less in control we feel. Indeed, many of the situations are most often than not, are hard to control, the worst part is, the more you want to get it in your way, the more it gets in the other way. Yet, the less we want to control it might misled others that we are indifference. Perhaps we should learn from the principles of Tachi and Akido, go with the flow and using the flow to our advantage.

Another interesting topic that was raised was that the objective for having school is learning how to learn. Indeed, Singapore system focus too much on teaching us what is right and what is wrong. However, it miss out the important aspect that the world is changing all the time and what is right today might be wrong tomorrow. So what should be our objective in learning; I suppose in a short sentence - "The objective of learning is to learn what learning is all about; so that we can follow with the changing time and look at things from different perspective" Simple as that. ^_^

Finally started my first run of the week; quite a while since I last ran, need to discipline myself so that I can get myself prepared for the Army Half Marathon this coming Sept.

Sigh~ The CCNA exam coming soon, don't know whether can get prepared for it or not~ If postpone again, then I can only take it after exams~ Well, what to do, all for the sake of my startup. No pain no gain....

Sianz, sianz....

this week seemed to suffering from brunt out from activities...
Went to PACE at Sat, interesting seminar on WinXP Security Issues... Too bad, the courses are damn expensive... Spend my Sun at SLS waiting for Ah Beng to get his PC. Sigh~ Lessons relearnt, know what you want before going down there, otherwise you are going to spend precious time waiting for the sales persons dealing with other people while you had no idea what to get....

Didn't catch much of the PM Lee's National Day Rally.... Some very interesting ideas that are being posted up, esp on Education; itching to write another ST Forum article on it. The 5 days work week also sound very good, esp when I go back to SAF.... serve 1/7 less of torture... Well, all for the good of this small island nation, I guess :P

Been sleeping day long from Mon to Thurs, skipped my violin and other lessons~ :(

think it's time to realign myself for the rest of this Sem.

What is ultimate goal? What will life be for me 10 years from now? What do I see at the end of the tunnel? How I pace myself so that I maintain constant motivation and at a steady speed.

Sigh~ back to the drawing board...

Yes. Susilo has lost. So what, he has done his best in the Olympiad and has done us proud.

<>More importantly Susilo had taught us an important lesson through his trials of the Olympiad. <>

Singapore, small as we are, we are able to produce top seeded players, even one that is able to beat the current World No. 1 player.

<>His efforts has laid the foundation; shaping the beliefs of our future generation; showing us that we are capable of achieving greatness.

That, I think is a wonderful present.

Thank you Sosilo!

Wednesday.... Hmm an interesting day~

I woke up at 745 but went to sleep again, by the time I woke up again, I already missed class~ sigh~ mustn't let this bad habit get in my way to the As.... Aiming for all As..... Too many Cats and Dogs on my degree audit.

SC111 - Haha, seemed to a reminiscence of yesterday toastmaster~

Went to sign up for Mac Donald Ezlink rewards~ got me self a free double spicy McChicken, haha~ good deal. Still can redeem for 1 more burger.... haha~

Went for the campus run after discuss 206 Lab with Michael, well, the project seemed easy enough at this current moment....

Got me self a goodie back from the campus run~ Too bad I went to take part in Hall 12 ICG Table tennis~ Didn't managed to go for a run with Desmond and guys~ sigh~

Well, there are 2 sides to a coin~ The positive side and more unbelieveable thing is that I managed to win the games~ haha

my first table tennis award after years, but I must say, today I seemed to be in a good state, managed to be calm and compose and managed to get most of my shots in~

Well, wat will happen tmr, I'm fully anticipating the joy and happiness I can derive from it~

Tues ~ Seemed to be one of the slackest day....
3 class in total, 2 Lecture and 1 Tutorial~

Time flies and soon it's evening time....

Went to my first Toastmaster (joining toastmaster is damn ex... @ $75) oh well, hopefully it'll be a worthwell investment. Let's see if I can reach the level of "pian xiao niao cong shu shang xia lai"... >_< btw, I see a lot of familiar faces there.... guess S'pore is still quite small~ haha~ oh, the speakers there are quite good; esp the impromptu speakers, bravo for their courage to attempt the topics, as for the prepared segments; I'm quite impressed by what they deliver.... Overall, a worthwell experience....

Sigh~ Mon again.... Super long day....
Lab, tut, violin everything at a go....
Luckily this week nv kanna suan by Mr Poh...

Hmm, really must find some way to earn money....
Account is depleting after my regular spending plus my Brother and Mother birthday present; which happened to be gym memberships... Coz me $400... Well, the money will only be worth it if they really go and workout...

Find ways.... Find ways....
How I wish money drop from the sky; then again, it won't be valueable if it does...

Another week flew. Time does have wings....

Only one thing to describe the week, hectic...

Let's see what I did this week...

Tues - Attended Violin practice, kanna suan by the instructor, Mr Poh; think he can be a Singapore Idol Judge; well, can't blame him, haven't been practicing my violin so sometimes "hang" while reading musical notes....

Went running with Jamez... Had not been the apperance of his friends, which led to additional round of running, I think I run a little too few.... He's slacken after ORDing from 2sig

Wed - Geben 2004, lots of goodies; though some quite useless. Met up with Ruijie from Toastmasters, who brief me more about what Toastmasters do, had a better idea at least (including the knowledge that Toastmaster is an expensive activity, $75, more than what I paid up at the String Ensemble)

SC207 Software Engineering project discussion - I think I better do some revision on 207, I know nuts!

Hall 12 Election rally - too long and boring, went to indulge myself in the western food at Canteen 13.

Thurs - Had a long day~ Enjoyed myself most in GP13 discussion, at least I'm not sleeping, coz there's movie "Truman Show". Went to SE Tea Session after that, most beneficial thing about that, food and entertainment (great performance by the SE Seniors, I should get that piece, Fragments of memories from FF VIII). Went to Hall 12 election after that, after deliberating on who to vote for in each position(spent 30 mins reading their VCs again and again), casted my sacred vote, haha~

Went running with Jamez again~

Late nite, figuring how to do POV Ray, it's help manual sucks for those who want express knowledge.

Fri - SC206 Lab, surprise, Michael from CHS was my lab partner. Thank God! Oh, one thing I hate about the lab, need to draw the Project Board for wire wrapping; it's container is like those black box used for art and craft, feeling kindda weird carrying such a box in a tertiary institue.

Had a small IIC Research Subcomm meeting in the evening, hmm, didn't expect so many ladies interested in investment, the ratio is almost 1:1.... Interesting...

Late nite - more hours poured in POV Ray; I STILL KNOW NUTS, ARGG!

Sat - Overslept due to POVRAYing the previous nite. Directly skipped all plans of attending lecture and gym, playing violin instead... (Hmm, think need to make up gym...)

Went for lunch with Shao Hai and Eric; the 2 friends of mine treated me KFC lunch.... Haha, thanx a lot! Went viewing Twin Effect 2, initially thought it'll be more of a vampire show, but it ended up more like a comedy to relief stress.... haha~ All 3 of us planning to get the show to watch during exam period. Keke ^_^

Boy, did weekend fly in a flash.

So fast another event (SIF symposium) ended. Didn't managed to know more people by the end of the day or I find it hard to build rapport with them. They seemed to be the more English educated type.

Fri evening; went to the Investment Interactive Club's Tea Session; plenty of people around; so much so that it frightened me~ haha~ All of the sudden, the club seemed so small; there are so many of my friends in the club; Hejia, Qinjie, Junde and Weiguang... Well, that's part of the reason I joined it... ^_^

Went out with AEC guys on Sat for JS's bd; I was wasting my day earlier on~ sigh, slept through the afternoon... At least I had a better evening, going out with them, seemed to have helped improve my mood.

Sun was a typical day; Church, followed by a delicious pack away from AMK S11. Dinner at the newly opened Swensen. What a "full" day~
Well, one thing that I missed out is Ricky the rockstar's first performance :( ~Sigh~

Mon - National Day 2004 - it's Singapore 39th Birthday!!!
Well, it's been 2 years since I last take part in the NDP Parade. Really reminds me of the memories that I had during then; the camo, the stairs, Steph Sun, friends, plenty of drills~ haha~ It's really something that has become part of me now.

Hmm, let me do my best to recall what happened last weekend.

Fri was reall hectic, I travelled to the east side, borrowed my uncle's vehicle, back home and load the stuff I need then to Queensway Shopping Centre to pick up the trophies then back to school to unload. Damn hectic.

Sat, there was suddenly a meeting; thought it would be a meeting just to discuss through what would happen on Sun. I was underestimating the meeting; it's more than a briefing; it's really more of all the last min prep in a package~ Sigh~ Haven't done more last min stuff than this for quite a long time~ haha~

Well, at least basically the event just went through, though there are a numbers of hipup here and there... 1 thing I learnt, don't do last min work, and if you must, get the pro to do it FOC for you... Anyway, the participants from VJ appeared very happy; of coz, they won themselves a new desktop plus printers; the 2nd prize and the prize for best multimedia round. Well, the guys from RJ seemed quite satisfied with the HP Laptops they've got for the top prize.

Well, Sun passed in a flash, so did Mon, Tues and Wed; a lot of undone tutorial/ lab prep~ arg, seemed so far away from my As. =( Need to buck up my efforts in getting those done~

Thurs - my 3rd SIF Student Symposium; seemed that they had differ from the previous 2 that I had attended. Made a few new friends, 3 to be exact~ Hoepfully by tmr, will be making a lot more new friends~

Interesting keynote given by Dr Ibrahim, unfortunately, not all the panel speakers are as interesting, some, slides full of facts and figures, some, diverted into a totally irrelevant topic; they get me bored and asleep; sigh, think I better not tmr so that I can take note what not to do. Haha~ Think they need to attend toastmasters. Looking forward to what will happen tmr~ :)

P.S. Btw, SIF really prepared for elaborate lunch~ Really posh and high class~ Thanks to NUS/SMU/SP and of coz my Alma Mata NgeeAnn Poly ^_^ (They are the sponsors for the event)