time to catch your breath

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

The title may sound weird, but the music doesn't. :D

Also, some eyecandy for you!

YES! They're all cupcakes!! :D

Jiayou everyone! One week and 2 more days to go. :) We'll get through this soon.

Rethinking my life

It's odd that I don't feel very stressed out now, even though the prelims start tomorrow.
Yikes!

In fact, I felt much much much more stressed a few weeks back. Weird huh.
Suddenly, I lost my hopes of going overseas to pursue a degree in engineering. Just can't imagine how badly I'd fare at being independent. And I feel too lazy to apply for overseas unis. In fact, now I kinda don't care if I can't get the hc diploma. I'd be happy to enter NUS. :)
Is this laziness??

The past few days haven't been extremely productive. (only start revising each day from 1pm to 7pm. Then it's TV all the way until 12mn.)Wonder if the last minute chiong syndrome in me will ever surface. :/

Yesterday night, I had a terrible nightmare. I downloaded some RPG game from the Apple appstore, only to discover later that it was a trojan in disguise. It took over the entire OS of my iPhone and wiped out all my data. It took me a long while to get over the panic, and finally attempt to delete the app from my phone. Miraculously, the simple solution worked. And I woke up. PHEW! Definitely one of the worst dreams I've had. (I rarely dream.)

Oh yes... I am currently extremely sick of studying. SIGH.
Thankfully, we only have 3 more months to go.
And all I can think of is the day when we finish our A levels.
After that, I can:

-release 1000 mealworms in the Principal's office.
(just kidding)

-Meet up with Shijia and friends! :D
-eat at holy grill again
-Visit TKGS teachers
-bake for friends

-Buy a DSLR
-Learn driving (very important :D )
-jog for an hour every day. I think I'm becoming a mobile lump of lard; sitting at home all day mugging.
-Learn to read Japanese

-finish knitting scarves for my family
-US trip! Yay! My mum's friend and her daughter are going on the same trip too. :D

-finish reading the quantum and the lotus.
-finish reading a brief history of time
-finish reading the 3rd eragon trilogy. (embarassing, I know.)

Ah. I feel more motivated to mug now. :D
Keep the holidays in mind, everybody!
And good luck for the prelims!

Movie outing!

Had a very fun movie outing with Nina today at Century Square. After countless days of toiling our brains away in school, the free periods of our frenetic timetables finally coincided. :D

We watched the 5pm Up movie after lunch at Tampines One. Most of the food there is pretty expensive though.

Watching it in 2-D (not 3D, it makes us dizzy) may have removed the physical element of depth from the movie, but some of the scenes and quotes have definitely struck a deep chord within us.

I remember the rotund boy scout talking about his dad, and how they spent their free time counting how many blue or red cars they spotted on the road. The old man looked disgruntled as he reluctantly listened to the little boy's incessant boring chatter; but his heart immediately softened when the boy mused that "it's the boring stuff that you'll remember.".

Thinking back, I realised that the little boy is right. Whenever memories of TKGS flood my mind, the ones which I remember most vividly are the days when we returned to the school library during the study break to mug for the O levels. Those were the days when I was, oddly, happy amidst all the stress which the impending O levels was imposing upon us.

Maybe it was because we had superb teachers like Ms Yeo, Mrs Chan, Ms Tee, Mrs Pang, and Mrs Foo, Mr Peh, and Mrs Irene Tan who helped us to understand our work well. Maybe the O levels are way easier than the A levels. (definitely!)

Maybe it was how we came together, helping each other solve crazy questions. Maybe it was how we challenged each other to the Impossible Quiz, or checked out interesting books like "Mad About Physics" in the TKGS library when we got bored of studying.

I'm sure I bored you as much as the little boy bored the old man, but these are the stuff I'll remember for life.

Ah. I miss those blissful days in tkgs.

I received the results of the PSC psychometric assessment today, and I was stunned by its accuracy. (okay, except for jen's twin's report which astonishingly said that he's 'cool' and 'humble'. Once you tell others how humble you are, you lose your humility!) I was never an extrovert, but many incidences which I've witnessed in JC have made me more introverted. I have shut nearly all my doors of trust to others, and I silently think about agendas people around me may be having. And I've learnt to only fully trust and confide in true friends.

On a lighter note, the report also said that I am unable to work methodically (hehe), and that I can't stand boring work. My thoughts are also "somewhat disorganized". The joke of the year is the part where it said, "you are generally more easygoing than most people are when facing delays in assignments". hee... ;)


Back then, strong bonds of friendship kept us going.
Right now, some of these bonds may have faded;
but some remain, and have become stronger than before.

That will keep us advancing in this crazy race.

3 months is all we need to get through to reach our goal of freedom.
Don't give up, my friends! :D

So THAT'S how you kill gummy bears...

the end of our BBI presentation, but only the start to Ambi's journey into the world.

I'm not boasting here... but my group has definitely done extremely well for BBI. From our pitch to the way we answered the questions which were unforgivingly shot at us... We were very sure that we put in our very best and gave it our all on the 10th of July. Thank you to Mrs Tan and Mr Tan for their praises; we are very happy that our effort has been recognised.

We may not have entered the grand finals, although we were pretty confident of it yesterday. But oh well. Things happen. We felt like we let Mr Terry Goh down. We promised him that we would win. I may not have cried yesterday, but I cried quietly for a while when I reached home and told my parents about BBI. In fact, my eyes well up whenever I think of the judging results on Friday, as I am now. It really hurts to know that you have done your best, that there are many people who believe in your product and team, that you actually have a good chance of presenting your business plan to the J1 cohort.

Our team joined Best Business Idea for a different reason. We wanted to make Ambi known to the whole school.

You can call winning BBI a by product of the competition, because the transformation we have undergone is priceless. From the introverted people Mr Tan once saw... to confident presenters on Friday. (hehe now I'm not going to talk like I'm pitching, though.) But winning, or at least qualifying for the Grand Finals, would have been the ultimate way for us to know that our efforts have been recognised.

They should have told us earlier that the judges were looking for products which could earn profits quickly (for Singapore)... The name of the competition has been made a misnomer ever since the judges gave their summative comments.

Nevermind... Lesson learnt: If you want to win, then before joining a serious competition like BBI which requires a hell lot of hard work over a long period of time, ascertain the background info of the judges, and also be very sure of the judging criteria.

Hehe. Hope you read that, juniors!

We were also quite depressed when we heard that the judges barely read our business plan. That was the product of months of hard work... now gone to waste.

Lesson Learnt: If you ever become a superior, take the effort to read the proposals your subordinates have submitted to you. Show your appreciation for their effort; everyone cheers up when they know that their efforts have been recognised.

You once told me that after years of training and injuries, there's the desire to end it well; but one wrong step shatters it all. For us, those were sleepless nights, numerous painful scoldings from our parents, endless editing of our report and powerpoint, and numerous speech practices. We, too, wanted to end it well. But we don't know what shattered it all. Did we take a wrong step? Or did the judges make the wrong decisions? I'd like to believe in the latter (hehe Mr Goh...), but not knowing the exact cause of our predicament hurts the most. We want to improve, but if you can't tell us how to, I'd resolve to believing that you guys weren't a credible bunch.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hahaha ok I shall put an end to BBI; to all that remorse, regret, and sadness. Let's just say that the people we have met, how we improved as a group; and also as individuals, are just priceless.

(The skills we have acquired will allow us to get jobs which pay so well that we can afford to visit the Silicon Valley 10 times a year. :D Skills are priceless!)

hehe I always have this feeling that I'll be really rich in the future. :) muahahahahahaa... Or have I confused my feelings with my daydreaming?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
YES! On to happier things!

Ambi Inc. returned Ambi to the NUS SRL after BBI, and guess what we saw...

YES!!! IT'S THE S$6000 SOFT TOY, Paro from Japan!

AHHHH SO CUTE RIGHT!!! Bet you jumped out of your chair to get a closer look. We couldn't contain our excitement either.

A robotic seal, it's built to comfort/calm the elderly and children. Some homes for the elderly in Singapore are using Paro, for your info. :D

Doesn't it have such long eyelashes? Haha :D It purrs a bit when you touch its whiskers. (or whatever you call that) I forgot how many touch sensors it contains; but there sure are a LOT of them in there. And they're really responsive. Paro responds to you regardless of where you touch it.

The sound localization is just OMG!!! I tried snapping about 1 metre away, and Paro turned to me! IT TURNED TO ME!!! IMMEDIATELY!!! The microphones are cleverly hidden in its nostrils. This piece of technology is DEFINITELY worth the 6k. The lab will be using it for psychology tests on the elderly and children.

You may be wondering about the pink pacifier. It's a stroke of genius... Well. It's a charger! Plug the pacifier into Paro's mouth, link the other end of the pacifier to the mains, and paro starts charging! Paro actually sleeps (with its eyes closed!) while charging, and wakes up when you provoke it. It even bats its luscious eyelashes gracefully before groggily waking up. How cute is that! :D Like a little baby.

1

2

3

everybody say: AWHHHH............

Yup, we later headed to this shopping mall in Boon Lay interchange to buy gifts for our teachers and mentors. And also to buy Japanese schoolbags which we have been eyeing on since June. :D Didn't manage to haggle much of the price off, though. Yay now we have the same schoolbag with different designs. :D Plus, we now look more studious with double strap backpacks. We're well on our way to mugging sessions and straight As!

Oh. I was considering whether to join the NUS Start-Up business competition next year. The grand prize is 10k! But you must have a working model of the product. Which translates into many hours in the SRL after the A levels..... We're not giving up on Ambi.

ooh, interesting

This is so weird that I have to blog about it right now.

I just synced Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' and Linkin Park's 'New Divide' into my iPhone.

When I turned on the radio, the Muttons were playing their hilarious 'complete my mutton' game. They then played 'Black or White'

And then, they played 'New Divide'.

hehe back to the economic growth notes. :D

da jia jia you!

what went wrong?

The camera's stare is fiercer than that of the audience.
At least for me. :P

xinyi finds me scary. BOOOOOO!

ok, maaaybe she prefers DSLRs and considers me, a technological fossil, as a highly uncouth contraption. sigh.....

Yes, I practised my pitch for 4 hours. But I screwed up my BBI 1minute pitch today during video taking. (Mrs Tan: you need to practise more. Not enough zeal.) SIGH. I'm not a drama mama, I'm one of ambi's mama. Sorry Jiang Ying and Lu Theng. If we don't get into the grand finals, it's my fault. Hai. But thank you for being so understanding all the time. :) The both of you are some of the BEST people I've worked with. I love my centad group so much that I want to start a fanclub for it. :D Don't worry, I will improve on my pitching. Silicon Valley. (stares dreamily into the distance)

And thanks for the chocs Jeannie! Haha they really brightened up my day.

Mum was so nice, she offered to help me video my pitching on a camera and offered me tips, such as "Believe you are Obama when you're pitching!". Nod nod. I'll try to! :D

Sigh, today was a bad day. Maybe lao tian ye wants me to pay back for the birthday luck he gave me 2 weeks ago. It's wearing out. Or maybe I'm starting to break under pressure.

I woke up today to find my mouth ulcer not hurting. (whee!) My morning began with a hearty breakfast, and promptly ended with a debilitating stomachache. Gah!

Took a cab to NUS (stomachache emergency delayed me) which cost $17. Ouch!

Spent some time at the new SRL. Nice place! Panda-eyed Hewei grants his mentees permission to transport their brainchild, Ambi, to HCI. Mentees oblige to bringing Ambi back to NUS at first, but later bargain with their mentor after a second thought. Mentee Chong claimed that Mentor Lim allegedly blushed during the bargaining event. Only the accused would know why. Mentee Lim remains clueless as usual. Hee!

(oh! we saw hewei without his specs for a while today. his specs seem to make his eyes look smaller. hmm. :/ is he wearing inverted magnifying glasses? )

Mentee Chong lugs along the blazers and bags, while Mentee Lim tries to handle the brainchild with care on their way to the bus stop. They later board the NUS internal bus and have an entertaining chat about guys, until Mentee Chong claims that she hates guys-who don't reply to SMSes they're supposed to reply to. Mentee Lim nods fervently in agreement, until she notices a lone male student sitting next to her (and in front of Mentee Chong) quietly laughing to himself. Mentee Chong's face turns pale for a moment, and she covers her mouth in shock. Both mentees subsequently became entangled in a longgggg moment of mirth. Ah, the good times we've had in NUS.

Ok, Mentee Lim will now stop writing in 3rd person and get to the point.

.

There, a point!


(waits for laughter, and hears none.)

.....Right! The point is that my arms and my left lower back are aching like hell. Sob. I can't even tolerate physical activities like that. Sob. Or is Ambi really that heavy? Hope Lu theng isn't experiencing aches. I think I won't be able to fit into my long-sleeved tops anymore, because my arm muscles are getting huge. Awh man. Is it possible to reduce those muscles? Ok I should stop talking about my insecurities. Buy me a lock!

Anyway, today... I felt like I have never done anything properly all my life, and I can't see anything through to completion. That feeling of despair is indescribably horrible for perfectionists. I didn't pitch well, I haven't started on chem revision, and I'm not done with my math revision. Damn, I didn't set my priorities right. My time management is... uhhh, what's time?

Dad was slightly angry at me for not opening the door quickly when he came home today; I was stoning in front of the TV, thinking about my pathetic state, and completely oblivious to the formidable loads of bags in his 48-year old arms. It would've been a hilarious incident on a normal day, but today, it made me feel absolutely worthless to society, and I started crying midway through my dinner. Why do I even exist? Hey, I'm of no use to anyone. I'm a letdown.

I tried to hold it back at first, but my tears decided to obey gravity, and they all poured out. Dad got pissed when my mum put the blame on him. Heh.

I attempted to practice more Poisson distribution questions, but my mind was a blur. Chatting to Edha online really made me feel better. Sometimes you need a good friend (who is online) to share everything with. It's difficult to talk when you're all choked up in tears and suffocating in stress. A problem shared is a problem halved, indeed.

In my entire academic life, in my ostensibly nerdy (please look at me) existence, I have never cried so many times in one year, because I don't cry easily. JC2 broke the record; give me a trophy for it! Sometimes I wonder why I was so eager to enter hwachong ever since I was a pimply sec1. But heck, it has been a tumultuous time in JC, and it's going to be over soon, for good riddance. And... centad and BBI have made it-dare I say?-the best experience I've ever had.

Still miss tkgs, though. Mrs Chan... my favourite chem teacher. Ms Yeo and Mrs Pang, the dedicated cute masters of math. Ms Tee and Mr Yong, for their highly entertaining physics classes. My sec 4 SS teacher. And our favourite tkgs teacher of all: Mdm Seah! :D

Edha, thanks for this video! It instantly ended my 2 hour session of crying.
It's amazing. Watch it to believe it.

oooh Benny Lava...

A little old Bollywood did the trick. Way to go Edha. Good luck for your Friday event. ;) Chem engineering and Electrical/Electronics Engineering results in harmonic resonance. Trust your instincts. :)
I'm back on my track to MIT! I mean doing ok for BT2. (not very confident, hehe)
That is, after I get some sleep tonight. Don't worry Mentor Lim. Ambi isn't giving me any nightmares.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Think it, and you will be it.

and that's why I love Japan TV

whee! I'm legal! Uhh. So I can't do illegal stuff?

Thank you to...

Nina for your lunch invitation today. hehe.

Jen for sending me your sms at 11.04pm. hahaha...

Jael and Shu Hui for sending their birthday melodies over at 12 midnight exactly. So qiao ah. You both sent the birthday song to me at the same time!

Chun Ling for your heartwarming sms... Oh, the heartburn!

Chuan Khim for his birthday wishes over msn.

(yep, in chronological order again! Don't you just love it?)
(on a sidenote, I'm really doubtful about the MIT thing. I'm not really up to it...)

Jael, don't worry about not being the first to sing the birthday song to me k! Sometimes life whizzes by at the speed of light, and we have to take into account the effects of time dilation.

Man... what am I talking about?

What do I want for my birthday? A sony alpha 700 dslr.
But I've decided to work after the A levels to finance the astronomical expenses of my newfound interest.
AIM: Earn 2000 bucks in 2 months, spend a maximum of $1500 on the fancy encapsulated techno-surrounded pentaprism and its peripherals! Save the other $500.

What do I really want for my birthday?
My family and friends... You know who you are. :D
All of you are worth so much to me that if I ever decided to sell you all off for money, it'd cause a really bad inflation, when consumption starts to increase, and AD increases, and the AD curve shifts right, bla bla bla econs bla bla you get the idea.

My parents bought a cake today too. awh. >_<

To many, I look like a secondary school child.
But you all definitely made me feel like an 18 year old today.

Thank you - for being part of my life.


**Update**
Thank you Shu Hui for your ultra cute birthday card! :D

interlude

Originally wanted to continue with my previous grandmother story post about what happened at Robopreneur on Friday... But well, I'm not that old yet. I shall continue with that post on another day. :P

stoned/played taptap revenge 2 (online!) for the whole day today.

Before you scold me for slacking, I just want to say that I have still been very hardworking... at the cellular level. (8km on exercise bike! :D )

Ahh. Jokes aside, I felt like a lousy friend on Sunday.
I couldn't give you many inspiring examples, because I've received undivided attention from my parents since I was born. (which isn't as great as you all think, honestly.) I don't know how it feels to be neglected while your sibling basks in parental attention, but everything you said conveyed all those foreign feelings to me. Now, I understand. And I appreciate.

Seeing you sad almost made me cry, because I just came to realise how helpless you felt all these years.


Don't work hard for your parents. Everything you're doing now - tell yourself that it's for your future, not theirs.

I hope that helps you to get by these few years. And remember this: if you ever feel sad or just sick of everything, the fire-proof wooden doors of my house will always be open for you! =)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh yes. I've noticed how people stare at me when I'm wearing my uniform. When it was the iconic TKGS uniform, people stared for (mainly) 2 reasons:

1) The emerald green works up some pyrotechnics in your eyes. Ouch, it prickles. (or even pickles, given the intense greenish-ness)
2) They recognise the tkgs uniform, and used to be tkgians.
(yes. The auntie selling the famous rice dumpling soup in Bedok was a tkgian!)

But when it's the hc uniform, they stare because
1) "is that nyjc/vjc/hci? They all look the same hor?"
2) They think hc is a top school, and they are waiting for me to commit some crime. (or something along that line, like punching a bus driver maybe?) Does the local press pay people who provide them with fodder for top news stories?
3) Uhhh. I don't know. It's nicer than the tkgs uniform? (albeit less comfortable)

I especially hate how some people change their perception of us with a glance at our uniform. No, it isn't a secret agent suit which can enhance my capabilities. It simply tells you about the school I belong to. Don't start having high expectations of me, because I'm just an another student; another mere mortal standing near you.

Uniforms: They cause people to have non-uniform opinions about students.
The irony.

robopreneur : educator's symposium

long story... I shall type out the events in a chronological order, the way Mr Yong likes our physics files.



Don't read this if you hate grandmother stories. It's gonna be the grandmother of all my posts. I'm writing this for my team. (including hewei! well, you never know who reads your blog, do you?) Although I don't like toiling away at the NUS SRL very much, the thought that we most probably won't be going back anytime soon makes me sad. For now, we'll have to focus on



This post is for us to reminisce about everything we went through this week, lest we forget about our hilarious experiences. It's funny how 4 complete strangers came together for this project. And how good our team dynamics are! :D





Woke up in the morning to find my forearms dotted wildly with tiny bumps (which were not red. just looked normal) which made me bear resemblance to a patient with a STD. Freaked out for 10 seconds or so, and then proceeded with life. Maybe my skin is sensitive to Ambi's dusty exterior.



Lugged Ambi out of daddy's car as I stepped into school, focusing my eyes on the path ahead and dodging the curious gazes of everyone else. No, it's NOT my birthday.



Plopped Ambi gently down next to the class bench and sat next to her, turning on her switch with much trepidation to check if she was fine. Discovered (with great horror) that her head was stationary when she mouthed her pre-programmed phrases. Freak out (yet again) when I can't find the wire that leads to her head servo. Nicole, pea, jen, and shuhui come along and play with Ambi, offering their condolences. (remember? Ambi got paralysed...and it's all my fault) Ex-crush ignores Ambi, but who cares about him anyway, when Hewei will be with us soon to bring Ambi back to life? :D



After assembly, we carried Ambi down the canteen, walking by the cleaner uncle who enthusiastically asked us "你们要拿去丢掉的啊？".

(translation: Are you all gonna throw that thing away?)

I cursed him in my mind and mentally rolled my eyes, forcing a laugh.



Dr Lim took a picture of us with his dSLR, and commented that the "educated" word on her shirt was very dirty. -_- Sigh... Like hewei mentioned in his ppt, people who are much older than you don't take you seriously.



ok. You must be getting bored by this point, because I am. Let's skip to the exciting bits!





When we got to the AaHa! Room in Admiralty Secondary, I discovered that the laptop they were using there only has the old 2003 powerpoint installed. Our powerpoint was saved as .pptx, the 2007 ppt version. And I had to edit it.



CRAP! IT'S THE GAZILLIONTH TIME I FORGOT ABOUT THIS.



We frantically called our mentor (who still had a sore throat) to come down with his laptop, ASAP. At that moment, lutheng found out that Ambi's head servo wire came loose. And it was stuck in an inaccessible location. Sigh. I smsed this update to hewei, who promptly replied "Jus relax".



SIGH...

The 3 Princesses of Serendip

are none other than lutheng, jiangying, and yours truly.

*ecstatic wail*

BBI FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!

Just when we got over the loss of our place in the finals yesterday, we had the serendipity of receiving Mr William Tan's SMS today morning at 8.03am.

ahhh!!!!!!!!!

Hehe random post. I'm typing this in the fishtank at 8.30am while I pon PE (volleyball).
Actually I came here for the aircon. :P

Hmm technically I didn't pon it, since I went to get my attendance marked already. And I did go to play volleyball with the effervescent Nicole for a while. :D Or should I have said evil? She whacked the ball into shuhui's head. A moment later, one of her massive spherical projects sliced through the air, missing jingbin's cranium by an inch.

Nina... hahaha I shall not mention anything about you. ;D Take care of yourself and your *cough*!

(pun intended)

k shall get on with my mundane school life. bye to slacking. =)

sick in the head

Was down with food poisoning since Monday night. The nausea/stomach hyperacidity/general sian-ness persisted till Tuesday afternoon.

bleaurgh.

All my grand mugging plans blighted by an unfortunate choice of dish for lunch on Monday.

Currently, I'm forcing myself to fight off the powerful drowsiness induced upon me by all that medication. My mind feels heavy and it's gravitating towards my bed.

Nooooo... resist bedroom gravitational field!

Resistance is futile...
if <1 ohm

and this is genius. haha
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/jewelry/a38d/

now you know.

What happened today morning was... unexpected.
It's not the most pleasant thing in the world to hand your (crikey!!) a present.
Mildly nerve-wrecking. And very telling indeed.
Oblivious as he may have been in the past, I'm sure what happened today has already elucidated the truth.
Way to go. (charges into wall, slumps into a lifeless heap)
Nevertheless, I'm still grateful for the arranged opportunity. HAHA!
And really. Thanks to Shu Hui for preparing everything!

I seriously doubt if the 'truth' on my part will be reciprocated in the future. You know how the truth can strike fear in us. (especially in sprinters. whahaaha) Anyway, I shall no longer pursue the matter even if this thing goes my way. Currently, I only have eyes for... the A levels, of course. (What were you thinking, you filthy-minded --- blog reader!) NO DISTRACTIONS!


Nina and I have shared much with each other over the long weekend. :) Sorry, can't share them here. But Nina's heartfelt words on Friday almost made me cry la. Never knew my sms would make you cry more. Hehe.
You will never know how much a simple act of kindness means to your friend.

Julia and I have had a pseudo-intellectual discussion about religion/politics/the AWARE organisation/homosexuality/terrorism over msn over 30 mins ago. Haha it's always great to have such discussions with you! =D Next shijia meeting ok! (:
You will never know all the right answers in life.

Jen can't wait to know what's going on! Patience, my friend!
You will never know what's going on until this Wednesday!

hee. :D

in search of the truth

Remember the times in primary school? Social connections were formed and broken with such ease back then.

"I don't friend you."
"I friend you!"

We were blunt. And very straightfoward. There wasn't a spectrum, only two discrete colours named black and white.

Looking back, I suddenly appreciate how direct we were to each other in the past. Now that we're young adults, we've come to understand social mores, and we've accepted them. Yes, they are a way of life. But I hate some of these unspoken rules. I hate how we sometimes compel ourselves and pretend to be friendly; how some are willing to change their behaviour simply to fit into a group, and how others... forcefully forge friendships to up their popularity index.


Spending time with Shijia on Good Friday, studying and chatting with Nina, talking to my close friends...

These quality moments remind me that apart from our families, there do exist people whom we can be absolutely honest with. They are the true friends we can trust for the rest of our time on this bluish-green sphere. Mortal angels who lift our spirits from the seemingly inescapable depths of depression.

All of you have brought shame upon the shallow minded, and shone light upon the world.
Your light made everything as simple as they could get, but not any simpler. You showed me what truth really means.

(hmm, my blog's poster boy would've liked you.)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Okay. End of post, end of escapism... But before I end,

Thank you for your honesty.

Through the Years

Stand By Me

it's a nice song =)

no idea why the judges have to nitpick about him always closing his eyes - that's insignificant in comparison to the way he can contort his vocals... beautifully.

Heaven

Note the background singer sobbing a tad bit at around 0.32. Omg...

Here's a flashback.

=) hope you enjoyed this post.

so many great inventions from just one guy

Was watching a video about Wiimote hacks made by this Johnny Lee, a graduate student at the Human Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.



http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/johnny_lee.html

That's his profile page.
(on a side note, http://www.ted.com/ is a great website to visit for highly interesting talks about various topics... useful for GP. May I suggest that we pon GP to watch videos on TED??? =D )

Ah, if only.

If that demonstration cum manifestation of his intellect and creativity hasn't astounded you yet, take this!

ownage! =O

And some chim RFID locating technology which my feeble mind can not yet comprehend.


His blog, http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/ , (hahaha love the name) gave a brief mention of Sensitive Object, a French company specializing in the use of microphones to detect touches on any object. In fact, their technology can even locate the touch and detect dragging with more microphones. To my surprise, it wasn't done by sound localization. (!!!!!) The microphones are calibrated to recognise how touching a certain part of the object sounds like. This means that it will match the sound created by your touch to one of those in its memory, and then determine where you touched the object.

Woahhh! It's shockingly similar to the speech recognition software we dabbled with while we were building Ambi. Who would have thought?!

All these stuff inspire me to major in electrical/electronics engineering in university. =D

K. I've been watching TED till 4pm. This is bad. =P

Off to finish my tutorials! =)

what's happiness?

sometimes,

it's when you make your good friend cheer up,

dust themselves off,

and get back on their feet.



sometimes,

it's seeing your hard work get paid off.





Lu Theng just informed Jiang Ying and I that our business proposal for the BBI managed to enter the finals. =D (which is around a 20 to 30% chance?) And a letter of approval from our mentors in NUS is all we need to receive a $500 grant for creating/improving on our prototype robot.



WHEEE HEE!!! We actually have funding! :D



Never expected it. I was too stupefied to feel any shock.



This time, we'll make sure that our robot is well constructed.



We won't give up.

And we'll hope that external memory for sensory chips come cheap. Hehe.

math and life.

People are like complex numbers.

z= a + bi

In public, we apply the Re function to ourselves; and so do others.

Re(z) = a

That portrays our physical appearance and public persona, and that's how most people perceive us.

But that's not all there is to us. We are no mere constants; we all have complex personalities.

Im(z) = b

Few discover this elusive part of us, and there are many reasons why.
Maybe they can't be bothered to.
Maybe you're unconsciously hiding it.
Or maybe it's too overwhelming for their acceptance.

Understanding this complex bit can be tough. It's parallel to how you felt before complex numbers were introduced to you; that bliss one feels when they know that they are capable of completing the math paper without having to deal with complex numbers. (ok, I'm talking about my own mathematical insecurities...haha)

You know what? Take the initiative to learn more about the imaginary part of a number. It adds a new dimension to the number you once knew. Quit trying to expand a list of shallow numbers you are acquainted with, because having a deeper understanding of fewer numbers would be much more meaningful.

Want to have a lifelong friendship?
You do the math. =)

HC's 90th Anniversary; this blog's 90th post

haha so zun right! :)

Nothing much to say about the anniversary dinner last night. But I didn't enjoy myself very much because...

The bleddy loudspeaker was wildly bombarding my left ear throughout the dinner. In fact, my left ear still feels a little deaf now. I'm SO going to sue whoever planned for the speaker to be placed there if I do go deaf in one ear. >:(

Hehe. Joking. But I was also very tired to begin with.

The song sessions were fun, though. (Thanks to Pea who pointed out to me that caveman was singing. Made my day, even if he was screeching badly... Well, at least he looked cute while he was at it. =P) It felt like orientation all over again, with a big discount on enthusiasm, regretfully. Maybe Cambridge examinations silently assasinate the children in us. Slowly.

Was having a talk with my dad late last night about my surprise of seeing so many girls dress up for the anniversary dinner. Call me a nerd, but I've got no clue why many girls can spend days worrying about what to wear to an event, when the total amount of time that people actually look at them is not commensurate with the amount of effort they put into making themselves pretty. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing those who dressed up, I just don't seem to see the importance/significance of doing so. Will someone enlighten me? =/

Thank you Chuan Khim and Shuhui for... (how should I phrase this??) helping out yesterday. Really appreciate what you all did, but YOU KNOW!!! He knows already. So it's time for retreat? I really cannot walk any faster. =P And my mind is bent on believing that caveman is avoiding his self-assumed-stalker right now.

As Liang Jing Ru sang in her song, 接受，
不能退后也无法向前走

Don't want to make his life difficult, either.
Looking back, I think my brain/common sense was on vacation all this while. Highest record of stupid things done in one year - for some guy I don't even know. What's wrong with me! Why am I losing 10 minutes of sleep some nights worrying about something which is not my ultimate goal for 2009? (ultimate goal=straight As for A levels... except for Chinese which is boh pian)

The Life section in the Straits Times today mentioned in its Horoscope section that Geminis should be prepared for a very great change to their lives today. Admittedly, I don't believe in their predictions. Nonetheless, I think it could be my resolution to abolish caveman from my list of worries. It's tough; I brought it all upon myself. Now it's time to take it away.

Yesterday night, I wanted to remove the italicised words from the end of my previous post. But oh well, what's done is done. Whatever has been read by caveman is now in his military-grade memory. Erasing a digital mistake won't help.


Funny, how a part of me still has an unrealistically optimistic belief that everything will work out right in the end, like how my O levels turned out eventually.
Hold on to that hope. =)