Can't study with hurting teeth

Damn, I've got a serious toothache. Okay, I don't know if it is considered a serious one, but it has never ever hurt so much before. I don't know the names of the teeth but it's weird that all 4 of them are hurting together. No, not wisdom tooth. It's the 2nd teeth from the center one, on all 4 sides. I hope this pain goes away soon. >.<

Hall 12 D&D this Saturday at Grand Copthorne Hotel (^^,)v I hope it would be fun since it would be my very last D&D already, as an undergrad. Never mind all the unhappy matters that had happened within these 2 days, I just hope everyone goes there happily. And of course, I hope I can win a prize again this year!! Having won prizes in my 1st and 2nd Hall 12 D&D, of course I want it this year too :D I didn't get a 3rd year prize since I was in the main committee myself, and I was away in Sweden anyway. Hopes are high (^^,)v

Was reading sh's blog earlier and was reminded of days of the past. And of course with that, I would like to show here, a garfield comic strip! One that made me laugh my head off because it was just so funny. And it is also one that made everyone else in the room laugh their heads off because they found it so funny that I was laughing in a manner, as if I've lost my sanity.


Yeah so who else, besides Wong, finds this comic funny too? Don't ask me why it is funny. I can't put a finger as to where or which part is funny. Just looking at the last two rows of the comic strip can trigger my laughing receptors! buahahaha...

Yups, so... mmm I guess groups or cliques may have disbanded. But I still hold everyone close to my heart, each and every individual one of you, be it if you're from Hall 12 or SBS, the friendship I have with each one of you will be unique, special, and forever.

Okay, emo time over. Enough squatting at one corner with finger drawing in circles for now haha.

Cheers to all our final year, and 加油 everyone!

Oh my Sunday.....

Firstly, I'm very happy because I completed my 21km Singapore Bay Run today. It was a totally new route this time as compared to previous years' ones. The stretch along East Coast Park was kind of demoralising though, because it just seemed so never-ending, and worse still, you see people already running back on the other side of the park. And I got so freaking hungry at the 12km mark. When I saw the 14km mark, I got kind of hyped up, cos I knew I only had 7km more to go. BUT, that marked the beginning of the horrible track trail where the ground was softer, and some parts were muddy. I was kinda put off by that because I could really smell the tar. But when the track trail ended, it was the Marina Barrage!!! I swear the view of the CBD from the Marina Barrage is extremely beautiful. I stopped running to enjoy the view, and this is the first run ever to go across this Marina Barrage.

As I went on, I met Albert, my JC classmate as well running, and also some of my previous Enciks during my NSF days along the way walking and chatting with each other. When I saw the 18km mark, I was super high already! 19km....20km.... FINISH line!! I was friggin' burnt out after that, but it was kinda surprising that I could finish in 2hrs 30mins :D Not too bad for a first-timer at his 21km run ba hahaha!! And I got my finisher's medal after that, and bumped into Dennis who was part of the organising committee.

*Uncle Dennis, Me and my finisher's medal*

One horrid thing about this year's Singapore Bay Run is the freaking muddy Padang!! Had to totally wash my shoes when I reached home.

But anyway, after the run, went to Suntec for lunch at Joaquim, which serves Porridge buffet lunch. Not too bad, but I wanted Burger King badly instead :(

*Porridge Buffet Lunch*

We took our own sweet time eating lunch, hoping that the queue for the Nike Human Run race pack collection over at Clarke Quay would go shorter, because I got info that the queue was freaking long. However to my dismay, when we arrived there at 1.30pm, we saw that the queue didn't shorten at all. In fact, some Nike guy told us that we would take about 2 hrs for us to collect our run packs! And he told us to come back at 5pm instead, when they might be lesser people queuing. I'm so glad we didn't heed his advice. We queued for a whopping 5 hours! 2 hours my foot lor, and the queue didn't seem to shorten at all by the time we collected our race packs.

*45 minutes after queuing*

*3 hours of queuing*

*After almost 5 hours of queuing, finally reaching*

*Finally got my race pack*

I so love the race pack for the Nike Human Run. A 1-litre Nike water bottle, and some other freebies along with it.

In fact, I shouldn't have had to queue for 5 hours! My friend, Zesamine, is part of the organising committee for this race and she wanted to help me cut the queue and get me my race pack. But when I told her that there were a few of us, she told me that it's tough for her to help all of us :( IrriTating~ But never mind, it was kind of her to offer her help though :D

Super tired now after standing with a very fatigue pair of legs for 5 hours. I think I should start treating my legs better soon.

And Beijing Olympics finally ended :D The closing ceremony was very nice.... kinda sad that Olympics is over once again. Looking forward to what London has to offer the world in 2012 :D

One year ago.... One year later

This entry was supposed to be written on the 18th, but I simply have no time. Life now and life one year ago was so different, at least for me.

One year ago, I was still doing last minute packing the day before my flight and then suddenly I find myself at the airport already, with all my dear friends at the airport sending me off, and many other dear friends who couldn't come but flooding me with well-wishes via SMS.

One year ago, I was still trying to adapt to a brand new kind of life in Sweden and a totally new environment. I remember initially, I'm always strolling and wandering alone in the town with a map in my hand, and orientating myself to Lund, and finding out which buses go where, and what the shortest way to school or to my friends' places were.

One year ago, I was learning a new language, Swedish, with the many other exchange students.

One year ago, I was still attempting to jog in a brand new kind of climate. I learned that I shouldn't do so, because my lungs are not used to breathing in so much cold air. And anyway, it is hard to perspire in that kind of weather.

One year later, I'm having the slackest timetable ever in my undergrad history but I don't feel slack at all. There are so much work to be done, so much papers to be read, FYP to worry about, my own career future to ponder on... The days after graduation is one big worry man.... and recalling what Drew Barrymore sang, but i'm taking it into my own context...

I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine,
I've been searching but I just don't see the signs,
I know that it's out there,
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere!

One year later, everyone seems so busy. Circumstances have changed. I have changed too I guess. I don't want myself to be at the losing end, so I guess I've got to change too and lead a new kind of life with missing portions here and there and also with more new challenges.

One year later, I attempted to learn a new language too. I managed to get the Japanese elective (out of the 3 languages that I have chosen, with Korean and Malay being the other 2), but I dropped it in the end because I don't think I have the confidence for it and there seems to be no time for it. Maybe it's just that I'm not disciplined enough lahz.

One year later, I have not really jogged much and the most I could go now is 10km provided no up-riding slopes. And guess what, I'm (not so) ready for the 21km Sheares Bridge Run tomorrow morning. But I guess, I should be okay with the run as long as I don't push myself too hard. The only irritating thing is that I've got to reach Esplanade Drive by 6am and that means taxi again. Luckily I found a few people to share the cab with, or else heart pain.

Yeah, that's about it I guess.... I gotta go do other work now. Cell bio assignment 1 almost down... wonder what's next.

Congrats China & Singapore

Congrats to our table-tennis female team for winning the Silver medal. And congrats to the China team for winning the Gold once again.

The hype for this end of the medal-draught for Singapore has finally ended with Singapore clinching the Silver award. And I must say my admiration for both Li Jia Wei and Zhang Yi Ning always increase by the thousands everytime I watch them play. I watched Zhang Yi Ning in the Athens Games, and tonight I watched her once again. She really deserves to be World No. 1, I feel. And for Li Jia Wei, although she always misses the points, I feel that she is still one of our better players. Feng Tianwei is really good too. I guess they just don't have the luck, most of the time.

It's really heart-warming to watch the China crowd cheering for the Singapore team as well during the match. And I loved what the commentator said at the end of the Victory Ceremony after the flags were raised:

"The 5 stars of China and the 5 stars of Singapore, looking down upon the young ladies representing them, and proud of their achievements."

*Congratulations*

On a side note, I totally admire Usain Bolt from Jamaica.... I wish I had those legs when I was in secondary school and JC. I could have won many races during the Annual Sports Meets. Haha. And congrats to Michael Phelps for having accomplished the 8 Gold medals dream and for being the best Olympian ever with 14 Gold medals to his name.

The Stars and Stripes

It's extremely sensational! My gosh, these guys are making me miss the days of the Nationals when you can feel all the adrenaline rush yourself at the pool.

The whole world has been talking about Phelps. When you think swimming, you think Phelps. Jason Lezak might have been the one who helped him secure the Gold for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay on Monday, but today, he showed the world that he really is God (no intention to be blasphemous here).

Today he freaking broke 2 world records within an hour. 2 Finals within an hour. 2 Gold medals within an hour. Sensational, isn't it? Firstly he broke the world record for the Men's 200m Butterfly Finals. Secondly his team COMPLETELY SMASH the world record for Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay with a timing of 6:58:56. The first time ever that a team clocked this event under 7 minutes! I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat while watching it.

Michael Phelps set off the first 200m way ahead of the World Record line that was chasing behind him. And his whole team consisting of Ryan Lochte, Ricky Berens, and Peter Vanderkaay carried on maintaing ahead of the world record line. You just definitely know that the world record would be smashed totally. Wonderful.

Okay time for lunch with Fungus Tan soon. Will be back to catch more of the Olympics action.

And here is a video of the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay on Monday, where so many teams were ahead of the world record line during the race, in particular USA, France, and Australia. Oh where did the Republic of S. Africa go to. Zzz...

An Exciting 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Finals

I think this event was one of the most exciting one so far. It really got me sitting right at the edge of my seat.

In this match, I was only concentrating on the US, French, and the South African teams. However what got me soooo excited was the closeness to clinching the Gold between the American and the French team. And furthermore, it was Michael Phelps's hope to win 8 Gold medals in this Olympics, so without this Gold, Phelps would not be able to fulfill this dream at all.

Ah yes, I've said it. So the American team won. The American team swam the relay in this order: Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and Jason Lezak. Phelps and Gale did well to maintain the close distance between themselves and the French team. However Jones slowed down and that almost caused them the Gold medals. The anchor swimmer, Lezak, tried his best to catch up. At this point I thought that they would definitely lose. But a miracle happened. Within the last 10m, Lezak caught up with Bernard, the French guy, and were on par with him. With 2m left, Lezak stretched and touched the wall 7ms faster than Bernard.

Phelps was totally screaming his lungs off when the results appeared on the billboard. But I totally understand how the French felt. The gold medals were so near yet so far. Who would have known that Lezak would create such a wonderful miracle for the American team at the very last second.

Meanwhile, the S. Korean female archery team is also damn zai. Bullseye almost all the time when they were pitting against the Italian team. Ahh..

I hope there would be more exciting matches like these.

The More We Get Together

A little bit on the low quality side, but finally chanced upon it!

My favourite sponsor advertisement for the Beijing Olympics by McDonald's.

43rd National Day and other randoms

Started off the day with a scare thinking that I had already slept for 24 hours. Signs that I'm really burned out after the horrible week of staying up till 3am and waking up at 6am the next day. It really did feel that I've slept for a long time. I even had a weird dream, which I think I have dreamt of before. In the first one, I died. In this second one, I survived. It felt also somewhat like I was part of a Role Playing Game (maybe I am the main character of the next Final Fantasy game series huh) HAHA. But maybe this dream is telling me that difficult situations would keep arising, but I'll make it through eventually. I hope it is this way in reality.

Started work on project again after breakfast, helping Xinyi out with the business market portion of the feasibility plan. Searching for what we wanted online is just so difficult and it's irritating that the information just don't seem available. Eventually, I dozed off while reading.... and zzzz until it was almost... 5pm? Around there la.

Headed out to meet Shuwan for dinner at AMK before meeting Jingying, Xp, and Meisi for the fireworks display outside The Fullerton Hotel. Erm, the fireworks were nice but there was very little variety. Got kinda bored with it after a while, until a point when I could have just say "let's go now" without regrets. Shall look forward to maybe the next fireworks display, maybe somewhere end of this month.

*The very first fireworks of the night*

*The mad crowd*

*Pink ones*

*Blue ones*

*And the white ones*

*I like this shot*

And then it was supper time! Shuwan and I waited for Nick at Raffles Place while the others went off first via MRT to meet up with Wu Juan and Jieming at Chomp Chomp. It sure took the 3 of us long to reach Serangoon Garden because we had to walk all the way to the National Stadium to get Nick's car. ZZZZZzzzz.... Shag. The food in Chomp Chomp still tasted as good as ever. It didn't disappoint us, even though it had a new look now. The sugar cane drink was good, and the black carrot cake and cheeken wings were awesome.

It was a nostalgic feeling to be back in Serangoon Garden after don't know how many eons. My secondary school used to be in the vicinity and now it's closed down already. Everything there seems just so familiar and I realised I kinda miss that place, where Shi Chuan, Kevin, and I would wait for our respective buses there to go home after school. Getting a Mr. Softee and a copy of the day's New Paper was a must at that time because waiting for our buses was always a long drag.

*Serangoon Garden Circus*

*The only bus that sends me to my Secondary School in those days*

*And the bus to send me home after school*

Backtrack to 8th August, it was the Biomedical Sciences students FYP Poster Day! Familiar faces include Zhiqing, Yanying and Yinjie (Hall 12), and Melissa and Youli (Amazons). Finally they have graduated from SBS, and will be on their way to Beijing next month! Congratulations friends, and enjoy your 2 years in Beijing :D Please be my tour guide if I visit Beijing when you girls are still there. Oh talking about girls, this batch is the pioneer batch with the majority being the female students. Only 2-3 guys i think, and I don't even know who they are. Amazing. And Yu Chii, the girl who koped my calculator on the very first lab session! I will always remember that, made me search frantically for my calculator when I'm already so stressed over my first ever biology lab session.

*Yu Chii - the mad girl who didn't sleep for most of the nights during FYP*

Further backtracking to 7th August, was supposed to have dinner with Jacjac and Wilfred that evening. And Wilfred pang-seh last minute!! Reason? To stay in hall to discuss with Chi Kwan and Yew Hang, the future of Hall 12. OMG, Wilfred, it's time for you to retire. Let the young ones take care of the hall. Can't believed you don't want to go dinner just because of that little matter haha... Ah, but you offered to organise the next dinner, I will hold you to that. Decided to have dinner at Blooie's at Jln Tua Kong. The ambience was really nice that night, and I super like the songs they play. I think it was mostly R&B.

*At Blooie's*

Okay, I guess that's all for this week. Back to my project... No day no night totally. 3 more days to go....

Beijing Olympics Opening

Brilliant! It was really awesome. The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was just brilliant.

The torch relay in the Bird's Nest Stadium is one of the most innovative ideas I've ever seen, especially that of the final runner towards the stadium's torch. Totally impressed. I must admit that the person who came up with this idea is really good. I totally love the "running in mid air" stunt! When I saw it, I was like "omfg... 漂亮!"

北京万岁

HAHA...

And I think the Beijing Olympics Song is not bad...



Familiar faces include 孙燕资，梁咏琦，陳奕迅，成龙，5566，FIR, 蔡依林，谢霆锋, Jang Nara, etc....

And I totally love the McDonald's advertisement for the Olympics too, the one which has the song "The More We Get Together" playing with it, and is shown on our TV these few weeks, just that it isn't on YouTube yet.

08/08/08

While everyone's excitedly waiting for the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony tomorrow.... I'm excitedly waiting for $$$ to roll into my bank account!

My S$8,000,000 jackpot prize!!!

希望在明天
希望在 08/08/08 =)

Whiny Mingky

Kind of frustrated with the written report for Bioentrepreneurship now, because up till now, everything still seems so unclear. I mean, it's getting better and we are starting to see the clear picture of what we need to do, but I just can't help whining because it's already so late and it's been 2 weeks non-stop of insufficient sleep, squeezing with others on the train, and having to stare whole day at the laptop looking for information.

No, I am not regretting my decision to take this course. I'm just being whiny that's all. Blogging is free anyway. 不打白不打 right? To my group members, 加油吧!

Another set of decisions have to be made soon too. Which modules should I register for? I'm more or less confirmed of my own choice already. I hope the Add/Drop period passes soon, so I can stop thinking about it. And what about the extra elective that I got? What should I do with it?

Here's Melee for everyone, with Built To Last. Enjoy.

Bioentrepreneurship and Hall 12 FOC

The hell week just passed so quickly. Okay, it wasn't as hellish as I thought it would be. But then, come to think about it again, it was kinda hellish lah, in the sense that all of us had our fair share of insufficient sleep, and having to attend classes the whole day for 5 days straight. The cause of the lack of sleep? It's the presentation that each group had to present last Friday on a local bioentrepreneur.

ll we are left is a written report on an upcoming trend in the biotechnology field, which contributes to 50% of the marks, and that's it. 3 AUs down, by 12th Aug. But, this written report is the tough one, it's getting on my nerves that the Internet doesn't give me the crucial information that I need. Is it time to hit the libraries once again? I don't have enough time for library books since the deadline is 12th Aug.

*Orientation cum Team Bonding Session last Saturday at NTC in betw SBS and SCI*
-Team Members: Lavin, Me, James, Sophia, Xinyi-

*Our sticker name tags, one new piece each day. Wasteful*

*They should have just used this alone*

*Days and nights of presentation preparation in the SBS Pantry*

*Our roles in the presentation*

*Rehearse rehearse and rehearse*

*For my team members who can't remember their lines.. haha*

*I love this group's opening, they interviewed a Dr. Ken Lee, so Agnes and Johnson (standing) started off by singing what the Belgium Idol girl sang.... "Ken Lee.... LibidibidouchooOO"*

*Team Purple Jelly after presentation*

This course wasn't just about bad things, there were many good aspects too. Besides learning whatever the course instructors had to teach us, we all made many new friends too because we were all grouped randomly.

AND most importantly, which other BS core modules would allow you to:

1. Use CR7 for the whole day (except for those who take TCM classes).
   
   
2. Doze off after lunch without worrying about not catching the important points for exams, because this is a non-examinable module.
   
   
3. Go to the washroom like 5 times within every 3 hours while the lecture is going on, because you need a break from the classroom.
   
   
4. Visit a lab which keeps not rabbits, mice, or rats, BUT houseflies and maggots.
   
   
5. Realise that BS people can actually be quite creative.
   
   
6. Clear 3 AUs in just one week.
   
   
7. Score a guaranteed minimum of grade B if you are present for all lessons, do your presentation and assignment.
   
   
8. Surf the web non-stop during lesson time.
   
   
9. MSN the whole day (I didn't do this).
   
   
10. Facebook the whole day (I only did this for a quarter of a day).
    

Bringing your attention to point #4, the lab which keeps maggots. I bet most of you would find this uber disgusting, but it really had me starting to think and wonder why some people are just so innovative. Okay, firstly the maggots are useful because diabetes patients who got gangrene would need these creepy crawlies to "eat" off their dead flesh, and this saves the patients from amputations! But really, this bioentrepreneur made use of free, or cheap, resources to get his insects. He used rotten raw meat to attract the flies, and captures them into cages. Smart huh. The lab naturally had this pungent smell, whenever the cage is open, and we could see some people's faces turn green! Quite funny.

So at the end of the day, it was quite a relieve that the presentation was finally over and we could concentrate on the written report, which is what I'm working on as I'm typing now. I guess everyone really didn't regret doing this module even though initially everyone had their worries and doubts. Great job friends!

*Jianzhong, Me, Anthony, John*

*Joleen, Shermain, Me*

*Bioentrepreneurship Class 2008 July Batch*

*Dinner at Central Mall and Hokkaido ice cream as dessert*

The next day, Saturday, I managed to make a trip down to Hall 12 with Yeo Si Boon to support the FOC on their last day. Many people didn't come last minute huh, u know who u are~!! HAHA but you're all excused :D Went down to move my stuffs back into Hall as well since I have a car ride to hitch. So here's one big group picture...

*Juniors, Seniors, Alumni*