Intense

Intense

That sums up the whole of IR tutorial yesterday. The tutorial was held in a style similar to what we see in a debate. Advantages of conducting it in a debate format is that ideas and viewpoints can be openly discussed and it will train your mind into thinking further and faster. However, the flip side of this is that, the whole tutorial can just revolve around a few people and basically dominating the entire lesson. It is even worse when you encounter people who nitpicks on the topic, not that they are wrong though, but it really irks you out at times.

My 3 days week can only happen on the even weeks >_<. Training intensity increased dramatically on wednesday night. 400m 200m 200m 100m 100m. 400m and 3 laps of towing with aid. Really pushing my body to the limits. I am very impressed with those people staying in hall, who have activites, be it school or hall, to occupy them throughout the night. When the heck do these people have time to study? How do they even manage to maintain a CAP of 5.0? Ok maybe not that great then. What about a 4.5? Time management is the key to the success of these adrenalin-crazed students. Then can I ask if they are taking somekind of wonder drug or what? Some of them are not only pure athletes. They do hold positions in the executive comittee, and that takes up even more time, especially when major events are coming up.

Oh well. Just in different leagues.

Anyway realised a new bus route again. Take BTC from the bustop at Central Forum. 10 mins later, Alight at Durnearn bustop. Board 151/153/154. 8-10mins later, alight at Trellis Towers. Board 5. 7 mins later. Either choose to alight and cross the overheard bridge to board buses to Bedok, or board 45.

a) Take buses to Bedok. 15 mins to reach the interchange

b) Take bus 45 , take 5 mins to reach busstop at Blk 521 Bedok North Road. Board 17, 10 mins to reach home. Total time: 40mins. ( Record)

c) Continue to take 5 and alight outside Changi General Hospital. Take around 20 mins and Change 17. 5 mins to reach home. ( 53 mins)

This is for all those who are seeking to get the fastest route from NUS to Bedok and Simei area.

All this timing does not include waiting time for the buses. If added into consideration, give it +15-20mins.

Buses that are difficult to wait will be: BTC- frequency is not high.

5- Slow during peak hours

Homecoming tonight! Damn proud of myself. 1 week completed 6 readings. Time to start on essays.

Change of Fortune

What a turn of event. Who else but Liverpool =D?

I think it is time for me to set up 2 more blogs. One which focuses entirely on my rants of Liverpool and the other one for me to really dive deep into world and social issues. Writing is the same as the study of science and mathematics, more practice is needed to develop the flair and aptitude.

Lifesaving. Hmm. Pushing myself real hard. Throughout my academic life, it is the first time I am in a sports club. Well, I want to put my horrible memory of the failed table tennis trial back in VS away. Ha. Then again, I am actually paying money for this Bronze Medallion course. My aim is just get a cert and prove to myself that I can hit 35 seconds for 50m Freestyle. Sadly, I am still far from the target. Yesterday, I only managed a 43 seconds. Just got to push on. 8 seconds! My oh my!

Linguistics is kind of weird. Have you all learnt a language in such a scientific manner? I am quite surprise when I look through the course syllabus. It is like sitting through kindergarten all over again. Hopefully, I can get through this in one piece man.

I will be going to Caldecott Broadcast Centre this Saturday =D. LOL

Overflowing of emotions

The title says it all.

Getting on my Nerves

Liverpool, my oh my. Up to now, I think I have not blogged something postive about my favourite club.

I am very puzzled as to why maxi and spearing is in today's lineup. Put Aurelio as left back, switch Glen Johnson to right winger, put babel in on the left of midfield and lastly, throw in Joe Cole behind Torres.

I just don't understand why and how today's result is it is as it happened. Skrtel at fauly? Well, probably. Where is the cover then? Why aren't they taking chances there? Maxi seems to be going on a solo mission. With no one marking Torres, Maxi for goodness sake, pass it to him.

This can't go on too long man. 10 Losses. How do we even get into the top 6? It is like making the entire team climb Mount Everest without any prior training. Sell Poulsen, Jovanovic, Konchesky and Kuyt. Bring in an experience striker or young one( Lukaku?), another quality CM and then cure the left back problem. The entire midfield is aging, and the young ones are not up to scratch. I forgot to add another player to the shopping list, centre backs.

I am in favour with what the new owners think. Yes, we need to train the young. But, the short term problem still needs to be solved! I can't imagine we get sucked into a relegation battle, and that is it. We can forget about training the young. Those crazy salary that the team is drawing will have to be the burden the owners have to carry it. I shudder at those thoughts that may shatter to bring down the glorious history that is emobodied by this club....

Release of O level Results!

Nothing much to complain about the first week. 3 day work week. What more to ask for? Hopefully, tutorial bidding will turn up what I have wished for.

Readings and more readings. This , I am not complaining about. Somehow, it feels kind of funny and yet happy at the same time. All those thoughts I had since I was in Secondary school is all surfacing now in these readings. It makes me somehow feel as if I am connected to them in a certain level. I am delighted to have "met" them right now, but kind of worrying if it is kind of too late. No matter how much people are saying that University is an educational institution that you can excel in what you are really interested in, there are deeper underlying traps that one has to be careful of. Yes, you can deepen your interest in a particular subject, but to excel, it is a whole new ball game. The playing field has raised up to the top 18% of the cohort, or so the census says,.( I was merely just copied the findings that 18% of Singaporeans are holding a degree. I am wrong here... but , nvm), in addition to the never ending stream of foreign students seeking for a globally recognized degree, the education landscape in Singapore has evolved.

The recent O levels has once again proved that the local kids are facing immense pressure. I was scouring through STOMP( the best gossip website by a local press) , and of course, it is not surprising to see Singaporeans complaining how our local boys and girls are losing out again. A typical Singaporean response to such controversial issue. Complain, and not constructive solution. So what is my purpose of mentioning this issue. I'm not complaining about the increasing trend of foreign students dominating the local examinations, I will just highlight 2 issues that Singaporeans are not looking deeper into.

First, many of our top students are now in the through train programmes. To say that our local kids are not up to the mark , is really somewhat unfair. I say , wait for the A-level results, then make another judgement again. The top 15% are still our nation's best are probably mugging real hard for the A levels, while the remaining 85% of their cohort has to take the blame for underperforming. In a nutshell, the comparison is just short of the word, fair.

Secndly, the batch of students who took the O level last year had to compete with the foreign students who had already, back in their home ground, completed the syllabus for Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue. What is left for them to "conquer" is English and Humanities. I have a gut feeling that they had already completed much of humanities, and what is left is Social Studies.In comparison, we can definitely see that the local students are already on the disadvantaged end as they have to juggle more subjects in the same amount of time, as compared to their foreign peers whom only need to clear fewer subjects. Hence, it is unfair to put the blame on the kids, and rather, we should shift our attention to who allowed such culpable competition to exist in the first place?

In this age where the wave of globalisation, it is hard for Singapore, a small country so vulnerable to the vagaries of external events to resist it. It is time for the people to accept the fact that we need to accept people not from our mother land. We recieve them in open arms, making sure they are the right ones that can contribute to our economy. While both parties continue to exploit each other for mutual benefits, Singaporeans have to always think ahead, making sure that what we can tap is more than what they can extract from us.

A dog-eat-dog world, but a cruel fact of life.

Time to sleep. More readings to clear. And more blogging to continue =D

So it all begins again

Yup, School is back for more action once again.

Most of us started off with a hole in the pocket. The textbooks for all the modules cost so much. Scary! Everything is rising, except wages, our CAP, my weight, my height , my muscle growth...

But anyway, first week is up for me already. The bidding for tutorial starts tmr and may my hope of a 3 day week be fulfilled. 4 days or rest versus 3 days of school. Cool!

Dinner time for me. Now

Demise of the Reds

7 Wins 4 Draws 9 Lost. Numbers do not lie, neither do the patience of the fans.

After watching, the painful defeat at Ewood Park, it is time we bade goodbye to Hodgson. He is a man of good character, but not a man with the calibre enough to lead Liverpool out of the storm. Brought in just at the start of the season, the primary objective was to stabilise the ship in the "storm" and reach the minimum target of 4th place. The first game versus Arsenal gave the fans the optimism that a new change of fate has arrived. Sadly, it wasn't to be. An uncharacteristic error by Reina made us lose 2 points. Never mind about that, it wasn't your fault, it was Reina. We met Northampton Town in the Carling Cup. Half of the Liverpool team were international players, hence it should not have been labelled as the second string team. There should have been enough quality to see off the opposition. The final score was an embarrassment for to be mentioned again.

A couple more draws and losts were common on the scoresheet, not up to the match against Chelsea, the fans saw a glimpse of hope. Torres was back! Fantastic all round game. But so what? We lost the next few games. All the hard work were gone to waste. New owners renewed their faith in Hodgson, brought in Damien Comolli. "Developing young players is our target," so the they say.

2010 ended in disastrous fashion and basically, summed up a dreadful year for one of the most successful club in England. Wolves! Can you believe it?? A team in 20th position. King Kenny called for support, new owners renewed support. Fans were peeved, we demand the head of Hodgson. Some wanted Rafael Benitez, who was sacked by Inter Milan despite winning the World Club Championship, to be reinstalled. I am personally not in favour of that. Why? More boardroom drama will ensue, as the new owners seem to be very possessive and with Damien Comolli, one can expect Benitez to start complaining to the press about the lack of funds or support in the transfer market.

Final straw came in the last hour. Another away defeat, this time at Ewood Park. It is seldom , we have to use these 3 words, "another away defeat".

Horrible defending by the defence. Where was the communication between the players? The so on-from Soto can actually clashed with Leiva while challenging for the ball. The comical scene lead to a disastrous ending when Benjani capitalised on it and scored the second.

Joe Cole can perform if you give him the chance, he showed in in this match. Gerrard's penalty miss was somehow expected. Before he took the kick, he sighed and this body action is quite obvious to any human being on planet earth. It is a sign of pessimism.

Well, we are now closer to a relegation dogfight, rather than a 4th place finish. Will we end up like Leeds? I am really afraid, very afraid. But no matter what, I will stick by the players. We once attained 2nd in the EPL, with a majority of the players in the current squad. Hodgson simply does not have what it takes to bring this club back to its glory past. We lost our once captivating attacking style of football, our determination that won us so many glorious comebacks, and of course, the many trophies that graced the trophy cabinet.

Time for you to leave Roy. No manager has been sacked by Liverpool, they were always asked to leave on mutual consent. You may be the first, but I hope you can just submit your resignation letter immediately, walk out with a label that you were once managed one of Europe's most successful club, rather than being notoriously sacked.

Goodbye Roy. Goodbye.

Out out out

I have been going out for the past 6 consecutive days. I have been diligently boosting the Singapore's Economy, especially the F n B industry. Maybe, it is time for me to visit Singapore Pools this weekend, hoping to recoup all that has flowed out.

Oh well, it is the season for bidding of modules. Damn, didn't know 2 of the mods I want to take clashed, and I prepared for it this holiday. Wow. What a uncharacteristic mistake.

Got to watch out for the Banglas tomorrow. Last day of 2010.

Christmas Eve

How often do you see 8 guys cramming in the living room of a chalet watching Disney cartoons on Channel 5?

I was one of them, and it happened on Christmas Eve. It was kind of a wasted trip I guess. But well, It was still a good outing though. Checked out NEX at Serangoon. There is a similarity in the new malls, which is more and more food stalls. The business expansion of Wendy's is the most noticeable, with another stall in Bedok Point too. NEX is basically a middle class hawker centre. The area that the mall occupies is kind of huge too man. Do not be too alarm if you get lost. Be very careful while taking the escalators, not that your feet will get trapped or what, it is just that we do not know where the escalators are heading too man. Hahas.

Had Carl's Junior, then headed down to ICE^3 to try out the mudpie. First time in my life, I got to taste a mudpie. Too sweet for my liking and it made me kind of bloated. The ambience of shop is nice, and while sitting on the sofa, you really can doze off. A sense of ageing hit me when the group of guys whom i think are around J1, were like chatting about how they should approach J2. Not girls, but studies. One was like saying, he still want to enjoy abit , before going out full force. Sometimes, no matter how hard you want to pull yourself away from the gravity of the problem, you will still be suck back in. Studies results Studies. The only objective now is all this man.

Wanted to post a pic here, but oh well, time to go Orchard for some makan and catch up session.

Merry Xmas

1) Due to the growing in demand of presents and globalization, Santa Claus Corporation has decided to move their production from Finland to China. This move has led to an estimated work loss for ten million elves, whose main livelihood come from wrapping gifts and acting as an extra in Lord of The Rings.

2)Due to the influence of idols such as Rudolph, more and more teenage reindeers are getting a nose job.

3)Santa is currently undergoing a lawsuit from World Wildlive Fund(WWF) for ill-treatment of reindeers. Reindeers have been reported to have to travel hundreds of kilometers without any rest, in order to deliver all the presents for the children within a night.

4)Due to the colour of his costume, Santa Claus is officially banned from visiting Thailand.

5)Turkeys experience a mini holocaust once every year during this season.

6)Ever wondered why you never saw Santa in real person? Unless you are living in a landed apartment with a chimney, Santa would never deliver presents to people living in HDB flats. Santa exists, just that nobody told you the harsh truth.

7)An elf working for Santa has been suspected to be the founder of www.santaleaks.com, a website which provides insider information of who's naughty or nice this year.

8)Distributing presents is only Santa's part time job. He is actually a principal at the School of Hogwarts.

Quoted by one of my junior.

Alright, Merry Xmas All. Mad rush to the end of this year. So many outings to attend too and it seems that festive seasons get more happening as you grow older.

For the record, today was the first time ever that I stepped foot into the Bukit Panjang and Gombak Area. the whole place seemed so foreign to me.

Off to sleep. IPPt training tmr.

Brought Back Down to Earth

Yup, brought back down to reality.

It was never easy. I was too naive in believing that past methods words. Those childish thoughts have bitten me badly. Absolute disaster.

Have I lost the skill that I use to have in the past? Or should I stick to the same old formula? Practice makes perfect. It seems that by doing the past 17 papers, it did work wonders for me. But still, it did not hit the grade that I was looking out for.

Again, my expectations were not met. It was a little too late for redemption I gues. First semester was a huge lesson. Do not underestimate anything. I need to tweak my life too. No more wasting of time on facebook. Seriously, I have a very suspicious view of Mark Zuckerberg's motive of creating facebook. He claimed to allow he and his friends to stalk hot girls, I think otherwise. He wanted OTHERS to stalk on hot girls, and then he can get the edge over the others to be in the front running of the bell curve.

Oh ok, I got to make this clear, I do not stalk. Whatever appears on the newsfeed, I will read it. I have the habit of going through the entire newsfeed before I go on to explore the daily happenings of the world.

Change of luck is needed for Second Half

Oh my, disastrous results for my Lifesaving mock test. Shit. Got to study it for this week.

Have been swimming for the past few days , training for IPPT has been ok. Well, it is still all due to procrastination, albeit on a smaller scale this time round.

Liverpool is currently behind by one goal. Freaking offiside and the linesman didn't see it. Oh well, hope second half will be better. It has been a long time since I wore the jersey out already.

Ok back to what I have been doing. I cleared only 2 movies. Harry Potter and Hello Stranger. I would say that Hello Stranger thrash Harry Potter. Not that Emma Watson didn't catch my attention ( She is so damn hot in the red dress, and the CGI kissing scene with Harry...Imagination can go crazy...), but I guess the directors or the scriptwriters chose the wrong parts from the book to be shown on screen. The scriptwriters didn't have a lot to do , but too bad, wrong judgement by them really brings the overall feel to the movie down by a lot. Why did Harry started dancing in the tent with Hermione? The whole scene seemed very dodgy, the eye contact between Harry and Hermione hinted some feelings between them and Ron was played out at the very moment. The first hour was a total bore and the second was slightly better. The seventh instalment did not focus much on magic, it just dealt with stuff that were dark, betrayal, lust, deception and DEATH.

Hello Stranger on the other hand rocks my socks. Couples should go watch it, and I watched it with 2 other guys. Don't ask why. The lead actress is ... CHIO. Not exactly super chio, but those girls who are pleasing to the eyes. and once you look into her eyes, your heart will melt, kind of girls. Even though it is adapted from a Korean movie, It is still kind of refreshing and the lead actor's timing for humour is spot on. Anybody who left the movie without laughing or feeling a tinge of sadness, I refund you the movie ticket. It is that god. serious!

My stance remains. Hodgson has to go. The sight of him rubbing his face non-stop made my blood boil and I feel like giving him 2 tight slaps on the face.

Damn.

Singtel is pissing me off

For the past 2 days the internet has been going cranky. And I really can't stand it. Time to blast the crap out of them.

Pissed

because of my laptop. Now after trying so many different means. I am not sure if my router is at fault or my laptop is at fault. The freaking led light are flickering like mad, but my 2 desktops are working perfectly fine. My sister's laptop is working alright with wireless connection. However, I did a driver scan for my wireless card for DM4 , but it says it is updated to the latest software already.

Damn. should have gotten a mac. Shiatz

Life Sucks.com

And they lost it again. I cannot believe it. So many chances. Almost 3 1 on 1 chances and we did not take it.