Things to do next year

1. Time lapse videos as homage to my wonderful music collection. Sigur Ros, Jonsi comes to mind for now.
2. More more traditional art.
3. Start/midst/end the Happy Book with Emily.
4. Move to a different country.
5. Start life anew.
6. Be happy.

7. Love yourself.
8. Find someone to love you too.
9. Love him for loving you.

10. Be healthy.
11. Use only organic product on your body.




I dare only to dream -
0. Working in a vfx company.

We are many selves

Images and fantasies of our future self, believe that we should be or even fear to be; is the driver for change. All with different baggage stemming from self, family or spouse.

However the most important thing is get out of our head. To ACT.

As with this article, almost everyone who's trying to figure out the next career takes a long time to try and figure out the next career. Under normal circumstances, career transition takes 3 years and rarely linear. A few steps forward, then back.

Craft experiments. Shift connections. Make sense of the changes.

We all have our epiphany. I recognised mine as the 19 hours flight back from Boston (the plane which broke down and I had to stay over at Chicago for 24 hours). On the plane back to Singapore, I first sat beside a guy who's almost finishing his grad school, and then later, after transiting at Hong Kong, I sat beside a professor from UC Berkeley.

Everything takes time, perseverance and hard work. But pray, do start. Start by taking action on the road to Damascus.

Can't breathe

When I am not doing my school stuff, I felt like I've lost air. I can't breathe... Is that what love is all about?

I love studying, I feel... alive. It's important, isn't it? To feel alive?

For Wedding and A Monkey face

Alright besides the failed attempt of a title, I must say, I really enjoyed a wedding of a colleague last Saturday. Granted we have to brave the scorching heat, sitting in a restaurant in the middle of the jungle (I am exaggerating, just Fort Canning). I love things old and I love that we had to pass the philatelic museum to get there. I love the Fuji Instax print that the bride has and uses generously throughout the lunch. Fantastic. For a quick moment, I really wanted to get married too! Haha. So here are some pictures from the wedding. I've finally worn the vintage pink dress I bought 4 years ago in Suan Lum! Yay!

No Reason

She said, "Why can't you continue studying? I don't see any obstacles. It's not like you're married or have a sperm donor."

Round Lens

My brother can tell you how much I love round lens sunnies but never ever got one that fit well on my face.



















His face is better because he seems to look good with all kinds of glasses.





















I want all these looks...













Anyway, I've found it.











And the perfect guy to give me the lenses too!
There's this really cheap optician near my place. I've already ordered a new pair of perscription glasses (Luela styled ^_^) and my new sunnies with polarised lens. Now I'm really itching for the cat eyes lens.

Chin Tee Optical Service
151 Bishan St 11
#01-185 Singapore 570151
Contact : 62545845


*none of these pictures belong to me.

Full blown crazy

When they don't trust our scripts... I said to one colleague:

What else can I say to them?
"
Why don't you try our latest robot that does just that?
*whips out robot in a flourish*
This robot comes with fully articulated limbs and 6 programmable functions with 12 speaking voices.
And when you're bored, will sing your favourite lullaby to you!
All for $99.90.
Batteries not included."

try me

I work for what I want in life.

Got a job that pays less and isn't as "glamourous". In anticipation of grad school... (In hindsight, what if I didn't get the candidature?)

And I managed to:~

Work full time.
Go to school the rest of it.
Organise company events, producing almost all the artwork.

Scalded my tongue so badly with coffee, I can't taste anything anymore. Except salt which feels waay too salty now.


Commonly heard from people who understand both worlds:
"You work 5 days a week?"
"You work full time (and you're doing your MSc)?"
"How do you split your brain in half?"
"When do you sleep?"

If this is not dedication, I don't know what is.

"I think I will be less happy

if I didn't know you or talk to you. I don't know what this means or why I am telling you this. But that's how I feel."

"Haha. Cute. Me too."

"Good. And this is not flirting, just so you know."

"Ya I know. You confuse me sometimes but I get it."

Embedded with sound

Music plays a big part in me. Every episode of my life is accompanied with some kind of music. That I will play relentlessly during that time.

And now, revisiting some of the music reminds me ... less of what really happened but the emotions I was feeling then.

Discovering new music is a certain high that I cannot explain.
Like finding a new collar pin!

Chocolate Rain

So my mum thought I will benefit with some protein drink. And promptly bought me one from Herbalife.

This is not about the benefits of this drink even though I must say, this drink so far has been good to me. Not about losing weight but a more balanced diet.

Anyways, to drink it, you have to shake it in lukewarm water till it all dissolve. However, I found drinking the soy drink alone is quite nasty so I like to mix with chocolate. And unfortunately, I like my chocolate hot.

So yesterday night, I'd put in hot water, mixed chocolate and soya. Shake. In the dark, I just kept shaking, not realising that the hot water and vigorous shaking had caused a huge amount of energy built up in the tumbler. The next thing I know, it had exploded with a loud noise and I am covered in hot chocolate. Except... I was only wearing undies and my torso felt raw.

With that too, I discovered I'd proven the effectiveness of a certain pad from "Shop & Save" for weak bladder. Which I discovered only after this explosion.

The experiments I do to prove my case. Tsk tsk.

王菲 (Faye Wong) - 美錯 (Beautiful Mistake)

This is how I'm feeling now.




**

ben lai xiang yue ta
zai hai bian shan meng hai shi
que zhao cuo di fang lai dao
yi ge you yong chi
man yan shui lan de mei li
ni wo jiu cong na li kai shi
lan se de lian yi bu zhan yi duan hui yi

ni song wo ou ran cong tian er jiang
de yu shi
wo yi zhi wu hui na shi ke wan mei zhan shi
bu hui kan jian ta de xia chi
ba ta xiang zai wo de jie zhi
wo ye mai fa xian
you shen me sun shi

rang wo gan qing yong shi
li zhi wu bu yu shi
zhi shao wo jiu zhe yang kai xin
guo yi zhen zi
bu guan ta shi zhen de
ni shi jia de shui shi mu de di
neng zi yi wei shi ye shi ge en ci
bu shi lai de tai kuai
jiu shi lai de tai chi
mei li de cuo wu
wang wang zhi jie jin zhen shi
jin guan hun mi you shi
meng xing you shi bu jian chi
ren sheng zhui da de kuai le ye
bu guo ru shi
suo wei zhui sheng meng si
da gai jiu shi zhe ge yi si
suo wei tian yi jiu shi
zhe ge yi si

ENGLISH TRANSLATION :

Originally planned to swear by the ocean with him,
Yet mistakenly arrived to a swimming pool
Eyes filled with the ocean-blue beauty,
That is where you and I began,
The blue ripples laid forth a path of memories
You gave me a meteoroid rarely descending from above,
I continued to mistake it for a perfect diamond,
Never once seeing its defect,
Mounting it onto my ring,
I did not even realize,
What was there I had lost
*Allow me to have sensibility get the better of me,
Leaving sense to no avail,
At least then I would have had a moment of happiness
Who cares if you are real or fake, or whoever is my destination,
The ability of self-righteousness is nevertheless a blessing
It always happens either too early, or too late
A beautiful mistake often comes so close to the truth
Although sometimes I wake up from dreams, and sometimes I don't hold out
The greatest happiness in life is nothing more than this
The so-called dream life
Means precisely this

Repeat *

The so-called fate means this

本來相約他在海邊山盟海誓
卻找錯地方來到一個游泳池
滿眼湖水藍的美麗
你我就從那裡開始
藍色的漣漪鋪展一段回憶

你送我偶然從天而降的隕石
我一直誤會那是顆完美鑽石
不曾看見它的瑕疵
把它鑲在我的戒指
我也沒發現有甚麼損失

*讓我感情用事
理智無補於事
至少我就這樣開心過一陣子
不管他是真的　你是假的　誰是目的地
能自以為是　也是個恩賜

不是來得太快
就是來得太遲
美麗的錯誤往往最接近真實
儘管昏迷有時　夢醒有時　不堅持
人生最大的快樂也不過如是*

所謂醉生夢死
大概就是這個意思

重唱: *

所謂甜蜜
就是這個意思

From: http://www.songmeanings.net

Why haven't they announce the selection yet?

Here I am biting my nails, feeling depressed.

Says here on the website. Announcement will be made in August. I so want to go for the conference. Please, please choose me! I will do anything. Actually I wishto be a carpenter. But I think that's done by professionals.

EDIT:
They did. I was not selected. Oh, well... I am still fine. Must be the lingering euphoria from Palawan.

"Stop being so emo about ~

work."

"I'm not emo about work. I'm emo about school."

Started crying. Can't stop.

"This is so unlike you. Do you have gay love for robot girl? You should tell her."

"No~~~ But yes. She's one of the reason I'm sad. She's my only friend in school."

"What about Zin?"

"Zin graduated. She's full-time and she finished everything except her dissertation."

"You can make other friends. Maybe you just need to cry. It's a cleansing ritual?"

"That's not it... I won't be depressed about work. Nope. I won't be depressed about school. No wait, I might because I love school. I'm definitely depressed about robot girl. And all of a sudden all three things hit me at the same time. I'm not made to take so much sadness. I am depressed."

Thomas' mom just died. So suddenly. All I could say to him was, "I can't take it." He said, "Neither can I."

Then I'd been reading Randy Pausch's Last Lecture. He reminded me of dad, and he is dead. I miss dad.

Southpaw

"Oh! You're leftie!"

Lefties are more aware of other lefties. Blame it on being minority in the world of rights.

For a long time, didn't hit me why:
Takes me such a long time to unlock the gate.
Blistering thumb whenever I use the scissors.
The can-opener doesn't do what it's supposed to.
Fighting elbows at the dinner table or lecture hall.
The saw was so hard to use during carpentering class.

On top of that, people don't really like you when they can't share your guitar, baseball mitt or hockey stick.

Lefties I've encountered are extremes. They either achieve greatness or are so totally useless they're better off dead. I guess, it's a matter of adapting to an opposite environment.
You either persevere or give up totally.

However, I should be grateful of the (primary & secondary) school I was in. Almost half the of them are lefties in one way or another.

I'm now living in a leftie apartment. Just want to put that on record because I know, once I moved away in a few years' time. I will forget.
Forgetfulness is my way of dealing.

Left-handed scholarship: http://schoolscholarships.org/scholarships-for-left-handed-students-free-education-at-hand

A graduate school survival guide: "So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!"

Brief description

A computer science graduate school survival guide, intended for prospective or novice graduate students. This guide describes what I wish I had known at the start of graduate school but had to learn the hard way instead. It focuses on mental toughness and the skills a graduate student needs. The guide also discusses finding a job after completing the Ph.D. and points to many other related web pages.


"So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!"

a.k.a.

"Everything I wanted to know about C.S. graduate school
at the beginning but didn't learn until later."

The 4th guide in the Hitchhiker's guide trilogy
(and if that doesn't make sense, you obviously have not read Douglas Adams)

by Ronald T. Azuma

v. 1.08

Original version 1997, last revised January 2003

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/hitch4.html

8:22

I was laser-eyeing the waiter when he said, "Dr. Who timing. In 4 minutes, everyone will stand up and sing the national anthem."
"Huh?" (I've no idea if he really did say Dr. Who but that's what I heard.)
"There's no end to your oblivion, isn't it? At 8:22pm, everyone will stand up and pledge their loyalty to the country. With the national anthem to boot, I believe."
"Ok... I'll pretend to be a tourist and continue eating."
"No excuse."
"You're lying... why 8:22? What's that in minutes? 502 minutes. What does that stand for?"
"Not so complicated, lah."
"Then why? What does that signifies? What's the computation in seconds? Why so special a time?"
"Maybe that's the time this country got it's independence. To the second."
"OOhhh, you're so clever! And in case you're unaware of this, 8:22 came and went. Without a fuss. You lied."
"I did not!!! It says so everywhere! Even on the highway!"
"Oh I know! We time jumped. We skipped the moment! You programmed this, didn't you? And to think that you were writing that crack for Sims City to add a few thousand dollars in your account... I knew it! You were writing a time distortion algorithm. You're so clever! *grin*"

We went Vivo because I was looking for lonely planet's Cambodia guide and I really needed some bras. I didn't get either.
Watched Up in 3D instead. The 3D glasses were quite smudged and I had a hard time with immersion due to the frames blocking my field of view. I pressed the glasses hard on my button nose and voila! better view.

Thoroughly enjoyed Up and definitely watching it again in the theatre. The part where Russel used a leave blower to navigate, too similar to another scene in Wall.E where WallE did the same with an extinguisher.

In the cab home, I had the usual dilemma again. What do I do when I graduate? I figured, I'll just be really good at my job and earn a lot of money. Ya. That sounds like a plan.

Note: 8:22pm is just an arbitrary time for when the parade reaches it's conclusion or when the NDP committee were giving speeches. Or something like that. How disappointing eh?

Sensory Input

"I had the most boring day today," he said.

"I had a wonderful time. Even though work isn't terribly exciting. But I had a great time going out with my colleagues. The girls are mad!"

The girls are wonderful. Wonderful!

I laughed so much. Oh... I will miss Stitch when she is away for the next 3 months. When she comes back, I will most probably be having my exams, hopefully THE academic conference and then the year ends. Woah! So strange. That means... I've been in the new job for a full year. Wow. Can't imagine... Because... I feel... I didn't learn much on the job. Blah...

He said he just wants to talk to a real person...

That's why people get married, I guess.


He's 34. He's me in the future.

Laughed till we got tired

And teary and exhausted~!

What a fun day hanging out with ET and Stitch. Ha... Eat. Shop. Walk. Suanz. Shop.

Blah... All I got was a shiny, sequins (so getai!) black tights. Which is still very funny.

And I make ugly clothes look good... I know!

ET tried on a very low shirt in different colours. She asked, "Which colour better?" We said, "Same colour, ah." (staring at her cleavage).