The new blog can officially be found at http://lufcyc.blogspot.com

Farewell to this blog - my online home for the past 2 years ...

I've really nothing much to say now, except for the fact that I think i am gonna move to a new blog address, cos I think I've exhausted all the possible functions bravejournals has to offer, and I'm getting kinda bored by it now. I need something new to play with, a change of sorts. So I'll set up a new blog, prolly this weekend when I feel more free, and then I shall post its url on this page. I'll prolly transfer the last few posts over from here to there, so as not to make it look so plain and pathetic, but we'll see.

Finally, I decided that there is something interesting to talk about and to share about. Mundane and monotonous things, like finally arriving in Chicago, going to classes, missing classes, chiling out on weekend, I suppose are just plain boring, and don't deserve a hoot on this site. Probably such crap will appear on many other blogs, but I tend to be more selective.

So yesterday, the few of us ASTAR scholars went out for lunch with several of the HR people from ASTAR who had come down to the US to visit scholars all over here. Well, suffice to say, of course I would be going. Who gives a shit that there was also a shopping trip at Aurora Outlet Mall on the same day? Nothing to do other than shop shop shop is it? I wait till you shop till you drop, and then I laugh non-stop. Seriously lah, what's so enjoyable about walking up and down, looking and touching, browsing through 5 shops before deciding to go back to the first shop to buy something? So niang niang qiang for wat? Lagi worse, some people walk back to the first shop to buy something, then suddenly decide the last shop was better. nb lah! Everyone has a finite amount of energy ... better to spend that energy on replenishing more energy, in the form of eating and restaurant hopping. Obviously, I'm not a big fan of shopping, but I digress.

So back to the lunch, we went to this Chinese restaurant downtown, called PF Chang's. The name sounds si bei ang moh rite? Why cannot Chang PF, or FP Chang? Or even Fang Pi Chang? Never mind, so it's called PF Chang's. Prof Lam came down, and so did our CARE advisor Shannon, and head of HR Josephine, and Prof Bernard from NUS, and MR Gan of the Chicago-Spore Connections. Nice company, nice food. I like! The dessert, especially was simply awesome. We had the Great Wall of Chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake. Seriously hor, the Great Wall is more like the Great Mountain lah, one huge chunk/slice of rich fudge chocolate. Wah lau eh, think about it now, also salivate. Conversation was pretty cool too. Since I was sitted at 1 extreme end of the rectangular table, I mostly socialized with the Chicago people (no Northwestern ones lah) and Josephine. Didn't feel like a scholarship sorta dinner. It was in fact more informal and chatty than most of our dinners in Regents. Was pleasantly surprised that Josephine remembered my name, tho Prof Lam didn't. But I'm sure now he recognizes me.

And the day before, I went to see my Bio prof to get him to write me a letter of recommendation. I thought, worse come to worse, at most half an hr lor. Then eat lunch at 2pm. But wah biang eh, first half an hr, we talked about Singapore. Then we got to the recommendations part. After half an hr of deciding what to put into the recommendation, we spent the next 30min talking about pens and stationary. Nb lah. SO I only got out of his office at 3pm, and had lunch at 4pm. Lagi worse, I fell asleep watching wrestling that night. But there was always the ASTAR lunch the next day to look forward to.

In 4 hours time, i'll be leaving for Changi Airport. 3.5 months in Singapore really flies back really quickly; now it's back to packing time. Kinda strange, but I'm only bringing back 1 piece of luggage in addition to my laptop bag. Really seems so little this time, n my suitcase still has so much excess space. whenever there is this additional space, i always have this strange feeling that i forgot to bring something back. do hope that this time it's not like that. cos i have tried to squeeze every imaginable necessity in. I guess this time, it's cos I didn't bring back any footwear. I wore slippers onto the plane back, n later I'm gonna wear slippers again (albeit a new pair) back to Chicago. seriously ah, long journey (20 hrs lor, dun play play), its better than wearing shoes. At least can kiao kah on the plane, or wriggle the toes here n there. feels better lah, and the feet will smell so much nicer somemore. well it's back to chicago, n back to studying. yes i'm gonna study hard, n i shall see u all people next year in June.

To continue the trend from many many years ago, and most likely will continue for years to come, The Straits Times had 2 whole pages dedicated to ACS(I) being the top secondary school in the Singapore sports scene once again. The headline: ACS(I) Triumph In Battle of Sceondary Schools. (Just for non-ACSians out there and non-Singaporeans who have never heard of ACS, only the last paragraph was dedicated to RJC being the champions of the A Division; the rest of it all was about how ACS(I) beat off competition from Raffles, Hwa Chong, and the Singapore Sports School to emerge champions once more.) For the record, ACS(I) had 9 national championships this year; Hwa Chong 8, and RI 7. Aiya, we give them chance this year lah, to make the whole race more exciting mah, not fun if ACS(I) are runaway winners every year. So the 9 championships are:

1) Cricket 'C' Div
2) Rugby 'C' Div
3) Squash 'B' Div
4) Swimming 'B' Div
5) Tennis 'B' Div
6) Tennis 'C' Div
7) Bowling 'B' Div
Water Polo 'B' Div
9) Water Polo 'C' Div

Screw those RI and Hwa Chong people who say the more titles ACS(I) have is because ACS(I) offers more sports than other schools, and so have a higher chance of winning more titles. Well, other schools simply do not have the resources nor the talent to diversify, so just lose and whine you people. There's a lot of catching up to do. And the one day holiday reward for being overall champion might as well become a permanent fixture on the ACS(I) calendar.

My JC - NJC - also did very well this year, being winners of the Canoeing (Boys and Girls), Shooting (Boys and Girls) and Table Tennis (Boys). During my time there, we only won Canoeing, and sometimes Track and Field. Well, it's good to know that Raffles is not the best out there, nor even 2nd best!!!!! 

As voted by readers of the Chicago Tribune,

1) Lakefront (Lake Michigan) ...... 26,231 votes

2) Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs) ..... 19,718 votes

3) The El (that's the elevated MRT in chicago) ..... 18,800 votes

4) Sears Tower (tallest building in the US) ..... 17,957 votes

5) The Water Tower ..... 17,747 votes

6) The University of Chicago ..... 17,004 votes

7) Museum of Science and Industry ..... 16,962 votes

 

Attended the Beauty World press conference at the GSB campus yesterday. For a summary of the events, check it out here. We are featured on Channelnewsasia, though I didn't manage to watch it on tv, but nonetheless we are reported on their website so I guess we did make it onto tv yesterday. Wah I do hope we do live up to the high expectations of us, otherwise it will be such a letdown ... if I do get a role on the show, I sure will put in my best effort. I told Wanyun yesterday I wanted the role of one of the towkays, then she ask where got towkay so thin. Why cannot? Towkay cannot exercise ah?

Whew it's been a good long 4 years since Leeds United was in the news for all the right reasons, but now that the good times are just round the corner, finally there is something to cheer about once again, and nothing sums it all up better than Leeds United's own David Healy scoring the stunning goal which gave Northern Ireland (ranked 116, yes even below Malaysia) victory over an England side ranked 7 in the world.

Wah look how beautifully Healy executes his volley which left F**ked-up Ferdinand and Rubbish Robinson looking like miserable idiots (yes yes, those 2 cocks were once Leeds players ... but now they're not). Healy -- the toast of Belfast ... the hero of the day ... the man of the match ... the man who made the entire England squad (all earning much much more than the N. Ireland counterparts ... Ferdinand's wages are enough the pay the entire N. Ireland team) look hopelessly lost and pathetic -- yes that's David Healy ... Leeds United striker. The papers all over Singapore and England will probably be condemning the even more hopeless Sven watever Erikkson tomorrow ... and yes they should, cos he has no idea what formation to play and what tactics to use ... he's simply selecting players based on reputation and the clubs they play for, not on their form or how they would gel together with players they never play before with. Take as an example, Gerrard and Lampard are both central attacking midfielders ... too similar in style ... if I were the coach I'll probably drop one of them and bring in a defensive midfielder like Michael Carrick to add some bite to the midfield and allow Lampard/Gerrard to orchestrate the attack from midfield. But but Erikkson simply does not dare drop any of his players, hoping that both can reproduce their club form on the international stage, but does he realize that at club level, each of them has got an anchorman in midfield doing the holding role? Erikkson is just plain stupid and useless ... mebbe they should really do an inside scoop of the England dressing room and see what he says to his players before the game and during halftime. Mebbe something like "Please all of you, play well please" or "I don't know how come their defenders are so good today, but please, try to create something and then take your chances". Something along that line, that stupid Swede simply has no footballing brain. But enough of this, the main focus is on Leeds United 's David Healy ... may he reproduce this form week after week for Leeds, so that we'll be back where we belong ... in the Premiership!!!!!

Looks like with 2.5 weeks to go b4 I jet off back to Chicago, my internal body clock has slowly and automatically readjusted itself back to the US time zone. Now I wake up at 3am in the middle of the nite, stay awake till 4 plus b4 going back to sleep and waking up at 9 plus. Lagi still, this morning, cos I had already agreed to go play tennis with my cousins at the untimely timing of 7am, I had to wake up at 630am. Considering that I effectively went back to sleep at 4 plus, this is damn jia lat ah. After 2 hrs of tennis, which surprisingly I didn't feel tired at all, inspite of the considerable amount of running, I went back to sleep at 1230pm, and only just woke up a few minutes ago, at 330pm. Guess no problem adjusting back to US timing. 

Seriously I have nothing interesting to write about, so I guess I shall do a few recommendations.

Good song: 这一秒我哭了 by 罗志祥

Good movie: Red Eye (which I am gonna watch tomorrow) and One More Chance (next Tuesday)

On a more positive note, I was informed by my lab mates (machiam we all sound like some lab animals) that my name will be cited in the Acknowledgements section for some upcoming paper which my prof is in the process of getting published. I had wanted it to be under one of the authors of the paper, but I guess having it in the acknowledgements section is better than nought, mebbe will be of help in applying for grad school.

"I think The Best is Yet To Be", MM Lee Kuan Yew (28 Aug Straits Times)

 

And I thought he wasn't from ACS??? Well, afterall, ACS is the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be, rite?