Passion Spirit

My final spur to a New Chapter!

2011-01-09T09:28:00.023+02:00

My final spur to a New Chapter!

Third Year Electrical Engineering Results:

EEE3017W..........Digital Electronics-----------------------------65%

EEE3055F...........Electromagnetic Engineering---------------69%

EEE3057S...........Power Engineering----------------------------52%

EEE3068F...........Electronic Circuits---------------------------- 54%

EEE3069W..........Control Engineering---------------------------65%

EEE3073S............Professional Communication--------------70%

EEE3083F...........Comms & Network Design I----------------63%

EEE3085S...........Comms & Network Design II---------------69%

EEE3086F...........Signals & Systems II--------------------------57%

MEC2026S..........Project Management--------------------------57%

Yeah~!

Although the results aren't impressive, but real glad that I got through it all... I'm going to strive for is graduation with honours... it will be a tough goal but will try.

The criteria for honours is 65% weighted average for the entire 4 years of studies... and I'm sitting on 60%. Haha~ this implies that the condition for me is attaining an average of 69% for ALL my 4th year courses.

It really does weigh me down abit, but it is not impossible! I've seen some folks did it... it is really something.

This is my typical exam study desk! Laptop, water, watch, phone, calculator...etc.

Zoom out abit and you'll see my used bowl and stockpile of juicy fruits on the right , laundry on the left!

I suppose one of the most exciting highlights of 4th year Electrical Engineering - aside from graduation - is the specialisation we get to choose.

There are quite a few specialisations but classified into 2 main branches - Heavy Current & Light Current.

Heavy Current deals with utilisation of electricity at a larger scale, examples are electricity generation(coal, nuclear...etc.); transmission and distribution through substations.

Light Current deals more with application of electricity, examples are electronics; housing electric wiring; power electronics; Control and instrumentations.

Ever since the day I decide to take up Electrical Engineering instead of Mechanical Engineering, Nuclear Power Engineering have always been my sole motivation to continue this path.

Yet as time goes by, I learnt more and more about the different routes of Electrical Engineering, the different industry in modern energy era - esp. in South Africa. I soon start to have waivering thoughts about Nuclear.

My direction started to focus on Heavy Current's other available options, such as Generation, Transmission and Distribution.

On Christmas, we decide to visit Storms river mouth!

Some sort of seabird, with hook-like beak for predatory nature and webbed feet for swimming.

KA-CHUA! really big one... with all the water droplets on it's back... must be a really cold night because it just stayed there resting.

A cheerful pic :)

Despite it's dreamy look... this place is a harsh environment.

Pretty wild flowers.

Dassie!

Eskom is the sole producer, distributor of electricity for South Africa. It is my ideal, top-choice company... and probably the only reason why I chose to do Electrical Engineering in the first place.

As quoted from Wikipedia : "The utility is the largest producer of electricity in Africa, is among the top seven utilities in the world in terms of generating capacity and among the top nine in terms of sales."

The problem is the company's policy of hiring only South Africans as their top priority. You can have better results or qualification than the other person, but as long as that person is a South African and you aren't , you will always lose out.

With my current results and qualification, I am very confident to obtain a bursary from Eskom and yet due to my citizenship, I've failed in my numerous attempts. Bursary will guarantee my school fees, expenses and employment by the company as soon as I graduate.

The company are generous in their pay schemes. If you are a bursar of Eskom, you are required to do vacational work every school holiday. They pay you R9000+(SG$1800) for 6 weeks of vacational work as a student.

A starting graduate engineer, the pay is around R15000-R17000 and after tax+misc., you probably get around R10000-11000(SG$2000-2500) This pay come along with many other benefits.

If I am not mistaken , every year you will be given a test and if you manage to pass it, your pay will rise by R2000(SG$400), during your third year , you will write your PE(Professional Engineer licensing test, once you pass the test- your pay will nearly double to R35000+(SG$5000-6000 after tax+misc.) and a car+ all other benefits.

The pay sounds good.

What about the job scope?

Deserted part of the trail.. I venture off-trail in a unsuccessful attempt to go round the tracks!

Spot it?

River mouth

I like this pic, esp. the strange formation of the cliff.

There is a kayaking opportunity for tourists to kayak into the Storms River! One of these days, one of these days.....

A rare occasion for Dad to initiate a photoshoot of himself, it is hell to get to this place... whew.

I was in awe when the kid literally JUMPED infront of the bird! I was like "NOOoOooOoooo!" and thankfully... the bird for some reason wasn't afraid!

My turn to get a close-up on this elegant creature!

My original inspiration to do Electrical Engineering was Nuclear Power. I want to be in the frontline of the energy field.

But as time goes by, and I learn more and more about the industry, I realise that there are much more other opportunities out there, and Nuclear power's future is very unclear~ thats when I decide to do Transmission and Distribution.

With Transmission and Distribution, my work will not affect a target group of the population , but a whole town, a city , even a nation. It will have an drastic impact on everyone.

And this is what "turns me on".

But then Eskom seems like the only company in this country that can fulfill my wish.

Beeeeautiful creature...

Somehow remind me of the good old X-files logo!

Just as I was about to sleep, I saw my favourite insect creeping on my lamp~~it refuses to get on my hand and it got irritated by me and start to flutter around the place showing it's discomfort!

Pic of the day.

Aww... when I finally get it out of my room, it stood outside the window.... YOU'RE GROUNDED!

Naughty, naughty!

Heck.

I want to give up my Singaporean citizenship for South African citizenship... yet everyone I spoke to, I haven't met ONE single person that supported my idea!

Geez.. I really don't know what is the best choice of action to take on.

The thing is, I love Singapore because it is my place of birth and where I spent my childhood days- the most precious days - including my 3 years of NS and work.

But aint the kind of place I want to work and grow old in... it is a rat race track. Not a place to spend my one and only life. Bottom line is- I don't plan to live in Singapore - a place where a person don't want to leave once they get used to the place, yet if they went overseas~ they wouldn't want to go back to S'pore.

I love South Africa, from the moment I open my eyes to the air I breathe in. I love it here.

Just the crime is flipping annoying.

Thats why I am also not going to stay here for life.

My basic guideline would be...

1. Graduate

2. Find a job

3. Gain valuable experience

4. Aquire and register as a Professional Engineer

5. Pause and see where I am in life, whether I'm happy or not.

6. Move to Australia, America, China or Canada.

Let's see :) How far down the list can I go!

Ever since a dung beetle , rolling a dung? :D It is pretty amazing stuff!!

This is the 2nd time I've been to Addo Elephant park, and the first for my parents.
This is the first elephant we saw of the day, he CHASED us. -_-'''' Later I heard that he is from another game reserve called Kruger national park. He is extremely sensitive to ppl because he saw poaching and culling during his time in Kruger.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW~!

When you can take the phrase " Like father, like son" as literally as you can!

Here they cross! All the animals in the National Parks are as wild as they can get...they eat, they migrate, they hunt and get hunted~ like a textbook example of ecocycle.

Everyone are just silent in the car.

When you have 4-ton beasts that kills more ppl a year than lions next to your car, you can't help but hold your breath.

They are as gentle as we protray them to be...if you have respect for the biggest land creature on Earth.

There are only +-5 lions in the entire park, and we are lucky to see them! The bad part is... the queue on the road is so long that I can't get a good shot at it if any.

Africa right?

See the bird?

Goodbye 2005 Volkswagen 1.4... My faithful car.

Welcome to the family...

2008 Toyota Yaris T3

1 and a 1/2! (hopefully!)

2010-07-19T16:04:00.015+02:00

1 and a 1/2! (hopefully! :D)

In the deepest ocean...
The bottom of the sea...

Before I start blogging about random everythings... I would like the readers of this blog entry to take a trip with me, into the deep blue sea... slowly

... allow the song to fill your imagination... follow the song as you sink deeper and deeper into the unknown world...

The ocean gets darker and darker as light retreats from the abyss
...sinking deeper and deeper,
you wonder if you should turn back...

but the strange world under felt so ever inviting...

here goes...

The Communications and Network Design I lecturer show us this fimilar picture :) One of my favourite motivation too... although this course isn't much of a problem(he recalled everyone to that lecture and made it compulsory to attend...in the end, to fill up his course evaluation forms!) as compared to the first time I saw this picture when my 2nd year Physics lecturer showed us this..

NEVER GIVE UP!!!!
^
EVER

As usual, I'm going to jot down some thoughts with regards to my academic side of life first before I talk about the other tiny-winy bit of whatever that's left of my life~haha~~

Ever since my days in 1st year, I've always been struggling... So~ whenever I had a chance to meet some seniors, the same questions always pops up...

"How following years gonna be like?"

On the fun side, there are polo-tees with funny "Top 10 reasons" jokes sold by students~ back in 2006, they release a "Top 10 reasons to be an Engineer" but I can't find the picture I took off a friend's shirt~ so here's 2008 edition of "Top 10 reasons to date an Engineer"! :D

The answer to my question from different people are along the similar line...

"3rd's the worst. If you manage to survive the 3rd, 4th won't be much of a problem."

I'm in 3rd year now, half way through... to tell the truth, I actually felt that it is actually not as tough as the 2nd half of 2nd year~ I manage to scrape and passed all my 1st semester 3rd year courses.

This is really important for me.

Both as a form of motivation and source of growth in my confidence.

This is the infamous EEE3069W Control Engineering lecture~ I've gotta admit that this is one course that really is deep and sometimes abstract... but check it out! This "hardworking" student is listening attentively to the Prof(or just staring at him).......... while rolling his zols!!!!! (zols is a slang for homemade cigarettes~ using a piece of 'cigarette paper/wrapper' and raw tobacco(or whatever herbs/weed/chao yao)... haha` I was cracking up badly when I saw this!

The roller is that blue gadget he is holding, the big packet is the raw tobacco, the blue box contains the cigarette paper and the brown sticks are the finished products. I was alittle bored with the lecture so I start to time his speed to roll a single zol~ He took average of 3-4 mins to roll a single zol, and zol probably last 2-3mins or so to smoke it(burns faster than usual 5mins cigarette)~ imagine he rolls 10 zols... that means he just wasted 30mins of his life for 20mins of pleasure, pleasure that probably would shorten his lifespan- faster than usual cigarettes due to the lack of filtering.

Moral of story: Don't smoke.

Although I don't feel as much stress during this 1st half of 3rd year~ That doesn't means gotten easier for me, haha~ actually I felt lazier than before... some of the courses are so dry and I'm feeling that I am almost doing them for the sake of doing them!

I enjoyed EEE3086F Signals and Systems II and EEE3069W Control Engineering, learnt quite abit in EEE3068F Electronic ciruits too~ but ironically, Signals and SystemsII along with Electronic circuits are the 2 biggest headaches amongst all my other courses.

For Electronic circuits, I almost did not make the basic requirements to write the final examination for the course. Even after I manage to acquire the requirements to write the exam, I ended up walking out of the examination hall thinking that I would be back next year again for this course. That was the 1st exam I wrote, it ain't a good start now was it?

As for Signals and SystemsII, I really have no natural flair with signal processing but I have to admit, just like electronic circuits~ I really learnt quite abit in both fields of Engineering. But really struggled when comes to testing my knowledge... especially for Signals, with my poor command of Mathematics(complex numbers to be exact)~ I really felt embarassed when the lecturer literally leaned back and use both of his hands pull back his hair in utter frustration, when he realise how little I know about complex numbers- worst part, yet I made it thus far.

Haha~ I almost thought he had some personal vendatta against the educational system when he designed a little quiz on complex numbers that everyone must do for him when approaching him for questions. He wanted to know if it was just me or everyone~ haha, it wasn't just me, but I am probably the most in trouble! I know it is not a joking matter because he was a ex-UCT undergraduate(got his PHD from London, now a Professor) and he told me that when he was in third year, there was a course called "Complex Analysis".

He plans to take it up to the Maths department with the quiz results, and have a discussion about the current "epidemic".

(Lean back and pull his hair back.... "sssss........" like it is the end of the world~)

haha~ one of the most interesting and scary lecturer I've ever met, have real passion in his work... but he have the tendancy to be late~ he is late for lectures and took more time at the end to cover up the time he lost- 99% of his lectures!! The unbelievable part is... he was also late for his first class test!

For his exam(S&S2), I did 4 past papers set by him~ and I felt that I'm pretty ready(to pass) his course, but for some 'unknown' reasons~ this year's exam is absolutely in a different level than the previous years... I don't blame him because he didn't give us anything that is not taught, just simply things that you don't think would be tested.

I literally came out- destroyed.

Yet once again, miraculously~ I passed.

Nope, this is not a pokemon. And the funniest part is... Mr. Logi willy has absolutely no idea! :D We just came out from the Electronic lecture, and one of his friends poked this 'canadian' leaf into his hair~ btw, he came to UCT bald~ and haven't cut his hair since!!!!!!!! That's the amount of hair you get if you don't cut it for 2 and a half years! So he was walking around and wondering why ppl is smiling and laughing when they saw him, my tummy almost exploded.

That feeing of raw disappointment, fear, desperation really isn't healthy.

I would like to try and minimise or even exterminate that feeling this time round~ be it a smooth sailing semester.

Hardwork, preservance.

Gotta.

1 and 1/2 years.

Check it out yo~! Isn't this the "Gotta catch em' all" machine?

wow~ it's money!
I was thinking... where this machine is situated, it really isn't the safest of place in town~ You probably won't want to be around this area at night. Haha~ ironically, why would vendors place such a machine over here when anyone could've simply smash the glass and take the money then! Does this show that this area ain't as bad as I thought? I wonder...

Here's another track that I found the lyrics to be quite amusing~~~~~ might have to listen to it quite a few times to catch the words, at least to someone like me whose taiwanese isn't good struggled quite abit!

It is basically a conversation between Stanley Huang黄立行 and his elder brother Jeff Huang黄立成.

It is pretty adorable to me in a funny way.

hehe.

缘投与阿丑2004
作词：黄素兰/黄立成/黄立行　作曲：Jae Chong　编曲：Jae Chong　合唱：黄立成

Verse 1
（黄立行）Yo Jeff 我知道你知道我比你厉害　想不出来为什么你要跟我弄这条
（黄立成）靠　什么时候变这么臭屁　别忘记我是哥哥你是弟弟　你若赢过我是让你
（黄立行）你是让我？　以前你也没这么大胆　你若敢　就来拼　看谁第一名
　　　　　一个猴子带一群狗子　一个狗子跌入沟子
　　　　　一个狗子回去找钩子　钩那个狗子从水沟出来
（黄立成）那个大家都听过
（黄立行）不然来个新的
　　　　　那个狗子从沟子自己爬起来　给那整群狗子　知道哪一个狗最厉害
　　　　　踢那个老猴到沟子里　Jeff 那个老猴就是你嘿嘿

Verse 2
（黄立成）yo 这第二段是我妈妈写的　耶　好好听

（黄立行）我十个月就开始走路　啊你两岁半只知道一句哈啰
（黄立成）黑白讲我两岁就在游泳　啊你呢？
（黄立行）我忘记了　但是我记得你常常放尿在水里
（黄立成）我记得你常常放尿在你的裤子里
（黄立行）我三岁就在骑铁马
（黄立成）我三岁半就在骑真的马

（黄立行）我四岁就是空手道冠军
（黄立成）我也是那天有比赛就有奖品分
（黄立成）别再比　横直我早生你两年
（黄立行）啊　横直你早死两年

Verse 3
（黄立成）Yo Stan （黄立行）Yea what up?
（黄立成）你记不记得　以前大家都分不出我们　说我们是双胞胎
（黄立行）我记得　但是我怎么看都看不出来
（黄立行）因为一个叫缘投　（黄立成）一个叫阿丑
（合　唱）两个都是同样妈妈爸爸生出来
（黄立成）一个小时候坏　（黄立行）一个小时候乖
（合　唱）两个都是同样妈妈爸爸生出来
（黄立成）我是用右手　（黄立行）我是用左手　（黄立成）打枪
（黄立成）我开Machi公司
（黄立行）我帮你投资　我写这个歌给我们两个来唱
（黄立成）给我唱　你来配舞
（黄立行）man forget u

The Devil's Peak Party!
It was early in February when we decided to hike up Devil's Peak, the iconic backdrop of UCT. Well... we decided to take a 'shortcut' from the usual tourist route, climbing steep slopes, going into ravine, balance ourselves along narrow paths with cliffs that you don't want to look down... It was indeed amazing. Makes me want to camp overnight one day or visit the ravine during a raining weather to witness waterfalls... it is a must!

Natural beauty...

We ran out of water supply and then we saw a man-made pipe gushing out spring water~ it was in summer~ but the water is icy cold... and the best part was the taste of the water. I've never ever tasted anything like it. It was literally smooth, clean and just refreshing... very different from the so-called mineral spring water. To have a single gulp of that water would justify all the efforts to get there.

Besides academic side of my life, the next things that pops up into my mind was...

Age, marriage, parents and Life as a whole.

Revitalised!

Man~ You really will get excited after that kind of shower! Showering with natural mountain spring water~~~~ you probably can skip the soaping part!

I am turning 24 this year, somehow I felt like a 20 year old.

I ask Jennifer a random question that other day, I ask how old is my looks and my mentality~ she answered "21".

Sometimes I do feel that time is behind my age.

But I know that I will be out into the society in the next year and a half... I'll be 26 then.

At 26, what naturally come into mind?

Career. Marriage. Family.

Naveed taking the lead up the ravine. Ravine is like a steep valley inbetween mountain cliffs/slopes~ it can become a river during rainy weather, with steep drops at random section of the ravine forming waterfall~~ it is pretty adventurous but dangerous. What we had in mind was as simple as following up the ravine to the peak of the mountain... also very tempting to go down the ravine to the forest down below- which I've proven nearly impossible without proper equipment as I got cut off by a high waterfall edge where I might not be able to get back up if I go down.

Reaching a dead-end at the top of the ravine, right infront of us is a close to verticle cliff leading straight to the peak of the mountain~ Unfazed by the situation, Naveed became adventurous and took off in another path which forces one to walk along side the slope with cliffdrop that can make one think twice before crossing~ along the way, besides the dangers of the cliff was thorny bushes~ and I think my skin was getting used to it as I walked topless through the entire path. It was a far shot, but the path Naveed manage to bash through seemed to be a hidden track that others had taken before~!

Here's a rough idea~

Best plan is to obtain bursary sponsorship, this shall guarantee me immediate employment once I graduate. Apply to ECSA(Engineering Council of South Africa) as a Candidate Engineer.

With 3 years of relevant experience, I shall try my best and attempt to register successfully as a Professional Engineer.

Haha~ if everything goes to plan, I will be 29!

Time certainly doesn't spare a thought for me, and I better make sure everything goes to plan!

Warm, sheltered and safe.

I was exploring the side of the slopes hoping to find a way around to the top~ but then I saw this` Look carefully, you will see the huge boulder of rock dug itself into the tree trunk.

Look how flat it had been rubbed down!

At the age of 29, any man with a career would definitely like to find a good woman to move onto the next stage of his life together.

This might be a rough plan but I would like to bring my Dear over here by 28.

Well... probably have to go through some traditional formalities before I can do that!

It is a possibility.

Heading home~~~ I actually lost my camera along the way! But luckily, Jackson manage to spot it after about 1 hour of search~~~ whew.

This is definitely one of the major highlights of the trip- A fossilized imprint of some plant, possibly a fern. At first I can't believe my eyes, I start rubbing the imprints to check if it was just some stains~ but as I observe closely, it was actually infused with the rock! I attempt to take it home with me :D but... it is a big rock, weighing at least 15 kgs~! So I attempt to shatter it by throwing it into the rocks in the ravine~ but as I threw it, it bounces off... out of sight. -_-

This is the first time I saw something like this~ where a spider build a big cocoon(as big as my fist) using leaves to serve as hard foundation for protection for it's egg(s)~ truly ingenious stuff!

"Hello~~ mummy!" Look how tightly packed the leaves are, how the spider even manage to pick the leaves up still remains a mystery to me... motherly love?

To this point, I believe that it was Dear that gave me the idea of a possibility of moving again to another country such as Australia.

She has a point.

It is definitely closer to Singapore, meaning closer to her family and friends. Some of her childhood friends are there too~

To me, Australia could be possible too~ as long as I manage to obtain the Professional Engineer title. It is a nice country~ comparable to South Africa in terms of natural beauty, environment, much lower crime rate(nevertheless, anyone can be safe anywhere as long as one is streetwise and vice versa, anywhere could be dangerous if one is at the wrong place at the wrong time.)~

Other than Australia, Canada seems like another possibility- but the cold weather is big turn-off.

I really love South Africa... I would liked stay here for a long long time if everything goes smoothly... there are so much space for development and opportunities.

2010 Fifa World Cup was a great success and a showcase for the whole world to see. Debunking all the critics and people who still have a mindset that South Africa is under-developed 3rd world country with lions sleeping next to my window.

Well... the media shows you what they want you to believe, and that is probably what the South African tourism board wants the world to believe~ They don't mind what the world think of South Africa(generally called Africa) as long as tourist flocks in with their $$!

haha~ so that tourists will seek their roots and find a connection with the "last African wilderness..., the romantic heart shape formed by the necks of giraffes kissing..., Africans who still dress like 'ohyi ohyi ohh~' will tell you folklore stories over the camp fire..."

I suppose after 2010 Fifa World Cup, some tourists would be more interested in the Vuvuzelas.

Half way down~

The Suicide Bomber! (yaaaaa.....!!)

The Kid. (any more...? :( hmph! )

The Patriotic Ape. (InNnNn~~ Diaaaa~~ UM?!)
P.S man... what da hell are you up to......

Naveed, Abhi and Jackson. By this time, we are all burnt out.

The power of the wind over long period of time is really something to watch out for.

This coming December holidays and next year's June holidays is all that is left in my University career.

December is 3 months long, June is 2 months.

@@ wow... now that I think of it, I have almost half a year off!! Amazing!

Right after that, it would be rat race for a long long time...This kinda makes me start to miss school.

Who knows~ I might not even have the time, mood or energy to blog again.. that means 3 more posts?! haha~~~~

This is what I believe...

Adulthood only truly start when you work for every single cent you spent.

Stick insect!
Too bad that I was busy with a test, else I would've loved to get out there and took more shots~ it was indeed a rare occasion to find such elusive creature on your window ...

One day during my exam period, I was walking in my dusty room and I couldn't help but notice this strange little 'object'- a tubular container made up of dust particles (damn~~ I ought to clean my room more often then!) Out of curiousity and suspicion~ I picked it up and place it on my desk where I study...

I knew something like this would happen! Living in this shell of dust is this Mr. Hermit! It behaved almost like a hermit crab~ it will pop out alittle to check it's surrounding for danger and will retract itself back to the safety of it's shell as soon as it spotted danger or any fast movements~ in this case, my camera!

"EWWW." is the exact response when I first showed Dear this little creature... well, I find it just as repulsive as her but can't help but admire it's ingenuity in survival skills. I have a gut feeling that the worm made this shell by itself rather than it's parents... that means gathering all the dust particle(even a strand of hair!) and weaving it into a cocoon-like shell...absolutely amazing. hmm...admittably, telling me that my room is in need of a good thorough cleaning!! EWWW for my room too...

I became a laughing stock when I pronouce this stinging creature as "Sea ENEMY"... hehe~ I think it is called "Sea a-neh-mon-ni"~ hopefully I got it right this time!

My word... finally I get to see the African Penguins T______T... amazing place it is! The penguins are literally less than a arm's length away! Penguins on african soil~!

Haha~ I really have no clue how to describe this adorable baby penguin... looked alittle gong-gong de, just stood there stared into space the entire time! Didn't even blink or flinch~ as if daydreaming... At least entertain me abit ma~~~ like do some happy feet nonsense ma! hahahaha~~~

During this trip back home, I feel a change in my parents...

They seems tired, exhausted~ it has nothing to do with business.

Mum's shop is getting better and better over the years.

Dad's dental customers are on the increase~ These are both good news.

But on the contrary, I don't see them getting excited or happy like they used to...

At that moment, I knew it is time.

They are ready to retire... money to them isn't the source of happiness or comfort anymore.

I really hope that I could get a bursary sponsorship.

This will certainly lighten their load...

Whenever I see these wild boars, it reminds me of that pig in Lion King` but they are dangerous~ In the army, I've heard stories about them charging at soldiers and one of them knocked a dent in a army vehicle~ my sergeant was injured by one of these pigs charge into his legs~ He has to leave the training due to the injuries- that pig was only a baby.

That must be a skull of an elephant.

Greater Kudu crossing the track... For the first time ever, I finally came to a National Park in South Africa~ this is Port Elizabeth's Addo Elephant Park.

"BEWARE OF LIONS - ALIGHT FROM VEHICLE AT OWN RISK"

Haha~~... only bro and I are out here... but we found out later that there are only 5 lions in the entire 1,640 square kilometers!! -_- ok... it is indeed an Elephant park.

The funniest part about our trip is... we spent 2 hours looking for a massive creature called the Elephant and couldn't even spot one! All we can see is their dung...shi....! In the end, we turned back in despair, and the gate keeper then told us that we've taken the wrong route for the season! Heading back, following his instructions... this is what we see...

We were travelling down the road then suddenly... we saw a line of cars lining up in opposite direction... something is up~ then... we saw a herd of elephants, majestically walking through the cars~ Mind you, all the animals in the park are wild and elephants are one of the major animals that caused human deaths in Africa along with lions, crocodiles and Hippopotamus.

It was truly exhilarating to have such gigantic creatures to walk past you... the one at the front should be the Matriarch- The eldest female in the herd. You don't want to mess with elephants. A healthy elephant herd would have no natural predator at all~ only the calfs are susceptible to predation.

Cathy on the left was frantically snapping shots while Jennifer is struggling to get the camera shouting "Quick! Quick! Give me the camera, I can take a shot of you with the elephants!" It was really exciting~~~~ My heart was pounding as these giants walked calmly and steadily towards us...

Matriarch.

Look at the small one underneath the big one!

Unbelievable it may seems... I've spent 2 days on this entry......................................

It's time to rest le!! Whew~~~~!

For you, my love~ only for you.

2010-01-29T09:24:00.020+02:00

For you, my Love~

How can I start to describe my feelings... 3 weeks since I've embraced you in my arms...

I don't know what's the magic... happy, angry, curious... I smiled... and smile again...

This post is definitely much better than the one we took 3 years ago... don't you think?

~Haha!

ok...maybe it isn't that hard to see how you manage to make me instinctively smile like a idiot...

For the first time, I met an adorable 20-year old girl who is fascinated by soap bubbles...hahaha!

Time.

People seemed surprised that I'm willing to wait...
What is the definition of long?
1 day...
2 months...
3 years...?

How about the next 80 years?

The way I see it is... 3-4 years aint really that long considering that we still have about 80 more years to see each other everyday... haha~ I might even want to go on a private vacation when that happens!

ARGH!! Don't be so conceited.............. I might be "Loss-of-weath"...

... but you know who's "POVERTY"! hehehe...

Ok la~ I forgive you~

:P bleh!

All I want~

Hoping that you will one day forgive my actions...

I'm a selfish bastard...
But,

All I want is you...
to be with me.

(haha... sounds like a song~)

How come the title of this pic is " SIGH! "?

Spot the reason? Spot the difference!

Boohoo~ new glasses...

Cheeeeese~~~~!

Singapore is a bling-bling place~

Remember this..?

"The moon is like a hole in the sky...
Like the truth amidst the darkness...
Making the Sun looks like a lie."

What are my plans?

To make a long story short... I would like you to be with me.
Wherever that is.

I would want a place where you can live as "comfortably and without stress" as you can...
Somewhere else besides Singapore- it is like a expensive pressure cooker.

Not necessarily South Africa or Australia...

Believe me my Dear~
Once I start working, everything will come into place :)

Very Excited! Hahaha~~~~
Screaming "WHEY! quickly come help!!!!"

X_X u see...

Man... I'm born to do this...sit infront of a grand piano I mean... hehe... although I really want to be able to play it of course!

For the first time in my life, I've slept overnight at the beach openly ... FUN RIGHT?!(inside joke..) hahaha~~~

Black widow!

When you ask me "why me...?"

I tell you to look at me.
And the answer is obvious~

Attack of the Great White Shark!

New year's day... when ships firing signal flare to mark the beginning of a new year...the sailors must be celebrating drunks!

For real?! Attack of the Clones!!

E is for us~

Mua~~~~

He's not dead is he... ?! Attack of the "Huggaholic"!

Truth is... flash is too bright................

Heee.......................................................!

You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine~
You make me happy,
When skies are "gay"~(gray! that kid's voice is in my head~ haha)

You never know Dear...
How much I love you!

Too much mushy stuff~~~!

Can't help but to crack a joke... Somehow, I feel that I know you so well that I don't actually need to write this post to tell you how I feel inside... I'm pretty sure you can already read what I'm thinking :)

But I do want to spoil you abit... hehe... and also to make sure I don't always blog about 'friends' of the Earth... haha........

Siyawaseru...

Toyota...Honda...Isuzu...Suuuuu~~shi!

Bullfrog~
A fearsome frog that actually eats anything it can overpower and fit his stomach! Menus are... other frogs, snakes, bullfrogs, birds and even a freaking bat... oh, this frog is one heck of a big bad frog!

A matter of note... Do you know that frog are amphibians that actually have a dialect that is very similar to one of our human languages.

It is simple to prove actually... Visit the nearest lake or wetlands on a cold night, you will hear the frogs croaking, that sounded something like......

"Gwaaah~~~~~~~~~~~"

Now, that in actual fact is... Hokkien.

(...wa... someone turn on the aircon ah?...brrr....! :D)

So proud of you....!

When we are finally out of that nightmarish jungle~ YOSH!

I can't wait to graduate...
I can't wait to see you...
I can't wait to hold you...
I can't wait to kiss you...
I can't wait to hug you every morning...

Our future together.

Finally...
I can't wait to put this on...
...........................................
.......................................

..................................

.............................

.........................

.....................

...............

..........

......

...

This is just to make you smile... come here BABY!~~~~({) !

Second-year Electrical Engineering Results

2010-01-18T09:30:00.027+02:00

Second-year Electrical Engineering Results:

EEE2035F .......Signals & Systems I ---------------------------------62
EEE2036S .......Probability & Statistical Design in Eng--------63
EEE2038W ......Fundamentals of Electrical Eng------------------58
EEE2039W ......Fundamentals of Electronic Eng------------------61
MAM2080W.....Mathematics 280---------------------------------------55
MEC2043F.......Electrical & Mechanical Materials----------------55
PHY2010S........Electromagnetism for Engineers-----------------54

This is quite a late post due to my trip back to Singapore, but nevertheless a very important one.

Whew~ Let's start with a conclusion this time-

"It's good to pass! Yet not good enough though."

For the first time in my life, I finally get a chance to visit one of the most famous mountains in the world- Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain.

At the waist of the mountain~ the view's already breathtaking.

My average this is year is 58% , last year's 60%.

As much as I would love to put an excuse upfront that second year is alot tougher than the first, I really couldn't. Things are indeed much more indepth than the first but then I feel much more confident and "getting used to heavy workload" as compared to first year.

If not for the marks on the paper- I feel that I actually did better than last year!
But obviously I know that the marks on paper is much more important than what "I'm feeling"!

Lions head.
One of the main three peaks: Devil's Peak, Table Mountain and Lions head.

Look straight across, the shadowy hills in the distant is where Bellville is.

Zoomed in for clearer view, behind the right slopes of the shadowy hills is where I lived.

Thanks to Uncle Liu's visit to South Africa, I get to go to my secondary geography textbook examples.

What a big and crowded city.

I want to briefly talk alittle about each of the courses, it helps with remembering what I did.

Signals and Systems I was quite a headache in the first sem... when I took this course I was wondering what on earth is this charismatic(he is kinda charismatic, which lecturer will teach maths like a zoologist having a fun session with primary school kids, kneel down to clean the blackboard!) lecturer talking about. He is a great lecturer, going through things step by step~ but the problem is if I take my mind off his talking one second- I get lost. And I spend the rest of the lecturer either daydreaming or asking Shitesh. It was quite a mission for this one, to make sure I get to know what is going on~ I went to Shitesh's place for study sessions just to catch up on what is really going on. In the end, I realise that it is just a matter of recognising the type of problems, apply the Maths and techniques to the problem.

Probability & Statistical Design is the one course that everybody scratches their heads and wondered - Why the hell do we need to take this course? At first, I was really interested and motivated to do this course because of it is probability and statistics~ something that I'm really really bad at... those questions that seems more like a quiz or like a IQ test. In the end, I realise that the P&S that I'm doing is almost completely different from the business students. No more mind twisting quiz-like problems....just formulas...equations...integrations...maths....more maths...just maths. I actually like this compared to the quiz-like questions!!

Quiz-like problems:

A bowl contains twenty cherries, exactly fifteen of which have had their stones removed.
A greedy pig eats five cherries, picked at random, without remarking on the presence or
absence of stones. Subsequently, a cherry is picked randomly from the remaining fifteen.
i) What is the probability that this cherry contains a stone ?
ii) Given that this cherry contains a stone, what is the probability that the pig consumed at
least one stone ?

Ans: i)1/4 ii)2875/3876 or 0.74

Mathematical-like problems:

Find the conditional probability density and expectation of Y given X when these random
variables have the joint probability density function

fxy(x,y)=x e^(-x(y+1)) for x,y>= 0

The lecturer is a Romanian. He speaks "funny", almost like the ones you see in some WWII movies~ haha~ he used to teach me Fundamentals of Electronics in the 1st sem and little did I know he will be teaching me Stats in the 2nd. This is one heck of a traditional lecturer, who wears suit to lecture every single day?! who still chase students out in University- and take down their names....woo.. (what da..) But regardless of what kind of weird justice he upholds, he is one of my most respected lecturers I've met.

He teaches P&S with such delication and passion that I can just feel the excitement. Sometimes, when I approaches him to ask him regarding some Tut questions, he would just go on and on promoting why P&S is such a great course... and in his eyes, I can see the passion and excitement~~ I mean this guy is extremely well educated~ There was this one time in class, he was showing a derivation of one of the formulas, he casually talks about Taylor series and the class reacted when he says this derivation might come in the tests. He then asked "Haven't you all learnt about the Taylor series?" ...well~ we did of course, but then who wants that kind of trouble? So we shook our heads and give that innocent looking face.... but my point is- the reaction he gives when we did that.

He shakes his head and gave a sigh.

Most people laughed at it, but they didn't see that why he sighed. He really did thought that we don't know the Taylor series and he is really shocked, disappointed in our educational system. This man really do care about education for the later generations, many a times he commented on our education, reprimanding students for their behavior and attitude towards their studies and in class.

If all the lecturers have such integrity, South africa would be so much better in terms of so many areas of life.

But still, I'll never forget that horrifying night of my first P&S test- the 2hr test I walked in, sat there for 1 hour with a blank answer book. I was ready to get '0' for that test. What on earth was on the question paper?! haha~ just as I was about to give up(many ppl have already packed their things by the first 30mins and leaving the venue), he spoke out "Don't give up just that easily, you never know- You might figure something out if you stayed for another half an hour." He obviously did it on purpose. To wake everyone up. So I sat and tried my best to fill as much in as I can- I passed on the dot. haha~~ it was a adjusted mark! More than 85% of the class flunked the test(including me) thus they readjusted the marks- I heard ppl getting marks just by writing the question down!

Three peaks: Devils, Table and Lions

Yea~~ my first cable car ride ever! This is quite a cool cable car~ the interior actually spins around so that the tourists can get a fair share of views~! It is pretty scary though.

The peak in the middle of the pic is the Devil's Peak.
UCT is situated right at the foot of Devil's Peak on the other side.

Robben Island in the distants.

This is the island where Nelson Mandela was locked up for a shocking 27 years~ he became the first Black President of South Africa after the Apartheid regime.

Apartheid was a nightmarish regime where people are classified according to their skin colour. Everyone is second to the Whites. That's what Apartheid was about.
To me, it is the same as the Nazi Germany without the killing.

It's a long way down...

Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering- The course that I got 70-80% as my class average and yet only 58% for the final mark! No need to say, it is such a HUGE anti-climax.

This isn't a tough course as compared to the others, just do your tuts and you're almost guaranteed to do well- in the class tests. But~ when the exams comes- You look at the paper and you go "HOLY MOLY" The course materials isn't hard, it is alot. So when you have a few days to learn everything. You can get mixed up... AC? DC? Phasor angles?

Well~ to cut the long story short- test = easy ; exams = they want to make you feel bad.

And this is one of the more important courses to me because I want to go into Power.

Next year, there will be more.
Heard it is bad- real bad.
Let's see...

Fundamental of Electronics Engineering- never liked this course right from the start. But kinda glad that I did it in a way :) I've learnt so much about electronics and computers through this course! Never knew that 1s and 0s can be such amazing tools! It was a full year course~ so not too sure where to began. There are so many different modules for this course, but all in all~ just glad that I've got through it smoothly~~~~ for some reasons, this course's overall feeling is pretty calm, not that it is not stressful but just doesn't feel that "RUSH RUSH" as compared to the other courses. Hmm...

Maths 280

"YES! I SURVIVED MAM2080!"
That quote was from a printed T-shirt which was sold in the school's tuckshop~ haha~
To be perfectly honest, this isn't a hard course. Just a course that requires alot of time and work.

I went back to Singapore this year and out of curiousity, I went to Popular bookstores A-level section and took out the A-levels Maths guidebook to read. To my surprise, it was my first year Maths! Just like my friends who took A-levels said~! The only difference is in uni, we did everything in 1 year and more in depth. That really makes me feel happy and secured~!

2nd year Maths is not A-levels anymore~ it is more towards the Engineering curriculum. I've been applying the Maths I've learnt in 1st sem during 2nd sem. It is amazing the way they plan our cirriculum!

I need 46% for my final exam to pass this course. And when the exam come, I was confident. But when I started writing... geez like it... the paper is too long. I couldn't finish, knew that the chances that I'm going to fail is high. At that moment, I'm already prepared to repeat the course. In the end, I've passed! I suppose that they've readjusted the marks because if they don't, I'm sure the failure rate will be ridiculously high.

Glad that I've finally, put Maths in my toolbox and move on to the next stage of my career!

YOSHA!!!!

The view at the top of Table mountain is BREATHTAKING!

It was sunny and hot down there, but over at the top, I actually need a thick jacket! Also, with the constantly moving clouds and strong winds~ it feels like you're on a floating castle!

Overlooking the edge~

It feels really 'holy' up there...

FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP SOUTH AFRICA!
Cape Town Stadium.

Huge ain't?

Devil's peak on the left, middle flatness is Table Mountain and the protruding peak is the Lions head on the right.

The very first time I heard about Table Mountain was in my geography class during my Sec1 days back in Singapore~ Teacher was showing us the different age of mountains and he used the Table Mountain in South Africa as an example to describe the type of flat plateau mountains, I remembered very distinctly that he mentioned that you can even play chess at the top! haha~ so from that point on, for the next 10 years of my life , I imagined the top to look like a tabletop, smooth and flat- just nice for playing chess.

What an amazing twist of events, not only I came to South Africa~ I actually lived in that city and went to the place.

9663 km from Singapore and 663 from my hometown! What a beautiful coincidence~

CABO TORMENTOSA- Cape of Storms.
There is a good reason why Cape Town's shoreline was given this name a long time ago...European traders and explorers need to pass by the Cape in order to reach India and Asia~ Table Moutain was a iconic landmark for the sailors to identify~ this place is not a very safe area for ships in the past to sail... plenty of shipwrecks along the coast of Cape Town.
The legend of the cursed Flying Dutchman derives from this place too.

Cablecar Station

You can't help but feel that you're at a very high place~ almost surreal feeling~

The sun as I see it at the top, shielded by moving clouds~

Electrical and Mechanical Materials was one course I feel like I'm studying Biology~ learning about the basic constitutes of particles, not just atoms. Studying of how they react, and all the other theories and models of particles. Learning about electrons and holes in diodes~ Basically, a basic course to prepare me with fundamental ideas of how "things" are composed of.

It was really boring in the lectures. Yet, I had fun studying for the final exams~ I would almost say I liked the feeling of studying for this course :)

Doesn't it look like some fairytale story?

"When you hear the hooter, please return to the top station immediately as high winds are approaching, and the cableway will be closing soon."

Travelling along this coastline, one should reach Cape of Good Hope.

This is a Cape hyrax or dassie~ Saw it staring back at me and other tourists~~ just standing there staring, I can feel its aggression... coz behind her hiding in the rocks is his/her little ones~ haha` 2 or 3 three of them suddenly dashed behind her into the shelter of the opposite rock!

Dashed to join his/her offsprings~ still keeping watch for quite some time...before disappearing under the rocks...

It is hard to believe that lions, rhinos and even elephants used to walk around here.

One side of Table Moutain faces the city, the other faces the Atlantic Ocean.

I like this pic~ kinda suits Uncle Liu.

Mum asked me... "why you take the pic of the stairs??" haha~ tian ah...

For me... it feels different. Normally, we look out a window or glass door like this one, we see the road, we see a garden... but this one...

Electromagnetism for Engineers is one course that I screamed "NoOoOoOOooooo....!" when I see my 2nd year course timetable. The reason is that it is a "PHY" course, in other words- a Physics course!

I really suck at it and I actually thought I've finished my last Physics paper in First year~ now` I've gotta do a Physics course... Worst is... little did I realise it is about twice as bad as first year.

FULL MATHEMATICS.
Think you know the theory?
Try the questions, do the Maths...check the answers----> @_@''' what da hell... it is completely different from what you wrote down.

Here's a sample question:

A metal sphere of radius R, carrying charge q , is surounded by a thick concentric metal shell inner raduis a and outer radius b as shown in the figure below. The shell carries no net charge.

i. Find the charge densities on the surface of the sphere and on the two surfaces of the shell.

ii. Fine the potential at the centre of the sphere, using infinity as reference.

iii.Now the outer surface is touched to a grounding wire, which lowers its potential to zero (same as infinity). How do your answers to (i.) and (ii.) change?

In first year physics, it is like A-level physics where theories are taught with given fixed equations and all is asked of you is to pick the right equations for the right problems.

In second year, we are given a problem and asked to derive a set of equations that is the solution to the problem. Applying theories in the Maths. Creating a set of model equation to solve the problem according to the requirements.

This course is probably the hardest course I've done this year.

Lions Head covered with clouds

Going back to "ren jian" le~

These "toothpick holders" used to be the Cablecars... isn't abit too exciting? Just imagine the compartment swings to and fro with the wind...unbelievable.. (faint)

By my final November exam, I finally realise that ALL the exams are fully Mathematical. All equations, deriving, integrating, identifying, solving. Every one of the exam.

And the funny part is, I only realise it near the end of my exams when I look at my messy working-out papers... full of equations and Maths.

It is really kinda cool.

I wondered what 3rd year will bring... the hardest year in any Engineering branch.
Where most ppl failed to make it through.

I wanna give it a try.
Since , I was able to make it through smoothly to the 3rd year~ Let's get on with it!
2 more years~

Keep it that way!!!!

Thus, I draw a conclusion to my 2nd year self-reviewing!

3rd year! Here I come!!!!

五月天 – 出頭天

在我的天頂　甘有人會看見

看到我不甘願這樣過一生
在我的一生　我甘願來相信

每一朵花都有自己的春天

在我的天頂　大雨落不停

也不能改變到我的固執

永遠等待　那一日

咱可以出頭天

人生不怕風浪只怕自己沒志氣
那一日　咱可以出頭天

我盼望的日子　會真快　來到我身邊

在我的天頂　甘有人在保佑

怎樣我常常摔的頭殼流血
血乾會結痂　失敗也不失志

成功是咱自己看自己得起

飄浪的日子　等待著時機

我不信命運會這麼無情

永遠等待　那一日

咱可以出頭天人生不怕風浪

只怕自己沒志氣
那一日　咱可以出頭天

我盼望的日子　會真快來到我身邊

Even Devils are Mothers & Fathers~

2009-12-13T12:38:00.022+02:00

Even Devils are Mothers & Fathers~

I'm going to write a little interesting observation that I did during my last few days in Cape Town.

A tale of motherly love and horror.
Wasp the one word that describes it all.

Wasp is an insect that is a relative of both the Ant and Bee family, strange isn't? But after my observation, it aint surprising at all~

The first time I've heard of the Wasp was through a programme by National Geographics, and also the nest they build on my laundry line, but never knew I would be lucky enough to observe this creature at such close proximity... haha~ it is really exciting~~ >_<

DAY 1

One morning, I woke up to find this on my balcony door knob(outside). At first glance, it is obvious enough that it is a wasp's nest! The catch is... there's an egg inside......... and from common sense, the mother shouldn't be too far away... (oh yeah...)

As expected, the mum turned up soon enough~ I was quite terrified at the sight of it actually (haha, that's why this pic was taken on the inside of the door~~~). I mean this is the first time I saw a wasp of this size. The wasp that build nest on the laundry line back in PE is about 3 times smaller than the one outside my bedroom. And they(swarm) build nests that resembles bee nests, but this one is a solitary insect called Mud Daubers that build separate mud hives for individual eggs.

IT IS A NASTY LOOKING INSECT- Black, huge, unpredictable and carries a sting.

As shown in the books and on Tv, the wasp catches parasitic insects as food for it's young...but that's nothing special, the wasp have a special preference for their child's food- They like it to be rare. Very RARE.

Fate is sealed.
I don't even want to imagine what happens in there...

DAY 2

I woke up the next day and for some reasons, feel that what I saw the day before will not be the end of the whole ordeal~ and TA LA~~~ and this really made my day... I get to observe how such sturdy mud hive was built!!! Just like the huge one that I've wrote about~~~

Once the hive had served it's purposes, the wasp will never reuse the same hive. What makes it more interesting is that lizards or other creatures reuses the sturdy mud hives!

Wasps- generally avoid other wasps and their nests.

Using the first nest as the 2nd nest's platform and focusing on the sides first.

For every single paving of the mud walls, the wasp will collect a 'mud ball' from the damp morning soil and hovers like a helicopter to the hive. In fact, there is a kind of helicopter named "Wasp", I can totally see why!

I can't really see how it roll the 'mud ball' clearly, but it will literally pick up the ball with it's legs and hugging it to the nest. Tirelessly, patiently and very systematically` repeating the process again and again.... to build a single cavity probably takes the wasp more than 50 trips like this... to and fro..... . . .. . .. . .. .. .. .........

The thing about the walls is that once it hardens, it gets really hard. The whole colony of cavities back in PE lasted for almost 1year and a half already... it can withstand the eroding forces of nature very well. I tried touching the wet walls that the wasp just built, it is quite soft and looks really wet... it is definitely not just water and mud- if it is, it will never be as strong.

My camera can't really zoom and take clear pictures, thus I'll have to bring my hand extremely close to it
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------about the length of this dash line. Man, thats why it is such an exhilarating experience! :D The balcony is really quite narrow and the support rails are pretty low too!! Sometimes, when I make sudden movements, the wasp will jerk it's head up to look at me(very intelligent behavior for insects), there was once I had to fight it off~~~ by waving my hands infront of me frantically! hahahaha~~ it was quite a funny moment coz I think it realise that I meant no harm and afraid of it, so it just ignored me and continued the most important work of it's life.

Angel of Death.
You won't want to be in the shoes of a Caterpillar...

Pit of Horror.

Imagine this... You felt a sharp sting on your body... you starts to feel numb and finally, you can't move a limb or a toe.... for the first time, you experienced how it feels like to fly... the next thing you know you are in a cave with one light source- the entrance. All around you are strange, round walls.... and above is a single yellowish bag-like 'thinge'. Lying next to you is your friend, you can see that he too can't move yet he is staring at you and he seems really scared. You are totally conscious, yet without control of your body, lying there. Suddenly, the light source disappeared... the entrance had been sealed. Pitch black...silence..............cut off from the world you used to know. You lie motionless with your friend, you don't know how long you've been here, whether it is the day or night, how many days had gone by...just pitch black.....Suddenly, you hear something moving,wriggling, then thud! something fell. Silence. A soft repetitive sound you hear...like something is chewing , sticky and hungrily. You hear your friend started to breathe heavily and a occasional squeak...as if he is in some sort of discomfort and dying to make a sound but couldn't- just like you unable to move a muscle... Suddenly it all stopped...after some time it happened again.... the same chewing noise and your friend's heavy breathing... ... .. .this happened time and time again......... and then it stopped all together.

You realise you're next, to be a baby wasp's ticket to adulthood.
Paralyzed...
Helpless...

Weak...

Eaten Alive.

Bro giving a shot at it.
HAHA~ at first I told him that there's a wasp nest outside the door, he was like "watever", so I told him to wait. When the mum returned, he was shocked! hahaha~~ he even dodged back(EVEN THOUGH HE WAS BEHIND THE GLASS) when the mum approaches the nest!! hahaha~~~~~~ this is a very imitating little devil, easily strikes fear into hearts of anyone who encounters it.

Almost done!

To finish, the wasp will make a little crusty crown surround the entrance of the cavity. I don't really know the purpose of it, but it's probably acts as support for the sealing of the cavity.

Part Ant, part Bee.

Ant will collect anything of nutrition values back to their hives, builds HUGE mud hives, sand hives.
Bees are aerial, winged insects that lived on nectar and build hives.

What a strange yet intriguing combination~~

"neck crown"

As soon as the cavity is completed, the mother wastes no time admiring her amazing cavity that took her 1 hr 30 mins to complete, she immediately starts laying her egg. At this point in time, it seems like she was in a trance, either she ignored my advancing or she simply didn't even notice me... the laying of the egg took about 1 minute or so.

1 yellowish egg attached to the roof.
You can see the mud is still wet~ creepy aint?

DAY 3

I've tried to wait for the wasp to bring the prey to the 2nd nest for 1 hr or so, yet for some reasons, after laying the egg, it disappeared~ thus I didn't manage to see it.

The next day, I went to check out the nests again in the afternoon and this is what I see.
A third cavity with egg laid and a prey inside.

I tried my luck, and waited for a while since I know they normal stuff as much prey as they could- depending on the size of the prey. And I was lucky!

As amazing as it sounds, I observe the beautiful sight of the wasp literally hugging the entire caterpillar with it's legs, like as if she was hugging a booster, hovering towards the cavity! Before I could take a shot, she immediately start to stuff the caterpillar inside~~~~ I mean she was carrying a caterpilla of the same size as she is! What a sight!!

Before I left for PE, I remember see 4 cavities on my door~~ haha~ honestly... 1 is cool, 2 is fun, 3 is alittle much, 4 is starting to worry me. Haha~~~ it is outside my bedroom...

I wonder... how many there are by the time I go back~~ What I've read is, from egg to adult normally take between weeks to a year... hopefully! I'll be able to see it.... it should be really amazing~~~~~~~~

ALRIGHT! Thats all for the wasp!

What a sick but beautiful creature.... (eww..)

A conclusion.

2009-12-03T08:55:00.006+02:00

A conclusion.

Is it possible to love someone who breaks their word to you- continuously over and over again - over the same matter?

How does it feels like to be on the receiving end?

Point is.

Why promise the other, when you are unable to come to terms with yourself in the beginning? And yet, making empty promises just to see the other smile at the moment a promise had been made... when the time comes to reveal your empty words.............................

Who feels the pain inside?
Who feels like a fool, been fooled around?
Who feels been stabbed by someone trusted?

Who can feel loved?

Just a feeling of emptiness.

Why debate over something that you said but failed to do - Useless excuses, just words as empty as the broken promises.

Promises...
Vows...
Marriages...

Do they mean anything at all?
Do they actually stands for anything, especially to people who live their lives to their very own convenience? To people who's sense of right and wrong is limited to how convenient things are to themselves- even if it means hurting, detriment their love one.

What is love then?

Aren't they just invisible? Aren't they just something of a feeling?
Or have you watched too much TV or naturally believe that this is just part of the life cycle?

They aren't written or printed words on some nicely laminated sheet of card.
So what are the importance of them anyway?

"
Nowadays,
Promises are said for sake of calming the moment down, getting one out of tricky situations, for the convenience of gaining trust in the fastest way possible- with or without the thoughts of the consequences and efforts needed to fulfill the promises.
UNBELIEVABLE.

Vows are being twisted by excuses after excuses. Court's vows are simply a form of general procedure, a historical legacy- completely lame. Marriage vows are fake and S.O.P for people who can't even keep their words to the person standing infront of them saying the holy vows, how can they actually believe those vows? So, if I'm taking the vows too seriously... does it mean that vows are "just for fun?" or "for the sake of formality"?
UTTER RUBBISH.

Marriages are formed and broken all the time. I can get married today, divorced tomorrow and married the following week. What does that tell me?
Marriage is just a form of social definition that only humans do to consolidate and conclude that they love this person, and thus wish to spend the rest of their lives with each other.

Sweet isn't?
So... what if they met someone else they feel attracted to?

Do what they like?
Cheat?
Leave?
Fling?
or
Believe in their moral conscience?
Do the right thing?
Ask who you've promised, you've said the vows to... ask who you love so deeply... ask who loved you so deeply.

Do you know why they are part of the society, a necessity in Human life?

Simply because, without them... we are the same as all the other living beings/organism.

We have honor.
We feel shame.
We defined what is right and wrong.
We have conscience.
We've learnt the word- Respect.

This is what I think- in a more Humane approach.

When I promise someone.
I make sure my promises to that person holds.
Till my promises are fulfilled or till the person rejects the promises made to them.

Of course, I'm not that naive to believe that the World around me work this way too.
Times have changed when words are just smiles and laughter - empty and lonely.

When people I'm not familiar with tells me something, promise me something- I don't trust them, nor I believe a word they say. I'll observe and decide on what I should do.

And...

I will always trust the ones I loved.

There isn't any reasons to begin with but... if you want a reason- it is simple really.

If there isn't even absolute trust between you and your closest ones, life will be horrible.

Honestly, I'm quite troubled by all these things.

I've spoken around, yet the only reply I can get is "relax" , "don't be so strict", "close one eye"

But... do they know , I'm not talking about the general public, strangers, friends.
I'm talking about people you loved, trusted and people whom you can let yourself go because you feel safe.

Your love ones.

When I ask them, so how does it feel to be 'betrayed'(stronger word to describe) by the one you trusted- not once, not twice, but time and time again? If you were to let things be, close one eye, won't your words come to deaf ears eventually? Am I the wrong one to believe it is the right thing to do to hold up to your words, no matter how much efforts you need to put in to fight your own desires- just simply because you love the ones you promised to, and thus you do not wish to hurt them, break their heart by breaking the very promise you said to them?

Silence was the answer they give me.
They can't give me a answer.

If people are selfish enough to believe that they could have a happier life by lying to the ones they love or finding excuses for their broken words.

I really would like to sit back, and observe how they do it.

The ending is really obvious.
Broken promises=empty words
Solitary lives bonded together only by that laminated sheet of paper

It is really naive and utterly stupid to believe that a relationship is only about smiles and laughter... maybe it is for the first 1month or so, but the rest... it is all hard work and sacrifices.

I can't believe that I'm even writing this.

Here's one of my all-time favourites, one of rare songs from Mayday.

罗密欧与茱丽叶- 五月天
作词:阿信作曲:阿信编曲:五月天

没有轰轰烈烈剧情没有朱门恩怨背景
实在让人夜里心定翻覆的天地

开始总是一场沉迷而我在你家楼下等你
于是我胡涂说出一句我不能没有你
唱过了一首又一首插曲枕头之上的漫长旅行
我已经开始有点忘记当初的原因

有一种狂热让我们生病一场华丽而快乐的病
睁开了双眼看不到东西 yeah~

其实是莎翁一场诡计故事的终点不是殉情
被困在童话之外我和你要往哪里去

而爱情本来就是种考验当耗尽所有激情与好奇
上天给人们一些小甜蜜和一卡车难题

有一种狂热让我们生病一场华丽而快乐的病
睁开了双眼看不到东西 yeah~~
有一个漩涡让我们躲避真实世界有什么刺激
闭上了双眼却看到了你 yeah~~

有一种狂热让我们生病一场华丽而快乐的病
睁开了双眼看不到东西 yeah~~
有一个漩涡让我们躲避真实世界有什么刺激
闭上了双眼却看到了你 yeah~~ yeah~ yeah~~

多希望世界就快要消失
好让我俩享受没有明天

即使是电光石火幻觉

罗密欧与茱丽叶~

Promises.

2009-11-30T18:02:00.003+02:00

Promises.

All I wish for is
... Your word.

This is what I need right now, the next moment, the future - our future.

My lovely YES! girl~!

2009-11-28T18:51:00.004+02:00

My lovely YES! girl~!

Haha, honestly~ I've opened this new posting browser for 3 times in 3 days and this is the fourth time... FINALLY, I manage to put myself infront of my laptop and get down to business!

I would like to blog about my academics but I simply can't say a word till the results are released... don't think it went well at all~ this is one of the reasons why I'm demotivated to write anything, or even do anything~ the 12th, the 12th, 12th... How can my holiday start to feel like one if I have a freaking huge rock hanging upon my heart?

So now, I would simply blog about the past few months! :) I'll leave a proper academic posting to when I receive the results- seriously, this feels really heavy.

RIGHT!

haha~ honestly, for the past months ever since my June holidays, there are 2 things that was on my mind the entire time- Studies & Relationships.

I did consider starting a relationship again.
2 people were on my mind.
1 of the 2 made me realise the worth of the other.

How important is the value of faithfulness and paitence?

I'm really, really lucky to have you.

This time round, it feels like a new relationship even though it was a patch up.
Haven't stay in close contact for 8 months or so, haven't seen her for 1 year +, and I realise that in 8 months , alot of things can change- from the way one talks right down to the way she thinks.

Sigh... it is a mission really... haha~ I've to constantly fight with myself and tell myself that "She is not the same person that you last seen le! Accept it! You made the choice then and now You have to bear the consequences."

2 months had passed ever since she accepted me and finally... I can feel that we are in the same frequency le! :) I'm really happy~~~~~~~~~~ real happy!

So, from one thing leads to another~ I've decided to travel back to see her.
All expenses are from my savings and I mean everything.

It was sudden, but it isn't random.

To think about it logically, how can I possibly let her wait for me for 4 years without seeing each other? It will be too selfish of me, to expect her to wait unconditionally. Thus this trip, I'll be going back to see her, to see if she is still who I think she is, and for her to decide whether I'm still the right person for her.

Truth is... when I graduate, I'll be 26 if everything goes smoothly.

I'll be going back to Singapore to work as a Engineer till she graduate from Uni and I'll be hoping to bring her back to South Africa or to Australia. To us, we've agreeded that Singapore isn't really a great place to live.

And this is from my experience of staying here in South Africa and staying there in Singapore for 3 years. I might write another blog entry about what I think about living in Singapore and living abroad.

Even though my Engineering degree is internationally regconised including all the other countries that signed the Washington Accord, I believe to look for a job in Singapore will be really tough, especially if I'm a fresh grad with no field experience at all.

When that happens, I'll try Australia- which I've heard they normally only hire overseas employees with at least a few years of experience. If both Singapore and Australia aren't a option, I'll have to come back to South Africa to work, gain the required experience.

And thus, in conclusion... we aren't going to stay in Singapore if we going to start a family in the future. At least, this is how I feel.

Haha~ I told mum about how I feel towards life in Singapore because she is considering moving back to Singapore, she said " You are like a fish that have been swimming in the wide ocean, you can't get used to the small tank anymore"

My word, it totally hit the spot.

So, I'm going back~ and we'll see each other, I'll meet her parents and awaiting 'judgement' and some decision making and planning :) I'm alittle selfish in the sense is that , once I see something good, I'll hold on to it and make it mine.

This trip is a important one.

Know why I'm playing this song?
Haha~ recently, my world have been turned upside down because of this!!

MC HotDog Feat. 马念先- 我爱Yes Girl

* 想要替她放松心情她說我不解風情
說笑話逗她開心她說我在攻擊
我的她突然變的不可愛了
天殺的我在想到底是什麽害的
她半夜睡不著覺又有點頭痛提不起勁不想參加任何活動

好像這裏也在痛噢那裏也在痛噢
她不知所措她的所作所謂開始變的善變
仿佛憂郁在蔓延猶豫又不決而體重開始變肥
而我掃到了這個臺風尾她的脾氣搞的我就快要崩潰

原來有種東西它叫做Mc
PMS 是經前癥候群
PMDD 是它的嚴重級
原來是她Mc要來了噢我真遜　

沒了經前癥候群的女孩
You are my yes girl You are my yes girl
想盡辦法想要逗你笑開懷
You are my yes girl You are my girl，girl, girl　

* 一切是這麽美好就像沒了煩惱
她散發出來的是自信的味道
她回到了窈窕淑女君子好求
她現在身材就是像一個好球 strike
她的脾氣不在那麽壞原來沒有經前癥候群是那麽可愛
什麽都答應她right? right...
永遠不想和她說 bye bye...

沒有PMS 她是我的天使
沒有PMDD 她是我的天心就連天使都說我偏心
想要當她的Yes man 就懂得先機
看著我的眼睛仿佛堅定的說聲Yes
就是喜歡你現在這樣沒有架子
談笑風生打開了話匣子
You are my yes girl yes girl!　

沒了經前癥候群的女孩
You are my yes girl You are my yes girl
想盡辦法想要逗你笑開懷
You are my yes girl You are my girl，girl girl　

* 原來一切都是Mc 要來所惹的禍
說著說著那到底該怎麽做
這個MC 不是Mc HotDog
當它來的時候女孩子難以捉摸

My yes girl 就是那麽簡單
回到美好的生活那麽簡單
沒有經前癥候群是那麽簡單
你可以問醫生就是那麽簡單
吃顆新型小丸子那麽簡單 <----------------NO!NO!NO! Extremely bad choice.
搞定你的荷爾蒙那麽簡單
多休息多運動那麽簡單
練練瑜伽術可別把腿折斷　沒了經前癥候群的女孩
You are my yes girl You are my yes girl
想盡辦法想要逗你笑開懷
You are my yes girl You are my girl，girl girl ......

aiyaya...

Time to get serious.

2009-09-27T21:11:00.001+02:00

It's Time.

Undisclosed Desires

2009-09-20T16:46:00.003+02:00

Undisclosed Desires~

A very sensual and healing song, that I wish to swing all night with my dear with~ :)

Muse - Undisclosed Desires

I know you've suffered, But I don't want you to hide,
It's cold and loveless, I won't let you be denied

Soothing, I'll make you feel pure,
Trust me, You can be sure

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

You trick your lovers,
That you're wicked and divine,
You may be a sinner,
But your innocence is mine

Please me,
Show me how it's done,
Tease me,
You are the one

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart,
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

Please me,
Show me how it's done,
Trust me,
You can be sure

I want to reconcile the violence in your heart,
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

Goodbye.

2009-08-10T12:19:00.003+02:00

Hello World.

张震岳 feat. mchotdog & 侯佩岑 - 就让这首歌

就让这首歌
今夜一直重复
我们都没错只是看清楚
原来不懂的事

没有什么好说现在先不要说
就让我们沉默
最后的拥抱
爱情的终点

回忆一触即发
如何忍住眼泪
不让她哭唏哩哗啦触景生情这样好吗
从今以后各走各的路
身上留过你的沓图
怎么可能不在乎不怪现在只怪当初
谁辜负了谁糊涂
清醒了没越是卖醉却不醉绕了一圈圈越想念谁
吃定了谁电影散场了没又怎么会虎头蛇尾看你哭红又肿的双眼
一把眼泪一把鼻涕从喜剧变成默剧
怎么继续只好放着这首歌她一直repeat

曾经你是我的人
我们爱这么过瘾
就像生命共同体如今却只能写下这回忆
电影散场之后你是否留下了什么
一切不难再重头那感伤对画面说
这决定变得轻松夜深人静心回痛
有首歌它一直 repeat repeat 是为了什么

是分手的时候就让我们自由
回忆一幕幕就像一场电影原来一直感动
电影终要结束结束难免痛苦心中留下伤痕
就让这首歌萦绕在耳边

我尝试刻画着每一次曾经快乐的每一日
这首歌要播几次有太多的舍不得事
歌词像针在刺旋律让眼眶湿
曾几何时开始静止打不开的画夹从你哝我哝的梦
到现在你懂我懂的沉默所有的痛就让时间来破
电影散场之后就在那回首处你别走回头路我只能头也不回地藏住感触
少了骗人的拼图怎么拼得出那版图

我真心为你祝福
有没有那么一首歌会让你很想念
有没有那么一首歌你会假装听不见听了又掉眼泪却按不下停止键
多少的夜就这样开着灯到另一个夜
我们之间有多少故事在这首歌的里面
人不在就让这首歌在回忆也还在

就让这一首歌
今夜一直重复
我们都没错只是看清楚原来不懂的事
哦没有什么好说现在先不要说
就让我们沉默最后的拥抱爱情的终点

是分手的时候就让我们自由
回忆一幕幕就像一场电影原来一直感动

电影终要结束结束难免痛苦
心中留下伤痕
就让这首歌萦绕在耳边

Goodbye Us.

Time to say Goodbye.

2009-07-26T20:51:00.002+02:00

Time to say Goodbye.

Time to say Goodbye,
Goodbye to holidays...
Goodbye to parents...
Goodbye to yong....
Goodbye to home....
Goodbye to room....
Goodbye to PE....
Goodbye to music enjoyment....
Goodbye to games....
Goodbye to msn...
Goodbye to people on msn...
Goodbye to you.

Goodbye to the you far away... I hope you are doing fine, being strong and trying- Jia You~

Hello tomorrow,

when I will work, strive, fight for the Life I want 2 and 1/2 years later...

Gambatte!
It's reality.
It's time.

Army Daze.

2009-07-16T18:15:00.004+02:00

Army Daze.

Hours ago, chatted with Wenjun~ talked about how reservice is like and how everybody is doing... Ever since the chat, my mind was in a daze.

Sigh.

I miss everyone.

In my mind~ time seem to have stopped, their looks, their voices... even though right now, they are not in Jurong camp... I kept picturing them there... even though they might look different now, I kept picturing them as I last saw them... in the same bunk...

Songs from that period kept playing... and playing... past events start to materialise infront of my eyes.

I really miss everyone.

Every little sensation... little memories... left tears hanging upon my eyes.

Those days that we went through together... as a platoon.

Days that never seem to end...
Ended 2 years ago.

sigh... I wonder how they feel...

Do I look the same?
Just like I pictured them in my mind...

When they lived in my memories and I lived in theirs...

Days... that I can never let go.

True Nightmares...

2009-07-16T08:11:00.008+02:00

True Nightmares...

Define nightmares... dreams that scare you? Dreams that have negative elements in it?

Yesterday,
I dreamt about school...
I dreamt about the studying life back in Cape Town...
I dreamt not once, twice or thrice...

Forgotten how many times I've dreamt.... just kept waking up, sleep, dreaming about stressful matters, wake up and repeat the sequence again.

And this morning, I had some heart pains again(I wonder if it is the chips I ate last night).

Damn~ all of a sudden, I remembered what nightmares are.
I used to enjoy them, since they are kinda exciting... chased by some kind of danger, constantly thinking about ways to fight for your survival...the adrenalin rush.

Almost like watching a good horror or action movie.

Now, I realised that it is just a bad dream, not a true nightmare.

True nightmares...
Brushes on the stresses in reality...
that you face and draws the...
nasty bits of them and
magnify them!

That of which, makes em' most annoying~

Mirror, Mirror on the wall~ Who's the fairest of them all?

2009-07-09T17:55:00.006+02:00

Mirror, Mirror on the wall~ Who's the fairest of them all?

Duh~ obviously the one standing infront of the mirror.

Recently, I noticed alot of new Facebook applications popping up here and there, now and then~~~ All I can recall, I've only played the "kidnapping" game` where you will "kidnap" your friend and hide them in one of the six choices that he/she has to guess where I hid him/her~ pretty lame one.

There is something that has been bothering me for a long time, with regards to these applications...

Why do people engage their time to them?
To be more specific, the "them" that I want to talk about, are applications that describes, analyses the user's personality, wishes and intelligence.

I ain't a psychologist nor a researcher, but I am just a Facebook user who notices the psychological aspect of these applications and their users.

1st type of user: "I'm curious~!"

What I've notice is, if the U is curious~ U will in one go, kept trying applications, one after another~ and most of the time, they will not comment on the results. And right after, they will stop trying.

2nd type of user: "I'm bored..."

Same as the above, but the bored U will comment about applications~ the comments will not be emotional, but very bland and routined~~~

3rd type of user: "Make me feel good :D"

I wonder why.
I just can't help but wonder why would any U craves for this kind of delusional happiness.

This type of U enjoys trying out these applications, and almost everytime, U will comment on it.

Either agreeing happily to it, praising the application's "accuracy"
oR
Disapproving, denying the application- accusing it as a poorly done application.

Going a further step, publishing the results to the world almost seems to me that U is announcing to the world - "Hey, look! look! This is who I am!"

A rush of comfort and confidence filled this U.
...... ... ... .

But this type of U forgotten an important fact.
This is a computer program.
Not U's parents.
Not U's friends.
Not U's close ones....who gave you that acknowledgement.

4th type of user : "Get the message?"

This type of U is a clever U.
They aren't as self-indulgent as the previous type.
They know exactly what kind of person they are and thus it seems that their purpose is not to get some self-assurance.

There is no need for a computer program to tell them who they are.

This type of U uses the applications to show the world what they want.

ESPECIALLY applications that deals with relationship, partner's personality and money.

Very smart, indirect approach, effective advertising~ it will deter and filter out the unnecessary.
Yet at the same time, attract the desired kind.

Motto(apparently) : "Save time, trouble and saliva."

Impressive I must say.
But, the problem is this- What if, the right readers aren't there at the right time?

Well...I guess, for the Us ~ they have unlimited amount of similar applications to spread their messages~ having the ultimate privileges to PUBLISH and DO NOT PUBLISH.

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

I DO KNOW that most users are carrying this light-hearted, half-serious, fun-approach heart when using these applications~

haha~~ Believe me, I know.

But it is the subconscious side of these applications that I am concern about.... Bugging me constantly that why most people can't seem to see that "emo" side of the applications~~~~

Are they just not concerned at all?

Or
am I complicating things?

Think about it.

I've thought about it.

The resulting World of Results

2009-07-03T18:15:00.008+02:00

The resulting World of Results~

There is the Flower, surrounded by pricks.
Pricks are scary and tough - an impenetrable jungle of pricks.

That Flower is my Future.
And it is going to be mine.
What are pricks?

My very first impression was undoubtedly ESPLANADE!

Yesterday, my most worrying result of S&S1 came.
Today, the result of E&MM was released.

EEE2035F..........Signals & Systems I ------------------62%
MEC2043F..........Electrical & Mech Materials ---------55%

YOSH! I've passed~!
Not a great pass but I need to get these 1 semester courses out of the way first... can't really afford to retake these courses again... need to move on~

This egg joined the ranks of the hatched eggs as the fourth hatched egg! I've been checking at least twice a day at the eggs, and 2 days ago I found this! Actually, I was getting abit worried , thinking that those eggs which haven't hatch must be "bad" eggs and was tempted to stop checking everyday... now this just prove to me that " IT'S TURN WILL ARRIVE." Really such a pity that I couldn't catch it's birth... But the fact remains, what are the chances that I'll spot an actual hatching process? Last year, I manage to spot the butterfly that had just emerged from it's cocoon but not the actual emergence-For that alone, I'm very thankful about it!

The other half of the shell...

This year's June exams sure is a weird one.

Exams(Maths) that I am most confident about gave me the poorest mark.

Exams(S&S1) that I am most worried about gave me a decent mark.

Exams(E&MM) that I enjoyed gave me a not so exciting mark (but grateful that I've passed it!!)

Next semester will be the continuation of Maths, Fundamentals of Electrical Eng and Fundamentals of Electronics Eng. Although there will be different modules for all the above courses, I will be tested only on the 2nd semester's work- almost like a half-year course, but the final course marks will include the 1st half of the year.

In addition, two 1 semester courses will be added. And they don't sound "nice" at all...

Probability & Statistical Design in Engineering and Electromagnetism for Engineers

The first one is just sounded purely tough already, the second one just simply brings back memories from last year because this one is a PHYSIC course...............damn... going right back to the physics building... aiyaya...

Honestly, I have to start pulling myself back together, fight and kill the fear within.

Last week's HAIL~! Freaking overflowed the drainage pipe! Filling up the drain!! The temperature during those 3 days of storm was about 6-7 degrees~~ I was wearing a t-shirt and wondering "Why am I feeling so cold?!"

Maths...

what could be more unpredictable...

what make me feel prouder to conquer other than you?

I thought I've gone passed you then...

Now I find you 4 steps ahead of me...

a stab at my confidence...

I'm going to have you in my toolbox by the end of this year.

Ahhhh~~~~~!!!!

Lets work on it!

ah dey ya~

2009-06-25T22:58:00.003+02:00

ah dey ya~
suppose to type in Chinese, but since my recently upgraded Vista Ultimate doesn't have the language pack` so here's a English version!

Thoughts bombarded itself against the walls of my mind~
Sprouting, growing wildly and freely...
Many upon many of happenings~
Can't stop it from flowing, infesting.

Getting back a terrible Maths results~
Pulls my heart from the Moon and back to Earth,
depicts a tale of Apollo 13-"Successful Failure"-
47% overall didn't define me a instant failure, but an assured heck-load of work!
A heavy blow to my confidence, and a definitely a wake up call.
"You are still F^^^^$#-ing far from who you think you are! Wake up. You need to prove."

Excited, always is.
The rush, the urge to contact and the numbing, softening feel of missing a person~
Keeps you going and going...
Different, this time is.
Time, Space and History.
At 23(turning),
a mature and invisible kind of "tug-of-war" was developed between the two people and inside of yourself.
Yet, this strong feeling is nostalgic as hell.

Family.
Back home.
4 of us.
Living as 1.
Somehow, the old times became so distant that I can't even feel anything or relate anything to it.
Now~ this is more like it!
Never once did I thought about this till now...sitting on the same chair , same desk and cushion as 4 years ago.
Biggest difference?
My door is always open. :)

Crazy weather it is...
For the first time in 6 1/2 years...
Today, at home, it hailed infront of my eyes.
The many little ice beads even went through the chimney, into the house!!! (O.M.Goodness!)

Random isn't?
That’s what's inside my head...
The cold seems to hold a grip on my bones, immobilizing my limbs...
My tired eyes are willing to throw a green light at every first thought that bounces off the walls of my mind, allowing my fingers to elaborate their stories.

I'm so happy
A song that roughly captures the voices of my wild thoughts.
Happiness, anger, sincerity and sadness... rhythm that will continuously push my mind forward and moving on....and on...

Till the next hiccup of life arrives.

Lines of blanks

2009-06-22T20:05:00.002+02:00

Lines of blanks
just like my mind
tortured, twisted left and right
rarest of it's kind

Something intellectual
I wish to put down
seemed so extraterrestrial
today tonight now

What is this?
What the hell?

I know.
I need to get out of here

Residues of stress and the rush~

2009-06-20T12:49:00.010+02:00

Residues of stress and the rush~

Man... Just woke up from a dream. Was dreaming about preparing for a test/exam. Funny thing is, the test/exam has got nothing to do with any of the courses I'm doing... it is more like a dish of Electronics spiced up with a whiff of Signals and decorated with Materials.

Geez like it, I actually woke up, with blurry eyes- TRYING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM THAT I WAS ASKING MYSELF IN THE DREAM AT THE END. Took my blurry mind 1 min to realise it is a mixture of 3 courses...

I took a similar picture last year , 28th of June 2008. Today, 20th of June 2009, the hive is still standing strong~ How amazing is that! I would say the weathering have only destroy at most 5%- Only 5%.

But thats not the reason why I took the pics, THIS is the true reason. Some unknown creature had laid it's egg inside the hive chambers... creepy...

19 chambers in total, 4 chambers with eggs and 2 eggs in each- Making a total of 8 eggs.

Today's dream is the second time in the week, dreaming about tests and exams. I would most probably guess that it is caused by the tension of waiting for the release of the results... whew... I am actually pretty happy to be dreaming about such things, kinda refreshes my studies for me, reminding myself not to forget or slack too much.

Well, I suppose thats why it will only get tougher and more challenging! Liked the feeling, makes me feel alive~ might be a first sign of a Workaholic.... yeah...

I seriously doubt those are eggs of wasps, haha~ wasp's eggs I believed looks like tiny cocoon-sag. These ones looks more like miniature dinosaur eggs(not that I've seen one! ~ Impression from Jurrasic Park la~), in other words- Lizard eggs.

Oval in shape, cresent white and logical size for a lizard's egg. Can't wait for it to hatch! Hopefully, I won't miss it! (which obviously lies a high chance that I'll missed it~ T___T)

Clever lizard mother... I suppose there can't possibly be a better, safer place to lay her eggs. Those are STRONG, STURDY mud hives. Really creepy but interesting improvisations~

Reminds me of HDB flats...I suppose we too have the same natural instinct to build high-rise "hives" too.

Out of the 8 eggs, 3 eggs have hatched! Have to fire a flash to capture the hatched egg~ yesterday night, I found a baby lizard in the toilet~ Really adorable creature, the same kind which I found in Cape Town last year licking the ground. Striped on the back, with snake-like eyes~ gentle creature---- at least to us Humans! :D

Results should be out sometime next week or the week after, it seems that my holidays cannot begin to feel like one till I see my results~

Good or bad~ Bring it on! YoSH!

2nd post of the 1st half!

2009-06-15T13:00:00.010+02:00

2nd post for the 1st 0.1(in base 2!) !

Ah............................ finally, I'm here. At this point in time and space. How shall I begin elaborating these few months? It's gonna be a long one!(duh.)

Right, School's over and I've just came back yesterday with bro... freak is it tiring~ Only slept for 5 hours and drove 440km... waking up at 0400hrs and began the trip at 0520hrs,arrived at around 1430hrs, averaging a speed of 120km this time(been driving faster and faster...so what they say about driving is true..hmm...)

Haha~ Now, I'll begin to playback my life from the last time I've blogged!

Before the exams...

Oh well, nothing more than just simply school and more school, work and more work, stresses and more stresses~~~~ and of course- tests and more tests.

I'm actually pretty satisfied with how my tests are going so far... basically passed my first Maths test and failed the second,averaging of 51%(yosha!) Failed terrrrribly in my first Digital Electronics! got a 'brilliant' score of THIRTY-FREAKING-ONE % , not too pretty but thankfully that I did nicely in the second which passes me overall(whew!).... Well, for Power I did alright averaging a 72%(@.@) and for Material ...that is just a case of sitting next to the correct dude.(hehe..if you know what I mean.. :P don't copy me oh!) and last but DEFINITELY not least, averaging a 9.5/20 for Signals and Systems- (CRAP!)

During these days, looked around and observe people doing well, and people doing badly~ I do get particularly nervous to see dudes doing badly, really don't wish to see another one leaving. I really hope they will buck up abit next sem. Even I need to wake up a little bit more.

Physics coming up for me... geez like it. Just as I thought I've seen the last of it... SIGH- Hopefully, I'll come right this time!!!! TORTURED ME LONG ENOUGH LAST YEAR! (hahaha, seeing bro struggling with it seriously brings back memories!)

THIS IS ONE OF THE COOLEST THING I'VE SEEN SO FAR... look carefully, and you'll spot a iron rod levitating in midair! (*0*) Let me explain a little further. First of all, let me give this credit to Professor Greene(the old gentleman who taught me Engineering I last year) who built this wonderful application from scratch.

Basically, this is a electromagnet which is controlled by a light-emitting diode(LED) and light sensitive diode/resistor. From the top, there is the stacks of black metal sheets surrounded but yellow coils of wires which will induce the magnetic fields, making a electromagnet. Just underneath the magnet you will have the LED and the LSD/resistor. Simply take any conducting object(a nail, pin, screwdrivers- even a heavy iron rod) place it just below the magnet and between the LED and LSD! And VOLA!~ your have the coolest magic show ever!

There is no tricks behind this, the application for the theory of current controlling devices lies in the partnership of the LED and LSD, as less light is being received by the light sensitive diode/resistor the more resistance it will offer to the generator, thus less current is supplied to the yellow coils and thus, a careful and accurately made magnet will be able to improvise any object! There should be alot of calculations behind this simple(but cool) device, such as the distance between the LED and LSD, the number of metal sheets to be used and of course , the calculations regarding the power supplied. Man, when I first saw this device, I wanted to build one one day...imagine this! You have a levitating statue at the front door of your house, how fancy is that! if you spin the item as you place it in the magnetic field, it will keep spinning and spinning forever till the air resistance kill the momentum~ which is a very long long time! A SPINNING STATUE OF A BALLET DANCER! (maybe I am thinking too much...:))

Take a closer look!!!! (aww...)

wooooOoooOoo.... creepy, but have no idea how I took this~ and the weirdest thing is how come the projector behind me is transparent? kinda impossible to take a picture through it right?

Peter(ext. left violinist), the man who knows his music. My admiration and respect for him- his courage to take on his dreams !! Heading towards my dream is well on the way!

ROCSA (Republic of China Students Association I think.) Talent Show!

My goodness, to say that it is a Chinese event is simply a statement of irony! haha~ Naveed the man performed that night! What a event for everyone~ hahaha` guess what he is performing? SINGING! what da F. haha~ he is singing a Mandarin song- and the song's name is 不得不愛 by Wilbur Pan.

A Indian dude singing a Chinese pop song...I've gotta say is HE DID A WONDEEERFUL JOB! Although the singing part isn't the best, he definitely have a EXCELLENT memory and a good feel of music. If I am not wrong, I believe that he only practised for 2 weeks, and he sang the whole song! A bucket full of guts and a urge to perform equals to a great time!

Inspired and motivated to perform at next year's show, till now 2 songs are on my mind- Radiohead's Creep or Damien Rice's Blower's Daughter...That is IF and ONLY IF my studies went smoothly!! Gambatte neh!

The man of the night with Jackson(damn, even I thought Jackson looked like me!) , hahaha~ be mesmerized/or shocked by those blue eyes-with contacts !!

Here's his supporting gang of Engineers-to-be!

... a few weeks before the show, Naveed shared some stories regarding his troubles in his relationships, I was kinda disturbed when I hear those stories as it kinda reminded me of my past, so~ I went home and was casually listening to random chinese pop song, and my playlist just found it's way to this song 不得不愛, liked the tune and for some truely unknown reasons , I went and looked for the lyrics(surprisingly it is a sad song!) Inspired, I translated the entire song and gave the song and translation to him- GUESS WHAT?

He told me that a couple days ago, his gf told him that she loved the song... tell me, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!!! There are so many so many songs out there, and at the exact moment, everything simply fit into one picture. BUT, thats not the end of the story...

So he was talking to some other friends in the ROCSA committee, randomly~ the group wanted to perform the same song! And I heard all of them have relationship problems recently too! geez like it, this is getting abit too crazy. SO OBVIOUSLY, he went and join them!

In the end, everyone else bailed out last minute and leaving him, pinky and some other dude(rapping part) to perform. And , having to take the male lead, he sang the entire song perfectly, only to skip the rapping part.

That is amazing.

Oh, his gf is infront of the stage listening and watching! She told him that she is not going to go to the show~ he is very happy to know that he is performing to the person he cared most about that day~~

Pinky and her heartbroken male lead~

Suppose to take some pictures to enter a photography competition, the theme is "Modern Life" but to realise I am a few hours too late!
Nice isn't? All Photoshopped-Free! The weather was perfect, lots of lighting from the cars and the road was twinkling from the rain.... just beautiful!

Got a fright after taking the picture above, and quickly took another one! I really like the first, but too bad it is a little blurred~~~this one aint that bad either , just the colours aren't that much of variety and vibrant when compared to the first.

EXAMSEXAMSEXAMSEXAMSEXAMS(no pun, no ambiguity intended! :P)

This is all that was in my mind ever since 1 month ago... whew, it is all over now- wait. for now I mean.

A brief description would be: Waking up at 0530hrs everyday to study. Take a 1 1/2 hr nap in the afternoon. Study till 2200hrs. Sleep at 2230hrs.

If the cute little cat's bad-ass version is the Lion, for the moths- it must be this beautiful creature. Look at it, it is so elegant looking and noble. Can insect's have hair/fur?? This moth have a mane!! like a Lion!!! I've only seen this type of moth on TV , esp. it's antennas!

Pretty but fierce~ It is pouring with rain outside and I believe it is trying to seek shelter in the kitchen, so I am very afraid that the people in the house might accidentally stomp on it, thus I picked it up and place it in my fist so that I can take it out. Normally, moths will sit quietly but this one(or this type) kept fidgeting and bouncing about in my fist- aggressively. I hope I didn't kill indirectly but setting it free in the rain... geez like it, why didn't I thought about this...

First Exam was Power. Even though averaging a 72% in my class tests, I believe that I did really badly in the exams, everyone say it was easy- geez , I'm like making guesses the whole time. Probably because I've been placing my attention on Maths, only spent 1 day to study Power. Whew, it is a scary experience, blanked out in the middle of the exam and sweating like mad. Real scary stuff.

Next was Maths, ahh... the one that scares everyone the most. But I ended up believing that Maths is the only exam that I feel totally satisfied! Even hugged Shitesh and Jackson after the exam~~~! Screaming "YES! Half Yearly done!"

Ahh...choo! NOPE. Not this year's winter! HAHAHAHA! this year I pay great deal of attention to my health during the exam period. Picky over my food, my drinks and my mind! It pays off greatly~~~ in actual fact, I haven't been sick the over year, only minor cold, block nose and headache which I manage to recover quickly before it reaches fever and stuff. Really really proud of it` kinda know my body better now, knowing the Do's & Don'ts of my health!

Third came Signals. Seriously, I am just asking for a pass. This is a 1 semester course, can't afford to fail and redo it next year. Whew~ that's all I could say. 2 more week and all shall be revealed... Spare me the torture of having to dread that day!

haha, it think the title of this pic is "Slowly but surely"!

Right after that , on the next day, I wrote Materials. Haha, this is the one course I have ABSOLUTELY not a clue, out of 10 quizzes, I only attempted 1 quiz by myself- the rest? haha~ "learn to love thy neighbours"~ well, I spent like 4 days cramping and learning, the most enjoyable course to study I feel. Everything just seems to make sense and it feels like going to library or going to Wikipedia on a free afternoon to learn more interesting facts about materials. Of course, it is definitely not as easy as the term " MATERIALS" sounds~ haha... don't be deceived by the name like I did! I think I'll pass this 1 sem course! (worrying about Signals now...)

Studying for Materials, kinda liked the colors in this pic~ although my expression is kinda gloomy( I like it though :D), not to mention my hair!!!

Lastly, I wrote Digital Electronics~Well, I think it went decently well too, a pass should be expected. Nothing more to say but this...I said this phrase before this last exam , which only Shitesh enjoyed with a good laugh...although I kind spoil it by saying it way too early, hahaha~ suppose to say it as we enter the examination room!

Here goes...

" ..I think it's time to blow this thing, get everybody and the stuff together... Ok~ 3,2,1 Let's jam..."

Here's a joke about Digital Electronics:

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don't"
Get it? hahaha~~~~ this seriously is a good 011011110110111001100101!

Catching a bee with bare hand? Not a good idea.

But look again! :D This is a not a bee! This is Kanye West, a fly I mean, trying to imitate a bee~~! It is another rare and BEE-utiful creature, the eyes are so captivating- huge, rounded and symmetrically striped...

Overall, I see a sheep in wolf's skin.

Pretty but almost dead.

Break of Dawn.

On the way back home at 0718hrs in the middle of nowhere, answering nature call....in other words, taking a leak! Haha~ the wind is like blowing towards us, so in the end I have to face one side of the road while bro face the other, checking that there aren't cars coming! 'What a relieve!'

On our way again~~ yeah...something like another 600+km to go... fun the first time...not so fun the third time!

Wilderness...

Who love the blue...?

Whew, finally~ came to the end of my long lost post!

SHOULD BE updating more frequently for the next 7 weeks till school starts again!

ahh........nice.....holiday feeling.......................................................

1st Quarter of 2009!

2009-04-13T19:48:00.007+02:00

1st Quarter of 2009!

Haha` One deep breath and guess what?
School starts tomorrow~~~~~~~~AGAIN!

Just finished my one week vacation, and today is a public holiday... whew~

More like a study vac~ haha~

Tomorrow waking up at the same old time of 0510hrs (with the same SE 'greetings' ringtone), eating the same breakfast of yoghurt mixed with Weet-bix and brown bread -Last year was simply just yoghurt with bread, hahaha~ this year invented new breakfast le, not only adding Weet-bix to the yoghurt, even the yoghurt is combined with 2 flavour, one is Bulgarian/Greek Yoghurt and the other is just any random sweetened flavour :) The reason is normal sweetened yoghurt taste like cheap,watery and overly sweetened, but combining them with Bulgarian(which is thick) just made it perfect :)

Breakfast till 0600hrs, and VROOM! VROOM! off I go----------->to the toilet(hehe~) 10 mins or so``depending... and by the done I am done, Bro is already waiting outside , ready to go.

2 major difference between last year and this year is: Firstly, I am not travelling alone anymore. Secondly, we are driving instead of taking the trains. Without traffic, going to school takes only 1/2 hr but due to my stomach misadventures in the morning, we face the infamous N1 traffic where Capetonians also leave their house 2 hrs before the office hours start- which is at 8am.

There are three lanes on N1, and every single morning, we will be playing a game of guessing the right lane to take, in a heavy traffic situation, choosing the correct lane will speed up your trip with wonderous effect and on the contrary, if you made the wrong move.... tsk tsk tsk... it will definitely spoil your morning!!

----_____----- Totally messed up.

We reach school at around 0700hrs, which we make use of the available 1hr to read up/catch up. Ironically, even though driving is much faster than taking the drive/train/train/bus(takes about 1 1/2hr) We only start leaving at 1900hrs...so, basically we spent 12 hrs in school... Most of my lectures ends around 1300hrs... I am either studying in the library, sweating abit at the basketball courts or attending afternoon tutorials.

On the way to UCT.
UCT is at the left base of Table Mountain(specifically Devil's Peak) and the whole area is covered with a cloud of thick fog...it looked so heavenly. The mountain seems even more distant and bigger~

Right now, I realise that I am not blogging properly now.. haha~ Forced to do like a quick summary of my first quarter... didn't really elaborate on my feelings on this 1st quarter.

Well well~ Regarding this part, it might as well be divided into 2 parts... namely feelings about the academic side of life and feelings on social side of life.

Social side of things are cool as always, but this year I finally notice something, when the tests aren't near, everyone seems very cheerful and sociable, but once tests came close on our necks, everyone seems to be much easily irritated and jumpy. Haha` it is just natural reaction of people. But be it tests or not, everyone still bond close, helping each other and after the tests , hoping to beat one another! haha~~

Another issue worth of note is Brett and Naveed found their other half le! Congrats to them! Sigh~ honestly, I am as happy for them as I am as gloomy for myself~~ haha` It is really kinda tempting to start a brand new relationship, yet thinking back to the past and recalling about what relationships brings (more trouble than help) simply just kill those floating thoughts, combining with the thought of my studies on hand and ahead of me simply flattened any of the ideas.

Humans are animals, we look for potential mates.

Humans are weird animals, we place restrictions on our natural primal instincts.

Some Humans even go as far as to say "We are not animals!"

Like it or not,

To me, we are intelligent but weird animals.

WHY?

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

This first semester, I was lucky to have all my lectures at only 2 venues- Snape DO1 and Menzies 12. Whew~ save all the walking```! But doesn't save me from the confusing lectures of Signals and Systems I!!!

On the academic side of things, having only 5 courses in the first semester, it might at first seems to be on a lighter scale than last year... but soon I know , it is by no way lighter. 2 of my courses are only a 1 semester course and worth the least credits, yet they SURE GAVE ME A HELL OF A HARD TIME. They are SIGNALS AND SYSTEM I and ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL MATERIALS.

Geez like it, S&S is like a greek course to me, although I know the lecturer is a brilliant chap but the contents are just blank. Have to refer to Shitesh for weekend help(thats how I pass my first test-50%) now, touching on Fourier Transformation is like holding sand in my hands...I need to get a bucket soon or else...(*&^@#*) E&MM is not that bad in the concepts but when they place 186slides on your plate- 你真的会有一种吃不消的感觉！但也只能拼了！！

Besides this two thorns in my head, the other 3 are Maths , Power and Electronics, seems like Maths is a good start for me and I need to maintain! Power isn't that hard but I just have to keep updated, Electronics is a monster, I do not get why people enjoy electronics... when I look at the contents , I double my confidence in going in to Heavy-Current specialisation in the future, haha~ till now, I found Power more interesting than Electronics~ but I have to state something...

Those people who invented the logic systems and created computers based on 1/0 and true/false are truly out of this world. When I say out-of-this-world , I mean they practically speak another language or the way their brain works or see things is really, really intriguing.

HEHEHE~ this is the inspiration of how Alien looks like: Oval face and 2 BIG eyes!! Present to you - Leon! haha~ only this year we realised he is allergic to Med-Lemon... this pic is taken on the day before the first day of school!! hahaha~ he was having a slight fever , so he took the medication, weird thing is that this is not the first time he took the medication but now, for the 1st time, the bloated eyes happened. Can you imagine how panicky he was that night, the night before his first day of University? haha~ but he took it like a man and went to school!

Have been neglecting alot of people around me during this first quarter, far away in Singapore or right around me~I am sorry but I sincerely hoped that everyone is doing fine and :)-ing!

Hamster: Don't get too depressed because of your stress man` Be a man. Just do what you need to do and give your all man~! Everything else in life can be sorted out after this hard period in life. Don't make me so far away worry for you man! Jia You~~~! I know you can get what you desire for , only when you make a move to get it. Playing your song to cheer you up le! So~ Rid that stale atmosphere and PICK THAT SPIRIT UP!! GoGoGo!

Overcome with Speed and Fortify with Style!

Summer is long gone... probably due the global warming or climate change thing, this year's warm days presevered till even today~ although the wind is getting colder each day and I am starting to wear jeans, hot days are always now and then... Summer's presence can still be felt.. Autumn's footsteps are getting close, and I'll take a picture of her pale face when the world turns brown and cold at her presence~ ahh....Goodbye to my beloved summer days... See ya later.

Go for it!!!
June Holidays~ here I come!
And I would definitely like to spend it stress-freely! ><

Chiong le!!!! Chiong le!!!!
eeeEEEeeeEEE~HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

烟火跟我都是越黑暗越灿烂! 好爽又好勇敢!

2009-02-15T19:38:00.009+02:00

烟火跟我都是越黑暗越灿烂! 好爽又好勇敢!

Tomorrow is my 1st day of my 2nd studies.

For many obvious reasons, this song draws me into the mood and reminds of what kind of life I shall be living from the moment I open my sleepy eyes at exactly 0510hrs, 16th of February 2009.

(deep breath....in....)
(deep breath...out...)

Sing my heart out!
(now, I can only do whisper-singing! T____T need to be considerate to the rest of family~~ but even if I could sing my heart out, this song is one of the most difficult song for singing~ requires good fitness and excellent breathing timings~ haha~ back in PE , I never once` finish this whole song properly!!! Either I ran out of breathe or "run-voice" by the end of the 1st chorus!)

五月天 - 爆肝
作词：阿信
作曲：阿信
专辑：后青春期的诗

烟火跟我都是越黑暗越灿烂
太阳下山就是我的精华时段

不是不爱睡觉不是不够爱肝
我只是还有很多很多正经事要管
不是不爱阳光不是不谈恋爱
我只是进度要赶 游戏要玩青春要糜烂

夜店爆肝夜唱爆肝
狂热狂舞狂欢我怕闷不怕爆肝
打怪爆肝打牌爆肝
贪吃贪玩贪心我怕烦不怕爆肝
听歌爆肝写歌爆肝
伤心伤肺伤肝最後都哭成一团
谁怕爆肝谁管爆肝
好样好胆好骇好爽又好勇敢

月光星光迎接我闪亮的登台
热血青春就是我摔不坏的皇冠

不是不吃早餐不是不想养肝
我只是太多辛苦辛酸心情需要被溺爱
不是故意学坏不是不知悔改
我只是人气要冲 星星要摘夜晚要拓宽

夜店爆肝夜唱爆肝
狂热狂舞狂欢我怕闷不怕爆肝
打怪爆肝打牌爆肝
贪吃贪玩贪心我怕烦不怕爆肝
听歌爆肝写歌爆肝
伤心伤肺伤肝最後都哭成一团
谁怕爆肝谁管爆肝
好样好胆好骇好爽又好勇敢

During my holidays back in PE, I remember mum asked me this question in regards to my marks and the efforts that I put in, she asked, "你又不是个喜欢读书的人~ 你为什么要这么辛苦，折磨自己？" I was shocked and surprised that she said this! Isn't she suppose to support me?

But later, I thought about it and I asked myself...why?

I suddenly became aware of this character of mine.

I like a good challenge, even if I might not win.
I hate to lose, I will persevere and try, again and again till I overcome.
I dislike easy and relaxed solution to life, I have that urge to choose the path that will stretch myself to the limits- It makes me feel alive and proud of myself.

Taking a easier way is just a waste of Life.
If the path is good, it is hard, it is challenging.
I liked the feeling, the idea.
I'll walk it.

Stretch my mind out, push me to my limits...Feed me, allow me to indulge in the accumulated knowledge of the Human Civilisation.

Let me sing to this melody, sway with it's rhythm, embrace my faith and endure the hardships.

GAMBATTE! YOSHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S I would like to thank Zhi Chun on my blog for sending me the Mayday's latest album! Really liked it alot, listened to it all the time in the car~~ The album is good, gave me alot of strength and courage!
Thanks alot~~~~!

Valentines, no Valentine~

2009-02-14T19:07:00.004+02:00

Valentines, no Valentine~!

Although I do not like the idea of Valentine's Day when couples became unreasonably kind to each other and businesses smile exceptionally wide upon seeing shoppers` I still can't shake away the feeling that today, 14th of Feb -----> is a Valentine's Day/ Lover's Day/ Shopper's Day/ I-love-you-most-toDay.

----______________----

Yesterday, I was at school for the first meeting of classes~ and after a long day of basketball and hanging around` I am getting ready to go meet Peter before finally going home.... that's when I saw this!!! A freaking helicopter collecting water from the University dam, right next to the carpark!

Haha~ I admit that I am not the romantic type of person` that's probably why I am pretty cold towards this day. Can't stop laughing when I see couples suddenly become extraordinarily cuddly and nice to each other~~~~ what the hell. As if they only love each other more on 14th of Feb.

My own relationship came to an end not too long ago~ Naturally, feeling a little sour and sad is inevitable. Even though I don't get especially excited about V. day, the day itself still did well in reminding me of the past.

I was at the lower campus~ when I first saw helicopters flying low, to and fro~ and as I was coming up to upper campus, I saw heavy smoke in the forests~ tats when I saw helicopters carrying bags of water to the scene.

Check the blades out, it's revolutionary speed is so fast that my W850i's camera took in it's "shadow" too! I hope the helicopter and the fire brigade did a good and swift job in calming the flames down. It would be sad to see big historic forests at the base of Table Mountain to be burn to crisps...especially the fact that it takes so long, so long for a tree to grow...

Aiyaya~~ the beginning of my 2nd year is just around the corner(weekend)` there is no time nor space in my head to be thinking about relationships anymore...

I need myself to myself.

I want peace.

I need space and time.

I want to pass MAM2080W.

Thats what my flame burns for now!

CHIONG! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Final Reunion , everybody!

2009-02-12T10:12:00.006+02:00

Final Reunion , everybody!

Last day for clubs and society to soliciting, URM HRMM! I mean invite students to join by setting up stalls~ Man, it is crowded... I didn't go and explore last year since I did not come to school during O-week~ manage to psycho Shitesh to join both Taekwondo and Rocsa~ Jackson joined Taek. but resisted joining the Republic of China Association~ haha` a matter to note is that the Sensei of the Taek. is a 2-time Olympic champion and some sparring champion too- crazy stuff. Also watched some Live demonstration of the Taek. . There is even Tai Chi club , and they even did a public demonstration!!! Holy moly, you know, in Singapore they practise Tai Chi at basketball courts with classical Chinese music as accompaniment, yet yesterday, I saw about 6 young adults doing a public Tai Chi demonstration using................. Rave/Dance/Club music!! Hahahahahaha~~~~~ and 1 of them is wearing those stylish Big-Eyed sunglasses! @_@ hahhaa~ he looked like is high on weed~~ gives me the 70s hippy feelings~ ridiculously funny. SHOULD'VE taken the pic!

I woke up to find a Abi's msg, saying that he will be coming to school for one last time to collect his belongings at his apartment at 1330hrs... Really battling with myself if I should go or not... in the end, I decide to go and gather together with everybody for the very last time.

I suppose that was one improvement for myself. Judging by my character, I probably won't even think about making such a long trip. For old times sake, I even wore that "monkey" shirt !

Birds taking a dip into the cool, at the I-CHING fountain... a really relaxing sight.. sometimes you have ducks there too~

So, I left and took the trains , got to school at about 11oohrs or so~ met up with Naveed and walked around, later met up with Shitesh , then Jackson. Tour around Jamie Plaza till 1330hrs when we meet Abi at the glasshouse. Man, seriously~ it is kinda like a saddening feeling just to see that man. Like you look at someone that you know and realising that it is the last time you gonna see the person.

We chatted~ we joked~ we laughed... just like old times.

We then moved on to the Squash courts at the lower campus to meet up with Brett, Tony and Phoem. Everyone is just gathering man` just to say goodbye to that idiot. We went to Shitesh's new place right after~ cool single room. Passed Abi a farewell gift- a Naruto kunai. (haha~ took it from bro's stash! Emergency man!)

Finally, time flies and we left the place for our final destination---- Abi and Thomas's place.

I liked this pic alot. Very natural and everyone is just smiling.
P.S Naveed broke some poor kid's scooter. haha~ everyone was just thinking about the same thing- that Naveed breaks everything he touches` hahaha~

1st pic~ where the whole Engineering gang is together....

Pic of the day.
The last final pic.
Abi, yo, Jackson, Shitesh,Victor, Thomas, Naveed.

Everyone together.

HAHA~ Sending off Abi was a free-for-all-bash , everyone giving him multiple combo of punches just before he enter the taxi with his mum and everything that reminded us of his existence.

Maybe the hitting was just a guy's way of relieving that heightened sense of tension and excitement~~ a way of saying a final goodbye.

In the end, a supposedly difficult goodbye~
seemed all so natural and relaxed~
the wind is blowing,
laughter is in the air and as always- smiles everywhere.

Good Luck and Bon Voyage~

Trip of three` 767.6km westwards! & My Search for the Truth of Life.

2009-01-29T13:37:00.023+02:00

Trip of three` 767.6km westwards!

& My Search for the Truth of Life.

This is actually 2 blog entries together... the first was to jot down some moments of my trip back to Cape Town(with Dad and Bro) and the second was to express some thoughts regarding my 3days 4nights service.

Left the house at around 0945hrs, Bro is taking the wheels first.

Intro

Back in PE, I was asked by Mum if I would like to service in a 3daysC ` I thought about it and I said "yes"... haha~ I never been to a bigC b4 thus, naturally~ I would be curious about the contents of the 3daysC- More importantly, my true motivation is to seek for an answer behind my questions about Life.

And so, I went to the place, a day after I arrived back in Cpt. After borrowing 2 white shirts from Jack and a series of crazy driving(due to tailing yipeng's car, I truly believe he forgot that he needs to slow down in order for me to follow him! I literally have to overtake cars, 2 lanes across and back- in peak hour freeway traffic!!)

Met old friends and made new. I was assigned to the dormitory section- Huang mama(leader), Masa Ouma(experienced deputy), Jack (a 11year old whom is taller than I am!! around 1.69m!) and me as learners.

Sitting at the back, watching the landscapes flying past 110++km/h, mountains after mountains, trees after forests... it is truly amazing. When I look at the road, it looked so blurred... Humans aren't meant to travel at such incredible speeds.

When I saw this sign... I was amused and started imagining that if some farmer replace the toll number to his cellphone number~ hahaha~~

In the middle of nowhere, Humans cut a path right through forests , dig tunnels through mountains and build bridges across valleys...

Pee, shit and Pride.

The job scope of the Dormitory section was pretty simple. We wake up at 0500hrs, prepare the shoes, wake the rest up at 0600hrs, wash the toilets, sweep and mop the hallways, basically everything that is got to do with the Dormitory area.

Cleaning of the toilet is definitely the most memorable event of everyday... on the first day, I walked into the male toilet and was kinda prepared for the worst but yet doing the job itself is more than just bravery...you need the determination.

"...in the first cubicle, I saw pee mixed with 'hair' around the base of the toilet bowl...I stared at it- dumbfounded. How am I going to clean this......?"

What is cleaning of toilet? I have always had this naive thought of simply taking the bowl brush and brush the bowl's inside with the bowl detergent....then flush it into a haze of fluffy bubbles.

WHAT A JOKE. The toughest part is actually cleaning the mess that fall outside the oval ceramic.

Grabbing the mop and wearing a single hand elastic glove, I wipe the mess and dump it into a pail of soap water and squeeze the water using the gloved hand... in the end... I find it a hassle and took out my glove and do it with my bare hands. Damn~ it is sick.

How those idiots piss, really pisses me off.
What I imagined is this scenario.................Firstly, he is pissing with the door open behind them, then a friend called his name, he turned his head and naturally his body turned a angle too... he 'drew' a perfect arc with his weapon' then when he realise his mistake he quickly turned and formed another arc on the other side- making a mess. Don't they clean up when they make a mess?

If you think that is the end of the ordeal...you are wrong. Dead wrong. I need to wipe the entire bowl- ceramic, back of seat,seat,back of cover, cover. All with a cloth. It is already nauseating to see yellowish stains with 'hair' on the seat , ceramics and cover...I have to wipe it and then wash the cloth- soak my hands in the same water. I have to wipe it with washing liquid and rinse and wipe again.....redoing this for 5-6 cubicles.

A male toilet is very different from the females... since females sit and males stand..... I do understand that no males are perfect 'snipers' and a mess is inevitable but isn't cleaning up the mess you made something one is taught when they are like---->4?

I did most of the dirty jobs in the toilet since the 11yr old kid is too young to be doing this~ you can see from his eyes..." I DON'T WANT TO DO THISSSS!!!!!!!!" so most of the time he is cleaning the basins and drying them. On the 2nd day, I was getting really pissed off...started to get kinda violent~ I had to do those dirtest job and mop the entire toilet...picking up all the 'hairs', making the toilet- hotel standards- smells good, look good and feel good to have your ass on the seat.

(Oh, just a matter of note, 1st and the last cubicle seems to be the dirtiest!!!!!)

As I was doing all these, I finally understand wholeheartedly how some of my camp mates felt back in the army when they have to wash the toilet for 30+ males... everyday. I start to calm down... and thought back to why I am doing this .... why am I here.... cleaning others' mess.... I thought of alot of things. I then came to a conclusion- I take this as a form of challenge for myself and a chance for improvement- mentally and spiritually.

I do it for the 3 days.

I like to thank Aunty Masa for her kindness and her unselfish spirit to help me clean that MESS up when I wasn't around...truely appreciate everything she did for the group. She is needed everywhere and she is there everytime...even before we realise it.

I always love the name of this bridge- Storms River Bridge.

...or more formally known as the Paul Sauer Bridge.

I've always have a fear of heights.
Standing there, my heart tends to skip a beat when a truck crosses the bridge because you can feel the bridge trembles and the railing vibrating strongly along with the noise of the vehicle...

Haha~ this is one crazy looking--------------- Trick!

I am feeling most nervous when in this position with the trucks going past behind me~ when the camera shakes...I felt I am going to fall along with the camera.

If you follow this valley...you will reach the ocean...which will be my end of year destination-Storms River Mouth!

I am a NS Man.

"...你会不会有职业病？" Thats a question from Ivan~ I was amused... greatly amused, feeling complimented~~~~

How did this question come about?

Basically, my job isn't that busy...just dirty. But due to the free time, I was sent to help out others...washing towels, packing meal boxes, carrying hot water containers to and fro...... working and working~ as long as there are something to be done- I will do it.

I hate to see team mates working alone.
I hate to see job undone.
I hate to see people standing by and not helping.

In order to rid those feelings,
I offer my help, I do them.

Haha~ I ain't an angel...all my actions come with a motive- I admit. Jobs that require strength and endurance- I LOVE THEM ALL. Any jobs such as carrying heavy objects or washing of towels... and thing that requires running around(literally) or sweating in the sun... I will be there if I could.

From washing of towels to tubs of hot water containers, to heavy bed mattress to 20+kg gas tanks. You name it, I do it kind of jobs.

While I was doing them... momentarily, I feel like I am back in the Army again...back in the days as a Combat Engineer. The aching of my back....the sweat on my chest... the sun...the stiffness of my arms... the sound of my panting. Everything refreshes in my mind.

I am simply addicted to it.

Maybe... I do have some of that sickness inside of my blood, that rush, that passion and the sweat on my body.

Whew~ feels good.

As always, I'm attracted to this kind of housing.

Going past my one of my favourite beaches, Wilderness.

Rest point in the middle of nowhere.

My turn.

A photo taken by bro, really liked this pic...would be better if the car isn't there.

Freak. It's cold.

Seeking for the Truth

My true aim is to observe how the classes are held and how is different from teenage classes. At the same time, look at the contents of the lectures and analyse the psychological aspect of the lecturers. And if possible, seek a conclusion as to if there is a God up there.

What is Life about?

I didn't enroll in the class because I did not QK and not even at the ZQ stage. I did not see a point to make empty vows or promises. I wasn't ready for any of these kind of commitment. I need to observe further. Born in a D-family, I am clearly aware of everything that is got to do with those commitment.

As a service member, I am not allow to enter the hall to listen. So I made use of my spare time to sit outside the hall and listen. As I listen, I try not to see who the lecturer is~ or else I can't help but judge if this person is a hypocrite or not.

I listen and listen, occasionally taking the script and read abit....

This is my conclusion...
In the teenage class, most of the material focus on changing oneself and improving ourselves to be a better person, getting closer to God.

In the adult class, most of the material focus on going out to 'save' more people, either a motivational speech or a speech to encourage team work between each family groups- in order to improve the progress of the Work.

I thought about it... and I wondered...
Is introducing more people to the Light more important or is focusing on improving oneself in order to be closer to God more important?

Maybe introducing more people to the Light is giving more chances to people with great potential... yet, isn't hypocritical to be preaching goodness while not practising it....?

Improving oneself to be closer to God is one's final goal, in other words- going back to heaven. yet, is it enough?

The system prefer introducing people and cultivating oneself in the meantime.
I prefer cultivating oneself and thus, naturally people around you will be affected...the world will change.

In other words, I rather touch ppl's hearts with my actions and thoughts rather than only trying to put on a good front in order to draw them to the group- it is hypocritical and something like a white lie.

At the end of the three days, I did not find a answer.
In fact, the three days showed me even more of the uglier side of the system which I've always detested.

I do still cannot believe that God existed yet I feel tears crawling up when I hear the phrase "。。。你对上帝失去信心了吗？" It could be because I was brought in a family who believed in God.

But, when I read the scripts, I feel that they are really wise words and truly good and true. That is undeniably Good. Whoever wrote it is really something. That is true. I believe in the words even though I do not believe in the unseen, unproven entity.

I will go help out again next year if my time allows.

Still seeking for a answer.

2009-01-26T16:31:00.006+02:00

我的家。

爸爸，妈妈，弟弟和我。
今年，我們终于同一个屋檐下了~~~~

：D 懂事以来~ 第一次拍全家福~~ 有种兴奋的心情`！

把這第一张放大~ 研究研究！

我自己简直就是藏不住那股兴奋感嘛！

老弟還以为他是警察！

老爸的表情好像很无奈的笑了一下!

老妈跟我说manager曾经说过女生照相的肢态，应该像这样（我的妈呀~）！
一个人一个样！一点默契都没有！
SAMURA！！

四年了。。。

今年，

我回味了家的味道，家的气氛，家的安全感。

我差点忘了，所谓一家人的含义。

狂跑出家门的我，

吃尽了各家各户的温馨拿手好菜。。。

睡過了多少陌生的床与美丽客房。。。

跑遍了好多，幽美即陌生的地方。。。

念過了种种不一样家庭藏着的经。。。

悄悄的，

我也開始忘了自己也有一个家。

也有個避风港。

這四年来。。。

一直咬紧牙关，一个人坚强的面对着生命。

泪流了，经历了，学习了，习惯了，成长了。

一个人過活也不错。

我也拥有了我18岁时所疯狂渴望的那两个字。。。

自由。

第二张Yeah！哈哈~自然多了~~~~!

哈哈~不知为何, 每当我看见这张照片，我会不自禁地笑了起来。

昨晚的一口团圆饭。。。竟讓我一时變回到父母眼底中的小孩。

心中也莫名的萌出一股温馨的温柔。

仿佛自己也向自己肯定着说：“我有个家。”

那一刻，

我的心软化了。。。

昨晚的团圆饭真好吃~ ：）

我一直懐念的团圆饭。

Goodbye my friend~

2009-01-24T15:43:00.008+02:00

Goodbye & Good Luck~~~~ Mr. "Shakabooty"~

Naive Abhisek Chakraborty aka "shakabooty" and Shitesh... together they are.... "Shibby-shake"!
Maths lectures shall never be the same again~ ever again~~~

Got the news yesterday from thomas that he is going to the US to continue his studies... Honestly, I was pretty taken back. I saw his results...but didn't realise he is really going~ Maybe I did predict something like that but... when it really happened~

my mind went blank... got me harder than I imagined... this is a chap whom I felt like punching the first time I saw him in the drawing class... haha.... things surely took a 360 turn.....

This time, he is really going...

Could've been gone in back in June08'...but for some reason... he stayed...

...and now~

He is going.

The Asian gang.... Jackson Young!, Weed!, Shakabooty!, Baby! (shitesh and I not in pic) This year is going to be very different... like something's incomplete... we won't be able to block the whole pathway anymore.

The most patriotic guy I've yet to come across~ someone who would thump his chest like a gorilla(1hand) when I mentioned things about India... someone who is obsessed about an Indian cricket bench-warmer( :P) called "UM-TA-PA" (hey~ I got the name!)... someone whose company I always enjoyed-whenever... ~ no doubt things will be very different this year...next year... so on....

I do not know how to describe those feelings any further.

Lastly...

I will put the lyrics of a song that will always remind me of those days everyone spent together.

This song suit him and the feelings best.

Linkin Park- Shadow Of The Day

I close both locks below the window

I close both blinds and turn away

Sometimes solutions aren't so simple

Sometimes goodbye's the only way

And the sun will set for you

The sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day

Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

In cards and flowers on your window

Your friends all plead for you to stay

Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple

Sometimes good bye's the only way

And the sun will set for you

The sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day

Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

Hereby, I wish you, my friend~ a smooth and successful future ahead!

Remember that Perseverance and Faith are the keys to one's dream.

Bon Voyage! My Good friend~~

Take care.

Filth in Beauty? Beauty in Filth?

2009-01-19T19:46:00.010+02:00

Filth In Beauty...
.........or Beauty in Filth?
Which are you?

Lalala~ Lalala~ BOOM!
Surprised? :D Hope it was a pleasant one`!

This was the first song that I've heard from the Japanese band, The Gazette.
Gotta say they are pretty talented~

The name of the song caught my attention... filth in beauty. hehe~ kinda remind me of the world today- always busy to look presentable while hiding the ugly side.

Recently, I have been paying visits to disposal sites- Walmer(2), Seaview(1) and Hunters(2).
The reason? Uncle fang went to Joburg for classes, thus left his pickup at my house. And thus~ allowing Dad a chance to make FULL USE of it. Dad gave the tree outside the house a major haircut, I was also given a opportunity to drive a pickup and visit 3 different disposal site-a total of 5 times!

I actually have to look twice to believe this slimy creature is moon-walking on the wrong side of the glass!! It was sticking so tightly that I can feel it being suck out of it's shell when I pull it! So, in the end I have to pry it loose by touching it's flesh and pry... eww.

Colours of the World- The blue, the black and the green.

Filth in beauty...
Imagine, what it can mean.

Beauty in Filth...
I am not talking about being optimistic.

Isuzu KB280DT
Well, I gotta say driving a pickup could be quite a pleasure~ good horsepower and elevated driving view........but uncle's pickup's gear system is crappy... haha~ the handbrake was messed up by me when I drove quite a few kilometers home with the handbrake engaged... (uh oh')

First time I encountered this ant-like "insect" was in Cape Town, never imagined to see it in my room~ well.... the truth is, it is actually a 8-legged spider. It just look like a ant, probably for defense or hunting purposes~ pretty cool.

Haven't opened the pool lights for like 3-4 years` and now, opened it for photographic purposes-sad and funny at the same time. Always have this fear of getting electric shock!! Ask Dad this question..." Pa~ what happen if the bulb burns out? How to change?"
Dad's reply "............. , dunno."

My recent visits to disposal sites kinda inspired my deeper understanding towards how people's views are developed.

Filth in Beauty~
I see that most people want a better standards of living and a life where money was never a issue. Yet, for some reasons... once they are in that zone, they tend to keep a distance away from the poor and even developed a fear towards the unprivileged. But why?

Even when doing some kind of donations~ I still can feel that they aren't really trying to help them with their heart... it is more like out of pity or an action to justify their social status.
Why??

Beauty in Filth~
At most of the sites, there are always a little area where some workers will display their "treasures" found from the dump~ from toys to plants, from plants to bricks. They sell it back to the public. Dad almost bought the bricks from them, too bad the owner isn't around.

Workers there are very hard workers- Fast and Efficient. Just for a measly tip of R10, they will gladly unload the entire truck. I was deeply impressed by their attitude towards the job and at the same time, of their physical strength and stamina- wildly impressive.

Dad always have this literal "Beauty in Filth" attitude towards possibly-reusable-materials.
Why is he wearing long sleeves and long pants on a Summer afternoon ? To prevent cuts and to prevent the skin from looking darker!! WTH~

How much longer can we keep dumping our filth?

Check this out! This is not a Dragonfly! It is a Robber Fly~ also in my room... geez~ for some reason, my room seems to be a very attractive place for uncommon creatures... even my ultimate fear- the Cockroach - scrambled across my desk , directly infront of my dinner... (WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!)

This is one nasty creature... it punctures the prey's body with it's proboscis, injects it's saliva which is filled with neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides of the prey....and then suck it like those 50cents packet drinks- lemon barley or bandung.

I believe that everyone should try everything they possibly could in their lifetime... Next year-end holiday, I am looking forward to bodyboard again~ or pick up a surfboard and learn to surf!

I STILL THINK THIS LOOK SO MUCH LIKE WU-BAI(伍佰)!

For unknown reasons... I was attracted to this.

Tell yourself~

Which are you?

The Black. The Brown. The White. The Yellow.

2009-01-14T18:17:00.006+02:00

The Black.
The Brown.
The White.
The Yellow.

Let's talk about Race. Colour.

I came here to South Africa 9 years ago.
An innocent 13yr old Yellow boy , fresh from 1st world country- Singapore.
I happily venture into the western world, with a "colour-blind" mind and a playful heart.

This is the real world.
Where race and colour play such an instinctive role, especially in a country where the race and colour are always a sensitive issue.
So sensitive that people's heart hurts and lives lost...

Throughout my 5 years in South Africa, I've experienced countless racial remarks, taunts and heard too much about the racial crimes against the Yellow Man.

Hahaha~ thinking about those taunts, racial jokes or remarks` most of them have the preference to start with the letter "C" ~ well... most of the times start with a question " Are you from China?" then it will sometimes follow by " oH~ singapore somewhere in China?"

.....FUCK. (you simply have no idea whether you should curse or laugh-out-loud at them)

Actually, it really isn't such a major issue.

We, as the Yellow Man, a minority race in the western worlds, are very accustomed in facing and accepting the general "misunderstanding" and "misconceptions" about our skin colour .

Having CoOl and BiG action movie stars with bad English and funny accents in Hollywood doesn't make things any better at all- only making things worse for overseas Yellows. It has been like so ever since the yellow man's film was broadcast in the western theatres. Those kung-fu films made the 60's, 70's, 80's seems to be a great source of entertainment for the western worlds. Those Bruce Lee style of falsetto wailing and screaming are the most prominent, not to mention the "talented" English voice actors and their incredibly funny accent....

I remember the time when I first saw an Eastern film on local TV...

I WAS LAUGHING MYSELF- GREATLY AMUSED. IT WAS THEN THAT I REALISED WHY SO MANY PEOPLE ARE ENTERTAINED BY OLD KUNG-FU MOVIES ON A FRIDAY NIGHT.

Right....
Damn amusing.
To a considerable large bunch of the western world, we look like damn monkeys, roar like a donkey, naive people from hobbit land.

FCUK. WAKE UP.

Well, believe me, I could write on this topic for pages. But, I would like to cut to the point now.

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

To whoever, anywhere in this unjust world, wake up your propagandised brains and listen carefully.

It hurts my heart to see people in Asia being deluded and blinded by western biased media and informations~

"what ang moh pai?!" "what english pai?!" "WHAT WESTERN INFLUENCED CUSTOMS,CULTURES,MUSIC?!"
Are they really better? Do they really making you feel cooler?

FUCK THAT.
GROW UP.
WAKE UP.
OPEN YOUR EYES .

Choose.
Wake up or continue sleeping into the fake world like everyone else.
I choose to wake up instead of living in the enclosed world where we think Whites are high-class while the Blacks and other minorities are of a lower status than us, the YELLOWS.

I know it is not true.

The funniest thing about reality is....

In the western world~ in general,
Yellows are not taken seriously, made fun of by all the other races/colour(white, black,brown...etc.). From now on, when you watch a western movie, and when there are yellow actors, no matter main actors or just someone of zero importance in the movie, you will observe how they are protray as, those stereotypical factors. :) don't be surprised when you start noticing "things"... Watch HAROLD AND KUMAR: Escape from guantanamo bay for a starter.

In Asia, Yellows generally look down on Blacks and the dark skinned~(take my blog song for example), we even feel pity for them, using them as classroom examples like for example "...you musn't waste food...you know...kids in africa are starving..." Classic.
While in direct contrast , we look up to the Ang mohs, some even try to have some sort of connection with them, talking to them will somehow make you feel cooler. If you don't have a chance to relate to them personally, you will listen to their music instead of truely appreciating the music--- FUCKING worship everything about them like a dog-----> well, a chihuahua in those angmoh's eyes.

Wake up.
If you are one of the cute chihuahuas... You ought to start see yourself as a Yellow and let yourself understand that we are just as human as everyone else and everyone else is just as human as you are.

Personally, I don't have the tendencies to look up or look down on anyone based on their skin colour or their culture. I rather see the person as a person- their character, their morals, their actions. Sometimes, when I talk, I don't even see myself as a Yellow.

Why should we be conscious about skin colour and culture backgrounds?
IF THERE IS GOD, WHY DIDN'T HE MADE EVERYONE OF THE SAME COLOUR?
(don't bloody tell me that he wants to make the world more vibrant, or because it will be boring.)

(oh~ haha` last matter of note.

I ain't writing this entry down because something happened to me~~! haha~REALLY nothing happened! I just happened to have this inspiration and urge to share some realities of the world with quite a few frogs who saw the rainbows from the bottom of a well.

Seen alot~ experienced alot~ said alot and probably too much.
The choice belongs to each and everyone of us.

P.S
although I am in South Africa, this is a very westernised country. And almost EVERYTHING that I've mentioned and gave examples can be related to every single overseas Yellows. I don't need to prove them. They will tell you all about it if they've lived there long enough. It is a sensitive issue thus, most people avoids such topics .

If there is God.
I liked to tell God that there's alot of loop holes in his creation that are causing immeasurable amount of suffering and pain in this world.

I wished to believe you existed.
Not that I ever did.
Not that I never did. )

CAS1001S ESSAY 2

2009-01-12T11:49:00.009+02:00

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (18 June 1942- )

The successor of Nelson Mandela as the 2nd president of the post-Apartheid South Africa.

(Here's the address to his statement to the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of The Republic of South Africa Constitutional Bill 1996, Cape Town, 8 May 1996

http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mbeki/1996/sp960508.html)

Africa:Culture, Identity and Globalisation

ZHEZHANG,XU (XXXZHE002)

ASSIGNMENT 2: Culture and Identity.

On 8th of May 1996, Thabo Mbeki gave a statement on behalf of the African National Congress on the occasion of the adoption by the Constitutional Assembly.

In his speech, Thabo Mbeki emphasized the fact that he is a true African, with Africanness flowing from his very roots and core, of which he is proud of (Mbeki.T 1996).More importantly, Mbeki seeks to unequivocally define the face of the new Constitution- based on freedom, justice and equality. Thus, modifying the adoption of the old Constitution and defining a new African Constitution.

As one of the major political leaders of the time, Thabo Mbeki speaks on behalf of his political party, the ANC. He presents the ideas of his party and also of what the party’s supporters believed in. Therefore, Mbeki expresses himself to the nation through a political manner instead of an individualistic approach.

Aside from the political statements of the occasion, Mbeki from time to time, mentioned the phrase ‘I am an African’ (Mbeki.T 1996). Mbeki is not pointing at himself as an individual, but to anyone who resides in Africa and had chosen the continent to be their homes. Emphasizing the same phrase from time to time, subconsciously sprouted a sense of belonging and pride within those who had lost some form of dignity or suffered during the Apartheid regime. The phrase may also be hinting and placing certain emphasis towards the fact that the country now belongs to Africans, not some foreign oppressors.

During his statement, Mbeki mentioned a few foreign countries, namely China, India, Europe, Malayan countries, St Helena and the Bahamas (Mbeki.T 1996). Africa was never a continent with only the natives or the European colonists. People(as ancestral slaves) from the mentioned countries have brought in different cultures and formed a racial diversity in the continent, and have contributed consistently in shaping and evolving Africa into what Africa is today and tomorrow.

Thabo Mbeki referred himself to equal citizenship as African animals. He states that sometimes he wondered if he should concede equal citizenship of his country to the African animals (Mbeki.T 1996) because the animals are native, so is him. Mbeki came to a decisive conclusion that he would take pride as a native, making a stand as an African and that this land is his Homeland.

Personally, I see this speech as a statement made by a politician, and from a historical point of view, I would not believe any proclaims or take any declaration of political victories seriously- just as a preventive measure against any forms of propaganda or “brain-washing” schemes to make you place the ticket into the right(if there is one) box.

I particularly feel for Thabo Mbeki’s passion as a native African when he ventures into the descriptive scenario of his native land and his ancestral roots. Just as the vivid picture reaches the state of utopia, he began to tear away the illusion and reveals the ugliness of reality when he placed the suffering and humiliation of his fellow countryman in front of me. A prick of anger ignited inside, and I sincerely feel how my own ancestors felt.

On the negative side- At times, I would uncannily feel that Mbeki is trying to emphasize that to be an African is to be ancestrally related or to place it bluntly- to be a native black person. Since then, I kept questioning the aim of such course material. I simply couldn’t understand the logic behind the need to bring the past back into the present and constantly reminding us of the differences between everyone. Bearing in mind, we were born in a totally different generation and era. Why? Why do we need to be infused with such negative thoughts and emotions of politics and history?

Such actions draw parallel to that of ‘the snake of Eden ’. Maybe reality in society is like so, and we need to prepare our innocent selves for it. But in actual fact, racial harmony and cultural acceptance are slowly becoming a norm! I DO NOT believe that the history of the past will help us achieve an idealistic racial, culture harmony. I would almost certainly believe that it is only there to protect ourselves, closing our minds, restricting us to our own racial origins instead of evolving along with the changes in reality.

We must learn to see the person within a person, not the color, not the nationality, not the culture. Certainly, we do not need an Apocalyptic or End of World situation to enlighten everyone, realizing that we are all human beings.

That’s what I believed.

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

Well thought out and articulated

CAS1001S ESSAY 1

2009-01-10T20:17:00.012+02:00

Steve Biko(18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977)
His famous slogan was "Black is beautiful" and it means "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being"

Africa:Culture, Identity and Globalisation
ZHEZHANG,XU (XXXZHE002)

ASSIGNMENT 1: RACE.

No human, no average normal human being like to be oppressed, feel oppressed or in any sense, feeling inferior towards another human being. Humans like being superior, feel superior. Naturally, racism and acts of differentiation seeps silently into the sub-consciousness of human society. When racism and acts of differentiation reaches a huge scale, an incredible social and political phenomenon appears. In South Africa, we call this phenomenon- Apartheid.

Of course, as I had mentioned earlier, that no human beings likes “being second” to another human. Thus, a black man’s anger and frustration towards such ridiculous system imposed upon them by a settler minority is understandable and a revolutionary struggle of the Blacks against the ruling white settlers is inevitable. Yet, this struggle seems to have being twisted, deluded by some white liberals and surprisingly, some “civilized and educated” black gentlemen and ladies. In the face of this situation, Black brother Steve Biko voices out.

What did Black brother say? Firstly, he points his finger at those hypocritical, guilt-stricken white liberals. Secondly- but by no means any less trouble to the struggle- he highlights those selfish, foolish and “SHAME-ful” blacks who would rather stand side by side with the common enemy(political) of the oppressed indigenous people.

In a world controlled and regulated by a system designed to one’s advantage and benefits, at the expense of others, no one (on the receiving end) would complain for a change. Not surprising when some would start feeling a little sense of guilt and tend to seek a comforting source of reasoning that they aren’t the “bad people”, that it is the government, it is the “people up there” is the mastermind. I wouldn’t blame the white liberals for not starting a revolution. Who would want to leave their comfort zone? Who would want to give up privileges that were bestowed upon them the moment they are born?

That’s the exact argument Mr. Biko is putting forward. The white “liberals” are simply guilt-stricken, over privileged bunch who are seeking to lessen their guilt so as to continue enjoy their status as “white people” in South Africa with a justified reason. These so called liberals are not truly integrating the black population into the white oriented society; they will always draw an invisible line and will immediately put their actions to a halt the moment they feel they are risking the protection and security of their status and privileges. How can we (indigenous people) place our faith and hopes on people who lack a sense of instinctive urgency and need for freedom?

Integration brought about by the white liberals are uncannily enforced by some “intelligent and articulate” blacks who feels that they are different from their fellow blacks peers. A simple feel of superiority mixed with a feeling of comfort felt when they are socializing with the power, the white people. They were slowly drawn to believe they are not as “black” as their fellow brothers, believed that they aren’t as oppressed as others. Brainwashed and comfortable, these people foolishly follow the white liberals, believing that one day things will change for the better. Just like their leaders (liberals), they too, sit in their own comfort zone; turning a blind eye to problems and hardships their fellow black brothers and sisters are facing every single day. Mr. Biko believed that they are the real immediate dangers to the struggle for freedom.

He believed that a TRUE integration should comprise of free participation by anyone in the society, catering for full and open expression of the self in a flexible society- chosen by the will of the people. The culture shall also not be determined by some settler minority, but by the majority group. Thus, as a truly African country, she should exhibit a culture based on African values and style.

The above is a statement made by Mr. Biko, stating that he would rebel against any forms of integration if it determines that the integrated race is to follow the culture and customs of the ruling race or a race of minority. This kind of integration is a sick and inhumane form of acceptance. I believed that everyone has the freedom to make choices about their life, everyone is equal under the sun, and everyone is equal under the Law.

There is a major difference between assimilation and true integration. Assimilation does the mixing of people of different races together in a common society, something that is only “for show”. A true integration brings everyone together, placing them equally in status; no one is of a higher position as a human being than the other. Everyone will have freedom to believe and do what they wish to do with their lives, religion and beliefs.

Personally, I do not believe that Steve Biko’s idealistic vision of a 100% true integration would ever be fulfilled. Yet I sincerely believe that a world needs such a person to stand up when all hopes are lost, when dignity were lost, when the world believes that one person doesn’t make a difference in politics. One person does make a difference if he/she wants to.

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

Dear Xu,

You show a good understanding of Bikos position on racial integration. However, in explaining his arguments, you make many conjectures that Biko himself did not make and which you have not given any basis for. In academic writing, it is not ok to present popular or common knowledge(which is sometimes incorrect or prejudiced) as given. Also, although many of his arguments are applicable to today's context, remember that he was writing from within the context of Apartheid SA.

67

I still care.

2009-01-07T02:40:00.004+02:00

帮個忙。
为好友解個愁。。。

谈女友。
幸福与爱情事。。。

聊啊聊。
心也痛了一下。。。

想起了。
我和妳的甜蜜。。。

思念着。
曾经的过去式。。。

空气中。
妳的味道，体温。。。

耳边风。
笑声中的撒娇。。。

想着晴。
有头没尾的情。。。

我恨我。
没能力，没勇气。。。

没时间。
包容妳的一切。。。

分了分。
狂笑地哭泣了。。。

两个月。
忘不了，伤仍存。。。

奇怪吧。
这麽妳我都痛了。。。

我知道。
妳恨我的抉择。。。

但是呢。
我知妳心有数。。。

别骗我~
对不起。
我让妳孤独了。
我让妳受伤了。
妳愛的不是我。
现在，这样的我。

我没能力。
无法安稳，轻松的迈向我的未来。

这条路。
我必须勇往直前。

看着未来。
我期待妳的笑容。
让我快乐的，
笑容。

妳我会再见面的。
“吃个饭吧。”
不吃炒饭。。。
“喝杯茶吧。”
一杯孟婆茶。。。

或许。
童话故事会是真的。
妳说呢？

心不甘。
现在。
我不能犹豫。
我只能祝福。

开心。
幸福。
安全感。
希望。。。
未来的他能带给妳我无法的。。。一切。
实现出。。。
妳以来向往的。。。那一段美丽恋情。

真心的
真心祝。
真心祝。

Happy 22nd Birthday!

2009-01-03T19:14:00.005+02:00

Hereby,

I would like to wish a special friend a wonderful 22nd! :)

A woman does sound abit.....Oh` but it does sound alot more Sexy!

Take care and Smileee...!

Reminiscence of the year just past me by!

2009-01-01T10:26:00.010+02:00

Reminiscence of the year just past me by!
(Due to internet issues~~ I wasn't able to blog the year-end entry` haha~ so have to do it today!)

Man~ I still remember the night when I blog the last entry about 2007~~
Time truely flies.
Here I am... 1 year later, writing about 2008.
时间不留人啊~

Today is 2009 January the 1st, 11:20am.
Here's the major events that had happened in my life, in the year 2008:

-Moved to Cape Town to study in University of Cape Town in January.
-Studying a 4-year Electrical Engineering degree

-Bought my first car(not mine la)!

Volkswagen 2005 model Citi Golf 1.4
-R43000 -Mileage 42000km
Till now~ absolutely problems at all, just the rust hole at the rear, but was fixed by dad.

-Went to school for the first time in February, for the first time in 3years.
-Wrote my first test in 3 years... a maths test which I studied harder than my high school finals!!got a result of 54%
-Lowest mark for Physics test in my life of 16% (2nd test), remembering getting this mark just before a maths test- which I failed too... T____T

-Got my Driver's License sometime during the March holidays! Really was a happy thing :D (2nd try) Failed my first try in a record timing of 5 mins!(dammit!!!)

-End of May, one crazy hailstorm rained on Zhongxin and made holes of the size of golf balls(and bigger) in the hardened roofsheets, wasn't there to witness it.

Falling sick for the 1st time in the year~ down with the sickness- Fever. Here in the pic~ can't resist the temptation to capture a approaching storm! (there is a post with rainbow pics) During my June exams period...wat a terrible period to fall sick >.<>

-For certain days in August, I saw and experienced hailstorm for the first time.... it is really something... seeing ice-kachang falling from the sky. Hectic kind of weather~

-During the September holidays` managed to watch 2 movies that left me speechless~ The musical Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Stephen King's The Mist
(still feeling very fortunate to be able to watch 2 good movies in a 1 week holiday T_T)

-Early morning of 16th of September , a lightning struck neighbour's tree and sent a electrical surge right through the area and .... my laptop got FRIED. W!T!F! LA!

The poor tree that got damned by the sky. If you look carefully, you can see that trunk 's reddish brown...acutally, thats the part that received the punishment, thus the skin casing got burned or peeled... this pic was taken sometime right after the fateful day... the last time I saw the tree, it was in a pitiful state, the tree's leaves are dried out and looks like it is dying. For some curious reasons, almost no birds would land on that tree.

-October and November seems to be the metamorphosis period for local Lepidoptera(have to check the term for caterpillar/butterflies)... ahh... for the first time in my life, I observed the life cycle of this creature... pretty cool stuff.

Saw this and took a pic....and ....didn't realise....

....that I am so lucky to be able to capture this!!!! Although I didn't get to see it squirm out of the case like on TV but```` So touching to see it sitting there next to it's cocoon....... really 被感动了!

There are even "bloodstains"~~~~~~~!!! Geez like it!!!!

Wonder... how it felt to be able to breathe fresh air again... to fly....to flow... to change it's diet.

Humans also went through this kind of metamorphorsis....

...the difference is most of us~ do it backwards... 太夸张了，变太多了- 就像我们。

-Writing my First-Year finals in October.

A common scene every morning at 0530am , infront of my study area...

Behold~! The weirdest and creepiest flower I've ever seen! Right in the garden~ look like a space station to me~

Adorable aint? a baby grasshopper with morning dew hanging on it's body! Thats my pinky(smallest finger) in comparison!! Imagine how it would feel to "carry" a drop of water like that!

-Bro, Ah ma and Susan came to South Africa during October!! So happy to see them!

Sometimes, I still can't believe that the Ah ma I see in Singapore is here in South Africa!!! Truely Amazing!!! So is my Maths tutor!!!! All here in South Africa?!! Haha~~ too bad I was writing my Finals or else` I would've accompany them~~~~~!

Funniest incident happened when Susan insisted to take a train back home from my Uni and I'll pick them up back there at Oosterzee station(nearest to home). So, I took them to the Rosebank station to take the train... remembering that the night before I was like giving everyone a "mission briefing" on how to take a South African train.... haha~ so off they go and off I went to meet them at the station...well... the funny thing happened when they reach Oosterzee station and the door jammed on them! haha~ PANIC! They didn't rush to try the other door~ thus ended up getting off at the next station... 3 freshly Singaporean in a stranger land! haha~ I went to pick them up at Bellville station.

Classic. Ah ma said that Ah gong used to have the exact same car back in the days! AWWwwww~~~ I laughed my head off! and took this classic pic :) Yeah!

Took Ah ma to stroll at the Tygerberg Nature Reserve one morning~ sigh.... still unbelievable that Ah ma really came to South Africa` I really wish there would be another chance for both grandpa and grandma to visit here again~ also the taiwan side grannies too.

-12th November, I've made the choice.
For my future.

For her future.

Didn't make it dramatic nor is it anti-climatic.

If there is any blames...or wrong, then tell the whole world that it is me.

I do it for my sake- this is true.

Believe me, it still aches even till now, having to make that decision.

Maybe one day, you and I meet... we will laugh about it~

-Drove back to PE for the first time.

-Drove the longest distance ever.

-Saw whales for the first time.

-Worked in a autobody workshop for the first in my life for a period of 8 days!

What a busy year~ plenty of new experiences, alot of first times~up and downs as usual...

Wondering what 2009 will bring for a turning 23year old!

(Deeeeep breath......)

>.<

Yosh!

Happiness in life no.1

2nd-year Engineering CHIONG ah CHIONG!!!!!

Everyone~say

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

again~

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~ 2009 already huh`

Right! Let's do it again!

(not trying to sound sarcastic but...Life will be like that for the next 100 years? Counting and counting....? Aiyaya~ my life cycle aint going to be that simple! :P One day...I will...definitely... find my answer to this feeling! Jia you! 2009 here I am(suppose to say here I come but haha~)! Yeah!)

Welcome to the N.H.K

2008-12-26T13:07:00.012+02:00

Firstly, I am not a/an OTAKU nor am I a drama/dorama/korama/wateverma fanatic. HECK! (but I am a movie fanatic! :)) I do enjoy some of them, depending on the contents.

If it is some romantic made-up crap, I won't even peek. But if it is something that touches reality, horror or comedy- I might consider.

To me, most dramas today are about love stories that seriously are outta-this-world and bullshit-ridiculous. I've only watched 1 drama that I truely love, it is a dorama called " Tokyo Love Story" or "東京愛情故事". Anyone who wants a good drama should watch it(if you can still find it! a 1991 show~! :P) , it is widely regconised as Japanese drama representative.

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

Let's get into the main theme today that I would like to write about...

There was this sudden, impulsive rush to write an entry about this recent anime I am watching...

Welcome to the N.H.K

A total of 24 episodes.
I've watched up till 19 , can't bear myself to finish this anime.

I've also added this anime to my list of favourites(which is really not many, in other words- it must be a meaningful or something special about it. Something that hit me.)

Welcome to the N.H.K ni Youkoso!
The opening logo.

To say the least, in order to fully understand and enjoy this anime~ I suppose one would need to be of a certain age or have being through certain life experiences to be able to relate/体会 the deeper meanings.

On wikipedia, the title's genre was classified as -comedy drama, dark comedy, slice of life.
I am not a spoiler so I'll just place my feelings here.

The main protagonist,Satou(22) on the right and his friend,Yamazaki(21) on the left.

NHK stands for Nihon Hoso Kyokai the well-known Japanese broadcasting company. But in the show, N.H.K was to stand for Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai.

The word "Hikikomori" is a japanese term to describe certain individuals that shy away from a social life, prefering to confine themselves inside the house or their room , away from the outside world.

It is a phenomenon happening in the world today, other similiar terms are NEETS(British term standing for "Not currently engaged in Employment,Education or Training"), Freeter(Japanese term) and taiwanese terms 家裡蹲 , 宅男/宅女 .

Although based on a serious theme, the comedies are the most enjoyable!!!!

I have friends who are currently heading a straight path towards such lifestyles...or already living... sometimes I really wish to help them by giving them advices and encouragement.

But, as usual, at the moment of conversation, I might seems to ignite some kind of courage but, as days gone by, they revert back to their old, unconfident selves.

A creative, yet figurative representation of a...

"One who lost sight of the future, living under parents, unable to step out the first step, no will power, no courage to try---ending up dreaming of instant successes in the future. "

Thats what the show describe individuals who have high tendencies of becoming a Hikikomori.

It is scary.

Yet I believe there is definitely a way out of such living habits.

I am even more determined, not to become one myself after watching the show. And I will try to intro the show to them.

I hope it will help.

This room is a very common scene .
Another reason I loved this show is the details the artist take heart to draw. Incredible. There are plenty of figurines and multicoloured books. Yet, so many different angles were shot in the room, imagine how easily a mistake could be made!

The colour and drawing of characters are kept very simple and tidy, fitting the feeling of a comedic anime.

Aside from all the serious stuff~~~

One thing that I am 'struggling' when I watched this anime was the romantic parts of the anime... it is really kinda addictive( although romance was never the main theme of the show).

If you wondering why I am "struggling"...well...personally, I hate made-up love stories and their scenarios, so~ one part of me was cheering "wow..." the other part of me is screaming "don't be an idiot leh!!"

Main female lead, Misaki (18) The kind of girl that alot of guys will love to meet.
Gentle, cute, smart, affectionate, innocent, mysterious...well, IN A OBVIOUS SENSE` such a person probably is extinct or never ever existed in the human history! ("don't be an idiot leh!")

One of my favourite scene. (alot of ppl probably will go..."awWwWw....." -_-)

Not wanting to spoil anything any further(if I did) , I'll end here.

whew... this is a good show. A rare one.

Happy that I manage to watch it... Probably going to finish watching it sometime soon. Embracing the hype for alittle longer!

Sa~~ if anyone of you interested in what a hikikomori is all about , or just lack of some entertainment to spice yourself up....

OR

....simply curious to know what could've inspire an Anti-drama person like me to write a entry on a anime~~~~

Please watch...

Welcome to the N.H.K