a reason to run again

my landmark 100th post.

mis amigos

run

The airline's having a strike. Bus/train services still recovering from theirs. I was left waiting for a train that never came. As a result, I missed the last 9pm bus. I was stranded at the train station situated at the base of the plateau at 1015pm. The solution - a dark 45min climb up the plateau cutting through a small forest to get back to my school. Sick, cold, hungry, angry and tired, I contemplated sleeping at the station with the rats; and dropping the stupid idea immediately. Since public tansport failed me, I decide to rely on the my most dependable pair of legs which had succumbed to cold and my equally dependable pair of lungs which had succumbed to sickness.

I ran my most punishing 30 min run. oh please god spare me from a deja vu..

experimental music

The music teacher wanted us to do a presentation on anything related to experimental music. Since this is suppose to be a fun class, so he asked us to be as creative as possible and make use of whatever we have learnt as engineers to help us come up with ideas. The next lesson, this classmate of mine took out his guitar and started playing a very nice piece of music which he composed. At the end of the performance, the prof asked him,"So how is this music experimental?" He replied,"Fibonacci series." He has used the Fibonacci series to come up with the pitch for the scores!! Wow talk about inspiration! Who says scientist dun have an artistic side? Then my prof upped the creativity level when he told us about this musician John Cage who composed his music by imagining a score sheet in the sky by drawing 5 horizontal lines across the night sky and filled in the score sheet by superimposing the stars!! Though not stellar, the music turns out not too bad. Maybe you budding musicians (or scientists) out there can try something like that.

Meanwhile, i have yet to figure something out for myself..

sensitivity

A friend sent me a youtube clip featuring an old trishaw rider giving a lift to three young foreigners who made a ridicule of the old man's cycling speed and eventually refused to pay him his due. Bearing in mind that a trishaw is not built for speed and is definitely not meant to carry 3 passengers. On top of that the man is already in his 60s. These young people have no sensitivity at all. Least they could do is to have some respect for a fellow human being. It pains me to see old people having to go through this just to make a living. They shouldn't have to work so hard at this age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH6RIzb_UKU

The video left me with a heavy heart.. carrying with the weight of unfulfilled social responsibility.

medical

For people who are running out of ideas for their fyp, master's or phd thesis? fret not, cos you are not alone. All you need is some ideas to jot your ceativity..

From, BMJ(helping doctors make better decisions) "Sword swallowing and its side effects"
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7582/1285

word of the day

¡Exacto!

self medicating

I'm the patient and the doctor. Panadol is my exlir.

i could use a hug at this time.

calling home

I'm so glad to hear again the voices of my parents which brought with them the unparalleled feeling of warmth and familiarity.

now i'm filled with enough warmth to last me through coming winter.

paradigm shift

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_168999.html
now, i see prejudices from a different perspective...

dancing queen

From Herald Sun : THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses logic, detail oriented facts, rule, words and language, present and past, math and science, can comprehend, knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception, knows object name, reality based, forms, strategies, practical, safe.

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS uses feeling ,"big picture" oriented, imagination rules, symbols and images, present and future, philosophy & religion, can "get it" (i.e. meaning), believes appreciates spatial perception, knows object function, fantasy based, presents possibilities, impetuous, risk taking.

I can switch ftom left, to right and back to the left. cool.

good old days

boys will always be boys.

correction

i needs to improve on my english.. sigh..

sun is a constant

He sat motionlessly on the faithful bench which had accompanied him for most of his retirement years contemplating. Watching the sun rise on the eastern horizon, his eyes scanned swiftly the welkin around the sun’s locality. In a moment, his face ceased and a smile broke across it. He had spotted Venus the ‘morning star’ at its usual position forty-five degree left of the sun. He congratulated himself, musing at his small astronomical feat.

The beauty of the sun rise was going to be short-lived as he watched the ominous clouds gathered rapidly in a distance. Even the brilliant sun, illuminating and ruling his vast universe from faraway, would have to give way to the local menace. He grimaced as he was reminded of how his nephew ruthlessly wrenched away the control of this multi-national company from his feeble hands. That cad had stolen from him his comfortable lifestyle like how the clouds were going to obscure the beautiful sunrise. Helplessly, He watched the grey clouds slowly swallowing up the sun; squeezing the last beam if light to anonymity. He sighed as if he felt his own light being extinguished.

He shifted his attention to the lambs who shared the same greenery as him. They were accustomed to his daily presence since he shifted to the countryside months ago. He looked at his silent companions; frolicking around freely without a care in the world. Poor creatures, he thought, to be not blessed with a superior brain. He continued to observe them for another few minutes and he felt himself wondering. Whilst he pitied their lack of intellectual inability, he pondered. What do they think of me? Probably to them, I just an odd looking lost sheep out-cast by the rest of the normal sheep.

He felt the soft beating of raindrops on his thick woolen clothes. Time to move into shelter. He got on his feet, straightened his back and painfully fought the rheumatism which had plagued him for years as he made his way to the safety of shelter. He made himself comfortable and positioned himself to face the lambs only to find them dispersing. Probably, they had sensed the change in weather too.

For an hour, he sat listening to the soft drumming of the raindrops against the roofs. Occasionally, one or two would escape through the umbrella-like protection and land on his feet. Eventually, the sun still prevails cos it is the only thing constant in this universe.

He thought as he sat through the rain and the first ray of sunlight peeked through from behind the veil of thinning clouds. He flipped opened the papers and on the bottom right hand corner: "Weather Forecast for N0vember: Thunderstorm expected from 9th to 19th November." He sighed again. It will pass..

p.s. Supélec exams period: 9th -19th Nov. coincidence.

rights

Today, when I boarded the bus back from a routine grocery trip to Carrefour, the bus driver kindly reminded me that there would not be any bus services tomorrow. It took a while before the news sink in, but it was no surprise. Tomorrow is the 19th of Oct; the day when the workers in the transport industry would be be going on strike. The transport network would cease tomorrow and the county's heart would skip a beat. Strikes in France are no secrets. It was published in the papers a month ago so that people have ample time to make arrangements to carpool and as such... perhaps also for the government to have sufficient time to draft out a compromising agreement.

Trying fruitlessly to draw parallel from my personal experience, I couldn't help but notice that such a well-coordinated nationwide strike is not plausible in my country. We really a country of harmlessly obedient people. So much so that we would only complain to one another, accept any policies and then wimp in a corner. I always believed that governments should listen to their people. Let's hope this is just a mild stroke and not a heart attack; and life would return to normalcy the day sfter. Thankfully, I'm sure that this won't be another Myanmar.

From the myopic student point of view, classes might be cancelled tomorrow if some of the professors got held back! yay!

I would always be behind the bus uncle. figuratively & literally.

merde!

wow

Yesterday, my Cooking skills levelled up again. I am no longer a mere Level 1 Kitchen Helper, but am a Level 2 Junior Cook now. It's time to upgrade my inventory with better knives, pots and pans. After which I would be able to slice the Cult of Cunning Carrots into shreds with my Blades of Culinary and burn Mr. Malicious Meat with my Fire Stove of Fury. Anyone has got any good Spells Recipe to recommend, as I would need better spells books to be able to cook up Smoke Storms and whip up dishes with Aromatic Aura.

Welcome to WoW - World of WarringCooks.

narcissism

Someone once asked me how did i managed to make narcissism looks like an art? What are the pre-requisite qualities? We turned to face each other. I was looking at a boy seeking wisdom, and he was looking at an epitome of class and confidence.

The art of Narcissism

I said, "Watch and learn."

second chance

I am still a little shaken from the moment I saw my friend's name on the news a few days back. I couldn't really relate the things reported in the news to the person whom I chatted frequently with on msn. I secretly hoped that the same name reported isn't referring to the same person I have known. The remembrance is uncanny. Hope everything would turn out fine for him. People deserve a second chance. He made a mistake, but he is still going to be my friend.

bless you, my friend.

stupidity

Steep learning curve in nus has always been a challenge. Regadless of whether the small brains of ours are capable of absorbing everything, information and knowledge will still be feed to the students at an exponential rate. Here they straightened out the learning curve into a vertical straight line. I am still standing on the x-axis, looking upwards hoping to see the end and wondering how to even mount the learning 'curve'.

I feel so stupid.

funny bones

"And do you know I joined Body Sculpting and Yogilatez? I regretted joining Yogilatez cause its so torturous on my oddly shaped bones. I can't do what the teacher and others can do, but I can do what others can't, and tt is not many things. "

This really tickes my funny bones. Thanks. You made my day.

闷

fastforward

Its Friday already! The week flew by even before i could blink an eye, there's not enough time even for me to catch a breath. Cool! The universal remote control must have worked. You guys want one too? The name is rather long, but try to remember.

It's call "A busy mind and an interesting life."

dear S

"Dear S,

I woke up cold one misty morning,
realizing too late that you had left without warning.
I should have seen the ominous signs coming,
now im sorry for my late dawning.

We got acquainted on my first day in this big city,
you were always there with unfailing regularity.
Time paused for us and felt like endless eternity.
Soon I was won over by your sunshine personality.

Have you forgotten the things you told,
“I would still be here when you are old;
embracing you with my loving warm hold
and protecting you from the banal human cold.”

Now you left with me with just a note,
That says you are leaving for some place remote.
Right now your presence is what I needed.
I really shouldn’t have taken you for granted.

I missed you and your radiant smiles,
That can warm hearts from thousands of miles.
To wake up again to the warmth of your touch
That’s all I’m asking, is it too much?

I missed u, Summer. "

Regads,
junyong

autumn in here

"In autumn when the trees are brown

The little leaves come tumbling down

They do not make the slightest sound

But lie so quietly on the ground

Until the wind comes puffing by

And blows them off towards the sky.

The winds will blow their own freshness into you,

and the storms their energy,

while cares will drop away from you

like the leaves of Autumn. "

Fall poem by John Muir

electives

My 4 electives for this term:-
1) AstroPhysics.
2) Discovering and Experimenting with Music.
3) Spanish
4) Tennis

A round rounded education gives you a healthy dose of rocket science, cultural arts, language and sports. So are you being fed the right dosage in NUS?

monday

The week has begun. I want a remote control to fastforward.

Happy Children's Day, aa. jac too.