Well, last night I met up with Roy, Omar at Parklane’s Mac… had dinner with Roy & Omar.. I must admit, it is tough to fast for around 14hours.. especially withstanding the thirst..but well, after dinner.. it was time.. for L4D2!!! 3 of us played first as Roy’s friend – Farhan would only arrive later.

Starting, we completed 2 campaign (normal mode) = no kick.. Then we tried survival mode when Farhan came.. omg. it is damm difficult but hilarious at the same time.. it was our first time playing survival.. we played the dark carnival survival..first few rounds, we couldn’t even get past the bronze timing standard (4mins)..haha..

We decided we should go the higher grounds, and we stayed on the open 2nd floor where there was the grenade launcher, i couldn’t find any shot gun.. our team record was 5:37 after trying over 10 times we still can’t beat that lousy timing.. we always have problem with the irritating jockey…so we gave up.. haha.. we played at total of 4hours at the lan shop..

I went youtube to see videos of L4D2, there was one video where the team just camp inside one of the room.. and i think all were using shot gun, dual pistol… (i think shot gun was located inside one of the room).. they prepared lots of fuel/propane tank/molo to fight against the tanks.. and they only use secondary weapon to fight the horde as there were no ammo to replenish in that room.. well, the video will explain everything :

After killing zombies, we went to West Coast Park’s Mac to relive some old memories. Roy was sharing his personal experience and what he see in the current education system in Singapore. MOE is becoming more and more like Mindef, where you have to do paper work like filling RAM forms even for excursions!!! Schools have become so performance-driven, where ONLY results matter and they do not care about the background information of the students and whether do the students made any improvement.

Well, it takes two to clap and I must say that parents also play an equal role in “shaping” the current situation. Nowadays, it is so common to see family where both parents are working, which results in either the grandparents or maid who spent more time with the children. And the kids are talking to their teachers like they are talking to their maids.

Child: “Teacher teacher, I want to go toilet.”

Teacher: “No.”

Child: “Why?”

In my time, which was not too long ago, we never question our teachers in that way…On top of that, the parents are being over protective of their kids till teachers are treating the students as CLIENTS! Because once the parents complain and it reaches to MOE level, your career is good as done. Of course, this is not something new as we know the turnover rates for teachers are high. That makes me wonder what the teachers are imparting to the students : care only about results, “wayang” ??

And to think that I thought of teaching when I was choosing a course for my university. It’s very saddening to see that the kids, who will be the future of Singapore are becoming this way. It makes me wonder what can we do to prevent this impending doom.

Upon reaching home, as usual i will log in fb and check my stocks & email.. Played my fb games for a while, and log in twitter to see any updates.. When i saw jeannie’s tweet about her spending the day at NUH, i got curious and concerned.. i replied to her tweet, asking her what happened, but i guess she was already sleeping (It was 2am when i replied her tweet. haha). And of course, i should sleep too.

The weird thing was that that night I dreamt that Jeannie replied my tweet.. and the reply was something so bizarre that I immediately woke up from my sleep..But it was just a dream.. I found out what happened.. So Jeannie, if you are reading this post.. Take care, don’t worry too much. I believe he will be fine.

Today will be day 1 of Jay Chou’s concert in Singapore, wonder whether will he sing this song again?

And just if you are wondering, No – I am not going for his concert ( Never been to any of his concerts =x)

We reached Marina Square at 6pm. So we decided to have our dinner first before heading to the bridge, where we had no idea where it is. We ate at the food court. I was surprised to find out that a number of food stalls had already closed down. The last time I went, there were  none ( but it was quite some time since I last went to Marina Square). So, there were many empty seats. My parents & I sat at where we could see the Marina Bay Sands Resort. We could see where’s the bridge from where we were sitting, so we walked out to the area outside the Esplande to have a better view.

Then we realised that it was along the way if you walk to Singapore Flyer. And it looks nice and interesting. But the bridge was quite short? I could finish walking within 5 minutes. There were a total of 4 viewing pods – an area that extends out from the bridge to have a better view of the city. A certain portion of the bridge was closed and the bridge connects directly to the retail shops area which was still under construction. ( My dad commented it can never be completed anytime soon. I think they announced it could be completed by June?)

I took some photos using my hp. It’s uploaded on Facebook.

Oh ya, an interesting point that I found. To fit into the theme of double helix, the lights on the floor of the bridge were lighted with the 4 basic groups of DNA – “A” “T” “C” “G”. I took a few photos of that letters.

After that, we went to the tou hwa shop at Rochor road(yum yum!) before heading home.

It was a nice family time evening.

what did I do for this one week? ENJOY!!! hahah.. first of all, right after my last paper, I went to get my Final Fantasy 13 which I had planned to get it after my exams.

Also, I managed to get Starcraft 2 Beta from my friend. As it is still in beta, so this crack only allows me to play standard game and without choosing race and AI difficulty level. Initially, I was owned by the AI for the first few days. But the last two days, I found out how to beat the AI ( there’s bound to be some weakness in the AI, no matter what its still programmed by human).

Well, didn’t had much chance to play FF13, cuz the PS3 set is in the living room. And my parents would want to use the tv at night. So usually, I could only play in the afternoon to evening time. (Now I understand how Wan Qing felt that time when she is playing FF13 too). The graphics is really fantastic and in my opinion, this game they are focusing more on the storyline/graphics and rather on the gameplay. Certain parts of the storyline are really touching. I must admit that the gameplay is very linear for most parts. Also, it was easy to always get 5 star rating for each battle for the most of the front part. The only problems I had was with the Eidolons. And I like the sound track, because it’s by Leona Lewis!

Ok! Apart from games, I also started to watch a Japanese series(with recommendation by YB). Its called “Liar Game”. The female lead – Nao is way too honest and gullible. She will believe whatever anyone says to her. She would report to the police just for a coin that she picked up on the floor. Only then, her horror started when she found out she was dragged into the “Liar Game” – where you have to lie to win the game. But she continued to be honest and trusting everyone, and manged to proceed into the few stages of the game, of course with the male lead’s help – Akiyama.

Well, I can enjoy for a few more days as I am going to start my special semester soon – 10th May-25th June. Hopefully I will do well for my exams for this special semester. So that I can not worry about my electives too much.

These are the things that keep me going when i get bored and tired.

My friend- Wing Lok said I could be the ambassador for Pokka Milk Coffee – Every week drink at least 1 bottle de. Of course during this exam period I drank more. The big tin is something I saw in NTUC. It’s some wafer sticks that I think I have taken before, at Yongnan’s hall.

The two pictures of food was a yummy lunch prepared by my mum. It was crayfish with cheese + pasta.

Actually, there’s nothing much to be happy about. I am rushing my Computer Graphics Lab assignment which I have to get it done by Thurs night.

Had a simple early celebration by eating out with my family. My dad suggested eating Pepper Lunch at IMM as i told my parents I have not tried the food at Pepper Lunch before (Don’t you dare laugh at me.)

I always got that mindset that the food at Pepper Lunch is expensive, but i realised that it is not that expensive as compared to many other restaurants. The food was not bad, I like the hamburger meat – Very soft and tender. I ordered the “Beef with Egg”, the meat was a little tough. The ice-cream with the sesame was something special.

Well, its birthday and somehow I will always think of this song and think of the past. Call me “emo” or what, but sometimes you just can’t forget some stuff that happened in the past. Maybe by opening up, I will let go of such “emotional baggage”

*Disclaimer* I like the song but not the video( all those kissing have totally no link to the lyrics)

On a side note. I was chatting with YB one night, she was sharing with me that she is considering to change hosting for her domain as she experienced numerous downtime and is pissed off with the irresponsible customer support.

Well, to me I am not too concerned about have 99.9% uptime or good support as I know downtime in my blog won’t affect a lot of people as there are not many readers in my blog. I think i can count the number of readers with my 2 hands.

I feel like sharing some of the stuff that I had learnt during my intensive 3 days course. Although the course is mainly about value investing, but the speaker did talk about personal management skills too. He quoted Albert Einstein’s saying, which I can’t remember the exact words but it something like ” Insanity is when you are doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

It’s quite common sense but when you reflect on your own actions, you are bound to find out that there are certain stuff that you keep repeating the same way of doing it, but hoping to get different results.

After tuition, i went out with my mum, to visit our ex-neighbour house. It was his third child(a son)’s 1st month. Reached his house( @ Sembawang) at around 2pm. I realised that we weren’t very late and many of his guests turned up later than us. Ate my late lunch, the food was nice! Love the curry ( oh ya, btw my ex-neighbour is an Indian, and his family recently got Singapore Citizenship).  Before my mum and I left, he asked “So when is your daughter going to get married?”. Both my mum and I started to laugh. hahaha.

But when I looked at the baby, I realised that is  the meaning of love. That’s the same reason why I was born into this world – the love of my parents.

Tuesday, I had an interview in school, as I applied for a minor in Entrepreneur. The dress code was formal. But I felt a little weird to wear formal clothing for school lessons, but had no choice. Well, I waited almost half for my interview, think the previous group took a very long time. The interview was a group interview. It was a nervous but good experience in my opinion, it was as though I was sitting in the boardroom in Donald’s Trump’s Apprentice. The interviewers informed us to expect a reply within 2 weeks from the interview date. (Pray hard I will get it )

Well, as I will be attending a 3 full day course from Fri-Sun. I won’t be able to physically there to post on Friday night( but wait. there’s scheduled posting in WordPress! )

This period of time, I had been chatting much more with my friends, like YB, Ben & Pui Han. (Yes… because I am more free) Especially more to YB, I guess. And I must thank her, for making my day more happy and cheerful whenever I chat with her, or sharing our jokes and stories. Never fail to laugh each time i chat with her online.

On a side note, anybody who needs a webcam? I recently bought one, but seldom used. Used 1 or 2 times only. It’s a 5Megapixels webcam from Prolink ( Model CC5020). Any interested buyers can contact me. Thanks!

Well, this week is e-learning week. Actually I would rather not have e-learning week. It breaks the momentum, it gives me a strong reason to just slack and relax. If there were no e-learning week, then i will be “forced” to go to school and attend lessons and do my tutorials! haha.

I would have to cheong abit for the next few days, as I would be attending a full 3 day course from Fri-Sun. So, 3 days would be burnt, can’t do work/revise for exams.

*edited* well, conflict was resolved. All is fine after a HTHT.

This week has been quite hectic. Rushing to do Java lab and more labs. Have to die-die complete my current one by Monday, Tue got quiz which uses the current lab work. I have a few lectures to catch up as I skipped a few lectures(for 1 valid reason and just “lazy to attend that boring lecture”) Not to mention another of my core lab – Computer Graphics. The lab assignment is totally nothing linked to what would be tested in exams. Its really e-learning for that lab(really irritating).

I didn’t get much opportunity to talk to Sophie..Most of the time. our timing were not the same. I am online when she is outside, or we are both online but she seems busy with her homework and stuff, so didn’t talk much.

Next week is recess week. But there is not much difference for me. As I have to go back 4 out of 5 days. Monday and Tuesday for lab work. Thurs and Fri for my accounting elective ( MB101) lecture and tutorial.

Workload is starting to pile up. I must start panicking. My first exam papers is on 22nd April (that is in around 1 months time).

<rant>

There is still one thing I want to rant: STUPID INTERNET SPEED!!!!

I really can’t stand it. Not sure whether is it Singtel or there is something wrong with the mIo modem. But the fact that its only at night around 8pm-12midnight (which I think the peak hour for internet) when my internet will keep d/c-ing. I have no such problems when using the internet in the morning. So, I strongly believe that it has something gotta do with Singtel.

</rant>