Hyperion Hamlet

Headache

2011-11-08T00:15:00.003+08:00

Got a headache today from sleeping too much. Sometimes I wonder whether I went to sleep because I was truly tired or because I didn't want to face the assignments and study materials that I am supposed to read. With the gloom of FYP hanging in the air, I don't know whether I actually look forward to the december holidays or not. My original intention was to complete the lab segment of my FYP before the end of semester 1 and then focus on doing the write-up and poster during the holidays.... at my own leisure in time. Unfortunately, with the hiccups that occurred and the range of plants that I had inadvertently foolishly tried to cover in my project, that possibility remains but a mid-summer night's dream.

The Fukuoka trip at the start of december seems like a good get-away from the stresses of school life and a time of bonding with my family. It is something to look forward to, yes, but my heart remains lonely without a love. A relationship is one thing that perhaps I may never be prepared to commit for, at least in what society's expectations of a relationship is, yet I desire. This and the uncertainties of what is to become of me after graduation cloud my soul with fear and trepidation. Expectations to meet, yes too, but I can tell that my family would support me in anything I decide to do in the end, albeit with some disappointment if I fail to be what they think i want to be. I have a feeling that finding joy in my future work may be a detachment to what the job entails, but perhaps I would give it a try.

Headache has dissapated somewhat. I guess in part my unstable mentality over my problems had to do with the headache. Writing all these thoughts out really helps...somewhat anyway.

Hyperlink updates

2010-02-13T23:12:00.002+08:00

Finally updated my links. My previous online repository at Geocities closed down when Geocities closed. =(

Anyway, its nice to see that my seifer and hyperion pictures are up again.

On a side note, that also means that my song score links are up and running again. Took me quite awhile though. Blogs are really time-consuming! haha!! Well, on scores, its a pity that i lack the inspiration, skill or creativity to write/transcribe scores freely. Been showing very little progress both in playing and writing new songs.

Wish things were easier... =(

Axes to grind

2010-01-25T22:38:00.002+08:00

Brought raw brinjal, brocolli and romanian lettuce to school today instead of my packed lunches. Discovered it as my RA came round my room and well, had an awkward moment. haha...

Another obfuscation is about my printer. Granted that it works well and the print quality is amazing, but sometimes, it just refuses to print a pdf document. Wonder if its a problem with the printer or a problem with my computer. In any case, i prolly need to get it fixed soon cuz its wasting alot of time trying to trouble shoot the problem.

2010-01-22T04:18:00.002+08:00

2nd week is about to come to an end. Had a very long day yesterday. I thought that going to play captain's ball after that would have been good but well, that was only if i managed to play at all. Was disappointed when winning became the motive for the team to the point where more capable players from outside the team were called to substitute instead of friends on the bench. Perhaps i'm taking this too harshly, perhaps i've been giving the "wrong signals" about playing or perhaps i'm being pitied for getting a graze during 3 minutes of play but still, it becomes very hurtful when you're thrown to one side just to watch an entire competition's worth of games, cheering for the team that doesn't even recognize you as a useful part of it.

I'm probably thinking too much but i guess this episode would teach me stuff about friendship and such. I hope never to repeat such a post.

Welcome 2010

2010-01-17T12:05:00.004+08:00

Once again, another hiatus since my last post. But i guess everyone's used to that by now.

Anyway, school has started again and i'm back at my 2nd home in PGP; prolly my last 3 months there. Its quite a relief that nothing much has changed (thankfully) since i moved back home for a month after last sem's exams. I kinda liked the pristine condition my clustermates and I maintained throughout the previous 3 months i lived there. haha! Well, although much remains the same, there are now some new faces in the block, including a friendly swedish exchange student, whom i talked to just last Tuesday. (Hopefully they won't go wild while i'm boss there.) =)

On lessons...well.... i wish that the department had placed more emphasis on scheduling when they booked our exams and timetables. This may not be shocking to seniors out there but i ended up with two 10am-6pm days, two 9-12 and 2 - 5pm days plus an irritating 4-6pm tutorial on an otherwise vacant Wednesday. Module exams weren't better. In fact, it seems like they were rushing to wash us off their charge with 2 exams on the 27th and 3 exams back to back 2 days after that. Wouldn't be surprised if some of us end up in an IMH vacation or someplace similar. heh...

Anyway, before the madness starts proper, a few of us met back again for a rare secondary school reunion at Handburger, Raffles City. The old faces were warming, the memories.... nostalgic but the price for a bloody handburger was ridiculously outrageous! Below is the fish burger i bought from them... (might wanna guess the price)

It cost me about eighteen dollars just for that 2 pieces of fried fish, bun, mutilated tomato (yeah..that's the squiched thing at the right side) and cordiments. I'm prolly exagerrating (next door there sold soup for ten) and the relative prices of the area were more or less equally "exquisite", but still... compared to buffets at respectable restaurants that I had at similar prices, this fish bun was daylight robbery man! Thankfully the meals there tasted good generally and it was filling enough to spare some unfortunate fries on my friends' platters but, i prolly would look for victuals elsewhere.

Oh lastly, as mentioned, Fun-O-Rama is finally around the corner again. Wonder if i griped about it 2 years ago but what happened last time could be summerised via the word "mobilisation". Consider it piety, consider it loyalty to country, but if you were to do it in my shoes, you too would hurl vituperations to the organisation. Hopefully i won't be forced to miss it this time round. Things sometimes have a perculiar way of clicking together the wrong way.....

Hope you had a happier start to the new year than I did. And if not, my post would've prolly made you happier anyway. =) Till next post!

TIramisu and Creme Brulee

2009-05-15T20:43:00.005+08:00

Hi again! finally back to my blog after a 1 semester hiatus. This semester probably will be the most interesting semester i'd have throughout my 4 years of study here. =) Decided to write some things in again (even if no one reads!) just so that i can practice using superfluous language ad lib. =D Anyway, as part of my desultory character, i'll move on to talk about baking! Made tiramisu and creme brulee last night with my dad! (well, it was more "push" factor from the ingredients going to turn bad rather than the "pull" factor of wanting to eat these insalubrious desserts though) This was my first time making creme brulee! i ended using a toaster oven just because i felt tt the baking oven was a little to big for.... 4 ramekins worth? ha!? It was more of an experimentation of sorts so i guess no real harm was done by not observing pedantic recipes! =X Here are the pictures of our efforts....

Tiramisu

Creme Brulee

The creme brulee was surprisingly easy to make! Overall, there were like 4-5 ingredients and all the recipe called for was to mix, sift and cook. The caramel part was initially a dilemma because i didn't possess a blowtorch, but somehow, even just making caramel from the pot, and pouring it in hot, works well too! (and it rhymes!)

I'm currently playing a RPG game, Persona 4. Minor spoilers here but basically, the story is about a student who transferred to a rural school for a year. You are the student. As the story continues, ghastly events occur during days clouded with a dense fog-filled miasma. You, being the game's hero, decide to find the culprit and decipher his motives. It seemed quite easy initially, even till parts of unlocking the game's more obscure side-quests and persona-forging. However, the catch was that it became progressively more tedious as the game wore on, such that....it felt like a grinding game even though it wasn't such to begin with. Anyway, it sure was nice to touch the PS again after being kept in abeyance so long. Perhaps the aphorism, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" does have a ring a truth to it. =)

Haven't really progressed on my music. (quite a bad sign!) I'll prolly try to muster up some discipline to complete a few more songs and maybe a composition or two before the next year begins. Can't continue with this perfunctorily or it'll start to affect my finesse... (not that i've much to begin with.. -_-") Also, is it just me, or are the songs in Josh's website getting.... Ah.. nvm... not that i should denigrate his website when mine is........ Guess i'll be posting more throughout this sem break now. =p

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-19T16:04:00.003+08:00

Merry Christmas! At the rate that i'm typing blog entries, this will prolly be my last one this year! ha! Anyway, I wanted to upload some pictures of my taiwan/HK trip a few days ago but i guess its not ready yet. (its the headache of photoshopping pictures after every trip!) I'll try to get it done soon and it'll either be in here or on facebook.

Recently finished learning Leon's Theme from Castlevania on the piano. Its not really difficult to learn but i think anyone would find it hard to play well. =( The speed required and all that.... gave me a headache that lasted all of today.

X'Mas Party

2008-12-02T21:56:00.010+08:00

Dear cuzzies!!

From our discussion, our basic X'mas plan is this...
Date: 21st Dec 08 (Sun)
Venue: Vote for dinner plan below.
Time:
1) Go do something before dinner (cousins only)
2) Dinner at venue with family

For our X'Mas family gathering, it'll be held during/after dinner. All young folks are to participate in a mandatory gift exchange with the following guidelines.
1) Red Gift
2) ~10 bucks (reciept shld be provided)
3) Red wrapper

BTW, Daryl's request for the gifts. No (I*****) perfume ["so you don't smell of mustafa 24/7"], NO Clothes, Food, CD, DVD, Perishable Goods for the gift... and oh yah... no porn. -_-"

Part 1)
Eileen suggested that we could go sample good snack food places ard say..bugis street or someplace. Prolly make it in the form of a game or something! haha!
Please offer your suggestions on this part! Its our time together!

Part 2)
Venue for X'mas Family Gathering
1) Buffet @ sakura
2) Marku's home
3) ZhenFa Live Seafood
3) Chong Pang BBQ
5) (Suggest if any)

Please sms Marku, or tag blog, on the choice of venue latest by 6 dec
Subject to approval ( Adults will do the final decision)

Also, we have an afternoon together before dinner. Can go watch movie or go park cycle or walk around S'pore. That one need discussion AGAIN!!!

Climbing

2008-10-20T19:57:00.003+08:00

Just collected my LEVEL ONE rock climbing cert last tuesday. =) Hope i'll have the chance to use it.. Its been quite some time since i first went for rock climbing at the rock gym... Apparently, the shoes they provide are meant for kids or something... And when you finally manage to squeeze into them, they'll give you an immensely exquisite experience of pain that you can only describe as unbearable.
Besides that, i just found scores of tonari no totoro from gamingforce. I wonder about the quality but it looks ok on first glance. Definitely not as good as the piano collection version (which i cannot find for free) but still tailored to a modest amount of skill.
Watching evangelion again since i sorta missed half of it the last time i "enjoyed" it. Still kinda skeptical about the Biblical references there and the ubiquitous gore is undeniably naeseating. However, i'm starting to see great plot effects and hidden jokes here and there, which i never realise existed before. (On a side, the Orange-kun joke is super lame in Code Geass final eps!!)
Well.. tired out from gym today so i guess i'll retire for now... nitez!

CAs over!

2008-10-16T22:53:00.004+08:00

Finally the first wave of CAs are over! haha! Its been almost 3 months since i first stepped into NUS now and it really just seems like yesterday that i started making so many friends and memories about Uni life. Life's more or less stabilized here and ccas dates are more regular already. Really does help that i'm in PGP and that I can return hoome at 10pm+ without worries. (The alternative is to get a car but if you know me, you won't wanna risk a car on my drive!)

Speaking of PGP, there's this rather nice Vegetarian stall in the non-aircon canteen that sells generous portions of food. I really dunno how i managed to stomach this, but here's a glimpse of what they serve!

Not bad eh?? haha... Recently found out that PGP also has a back exit which links it up to Science Park, i believe. There's a posh fine dining restaurant there called blooie that focuses on international/western food. Haven't really looked at their menu yet but... it'll prolly be superfluous for someone who can't afford it! =X

Anyway, this other pic is about Harvey, our patient with 40 different heart diseases!! Apparently CPR is prohibited on a dying patient that dies when his power is cut....

Lastly, on pigeons!! Prolly one of my favourite birds for their seemingly brainless nature... haha!!

Pictures

2008-09-10T07:01:00.004+08:00

Didn't have time to upload anything else so here are some photos to look at. Went for my first blood donation. Quite slow and there was a queue but at least the staff were professional and nice. =) Among the rest of the photos were a few where we had a lunch at swensons' using prize money from the FOW committee and a wear pre-u shirt day. Daolin and i came in Air Force No.3 which really made us stand out. He was in the same camp as me but in 3DA previously. Samuel was with him too.

Batam 08

2008-09-04T07:04:00.005+08:00

Went to Batam last weekend. (Almost missed COMEX because of it!) Here are some photos i took there...

My sis and I on some weird suspension bridge linking 2 of Batam's islands together. In total, there are about 17K islands in Indonesia! Thing is, some of these islands are no bigger than your school hall. =)

This is one of their traditional street vendors, except that this guy was reckless enough to risk selling food to us on the bridge amidst heavy traffic.

Ever heard of people worshipping ingots?? Here's one good example in a Buddhist temple there. Found it kinda weird BUT, guess i wouldn't mind trying if those people win toto,4D after they prayed there. =X

Caught the AC teachers dying of boredom wwhile waiting for some "traditional indonesian massage". I went for my 1st massage there too and well..."Traditional" should be replaced by "Torturous", if you asked me. Freaking lady stepped on me, cracked my joints and specifically aimed the nerves for massaging. I'd never wanna go for it there again!

This statue was at our hotel. Couldn't resist "peeking" up his roman attire. =X Did you know that the idea of short skirts came from the romans?? Bet you didn't cuz i'm smoking you...

PGPR Upheaval

2008-08-13T10:47:00.004+08:00

Hi! Haven't updated in quite awhile. I've since shifted into PGPR and am still in the blues as to the temp-room thing.... Apparently, when i asked to retain this room, the PGP office staff explained that the entire hostel room allocation process was done by OSA (thus they couldn't do nuts even if i hollered the place down) Another interesting fact i learnt was that due to resident Z not leaving A's allocated room on time, a chain of temporary room allocation occurs, such that A takes B's room, B take's C's room and so on... (yeah, someone else, whose allocated room is my current one, is living in ANOTHER temp-room) And once Z finally gets shoo-ed off, pandemonium begins. sigh...
And oh... I got to say that the staff was quite adamant in explaining that this is all our (the resident's) fault and that if we move out on time, a whole plethora of residents need not shift around like busy beavers. Besides, according to them, since OSA holds supreme authority in room allocation, they can't have a process where the new resident Z just moves into A's allocated room, saving the rest of the residents the trouble of the swap.
This problem arises every year but alas! nothing can be done due to finicky residents who die-die want their allocated rooms, late leavers & a world-class room allocation system.
On the brighter side, lessons are now in full-swing. The 5 modules i'm taking are relatively not too hard (despite my 2 year hiatus in tekong/unit) and the freshman seminar (FS) was kinda interesting for a small class of 15. The seminar dealt with issues of statistics and to get that, we had fun experiments like differentiating coke/pepsi to get our results. A word of caution for those planning to take FS just because its a free S/U, after the 1st lesson ytd, we had homework consisting of....
1) 1 Page long essay on statistics
2) 1 design-your-experiment to get statistical data
3) 1 article to read with 2 questions on it So those planning to take it next sem, watch out! ha!
Lastly, CCA-wise, i think its quite hard to aim for hostel stays with points again. My pet CCA like chess isn't even recognised by the sch (thus no points). I'll see how bah.... i guess the most important part is to strike a good balance between work and play and also make friends along the way.

New Laptop! New life in NUS!

2008-07-30T22:02:00.006+08:00

Hi! Sorry about the lack of activity. Been kinda lazy during the past few weeks. Anyway, I finally matriculated into NUS yesterday. Well...not really much joy about receiving my Matric Card cuz i started having nostalgic moments akin to when i first got my 11B in army. haha.. The rest of the feelings are mutual among army guys. heh..

Anyway, went to the fair after that dreaded collection and boy was it lively! The fair covered about 1 1/2 halls with an immense variegation of people either hard-selling laptops, promoting weird> CCAs (dota club?) as well as the odd-friendly neighbourhood policemen giving out brochures on safeguards from thievery. haha.. I guess this beats having an ordinary school CCA Open House eh?

Since i had to get a new laptop for my Uni course. (Those at home are either dead or school property) =X I went ahead and selected this Fujitsu Lifebook S6520U at ard $2.3k. Picture below...

Picture Above.. -_-"

I snatched this photo from HK PolyU's website that apparently sold this gadget for HK$10K (ard S$2K). However, the difference was that locally, Fujitsu so kindly threw in 4GB DDR3 RAM and 320GB HDD Space (original was 2GB DDR2 RAM, 200+GB HDD) for "free". So, being a lucky buyer, i enjoyed the local Lifebook with enticingly great upgrades at $300 above the retail price overseas!! Fujitsu sure knows its marketing skils! Anyway, with the extra cost/enhancements or not, it really works fine and i've had no problems typing this entry as of yet. =)

Moving on, i just received my Qualifying English Test (QET) results today. For those lucky ppl who don't have to take it, QET determines whether you have to take extra Eng modules in Uni (which don't count to results but adds to workload). Of course, extra mods are undesirable... Those who are required to take are those C5ers like me and C6ers for GP. Fortunately for me, I just scraped through a pass with a grade 5, just gaining exemption from the terrifying mods. haha!

Bidding and Uni life starts soon! sigh.. kinda bittersweet on this. For one, i'll definitely miss the carefree days i have now, on the other hand, i'll gain a brain to flaunt with (what a nerd!) and a great social life that i neglected for close to 3 years when they first put me on that island. haha... Alright, I'll be off to look for modules to bid for my first semester! Till next time!

SCAMP & Tomo e

2008-06-28T12:02:00.001+08:00

Just came back from Science Camp ytd and boy was it tiring! Those crazy seniors packed so many activities that we ended up sleeping at 2-3am throughout the 5 days of havoc. ha! We had a haunted house, blind dating, beach games at sentosa, clay-sculpting lesson s, a dinner date at underwater-world, an amazing race game & even clubbing at the "Butter Factory" in addition to the normal dirty games, mass dance & brainless cheers. Thanks to all that, i'm now 2 tones darker with a perpetual "blush" and bruised all over. haha...

Anyway, just wanted to celebrate the release of "Tomo e" piano score on my score webby. Tomo e is from Cardcaptor Sakura (CCS) and appears in an insert songs in eps 37 where Tomoyo and the choir sang this song dedicated to their best friends. The original is really sweet! CCS/piano lovers would love this song. =)

As for credit, this song was originally arranged by Snomits on Sperion for voice & piano but i rearranged it into a full piano version (like all my other songs) SO..... do give appropriate thanks.

I so want to complete Tonari no Totoro but.... its really hard to make a nice piece from scratch. heh... .Hopefully I'll get inspiration & it'll be out soon!

Malaysia Trip

2008-06-15T22:27:00.000+08:00

Went to Gentings from Wednesday to Friday with my family, cousin lina & my 2 grandmas. My sis couldn't join us due to NIE woes but anyway, had a great time and did almost all there was to do there. (eg. gambling, eating, gambling, theme parks, gambling, sightseeing & gambling)

Here are some of the photos i took. Most of them are on the outdoor theme park (or should i say amusement park since there clearly isn't a theme or mascot to it) And i only went there with lina because my family felt that the casino was a better amusement than the amusement park so that'll explain why these pics only have my cuz and i in them. Anyway, point of note is that i managed to sit the Space Shot ride for the 1st time! ha! This ride basically brings you to eye level with the 28 storey hotel, then unexpectedly freefalls you a couple of times. It was the scariest ride there but i kinda picked up the guts to try it after seeing a 60 year old granny willingly take the hot seat. (My pride didn't allow me to lose to an old granny!) heh... It wasn't as bad as i imagined, but that's prolly because i didn't dare look down throughout the entire ride. =X

And yes, we lost money at the casino. haha... Don't go there if you can't stand smoke.

Japan II

2008-06-14T22:59:00.001+08:00

Well, on request, i added a few more photos of japan ard. Among those added is a shot of a platter of raw salmon and tuna belly. This tuna belly is wonderful. Click to enlarge and you'll see that the meat is lined with fat just like premium wagyu beef. Though sinful, it really melts in your mouth. Worth trying if you're ever there.

There's also one pan-shot of Mt Fuji. Alas, it was cloudy the day we went to a viewing spot, however, the tour guide had this beautiful shot that he was more than willing to share with us. =) This was taken at Peace Park.

Lastly, i added a picture that my friend took on his trip there. he was lucky enough to catch a festival with many bishoujos in kimonos posing for a shot.

Japan

2008-06-03T09:24:00.000+08:00

Ohayo Gozaimasu!

If you have been following some of my earlier posts, you would have realised that i just came back from the Land of the Rising Sun recently. Well, to be more exact, i went to both Hokkaido and Tokyo on an 8 day tour which included Disneyland! haha.. .Oh, speaking of the latter, i managed to take this meltingly-adorable photo of a little "princess" there. She looks as if she lost her mum but surprisingly didn't cry (even when i took her photo w that sinister grin on my face).

Aside from that, even though the cheery blossom season past us by over a month now, we still managed to catch a few late blooms which we didn't hesitate to take advantage of. =) Here's a picturesque one with me inside (of course) that's so idiosyncratic of japan. We were really lucky to find it since that was the only area we went to in the whole trip where i actually saw that many blossoms. FYI, our guide told us that cherry blossoms are actually a sister species of some grapes! Believe it?? ha! Anyway, i'm not too sure about that since one's a tree and one's a creeper & my chinese sucks so i may have misinterpreted what he said. =/

Well, being summer now, we got the chance to walk around in a yukata! haha..

This was at an onsen (hot spring) hotel near an actual volcano. What you see on the table is a typical Japanese set dinner. It usually includes tea, rice, soup, pickles, hotpot with vege, a meat dish which you cook yourself & fruit/dessert so.... guess how many kilos of that went to my waist. heh... >.<>

many people know about the variety in japanese vending machines. They sell all kinds of food,drinks, cigarettes, books and whatever else you can think of. However, what people don't know is that their toilets are just as fanciful. Most intriguing is their panoply of complicated bidet toilet systems. Here are a few.. haha...

Lastly, although japanese are mostly buddhists, evangelical christians are ever ready to ask people to....

New Website

2008-05-20T11:18:00.001+08:00

Shifted here due to privacy issues & of course, my guilt conscience over the use of my previous nick.

Song scores can still be found at my old blog through the links.

More Birthdays

2008-05-20T11:03:00.000+08:00

Just celebrated birthdays of 2 friends over this weekend...whew... Well, its not that i don't like birthdays actually, but having to gripe about what presents to buy and organising a happy event for everyone is not really my cup of tea. Nevertheless, these two birthday parties came out well and we had a great time together.

Priscilla's Birthday

This was one of the more interesting birthdays because some people came in Visual K fashion clothing and cosplays off the popular movie,manga & anime, DeathNote. Of course I, lacking even the most miniscule-st drop of fashion finesse, didn't take part in anything above the necessary decorum needed to participate in the event. Anyway, L's double looks almost like the real deal eh? haha..

The second celebration was for my pltmate, jaga. I was quite peeved at the turnout since only 3 of the original 20+ of us came for it. Probable reason was because they heard that their former plt sgt was going to be there too. (in the end, she couldn't make it too) Well, its really sad to know that most of the plt still harbour hard feelings towards our former sgt. They had a good reason to, anyway, since training under her during course-time was hellish to say the least. But, then again, to boycott a fellow friend's party because of her really disgusts me to the core. That aside, we dined at some arab restaurant, al majlis, which served akin-to-western food with ingredients we never heard of in our lives. It somehow tasted unbelieveably good and addictive......perhaps its because one of those strange names was arabic for opium or something... O_o you'll never know...haha..

Well ,for the update, Yes, Japan is confirmed. I'll be fully dependant on my sis, who can at least make out some jap words. We'll be going to hokkaido to find out what royal (holy?) cows make hokkaido butter so expensive & Mt Fuji to find ot why its such a wonderful suicide spot. (relax, i won't try to become a statistic) Hopefully, i can share some interesting pictures when i return. =)