cheeyung

2008-11-29T10:00:00.000Z

Closed until further notice.

Nerd

2008-11-21T18:15:00.001Z

I had 6 hours of free time just now.

I spent 5hrs doing work. And i enjoyed it.

It's the end of the world. Just like the weather forecast shows.

Illogical logic

2008-11-21T15:46:00.002Z

Had my first mechatronics lab yesterday. Almost died. haha. Had no idea what was happening for most of the time.

We just ended up with a bunch of wires configured to count pulses.

Didn't help that one of my group members kept messing things up. Haha.

But it was tough no doubt. I ended up with a massive headache, and slept at like 8pm. We didn't even finish the assignment. But the tutor wasn't expecting us to anyways. haha.

Despite myself, I'm lagging behind in my work. I'm not the only one though, everyone is. /shrug.

2008-11-21T05:26:00.000Z

You don't get weather forecasts like this back home. Looks alot like 'stay home and hang on to something' to me. haha.

2008-11-18T21:26:00.003Z

So work has been piling up. And I haven't really went ahead and done much of it.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!?

I can't let the workload creep up on me. Even though the work won't be graded.

I'm sure that alot of people generalise students who work so hard as nerds or guai kias or all that sorta stuff. Heck. I even call most of my friends nerds because they study alot.
But is it really that bad? Obviously the answer is no. This ain't no secondary school days where we can slack and pretend that we are invincible. This is university. The life defining time. Do well, get a good job. Suck, and get a... well.. sucky job.
Yet my work now seems so meaningless. Who cares if i can approximate the values of a function by an infinte series? Who cares if i can calculate the forces on an ideal object? Life isn't ideal at all.

Yeah. So I guess I'm hitting a lack of motivation part of my studies. Everyone gets it.

BORING WALL OF TEXT. DON'T READ. I'm serious this time. It's no where as interesting as the last long post. This is only a rant to motivate myself. Cheers.

[Start wall of text]

DELETED. Too long and boring. I left the summary intact so you guys can see roughly what I've been going on about.

Okay. You can see I've been going in circles for awhile. I really cannot emphasize it enough.
A few lines of hoobastank's "without a fight" sums it up pretty nicely

Wake up, our life is calling

Snap out of indecision
Have we been hypnotized
To think that everything's alright?

We must pick up the pace
No time to play it safe
Before you know it's much too late
[End wall of text]

Time for me to start my work. It might not be as relaxing as slacking, and not as fun as watching a show or playing a game. But I know it's for my own good.

P

2008-11-13T21:22:00.002Z

P for Procrastination.

today i was supposed to study, and input some data into my study database.

I ended up watching one movie (twister, which was written by crichton) and 3 episodes of 24.

crap. haha.

P for PAIN.

I dunno how, but i've injured my hip socket, or hip rotator or something.

My hip hurts whenever i rotate my left leg anti-clockwise. Not very much. It might cause me to miss a step, but not very pain.

Until i hopped onto my bed just now. It REALLY HURT

Like seriously. I cried out in pain, my vision went blank for a moment, and i had to lie on my bed for a minute or two before i managed to move. Then it took me abit of limping around my room to start feeling comfortable.

Now my hip is really numb. and sore. weird feeling.

Anyway. time for work. cya.

A lil' update

2008-11-12T22:49:00.002Z

SOoooo... What's been going on with me?

Well... erm. Nothing interesting really. I guess work's been piling up.

I was at the drawing room from 12-5 doing a STUPID drawing. lol. I hate design classes. People in the room were going nuts. Making weird sounds and singing to themselves. It's that mind-wrenching. haha.

On the upside, I went for my gym orientation just now. The gym is a lot smaller then i imagined it, and it was filled with cardio machines (or hamster machines as i like to call them). A GYM SHOULD BE FILLED WITH MORE WEIGHTS! hello! i can run outside just as well.

Or maybe not. The treadmills and stuff are soooo cool. kind. They have an audio jack to plug in your earphones! lol. The screen is touchscreen and big. It's a tv or you can listen to radio. Holding the handles allows you the machine to measure your heart rate.

Cool huh. Much more entertainment then your sergeant yelling in your ear "OPEN UP YOU STEPS!". But much less motivation I guess.

I'm no fan of hamster machines. but the sheer geekiness of them might make me consider. Haha. Either way, it feels good to have access to some more ways i can keep myself fit.

I'ved decided that i should buck up and start organising my notes so that i can start studying for my exams. Which are in like almost half a year. Which is most of the academic year. lol.

I'm making a full database with all my notes in them. I can't hold on to my hard copies. I lose them in like less then a day. In my 1month and 8 days that I've been here, I'ved already finished on foolscape pad. haha.

Ok I'm really tired now. Don't expect updates regularly for now. Busy with school, my notes, and ewb. and maybe the gym. and maybe top gear. and maybe nba (games are at midnight here!)

Thanks

2008-11-09T18:31:00.002Z

Honestly I never expected anyone to actually read the entire thing. Let alone feedback that they enjoyed it.

So, thank you to everyone who has shown their support for my writing skills. Lol.

Don't expect me to write alot more of that kind of things. Haha.

Enough about people who died thousands of years ago. More about me.

I have been eating this everyday for the past week.

Tastes fantastic. It's oatmeal with peanut butter(chunky)(not that it being chunky really matters). (actually crunchy gives it a nicer texture, so it does matter) honey, and raisins.

Covers alot of nutritional ground. Fibre and carbs from the oatmeal, protein from the peanut butter, and fats from my tummy. lol. Okay. It's lacking healthy fats to become a complete nutritional meal. I'm looking for flaxseeds, but it's kinda hard to find around here.

I've also gotten dried prunes and apricots to give it some variety. Lol.

Work is coming along fine too.. Relatively I guess. I try to do the tutorials by myself, and find myself completely stumped. Then I go to class, and find other people even more stumped. Haha. Two wrongs make a right in this situation. lol.

I've decided that it's time for me to be a bigger man, and start helping others.

Maybe these things are pretty trivial or whatever, but at least I'm doing something. Lol.

Okay. The first thing I'm doing is called distributive computing. Basically, research projects send work to our computers, and our computers...well, computes. Haha. These kind of things take massive amounts of computer work. Xuan knows. We talked about engineering software just now. Haha.

Ok. So here's my contribution so far.

I've donated 18days, 19hours and 34 minutes worth of computer runtime so far, to aid in three projects. Namely, FightAIDS@Home, Help Conquer Cancer, and Nutritious Rice for the World.

Doesn't seem like much, just running a program in the background. But every little bit helps.

Also, I'm going to get involved with Engineering without Borders UK. Basically its a non-profit, student run organisation that well... helps out with development of developing countries I guess. I can't really comment since I'm not exactly involved yet.

But my sister is! Haha. She is so involved that she is even on the website. haha. For me, I'm just dipping my toe in for now, trying to see how I can help. Basically I'm kinda like my sister's assistant now. I've volunteered to help her with some of her stuff. I won't go into it. It might bore you guys to sleep. Haha. If you guys wanna know, you can ask me.

Oh no. Another long long post.

I better not make this a habit. Bye.

A few thoughts.

2008-11-06T19:55:00.004Z

First of all, RIP Michael Crichton.

I was a HUGE fan of his books. Actually, I still am. Just look at my writing style. ( well, i don't write much, but you should be able to see it in this blog.) It's heavily influenced by Crichton's. The short paragraphs and sentences, moving the 'plot' along at a quick pace.

The world has lost one of the greatest story tellers of all time.

Okay. I won't rave about him anymore.

On to my next point.

Note. This is going to be a long boring rant. Sort of like a lecture. Yeah. The sort 'philosophy' I always talk about. Like the lectures I always give zy when I send him home (lol. sorry dude).

So if you are really narrow-minded, or you are the type that just enjoys complaining everyday. Time to close this window.

Alright. Let's go. HUGE wall of text warning.

What separates us from the greats of the world?

Just a note, most of my knowledge of the following, comes from books by Conn Iggulden. He writes historical fiction. But he does include notes on where he changed fact to fiction, to accommodate the story telling.

But okay. So I'll be telling the story of the great Gaius Julius Caesar, and Genghis Khan. At least the points that amaze me.

Let's start with the most amazing feat (in my opinion) of Julius Caesar.

To put it briefly, he was in the military, far in foreign lands. Here, he and a few others were kidnapped by pirates. Now the pirates would send a ransom back to Rome. If the families paid, they would be released. Much like the kidnappers of now -.-
The pirated wanted to ransom Caesar for 20 talents of silver. But Caesar said no. He demanded that they ransomed him for 50 talents of silver, and assured them that he was rich enough and that his family would pay. I think he was trying to make a point to them. That they were messing with the wrong person.
He wasn't kidding. He promised them that if they let him go, he would hunt them down, take back his money, and crucify them.
Well they did release him. On foreign soil. He kept his promise. He raised a fleet, and... kept his promise.

Now think about that for a moment. He raised a fleet on foreign soil. How would you go about, in another country, getting men to risk their lives for you, and fight for you? And I'm sure he didn't have anything to pay them with.

Imagine I asked you to go to Orchard road, and ask say.. 3 people to risk their lives for you. How retarded is that? Yet this man managed to raise an entire fleet. In a foreign country.

I don't need to tell you how great the man was. His surname even became a title which essentially meant emperor.

Genghis Khan.

This story is much shorter. Don't worry. lol.

Temujin(Genghis Khan's birth name) was the son of a Khan(Chief of a tribe). To cut a long story short, his father was killed when he was 9 or 10?
Anyway, the tribe did not allow Temujin to lead, as he was too young. The new khan, fearing that he might one day rise up and take control again, cast him and his family out to die.
I won't talk about how harsh the environment was in Mongol.
To cut a long story short, how does a young boy, struggling to survive and support his family, when everyone else left him for dead, end up as the ruler of the Mongol empire?

Just take a look at these two people. They hit the lowest of lows, where the only thing they had was their lives, and even that was in danger of being lost to them.

Yet they ended up as the most powerful and influential men the world has ever seen.

It just puts everything into perspective for me. I keep hearing people complain about how crappy their food is, how poorly other people treat them(like how their sgts tekan them.lol) and well, some people can even make it sound like the end of the world for them.

Another inspiring person to me that I want to mention, is Ghandi.

He inspired and united a nation through the sheer strength of his character and his spirit. Instead of all the propaganda crap we see nowadays.

What separates us from these greats? Cut me, and I bleed. Cut them, and they bleed. Why aren't we doing anything great with our lives? If we tried, can we do something great?
I'm not saying that I want to be some great dictator and end up being stabbed to death. No no no.
I'm saying that we are a privileged lot. Shouldn't we have all the tools at our disposal to do something good?
No need to change to world. Just change our own world. And the worlds of the people important to us.
So stop whining, and do something about it. I'm sure if we all tried, we could do so, so much more. I'm sure we can all make a difference for ourselves and our loved ones.

Who knows? You might just change the world.

Good sleepless nights.

2008-11-04T22:20:00.002Z

I had good sleep these few days. like great sleep. I wake up feeling energised and all that.

The only problem its not enough.

Like last night i couldn't sleep until 12plus. then i woke up at like 5 completely awake. o.O

Then i go to class and can barely keep my eyes open. lol.

Anyway when i wake up, USA elections will be over.

how does this concern me?

it doesn't.

2008-11-02T23:14:00.003Z

Well looks like my ban from the internet is finally over. lol.

Pretty much slacked the whole weekend. Damn. And i thought with nothing to do, i would actually be motivated to study. lol.

Anyways I had time to set my priorities straight. So here they are

- I am going for a first class honours. Nothing less.
- Maintain my fitness! I doubt i can even do 3 chinups now.
- Erm.. maintain healthy relationships with my friends? lol. If I've been neglecting contact to anyone back home, please drop me an email and scold me. thanks. lol.

Here are the stuff which are NOT on my priority list.

-Full Metal Alchemist
-Bleach
-Fairy Tail
-Pushing daises
-Top Gear
-and all the retarded shows and comics and whatnot.

Watching every episode of heroes is still on my to-do list though. lol.

So if anyone thinks i'm slacking off from my priorities, please put in back in line. thanks.

2008-10-31T08:17:00.001Z

Time flies. Seriously.

It's been almost a month that I've been here. And i feel like it's only been like 2 weeks. lol.

I'm not even having fun yet.

Yeah. I'm a self-declared antisocial guy. So i'm making friends slowly. lol.

2008-10-29T17:46:00.002Z

Some pics of the london eye. I have loads more. but mainly focused on the engineering bits that i'm supposed to draw. So i don't think anyone would be interested in that.

Other then that.. I've been pretty bogged down from work.

why

2008-10-28T21:53:00.002Z

why do i always give in to people?

Do things for people even though i don't want to.

heck. sometimes i don't even like the person.

sometimes i don't even know the person well.

I don't know why i do these kind of things for these kind of people.

i guess i'm too weak-willed or what ever. too easy to manipulate.

damn. this gets irritating more often then it should.

This is our time, without a doubt.

2008-10-28T00:20:00.002Z

We had a talk about the... worsening gobal situation in school afew weeks back.

Not about economics, but about the environment.

Fossil fuels are finite. Global warming. Global hunger.

The guy emphasised that we are the generation that has to fix these problems.

And he said that we, from this good instituation, would have to do it.

Elitist jerk.

But i believe that we are the generation that has to fix this.

And I've been blessed that i can study in this school.

Will I make a difference? Can I?

Is it too big a goal for me?

Will I wake up tomorrow and say "screw the environment"?

This is our time, without a doubt.

Even if it's just for this moment, even if this feeling doesn't last,

I'm going to try and make a difference.

On another note, even until now, I can't believe that joe is gone.

........................ah heck. I won't discuss this here

2008-10-27T09:30:00.003Z

Sorry for the lack of updates.

I'm finding that posting photos of what i eat isn't fun anymore. Because i eat the same food over and over again. And people say that my cooking sucks. haha. but I don't disagree with that.

Other then that... Been busy with my work. Not knowing how to use office software are word and excel are a big minus. I spent more time figuring my way through those then actually working. lol.

Anyway I'm going to be late for school. It's going to be a looooong day today. sigh.

I think I'm supposed to rush off now. lol.

2008-10-17T20:08:00.000+01:00

My egg mayo sandwich. I flooded it with mayo afterwards... Still couldn't taste the mayo -.-

2008-10-15T19:28:00.001+01:00

My pasta! the carrots were gross.. But it's 11p for one can.. so i can't really complain..

And yes. That is my work i am putting my food on =D

2008-10-15T08:30:00.000+01:00

Breakfast. Egg and tuna. I know it looks like crap -.-

And i only had one slice of bread. lol. damnit.

It seems like little right? but i had another bowl filled with the stuff. 3eggs and one can of tuna. couldn't finish.

zzzzz...

I miss singapore food :(

2008-10-14T07:53:00.001+01:00

My breakfast, oats and milo. erm. chocolate oats

Why does everything i cook look like crap?

2008-10-11T19:54:00.001+01:00

ah heck. why eat food i don't want to?

2008-10-11T19:41:00.001+01:00

eww. dinner is REALLY gross =(

I'm just having a really bad day. Even my food doesn't like me =(

2008-10-11T19:39:00.002+01:00

My breakfast

oats and eggs. disgusting. don't think i'll be trying that again anytime soon.

Dinner.

No mood to cook. Can of baked beans with sausages. cheap. generic. cold.

2008-10-10T16:29:00.002+01:00

My cantilever bridge!

That flimsy little thing held 3.5kg. About average... the most was 8.5kg i think?

That design was rubbish. they just bound all the wood together to make it stiffer. lol.

My dinner for tonight!

Looks wrong, but it's really big. That sounds wrong too -.- anyway it costs... 1.44 pounds.. throw in some ketchup... hopefully it'll taste good. and a cheap meal. lol.

Lunch!

2008-10-10T12:32:00.002+01:00

My lunch for today!

Project group is showing some cracks.. Charisma guy is usually not around. Nerd guy is a perfectionist. Uncommon sense guy is... Well he doesn't seem too happy with Nerd guy.

Ah well. Let's see how it does.

Work Work.

2008-10-09T20:35:00.002+01:00

As work seems to pile up.. I'll have less time to blog. sorry. I hate blogging anyway.

And term hasn't even started proper :\

2008-10-08T20:26:00.001+01:00

andy says (3:25 AM):
r they stupid..? how can they kick u out...? most of them from where...

Haha... thanks andy. means alot to me.

Cut from the bball team. 1st round.

2008-10-08T19:29:00.002+01:00

Ah well. Not too affected by it.

Why?

1. the standard IS pretty good.
2. I was in the 5th group to tryout. Looking at the first 4 groups, the cuts looked REALLY random. Some uber good people got cut, some useless craps got kept.

Anyway i met this guy, Peter, from china. He seemed pretty good too. He had the bball passion too. I expected him to make the first round.

He didn't. Neither did I.

Well, we did layup lines, which to me, isn't even a good indicator of skill in the first place. We did layup lines with the RIGHT hand. If i wanted to judge a persons' skill, I would much rather see the off hand.

I tried to show them i had good fundamentals, dribbling with both hands, while being able to see the whole court.

I guess they don't like fundamentals.

Ah well. There's always next year. Once i find a court, training mode ON.

Cooking attempt 3!

2008-10-08T14:03:00.002+01:00

FINALLY! I DIDN'T CRACK THE EGGS!

Made... egg noodles today?

Yummy. lol.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not dalun with his egg frenzy or anything. But eggs are dirt cheap(now that my sis showed me where to get the dirt cheap ones). And not exactly disgusting.

Anyway met my project group for the first time today. 4 very different guys. I think we'll do quite well together actually.

1. Adam. A british guy. He brings the chrisma to the table, our ideas all flow through him at the moment.
2. Me. I bring the common sense solutions. Nothing much i can say about that. lol.
3.Yiet. Malaysian. Stereotypical NERD. You should have seen him go today. We were designing a bridge, using thin strips of wood, string and some clamps. He begins attempting to calculate forces and angles and all that rubbish. Lol. And he came up with some stuffs that we could have used common sense to figure out. Either way, a solid member of the team when we need number crunching.
4.Nikolaou. The quiet guy. Erm. He gave us an unconventional solution to the bridge we were building, and with some modifications, we went with it. So can i say he brings the uncommon sense solutions? lol.

Pretty well rounded huh? I think we'll do great :)

Bball tryouts later. Was really nervous until i found out that yiet was going too. Well at least now i know I'm not going to be the shortest person by far. Yiet is just about my height.

Anyway. Time to go and chill out before the tryouts. catch you guys later.

BBALL TRYOUTS!

2008-10-07T14:20:00.004+01:00

Basketball..

How can I even describe what the game means to me?

I have fun while playing, it helps me to forget my troubles, it makes me feel alive when i win.

I always aimed for 2 things for my time in uni.

Get a good 1st class honours degree.

Make the basketball team.

Now here is the day i can fulfill one of them. Let's do this.

I know i have alot of people supporting me for this. Thank you. I will try not to let you down.

Cooking attempt 2!

2008-10-07T08:51:00.002+01:00

It cracked!

I swear I'll get it right one day. Lol.

My egg sandvich!

I got too hungry and took a bite off one piece first. LOL.

Half soft boiled/hard boiled eggs were a really bad idea to put into a sandwich. Once i broke the yoke, everything spilled out. lol. lucky i only got ABIT on to my computer. lol.

2008-10-06T16:27:00.002+01:00

Had a day of lectures!

Actually i skipped the first one.. had a talk by the engineering rector or something like that? Anyway, my friend told me it wasn't important, so i skipped it. I went to the Mech Eng dept earlier though, and i asked around about why i should go. They all told me i should be at that talk. LOL.

So i went for it, and i was too shy to walk in! lol. So i just waited outside, trying to get WLAN working on my phone. Couldn't do it. damn.

Anyways, went for the mech eng intro talk after that. They started scaring us about how busy we'd be. Doesn't matter. I think i'm a person who knows what I want. (I know xuan thinks i am. lol. thanks bro.) I'm not going to join millions of societies to try things out. I'm guessing I'm going to join the stinkapore society, to get to know people, bball society, cos i love bball, and maybe the table football society, because i enjoy it too. And my friend is the vice-president or something. lol.

And my other priorities are keeping in touch with my friends back home, studies and keeping myself in good shape. Might seem like alot of things, but I'm willing to forgo other unimportant stuff like games, watching shows, chilling out and stuffs. I'm a man with a mission. No one is going to stop me. lol.

They really did scare me during that talk though. They said something along the lines of, well done for your A levels. We know you were top of your class, because if you weren't, you wouldn't be here. Even during the peak of my studies, where my brain was finely tuned to these kind of stuffs, and i could do most calculations completely in my head, I would have felt intimidated. But now, after 2 years of brain rest, where simple calculations take me ages to do even with a calculator, I feel down right terrified. And completely inferior.

I guess this is where hard work comes in. I always felt that hard work and hustle could make up for many a mistake, and make up for... lack of talent? I even felt I've proven it before.

I guess now I'm just going to have to prove it again.

We were given an introductary project too. We are going to build a small bridge and test it with loads. The bridge that carries the most load gets prizes and stuff.

The funny thing is that i understand the principles. Like where the forces will act, what kind of forces, how to improve the design and stuffs. I can't EXPLAIN them. While the lecturer was explaining the terminology and stuffs, i was completely lost. I looked around and no one else looked lost. They just looked bored.

This is a bad sign. lol.

It's like a basketball match. Down by 20 points, 2 mintues left on the clock. Time to catch up. :)

Ah well.. Enough of the emo talk. Here's what i got for dinner

I didn't even look at the price. I doubt i would like it. :(

another nice car

I should really take the front instead of the back huh? lol.

Cooking attempt 1!

2008-10-06T09:48:00.003+01:00

Don't get me wrong. I HAVE boiled eggs before. But the circumstances are different!
I'm using a travel cooker.. the eggs are really cold.. and.. that's all i guess?

anyway this is what happened

The outside was hard boiled and the inside is soft boiled!
Looks really gross huh?
Actually it tastes really good. Because i don't have any sauce or salt, the egg yoke acts like sauce for the egg white! yummy. lol.
I'm terribly unhappy with the price of the eggs, it's like about 1 SGD per egg? outrageous.

And i'm already skipping things in school! lol. the first talk by the.. dunno what? anyway a friend told me it's not important.. so i won't be bothered.. lol.

Some boring pictures.

2008-10-05T07:28:00.001+01:00

The view of my hall from outside..

Its uber uber big... the hall is like 9 blocks long.. lol.

The two views from inside..

Yeah.. just move in.. messy le. lol.

Hall T-shirt! Yilin i know u like the colour! lol

camwhore abit.. i love the flash.. hide my face. lol

my area is filllleeeddd with nice cars. here's one example! an aston martin vantage!

that's all.. lol. post more next time!

Joe.. you are missed..

2008-10-02T09:14:00.002+01:00

Went to joe's funeral today.. With JP and Alex.. Together, 4 of us were the 'NPCC bball team'. lol....

All 3 of us broke down to tears when we reached the service hall.. It was.. overwhelming..

His family lost their composure too.. Which is completely understandable..

I just wish i could do more for him, or his family.

Slip Out The Back

2008-10-01T02:22:00.000+01:00

Listen its like poker you can play your best
But you got to know when to fold your cards and take a rest
And know when to hold your cards and hold your breath
And hope that nobody else is stacking the deck because
I don't need to tell you that life isn't fair, it doesn't care
It arbitrarily cuts off your air, and like you I want someone to say its OKAY
But in the truest parts of our hearts everybody's afraid
But just underappreciated and overwhelmed
Fighting so hard to hide our fear that were scaring ourselves
You understand when I'm saying that you always did
But its different in the words of a cowardly kid

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

Rest in peace Joe.

2008-09-30T19:32:00.000+01:00

Joe, the birthday present you gave me is still on my wall. And it will be there forever.

Rest in peace.

Doggy!

2008-09-30T08:30:00.000+01:00

These might be the last few days i will ever see him :(

The rollercoaster

2008-09-30T07:39:00.000+01:00

3 more to fly. 2 and a half actually.

I've been looking forward to this for the LONGEST time. Yet as the day approaches, I'm not so sure anymore.

I feel a mix of dread and excitement. Its like.. Taking a roller coaster, and I am now on the slow, slow uphill climb. You know it ain't gonna be pretty. You don't know if you are going to enjoy it, but you know it's going to be fun. And in the end, you'll be glad to be back on your feet, back where you started.

Welcome to the inaugural post of this blog. I personall hate blogging. But hopefully, people read this and i'll get less "so how are you" questions.

So now i'm at home, bored as hell, waiting to go out. Going to watch SINGAPORE SLINGERS vs PUREFOODS. Yeah. I know how that sounds. Alvin Neo, if the match is boring, you are sooo going to get it.

Argh. I hate blogging. I'm outta here.