ever since end of March, every once in a while, I would get this strangely familiar, sinking feeling of being left behind. since coming to Osaka 4 years ago, a certain group of people have become part of my life, a part that I have perhaps taken for granted. they are the other foreign students who entered Osaka Uni at the same time as me, and graduated at the same time.
only difference is, most of them left after graduation.
the ones who stayed in Japan, almost invariably chose to go to Tokyo Uni. the Korean gang went home to be drafted into the army. a close friend from Singapore went home to work in the government. before I knew it, my social circle has suddenly, abruptly shrunk.
and it's not the end of the story. at least two more people will leave Japan by middle of the year, one whom I've known since the days of studying Japanese in Tokyo, another with whom I've built up a sort of distant yet tangible friendship from frequent meetings at the shabby school gym.
so yeah, come summer, I'll be feeling REALLY alone. can't help thinking that if I hadn't failed those grad school applications, I'll be the one saying goodbye and leaving everyone in Japan behind. it's selfish, I know, but given the choice I'd rather have things that way.
I'm tired of being left behind....
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Thursday, November 18, 2010
working hard
just a quick note while im waiting for the post office to re-deliver a package from home before i head to the lab....
so this year, i've been kind of quiet and absent from the online scene. its too distracting and time-consuming, and god knows i've been busy. lab life and work, entrance exams for masters here, GRE and applications for graduate school overseas, and that project that dominated my mind throughout the first three quarters of the year - iGEM.
so i'm back from boston (since last thursday, actually). for all our efforts this year ('our' = mine, n the 4 third-year juniors working hard in the lab; the other members were sort of sleeping till the last moment, but that's japanese customs for u - juniors work, seniors sit back n reap the rewards), we only got a bronze medal. no, not the 'third place; 2nd runner-up' bronze; its the lowest-tiered consolation prize, awarded to teams who fulfilled the most minimum of criteria for participation. 2 steps down from last year, where we got gold, at least.
anyway, during the long plane flights, something sort of just fell into place in my head, a lesson that i have been slowly picking up throughout this year that i realized clearly for the first time.
throughout my high school, japanese language course n early university years, i had always been afraid of trying hard. afraid of working hard towards a goal without any guarantee that i will succeed. afraid of what people might think if i let them know about my lofty ambitions as contrasted with my limited abilities.
so i just realized. since attending iGEM last autumn n getting a clear vision of my future path (or at least, the path i wanted to take) for the first time, i had been working hard. working hard to get good grades to save my borderline GPA, working hard to get my professor's approval so that he will write me a good recommendation, working hard for good scores in GRE; and working hard in iGEM this year.
in retrospect, iGEM had nothing to do with my university application. i admit it, i was secretly hoping to talk to some professors there in MIT, score a few brownie points for my application; but we ended up being so busy with overdue preparation for the presentation that that was out of the question.
so in iGEM, i tried hard but sort of failed. and it doesnt feel too good. my question is this: is trying hard the main point in itself, or do the results matter more? we learn, improve and develop personally when striving to achieve something; but if it all comes down to nothing, was the arduous journey worth it?
'the things we regret most in life are those we did not do'. i hope that applies to reaching out for our dreams, no matter how far out of reach, too.
so this year, i've been kind of quiet and absent from the online scene. its too distracting and time-consuming, and god knows i've been busy. lab life and work, entrance exams for masters here, GRE and applications for graduate school overseas, and that project that dominated my mind throughout the first three quarters of the year - iGEM.
so i'm back from boston (since last thursday, actually). for all our efforts this year ('our' = mine, n the 4 third-year juniors working hard in the lab; the other members were sort of sleeping till the last moment, but that's japanese customs for u - juniors work, seniors sit back n reap the rewards), we only got a bronze medal. no, not the 'third place; 2nd runner-up' bronze; its the lowest-tiered consolation prize, awarded to teams who fulfilled the most minimum of criteria for participation. 2 steps down from last year, where we got gold, at least.
anyway, during the long plane flights, something sort of just fell into place in my head, a lesson that i have been slowly picking up throughout this year that i realized clearly for the first time.
throughout my high school, japanese language course n early university years, i had always been afraid of trying hard. afraid of working hard towards a goal without any guarantee that i will succeed. afraid of what people might think if i let them know about my lofty ambitions as contrasted with my limited abilities.
so i just realized. since attending iGEM last autumn n getting a clear vision of my future path (or at least, the path i wanted to take) for the first time, i had been working hard. working hard to get good grades to save my borderline GPA, working hard to get my professor's approval so that he will write me a good recommendation, working hard for good scores in GRE; and working hard in iGEM this year.
in retrospect, iGEM had nothing to do with my university application. i admit it, i was secretly hoping to talk to some professors there in MIT, score a few brownie points for my application; but we ended up being so busy with overdue preparation for the presentation that that was out of the question.
so in iGEM, i tried hard but sort of failed. and it doesnt feel too good. my question is this: is trying hard the main point in itself, or do the results matter more? we learn, improve and develop personally when striving to achieve something; but if it all comes down to nothing, was the arduous journey worth it?
'the things we regret most in life are those we did not do'. i hope that applies to reaching out for our dreams, no matter how far out of reach, too.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
probably the last post
ah well, life doesnt always go the way we want it to. and this blog is one proof of that.
the second last entry, posted somewhere around the new year, promised a new start to this blog... as well as a new start to my life. dunno bout the latter, but the former sure fell far short of expectations. the last post was supposed to be a 'temporary placeholder' while promising great blogging things to come. that certainly didnt come to pass.
anyway, the reason im here is, as usual, because of insomnia. i always do stuff like blogging, facebooking (as in non-mafia wars facebooking), photo uploading etc when im either too free n dont really have anything interesting to report on, or when once in a long while i get struck with sleeplessness n decide to turn on my computer after an hour or two of tossing n turning. guess when things r really happening i get too busy, tired or confused to write about them coherently n thus end up postponing indefinitely. anyway, tonight the japanese sake i drank seems to have robbed me of the ability to sleep, the complete opposite of what alcohol usually does to me. so here i am.
a brief update on whats been happening since beginning of this semester. sorry, not gonna go further back even tho last year was arguably THE year that changed me the most. first off, i got 'assigned' (for lack of a better word; even tho we got to list out our choices n i did get my first choice) to a lab, supposed to be Bioresource Lab of the bioengineering faculty but actually focuses on Metabolomics n Analytical Chemistry. got off on the wrong foot with the professor and as a result had to cancel my plans to visit sis's graduation ceremony n trip around the US in apr/may. things seem to have been mended somewhat, can only hope he's gonna keep his end of the bargain n write me a good recommendation for my graduate school application.
throughout the last few months if u ask what ive been doing, i cant really answer very well. on one hand nothing 'spectacular' or 'special' happened; i basically follow a routine of going to lab, doing research n the like, heading off to the gym after 'core time' is over, then spending the rest of the evening in the library. sometimes i go back to the lab for more reading. yup, my research involves lots of article reading n minimal experiments. i like having to think a lot; i just miss doing stuff that involves cell cultures, genes, live organisms n the like (my lab is mostly about chromatography, mass spectrometry etc... chemistry stuff).
anyway, so lab takes up a large part of my life nowadays. another thing that occupies a lot of my 'functional time' is iGEM. short for International Genetically Engineered Machines, its a competition held annually at MIT around november; last year i participated, got a TON of experience not just in research but also in interacting with my japanese teammates as well as getting a glimpse of life over there in the US; the jamboree, the main event held at MIT itself, was a hugely enlightening experience tho also immensely humbling as it brought me to full realization of how far ive been lagging behind other people of my age. so... yeah... meetings, reading articles, attending a workshop in Taiwan, wiki editing.... iGEM's been taking up a large part of my life too.
4th year bioengineering majors basically dont have classes. i have one this semester - Quantum Science. sounds grand doesnt it? its actually extremely basic stuff, totally walk-in-the-park compared to E&E majors' Quantum Mechanics; n the reason im taking it in 4th year is becuz i failed it in the 2nd year. apart from that, lab n lib all the time.
next week shall be the last week we r 'required' to go to the lab. after that its a month-long study break for the entrance exams which come end of august. somewhere around that time im also planning to take the GRE, so i'll b studying double-hard (dont really have to study THAT hard for entrance exam, but then the content is probably similar to what will come out in GRE Biochemistry which im planning to take to supplement my less-than-stellar undergrad results). already tho, it seems like quite a few events have been lined up for summer... i'll hopefully revisit this blog to write about them in the near future (2, 3 months later? :P)
anyway, whats the point of this blog, one might ask? i doubt people read this anymore. my fault, maybe, for not keeping this updated. i guess ive sort of grown detached from my 'online social life' which served to connect me with the people back home n my ex-japanese coursemates who r now mostly in universities around tokyo. i'd like to blame it on my hectic life, but in reality it isnt really that hectic at all. its just dull, dragging, wearisome and tiring in its repetitive, predictable way.
so i guess nobody's gonna stumble across this for a while. i suppose the reason im writing this (besides giving me a way to talk myself to sleep) is because. i need a record, a log, a snapshot of my life. something tells me this year's gonna pass by far too quickly, with many of these little dull things that engage me just enough to tire me out without being special enough to be memorable. so maybe around this time next year i'll be looking back upon this year and wondering what happened with it, where it went. blog posts like this, while seemingly random, disorganized and pointless, can actually serve as anchors for my memory. so hello there, future self.
ok, feeling the beginnings of drowsiness creeping up on me now, its time to turn off the PC, close my eyes n wait for the Sandman. adios.
ps. sorry im not good with photos, blogs with photos take a bit of planning n i tend not to do that with my posts.... i just fire up blogger n spill everything that passes thru my mind on nights like these.
the second last entry, posted somewhere around the new year, promised a new start to this blog... as well as a new start to my life. dunno bout the latter, but the former sure fell far short of expectations. the last post was supposed to be a 'temporary placeholder' while promising great blogging things to come. that certainly didnt come to pass.
anyway, the reason im here is, as usual, because of insomnia. i always do stuff like blogging, facebooking (as in non-mafia wars facebooking), photo uploading etc when im either too free n dont really have anything interesting to report on, or when once in a long while i get struck with sleeplessness n decide to turn on my computer after an hour or two of tossing n turning. guess when things r really happening i get too busy, tired or confused to write about them coherently n thus end up postponing indefinitely. anyway, tonight the japanese sake i drank seems to have robbed me of the ability to sleep, the complete opposite of what alcohol usually does to me. so here i am.
a brief update on whats been happening since beginning of this semester. sorry, not gonna go further back even tho last year was arguably THE year that changed me the most. first off, i got 'assigned' (for lack of a better word; even tho we got to list out our choices n i did get my first choice) to a lab, supposed to be Bioresource Lab of the bioengineering faculty but actually focuses on Metabolomics n Analytical Chemistry. got off on the wrong foot with the professor and as a result had to cancel my plans to visit sis's graduation ceremony n trip around the US in apr/may. things seem to have been mended somewhat, can only hope he's gonna keep his end of the bargain n write me a good recommendation for my graduate school application.
throughout the last few months if u ask what ive been doing, i cant really answer very well. on one hand nothing 'spectacular' or 'special' happened; i basically follow a routine of going to lab, doing research n the like, heading off to the gym after 'core time' is over, then spending the rest of the evening in the library. sometimes i go back to the lab for more reading. yup, my research involves lots of article reading n minimal experiments. i like having to think a lot; i just miss doing stuff that involves cell cultures, genes, live organisms n the like (my lab is mostly about chromatography, mass spectrometry etc... chemistry stuff).
anyway, so lab takes up a large part of my life nowadays. another thing that occupies a lot of my 'functional time' is iGEM. short for International Genetically Engineered Machines, its a competition held annually at MIT around november; last year i participated, got a TON of experience not just in research but also in interacting with my japanese teammates as well as getting a glimpse of life over there in the US; the jamboree, the main event held at MIT itself, was a hugely enlightening experience tho also immensely humbling as it brought me to full realization of how far ive been lagging behind other people of my age. so... yeah... meetings, reading articles, attending a workshop in Taiwan, wiki editing.... iGEM's been taking up a large part of my life too.
4th year bioengineering majors basically dont have classes. i have one this semester - Quantum Science. sounds grand doesnt it? its actually extremely basic stuff, totally walk-in-the-park compared to E&E majors' Quantum Mechanics; n the reason im taking it in 4th year is becuz i failed it in the 2nd year. apart from that, lab n lib all the time.
next week shall be the last week we r 'required' to go to the lab. after that its a month-long study break for the entrance exams which come end of august. somewhere around that time im also planning to take the GRE, so i'll b studying double-hard (dont really have to study THAT hard for entrance exam, but then the content is probably similar to what will come out in GRE Biochemistry which im planning to take to supplement my less-than-stellar undergrad results). already tho, it seems like quite a few events have been lined up for summer... i'll hopefully revisit this blog to write about them in the near future (2, 3 months later? :P)
anyway, whats the point of this blog, one might ask? i doubt people read this anymore. my fault, maybe, for not keeping this updated. i guess ive sort of grown detached from my 'online social life' which served to connect me with the people back home n my ex-japanese coursemates who r now mostly in universities around tokyo. i'd like to blame it on my hectic life, but in reality it isnt really that hectic at all. its just dull, dragging, wearisome and tiring in its repetitive, predictable way.
so i guess nobody's gonna stumble across this for a while. i suppose the reason im writing this (besides giving me a way to talk myself to sleep) is because. i need a record, a log, a snapshot of my life. something tells me this year's gonna pass by far too quickly, with many of these little dull things that engage me just enough to tire me out without being special enough to be memorable. so maybe around this time next year i'll be looking back upon this year and wondering what happened with it, where it went. blog posts like this, while seemingly random, disorganized and pointless, can actually serve as anchors for my memory. so hello there, future self.
ok, feeling the beginnings of drowsiness creeping up on me now, its time to turn off the PC, close my eyes n wait for the Sandman. adios.
ps. sorry im not good with photos, blogs with photos take a bit of planning n i tend not to do that with my posts.... i just fire up blogger n spill everything that passes thru my mind on nights like these.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
minor setback
ok i know ive promised myself to start blogging today, but due to 1) there being nothing much to blog about (at least that comes to mind) n 2) a hiking appointment at 7.30am tmr morning plus a primary sch gathering in the evening which i dont wanna look too much like a zombie at, ive decided to drop another one of my famous blogging postponements into this slot.
oh ya, i prob shud blog about the primary sch reunion! there'll b lots of ppl i havent met for YEARS. havent actually hung out wif most of the guys frm sum sun even during my time in clhs, not to mention the girls... there'll b a whole lot of unfamiliar-yet-strangely-familiar faces at the gathering for sure! lets see how well i do at reconnecting wif all those ppl.....
oh ya, i prob shud blog about the primary sch reunion! there'll b lots of ppl i havent met for YEARS. havent actually hung out wif most of the guys frm sum sun even during my time in clhs, not to mention the girls... there'll b a whole lot of unfamiliar-yet-strangely-familiar faces at the gathering for sure! lets see how well i do at reconnecting wif all those ppl.....
Monday, February 15, 2010
a new year.... time for a new beginning?
maybe its time i started blogging again. as soon as i get some inspiration. and free time at night WITHOUT being dead tired.
of course, theres also figuring out the solution to my classic problem of not knowing where/how to pick up again after leaving the blog for so long.
seriously, does anyone wanna read my blog anyway? is there any meaning in posting when nobody's gonna see them anyway?
mmmm.... this kind of monologue is kinda fun tho. n besides i suppose this blog's main audience shall be my future self.
so ok, tmr. i'll start blogging again tmr! よっしゃ！！
of course, theres also figuring out the solution to my classic problem of not knowing where/how to pick up again after leaving the blog for so long.
seriously, does anyone wanna read my blog anyway? is there any meaning in posting when nobody's gonna see them anyway?
mmmm.... this kind of monologue is kinda fun tho. n besides i suppose this blog's main audience shall be my future self.
so ok, tmr. i'll start blogging again tmr! よっしゃ！！
Monday, June 15, 2009
blog post? not quite....
i NEED to start blogging again.... too many things happening, time flying by too fast.... i dont want this year to go by without making some record of it......
this week theres no lab experiment, apparently the sensei in charge of the current experiment (biophysics) went off to hawaii with his whole lab staff for a 'conference'.... so suddenly theres like a huge block of free time opened up in the afternoons. should b able 2 catch up on sum of those studying, n completing other tasks. well, theoretically at least.....
need to find a reason to change my password..... this one's been around far too long.....
well mebbe i'll find some time to write a proper post tmr in the library.... thats where i expect to spend this week' afternoons as opposed to the lab. tho the idea of coming straight home after morning classes to spend a warm, sunny afternoon in my room, doesnt sound so bad..... NO! i must persevere, i MUST get things done while theres time! lol
there wont b any shortage of 'warm, sunny afternoons' when mid-summer rolls along by.... even tho i'll b spending 3-4 days a week at sch working on that iGEM project...
this week theres no lab experiment, apparently the sensei in charge of the current experiment (biophysics) went off to hawaii with his whole lab staff for a 'conference'.... so suddenly theres like a huge block of free time opened up in the afternoons. should b able 2 catch up on sum of those studying, n completing other tasks. well, theoretically at least.....
need to find a reason to change my password..... this one's been around far too long.....
well mebbe i'll find some time to write a proper post tmr in the library.... thats where i expect to spend this week' afternoons as opposed to the lab. tho the idea of coming straight home after morning classes to spend a warm, sunny afternoon in my room, doesnt sound so bad..... NO! i must persevere, i MUST get things done while theres time! lol
there wont b any shortage of 'warm, sunny afternoons' when mid-summer rolls along by.... even tho i'll b spending 3-4 days a week at sch working on that iGEM project...
Sunday, April 05, 2009
sch starts tml....
...... n i havent done a single thing in preparation for it. in fact, i dun even know wat im supposed 2 prepare..... dun hv the books list or anything yet. n there were sum discrepancies between my syllabus guidebook n the classes schedule published on engineering fac website so i cant even plan my classes n decide wat to take etc. guess im going to sch empty-handed n clueless tml.
well, its been a good spring holidays all in all, compared wif the last few..... last year's summer hols were boring; winter hols were terrible. this time arnd at least i managed 2 go sum places, meet up wif frens (sum of which i havent seen in 2 years or more), n had some fun around osaka... primarily at karaoke... heheh. but still i cant consider these hols completely satisfactory. there were things i planned to do but couldnt make time for, such as: learning korean, learning sum new piano pieces, trying out some cooking/baking experiments, exploring the surrounding areas by bike, going for morning jogs n nightime walks, blogging more, sorting thru n uploading my pics..... the list goes on n on. ive been back frm australia for nearly 2 weeks now, but it still feels like juz yesterday.... simply cuz i didnt do anything noteworthy during these 2 weeks n they juz flew by.
ah yeah, abt the australia trip, hv 2 blog bout it sumtime.... but meanwhile check out d pics on facebook! :P
well, in the last 2 or 3 days temperature's gone up slightly (tho i feel the cold even more for sum reason).... marking the end of winter finally. its not without a twinge of emotion dat i see march roll by. march is always the month of farewells n partings... starting frm the time in gaidai when i parted ways wif my tokyo frens n came 2 osaka.... n every year during march there would b some frens leaving, whether going home to their countries or to continue studies elsewhere in japan. theres even a feeling of regret at winter making its retreat n giving way to spring, cuz it marks the end of the cold days which i love so much.
in japan there r many 'new year's. firstly of course theres the 1st of january new year, which in my opinion is nothing more than a formality brought about by the calendar system. then theres the chinese new year, which always reminds me of home n reunion dinner n new year cookies n fireworks. but cny almost always falls in the middle of exam period, n its not celebrated by most ppl here so i end up hardly noticing it.
some ppl say 'have a good year ahead!' in addition to the standard 'happy birthday' greetings. so i guess each person's birthday marks a personal kind of new year too. but nothing changes during the birthday except that ur formally one year older. in that sense that new year is kind of meaningless too.
so actually the new year thats most 'real' to me is the beginning of the school year in early april. its the time when u feel a difference in the air.... winter going out, spring coming in, annoying sakura blossoming everywhere, u start feeling apprehensive about the study-laden year ahead. its the time for a fresh start, for taking another go at the year; its the best time to be making 'new year resolutions', imho, than either new years day, cny or birthday.
so wat will my resolutions be? ive got some idea but wont be putting them down here yet. guess i'll think them over later b4 sleeping.
anyway, time to end this rambling....
well, its been a good spring holidays all in all, compared wif the last few..... last year's summer hols were boring; winter hols were terrible. this time arnd at least i managed 2 go sum places, meet up wif frens (sum of which i havent seen in 2 years or more), n had some fun around osaka... primarily at karaoke... heheh. but still i cant consider these hols completely satisfactory. there were things i planned to do but couldnt make time for, such as: learning korean, learning sum new piano pieces, trying out some cooking/baking experiments, exploring the surrounding areas by bike, going for morning jogs n nightime walks, blogging more, sorting thru n uploading my pics..... the list goes on n on. ive been back frm australia for nearly 2 weeks now, but it still feels like juz yesterday.... simply cuz i didnt do anything noteworthy during these 2 weeks n they juz flew by.
ah yeah, abt the australia trip, hv 2 blog bout it sumtime.... but meanwhile check out d pics on facebook! :P
well, in the last 2 or 3 days temperature's gone up slightly (tho i feel the cold even more for sum reason).... marking the end of winter finally. its not without a twinge of emotion dat i see march roll by. march is always the month of farewells n partings... starting frm the time in gaidai when i parted ways wif my tokyo frens n came 2 osaka.... n every year during march there would b some frens leaving, whether going home to their countries or to continue studies elsewhere in japan. theres even a feeling of regret at winter making its retreat n giving way to spring, cuz it marks the end of the cold days which i love so much.
in japan there r many 'new year's. firstly of course theres the 1st of january new year, which in my opinion is nothing more than a formality brought about by the calendar system. then theres the chinese new year, which always reminds me of home n reunion dinner n new year cookies n fireworks. but cny almost always falls in the middle of exam period, n its not celebrated by most ppl here so i end up hardly noticing it.
some ppl say 'have a good year ahead!' in addition to the standard 'happy birthday' greetings. so i guess each person's birthday marks a personal kind of new year too. but nothing changes during the birthday except that ur formally one year older. in that sense that new year is kind of meaningless too.
so actually the new year thats most 'real' to me is the beginning of the school year in early april. its the time when u feel a difference in the air.... winter going out, spring coming in, annoying sakura blossoming everywhere, u start feeling apprehensive about the study-laden year ahead. its the time for a fresh start, for taking another go at the year; its the best time to be making 'new year resolutions', imho, than either new years day, cny or birthday.
so wat will my resolutions be? ive got some idea but wont be putting them down here yet. guess i'll think them over later b4 sleeping.
anyway, time to end this rambling....
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
spring holidays
WOW! time passes so fast. without realizing it its been almost 2 months since the last post..... in that space of time 2nd year semester-end exams came n went, i went to tokyo for a well-deserved (?) vacation, n then flew to australia for ANOTHER well-deserved vacation wif my family. n now here i am at the end of the holidays, as usual thinking back n asking myself: have i made good use of my holidays? hv i done all the things i wanted to, so that i wud b ready to start the new sch year well rested, with all enthusiasm n no regrets?
unfortunately as always the answer is no.... but thats a matter for another post. here i'll juz attempt to summarize briefly what ive been up to during the hols..... no easy task, considering im having trouble remembering things that happened merely 2 weeks, let alone 2 months ago.
so exams came n went. as stated in my last post, my exam performance was NOT good.... at least in my opinion. so it was a surprise when results came out n i found that i did MUCH better than the last semester. no C's, n more importantly no F's.... wont tell u the rest of my results but number of S's n A's reached an unprececdented high (or conversely, number of B's an unprecedented low... heh). i'll chalk that up to big contributions frm attendance marks n mid-sem tests tho, cuz i certainly did NOT do well during the semester final. n its funny how my exam results r always much better in the second semesters, mebbe its becuz 1st sem exams r around the height of summer when i cant study or even sleep properly.
so right after that..... went to karaoke once or twice.... resumed my daily training routine for a while (had to break that off when i went on vacation tho) n oh yeah, there was another food party, i think on the day right b4 we left for tokyo. i tried making roti canai n sum chickpeas curry. the curry turned out fine n was in fact praised by a few.... but the roti canai became.... pancakes? still it was ok tho, the hungry ppl devoured everything i made, so i consider my cooking a success ^^
anyway sumtime around end of feb i went to tokyo, with han yee tagging along. after meeting up wif gaidai frens in tokyo we left for nikko, which was our travel destination.... an ulu-ulu place about 2.5 hrs train ride frm the city, supposedly famous for unesco world heritage designated temples n shrines, n beautiful waterfalls which unfortunately we did not get to see. we did purchase a combination pass to visit 5 of the shrines, but as usual each seemed no different from the other, tho rushanti seemed to find them quite interesting. it started snowing shortly after we arrived n later that evening we checked the weather n discovered that we had been plodding around in -3 degree cold! dat was my 1st experience actually being outside during a full-scale snowfall.... cant say if it was good or bad, but i wud certainly do it again :P
anyway, we spent 3 days 2 nights in that area all in all. on the 2nd day we went to tobu world which was basically a big compound wif miniatures of famous buildings from all over the world. 3rd day was spent in edomura (edo village), a place where employees dress up as edo-period peasants, samurai, nobles, u get the picture. the ninja show wasnt bad, the rest were quite boring. oh n the ninja house was fun... using a combination of optical illusions n sloping floors, walls n ceilings, it induces major headache n dizziness in anyone daring to step in. anyway check out the pics for more info, running out of time here hehe.
the rest of my time in tokyo was spent rather uneventfully, except during the last day where i went to gaidai in the morning to meet ex-teachers n this year's kohai, then rushed to shinjuku for karaoke wif the gaidai gang, n had a huge sumptious cake buffet at night. this restaurant, called Bitter Sweet, was relly good... delicious pasta (which i regret eating too much of), variety of grilled meats n veggies u can order without limit, crepe n pancake bar where u can specify ur own toppings n fillings, n a coffee machine with all the usual suspects like americano, cappucino, latte etc.
ok hv 2 get ready 2 go out, will b blogging about my australia trip in the next post...
sigh..... watever happened 2 'i will blog regularly'? shud hv blogged a little bit at a time right after each event, when memories r still fresh instead of letting them pile up like this >.<
anyway, pics r upcoming in facebook, as soon as i manage to sort everything out (n get time to upload them) so stay tuned!
p.s. just for the record, we had a relli persistent winter last/this year..... nightime temperatures were still reaching 1 or 0 degrees until a few days ago. if only it would last, sigh...
p.s.s. will hopefully b writing another post soon on some of my thoughts on the closing of the year.... it hasnt been a very good year in sum ways, n i shud look thru it n see wat went wrong. juz a reminder to self.
unfortunately as always the answer is no.... but thats a matter for another post. here i'll juz attempt to summarize briefly what ive been up to during the hols..... no easy task, considering im having trouble remembering things that happened merely 2 weeks, let alone 2 months ago.
so exams came n went. as stated in my last post, my exam performance was NOT good.... at least in my opinion. so it was a surprise when results came out n i found that i did MUCH better than the last semester. no C's, n more importantly no F's.... wont tell u the rest of my results but number of S's n A's reached an unprececdented high (or conversely, number of B's an unprecedented low... heh). i'll chalk that up to big contributions frm attendance marks n mid-sem tests tho, cuz i certainly did NOT do well during the semester final. n its funny how my exam results r always much better in the second semesters, mebbe its becuz 1st sem exams r around the height of summer when i cant study or even sleep properly.
so right after that..... went to karaoke once or twice.... resumed my daily training routine for a while (had to break that off when i went on vacation tho) n oh yeah, there was another food party, i think on the day right b4 we left for tokyo. i tried making roti canai n sum chickpeas curry. the curry turned out fine n was in fact praised by a few.... but the roti canai became.... pancakes? still it was ok tho, the hungry ppl devoured everything i made, so i consider my cooking a success ^^
anyway sumtime around end of feb i went to tokyo, with han yee tagging along. after meeting up wif gaidai frens in tokyo we left for nikko, which was our travel destination.... an ulu-ulu place about 2.5 hrs train ride frm the city, supposedly famous for unesco world heritage designated temples n shrines, n beautiful waterfalls which unfortunately we did not get to see. we did purchase a combination pass to visit 5 of the shrines, but as usual each seemed no different from the other, tho rushanti seemed to find them quite interesting. it started snowing shortly after we arrived n later that evening we checked the weather n discovered that we had been plodding around in -3 degree cold! dat was my 1st experience actually being outside during a full-scale snowfall.... cant say if it was good or bad, but i wud certainly do it again :P
anyway, we spent 3 days 2 nights in that area all in all. on the 2nd day we went to tobu world which was basically a big compound wif miniatures of famous buildings from all over the world. 3rd day was spent in edomura (edo village), a place where employees dress up as edo-period peasants, samurai, nobles, u get the picture. the ninja show wasnt bad, the rest were quite boring. oh n the ninja house was fun... using a combination of optical illusions n sloping floors, walls n ceilings, it induces major headache n dizziness in anyone daring to step in. anyway check out the pics for more info, running out of time here hehe.
the rest of my time in tokyo was spent rather uneventfully, except during the last day where i went to gaidai in the morning to meet ex-teachers n this year's kohai, then rushed to shinjuku for karaoke wif the gaidai gang, n had a huge sumptious cake buffet at night. this restaurant, called Bitter Sweet, was relly good... delicious pasta (which i regret eating too much of), variety of grilled meats n veggies u can order without limit, crepe n pancake bar where u can specify ur own toppings n fillings, n a coffee machine with all the usual suspects like americano, cappucino, latte etc.
ok hv 2 get ready 2 go out, will b blogging about my australia trip in the next post...
sigh..... watever happened 2 'i will blog regularly'? shud hv blogged a little bit at a time right after each event, when memories r still fresh instead of letting them pile up like this >.<
anyway, pics r upcoming in facebook, as soon as i manage to sort everything out (n get time to upload them) so stay tuned!
p.s. just for the record, we had a relli persistent winter last/this year..... nightime temperatures were still reaching 1 or 0 degrees until a few days ago. if only it would last, sigh...
p.s.s. will hopefully b writing another post soon on some of my thoughts on the closing of the year.... it hasnt been a very good year in sum ways, n i shud look thru it n see wat went wrong. juz a reminder to self.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
bad start
yesterday was the first 'real' exam day - 3 subjects. n it turned out.... bad.
to cut a long story short (n i hv to do that cuz there r 2 papers coming up tml, one of which i ve hardly studied for), at some point my mind decided it cudnt take anymore n stopped absorbing information well before i finished clearing my subjects. its like hitting a wall suddenly - your mind juz wanders no matter how hard u try to concentrate. so i was forcing myself to go on for the last 1 or 2 days n yesterday, well, i guess i burnt out.
the papers were not THAT hard, but i juz couldnt think clearly enuf to work my way thru all but the most elementary ones. like the one in bioorganic chem about Ru5P carbon fixation, i didnt memorize the exact mechanism but shud hv been able 2 work it out wif all the hints given in the paper, but sumhow i juz went round in circles n cudnt focus properly to do it. n i kicked myself afterwards to find that one wrong step messed up my whole answer. n there was another reaction mechanism problem which i cudnt work out by trial-n-error cuz i forgot wat the substrate's structure was like.
u noe that shitty feeling u hv when u KNOW a complicated question is actually very easy, but u juz cant focus well enuf to sort thru all the elements? like calculation questions involving many variables... there was one in biophysics that involved a long tedious calculation but if i had the presence of mind to cancel out certain variables i wudnt hv wasted so much time on the relatively straightforward calculation. anyway, i had that several times yesterday n felt like killing ppl when i went thru those questions again this morning n saw juz how easy they were (n juz how wrong my answers were yesterday cuz i wasnt thinking right).
n there was that stupid open book exam for elementary electrical engineering. the teacher's teaching was shit, but i KNEW i worked thru one of the questions b4 by myself, n there was one on operation-amplifiers that sumhow looked familiar (i think we did sumting similar in high sch). n anyway it was an open book exam so i shud hv been able to refer n work out the problems myself but guess what? i didnt bring the textbook. i was gonna depend on the sensei's shitty notes but found that my fogged state of mind didnt allow me to sort thru all the garbage to understand his diagrams.
at lunchtime i spilt miso soup on my jacket n jeans cuz i wasnt concentrating on drinking from the bowl. ok, i duno y exactly i managed to spill half a bowl of soup on myself when i wasnt on a moving vehicle, standing, talking to ppl or anything. its juz one of those days, u noe?
lately (since sunday or so) ive been having difficulty speaking coherently. my sentences tend to break up abruptly while i grope for words, n my articulation has become worse somehow. unlike previous bouts of 'incommunicabilty', this wasnt caused by extended lack of interaction wif ppl, cuz ive been hanging out wif other engineering ppl at the library (which has become our 2nd home). probably another side effect of mental overload.
after this exam im gonna check if theres a medical cause for this poor memory n bad mental stamina of mine. i dont see my frens turning into incoherent, absent-minded, brain-fogged idiots after extended periods of studying. a cursory search online has turned up magnesium deficiency as one of the possible culprits (some other symptoms fit, too). in any case, time to return to the swotting.............
to cut a long story short (n i hv to do that cuz there r 2 papers coming up tml, one of which i ve hardly studied for), at some point my mind decided it cudnt take anymore n stopped absorbing information well before i finished clearing my subjects. its like hitting a wall suddenly - your mind juz wanders no matter how hard u try to concentrate. so i was forcing myself to go on for the last 1 or 2 days n yesterday, well, i guess i burnt out.
the papers were not THAT hard, but i juz couldnt think clearly enuf to work my way thru all but the most elementary ones. like the one in bioorganic chem about Ru5P carbon fixation, i didnt memorize the exact mechanism but shud hv been able 2 work it out wif all the hints given in the paper, but sumhow i juz went round in circles n cudnt focus properly to do it. n i kicked myself afterwards to find that one wrong step messed up my whole answer. n there was another reaction mechanism problem which i cudnt work out by trial-n-error cuz i forgot wat the substrate's structure was like.
u noe that shitty feeling u hv when u KNOW a complicated question is actually very easy, but u juz cant focus well enuf to sort thru all the elements? like calculation questions involving many variables... there was one in biophysics that involved a long tedious calculation but if i had the presence of mind to cancel out certain variables i wudnt hv wasted so much time on the relatively straightforward calculation. anyway, i had that several times yesterday n felt like killing ppl when i went thru those questions again this morning n saw juz how easy they were (n juz how wrong my answers were yesterday cuz i wasnt thinking right).
n there was that stupid open book exam for elementary electrical engineering. the teacher's teaching was shit, but i KNEW i worked thru one of the questions b4 by myself, n there was one on operation-amplifiers that sumhow looked familiar (i think we did sumting similar in high sch). n anyway it was an open book exam so i shud hv been able to refer n work out the problems myself but guess what? i didnt bring the textbook. i was gonna depend on the sensei's shitty notes but found that my fogged state of mind didnt allow me to sort thru all the garbage to understand his diagrams.
at lunchtime i spilt miso soup on my jacket n jeans cuz i wasnt concentrating on drinking from the bowl. ok, i duno y exactly i managed to spill half a bowl of soup on myself when i wasnt on a moving vehicle, standing, talking to ppl or anything. its juz one of those days, u noe?
lately (since sunday or so) ive been having difficulty speaking coherently. my sentences tend to break up abruptly while i grope for words, n my articulation has become worse somehow. unlike previous bouts of 'incommunicabilty', this wasnt caused by extended lack of interaction wif ppl, cuz ive been hanging out wif other engineering ppl at the library (which has become our 2nd home). probably another side effect of mental overload.
after this exam im gonna check if theres a medical cause for this poor memory n bad mental stamina of mine. i dont see my frens turning into incoherent, absent-minded, brain-fogged idiots after extended periods of studying. a cursory search online has turned up magnesium deficiency as one of the possible culprits (some other symptoms fit, too). in any case, time to return to the swotting.............
Friday, January 16, 2009
spontaneous bleeding...???!!
dunno wat we call this condition so i juz labelled it 'spontaenous bleeding'
happened last nite after going out 2 meet a bunch of frens (one of them apparently wanted 2 go karaoke so much he borrowed everyone else's phones n was spamming calls at me)..... unwisely i neglected 2 wear gloves in the -1 degree cold even tho it was only a short period. n when i got home n tried 2 play dota suddenly the mouse felt sticky under my middle finger n it turned out dat thick, sticky blood was oozing out frm the side near the nail. n my toe followed soon, blood welled out of the crease at the joint (see pic) after i took a shower.
wtf is happening?? cold, dryness, over-eating causing my internal volume to swell n strain the skin to bursting point? no time 2 ponder on it but hope its not gonna b a recurring thing....
neways, going 2 sch 2 eat (n use up my surplus meal coupons) then study d....
Monday, December 29, 2008
a new bicycle
this has to be one of the most wuliao posts i ever put up this year. but then the year is ending, nothing better 2 do, n wat r blogs for but for recording every trivial detail in our life in the hope that, in retrospect they might juz reveal some great hidden truth about our inner selves....eheh
anyways
for over a year n a half, since coming here, i had been putting up wif a lousy piece of junk they call a bicycle. it rusts like nobody's business, needs 2 b fed air into its tyres every 2 weeks or so, n is so notoriously unstable dat if going at a fair speed i need 2 actually come to a near complete stop b4 making a 90 degree turn. wat else. its lamp started flickering 3 months ago n gave out completely last month so i had been riding in the dark (since it gets dark at 5pm here nowadays) whenever i come back frm uni....not 2 mention the fair number of times its suspicious (read: cheap-looking) profile plus lack of functional lamp has caused me 2 b stopped by the ubiquitous traffic policemen 4 'routine checking'. around 2 weeks ago its basket suddenly started ripping down the side n d last time i saw it one side of the basket had almost completely came off. wif the high service costs in japan, it wud probably cost more than the bike itself to hv 2 put back into shape.
oh yea, forgot to mention, it threw me off once, resulting in the loss of 1 pair of jeans (i had 2 pairs at dat time, which meant i went around for almost 2 weeks wearing the same pair). or mebbe i shud blame the slopes for that.
so anyway, i wasnt particularly fazed when i left it at d bicycle park at kita-senri, the nearest train station, n came back 2 find it gone....along wif the other 20+ bikes dat were not inserted into the parking lot's bicycle locks properly. prob management had them all moved 2 some remote location 4 not making use of their locking facilities (which cost 150 yen per lock; tho i wasnt there more than the minimum 2 hrs so i cud hv got off free). if my experiences in tokyo were anything 2 learn frm, it is dat i'll prob hv 2 pay like 1000 yen to get my junky old bike back. so, sayonara bike.... (n thanks, kita-senri management, for taking the problem of bike disposal off my hands :P)
so i went for bout 2 or 3 days without a bike n then went to kohnan yesterday lookin 4 a new one. n the very SAME model i had (by a company called southernport..warning: dont buy any bike frm them) dat cost 9800 yen when i bought it, is now 12800 yen! sheesh...talk about inflation....n shudnt the price hv gone down after the model has aged for nearly 2 years? but anyway i learnt my lesson n picked up another one. the cheapest bike without gears was 8800 but it was real kiddies-type so i took the 10800 yen....wif insurance that came to 11300 yen (insurance, by the way, is the little label on the bike dat tells police 'come stop this rider n check his name, then match it with the 5-digit number printed on me'). so im set back by 11300 yen for a bike without gears. ah well, gears r largely useless in osaka anyway, wat wif all the slopes... but i cant help having a nagging feeling dat ive replaced one piece of junk wif another...heheh.
new bike, u better serve me well or u'll suffer a worse fate than ur predescessor >.<
well anyway so thats the story of my bike, thanks for listening n come back tml for another of Shao Thing's Boring Life Stories ;)
anyways
for over a year n a half, since coming here, i had been putting up wif a lousy piece of junk they call a bicycle. it rusts like nobody's business, needs 2 b fed air into its tyres every 2 weeks or so, n is so notoriously unstable dat if going at a fair speed i need 2 actually come to a near complete stop b4 making a 90 degree turn. wat else. its lamp started flickering 3 months ago n gave out completely last month so i had been riding in the dark (since it gets dark at 5pm here nowadays) whenever i come back frm uni....not 2 mention the fair number of times its suspicious (read: cheap-looking) profile plus lack of functional lamp has caused me 2 b stopped by the ubiquitous traffic policemen 4 'routine checking'. around 2 weeks ago its basket suddenly started ripping down the side n d last time i saw it one side of the basket had almost completely came off. wif the high service costs in japan, it wud probably cost more than the bike itself to hv 2 put back into shape.
oh yea, forgot to mention, it threw me off once, resulting in the loss of 1 pair of jeans (i had 2 pairs at dat time, which meant i went around for almost 2 weeks wearing the same pair). or mebbe i shud blame the slopes for that.
so anyway, i wasnt particularly fazed when i left it at d bicycle park at kita-senri, the nearest train station, n came back 2 find it gone....along wif the other 20+ bikes dat were not inserted into the parking lot's bicycle locks properly. prob management had them all moved 2 some remote location 4 not making use of their locking facilities (which cost 150 yen per lock; tho i wasnt there more than the minimum 2 hrs so i cud hv got off free). if my experiences in tokyo were anything 2 learn frm, it is dat i'll prob hv 2 pay like 1000 yen to get my junky old bike back. so, sayonara bike.... (n thanks, kita-senri management, for taking the problem of bike disposal off my hands :P)
so i went for bout 2 or 3 days without a bike n then went to kohnan yesterday lookin 4 a new one. n the very SAME model i had (by a company called southernport..warning: dont buy any bike frm them) dat cost 9800 yen when i bought it, is now 12800 yen! sheesh...talk about inflation....n shudnt the price hv gone down after the model has aged for nearly 2 years? but anyway i learnt my lesson n picked up another one. the cheapest bike without gears was 8800 but it was real kiddies-type so i took the 10800 yen....wif insurance that came to 11300 yen (insurance, by the way, is the little label on the bike dat tells police 'come stop this rider n check his name, then match it with the 5-digit number printed on me'). so im set back by 11300 yen for a bike without gears. ah well, gears r largely useless in osaka anyway, wat wif all the slopes... but i cant help having a nagging feeling dat ive replaced one piece of junk wif another...heheh.
new bike, u better serve me well or u'll suffer a worse fate than ur predescessor >.<
well anyway so thats the story of my bike, thanks for listening n come back tml for another of Shao Thing's Boring Life Stories ;)
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Malaysian English and British English
(a list shamelessly lifted off wikipedia)
This is a list of words and phrases that have one meaning in British English and another in Malaysian English
| Word / Phrase | Malaysian meaning | American / British meaning |
|---|---|---|
| last time | previously | on the previous occurrence |
| a parking lot | a parking space, e.g. "That new shopping mall has five hundred parking lots." | a parking garage (from US English) |
| an alphabet | a letter of the alphabet, e.g. "The word 'table' has five alphabets." | a set of letters used in a language |
| bungalow | A mansion for the rich and/or famous; or a fully detached house, regardless of the number of floors it has. Lately, some housing developers have changed the usage of this word further and we now see terms like "a semi-detached bungalow". | A small house or cottage usually having a single storey and sometimes an additional attic storey that is free standing, i.e. not conjoined with another unit. |
| to follow | to accompany, e.g. "Can I follow you?" meaning "Can I come with you?" | to go after or behind, e.g. "The police car was following me" |
| to keep | to put away or store, e.g. a parent tells a child "Keep your toys!" | to retain as one's own, e.g. "I must decide which to throw away and which to keep." |
| to revert | to get back to someone, e.g. in an email: "I will investigate this and revert to you by tomorrow." | to return to a previous edit or state (although this meaning exists in BrE as well.) |
| to send | to take someone somewhere, e.g. "Can you send me to the airport?" | to cause something to go somewhere without accompanying it, e.g. "I sent this letter to my grandma." |
Most Malaysians are adept at switching from Manglish and Malaysian English, but are sometimes unclear as to the differences between Malaysian English and SABE (Standard American-British English). Awareness of these differences would prevent misunderstandings when dealing with people from different English-speaking backgrounds. This evolution in the use of English follows a worldwide trend and is unlikely to disappear.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
pictures of autumn
autumn is my favourite time of the year. its also the shortest season (at least in japan), only displaying its colors for slightly more than a month at best. AND its that time of the semester when mid-term exams come crashing down on helpless students' heads (especially this particular student). dats y, after 3 autumns in japan, i still havent taken a really decent collection of autumn shots. but anyway, this year i was lucky 2 hv the camera handy a couple of times n managed 2 get these:
will post up some descriptions when i feel inclined to do so...rite now hv 2 get back 2 swotting 4 stupid inorganic chem exam on monday. btw, laz 2 pics were taken wif my shitty mobile phone camera, so they naturally look horrible when enlarged :P
will post up some descriptions when i feel inclined to do so...rite now hv 2 get back 2 swotting 4 stupid inorganic chem exam on monday. btw, laz 2 pics were taken wif my shitty mobile phone camera, so they naturally look horrible when enlarged :P
Sunday, November 09, 2008
cold weather n a piano
its getting cold lately. last night it dropped to 9 degrees celsius, the 1st time it went under 10 degree this month. feels abit early to be getting so cold, but then ive only been in japan for 2 autumns, who am i to judge.... still it does seem like this is a comparatively cold year, wif winter lasting well into feb (it snowed in mid-feb, remember?) n all traces of summer heat gone by october..... im not complaining, mind u, i prefer cold :D
so wats new. oh yea, after 1 n a half years of waiting/hesistating, ive finally went n got a digital piano! for those interested in knowing, its a Yamaha Arius YDP-160, not one of the famous Clavinova series but still reasonable advanced n well-made. n it costed a mere 85000 yen compared to the cheapest clavinova model which was around 120000 yen (my arius is actually technically superior to some of the lower-end clavinovas cuz its new n technically more advanced, hehe). neways, i'll b posting some pics (n a more complete review) as soon as i get my ass around to copying them over frm my camera.
lately..... bananas r EXPENSIVE. some smarty jap professor or nutritionist apparently published a book extolling the virtues of a 'banana diet' n it seems like half the nation's females jumped on the wagon immediately. anyway bananas r now 200 yen for a bunch i.e. 4 or 5 bananas. dats like RM6-7. n dats the cheapest bananas i can find, cuz sumtimes the 'premium sweet' brands from philipines cost twice that. whew. pisang goreng sellers back in msia wud faint if they heard this.
oh, n there was a discount at a nearby supermarket about a week back n i bought a big bunch of like 15 banans for juz 300 yen. then gorged myself silly on bananas for the next few days until it became apparent dat i wasnt gonna finish eating them b4 they went bad. so wats a resourceful guy like me gonna do? dats right, i made banana pancakes again. n not juz once but on 2 consecutive days (sat n sun). dats a lot of bananas to consume, n i suspect it was the cause of the really er.... fragrant bout of flatulence i had on monday, hahah
speaking of last week, it was like party week. the weekend before that was uni festival, so it was an extended weekend stretching frm last last friday to last tue. so a bunch of us ryuugakusei (international students) got together n had a party at our (me n han yee's) place. we each cooked something frm our respective ountries n it was great (felt guilty afterwards tho, damn im becoming way too diet-conscious). then on friday there was another party organised by the uni's international students association featuring Iranian Food...! n of course a bunch of us went n gorged ourselves again. damn, iranian cuisine is simply delicious... n they prepared ample amounts of it too, unlike the previous parties where all available food is consumed within the first 3 mins of the party n we r left wandering around wif empty plates talking 2 ppl..... anyway, this iranian food party was well worth the 500 yen we paid each, hehe....
i realise im starting to ramble here, so lets keep it short. lets see......
had a really weird dream last night, a half-nightmare, but can only remember one part of it in which i was sent along wif another guy to retrieve something frm an abandoned sch building n we got attacked by a ghost or spirit or something. as usual it feels like there was quite a bit of back-story to that particular scene but its all i can remember.... damn im sure my dreams wud make great adventures if only i can recall n re-experience them :P
oh ya, got stopped by the police AGAIN last sunday. was kinda in a hurry 2 go 2 uni so i cycled across the zebra crossing without noticing dat the pedestrian light was already red. n horror of horrors there was a policeman standing on the opposite side wif a notebook lol. luckily he was juz stationed there to check passing bicycles for their theft-prevention stickers n not to collect duit kopi like in malaysia. he began wif the greeting 'lately theres been a lot of traffic accidents, eh?' n then did his check n i was off wif a slight admonishment. had it been in malaysia i think i wud hv been 5000 yen poorer, lol.....
ok, done my duty again, time to sleep.... wait, i still hv 2 blog in mixi n post pics in facebook. arggh, talk about online obligations......
so wats new. oh yea, after 1 n a half years of waiting/hesistating, ive finally went n got a digital piano! for those interested in knowing, its a Yamaha Arius YDP-160, not one of the famous Clavinova series but still reasonable advanced n well-made. n it costed a mere 85000 yen compared to the cheapest clavinova model which was around 120000 yen (my arius is actually technically superior to some of the lower-end clavinovas cuz its new n technically more advanced, hehe). neways, i'll b posting some pics (n a more complete review) as soon as i get my ass around to copying them over frm my camera.
lately..... bananas r EXPENSIVE. some smarty jap professor or nutritionist apparently published a book extolling the virtues of a 'banana diet' n it seems like half the nation's females jumped on the wagon immediately. anyway bananas r now 200 yen for a bunch i.e. 4 or 5 bananas. dats like RM6-7. n dats the cheapest bananas i can find, cuz sumtimes the 'premium sweet' brands from philipines cost twice that. whew. pisang goreng sellers back in msia wud faint if they heard this.
oh, n there was a discount at a nearby supermarket about a week back n i bought a big bunch of like 15 banans for juz 300 yen. then gorged myself silly on bananas for the next few days until it became apparent dat i wasnt gonna finish eating them b4 they went bad. so wats a resourceful guy like me gonna do? dats right, i made banana pancakes again. n not juz once but on 2 consecutive days (sat n sun). dats a lot of bananas to consume, n i suspect it was the cause of the really er.... fragrant bout of flatulence i had on monday, hahah
speaking of last week, it was like party week. the weekend before that was uni festival, so it was an extended weekend stretching frm last last friday to last tue. so a bunch of us ryuugakusei (international students) got together n had a party at our (me n han yee's) place. we each cooked something frm our respective ountries n it was great (felt guilty afterwards tho, damn im becoming way too diet-conscious). then on friday there was another party organised by the uni's international students association featuring Iranian Food...! n of course a bunch of us went n gorged ourselves again. damn, iranian cuisine is simply delicious... n they prepared ample amounts of it too, unlike the previous parties where all available food is consumed within the first 3 mins of the party n we r left wandering around wif empty plates talking 2 ppl..... anyway, this iranian food party was well worth the 500 yen we paid each, hehe....
i realise im starting to ramble here, so lets keep it short. lets see......
had a really weird dream last night, a half-nightmare, but can only remember one part of it in which i was sent along wif another guy to retrieve something frm an abandoned sch building n we got attacked by a ghost or spirit or something. as usual it feels like there was quite a bit of back-story to that particular scene but its all i can remember.... damn im sure my dreams wud make great adventures if only i can recall n re-experience them :P
oh ya, got stopped by the police AGAIN last sunday. was kinda in a hurry 2 go 2 uni so i cycled across the zebra crossing without noticing dat the pedestrian light was already red. n horror of horrors there was a policeman standing on the opposite side wif a notebook lol. luckily he was juz stationed there to check passing bicycles for their theft-prevention stickers n not to collect duit kopi like in malaysia. he began wif the greeting 'lately theres been a lot of traffic accidents, eh?' n then did his check n i was off wif a slight admonishment. had it been in malaysia i think i wud hv been 5000 yen poorer, lol.....
ok, done my duty again, time to sleep.... wait, i still hv 2 blog in mixi n post pics in facebook. arggh, talk about online obligations......
Friday, October 31, 2008
i had a weird dream last night. u noe how dreams go.....sometimes u remember only the later half of it n hv no idea wat happened b4 that, or if there was even an earlier part, even tho it feels like there is n wat u CAN remember is actually a continuation of that part. or mebbe its a sequel to a dream u had previously which accounts for the 'familiarity' of the dream, but u cant remember the previous one......
ok i'll stop going around in circles, this is wat i CAN remember frm this particular dream:
(im QUITE sure there was something about a football match or sum event in a stadium, then i was exploring a kinda-old town wif all those stone buildings n stuff....)
then i heard some strange piano music coming from 'above' (i was either inside a building or an enclosure made up of a cluster of buildings) so i look for stairs to go up n check out the piano
it turned out that there were no stairs n i m now outside a tall building wif lots of sloping surfaces on its sides, so i run up those slopes to get up instead
on the way up i pass by groups of ppl who look like university or high sch students, there was an unsually large number of girls :P they looked like they were gathering for club activities here n there
at the top i suddenly find myself among a throng of primary sch students in their morning assembly n a teacher was playing an old, BIG (long) upright piano
i felt this great longing 2 play dat piano so i waited till assembly was over n the students went outside to do watever they do there (outdoor games mebbe?) then i pretended to be a shameless gaijin (foreigner) n sat down to play the piano without permission
the teacher who had been playing the piano previously, an elderly man (sumhow i knew he was the music instructor) seemed impressed when i played rondo alla turca. then another teacher, a young woman came n asked me to play the Yellow River wif her (its actually a piano concerto, but in my dream it was a piano duet, kinda like jay chou's 四手连弹 duet.
unfortunately b4 we can start to play my handphone rang n i was woken up -_-"
ok if anybody feels inclined 2 post sum ideas about wat my dream meant they're welcome to...lol...
btw, sorry (again!) for the long interval between this post n d last....n paiseh i didnt complete my last post like i was supposed to....heheh....lotsa things happening plus im getting lazy....but ive decided not 2 give up bloggin yet! :P so stay tuned for the uh....next post
ok i'll stop going around in circles, this is wat i CAN remember frm this particular dream:
(im QUITE sure there was something about a football match or sum event in a stadium, then i was exploring a kinda-old town wif all those stone buildings n stuff....)
then i heard some strange piano music coming from 'above' (i was either inside a building or an enclosure made up of a cluster of buildings) so i look for stairs to go up n check out the piano
it turned out that there were no stairs n i m now outside a tall building wif lots of sloping surfaces on its sides, so i run up those slopes to get up instead
on the way up i pass by groups of ppl who look like university or high sch students, there was an unsually large number of girls :P they looked like they were gathering for club activities here n there
at the top i suddenly find myself among a throng of primary sch students in their morning assembly n a teacher was playing an old, BIG (long) upright piano
i felt this great longing 2 play dat piano so i waited till assembly was over n the students went outside to do watever they do there (outdoor games mebbe?) then i pretended to be a shameless gaijin (foreigner) n sat down to play the piano without permission
the teacher who had been playing the piano previously, an elderly man (sumhow i knew he was the music instructor) seemed impressed when i played rondo alla turca. then another teacher, a young woman came n asked me to play the Yellow River wif her (its actually a piano concerto, but in my dream it was a piano duet, kinda like jay chou's 四手连弹 duet.
unfortunately b4 we can start to play my handphone rang n i was woken up -_-"
ok if anybody feels inclined 2 post sum ideas about wat my dream meant they're welcome to...lol...
btw, sorry (again!) for the long interval between this post n d last....n paiseh i didnt complete my last post like i was supposed to....heheh....lotsa things happening plus im getting lazy....but ive decided not 2 give up bloggin yet! :P so stay tuned for the uh....next post
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
reminder to self.....
....that i MUST relly blog sumting tonite! b4 sch reopens....looks like a tough semester ahead lol....
5 consecutive classes every wednesday, wtf who planned our class schedule this year......
list of things to write about:
- summer holidays
- weather in osaka
- recent happenings (very little of these, dun worry.....)
- reflection on my life, past n present
got a stupid class orientation n (maybe) party later on, so cant write much yet...
5 consecutive classes every wednesday, wtf who planned our class schedule this year......
list of things to write about:
- summer holidays
- weather in osaka
- recent happenings (very little of these, dun worry.....)
- reflection on my life, past n present
got a stupid class orientation n (maybe) party later on, so cant write much yet...
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (a review)
this game is great. go get it, if u guys havent already.
omg, my chatterbox died again n i didnt notice...shit dat juz shows how little traffic my blog gets nowadays :(
cant relly write properly, havent been writing anything longer than 2 sentences since 1+ months ago.....i noe wat u guys r thinking, wtf this guy's been back home for over a month n he hasnt blogged at all other than a post to complain about this n that.....well its hard 2 find the time n moo 2 do it lah, blogging needs a period of quiet time alone for reflecting upon stuff b4 writing about it n that juz doesnt seem 2 come along very often.
anyway i guess this hols passed rather mundanely........ didnt go travelling anywhere n dint relly go out much except to Penang Swiming Club to exercise..... wish i had met up wif more ppl la but then, life's a bitch, either ur busy or the other ppl r busy, dun wanna keep bugging ppl to meet up oso lah or else it starts 2 sound like im desperate for company heheh. sigh..... guess times change n frens do, too.......
neways, been playing a couple of rpgs lately, since i managed to cut myself off frm dota 2 weeks after coming home (not by choice but rather becuz shitmyx sucked too much to hv a decent game wif the buddies back in japan).... one was Jade Empire which was not too bad tho imho combat system was repetitive n predictable, tho all those techniques n styles u can pick up looked cool. the other, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodline; originally the review of which was to become the main topic of this post haha. guess my writing skills hv not recovered sufficiently for such an undertaking, so lets juz say, it has 2 b the BEST vampire role-playing game out there. u get to pick from one of 7 vampire 'clans', each of which is played differently....n when i say differently, im talking major differences in gameplay; u can muscle ur way thru the game wif melee weapons, shoot ur way thru fps-style, sneak around like in Thief: Deadly Shadows, blast everyone to shreds if u pick the blood-mage clan, or even go around talking/persuading/seducing everyone to doing ur bidding. theres even an 'insane' clan that makes ur character see talking stoplights, spout shakespearean poetry during normal dialog, n enables u 2 cause enemies to go mad instead of killing or persuading them.....how cool is that??
ok enuf wif the review, as expected i fairly suck at writing stuff like this anyway :P
well....next post will prob b my last in penang this year, stay tuned for a recap/review of my holiday 'exploits' heheh
omg, my chatterbox died again n i didnt notice...shit dat juz shows how little traffic my blog gets nowadays :(
cant relly write properly, havent been writing anything longer than 2 sentences since 1+ months ago.....i noe wat u guys r thinking, wtf this guy's been back home for over a month n he hasnt blogged at all other than a post to complain about this n that.....well its hard 2 find the time n moo 2 do it lah, blogging needs a period of quiet time alone for reflecting upon stuff b4 writing about it n that juz doesnt seem 2 come along very often.
anyway i guess this hols passed rather mundanely........ didnt go travelling anywhere n dint relly go out much except to Penang Swiming Club to exercise..... wish i had met up wif more ppl la but then, life's a bitch, either ur busy or the other ppl r busy, dun wanna keep bugging ppl to meet up oso lah or else it starts 2 sound like im desperate for company heheh. sigh..... guess times change n frens do, too.......
neways, been playing a couple of rpgs lately, since i managed to cut myself off frm dota 2 weeks after coming home (not by choice but rather becuz shitmyx sucked too much to hv a decent game wif the buddies back in japan).... one was Jade Empire which was not too bad tho imho combat system was repetitive n predictable, tho all those techniques n styles u can pick up looked cool. the other, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodline; originally the review of which was to become the main topic of this post haha. guess my writing skills hv not recovered sufficiently for such an undertaking, so lets juz say, it has 2 b the BEST vampire role-playing game out there. u get to pick from one of 7 vampire 'clans', each of which is played differently....n when i say differently, im talking major differences in gameplay; u can muscle ur way thru the game wif melee weapons, shoot ur way thru fps-style, sneak around like in Thief: Deadly Shadows, blast everyone to shreds if u pick the blood-mage clan, or even go around talking/persuading/seducing everyone to doing ur bidding. theres even an 'insane' clan that makes ur character see talking stoplights, spout shakespearean poetry during normal dialog, n enables u 2 cause enemies to go mad instead of killing or persuading them.....how cool is that??
ok enuf wif the review, as expected i fairly suck at writing stuff like this anyway :P
well....next post will prob b my last in penang this year, stay tuned for a recap/review of my holiday 'exploits' heheh
Saturday, August 16, 2008
back home.....with shitmyx
streamyx is.....damn SLOW! after getting used to downloading songs in under 10 seconds there in japan, having to wait up to 5 minutes for a single song, n spending whole mornings or afternoons downloading one measly anime episode is very.....unsatisfying. not to mention all the lags n disconnects i get when playing dota....
but anyway, main topic: reminder to self, do NOT ever forget driving license again. being stuck at home more than 1 week when holidays r limited to a precious 6 weeks is NOT a good thing. 1stly, cant meet ppl, which was the main reason i came back so early this year (cuz not coming back next year). 2ndly, cant go out for exercise, which means all the hard work put into physical training this last semester is going to waste (its a mystery how u can spend 5+ months training hard n then get flabby abs within one week of coming home). 3rdly...i HATE being dependent on ppl, n being unable to drive means having 2 depend on my mom or bro for transport (n having to face their er...'black faces' lol)
malaysia is - as always - hot, humid, wif a general atmosphere of laziness in the air somehow. its not a bad place to relax during the holidays, but i can see now y ive never managed to change n improve my life by much back when i was studying here. im easily affected by the environment, n malaysian environment is not conducive to progress. the very climate itself contributes to drowsiness n laziness, n the attitudes of ppl around do not do much to stimulate us either. n its hard to make changes when living wif family cuz (in my case at least) we're more or less bound by established patterns n ways of life. we cant simply adjust our life bit by bit to suit our mental, physical n social needs n circumstances. living overseas, alone, i think ive managed to introduce more positive change into my life than i had in all 20 years of being at home. n this may sound really controversial (n corny) but i think dat the seasons over there aid us in change too. when the seasons change we can feel dat a year has passed n the time has come for a fresh start. its so unlike here where the environment remains static n once ur life gets stuck in a rut the prospects of turning things about do not come around so easily.
i suppose one of the only things i relly missed about msia is the food, but then....it has struck me dat every time i come home wif a huge appetite for malaysian food, that appetite vanishes within a few days. why? partly its my fault for gorging myself upon arrival, to the point of overeating....but i think cleanliness n nutrition has sumting to do wif it too. there is a significant difference in my energy levels here n in japan, n its probably to do wif the fact dat food here is not so clean n less nutritionally 'dense' (as EJ pointed out too). i get full here easily, leading to the uncomfortable 'stuffed' feeling, not to mention feeling lethargic after every meal (like a python, for lack of a better analogy lol) whereas in japan i can eat lots after exercise sessions n still be reasonably active n alert. but m i really eating that much, nutritionally? i think no.....cuz if i eat less to avoid this aforementioned 'stuffed' feeling, i exhibit symptoms of lack of nutrition. like getting fatigued easily, loss of strength, n muscular atrophy (well it might juz as well be lack of exercise causing the latter). hopefully this feeling is juz psychological n i havent relly become as weak as i feel...guess i'll find out after a trip to the gym tml....by comparing my performance wif last sunday's.....
ok enuf wif the complaints, time for a nap :P
hopefully in the next post i can write bout sumting a little more positive about msia, b4 i get labeled 'traitor to the country' hahaha
but anyway, main topic: reminder to self, do NOT ever forget driving license again. being stuck at home more than 1 week when holidays r limited to a precious 6 weeks is NOT a good thing. 1stly, cant meet ppl, which was the main reason i came back so early this year (cuz not coming back next year). 2ndly, cant go out for exercise, which means all the hard work put into physical training this last semester is going to waste (its a mystery how u can spend 5+ months training hard n then get flabby abs within one week of coming home). 3rdly...i HATE being dependent on ppl, n being unable to drive means having 2 depend on my mom or bro for transport (n having to face their er...'black faces' lol)
malaysia is - as always - hot, humid, wif a general atmosphere of laziness in the air somehow. its not a bad place to relax during the holidays, but i can see now y ive never managed to change n improve my life by much back when i was studying here. im easily affected by the environment, n malaysian environment is not conducive to progress. the very climate itself contributes to drowsiness n laziness, n the attitudes of ppl around do not do much to stimulate us either. n its hard to make changes when living wif family cuz (in my case at least) we're more or less bound by established patterns n ways of life. we cant simply adjust our life bit by bit to suit our mental, physical n social needs n circumstances. living overseas, alone, i think ive managed to introduce more positive change into my life than i had in all 20 years of being at home. n this may sound really controversial (n corny) but i think dat the seasons over there aid us in change too. when the seasons change we can feel dat a year has passed n the time has come for a fresh start. its so unlike here where the environment remains static n once ur life gets stuck in a rut the prospects of turning things about do not come around so easily.
i suppose one of the only things i relly missed about msia is the food, but then....it has struck me dat every time i come home wif a huge appetite for malaysian food, that appetite vanishes within a few days. why? partly its my fault for gorging myself upon arrival, to the point of overeating....but i think cleanliness n nutrition has sumting to do wif it too. there is a significant difference in my energy levels here n in japan, n its probably to do wif the fact dat food here is not so clean n less nutritionally 'dense' (as EJ pointed out too). i get full here easily, leading to the uncomfortable 'stuffed' feeling, not to mention feeling lethargic after every meal (like a python, for lack of a better analogy lol) whereas in japan i can eat lots after exercise sessions n still be reasonably active n alert. but m i really eating that much, nutritionally? i think no.....cuz if i eat less to avoid this aforementioned 'stuffed' feeling, i exhibit symptoms of lack of nutrition. like getting fatigued easily, loss of strength, n muscular atrophy (well it might juz as well be lack of exercise causing the latter). hopefully this feeling is juz psychological n i havent relly become as weak as i feel...guess i'll find out after a trip to the gym tml....by comparing my performance wif last sunday's.....
ok enuf wif the complaints, time for a nap :P
hopefully in the next post i can write bout sumting a little more positive about msia, b4 i get labeled 'traitor to the country' hahaha
Sunday, July 27, 2008
juz a brief note
2 more days of toil, 11 more days till i go home.....oh yeah.....
hell is a hot place where u r forced to study.....i noe cuz im already there. cant wait 2 escape frm this place dats causing me to literally lose sleep due to the heat, damn
naruto shippuuden: kizuna (bonds) is coming out, mebbe i shud go out wif sum1 n watch my 1st cinema movie in japan b4 going home hehe
made bak kut teh yesterday, taste was not bad but sumting in the herbs or mebbe the heaty pork itself combined wif the freakin heat made me nosebleed n i felt like vomiting sumting dat tasted suspiciously like blood later on.....
lately heat's also been lowering my physical abilities....havent made any progress in either str training or karate the last 2 or 3 weeks.....got worse even, maybe >.<
damn, wish i hv more ppl 2 hang out wif....everytime an exam finishes i feel like partying my ass off but every1 already hv plans....need a better social life!
ok time 2 head 4 gyoumu to shop 4 groceries.....tata
hell is a hot place where u r forced to study.....i noe cuz im already there. cant wait 2 escape frm this place dats causing me to literally lose sleep due to the heat, damn
naruto shippuuden: kizuna (bonds) is coming out, mebbe i shud go out wif sum1 n watch my 1st cinema movie in japan b4 going home hehe
made bak kut teh yesterday, taste was not bad but sumting in the herbs or mebbe the heaty pork itself combined wif the freakin heat made me nosebleed n i felt like vomiting sumting dat tasted suspiciously like blood later on.....
lately heat's also been lowering my physical abilities....havent made any progress in either str training or karate the last 2 or 3 weeks.....got worse even, maybe >.<
damn, wish i hv more ppl 2 hang out wif....everytime an exam finishes i feel like partying my ass off but every1 already hv plans....need a better social life!
ok time 2 head 4 gyoumu to shop 4 groceries.....tata
Monday, July 21, 2008
update....sort of
well its exam time now, cant blame me for not updating.
its summer in osaka n it is HOT! temp juz reached 35 degs celcius the last 2 days.....midday temp of course, but night-time isnt much better, wif temps around 29-30. maybe i'll hv to start studying at mister donuts across the street if the temp continues to climb....looks like it'll b an even hotter summer than last year.
anyway, this year i'll b going back 2 msia real early, 7th aug (going 2 attend my bro's convocation on the 8th), will prob b back in penang on night of 8th or 9th....n i'll b staying for over 1 1/2 months this time all the way until 22th of sept, so if anyone's around lets meet up lah! aus ppl, take a weekend n fly back to see ur dear fren raptor the ravenlord! :P
come to think of it, this summer will mark 2 1/2 years since i came 2 japan...half of my total scheduled period of stay under the undergraduate program, that is. tho i'm almost certainly planning to continue to masters, n theres a big chance i'll end up doing that in japan too. damn, sumtimes its scary how time flies n our lives change.....
anyway, now's not the time for musings or trips down memory lane. 5 exams this week, n i havent even started studying for sum of them (dun wanna say exactly how many, juz in case my mom happens by this blog n decides to kills me :P)
ok then time 2 study....
its summer in osaka n it is HOT! temp juz reached 35 degs celcius the last 2 days.....midday temp of course, but night-time isnt much better, wif temps around 29-30. maybe i'll hv to start studying at mister donuts across the street if the temp continues to climb....looks like it'll b an even hotter summer than last year.
anyway, this year i'll b going back 2 msia real early, 7th aug (going 2 attend my bro's convocation on the 8th), will prob b back in penang on night of 8th or 9th....n i'll b staying for over 1 1/2 months this time all the way until 22th of sept, so if anyone's around lets meet up lah! aus ppl, take a weekend n fly back to see ur dear fren raptor the ravenlord! :P
come to think of it, this summer will mark 2 1/2 years since i came 2 japan...half of my total scheduled period of stay under the undergraduate program, that is. tho i'm almost certainly planning to continue to masters, n theres a big chance i'll end up doing that in japan too. damn, sumtimes its scary how time flies n our lives change.....
anyway, now's not the time for musings or trips down memory lane. 5 exams this week, n i havent even started studying for sum of them (dun wanna say exactly how many, juz in case my mom happens by this blog n decides to kills me :P)
ok then time 2 study....
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