...... 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....
Sunday, April 05, 2009
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....
Sunday, June 22, 2008
pancakes
quiz: which pancake ingredient should be increased in order to obtain harder (less crumbly) pancakes? (flour; baking powder; egg; milk)
to tell the truth i hv no idea myself. anyway, as u can guess frm the title, ive been trying my hand at making pancakes lately. specifically BANANA pancakes. now i noe this is a stupid reason but every week i buy a bunch of bananas n end up not being able to finish them before the last 2 or 3 become soft n pulpy. so i was looking for a way to cook them n avoid wastage n i tried han yee's banana kuih recipe but it requires too much oil, imho. so i searched online n voila! i found this.
so how did they turn out? well today saw my 2nd attempt at pancake-making n they were quite a bit better than the 1st one. 1st batch was too salty due to me misreading '1/4 teaspoon of salt' as '1/4 tablespoon of salt' (ppl who laugh will get their heads chopped off). anyway here r pics of my er...rather amateur 2nd attempt:
the 1st attempt produced similar-looking results, albeit wif a rather horrible salty taste :P
well that concludes my post for now. done my duty....again. heh....
to tell the truth i hv no idea myself. anyway, as u can guess frm the title, ive been trying my hand at making pancakes lately. specifically BANANA pancakes. now i noe this is a stupid reason but every week i buy a bunch of bananas n end up not being able to finish them before the last 2 or 3 become soft n pulpy. so i was looking for a way to cook them n avoid wastage n i tried han yee's banana kuih recipe but it requires too much oil, imho. so i searched online n voila! i found this.
so how did they turn out? well today saw my 2nd attempt at pancake-making n they were quite a bit better than the 1st one. 1st batch was too salty due to me misreading '1/4 teaspoon of salt' as '1/4 tablespoon of salt' (ppl who laugh will get their heads chopped off). anyway here r pics of my er...rather amateur 2nd attempt:
the 1st attempt produced similar-looking results, albeit wif a rather horrible salty taste :P
well that concludes my post for now. done my duty....again. heh....
Friday, June 20, 2008
3 reasons y i hate osaka
hey hey, im BACK in the blogosphere after several long months of absence! in response to numerous pleas frm my faithful fans, ive decided to return to blogging once again.....cross ur fingers n pray/hope that this attempt will last a bit longer than the previous ones heheh
well anyway as u can see frm the title, ive been feeling a bit tulan about osaka (which is, incidentally, the city i live in at the moment, since im sure some - or most - of u out there r bound to hv no clue as to my whereabouts after losing contact for so long...hehe paiseh)....
1st reason: its damn HOT n HUMID. osaka must b one of the hottest n most humid cities in japan...at least the hottest (according to my japanese sensei, n i totally dont disagree) among the bigger cities in japan. as for humidity, u can literally get DRENCHED by juz standing in an enclosed space, as happened to me juz today when i went to the gym n got covered wif sweat juz talking 2 my frens....
2nd reason: it rains. a LOT. sumtimes....well most of the time....its juz light drizzling but the overcast skies n increase in the already ridiculously high humidity can hv sum real bad effects on my mental-emotional state. yea thats right, i get depressed after facing 2 or 3 days of continuous semi-darkness n sticky humidity. n well, sumtimes the sky decides to POUR an extra bucketful juz when u decide 2 brave the rain n cycle back home.
3rd reason: the weather forecast here is totally crap. i mean totally crap. u check it the night b4 n it says clear weather today followed by cloudiness at night, then wake up in the morning to find the sky already overcast n the forecast predicts light rain in the evening. then u go 2 sch n it starts raining halfway thru the afternoon.....by the time u finish classes n try 2 cycle home the rain has become a roaring downpour. so much for japanese technology....it only applies to DEVELOPED areas like tokyo, yokohama, nagoya, kyoto, kobe, probably hokkaido n okinawa but NOT osaka. sigh.......
(4th reason: ok this was uncalled for, but it suddenly popped into my mind...today on the way 2 sch, i was stopped by a police officer frm the koban (police box) across the street for the FIFTH time since i came 2 osaka. juz a routine bicycle check, they say. wtf, do i look like a bicycle thief so much...? n cant they stop posting different ppl to that police box so that at least those who hv checked me b4 will noe dat im not the sociopathic bicycle-swiping psycho they seem 2 think i am....)
well thats it, done my duty to my fans, now 2 turn in for a good night's sleep, the 1st i will b having in this entire week thanks 2 the two midterms i had.....
well anyway as u can see frm the title, ive been feeling a bit tulan about osaka (which is, incidentally, the city i live in at the moment, since im sure some - or most - of u out there r bound to hv no clue as to my whereabouts after losing contact for so long...hehe paiseh)....
1st reason: its damn HOT n HUMID. osaka must b one of the hottest n most humid cities in japan...at least the hottest (according to my japanese sensei, n i totally dont disagree) among the bigger cities in japan. as for humidity, u can literally get DRENCHED by juz standing in an enclosed space, as happened to me juz today when i went to the gym n got covered wif sweat juz talking 2 my frens....
2nd reason: it rains. a LOT. sumtimes....well most of the time....its juz light drizzling but the overcast skies n increase in the already ridiculously high humidity can hv sum real bad effects on my mental-emotional state. yea thats right, i get depressed after facing 2 or 3 days of continuous semi-darkness n sticky humidity. n well, sumtimes the sky decides to POUR an extra bucketful juz when u decide 2 brave the rain n cycle back home.
3rd reason: the weather forecast here is totally crap. i mean totally crap. u check it the night b4 n it says clear weather today followed by cloudiness at night, then wake up in the morning to find the sky already overcast n the forecast predicts light rain in the evening. then u go 2 sch n it starts raining halfway thru the afternoon.....by the time u finish classes n try 2 cycle home the rain has become a roaring downpour. so much for japanese technology....it only applies to DEVELOPED areas like tokyo, yokohama, nagoya, kyoto, kobe, probably hokkaido n okinawa but NOT osaka. sigh.......
(4th reason: ok this was uncalled for, but it suddenly popped into my mind...today on the way 2 sch, i was stopped by a police officer frm the koban (police box) across the street for the FIFTH time since i came 2 osaka. juz a routine bicycle check, they say. wtf, do i look like a bicycle thief so much...? n cant they stop posting different ppl to that police box so that at least those who hv checked me b4 will noe dat im not the sociopathic bicycle-swiping psycho they seem 2 think i am....)
well thats it, done my duty to my fans, now 2 turn in for a good night's sleep, the 1st i will b having in this entire week thanks 2 the two midterms i had.....
Monday, April 07, 2008
side notes n brief report
2 recent discoveries:
1) adding ginger to my cooking helps relieve blocked nose....cuz of d spiciness i think
2) going one day without coffee is impossible
elaboration on number 2. i sumhow 4got 2 drink coffee b4 going out 2day, somehow sat thru 2 classes without sleeping......but the effects of coffee withdrawal were far more subtle. it was only when i tried speaking to sum of my classmates dat i found dat the 'wires in my head were crisscrossed'. well...duno the exact term for it, IF there is one....but i ended up inserting the wrong words into my speech n only being aware of it a few secs after speaking out....which resulted in sum rather embarassing moments. n stuff like forgetting wat i was gonna say rite b4 i open my mouth to speak, walking by an ex classmate without noticing him until i was called....
bottomline: no coffee, no social ability
anyways, for those interested in wat ive been up 2 during the spring hols, i 1st went to taiwan around the end of feb.....met up wif dan (BOY, u shud see his spare tyre....hehehehhehe) n went places like the taipei night market n 101 building - tallest in the world at the moment - plus the hualian district in the eastern region which had sum pretty nice scenery. lots of nice food in taiwan too. then coming back i had about a week of rest b4 mom, together wif han yee's mom, visited japan n we went out everyday showing them around kansai. pretty much covered osaka, kyoto, kobe - at least, those places most worth visiting - but didnt go to nara cuz we were all too tired at the end of 4 days of continuous sightseeing. anyway, right after they went back, there was ANOTHER trip, this time all the way to sendai in the northeast (touhoku) region of japan, followed by a stop for 4 days in tokyo on the way back. n no, we didnt get to rest after that, for the kohai frm tokyo came over to kansai n we had 2 take them out again. then the NEW batch of kohai arrived frm malaysia n we had to take THEM out around. phew.
so anyway today was the 1st day of sch. had 2 lectures but basically juz revision of stuff we already knew. so we'r having our classes in suita frm this year on which is a good thing cuz toyonaka feels like a prison compound. but i forgot to drink coffee this morning, plus it was raining the whole day so im feeling a bit under the weather atm. anyway, more on my holiday travels in the next post (wif sum pics if i get down to it :P)
1) adding ginger to my cooking helps relieve blocked nose....cuz of d spiciness i think
2) going one day without coffee is impossible
elaboration on number 2. i sumhow 4got 2 drink coffee b4 going out 2day, somehow sat thru 2 classes without sleeping......but the effects of coffee withdrawal were far more subtle. it was only when i tried speaking to sum of my classmates dat i found dat the 'wires in my head were crisscrossed'. well...duno the exact term for it, IF there is one....but i ended up inserting the wrong words into my speech n only being aware of it a few secs after speaking out....which resulted in sum rather embarassing moments. n stuff like forgetting wat i was gonna say rite b4 i open my mouth to speak, walking by an ex classmate without noticing him until i was called....
bottomline: no coffee, no social ability
anyways, for those interested in wat ive been up 2 during the spring hols, i 1st went to taiwan around the end of feb.....met up wif dan (BOY, u shud see his spare tyre....hehehehhehe) n went places like the taipei night market n 101 building - tallest in the world at the moment - plus the hualian district in the eastern region which had sum pretty nice scenery. lots of nice food in taiwan too. then coming back i had about a week of rest b4 mom, together wif han yee's mom, visited japan n we went out everyday showing them around kansai. pretty much covered osaka, kyoto, kobe - at least, those places most worth visiting - but didnt go to nara cuz we were all too tired at the end of 4 days of continuous sightseeing. anyway, right after they went back, there was ANOTHER trip, this time all the way to sendai in the northeast (touhoku) region of japan, followed by a stop for 4 days in tokyo on the way back. n no, we didnt get to rest after that, for the kohai frm tokyo came over to kansai n we had 2 take them out again. then the NEW batch of kohai arrived frm malaysia n we had to take THEM out around. phew.
so anyway today was the 1st day of sch. had 2 lectures but basically juz revision of stuff we already knew. so we'r having our classes in suita frm this year on which is a good thing cuz toyonaka feels like a prison compound. but i forgot to drink coffee this morning, plus it was raining the whole day so im feeling a bit under the weather atm. anyway, more on my holiday travels in the next post (wif sum pics if i get down to it :P)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
snow n other stuff
ok so about 2 weeks back there was snow here in osaka :D on.....9th of feb to be exact. to cut a long story short, han yee woke me up at 11am (i slept at 5am the night before) n i looked out... n holla, Its A Winter Wonderland! snow was flying all over, coming down in great big flakes (at least, compared to the tiny specks of 'kona yuki' dat fell a few times before). so of course i cudnt sleep anymore....went 2 sch 2 meet up wif a few frens (taking much longer than expecting cuz the bus stopped running due to the snow n i had 2 take a monorail which was damn expensive >.< )
so here r the pictures to prove that Raptor Has Experienced Snow:
enuf wif the mundane, on to snowmen-making! we begin by rolling some snow:
it looks a little dirty but i assure u the technique is all correct :P see the final product:
i modified the 1st snowman to become SnowGuy n made a SnowGirl for him:
miscellaneous pics of sum of my adoring fans:
its not my fault that they hv a fetish for my gloves:
well thats it for my snow pics, got many more but uploading to blogger is a major PIA. u can check them out at my facebook photo album :P
last note: going to taiwan on feb 21-26; seriously doubt any1 will miss me (heck, prob no 1 will hv even read my blog in that time period) but anyway, hasta la vista! will take pics of hot taiwanese chicks n post them here!
so here r the pictures to prove that Raptor Has Experienced Snow:
enuf wif the mundane, on to snowmen-making! we begin by rolling some snow:
it looks a little dirty but i assure u the technique is all correct :P see the final product:
i modified the 1st snowman to become SnowGuy n made a SnowGirl for him:
miscellaneous pics of sum of my adoring fans:
its not my fault that they hv a fetish for my gloves:
well thats it for my snow pics, got many more but uploading to blogger is a major PIA. u can check them out at my facebook photo album :P
last note: going to taiwan on feb 21-26; seriously doubt any1 will miss me (heck, prob no 1 will hv even read my blog in that time period) but anyway, hasta la vista! will take pics of hot taiwanese chicks n post them here!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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