I feel…

1. bad… because
- I didn’t know till 5 months after

2. unfilial… because
- I made mum and dad worry (yes, though they thought I was out of earshot, I heard every single word) 

3. amused… because
- of the number of reactions and the type of reaction just because I decided to clean up my facebook (and removed certain settings in the process)

One more day…

This weekend has been a relatively quiet one… think everyone and their neighbour has gone to the F1?

8000th visitor today :)

hmm…. 8000 visits in 841 days… works out to 9 and a half visitor per day? and 13.5 visitors per entry/page… Hmm… the ROI isn’t too bad Thanks people… for the visits I hope I’ve entertained

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100 things about me – part 4 (the last post)

1. I have many many email accounts. I am a cyber-litterer. There. I’ve admitted it.
2. I’m a nerd and a geek and I’m proud of it
3. The first guy I ever liked got married straight out of school to someone we met through volunteering. I went for his wedding
4. I enjoy reading about cryptography. I love codes. I dream of the day I create the unbreakable code.
5. I still sleep with a teddy bear. Shall take a photo and intro it to the readers of my blog soon
6. I’m a study in contradiction. I love to write, but hate to talk. I look forward to the day I meet a guy who likes me and whom I like, but I genuinely enjoy singlehood. I love songs that promote girl power, but I also love songs that are sentimental. I enjoy trying new things, yet fear them. 
7. I tend to waver at the point of making a decision, but once I decide, it’s not easy to change my mind. Better to let me change my own mind
8. I don’t wear earrings. Never had my ears pierced. Scared of the pain :X
9. I’m really terrified of snakes. I remember this time we brought kids to the zoo for some volunteer activity an we need to walk through an enclosure with snakes to get out of that area. I froze in there upon seeing a snake that’s about 5 cm long. The kids dragged me out.
10. I love to read… authors that come to mind include patricia cornwell, ruth rendell, lawrence block, janet evanovich, jodi piccoult, jostein gardner
11. I follow 14 blogs, among them, those written by my lecturer, my colleague, my students
12. I enjoy cross-stitch. Correction. I enjoyed cross-stitch. I discovered half a dozen half completed projects I cannot motivate myself to complete when I was clearing my room a few months back.
13. I don’t drink. At all. Prefer to be in full command of my intellectual capacity at all times
14. I’m allergic to cigarette smoke. Gets me coughing like there’s no tomorrow.
15. I can still sing my college anthem. Not that I’ve cause to want to sing it these days…
16. I like blue eyeshadow, but my close friends find it distracting, so I use yellow most of the time.
17. I like songs by Christina Aguerila, J Lo, Shania Twain, Tension, 5566 and Harlem Yu amongst others for foreign singers.
18. I used to have a song that moved me a lot. Really a lot. Ask if you want to know what it is. Sentimental song that wasn’t a hit, I think
19. It’s when I appear not to care that I care the most. I think I’m just trying to protect myself from hurt?
20. I love pink nail polish, but I’m very careless and chip it very easily. So I tend to not put nail polish. Chipped nail polish looks worse than no nail polish, I think.
21. I like happy meal toys :X so when I eat macs, I tend to go for the happy meal :X
22. I didn’t watch the match where Singapore got her first Olympics Silver in 48 years.
23. I was studying when I heard about 911. I had an exam a few weeks later and the white noise from the TV was supposed to keep me awake. I don’t think I got any studying done or any sleep that night.
24. I don’t watch tv (no relation to pt 98). I watch tv only for the white noise.
25. I’ve used all 3 common O/S. Used Linux in uni, Windows most of my life and in the office, and I now use Mac at home

100 things about me – Part 3 (51 – 75)

1. I tried to learn sign language in NIE. Actually went to Singapore Association for the deaf to learn, but not successful.
2. I started going to musuems in NUS. Ng Eng Theng musuems on campus. My first art idol!
3. I discovered my love for writing in NUS.
4. There was this immunisation exercise when I was in 3rd year in NUS. I went all the way down to the venue and chickened out at the entrance. I knew it didn’t hurt (I had taken that shot before), but I just couldn’t overcome my own fear, irrational as it was. It’s one of the things I think I would have done differently if I could do things differently.
5. I really started enjoy musuems after Rodin and Botero came to SAM. Really an experience to see the “real” thing in front of you after seeing it in the comics (I’m referring to “the thinker”)
6. I picked up photography as I was arrowed to at work. Did some really extensive and intensive reading over the period of 3 months. It’s still one of my favourite activities.
7. The one photograph I have a deep impression of was seen in SAM. It was titled “orgy” and was a photo of power plugs (I leave the details to your imagination)
8. I really love listening to xin yao. Not necessarily by liang wen fu, but in general.
9. I picked up salsa as a personal challenge. I really believed that I couldn’t do it. But I did it (to a  basic level, anyway)
10. I learnt belly dance. My parent’s don’t know though
11. I love to go ubin. Cycling, eating, just communing with nature. I never told my parents the number of times I fell though (opps… I hope dad doesn’t know of this blog…)
12. I learnt yoga. Still can’t do the lying poses
13. I learnt to wrap dumpling (the dumpling festival type). Learnt it at a CC and we were the youngest participants there (maybe half the average of the other participants… maybe less)
14. I suck at golf. Really. I still remember other people’s golf balls swing in a parabolic arc. Mine roll off the platform. Sometimes, they stop before that :X
15. Archery is fun, though the only time I hit the board, I managed to tear a hole it in :X
16. I love the festive mood of Chingay. It’s too expensive to go every year though.
17. I love fireworks even more, but it’s getting way too expensive. And I’m starting to think it’s ridiculous to stand in the hot sun for like 4, 5 hours for a 15 min display.
18. I enjoy skating. I should make use of my package sometime soon though.
19. I started running as a personal challenge. I hated it when the PE teacher told us to warm up with 3 (or whatever number) round the track. Somehow, I quite enjoy the process now. Aiming 10k by end of the year
20. I hope to be a published writer sometime in this life time. Probably means I had better get started sometime soon. It’s not too hard to guess that I love to write, right?
21. I didn’t think I could do art until I was introduced to Artist Trading Cards recently.
22. I’m a really post-it person. I go through post-it pads in a matter of weeks.
23. I’m a lazy girl when it comes to skincare. I have loads of half used tubes of stuff in my room. Luckily, my parents blessed me with good skin.
24. The one thing I hate about my job is that when you introduce yourself socially, you are “public domain” information. It seems to be open season for questions about your specific workplace, your job nature, your boss, your charges, the system in general. And these same people give you the dirty look when you ask them the same.
25. I love watching animation. In particular, I love watching Doraemon   I have doraemon soft toys, posters, blogposts, letter holders, water bottles. I loved the doraemon movie too!

100 things about me – Part 2 (26-50)

1. I ran for Interact committee. I regret not giving my all to get a place in the committee.
2. I miss the days we spent doing our research project on lady’s fingers. I still remember the tumour-looking thingys we grew.
3. I remember when we dissected the rat. ew gross, but we did it. and I still remember the guys partying in class with the rat’s intestines.
4. I remember dissecting the frog and “walking” its heart across the table and off it. And how our senior stepped on it. ewwww….
5. I topped my class in GP in J1. Courtesy of the essay “Why not teach” Will prob try to re-write it and post it sometime soon.
6. I miss the times we spent playing basketball and playing hooky.
7. I miss the Chinese teacher (although I did not study Chinese).
8. I did a one-week attachment in SGH pathology, biochemistry. Worked in the infamous Block 9. Didn’t get to see anything though. 
9. I thought I had failed my A levels when my civics tutor told me that “it’s just an exam”. Thank god I didn’t. I just didn’t get my A1 for GP (refer to pt 5)
10. I applied for accountancy (ntu), business (ntu), comp engg (nus), comp sci (nus), sci (nus) and fass (nus)
11. I got into accountancy but switched to sci after some hard thinking. Everyone thought I was mad
12. I joined SPS in nus. I really wanted to get in. And I really thought I wouldn’t be able to. The guy at the other interview panel was performing magic tricks. Till today, I don’t know how I got in.
13. I did first year physics, but gave up as (a) I could never get gravity to be anywhere close to 9.81 experimentally. My results were either below 5 or above 20. And (b) I am still traumatised by the modern physics question: Imagine you are a witch travelling at the speed of light and you are holding a mirror in front of you. Describe what you see in the mirror.
14. I enjoyed my first year English modules enough to take it up as a major.
15. I actually know where the words “skirt”, “they” and “pork” came from.
16. I realised that many Singaporeans consider stuff like “sianization” and “datable” as words :X
17. My room-mate and I have the same name.
18. I used to study at the various canteens at night. Too noisy to study in hall. We frequented Sci canteen, the place outside Med library, NUH staff canteen, engine corridors, engine canteen, YIH, Sci corridors
19. I volunteered with CCF during my undergrad days. It was an extension of the MINDS experience. Really grateful for the generally good health I have.
20. I did research on sonoluminsence. (I think that’s the spelling… can’t remember)
21. I wrote a paper on kalah. If you know my full name, google it and you can find the paper.
22. I learnt to code HTML in NUS. Hated dreamweaver and frontpage.
23. I learnt to analyse sentences in many languages, including icelandic! 
24. I used to be fluent in esperanto. I can’t barely read it now  
25. I used to run at the NUS SRC at 2 am to destress.

100 things about me – Part 1

1. One of my first memories of my childhood neighbourhood was that of being stuck on top of the playground and being unable to get down.
2. The second memory I have is of this maid trying to jump off the block opposite. Still remember I was going for my piano class.
3. I have a colleague (as in same employer, different workplace) who I’ve known and been in touch with since I was in Primary 1.
4. I like blue, but think my lucky colour is yellow.
5. The first time I entered a hospital after being born was when I fractured my toe while skipping. That was in primary 3. Don’t ask me how I did it.
6. I’m still in touch with my 2 best friends from primary school.
7. I got hooked onto reading after watching “What’s eating Gilbert Grape” on TV and stumbling across that book in the library. My favourites back then were actually Detective Brown, Shakespeare and Sherlock Holmes.
8. I was really terrified of the shots we were scheduled to get in Primary 6, but I was proud that I survived it without tears
9. I thought I’d never fit into my secondary school’s culture, but I did.
10. I did philosophy for children for 2 years.
11. I enjoy programming in basic.
12. I participated in Chingay 22 (in Secondary 2).
13. I “flirted” among ECAs in secondary school – swim team, table tennis club, drama club, science and humanities club, automation club.
14. I was in Richardson! Blue Rules!
15. I still sing some of the songs from my Sec Sch sometimes when I feel down.
16. I joined peer support as my friends wanted to. I stayed on to do senior peer support as I grew to be passionate about it.
17. I remember vividly the day some classmates bought maggi mee into the bio lab and cooked the fish we were supposed to draw with the noodles. I also remember how our bio teacher was fuming mad when she saw that!
18. I remember how we made our maths teacher cry. It was teachers’ day and my classmates “locked” the back door and smeared the front door’s handle with potato we boiled in bio class.
19. I worked really hard for my Higher Chinese just to prove the HOD wrong.
20. I wrote a story on revisiting chinatown which I have since re-used three times
21. I expected to fail both my maths in Os, but got distinctions Coz I did and re-did the TYS till the books fell apart… and the replacement copies fell apart too…
22. I went to the affliated JC although I told everyone I wasn’t applying.
23. Sometime between 17 and 18 I discovered I really loved Maths
24. I went for Interact interview as my best friend from sec sch wanted to join and needed moral support. I got in. She didn’t.
25. The 2 years I worked with JGS were the best years of my life. I really learnt a lot about myself and the world around me during those 2 years. I learnt to count my blessings and to serve. Service above self!

Revisiting my goals…

Happy Birthday to me!

in this year of 2008, I shall…

1.  Do a fun run (5km – 10km)
2. Make a decision (if you know what it is, you know what it is. if you don’t, don’t even ask)
3. Get fit (Questionable )
4. Learn something new
5. Start on writing a bestseller (Opps! My digital story counted?)
6. Volunteer again (Opps!)

Focus, gal focus! 3+ months left!

Thoughts…

Someone asked me 2 questions today…

1. ever thot of when u wana settled down?
2. r u optimistic or pessimistic abt meeting the right guy at the moment? 

My reflections?

1. My personality doesn’t really allow me to set a target which I cannot control the outcome of. This is something I feel I have limited control over, I guess. Yes, I can actively seek someone. Yes, I can make myself more visible. Yes, I can ask friends to intro me to more people. But, I still feel that whether 2 people can like each other enough to start thinking about settling down depends on more than the effort of 2 of them. Also… have seen friends (from school and otherwise) who plan and plan… target age 23, not married, revise target to 25. Still not married, revise target to 27 etc. My heart goes out to them. I don’t think I can survive that sort of emotional rollercoaster of giving myself hope and then feeling disappointed and then giving myself hope again

2. Am I optimistic? I guess I am. I’m meeting interesting people, and being a math major and mystery bluff, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,however improbable, must be the truth. So I guess, the more pple I meet, the closer I get to meeting the “right” guy? Anyway, how does one define the “right” guy or the “right” gal? and if you meet the right guy/gal, would you be the right gal/guy from him/her? hmm… this can really become a really long post… but anyway, I think I am optimistic…

But, having said all that, I think I am still enjoying singlehood. Why? I believe in living in the moment. Enjoy being single when you are single and enjoy being attached when you are. Hmm… the natural affordances of each stage in life (opps… does this signal level 14 is permeating my soul?? KY, u know what I mean ) Further, I believe that there are things in life that cannot be “forced”, and r/s is one of them. (I seem to be unable to find a satisfying concluding statement, so I’m just verbal diarhorrea-ing… again… *opps*…) In any case, I guess, it’s to enjoy life, have fun, and to be youth of a better age (ok, I’m somewhat happy with this concluding statement if I try really hard to forget that I wasn’t an EL major and I haven’t been teaching EL for the past 5 years )