2323H 27 Dec 2002 - Stay home Friday

Been reading The Lord of the Rings. It is a very long story. Different from the movie. Things move along more slowly, but with more details and elaboration. More characters, but not much of Arwen's breasts in the book. At leaast not until the part I've read so far... Pity...

Anyway, I've been bumming at home the whole day. it's nice to be able to do so once in a while...

0102H 27 Dec 2002 - Drawn again...

Frustration as Liverpool can only draw again... 'tis not the season to be jolly for us Red supporters...

0344H 26 Dec 2002 - Belated X-mas a-musing

Boys and girls, short and tall
Merry X-mas, one and all...
No presents this time, didn't you hear?
Santa's not gonna come this year...
It's not the fault of mummy or daddy,
Blame it on the bloody economy

Merry X-mas and boxing day, everyone!

0144H 24 Dec 2002 - Discopone?

What's a discopone?

0244H 23 Dec 2002 - X-mas bells a-ringin

Well, X-mas is almost here again... Ho ho ho

Have been totally relaxing and having fun the past few days. Drinking, clubbing, snookering, reading and watching lord of the ring-ing, sleeping, eating, mahjonging, and Liverpool watching... kinda feel like a king... just kidding...

My brother just came back to singapore today. my parents looked pretty happy to see him. But between him and me, we spoke maybe about 5 sentences between the 2 of us since... We were and are not the close, close, can chit-chat type. Rather, i guess we both know we can count on each other if we need anything...

That's good enough for me...

0344H 19 Dec 2002 - Starry eyed surprise

Well, i got my results back today... was expecting the worst, but thank my lucky stars, it was better than what i expected... phew

And in the evening, was at the national stadium with loe and renee to cheer on the singapore team against malaysia. at least i was anyway... loe was rooting for his malaysian team, while renee, diplomatically remained neutral. or was she just not interested in the outcome?

in the end, the lions were mauled 4-0 by the tigers. to be fair, they din play that badly, and they did create the chances. but they were punished badly for the defensive errors and atrocious finishing... hmm... sounds a bit like liverpool's situation right now, eh?

speaking of which, i m waiting for the liverpool vs aston villa worthington cup q-final to start...

oh, forgot to mention this when i wrote about Die another day. during the movie, there was this part where the film used The Clash's "London Calling". think it was when Bond returned to London(duh!) if i'm not wrong... another film which used the same song was Billy Elliott. but i think it was used during the riot scenes instead of when Billy was leaving for London.

Refreshing to see how such a classic song is being re-used in today's films... Hmm...

1719H 17 Dec 2002 - Bond, James Bond

Watched Die Another Day yesterday. It was typical Bond stuff, lots of explosions, action, and corny pick-up lines between Bond and his girls. Still, it was pretty enjoyable.

Oh and the girls and cars are gorgeous! Va-va-voom!

0202H 16 Dec 2002 - Red slide and 13th delight

Liverpool lost again. Losing out at Sunderland 2-1 with a late goal struck by Sunderland's Michael Proctor. Meanwhile the Liverpool Michael has been struggling to score in the premiership.

Not that Liverpool were playing terribly, perhaps the only bad thing about the way they played in all the losses is the woeful finishing. And if they do get the shots on target, the opponent's goalkeeper seems to always play well against Liverpool.

4 defeats in a row in the premiership, 5 in the last 6, with only 1 point gained out of a possible 18. If Liverpool started the season with this form, it would have been us at the bottom of the table. But, some things to take heart from: Kirkland has been superb in goal, even saving a penalty in the Sunderland game. (Bad news for Dudek, he's one guy that's so well-liked that no one would wish for him to be no. 2 keeper, not even Kirkland!) And, Liverpool isn't that far off the top of the table, despite the recent atrocious form. now if they can just get back to the form of the beginning of this season, and perhaps re-discover the mean streak in front of goal, i am hopeful that there is still a shot for the title...

then again, i was hopeful of Liverpool winning the games against Sunderland, both home and away...

C'mon Liverpool! YNWA!

Ok, now that i've gotten the frustration out of my system, lemme talk abit about how i spent Friday the 13th. Was at Sentosa in the day, but unfortunately, the rain put a damper on the beach plans... instead, visited some of the tourist spots, namely: cinemania, merlion, images of singapore, and butterfly park. took the cable car to mt faber in the evening hoping to spent the rest of the night at altivo, but unfortunately, it was booked for some private function.

and so, after grabbing a quick dinner at WTC, we went back to renee's room to change, and off we went to fullerton for the chocolate buffet. but, as fate would have it, we were met by a lousy waitress who insisted the tables were fully occupied even though we saw with our own eyes, people leaving and then newcomers just grabbing the seats... we din grab any of the seats coz we were too peeved, so we decided to take a walk to look for a place to hang out...

between the bars at one fullerton, embassy, and the one at the top of westin which we couldn't remember the new name to then, we decided to go to the one at the top of westin, or rather, swissotel the stamford, as it is called now. coz we thought it would be less crowded... then in another act of god, the restaurant at equinox(yes, thats the name of that replaced compass rose) was full too, and due to a number of DnDs held concurrently there, the cigar lounge(which has a fantastic view) was overrun with people.

In the end, we settled for introbar, and lucky for us, they were having this dessert buffet promotion, which was $19.90 for 2 (usual price is $19.90 each) finally the break we were looking for... yummy dessert, good drinks and i must say very professional and polite service from the staff there... almost butler-like even...

it was a good day afterall, despite the hiccups encountered along the way. guess Friday the 13th did live up to its name, but couldn't stop us from enjoying ourselves in the end anyway...

phew what a long one... entry, that is... hope you haven't fallen asleep yet. took some photos at sentosa, and i'll try to scan them and upload them as soon as they are developed (yes, us too poor to own digital camera)

0100H 12 Dec 2002 - Born of frustration

I take back what i said about NUS, i guess it does have its redeeming qualities and some students think the world of it. Maybe it's just that i'm a lousy uni student; lazy, unmotivated, too playful...

Nah, still think NUS sucks... but it's partly due to my attitude towards life there...

So, I finally bought the James "The Best of" album that I've been eyeing for a long while... it was actually released in 1998 i think, but it has most of their best works there... Brit pop/rock at its best. Good stuff...

Looking forward to Friday. Why? Coz it's Friday the 13th? Maybe... But i have another much better reason to look forward to it... Right, Renee? ;)

1703H 09 Dec 2002 - Livin La Vida Local...

Went to the Esplanade to catch The Jerms at Baybeats yesterday. Thought they played a pretty good gig. They complained about making too many mistakes, but that's the magic of playing "live", isn't it? If not, it wouldn't be called a gig, it'll be called "CD-listening session"

Have a presentation for my FYP tmrw... The feeling sucks... Knowing that I do not know what i oughta yet having to pretend that i know what i oughta know sucks... FYP sucks... Engin sucks... School sucks...

In fact, NUS is like a vacuum cleaner... It sucks.

0113H 08 Dec 2002 - Red-faced

Liverpool goes down 2-0 to Charlton. 4th defeat in last 5 league games... This is relegation form... I am distraught...

0335H 07 Dec 2002 - FYP blues

FYP is a painin the ass, neck, head, body, limbs, and all over... Stopping me from fully enjoying my holidays... bleah

1611H 05 Dec 2002 - Red Relief

Liverpool survived a tense game with Ipswich to go thru 5-4 on penalties after drawing 1-1 at the end of extra-time. Ipswich went ahead after 13 minutes from a bad clearance by Babbel, and i thought at that time, oh shit. Was Liverpool's poor run gonna continue yet again? To be frank, Liverpool played like shit in the first half, with Gerrard the only player making any impact. Perhaps it was gonna be a fatal mistake to play a team of mainly reserves who are out of match practice.

However, after reshuffling the pack and bringing on Carragher for Babbel in the second half, Liverpool looked a totally different team, despite fielding almost all reserves. The play was fluid and Diouf deservedly equalised through a well-taken penalty, after Matt Holland fouled young Neil Mellor in the penalty box. And almost right from the restart, Mellor could have given Liverpool the lead when put thru the middle with only the keeper to beat, but was unlucky to see his shot come of the post. Liverpool then spurn several golden opportunities to win the game, but kept their nerves at the penalty shootout to go thru to the next round of the Worthington "Worthless" Cup to meet Aston Villa.

Dudek was surprisingly included in the starting lineup after his recent mistakes, but made a crucial save in the first half to prevent Ipswich from going 2-nil up. And the crowd backing for him was marvelous! they were cheering him on throughout the game and kept chanting his name during the shootout. though he did not save any of the penalties, i'm sure he must have been touched by the fan's reception. That's one of the reasons why i love Liverpool. We dun forget those who have served the team well, and we'll back everyone going thru a bad spell. We'll never walk alone.

and on the subject of penalties, the 5 takers for Liverpool were Gerrrard, Baros, Riise, Carragher and Diouf. And i must say they each took their penalties very well. Which makes me wonder, with such excellent penalty takers, why do we still let Owen take the penalties in games, when his penalties are rather directionless and weak, and rather easy to save? Perhaps Houllier should pass the responsibility to someone else. Owen, you are a great striker, but there are better penalty takers out there in the team. For the good of the team, perhaps you should let someone else take the penalties if they are up to it...

Oh the game wasn't shown on the tv, not even on cable. I caught it of the net via the liverpool website. imagine, in front of the computer from 4 to 6.30am cheering the team on... the feeling at the end of the game was so so good...

i hope things finally turn around for the reds this time...

on another topic, i was just wondering about what people want in life. Some people have it all planned out, some just drift along. Some wanna be rich, some famous. Some will work relentlessly to achieve their goals, some just wanna have fun. Some look for love, some seek gratification...

Me? i guess my life is pretty much aimless. I dun have any particular goals in life. I dun aim to be rich, although i wun turn down money. I dun seek to be famous, a simple life will do. I dun seek love, i believe it will come to you if it's meant to. Actually, i dun see myself as the marrying type right now, but who knows how my mind will change... I wanna have fun,fun and more fun, yet i realise life isn't all about fun. I m contented drifting along, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. I do, however, feel responsible to my parents. i give what i can to my family, and i guess i have grown up in my mentality in the way i treat and regard my parents. I know they love me. i will reciprocate.

Why did i think about these things? i guess i realise i kinda screwed up this semester of study. but it's too late to do anything about it now. all i can do is put in more effort for the next. perhaps my rationalising about my life is to justify my screwing up. but it doesn't. i just plain screwed up coz i was lazy and unmotivated and too playful. perhaps its time for me to grow up...

Speaking of which, my birthday is coming up in January... get the hint? =P

0135H 04 Dec 2002 - Kumar lah

Was at Hard Rock Cafe last nite to catch Kumar perform... He/she was his/her usual self, cracking dirty/racist/sexist jokes... good for a few laughs, but ultimately, most of them are more or less the same... and he's very pro malay leh. poor chin-ah folks like me who dun understand malay lose out on quite a number of the jokes... i want my money back!

hey, wait a minute... i din pay for the show, just for the beers... ok... no need to refund me...

while on the subject of languages, Renee and i watched a french movie before going to hard rock yesterday. in english, the title is "He loves me, he loves me not" I'm not even gonna try to spell out the french title here, since it's, well, a french title, and i only know a few french words like "bonjour", "moi" "oui" and "Delifrance"

anyway, the movie starred audrey tautou, the actress from amelie. HLMHLMN is a movie that plays on your perspective, you see what you wanna see, or in this case, what the director wants you to see... well-crafted and shot in a style that is quite typical of french films. i quite enjoyed it.

2241H 01 Dec 2002 - Long time no see

Ok so i got fed up of waiting and decided to put this back on geocities for the time being...

And liverpool just lost 2-1 to Man u at Anfield... Another Dudek howler... oh wat on earth is happening?!?! I'm devastated... Its another bad end-of-year run for liverpool again, just like last year... c'mon, get your act together...

other matters, yesterday was Ken's surprise party. We played this game called the beer game, whereby the objective really is to just drink for any o' reason... before that, Ken had to drink this lovely concotion from Renee... What was inside? Beer, egg and mayonnaise... Ken said it was sweet... At the end of the night, he puked everything out... including his birthday dinner sharksfin... what a waste... of Renee's efforts, that is...

I think my holidays this time is way too short, and it's my last holiday before i go back to work after i graduate... boohoo...

feeling kinda lost and emotionless right now, partly due to the liverpool-man u game, partly due to... well, mainly due to the game then...

sigh...

2357H 23 Nov 2002 - It's not the end of the world...

Exams are over, but there was no ecstatic elation at the end... perhaps it's just that i'm too sick of it to really be bothered, perhaps its that i'm just jaded... whatever, now i can take a few days break before diving head-on into my final year project... oh, the trials and tribulations of an NUS engin undergrad... It sucks...

On the subject of sucking, liquid2k.com has really been disappointing me... the server has been down for so long, and i can't upload all my entries... hope you guys can hang in there... wait a minute... if u r reading this, it means that u have already hung in there... what am i talking about? i have no idea...

Must be the post-exam trauma syndromes... alll the rambling... bla bla bla

2215H 20 Nov 2002 - November Rain

Just back after my second last paper... It wasn't that bad... now for the final paper-cum-killer on Saturday...

The rain the past 2 days has been heavy and constant... I swear someone up there was telling me to chuck away my books and just spend the days in bed... It was just perfect for sleeping... So i did...

Today's paper was open-book after all...

0235H 18 Nov 2002 - Role Reversal, Twist of Fate

Liverpool totally dominated the game against Sunderland, but thanks to a great defensive display and brilliant saves by Sunderland's 3rd choice keeper, they played out a 0-0 draw at Anfield. Well, Liverpool has been criticised for their defensive tactics in the past. This time, they were thwarted by their old tactics. Can't complain, I guess...

And more soccer fun for me earlier in the day. Had a pretty good game, and i was pretty happy with my play. In fact, i had some touches which i thought were pretty good, like playing myself out of a corner with 2 defenders on me. It felt good to do things like that... yeah, maybe i'm bragging a little, but i dun care. A good ego-booster before my coming killer papers...

There was this guy playing today who kept sticking his leg up in the air to try to block goal kicks from being taken. He managed to block them with his foot on 2 occasions, but i thought he could easily had gotten whacked by the ball in the groin doing it.

In the end, i think i twisted my left ankle slightly, but it only started feeling bad after i got home... Ouch

All i really wanted to say to him was, "Protect your family, Guard your balls."

02447H 17 Nov 2002 - Little Kix

Had my Basic Japanese paper this morning. Walked out half an hour before the end. One of those very rare few exams in NUS in which I can do that knowing that I will do fine for the paper.

Next 2 papers are on Wednesday and next Saturday. Post-paper relaxation techniques involve mahjong and soccer-watching today, and soccer playing tmrw.

Mum's birthday coming up on Monday. Told her just now that I wanna bring her out for lunch tmrw. She seemed so pleased. Over the moon, in fact. That made me happy too...

Well, the next 2 papers are gonna be killers. The past 2 were the chicken-shit ones... How m i gonna get thru? How m i gonna get thru?

Doing the usual stuff of course, last minute mugging. As Eugenie pointed out just now over mahjong, the longer you wait before you study, the faster you study.

How true...

Live and let live

0000H 15 Nov 2002 - Bush: The man with the vision

No wonder he din see the terrorist attacks coming...

It's been a very very long time since I last did any serious studying in my own room. Used to do my studying either somewhere in school or at some fastfood restuarant/coffee joint outside. Heh. I think its a habit cultivated from my JC days...

Somehow, in my room, there are just too many distractions... Bed... TV... HiFi... Playstation... VCDs... Computer... Guitar... Bed... well, u get the idea...

WOAH! Just got a phone call on my room phone as I'm typing this... Some guy from Bangkok called, looking for the Executive Director, Mr. Chong!?!? WTF!?! Since when did I become the Executive Director of any company? Well, it was obviously a wrong number, but i think we must have spent at least 5 minutes trying to sort things out. The number he dialled was to my room, but the Mr. Chong he was looking for is a Chong Chee Siong or something like that... Certainly not me! The guy on the other side finally got the idea, but I must say he was verp polite the whole time. Heck, so was i, i think... Anyway, poor guy wasted a few minutes worth of overseas call... I'm glad he didn't call collect!

Now where was I? oh yes, studying in my room... yah... too many distractions. But, I just cleared up some of the junk from my table to create a more conducive studying environment, and i am gonna try to get down to some serious mugging here... yes, i haven't studied much in my room in a long while, but i'm gonna give it a shot today...

Besides, the extra space is also for Renee, who's coming over to take a break. her next paper is next Monday, so she has some time to take a break after taking 2 papers today. Of course she's gonna be doing some light mugging, but i think its a good idea for her to be here. at least she can whip me if i dun study in my room. how kinky...

Liverpool were down 3-nil at halftime in the final game of Champions League Group Stage 1 last night. They needed a win over Basel to advance to the next stage. They put up a heroic fight in the remainder of the game, and clawed back to a 3-3 scoreline with 6 minutes left in normal time. Alas, the halftime deficit was too great to overcome. It's the UEFA "Consolation" Cup for the Reds then.

I must say I was disappointed at the outcome, but seeing how the players tried and tried, I felt and still feel proud to be supporting them. Almost a classic comeback. I was so sad that I couldn't really go to sleep right after the game. With every goal that Liverpool pulled back, I celebrated and hope for the miracle to be completed. It was not to be. Almost a classic comeback. The team will learn from this. They are still young.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. The UEFA cup is perhaps a realistic chance of another title this season, and perhaps Liverpool can go on from this to win the Premiership this season too... I am hopeful...

Well, as Houllier said, the hallmark of a great team is one that doesn't lose 2 games in a row. After the 1-nil loss to Middlesborough in the last game, and being 3-nil down against Basel at halftime, it must be a real achievement to even level the game in Switzerland. Go, Reds, go! You'll never walk alone!

On another note, transferred the links and stuff pages from the geocities site to here. Nothing much new in them yet, just a change of address, that's all

Just taking a break from mugging my Robotics module to do a bit of meddling with this...

Well i know that my design skills ain't up to any sort of standard yet, so how about this layout for a change? Can't go too far wrong with black, can i? Gimme more comments/suggestions/criticisms/ideas/money please. preferably the last option

"Singing in the rain" will open in Singapore on Wednesday, but a few lucky people were treated to its preview the weekend that just passed. Check out the review here.

Was taking a nap in the afternoon, and i had yet another dream. I was in some kind of petting zoo and had a chance to handle a creature that i thought was a porcupine. Now everyone knows about the spikes on a porcupine's back, so i was careful to pick up the porcupine by holding it's belly. But horror of horrors! This porcupine had spikes on its belly too! I could remember the feeling of the spikes poking into my hand! it felt so real!

After i put the critter back down, i got up and started to walk away, but i could feel that my right arm has gone limp, and it was just dangling from my shoulder like a dead arm... it was very spooky.

Then i woke up, and realised that somehow, as i was sleeping, my right arm got into a position which cut off the blood flow to it. That explains the pins-and-needles feeling when i handled the porcupine. Also, i lost all control and feeling of my right arm for a while. That explains the dangling feeling of my arm. somehow i managed to twist my body and swing my right arm into a more normal position. It really felt like i was swinging some dead arm attached to my body. Slowly but surely, blood began to circulate thru it again... aahhh... it felt so good to have the blood flowing and feel and move my arm again... guess what i did after i made sure my arm was ok?

i went back to sleep...

T'was a bad day in general, down on my luck in mahjong, and Liverpool lost narrowly to 'Boro through a bad piece of goal-keeping by Jerzy Dudek. No blame attached to him though... He has saved Liverpool on countless occasions. I rather he make a mistake today, and keep a clean sheet against Basle for the all important Champions League game coming up. It's do or die. Liverpool must beat Basle in Switzerland to advance to the next stage. Anything less than a win will mean relegation to the UEFA Cup...

Anyway, it was another unproductive day for me today in terms of studies. I foresee the same tomorrow... I'm gonna play soccer! Woohoo! A healthy body makes a healthy mind... By playing soccer, i should be able to sharpen my mind and be better prepared for the exams, i think... if only i can replace all the mugging with just playing soccer...

Oh well, it's time to sleep now... Nite.

Updated the "me" page. Go there to discover, or re-discover who I am.

Did absolutely nuthin constructive today in terms of exams. Who cares? I still have a week to go...

Anyway, check out this page. Hoax or otherwise, it sure sounds creepy to me. Brr... i feel a chill down my spine...

Ok, got my blog back up... actually, i have an idea of the layout i want to use for this site, but unfortunately, due to the examinations, i do not have time to go figure out how to use flash and other stuff to create the images i want... therefore, stick with this simple kind of layout for the time being, ok?

Anyway, had my first paper yesterday, and my next paper is on 16 Nov... so much time left to study, so little motivation...

I just want to spend my time sleeping...

Had a weird dream... dreamt that i was a policeman, and i caught this man smoking in a no smoking area. went up to him to tell him to stop smoking and ask for his I.D. Instead of doing as i said, he took the cigarette and with it in his hand, punch me in the groin... ouch... i actually felt the pain in my dream...

morale of the story?

Smoking harms your family

Was just stuck in a jam in Little India while on a bus back from town... Lotsa people there, spilling onto the roads... As i was passing by the crowd, the Smashing Pumpkin CD in my discman came to this track that i thought seemed like the perfect song to be listening to in the mood of the moment... "Try, try, try" was the song. It was a very soothing song to listen to while caught in the jam, with the bus moving along slowly...

Well, i thought i would be going for soccer today, but it turned out that no one was going, so that's that to the plan... so i left the house to go to town with Renee for some shopping, and she tried to make me wear a red bandana out... eventually, she let me take it off... it was too attention-grabbing and poseur for me... phew...

Somehow, i feel very tired right now, though i din walk around that much actually. anyway, hopefully the picture on the left shows up properly now... gimme some time to get the hang of this, ok?

This is just for me to play around with dreamweaver... geez, i'm having fun... well sorta anyway...

back to my studies...

So I installed DreamWeaver, and now, instead of using the geocities pagebuilder, I actually have a Webbing tool to use... And also, I'm in the midst of moving to liquid2k so you guys can do away with all the irritating pop-ups... See how considerate I am? Oh and 1 more thing, this is supposed to be the November page but i can't wait... so there...

And i promise i will come up with a better layout, but it's the cramming season, so be patient...

And, well, Liverpool just lost narrowly to Valencia in the Champ's league... no matter, a win in the next game will still see the Reds go through to the next round...