27 Dresses

Those of you who have known us for long enough should know that we always like to watch romance comedies. We went to watch 27 Dresses last Friday, yet another romance comedy. It was really quite a funny show, at the same time, it's quite a touching show. Call me a softy, call me a cry-baby, but then I'm just someone who tears at such romance shows, and watching this show was no exception.

Although it's fiction, and it's a comedy, there's one truth that's portrayed in the show that I feel strongly about. Jane and Kevin truly understood each other, and that's how they found out that they loved each other. Both of them could see through each other's hearts. Although they argued with each other, fought with each other, they really understood each other's feelings. Sometimes, it's not just about being able to spend happy times together always.

Even the Catholic community believes in this. That's why we have the Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend and the Marriage Preparation Courses.

Boring GEM2900 lectures

GEM2900 lectures are so... Boring that I'm starting to feel like it's a complete waste of time coming to school just for this lecture every Mon N Thu. Not much contents either. But then again, perhaps that's what makes this mod easy: little content.

I'm sure a lot of pple feel bored too, as less and less turn up for lecture each time. If only there's webcast for this lecture...

By the way, I'm typing this on my HTC Touch during a GEM2900 lecture. Shows how boring it is.

Looking back... What ifs...

OK. I'm starting to ramble more as I'm get more tired from doing my work. Ramblings are like little break times that I take.

I just had this sudden thought of how my life would have been if I had really gone to Stanford. Those of you who might have known me for long enough might know that one thing that I've never really been able to let go is the thought of what if I've chosen to go to Stanford instead of staying here in Singapore and going to NUS. It's not that I regret the decision or what, but as I tell pple sometimes, it's obvious how pple in the corporate world still seem to prefer pple who have studied overseas compared to those who studied locally. And I would have been able to complete my studies in a shorter time. And it's not like I wasn't able to go to Stanford.

Looking back, if I had gone to Stanford, I might have gotten a Masters degree rather than an Honours degree in 4 years. Or I could have finished my degree in 3 years and would be working now. The earnings of 1 year lost. I might have enjoyed higher prestige, coming out from Stanford instead of NUS. Many working people I've met still feel that NUS graduates can't think as well as overseas students. Due to the focus on technical knowledge but not enough on critical thinking? I don't know.

However, if I had gone to Stanford, a lot of things would be so different. I wouldn't have enjoyed all the things that I had done with Gladys, since we would see so much less of each other. I would have not made a lot of the friendships that I now value so much. I wouldn't have gone to UBC on the exchange programme and met the friends that now I still keep in contact with.

Life's full of decisions and paths. And when you decide to take on one path, you lose out on the experience that you might have gotten if you had chosen another path, but you would have also gained experience that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. There are just so many "what-ifs" that we can't experience.

Busy week

What a busy week it had been. First was bringing the group of Koreans around on Monday to Wednesday, and then sending them off on Thursday. And throughout those few days, I also had to answer to my Honours Year Project (HYP), so I was getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep those few days. But it was really great taking them around, and seeing Myung Sun again after 2 years.

Friday was no rest day either, with lessons and helping out with registration at the Catholic Engaged Encounter (a.k.a. EE Weekend) in the evening. Of course, it was a good thing helping out at EE Weekend, and seeing some of the presenters again.

Now, it's the weekend and I'm still getting little rest. There's of course my HYP to work on, and tomorrow, my cousin is coming back from Taiwan. Before fetching her, I have to bring my aunt and other cousins (who are coming out from Malaysia to fetch her) around. Sounds like a busy life, doesn't it?

To my Korean friends who are reading this: It was really great meeting all of you. If any of you ever come down to Singapore again, do let me know and I'll show you all around if I'm free. Feel free to let me know if your friends are coming down and they need someone to show them around as well. I'll take some time to upload the pictures, as I'm rather busy. So please bear with me.

Song Fa Bak Ku Teh

Today we went to a famous Bak Ku Teh stall opposite The Central called Song Fa Bak Ku Teh to meet some friends (Deyuan a.k.a. Terry, Skee, Ruby, Desmond, and Xiaofen) for dinner. I've always wanted to try it since it opened since there were quite a few newspaper articles and awards about it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment. Not to say that it was bad, but it wasn't especially nice either. We felt that it was just normal. And it's not cheap.

If anyone of you ever go there, please don't be cheated by the waitress if she says that the small portion is enough for two people. Honestly, the small portion is quite small, and not enough for two people.

But oh well... The whole point was to meet up with friends over a meal.

HTC Touch Service Sucks

Although I like the phones that HTC has been producing, I can't say the same for their service. Sigh. Last Wednesday, I sent my HTC Touch in for repairs. Although there were only 8 people ahead of me for servicing, I waited for about an hour before my turn came. And that's because there were only 3 service counters! They said that it would take about 3 to 5 working days to repair, so by right, it should be ready by today latest. Unfortunately, I have been calling them since Monday and the phone is not ready yet. In fact, today, the person said that she'll call the Service Centre people to get back to me about the phone, but nope, they didn't call me. They better call me back tomorrow to tell me that the phone is ready for collection.

Offered scholarship to study Ph.D.

I just received a letter today from School of Computing, NUS, offering me a scholarship to study Ph.D. Well... It's not like they'll buy over my bond from DBS, or pay me better than DBS. And after my experience with HYP, I really don't think I'm into research.

Time is NOT on my side...

SHIT! Exactly 6 weeks before I fly! I've got pretty much everything settled, except for the MOST impt thing... my visa!

I just learnt a while ago that I need a medical report from my dear specialist to support my visa application, and this medical report is gonna take 3-4 weeks and $160.50 to churn out! The visa alone takes ard 2 weeks to be approved, which means that there's a chance that I might not get my visa in time to fly on 18th Feb! There's nothing I can do now tho, just gotta pray hard, cross my fingers and hope for the best...

All the preparations are really stressing and tiring me out... Sometimes makes me wish that I never applied for the scholarship in the first place... Sigh...

1st Conducting @ Wedding Mass

Thanks be to God. The wedding mass that I was so worried about turned out still OK in the end. It was my first time conducting at a wedding mass as well. At first, I wasn't supposed to conduct, but in the end it was decided that it would be better to have a conductor.

Why was I so worried? First, we couldn't get enough people to sing (which was why I wasn't supposed to conduct, because we needed more people to sing). In the end, with the addition of some others from other choirs, we had about 10, so it was still OK.

Second, the keyboardist (Jayce) was only "recruited" at the last minute. Our original keyboardist pulled out, and we had to frantically search for a keyboardist last night. Jo and Marcus managed got some friend's sister, who is not even from our parish, to play. Luckily, she's quite a good keyboardist.

Thirdly, we had no practice until this morning! There was supposed to be a practice at 8pm last night, but only Peggy, Dwi and I turned up. Since the keyboardist was only "recruited" last night, obviously we didn't have a keyboardist yesterday either. Practice was supposed to start at 7:30am today, but at that time, only Peggy, Dwi, Jacye and I were there. We only started proper at 8am. So it was really frantic.

I wouldn't say that we did well, but at least we didn't screw up or what. And I didn't screw up the conducting. If we screwed up, it would be very sad. After all, it's the couple's once-in-a-lifetime ceremony.

Thank God for seeing us through.

2007...

It's the last few days of 2007! Can't believe how time flies. Sigh... And I still have so much to do! I've got so much work for my HYP. I'm quite worried about it now. Church choir is going to take up a bit of my time. My HP's spoilt. Sigh. What a way to end 2007.

I guess one good thing that happened was my results. With an A+, an A, and an A-, I can't complain about my results. They pulled my CAP to 4.61. My SAP is actually 4.83. I probably can be considered an abnormal case where my CAP gets pulled up with each semester. Most of the time, people's CAP goes down with each semester.

I just hope that my HYP can get at least an A-. Then I'll get a First Class Honours. If no A- and above, then there's no First Class for me...