Sakura

Name: Sakura Clementi (Buffet Restaurant)
Location: Clementi Road
Cost: $28

~.~.~.~.~

1930 - Went Sakura with Kim and Wing Ken. Plan to treat ourselves with buffet dinner as end of year 2006 "celebration".

Sakura night view
Our table number - 102. It's at the second floor
Kim and Wing Ken
Desert corner of second floor, just beside us.

男人，女人

憲憲小语

男人是畜生，女人偏爱小动物。

吳宗憲

Passion Reborn

Passion Reborn is the theme of Kent Rigde Hall (KR) for IHG this year.

HDCA is working hard to bring up the atmosphere of Kent Ridgens by decorating hall. SMU (I believe) printed out 2 really huge banners.

Guess everyone really hyped up for the IGH which going to start off next Tuesday with Hockey Carnival!


Some of the decors in hall
Some of the decors in hall

Moving on to second floor!

Left: Kim is drilling and securing the second floor platform of the room.

"Officially" we started the work on the second floor. Drilling and securing the platforms.

Hmm, the steel cutter's blade was worn out today. The diameter of the blade was grinded to very small such that it is not enough to cut thru the mild steels. Tomorrow and Monday is holiday, so I guess we can’t do any mild steel cutting until new blade arrives.

Anyway, our mild steels also almost finished, only left two. We need more mild steels for the supporting beams of the center structure. Guess it’s quite hard to do things when u have limited budget.

Hmm, I can tell that our progress there few days were faster. But manpower is still a problem. Luckily today, KR “National Welder”, Hoong Soon*, came down to help us. Ha, huge difference between me and We Liam’s speed of welding with him.

*Hoong Soon: Stage Crew (2006), Rag (2006), Chingay (2007). Got this “National Welder” nickname because his skill in welding. ;)

Saddam Hussien excecuted

Saddam Hussein's statue being pulled off
Saddam Hussein (1937)

Three years after US invaded Iraq in 2003, Bush finally succeeded in what he has been trying to achieve. Saddam Hussein was hanged to death at Baghdad, Iraq on 30 December, 2006, 6.05 a.m. local time.

US always get what they wanted. They interfere with other Iraq's politic and some how, some Iraqis just take this opportunities to 借刀杀人. Quite similar to the British Colonial time, don't you think.

Anyway, just my opinion, rubbish oppinion. Not interested in poilitics, or rather, no idea of what is politics.

more at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

20061229 Today

1000 Went down for Stage Crew. Today we just continue reinforce (welding) the room and hall way structure. Finished the stairs already. Hmm, things to do next: center part and second floor.

Staircase (Part I & Part II)
Staircase (Part III)
Platforms, painted white

1700 Went down to track for Road Race Training. After warm up, we do 15x200m intervals. Wah, quite shag. For the last round, I couldn't catch up with See Yong, Zhan Rui they all. Wanted to run but my leg just won't go any faster. Luckily I didn't cramp today. Cramped during last training... Wah, the VJ girls, Jocelyn and (dono-her-name), really can run. Their timing is about 40+ every round. Our timing is about 30+ every round...

1930 Went back Stage Crew after training. Just help the girls put on the nuts for the "A-supporting-frame". Couldn't continue to do welding because the other two guys, We Liam and Jonathan wasn't there.

2115 Had my dinner - chicken rice. I find that I only "enjoy" eating chicken rice for some reason. The porridge, western food, etc just don't suit my taste.

2200 Back to Stage Crew. Kim joined us this time. We assembled the staircase and found out some problems with the stair. Hmm, nothing much can do. Just need to complete other things first and see how, what to do with those out-of-scale staircase.

A Block Christmas Dinner

Event: A Block Christmas Dinner
Venue: A Block Kitchen

Time: 1930

~*~*~*~*~*~

I'm sure you can tell that this is a A-Blockers dinner to "celebrate" Christmas, right? ;)

Quite a number of people turn up for this special dinner. At first we estimated about 15 people, but in the end, there are about 30 people came. That's good, the more the merrier. Ha.

I'm a Block Commer and I wasn't there, in the kitchen to help prepare the food. Feel bad seriously. But, Hall Production is more important. We need to rush out the stage despite of lacking manpower. Anyway, I helped during cleanup to compensate for not helping in the whole afternoon.

The foods were nice! Maybe one of the reason is that I’m very hungry because just came back from Stage Crew. Haha. But seriously, everything was tasty.

The dishes:
Cherry by Zhihao
Roasted Chicken by Rayner
Mashed potatoes and sauce by Joseph and Hwee Hoong
Campbell soup by Joseph and Hwee Hoong
Bread
Ribena drinks

The dinner ended around 2100.

After dinner, cleaning up actually, I went down to Rag Area to continue “duty” again.

Christmas

Christmas!!!

Christams is about His glory
Christmas is about His grace
Christmas is a gift the Father give us
More than just another story
about a special time and place
Christmas is a time to lift up all our praises

Chorus:
For God is with us,
and we celebrate the glory of His presence.
Christ has come,
to fill our hearts with love.

He came to save us
King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
His name is Jesus
God with us
Emmanuel has come

Angels fill the night with singing
God is reaching to man
Bringing the hope in Christ, our Saviour
More than just a time of giving
This is God's eternal plan
Christmas is the reason we can sing again.

The Heart of Christmas

Went JB to Celebrate Christmas with Aunt Nancy's family on 23rd. Just like last year, I followed her to the church near her house to watch the Christmas performance on 23rd and 24th night. Stephanie (aunt's daughter) also performed this year.

The theme for this year is "The Heart of Christmas". All the performance is about giving/present on Christmas. The drama titled "The Best Present for Christmas" told viewers that best Christmas present is not fancy or expensive presents, but knowing Jesus!

Ohya, as this is the second time I go to the curch, they gave me a pen with a ribbon-made love shape at the end. The love shape obviously is because of the "Heart of Christmas theme". Before going back home after the performance on 23rd, I bought the "Heart of Christmas" t-shirt which cost RM14. Quite nice, it's white tee with red cuffs and neck.

Guess what, Aunt Nancy gave me a bilingual bible as my Christmas present!

裸奔

听说女人如衣服，兄弟如手足，回想起来，我竟然七手八脚地裸奔了21年!



- Chan Ka Ho (hoy24@hotmail.com)

Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.


Albert Einstein

Grabbed from http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=142595&page=2

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a
task will do him little good.


- Samuel Johnson

Grabbed from http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=142595

Fish - Water

A fish cannot comprehend the existence of water. He is too deeply immersed
in it.


- Sir Oliver Lodge

Grabbed from http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=142595

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--

It gives a lovely
light!



by Edna St.-Vincent-Millay

Grabbed from http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=142595

Johor Bahru (JB) Trip

Event: A-Block JB Trip 2006
Date: 15 December 2006

Just like the years before, every year end, A Block has this trip to JB. It's just a day trip where fellow A Blockers gathered and go JB for shopping and eating seafood at the hawker stall.

Heard seniors said last year more girls went so the major event was shopping for cloths, accessories, etc. This year, more guys, so the main event is shopping for DVDs. Haha. The (pirated) DVDs shops is very "cool" lar, the shop seems normal selling CD casings, Original VCDs/DVDs, but if you want pirated ones, they owner will take you to the back of the shop. But you can't just go in anyhow as the back door is locked and you need to give the "correct password" then only the people inside will open for you to go in. You can find ANY DVD inside, just name it, the owner will show you the place of the DVDs on the shelves. I wonder how they memorize them. Another thing, they provide shipping to any country in this region. DVDs is RM5 and another RM4 if you want them to send to Singapore. (Note, Singapore is very strict in monitoring pirated CDs and DVDs). So for those people in Singapore who wish to buy CDs or DVDs, they can order online (through the shop's website). Guess the saying "Malaysia is the main export of pirated VCDs and DVDs in this region" is true.

At night, we all went to the hawker stall down the road for seafood. My table ((6 people) ordered a total of RM170 worth of food. The other table, they ordered RM300.

RM 13 ba kut tay
This reminds me of our lunch just after we reach JB. Maybe because most of them looks very Singaporean, rich Singaporean, so this shop owner charged us RM13 each for the ba kut tay (肉骨茶). Wah, I never eat such expensive ba kut tay until today. Actually, the ba kut tay is RM10, but the SMALL bowl of 油条 cost RM2 and the rice cost RM0.60, tissue cost RM0.30... really, no business ethical at all.


Ayway, the trip overall is very fun. Hmm, before came to Singapore, I thought I'll go JB to buy things, but in the end, I never go down JB until this trip... guess I'm too lazy to go down after all...

Hall Production Started

Hall Production - Stage Crew duty started today. Our first task of the day - clean up the RAG area!

We moved all the tin cans in the RAG Store to the room behind reading room, sort out all the remaining aluminium and steel from RAG last holiday, and Kim and Eric gave us a brief introduction - RAG1101 Introduction to RAG. He explained to us what are the purpose of the tools and demonstrated the correct way to use all the power tools to cut metal bars, angle irons, aluminium, woods, etc.

After that, around 1300, all of us (actually only 6 of us: Eric, Kim, Julian, Weliam, Yiling and me) went Biz Canteen for lunch. That's all for today. All the building works haven't started because the whole design of the stage is not confirm yet. Kim and the Stage Designers still discussing and modify the stage to ensure the stability of the stage. Tough huh? They discussed for quite a number of days already. One of the main problem is that the stage is double storey. It's not easy to build a double storey hollow structure.

Well, tomorrow no work for Stage Crew, so I can go Touch Rug training. But I wonder what can I do when the muscles of my leg still quite pain, after the training yesterday (Monday).

Let see later... 0900 Touch Rug Training...

Production Supper

First Day of Holiday

So this is it, officially, holiday after Semester 1 started. All the holiday committees, sports trainings officially start today.

0800 - Woke up after Ronny bang on my door. Oh my gosh, I overslept! I didn't hear my alarm ring at all. Nevermind, I rush down to MPSH with Ronny. After Sunny (Captain) reach, we clear the chairs and tables in MPSH and put up the badminton nets.

BADMINTON TRAINING STARTS!

First Round - 4 minutes shadow - Wah, leg start to feel the strain after 2 minutes!
Second Round - 3 minutes shadow - Still can hold on!
Third Round - 2 minutes shadow - Feel uncomfortable...
Fourth Round - 1 minute shadow - Wah! vomited after the break. The water I drank before this all vomited out. But, like Sunny said, really felt good after vomit.

Nothing much after that, just normal lobbing, drop, net, etc. First time vomit because of sports. Maybe because rested for so long before and after reading weeks.

1200 - Went Queensway to have lunch with other badminton team members. Window shoppinged around Queensway Sports Center.

1600 - Went SRC with Softball Team, just to play and get a bit of feel on Softball.

1700 - ROAD RACE TRAINING! Meet other team members at SRC track. After warming up, run around track for 2 rounds. Weiyang (Captain) lead us to run around NUS. From SRC, PGP, the-route-to-K.E. VII, Central Library, behind-Design Faculty, behind-Engineering Faculty, back to SRC. Tired, really tired!

But thats not all, after that, we sprint 100m for 4 times. Really pushed to the limit!
After that, we walked around the track to cool down. This is where the 'great part' comes. MY LEG CRAMP! So uncool, I'm the only guy who cramp after running. There is another girl (Esther) whos leg was cramp also that time, almost the same time when I cramp. Ha, so funny.

2100 - Production Supper. First meeting of Hall Production Committess. The design of the stage is announced, but it's not final yet, few modifications still need to be made. All Production Committees sit down and listen to brief introduction from sections leaders.



Thats all I guess. Tired now. Truly, a very 'fulfilled' day. I wonder if the whole holiday is going to be this SHAG...

Forget Again?

Sigh, I'll going to kill myself someday for being so forgetful...

I didn't bring the notes I've prepared for the past 2 days to exam. I reach the exam venue half an hour earlier. Unfortunately, I only realize I didn't bring the notes (summary) after 15 minutes. NOT ENOUGH TIME TO GO BACK AND GET IT ALREADY!

CS1231X Discrete Structure is open book. So, not bad, I still can refer to text book and lecture notes. Still, it's like an bad omen...

~*~*~*~*~

Anyway, what happened cannot be undone. Tomorrow is my last paper, SSS1207 Natural Heritage of Singapore. Going to push all the way till tomorrow. Hopefully I wouldn't feel dizzy tomorrow. Slept for 9 hours in total for these 2 days.

MUST SCORE since I didn't S/U this module and my marks are terrible for the past CAs, what a shame.

I Miss

I miss:

1. Bed at home
2. Mommy & Daddy
3. Brothers
4. Sister
5. ZeGanG
6. Computer at home
7. RM2 chicken rice shop at inner Poh Kwong Park
8. slacking life after STPM
9. day dreaming
10. HOME!

Sigh, only can go back during Chinese New Year. Don't know why suddenly I miss everything at home... I thought I'll never miss 'em...

Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS

(Text from http://courseware.nus.edu.sg/NaturalHeritage/ )

RAFFLES MUSEUM OF BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (INTRODUCTION TO THE NATURAL HISTORY AND HABITATS OF SINGAPORE)

About this Habitat

In this module, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) is treated as a “habitat” because it is a part of the natural heritage of Singapore, though it is not a “natural habitat” as such. The museum is a research centre for biodiversity of Singapore and Southeast Asia. It houses reference specimens collected in Singapore (and elsewhere in the region), throughout the >150 years of the museum’s history.

RMBR has its origins in the Raffles Museum which was founded in 1849 and renamed the National Museum in 1961. That museum comprised of several components, including the natural history collection (zoological collection) which, in 1972, was moved to the National University of Singapore (then the University of Singapore). It was at that time known as the Zoological Reference Collection (ZRC). In 1987, ZRC was enlarged with other zoological collections from the former University of Singapore and Nanyang University. The collection in ZRC was also enriched by the donations and contributions of research staff, plus many students and foreign scientists, etc.

On 1 October 1988, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research was officially established to house the Zoological Reference Collection, the University Herbarium, the Culture Collection, as well as an Exhibition Gallery. RMBR operates not only as the home of extensive animal and plant collections but also as the base for academic activities (biodiversity research by staff, lecturers, postgraduate researchers of the Department of Biological Sciences, and many visiting/foreign scientists), and for public education in environmental and natural conservation.

The Exhibition Gallery, officially launched in June 2001, is designed for exhibition and education purposes - this is the part of the RMBR that is accessible to the general public. The Exhibition Gallery features the biodiversity of the Southeast Asian region, especially Singapore. Specimens of several animal species which were already extinct in Singapore are on display here. Some other display items are of very rare species which you only have a very small chance to see in Singapore nowadays. Some exhibits present more common species, although a number of them are difficult to observe in nature due to their secret habitat or behaviour. The Exhibition Gallery is therfeore a good chance for you to see how rich the biodiversity of Singapore used to be, and still is.

Takes One Day

"It only takes one species one day to cause a serious problem - even if the
decades before were peaceful"

Daniel Simberloff
American academic and expert on invasive species

Random