Friday 31 August 2007

Party On...and On...and On

Mid semester exams are over and it's time to party. Had a party last week after the end of my first exam. Bought half a dozen of Strongbow Dry and another half dozen of Toohey's Extra Dry for my mates. Had some good music from our resident DJ Barney. Chips aplenty due to contributions by me, Jared, Tingyi (with his cuttlefish) and Jayshen. Thanks guys. It was a great party. Woot!



The arsenal of alcohol for the night


Having a drink brings out all the smiles, except Jayshen who was quite unhappy about Barney


The host of the party (me) enjoying the night


Jared drinking wine straight from the bottle (hmm...)

Had another party on wednesday this week after the end of my last exam. This time it was Barney's party as he contributed his McKellen whisky. There was pizza as well. In the beginning, it was a rather quiet and cold party. But as more people started to drop in, and the lighting changed from white to yellow, the people became more happening. A game of Indian poker made everyone very happy as we entertained ourselves crazy seeing people drink whisky, milk with water, water from Jayshen's (dirty) mug, and people eating a whole packet of wasabi peas, a large scoop of jam and peanut butter etc. Totally fun man!



Then it was onto Jiayun's birthday party yesterday, where we had a cake, chips and some orange juice before heading out to King O Malleys, a local pub. Great place to sit around with plenty of friends and just drink. Drank more than the previous 2 days combined, with pints of beer, stout, shots of tequilla and even absinth minded, this cocktail which contained absinth (green fairy). Crazy and fun night man. Woot!

Monday 27 August 2007

The truth is out!

Refer to: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/specialreport/news/288515_8/1/.html for what I'm about to say.

It has been months since UNSW pulled out of Singapore within a short period of the start of operations, leading to shocks among many students who had enrolled in the university. However, I guess the largest shock had arose from EDB as it fathomed the consequences of this pull-out, so much so that it could not lift it's curtain of silence until recently, to reveal the amount of damage that was done. In a country like Singapore where actions by the government or goverment-related organisations would be sure to attract speculations and rumours, the amount of the loan is of great interest as punters rub their hands in anticipation.

A failed investment is common in the business world. A failed investment by a seemingly "solid and efficient" government in a culture where a poor child gets 99 instead of the full 100 marks in a test gets reprimanded is unacceptable, or at least to the people. The brings us to the saga of NKF again where a certain minister's wife was the patron. Now what went wrong in this case? Although a failed investment of around $15m can be considered small considering the amount of assets the EDB possesses, it is significant in the eyes of the common folks who may never see $1m in their lifetime.

I would speculate that it is the failure of checks within the system that caused the damage. Just as a factory needs a supervisor to supervise the entire manufacturing process, there needs to be someone to check if investments are sound before loans and grants are lent or given. Saying "Investors know their business better than the government. In this case, UNSW – as the investor and the operator – is in the best position to assess the viability of its business plan. (The) government's role is to facilitate and support investors in their decisions, not to second-guess or guide those decisions." is the sign of shirking of responsibility. When banks loan out monies to businesses, they too make checks on the backgrounds of the company. Is it too difficult for the EDB to undertake such a task?

Of course trying to forecast if an investment will be a success or not is not a straightforward mission, and you can at most allocate a probability to it. But signalling for a pull-out within less than a month after operations shows signs that this probability is close to 100%. How could this not be detected unless checks weren't even made in the first place.

Another source of fault lies in the MOE. The eagerness of the MOE to turn Singapore into an education hub [What's this thing about creating Singapore into hubs for everything from medical to MICE to education? I say just focus on what you can.] in recent times has led to the search for the creation of a 4th university after SMU. Maybe the market in Singapore is indeed too small for a 4th one? Has anybody considered that? And when UNSW comes knocking on the door, it is put into plan without market analysis perhaps. This would probably pressure EDB to fork out the enormous loan and grants to UNSW as an incentive for them to build the building just so that Singapore will have a 4th university. Again, is it needed? Look at the damage it has done.

Taxpayers' money goes into that building and now it is an empty shell waiting to be filled. Even though I have not joined the ranks of a taxpayer, I will in the future, and if something like this happens to my money, you will definitely want some explanation and a decent one. But so far, nothing of the sort. Just the usual concern for their reputation. After that, it is back to the search for another university to fill the gap. Sigh.

Sunday 26 August 2007

Ursies Ball 2007

Ursies Ball this year was held on the 17th of August at Thoroughbred Park. Place was alright, food was good, free-flow red wine, white wine, champagne, beer, lemon lime and bitters, and sky juice, and the live! band was awesome. So nothing to complain about, except that there was too little time. But this once in a year event was definitely worth the go and perhaps more worth it than the international ball which was held on the same day. Anyway, below are some pictures of the night.



Ready for the ball


With an insurance salesman (Jay Shen and me)


Classmates for 7 semesters (Jia Yun and me)



Blue is the colour of royalty (Eun Hae and me)


Two hitman posers (black gloves sold separately)



From left: Barney, me, Derrig (Ursies President for 2007), John (my senior resident), Hannah (international representative 2007) and Daryl (Malaysian student of the year 2007?)



Morgie and his dance moves



Let the fire begin



Studs out for a puff



Black gloves have 2 functions: They keep you from feeling the coldness on your hands (they don't actually keep your hands warm), and they go with the hitman theme (notice the red tie as well)


Huw and me (He's learning Chinese and is really good. He comes to me for help sometimes)




Going back in the cool neon-lighted double-decker bus

Monday 20 August 2007

ball video

I just typed out a post and due to weak wireless connection, the draft was not saved. Kinda annoyed again. Now I have to recall what I typed..

But the stuff that I wanted to say is that (pardon my use of point form):
  1. Roger Federer won his 50th title
  2. I received letters from friends
  3. Should not always just the bad things but should remember good things that happen. So keep those bird's nest with rock sugar coming!
  4. Inspired and loved the Ursies ball video 2007 as this is my last year here
  5. Inspired to produce a post ball video of my own. Throw in some pictures and videos, and interview people regarding their feelings about the ball, and of course the theme song.

Yep that's the gist. Hope this doesn't fail me again...

Irritated...

Just read my 365 Inspirations quotes book and it says something about in life, we must give and then we will receive a lot in return. Is it really true? I ponder about this for awhile as I go through some of my friend's blog, And I realised that I bought popcorn chicken and wicked wings for them yesterday, and what did I get in return? Not being called to take the group photo at the Ursies Ball. Being left out in the cold. Geezzzz.... I feel disappointed. Sucks man.

This brings me back to the time when I tutored Hock in Maths C in A Levels, and in the end he got an A! Hooray. And what did I get for History? a "C". He got an "A". What did I get in return? Jibes and laughter from him. Sighz....I think it doesn't pay to be kind in this world.

And what's with the phone calls in the middle of the night but have no sound? Something's wrong with the phone, i don't know what.

And why did Man Utd lose to Man City? Despite all the domination and possession, we lost.

Irritation bugs me like a prick in the skin, or a piece of meat stuck between the gaps in your teeth.

Thursday 16 August 2007

I waited and waited, but it never came. I'm disappointed :(

The REAL 40th post!

My mistake. There was this autosave function that somehow created 3 drafts within my entries list, which made me think I had reached my 40th post, but NOT! This is the Real 40th post. haha.

Just read an article about the most expensive football player, who comes from, surprise surprise, Watford. He costs 60m pounds. Marlon King is his name. Checkout: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=453289&cc=4716

Well then, 2 more days to Ursies Ball. One more day actually, it's past midnight now. Everyone's really excited and gearing up for it. Even the usually casual Jayshen, who initially said he was not going, has forked out about $100 to finance the hiring of a suit for that day. That speaks everything. Barney went for a pants alteration, Ting Yi bought a new tie, Chern hired a tux and Daryl borrowed a suit. The whole ball thing is getting exciting. With the most exciting being Jared getting rejected twice in his attempts to get girls as his date on that day. Ouch! But seriously, the first was dumb (get your facts right!) and the second was....dumb as well (nobody likes being second). The happy thing is, there is free-flow alcohol on that day. Yeahsss!

Sunday 12 August 2007

A Star-Studded Cast

This could be the first time that I had such a dream. Many friends that I know were in this dream. I couldn't really remember the storyline, but it was really fun and a lot of people were there, even some people whom I rarely talk to. Nonetheless, such a dream reminds me of tv serials where they made it just for fun and invite many of the actors and actresses of the tv station to star in it. Some snippets of the dream which I can still remember are Kaixun peeing without flushing (sorry Kaixun, I know you wouldn't do that but random things happen in dreams), David tapping my shoulder and when I turn around he became Jiarong, and shaking hands with Giang, Alvin and Rayner (somehow he had a deformed fist) in the arts club room.

Went for a combined A1 & D1 trekking adventure to Namadgi National Park yesterday. It was about an hour's drive away from campus. Despite the strong winds warning on the met station website, we went ahead and were greeted with.....strong winds! I guess the winds must have blown away all the animals because any kangaroos, wallabies, different species of birds that we would expect to see on the hike were nowhere to be found. All that was present were some droppings along the footpath. Very nice. With hunger in our stomachs and fatigue in our muscles, we finally made the slightly more than an hour's trek and reached the lookout, known as square rock. Excellent view there but extremely strong (and cold) winds. Below are some pictures taken at square rock. We then had to make our way back to the vehicles, which we then drove to a quiet nice place (it was this year's IB end point) for a bbq. This concludes the A1 & D1 floor "party". The cool floors rockz!






Standing behind me was Square rock


There was a gorilla on the trip


Our Senior Resident John hiding himself from the winds


Beautiful view of the trees below. A little foggy though due to sleet


Elation at reaching the rock, so we can now turn back for lunch. Despite the smile on my face, I was really feeling cold, hungry, tired and hungrier

Sunday 5 August 2007

Happy Birthday Mom


Today is my Mom's birthday, so I would like to wish her a very Happy Birthday! I haven't seen her for more than one and a half years, come to think of it. And just when I was typing this post, she rang me, what a coincidence! Happy Birthday Mom, love ya!
_______________________________________________________
Can you give me a break and stop calling me? I'll call you if I want to talk to you...

Friday 3 August 2007

40th and counting...

I have finally reached my 40th entry on my blog. I didn't think I would come so far considering I used to think blogging was rather boring, but I always liked to read someone else's blog though. Nonetheless, this is a milestone for me, and I hope I can still continue this routine for some time to come.



My laptop is getting too small for my needs, not in the physical size, but in the amount of disk space it has. Maybe it's time to get a new laptop next year, considering it'll be my last year in uni, the last chance to make use of student privileges and get a laptop at student price. This IBM is really good though, hasn't given me any major problems since I got it in Aug 2004, been 3years already. I like IBM. I'm not sure whether it's successor, Lenovo, would be able to live up to the standards. And I don't really trust other brands. Hmm I'll see how it goes. Hopefully can get a good and affordable one.



I'm caught onto the Hitman fever recently. It's a computer game about an agent 47 who's sent on missions to assassinate people. It's a really really very very absolutely cool game! Thanks to Jared for introducing me to the game. Now I feel like fiber-wiring people and taking them out with my silencer. Hee just joking (well maybe I would..) There was this mission where 47 had to go to Kuala Lumpur's famous twin towers to take out this target, and that mission was super interesting. You can disguise as the pizza boy, or a fireman to access the building. Uber-cool! The game is so popular that they made 3 follow-ups to the original. There's Hitman, Hitman 2, Hitman: Contracts and Hitman: Blood money. There's even a Hitman movie that's going to hit the screens in October, starring Timothy Olyphant, aka Thomas Gabriel in Die Hard 4. I'm definitely going to catch that show, regardless of how good/bad it will be be.


For information about the movie, checkout: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465494/, http://www.hitmanmovie.com


For information about the video-game, checkout: http://www.hitman.dk/, http://www.hitman2.com/, http://www.hitmancontracts.com/, http://www.hitmanbloodmoney.com/