Narnia!

Watched The Chronicles of Narnia with Kr today at Suntec.

Narnia claims to be this year's Lord of The Rings, but of course it is not as good as the latter. It lacks LOTR's ferocious (bloody) battle sequences and the dread of evil is not as fearsome. I'm not saying it's bad, i enjoyed the movie actually. The story is about 4 siblings who stumbled into Narnia through a wardrobe and were asked to lead a war against the White Witch and her army. The journey is magical and enchanting, with the 4 children fulfilling a prophecy that will save Narnia from the endless years of winter. There are lots of magical characters like talking beavers, wise and noble Aslan the lion, fighting centaurs, nice fawn and evil wolves for the children to love and hate. Too bad the battle couldn't be more bloody, too bad the show is catered more for the younger audiences. It's still an enjoyable show, grand and nice (too nice).

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3rd Movie this week

Went out with Yining for dinner in the evening and watched Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of The Were-Rabbit.

The movie also includes Madagascar Penguins Mini Movie: Merry Christmas. The mini movie is cute and boisterous, and its duration is only 10-15 mins. Wallace and Gromit is quite a short movie as well, having a total duration of 85 mins. The storyline about rabbits endangering crops may seem childish at first but its innovation and wit does charm children as well as adults. It is a humourous and entertaining animation and my main gripe is definitely the short screen time.

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Broke!

Went out with my jc gang to get a birthday gift for Gs. Jim, Clarence and i went for K-lunch from 11 am to 2.45 pm, and Derrick and Edwin joined us to shop for the present after the ktv session. We discussed what to buy while having lunch and headed to various shopping centres before finally purchasing an item (undisclosed as he might be reading).

We then decided on watching Merry Christmas at 9.10 pm and had lots of time to spare. Derrick fetched us to bugis for dinner next and we decided on a korean restaurant along Liang Seah Street. The chopsticks are made of metal and they are flat and heavy. Its quite difficult to pick up food using them for first timers like me. We ordered a pork steamboat, BBQ beef and chicken with the compulsory side dishes like kimchi and ikan bilis.

The steamboat soup is surprisingly not spicy and we ate for around an hour before getting back to cineleisure for our movie.

Merry Christmas is a World War I movie which focuses on the front lines between the French and Scottish troops, and the German troops during the Christmas period. On Christmas Eve, music and songs brought down the hostility and the troops from 3 different countries began to celebrate the festive season together. This movie is based on a true story and it is nominated for this year's Golden Globes Best Foreign Film. It somehow falls short of my expectations as the pace sags in the first quarter of the movie, the emotional aspect of the troops could have been more effective brought out and the characters are not very well developed. Nevertheless, it is quite an interesting movie to watch as we get to see soldiers bonding instead of fighting.

I'm spending too much money! Spent more than $50 on ktv, present, lunch, restaurant and movie today. :(

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Boxing Day

Woke up at 3.15 pm today as i had been waking up early and sleeping very late the past few days. Searched my whole house for the newspapers but could not find any because i did not know that there are no newspapers on public holidays. Or did someone take it?

Went out with Jieli in the evening for dinner and movie. When we arrived at Cineleisure, Merry Christmas at 7 pm was sold out and we decided on Lilya 4-Ever at 9.15 pm. We then went Taka for pepper lunch and i accompanied her shopping after our meal as we had lots of time to spare. I had retired from shopping in Singapore as my wardrobe is sufficient of clothing that i bought in KL and Bangkok earlier this year.

Jieli will be applying for Australian PR when she graduates next year and one of the criteria is that she will need to satisfy a 2 year residence in Australia in which during that time frame, she could not visit any other countries. Glad to meet up with her today as the chances of meeting up will be much lesser in the future.

Lilya 4-Ever is an existential tragedy which depicts the life of a teenage girl whose mother has abandoned her. Her aunty doesn't give a damn about Lilya's welfare and she is in a dire financial state. Thankfully, her good friend Volodya is always there for her until Lilya decides to seek supposedly greener pastures in Sweden (where she was sexually exploited). This film is about child abuse and it is merciless in its protrayal. A stunning performance by Oksana Akinshina, the strong script and the sheer realism of the movie will move you. It is dark, tragic, bleak and one of the rare movies you get to see on film. Unicef has also supported this movie as it sends a clear message to audiences to end child exploitation. Highly recommended!

After the movie, i joined Derrick, Gs and Clarence at a bar in Far East Square as they were watching soccer there. We finished watching at around 1 am and spent quite a lot of time discussing where we should go for supper. By the time we reached a 24 hour coffee shop near Kovan, it was 2.15 am and we ate for more than an hour. The nasi lemak is yummy! Reached home at 4 am and it's 6 am currently. Gotta go to sleep. Zzzz.....

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Christmas Day

Woke up early in the morning to witness Ks's water baptism at Bethel Assembly of God at Aljunied. When i arrived, they were already singing christian songs and there were a lot of people inside the auditorium. There were people dressed up, singing and dancing on stage. Next up was the service by a renowned pastor and his speech was quite interesting and sometimes humourous.

The water baptism was rather interesting as we get to see people soaked in water after making a short speech to commemorate their water baptism. Took a photo with Ks before i left to meet up with my sec sch friends in the afternoon.


Weiming, Fuli, David and i met up at Ps for lunch and we sat down in KFC for hours eating and chatting. We then shifted our position to the food court upstairs for more variety of food. Hours of chatting quickly past and Weiming had to leave to meet his gf in the evening. The 3 of us then went Times and i browsed a number of digicam magazines. They didn't really help me in choosing a good digicam as different magazines have conflicting reviews.

After having our dinner, we headed to Orchard as there were performance and floats display there.

Photo taken in Taka


Stage performance on Orchard Road


Huge crowd walking on Orchard Road

We did not stay long for the performance as the music is deafening, it was rather hot and humid with so many people around and the stage was rather far from our sight.

Decided to go home after that and i waited for my bus from 10.45 pm to 11.20 pm. Exasperated, i took mrt to newton and took another bus home instead. Traffic jam and human jam seem to be getting worse and worse every year.

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Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Went out with Ed, Gs, Mb and Derrick in the afternoon as Mb and Derrick had to do some last minute christmas shopping. Luckily orchard area wasn't very packed with people yet. We went Haagan Dazs for some ice cream and had a mini birthday celebration for gs and derrick.


Mb was looking for a tie for her bf's father while Derrick was searching for christmas presents for his friends' party at night. Went to Paragon, Wisma, Taka, Isetan and Tangs before they finally found their desired items after a few hours.

We had some food before Ed, Derrick and Mb went off for their respective christmas celebrations at night. Gs and i do not have a habit of celebrating christmas and we went Bukit Panjang Plaza for dinner before heading back home.

Merry Christmas to Everyone again! Happy holidays!

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Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve since midnight and 2005 is coming to an end. 10 more days before school re-opens! I'll be having 8 modules next semester, namely Effective Communication, Chemistry, Lab 1A, Discovery Course 2, Physics 2, Maths 2, Computing and most probably Mind Over Stress (elective). Sucks right? I'll be toiling away next semester so my blog will be dead for the next 4 months or so. Sad life, that's why i chose not to work this month in order to enjoy life before the dreaded school term starts.

Happy 21st Birthday to Gs and Derrick!

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Steamboat Dinner

Met up with my jc friends for a steamboat dinner at Marina Bay. There were a number of people who approached us asking us to board their minibus to fetch us to their designated eatery. We waited for Jimmy to fetch us to the steamboat area at the mrt and arrived at around 7 pm.

We then cooked, boiled, ate, drank and chatted until 10.30 pm.


Most wanted to go back home after our full dinner but Gs, Ed and I don't mind going home later. We called Derrick and Terence out for supper as they had something on in the evening and did not join us for our steamboat just now. Went to a coffee shop near NTU for some food and drinks. We then had more food at a newly opened 24 hours Toast and Prata shop at The Rail Mall just outside my house. We were the only customers there as most people still do not know of its existence. Got back home at 3 am.

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Post-Results

Why are my course people so clever one? I had compared results with some of them and they got generally better grades than me. I used to be nonchalent when i was in JC being one of the lousiest students in my class. I was even in physics remedial lessons conducted by my PD tutor. My prelims was the worst among the worst and that was the lowest point in my academic life.

Although things are now looking brighter, i'm still not very satisfied. As they say, Virgos are perfectionists. I should mug harder next semester!

Went out with some of my jc classmates as Derrick intended to shop for a birthday present for Gs. We went Raffles City, Suntec and Peninsular Plaza but did not buy anything in the end. Went to Chinatown for dinner after that and went back home.

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Results Out!

Got an sms from Edwin this morning to inform me that the results are out. I immediately jumped up from my bed and called him to ask whether he had helped me checked my grades. I couldn't wait any longer to turn on my laptop and wanted to know my results immediately. Got to know all of my results and i was feeling very weird. Those modules that i expected to get Bs got As and those modules that i expected to get As got Bs. The most unbelievable thing is that my physics got A. Never in my mind would i thought that i will get an A. Felt quite disappointed with my maths and environmental quality modules getting B+ though.

Gs, Edwin and i then headed to Jim's house as gs wanted to play PS2 games together. I don't really play games and went to surf net and listen to music instead. We were going to Mediacorp Studio in the evening to watch Star Idol as Jimmy have free tickets as Cheng Xi (one of the contestants) is his army good friend.

After having dinner at Upper Thomson Road, we went to the studio near Lornie Road. The show was supposed to start at 6.15 pm but we waited for about an hour before we can enter the studio.

Took a few shots before the show started (The studio is actually smaller than what most people think)

Patricia Mok having fun with the male contestants

Chen Tai Ming teasing the female contestants

A group photo when the show is about to end


The acting part was very boring as the contestants had to act out various romantic situations (without much skills). The commentaries by the judges were very long also and i almost fell asleep. The fun part was when Patricia Mok and Chen Tai Ming came onstage to spar their acting skills with the contestants. Some responded candidly to the situations thrown at them while some were not up to expectations.

We left the studio after the show ended around 10 pm and had supper at Bukit Timah before going back home.

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Results Frenzy

This morning, when i was about to go out for a mini army outing, my sister asked me whether i know my exam results as her ntu friends have their results released today. I immediately sprinted to turn on my laptop as i completely forgot about checking my results.

The message pops out "Your examination results are not released yet!". A sigh of relief until i received Terence's sms at cine food court with Ks and Ly. It says "Yo guys, its out!" I was thinking "Shit, i'm outside now."

I quickly phoned Edwin to help me check my results but he told me it's not out. Bad info, i thought, and i quickly phoned Terence to confirm. He told me only Kp's results are out (ie. only accountancy students have their results released). Ok, another sigh of relief after a second anxiety attack.

Ks, Ly and i headed up to k-box level 8 for a karaoke session from 2 pm to 7 pm. I seem to be able to hit some of the high notes for some challenging songs compared to before. Ring ring, got a call from Edwin at around 6 pm. "Some of your results are out liao." He told me in chinese. My heart pounded extremely fast and i was pacing along the corridor outside. Felt extremely relieved after he revealed my econs and discovery course results to me. Got A+ for the former and B+ for the latter.

I'm still freaking worried for my physics! Arggg....... Tomorrow is D-Day!

Daryl joined us for dinner and we watched King Kong after that. It's a 3 hour movie but i didn't feel its length at all. King Kong is indeed an epic adventure story that is immensely entertaining with a strong cast to boost. The storyline is quite straight forward and sometimes ridiculous but the awesome special effects overshadowed its implausibilities. This movie is old school entertainment jam-packed with fights and chases, finding time for romance and comedy as well. Grand and imaginative, director Peter Jackson never fails to impress his audiences.

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Regular Outing

Saturday, the original plan to go East Coast for roller blading or cycling was cancelled as David did not want to do any physical activities. So it was ktv again! Not my suggestion this time as i do not intend to go so often. We couldn't think of any other plans suitable for everyone. Fuli, David, Weiming and i met up in the morning for k-lunch and we sang until 2.15 pm.

We went to Meridien food court for some more food and a place to chill out. It is a good place in orchard area coz there aren't a lot of people there and we can just sit there for hours talking.

After Weiming left to met up with his gf in the evening, we were racking our brains on what to do next. We walked over to PS without an aim and found ourselves sitting inside Times reading books. It was indeed a rarity for me as i HATE books, or rather TEXTBOOKS. I don't read Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Da Vinci Code or any other fiction books whatsoever. The last fiction book i read was in my secondary school days when i took Literature. Lord of The Flies was an exceptionally good book though.

David was reading his chess books as usual and i picked up a book on Singapore Urban Legends. At first i thought the book is about ghost stories but there are only 3 articles related to it. One interesting article examines the rumour that the police will raid your house if they find pirated cds with you at the customs. That rumour is not true unless you are smuggling thousands of cds into Singapore. They are definitely more concerned with terrorism and drugs. The interesting fact is that we can actually purchase pirated cds for personal use from abroad. However, we are only limited to 5 cds per trip. Anything more than that will be considered smuggling and offenders will be liable to a fine. A fine will also be implemented if the cds contains offensive or pornographic materials. The customs officers might also send the cds to Singapore censorship board if they suspect offensive content in them. So next time when we go JB, we can actually buy a few pirated cds! (That's what the book claims and i'll not be responsible if anyone of you gets caught somehow. ;)

Some other articles are ghosts in NTU Nanyang Lake, Bishan MRT and GV Plaza & old Cathay theatres. An interesting read indeed and i finished reading 90% of the $10.50 book. We then read up some books on palmistry and were comparing the lines on our palms with the pictures and drawings in the book.

We had our dinner at the crowded PS food court and went Carrefour to see if we needed to buy anything. There is a promotion selling tennis rackets at 2 for $39.90 which includes a free haversack, 1 head band and 2 wrist bands. Its weight is quite similar to a $69.90 racket on the shelve and the design is quite nice as well. Fuli and i each got 1 after sharing the package. Too cheap to resist. Haha...


Went back home at 10 pm.

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Post-Langkawi

Took a long nap at home after coming back from Langkawi and watched The Descent at night with my jc friends. It is a rather good thriller with quite a few scares throughout the whole movie.

Had a breakfast cum lunch buffet at Sakura Toa Payoh with my family the next day. Took a closer look at the thousands of cloth patches sewn together at the HDB Hub and found this.


Went to k-box the next day for a karaoke session with my jc friends on Thursday. It was the longest ktv session i've ever had as the early birds who arrived at 2 pm sang until 7.45 pm. We each paid only $10.50 per pax.

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Langkawi Day 3!

It was day 3 and we can either go for sea sports or shopping. Anthony and i initially decided to go for sea sports but we got up too late and went for shopping instead. The bus for sea sports left at 7.30 am and we woke up at 9 am. Joined the 2nd batch of people going for shopping and headed to the shopping area near the jetty.

There are many shops selling many souvenirs and several shops selling clothes, shoes and bags. I only bought a wooden slinky snake and a t-shirt. Actually, i'll rather go JB for shopping. We had our lunch at a hawker centre and the food is quite cheap.

We spent some time shopping again after our lunch and headed back to pack our stuff as we had to check out by 4.45 pm.

The people who went for sea sports did parasailing, jet skiing and island hopping. Should have woke up earlier to participate. We left Beringin Resort at 5 pm and headed to the jetty to board our ferry.

Reached Penang after 3 hours and boarded the coach back to Singapore.


We had our dinner at a seafood restaurant along NS highway and reached Singapore at 6 am the next day. At the Singapore customs, we declared our liquor we bought over at Langkawi and we had to pay $30 of liquor tax and GST of the price we bought the liquor. I was billed $33.45 while some others who bought two bottles had to pay about twice the tax. I only gained a bit compared to buying in Singapore.

Lesson learnt: Never buy liquor unless you are travelling by international flight! (I'm also not going to Langkawi again in the near future.)

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Langkawi Day 2!

It was freezing cold when we woke up the next day as we cannot adjust the temperature without the remote control. After eating our breakfast, we headed to Langkawi exhibition hall beside the airport for the LIMA airshow.

We arrived slightly earlier than the time it opened for the public and waited for a while before we went inside. Stepping inside was like walking into Singapore Expo as there were many exhibits inside the huge hall. We took our time browsing through the hall and took many photos of the engine replica, plane models, rocket models, helicopter models and some other components of the aircraft.



Some of my course people know a lot about aircrafts and i know nuts about them. Some were rambling on about some fighter planes and i was merely listening. I guess i shouldn't be picked for this course coz i only have a slight interest in aircrafts. Did they read encyclopedia on aircrafts when they were young? They were so knowledgeable that i felt inadequate knowing zilch about them.

After spending a long (and slightly boring) 3 hours in the exhibition hall, we proceeded to the open area outside where there are different aircrafts on display.


We then waited for some time for the aerial show to start and viewed a fighter plane performing many different types of maneuvers and stunts. It was followed by another type of aircraft and then a helicopter. The highlight of the aerial show was the group of fighter planes performing many different stunts. The sound was deafening each time they flew past.


We were extremely hungry when the aerial show ended at 2.45 pm and had our lunch at the buffet corner. Since the bus was only coming at 5 pm to fetch us, we hung around at the rest area waiting and chatting. It had been quite a slack day and it was quite wasted that we didn't spend our time more efficiently. We could have gone to other places of interest and not spend our time waiting for the bus.

We boarded the bus at 5 pm and went back to our resort as we will be having a barbeque in the evening. 7.30 pm was the time to gather for our barbeque and it was poker card time again while waiting for the bbq to start. Without a tv in our rooms, my handphone was the only source of music that can be broadcasted, thankfully.

Many had volunteered to handle the food and set up the bbq pit and slackers like me were sitting on the bench lazing around and chatting. Ever heard of the phrase "Yue4 Bang1 Yue4 Mang2"? There were loud speakers playing R&B and some up-tempo music as it was supposed to be a beach party. Alcohol was available in large amounts as the organisers had bought dozens of beer cans and several bottles of hard liquor. I drank two cans of beer and tried some of the liquor. Martini is nice! Gin is not really my type of liquor and Jim Bean puts me off.

The trick to prevent getting drunk is to eat food before drinking and taking your time to drink. Several guys were not too sober after downing quite some alcoholic drinks. It was quite a fun beach party minus the dancing.

I would have prefered going to a night market though, as we can have the bbq in Singapore as well. A rather slack 2nd day indeed.

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Langkawi Day 1!

After arriving at Langkawi ferry, we boarded a coach that brought us to Beringin Beach Resort. (By the way, Langkawi looks a lot like Brunei which has a lot of vegetation and sparse buildings.)

I guess it should be called Beringin Village instead. Like most of the other people, we weren't aware that we will be staying in such a place. Anthony and i were searching for our room 231 which couldn't be found at all! With Vic's help, we finally located a room at a rather deserted corner with the room number that has dropped on the ground. Bad start!

Next, we tried to open the door with the room key to no avail. We then found out that the door was slightly tilted to one side and it was stuck to the ground. We had to pull it hard to open it.

The room looks ancient but at least air-con was available. We then turned on the heater and the lights to check whether they are working and suddenly the power supply was cut. I was wondering how unlucky we were to get this problematic room. We then switched on the main supply outside our room and it turned itself off again. We realised the problem lies with the heater and it was faulty. No heater for these 3 days in Langkawi!

As we were finding the appliance that caused the short circuit, we had switched off the air-con in the process and couldn't turn it back on as there were no remote control. Bad luck!

It was time for the half-day city tour and we headed to board the coach outside waiting for us. The first stop was a museum that displayed many of Dr Mahathir gifts from other countries. The entrance fee was 3 RM for students and 2 RM was the cost of bringing a camera into the premises.

A picture of the museum

A lot of us decided not to go in and opted for a snack break at a stall opposite the museum and waited for the bus driver to fetch us in 35 mins time.

Next up is the cable car station that brings us up to the high hills of Langkawi.

After buying our tickets, we boarded the cable car and got up to a mountain overlooking the coastline of Langkawi.

Inside the cable car


A group photo at the peak of the mountain

The view is indeed breathtaking and we took quite a lot of photos there. There are 2 stretches of cable car and we rode up to the higher peak.

We spent quite a lot of time there admiring the view and walking to the boomerang bridge between the 2 cable car stations. Went back to the coach after about 2 hours and we headed for the next destination.

Next up was a shopping centre like Carrefour. Langkawi goods are all duty-free and the liquor there is really cheap. Some of us including me bought a 1 litre bottle of liquor. (Bought Martell VSOP for only 88RM!) We had believed that we are able to bring in 1 litre of liquor like at the airport if we exceeded the travel time of 48 hours overseas. That was actually not the case which we found out at the last day of our trip.

Bought 5.5 litres of mineral water as well to quench our thirst for 3 days. It was nearly 8 pm and we headed to a seafood restaurant to have our dinner. Due to the sudden explosion of business (there were a total of 40 people including 8 yr 4 seniors from aeronautics engine), our table was the second last to be served and we waited slightly over 1 hour for our food. The crabs were really small in size and the oyster omelette had less than 6 oysters in it! The serving was quite small also and most of us were still hungry after our meal.

Took a photo after our meal

Went back to the resort, got our air-con fixed and played Bridge until 1 am.

Hope to have a better 2nd and 3rd day!

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63rd Golden Globe Award Nominations

1. BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

a. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

b. THE CONSTANT GARDENER

c. GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

d. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

e. MATCH POINT


2. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

a. MARIA BELLO
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

b. FELICITY HUFFMAN
TRANSAMERICA

c. GWYNETH PALTROW
PROOF

d. CHARLIZE THERON
NORTH COUNTRY

e. ZIYI ZHANG
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA


3. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA

a. RUSSELL CROWE
CINDERELLA MAN

b. PHILIP SEYMOUR
HOFFMAN CAPOTE

c. TERRENCE HOWARD
HUSTLE & FLOW

d. HEATH LEDGER
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

e. DAVID STRATHAIRN
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK


4. BEST MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY

a. MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

b. PRIDE & PREJUDICE

c. THE PRODUCERS

d. THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

e. WALK THE LINE


5. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY

a. JUDI DENCH
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS

b. KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
PRIDE & PREJUDICE

c. LAURA LINNEY
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

d. SARAH JESSICA PARKER
THE FAMILY STONE

e. REESE WITHERSPOON
WALK THE LINE


6. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE -MUSICAL OR COMEDY

a. PIERCE BROSNAN
THE MATADOR

b. JEFF DANIELS
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

c. JOHNNY DEPP
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

d. NATHAN LANE
THE PRODUCERS

e. CILLIAN MURPHY
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO

f. JOAQUIN PHOENIX
WALK THE LINE


7. BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

a. KUNG FU HUSTLE (CHINA)

b. MASTER OF THE CRIMSON ARMOR aka THE PROMISE (CHINA)

c. JOYEUX NOEL (MERRY CHRISTMAS) (FRANCE)

d. PARADISE NOW (PALESTINE)

e. TSOTSI (SOUTH AFRICA)


8. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

a. SCARLETT JOHANSSON
MATCH POINT

b. SHIRLEY MacLAINE
IN HER SHOES

c. FRANCES McDORMAND
NORTH COUNTRY

d. RACHEL WEISZ
THE CONSTANT GARDENER

e. MICHELLE WILLIAMS
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN


9. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

a. GEORGE CLOONEY
SYRIANA

b. MATT DILLON
CRASH

c. WILL FERRELL
THE PRODUCERS

d. PAUL GIAMATTI
CINDERELLA MAN

e. BOB HOSKINS
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS


10. BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE

a. WOODY ALLEN
MATCH POINT

b. GEORGE CLOONEY
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

c. PETER JACKSON
KING KONG

d. ANG LEE BROKEBACK
MOUNTAIN

e. FERNANDO MEIRELLES
THE CONSTANT GARDENER

f. STEVEN SPIELBERG
MUNICH


11. BEST SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE

a. WOODY ALLEN
MATCH POINT

b. GEORGE CLOONEY & GRANT HESLOV
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

c. PAUL HAGGIS & BOBBY MORESCO
CRASH

d. TONY KUSHNER & ERIC ROTH
MUNICH

e. LARRY McMURTRY & DIANA OSSANA
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN


12. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MOTION PICTURE

a. ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
SYRIANA

b. JAMES NEWTON HOWARD
KING KONG

c. GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

d. HARRY GREGSON
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE
WILLIAMS LION, THE WITCH AND THE
WARDROBE

e. JOHN WILLIAMS
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA


13. BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MOTION PICTURE

a. “A LOVE THAT WILL NEVER GROW OLD” –- BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

b. “CHRISTMAS IN LOVE” — CHRISTMAS IN LOVE

c. “THERE’S NOTHING LIKE A SHOW ON BROADWAY” — THE PRODUCERS

d. “TRAVELIN’ THRU” — TRANSAMERICA

e. “WUNDERKIND” — THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

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Pre-Langkawi!

Spent the day packing my bag before going to Golden Mile Complex to board the bus. There was a bit of a delay and we boarded the bus at 8.45 pm instead of 8 pm. This was the start of the long bus journey to Langkawi. Most people were busy chatting with each other in the bus but i tried to sleep as i did not want to be tired the next day. It was a rather futile attempt as there were a number of stops along the way. Took a few photos in the bus.


We had our supper at a 24 hour food court along the North-South Highway and had a few hours of rest before reaching Penang at around 6 am. The ferry to Langkawi is leaving at 8 am and we have 2 hours to find a place to have our breakfast. I've never been to Penang before and i was enthusiastic to explore the city. The architecture of the buildings there is rich in its culture and not as metropolitan as the major cities in the region. Took a few pictures while walking to find a place to eat.

Roaming the city that had not awaken


Famous landmark of Penang, i guess?

We finally found a shop selling roti prata and had our breakfast there. Proceeded to the ferry terminal next and we had another long wait as we can only board the 8.45 am ferry.

A picture of a cruise ship passing by


Photo-taking session with time to spare

We finally boarded the ferry and they were screening The Rundown on the small tv set in front of our seats. Fell asleep after 10 mins and woke up 5 mins before the show ended. Went up to the top of the ship to check out the scenery.

Too bad we blocked most of the scenery from the picture

Docked at Langkawi ferry after a long 3 hours.

(To be continued)......

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Shopping Phobia?

Went swimming with Zewen, Gs and Jimmy yesterday and went Queensway Shopping Centre after that as Clarence wanted to buy a pair of shoes.

It was another shopping trip at Sim Lim Square today as Meibin wanted to buy a mp3 player and needed some of our advice. We then watched Perhaps Love at Suntec. It garnered raving reviews from critics but i didn't really enjoy the movie. The song segments were not up to expectations with only Jacky Cheung singing very well, Zhou Xun barely passed, Ji Jin Hee with lousy diction and Takeshi Kaneshiro with substandard vocals. It's a movie within a movie and the story warps from present day to the past, telling an ill-fated romance story that somehow lacks chemistry between the leads. Only the central song segment is the most mesmerising with gorgeous sets and catchy tunes. Other than that, the show isn't very engaging or entertaining for its musicals and romance.

Tons of movies to watch this december: The Descent, Pride and Prejudice, Lilya 4-Ever, The Promise, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia

I'm going to be broke.

I'll be leaving Singapore for Langkawi tomorrow. Will be back on tuesday morning.

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Back to Work for 1 day......

$31.50

This is the mediocre amount of money i earned today. The people from the company delayed my reporting time from 12 noon to 3 pm at 10.45 am when i had already left the house with my mum and sister. We were going to the temple to pray and were planning to having breakfast after that. The delay shifted our plans and we headed to Suntec to have porridge lunch buffet at Joaqium for only $9.90 per pax. The selection of food is quite a lot and we ate a rather large amount.

I got quite a bit of time to spare and we went shopping in Suntec before heading to my workplace in Novena. Coincidentally, i saw Kelvin there and had a brief chat with him. Headed to my workplace in Novena next and i was dispatched to a room where there were people pasting stamps on envelopes. I was thinking the job is very slack until the staff decided to transfer me to the office upstairs. I was then taught by a perm staff to refile documents from a stack of files and to label them.

An hour passed very slowly and i was really bored and tired of the repetitive procedures. If i was not moving my hands constantly, i would have fallen asleep immediately. While i was complaining constantly in my head about the job, i was suddenly asked to go back downstairs to help out with the envelopes.

My thinking was then twarted as a result coz there were actually tons of files for me to clear and my job would be quite secure if i were to continue doing it. When i was on my way back to the room with a lot of envelopes, i saw Miss Wong Sheau Ying! She was my jc gp tutor and is nowing working at The Learning Lab. She forgot my name and class, haha... I don't blame her though, considering the amount of students she had taught. I thought i used to be prominent for constantly sleeping in class? I guess not, ha... We had a very brief chat and then i went back to work which is to fold the application forms and slot them inside the envelopes. It was mundane as hell but luckily there were people to talk to inside as no boss were eyeing on us.

When we finished our pile, we were basically sitting around doing nothing as the forms were not printed out yet. I wasn't complaining at all, in fact i was hoping the forms would never come so that we can slack all day. My wishful thinking indeed, actually the chores we did were so simplistic that any secondary school kid could do. The job is an insult to our intellect right? Actually i wouldn't care less as long as the pay does justice to our qualifications.

Our nimble hands accomplished the task quickly after a batch of newly printed forms arrived. We wrapped everything at 7.30 pm and i had only worked for 4.5 hours. I asked our manager whether there will be work for us to do tomorrow and his reply was a probable no. No more work after half a day of work. Just shoot me. Diao...

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NEVER EVER BUY ANIMAL FUR!!!

Just saw a video clip on friendster bulletin board and this is the original excerpt.

As everyone knows,animals fur are the most
natural and comfortable material that keeps us
warm during cold season.It could be quite costly
as for some rare animals fur.But do u know the
painful experience that the animals have to bear
when the skin was stripped off their body.No one
could tell except the animals itself.Imagine your
own skin cut by a small knife,what is the feeling?
Painful,right!Just a small cut could make the
girlfriend go crying to their boyfriends and the sight
of blood could even make them faint.Then please
try imagine being hit hard on the ground and the
whole skin being ripped of your own body while u
are unconcious.This is a short clip of animals
being stripped of skin.It contains materials that
might make u cry or even feel uncomfortable,so
those people of weak and easily feel sick please
do not attempt to watch.Please circulate it around
to prevent the killing of the poor animals.Please
help them!

Website: http://192.192.241.98/fur.wmv

Never buy animal fur! Please spread this message around!

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I'm working again.....

Played badminton with my jc friends at Safra Toa Poyoh today for 2 hours and had lunch at Toa Payoh central. My right arm is aching now coz i haven't played badminton for the past 4 months.

Received a call from Ly asking me whether i wanna work in his company the next few days folding envelopes. The job sounded so boring that it became rather interesting to me. The pay is not bad at a rate of $7 per hour. I'm now back to work after mugging for 4 months. Great coz i need some cash to fuel my extravagant lifestyle in december. Hope they won't fire me after 1 day, ha........

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Ktv again

I seem to be going ktv more often than watching movies these few days. Met up with Fuli and David today as David is going KL for his chess competition on tuesday while i'll be heading to Langkawi this friday. Fuli and i had our voice batteries nearly depleted when we attempted to sing Shi Kang Jun's 2 songs that require a lot of shouting that is not only high pitched but also contains falsettoes. It's really tough to achieve the same kind of emotions and technique for some songs.

After that, we went to PS and then to Sim Lim as i wanted to check out digicams. Yes, i'm obsessed with them. Tried quite a lot of models like the Sony T9, Nikon S3, Casio S600 & Z750 and Olympus IR300. Sony T9 is awesome indeed. The picture quality is very good, the video resolution is very clear, the shutter speed is very fast and the processing time is very short. It also has an optical image stabiliser that actually stabilises moving objects instead of shaking hands that i initially assumed. Would prefer a OIS that reduces blurring from shaking as well as moving objects. But still, it is a very good camera and the price is very "nice" also.

After my window shopping, we headed to Suntec for dinner and spent some time strolling before heading back.

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Dinner

My jc friends and i met up for dinner today and we watched soccer at a restaurant beside PS. The match was quite exciting and the crowd were acting hysterically every time after Liverpool scored a goal (to my amusement). I still don't get it when it comes to watching soccer, maybe it's because i don't support any teams.

After the match, we headed to SMU to explore the campus as we have much time to spare. Jimmy had his smu pass and we were all able to enter the school. There wasn't much to see inside until we noticed the pool and foosball table room which was still open. Went in and had a few rounds of pool. There are sofas inside and i played some music using my handphone, resting and reading the papers as well.

A perfect place to chill out with virtually no one around except some security guards patrolling. We then strolled along Prinsep Street and went to an coffee shop near Selegie Road to have supper before heading back home.

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I'm sunburnt! ouch...

Went swimming with Ks at jalan besar swimming complex in the morning today and the weather was quite good, considering the fact that it had been either cloudy or rainy the past few days. We swam 15 laps and spent the rest of the time suntanning. It had been the first time i exercised in months and my body was succumbing to tiredness just after 5 laps. Damn, gotta exercise more this month to keep fit.

After just 2 hours under the sun, my skin became rather red and the colour became more distinct later. Had lunch at sim lim square and we browsed the computer shops as i was looking for a cpu while ks was interested in an lcd monitor. We collected many brochures so that we can look through them at home. When i looked at the digicams there, they were so tempting that i can't stop thinking about them. Sony T9 is only selling for $679 at Sim Lim Square while it was sold for $799 at Sitex 2005. What a big difference right? Walked to bras basah after that to buy some stationery.

Mh had called me earlier in the day to ask me to accompany her to watch Harry Potter and i reluctantly agreed after her persuasion. Oops, hope she's not reading this, haha... Don't really want to watch a show 2 times unless it's really good coz it's not only a waste of money but also a waste of time. Met up with her in orchard to catch the 6.30 pm show and have our dinner together. It has been very long since we met up and we spent some time chatting to update on each other's lives.

I was a tad tired when we were watching the movie and the magic was not there for me this time. Felt quite bored during some parts of the movie as i knew everything that is going to happen. Hmmm....

When i was on my way back home on the bus, i fell asleep and subconsciously knocked my head on a guy. (I used to get scolded by aunties and guys who pushed me when i fell asleep on them. Ha...) To avoid hitting my head on the guy beside me, i shifted position and fell asleep again, in the end to knock my head on the woman on the other side. My spectacles fell halfway out and it drooped over my cheek to the amusement of some people around i think. Was fully awake after that embarassing moment. :)

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A History of Violence

The swimming outing was changed to a movie outing as we were quite lazy to exercise and there wasn't much sun for us to tan. We decided to watch the movie A History of Violence as Straits Times had rated it a cool 5 stars. The show is about an ordinary father who becomes a hero after fending off 2 criminals from his restaurant. After the press exposed his photos, several guys from the mafia began to threaten his family. Its direction is deft and the acting by Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello is great. This show is an allegory on violence and it depicts the terrors of a school bully as well as adults who murder without batting an eyelid. Quite a good movie despite having a slightly unrealistic plot.

After the movie, Edwin, Clarence and i then met up with Ade, Shirley, Meibin and Derrick for dinner at Heeren Marche. I was fidgeting with Ade's Panasonic Lumix LS1 and its anti-shake function is really quite effective. Was shaking up and down while taking shots and the pictures were still clear.

After having our dinner, we spent some time walking along orchard road and taking some more pictures with the christmas lightings in the background. The gals then headed to Zouk for mambo night while the rest of us continued to hang out in orchard window shopping and eating more food before heading back home.

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KTVing

Went to chinatown today with Ks to sing ktv as he had a partyworld voucher which expires in around 2 weeks time. The Oriental Partyworld was really quite deserted and we were the only few customers in the whole area. It had been quite some time since i had sang so many songs within the few hours and it was a bit throat/voice straining for both of us.

Derrick was also coincidentally in Chinatown and we met up for dinner after that with Clarence. Then, something happened which affected my mood for the rest of the night. It was my fault but i didn't know that a small crack would fracture into something big. Things just didn't go my way after i uttered that one phrase. I have indeed learned from my mistake. Sorry again. I know it cannot be undone so that's the least bit i can do.

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Fuli's 21st Bday

We celebrated Fuli's 21st birthday in town today and it has been quite some time since all 5 of us got together. We spent quite some time deciding what present to get for Fuli before we met up with him. Got a Adidas sling bag after narrowing our choices to clothes or bag, and a cheesecake as well. We then held our mini celebration at Meridian food court as there wasn't many people there.

We basically spent the rest of the day mostly chatting with each other and keeping up to date on each other's lives. It's been a long time since we were able to do so without either being tied down by schoolwork or exams.

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Cca outing

Went for my cca outing at Party World Chinatown today and there were much lesser people than i expected. I think the total cca population is around 50 people and only 9 people including me turned up for the outing. Due to different commitments/appointments, several people left in the midst of the ktv session and there were only 5 people left at the end of it. Nevertheless, i got to know more people in my cca and got to listen to their singing prowess as well. Melvin, our senior, sang incredible well in the few songs that he 'karaoked'. In the beginning, i felt quite self-conscious about my singing coz of the number of people and that i haven't sang ktv for more than a month, but it was better after some time. There are 3 new songs by Stefanie Sun, 3 new songs by Fish Leong and only 1 new song by Jay. We spent 4 hours in the ktv room and left for home after that. It wasn't a very successful cca outing but i'm sure there will be better ones to come.

Felt really bored at home when i got back and chatted continuously online for nearly 5 hours. Now that it's after the exams, i seem to have nothing to look forward to. During my month-long exam period, i was craving for the exams to end and now it has ended, i don't think i'm very happy either. Maybe i'm getting old.

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Happy?

I'm tired but i have to write this post coz my exams has finished!!! Woke up early in the morning to sit for the economics exam and the paper was the easiest among all the 6 exams that i had. A-Levels economics paper was surely harder than the paper i just had and the questions were very straight-forward. The econs exam was suitable to be the last paper as i felt quite satisfied with my performance.

I had lunch with my aerospace mates after the exam and since we did not have any idea of what to do or where to go next, they decided to go back home. Unwilling to go back so early (must enjoy to the fullest after exams mah), i asked my jc friends out to hang out in orchard area. While waiting for them, i went to Sitex 2005 at Expo in the afternoon. Checked out some computer deals as i wanted to buy a new pc. Decided not to buy a branded pc as most of them are way out of my budget. Most probably i'll be getting a new one from Sim Lim Square instead. Tested out some of the digicams in the exhibition as well. I conclude that among some of the brands i tested, Nikon produces the best image quality while Casio fares the worst. Won't be considering Casio digicams anywhere in the near future.

After spending about an hour there, i went to orchard to meet my jc friends. We decided on watching a hk movie, SPL at lido. The movie is shockingly brutal for some of the violent scenes and it boosts a strong cast (Simon Yam, Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen). The story is about a group of cops hellbent on exacting justice on a dangerous and sadistic crime lord. Moral lines dividing these 2 polar extremes become blurred and no one will be spared from the backlash of their wrongdoings. The fighting scenes are exhilarating and coupled with the interesting script, SPL is one of the better hk movies in recent months.

We then strolled along orchard road admiring some of the christmas decorations and had supper at Bukit Timah after Gs and Derrick joined us. After our meal, we had several rounds of pool at my house and chatted til around 2 am before they left.

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Harry Potter is no longer kiddie stuff

This is my 3rd time writing this post as my computer has officially gone kaput. Now i'm using my laptop.

Had my 2nd last paper today and it wasn't a very good experience doing it. No one expected the questions that came out and it was much tougher compared to previous semesters. There were 2 questions on derivations, 1 tough high weightage question involving a never seen before combination of phase diagrams plus resistivity, and some other questions requiring us to have a good knowledge of various equations. The previous semester paper was "chicken feet" compared to ours and i guess it must be due to the fact that the professors had a hard time grading students as everyone must have scored relatively well last semester. As a result, the professors decided to give us a hard time this time round. :(

Everyone was complaining after the exam and it is always a good sign as everyone else is also in the same shoes. :) (except for some geniuses and muggers in my course) For people who dunno, my course is at least 70% littered with either geniuses or people whose hobbies are studying, reading and revising. And i'm not from any of the 2 categories. Sometimes i really wonder where their motivation comes from.

Some of my aerospace friends and i decided to take a break after the paper today and decided to catch a movie at Jurong Point. We bought tickets to Harry Potter at 3.35 pm, which is more than 2 hours later as the earlier timeslots were already selling fast. We went to the arcade after having our lunch as some of my friends wanted to play some games. I don't really enjoy going to the arcade coz i basically suck at all the games other than Daytona, feel that arcade is a waste of time and money and that the noisy environment is a put-off. After about 1 hour of watching them play some games and playing photo hunt together, i got a mild throbbing headache from the constant electronic noise in there. I guess it could also be due to brain ache from the mentally exhaustive exams. I didn't help that i only slept 4 hours the day before also.

Luckily, i was able to concentrate during the movie and i actually enjoyed it tremendously. The Goblet of Fire is now my personal favourite among the series as it has matured quite a lot from its previous trio. The opening scenes which includes the Quidditch Grand Finals is eye-poppingly spectacular, not saving a penny on the visual effects. The threat of evil is again on the rise again, this time more real and dangerous than ever with Lord Voldermort slowly gaining his foothold on the realm of evil. Harry Potter confronts not only his infatuation woes, but also friendships that could easily strain, morality issues and his survival skills which is put to the ultimate test in the Triwizard Tournament.

Danger and evil lurks on all corners of this movie, making this episode the most violent in the series as Harry Potter duels with a ferocious dragon, merpeople and finally Lord Voldermort himself. The jokes are plenty as well to calm the tense atmosphere in parts of the movie. The supporting cast is a delight with some memorable performances, esp the nosey reporter. There is some emotional resonance in the movie as the children realise the imminent threat that could possibly cost them their lives and the strength within their friendships. At a duration of 2 hours 20 mins, i didn't feel its length from the movie but from my slightly strained neck. The Goblet of Fire is indeed hugely entertaining, a visual and cinematic achievement. Lets hope the next episode The Order Of The Phoenix will live up to the high expectations that The Goblet of Fire has set.

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Final 2 here i come

Had my 3rd last paper today and it was rather manageable. No more self declared break as my next paper is on monday. 1 more week and it'll come to an end.

Went to Funan for a Courts roadshow after my exam as they were allegedly giving offers of $99 for a new laptop with every Pentium 4 laptop traded in. The supposed $99 became $899 when my old laptop was evaluated for its trade in value. It was a disappointment but somehow i had expected that they will come up with a way to increase the selling price. My laptop had a Pentium 4 processor with 192 mb ram and 2 faulty keys on the keypad. Their price evaluation for the trade in value is about $600. The trick is that they used the original price of $1499 to minus the trade-in value that comes up to $899 and the $99 is just stated as the minimum price. Whatever...

Took a bus back home after waiting a long 25 minutes while carrying my heavy laptop. It is a Friday and the roads are really super duper conjested. The bus took around 30 minutes to move from city hall to orchard! It's so freaking long that i fell asleep for 45 minutes in the bus. Of all my trips taking 171, this trip is exceptionally long which took slightly over an hour. Too many cars in Singapore nowadays and the holiday season is making the congestion worse.

A picture of the 1 page self-compiled formula sheet that we are allowed to bring to exam today.

Almost needed a magnifying glass for some of the tiny words. :)

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Losing Momentum (-mv)

I'm definitely getting slacker by the days. A typical day when i'm at home will be spent watching tv, surfing internet, reading newspapers and finally studying (excluding eating and sleeping). Last 3 papers to go, hopefully i can force my increasingly lazy brain to store all the information.

My insatiable greed for gadgets has got to me again. Been checking the internet for reviews of some digital cameras i'm interested in since i had already unofficially given my Minolta Xt to my sis. Really like the Casio Exilim series especially S500. However, the colours for the digicam are only orange, white and gray. Would choose black, silver or blue over any of the 3 colours anytime. The price is also unattractively high. I just hope i don't get too extravagant after the exam period, although i predict i would.

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A movie right smack in the exam period

Went out with Derrick and Edwin today to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I have to say that it's one of the better hollywood 'horror' movies, although the show is actually a combination of horror, religion and courtroom thriller and it is not only about demons and spirits. The courtroom drama is as intense as the exorcism itself with the fiery prosecutor and the determined defence lawyer. The story of Emily Rose is immersely engaging as well as we see the deteoriation of her mental and physical health after her unfortunate encounter with demons. Emily transforms from a pious and well-behaved girl to a bug-eating, body contorting, tongues-speaking, violent, possessed "thing". And it is based on a true story!

Laura Linney does a great job as the defence lawyer confronted with her morality although she had been harassed by forces of the unknown. It is a disturbing film that will make you rethink the existence of dark forces, unless you are already a believer.

Read this article for the real story of "Emily Rose" whose real name is Anneliese Michel. Click here for the real story! The movie doesn't deviate much from the true story other than the verdict.

After the movie, we had dinner at a food court before walking around window shopping. Hadn't been to orchard for some time and there are really lots of christmas decorations outside shopping centres and orchard road. Took a few pictures with the giant christmas tree outside Paragon before heading back home.

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Hectic Day (but worth it)

Went to NUS in the morning to study with Daryl and Ks. It was a bit hard to get into the study momentum as 3 people studying is quite a crowd. Couldn't stop chatting with Daryl as i haven't seen him for quite a long time. Nevertheless, we forced ourselves to study for about 2/3 of the time in the library. After the study session, i went for my grandfather's birthday celebration at a West Coast restaurant with my sis on her bf's van. I was sitting at the back and it was incredibly rocky. Was quite nauseous by the time i reached the restaurant.

After waiting for about 1 hour for all the latecomers including my parents, we finally started our seafood dinner. The food was quite good but it came at a high price as well. We then celebrated my grandfather's birthday after the dinner.

Next up was supper at Bukit Timah with Edwin and Gs. Coincidentally, i saw Sgt Tiko and Zong Wei having supper there as well. I was already very full and i just ordered a drink. We had a long chat until about 1 am as we were deprived of our regular jc outings since october when the exam fever kicked in.

I'll be taking a break tomorrow for a movie outing. Been a looong time since i've watched one (according to my standards). :)

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..........

I didn't do well for my physics exam at all. Every friend that i discussed the paper with, i discovered new mistakes each question. The questions that they set were not "exam-friendly" at all. Firstly, they told us to draw graphs that were not drawn during the tutorials. After that was an abstract question which relied more on maths technique than physics. Not only that, my carelessness cost me half of one whole question and a part of another. Some of the questions i anyhow "tikam" to fill in the blanks. It's really demoralising that after 5 days of studying, the numerous questions i had prepared did not come out and those that came out tested strong concepts and brains. I'll be darn glad if i just got a B for physics. I guess the effort that i put in for the preparation will not be rewarded with a good grade.

The perils of an open-book exam. Why can't they make it a closed book exam and set those normal questions? It's just not very fair to make us do a question that wasn't taught previously. A warning for people with open-book exams, BEWARE OF THE UNKNOWN. What to do? Anyway the exam is over and i'll just pray........

and pray....

but i still cannot get over it leh, maybe tomorrow i'll stop thinking about this heartache paper. Sigh.............

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NUS once again

Went back to NUS today to study with Ks and coincidentally met David who was also revising his stuff at Science Faculty Library. Been a long time since i saw him and we had a chat for some time before hitting the books. I can't wait for the exams to end so that i can meet up with some of my friends that i haven't seen for some time. We studied until 9.45 pm as the librarian had "chased" us out by broadcasting some loud oldie folkie kind of music after the announcement that the library will be closing in 15 minutes time. It's really effective as many people left either bothered by the loud music or unable to concentrate on revising anymore. Clever.

Ok, no more blogging the next 2 days. I'll have to concentrate on revising physics.

Countdown til end of exams: 18 days

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KAP is a study hotspot

Been studying outside the past 2 days, yesterday i was at NUS while today i was at King Albert Park MacDonalds. The study area in NUS is bigger compared to NTU which has only 1 big library and some smaller ones. Also, NUS libaries are not as packed as NTU, which has a big crowd at the entrance of Lee Wee Nam Library every morning when it opens. NUS libraries are thus more quiet in comparison. Combined with the fact that i woke up early, i dozed off more than 15 times throughout my whole studying period with Ks in science faculty library. Felt more awake from 3 pm onwards though. Both of us then met up with Jianyu later at night as he had stayed in hall to prepare for the exams.

My study destination today was closer to home with only around 5 bus stops away. Met up with Gs to study physics together. It was rather crowded inside as it's a weekend and we headed outside for alfresco studying. There were a few periods we had to endure some smoke from a few smokers beside our table. After studying until near evening time, the umbrella shades was proven ineffective due to the angle of the sunshine and we were back inside the fast food restaurant where almost every table had either textbooks, notes or other forms of paper. Didn't know so many people frequented KAP to study. The advertisements from the speakers plus some children having some kiddie activities at the children's corner were quite distracting though. Kept on hearing "Pa la pap pa la, i'm loving it" while i'm sick of hearing it. The Chicken Little tune also couldn't get out of my head as the infectious tune combines non-english words "noma noma nomayay, my la hee..." with a techno beat to it.

We then walked over to the stretch of restaurants/kopitiam opposite Beauty World to have our dinner before going back home. 3 more days left to study for my physics exam. I'll have to put more effort in it as it's my weaker subject. I'm ok with maths, econs and everything else except physics.

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Slacker me

Feeling much better after taking a breather during my 22 day exam period. I'm back to lazing around watching tv, surfing net, playing pool and games on my handphone. Going NUS tml to study with Ks. Going to start studying real soon, but at least i got real people to complain to when i'm studying rite? Ha... My 1 week of sickness is coming to an end as well. :)

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Studying is seriously bad for health!

I haven't blogged in weeks! Not much time for blogging recently with the workload and the revision. 2 of my exams are over as of today! 4 more to go... Felt that i did ok but could have been better.

I've changed. I'm no longer the slacker but more like a bookworm. Sucks! Everything i do now is against my will. I think the only subject which i liked in the past was geography and nothing else. Still got 4 exams which i haven't really touched on yet. The next exam i'm having is on 10 Nov and i'm planning to relax these few days. My exam schedule is quite spread out and there are at least 3 days to study for each exam.

I guess too much studying has made me more grouchy. Studied together with Anthony last thursday from late afternoon til 6 am in the morning. Got a sore throat after 1 day which developed into flu and cough. Felt really bad yesterday from all the symptoms but the clinics were mostly not open as it was Deepavali. So i had to endure my illness til today as i was coughing and sneezing through half of the exams.

The last time i had an exam was during the A-Levels which was around 3 years ago. I'll be having at least 10 exams for the whole of next year. Excuse my pessimism but university has sucked my life away. Unlike JC and secondary school where everything is not counted until the final hurdle which is the Os and As, university makes sure we have continuous learning throughout the semester by the numerous tests and assessments. Well, i have my time management to blame for as well.

Went to NTU medical centre after my dual exams and the fee is really cheap at only $8.50. I need a break to recuperate indeed.

PS: Don't worry about me, i'll be back to normal after the exams (i hope?)

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Bernard 21st Birthday

Met up with Fuli and Weiming on sunday to buy a gift for Bernard who is meeting up with us later in the day. I suggested the Bugis shop selling watches and we got a nice analog Casio watch for him. We then headed to PS where we are supposed to meet up with Bernard.

Next up was the search for a cake shop and we got one at Carrefour. Bernard arrived late due to the pouring rain and we celebrated his birthday in the food court. Couldn't think of any other place to celebrate that has tables and chairs. It has been rather long since we met up due to our packed schedules and i guess the next time will be after our exams.



We stayed on until around 6 pm before we left for home. Was mugging throughout the night due to my physics test on monday and slept at around 4 am.

I need more sleep!

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Jimmy's 21st Birthday

School has definitely reduced our jc outings and i guess this will be one of the last gatherings before our exams. Ok, don't talk about studies, there is only around 2 and a half weeks more to my exams and i haven't really started revising.

After Clarence ended his lessons at 4.30 pm on friday, we set off in his parents' SUV to fetch Gs and Zewen at NUS to buy Jimmy's present. We headed to Bugis to buy a Casio watch and Kino vouchers. After spending some time deliberating over the design of the watch, we picked one that was not only budget-friendly, but also quite cool. Got vouchers worth $100 in kino as well.

We then headed to SAF Yacht Club at Sembawang where Jim had reserved a table in the restaurant for his birthday dinner treat. We spent a lot of time in the car travelling from one place to another and we were late by around 40 minutes. Luckily, almost everyone was late. We had our dinner just beside the sea and the view was quite good. There was also an indian guy singing classic songs in english, chinese and dialects, and the atmosphere was relaxed and cosy.

After having our very full dinner, we celebrated jim's birthday.

We then explored the area and found some outdoor jacuzzi tubs with adjustable temperature. We basically hung out near the yacht jetty and chatted til about 10.15 pm before we left for home.

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Comic + Horror?

Didn't blog much the past few days as i don't have anything much to talk about, unless anyone wants to hear more complaints of studying? Ha... I guess not. As usual, wednesday has arrived and it's my movie day! Clarence and i met up with Derrick and Jimmy at Orchard to watch The 40 Year old Virgin. Derrick was late and we had to watch a later timeslot of 9.45 pm instead of the planned 7.25 pm slot. Had dinner in the meantime and settled down on the tables and chairs on Lido level 5 chatting about studies, exams and holidays. Seems that all of us want to work instead of study, maybe when we are working, we will want to study instead?

The 40 yr old virgin is a humourous show with a heart. Besides the numerous jokes, the cast especially Steve Carrell, are natural in their roles and each character provides sufficient comic relief. The romance bit surprisingly works out although the movie focuses mostly on generating laughter. An effective show that can relieve stress.

After the show, Derrick couldn't find his car keys and we searched the area where we sat down for the movie. We proceeded to search the place where we sat before the movie with no avail. The cleaner and security guards also did not have anyone reporting anything lost. Headed to Wheelock BK where we had our dinner and it was a futile attempt too. While Derrick was trying to backtrack his memories of the car key before it was lost, he suggested that he might have thrown it away when throwing a plastic bag before going into the theatre. We headed back to Lido and decided to search the theatre or rubbish bin again. The escalators had been stopped as there are no midnight screenings in cinemas on weekdays. The security guard escorted us up to level 5 after activating the escalators. There weren't anyone else in level 5 except for a few cleaners and the security guard. The rubbish bin had been cleared of all its rubbish and we went to theatre 1 to make a final check again.

We pushed opened the doors and entered the pitch black theatre, realising how dark it was when the doors closed behind us. It was really really dark as the cleaners had done their job and no light was on. Adding to the scare factor was that the gigantic theatre 1 was dead silent. We could barely see our shoes inside and it was genuinely creepy. I tried hard to shake away the thought that i might see "something" sitting on the seats by putting effort in searching the car key and speaking continuously to break the ominous silence. My handphone helped a lot as it is equipped with photo light, or else we will be maneuvering blind in the theatre.

After about two minutes, a cleaner emerged from the entrance and asked whether we are looking for this, as he dangled a car key between his fingers. We were all very relieved to be able to leave the theatre. It was quite miraculous that the cleaner found the key as we had searched the area before we left the theatre the first time. Perhaps the key had dropped from his pocket and was accidentally kicked somewhere.

Got a lift back home in Derrick's car after the "ordeal". Going back to school later for two more lessons.

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A self-declared break!

Watched Dark Water with Ly yesterday night as i wanted to take a break from studying. The hollywood remake is not as interesting as i expected coz i knew the whole story from the original japanese movie already and the remake was much less spooky. It concentrates on the story and the characters instead, making it more like a tragic drama than a horror show. Perhaps director Walter Salles should stick what he does best instead.

Jim came to visit my roommate and i today as he does not have any lessons tomorrow. We planned to watch Corpse Bride at Jurong Point after having dinner at NTU. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were slightly late but watched the movie anyway. When the movie ended, we were all wondering how come it's so short. The movie was a mere 77 minutes including credits and due to our late arrival, we watched only about 1 hour 5 mins of screen time. Although it was good when the movie was screening, the shortfall in the duration couldn't help but make us feel slightly cheated of our money. It's an entertaining and humourous animation had we overlooked its length.

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Sigh of Relief

Finally, my 30% econs test is over. Was fretting over it during the past few days. Spent long nights revising the entire microeconomics and half of the macroeconomics section. The syllabus taught in this semester is more than what we learnt in jc for 2 years. Slept an average of 4 hours the past two days. Time to relax now!

Countdown to exams: 29 days
Amount of notes and textbooks to revise: Uncountable

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Seminar

Went to sing ktv with Ks in the morning and went back to school in the evening for my cca. The activity today is a seminar by some songwriters in a local company, Vision In Music, and they are to teach us the basic skills in song composition and lyrics writing. The seminar started off slightly late due to some technical problems. The first speaker was knowledgeable, engaging and humourous, providing many insights on song composition, current trends in the chinese pop music industry and even a live demo of impromptu melody composition using a keyboard. We were all really impressed as not only he can play the keyboard very well, he thought of a melody and beat within a really short period of time.

The three important steps towards song composition are namely, one: we should have mastered a musical instrument, preferably guitar, piano or keyboard, two: we should know "ying yue yue li" or music theory, like notes, bars, etc, three: we must enjoy listening to music. He also described the chinese pop trend in recent years from David Tao's R&B, to Jay Chou's hip-hop rap, to Mayday's rock. Also ,he encouraged budding songwriters to listen to english songs more as they are of greater musical range and the number of "inspirations" will increase. Referencing from chinese songs is not recommended as they are often the second-hand goods after insight from english songs. He then listed some examples of chinese songs that have been referenced from english sources.

Next up was a video presentation of the company's achievements and another speaker teaching us lyrics writing. There is just one condition for lyrics writing, which is knowing how to write the language. Many songs tell the same story, eg. guy falls in love with gal, they break up, and guy feels sad and lonely. However, there are many different ways to convey the story, the subtlety and correct usage of words play important roles in writing lyrics. He also quoted some lyrics from Tanya's songs which are well written.

There was a song presentation after the talks composed by the second speaker and the singer's vocals is really good. It was an informative yet interesting talk although i doubt i will ever compose a song in my lifetime.

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Pity the engineering students

After spending 9 hours and 6 hours on Sunday and Monday respectively in front of my computer typing my 42 page lab report, i spent Tuesday and half of today doing the chim aerospace group project after my lessons. I'm deprived of sleep, rest and enjoyment. There is still an econs quiz next tuesday which accounts for 30% of the overall score. Will be mugging during this weekend as well. Sigh...

Well, who tell me to change from accountancy to engineering right? Ha... Almost everyday i sleep later, wake up earlier and come back from lessons later than Clarence who is in accountancy. Took a break today and went to orchard with cl to watch Be With Me. Feels shiok to take a break from my hectic studies. The movie is quite a good local production, a docu-drama on hope, love and death.

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A missed opportunity

If i was a few hours earlier, i would have gotten my hands on this

Courts Bukit Timah is having a grand opening sale and the 4 megapixel camera is only selling for $199. So cheap right? It comes with 3.4 optical zoom and the size is very small also. By the time i reached, the 4 mp cameras are all sold out and there were only 3 sets of the upgraded 5 mp camera left which is selling at $299. The offer for the 5 mp camera is good but it's definitely over budget for a good bargain. Sigh...

Next time should wake up earlier on weekends to read the newspapers. :(

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Belated Mid-autumn Festival

Had my hydraulics extra tutorial today and went for the Mid-Autumn Festival organised by NTU with Fuli after my lesson. There were quite a lot of foreign students around as most local students go back home on friday night. Many food and game booths were set up and we attempted some of the rather interesting games, eg. pulling out a table cloth fast so that the things on the table don't drop down, darts with unusual scoreboard, etc.

We each collected a goodie bag after playing the games and went to see the performance. It was NTU Chinese Orchestra performing and guess who is the conductor? It's AJCO's conductor Huang Sheng. His hairstyle and his slightly exaggerated conducting movements has not changed one bit.

A picture of NTU Chinese Orchestra with conductor on stage.

Went to view a huge lantern set up in the middle of Nanyang Lake before continuing to view the stage performances. Our cca's was next up on the list and we enjoyed some melodious songs and nice vocals. The 3 singers were hand-picked in the auditions and they had performed well on stage. After taking some photos with some of our cca members, we left as we did not plan to stay throughout the Mid-Autumn celebration until 10.30 pm.

Coincidentally met Timothy again for the 2nd time this month on my way back home. Singapore is small indeed.

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Movie Day

Gs visited my hall today since it's NUS's term break of 4 days. Actually he wanted to study here but didn't accomplish much with the 3 of us around. Originally planned to watch Be With Me but it's not showing at Jurong Point so we watched Cinderella Man instead.

It's quite a good movie with some intense and realistic boxing matches. Renee Zellweger gives a knock-out of a performance as James' supportive wife and Russell Crowe delivers his goods as usual. Although the filming style is rather conventional, the story is based on a true life account and packs an emotional punch. It is without a doubt an effective inspirational story.

Cleaned up my messy room after nearly 2 months without sweeping or mopping the floor. Looks much tidier after i swept and hand-mopped the floor, rearranged the things on the table, etc.

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Bad Day

Been having tests after tests today and my brain is over-utilised. Compiled some formula sheets for easier revision on sunday and been trying to memorise lots of physics formulas. The material science and maths test are manageable but the some of the physics questions are rather ambiguous. At least i don't have to worry about them anymore.

Went to HSS library in the evening after dinner to print some new notes as i've never been there before. Bad choice! The computers are very slow in processing the print jobs and i have to wait very long for a big document. Not only that, the options i selected are supposedly correct for double pages but turned out opposite with respect to the front page. The worst thing of all is that it overcharged me by $2.60 as i've selected 4 slides on a page but apparently the system charged the total number of pages printed the number of slides instead. A really stressful and unlucky day. :(

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Can I Quit Uni?

Haiz... Been rushing through my assignments and revising my tests lately. So many things to study and so much work to do! Sianz... Still got my formal lab report totally untouched, my aerospace assignment that needs to be typed and my CAs. Arggg... Headache sia.

Just found out yesterday that one of my closest friends is attached. Happy for him for finding a soulmate but sad that he will be spending less time with his good old buddies. Why can't everyone of us be attached at the same time then the problem will not occur? I'm up for grabs, who wants me? Haha... i'm just crapping. I wonder how to sustain a relationship through the stressful university life though.

Ok, back to my mugging or i'll flunk my tests. :(

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Handphone Craze

Was downloading games and themes for my new handphone on tuesday night until 6 am! I was quite shocked with the enormous amount of games i can download from the internet and transfer to my handphone. Overall, K750i is really a thoroughly amazing phone although the ring volume is a bit soft in a noisy environment. The sound quality is great, the picture quality is great (except indoor shots), the colours are bright and clear, the ringtone and message alert customisable to play mp3, able to record video and sound, lasting battery life, and lots more.

Wednesday, met up with Bing Feng, Anthony and Xi Kun again to discuss the aerospace project. We planned to go National Library but decided to go SMU to take a look instead. Xk had asked his friend to bring us inside and help us get a study room. Along the way, i found out that SMU has significantly lesser students than NTU and NUS. Take a look at this picture i took in the underground passageway.

There was totally no one in the tunnel at the time of the shot and along the way to the study room, less than 20 people walked past us. It is a really conducive environment to study in but it feels weird that there are not many people in the school, considering the people space ratio in a JC, seconday school, etc.

Inside the study room, we set up the laptop and arranged the tables for discussion until we discovered that we cannot access the internet there. It either had to be correctly configured or we needed an account to access the internet. We left the study room after 10 minutes inside and proceeded to the new National Library.

Basement 1 was packed with lots of people and we headed up to level 7 (Reference section). People with bags are required to put them in lockers. Since we got no other place to discuss, we have to make do with the hassle of bringing the required materials after depositing our bags inside the coin-operated lockers.

We finally had some headway after we compiled a content page and collected quite some info from the extensive collection of reference books. We then split the project into 4 parts for our detailed research.

A picture of the cityscape from National Library Level 9. Click on the picture for high resolution of the picture taken from my K750i.

Met up with Edwin, Clarence and Derrick later to watch Kim Ki-Duk's The Bow at night. The story is as usual offbeat at the hands of the acclaimed director. The study of greed, lust and sacrifice is well-crafted but disappointing compared to his previous works, namely 3-Iron, Spring Summer and Samaritan Girl. The cinematography is fabulous and the setting picturesque, a fishing boat amidst the limitless ocean .The main flaw is in the story which lacks oomph and emotional resonance.

Someone stop me, i'm spending too much money!

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Busy but not doing homework

Monday, met up with my group to do the aerospace assignment at Woodlands Regional Library. It was not a very productive session as we have only 1 laptop shared among 4 people and the assignment requires us to gather much more information outside of our textbooks. We were searching the library for some relevant reference books but there were not a lot and we had to rely on the internet.

Without a clear aim and purpose, we wasted quite a lot of time and finally decided to have lunch. A break from the tough assignment, we spent a lot of time chatting about unrelated stuff for almost 2 hours.

Didn't have much to do at home at night and decided to tidy up my entire room. Spent a whopping 6 hours to set up my room TV & DVD set, clear all the mess and get rid of unwanted stuff. Tired.....

Tuesday, finally got my mother to buy my K750i for me. Extended my father's plan to purchase it for $438. Went out with Paul, Liyuan and Kang Rui to watch Red Eye in the evening. The show is exciting, intense and gripping. Rachel McAdams and Cilliam Murphy display great acting chops and make the crime thriller realistic. The story is tightly wrought and the pace never declines. Quite a good effort by director Wes Craven.


Picture of my new handphone

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Grandma's Birthday

My grandmother has moved into my house temporarily and it is her birthday celebration today. The buffet lunch is all vegetarian and many of my relatives came. As usual, i had a hard time greeting some of my aunties and uncles with my poor memory. Some of my cousins went up to my room to play computer games.


My family with my grandmother


Singing the birthday song

We had ordered 6 canadian pizzas also as we have to cater to people who prefer eating some meat. Everyone of us were full after finishing the pizzas and more and more people started to leave, except 3 of my young cousins who stuck to my computer and gameboy. I was thinking, contemplating and considering whether i should go suntec and buy the compaq laptop.

After much consideration, i decided to go suntec to examine the laptop further to see whether it's really worth to buy. However, my sis stopped me and brainwashed me into not buying a laptop. No more new laptop but i'll be getting a new pc soon (my current pc has an old age of 7 years).

Didn't do any homework as i couldn't concentrate with the number of people in the house. Tons left to do!

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