Chronicles of a Young College Boy

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Disney Cartoons!!...hhahaha..this week is wad i can call a flashback or a return to my childhood era of movies....mainly disney ones....lemme see..i watched cinderella....anastasia (20th century fox)....toy story.....hercules..... Mulan.... annd...Beauty and the Beast!!...wa beauty and the beast was really good..the songs and all r just so catchy....and they made it into a musical..i was thinking of mayb watching another musical during my stay here...but when i check out the price and its the same as the price of phantom of the opera...i was like..."Some other time, some other place..."... haha....but for some reason i like beauty and the beast a lot..for the songs...the story...every little bit of it...=)...
I also went to madame tessauds ytd....the picture shown above is taken from the building...pretty cool eh...anyway madame tessauds is a place where they hav all the wax replicates of famous ppl...like past presidents of america...movie stars...sport stars....and superman..hehe...then there is this funny part where they hav the chamber of horrors...i thought i hav outgrown the fear of going into scary places now...but i surprised myself man...my friend and i was like..."ah wad the hell...how scary can it b..."...then i go in first...there is somekind of curtain in front of me wif a pathway beside it...a hand come out of it...and it was moving like its searching for something in the wall..so i thought somebody from the technical services will come out...but noooo...it goes back in..then come out again...trust me...its not scary wif just my verbalisation...u almost hav to b there...then i kinda chicken out and move to other places of the gallery.....haha...fine ok...i admit tht i was pretty freaked...

Anyway...this past week i kinda think to myself....i know so many quotes tht my life values become intangible...i cant find a certain quote help me or teach me...so im going to finger on some of the best quotes and values i noe (some mayb my own creation...=))..so in not any particular order...
1) Courage is not the absence of fear, but action in the presence of it.
2) A person's personality and leadership is tested not under good and stable conditions, but under bad and critical conditions.
3) Resource is never the reason for success or failure, it's resourcefulness.
4) Always believe in the best of people.
5) People who causes you nothing but trouble are not worth your time, energy and thought.
6) Ignore defeat, but don't lose the lesson.
7) The level of challenges we are facing in our life now are there only because we can now deal with them.
8) We are not what we think, we are not what we say, we are not what we feel. We are what we do.
9) Laughter is the best medicine.
10) Love is the most powerful emotion of all.
11) Everything in life is a test.
There u go...10 values i believe in....i would like to elaborate more on some of them...like no. 10...love IS the most powerful emotion...because it has the potential to cause pain...suffering...tears...depression...frustration...anger...but it also has the power to spark a joy tht i cant put into words when u feel it...this love im talking abt is just not abt bf gf type...im also talking abt love for family and friends...its something so elusive yet so powerful...
value 7 is in other words...as u get better, smarter and stronger...so does the game of life getting more difficult, more complex, and more 'stamina-sucking'...

ok anyway this kinda ties in with an analysis of a personality of a friend of mine....so ok...to my good friend..this will be like a conversation to u from henceforth in this blog entry...(except mayb in the ending)...:
u wrote to ask me to reassure u tht u r normal by assessing ur strengths and weaknesses...lemme say something..You are completely normal...the feelings u experienced the past days or so are completely normal...u get hurt when people do mean things to u...so hurt tht u actually wonder wad kind of screwed up morals they hav....but the pain u feel is wad makes u human...=)...anyway...without beating more arnd the bush...here r ur strengths..they may not b much since i havent met u for quite some time...ok..the obvious one will definitely b commitment... its something which i still cannot understand...ur commitment to projects are so pro tht...er...well its something like the hierachy of commitments...not committed...quite committed...committed...very committed...then there is u....yea i noe from the way u work on projects like mad flushing day....chingay...all those stuffs....however...heres the catch...your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness....check out value 6 above....i don want to assume i noe wad happened..but if there is no there is no fire there couldnt b a smoke right...heh wad im saying is tht u and only u can see wad went wrong and assess u as a person urself...this incident tht u got into...there can b something tht u did tht may not b entirely appropriate...and thus causes the other party to feel how they r feeling now...so wad u can do now is to look back on how the incident escalates....from start to end...pick out behaviours tht u may tink hav made the other party unhappy...in the process ignore any upsetness (is there such a word?) u feel...if u cannot detect any behaviours tht u did wrong...then close the case with the conclusion tht u and the other party just don click....it happens once in a while...at least it does to me...
anyway if this memory of incident is painful to u...im going to teach u a technique tht may help u forget it...or at least put it aside anytime it comes to u....its called the distortion technique...i want u now to tink of the incident and pick out its most painful moments...now use ur memory like a dvd player...play them from the start to the end of this painful memory...notice how u r feeling....after u finish playing them...rewind them...then replay this movie memory BUT this time at a faster speed...then after u finish the movie...replay again...this time increasing the speed of the movie...continue this process by increasing the speed everytime u replay it...u can make it more effective by adding silly objects into the memory movie...like a clown, or mime doing stupid stuffs...at the fast speed...feel better? =) u can use this technique for every single painful memories...it works wonders for me...i wont take the credit though...i learnt it from AKLTG ...
Anyway coming back to the strengths and weaknesses analysis...ur second strength will b ur outspokenness...its kinda hard not to see tht as a strength in u...hahahaha....the outspokenness probably comes from confidence...the confidence ties in with your will....don take this good point for granted...bcos its quite valuable...i remembered i quote from a movie..."Training is nothing, will is everything.....the will to act."....wad im saying is tht this good point can help u making decisions....be it wrong or right...bcos some people can b too scared to make a desicion while u can...=)
a weakness u hav thts probably quite prominent is ur moodswings...now i just want to suggest tht this moodswings can b quite manageable...to a certain extent...bcos again i don wanna assume to know wads happening in ur life now....so anyway...everytime from now u hav a moodswing..wad u can do is give urself 6 reasons y u choose to feel this way...i wanna emphasize on the word choose...bcos no one can make u feel how u r feeling but u...its all abt interpretation of events...lets just take me for an example for a moment...u may remember there was one time in sec 3 when during assembly in the hall a sec 4 girl come and scold and raised her voiced at me in front of quite a number of ppl....her reason being i didnt listen to her asking me to give her class more space to sit on...so she blamed it on me and kinda scold and described me in colorful terms in quite a loud voice in front of me..so wad did i do in response?...NOTHING....i ignored her...one ear in another ear out...i choose to not feel insulted...choose not to feel wronged...choose not to retaliate...i don want to let her affect my power of decision...if i respond, she wins...u can ask ken yeo abt this incident bcos im quite sure he remembered wad happened since he was sitting next to me...(pity him having to hear the girl scold like hell..hahaha)...so anyway...im not saying this to brag...but to help u understand the fact tht no one ... can make u feel the way u do but u....except mayb love....but thts another story...=)...so everytime u feel the signs of moodswings...find the origin...find 6 reasons to justify y u feel the way u feel...then interpret the event in another way...=)..

hmm...i tink tht shld covers it all for now...hahaha...i hope it helps...=)

DanieL counted snowflakes at 9:26 PM

Saturday, July 22, 2006

wa this week stress man...firstly i went for a test...after the test i was confident in doing well...buuut when i got it back...wa...bad bad...then my interest in comp games for some reason all drop...don feel like playing any comp games at all...compared to my almost 24-7 gaming last week...u can say its a good thing...but when i lose my interest i don hav anything else to do man...dead bored..so i started downloading movie cartoons...like the little mermaid and aladdin movies....quite nice watching it again...=)....but theres only so mucha movie can do...then the past few days i started to search for my prospective university in mayb a yr's time...i looked at some of the unis i want and i was like...holy cow...so expensive some of them...my limit is my current tuition fee....above tht i don even dare to look....for now my choices r UC Berkeley and Miami university...Miami university is NOT in miami by the way...its in Oxford, Ohio....nearby wisconsin also la...u can see the campus of miami uni...soooo nice....i just love it...looks so peaceful and country-like....greens and all... even though it looked secluded...its actually ranked 17th in the US for its business program...my school now is ranked 46th....then UC Berkeley....its in the West...thts wad i like most....in cali...so mayb i can visit LA easily...and its a good school..business program ranked 12th in the US...heh i looked at all these schools i myself start to become afraid....the grade range r all so good...lemme give u an example...UC Berkeley 80% of the people get 1140-1500 for SAT...Miami 1150-1310.....u know wads my score?...1100...pretty scary...feel like i hav to retake the SAT again....
wa then wad adds to my stress is the school work..no they r not a lot...but they r tough!!....my situation now is something like the first time when i learn amth in sec 3...confused....frustrated...head-banging-the-table situation....lucky the prof patient...so i can visit him if i hav problems...oh ya...for those of u who hav the choice of taking amath or not...TAKE AMATH!!!..even though the subject says Additional Math...its not at all...it shld b made compulsory or something..bcos down here all ppl assume i noe amath stuff...well yea bcos i also go and take something im not supposed to take yet...but still...amath is so important...the problem wif spore education is tht they didnt explain wad amath is for....one time a friend said to me..."I don see the use of Logarithm in my life..."...well yea i couldnt say i can see the use of it at tht time...but man....when u get to college...they use all stuffs to solve problems like bank interest....use intergration to solve statistics problems....hehe...hav i scared u yet?...yea it is complex buuut when u get a difficult problem right...the feeling is like no other...=)
wa this week...erm i tink on wednesday....i had the worst nightmare probably in my life...the fear i experienced is soo strong tht it woke me up feeling like it just happened....the nightmare is abt me witnessing my parents being attacked....i was standing aside frozen not knowing wad to do at all...i wont go into the details of the attack...but the sounds of screaming is just so vivid and scary for me tht the nightmare is not finished and i woke up with a start....i don remember wad time it was...but when i was awake my heart was pumping like crazy...for a moment there i may hav understood the feeling bruce wayne felt when he witnessed his parents being killed in front of him....traumatic experience...its so disturbing....even now i still get a bit of fear here and there everytime i thought of it....

lol this week all like so stress huh....i just cant wait for the time where i board the plane back to spore....back to family...back to friends...back to familiarity...back to home...=)...its still abt 5 months away....

DanieL counted snowflakes at 9:43 PM

Sunday, July 16, 2006

yooo...second week in new york...hot hot hot....well its abt 33 everyday here...u can say its not tht hot but for a guy who has experienced an average of about 10 for the last six months...33 is freaking hot....so anyway...the biggest problem here is probably the firealarms...im not sure how many times do they hav to ring it so tht we get the msg...lets take today for example...at 920am...while everyone is still in their warm beds...they ring the alarm...so i got up...grumpily...and went down and see for the 8th time 4 firetrucks coming ringing their sirens so loudly...the best part of it is tht u can see the fireman coming down as if they were planning to buy starbucks....one is even smoking...i was like...heh...so im supposed to put my life in their hands when a real fire breaks out huh....nutty firemen....ok so thts for 920....then everyone go back up at abt 940 and went back to bed (its a saturday)....THEN at 1128am....only 3 hours from the last siren...the damn alarm is set off again...when i got up the first thing i do is curse....then the whole process starts again...go down and watch the fireman slowly walk into the building...-_-lll....
oh well...today i went for probably the biggest shopping spree in my life....i went to wad is supposed to b a factory outlet....theres like this huge land where there r many houses...in these houses they sell the products...hugo boss..gap..adidas..nike...timberland...quicksilver..calvin klein....versace...armani xchange...many many other stuffs....its supposed to b a factory outlet...but for some reason the 4 clothes i bought amount to 120 usd....i was like...hmm..where did i go wrong...its practically like a chalet neighbourhood where instead of having people as tenants...they hav products...=)...sadly i didnt bring my camera along...its a pretty nice place...

on my train home...i heard someone saying these words.."la...chiobu....like tht one..."...my mind immediately fires off the word "Singapore!!"..hahaha...true enuff...as i listen more..the famous grammar of singlish all made their appearances..hahaha..its quite amusing...but pretty ncie at the same time...don really noe how to describe it...its quite distinctive the singapore english when its spoken here..even if the las..chiobu...like tht one...leh....all r gone...theres still tht trace of accent...cos i heard a person coaching another person in the gymn..and he was explaining his intructions in perfect english....tht is...singaporean-english perfected...just like the pm talking..hehe...kinda nice though...now i noe..even though it doesnt sound tht sophisticated...singlish is quite a unique thing...=)...

this week i hav been having this fear....one of the rare occasion i usually hav of this magnitude...its bcos of this decision of choosing which major should i take...its like choosing wad do i want to do wif my life...its doesnt seem tht obvious....bcos my parents keep on telling me to go for business...where the people make the most $$...but for some reason i like psychology a lot...i listened to one of stuart's audio programs...he mentioned.."when u r willing to do the job for free....tht is ur dream job.."...for me..i will do counselling and consultations for free....i noe all the directions and wisdoms i learnt probably point to the psychology direction...follow my dream...but there r basically 2 problems...one...is tht i need a doctorate to b in practice....second...is whether i will make enuff money to support my family AND achieve my final goal of either opening a nature resort or funding one....my brain keep on telling me the facts and wisdoms i learnt...while my heart is just so cowardly at times tht im quite puzzled...yea bcos it tells me this is choosing wad do i want to do wif my LIFE...im only given one shot...so tht fear and doubt is destroying wadever courage reserves i hav....my motivational gurus says..."Never concentrate on goals like 'I want to make as much money as possible', bcos u will never reach it. Instead concentrate on the strategy of making tht come true...money is like the fruit...strategy the tree...money is like the bonus..not the real deal.."..i don noe how much i want to let myself believe this line...u can call me money minded and everything...but then if u hav my goals at the end of life...u will think abt the financial aspects too....argh...i will let a more powerful being show me the signs....

DanieL counted snowflakes at 1:07 AM

Saturday, July 08, 2006

New York!!...ehehe..im studying in the big apple for a summer session...its a pretty cool city man...but for some reason its not cozy for me...like just too many hutsle and bustle...i noe u probably will say "its New York!!"...haha..yea i know..but stilll...u will noe when u come here la..woosh..the living expenses here is also quite expensive...one meal average cost abt 10 USD....can u imagine tht....haha...the dorm is quite big actually...my dorm in milwaukee is abt 3/4 of it...heh but nvm..next smst my dorm room will b twice of it!!..hehehe...plus got own toilet!...don need to go out again...and more quiet...=)...
anyway i read eugenie's blog on reflections on yr 2005...i realised i havent don tht...was too bugged wif the move when the yr 2005 ended..=)..so here goes..im probably gonna add in b4 2005 too...generally from 2004 onwards la..since those were probably my most memorable tmes in sec school...

ok...lets start in the beginning of 2004...got into the class i opted for and was pretty pleased abt it...when i come into the class...i can straight away sense tht silence...its something i call loud silence...then our teacher mr nabil...did a pretty good introduction...he wrote on the board "happy new year."...hahaha..i can still remember tht moment quite clearly...even though i was -_-ll..i cant tink of a better idea then to start the in the new class wif a laugh...=)...so we met our new teachers other than mr nabil...the no-nonsense mrs ol tay...the memorable mr lawrence tan....the goofy mrs bs tay....the laughing powder mr marican...(haha i just add the memorable ones...)...then there was of coz the sec 3 camp...where we all started to glue wif each other in the class...sadly i left a day earlier for a trip to hongkong..=(....anyway...tht camp was quite memorable....still remembered the feelings of my arms after i rock-climbed the abt 5 storey wall...playing torchlights at night wif ppl in other pavilions...wahaha... then there was the sec 1 orientation camp...im not sure which one happened first...i tink its the sec one orientation first actually...i remember its a week long or something..wif one night stay on a thursday...then there was mid yr....which i don quite remember wad kind of grades i got...which is probably pretty average...ooo rite...then there was tht time where i try to b a monkey and play in between 2 tables..ended up falling face first and tearing my upper lip.... tht shock of seeing blood flow out of my lip like a leaking pipe is quite unforgettable...its like so painful for the next month or so...felt damn stupid everytime ppl ask...."how did u get the injury?".."oh i tried to b a monkey and failed miserably."...hahaha..
then there was of coz the weekly travel to bugis for youthexco meeting...then buy green tea wif yeos in 7-11,,hahaha...i remembered i got abt 120 hours of cip tht yr....quite siao....
heh...my highlights of 2004 would probably be the friendships made and the kickstart i received to go into the process of self-development...friendships made would definitely b harry...yeos...eugenie...darell...well these r the closer ones at least...the self-development part was kickstarted by both harry and the visit by author andrew matthews...which then leads me to finding all abt self-development and inevitably Adam Khoo Learning Technology Grp (this is actually the first time i wrote the full name of akltg..hahaha)...anyway the camp opened my eyes to the fact tht anything...virtually anything is possible ...and everyone is born with the same hardware (the brain)...which led me to the unshakeable belief of "if he or she can do it, so can I. Its just a matter of strategies."....short one one word description of the camp would be life-changing...i encourage u guys to go for the course..for more info got to akltg.com...

and of coz there was also the time when our class won the first place in a science physics competition in ngee ann poly...its just so awesome to receive tht trophy...the work put in was all worth it for tht moment of glory when they annouced tht our team had won the first place...i remembered my heart was like multiple nuclear explosions when i waited for our school to b called...then i made the speech in front of the school..which for some reason it came quite easy for me..bcos also the effects of akltg was still burnt into my head since its just the day b4 the speech when i graduated from the basic camp...so it somehow made it look easy...
I then visit the US in december to look at my prospective universities...got a preview of wad college life is like...then one day after i come back from the US...my physical and mental strength is truely tested when i go for the akltg advanced camp..which resembles something like bootcamp...me going wif the effects of jetlag....and still..i can proudly say i passed the physical and mental test wif distinction...gaining more knowledge of leadership which will bcome crucial in leading my team of psls in my last year of being one..

so we entered the yr of 2005...the yr of the dread O....the yr started wif the sec one orientation camp...which i can say was probably the best of my 3 yrs being a psl...mostly bcos i can bully the sec ones and my fellow psls bcos im an exco member..hehehe...well psls...u get ur revenge when u throw those buckets of water bombs at us excos didnt u?...so we r balanced..ehehehe....being a psl will always be one of the fondest memories in my secondary school life...=)...bcos can skip class also...wahahaha...just jk...well wad i remembered is tht my first haf of the 2005 yr was dominated by chinese tuition...mainly chinese...i got so sick of it tht when i was studying chinese my mind is there but my heart is not...like bcome robot...which lead to me getting a c6 in chinese...when i got the results in the auditorium...i was like...haiz...a bit no feeling...definitely a bit of disappointment..but i kinda already accepted it as a consequence of not studying it whole-heartedly...second haf of the yr was dominated by me studying for Amth and phy....erm..geo also i tink...bio i bcome overconfident and ended up the grade dropped quite drastically...while the most surprising thing is the fact tht i got a distinction for amth..i was quite ecstatic when i heard it...heh then there were the stupid times of playing soccer at the back of the classroom...the ball always flying out dunno how many times..playing wif darth vader mask....then use "lightsaber" to fight...hahaha...withstanding the long hours of physics....many many relatively small events tht make 2005 special...
lifetime friendships were also made during 2005....most outstanding will b wilson and cheryl...wilson...hehe...i can still remember the times where he dozed off countless times in class...hahaha..had such a great laugh..and cheryl..heh.. always being the most delightful person to be arnd...u can read more abt them in one of the entries i wrote in either march or feb...=)...
then there were the graduation night...i remembered waking up in the morning and counting the hours till its time for me to get into costume..wahaha..i made it sound a bit silly..anyway...i remembered repolishing my dressing shoes at abt 3...polish until abt 345...then took a shower and wore my suit...i hav no idea how to do up my hair then..which i can say is the one disaster of my grad night...then i met wilson..sherman..zu..lu..and went together to school... but the grad night was awesome...many people i saw in different lights.....after tht we spent some time in esplanade taking pictures...its a night full of memories...=)...the grad night was followed by class chalet abt a week after...it was my first chalet...so its really unforgettable...slping wif 6 ppl in 2 queen size beds is something u definitely will remember for a long time...watching scary movie series..which i laughed till stomach pain...barbecue..cycling...all tht jazz...fond fond memories of sec school life...=)..then there was the incredible holiday i had wif my cousins in indo...one of the best times i had wif them...long car rides...resort stays...incredibly stupid jokes...ridiculously idiotic moments...all of them make it wonderful....

haiz...just beautiful memories huh....=)....sooo many things happened during these 2 yrs tht its impossible for me to fit it all into one entry....both personal and public events....but u can definitely say these 2 yrs r probably the most enjoyable 2 yrs of my life till now ...=)

DanieL counted snowflakes at 10:57 PM

Sunday, July 02, 2006

First Session ends for summer!...yay...now looking forward to another session of class in the big apple...cant wait to go there and explore manhattan...watch phantom...see central park...and yea this week its SUPER SUPERMAN!!!..hehe..the movie is super super....i just came back from watching it....its like a 2 and haf hour movie man... a bit nuts...(max if u r reading this its ok, im planning to watch it again anyway in imax heh)....the first part of the movie was a bit draggy...for some reason i keep on saying to myself....wheres superman??...yea well bcos the first few part was well...catching up part...but after tht it was awesome...well im not gonna spoil the movie for u...but just one thing..theres one HELL OF A BIG shocker in the movie...catch it man...its really just cool....

Even heroes are not spared from heartbreaks man...kinda sucks isnt it...no matter how many times u save the world...no matter how many times u catch the bad guys...theres no way in getting off the hook from the thornbush of romance....it can be seen itself just from the superman movie...(and im not spoiling u any details cos this can b seen in the trailers itself)...well since superman had been gone for abt 5 yrs..lois now has a child...and she become so cold wif superman tht u can see it from his face....man of steel huh...hes a lot more human than we all think sometimes...

hmm...today is goiing to b a short entry....now its like already 230am..and the weather is seriously making me not reflect conducively...so i will take a raincheck on this one...=)..

DanieL counted snowflakes at 1:58 AM