miachenyze

Heh I warned everyone in my message that I have only 10 seats at home, and that they have to be prepared to stand around a bit...

But this really made me smile!

I had a sudden awakening just now. I can't believe it took me so long to realize this though. But well, it occurred to me out of the blue, that I've been too grade conscious so far. I do slack but I always kill myself chionging at the last minute, and I stress myself out thinking that if I don't put in the effort and that makes the difference between a grade, I'll be super pek cek (bummed). I relaxed in jc a bit, but then I was on the Dean's List for my first term at school. I didn't make it in my second term but ever since I've been trying to get myself back on it. Even though I suspected that if I actually did the math I might find out it's an impossible task, somehow I never allowed myself to completely slack off.

Tonight I was thinking that I probably will just go into teaching because 1) I don't care too much for corporate jobs 2) I'm admittedly lazy about working myself up into an ambitious job hunt 3) I do want to learn how people learn and inspire students to have a love for learning. I did consider Masters and/or research in Psychology, but I doubt I'll be applying for that straight after undergrad school, so that will means I don't really need a super awesome grade. I'm hovering above 3.4 and that's a cum laude, not too shabby and that would actually be good enough for most jobs.

Yes, I want to do well in school but what really matters to me, now that I'm beginning to regain senses and remember, is to learn and enjoy learning. It's quite ludicrous now that I think about it, the way I was trying to decide my skip-sosci-and-graduate-with-my-batch vs complete-my-sosci-degree dilemma. To sidetrack and backtrack a little, I've planned from the start to do my double degree over 5 years, but after attending this year's graduation ceremony I started wishing I were able to finish in 4 years with people from my batch. I had actually tried to convince myself to stay on track by telling myself that 5 years give me more time to pull up my GPA, and to space out my modules precisely to have more time for each course and score better. I feel quite ashamed now about how I had let the demands of life suck away my soul and made me so... pragmatic. 5 years means I might be able to take just 4 modules for some terms, and have more time to appreciate what I learn. 5 years means I can still take random modules just for fun.

I've been hearing and reading of numerous successful (in all senses of the word) people talk about the importance of doing what we like, and that along the way we will naturally do well. I did subscribe to that notion, but apparently (at least in the past few years) I've accepted it without having fully digested the meaning. To apply it where academics are concerned, I should be reading and learning to enhance my knowledge and sharpen my mind, instead of worrying about how they will need to be applied in quizzes and exams, or doing projects to have the most relevant content for the grade. To this, I thank my Spanish groupmates. We didn't just think about getting something prepared for our presentation - we discussed ideas endlessly and passionately. Our meetings were always so much fun, even if we are terribly lame. (=

So with this, I'm going to put in my best in my work, not for grades, but for knowledge.

Check this out! It's a reinterpretation of Disney's characters as part of Disneyland's promotions, and stars celebrities.

I love Rachel Weisz as Snow White. I've never quite cared for that story, but she looks just the part! Wow. I disagree with Scarlet Johansson for Cinderella though. She doesn't have that sweet, young and innocent look I expect from Cinderella. But thankfully she does't look all sexed up here, contrary to my fears. Jenifer Lopez ain't quite my idea of Jasmine either - perhaps Beyoncé might be better? Actually Aishwarya Rai would be great! Julianne Moore looks a little old but her red hair is awesome hehe. I was surprised to see Jessica Biel as Pocahontas, and frankly I have neither read the story nor watched the film but she did look suitable in the promo. Peter Pan is plain weird and it's too much of a twist on the story for me. And what's the thing with Beckham? Grr.

Still, I think the pictures were pretty well-taken overall. Heh.

Heh it's completely random but I have a new idea about how I want my house to be like! x=

I've been spending a lot of time studying in the school library, and I am really grateful for the sofa-table set up on the second floor. I might take a picture one morning when there aren't so many people but anyway, let me describe it a little.

In the collaborative study area, there are may round tables of medium height. Around the table are numerous sofa-chairs covered with fabric. They are cushiony yet retain a firm backing, which makes them quite ergonomic when you push them in close enough to the table. It's quite comfortable to do my work here because I am finally sitting in an ergonomic position! Of course, there are moments when I still inclined to cross my legs out of habit. d= I can also stretch my legs and lead a little against the backing to take a quick nap when I'm really too tired. In the middle of the table, there is a cavity in which you can find electrical points to plug your computer into. This cavity is accessed via two lids that separate it into two hemispheres. There are six electrical points so this table setup is excellent for group work. The sofa-chairs come in 3 different configuration: a two-seater and a single seat without armrests, and a single seater with armrests. Personally I prefer the two-seater. I like that the table is spacious enough for me to put my laptop, papers, and stationery on it, because I usually require both.

At first I was thinking that something like this would be excellent for my future room (when I move... I hope!) but well it takes up too much space for a bedroom, and frankly I don't need a collaborative space. heh. I might as well invest in a good ergonomic chair for myself.

However, I think this would be good when I have a place of my own! The table (or at least something similar) can serve as both workstation and dining table. For dinner, I'll just get a big enough placemat to make sure that nothing "drips" into the cavity for electrical points! The comfortable seats are great both for studying, and for relaxing for a long dinner.

I have two problems I need to work out though:

1. This is a good setup if I'm using just laptops for work but if I intend to have a desktop with dual screens, or even just one large LCD screen, it's going to take up space and... would just defeat the purpose of the collaborative table. If I simply set up my desktop elsewhere, I wonder if I'll actually still work on a laptop when I get home, especially if we come to the age of seamless data syncing!

2. I'm gonna have to clear the table for meals. This might prove to be disruptive or annoying. I might try to set myself to work just between lunch and dinner (say on weekends, since weekdays I'll probably just have dinner at home!) and just relax after dinner but well.. that might be too idealistic. heh.

But I really quite like the idea of this collaborative table. It's great for families to work together! (=

I really really hate being sick. Especially considering that it's going to be a long weekend. I am so annoyed. I've been sick since Wednesday and while certain symptoms have subsided, I don't really feel like there's a marked improvement overall because other symptoms pop up badly.

I'd felt perfectly fine on Tuesday and the days before, so I was quite caught by surprise by the bad case of runny nose and cough on Wednesday morning. K suspects it's a lack of sleep cuz I haven't had enough sleep since the previous Thursday night. Tuesday was especially bad because I had 3 hours of sleep the night before, and Roberta's impromptu birthday dinner (she wanted to have it another day initially) that night left me sleeping late again and with too much wine in my head too.

It was completely disastrous during Spanish class, having to keep sneezing and blowing my nose (it always makes me very self-conscious). I was so blurry-eyed that my friends were all (kindly) patronizing to me that morning.

I spent one hour at the clinic and another one and a half before the medicine began to take any "calming" effect. Such a bummer to be so ill because 1) I lost my $5 course fee for Barworks and 2) I'd really really wanted to get some drinks that night! Couldn't sleep much either because this time around I resolved to be diligent with my medication, and having to wake up repeatedly (1.30am, 5.30am, 9.30am) to take the pills really disrupted my sleep and pretty much left me without much rest, since I take so long to fall back to sleep!

Thursday was worse because I sneezed so much and really loudly during sosci class. Argh. Today, my nose is finally sorta-okay but I've been having giddy spells and nausea the whole day. I don't know if it's that the food at Jones the Groccer ain't up to my liking (since Euodia and Jac seems to like it) or if it's my nose and tastebuds playing with me. Grr.

But I owe updates about Jones the Groccer and Spizzico!

I've come to realize, that lunch tends to make me very very sluggish, even when I'm not overeating. I did notice however, that having a good breakfast actually does help to reduce sensations of hunger and I rarely feel hungry until about 2 or 3pm... In fact, today I was only beginning to be hungry around 3.30, and my average-sized KFC meal left me feeling way too stuffed! I would prefer it if I can take light (and relatively healthy) snacks as a precautionary measure against sudden hunger pangs (when fullness subsides). Unfortunately there are no desirable and/or affordably-priced light snacks around school. The only snack food around are the fried snacks, paus, sandwiches and confectioneries - boring, expensive and unhealthy in the long-term. I'm still trying to think of viable packed alternatives but it's tough finding something that is cheap and easy to prepare, which will also taste good hours later!

Another really odd thing is that the salty taste is very much amplified for me the last few days. I suspect it started with the Thai food I had last week with Robbie after studying. There was some sort of an unpleasant buzz on my tongue that reminded me of the stinging sensation you get after an onslaught on acids from pineapples. I suspected at that time that it could also be due to MSG presence in my food, but after the past few observations that salt is the more likely culprit. Well that's both good and bad. Good because the increased sensitivity would make me cut down my intake of salt, but it's bad because that does spoil my enjoyment of some of my favourite unhealthy food... and it will also leave me feeling unsatisfied with the meals I have outside, and subsequently depressed. *sigh*

Paolo is super duper sweet! I was just talking about going home to newly-bought Magnum ice-cream, and he whipped out his Ben&Jerry's ice-cream voucher that he'd won at the Food Trail, and he said "Give it to your sister. It's a present." When in fact he's always refused to share his precious voucher with us the last few times we tried!

But apparently he wanted to give it to her because he thought she was really small. He'd said that children should be given surprises. Heh. I finally convinced him that he should keep his super precious voucher for himself instead. But whoa, that was quite a pleasant surprise!

I read these articles in Today a few days ago and I was quite pleased with the comments given, because I shared a couple of those sentiments(which I shall bold), and the recommendations given assured me that they did the review seriously, as opposed to pandering to the content providers. The articles are from Thursday, 3 September.

( Thumbs Up for Local Sports Coverage )

( Some Good Local Dramas )

( Thumbs Up for CNA )

( The State of English on Radio )

( Other Recommendations )

You're Where You Should Be All The Time

yet another reason why I still miss Paris. *sigh*

Carrying my laptop is really quite problematic. I came home to realize that my wrist really really hurts now. And my basket bag is really hurting my rib cage too, but that's probably because my bag was too loaded today. *sigh*

So tempted by the messenger laptop bag d=

Hong Kong movies can really be pretty interesting. I wish more were screened and marketed at local cinemas. I am at fault too, because I rarely made the effort to catch them. In the past, that was because I watched most of my movies with K and he didn't understand chinese so I didn't quite bother. I really should keep a lookout though.

I don't often read technical tech articles like this, but it's useful to have friends on facebook who do post up the occasional easy-to-digest and relevant articles like this.

10 UI Design Patterns You Should Be Paying Attention To

It's the sort of thing that seems quite blazingly "common sense", but the sort that we tend to forget after one too many interactions with stupid systems and without giving much thought to them. The article generally practises what it preaches, and I am appreciative of the fact that it doesn't bombard you with lengthy elaboration. Just one thing: some of the examples portrayed weren't always the best.

On a wholly different topic, I'm glad to read this. Whenever people review processes from a more practical and sociological perspective, it kinda makes me feel happy. I think, if I ever continue with the IS sorta work, I'll probably go into process management... although I think my main interest is in process analysis and optimization, whether it's IT systems are involved is more of a methodological issue.

I took my exchange friends to hunt for some essentials at Watson's today and two events were quite eye-opening. But I'll just talk about Gab's hunt for a facial moisturizer.

She whined to me: "Don't you have any regular moisturizers for the face?"

I was perplexed and pointed to the shelf of Nivea products in front of us. "Uh what do you mean regular moisturizers? These are good, normal-priced items."

Then came the reply. "Yeah but they're all whitening! I don't need any more whitening! Don't you have something that's not whitening?"

hehe. And indeed, most of the moisturizers I saw around touted whitening/brightening claims (or those that don't are either for ageing, or just way the expensive atas type). Fortunately I remembered that Sukin Organics and Yes to Carrots had "plain ole moisturizers" so I brought her to look for them. In the end she took Sukin because the smell was awesome and she preferred something lighter. I think Gabrielle was also tempted cuz of the fantastic rose smell (me too! I'm running out of moisturizers! And I've decided that it's best to have 2 different ones, a light one for the t-zone, and a heavier one for night use to fend off the blast from the air-conditioner.) but she had too many given to her by her mom. Heh.

This is one awesome exhibit and I really wish someone could bring this (or a similar concept) over here! Given that the sounds and visuals are usually beyond what our senses can perceive, I'm really quite intrigued as to how the visualization team is able to mimic that. The quote on seeing in ultraviolet sounds quite magnificent!

Heh and speaking of exhibits, I've half a mind to get a closer look at the Science Center here too. It's a bit expensive but after seeing everything at Arts Et Metiers, I'm quite keen to get reacquainted with science again. On a side note: I am thorougly pissed at myself for not having seen the Jules Verne side of the Arts Et Metiers station. Merde.

( Virtual Reality Exhibit to Showcase Extended Range of Sight and Hearing That Many Animals Experience )

I have been rather lazy. I tried to check earlier entries to find out when was the last time I had taken time to write my thoughts down properly and I am ashamed to admit that I had to give up that quest because it was becoming embarrassing. Oopsie!

I have no real idea what to add here, but I am here because I feel compelled to make some attempt at organizing my thoughts again, and trying to be articulate.

I finally managed to borrow the book Sex and The City last week. I was so thrilled because I have been searching for it at the Central Library every time I was there the past few months (well, one and a half only, actually) and the few copies that Central had were always checked out. Unfortunately, the book turned out quite disappointing. I tried my best to be patient, because I quite loved the TV series and the movie too. But really, the stories were confusing (a plethora of characters with similar names and personalities and lives), repetitive, and quite trite. Sure, it was meant to be chick lit, and that's often quite whimsical/trite, but the narration in this was really quite awful! Somehow, the book wasn't inspiring in the least to me, and I am quite amazed that the producers/scriptwriters of the show actually saw the potential in the book and modified it appropriately. Maybe, they had simply noticed that there was some demand for stories of single women living it up in New York and had worked up the material... with very little character help from the books. Gee, the blurb says it's about Carrie, Sam, Miranda and Charlotte but if you read the book - you don't hear very often of these people. Carrie and Charlotte feature a little more often, but it doesn't give you the feeling that these are the protagonists. Hmm. It's again one of those rare times where the original book version turns out to be quite a let down.

Happy birthday, andi bro.

Laziness took over.. but it was coincidental that, having just read Backstage with Julia by Nancy Verde Barr, which reminisced the times that the author had spent working as executive chef for Julia Child's cooking shows, I should come across an article on food styling for the upcoming Julie & Julia movie!

So here:
article on Julie & Julia
behind the scenes food photography for the film

And of course, I'd have to make my way through Julie Powell's mountain of posts!

Sick and tired and I hate waking up early. Bccczzzaaa can't be bothered lah.

Love-hate relationship with the new pillow. I miss my Parisian pillow. o_O

/*
I just wanna go down to the riverside
float on my back till my skin's all white
and drink the day away

The job has up and gone and the money will be gone soon
So let’s sell some clothes
and see where that gets us

so cut your hair short,
cut your hair short, it's summertime
so cut your hair short,
cut your hair short, it's summertime

i just wanna listen to some rock n' roll
turn out the station till the speakers blow
and sing the night away

but i guess we're ready to roll
and i've got nowhere to go
so let's take the stroll and see where we end up

so cut your hair short,
cut your hair short, it's summertime
so cut your hair short,
cut your hair short, it's summertime
*/