Jeffirean Stories
Thursday, March 29, 2007
WOoHooOO!
It's the last week of classes and this week I had already cleared 2 presentations, only to be left with another 2, in the form of a game presentation later (which was supposed to have been presented last week) and a debate. The week has been a whirlwind man.
Last Thursday
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As I mentioned, the game presentation which I dubbed it "Leaduh!" (pronounced as lead-der) was supposed to have been presented last week but only to have it dashed due to my teammate being absent from school for a reason: oversleep! Pengz. Anyway I was not really pissed off, just kinda annoyed as it meant I had to wait till today to present. Luckily this chap is still very helpful as he finished up quite alot of work and improved the gameboard design. Hopefully tomorrow we can do a sweet and short job presenting it. As for the happier stuff, if I'm not wrong, last Thursday was spent at Marina Square and I ate dinner with Pika at the Imperial Restaurant at Marina Square, and we had quite a feast: 2 big bowls of la-mian (sichuan spicy and dumpling), 1 serving of xiaolongbao (4 of them), 1 fried pancake (congyoubing), and dessert was some pastry filled with red date filling. I say ALL of you should go and try the food there! The service's great, the food is worth a try! But beware of the big bowls, so maybe you would want to share instead as I felt super full after eating those stuff. Heehee. Still couldn't decide on which flipflops to buy from NUM. Maybe I should just give my $5 NUM voucher away. Any takers?
Last Friday
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Lessons and meetings filled the day up so it wasn't really fun.
Last Saturday
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Again there was the Ethics presentation meeting in the afternoon and it only ended in the evening. The SMU library sure has a very good way to chase you out, play a stupid song endlessly and you will get the idea. I went to Yishun in the evening and ended the day richer by $80~ heh.
Last Sunday
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Another busy day ensued because of the Ethics presentation rehearsal. I was very LATE for the meeting =x despite being in school on time as I had to process salary payments to the workers as usual. The day ended in hot temper between the groupmates, but it was more because of the extreme stress level that can be felt with all the deadlines looming. I wasn't really stressed out though. Had Shasha come to my home to help me do some financial and admin stuff and we both did were mired in paperwork till 10pm. Missed the 1st lesson of yoga...
Monday
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Ethics presentation was the key issue for the day and I guess we managed to pull off the presentation pretty well. Haha. My parts was kinda rushed though because of the amount of time we took. Was stuck in class until 7.05pm as the Prof had to give out mid-term papers and explained how the final take-home exam would be like. I got 82% for my mid-term~! Possibly the highest essay score I would have ever achieved in SMU, I say. And to think I did not even study a bit =p (I thank myself for paying attention in class). After the presentation I rushed down to the Strategy presentation meeting and it was a real culture opener as we discussed quite a bit about coffee drinking in North America and Singapore. (my teammates were all foreigners, remember? 2 from Canada and 1 from HongKong) We finished the project around 11pm and I took the train back with Jing and had a chat about her life in Canada.
Tuesday
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Again it was a presentation day and I did not manage to eat until 2+pm. Had nasi lemak in school, the chilli is really good! And since Jing was eating fruits, I had some too, ended up really full. Our presentation was the last of all the groups and they sure took a long long long time to present as we only began around 6.11pm! Eventually we ended around 6.45pm and I felt my ideas were really good, just that they were not phrased in strategic terms. The Prof made it clear to my groupmates that even though they only needed a pass, they should put in the effort to help me get the grades. I thought that was absolutely insulting. Anyway I do most of the work and they give me some ideas on how to make things better. And I appreciate it alot! Anyway the report is due next Tuesday so there is more work to be done with the class' input very helpful. Went to Pika's home after the presentation and had dinner there. Wahaha, and we played a short bout of mahjong!! I lost quite a bit as they played different rules. I was too slow in adapting in fact. There will be another round upcoming on Saturday! Woohoo~
Wednesday
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I repaid my sleep debt and woke up at 12pm. My meeting was at 130pm but I was too engrossed reading news until it was 1245pm!! Eventually after preparing everything, I only managed to reach the meeting at 205pm. OoPS! That was the 3rd time I was late for PMC debate preparation. Anyway we got our points done and order set, so we are ready to go! Had lunch around 4pm with my teammate. Wanted to go KFC but it was raining, and he was not keen to go PS in the rain. I was very happy to hear that since I did not eat anything at all since morning. Had xiaowantang (small bowl soup) and rice and more fruits. I think I should learn from Kenneth's father and set up a cut fruit stall. It really earns alot $$, man. After school I went to Singapore Pools HQ to buy bets as I was too lazy to go to PS and the bus stopped just there (hopefully soon I get to go there and collect $$). Heh. So I relaxed abit at home, watched tv, ate my mother's cooking (woohoo!) and did my CEO Talk Summary, and here I am, 2.32am, typing this entry.
Eileen has recovered from her chicken pox, so I hope she is ready to tackle schoolwork again. She messaged me in the afternoon to ask me to be her tyre model. Well I think I can be the tyre, grown so fat after CNY..... sigh.
I actually got more serious issues to discuss but now very late liao.. haha. Oh oh oh! I must announce that I'm going Taiwan next month~~~ woohoo!! Anyone got tips must share hor!!
Finally, KTV gathering is up on 6 Apr Good Friday morning at KBox AMK. Hope to have a room or two full of people for KLunch (saving $ to go Taiwan ma.. so this kind of timing, haha). If you are interested, let me know!!
From Taipei to Beijing~
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:48 AM
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Before talking about dou searching, I was at Bugis today after school and to my pleasant surprise, Jacky Cheung was in town for his album autograph session! He was 30mins late due to traffic delays as reported by the DJ Chen Liyi. Many people were standing there in anticipation of some "free concert" by Jacky Cheung as the crowd shouted "唱歌! 唱歌!", and of course he obliged and sang unplugged his new hit. I am sorry to say that the song does not have any impact on me and therefore it felt boring. Even after when I finished my dinner and returned to the area and that the queue was significantly shorter, I was still not tempted to go buy that album and get his signature. It is 2007, not 1997 when his songs were really WOW... His new album is quite a deviation from his usual style so maybe I find it hard to accept so...
The next thing is to warn everyone not to eat at Ajitei (a sub-branch of Ajisen Ramen) at Bugis because the service and food sucks big time. Have you ever ate an okonoyami without noodles? Theirs is a piece of egg, mayonaise and lotsa shredded lettuce. Is some mozarella cheese melted on top a block of tofu worth $4.80? Even their crayfish could not save them. Their desserts were also miles away from MOF and definitely Azaru Sabo. The service was terrible because when we repeatedly said "we need more time to think", they kept coming to ask what order did we wanted. While taking our order, even if we took a little bit of time considering, the waiter needn't had to be fiddling with his pen's retraction function. The "click click click" signified his impatient. Also, when asked what time we would like our dessert to be served, I originally said 30mins later but as the restaurant was closed at 10pm (we went in at 920pm), the captain said it was too late. I then signalled 20mins, he then told me that he would have to serve the ice cream separated from the accompaniment if that was so. I did not really understand what he meant until he brought the menu to me and explained. What I did not understand is the reason to separate the ice cream because it will still melt anyway given the time period. So I told him serve the ice cream NOW, but he eventually said he will give us 10mins. The joke is that the ice cream only finally came at 945pm (15mins after we ordered) so Pika said "very stressed eating the ice cream". Well, if you feel stressed while eating ice cream, something must be very wrong with the environment. I still have many rants but to cut short, they still do not understand when to use "Arigatoo gozaimasu / mashita" and their welcoming message which is supposed to be "Irrasyaimase" and I tend to hear "Irraisyaimase-n".
Oh well, generally Singaporeans are like that, no sense of excellence at all.
Back to the topic on "Dou searching", literally it means looking for dous. A dou is a pooh that looks like Sesame Dou who is now gracing the background of my blog. "Dou searching" actually made me think of "soul searching". This is because when I found a dou yesterday at Kiddy Palace, CompassPoint, the dou had its left eye lower than its right eye. In effect, it meant that the dou did not look good enough to made me open my wallet for it.
But wait! I was happy seeing the dou, it was really cute, and it was the only one left and I want it. The trouble was only that it looked imperfect and therefore lost its chance to come enjoy life at my home rather than to be stuffed with the other toys, waiting for its potential owner to come pick it up.
What if the dou was not a toy, but a person? What if it was a pet? So can we just ignore it and leave it to suffer just because it was not born with good, cute, attractive looks? Doesn't it still make you happy since it smiles and is huggable? So "dou searching" eventually made me did some soul searching.
But, regrettably, even as I see another 2 fine looking dous at Parco Bugis, because they did not appeal to me, I did not buy them too...
Do give a thought about it. Sometimes don't just stay stuck in the box of thought which you put yourself into it. Get out of it and imagine all you like, especially if you have the time. Haha.
Dou Charmer
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:47 AM
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Wonder if I should begin the post with complaints or memorable events. After an interesting week with the triumph at the tournament, there wasn't much reaction from my mates. I guess it's not really important in the eyes of my peers who are all preoccupied with their schoolwork and more serious stuff.
Yesterday(Saturday) began with a productive meeting in school and then a walk around in Tampines with Pika found us in the midst of the Converse sale. I was tempted to get the Kappa bag, which looked pretty interesting, but eventually opted for a stylish Converse demin bag instead. He finally got his desired purple tea, and I found another cream colour tee-shirt for him which will make him look good to go with his new hairstyle. Heh. Then we went back Yishun together but I went NTUC to buy groceries while he went home for a well deserved rest. I decided to take a short bus to Lower Seletar Reservoir to see if I can catch the SMU Dragons in action, but I guess I was too late. Only saw the VP Wilson talking to some chap. I watched one of the races which was pretty exciting. One of the lagging boats suddenly sped up as the whole team huffed and puffed in a synchronised manner. Wow! And there were many hunks and babes too =p The rest of the day I rested myself and went for dinner with my family at Chomp Chomp. Wonder if I should like hold a "eat whatever you like" celebration there for my birthday since all the dishes are so tantilizing! Hahaha. I had half a plate of char kway teow, some satay, a bite of pork chop (which came with some special garlic sauce), some sting ray and washed off with a few mouthfuls of sugar cane and lime juice. Heh.
Friday was the date of the debate we had in Performance Management and Compensation class. Our team was debating for the cons of the merit pay system. This time I was very tensed and did not spoke as clearly and calmly as the previous session. I was also irritated by the class' disinterest because of the chatter and the typing noise, so suddenly while I was speaking, I rose my volume in an attempt to signal to the class. Of course this did not go too well because it seemed to only exemplify my lousy speech skills. Eventually I think the class helped alot by asking and answering some questions that helped to raise our credibility. Wonder if this time we would be ranked higher because I seriously felt that many of the other teams did not prepare well enough for this debate. After that I went Marina Square and Suntec City to walk around but was very tired because of the items I was carrying: my shoulder-aching bag, my trouble laptop which was unnecessary, and finally the stuff used to pack my breakfast made the shopping trip very troublesome. Eventually the trip ended early with a sour aftertaste which I did not wanted to have. I could had continued, but fate did not really help since the clothes we were looking at did not come with the right sizes. I really like to see people trying stuff so that we can get a better idea if a particular style was suitable or not. With the number of items I carried, of course I was not in position to go try stuff. Sigh.
On a happier note, on Wednesday, my secretive plans for a surprise for the birthday boy were finally unveiled and executed with the help of my fantastic rabbit family members. Haha! Unfortunately, 2 little mistakes I made was:
a. Not to keep the birthday boy out of my MSN account because one of the conversation history was seen by him and it diminished the surprise factor. Damn.
b. To have the birthday boy sitting and facing the entrance of the cafe! Pretty dumb of me on hindsight. Haha.
Anyway the whole event was executed well, we had a good dinner and a precious but regrettably, a short chat with the rabbits recalling life in the junior college. Perhaps we could do this more in another month's time after we all battle the examinations and final projects.
Other sights and experiences I came across during the week:
1. The best time to sleep is on the train or the bus. Believe it or not, I think sleeping on the bus, especially those 40-50min one trip kind, gives me a good 4-5hr boost in keeping me active whereas a normal 6 hr sleep (which I deem to be inadequate for my lazy bones) crowns me the King of Falling Asleep in Class (KFAC). Haha. My classmates keep highlighting to me this fact that I think maybe I should think of switching places in class to somewhere less obvious.
2. Stupid Chinese lady yelling in the bus on the phone. I wonder which phone company had to be so unfortunate to get a negative advertisement, but if you read the previous paragraph, you would understand why it irritated me so much to warrant a point here.
3. My uncivic neighbours throw their rubbish at the dump area because some idiot on this floor damaged the step-mechanism which now means that the rubbish chute door had to be opened with the hand instead of the foot. So who should bear the brunt of this? The town council who needs to get it repaired? The person who did the damage? Or my unfortunate family, who has to deal with the unbearable sight as we walk past the dump area? Are there any other ways of making the dumping of rubbish easier and more hygenic? Do we need another bout of plague or SARS to remind our people what is civic-mindedness?
4. Central the shopping mall will overtake the popularity of Far East Plaza in the future! I think so because the stores are more funky and the layout of the mall is better than the overhyped Vivocity. Unfortunately, at press time, it is still not fully opened yet. You would be impressed by the number of Japanese restaurants operating on level 4 though!
5. Finally, I recommend you guys to try and buy the Ayumi's ABest2 album, and watch the 2006-2007 Countdown concert. I was really, really in awe of Ayumi's energy and bubbliness, not to mention her powerful and sexy vocals. The stage setup, the dances and all the musicians were WOW! I think I was kinda inspired by Ayumi to go shape up so that I can really wear all the really nice clothes and also to dance and entertain better! Haha. I am not saying I want to be an artiste, but I really hope that whenever I need to rev-up my mates who are down or bored, it would be really impactful.
Friends, my dear friends, do you think I am an arrogant, think-i-can-do-it-all but actually cannot-make-it person?
Siansational
Jefifre
Acknowledged my existence at
12:13 AM
Sunday, March 11, 2007
YO!
Wahaha, after a series of unhappy stuff, here I bring to you tons of happy news! Hope you guys will find hope in staying happy despite the term coming to the 2nd crunch period. Ganbatte!
Firstly, I'm proud to announce that I had just won the Winning Eleven X tournament (Xbox) held by the gaming club of SMU, Gamers Irregular. The tournament might not have taken place in the first case as Konami failed to obtain WCG (world cyber-games) official status unlike FIFA. Let me describe the matches I had played
Match 01:
I played against Prof Massi for the opening match of the tournament. He is the husband of my Italian professor last term! Haha, so coincidental. In the warm-up match he used Juventus and I used Barcelona, and we drew 1-1. Then in the real match I used a Serie A team, Inter Milan since he's Italian. The game ended 0-0 as I wasted several opportunities to put the ball into the back of the net while he couldn't play to his strength as Xbox doesn't have the R2 function. I also don't use that function either. In fact there are many special moves I don't know how to use also. Haha. Moreover both of us play the PS2 rather than Xbox.
Match 02:
I played against a guy who used Barcelona. During the warm-up I tried Lyon and it somehow seem plausible so I used Lyon in the real match too. He scored first but I equalised and took the lead in the last 5-6mins before the first half ended. In the 2nd half I conceded a penalty which I think was the computer's fault because I didn't press sliding tackle. But luckily I guessed correctly and saved the penalty. Haha. My defence of the lead was successful so I led the small group by this point. An hour later when the last game of the group was played. This guy beat Prof Massi 4-0 and hence I went through to the semi-finals on 4 points (1 draw 1 win).
Match 03:
In the semi-finals I played against a foreign guy whom I think is a Vietnamese. He won every qualifying group match using his Manchester Utd team. As I was running late to go IT Show with Pika, I agreed to NOT playing any warm up match, as the referee mentioned so before the game began. I used Valencia this time as I saw some guy using it and Valencia seemed pretty good and balanced. I made the team more defensive as I shifted the midfielders backwards. This time I took the lead first through a freaky goal. His Van Der Sar threw the ball out to the midfield which was picked up by my David Villa and I aimed a long shot straight at the empty goal. Hahaha =x. But it was not for long as he equalised soon after. Then he took the lead quickly after the 2nd half began. I had to chase the game while defending against his super offensive team (think C Ronaldo, Giggs, Rooney and Saha, and you know) My heart pounded more madly than the previous games as my attacking was far and few in between (though I had more shots on target). To my relief, at the death of time, during loss time, he somehow lost his concentration and I managed to take a goal back. Soon followed the extra time. With no goals scored, penalty shootout was looming. I saved his first spot kick but missed the 4th, so it went to the wire till the 6th player! I scored but he missed, phew.. but he protested now as he said he thought it was a warmup match and he wondered why I screamed after I scored the dying minutes equaliser. So the referee had to step in and explain to him but to no avail. Finally the referee suggested replaying the match with a 1 goal advantage to me but I wanted to say 1/2 goal since I only won by the PK shootout. But he seemed to have not listened so I did not really bother. The next match I used Liverpool instead and he lost his offensive prowess pretty much since Liverpool is great defensively! I again changed the tactics to a defensive one, and changed some players who usually are on the bench to start, eg Luis Garcia (who is my most favourite Liverpool player). I changed the tactics to an offensive one in the last 10mins, which Benitez used before --> 3 strikers! Eventually the game ended 0-0 though, haha. So I went through~
Match 04:
This guy had played with me before the tournament began as we were both early at the booth. He used Holland then while I used Barcelona, but we had the game ended 1-1. Of course there is no more warm up now because I was already 2.5hrs later than predicted. He used Brazil as he always did, and to suit him, I used a national team. I used Czech Republic! Haha. (the reason is because of Petr Cech actually =p) I switched the usual tactic to a 3-5-2 while he used 4-3-3. Now tell me who in the world would do so against Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Robinho (and the likes)? But this is where the beauty lies, as I had read a comic book which they switched a 4-5-1 to 3-5-2 with devastating effect. (comic books are of course not good material as reference, right? But I learnt the lesson behind that tactic change. =p Then during the game, I was defending madly because he is very very good at controlling the player (heard he plays FIFA on the Xbox) and soon fell to a goal after he got a freekick, in which Ronaldo was injured. (phew or not phew, i don't know) I swapped the tactic again after losing the goal by pulling Koller nearer to the midfielders. And the tactic worked! I equalised soon with a Nedved shot that Dida spilled into the goal. Soon after he took the lead again in the 2nd half but I equalised around the 70+min period with another Nedved effort. Haha. Then I turned the game around as a series of nice passes led to a great goal by my player and that was around the 82-83min mark. Defend defend defend, and yes, I won the tournament!
Generally, I felt that apart from the first match, the rest of the matches I played with a disadvantage as I used teams of a lower standard. Mighty Barcelona? Speedy Lyon. Mighty Man Utd? Lucky Valencia and resolute Liverpool. Mighty Brazil? Intelligent Czech Republic. Heh. =p
Actually I got to thank my brother for our countless challenges in the past few years. I probably lost 60% of all the matches played with him, I guess. But in the process I learned to be tactically astute and defensively aware because my brother is a attacking minded player and he usually buys up the best players around while I will settle for cheaper players. So now I have some #1 achievement in SMU which I can keep in my memory happily.
Wow, just the tournament itself took such a big space. The post tournament celebration included shopping at Marina Square (very hungrily) and finally we got a nice sofa seat at Ministry of Food. All of us, Eileen, Pika, Princess Pooh had ramen. I also ordered my favourite avocado salad and we had dessert as well. Wondering to post a funny photo here.... haha. But Princess Pooh says she will sue me, and I am afraid she will summon the 9 Dous to whack mee.. =p so let's keep it for private viewing.
Okie, the next item on is MIC' It! held on Thu evening. I had Pika and Eileen watching me sing. Personally I felt I did a bad job, but I guess I really lack experience in performing, plus even as Charles warned before to sing to my strengths, I did not pick a 'strong' song that can display my interesting vocals. Haha. Overall i felt good though because I had fun singing, learning and listening to all the great singers around.
Other stuff that made me feel great:
a. Being a part-time cruiser at SIM. SIM got lotsa eye candy! Best thing is the food and milo is cheap and nice! Haha. Okie, I don't cruise in SIM, to be truthful. I just like the food there.
b. Winning Texas Hold'em against Jinki and Kevin =p Haha, my luck was no good when we were on the mahjong table (but I only played a losing tile once leh, the rest is zi mo or others play one, so my skill is not so bad actually). But my luck spun for the better as Jinki taught us a new game. Heh, next CNY can play again, though my favourite game is still mahjong~
c. Eating lou hei at Sushi Tei. Wahaha, the lou hei tastes different from usual and it's really really nice!
d. Getting A for a project. I have not gotten an A for ages! Haha. Don't forget I'm SMU's lousiest student of all time.
I can't recall more but there's definitely more to this than meets the eye, but heck, as long as I feel happy, I'm happy! Anyway it's 2.36am in the morning now so I shall go to bed. Haha.
KTV challenge up at the end of the month wor! Please indicate if you are interested and which week is good. Usually I prefer going for K Lunch on weekdays and Partyworld on weekends. =)
Yay!!
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:22 AM