this holidays went by rather swiftly.. i guess tt's because i managed to meet up with my friends for various outings, from sports to class reunion to chalet overnight stay.. not to mention e genting-KL trip in between.. gonna be a busy jan too.. school's starting.. and my b'dae's on wed.. and my sis is getting married e day after my mum's b'dae.. yup.. there's no typo there.. and btw it isn't a shotgun marriage, just in case u were wondering..

just a little sidetrack here.. had a nice dream yesterday.. always has been when i see familiar faces in my dreams.. e atmosphere is just so relaxed and fun..

anyway b to e hols.. there was also e big 4 interviews which i went for.. or rather e big 3, since i didn't manage to get shortlisted for PWC.. preparing for e interviews was a crazed affair, trying to update and fine tune my resume and cover letter.. not forgetting e preparation of e supporting documents.. actually e preparation was b4 e hols.. its only e interviews which were during e hols.. so in e midst of this craze, some of us found out tt we haven't really accomplished much in our 20+ years.. well, i guess wake up calls are never too late..

had a couple of hiccups in e interview process, some of which were rather serious i think.. anyway, it seemed tt e bleak job market outlook also clouded over this recruitment drive.. some take away from this interview experience was perhaps tt big companies does not necessarily equate to good HR practices.. i'll just give some brief background regarding this recruitment drive.. there r basically 2 rounds of selection/shortlisting.. wat e big 4 does during round 1 primarily involves classifying e interviewees into 3 groups: those who r shortlisted for a job offer, those who r on e reserve list and those who r rejected..

so for KPMG, i was 1 of e unfortunate (or otherwise) ones who was rejected (i later found out tt their focus was on e accounting grades and not GPA.. and it was on such basis tt they based e starting salary tt they offered to successful applicants).. anyway, i got to noe of e rejection through an email sent by e HR manager.. strange thing was, not too many days after, another rejection email was sent.. this time on a mass send basis, with e recipients clearly stated in e TO: fill.. well.. somebody clearly didn't remember this thing called e BCC: fill.. (sidetrack: e recipients were clearly identifiable through their email address, as it is e norm in such professional correspondence, to provide professional looking email addresses.. this means email addresses which spell out yr full name) and it was weird to find tt such an email of, presumably significant importance, was (re)sent by an intern no less (considering e fact tt e HR manager had previously sent an email of e exact same content).. butched HR job.. period.

and no.. didn't post tt cos i was having a case of sour grapes.. anyway, tt wasn't e worst to come.. was over e moon when i received DT's call of offer on e day of e EY interview.. so i thought oh well.. i could still go for EY's interview (although i was sort of settled on going to DT) to gain some interviewing experience.. turned out tt all tt i heard from my friends didn't happen on tt day.. there was no seniors in e waiting room to talk with e interviewees (which was not e case for KPMG and DT) and there was no office tour.. and during e interview itself, e words from e interviewing manager made me think tt i was at e wrong place.. stressing on (school) grades and performance every now and then, i had e urge to blurt out halfway through e interview: "hey.. i think i noe where u r getting at.. u want grades.. and my grades r not good.. so wat am i doing in this interview room?" TOTALLY NO SINCERITY. if it was grades tt they wanted so badly, den dun waste everybody's time by shortlisting me for e interview.. and just to add, e EY interview schedule was arranged in a declining GPA manner ie. those with poorer GPA were interviewed last..

not tt it was e end of e whole thing though.. it happened tt in round 2, where e big 4 call up those on e reserve list, EY gave me a call (of offer).. rather surprised cos 1) of e above mentioned event 2) it wasn't supposed to happen, as i had notified my school of my preference, which was den supposed to have been communicated to e companies.. just so happened tt it was a missed call btw.. and so i waited for them to call me back again.. which, as it turned out, nv happened.. and which, i attributed to e reason given above: NO SINCERITY.. anyway it was perhaps only good tt they nv called again.. cos i might have given them a crappy reply for e treatment given to me on tt interview day..

e primary school outing was beer at club iguana at clarke quay and desserts at e nearby TCC.. quite an impressive turnout with 10 ppl present.. nice to meet up with them after like 11 years.. although i still sorta keep in contact with some of them once in a while.. talked abt a lot of stuff.. some of which i dun quite remember being a part of.. like going to tommy's place for computer and board games.. although i do remember him bringing those stuff to school after exams.. anyway, some updates.. turned out tt ruth was e new face for new paper in '07.. and chee hui had scored some 9 distinctions for his As.. haha.. still as brainy as ever.. and laisan was actually alex's ex.. and joshua sounds so ang mo now, after having spent (still spending) a decent amount of time pursuing 3 majors (in a span of 5 years) in UWA..

thought this post was a bit long.. and yup.. it's over a thousand words le..

deleted maplestory from my laptop e other day.. well, haven played it for like months already anyway.. come to think of it, maple really turned out to be too much of a money churning machine for asiasoft and a ground for those ginnas to show off their uber godlike wow prowess.. puts me off really.. can't stand e monotony of staring at e same monster for hours, only to see e exp bar raise by some miserly %.. which den leads me to think abt slpinstory, a private maple server.. haven played tt for months too.. haiz.. to think of all e time spent on e game.. seems like a insatiable quest with no end in sight.. e time spent might have been put to better use and i prob might not be facing e grades tt i'm having now..

1,179 words

apparently, chung cheng tried to come up with some motivational posters for e juniors back there.. not sure whether it was some selection bias on the part of lynn (the pics below came from her facebook photo album).. it seemed like e majority of e ppl featured were from my batch of '01 and were people whom i personally knew.. anyway, i sidetracked quite some bit while searching for some stuff.. and guess wat i found? listen to 中正校歌 online! O.o and rather disappointingly, i couldn't manage to find those for cedar pri and TJ.. there wasn't even e school song lyrics for TJ.. -.-'''

yet another sidetrack note.. just realised, again, tt cedar pri doesn't have a wikipedia entry of its own.. wonder if i could kickstart it during e dec holidays.. foresee tt i would be needing a lot of help though, if i really get down to doing it.. also chanced upon (or rather, i went to find) e cedar pri young wing alumni webpage.. there was this page tt talked about how ex-cedarians could contribute back to e school.. and i actually gave some thought abt it.. i guess there comes a period of time when one would start wondering abt giving back to society, or more specifically, giving back to his alma mater.. well of course all there is now is no action talk only..

not sure if i mentioned here before, but cedar pri underwent some extreme makeover few years back and judging from e pictures tt i saw, nothing from e old cedar tt i knew managed to survive e makeover.. and coincidentally, i'm currently listening to my cedarian senior singing from my chinese jukebox.. haha.. kk.. i noe u noe who i'm talking abt.. and just so happens tt it's one of my favorite songs too.. lol..

so ya ya.. back to e topic.. i think e posters below are quite poorly designed.. quite clearly someone require a crash course in Marketing 101 and Use of Colors in Inspirational/Promotional Materials 102..



well i guess i've talked abt her quite some bit in my previous posts liao, so i guess i wont be saying anything more..



so i discovered tt lynn managed to get herself a 1st class honors in law.. v impressive if u ask me.. and she certainly seems to be doing well in her current job..



knew him since pri school, but somehow parted ways (not in e bad sense) when we went into different streams.. him into art and me into science.. bumped into him at NTU S4 just last week and it somewhat slipped my mind to ask him abt e progress of his band's latest album..



not exactly a v close acquaintance.. last heard tt he gained some experience working at a local chinese FM radio station.. and seriously, i cant stand it but to comment again tt e poster design sux.. couldn't read abt kenneth's achievements from e poster.. geez..

and actually, there's another poster of this guy who managed to grab some pretty impressive achievements.. but i thought he wasn't impressive enough in his character for me to post his pic here.. so there goes.. e end of this post..

ok.. i think i'm damn free.. or rather i'm not doing stuff tt i'm supposed to be doing.. was searching for my olympiad questions and stumbled on a treasure cove of darn nostalgic items.. maybe i should just talk a bit about e olympiad questions tt i found.. looking at those questions, i wonder how i managed to do them back then (cos i don't think i can even do the majority of them now) and even get e accomplishments tt i got then.. -.-

anyway, among e nostalgic items tt i found were my pri school chinese booklet of good phrases to use, gunung rabong packing list, sec 3? bio tutor's (ms sia?) wedding invitation, ncc treasurer related items, inter-class debate apeaker notes (quite unbelievable tt i still kept those), chinese newspaper article for our 'o' level batch results, straits times forum letter sent in by yixiang, me and i-forgot-who, chinese essays throughout my sec school (didn't noe my chinese essays were so lousy), CCHS times, TJ times, sec 3? script for a musical performed by me, kian pok, jiun han, brandon and tty (maybe i can type e script here when i'm free), batik cloth tt i dyed for some arts lesson, JLPT application guide, y-i-should-go-to-cchs promotional notes (O.o), SAT related materials (curse e constant change of SAT requirements for uni back then), JC project work stuff (together with my speaker notes!), music scores/lyrics from our friendly cchs music teacher, cchs graduation songs' lyrics.. truly a walk down memory lane..

hmmm.. was at my cousin's place last sat for mooncake festivities and was browsing along her shelf of books when i picked up this book on primary school maths olympiad 2000 problems and solutions.. was quite fun going through e questions and kinda missing e days when i used to represent my school in it.. there was actually 1 particular question which i had only just managed to solve.. and i was like -.-''' y didn't i see it..

anyway, was kinda surprised to be reminded tt cher hao had won e 8th position, individual category for the '97 olympiad.. quite an achievement.. well, maybe since i'm sorta free now, i'll just start working on transferring my dream posts..

saw this when i was snooping around on facebook: Liena's blog hmmm.. wondering what's up with e recent popping up of blogs from my friends.. now even zhen xi has one.. anyway back to e topic, saw tt Qin Jia and May Poh were also at liena's 21st.. tt's like omg! -.- i guess tt just show how much they have changed since i last saw in pri school..

so PA's over.. and school's already in e 1st week.. been bumping around during e 2 weeks break after e internship.. haha.. tt was before i caught on to facebook.. finally.. -.- anyway like i said earlier, such social networks really are eye openers for me at times.. to see how my fellow friends have changed over the years.. hopefully for e better.. lol..

many of e their looks have changed quite some bit.. esp e girls.. good to know that all of them are still doing well.. esp for those whom i have no prior contact via msn or friendster..

e interns had organised a karoke session during e last week of e internship and it was actually a much better experience than i thought.. well at least they were not shy abt singing in front of 10 other ppl.. and their singing were quite good too.. and erm quite unexpectedly, someone said my singing of 你怎麼捨得我難過 together with benjamin (yeah e one from my marketing class) was actually quite nice.. lolol.. tt's a first for me.. anyway i think i sing better w/o e karoke.. maybe it's cos i dun stick to e pace of e songs v well.. haha..

have been listening to a couple of youtube vids lately.. in particular those by 鄧麗君.. realised tt she can actually sing in quite a number of different languages such as jap, chinese, english and bahasa melayu.. and she sings them well too.. her english songs are so-so if u were to compare her with e original singers.. but i found tt her cover of I've Never Been to Me to be quite good..

anyway, i've been trying to learn to sing 3 of her more popular jap songs like 空港, つぐない / 偿还 and 愛人.. e latter is particularly e easiest to sing amongst e 3 and yup, trying to sing without looking at e romanji.. haha.. and tt's even though like i've yet to really master Only Human - K and Konayuki - Remioromen ..

and oh ya.. had actually forgotten abt e vid in e post below.. lol.. a really nice song too.. great vocals by a young kid.. there's actually quite a few good children singers out there.. or talents.. such as Yoo Ye-eun who paired up with Connie Talbot (of e Britain's Got Talent fame) for e song You Raise Me Up..

pretty rare for me to blog in such quick succession i guess.. but i thought i would just type down some stuff tt came to my mind..

as u may have noticed, i've added a few extra links at e side.. went to take a look at singapore seen e other day.. what with all tt hoo haa about stomp! the idea was quite good.. but was quite disappointed with the quality of the forum-ers tt they have there.. pretty immature lot so to speak.. of course tt is an over generalisation.. but tommorrow.sg's guys are generally more intellectual in their questioning and debating skills.. haven actually visited e actual stomp! site yet.. still a bit lost as to wat is e actual html.. haha.. guess i'll explore some other day..

this weekend had been a long one.. and finally one where there are no presentations and wat not to bother about.. even though tt was e case, didn't make much use of e 4 days.. couldn't find e motivation to study.. was just staring at e marketing lecture notes today for a long time.. although, game wise, there was some progress.. finally bought my wa10 purple wg.. quite ex though.. 38m.. -.- also leveled to 79.. currently at 79.3.. guess i should be able to get to level 80 before my PA.. still contemplating if i should aim straight for e piggy for my next item-to-buy.. or use my mesos for an overall, shoes or pc..

also managed to complete e hard level for e bloons game tt bra intro-ed me some weeks ago (link to e game is a few posts below).. haha.. and to think tt my friends got hooked on to it also.. i personally managed to complete it with 48 lifes.. believe tt i can achieve a perfect score for hard.. was due to carelessness tt i lost e 2 lifes..

realised tt i don't have much contact, probably negligible, and sad to say, with girls this sem.. unlike e previous sems, i'm not in a i'm-e-only-guy-in-e-group situation this time round.. which i think is really bad for my social life (erm not because of not being in tt kinda situation, but rather a lack of contact with girls).. hopefully next sem will change for e better.. now i'm wondering if any of my current teammates are looking at this post.. lol.. shhh..

was feeling rather bored e other day.. and i went to take a look at cedar pri's webpage.. looked v diff from e last time i visited it.. somehow feel tt they have cut down on e contents.. but e video was good though.. was a bit surprised to find tt there's quite a number of malay and indian teachers there.. and 苏老师 is still teaching! after so long! and especially since e majority of my pri and sec school teachers have retired or moved on with e next phase of their life.. 2 other teachers tt r still teaching at cedar are Mr Sim and Mrs Tang.. knew tt 苏老师 was already an experienced teacher then.. but didn't know tt she had already taught for 31 years! really great teacher.. i guess with e leaving of e experienced teachers after my generation, e results churned out by cedar has been on e decline.. as told by my cousin.. hopefully with a few more years, e current batch of teachers would have become more experienced and would bring cedar to greater heights..

some updates on my friends:

pri --
shiyun, shiok hui, laisan, vivian (h9): ntu acc
ruby: ntu biz (marketing)
joanna: ntu acc/biz
may poh: ntu econs
ying fei: ntu common eng
regina, weiqi: ntu arts fac
sentill: smu biz
joevin: smu econs
chee hui: uk

sec --
victor: ntu biz h8 b42
yichao: ntu biz
marc, dennis: ntu acc

jc --
adelene: ntu bioeng
wei chang: ntu pyschology
kian boon: ntu aerospace eng

army --
jimmy: ntu com eng
weihao: ntu acc h3 G23
chuan sheng: ntu com studies h7
xin ping: ntu aerospace eng h2

lol... just when i thought my alma mater chung cheng had quite a knack for appearing on tv for various reasons (mainly news related to e chinese community), i saw an article on my pri school in todae's chinese newspaper... haven read through it yet, but it's smth about becoming a sister school with this pri school in chong qing... anyway lol, really amused tt chung cheng is actually quite despo-ly limelight seeking... i would think tt it's one of e more televised school in e country... just some days ago it was on tv for this supplementary lesson on tea appreciation (correct me if i'm wrong...)... oh ya, btw, cedar's principal change liao... it's a chinese now...

long wks ahead... things are starting to pick up in prep for the grand outfield finale... ATEC... SOC, field trainings, irritating characters, little rest... zzz...

just finished raeding emu's blog... hey emu, relax... can see tt u're really pissed off...

was talking to joevin the other dae... come to think of it, i've known him since pri 1, which is like 14yrs... and counting... he was telling me of his plans for the future and somewhere in the conversation, we talked about our pri school daes... recalling who made up our pre-pri 4 class made me feel old... haha... old nostalgia... tt's me...

have had some friends tell me in the recent yrs of how they either dun want to get married or dun want to have children and their plans for the future really set me thinking yet again on the meaning of life...

i find myself disagreeing with them on their view of marriage and children... practicality over idealism/romantism? doesn't work tt way for me... let them have a chance to fall in love with the right person...

i've been pushing back a lot of stuff tt i want to do... many of them have expiry dates tt go back eons... i hope someone will push me along... nag me... isn't it strange, sometimes the whole world around u might be nagging at u and u still dun bulge? and when this special someone comes along and (not necessary) nag at u, u'll start doing things... the correct person saying the correct thing and perhaps at the correct time... i'm waiting... for tt someone...

just a breakdown of who's where doing what now...

NUS
lynda, peiru, janice, wanjin: pharmacy
cynthia: bioengineering
wenyan: chemical engineering
jo anne: mechanical engineering
aiping: science
sirjana: biomedical science
vellachi: architecture

NTU
xinyi: business
szewan: engineering
yixiang, adelene: bioengineering

SMU
melissa: business
meiwen, yanfang: accountancy
meiju: psychology

Unknown(lol...)
weiyuan: biomedical technologies

19 years... 228 months... 988 weeks... 6939 days... 166,536 hours... 9,992,160 minutes... 599,529,600 seconds... hmmm... i look old, looking at the number of seconds tt i've past by, even now as i type in these words... nearly 600 million seconds old... wah...

wat have i achieved in tt time span? academically, i've sorta been to the peak and down to the valleys... can say tt i've experienced it all... had some achievements in my passion, maths, too... managed to get a gold in the maths olympiad... also learned a 3rd language... although it's failing me now... at least i passed the JLPT level 4...

physically, well... i've always been this thin... still trying to put weight... on napfa, it likes i'm flactuating between bronze and silver...

mentally, have i matured? certainly hope so... think it'll be better for other ppl to comment...

friendship, came to know a number of great pals... from pri school, Joevin... a bit on the talkative side... nv fail to call me each year to wish me a happy b'dae... from sec school, Victor, Lei cube and Kian pok... farnie guys to be with... just had dinner together a few daes ago and were talking about the old daes... Yixiang... hahaha... strange tt i started sec school sitting next to him and ended sec school in the same way...

and of course my blogger mates Agent Don and Major Mtzang... hey... yr nicks so fanciful one... wat about me? muahaha... spent a great deal of time with these 2... yap... we talked about everything under the sky... and beyond too... JC... hmmm? just realised tt i haven put in any girl's name yet... let's see...

in pri school there is huiyi... enjoyed the times we spent decorating the notice board... a great notice board-mate... haha... wait... oh no... seemed to have missed out someone... ah... how could i have missed them out? lup soon and ying fei... my buddies in pri school... still have fond memories of playing one-leg in the basketball court... er... btw, lup soon and ying fei are guys...

in sec school... elsa the mushroom head... lol... nice person to sit next to during sec2... and then there's ah girl - Peifang... not diff to remember how she use to just burst out laughing in the middle of the class... Xinyi... my competitor in sec 1... some ppl say she is dao and proud... she has improved since i 1st knew her... also 1 nice person to be with... Meiju... best monitress i've come across... always so perky and jovial... haha... suddenly remembered how she ended the note tt she gave me some daes ago... beautiful orange...

Lynda... seen her change through the years... always greets you with tt charming smile... the person who taught me the meaning of yi1 jian4 zhong1 qin2...

JC... Vellachi... if she this thing tagged to her name, it would be Vellachi the motivator... touched by her move on napfa dae, when she came down from the stands to join me in my last lap... Melissa... a sweet girl... nv got the chance to be suan-ed by her... must qie1 chuo1 qie1 chuo1 some dae...

19 years... and looking forward...