Swing When You're Winning

another week is swiftly disappearing into the nothingness of the past. and i am so running out of holidays! and the worst thing is all the clinics preparations... i so need to get all this clinic stuff settled... like how i need a freaking perio patient for the first week and all. going to go down to school and check on patient allocation tomorrow and see if i can get sth sorted out.

me and Shafiq got the sound recording done for the preventive project. managed to turn a time-wasting endeavour into quite a fun exercise. hope the voiceover does ok once Shafiq resynchs all the slides.

after the great dubbing adventure we + PJ went out for dinner at Suntec. discovered the joys of overeating at Fish & Co. specifically a menu item called Grilled Swordfish Collar. for basically one Yusof Ishak more, you get almost twice the fish, on the bone no less, and its good stuff! ate until i wanted to faint, and then ate some more. so if you ever find youself ravenous and with cash to blow, consider this a viable option.

today's Karaoke was very well attended. there were earsplitting moments, and there were moments where we were treated to the audio genius of Anqi and Wanyi... and i think i scared the class by remembering all the lyrics to This Love when the pirated karaoke had no subtitles displayed. what to do? the poor song got overexposed and it somehow went in. just like the wu ye tian which i kinda partially sang from memory since i couldn read the fan ti.

Qing Fei De Yi - Harlem Yu

He Lives, And Now I Know That I Shall Conquer Death

"there are only two kinds of people in this world, those who swing and those who don't" - Swing Girls

Easter is almost over! the musical is done, and now my throat can rest. got some kinda evil laryngitis secondary to a nasopharyngial drip. freaking irritating! it meant that even though i hit evry high F nicely i wasnt at max volume. the guys were quite dying... and having to do 2 shows was a killer! very heartening knowing a lot of hands went up after Pastor Mike's sermon though.

just to set the record straight, why do people think that the easter bunny and eggs have something to do with easter in the christian sense? had 2 people ask me if i was going to be in a freaking rabbit costume today. not funny. it was enough of a put-off to make me forget to ask one of those people to go for the easter musical. sigh...

went to watch Swing Girls in the evening. a japanese show that was an utter gem to watch. the characters are genuiely likeable without descending into pseudo-adorable cliche, and i swear they actually play instruments! not like the fake stuff you see people in TCS commit whenever they need to pretend to be musical, which is one of my pet peeves. the plotline is strong, and the gag sequences are funny without being overly hammy or show-stealing. this one is a show not to be missed!

Sing Sing Sing - Swing Girls

The Unique Solitude

another week of holidays gone by... coulda been more fun-filled of course but it hasnt been too bad all things considered.

got myself a little knight miniature from PI. something different to develop my painting with. and if the D1 vs D2 match comes through i can give it as a trophy. with like a bazillion layers of semi-gloss of course!

went to PJ's place after the Good Friday service to discuss clinic stuff, like allocation of the OD sessions and all that jazz. and ended up playing monopoly with her and Shafiq... it was pretty pretty good insight into our different game mindsets. when i get Shafiq up to scratch with DotA his meta-game may well be very kick-ass. if YH and gang don't keep raping the poor boy of course...

now listening to the CD which i got for PJ's birthday... burned it onto my HDD just now. it sounded a bit weird at her place, but its growing on me. very old-school crooner. perhaps it was a bit funny because the first track was bebop-styled Nat King Cole, who was taking some major liberty with the phrases.

She's The One - Robbie Williams

The Legend Of PrInCeSs_StArRi

yeah... so we were bored that saturday afternoon while DS was assembling Stan's new com. and so, in a flash of inspiration i decided to create a new BNet account and go trawl for desperate DotA players. and hence PrInCeSs_StArRi was born. success rate? one poor soul convinced i was a zha bor. he even asked to add mi to his fwenz list lolx *giggles*. and we lost the game, for the record. lag killed my ability to assassinate effectively, even as the Nerubian Assassin.

my new modem and router are hooked up! significant increase in surfing speed, and i can now put my feet up in my own room instead of at the study table! woohoo! no more booting my brother, no more fiddling with USB! happy days are here again!

need an outing... Stan's rigging up a Sakae binge on wednesday afternoon, and i need a good excuse to get out of the house. anyone interested please read yer mail!

broke the screw holding one of the silicone rests on my specs when i dropped it at night.... ended up with the distal end of the screw still stuck in the thread. the spectacle shop i went to couldnt effect a full fix cos they couldnt get the broken bit out, but they gave me a new pair of rests and screws for free! and then, left to my own devices on the way home, i hit upon the idea of using my pin-vise to trephine the broken bit out! score one for reading the textbook for pre-fab post removal techniques! worked out fine... though i couldnt actually pull the broken bit out on the end of the pin-vise, i managed to screw right through it and dislodge it from the threads so that i could put in the new screw all the way. happiness!

Come Around Again - Jet

Doing That Thing You Do

another long-remiss update. whats happened since my last update? plenty, probably...

DotA v6.02 is out! distributed to all of Clan BDS, and we had one trial run together. mixed reviews lah, really hope that the next few versions will be able to rebalance things and iron out bugs so that the community moves forward from 5.84c_v2. i mean... yeah old stuff good so far but life has to go on. and im developing a fondness for the mountain giant. Throwing people around is kewl!

got my modem and router but due to the phenomenal jack-up of forgetting my internet password, i cannot use it yet. damn. so much for better connectivity and surfing the net from the loo (yeah like hell i'll do that) and i'll be DotAing from the old modem tonight. will have it hooked up tmr morning though.. and then happy days are mine! no more kicking my bro off the com to play, no more hauling my laptop to the study table to plug in via USB, and hopefully no more of mum peering over the top of my screen at 2am and scaring the hell out of me.

Last Chance - Jet

Crop Rotations

finally i can blog after a few days of Blogger being bitchy and not letting me in. all that stuff to say, and im sure i'll leave stuff out...

got to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events. the reviews were accurate. Jim Carrey is not scarey enough for a mail villain. the best thing about the show is the Baudelaire children and the visuals. the costumes look really funky in a period way, and the set design is pretty good. suppose i should go get the books... heard theyre really good.

DotA with Clan BDS has been a bit rough lately. oppo is either beyond easy or mad skilled. it ranges from games where i cant even get Power Treads by level 16, to a game where i got a Skadi for Rooftrellen by level 21! never ever been able to do that!

Standing Bird - Love Psychedelico

Hop, Skip And Jump

its the last paper of my 2nd Pro Exams tomorrow! and to extend my trend of disgusting happiness, i got to watch a movie and buy CDs yesterday!

caught Robots with Jo after orchestra. unfortunately, it wasnt quite up to scratch. visuals were top notch, excellent animation work. good voice characterisation too. but unfortunately this movie runs on individual gags without a string plot. the 2 female leads were not developed (see i cant even remember their names) and so we saw nothing happen to the rivalry between them for the male lead, whatever his name may have been. many many screwball moments from the character voiced by Robin Williams, and he goes home as he most memorable robot. nothing has topped The Incredibles...

listening to my new (old) Love Psychedelico CD. good stuff! in fact it even seems nicer then their 3rd CD, the one that i bought first. have yet to listen to the Kiroro, but im sure its gonna be good! and my fragging music collection is hereby declared to have increased.

washed, de-flashed and half-pinned a mini, waiting for it to dry up so that i can go and spray-prime it. i havent done this for so long! hope she turns out nice... was actually thinking of seeing if i can come up with a fantasy mini as a trophy for the D2 vs D1 DotA match... see if my generosity survives a meeting with my wallet.

I Will Be With You - Love Psychedelico

Cloud Age Symphony

its finally over! all the theory papers are done up, and i feel pretty good! just a patho practical on monday and im done.

a bit saddened tho by the small response to going out today. i guess its one of the more common laments on this blog but the class is really getting dead. and its extending to even the more fun people. the ones who used to bring a smile to my face are now looking so drained even after the last theory paper. its quite worrying really, we still have like 2 more years worth of time together. and if everyone is gonna go solo how will we survive? it's going to be miserable!

one game of DotA with clan BDS so far. it was a noob-thrashing festival. pity Mao and Shafiq werent able to pick up copies of TFT due to what looks like a bloody nationwide shortage of TFT. how is that physically possible?

Cloud Age Symphony - Last Exile

When The Wind Blows From The North, Leaves Fly South

Day 2: Pathology And Microbiology complete. looks somewhat more passable than i was expecting! at least the patho questions werent on obscure stuff.... but dammit i studied all the obscure stuff! nooooooo! and how the hell do you write more than one page on lymph nodes?

was somewhat inspired by Jen Ming the DotA addict today. Jen Ming is this medical student we met in the library after Stan et al hijacked my com to have an illicit DotA session in the library about a week ago. aniwei, Shafiq observed on multiple occasions that Jen Ming is a very mobile student. in the course of a day you might be able to spot him in at least 6 different spots in the library. and today i found out why... he stays mobile so that he won't fall asleep. a very proactive solution, compared to me. when i get tired, i just die at the table for 2+ hours. think i should try to stay awake more often in the library.

its lonely in the library today. no-one around my area from our year. trying to beat the loneliness with a good dosing of Wu Ye Tian... hope Shafiq comes along soon. this sucks.

Roll Over Deejay - Jet

I'm Getting Tired And I Need Somewhere To Begin

Day 1: DM is over! unfortunately this looks to be the easiest of my papers. trying to run in the patho/microbe now. just glossed the whole of Robbins omg. and im really not sure how much went in. and now for the microbe. its a traditional thing that while pathology seems more intimidating to the average student, microbe will be the one that delivers the most post-paper regrets. and so i have left it to my relatively more productive night hours to reinternalise.

saw a 350Z wheelclamped in the Science carpark. just a little something for the common man to rejoice at, the incongruity of such a kewl car being brought low that allows us poor broke car-less people to enjoy a petty bit of one-upmanship.

it was kinda nice seeing the rest of the class again, but they all ran off so fast after the paper! and hardly anyone's in the library. so sad and boring... its just me and the laptop-that-threatens-to-run-out-of-battery for now...

Im Falling Into Memories Of You

melancholic songs play on as i struggle through another hypo-absorptive afternoon. exams are tomorrow and i just feel so empty. and im going to need to find a powerpoint for my laptop soon. in a very strange kind of way, im going to welcome tomorrow. it means that i can get on with my life. go and have fun without having people prioritising studies over enjoyment. maybe even paint again.

my temporalis is killing me again. this is really the first time i've been aware of this kind of thing happening during examinations. rubbing it or putting a cold can against it seems to make it feel a bit better but i really hope for better relief in a short while. at least this is a pain which will go away. pains of the heart and mind are another matter all together.

its been almost a whole year now. will it end? who knows... the trip to china might just be what i need to free myself.

One Year, Six Months - Yellowcard

Geh Zhua

2 days to go to my papers. am i gonna fail? who knows? for the first time in my life, i really studied on a sunday. went to school from 7pm to 11pm and got some stuff in. and i've never felt sadder. what with the cold wind, lack of friends and backdrop of desperate M5s...

while going to the toilet yesterday, i saw a sticker on the inside of the lid. it said 'Remove Before Use' in like 6 different languages. and seemed to serve no actual purpose. now, why in the world would they give an instruction sticker that does nothing but ask you to remove it? a burst of weirdness that provided an interesting counterpoint to the draggy rhythm of yesterday.

DotA v6.01 is out. a partial bug-fix, and we hope that Guinsoo-sama can get more stuff fixed soon. Shendy and Juggy are still messed up. which puts the clamp on poor DTP's playing style. he persuaded a group of BDS_ to go and rampage at 11pm, and his gameplay was suffering under a hero with a very different play style. but we won in the end, which made him feel much better.

Sun And Moon - Schonberg, Boublil, Maltby Jr

Bells Are Ringing, Everyone Will Know

i did something i have never done before. i intentionally woke up early on a saturday morning and went to study. it wasnt as bad as expected, i actually managed to get some stuff in. the session was however quite gleefully interrupted by a long 2-hr conversation me and Shafiq had with Kok Siew, who is a Very Nice Senior. actually quite looking forward to next year now. really hope that i dont screw up the experience by not getting round to my competencies...

heres an advertisement for the totally excellent anime on central at 11pm from wednesdays to fridays! Last Exile has a gripping plot, excellent visual style, and pretty endearing characters. i wish i could fly too...

Bring My Love - Starsailor

Peaceful And Deep

it aint a good sign when i fill my blog with small things... it seems like a handy escape from the studies which are grinding way too much. must have reached saturation point a few hours ago.

the one thing this library lacks, beside a higher ambient babe concentration, is more power points. there is a severe dearth of wall sockets, and this means that even as i type i am sucking up precious batt power because stupid people with no electrical appliances whatsoever are sitting next to the wall sockets. every seat should have a socket for power and net access dammit!

Jet Lag - Joss Stone

High Speed, Low Bandwidth

today looks like a bad day... hardly anyone in the library. and all suffering from absorption problems. i hardly got halfway through viruses, and soon its gonna be time to go for choir practice. Shafiq already decided to stagger to hall and collapse for a bit, and PL did something i've never seen her do before... she came over and said she was bored! i might have to abandon microbe halfway and move on to pharmaco or sth... at least i can somewhat co-study bacteria with anti-biotics but nonetheless i feel as if my brain is full of cotton wool. and i want to lie down in a corner and hug a pillow and stone.

Blizzard just patched TFT and ROC, so any of you guys who are reading, please go get the updates from battle.net. this means a few changes to DotA as well... important implications for stat items.

Sleep Like A Child - Joss Stone

Emblem Of Grand Endeavour

today is the 119th anniversary of Founders Day. a day i commemorate every year as i remember my schooling life. i get asked why i still bother. why the past has such a hold on me, even though i no longer tread the halls of ACS with any regularity these days. even though my friends are scattered around the globe, and we only meet about twice a year. this school means a lot to me. it was the school that gave me a chance when i came back from overseas poorly equipped to study in singapore. the school that shaped my ideals of loyalty, friendship, excellence. the school which i served in return when i entered JC. and the school i hope my sons and daughters will have the opportunity to go to eventually.

amidst all the saturation of studies at this point in time, the stress and inability to vent it, i'd like to make an important announcement...

DotA v6.00 is now available for download! yes indeedy people, not the leaked beta but an official public version with many changes which will revolutionise the way that we play DotA. with such a huge volume of change, there are a lot of bugs and it looks like our D1 vs D2 match (already in the works) may have to be played in v5.84b. but nonetheless something to look forward to. and the new terrain is... swooshy! hoping for a release of v6.01 etc soon...

This Is The Last Time - Keane