my little life on earth

winter break

2010-12-20T15:35:00.002+08:00

havent blogged in ages as usual but i think that's normal now. again, i blame school but since school is over for now, i'm back here again and i still dont want to go to bed, so i shall do a little update here.

fall semester is officially over! that means one more semester to go before graduation! hooray! ok not really. im excited and scared at the same time. i feel like i just got to berkeley and just got used to how to study there and then its time to move on again. i've officially decided to take a year off to really explore all the options i have and then decide on what to study and do a master/phd in. i know its definitely grad school in biology but as for what department, i have no idea. microbio? integrative bio? molecular and cell bio? physiology? there's too many options! and then there's the which school should i go to option. with the grades i have now,i dont think i have that many choices which also leads to the taking a year off issue so i could get more experience to make up for the grades. usually that sorta works. plus i still have the GRE's to take so gotta make sure i study hard for that too though i heard its not taken too seriously or that most departments dont care too much about that. most probably still berkeley though. why not continue to go to the best public uni in the world right? thats if they would still take me... i know my parents are thinking stanford or harvard one of those private school but i think i'll really just die. and i heard that stanford's grad program is just hostile. like the people dont help you with writing grants and stuff unlike at berkeley. i mean i've seen how the grad students are at cal since i work with them and i know how close all of them are which is nice. totally different from the undergraduate community too.

but i think i'll sweat more on that issue later. graduation is on may 16 (university graduation)/17 (MCB department). dont know if i want to go for both. definitely the MCB one though. and my relatives from hong kong are coming too. sighh so much pressure. i guess its also because im sorta the first to graduate from college, leading to all that high expectations stuff. i bet im gonna get all the so what are u going to do next question which im going to dread. lets just say more school for now.

next semester is going to be hard. but im glad i finally get my 3 day weekend. no school on fridays! hooray but i have long days otherwise. lab on mon and wed but the other good thing is that i dont have school at 8am anymore. that was torture. it wasnt that bad when i was at skyline but that was because i lived 5 mins away not an hour commute. big big difference. plus i'll be living on my own too with my bro so thats gonna be a change. good or bad, we'll have to see. i think i'll actually be more stressed out. i've avoided trying to think about it but i know i'll have to deal with it sooner or later not to mention my bro has been raking up trouble these few weeks.

so lets get on with a recap of this semester. overall a pretty good smooth riding one though i do have my usual complaints and rants as seen on facebook but i suppose thats normal too. beginning of the semester started out well. was on top of my classes, went to office hours and actually aced the first midterms but everything just got chaotic towards the end. professors started to get horrible and i stopped going to their office hours due to laziness. i even stopped doing museum work which i told anna i'll continue this winter break since i could work from home anyways. good thing or maybe a lil bad was that i had midterms almost every week which meant i hardly had any catching up time for other classes since i would only be focused on one class per week. pulled a record number of all nighters for sure. hopefully results would come out ok. i'm really hoping they did since my gpa seriously needs some boosting. plus i think i really studied hard and tried to understand stuff. like i said it was the semester where i finally learnt how to study. not that i didnt know how before but with the increased workload and difficulty i just needed something different to help me ace my classes. that meant going to office hours and studying more. lol. drank a record amount of coffee too. dont even want to know how much. bought whitening mouthwash to use just in case my teeth were gonna get stained from all the coffee i was drinking. mom wouldnt be too pleased. snail research was still the same if not more work. hopefully its gonna end this coming week once we get all our data in. then again, it would mean finding another lab job to do even though i dont know how much time i have next semester. met new people too which was nice. had our weekly friday lunch with christine so we tried out quite a few restaurants at berkeley. most were pretty good. would go back to most of them. yup, that pretty much summed up most the semester. nothing too interesting i think. just the regular hectic school life.
hoping next semester would be even better so i could leave berkeley with a bang!

so what will i be up to this winter break? disappointed i wont be going back to singapore this time. but parents are coming in about 4 days. since we're gonna be dealing with the new house and moving and all. cant wait to decorate my room!! dont know if i mentioned this but i really want to make it harry potter themed/ disney. they dont really match so i'm not completely dead set on making it all one theme. dont know how it will work out. and no i do not want it harry potter face themed. i wanted it more like having the castle picture (i have a puzzle thats gonna keep me occupied once i have room for it) and gryffindor/crest themed. oh geez i dont know. think it'll just end up purple/brown themed with pictures of harry potter and disney stuff lying around. all depends on how expensive everything is i guess. but im soo happy i'll finally be able to have friends come over again and just hang out without having to worry about stuff. parents are coming for about 2 weeks so we might travel somewhere close by too. dont really have a long holiday so wont be doing anything too exciting i suppose.

but i'll definitely be spending quite a while in singapore next year once i graduate. mom already got tickets for back to singapore on may 30/31 and back to sfo on august 10. so i'll be spending about 2 months if not more. might have to come back in july instead depending on the job i get. but definitely at least 2 months so im really excited about that. though at the same time, i wonder if i'll get bored. hopefully not. i'll be eating 5 meals a day exploring all the new places. hah. cant wait to play with my doggy too. havent seen him in a year and i miss him sooo much you cant imagine. he still has ticks too which mom cant seem to get rid off so im really worried. hopefully they dont irritate him too much and please go away soon. leave my doggy alone. find someone your own size.

alright, fingers getting tired and its midnight so i think i'll go to bed. update another time ie when i feel like it lol :)

HARRY POTTER

2010-11-20T14:24:00.002+08:00

of course what else would i be blogging about after so long?

but surprisingly or unsurprisingly, i have not watched it. was gonna watch it tonight but something unfortunate happened so will watch it tomorrow instead. my cuz wasnt coming home from school on a day that she technically doesnt even have school and on the way back, her car died on the freeway of all places. she was stressed out and felt bad enough and it wouldnt kill me to watch it the next morning lol. soo excited though. actually ive been excited the whole week i havent been doing proper school work. wait, i take that back. havent been doing any school work. been surfing the net everything harry potter related. i already told my mom i want a harry potter themed room so ive been online window shopping lol. though i cant find any good bedding yet. so if you see any, let me know. not that theres anyone here. lol. oh i actually read the book till chpt 24 too. dont see myself being so hardworking with textbooks. not a surprise anyways.

other than that, nothing exciting. just buried with school. this semesters brutal. midterms every week. but speakign of that, theres only a month left minus thanksgiving and dead week, really only 2 weeks left. scary but exciting at the same time. gonna graduate soon! though i have absolutely no idea what im gonna do with my year off. most probably work but i dont know where and who wants to hire me.

december's gonna be fun. parents coming, we're moving, maybe travelling a lil.

ok mental block. be back soon.

lastly, harry potter tomorroww!!!

who gets in charge of buying a house at 20 years old?

2010-09-21T05:25:00.000+08:00

i will try to be happy. i will like the house.

i really dont know why im not on cloud nine right now. we have finally gotten a house. super long story though even though we only know the house for 2 days. our offer was accepted this morning and the agent was definitely more excited than i was. i've been on an emotional roller coaster ride this past weekend. but more on this issue next time. for now, all i can say is i will learn to like the house more.

and urgh, its midterm season already.

never take things for granted

2010-09-11T13:30:00.004+08:00

i dont think we truely understand that statement unless we've had a close encounter. it really is easy to tell someone not to take things for granted but how often do we really appreciate what we have? i know i dont.

im still shaken by what happened yesterday. its all over the news. i see it when i step out of the house. i hear helicopters in the air and all the first thing that comes to my mind is that mythbuster style explosion. the san bruno explosion. i believe its even international news now. not surprised though. it has swallowed more than 50 homes, destroyed hundreds and took lives (4 confirmed so far) the scariest bit, i live a few streets away, like 2 streets to be exact. though it is kinda separated by a "main" road-sneath lane.

the explosion is so huge, its classified as a 1.3 magnitude earthquake. i was home. i felt it. i heard it. earthquakes happen occasionally. you feel the house shake a little and its all over and never heard of again. but as i was doing my laundry, i heard fire engine sirens and ambulances and cops and i knew something wasnt right. a minute later, my uncle calls and we turn on the news. live coverage of what happened. at first, everyone thought it was a plane crash. but no, a plane crash doesnt cause flames that a 100 feet high. it was a high pressure gas pipe explosion, cause unknown. i look out the window and we see black thick smoke on the hill behind us. calls start ringing in. i continue watching the news, watching the fire go. san bruno, the windiest area, the foggiest area was just blowing the flames everywhere. we were lucky the winds werent blowing our way but we would never know. so we evacuated to another aunts house. we just didnt know how the wind would blow. it was strong. it would spread but to where? took our laptops (surprisingly the most impt thing, then passports) and set off in the van. we referring to only me and my aunt. janet just got off school and the roads were all blocked so she went to another aunt s place. the highway and freeway were closed and everyone was just leaving. packed traffic. got to aunts house and watched the news. this explosion started at 6.15pm. watching the news, we saw the first house that was fire burn down to completely nothing in 20 mins. then, there were about maybe 12 houses affected. at 7.30 or so, the whole area was on fired. 15 acres. 50 houses reduced to rubble. people injured from burns. it was just plain depressing.

you just never think that sth like this would happen so close to home. you never quite see it first hand. and to think that people lose everything they have, its just depressing. a home is a place of sanctuary. its a comfort zone. sure losing a couple of expensive jewelry or being scammed hurts but losing your whole life's worth, that just cannot be compared. to come home to see your house burning in flames, thats just heartbreaking. the heat was so intense that people said they could feel the heat on their faces 3 to 4 blocks away. i could smell the smoke. cars melted, windows melted. these people have to start from scratch with absolutely nothing, not even a bed to sleep in or a place to retreat to that they can call their home.

shelters have been set up and donations poured in immediately which i thought was extremely heartwarming. but how long would these last. these people still have to get back on their feet one day and start all over. i dont know how i would do it. seriously i was scared of going home. i didnt know what i would see. looking at the news, i couldnt see clearly where the fire was. the houses looked familiar and i couldnt pin point where exactly they were. all i could see were flames eating up the houses. and i was just thinking. the death toll might rise but would we ever know? people would have been reduced to ashes. if the houses were gone, and windows melting, i believe that temp is high enough to reduce one to ashes. of course hopefully nothing like that ever happens but just from a realistic point of view. this was just bad timing,people driving home from work, eating dinner at home... glad its not weekends though. it coudl have been worse.

my uncle got home after work, we told him to check it out. we were lucky the winds werent directing towards us. power was out since 6.30 ish and still wasnt back on. wasnt expecting it too. they had bigger problems at hand. so we went home at around 10.30pm. coudldnt sleep though. the fire was only 50% contained. never know when the winds would change direction. i was physically and mentally tired though having to wake up at 6 for the past few days for school. so i did manage to fall asleep in the end. woke up at 4am though. didnt close my door or window either. i was seriously scared.

also, thanks to all those who called and sent messages to ask if i was ok. really appreciated the thought. i should have charged my phone. i was relying on 3 bars. since we were out of power, i couldnt charge it either and needed it to stay alive.

i got out to go to school this morning and the smoke was so bad i couldnt breath without taking in smoke. the atmosphere is still dark and gloomy. ironically its a sunny day today. this wont be changing any time soon. the area is still treated like a crime scene. i'll still be hearing helicopters from news station circling around. and its just going to remind me again. i think maybe this time, i'll really stop taking things for granted.

i could have typed this better but so much is going on right now i cant articulate this well. i can now say ive seen a mythbusters explosion. maybe even bigger.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2010/09/10/BAVQ1FBPMD.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2010%2F09%2F10%2Fba-concourse10_0502213912.jpg

1 more week to school!!! screams!

2010-08-17T11:15:00.002+08:00

im super bored now so here's another post.

spent the whole day at school today dealing with my babies. more eggs today! i'm pretty sure we have about a thousand snails now. we were talking about selling them to french restaurants or setting up a snail farm on campus. lol. probably just end up releasing them back into the dog park near costco where we got them though since there's way more than we really need. that is unless i can think of project which I wanna do. anyone with ideas? i really want to do another research project.

so got to school and started cleaning the buckets again. 4 more clutches of eggs. weighed and measured the hatchlings (the surprise ones) and my was it tedious. they're so tiny. they each weight about 0.0200-0.0300g. and about 5mm in shell size! i dont know whats gonna happen when all the others hatch too. we're gonna end up with 1000 measurements to take. thats gonna take forever! started the respiration reading and we made some mistakes but thats ok. as long as i know how to do them. went for lunch with jenna after. her treat :) had falafel. some sort of greek food. was good though. went back and realised we forgot to get sand and more tupperwares and lettuce. since there wasnt any grocery store nearby , we went into a sandwich shop and asked for lettuce. lol. the guy was i supposed pissed with us in the end. he kept saying i dont know how to charge you but ended giving up a couple for free. he was speaking in cantonese too. good thing he didnt say any vulgarities haha. he thought we were gonna feed rabbits with it. lol.

got back and placed the eggs into new tupperwares and counted them at the same time. our biggest clutch of the day was 125. smallest 41. hahaha. oh im so excited to go in next week.

gonna see a house tomorrow with tiffany, our agent. its on helen drive meaning a couple of houses down where my bro is living now. and i dont know the exact price but im thinking its in the high 700s which i think is ridiculous especially for the size. it d better be in good condition or i'd be mad. then again i think im gonna convince my parents not to get it. for some reason, mom is really interested in that house. i believe she s been bugging the agent about when its gonna be done. its not even on the market yet but tiffany messaged me today and said she would let me see it first. she asked if i was home today but i was in school and wouldnt be back till 5.30 so she said tomorrow instead. well, at least shes willing to give me a ride and back.

wednesday will be hanging out with christine. gonna have brunch at berkeley and then head to downtown sf to shop and she can get her free godiva chocolate. i already got mine when we went to stonestown the other day with cuz. hoping to get some shoes (boots/flats).

thursday or friday will be hanging out with kaye and catherine before school starts. most probably eating at BJ's then watch eat pray love. and maybe hang out at kaye's house? i dont know will decide after movie. this is going to be an eventful week before school starts. have to see the babies on friday again and depending on what time ill be done, work at the museum. havent been there in a while and i kinda feel bad.

caltopia on monday. woohoo! free stuff!! it is gonna be crowded! wonder who's going.. but i doubt i could spend much time there thanks to snailies.

i got my starbucks gold card in the mail today. has my name on it. lol. that;s how much coffee i drink. lol. 30 purchases to get a gold card. technically speaking, i could have gotten it much sooner but i didnt sign up for a card so all my previous purchases didnt count. what a waste. lol. i havent drunk that much this summer though so im happy. haha. though i have been drinking lots of thai milk tea thanks to my uncle who bought tons home. it almost looks like 30 cans to me.

i cant stop listening to colbie caillat's it stops today and you got me for some reason. which reminds me my cuz's are now at lady gaga's concert in san jose. thanks for not asking me. but im not that interested anyway. lol.

i want my snacks and stuff that mom got me but i havent gotten to see my bro. great. i hear i have a purple nike jacket muahahah. and chicken curry cup noodles. lol. and twisties. aahh twisties! why do they not have twisties here?

this turned into a long entry. now back to being bored. oh i recently got very amnused with watercolor pencils. its like magic. and my window deco set all dried up :( i need refills so i can play with them and decorate my white board with more minions. ok off to find sth else to do. lol

black friday? or surprise friday

2010-08-17T11:12:00.001+08:00

typed this post on friday but could only post it up today....

it's friday the 13th! did it happen twice this year? or was it last? anyways, nothing really unfortunate happened today. but but but that doesnt mean nothing interesting happened!!

so i went to school as usual today to clean the snails. i blogged that there were eggs on monday but i did not expect that many! apparently, there were literally hundreds! ~200-300! jenna had to stay till 8pm sorting them all out and putting them into tupperwares and then into the chambers. so since they took a week to hatch and another week to crawl out of the soil, i figured there wasnt much to do today other than to clean the buckets. but i was wrong!

i open the buckets and it was once again infested with mites! GROSS! so i decided to go ahead and clean them/change the soil. so i was scooping out the soil of the first blue bucket and i found more eggs! jenna said when she was taking out the remaining eggs on monday, she accidentally picked up a snail that was in the midst of laying eggs so i guess those eggs belonged to it. (snails are hermaphrodites hence no he/she) there were still about 37 eggs in that clutch though. hopefully i didnt dump any away by accident.

so next was the white bucket. now i totally wasnt expecting this. when i cleaned this bucket on monday, i saw that it was mite infested already but was too lazy to clean it and there was only one clutch which jenna took out. didnt touch this bucket at all other than cleaning the sides so i didnt know what was going on in this bucket. so as i was scooping out the soil to be dumped, more eggs!! 2 clutches! 80 eggs total!! i was right about to dump that beaker of soil into the trash when i saw white stuff and i was so glad i took a closer second look or i would have ended the life of 80 snails! wait, it was 80 +33=113 snails! so i called jenna and she told me what to do with them. at that point i said two clutches but one clutch was brown. i just thought it was old or weird or sth. but turns out they're baby snails!! so i guessed we didnt check that bucket regularly (it was always too gross to prodd around the soil anyways) so didnt realize there were eggs in there. i was so surprised! they were just probably about a few days old (from after monday). they just hatched and didnt crawl out of the soil yet. good thing i didnt dump them i was so afraid that i would have threw away some snails but the soil was just too gross for me to look in it so sorry snails. i didnt mean to throw you away at all. had to slowly look through the remaining soil to dig out the tiny ones. there were 92 of them that i managed to rescue! so we had to wash all of them, count them and place them into tupperwares. good thing jenna came by to help or i would have died. it was so tiring having to look through the soil and taking the babies out. then i had to clean/wash the buckets to get rid of mites, make food, and wash each adult snail individually. those mites better not be back. plus last night i slept pretty late so that didnt help.

friday the 13th

2010-08-14T14:32:00.003+08:00

i cant copy and paste?! lol. words up tomorrow pictures first. wait would that spoil it. ah screw it.

baby snails! see how tiny they are

remaining babies in the soil

9 chambers x 2 tupperwares = 18 tupperwares

18 tupperwares x average of 30 eggs each = 540 eggs?!

from monday. one cluster

how does this become so many eggs?! right do not judge a book by its cover

im going to bed. snails exhaust me

oh no summer is ending soon

2010-08-11T15:03:00.003+08:00

its a rocky start but at least its going somewhere.

dad doesnt like the house on cherry since its 714 (i dont get it. so there is a 4. at least its not 444, that i would understand) and because its facing a junction. he's afraid that a car might just slide down the hill right into the house. i just cant stand the idea of losing that house since its so perfect and i think its the right size. its bigger than the other houses we've seen only because they expanded it. but oh wells. we're not in a rush so i guess we're just going to take our time looking. i mean i will be taking my time to look. i just hope this wont continue once school starts.

speaking of which, i really must study so much harder this coming semester. my gpa is so deep in the mud i dont know how its going to be able to climb back up. and the pressure- mom just told me that my relatives want to come over here in may to see me graduate. like all of them. great. lets just hope my mortar doesnt drop again.

oh snails that i took care of the whole summer finally did their job and laid some eggs! i was soo happy. i really didnt expect it and usually i wouldnt look under the bucket since i dont want to be disappointed and/or disgusted but yesterday, i decided to and i saw white round stuff in clusters. eggs!!! immediately called jenna and she was really excited too. now we can finally do some science! i believe we have hundreds of eggs or so according to her email so we're going to have tons of fragile babies to take care of in a week or two. one week to hatch and one week to crawl to the surface.

nothing much to update now. still trying to look for part time jobs. but failing miserably. at least give me more students or hours so i can earn more. i actually have this sudden desire to work at ben and jerry's. its so close to bart and school. actually midway between bart and school. lol. but i think they have enough people. i shall look into that. i'd gladly take it for 5 bucks/hr. lol.

i think i'd go to bed now except someone is making me laugh so hard on facebook now.

goodbye house

2010-08-04T13:31:00.002+08:00

dont think we're getting a house no more as much as i really like that one house on cherry ave. the more i thought about it, the more it didnt make sense. Me and my bro are going to graduate in one year and we have no idea where we'll go after. If we bought a house, we'll be "forced" to stay in the area, which leaves only community colleges, sf state, uc berkeley, stanford, usf (could only think of these few now). i doubt i could get into any of these schools for masters/phd program with what i have now. and my bro is going to most probably be stuck with skyline college or any of the other 2 community colleges. plus thats only 2 years too. what about after that? we wont be able to go out of state since it wouldnt make sense to get a house then. i will definitely feel tied to the house. asked mom just now why we're getting a house on such a whim and she just said because the market and interest rate seems reasonable now. i dont quite think thats the end of the story. i know my bro is definitely part of the whole picture. the fact that he doesnt want to live with aunt e anymore. which i think then would be totally unjustifiable. even my cousins think so. and i think it really isnt fair to me and my parents. the house is not costing a few thousand, its a few hundred thousands and we're not filthy rich enough to afford that easily. plus we still have a house in singapore and rent to pay.

this whole house thing has slowly been killing me these past few weeks. i cant wait to be over with it. as much as i want to have my own place, like ive said before, i really think i can wait a while more or at least for the right time. when i know i will definitely be in the area for the next few years. my cuz just teased me yesterday that if we got the house, i would be a full grown up faster than any of them which scares me to hell. imagine all the bills i have to pay, and what should i do if sth goes wrong in the house like the washing machine breaks down. plus i doubt i can handle my brother. especially when he learns to drive which we are trying to prolong as long as possible.

im consoling myself now too that there will be another better house next time than the one on cherry like how i felt attached to the "baby house" but there was still another house that satisfied me. i shoudl just go to bed.. tutoring tomorrow.

house hunting

2010-08-02T12:26:00.000+08:00

this house hunting thing is really driving me insane

banana island

2010-08-02T01:59:00.002+08:00

is not an island full of bananas but... a singaporean malaysian thai restaurant that i finally tried. we had roti prata, satay, kang kong, some rice cake thingy and mango chicken. not what i was gonna really order but i was with other people too so yeah. my favorite was definitely the kang kong. lol. would go back there again just to try the other stuff though. it was on the expensive side however considering the portion of the food. it was really singapore size haha.

went bowling after. my first time going to a bowling alley here. didnt play just watched them since i wasnt quite in the mood. so i just sat and talked with 2 others who didnt play. oh i was out with a bunch of skyline mesa people since james came back from ucla. they did an hour game and by the time i got home it was 11.

also went to look at some houses yesterday with our agent. she's really nice. so mom arranged for her to drive me to see the houses since obviously i dont drive. i've already practiced twice and it is actually pretty fun. more on that later. so she and her (i cant figure out) colleague or husband came by and weirdly her parents live on the same street as i do. but the funny thing was when he drove over and stopped outside the driveway, our crazy neighbour came out of nowhere and started taking pictures of the car. it was a nice car though. not a car genius so i dont even know what brand it was. definitely a sports car so yeah. went to see about 7 houses and i really like one of them. its 1720 square feet which is considered big for that price range and its all nicely done up so we dont have to remodel anything. the previous owners kept it in good condition. going to see it with aunt today again. hopefully if we're getting a house, we give an offer on that house soon. it is still a little pricy but i think for what we're getting, its worth it. we'll see. cant wait to finally get my own place though that means dealing with my brother. lol. and also leaving this family. as much as i want more freedom and such, im happy here and theyre fun to be with too. i know my brother will be ecstatic though.

there were others that we saw in millbrae but for that price range, lots of work needs to be done. most of them had original kitchen and bath which means old and i dont like. though the neighborhood is a little better, i think i would rather have a nicer house. the agent said that if we wanted a done up house in millbrae, we would be looking at houses that are about 200k more which i think is ridiculous especially since the sizes of the house are about the same as those in san bruno and doesnt need any work done.

oh and i finally got my first ever pay check of 40 dollars! lol. considering that i only worked for 2 hours, i guess its not bad at all. technically, i already spent that pay check even though the cheque is still sitting on my desk.

think im gonna do more math problems now. wonder if i can study for the gre before school starts. think not.

and i didnt know how much i missed mom and dad. they called and just and i was sad. they just got back to singapore from taiwan and mom got me a purple nike jacket and lots of food for my bro to bring back muahaha. dad's going to pakistan in the next few days and i think my puppy is at the other house being taken care of since mom and bro and going to hong kong before he comes back. i want to go!!!

its sooo fluffly!

2010-07-24T14:15:00.002+08:00

finally managed to hang out with catherine and kaye today after so long. think the last time i saw them was last year. been more than half a year now! we've just been so busy with school (they're nursing students) and even though we live just 10 mins away from each other, we could never find time to meet up. so we finally decided to make sure we were free today.

had school in the morning but i couldnt focus on cleaning the dirty gross snails. just wanted to go meet them back at the mall near my house. had lunch and bought some japanese snack at ichiban kan. watched despicable me after lunch. its sooo cute! i like the minions and agnes! its soo fluffy!!! my new favorite phrase. i think im going to be annoying people with that. even though the commercials showed most of the cute funny parts, they managed to hide the real story. walked around the mall for a bit. cathy bought boots. they were on sale at charlotte russe for 20 bucks. really pretty but i thought i spent enough already at florida so i stopped myself. ate at bj's after before cathy had to go do stuff. had calamari, grillled chicken club and a pizooki! yums was soo full after especially since we just had lunch 3 hours ago. hung out at kaye's house after. really like her house. talked about research and school and life haha while waiting for cathy to finish her stuff. time passed soo fast! urgh. went to onyx after with cathy and got more food. jasmine milk tea and more calamari. ooohh i wonder how high my cholesterol level is. lol. didnt want to leave but it was already 10ish and i had to get home before my uncle did plus they had stuff to do the next day too. didnt realise how much we missed each other. so we're making sure we meet again before school starts. we had so much stuff that we want to do together- sleepover, 6 flags themepark, gilroy outlet shopping...etc.

now im back home wide awake since i had a whole bottle of deep french roast coffee and that milk tea. good luck to me sleeping tonight. lol. especially since i hadnt had this much caffeine since school ended.

other than that, everything else has been pretty mundane. found a tutoring job in redwood city which is pretty lame. it pays 20/hour but i m only there for an hour and travelling take about 2 hours and 9 dollars. so technically,i only make 11 dollars. doesnt even cover my one week travelling expenses to school. well at least im doing sth.

been turning down people too for i dont know what reason. its the thing about living with relatives. always having to think about them/cant get home too late/cant go out too often. not that theyd say anything but i dont want them to feel like im treating this as a hotel or sth. sigh i dont know.. mom's been bugging me to go see houses but im just too lazy and so used to here that i dont exactly want to move. i resist change!

ok im done typing. still have florida trip to update on but that will wait. heh heh.

summer as it is so far

2010-06-28T04:25:00.002+08:00

finally back to update after the longest time. but no one comes here anymore so thats ok :D

so what have i been up to these few weeks since school ended? nothing much really. just been going back to school every now and then to run errands like cleaning snails and organizing stuff in the museum. more on those later. then parents came to visit for a month so that kept me busy. travelled a bit which was nice. got to get away from the family i stay with for a while so that was a nice refresher. started to get a bit annoyed and blah but its ok now. went to boston and vegas which was really fun. more on that too. dad left for about a week back to singapore to clear up work so mom stayed with me in my tiny room. it was nice though. dad came over with his colleague the week after for a conference/convention. and sadly they had to leave after. in the meantime, my puppy was sent to live with someone else. apparently they love him and brought him for 4 walks a day even though he bit the owner and i think broke her finger the second day he was there so i was told. not exactly surprised. they say he's a good guard dog. hah i second that. a golden retriever for a guard dog. that must raise eyebrows. so thats my little summary for the whole month of june. seriously, june is ending?! only one and a half months left of summer. unbelievable!

off to florida in less than a week now. super excited. butterbeer, hogwarts, disneyland! what more can i ask for. should be pretty fun. i forsee a lot of laughing especially with the bunch of people im going with. the only thing im not looking forward to is the weather. hot, humid and possibly rain. urgh.

still unsuccessful in finding a job. got into a tutoring company so im just waiting for the right person to tutor now. 20/hour minimum so thats awesome.

so where should i start? school. grades officially suck. im doomed. the end.
snail cleaning has been okay. had a really gross day once. mites infested snails. most disgusting thing ever. so i took out the food dish and was actually surprised it wasnt touched (now i definitely know why) but i just left it near the sink. then i was rummaging through the soil to see if there were eggs and there wasnt any. so i just went on to do the usual. take the snails off the sides of the bucket and use the towel to clean off the sides. but when i turned back to the sink to get the towel, that was when i noticed the mites. it happened once before but i think it was just eggs that time. took a look closer and saw that the tiny little white specks were moving. at that moment, i was totally grossed out. texted jenna and told her and i didnt want to touch anything after. she went to get fresh soil and we emptied everything out later. had to give each snail a bath individually to make sure all mites were gone. some of them were covered. thinking about it now is giving me the chills. hopefully this never ever happens again. i dont mind cleaning poop but mites, no way. good thing jenna cleaned out that bucket and i took the other one. so glad i had gloves on.

went on a field trip to a park near costco to gather more snails to hopefully have them mate and give us eggs soon. was a good day. managed to get more than 40/50 snails i think. was really windy though and i was only wearing a short sleeved shirt. thinking about it i should have worn a jacket too. i started getting paranoid when we were leaving cos my skin was starting to itch, thanks to my sensitive skin, but i was thinking there might have been poison ivy and i might have touched it while getting snails. maybe its just me being paranoid and my eyes playing tricks on me but i thought i saw little red dots/rashes appearing. good thing it wasnt anything. been cleaning up the lab too. organizing journals which took a really long time and killed my back a couple of times. good thing its all done now. gpnna to clean up the microscopes next. hopefully it wouldnt take as long. really took for granted what was at skyline. everything was just clean and organized and we had all the materials we needed prepared and given to us. we were spoilt there. also helped jenna with her other project. had to search the database for all the families that were mollusca. had to do it one by one from the drop down box and arrange everything in the excel sheet. stupid me sorted wrongly in excel. i only highlighted the last column and sorted it alphabetically expecting the other columns it was associated with to follow along. so i had to redo it. and i realised this when i was doing the volunteer timesheets for the museum.

as for museum work, im sort of volunteering to do random work. organized and did inventory for the t-shirts a while back. then tallied up the volunteer hours onto excel. this was where i realized the stupid mistake. good thing i figured it out before submitting it. filed loan correspondence letters in the archives too. some of those letters are old. like 50 years old and possibly older.

so thats for school. nothing too exciting.

alright getting bored of typing as usual. be back here next time SOON. you know the definition of soon by now. muahahaha

mom and dad visits

2010-05-30T12:23:00.002+08:00

it sucks being sick and grumpy.

going in boston and vegas in 4 days. cant wait! need to get better soon. flu's gone but my throat itches and its annoying. cough drops/ strepsils not working.

summer work is looking better now. more updates later on when everything is confirmed. meeting up with a postdoc who's working on ground squirrels in sierra nevada wherever that is. might get to travel a bit, get part publication and even paid. sounds awesome or what. though i wonder how my snails would manage....

it's been a while but helloooo summmer!!!!

2010-05-22T13:38:00.002+08:00

it's been quite a while since i last blogged all thanks to school but i'm back thanks to summer! i've been on break for a week already although it hardly feels like it since i've still been going back to school every now and then. in fact 4 days since i ended my last final. i dont expect my break to be anymore relaxing but at the same time, i'm glad. the weekend that i ended, i was already getting bored. i finished all the shows i had wanted to watch. of course that meant staying up till 2am when everyone was sound asleep but at least i was happy. theres's still a couple of shows and movies i do wanna watch like glee and dear john and letters to juliet but i cant find good quality ones yet. hopefully i do soon so i wont get bored.

so far what i've got going on is working with the snail and cleaning up the lab plus organizing it. on thursday i started to organize the journals in alphabetical order, volume and set and it nearly killed me. i'm no where near finish. barely finished with 'a' but thats only cos i spent an hour plus on it. had to leave to do other back breaking stuff. but i had to move the journals from one end to the other. it's not one or two journals mind you, its a whole library. seriously. some since 1968! im glad i dont quite have allergies either or i would have sneezed my breath away with all that dust. my back from killing me from bending down and climbing up and down the steps. i'm pretty sure i'll have back problems in the future. i dont even stand straight to begin with. so yes, i'll be spending the next few weeks doing that. probably the whole summer even if im doing it alone. snails' been dying out lately. lol. one tank only has 2 left. tried taking their respiration rate too but with no technology in this lab, it means sitting down and recording oxygen level readings every 5 minutes for 3 hours for one snail! talk about boring. at skyline i remembering doing this lab and we had a computer plot out a graph for us. got to dig the lab report up or email case to ask. there's no way we're sitting down torturing ourselves like that. no way.

went to organize t-shirts at the mvz on thurs too. sorted them into sizes, counted them and folded them and packed them. there were hundreds. i could work in the retail sector now seriously. supposed to do them on wed but the anna was out sick and i didnt see her email in time before i left the house so yeah went there for nothing. but it was all good. went to hang out at christine's crib. she made lunch. yums. i bought starbucks for her. lol. turned in my job app at berkeley dog and cat hospital too so hopefully i hear back. i already got turned away by one. well not exactly. they said the position was no longer available. if that makes a difference. still waiting for a couple now. i need the money! not to spend but to prove that im a resident. how lame. but extra cash wouldnt hurt. i need to head to victoria secret soon. they're having their semi annual sale! cheapest pricest they'd ever get. more lingerie will do no harm right.

parents coming in a week! might go to boston the next week they're here. lobster. seafood. oh so good. funny thing is when they're here, everyone going's away to reno or aussie. all good more time with them. its memorial day weekend too so i see busy malls and all. mom's staying for close to a month! dad's leaving in 2 weeks then coming back for a week for conference. that means mom gets to stay with me for a week and im sleeping in the living room. lol. theres a bed though. doggy probably staying at pet hotel. sad for him. i miss him so so much. his soft fur and stubbornness and his greedy face.

cuz' graduation this sunday. mine's in a year. grades suck. seriously. so much for getting into the top public school. lowers my self confidence right when i got it raised at skyline. but that's life. still undecided bout my future just when i thought i had it figured out. need to work in a lab. my own research not be a free slave. i miss last summer. and i kinda miss you too. but its complicated and definitely not gonna start again. blah. abrupt way to end the post. i need a getaway. by myself or with a couple of peeps. where's the restart button?

cal day and downtown shopping

2010-04-19T04:24:00.002+08:00

been a while since i last updated thanks to my super busy stressful school schedule but with 2 weeks left of instruction, things aren't getting any easier. even then, i'm procrastinating and am typing this after reading just one chapter out of the 100 required readings i have to do.

so the past 2 weeks were just filled with midterms again. staying up till 3 am trying to cram as much information as possible into my tiny cell-less brain and going to as many review sessions and office hours didnt exactly help me much though i still havent gotten back my grades so its still early to say. hopefully a B+ will show up on my paper.

working in the museum has helped me de-stress though. in preparation for cal day, we were made to fold "passports" for the little kids to go around the different museums on campus and collect stamps and stickers. we had about 3000++ to fold but managed to get them done within a week or so. of course, working with paper meant paper cuts and i didnt get an exception sadly. numbering bones has also been tons of fun. managed to number most of the kangaroo rats. their tiny tiny bones gives me neck aches since we're looking down all the time usually up to an hour. i need a massage.

helping out with the snails has been fun too. we changed their diet from lettuce to dog kibbles so they might get more calcium though that might not really be working since their shells are still as fragile. i just read an article that milk powder and powdered chalk might be a good source so im gonna suggest that to jenna. the tiny ones has grown a little and they're just sooo cute. i want a pet snail. we're still in the trial period so everything still needs to be figured out and solidified before we start with the babies and get ready to carry out the real experiment.

classes so far has been great. cant believe theres only 2 weeks left. then one week of study break and finals week. bad thing is i have jury duty right in the middle of finals week. cant postphone it since i already postphoned it once. hopefully they call it off when i call in the day before. please please please i do not want to spend a day in the court room listening to people defend and judge while i should be studying for finals. not that i dont like it since i did want to be a lawyer once but this is just not the right time.

looking forward to parents coming though. theyre coming end of may so that means shopping and love and being pampered. dad's coming in june again since he has a conference to go to thats in sf. then florida in july! so much already planned. still i have to figure out summer research stuff and possibly work at an animal place, either clinic or shelter. plus learning to drive. been really annoyed at my uncle lately about that.

so now on to cal day.it's the only day the museum is open to the public and students. since its a research museum, only researchers who've gained permission to look at certain collections get to go in and also students who work there. we've got lots of pretty cool specimens all bottled up and laid out. got to school around 8.30 and walked around the gallery area to check out the displays while making sure no one touches the display. that was boring. at 10, went to help out at the t-shirt/sticker table. some kids are so cute and most of the parents made sure their kids said thank you when they got a sticker. now where did the rude kids learn their manners from? had lunch. diy sandwich and chips haha. still better than nothing. tabled again but this time it was outside in the lawn area. good thing the sun was out and it wasnt freezing cold. the live animal show was there too so i got to see snakes including an albino one, bearded lizards, giant tortoise and other stuff. ended at 4 and went back up to get my free shirt since i volunteered for 8 hours. got an owl shirt. double cuteness. they ran out of the color i wanted initially but thats okay.

met up with christine and we went downtown. first stop: paulette macaroons. so sooo good. got 12 for 19 bucks. i guess it was worth it. rose, lemon, milk chocolate hazelnut, caribbean coffee, peach, caramel pecan, sweet almond weddding were the flavors i got. i really like the sweet almond wedding. think im going to be going back there more often now.
then it was downtown shopping. went to forever 21, h&m, victoria secret, godiva. we only had 3 hours to spare. got 2 tops at forever 21, redeemed stuff at victoria secret and bought chocolate covered pretzels at godiva. signed up for their rewards program and got a free chocolate. now i get to get a free piece every month and every month you spend more than 10 bucks, you get a free gift. pretty good deal if u ask. had dinner at westfield mall. got a california bowl. wanted thai but their kitchen already closed. it was almost 9 when we got there so thats why. barted home after. overall, a good fun day.

so today im just hanging out at home trying to catch up as much as possible. but first to eat lunch muahaha. pictures either here and/or facebook soon when im not that lazy...

i know i already need an extension for spring break

2010-03-24T12:05:00.002+08:00

i dont know why but i suddenly feel homesick.

anyways, might be going shopping with mary tomorrow or thursday still waiting for her response. i think its gonna be weird since we havent met sincce we graduated and thats 3 years? but hopefully it'll be fun or that we'll even go. i am craving retail therapy badly. but at the same time, i want to save up for our summer trip to florida. though mom and dad will be here before i go (in fact, they dont even know about it yet) so my bank will be topped up then.

its only 9pm and i already feel like going to bed. this is not a good sign. i n.e.e.d t.o g.e.t s.t.u.d.y.i.n.g!

expanding your horizons

2010-03-21T08:14:00.003+08:00

just got back from eyh not too long ago so i'm gonna blog about it before i get too lazy and drag this till years later. you should know me by now (remember the winter break trip that happened? now where is that post?)

anyhow, we've been preparing this workshop ever since we got back from sacnas so i would say november? and now it's all over, just like that. i really will miss the whole process or rather the whole company that we have. i had tons of fun just hanging out with them, bitching about "pork chop"-no not food, a person who i will talk more about later, and just stuff that corrupts my mind. this is my last committment i have at skyline. well, i should have had one more on tuesday but it got cancelled apparently so now i hope he reschedules or something. i really cant bear to leave skyline. but otherwise, this is officially my last event and i have no other reason to go to skyline anymore. sad. i could go visit next year and stuff but we'll see. quite a few people from my batch came today so it was nice meeting up with them again though i didnt talk to them much since i was busy with my workshop. fail. felt somewhat bad but hey i was busy so i forgive myself.

so we all met up on friday at 12 to make sure everything was set up and ready to go on saturday. made more fake stuff like bacteria and nutrient broth which the girls would use. we didnt want them to use real stuff since it was expensive and what do 6th graders know about bacteria rubbing their eyes with their e.coli infected hands. even i forget sometimes to wash my hands before touching my eyes. also decorated our room and my did it look like a rainforest. we hijacked plants from the bio plant room and that was one bad but funny experience. the ferns were pretty much dried out and dead and we had to carry them from the second floor to the third floor. as we were walking, all the leaves starting falling off and we left a trail to our room. people started following the trail so we had people peeking in and out of our room. of course, we got yelled at by the lab technician so we took a broom and swept it up. i havent touched a broom in ages. even for my room, i just use that cloth thingy that dust sticks too. but i must say im pretty impressed with myself. who knew this spoilt child could sweep. oh and before that, since 3 of us reached early, we decided to head up to the classroom to arrange the tables to make it look like a lab but right when we were done, a teacher walked in. apparently, there was still classes going on in that classroom. and being mean to us, she made us arrange all the desks back again. thanks for making us exercise.

our room was amazing when we had everything going. the lights and music and all. some other students came in and they felt pretty bad about their own room. case and stephen came in too and they were impressed i must say. really, we just wanted to show them that we put in effort and hoped that the kids have fun so we'll get positive feedback. too bad i dont have a decent picture of the room. everything was too hectic once we got started.

got to skyline at 7.45am. i was actually pretty excited that i couldnt exactly go to sleep. and i actually woke up early without having to press my snooze button a million times. that was how excited i was. i dont see myself doing that for school... waited for anchi so we could check in and bumped into case. i saw her everywhere in school. especially towards the end. she's definitely someone im gonna miss. she's the most awesome mentor/professor you could ever find though sometimes i just cant get her sarcasm. on friday when i was walking to the bus stop to wait for my cuz, i bumped into her and she mumbled something about lost fortune cookies. i was like huh? and she didnt answer me. but we were walking in opposite directions. as i was waiting though, i saw her at a corner near the gym sitting with her husband how sweet. anyway i digress. so we checked in for everyone and of course pam whom i referred to as pork chop didnt get her name tag and lunch ticket. we knew why but she didnt. because of her ditching the earlier meetings we had and she basically didnt do anything, plus the grudge that we had against her, although the last factor didnt matter, case took her name off the program. isnt she awesome or what. we didnt tell her straight in her face that we wanted her name off but being an awesome prof that she is, she knew what and how to do. plus she was in charge of the whole event anyways. oh yeah. went back to our room to try to get everything set up and ready to go when the girls get in. the ambience was just amazing (geez i m running out of adjectives to use) it really felt like we were in the rainforest. plus we had dry ice to make it look all foggy.

so the first workshop started and it was mainly a practice run for us to get warmed up. it did run pretty smoothly but we were done so quickly that we didnt know what to do with the leftover time since we couldnt let them out early. so we gave out word searches and crosswords to do leftover from last year. they were enthusiatic for a bit and were definitely impressed with the room but we couldnt hold their attention for long. then again, they're 6th to 12th graders. plus, our workshop was pretty science-y. second workshop was better though we only had 10 mins in between to prep. seriously not enough time. i would say that that was the best batch. had lunch after. we didnt want to bring everything with us to the other building where lunch was at so one of us stayed behind and we brought food back to the room where we had our own little party. pam ran after me when we were leaving to get a lunch ticket. how desperate. i know i sound really mean here but if you seriously hear and see what she does, you'll feel the same way. our last workshop was a little disastrous. it was in the late afternoon after lunch, so all the kiddos were already restless. we didnt want to torture them more so we just sped up everything and they had a bunch of free time. i had a weird girl in my group which totally drained me. how do girls at 14 get such an attitude? i dont get it. played with dry ice bombs for a bit and that was fun.

the best part of the whole event was after everything ended and majority of the people left. so we headed down to the reception for dessert and bitched some more while we left the other group behind to clean up. okay no, we didnt ask them to clean up, they did it themselves in their own will. got back up and they left while we packed up the remainder of the stuff. so we had to bring the carts back down to the bio lab and we had jon-one of the go'fer guys help us and we wanted to prank him with a dry ice bomb. so we placed it on the cart and started following him quietly. it was hilarious and we couldnt stop laughing. people around were looking at us as if we're crazy. the sad part: it didnt go off. so disappointing. we had to go into the room and throw it in the trash lest it goes off while the lab tech was there. we would be killed. so anchi had the bright idea to prank case in her office. we passed her some stuff the leftovers from the workshop and anchi placed the bomb in the hallway. we did tell her however. it would just be mean. haha. but still, it was fun. went back up to clean up everything and made one last trip down to the bio lab. took pictures and saw case again but she was leaving this time. we ran into the bio lab since theres a view of the carpark where she usually parks and started waving. hilarious. nav was kind enough to drive me home. i'm sure going to miss these guys a bunch. they always make my day. the stories that they share and the bitching that we go on and on about. seriously every sentence we seriously want to say is followed by complaints and stories and bitching. so our meetings usually go on forever. but its all worth it. hopefully we'll stay in touch and meet up every once in a while to catch up on more stories.

okay, another long post and im tired so im going to crash. on a last note, i am never going to be a middle of high school teacher.

hoot hoot

2010-03-13T13:27:00.002+08:00

had my first experience at hooters today. okay not a big deal but more on that later.

so this week has just been exhausting with a capital E. not that i was bombed with midterms or anything like the past 2 weeks but i've just been in school till late everyday. from getting on bart at 7.30 to getting home at 6. i know 6 is not late at all but i usually dont get home that late everyday. maybe just 3 times a week or so. but there was just so much to be done and my cousin was staying in school later too so i dont want to spend more time waiting for the bus and paying 2 dollars for the bus. i'd just be wasting more time especially if i just miss the bus. that would put an extra hour into me doing nothing. i just cant stand it when i get out of class at let's say 2, but i dont start studying or doing actual work at 5, which is what happens most of the time. by the time i get home its usually 3.30 and that is if my cousin picks me up. and by the time i settle down, shower, eat and stuff, its already 5. ridiculous really. i could have done so much during that 3 hours if i were in school. but oh wells. i commute so im living with it. hopefully next week is better and then its spring break!! woohoo!

the past 2 nights, i've just been struggling so much with the planets homework and its making me lose interest in it. im getting more bored in class and my doodling rate has increased. bad stuff. need to change! im never going to use google mars again. i can do math, no problem with that but making me zoom in and out describing stuff and measuring elevation and latitude in arcminutes confuses the hell out of me. main reason why i dont take geography.

been going to a few office hours this week as well thats why im getting home later too. hate it when the profs just think that everyone lives on or near campus. hello, what about those that live an hour away?! so stop holding ur office hours and extra classes in the evening. though the good thing is, i actually understand and am following what goes on in genetics and nutrition. guess office hours works. i need to start sucking up to profs too in order to get letters of recommendation later on. oh the difficulties of college life which is making me laugh right now. you'll know why later when i blog about what happened this afternoon.

started officially helping out with the snails research last week as well. (just realized how long i havent blogged). so last friday, jenna(grad student), marika another helper and I met up and we started measuring the snails they caught during the week. there was 150 snails and boy were they tiny. didnt expect them to be that small. in fact, i havent seen them that small. those that i worked with over the summer were huge compared to those. and those that i worked with, i thought they were small and hard to work with since it was so hard to get anything out of them other than poop. anyways, we hard to tag them with bee tags (tiny round colored tags to be stuck on their shells so we could identify them), clean them, measure their shell size and weight. i did the cleaning and squashed a couple of their shells. but they were soo cute when they all had their lil tags on. too bad i dont have a picture of them. theyre with jenna. maybe i'll take a pic when i clean them next week. but anyways, i have to say this: snails are NOT slow. thats a myth. we did like an assembly line thing so i passed the clean snails to marika who did the tags and passed them to jenna who measured them. so of course cleaning was fast compared to the other jobs. for tagging, you had to use a toothpick to apply glue and stick it on so it took longer but they were fragile. so we just had the snails in a petri dish but of course they could crawl out but we knew that they wouldnt go far if they did so it was manageable. but we were wrong. we werent exactly keeping an eye on them since we were concentrating on our jobs so some of them were "missing". we searched high and low for them and since they were tiny, they could practically hide anywhere. some turned out to be under the wash cloths, others on the taps, and almost halfway across the table. but thanks to the snail whisperer aka me, we managed to find them muahahaha. snails dont escape my snail vision. went back in on wed to clean their tanks. they poop a lot!! marika just cleaned them on monday and on wed, their tanks were filthy with poop.

bone numbering has been fun too. it really depends on the day to see if i could write small. some days, its just impossible, other days, i can write fine. so far i did kit foxes, some rat thing and paramycus something. heard there's a tiger carcass that came in today. exciting. dont think i'll see it though. tag tying is not that bad too. just really brainless and boring work especially if you're working alone. worked with christine a few times which made it better. we had crepes after class on wed too. yums. i had been craving for them for about a week and finally got them satisfied. we went to this place on telegraph and we both got nutella banana and vanilla ice cream. so good. but the crepe was a lil thick for my liking so i was so full after. i really like this semester too since im getting to know more people so its not that miserable anymore.

speaking of miserable, seeing others get scholarships that i could have had a chance at while i was at skyline just gives me a sense of regret. those were prestigious scholarships-all state/all usa/1 out of 800 applicants. i did think of applying back then but looking at the questions that you had to write about yourself just scared me away. i didnt have that much credentials then. like the research publication and stuff so i really wasnt confident. but then again, i could have at least tried. you just never know. might have said this before but i never knew i would get into berkeley. all i remember was wikipedia-ing the top schools and just reading about it but never in my mind did i think i would one day be on the campus itself studying. its almost surreal really. if i were to apply with my o levels or finish jc to apply, i would never have had a chance. and i am pretty sure of that. so i guess in some way, i am content with not having those scholarships and at that time, i was ecstatic enough that i got into berkeley and everything else just seemed minor and i really didnt care. so there, my regrets.

on to today, (okay this is one heck of a long post to compensate for my lack of entries). even though i had to skip nutrition and risk not understanding stuff, hopefully i can get christine's notes, i have no regrets. so i left school at 10 to get down to skyline to prepare for eyh. it was totally a session of bitching and gossiping. skyline didnt exactly have school today due to flex days so campus was empty. quite weird really. but case was nice enough to be there so we could work on our workshop. she didnt have to be in school at all but she was so humble and claimed that it wasnt a day off-they were still getting paid for not teaching. even if she was home though, she'd be slogging her guts out like a workaholic as she is preparing for eyh. but anyways, during the session, we planned out all the steps of the experiment and made sure everyone knew how it was done so we wouldnt be blurred out when we were teaching the girls. that would be bad. along the way though, we digressed a lot which was hilarious. people were telling stories about faculty, how they were hitting up on students and stuff. it was both gross and interesting. something good to know. and you can never get sick of gossiping. talked about how to seduce profs so they would be lenient with you. the stories they told were just out of the world. so towards the end, we decided to hang out for a bit. went to case's office and asked if she wanted to go with us. we knew she would totally pick the tab if she went. she's cool like that. (how many profs who are in their 60s would be as cool as that?) but she declined. she was busy working as usual and being professional since it was still school period. but the funny part was she said not now, but she will at the conventions. (ptk is going to be at orlando for the international convention, texas last year. oh so jealous). talked to her for a bit and i told us about how i was helping out working with snails again. she thought it was funny and asked if the snails were scared of me =.= after a while, when we were just hanging around persuading her to join us, she said we were wasting out drinking time. lol.

decided to go to hooters. from wikipedia: hooters is a restaurant with a waitstaff primarily made up of attractive waitresses. the waitresses basically wear a tank top and shorts. so u get the idea. our waitress was nice though, she was totally chilling with us. so they all (ash, nav, pearl, anchi) got a drink and she was asking if i wanted one too since she could sneak me one but of course i declined. 1 more year! ok, even if i was 21, i wouldnt exactly drink other than maybe on my birthday. they said they would bring me there when i turned 21. lol. so pearl's birthday was a month ago but they still celebrated it. they maade her a sash which they all signed and a crown made out of styrofoam cup. so nice of them. who still helps u celebrate a birthday when its been a month. really had tons of fun throughout the whole 2 hours though. talked a lot. relieved the time we spent during sacnas. all the stories and insider's story. what happened during that whole week was just beyond imagination. the amount of hooking up and flirting. but oh we had so much fun. i would totally do it again. this bunch of people are just great. it does make me miss skyline. because it was such a small school, we all knew each other some how and there'a a common topic-faculty. lol. no, but the time we spend together just makes it different. the week in texas really helped. im sure we all bonded well except for some people who we think are just plain ridiculous like we want to kill them when we see them. nav was nice enough to drop me home after. cant wait to see them again next fri and sat. picture up on facebook. one picture.

got home and played disney scene it. fun stuff. i was so behind but i caught up. playing with my cousins who are disney fans, huge fans is not easy. alright, my fingers have got enough excerise for today. hopefully i'll blog more regularly so you dont have to be tortured with long posts.

oh midterms again

2010-02-20T14:11:00.002+08:00

i just love the show make it or break it no matter how embarrassing it is. it's the typical high school drama injected with gymnastics. but the latest episode was by far the best. i guess i still cant get over the fact that i stopped gymnastics before realizing how much i actually like it. and it's just the kind of thing that you can never get back into till your next life. well, i cant wait to see how the next episode goes come monday.

i should really be staying up for the right reasons that is studying for midterms on monday and tuesday and the following monday and tuesday. im gonna have the most awesome two weeks ever. hopefully, its more memorizing than understanding which i know isnt but like to think it is. so hopefully my brain wont betray me by being a dory these few days.

so i've sorta started out on my bone numbering tag tying job. got the training done on wed which lasted 2 hours!! i just wanted to stay a lil later than usual so there'd be someone home to pick my up from bart so i went to check my email and lo and behold, training session! so thinking it would last an hour or so, i happily went up to the third floor. there was 4 of us i think. it was alright i suppose. it's really brainless jobs just tedious and neck breaking. monica our supervivor really's nice and so are the curators around so thats good. they're really friendly. plus there's a lunch room with microwaves and fridge and our own bathroom. i was super happy about that. now i could bring microwavable food without worrying about dirty gross microwaves used by inconsiderate people or stinky unsanitary bathrooms on the second floor. so yesterday for an hour or so, i just tied 50 skin tags. took me a while to get a hold of it but i managed to get slightly faster towards the end. getting the strings to be of equal length at both ends was the hardest. the one inch rule wasnt exactly that bad but i still couldnt get it perfect though she said a millimeter or two off shouldnt be a problem. and today i did bone numbering. the first few were pretty hard. my pen kept having ink flow out too fast so the numbers clumped together. imagine writing 6 digits on a bone that 3mm long and 1mm wide. the trick is to rotate the bone which i got the hang of after and didnt want to stop to go to class. my neck was aching though. i wanted to finish up that weasel but thanks to a review session and lecture, i got to give it up to the girl who actually started with it. lol. so i worked on a kangaroo rat, weasel and mole today. cant remember the scientific names of course. at least not yet. the only ones i know now are canine, xenopus, homo sapiens. lol.

got the snail research too but thats kinda easy for now. there isnt much to do since she just started and its going to take a while to get the snails to breed too. i just told her to email me whenever she needed help. but since i'm starting out with her, it should be pretty fun to see how it progresses.

janet's off for a school retreat in santa rosa, joyce is off to switzerland so yay me is going to be alone at home in a quiet house diligently studying away. hopefully. if u see me on facebook, tell me to get off. same with surfing the net. i need to ace these exams to use as a morale booster and to keep me going otherwise i'll be having a career in the museum tying tags and numbering bones. lol.

happy chinese new year and happy valentine's!

2010-02-15T14:26:00.002+08:00

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR AND HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! :D

now, how often do these 2 days fall on the same day? however, it really doesnt matter since only one day is really applicable.

woke up at 8.30am (sigh, waking up so early on a non school day is really considered torture for me). went visiting people on uncle jackson's side and got red packets of course. i did feel kinda out of place at some points since i dont quite know them that well yet im getting red packets from them. oh well, no harm getting more money right. lol. went to this one house. it was humongous. it's one of those house that i dreamed of having when i was little (actually still do now). 7 floors! 3 full levels and 4 half levels. but it was just so cool. i love houses with many many levels though i know my parents would never get one like that so its all up to me. haha. went for lunch after at some chinese place. noodles, rice and those sort of food. we never really had a "real" chinese new year dinner with the authentic kind of food you're suppose to have on new years. not that i really care. went home and did some work before playing games. the projector zonked out on us again so we couldnt watch tv or play games (so much for getting the playstation 3 and wii fit) played luck of the draw and scattergories. uncle kenneth came by for a bit (back from 3 months in hk) and told us his horror stories which i shall not remind myself of since its already nighttime. got pizza hut delivery for dinner. overall, a great evening.

got to get up early again tomorrow to go visiting again. hopefully i'll get most of my work done too. midterms coming up and so are internship opportunities. i now have 2 offers and i dont know if i should choose one or do both. alright, shoudl finish up this nutrition chapte and go to bed soon. good night!

snails are my new best friend

2010-02-12T02:17:00.002+08:00

my heart was literally jumping up and down yesterday when i read an email. not just any email but an email that totally woke me up from the dark. i was waiting for my planet discussion to start so i went to the earth and planets library to use the computer, check my email and stuff (even though i just checked it 20 minutes ago). and this unfamiliar name came up with the subject line saying URAP (the research apprentice program). i was thinking it's either going to be a rejection email or one that asked for an interview (since i am still waiting for the museum of vertebrate zoology to reply me). turns out, it wasnt exactly either. she told me she was a graduate student in caldwell' lab and saw that in my application, i had worked with helix aspersa ie. snails before and that her labmate was going to be working on snails too and asked if i would be interested. i was sooo happy. finally my snails would do me some good. especially after the past few horrible emotional weeks, i think this was the turning point. i couldnt stop smiling to myself and other people in the library might have thought that i was psychotic or something. so even though i was almost late for class since i re read the email so many times, i replied her immediately. from her super brief description, she said that her labmate was going to breed them and wanted to test how their growth, metabolic/respiration rate would be affected in different oxygen levels. Plus, there might be a chance that i could continue on in the summer and fall. how awesome would that be. so i am super duper excited and interested. not interested just so that i could finally get back into research but genuinely interested in what's she planning to do. so i really do hope that she'll take me in. i'm meeting her next thursday after class so she could give me more details and see what i could help her in. im willing to do anything to work with her. so we'll see how it goes. i never expected this email to come in and be so specific in a way in that i someone actually read my application and remembered that i had some sort of experience with snails. now, if i really so get to work with her, i really have to thank case for making me deal with snails. speaking of which, we're asked to present our research at skyline for the science lecture series to mentor the next group of students who might be interested in research. so im looking forward to that too though stephen has yet to reply me with dates. so im excited.

looking forward to this three day weekend. i'm so burnt out this week. chinese new years gonna be chaotic i guess and i dont exactly want to go around. if only the red packets can be delivered. seriously, i dont really quite understand the meaning of chinese new year. some chinese person i am eh. dont blame me, blame parents. we never really celebrated anyways. valentine's day falls on the same day and this shall be blogged out in another post. why is it always a one way street? anyways, midterms coming up soon in about 2 weeks so its time to catch up and get studying. alright, got to run off to class now for planets lecture. pretty interesting yet over simplified sometimes. oh wells, its a lower division course so what can i expect. they treat us like kids.

happy new year??

2010-02-06T04:35:00.002+08:00

one whole month has passed since the new year and this just goes to show how long i have not blogged. so since i'm on my 5 hour break (well, 3 hours left now. i wonder how that last 2 hours flew by so fast), i decided i should try to save my blog and clean away that thick layer of dust.

i had a couple of posts that i wanted to put up (they're all halfway done in mmicrosoft word), and i never seem to be able to finish typing them up. thanks to my laziness and procrastination. but some of which i intend to post up would be:

summing up year 2009 since it was a pretty good year i must say
winter break which was tons of fun ( i miss it so much already, everything from people to food, to my dog )
more school complaints..etc

okay maybe that wasnt a lot. but im pretty sure they're gonna be super long posts especially the winter break post, since i was doing quite a bit in 3 weeks. but then again, it depends on how much i still remember. lol.

(WARNING! RANT HEAVY POST. if you dont want to get annoyed then stay away:D )

let's start with school complaints for this post. i've already been back for 3 weeks of school and its been torture so far. from the weather, to classes, to applications. then again, no one said coming to berkeley was going to be easy. i dont even know where to start actually. let's go with classes. originally, i was taking genetics, neurobiology, bacterial pathogenesis, nutrition, and a class on planets, a total of 18 units. just two days ago, i dropped my neurobiology class, the class i was so excited about in the beginning so now im left with 14 units. why did i drop it? simply because i couldnt understand a thing. it was way too much physics and the readings were way too dry and heavy that i couldnt sit and complete reading one page before running away. in lecture, the professor just went on and on and on and it doesnt help that he doesnt have a powerpoint slide or any sort of notes for us to follow. so the entire time, he was just talking about fluxes and currents and potential and nothing that i thought was related to the brain. well, it is related but just not what i expected. i wanted something more concept based, like how the brain worked, the different parts of it, neurons, dendrites and the like but the class just wasnt what i signed up for. so instead of torturing myself, i gave up and dropped it. now im definitely much happier. it wasnt that i didnt try hard enough (well, alright i didnt even read to try and understand) but i was lost from the very first introductory class. there was just no way i could catch up and understand what he was talking about while other students just sat there asking questions that made me feel dumb and so i sat there being lost. somehow they must have taken a class that introduced them to the basics of it or something. even discussion sections didnt help. i overheard some people saying that this part was review to them so i knew i would just die on the exams if i continued.

i was reluctant to let go of the class due to units. i need a total of 60 units from the college of letters and science to graduate and so far, i have 13 from my first semester, meaning i have47 more units to go. if i took 18, i would only need 15 for my next 2 semesters which is a pretty average workload to handle. but now im down to 14 which means im going to need about 17 units the next 2 semesters and i dont know how thats going to work out. i could take summer classes but as of now, there isnt any class i want to take and how worth it is it to travel 2 hours two or three times a week for just one class. so i dont know. hopefully, i get to do research this semester which is the next point i want to bring up and rant about.

ever since, i did research over last summer and got to do a poster presentation on it for a conference, i knew that was soemthing i wanted to do. i like being in the lab doing experiments, playing with bacteria. so when it was time to apply for internships/apprenticeship opportunites, i hoped that i would get into something i was interested in. i applied for one URAP position, where it was studying animal behavior in mantis shrimp or octopus and that was one i was interested in out of the many many other positions or labs that they offered. but i got turned down. more on that later. so when the projects with extended deadlines came on, i applied to another lab position, working with something i dont even remember now but it was mainly counting stuff under the microscope that kind of stuff. like boring manual labor that the professors or grad students dont want to do. still i was interested in that. i like doing brainless work surprisingly. and im sure i got rejected for that as well since i wasnt emailed back. i was doubly sad. it was almost a ddesperate situation.

i'm going to have to apply to grad or vet school soon if i do not intend to take a year off and to do that, you need letters of reccommendation and right now, the only person i can think of is case. still, thats only one person and how much will grad schools think of it. why would i ask my community college teacher for a letter of rec instead of a prof at berkeley? get what i mean? and in any case, i would need at least 2 letters for most schools. so yes, im desperate to get a relationship with a professor.

so i passed by the mcbcdna table the other day and i thought well, if i couldnt get a lab position, i might as well be active in something else. at least get involved in something for leadership or whatever crap schools look for. and for that club, you have to apply to be an executive officer. there's no regular membership whatsoever so basically, you apply to organize events for other students. so i applied and they called me back thenight before to tell me i have been selected for an interview the next day which was a sat. i was like what the hell. plus, they called me at 10pm. so at first, i told the guy who called that i couldnt make it and if they could schedule for another day. plus, since i commute for an hour, its super inconvenient. travellign 2 hours for a 15 minute interview??!! he said it was the only day they were interviewing so i either had to go or be rejected. i asked if i could apply next semester and he said that since i was a junior, i couldnt as they need you to stay for at least 2 years so this was the last semester that i could apply. i was soooo mad at that time. i called catherine and we talked for a bit and then i decided to call him back and said that i would go for the interview. it was almost hard for me to let go of an opportunity and plus i was desperate to get involved in something. so i went on sat for the interview and they really asked dumb questions (how do u make a pb&j sandwich??!). above all, it was my first interview. first. i have never applied for a job or anuy other sort of program that required you to be interviewed so i didnt quite know what to expect. but anyhows, to cut the story short, i didnt get called back. ie. there goes another thing that i could get involved in. i was triply sad now. for the research stuff, i sort of understood why i wouldnt get picked. mainly because of my measly gpa and that i was still at 18 units at that time.

to top that all off, i was worried about summer. at sacnas they provided us with lots of internship program information for different schools like stanford, harvard, yale, ucla, davis..etc. so when i finally looked at them after donkey months, i realized all the deadlines were in early feb. i looked at them around jan 20 or so. by then it was too late. again they need letters of rec, mostly 2. and refer to above. i could only find one person and even then, i would probably get killed for asking her last minute. never give someone only a week or two to write you a letter. even though she had written me quite a few before and it wouldnt kill her to modify a previous letter, i'd rather die than to ask her. as nice as she is and as much time as i have spent or worked with her, she is still intimidating. so i was frantically looking for stuff to do during the summer. and that got me upset too that i couldnt apply to any that i was interested in. thanks to my procrastination again. it wouldnt be as bad if i had another professor that i could ask to write a letter.

i decided to look up the URAP website again to see if there were still other projects that i was interested in and there was one for working in the museum of vertebrate zoology since the deadline is tomorrow. i thought why not just give it another go. i wouldnt be satisfied until i found soemthing to do other than classes. i emailed the person in charge just to take the initiative and stuff so hopefully that would help. but mainly i just asked what the hours were liek and if i had to work weekends. she replied a couple of days later and it was time flexible and no weekends other than april 17 which is cal day. so i was happy with that response not that i really cared if i had to work weekends. so yesterday i finally submitted my application and now im hoping for the best. i hope third time's really the charm. if i get turned down again, i think i'll probably die of sadness. it shouldnt be the units that would cost me now, since im only taking 14 and if i do get it, i could get units for it and that would solve my unit problems too. somehow, i am really interested in it now so i really do hope i get it. we'll wait and see. while looking for the person in charge to ask her questions, the receptionist told me that she wasnt in but she was going to hold interviews next wednesday so i shoudl know by then. im waiting for the good news now. hoping.

but, there is some light to this. so, long ago in this post (i'm surprised if youre still reading) i mentioned the urap position working with shrimp and octopus. the prof emailed me to say sorry that he couldnt accept me and all, but added that if i was still around in the summer and was still interested to work with him, i could check in with him when the time is nearer since they're always shorthanded for summer. i got happier when i read that since i still dont know what im going to do for summer. so i hope now that he wasnt just saying that to please me or whatever but he would actually take me in during the summer. i replied him btu he hasnt replied me yet. then of course, its still pretty far away from summer. i hope he meant what he said. at times to console myself, i just like to think that im overqualified.

yes, so all this happened in the span of three weeks of school. and this is just outside of normal classes. classes are going so crazy fast im already behind by quite a bit for two classes. im planning to catch up at least slightly by this weekend or im pretty much dead again. then, there's people pissing me off too and guys that i really just dont get. and there's eyh (part of the people pissing me off).

we met up once last week and that was pretty productive. it was the email that pissed me telling us about the meeting. apparently the person in charge accused us of not being responsible. she said that she and anothe rperson met up twice in january to prepare the workshop and experiment and met the whole week to do a trial and none of the rest went to help out. the pamphlets are already printed and our names were on it so we should honor our commitments blah blah blah. erm hello? i didnt even get your email in january! i was soo mad when i got it since im totally not the irresponsible sort of person and that email got to case as well since she was cc-ed. so i went to the meeting last week and asked her when they met and she was like telling me it wasnt my fault blah blah since she knew i wasnt around. by then i was just whatever, youre boss. this week, we were suppose to meet on wed to prepare supplies. they were going to meet at 12 but i technically dont get out till 4. so i just thought i wouldnt go to my 2-4 classes, then i could leave at 12 and still make it there by 1.30pm. so i took bart and when i got to embacadero, i got a message from one of them asking if i left already. i knew then something bad was gonna happen. they had to cancel the meeting since they couldnt do anything. i dont know why but i was just wth again. please double check next time you call for a meeting urgh. apparently, i saw case's website and she cancelled lecture for wed and today as well. wonder why. but still she shoudlnt have anything to do with what we were gonna do. so i got off at powell bart station, went to grab lunch at the mall adn took bart back to school. the only good part was at least i didnt have to go all the way to skyline to find out that it was cancelled. i would have been hopping mad. but i still had to waste 5 bucks takign bartto powell and then back to school.

i wonder how im still mentally stable at this point. but i suppose all this explains the tiredness i've been feeling.

to add to that, the weather was crazy the first two weeks of school. it was raining cats and dogs and monkeys and giraffes. my jeans got soaked a couple of times and my umbrella was useless most of the time the first week. so i went to get myself a bigger umbrella at the bookstore and things got better. i hate walking in the rain. bart gets disgusting and so does the classes. everything and everyone is just wet and chaotic and dirty. it got sunny/cloudy for a couple of days and now the weather is starting to go a little mad again. it rained yesterday night pretty heavily but good thing i was already home in my comfy pjs. i escaped singapore to escape the rain? the world is going topsy turvy.

alright, i thinnk i have ranted enough for now. see how crazy my life is. this is only the third week. 14 more weeks to go. all im hoping now is to get my internship approved and catch back up with classes.

hopefully the next post will be happier. if you managed to read word for word, i salute you and i'll give you a penny.

nemo: if you are still here, im really really happy i got your letter the other day. didnt expect it at all. so thank you :D

hong kong / macau / singapore here i come

2009-12-21T15:38:00.002+08:00

in 12 hours or so, i'll be on a torturous flight to hong kong. not exactly looking forward to being cramped in a tiny little space but it all beats not coming back at all so im contented. so this morning, my uncle called at an unearthly 7am and asked if i wanted to try to get on the flight today. he previously told me or rather just yesterday that the seats were all filled with people who actually bought tickets. i hadnt packed yet since i was sure i wasnt going to fly today so there wasnt any point. so i just told him i wasnt going to bother with trying. plus he did say not to get my hopes up anyway. and then mom called at 8 and told me to check my email (do people not know me enough that i dont like being disturbed in the morning??? it was great enough i actually picked up my phone) turned out she bought tickets for me since cathay pacific just happened to have a seat open and it was about a thousand bucks cheaper than united. yay! now i can stop stressing out and worrying about whether i can get back on time or whether its even worth just spending a lil more then 2 weeks on vacation and on top of that, all the stress. like ive said, torture. anyhow, i definitely felt happier.

started packing and watched more videos. played some crazy wii in the afternoon with janet. super mario was hilarious. we just couldnt stay alive and get past the last stage of the first world. thats how bad we are. still, lots of laughing as usual. fun stuff. anyways, i'll be going to macau for christmas and going back to singapore on the 26, arriving at midnight. apparently, i'll be the first to reach. mom's leaving on the 27 and bro and dad are leaving a different timing on the 27. great. got to stay alone in a somewhat foreign house. thats gonna be fun. i know i m gonna be freaked out. at least i have my dog to accompany me that is if he still recognizes me. gonna be back to sf on jan 16. so i have a good 2 and a half weeks in singapore. start booking me if you still read this. lol. otherwise my time will be devoted to dog and parents >.<>

official end of the semester

2009-12-19T13:01:00.002+08:00

finally done with finals and thus the semester! have been waiting for this day since forever. this semester has been one hell of a ride. more on that next time but for now, its time to celebrate! and of course, await the atrocious grades to appear on bearfacts.

i really should be happy and excited and ecstatic right now since i've been waiting for this day, but frankly speaking, im not. in fact, im in a pretty foul mood and just ready to go to bed. why is it that when theres so much to study, there's just so many distractions but when you've finally cleared all the necessary work, theres just nothing to do anymore or rather dont feel like doing anything? someone enlighten me please.

and i have to say my appetite is dying off again so thats adding to the misery i suppose. theres always a period of time when i binge on food, snacking every hour or so and having a thousand different cravings a day and once that period dies off, i stop eating completely since i dont feel like eating. aside from that though, i found french macaroons today at the most unlikely spot.... starbucks! they arent fresh though since they're packaged in the box and placed in the "refrigerated section". still, i got them and of course they're not the best. somehow it still satisfied my craving for them. they're tiny and it comes in a box of 12. 2 of each flavor-chocolate, coffee, lemon, raspberry, vanilla and pistachio.

but the major reason i suppose aside from the lost of appetite is that i'm not even sure if im going back anymore. this on and off flight issue or whether im going back or not is just killing me. dont give me false hopes and disappoint me time and time again. its just pure torture. so this morning, my uncle showed me the standby list and there was 24 people on the list with 17 open seats and im number 23. so theres a super high possibility that i wont be able to get on. so i could just go back to the airport and try monday and tuesday and so on. im not worried about going to hk. sure i could spend a few days less. but the problem is with coming back. i was planning to come back on the 15th but now the situation isnt good and thats the same with the whole week. he was saying that i had to try the 10th, 11th, 12th and so on. and even then, i might not get on. school starts on the 19th so i definitely have to get back by then. but what seriously bothers me now is the last sentence he said: think about if u really want to go back now. somehow i feel that he just doesnt want me to go back. he's been hinting that since way back. yes, i know i should be learning to drive, and getting my credit card (why isnt atm enough??!) and finding a job but stop bugging me about them. i get that finding a job thign since it might help with my local residency issue but really, who's gonna hire at this last minute? in any case, im just pissed and annoyed. plus, i dont want my parents spending 3000 bucks on my ticket alone. thats in USD too. it could pay one month of my school fees and if i were to go and come back on the 10th, it would be a huge waste. and of course bro gets to go tomorrow with a proper ticket even though he went back during the summer. i'm over the top annoyed with him right now. he whines constantly about the aunt he lives with saying she's mean and all, but hello, you lost her trust and pissed her off first. and its not anyone's fault youre so picky with food. so of course, parents pity him and he gets to spend breaks back in sunny singapore being spoiled all over again. urgh alright im fuming right now so i'm just gonna stop.

other stuff that i wanted to blog about but maybe tomorrow. jesse mccartney's just so you know is on repeat or has been on repeat for the past 2 hours just cos its so true. somewhat.

3 more days

2009-12-16T13:10:00.002+08:00

to freedom! last history final on friday afternoon and after that, i can officially conclude this crazy semester to be over :D but, first i have to get through this 2 days or so of studying. which is pure torture. i dont know why i chose history to take to fulfill my requirement since i have no interest in it whatsoever and now im completely screwed for the final since i have no idea whats its going to be on. i know we have impromptu essays to write which i suck at so im completely freaking out. usually we get the prompt before hand and i write it at home then memorize it so im fine but not this time :( i have no idea what some lectures are about either especially those regarding politics. sigh. i just want it to be over now.

as for the other finals, i guess they were alright. studied for mcb pretty hard but the final came out on stuff i didnt exactly focus on as always. hopefully i ll still manage to get a b out of that class. endocrinology was so so. there were so many pages (13!) my hand was dying at the end and you could totally tell my handwriting changed. have fun reading it pals. hahaha. im just hoping for a b too. my grades are horrid, a big difference from when i was at skyline where i didnt have to worry at all.

aside from all the scholarly stuff, i'm super psyched up for winter break. finally get to go back to hong kong and singapore and stuff my mouth full with local delights. will probably be leaving on the 20th that is if there are seats available. i'll be flying standby using my uncle's tickets so it all depends if the flights are fully booked or not. but as long as it saves me more money to spend on food, im alright with it. spending a week in hk/macau first then will probably head off to our new home in singapore. i was looking for familarity but i guess thats not happening. oh wells. change is the only thing thats constant right. alright im getting lazy to type now. hopefully i ll get some studying done tonight....

if anyone reads this and wants something for xmas, send me a list so i can go shop on fri or sat. not much time left. which reminds me i still need to use my 20% for my cal sweatshirt.

coldbuster

2009-12-04T02:56:00.003+08:00

i think the stress finally got to me and the flu bug probably thought it was the right time to attack. it hasnt shown its full potential yet so hopefully i kill it before it makes itself comfortable especially since finals is coming and i need to be able to study properly. now i hope the jamba juice coldbuster works (since it usually does for my cousin). my head still feels super heavy and i just want to sleep but ive got to sit through boring history and endocrinology's last lecture of the semester. but for now, i think im going to grab some porridge. oh comfort food....

it's december

2009-12-02T08:43:00.003+08:00

how is it that's its december already? i barely enjoyed my novemeber. but i suppose it's good news since i get to look forward to going back to singapore and hong kong soon. i miss everything back home so much i cant even put it in words. cant wait to see everyone again especially my dog. i miss him so so much. i raked up some of his baby photos last week and gosh, he was so adorable. cant believe its already been 8 years. has it really been that long? i know i sound so mean and biased everytime i talk about how i miss singapore and everything and it always ends up being my dog that i miss the most. but i cant help it. i talk to my parents almost every other day and then there's facebook and messenger to talk to friends but i cant communicate with my dog at all so i guess thats why.

anyways, currently waiting for a social gathering for the Berkeley SACNAS chapter. hope i get to meet some new people and that it'd be fun so i wouldnt be wasting my time since technically, i should be working on my history paper thats due in two days. im having so much trouble writing it. probably the hardest paper that i have to write. its not about how well i write it anymore but what to write more specifically. i can usually BS something out and make it into a 5 page essay at least but not this time. i spent the whole of yesterday squeezing out just two pages. hopefully, i'll be able to find more sources and stuff about the film. i can now conclude that i do not like analyzing films. how is this relevant to history again? mayeb i should have paid more attention in lecture. anyone heard of the film touch of evil? thats the one im writing on so if you any information on it, tell me! first off, i do not like black and white films much less write on it. and second, i understand nothing about the film, ie. what theyre saying or whats it about. i'd rather stick to cartoons, harry potter, twilight or something in the 21st century. hopefully, something magical will appear in front of me by tomorrow otherwise im doomed.

last night, i couldnt sleep and rolled around on the bed for an hour till 2am. why? because mom and dad are spending SGD8000 on tickets for me and bro to fly back and that is crazy expensive. why do airline companies have to raise ticket prices just because its the holiday season?! that 8000 could be used to pay for one month of my school fees so i was just thinking a lot into it. i just looked on united and its a thousand bucks cheaper on dec 21 compared to 19 so i might just tell mom to change it or the other choice would be to fly standby using my uncle's tickets. i doubt that would work though since the flights are pretty fully booked too so chances of flying on standby arent high either. good thing is, there's a higher chance of flying business class. although that really one of my concerns right now. i just want to get back. but, whatever the dates, i know i'll be flying back for sure so im still super excited. of course, i have to get over finals first.

also, mom told me yesterday that she met my primary school friend's (jessica also) mom at ghim moh and apparently her mom recognizes my mom. wow. i barely remember who she is and i have long lost connections with jessica. funny how people can just come and go and its times like this where you realize how much you miss the old days and people. i remember in my primary one class, there were 4 jessica's including me so maybe thats why she remembers? anyways, mom got her number so maybe i could awkwardly call her up and reconect when im back. (i dont even have her on facebook adding more to the awkwardness)

alright, its about time to go hike up the hill to a building ive never been too. hopefully i dont get lost especially since the sky is getting dark now. its only 5pm. blog more soon when im done with my papers... and studying...

new moon :)

2009-11-26T14:59:00.002+08:00

(kinda brain dead hence the bad writing but whatever)

finally watched new moon today. overall, it was alright. almost as good as the first if not slightly better. im definitely team edward. some scenes were unnecessary, like jacob taking off his shirt to wipe the blood off bella's forehead. side track but how unhygenic is that? i would say he was introducing more bacteria instead. and as much as i dont like jacob, i have to say the wolves are adorable. and at least theres some action in this movie. of course they just have to end the movie with edward proposing. lol. i think i'll just read the third book after school ends so ill be ready for the movie. plus, i cant wait to know what happens anyway though i sorta have an idea already. so thats all im gonna say about the movie for now. i still cant get over the fact that taylor is younger than kristen making everything seem so wrong.

school was alright today i guess. got bad papers and midterms. we are very smart berkeley students. our class average was 44/100 for the second midterm. i've got no comment to that. i need to somehow do extremely well for all my classes for the final so i say i should study over this 4 day weekend. (which i know 99% is not gonna happen) but im just saying. hung out at julie's place for a bit before barting to powell where we watched the movie at westfield mall. i barely go downtown but i think i might actually frequent the mall. ate a lil before the movie. had a cali bowl basically california roll in a bowl (ie not rolled up). walked across to forever 21 to shop a lil then back into the mall for ice cream. got a haagen sorbet sipper. yum yums. love creamy smoothies though sorbets arent exactly creamy. barted back and kaye's dad drove me back from south sf bart station. and here i am.

tomorrow's thanksgiving and party's going to be at our house. turkey and ham. yums. i can forsee that im going to have leftovers for the rest of the week. thats the bad part. alright, should go to bed. sleep deprived. feels like a friday when its a wednesday. which is good. i'm just blabbering now.

i just cant help thinking. youre probably jacob and i'm still waiting for edward to appear sometime. or maybe its the other way. but you know what, whatever.

the turkey is not that far away

2009-11-24T16:09:00.003+08:00

i cant seem to get you out of my head and it's killing me

midterm tomorrow and i'm freaking out. somehow i get the material but can never seem to answer the question in the right way or the wordings just confuse me entirely and throws me off track. i'm desperate to do well in this class thats all i can say. im wishing me luck.

more protest stuff

2009-11-21T15:43:00.005+08:00

google for better videos and pictures-daily cal. i was walking while taking these pics hence the bluriness.

our deal lil tower that has just recently been repaired. dark dark clouds looming in the sky. wheeler hall. see that window with a lil banner.

hordes of people

rain got heavier and being kicked out of the buildings got more annoying

feel bad for those people whose faces got plastered.

not quite part of the protest. just found this amusing. flyers overlapping flyer after flyer. it was as thick as a textbook. almost cushion like.

cars honked as they past by. this was wednesday afternoon as i was trying to cross over to get frozen yoghurt.

when i was early to class one day. this is dwinelle where i have biochem. yes we are oldschool. chalkboards! there's 9 boards total so u can slide up and down, 3 on each panel. (seriously, who still uses chalkboards??!!)

this was just a third of the class. 500 cap.

tomorrow's the big game (cal vs. stanford). i dont want cal to lose but i have a feeling we will. we havent been playing well this season so no high hopes or anything. plus, the protest got in the way too. instead of prepping today, we were busy with protests. on a side note, the wheeler issue was at moments a protest with the cops. lol. think there is still the bonfire and tree cutting rally tonight. its a huge deal symbolic of the big game. stanford's mascot is a cardinal (ie tree i know lol) so yeah.

heading off to skyline again on monday for eyh. midterm on tuesday and new moon on wed! thanksgiving break starting thursday. yay 4 day weekend! history paper due after. boo. then down week and finals and im off to singapore and hong kong! alright, think thats it for now.

no cuts, no fees, education should be free

2009-11-21T15:01:00.002+08:00

whose university? our university! (it's just stuck in my head after hearing it constantly for 3 days now)

so, the UC Regents board has approved of the 32 percent fee hike raising tuition cost to 10,000 which has caused outrage. earlier this semester, they increased it by 10 percent. on top of that, they're implementing furloughs and laying off people. so to get this issue out there, campuses organized a 3 day strike which got from bad to worse. (extremely brief summary here)

this morning, at 5am, protestors occupied wheeler hall and locked themselves in so basically no one could get in or out and classes were cancelled. i didnt have class in there at all so i thought i wouldn't be affected. plus, the previous strikes weren't that "invasive". they would just stay at sproul or the chancellor's building and protest around campus but not exactly disrupt classes but that was so not the case today.

everything was still normal when i got to school. got my coffee from starbucks. started to drizzle a little which i expected so i was trying to get into the building before it started to pour. got to class and around the same number of people showed up. lecture started and halfway through at 10.30ish, the fire alarm went off. a super loud fire alarm. well, i guess its to compensate for the big building. i knew immediately that it was the protestors who pulled it. i mean occupying a university hall is a big deal and they wouldnt just let the protest end there. they wanted to get as many peope to join them as possible so getting them out of class was the only way and whats better than the fire alarm. the sound of it still rings in my head. so we got kicked out of the building and it was raining making it all the more awesome. wheeler hall was already blocked off by cops who were dressed in riot suits. and a huge crowd surrounding the barricades or constantly trying to push it down as a matter of fact. stood around a lil to watch. i mean it is a once in a lifetime thing. rain got a lil heavier so i decided to go to VLSB and stay in the library till my discussion section at 1. had to walk around the picket lines which seriously blocked every creek and corner. found a "secret pathway" that was behind plants and had to jump down two stone platforms to get to VLSB. so much for an adventure. was in the library typing up nemo's email for 5 mins and that fire alarm went off too. great. went back into dwinelle since that alarm had stopped but before i could walk up the stairs to get to the front, the alarm went off AGAIN. so i just stood with my friend and watch them chant. lol. saw my GSI and we hung out for a bit deciding that there should still be discussion. our discussion was in dwinelle where my first class was and it wasnt going to be productive at all if the alarms kept going off. but since there was still an hour or so left, we decided to wait it out and see. while waiting outside and watching the protests, we could just hear alarms going off one after the other and peope walking in and out of the buildings. to add to the misery, it was pouring too. we stood under a big tree which was pretty helpful. yay trees. anyways, the alarms eventually stopped. they probably pulled every one there is. and we still manged to hold discussion. theres a midterm on tuesday so we all had to go just in case we missed out on anything. otherwise, i would gladly be going home. plus, i was meeting with my GSI for office hours too to clear questions. the picket lines were still everywhere so it was hard to get around.

finally went home at 3.40 and the protest were still ongoing. people still occupied the building. and negotiations were going on. lots of cops. there were so many of them that i think if a crime were to be committed outside of campus, they would go jail free since there was no one to arrest them. cops from all the nearby places were on campus keeping watch of the protest. so overall, it was a very long but interesting day. berkeley is known for its political stuff no doubt about that. would like to see something like this happen at NUS or NTU or something. haha. would be quite a sight or shocker compared to us. for us, if a protest of this scale occurs, people would immediately know its organized by berkeley so no surprise there. anyways, here's a few crappy quality videos taken with my phone.

grrrrr

2009-11-09T06:24:00.002+08:00

insanely stressed out!!!!! 3 more days to mcb midterm and i'm not the least prepared. i am so screwed.

but when i saw this picture, i got happy.

dad got me this two dogs from germany from the brand nici. totally didnt expect this especiallys since he keeps saying that i should get rid of my stuffed toys. how contradicting. plus, most of my stuffed toys have sentimental values. i could never bear to give them away. i still want to get a glass cabinet to put all of them in instead of stuffing them in cardboard boxes which im sure they're in right now since we just moved and i told mom she need not unpack my stuff. sometimes, i think that my parents still treat me as a lil kid. like who still gets stuffed animals for their child? but i love them anyways. get me a stuffed toy especially a dog and i'll love you. instant love okay :P im a crazy dog person and i admit it. see even dad knows it. but sooner or later, i'll have to start sleeping on the floor while all the stuffed animals get my bed. see how big that dog is. probably the size of my pillow. I'm such a hero. I sacrificed my bed for them. (i'm getting slightly insane so don't mind me)

can't wait to get back to singapore now. 1 more month! but first, i need to get through this torturous midterm. worst class ever! but the professor now is a lot better though he needs to speak up. his teaching style is adorable though. going back to skyline tomorrow afternoon for eyh meeting. hope it wont take too long so i can get home and continue studying. so glad we get wednesday off since its veterans day. more time to study. oh yay.

TRICK OR TREAT

2009-10-31T14:02:00.002+08:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! i'm slightly early according to US time but it is halloween in singapore so there. i got all the tricks as usual, nothing surprising. i cant wait for the treat come december so i'm just waiting very impatiently.

anyways, school has been insane. i'm still not catching up but the workload just keeps piling. i'm making it sound like i have tons of homework when i really don't. just lots of reading to keep up with lectures and prepare for the final which isnt till another month and a half. but midterms keep me busy too. oh why am i talking about school again?

well, nothing really special this halloween. nothing planned. sad that i leave away from campus or it's be more exciting and you wouldnt be reading a boring post. there was a couple of people dressed up in class today but i suppose it'd be cooler tomorrow when its the actual day. the funniest i've seen so far was a person dressed up in a p*nis and lube and condom. they were walking around sproul plaza passing out condoms. quite a sight really.

alright im getting bored typing this out myself. nothing happening so yeah. i miss texas, well not the place itself but more the week spent there. heading off to skyline next fri to prepare for eyh. gonna do a workshop on finding a cure in the rainforest. something like that. sounds exciting. and it'll be my third year doing eyh :) for now, time to hit the sheets. i'll try to come up with something more exciting next timev :P

sacnas 2009

2009-10-25T08:38:00.007+08:00

group picture on the first official day.

me and my beloved poster on presentation day

hallway when you walk into the room. how awesome is that.

end of the hallway leads you to the beds. comfy comfy beds which i hardly slept in thanks to the late nights.

my abstract is published on page 156! my first publication! i've lugged home 5 copies. had to leave 1 behind in the hotel.

around dealey plaza

fair park station-where the texas state fair was.

state fair

saw this horse carriage. love the horse. i want to ride in one...

another one. i think the brown one is prettier

this advertisement was everywhere. i would have gotton one if i had passed by 7-11

our steak with onion rings and mash. so so good.

the menu

bull head in the restaurant

some sort of castle looking place

(typed a while ago....)

I’m currently at Starbucks waiting for my 12.30pm history class to start with my Grande green tea latte and lemon pound cake which I just devoured. What a great way to start off another crazy day. I don’t know why but I just lost all my motivation to study after coming back from texas. Then again, it could be because I’m just so overwhelmed. I’m so behind in my classes I have no idea how it is even possible to catch up. But somehow, it must be done since I have another endocrinology midterm next Tuesday. Oh when will this cycle ever stop? To compare, I don’t think I ever felt this way before when I was in skyline. Not this overwhelmed at least. Never. But then again, as I always say, it was skyline, this tiny little community college where everything was easier. For now, I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and get through this other round of midterm. Anyways, I did not plan to start out this post whining about school but rather to blog about SACNAS, the best 5 days I’ve had in a while.
Basically, SACNAS /” SOC-NAS” is a science conference where students, undergraduates and graduates present their scientific research that they did. It’s supposedly for minority groups like the Chicanos and Native Americans but there’s no specific rule that forbid other ethnicities from joining. So skyline happily sent at least 10 Asians and there, we felt like we were the minority instead. It was pretty funny actually. So anyways, I’m just going to do a little mini recap. I have to type this down only because I had an awesome time. I’m sure everyone did. We bonded so much during all the late nights and crazy sessions.

Wednesday October 14:
Left for the airport at around 8 since my flight was at 10.30am. Saw a couple of others who were at the airport for the earlier flight at 9am. So apparently, I was actually very early. Well, I expected there to be a much longer line since it was in the morning which means busy airports. Still, it’s always better to be early than late. Sat around and talked to matt who was on the same flight and slowly others started to come too. Got on the plane and sat through the 3 hour journey. Surprisingly not as torturous as the last time I went to Texas. Arrived around 4ish since our flight was slightly delayed. Waited for baggage and caught the shuttle that was arranged specially for us travel scholarship people to get to the Sheraton hotel where we lived, sleep and breathed. Checked in the hotel and got to our rooms. We were scattered all over the place. Central and north towers and on different levels too. But it was alright. Only Ash and Nav were put in the same room so their room 2950 became the party room. I was in 2949 so it was very convenient for me to go over whenever I wanted to. Haha. The room was humongous. There’s a hallway when you walk into the room and then the 2 queen sized bed and around the corner was a small bar and the bathroom. I expected it to be much smaller. Some other lucky few peeps even got a suite. So in addition to the normal room, they had a living room. We were starving when we got to Dallas. Pity the few who got to dallas earlier than us and had to wait. So we unpacked, washed up and left to hunt for food. Went to this place (don’t remember the name) and I ordered soup. Somehow I was hungry but nothing seemed that appetizing. Sadly, the soup (potato bacon) was disappointing. It was salty beyond salty. But, we had fun during dinner with all the gossip and laughing. Headed to 2950 after. There were alcohol involved of course and it was just hilarious. With alcohol, there got to be drunk-ness. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. All I really remember actually is the gossiping. We just went on and on and on about the different professors. This is what happens when you put college students together. Got pretty late and people started leaving but we weren’t getting any quieter. Oh, we had our very own DJ, Ash. I believe it was already 2am when people started leaving. And they told us there were security people walking around so we decided to end the party somewhat. Went back to my room and finally met my roommate. Unfortunately, she barely spoke English which was quite appalling and annoying at the same time. Not that I look down on people who can’t speak English, but to not even be able to comprehend and start up a conversation, that’s pretty horrific. Plus, it’s not like she didn’t have an education. What made me say this is from what she asked me the next morning. So she got up before I did and used the bathroom. When she came out, I went in to wash up and she started asking me something in Spanish, which of course I couldn’t understand. Turns out she was asking me how to turn on the showerhead. I somewhat understood bits and pieces and told her to show me instead and I walked to the bathroom where she pointed to the showerhead. It felt almost as though I was talking to a little kid. I mean, seriously now, to not be able to ask a simple question in English, that’s pretty sad. So the whole trip through, we barely talked. Not like I saw her often anyways. I always got out early and went back late due to all the partying. Plus, when I tried to start a conversation and asked which school or major she was studying, all she did was smile -_- so obviously I gave up.

Thursday October 15:
Got up and went for breakfast. Surprisingly I could wake up even without much sleep. That being said, Texas is 2 hours ahead too. So waking up at 8 meant waking up at 6am in S.F. I barely wake up at 7am usually for school. Breakfast was horrid, definitely not appetizing. I sure did not eat a lot when I was there. But what can you expect from caterers especially when thousands of people are waiting to be served. Did a little bit of studying after in the study rooms and barely got through a whole chapter of biochemistry. Had to meet dr. case outside the room where we would be having dinner at 3.45 so we could all sit together. We had a huge group with us so we got split into 2 tables. During dinner, there were key note speakers which basically talked us to sleep. Even case wasn’t exactly paying attention. So when we asked her later if she was napping since her eyes were closed, she replied that she didn’t need her eyes to listen. Lol. She really is something else outside of class. After that, we decided to head over to 2950 again so those of us who were going to present our research tomorrow could practice. I’m glad I sort of practiced before I left so I had some sort of “script” at hand. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure I would be panicking. Got others to ask us questions as though they were the judges so we could practice and get to know our research better. It was really helpful. After we all went through a round of practice, we decided to head down to the “bar” in the lobby since we heard there was karaoke. Unfortunately, the two rooms were full. We asked the people inside if they were going to be done anytime soon but instead, they invited us to join them instead. By then, they were already pretty drunk and it was weird being around them. I left soon after since I couldn’t stand the drunked-ness, especially since they were people we didn’t know. Turned in at around 2am? Wasn’t the greatest idea since presentation day was the next day.

Friday October 16
Set up my poster at 7am. Huge exhibit hall. There were rows and rows of exhibitors and poster presenters. I was at aisle 1600. Got shervin to help me since the poster was pretty big and my poster was right next to derricks too. When all of us got our posters up, we started to walk around and looked at the other posters. Throughout the whole walk, we were criticizing the other posters. Some posters were huge (didn’t fit the board), too many words, too plain, ugly pictures…etc. we were pretty mean. Thanks to case, we had pretty posters. After all, she is the expert. We had pretty backgrounds for ours and awesome clear pictures. We kept praising ourselves. Lol. Headed off to breakfast after. Met leslie, a representive from Johns Hopkins university and she gave us a lot of information about the grad school and medical school. It is one school I do want to go to but I’m not a pre med student so there’s no way im even going to try. I think my previous dermatologist was from Johns Hopkins. But anyways, after breakfast, we kinda headed off to do our own stuff. I went back to my room, studied a little, practiced some more and napped. Went for lunch and then walked around the exhibit hall when it opened. Tons of schools were there offering information about their schools. But since, we had to present, I didn’t walk around and talked to them that much. Left that for the next day instead. Got to our posters pretty early and I saw a judge looking at my poster. Ash told me to walk up to her and introduce myself, taking the initiative so maybe I could get some plus points. So we just talked and she asked mainly about my goals and all. Really got me to think somewhat. Since it wasn’t the exact judging time yet, she said she’d come back later and listen to me present. Got pretty nerve wrecking when the whole thing started. We didn’t get judged immediately. But there were passer bys who came by and asked questions. The first judge I got was mean. I talked about my research and he jumped in a few times to ask questions which I was fine with but towards the end, he kept going back to a question that I said I don’t know and he was stumped too. And he was like, you would think that snails have antibacterial properties, almost in a way like there’s no point in doing this research. Well, if there was, I wouldn’t be having so much trouble finding articles in the beginning. I forgot what I replied but yeah, I probably lost points from him. Plus, he was the first judge or person I talked to so I was nervous and not as prepared. It definitely got better after though. Towards the middle, I just had person after person come up to me. It became almost monotonous since I kept repeating myself somewhat. It was good though since I got the hang of it but I just got so thirsty by the end of it. And my back was aching so much too. Me and derrick were like we feel so old. The guy who was in charge of a booth opposite us was kind enough to offer us his chair but we couldn’t accept his kind offer since we weren’t suppose to be sitting-not professional. Wearing heels throughout killed me too. Well, it actually already did from the day before. My feet were pretty much dead by the end of the conference. I haven’t worn heels for so long or so many days in row before. Tons of blisters resulted from the conference! After two and a half hours of talking, we were done. What we came for was over. It was a relief but at the same time kind of sad since it marked the end of our research. Case told us to meet after so we could go for dinner and sit together. We just felt like we ate so many times every day. It’s like breakfast at seven, lunch at twelve, dinner at 5, supper at who knows when. We felt like pigs. But I know I got hungry often since I don’t eat much at the non appetizing meals. Sat through an hour of talks again. I was mainly just messaging James throughout who was sitting at the other table. Plus, he was sitting beside case too. I wouldn’t be brave enough to do that if I were sitting beside her. Went upstairs to change and all after dinner so we could hang out at night. Some of them still had to practice since their presentation was the next day. There was some unhappiness that happened that night due to anchi’s ridiculous partner but what’s a conference/trip without some drama? Still, it gave us some pretty good laughs. Ordered Chinese food delivery and that was just hilarious. It’s this restaurant(?) that delivers till 4am so since we got hungry, we decided to give it a go. Like I’ve mentioned, about half of us were Chinese, so duh, Chinese food. got a couple of dishes including chow mein which was the highlight. So when all the food came, we didn’t see any chow mein so we called them and surprisingly they were either 1. Stupid or 2. The customer is always right so they just said they’d deliver it again with no extra fee or infact, they didn’t even bother to ask any questions whatsoever. So we waited and they came with another order. But, instead of chow mein we got rice, which was the same thing as one of the other items they delivered earlier. So we called again and we’re like, we ordered chow mein, not rice. So they came by, no extra charge again, and guess what, it was the exact same order again, rice. So apparently, chow mein = rice in dallas. ???!!!!! we were all like wth. So much for calling and ordering chow mein. In the end, we ended up with 4 bowls of rice. We did feel kind of bad for those guys though. But seriously, what’s so hard about chow mein. Oh wells, it just made our night. Left their room and headed over to james room- he had a suite. It was awkward. I shan’t even elaborate. I thought it would be clear and over by now. It has been a couple of months but apparently, that’s not so true. I don’t know. Whatever. Headed back to my room around 1 and slept.

Saturday October 17
Got up around 7. Don’t know why I got up so early even though I didn’t have to set up poster or do anything. But since I was up, went downstairs. Some of them were putting their posters up already. Went to breakfast with anchi and waited for the exhibit hall to open so I could browse through the different schools and get more information about internships and stuff. I desperately need more experience, especially veterinary wise. Went to most of the booths I wanted to go to-princeton, johns Hopkins, Columbia, cornell…etc. didn’t get as much free stuff as I wanted to though. Haha. Bought a sacnas shirt. I think I walked up and down the aisles quite a few times to make sure I visited all the booths that I wanted to that the people were looking as though I was lost or something. Or maybe it’s just my imagination. Met up with Stephen for a bit and he actually thought I went to Davis. Haha. Not surprising since that’s somewhat the default I suppose. Shrugs. But hey, it’s a big difference from Berkeley okay. I’ll leave davis veterinary school for later, but now, I’m a bear. When the whole thing was over, met up with case and the whole group again for lunch. There was some sort of drama again as usual. Decided to head out after to explore texas and this is where the adventure begins and probably the highlight. So we wanted to go to dealey plaza, where kennedy was assassinated but before we got there, we spent nearly 2 hours travelling on dart back and forth since we were given wrong directions again and again. Took dart and headed off to the ‘left’ direction since we were told the dart would go around. There were tons of people that day since there was a game between texas and Oklahoma. Every one was basically wearing either red or orange so we clearly were tourists. The train did turn around, it changed direction. So instead of the green line, it changed to the red line. So we had to get off and took another train. Somehow we ended up at the texas state fair. Huge huge event. Was quite pricey though and we only had about 2 hours to spare so it wasn’t worth it and the queue was awfully long as well. Decided to head back and finally found our way to dealey plaza. While walking there, we passed by a couple of restaurants and you can’t go to texas without having steak or barbeque so we went to hunt for a place to eat since we thought dinner wasn’t going to be appetizing again. But we were wrong, they actually served us steak for dinner. But anyway, we found a place and me and pearl shared a meal. Yum yum. Was so good. The onion rings were so good but I didn’t want my breath to stink so I skipped on that. Of course, unsurprisingly, there was a huge drama. Pam, anchi’s horrid partner left her clique somehow and was lost so her poor clique had to go look for her and didn’t join us to eat. Yeah, we were divided into 2 cliques. Well, more, but the others were back in the hotel or somewhere else. We never quite hung out with them anyways. We rushed the waiter so much since we were really pressed for time. We had to meet case at 5.45 for dinner (we just had to go even if we weren’t gonna eat) and by the time we got our food, it was already 5. plus, we had to dart back too. We practically gobbled our food. we saw the other clique at the station and they told us they lost pam again. She got lost twice! How in the world do you go missing two times??!! So we just left them there since we didn’t want to be late. Selfish I know but seriously now, that was pretty ridiculous. We all ostracized her anyways. Ran back to the hotel since we only had 10 minutes left to change and meet up. I know my roomie must be like what the hell is wrong with her since I went in, ran to the bathroom to change, grabbed my purse and left without saying anything. Turned out everyone else was slightly late so we didn’t have to rush that much after all. Still, it was pretty fun-ny. Im sure through all that bitching and laughs, we bonded so that was nice. I didn’t touch my food at dinner at all but i ended up having all my plates cleared. Case took my salad (we were served salad at every meal) and shervin got my steak. Of course, I got laughed at. Awards ceremony: none of us won anything which got us pretty disappointed. So by the end of it, we were gloomy and case got upset with us. We shouldn’t have been since winning was not the point. The point was that we all got our first publication and we should have been proud of ourselves. So she left. Took a couple of pictures outside and case called asking if we wanted to go out. She led us to this place (turns out to be her hotel) which was beyond spectacular. It was like a lounge bar with a pool and beds. She bought us each a drink and we basically partied there. The view and ambience was just omg. Totally did not expect her to bring us there. People got a little tipsy and drunk. By the end of it, it got pretty chaotic and crazy. People I didn’t think would smoke were asking for cigarettes and I got quite shocked and disappointed. I also knew it was over for him. ( I swore I would never consider anyone who smokes). Got back to the hotel, people fell over a fence, stepped on a nail, basically a bloody walk back to the hotel. Me and pearl were just limping behind. We were still in our heels. Got back and I packed up and showered. It was so hard to pack all my stuff back. I carried 5 abstract books back and a bunch of brochures and tote bags taken from the exhibit hall. So much for getting free stuff. Somehow I managed to stuff everything in, without destroying my baggage. Headed over to 2950 since we were going to pull an all nighter. Some of them had flights at 9 which meant they had to leave at 6 (the shuttles ran every hour) and by the time we got back from the lounge, it was already 1ish so there wasn’t any point in sleeping. Played movie charades for 4 hours. It was very entertaining indeed. Boys vs girls. We were all pretty much dying by the time it was 5 and some of them still had to pack. Also ordered some Chinese food from that chow mein = rice delivery place but made sure we didn’t order noodles this time. My flight was at 10.20am but me and matt decided to try to go on the earlier flight instead. We were up anyways and were dying to get some sleep. Getting back earlier just meant we could go home and sleep.

Sunday October 18

Checked out of the hotel and took the shuttle to the airport. my bags were killing my back. Got on standby and the person told us that there was a good chance we would get on which was good and we did. Case was on the same flight as us too. Arrived at around 11 and we said our goodbyes. It was sad for me though cos I knew we got to know each other better during the trip but it was going to be a long time before I would see them again or even never. They all go to skyline still so yeah. (update: I’d be doing EYH next year and probably will be working with some of them so im excited and happy. I know I cant actually leave skyline even though I’ve graduated) went to have pho. Finally some edible good food. got home, unpacked, showered, checked my mails (damn, ive got jury duty! Urgh) and slept. My bro was here too but I was too tired to entertain him. Slept for a good 3 hours(I actually like hotels if I don’t have trouble sleeping. The big beds and nice bathrooms and room service…) Had dinner and slept again. Bummer I had school the next day. Good thing homework is a thing of the past. The only homework we have now is midterms/exams and papers. Problem sets if we want to do them but don’t have to turn them in.

Well, that’s basically it about my trip. long long post. It’s actually been a week already since I’ve got back and I do miss it a lot. It was a lot of fun. The company was great, so was the experience. I definitely want to go again next year- it’s in Anaheim, florida (Disneyland!) who could say no to that. So I must somehow find a way to get to that. For now, its back to reality and it sucks. Im so behind. Theres a lot more I want to type but I think its time to go to bed.

back from dallas

2009-10-19T04:38:00.002+08:00

i'm sooo sleepy right now my eyes cant stay open any longer so i'll just blog again later, hopefully, if i dont end up sleeping till tomorrow morning. basically, i didnt sleep at all for the past 30 hours. we pulled an all nighter. no, not studying but playing roughly 4 hours of movie charades and ordering chinese food to the hotel room. lol. update with pictures later...

life's short as it is

2009-10-07T13:37:00.002+08:00

i'm sorry i wont be able to send you off. i havent seen u in over a year now and it feels like eternity, you've changed so much. though you might not remember what we talked about the last time we met, just remember i love you. i'll visit you soon, i promise.

midterms!

2009-10-05T03:07:00.002+08:00

busy busy busy. trying to cram 9 chapters before tuesday night (why are my midterms at night?!!)

trying to finish my history paper that due on the same day too. for the first time, i m actually doing my paper a few days of before (ie not monday night)

update after crazy tuesday. then off to get my poster on wed. cant wait to see how it'll turn out. off to texas the week after. oh why do i need to have midterms?

UC WALKOUT

2009-09-26T13:05:00.003+08:00

courtesy of the daily cal:
just look at the number of people. newspaper reports 5000 students and imagine that this is just a glimpse of it. i went home after my discussion class at 10am so i didnt manage to see for myself since this happened at noon at sproul. but i did manage to catch a glimpse of it. at the entrance where i usually walk into school, there were a group of people picketting starting at 7am. cars that drove by would honk and it obviously got crazier later in the day. i would have loved to stay and watch except that i had a midterm the next day and if i did, i'd probably have quite some trouble getting back to bart with this crowd of people. i'm kinda on the fence about this whole deal. well, at least through this walkout, more people do notice the situation and hopefully it'll get better soon. not overnight for sure but eventually. for one, i think berkeley is too well known to be put off the map and for people to not take notice. and with all these political groups who are standing strong on their feet, they're not gonna let this matter rest until something is done. oh berkeley. such diversity and dynamics, can i ask for more? anyways, didnt want to say too much about this. some videos about the event below if u wanna see what went on. or just google uc walkout and you'll get tons of info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyVIgM3B5hc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pYBLbE5KbI&feature=player_embedded

watching toys story 1 and 2 in 3D tomorrow morning. excited. dont remember much of the story so it'd be a good recap. lol. just to get a break away from school and to reward myself for not having enough time to finish my midterm. well, no one did. good thing we still have a take home portion :)

crisis

2009-09-23T13:13:00.002+08:00

this is probably the one and only time that im not totally happy or relieved that my midterm has been postphoned... so i was supposed to have a midterm for my endocrinology class on thurs but it got moved to friday because of the walkout. initially, the professor wasnt going to go so the midterm will still be carried out but i think something happened somehow, and he made this whole inspiring speech today and he's going to walkout so midterms got moved and im not happy. not in the "but i studied so hard" sense but the walkout sense.

basically, the UC walkout is a day where faculty and students walk out of school. no classes. but of course not for holiday sake. im going to experience my first political 'strike' after 5 weeks of school. after all, berkeley is well known for its political and free speech sort of thing. so why the walkkout? what other than $$$. the UC system is raising our fees by 30 percent, as though its not high enough and its cutting back costs and all. so faculty is getting salary cuts, theres gonna be fewer classes offered, and the list goes on. bottom line: economic crisis. the system just doesnt have enough funds and all the bonds, endowments are all tied to other stuff and cant be touched to help solve the problem which in no way is an easy one to solve. it was a crisis in the making. sadly, if this goes on, berkeley may no longer exist on the world map as an international public higher education univeristy and premier research instituition. our rankings will plummet. we're not like stanford or harvard or oxford or yale that is privatized so they get their funds by wealthy rich money hogging people. but even though we're public, we're being compared to those colleges. we're getting our funds by grants earned by faculty well part of it and if the crisis goes on the faculty salaries continue to get cut, they might just go on and accept the offer from those schools. after all, the faculty do constantly receive offers yearly. who doesnt want more money after all. my endo prof is only obligated to teach 1 class and he'll get paid 10000 for that. but he's teaching 3 classes and getting paid the same amount. he asked to get more GSI because of the huge class size and they refused until something was done somehow. the situation is just bad. so hopefully the walkout will do something. its not going to happen overnight for sure but perhaps some good will come out of it.

i guess i'll be going to see what its gonna be like on thurs. i only have one discussion class in the morning. theres going to be pickett lines at the entrances so i wonder how chaotic its gonna be. sproul is going to be packed for sure. heh its all part of the berkeley culture. well, if theres gonna be a berkeley like we know it now in 10 years that is.

i should get to bed.

unproductive weekend :(

2009-09-20T14:08:00.002+08:00

is causing extreme guilt right now. im surprised im not even worried YET about the midterm thats coming up this thursday. my first midterm at cal. oh yay. really didnt do anything at all apart from flipping my notes back and forth surfing the net in between, watching ghost which is an awesome classic and got scared towards the end because of my cousin who got freaked out by my aunt who appeared out of no where and said hi and the perfect timing when the guy died, watching parts of the emmy's and the list of guilty pleasures goes on. hopefully, my self discipline comes back to me starting tomorrow. my GSI did say that a procrastinator is a perfectionist. and it is partly true i guess or more than partly. i dont know. anyways, i should get to bed now. procrastinating is exhausting too, somehow. my poster is going to the printer this friday. exciting stuff! have to proof read it again just in case. and below are just random pictures from school when i got bored.

view from a patch of grass outside VLSB. lol. i just thought it looked really peaceful
squirrels! theyre not afraid of people at all. so so tamed. i zoomed thrice only cos i didnt want to step on the shrubs. using my phone by the way...oh how adorable.

just another shot....

caffeine makes you depressed

2009-09-19T13:57:00.002+08:00

and i say that because that was exactly how i felt when i got home. got a latte as i did for the past 3 days in the morning while walking to school and an iced coffee when i was walking to bart to head home. i usually can handle more caffeine than that without any side effects including the ability to sleep super soundly so i dont know what got to me today. of course the caffeine theory is unsupported and thats my claim for now since its the only thing that i could think of now. everything was still fine in the afternoon. i only had mcb lecture then an hour break then endo discussion which i totally bombed. totally forgot about the reading assignment but the cool thing was is till knew what they were talking about. it was about primary literature and how it was written up or rather the format and since i wrote one myself, everything made sense and i kept relating or comparing it to my own paper or rather poster. then i had a one half hour break since i had scheduled an appointment with my GSI to ask questions and clarify stuff. during that one half hour i sat outside VLSB trying to generate more questions and a little bit of review for the midterm next thurs and i got soo distracted by all the little critters-squirrels! they were running around. so adorable! like they came up so close to you on the sidewalk and stuff. not afraid of people at all. there was this dog that was being walked and it saw the squirrel and couldnt stop staring at it. the owner had to really pull him. school grounds is seriously like a park. good and bad since i get so easily distracted once i see animals. anyways, office hours were really helpful. got lots of things cleared up. hopefully i'll do well on the midterm. weird we're having it on UC faculty walk out day. its basically a day where University of California faculty and students walk out of classes/teaching. sorta like a strike but not mandatory. its i think due to the budget cuts and tuition fees hikes. so its up to the professor if we still have class on that day. apparently, i have all my classes. including a midterm. awesome.

back to 5 hours ago... i got sad for no reason and got really annoyed at i dont know what. no, im pretty well sure its not PMS if thats what youre thinking. i just wanted to do something happy but there was nothing. actually i wasnt sure if i wanted to do anything at all at that time. bleah whatever. im feeling better already, or not. im not even making sense now. i should just go to bed. maybe its from the lack of food i ate today. but im not hungry.

i still cant stop thinking even though its been so long. i dont even know how i feel now. messed up.

090909

2009-09-10T12:37:00.000+08:00

so i didnt get the apprenticeship. quite a disappointment really. but oh wells, i didnt even expect to apply for anything at first so i guess im not that sad. i was really excited about it at first though. i would check his virtual office door almost 5 times everyday! hopefully, he has it again next semester. for now, i shall still be content with what i did over the summer. its not quite over yet since ive yet to see my printed poster or in that matter even gone to texas yet. really looking forward to that as ive said a million times before. 1 more month. cant wait to be with my lab peeps again. i can already tell its gonna be so much fun. that also means i need to go shopping again soon for formal attire.its a pain though. i'll drag someone along with me then. school's been a drag this week. been feeling really sleepy. i think real school life has start to sink in once again. the fantasy that the school once felt like is over. workload is starting to pile up and i always feel like im behind even though im doing a lot more studying than i did at skyline. im actually reviewing my notes of the day when i get home. impressive eh? i guess its also because we dont quite have official homework. but then again, who wants to grade 500 papers every week? so it makes perfect sense. yay self study! so far my favorite class would have to be endocrinology. its really interesting but technical too of course.

alright, didnt really intend to blog but its 9/9/9 so i had to crine out a post somehow.

skyline college shooting

2009-09-05T13:16:00.002+08:00

never in a million years did i think that i would be affliated with a school that has a shooting incident. still, im glad that everyone was fine and there were no fatalities. oh this happened on wednesday. i first heard of the news on facebook so i went to the school website to check and right on the front page read emergency: active shooter at large..... i was so shocked. i never ever thought this would happen at skyline, the small peaceful school that i so love. i mean i know shooting incidents happen, but 5 mins away from where i live? and the school that i just graduated from 3 months ago? my facebook started to get flooded with status updates and comments. the school went into a lockdown and there were live footages online with the swat team and polices officers and helicopters. just like what'd you see on news. i googled to find out more details but there wasnt much.after all, it did just happen and it was still ongoing. my friends who were still at skyline were stuck in the classrooms and had to wait an hour or so before they were escorted out. but im glad no one was hurt other than that one guy who was involved in the argument. he got shot in the butt and abdomen? so what happened as far as i know now is that these 2 groups of people got into a fight in the school parking lot (why cant they just fight outside of school and none of these would have happened?) and this one guy pulled the trigger. they fled the scene of course in a purple car and the injured guy ran into the learning center bleeding and shouted i got shot. so thats when everythign happened. people called 911, he was taken to the hospital, emergency protocols carried out, text messages sent out, lockdown mode, classes stopped, swat team comes, investigates, people slowly evacuated blah blah blah. classes cancelled the next day too for investigations to continue. i really was shocked at first and could not believe it but the more i thought of it, the more stupid it seemed. irresponsible people had to cause so much inconvenience and worries. it really was just an argument that turned ugly and not like the virginia tech case where a guy randomly goes around shooting people. of course, no one knew that then so im sure they did the right thing. glad its over now though. school has resumed though i know i would be paranoid and all if i still went there. theres still additional security officers put in place for the next week and escort services in the evening plus extra counseling for people who need it. i would still like to say that skyline is indeed safe and this was one isolated case. im still proud to be a skyline-ian. wouldnt you think it would happen in berkeley first rather than skyline? there really was a higher possibility but i guess not.

that aside, second week of school is over and here comes my 3 day weekend because of labor day. gonna go out tomorrow to tilden park. heard the scenery there is really awesome. oh im going with these bunch of peeps from the SMSA club (singapore malaysian student association). so its meet more people time. going to be fun from the sound of it. since im spending tomorrow having fun, sun and monday will be dedicated to school work. school's been quite crazy or starting to at least. the pace at which the lectures go are really fast. i didnt review my notes for endocrinology on wed since i was so distracted by the shooting incident which was a bad idea so i was really behind and lost at thurs lecture. bad sign. have to use this weekend to catch up. but this is how crazy it gets. on tues, it was just introduction of the different hormones and stuff and thurs is introduction of the hormonal axes which has to do with the various hormones and it was just confusing. yay for not knowing my hormones. i wonder how im gonna cope when i miss school during sacnas. i know its gonna be disastrous.

ive also been eating alot these few days so its been costing me greatly. i cant help it since berkeley has such great food and all these deals. im constantly thinking about food and everytime i walk past a store, i m always tempted to go in and grab something. but then again, the cost scares me. each meal is about 5 bucks on average? i had jamba juice to accompany me with on bart. i got matcha green tea blast. so good. love anything green tea. next day for lunch while waiting for my next class, went there again but got the mango peach topper which is mango, peach, yoghurt topped with granola and bananas. so good. im still craving that now. plus its healthy soo thats a plus. got fries on the way home since i was craving something salty. today went to sf soup company since it was too cold to get a cold meal. had southern corn chowder. so so good. i could have had the whole pot. top dog's hot links are awesome too. have yet to try the other recommended places though. cheese board pizza, this japanese place, thai place, korean place. yoghurt land. i m gonna be so broke and fat after. but i assure or comfort myself with the amount of walking that i do daily.

alright, thats mostly what i wanted to blog about before i got lazy and went to bed. more tomorrow maybe after our picnic at tilden. till then, we should all stay safe :)

2009-08-31T13:09:00.001+08:00

please dont go yet. i beg you. just 3 more months if i may. please.

1 week down, 15 to go

2009-08-30T08:11:00.002+08:00

title makes it seem as though im sick of school already but im really not. as much as i feel drained and tired from all the walking, i really love college life. there's just so much to do and explore that i can barely keep up especially with the commuting ordeal. this week has been good so far. the classes arent that hard to find as i thought they might be but there seriously is a ton of walking to do. especially with the insanely hot weather this week (it seemed like summer just started) it was a torture to walk around school. so from bart to the valley life sciences building, its not too bad plus its the start of the day too so im not that dead as i would be at the end of the day. usually take me about 7 mins? but if i have to walk to dwinelle, its a lot farther. and its uphill too. so if i have a back to back class after at dwinelle, i have to powerwalk since we have a ten minute grace period but since theres hundreds of people in the lecture, getting a good seat requires one to fly there. i know for sure im going to get enough exercise from all that walking. hopefully it'll be better when the weathers cooler. i seriously doubt i could live in singapore comfortably again =/

aside from the torture from the walking, the campus cant be any better. theres always something going on especially at sproul. throngs of people. sometimes i dont even notice that im in school. its quite insane really but i guess i'll get used to it. food in or around school is great so far. i had coupons for tapioca express where its free drink with any purchase so we headed there after class and took away to eat at this patch of grass outside VLSB. its almost like a picnic or a park. people just sit on patches of grass wherever eating or studying. who needs tables and chairs? grass works just as well. went to the golden bear cafe too. not quite as cheap but i guess its still worth it considering the portion. friday was excruciatingly hot so we went to get smoothies. it was 4.25 each but the size was huge. its larger than starbucks largest size ( i forgot whats it called since i dont usually order that) i still have yet to find jamba juice sadly. i know its near the residential area but i was too lazy to walk over. on fridays though, its blue and gold discount day so we basically get discounts at certain merchants if we have any cal gear on. so awesome. i need to get my sweatshirt soon before fall arrives. theres just so much clothing to choose from though i can hardly make up my mind on which design to get.

just sent in my appliation for URAP (undergraduate research apprentice program). wasnt initially planning to send in an application but when i was looking through the different research topics that professors were conducting, i came across one from the office of undergraduate veterinary research and its description was exactly my dream career. perfect. so i had to try my luck and signed up for it. now hopefully i get accepted and get all the experience that i need. not really getting my hopes up though since i wasnt really prepared in commiting to it. in the description it mentioned that i have to commit 7-10 hours per week so im wondering how i could manage that especially in my first semester. well, i ll see how it goes. gonna be exciting. i 'll know after sept 3rd :)

alright, i should go read my biochemistry. thats gonna be my hardest class i know. 500 people in a lecture??!! how can i ever find something personal to attach to. office hours dont work either since i have classes then. oh my endocrinology professor is awesome. he's hilarious. think i'll find his class most interesting and enjoyable. the GSI for my section is kinda cute too. *laughs* dream on.

i have a song on repeat for the last hour now. sweet goodbyes by krezip. and i need more songs for my ipod! 2 hours worth of songs is what i listen to per day and im starting to get sick of them.

CALTOPIA

2009-08-26T02:58:00.004+08:00

went down to berkeley yesterday to explore the school, find my classroom though i sorta failed. my first lesson is in 2062 valley life sciences building. found the building but i only saw 2063. i cant really say follow the crowd too so i think im going to get lost tomorrow. tried to find my bearings but that obviously didnt work. i walked round and round and somehow ended up farther away than where i wanted to be. i even ended up outside of campus even though it still feels like you're on campus especially around telegraph and shattuck. the cafes and shops were filled with cal people. its really like a university town. of course with bums around too =/

went to caltopia next at the recreational sports facility which i took forever to find. it was almost like a fair. wait, it is a fair. loads of people, ridiculously long lines but loads of fun cos there was tons of free stuff. i still have my singaporean touch - kiasu-ism. haha. the line was so long, you queue and ended up passing by 3 booths. so it was almost like killing 3 birds with one stone. cool stuff. its the usual spin the wheel and get prize kinda thing. so i lugged home lots of stationaries. other booths were promoting drinks. i ended up having to drag 3 bottles home. lol. quickly s was there too so yay free bubble tea. sf soup company. yum clam chowder. i have to say berkeley is really like a mall. u get all your fav restaurants and cafes along the streets. they were handing lots of coupons too. free coffee, 50% off soup. buy one get one kind of deals. so im pretty sure i ll put those to good use. should have gotten more. muahaha. left caltopia and headed to memorial glade. convocation was 3-4.15 and it was ice cream social so we went there at 4.30ish and they were still giving out ice cream. so we just sat down at the glade watching people play frisbee and seeing this tiny dog run around. i typed away at first. lol. decided to go at 5. caught the 5.10bart and got picked up. it was a fruitful day i have to say though my legs were killing me from all that walking.

got home and went out for dinner since joyce came back from the north pole. i wanna go there. not quite what i expected from her pictures but i guess it would be better in the winter. colder of course but more pretty with the snow and all. it'd be 24 hours darkness too. something nice to experience. they experienced 24 hours sun. haha. tried out a new sushi place. not bad. huge portions so it was worth it. pricier than other places but worth it. got home and checked my mail. i am officially going to sacnas in october. here i come again texas. that also means i have my first publication. yay! who ever thought that i would have something published? thats a good start at least. i think im google-able too :S have to read and re read and re re read my poster before it gets printed cos thats what i'll be presenting. oh click here to see it. feedback please. http://www.smccd.edu/accounts/case/sacnas/lau/jlau.pdf it's so pretty. hopefully the printing keeps it decent. like what case said, it may look good on screen but sucks in print. especially when the colors all go haywire and stuff. comes out a different shade than you like or want it to be. alright, i shall go hunt for food now and maybe try to start on my readings for tomorrow just in case class actually starts.

random pictures:

free icecream. no wonder our school fees are ridiculously expensive. haagen dazs?? we went back twice to get seconds. yum yum

doe library. i got lost in there. lol. no seriously i got lost.

memorial glade. love the green grass. love the scenery. love the peace. people playing frisbee, dogs running wild. almost like a park really.

campanile tower under repairs. other half of the library. somehow i went in the south door and ended up in the front of the library.

simple facts in the free planner they gave us. gotta love the school. i cant be any happier. excited to go to school tomorrow. nervous too of course.

to go or not to go

2009-08-23T04:43:00.002+08:00

i'm still thinking if i should go to this other conference (ABRCMS) in november with regards to my research. its going to be in phoenix arizona so it'd be cool to go to another state. but the problem is, im going to have to miss another 3 days of school. sacnas which i know im going or pretty sure i am in october is already going to make me miss 3 days of school. i know im going to miss out so much especially since wed and thurs are my longest and busiest days. even though they're not back to back weeks, it still makes a significant difference. if i was at skyline, i wouldnt even hesistate since i know the professors there would readily make any exceptions and i know i wouldnt miss out that much or at least its easier to catch up with the workload. but at cal, i would risk missing out a midterm or assignment. they wouldnt care even if its a educational conference im going to or as a matter of fact, a conference where i'll present my own research. so i dont know. i have to let case know soon since the deadline is sept 11 to apply for a travel award. but school doesnt start til aug 26 and even then, i wouldnt be able to tell what the workload is going to be like to decide if it was okay to miss 3 days of school again. and hopefully they have the syllabus ready and then i'll know when my midterms will be. so if it clashes, i know i'll be giving up this opportunity to go. if i do have a final, i could bring my books over to study too but as with other trips, studying doesnt seem to really work with all the fun and crazy nights that usually occur. i dont know, hopefully everything will work out. i do want to go though. it'd be good on my resume or whatever when i apply to schools next time or even jobs.

aside from that, holidays are coming to an end soon. havent been doing much at all. in fact, its been pretty boring. basically, i wake up and stare at the computer for the rest of day. or during lunch and dinner, watch teevee. its been this routine for the past 2 weeks? went out a couple of times and thats been fun. getting out of the house once in a while. watched district 9 on thurs. surprisingly liked it. didnt think id be interested in alien related stuff. but it was good. the ending kinda ruined it a lil but it was still good. watched short circuit and stand by me-old 80s movies yesterday. short circuit was adorable. now i see where the wall e argument came about. they do somehow look alike. but i have to say wall e is definitely way cuter.

think im going to head off to berkeley on monday since theres some events going on. its welcome week so theres gonna be tons of people. i really do wished i stayed on campus though. i know im going to miss out on so much fun. most of the activities that im interested in are held in the evening so thats a bummer. i will move out next semester. or i wish i will move out.

okay, im super bored now. nothing to do as usual. nothing to watch either. dum dum dum... i want to travel again. i miss my dog a lot. a lot.

12MB

2009-08-16T02:10:00.003+08:00

boo. i spent last night doing my poster and finally sent it but this morning i woke up to an email that i couldnt even open that said it failed to send :/ and i looked at the size of the file-12MB. hahaha. of course it bounced back. its sad cos i spent forever trying to get everything to fit in the poster. resizing, grouping and ungrouping because of the figures making it so hard to move around. and when i finally got it to fit even though it still looks weird now, i was so excited to send it but ohwells. we just cant trust electrons-quoted by case in one of her emails.

12 more days of summer

2009-08-15T07:09:00.003+08:00

here's just a snippet of what i've been doing in lab 1 out of about the 30 ish snails i killed. but he's the star since he got his picture taken.

mantle(skin) from the snail. tested against E.coli. inhibition aint that obvious....

disk diffusion using blood and water as a control. somewhat a zone of inhibition. oh blood is the one on the right. blood took me forever to find, she even doodled on my printed out snail anatomy picture. i felt dumb after. but she tried before too and couldnt find it so *sticks out tongue*

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12 days of summer before school starts again... im kinda excited but scared at the same time as i probably have mentioned a hundred times now throughout this entire summer. new school, new life, new friends, new courses. i still cant get over skyline somehow but i know i'll be going back there sometime soon this coming semester especially if my abstract goes through. which reminds me i need to get my poster done. im in the midst of procrastinating again. i have to say that case is incredible. she gets stuff done so quickly. i sent her my second draft of my text at about 4 and she replied at 7 with all these additional details and how she was going to help me fix my graphs and figures and all. and by 8 she had my text edited. i think procrastination isnt in her dictionary at all. and she edited another groups paper at 2-3am? she's such a workaholic its kinda scary. and she sent me another email at 7 in the morning. i wonder if she sleeps.

school books arrived today. i should start reading ahead already because i know i will definitely fall behind sooner or later. the biochemistry book seems so boring inside. its just text after text after text with limited pictures that arent even pretty pictures. they're like molecules and all. i wonder how im gonna survive. and i heard it aint an easy class either so :s good luck to me. oh, bart is going on strike on monday. again. glad i dont have school that day but i really really need to find some sort of alternative especially when school starts. bart is just totally not reliable as far as i know now. plus, its crazy expensive. i'm spending about 180 a month on transport alone. and 40 hours a month on bart! :/ thats how much time im gonna be wasting. i cant read on bart cos i'll just get really nauseous and uncomfortable. i think i need 40 hours worth of songs in my ipod. so far i think i only have 25?

alright, kinda ran out of things to type. should do my poster now. i already delayed it for a day. and she must be waiting for it. i know shes getting anxious too cos quite a few others have yet to start theirs and school's starting for skyline already.

rants

2009-08-13T13:25:00.003+08:00

yay the post i typed up just got deleted. autosave doesnt work :(

:(

2009-08-12T14:07:00.001+08:00

stressing out! berkeley is giving me headaches. so much to worry about! STILL CANT BELIEVE I CANT PAY MY FEES BY CREDIT CARD! seriously? ridiculous or what? so i have to set up my savings account with the web and all. more admin stuff to do. gonna do deferred payment as well so paying bout 3500 a month. guess its not that bad except theyre charging 40 bucks for this system. DAYLIGHT ROBBERY I SAY! well, berkeley = big school name = more stress = :S hopefully it also equals good job and high salaries. just got my textbooks too. they cost a BOMB. one of my whole scholarship is gone. so glad for it. thanks dr case! today didnt make anything better either. more stuff to worry about. but i guess i wont mention it here just yet. oh, life's a roller coaster ride. guess i shall just go to bed, wake up tomorrow and conquer these problems one by one. if i can sleep with all these thoughts in my mind. okay, my back is seriously aching now from all these sitting down and stressing. screams and pulls hair like a lunatic. picture that!

ps. firefox aint helping by closing on me every 5 mins! thanks a lot!

to be or not to be

2009-08-08T14:19:00.003+08:00

just what does it mean when someone you dont know that well until less than a month ago start messaging and calling you when they're bored

or when he ask you if u want to have lunch even if you dont know what time you will be done with school

or when you get tired and stressed from lab that he messages you telling you that everything's gonna work out

and says that he was just wondering if you were hungry so he could bring food over instead since it was late

and when you're done with lab, you call and he pops by in 15 minutes only to drive to a restaurant that is closed

and what else does it mean when you take away 2 meals from in and out and eat it in the car in an elementary school parking lot while watching a movie because its too noisy in in and out

and towards the end, he tells you your hair is nice and starts stroking it and perhaps either unknowingly or knowingly starts "stroking" your neck

and then he sends you home and says bye that doesnt really sound quite so much like a bye that you usually say

but again what does it mean when you know that he's going to be away in LA for at least the next 2 years while you stay in SFO

or that you're selfish and know that it wouldnt last or dont want it to last because you're rejecting him due to several superficial factors

yet at the same time is constantly waiting for his message or call?

i'm highly confused...

will the superficial always remain superficial while you remain hard headed about your wants and expectations?

or will you slowly give in?

-this is meant to be entirely rhetorical-

i promised

2009-08-02T12:20:00.004+08:00

here's the random pictures i promised in no particular order. some are soo long ago.

swan in san francisco. i forgot what that place is called. :/

sorry for the ugly lighting. my watch is back in singapore for a strap adjustment. all i have is the box.

this is the place that i forgot the name.

orientation day. having lunch in memorial glade. pretty pretty. i believe that is the doe library. the biggest one. gotta love the school.

our very own fireworks on july 4th. we had 200 dollars worth of fireworks. neighbors were doing illegal ones-those that shoot up into the air.

a whole box's worth. literally firing away money.

yum yum.

i just finished this whole pack yesterday afternoon. pretty strong wasabi powder.

love these

after 4 packs, i got sick of it.

my favorite deep french roast coffee.

astronout ice cream. ( i think i posted this up previously. lol)

ooohh french fries

okay, thats it for my random pictures. it took too long.

food cravings!

2009-08-02T07:25:00.002+08:00

just going to be a really random post with pictures. nothing much happening these days. a 4 day weekend isnt as exciting as its supposed to be. only went out on thursday night to watch harry potter again on imax 3D. was better. i guess it isnt all that bad. but i wont say its one of my favorites. i think if i watch it a couple more times, i would easily get sick of it. much too simple for a harry potter series. going out on tuesday with catherine and kaye. might go for japanese lunch and watch a movie after. im thinking funny people. we'll see. one more week of lab work to do but i dont know if i can finish on time. she suggested that i inject a snail with dead bacteria, care and feed it for a week and test to see if there's any chemical to attack it. so i dont know how i'm going to carry that out in time. hopefully it works otherwise im more or less done. get a better mantle plate and find and test for blood. can you imagine after killing 30 odd snails,i still see no signs of blood?! they have an open blood circulation so it should be pretty easy to find. once you cut them up, blood should be oozing out. and instead of hemoglobin, they have hemocyanin so its blueish green in color. but all i ever see is clear liquid and snort. i've already submitted my abstract so hopefully it gets accepted then i'll have my very first official publication as a scientist. awesome. and i get to go to sacnas in dallas texas this october to present my research. hopefully everything works out well. it'll definitely give me a boost in berkeley since there are soo many other students competing at the same time.

alright, now for the food part. i went to tanforan after school last week to get some stuff. spent exactly 50 bucks that day. less than what i usually do but that was also because i didnt exactly go shopping. just to get what i need. ulta had a sale. so a liter duo for paul mitchell was just 26 bucks and i had a coupon for 3.50 off. awesome or what. too bad they didnt have the tea tree special so i just got their original. it was still really cheap. but bad thing was, i had to lug that around while getting my other stuff. went to target after. got school supplies, toothpaste, lotion and the kind. then off to ichibankan. its like a daiso except much smaller. love that place now. it just opened and i see myself going there very often since they have my favorite japanese snacks and drinks. love the coffee. i always get those in japan. the little cans in the vending machines. thats the only time mom doesnt complain when i get coffee. but thats also because she likes it too. its not too sweet and i like thats it milky. i love my coffee with lots of milk unless i m drinking it to keep myself awake. milk would defeat its purpose wouldnt it. as much as i like it, its expensive though. 2 dollars a bottle?! i got 2 and i already finished one so i couldnt bear to open the other one. they also had matcha milk tea but they ran out. sad. that way, i dont have to go to starbucks no more to get my green tea latte. it does get a little gross when they do add in too much powder. spent about 10 bucks there? so it really isnt cheap considering the things i bought.

that aside, i'm really jealous about my bro being in singapore right now. im craving sooo much food and im missing all my favorite restaurants. and im craving for chili too. sambal plus chili padi. i really cant wait to get back in dec. bro's gonna be alone at home the whole of next week too since mom and dad have to go overseas for their meetings. i am certain the house is going to be turned upside down and my dog's gonna be neglected. poor guy. i miss my dog so so much u have no idea. i hugging my soft forever friends bear but it different.

oh what am i craving? let's see. top of my list for now is sambal sting ray. then kang kong??!! laksa, chicken rice, black pepper crab, sushi ( i know i can get it here) - im thinking of the hilton buffet on saturdays, the line buffet, crystal jade, thai food, scallops, fishball noodles.... anyone hungry yet? i know i definitely am thats why im stopping here even though theres so much more im craving every second.

anyways, fall semester is starting soon. well, almost. time flies. im a lil excited now. but its an on and off thing. i just got all my classes yesterday night. finally. it was so hard to find a 1 unit class. i thought education 198 was all full but nope. so im taking molecular and cell bio-biochemistry, california history to satisfy my american cultures requirement, integrative biology-endocrinology and ed 198. 13 units total. hopefully i'll be able to handle it. mcb is going to be stuff i know. my timetable aint that bad. i start at 1230 on certain days, 9 on some days and 10 on others. the latest time i end is 330. so thats good. i do have a couple of hours break on somedays but i dont mind. get to explore the school more and perhaps do some extra curricular stuff. still need to get my books and probably start reading. i saw that my history class has like 5 books total. am i suppose to finsih reading all that in one semester? and that only for 1 class. okay, i should stop cos the more i talk about it, the more scared i get :(

alright, dinner's ready. bread's burnt lol. shall post up pictures later. i promise. >.<

summer pictures

2009-07-27T05:15:00.005+08:00

i dont know why the pictures are in reverse order but at least there are pictures here to entertain after infinite boring posts.

my cheap buys :) i dont know why i just took pictures of the price tags. lol. but i love clearance sales.

i believe this was half price.

you cant get better than this. 3 bucks. seriously now?

and 4 bucks? no wonder stores are going out of business. lol. dont say i dont support the economy.

lunch at the airport before leaving vegas. love fish and chips. give me fried stuff anytime. or junk.

my astronut icecream. didnt really like it. give me the real deal please. guess i wont be an astronut anytime now.

korean bbq at chinatown. yums. korean food must be my second favourite cuisine after japanese.

dessert at the sushi buffet at the premiun outlet center. love the strawberries. we took a stack of cookies before we left for bro to snack on in the plane

strawberry banana pancakes from IHOP. love it!

morton steak house. sorry for the ugly display of food. i had a little bit of everything.

view from the plane. almost there now. spot the strip. :)

extraordinary. i love gazing out of the windows, looking at the amazing scenery.

more photos later. off to play the wii with cuz now. :) just when i had the moood to blog. lol.

continued...

2009-07-27T05:11:00.001+08:00

(Continued from previous post…. What did I say, I knew I was going to get lazy.)

So, we went outlet shopping for the entire day. I didn’t get much but bro got loads of stuff. I think he got a whole new closet. He probably spent close to 600 bucks! I kept worrying about money matters and school fees so I was hesitant, looking at all the prices before I took it to mom’s hands. She was the credit card of the day. Wanted to get this really cute pair of converse shoes- it had fish around it, light faded blue color, but they didn’t have my size. Even though it was kind of overpriced, I didn’t mind but it doesn’t matter since my size wasn’t available. They had size 6, 8 and 9 but not 7! So I was disappointed. Still, I manage to steal some good deals in the end. Got 5 dollars converse shirts, 10 dollars converse jacket, some other less than 10 bucks shirts. Oh, we went into coach too and mom and dad went crazy. The clearance section was 50 % off and they gave us 20% off coupons as well. So as you can imagine, there were hoards of people. Dad got a couple of small stuff for his colleagues and mom got a hand bag. I got my eyes on this handbag that was really pretty but it was too expensive. Now, I still do regret not getting it. And I saw it again the next day too. But now I know can resist temptation quite well. Haha.
We got really tired at the end of the day. We walked the entire center. Good thing we were in the mall and not outside though otherwise we would seriously have melted. There weren’t a lot of shops that I like but it was still a day well spent. By the time we finished shopping, it was dinner time so we had to decide on where to eat. You cannot have gone to Vegas without having a buffet. And we wanted to go to a good one where they don’t serve crappy cafeteria food so we went to the most expensive one at the Wynn. Mom’s idea… the food was good. Alaskan king crab legs were heavenly with shrimp cocktails= delicious. Didn’t have much sushi but that was compensated for the next day. I might have said this before but the dessert corners are always my favorite. Overall, it was a good round of food. Headed back to the hotel since I was so dead but parents scooted off to the casinos and didn’t get back until 3am again. Oh, while we were waiting in line, dad didn’t want to wait so he went off to play. Dad really acts like a child sometimes. But that’s what makes him dad.

The next day, bro was going to leave first since he couldn’t skip summer school on Monday unlike me. >.< decided to go to the premium outlet center that uncle Jackson told us to go. Thought it was about a 40 minute drive looking at the map, but it turned out to be only 10 minutes at the other end of the strip. So glad we went there. There were many more shops that I was interested in. but before the shopping, we went to a sushi buffet that was recommended by my uncle. It has to be the best sushi buffet around in the United States. I have to say United States because you definitely cannot compare to the ones in Japan. There were loads of different kinds of rolls. The most common California roll to spider rolls, spicy tuna roll, caterpillar rolls and lots more. It was authentic too. Didn’t have sashimi but that was understandable considering the price we were paying and the amount of people there was. They had other Japanese cuisine too, miso soup, udon, soba and the like. The dessert bar drove me nuts. There was a chocolate fountain and the strawberries were so good, I think that was the most strawberries I ever ate in a single meal. Skewer after skewer, my plate was literally splattered with chocolate. I must have gone on a sugar high after. That meal certainly satisfied my sushi craving for the time being and considering the price which was I think less than 15 dollars per person, it was well worth it.
Then, with a full stomach, it was off shopping again. I think until we reached the legal age to gamble, Las Vegas would be out shopping paradise. This outlet center was in the open though, not like a mall so we had to walk outside unless we wanted to go into a store. The weather was unforgiving. It was so hot, my skin really felt like it was burning. Good thing it was dry and not humid or I would have stayed in one store and never get out. So even when I didn’t want to go into a certain store, I had to in order to get away from the heat and cool off. It was that bad. Aside from the heat, shopping was good. They had gap, my all time favorite in terms of reasonable quality and price so we went crazy. They had good steals too. I got a pair of shorts since I had to change out of my jeans, one sweatshirt and one jacket and some tees. Dad, mom and bro got stuff too and the total only came up to about slightly more than a hundred. I think that was the best shopping deal we had while we were there. Yay gap! There was a coach outlet too and that’s where I say the bag I wanted again. It was 199 but I still thought it was pricy. It really wasn’t considering that it was coach and the size. But I figured I couldn’t bear to use it often and the number of occasions where I would really use it was limited. I was holding it around while mom and dad were still shopping so I was that close to getting it but put it down in the end. L Then another temptation had to come along when we went into Burberry. I’m in love with their jackets and watches. Talking about it makes me want it so much more so I should stop. We sent bro off to the airport so we didn’t exactly walk through all the shops. It was unbearably hot and I was getting grumpy. After, we went back to the hotel room to rest since we were all tired and had to cool off. Yay for air conditioning! Went out to Chinatown for dinner after the tiny nap. Got bubble tea before dinner. Dad’s idea. He’s really like a child. Then we had Korean barbeque for dinner. Good food. I think Korean cuisine if my second favorite after Japanese.

Okay, I’m getting tired from all these typing. But basically the next day, we went back to the premium outlet to grab more deals, had crappy Chinese food then headed off to the airport. Landed and I got worried about my research and dragged dad to drive me to find more snails. He was grumpy about it at first but once I saw one snail, he got into it and wouldn’t leave. I wanted to go back already but he was like, there should be more. I seriously think I got the whole population. Went for dinner and we only ordered two dishes but barely finished one. The portion was huge. Went back to the hotel and slept.

escargot

2009-07-15T01:25:00.003+08:00

currently in the library waiting for time to pass. dont want to go to lab that early. there's always no one there since everyone gets there only in the afternoon. plus, i dont have that much to do today. just swabbing bacteria onto nutrient agar plates. hopefully the bacteria are dead so i have proven that the mantle and/or mucus have antibacterial properties. so far, nothing has been giving me great positive results. even the absorbance values were mediocre. i need something to work out right otherwise i dont know what im going to do. i know being scientist means being wrong all the time. after all, we were just testing our hypothesis. in other words, a guess. so in the mean time, escargot anyone? i dont think i'll ever eat that. never tried it before but thinking about what i've done and how i've murdered them, deters me from eating them more than ever. they're sadly ugly looking creatures that are slimy and gross. and the misconception that they are slow moving is such a misconception. they are pretty fast once they get moving. of course, not as fast as a dog but fast enough for their size.

anyways, havent been doing much these few days. watching videos after videos and trying to churn out an abstract which i just sent 10 minutes ago to be edited. still have the background to do. (why do i always go back to talking about school?) going to watch harry potter tomorrow!! excited. its not in 3D yet but i just cant wait to see the movie. so yes, im going to be watching it twice. watch the crappy one first then the great one. cathy already got tickets online just in case its sold out which i doubt so. i really do want to watch the midnight showing but its too late especially since its on a weekday and i have to get my butt up early the next day. the movie's two and a half hours so by the time i get home, it'll be almost 3. 4 hours of sleep will do me no good. i'll probably blow up the lab and get bacteria everywhere and they'll grow and rule the world. (i went a lil crazy, just a lil) then going for sushi buffet with angie on friday in san mateo. yay for sushi! i finally have an exciting week. the past few weeks since parents have gone have been sad. its school, home, teevee, sleep,school. the weekends were worse. everyone was out so i was left alone. blasted the radio but it was still lonely.

im so jealous my evil lil brother is going back to singapore this saturday. i dont get to see my lil boy. i did see him on webcam yesterday though but of course its not the same. he's still the same in personality. and we're almost close to calling him roast pig. he is a fat lazy dog. he's eating way too much. but who can restrain from giving him food with those puppy eyes. i have to wait 5 months now. :(

oh yes, birthday. my facebook page has never been that flooded. but a big thank you for all those wishes. people that i didnt expect to remember or even send a wish surprised me. nothing happened much that day. just went out for dinner.. wanted elephant bar but the wait was 2 hours which was ridiculous. so we went to some restaurant in a hotel recommended by aunt suzanna who was with us. but when we got there, the restaurant that she wanted wasnt there. the company just changed ownership 4 days ago. lol. so we just settled there. the menu was tiny, small selection and pricy. it was in a hotel after all. food was alright. my chicken was a lil dry. dessert was good though. new york cheesecake, lava chocolate cake, banana nut cake. desserts always satisfy me.

berkeley is driving me crazy. i cant waive the insurance, mom didnt tell me why so now, i have to pay the 700 bucks per semester. i havent even seen a doctor since i got here. touch wood i never have to but thats some crazy expensive insurance. school fees are due soon on aug 15 and i dont know how my parents are going to come up with the money. its 16000 bucks (S $ 24000) . we are going to be sooo broke by the time i get out. i know i have enough in my bank account now which we took 2 years to build so i could get by this semester but i m thinking about the 3 more semesters i have. i need to get a job and pay taxes so hopefully they'll consider that and my tution can drop to 4000 and we can breathe. but im pretty sure they'll come up with some stupid excuse then. i still need to get my fafsa worked out. :S

yay i churned out a long post. think i'll go to the lab at 11.

now, vegas!
left on a friday and by the time we got there it was night time. that means dinner! hotel restaurants didnt look too appetising. (oh we stayed at the hilton since my dad had points to use. ) thought the hotel was pricy too for the kind of food it was serving. the buffet looked good but the line was insane and we were hungry. when we were driving to the hotel, saw a couple of steakhouse and for some reason, dad was either craving steak or something else cos all he mentioned was steak. ended up at morton's steakhouse. we were definitely underdressed so it was a lil awkward. at least i felt awkward, guess they were too hungry to even care. got our drinks. and the waiter presented us the menu. they had a cart with real food on it and told us about the different kinds of cuts and stuff. it did feel like royalty for a minute. i got the salmon and they got the different kinds of steak. food was excellent. lived up to its name i thought. also ordered a chocolate lava cake for dessert.we had to order it like 30 minutes before. so it was fresh out of the oven when we got it. even though i couldnt really finish my salmon, i licked the plate of chocolate cake and icecream clean. of course, the bill came up to a few hundred bucks. thatbottle of water cost ten bucks by itself. and each main course was above or close to 50. plus side dishes and all. but i thought the meal was worth the price.

next stop was circus circus. didnt play any carnival games though. just walked around. good for digestion. haha. went back to the hotel since it was already pretty late. not late for parents of course. they didnt get back till 3am. we were in vegas so they no doubt went to the casinos. i would have gone too if i want underaged. because of that, i like macau more. lol.

next day, woke up pretty late. we are sleep in-ners. lol. went for breakfast at ihop near the outlet center. yay pancakes. i had the strawberry banana pancake which was the bomb.

oops, its 11 now. should get going. blog later when i get home. (haha. i doubt it. i always get so lazy)

happy birthday

2009-07-10T14:44:00.002+08:00

to me in about 15 mins from the time i started this post. oh i wish i was in singapore right now. i cant believe how im going to spend my day tomorrow. probably lazing around at home and being miserable.

okay, i've just lost the mood to do a proper update. continue tomorrow. (dont i say that all the time?)

but, aside from the misery, thanks for all the messages whether on facebook or messenger or sms. i am missing all you guys!

vegas, here i come!

2009-06-26T13:14:00.002+08:00

going off to vegas tomorrow afternoon for the weekend with parents. outlet shopping and food! oh yes i am excited.

bio research isnt going on too well. first screening done. no inhibition and the bacteria was messed up too. staph and e coli was cross contaminated. good thing i saved my extracts. gonna have to get more snails now. sigh.. more hunting and dissecting. gross.

today isnt a very good day for the entertainment industry either. but thats how life is...

blog more when i get back :)

calso!

2009-06-18T13:05:00.002+08:00

calso (berkeley orientation) was awesome i must say. lots of stuff i want to blog about but i'm dead beat right now. my legs are sore from all that walking and my brain is dead from information overload so i'll definitely update more another time. i do have to say that i really do love the campus a lot more than i think i would have. people are great too. so not the myth or rumors that people put it out to be. yeah maybe there are a handful out there but the majority of people are really awesome. all really nice and friendly and definitely willing to help out. wasnt much people today in the molecular cell bio department so we got more time to know each other and stuff. still need more time to figure out my classes. totally a pain in the butt. the reality has started to sink in too. like what they said, now that i have registered for my classes and gotton my cal ID card which is like the greatest thing ever with so many discounts and all, i am officially a cal bear/student. still completely nervous about how my first semester will turn out. the change in workload will be significant though. even the first mcb 102 class is gonna be challenging. thats why we're advised to take only 13 units max for our first semester. so yeah, its still intimidating. i think our advisors were really cool. surprisingly more asians than i thought. then again, it is cal. met some really nice peeps too. think i already found a buddy. she's from los angeles. have to say her day was more exhausting than mine. more on that next time. for now, i have to say my decision to study here has really paid off. wouldnt change anything. yeah, sacrifices had to be made especially in monetary terms but i know its gonna be all worth it in the end. i'm not gonna rush myself this time. if i need 2.5 years or 3 years, so be it. think te cal culture would be really interesting. really do want to stay on campus or at least near campus so i maybe i could get more involved somehow. at least not without having to worry about commuting late at night or something. get to know the campus a lot more better too. the campus is huge! each building is like omg. we even have a t rex bone thingy in the middle of the building. and a courtyard in one and geez, who knows what else. the library is gigantic. 28 libraries total i think. i could go on and on. but i ll leave it for next time. or even the next 2 years. looking forward to football games when we rival stanford. never wear red or sit down in a stadium on the hill filled with 40 000 people. exciting 2 years it will be. but for now, i have to say good night cos im seriously a zombie now.

GO BEARS!

ps. i do have to admit that oski is a lil tad ugly. like a misfit of some sort.

popeyes tuesday

2009-06-17T04:07:00.002+08:00

orientations tomorrow! im eggcited! the only bad part is that i have to get up at 5.30 ish. the last time i got up that early is probably 2 years ago on black friday maybe? i'll see how my body reacts to that tomorrow. good thing i have a ride there. asking me to take bart so early in the morning would just be pure torture.

so yesterday i just spent my entire day picking out classes for the fall semester. its just part of the before orientation process and i guess its better too so i ll know what classes to register for tomorrow. it was sooo meticulous. so much harder than skyline. its really complicated too. need 120 units to graduate. 60 units must be from letters and science department. 36 must be upper division units and 6 of those must be outside your major department. on top of that, ur own major has certain requirements. molecular and cell biology had its own subdepartments- cell biology, immunmology and pathogenesis, infectious diseases, biochemistry and molecular biology, neurobiology, genetics, genomics and development. yay for so many choices but boo to the fact that i had to make up my mind. was really interested in immunology and pathogenesis or infectious diseases but.. okay now i dont know why i didnt choose it. chose CDB :physiology in the end. didnt just want cell biology alone cos even the 2 electives had to be from the MCB department. at least i could have something different with physiology. and i get to complete the pre reqs from vet school too. there was so much to look into. so then was class picking. i think my schedule is alright. start at 9 on MWF, end at 12 and 8 on TR., end at 3.30. not too bad. i do have a 3-4 hour break on TR though. guess that could be spent exploring the school otherwise duh, studying. ooh fun. their online schedule which is the only way they offer it otherwise it'd be thicker than a phone book, was pretty easy to use but thats only if u know what classes u need. i think im gonna be soo intimidated. each lecture has 4oo people in it. of course some has lesser but still in the hundreds. then we had to pick discussion classes too which i think i will like more with 15 people. i dont know if those are mandatory. so as of now, if it works out, i ll take MCB physiology, MCB genetics, anthropology and psychology. i think it would be quite a heavy load. we'll see. its not confirmed. have to check with the advisor tomorrow.

just finished sending case my "proposal". really crappy one actually. i really dont know what my real purpose is. so hopefully she'll enlighten me later. i still need my snails! going to golden gate park on thurs with jan since she was going to have a picnic. hopefully i'll manage to get something otherwise my only other way is to ask joyce to drive me to her bf's place and hopefully strike the jackpot there otherwise i'm pretty much screwed. told her i'll start on the 22nd. parents will be here too then. will have to skip on monday 29th since i'll be in vegas for the weekend and the fares are cheaper on the weekdays. bro will get back on sunday since he cant skip school. hopefully thats alright with case or i'll get my head chopped off.

currently waiting for my popeyes' chicken to get home. its tuesday so 2 pieces for a dollar. great or what? i think i ve had popeyes for the past 2 tuesdays already actually. i'm glad im not a health freak. :p

mom got me a new phone yesterday. nokia 6260. i think i'l be sticking with nokia for the rest of my life. wanted the E71 but it wasnt in the singtel promotion. oh wells, its all good. its still a slide phone which i like and its silver. done with black for the time being. hopefully i dont screw the screen up without even knowing it this time. i've always been good with my phones, minimal scratches, drops... so this was a bummer. dont think i'll ever like touch screen phones too. i'm weird like that. glad parents are coming over this weekend. dad's in germany now so maybe i'll get chocolates yay! should get my cartier watch and more food too! materialistic. yes i am. as mcuh as i would like to think not. alright, chicken's here. update again later. :)

2009-06-11T14:00:00.003+08:00

something's bothering me now but i dont know what it is. doesnt help that its almost bed time either cos that'll only mean that i wont be sleeping until its almost time to get up. maybe its because mom just told me that my dog's not eating. he hasnt eaten for days. i suspect its the auto feeder but i dont know. that also means that he hasnt pooped for days. lol. i'm a lil worried for him but i hope its just because he got bored or something. you know how sometimes u jsut dont feel like eating anything, or not craving anything at all. yes, thats what i mean.

mom and dad are going to be here in a weeks time. excited? maybe. i think its the worry season. have tons of things to do. funny thing, i dont even know when i start summer school. i plan to send my proposal tomorrow to case but we'll see if that happens. have to finish my calso tools thingy too. pick out classes for fall. pulls hair. so confusing. why cant i have my own counselor to do that just like in skyline. im being very grumpy now. i had wanted to blog so much just now but i think ill stop now. heres an abrupt ending.

the proposal...

2009-06-11T14:00:00.002+08:00

oh a happy ending. and i teared.

muahaha. no, i didnt get a proposal.
instead, i went to the premiere of the proposal. jon, janet's bf had tickets to the premiere so we went to watch it. oh if only he had tickets to the premiere of harry potter or twilight. that would be insanely awesome (?) anyhows, the movie was alright. not totally fantastic. sweet and funny as it was, it was way too predictable too except one paart where sandra bullock and the guy ran smack into each other nude. still it was heartwarming. i guess it would still be worth the money to go watch. yay we got it for free. lol.

before that, went to have dinner at in and out. weird i havent been there at all even though ive been here for 2 years. its a fast food place like mcdonalds and burger king. but the cool thing about it is that it has a secret menu. otherwise, its regular menu is really simple. but i have their say their secret menu is really good. neopolitan milkshake, animal style fries, 2x2, grilled cheese...etc. i just got their cheeseburger meal though. i have to say that its really good. very fresh. their lettuce and tomato were cold, at first i thought my meat patty was cold but it was actually the veggies. their patty is cooked on the spot too. yums. and their fries are from real potatoes. u can actually see them cut it and fry it. i think its gonna be my fav fast food place now.

so i just got rejected for resident tuition fees for berkeley too. sigh. i can appeal but i doubt it would be successful too. their reason was that even though i am physically present in CA, i'm not financially independent and claimed as a dependent on an individuals tax forms. plus my nonresident parents are my source of support so great. i dont know if i should bother to appeal. i do have one month to do it though. maybe i'll conjure up a heart throb story to convince them. lol. i cannot see my parents pay 16 000 bucks PER semester. that means 32000 a year excluding books! compared to 5000 or 10 000 a year for residents. see how useful that 1000 bucks scholarship is. i think im gonna deal with that financial aid thing tomorrow. bangs head.

off to bed...

2009-06-08T14:33:00.002+08:00

i should really get off the com and start going to bed earlier. been sleeping at 1am lately and thats not good cos i end up getting up really late. and it just makes my day seem so short and like im totally wasting my time. lol. make sense? oh whatever. just finished video calling with mom. i got to see puppy again. he's so adorable. cant agree with me more after u see the picture below. i made mom take a photo of him. i bet she's annoyed everytime i talk to her online cos i keep bugging her to call him out. he spends his time in the kitchen sun tanning so she has to lure him out using food and once he gets what he wants, he goes back inside. lazy bum. he cant even sit or stand still without lying down for a minute. no wonder he has a beer belly. no he doesnt drink. i just felt like using that phrase. me and my randomness.

didnt do much today again but i got a whole list of things planned out for this coming week. i shall use my time wisely from now on. first off, settle my research project. got some clue of how to get it going. now i just have to read more journals. that just totally puts me off. people just use way too much technical terms. its almost impossible for me to understand what their research is about much less the results. and all the acronyms just puzzle me. on top of that, their journal can go on and on and on, sometimes up to 20 odd pages. i'll see how that goes but i dont forsee a good outcome. im probably going to just get so bored after the first paragraph. why cant they use layman terms and just say their procedures and results so it makes it easier to comprehend. i know i know. then theres no meaning to getting a phD right. everyone can be a scientist then. i must quit whining. so, another thing to do is to find snails. thats going to be fun. i seriously have no idea where to find them. its summer now too so i'm definitely not going to bet on rain. i might give the fog a 30%. help anyone? i'd be thoroughly screwed if i dont find any. someone just let me know of a location. u dont have to pick them if you're the squirmish kind. but i need snails!! thats a big problem.

have to finish my calso advising before orientation too. thats not much of a problem. might just get that done tomorrow. and driving. the theory book is boring.... i always fall asleep after one or two pages. still, i know i need to get to it. been putting it off way too long now. okay, its almost 12. maybe i ll sleep an hour earlier. if i can actually fall asleep. time to start counting sheep now. im surprised it works sometimes.

i dont know why his one eye is smaller but he's so adorable all the same. i watched marley and me again today and i cant stop myself from tearing everytime i see or read it.

dad got him an auto feeder since they're coming over for 2 weeks. i told them to get it a while ago since they're always away. but im afraid they'll get so used to it that they'll stop hand feeding him. and thats not good. cos feeding them is actually bonding time. hopefully that doesnt happen but i doubt so.

the hangover

2009-06-06T14:33:00.002+08:00

no, i did not get a hangover. instead, i went to watch the hangover today with jack. it was the stupid funny comedy kind of movie, perfect for a lazy friday afternoon. woke up at 11 again this morning and waited for him to pick me at 1. went to hillsdale and we walked around. surprised the mall was really empty. wanted to shop really badly but since i was with a guy i felt bad if he had to wait for me and stuff so we just walked into random shops. but there was gap, banana republic, huge old navy, forever 21, abercrombie, holliser, american eagle, victoria secret! oh, victoria secret has a collection for cal! sweatpants and tops and shorts. i want but expensive though. all my favorite shops! boo. i shall drag someone there with me and i shall crazy shop.

went into hallmark and i played with the singing/talking mugs again. he bought 2 on impulse. lol. but theyre really adorable. love their hoops and yoyo collection. i got the graduation photo frame from the family and i could press the button the whole day listening to them talk crap. i do want the travel mug too. "im drinking my coffee, from my travel mug. i think its driving me crazy, wut wut wut wut wut...." its seriously sings that. went to sweet factory too. its jsut a shop that has every kind of dispensable candy. the ones where u get a bag and stuff it with tooth decaying goodness and they cost by weight. didnt get much. i wanted so many of them but couldnt set my mind to it so i went away with 3 bucks worth of candy unsatisfied. i had a weird mix. choclate malt balls, sour strips, sour peaches, banana strawberry gummies. ooh, we went into this awesome sunglasses shop. it has technology that no other places have. so basically u try on a pair, walk to this machine and u can change the scenery and amount of glare plus wind speed and uv rays. so its almost like youre outdoors and see if that pair really fits you. awesome or what? i just started playing around with it so we were in there for quite a while. too bad they had such a small collection for women like only 2 walls while the guys have the rest of the shop. sexist or what. but the glasses were really expensive though. after all it was mainly oakleys. got tired of the mall so we went back to tanforan to catch the movie. just in time. it didnt even seem like it was 2 hours long. was laughing throughout.

went bj's for dinner after since i hadnt eaten anything the whole day. okay i sorta did if u count a pack of oatmeal and candy. appetite hasnt been good these past days anyways. had the classic baked potato and i couldnt finish it. too much starch and carbs. haha. went home after. oh i have to say his car has a great function for people who dont put on their seatbelts. or forget to put on their seatbelts. when u open the door, the belt slides forward so u sit behind it and when u close the door, the belt moves backwards until ure fastened. no need to move ur hands and fiddle around with it. its liek youre a princess. lol. u even have someone to put on your seatbelt! handsfree.

showered and played wii again. i think im getting sick of carnival games though. unlocked more stuff and bought more stuff. i really look like a clown now, with the hat nose and shoes. hand got really tired so went back and watched videos. and here i am now. i think im really killing my eyes. oh wells.

i think im starting to panic about my snails and research stuff. didnt start on anything yet and im really afraid that i can find any snails. the rainy days are gone and so are the foggy days or so it seems. i know i still have a week or 2 but still,i should really get this going. i think i shall just enjoy my last weekend and get serious next week. wonder how im gonna get that thought accomplished.

im still procrastinating about blogging on my texas trip. and i feel like a disappointment to teddy. i really am starting to rot. its midnight now. good night peeps.

who says fairytales arent real?

2009-06-05T15:06:00.002+08:00

i've officially become a rotting dog. i dont know why im feeling guilty for doing nothing when its the holidays. somebody enlighten me. but that rotting behavior is gonna be broken tomorrow. im finally going out to the mall and maybe a movie with silly buddy tomorrow. and of course, that means shopping! dont think there'll be too good of a sale since theres no special occasion but we'll see. other than that, life's been mundane all week. i wake up at 11, eat brunch, sit at the couch for hours, go on the com and watch more videos for hours, play the wii and get so addicted to it, have dinner, watch more teevee, chat online and sleep at 1am. how wonderful is life? i know i need to savor every moment of this cos it'll be over soon especially once my research gets going. that also means i need to find my pet snails soon and do more research on pubmed. sigh. im already on the waitlist for the summer class. wonder why she's taking so many people this summer. all the same..

i still cant exactly believe the fact that i'll be going to cal next semester. the stress level that i'll be dealing with will be immense. the competitiveness and rumors about sabotage that cal is famous for somehow does scare me to say the least. coming from skyline where everyone is just so relaxed and carefree, just fresh out of high school, its gonna be a huge difference. i dont know how much im really looking forward to it. just like the devil wears prada, many people would die to go to cal. and im here whining. oh the irony. when will we ever be satisfied? i think i just need a break away from here now. a vacation. oh screw that, i want my dog. or at least a pet. beats staring at the wall. i'm a clingy person.

gramppies asked if i wanted to go with them to view a house on sunday. i dont know if they want us to move out soon. apparently the house has 7 rooms and 2 bathrooms, not very well balanced anyways, its pretty cheap for that many rooms but its in san francisco. i dont wanna live there. i d rather stick in san bruno or millbrae. plus what am i gonna do with so many rooms to myself? seriously now. momsie and dad wont be coming anytime soon too. dont really wanna go but i dont have a choice. i am feeling very negative now. should go to bed.its 12.30am. hence the mood. off to grab some photos of puppy and nightdream. maybe if we were really living here, things would be different. sigh...

summer vacation!

2009-06-02T15:05:00.002+08:00

yay for summer! been a couple of days since graduation and all ive been doing is sitting in front of the computer or the television. yesterday was just awesome. me and jan were just sitting in front of the television while having lunch and watching mythbusters for more than 4 hours. we were nodding off every few minutes so we werent exactly watching teevee. havent had the chance to do that in a while without constantly having to worry about uncompleted assignments. i need to spend these 2 weeks or so wisely and make the most out of it. that includes cleaning up my room and dumping all my useless trash, doing more research on snails and come up with my supply list and procedures, more on that later, and finally study my driving manual. plus, play more video games. so glad the wii is upstairs now :)

anyways, friday was great. stayed in school after math final which was incredibly easy except for 2 questions, one which i guessed correctly and one i really dont know. stayed in the cafeteria since mesa was not open yet. kept procrastinating to see dr case about the research. yes i was scared. see how people get intimidated by her? finally went up and there was someone in there so waited outside for a while more. sat in and it really wasnt too bad. told her some of my ideas. really wanted to do the research to see if household pets had any anitibiotic resistance but i dont have a pet and neither does she. so she said i could ask my friends if they have one to get samples for me or go to the vet and tell them what i wanted to do. she asked for an alternative just in case so i said something on paramecium growth since i forgot what was on her website. she looked around for a bit and even went on pubmed to search for it. all i did was sit there and look around her office while she searched for it. felt weird. but i must say her office is one kind of office. she has all her awards on the walls and she has tons. her wall is filled. and lots of frogs and lizards around too. didnt look around too much though. that means more trips to her office. she couldnt find it exactly so i told her since one group was doing antimicrobial activity in cockroaches, i could do something other than cockroaches. she said snails and began looking again for articles. didnt manage to get a lot at first. the results all came back with skin treatment and stuff from the snail's mucus. gross. her reaction was funny too. its always better to know her so it doesnt get too scary. plus she really nice. looked around and i guess she found something since she just said, okay, start looking for snails. i was like okay... where can i find them? lol. we went out of her office and actually went to the back of building seven to see if there were any. she knew there was a door that goes to the back of the building but didnt know where it was located in the building so we just walked around. didnt manage to find any since it was sunny and the constructors just manicured the plants and place. oh wells. better luck maybe on foggy days. anyways, i m just gonna hunt around asking for my friends help. hopefully i ll get something within the next few weeks. i still have time. went back to mesa and played scrabble with dagan. i won haha. played monopoly after too. then they had to close mesa and i still an hour before the sweeney ridge clean up. hung out with rystian at the library for a bit basically on facebook trading ingredients. haha. walked up to the parking lot where we were suppose to meet and dr case was already there plus a few others. she told people to look out for snails for me. haha. sadly we didnt find any. or i have to say i didnt really try. rushed home after to shower and change for graduation. jon drove me there since i had to get there by 4.15. got there at 4 since i though we were gonna give joyce lee our counselor a gift but they were somewhat late. so i waited outside for them. saw dr case again and she was gowned up too. it was funny she looked at me and saw me in heels and said i changed. duhh. im not going there sweaty and all. got a lil frustrated with them later since i called and they kept saying they were on the way but not there yet. so i just went downstairs where we were waiting in line. i kept fixing my cap. shoudl have put in bobby pins. saw case again. sadly, i didnt have my camera or i would have asked for a picture. oh wells. she fixed my cap too. lol. the whole thign was alright. soemthing bad happened to me but ive gotton over it. not tooo bad. haha. or mayeb it is especially in front of all the professors. bleah. it happens. that way people rememebr me >.<>

alyssa's party on saturday. didnt do much. shopped for gifts in the morning at tanforan. i really want to go shopping! kinda broke but hey i got grad money to spend and mom and dad and coming soon :) retail therapy anyone? after the party, went to watch up at 11pm. love pixar movie. the movie was really cute but really sad at the same time too. even the short before the movie made me go awww and almost teared. what do i have to say about the movie: love. go watch! i would watch it a million times. i think its one of my fav pixar movie. i dont think this one was really suited for young kids though.

mom and dad's coming on june 20. might go to vegas or LA one weekend or something. depends on school and stuff. dont know where they'll stay yet. still glad that theyre coming. bring back goodies for me. by that i mean food. still bitter about not going back to singapore. 2 weeks aint enough and i dont want to risk a thousand bucks getting quarantined. seriously its just a flu. the normal flu kills more people than the swine flu and i dont see panic when that happens. i just really want to see my dog and eat and hang out at my house. read MY house.

i dont know how im going to get to berkeley's orientation on june 17. it starts at 7.30am and i dont even know the area yet or how to get there well. sigh. there comes my new life. but for now, i shoudl go to bed. lappys battery getting low and its 12.30am. plan to do more cleaning up tomorrow. pictures next time

2009-05-28T14:32:00.002+08:00

am almost at the home stretch now. just 2 more days before graduation. as much as i want to shout hooray and move on, i really really cant bear to leave skyline. it seriously feels like home. i literally spend 3/4 of my day in school. i think im someone who resists change. see i have no finals tomorrow but im still going to go to school. lol. no, its because i have graduation rehearsals. wonder how that ll go. think it might just be a waste of time though.

finals have been alright i guess. as expected i screwed up on physics. im just not a physics person especially when u include circuits and charges and inductors and whatever crap that provides you with electricity and keeps the world moving. really hope i dont have to ever take physics again. i'll take a hundred bio classes if i have to to avoid physics. chemistry was okay. i got my B as expected. i hate the feeling of walking out of class after a final and knowing that i ll just never perhaps ever see a person again. chem class was awesome this semester. time just passed so fast in lecture you really dont realize one hour has passed. thats the only class i dont mind going to this whole semester. oh wells. life it is. its 12am now i really should go to bed. still have to do my math cheatsheet tomorrow and finish my slr stuff. and do a lil bit of research on my bio research if im going to talk to her abt it on friday.

ps. dont think i ll be going back this summer :(

start of finals

2009-05-22T02:16:00.002+08:00

i'm about to go insane.. on my 3 hour break right now before physics lab. what makes me more mad is the fact that he said it will be a full lab so we definitely wont get out early but stay until 5pm. bummer. i have my organic chemistry final tomorrow at 8am! and im not done studying or at least dont remember anything. too many reactions. im glad he's gonna give us a 3 page reaction sheet though. hopefully it helps. so far, ive only read through the first 2 exams but thats just reading so i still need to do thepractice problems. too much!! dont think i ll be getting any sleep tonight. alright, i should get off my laptop and make full use of my 3 hour break. hocus focus is the spell im going to use and hopefully it works. im surprised the cafeteria is pretty empty. im pretty sure its because its thursday and the last day of lecture so most peple are skipping classes. very very predictable. but thats all good. better sdtudying environment. :)

PS. im still contemplating whether i shoudl go back to singapore in the summer. i really do but there's other stuff to deal with plus it'll only be for 2 weeks. worth it? mom says shes gonna buy a ticket so bro can use my dad's mileage when he goes back in july. and that means a thousand bucks gone. two weeks=14 days. 1000/14 = 71. plus ticket to hong kong and macau because im sure we're going there. i dont know if the money spent willbe worth it too... sigh. shall think of it only after chemiistry final. time to hit the books now.

yay for fridays!

2009-05-16T13:15:00.000+08:00

I just can’t believe that I only have 2 more weeks before my time at skyline officially ends. (Well almost, unless I’m really going to take summer school which I really hope to do.) I really have to say I love skyline a lot. I do feel like I have accomplished a lot there. Its really nice to see people say hi or how are you as you walk down the hallway. People are just really friendly and open. They really don’t judge as much. The professors are awesome too. They’re really willing to help you out and although some of them may seem mean or cold in class, they’re really nice. One great example would be dr case. I’ll have to say she’s my favorite prof in the school. I just recently heard that she got her masters at 22. I wont get my bachelors till im 21! Still trying to guess her age. Haha. So yes, I don’t know why I started this post this way but I’m sure I ll definitely miss skyline a lot. I do a proper dedication post when I truly graduate haha.

Anyways, today was alright. I forgot my phone!!! One of the worst days since I was going to be in school till 8pm. There were 2 events going on, mesa and the transfer center recognitions. I ended school at 12 today but didn’t want to go home and back again (save gas=save the earth! Haha) so practically sat in front of my laptop for 5 hours. Watched an episode of survivor and wandered around the world wide web for the rest of the time. Sat around at the mesa party for a while and then went downstairs to the transfer. Good thing they were held in the same building. Got some food but it wasn’t good. Even the sushi was bad. Mushy rice puts me off. Saw joyce lee my counselor. Haven’t seen her in ages only because I don’t have to update my sep. haha. Had to thank her. She helped me the most with my personal statement. She’s super nice too. To sum it up, people in skyline are awesome! Lol. Rushed back upstairs after getting our certs since mesa was starting to give out their certs. Got back just in time. Hung out a while more and since I forgot my phone, jan came at 8 so I had to leave. Otherwise I would usually call when I’m done.

Okay, im getting bored now. shall go watch more survivor. Lol. Smell ya later…..

i love chemistry

2009-05-15T11:34:00.001+08:00

i am stressed out and ready for vacation!!!! o chem exam tomorrow is gonna be lots of fun! *smiley face*

happy mother's day

2009-05-11T03:09:00.002+08:00

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! Sadly, I can’t spend it with mom again this year but it’s alright. I’ll get to see her again really really soon. I’m pretty sure she said they’ll be coming on june 20 so I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully, I’ll still be able to go back right after finals even if its just for 2 weeks or less. Especially since I know I’ll be going to hong kong too if I do go back. There’s just not enough time. Anyways, I think I got her a gift that cant be any better. That is getting into Berkeley. She couldn’t be happier. i mean I finally got into a school that would please them. Tanglin disappointed them since they wanted me to get into rgs and jurong did too. At least those schools didn’t turn out too bad. =) I want to see mom and dad and doggy now!

So I got woken up really early this morning at 8.45am since we were going to have breakfast. Sighs. When can I ever sleep in? definitely not for the next 2 weeks. Went to denny’s. I used to like going there but the food is getting from bad to worse. I want mom to make me my breakfast. >.<>

Went to uncle kenneth’s yesterday evening to celebrate mother’s day. Good food. I mean really good food, though you can always expect that If uncle Kenneth was going to be the chef. The scallops and chicken wings were my favorite. So good. Didn’t do much there. I basically wasted my Saturday. In the morning went out with joyce to shop for mother’s day gift. Finally got earrings at target. Went home to cook hamburgers with almost bad ground beef. Watched tool academy. It was bad but entertaining. We somewhat got caught on to it. It’s one of those shows that you would watch only when there’s nothing else on. The marathon of the previous season was on so we just spent 5 hours on the couch and more when we got to uncle kenneth’s. very bad. Got home at 11. was so sleepy then and I slept at 12 without even touching one bit of my homework which I had initially planned to do. Boo.

On Thursday was the students awards and recognition ceremony. Left physics lab early since i was planning to go to it. Was alright. Went way faster than we thought it would. It started at 4 and ended at 5-5.30. I almost tripped while walking across the stage. It was very badly paved. Luckily, nothing embarrassing happened. So I got a medallion for the honors transfer program and two certs for the scholarship. The san bruno rotary actually enclosed their cheque in the cert so yay, I’m 500 bucks richer except that I didn’t bank it in yet. Too bad dr case didn’t go since she had lab otherwise she would be the one presenting the other scholarship since it was from her family. The other advisor for ptk took over and he was bad at talking. He didn’t even quite know what our chapter got. I mean duh, he’s not even active in our activities. Oh wells. I still need to find a way to go thank her. I’ve been invited to go to a luncheon with the college president on may 20 to meet the san bruno rotary people and thank them for the scholarship. Looking forward to that. And I’m going with someone else I know so it should be too bad. Plus I get to leave history class early too. The president’s gonna drive us there and back so that’s good too. Alright I should get started with my pile of stuff. Its already called last minute work. Have my speech exam tomorrow, art on tues and chemistry on Friday!

2009-05-07T11:03:00.000+08:00

I have been finding it increasingly hard to concentrate and focus on finishing the last few weeks of school. It’s really frustrating really. I do want to at least get my physics and chemistry right and finish it on a good note but at the same time, I feel really restless. I guess I’m just way too excited to transfer over to Berkeley. I know though when I do start school there, I’ll just wish I was back at skyline. It’s the irony of life and school. School’s been alright this week. No tests and exams so that’s the plus or rather the reason why it’s alright. Been feeling really bored in lectures though. So yesterday, went to the mall after school to try to find something to wear for tomorrow’s awards ceremony. It was really hard to find something good. I guess it’s because there’s no special occasion going on other than mother’s day but then the clothes would all be for the oldies. Saw a couple that I liked at forever 21 but they didn’t have my size. All in medium or large and there’s no way I could alter it to make it fit me. =( American eagle a lil but too casual. Got a pencil skirt at basic but then I had trouble looking for a top. Nothing really looks right. Or maybe it’s just me. Finally got a dress at anchor blue but I need to find a jacket otherwise I’ll either be freezing cold or wearing that same old white jacket again. oh wells, I’ll find something tonight. I think I just need to start going to a different mall like serramonte. Need to stop going to tanforan but I can’t help it since it’s the closest to home. And I still need to see how I can ditch physics lab tomorrow. Have to check in at 3.15 to get everything settled and meet harer for the honors at 3.45. problem is lab starts at 2.30 and I have to get out and change at 3? Lastest 3.15. I can always drop one lab but I don’t know. He doesn’t seem very fond of people missing labs. Sighs. PTK meeting today was funny. Entertaining I must say. Gonna be telling stories to lil kids on Tuesday at the childcare opposite our school. I should say its located on our school grounds. Alright, gonna stop here now. try to find something motivating so I can get started on physics or work on my speech outline. But I think its not gonna work since I just clicked on bejeweled on facebook. Lol.

Peace out.

stuck at home

2009-05-04T03:24:00.000+08:00

It’s a rainy Sunday and once again I’m stuck at home. I desperately want to go out and shop but obviously I don’t drive so there’s no way I’m stepping out of the house. Plus it’s raining. One more reason to stay in and rot away even when there’s a pile of stuff waiting to be done. i think I’ll go to tanforan on Tuesday after school to try and find something formal enough to wear for Thursday but not too formal since I ll still have class and wont be going home to change. I wonder if theres anyone else in physics lab that’s going to the awards ceremony. I used to have Maggie but she dropped the class. I don’t want to be that ‘special’ one that has to ask permission from him. Best thing is that theres no lab but I highly doubt so. Guess I’ll just have to ask to leave early again. I can drop a lab so I guess that’ll be the one I’m dropping.

Watched tons of videos yesterday. Top model, survivor, that channel 8 drama about school or rather Chinese, its me or the dog. Got a lil bored at times but that’s all good. I wish my parents were here now somehow. We could go downtown and shop and eat instead of being stuck at home in my room. I really don’t care about school work anymore and that’s really really bad. I need to remind myself that I can still be rejected in the end if my grades aren’t satisfactory for this semester. Okay, off to get lunch, finish my art and then watch more videos…

=)

2009-05-03T02:54:00.000+08:00

It’s a gloomy Saturday morning. Got waken up by the cleaning people at 9 in the morning. Was so sad. I do not wake up at 9 on the weekends! Especially after a harsh week. Oh wells, still I stayed locked up in my room. Surfed the net for a while till my battery died. By then it was 11. changed, walked around my room and here they are. They just left 15 minutes ago. So now I can do whatever I want in peace. =)

Got an email from dad and he and mom got me something from Cartier! Omg. I still don’t know what it is but im thinking a watch and bag looking at the bags? I’m really happy but at the same time guilty. They really didn’t have to spend that kind of money. They could have spent it on getting a ticket for me to go back. Plus, the tuition fees that will be billed to them in a couple of months will be enough to make them go broke. Still, I’m just really glad that I could make them this happy. I knew I had to get in there somehow. This was exactly how I pictured it.

Don’t know what im going to do today. Still have some homework to complete and administrative stuff that I have to look into soon so I don’t miss any deadlines or that will jeopardize my spot. Yes, they can deny my application if I don’t meet their requirements. I should post up that whole list here one day. Its insane. And it scares the crap out of me.

I guess I should make lunch even though I just and I mean like 5 minutes ago, finished my oatmeal. Im turning into a pig. Or kinda. Im really not eating very healthily at all, and I don’t mean by having junk all the time(I do but that’s not what im trying to get at). Have not been eating breakfast and lunch on most days im in school. I just don’t know what to bring from home that isn’t troublesome and I don’t like the cafeteria food. Its expensive and its Mexican, most of it excluding burgers and hotdogs and the salad bar. Oh, I heard Berkeley has the best food. It holds the equivalent of the Oscars for the entertainment industry. I need to make a trip down there soon. All ive seen is videos and pictures of Berkeley. Never actually been there in person. Not that it matters since I ll be there in person for 2 years now.. =)=)

cal-ifornian

2009-05-02T12:11:00.000+08:00

I want to say that reality still hasn’t sunk in. it’s only been a day since my dream has finally come true but I figured after that long exhausting wait and countless times that I self doubted myself, I would be over the moon by now. Apparently, that’s not the case and I don’t know why. Not surprising though, my parents are way more excited than I am. Although, they are still unfortunately chiding me about not applying to Cornell university even though they offered me priority admission, still not guaranteed admission like Davis but still a priority. I never thought about going to New York so there wasn’t a need to spend the application fee that I needed to pay if I was going to apply there. I did think about it, not that I just threw the letters that they sent away without even any consideration. Oh wells, there’s no point saying anything now and I am very satisfied with what I got so I need to quit whining. Instead, I can finally say that grades are not the only thing that matters anymore. I know for sure that I am not in the average range, but rather in the below average range considering my GPA. Last year if I remember correctly, it was between 3.69-3.8. I’m pretty sure it was my personal statement that saved me more specifically, phi theta kappa. So my advice to the next transferring batch, work on your personal statement as early as possible and get help with it! (not like anyone I know knows this blog. Lol.)

Now, its time for the administrative stuff I have to deal with. They want me to submit immediately whatever coursework from JJC (ps. They even spelt it wrong. Instead of junior, its juinion) but I ve got nothing from there. Have to call them up next week and get everything settled. For now, I shall try to enjoy my weekend. Not too much homework to complete since this week was most of the exams. Plus, dagan even did my physics webassign for me. Lol. I was totally kidding. But it wasn’t worth that much points and half of them were multiple choice which equals to free points.

Next order of business is summer. I’m still contemplating if I should do research. Im afraid to talk to her and I don’t know why. Maybe next wed after the meeting for ptk. I ll pluck up my courage and talk to her. I swear she’s the most intimidating teacher ever. Otherwise, I get to spend 2 plus months back in Singapore. Of course, I ll turn out to be a super unproductive person. We’ll see. Might start researching for internships although the deadlines for most of them would be over by now. worst come to worst, I ll even take a class. Lol. Or maybe even find a job working with furry pals.

Alright, off to watch my videos now. today’s not any normal Friday. I usually get home and start watching videos that I missed during the week but today, I stayed in school till 3, got home and wandered around the net. Watched a movie during dinner, showered and here I am. Oh yes, just in. I got my admission package from Berkeley!!

Promise to blog with pictures about texas soon. =)

cal bear!

2009-05-01T12:01:00.003+08:00

Congratulations, Jessica!
You're admitted! Welcome to the College of Letters and Science as a transfer
for Fall 2009.

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO BERKELEY!!!!

Omg. The suspense was horrible but at least it payed off. Before physics lab, a group of us were in MESA and we were like hitting the refresh button every 5 minutes. Had to leave for physics but a while into it, Jacquie texted me and told me she got in. I was happy for her but at the same time, I was like crap, the time for me to know has come. Good thing our lab today was really carefree. We had to get the values by group and we were at the back so it was a while before we could do anything. Plus, we had to use the com too so I could use my laptop and pretend to be doing physics without being caught. Immediately went online to check it and I was going to die! It’s the worst time to surf the net. Haha. So I went to the page and probably hit the wrong button so I got directed to the FAQ page and was just going omg omg, I just need to log in so stop directing me to stupid pages. Finally logged in and I was elated. I didn’t know how to feel when I saw the word congratulations. Immediately messaged mom and dad and got a call from them a second later. lol. Guessed they didn’t actually sleep at all. That I feel kinda bad but oh wells. It’s the first time I can sleep 4 hours and not be tired at all plus wake up even before my alarm. Tonight, I will hibernate like a bear haha. Too bad I still have school tomorrow. Well, the first question people asked once they find out I got accepted is whether I was gonna commute everyday or move. I really don’t know. Now that the happy part is over, there’s tons of administrative stuff to do. Its gonna be a pain but I suppose its all worth it. Have to notify the different offices tomorrow about it and get transcripts and all that kinda stuff in mostly by july. Theres still time but I don’t want to put it off. For the fun part now, I finally get to click the do not intend to register for sf state now. muahaha. Their deadline is tomorrow anyway… alright, should get some sleep now. I just realizes sleeping like a bear meant I am officially a CAL BEAR!! Yay!! Happiest day of my life?

the worst wait of my life

2009-05-01T04:28:00.002+08:00

i am currently in school going through the worst wait of my life. this is painful. so far i think ive checked my mail and the website 5 times. probably not the worst it can get but yeah. it went from typing in your ID and seeing the words in review to not even being able to log in because the system is being updated. its nervewrecking!!! never felt this way ever for secondary school or even jc. probably because i very well exected myself not to do that well. but this time, i have no clue whatsoever. i wouldnt say a 50 50 chance but im soo uncertain. well, this will obviously be solved in a couple of hours maybe even minutes who knows but i wished i had an iphone or something so i will know when i get an email instead of finding a computer every so often to check it. even though i have my laptop, i cant turn it every so often. my laptop will probably die on me even before i know my results.

i need to do something to keep me occupied but i cant think of anything to do. just completed my exams for this week. still have physics and art homeowrk to complete but thats due on sunday so im definitely not going to be crazy and do them now. 45 minutes to physics lab... gonna be a boring one too. oh wells, i just need to get over this. a couple more hours. i will TRY to survive....

think happy thoughts...

2009-04-29T10:09:00.001+08:00

i.cant.stop.thinking.about.it.

how am i to survive the next 48 hours?
i'm not at all prepared for chem tomorrow. gambling with grades isnt fun.

doom's day getting closer

2009-04-27T11:00:00.001+08:00

so much's been going on since i got back from texas. work load from school isnt getting any light either. Two exams coming up this week organic chemistry and math. Its been a long time since I studied so hard for math. Only because I have no idea whats going on in class and Ive never done it before. Sequences and series. Why do we even learn that? I don’t think I ll be needing to use long strings of numbers in the future. Haven’t really started studying for o chem either. I think im doomed. Scholarship letters due on thurs too. Have to write 2 thank you letters and im very stressed over one of them. I ll say more on that next time when I do a proper posts with pictures on texas. Graduation stuff and reservations all due soon. This last month is gonna be pretty stressful. Hope I don’t regret it though. I really really like skyline. Much more ever since texas. Haha. I imagine funny stares from people if I say this out aloud in school. Oh wells. That’s my point of view. The most dreadful part that’s coming out this week is whether I get into Cal or not. 4 more days!!! I really cant keep my hopes up and get disappointed again. i’ve never been able to get into the school that I really want to all these years. Maybe this curse wil finally be broken. Plus, I really worked hard or at least harder this time around. Still, I cant be optimistic. My results are after all still below what they expect I think. And im not that active or involved in anything. Say PTK but really, im not that great. So, my hopes are not up. I cannot imagine how im gonna survive on the 30th. They say decisions will be made in the evening. That’s the one time where I really wont be following instructions and going online every chance I get. Even then, I doubt I can press the enter key and let the page load. I’d be too afraid, too nervous and a teensy bit excited. I cant imagine what I ll do or what will happen if I don’t get in. *think happy thoughts now* I know my parents will be totally disappointed. I ll probably be rejecting calls and go to school puffy eyed the next day. THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS! Haha. Alright, should spend some time on organic chem. Now. Spent the whole day with series and sequences and convergence tests….

easter sunday!

2009-04-13T05:48:00.002+08:00

HAPPY EASTER! bunny hops around with a basket full of eggs. ok, that just sounded weird or wrong. got up in the morning and had cereal. 5 minutes into it, joyce called and asked if we wanted to have brunch buffet. we were thinking about it but at 37 bucks per person, we thought it was a lil over the top since i just ate and wasnt that hungry especially since i just woke up. so we turned that down and i continued to eat. she called again 5 minutes later and made a reservation for us at park chalet, another brunch buffet place. we couldnt turn that down then. so we went to chris's place first and got them then went to park chalet. im glad i didnt turn that down since the food there was awesome! im so full now i can barely walk. i havent ate so much good food especially for a buffet in so lng now. there was creme brule french toast which i never had before but it was sooo good. there was even slices of bananas in it. maybe a lil too sweet but still, that was good. chocolate dipped strawberries i mean fat strawberries were omg heavenly. considering the price, the buffet was reallly worth it. there were gaint meaty chilled shrimps, cupcakes, omelette station, creme brulee and so much more. actually, the variety of food wasnt that much if u compare it to a normal buffet but the good spread makes up for it. the ambience was really nice too. since it was outdooors, and there was a lawn, people with kids and their dogs. really nice.

now im back home having to face physics. sigh. stupid exam on tuesday. i ve been worrying about it my whole spring break. otherwise, my spring break would have been so much more fun. too bad i bombed my my first test or i wouldnt be freaking out so much. maybe i should get started now. sad it s already sunday so spring break is OVER! i consider it to be so. oh wells, at least 4 more days to texas. so that should make my week go better. still need to pack though. ah yes, and speech to practice. sigh....

happy me! got a scholarship too. not much really but at least i got one. thought it was pretty lame. wondered which one i would get if i didnt live in san bruno... i still need to think about graduation. gowns and tasells, and stoles and cords and all. its almost may too. soooo much things to do.

almost the end

2009-04-09T13:30:00.000+08:00

i feel like a bum and spring break is almost over. :(

spring break!

2009-04-06T12:51:00.002+08:00

it's been a really really long time since i last came here. blame it all on school. but im finally free! at least for a weeek. its spring break so shout hooray! i cant say how harsh the last 2 weeks were. barely getting enough rest to stay awake throughout lessons. coffee isnt helping much either. so im really glad that spring break has arrived. time to catch up on sleep and especially homework. lots of stuff coming up the week after spring break too. so this isnt exactly a week for me to be slacking but i obviously will still have fun.

so far, all i have planned is to go out for lunch with angie on wed. japanese will never disappoint me. and on thurs will be going to six flags with catherine and kaye. sat celebrating catherine's birthday with shopping and hanging out at her crib. cant wait! the other days are reserved for cleaning out my room and homework. i have a whole long list of things to do. (revise math series test for convergence and divergence, speech exam, speech outline, practice speech, chemistry lab report, revise aldehydes and ketones, history quiz for chapter 9, art activity due wed, study physics exam for tues) thats as brief as i can get it to be. see my misery. all my stuff is cramped into mon tues and wed the week after spring break because.... i'm going to TEXAS! leaving on wed afternoon, back on sun morning. its for the international convention for ptk. gonna be exciting i think. did i say i was going with 3 other guys? absurd okay. i was going only because i thought kel was going but she backed out last minute. oh wells. dr case is going too so i wonder how thats gonna turn out. hopefully my roomie from other college is gonna be nice enough for me to hang out with.

so nothing much been's coming up really. last two weeks was just rushing research papers and outlines. probably my fault for doing them last minute but still, there were other stuff to worry about like exams and reports to study for and do. slept at 12am on average and if u know me well enough, thats definitely not enough sleep for me. been spending tons of money on coffee too. not helping but maybe im really addicted to it but that cant be true since i didnt even have caffeine this whole weekend. not even soda or tea. just juice and water. i need to start being thrifty. i ll start after spring break, no after texas since i know i ll be going on a shopping spree for fomal clothes and other everyday stuff including stocking up on my personal stack of snacks.

a couple of weeks ago was expanding your horizons. wow it really has been long since i last blogged. was pretty fun and high school girls say the most absurd things. didnt happen in our workshop but i heard tons of other stuff from my friends from other workshops. overall, it turned out pretty well. we could have been more enthusiastic but heh, we were all drained fro school itself. stayed in school til pretty later leading up to that sat though. kinda a waste of time but oh wells, its over too. shant complain too much.

one thing i have to complain about though is my big laptop the one im using now. i think it has a really bad virus or something. my internet explorer isnt working and the bottom toolbar hangs every 5 minutes. so i basically have a blank destop. wallpaper is there but no shortcuts. annoying really. i dont know why either. sad. hopefully, it still behaves itself enough for me to complete my homework.

one more thing to do this week is to finish all my letters. :)

alright, should go off doing other stuff now. mayeb even sleep and wake up slightly early ~10 to get some homeowrk out of the way.

btw, im still not freaking out over berkeley yet even though its less than a month away from knowing the truth. is this even nmormal? i think im immune to my dad's concern and wishes. shrugs. maybe when the day gets even nearer.

daily rantings

2009-03-14T12:41:00.003+08:00

TGIF! this week has been insane even with a holiday in the middle of the week. slept pretty late on wed and thurs rushing homework and scholarship application. good thing its finally done. got my letter from bates after school. he didnt seal it so i managed to read what he wrote. =) im probably not supposed to do that but whatever. he checked off excellent for all. but his letter was sweet though. didnt expect him to write stuff like that. now, hopefully i get certain scholarships which im aiming for. theres definitely gonna be lots of competition so hopefully i ll just get at least one. =)

lots of stuff to do during this weekend. two tests next week doesnt help. chemistry lab test, lap report, pre lab, practice problems for lecture, math test on thurs, physics webassign, lab report and lots lots more. sigh. oh yes, art test due sunday and i havent studied. crap crap crap. ok i should stop on this topic since im starting to stress again and i do not deserve that on a friday night.

i have a sudden strong strong urge to want to go to the texas international convention but im afraid no one will be going. i have to email her soon too. sigh. wait, didnt i say i ll stop stressing. off to happier topics...

i cant think of one now. my life revolves around school now thats why. that makes perfect sense. oh wells, off to bed?

uc davis acceptance

2009-03-13T11:32:00.002+08:00

Dear Jessica,Congratulations! You have been admitted to the University of California, Davis, for fall quarter 2009.Please visit our MyAdmissions Web site at http://myadmissions.ucdavis.edu to respond to our offer of admission, check your financial aid status and complete your required pre-enrollment tasks. Use your UC Davis Student ID (blah) to set up your MyAdmissions account, if you haven't already done so. Please keep your Student ID in a safe, accessible location.You must submit your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) at MyAdmissions by June 1 to confirm your attendance at UC Davis. You should receive your official letter of admission and admission packet in the mail by the end of the month.Again, congratulations on your admission to UC Davis and welcome to our Aggie family!

happy happy happy. okay, really that was exaggerating. i was already kinda expecting to get in so yeah. but now at least i know for sure that i have somewhere to go. :) forwarded the email to mom and dad and that was the quickest reply i got from them in a while. lol. wonder how they'll respond IF i get into berkeley. dad was really sweet. not that im all materialistic but thats just the way he is.

"Congratulation darling this is the first step you achieved,
Will get a pcs of tiffany for you and one more if ............UCB. K?
Love you forever."

i have no idea what pcs is. but tiffany sounds awesome enough. muahaha. see the pressure mounting now. mom was no better with adding the pressure.

"Hi Jess,
Congratulations ! the 1st good news right? Now wait for your 2nd good news from UCB lah.
Love you."

i wanna scream. good thing there's still one month. ok it has its plus and minuses. one month and 19 days. maybe a day or two earlier since davis was early. i expected to know on march 16 since that was what the previous email said. it was funny. we ended physics lab and went backt to mesa to rot or idle time away. and marcus got an email via phone so he was first to know that davis sent an acceptance email for him. so another guy checked his email and he shouted so i checked my email and we shouted and somebody else did the same. so it was kinda like a chain reaction. lol. it was happy happy moment especially after a long long day. i m sure it'll be worse when people start getting news from cal. its gonna be more tense.

oh wells. a couple of months more till i graduate. i dont know how i'll feel. but i shant worry about tat now. for now, or this minute rather, i have my personal statement for scholarships due. havent started on it and its due tomorrow. great. just great. bates hadnt finished my letter of rec too anyways. hopefully case sent hers in already. shes the only special one. haha. we were waiting outside her office to ask her and someone was in there asking about class stuff so we waited outside. after a while, another girl came and then leach my math prof came. so we sorta had a line forming. see how "popular" she is. lol. fine. busy. so jack passed her his thingy first and as usual, her sarcasm began. she was like a party of 12 came just to pass her a piece of paper. haha. the girl and leach left so it was just us 3 there. she said she'd sent it in for us so hopefully she did. really hoping that i ll get some scholarships esp the smt one. think i have a pretty good chance? we ll see. alright off to finish homework now. im feeling optimistic fo r now....

bloated

2009-03-09T10:33:00.002+08:00

this is how i want to look like right now. hahahaha.

i dont know what's gotten into me today but i kept eating. no seriously from the time i got up till now. had frosted flakes cereal and then a lil bit of candied apple. its just apple coated with chocolate and caramel. joyce got it yesterday from santa cruz. its those sweet treats that u get at carnivals and fairs. aww. miss those days. we never hang out anymore. anyway back to the point. had a hi chew tropical paradize flavored sweet while surfing the net. we had our netbooks battling it out. lol. eee pc vs aspire one. lol. went to finish up my chemistry. halfway through, uncle came back with lunch. had a lil bit of everything. fried beef hor fun, curry flavored vemicilli, century egg plus pork porridge. all in a span of 3 hours. went back to finish up my homework. snacked a lot. had some snacks that joyce brought back, green tea kit kat. then dinner at 6pm. costco pizzaaa 3 slices. mind you thats a lot. a slice is equal to lets see, a plate? and then haagen daaz icecream bar. coffee with almonds. i think thats all my stomach can take too night. i dont know if its stress or what cos i cant seem to stop eating. but then again, this week is preetty relaxing compared to last week. not much tests this week i think. plus wed is a holiday. soo loooking forward to it. can finally sleep in peacefully since everyone will be at school or work. still, it'll probably be a time to catch up with homework and studies. all the same.

i hate springing forward. stupid daylight savings. in case youre wondering, i just literally lost an hour . instead of being 6.30pm now, its 7.30pm. this happens on the second sunday of march yearly. supposedly suppose to save energy but i believe thats crap. at least im looking forward to fall now. we fall back one hour again. so literally gain one hour. thats the greatest. didnt people say we shouldnt play with time? yet this is whats going on. lol. ok im just ranting away. haha. spring forward, fall back. i just knew this yesterday. makes perfect sense.

alright, think i should go now. jsut finished backing up my lappy using the maxtor one touch mini dad got me. still have to update my ipod. dont think i ll do it today though. i dont know how to fill up 16GB. lol.

i want to see my dog again! hes sooo lazy im telling people he cant even sit up for 30 seconds seriously.

lazy day

2009-03-08T12:17:00.002+08:00

i love having a lazy laidback day. only to realize in the late afternoon that i have more stuff that needs to be done than i thought there was. i totaly forgot about chemistry but thats all good. anyways, im bloggin only because im craving for an iced caramel macchiato now. lol. and perhaps some frozen yoghurt too. i need to go to orange tree. its a yoghurt heaven. and its only at tanforan. maybe i ll go out on wed since i have no school. its flex day a day where the professors attend workshops. kinda weird thinking about it but why not since it gives us a day off. i would gladly take it.

so basically, i was in front of my computer almost the entire day watching videos. sadly i got woken up early in the morning by once again, their constant walking around and talking. seriously i need to sound proof my room if not wear noise cancelling earplugs. no wonder jon got pissed last time when they used to be downstairs talking. at least go to the other side of the room and not the dining table. cos i can clearly hear every single word u say. so most of the time, i just eavesdrop on their conversation. >.<>

anyways, had honey comb cereal for breakfast. watched episode 15 of housewives holiday. then hell's kitchen. made tacquitos for lunch. then finally watched high school musical 3. i know im sooo behind. have to say i like it way more than the second. the second one sucked. it kinda relates to what i went through last semester and a lil of this semester too since its my last. picking the right colleges, doing what you want to do, choosing the right courses and hoping that u dont make the wrong decision and all that stuff. its real and it relates. so thats good. yes yes acting aint that great but they really arent professionals yet so i cant realy blame them.

read the devil wears prada after till dinner. watched wizards of waverly place and showered and here i am now. lots of stuff to do now. planning on finishing my chem reports tonight. and i have physics due tomorrow night. sigh. i hate physics to the core. i mentioned this a million times but i still cant get enough of it. which reminds me tomorrow is daylight savings which means we lose an hour. oh great. what timing.

alright ran out of things to say. not exactly. i got lazy...

i need a vacation

2009-03-07T14:42:00.002+08:00

am i being stupid rejecting an ivy league school such as cornell university? it's not any school that comes knocking on your door sending you tons of mail every single week, advertising their school, waiving the application fee mind you. its an ivy league school. a branded school for goodness sake. yet, all i do is chuck them aside or tear up the envelope where the address is in case of identity theft and throw it in the recycling. i've been getting tons of mail from private universities since its the period of transfer application and they all look so appealing. why doesnt uc berkeley do just that?? cornell is one that appeals to me. one problem. its in new york. do i really want to pack my bags, leave "home" and go into a completely foreign state? i dotn even think i can survive going over to davis let alone a whole new state. and how much will i like new york. the east vs the west. i just cant stand this waiting anymore. just just now, dad called. not bad news or anything but he was just saying so when i ll know whether i ll get into berkeley or not and i said end april. so he said, next month? i was like no, april 30. only to realize wait it is march already. crap, i ll know in a month. i didnt know april was approaching so quickly. i dont know how i'll feel. this is so timely with the a level results. schools need to stop sending me their catalogs...

i know as some are fretting over whether they ll get into the course they want over in singapore, and im here whining. but thinking of which, how fair is it to students there? one is passionate about getting into a highly demanded course but because of results or great number of applications, one is denied a spot, only to have to choose another course they're not that interested in. doesnt one have the right to choose the career path that they want? yes you work hard for it. but that doesnt mean competing with others all the time. you can work your butt off but there's always others who do better than you. results dont mean everything in the world. we should be our own competition. people shoudl be able to choose what they want to do and at least have a chance to have a go at it. and if they find out theyre not cut out for it, let them change. its not like people get experience in the different fields there. all we care about in school is learning those few core subjects and sit for the o's and a's. there's not a single class on psychology or sociology, or engineering or biochem or pharmacy or animal science. how in the world are students suppose to know whether they like that course or not? i just dont think its fair to them. not everything is about results. its about passion. and we wonder why people dont last long in their jobs. or why people keep switching their jobs after a few years.

maybe thats one thing thats good here. we choose our course that we think we want to study. take a few classes that are associated with that course. perhaps even do a couple of research papers and experiments depending. dont like it, change. yes it may be a waste of time but wouldnt it benefit in the long term? im definitely not saying that its good to switch routes all the time cos that will be a huge waste of time but at least let people have one or two chances to get what they desire. you just cant force somebody to get into a less favored course when theyre denied a spot elsewhere. its just frustraating for me to hear someone worry about whether they'll get into a certain course at nus only because its an impacted course and tons of other people scoring straight a's will be eyeing for that course. i cant put alll my thoughts fully into words here but u get the idea.

i think i ll be going to bed now though theres lot of stuff i wanna update about. been really busy at school these few weeks. 23 units = test every week.. scholarship applications to fill, school info to update and all that other crap. maybe i should have gone off to san jose for the weekend for the regional conference just to relax. oh wells. too late now. i ll just go to texas for the internationals instead i suppose.

i miss my dog so bad too.

homework homework and more homework

2009-02-23T04:48:00.002+08:00

it's raining again. i like the rain. it has a warm fuzzy feeling to it. i would totally sleep in if not for the constant thought that we were going to be do something.

slept at 2am yesterday. was rushing to complete the case study. i didnt really know what to do with it. i could type in stuff but it was already over the word limit so i just shifted things around my way so that it would flow better. tried cutting down words but that just meant taking sentences away. i don t know. its just that i feel that i havent done enough. it doesnt feel like my work. i dont know whose. most prob case. at least its gonna be over soon. more time to concentrate on the other stuff on my to do list which is never cleared. i have 2 tests this week and its killing me. i keep putting things off. i should get off this now. i was just using this to procrastinate more. yes ,what a paradox if its even used properly.

i had the weirdest dream ever. i'm still wondering what happened to the rabbit.

sad house transformation

2009-02-22T15:14:00.000+08:00

im super sad now. i think its called a mid house crisis.

pingpong drink game

2009-02-21T16:48:00.002+08:00

woohoo! weekends are here again. cant believe another week has come and passed just like that. though it did seem a lil shorter since monday was a hol. if only we had 4 day weeks. heh heh. never gonna happen anyways, not until i become a boss of my own or win the lottery. i can continue dreaming. which is what i should be doing since its 1am now.

i just had tons of sugar. so i went downstairs to do my laundry and jon and his friends were around so he asked if i wanted to play with them since they were short of one person. so i was sure since its friday anyway. simple but fun game. whoever came up with it is really creative. so this is how it goes:
there's 2 teams, one on each side of a long table. place 10 cups on each side arranging it like bowling pins. you need 3 ping pong balls. so the whole point of the game is to try to get the ping pong ball into the cups. the catch. cups are filled with drink of your choice. to make it more interesting, add a shot or less or more depending of alcohol into certain cups. u could add it in all if u want but we're not that crazy plus im underage and so was jon. lol. anyways, we used brisk first. too much brisk is disgusting. back to the point, if team A manages to get a ball in, one person from team B would have to drink that cup. everyone gets a turn. (add more cups if you have more people) dont remove the ball immediately once it falls in cos someone else may end up throwing another ball into the same cup so the other person has to drink double or the no of balls in that cup. and, if lets say the ball doesnt get in but doesnt hit the table or cups either and the other team catches the ball, the team which threw the ball has to drink a cup from their side. and if the ball bounces on the table first then gets into the cup, that team has to drink 2 cups. other catch, u can "swat" the ball back to prevent it from getting in. i know it sounds really complicated here but its much simpler than it is. it was pretty fun. but now im on a sugar high. had 2 rounds of pepsi. bloated. i think the others must be much worse since they started playing before i did. and they had vodka too. would play it again but depends with who too.

alright so school was alright today. o chem test wasnt that bad. probably messed up a lil on the retrosynthesis portion but if he could read what i wrote then its fine. he didnt give enough space for us to write. bates used to give us a whole page for questions like this. i think i should really stop comparing them. i am biased and i cant help it. he has after all been my chem prof for 3 semesters. other than that, nothign really exciting happened. saw case after school. i still have case study to do! sigh. never gonna get a break. but that ll be over soon. dont think i contributed as much as i wanted to anyways. lots of stuff to do this weekend. got home and watched bolt while having lunch. bolt is soo adorable. i missed my dog so bad at the end of it. what they said made so much sense and i felt bad. i did tear up towards the end too. i love disney movie and extra bonuses with such cute dogs in it. surfed the net for a while. watched curious case of benjamin button during dinnner. pretty good movie except that we had a rather bad quality disc. it fast forwarded twice for i don t know how long and we could hear the audience at certain points. now u know why its bad. lol. it was sad though. so many deaths. falling in and out of love. dementia. hiding secrets from your own child. never knowing who your parents are. and the list just goes on.

so when i was surfing the net today and someone got onto my school website, i saw a section that contained newsletters on the school which i didnt know it existed. doubt anyone does. its produced by the school president called skyline shines. so i was looking through it and and and i saw my name in a couple of issues. had pictures too. i was i have to say pretty delighted and accomplished. it was mainly for phi theta kappa. induction, clean up at sweeney ridge and international honors institute. it did feel good though to know that youre recognized. but above all, that youre doing something good, going green and saving the earth. i dont regret joining ptk at all. 65 bucks was totally worth it. in fact i regret not joining it sooner. see, i do feel connected to the school in some way. i do like skyline. i dont want to exactly get oout of skyline. maybe its because im used to it here and i m comfortable here. i think i can say i like being able to see people that say hi to you every few steps you walk. every hallway u walk through or every flight of stairs you climb. its just nice to know that youre noticed and not just a fly on the wall that people disregard. i think the only thing im missing now to make my time here at skyline more complete would be to do a proper research which i m totally thinking about doing over the summer. but i have to think of what to research about and with who. could do it alone but that ll be just tons of work. and its more comfortable to work with someone else. at least theres someone you can consult easily. i ll try to reach that goal and i ll have no regrets at all. i have to say it would be pretty impressive considering that youve just been here for 2 years compared to 3 that most people have.

alright i should get to bed soon. slept late yesterday doing some more extra problems. should get back my sleep this weekend so i can start next week well since i have tons of tests and quizzes next week. stuff that i have no idea about. sigh. for now, goodnight!

stressing out!

2009-02-19T11:45:00.001+08:00

im stressing out over my chem exam on friday! so many reactions to remember. i do not like retrosynthesis because it makes you think. and i am extremely slow in switching from bond line to structural formulas so the book has to stop switching all over the place.. and they have to play mj today. im annoyed. =( at least i get to see jacquieee tomorrow. hope its not gonna be a long day tomorrow...

life after people

2009-02-16T06:14:00.002+08:00

this is part of studying and so i think.

just watched a documentary while having lunch titled "life after people" and it was really interesting if i may say so. it may be a lil exaggerated but it is indeed possible and perhaps even a hundred percent true. scary as it may seem, this day will come or so i think. well, have you ever wondered what life would be without people? if we just disappeared from the face of the earth, how would earth look like in 1 day, 3 days, a week, a year, 50 years, 100 years, 100 years? we really arent the most superior species as we may think so. if we werent around, domesticated pets will be the first to die especially dogs. they cant feed themselves. we feed them daily. they would have to get out of the house and start finding scraps which arent in them or just yet unlike cats. food will start to rot in supermarkets. i m not going to go into detail of everything since its just way too much. but basically, vegetation would just take over. fires will occur from lightnings. floods will take place when dams no longer work, when electricity is out. houses will be engulfed by termites. its the plants that outgrow us and the itsy bitsy creatures we call pests. over years, steel will start to corrode and the all so mighty structures will collapse. think of the empire state, the golden gate bridge, the brooklyn bridge. it will be almost as though human kind never existed and no one will know. our replacements will never know we existed. paper recording, multimedia will all be long gone. perhaps the great wall, the egyptian pyramids will be around but thats it. its the purest of all materials that can withstand mother nature.

it's just all sort of intriguing. as quoted, life was around before humans so life would still be around after humans. maybe it will be a much peaceful, much more beautiful earth. i dont know. when they showed scenes of the ocean and the over abundance of marine life, it was just amazing. pretty. beautiful and perfect.

go watch it. its really kinda cool.

happy valentine's day

2009-02-15T09:24:00.005+08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

nothing special really. as i predicted, i ll be home whisking away homework which till now, i deem unsuccessful. i dont know why its just so hard to take out the big fat heavy chem or physics book and start reading away. i spent half the morning and half the afternoon surfing the web for designer goods which i can only look at and add to my wish list but wait for a hundred years before they actually go into my closet. i want a walk in closet and make it look like a mall, like the one princess mia has in the princess diaries. theoretically not impossible, practically, i may continue dreaming. i dont know why im typing this because i was suppose to be saying how im munching on royce chocolates from japan. this is sooo random. maybe its the valentine blues. lol. jon was sweet though. he put roses outside my door which i didnt even notice at first when i went to the bathroom.

okay, i think my 4 day weeekend is gonna be wasted and im already feeling guilty. parrty tomorrow for marcel's birthday. i think im gonna be soo bored. its all lil kids. okay maybe not so lil but still... monday reserved for chemistry i think. hopefully i do start somehow.

i are happy i made a powerpoint for mom and dad for valentines.

i are homesick again

i want a puppy kiss and hug and tail whack. hahaha. i want to go to the playground and lay on the grass with him and feel his warmth. what can i say. hes the best dog yet. did i ever mention i want a golden retriever, siberian husky, spaniel, saint bernard when i get my own house and perhaps a kittty too. plus a couple of hamsteers. maybe even a bunny. im serious.

my house used to be like a zoo. and i like it that way. now its just empty.