Sunday, December 24, 2006

Grades

At Suntec now using the free Wireless@SG. Works SO MUCH better than the free one available at Macdonald's. Much faster and more reliable.

I just realized I forgot to tell everyone my grades for last quarter!! I'm really quite happy especially because this fulfills the prophecy Ai Lin gave me that God said I'll "pass with flying colours"! It was hard to believe, especially cos I had no idea what to write for my 3rd IHUM paper and my Physics Introsem paper but I just tired my best and prayed. Even after submitting my IHUM paper I still had no idea whether it was A or B range, or maybe even C range, so it was hard to keep the faith. But PRAISE GOD!! Looks like my birthday wish i made in July for straight As came true. :)

So here are my grades:

IHUM (5 units): A-
Math 51 (5 units): A-
Jazz Theory (3 units): A
Jazz Practical (1 unit): A+
Physics Introsem (3 units): A

Average GPA: 3.841 (out of 4, although I hear 4.3 is possible if you get all A+s)

GLORY TO GOD! Believing that subsequent quarters will be even better! ;)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Home sweet home

I'm back in Singapore!! Arrived wed morning at 12:50am. Thought the humidity would shock me more but it didn't really.

Had stomach flu the night before I flew. Thank God I managed to make the flight and get home smoothly. I actually slept quite a bit of the flight cos I was quite tired from not sleeping the night before.

At a macdonald's now... there's free wireless here but it keeps cutting off after about 20 mins of usage. It's quite irritating. But I don't know if it's a problem with the wireless or with my com. I hope it's the former. :P Don't have internet at home cos I'm the only one who uses it so I stopped the account when I left in Sep.

Wondering what's going to happen these 2 weeks. I know God has purposes for me to accomplish while I'm back, I just don't know what yet. But I'll hang on to Him in faith. =)

Met with some of my cell group yesterday, went to watch a movie together, then met up with Cynthia together with Angie who was quite eager to meet her too. Haha. Brought her out to see the lights in Orchard Road then went to Lau Pa Sat to grab a drink and just chat for a while. Looking forward to meeting her and Watchman again this week.

Oh and that reminds me. My grandfather lent me his car for the entire duration that I'm here! i have relatives who're overseas at the moment so he's gonna be using their cars. Although I'm not sure what happens when they come back... maybe someone else will be gone. Anyway it's a fantastic blessing and I'm very thankful. =)

Took a photo of my HDB (government-subsidized apartment) block the other day:


My apartment unit is the lowest one with windows on the leftmost side of the block, i.e. the 3rd floor (there's no windows on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor is the ground floor where the shops are). Thought that might be midly interesting for non-Singaporean folks who visit my blog (I see you Glen!). The everlasting construction in front of my house is construction for a new MRT (subway) line that'll run right by my house. Which will turn out very nicely for me when I graduate in 3-4 years' time. ;)

Gonna sign off now. I'll try to keep this blog updated whenever I can. Merry Christmas everybardee!!!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Good news!

I got an A- for my 2nd IHUM paper! Praise the Lord! Just got the grade today. That's an improvement from the B/B- that I got for my first paper (I'm not sure what B/B- means though) and confirms the feeling I had about my 2nd paper that it was significantly better than the first and possibly capable of an A grade! Maybe I would've gotten an A if one of the points I argued wasn't a little flawed like it was. Anyway an A- is really encouraging right now! Especially while I'm trying with a lot of difficulty to do my 3rd IHUM paper that's due on Mon.

Examz and New Guitar

Not a very creative title. But it works.

So yes, exams coming up. Have a math final next monday, a final IHUM paper due next monday too, a take-home jazz theory final due next tues, and a research paper for my Physics Introsem on any relevant topic I'm interested in due next Fri. Both papers are about 5 pages long.

help.

I'm trying hard to keep a positive attitude and keep the faith and all. It's not easy but somehow God will get me through. Of course I still gotta be on my toes. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!!

Looking forward to Chi Alpha tomorrow. Could really use the time in God's presence.


On to the second topic: I bought a new acoustic guitar! Went with Daryl (Singaporean friend I met at Chi Alpha) last friday to Guitar Center in San Jose. They were having a 10-15% discount sale on all their guitars (we only found out about the sale when we got there), and the guitar I got was marked $400. But get this: the salesguy realized when he checked his computer that the original price was actually $599 (basically $600), so the discounted price was supposed to be around $530 - $540. So he said, if you buy it now, I'll give it to you at the marked price. If u leave, i'm going to change the price tag. So I got it. *grinz*. It's a Takamine, has a very nice sound, and has a built in pickup (which i've yet to test actually).

A few photos of my guitar and our trip to Guitar Center:

Me and the sales guy, Mike, who gave me the mismarked price:



Me and Daryl posing with the guitar, trying very unsuccessfully to act sei



My guitar close up (Daryl took a TON of photos of my guitar. He's super passionate about guitars, was really excited for me.) We've sinced removed the cheesy black and white sticker



My guitar, in the nice soft case I got for it



A photo of inside the store. You can see why it's called Guitar Center. ;)

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Shooting nearby

Just heard today that there was a shooting nearby. There's an online report of it at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/baycitynews/archive/2006/12/02/hayward02.DTL

Hayward is a city in the bay area that's prob about 30 mins drive from here. The 880 is a highway I've used several times to get to Berkeley. Apparently ppl were in chartered buses going to the "big game", the Stanford vs Berkeley Football game (Stanford and Berkeley are arch rivals, way worse than RI and ACS) and on the way down they took a different highway cos the 880 was closed for the investigations.

My roommate says there's this group (I forget what it's called) that's pushing for the outlawing of handguns. It's really hard to outlaw guns in the US just because guns are such a traditional part of culture in a lot of places (think rural hunting, which used to be a regular pastime and source of food, and maybe even cowboy movies though i'm not sure about the latter). But handguns (pistols and the likes) would probably be easier to outlaw than all kinds of guns at one go. Apparently the National Rifles Association has this argument that without guns, who's going to protect you from the people with guns. Which is a really stupid but also very persuasive argument cos it plays into people's insecurities that if they give up their guns, or their right to own one, they're at a disadvantage if someone else manages to get a gun. But it's a cyclical argument that seems very flawed and stupid. Oh well. I'm glad that at least there are people pushing for the outlawing of handguns, which I think would go a really long way in making America safer. But it'd be a real pain to implement so I hope and pray they implement it well. Who knows what'll happen if they don't.