Grades

I just checked my grades. It's funny. I took 3 classes - Econ 50, Econ 102A (stats) and Intro to Judaism. I really don't like stats, couldn't bring myself to study really all that hard for it. I really tried, but I know I didn't do all that much. The Judaism class was interesting but I started losing interest halfway through, especially with that weekly 2-3 page paper that we had to do plus a final paper. But I got it done, and I wrote some time ago about how I've been getting As for my Judaism papers even when I really don't care about them. That's grace man. Anyway here's more of God's grace to boast about: I got an A- for Econ 50 which is decent, but an A for stats and an A for Judaism!! The two classes that I didn't care much about or didn't like, I got As in. And compared to how much work I put in, the grades are definitely undeserved but I realize whether I deserve it or not isn't all that important. God's taking care of me. :)

Pictures and updates on my trip to Hawaii which I just came back from coming soon... I hope. :P

Finals

Finished one final and one final paper, one more to go!

Unfortunately that final is stats. And I really don't understand a lot of the stats stuff ever since the midterm. I just find it really hard to grasp the intuition behind a lot of the stats stuff. Plus the lecture's at 9am and lasts for 1h 50 mins, which pretty much guarantees that I either will wake up late for the lecture, skip it entirely or fall asleep in lecture for at least half of it.

Well. This morning's Econ 50 final was scary but good. I guess God pulled me through. Running low on faith now but He can see me through even when I'm faithless...

Almost there...

finals...

It's finals this week... yes one quarter's already finishing. Weirrd. I just turned in a paper for my Judaism class. If I do well, it's really by grace, cos I didn't feel that I wrote all that fantastically but I also didn't feel like I could've done much better. I ALSO didn't know that the paper was due at 5pm, so I happily decided to take my time before realizing that the paper was due at Building 70 which would probably have been closed and locked by the time I was done at 10:50pm. I went there, and sure enough the doors were locked... BUT there was a guy still in his office (at 11pm?!) and his window just happened to be on the ground floor next to the walkway I was at so I tapped on his window and he let me in - didn't even ask why I wanted to come in although I offered an explanation anyway. Found the box in which to put the paper and left. Came back and discovered an email from my TA saying she didn't see my paper in the box at 5pm. Doh.

I guess God's taking care of things for me. Even though I didn't know about the time, there was still this one guy who was in one of only two offices whose windows I could possibly tap on (the rest of the offices are either in the back or upstairs). I think He's telling me He'll take care of me. On a related note, I realize I can't force myself to do stuff I don't really wanna do like I used to be able to. Which is good, 'cos I think I'm more relaxed and happier too.

Two more finals: Econ 50 on Thursday and Econ 102A (a.k.a. Stats) on Fri. And then it's Hawaii for a week! :) Going to Oahu with Qianwen (Shaowei's sis) then heading over to Maui with her to meet Awa (friend from Stanford Chi Alpha, my Christian Fellowship here) who lives on Maui. SO COOL. Can't wait for the break.

Oh and I've also discovered the joy of eBay and craigslist. Bought a pair of skis from some guy 20 mins away that are the perfect height for me, for just $48. And he gave me a pair of poles too. Just ordered a pair of ski boots from ebay too. I hope I don't end up spending too much. :P

I love it when stuff like this happens

I have two problem sets due on Friday, one for Econ 50 and one for Econ 102A. I took a quick look at the former yesterday and started doing the problems, did 4 out of 11 of the problems before getting stuck. Now (in Econ 50 lecture) i just took another look at the problem set and realized questions 8-11 are just for practice. So I don't have to do them. So I've done 4 out of 7 questions, and it's not even Wed night yet.

Little things that bless my day. :)

On a side note, just came back from Monterey on Sunday. Had a pretty good time there, the company was fantastic. Miss them already. I'll post pictures when I get round to downloading them onto my com (yes I have a SD card reader now... yay).

Leopard is cool... but...

"If only one printer queue exits and this queue was created via Bonjour, it will be automatically recreated as part of the Mac OS X 10.5 installation process. Products using device drivers with VISE Installer v2.x will currently not run on Mac OS X Leopard. This includes HP Scanjets and HP Photosmart digital cameras... HP plans to release software updates in 30 to 60 days."

http://h41140.www4.hp.com/mac_connect/pdf/Mac_OS_launch_special.pdf

sigh. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit.

Pictures of the Californian Sunset

As promised, pictures from our drive back from LA...

1st Midterm of the Year

I got 101/110 for my Econ 50 midterm!! The amazing thing is half the time I don't pay attention in lectures and I didn't really put a LOT of effort into studying for the midterm. Somehow grades still do matter to me but it's not as big a deal as before, so I didn't get so stressed this time which I guess was good. Anyway praise God cos the mean was like 84 so I'm way above it (I think).

Just got back from LA last night. Drove down on Friday morning to perform at Claremont College on Fri night. Got a speeding ticket on the way down. :P I'm not too bummed by it now... I think. Performance itself went pretty well.

Yesterday was great, 2 other guys came with me in my car to check out Hollywood Boulevard - it's really surprisingly ghetto and run-down. The cameras make it look so glitzy and all but it's ALL fake... the sidewalks with the stars with celebrities' names on them aren't that big, and the boulevard itself is mostly just like any other street.

Anyway after that we happened to bump into the other two cars not too far out of LA on the freeway. Damn cool. Divine planning perhaps. :) Then we got lunch (best Mexican food I've ever had) and then drove along Highway 1 which is a highway that hugs the pacific (west) coast. VERY pretty. We stopped to watch the sunset... it's amazing when you kill the engine and there's absolutely no sound around you, and you just watch those far away waves silently, slowly slowly creeping into shore. Really gave me a different sense of what God's peace means.

I'll post pictures when I have them. Still haven't got a SD card reader or a cable for my camera. But Joe (one of the guys in my car) took some pictures so I'll post them when I have them.

(Minor) Earthquake!

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40204628.html

It wasn't very big but it's my first earthquake and definitely an interesting experience. The walls were shaking, so was my chair, but not by very much; nothing fell off any bookcases or anything like that. It lasted for about 10 seconds or so and then stopped, and I was wondering "That's it??". According to the website above it was a 5.6 quake centered about a 40 mins drive east from here.

Small stuff to the local folks, but exciting for me. :)

I was this close to transferring photos from my camera

I forget if I've mentioned this already but I lost my camera-to-USB port cable, which means I can't upload photos from my digicam to my com. Kinda defeats the point of having a digicam. I don't know where the cable went; I remember unpacking it when I got to the US but I don't know where it could be now.

Anyhew, De Wen and I took a trip to Fry's (a pretty big US electronics store chain) to get Wii stuff (yeah he got a Wii!) so I took the chance to get a camera cable. The shape of the port looked right, and the packaging said 'connect your digital camera to your PC' so I thought 'this is it'. Apparently it's not. The shape of the size you plug into the camera is about right, but it's a bit too big. So now I've no idea what the proper size is. Plus, I had to cut up the package to open it so that means I probably can't return it. :/

So... I'll just upload a picture a friend of mine (Clarissa) sent to me. I just dug it up recently. Soooo cute... Good ol' labrador retrievers...

My life over the past 3 weeks or so...

Yeah I haven't updated this for a while. The first 1.5-2 weeks after getting here were pretty rough, and believe it or not, I still have half a box of books that I haven't unpacked yet. Of the negative highlights of my time here, couple of things deserve special mention. First, the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) decided over the summer to suspend my car's registration 'cos they thought I didn't have insurance. I do of course have insurance, and the information was supposed to be electronically conveyed to the DMV by the insurance company.

I realized that I had the mail on the night of Sat, 16 Sep. I called the DMV on Mon 18 Sep to try to sort things out - they asked me to fax over info. So I called the insurance company to fax over the info and also to relay it electronically. I must say Geico Insurance was really great at providing good service all the way - I discovered their customer hotline is 24 hours, and their phone people are really friendly. On the other hand, the DMV was extremely unfriendly whenever I called. Over the course of the next two weeks, I called the DMV repeatedly to check if it had been processed but all they could tell me was if I faxed it, it should be in the midst of processing, and it takes 3 working days to process, and until it's processed they can't check if it's there. Kind of ridiculous. I even lost my patience with the DMV people a couple of times - one time the lady tried to hang up on me by saying something and ending with "have a good day sir" which of course is total crap - I almost never get as pissed off with a random person i don't know on the phone as I did with her. Only last Friday (5 Oct) did I finally get the official letter from the DMV clearing my car for use. No apology for the mistake, no explanation, just a black and white official letter. Can't really hope for much more from them it seems.

There were other things too. The first full week after I got back was the beginning of a cappella recruiting and auditioning season. It's an insane period filled with tabling for audition sign-ups and performing at dorms. Over that and the following week (which was the first week of school) I must've gotten really tired although I tried not to. During audition week, we lasted till about 7:30am on Thursday morning after ending auditions on Wed night, having a meeting between the a cappella groups and getting callback folders out to the guys we wanted to call back. Callback auditions were on Friday, ended around 12:20am, then we discussed who we wanted, and then went to a meeting at 4am with the a cappella groups to discuss who each group wants (so that the same person doesn't end up in two different groups), and then roll people out (bang loudly on their doors and wake them up with a song) until about 7-8am. It was Sat by then... Sat afternoon we met the new guys and stole them away to Santa Cruz which is by the sea, where we had a Mendicants weekend retreat. The retreat went really well, we have a great bunch of new guys who're also amazing singers and the weather was perfect both days.

Kinda fell sick over that weekend though, became more obvious on Monday when I was sniffing all day and experiencing lotsa phlegm. I still have quite a bit of phlegm actually - that's more than a full week since it started. The other bummer thing was that I signed up for 2 Econ classes totalling 10 units, both of which I have to do if I'm considering Econ as a major at all 'cos without them I can't do any of the other classes. Problem was, those two classes occupied prime class time on Mon-Thu mornings so I must've cycled through the process of finding another class I like and then discovering that it clashed with those 10 units at least 4-5 times, which was kinda discouraging. Finally though I found one (thank God!) so here're the classes I'm doing now:

Econ 50 Microeconomics (5 units) - It's like Econ 1A and JC Econs again, but with more math. Not much more though - I feel like I can kinda afford to skip classes and keep up. Hehe. I skipped lecture yesterday (which by the way is an insane 1h 50 mins long) to sleep in cos I was really tired. Think it was a pretty good decision. Hehe.

Econ 102A (Stats, 5 units)) - A lot of Econ at Stanford is pretty mathematical and uses a fair bit of stats, so this class is kind of a prerequisite for a lot of Econ courses. I don't like stats though - It's one of those subject areas that I feel I just have to memorize how to do 'cos the formulas and stuff in general don't really make sense to me. Kinda like how I feel about Bio. I much prefer understanding concept to just plain memorizing facts. I've actually done stats before in JC but I can barely remember anyhing about it.

Introduction to Judaism (4 units) - I'm so glad for this class. Not only does it fit into my schedule, but we get to talk about the Bible in class. And it's only 2 lectures of 1h 15 mins a week which are more like discussion sections 'cos there're only about 12-15 people in the class in total. This should be fun. :)


And now, I can't find my camera cable. Wanted to upload some pictures but since I don't have the cable I can't do that so I'll post this first and pray I find it soon...

just when I leave for the USA...

ROCKAPELLA IS IN SINGAPORE THIS NOVEMBER!!!! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. haha.

Made it!

After 17 hours of traveling and a whole day of zuo-bo-ing, reading, going for a walk and getting my car from Uncle Peng Huat's place (which included jump starting it), I'm finally in Boon Sim's room. Staying over at his place, he very kindly let me use his room since he's still in Singapore. Feel kinda bad though, 'cos his housemate, Choon Kiat, was apparently waiting for me to come over while I decided to hang around Pearline's place figuring that Choon Kiat had classes. Oops.

Anyway it's 9:30pm and I'm really looking forward to sleep. Even though I slept quite a bit on the plane, I still feel pretty tired. Nothing unusual I guess, I'm glad I made it this far without completely falling asleep. =) Orientation and school are going to start soon. Dun wanna get busy again... :/ I really like the freedom of having almost no commitments, being able to sleep anytime and for as long as I want etc... even though Summer wasn't all smooth sailing either.

It's weird to be back. After being in Singapore for 2.5 months, the USA feels pretty foreign, very different vibes and environment and all - even the air smells different - and yet it's all extremely familiar, nothing very new. It's weird cos I'm feeling both feelings at the same time... Maybe it's the jetlag talking. Off to bed I guess... Soon...

leaving on a jet plane...

Again! Haha. It was a year ago that I first posted a post by the same title as this. No prizes for guessing why. Anyway my flight details are finally confirmed, finalized and not going to change by my will. :)

I'm leaving Singapore from Terminal 1 on Wed, 12 Sep, at 8:30am on NH112 (All Nippon Airways), stopping over in Tokyo before going on to San Francisco. I'll be touching down in San Francisco via NH008 at 10:30am on the same day (12 Sep).

Less than a week till I go! So exciting. It's like last year all over again. Kinda. Even though I can remember what the US is like, and remember my friends there and everything, it's still quite an incredulous thing to be leaving one country where you've spent the last 2+ months for another completely different country where you'll be for another 9-12 months or so, maybe even longer.

One last thing... I'm having an a cappella concert this Sunday, putting it up with some friends. I've tried to let as many people as possible (those who're in Singapore at least) know about it but I'm sure I've forgotten some, so if you'd like to go, let me know! Drop me a call or an sms or something... DON'T email me 'cos chances are I won't even reply until I'm in the US or something.

6 days and counting... :)

so help me God

Two reasons why I haven't updated this blog for quite some time.

First reason: I don't have internet access at home. I live with my mum and she doesn't use computers at all so I canceled my internet subscription when I left for the US. Right now I'm using free wireless from a MacDonalds... it's pretty good tonight though usually the connection is pretty weak and splotchy...

Second reason: Not much has been happening in terms of activities... yet at the same time things have been kinda crazy, in ways that I can't really describe or pinpoint. God's just doing a lot in my life and things are changing.

He told me yesterday to realize I don't know what I'm doing and to trust Him. Which is damn scary. Think about it - if someone tells you he/she doesn't know what he/she is doing with his/her life, you'd probably be inclined to worry. But, well, if you really believe you know what you're doing, then what's there to trust God for? I guess the scarier thing is to think you know what you're doing when you actually don't, like a guy incapacitated by alcohol getting into the driver's seat instead of letting someone drive him home. He told me there's just too much at stake for me to go on without trusting Him. My brain gets it; not sure about my heart. Never mind... I'll just trust God. =)

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." (Pro 3:5-6).


So FYI, I may not update this for a while since I don't have regular access to the internet. Thanks for reading though! I'm touched when someone tells me they read my blog. You really don't have to, but you're welcome to anytime. :)

balik ke Singapura (back to Singapore)

I'm back home! After 3 short and really great weeks of hanging out with De Wen and Yinshan. I'll be here until 14 Sep or so; still need to change my flight. I originally booked my return flight for 20 Sep but I need to be back by the 16th for Mendicants stuff... still trying to decide whether to go back earlier so I have more time to rest and recover from jet lag before I move in and get busy. :)

Not much new to put here I guess. About to have dinner so maybe I'll put more details about the past few weeks up here some other time. =)

DONE!! (Already?!?!)

A whole year has passed by?? Apparently. Doesn't quite feel that long and yet it does at the same time. It's pretty strange. I remember moving in not too long ago and I don't feel like I've been here very long, yet the day I moved in is also in a distant memory that's becoming more and more cloudy. Quite a strange feeling. It only began to hit me yesterday morning that this is the end of a year when I sent Awa to the airport. So weird to think that people are going home...

Anyway, I'm done with finals!!! YAHOO!!! finished my last final on Monday night, now I'm busy packing. Room is a disaster zone 'cos my roommate and I are both packing up at the same time and the room is really too small for two people to be packing up separately.

Some boxes in the hallway: the two brown boxes nearest the camera are mine, as are the lamp and blue cushion thing on the chair. My Singaporean friends may recognize the Mighty Minds map of Singapore that's at the top of the box nearest the camera. ;)

My room from the outside...

Wanna see the mess? Come on in!


Gonna move some stuff to a friend's place that he's renting over the summer - we were loading up the car yesterday, it's so full of stuff now it's ridiculous. We even have a small lamp in the glove compartment. haha... Anyway I'm waiting for him to get ready (we planned to wake up at 10am but I woke up at 10:30am and he was still asleep). Should be leaving soon...

Chi Alpha friends

We took this photo last night (wed night) at Chi Alpha after our weekly meeting.


Last meeting of the quarter! Wait, didn't I just get here?? Sure feels like it. The shock of finishing my first year here hasn't quite hit me yet. Anyway Chi Alpha has been a great fellowship that I'm really blessed to be part of. I'm gonna miss everyone over the summer... really hope I can make it to the back-to-school retreat next Fall when school starts. Might not be able to 'cos of Mendicants commitments but we'll see how it goes. God can provide. :)

Now to sleep. Econ final tomorrow morning. =)

Photos of Things that are White

Well ok. One thing that's white. :)

From the rear

Side view

Front view

The front seats (hooray for manual transmission!)

A nifty little thing they designed into the car - a pen-holder. You never know when you'll need one.


Since getting it this afternoon I've already driven it something like 60 miles. It's been fun. Still getting used to the car though - the biting point of the clutch is a little high, still trying to shift my gears smoothly (the car still jerks almost every time I go from 1st to 2nd) and the driver's position is such that when I park I have a tendency to overestimate the amount of space I need to leave on my side (the left). It's a smooth engine though, and really good, precise steering, stable suspension and just nice overall. :) Oh and for my uninitiated Singaporean friends, you may have noticed that there's no license plate, just a blue sheet of paper. Yes, you can drive a car without a license plate here. I think they'll mail me my license plate in a couple of weeks or something. So effectively, if you have insurance, you can drive the car off the dealer's lot the moment you buy it (which some people do). I, on the other hand, had to get insurance so I left the car with the dealer 'til today.

Strangely though, I will miss depending on Ai Lin for transportation. Lisa too. Although I don't hitch rides from Lisa nearly as much as I do from Ai Lin. I know it's just a car, but transport's a big lifestyle-determining factor here so the dynamics of my life are gonna change somewhat. Transportation used to be a practical reason for us to travel together. I guess it still is though - if we need to go anywhere we'll probably still take one car. I'm pretty sure I'll miss Ai Lin next year when she's gone though. :)

Covenant

I was listening to a sermon by Lou Engle (it was either him speaking or someone speaking at his meeting) a day or two ago, and the recording came to a point which caught my attention - I played it over a few times and then just stopped 'cos I couldn't go on without getting it.

He said it as something really in passing, but earth-shaking to me. It went something like: "you know what a covenant is right? What's mine is yours, what's yours is mine; I fight your battles, you fight mine."

Jesus called our new relationship with Him the new covenant... What's mine is Yours, what's Yours is mine; I fight Your battles, You fight mine.

Talk about a high calling. It's still blowing my mind...

Things that are White

my Macbook laptop... the plastic shelves next to my desk... clouds... my car...

My car? yeah. Feels weird saying it. But yes, I bought a car today! It's a 2007 Ford Focus 4 Dr Sedan. 5-spd manual of course. ;) I've been on the lookout for good deals on cars for a week or two, but never really considered buying a new one 'cos the depreciation is crazy high. But this weekend was Memorial Day weekend (i.e. long weekend, cos today, Monday, was a public holiday) so several dealerships were having pretty good deals. I chanced upon a really fantastic deal on a 3-door Focus hatchback yesterday but didn't want to decide so quickly and today the unit had been sold. But I did find another deal on a 4 door Sedan that wasn't as good a deal as yesterday's but it was still pretty darn good. The basic premise of my decision is that the discounts offered by the dealer are good enough to offset most, if not all, of the additional depreciation incurred by buying a new car. =)

It's a long story how I got to it, but it was pretty divine. I called several other dealerships after learning that the unit I was originally considering (i.e. yesterday's one) was gone; I wanted to see if any were offering similar deals. Yesterday's deal was basically a 3-door Focus for about $8995 or so, which is ridiculously cheap considering it usually retails at about $14,000 to $15,000. Ai Lin brought me to two dealerships; the first one was at Half Moon Bay, and the salesman was really friendly and optimistic about matching the $8995 deal, but in the end they couldn't 'cos they said they would lose money. So we went to check out the second dealer in San Mateo which offered $10,988 for a 4-door Sedan, which was better than anything the Half Moon Bay guy could offer. We arrived just as they were about to close so they stayed open for us, and basically that unit was the only unit at that price, was advertised throughout the weekend and was still unsold. Usual price is about $15,000. So I might incur a slightly higher depreciation, but it'll be great to have a new car and not worry about maintenance and stuff like that.

So we spent the entire afternoon out, and Ai Lin did all the driving which is quite a feat 'cos the traffic at Half Moon Bay was terrible (today was a public holiday so I guess a ton of people were heading to the beach there). She's such a blessing...

I'll post pictures when I have them. Econ midterm tomorrow. Must sleep now. :P

New Look!

It's been about 10 months (maybe 11?) since I started this blog (wow time flies), and I've just discovered that my dear friends Emily and Jace, who're overseas in Poland for a few months, evidently have as good taste as I do in choosing templates: Check out their blog.

So I decided I shall change my template, since I've been using it for 10-11 months anyway. :) I quite like it. Quite minimalistic and yet aesthetic. Let me know what you think!

One down, one to go...

Papers, that is. I just handed in my barely-8-pages IHUM paper today!!! YAY! It feels so good to have one of them over and done with. Now for my PWR paper. I've got materials but haven't read through much of them at all.

Haven't blogged for a long time; been pretty busy lately, especially with The Mendicants' Spring Show last Friday which, I'm glad to say, went pretty well. Quite a few Chi Alpha and Singaporean friends came; I was quite touched at the support.

I'm currently waiting for confirmation of my flight arrangements - a travel agent is helping me, Yinshan and De Wen book. De Wen and I are hanging around Stanford for a while after the quarter's over (hopefully I'll have a car then - looking out for deals from graduating students who're selling their cars), going to a Christian conference in Bethel Church up in Redding, then hanging around a bit more for July 4th (Independence Day) Fireworks. :) We're leaving on Jul 6 (tentatively) because Jul 5 is fully booked. Leaving Singapore Sep 20 (also tentatively). Hrm. Come to think of it, maybe we should've stayed another day or two for the 7/7/07 prayer event - it's in Nashville but there's also a big meeting related to that happening in Sacramento (about 2 hours drive from Stanford). Ah well. =)

Stayed up late on Monday night to finish my IHUM paper. Haven't really caught up on my sleep debt since then so I think I shall go do that now. ;)

Mendicants Lost

The Mendicants' big Spring Concert is coming up! 18 May 2007. Check out our promo video:

Great videos!

I just watched the whole range of Apple advertisements on the Apple website. They're awesome!! Hilarious. Of course some are better than others. Check them out at http://www.apple.com/getamac/ . Gotta have Quicktime to run it I think.

TGIF!

I had a paper outline for my IHUM due this morning. I'm so glad it's over. Haha. Although the final version of the 8-10 page paper (double spaced) is due in 20 days. But I'm glad for this small hurdle to have passed.

Some good news: I got back my first Econ midterm and I got an estimated A-! It's estimated 'cos it's really the numerical score that counts towards a final score, which will then be put on a curve and given a grade. But based on the class' performance during this midterm, it's an A- range.

Which is tons better than my first B- midterm for Econ 1A last quarter!

Other good news: I got an A for my PWR Rhetorical Analysis! Praise God!! :D

I realize I'm going to have to keep myself busy if I want to do a good job with the two research papers. I'm not gonna beat myself up over it, but I gotta try to be consistent; if not it'll all pile up and it won't be any fun at all.

Gonna take a nap in a bit. Stayed up late to do the outline last night. Yay for sleep! :)

Talk about a fast paced life

Been pretty busy lately, hence the relatively infrequent updates on this blog. But that's not what this entry's about. Check out this report:

http://www.itv.com/news/britain_d47fb099
4d1357c3ef7d13eed7a160ea.html

We Singaporeans need to relax man.

The Library's Never Been So Useful Before

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's a blessing that the library's here, but the reason for my frequent use of it is lotsa homework. Which isn't really a bad thing anyway - it's tiresome at times but it'll be interesting and I'm sure I'll learn some good stuff through the experience.

First, a list of my classes for this quarter (kinda belated, it's the end of the 3rd week already. eek! Time's flying so fast!)

IHUM: Ancient Empires (5 units): This is a continuation of my IHUM from last quarter. This quarter we're almost 100% focusing on Ancient Rome. Last quarter I had to do 2 papers and a final; this quarter the final stays but I have an 8-10 page research paper instead, on a topic of my choice. More about this later.

PWR 1 (4 units): PWR (pron. "power") defn.: Program in Writing and Rhetoric. It's another compulsory course for Stanford Undergrads. We're required to take PWR 1 in Freshman year and PWR 2 or another course that meets PWR 2 requirements by the end of Sophomore year. I was assigned to take PWR 1 this quarter - my class is called the Rhetoric of the Bicycle. Haha. The instructor's pretty cool and nice, so it's been interesting so far. The course is supposed to teach you how to analyze rhetorical styles and devices and write a good argumentative paper. I had my first assignment, a 'Rhetorical Analysis', due last week, and now I'm working on a "Contextual Analysis" which is due next Monday (30 Apr) and ultimately the biggie: the Research-based Argumentative Paper which is due at the end of the quarter.

Econ 1B (5 units): Macroeconomics. Pretty self-explanatory. It's actually quite different from the macro econs in JC so far - a lot of real world application so far, and it's not progressing as fast as I thought it would be. It's actually turning out to be more interesting than I expected. The lecturer's Australian, complete with a weird Australian sense of humour that's actually pretty funny but sometimes hard to catch to me, probably even harder for Americans.

Introsem - How Music Instruments Work (3 units): This is a 3-unit introductory seminar on the physics and engineering behind musical instruments. I think it's the perfect class for me - I've been wanting to know stuff like this ever since JC choir when my conductor would explain Physics stuff about sound production to us so we would understand how and why we're in or out of tune, blending our sound or not etc. It's taught by a friendly Scottish Electrical Engineering Prof.

Social Dance I (1 unit) - This is the introductory social dance class that everyone recommends everyone else takes. It's really popular - despite the fact that it's at 8:45am in the mornings twice a week, it's still over-subscribed every quarter. I figured I should hurry up and take it this quarter 'cos I live right opposite the dance gym where it's held, so waking up that early wouldn't be as bad. It's REALLY fun so far. It sux waking up, but once you start dancing and learning stuff you really feel pretty good. Plus the teacher, Richard Powers, is really good - very clear instructions and demonstrations, to the extent that I can't remember a single time I've felt lost for more than a few minutes. It's really a blessing to have a good teacher.

That's it. Total of 18 units. The most I've ever taken here. But I realized that more important than the total no. of units is the no. of 'serious' academic classes that you take and the variety of classes. E.g. if I took Econ, PWR, IHUM and Music Theory (which would also total 18 units) I think it'll be more work and less enjoyable that what I'm doing now.

So I was talking about my research papers: one for IHUM and one for PWR. For IHUM, the topic's up to me and I started by getting interested in the rise of Christianity, especially because Rome was initially a persecutor of Christians and ended up being the empire responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the world starting from Europe. I've narrowed it down and I think I want to focus on the influence that Constantine's political power had on the growth of the Roman Christian Church - Constantine was the Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity and was the first emperor to officially support and endorse the Christian Church. It sounds chim but trust me, I don't know much about it yet.

As for PWR, my Contextual Analysis (draft is due this Monday) is basically an analysis of a particular source, text, situation or whatever in terms of rhetorical devices, and with an understanding its context and how that shapes how it is viewed and understood. Up till about 2 hours ago I still couldn't decide which topic to do. I'd narrowed it down to two things: Alternative forms of bicycle transmissions, or the widespread use of bicycles on Stanford. I was more drawn to the latter 'cos it sounded more interesting - I was wondering whether the 15,000 or so bikes on campus was a mere result of practicality or whether it was a social phenomenon as well. But ultimately I decided that I was more interesting in researching the marketing aspects of alternate transmissions. So that's what I chose. One of the reasons that I was having such a hard time choosing was that it would help if my final research-based paper is an expansion of my contextual analysis so I wanted to choose the right topic.

2 research papers. And a ton of books to boot. My room is so small, I don't think I can possibly keep all the books I've borrowed in my room (there's no limit of no. of books u can borrow from the library, apparently). So I'm gonna try to sign up for locker space at the library on Monday. I hope it works out.

Ok, enough updates for now. 7 more weeks till I'm done with MY FIRST YEAR AT STANFORD! Time really flies. I'd better enjoy it while it lasts. :)

3rd Quarter already??

One more quarter (another 10 weeks) and I'm done with my Freshman year of school. Wow.

Last quarter turned out well. I got an A- on my Econ final which gave me an overall B+, which isn't bad considering I had two B-s for the two midterms. Got an A- for IHUM, which I'm pretty happy with, and an A+ for Music 22 (Theory) which I'm also happy with of course. Overall GPA is 3.79 right now. =)

This quarter I'm taking 5 classes: IHUM (a continuation of last quarter's Ancient Empires class), PWR (Program in Writing and Rhetoric - a compulsory writing class. Mine is on the Rhetoric of the Bicycle - sounds weird but the lecturer seems pretty interesting so far), Econ 1B (Macroeconomics), an introsem on the Physics and Engineering behind musical instruments, and social dance I (which is at 8:45am on Tues and Thu but it's really fun so I think it's worth getting up for).

Hawaii was great. Honolulu is amazingly like Singapore - spread out urbanization, lots of shopping centers and wide roads in the shopping district a la Orchard Road, many apartment blocks everywhere, and many of those apartment blocks even look like HDB flats! Don't believe me? See it for yourself:


These are apartment blocks that were just behind our hotel:


That aside, we went to the beach a lot; the beaches are really nice; great water, really fine and smooth sand, lots of sun. I got quite a tan I think. Wonder if it'll last. haha. This is Waikiki beach, very near our hotel:

That's Stephen taking a short siesta on the beach at North Shore (we stayed in Waikiki in Honolulu which is to the south of the island)...

We also did a lot of filming for a video for our Spring Show. Don't we look pro? That vertical stick with the white sock on it is our boom mic - it's a mic with an actual sock over it (versus a proper mic sock that's supposed to keep wind out - the sock worked out pretty well too) that's duct taped to a branch that we found. Hahaha.

I'm waiting to get the pictures from the other mendicants before I post my photos online so that I can put all of them in the same album.

Gonna take a short rest/nap now before my next class - I had Social Dance just now, and later I have 3 classes in a row plus another class some time after that so I probably should rest if I wanna make it through. ;)

Hiking and Biking all day!

I went hiking again today, this time with a friend from the dorm called Daniel. The two of us left the dorm at 8:20am, brought our bikes on the Caltrain and biked along Embarcadero (a really scenic road along the SF coast) to Pier 41 where we took a ferry to Angel Island (off the San Fran coast). We reached the island at about 10:20am, hiked on a hiking trail, went all the way to the top of the island and enjoyed the spectacular view while having a very simple lunch (2 slices of bread, 3 eggs and a banana for me; Daniel had a banana, a cup of granola, an orange and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich). After that we hiked back, went down another trail (which was really steep) to try to see this old missile silo, realized we couldn't see it and climbed all the way back up (*pengz*). Then we took our time to hike back through the undergrowth and got back to the ferry with a comfortable 15 mins to spare.

When we got back to SF we decided to bike further along Embarcadero, then spontaneously decided to try to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a REALLY HARD bike ride to get to the bridge, a LOT of steep uphill slopes. But when we got to the Golden Gate it was so worth it, the view was simply spectacular. :) We biked across the entire bridge, took some photos and biked back, met some other Stanford dorm friends for dinner near Union Square then took the Caltrain back. I just got back at about 10:15pm... I've been out for 14 hours!! Dead tired. XP

If you'd like to see the full range of photos I took, check out the album below:

San Francisco: Angel Island and Golden Gate Bridge

Otherwise, here's some of the highlights (although there are really too many beautiful shots to put here):


Biking along Embarcadero, we passed under the Bay Bridge (not to be confused with the Golden Gate Bridge):

Taken from a path parallel to Embarcadero (the road's to the left but kinda blocked by the grass, the coast is to the right)

We got a spectacular view of San Fran from the ferry (that's Daniel in the picture):

Our view of San Fran from the top of Angel Island (it was kinda foggy but it's still a really cool picture. You can even see some of the main roads as vertical lines across the city, especially on the right of the city):

Our view of Tiburon, just north of San Francisco (a small and very pretty city with what looks like a lot of nice houses and a LOT of private boats moored):

Our view of the Golden Gate, with a bit of fog just creeping in from the right:

Daniel and I at the Golden Gate after we'd biked across it (whoo hoo! Talk about feeling triumphant man...) :

And finally, one of the spectacular views taken from the Golden Gate Bridge itself near the opposite end of the bridge from San Francisco:


Even looking at the photos now I'm quite in awe of the beauty God's put into this world. And I'm pretty sure I don't know the half of it.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Do try and look at the album if you have the time. I'm gonna try to upload Daniel's photos too when I get them from him.

Dinner

I said I was going to have dinner. Here's proof. Haha. It really was quite good. The main highlight to me was the curry chicken which was pretty good, plus the Naan and rice. The yellow gooey stuff is Mango Chutney. The meatloaf wasn't bad too.



This picture, incidentally, was inspired by Adrian "Robert" Chung who suggested to me a couple of times last quarter that I should take pictures of the yummy food. Haha.

I'm done!!!

Finished my last final yesterday morning at 11am, handed in a music assignment straight after that (it's an analysis of the first movement of a Piano Sonata, for those in the know) and THAT'S IT FOR WINTER QUARTER! HALLELUJAH!! :)

Some more good news:

The music take-home final was pretty ok, I'm expecting to do well. My overall music grade will come from both the lecture (i.e. the midterms and final) and section. I received back the music assignment today (my TA marks really fast! And he wrote a lot of comments all over too. Amaxing.) - got an A+ for it!! And my section grade was written on it too, also an A+!

Also, the IHUM final went better than expected. There were 4 sections; the first two sections were fill-in-the-blank questions and identification of places on a map, and each section only required us to answer 10 out of the 15 questions. So it turned out quite well 'cos I didn't have to do those that I wasn't very sure about, I'm expecting full marks or close to full marks for that. The next two sections were essays (3 short essays and one long one) which I didn't feel too badly about but we'll see how it goes. After the final my Teaching Fellow was outside and he returned my 2nd paper to me - I got an A-!! So far IHUM's going even better than last quarter's with an A- for both papers (last quarter I got an A- for my first paper and B/B- for my second).

And thirdly, Econ final yesterday went pretty well too. We were given 3 hours but it was way more than necessary. Some people started walking out after 1-1.5 hours. I stayed till 2.5 hours, took my time with the paper. Overall I found it relatively easy, except for one 20 mark section (the paper's graded out of 150 marks) which was entirely on readings that were assigned but were never discussed in class so I didn't realize that they'd be tested. I managed to answer two of those questions - one of them the Prof has mentioned before in lecture, the other I kinda guessed. Haha. So we'll see how that goes but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who didn't do well in that section.

So that's it! Good news so far. :) Had a really fun day yesterday; after lunch 5 of us rented a car (we got a free upgrade to a huge Ford Explorer cos they'd run out of small cars) and drove to Pacifica which is north of Stanford along the coast to hike through a 4-mile trail. It was pretty fun though it was tiring. Great views:

From the carpark (or parking lot, as the Americans say):

About 20 or so minutes into the hike (still very much at the bottom of the hill):

About 5-10 mins after the previous picture:

And the clincher: gorgeous view of the hills and the ocean off the west coast of the you-ess-off-eei from the (almost) top of the hill:


After the hike we went to the nearby beach to just hang around. The two girls went to wade in the water - they said it was really cold. The beach was amazing - fantastic waves crashing onto the beach and all. After that we went back to Stanford cos the other two guys wanted to go back, but the remaining three of us wanted to go check out Half-Moon Bay so we dropped the two guys at Stanford and drove to Half-Moon Bay.

Several things: Firstly, I was the only 21-year-old amongst the three of us so I did all the driving (no complaints there!). This SUV was definitely the largest vehicle I've ever driven. We didn't take any photos of the car but I managed to find a couple of pictures online:

It's hard to tell the exact size but the top of the front headlight is probably pretty close to my chest

The interior (it looked like this but without the screen in the middle):


Second: Half-Moon Bay is really fantastic. It's probably as nice as if not nicer than Pacifica. It's name probably comes from the fact that it's a C-shaped bay. Really nice soft sand, waves crashing over each other and onto the beach, and a LOT of seagulls gathered in huge patches waiting for fish to come in with the tide (apparently). 2 of us decided to run through the flocks and get them to fly up - it was quite a sight. Don't have pictures of it now, they're in a friend's camera. Will put them up when I get them from her. :)

Third: Half Moon Bay is a really quaint, cute, well-maintained little town. We drove along the coastal road and also through their downtown. It was quite nice.

Fourth: The drive was awesome. To get there we took the freeway (expressway in Singaporean terms) from Stanford and then got off onto a small highway, the kind that's just one lane in each direction. It was really nice, winding through forested area at a leisurely pace. On our way back we didn't feel hungry yet so we took our time to drive through highway 35 a.k.a. Skyline Boulevard, a really scenic, twisty highway that winds through the tops of the hills. It was really cool to be driving through forested area, having a really great view of the coast and of the entire west bay area at the same time. We passed by a lot of houses too. Wonder what it's like to live there. I'd like to go back sometime and drive those roads with a sportier car. *grinz*

So that was my day yesterday. At night De Wen, Adeline and I went over to Ai Lin's place to watch a DVD. We watched The Sum of All Fears - it's really confusing. haha. But it was an interesting watch. I got back at like 12:45am. Went to bed close to 2am. Had SUCH a good sleep. haha.

So that's it. Today (Thursday) has been pretty relaxing. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow. Saturday I'll probably join Adeline to go look at cars - she's thinking of buying a (new) Honda Civic. Then Sunday till next Saturday I'm off to Hawaii with the Mendicants. whee...

I'm just looking forward to relaxing these few days, and in Hawaii too. I quite enjoyed not doing much today - went out for a while to get my music assignment, check my P.O. Box and then bought a Mocha and just sat outside the Coffee House drinking it and watching the world go by. A friend happened to pass by so we chatted for a while. Now it's dinner time so I should probably go eat soon. :)

Word of the season: Authenticity

Somehow my weak glance
Has overwhelmed You
Somehow my weak love
Has stolen away Your heart
(x2)

Though I'm dark
You say I am beautiful
Though I'm poor
You say I am lovely
(x2)

(song by Misty Edwards)

"... that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;..."
- Ephesians 3:17-19

Spring is here!

It's SO warm right now. Today I went to class in a t-shirt, bermudas and sandals and I didn't feel cold at all. I even felt hot at parts of the day. While biking.

Last weekend I went to Lake Tahoe with Barnabas (Singaporean friend who works in SF) Pearline and Clarissa (Singaporean friends at Stanford) - we drove up Fri night, stayed overnight at a motel and went skiing/snowboarding on saturday. It was the warmest skiing/snowboarding I've ever done. Did my fair share of falling... overall it was pretty fun though the morning was much more fun than the afternoon cos' the snow got more icy and clumpy in the afternoon. Still it was good.

Check out some photos:

Barney and Clarissa lookin' really stylo:


Me and Pearline (Pearline didn't know she was in the picture... haha...)


A very happy Pearline at the end of the day:


Me, tired:


And my favorite picture of the day - Barney:


And for those of you who're wondering, 'what the heck, doesn't he have exams soon??' the answer's yes I do, but I just had 2 midterms and a paper due within the first 2 days of last week which completely tired me out and sucked away all my motivation for doing any studying. So Saturday's snowboarding was a good release for me. Now (as in today, Monday) I'm starting to get back into the swing of studying again. Kinda. :P

So I think I may not be updating this blog until my finals are over which is sometime next week (around wed or so). After that I'll be going to Hawaii (yay!) with The Mendicants - it's our 'Spring Tour' although we don't actually have a lot of gigs there. We're probably gonna be singing at least a bit (I really hope we do!! If not it totally defeats the purpose of a Spring Tour) plus we'll be doing some filming for videos for our Spring Quarter Concert. A friend of mine from Chi Alpha is going back home to Maui (one of the islands in Hawaii) so I might try to visit her too if our trip gets boring. She also offered to take us around if we do go to Maui (we'll be staying in Honolulu, which is on another island, for most of the time). So I hope we do get to explore! It'll be so much fun hanging out with a friend who's actually from the place and can take us around.

So... till next time! Which will probably be before Hawaii. Hopefully. Ciao~!

STUDY BREAK!

IHUM paper due tomorrow. 1800 - 2400 words, approx 6-8 pages double-spaced. I'm at 2200 words right now but I still have to come up with a good ending conclusion and vet my entire paper through at least once. I don't feel like this paper is very power packed or anything, just that it's got a lot of details in it which is why I've managed to pull it to 2200 words already. Well, praise God for helping me to finish it in time!

So I'm taking a short 10 mins study break to update this. A friend from Singapore, James, stayed over the past few nights in my room - he slept on a foam mattress on the floor in my tiny room. Actually I know him because his sister is a good friend of mine (xmmp don't you start getting farni ideas) from piano school, I've known her probably for 10 years now if not more - I only met James when he came to visit Stanford on Thursday. He's a real nice guy, I'm glad we could get along pretty well. He's also pretty independent - he actually went to crash a couple of classes and explore San Francisco by himself while I was doing other stuff - I was quite impressed. He'd already been in the US for about 2 weeks looking at a few universities. He seems to like Stanford. ;)


That's James on Saturday night using my computer to figure out where to go in San Fran and writing down all the details like where to go, bus routes and times etc. I hope he doesn't mind my using his photo on my publicly accessible blog. :)

Both of us were also very blessed that Ai Lin let me use her car while she was in LA with Shaowei for a prophetic conference (I say "both of us" 'cos that meant that I could drive him around and show him stuff). Overall we had a pretty good time together. The weather was simply gorgeous on Saturday and Sunday - almost like summer actually. I could actually walk around in the daytime in a t-shirt and jeans, without a jacket. It's a really sudden change in weather from the previous week... Looks like Spring's coming back soon! I hope. If it starts getting cold and rainy again then the weather's really getting schizophrenic. So he was very blessed to come this particular weekend. He said he had a fantastic time using my bike to cycle around campus, it's really pretty, and he even discovered stuff I didn't know about like a stable that we apparently have relatively near my dorm. :P Anyway he left this morning (Monday). I must say I'm quite thankful he made my weekend quite fun!

On a separate note (do mi so...), I just got a new set of speakers! Ordered them from Amazon.com about 2.5-3 weeks ago and they came last wed, just before James came. They were a pretty good deal, especially because there's a $50 mail-in rebate from Creative, plus I had $35 in Amazon.com vouchers from taking part in a couple of communications experiments on campus, plus shipping was free, so in the end I only paid $35 for them. Check them out! -

Box in a box:


After unpacking:


And after set-up (subwoofer's at the bottom of the pic):


Overall I'm pretty happy with the sound. I've heard better, but not from PC speakers. They're relatively clear and the subwoofer adds a significant amount of depth to the songs I play. =)

Ok I think it's been more than 10 mins. Back to my paper. God bless!

Bi3 Zi4 Duo1

Bi3 Zi4 Duo1 - Bryan's translation for "More Than Words" which is what the audience is laughing at at the start of the video. :P

We had a combined Singaporean CNY Dinner together with a few other Singaporean associations from the area. Bryan, Daryl and I did an item in a 5-item talentime that won first place! Praise God! Check out the video for yourself. :) IMO it could've be a lot better but all things considered, it was pretty well done. And Daryl's such a huge joker - check out the ending when he makes his guitar (which he named Charis) take a bow. ;)

It was a very timely blessing too 'cos one of the prizes was this pretty nice backpack and my current backpack shows signs of spoiling soon. =) Praise God for a great performance and a great evening!

More Photos!

I mentioned in my previous post a few hours ago that it was a pretty busy week. It was also a pretty exciting week, and it started off quite fun. Last Sunday Lisa was kind enough to lend me her car in the afternoon and a bunch of us in the dorm 'kidnapped' a friend whose birthday was the next day:


That's us from the 1st car (the one I drove) with the birthday girl, Michelle, in a very colourful blindfold. :) We were at an outdoor ice-skating rink. Another friend volunteered to drive the remaining bunch of people to the rink but wasn't going to join us so I ferried two groups of people to dinner later.

Michelle was quite excited when she found out where she was.

Group photo!


We went for dinner after that in Palo Alto and I drove a bunch of people back while the rest stayed longer, bought ingredients for a surprise cake and took the shuttle bus back.

I can see why dorm life is so much better than just renting your own place. No way would we be doing these kinda things if we weren't in the dorm. :)

Busy week's over!

IT'S FRIDAY!! PRAISE GOD!! :D

It's been quite a busy week. Wednesday was particularly tiring. Woke up at 5:30am to roll out the girls of my dorm - all the guys rolled them out and gave them roses for Valentine's Day and then everyone gathered in the lounge and the guys did a song for them. They were surprisingly garang about it. I left straight after that to sing with The Mendicants - we were doing performances and individual valentine's day dedications the entire day. Had a 1.5 hr nap in the morning, a lunch break and a 4 hour break in the afternoon/evening - took another nap after dinner. I did a count - we'd done about 18-19 performances and a total of 31 songs by the time we ended at 11pm. I was actually quite surprised when I added up the number...

It was fun though. Especially the individual dedications - the people we sang to were all so delighted and surprised, it was great to see their reactions. We also sang at the Facebook HQ in Palo Alto and at a few dorms.

A few photos:

That's (from left of picture) Jai, Joey and Lance - we were practicing outside the Facebook HQ before going in


Inside the Facebook HQ lounge. The chinese guy with the black jacket in the foreground is an ex-mendicant who now works at facebook. He sang the solo for Brown Eyed Girl with us - quite cool. :)


A few of us biking - our jackets tend to look like wings while we bike if we don't button them up. Picture a bunch of 12 guys all dressed like that biking together. It's quite a sight.


Another picture of our well-dressed biking gang


We also found a gigantic fruit that smelled and tasted (when we eventually opened it) like a lemon. Possibly a pomegranate too. Or a grapefruit. Whatever it was, it was huge:


And this is what it looked like when we opened it. Look how thick the skin is!



I had such a good sleep wed and thu nights, prob because I was quite physically tired after wednesday. Don't have too much work for the weekend - mainly a music theory assignment and IHUM reading.

OH! I got an A- for my first IHUM paper!! Praise The Lord!! :D Got it back on thursday. Also submitted my Econ paper for a regrade on Thursday. I hope I can get at least a couple more marks, it'll probably help my grade. :) Whatever it is, I've done what I can. So no worries. =)

It's going to be an interesting weekend. Meeting a friend of my dad's for CNY dinner tomorrow night, then on Sunday I'm going up to Christian City Church San Francisco for Pastor Phil and to visit Barnabas, a Singaporean friend who works in SF and goes to c3sf too and who tore his tendon skiing a week ago. He invited some of us over to his place to finish CNY goodies but we wanna cook for him since he's on crutches (I think). Monday is completely free besides Chi Alpha Bible Study Leaders' Meeting - I don't think I'm going skiing with Pearline. Too rushed and would be quite tiring. Then again, we'll see how it goes. :) Whatever it is, I'm DEFINITELY sleeping in tomorrow (Sat) morning. *grinz*