Redang was great. Boat ride there was not cool. And sunburn wasn't cool either. Overall, it was good.

Left hall in the evening to have dinner with the rest of the group at Bugis. Bummed around before going to Golden Mile Complex to bum again. After much bumming, we finally boarded the bus and were on our way to Kuala Terengganu. The highway was okay until we reached Yong Peng, where we went on to the trunk road. The bus driver was driving like a mad man, negotiating corners at high speed, with lights that gave a visibility of at most 5 meters. I decided then that it would be better to go back to sleep. Ignorance is bliss.

We reached KT at 630AM with, I think, 2 hours of sleep. Bummed even more before having breakfast and going over to take the boat across. This is where the totally uncool boat ride comes in. I wonder why I can't take boat rides, but I am perfectly fine with flights. Can't stand the waves. So while the rest were enjoying themselves playing cards in the boat, I was busy concentrating to stop myself from puking. If the trip was another 15 minutes more, my breakfast would have come out already. Just like a guy from another group on the same boat.

So, to make a 3D2N trip short, everyday was snorkling, diving, swimming, a bit of kayaking, karaoke-ing and eating. Food was good, much better than comm hall food. Yum. And Oliver has been crowned the Redang Idol for this season. All the others pale badly in comparison to him. Bought a t-shirt from a souvenir shop there too. Decided to buy a cheaper t-shirt after deciding that the more expensive glow-in-the-dark one was not worth it.

Too lazy to type anything. Reached Singapore in the morning at about 8AM, in time to join all the factory workers and students in the mad rush across the causeway. And some guy up front of the coach was snoring for a good one hour. Not just any snore, it was the LOUDEST snore I have ever heard in my life. Had a tough time sleeping.

Here are some photos:

My Photo Album
Ris' Photo Album
Ah Joo's Photo Album
Ah Siau's Photo Album

Had a dinner meeting with the batch before mine, e.g. hj, val, yc, perd, etc. Dinner was at Marche, and I got off with a salmon sashimi appetizer. Yummy. This was followed by some salmon salad. Don't ask me why fish again, because I have no idea why too. Haha. Just decided to have that on the spot. And sure enough, I got hungry after a while. Luckily, we decided to have desert at NYDC, which was really filling. Stuffed me up to the max. After talking more, got back to the hall thanks to the ever-reliable blue volvo.

And now, here I am again. Back in front of the computer. Bumming. Think I'll have an early night, wake up early, print my thesis and settle everything once and for all.

Check this out: Teachers do badly in first PTK test

A lot of conspiracy theories flowing out now. But one thing is for sure... we all now know how sad our education system really is.

Just watched the news about the case of the priest on TV. Pleaded guilty and he has been sent to jail. In an interview with him, he said he is happy for the support by the other priests and church goers. I wonder why on earth are the rest of the community still supporting him when he has already been sentenced. Why support a person who has been proven guilty of embezzling money from their own church. And not only a few dollars, millions of dollars. These people are weird. They'll do anything in the name of religion. So I guess if I stole money and state out loud "I am a Christian/Catholic!", I will have this throng of Christians/Catholics support me all the way to the jail. Cool, I like this.

This reminds me of a story I heard about a very successful business woman who owned many stores and was nominated, or won, a prize of being business woman of the year. Something of that sort. Apparently, in her church, she was hailed as a heroine. However, when her company went bust, the church refused to be associated with her.

I really don't know what to say about the church when I hear of these stories.

Just got back from another round of karaoke, which I think will be our final round of karaoke at this place. Although the music is okay, they are kind of outdated. The latest song I saw was by The Calling - Wherever You May Go, which I crooned to perfection of course. Haha. And I also realized that I somehow always pick difficult songs to sing, like Bryan Adams, Elton John, Scorpions, Meatloaf, and the likes. Except for The Calling. No wonder I was not a tenor in choir.

Redang will be next week, and Eric, his significant other and Oli, coincidentally, will be coming to the same resort during the same days. They decided against going with the rest of the group. Not surprised, because I didn't really see Eric and co. as part of the CE gang anyway. So, will be one big happy family at Redang.

Now that exams are over, mother nature decided to let it rain. Almost got caught out in the rain when I was out. Finally decided to grab a couple of ink cattridges for my printer, and some blank CDs. Got a pair of swimming trunks too, since my old one is really rotting away. Got a normal one like my old one... these new ones are too revealing for me. I'm shy...

At night was spent with the Feenix photoshoot for their calender. I wonder what was I doing also, especially since I never was in Feenix at all. Where did their photographers go? Okay, I told them that this Friday would be the last one from me, after which their photography head will be taking over. Phew. Each photoshoot takes at least 2 hours. So yesterday, we made off to the administration building at 10PM, and I finally got back to my room at 430AM, just in time to see the Deportivo player get sent off.

And now, I'm busy burning CDs after waking up at 12PM. Gotta get my body alarm clock back in order again...

What made me so worked up yesterday night? Everything started fine, watched some EPL highlights, followed by Road To Perdition. Hmmm... oh yes, I remember now.

First, started with my chat with a certain someone through MSN. Time to apply for jobs now that exams are over. But I have to be prepared for rejections. Job application rejections are real bad. And I do not know how it's like. Really. But, I have gone through rejections before. Like, in all my applications. Almost all of them did not contact me back. One of them refused to give me an application form. So yeah, maybe the person's form of rejection or how the person handles rejection is different. But, hey, I also know what it is like. So don't come telling me "No. You do not know what rejection is like. I do."

At that point, I was already quite irritated, but hey. Exams are over. Don't let a small thing like this get to you dude! Go out and have fun! You're right man, when was that supper that Long asked me? Oh, it's now. Okay, let's go bum at comm hall. About to leave when a nieghbor asked me to wait for him. But hey, the whole group of people are waiting already. Another neighbor's backside got so itchy that he already went all the way downstairs. Okay, I'll take your order. What's it? Uh huh...*jot jot*... Ok, one packed fried rice and a bandung to go. Got it.

And off I went. While lining up, everything was fine. Then when it was my turn, neighbor appeared. So I ordered his stuff and mine. When his food came, apparently it turned out that he didn't want it packed. Then he was coming up with shit like "Oh, you all don't want me to eat with you all is it, want to pack my food. Hahahahahaha *deep breath* *silence* hahahahaha (the copyrighted hyenia laugh)" And one top of that, the Tasty Corner aunty was asking if I still wanted it packed or not. And knowing how pathetic my Mandarin is, I had some difficulty in telling her quickly. Then neighbor said ok leave it. By now, I was already quite pissed. Then came the hammer blow. "I didn't ask for bandung lah. I think you were thinking one thing, listening to another. Ahhahhahahaha (you get the idea) Next time can pay attention or not. Kamon... kakakamon... Hahahahaha" What the FUCK man! You're saying I heard you wrong? You ever thought that maybe you could have been wrong? And have you got any idea how bloody irritating that laughter is? Maybe you should record it down and listen to it some day. So with the half made bandung, I had no choice but to take it instead. And again, the aunty was asking if I wanted, and my slow response made things more irritating. Damn, I almost wanted to smash his face in. Good thing that Rohana and Wanying were there to calm things down a bit. Blood was boiling by then.

And it turned out my porridge was friggin' hot. And Eric was being irritating again... telling me not to be a wuss and take the whole thing down. Trying to calm my nerves, I just ignored him, and continued eating. Yum. Then Mee Ling started complaining that I am slow. Dammit, enough complaints about me being slow already ok! I've had enough from four years of eating with neighbor and Oliver already. I know I am slow. Can't you see this steaming hot porridge in front of me? And neighbor came up with his brilliang idea of putting ice into the porridge. I just chose to ignore him. So I just snapped back at her, which by then, everyone knew I was kinda pissed off.

So, conclusion of this whole drama, is that I'm sorry to Eric and Mee Ling for snapping at them. It was the result of all the built up frustration exploding out in one event. If you guys want to blame someone, blame neighbor and MSN chatter. Haha. Nah, just forget it. But I'm glad this happened too. Because next time, when I'm enjoying myself in my new place, I can look back at this and not feel so guilty about it.

Last paper ended at 7PM.

What now...?

Eric was irritating today...

Just came back from the last time I will be studying in RH library. And also probably the last time I will be studying in Central Library, though it may still be too early to say that. I've read through my notes so many times that I am so sick of it already. Gone through the tutorial questions, which are effectively past year papers too. Bored stiff... so I decided to watch School of Rock, which is a really cool movie. Really makes me want to pick up a guitar and learn how to play... which was what I said two years ago. But look what that went.. nowhere. Haha. I shall shelve that idea then.

Going to Redang next week. Need to go run more to lose that pouch. Also, the rest of the hall will be going one week after us.

More trouble with the Malaysian NS programme. Gangfights, trauncy, sexual harassment... all part and parcel of Malaysia's youth I guess. What else is new? Except this time, they are all centralized at camps, instead of being spread out all over the country. What they need to do now is to send of them to convict one of them. That will make their balls drop. Or, if the NS programme is under the military (is it?), then court martial the buggers. Instilling discipline, inter-racial mixing... I don't see that happening.

And more crap happening in RH library. Very crowded today. But I still managed to find a seat for myself to continue with my studying. After four years of spending countless of hours there during exam time, I have several suggestions to make:

1. Remove the damn law journals and books. Nobody reads them because (a) they are locked up, and (b) they are useless.
2. Replace the curtains. The colors is too dreary, makes the place feel glum. Or if RH is really poor, then wash those curtains. I don't think they have been washed since I entered this place.
3. Paint the walls, prefarably with lighter colors.
4. Remove that stupid counter at the entrance with that obsolete computer and the I-doubt-it-is-working OHP. It is just taking up space.

Apart from that, those people from a certain country that shall not be named were at it again. The same bunch of people that I had to tell to shut up the last time I went there. And again, they were at it, talking and making a whole load of noise. And they left their drinks to ferment on the table. No wonder the whole place stank. I'm going to central library tomorrow. No thanks, RH library...

I hear thunder. The sound of hope...

The last supper, as we called it, went great. It was good to have everyone, well, almost everyone, to come together and have a nice meal and chat for a while before we all go our separate ways. So, in the end, the number of people were:

1. Yours truly
2. David Wong
3. Chin Hooi
4. Wanying
5. Rohana
6. Larry
7. Kiat Tiong
8. Eric
9. Desmond
10. Ris
11. Junda
12. Frank
13. Ah Jin
14. Ah Long

The guy at the prata shop was chatting with KKT about the scores tonight and betting. Somehow, he found out I am an Arsenal fan. Long too. Then we got substandard service. Bloody Manure fan. Haha. And he said I only support champions. How ironic. To all readers out there, I have been following Arsenal since 1996. Why 1996? Because Bergkamp is God. Yeah he is. Actually the reason why we decided to have the supper yesterday was because Chin Hooi is gonna be off to Spain tomorrow to play for floorball for Msia. Not bad... so good luck to him, and Wen Ho too, our number 1 keeper.

So now a reality check. Two (2) more days until my last paper, and I was back in the library today. And later off to RH library. Too damn hot to do any studying. And heard a funny story from my namesake-Lee. Apparently there was a fight at NTUC Clem today... between two old men. Yup, you heard it. They must have been gangsters who grew old. I always knew Clem was a hangout place for retired gangsters. Luckily I'll be out of this neighborhood. Nowhere is safe anymore.

Study...

Just finished four episodes of Taken today, each episode being 1 1/2 hours. Good show, although a bit draggy at times.

Time to study. Three (3) days remaining...

Alright, 2 papers down, and the last one awaits me on Tuesday. So now it's Saturday afternoon, and it's the calm before the storm. The storm being the damn exam. Don't feel like moving a muscle now. Really tired. Almost overslept this morning. Although I set my alarm clock at 7AM, I just switched it off and went back to bed. Luckily I woke up at 745AM on my own. That was a close one! Never again!

Yesterday was library day again (what else is new). Went there early, at 815AM. Was supposed to be there at 8AM, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Before I leave NUS, I have to be the first person to the library at least once! Last chance will be on Monday. Who's with me?!? Yesterday was also Shaun's birthday. Did not know that until we reached back hall and he was promptly stripped at the takraw court. Thought that these maniacs were on a rampage after their heat transfer paper, I quickly ran off to my room first. KKT was complaining at dinner time about how come Shaun only got stripped at takraw court. Not counted, he says. A lot of air coming from someone who wasn't stripped during his birthday. After Eric got stripped, and now Shaun, it is high time that KKT gets stripped.

So, this is my last weekend as an undergraduate, and how do I feel? No difference whatsoever. I'll probably bum a little bit more, watch some episodes of Taken, before I take my notes out and begin mugging for my Tuesday paper. My last paper, so gonna put everything into it.

Oh yeah, my application has been KIV. I hope that doesn't mean bad news. Maybe I have been put on the waiting list to be together with other people who are coming in the next batch of people. That means meanwhile, I will have to go keep applying for jobs again. Think I'll go give tuition instead while waiting for this interview and other interviews. Not going to place too much high hopes on this post. Not good to, because when there are expectations, there will be disappointment. And I have had enough of those in my 23 years of existence.

Going out for Fong Seng tonight for supper. Can't take it anymore. Anyone else coming? Give me a ring.

Just to tell all my ardent fans out there that, yes, I am still alive. No, I have not been kidnapped. Busy busy, exam in 8 hours. Will talk more after the paper.

Four (4) days and counting

Another day in the library today. This time, I was supposed to leave at 915. So, I duly woke up at 815, and opened my door to go wash up and brush my teeth. However, I felt quite tired, so I decided to lie down for a few more minutes. Few more minutes turned into one more hour. So, went late. And apparently, everyone walking past my room could see my sleeping. How embarassing.

Library was quite productive today. Managed to get a lot of work done. However, there was this girl sitting at the table in front of mine, and sitting facing my direction. Wow. I like! And she had a motorbike helmet!! WOW!!! I like even more! And I noticed she did not leave her table for lunch or dinner. Maybe she's on a diet. Or I should have offered to have lunch with her. Haha. Maybe she'll be there tomorrow.

Still no news about my request to postpone my interview. Wonder what's going on. Shall call them tomorrow to find out. Hope they didn't think "Okay, heck this guy".

Phew, just spent the last 2 hours downloading movies and TV shows, all ready for the big marathon next week after my exams. Took 10 Gigabytes of my harddisk space. Not much left anymore. Six (6) days and counting....

Hooray! I just received an email asking me to attend the second round of interviews. For those of you who have been following me, you should know what I am talking about. Second round will take 2 days... one day for aptitude test, next day for situational tests and interview. Unforunately, I will be sunbathing in Redang at the times that they asked me to go. So, I just sent an email telling them that I won't be in the country. Let's see how things go from here.

Library day today. Tomorrow, a new library day beckons. Seven (7) days and counting....

Second paper over, another two more to go. Law paper was actually quite okay. Not too difficult, but quite tricky. Some important phrases that need to be taken note of. If not, the entire answer will be wrong. For example, mistake or misrepresentation, volenti non fit injuria or contributory negligence. And more of the likes. So, that's all for law. Been fun while it lasted. Most important lesson was not tested in the exam: misrepresentation. So from now on, never ever ask me stuff on soccer teams and better. Or, I think I better add in a disclaimer somewhere on this website.

Going to take it slow tonight, a little bit brain dead from the exam a while back. Just watched one episode of The Apprentice at the self-proclaimed law grandmaster's room. Not a bad show actually. The background music definitely adds a sense of urgency in the show. Also, I guess we can learn some things about the corporate world and how to carry yourself to look good too. Definitely many tips for upcoming interviews (I hope). Which, may I add, I still haven't been called up to any interviews. Sad.

Neighbour is singing Beyond songs again. He was singing Beyond songs when we told him about the accomodation too. I guess it says something about the paper just now. Hmmm...

So another day, and another day of house searching. Today took us to a condominium near Lakeside. It was pretty okay, a mansionnete with quite a lot of space. However, there were a few problems about the place. Firstly, the fourth room, the maids room, is downstairs. It's tiny, it has pipes running through it, and when you open the door from the room, you see the back of the kitchen with a washing machine there. The person living there (Oli) will be quite depressed after at most half an hour in the room. Also, the place was in quite bad shape. The people living there, some students, aren't exactly very neat. Also, the price was a bit steep. So we decided to give it a pass.

Next, a HDB approved unit at Yew Tee. 17th storey, and a 5 minute walk to the MRT station. So location wise, good. Except that it is at Yew Tee, which we can't do much about also. But, the place is a proper 4 room unit, with an extra maid room. Comes with quite a lot of furniture, except for beds. But, won't be a problem. The place was very well taken care of too. The master bedroom is huge, at least half more the size of a SD in hall. The other three rooms are also big, much bigger than the single rooms in RH.

In the end, after much discussion, we decided on this unit instead of the house at Kovan. First of all, it is much nearer the MRT station. Secondly, it is very much cheaper. In fact, it is very cheap. Third, it was new and clean. Fourth, it is a flat, so not much cleaning to do, which I think will be very important to Long. So, this is it. Yew Tee it will be. Actually not exactly Yew Tee. The road name is CCK. Wonder why they call it Yew Tee. Paid a deposit already, and going to settle everything by Tuesday.

The agent was very nice. She took us around, gave us very honest opinions, filtered off a lot of options based on our requirements and preferences. Was able to bargain well with the agent in charge of the Yew Tee unit too. If anybody wants to get in touch with her, just let me know.

Till then, it's back to law.

P.S. Forgot to mention what the agent at Yew Tee said about me. She said that I remind her of her NEICE... same kind of smile and with dimples (I do NOT have dimples). Hmmm.. if she looks like me, then she must be a babe! An intro won't hurt either. Haha.

Hoorah. First paper of the exams ended this afternoon. Was not bad, but I couldn't answer one very basic question. I just knew that I will overlook something like this, and sure enough, it happened. But overall, I think I did pretty okay.

After that, four of us went to check out some places for us to move out to. One house was at West Coast Road, which totally sucked! First of all, the house next door was demolished and was going to be rebuilt. This will give us a lot of mess, dust and noise. And I know all about it after the construction of the car park next to Block 5. And the "maid" room is totally not a maid room. A bed can't even fit into that little space. And it has toilet pipes running through it. Something like one of those laundry rooms in RH. The ground floor toilet is located OUTSIDE the house. How weird. Reminds me of those old houses where we will have to trek out of the house to the toilet hut to take a leak. So, this place is out.

Next place is at Kovan, which was at the other end of the world. On the way there, I realized that there is something about women drivers. The agent, who is a lady, drove in a weird manner: sort of riding the car, you know. Press the accelerator, release, then press again. Reminds me of how Val drives... I almost puked halfway. Another thing I realized was Oliver can't read maps! And I thought only women can't read maps. Looks like I was mistaken, because Oliver just disgraced the entire male population. Anyway, the house at Kovan is from a totally different planet compared to the one at West Coast Road. It is a 4+1 house, going to be fully furnished with TV, furniture, beds, hifi set, and even a swing in the garden. It has been renovated before, so it is really big. Best of all, it is really cheap for a house. Even cheaper than the one at West Coast Road. If possible, we would probably end up in this place. Nice... anyone wants to be our maid?

Now time to study law again. Before we go searching for other places tomorrow morning, again.

Ok, this blog will not be a soccer analysis page. But just a point to note: Arsenal is back with a vengeance. 1-2 down to win 4-2. Yeah baby!

Anyway, been to library the past few days to study. Wake up at 8AM, go to library until evening, go for runs... what a healthy lifestyle I'm living! Except for the fact that I am getting too little sleep. Even Tommy commented that I looked half dead this morning when I was about to leave my room. Despite waking up early and going to the library early to study, still have to minus off about an hour of sleeping in the library. One note of caution is never EVER lean back in your seat while studying in the library. It is a sure way to doze off. But must really control that. It is just uncool to have your head hanging back, mouth open, snoring away with girls around. Way uncool...

So, tomorrow will be the first test for this semester. And the first of four papers to mark the end of my university years. Tuesday was the last lecture of my university years and last Saturday was my last ever tutorial class. A lot of last(s) will be happening these few days. It's the beginning of a new era, leaving university. Don't know if I should be excited or scared. More of excited actually. Weeee.... I'm out of this rat hole.

Thanks to soccer, my plan to start studying in the library at 9AM failed miserably. As miserable as how Arsenal lost. Nonetheless, I did get my work started by 1040AM. Library starting to get very crowded these days. But I still managed to grab a seat . Didn't get much work done before lunch with Shaun's constant complaints about being hungry. Sheesh.

Tomorrow, I shall try my luck again. Will be in library by 9AM. Why am I studying law so much? Sigh. I'll still end up with a B. Maybe I should just keep watching movie after movie like someone. And also try to get a life.

Someone kill me.

P.S. With all the problems in Fallujah, I would like make a proposition. First, send in the A-10s and napalm the hell out of the godforsaken city. Then send in the Abrams with their guns blazing, and bring down all the structures. Next, send in the marines with their machine guns and semi-automatic to decimate those goddamn insurgents. Last, but not least, send in the flame throwers and torch those mofos from their spider holes and rat holes.

If that doesn't work, nuke the bastards...

Every run has to end, and so has Arsenal's unbeaten run to Chelsea for 6 years. Lampard's 51st minute strike followed by Bridge's late strike at 87th minute. For all the smooth passing and moves, Chelsea deserved the win. And this is coming from an Arsenal supporter. From every loss, we learn something new. This time, we learn that Arsenal needs a new goalkeeper. Lehmann parried Makelele's long range shot when he really should have held on to it, and presented a shot on target for Lampard who had no chance of missing from that range. Next, Lehmann came off his line, and was totally stranded in no-man's land when a cross landed at Gudjohnsen's feet, only for the Icelander to see his shot blocked off the line by Ashley Cole. And the sucker punch came at the 87th minute when Wayne Bridge hammered a shot across the goal past a flailing Lehmann (What the fuck!)

Match analysis now. What happened to the fluid passing of Arsenal in the second half? A lot of unforced errors, skewed clearances, mis-passes all over the pitch. Hmmm, I guess it is over-confidence. And Henry was removed for Bergkamp. For all of Bergkamp's brilliance, removing Henry is equivalent to suicide against Chelsea. And my point proven.

So, Arsenal's treble dream up in smoke within 4 days. Better luck next season I guess, with a bigger squad, and a new goalkeeper. A home loss to Chelsea... how embarassing. Sleep...

It is now halftime at Highbury with the Gooners leading Chelsea by a single goal, scored by Reyes deep into injury time. Some debate over whether too much time was added on by the referee, but hey... sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it goes our way. Great game we have on our hands, with both sides showing attacking flair, especially by Duff, Pires and Henry. Strangely, attacks from both teams came from the left. Bridge and Duff linking up well for Chelsea, and Pires and Cole combining well for Arsenal.

And the game is starting soon. See you guys in 45 minutes.

P.S. I will have to be at the library at 9AM. Sigh. WHY DID I TURN ON THE TV?? It's all Eric's fault. He screamed when Duff almost scored. Now I have to watch until the end.

What drives serial killers? Why do people kill? Let's not count cases where people kill to defend themselves. Let's instead talk about people who kill for the fun of it. What brings these people to do things that even animals don't do?

I know why.

It lets you feel that you are God. The ability to take someone's life, or to spare the person.

By the way, it has been ten years.

It's better to burn out than to fade away

Let's pretend we're at a coffee shop, and the topic of discussion is the most intriguing and most difficult to understand species: women.

So far, all the women that I know, or most of them, fall in one of these category:

(a) left me broken hearted;
(b) left me totally pissed;
(c) left me feeling indifferent;
(d) left me totally not giving a damn.

So why do I bother about women? I think I will remain a bachelor for life. No obligations, no promises to be kept, no extra money to spend. Live the life of a free man. And anytime I feel like getting a shag, there is always Changi Village or Geylang.

So, to all you females out there, which one are you?

With all the football action going on this weekend, I forgot to mention some other stuff that I did. Yes, there is more to life than football. So here is a recap:

Friday evening, after tea, Oli, Larry, Dave and I went over to Queensway to get a birthday present for Eric. We had already decided to get a Manure jersey. The black away jersey. It is actually quite nice, but like any other jersey, it gets hot pretty fast. So, I made myself useful by being the model to make sure that the size we got would be right. Got a size L, only to find out it was too big for Eric. I rest my case.

And on Saturday, I celebrated my last ever tutorial in NUS. It was an end of an era. After 4 years of going for tutorial classes, that was the last of them. And it was interesting because Prem decided to join us this time. And he also decided to steal the limelight from the other dude I mentioned in a previous post. The only difference is that Prem brought up important points, while the other dude only made other people feel stupid. Normally, it is these people who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. After tutorial, I made a mistake that I lived to regret: going for a talk for international students. Well, alright, I did learn some new stuff and I also did clear up some doubts. However, it was definitely not worth 3 hours! And out of the 3 hours, 1 1/2 hours was spent sleeping. To kick things off, we had Prof Tan Teck Koon, the head of OSA, to give us an inspirational farewell note. "Always be humble, but remember that you are graduates, and the NUS degree has very high value", "At interviews, don't be arrogant, but don't be too quiet as well". Full of contradictions. Some other stuff I learnt, which may be quite useful to readers out there: you need to obtain permission from MOE to study post-graduate programmes overseas. If it is not under scholarship, then you gotta pay them a deposit as well. If an ad says that they only want Singapore PRs or citizens, do not apply. That just about cancels out half of our already depleted number of choices. And, perhaps the most important point, there is almost no way of trying to squirm ourselves out of the tuition grant bond. Yes, they said if after one year, you can't find a job, and you have proof that you applied for positions and got rejected, you MIGHT get a chance to get the bond cancelled. But, very low odds I think. More likely they will tell you "Tough luck, try again".

Yes, and that is the end of my exciting weekend. The entire Sunday spent studying law, which I am about to stop soon. Enough law for one day. Enough Metal Slug 4 also...

Oh yes, I forgot to bitch about my law class. This semester, we have an extra 11 hours of lectures. Yes, that is right, meaning, four sessions of 12pm-4pm Saturday afternoon lectures, and another 3 hour lecture this coming Tuesday. First test is on Saturday, final exams is next Monday, and we are still having classes on Tuesday. What a lousy lecturer! If I had not filled up the module feedback form, I would have given a lot of negative points to my lecturer. And I remember he said in one of the earlier lectures "Don't worry... I have total control over time. I have been lecturing for 15 years. I am a veteran". A true lawyer indeed.

Wolves were sent to the slaughter house for the second week running, this time by Southampton, with a trashing of 4-1 at the Molineux. James Beattie started off with a goal in the first half, followed by the first goal for Southampton by Claus Lundekvam. However, Henri Camara had the visitors worried when he struck to bring the score to 1-2. However, King Kev put the game beyond Wolves with two strikes right at the end of the game.

With a goal and an assist, Beattie must surely be staking a claim to be considered in Sven's plans for Portugal this summer. In any case, even without the goal, Beattie MUST be picked ahead of Heskey. Heskey sucks.

And so, my predictions were right. Beattie, Phillips and co DID deliver, and I earned 13 dollars. My betting days have kicked off with a winning start! Haha. I think I'll just bet once in a while. A little tip for all you readers out there: take any team that is going up against Wolves. Even if it means Man U. Yeah, Wolves is quite bad.

Second meeting between these two sides in a week, this time at Villa Park. It's the FA Cup semi finals, and Man U is without Ruud, while Arsenal is without Henry. Toure should have put Arsenal ahead within 3 minutes when he missed a header 2 feet out of an empty net. Not really empty because Carroll recovered very well. Then Pires missed a great chance with a lousy header after Bergkamp sent a cross in. This was followed by Silvestre's handball in the area which went unnoticed. And then, in Man U's only good move of the match, they scored with a typical Scholes goal: a rembat from the edge of the box.

Second half started the same way the first half did, with Arsenal doing all the attacking. Again, chance after chance going to waste. Then, substitution time, Aliadiere off for Reyes, and Pires off for Henry. For the next 10 minutes, Arsenal was attacking all the way, but just could not find a way through the Man U defence, which played quite well, although Silvestre still sucked. And, again, he went away unpunished with another handball in the area. Then, it was Kanu on for Edu. With Bergkamp, Reyes, Henry and Kanu, Arsenal was still unable to break down the Man U defence. And I repeat: Silvestre sucks.

Overall, not exactly the performance of champions by Man U, but was still enough to win the game. Poor finishing by Arsenal let them down in the end. So, this is not the year of the treble. It was a long shot after all. Perhaps a double? We'll see...

Decided to use VPN to connect to the internet instead of my old method of logging into NUSSTU. In case some of you haven't noticed, it is the damn NUSSTU that really slows your computer down. It takes forever to load programmes, such as IE or MS Word. I was already on the verge of formatting my harddisk. Luckily, I decided to give VPN a try. However, I noticed that I always get disconnected from VPN after a few hours if I don't touch my computer. Not sure if it is just my computer or everyone has that same problem.

Bought my first Score! bet today with Dave Wong. My bet was on Southampton to beat Wolverhampton at the Molineux with odds of 2.30. So, Beattie, Phillips and co., please don't let my 10 bucks go to waste.

Just had another round of Final Year soccer. Due to overwhelming number of final years from Block 5, I was "exported" to block 6 instead, where the players from the team that got trashed last week (eric, des...) decided not to come down. Although the first few games were deja vu, we finally got our act together and managed to go on a 5 or 6 game unbeaten run. Nice. Although I still haven't scored my first final year goal. Dammit... Can't expect too many goals from a central defender though.

KKT's birthday was today but he still came down. However, after a few reminders of "KKT, take it off" and "KKT, we'll celebrate later", we decided to run off instead. Although he escaped today, I doubt he will last long, especially with exams coming, and the horde of barbarians e.g. shaun, avneesh and co. are just itching to hunt down these elusive birthday boys.

I'm a slacker. I just woke up.

Having said all those, I guess there are several other things to be thankful for. For example, the fact that I have a university degree. Although it is STILL by NUS, but it is still a degree. A friend of mine once told me, before entering university, about how he used to help out at an old nursing home. He said that when the old people asked him what he does, and he said he is entering university, they always get impressed. I say "always" because, according to him, they always forget and keep asking him. Haha. But I digress. Point to note is that, although some may view this as inferior or crap, others may view it as a blessing. I guess one way to console myself is to look at the latter view.

Also, the fact that I have a roof over my head is another thing to be thankful for. My trip to Europe really opened up my eyes on this situation. London is really a place of the rich, as well as the homeless. There was one incident in Warsaw, where I saw a small girl sitting at the top of a flight of stairs leading down to the basement mall. It was drizzling but she was begging in the rain. Then, this late 20-ish guy in a suit walked past, and gave her his bread that he just opened. The little kid got it, looking kind of surprised, and scooted off to another flight of stairs. I followed her and saw her give it to her mother who was begging at another flight of stairs with a toddler in her hands. Yups, it is scenes like this that make us feel real thankful.

And let's not forget my parents. Sure, they have put a lot of pressure on me, especially on education. But at the end of the day, I know that it is for my good. For example, despite barely watching any X-Files, having to sneak out my room to watch Friends, getting screwed for watching Air Force One when I should have been studying, it is times like these that really brought me to where I am. My dad also drove me to school every day, making an effort to leave the university to make sure I get to school on time. Mind you, most of my classmates walked to school or took the school bus. So, yeah, it was kind of embarassing to be "chauffuer-driven" in a Volvo to school in front of my friends. But, perhaps the biggest contribution my parents gave me was the fact that I turned out the way I am. I know of many people who have fallen by the wayward. But, I'm sure that all the caning and disciplining bore fruit in the end. I wonder how I will bring up my kids in future. Sometimes, I think what my parents did, so that in future, I might be able to emulate them. I once joked with my mum that in future, she will have to look after my kids. However, she said that she doesn't want another round of raising kids, instead, she will spoil my kids.

I guess once you look at the big picture, you realize that small matters, like whether you get 2:1 or not, or if other people are disappointed or not, doesn't really matter. In fact, long time ago, getting a degree was already a big thing. But, today, grades matter. Er, I think I'm contradicting myself. Never mind. I think I will just take this as a minor blotch in my life that pales in comparison to the other good things in life. Stories for my grandchildren... "hey kids, did I tell you about the time I didn't get 2:1, but instead, joined activities, played CS, TRIED to build up my muscles?" Should make great story telling sessions.

Also, at the end of the day, I always tell myself that, in terms of economics, you can't win everything. Sure, some people can. Either they are lucky, they are gifted, or they have some divine powers that are working behind the scene. Unfortunately, I fall in neither category. So, I have to trade off. And if that means that I have to trade my 2:1 for a 2:2, but instead, have a great circle of friends, a memorable university life and many happy moments, I will gladly do it all over again.

Great way to end off my first day of studying.

Goodnight.