So the eminent professor said...

"If you cannot speak clearly, it means your mind is not thinking clearly." Sharp words, but true... and probably the main point I remember from attending a lecture under UST's Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). The speaker was a Professor Gregory Chow, Class of 1913 Professor of Political Economy, Princeton University.

What I've noticed here is that people could do so much better and save time if only they took a few seconds to consider what they said. In meetings or discussions, some tend to shoot off, only to dangle because they didn't have something solid as elaboration to their ideas.

My pet peeve, however, is people stating the obvious. Maybe I just prefer receiving succinct information as I am, too, frugal with my words. But stilllll... *insert Malaysian accent and raised eyebrow*... It raises the question of,"Where has your mind been all the time?"

Next, a brief write-up on my issue with self-confidence and personal branding: I'm happy to say that I've had a paradigm shift. I have to like myself before people can like me. And that's it. Equilibrium restored.

Finals are starting next week; subsequently, I'll be homeward bound. Will miss certan exchange students terribly though =/. Anyway, it's off to the library. When I'm done with my papers, I'll take you all on a tour of UST (yes, I realised I haven't done so =/).

Where I've Been

It's 12 degrees Celsius now. I'm wearing four layers of shirts and still feeling the cold nip at my ankles... literally!

I have nothing much to say. Been so busy that my thoughts run like a Maglev train. When I slow down, my ideas disappear =/. Some things off the top of my head:

1. I haven't gotten truly, madly, deeply... (take a guess)... angry with anyone or anything here. There are some situations though where I find that people could not get more moronic =/. Some don't have emotional intelligence at all, which shows when they ask questions. Come on... do your research. Bleh.

2. My groceries totalled $100 exactly today. Ran out of food and some toiletries; now I'm happily restocked.

3. I misheard the opening lyrics from Vertical Horizon's 'Best I've Ever Had' as,"So you've sailed away, in to a Greek sky morning..."

4. My apparel is in varying shades of pink. I have pink pajamas, deep pink socks (ok I took them out of the cupboard in the dark though), and red flip flops. Pink is not my favourite colour, but these woollies keep me warm so I care not =p!

5. I have SO MUCH work to do =/. And I detest the cold weather. It bites me to the bone =(. Me tropical woman.

6. I'm tired of being nice. Must regain my Zen mood.

7. Goodnight.

CAUTION: I Bite

This is me.
Every odd morning I wake up with my fists clenched and teeth gritted.
Every few nights I dream about missing a test, flunking a paper, or waking up late for class.

In reality, I wake up half an hour before any of my alarms.

This is not the life I wanted!!!

Going to hit the gym in a few hours' time to get all these negative emotions out of my system and regain my equilibrium.

Stamina baby stamina.

Not lucid, not nice, not pretty, not smart. It's time to put out that sign again...

CAUTION: I Bite.

Happy 301st Post to poisonkagero.blogspot.com!

Despite keeping a blog since I was fifteen, this is the only time I remember observing a timeline mark! So, here we are, passing the 300th mark since this blog kicked off in 2007. This could mean that I am actually very unproductive despite the McFlurry-like swirl of ideas in my brain!... 300 posts in about 2 years plus? Not exactly prodigious. Which is why I always wish I had a Blogger window that could download my thoughts into digital format. Well, not ALL of my thoughts. I know, it's a contradiction: a private blogger but hey, at least I don't shut off my blog no? =)

Anyway, for the required reminiscence on "how the blog grew" and other whatnots... this blog differed from my first in Tabulas in many ways. First off, I did a lot of experimentation on the layout and learnt loads of HTML. When HTML started to become obsolete and was replaced by XML, I learnt a little XML. (Seriously though, XML is the worst language in the world... so far. Can't make no head or tail o' it!) Thankfully, all those hours of poring over codes paid off as fellow bloggers started asking me for help in formatting and many a blog visitor has said they love my header... credits to the person who did the base image of the three very artsy belles. (I tweaked some of the background colours to form the Paddlepop-coloured cloud, tweaked more colours for more dramatic effect, and added in the words.)

Excuse me, I'm in a flippant mood now. It comes about after having to be serious. This brings me to my second point... the writing style! Despite occasional Scrooge-ish "bah, humbug!"-esque moments, I('d like to think) that the mood of this blog... and blogger is generally more light-hearted and definitely tongue-in-cheek than before! I am still trying to improve and define my style, which seems to lean more to the satirical. At the same time, I would like to write more academic pieces and essays, but fear not, dear readers, this will not happen until I Google and insert that "read more/hide" code. In XML of course -.- .

*By the way I hope that you noticed that the previous paragraph utilised green in honour of the leprechaun/impish spirit that this blogger possesses. (Eve, don't you miss your pest!)

The blog started with a bang as 'Almost Anonymous' came onto the scene and stirred up a ruckus among the readers. Let me slip in a note about being responsible and upfront while commenting online. Here's some of the drama for you:
Post-Birthday Blues

Sadly, due to time constraints, I wasn't able to weave as much stories as I did in the old blog. This story nonetheless prompted people online and offline to enquire if I was alright in the head =/. I started to take writing reviews on books, movies, and sites more seriously after I did these:
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Killers: Day and Age

To cap it off, one of the highlights of the blog was when Vince and I decided to play the game 'Real Men'. Click the following link for some funny and occasionally lame comments (mostly due to Kok Lin):
Real Men

That's a long enough entry... here's to better posts! Do let me know your opinions on this blog so far and ideas for improvement... we bloggers are suckers for feedback you know :). Till then.

Valleys and Hills

I'd been in a slight funk the last week. It's not like I'm breaking down whatsoever. Nick's right: this university never leaves us alone! (I like it, it's a very X-File-ish catchphrase!) Unlike being at home, you never get to log off. You don't get to go home and complain about your day LOL. Or maybe it's just me who feels that... well, I always try to stay pleasant and upbeat the entire day, and maybe it is wearing me out a little.

My current difficulty is with the system. Yes, it's the dreaded curve. I did fine for Management. Apparently, I've one of the higher scores for Political Science (though I still think I could've done better). Anyhow, it's hard to work within a system that values perfection over improvement. It's not enough if you get, say, a 56% for midterm and then leap up to 89% in the finals. That's a marked improvement, but not enough if you score less than your peers.

Perfection is a pain in the neck.

Someone said to me it's weak to cry about things other than familial matters. I've never been one to weep over bad grades; they've just been bitter pills to swallow and timely reminders to work harder and do better. Just as it was for Physics in STPM: I worked my way from a high C to an A-. I think I would weep over bad grades here though, because they are so closely tied to the fact that my family is pooling together resources and that I'm the first to study overseas on my father's side of the family.

Someone else said committing suicide is a stupid thing. We have a term in UST called "tiu mo ku". Its literal translation is "jump mushroom". This is because students, especially those from Mainland China, have committed suicide by jumping off the balcony at the Atrium, which has a mushroom-shaped "pintu gerbang" over it. Killing yourself is irrational, no bones about that, but in this environment, I think I can understand their predicament.

Anyway, I'm nothing near there!... so no worries =). It's basically me coming out of a dark cloud and back into the sunshine. It's just very very hard when only you can cheer yourself up.

... I've found my Superman
he inspires me to do better every day,
explore the world through our books and tactile experience.
I often feel overestimated, but I'm working on it.
I'll see you when I get there.


LABU essay. I'm out. I need more faith in myself. Note to self: Must book tickets for ZAIA in Macau! Vive Cirque du Soleil :)!

Funky or What!

One fine day in the middle of the night, I got to this site on enhancing long-distance relationships (I don't remember how I got there)! I surf the Internet sober, just to clarify the previous sentence. It's just that I've a bad memory regarding sources. One fantastic journalist I'll make... Maybe a tabloid writer would be better than serious journalism, but I digress.

Lovingfromadistance.com is this help site for those in LDR's (for the purpose of saving time we use the acronym!). Of course, it's a revenue-generating machine for the site owners, couple Frank and Michelle *insert cynical expression here*. I landed on "the 80 things for LDR couples to do" page and here are some... fascinating activities I found. Ok, they might be cute but... maybe because I'm not in one, I can't appreciate the value of such activities BUT I digress again. Here are some of the hmmmm? things... those in LDR might want to take notes though =)!

15. Getting a KissPhone. A contraption which allows you to send and receive kisses, which detects the pressure, suction force and dynamics involved with your kiss when you kiss the "lips" of the machine. Uh huh... *does the M with knitted eyebrows*

18. Get married... not for real though. You run through the line: proposal.. all the way to divorce if you like!

59. Hold hands. By that, they meant hold your partner's wax hand *freaky freaky alert!*.

Urk, even with the pretty colours, I still find the concept a little... unpalatable.

72. Clone yourself. Think X-rated and you'll get what they mean =/.

This is not to say that all the ideas were weird (at least to me, they were). One of the tips that I liked is no. 11: making a website together. Ok. That might be corny though. (Why am I typing individual ok's like how Kiwi does??) Others:

13. Read a book together! ...though it would be hard for me to find someone who'll read the same books as me =/.

38. Create a personal crossword puzzle. Don't worry about sweating brain power, it can be generated via this website.

52. Write your story. I guess this might help for people with bad/no memory =p!

77. Set goals for each other. This is a good way to motivate each other despite the distance.

Well, having said so, it takes extra effort for LDR's... so if it works, why not? Anyway, this is it for awhile... many more oddball posts on the roll :)! Till then, nastrovdye.

An Afternoon in Central

A delayed entry! A fortnight ago, I dragged Kok Lin to church. Our destination: The Vine in Central. The directions on the website seemed easy enough to follow. As you can predict, the opposite happened and we got lost in Central. We went in and out of buildings and random escalators.

This is the never-ending stairway. While riding it, we saw old alleys that could've been filming sites for HK movies.

Pretty red-bricked building. After walking around and FINALLY locating the landmarks as mentioned in the website, albeit misleadingly, we made it to The Vine in the last half hour of service. Oh well.

This, messieurs and mesdemoiselles, is a bus with no wheels! Excuse my primitiveness but I found the whole concept interesting. The bus runs on tracks. I wonder how the track routes run though, because that would mean an extra series of tracks besides the existing roads.

While looking for a spot to have lunch, we put in some steps on the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail. The trail includes places where Dr. Sun used to study and attend religious services etc. Must come back to explore more!

Noob attempt at photography. There are plenty of art galleries and curio shops in Central. They don't open on Sunday though. I can't wait to get started on sifting through the curio shop items! :)

Thanks to Kok Lin's local buddy, Enoch, we managed to navigate ourselves to....

...a Malaysian restaurant! So-called Malaysian, naturally =/. Somehow they can't imitate the good stuff back home.

Kok Lin's curry chicken thing.

Assam beef! :)

I liked this... perfect for Sunday afternoon picnics. Or reading the papers, like the man there.

Graffittists ftw! :) Will definitely be exploring the shops around Central soon.