In Peru

Hey folks im in Peru!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I reached safely in Lima, didnt like the city. Polluted and lots of poor kids trying to sell you sweets for money. However food was nice, too bad no pictures for now cos this is not my computer. will post super alot when i get back.

Then this morning we took a flight to cusco, one of the most beautiful places ive seen. Every thing is so tribal and like what you see in the pictures... The old women are short and dark and wrinkled and carry babies in a sling and are dressed in colourful garb. but we felt bad taking pictures of them and not paying (never ask tehm to pose though)

Shopped for ethnic stuff, am very happy. Yet very sad at the same time. I guess this place has touched me in a way that will change the way i see things, or at least keep me grounded to the values that i hold dear. And yes, i shamelessly admit that i embrace the power of the tourist dollar, to further my personal growth.

Ok i shouldnt be on for long, merry christmas everyone i love you all. And happy new year too, ill be treking in Machu Picchu the day after. I love cusco!

Hasta luego, mis amigos y mi familia.

4 hours

destressing before i go to bed. i dont worry too much about mid east. i worry about spanish... anyway i thot i was not gonna go to bed, but that might screw me over so i'll catch 2 or 3 hours of shut eye.



thanks, G for helping me focus on prepping for middle east. i hate my body's response to stress, and its living up to a group deadline that keeps me from zou huo lu muo-ing.

Good night everyone, my day of reckoning tomorrow. And i hope i remember enuf spanish to survive in Peru, half of them are already there waiting for me, the late bird haha.

Can't wait to see you darling! 20 days more till i see you again!

13 hours.

13 hours to my first paper tomorrow morning and i feel like i don't know shit. screwy screwy screwy. I wish i didn't let things go so easily. I wish i could stay hungry, stay foolish. I wish i the results from the finals didnt matter. I wish i knew what i was doing.

On a lighter note, its 17 hours to freedom. and 48 hours to a flight.

Its christmas on sunday. And on saturday silent night.

2 papers to go, one spanish one middle eastern

i only wish that those papers could be adjourned.

Trying too hard to be something i'm not: Happy.

Less than 24 hours

less than 24 hours to my first paper. sigh. Looks like even Mamee monster cannot save me.

First paper

First paper on monday. I hope i get things sorted out, and ace this damn stats. Really need this one down pat to compensate for the possible atrocities that may be committed during the spanish paper. Got an A- overall for writing the essay, so i hope i average out a B+ for spanish, then 2 more As in Econ stat and World Cultures.

Then at least i can say, hey i do have brains cos i didn't need to die mugging for this. Then i know i'd be living the life i wanted to live, the way it should be.

Exams don't scare me anymore. Not until the 5 minutes before it begins, at least.

Welcome back darl i missed you. Can't wait to see you in California.

When the term ends

When the term ends, a bunch of guys finally take a foto with the people they've been living with for the past 4 months (almost).



When the term ends, i find that i haven't gone to the door as much as i should have. Bad class timing. This picture was artfully drawn by yihan aka ian



When the term ends, i recieve a christmas candy cane, and remember that i used to suck the ends of candy canes till they became sharp. I chewed mine so quickly when i got mine from Urmi (grace's roomie) i'd forgotten that it's been at least 10 years since my last candy cane, and there wasnt any cane left to sharpen.



and then i got inspired... Hehe Count KinFoola. Muahahha.



heh am talking to huishan now. its 6am, and she calls cos she misses me. =) she just got back from a trip to krabi, thailand. Maybe my destructive tendencies and irritable demeanour were due to the lack of her presence in the past week. i can't wait to see her in california, only wish she could have made it to peru too.

I realise i do want to try to put fotos on every entry, so i'll need a muse. and i may have found one... perhaps an unwilling one, but still a good one. =)

When the term ends, i realise that i find it hard to study when i dont have to go to class, or if i dont have deadlines for homework. once again, i fail to be the chaoest of chao muggers.

When the term ends, i stay awake at night and sleep in the afternoon because i have no classes to attend: thats the nightstalker in me.

Theres so much to do when the term ends. So much to feel. But then...

oh well.

Blog fever

A chair of despair
All frozen, for
The
Queen of Narnia
And her turkish delights
No Aslan in sight for
the next 5 months or so
just as the cold wind blows
and blows
just as i know
i don't know.

Ok so i removed minesweeper and freecell from my start menu. So its either surfing or working. I choose blogging. =)

K	Kinky
I	Insane
N	Naughty
F	Fun
O	Organic
O	Odd
N	Natural
G	Glitzy

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

do you think it suits me?

or

N	Nerdy
A	Adventurous
N	Natural
I	Influential
N	Nerdy
O	Old
O	Odd

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

Nerdy. ok gotta work. WHERE ARE MY MEMORIES!?!?!? (thanks em)

Thoughts before the finals

I've been thinking much nowadays, about what i want from life. I think about all the shit that we had to go through during JC, and realise that over here, things are actually much easier. I'm not sure if this has got anything to do with time wasted commuting to school, or ECAs, or self-imposed stress brought on indirectly by peer pressure. but perhaps it is easier to manage living over here than back in SG. I find that even with an exam tomorrow i can have the ease of mind to take some time to go for a run or perhaps watch a movie 2 days before. There's just so much more to living than existing for one sole purpose during a limited space of time. I realise that i admire nerdy asian geeks for their passion for grades and discipline in being the best in their field, but then if i were to be like one of them, i'd be totally missing the point of an overseas education. I will make sure my grades can make it though, despite having played 500 games of freecell in the past 2 weeks (after quitting dota). I guess some things really never change.

I'm happy i got out of my "end of year" mood. Generally grumpy and crazy. Irritating and obnoxious even. Glad it didn't cause too much damage. I've been having it since secondary school. Toward the end of the year i just become irritable and restless. Even during army days, so you can't say its cos of exams. Not too sure why, but i believe that guys have mood cycles too. Nothing so obvious as PMS but even then i'm sure guys experience a few hormonal cycles, of which when all the peaks/troughs coincide, a furious vengent monster is born... Maybe not a furious vengent monster, but you get the idea. So i think this happens at the end of the year for me. Not so nice.

I haven't looked at my middle east stuff for 3 weeks. Its been 3 weeks since the strike, and at the moment some of the GAs and TAs have gone back to lecture and recitation, especially the foreign ones cos if they didnt they would have been deported. nevertheless. AS you probably have guessed, the foto at the top was a foto of the strike going on outside bobst library.

We had dinner at the Grand Sichuan on the 10th for Cheryl's birthday.

The spicy beef tendon was good. The har gaos as well. Those were the things i remember best about the meal. Had some good tau foo also.

I managed to get free tickets for King Kong yesterday. OMG it was sooo good. It really puts matrix 2 and 3 to shame in terms of fighting. And of course, Peter Jackson being the director, expect to see beautiful shots of NYC and Skull Island, and many closeups between Beast and Naomi. She is rather hot, but thats a bonus to a movie which attempts to explore various themes, including the vileness of man and the generally destructive behaviour that our actions easily provoke, the concept of beauty, the relationship between beauty and the beast, among others. Rather good emotional play in the movie, Jack Black got some corny lines in the book to play. But fantastic effort for a serious role really. Despite it being true that i can't help but laugh when i see his face. All you ppl who are reading this: GO WATCH KING KONG!

Ok i'll end with a final thought: I think i need to do my take home test. Talk to you guys later. SO WHEN ARE YOU ALL GOING TO POST SOME MEMORIES OF ME? POST IN COMMENTS/OR TAGBOARD, THANKS!

its gettttinggg cccoldddd

now becos of the snow i have to have a snowy picture on top.. otherwise the snow effect wasted hor. Anyway thats yoo vin the korean girl in my stats class. her stats v zai and her notes v nice. considering i always fall asleep in stats class, she's been a real help =) Her bf studying in columbia, they meet every weekend. rather sweet i think, if only every weekend i could fly to california..

oh and the last picture is what i wore today in sub zero temperatures. one long sleeve thermal and one thin jacket (my black columbia one). v zai. and darling dont say i never wear the thermals and the hat hor.

Uma Thurman

Wah bloody hell. earlier this afternoon i heard she was filming one block away from my dorm so i went to check it out. they blocked the street... so i tried to go from the other side, then also got ppl chase me away =(

i just got back from class, and gabby just came and told me she was on her way back and no body blocked her so she went and saw uma thurman. and she had no camera so no paparazzi pictures today. sighz. Gabby also saw parker posey and had a chat with her. she was walking her dog. How come gabby gets to meet all the stars?

Speaking of stars theres a Korean singer at NYU. His name is Eddie, his songs not bad. If u want to hear, look for me at kinfoong1984@yahoo.com.sg thats also my msn addy and ill send to u when i have free time. his voice not bad, hes ok cute. Grace was disappointed he was ABK cos his voice is really good but she dun like ABK attitude. esp ABK guys, absolutely detestable.

No picture la! still read for what...
X(

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The power of pictures

So as you faithful visitors of my blog have probably noticed, i do like taking pictures. Even though my camera's not some super high tech Digital SLR or anything like that, or that i don't use fotoshop, i still have a fascination with pictures.

Pictures. Its about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. Its all a matter of focus. What are you looking for?





By the way, the 2 fotos above were taken along the same road 2 min apart. It was just a matter of perspective really.














I remember how in an essay called "Craftsmanship" by Virginia Woolfe she asserts how language is useless because it is inaccurate, by virtue of the things we attach to the meanings of words. But then isn't it the same for pictures? I see Charlotte in a pose like that, and i'm sure there could be a million things we look at in the picture. Or maybe the road with the sun in my eye. What does it make you think about? I thought it was fantastic how i'd almost never seen the sun shine that bright before. Or how someone decided to take a walk to nowhere, purposefully treading on virgin snow.




And happy birthday Cheryl. Glad we made your day! Feel kinda sad that in 3 weeks, I probably won't see you and ur roomies for another dunno how long. Will miss you guys.




And congrats Jackie, great show, great singing. How about American Idol next?

Happy 3rd Year Together Babe!

you know i love you

Snow

It snowed out the night before, a thin sheet of white glow, on the rooftops of the city. I peeped out of the window to see a flood of dim pink light in the murky distance, "a fog" said Maheep. I thought it should have been time, but Maheep's the resident NewYorker (in Long Island) and I'm the long staying tourist. The sun roused me from my sweet slumber, a bright mess of light rays showering the whole room with a warm glow. I glanced at the sight 11 storeys below my apartment, and i was right. It snowed at night in the East Village in Manhattan. The grey roofs were painted with a coat of white ice, shining in the warmth of the sun, which didn't happen to be too warm that morning. Nevertheless, I took a picture from my window of the spectacle that will soon cease to be a novelty to me. It snowed again last night, and again in the evening. I hungrily trudged towards "Wingz" through an imaginary field of white snow dressed in a long sleeved shirt, jeans and sneakers, feeling the wind on my face and the snowflakes falling on my skin one by one. Like little frost ants, each one took a bite as soon as it landed on my skin. Falling down from an indeterminate height, blown onto my skin from an indeterminate location, each posessing a unique crystalline shape, every flake of snow was an individual creation, every one possessing a life of its own. I chased the flakes with my tongue for a minute or two, watching as each frostie danced along with the cold wind and playfully dodged my tenacious tongue trying to touch them. And then i decided one cotton shirt was insufficient cover even for a commando, and i took refuge back in my humble abode, a pound of "Slam Dunk" (the hottest they've got) Buffalo Wings in my hand, and a mug of honey green tea on my table.

Just another update

Another busy weekend. Difference is, its saturday night and i'm doing something about it! Hooray! Bad thing is, i'm only doing something about it now. I should have started earlier today, but my body requested that i catch up on sleep. So i woke up only in time for dinner. Then spent some time with the Sg ppl, namely Soumi Grace Ian Cliff Xinyi and Cheryl. Watched serendipity. made me think alot about love and what its all about. Is there really that someone out there who's meant for you? I disagree actually, that there just might be that SOMEONE. Rather i believe it could be a number of Anyones, and maybe we get to meet one of the Anyones who eventually becomes our Someone.

I've been thinking of contacting my RSS friends, people i knew when i was 7,8,9 years old. People like Elaine Ho, Gary Tan, Barry/Berry Soh, Gaston Ang, Goh Yifei among others. I saw gaston's profile on friendster, and an RSS friendster group, and am trying to find the people who once meant so much to me. Its funny thinking about how times have changed in the past 12 years. Who i was then and who i am now. What if i'd never gone to the GEP after primary 3? Would i have gone to RI? Would i have known the people that i have? Would i have got into GEP again? So many questions that cannot be answered. I only wish that back then they had the internet in common usage and that emails and ICQ were available. I remember emails entering the scene only in 95/96. So... All the people from 93 and before are merely images of my past. Fond memories.

I managed to contact Gary and we actually had a short correspondence of messages over Friendster, the long lost web service that brought many joys. I remember him as a skinny guy, one of the fastest in class. He doesn't remember me though. That made me realise once again that everybody has a different take on the things that happen around us. I had a change of environment, and i gladly hung on my memories of school in RSS. They didn't and their memories lived on, moved on, and were gradually modified. To me, RSS means long lost friends, football/running in that huge field, alot of chinese, buying erasers from the bookshop and being a good student. I'm sure i could have been outstanding in that school if i had remained. Yet probably to the others in class, RSS could mean good lifelong friends, power in the prefectorial board, great teachers and fond memories of the canteen. Though its been a long time since i last set foot in RSS, a part of me tells me never to forget that i was once a proud student of the school. I have made no contribution to the school or the students there for we were all too young, yet it has taught me much about life in my early years as a student. I received lessons about life from the school bus bully (who i did manage to contact too) to the teachers that shaped my perception of the world. Thanks, and thanks again. I only wish i could find all of you and thank you over lunch for being a part of my life.

Yes i should be working on my essay. Gotta rewrite my Progression 1 essay (aiming to Ace it) and work on my Progression 3 essay (ongoing in class). And then my stats stuff (linear regression). But this has been a good finger warming exercise.

Before i end, a belated RIP to wrestler Eddie Guerrero and footballer George Best. Though i never followed both of them enough to fully appreciate their dedication to their passion, they will be remembered for their contributions to their passions. Heroes. Ok enuf bulling. And btw who is JL who commented on my last post? ID urself to me please.. =) perhaps with a memory if not a name.

Which reminds me. To all you friends out there, here's a task for you. Write something that comes to mind when you think of me. The prevailing image or memories that come to mind. This is part of an effort to know myself better, by seeing myself through your eyes. Thanks everyone, and peace out.

Writing Woes, Mr Orwell.

Hey all,

Once again I find myself in a rut. Maybe its writer’s block. Maybe its just plain laziness. Either way, my work’s not done.

I wish I were more of the person I could be. That I could be a shining example of a person—someone who dared to be the best he could be; someone who braved the hardships of scholarly toil; someone who believed in a higher purpose in the greater scheme of things.

Perhaps I was not meant to be a student. I involuntarily doze off during class. Since secondary school, as far as I can remember, I have been training up for my position as one of the 4 great sleeping kings in 58th CTC Syndicate 4. Most memorably in Physics with Ms Fong (Lay Lian) and Chem with Ms Ng (Lai Har), whether front row or not, whether I had water to drink or not. My writing trawls off mid-word into an unintelligible scrawl of ridges and troughs, perhaps the signature of a man named nrmrnmrnmrnr_mn_. Believe when you see my Econs notes from JC. I fall asleep on top of a hill at SAF training ground while I ask the instructor a question. I take a micronap on my feet waiting for the traffic lights to change, only to wake up with everyone on the other side looking right back at me. I bang my head several times against the glass partition in sync with the train running on its rails in the MRT on the way to school as there is no place to sit and sleep. I’ve even fallen asleep during my A level Chinese paper. ‘Nuff said.

Perhaps I was made to prowl the streets of Baghdad with a rifle in my hand and a SBO round my waist. Perhaps I was made to feed bullets to virtual terrorists in de_dust, or survive on an income provided by the Mmmmmonsterkills that I get. Perhaps I was made with Wall Street trading in mind. Perhaps I was made with an affinity for teaching, especially the outdoors. Perhaps I was made for adventure racing. Perhaps I was made to sit around all day and slack and watch movies.

I’m not a great student, really, but I’m trying to be one. With discipline anywhere near the likes of the ‘shens’ we all know, and I’m sure I can make it somewhere, somehow. Just a quarter of Luke, or a fifth of Kiats, or an eighth of YangYang, and maybe I just might be someone.

Its 1am. Time to get on the job.