Innocence Lost

Julian's World Cup Dream Team

2006-05-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

With the World Cup being only a few more weeks away, it’s time for the fantasizing to start. Yup, time to start pondering over my world cup dream team. I do this every time a major football tournament is around the corner, and wonder how nice it would be to fashion a team from the following stars. Here’s my pick of all the players who will be featuring (or are at least in the team list) for World Cup 2006:

Formation: 3-4-1-2

Goalkeeper:

Petr Cech

The Chelsea man is giant between the sticks. Great reflexes, a large frame and a commanding presence allied with a cool head are the attributes of this man. Furthermore, he communicates well with his defenders and has lots of top level experience playing with Chelsea. Undoubtedly mine (and many other armchair managers) first choice keeper. I would have chosen (Gianluigi) Buffon, but Juventus match fixing scandals made me think he might be not as good as the number of clean sheets suggest.

Defenders:

John Terry

This man is one of the meanest defenders around, not only in the English Premiership but also the world. Just look at the way he commands the back line for both Chelsea and England. (Rio) Ferdinand and Sol (Campbell) were first choice before he arrived, but now both of them have to fight for the last center-half spot in England’s defensive line. His timing in the tackle is immaculate, and his ability to score goals from set pieces will also benefit the team in tight situations.

Alessesandro Nesta

The rock of the Italian defensive line, Nesta is a calm and composed defender who rarely lets and attackers get past him. His strength lies not with the use of his body strength or crunching tackles, but rather with the timing of his interceptions and his ability to read and predict the movement of the ball. A class act who brings along loads of tournament experience at the highest level.

Carlos Puyol

Puyol would form the third defensive rock of my team’s backline. His tackling scares off many attackers from trying to pass him, and his aerial ability also negates the effect of having to deal with lots of crosses as a result of my team not having fullbacks to cover the ends of the pitch where wingers can roam.

Midfielders:

Patrick Viera

Viera would play the role of defensive midfielder in my team, covering the back three and also snapping up balls in the middle of the park and feed them to the forwards. Viera’s uncanny reading of the game make him one of the best ‘engine room’ midfielders in the world, and on his day, he is virtually unstoppable. His wide array of passing also allows him to play long passes and through balls directly to the strikers, and this can be useful especially in tight games.

Steven Gerrard

With Viera playing the role of holding midfielder, Gerrard would then be given the license to roam, as he does while playing for Liverpool. On current form, he is the best box-to-box midfielder in Europe, and his ability to hit shots from far out give the team an advantage once the ball starts to cross the halfway line. His vision for the pass also forces opposing defenders to have to clamp down on him before he unleashes that killer pass and this will free up space for other players.

Deco

Deco is probably the most unsung player at Barcelona, and his importance to the team is the fact that he can open up defences with his wide arrays of long and short passes, and he can also shoot from long range. His defensive qualities help to cover for the defence and prevent opposition midfielders from foraging into the team’s half of the pitch.

Juan Roman Riquelme

Previously unwanted by Barcelona, Riquelme has become one of the most feared midfielders in the world, due to his ability to spot the impossible pass. He controls play from the middle of the park and opposition defenders are usually slow to close him down as his movements may appear to be deceivingly slow and sloppy, but they usually find out otherwise, once the ball bulges in the back of the net.

Ronaldinho

Which dream team wouldn’t have this guy on their team? Probably an Argentinean one. Haha. Undoubtedly the best player in the world, Ronaldinho has the most dazzling arrays of skills, from feints, flicks, stopovers, dribbles, and many more to intimidate the most stingy defence. In any game, he is always one stepover away from extracting gold from cobbles. His mastery of dead-ball situations give the team another dead-ball specialist to confuse opposition defenders during dead-ball situations. They won’t know if it’s Ronaldinho, Riquelme, Gerrard or even Henry who will take the free-kick. Playing just behind the front two, Ronaldinho will be able to open up defences and his ability to pass the ball means Henry will get a humongous supply of goals.

Strikers:

Thierry Henry

The best striker in the world, and the second-best player in the world next to Ronaldinho. His blazing speed, dribbling and ball control render him untouchable when he is on the ball. The speed of his movement also render defenders unable to track him, and the fear he instills in opposing defenders as he marauds towards them is equivalent to having an additional striker in the team.

Andriy Shevchenko

AC Milan’s supreme marksman is one of the most clinical strikers in the world. His goals-to-chances ratio is one of the best in Europe, bettered only perhaps by Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o. This fox-in-the-box will complement the style of play of Thierry Henry, as they will both be able to play off each other, Shevchenko holding the ball up while Henry runs into space, or Henry finding that perfect pass while Shevchenko waits predatorially in the box.

Dragons Are Alive

2006-05-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

For the past two days, I’ve been reading this series called the Inheritance, regarding the adventures of a young boy called Eragon and his encounter with the race of dragons, long thought extinct from the world.

The story begins with how he found a dragon egg in the mountains, and when the egg hatched the dragon and Eragon formed a special telepathic bond that forever changed him and also the dragon. As the dragon grew bigger, hunters sent from the king came to hunt it down and capture it, for the king himself wanted to use the dragon to breed a new race of Dragon Riders, and hence crush the underground resistance movement that had already killed all of the Dragon Riders loyal to the king.

However, the story itself is too detailed to write down in a blog (it would be a disgrace to the writer) so it’s better if the book itself is read. I spent an entire day doing nothing else, only taking a break for lunch and dinner before resuming my readings and getting myself lost in the fantasy world of dragons, humans, elves and dwarves.

Now it’s got me thinking, what if I had a dragon of my own, and was able to fly around, upholding justice and maintaining law and order. In addition to that, I am able to cast magic spells and also wield the sword like a master of the blade, due to my increased strength. What would be the first thing that would happen? I’ll bet it would go something like this:

Man 1: Ooi…what’s that funny bird up there in the sky-lah?

Man 2: Yalah, summore like got something on top of it…

Julian swoops lower with his dragon

Man 1: Eh, you come from where wan? Why you can sit on top of this big ciao-ciao?

Julian (In a grand tone): I am a dragon rider, sworn to uphold the peace and justice of this land!

Man 2: Ehh, dragon konon, you bluffing us or not? Where got such shit wan?

Man 1: Yalah! You show us lah if it is dragon, sure can come out fire wan right?

Dragon breathes fire at them, singes their butts

Julian: So? Believe me now?

Man 1 & 2: Arr! You think that was funny ah, burn my ass? I’m going to report police…

Julian (To dragon): Lets fly away now

Dragon: Agreed

In short, I wouldn’t place my money on having this work, so sad, our world has lost it’s fascination for magic and mystique, guess I’ll just have to go back to day dreaming *sob sob*

But, best thing is, the show is coming out this December! Watch out for it!

Home Sweet Home

2006-05-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Penang is home, and Penang is:
- Dirtier than Singapore
- More dangerous than Singapore
- Has less 'chio' chabor
- Hotter than Singapore (I'm sweating like heck everyday)
- There's no broadband (Have to wait 5 minutes for Blogger homepage to load...arrgh!)
- The public transport system sucks
- The MP's are so childish (Seriously, what's being divorced got to do with being gatal?)
- The people are more unruly
- There are too many Zaru's (Monkeys in botanical gardens)
However, the food rocks. And I have ASTRO to keep me company. Amen.

Brelunner

2006-04-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Brelunner stands for Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner. I had a single brelunner today to replace all three meals. Yum yum, simply indulgence I tell you. Actually, today, me, Kheng Guan, Bungjia and Jackson went to Bugis Junction to have lunch, celebrating the end of the semester two examinations (well at least not yet for Bingjia, but since he's flying off to India on the 7th, he decided to come lest he not meet us again). Jackson's recommendation was this place named Chin Chin which was famous for it's chicken rice, but we decided to really splurge and call an obscene number of dishes. Five. Yes, four people ordering five dishes. Aren't we greedy pigs? We ordered deep fried thai fish fillet in chilli, sweet sour pork, fried bean curd, HALF a chicken and sambal kangkung. And each of us had two servings of rice. So, to give a picture of how much we ate, even after finishing two servings of rice and with all the dishes, there were still leftover chicken and fish. And, we had already ordered the smallest servings for each dish, and et there were still leftovers. The final bill was only 50! That's super damn cheap! I'm going to bring Chin there tomorrow for lunch again, that place is super clean as well too. Yumm, thinking of lunch makes me salivate all over again, and I'm starting to feel damn hungry. Hur hur hur.

After brelunner we went to walk off all those extra kilos, we went to Suntec (interesting tidbit number 1 from Jackson: The five towers of Suntec resemble five fingers, with the Fountain of Wealth being the palm of the hand which is a LEFT hand, because the architect apparently is a right hander so he designed using his left hand as a model), then to Milennium Walk, then onward to Marina Square (interesting tidbit number 2 from Jackson: Marina Square is built in the form of a perfect square), and finally we turned back into Citylink Mall. Our entire sojourn took us about 3 hours to complete, walking around and talking cock all the way. We did take a detour from our walk and stop over at Toys-r-us Suntec City for an hour, mishandling all the soft toys on display, and reliving the memories of our deprived childhoods. Toys have certainly come a long way from my time, the era of plastic Power Rangers and Ultramen have been replaced by Power Rangers who can light up (not a very improved version haha). Oh yeah, some interesting toys which I found in Toys-r-us:a) A mechanical hand which has a very good grip, costs 6.50 and is best used by perverts to grab the hem of ladies' skirts and lift them up
b) A Cookie monster that says 'press here' but no sound comes out (I think that over-enthusiastic kids pressed the poor blue cookie loving fella until his mechanism broke down)
c) Elmo finger toys which you can slot on and give fake puppet shows
d) A semi-wooden baseball bat and baseballs, useful for practising and also as a weapon of self-defense
e) A smurf-balancing toy (no idea how to describe this, you gotta experience it for yourself to see it)
f) Wireless drumsticks that can play music by themselves, good for amateur drummers who need to put on a good show (On a side note, some funny guy actually stole one of a pair of drumsticks. How dumb can he/she get? How on earth do you play with only one drumstick)
g) Finally, a water gun that can be disassembled into four separate blasters. I wish I has one of those back in the days when I ran around the house spraying my cousins with painted water

After walking around, we called it a day at around 5 as all of us were damn punctured out from walking, and Jackson was falling asleep standing up. Ahh wonderful day! Great outing with friends.

Fantasising About Birthday Gifts

2006-04-26T03:28:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about the best gift to get mum for Mother's Day. After what Eileen did for Shu Qi's birthday, I'm planning to make a Mother's Day video for mum, and also buy her a gift from Singapore. Still thinking of what to buy though. As a guy I seriously am clueless about what to buy because for the last few Mother's Days, I've only just wished mum or at most treated her to dinner. The only time I bought a gift was about 3 or 4 years back, and that was earrings from the jeweller, which wasn't a very difficult choice to make. The problem with earrings now is that mum is still wearing that pair I bought for her, so there's no point buying jewellery this time around, and that leaves me stuck. What else do women want besides jewellery? Flowers would not last too long, mum won't eat chocolates 'cos she's scared they'll make her fat, I can't cook for nuts, cakes would be too insincere, buying women's clothing would make me feel uncomfortable, and thus I am left with no idea of what to buy. The best thing I can do is the video, but I think that should be in addition with the gift.

Speaking of videos, wouldn't it be a nice gift to have a video from all you friends dedicated to you on your 21st birthday? *Hint Hint*.

And speaking about birthdays, I'm dreading turning 21. Officially being an adult doesn't make you one in the eyes of your friends. Over here, the term adult means something much deeper, than just having the right ot vote. Not sure? Ask Boon Sern what it means. Hur hur hur.

But anyway, since 21 is not more than 3 months away, I would love these gifts:

Ooh this is so cool...Adidas f-50 tunit, but wait, there's more

PS3, yum yum, but the best would be these

Yahh! The iPod Nano!

Ok enough fantasising about presents. Actually, the very very best present would be something else though, but I'll keep that a personal secret and see if anyone can read it from my mind, and actually give it to me.

Joga Bonito

2006-04-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

The 5 components of Joga Bonito: Heart, Honour, Skill, Team and Joy

Heart - Rooney

Joy - Ronaldinho

Honour - Henry

Skill - Ronaldo & Zlatan

Team - Brazil

1 Down, 5 More

2006-04-22T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just had my first term paper today. Physics really can kill a person, if you are not alert. Sadly, I wasn't and now I think I've paid the price for staying up until 12 midnight the night before. I thought I was prepared, I thought I was ready, but I wasn't by a long mile. Looking at the first question, I was already starting to get brain block: How do you find the magnetic field at the center of a regular polygon, by using the Biot-Savart Law? Do you use the finite line formula? At least that was what I thought. Going further into the paper, I got even more and more confused, especially the spider-on-a-string question. And the long questions were just as confusing. How do you find the electric field generated by an annulus? What the heck is an annulus? I read about it in Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons', but that annulus was a hole in the roof, not a thingamajigy that can generate an electric field. I felt like ripping up the paper and throwing it into the examiner's face. Hurhurhur. Really frustrating. My prediction for this paper: A- at the most, expect a B or a B+. I really need physics to pull my CAP up, because I think I'm going to be executed by CTW, as I got practically a C for my project, and my CA marks are not very good to say the least. Oh well, I always said that in order to succeed and go up higher, one must be prepared to fail first. When did I utter that line, I think it was two years ago, and I think it was going to come for me sooner or later. Well, better it come now in the first year than compared to when I'm pia-ing for my honours.And there was no rest after the paper as well. I've been hacking away at the past-year maths papers, and now I'm having a major headache. Looking back, I thought maths was fun at first, during the beginning of the semester when all we had to deal with was vectors, and integrals. The mid term seemed to be such a breeze, the only time I heard students actually say the paper was EASY. I think Victor Tan wanted to 'smoke' all of us at the time, or perhaps he knew we were all not going to be able to handle his final paper, so he decided to give us pittance marks. And I have to thank him for that. Reasons being that I am not able to complete the entire paper in the stipulated time frame of 2 hours. 14 questions in 2 hours? I did each past year in a time of 3 hours, and that's not counting the ones I left blank as well. Oh well, everyone has his turn to fail right? Hurhurhur.
Enough talking about papers. Here's my thoughts about the events that have happened in the past few days:
1) Student commits suicide, due to him having an impression that his genitalia was too tiny
Ah...the stupidity of youth... WHAT THE HECK WAS HE THINKING? Damn idiotic-lah that kid. There's always something called plastic surgery. For those not in the know, a 'student from a top JC' committed suicide this week, because he thought he had a small dick'. And he had a girlfriend. My personal opinion is that he watched too much porno movies and compared his essentials to those angmohs. Moral of the story: Keep away from porn.
2) MM and SM Lee sue SDP over defamatory claims
Again? Same thing as the last GE? Chee Soon Juan seems to like courting trouble much like how some buayas chase women. Why on earth does he keep making himself get in trouble? I seriously don't understand. Moral of this story: Keep your mouth shut.

Happy Birthday!

2006-04-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

This post is for a special person in my life. Through all the quarrels and fights that we had, all my nonsense that you had to put up with, all your nonsense I had to put up with ( I think your nonsense was more than mine? Haha!), thanks for being who you are. Everytime I look at our photo (standing in my room on my bedstand), I'm reminded of the great days we had back home, and all the things we shared. Although we never show it (we always like to tease each other in public, don't we?), I'm sure you care for me just as much as I care for you. Thanks for not crying when I left for Singapore (anyway I think it's not easy to make you cry, although I did cause you to cry once of twice), because I think you crying would have made me cry too. This is the first time I'm not celebrating your birthday with you, and this will be the case for the next 7 years already won't it? I don't want it to last longer than that, but I'm afraid it will. I wish you will join me in Singapore one day in the future, and I think it's possible. Won't that be fun! Anyway, I pray that God will bless you just as much as He had blessed me. Just want to wish you a very happy birthday!

Goodbye C-Block Seniors!

2006-04-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

I wanted to blog about this event yesterday, but I was too damn freaking tired to even look at the monitor. My block Command, similar to the hall Command, was a final supper which was cooked by the graduating seniors. I think that this was the very best supper I've had experienced in one year. There was, let me see if I can list them all down, chocolate fondue (yumm, the chocolate was thick, hot and creamy!), bread pudding, roasted chicken and fried chicken wings, chicken divine (actually a chicken-pasta combination with salad to top it off), potato salad, satay, tomyam soup, "kong bak pau", curry chicken, cheese cake, mud pie and beehoon. However, this stupid guy here did not bring up a plate. I had to pick the food off the plates of other people.
After supper, there was supposed to be some games where the block can sabo the seniors, but our RF came up and stopped the games halfway. I could see that Brendon was damn tulan with what had happened, but sadly we are still treated like small kids although we have legally reached voting age. I am so damn mad at the RF for spoiling the fun, especially since it was for the seniors.
But, we still did manage to give them a sending off that made them cry (I think that's the main thing everyone wants to see during Command, because there's no other event which provokes a mass hysteria of tears), and cry they did. Even cool and composed people like Ranjan and Jie Ming were crying.
As a result of Command, I woke up today with a horrible headache, because I slept at 3 a.m. and woke up at 8.30, all in the honourable name of mugging. I'm so behind in my studies, and I have 6 modules to cover before the first paper on the 22nd, which is next Saturday. Ahh, crap, I wish I was back in Penang, like how everyone else is, even though it's their reading week. At least back home, I don't have to see other fellow muggers in action.
I think I cannot blog too much today as my brain is stoned due to mugging. I need sleeeeeeeep. ZzZzZ.

What Hurts The Most

2006-04-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

Have you heard the song "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts? It's a very touching song, and the lyrics are very meaningful, regarding some guy who loves this girl but is unable to express her love for him and he finally sees her walk away. I've listened to this song about 20 times since I first heard it.
I had my final physics lecture today, and it was rather sad to finally let go of this subject that I've been studying for 5 years now. After all, next year, there will be no more pure physics modules under engineering, as all the year 2 modules for Mechanical Engineering will involve practical applications. I'm very afraid of fluid dynamics, because from what I've heard it's one of the most difficult modules in year 2. And this comes when I'm finding the year one modules like statics and electrical engineering rather difficult already. Shit. I'm contemplating why I chose engineering in the first place. Perhaps I would have been better off choosing business?
I spent half of my night doing my final darn statics tutorial. It took me almost 2 hours to do 1 single question from the tutorial. I can't believe I wasted so much time on this. My plan to start revision has been pushed back by one day already due to this.
The stage crew members (or shall I say ex-crew?) filmed a happy birthday video for Shu Qi. In the first place, it was supposed to be a SAD video. Hui Yian was supposed to cry in order to make Shu Qi cry as well. However, apparently it's not easy to cry when everyone else is saying very cock things in the video to the birthday girl. In the end, the general birthday message was 'grow taller' and 'get a boyfriend'. Well, for a 21st birthday, it is sure touching to have such messages sent to you! We are going to throw her a supper on midnight, Sunday. Her birthday is on Monday. Jiann Haur is going to read her a poem (I hope).
Finally, I installed MSN Live Messenger today. It looks quite interesting, but I haven't figured out if there are any additional features, because the interface looks somewhat the some compared to 7.5.
C-Block Command is on Thursday! I hope there will be more Brokeback action! Haha.

Invigorated

2006-04-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

I felt something today, which I had not felt for a very, very long time. Invigoration. Today's church service was both invigorating and refreshing, never mind that I arrived late for church by 10 minutes due to me waking up late and having to stand for the entire duration of the service. Usually, even sitting, I would usually feel tired and bored, sometimes even cynical of the message delivered by the priest, with thoughts like "ahh...I've heard this somewhere all before" floating through my mind. Only the sense of fulfilling my duty kept me from leaving church before service ended.
That wasn't the case today. Perhaps it was due to the special service being held due to today being Palm Sunday, where palms are given out ot church-goers to remind them of Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross for our sins. Perhaps it was God acting in His was to remind me of how much He still loves me. Anyway, it was good. Damn good. I really needed this reminder, and this uplift to my spirits, because the most stressful time of the semester, exams, are just 12 days away. Ironically, the first day of the reading week is Easter.
Speaking of exams, my studying plan for today was disrupted by a sudden sms from my group mate to inform me of a meeting they had planned just the day before. Sheesh. There went my plan of trying to study a minimum of 8 hours for the day, complimenting the 10 hours that I had put in on Saturday. I feel that weekends are the best time to study, for I can rack up 10 hours or more of studying on Saturdays, unless there are welcome distractions from my routine, like old friends coming over from Johor to have lunch together (Choyman came over to NUS last week-lah).
Finally, A-Block Command videos, including the now-famous "I'm Bloody Gay", "King Dong", "Si-Mi-Lan" and the "Massage Bus" have been posted on YouTube. Just type "Kent Ridge" to find these videos. Sadly, no one uploaded the BloCkbaCk video. However, I will try my best to get that video from my seniors who filmed the video.

Brokeback "Command" Mountain

2006-04-06T11:33:00.000-07:00

Command is an event where the final year seniors from KR band together to give a performance for the benefit of the rest of the hall. It's their special, unique way of saying goodbye. Well, this year's Command was certainly unique, in the sense that the main theme of this year's Command (or at least it seemed to be) was about cowboys, especially a certain pair of cowboys from a very famous (or infamous, depending on how you would choose to see it) who seem to be unable to keep a certain secret between themselves. Basically, Command was a mixture of videos and live performances. To me, the videos certainly trumped the live performances, with the exception of the KR Male Cheerleading Squad. Yup, these guys certainly look and groove as well as, if not better than, our KR Steppers, the REAL cheerleading squad. Wow, I was super stunned to see people like Jie Ming and Chye Long who seem to be the epitome of the macho sportsman doing cheerleading. That's so off!
Let me elaborate more on Brokeback Mountain, or as the video was titled, BloCkbaCk Mountain. It featured two of C-Block's most revered alumni, Ranjan (also voted Resident of the Year) and Jie Ming. Yup, their acting was so real, it almost convinced me that they were really getting it on, especially in that kissing scene. The best scene of the video was the bathroom scene, were both of them get into the same cubicle and start showering with each other. I don’t think I will describe anymore of the scenes as that would take me the entire night to complete. Although I haven't seen the actual Brokeback Mountain, this "preview" has convinced me that if the show is half as good as this, it's worth watching. Anyone got the video to send?
Another super cool command video was the James Blunt MTV Spoof by the A-Blockers, entitled "I'm Really Gay". Again, the gay theme was evident. The lyrics were so well penned, they fitted right into the song and the "James Blunt", Kaiwen, really made it look real. Seems that being gay is the in thing these days. Perhaps all guys should reconsider their sexual orientation? It's been made trendy by those cowboys from Brokeback, so you really don't have to feel paiseh.
And how about this, B-Block's video had three guys prancing around in bikinis and thongs, dancing to the beat of the sing "My Humps" by the BEP. I can't believe that such a innocent looking guy like Qian Chen would don a bikini and hot pants and prance around in makeup, grabbing the butts of other guys. Again, proof that KR is slowly succumbing to the influence of Brokeback, which must surely rank as one of the most influential movies of the year.
There were a lot more cowboy acts, some of which are too long and disgusting to list here. However, at the end of the entire event, the seniors and the entire hall banded together to sing the KR Family Song, which is one of my favourite songs. By the end, most of the seniors, including many, many guys, were openly crying, as their time in KR has come to an end. It was really touching to see the seniors hugging and embracing each other (and at the same time, convincing me that the Brokeback influence has not seeped in as deeply as I feared), knowing that this would be the last time they would sing the Family Song as a hall member. It makes me want to stay in KR for my entire four years, which however, I am sad to say might not become a reality, seeing that my closest friends in hall, Bingjia and Kheng Guan, are not going to be around after the third year. In fact Kheng Guan is already moving out. Damn. Just hope that Bingjia will stay next year, or else I'll be kinda lonely, which will make me even more phantom then I am already.
Finally, here are some of the nicer Command photos (courtesy of Photocomm and Li Wei):

The Male Version of KR Steppers

Transfigurational Thinking

2006-04-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

Today was the dreaded CTW oral defense session, where I would have to answer two supposedly tough questions that my tutor would ask me. Surprisingly, or by mere chance of luck, I think I got the two easiest questions among those in my group. "Why did you choose this topic?" is certainly much easier to answer than most other questions which go like "How would you improve on your position paper?" or "Where do you draw the line between censorship and stepping over the line?". Ok, in case this sounds alien to most of you, the oral defense session requires me and my group mates to each answer one question pertaining to the position paper which we prepared, entitled "Developing Singapore as an Education Hub City". In our paper, we presented two points which we felt were hindering Singapore's drive to become an education hub, namely the lack of space in Singapore to set up new campuses and also the lack of academic freedom. Anyway, it's all history now, and I can start putting this assignment behind me. Looking back, it was really fun (albeit stressful) to complete this assignment, having to stay up late into the night faking survey results and looking for "legitimate" sources to support our claims. Working with Josh and Andy turned out to be a very fun experience, especially when we were working together at Central Forum, sitting behind the laptop and shooting off ideas. There were times when we would just stop working and turn to talking cock. That's how good our team chemistry was. So, guys, thanks for the great working experience, and let’s hope we all get at least a B+ for our finals!One project down, one more to go. I'm still stuck on my second project, which is for entrepreneurial marketing. For this project, my team is supposed to come up with a complete marketing strategy for a fictitious business (not so in our team's case. One of our group members is really going to set up his own business using the product he suggested), and present it to venture capitalists (our lecturer-lah). Our product is (bear with me) Rapid Testing Environment Deployment Software (told you it was long). Even after working on this project for 3 months plus, I still have a very quaint idea of what this software does. Well, such things work both ways, as other people from other groups also seem to be clueless about this product. Hence, this bodes well for us since they can only sit and stare and (hopefully) be impressed. The only person who truly understands the software is of course my project mate who designed the software himself.
For this project, the final presentation will need us to really make an impact on the professor, as the previous groups did a really first-class presentation. There was this one group, who were proposing a modernized herbal food & drink shop, who actually provided the professor with herbal jelly, herbal tea, and God knows what else during their entire presentation. Lucky guy. Hence, in following with the trend, out group, although we are an IT company, decided to give our most beloved professor some "gifts" to win his favour (and an A for us!). So far we have come up with t-shirt, pen, paperweight, calendar and notebook. Madness. I was assigned to create a paperweight for the professor, using a ROCK. It's those kind of smooth rocks which you can find at the bottom of koi ponds. Don't ask me where I got the rock, because I'm not liable to say at the moment. Let's just say it wasn't stolen. So, now, I'm cracking my head, thinking how to turn the rock into a paperweight, short of having to use some transfiguration magic. I could use some help from our dear Harry Potter right now. Oh well, I'll just have to use my own imagination. This is a true marketing lesson though, as I'm trying to create a "ten dollar effect using only one dollar"(in the exact words of Prof. Andrew Ng).
One more thing, about my blog, I've decided to name it Innocence Lost, because it sounds provocative (right?). Try typing "Innocence Lost" into Google, and see what you get. I assure you it's not my blog. It's something more...interesting.

The Begining of Innocence

2006-04-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is my second blog, following the flopped one I tried starting on my Friendster account. The main reason for this new blog, is that I left too big a gap to fill on the Friendster one, probably about 6 months perhaps? I know, I know, I've been reading the blogs of the rest of my friends (Jason, Choyman, Boolat) and I always had this feeling that I should start one soon, or else there would be tons and tons of catching up to do when we do meet up again. As it is currently 1.18 AM and I have an oral defense to do tomorrow, I'd better catch up on my sleep, or else I won't be able to have an oral war with my tutor tomorrow. Heck, she is probably going shoot me and my group mates with her AK47 tongue, so I'd better stay alert tomorrow, don't want to get hit by her bullets. So good night, and watch this space.