First Love

People always tell me that the chances of first love succeeding is extremely extremely unlikely.

And they always tell me not to put too much hope and heart into it.

I was indignant at a point.

I insisted that if you work hard enough at it, it will succeed somehow.

But they tell me, usually the first one is never the right one.

What if it just so happens that the first one is the right one? It's possible right? Then it will succeed right?

It turns out I was mistaken.

...........................

Why are the chances of first loves succeeding so slim?

Lack of experience.

You are more likely to give up on the relationship easily because you have yet to learn to appreciate one.

You are more likely to have 2nd thoughts about the relationship because you have no previous experiences to compare it to.

You are more likely to stray because you have yet to seen what's out there.

You are less tolerant of your partner because you never had to tolerate anyone so much before.

.....................

So it turns out that even if your first love is the 'right' one, the chances of succeeding are still minuscule.

Then what exactly is the formula for being together forever?

Anyway, for the record I don't even believe in "Mr Right" or "soulmates" now. Sure, some people are more suitable for some and that probably helps but the determining factor for being together forever is faarrrrrrrrrrr from that.

Then what - love? Honestly I don't think love rules it all either.

What really decides whether 2 people will be together forever is whether you will forgive the person an uncountable number of times.

It takes a lot of effort and energy to forgive the same person again and again.

Every time you forgive, it secretly makes your heart a little heavier. Then a little more, and a little more...

Until your heart plummets through the sky and splatters onto the cold concrete floor.

.........

So ask yourself, are you able to forgive this person without limits? Are you willing to patch up again and again with this person after a fight?

If you are, I think you're almost ready to say "I do" at the altar.

(By the way, I'm not referring to forgiving cheating and all that. Sure you can be together forever if can forgive cheating, but the question is whether you want to.)

........................

Returning to the main topic, it seems like they were right - it is extremely unlikely for a first love to succeed.

But they are still wrong.

I should and will put all my heart into it.

Because it isn't real love otherwise.

And I'm very sure every drop of mine is real.

So basically,

It's just a hole that you gotta fall into.

Food Photography Outing with NUSPS @ Tetsu

School has started!!! :(

Life is back to being boring and uneventful ahahaha! But I shall placate you with mouth-watering photos from our food photography trip with NUSPS (NUS Photography Society) to Tetsu at Tanglin Mall. =D

I think my blogging skills are improving!!! 

First, there's DSLR quality photos.

Then there's photo-processing...

Now there's WATERMARK on my photos!!! Lol!!

Now I just need to acquire some photography skills....

Japanese Cold Tofuuuuuuuu (tofu + century egg + fish roe) !!!

Heavenly...

Sashimi...which is the most photogenic, but sadly I don't like raw fish...

More photos of the photogenic dish...

Even the ebi (prawn) which I usually can eat half raw is too raw for me :/

Last photo of it before it ended up in DC's stomach xD

Ahhhhhhh!!! Love the egg yolk sauce....

The chicken is quite plain by itself but with the sauce....hmmMm..

Me enjoying the rather bland mushroom, taken by DC :)

I was almost licking the sauce on the plate when I finished haha!

Japanese rice with sour plum.

Very bland!

Not photogenic also...found it very hard to work with the sharp edges of the box =/

And the waitress was like telling us: This dish must hurry up and eat!! Cannot put for too long!

Cus the whole group of us was like more interested in snapping the food than eating it...

Lemon + Strawberry sorbet! (i think)

Experimenting with a different feel...

Ciaoooooo!

(crawls back to boring school life)

SPOT THE PIG !!!

Lol, I was in the toilet at DC's house, doing things you can imagine as I stared blankly into the tiled walls.

Then, suddenly hundreds of PIGS were staring back at me with a snicker on their faces!!!!!!

Hahaha can you spot the pig in the picture???

..............

Gather your brain cells,

..............

Summon the child in you,

..............

And squint your eyes.

.

.

.

.

.
Prepare youself,

..............

For the most amazing discovery ever made in the bathroom......

..............

...........

.........

......

....

..

.

Hahahahahaa!! Looks like righttttttt!!!!

I think I'm losing my screws... -.-

New Year = Dumpling Making + Fireworks

This year's new year started with DC teaching me Dumpling Making at home! :D

Its so simple!! All you need is:

-500g of minced pork (makes around 40 dumplings)
-40 pieces of Dumpling (jiao zi) skin, they are round and either white or yellow
-onions, small chilli, garlic
-2 eggs
-some oil, soya sauce and salt

Me, labouriously chopping up the onions.

And this is Sadako (the Ring) chopping the onions for me.

First, chop up the onions, chilli and garlic into very small bits. Throw them all into the pot of minced meat (make sure it is very very minced!!) and crack 2 eggs into it.

Mix everything up real well! You can add cooking oil to smooth the mixture and make it easier to mix.

Then, add in the soya sauce and salt. Now get someone brave to taste it in your steed.

That's DC's job haha!

When you're happy with the taste, we can start making dumplings!

Grab a piece of dumpling skin with the side that has less flour face up and wet its perimeter with water. (optional! if your dumpling skin is sticky enough you can skip this step)

Top up with some those delicious meat in the centre and you can wrap your dumpling anyway you like!

DC kneading the dumpling into shape...

and . . .

TADA!!!

A rather normal looking dumpling. =P

Now...ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my absolutely creative and original....

Rising Sun Dumpling!!!

Hahahaha!! It will bring you good luck if you eat it! :D

If you're wondering why there are so many more normal dumplings compared to my Rising Sun Dumplings...

Obviously my Rising Sun Dumplings take longer and more effort to breathe the essence of good luck into it mahhh, so take longer, so fewer lor! xD

Time to cook your dumplings!

DC actually goes by this VERY VAGUE rule that when the dumplings float up 3 times then it is cooked.

Apparently, you first boil your dumplings and when it floats up, you add in water until they sink back in.

Then do the same the next time they float up, until they float up for the 3rd time, which means they are ready to be eaten!

I honestly think this is an extremely dubious method. If you're using a shallow pot, you can't even see if they are floating or sinking or what. So I recommend, cook for around 10 minutes. (don't worry, I timed)

Ermm, just camwhore the 2nd batch before they are cooked. :P

Nicely done! =D

They're so delicious and easy, everyone should try it! Even if you wrap it until look like shit it will also taste nice hahaha!

After filling our stomachs, we're off to Marina Bay for the New Year Count Down! :D

Happy! ~ ~

Hahaha, I'm only putting this picture cus he's smiling so happily. XD

Caution: Never take photos against bright lights!

When we reached there like 3 hours before, all the "frontline" seats were taken by people on mats, picnicking, playing Uno.


We just settled ourselves behind a family and killed time with our Ipods! DC kept hogging the Jelly Car game and refusing to give up until he passed the level!! pftttt!

With 1 more hour to go, there was already no place to walk on!! Every inch was covered with people!

Close to 12am, people started shouting and cheering for no reason....

Then everyone started standing up...

Then beauty occured... (pardon the lousy phone cam)

My first fireworks ever...

All was well except that our Happy New Year smses to each other couldn't be sent until half hour later.

Then....

Pandemonium Ensued.

I was a living sardine in a tin....inching and crawling towards that breath of fresh air as everyone tried to exit the area at the same time.

Torture lasted for half an hour or so...

Happy New year!

hahaha! are you feeling like: -_-  ?

Ok la, as much as I hate squeezing with people, I think it was worth it.

 

Perhaps not the 2nd time though... (law of diminishing returns).

 

.................

 

I'm not the kind who would do anything special for any occasion if it was just myself.

 

But with DC, I feel like want to make every occasion special.

 

Am looking forward to more happiness... :)

 

Happy New Year ALL!!!

McDonalds Doraemon Zodiac Series Has No Pig?

I usually don't blog about current issues, since they are ephemeral. I'd really hate reading through my blog archive and everything is old news and not worth reading again.

But I'm making an exception this time since it is one of my favourite topics - religion!

Have you seen the cute Doraemon Zodiac stuffed toys sitting pristinely on McDonalds' counters?

Did you notice that the pig was missing?

Instead, in place of the pig was a Cupid Doraemon.

When someone asked the staff why was there no pig in a Straits Times story, their reply was:

" As a halal restaurant, McDonald's could not display or sell Pig soft toys."

This had to be the most ridiculous thing I heard since...I have no idea too (precisely my point).

A very valid point from Sheylara.com, "the dragon should also be omitted out of respect for Christians because dragons are identifed with Satan."

Then maybe even the cow should be be taken out since Hindus worship cows? Who knows, maybe the sight of cute little doraemon wearing something highly resembling cow skin will send them in a roar of fury or crush their fragile, weak hearts?

Atrocious!!!

What does being Halal have to do with a stuffed toy in a pig costume?? According to Wiki, "The term is widely used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law". Being Halal refers to food standards, not stuffed toy standards. Or does a pig doraemon stuffed toy insinuate in any way that we're gonna eat it or something?

Maybe it has nothing to do with being Halal, maybe McDonalds just wishes to respect Muslims? Ok, any Muslim here would be offended by the sight of Doraemon in a pig costume? I'd think not. But if you are, you'd better hurry buy an isolated lil island where Babe (the pig) does not exist and supermarkets there would hide their pork and sell them secretly away from poor Muslim eyes. Seriously? I think this act of "respect" for Muslims has instead portrayed them as awfully narrow-minded and obstinate people. Sheesh.

BESIDES, what about our Chinese culture? McDonalds is soooooooooooo sensitive towards Muslims, then what about us Chinese? They can respect Muslims by taking out the pig but effectively "destroy" the Chinese Zodiac and disrespecting the Chinese at the same time. I have the right to take offense! (but I'm not the type) It's rather weird that when you're the minority people tend to be more sensitive towards you and instead neglect the majority. Dear McDonalds, if you're concerned about Muslims taking offense over a puny little stuffed toy, then DON'T DO THE ZODIAC AT ALL. Do something else...Barbie Doraemon, or Disney Doraemon, or whatever-I-don't-care. Don't defile one culture in the name of respecting another. Sheesh!

Lastly, my condolences for my fellow Chinese born in the year of the pig who might've liked a cute Doraemon stuffed toy in their Zodiac.   *pat pat*

NUS Module Reviews - Year 1 Sem1

Decided to "give back" to the community after all the tips I got from reviews. So I present to you:  

An Extremely Boring But Hopefully Helpful Review That Showcases The Bleakness Of Education and perhaps, your Future.

CS1101

Grade: A+

Essential module for all Computing students. Basically just some Java basics, but be prepared to spend a lot of time on this module especially if you don't have programming background. TIP: Be very very picky about syntax and comment appropriately or risk losing marks for nothing. Also, MODULARIZE wherever possible! Oh, I recommend my tutor, Johnny Le Viet Bach. He's very good!

CS1105

Grade: B

Another essential module. Extremely unorganized and frustrating module. Lecture notes uploaded on the day itself, project instructions are vague, inconsistency between lecturers and tutors, even the exam format was unknown until very close to finals. For my year, final exam was open book MCQ.and mostly common sense, don't even have to attend lectures.

LSM1301

Grade: A

Highly recommended module! Lab experiments are fun and take up 40% of your grade, so be VERY VERY VERY VERY meticulous with your answers. Preparing beforehand will help so you can ask the lab assistants about the *ahem* lab questions during labs. Please don't forget to do your labs as marks for labs are EXTREMELY competitive, many people score full marks for all of them. Final exams are open book MCQ and take up 60% of your grade. Past year questions are not released, so I recommend getting a textbook with a serial number so you can access online questions for practice. Final exam was quite difficult for me but I got an A so...heck! :D Oh yea, plus its fully webcasted!

MA1521

Grade: C+

ULTIMATE GIBBERISH.

PH1101E/GEM1004

Grade: A-

Hmmmmm, you have to write a paper, 3 blog comments and a open book MCQ final exam. If you have good reading/interpreting/critical thinking skills, the final exam will be a piece of cake. Otherwise, there's lots of practice exams available so not to fret! No memorizing required at all, don't even need to attend lectures. Fully webcasted too :)

THE BRUTAL TRUTH

CAP: 4.18

Ok I kinda sulked for 2 weeks cus Maths pulled me down so much from 4.56...*big SIGH*

Just half a year in NUS and I can already feel the cold brutality of life. It has nothing to with NUS ok (tskk NTU rivals), NUS is NICE OK? It is just the feeling that everything thing you do, every step you take IS treacherous, WILL impact you for life and MIGHT possibly come back and bite you in the butt.

Lesson #1: You've gotta fend for yourself.

I was still looking at Communications and Media course then and NM2101 was one of the program requirements so I went to look it up and the description says "Prerequisite: NM1101E". So logically, I bid for NM1101E and I got it. For some reason, I decided to check the description for NM2101 again and this time it said "Prerequisite: NM1101E (except for Computing students)". I panicked. I thought I made a mistake and saw wrongly the last time. Did I make a mistake? Or did they change it? But they didn't indicate that they changed the prerequisites.

I decided to call and ask anyway. Turns out I was right, they made a mistake and changed the prerequisites. I was in an uproar. All I thought was: "WHAT THE HELL? They changed the prerequisites without making any announcement, or even indicating it? If I didn't somehow chance by the description again I would have taken a module for NOTHING." It was all extremely infuriating. Luckily the person in charge was still quite efficient and the module was dropped and my points refunded after a few calls. Whew~

Lesson #2: No One Owes You A Living

I've applied to change faculty to Arts and Social Sciences sometime ago and was unsuccessful. No reason given. Since then I have talked to many professors but I was told that the chances of getting a transfer is very slim. I can't really understand. My grades are pretty good and all so why won't they accept me? Seems to me like their policy is "Unless You Will Die Without A Transfer, Then No Transfer For You". For now, I'm content with going for Information Systems but I have another problem: The Philosophy module, PH2110, I need to double major in Philo is god damn expensive, like 900 G account points. How can a first year student like me possibly afford it? Then what, appeal to CORS for it? I was told that even if I appeal, there's no guarantee I will get it. *SIGH* What does a poor student gotta do to study what she wants?

Anyway, advice to all if you really want something, go down to see the relevant people and demand to see someone about it. You can call a dozen people for a whole afternoon and not get anything except a bunch of excuses.

(will update again about the PH2110 thingy)

Lesson #3: Plan, Plan, Plan !

and Plan and Plan and Plannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn....

plus make sure you do your research before deciding on anything.

cos you don't want to regret it like me :(

enough said.

Christmas 2009 !!!

Hohoho! Merry Christmas! :D
This time last year DC and I went to Sentosa and we wanted to go there again this year but the queue at Vivocity entrance was GOD DAMN LONG !!!

So we decided to go Singapore Botanic Gardens (free!!! haha!). Checked out the buses that go there with the SgBuses application on Ipod and off we go! (Seriously cannot live without Ipod)

Credits: snaphat.blogspot.com

 Had to fill our howling stomachs with my DeLiCioUs (self-proclaimed) Mushroom Tuna Pasta Bento! Wahaha!

Me: How how how??? Nice???

DC: *nods vigorously*

The Lily Pond behind us, which a boy was FISHING in and later fell face first into.

Sorry but I kinda felt he deserved it...WAS HE SUPPOSED TO BE FISHING THERE?

Then we were off to explore! ~ ~

Swan Lake!

I guess these are supposed to be Swans since theey are in Swan Lake, but honestly they look more like Geese to me...

Man-made waterfall~

Then we found a place to camwhore! :D

Camwhore attempt, fail.

Success!

 

Don't know why we took this picture...  : /

Then we paid $1 entrance fee (student price) to enter Orchid Park ~ (hahaha! cheapskate xD)

 

Some plant hanging off the ceiling ~

: /

Erm this is somehow disturbing...

Bamboo!

Squirrels!

One especially stupid squirrel tried to make a jump from 1 tree to another while we were there watching. It flew ~ ~ ~ and fell flat on grass. =.= Then it hurriedly jumped back up and scurried up the tree...  lolll !!

Super long row of Christmas Trees by different organisations.

I say this is the Best Tree! Cus got the cute reindeer what!

Friends Forever on a Tree ~

Creepiest Tree........

by Alexander Hospital, note the hands and the drips... :/

Random Earthworm to freak you out haha!

Saw Black Swans at the Eco Lake! ~

Guess what this Swan is doing???

Eating grass off the bed of the lake haha! *Chomp chomp Chomps*

Last tree before we exited at Bukit Timah road...

And walked ONE ROUND around NUS LAW CAMPUS.

And WALKED and WALKED and WALKED and WALKED and WALKED

And LIMPED and LIMPED and LIMPED and LIMPED and LIMPED

And CRAWLED and CRAWLED and CRAWLED

And we somehow reached Adam Foodcourt in Newton ! ~ (don't ask me how...)

Had the BEST ICE KACHANG in Singapore! :D :D

 *Sucks drool back in*

 

Lastly...LOOK!!!

My Christmas pressie is my FIRST HEELS EVER from M)phosis :D :D :D

(still trying very hard to walk in it)

Thanks my dear <3

Muahahahahaahahahahha!!!

 Merry Christmas all !