Hmm. Due to some things here and there that I might have written, I'll continue sharing and laughing and composing some other pieces at this log.


So.. yeah. End of announcement =D

Toasts and cheers!

Tired.

I don't think I had a recess week. Usually, during recess week, I would go around Singapore for fun or to do some grocery shopping, alone or with friends. Now? NONE OF THOSE THINGS HAPPENED.

It was either working in my lab, finishing the project, spending my day writing some reports, attending training in regard to a lab module that I'm currently teaching, revamping the fellowship's blog (haha, they really taking advantage of having a blogger inside the team ;p) or doing things for the fellowship camp committee. I seemed to be busier than usual, even though I have much less modules than usual. (Yaaaa. I don't recommend doing serious research together with taking modules!!)

Seriously, that's a LOT of things to do. I even didn't have time to study or to do my own stuffs. I even slept so late everyday. But the good thing is my bio clock has been going to normal :D Finally! I also crossed out everything in my to do list. So happy! (:


There are 2 days left before this break is over. Time to catch up on my studies.. Yosh. Last sem with mods!!

The quiet place

Just want to share this link:
http://amitaytweeto.com/thequietplace/

"From time to time, stop whatever you're doing and go to your quiet place..."

Semi-hiatus

Uhm. Yeah. So. Sorry for not really posting lately. I am reaaally busy. Quizzes, labwork, lessons, CCAs, teaching.. etc. Now I really do hope that I can finish my labwork fast, so I'll have more time to do everything, to rethink everything, to plan for everything, to study everything I can study (yeeaaa, Asian, I am! =D), to check my photographs..

And how everytime I've planned something, other things will ruin it for me. Good. God, be on my side won't You? ;p

So yep, it's my final year as an undergraduate student now, so I must do my best with the labwork and modules left. Won't post a lot at this moment, but I'll return. I've had some posts in mind, and some posts in the draft waiting to be finalized, and I'll take care of them once I have free time and free mind =)

And my tumblr is ofc still quite active and besides I post a bunch of semi-emoticons there, so if you need to know what I'm currently doing or if I'm still alive.. Just check on it. Or just check if something changes on the right-bar here.

See you, then!

sleep

LOL, yeah, I think it's true for me, especially in the afternoon, in class or lab, waiting for stage #3 to happen soon but apparently it doesn't until the break or until the end of the class! =D

But anyway.. For me, I need enough sleep (6-7 hours) every night for my body to function well. And yep, I am still working on repairing my biological clock so that I go to sleep, wake up and do everything in normal timing. Well, this is just my nature to be a planner, maybe.

I don't really understand how some people here can manage to go to sleep for only 3-4 hours or so? Or to wake up late at 10 or 11 in the morning everyday, even near lunch time, and to go to sleep at 3 or 4 or 5 am? Or maybe I just overrate this. But are they still functioning well and healthy?

See what I've found in google...

The most famous Marcella is probably "the most beautiful creature ever sent into the world", in Don Quixote by Cervantes.

*holding breath*

HAHAHAHAHAH!!! <3

Career planning in 60 secs

and many, many more to think about.



Life's hard. Choosing is hard.

Being picky is hard, specially when people's opinions must be taken into consideration. Even though my intention is not being picky nor arrogant. It's jut not me. It doesn't make me happy nor I love. And furthermore, it doesn't pay well, too.

The latter isn't really about career, though, but I am fed up with people's judgements and whispers behind my back, even though, it's true, they don't harm me, we're still in good terms but it's like having thousands of pair of eyes prying on me because I don't do what they expect me to do. Now I feel like my life, my opinions, my choices must really be influenced by those of others', otherwise I'm wrong. Like, I don't have some says about my own choices. Facing them is wrong, running away is wrong as well. And it's like having no one to trust and no one to talk to.

~lalala~

The reward of patience and perseverance!

It's been a long time for me not to post anything here. I was busy the whole summer with my labworks and report (I slept at dawn for a few days at the last weeks). But then, good things happen to those who wait. And my reward (beside 12 hours hibernation after poster presentation of my summer research work) was...



Yep, I've got a lomo. Supersampler, to be exact.

But why do I suddenly have it? Am I going back to the stone age of taking photos with film (in this case is the 35mm one)?

One friend was giving away a few stuffs because he was going to moving to another country.. The supersampler is really old, he had this when he was still in school in Indonesia. He doesn't use it anymore now, so he decided to give it to this girl, a junior of his, who was quite into taking photos, for FREE =D It's a multi-lens camera, so the result may be really unpredictable because I haven't found any information on how it exactly works. I'll only see how they turn out to be after the 36th exposure and taking them to a developer, which may happen sometime between 3 to 6 months later (I won't take photos so often with it, only on special occasions or if I find nice objects) so we'll see =)

IMHO, even though digital photography is of course much less costly and easier (e.g. people can erase the bad shoots and enhance the acceptable shoots), film photography is irreplaceable with its certain effects (to be exact: its unknown, sometimes-unexpected turnout) and the mindset of to shoot correctly, every-shoot-counts feature. The latter is what I am trying to do with my digital camera as well: to take photos correctly everytime so all my shots are acceptable and free from significant enhancements afterwards.

I'm still on training to do film (35mm) photography, though, because the last time I took photos with PnS, 35mm film cameras was about 10 years ago before finally my family moved on to digital cameras because of the cost.. So I still need to re-train my hand and my head to prevent those shaky, blurry, useless images as well as to load/unload/rewind/advance films and shoot correctly, get a nice object with good exposures etc.

"Think before you speak, act, and shoot." - Me.

Anyway, these are the complete squad of this thing:


I have two films. Below is the one that the past owner gave me:


Expired film!
Yeah, welcome to the world of weird colors. Don't know what I'll get =D
The other one was a new film I bought recently due to some accident and youtube advices.. Good thing is that the advice was true and do-able, otherwise my S$5.50 would have been gone useless. I wanted to buy the provia film instead but the seller didn't have it.

Next target? SLR camera. I hope the ones at my home in Indo still work =) And maybe some darkroom skills, at least to see if the synthetic lab training (and soon-to-be-teaching) has any use for this.

Anyway, once I found out that the old supersampler could work and after reported it to the past owner, I called my dad, who is into photography as well (is interest inherited by genetics?). I told him that his little girl had just gotten herself a 35mm film camera.

His initial response? "HUH?" in a surprised, worried-about-the-cost way.

childhood memories

I spent this evening procrastinating with old Indonesian-dubbed anime soundtracks. They really bring back old memories when I and my friends patiently sat in front of TV after school or before Sunday School, at my or my friends' houses to catch up on the new episodes.. Sorry if some of the titles seem lousy today, but they are definitely better than Indonesian soap operas (anyway, a few 90's Indo soap operas were good as well! haha) and Disney's lousy series/musicals aired nowadays. Anyway, here they are~
























and a few songs whose "official" Indo version couldn't be found:

It all ends

cr: nathan the nerd


Thanks, for the fantasy. Thanks, for the great series. Thanks, for the hype. Thanks, for the laughters and tears. Thanks, for the childhood. For saving me from only knowing Twilight, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry =D Thanks, for Hogwarts that will always be there to welcome us home.

I typed 'fox' in google search, and then...

That keyword is really ambigous. It is a name of an animal, a broadcasting company that airs some of my favorite series and a clothing shop. It is also the last word in one of a renowned manga reader site's name.

And which one appeared first in google in this attempt of searching?


The clothing shop. Surprisingly, not wikipedia. And thankfully, not a FACEBOOK link.

Alright. Thanks for reminding that I've already shopped a lot (after a few extra cash coming and foresee-ably coming lately).

Uh anyway.. Thank God for several opportunities for extra cash and a bunch of extra new experiences!~

bubbleteaology.

While browsing through tumblr and flickr, I found these two photos in this post. Apart from the nice photo people able to create (everytime I took photographs from my room, I don't think they are very nice. It's unknown whether it's my lousy skill or my desk's unattractive appearance). Anyway, this is about that thing there. Bubble teas receive a huge craze in Singapore. It is quite easy to find places who sell bubble teas, starting from small shops in MRT stations or neighborhoods or school until a well-known (and mostly expensive) brands such as sweet talk, each a cup, happy lemon, KOI and gong cha. And people do queue to buy them. Just like what they do when they want to top-up their bus passes during the peak hour at MRT stations and bus interchanges. Just like when there are freebies giveaways.

I have one post on my opinion on bubble tea in my tumblr blog, but since I like to write better in blogger (for me tumblr is only for short comments and photographs and "scrapblog") I will rewrite it in my lengthy, thoughtful style here.

I actually don't really into the bubble tea craze. Of course it's nice to drink them once in a while, because they are light and refreshing. A lot of my friends seem to like them too. But I don't really know what is so special about them, I think I posted this here after I drank KOI for the first time. Some of my friends, be them Indonesians, locals or other international students agree with me that it is the bubbles/chewy black thing at the bottom of the glass that make the drink delicious.

In general, I don't really like the hand-made teas commonly available in Singapore. Most of them are served in milk and I don't really like milk tea be it cold or hot. I strongly prefer the teas served in Indonesia back then, they are tea only, without milk, and the taste of the tea is just.. like that. They are different than those blank tea (teh kosong) served in Singapore.

As I said previously.. I am on the side which think that the bubbles is what make the drink delicious. I found some other drinks also put bubbles inside, like some brands of soymilk.. And yeah, I'd prefer those than the sweet, diabetes-inducer, not-so-satisfying drink that I've been talking about. Besides soymilks are indeed healthier.

But if I had to choose to buy some drinks in a hot, hot day, I'd definitely go for Starbucks. The places are nice for hangouts or sit-and-talk-and-wifi or study, too! A cheaper option would be McCafe. But yep, McCafe is still expensive for me, so I'd go with bottled green tea instead. Or, being the mostly-occuring case, a chilled mineral water. Anyway, this post won't pose any offenses for those bubble tea lovers.. But yeah. Not everyone must agree with the majority, isn't it? =D Afterall, I do drink them once in a while.. And hey, they're nice photo objects too!


cr: flickr
.
PS. Anyway, one day after I posted in my tumblr about the bubble tea craze.. My lab decided to buy KOI. And... Yeah. I participated. What a mouth --a

Lonely

Seeing my graduating friends leaving hall one by one to their new places, cardboxes moved out of the rooms and out of the hall gate forever, lorries and taxis coming to and leaving the carpark, and doors and trunks full with cardboxes and bags being closed, I can't help but to feel sad. Yes, I am joyful that they are going to graduate now and some of them are currently pursuing their career. But then, the fact that we won't live so close like we used to be brings mellow-ness to me.. It's not only that I lose friends to eat together sometimes (because most of the time I have my dinner at my room while watching TV series.. LOL) or to hold a spontaneus gathering or late-night chatting or to watch TV series together in one room. It's not the physical absence that bothers me, since we are only a gtalk/MSN chat/google buzz away to keep each other updated on what is going on, and some of us still can meet at church every Sunday and head to town or nearest hawker center afterwards.. It's the knowledge that they are not near anymore, that we can't just call or text each other to eat or to gather in someone's room ASAP or to borrow something or even to get some people to help in doing something.. Those little things, even the most annoying things that you're going to miss when they're not there.

This is if your close friends are one year your senior.

MILO?

The Italian girl who is residing in Germany and is undergoing exchange programme to my lab did not know what MILO is.

I thought the brand was known worldwide? Especially it's from Nestle, which originated from the Switzerland, which is a member of European Union as Germany is?

Oh. If MILO isn't sold there, then you've missed a really nice drink which makes you fat if you regularly drink it everyday.

Yep, coffee's good for your heart, but not too much..

Coffee Heartrate Peaks Graph
from coffeebean.com

Lab rules violation

Hey, anyway, hello Mr. Jack Hodgins. Looks like you’ve violating a rule in the lab: sleeping in the wet lab. Even though your lab is mostly bio.. But I think it’s still against the rules since you might inhale quite a lot of unhealthy substances since your solvents, they’re chemical. And, in addition, it’s your PREGNANT wife whom you set the sleeping bag/portable bed/matress for, dear. As someone who has 3 PhDs in sciences (which I can't really remember..), you ought to know..

Anyway, it’s quite pathetic to literally sleep at night in the lab, you know. Or just, living out your life in lab, whether it is for work or leisure purpose (e.g. internet connection and pantry and air-con and computer and toilet of your lab). This doesn’t apply to Hodgins though, but I hear some people do this practice and all I can say is.. "I wish you'd gone home". Well, unless the lab is your home.. But how if there's nobody there, only you? Can you still call it "home" and your set of machines, apparatus, solvents and materials as family members?


Eh, anyway, letting the romantic-sappy side of me out, I did hope that Hodgins' answer after Angela told her that she'd wish he'd gone home is "Well, I'm there. My home.. It's YOU". Kyaaaaaaaaa >.< If only the situation wasn't this.

A quote that describes my feelings right now

"This thing doesn't work. It started out alright, but now it's.... *shaking head*"
-Wendell Bray, Bones 06x23

Doing an art thing, engineering style.

Late night series

The more I watch Bones, the more I find the resemblance between their lab and mine. And even those techniques and machines I know exist in the division I am studying at. Micropipettes, GC-MS, and today, I saw the plastic petri dish. Which, I am definitely using. Oh well. Luckily Jack Hodgins is that funny and different from those people in my lab (which are.. equally funny in other ways. And LOUD). If he is similar to any person in my lab.. I might be going to puke. It's like seeing them for 7 days a week for non-stop.. Well, no offence, I like those people in my lab, but I need my life aside of lab-bing and stuff. I guess everyone does.

Anyway lately I find that several people have weird preferences for TV series. Like, guys watching Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives.....?

current mood: pathetic

Ok. I'll promise. If my experiments until FYP is finished work well, I'll pay more respect to Italian national football team. At least I won't say any curse words or bad opinions or whenever they are playing, especially plays against Germany. Let whatever happens, happens. This is for the sake of my super-patient and genius Italian mentor.

Anyway, by this, doesn't mean that I don't support German national football team wholeheartedly anymore. I love die Mannschaft with all my heart. Really.

Sweets with toothpaste taste

My friend gave it to me. This is the package.


There are two openings, one is for sharing and the other one is not for sharing.

So, when I opened the one for sharing, a small opening was revealed:


And when I opened the one not for sharing (aka for myself)...


I don't really know what's the logic behind this arrangement, whether it is a wrong placement of label, or it is meant to avoid contamination of the content from a lot of hands by placing the large opening for share, or it is just being stingy. But yeah, pretty tricky isn't it?

courting ethics is courting ethics. but.....

The same as posted in my tumblr. I think it's nice to put it here also since I haven't decided between blogger or tumblr I know some of my personal nice fellows who somehow love the topic of "dating courting ethics" will actually read this. About a group of unusual people happen to co-exist in our lives. This doesn't make me question or have my beliefs shaken, I just ponder about this since the pinkdot movement in Singapore last weekend and @alittlelamb's (I believe she's clearly straight and not in a relationship with her co-star and ex-roomie! Go to and spend time at all-girls school and you'll know why) blog post some time ago.

---

Each of God's creation is wonderful on their own.

But with the resentment towards the LGBT community, even from the Christian community with the belief that the Bible shouts the disapproval towards those people, I sometimes wonder, "are they not created by God? But God is the creator of all things, so why are there such a big resentment and alienation towards them, even from the Bible itself? How if it is actually genetics and not lifestyle choices? Naturally, genetics are not a thing we can control, we only can predict the outcome but ultimately God decides which dominant and recessive genes will be expressed so that sometimes genetic engineering doesn't get what it wants the fenotype and genotype of the modified organism to be in perfect condition. Well, unless the parents want to have a genetically-modified children to satisfy their own desires."

.

I've seen the example of some members of LGBT community or even those who have undergone surgery who stay close to God (not necessarily Christians). Are they sinners? Don't they love God enough? Don't they try to obey what God said?

.

I believe if they can choose, they also don't want to be born as those who are thought as abnormality in the society. Or worse, an abject.

.

Anyway if it is actually lifestyle choices, then, I won’t shout any opinions anymore. That'll be clear though, I'll stick with what I believe in.

Enjoying my day off~

cr: tumblr

I don't recommend working for 7 days a week (well, 6, if you count the half-days). Really. It's crazy and exhaustive.

So.. Since my working stations are used today so I have nowhere to work, and with the fact that I have a rightful holiday in one weekday of my choice to compensate for my work on the weekend, I'm staying here, in my room, with my camera, books, laptop, Adobe Photoshop and TV series. And my planner and a few Power Point slides for tomorrow's work.

Sometimes I just need to feel good about myself..

Some buses in Singapore have two seats in front that are narrower than the rest of the seats. As pictured, it is meant for one adult and one child only because it is that small and narrow and somehow they think (and I also used to think) that it's impossible for two adults to sit there.

A few weeks ago I rode on a bus with a friend. There were only one of those two seats left. We were hesitant at first to sit there together and I actually chose to stand instead, but then we decided to give it a try. And guess what? It fitted us both! It was not a big surprise though since we are both girls and Asian girls are in general skinnier than Westerners due to different measures of our bones and tissues. But still, hey, the seat was just nice for us, which implies that we are in general skinny enough! LOL

A few days ago suddenly a bored PhD student in my lab went inside and tried to lift each girls. She claimed that she could approximate somebody else's weight by lifting them. Which is very nice, because she may be useful for a mass balance so I don't necessarily buy one (well, maybe you can approximate my check-in baggage weight everytime I am going to fly overseas! =D). I think I was the first person she lifted.

I was holding the micropipette and my electrode at that time when she suddenly removed me from the ground I was standing on very easily. I was surprised and squealed (more like quacked......) because from what I see, she's that thin (even though she eats cookies a lot when she's not in the lab! talk about injustice in the world).

What did it imply? I weighed less than her.

So.. I am thin enough, aren't I? Haha. Happy =D

And there's additional fact that I am still the youngest person in my lab. FYI there's still a 2nd-going-to-3rd-year student in my lab and he's older than me. One thing to be thankful to Indo education system that we entered uni at one year younger than those students at the other regions nearby (ie. South East Asia).

LOL

All glory and praise be to God alone!

"As someone told me lately, everyone deserves the chance to fly!" - "Defying Gravity", Wicked (Original Broadway Cast)

SVC is here!

so these are my staple reading materials from now on...

(and start tightening my belt from now.)

Finally, I have some time to write

I guess it's been a long time that I haven't updated this blog. Yeah. A friend had asked me about that earlier.. And yah. I'm working now, in that same old brand new lab. There are more people now, compared to three of us last year. It's merrier, but at the same time, it's been harder to work at the same rate as I did before. Well then, now I've got to work on Sat but I am entitled one day off-duty in weekdays. Not bad. It's quite tiring, and I spend most of my time in my lab since I am doing the tedious process of preliminary results, so I'd be more active in tumblr since it has the application for phone so that I can easily post whatever I want (short posts only, that's what my tumblr is for, aside of reblogging) from my phone while I'm running the program for my experiment. So yep, I'm still around. Don't worry.

Anyway, I've been using my days off to work with the school as helpers in chemistry workshops for JC and sec students, so apparently, they are another kind of labwork. But these few days had been fun! The last time I taught chem in A-level prep in Indo, I didn't think that I did very well, because one, I communicate by writing better and two, it's quite hard to me to communicate in Indo properly now. Furthermore it was organic chem which was (and still is) not the field that I am interested in and am currently working on (but yeah, it's relatively easier to understand compared to quantum chem and kinetics). Alright, no excuses! On the positive side, the lesson earned from the past experience combined with my love to labwork have brought me to understanding of the teaching and learning process itself. Plus I speak in English more, so that's good since I am working on speaking fluently and correctly, which I am struggling on because of the Singlish-around-me atmosphere.

One of my friend shared this to me.

"A US chem professor ever said that, if an undergrad, even PhD student can't make even secondary school students understand about the chemistry they're doing, then they are not a good scientist at all."

So? It's like telling me to be a gracious and respectable chemistry student who are reliable, knowledgeable, fair and considerate. Specially like those research students who are blessed enough to do good projects with a superb and helpful professor and mentors and labmates and chances to publish papers afterwards.

At the same time, I'm worrying about my grade as well as hall allocation. The NTU system is somehow mysterious. I've even lowered my standard to "no F in the transcript". So yah. Please God. Please.

I only hope this hardwork pays off. The nature of my work now is a die-die-must-finish-in-one-day, so I must try to come as early and work as efficiently as possible if I don't want to spend my night in the lab and not on the mattress provided by my hall, which I have been close to. Even though it's not King Koil anymore, it's much better than carton boxes on the floor. The synthetic lab training had given me some useful skills to be applied in a general labwork, even though I am far, far, far away from synthesis and organic chemistry.

And I've been treating someone badly today. It was nice that the person did something good. But then I did not treat that person properly. I feel like I'm reeeally a bad person who can't appreciate the blessing that God has given me in the form of friends. I must be more grateful to the people who stick to me through thick and thin, aren't I? Sheesh.

nguping bench, spring 2011

A post in Bahasa Indo. Enjoy~

TIK, IPG dan KK exam terakhir semester ini.

TIK: Aduh optics nih, aku takut fail..
IPG: Iya nih. Udahlah, jangan khawatir, masih ada semester depan. NTU belum tutup.
KK: *lewat di bench HSS* Gw juga.
HSS: Emang mereka semua berencana mau fail ya?

---

SNG ambil module nyanyi.

IPG: *mendekat* Mention the singing positions! Jongkok, duduk, berdiri.
SNG: Hahaha. Jongkok-berdiri-jongkok-berdiri aja. Squat jump.

---

Di bench lagi panas2nya (Singapore ~35 derajat C), tiba2 ada angin lewat.

TIK: Angin.....

---

SNG: Suara orang itu paling optimal waktu malam. Baru bangun itu suara paling ga optimal.
TIK: Oh pantesan, kalo aku choir di gereja, choirnya kan mulai jam 3, aku baru bangun jam 1..

---

IPG: Step 2 ... Kita campurkan bawang merah dan bawang putih... Menjadi bawang pink!!

---

Petualangan TIK dan IPG mencari ujung semut.

AH: Nyari ujung semut tuh ya, semutnya (panjang 1 semutnya) segini, ujungnya ya disini..

---

SNG: Eh, ini jangan dimasukin nguping bench ya.

didengar oleh editor yang langsung mencatat quote ini.

---

SNG: Should we call it a day?
IPG: Yeay! A day!

---

Waktu lagi ngomongin Google:

IPG: Eh bosnya Google siapa yah?
IK: Bukannya Sergei Brin dan satunya yah? Tapi itu ada Senior Vice Presidentnya si OI yang jago banget..
SNG/IPG: COE?
EW: College of Engineering?

---

Lanjutan

IPG: OInya jago apa? Bikin prata? (uda ngakak)
EW: Ntar ada bahasa pemrograman yang gantiin Java, namanya Prata..
SNG: Iya, ikonnya roti pipih kasih kare.
CS: ...

---

Lanjutan IK: Ah ini harus masukin Nguping Bench
EW: Eh kirim LPJ ke Rendi dulu!
IK: Udah!

---

SNG: Itu di Quad ada kartu yang dijual, tulisannya Never Hold Your Fart. Terus lanjutan tulisannya gitu Never Hold Your Fart, itu kan gas-gas beracun yang harus dibuang, jadi kalo ga dibuang, itu bakal naik lewat spinal cord, terus masuk ke otak, that’s where the shitty thoughts come from.
EW: Kartunya kalau dibuka bisa bunyi yah?

---

IPG: Gua pernah tuh nonton film Kuntilanak yang kepalanya terbang2, terus makanin ari2, dan itu ditayangkan di TPI (Televisi PENDIDIKAN Indonesia)

---

SNG: Kata guru HP806, “RSAF jangan ketuker sama istilah British yang banyak pake 'Royal' jadi Royal Singapore Air Force yah."
EW: Iya, kalo Inggris kan dibikin Royal semua.
IPG: Kalo Indo Regal!

---

IK: 3 Gorges Dam kan deket sana ada makamnya Liu Bei
SNG: Bukannya 3 Gorges Dam di India yah? (gubrak)
EW: 3 Gorges Damnya membendung kari pake prata.

---

IPG: Lu masi mau bikin summary?
CS: Iya ntar sambil tidur.

---

IK: T, kalo kamu punya pacar, trus ada 2 foto, kamu sama pacarmu, trus kamu mau bikin sesuatu. Kamu lebih suka pasang fotomu sendiri atau fotomu sama pacarmu?
TIK: Wah aku ga tau bos, aku ga pernah punya pacar..

didengar oleh benchers yang langsung merasa kasihan.

---

HSS: (Baca nguping bench) Menarik, menarik. Tidak masuk akal.

---

HSS: Bulannya indah sekali. Aku ingin ada bulan seperti ini setiap hari.
JK: Bulan depan juga ada lagi.

---

SNG: Kalau mau nyembunyiin perut tuh harus tahan napas kayak gini..
Seorang cowok di bench: Pengen ga punya perut deh.
HSS: Emang ada manusia nggak punya perut?

---


cr: AHP's friendster

TIK: Bench itu kan mulai dari segelintir orang.
KK: 4 orang doang. AHP, VA, RED sama GBS.
TIK: (AHP dan VA kan pacaran) Kenapa GBS gak mau sama RED aja ya?

---

(lagi nge-raid friendsternya KK)

IK: (Liat foto KK waktu SMA) Dulu kurus ya?
(beberapa saat kemudian)
IK: Maaf To, gw ga tau kalo dulu lo kurus.
HSS: Gendutnya mulai kapan?

---

Molecular Model, anyone?

My friend is selling her molecular model. She asked me to keep the thing for her in case there are people in school who want to buy it. So, if anyone is interested, please contact me, or if you know someone who needs it, please refer me to them. The buyer must reside in Singapore, best if they can arrange to pick it up at NTU. Thanks.

Dear problems.

cr: weheartit

Seems like self-assurance. But yeah, that's what I need for now.

http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/55-t-shirts-made-just-for-designers

I was LOL-ing at the one with "You are here, but I can fix that in Photoshop"

Photoshop is really ftw. LOL.

Anyway I want these :p









oh well, I'm not a web designer, but who cares about the first two :p
and yeah, I'm not a graphic designer either. if it's so, my course would have been ADM, not chemistry But well...

iluma stall is surprisingly not crowded today. due to high temperature outside?

eat, koi, #sgelections study.
yeah.

A friend brought me the koi. Of course it's not free, but it was a very nice of him to offer me nice drinks when outside temperature is 36 degrees Celcius and inside temperature is more than 100 degrees (oh, I'm quite stable, aren't I? I haven't decomposed yet. LOL). Thank you, brother!


Anyway,
Have been playing with the program used when in a hurry or in a deep midst of laziness to give more effort in photoshop Photoscape lately *exams!*. The more I see the 'film effect' filter, the more I miss the time of film/analog photography. Yes, the current digital era makes photography cheaper and more accessible to everyone (my friends know that this contains a bit of cynical criticism) but well, some era never dies. Especially with certain special films and cameras you can buy or modify yourselves..

Last convocation, my senior brought her (or her dad's?) SLR (don't confuse this with DSLR). I was like all "...." and thankfully I was allowed to use it when she asked me to help taking photos of her and her friends. Creepily happy! Especially because the last time I took photos with film camera was around 10 years ago. Not a long time ago I met a senior who was also bringing his film camera to school and said that he needed to finish his film soon. Nice!! Request sent to dad =p

Quoting this lady:

About once a year, I acquire a new camera. I’ve missed shooting with film. Although I do shoot film with my lomo cameras, it’s different. So, this is the solution I found, especially after marveling over the photos my friend took with her FM2. This new camera will be joining in the ranks of my G11, Panasonic LX3, Diana F+, Polaroid, and Holga. I may have a problem.

Just a thought. If you want to have a decent program for photo-editing, Photoscape is a freeware. It is quite handy, a lot of things can still be done (well, I haven't found the brush tools and all stuffs, but for enhancing photos this is nice-and-easy, you can still modify a lot and you can still use the curves..) and it'll give you nice results afterwards. If you consider yourself a pro so you "die-die" want to use Adobe Photoshop instead, just buy the original one, don't use the piracy version. I know it's expensive if you can't access the student version, but it's a good investment if you're really into it. Intellectual properties need appreciation, too ;) Just saying.

Firefox 4

Call me super late, but yes, I haven't updated my firefox yet.

Care to know why?

This.



Super FAIL. Considering this as a 'technological university', this learning portal has become really an annoyance.

Edventure = NTU learning portal which is only optimized for IE.
Duh. Anyone still using it? Everytime I use using IE at both my lapie and my home PC, the whole systems hang. So?

With Firefox 5 (said to be) coming, I don't know what to say. Definitely won't sacrifice the enhancement of my lapie for this, so I may need to hang out at library more often in the future (2 more mods to go..). Only to use that old version of IE and open edventure. Sad.

Honoring Lady Di's Birthday

from shumbodynamedharry (Harry Shum, Jr.'s tumblr blog)

I was like.. "huh? Lady Di?" And even thought that was Lady Diana Spencer aka Diana the Princess of Wales' photo (post Royal Wedding effect, yea).. Then I realized that THAT Diana's birthday is (or was?) in July.. So?

Oh well.

Lady Di here means miss Dianna Agron. Funny how I notice that Lea Michele calls her "lady" on her tweets. Now I know another reason why (apart from the fact that she is really a lady!). (ex-)Roommates' secret =p

Anywaay. Happy belated birthday, miss Agron! Keep smiling, keep acting, keep writing and taking photos. Go Fabray! Lucy Caboosey FTW.

And hmm. Jenna and Kevin are there too, sitting side-by-side!

A slight sign of OCD?

In class. This module has no posted notes, so the students need to copy whatever written in class.

Coursemate: He talks very fast! Does he expect us to write and listen to what he's explaining at the same time?
Me: He expects us to be able to multitask and his accent is not good at all. I don't understand what he has been teaching this far.
Coursemate: Yes. He changes his paper very fast! What is he thinking...
Me: Agreed. And I don't like it when my notes are not neatly written.
Coursemate: Neither do I.

Then what am I doing now? Rewriting notes that were not neatly written.

When I say "I am a Christian"...

cr: tumblr

A (late) commemoration of the end of teaching lab session in my undergrad life

A compiled lab manual, washed-with-soap googles, perfectly ironed lab coat,

and polished nails. Good bye DCM for a while!

And hello exams!

an old video.

NTU-ISCF camp is not complete without mass-singing and guitar in the bus. Well, a quite effective way to build and strengthen your fellowship. During our journey to the campsite, I decided to record them singing one song.. Here it is, who knows years later these people are famous with their own bands. Enjoy =)

Miles to go to sleep.

Tomorrow I'll attend Easter service at dawn. I really feel sleepy now but I can't relax if my reports and quiz prep haven't finished yet.. So, I am still here, stuck in front of my computer...


cr: tumblr

Anyway, happy Easter, people! A sermon at my church on Good Friday reminded us on how a lot of people greet "Merry Christmas" but only a few people greet "Happy Easter", although both celebrate God's greatest love to the world where He sent His Son to redeem the world. Well, in Christmas, Jesus was born, so it is a really festive and joyful day. But, on Easter, Jesus, who had died on the cross, beat the death and gained victory. So be happy and be grateful for the Lamb that has been slained, for He has been crucified for our sins.

Dinner today

taken by Panasonic Lumix DMC LX-5 at Botejyu, FEAST, Jurong Point.


My batch's excos were having dinner together today. Thanks all for coming, gathering and catch-upping in the midst of exam preparation and tiredness of internships =) And thanks for the treat, girl! Happy birthday~

Cut here, tear there, and enjoy the bits!

cr: topit.me

Don't do it, people. It does not worth it. Your hands and veins are not plastic bags.

"Do you ever feel already buried deep, 6 feet under scream and no one seems to hear a thing?
Do you know that there's still a chance for you,
cause there's a spark in you,
you just gotta ignite the light and let it shine
just own the night like the 4th of July!"
Katy Perry - "Firework"

Well, it's no secrets among my friends that I don't like her voice. But this song talks a lot and I kinda like the lyrics so I just post it here.. Uh anyway, ofc Glee has made this song more listen-able for me. LOL.

slurrpp

cr: flickr

late night studying for tomorrow's test + dizzy head + skeleton structures + seeing this = moral booster.

=D

Of David.

I stumbled upon this verse today, this really cooled my heart in the midst of heat and tears. Kiasu-ism, selfishness, unfairness, envy and scheme plotting to block the internet access from NTU students are everywhere.

Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psalm 37:7)

Apparently the whole passage is a good reminder, too!

Praise the LORD, stay faithful, and be blessed to be a blessing to others!

Agony

cr: tumblr

My hall (and the whole campus') internet has been really bad for the past 1 or 2 weeks. For those of you who have my twitter or google buzz, you might notice that I've been complaining about that for several times. It has been hard to download anything, the browsing, download and upload speed is not as fast as before, and the worse is sometimes the internet is down. So at times, I can't browse anything. Well, for me internet is not merely for entertainment and only-for-fun stuffs. It'd been hard for me to read papers (yes, JOURNAL PAPERS or EXAM PAPERS not the word "paper" students and teachers use in Indo which I think, has different meaning), google something out, read wikipedia for basic stuffs, etc.

One thing that disturbs me is the worse download speed for YouTube. It's no secret that while I was still in Indo, the internet speed was much worse than what I have here in Singapore/NTU. Now I can listen to a lot of good songs, be them from the original artists or its cover versions (esp those whose originals are creepy =p), uploaded at YouTube. And they are completely legal, because recording labels upload songs there as well, for promotion or outreach. So there should not be any copyright infringement. It keeps me updated with new songs or songs that I've never heard of and were recommended to me by my friends as well. Some of my friends also record their performances and upload them in YouTube, too. Creativity matters and appreciation required. So IMO, there's no reason to ban or block access to this.

Lately YouTube (or NTU internet..) has been acting strange. Sometimes the videos can't load at all. Sometimes they load only a part of it and then, can't continue or become buffering. Sometimes the bar shows that the video has been completely buffered, but in fact not all parts can be played. So I can't listen to a lot of various songs while I am studying (yea, exam is near) or doing my reports or doing any other things (browsing, blogging, editing photos, etc).

It is not really bad, since I have my phone and my mp3 player, but the songs inside them are limited (both of them don't have big memories, once again because there's YouTube so I just put in songs that I really like) and sometimes after 4-5 cycles of the same set of songs in a day, I'll get bored.

One alternative is to shuffle series and films to keep me company but I will have the tendency to watch them instead. So, a big no. There's Glee which has a lot of songs but still, it is series that has story and watch-able (and its new episode will be out next week!! How am I supposed to watch it without decent internet speed?)

I know exam period is near and maybe the school wants the students to concentrate on studying and achieve good academic results so the university reputation will be improved (well, this is Asia and reputation are based on quantitative achievements and how do you compare to others.. meritocracy!). But does the school expect us only to sit down and cram for exams with our notes and textbooks without company or relaxation? Some brains, at least mine, don't function like that, else we might turn insane. Music and sound make our life normal and may increase our productivity and creativity.. So, if you don't want to produce robots, please return our internet connection!

What's wrong with studying?

As in, if you choose studying instead of gathering with friends, you're wrong. If you choose studying instead of attending other events or participating in a committee, you're really wrong, and lame.

Some people are just perfectionist, their standard of understanding course materials are higher than others. Some people also need longer time to grasp all the concepts. Some people just find studying (and learning) more interesting. Some people just have different priority. Of course, some people do not fall to any of the above criteria and most of the times, most of the people I've met, they are the people who judge those who simply spend more time to study. Basically, people are different.

Or studying is just an excuse for the person to spend time alone. It is just an excuse to allow you to go home and sleep without looked lazy or tired that leads everyone to ask a LOT to you. Some people give it as excuse while they are going to do something else later. Some people may just be tired of gathering and do activities. Or they simply don't like to be around those people.

Nutellaneedles

cr: tumblr

Is this a good reagent to be used in lab? Definitely NO. Why? Cos if yes, I won't be so careful with syringes and needles anymore.. LOL

Traffic congestion on Sunday morning?

phone camera is still phone camera, even though this one has better resolution than the previous one. I wish I brought my beloved semi.

Anyone knows what happened at Jalan Bahar this morning to afternoon?

The jam started at 8 am (I am more than certain that today is SUNDAY!) and when I went back at around 11.30 am, the traffic was still pretty much the same. I stucked inside 199 bus for 1 hour (the journey from Boonlay interchange to my hall only takes around 20 mins). Anyway I heard that one person had been waiting for any 199 bus in NTU hall for 40 minutes plus.. Well...

I even thought that if I walked from the beginning of the traffic jam until my hall, I would have reached NTU much faster (even though it'd be REALLY tiring). Boonlay to NTU only takes approximately 30 minutes by foot (try only if you want to dare yourself or you have no other options of transport..). If they could be more flexible, gave one-off exceptional case and allowed the affected passengers to alight not on the bus stop and walked from there (199 bus stops are not so many, the stops along Jalan Bahar are quite far from one another), I wonder how many people would have alighted back then. I didn't ask for that anyway, I had known the answer right away: NO SUCH THING EXISTS.

I was thankful for my phone, music, phone camera and reading materials that I always bring with me to church to keep me company. I used to live in Jakarta which is famous for its long long traffic jam for 18 years and had battled inside public buses for 6 years =P My experience as a lonely wanderer really prepares me for the better and the worse

179 bus service was not better. No 179 buses came to pick up passangers in the interchange even after 10 minutes of its scheduled departure. I couldn't find any news regarding this at STOMP, Straits Times, yahoo.sg, even the so-called almighty google.. So?

(edited at 8.29 pm) So apparently there was this annual event. Usually I never passed through that area on this date since 2nd week of April is usually Easter day and my church holds the Easter service before dawn (according to the story in the Bible when Mary Magdalene went to Jesus' tomb).. So.. yah, should have planned my journey better.

A late evening melancholy

cr: Mere Musings

If only there's a coffeeshop like this nearby, I'd really love to go there and stay for a whole day to study or simply reading books, just like what they do in movies and TV series.. I have never found any place like this near the place where I am staying at. The height of the table is just right and the ambience is just nice. Yea. Students here seem to gather in junk food stalls and I don't really like the smell of it.. And besides, to be able to stay, at least you must buy a drink and I don't fancy those common soft drinks.. The nearest starbucks is too noisy and their tables are too short for me to write, do calculations and stuffs. Studying at my room makes me either sleepy, dizzy, losing my concentration, or remembering people or behavior I don't like in that particular class. Sad.

Nutellabrot

Ich liebe Nutellabrot!

anyway.. this was my sinful dinner for the past few days. Cheers!

I was listening to Wicked's Defying Gravity when suddenly I took a look at the youtube video and saw that they are putting this very ad on the video. Super anticlimax.

How do they even know that the person who was listening to this is doing chemistry for her future life? I even have never watched (err ok, maybe once in a million times) chemistry video in there..