Losing Fitness

Last evening I went for my first run in two months.

All I can say is: WEAK!!!!

Really should make an effort to run more often. Maybe I should put that down somewhere in my resolution for next year....

Something Interesting...

As a self-diagnosed megalomaniac, occasionally I will visit the website of various overseas universities to satisfy my fantasy of studying abroad.

Yes, I know to some of you out there, I did mention about studying abroad. However, there are two reason that I am staying put in Sg: the EDB bond and, more importantly, family responsibility. (So, yes, Andrew, I know you were not blaming me that time. I dun feel that way at all. Instead, I was feeling pity. For myself, of cos)

So anyway, I was going through a couple of universities in Canada, the first of which being the University of Victoria. What I really like about their graduate admission section is that they have this webpage which list the minimum requirements from other countries. So under Singapore, it reads: upper 2nd class on Bachelor.

So ok, I thought, I don't qualify. Then I noticed, just above the requirements for Singapore, it reads: Sierra Leone - upper 2nd class on Bachelor; just below the requirements for Singapore, it reads: South Africa - upper 2nd class on Bachelor.

Then when I scanned further, I found that other countries that have minimum requirement of 'upper 2nd class on Bachelor' includes: UK, Australia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, just to name a few.

When I popped over to the website for the University of British Columbia, the minimum academic requirements (scroll all the way down) there for overseas degrees are similar to University of Victoria.

So all these led me to 2 possibilities, either 1) an UK degree, a Singapore degree, a Zimbabwe degree, etc are all of the same standard, or 2) they are not the same, which means the University applies different minimum requirement standard to degrees from different countries.

So, to end this post, I could just say I might as well try my luck and apply anyway. However, since this is my blog, I'm gonna end by sprouting the nonsense that if I know about this minimum requirements thing long ago, I would had been better off taking my degree in Sierra Leone or Zimbabwe instead of NUS.

Another Muppet Clip

The Muppet Show (with Elton John) - Crocodile Rock

Initially, I wanted to write about the messy state of my bench, desk and work. But then I read a few blogs and realized there are quite a few unhappy souls around. So I decided to post this video clip instead.

When I was in Basel, I watched quite a few episodes of The Muppet Show (from season 1 till half of season 3. I d/l all 5 seasons...) and this is one of my favorite scene. I will always play this clip in youtube, usually more then once - I mean, don't you all find this scene funny? There's Elton John in big colorful costumes,with wacky muppets. And where else can you get crocodiles to do a sing-along - and even the crocodiles are cute!

And where else do you find a variety show full of animals, vegetables and various other creatures? I couldn't explain further but I really like the show; it's good, clean, wholesome, fun entertainment that didn't depend on sex or crude and meaningless jokes to sell, which is so unlike most of what is on offer on TV nowadays.

Hence, I guess most important of all, I like this show because it has innocence. In fact, I think I like shows and movies (and maybe songs) from the 60s, 70s, 80s because of the innocence. I love innocence. Cos I lost mine a long time ago and since then, life had been a bit complicated. Things are simpler now though and I'm keeping it that way, trying to simplify it further. But still, I lost my innocence and the world is now so complicated...

Anyway, this post is suppose to cheer ppl up, and dwelling too much about lost innocence will only make this a depressing topic. So that will be for next time. Meanwhile. Enjoy the clip.

Company Annual D'n'D

Just came back from my first ever company dinner-and-dance.

The company is small, so the scale of the D'n'D was small (only 10 table!). This actually makes the D'n'D more fun as everyone was more involved. What was also nice was to see everyone being so 'on'; the theme was pirates, and a number of people were really dressed up for the occassion (even people in management level). Even big boss (yes, he dressed up a bit) gave his speech according to the theme (e.g."we set out hunting for treasures such as CSP and SPoCC....").

So yah, I took part in one of the games (nothing more then poking balloon) and got a voucher ($5 Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf) for that; had some 'newbie luck' and won another voucher ($50 Taka) in the lucky draw. There's also another $50 Taka vocher in the door gift. So it's been quite a voucher-ful night for me.

Oh, and there was the dance before the lucky draw. Almost everyone got down to the dance floor and let their hair loose. It's really like prom. Then some funny thoughts went through my mind (I wonder how she looks like when she dances....maybe this would be what happened if she's here now dancing to this song....), but oh well, it's not the time for those, so I quickly brushed them aside and enjoyed the night.

So now I am back at home, ready to go to bed. Tomorrow will just be another Saturday and most likely I will be back in the lab, doing some final preparation for my presentation next week.

It's back to the grind.

My Best Buddy's Wedding

Last Sunday was the customary of best buddy TH and his wife Veron. I was one of TH 'brother', so I kinda helped out in the whole thing - from fetching the bride in the morning to the dinner in the evening. It was a bit tiring (considering I only had a total of about ~3 hours of sleep the night before) but it was a very happy and joyous occasion.

TH has always been a good example of down-to-earth living (something I look up to him to); him and Veron is a good example of a nice loving couple. One can only expect marital bliss from them.

Of course, from the whole event I took down some mental notes for my own wedding in the future, and also to share with my other frens who will be tying the knot. Maybe I will post it up here next time.