Cherchez La Vérité: September 2005

Wednesday, September 28

Don't Friend You

"I know you friend Jolene, but if you friending her, then I don't friend you already."

Haha. I'm glad you friend me. =)

Monday, September 26

More details for Watershock! Anyone out there wanna GO?! Think it's for SMU ppl only though. Sorry Isaac. Budden again, who would know? Heh.

Sunday, September 25

SMU! LEMME HERE YOU SCREEEEEEEEAM!

I really have lots to blog about, but I don't have the time! AHHHH! Anyway a brief overview of what has to be the most insane week so far. Praise God for bringing me through.

MONDAY
FA Class
Voice Personality Hunt
Communications Meeting from 7 to 9pm

TUESDAY
Accompanied SPD clients to Tiong Bahru Plaza
STUDY FA!
Sound Foundry/ E.I.C Concert rehearsal till 10pm

WEDNESDAY
STUDY FA!
MC Sound Foundry/ E.I.C Concert till 10pm
Supper with Daph, Yihan, Yuan Wei and Eric.

THURSDAY
Communications Class
Stats Class
Drama Workshop till 10pm

FRIDAY
LTB Class
STUDY FA!
FA Quiz!
Service @ ARPC
Late night supper. Back home at 2am

SATURDAY
Nanyang BB
Song lead at PUNJ
PUNJ Bible Study
SMUX Nite Bike, from 6pm to 7am Sunday morning.

SUNDAY
MUCH NEEDED SLEEP.
Comms assignment due tomorrow.

My ass is aching from last night's SMUX Nite Bike event, bad seats. Other than that, quite an enjoyable experience. We started from East Coast Park, and cycled up to Geylang. What everyone didn't expect was the walking tour of the Red Light District. We parked our bikes at a hotel, and had guides to bring us around.

While it's nothing as raunchy as Amsterdam, it's still pretty interesting to see the shadier side of Singapore. A LOT of foreign workers man. We were joking about seeing some of the Profs there. Ha. Tau Huay at Geylang, cycled up to Bukit Timah for more supper at Al-Ameen, rode up Kent Ridge park, which brought back memories of cycling up the mountain at Hopfgarten (EURO BOYS! Where are you guys?!), and then we ended off at West Coast Park.

Oh and I meant to post this earlier, I totally enjoyed myself at the Sound Foundry/E.I.C. concert! The bands that played were fantastic, especially Jameel's band, 7 till Dawn, and of course, E.I.C.. I'm very thankful for Grace, whom I was co-hosting with. She's just so natural as an emcee, and I really could learn from her. There's so much more that I could imporve in. Hoping to emcee for ASOC day. I need the practice!

It's week 6 baby. We're almost half way through.

Saturday, September 24

Watershock. Anyone Interested?

Tuesday, September 20

Watching All That 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' Paid Off

It's pretty unreal winning the Voice Personality Hunt. Any 8 of us contestants could have won it. Honestly! I'm not trying to be politically correct here! Besides the cash prize, I now get a slot on Campus Radio and the opportunity to co-host the Sound Foundry and EIC concert with Grace tomorrow. Wicked. Still thinking whether I should take up the radio show though, cos' if I can't be fully committed, I wouldn't want to do the job half-heartedly.

The FA quiz on Friday is really bugging me though. I guess I really have to be a better steward of my time now more than ever. I really need to get my priorities in check.

Monday, September 19

Do Nothing

It's been such a hectic 2 weeks. I'm looking back at my organiser and I can't believe I did all that stuff in such a short span of time. I really need to slow down. There's hardly any room to breathe now, cos' it seems like I'm doing something at every moment.

Sometimes it's just good to sit down and do nothing. Just sit down and reflect on what it's all about. About what God has blessed you with, what you treasure in life, and what is your main motivation for living, or are you just living for the sake of?

Voice Personality Hunt tomorrow. I hope the crowd will be responsive.

Friday, September 16

Vinotique

Oh yeah! By the way, my Dad's opening a wine shop tomorrow, and if you guys are avid wine lovers, or just wanna visit, come on down and pick up a bottle or 2! The shop's name is Vinotique. Vino (Italian for wine) + Boutique = Vinotique! So there you go. Here's the address:

Blk 4 Queen's Road #02-133

You guys know Westlake is? That famous Chinese restaurant along Farrer Road with excellent "Tze Char" and killer kong ba paus? It's right next to it!

Dad managed to get quite a wide selection of French, Australian, Californian, Chilean, Italian, and South African wine. Hardys, Peter Lehmann, Xanadu, Rupert and Rothschild, B&G, Georges Duboeuf, Enate, Luis Filipe Edwards and even Deutz Champagne, just to name a few. More than 30 labels! Plus they're not your cheap supermarket kinda wine, it's quality stuff!

Wine REALLY goes with anything. I used to think wine was just grape juice + alcohol,
but after drinking for a while, you can really taste the flavours that wine brings out in a meal! Oooh La La!

Here's 48 Hours Of Stuff To Do. Complete Them Today.

That's been the story of SMU life so far. I think to make up for the lack of hall activities (or the lack of halls for that matter), they have so many activities going on, and I'm really spoilt for choice.

I really wanna make the best out of life in SMU. I don't want to look back and say that it was all about the mugging and grades. Yes grades are important, but if school revolves solely around it, I wouldn't have any motivation whatsoever to come into class.

3 out of 4 modules I'm taking has a project, and it's a real challenge coordinating meeting times for the different groups, since everybody has different timetables. The LTB Project with the Society for the Physically Disabled should be on it's way soon. I better learn Photoshop fast. We have to pick a firm and do an annual report for Financial Accounting project. With the FA presentation out of the way, that's one thing less to worry about. Haven't sat down with Dave, Jun Han and Ye Rong for Comms, should do that really soon yeah. Although there're no projects for Stats, there's still quite a lot of questions in Prof Yang's assignments.

Went for the Voice Personality Hunt interviews on Thursday with Eric and Tim. What they didn't tell us is that if we get in, we'll have to come back on Sunday to rehearse, since the event is on Monday afternoon. VPH is basically a Emcee contest. I don't know what they'll be judging on, but if Eric or I win, we decided to split the $300 prize money 50-50. It's good to plan these things just in case you know? HA!

ASOC (SMU's Accountancy Society) had its sub-comm recruitment drive on just this afternoon, and I signed up for the Events comm. Should be fun organizing next year's orientation! Went down to Bishan Park for Ultimate Frisbee straight after. Was falling asleep at Pastor Chris' sermon as a result. Good sermon nonetheless! Continuing the series on Revelation.

Gotta be at Nanyang Pri early tmr morn again. Haven't seen them monkeys in a while. *Piinch!!!*

Tuesday, September 13

Oh my.

The iPod nano can also be an organiser, address book and calender, if you sync it with Microsoft Outlook. OH MY.

Monday, September 12

Spoil Market

Financial Accounting presentation went really well! Thank God! Prof Gan was commenting on how he was expecting the standards to be much lower, but we had unexpectedly set high standards for the rest of the class. Spoil market man! I'm sure the rest will be able to top it though.

I think we were really fortunate to be the first group to present for this semester. The questions are bound to get tougher as the weeks pass, so it's great that we get it done as soon as possible. Very thankful that my teammates are quite capable. David especially, is quite a "lao jiao" when it comes to FA, cos' he's done it before in secondary school.

It was quite a compliment when Prof Gan asked me after the presentation, "Gabriel, have you done accounting before?". Imagine that! I don't think I was THAT convincing! My other teammates definately have a much better understanding of FA than me I feel. He was really generous with his praises for the group, and I now feel the added pressure of maintaining this 'high standard' he now associates us with.

Ben was constantly bombarded with questions, which I felt was quite unfair to him. I really felt like telling some of the guys to shut up. This is what happens when you get participation points for speaking up. Some questions were legitimate of course, some were just time wasters.

Went down to the Society for the Physically Disabled with Yiling, Peggan, Ben, Chris and Jinshu this afternoon to clarify what their needs are. We're doing this community service project as part of LTB (Leadership and Team Building) module that all of us have to take. Some feel that it's a pain in the ass, forcing us to do comm service, but there really are so many takeaways here. Our initial proposal was ok, but we have to make some changes to the project. Looking forward to working with SPD.

I'm still limping after yesterday's AHM. Managed to do 1h 53mins, which is above my expectations, considering the longest distance I've clocked for training prior to AHM was 12km. 2 months plus to Stand Chart!

Sunday, September 11

Post Army Half Marathon

Typing this in school. Yup, it's Sunday, and I'm in school. Financial Accounting presentation tomorrow, so I'm meeting up with my group later in and hour's time to have a run through. Hopefully we don't take too long to tie up the loose ends. Quite sleepy after AHM.

I had a relatively good run this morning. Got up at 4.45 AM, hopped into a cab and met Jason, Soon Wee and his friend (whoops SW I forgot his name!) at SMU by 5.30AM. Put our "barang barang" into Jason's and my locker, and made our way to the starting point at Esplanade.

Pretty much like last year's run, except this year, they were able to resume using Nicoll Highway as part of the route. Yup, we all remember why Nicoll Highway was off limits last year.

Jason was commenting about how my pace kept altering throughout the run. I guess I really can't keep a constant pace, or else I'll just die of boredom. I was actually running to the tempo of the music I was listening to. Ha. Oh and the iPod nano works fantastic! Music doesn't skip at all, due to the flash based memory. I really should get an armband though. Gulp, I foresee myself buying a lot more accesories for the dang thing. I actually went back to the Wheelock Apple store with Apes today, just to check if there were any accessories (there won't be any till 2 weeks from now), and I found out that the 4GB Black iPod nanos are ALL SOLD OUT!

Dan (my bro) was really disappointed, cos he wants one for his birthday coming up on Tuesday, so I helped him place a pre-order. It's quite funny really, when I first told my Mom that I spent 400 bucks on the iPod, she was pretty pissed. But then when I showed it to her, she was like, "Oh wow, this is pretty neat!". Design works wonders.

That's how Apple works. They reel you in with their uber-chio products, and then before you know it, you're a slave to their accessories because they look so darn gorgeous, and you just want to keep buying more.

Music really takes your mind off fatigue when running. Listening to Jamiroquai's Supersonic while climbing up Benjamin Sheares Bridge really gets the adrenaline going. Hoohah! Terry Fox Run next Sunday guys?

Saturday, September 10

Pre Army Half Marathon

A hearty meal at Founder's Bak Kut Teh in Balestier probably isn't the best meal to have before a half marathon. Oh well. Better rest up. Running in 7 hours. My best friend during the run? My iPod Nano. It's such a beauty. Black no less. Ahhh...

My preciousssss

Friday, September 9

I WAAAANT! ARGHHH!

I WANT.

週末は待つ

The weekend's here, 2 days to AHM.

It's been a mentally draining and physically exhausting week. I am having fun in school, but my main gripe is that the travelling is really getting on my nerves. Rush hour turns what should be a 30 minute journey, into an hour long bus ride. Imagine if I had went to NTU, think I'll be cursing a lot on the bus and train ride to Boon Lay.

Went to Caldecott Hill for the Mediacorp Studio tour that the nice people at SMUBE organised for us this afternoon. It was fascinating how the DJs work with such efficiency during their shows. The equipment looked a lot more complicated than what I saw at the Power 98 studios the other time. Stanley, one of the DJs and producers at Live 93.8 showed us around. We got to take a peek at Daniel Ong and Jean Danker at work while they were on their shifts.

We also went to the TrafficWatch department, where they have access to 400 cameras on the roads throughout Singapore. So it's true. You are being watched by Big Brother at all times. We saw this 3-car accident on the PIE, and the camera could actually zoom in to see the faces of the people who got out of their cars. Was quite amusing to see them looking pissed and quarreling with each other. Quite voyeuristic eh.

When we were at the reception waiting to go into the radio building, there were these group of schoolgirls seated at the waiting area doing their homework. Anytime a TV personality walked out, they would stop doing their homework and ask for their autograph. Well, I guess we all have our hobbies.

Gonna do a recording with Tim and Eric for Campus Radio tomorrow. Hopefully it goes well! AHM on Sunday, Terry Fox Run to sign up for, but most nagging thought on my mind, FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING PRESENTATION ON MONDAY!!! Just how do you make the presentation of balance sheets interesting? Dress up in a number costume maybe. I don't know.

Mediacorp Studios. Where Zoe Tay reigns supreme.

I'm taller than Sylvester Sim. Taufik looks on in amusement.

Daniel Ong at the P10 studios

93.3fm studio

Believe it or not, Jean Danker is somewhere in this photo.

The shoes Uma Thruman wore in Kill Bill. Nice.

Wednesday, September 7

My new babies. Just in time for AHM. Thanks for the lobang Isaac. 01 x Liverpool jersey coming your way.

Tuesday, September 6

Pride

I miss watching Japanese soaps. Seriously, it's not just for the ladies! I just can't stand how Takuya Kimura gets the girl after just 20 minutes. Dammit.

Monday, September 5

Uh Oh Here It Comes

And the stress bug has kicked in a lot sooner than expected. Every week, a group of 6 of us in the Financial Accounting class has to do a presentation based on questions Prof Gan gives us. So guess who's group gets to go first next Monday? Gar!

I was quite lost today when he went through adjustments in the balance sheet. Just kept nodding my head, hoping he wouldn't ask me anything (I was in the front row and he kept looking at me), when in actual fact I was thinking 'OK, I'm pretty screwed if I don't read up for the next lesson'.

AHM on Sunday, gotta settle the Exodus camp programme for the BB guys, SMUBE recording on Saturday, Mediacorp tours on Friday, LTB project proposal due on Friday, gotta get my new Asics DS Trainers on Wednesday. I've got this huge checklist in my mind and it's in a big mess. I guess stress is self inflicted, and a lot of my time can be freed up if I didn't choose to do so many extra cirricular stuff.

I wouldn't have it any other way though. Weirdo, I am.

Ah Ma and Val. Happy Birthday Ah Ma!

Bros and cousins

Keith wanted some candle action too.

Sunday, September 4

Mom and Dad singing a cantonese duet.

Us young people, we eat fast.

When I get the mic, run.

Jeu de Pistes

The title for the inaguaral SMUX Adventure Race. I had a good time with Charlene and Jason. Thanks for being such great teammates guys. =)

Just a brief overview of what we did. We swam at the old Chinese High swimming pool, ran from Chinese High to Macritchie, kayaked at the reservoir, trekked from Macritchie to Rifle Range Road, and cycled from Rifle Range Road to Dairy Farm, via the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve biking trail. The race started at 9am, and we finished it in 3 hours and 30 mins.

We could have gotten 1st if we pushed harder initially I felt, but ah well 2nd's alright, and it was quite a good timing I guess. The first team came in 10 minutes ahead of us, and we actually caught up with them at Rifle Range but they pulled away on the bike trail. The 3rd team finished half an hour behind us, so I guess it was quite a good result overall.

It was quite fortunate that Jason's pretty experienced on the Bukit Timah Trail, and I've been on it a few times before too, so we sort of knew what to expect. I must say I really respect Charlene for going through the whole race. She did say she wasn't very confident on a bike. To make matters worse, Charlene has quite a petite built, so the bike was too big for her. Plus anyone that's been on the Bukit Timah Trail knows that it's not good enough to just know how to cycle, you really have to have a keen sense of awareness of your surroundings. Throughout the whole bike trail portion, Jason and I ended up taking turns to sprint forward and then come back for Charlene's bike, while she ran forward. Good strategy.

All that running in the initial stages from Bukit Timah to Macritchie, and from Macritchie to Rifle Range sorta gave us a huge lead on the others, so that made up for the time spent on the bike trail thankfully. I gotta say it was quite well organised, even if it was a small scale event. So kudos to the SMUX committee! Good job guys!

It was too late to go to PUNJ by the time the prizes were given out, so went straight home after the race, and made my way down to Chinatown with my folks for Ah Ma's 83rd Birthday celebration.

Was great to see the whole extended family again. Leave you guys with some photos.

Friday, September 2

Calm Here. Hell Elsewhere.

It's been quite a busy week. Assignments, project meet ups, SMUBE, Run Team, CEO Talks, classes. Having a 3 day week really means having your week pass by a lot faster too.

SMUX Adventure Race tomorrow. They refuse to tell us the venues and where we're going. All we know is that the start point will be the Chinese High Swimming Complex. Well, I don't expect much from it, seeing as how it's the first time such an event is being organised. Hope we win it!

Been watching CNN for the past hour, and I really can't believe what's happening in New Orleans and the neighbouring cities affected by Hurricane Katrina. You would think that with all the warnings they were giving out days before the hurricane struck the U.S. South Coast, people would be ready to deal with the situation. Apparently not!

The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, actually went on national radio and told the U.S. federal government to 'get off their asses' and help. Isn't it ironic that a nation that prides itself in 'helping others' (read: Iraq) and giving aid around the world, can't even save their own people?

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist"- Charles Baudelaire

Name: gabriel

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~~Internship with EY. 14 May to 20 Jul~~
~~Dim Sum Dollies! History of Singapore! 14 May to 20 Jul~~
~~SMU Christian Fellowship Camp: God Dwells Here! 23 to 26 Jul~~
~~Stand Chart Marathon 07. Dec 07~~
~~SMUCF December Bible Retreat. Dec 07~~
~~York with Apes Part II! 16 Dec~~
~~Christmas in Prague! 24-29 Dec~~
~~Back to Singapore. 3 Jan~~
~~Back to School. 7 Jan~~
SMUCF Evangelistic Dinner. 15 Feb
NUS Biathlon 2008. 17 Feb
Singapore Biathlon 2008. 1 Mar
SMUCF April Bible Retreat. Apr 08
Internship. May-Jul
Singapore Triathlon 2008. Jul 08
Aviva Ironman Singapore 70.3. 7 Sep
Cycling Trip. Peninsular M'sia East Coast?
Kathmandu. ???

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