Week 11..............

It's one of those weeks that's right smack in the middle, when it's supposed to be close to the end, but not quite yet. Feelings of going nowhere linger, or is it just the calm before the storm? Anw after this week, it's the beginning of a 1 day schooling week. So cheers to that!

DB Evo

I was very much disgusted after watching Dragonball Evolution. Heng I did not spend the 6 bucks to watch in theatres. Hollywood practically murdered a manga classic. And I speak for many people who also feel the same way. I was kinda amazed during my exchange that my Italian and French friends closely follow lots of manga stuff, and that includes Dragonball. (Vegata or Goku is usually the favourite). Anw back to this movie, let's just say that Goku doesn't look Asian enough (his hair ain't very spiky and there are idiots on the Net who actually think he turns into an ang moh when he goes into Super Saiyan mode), Master Roshi is not 色 enough (Chow Yun Fatt as 色 anyone?), Bulma looks too old, and worst of all the fight scenes are pathetic. Would have expected something more "Dragonball" like the final fight in the Matrix Revolutions between Neo and Agent Smith (though it did not really make too much sense in the context of Revolutions). Instead all I see is hurling of fireballs here and there.

Dragonball should be more like this, plus fireballs

There was this 1989 Taiwanese movie adaptation of the Dragonball manga which I watched when I was very young. Though it was lame as hell, but at least it was way more funnier, entertaining and it captured the essence of what the story was about, compared to what Hollywood churned out.

Check out the Taiwanese version...hate the English dubbing though..the Chinese one was way much better..

Week 10

Week 10 is marked with individual design ending (at last!!!!) and a dose of shopaholic confession. Not me, I'm no shopaholic. I'm talking about the movie.

Red in the face = cancer?

Source from Reuters:

Red-faced Asian drinkers at esophageal cancer risk

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Asians who get red in the face when they drink too much alcohol have a higher risk of getting cancer of the esophagus, U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Monday.

They said about a third of East Asians -- Chinese, Japanese and Koreans -- have an enzyme deficiency that causes their skin to flush when they drink alcohol, and this trait puts them at higher risk of developing esophageal cancer, an especially deadly type with five-year survival rates of 12 to 31 percent.

"People are fairly well aware of this physical characteristic, which is sometimes called the Asian alcohol response or the Asian flush," said Philip Brooks of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, whose study appears in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

"I don't think people are aware that it is a warning sign for being at risk of esophageal cancer when they drink alcohol. That is what we wanted to point out," said Brooks, who worked on the study with Dr. Akira Yokoyama from the Kurihama Alcohol Center in Japan.

Brooks estimates that at least 540 million people have this alcohol-related increased risk for esophageal cancer.

He said the flushing response occurs in people who have a variation in the ALDH gene, which makes an enzyme called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 that helps the body metabolize alcohol.

People with two copies of this gene variant have such extreme symptoms of flushing, nausea, and racing heart beat that they avoid drinking alcohol.

"They are basically at somewhat reduced risk of developing esophageal cancer because drinking alcohol for anybody is a risk factor for esophageal cancer," Brooks said in a telephone interview
"The concern is for people who have one copy," he said, because they can tolerate drinking.

"In general, people with one copy have about a six to tenfold increase in the incidence of esophageal cancer."

Brooks said doctors should ask patients of East Asian descent of they have a history of facial flushing when they drink.

And he said university health professionals need to be aware of the link between facial flushing and cancer risk since many young people experiment with heavy drinking in college.

There's even a medical journal on it here. Wow...I always thought that turning red when drinking alcohol means good blood circulation. Didn't know it had a name to it and is a possible cause of cancer?!? (Decides to cut down on alcohol......)

The call of IPPT........

How the heck is it even possible to actually step into 2 different shops and hear that same radio commercial playing in the background and telling you to take IPPT?! "This message has been brought to you by the SAF...." A timely reminder in my midst of RT...

RT!!!!!!!

Dreaded RT sessions have begun. Something which I have bitched about since failing my IPPT last yr, it's time to take a bit of punishment. And punishment it is on that Sunday afternoon, it's certainly back to army "politics". "Wait to rush and rush to wait."

Basically, we spent 1 hour for inpro, the next 40 min for briefing, another 25 min to queue up and keying in of NRIC number, height and weight, and a 5 min 400 m orientation run around my former camp which I think I can present even better than the PTI.

So there....first lesson for RT. Oh, and it's a long long time since somebody called me "third sergeant" le. Omg...welcome back to the army.....

TCHS 90th Anniversary

How time flies...I still remember a decade ago, we held our sch's 80th anniversary celebrations and it was grand at that time cos no school could match our publicity and scale in organising such an event. It was termed the 万人宴, so it had a strong showing of students, both old boys and current ones. Never mind the fact that a large number of us Sec.3 students were dragged to perform some chinese dance where we danced with red drums strapped to our breasts and wielded drumsticks with silk cloth on it, or that I had guard duty in the evening for NCC so I kinda missed most of dinner, but it was a big event and most importantly, we got to hang out with our friends plus have a free day off.

Fast forward 10 years to now, we attended the sch's 90th anniversary dinner as old boys over the weekend. It's something we have talked about ever since leaving school. And it was every bit as grand as it was 10 years ago.

Some interesting things happened though. Firstly, as we were seated close to the students section, the waitresses refused to serve us beer! Actually only XM and I managed to get a glass of beer, but the waitress who served us later got reprimanded by another senior waitress. She even threaten to tell the principal....super LOL!! Hello....like we left the sch since 10 years ago le.....do we look like kids?!!?!? Almost wanted to flash our ICs le....

Then there was this song composed specially for this 90th anniversay by Job Tan, oh man......he was our one and only music teacher since sec. 1 and he looks kinda the same....and the song was performed by the choir group and leading the group was.....drum rolls....miss siew, our sec. 4 form teacher!!! When te interview video of her flashed through, my whole table exclaimed with "OMG!!" and the funny part was that it wasn't just us, other students from other tables also had that same expression! Sarcastic clapping....so you could really sense how erm...popular she was...hahaha

Oh and halfway throughout the dinner, we were close to running out of drinks......again....like 10 years ago...don't the caterers ever learn? 10,000 hungry and thirsty boys to cater for....Maybe they ran out of beer too?

And presenting a video when the school song came along....it's kinda amazing how after so many years, I could actually sing the song, just needed a bit of music to get going and all the words suddenly came to mind...Dash and XD were the only guys to seem to remember too....but HH and XM had the super blur expressions on their faces...:p, CW was the one who whipped out his camera handphone first to take the vid, so wang and i followed suit...

Heck, even our table seats were kinda close to where we were during the 80th anniversary right out in the middle of the field. And throughout, we behaved just like boys. Being rowdy, talking cock, talks of 翻桌子 cos the food was bad (it's always bad anw :p), phone porn surfing (cw again la...) etc etc... For a moment there, it felt as if we still 长不大, as if we have never left our days in TCHS. Haha good times good times....

And that is why I really want to thank this group of friends that I have been hanging out with. This really marks a decade since I first met them and I am really glad that all these years, we've stuck together and spent lotsa good and rollin' fun times together. We were the only class from our batch to turn up in force.

Having said that, Dash mentioned to me about the next anniversary. The 100th anniversary would be much grander in scale, and it would be another decade away. But already, we're talking abt it now.

Me: "How will things change? We don't seem to have changed too much!!"
Dash: "Well, for one, maybe next time we would need a much larger table to accomodate everyone? (think abt wife and kids.........)"
Me: "Wows....thinking that far le? (but very true though....10 years down the road)"

Just then we looked at the table beside us. It was actually a table of guys in their early thirties, 9 old boys and 1 lady, definitely one of the guy's wife. The guys all stood up and left to find their former teachers, leaving behind the wife as sentry duty.....Hmmmm.....den after some time, the poor husband has to come back to 陪the wife while the other guys were missing. Oh well.....

Me and Dash: "Nah...think we should just set this event only for the 4D-ians...let's leave the wife and kids out of this...well if we do have one in a decade..."

How time flies....but one thing's for sure....boys will always be boys. You can't change that. :p

Week 9.......

I'm staring at my design report......still staring. I simply cannot understand why chem eng ppl die die want to make the plant design work and bitch so much, even when we know that the flow rate is disgustingly high. Just describe and explain the rationale behind whatever is giving the problem and why we do things a certain way. That's the purpose of design, ain't it? Assess whether the thing is feasible or not. Oh wait, I forgot.....ppl aren't in it for the purpose, they are only in it for the A grade. And throw in a clueless prof who doesn't really know what he wants from us......haiz.....

Back to disgusting report.....

Jaws versus Lake Placid...who wins?

This bit of news kinda grabbed my attention. Quoting from the source, the Telegraph, where you can also view the picture:

Crocodile devours shark in battle Down Under

The 15ft saltwater crocodile began to eat the shark only metres from a boat of fisherman.
Craig Van Lawick was aboard the commercial barramundi boat on the Wildman River, east of Darwin, in the Northern Territory when the crocodile started eating the shark.

He said: "There was not a whole lot of sound. All we could hear was the crunching sound."
Mr Van Lawick added that he was unsure about the type of shark involved, saying it was eaten too quickly for him to work out.

Crocodiles have been spotted eating sharks in Australia on a number of occasions.
Last year an 8ft crocodile was photographed dragging a shark from the Daly River in the Northern Territory to finish its prey off on land.

And the year before a croc took on a deadly bull shark, responsible for numerous fatal attacks on humans around the world.

The saltwater crocodile is the largest of all living crocodiles and reptiles. It is found in suitable habitat throughout Southeast Asia, Northern Australia and surround waters.
They are among the most aggressive predators in the world and can grow up to 23 feet in length and weigh more than a tonne.

About a dozen people have been killed in crocodile attacks in Australia in the past 20 years.

Damn....I couldn't make out if it was a shark or not in the croc's mouth. But I was kinda hoping and have believed all along, thanks to Hollywood, that Jaws would win the battle. Totally unexpected.

Week 8....the gr8 FYP Poser...oops Poster Day

This week was marked by the 3 days of FYP poster presentations and crazed photo taking that reminded me of JC prom night. While I was kinda nonchalent about it, I could feel it was a fitting sense of closure for so many of my friends who have put in the effort the past year for their FYP, with most of them getting a well-deserved grade or an award for it. Really felt happy for them. It also symbolised something else, something greater: the very thought that we're graduating soon and all things would come to an end after a crazy 4 years of Uni life in chem eng.

As for me, I still have my own FYP and a few more months to go, and I'll be graduating too this year, but just not yet. Not without a little bit more effort. My path veered a long long time ago when I took certain decisions. And so, just not yet.....

Slumdog M

I surprised myself by watching another Indian movie after cc2c. So Slumdog Millionaire really is my 2nd ever Indian movie I have watched, after rave reviews and constant "nagging" by my friend to watch it. At least this time I found the story fascinating, unbelievably incredible and tight enough to actually glue me to my seat. And there isn't an intermission and excessive singing and dancing at least! I'm not too sure why the movie won so many awards though, not that it doesn't deserve it, but people have compared it as the Charles Dickens story of the 21st century. So I am guessing in the midst of our very messed up world and economic gloom, an endearing movie such as this lifts spirits and brings a dash of optimism and feel-good factor amongst movie-goers.

Transwarped promo

Yay! Even more shows to look forward to every week now. After a year hiatus, the animated series returns for a new season finally! South Park and Transformers....Wooohooo!!!

South Park again!

That time of the year where I look forward to an all new season of South Park. And at last an episode for Kenny! Staying tuned every Thursday liaoz!

Dangerous driving

From a recent experience, I add 2 new hazards to dangerous driving:

1) Driving off without first checking if all passengers are on board, especially if someone is entering the vehicle halfway head first.

2) Driving off without first checking if all passengers have alighted, especially if someone is leaving the vehicle halfway leg first.

Which probably boils down to the age-old basic rule of checking the rear view mirror before moving off with the vehicle. So dudes, pls pls PLS drive safely!!

7th Week and going......going.....

I am really sick of comparing MCQ answers especially after a test. Probably because I dislike the idea of all these mindless comparison, or because I know I wldn't do very well, or maybe because I dun wanna face the truth yet, although you would say is something that is 早晚的. But this really takes the cake as it's the first time I see the lecturer post the answers immediately after the test ended. And being chem eng kan cheong ppl, or kiasu / kiasi S'poreans, what best than to look up the answers outside the testing hall?

I am disappointed with myself, not just because I din do well, but because it's really something that I put in the effort to study and do each and every tutorial / past year questions this sem for this module, yet I see no real results. And dun come whining to me say cui cui cui...hello like there's a me over here who's really really cui. Bloody whiners.

Bleargh.....no time to think too much...got another test coming up, and I have no intention to cui that one either.

Middle finger to the middle button

Of all the lamest thing to happen, the middle button for pushing "Enter" actually came off from my handphone. So now I have difficulty unlocking my phone, sending messages and I actually have to use a narrow pointed object to depress the button, leading to accidental deletion of 2 messages at once. My fat chubby fingers just don't really do the trick well. Time to leave long fingernails to actually reach the button. Or maybe it's high time to change a phone that has been with me for...eh...5 years?

Mid-term chill-out

Talk about the largest chem eng gathering at Brewerkz! A much needed chill-out session for the break