Pieces of Me

2006-11-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

although I swithced to MSN space as I realised that blogspot was blocked in China, i still like to post on this little space, so cosy so at ease.
The world no.1 freak insisted to sit wif me to study Econ S together, then my nightmare began. oh ok i shall not talk bad about other people. Shut myself up.
anyway now most of my friends are enjoying their days, while some poor souls are still mugging econ S in library. Economics is fun, but the three hour still haunts me. How good it will be if I am blessed with a flair for writing and an acute mind for Economics.
Well I shall stop whining but focus on my study. I am looking forward to our class outing, and those playful days ahead ^^
Singapore

2006-10-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

A poem that always makes me cry

Colleen
When you are sweet sixteen
and I whatever they shall call seventy-eight
Will you then remember when you were two
and you thought I was three and your romping mate?

When you walk in church a bride radiant
and I in bed unable to walk and attend,
will you then in your radiance recall
you toddling, I walking, we playing pretend?

When you are a playing mama
and I a senile but still great grandpa,
will your little one then be the only one
understanding me in our baby 'ga-ga'?

And when your eldest is sweet sixteen
and I have gone from here for good,
will you still remember in tender prayer
your grandpa and our shared childhood?

And when your daughter has her own baby
and you play and romp with grandchild too,
will you then remember when you are two
and I was three and we went giddy-up, choo-choo?

2006-10-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

With my five dear friends around me and constantly urging me to speed up, I finally clicked the button 'submit my application'. There went my application for Chicago and my fate was in the hand of the admission committee now. Auspicium.

I have to thank a list of people for helping me with my application, especially the 3 essays.
Charles, for bearing wif ur nagging, perfectionist da jie for so long and even staying up to edit my essays. your patience is super ^^ I've to thank your blur chicago brother jia fan too^^
Yamini ~ i will always remember the sunny after when we were scanning our brains to search for beautiful sentences. You r such a dear companion to me and I really hope tt we can go Chicago together ^^ sweet four years ahead ^^
Wenloong and his rugby friend. Guess what, you r the first two viewing my crude draft and thanks for correcting all those misusages and grammar mistakes. hehe and the crapping humours too ^^
Ken~ thanks for calling and discussing the topics with me. You always have the magic power to cheer me up and get me out of the cul-de-sac. ^^
VH, ZK, for bearing with the super-stressed me at the two final days and gave me valuable suggestions. and of course, my ba gua lao di sergio too.
I'm grateful to all of my friends, for their encouragement and support. I easily get rather hysterical and abnormal during these period and it's so great to have you guys around.

Besides dear fellow Rafflesians, there are a few other people who give me great help.
Will, you are one very mature friend I have and thanks for the sharp observations on the intrinsic weaknesses within the 'meat' of my essay. I really appreciate your detailed feedback as I know your working schedule is rather hectic ^^
Idad and Kathoros. I do not know you two personally, in fact before i sent you the essays, I was only a reader to your post. Thanks for the helpful advices and friendly messages, which give me assurance as you two are the ones that really understand the Chicago admission process.

I feel that I am blessed to have so many kind and helpful friends around me ^^ you all make my life beautiful ^^ I'll always be there for you =)
-Crescat scientia; vita excolatur-

2006-10-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

i'm stupid. Last night, this computer illiterate viva deleted her picture file, which contains all the cute shots and artistic pic she've collected over the years. With an IT savvy's help, she finally managed to revive most of files, though some folders r gone forever.
Amen

2006-10-27T02:25:00.000-07:00

After more than one year, I went back to SCGS again for Miss Heng's surprise retirement party ^^ tears swelled my eyes when she appeared in front of the general office. Without her, I would not be here in Singapore and she's such a kind, caring principal. It's so great to see Mrs Lee, our familiar cream-green campus, cute SC girls..

Jade and Gold
Pieces of Jade and Gold,
memories new and old,
laughter and joy we share each day
as nearer the sky we grow.

Here the good times and the bad.
Through the happy and sad,
Watch our lives unfold, as our stories are told,
We'll be together as one.

Reach out for one and all,
Stand up and brave it all,
We can all be shining stars,
No matter rain or shine,
Treasure the ties that bind,
We'll be together as one.

Jade and Gold, new and old,
laughter and tears,
Hope and fears,
as nearer the sky we grow.

The song for us, SCGS, sincerity, courage, generosity, service ^^

2006-10-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

After reading a featured series of article in Xin Zhou Kan about cities, I started to contemplate the issues of cities. What is the top three cities you love most? For me, the top two are undoubtedly Beijing and Dalian. Beijing's my spiritual hub. Borrowed from my application essay, its grandeur and magnificance has always impressed me. I wish it can be my physical home (not merely emotional hub) after thirty years, and it'll be better if the irritating traffic jam can be improved. My dear hometown Dalian is on the list as well. Although I disliked this small, rather boring city when I left it four years ago, I found that my love for it has always been there. Orderly and cultureless as it is, it is a familiar place that I'll call home.
Anyway, this rank is not the point I wanna express here. I increasingly find that cities in China have become more and more homogeneous: high-rise buildings, imposing symbols, artificial parks, orderly street, western-style residential condos... Cities, though with vastly different history, become alike. It sounds more like a joke when there are more than 150 cities claim that they aim to be an International modern centre. We do not need so many New Yorks or Sydneys. Can you just be your Ning bo or Chong Qing or whatever?
It pains me when I see the distinctive culture of the city diminishes or even become extinct. When I think over the issue, I wonder whether the crux of the problem lies in the builders. Leadership that consists of mainly technocrats is a popular trend in China, from central government to local offices. No doubt, these science people are good at construction, maybe negotiation and signing off contracts as well. But will they understand the culture of the city? As the quality of life is improving, cities need to have its individual characters to bond the dwellers together and make citizens love them. Of course, it is hard to control culture trend, but people whose experties lie in social science or humanity understand how emotions work, how civilisation has evolved. This can prevent relentless destruction in Chinese cities.
So this is what I think: make those people who understand the Chinese culture into the leadership or at least the advisors to the current leadership, to keep our cities alive

2006-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

My computer is disgustingly slow now. I cannot even open more than three IE windows (i used to have 8-10 open at one time) and this truly pissed me off.
But it's still touching and sweet to see my space updated, and it even has links! thank you minghan&aaron~

I think I shall stop reading history in the library..it's just too close to A level and my Chicago deadline already. but the past two days were truly enriching for me, for that i could read through the masterpieces i admire for long. The Odyssey, the history of civilisation, William Blake.. recently i started to read books by a Chicago gay professor-Allan Bloom-and I'm totally in awe of him!! The way his philosophical mind analyses social issue and Plato impressed me and my heart pounded really fast when I read the Republic he translated. It's like watching mysteries unravelling, how fun is tt! haha..i found lots of great books in our library hidden in history, literature session and how i wish i could absorb the exciting contents with a single glimpse ^^ sigh..i'm sure LSZ can do tt ^^

Ok, I realised tt i seriously sounded like a mugger (note: a singaporean way to say nerd ^^) in the last paragraph..lol but i just dun feel like studying for A level, as I hate going through the syllabus again and again, just for exams' sake. However now, after sitting in front of my laptop for the entire morning withought doing anything productive, i realised tt procrastination is a greater sin than route learning!!haha..so I'll start GP, today, and study for A level for the name of schol. Yo!Raffles rox!

2006-10-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my new blog ^^ I finally could not stand the super slow, ugly MSN live space anymore and decided to move since I dun feel like posting there. Although I just realised that it is quite slow to open blogger as well, but hell, at least the frame looks fancier. perhaps some will not like this plain template, but tt's my favourite-simlicity, black, white and grey.
Many thanks to aaron who literally set up this blog (i am still a blogspot illiterate, dunno how to deal with the complicated codes) and minghan who taught me how to choose blogskin. Yeah~