1 sem remaining...

Since Sem 1 '04, to borrow some financial trading terms, my CAP has been on a bear run since. Well, mostly because I had quite an extraordinary 1st sem results but rather mediocre ones later on. So I was quite pleasantly surprised to see my CAP rise for once. Dead cat bounce? We shall see.

Still, was a little disappointed to get a B+ for my HR, as I thought it was very possible to get a A- at least. Oh well. Can't complain too much I guess.

1 more sem to go. Focus on FYP!

Happy Holidays everyone =)

All I want for Christmas ....

... is to get rid of this damn annoying headache. Argh. Really hurts. Sucky.

2007 Han-ee awards

haha what a name. Han-ee. Inspired by the Office's Dundees, well I've decided to acknowledge the more memorable events in 2007. Well by that I don't mean personal experiences like some anniversary, but rather, like best movie, best match etc. or worst. It would be quite cool to look back years later and see how my tastes have changed. heh.

And even though 2007 ain't over, I think I've had about enough material to start giving out the awards. And even if some of the things listed were not made in 2007, but if I experienced it during 2007, then it counts. haha. Give chance lah.

OK! To the inaugural Han-ee awards (note to self: need a new name)

Entertainment

Best Movie: Well, I watched a lot this year so it's really the toughest choice for me. Sentimental fav is Transformers. Other notable ones include Cashback, American Beauty (old movie), Zodiac

Worst Movie: Chronicles of Narnia (old movie). It's really just a C-grade LOTR. And a talking lion, I don't quite get it. haha.

Best TV series: I must say, Sopranos rocked my socks off! A pity they ended, (but what an ending! great! ), so that's the end of the legendary series. The first few seasons may seem somewhat dull compared to today's TV, but the right comparison should be made by the era of TV then, late 90s. I think it must have been quite the ace in the 90s. Nevertheless, who never liked mafia show heh.

Memorable mention: I'm currently hooked onto The Office (US). Brilliantly funny, and I think Dwight Shrute outshines Steve Carrell in the show heh. And I don't know why but the simple love story between Jim and Pam is so touching! heh imagine that in a comedy.

Worst series: not really, I'm quite selective of what I watch. Maybe Pirate Master hah!

Best Musical: Mamma Mia!

Best concert: (only attended 1...) Muse @ Wembley

Best album: Surprisingly, not a rock album, but a jazz compilation known as Jazz Manouche volume 2.Irresistable!

Worst Album: I seem to recall deleting the new Bon Jovi album as soon as I got it.

Best song: Toughie.... hmmm....... this hasn't been the best year for breakout songs, no?

Irrannoying song: It's a decent song, but hearing Snow Patrol's you-know-what song 3 times per hour on UK radio is enough to make my blood boil haha

Worst TV moment: The writer's strike. Sigh. no more Office for now....

Sports

Best Soccer match: AC Milan vs Liverpool, CL Final. suck it up. Actually the Milan - Man utd one could have won this category. but then again. Lpool. hmm.

Best Tennis match(es): 3 come to mind. 1st, Federer owning Roddick Aus Open SF. Total domination, and AR was hot coming into the match. masterclass.
2nd) Federer vs Nadal, wimbledon final. what a 5 setter!!!! fantastico nadal.... vamos next year !
3rd) Nalbandian vs Nadal some final in October. It's hard to play Nalbandian in that form

Best F1 race: Can't recall the venue, but the one that was pouring nonstop, and had for a moment the world's costliest parking lot when 4-5 F1 cars slid off the SAME corner on the SAME lap and pretty much collected themselves together

Best Crash: Kubica @ Montreal. evidently, F1 cars are really really safe.

Best karting race: Of course, the championship clinching run by Team Apex at the Caltex National Karting Challenge. (No one believes me when I say I'm a national champion hahahaha)

Lifestyle

Best Meals: Back to Basics (London), Hokkien Mee @ ChompChomp, Punggol Nasi Lemak@ Upp Serangoon Rd

Best trip: Tie between Budapest and Greece. Love central-eastern europe! Actually Norway was also kinda memorable, for different reasons hah!

Best car ride: Greek island driving loh...haha

Best hostel: Greek islands, cheap n wonderful

Worst airport experience: Heathrow and the stupid curfew

Best plane experience: Forgot when, but it was when a delay allowed us to go into the cockpit and see for the 1st time what it is really like in it. And its much smaller than you think. and Smarter.

Best Game: Hold'em.

Best Website: footytube.com, and rapidshare.com heh

Best blog award: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

Education

Best Book: Mostly read non-fiction this year. Hmm. Haykin's Neural Networks.... NOT hahaha. perhaps WetFeet

Best Documentary (yes.. educational ...): NGC's The Seven Ages of Rock. I wished I had seen this earlier, by 5 years.

Best course: Roman Empire (IC)

Best lecturer: My HR2002 tutor, Mrs Ma

Worst course: BY FAR, Microwave Technology (IC), scoring a world class 46.8%. I wondered how I passed.

Best exam: let's wait and see.

Best FYP moment: let's wait and see about this too.

Best project moment: Seeing my own brain waves on the screen ... 3 days before the presentation day!


OK! I think that's about it. Anything else you would want to know? =)

the feeling of argh.

A little rant here.

1st day post exams, and day 2 of my 'exercise' regime heh. Anyways played tennis for the 1st time in weeks, with EJ. I mean, he was a former KR captain so it was obvious who got spanked. Anyway we booked the court till 7pm... and about 630 a group of older ladies came by the court and asked if we were students. This was in TC2, and beside us happen to have a group of staff professors playing their regular tennis. all fine and dandy, except that I didn't bother to print the booking sheet as I never did, and no one ever checked. Even security only check our matric cards.

Anyway this particular male prof, came up to us and said that there was NO WAY we could have booked it, as they block booked the courts every tuesday and friday at those times. They had the sheet to prove it. But the funny thing is, I also managed to book it yesterday! Maybe there was a glitch in the system. and because I had no booking sheet, he was adamant that we didn't book and we had to leave the court immediately. While he does have a point, I was just really put off by his arrogance stance, and demeaning tone. As if a pri sch teacher to a child. I mean, so what, I know you're a prof but you don't have to show your 'power' over me. Argh. By the way, I would not divulge his name, but he did teach a common engineering year 1 module, and is always seen regularly around the tennis courts.

Ask nicely la. We know we no proof we also will go. Stop showing attitude....

In the end, I went back to check and I did manage to book it from 6-7pm. Not blaming the profs for this as I honestly think its a system glitch as they always block book those courts.

But dammit stop your arrogance.

the blog is dead .... NOT!

Ok. My last post was in Oct. That's pretty bad. hurhur.

Anyway exams are done, so its just left wqith FYP CA2 on 19th Dec. and then soon xmas ! and then new year! and then... school restarts. bummer. Can't wait to start work.

FYP I think for CA should be fine. Will be running the main bulk of simulations over the next 10 days or so, before finishing up the CA2 report. Sounds quite reasonable to me, but of course gotta put in effort. Still. tennis first tomorrow. hahaha.

Don't know why but I just thought of this today

"The smartest people around, are not the ones with the highest CAP, but the ones who know where their own priorities lie."

Ok this may sound like BS to some, but it's rather meaningful to me anyway haha.

And of course. Happy anniversary to you dear =)


And many more to come .... !

What a finish!

The F1 season is finally over! And what a great finale it was. Stayed up late in the wee hours to watch the Brazilian GP ... Hamilton went into the race with 4 pts over Alonso and 7 over Raikonnen. It was his race to lose.

Remember Shanghai? When he parked his car in the world's most expensive parking lot ie the pit lane gravel pit?!?! What was he thinking of? A decent finish and the title was his. But that moment of sillyness, losing his head when he could have slowed down more going into the pits, showed a weakness mentally. Can he handle the pressure.

Going into Brazil, I was telling some friends that I expect Alonso to finish strongly in the top three. That's because he has a really cool and mature head on his shoulders, winning 2 championships already. Hamilton will be too eager, and it will be interesting to see if he crumbles under pressure. Raikonnen... 7 pts behind, nah no choice unless the Mclaren blows up. Thus I think Alonso would win, even though I was rooting for Hamilton.

Guess what. He did lose his head once again. Start of race was frantic, Raikonnen got up to 2nd, Hamilton got caught behind a little and let Alonso past. 2-3-4. finish in that order and we have the world's 1st ever rookie F1 champion. but NOOOOO. Turn 4 and you know he wasn't thinking properly again. He's a racer no doubt, wanting to win the title with a victory, but it was barely 1% of the entire race and he didn't need to go on the outside of turn 4. Not very likely. I would say give any driver the chance to finish 4th and win the title and they will snap it up. Perhaps some youthful exuberance from Hamilton? In any case, he ended up 7th I think in the 1st lap.

Of course the electronics problem later didn't help and when he got to the back of the field I knew the title was lost. A brilliant attempt to get into the points got him into 7th , but he was hoping for a miracle (ie a crash from the front runners) to get any chance to win. Ferrari 1-2, so obviously Raikonnen would get no. 1 . Alonso would finish a strong 3, but 1 point short of the title... Raikonnen world champion! Wow. I think the crowd was quite stunned. in the end, the top 3 drivers were separated by 1 point only! Very very close.

In any case, we can judge the drivers by comparing them to their teammates. Hamilton has had a wonderfully successful season and should take heart from his rookie year. Same points as previous world champion is a remarkable achievement. Alonso won't stay in Mclaren, I don't see that happening. Racing is rather pro british if you look at all the key players. he's probably better off joining a non-british team.

Anyway well done to them. a juicy season indeed .... =) next year! (n the night race !!!)

Today's Stock Market lesson.....

... be very, very careful on intraday trading.

Ok. I'm no stock expert, even though I'm holding some counters. I've never tried intra-day trading before, but was tempted to try once, since the returns seem so good for the short time involved.

Uni-asia has been performing hot for the past 2 weeks. It IPO-ed under 60 cents and it opened today at 2.6-ish. Since mid August only! It was rather weird. Obviously there was some speculation going on. So now, do I ride the wave, or just stay back. I know nothing much about Uniasia besides they have some insurance services. That's all I know. I may even be wrong!

This is exactly how speculators do. Ignore the fundamentals, just gamble.

And so I did. Bought 2 lots at 2.6. (abt 10am)

Within the next 30 mins, it went down 2.55. I was sian diao. I really ignored my strategy, fundamentals, research everything out of the window because of this greed. Should I sell? Wouldn't that be so stupid. 2.55. hmm. I don't feel so good. Stupid decision? What was I thinking! It's such a ridiculous idea at this point to even buy it!

Went for lunch and back. Did some calculations, told myself. ok sell at 2.65 if it ever goes there. can cover transaction costs. hope and cross fingers.

1pm, started watching webcast. Saw that the counter was rising. hmm quickly put in my selling bid. I didn't want to have heart attack playing this speculation. It wasn't very fun ... too exciting for me even though not a lot was at stake (pple were buying 100 lots at a go). queued in at 2.66, and within seconds it sold. ok not too bad. made $70 in 3 hrs. Take profits, watch webcasts.

2 hrs later, 3pm. Saw that it had went up to 2.77. Damn! Why couldn't I be more patient. What was I thinking of? Where's my guts?! Hello .... this is trading. can I be more risky. :S

Or... maybe I should short? Since this was totally a rubbish price based on spec. Aiyah. stay off it la. Not worth the heartache....

Went to do some other stuff, TV, newspaper. came back at 4:30. Took a glance. Blinked, and blinked again. What's going on??? from a +10% it was now -26% ! Price = 1.88!

Frantic sell queues, trades made by the second. Volume up and up, prices down and up, fluctuating in the region of 1.9. What can I say? I must have been really lucky. Teresa was just telling me to be happy with my gains (and buy her sth ... ... ... ) Bless her for her advice!

End of day, closed near $2 region.

Moral of story? Buying low selling high is a simple concept. buying low ain't hard, its often the selling high that's the problem. Want to take risks? Be prepared for roller coaster ride. You will enjoy magnificent gains, but also astounding losses. Game for it?

Uni-asia's intraday stock for 15/10/07.

Roman Tennis

Wow this vid creator is such a creative genius... he/she made 2 vids which combines 2 of my loves, the Roman Empire and Tennis! haha and obviously a fan of Rome the TV series as well...

So let's go back to 44 BC when Gaius Julius Caesar was dictator of Roman lands....




... where he was enchanted in Egypt by the Queen Cleopatra... but had to fend off his greatest nemesis in the clay of Paris (de Gaulle??? From another era leh. haha)

Go Kart, go Fast!

ok I hope not too harp too much on the karting thing but it's just quite a momentous occasion la... hahaha oops. Anyways, AsiaOne carried our story here....!

Go fast, Go Kart!

A total of 96 go-karters representing 15 nationalities from various walks of life competed in the finals of the Caltex National Karting Challenge 2007 held at East Coast Park on Sunday.

...

APEX OF THEIR AGE-GROUP

AsiaOne chatted with the winners of Category B (19-25 years), Team Apex, which comprised of four young men who came together for this challenge only a month ago.

"It was great fun preparing for the competition. We met each other just a month ago. It has really helped us to get to know each other better," said 24-year-old Apex team-leader Melvin Teng.

To prepare for Sunday's race, the team made two trips to their Johor Bahru training base, where they spent a total of 40 minutes on a rain-swept track, prior to competing in Sunday's final.

The ace in the Apex pack according to his team mates, is Chen Zhonghan, who has five years of karting experience in places like the UK and the USA.

The 'Lewis Hamilton' fan humbly declined to be identified as the team's 'best racer', suggesting instead that all the team members had learned from, and helped each other in the process of racing together.

hahaha I still remember that interview it was rather funny. But yeah well the media as usual do their usual 'framing' of articles so it didn't exactly come out as expected, but its good enough lah, can't complain. Will update more here if I find more articles hehe.

clean tech!

I honestly believe that clean tech will be one of the main driving forces of the next 'growth' technology. Well we shall see. Anyway here is a great invention, in my opinion, which could really go a long way in helping reduce wastage ...

How 'disappearing ink' can cut waste paper

Scientists have unveiled a new kind of 'ink' that disappears from a page 24 hours after printing, allowing paper to be re-used

Mission Impossible-style self-destructing messages may soon cross from the realm of fiction into the wilds of the nine-to-five office, according to scientists who have developed printer ink that vanishes after 24 hours.

Read more here ...

Anyway, I'm not saying that karting is exactly a very environmental friendly sport ... haha! But it's fun nonetheless!

Pictures from the National Karting Challenge 2007!

Here's some pics as promised ....


Here's us before the race. Excited, but not THAT happy yet haha. Brandon, JP, me, Melvin L to R.

Us again ...

heh like some MTV. We were about to do our routine track walk...

Race to begin soon ... tension in the air...
The Start/finish banner ..

The karts lined up ... we were kart 3. 3 is really my lucky number....

Race underway! Don't know who's this though .. but definitely not me. Think its Brendon

One of us .... could be me. Ooops but that was a poor line into the double right heh.


Then it was announced... we won! Up on stage with president of NUS motoring and Minister of State.


Yummy medal. This was the media room where we had our interviews... (sadly tho none were published in today's papers...)

Another pic... we wonder why the Chevron backdrop

Chatting with the ST photographer haha nice guy.

Along team Speedy Gonzalez (Cat A winners), who were all over the news. 3 of them had no driving licences! Really impressive young team...


Tada! Our winning medal. =)

Champions of National Karting Challenge 2007!

Wow. What a day.

Ok let's just start from the beginning ... our team Apex (Melvin, jp, brendon and me) formed about a month ago to enrol in this competition. None of us were professionally trained in karting, but we all had a passion for speed....This challenge is open to anyone, and every team was classified by the age groups. So we were in the group of 19-25 yrs old. It was a relay, so each driver had to do 5 laps (400m each), total of 20 laps. Results were determined by time trials. Place was ECP carpark E1 converted to a mini race track.

So Friday was qualifying, and we clocked a total time of 12min 13s. Not bad. We felt quite quick that day, and kart was good, no spins nor crashes. Got the call on Sat night that we'll be racing on Sunday, where the top 6 teams on Friday will get to the finale race.

On Sunday ... I know that qualifying and racing are just 2 totally different things. How many times have I seen on F1 the pole holder lose his position later on. Or crash. Or complacent. We qualified as the 3rd fastest team, and the 2 teams ahead of us were more than 1 minute faster than us based on Fri time trials. It was going to be hard, but we had a podium chance.

Walked the track as usual. Talked through the corners. Discussed the new chicane. All was ready. Focus... focus.

When the race was underway everything was a blur! Brendon was unbelievably quick, and before long he had managed to overtake the 1st 2 teams, out of sight! Just a small lead then, but the 2 teams had started a good 5-10 secs ahead of us, so we were positioned very well.... fingers were crossed. maintain, maintain....

Melvin hopped on next. Kart 1,2 came in, so his exit was delayed. Race on! wheel to wheel, the 1st 3 karts went. At the start finish straight, Melvin applied the forward jerking technique, and helped gain 1 place!! Subsequently he was bumped at the back by some other kart but thankfully all was fine, very well in fact. He came in 1st again...

JP's turn next. quick engine on, and go go go! I was busily putting on the rib protector, gloves n helmet, psyching myself up.... come on. a few more laps to go. Pit in sign shown to him. He was coming in.. and I had the last leg.

JP off, I was on. Pit marshall said "Wait" but the karts in front were out of the way already. come on, let me go!!!! Pit was clear, and I didn't need the delay...

Finally gogogo! Grip was good. In fact damn good, better than Fri's already very good kart. The double right can be taken without lift off. Chicane 1... chicane 2... hairpin, ... double chicane... left-right and back to the straight! 1 lap done. no one behind me , no one in front of me. It was my race to lose. Gotta maintain. No pressure. Uneventful racing will win. Keep cool. No spinning. Get the tunnel vision.....

Yellow flags on last turns! Darn! Gotta slow down.... kept checking my back to make sure no one was closing on me..... and still had to squeeze into a small slot between the fallen tire and the side of the track. slowly... slowly.... I don't need the fastest lap. Just finish 1st.... when will the "pit in" show? It was to be my chequered flag.

Finally....... I saw the "Pit in Kart 3" on my last lap! It was the chequered flag!!!!!! Fist pumps... woohoo! Did it.... Went back to the pits, still quite not believing that we pulled it off. But we did! Super exhilarating!!

Handshakes with competitors .. "you guys were damn fast...." Wow. Soon after, the media flooded us, interviews and pictures (I kid you not... watch out for AsiaOne and CNA. Sadly ST didn't find us, but they had our pic) We had our 5 mins of media fame. haha. What an experience. But it all gone away when the celebrity race started and all the media focused their attention elsewhere. I saw Andy Penders, Melody Chen and Wong Lilin! heh.

Prize persentation, quite a formality.... Got a Timex and a medal. Damn cool. My 1st racing medal! yay! After that, more photographs, a few random interviews, and yup that's it. We managed to catch some precision driving by some professional stunt drivers that was really cool. tyres were burnt out! heh. Quite an eye opener.

Then the sky opened and the rain fell. Ooops. Sorry Cat C and D. Wet race for ya. Enjoy it!

End of day, our total time was 10 min 25 secs. That was really unbelievably quick... for us. We expected to go under 12 but not so much! Really proud of everyone in the team... cos we helped each other so much along the way..... even though none of us were very good. In fact the fastest lap time went to a team which didn't even make the top 3. Guess this really shows how important the team is. Racing is really a team sport!

Still we know that there are so many people who are better than us. Perhaps they didn't join this challenge. We also knew some teams in Cat C (26-35 yrs) who did 9.55 which is really impressive. But at the end of the day, we were the fastest team in our age group in Singapore, and that counts for everything! It was soooo worth the effort put in!

Whew! What a Sunday. Pics to come soon, so do watch out for them.... next time... if anyone of you goes karting.... do jio me along too! =)

The irony ...

... when I'm sitting in a HR office, speaking to a HR officer, and there she was, telling me that she's considering leaving the firm, but is clueless about where to head towards.

Guess no ones an expert when it comes to careers eh. Hmm. Interesting....

late night encounters...

haha... nothing of the spooky kind tho.

Today had lab in school till 6pm, and since it has been raining for the whole day and still was, it only meant the inevitable CTE jam (I drove today). So I decided to have dinner in school and do my lab report. So I kept on doing till 930pm when the guard chased me out of the classroom, and thats when I left towards Eng Aud. Thinking that it was term break, and nearly 10pm I thought there wouldnt be many people left in school, no?

No! All the benches in the EA block were filled, with people pouring over their laptops and books. Not just chatting at the end of the day but hardcore focused studying. Wow. And they weren't PhD students... they were undergrads (I know some of them) ! well well. Maybe cos I used to stay hall so I don't roam around school at 10pm at night. But at 10pm it was either in the band room, watching tv, playing guitar, attending some meeting, chatting with friends, dota, jogging, whatever. But definitely not studying, not even during exam period! Well, it really is competitive here eh?

Anyways, I noticed that there are ongoing professional engineering examinations (a test for pple who want the Engineer chop and can chop on official documents) .... Usually people who worked 3-5 yrs in industry. Man, they were struggling (via overheard conversations) ... Can't imagine myself studying engineering after 3 yrs working. All the formulas. I'd rather much do a MBA.

Well... guess its one less thing for me to worry now, then... =)

By the way ... it still jammed on the way back home... :S

Nice!

Just finished watching the MotoGP race in Motegi, Japan, where Capirossi won, but the main story is that of Casey Stoner wrapping up his world championship when he finished 5th, ahead of his main rival V. Rossi who finished 13th.

Seriously, he has achieved so much already ... at 21 years old, married to a beautiful wife, racing in the premium class, winning the world title. All in 1 year! oh well ... congrats to him! A mature head on his shoulders indeed!

And who knows, Lewis Hamilton may yet win the F1 title. All the young dudes, carrying the news....

2007 MotoGP Champion -- Casey Stoner

Back to MAF

Ok, stop with the MAF/muff jokes... ahem.

So I went back to Hwa Chong's annual mid autumn festival for the 1st time in 4 years... haha glad to see that some things hasn't changed much. Caught a bit of the lion dance performance, where they did some obstacles, but none of the stunts that my batch did... but then again my batch was quite different as we had the talent coming in from RV.. but wow this year at least 2 of the lion "heads" were done by girls, so that's really impressive....

There was a dragon lantern made, pretty huge, hung up across the plaza, very nice, though I must admit I was a little let down by the lack of fireworks ... this year they only lit up a rather meaningless word (I think). Anyways, the company is the most important, and met up with the OAC bunch again! So glad to see some of them since many months ago... like Chermaine and Dyan...and I couldn't stop calling Xinhui "Gigi" Giselle hahaha. She's so gonna kill me soon. So we went for the annual OAC gathering, and for the 1st time, our batch is the OLDEST batch that went back. I mean, now its the 33rd and we were the 26th! Never thought this day would come so soon.... I'm really olddddddd. But our turnout was very strong, and hock gave his usual inspiring speech... so pretty much same old =) It's so glad to see everyone moving on with their lives, but still remembering the friends that matter every now and then....

Ok. Enough of nostalgia, back to FYP!

oh the memories!

Aye how I love this song! heh. Enjoyed jamming/singing/listening everytime. The Darkness Rocks!

Happy/Sad

Well, don't really know how to describe my state of mind now. Obviously I'm elated with this proposition, as it looks very attractive right now. But on the other, demoralized because I was 'given' so much help along the way. Somehow, it didn't feel as accomplished as I had imagined.

It's like, winning a marathon on drugs. Or winning a F1 race using stolen technology. It just don't feel quite right.

Anyhow, it's not that extreme, and I must say I'm mostly delighted how things have turned out.

Imitations...

Well, anyone who's been following tennis would have heard of Novak Djokovic. Ok, young Serb, no.3 in the world etc. He's good ... but everyone should see him in his off court antics mimicking the other tennis stars, ala sharapova, nadal etc. Totally reminds me of how Kevin Spacey did his impersonations of movie stars in the Actor's Studio .... This is good stuff, enjoy!

The side effects of too much tennis ...

I was playing with XX that day. Wham! Slam! Bang! Balls flew everywhere. When we picked up the balls to go home... we saw this...


Truly, ownage...

i'm so pissed...

I'm so pissed with myself today. stupid stupid stupid argh. how can I let something like that happen to me? I really learnt it the hard way... sigh.

The Loss of Individuality

In these recent weeks, I found out that one of my friends, well let's just say that he has changed a lot. I used to think of him as a resolute guy, having strong personality and knows what he wants. Turns out that I was wrong. The loss of individuality is indeed a very sad thing. Whatever happened to his original goals and intentions, now with different influences around him?

People change, I guess.

Try saying...

"The Greatest Road Trip in Sports"

Heh this is the tagline for the US Open tennis championships. Catch the ads






Then ... watch the bloopers. Haha!!



Nadal is so funny... esp when he is so pissed at himself for messing it up, just like in a match! "NO!!"

Ownage!

Just a pure ownage match haha. One of the things I do to keep myself entertained...
BTW this is Football Manager for the uninitiated... And it ain't a friendly match... it's the World Club Champs in 2012!

Ferrari VS McLaren

Just to add on ... Ferrari's reaction to the decision was very valid. Here it is, courtesy of formula1.com

Ferrari have hit out at the FIA’s decision not to punish McLaren after the British team were found in breach of the International Sporting Code for possessing confidential documents belonging to their Italian rivals.

The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council opted not to impose a penalty as it could find no evidence that McLaren had made use of the data, which was found in the hands of the team’s chief designer, Mike Coughlan.

Ferrari, however, said they found it “incomprehensible that violating the fundamental principle of sporting honesty does not have, as a logical and inevitable consequence, the application of a sanction,” and added that they believe the decision “legitimises dishonest behaviour in Formula One and sets a very serious precedent.”

In a statement issued after Thursday’s hearing, Ferrari continued: “The decision of the World Council signifies that possession, knowledge at the very highest level and use of highly confidential information acquired in an illicit manner and the acquiring of confidential information over the course of several months, represent violations that do not carry any punishment.

“The fact that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was in possession of such information was discovered totally by accident and, but for this, the team would continue to have it. This is all the more serious as it has occurred in a sport like Formula One in which small details make all the difference. Ferrari feels this is highly prejudicial to the credibility of the sport.”

Ferrari added that they will continue with the legal action already under way within the Italian criminal justice system. The team are understood to be pursuing cases against both Coughlan and sacked Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney, who is alleged to have provided the material in question. Both men have also been summoned to appear before the FIA.

Mclaren gets away with murder

The recent spy scandal in F1 has just been resolved. Well, that's a rather strong word to use considering not much was concluded. After all the trials, McLaren was found guilty of being in possession of Ferrari's technical documents, and the sentence was ..... no sentence. Due to lack of evidence that McLaren used the knowledge to their advantage.

Yeah. So in a high tech sport like F1, where every bit of information is crucial to a team's performance, and even race strategy, this industrial espionage has gone unpunished for there was no proof of advantage gained. Well, to be honest, it is hard to prove so. With technical data of the rival's car, you can put the data into your multi-million dollar simulation software and determine the greatest probability of the rival's race strategy. i.e. qualifying fuel, tyres, pit stops. Which are such important factors into today's racing especially with the tyre wars long gone. But it is near impossible to prove the fact that McLaren had based their strategy around beating the Ferrari one, for they can easily claim it is their own best strategy. Very much alike if say, Liverpool managed to get their hands on Man Utd's tactics for the upcoming match, knowing which players they are gonna start with. Again, it is not easily proven that Liverpool can use the tactics to their advantage, although I bet they surely would. Who wouldn't.

"Oh, I'm just gonna close my eyes and pretend I did not know their strategies and their competencies this weekend, BUT I think we should lessen our qualifying fuel " etc. Makes for fun racing, sure.

McLaren is found guilty of contravening a Sporting Code, so they should be punished. Perhaps a point deduction would be in place, or out of running for the manufacturer's championships. But the driver's should remain in the competition.

Alas, F1 is a sport steeped in such subterfuge, that team spies are known to take photographs of cars up close, for lab analysis. Ultimately, to preserve the image of the sport, and to maintain what so far has been an outstanding season of racing, money sense prevailed, and McLaren are free.

In all probability, in the next trial, Mike Coughlan will be found guilty and expelled from racing for a couple of years. But he is already sacked from McLaren. So the company is protected by these layers of, shall I say, protection, to protect their own integrity.

Perhaps viewers come first, in such a lucrative competition. So then, Hungoraring next....


On another note, I recently just finished watching 3/6 eps of the HBO miniseries Angels in America. Looking very very good I must say. And I think my tolerance for homosexuality has definitely increased. Haha.

Saturday 9pm Ch18

Really, just a reminder to myself to catch this show.

AFI Life Achievement award to Alfredo James Pacino=)

Welcome back to NUS.... NOT!

oh well. Since round 0 of CORS started today I thought I would login just to get a feel of the system, which I have left untouched for a year. Lo and behold. Welcome back Mr. Chen...

Your standing: EE3
Program pts: 750
Gen pts: 250

GREAT. I'm as good as a freshmen now, where I should have at least 2500 Prog pts to play with. just great. and I should be EE4, but its probably due to my SEP results not out yet.

For the uninformed, think of CORS points as a 'savings account' where I get 1000 points every semester and use some pts to bid for modules. Obviously the remaining points get carried forward. So all my storing of points, is now, effectively useless. I'm back to square 1.

Still, credit due to the helpdesk girl, who was really friendly and sounded genuinely surprised something like that has happened. Hopefully she gives me a ring soon...

Racing at its best !

Wow, what a fantastic Nurburgring race! Many things which I want to say, but its all very well-expressed in the report here. If the Singapore race next year is half as good, that's enough for me!

Highlights of the race:
- Rain in after 40 seconds into the 1st lap. And its a heavy downpour
- Spyker's Winkelhock, in his race decut in his home race, with a especially shrewd change to wet tyres after warm-up lap, led in his 1st F1 race for 1 full lap! That's everything a rookie can ask for.
- In turn 1 of the 3rd lap, in the space of about 30 seconds, 5 cars, 1 by 1, slid, no, aquaplaned off the hairpin into the gravel and tyrewall. It was simply hilarious (well I don't think the drivers would agree haha)
-pit stop frenzy to get wets
-Kimi missing the pit entry. Well he tried, but slid off and ended up on the track! Meaning he would have to go 1 more round on grooved slicks
- red flag. very sensible given the conditions
- Hamilton joins from the back! Saved from the gravel-yard!

Race restart in bright sunshine
-Kimi had a engine problem. So did Winkelhock. Definitely memorable for the German...
-A rather routine 50 laps until ....
- Rain predicted in 7 mins, with 12 laps to go!!!!
-The rain came, the pits were open and busy, and race on!
- After much probing, Alonso managed to edge past Massa on the track. There was contact, and it seemed rather agressive, but Alonso was way faster and would have gotten past some how.
- Last 3 laps to go... and in the last corner of final, Webber nearly threw away his podium 3rd on a slide that had Wurz inches away, but managed to hold on....
- Post race, in the holding area before prize presentation.... WAR OF WORDS between Alonso and Massa. A slur of Spanish flying around. Very tense moments, but very watchable! Even Ron Dennis just stood and shut up.
- Presentation ... Schumacher presented the trophy to Ron Dennis for winning constructor. hohoho. the agony, man.

Racing needs this kind of excitement, this kind of tension, this kind of drama. I love racing.

Memories of a concert

Great memories...

From Muse Wembley ...

From Muse Wembley ...

From Muse Wembley ...

Update!

Well, I know I'm supposed to blog about some other stuff from before, but, you know, once its past a certain time the idea of blogging about that topic becomes like a novelty haha. So well. Maybe I should just summarise what I wanted to blog about...

1. I was kinda on a "musical journey" of sorts. After the Muse concert, I actually picked up a copy of a documentary on the rise to fame of Bob Dylan. Called "No Direction Home", it shows the early formation years of Dylan and his own musical voyage. You wonder, how is it possible to write lyrics as deep and resounding (as it were for that time) when you are barely 21. Its just shocking sometimes. Dylan, indeed the romantic, songwriting extraordinaire, and the poet of the 20th Century. Must for fans.

2. Listened to the album "The Who - Live at Leeds". As you can tell, a live recording of a The Who's concert. Absolutely rock-solid live performance by the band themselves, even managing to sneak in a dirty joke in the midst of the gig haha.

3. Caught Mamma Mia finally, after so much procrastination. My seat was a beat awkward, so didn't get the best sound. Nice show though.

4. Went to windsor castle. Magnificent castle, splendour everywhere.

5. Went to Edinburgh with Edwin. Nice place, good weather (surprisingly) I hope all goes well with you.

6. Wimbledon was a blast. Despite the rain and long queues, actually managed to get into centre court and caught 3 matches .... Fernando Gonzales vs Tipsy, Serena Williams vs forgot who, and Roger Federer vs Marat Safin!!! Wow. Blown away. Serena just demolished her opponent. I think she could have given any guy a fight on that day. She was just awesome. And Roger was so graceful to watch. Congrats on winning the title too! Also saw Sharapova and Nadal and Murray etc etc. Definitely one of the highlights of my SEP!

7. Attended Aaron's and Kathy's wedding. 1st UK wedding I attended, even though they were singaporeans. Quite an eye opener. But I prefer the chinese one I think.



Ok. What a summary.

Anyways .... Teresa has just left for Africa for 7 weeks. I really hope she takes care of herself, but also to have fun at the same time. Suddenly I have quite some time on my hands, though I would rather not. A couple of meet-ups with friends this week, so should be good!

Oh, on an aside, I realised Singaporeans are soooo fascinated by anything and everything Japanese. why??

back in the heat.

It was really a whole messed up flight. Supposed to fly off on Monday night 2215 ... flight delay till past 2330, and while we were on the plane, the pilot told us Heathrow had a curfew at 2330. And we couldn't fly that night! I never expected Heathrow to have some curfew .... so much for international airport. The plane was evacuated, luggage was stuck in the cabin hold, the passengers were pissed, and literally formed an angry mob demanding rescheduled flights early next day, and hotel stay for the night (which is the norm). Emirates was severely understaffed to handle this situation, with only 4 attendants to 400 shouting, angry people. It was chaotic. In the end, only 40 rooms were found and obviously the Economy class people weren't gonna get any of it. They then claimed it was the best they could do and the rest could have their hotel stay/transport reimbursed for the night. I took a cab back to London to Teresa's; I was really lucky to have a place for the night. Called Emirates time after time to rebook flights, cos I was connecting at Dubai later on and I was going to miss it. No booking available .......

Next day, 7am went down to the airport. Finally got a reschedule for Malaysian airlines which would leave at 10am .... but MAS wouldn't accept my excess luggage, asking me to pay 600+ pounds for it! (not MAS fault though, as they helped Emirates with this favour. Emirates offered a coupon to cover the costs but MAS would have nothing of it. And I'm like the pawn in their chess game.)

After much complaining, I finally booked another Emirates flight at 1300 (which was delayed again ......), given complimentary hotel stay in Dubai for a night, and then catch the next day's connection to Singapore. Weirdly, I caught the same connecting flight as Teresa! So there was a little light at the end of the tunnel ... Finally reached sg on Wed night 11pm. What a ride!

I haven't unpacked yet though.... Too tired to do that. Maybe over the weekend. Now trying to combat jetlag + repairing computer viruses .... sigh.

Anyways. Sg. is. so. HOT.

haha. chilllllllll .....

Goodbye London

I know I thought of blogging about some other stuff, but haven't really found the time to sit down and do it. And then suddenly. Today marks my final day in London!

Memories, I have lots of it. Either in pictures, videos, gifts or deeds, I must say this whole experience has been very very enriching. Of course, the friends here that I've made, really appreciate the times we all have together... Oh well. Before I get too melancholic (sp?), I better stop heh.

London certainly hasn't let me down in its weather; still wet and windy on the day of leaving. And the bomb-cars hasn't help much as well ...

It's quite weird, as I'm not exactly leaving a lot of my friends as we are all going back to singapore and at least spending some time back home, but more of this place itself. As I say, London is really great city to be in, especially if one is a fan of city life.... The real sadness probably will come when all the londoners leave in sept/oct back to the UK to study, while I'll be midway through my term by then ....

Ok. Gotta go now. Heathrow waits for no late pple!

Seeya from Singapore!!!!!!

akan datang ...

apologies for the lack of posting. A few to come in the days ahead I think, so keep an eye on it.


personal notes
dylan, muse, who, mamma, windsor, edinburgh, wimbledon, wedding.

Con Te Partirò

In many ways, it's time to say goodbye.

Over the last 2 weeks, I've been seeing freshers moving out of halls. Other Singaporeans finishing their exams and leaving either for holidaying with friends, or else just going back to sg to begin their army/air fore/dsta/astar etc. attachements. Everyone's leaving... everything's gonna come to an end.

Me? I'm not too sad. Sure I will miss London, and I still have 1 week more here. The freshers, you can see the tinge of sadness in their eyes when they moved out ... someone even weeped! I guess I have been used to leaving halls, twice already. In any case, we're all gonna go back to Singapore, and its easy to arrange meetups. I suppose, for me, it would be sadder when people start leaving for London to carry on their academic pursuit, in September.

Otherwise I foresee many foodie gatherings when I back. haha! chomp chomp. chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp.

Supermassive

It's been quite a while since I blogged eh? haha, well actually I've been pretty cooped up in the EE labs the past few weeks, working on the EEG project with my groupmates. Just had the presentation a couple of hours ago, and although it got rather testy with the business case, I must say we did really well for our technical presentation! (apart from my small boo boo of forgetting to plug in the channel input haha) So well done to the whole group, it has really been a wonderful experience working with everyone.

I think this EEG technology (not just the one we just made) really has very good potential. It can actually be integrated into many other items that we saw presented today, and gives wonderful benefits to users besides just simple diagnosis. Brain wave games, anyone? Some pics of us at work today ... I was the lab rat for the demonstration! haha.

EEG Project

Anyways, I went to the Muse concert at the NEW wembley stadium over the weekend. Really got blown away, they were very very solid. Matt was singing at his best, and the stadium setup was marvellous. Really made use of all the space available in the stadium for their props, which included 2 giant balloons having a gymnast spinning underneath, floating around the stadium. Kinda hard to explain in words tho, gotta see the pics for it. Easily the best gig I've been to! It's a pity they didn't play City of Delusion, which is kinda my fav Muse song of the moment. But otherwise, I was impressed with Matt's piano playing, and overall stage show of the whole gig.

I think Muse have really brought the space rock genre to a new level. Bowie may have started it, but Muse perfected it.

Muse Wembley 16/7/2007

Next few days, gonna start the major packing up of my room and shifting temporarily to Teresa's, before heading off to Scotland (?? maybe??) for a couple of days, and then back to London, then Sg. Going back so soon..... and now my 3rd year is officially over ......

Wii played Wii till the Wii hours ....

Whee !!! haha. pure unadulterated fun. except for the ring tossing of course heh.

Sporty weekend then, with Hamilton on pole for Canada F1 and the motoGP, and the French Open Final. its a busy stay in Sunday!

These days ...

... have been quite a revelation of sorts.

Turns out that finding out too much of some stuff isn't good. Realized that some people around me are wearing masks, even thicker than I originally thought. Hmm.

What's new? Everyone wears masks to some extent, myself included.

Perhaps less analysis ought to be done here. A professional hazard of an engineer. Deal with the problem, and move on.

Don't get it?

Shrugs.

Milan 2 Liverpool 1

It wasn't the best of games, but it sure did alleviate the pain of Milan and her fans. Especially what happened 2 years ago. Inzaghi's fluke goal, a wonderful Kaka setup for the 2nd, and a comeback header by Kuyt. Liverpool may have played better, but Milan took their chances when they came. Liverpool cannot complain, for they won 2 yrs ago even though being more thoroughly more outplayed than Milan was today.

Well, it brought back memories of yesteryears....

The 1st time I watched a Milan match, was in 1994, in Athens as well, where Milan faced Barcelona. Milan, with Franco Baresi and Costacurta suspended, were up against Cruyff's Barcelona, led by a fantastic Stoichkov-Romario combination, with Koeman, Zubiuzeretta, et al. But Milan won emphatically, 4-0 at that. I knew I loved Milan since.

In 2003, I still remember I was the duty officer that night at Kranji. Milan vs Juventus in the UCL final. We had Channel 5 in the duty office, and that night a few of the men came down and watched the match together. Milan prevailed on penalties that night, and I still remembered how I jumped for joy (haha!), before going on my rounds.

In 2005, Milan Liverpool pt 1. Painful, painful. 3-0, then 3-3. Milan outplayed Lpool, but ..... alas. Penalties lost. Very painful. I was in my room alone that night and I could not sleep.

Today, Milan vs Liverpool pt 2. Milan were outplayed by a better Liverpool, but a fluke and a moment of brilliance by the otherwise quiet Kaka put Milan in the dominant position. This day, I'm in Teresa's room, watching with Terence. What joy! I was going mad! Too happy. And watching Paolo lift it for the 5th time, just amazing what this guy can do. 39 years old, and still lifting European cups.

When is the next time? shrugs. Hopefully it will be memorable again, for the right reasons.

For now, a little celebration will suffice. Forza Milan !!

The day has come.

What an exciting day ahead.

No, its not because my last paper is within 4 hours away. After this silly exams has dragged on for so long (and quite disappointingly...), it's all gonna be over in a matter of hours. But, it's just the exams.

No, it's also not because of the French Open coming up, in an interesting time in the tennis world where Rafa's 81-match streak has just been broken and smashed by Roger. I won't read too much into that result, though undeniably the confident boost for Roger would be immense.

The REAL reason for today's excitement lies simply, in the ancient town of Athens.

AC Milan VS Liverpool FC !

UEFA champions league finals. These 2 clubs have so many European cups between them it's not possible to count with both hands. Both teams are looking up for the match, and believe me the hype here is really enormous. My hall is setting up a projection screen and broadcasting the match in the common room, and they're getting ready for the party should Liverpool win.

Well, I say. Save the money.

No doubt about Milan's win today. People say revenge is not on their mind. Bollocks. Revenge will be on their minds. A huge core of the current Milan team is made up of the same team in that infamous 2005 final. On their mouths, they speak professionally about Liverpool and say revenge is not such a important thing... but believe me it is THE motivation tonight. Bring the scousers to the slaughter!

Come on Milan! Kick their asses back to where they came from! (which is here...)

It's party time.

not in the mood.

It's a bad day.

Just finished my 5th / 6th paper today. and there is a chance that I may fail it. No kidding. It's not funny.

I came out of the exam room feeling like EE2012 all over again. That one, I only attempted 50% of the marks. So I know I surely failed the paper. But there was the "buffer" of everyone else; a good 100 pple perhaps. So the bell curve pulled everyone up. So I wasn't too worried with that paper, though it didn't feel good coming out still.

Today's paper was reliving the whole 2012 thing again. Yes, in all probability there will be moderation. But, do you know how many pple are taking this course?

Only 6.

15 pple registered for the course, but only 6 registered for the exam. Dropout rate is 60%. I'm forced to take this cos of mapping issues. Brings me back to 6 months back, all the emails to and fro NUS but to no avail to remap this Microwave course. Never mind now. Studied hard, for selective topics, but in the end was examined on something else. Gamble didn't pay off -- tough luck, han.

How does one moderate the scores of 6 pple. Shrugs. It's gonna be nasty. I give myself a 50% chance of passing this time.

Went out, walked in the rain for 20 mins, couldn't find a money changer who had hungrarian forints. damn forints. should have wore a cap.

Irritating cough that wouldn't go away. Still to do packing all over again. Didn't want to start my trip like that. Stupid flaking bag.

The only comfort now for me -- and its not the fact of moderation -- but more of I wouldn't be able to do anything about it until at least 2 months later.

Just not in the mood.

No wonder you are ignoring me.

I was trying to get xiexing's attention over msn, cause I needed to ask him something about FYP. Then for ages, he just won't reply me (usually he does so in an instant) ... so I thought, you know, what could it be? It just struck me that the Rome Masters was on, so I went to check, and yeah, his favourite Roger Federer is playing against the Italian no. 1. ok so the score says 6-2, 4-3 ..... so I thought ok lah, maybe he will get back to me soon.




Then I realised.






Federer is losing ! Not winning!

And yeah, he lost this match. 6-2, 6-4. hmm. Like that ... how to win the French Open. sigh.

Maybe someone needs to make another comment on his cajones to get him moving. No more groggy legs pls. tsk tsk.

And yeah, I've been missing for a while, been down with a cold while revising for the exams. Got a paper tomorrow, and one more on the 23rd. And then .... Project time!!!

Of course, all work and no play makes me a dull boy. So then, to Budapest with the girl this weekend. Sun, please ;)

Norway trip

The photos from the norway trip ... just 200 odd in all!
A quick summary of the trip ....
Went there to meet Melvin, whos on exchange in Trondheim. We did the norway in a nutshell package tour, but with buying all our tickets on the spot we saved at least 2-300 NKR, which is 50-75 SGD ! not bad. the one day tour included a couple of train rides through scenic routes, mountains and small villages. A fjord cruise to see Norway's most famous natural beauty -- the fjords of course. And then bus ride to Bergen.

Bergen's a quaint quiet town. very small, akin to Bath. But oh my, the mountains were so beautiful! It is weirdly sunny in the 2 days I was in Bergen, which was quite rare cos it rains a lot in Bergen. We spent 1 whole day time doing a 5 hour trek from the mountain Ulrika to Floyen (sp?) .... and it was soooo nice and calming. You can only hear nature's sounds, and even though the city is just down there from the mountain you can hardly hear any traffic. We had the fortune to be accompanied by a Bergen local who did that route "many many times" in his life. He's about 50 yrs old, and through the entire trip we just chatted and chatted, and learnt so much about each other cultures. I learnt so much from him than from the tourist guides/internet. Quite wonderful I think. And his fitness/agility just left us bewildered at times. Don't let that beer belly fool ya!

Other than that, we spent quite some time sunbathing, and now I'm darker! again ....
Norway is indeed scenic, though extremely expensive. I think anyone who has been to Europe should at least drop by this Scandinavian country for a short visit!

till next time!

norway!

The Singh-sons

haha. quite funny leh, this clip. enjoy!

Singhsons
Uploaded by Harmeet1

Milan ..... Milan ....

oh man .... what a glorious match. Stick it up to ya man utd fans.

AC Milan vs Man Utd - Match Comp
Uploaded by FootballHeaven

And yes, its another Milan - Lpool final. Again. repeat. of 2005 final.

Kelong soccer? Perhaps. but even so, not knowing which side its rigged towards make it so entertaining to watch.

Kuan Hsin, you and me again, 2 yrs later. Game on.

fjords!!!

Just a quickie trip to Norway till Tuesday...

Till then, adios!

Why don't you all F-F-F.....

Truly, Rock and roll never dies.

The oldest and "greatest" rock band in the world - meet The Zimmers and their
amazing cover of The Who's "My Generation". Lead singer Alf is 90 - it's quite something when he sings "I hope I die before I get old". And he's not the oldest - there are 99 and 100-year-olds in the band!

The Zimmers will feature in a BBC TV documentary being aired in May 2007. Documentary-maker Tim Samuels has been all over Britain recruiting isolated and lonely old people - those who can't leave their flats or who are stuck in rubbish care homes.
The finale of the show is this group of lonely old people coming together to
stick it back to the society that's cast them aside - by forming a rock troupe
and trying to storm into the pop charts.

Some massive names from the pop world have thrown their weight behind The Zimmers... The song is produced by Mike Hedges (U2, Dido, Cure), the video shot by Geoff Wonfor (Band Aid, Beatles Anthology), and it was recorded in the legendary Beatles studio 2 at Abbey Road.

What can I say ... wow! Rock's no.1 anthem sang by the old fogies.

Anyways, here's The Who's live performance.... you can really see why they brought live rock to a new level .....



Why don't you all F-F-F ....

Greece photos

ok ok here they are, nearly 500 of them haha. Well I wanted to pick out some, but in the end, just upload all la.

hopefully I didn't upload any of the "x rated" stuff hah!

Greece

thats me at the black sand beach in Santorini ...