Days in KE 7

Well, in the last post, I said that I will write more "tomorrow". Unfortunately, tomorrow never came. Haha....

I have been keeping myself busy with Float. Not that I am part of the team, it is just something I do out of curiosity and because I will never get to join a holiday committee next year due to internship commitments. The past week was particularly interesting watching how the artistes and engineers go about doing their duties; the artistes busy with their scaling and artwork and the engineers constructing massive wooden and steel structures. Trust me, float is a lot of hard work. I just cannot fathom how the floaters have the stamina and motivation to go on day after day working from 9 am till God knows when. Wish them all the best for the upcoming NUSSU Rag Day, a day when all the halls and faculties will display their float for us to see.

Also, being with the floaters for a week plus already taught me many things. Especially what happened today. I was asked to determine the centre of a circular wood cutting. Having left my geometry after school, I was totally clueless. Alright, with Kee Hong's help, we did manage to come up with a strategy to determine the centre, using the property that the angle of a semicircle is 90 degrees. However, I created so much of a fuss that I looked stupid. So stupid to the point that people actually questioned how the hell can a university student not know such a simple task. I felt terrible. Not only am I not able to help, I might be causing them a hell lot of touble. Why am I always not capable of practically coming up with solutions, why am I always not able to use my common sense. The final blow came when someone questioned how can a Faculty of Science Dean's List student not know how to determine the centre of a circle.

To think about it, I have practically nothing left in my life that I am good at except for what is mentioned in the textbooks. I was never good with computers, never good at grabbing opportunities when they come and maintain only a small circle of friends. I'm never good with woodwork/ steelwork/sports/ outdoor activities and things that require common sense. I dread to think of the day when I am living alone and will need to call the plumber every single day for some minor leakage that a normal person can fix using common sense. I dread to think of the day when I will be cheated by advertisements or conmen simply because I am too naive. I am too stupid perhaps to live a life.

What is wrong and why did I end up like this? Perhaps I was too sheltered as a child. Fed when hungry and comforted when I throw a tantrum. Everything will be handled by Mum and Dad. Maybe it is not a good thing when your parents love you too much. You will end up being dependant, not able to stand on your two feet.

What an important life lesson that I've learnt in just one week that I am back here in KE Hall. Indeed, my hall has people with so many different talents and capabilities that I am just a nobody. I will need to change my outlook of life and drill in some common sense, plus street smart strategies to survive in the harsh environment of Singapore. Thrown into the sea, one can only sink or swim. I never know how to swim.

Back in Good Old KE Hall

Finally back in hall after 1 month plus. Hall is practically deserted, not many people around. It feels like my first day here, except that I return not as a freshie, but as a senior and KEWOC member.

So, what have I done in the past 1 month at home? I did set out a few objectives to achieve and I am glad I did achieve some, if not all.

I did hit 195 chinese characters, short of the original plan of 200. Worse, these are not the 195 most common characters, so I still find it difficult to comprehend sentences. Haha, but now I can make out simple sentences (very simple ones) or fragments of sentences. It has been a nice experience making myself watch Guess Guess Guess, Taiwan hokkien shows, Edisi Siasat Mandarin ( a Malaysian mandarin show about current issues) and a particular Singaporean show teaching Mandarin to foreigners. Yeah, it's called 有话好好说 (you hua hao hao shuo), and I am loving it watching Indians and Filipinos speaking Mandarin.

Besides, I did meet up with few friends, the usual Form 6 gang... We went to school together, tuition together, CCA together, so many things done together. Same paths will eventually diverge and now we are on separate roads. Wish you guys all the best and hope that we can meet up for more trips sometime in the future. The Lumut trip was fun! Met up with two primary school classmates, namely Chong Eu and Winson. All the best to you guys also. Of course, there are many more I did not get a chance to meet, mainly due to clashing freetime. Sorry to Elaine also, who tried hard to organise a KL outing but I had to pull out.

Gonna sleep now and continue tomorrow.

Malaysia's First A (H1N1) case

What ill luck......

It has finally reach our shores and I bet our neighbour down south is on high alert. Please don't quarantine me for 7 days because that will kill me faster than the flu. This is the link:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/15/nation/20090515141134&sec=nation

Well, I can only hope that this will be the first and very last case. I hope the guy recovers soon.

Happy Mother's Day

Was moved by a newspaper article today about the one year anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquake. Read about how the hopes of parents were buried together with their children on that fateful day. All it took was just one natural disaster to change so many lives. With China's one child policy, imagine the grief of these parents losing their only child, their only hope for a better future. Though angered and pointing their fingers towards corrupted government officials, nothing can bring back the innocent children to life. Coincidentally, today in the papers also, the first reported swine flu case in China came from this very province.

Putting that aside, this article prompted me to think about my mum's hopes towards me. How she slaved her way through raising her two children and how we ended up arguing about very petty things. She always said that she is worried about me and whether I am able to cope in Singapore. I remembered the intense bickering one year ago when I turned down Medicine to do Pharmacy. I guess it is every parent's dream to see their son be a doctor, to save lives, to be proud that they raised a fine young man.

This Mother's Day, I did not do anything. I did not wish her (not openly that is), I did not buy anything for her and I certainly did not treat her dinner. Deep down however, I wish to give her the best gift, accumulated from all the past Mother's Days and that is to graduate with a good degree and to buy her something decent with my first real paycheck. I want her to be a proud mum in UCC, come August 2012, to know that she raised a fine young man also. Come to think of it, I really don't want to buy her anything just yet, because I have no cash. That is true. Whatever money I spend now to buy her gifts comes from her. It is just a cycle. I don't want to use her money to buy gifts for her. I want to use my own. However, to use my own, I will have to wait another 3-4 more years. Not to mention that she is already paying for my education.

I must thank my mum, if not for her, I might not be in NUS now. She nags a lot and was a very strict mum when I was young. I remembered her sitting next to me when I was a little kid, teaching me algebra. It was only during primary school and of course I cannot understand 5 + x = 9. x to me is only an alphabet. Alphabets should not go together with numbers. Of course I got scolded and called an idiot for not understanding such an easy equation, but the fact that she took the trouble to teach me all this patiently made me who I am today.

She herself never got into university, but education is her top priority. I must thank her for the years of being thrifty, cutting back on expenses for herself and always spending for her kids. I have never seen her buying new clothes for herself. She is always wearing the same clothes since years ago. When she said she cannot retire just yet because she has to see me through university, I felt as if I am a big burden. I can never repay what she did for me, no matter how big my Mother's Day gift is.

What I can do is just to ensure her sacrifices are worthwhile. I hope that she can be a proud mum one day and retire soon. It is time she takes a rest. Too much white hair already. Makes her look even older than her real age.

Gosh...I remembered the Facebook quiz I created stating that I cried most during primary school only. I guess today is an exception. Happy Mother's Day.

Mum is in light green shirt, grandma in pink shirt and my aunt plus two little cousins and yours truly. Taken at Kuching International Airport. Cannot remember when.

Learning Chinese

Oh gosh....I remembered telling myself after XQRJ that I MUST learn Chinese, for my own benefit. My aim is to somehow squeeze 200 Chinese characters into my head within the one month I am at home. One week already passed and I only managed a mere 40 characters. How am I going to cram 200 characters!!!

I got some kindergarten books from a friend of mine. Now, I am reading Snow White and the likes. Fairy tale stories. The only problem is....it is Snow White Chinese version. I cannot even complete page one. Giving up, I go back to my trusted book, setting a target of 10 characters a day. This book is really fun, it teaches you the strokes of most common Chinese characters, all 176 in the book. It explains the origin of these characters and provides useful description to help one remember the characters.

This is one example:

田(tian) means field while 力 (li) means strength. Combine these two characters and you will get 男 (nan) which means male and everything related to masculinity. The explanation follows that guys usually use their strength, working in the fields way back in ancient China, and that is how the character 男came about. Interesting eh? Ironically, I have never even been to a field before (rice field I mean).

Here is another one:

小 (xiao) which means small and 大(da) which means big are the components of the character 尖 (jian) which means sharp. Apparently, to the ancient Chinese, sharp objects have a large base which taper towards a small end.

Chinese seems to be an interesting language. At least it makes some sense. Before this, I have no idea about the meaning behind these characters. The biggest challenge yet is when these characters are combined to make new words or phrases. Gosh....there could be countless combinations. Will worry about that later...much later.

Hopefully, I can really finish 200 characters before I am back in NUS!

Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)

I have no idea how to begin, but this book is powerful. Just that, a really powerful book that plays with your emotions, at least for me.

The story is about a 15 year old boy running away from home, either to escape a certain prophecy or his father, I am not sure. It could also be that he wanted to find his mother and sister, both whom he did not meet since he was four. Anyway, the story begins like that, this boy, barely a teenager threw all responsibility to the wind and set off to Shikoku from Tokyo. What I really like at the beginning of the story was the carefree life the boy led after escaping school, spending his time mostly in a library. The author managed to capture the very essence of what I have been longing to do, to live in a world without responsibilities. Particularly loved the part when the boy stayed in a cabin on the mountains, being so close to nature.

This is the first time I have seen this kind of writing style, but there is a different, parallel story on the even chapters. Sure enough, the odd chapters were all about the 15 year old boy, but the even chapters focused on an old man, Nakata who could talk with cats. Apparently, some strange incident when he was young completely wiped out his memory and he cannot read or write.

I wouldn't go into the details of how the plot progressed, but suffice to say that the author cleverly merged the two stories together. The old man ended up in Shikoku too, to search for the other half of his shadow.

To be honest, even after finishing this book, I am still trying to make sense of the story. I can understand the flow, but there were just too many questions flying around my head. I bet the author tried to create a metaphysical world, one where the reader can actually read the subconscious thoughts of the characters, and also how the subconscious of the characters themselves can leave their present body to perform certain acts.

Halfway through, the plot starts to get dark and mysterious. The boy's father ended up being killed and the boy met his mother, or at least I think was his mum. Murakami certainly played with emotions when he killed off two very important characters, the mum and also Nakata. I was really surprised when he did that, because it ended the beautiful love affair between the boy and his mum (yes, they actually had an affair!!). His words were powerful, painting a vivid image of whatever scenaries, actions and thoughts the characters went through. I can really imagine the whole scene through his words (or rather, words of the translator). Many random knowledge and facts about the world were sprinkled here and there in the story, mainly conveyed through the books that young boy read at the library and the people he met along the way.

One drawback though, the story can be quite complex and you really cannot expect everything to be logical when reading it. You must have a healthy dose of imagination because Murakami puts in a lot of what we might label as nonsense....( souls, another world in the forest, realistic dreams, fish falling fron the sky, talking cats etc..)

Oh yea, how did I stumble aross this book?
Haha....Xu Su introduced it. I was trying to figure out why the heck would anyone read so many books from the same author and decided to give this one a try. Quite a good one though, was feeling emo after finishing it late at night. Not having a TV to watch generally meant I only have this as my entertainment. ( My TV hates me, breaking down when I am back for vacation) -.-

Home......

Ahh.....the 5 hours journey home took its toll on me. I must have been sitting with the wrong posture, causing me to have slight back pain. I am old already........

Was reading Murakami on the way back, all over again. Second time reading it, after abandoning it halfway when exams approached. In the first chapter of the book, a 15 year old boy was running away from home. Haha...I am running away from NUS back home, in the other direction...what a stark contrast. That contrast made me giggle a bit on the bus.

When we crossed the bridge into Johor, some lunatic actually shouted "Yes, Malaysia!!!!", startling everybody. Gosh..I guess he hasn't been back for a long time. How glad I am to cross the Second Link and seeing signs in Bahasa Melayu again. It is not that I am a big fan of the language, but it feels like home, strangely. The bus ride was a monotonous one, with me alternating between reading and sleeping. Soon, I reached the ever bustling Puduraya station, where buses from every single corner of Malaysia converge. Trying to cross the road there nearly killed me. When I reached a zebra crossing, I instinctively searched for that button to allow me to cross, but what greeted me was a bunch of tangled up wires, the button obviously has fallen prey to vandalism. So, I decided to dash across the road and a car appeared from nowhere, almost hitting me. Gosh, this is not Singapore anymore. Crap, I suddenly felt as if I am in a 3rd world country.

The sweltering heat was something I had to put up with these 2 days. A tropical nation, huh? Anyway, did practically nothing much other than reading a bit and tagging along with mum to shop. I hate shopping...-.-.Oh well, better spend more time with her especially when Mother's day is just around the corner. I will blog again if something interesting pops up.