Nonk.Cook

One of the best decisions that I have made this year is to cook.

Every time I cook, I feel much at ease, I'd just focus on what I am making: a good meal for myself and sometimes for my housemate, Vincent. When the dish turns out to be really good, the sense of satisfaction is amazing.

Vincent had never cooked before this. I have cooked a bit during university time, but only simple dishes. Maybe occasionally when I was staying at Jurong East and then Telok Blangah.

But during this COVID-19 situation and the Singapore Circuit Breaker when we were forced to stay at home and work from home, it had spurred a renewed, more intense passion for cooking in me.

Throughout the whole of Circuit Breaker, I cooked my all meals (except for cereal and milk for most of breakfasts) and for Vincent every day. If I have meetings and no time to cook, Vincent will cover the cooking. There was some exception for maybe two or three times where we decided to order pizzas.

During this period when I was still close with Venny, she shared a lot of recipes and taught me a few tricks and recipes for which I'm quite grateful. Venny seemed to have cooked a lot and quite proficient. Too bad, she doesn't do much cutting, otherwise, she would have had my full admiration on this.

Overall my skills have definitely improved and I have been cooking more complicated dishes. And in terms of technical difficulty and taste, I'm quite confident that my cooking is better than Vincent's. I do feel a bit irked every time any friend associates my cooking as Vincent's and/or implying that we are at the same level. We are not, and if you can cook I'm sure you will be able to tell. 

In any case, I decided that that sense of irking (or jealousy due to him obtaining the same admiration with less effort) is not important at all. What's more important is to keep challenging myself, and cook more complicated, intriguing dishes.

I've gotten quite good so far to the point that I began teaching my mom some new dishes (earlier she was teaching me). I have let 7ko tried my Banh Mi, Char Kway Teow, and Duck Vermicelli and managed to even impress her. 

Recently, I have even started selling Duck Vermicelli for fun. Kudos to my friends especially Esther for the encouragement and Jess and Anthony Tjong as my first and second customers respectively. I have also let Esther tried my cooking twice, to which generally she was quite impressed. 

I may want to try to audition for the Master Chef (Singapore) show, cause' why not, right?

Who knows if I may become a Michelin rated Chef one day.

ACK Chapter Closed

Just slightly shy of 2 months, I have been in a weird emotional turmoil

In September 2019 I thought I met a girl whom I was very sure I want to marry one day, even more certain than any of my ex-es or potential girls whom I was ever close to.

Everything was going so well, we were so close, we met a few times and we held hands and hugged.

Then came October 2019, when she started to cool down and put up a distance with various reasons, in chronological order:

1. she was unsure if I were to stay in Singapore for long term or not (citing the case of her sister who's stuck in a small town of Palembang because her brother in law has to take over his family business);
2. she was testing herself to put that distance;
3. she thought that we got too intimate and it's good to give us some time;
4. she liked me less and was uncertain now, and suggested that I should open myself to new possibilities;
5. I was getting annoying to her and she was certain that she didn't want any relationship with me;
6. she only liked me as a friend now and I'm getting creepy for worshipping her too much.

So during the phone call that was meant to wish her a birthday (30 Oct) she really seemed uninterested to talk. Although she thanked me for the gifts, She told the flowers that I sent anonymously which she knew were meant to make her day did not really make her day at all.

In fact, to her, she was starting to get creeped out by this gesture especially on how I knew about her office address (to which I admitted I felt bad but I knew from her Linkedin account and googled her office address). In any case, I think she was unimpressed with my sketch of her portrait and felt like I have done too much. She hadn't read the letter that I prepared.

She described to me how her feelings to me went from something to nothing and eventually clarified that she only likes me as a friend and since we do not have any common friends she was prepared to even cut ties with me.

So I thought to myself this was the end. This girl was responding to me out of pity and guilt because she knew that she had led me on too much.

But I cannot blame her either because I admit that I lacked patience and my own sense of security, where I orchestrated my own downfall without me realizing it.

I was obsessed and probably still am a little bit.

However, this shall be a learning point and I can only grow from this.

End of the first relationship

[backdated post]
My first relationship lasted from 18 April 2014 to 08 December 2014 = 234 days (about 8 months)

I think it's pretty normal for the feelings to fade during a relationship, but I could have still lived with that. I have decided to initiate the breakup simply because her time is too valuable for me.

She took extra classes three times a week, on top of another coaching two extra classes a week citing that she had recently realized that her time is precious and instead of saving money and time, she should just go carpe diem and take as many classes while she is [relatively] young so she wouldn't regret not doing it when she is old.. Although I gotta admit that I admire her passion, it kinda irks me that she chose to spend more time where we could have more together time in light of her upcoming long holidays to the United States and soon probable Work and Travel in Aussie.

To make it worse, the trip to the US was an impulsive decision, made almost without hesitation. Although the decision was made before we started the relationship, but we were already dating and really close that time. The trip was going to coincide with Christmas and of course, my birthday. When asked about it she sounded like she had forgotten about my birthday, and spending time together during the year-end holidays never really crossed her mind.

Felt lonelier and lonelier that week before the breakup, all the things around me were like falling apart. Yet, I received no consolation or companionship and I just thought to myself long enough to eventually decide that I might as well just go back to being single.

I could understand it easily when she took lots of classes when she was trying to achieve distinction in her Advance 2 exams because that's what my youngest sister is attempting to do too. She had more than 1 class a day in average. It's too bad that she didn't get distinction. It is also perfectly understandable that passing with distinction in Advance 2 is like a milestone in life but another Advance 2 exam will still be another year apart and these recent additional classes she took was for her personal leisure purposes, without any concrete goals in near future whatsoever.

"Even if I am at my old age, I will also keep dancing and take these classes"
Or something like that from my recollection, she said, trying to justify taking these classes.

So, on top of all that, I am actually amused when she said that she had 'sacrificed a lot of time' for us. When it is dancing time (5 times a week) is something she willingly spent but when if it's together time (left with once or twice a week), it's something she that 'sacrificed', something which is 'a lot'.

And should I expect the same shit even when she's old?

I know I may be selfish. Or I may be hard to please. But even the lady friend that I went out for a couple of friendly dates with before I dated my exseriously was much more caring, although just as a friend, than her, as a my (ex)-girlfriend. May be I have unwittingly taken that lady friend for granted now that I felt that the same has be done onto me.

It has been a journey, not too short to forget, not too long to learn a lot about relationships. She was not willing to make her compromises and I'm not the type to suck up to this type of people. So since I saw no future I'd be willing to spend with her, I decided that we break up.

Uncle's Crisis

We, the whole family, were on our way from Genting Highland to KL when my Mom received a Blackberry Messenger message from one of my cousins. She was asking my mom whether we had known the condition of her father.
My Dad took out his phone and called his sister, i.e. the mother of that cousin, Auntie, to ask what was wrong and the response was a frantic cry from her.

Uncle was admitted to ICU.

He was about to leave for Hong Kong, on that supposed-to-be-a-joyous-and-festive 1st day of 2012 when he  told Auntie that his leg felt weak and felt dizzy before he turned unconscious.

Uncle is famous, or rather notorious, for his appetite for good food and as we all know, the taste of food is always inversely proportional to how healthy the food is. Uncle, who was on medication control for his diabetes and hypertension, had never forgotten to offer (and eat) Durians whenever we visit him.

But almost every visit to his place has never been a really pleasant one. He would reprimand his youngest son, a soon to be poly-grad, for almost everything that he does. Sometimes they are justified scoldings, most of the time is out of emotion. His oldest son, already 30 something, is yet to be successful and probably still rely on Uncle on a lot of his finances. While Uncle's other two children are married brides. And these four people are very rarely a united bunch.

Was it the food? Was it the stress from the family? We were trying to aimlessly speculate on the cause of his stroke that put him to his coma. Nevertheless, Auntie also rationally realized that there's nothing much anyone of us could do anymore and only asked my dad to offer a prayer to wish for Uncle's speedy recovery over that phone call.

While my parents and my sisters headed to Penang before their flight back to hometown the next day, I headed back to Changi and spent sometime resting around the east. Then I went to the hospital, still with my backpack, still filled with dirty laundries. All of Uncle's children were already there, probably after taking their urgent flights from Medan and Sydney, and with Auntie and the youngest, the only two other who are living in Singapore.

As a indebted nephew, whom and whose parents had been offered place to stay by Uncle, whenever they come to visit me in Singapore, I could only feel obliged to accompany my Auntie and the rest at the ICU lobby. I couldn't offer to her much other than my presence and constant reminder to take care of herself and not to surrender on her despair due to this never-before-encountered crisis. More so because she didn't eat at all that day of Uncle's admission.

I also saw Uncle, still in ICU after his brain surgery, with drips, vent and pipes here and there: head, foot, wrist, neck, mouth, and also probably from his bottom (for excretion). Not a sight you could and would want to see everyday. It was not even this scary even when my Grandma passed away since she she decided to leave us peacefully after some failed treatment.

That first working week of January, I always reach home at 11.30pm to 12am almost everyday because I would be visiting them first after work. Most of the time, a lot of relatives of Uncle that I dont know at all. They would talk about Uncle's eating habit and temper, or how expensive the hospital bill was gonna be, or complain about how Uncle's sons should behave from this point onwards, etc. Auntie had also ask me to stay with her temporarily after I am back from CNY because the rest will have flown back to their own places, leaving behind only Auntie and the youngest, and Uncle of course, if he's already discharged from ICU by then.

The following weekend I stayed with them so I could accompany them. But, inside their house is like four countries at war in the house maybe with one scapegoat country, the youngest: Always scolded for the littlest (normally excusable) mistake. Uncle's sisters and brother (who also came from Medan) and me were staying there as guests.
Poor youngest one. He was always the subject of anger from the rest, without moderation, disregarding our presence as guests. Maybe due to that state adolescence, he also tends to fight back. More emotions are involved from both sides due to the apparent stress as tears accompanied the sister's shoutings that day. Started from something as trivial as the breakdown of a water boiler in the house.

You know, I always see myself as a poor little employee who still relies on petty salary to continue living. I am also spend trift and almost never wise on my financial decision. This makes me hate the phrase:
"Look at William".
To them I am probably a role model who is one step closer to success by having a permanent job and who is now independent and self-sustaining salaryman. I'd like to think that I am never *that* good , as there are too many people I know who's doing much better than me. It's probably a fair comparison to Uncle's oldest son, but is unfair because this phrase is only used to the youngest who's yet to graduate from his Poly study (funded with a scholarship from one of top government bodies). I am very tired of this "Look at William" because it's been used too often during this crisis.

The second week of Uncle in the ICU is over and he is yet to be discharged. Auntie did not look as depressed as the earlier days, which is good and the youngest is starting to learn to become independent in doing chores to alleviate Auntie's housework so that she can focus on taking care of Uncle in the future. Little by little, Uncle's condition also seems improving.

I am grateful that this didn't happen to my family. Although indeed this might happen to us one day, but I hope we, especially my parents, have taken back some learning points especially on anticipation and preparedness (mentally and financially). I will be accompanying Auntie for quite a while too and also will be wishing for what's best for them.

Grow Old

Found some awesome and wicked cool quote:

"You never grow old, you become old by not continuing to grow" - Wilford A Peterson 

because the "we do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing" is already too cliche!

Message Delivery

Judging: It's all about Message Delivery.

Now I know pretty clearly how am I perceived in different social circles of mine.

Work

When at work, I tend to be a quiet and straightforward guy, who accesses facebook only from my mobile phone just for the sole purpose of keeping myself awake (the most effective way) and emails random stuffs to my peers in other company for the same purpose. Due to frequent sneezing recently, I guess, they have been talking behind my back about me since I always failed to keep myself awake due to excessive reading materials (lol)

But this is how my colleagues or particularly my bosses see me: that I am a "kind" and "caring" (as quoted directly from them [bosses] ) boy.

My boss was hospitalized due to dengue a month ago and I was always enquired about by the rest of the colleague (since she's quite popular, sociable and respected in the company, and me because I am the only person under her direct supervision). So I texted her to ask about her, so if there's anyone else asking me about her, I can update them on how she was doing.

Due to her recent busy events, I left fruits (from the free-flow fruits counter available every Wednesday) on her table since she sometimes didn't even have time for lunch. Of course one senior admin colleague who's very close to her was the one who suggested me to do that.

These two actions gave me the "caring" impression albeit the lack or non-existence of the genuine intention

The "kind" impression when I was giving the big boss the 3 bottles of red wines and one chivas regal to him, I won from the lucky draw (internal). The prizes were the hampers the boss got from his sub-contractors or clients, etc.

the hamper, probably the one that intrigued the most people ;)

Call me stupid, but I don't feel I deserve these lucky draw prizes and I don't see the point in indulging with that much of alcohol although I might be quite able in drinking (no allergy with probably high threshold, and ability for moderation). Anyways, even the greeting card was addressed to the big boss, so I accepted the luck up to only the boxes of chocolate.... and the door shelf

Friends (regulars)
When I am with the regulars or sometimes not really regulars, (as I only came to better realization after this Christmas night (not eve) outing with my ex-highschool classmates), I am seen probably as "anal" or "childish" or "like to complicate matters when things are so simple".

Just as when they were trying to ask a lot of things (particularly when relating to privacy), in order to save my face, I gave a lot of argument on definition. This was although from normal social situation the question was supposed to be "almost" perfectly understandable. I said "almost" because if I haven't done that, I wouldn't have known (or be reminded) that women had a very different perception to affections, compared with men.

I even used "when a person say 'I want this wall built with bricks' it does not clearly represent how that person want the bricks to be arranged. It could be alternate, or stacking or some other arrangement, so without specified details, we won't know what that person mean"-kind of example, to portray oversimplifications (lack of definition) leads to nowhere.
Of course the process had to come with a lot of argument, and a feedback that I complicates simple things.

I was also trying to highlight hasty assumptions, but of course the points were not received in a smooth way, partially contributed my lack of ability to clearly explain to them, partially contributed by their lack of interest in my explanation too, and the rest of the reason is probably due to the classic I-am-the-most-mature syndrome in everyone (including myself). Every time they had the chance to insinuate me with my own points, their relevance to the insinuation and the irrelevance to the ongoing topic ridiculed me.

poor boy kena press-ed when eating apple crumble with ice-cream

Although in the end I have managed to convince them that what I said was reasonable, there seemed to be a bit of retained un-acceptance in them.

Similar, but not the same situations also happens when with my other circle of friends, especially friends of the same batch. I realize that this is a new trait that I obtained from my job (although just very recent), it might not be a pleasant change to my environment, but I am not unhappy that I changed this way.

Conclusion
from the comparison of the two situations:
With the non-existence of good intention, or the lack thereof, I could be well-perceived, since I am only judged by my "visible action"
With the relatively good intention to highlight common sense and justifications of words and actions, I could see myself judged more to an "anal" rather "reasonable".

It is probably people tend to judge with a handful of information they can digest directly, and not bothering to observe a bit while more, and it's actually a very misleading image if we get to assumptions too early.

Now for those people who can read this, if I get anal again to any of you, please enjoy the fun of "rebutting" or "pressuring" my arguments. I mean no personal attack, and most of the time it's only to justify my points.

If I am very nice to you, don't feel too good since I might not act the way I feel towards you.

I will of course, apply this point of view when I am faced with similar situations too. It's only fair and reasonable that way.

Job Central - Personality Profiling

At a Glance
• Does not like too many work demands, prefers to work at own pace.
• Detailed, meticulous and observant, quick to pick out abnormalities.
• Objective, but may appear detached.
• Does not get involve in other's personal problems.
• Avoids long-term or close interpersonal relationships.
• Likes intellectual discussions, likes to explore ideas.
• Orderly, methodical and systematic, takes care to plan in detail.


While at Work

Putting in a lot of effort to meet the demands of work is not Mr William's preference. He does not like to rush around doing things and may feel demotivated if work constantly encroaches on his personal life. Although he does not like excessive work demands, Mr William may still be prepared to put in extra effort if it is on a short term basis.

Mr William is relatively dependable to deliver results on time. He may sometimes be late in meeting deadlines.

Mr William generally will persist with work until it is completed but may at times not complete his tasks.

Mr William is likely to be quality-conscious and achievement-oriented. He is motivated to produce work that is of a high standard. He is observant, quick to spot errors and critical where work is concerned. He is likely to be meticulous, careful and pre-occupied with detail.

Mr William is an objective person who is impartial and rational. He speaks factually and often does not involve his own feelings and emotions. He may sometimes be perceived as distant or detached.

Mr William is selective in lending support to others. He often remains detached and unsympathetic.

Mr William may not regard the welfare of another person as the most important aspect of their relationship. He is not likely to want to be involved in the problems of others unless necessary.

Mr William is friendly and outgoing when he is with friends although he may at times prefer to be quiet.

Mr William is not one who prefers strong or deep bonds, and avoids close interpersonal relationships. He is reluctant to form attachments, preferring to keep people at a distance. He prefers relationships to remain casual and superficial.

Mr William is moderately serious about his responsibilities and selectively takes ownership of his work.

Mr William is moderately concerned with prestige, rank and reputation.

Mr William is at times able to engage people to accomplish his objectives.

Mr William's leadership qualities are moderate and he is sometimes able to get the support of people.

Intellectually inquisitive and extremely interested in knowledge acquisition, Mr William enjoys discussing hypothetical or theoretical issues. He is conceptual and likes to explore abstract ideas. Mr William is a thinker, creative and inventive of ideas. He enjoys reading and is happiest sourcing for new ideas and information.

Being orderly, methodical and systematic, Mr William spends considerable time planning ahead and organizing activities. He ensures that programmes are scheduled properly and takes care to plan in detail. Formulating procedures and policies is his forte.

Mr William is generally able to express himself although not to a high degree of eloquence.

Mr William is generally able to tolerate some uncertainty although he would be uncomfortable if uncertainty or changes increase.

Heys, abit more here and less there it will look like Singapore Island!!hahahahaha

the turning point - cont'd 2

Things does not always come out that you'd expect it to be and we all know that.

I took the risk to bet and wait for the result from the company I like, but I didn't get it.

However, I don't feel extremely disappointed or sad because I knew the chances were thin: it is a big company, I was fucking late for the interview, and I was nervous during the interview although it was my 5th interview! wtf (5th nervousness came after 4 interviews, something is wrong with me).

I realized however, I didn't really know what I want in a job, or even to the basic: what I want for a job and that is very crucial to secure one for yourself. There is no leisure in holding offers until you can get a better one, so what you can do for a better offer is reject and wait for a better one.

I can't say I didn't regret that I rejected two job offers. But yeah, sulking creates nothing. What's done is done, what happened has happened.

I gotta be positive thinking

This simply means, my choices are now open again. Now job search continues

Balls

A new label: Daddy.
Means wise words or advices from my dad.
He called me yesterday to ask about me and told me not to be over-stressed with the job search, then he said this (although probably it's from other sources but I like this):

These three things are like glass balls: Health, Friends and Family
once they drop, they will break so it's really hard to put them back together again


Meanwhile, Money and Career are like rubber ball
once they drop, it can bounce back unpredictably (might be high might be low, we can't control it anyways, but one thing for sure it wont shatter like glass balls) so it doesn't really matter

Thus using that my dad asked me to put more emphasis on friendship rather than putting too much focus on the job search. You know, just take a break or something but yeah I did, not so much though.

The meaning of heart shaped love

I came into realization about this funny when I was inside a bus going to Vivo this evening.
A couple, they are like listening to a music or watching a video with one set of normal earphones.

I was thinking that if they were not wearing them that way (each earphone at the ears furthering against the ear of the other) they could have watched or listen to the thing more comfortably.
so, what I meant was: The guy was sitting at the left side, and and the girl at the right, the earphones wer at the left ear of the guy and right ear of the girl.
And wouldn't it be better if the guy put the earphone at the left ear and the girl at the rigt ear instead?

Come to think about it, being comfortable is not their concern, or maybe it is if they feel more comfortable as they come close to one another. The first setting will limit their zone so that they can still listen to the earphones, but this ables them to be as close as possible to one another.

And yes: it's actually heart shaped: The outer line of two heads, and two cables joining in one end (just like a normal speaker).

Ah, just another couple falling in love and a random thought of a bored guy inside the bus.

Oh what an ungrateful son I am.
I shall take back what I said.

and for whatever real reason it is, I will take my parents' schooling me in the drawing class when I was young wasn't for them but for my own good.
That's one of parents' role that I have forgotten to appreciate: to craft the path when we don't have enough wisdom yet to craft one on our own.

That's all
Thank you Mommy Daddy! =)

Multi-tasking trial report

Introduction
This post will discuss about an experiment done based on a very spontaneous idea.
When the action of brushing teeth was done, a natural urge of going to the bathroom to urinate appeared.
Desiring whiter teeth from a subjective point of view, the brushing teeth was done in a lengthy and thorough manner and with the mentioned sudden natural trigger, this idea was generated.

Description
The hand used to do the brushing movement was right hand and then, while still on that action, a movement towards the water closet was done and the left hand pulled the pants to let the ‘hose’ appear out from the cover of cloth, aimed it right towards the water closet and then the body released the urine just per normal.

It is observed that it is harder to hold the ‘hose’ and aim with one hand during that brushing teeth action: where either the body or the left hand had the tendency to move according to the right hand movement, making it very difficult to control. With the great effort, the urine was maintained to be excreted within the boundary of the water closet so that it won’t dirty the surroundings.

The particular to take care about after the urination:
The hand washing: which was with the left hand and while the brushing action also came to an end, where the action of cleaning the mouth with water was required, care was practiced and to be taken not to use left hand, which was for holding and aiming the ‘hose’, to transfer the running water to the mouth.

Recommendation
Urinate after the brushing teeth is done, because more focus can be directed to those separate actions.

Possible Future Research Recommendation
Addition of another care factor of using trousers of pants with zipper where one hand to zip back might lead to unwanted consequences causing harm to the researcher himself.

Report prepared by
William

my biased thought about Japanese

I think Japanese, either the people or the language is so cool that I actually bother to go and learn up till this point.

From my project, where our group was attached to 3 Japaneses, taking them at few spots in NUS and actually having to use Japanese to communicate with them made me realize:
-We weren't actually obliged to use Japanese in our communication
-They are students of language major, either they were studying about foreign language and/or they were studying about how to teach Japanese in foreign country
-One of them are actually a Chinese who's been in Japan for 8 years. Her Japanese language communication was naturally that of a native, still she can fluently speak Mandarin
--
And from those two fact, I assume that we could have comfortably spoken in English; or the rest of the group with the Chinese girl in Chinese, but we didn't;
I'm guessing that it is because of how interested we are in indirectly mimicking the 'style' comparatively like how 'modern' traditions are generally called as 'westernized';

It's like they were in Singapore, but we impliedly show them that we will communicate with their language, prompting them to use it. A natural reaction for a tourist to be in a foreign country is to study few helpful phrases in local language or just use English;
Though, some of it shown in exchange of information in cultural topic during a conversation, but still we kept using japanese, maybe partially it's part of a Japanese language project; but then again there were no forms, no strict peer review, no supervision for every conversation that happened. Or maybe it's the 'mimicking', or the desire to learn, or the pride to show that you can actually communicate with their native language.

Either way, seems that it's interesting to know about this interest.
(digress a bit ah: Like's Hans' teacher: interestingly interesting interest)

I think it's a beautiful language, though at times with redundancy, tickling so much curiosity out, transcending the interest over the others.
Or maybe simply I've watched too much anime -.-

Learn that Life's like that

At a point in time, life's all about learning.
At another point in time, life's all about recalling, reviewing, and be reminded again of the things that you've ever learnt that you always forgot.

And those two points of time are always recurring lifelong.
At least that's it is for me.

Maybe a matured person is someone who would not ever need to recall and be reminded of what he has learned.

The Hedgehog Dilemma

I learned something today from the Anime I'm watching right now: Neon Genesis Evangelion, since it's very new for me, I decided to post it.
Definitely something more meaningful rather than watching's Thomas' Fave Sugo Chara (Lolzomg).
You all might have been familiar with this already but yeah, let's just post it anyways.

The Hedgehog Dilemma,
Well, you can find the page from wiki, but I'm not gonna argue about how hedgehog literally live within their community, but yeah, since it's from anime, it is somewhat an analogy of social "distance" dilemma within human's community. The picture is, the closer (less distance) of a hedgehog with another, the more pain they will feel if their quills hardens. Same goes to Human's Relationship: The closer you get to a person, when you are bound to hurt or to be hurt by that person, the more painful it feels.

So, naturally hedgehog would naturally find the most comfortable distances among one another within the community themselves. A good learning point that can be applied to human social lives.

Human behavior on Toilet bowl

Yeah, Mike says I specialize in weird posts, the toilet bowl hell, urine, whatever.
But that's where inspiration comes from. Not from the toilet bowl to your head but from your head when you are sitting on top of it doing big business; or standing doing the small one.

Anyways.. Somehow, nowadays, it's quite hard to write as boring days just pass and go away leaving you with nothing new.
So yeah, I've been thinking about this one for quite some time.
Somehow in my cluster, I've always had preference on which toilet cubicle to go to. That particular cubicle which has always been my preference, we'll call that da "favorite" cubicle.
Well, why favorite? That's the place where I feel the most comfortable to "make a deal".

Every time I feel like going there, there would always be these situations:
A. Da Favorite cubicle is free
Reaction: Ah, now I can take dump in the cubicle that I feel most comfortable in!
B. Da Favorite cubicle is occupied
Reaction: Red or White? Red or White? Ah dammit it's red, someone's using it.
Reaction B1: I still can hold for a bit, wait until da favorite cubicle is free then only use it.
Reaction B2: Dammit, can't hold anymore, don't have to use da favorite one also can already.
Reaction B3: Argh, can hold for a bit but not too long, go other restroom (such as in common floors) and take a dump there where it is almost as comfortable as da favorite one.

Okay, you can call me weird, but apparently that may define how human behaves upon selecting the place to take a dump. Either that OR the rest of the toilet bowls are equally not pleasing to everyone.

I have 2 situation to back my statement.
First: Da Favorite cubicle is occupied? Doesn't Matter what.. But yes it does. This has been strengthen by the fact that da favorite cubicle is the only cubicle which has always been occupied first. Everytime if it's occupied, why Cubicle "C"(assuming C is the favorite) as always? why not "A", why not "B"? Meaning the rest of the people sharing the restroom favors that cubicle as well.

Second: When I'm at da favorite itself. I always see people's shadows on the floor, they always look like approaching da favorite to check whether it's actually occupied or not. And when they found out that it's actually occupied, they start checking the cubicle besides, implying like "Ah, too bad, it's occupied, let me check whether this one is nice to use or not... Oops, I don't this toilet bowl, let me check out the other one". If I am weird, the person (shown by the shadow) don't have to always move from cubicle C to cubicle A, because a normal person wouldn't need to be that selective. But moving around just to check the condition, shows the selectivity of the person.
Which is the thing I might also do if da favorite is occupied.

So my conclusion is,
1. People also display favoritism in selecting the place to do "their business".
2. Da favorite is actually almost everyone's favorite in my cluster.

Learn to appreciate people

Well, as we know: Sometimes being the leader is a bit troublesome.
You won't know how other people would have thought of you after working for quite sometime with you, when sometimes you might be bossy without yourself knowing. So, some senior RA advised me to send an appreciation email crediting of what the team members have done for the whole thing that you've been working on. Not only we can make 'em feel good for working with you, but also you can see from the credit list of what have they been doing. So it doesn't look that good if I thank someone only for one thing and the rest for so many things.

So, this time, the main purpose is not really on to the latter one, I just sent a note of thanks (by email) to everyone who was involved in publicity effort of Welcome Fest. There had been contributions from the RAs outside the publicity comm, so what I did was thank them.
Erm.. hopefully everyone felt appreciated and wouldn't mind if I work with them again.

Yeah, thanks Giat Yeng for giving me this idea of appreciating people

English!???

This recent days, I'm so particular (that's what i think) to English, ever since the meeting for mid-autumn festival. So to make the snow skin mooncake, we need the FLOUR.
The capitalized words was source of the problem. So, how Singaporean and Malaysian would pronounce it would be [Fla:] or [Fla:r]. And when they pronounced that, I thought it, FLA when in Indon it means something like flour as well (or maybe it's something else related to food).

Then I when I realized they actually mean flour, I ask them whether that was supposed to be FLOUR, and how I would pronounce it is [Flau-er] or [Flauwer] like how you pronounce Flower.
Then because they were the majority and I was the only one with that pronunciation, and so they were like "No what, We've always been pronouncing it at [Fla:r].. Where got such pronunciation?"
"Got lah, since primary I know it's Flower's homophone, so how you pronounce flower is the same as how you pronounce Flour!"
Till I remembered someone showed about text to speech converter: a programs that speak out a text that you type out. So I typed flour and the program says [Flauwer].

So, I was so proud that I wasn't wrong and then I complained to almost everyone! lolz. "It's [Flauwer], we study American English in Indo lah.."

"Okay, then how you spell neighbour?"
"it's N-E-I-G-H-B-O-R, without U, toldya my English's American. I spell program, not programme, color not colour, etc etc"
"But why? I thought all South-East Asian countries, except for the Philippines, study British English?"

Yeap, so I actually knew and it was not a new thing for me that Singapore uses British English though they don't really speak like a British, and it's the same for me when I use American English and I don't sound American. muhahahaha..

But It's funny.. Before this, when I was quite new in Singapore I was like "Go to BED[bed]".
the same way you pronounce Bad. But they were confused. When I say "errh.. a place to sleep" and then they expressed "oh BED[be:id]!" And I thought I was so stupid. But now that I know I was not wrong again, maybe it's my turn to adjust to how they speak since It's not my own country I'm living in right now..

Mm.. But again... I think they should learn to adjust to American English as well. See, even Ms. Word, for British English spelling, the spelling would be red-underlined when you type programme instead of program. And I ever heard, both American or British is okay as long as it's standard English...

So..........................................?

Appreciate music playing.

As one of the new fella RA said to me, "We must know at least a bit of knowledge of something, in order to appreciate others who are really knowledgeable in something.

I never played guitar before and couldn't appreciate how great are those people who can play guitar very very fluently. Like Vincent: despite his appearance (lolz), I always thought he's been memorizing a lot of song. Only until few days after I learned how to play for very very little, I just found out yesterday that Vincent can just play just by "because I have ever heard of this song".
One or two strums, he got the chords straightaway!

Well, too bad I have never studied music before. From small before entering primary, I have been accepting drawing courses, and my drawing is not that bad. Or, was not that bad, at least I have the basics. I could have studied music as well. Around that age period, my mom also sent to study keyboard, but stopped after one or two course.

Now, I complained to my mom, though I wasn't that keen on music either :"Mum, you shouldn't have stopped sending me to learn keyboard". Kinda weird. Not until this age, 15-18, my interest in musical instrument wasn't really there. And not until that age, I said that to my mom.
She always replied "I'm just worried that your personality would turn like a woman's!"
Lolz. True, my mom's statement was a bit weird. But I wasn't born in a family that love music that much.. When I come to think about it, none of my close relative can play music. So yeah...

Only until I know some bits about playing music, I can appreciate it very very very much. Erm.. maybe It's quite hard to learn now, since my hands are already stiff because my growing period almost stopped! lolz, and my fingers are not that big. But let's just see how long I can survive trying to learn this one! hahahahha.

Thank goodness I've got lots of friends who can teach me.

Correction~ misjudgement

After all, it is so easy to misjudge people.
People : they must be looked at all angle before you might give a false judgment upon a person just because you see the bad part.
Like what i mentioned in previous post,
Susan - she had a tendency to aim for great things but later on, she just let other people to do it for her. Well, but as a senior, I think she has learned to appreciate people and perhaps she was indeed so busy so she couldn't offer any assistance when other people find difficulty of fulfilling the great things she aimed for. In the end, the 'other people' tend to have a biased feeling towards her.
I want to justify my point of view, because I have known Susan as a nice girl. Well, she's never been attending 'nations combined' meeting partially because of Wilson's fault as well: she was absent for once and wilson didn't contact her for the next meeting. Nevertheless, she always give mentoring of things by giving lots of constructive comments to the fresh RAs during the general meeting.
She's also assisted me a lot in doing the Guidebook. She works professionally and always helped me to push Irving to do work when I have a lot of things to bother for in Publicity Committee with myself as the head.
While Irving: He can do work, but the thing is that he tends to have lots of things to bother him and prevent him from doing his job. In the end, he did his things last in last minutes and I do feel he could have done better if he can be a bit more hardworking.

Well, conclusion is: everyone has a side that you like (doesn't mean that it's a good side) and everyone has a side that you don't like (and that doesn't mean that it's a bad side). The latter was proved by these types of misjudgments that I sometimes mentioned in my blog and my blog is very much affected by my own point of view of course.
Let's be more rational in judging people so that we don't anyhow misjudge everyone.