Requiescat In Pace

weili - RIP Michael
ah boon - RIP King of Pop
louis - In God's Hands
keith - you were and are a legend, thanks for the memories
mingxiu - just beat it
pedro - God Bless the King of Pop
jiewei - Bless him
melvin - because 'm bad
sean ho - I want to remember all the good you did for music-lovers throughout the world, shaping so much of what that came to be for so many years and so many years from now. Rest in peace, Michael! You are already immortalized in the world of music!
andrew tien - Rest In Peace
sivamani - remembers Michael Jackson & Farah Fawcett and wishes them peace
jamuna - MJ the best!
sook zhen - stop existing and start living
tasneem - wanna be startin' somethin'
keith - Today, my idol died. FML
melvin - long live the King of Pop. You will be missed.
jeanette - reeling in shock over his passing. Michael Jackson has always rocked our world, and always will.
jiahao - RIP MJ and Farrah
rachel - RIP, MJ. the helicopters are still buzzing above the hospital where you are and i can hear them from my room. shh, it's almost 1am.
amos - oh dear. mj is dead.
desmond - Despite Michael's troubling rationale, the King of Pop's life has expired, but he will always be remembered for his dazzling entertainment and musical ingenuity which enriched the world's ear.
calvin - has always wanted to attend a MJ concert
ros - RIP MJ.
juliet - More than the King of Pop...
deryck - Michael Jackson forever.
praba - R.I.P MJ!
wanyu - How could he have died...
cheeyuen - Let us spare a moment of silence to remember the King of Pop, who has left us recently to spread his culture to another world.
selly - in memory of Michael Jackson
yiyong - R.I.P MJ... we gonna miss u
jose - RIP MJ
dj - RIP Michael Jackson. You were everyone's King.
serene - RIP MJ. You'll be missed.
priya - R.I.P Michael Jackson. You were the man!
shi jian - farewell, legendary moonwalker
lyon - RIP, MJ. No matter how much of a quack they make you out to be just know your music has touched millions.
me - if we run all the lights: 1958-2009

i remember one of the headlines running along CNN's banner was something like "News of Death Fanned via Social Media".

jacko's death had a groundbreaking effect on the internet, slowing down traffic, causing google, wikipedia, twitter, AOL and the first two news sites carrying the news to crash.

at 1.14am of 27 june local time, almost 20 hours after jacko's death, while a bunch of us were at acid bar, the live band's instrumentalist spontaneously broke out into 'Beat It', a tribute, in his words, to our generation's King of Pop.

sweet.

life's a flash

i find it quite cool that someone/some organisation actually bothered to do a documentary on the new circle line. i caught a bit of it and there was this student interviewed.

he said he now only requires 10 minutes to reach school. from my estimation (as i know where he stays and what school he has to go to), previously he probably needed 20 to 30. most of us are nodding in agreement, that this is a plus. but take a step back and ponder. what difference is that?! can that little time saved be used to achieve much more?

this brings up once again a fundamental and overcooked issue of the fast-paced life in singapore. to rush and to rush, many not even sure for what purpose. it'd be too shallow of me and too weak an argument to criticise this problem and way of life with such a simple perspective, but i hope to just make u think about it, that's all.

i was recently in china for the sino-sing undergrad exchange. nanjing (6,600 sq-km, 7.5m people) and xi'an (10,000 sq-km, 8.2m people) have one mrt line each. yangzhou has none (6,600 sq-km, 4.6m people).

singapore, area of 710 sq-km and population of 4.8m, has four.

when the mass rapid transit was first conceptualised, it was to complement the bus service, the former to provide a transport spine to the country, the latter covering the grassroots. today, soon when the circle line is completed, every corner u turn towards, u'd be met with a station.

accessibility, convenience and connectedness are the hallmarks of the so-called world class public transport system in singapore. im not complaining about an improved system set to benefit most, if not all. but at what costs?

the environment? the increased urbanising of this island, an unbelievable amount of materials injected into project after project, trash, and of course electricity to run all of these.

taxes? do we need all these and are the taxes we pay justified?

fare hike? they enforce 'improvements' and then charge us for it.

and etc, things im ashamedly not knowledgeable enough to discuss.

to further my point. results of a survey of 12 countries released recently showed that singapore youths can complete 42 hours of work in a day of 24 hours. wow.

ok i realised i should at least have ONE post on SSUEP.

thank u everyone! it was unbelievable. the country, the people, the company.































































































































































































more on my Multiply.

SSUEP videos (many of them, after much torturous editing) are on fb!

a choke

last night.

was the first time i choked up with tears over our relationship.

no one was at fault. it couldn't be helped. only time has the ability to change things. and of course, a willingness in u to change.

it was a sensational feeling. being frustrated, and sad, yet not spiteful, or hurtful.

there was a calm. which i realised i haven felt in years. a sense of selfless quiet that only love can bring.

u need time to understand what a commitment means. what is it to hold together a life where now not just the self is important, but another, is equally, if not more important.

it's hard. it's already been so hard. but we'll try harder.

i thought this line last night summed it all up:
"i want u to know i love u no matter what."

even in adversity. even when there's animosity. even when things are unclear and we're in a mess, because that is the only thing we can depend on and hold faith to.

optimistically, i guess there are tears only when u care from the deepest of ur heart.

=)

"and the highest was..."

in another school-emo post after that...

varsity has proven to be a different proposition altogether. u don't really have much of a chance when ur with people formerly from top JCs, people with straight As, in the top communications school in Asia.

the feeling is exhilarating when u actually do well in something. but im so lousy u cant guess what were the two times (ever, only) ive topped my class for.

1. Newsmakers in Hedwig's newswriting. a pop quiz to recognise their faces and label why are they newsy. my only error was spelling CONDOLEEZA out of 24 marks, while the next in line was like a good 7 marks away.

2. Oscars predictions in Arts Journalism. since film is in the syllabus, bree made us do this. he especially earmarked me since im like the film guy in the class. and i was confident haha. although i had quite a few no-hits (too many, for my own liking) it was still good enough for the cohort.

that's all. boo.

Conducting a Study

Research Question: Who are the Weirdest and Normal-est Males from CS Class of 2011?

Abstract: people have been quoted as sayin CS guys are mostly weird. tt it's hard to find a normal guy.
Methodology: Vote with me.
Level: Nominal

Current Standings (votes in bracket):
Weird - Me (3), jiahao aka xander (1), gerald (2), thaddaeus (1), titus (1), zhongming (1), jin (4), clement quek (2), aloysius (1), DJ (1), alfian (1), kenneth (1)
Normal - everyone else (4), cameron (1), Me (5), no one (5), edmund (1), james (1), rikesh (1), wenxu (1), jeanette (1)

Disclaimer: no offence to individuals named. it's an open study. if u dont like then dont visit here. both categories were not defined for participants. it's all up to em. so plz dont think too much if u fall under whichever. weird for some may be normal, normal for some may be weird. haha.

among angels there are demons

when we exited the cinema it became obvious there were two camps. one liked Angels & Demons, but thought The Da Vinci Code was better. the other favoured this latest film adapted from a Dan Brown bestseller.

to further mess up the delineations, there are then those who've read the books, bringing to the table the debate of book-versus-film. so there are those who liked both books over both films, those who liked the first book over the first film but not so for the second book, those who read the first book but didnt catch that film and caught the second film but didnt read the book, and blah blah blah blah blah.

anyway my point is... let's get back to both the stories, as films. because ive never read the books.

i find The Da Vinci Code better. but jaime said she liked Angels & Demons more. this can go on forever. but it set me thinking on why people differ on such taste, with this scenario in mind. i tried to understand with her, and im thinking i have the answers.

the latest film works better as a thriller, offers more in terms of cinematic experience, is smoother in its development and structure. and of course, it's not that controversial! i guess i prefer The Da Vinci Code due to its content, history, and nature. i must admit its narrative structure was very evidently adapted from a book. there is probably more talking but i like it that way. therefore, Angels & Demons didnt set me off thinking as much. but i must still give it to Dan Brown for putting together something so elaborate, with clear in-depth prior research. and maybe give it to Robert Langdon for being oh-so-super-smart all the time.

the premise here is the Vatican, papacy and once again another secret society, called the Illuminati. unlike the Priory of Sion in The Da Vinci Code, the fictional presentation of the Illuminati is largely different from the real organisation. here the 400-year-old movement was allegedly founded by Galileo, as an enlightened reaction to persecution by the Catholic Church, another conflict between science and religion. the four cardinals most likely to succeed the dead Pope are kidnapped and to be executed one by one at the four altars, a secret of the underground society, around Vatican City that form the Path to Illumination. it is believed to be a revenge plot for the Catholic Church's purge of the Illuminati many years ago and to end the Church.

giving to a stranger

i just caught this ad from the Kindness Movement on tv. and i went, "that's exactly my point!"

ive been preaching this to many people for a while now, although many (u too, gf!) sounded unconvinced. why do we even do an act of kindness? is it fully altruistic? something that stems from the bottom of our conscience or moral duty is hard to use as a persuasive tool. but look at it this way. an act of kindness indeed goes a long way.

we give, not to receive directly from the recipient of our kindness, but so that he or she is moved to give further, to the next person. with that, a web of kindness can begin. a chain effect, in scientific terms. someday, if such an act returns to oneself, one can smile and be comforted that he or she is a proud member of that movement. kindness is not for reciprocation, but to just make society a little more civil.

and the problem in singapore lies in the people themselves. self, selfishness, and selflessness. we give to receive, often expecting a direct, immediate reward. u can even throw kiasuism into the mix. to make matters worse, people are made more cynical by phrases such as 好人有好报 and 助人为快乐之本. this fosters a culture that receiving is the carrot behind giving.

ive so much to say about this because i was like that once too. i understand totally. but something like what's depicted in the ad happened to me one day and this perspective developed.

either they finally caught my point or something divine passed it on to them.

a regret too late

years ago, even as a diehard of manchester united, i had believed that for all the domination in the english league, we were inferior to some of the continental heavyweights. there were the barcelona, borussia dortmund, juventus, monaco, real madrid, benfica, bayer leverkusen, and ac milan.

in recent years, though, ive changed, convinced that man utd have progressed so much that pound-for-pound, technically, and tactically we can go into any match confident. im no longer afraid when we are drawn a top european opposition.

the last humbling moment was probably the 3-0 semi final defeat to ac milan, a footballing lesson by kaka & co. on this night, barcelona made man utd ordinary again.

















for me, it's alright to lose to arsenal, chelsea, liverpool or middlesbrough. these are english teams, we play them at least twice a year, we know each other inside out, and blips happen. but in the champions league, at the grandest stage of club football, we expect only the best. teams must be ready to give everything and put on the best show. winners of european ties are acknowledged as superior to losers. that is why it sucks when man utd lose a continental match.

we played like we could in the opening minutes. then eto'o made vidic spin and struck, and on hindsight, you can say it was game over. messi's insulting header simply served to confirm barca's name on the trophy. man utd could not flow, there was no passing, no possession, no confidence from the backline, and the tactics were deficient and senseless. what's unbelievable was that the man utd machine never purred, never recovered, never began any sort of sustained pressure and comeback. we were that bad, or if ur from the other camp, barca were that good.

1. ronaldo
the current world player of the year was too eager to kill off barca singlehandedly, too eager to win the duel with the humble messi. his credit was probably that he was man utd's most dangerous player on the night. whether he once again flopped on the big stage is debatable. he's had a poor season by his standards and we could not have asked for too much this final.

2. rooney
probably the star of this campaign, many had predicted this would be his stage. but he was ordinary throughout. some say it was ferguson's fault, while some say rooney improved this season after switching to the wing. there was talk that it could be a masterstroke to play him on the left wing, first to combine shackle the messi menace with evra, second to destroy the emergency rightback in place of the suspended daniel alves, third to do what he's been doing this season, provide telling crosses and cut in to fire off his trademark curlers. but he failed to provide the spark, largely because ferguson played without a central striker.

3. evra
the classy and skillful wingback was out of sorts. the disappointing show definitely contributed to man utd's defeat. without messi to worry about, he was still a ball of nerves. in attack he still provided some spark, but his usual composed manner complementing his centrehalves was missing. played a part in both conceded goals.

4. vidic-ferdinand
probably the best defensive pairing in the world. the worst time to screw up. vidic was turned inside out by eto'o for the crucial opener, ferdinand was left in no man's land in a lopsided defeat to the 1.69m messi. outside these two key incidents, the usually cool and stylish pair were flustered like headless chickens, regressing more than progressing, unable to pass on an important confidence to the midfield.

5. centre-midfield
what exactly were ferguson's plans? in the middle, strictly speaking there were carrick, anderson, and giggs. the match was lost there. anderson is a talented kid best used against inferior midfields, but he's not one for battles. giggs has vision and oceans of experience to offer, but the barca midfield is too good to play a 35-year-old there. so it was carrick, shouldering the heaviest burden of the night, up against the holy trinity of xavi, iniesta and yaya toure.

6. strikeforce
barca were missing daniel alves, marquez and abidal. a suspect barca rearguard is further weakened. in comes an old sylvinho, a man utd reject pique, and, who the hell is busquets? it was almost handed to man utd on a platter. but ferguson chose to "contain and counter". to 'expose' barca's makeshift defence, he played ronaldo as sole striker, rooney on the wing, and left tevez and berbatov on the bench.

7. xavi-iniesta
to worsen things in the middle of the park, we had to contend with barca's and spain's heartbeat and Euro '08 player of the tournament xavi. beside him, his buddy for many years now, is the underrated genius iniesta, whom rooney labeled "the best player in the world" currently. less than a year ago they teamed up to win spain the euro championship, in recent months they have manoeuvred lampard, ballack, essien, toulalan, juninho and van bommel and left them in their wake. these two are pass masters schooled in an academy loyal to fast, beautiful football, and it is no overstatement to credit barca's style of play to them. it is hard to imagine how two such diminutive players can ooze such endless confidence.

8. 'between the lines'
as mourinho and hiddink know it and proud to repeatedly announce, u stop teams like barca and man utd from playing their game by stifling the space between the lines. those two masters have done it successfully to these two finalists, but on this night, barca came out intending to kill man utd this way. and they did it. if u reduce the field and players into a chessboard, u will see clearly how the barca players were drilled well in training to do that. when vidic or ferdinand turn, messi, henry and eto'o were in their faces. giggs was too slow, and carrick could not pass properly through the iniesta, xavi and yaya toure.

9. messi
this assessment cannot be complete without the no.1 contender for 2009's ballon d'or. true, by his standards he probably didn't have the impact of iniesta or xavi, but he was still such a menace and without his presence the result could very well have been reversed. he moved into the middle to keep vidic and ferdinand edgy, and to free up eto'o and henry. even without marauding from the wing, the red devils still chased his shadow. this is a real superstar. ronaldo, listen up.

if we had won, we would be the first team to defend the champions league. we would be on four european crowns, one shy of liverpool's, especially landmark since we have matched their league titles. we would have capped a season of wins in the community shield, club world cup, league cup, and premiership. yes, for that much gravity, too much complacency existed prior to the final. the Telegraph aptly put it, "Everybody and his dog thought United would win and with ease." man utd fans have traditionally been hyper excited about big matches, and they don't get bigger than this, but the mood was as if if the team plays its football, barca would be no match. how ignorant. therefore, the right hype was weak, and even the players were too relaxed.

it just wasn't good enough.

land of few turns

i was at shokudo yesterday. apparently it's an enormously popular place, judging by e familiar faces i recognised in that short 2 hours.

there were,
supei, year one from wkwsci
si ting, graduating from wkwsci
clement's sis (whom i cant recall her name), graduated from wkwsci
jayne, nyjc's 26th council president
some other 26th councillors
edelina, jieying, from hall 4
cai chenghan, from signal spec course, who was with edelina and jieying
janice and shaun, the new couple from wkwsci

this is a stupid post but ive nothing to do.

23rd wish-list

ok i hope this is not too late. i DO have things i want but i forgot about this. ha. take ur pick.

1. loafers
2. slippers/flipflops
3. scene/emo/indie/retro backpack (eastpak, jansport kind)
4. the iphone
5. ikea 2-metre-tall cd/dvd rack
6. Star Wars Original Trilogy dvd pack
7. wallet
8. cash, always comes in handy.
...
2,184. im trying to think of something not so materialistic, but i cant find anything. oh, superficial me.

trying to understand that code of Da Vinci's

ok i know this is abit late. what's worse, for diehards out there, i didnt read THAT book. i watched the movie. haha. so please give me the benefit of the doubt if im lacking in any way. and well anyway Angels & Demons is coming, so this CAN be the right time too yea.

Priory of Sion
this caught me the most. not only is it a riveting idea, it seems solid and convincing enough. a "secret society founded in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099" that has been debunked as untrue, but as propogated in the book/film, "that is what they want you to believe". that it's no more. furthermore, the priory is portrayed in the book/film "as an ancient, powerful organization guarding a historical secret of immense importance" and "a mystery cult seeking to restore the feminist theology necessary for a complete understanding of early Christianity, which was supposedly suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church". apparently, this order had many illustrious members, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo. the priory is the protectors of the royal bloodline, the direct descendants of Jesus. feminism is at the crux of this version of Christianity. Jesus is supposedly the original feminist, and the Church has distorted his message, putting in place a patriarchal system.

so, was it Constantine? is the great Christian emperor responsible for manifesting a religion for other agenda.

that it was believed that Jesus was a man. a great, but just mortal man. then, he was given status of divinity, for various reasons, chief of which was to consolidate authority.

Mary Magdalene. prostitute, or Jesus' wife?

a cool exchange from the movie, between Sophie and Leigh.
"Not the son of God?"
"Not even his nephew twice removed."

Leigh Teabing in the book/film blames God and His followers for the majority of the world's ills, past and present. To him, freedom for mankind can come only if everyone stops believing in Him.
"As long as there has been one true God, there has been killing in His name... What if the world finds out that the greatest story ever told is a lie?"

Newton and his apple play a significant role in the book/film as well. we see evidence of how Newton was a heretic in his time and fits in with the Priory through his discovery of gravity and using science and reason to challenge magic.

on this note, the hugely successful but critically dismissed documentary Zeitgeist offers an additional and interesting perspective on all this.

im not propagating anything. i just hope to provide some material i found challenging to me and how so. i hope u can ask urself those questions and give it a thought.

and finally, of course something nice from the movie, since that was what motivated me to write this.

Langdon: "The only thing that matters is what you believe. History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man. A human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence's ever proved. But... when I was a boy, when I was down in that well... I thought I was going to die. ...I prayed. To Jesus, to keep me alive. So I can see my parents again, so I can go to school again, so I can play with my dog. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't alone down there. Why does it have to be human or divine. Maybe human is divine."

isnt this what religion is about? who cares about how many people believe in it, how factually accurate it is, how thick its holy book is, how to praise and worship. it should be about what's inside us, and the good it brings.

and...

Leigh: "has he been telling you that the Holy Grail is a cup?".

ha! cool.

an archive

finally. after 8 months, my Infinitum Voyage post-foc entry is up. ok half completed, but that's all i have. i don't have an incredible memory bank.

exams and Year 2 overrrr!!!

lol moment

this is damn stupid.

"Rachel Fong of Disney/Sony Pictures, invites Rachael Boon, Reviews editor, Nanyang Chronicle, to the local press screening of new movie, Rachel Getting Married"

what are e chances.

what?!

just awhile back, a visiting American professor, when exchanging with NTU's Provost Bertil Andersson, softly asked him near the end of the discussion.

"what's the suicide rate in NTU?"

what a funny question, everyone must have thought. even the provost, though Swedish, knew about the culture here. we're Asian. we don't have kids bringing guns to school, shooting up their faculties or hostels.

2 Mar - an Indonesian student, recently dropped from his scholarship, stabbed his final-year project supervising professor, slit his own wrist, and jumped four storeys at his school building.
(i was walking into lecture 100m away, in WKWSCI, the building beside EEE. and did i say this guy stays less than 100m away from me in hall.)

6 Mar - a project officer - Chinese national - was found hanged in his Nanyang Heights apartment, the residences of staff and graduate students on campus.
(i was studying in my hostel room 2km away, staying in on a friday night.)

now, there is a suicide rate.