I haven't touched my blog for so long I almost forgot the email I used for this! Had to spend a few minutes thinking before I could log in Haha..

It's the Dec holidays now and I'm trying to enjoy it to the max! Why so? Because technically this is going to be my last real holiday. I'll be working in the US during the 3 months break next year for WAT2010 and I would have finished my studies by this time next year so I'll be busy WORKING! (like finally)

I say I'm trying to enjoy the holidays cause I seem to be busier than during the exam period. This is really.. odd. Ah well, at least I'm busy catching up with all my friends so I ain't exactly complaining.

Only thing is I gotta start researching on my dissertation cause I won't be able to do so while I'm in the US. That would probably occupy me during the second half of my holidays.

On top of that, NUSSU is piling me with stuff to do cause many of the exco members are off on holiday.

Oh well what's a student to do?

I realised I haven't updated my blog in over a month! Ah well, I can get lazy sometimes =P

Was e-Learning week this week so all of our lectures were webcasted instead. Ironic thing is I had to go to school more times than a normal week. Went to school on Tuesday for Garvin's birthday celebrations and REMA tutorial. Had dinner with Shu Fang. It has been almost a year since I last met her. Was joking to her that the last time I saw her, she was still Miss Liu, now she's Mrs Lim. She's happily married for nearly a year now and I'm really happy for her.

RE Students' Liaison meeting on Wednesday so I had to travel down to school again. Meeting was supposed to last for half hour but dragged on for nearly an hour. Went with Kelly to Funan after that to help her with her lappy searching. Met up with Feilong, Yan Ping, Ting Yu and Xiao Wen for dinner for Long-ge's belated birthday dinner. We're on a no-present year. All of us not buying presents for each other this year. I think it's healthier financially. Went to Zouk after that to mambo the night away. I miss mambo nights. Should do it more often.

Was supposed to head to school again on Thursday evening for an Exco meeting but I skipped it.

Had a meeting with OSA on Friday afternoon and a NUSSU Appreciation Dinner in the evening. Sat next to the Director of OED during the dinner and he mentioned I could intern at OED during the holidays. I thought it was a fantastic idea cause OED needs people trained in Real Estate and I would really like some property management experience. Win-win situation for both parties. Now all I need to consider is the damned clash between my dissertation and Work and Travel 2010. We went for supper at Zion Road after that (couldn't really eat much with all the chatting going on).

Reached home at about 3am and here I am blogging while waiting for GTO to finish loading on Megavideo.com! It looks done right about now so I'm off! Hee.. =D

Blogger Error

I've recently read on so many friend's blogs that they are experiencing problems with Blogger. Most people have problems cause posting new entries cause the page is not loading properly (no Add Image button, etc).

I had the same problem as well and here's the solution. Copy the error and google it. Chances are, someone else is having the same problem as you. I got told the same thing by a friend. So I googled the error and got my solution. I forgot the exact solution already but it involves changing some system settings. Do that and the problem will be gone forever. Hope this helps you peeps who are experiencing the same problem!

On another note, school has started already and I got a 3-day week this semester! Can't believe I'm already year 3. Only 1 and 1/2 years left of school before I gotta go out and actually start working. Mixed feelings here cause school's always better than working but working brings in the dough.

Also, it is time for me to step down from my current position as president of DE Club. I hope more people will step up and run for the mc. It's a good experience and will teach you a lot both about yourself and the people around you.

Well, that's all for now I guess. Will blog again soon!

Boring Singaporeans

Back to my rants and flames again.

I read the Sunday Times article "Burger joint grilled over ad" by Cheryl Tan (Lifestyle section, page 2) with disgust. Not because I thought the advertisement was vomit-inducing but because I find Singaporeans in general are so uptight that it makes me wana puke.

I personally found the advertisement slogan "It'll blow your mind away" (and coupled with the fact that the burger was called the Super Seven Incher) hilarious. I was laughing out loud when I first saw the ad. I thought it was a refreshing change from the usual boring ads and kinda witty cause it made you think to get the joke.

But, of course, Singaporean have to go and complain that the advertisement is "vulgar". Oh like come on! How boring and close-minded can you guys get? Honestly, some of the people in this country are so uninteresting, I can fall asleep talking to them. Singaporeans have absolutely no sense of humour.

When I was in Australia, the university had advertisements for a discount card with the slogan "Your friend with benefits" and it featured a hunky guy or a very pretty girl on the advert. If that advertisement was put up in Singapore, I think the public would go up in arms against the university.

Like I said, it's so hard to find somebody with an open mind and interesting to talk to here in Singapore. Just when a company comes up with an interesting and funny advertisement, you guys gotta go and shoot it down. Shame in you conservative freaks. It's because of people like you that this country is so damn boring.

JTC

I just finished with my internship at JTC Corporation!

Wow, can't believe 9 weeks flew by just like that. I had two supervisors during my time there - Annie and Yan Fen. I was lucky because my supervisors were really caring and treated me well when I was there. I know of some interns whose supervisors don't care about them at all.

And I also met some fabulous people there. Ramon, Ben, Eng Hwa, Cynthia, Annabelle, Ryan, and many others. All of them made my short stay at JTC really enjoyable. I'm gonna miss them all so much.

The best part is, so many of them graduated from SDE Real Estate! And they are all around my age. Annie is just 2 years older and Yan Fen is 1 year older than me and both of them graduated from SDE. Kinda makes me wonder why am I still in school. I should be out there working by now! I keep asking them about SDE and they kept asking me how was the lecturers, etc. It was very interesting to hear all the stories from my seniors.

And of course, how can I not mention the other interns there with me! Ivorie, Angeline, Jessie, Amenda, Brandon and Yu Rong! Man, you guys made my stay there so very very very interesting with all your jokes and outing. I'm gonna miss our hour-long breakfasts haha.. It's been a blast guys! See you in school!

Atrocious..

Check out this article that appeared in straitstimes.com.

President of the Singapore Newspaper Distributors Association says that working from 4.30am to 6.30am is beneficial to people with nine-to-five jobs. Are you kidding me?? So working 13 hour jobs are considered beneficial these days?

That's not all. MP Seng Han Thong can add that "if both husband and wife work, they can earn $1,000". So what the government is backing this rubbish now? And they want both husband and wife to get into the action? What about the kids at home? Lao Lee going to come to my house and take care of them ah?

Let me post a question to these ****heads - What the hell happened to work-life balance?

It seems the Singapore government thinks it is okay to slave its people. Milk the citizens like a cow, suck them dry. Raise the CPF payout age, makes us work 13 (why not just make it 20) hour days. By the time we get our CPF money, we might as well bury ourselves and let the government collect the damned estate fee. Use our CPF money for your "investments" and then raise your own fat pay.

Here's a tip. Why don't the Singapore government stop wasting our money on useless "investments" (which always seem to lose us money) and start paying elderly people instead. We're about the only country in the world which employs our grandparents to work as cleaners at foodcourts! It's a damn shame to see this happening and, worst still, the government freakin' encouraging this sh!t.

Again, think about work-life balance, for goodness' sake.

Open Letter to Temasek Holdings

Dear Temasek Holdings,

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?

Sincerely,
Eugene

Exams are OVER!!

Wow it's been more than a month since I last updated my blog. In fact I haven't even been checking back here. Apologies all round.

Anyways yes it is the end of my exams already! My exams ended on Tuesday afternoon and, as customary, most of us were at Zouk for Mambo night on Wednesday. We were missing a couple of peeps (read: Caderam) who were still stuck at home because of exams. Don't worry there will always be a next time ya!

I'll be starting internship at JTC on Monday. Can't believe I'll be working for the government. But, ah well, I'm sure it will be a good experience. Was told I'll be posted to the strategic planning department for commercial and industrial developments. Not very sure what my exact job scope is but I guess I'll be finding out on Monday.

Also, here is a little plug for an evangelistic carnival which my mum wanted me to post.

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Singapore Youth For Christ (SYFC) is holding an evangelistic Carnival PLAYMAX next month from June 12-13 (Friday and Saturday). Their target is to have 10,000 youths come to this Carnival where the Gospel will be shared through various activities.

Here is some key information on this Carnival: -

PLAYMAX

12-13 June 2009
Venue: St. Andrew’s Cathedral

They need 2,000 volunteers, young and old, to serve in the various areas in this two-day Carnival.

One area that we are helping to pass the word around is Registration.

About 50 people are needed to help with Registration for the following time-slots: -

(1) Friday morning
(2) Friday afternoon
(3) Saturday morning
(4) Saturday afternoon

The timing for the above time-slots are - morning: 8.30am to 12.30pm and afternoon: 12.30pm to 4.30pm.

You can serve in one or all of the above time-slots.

There will be a briefing/dry run for all volunteers on 16 May from 9am to 12pm at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.

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Also, I've been really addicted to Perfect World International lately! It's an MMORPG and it's (you guessed it, i'm a cheap arse) F2P! You can check out the game here. Perfect World is probably one of the best F2P MMO's you can find out there. It started out as a P2P but then converted to F2P so you know the graphics and details are top-notch. If you're interested in joining, let me refer you please! I'll get a free mount! Haha okay I know I'm starting to sound like a kid here so I'll stop =)

Well till next time then!

Building Castles In The Air

I recently read a quote by Henry David Thoreau which was quite interesting. It goes something like "If you build castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."

People have always been saying "don't build castles in the air" or the equivalent "stop daydreaming". But not much people have actually told anyone to work on those dreams. Which makes me wonder why. Aren't dreams the precursors of reality? We would not have airplanes today if the Wright brothers did not dream of flying. We would not be travelling in space today if someone did not dream of walking among the stars.

Difference was that these people dared to work on those dreams. They dared to lay the foundations to their castles in the sky. No doubt, many people would have scorned and scoffed at these individuals but they did not let that stop them

I personally have built that castle in the air. I have spent many years building it. This quote by Henry David Thoreau has given me the inspiration and courage to lay the foundations under that dream. I hope that it would do the same for you

On another note, something more finance-based, is another quote: "Obvious prospects for physical growth in a business do not translate into obvious profits for investors." Eg, Airline industry expanded rapidly in the 1970's but this did not translate to additional profits. This is just something I wanted to put down here to remind myself

PS. Referencing the two quotes, you should be able to find out which book I am currently reading. =)

Heading Up?

So the stock market has been generally going up for the last few days, in Singapore at least.

The STI just went up the 1,500 mark again. Seems like it won't stay below 1,500 for long. In particular, I was watching CapitaLand's stock last week. It went from $1.79 last week to close at $2.13 just today. Let's just say if anyone had bought 1000 lots at $1.79 and sold them all today, they would have made $340,000 in less than 7 days.

According to its CEO, Citigroup has been turning in a profit for the first two months of 2009. This news sent Citi's stock soaring last week.

Are we seeing the end of the crisis? I really wouldn't know but I highly doubt so. I believe we need to wait for the first quarter 2009 reports to come in before making any guesses. Jobless rates are still very high all over the world and Australia seems like it is just headed for a recession.

Ah well, we will have to wait and see. Anyways, I've been super busy with projects this past few weeks. Got a deadline this Friday, then two the following Monday and another one 3 days after that. Not forgetting the lecturers are not easing on the quiz. Really.. Drowning in the workload.

Interview has been postponed to next Tuesday because the interviewer got tied up with something else. Also applied for REIP today. Have to secure an internship this holiday so really keeping my fingers crossed. Otherwise I will probably look for some part-time jobs and go for summer school overseas. Either Canada or Germany. Still, internships come first.

Wish me luck! =)

Living in Scottsdale, Arizona

The following is a sponsored post.

Ever wondered what it would be like living in Scottsdale, Arizona? Granted, that city is not really a well-known city in this region of the world but it is something of an upscale tourist and shopping destination.

Having a population of about 240,000, I’m thinking the city should be pretty small and have a tight community where everyone knows everyone. Singapore has a population of about 4.8 million so we can pretty much throw the everyone-knows-everyone hope out the window.

The weather in Arizona is about 27 degree Celsius, which is roughly about the same as Singapore during the night. It is usually around 32 degree Celsius in Singapore during the day so the weather would be pretty enjoyable. Click here to find out more about Scottsdale.

A lot of people have the impression that the Scottsdale Arizona weather is pretty dry and warm but I reckon 27 degrees is pretty fine. Good enough for a lovely afternoon stroll in the park without getting all sweaty because of the humidity. Good enough for a picnic lunch without having to worry about any mosquitoes.

Well, given the current economic situation, property prices might be cheap in the States now. No better time to start looking for places I guess. =)

Walk Down Memory Lane

Watching so much of Gossip Girl lately reminded me of all the past tv series I used to watch growing up. I don't mean GG is like all of them. It kind of struck me that I have watched so many American dramas and sitcoms.

So I thought it would be fun to do a post featuring all the opening sequences of the American dramas and sitcoms I watched growing up. It was a real blast watching them all over again on YouTube. Not in any order of preference ya. Let's walk down memory lane!

Starting with the most recent one that inspired this post. Gossip Girl. Not much of an opening here though. It is really short.. Like 12 secs..


Up next, we have got Felicity. I watched this drama back when I was in sec sch. The show was so good in the first season. Then it started falling apart in season 2 and got worst in season 3. Still, it brings back so much memories and I still feel for the characters..


Third on the list is Party of Five. This show is pretty old. Think I watched it back in primary sch or something. I got to know about Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt from this show.


That 70's Show! I watched this sitcom pretty recently. I know it was screened a long time ago. I downloaded and watched this about 3 years back or so.


Next, the inspiration for lawyers.. Ally McBeal! This show screened on Channel 5 in my sec sch days. I remember a teacher talking about it in class and nobody knew what the show was. I watched it but dared not speak up cause I was like the only one!


Of course, we simply cannot miss our the greatest sitcom of the 90's, and possibly of all time.. F.R.I.E.N.D.S!!! This show practically saw me grow up. I was watching it all the way from primary school, through sec sch and to poly. It influenced the way I talked, the way I thought, the way I lived my life. Greatest show EVER!


Of course there are others as well but I'm a little lazy to find them. Couldn't find the openings for Off Centre, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Heroes otherwise I will put it up as also. I didn't include all the cartoons of course. Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, Extreme Ghost Busters, etc..

Oh ya one more thing. Watch the Top 10 Chick Flick Cliches promo available on the He's Just Not That Into You website. It's freakin hilarious!

Well, that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed this little trip back in time as much as I did! =)

Some Things Do Change

There was a rare protest in Singapore this afternoon.

I just read the news online on MSN and was pleasantly surprised. The protesters were smart enough to organise a 4-man march, knowing that the police could (and probably would) arrest them if they marched in groups of 5 or more. It is a very small-scale protest and march which would be considered laughable by most international standards but I must applaud Mr. V. Thamizhmaraiyan's courage for leading the march. You have done something that most Singaporeans are too afraid to do. They were protesting against the war in Sri Lanka and marched from Little India to the British High Commission to appeal for British intervention in the war.

I really do hope to see more peaceful protests in the future. It not only shows that Singaporeans are global citizens, it also shows that we have our opinions and are not afraid to voice them.

I also read Newsweek's May 2008 article "The Rise of the Rest" by Fareed Zakaria. You can check out the article here. Prof Harold Tan mentioned something about it when I was speaking to him this afternoon and, in light of recent events, it seem like a pretty good analysis of the world. It is really interesting to hear reports of how the rest of the world is catching up with the US and the fact that we are living in a post-American world. I wrote a blog entry about this 3 years ago. You can read it here. It is not that the US have been doing things wrong, it's just that the rest of the world have been doing things right. The focus is not about just the US anymore, it's about a global perspective and context.

I remember a couple of weeks ago when Obama took over the US presidency. My uncle was commenting that he couldn't believe how Americans could vote for someone so inexperienced and young to lead them. He did not think that Obama was capable enough to lead the US (and the world, for that matter) out of the current financial crisis. At that point in time, I did not understand where he was coming from. Like most people, I was fasinated with Obama's popularity and charisma. But now I see what he meant. First, the market tanked on the day Obama took over, which showed that businessmen did not have confidence in him. Then, Obama angered China the first few days he was in office. Next, he placed a cap on Wall Street's executive's salaries, which pissed some executives off. And just today, he admitted that he screwed up over some tax issues and caused two of his nominees to withdraw their nominations. Not only that, he had to debate about whether to include a "Buy American" provision in the the stimulus package bill. I mean, is that even a cause for debate in today's globalised economy?? Imagine the repercussions if that went through, thank God he backed off it.

All these have lead me to think that my uncle could have been right in his pre-judgement of Obama. I still hope that Obama would be able to lead the US on the right path to recovery. However, he would really need to buck up and stop making these mistakes. The world's economies are in a dire situation right now and it seems the worse is yet to come.

I am waiting to see how this pans out.

xoxo

Happy Lunar New Year!!

The year of the Ox is here. Wonder what this year holds for us. The year of the Rat was fun. Well maybe not for the finance sector but let's not go there.

Anyways I spent the new year the usual way. Dinner, movie with cousins, visiting, the works. The cousins went ktv this year, which was a first. I have never really went ktv with family before. It was fun, to say the least.

I'm recently addicted to Gossip Girl. I blame Kelly for getting me hooked. The show's great though. I can see starlets rising to the A-list. Blake Lively is very easy on the eyes. So easy, in fact, that my eyes are having difficulties looking at anything else.

Oh yeah, I recently found a song that I have been searching for years. King of Wishful Thinking by Go West. Never expected the song to be by them and definitely didn't expect the song to be from the Pretty Woman OST. You can listen to the song here. And, yes, it is another retro-like song but it is great trust me. It's on repeat on my songlist now.

That's it for this post I guess. I know it's a little rushed but I'm rushing... to catch some eye shut. Till next time then.

hairspray

I'm having a hair problem right now.

Those who know me know that I've been keeping my hair long over the past few months (despite strong protests from many people). Right now, I'm at a crossroads. The style I was actually trying to emulate was Taylor Hanson's hair.

Granted, I ain't as good looking as he is but I've always found his long hair very nice, especially the whole image from the This Time Around album era (great album by the way).

But seeing as I don't have a personal hair stylist walking around with me, it seems pretty hard to keep my hair as curvy and voluminous as it needs to look good. Not to mention keeping it in place everytime the wind blows.

The last thing I want to do is to have the 1960's Beetles hairstyle that so many young boys are sporting these days. That is soooo passe.. Like 40 years ago.

So, I'm going to the hairdresser to see what I can do with my hair tmr. I've been toying with the idea of perming the hair but the Google search results for "men's perm hair" ain't encouraging.

Alternatively, I can always opt for the usual standard short hair, which is pretty boring since I've had it for like 5 years. Mark McGrath is the standard to aim for with short hair.

Again, the whole image with the goatee and everything counts as well I guess.

What to do.. What to do.. I'll just see how tmr la.