It's quote time!!!

I know i've promised silence until friday, but i'm supposed to return this tomorrow, so i'm adding in some quotes from "A Man Without a Country", K. Vonnegut

"Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don't hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us for our arrogance."

"[...] as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida [...] we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jug-jawed, pitiless war-lovers with appallingly powerful weaponry - who stand unopposed. In case you haven't noticed, we are now as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis once were."

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and i don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people wanted to be class president."

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

[wrt the president's state of the union]"what George Bernard Shaw said about this planet: [...] I don't know if there are men on the moon, but if there are, they must be using the earth as their lunatic asylum."

"I came to speak ill of Swedish engineering, and so diddled myself out of a Nobel Prize."

"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap."

There are many more, the whole book should be quoted. Vonnegut is an amazing writer.

Out of office notice

Dear blog,

Please accept this notice. I will be out of the blogging world because:

a. the qe is coming (27 & 4) + deadline on the 2nd.

b. i cannot climb (i am in A LOT LOT LOT of pain)

c. all i can think about is that my climbing is going to suck after this is over (if it ever is over).

Hope to find you all nice and dandy. See you on the 27th.

The Lyrid meteor shower

Yup. Today when we got to school around 1 PM and greeted everybody with "good morning!", it was because last night we watched the lyrids meteor shower! Yey!! well, not exactly! See, it was supposed to peak last night, and we were supposed to go around 3 am to the kent ridge hill and watch it from there! But ... marian put the alarm but his phone was on silent ... So we woke up merrily around 4:30 AM, and went to the fourteenth floor (there's a small garden there) and watched it from there!


Bad things: city lights! (so not too dark); saw only 3 meteors


Good things: i had only seen 2 shooting stars before, so this totals it up to 5!; there's going to be a big one on the 5-6 th of May (in the southern hemisphere it's expected to reach 30/hour) ... so this was training if you wish.

Displayed is the only picture we took.

Speaking of training, i have resumed my climbing (though very very very light). Re-scheduled the doctor's appointment for the 26th of april.

Later edit: after climbing today my elbow was numb (even though the climb was ok). self-imposed pause until the 26th. drats!

Shame

In an unphantomable exercise of democracy (unphantomable because DEMOCRACY does not happen in romania very often), last night an un-elected parliament (un-elected because when we vote for parliament we vote only for the political parties who can put any person in parliament) voted to suspend an elected president (for whom i voted btw). While I feel that it is good to have this as a display of democracy, i can't help to feel the injustice of it all. I feel neglected as a voter. It does not help that one of the members of parliament said and i quote "Mr. [enter president's name] has been threatening us with the electorate. Are you afraid of the electorate? What is the electorate?" [stupid f*k] So yeah...

I have finished reading "cat's cradle" and loved it all the way. What i loved most, besides it being exhilaratingly funny and TRUE, is the following idea: the people of San Lorenzo (island country in the middle of the Pacific) are very poor, their life expectancy being around 35 years. However, they are very very happy. Why? Because of a very important pact that their leaders (the political and the religious one) have done: you see, the political leader threw the religious leader and the religion he was preaching in disgrace, and any follower found practicing that religion is bound to suffer a gruesome death. The thing is, everybody (including the political leader) is a follower, and the religious leader is never ever caught, even though search parties are supposedly going out for him. So you see, the people are poor, and hungry, and full of diseases, but they are happy, because their lives are filled with excitement, because they feel that whatever it is they are doing is important (by the fact that it's illegal even though it's noble). There's more to it than what i just said, but i am not very good at reviews or story-telling for that matter. I put some quotes below.

"She hated people who talked too much. At that moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind."

"This here is a re-search laboratory. Re-search means look again, don't it? Means that they're looking for something they found once and it got away somehow, and now they got to re-search for it?" (now THIS is personal)

"Hazel's obsession with hoosiers around the world was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon. Other examples of granfalloons are the Communist party, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Electric Company [...] and any other nation, anytime, anywhere."

"The hand that stocks the drug stores rules the world. Let us start our Republic with a chain of drug stores, a chain of grocery stores, a chain of gas chambers, and a national game. After that, we can write our Constitution."

"I do no say that children at war do not die like men, if they have to die. To their everlasting honor and our everlasting shame, they do die like men, thus making possible the manly jubilation of patriotic holidays."

"If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself."

Ice-nine baby!

"People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say" Vonnegut

In light of this, yesterday i was feeling a bit down and feeling like i was living in Macondo (Reasons? listening to traviata all day? approaching exams? no climbing? no studying? hmm ...). I did not go to the doctor (should have), but i did get me an emo haircut. Also, here's an excerpt from a conversation of mine with andreas, my new zeeland-living in england-met him in romania climbing - friend. A couple of days ago, a romanian intern lost the key to his cabinet. Called the help desk, and they said that somebody will come and will change the lock. Nobody came, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Here it is:
03:59:40 PM) szaboclaudia: i am definetely living in sa man (e.n. sa= south america)
(03:59:47 PM) szaboclaudia: there are 3 romanians in my lab
(03:59:58 PM) szaboclaudia: climbed up on a desk
(04:00:01 PM) szaboclaudia: trying to open it from the top
(04:00:08 PM) szaboclaudia: have you seen romanians at work? one works and three stand around and give advice
(04:00:13 PM) andreas: I need to study a subject that provides me with the structure to learn what I need about this
(04:00:29 PM) szaboclaudia: then indeed you need to go to school
(04:01:55 PM) andreas: to support a family and live the kind of life I want
(04:01:55 PM) szaboclaudia: so ... instead of doing bills today and all that
(04:02:10 PM) szaboclaudia: you decided to sort your future
(04:02:33 PM) szaboclaudia: *sort out
(04:02:37 PM) andreas: that and the bills
(04:03:07 PM) andreas: and....
(04:03:25 PM) andreas: I am also trying to buy land in Wales
(04:03:39 PM) andreas: so much to do
(04:03:46 PM) andreas: better get doing it
(04:04:03 PM) szaboclaudia: ok
(04:04:07 PM) szaboclaudia: now it's 3 romanians
(04:04:09 PM) szaboclaudia: 1 indian
(04:04:11 PM) szaboclaudia: and 2 chinese
(04:04:25 PM) szaboclaudia: one chinese is wearing a basketball player outfit
(04:04:30 PM) szaboclaudia: and slippers
(04:04:41 PM) szaboclaudia: you know the kind? the fluffy rabitty ones ...
(04:05:30 PM) szaboclaudia: indian has left
(04:06:06 PM) szaboclaudia: romanians are trying to move the desk (it's 3 meters tall)
(04:06:17 PM) szaboclaudia: updates from the front ... are you reading this?!!
(04:06:48 PM) szaboclaudia: aaaaaaaa ...
(04:10:26 PM) szaboclaudia: 4 romanians
(04:10:28 PM) szaboclaudia: 1 chinese
(04:10:34 PM) szaboclaudia: the other sat down at his desk
(04:11:22 PM) szaboclaudia: aaaah ... grad life at its best!
(04:11:35 PM) szaboclaudia: and me ... NOBODY to share it with
(04:21:02 PM) andreas: yes I am here
(04:21:09 PM) andreas: just doinfg stuff
(04:21:43 PM) andreas: busy day for a day off
(04:26:57 PM) szaboclaudia: it's 5 romanians now ... 3 on the desk
(04:28:17 PM) szaboclaudia: ok they're done

Allez! The play was great! Horatiu Malaiele rulz! i will post about it tomorrow, cause i got a special autograph from him and i need to take a picture of it!

Inspiration

Inspired by Kesheng who is going to collect the results for his xray (something i would never do if i were feeling better) and finally giving up to marian's bickering, i decided to GO for my appointment tomorrow with the orthopedist, even though the consultation only is 85 bucks. I really really hope we can get those moneys back ...
And yes, i was seriously contemplating not going, even though the pain in my elbow after the extended climbing sessions this week was giving me second thoughts.

Last night i ran 6.67 km at an astounding pace of 4 minutes 47 secs per km! It's an improvement ... for my hikes the least i got was 10 something minutes per km ...

LATER EDIT: just wanted to say that marian has been threatening to tell my mom about my elbow (which would start a never-ending discussion about how "you should quit this, honey, it's not girly enough" or "it's not safe" or "you should be using your brain more" (wtf?!) )! So there [throws fist in the air] !!!

LATER EDIT2: Students shot at virginia tech university. Omg ... [whew .. the only romanian grad student i know in the us is in columbus, which is not in virgina - my us geography sucks]

IR iz going to the theatrez

Yup. A romanian theater company are in town, going off to Sydney, and they will be performing tomorrow for the romanians here too.
I am going to see "The Lesson" by E. Ionesco and a play by Chekhov whose name would translate to "the buffoon" but I can't find it anywhere listed in english. I can't wait, it's been so long since i've seen a play!

Today i saw the funniest thing in the canteen: do you know the two piece cue sticks, that the pros have, they disassemble them and carry in a box? Well this guy had two piece chopsticks! Or is it four piece chopsticks? And he had this cute little tiny box for them too! Yey!

In climbing related news, I bought myself the ticket from Milan to Bucharest - 19th of july, 72 euros, so cheap! (actually not so cheap, i really need to start saving)

I climbed yesterday and this morning, but the climb this morning was really tiring, and i didn't do much: climbing in the morning is so different from climbing in the evening, your muscles are so stiff! (or maybe i just need a rest day) I was supposed to meet alex at 8:30 at the gym, but i knew he wasn't going to be there after he said last night: "don't wait for me if you get there first"... I only climbed from 8:20 till 9, will resume on wednesday.

Bursting with enthusiasm...

i went yesterday on my hike! Managed to do 8.5 km yesterday, added value from the extra hill plus from the fact that i started from home and returned there, as opposed to other days when i start from home and end to school or vice-versa.

Afterwards marian and i went in town for me to make reservations for the aconcagua trip. An what do you know ... the tickets aren't out yet! They will be out 6 months before the date, not 8 months!!! Marian says i'm so excited, it's a wonder i didn't go last year to buy tickets!!

Then we came back to school and worked a bit and then went climbing!! Yey!!! i could only do a easy endurance route and then played a bit of flash comp. I couldn't do anything special cause my elbow still hurts (it hurts a bit more than yesterday right now, i suppose it's from the climbing) Anyhow, here are the rules for the flash comp (after negotiating them with marian again today - he felt it wasn't fair): we each set a route and then:

• 1 point if you do your route


• 1 point if you do opponent's route


• 2 points if you FLASH opponent's route


• -1 point (intially -2 points, but marian felt it wasn't fair ... TO WHOM?? he's the one setting impossible routes for him to do, while i set fair routes, mind you!!) if you don't do your route

So there ... overall score: 2-2 after the renegotiation (we played two times, marian set routes that go to the left and forced me to use my left hand ... bugger). We will be playing again today!

PS Did you know that the official language in Chile is spanish (will start brushing up after the qe) and that Chile has a female president? cool, right?

Hasta la vista

A huge yellow bruise is spreading across my elbow, going halfway down my forearm and halfway up my biceps (to the back). Now if i remember my bruisology, yellow means that it's healing, right?

As of today, i am not wearing my sling anymore. It still hurts alot, but i want my hand to get used to the hardship, cause tomorrow we (me and my left hand) climb.

Ole

Disclaimer

Because I am seventy something posts down the line here, i thought it would be nice to explain the title and lack of content thereof of this blog. First of all, the title is "[She] blogs about photography and graduate programmes" and i started it just before i left home to (further) pursue my academic career here in singapore.

Why did i leave home? Lotsa reasons, amongst which the fact that i think that for a latin nation like mine, that smothers its children until they're maybe, thirty, it is very important for one's inner growth to leave soon and experience life in a totally different culture. Second of all, after working for ibm for a year or so as junior/senior programmer i got sick of the industry, found it waay too stressful, decided that for me it was important to have a job that allowed me to be mediocre, but still gave me the moneys (and the time) to be able to CLIMB, in any form, be it bouldering, sports climbing, or mountaineering. Singapore is a good choice when it comes to bouldering (lots of gyms, plus one on campus, with very very nice peoplez!!), but totally lacks mountains. Yup. This is an aspect i initially neglected, and sometimes is coming back to haunt me. From the stressless job, i still don't know...

I am not blogging about my graduate programme, my phd or whatever, because, one year down the line i still don't know what it is all about. I like to think that i do have a job and i constantly remind my mom that "I am NOT going to school but to WORK". I still have to pass my qe, which is coming in two weeks time and for which i haven't studied yet. I found research very difficult to do, because it requires you to stay motivated throughout the entire process, which is really hard to do, at least for me, and at least now, when i still have to take classes (it seems that 5 years of undergrad is not enough for NUS) besides doing research. So I refrain from blogging about phd because i don't want to rant here all the time.

I am not blogging about photos because i have discovered that i am not good at talking about photography. I can't look at one of my photos and write this amazing story like i've seen people do. When I look at my photos all i can see is: too exposed, no subject, too in the center, not enough colors, etc... I would love to post some of my photos but i can't from behind NUS (and i am blogging from school work), plus i haven't had time, with the qe coming and all, to take as many photos as i would like. And posting older photos seems lame, but i will give it a shot though.

PS another reason i am posting about this is that i can't tell you how my morning hike went because i didn't go! I woke up early, and very fresh, but i just had a dream about my grandfather being dead so i decided it was not good to go. i will go tonight!

LATER EDIT: Kurt Vonnegut died today, so sad ...

Arriba senoras!

Last night did I have it bad or what? I managed only three times up and down my hill, feeling like Sisyphus at times, (by the way, the road is called Vigilante drive - arriba! arriba! andale! andale!) because the backpack was sooo heavy - I think it has around 17 kg, but it feels like 50 to me, especially going uphill. Downhill was a peach yesterday, even though i could feel it this morning in my right knee. So because i was so exhausted by last night's endeavors i did not go at it this morning, but i am planning a comeback tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow morning i also plan on going to the gym to climb, because last night's attempt was denied by the girls who kept shooing me off the wall whenever i tried (inconspicuous as i am) to climb my 8A (8 moves, ALL jugs) routes. Also i am not going for training on saturday, but i will secretly come to the gym to climb. I know, it's not a secret anymore, but i don't plan on anybody finding me in the gym, since i have the ultimate advantage: i can wake up very early!!!

Climbing is also denied to a number of other climbers, among which jensen and kesheng stand out. Especially kesheng, since we got injured at the same time! Yay! But he can still do pull-ups, which is so cool! (Omg, if only my mom could read me know: I have never in my life thought that I could envy somebody for being able to do pull-ups!! Tomboy i am, graceful lady i will never be.)

Lazy, lazy, lazy

On a happier note, my arm is feeling better and better - I can scratch my nose! So today I decided to resume my training... Put the alarm at 6:30, then 6:40 when I stopped it, said I was going to lay down for a bit ... and woke up at 7:25 pissed and scared. In the end i didn't want to go but decided to go - would have felt a total loser if I didn't.

I changed backpacks (I am now using a bigger one) and also upped the weight a bit (to what is now I think about 17 kg). I didn't get very far though, because it was 8 o'clock by the time I was exiting my street, and i realized it would be around 9:30 - 10 when i get back to campus sweaty and carrying this huge backpack (70 liters). So i stopped my workout - can you imagine the shame of it all, when the Nike+ sensor lady said: 5 minutes and 54 seconds; 0.54 km .... and a total of 26 calories burned!! Anyhow, I will resume it tonight, and for tomorrow i plan to leave the condo at 6. Yup, that's a promise.

LATER EDIT: just realized that even though i can scratch my nose, i can't press Alt+Tab! Oh... the curse of the geek ...

LATER EDIT2: Actually it's not the curse of the geek not being able to press Alt+Tab - it's the curse of the phd student which instead of working is reading all these damn blogs!! Just thought i would be honest for a change

Injured I am

Yup. This has been one of the truly horrendous weekends of my life. After an excrusiatingly simple fall i took this saturday i managed to sprain my left elbow really really bad. Did my whole life flash through my eyes when i fell??!?! No! But i did see all the consequences if my elbow were to be broken: bbye climbing, bbye alps, bbye kinabalu. For now. Anyhow, I went to the emergency ward on saturday (after endless negotiations with marian - i didn't wanna go, i dun like doctors, u know). The experience itself was funny, first the xray guy asked me if i'm "poignant", then they took an xray of my forearm instead of my elbow, and then the doctor talked to me like she was singing hip-hop. And she told me that the xray is inconclusive (i.e they can't say whether it's broken or not) and i must go to the orthopedics clinic today again (don't call them, they'll call you). She bandaged my arm, (my forearm looked as big as kesheng's!), gave me a sling, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs, and off i went.

So I spent the whole weekend wondering whether it's broken or not and thinking how lucky i used to be when i was able to tie my hair and open a door for instance (to say nothing of climbing). In lieu of my imposed break from climbing, my climbing dreams have started again (if i don't climb for a while, i start dreaming about it). In this dream i was only climbing with my right hand (which i will probably do, come this tuesday - i hid my climbing shoes from Marian, in case he gets some smart ideas!) This left me really drowsy this morning, so i couldn't go for my walk up and down the hill. I will restart tomorrow, cast or no cast on my arm (i hope no cast, because if i need a cast then i definitely need screws in my elbow as well).

Happy Easter!

LATER EDIT: they just called me: next appointment is on the 18th of april (WTF?! so late?), dr. j.k. lim, 2:30 pm. If they think i'll go without climbing or training till then they are badly mistaken.

LATER EDIT2: just talked to Jups: he said that if you're injured during official training then you get part (or all) of your moneyz back (moneyz spent on the medical bills of course). He also asked if i can write an email to the team and say how it all turned out, so i will write after i find out how to go about with the university health service for the moneyz.

Excuses I have not

So, I took the day off yesterday! So what?!? On tuesday, apart from my morning workout and climbing, I went running with kesheng, which left me on wednesday morning feeling sore from (almost) all my muscles - even my a.s.s. muscles were sore (good thing though, it means there's something there other than fat!) So I took the day off!! So what?!!? Later in the afternoon I went with Marian to buy Pasha a birthday present. We bought him one of those nice pillows - it's shaped like a turtle to symbolize his/ours slow (but STEADY!!) progress towards getting a Phd. Also it's very useful since he has been sleeping in his lab for the past three years! (I suppose you save a lot of moneys on rent)

Marian got me this wonderful present: a Nike+Ipod sensor plus connector - you put it in your shoe and it tracks your workout. It's wonderful and not so wonderful, since now i really have to work out. Plus i found out that my hill (that i thought was 600m) is actually 300m! It's very inclined, but still, 6 minutes for up and down??!?! carrying only 12 kg? How, oh how, will i ever be fit enough? For today, it took me 1h 10 minutes for 7.32 km: my house to the hill + 4xhill + from the hill to school.

Ok, and I admit!! I fell off the "no shopping" wagon! I shopped!!! but it is a very very nice blouse (expensive though) and i promise i won't shop for the rest of the month.

Last night i talked to M. on skype - next week i am going to make reservations for Santiago de chile - Chile here I come!!! We're supposed to meet in santiago on the 13th of december - initially we were supposed to meet on the 14th, but M. said he's not starting a journey on the 13th :)) Targets: Parinacota, Gualatiri and Aconcagua. I still have to buy (after the alps) some high altitude boots, ice crampons and a big backpack ... Cool! Shopping!! [i am incorrigible, i know]

I also admit i am selfish - i have been reading this article about how the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia is melting and all i could think about was that "what if parinacota and gualatiri will melt before i get there?"(they're at the border of chile with bolivia), instead of thinking about those poor people that will lose their water supplies... and how we're all going to die if global warming keeps up...
Enough with the admissions/confessions and all that, back to work!

An author I am

Even though the conference is weak, and i didn't even get to go. And the research is lousy and all that (since i am more focused on climbing than on research), it still feels good to see one's name in print. An online too! This is to my first paper! May there be many many more!

Moving back to safer territory, did 3 routes again of the kent ridge hill. I found a hiking trail going uphill, but as all things singaporean, it is paved!! And not so frequently used, judging by the large number of cobwebs crossing the path (yuck!!!!) The biking trail is not paved though, so maybe I will give it a shot tomorrow.

Kukup

Oh boy was it a busy weekend or what?!
On Saturday we went on a Kukup tour organized by the GSS (graduate student society - sole purpose until now was to organize the sentosa beach party, now it looks as though they are progressing to organizing kukup trips). Kukup is a fishing village on the most southern point of the peninsular Malaysia west coast. Got it? Most southern point of the west coast ... I guess the need for tourists is big. Anyhow, overall the trip was ok, the food was fresher than here in singapore, but other than that I'm afraid it was extremely boring. We went to a pewter factory, for a walk around the village (took some nice pics), for a short boat trip to a fishing farm (saw a horseshoe crab!), back for lunch and then off we went to a handicraft center to see some batik painting and then ... [tam ta! tam dam!!!] shopping in Giant. Yup. Giant!!!! Wtf? I guess it was the only place they could think of that could safely contain so many people. Us romanians were always late no matter what the occasion. I realized that I hate going on tours, and probably i will never do it again. While the benefits of having a guide are obvious, having to stick to the group, be in places at a given time [or else!] is really not my idea of traveling.

After the trip ended Marian and I went to the new interns' place for some romanian beef soup and some eggplant salad. Yummy (not as tasteful as it should be, though)!!!! Next weekend I'm cooking some beef soup to show marian how it's done. And the weekend after that some eggplant salad (one of my favorite dishes) - i've been dying to cook it, but I know it will drive maria crazy (the stove will get dirty and i will clean it, but it's never enough for her).

The general pictures are here; my bestest are here.
On Sunday I came to school to study. This morning I did 3 sets of the kent ridge hill (it takes m e half an hour to get there, half an hour to come back, eighteen minutes to climb three sets - this has got to be optimized!!)

P.S I would post a picture, but it seems it's impossible from inside NUS. Will try to post tonite when i get home.

A Man Without A Country

"Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you different."

"I am going to sue the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company, manufactures for Pall Mall cigarettes, for a billion bucks! [...] And for many years now, right on the package, Brown and Williamson have promised to kill me. But I am now eighty - two. Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon."

"[...] Do you know why I think George W. Bush is so pissed off at Arabs? They brought us algebra. Also the numbers we use, including a symbol for nothing, which Europeans had never had before."


Kurt Vonnegut

How I wish ...

The day had 36 hours! This would give me 12 hours to sleep and 24 hours to work/climb/read (not necessarily in that order - work should be last). Just went to the library to get some books, I ended up with a performance analysis tome and three of Kurt Vonnegut's novels: "a man without a country","slaughterhouse five" and "cat's cradle". I hope we will be reading vonnegut for this book club I'm in, i am reading "a man without a country" now and I cannot stop.

I should be working of course, but because my latex crashed inexplicably - i cannot remove it, i cannot purge it, dpkg gives an out of this world error that i can't even find on google, so i decided to reinstall linux. Yup, that's what I am doing right now, reinstalling linux (and still able to blog, how cute!) I would have installed Feisty Fawn, but my gaim client crashes with it, so i am still stuck with edgy eft.

So much for the geeky talk, back to more important issues. First, the sleep problem. I truly need my beauty sleep, you know ... If I don't go to bed by 12 am max, I turn into this grumpy, spaced out person ... The problem is that I wake up around 6 am every morning without any alarm clock, so I really need to go to bed early. If i don't get enough sleep my face gets twenty years older, so I must avoid that also. One thing that makes me envious of singaporeans is their capability to power nap. You don't know what "power nap" is? It's a term christer and i invented during the climbing trip to Kuala Lumpur last year, and it is used to describe the singaporean's secret knack at being able to fall asleep whenever sleeping occasions occur: like during bus rides, long taxi rides, on the matresses in the gym, virtually anywhere possible, given a time span of more than, let's say ... five minutes. We would take a cab to batu caves (christer, kesheng, john and i), get in the cab, talk for a while, and then BOOM! Sleep bomb!! Christer and i would find ourselves left alone to chat: john and kesheng being out for the trip. I wish i could do the same, i suppose you get some secret energy boost from it. Even so, I don't think it's actually sleeping, more like dozing off, because i can't explain how someone who looks like sleeping is able to get off at the right bus stop. Anyhows, kudos for being able to do it, I can't!

Last but not least, starting tomorrow my training begins. Marian has cooked up some evil training scenarios, which include an everyday trip to kent ridge carrying 15 kg, climbing (carrying 15 kg) on the vertical wall in the gym (for matterhorn), running and conditioning.

When, oh when, will i be able to climb extra, go to school, work, read and sleep? To quote my aunt-in-law's late dad, god rest his soul, "you'll sleep when you're dead"!

Boulderactive on my mind

It's been three days now, and still I have the buzz in my head. I did not know that helping with a bouldering competition can be such an addictive experience. From helping in setting the routes, to the F1 team (the people that clean out the routes after a category finishes and sets the routes for the next one), to judging, and, my favorite activity, blowing the whistle. You see, the whistle is very important, as it helps climbers manage their time, so I felt important for a change :)

Last but not least, the Open categories ... Omg those people really climb at a different level!!! I saw Beatrix Chong climb for the first time in my life and she really really is impressive! And Salfarina Mohd Drus, i mean omg, her biceps is the size of my leg, and i'm no flamingo bird if you know what I mean... I don't know the name of that Open climber from Malaysia that won the open, but he is my new found idol! He is so smooth in climbing without being massive ... yummy... (I just discovered after seeing the pictures that I am one of those massive climbers, and i am so sad ... Fret not, I'll try to find a way to lean myself down)

How did the competition go for me? It was and still is the sickest joke of my life. Here's why. In qualifiers rounds I couldn't finish any route, but I got the bonuses, which got me in the finals (why? why?) In the finals, I couldn't start on the first route, which left me crying for my 3 and a half minutes of rest. I mean literally crying. Why I was crying, I can't say, out of spite I suppose, out of suddenly realizing that I suck at climbing? Second route, I got to the bonus, but instead of going for the nearest tile, I tried to go for the farthest ... WRONG! Third route I flashed. Needless to say it is the first route I ever finished and flashed in a competition/mock comp ever! It involved a small jump for me to the ending tile, and it was very hard for me to focus and really give it a shot, seeing how usually I fall just before the end. But I managed to control meself and I am really proud of it. Fourth route, you can imagine i couldn't ... So, I got third place! Which gets me into OPEN!!! You know ... the open cat I was talking about just now ... aaaaaaaaaaa

Anyhow, lessons learned: the routes we set for ourselves in the gym are much much too easy. I should do more leg raises (for the roof route ... i couldn't step), I should train harder...

Things are back to normal otherwise, my ankle still hurts, M. mentioned the "M" word ... as in Matterhorn, but only if I do well ... So, that's about it :)

Yeah kids, It's here!

Boulderactive is here (or it's going to be starting from Friday, anyway), but I just got a feel about how it's going to be since last night.

So, we set routes and tested them last night until maybe 12 - 1 am, then watched Dosage IV (omg Dave graham's finger tip was brrrrrrrrrrrrr - for those who haven't seen dosage IV ... david graham totally cuts the tip of his index finger when going for a very sharp crimp), then mei fen, liu li and I went to sleep or tried to, anyway ... Thanks to liu li i had a jacket cause i forgot to bring mine!

Anyhow, cherlyn and vincent set and tested some sick brain route on the slab wall until 3 am, and i finally managed to get some sleep around 5 am. I woke up around 8, and just left, came home and went to sleep again until one. I came to school but of course I cannot work now, because I am very very dizzy, as I always am when I don't get enough sleep.

Performance wise, I have a very sharp wrist pain and my ankle is not doing so good, so I am pretty sure that I will totally screw it up. That's why I am planning to have as much fun as possible. Last night instead of writing down the routes I took photos of them, so now I have to centralize the data when i get home (which is going to be pretty darn soon). I will try to put up a photo of last night, one that doesn't have the routes in it, mind you, it's hush hush...

Updates from the front

This is your favorite GI reporting live from the outskirts of research! The army's ankle is doing fine, but still our combat unit was unable to climb today due to enemy pressure in the west region. However, we managed to do some pull ups this morning on the campus board.

We were ambushed in our 9 am siege of the gym by Nita who had been climbing since 7 (must follow the example set by other units and give more to our Climbs) and by Jensen who came to bring in some ammo (shoes).

We are still feeling amazingly full after last night's dinner in the mess hall: swiss rosti with poached salmon for the ladies and sausages for the gents.

Over and out

A series of unfortunate events

Marian decided on the spur of the moment on Friday to join the new interns' field trip in Malaysia yesterday and had a really great time from what he tells me. I wish I could say the same about me though ...

First of all I had trouble sleeping, probably due to the long phone call I had with m. on friday evening about our plans for the expedition(s). Anyhow, i managed to get up, dressed and head for training, while still being a little dizzy. Got to climb asia and started to climb, but I was feeling a bit tired after my prolonged climbing session + run with Cherlyn on friday, so the climb wasn't that extraordinary. Anyhow, since it was very very crowded downstairs, I nearly dragged Nita upstairs to a much lighter (climbwise and airwise) environment.

I started to try out Daniel's route which involved a standing up from a sit-in. Definitely NOT my favorite since I cannot for the life of me do that. Anyhow, I fell. With my right leg (again) between the mattresses (what are the chances of that!??) and on the wooden floor (I don't know if it was wooden, but it felt like it). I heard a snapish sound (looking back, it was more like the sound of one bone griding over another), and then PAIN. It was more painful than any broken/torn/sprained/cut limb I have ever had before. It brought tears to my eyes and I think i frightened the girls when I started to cry.

Anyhow, the boss was there in no time with the mandatory pack of ice, they got my leg elevated and all that. The girls told me how Vincent had a bad dream on Friday of how one of the guys will get injured on Saturday during the training! He was close, what can I say, I'm no guy, but I am a tomboy, so ... I finally regained movement in my toes in about half an hour, so everything seemed alright, except that BOULDERACTIVE is coming NEXT WEEK and I needed to be able to climb!!!! So Yixiang came up with this wonderful idea for him to take me to his sensei (chinese doctor) for him to have a look at me.

We took a taxi, got there, Y. talked to the auntie (older lady) there (no english, please!), got me registered, and we started waiting. And waiting, and waiting. My leg was not swollen (almost half as it was last time), but the pain was big, but I was still feeling a bit awkward when this girl came in with a whoa! swollen ankle. Eh, we all have our pains and ailments ... I finally got in to see the sensei. He looked at my ankle, probed a bit here, a bit there, then he said that since I only sprained it two hours ago, he cannot rub it (thank God!!!), but that he is going to do acupuncture (Shit shit shit!!!). Did I tell you how much I hate needles?!!? Ever since i was stuck two weeks in the hospital and had a penicillin IV once every 6 hours (on the outside of your palm it's the most painful) i totally loathe needles.

Anyhow, he put one needle just below my knee, which got my whole lower leg feeling numb. Came back a while later and twisted a bit on the needle and got my leg feeling number ... The pain was going down in the ankle, anyhow ... Came back a little later and took that needle out and stuck one on the inside of my left wrist, just below the palm. Yikes! I was thinking "I hope you don't hate amos (amo - white/red head - pejorative) dear dear uncle!!" My middle finger and my ring finger suddenly felt like thousands of spines were stuck in them. He got me to move my right foot up and down for a while, and that was it (if he would have come to twist the needle in my palm i would have run, guaranteed)!! He put some clay like thing and wrapped it around my ankle, it felt really really cool and calming! He said to come on monday, but I won't go if I'm ok! Everything seems to be ok for now :)

I left and called my grandma in Romania to tell her about the wonders of acupuncture (she has rheumatism). I finally managed to get home where I took a black pepper salmon with rice takeaway , got into bed with a book, two bananas and the food, read/slept/read/slept/read/slept/slept till today!! Marian called me at one point from Malaysia, asked me if everything is allright (i said yes), then he asked "no broken bones, legs, anything?!" So i couldn't go on lying and just blurted it out, I hope it did not ruin his trip.

I wanted to go climbing today, but marian is totally against it and it feels like I should give my ankle a rest also, so I will be climbing tomorrow, just before they're taking down the tiles (so sad)...

A name and a face

Hurray! I finally have a name and a face for all the peaks that we are going to attempt in december - january! [drums drumming in the background]
Ladies and gentlefolks, the peaks in the order of height are as follows:
1. Aconcagua - 6972 m

2. Guallatiri - 6071 m

3. Parinacota (pictured) - 6342 m

I can't wait! It's so good to have a name for those peaks! M. says that we are going to do another one if we have the time. Guallatiri and Parinacota are volcanoes! Guallatiri last erupted in 1960, Parinacota erupted last in 290 AD +/- 300 (how small is 300 in volcano years if you can plus/minus it!!!)

Disclaimer: those peaks are not difficult climbwise, they involve minimum ice climbing (for the last two), and just good training for Aconcagua (if you take the normal route, which I think we will ... although my feet ache for the polish route)

Since we still are on a climbing related tone, Boulderactive is coming! It's probably the most important bouldering competition of the year, it's organized by us, so the pressure is [VERY] high! I am trying to get as much climbing in as possible, before they get the tiles down from the gym, so this is why I've been so silent. This year I am in intermediate category, but from my point of view I am a very well trained novice, so no striking performances from me... The target is for all the girls to qualify for the finals (wtf?!), but I'm trying to ignore it and to put a more positive target on the canvas, like maybe, climb my best, enjoy the comp and the organizing and all that.

Copyright: The photo is taken from Peakware and the author is Edilson V. Benvenutti. All rights reserved.

Geeky questions, Ltd

Why, oh why is this happening to me?
Why do I have to restart the bloody winblows because it refuses to see my flash drive?
How can I mount a flash drive in windows from command prompt?
How can a flash drive get BURNED in windows?
Why does it take five minutes for windows to restart?
Why is it that it takes ten minutes after the reboot in winblows for my computer to manage to breathe?
Why doesn't winblows see the flash even after I gave it a reboot (it had maybe one week of uptime, can you imagine that?)

Why does skype consume so many resources (I know the answer to that question, but it needn't be so, right?)

Why is it impossible for an application developed in dot net to run on a windows platform, even if it is an exe file?

Is there any linux application that makes installers for windows?

Is there any ide for fast gui development ide, such that I won't need to use vs2005 and can get on happily with my life in linux? (Omg, I never realized how comforting the Ubuntu splash screen is ...)

Why can gaim put my various accounts into one bucket, such that I don't have to worry about being logged on or not, and yahoo!messenger cannot?

Why do I have to do this, instead of simple, snuggy research?

What happened to all my pet projects? Am I comfortable with dedicating all my free time to training?

Kina baloo

Just found the purrrrrfect training place. It's a 500 m 50 degrees something slope right here close to the school!! It takes me 6 minutes to go up and down it. Last night I only managed to go 4 times, cause I had just upped the weights (I think I am close to 12 kg by now), and it took me about 20 minutes to get there. Cool!!! I was getting sick of going around the campus, plus the hills are not that challenging.

I have booked kinabalu also, they didn't have anything available on the 31st of may because it's a private holiday, but they did give me a slot in for the 12th of June!
Yupii! So I am traveling in the middle of the week! How cool is that?

I also booked the flight, it was cheaper than on the 31st! (only costs S$125 for the return ticket) I also bought a S$7.5 Air Asia insurance, I wonder what it covers...
Mt Kinabalu - 12th - 14th of June Here I come!

I still haven't figured it out how I will get from Kota Kina baloo to the kina baloo park, but I have 3 months to figure it out, don't I?

Manic Monday

Mmmm, after running 10 km last night, talking to me mom until ten something, then watching "Volver" until midnight, you can imagine my reluctance in getting out of bed this morning.

This weekend was quite full: I went to training on saturday, where of course I sucked (after my previous bragging on friday), then I came home and slept a good part of the day, eventually woke up in the evening, had dinner at this wonderful thai restaurant where they have the clearest tom yam soup (they didn't put as much seafood as they used to, though) and went to see "Letters from Iwo Jima". In the end got to bed around one. I am not a night person, really, I hate going to bed late, especially since I wake up at six (no alarm clock needed) every damn morning.

Sunday was a bit quieter, we spent the whole morning cleaning the apt, then in a futile attempt to save some moneys we went to buy something for me to cook. Ended up with marian eating at kfc. I didn't give up though and cooked poached salmon with white sauce and potatoes on the side. Mmmmmm .... No pictures yet, I left bobby at home, but I will upload one tonite. After eating we got around to play one hour of tennis, where I whopped marian's behind, with a great score of 4-3 at games. How can those people play 5 sets I wonder, when it took us so long???

Things to do today include: WAKE UP!!!! and making reservations for kinabalu - i wrote them an email but no reply yet, so i will call. Over and out.

Good news

Pssst! Psst! Over here! Shhh! Shhh! Don't let anybody hear me, or else things might start to go wrong! I have some good news to tell today ... I think my climbing is getting better! By a small notch, but still, it is something to brag about... Last night was the first time in a long long time that I left the gym without feeling like a total loser, so I am quite happy about it! I am whispering because absolutely every time I start to brag or be happy about anything in my life, things start to go downhill really fast, so I am trying to keep this one very secret.

Today is the day when I make reservations for Mount Kinabalu.
Proposed departure date: 31st of May.
Proposed return date: 3rd of June.
Estimated budget: $$.
Estimated training level: -- (as in minus minus)

I hope it won't be crowded, because it is a school holiday, but I think it will be ok if I make reservations early like this (I have to reserve a bed at a hut at 1500 m) Also I must book a guide. I think the whole point of guides on Mt Kinabalu is not to help tourists get to the top (it has stairs for crying out loud!) but to prevent tourists from wandering around unsupervised in the jungle and destroying everything.

Anyhow, it's going to be a great experience, I will get to see how I handle altitude, I will try to make the climb really fast (in Kinabalu you actually climb the whole 4100m, since you start from sea level, not like in the Alps for example - not that they are actually comparable, the Alps make up for it by their difficulty) and at the same time carry a load similar to the alps - maybe I can get my guide to let me carry his stuff? That would be so cool!

300

We went to see "300" last night. If you still can find it in you to take in a hero story, please please go see it! Go see it in a cinema, don't pirate it! It's really worth it. Although it was not as stupendous and fantastic as the trailer and marian wanted it to be, it's still a wonderful story, very well told. Leonidas is really a figure to remember, not as much as Xerxes, though. They did a really good job at portraying the Persian army as I think the greeks saw it - the allegories were subtle, but not so subtle as not to be caught by most ;). On the other hand, I think they overdid it on the last battle scene, for me at least there was so much ketchup flowing at one point that I was getting quite bored. I also didn't like the men, did they really have abs like that? Wrapping it up: courage, determination, freedom, madness. I like!
Overall grade on imdb for me: 8.

PS. I am still amazed that they let the movie go on without censor, it's really quite something for Singapore.

On my way to school

It's amazing how you start to notice things when you have a camera hanging on your neck. It's the search for the best subject for your photos that gets you to notice things, I guess. I'm sure I would not have seen the leaves falling and the humming birds humming had I not had Bobby (that's my camera) with me, even though I am quite observant (I once noticed an eagle flying above a very crowded mountain town, you know).

I have been trying to take Bobby to school for about three weeks now, and this morning I finally remembered to take him. I would have wanted to catch a picture of Adolf, the cat that looks like Hitler (Adolf is not his/hers real name) but apparently he was in a very important meeting. Adolf hangs out with this big black cat (Rommel?) on a patch of green next to an HDB. Besides Adolf and Rommel, right next to the HDB, there are at least twenty - thirty pigeons every morning (I guess they are fed by some people there). The pigeons swirl and swarm, but Adolf and Rommel pay absolutely no attention to them, being very very busy with the affairs of state. I hope that one of these mornings I will be able to get an audience with Adolf. Rommel ignored me completely today, so the shots of him are not very nice either.

Geek fight!!

Or .. The geek fight that could've

It all happpened with Andreas bragging on friday about how he managed to install Aiglx and Beryl on his edgy eft distribution and how it was all looking nice and dandy. That gave birth to a sneaky plan in my not so sneaky mind: go home, secretly install edgy eft (i had dapper drake) , install aiglx and beryl and then rub it in Marian's face!! Him with his macos and his eye candy!!! I can have iCandy too!!

I would have installed them on my machine at school but i had a test with my supervisor and I was really really really stressed: what if i wrote something so absurdly stupid that he couldn't face me no more? Unfortunately, i bragged to marian BEFORE i managed to get around doing it (busy weekend climbing and visiting looserland).

This proved to be a tactical mistake. Last night, as i was crawling into bed for a well deserved rest, marian was getting ready to install feisty fawn (i really don't want it, cause it's still not bug free it seems) on my computer. So i guess i lost the geek fight that could've ...

Marian is definetely a better geek than i am! Hoooray!!!!

I've been to looserland

Yesterday.Mock comp at the school gym. Intermediate cat. Just us, the powerpuff girls.

I started first, because i don't like to hear everybody cheering for somebody else and me wondering if the route is hard or anything. Four routes, 3 and a half minutes for climbing, 3 and a half minutes for rest. To make a half an hour story very short, i only managed to finish one of the routes, one that everybody else finished.

First of all, my mind was somewhere else during the climbs, because otherwise i cannot understand how i could've missed some footwork. Could it be because i was nervous (scared shit) ?? I dun know, probably ... Second of all, due to over gripping the tiles, i was pumped dead after the first route (which involved a launch ... needless to say i didn't finish that one) The second route was too crammed, the third route involved a jump, so i barely got it together at the last route. Charlene (aka The Mouse), Sandra and Shumei finished three routes. I was not the only one with a bad day, the same seemed to happen to Ning Feng, who, after telling me to relax and focus on the mental part, he went and totally ruined his first two routes, but in the end pulled it together for the last two. Good for him! Needless to say my day yesterday was totally ruined, went and got a case for my ipod - even though the new generation ipods seem to pe scratch proof, they're not! - shopping therapy, had some dinner and afterwards got into bed with a good book (saw "dead's man chest", it sucked).

Today however, i went back to the gym and tried the routes again, competition style, with marian timing me (i'll go again later but this time i'll decrease the resting period). Couldn't finish the last route now, but finished the crammed route. First route was still impossible, but after the mini sets i figured it out: there was this two finger pocket in which i was not stuffing my finger's properly, only putting in the first 2 thirds of my fingers, must've thought i was a guy or something, to have that much finger strength!! The third route (the one with the jump) is still impossible. I realized that when i am not stressed i am not overgripping the tiles (no shit, sherlock!)

My take on how things are going is this: either i am growing weaker or the routes are getting harder. Anyhow, i just wanted to say that i've been to looserland and it ain't pretty!

Sacrifices

When i said that i am a dog in chinese zodiac, i meant of course that i am loyal, playful, hard-working etc (not modest as you can see). However, there's another image of the dog that portrays i r: the image of the stray dog walking in the rain, tired, hungry, but who continues to walk to somewhere, not giving up his purpose. Well ... that's how i feel now.

Firstly, M just upped the stakes a bit, including some 6000 peaks in the andes, besides aconcauga. This is so accidentally cool! However, it involves around 30 something working days of leave (instead of the paid 20), which means that i either have to get my supervisor to agree to pretend i only left for 20 days (i really don't like this, one thing is for me to lie, but making another lie is really beyond my understanding), or to take extra 10 non-paid days of leave. I will try to contact whoever is responsible here at NUS, maybe i can get a sort of special leave or something, in exchange for a photo exposition. It will also mean an extra 2 weeks worth of moneys for me. Since i am not rich (read ... i am always NEARLY BROKE) this means that i really really gotta start saving.

So the sacrifices start now. I was planning to go to the Phantom of the Opera show that is showing here this spring. I am not so keen on Sarah Brightman but i absolutely love Webber, so i would have paid the moneys (the cheap 70 bucks ticket of course), but now, in the grand scheme of things, i gotta give up on it. As a consolation, i am now listening to jesus christ superstar.

I will be going to "300" though, the ticket is only 10 bucks and marian has been driving me crazy with it.

I really do not enjoy making choices like these, usually i just go "oh, the hell with it! moneys come and go!" but this time .... aaa

In the quiet words of King Leonidas, via marian: "Spartans! Enjoy your breakfast, for tonight we dine in Hell!"

It's all in my mind

Yesterday evening during training i learnt a lot about myself. We had to do four sets of power endurance followed by free climbing and afterwards 30 pull-ups in 10 minutes on the campus board. The power endurance consisted of two routes on the 38 degrees wall: do the first route, downclimb to the start of the second route, do the second route, downclimb, end, rest for two minutes then repeat. The purpose of this is to simulate a contest environment where you have 3 1/2 minutes of climbing a route followed by a 3 1/2 minutes of rest. All sounds nice and easy, except that after the two sets i was totally and positively PUMPED. Add to this 3 pull-ups for 20 seconds, rest 40 seconds, repeat 10 times and by the end of it i was DEAD PUMPED! Anyhow, i didn't want to talk about the pump itself, but about how i figured something not so nice about i r baboon.

The thing is, i cannot commit to finishing a route. I get to the end fairly well, but when the last move is difficult or it involves a launch or a higher reach, i just can't go. I thought about it and i reached two conclusions.

One: i cannot throw for something because i never learned how to throw - i am fairly tall (here in asia i can guarantee that you cannot get a height complex) compared to the rest of the girls, so in most of their routes i can use my span to save me from every misery. This is ok, except for the fact that i don't know how to throw (actually i don't trust myself to throw) and i most certainly don't know how to dyno ... It's hilarious to see me jump, i guarantee.

Two: i see my time in the climbing gym as a learning experience. Which is ok, because i am very attentive to my moves, my body, other girls moves and approaches, but for the fact that when it comes to finishing the bloody route i am more content with falling, thinking about it, and then repeating the move/route rather than flashing. Competition => must flash or at least must finish! No time to rest and brood/think!!! Must get myself psyched i suppose. Think angry thoughts or something.

Also, last night while climbing Yap helped a lot, he was repeating while i was climbing: "relax",
"don't overgrip", "commit", "step properly". I will use this as my mantra from now on. I think my brain is my weakest muscle when it comes to climbing, too bad i cannot do pullups with it.

If at first you don't succeed ...

So I was supposed to go around the campus hauling water bottles with my frail back last night. However, the class i had between six thirty and eight thirty made me sooo sleepy (i have never slept in class by the way, last night i nearly made it) and i had forgotten my knee protection, so i decided to leave it for this morning. The reason why i like to roam the campus at night is simple: i don't want people staring after or at me - i am a curious sight, white girl crawling (walking briskly, i would like to think) up the campus hills during school days. Anyhow, i just had to go, since july is not that far away, boulderactive (bouldering contest) is three weeks away, so ...

I got up this morning at 7 (after repeated attempts to wake up at 6:40, 6:50 - thank god for snooze!), got dressed and came to school. Got here around 7:41. while crossing the street i saw my supervisor's car pass by, needless to say we met in the elevator: "So early?" he says, a grin of apraisal showing on his face. "Actually, i'm going running" i say, shattering his hopes that i might be a good student after all. We talk and talk about the route i am taking (i didn't know the elevator to the sixth floor takes so long, next time i'm taking the stairs), i finally get to the lab, change into my crawling clothes and proceed.

When i get out of SoC, what do you know ... IT'S RAINING! Since i did go to all that trouble to go, i did not give up and completed the route. Nearly fell twice when going downhill cause the sidewalk was very slippery. I passed corneliu on the way, i pretended i did not see him, i'm sure he saw me, the dancing bear.

Notes to self: never do this again during day time; increase the weights - it took me 40 minutes instead of the usual hour; bring extra clothes ...

The thing is, i messaged marian and asked him to bring me a clean t-shirt for my climbing training tonite. He thought i wanted a t-shirt to change INTO AFTER i climb. So now, apart from all the papers, books, two cups, one pair of socks, two stuffed animals, two keyboards, one portable hard drive, ipod, portable calculator, picture of my grandma, that are on my desk, i have put my t-shirt to dry under the desk. Under the desk there is also a copy of the phd thesis and other papers that the guy that was here before left and that i can't bring myself to recycle ... what if the same will happen to my thesis?

Chinese New Year day 7

Don't you just love it when certain celebrations take up to a week in festive joy?! Too bad it's not about something that is part of my culture though... So, to sum up this past weekend .... TIRED TIRED TIRED TIRED!

On friday evening i went to my supervisor's home for cny dinner - the whole thing started at seven and ended at eleven (7eleven?) It was quite fun, the food was exceptionally good (i ate like a pig), and apart from seeing my supervisor in shorts there was nothing terrifying about it. Came home around twelve something then left for training saturday at 8. Came back from training around 4. Saturday is the seventh day of the Chinese new year. According to sandra, it's everybody's birthday that day. Soo ... happy birthday everybody!!! For presents please mail them at 32 dover rise ...

Now the training was ... tough, i lead two 6as and my first 6b ever!!! Redpointed them of course, i am still too scared to hang in there till i drop. I am so lame at this, if it's a tough move that goes just about the bolt i'm done, i can't go, i need to rest and think about it... It's really really lame ... Jups said something that made me think though, he was yelling while i was trying to go for this ledge: "come on, just go, like when you boulder!" What do you mean like when you boulder? - simple: the fall i might take is the same as when i would fall bouldering. Easier said than done, though ... Anyhows, i am brooding over this, i brooded over it last night at 10 am when i went running! I managed to finish 12k. I rulz. I also tried a roof top rope, it's really really funny - i fell even though i was not pumped but i was feeling extremely heavy!! Ha ha! Need to lay low on those kaya buns (kaya = a sort of coconut jam)!!! Of course, after you fall you cannot go back!

M. asked me what mountains i am considering for the alps, i told him matterhorn, but that i'd go with whatever he wants. I don't even dare to dream about matterhorn, omg it would be soo great!

Last night we went into town with alex, the new intern (Pictures) and we managed to arrive at the celebrations for the end of cny. It was kinda cool, they even had fireworks. Anyhow, i read my chinese horoscope for this year of the pig (i'm a dog by the way, in case you haven't figured it out yet), and it said that my luck was ok (at least careerwise) but that i would have problems holding on to moneys this year. Well what do you know ... let's see ..

• 700 euros ticket home


• 500 euros the alps (at least, not including my way back)


• 3000 euros aconcagua


• ??? presents for people back home

Omg i gotta start saving!

Purpose of the QE

UUU AAAA!!! I have mentioned the Q and the E! For those not PhD savvy, the qe is some form of examination that graduate students have to pass in order to further pursue their quest for higher knowledge and ... [bla bla bla bla bla].

Now, many a times i have wondered, especially through those empty humid nights (would have said "empty cold nights", but it's not the case here) when i was studying for my first qe, what is the purpose of the QE? My supervisor politely answered that the purpose of the QE is to bring everybody in SoC to a common level of knowledge (through their independent study for the QE) and to test that knowledge through the examination itself, which contains two exams: CS5201 and CS5202. CS5201 will test you in Logics and AI, Algorithms, theory of computation and programming languages, whereas CS5202 will test you in what's left: operating systems, computer architectures, databases and networks. For each of these domains you get ONE question (although it can have smaller questions inside), and for each question you have about an hour to answer. Cool, right??

Problems, anyone? Well ... first of all, as most engineers will know by know, the bottleneck lies in the specification (if you want) of the "common level of knowledge" which depends, in the end, on what the examiner that proposes the question thinks about that "level of knowledge" and what you think is that "common level of knowledge". For example, for this year's computer architecture question, the examiner thought appropriate a question that involved a circuit (and a big one, might i say) and pipeline questions on it. Too bad that what i thought is common level of knowledge (i.e the more general parts of the 883 pages (without appendices) of the Hennessy book ) and what he thought was common knowledge did not interlap. Second of all, how in God's name are you going to bring everybody to the same level of knowledge when some (almost half) of the phd students here don't speak english properly or at least at some level which would allow them to present their "level of knowledge"?

Which led me to the conclusion that the purpose of the qe is purely to prove to the graduate student that IT is the amoeba of the academia food chain. That the graduate student should have no personal life before the qe and loose all form of self respect after the qe. Students that pass the QE will also loose all form of self respect by the act of proclaiming their unprecedented victory (see PhD. Progress). Students that fail, well ... no need to talk about them, is there? The QE should prove to the student that NUS and SoC (or other enforcing faculties, as is the case) have the ultimate say, albeit whimsical, in the student's life and career.

The thing that really really bothers me the most is that if it weren't for aconcagua (for which i need to raise moneys, so i need to stay in soc) and my supervisor, i would just forget about it, fail the qe, convert the phd to masters, pack up and go home to my mountains, my dog and my mom. Not that the moneys are great, mind you, the scholarships in europe are much bigger!! Rent and cost of living is also going up here, but the scholarships are going down ... Amoebas don't need much to live anyhow... And what is also really annoying is that soc is not harvard or yale or whatever to say that their filtering process should be harsh.

Viva la revolucion!

What I do at night

So the story is this: there is this romanian book called "Toate Panzele Sus!" by Radu Tudoran - it's one of the first travelling and adventure books that i have ever read and it sort of spiked up my imagination and made me the compulsive traveller that i am today. I won't go around to tell you what it is all about but the bottom line is that this guy ends up travelling around the word on a ship, following Magellan's route. He fights pirates and all that, falls in love, you know, the perfect recipe for a childhood adventure book.

Anyhow, m., as being the first romanian to ever go around the world in a yacht under romanian pavilion, wants to follow the route that the ship took in the book, and document the whole trip. Quite exciting i would say ... Marian and i are trying to put up a web site for him. It will be housed here - right now only the intro is really working (still alpha though). I am experiencing biig problems because i dun know how to turn a .psd into a nice (i.e that will load up fast) web site - this version that we have right now is quite unsatissfactory (it kinda sucks) - we used Fireworks(tm) for all the button links, but it makes soooo many little gifs (or jpgs) that are quite annoying to watch when loading. Last night around 3 am marian had this idea of using "map" tags, but it was too late for it. I'll give it another shot tonite though.

LATER EDIT: Marian convinced himself that his idea sucks (as i said in the first place, mind you), so we're now back to building the website by hand from scratch, importing layers from the .psd files into gifs and then putting them in the html. Cool! Just didn't get a chance on working on it last night, cause i injured my knee climbing.

Back to work after CNY

Had the stupidest dream last night/this morning. We were climbing aconcagua and we were just preparing to leave from base camp. There were two ways to the summit that started from base camp: one took the normal route and one took the polish route, going left and right respectively. I was convinced that we were going up the polish route, so, when everybody took a left instead of a right I started to yell and complain that we were supposed to go on the polish route instead of the normal one. We started to argue, black clouds started forming on the polish side. The normal route was bright and sunny. I was screaming and yelling and stomping my feet like I used to do when i was a very spoiled child. Woke up with a headache.

Speaking of headaches, here's the movie that m. made about his and vlad's trip to the alps in 2006. Vlad complains at one point about altitude headaches (will i get those also?) It's in romanian, so don't bother if u don't understand it (unless you want to see the superb scenery). The movie covers Dufourspitze, Matterhorn and Mont Blanc. It left me with a stupid grin on my face (still wearing it! *gush*) cause it got me to imagine me, myself and I on those routes. I can't wait!!! I'd better stop dreaming and start training, july is not that far away (I hate planning this far forward in my life, used to take it one day at a time - it's only for mountaineering though, i still take it one day at a time for the other aspects of my life - whew!)

Chinese New Year day 2

I cook, therefore I am. I finally managed to do some cooking today! I cooked: bread crumbed chicken breast with baked potatoes for marian and teriyaki chicken with steamed rice and steamed kang kong with garlic sauce for me!! It was amazingly relaxing (i.e. TIRING)!!! I also managed to get the two dishes done almost at the same time, which is quite a feat considering that our stove has only two burners ... It was quite an implementation of a distributed algorithm, I would say :)

I also found out two important things:
1. In order to steam the rice you also have to boil it first, otherwise it will take AGES for it to be steamed - i boiled another bowl of rice and discarded the one in the steamer in the end, you can imagine how the kitchen looked like!
2. If you leave the kang kong leaves in the steamer for too long, they will loose all their color and become mushy and not so good - i had two versions of kang kong: one mushy and one not so mushy. I also improved the garlic sauce by adding tons and tons of garlic (andreas once said that we romanians would put garlic in pies if we could)

You can see the portrait of the chicken teriyaki. Luckily I remebered to take a picture before eating it all up!

Later edit: Marian complained that i did not take a picture of his dish also and requested that i cook again, take pictures and blog. Soo funny!!!

Why the french suck [RO]

Si uite asa am vrut sa jucam tenis de valentines day. Era miercuri, zi de tenis, plouase putin la pranz. Tan tanam! Se duce marian si face rezervari pentru terenul patru de la ora 9 la ora 10. Ne prezentam frumos la 9 fara 5 (8 fara 5 dupa ceasul meu care este setat in continuare - de vreo sase luni - dupa ora Thailandei) cu catel si cu purcel in fata terenului. Si incepem sa vorbim. Ne povesteste mihai despre cat de destepti sunt aia de la OSA (Office of Student Affairs) ... si vorbim ... si vorbim ... si vorbim ... Pe teren, un tip si o tipa. Jucau bine. Muuult mai bine decat o sa joc eu vreodata. Ea se tot uita la noi, si el la fel (intre timp schimbasera terenurile).
Protocolul de la terenurile de tenis zice asa (cel putin asa era pana acuma, sau ma rog, cel putin asa era cu toti asiaticii): il vezi p-ala ca te asteapta sa iesi, il intrebi dc asteapta la terenul tau, incerci sa termini, spui ceva de genul "sorry" si termini in cele din urma. Cei doi insa ... se faceau ca ploua... Se duce marian sa confirme ca intr-adevar avem rezervare si ne hotaram sa intram pe teren. Intram, ne asezam pe marginea terenului, ii zambesc tipului, el se uita la noi, eu zambesc in continuare ... el, nu si nu, nu zice nimic. Banuiala deja imi incoltise in minte: "sa vezi ca e francez!" Pana la urma intreb : "How long do u think it's gonna take?" El balmajeste ceva (cu accent puternic francez) si continua sa joace :) Trecuse deja un sfert de ora din ora noastra de tenis cand in sfarsit se hotarasc sa se opreasca, sa-si adune lucrurile si sa plece (deja si douazeci). Ea ne intreaba inainte de a iesi cand am facut rezervare, ii spun, si pleaca. Si atat! Nu tu sorry, nu tu scuze, nu tu "era un meci important, vroiam sa-l bat pe uratul asta", nimic!
Si te mai intrebi de ce se uita toti cu atata dispret la albi (alb = amo = "roscat" - cu sens peiorativ) - pai daca te porti cu atata lipsa de courtesy cand vorba aia esti printre cei la fel ca tine (mai mult sau mai putin), cand dai de auntie sau uncle pe strada cum te porti?
Iti zic eu: tipi, urli, iti manifesti frustrarile in cel mai nepoliticos mod cu putinta, "you loose face" cum se spune, dupa care incerci sa arati cat esti de bazat aruncand cu un manunchi de bani.

OMG I am going to the ALPS!!!!

M. answered, said it was ok for the 10 days!!!!!! I am so exhiliratingly happy! I went to tell Marian and I frightened Verdi (his colleague) cause I was jumping up and down and grinning! Whew!
Now I gotta tell mom, but then I know she won't mind ... the ten days, maybe eleven ... depends on what flight I can get. I have to check maps and all, see whether I am leaving from Zermatt or from Chamonix, i really hope it is from Zermatt.. the french suck (And I mean really suck ... especially after last night! I will tell all about it in another post)
M. also said that it was indeed a good idea to go Kinabalu before the alps, he didn't say anything about going to kinabalu after the alps .. maybe it won't be necessary.

HA! I gotta train!!! Really hard! I slacked this week, last night and this morning didn't feel like training at all so just played a bit of tennis...

I read about Chirstine Boskoff (hope i got the spelling right) who is presumably dead after being swept by an avalanche somewhere in China (they found the body of her partner, Charlie Fowler), who is/was one of the top female mountaineers. She said in an interview that before her first Everest climb she used to get up at three in the morning, and drive to some hill close to where she lived, and climb that hill up and down, up and down, carrying a very heavy backpack. 3 AM!???? Now that is fucking determination!

I gotta get into focus also!
But I also gotta start working, if I don't work I won't get paid, and then ... mo money, mo problems :)

down down down

Today I am feeling down. I am in dire need of motivation. I dun feel like working at all... I feel like waking up M. and asking him to answer the email I just sent him.
So, it all boils down to this: we are planning an expedition to Aconcagua in Jan-Feb 2008 (this is why I have been carrying all those water weights around campus). It has been my dream for quite awhile now, but only this year it seems I will be able to raise the moneys to go there. So you can imagine I am quite eager to go. I also wanted to go to the Alps and do some climbing there - i have a picture (no, 2 pictures) of Matterhorn taped to my desk's wall ... so when M. said he's going to the Alps and that I should come you would expect me to be HAPPIE!!!! But I'm not ... Thing is, this month of leave that I am taking is the only one in three years (2006,2007,2008) in which I will be able to go home, so I wanted to spend it at home, if not really at home with my mom (I know she misses me dearly), but at least in the same country... So what to do? I have written to M. and asked if he'll take me for 10 days (he says it will only last 2 weeks, but I know it usually lasts more, especially since I don't have any saying in- "we gotta go back now") - but this means that I can't help with driving back and packing up the tents and all that ... and it feels to me like I'm taking advantage in a way. I feel so troubled, in one place I want to go to the Alps, no matter how long it takes, on the other hand I can't do this to mom, it doesn't feel right.

I only hope that M. understands and will allow me to go for the 10 days and then fly out or smth... But I think that he won't, he'll just say forget it, or smth... Aaaa ... I am so sad, I hate choices like these.

Later edit: thanks to Nita for encouraging me to send the email.

White man

"But the White man never guessed at what the Red man saw and heard and felt. The White man bought death and emptiness to this place. The White man cut down wise old trees with much to tell; young saplings with many life-times of life ahead; and the White man never asked, Will you be glad to make a lodgehouse for me and my tribe? Hack and cut and chop and burn, that was the White man's way. Take from the forest, take from the land, take from the river, but put nothing back. The white man killed animals he didn't need, animals that did him no harm; yet if a bear woke hungry in the winter and took so much as a single young pig, the White man hunted him down and killed him in revenge. He never felt the balance of the land at all.

No wonder the land hated the White man! No wonder all the natural things of the land rebelled against his step[...] White man joked that Reds could even track a man on water, they laughed as if it wasn't true. But it was true, for when a White man passed along a river or a lake, it bubbled and foamed and rippled for hours after he had passed."

Orson Scott Card, Red Prophet

Romanian team attempting the NW face of Singunian Shan

Yup! I'm so envious I wanna scream! Here's the link.
Good luck guys!!!

[climbing]

I climb, therefore I am

I think I am back on track after one month of not climbing. I seem to be getting back into shape, though I am still f.a.t (I am not saying the F. word you know ... :) )Looks like the extra training I put in last week helped: I had a very nice (even though short) climbing session yesterday, followed by a 46 min "round the campus carrying 10 kg" session.
I think I should start increasing the weights, but I need to ask M how much am I supposed to be carrying upslope... I think it would be great if I can get to 15-20 kgs around the campus and then head on to kent rigde park with 10 in about a month :)
Dream on, baby!!

[climbing]

How PhD gets to you in SoC (Part II)

I have always wondered what is the role of GSS in the whole scheme of things. And then it finally dawned on me: to organize Sentosa Beach party!!!!! YEI!!!! Free flow of drinks for everybody! Yupiiii!!!
No, the role of GSS is not to protect the interests of graduate students, the lowest link in the academic food chain (not counting undergraduates, hi hi), but to keep their bellies full of food and cheap beer (I don't suppose they have cheap wine there). I can't report to GSS the fact that one faculty secretary DID NOT ANNOUNCE ME that I have to complete a renewal form 2 months prior to the expiration date on my contract, which lead to the fact that I won't be getting any money FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS!! They're busy organizing the beach party!!!! It's all over their web site!!!!

Wanna go party on the beach?! Sheesh!!!

[black mamba]

How PhD gets to you in SoC

Here's a letter I wrote to the SoC secretary and her answer:

Hello,

While talking to other students involved in the current and past QE
exams I realised that there is no form for a graduate student to give
feedback on the exam itself, subjects and questions. I find that a
feedback from students is important in this case, since the current form
of taking the QE is new and not quite perfected :). I have failed two
questions for this QE, and, while these are the first exams I have
failed, I am not writing to you as a complaint, but in hope that future
graduate students will somehow benefit.

I will try to give my honest feedback for each subject that I took and I
hope you will bear with me through this long e-mail.

CS 5202 I found the module webpage to be very comprehensive. I am
referring to http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5202

Computer Networks question: Very nice, covering a lot of the syllabus
and requiring the student to analyze trade-offs and drawbacks.

Operating Systems question: To this day I still don't know what the
question was about :), and throughout the exam I had in mind three
possible designs for the system presented. After the exam I talked it
over with other students and we still couldn't decide to which design
the question was referring exactly.

Computer Architecture question: While previous Computer Architecture
questions required the student to think about how and why new systems
are designed and constructed from a hardware point of view, to analyze
cache protocols, etc. , this question focused on assembly instructions
and on circuits. I suppose it is indeed up to the Professor that is
grading the exam to determine what he or she thinks that is the basic
knowledge needed for a specific field and to ask a question based on
that, but as graduate students that are not hardware oriented, assembler
instructions, circuits and problems involving lab exercises (i.e not in
the reference book) seem to be too basic and refer to knowledge that is
irrelevant. Furthermore, the instructions presented in the question did
not correspond with any from the referenced book.

For CS 5201, the only feedback that I have to give is that I found out
after the exam that the page that I thought was for CS 5201 was not
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs5201/Quals/ (I see it's down now), but
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~abhik/CS-QE/ , and only some students knew
about it :). This led to the fact that I did not know that the "Logic
and Formal Systems" subject had changed to "Logic and Artificial
Intelligence" and with it the referenced book. That was indeed the
explanation I had for not finding the questions for the logic subject
familiar :) and explains to me why I failed that question. While I find
this unjust and frustrating, I wonder if this is not going to happen for
the following QE exam :) and this led me to write to you.

On a final note, I want to point out that there should be a way of
collecting feedback from graduate students on the QE exams. We are
almost researchers by now so the feedback provided would be meaningful.
Also, I understand that it is difficult to formulate only one question
to cover an entire field of research, and I will try to do by best
(again) to pass the remaining questions.

Thank you for taking the time to read my e-mail.



And the answer:

Dear Claudia,

Thank you for your feedback.

Graduate Office will looked into your comments and endeavor to improve the
current QE process.

Have a good weekend!

regards,
Jane

Riight. WTF?!

[black mamba]

I'm getting ready to rule the world

Me and my faithful companion are getting ready to rule da world!!
First impressions:

• i should not have waited until 24 to get my first lego. It proved a killer to build the first demo robot, but I'm getting there - took me about an hour of building, at it wasn't even that complicated


• Lego was really smart to preupload the first demo program unto the brick


• I have a LOT of pieces, but only connectors and such. And they are all either gray, white or black. Really not very fashion conscious

Next project: the scorpion.
Oh, and the name for my first robot is Fredo! He wants to rule the world too. Photo here.

Cum o sa ajung sa nu mai stiu sa vorbesc romaneste if I keep this up

Cand il auzeam pe unchiul meu plecat in Australia de vreo 15 ani vorbind romaneste super stricat il dispretuiam profund. Cand le auzeam pe capsunicile venite din italia/spania vorbind romaneste cu accent italian/spaniol imi venea sa le bat. Sad news is ... I'm getting there. Am ajuns sa vorbesc intr-o romgleza perfecta atat cu ceilalti romani de pe aici cat si cu cei de acasa. Ca este romgleza ar fi cum ar fi, dar deja am ajuns sa traduc din engleza in romana. De exemplu, in loc sa zic ca un lucru "n-are sens" eu zic "nu face sens" din "it doesn't make sense". In loc sa zic "de exemplu" sau "totusi" imi vine sa zic "for example" sau "nevertheless". Nu mai vorbesc de "however" , se pare ca imi place cuvantul asta la nebunie. Si cel mai si cel mai penibil este urmatorul lucru: Am ajuns sa spun un lucru in engleza (vorbind in romana) si dupa aia sa traduc in romana. Vezi commentul de aici . Cretina cu idul "carutacufraieri" sunt eu, evident. La postul cu dl prof. Andrei initial am scris "may he rest in peace sau fie-i tarana usoara" Acuma imi vine sa scriu "wtf is going on sau ce se petrece?"... AAA!!!
Rezolvare? Sa nu mai citesc carti in engleza? Sa citesc numai in romana? Sa ma controlez? Oh, how?!?!
Note to self: Control control control control.
Sau ca steve ballmer: developers! developers! developers! developers! (vezi youtube)

[black mamba]

How windows helps with your eye-hand synchronization

Start up your computer.
Select Windows from your Grub menu.
Select Windows again if you have installed your hacked macosx.
Wait for Windows to start.
Login by entering your username and password.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del FAST!!!
Select Task manager.
Repeat until computer seems to be breathing again:
- Select unknown process.
- Press End Process (bottom right of window).
- Press "Yes" on "Are you sure ... ?" (to the left and higher)
Enjoy!

[black mamba]

Pentru domnul profesor

Dumnezeu sa-l odihneasca pe domnul profesor Eduard Andrei. Desi nu am inteles niciodata materia pe care a predat-o, mi-a ramas in amintire ca unul dintre cei mai drepti si cu adevarat DOMNI profesori pe care i-am avut.
Fie-i tarana usoara.

Lime ju

It's late late at night and we [Marian, Cristina, Ioana, Andrei and I] arrive in Singapore from a blizzard beaten Bucharest. Corneliu is here to pick us up and we head over to our home for the next six months. Both our real-estate agent and the landlord's agent are there to greet us and to proceed with the necessary formalities. It takes about three hours to get everything counted and signed, and the agents are gone. It's just us in the house, tired but anxious. I am hungry [as usual] and so are the others, so we go to a nearby food court to get something to eat. I have no idea that these are foodcourts and that they are supposed to look like they do. In my mind there's a constant bewilderment followed by wtf preceeded questions. We finally order from the waiter (she's called "auntie" - not because she's related nor because she's a waiter, but because she's older - it's not in any way arrogant or impolite, but I find it truly annoying). Our order includes our drinks also. I decide not to go safe and I order "lime juice", since I had never drank it. The auntie brings me back the juice, while first asking: limeju?limeju? We finally figure out that it's for me, it's mine!!! It tastes ok, also has some sort of plum in it. But most of the times as I later found out, it's not made from fresh limes, but from fresh (?!) concentrate. Nevertheless, whenever my order of lime ju gets yelled over the foodcourt it brings back dark and cosy memories.

[lime ju]

Leeego MINDSTORMS!!

Oh my god oh my god people!! 'Tis here my friends! On a sudden whim of mine before the last two exams, and also inspired by Cristina who went home to study/relax/sleep, I decided yesterday to go shopping!

What started out initally as a hunt for the perfect moisturizer [dun ask why or how or whom - I'll talk about it in another post] ended up with the following:

• One vitamin e moisturizer from the body shop - I don't know how much good it will do, but nevertheless


• One passion fruit incense oil


• ONE LEGO MINDSTORMS !!!! I was planning to get it after the QE, but I got it anyhows, since buying it earlier promised that I was going to get out of my zombed state. Well, I'm not out of the zombed state, I am 440 sing poorer, BUT I WILL BUILD THE BEST ROBOTS THERE ARE!!!! ... After the qe that is, right now I've only opened the box then put everything back in. Two more exams, one on monday and one on tuesday [i haven't studied anything for the latter] and I will be in robotland, photoland and climbland ... in no particular order!
  

[Lego mindstorms]

Leapsha

Tagged by puck via bookaholics, I must write now what books I would take with me if I were to leave the country for a long time. I have hands-on experience with this, so I will say here what books I took with me when I left. So, in no particular order, since I am not at home right now [YES, I am wasting time at work to post in a blog!!!!], here goes:

• Lumea vazuta de Garp, John Irving [RO]


• Cider House Rules, John Irving [EN]


• The Remains Of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro [EN]


• Diavoliada, Mihail Bulgakov [RO]


• Maestru si Margareta, Mihail Bulgakov [RO]


• Matusa Julia si condeierul, Mario Vargas Llosa [RO]


• Un veac de singuratate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez [RO]


• Toamna patriarhului, Gabriel Garcia Marquez [RO]


• Stupid White Men, Michael Moore [EN]


• 1984, George Orwell [RO]


• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price, J.K. Rowling [EN] - for the kid in me


• Picnic la marginea drumului, Arkadi & Boris Strugatki [RO]


• a handful of computer books

Before you ask how much my luggage weighed ... A LOT!!!! But I got off with a smile, and the fact that I was flying on the 31st of december, which I think impressed the somewhat pissed-on-life ladies at the check-in counter.

PS I seem to have forgotten some books, I hope they don't get really upset and start a revolution or something (my room already looks ravaging!)

[Lime ju]

About censorship

Quoting from the MDA site, answering the question "why must there be censorship":
"Censorship is practised in all societies to some degree and in varying forms -- whether by community groups, industry bodies or government agencies. In Singapore, censorship exists to protect the young from unsuitable content as well as to maintain stability and harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society, while allowing more choice for adults. Our surveys show that Singaporeans generally find censorship standards acceptable. For example, in the recent Censorship Review Committee 2003 survey, more than 70% of the respondents were satisfied with our content standards.
Of course, censorship alone is not sufficient. Whether we are able to maintain the moral tone of our society depends largely on the industry, artists and the community and on what society as a whole considers to be acceptable standards for media content. Hence it is a shared responsibility among the various stakeholders, with censorship being complemented by public education for greater media awareness."

So, there must be censorship because everybody does it and because 70% of the population said that they are ok with the censorship standards. Sheesh!!! Cogito ergo sum.

I found this site after www.ktmb.com.my (malaysia railways ticket purchasing online) had banned access. I did not know that ktmb was indecent in any way ... the trains are kinda slow though :))

Ce sa imi aduca mama de acasa

[bloggin': wishing well ]
1. gentile alea doua care arata foarte bine, cel putin in amintirea mea
2. povestea lui m., jurnalul fericirii si arhipelagul gulag
3. un borcan (sau mai multe?!) de zacusca
4. toate cdurile de muzica clasica pe care le posed
5. rezerve pentru stilou
6. cozonaci
7. paine din amsterdam
8. branza telemea

Your turn now

Many a time went drunk or hungover to class? Nooo?! Sure you didn't ... Never felt that whatever that guy is saying is going to kill you if he keeps at it?
Well ... here's one for you: it's their turn now. One of them is high in class!!!!!!!!!!!

They say this is me

Here is what they say about me. Or more, about how I view myself. High masculinity? Average Femininity? AAA

Lost it

I lost it. I can't believe it, but i lost it. It fell out of my backpack in the gym. Now I can't find it. I am feeling very very distressed... My mom will be very dissapointed in me. I fucked up (again). I lost my appetite (THAT is something you don't see every day...) Here's a portrait. You will be missed... Chances of finding it in Singapore stores: ZERO (it's a 2004 model ...)

Vista scary

What i didn't get is : is it scary in its complexity .. or just because it is a dome like construction doomed to fall? (something like the Khumbu Icefall??) Brrr.... Here's the full article.