Aug 31st

in a few more hours, it'll be September...August has been exciting and it's ended pretty well. I'm feeling a little stressed on the academic front and relationship wise, it's a test of patience. things are working out a tad better after I've prioritized my commitments...hope things continue to improve

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends

what a song to start the month...

what time is it?!

seeing the routine

I wake up, rush to lab, submit the lab report which was done on monday night, do a new experiment, leave the lab, go for lunch, return to hall, nap, do some work, go for tuition, return to hall...that's my wednesday. and the next day is a horrible 5-hour-no-break-but-lectures session. shit

I wanna do well, I really do. I wanna get my 2nd Dan, I wanna go trekking and more than almost everything else, I want...I truly do.

I been listening to 北京欢迎你 from haoting.com and humming it wherever I go. post Beijing Olympics syndrome?lol

okay. time to stop procrastinating

week 3

it's more than halfway through week 3, and things are getting different. or is it just me? I have to start prioritizing the events and activities around me and it feels bad to have to let some things go. at times, I doubt my decisions. at times, things are clear; at times, I regret the choices made. at times, I stand firm.

obviously, securing the scholarship is of top priority and that means I have to put in serious effort (that comes with time) in to studying. for the clubs, societies and activities, I've placed ODAC/trek on top of TKD and Wushu. I hope to attain a 2nd Dan in TKD within the stay in NTU. so most probably I'll drop wushu even though wushu seem more interesting (and seemingly less xiong than TKD) and would give me greater exposure to martial arts as a whole.

now hall. Hall III is indeed a very very happening hall. less than a month ago, there was the NTU joint hall bash. and tonight, Hall III is holding one itself. and I just miss both of them. interblock games has already started this Monday and it will last for at least 2 weeks. after which, I suppose they will start training for inter-hall games. I'll stand with my decision to stay in hall for no further than this sem (at least in the short term). I suppose I'll miss out a lot on hall. but staying in hall was something that I didn't expect or intend to. this short stay was just to have fun and know more people.

I wonder...
how you feel about this.
what your fears are.
if you know who 'you' is.
if I'm pushing too fast too far.
if you know what I mean...

2 weeks of school

been busy and drained for the past 5 weeks - 3 weeks of camps and 2 weeks of school. I've uploaded the photos for the first 2 camps, namely, F.O.O.T.(ODAC) and NYS camp to my facebook and my webshot accounts.


the camps has been fun and memorable. new friends found and new experiences. I feel that F.O.O.T. was the best of them all because the activities were more enriching and meaningful. it was so good that I bought myself a 75litre haversack after that. ready to go trekking any time. NYS camp was short(3days) but very fun as well. and more importantly...hmmm...I'll leave this for another day. Hall 3 FOC lasted for 6days. the amazing race was a great experience and of course the fav activity for Chor Yen-the-glut is the food-hunt at Geylang.

school started 4th Aug. but in the first week, it still felt like orientation. there was lotsa things going on in hall and in school. bash, mahjong sessions, makans, OG gatherings, NTU TKD etc. I haven't been playing basketball for a couple of weeks already. on the academic front, I've overloaded myself with 24 AU this semester. 5-day week and most days see me end at 5pm. for CCAs, I've been joining the TKD club for training on both tuesdays. but I injured myself on both occasions. I'm joining ODAC too. but I'm still not sure how much commitment I'm going to put into each of these. I really want to strive for a first class honours and I'm having some difficulty with studies, esp math.

for my tuition kids, I'm sorry I haven't been able to give you much time. but I assure you things will get better in the weeks ahead =)

I'll stop here for now. piles of work stacking up

on scholarships and tuition grants

it was only 3 years ago that I started looking at scholarships and university programmes. at times, I resent the fact that some of these prestigious scholarships go to those whose families are well-to-do and more than able to afford an overseas education for their child.

the essence of a scholarship is to provide education for those who cannot afford it. only then will the bonds work out for the organization. not only does it help to create more overseas or local graduates, thus increasing the standard of education on a national/social level, it also helps the organization to retain the talents they have so heavily invested in.

in recent years, many scholarship holders break their 4/6 years bonds. in most cases, these are the people whose family could afford their overseas education, shown by their financial capability to break the expensive bonds, even without the scholarship. so in this case, you actually have one less graduate (local and overseas) and the company does not get any good brain to work for them (this is if the bond-breaking payout is equal to the amount invested in the scholar's education). if the scholarships were reserved for those whose families are not well off, then this scholarship would have served it's purpose well. first it has provided the desired education which the student could not have had without the scholarship and, since breaking bond would prove too expensive for the young lad, the organization would have got a talented young man spending the prime of his life for them, making their investment more than worth it.

but now the question is, how do you qualify those who are "poor enough" for a scholarship?

3 more weeks!

3 more weeks to school. however, I don't feel that excited or anxious as I thought I would be. it's just "yar...school's here.yup.gotta start studying."

the past week's been pretty good so far. uncle Meng flew all the way from Montreal to see grandma and now he's at the airport catching the flight back. met up with couple of friends whom I have not seen for years. it's nice to catch up with old friends =) some times, all these activities sets you thinking about your relationship with the people around you, wondering how things would be like down the years. you'll see how your friends have changed and grown and how, relatively, stagnant you have been. this particular dialogue triggered some thoughts -
CY,"...things are falling into place..."
XJ,"you should be PUTTING them into place..."
see how passive and non-chalant I have been about my life? all the "let it be" and the "things will happen naturally" suddenly seem so WRONG

made some new friends this week at the F.O.O.T. briefing. interesting people. there are quite a number of poly-grads going directly into 2nd year. I think this is a really smart plan for those who are sure of what they want to do. but too bad I just wanted to get to uni first and took the JC route. the camp should be fun judging by the zesty atmosphere at the briefing. but if we're gonna shout like that for the entire camp, I'll go deaf by the 2nd day. but I hope this is for the orientation only. cuz if that's the culture in NTU, I'll have a hard time trying to focus on my studies.

I've made my way back to the regime again. I think JE sports complex really provide a good avenue to exercise. I shall head there on 1/3/5 for swim and gym and run 5km on 2/4. I'm typing this out so I'll stick to it and not laze off. haha