Tuesday, August 30, 2005

missing skinning

somehow, i miss skinning blogs.. i have lots of gorgeous pics i've accumulated from various places but haven't had the time to convert them into skins yet.. sucks!

the skins i've done before:
donghaeng - my best yet
heipi
sweetie
sand and foam - i think it ain't bad either!
tree

am hoping to add more soon.. yeesh.

oddly, it somehow makes me happy when i peer at lines of codes and tweak and tweak and tweak.. hm, i dunthink it's the coding that gets me all high, but it's seeing the nice and pretty finished product that gives me a kick.

~kick*
~ouch..

Monday, August 29, 2005

The Chemistry of Hell

Subject: The chemistry of hell

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Toronto chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that theprofessor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic(absorbs heat

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct...leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A"

From the classblog of 03S78, posted by ningky.. hahahahaha.. boy I miss you guys..

my childhood bakery

clementi st 12 - block 105, where it still stands on its corner in impossibly archaic glory
the words in olde-englishe-y font proclaim: Balmoral Bakery
how led-by-the-nose can i get, i wonder, as i follow the smells back into memory.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Saturday morning at home

It's been a long time since I was able to laze around on a Saturday;
to watch my dog wake himself from sleep like a ruffled rug unrumpling,
the sky burnish from a pale golden suffusion to the broad brilliance of day,
and the heat burn the skin besides;
smell my mother's pancakes and gorge on fruit fresh from the fridge
listen to grunting complaints from the 302 as it hauls its torpid body away from the stop downstairs.

but all too soon I must wash and dress
for the day's agenda awaits.

Grateful, however, for those few minutes of stasis.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Garfield and Friends

I recently discovered the web site for Garfield - one of my fave cartoons since young. He's always enchanted me with his laziness, cynicism and absolute evilness towards Odie, and yet is without malice. Reading him always makes my day!

I like the site cos it's so perfectly evocative of a lazy summer holiday season.. and so gorgeously interactive.. haha.. i love the way the cars and helicopters fly past as you scroll across the navbar on top of the screen. Wish I could create something like that.. And then you look at the Professor Garfield corner on the top right hand corner.. scroll over Garfield and see what happens.. Heh!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

SEPTEMBER:
Suave and compromising. Careful, cautious and organized. Likes to
point out people's mistakes. Likes to criticize.Stubborn. Quiet but able to talk
well. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed.
Loyal but not always honest. Does work well. Very confident. Sensitive.
Thinking generous. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for
information. Must control oneself when criticizing. Able to motivate
oneself. Understanding. Fun to be around. Secretive. Loves sports, leisure
and traveling. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Very
choosy, especially in relationships. Systematic.


What does your birth month say about you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

crazy days, crazy nights

Goodness it has been 6 days since I've had the time to blog!!!

Well, thank God for the strength to survive the last 6 days.. these 2 weeks have been crazy, what with rushing through tutorials, giving remedials, make up lessons, setting exams, marking stuff to be returned to students etc etc etc!

The end of the mad rush is finally in sight.. It's Wednesday of Week 9 and that means only 2 more days of official school left! *yippeee!*

So, on a fairly quiet Wednesday morning, I've finally managed to dig out 15 min or so to blog..

~ Saw this cute quote on a friend's MSN:
Yeah, the grass is greener on the other side, that means they have more shit there too (hahahaha.. dunno if I got the words correct but the meaning is there)

~ Went out with Keqing and Tiffany for a nice dinner last night. After dinner at Cafe Cartel PS, they went to some shop called 'Made With Love' on the 5th floor.

Warning: DO NOT GO THERE! It's a money-sucker! The stuff there is all for scrapbook making, it is SO cute but SO ex! They spent like 50+ each on papers, stickers, etc. And Keqing said she'd previously spent over $1000 there.. gosh..

Hello, it is a SCRAPbook right.. supposed to be made from SCRAPS.. If I make a scrapbook, it will be more like really full of scraps lor.. hehehe.. I wun spend $$ on such (though admittedly very exquisite and cute) stuff!

Over the past few weeks, I've also suddenly remembered, firsthand, how much of a sacrifice it is to Arise and Build.

Hm, it didn't seem so hard the last round leh? Perhaps that was because I was still a student then, so I didn't have as extravagant a lifestyle as I now am accustomed to. 2 years of working life have really changed my spending habits.. I've got to re-accustom myself to spending less for the moment, but I believe in God's provision and I don't think He can stand to see me living like a snail haha.. so.. conclusion.. I need more income!

Actually for past A&Bs, I'd always relied on tuitions to bring in my income. Because I give my entire salary to my parents for their living expenses, all along the money i spend / save for myself has always been my tuition income. Previously, therefore, I'd always be very anxious to have more tuition students / more tuition lessons etc. However, now, I've only got one student - I'm not taking fees from her now as her family has encountered some financial problems - and two others that I took on in church too. Yet there is a strange peace in my heart that He will make a way for me, that I don't need to worry what I will eat or what I will drink or what I will wear. Also a new sense that being able to teach, is in itself a gift and talent; I shouldn't view teaching and tuition as just a way to make money.

That having been said, I'm also craving for lotsa things.. so since my birthday is coming, I'll excuse myself for putting up a shameless wish-list.. hehe.. it saves people time and no one will get me the wrong stuff..

: facial package from Kose
: skirt from JOOP!
: pedicure and manicure
: rebonded hair / hair extensions / a perm (I am so undecided am I not??)
: to lose 3-4kg (This one, only Daddy God can do.. haha)
: a new pair of pants that actually fit me
: new shoes that I can wear to work, church and look good in
: money.. hehe..

Quick! Show me that you love me! Gift-giving is one of my primary love languages.. *mwahaha..

Thursday, August 18, 2005

complain complain whine whine!

oh my gosh i am sooooooo tired.. end of term syndrome is hitting with a vengeance.

sometimes i feel like the pressure is enough to bend me down to the table surface and keep me flattened there.

but if the pressure is enough to flatten me, then why ain't i getting thinner?? (you know.. thin = flat.. okei flat joke.. wahahahaha! FLAT joke!!)

sheesh~

I SO cannot wait for the term to end.

although on the one hand it means saying goodbye to my classes (erps!) it also means i can finally rest for a while.

it's not wise to keep on running and working without adequate rest and recharging. i feel like a battery near the end of its lifespan.. goodness.
Drawing from His strength now, but I still need physical rest.. urgh..

I WANT MY HOLIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Only a Bio teacher would think it's funny

... but I am so darn tickled anyway that I've decided to post it up.
From the Straight Dope:

___________________________________________________________
Dear Cecil:

While sex without reproduction seems like a better goal, I heard that turkeys can actually reproduce without sex. I know they're stupid/primitive, but can this be true? --Rory P., Delores, Colorado

Dear Rory:

You heard right, compadre. Parthenogenesis--reproduction without benefit of sex--occurs spontaneously in a handful of species, most of them fairly simple but some surprisingly complex. The turkey is the foremost example of the latter group, with the virgin birth rate in some breeds approaching 40 percent. Parthenogenesis also occurs in some lizards. The New Mexico whiptail lizard, for example, is a nearly all-female species that reproduces almost exclusively by parthenogenesis, males occurring only rarely. A few years ago a biologist was startled to discover that a snake he'd raised from its second day of life had produced a litter, even though it had never been in the company of a male. Yow, he realized, snakes too can reproduce parthenogenetically! However, as a matter of practical advice, while the virgin birth explanation may satisfy a scientist, I still wouldn't try it with Dad.

Various explanations have been offered for parthenogenesis. It's said that virgin birth becomes more frequent in turkeys if the female is exposed to semen having a low sperm count--second-rate goods, in other words, which may incline the female to think she'd be better off seeing what she could whip up on her own. An alternative thesis, proposed by myself, is that parthenogenesis occurs chiefly in critters too homely for sex to be practical. I mean really, a turkey, with the wattles and all? Or a greenhouse slug, also suspected of propagating itself parthenogenetically? Say I'm a slug and I spot a member of the opposite sex. You figure I'm thinking, "Boy, wouldja get a load of the cloaca on that one"? Uh-uh. More like, "No way am I having sex with that."

Strange though it may seem, parthenogenesis is a phenomenon highly prized by animal breeding experts, because like cloning it would obviate the messy unpredictability of sex and instead produce exact replicas of prize specimens. Useful as virgin birth might be in poultry, it would be even more so in mammals, where you could put the production of grade-A heifers and the like on even more of an assembly line basis than it is already. So far, however, this goal remains but a distant dream, owing to certain peculiarities of the mammalian genome. Fine by me. Think of all the delightful aspects of the reproductive process: menstruation, pregnancy, labor. And the part we're trying to eliminate is sex?

--CECIL ADAMS
____________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Cecil:
I heard aphids are born pregnant. Is this true? If so, how does it work? --Lilian Wentworth,
Silver Spring, Maryland

Dear Lilian:

You think your life is miserable, cucumber, just be glad you're not an aphid. Not only are they born pregnant, they're pregnant without benefit of sex. Not that sex with an aphid sounds like much of a treat. Two things are at work here: parthenogenesis and paedogenesis.

Parthenogenesis, also known as virgin birth, is rare in humans (one known case) but common in insects. The baby bugs, all of which are female, develop from single cells in mom's body. The advantage of this is that reproduction is very quick--none of this flowers and perfume jive--which helps when you've got as many natural enemies as aphids have.

Paedogenesis--pregnancy in the young--speeds up the process even more. "Although the young are not born until the aphid has reached the adult stage," it says here, "their development may begin before she is born while she is still in the ducts of the grandparental generation." Aphids can give birth ten days after having been born themselves. The baby showers must be murder.
___________________________________________________________________

Dear Cecil:

'Scuse me, but ... how do they grow more seedless fruit? --Just askin', Salt Lake City, Utah

Cecil replies:

Guess you can't just plant more seeds, huh? But the fact is, you wouldn't want to plant seeds even if you could. Sexual reproduction, which is mostly what you're talking about when you grow things from seeds, is too chancy. I'll say, you mutter. But if you think you've got problems, talk to a commercial fruit grower. An important function of sex, after all, is to shake up the gene pool. While that lends a certain charming variety to the offspring of us humans, it's not something you want to encourage in, say, a Thompson seedless grape.

Luckily, sex is only one method of propagating a species. There's also asexual reproduction. Aha, you're thinking, so that's how my parents did it. No, smartypants. Asexual reproduction means making copies of the parent plant by means of cuttings, grafting, and so on. The offspring plants have the advantage, from a horticultural standpoint, of being perfect genetic duplicates or clones of the parent plant. So once you've bred the ultimate rutabaga or what have you, you can crank out exact copies unto the hundredth generation. And people do just that. Some grape "cultivars," as human-bred (and often human-dependent) varieties are called, date from Roman times--that is, the plants we have today are exact genetic copies of ones first grown 2,000 years ago.

What I'm telling you is that seedlessness is no big obstacle, plant reproductionwise. Most grape varieties, seedless or not, are reproduced by grafting. Ditto for citrus and fruit trees in general. (Actually I believe they "bud" fruit trees, but let's not trouble ourselves with details.)

So, you think you understand? Time to obfuscate the situation. It's possible to buy seeds that, when planted, produce seedless watermelons. Whence cometh this seed? It's the product of an unnatural union between different varieties of watermelon, resulting in a hybrid that, like many hybrids, is sterile. You plant the hybrid seeds, and you get a plant whose fruit matures but whose seeds are underdeveloped. To make more seed you have to keep mating the mommy and daddy plants. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's about all I can explain without charging you quarterly tuition. Pass me a grape.

Friday, August 12, 2005

on teavee (TV) in willywonka:

IT ROTS THE SENSES IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK–HE ONLY SEES!

~no more questions on why i love roald dahl.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

finally i blog again.. hehe

yupp, it's been a while.. been too busy to do anything beyond collapsing on the bed and sleeping, over the last few days. FOP and the 16th anniversary were tiring, yupp, and I definitely got to try out something new - external traffic - as Traffic 2. And Praise the Lord! Huimin commented that our traffic control this time was really good. I quote - she says we have perfected the art of traffic control.. wow.. tho on the ground i felt it was far from a perfect run, overall our traffic went smoothly. It's also about me learning to manage my own expectations, too.. being so 'C', I always expect everything to go perfectly and 'beat myself up' if it doesn't. But I know it isn't realistic, and am trying hard to change. *sheesh..

Also managed to get the Cross CD, thanks to Gary who bought for me at the last session. No idea how I would have managed to get the CD otherwise, not being able to get into the stadium until almost altar call time, every night! SUN's vocals and the production effects are so good.. gosh.. I almost couldn't believe my ears when I first heard the CD. I was like 'wow.. sure.. is that us??' Hey hey! Get the CD if you haven't already! =)

*PS: Another CD plug: Hands United. To fund the tsunami rebuilding efforts; pubbed by Habitat for Humanity, SG. To understand the work they do, read the account written by Kaijiun, who went on one of their First Builder trips.

Spent the day after the FOP-16th Anni marathon in school for awhile, after a very nice ND concert!~ wow, it was much better than last year. It was also really good to be able to go home and laze in the afternoon after all the hectic past 3 days - I don't know how I would have survived had there not been e National Day holiday. Thank God for the happy coincidence of days this year. Heh. Dinner at Seah St Deli was nice too, with Dennis, Eileen, Gary, Daryl and the other Huimin. Also went to Wine Network at Dempsey Road for a nice German Riesling (yummy!)

Oh well, it's back to piah-ing my head off for the next few weeks of the term. Am SO looking forward to Teacher's Day and the Sept hols! Not that it'll be much of a holiday, with three out of 5 days on course, but hey, any break from waking up at 6am is a welcome one.
mingming: 加油!

Thursday, August 04, 2005

look: boho luxe

Imagine, if you will; i'm lazy to take shots.

Top: green ribbed diamante studded tank
Price: $24.90 from Far East Plaza

Skirt: Multi-tiered velvet, crushed silk and lace black/grey affair
Price: HKD $70 from Prince Edward, Mongkok

Shoes: Gold ballet pumps with light blue flowers
Price: $29.90 from Far East Plaza

Jacket: Denim asymmetric button-front with dyed eyelet lace trimmings
Price: Forgotten, from Tiong Bahru Market

Earrings: Gold-bronze hoops
Price: $7.90 from Forever 21

Hair: Majirel 5.20 base and 5.25 highlights
Price: $119.90 from Sandstorm

The look on my students' faces when I wore the ensemble to school:
PRICELESS.

wahahahahaha..

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

as told by seowmimi

So this blonde was hired to work in a Tickle-Me-Elmo Factory.

Once she was on the production floor, though, work slowed to a trickle - the irked manager proceeded down to take a look.

Blonde's workstation: she was painstakingly sewing a small pouch in between the legs of each Elmo. Two marbles in each pouch.

So the manager whacked her head and went: "No! You were hired to give each Elmo two test tickles!"


(read it out loud if you don't get it. Oh wait. Better not read TOO loud. heh.)

On the other hand, found this other use for a Tickle-Me-Elmo. Bwahaha.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Oh my gosh.. Is this gross or what.

The World's Ugliest Dog -



And just in case that ain't enough to gross you out..
The dog with the longest tongue.

If _X_ belonged to me..

A question was posed to me last night.

"If _X_ belonged to you, what would you do with it?"

Frankly, it was a question I didn't really know how to answer. Substitute the character 'X' with just about anything - job, class of students, ministry, church, house, children etc. I realised that for all these things, I've simply been content to follow a status quo set by those in authority over me. Give me the helm and the leadership, and I'd probably be stuck big-time.

Then, like serendipity, I came across a quote from Kahlil Gibran:
"It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding."

Isn't that what ownership and leadership is all about? Not to passively wait to be tasked, but through an understanding of the heart of the One who has placed that authority in your hands, actively seek out ways to give and improve more and more. That's why it's such a stretch to step up to a new level of leadership, always; because moving on to a new level demands, firstly, an even greater recognition of the fact that we are simply stewards of all that is His. And secondly, we need to know Him all the better in order to move our greater power and responsibility for the greater good. In the words of 85, acquire a sort of 'holy common sense' that can only be had by knowing the heart of God. And thirdly, we can no longer be passive, but must actively seek and strive for new initiatives to improve upon what we've been given, for a leader is way beyond a maintainance officer. Ooh, sounds tough! But He has placed in us the ability, creativity and all the potential we need to ex-CEL in all that we do. Amen!

4am grouses

I feel fat~

and bloated!

and too freaking hot to sleep.



~~random grouses of a PMS-y person who is still slogging through her work at 4am on a MONDAY morning. After a physically taxing sunday no less.

wahbiang eh.. can i NOT work tomorro??

EGG-straordinary

A row of eggs bouncing in rhythm to a song:

"Egg-straordinary, way beyond the ordinary.. Egg-straordinary!"

We should sell our song to Seng Choon egg farm or something.


Me and corn-er partner Sam Tan had a good laugh at that one.
~sheesh

Eggs, anybody?