cousin's birthday.. hate to lose.. what cousin? *acts blur*

Heh.. wishing my cousin Deuel a great 22nd and well we've got a long road ahead and all the best man!

that came from bowling after their movie and dinner @ kenny rogers.

had a really interesting chat during dinner and well lets say i've got an insight on girls i've never heard before (or heard but forgotten - thats guys for you girls)

we paired up and then the bet was another game on the losing team..

final score was me and kevin 113-79 and 94-95 (i can't remember - think it was 3 points)

i should apologize, should have let deuel win since its his birthday and stuff but well i hate to lose (when i know i can win) =P

well the 2nd game didn't materialize as some of them had to go, so we'll have it some other time.

btw, got my own copy of Freakonomics as well as a photography book :) think i'm gonna be spending more on books of such types anyway.

time flies

wow its been 6 weeks since i started school.

guess the pace of this course is just too fast. i've hardly got time to really "breathe". thank God i applied with my partial poly results, got an exemption from a ridiculous subject heh!

see, i was supposed to take academic writing, maths, micro-econs and music this sem. for reasons unknown to us, you are supposed to take an "arts" subject as one of your non-major electives. however, the only "arts" subject they have here in singapore is music. went for the first lesson, couldn't find my name in the attendance, let the teacher know and voila! on my way to the next music lesson 2 days later, i got a call from SIM to let me know that i was exempted from the subject! all they said was "your poly gave you the exemption" haha..my cousin is currently still stuck there, and says they must have gotten the wrong person exempted =P now if he were smarter and submitted even his partial results, he might have gotten exempted too!

anyways, i kinda like what i'm taking now.

english by far, is the subject i'm scoring at, strangely. i've got a nice teacher who sets easy quizzes and makes essays leniently :)

econs is alright, very very interesting as it is now. i would enjoy it more if not for my crazy-speed lecturer who knows 2 speaking speeds, fast and faster. zip through a chapter in one 1.5/2 hr lecture period. plus the threat of pop quizzes cuz we don't seem to be keeping up to his requirement of 2 hours of outside study per hour of his teaching, (except that he doesn't really realise we're not only taking econs this sem and there are midterms going on this week!)

lastly, maths. which i think i'm proficient at but just so so sooooo rusty. i don't make up for the rustiness by working even harder. why i do that, i don't know. i guess this will be one of the subjects that will continually haunt me throughout my study life. i struggled with it during sec school, even though my psle and o level grades were good and acceptable. i struggled with it in poly, where i would just stare blankly at the question during the test/quiz/exam but know how to do it after i walk out. 3 years later, its happening again =/

have been playing quite a lot of pool and a bit of snooker/number in the past 5 weeks. nice to know i'm still in a bit of shape for pool despite my studying schedule :) however, didn't play any this week, had a lot of physical exercise this week though ;) basketball on monday, soccer on weds, tennis tmrw and soccer on sat.

just did a short 3km run in about 13mins. lousy! guess training then falling sick then not training straight after i'm much better is gonna be a problem i'll have heh. i've always believed that if you're in good physical shape, you're gonna play better pool (amongst other physical sports) its sort of a feel-good, play better thing heh. maybe some sports psychologists can comment on that.

english mid-terms tmrw, worried a lil that i'll not be able to write under pressure but leaving it in the hands of God :)

check back soon, will try to write more often heh!


oh btw, some movies i've watched (ratings in brackets) :
Shrek3 (3.5/5), Pirates of the Carribean (3/5), Fantastic Four & the Rise of the Silver Surfer (3.5/5)

some movies i will wanna catch:
Ocean's 13, Hot Fudge, Die Hard 4.0, Transformers, Simpsons (just saw the trailer today heh)

some other random stuff i wanna do anytime soon: go bowling, have a good bowl of laksa, go-karting, go for a short trip overseas.

i don't usually do this but..

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

champions!

never thought i would say this but, THANK YOU ARSENAL!

and finally, after two seasons..

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!



wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

orienteering

*koff*sneeze*koff*

thats what i'm left with after a damn tiring week..

monday - last day of work, huge guard score ;) stayed till late to play with CT and G, got home and basically computer gamed till 4 am (totally regreted it the next day)

tuesday - mom woke me up at 8.30 to go for work before realising its the start of the month and i don't work anymore. slept and woke at 9.30 to go do the AV for YC/M's wedding :) quite glad that its finally happened haha..! went for my youngest cousin's birthday at Carlton Hotel, was a lunch/hi-tea thing and then to Oriental for the wedding dinner, which was quite good. started to feel a lil sore at the end of my throat. met Z and his friends for the Liv-Che game and watched Liv score one and save 2 penalties to go to the Champs Lge final. slept at 6.

wednesday - woke up 3 times at 11.30am, 2pm and then at 4pm and went down for another night, this time much tired and in no mood. went over to D's place and had punggol nasi lemak (which i think is overpriced but rather good) and then watch Milan demolish my beloved Man Utd. they were outclassed and outplayed and Milan deserved to win by that scoreline. squeezed and slept at 5.

thursday - first day of orientation and abt as much talks as i can remember about GPA and all that american school system. woke up at 7.30, rushed and had breakfast before taking an hour to get to school from his place. finished it at ard 1, had lunch and then got caught in the rain. ended up reaching home at ard 3, slept and woke up at 7 for dinner with mum before collecting my pay! Hooray! finally been paid ;) slept very early for once at 11.

friday/saturday - day two of orientation, which was supposed to be compulsory (but abt 2/3rds went - i'm one of the 2/3rds =/ ) woke up with a slight fever and fluish symptons, chased them off with a panadol and went. the runny nose followed me throughout the day as i went from prinsep st to running around orchard rd (doing things we'll only do once or twice in lives just to be sporting) then to changi where my butt now hurts from sitting down so much. did a night walk ard the OCH area but its just spooky, didn't expect anything supernatural to happen or did anything happen. left as soon as they dimissed us and headed straight home to more panadols and much wanted sleep. that was ard 12 hours ago from the time of posting =/ slept 11 straight hours, slightly less fluish but still groggy.

more thots in a day or two while i clear my nose and throat of that green stuff

see-saw

had a see-saw day today,

started out by breaking the key to the main doors whilst opening up. good thing i had already opened up the back door, so at least it was accessible. bad part was that part of the key was stuck.

half an hour later, i got the key out, so not so bad. stuck signs directing ppl to the rear door. business resumed as usual. luckily one of the bosses came by and had a spare key so i managed to get a duplicate.

then my game had a see-saw too.
played with SD, giving him a rack in a race to 7 for the table, lost the first 4-7, won the second 7-3. played very differently in each set. (2 hours)
then he had to go back for classes so i played S and self-destructed 1-5. (0.5 hours) 
had a quick lunch and played G, did the same thing as the previous game and lost narrowly 6-7, recovered and played very well, winning 7-3, before self-destructing 3-7. (3.5 hours)
rested and had dinner, did my work and then played short races with N, winning both races 3-0, 3-1. (0.5 hours)
ZJ dropped by with his sports camp friends and played but i think it was like 4-9 (we didn't keep score) and him being generous. (1 hour)

Total playing time today: 3+0.5+3.5+0.5+1 = 8.5 hours

Totally drained. wasn't even thinking towards the end when i was playing ZJ.


thot of holding a competition on saturday mornings at century, might plan something and tell AK soon heh.

a bad tackle, a lost game, a car accident

did a full shift on saturday..and was so bored waiting for my dinner to arrive i did this,






then sunday came, and i found out there's a new day between friday and saturday, and its called "Lisa"






went for a match with joseph and his team. didn't play very well, we went from 2-1 up at half time to 3-4 at full time =/ took a bad tackle to the right ankle when the opposition midfielder tackled me and got my ankle instead of the ball. but its ok now i guess.

then after the match, we had a screech of tires and a loud bang. ran out and found out there was an accident between a car and lorry. dunnoe who's right or wrong but it did look kinda bad. fortunately there was no major injuries, just probably a concussion for the driver.

for those who caught 300..

and for those who did not,

go check this out, its insanely funny!

its been one week since...

i started work.

(to those thinking otherwise, shame on you!)

ended the first week of work with a full shift. and this is how my usual counter would look like,





on the right, is the "Waiting List", on top is the "Registration Book", left is the "Other Daily Sales Record" and on the bottom is the "Time Sheet"

well, if you thought working from 10am - 7pm was draining enough, i would recommend the full experience from 10am-2am! i've never felt 16 hours feel so long before! granted, it moved quicker when sarah was around, and when there was to do heh.

on the bright side, since my day shift pay is counted at the end of the month only, whilst the night shift gets to take some cash back every night, it earned me some much-needed extra pocket money.

on the dark side, a 15 year old kid sneaked in and i didn't spot him until the police did a quick lookaround. sigh =/ also man u lost 1-2 to portsmouth! DOHHHHHH!!

anyways, just a short update on the week.

ran on wednesday after basketball (only played 1/2 an hr) and learnt a good lesson, don't run when you're tired or have lack of sleep =/ (slept at 2am on sunday, 2am on monday, 2am on tuesday)

then this sleep debt carried on to thurs, where we gathered at jurong lake park to celebrate jon's birthday with Laser Tag. so happy birthday JON! unfortunately we did not succeed in our plans to throw him into the lake ;) but it was great fun all around. went for drinks/supper and jon created a new drink/dessert, Teh-O Lychee Jelly Cocktail!






and i slept at 4am..! =/

so its no wonder that on friday i was just ready to crash. so ready that on the bus to Good Friday service, i fell asleep and only woke up 2 stops after the supposed stop. genius. got to church abt 1/2 an hr after service started.

konked right out after supper with my relatives and well i survived today!

question is, will i survive tmrw?

settling in

more or less settled in to my job at century. been doing a lot of extras (like stuff the night shift is supposed to do) but i don't mind. kinda taken to it like exercise ;)

cept for the waking up every morning at 8 to be on time for work, i've been doing late nights like 2am for 3 days running.

and looking at the forecast of events, tmrw will be tiring day cuz of jon's laser tag party late into the night. so i'm supposed to sleep early today. but heh i still need to burn another disc for my own use at century =p

so anyways, happy birthday debbie and jon!

first day of work

contrary to popular belief, working at a pool hall does not mean free play! =/

anyways its a no brainer job ;) just cleaning tables and working the meter. how difficult can it get?

also got this crazy idea to run to work everyday for like 2 weeks. haha..bet i'll be quite fit after that. only thing stopping the plan is the lack of shower facilities =/

otherwise i think it'll be really cool..i'll still go and try it out one of these days ;)

first day wasn't so bad, it'll come easier with ease! =)

one of the better (pool) days

went to wheelock (instead of vivo as originally planned to catch the shot due to the rain) to fix my shuffle which got corrupted somehow :(

bought an italian bmt from subway @ lido, but when i got onto 171 it was too crowded to eat. so i had it for supper instead, it was a bit gooey but a quick toast did the trick.

headed to century early, and today's just one of the days when things go for me i guess. sebas wasn't really in top of form, conceded the game early at 6-4, of which the first 8 racks were split evenly and each winning off the other's break.

proceeded to play with eugene (who's by far the most improved player at century) and was down 5-0 when he scratched on a 9. all the while sitting in my seat i knew i deserved to lose, playing the way i was and how he was playing, just kept telling myself to get 4 racks so it'll be an acceptable result (like how losing 4-7, looks better than 0-7 - its still a lose but it won't look that bad) then somehow he had a sudden drop in form too. i won 7-5 in the end, and i think out of that 7 racks, i only deserved to win 1 when i ran out from a foul after i played safe on him. the rest were strangely uncharacteristic of him.

went for dinner, sebas tried some small talk with justin but somehow it was quite quiet. felt a lil odd too. seeing how i might possibly take over from justin in a few days, and how that one stunt could possibly be the final straw that breaks the camel's back. benny was working that night, so me and sebas didn't plan to stay long, had an 8 ball game instead of the usual 9 ball.

again like the afternoon game, we split 12 racks evenly, winning on each other's break, until the last rack where i finally got the upperhand and won. which surprised me in a way. today's one of the days where i've played better pool than i can remember. not thinking that it might continue but hoping nevertheless.

submission

guess the rain stopped me from doing what i would have liked. showers the entire day means prob no sun when i need it the most. so i went plan B and submitted what i had anyways.

Entry 1:








Entry 2:









now leaving everything else into God's hands :)

24hrs

yeap thats the time left to submission.

and fretting that i had no one scenery photo to publish, i had to dig deeper into my photo archives. and i found 6! unfortunately they look rather ordinary. have to find one outstanding one.

and grace told me she submitted 3 entries already, i wonder if thats allowed or if i would do that too ;)

anyways, here's one more addition to people, one more addition to action, and 6 for scenery:

people:



action:


scenery:

lost time and something remembered..

heavy downpours and cloudy skies meant i would miss today's opportunity for that scenery photo i'm looking for. and i'm running out of time! tmrw's the submission date and i don't have a photo to show for it.

feeling a lil anxious i might not get it and thus not go for it in the end.

have to get my butt off my chair/couch/bed more.

anyways i was looking through the archives of this blog and found this, i thot it was quite meaningful so i'll share it again,

The Final Analysis
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centred;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of having selfish ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world your best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world your best anyway.


You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anway

last minute plans

In an effort to join the Canon-TNP Young Photographer contest, i asked a couple of friends what they thot of certain photos, here's one of the replies I got when I asked him to choose between a photo of himself and of some kids: (names changed to protect the living)

says:
i shall be modest and say the bdc kids
says:
though i think i'm rather good looking

hahahaha....!

this is what sebas did while waiting for me to clear up, and he was leaving a msg for justin lols!






anyways, i'm missing a scenery shot. was hoping to get it yesterday at vivo before meeting a couple of friends for dinner. alas, i plan but work beckoned. ended up spending the night at century. and died when it came to the accounts. its so messsy lah. like sebas said, "you're a noob lehhh" and i totally agree. took freaking long to stack the drinks and then count.

owells..hopefully after more experience i would be better (:


anyways, i've shortlisted these photos for submission, let me know what you think!

people:










action:






let me know which you like! :)

basic manners pls.

if i am late, i will apologize at the very least, come up with a valid excuse and eat humble pie.


if you're damn freaking late, don't tell me, you are late because ...
1. you feel like being late
2. you can
3. you just want to see how pissed i can get before leaving

woo..done!

well done with yesterday's photos.

took 332, published 104! :)

have a look if you wish, http://www.flickr.com/photos/7489149@N07/tags/nexus2007/

or go to http://www.flickr.com and then search either for my username "joel.thingie" or the tag "nexus2007"

anyways, saw one of the "pro-er" photographers and the photos he took from yesterday. like they were so good. i've a loooooooooong way to go!

1st event cover!

wheee!

it was fun (and very tiring!) to cover the Nexus 2007 event. thank God for seeing me through the day.

i slept at 3am (again..must be a faulty body clock), woke up at 5.30am, reached the location at 7am, left at 9pm.

covered the talks and panels by several leading figures in the tech world. have some photos i'm quite proud of :) and mainly was running all over the place taking random pictures of people. in a way i guess i'm starting to like human protraiture =p

gonna spend some time to process the photos..took 331 photos in all. wow. didn't realise, just kept clicking ;)

think i might go and try for the TNP young photographer award thingy too. think i got enough stuff to try!

will post a link to the site when i'm done!


btw...tried this guy's 5d with a 70-200mm f4L IS USM lens. i almost died lah. its so good to shoot with lorh!

I WANT MY L LENS!

saw like 3 other "pro" photographers, one dude had a 70-200 f4L and a 17-40 f4L with a 30d (almost 6k), another a 30d with a 70-200 f2.8L, 24-70 f2.8L (almost 8k), and the most "pro" one with a 5d and a 30d with 70-200 f2.8L, 24-70 f2.8L, 17-40 f4L, 70-200 f4L (12k worth).

WOW.

then again a good laptop to do processing as soon as i shoot would be great too. especially for an event like this. saw some very good dude at design doing his stuff (the logos, shirts, boxes, banners were all designed by him) and thot that would make a worthwhile investment. but thats like another 2k :(



slowly slowly i hope i can get to that stage =p

now to shower =/

tiredness sets in

yesterday's cage was pretty good. ended up with a trio of malay dudes who were quite good.

not that i did much, but i was still very much tired after along with a sore left ankle =/ came home and konked out from 6-9 woke up for dinner, packed the house a lil before feeling extremely tired ard 12. proceeded to try to sleep but couldn't.

sucks.

the feeling of tiredness but not being able to sleep. konked out at ard 3 in the end. had to wake up at 8 to bring stuff out to give to the recycling company. then konked out till 12. lols.

well at least i didn't follow up with my sleep plan of sleeping at 9 on sunday and waking at 7pm on monday =p


weather looks like its gonna rain and another good day to sleep in. but i've got work to do!

sucks.


btw..this is post #350! yay!