the Tao of Everything

2012 First Update

2012-01-29T00:04:00.000+08:00

First of all, happy new year! Year 2012 has gone a bit too far for me to start my first post this year after a long hiatus again.

Drastic change has occurred to my life recently due to my third year second semester's Industrial Attachment program. CNY 5th day I got to come back to Singapore and started working. FYI, I am currently attached to my scholarship company, in a construction site called Vacanza@East in Bedok. It is a resort condominium, in the mid of construction phase. I have been in easy condition so far as I am still adapting to the site environment and no real practical job is being assigned to me. I am to be an assistant site engineer. Regarding the job scope and experience, I will talk about it when I get into the real work.

The only major problem of this Industrial Attachment program to me is transportation and living problem. NTU is too far away from Bedok. West and East of Singapore. It costs me 1 hour and a half to reach the destination. It is tiring and distressing, not a kind of living I like. Thus, I decided to move out and got a nice room in Marine Parade. The place is more convenient for me to get to work and is so much more vibrant than NTU in Jurong West. Lots of place to explore, especially food. Across an underpass, there is East Coast Park. However, it is a lonely world for me here. I have got no friend in East Coast of Singapore. About 6 months for me to endure, but hopefully it will end up 6 months for my to enjoy. =)

Entrance to my working place.

Inside the site office.

That is all for my update today. Looking forward to more learning experience.

My Work 19

2011-12-08T20:34:00.001+08:00

Here I publish my latest design. It is more conventional and not that unique because I am still learning to include more detailed elements, especially the interior parts. However, the program runs slow when all the things are placed together. I have done 28 houses for my own and hopefully each is getting better.

It is called The Facade, because the front part of this house is rather simple and minimal and promotes privacy. The only visible area is a large tinted window situated right above main entrance. The front part of the entrance consists of facades of interchanging materials that make up the vertical lines.

The house occupies an area of 20m x 15m. It consists of a living hall and a kitchen on the ground floor, and a family hall and 2 bedrooms on the first floor. A garden is situated behind.

You can get the model if you have Google SketchUp - http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=25c9c2561ba5902b49951e9dcb4ca9c4

Some sectional views

Below are images after rendering by Kerkythea. I would say the effects are excellent given that the software is free and I am still new to it.

Site Survey

2011-12-07T22:21:00.001+08:00

Once I finished my examination, I continue my days with research. I was guided and assisted by a Phd student and a Geospatial lab assistant. We went to several areas near Singapore town to do laser scanning of a total of 5 trees. The purpose is to scan the trees and make them to 3D models. It was rather fun as this was my first time doing site survey off-campus. The equipment that we used is Leica Scanstation. It is one of the very few being purchased and available for use in whole Singapore. Due to its expensive cost (if I am not mistaken, it costs more than 200k) and lack of knowledge of what it can achieve, not many people knows its existence. I was rather honored to be able to have access to this equipment and acquired full assistant from the lab technician.

However, I am still doubtful in my next step in this research. Next, I shall get the scanning data and start manipulating and processing data to make it a full 3D models. It is a cumbersome process as I need to learn up the program quickly and finish it by next week. Hope everything goes smoothly. Then, the very next step is to analyze the tree models to test its structural stability, by inputting other datas like density, stiffness, wind speed, etc.

After the whole morning and afternoon doing the survery, I spent my remaining day designing a new house. Below is a preview. I will publish it in the next post much later as I need to touch up more in the landscape and interior design.

Post-exam update

2011-12-02T09:49:00.001+08:00

My exam has gone to an end. The next exam of my life will be exactly one year later. My performance in the exam is horrible, but something keeps reminding me about "what is more important than just examination?". I have turned to 21st year old, lots of things have changed.

My last few weeks have been eventful and fruitful. Though I had my 21st birthday as an extremely normal day, it at least was'nt a bad day. Not to say, the next day had my 4th examination paper.

My coursemates celebrated for me a few day earlier. Macaroon replaced a typical birthday cake. It is however colourful and tasty, and marked the liveliness of my life.

A few days later, we went for post-exam outing. I would say it was a food outing. Non-stop eating somehow outruns the supposed post-exam/shopping outing.

The outing was initially ruined by a sad news when I got my Macbook to service centre and enquired about my wi-fi problem. The upgrade to Lion OS "co-incidentally" spoilt my wi-fi hardware (as told by the down-to-par service provider). I was unsastified with their service. Whether or not it was the upgrade that caused the problem, I do not regret upgrading to Lion OS because I liked the new system and user-interface. Yes, Apple does'nt disappoint me. But what dissappoints me is their service provider in Singapore. They did not give the best advice (they only reluctantly answerred my problem when I asked), and what is worse is that the repair could cost me more than S$500! Forget it. I don't need wi-fi for my Macbook for a living.

Ok, enough for that. So my friends and I started eating-spree immediately after that. We tried cheese popcorns, creamy puffs, durian pancakes, bbq stick, beehoon crab (I just accompanied them since I am vegetarian) and etc. Then, we reached Marina Bay Sands by taking a taxi. We were asked upon by the funny taxi driver, "Are you gambler?". LOL. Marina Bay Sands is not just casino! But yea, we did pay a visit to the casino, since it was my first time entering a casino. A great feeling when the security checked my student pass and let me in though I am already legitimate to enter. We strolled around without playing anything, with a cup in hand, taking free drinks. Ah, I could feel the pressure inside the casino.

We then took our second dinner of the day in Pizzeria Mozza (an italian restaurant starred by Michelin). The environment is quite disappointed, it seems packed and noisy. Anyway, the pizza is awesone! Crispy, crunchy yet spongy and chewy bread boosted my appepite even though I was actually not hungry. The tomate sauce and creamy cheese were sweet and salty to an absolutely right amount. Trust me, I am a pizza lover and I could claim that this is the best pizza I have even taken. Definitely will go back and take a bite again!

Oh wait, we hadn't finished our day. We then moved on to taste some dessert and tea in TWG Tea Salon and Boutique. There are more than a few hundreds kinds tea!

So I took a photo of myself through a reflection of tea pot, using my iPhone 4S. Oh yea, you might see me updating my blog using my new iPad2 in the future too, especially during my heptic internship next year as iPad will prove to be convenient for me to online. Not forget to express my thanks to my parents and brother for getting me the iPad. =)

Google Model Your Town Competition

2011-11-13T11:05:00.001+08:00

Feel like taking part in this competition so much, "2012 Google Model Your Town Competition". It is an online competition organized by Google. It is about using its flagship's programs Google SketchUp and Google Earth to model our own town.

For me, if I take part, I will model part of my Melaka town. Most of the iconic building in Melaka will have to be 3D modeled and uploaded to Google Earth. This is so interesting but I guess my skill is still limited. Therefore, I wanted to find a team to participate. Perhaps, due to time constraint, I think I will choose to partipate in 2013 instead.

To find a team in my hometown and among my friends is not an easy task. None of my friends seem to have regularly used Google SketchUp. But if you (who read this) can prove me wrong, please leave a comment here! I really hope there is someone who is interested in this program and could share his skill with me. Anyway, even if you don't use the program but somehow interested with it, especially the competition, I am really willing to teach you the basic skill of the simple yet powerful program. Don't worry, we have more than 1 year time to learn and master. In fact, I still have a lot to learn along the way too.

Click here to see more details about the competition, and also here for the official page. Below is the video from one of the link, showing the winner team from last year.

What really excites me is the award, seriously. You see:

The winning individual/team will receive:

USD $25,000 for the town's public school district or an individual school (or international equivalent, at Google’s discretion).
A visit from a Google team, along with a dinner in the winners' honor.
A video profile of the winning team and their town, to be featured on YouTube.
A virtual tour of the winning town that will be added to the Google Earth website.
International publicity in the form of blog posts, tweets and other media additional coverage on Google websites.

We could make Melaka famous! =)

Anyway, I still have doubt if I have the time to take up the competition, but let's make it as my aim or as a motivation for me to further sharpen my skill.

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My Work 18

2011-10-20T21:48:00.000+08:00

Privacy is a must-have characteristic of a house. Modern Japanese home has been emphasizing on simplicity and privacy in its design. Many of them are truly sensational and worth to look for. Undoubtedly, my this new design is inspired by Japanese. Typical Japanese house is commonly quite small in size, therefore I also limit my design to smaller floor area.

Here are some examples of the Japanese home from Dezeen website :

I named it The Solaer@8 because from the plan view the shape of sun (solar) could be seen. The shape draws out the central courtyard for the entire house, both ground level and first level. The courtyard serves as the main natural daylight lighting (from sun) and ventilation area. Also, due to privacy concern, there is no other window present in this house other than the courtyard area.

The house is surrounded by a few volumes at each level, ground and first level, with some volumes being cut off to allow more sunlight in.

The 2 images below are section views from top. The first one is first level, which should have bedrooms (I do not include furniture and details). Whereas, the second one is the ground level. Each volume serves different function, such as hall, guest room, kitchen, etc. The centre courtyard also serves as dining area.

Some interior images: (not forget to pass my credit to furniture designed by others provided in Google Warehouse)

This is done in Kerkythea rendering program.

Free softwares that shouldn't be overlooked

2011-10-14T00:10:00.001+08:00

I am going to introduce some free/open-source softwares that currently reserving places in my desktop menu bar. "Open-source" literally means that the softwares are free of charge to users, allowing public to modify, improve and further develop the program, in some way, while maintaining integrity of the original developer.

There are a lot of open-source softwares available, with variety of functions and features. However, I am going to introduce only a few that related to design:

Remember, they are totally free, yet most of them could produce results that are comparable to commercial softwares which normally sold more than few hundreds or even thousands dollar.

1) Google SketchUp - http://sketchup.google.com/

(3D modeling, able to share some similarities with Autodesk AutoCAD, 3ds Max)

2) Inkscape - http://inkscape.org/

(vector graphics design, similar to Adobe Illustrator)

3) GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/

(image-editting, similar to Adobe Photoshop)

4) Blender - http://www.blender.org/

(3D modeling, animation, rendering, similar to Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, etc )

5) Kerkythea - http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/

(rendering and photo-realistic effect, similar to VRay, Indigo) I will show the feature later

These 5 softwares are compatible with all platforms - Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

For the time being, I managed to learn up Google SketchUp and use it more frequently. I am currently venturing into Kerkythea and planning to learn Blender in near future.

So, Google SketchUp is a powerful tool that means a lot to me. Needless to say, I have been using this program for some times and I can confidently claim that I am at least an intermediate user now. There is actually a "full version" for this - SketchUp Pro, which features even more functions. But i think SketchUp under the flagship of Google is sufficient for non-industry users. The current SketchUp version 8 offers some add-on new features. Users can work closely with Google Earth and Building Maker.

I personally like SketchUp the most due to its simplicity. We can easily manipulate our designs/model by downloading additional third-party plugins. There are lots of powerful features from SketchUp. It is impossible for me to say it all out now. By the way, if any of my friends is interested to learn up this program from me, I am willing to tutor.

Below are some images I designed for my school club tasks. What I want to show is that the program not only creates models/buildings (like what I have been doing), I also use it to design posters, logo and other kinds of designs as well. I do not use other image-editing software.

Below is an image showing the model I created in SketchUp, afterwards I rendered it in Kerkythea. This was only my very first attempt using this program. I shall talk about this program in future when I am able to master it.

I really think these free open-source softwares are excellent and worth to share. For a layman and hobbyist like me, I don't have to purchase other costly commercial softwares.

A big credit to the open-source softwares' developers.

Simple Rendering

2011-10-12T02:51:00.003+08:00

My very first attempt using a new free open-source rendering program called, Kerkythea. It is a powerful model rendering program linked closely to SketchUp. I am still a beginner, and what I did is just a simple interior model above, resembling my room.

Still new to it, hope I can explore further this program and make my SketchUp models more interesting. =)

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A Man's Legacy

2011-10-07T17:55:00.000+08:00

To my belief, I spent almost a day to venture into computer/software/application world. The late Steve Jobs inspired me to look into what my MacBook Pro really look like, how is an Apple product really doing? After I explored most of the applications available in my Macbook and internet (having to understand more programming languages,development kits and other open-source design softwares), it finally comes to conclusion that I understand why my brother diverted his field to software engineering. Yes, I bet I feel the same with most of the software developers, I feel upset with the loss of great man. As a Macbook user since my first step in university, I never regret for the price I paid for the magnificent "machine". This is not the time to compare with other operating systems like long-established Microsoft and Linux. But I am assured that Apple have indeed changed and innovated this digital world. Minimalism, a concept that Apple upholds - making the products clean and user-friendly. I believe Apple has still one of the best user-interface products for the years to come.

I came across an article - Jobs's design legacy: more than just a pretty phone . One of my another inspirational figures, Norman Foster, the winner of architecture's Nobel prize commented about idea of "less is more". It gives me a clear insight into Minimalism applied in architecture, and also how building architecture should be "user-friendly" to people. Simplicity yet functionality is another phrase to describe.

Thank you, Jobs.

No idea why I could draw similarity between you and another great man, Albert Einstein. You are a pescetarian, who only consumes fish but no other meat; Einstein happened to practice vegetarian diet too. Both of you have strong foundation and belief in living philosophical ideas. Though death at comparatively young ages, you died in dignity. Full of my respect.

"Change your thought, change your idea, and you change the world."

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My Work 17

2011-09-14T00:47:00.001+08:00

After a long time doing home designs, now I am trying out different thing, i.e. commercial designs.

I am doing a design for a cafe or bistro, which I applied ancient architectural style into the main structure. It has been a long time I wanted to do this kind of design, as my hometown, Melaka inspires me a lot. If I am given a chance, I would love to design my own cafe in Melaka too, in future. =D

I spent some time completing the detailing of this design. For your info, all the windows, trees, fountain and tables are provided and found in the program's model search. Thanks and credit to them.

By the way, I've changed my poster style. =)

My Journey in Violin

2011-09-07T22:49:00.000+08:00

Believe it or not, I have played my violin for more than 10 years. Anyway, I had stopped having class for more than 4 years too. Till now, it is still impossible to proclaim myself as a violinist. It is ashamed that I still have limited skills even though I have played for so many years. There are a lot more to learn and practice in my violin journey. In fact, due to lack of proper training, I still face difficulty playing a nice piece.

But I do want to exclaim that I love violin very much =D! Passion drives me! There is one thing I would also like to make clear, I only dug out my pure passion and interest in violin recently (about 1 year ago). Yes. My feeling towards violin grows further when I bought a Yamaha electric violin this April. From now on, I feel that I only started playing violin for 1 year + (no longer 10 years). So, I hope this is just a beginning of my journey, I will continue play my violin no matter I am busy or not in the future.

I did mention in my previous posts about a pro violinist guy featured in Youtube. He is one of my inspiration to get me going to practice my violin. He plays wonderful electric violin. If there is any chance, I would love to share his talent to anyone. Below is a video from him. A cover of "I Gotta Feeling". I personally find this instrumental version much better than the original. LOL. You can find more of other videos from his Youtube channel.

Ahhh...this is the one. A video made for my NTU Malaysian Students' Association Merdeka Night 2011 event. Thanks to director Ang Zie Sen for giving me a chance to "present" my violin. His action in the later part of the video is also hilarious! LOL!! By the way, I did not practice well for my part due to time constraint, the notes were'nt clean and quite messed up. There were also some out-of-tune. Ah. Sorry. But I cherished the chance.

My Work 16

2011-09-03T15:31:00.001+08:00

Inspiration drawn to me when I realized it had been a long time I did'nt start up my Google SketchUp program. The shape of a pizza immediately came to my mind when I was thinking what to design for today? So, I design a house named The Pizzo. My design style tends to stick to some of my previous designs. You will notice that I love to do design like slanting to a side, e.g. slope. It is not that I have limited idea, but I find this kind of design rather suits my style and feeling.

Below are some more close-up shot.

Third Year in My Degree

2011-08-18T22:53:00.000+08:00

My third year in NTU seems rather challenging. Let me briefly talk about what will I be doing in this coming academic year.

Civil Engineering in third year is quite tough with numbers of core exam-based subjects. The second semester which starts at next year's January will be the Internship Attachment with my scholarship company. Since it is the main contractor in construction industry, I will be part of the project manager's team and expected to be overwhelmingly busy. This eventually leads to a decision making that I have just taken - pull out from running main committee for Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Club. It is a norm that most third year students should run for school's club main committee, firstly because you need to have more ECA points to get a hall for final year, and secondly you could gather more votes as you know more people around. Having said that, let me tell you why I have taken the least favorable decision that cost me a whole night to consider:

First, I feel like if I become any of the main committees, I am doing for the sake of ECA point. I am competing with others to get the "valuable" points to get my hall next year. I could not take it and no way I could erase that thinking. Personally, I am a kind of principled person. I only do things that achieve main objectives. School club shouldn't have ECA points in mind. For example in St. John Ambulance, even if I reside in Singapore, I still care for it because I know what I am doing. I don't like to do things that offers clear incentive for personal reasons. In St. John Ambulance, I do for the sake of others or everyone, as slogan implies "For the Service of Mankind". I am not offered with any points or monetary incentive.

Second, I will be very busy for this academic year. I feel that I can't offer my best as main committee in the CEE club. Apparently, my second semester of this academic year will be filled with IA workloads. For the first semester, I have more challenging plans to accomplish. Again, there are a lot of new things that come into my mind recently. I will talk about it later. Ok. Since I know that I can't do my best in the club, it is pointless for me to run for it.

However, having to pull out from running the main committee, I have no enough ECA points to get a hall next year. I have no more single room. Oh ya, let me also roughly talk about my new room for this year. I got a single room in one of the best halls. It is air-conditioned, clean, large, and near to a canteen which has my vegetarian food stall. Anyway, I surely don't have such a chance in next year. This is the main factor why I pondered so much about the decision not to run for main committee. Never mind. I stay off-campus next year.

So, I have made the tough decision. And now I should focus more on my studies and continue contributing in my St.John Ambulance and some other stuffs.

I am taking 7 subjects this semester, totaling 21 AUs. This semester is the toughest in the whole 4 years course. There are 2 totally new subjects which called Reinforced Concrete Design and Steel Design. The syllabus has just changed, from British Standard design code to Eurocode. It is the building design code/regulation, thus we should study the subjects well, as the knowledge will be used during IA and the actual job in future. Below are the list of subjects I am taking:

1. Structure 2
2. Reinforced Concrete Design
3. Steel Design
4. Foundation Engineering
5. Transportation Engineering
6. Environmental Engineering
7. Perennial Questions of Philosophy: East and West

All subjects are exam-based. I am taking one elective which is the Philosophy. If you know me well, I love Philosophy very much.

Also, I have decided to continue taking URECA program. I register for a project, titled "The Role of Tree Structure on Stability of Trees". I find it interesting that last year I was researching on rocks, but now I will be fully researching on trees. It is a collaborative project with National Park of Singapore. So, the project caught my appetite and I wish I could do better this time. Hope that I have time to do this research too.

I have another plan for my life - I wish to plan to start a small business with some friends, i.e. doing interior designs. I somehow wanted to be a freelance interior designer. I have still a lot to learn and may not succeed, but it is nothing wrong for me to have planning, right? After all, it is my hobby. =)

Alright, these are what I am going to do in this coming future. Good Luck!

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Holiday update

2011-08-10T23:00:00.000+08:00

It has been awhile I never update here. It is usual that I rarely write up my blog when I was in holiday.

I have gone through one of the most meaningful, most lively 1-month holiday in my life. =D

a) St. John Ambulance activities - organized examinations for 3 divisions/schools; organized our SK 19th Anniversary event. I did an amazing breakthrough, by performing dance on stage the first time in my life. Also, I performed a short solo electric violin. I am not satisfied with my performance, but it is fine. It was the first time, I could still have next time and have the chance to improve.

So, for 3 weeks of the 4-week holiday, I was totally involved in St. John. No vacation/trip for me. But I never regret doing that and promise will do the same in the next holidays if I am free.

b) Freshman Orientation Camp of NTU Malaysians' Student Association - Yup, the camp was just finished yesterday. It was awesome. There are more than 160 new juniors coming to NTU this year, which made the camp's atmosphere a great high. Photos will be posted in Facebook. =)

There was an extra breakthrough I did during this holiday. I was asked by my relative to design a room. Again, Google SketchUp helped me again, and I came up with this design. This is also my first time using SketchUp to do interior design. By the way, I did not learn anything about interior design, so I am afraid that the final product may not look as good as what I expect.

The room is rather small. The one in orange color on the right is a bed. Yes, the room is really small, but because my relative has lots of things to store, so I try to divide the rooms into few compartments - the left one is the storing room and dressing place; the centre portion is a walkway; the right part is the bedroom. It is very small, but I try to make it as simple as possible by diverting all the storage into left compartment, so she can sleep peacefully in the small room. =)

Holiday?

2011-07-16T00:00:00.001+08:00

Since I was to back to Melaka last two weeks, I have been busy doing stuffs related to St. John Ambulance. It should be able to be my part time job because I went out EVERYDAY for the activities. I am in charge of Basic First Aid examination for all divisions and secondary schools in the area.

My holiday has been packed with activities. No time for me to rest or go for vacation. But I am OK with it, as long as my holiday is unique and filled with meaningful voluntary works.

Taken while I was in ambulance during a funeral duty.

I guess, my blog gonna be active again when I am back to NTU early next month. Stay tuned =)

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My "official" holiday

2011-07-02T00:27:00.001+08:00

Just a brief update on where I have been these few days.

First, I finally completed my research report and left NTU for my official holiday.

But now, thing turns irony that I am actually having a vacation in Singapore (not other country). I am now staying in Marina Bay Sands, the new iconic Singapore landmark. Unlike studying, it is enjoyable to relax in Singapore.

Below are a few photos. The last one is my hotel room.

So, that is it. I am going back to Melaka tomorrow for about 1 month. Holiday life could be meaningful too.

My Work 15

2011-06-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

Came out with this design today when I was too bored to do my research report which is due end of this month. The building is connected with 3 main volumes by one mini bamboo garden and one small pond at the corners. The main volumes serve as the main living areas. Whereas, the volume at the centre serves as a gallery hall, which is also the main focus of this house.

Plan View

A view taken from inside the house.

Eventful Month

2011-06-14T00:13:00.002+08:00

Let me sort out what I have done since a month (30 days) ago:

1) I completed my Year 2 final examination in NTU.

2) I officially completed my second year in NTU, with a third prize (Gold Award) in Engineering and Innovation Design (EID) module. It is a compulsory module which allows students from each school to come out with creative and innovative solution on selected problem. My team comprising 7 people was to tackle our self-proposed problem, titled "Cooling with Groundwater". We were then required to exhibit and present our idea and voted the 3rd prize. Frankly, this module in my Civil and Environmental Engineering school is not that popular and demanding compared to other schools. Our voting was more loose and we got the prize because of public relation rather than the unconvincing idea we had proposed. By the way, this module gave us a fantastic experience. Below is the photo of our team posing with "prototype" and posters.

3) I completed the Building the Tower of Babylon competition, as mentioned in my previous post.

4) I became a student helper for NTU-SST Flagship Program. It is a combined program by my university and an independent secondary school from Singapore - School of Science and Technology (SST). I am still amazed by the totally new teaching syllabus set by the school. Every student from the school has to buy a Macbook. They have to learn to use applications like iMovie and Google SketchUp and learn to do presentation since their Secondary 1 at the age of 13. Also, they need to submit blog post as part of their homework. Their course curriculum structure is more in-depth with advanced focus in particular subjects. In this NTU-SST program, I assisted in their project to build water tower models. They were divided into groups and the group which manage to build the strongest water tower that sustains the greatest load wins. Surprisingly, a "dark horse" group which seemed to be losing won the competition. Unlike other groups' conventional water tower design, this group simply glued their balsa wood pieces (common material to make models) and managed to sustain a load of 40kg! See the picture below, the model is just 30cm high! Other groups however managed to sustain up to only about 25kg. The winner group apparently made the accident winning! I found out the reason behind the ability of their model to sustain highest load, that is they finished and applied all the glue they had. Hence, I can conclude that despite the high compressive strength of balsa wood, the deciding factor is however the joints between wood pieces. So, by applying lots of glues, this makes the joints stronger! Lesson learnt is that there are a lot of life-threathening structural failure resulted from joints failure. This is important in structural analysis.

5) I attended Singapore-Malaysia SJAM First Aid and Home Nursing Competition 2011 in Cheras, KL. Our ambulance adult team from Bandar Hilir Division, Area 3, State of Melaka obtained the highest glory in this competition by beating Singapore team! I was so delighted and proud that our team clinched the title and made history to our Area 3. Months ago, the team appeared champions in State level, and then in National Level, and finally inter-national level. I hope this glory could be morale-boosting to our Area 3 and continue achieving aims.

6) I resumed my URECA research program. At the same time, I was asked by my professor to assist in a more important research topic.

7) I decided to accept the scholarship offered by Straits Construction and I am going to sign the contract tomorrow. I appreciate that I managed to secure the scholarship even though I just went for only 2 interviews from 2 companies.

This month was so eventful and meaningful that I cherished every moment. Again, from here, I further believe and apply the principle - "living is about learning". My next targets are to complete my URECA tests and reports, and fully focus in my St. John Ambulance impending tasks. Hope that I could learn "anything" a lot more from these. =)

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Building the Tower of Babylon - NTU Team

2011-06-07T21:17:00.002+08:00

"Building the Tower of Babylon - What on Earth is Sustainability?", a competition organized by Global Alliance of Technological Universities and coordinated by ETH Zurich (an internationally top swiss sci-tech university). My university, NTU is one of the founding members of this alliance.

This is the official website, visit to know more:
http://www.towerofbabylon.ethz.ch/home.php

I took up the chance to participate this competition along with my hardcore course mates in the beginning of this year. Never did I regret taking part in this because the main theme of the competition caught my interest - build a structure using sustainability concept, at the same time putting in roles of philosophical or cultural ideas. This is what I cherish for as an future engineer and the Earth inhabitant - build something meaningful and aesthetic yet playing original role of an human to preserve the Earth environment.

There is a total of 5 teams from United States, Switzerland, India, China and Singapore. Each of the team has to be formed from different disciplines, e.g. civil engineering, environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, architecture, design and etc. This is also to materialize the concept of "culture" which allows different field of people come into networking as a team. Then, the team is given the chance to build a structure in a week, using the concepts and limiting the budget within 1000 U.S dollar. NTU team is one of them started the first phase early this year to discuss the idea. We consist of 17 members mainly from civil engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, material science engineering and information engineering & design. Unlike other teams which most of them consist of architects, our team has the most diverse members.

After few months of discussion, we finally decided to use wooden pallet as the main building material. We also collected lots of PET bottles to be used as decoration. We did face some problems concerning the structure's architectural design because none of us is from architecture. Even if I dub myself as having the most passion in architecture in the team, I could not come up with the best design. I however notice the flexibility and the outstanding repeating form of the wooden pallets as the building material. If you place the pallets side by side in the repeating nature, it naturally forms a soothing outlook to our eyes.

In our initial plan, we actually decided to build up 6 meter high structure using 3 levels of wooden pallets cubicles. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen reasons we dropped the idea and changed the design to 1 level only. Should i say, the reasons are - the lacking of our expertise in construction safety regulation and the poor analysis of stability in wooden pallets structure.

We started our construction phase immediately after semester examination. I was assigned as one of the "construction team" in-charge persons in our team. In following the tight schedule, we connected and prefabricated the wooden pallets to larger dimensions to become walls, panels, and roofs, and eventually moved to site to erect up the structure. The process took us about 4 days.

This actually gave me the first experience to be a civil engineer/project manager, which I am going to be in my internship and future jobs in my scholarship-bonded construction company afterwards.

Photograph taken during night. Credit to invited pro photographer, Kok Xian:

https://picasaweb.google.com/KokXian/CEECompetition#5614033379547233138

So, this is what we built. The first video below is an animation of sketch done by me, using Sketch Up. The second video is the final presentation video (part of the competition), watch it to know more about the rationale of our final design.

Yesterday was the closing ceremony for our team in the competition. NTU president Prof. Su Guaning and a few media reporters were invited to witness the structure.

This is the publication from news media:
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/sg/view/pressrelease/ntu-inter-disciplinary-student-team-builds-new-heights-for-sustainability-645338

The moment you read this, the structure is already dismantled. The structure was all disconnected and moved out of the site right after the closing ceremony. All the memories are only caught in cameras and video cameras.

Admittedly, the structure isn't excellent. The architectural design is down to par. If you witness the structure in daytime, it is nothing unique. By-passing pedestrians might have a look on it because they were surprised by the structure unusually sitting on the empty green field in front of Tan Chin Tuan Lecture Theatre. Some of them might give a second look by saying, "Uhh, what is this?" and then swiftly walked away. If they happened to see from far, they would say "Uhhh, is that an open house?". Worse is, some of them just walked past without single look.

Yes, basing on the outlook design, our team will definitely lose. The design may look much better in night time due to light glaring effect coming out from wooden pallets and PET bottles. But I finally figured out while dismantling the structure yesterday that architectural design is not that important. The main selling point of our whole structure is in fact the life-cycle management. I only figured this out when dismantling the structure because at the same day, the PET bottles were unexpectedly requested by an uncle and loaded to his lorry to be recycled. Also, the 100 pieces of wooden pallets could be re-sold and the bakau woods are going to be transported back to high school scout troops for their training purposes. In addition, the nuts and bolts used to connect the wooden pallets could be given to our school laboratory to be re-used. Most of the materials are recyclable and re-useable.

So, we ended our construction with no virtual waste in hands. The only thing we wasted was our time and our energy, But the word use of "waste" is definitely wrong in this case, our time and energy for this competition are proven worthy even if the announcement of result in August does not favor us. I believe most of our team members gained a lot of experience and out-of-textbook skills from this. I may have not contributed fully but I appreciate this kind of learning process. From here, I also explored more on leadership, either in good or bad ways. Learn the good ones, and take the bad ones as lesson. Actually, I have a lot to say or to give as feedback for the team, but I hope I don't have to say because all of us should be mature enough to have already taken in the teamwork concept. In the team of 17 members, none of us is perfect, but I believe we could do better if there is a next one.

Finally, congratulation to our team!

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My Work 14

2011-06-05T21:28:00.000+08:00

I quickly came up with this design as I spent my weekends alone in room.

I name it "The Keyhouse" because the design this time resembles a key/keys. The main attraction of this house is the glass hall at the left side of main volume. It consists of 2 levels of glass windows which allows inhabitants to have greenery scenes around them.

I hope I can put in more effort to create more aesthetically complex and practical designs in next works. As you can see, I ignored some parts of this design, so the parts do not look proper.

I made an animation for the design so that you can view the design from any angle.

U-turn

2011-06-04T01:05:00.000+08:00

Some kinds of things may be not controllable consciously or subconsciously by self. When I am about to make one of the hardest decisions, things always make an impending U-turn.

"I love my new electric violin so much. But yet, I always leave it in my room which people possible breaking in my room and stealing it away. I am aware of the danger but yet I don't take any measure. Yesterday, it was raining cat and dog, I was so freaking feared that the rainwater will flood my room and damage my violin. When I reached my room and found it in good condition, I was so relieved and stress-free. I care so much about it, but part of my actions seem to be careless towards it subconsciously. Why? "

Weeks past weeks, I thought the thing was over and I almost made the decision. But, a merely slight of hope pops out today. Is this again, an impending U-turn? Apparently, I have made so many U-turns in this matter, I remains doubtful that if I have been caught up in a circle - starts where it ends; ends where it starts.

This post seems to be an EMOtional one. Anyway I realize that if you see me to be emotional, I am not actually in the upset or sad mood. I am just putting myself in a state of wondering, trying to assess what may be right or wrong. Indirectly, I am trying to see how my psychological state works, trying to explore my thinking. Trust me, I am not sad at all, just being curious.

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Life as a future civil engineer

2011-05-31T00:12:00.000+08:00

I would like to share what I have been doing/thinking these few days. It is a bit disheartening to see most of my friends going back home or hometown and enjoying while I am still "entrapped" in my university.

I have been spending my days in an international building competition in which we as a team need to build a symbolic structure in campus with culture, inter-discipline and sustainability as the main themes. It is a very invaluable experience. I have acquired some skills required for my future undertaking as a civil engineer. I will update again with the competition experience after it is completed next week. Below are pictures of my personal initial proposal at the very beginning of the design phase.

Proposed by me when everyone in the team was needed to come out a rough idea of what to build.

This is my drawing for a design discussion. (the final design is however still in the building process, I will update again after the competition completes)

Last few week, I am delighted and appreciative to be offered a scholarship by a local construction company. I am however doubtful when accepting it due to fear of hardship I need to go through for the 2-years bonds in the construction company. Unlike consultant company, I need to be at building site most of the time and probably under the sun too in construction company. Furthermore, it is 5 and a half work day per week which means I definitely have less time to rest and socialize. The pros are, however, I could learn more knowledge in building process and the salary is higher than consultant company. So, after weighing the pros and the cons, YES, I would accept and do it. After all, it is just 2 years. It may be difficult but I could learn a lot of building skills which I need the most to fulfill my dream to build my dream homes in the future. =)

Before I call this a day, let me tell out briefly my future planning as an engineer...after the 2 years bonds in that company, I might try out a consultant firm in Singapore and work for a minimum of 1 year (to fulfill my 3-years tuition grant bonds). After that, I might move out of Singapore and probably also my hometown Malaysia and go to United States to look for my brother. In previous post, I had mentioned about my planning in U.S. I hope it goes as planned. In U.S., I might not be doing stuffs related to civil engineering, but I wish I could again gain different field of knowledge, for example, the business culture there. This should path my way to fulfill my one of main life objectives, i.e. to build dream homes to anyone.

My Work 13

2011-05-23T22:27:00.001+08:00

Here comes my another design. I don't know how to describe shape, but it looks like this from above. A "Y" ?

I name it "The Tri-Curve", because it has 3 main compartments, with all curving to a direction. Also, at the centre of the house, there is the main entrance and an attached courtyard which connects the 3 compartments. So, once you enter the house, you first see your interior garden.

My Work 12

2011-05-21T17:32:00.000+08:00

I did this design a few months ago. Finally, after finishing my final exam for my second year in NTU, I managed to finalize this design.

I name this house The GreenWave, because it is inspired by the "wave" shape. Also, I notice this design resembles the traditional Minangkabau architecture style.

The typical Minangkabau architecture.

Next, I would like to upload some of my old photos that I had taken in NTU.

This is my Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) school club's notice board. I designed it with my another friend.

Models of NTU...

What I have done?

2011-05-15T10:30:00.000+08:00

Let's stop this. This semester has been the most miserable one I have since "semester" style of education was introduced to me. But let me clarify, it is miserable in terms of academic result, that is it. I did badly in 3 out of 4 core modules in my second year second semester. And yet, the fourth one neither do I have any confidence. Confidence is losing away. Concept, theory and calculation that seem fairly easy in the first place turned up to be unimaginable when I realized I have got many mistakes. Alright, stop talking about examination. I hold a significant principle in my education life, i.e. examination is not everything. What matters the most is how much I have learnt and how much I am ready to make my first step into my prospect career. Undeniably, I apparently lost interest in math & theory-like modules. But I begin to venture to the real things - project, research & construction competition. Oh no, up to now, I haven't contributed much to all those non-examination or extra modules. What have I been doing all this while? Oh NO.

This actually makes me thinking on whether I have chosen the correct course?

However, the first paragraph is just a brief update to my current busy life. Recently, I have had lots of random thoughts related to what I wish to do in the future. I wish to share out them, but in a wordy way. Sorry for this.

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First, I want to be a politician. I have lots of positive ideas. I have a strong urge of bringing positive changes to my motherland, Malaysia. Something is not going right in Malaysia. Partiality, injustice, economic downturn, education failure and especially brain drain have hit the headline in Malaysia news. I can't say the news or reports are false or propaganda made by the Opposition. Clearly, as a normal citizen, I could feel the wrongs going on in my country! Despite the fact that I am studying in Singapore now and bonded 3 years here, I never care less on my dearest motherland. I made some minor research on overseas Malaysian students and I can firmly conclude that most of them wanted to come back to Malaysia and contribute after graduation. I am one of them. Please allow me to say this: We love Malaysia and Malaysia love us, but Malaysia government does not love us!

Second, I want to run a business. I want to build myself a boutique hotel. In the hotel, there are mini museum and restaurants which emphasizes on theme and concept. This hotel has to be in my hometown - Melaka. Applying local architectural style, the exterior of the hotel building has to be integrated with local material and shape using modern and sustainable techniques. Melaka is an old town but I notice the new buildings popping out recently are terrible in architecture. No theme, no local feel. I am not sure if it is more cost-saving to use "outdated" poor modern design or it is that there is no good architect in our locals?

Third, I want to leave here...subject to certain condition. It is so ironic that in the "first" part I was talking about politician and how I wanted to bring change to Malaysia, but now I say I want to leave. I ain't sure why. I want to go to United States if my brother is doing great there. I will first get a master degree related to my engineering field/architecture/urban planning in California university. If my brother could get some improved status in U.S, I wish I could also directly help him in his project or I simply start up as a part-timer in any kind of business field in U.S. Else, I do charity work that related to environmental-awareness. My interest in environmental-awareness grows even much when I watched the documentary movie called "Home", talking about our home -Earth.

There are numerous random thoughts that came into mind recently. Too many of them that I feel time is totally priceless. I am going to be 21 year-old, almost a quarter of my life. In considering the objectives of my life, i.e. bringing positive changes not only to motherland, but universally, the whole world of about 7 billions people.........

So, what I have done?

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Brief Update

2011-04-04T23:12:00.002+08:00

Most of my time has been occupied with works. So, you don't be surprised that I have long lost from my blog. I am entering final one month of second year of my NTU life. Undeniably, time is flying so fast that I feel I am getting older. Haha. =)

I have actually a lot of things to share here, but due to time ticking away, I don't feel the interest to share out already. Never mind. I will be active again in June after final exam.

Here is an initial sketch of my latest design. Still have a lot to add in. Anyway, this design is inspired by "sea waves" when I was taking boat, visiting an island in Singapore. The shape is rather complex, so I took some time to design it.

My Work 11

2011-02-20T16:22:00.000+08:00

Today is Sunday. I planned to study, but I can't wait...to design a house again!

I am quite busy nowadays. Strictly speaking, I have 4 school projects to complete this semester, including 1 competition. But surely enough, I will continue designing houses when I want to.

This time my design is inspired by "violin", so I call it "The Violine". I think most of you can't fully recognize the violin shape in this building. The glass on top of the building resembles the violin strings and the gap between 2 volumes forms the violin shape. =)

Actually, I want to dedicate this house to Zhen Yi! =D never mind if u dont like it.

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CNY 2011

2011-02-08T21:55:00.000+08:00

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, RABBIT YEAR! =D

Quite a meaningful but a short CNY holiday this time.

Because I have skipped lots of classes, I just uploaded here some photos without talking much. I NEED to be back on track with my piles of works and start catching up lessons already. =D

Nah..some edited photos here. I only upload "artistic" photos here, for casual photos, please go to my facebook ^^

A rabbit and a carrot. Already in my stomach lo. hehe.

A shot taken during a visit to my granduncle's house. Just realize He was the longest serving headmaster in Malaysia --- 57 years! Wow.

As usual, every 1st day of CNY, I will go to my mum's side Sim's family gathering. Crowded with my big family members. =D

That is all.

My Work 10

2011-01-27T13:52:00.000+08:00

This will be definitely be my last design till CNY. After CNY, I will spend my free time studying, seldom will I publish my work here already.

I call this building "The Overlap Studio", because volumes of building and lines are "overlapping" each other. Not an appropriate name though. Haha. But what matters is the concept that I would like to bring out - the interconnected volumes, enhanced by lines & borders to give the modern feel to the home. Glass has been important feature in modern homes. But I hope the glass can be made to swing open so to help in ventilation of the home. A proper building should allow the admission of natural light and also air. I did OK in former. But the latter, I am failed, because of the bad ventilation. That is why I said, I HOPE the glass can be swung open. Haha.

Some screenshots of a part in the interior.

Again, a nice rendering done by Indigo.

Positive stress

2011-01-25T21:57:00.000+08:00

I am feeling a bit stressed recently. But I am delighted that it is a positive stress. So, a little time for me to blog here to release the feeling. =)

Allow me to list down all my pending tasks :

Complete my research work's poster. ---- I met my professor and discussed the content. It is time that I realize research work doesn't suit my future career very much, but I somehow enjoy the experience. Or should I say if I am given a chance to do research work in a group, I will be more motivated and willing to investigate "nearly-impossible" works together. I am in half way completing the draft of the poster, but I am dissatisfied with the result. I know that even if my poster is bad, I don't have to worry as I am not graded, and I will still get the stipend/money. But, I feel uneasy of it, I can bear with unprofessional way of doing things if I am expected to have a certain standard. Ok. Conclusion is, I will try my best.
Catch up with lectures and syllabus. ---- Week 1 is already going to finish. I know CNY festive mood is inevitable, but I NEED to catch up. I skipped most lectures, as usual, because I find myself the best way of studying is I read myself in room (not lecture theater). So, shall I start reading now? Fear not. I guess my studying life will back to normal only after CNY. But I will still read some of them when I have the mood. =)
St. John Ambulance. ---- Lots of tasks here. Can't count with fingers if I really have the will to complete them. First, create a systematic and productive teaching syllabus for junior members in the Combined Divisions. Second, assist as much as possible in the weekly area activities by NCO. Third, I want to manage and update actively our Area's official website, so I need to learn website-building skills when I am free. I will be going for CNY highway duty this Sunday too.

Are these really stressing me off? Haha. I think no. I think they are good/positive stress that I find them motivating. I am a person who values "process" more than "result". Whether the "result" is good or bad (but won't harm/hurt others), as long as the "process" makes one thinks and learns, it is worth a go.

Before starting the task again, I would like share what courses I am going to take this new semester.

Computational Method - Comprised of Linear Algebra and Numerical Method.
Structure 1- Continued from Mechanics of Material last sem which I did badly. So, I vow to get better for this subject this sem.
Geotechnical Engineering - Continued from Soil Mechanics last sem which should be interesting.
Water Resource Engineering - Hydrology and Hydraulics, studies of water and water flow.
Lab 2B - Lab works. I am used to "lab works" already as I have been doing it for my research. lol.
Engineering Innovation and Design - Work in team to create a really create and innovative idea. Required to do a poster and model and present it in exhibition after final exam. I like this. =D
Technical Communication - Might need to do a full research report in group, whilst learning the correct method of writing report. This definitely helps me in doing my research work report too.
Fundamental of Business Law - I realize I like studying law because it is closely related to philosophy. So, this subject enables me to understand the basic of law system, especially in business matter.
Digital Lifestyle - An awkward but interesting and easy elective subject. Will be learning all kinds of modern electronic devices like computer, laptop, mobile phone, camera, MP3, game consoles, audio system, etc. This is a good chance for me to grab detailed insights into how all this works.

That is all. So, I am taking 22 AU this semester. But, I need to do total 3 full reports this semester, i.e. first, my research project report which definitely got to be more than thousands words; second, lab report ; third, technical communication report. Hope I will be fine in doing reports as I had been doing reports in my secretary works in St. John last time. =) no problem to me, probably.

OK. thanks for reading this lengthy, boring, wordy post.

My Work 9

2011-01-24T22:02:00.000+08:00

I did another design last week when I was bored. This isn't great because my idea wasn't well developed when I first put my hand on work. Thus, this design is my least favourite.

I call it - Green Hornet, because of the green roofs, & the letter "H" when see from top. Haha. Hopefully no copyright infringement due to the latest movie starred by Jay Chou.

Let me roughly describe this design. The main element, green roof, has been an active, popular, potential trend in latest architecture and environmental design. There are many architects and engineers starting to incorporate this concept, as this kind of roof proves eco-friendliness to certain extent. It helps a lot to maintain the room temperature under the roof. The construction is costly but beneficial and cheap in long term. If you are interested, see this GREEN ROOFS.

Some of the great designs using the concept - click here

The second one resides in my university. I suppose that building can be my university landmark, because that is the nicest building in NTU!

I render this photo using a powerful rendering software called Indigo. Due to trial verson, I managed to render part of it and screenshot it.

Alright. Today, my school restarts officially for my second year second semester! My first week is rather a busy one. So, I might seldom update my design work from now on.

Year 2 Sem 1 Result

2011-01-18T13:59:00.003+08:00

Normally, I won't reveal my result in public. This time, I did quite badly. But, I accept it.

Blame myself for being overconfident.

Anyhow, I am contented. Though I failed to reach my target set before the semester, I am grateful that I did learn a lot of new stuffs from this semester. To be exact, this semester is the 1st semester that marks the beginning of Civil Engineering course. In NTU, engineering 1st year is very general which I have to say it is not an appropriate system. So, this semester I was given a holistic intro to my course - Civil Engineering, and I did really enjoy the learning experience.

Now, I seriously realize Examination is not EVERYTHING. What matters the most is what one has learnt throughout the semester. For example, if one gets almost perfect score, say 5.0, but when he is asked "What you have learnt in this semester?", what answer would he give?

a) I learnt many interesting Civil Engineering stuffs which I can easily apply to my learning journey throughout my life.

b) I just learnt too many stuffs, related but not restricted to Civil Engineering. I learnt to enjoy my learning, my life...learnt to improve my attitude so that I can stand firmly in society now or in future.

c) I learnt.....err... ah... ermm...

He is purely outstanding and GENIUS in life if he managed to answer (a) or (b)...preferably (b).

For me, though my overall CGPA is 4.58 (including 1st year GPA), I am really contented. I am not genius as I mean it, but if one asks me that question, my answer is definitely (b).

Yes, I not only learnt the basic of Civil Engineering courses, I did gain a lot of knowledge outside the scope. A clear example is I continued to learn to be stronger in terms of mentality. I also started to adapt my life in school, in Singapore. Started to enjoy my life more than ever. Started to think more creatively.

I may have not mastered all the skills, but there is a Chinese idiom saying, "A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step." I can proudly acclaim that I have taken the very first important step. =)

All people will surely hate to take examination. But we all are disillusioned of the EXACT purpose/objective of examination. In university, I think we are old enough to start thinking about our future. We should no longer study what we are "told" to. We are no longer in primary or secondary schools.

"Examination" is mistakenly defined as : A process to "tell"/force students to study, in which the examination result shows how successful you are FORCED.

arh..this is bad, isn't it? We human don't like to be forced in doing things. We prefer a certain degree of freedom in whatever we are doing. But the definition of "Examination" is misleading us.

Well, so for me, I would like to redefine the "Examination", i.e.

A process to encourage or guide students to LEARN relevant subjects, to full extent but not necessary 100%, in which the examination result shows how much you are adept to the learning of that particular subjects only.

Agree? If agree, please "like" my this post (on top).

yes, this definition suits my feeling. So, this time my result isn't good, which proves I have to keep on improving my learning skills, in the sense that I must put in more my passion and effort into the subjects.

Learning is all about PASSION and EFFORT,

just like I have been saying Everything is about HAPPINESS and RESPONSIBILITY.

PASSION = HAPPINESS, if you love one particular course, you enjoy studying and learning it.

EFFORT = RESPONSIBILITY, you feel responsible to put in your energy and time to learn the course.

If both are equally done, I am SURE you will excel in the process of LEARNING!

Alright, let's start learning! not only my next sem's courses, but also anything I love. =D

Rock Research

2011-01-12T17:01:00.000+08:00

I sacrifice my one-month holiday to do research work. Many people have taken good chance to rest and relax by going for local or overseas vacation. I wish I could be one of them, travel out from Melaka or Singapore. Perhaps I have this chance in June or July later this year.

Nonetheless, my holiday would be a special one. I work and I earn. Remembering last time I worked as part-timer in a tuition centre and Pizza Hut, this time my work is more meaningful and relevant to my degree studies. Below are some photos I have taken. I spent lots of my time in laboratory.

This is a strength testing machine, called Uniaxial Compressive Strength test (UCS).

A view to the Construction Laboratory

Some apparatus in Consolidation Room

Grinding/polishing machine I have been using to polish my rock specimens. Due to the dust, this "guy" causes me smell like ROCK everyday =.= haha.

Taking measurement.

Some of my finished rock specimens. They are siltstone.

Ready to oven-dry it and test!

These are all my rock specimens, some of them are still in the process.
My professor wrote the name for me actually. Czi C. =D

Although I have been doing this research work, I still have less knowledge on rocks. I am not really given holistic exposure to the topic, mainly due to time constraint. Also, I do face a lot of problems now, for example, I could'nt make it to test all my rock specimens as I need to submit a research poster by end of this month. Hopefully, everything will be ok next few weeks. =)

Alright, I have however gained invaluable experience since then. I hope I can do some research about Structure or Sustainable design in my Final Year Project!

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My Favourite Websites

2011-01-10T21:28:00.002+08:00

I guess some of you know that I always visit dezeen.com. This is one of my favourite websites and I bookmarked it on my browser for long. It is a grade below Facebook, where I certainly click and open the webs when I sign in to internet.

What is dezeen about? It is an online architecture and design website. Very much to do with stuffs that I love. Below is some extract from the site :

Our mission is simple: to bring you a carefully edited selection of the best architecture, design and interiors projects from around the world before anyone else.

This site always features lots of fabulous designs, including my latest favourite here :

Ogaki House by Katsutoshi Sasaki + Associates

Courtesy of dezeen.com, Click Here to view the full story and photos.

Guess what? This design is in triangle shape too. My last Building designed in previous post shares some similarity in which I used a slope design. Trust me, I never copy idea from others. IN FACT, my idea came first before I got to this particular Japanese building design.

However, I admit that the architecture collections in Dezeen inspires me a lot of my design works.

I personally prefer Japanese design. Lots of them have strong and distinct concepts. The architects/designers apply sublime elements to their works which I can really feel it by viewing the plans and photos. Most of Japanese houses are small, but the way they utilize the space is extraordinary. The way they use the materials, the way they connect the volumes and environment are just awesome.

But, I am worried. Design is design. Design gives emphasis much on aesthetic. Sometimes, environmental issue will be ignored. As a future civil engineer, I am certainly worried. I have come across of green and sustainability design. I do hope in future, I can incorporated this sustainability concept to my new designs. Many of you don't know there is a famous green architect originated from our beloved own land Malaysia. His name is called Dr. Ken Yeang.

Go this to know more about him. Ken Yeang.

Yes. Please be more responsible to our own living space, our environment. Erecting a house is costly, not only in terms of economically, but also ecologically. Once a building is built, demolishing it is a kind of wasteful act. So, be design-wise, again, not only aesthetically, but also environmentally.

A new trend is here, architects nowadays are trying to apply Green design to their works already. Green = Beauty = Value. =)

Ok......
Some of my must-vist sites all day long (according to my browser's bookmarked list) :

- Facebook - facebook.com
My primary social network site.

- Yahoomail - yahoomail.com
My primary e-mail.

- Window Live - live.com
My secondary or university email.

- Malaysian Insider - themalaysianinsider.com
World and local news.

- Blogger - blogger.com

- Skyscrapercity Forum - skyscrapercity.com
Forum on buildings, skyscrapers, urban planning, etc.

- Dezeen - dezeen.com

- Youtube - youtube.com

- Rotten Tomatoes - rottentomatoes.com
Movies trusted review and critics.

- Mix FM - mix.fm
My first choice radio

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My Work 8

2011-01-06T20:04:00.002+08:00

Other than doing my research work, I allow myself some time to design building.

This time I have incorporated some interior design. I am still learning how to use the software to design the interior. It is not as good as I expected due to many limitations. However, I tried my best and would like to thank the free Google models developed by others. The models are the windows, stair, sofa, car and etc.

I do have problems in self-learning softwares. Google Sketch-up is supposedly used to design models and do stuffs like what AutoCad does. I have watched some tutorial videos, but I eventually gave up when I planned to do models myself. It is kinda difficult and troublesome.

So, I stick to my old plan - Use the readily items designed by others to design my own buildings.

For your info, I have designed total 17 buildings by myself. However, only 6 of them I made them to "poster", including the one in this post. I always admit that most of my buildings are impractical, and some of them are such a waste to land space. But, hey, I am a future civil engineer, NOT architect or interior designer. More importantly, I design for FUN and I never use my civil engineering knowledge such as Mechanics of Material or Structure to calculate whether the building could support under its own weight.

This time, I design a home building using letters "A" and "B". So I call it "The Alphabet@". The left portion of the building which is the letter "A" serves as car porch on ground floor and a open courtyard on second floor. This "A" connects to "B" at slightly different height on the right side. The top of volume "B" is aligned to an angle to allow the habitant to have different view on the outside. The rotated volume serves as the master bedroom.

So here it goes with the poster and some extra photos :

A view into the interior.

A sectional view to the interior.

I use an additional program called "Layout " comes along with Sketch-up, to design this "poster". I just do it for fun because this program is not mainly created for this reason.

OK. That is it. Thanks for viewing my design although it may not be excellent. Welcome any feedback. =)

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I am DONE

2011-01-04T16:26:00.009+08:00

I have DONE my Year 2 Semester 1 final exam.

>>> Neutral feeling I have. I don't want to comment anything until I get my official result.

I have DONE my St.John Ambulance N.C.O. Camp and Cadet Badge Anti-drug Abuse.

>>> There are nicely done. And I further established myself to St.John Ambulance and would have to take up more responsibility than ever. Relating to this, I am being promoted to Officer, with a rank of Acting Divisional Officer (ADO). I am tasked with handling Junior members, i.e. those primary school divisions. So, I do really hope I can make some positive changes.

I have DONE...I have DONE with parts of my holiday!

>>> which means I don't have holiday now. I am back to school again, to start my research work. Today is my first day back to meet professor and start doing lab work. I did'nt feel easy until my professor told me the research plan and I met a friendly senior in lab. At least, I don't feel totally lonely in school. =)

Somehow, I still feel very bored, so I take some photos with rocks. ROCKS!!~~~ ahahahaahaa

Lol. CRAZY.

BACK TO TOPIC!

OK. This January will be my buffer period, as to prepare for next semester too. So, no more slacking. Unproductive acts like watching lame movies and day-dreaming are forbidden.

I have some plans for myself. Other than the research work which I have to submit a poster by end of this month, I will also explore more on softwares like Google Sketchup, Garageband and etc. I wanna start getting a grasp on my next sem's courses, understand what am I going to learn.

Hope I can be DONE again with all this "tasks".

My New Phone

2010-12-15T17:37:00.011+08:00

There was a bit of excitement when I received my new mobile phone from my father. Feel grateful.

As usual, I will change my phone every 2 years. So it is almost time to bid farewell to my old Nokia E71 when I officially start to use my new Nokia N8 after my examination.

People would wonder why I opt for Nokia phone instead of other more favorable brands like iPhone or etc. My answer is I don't want to get into iPhone Fever. LOL. There are getting more people using iPhone, especially the latest model iPhone 4 because it it really worth. It is user-friendly with faster and stable operating system, and lots of amazing third-party applications.

Yes, I admit, Nokia N8 is not worth compared to iPhone 4. The only thing I can boast about my Nokia N8 is its 12 Megapixel of camera, and the capability of shooting HD video. I haven't really tried to photo/video shoot using it, so I can't make any conclusion about the boast I have made. Another point I can boast about Nokia phone is its durability. For a careless and "never-care-properly-about-thing-when-it-turns-old" like me, I am recommended to use Nokia. It is quite true, my old E71 looks more like a piece of crap now with lots of scratches and rusts as it had dropped to hard surfaces for uncountable times. This ultimately proves how durable is it as the E71 is still well-functioning. In fact, below are 2 photos taken by my old chunky E71! ( Can I be Nokia promoter? No...I don't want. I am afraid Nokia is in crisis now due to tough competition with other brands. )

This is my new phone, Nokia N8. The design isn't bad. About the colour, I have no comment because other colours are out of stock.

Just a random shot in my mum's garden. It is new strawberry plant.

Strawberry is one of my favourite fruit! =)

Next, I would like to update my buy-list.

An electric violin.
A cello.
A MIDI keyboard.

Not sure I will buy all the them due to budget problem. But these got to be my priority. I WISH I could have any of them. I would sacrifice my shopping for new year shirts for it. =)

My Work 7

2010-12-05T23:58:00.005+08:00

It has been long I was last inspired by building design. This time, in a tight schedule of preparing my exam, I come out an idea. Whenever a new idea strikes me and I have confidence to make it out, I will do it despite I am supposed to do other things, like studying.

I notice I love doing houses, mostly exterior design. After exam, I would challenge myself to do something interior.

I call this building The Extended X, because the main element or geometry of this building is the letter "X". Undeniably, my last design "The TV" inspired this.

I Love Architecture, this is why I feel satisfied and happy to sacrifice my time for this. =)

Let's Study!

2010-12-02T22:13:00.004+08:00

LOL...just for fun.

Obviously, if I could finish reading all this, no doubt I can get Dean List and GPA 5.00!

Since it is impossible, it is logically followed that I wont get either of them. =(

HAHAHA....never mind, they are just my targets, NOT a must.

ENJOY STUDYING =D

If anyone of you could notice, I actually get more excited when exam draws near.

LOL. I DUNNO WHY.

Sandwich Day =D

2010-12-02T18:29:00.004+08:00

Yes, I just broke a record - I have had breads/sandwiches for all my meals today, breakfast, lunch and dinner!

LOL...my breakfast was just some normal bakery breads, but then I took Subway as my lunch. I just realized there are 2 kinds of sandwiches for vegetarian and they taste YUMMY =).

So next, I didn't plan to take sandwich again for my dinner but my father came to meet me and bought for me. Wait, I haven't tried it, going to eat after this post. =)

Talking about food, nowadays I keep turning into state of hunger, especially late at night. Haha. The worse part is I start to miss my Melaka food, particularly my mum's home recipe and good part is, tomorrow I am going back home for 1-week study week! =)

OK, time to study. No no..time to work. I need to do my research programme URECA initial report and submit it by next week. It is kinda weird, right? Because everyone is busy preparing for exam, and yet URECA students still have to do the report. Hopefully it does't cause shortage to my time.

Before I end my post, I want to introduce a music, it is an OS from Final Fantasy. A cover done by a fantastic electric violinist! I love the music so much. And the way he plays stimulates me to get an electric violin asap!!! =D

My Birthday - Part 2 =D

2010-11-29T21:00:00.004+08:00

Haha...I make this post a part 2 for my birthday this year because I just received another birthday card from my best friend in Melaka. I feel excited to tell it out here. ^^My father brought it to me from Melaka.

I am thankful to my friend as I really did'nt expect you would send me a card. =) nah..now i stick it on the board in my room. But hey, my mother asked me why you never left down name of recipient on the letter cover? LOL...

THANKS AGAIN =)

I introduce another song which I find it so meaningful. 100 Years by Five for Fighting.

Happy Birthday to Myself =)

2010-11-29T13:10:00.003+08:00

My 20th birthday marks an end. I could'nt tell if this is my happiest birthday, because for me, everyday is my happy day. Lol. But too be frank, this time would be an unique one. =)

I received a lot of wishes in facebook, like everyone does during birthday. The practice of checking the "event" and "birthday" corner in Facebook has become a norm and a new means of getting notified. Main point is, no matter how you all wish me, I made an effort to read and appreciate your wish. THANK YOU. =D

In these few days, I again realize the importance and the meaning of GOOD/BEST friends. I received some special gifts from my best buddies in school. One of the unique gifts is a healthy drink - apple vinegar. haha. trust me, i never received this kind of present before! Thanks my friend a.k.a my "daughter". You remind me to stay healthy and fit all the time. =)

This song suddenly came to my mind. It reminds me of some great feeling few years ago. =)

Loving busy life!

2010-11-01T20:27:00.008+08:00

It has been a whole week that I sleep for about only 6 hours per day, for the consecutive 7 days. Yes, I have been so busy, with activities, studies, projects and etc.

To be frank, I am so tired now. But some "internal force" tells me to write out my feeling here. Lol...don't worry. I am not stressed.

Ironically, I like this kind of busy life. Everyday seems to be packed yet meaningful to me. It is again I appreciate the busy moments, reminding me of what I did last time in St. John Ambulance. I promise, after I finish my final exam this semester, I will do my best to serve for SJA again.

I would like to share a lot of things here. I will not list them all out. But first, below are some of my works of the URECA (Undergraduate Research Experience on CAmpus). Last Friday was the official day I started the research program. It is kind of challenging and exciting. To be honest, the nice experience and lucrative income attract me a lot.

Let me briefly introduce the program, I am invited to do the research for this academic year. My topic is Water Saturation Effect on the Strength of Rocks. ROCKS?! haha...I can't believe I actually started to like all this stuffs. Soils, rocks, geotechnical stuffs... ya. Civil engineering does a lot of these. At first, I wondered why should I care about all this as I am interested only in structural/building stuffs. It took me some time to realize that geotechnical stuffs are so much important, as it forms the foundation of the structure/buildings I wish to design in the future. =) A good and firm "foundation" is paramount, not only in built environment, but also in life. Guess u all get what I mean.

Below are the photos showing what I had done on last Friday (coring), and this morning (polishing)

It is a coring machine for making rock's core sample.

The rock's core sample I did myself.

The polising machine.

I like this! Haha... It is a safety warning notice attached on the machine.

Tomorrow I am going to the lab again to do next session. It is kinda of FUN though tiredness is inevitable. And...more importantly, I actually earned 10 dollar every hour I do all this. WOww.. It is estimated that I could earn up to maximum 400 dollar per month.

CALCULATING~~~

That means, almost RM1000 per month! This will be the highest salary I ever got by now.

$_$ hehe...

And next thing, I went to a scholarship talk just now. It is from the Building & Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA). I will try to apply the scholarship next January. Hopefully I can get one. IF...I am chosen, my monthly "salary "is going to go up again. Lol! The scholarship will be awarding about 800 dollar per month. If I were to add up to the URECA "salary", my monthly salary to going to hit 1200 dollar per month = RM2500+. OMG~ that is a lot!! Haha...can treat all of you (my blog reader) "makan" already. =)

"CHEECZI...stop dreaming la!" haha...

Aiya...wasted half an hour writing this post already. Gonna stop here. BYE~ haha. my post ends so abruptly.

2010-09-14T15:04:00.011+08:00

I am aware that I am still growing despite entering 20 years old. Growing in the sense that I start to learn to love this world even further. Much more than before. Does this imply that I am living a happy, euphoric moment? Of course it is! ^^

Psychologically, I can't describe my own feeling now. I feel a sudden boost, coming to my mentality. I feel less tired to initiate plans, more urge to implement new things. I feel everything is gonna be GOOD, gonna be awesome. So awesome that I wanted to proclaim to everyone I love this world!

After a long hiatus again, let me sort out what I am doing all this while now.

1. Starting my 2nd year in NTU. Already in 3rd week of 14 weeks of another semester.

- Basically, my life here is pretty lively and nice. Squatting in my close friends' room is nonetheless better than staying alone. But this won't last for long.

I am taking 22 AUs this semester, there are...

a) Engineering Probability and Statistic ( I personally don't like this much)

b) Mechanics Of Materials (like this! =D )

c) Soil Mechanics

d) Fluid Mechanics ( one of my favourite too...)

e) Lab 2A

f) Engineering Drawing and Measurement (waiting anxiously for AutoCad session. ^^)

g) Cyber Security

h) Economics of Manufacturing

2. Planning to help out in some clubs. Not forgetting my life-long service in St. John Ambulance back to my hometown.

- I am planning to be more active in NTU Malaysian Student Association. Sorry to say that I still think that Malaysian people are more friendly. Haha.

- I have also planned to help out in MENSA club (related to IQ, and games).

- Continue to serve in my Civil and Environmental Engineering school club as a subcommittee.

- Joined another costly club, known as Institute of Engineering and Technology. Membership fee per year is about 30+ dollar.

- Getting involved in String Ochestra. Might start my new journey in cello or continue enhancing my passion in violin, or both.

An IMPORTANT point to note, I join these clubs is for the sake of learning new things and also lend my helping hands. In another words, I join not for getting enough points. By the way, I am pretty sure I won't get on-campus residence living next year. Nothing bad about this as it seems like I can be more independent living off-campus. Haha. I don't deny too if anyone says that I am not capable of getting enough points. I confess that I don't have necessary attributes or fame to get enough points.

3. Last but not least, all this while, I have been "thinking". Get myself thinking using trial and error method.

- I don't think too much, but think in very positive manners. I realized a lot of things in relationship's matters. Undeniably, some of my close friends inspire me, with ideas that I previously didn't accustom to. I appreciate all this. THANK YOU.

- Think again..."Change your minds, and you change the world"! I love this quotation very much and I find it absolutely true. I am not sure how many people has successfully changed his/her own world to a better world. But I did it. I sincerely wish everyone can do the same too.

Before ending my post...ehm..not sure you will read my blog. But I will still wish you ALL THE BEST in your upcoming trial exam and actual exam.

My Work 6

2010-08-12T19:12:00.003+08:00

I have designed a house, looks like a TV set. This idea came to my mind suddenly when I was going to sleep yesterday. The image of this design flashed to my brain when I closed my eyes. =)

There is only one way to enter the building, that is through the staircases attached to the wall beside. A square building on top looks rather like an old TV set.

My Work 5

2010-08-09T20:43:00.006+08:00

A water pool at the center of a house is cozy. I have designed a house with a main building on right. The right building is mainly formed by glass, so that everyone in it can witness the beauty of garden and pool located at the center, all the time. I have placed a "gate" to the garden, formed with iconic geometry. If you could see properly in the photo below, there is a 45 degree slanted surface on the left building. This is where all the pool water comes from. The left building provides more privacy, with a bedroom on top. The more significant one is the pathway that connects the left and right buildings. Part of it is formed by glass, and in the middle, one can see water underneath his feet while walking to his bedroom from the right building's main hallway! =)

Top view.

A second "blueprint" of mine.

I love architecture! =) Designing of these can be one of my hobbies!

My Work 4

2010-07-20T11:56:00.005+08:00

After a long hiatus again, I have finally produced another piece of my building design.

This house can be part of my dream home because it contains a courtyard surrounded by transparent glass structures. Its center is a garden with water pool or fountain, attached to a living room. Above it, is a bedroom and another level up is a corridor. One can almost spend all his time having the scenery of the courtyard.

Actually the courtyard is considered back of the building. The main front door is on the other side. You can see in the following photo. The entrance is on a circular/curvy surface.

This is my first so-called "blueprint" of the design. Haha.

I am just sharing my design here. All of them are totally original, inspired by my own. I ain't professional, thus of course there are a lot of design flaws. I do welcome any comment. Thank you. =)

And lastly, I seldom update my own personal life or etc in blogger as I share my life in Facebook. So look me up at Facebook instead.

My Car...

2010-07-11T15:03:00.002+08:00

Anyone who read my facebook would know that something bad happened to my car. nah..below is the photos taken when in tyre workshop. My "little black horse" is now in another workshop for the body repair. I am missing him. haha. I really miss him. This car and I have got a bonded relationship. I started driving him when I started my A-levels in KL 2 years before. He really helped a lot, making sure I was safe all the time so that I could study and excel my A-levels. =) Since then, I think I have approximately driven on him for more than 15000 kilometers.

This minor accident was my first case but really thanks god that nobody is seriously injured. In fact, the collision between him and the motorcyclist was reduced tremendously in terms of force because my car absorbed the impulsive force effectively. Otherwise, the motorcyclist would have fallen to hard ground or drain and suffered serious injury. That was quite a high-speed crash.

Again, my positively thinking eases me out of this troublesome incident. Because, if I were to think negatively, I would blame myself being so unlucky and blah blah blah... Luckily, I never felt upset for this incident, I am instead grateful and cheerful that I can gain another experience in life. ^_^

When I was small... Part - 2

2010-06-25T10:41:00.002+08:00

Another set of my old photos. I think I was even smaller in some of these compared with Part 1. I apologize for losing out my chronology as I have no idea what age was I in these photos. Haha.

Some of the photos are very blurred because I cropped to focus on ME. Hehe!
And I personally think that the younger was I, the cuter was I. In another words, the older am I, the more I look horrible! Agree? hahaha.

This is the one with my brother and my favourite car when I was small. Does'nt it suit my red shirt very well? =)

My Work 3

2010-06-22T13:54:00.002+08:00

I have designed another structure. This time can be regarded as a design studio or museum.
I have added different sizes and orientation of windows for the front face of the building. The main building is extended across another 2 columns with a garden on top in between.

When I was small... Part - 1

2010-06-22T08:46:00.005+08:00

Grabbed all old photos from my old house yesterday. I realize that hard copy of photo has more feeling than digital one =) . I spent my whole morning today, selecting some of photos when I was really small, and then scanning it to my PC to be uploaded to here. Nah...I think these photos were taken in my early childhood, about 4 or 5 years old? I dunno..hehe..

One more thing to note, I realize the smiley face of mine when I was small was truly sincere, n_n ... looked so happy! Haha!

My Work 2

2010-05-31T12:24:00.002+08:00

My second personal work on building design. This time, I have designed a house with special feature.

As you can see in the pictures, a left big rectangular hole allows natural light and air to go in, thus forming a large section of courtyard.
The right top end of the house is a corridor, which I paint it in green to have the natural grass effect.

At last, this is a house I design personally that satisfies me. =)

Golden Melody Award + My Work

2010-05-25T09:53:00.014+08:00

I am not sure what I have done in this first 3 weeks of holiday. Another futile holiday-planning that I painstakingly mapped out before the holiday? No...no, my plan is still ongoing. =)

I would like to borrow this place to congratulate my favourite singers for getting nominations in the latest "21st Golden Melody Awards (金曲奖)". For the full list of nominations, visit this, click HERE.
I am especially excited to see Cheer Chen(陈绮贞) and Deserts Xuan(张悬)，both my most favourite singers get the nominations for Best Female Singer. Hahaha! I can laugh nonstop for this! I plead that 陈绮贞 could get the Best Female Singer or Best Chinese Album even though she is facing tough competitors. Otherwise, I will be even happier if 张悬 gets the Best Female Singer! Again, I can laugh repeatedly for this! Hahaha!

Somehow, I may look ridiculous for claiming them as my idols. I remember that, during my primary school period, teachers always condemn students for having singers or artists as idols, saying that this would cause many many negative effects. But is it the real case? I think it doesn't apply to everyone if we don't "love" the idols blindly. Because of 陈绮贞, I started to explore Chinese music world. Because of 张悬, I started to learn guitar. Because of them, I began to appreciate music. I appreciate singers' hardwork for writing excellent songs that fill my ears. I am not sure if I am born with musical talent(I am not), but what I am very sure is, everyone loves listening to music.
Congratulation to other singers nominated in this award too!

Finally, I would like to share my work from Google SketchUp again. I did this less than 5 minutes.

At the middle, there is a common courtyard. You can see this more clearly with the picture below.
This may not look like a house, but rather, a restaurant bar or pub.

I add up a logo on these pictures. It represents my works. Sorry for the scale of the logo because can't really read the words. By the way, I am just a beginner. =)
The words are :
art of Czi - appreciation for design

My Work 1

2010-05-14T23:16:00.004+08:00

Another simple design done by me using Google SketchUp.
I don't really like the design actually, I just wanted to learn and explore what can I do using this free software. Hope I can do more complex and superior design, soon.

Mother's day

2010-05-09T22:32:00.005+08:00

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers =) . Unlike past years, I have done something different this year for my mum. I have created a special gift to her. Though not nicely done, but it holds my heart. Hope today is the sweetest day to all family.

After today, I get myself into "troubles". Should I say, my holiday schedule this week (1st week of holiday) is heavily packed. This week is gonna be my busiest week. Cool, this could actually complete my main objective of this 4 months holiday, i.e. achieving a meaningful holiday!

First, I have to plan a trip, to an island. Got to follow up with friends, and implement the booking.

Second, I have to do a proposal regarding my task in a St.John Ambulance event. The bad thing is that the proposal is in Malay. I have just tried to do the introduction part. But...oh my god, I have lost big part of my memory on Malay language. I kept stuck in making sentences! Can't remember a lot of words.

Third, I have to do 2 videos, requested by my relative.

All this should be accomplished within this week.
Now I realize that, in fact, I was much free during normal school weeks.
Haha. Guess what. I start missing my schooling days? Oh gosh..that's impossible!
By the way, good luck to all new intake lower 6 students tomorrow. "I start my holiday, and you all start schooling". =P

A quarter of my degree life + Plan of Holiday

2010-05-06T22:46:00.006+08:00

Yea. A quarter of my life in NTU is apparently finished. It seems just like a split second, I have finished my 1st year degree studies. I can't deny absolutely that I look forward to the 2nd year. Maybe it is because I am going to be a senior (no longer freshman), and I hope I can socialize more in campus next semester.

I think it is time for me to plan what to do for this 4 months (almost) holiday. Ehm..

Find a part-time job?

Learn new skills like computer design, Photoshop, 3D Studio Max?

Go traveling around the globe? Ish..just a tiny part of Earth! Planning to Tioman Island, Penang, Thailand Phuket, Taiwan.

Stay at home, rot myself? Or study for the next semester? =.=

Learn + enhance my guitar, violin? Oh gosh, I wanna buy a cello!

What else...?

Hang out with friends everyday?

Oh ya. Gonna improve my badminton, up to an approvable standard, at least.

Movies everyday?

"Hey, LIM CHEE CZI, do you think 4 months is 4 years?! Time moves in accordance with light speed. How could you challenge with light by planning to do so much things in just...4 months?!"

Haha. I don't care. I am really going to turn this 4 months into such an "unforgettable", full-of-life moments.

Before proceeding to all this "ridiculous" plan, I wanna share some movies which I have watched recently. (Actually, I watched many movies during exam period. I was dying of boredom. Enjoying movies is solely my entertainment during the harsh period.)

Today, I went to watch Ip Man 2. It is undoubtedly amazing. I give a rating of 8 out of 10. I really appreciate the tradition of Chinese martial arts after watching this movie.

Last Saturday, I watched Malaysian local film "Ice Kacang Puppy love". It should be applauded as the movie has a lot of local taste and feeling. The most important element is that the director(Ah Niu) successfully stereotype and build up the whole movie with the local culture. The acting by the local celebrities (mainly singers) are astounding to me too as I didn't expect a singer can act well. So, I will give 8 out of 10.

Lastly, I watched a movie, titled "Shutter Island". If I have not mistaken, this movie doesn't receive much positive critic or praise from people. But, inversely, I like this movie very much. Its genre is psychology and mystery. Perhaps, I appreciate the psychology elements in the movie due to my elective taken in this semester. I have studied much more on introduction to psychology, which I think is sufficiently to a layman. A lot of knowledge can be applied in our daily life. That is why I find it unsurprising when some of my friends wanted to pursue this degree. Ok, back to this movie. I like it because it gives me a "feel" in the end of the story. I rarely get a surge of the "feel" after watching a movie. In fact, this movie is the only one that gives me this feeling after watching most recent movies. The movie mainly talks about an island, instituted/occupied by people who have psychological problem, great enough to cause trouble to society if they are left alone in town. I think I should'nt brief on the story line because it is twisting and confusing, in good sense. If I tell it out, the movie is meaningless already. I do really the twisty story. I kept on guessing what would happen next in the movie, and every time my guessing failed me. This is really exciting! Haha. =)

I seriously rate this movie 9.5/10. If you all have free time, I encourage you to watch this. But, I warn, you may fall asleep if this kind of movie is not your cup of tea.

First Creation

2010-04-21T09:40:00.002+08:00

I found out that a free software - Google SketchUp is great. It is simple to use, though with limited function.

I have created 2 simple models. They are just for fun. =)

The front part of a house. It is actually formed by using 4 squares, with the design similar in diagonal direction. The 2 squares surrounded by black outlines are actually windows, dented/curved inwards. Whereas the right top part is a wood design, protruding/raised outwards. The left part of the building subtends at an angle to the 4 squares, which is also a mixture of design from unnatural color (black/grey) and natural color (woods).

This is a skyscraper, looks like a battery cut into half. Haha.

I will do more models after my exam. =) bye.

Sensible Emotion

2010-04-20T00:04:00.002+08:00

My final exam starts this Thursday. I have gotten headache for these few days with no apparent reason. Seldom in my life I got headache. Ehm...maybe my head was all the while good? haha. I have a little arousal of blogging here because I can't sleep now. I had taken 3 naps today, ranged about 40 minutes to 1 hour+, but this isn't the reason I can't get to bed now. Instead, it is my roommate who made some noise for clearing out his boxes of thing - he is in last year of degree, going to move out soon. I do not possess anger easier, in fact my emotional breakdown recently due to the headache does not affect my daily life. Therefore, I am not complaining about my roommate. =)

I have just came across a term in psychology, Emotional Intelligence (EQ). I think I have a higher EQ level compared with IQ. EQ is valued on how a person can understand self or others' emotion and control self emotion with ease. To be straightforward, I don't like "emo" person, but I should understand them too. Nothing is wrong to be emotional, because there are something that we human can't control. Try not to hate people around you (you may "dislike" but not "hate").

This should eventually makes the world more peace, and happy.^^

I am waiting for end of my exam, on 5-May.

3 months plus of holiday afterwards are...inexplicable GOOD. =)

Untitled.

2010-03-15T17:31:00.004+08:00

Congratulation to SPM candidates of 2009 for getting desirable,satisfactory and excellent results. The A+ system looks maneuverable and effective.

Sorry that I might not update my blog very often. My second semester's final exam is coming soon. Every minute counts. Haha. Another reason is that I prefer using Facebook in terms of uploading photos and videos. For writing part(expressing my opinion/feeling), blogging is still the best, but I have no time for that.

daily Updates - A week after CNY

2010-02-22T18:06:00.003+08:00

I am yet to wish everyone here Happy Chinese New Year 2010 - tiger year!!

Happy CNY and keep healthy & HAPPY everyday ^_^!!

Haha. I went out everyday during the CNY holiday week. It was so fun that I miss my friends a lot. My camera worked hard this week, but please go to my (or my friends') facebook and look for the photos. =)

I won't forget this year's CNY. This is one of the best I have ever experienced.

I am now back to NTU Singapore. The festive mood is still engraved on me firmly. As the result, some bad news strike me this morning - I flunk my Psychology test. I did not study at all during the holiday. It it no surprise to me, as I knew it is inevitable. It was totally my fault for not studying. I am sorry, but........I do not easily give up! I hope my friends can be my momentum to keep me going! After all, I am an open-minded person. Hahaha. I will fall in love with people who are happy always and smile always. ^_^_^_^_^

Daily Updates - Photoshop-ing

2010-02-10T10:56:00.002+08:00

Waking up late this morning. I suddenly have a surge of mood for photo editing. To be frank, I rarely edit my photo; To be even more frank, I have no knowledge about photoshop. My laptop has a free photo-editing software -GIMP. I spend about 1 hour studying it and edit a photo:

Ehm... I dont really like it but I have to go for tutorial class now! Byebye!..haha

Daily Updates - One week to CNY

2010-02-07T11:22:00.002+08:00

Exactly one week more will be our big day! Haha. Surprisingly, I feel the atmosphere ,which I did not feel in last few years. And I guess the main reason is I am skipping classes enough to fill my mood! Haha. I use the time for shopping, relaxing...ehm..(I am not abandoning my studies just yet! aiming for 5.00? =.= )

--- Wish you all an earlier Happy CNY ~~~

I bought a bag. It is branded Y-3 under Adidas. Designed by famous Japanese designer, Yohji Yamamoto. I didnt know this guy beforehand. But his products are charming. No doubt, the price tags shock me also.

There is another bag packaging the bag I bought:
(So I thought buy 1 free 1...haha)

The logo.

And this, is the bag I bought. It is unisex actually. So when I dont need, my mum can use it too! =)

A random shot for my necklace clock. Haha. Like it!

Daily Updates - Festive mood

2010-01-31T17:56:00.004+08:00

Yo..happy birthday to two of my friends - Yu Xiang the Hippopotamus, and Poh Hau the Taller. Haha. We celebrated their 20th birthdays together at Dataran Pahlwan field (above the shopping centre). Hope they enjoyed, though the surprise I wanted to plan was'nt carried out well. =)

Tomorrow I am going back to Singapore again. But my mood this time is definitely 360 degree different! Hehe...I am going to have shopping! Skipping some classes, which is considered legitimate for me, I will go with my mum around Singapore to buy CNY's stuff. ^_^ I am sure many people are getting festive mood shortly.

Spending spree again? OMG to my workaholic father! hahaha...

Daily Updates - Western Philosophy

2010-01-26T22:18:00.003+08:00

Happy birthday to my elder brother in USA. =) Wish you are happy all the time. I can't give u anything, but again, a sincere wish from me should be enough. ^^

Today, I have gone into a deeper insight into Western philosophy. I mentioned before that I am taking a subject called Acting and Representation in Film and Theatre. It introduces much on how arts and literature (especially films and dramas) are seen from philosophical perspective. Greek's great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle are the key persons in this first few lectures of the course.

Their works in this field affects large portion of civilization since their century in around 400 B.C. I notice I have long been researching in Eastern philosophy, but Western one does generate affinity to me. In fact, their ideas include natural philosophy which is the sciences that we have been studying like Physics, Biology, etc. I personally think this field of studies should be respected too and be inserted to our secondary school's syllabus. It produces chance to think about how should we think and eventually how we treat this existence of world, of course, in good ways.

Daily Updates - Momentous Moment

2010-01-25T20:08:00.002+08:00

First, happy birthday to one of my best friends in NTU. I am not sure if he will come to my blog often to check out my this post. Haha. 20 years old already! I am really happy to get to know you in NTU. I wish you do well all the time in NTU, and sincerely wish you can live happily here. I vow to help you if you need my help.

Well, I started this post with an extraordinary form of myself because I never talked about one person directly in my blog. Haha. But, today should be an exception. I realize friendship's importance is uttermost in life. I don't have many many friends, but I do have a lot of best friends. The day I got to know a best friend, I wanna call it a "momentous moment" because it indeed changes my life tremendously. From everyone of them, I learn new thing. I have a strong principle in my life that I come to this Earth to learn new thing, to gain new experience.

Unfortunately, I notice many of my best friends are'nt happy recently due to lots of problems. I am disheartened with this. Sometimes, I can't help much. I am a human, with limited potential. I wanted to help all of them out of their gruesome problems, but what can I really do is just to wish them.

So, I wish you all once again here:

"Be positive-thinker. the world around you is still awesome as it is supposed to be."

"Be happy, as it leads to smooth path ahead you."

"Be contented, use "relativity" instead of comparison/competition."

Ends my post with this:

(^_^)

Daily Updates - Second Semester

2010-01-20T18:05:00.002+08:00

Already in the second semester of my first year in NTU life. I still have'nt really started my studying as yet. This is worrying as the second semester is not as simple as first semester. In another words, second semester is much harder than first semester. =P

I guess I have to clear abt 140 AU throughout the course of my 4 years studies here. AU? AU does'nt stand for "Atomic Unit", which I initially often figure out wrongly. Haha...AU here stands for "Academic Unit", am I right? =.= I am still not sure. Haha.

I have already cleared 19 AU in my first semester. Conventionally, one should clear 17 AU in second semester. But I am having 26 AU now. Hah...,that means I have 9 subjects in my hand. It is such a burden to my timetable! Therefore, I am considering to drop at least 1 subject to subdue the piled-up AU to 23 or less. For your info, I still can change my subjects until this Sunday. After that, my timetable will be finalized.

OK, let you have a see what subjects I am having this semester :

Core subjects

1. Physics 1 (continue from Physics 2 last semester. Don't ask me why "1" comes after "2".haha)

2. Mathematics 2 (yea, this time "2" comes after "1".)

3. Material Science

4. Life Science (Why don't just simply call this "Biology"?)

5. Civil Engineering Materials ( This is supposed to be taken next year. I take it now because it looks the same as Material Science)

6. Lab 1b

Electives

7. Acting and Representation in Theatre and Film (Long title+awkward subject. I take it because it looks simple and more importantly, it touches some part of philosophical aspects in terms of Art/Literature. )

8. Introduction to Psychology (I am not "psycho" for taking so much subjects. In fact, there are really some "psycho" who take more subjects than me..haha. I take this subject because...ehm..interesting? well. I am considering to drop it by this week because of clashing in timetable.)

9. Foundation in Business Law ( I wanted to have experience taking law subject. But too bad, none of my friends were able to add this subject. Drop?)

See it? 9 Subjects! Number 8 and 9 will most likely be dropped.

It should be alright for me to have 7 subjects.

Good luck to me this semester.

I wish my friends can pursue their studies in NTU starting this year intake which falls on this August. I am sure my life is liken to a rainbow once they come. Hahaha... =)

Daily Updates - Solar eclipse

2010-01-15T17:21:00.003+08:00

Yes, I saw it - Solar Eclipse. But it was just a partial one. I was driving and looking for the sun. While waiting for traffic light to turn green, I saw the sun being "eaten", through my tinted glass on my car. Haha. I am so excited but sorry, no photo to share.haha..
This is officially my first time experiencing the eclipse. ^_^

Tomorrow I am going to KL for shopping. =)

Oh ya, please pray hard for those involved in Haiti Earthquake.

Daily Updates - The end of my blog? Haha..

2010-01-11T20:37:00.003+08:00

What do you think when you see this photo?

See properly.

A wire suspending in the photo? Yes, you are right.

A rainbow arc crossing through? Yes, you are right too.

A building and some trees? Yes, yes.

A beautiful sky with some clouds? Yes...

Widen your eyes! Yes, you see some black spots. There are birds flocking together through the sky.

Haha. Nothing much in this photo actually. I am going to "restart" or "resuscitate" my blog! My blog is NOT going to be as cold as minus 30 degree, as experienced in north hemisphere of our Earth.

Today is my first day of Semester 2 in NTU. No class today (or should I say: I skipped my first lecture today.haha). Therefore, I went for shopping in Orchard. I have had spending-spree and I may call myself "spendthrift" today as I spent my father's money too much. I feel my heart pain but really grateful to my father. Thanks a lot! ^_^ I swear I will study well in NTU.

As a conclusion, it is'nt the end of my blog. Bravo...haha.. =)

Welcome 2010

2010-01-01T01:00:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year to anyone. ^_^

2010201020102010201020102010

Daily Updates - An outing to Vivo & Sentosa

2009-12-16T21:30:00.004+08:00

I have gone to Vivo City and Sentosa. Sentosa is not worthy to play anymore as everything is EXPENSIVE! By the way, we just spent 3 dollar for the entry pass and then really spent nothing else on that island! Haha..

Same concept as Taming Sari in Melaka. But this is much expensive.

Look properly! the Merlion is going to eat the crane! haha..

Are these peacocks?

Sentosa's beach.

Going back!

I bought a new wallet in Pull And Bear, Vivo city.

Nice or not? ^_^

Geminid Meteor Shower's coming up!

2009-12-11T10:32:00.003+08:00

I was disappointed of missing Leonid Meteor Shower last month due to bad weather though I had waited till 6am that day. It was however a happy waiting experience.

But there is a promising coming up meteor shower - Geminid Meteor Shower. In Malaysia, we can see with naked eyes on this Sunday night (13th Dec) in all direction of sky.

Bless me that I will not miss this again. =) good luck to you all too.

Daily Updates - Happy Ending

2009-12-03T19:38:00.004+08:00

Happy ending to my first semester life in NTU. My friends and I ended our last paper and immediately came up a plan to go for outing in Singapore. This is my first time to go shopping with friends in Singapore =). A great experience.

We went to Bugis and Orchard. Below is some random shots. For more photos, please check out in my facebook. Hehe.

Guess most exams are over soon. Looking forward to happy December. ^_^

A christmas tree and ION Orchard Mall

Inside the Christmas tree

A special small stage near walkway in Orchard

Random Shot - A card & A present

2009-12-01T21:18:00.005+08:00

Thanks for the card and the present.

Appreciation =)

Daily Updates - 19th Birthday

2009-11-28T21:32:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I turned into a 19 year-old boy. Boy? haha..sounds small.

Thanks for all wishes from everyone! I appreciate them a lot. =)

I had a great scrumptious Italian meal yesterday. Love Italian food so much! ^_^

Alright, for those who are having holiday, enjoy your holiday ya! Time is short. And (again )all the best to those who are still having exams.

My exam ends next wednesday. Guess I will go for shopping in Singapore major shopping complexes ALONE! Hehe...buy buy buy. No $ ?

Daily Updates - one-week break

2009-11-20T20:22:00.002+08:00

Phew...just finished my 2 days-3 exams' harsh period. 2 papers to go. Well, I will talk about my performance only after I get the result! ehm...wait. When will be the result out? Gosh..I am too focus in exams till I never thought of it! Haha.

So, I will be totally free this week in Melaka. What can I do probably is praying hard for my good friends who are to have STPM next week. Another thing is I should give me a deep ponderation on whether should I take Minor in Physics. I am really interested but the tighter schedule resulted from it is dreadful. Someone please gives me opinion on this. Haiz...I need to declare it to office by next 2 weeks if I decide to take.

~~~ All the best to all SPM,STPM candidates~~~

Daily Updates - Speech's content?

2009-10-29T16:12:00.002+08:00

Just share this video for fun. As my previous post tells, don't worry about the doomsday. It is just as interesting as palm-reading because it may not be true. Cheers! ^^

I am considering to choose this topic as my next week's Effective Communication Speech. It is a 3-minute individual speech compulsory for everyone. I am gonna speak in front of public around 20 people. I have to admit it is a big challenge to me as I seldom speak English in public.

Daily Updates - Dominant dormancy

2009-10-26T15:34:00.003+08:00

As my post title implies, dormancy may temporarily dominate my blog here. Main reason is the imminent exam month ( November - December). I will update lots of different interesting stuff after the exam.

All the best to my 1st semester exam and my friends who are going to sit for STPM as well as other exams. Good luck ^_^.

------happy studying------

End of the world?

2009-10-13T17:17:00.005+08:00

The end of the world is much closer than we expected?

Mayan calendar stops at year 2012. There is a huge belief in those doomsayers that the termination of Mayan calendar marks the end of our world. Indeed, there are numbers of evidence they can give out to support the saying. I start this post when I read about the news from Yahoo News - Next Apocalypse? Mayan Year 2012 Stirs Doomsayers. I believe this news being circulated is due to the upcoming movie titled "2012". But I wonder why don't the movie producer release this film at year 2012? (Is'nt it more interesting and attractive to moviegoers? Is it because the producer is afraid that the profit earned from this movie is not enough to be enjoyed within the year 2012? Let's have a clearer picture. Imagine you are sitting in a cinema watching the movie "2012", all of a sudden the whole cinema vibrates, a split second the movie screen collapses and everyone in front of you shouts. The people can't even make it to run helter-skelter as ceiling falls off and piles up on everyone. Another second later, you are under piles of heavy masses, unable to recall the movie "2012" you have just watched. "The end of the world" runs over your brain. If this is true, the movie no longer coincides with the calamity. Instead, the movie narrates the actual end of our world. Back to the movie producer, he might come across the same picture too and that is why he releases the film in year 2009. 3 years from now is sufficient for him to enjoy the ticket profits.

What is the meaning of end of the world? What world does it mean to human? Is it Earth? Disasters that destroy human's property and life are not exterminating the Earth. In fact, once all of us are died, Earth is still there. Earth is still orbiting around Sun as usual. Earth does'nt need human to survive. So, end of the world means end of human life? Similar to the one happened to Dinosaurs?

Why do we worry of it? Undeniably, human is scared of death. Hundreds of innocent people are just died of tsunami in Samoa Island, and of earthquake in Padang Indonesia, and of typhoon in Philippines. Everyday, news of people dying in road accidents, bombing, fires, etc can be heard. Are all these destined? Human will sure have to die one day. If we are not killed by natural disasters or human disasters, we will then be killed by diseases or old-age.

The only thing I would like to emphasize in this post is to make "end of the world" as merely as a human conversation topic with no intention to generate unnecessary worries to people, as if the "2012" movie producer just wanted to amuse us with the breathtaking, amusing movie. Do you think other life like animals or plants will worry about this? I am not condemning the doomsayers as in fact, they might just wanted to warn and urge human species to take care of Earth and ourselves.

Don't be a paranoid. Live yourself for everyone's welfare. Even IF the end-of-the-world disaster is to come and everyone has to die, why not just die together and no suffer incurs? Whole species of human leaves this place altogether, is'nt it acceptable? We should of course appreciate our lives, to live to at least do what we think we should do in this world. We die only if it is predestined.

Daily Updates - My depository of entertainment

2009-10-08T22:52:00.005+08:00

Miss my Melaka home's family hall and my guitar. Haha...I will be back tomorrow again.

Below are shots taken last week.

Yea, I really like the family hall of my Melaka home. I call it depository of entertainment because I used to play my PS2 (last time), PS3 (now! ^_^), listen to music, play my violin and guitar, and watch movie there. During long vacation, I could spend most of my time there.

BUT! yes...a big "but". It was also considered as my study room. I still remember vividly how did I prepare for my SPM last time. Almost every weekday, I could sit on the cozy carpet studying while having reference books arranged on my mobile mini tables. I doubt it is my study place now, because whenever I go back, a word of "relax" fills my brain. PS3 is sure my priority.

Daily Updates - Music amidst studies

2009-10-05T21:12:00.004+08:00

Yea. I am just back from 徐佳莹校园演唱会. I have been noticing her talent since her excellent performance in One Million Star. Her real person looks so much pretty.Haha..I have no comment for her singing because she is already very good.

I did'nt take any photo because it is not allowed due to copyright reason, i think. Haiz..

Though she is not my favourite singer, she is one of my favourite song-writers/composers.

I am sure everyone likes music. Some will say "Can't live without music". Yea, I am agree too. Our ears play a great role here. Music is a bizarrerie, and is indescribable. Music helps to relieve stress. And, what it helps me all the time is keeping me studying. I need music playing around my ears to be focus in studies - I mean self-study ( can't listen to music in class! Haha..). Music is also the one who forms the environment for that particular time I am listening to, which means when at a particular time I listen to someone's songs, I will get a extraordinary flashback at a time after that. The flashback is much stronger than I recall myself by thinking.

I can't deny musicians'/composers'/singers' contribution to us. They tells their story, we get their story, and we are temporarily released from our body to be intoxicated within the melody.

I am currently listening to Sodagreen (苏打绿)'s masterpieces. I applaud them. ^_^

I am trying to search for 范晓萱's self-composed songs too. Just like them so much.

Music has never undergone downturn. It is everlasting as long as our universe does'nt lose the hearing sense. Keep it up. By the way, I wanted to look for English song-writers and singers, any recommendation? Thanks.

Daily Updates - Recess week

2009-09-27T10:12:00.003+08:00

I am starting my one-week recess week, with an assignment and a formal report reside in my to-do list. One week is long relative to a day, but too short relative to a month! So, I have to hurry up my planned tasks. One of them will be driving to KL once again to Taylor's, to get my A levels result statement or certificate. It has been a long time I drive long distance. Within this week, I have to enhance my knowledge in principle of economics and computing, bolstering up my diversity of skills and thinking.

I got a ticket for 徐佳瑩 university concert in my school NTU. Though she is not my favourite singer, the concert is so near to my hostel and I admire her song-writing talents.

Random Shot - Lab again...

2009-09-22T21:47:00.002+08:00

This week's lab session is about moment of inertia of rigid body. Nothing much to do. But have to write a formal report comprising about 15 pages. I think I will do it during my recess week next week.

I think this is the first photo of my friends in NTU. Hehe. They are amiable!

Random Shot - Lecture & Lab

2009-09-16T15:05:00.005+08:00

Below is a set of photos showing a lecture and a lab session within my last few weeks.

I took the photos in lab because I had done the experiment earlier. It was about magnetism. The black box contains thick wires which is used to witness magnetic field direction and to measure the induced voltage.

Hopefully I can snap some photos around NTU and especially my hostel, and share them here. ^_^

Daily Updates - Trivial dilemma?

2009-09-16T12:01:00.006+08:00

I have gone into 6th week of 1st year engineering degree course. Unexpectedly, the current course subjects do not intrigue me much, which cast dilemma to me - a dilemma that relates to my future career. I notice engineering course is quite "dead", with no much flexibility that can fuse with my interests and talents. I personally make 2 options to myself :

First - Change to Physics and Applied Physics course. Reason is I am interested in modern physics which has nothing to do with my civil engineering. I prefer physics because it gives me a great insights into philosophy. Some people might wonder what is it to do with philosophy? For me, the answer is definitely a yes. YES, physics has a lot to do with philosophy. Once I discover how theories evolve, our human brains are entering into a new era. In fact, University of Oxford offers a degree, called Physics and Philosophy.

Second - Change to Architecture and Interior Design course. This sounds dubious. But yes, I love and appreciate arts, especially those related to buildings and interiors. Civil engineering does not do much on this! At first I thought AutoCAD has some design elements, but it is not enough! I have one of the biggest dream to design my very own home. I know I can't draw but I trust I have an extraordinary mindset to create awesome design. At least, I will be happy enough to enjoy my masterpiece, alone.

I do not simply proclaim the two options. There are reasons behind it. The main reason is these two particular fields are contained in my meditation. In other words, I will feel my "soul" whenever I come across them. An inexplicable and insurmountable feeling that is more than enough to neutralize my thinking. From this, I also create my own philosophy of thinking which is engraved deeply in myself recently. Though it is not always favorable, I am living happily right now, at least. ^^

Ironically, believe it or not, I have made myself a challenge. I vow to get at least 4.50 out of 5.00 grade for my first year studies here. Otherwise, I plan to implement my first or second option mentioned above. Hopefully, this ends my trivial dilemma. I call it trivial because I doubt I will get that high mark and then get my plan going. Haha... but trust me, I will try my best and let the time carries me. Any option will be alright. The most important, again I have to renumerate - Live happily. This is my ultimate goal, and of course, bring happiness to people around you too.

Daily Updates - Punctuality

2009-09-10T19:47:00.000+08:00

I just came back to my hostel. After taking my bath, I feel more refreshing.

Today was a tiring day! I have had lectures,tutorials,test, lab and meeting the whole day today. There was a maths test (assessment), and I did badly. I was perplexed that why I could make such a mistake. I knew how to do the question, but why I just placed my final answer as 0 ? Sweat..forget about it as I know I always did badly in tests when I first went to new schools. For example, my first monthly test in my secondary school was horrible. I got very low marks for my history and etc. While in my high school- Taylor's College, I did fairly bad in my first semester exam too! Same to university now? Ehm...I guess so but trust me, I will do better and perhaps, excellent in coming tests.

I went for my Civil and Environmental Engineering Club Sports' committee meeting just now. I am guilty for being late. I remember I told the main committee that I am a punctual man and this is why he chooses me as sub-committee. But, it was just the very first meeting and I was already late. This sounds ridiculous. However, I did inform him that I will be late as my class ends at 6.30pm and I have to take a long walk from lecture theater to the clubhouse. My conscience still tell me I should never repeat this again. Ya, I respect punctuality!

Alright, I am really tired now. Starting my class-in-laptop...Haha. It means I start studying using my laptop now as most of my lecture notes and ebooks are in my laptop.

Daily Updates - Reply to my last post

2009-09-08T00:27:00.000+08:00

Just minutes off my last post, I receive an awaiting good news. Great! Thanks...^^

Daily Updates - Awaiting...

2009-09-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

Entering 3rd week of my life here in NTU. It seems very fine, maybe because I can go back to my hometown every weekend. With this reason alone, I feel like giving up applying to other universities like Oxford, Cambridge and MIT. By the way, the chance of getting to these top-notch universities is fairly low. I am not a genius, as I have been reiterating this! I am also not well-rounded. What do I have that can really impress people? I do have confidence that if one knows me better, he or she will feel that I am special or unique. Whatever... Let time decides for me.
I found a great course offered in Oxford University,i.e Physics and Philosophy. It sounds so cool! I wish I have the ability to be at least qualified.

Yes, I am awaiting. I am waiting for the clock ticking. I don't see beaming light ahead me. Does it mean my future still lies in uncertainty? My answer is : Yes, and No.
(Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - one could not determine a particle's momentum and position simultaneously. To put it in normal words, you knows this better, you don't know that better.
Wave-particle duality - A matter can be a particle, and also a wave. A matter is a particle when necessary, and is a wave when necessary. This concept holds as long as you live in this world.)...ah..sorry,just ignore this paragraph!
My golden principle still proceed - live happily, in a right way. I don't have to be extraordinary to be special. I don't need to derive an equation that suggests and proves Theory Of Everything, to be outstanding. Being normal is akin to being special. It is just how do we all define "special".

Time does stop.
When it halts, I move on;
Time does reverse.
When it turns, I still.
Extraordinary, simply a word,
that yet to be defined.
Happiness, a word,
that colors my life.
Align with the nature.

Ah...ignore it too. I am just waiting for my bedtime! Haha. However, indeed, I am waiting for something.

Daily Updates - 2nd week

2009-08-31T21:46:00.000+08:00

Starting my first day of my second week in NTU. I have met a group of friends,who mostly are from Malaysia. ^^. My life here is getting better after their presence. The first week of class covered most basic stuffs but Principle of Economics and Computing are driving me crazy! Haha..The prime reason is that I never learnt these topics before. They could be rather easy for those who have come across the topics in their secondary schools or highschools. I am still scratching my head hard on topics like, Price Elasticity...Marginal utility... C-programming... I guess I will do badly in tests afterwards.

I just came back from Red Cross Recruitment Drive. I had gone through interviews for portfolio of Community Involvement, and First Aid. Hehe...At last, something is to do with my experience in St.John Ambulance. Days before, I had agreed to return to Area 3 St.John Ambulance for a small team named Information Unit. The unit leader should be my best friend,Damian but he is engulfed by tight schedule ahead of STPM trial and actual exams. Hence, I replace him temporarily. Somehow, I should claim myself remorseful because I have less confidence in doing the job caused by almost years of absence in Area 3 management. I need to look for a committee to join this team, but..who should be the one? I am in Singapore, it is difficult for me to look for the one. Haiz...

I am currently using Mac. This is also causing me headache as I can't run many programs and files. I need a Mac user expert!!!

Daily Updates - Start my U life!!

2009-08-24T23:27:00.000+08:00

I officially start my class today! As soon as I reached Singapore, I rushed to a lecture hall and attended a class!
It was tiring...after finishing class at 3pm, my father came and fetched me to ION orchard new shopping complex to buy my very first laptop! Haha... the model is Macbook Pro 15. I have broken my father's budget.Omg...I feel deeply hurt and guilty. This is my first post using this laptop.Hehe...
Wish I can adapt to this new environment quickly and eventually concentrate in my study!

Daily Updates - Preparing...

2009-08-19T19:29:00.004+08:00

I will be officially going to Singapore and preparing to start my university life tomorrow. Due to tight schedule arising from missing classes for last few weeks (the 1st semester had actually started last week), I need much time to settle down. I promise this blog won't go dead no matter how busy I am. haha...

Hey, I have'nt packed my luggage!! Bye...

Daily Updates - NTU, I am coming!

2009-08-16T16:07:00.003+08:00

I am going to start my degree course at NTU Singapore this thursday. After months of "restless" rest, I have to re-strive for my study! No more PS3,no more KTV..Am i serious?Haha.

I am busy with the admission's stuffs these few days. So, I stop here first. Hopefully, my course's timetable will not be too tight so I can frequently update my blog! ^_^

Daily Updates - Camera recovered!

2009-08-14T20:44:00.003+08:00

Yea! I am so happy because I have finally got my camera back. My pity camera had a small defect in its mechanical lens due to entering of sands which I guess the sands are from Redang Island! Haha...
Immediately, I started snapping photos. I found a great corner in my house to snap some objects ---------
Will they be too dark? Or it is my PC monitor's setting?

Daily Updates - Mock celebration?

2009-08-11T10:48:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a big day for global A levels students! Early in the morning, I logged on to the examination board's website and found 3 "Apples". Without hesitation, I had eaten all of them in a bite with satisfaction. ^_^ Congratulation to me (haha...congratulate myself) and also all of my PE9 classmates. Thank you for the dramatic and joyful 15 months I have had in Taylor's! Wish you all succeed in gaining entry to desirable university and complete the degree with ease.Haha. If I need any professional help from you in the future career, please don't reject me! Perhaps, I need financial support from successful businessman or simply philanthropist that anyone of you will then become. Who knows I will also need some chemists or chemical engineers to build ultimate explosive materials to launch a war with terrorists?

Haha...A good ending of A level marks a tough starting of undergraduate study. By the way, before starting my degree, I wanted to relax and enjoy. In conjuction with the result I got, I went for 5 hours KTV with my friends. It was somehow a celebration for myself( in my heart ), albeit expecting the result. At least, it did not go under my expectation, so I enjoyed myself singing yesterday. Talking about singing skill, I would first concede "defeat"; Talking about singing talent, I would rather cut my vein. In a nutshell, I can't sing. But I don't care, I am not professional singer. Even if my voice kills the speakers or my friends' eardrums, satisfaction is what i get! Haha...ok. I call this a mock celebration because pride comes only when I really excel in undergraduate or graduate study. ^_^

Daily Updates - Haze + H1N1 = catastrophe

2009-08-06T20:49:00.003+08:00

What happen to Melaka? Under attack by the lethal virus and further intruded by the noxious haze. Whatever happens, I will still stay in Melaka.Haha. Starting from tomorrow, Yok Bin secondary school is also closing. Ehm...the planned badminton game is then automatically cancelled. No more exercise for me this week. =( Fine...everyone drinks more H2O, eat more fruits and vegetables! Take care!

I just came back from KLIA, fetching my brother. I think he is now in aeroplane, destined to Los Angeles. At least 9 months more only he will be back. Take care my brother. Miss you. ^_^

Daily Updates - A deciding August

2009-08-03T20:06:00.002+08:00

Entering the month of August, the month that decides my whereabouts months or even years later. Hopefully, there is a good start in my university life,soon. I will accept too if I am not going to anywhere this month,implying I won't start my further study within this year. Either way, I accept open-mindedly.
August is a birthday's month. Many of my friends are having birthday this month. Wish them "Happy Birthday" first. ^_^

Frankly speaking, this month I will be going through many events. My life will indeed be affected by incoming days and weeks. The most obvious one is my brother is going back to Kansas, U.S.A. He will have his last year degree programme. All the best to my brother.

Ah...just noticed the month of July passed too quickly. So quick that I don't actually realize it was July. July precedes August, both having same amount of days-31 days.Zzz...what am i talking about? Haha. Wish everyone has an eventful and happy-go-lucky month!

Daily Updates - H1N1 threat

2009-07-31T23:15:00.002+08:00

My secondary school is to be closed for 1 week. Good news or bad news to the students? Haha. I think most students will be happy to have holiday but teachers will start to worry about their unfinished teachings. And I heard that more schools in Melaka are about to close too.Whatever...it no longer affects me. Hopefully, the virus outbreak's threat will diminish a.s.a.p, and let's pray that the virus does not mutate or revolve and become even stronger virus--ehm..remind me of the virus in Resident Evil. Haha..scary! Wish this will never happen in human lifetime!

Daring my health (I just recovered from illness), I went to Yok Bin secondary school and played badminton. Heard that this school is worse, having even more students infected with fever (not sure is H1N1). I played for 3 hours. It was tiring,but it did not stop me. I then went to play basketball at other place for few hours. While resting, my friends and I went to eat ABC at nearest Malay stall. Haha. I think it was my first time eating ABC and I just realised ABC stands for Air Batu Campur. Quite nice and chilling under the hot sun. ^_^

Daily Updates - Self-snapped

2009-07-30T16:10:00.002+08:00

First time posting my very own photo here. I am too boring today. I am slightly recovering from illness. ^_^

That is my mum's mobile phone actually, I use it to take photo because it has 8 megapixel camera! cool...for a mobile phone.
And that is my guitar. I am totally a beginner for such big instrument! hehe.

Daily Updates - Sickening...

2009-07-29T10:16:00.003+08:00

I am sicked. Having sore throat and flu. Argh...waste my time! I can't do anything...sleep again...zzz
I don't care is H1N1 or H2N2 or whatever, I want to back to normal a.s.ap!

Daily Updates - Trip to nowhere

2009-07-27T16:41:00.005+08:00

Just back from Genting Highland yesterday. It wasn't that fun because I did not play in the theme park. And I am not legal to enter casino. So, it was quite a boring trip. But, at least the weather freshened me up! Of course, meeting up with relatives from KL was warming in constrast to the cold weather there. ^_^

On Sunday,after descending from the highland, my family went to Mid Valley-Gardens for lunch.
Bad news is my car was caught by speed-trap on the way there. The police was hiding under a bridge, holding a camera, and my brother (driver) missed it! Driving on a restricted 80km/h road, my car was speeding up to 95km/h. Can't hide the fact my car was recorded instantly by the so-called efficient Malaysian policeman. Just within 100meters, there was a road block. I prayed in my heart that the police on the road block will make mistake and let my car goes.=) Somehow, my pray was not successful and my brother succumbed to the policeman's instruction and drove to roadside. Like us, there were many cars being caught also. Without hesitation, my brother wind down the window and the policeman came swiftly! He said we were speeding and asked for my brother's IC and license. At first, it was really obvious that he wanted to twist around his words and to ask for "bribe (haizz...rasuah)".But then the turning point came, my brother showed him his U.S.A driving license and the policeman was stunned. The policeman had no idea how to summon my brother and without much words, he let us go. I guess he didnt want to waste his precious time for another "business" as I saw many incoming cars being directed to roadside. Phew...It was indeed my brother's fault to speed on the highway. Even if my brother did not show the USA license and the policeman strictly want to summon us, I will rather choose RM300 rather than RM30. I am anti-corruption! We should not create the unhealthy trend!

Daily Updates - Busy and hazy day

2009-07-24T23:30:00.003+08:00

Went to MP/DP with friends just now. Having a lengthy moment at Seoul Garden Restaurant. Haha. I just watched them eat. Went for movie - Ice Age 3: Dawn of Dinosaur . Not bad...quite funny. Hehe. Actually, such movie should be encouraged compared with those movies containing violence and bad culture, as the former promotes friendship and family values. I did not watch the Ice Age 1 and 2, so I don't know if they are related. However, the part 3's story plot is quite nice and dramatic. Unfortunately, I still prefer sci-fi movies with awesome graphic and audio effects.Haha.
I give score 8/10 for Ice Age 3.

Oh yea. Going to Genting early in the morning tomorrow. Hope there has a fresh weather. I hate hazy day here! Intimidating my respiratory system!!
Byebye...