Thursday, August 27, 2009

What's this....

This happens for both IE and Firefox. No autosave, can't preview, and the option to upload photos has even disappeared... This shall be my excuse for not blogging these few days. Haha.

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Let's not talk about how facebook looks like in my browsers...

Friday, August 14, 2009

Next Episode

These few days Blogspot (as well as Facebook) is getting haywired for some reason. Whatever it is, I'm now typing on a very haywired-looking page, with a totally white background and links placed around the page haphazardly. As long as I can still publish my entry properly, this should be fine for the time being.

The third semester has started for me, after a long hiatus of more than three months. The girls who used to study at the same level as me in my JC days, are either approaching their final year, or have already graduated. Now that it's back to study, I realised I've forgotten most of the stuff taught last semester (even grammar points in my Japanese module). I wonder why we tend to forget academic knowledge so easily. When many things are crammed into our brain within a short period of time, they become very volatile too. It's like stuffing a cabinet with clothes hurriedly, which might end up pouring out the next time we open the cabinet door. We are not given enough time to fold the clothes nicely and pack them in a orderly, stable manner. Similiarly in one short semester, we don't have the luxury of time to consolidate, arrange and reinforce the facts we've learnt. Everything is so liquid that they flow out naturally. Unlike in primary and secondary school, newly acquired knowledge now seems to be stored in a RAM-like memory space in our brain. Quick to enter, quick to erase too.

After experiencing being overloaded last semester, I opted to return to the normal rate this semester. Or rather, most of my desired modules either are not offered, or clash with my cores. As much as I wish to utilise the costly school fees to the maximum, I think I should take care of my own welfare too haha. As a result my timetable this semester looks more 'loose' than the previous, though I've no more free days anymore. =(

One complain is, there are far too much gaps in between lessons. It can be quite gruelling to roam and linger around the campus while waiting for the next class. My efficiency lowers when I do work at the school bench, due to numerous distractions from the surroundings, as well as the stiff seats. Last semester I enjoyed the thrill of having to rush from one faculty to another. This time I will just stroll leisurely at my own pace, with no worries of being late or whatsoever. No more bus and traffic rantings from me anymore.

My timetable could be better planned, if not for the fierce competition for the few obvious 'perfect-fitting' slots. As I balloted a tutorial slot as the first choice, I sacrificed the tutorial timing for the other module. When one slot fails, the others fail too...sigh. But then I'm thankful for being able to split my tutorial balloting between two iterations. Ranking everything at the same time would be a nightmare!

The bunch of morning lectures shall make me train up to become an early bird (or an early worm).

A pity I probably won't visit Arts that much anymore. It serves as a good change in atomsphere from the stifling Engin air.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

It's a small small world!

Even before its air, the trailers of the show had already captured my attention. These days there are hardly any 8-9pm variety shows that can spark my interest, but this one did. So I decided to set aside some time and watch the first episode. Indeed, it wasn't disappointing at all! In fact, it gets better every episode, as more elements are introduced along the way.

This is the show I'm talk about. Have you watched it?



Just in case you're clueless on what this show is about, it's a talk and discussion show with guests from various nationalities who can speak mandarin. The guests are asked to share their experiences in Singapore, and the how different the cultures in their native countries are. Along with the host Mark Lee, this show is really funny and can make you burst out laughing throughout.

There are also game segments where guests can interact with each other, and of course create exclusive jokes that native mandarin speakers will never think about. =p Some games include:

- Interpret the word. Guests are to guess the meanings of Singlish words unique to Singapore, such as 'Kelong', 'Swaku', 'Lelong', etc. You should hear their varying responses!

- Pass the message. Guests will pass a short phrase or two by mouth from one person to another. Notice how distorted the phrase will become as it is passed down!

- Link the word. This should be familiar. For example, ‘儿子’的‘子‘啊,‘子孙’的‘孙’啊,‘孙女’的‘女’啊...

The episodes are uploaded in youtube too! Here is one sample episode:



You can continue to watch the other parts in youtube...

As you can see, most jokes stem from their inaccurate pronunciation. The HK 'student' Ah De is deemed to be the worst student as his pronunciation can be really off sometimes (or rather, many many times). As a result he is often teased and picked on by Mark Lee during the show. Haha. I think the best 'student' should be Amit from Israel.

Apparently this show is quite successful due to its good viewership. However it is ending its run soon. No extension like Paris and Milan. Hopefully there will be more of this kind of show next time. =)