The problem is, this year I haven't been really active in blogging the events in my life, so I have no record of what happened! Gonna have to go with memory and Facebook searching.
1) Took Animal Behavior
I have almost no memory of any significant event that arose from school, apart from taking this really fun mod called Animal Behavior. My review of it can be found here, but it was just a really enjoyable module with a great lecturer, content, and got to hang out with the lovable Lois from church :)
 |
| Our project was on cats... you can ask me personally about what we did. |
2) Celebrated CNY with Szehong and friends.
One thing I enjoy doing is to hang out with my gf friends, or for her to hang out with mine. For CNY we had a gathering with her secondary school clique, and had a great time!
 |
| Dinner at Esplanade... we had deep fried panda with braised panda on the side. (ok no we didn't. I'm sorry. I love pandas. And they are an endangered species. So love your pandas). |
3) Shot a ridiculously good photoshoot using an amateur camera with Szehong
It was just a casual, fun idea, that we would go to Vivocity and take some mock wedding shots just for fun, with my average noob Samsung camera. So we basically set the camera on timer, quickly got into position, and posed. We never expected to take some pretty darn amazing shots:
4) Got the best internship in my life.
Haha ok this is partly because it was the ONLY internship in my life. And it wasn't just a good internship because of what I learnt on the job, or because of the opportunities it opened to me. Additionally, it was because it allowed me to meet a bunch of great, awesome and fun people.
We were lucky how most of us could hit it off really well and had great hours of crazed laughter and stomach-aching moments in that little room we spent together every weekday for 10 weeks.
I also got the youngest, most friendly supervisor among everyone in Yining, who was more than just a supervisor but also a friend to me.The tradeoff was that she had the least experience as well... but judging from how much time the other sups had for their interns, I think I got the best deal :P (she still owes me my testimonial though grr been chasing her for months)
5) Met my sbff, Eri Sasaki
This could be combined into the previous point, but I thought it deserved one in itself. I became close friends with one of my fellow interns. Through random conversations about our US SEPs, personal lives, and own relationships, this friendship blossomed way beyond my initial expectations. I call her my 'sbff' now, which stands for 'second bff' (first one is my bestie chris haha.)
 |
| Our first (and ONLY??) picture together, way before we became close friends. How come we don't have any pictures together! |
6) Wrote, directed, and filmed several video projects for some psychology modules
This was another series of events that came out of the blue. We had to come out with something creative for our presentations, and after some short brainstorming we decided to film a Modern Family video for my Positive Psychology module.
I volunteered to write the script, and we proceeded to have a great time filming it.
Our presentation was about Optimism, so I created two characters to contrast the optimistic vs pessimistic style, and wrote what I hoped to be a funny script for it. It turned out pretty well, and was rather well received by the class (judging from the laughter :D )
And the more important thing is that we had SUCH a hilarious great time filming it (watch till the end for bloopers). Laugh until damn tired.
Following this success, I got bold and volunteered to write the script for the presentation for another module, Addictive Behaviors. It turned out pretty damn well too. Our topic was exercise addiction, and our goal was to present what we wrote in our research paper to the class in an interesting, engaging manner. This was our final product:
Part 1 (Watch this)
Part 2 (You can skip this if you want, abit technical)
Part 3 - The Music Video (WATCH THIS)
I don't know which project I'm more proud of - the Mist Family was a longer, more funny script; but I am the lead character in Axel Size! hahaha. Oh well, I love both of them. And kudos to a supportive group (in both instances) who had faith in me and was willing to be directed by me haha.
 |
| Positive Psychology group, after our second presentation. Top picture we were in character (of our skit). |
 |
| Addictive Behaviors group, after the semester. |
I think what made the whole experience for these two videos better was that at some point, my entire group decided to just have fun and not care about grades too much. Not everyone would be willing to do that, but I'm glad I was surrounded by like-minded people. When you release the inhibition of trying to 'fulfil criteria' to get a better grade, you just have more creativity and more room to make a good video.
Plus, I really enjoyed seeing the whole process come to fruition, and discovered that I have a mini passion for making videos like these.
Oh, we did really well for both videos nonetheless (about an A/A+ grade for both).
7) Got a surprise 24th birthday celebration
This came at the end of a grueling day of filming for the Mist Family video, so its pleasantness was amplified ten times. Like omg ! The good things never end!
Must really thank sbff for planning this and going to buy the cake and all. So lucky to have her as a friend!
 |
| The Mist Family... minus Raymond. We went to eat dimsum after the long day of filming. |
8) Discovered Escape rooms!
This year, several companies sprung up in Singapore running escape room games! The basic premise is that you are locked in a room, and you have to solve a series of puzzles to unlock a series of locks to get out of the room.
I formed a little team with the PPSD interns, and we've been to several escape rooms now: Wonderfool Dream (our first, failed cos the first puzzle took too long) and Dimension Z (solved) at The Escape Artist, Chamber of Secrets at Xcape (solved. Really great puzzles here) (I also went to Catch me if you can @ Xcape with another group), and Painter's Murder at Freeing SG (solved. Didn't enjoy it much, was too easy)
I really enjoy solving the puzzles and marveling at the genius of the puzzles. Hope we can continue solving rooms!
9) Started playing Hearthstone
My gaming 'addictions' change from season to season, and my recent obsession is Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a CCG made by Blizzard.
I've joined two events so far, one being a promotional event which I got lucky and won $120, and another being a constructed tournament which I finished in 4th place, something quite admirable considering others have spent over $50 on the game while I've spent $0 to buy any cards.
 |
| My loot from Bugis+ promotional event. |
The community is starting to grow too (the game is still in closed beta!), so hopefully this game becomes bigger than it currently is, and I can say I was one of the pioneers in Singapore LOL.
10) Went to Tokyo, Japan.
I'm not sure whether it's memory bias, but somehow the exciting and great events seem to all happen during the second half of this year. What happened in the first half of the year??
Anyway, this great year culminated with an overseas vacation to Tokyo with the gf and friends!
 |
| Szehong and I wearing yukatas at an indoor onsen place at Odaiba |
We went to Odaiba, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Harajuku, Disneyland+Sea, and Ueno. It was a great sampling of Japanese culture, something that I've only heard being squealed and proclaimed from the gf all this while (haha) before going for this trip.
 |
| Disneysea was so damn beautiful I can cry |
I really like the 'expected' service standard of being extremely chirpy and polite from all the service staff in Japan! (even the 7-11 people) The technology of toilets was pretty cool too (why doesn't Singapore implement buttwashers?! best invention ever).
And the food! The food!!
Ok, for more food pictures, go to this link, I blogged about it previously.
It was such a nice break from reality - I recall on the last day of Japan my brain had already began planning for what I had to do back in Singapore. Vacations are nice.
And you know what they say about couples who survive a vacation together.... ;)
---
And that's a wrap! I ended this year as I did every year for the past 3 years, watching the fireworks with the girlfriend :) It's just a nice exclamation point to the end of the year.
May 2014 be an even more fun-filled, blessed year! Happy new year everyone!
My first meal in Japan. We arrived pretty late at our hotel, and we were really hungry so we just went downstairs to a nearby 7-11 and bought something. This wasn't cheap - 500 yen is like 6$. It was really salty, didn't really enjoy it.[/caption]
I don't know what possessed me to buy cup (or bowl) noodles for breakfast, but I did. It was way too much to finish, and way too salty. bleah.[/caption]
My sushi set and first proper meal in Japan. It was at the Onsen place in Odaiba. Was decent, though priced at around 1000 yen with no side dishes or anything.[/caption]
Our meal at Disneyland for 600 yen. Was the most filling and cheapest thing available. Quite pathetic. Taste was ok. I enjoyed the meals at Anaheim's Disneyland better.[/caption]
Pretty good Tonkatsu Curry rice from Coco Curry House. 900 yen[/caption]
Another sad meal at Disneyland. Well, this was Disneysea. Naan with chicken curry lol. The naan was abit too thick, the curry was good though. 700 yen I think. Can't really remember.[/caption]
Next series of photos were from this random sushi place we chanced upon - we were walking around in Shibuya and just decided to enter this shop as Sushi was 105yen apiece. Turned out to be a pretty cool place, with automated ordering (You enter your order in the computer screen in front of you, then after a few minutes it zips out on a conveyor belt and stops in front of you)[/caption]
Tempura with sesame seed. Really good.[/caption]
Prawn with mayo[/caption]
Spicy Salmon[/caption]
One of the best chawanmushi I've had (200 yen). It had shredded prawn, shrimps, oyster. So much liao![/caption]
Takopachi octopus balls[/caption]
A random ramen place in Ameyoko Street in Harajuku. Tempura was super deep fried bleah too much batter. Udon was alright. Total cost about 800-900 yen.[/caption]
a really filling meal in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. Think was about 900-1000 yen. Ramen with gyoza and rice balls. Couldn't finish my noodles, was way too much. I liked this place as it was a really small restaurant with counter seats and you can look into the kitchen and see them cook. Oh, like many other places, you place your order via a vending machine outside, and you enter with a small chit of paper.[/caption]
Ichiran Ramen from Ueno Station (near the toilet in the shopping mall). Easily the best ramen I had the whole trip!
Waffles from a maid 'cafe' in Akihabara. It was more of a pub/bar than a cafe, and the maids were not pretty or cute. Boo. But there was no entry fee (the first cafe we went to had a 1000 yen entry fee) The waffles sucked. Soft and chewy and very eggy.[/caption]
Lemon lime Shoju (ordered by mistake, I didn't know it was an alcoholic drink), mushrooms, some eel, from a robatayaki place in Shimbashi called Musashi.
Pity this photo was blurred, it was my favourite dish at the robatayaki place. beans rolled with salmon. Really juicy and yummy thing.[/caption]
Crepe from Harajuku on the last day to satisfy the gf's craving. Was so cold and we were eating ice cream ><[/caption]
Special Tonkatsu rice from Narita Airport, for about 1600 yen. Was really good though. I think the special just meant an additional egg and abit more sauce and pork cutlet. They also had free flow salad (that green shredded thing you see in the front). Very very filling. Good stuff![/caption]
Buffet breakfast at Kikusui Hotel! It was our final night hotel near Narita, as our flight was in the morning. Good food! Had 2-3 helpings.[/caption]
Our meal on the flight back. Yummeh~[/caption]
Raw patties[/caption]
Those are apple slices, sliced to look like chips. Healthier choice! When serving, you can add some BBQ/chilli sauce to the bun, and a slice of cheese too if you like. I added cheese and a slice of apple in the bun for fun. Tasted really good.[/caption]
Two dear American friends[/caption]
Wax Museum![/caption]
Ripley's Believe it or Not![/caption]
Chinatown![/caption]
The hotel lobby. See the previous link for the facebook album for some room photos[/caption]
West Yellowstone Airport ! I found it weird because there was no customs or anything once you landed you have arrived. I guess it's because this is kinda like a town and there's nothing of great value here that they need to prevent people from bringing stuff in[/caption]
2 medium (12") pizzas for the 4 of us... and we couldn't finish it because the girls couldn't eat their share lol[/caption]