Highlights of 2013!

When a new year beckons, it is time to give thanks for the year that has passed.

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!

I'm really grateful for meeting and getting to know Eri, as she's just such a pleasant, positive person to be around. Being the cynical, pessimistic person I am, my interactions with her remind me constantly that it's ok to be idealistic and just... dream and be happy sometimes.  Plus the gf seems to like her, so that's great. Hope we can be long term family friends and our kids can be playmates or something ^^


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.

Also, I somehow got two more birthday celebrations after this (albeit a combined one with October babies), once with SNL and the other with PALs. I think it's the most number of 'surprise' birthday celebrations in a year I've ever had in my life.

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.

I'm pretty much engrossed with strategizing and writing guides for this game at the moment, and really enjoying this. Wonder how long this will last heh.

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.... ;)

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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!

3

This post is over 2 weeks late, but hey, better late then never right?

On 6th of November (actual date is 5th, but I was busy), I celebrated my third year anniversary with my girlfriend by going for a simple dinner date at Fosters Steakhouse @ Holland Village. The food was really good albeit a little pricey. But it was alright. Good food with good company. My idea of a perfect date (romantic or platonic friends both).



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't believe it's been three years since we've been together. That's a pretty long time if I think about it - three years ago, I was a helpless freshman in university. Now I am a junior (as they call it in America) who can't wait to graduate.

I'm grateful for this lovely girl who somehow sees something in me - this ordinary, unambitious, common person. I'm not the best of boyfriends - I don't send my gf home, I don't really spend a lot of time with her (well we see each other every weekend for church, but we don't have regular dates, unlike some other couples I know), and when I do go out with her, I'm not really good at staying out late.

I get tired and some sort of mental clock kicks in and I'll start wanting to go home just to rest, to unwind, to relax. That's assuming my social energy hasn't depleted before that.

I feel bad sometimes for giving her the subtle 'Hmm, what time is it' to hint at my fatigue, when I can see it in her eyes sometimes that she just wants that much more time with me. How do humans do it? This whole hanging out with people you love for long periods thing. I think I'm an alien. I'm like that for everyone - my bestie, my sbff, my close friends - our meetings don't really last long while I hear of other people talking for hours or something.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess what I try to do is to give more quality over quantity. I try to be there 100% when I'm out with my girl; I've had the habit of keeping my phone out of sight just to send the indirect signal that says 'hey, I don't care about the rest of the world now, I'm here with you now and that's what my mind's on'. I hope that compensates for my inability to stay out for long.

Or maybe the trick is to start dates earlier. If I get tired only at night, maybe if dates started from afternoons and extended to the night, then they would be longer right? Ok, I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this. Just letting thoughts flow. Mindfulness right. Nonjudgmental processing of ongoing thoughts.

For the recent year, I haven't had much doubt when thinking about our future together. And more recently, with a church friend getting married, we've been talking about weddings and stuff as if it was a natural progression, when in fact if you look at the journey we've taken it was quite a rocky one. But I guess it's through this rocky journey that we understand each other better, and iron out things that would be worse to get into after marriage.

I thank God for blessing us these past 3 years, for giving both of us the maturity and patience to bear with each other's shortcomings. For working through all the disagreements we've had. Relationships are tough. But they also bring great joy. The line 'if it makes you happy, it makes me happy too' is all too cheesy, but I've come to realize it is 100% true when it comes to her. When I see her smile and laugh, real, genuine smiles and laughs, my heart smiles.

It's not been easy, but it's never supposed to be easy. Every new year as a couple brings more challenges, fresh perspectives, new insights. Here's to 3 more (and hopefully many more) challenging yet fulfilling years to come.



 

 

 

PCAMFS

I thought it'll be really sweet and nice to cook a meal for SH before I leave, despite my limited culinary abilities. I mean, it's the effort that counts right? This would be my anniversary + christmas present for her ! (I won't be around)

But I don't have any idea what to get for in terms of a monetary gift, so I decided to invest the time and effort (and a bit of money) to prepare a special meal for her!!

Light Show at Marina Bay Sands

How often have you been left in awe at something beautiful?

It could be a person, an act, a breathtaking view of nature, an exquisite work of art, or a sophisticated piece of technology.

I was left in awe last Saturday, on a date with my girlfriend to Marina Bay Sands. Let's begin from the top.

Szehong's 21st Birthday

Today was my girlfriend's 21st birthday, and I know some of you have been asking me what on earth I have been planning, so I'm going to blog about it briefly here!

At the stroke of midnight, I posted this on her Facebook wall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPOHS5vjW1E&feature=youtu.be

(Just a 1 minute video of me wishing her happy birthday and singing her happy birthday, with blooper reel. WARNING: My singing is bad)

So that was just the birthday wish.

And as for the main concept of the present, it was to give her an experience, not just a single present. Thus I termed it 'The Princess Treatment' (yes yes, cliche, corny, blabla), in which I would be pampering her with presents and stuff.

The experience basically consisted of 21 unique presents, such as chocolate, her favourite food, her favourite drink, a necklace, a song (specially written for her), lunch and dinner, etc. I compiled everything into a little booklet and used it as an 'itinerary guide' for today, revealing to her one at a time what the present was. Throughout the booklet was little messages I had to tell her, accompanied with photos of us which I printed.