One Month On

I had meant to update my progress in here at least once a week, but that seems to have fallen to the wayside.

I'm still recording things in my notebook.  Add my new smartphone where I can update Twitter and Facebook on the go, and I've pretty much got all my bases when it comes to updating things.  Everything except updating my blog.  For the last 3 weeks I've been drawing crosses next to that item.

Well, no more. I am updating my blog today with the progress for March.

For meeting up with people, I think I'm doing pretty well!  I'm not at the level where I can coordinate a gathering with my classmates, but I'm pretty good at meeting up one on one.  So far I've met up with Aine, my cubemates, SQ and S-sempai (a new nickname, I hope I remember it).  I even had fun with my Groupies (J, L and T) at a karaoke session.  And I got J and T addicted to the Draw Something app - we've been drawing at each other.

So I'm feeling pretty connected.  I even arranged for a meeting with a friend I rarely meet one on one.  We'll see if it pans out.

As for exercise, it's been on and off.  I might be restricting the more vigorous exercises to the weekends, since I keep getting a chill after exercising and then bathing late.  I have almost mastered my line dance though!

On the writing front, it's been pretty interesting.  I started this thing called Meme Month, where I get my prompts from, well, memes.  It's been a rather challenging but satisfying writing exercise.

I've also cut my hair.  Not sure how I feel about it yet, but because I have to submit a "recent photograph" for my passport, it'll be stuck with me for 5 years.  Should be an interesting experience, nevertheless!

A new beginning with nostalgia

I've been keeping a journal of good habits I'm trying to follow for two years now.

I didn't realise it had been that long until I checked my other blogs - the last post I made about this change was back in Dec 2010. Since then, I haven't talked about it online. I didn't see the need to, for I developed these habits in conjunction with some very personal goals, and I don't think that I've reached some of these yet. I still need more time before I can really say that I've achieved these goals.

The smaller things however I think are getting there. One of the things was to keep in touch with my close friends. I think I've managed to do that. I also exercise more than I used to, and even though my weight hasn't dropped I apparently grew a bit.

I'm also going for further studies at the end of the year. I have a fuller post that I want to write on that, about reconciling uprooting myself with travelling, but the point is that I managed to complete a huge undertaking by using my daily journal of habits. This journal keeping has been really useful.

So far, I've been making weekly lists that I make score marks again, and leave a lot of space for writing reflections. This week, however, I have changed my journal style to focus more on daily lists than reflections. I did that because I wanted to get back into the habit of studying, and I knew that if I didn't put in on a daily list, I might not be able to make myself study.

When written on a daily basis however, it really seems like there is a lot to do! Every day I fill up a page, and sometimes I don't think I do as much as I used to do. Or maybe it seems that way because I can see exactly what I do on a page, whereas previously I tracked by how many times I changed to a new item? I don't know. I do know that I am doing a great variety of items, because I can see what I have been repeating from day to day. Even writing this blog post was a specific item I put in to break up the monotony. =)

So this is a note to tell myself that I have changed my written journal style on this day. It's not been a week yet so I can't tell how successful the new list has been, but I can safely say that I studied every day for the last 3 days. Will I be able to met my other goals? Only time can tell! Maybe I will do more reflections in this blog to tell you about it.

Unexpected ramble

Unexpectedly, I found myself without any lunch appointments today after a whirlwind of going out with other people, so I decided to check out the cheap necklaces at this shop I passed by.  That didn't take too long, so I decided to walk near Amoy.  I usually walk along Amoy Street all the way to Raffles Place, but today since I didn't actually have to get to Raffles Place I took a detour.

All this while, whenever I look for places to go for lunch, the website always recommended Ann Siang Hill/Street.  Given that I had never seen the place (my team rarely ventures to Amoy for lunch) I assumed that it was very far away.

It wasn't actually, it was two streets away from Amoy!  And we are talking Singapore streets here, which aren't very far apart.  I had myself a very nice ramble along the hill (really just a raised bump on the land).  I think this blog post summarises it better than I did, though I didn't go into any of the shops: Tinyisland's post on exploring Ann Siang Hill and Club Street.

Along the way I saw:
1) Office workers from the hidden offices in the shophouses
2) Couples
3) Two Westerners in exercise gear flipping a giant tire
4) Random Chinese guys just walking around
5) Huge joss sticks at the temple on the corner. I don't know what the occasion is though.

All in all, a rather fun use of my lunchtime.

Ramen and Bubble Tea

I realise that I write less on this blog, but I'd like to say that what I write is truer to myself.  I was reading this post that I wrote on Flight or roots that I found especially apt now.  But I'm not going to write about it right now when I'm at work and full and happy.

On the last two points, I am full and happy because of very good food.  Here's where I try to make up names for the people in my team! It usually doesn't go well because even if I use initials, many people share the same initials, and if I use nicknames, I forget who I'm referring to.  But anyway, all you need to know is that I went out with L, XY, T and her boyfriend to eat at Ramen Champion.

Ramen Champion is a very curious thing.  It's a challenge where this company brought in about 6 different ramen chains from Japan for Singaporeans to try, and the one who wins gets to set up a chain in Singapore with the company that arranged the challenge.

I've been to the Ramen Champion shop about 4 times already, all with friends so I think I've just about covered the entire Ramen Champion!  At last check, I only have 2 stores left to try - Gantetsu (Hokkaido corn ramen) and Tai-sho-ken (the other dipping store ramen).  I will never try Bario personally - too much beansprouts.

Of the other 3, I dislike Menya Iroha.  It takes like soya sauce to me.  But I LOVE the other two.  I'm a soup person - give me thick and strong broth, and I'm all over it.  For Tetsu, the broth is exceptionally thick because it's meant for dipping, and I love it that way!  Ikkousha has good balance of a soup base that's just nice and pork that is chewy and nice.

The Ramen Champion is in this shopping centre called iluma.  It's undergoing some renovation now, which makes it even quieter than it was originally, but that's not a bad idea when you have a big group of friends who just want to sit somewhere and talk.

Another good point about iluma is that it has BUBBLE TEA.  I'm a big fan of bubble tea.  My favourite to date is Gong Cha's Earl Grey Milk Tea with Pearls, but Koi's Oolong Milk Tea with Grass Jelly can give that drink a run for its money.  And that's what I had today.

So all in all, I'm pretty happy and I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day at work. =D

Down to the river today

Today I took the earliest train, and ended up at Raffles Place about 15 minutes earlier.  I decided to use the extra time to walk along the riverside.

It's a good thing I did, for I saw a canoe race!  They came from the helix bridge and paddled along the perimeter of the encatchment area past Marina Bay Sands and where I was standing.  After that, they went past Fullerton Bay Hotel, the Merlion, Esplanade and ended at the floating platform.  I even saw them hauling their canoes onto the platform.

All in all, a nice start to the morn.

The Impact of Apple

Let me make 3 things clear before I start:

1) This is a tribute to Steve Jobs

2) Apple has had a profound impact on my life.

3) I've never owned a single Apple product.

Before you get angry and start yelling at me for point 3, let me tell you my story.


My first interaction with Apple was in my teens. Computers were new at that point - I didn't even own a computer and the only thing I was previously allowed to do on my old school's PCs was to play word games. Somehow or other, I ended up in the computer multimedia design club.

By some serendipity, the multimedia design club teacher was an Apple fan with sufficient clout. So the first thing that greeted me when I joined the multimedia design club was an entire computer lab of Apple computers.

Since then, Apple has been synonymous with creativity in my head. When I think Apple, I recall large clunky monitors with superior graphics. I think about the funny mouse with no right click that I did magic with. I think about the drop down menus at the top of the window that let me flip through my creations.

In the same year I joined the multimedia design club, the iMac was introduced. The teacher-in-charge wasted no time in adding some iMacs in the shades of the rainbow to her flock of Apple computers. Even though the iMac was a creative leap from its predecessors, it did the same things in a pretty package. But packaging apparently did the trick - everyone was raving about the computers, and even people who didn't need to use the lab would sneak in to use the computer. I'm not sure whether they sneaked back out after discovering that it didn't run on Windows, but it was still amusing to see.

Out of all the iMacs, I had a personal favourite - the purple iMac. I would always come early to make sure that I was able to sit at that iMac. I remember the position of that iMac clearly, because it was just in front of the door - as I sat there, I would be able to watch people going in and out of the lab. This has shaped me too; I still love people watching.

With a personal iMac at school, you could say I got lazy as an Apple fan. When my parents expressed doubts about getting a Mac, I gave in. Besides, they already found Windows difficult - what more a Mac?  After resisting that initial push, it's been easier to resist the others.

But I was already an Apple fan and I watched the roll out of all their products eagerly, even if I could only dream about getting them. But I was sure that there were creative things still being done on all those Macs out there, even if I wasn't the one doing those creative things. I resigned myself to living vicariously through others.


Being in Singapore, I had the unique opportunity of seeing the initial Zen ads. Zen music players had been created by a Singaporean company, Creative, and released before Apple's attempts. Creative tried to play up the music experience. Their ad, however, was either too "creative" or not enough - it featured a panda flying through the clouds, and then, at the end of the ad it had a forgettable slogan, but the general gist was something like "Panda Symphony (the name of the music), brought to you by Creative Zen."

"I don't want to be a panda, thanks," I told my friends, and that was the end of that ad.

Then Apple came along, and they had a product with the same basic idea - music experience. But Apple, being the creative force they were, knew exactly how to push that experience.

I still remember the ad on my tv - watching the sillouhettes with white ear buds dancing against backdrops of bright colours. I said to my friends, "I don't know what that is, but I want it."

And then I saw that the company was Apple, and it all seemed so obvious to me. Of course it was Apple - they were the company that signified creativity after all. Of course they could come up with an innovative product like the iPod. It didn't matter that I loved my Sony Walkman, the Apple product was still amazing.

I nearly broke down and bought an iPod, but Sony let me have a huge discount on their version of an "mp3 player", so I relented and stayed with Sony. But it didn't stop me from eyeing the iPods with a whole bunch of envy. If I were someone who cared about what people thought of me, I would have bought an iPod already. After all, it was what everyone wanted.


And then came the iPhone. And the iPad

I'm still thinking on those. I haven't bought an iPhone or an iPad yet because in all my years of following Apple from the sidelines, I know what it is Apple does. Apple gives you things you want until you need them. It creates: products; desires; trends. I'm not quite ready to want something so badly.

Still, looking back on how Apple has impacted my life, I have to say this: Thank you, Steve Jobs and Apple, for bringing me products I never imagined. Thank you, Steve and Apple, for giving me the option to indulge my wants. Thank you for being a part of my growing up process.


RIP, Steve Jobs. You will be missed.

A Curious Thing I've Noted

For some reason, lately I've developed quite an aversion to forms.  Whenever I fill them, a couple of worries surface in my mind:

1) What if I fill it wrongly?

2) These boxes aren't enough to describe who I am

3) Why can't I select multiple options?

And so on and so forth.

With all these concerns you would think free form fields would make me happier, but no!  Instead, I worry "what if I write something that the person who gets the form won't understand?"