As it turns out, the A*STAR institution hosts an annual internal symposium around this time of the year, in which all IBN staff gather to present their past year’s work to each other. But because I was forced to prematurely wrap up my attachment from two years ago to accommodate my impending conscription, I missed 2011′s symposium. This was not so for this year’s event. But although I am certainly grateful to the superlative degree about being out of the army, I have to admit to trudging through 2013′s symposium with little enthusiasm. Listening to upwards of 70 speakers back-to-back for two days calls for immense reserves of concentration, more so if many among their number don’t speak English as their first language (unfortunately, it shows).

But a multinational roster of speakers or not, as a mere YRP student with only an ‘A’ Level cert to my name, my attention span never stood much of a chance from the beginning either way. There were too many technical terms, too much talk of scientific concepts simply beyond my level; I wasn’t nearly smart enough to comprehend even a quarter of what the speakers were saying, much less understand the full implications of their research projects. I will say this though: it was equal parts humbling and strangely gratifying being in that theatrette with all those lab officers and PhDs.

I look upon them and see… inspiration, purpose, and — forgive my presumption — possibly even a small glimpse of my future reflected back at me. Now, more than ever, I see that scientists have a special place in society as intelligent, dedicated professionals playing a very direct role in bettering the state of mankind — an invaluable service people in few other vocations can match.

I want to be part of this elite, exclusive group. It is a noble goal worth pursuing, a path worth walking, a target worth chasing, a dream worth realising. The journey from student to scientist is long, twisting, and tortuous, but it is with unyielding determination and unbounded optimism that I take my first steps down this winding route.

memories =D

Movie Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Main Actors: Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller, Emma Watson
Genre: Drama, Romance, Slice of Life
Language: English

Synopsis

Charlie enters the war zone called High School where he meets two seniors who introduce him to the real world. While coping with his mental illness, Charlie learns about drugs, friendship, love, and life.

Blogger’s Notes

The Perks of Being a Wallflower portrays High School life in its gritty, dirty, and hormone-injected teenage ecosystem. The main protagonist, Charlie, observes his school mates with an near clinically objective eye, allowing the viewers to sit back and think about how they viewed their first day of High School. Although the film is still considered a “coming of age” story, it centers on a more personal and internal struggle that some teenagers and adults can relate to. It also addresses issues like homosexuality, child molestation, and sexual abuse which some viewers might find inappropriate. However, because being a teenager is a somber piece of fiction,  these themes and their treatment are portrayed realistically.

Having had read the book, I found the movie adaptation just as good. Although there were certain scenes that were cut out and certain subplots that were tweaked, the movie’s narrative still flowed smoothly and was still as powerful. The simple dialogue effectively adds poetry to the simple visuals the movie offers. The setting is also nostalgic especially for viewers who grew up with mixed tapes, Vinyl records, and David Bowie. On the other hand, the movie leaves you with an odd, sad, and poignant feeling despite the happy ending.

Overall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a great movie to watch if you’re ready for some introspection. However, it is not something I’d recommend for light-hearted drama Friday nights.

POPCORN METER

  Okay over all. Nothing special. Nice watch though.

So I guess I shall be resuming my posts as soon as I go snap some photos Also got a few baking endeavors planned so hopefully that works out!

Oh yeah, I’m back in Hong Kong for the month, while I figure some things out. It is ridiculously HOT here. The heat is magnified especially when compared to Canada, where it was snowing and under 10*C when I left… I guess there is merit to the heat though, since everyday that I’ve been back, I feel like I’m sweating off some fat. “Eww” right? But hey, whatever works! I can already feel the pounds shedding … Haha.

I’m talking about depression – that insidious and nasty genetic preposition that has 11% of the American population waking up every day of their lives with a sense of impending doom, despair and sadness and who find peace only at night – that is, if they can fall asleep.

People who are hard-wired for happiness find people with depression difficult to understand. I don’t expect them to. And really, I don’t want them to. I don’t wish that on anyone. Their responses are predictable and simplistic. “You should see someone.” “They make medication for that.”

My favorite: “Snap out of it.”

Believe me, if I could snap out of it, I’d do it so fast I’d give myself whiplash.

The fact is, I can’t get rid of my depression anymore than I can make myself a natural redhead. What I can do is manage it as best as possible with whatever tools are available.

Some days are better than others. Most days, not so much.

I would ask though, that you don’t judge. Don’t tell me things will get better. Don’t tell me to go volunteer or that I need to get out more and live life. And please don’t tell me “It’s not like you have cancer or something.” You don’t have to say anything.

Just don’t get angry when I stop to pull up my socks.

I am not going to deeply into how nice and great Phuket was when I was there since this is not a travel blog. What I want to convey this time round is the fact that I really felt it was a good vacation because of one landmark point – I had absolutely no internet access (or at least really limited) and in some cases even no cell phone reception. I am emphasizing this point because it inherently clearly demarcated me from my work and other stresses that vacations are supposed to take you away from. I think most of us would be very familiar with this need to be away from work and other stressed but with the advent of the Internet, mobile Internet and push e-mail, you can be physically away from work but you are never really away from work.

Whilst technology thrives on making our lives more manageable and efficient, it unfortunately ushers us to pretty much taking our work along with us everyday and everywhere we go. So this round of vacation, because of where I was and with hardly any Internet communication, I really was able to just hop down the plane and pretty  much enjoy every bit when I was there. It was one of the very few vacations, which I managed to not go, “Is that report out yet? Wonder if my client called me?” …. and you know the rest.

What a close friend used to tell me was if you are going spend time and effort planning a vacation, why allow it to be disturbed by work matters? Especially when you probably would have spent a fair bit of loot on air tickets, tours and what not. He always said, “If you are going to get a break, don’t be broken while on a break. It’s not worth it man!”. Having been through this recent vacation and thinking about what he said, I have to admit, what he said stands true.

Coincidentally, thinking a little more, I used to tell myself if you are going to do something, you either do it properly or don’t bother doing it at all. I always applied in things I did but somehow never quite applied that belief on vacations. So moving forward, I have decided if I am going to take break, it better not be one that’s broken because of undue distractions and other stresses. A break, should be and always be a break that’s not broken!

I wasn’t dreaming. Those are school uniforms.

There is nothing, nothing like having freshly picked produce to cook your morning meals, and there is nothing like putting on your school’s sailor uniform to do so, at least that’s what the manga JA ~Joshi Niyoru Agurikarucha~ (JA〜女子によるアグリカルチャー〜) tells us.

JA, which stands for the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives, is an organization that helps to administrate various facets of farming in Japan. The authors of JA deliberately used this abbreviation to lay a trap and get gullible people, like me, to buy the books through tricking manga lovers into thinking the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives published the book to encourage more citizens to take up agriculture. I was greatly mistaken because Japan Agricultural Cooperatives had no part in sponsoring the manga’s production.

I finished reading the first volume of this series and I’m aghast at how absurd this manga is. The manga’s cookie cutter, art style and its pandering towards the moé community, really turned me off. I’m from a small farming community in the mid-Western United States and I found it ridiculous the girls in this story would get up everyday to put on their school uniforms and farm. Seriously? You’re going to farm in a mini-skirt and a bright white blouse? On top of this, never once did I see the girls of this series go to school. They put on their school uniforms and work on a farm. Pre-teen girls wake up and put on school uniforms so that they can fertilize and hoe the fields. Although, my description of the series is fairly redundant, my repetition describes my reaction to each chapter of volume one.

I do have to commend the authors on their attention to detail when it comes to agricultural science. It appears the authors have done a lot of field research just to produce this series, which is apparent in their explanation of farming methods. This is the reason I appreciate and continue to read a wide variety of manga. Authors put in a lot of effort into making sure that their works accurately depict the worlds they create, in this case, life as a school uniform-wearing farm girl. I also have to thank the authors for taking the time to introduce agricultural science concepts in a way that’s easy for the reader to understand. This manga has actually peaked my interest in farming and has encouraged me to do a little bit of research on my own.

As someone that grew up in the farm belt, I have a lot of hangups with this manga; however, if you’re looking for a manga that takes a strange departure from the norm while still catering to your desires as an otaku and lust for hoes, fertilizer and sailor uniforms, I’d most definitely encourage you to pick up this series. I would also recommend giving the first volume of this series a try if you’re interested in learning a little bit about agriculture without trading in your life of comforts to do so. I’m disappointed that this series doesn’t do anything terribly new; however, I will still continue to read the series because it really has managed to draw my attention to the world of agriculture, and a manga that achieves something, no matter how small or ridiculous it is, is a manga worth reading. Did I mention that it has school girls farming in sailor outfits in it?

Work Info
Title: JA ~Joshi Niyoru Agurikarucha~ (JA〜女子によるアグリカルチャー〜)
By: Naru Narumi & Kou Karakemi
Under: Kadokawa
Official Site: http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/comic/bk_detail.php?pcd=201107000566
More Info: JA ~Joshi Niyoru Agurikarucha~ Wikipedia (Japanese Only)

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” Garrison Keillor

This morning on her blog extraordinaire, A Fuse 8 Production, Betsy Bird announced a contest. The prize? “A hand-wrapped parcel from Sophie Blackall,” illustrator of Matthew Olshan’s just published The Mighty Lalouche (Schwartz & Wade, 2013). Take one look at the  photos on the post and you’ll understand that this will be a treasure. It made me want to wrap up a package and send it to someone! The rules for entering this contest? Just post a comment on Betsy’s blog telling her about the best present you ever received in the mail.

I’ve wracked my brain about this all day. I honestly don’t remember getting that many presents in the mail. I grew up in the same town where my grandparents and mother grew up, and my father grew up in the town next door. We were always together on gift giving occasions.  My mother certainly loved me, but she worked full time, so any care package sent when I was in college was most likely a check. (Which was greatly appreciated!)

So what was the best present I ever got in the mail? A book, of course! I had a great-aunt who lived on Long Island who didn’t always come to Connecticut for Christmas, so she must have mailed our gifts from time to time. She had an uncanny knack for always choosing the perfect book for me. The first book I remember getting was Little Bear when I was 3 or 4. I still have this book, and read it to my children. They loved it just as much as I did. One of the last books she ever gave me was Little Women when I was 12 or 13. I thought I was much too old for such a book. How wrong I was!

In between were other books, many of which I still have. But those are the two that stand out. What is best book you ever got as a present?

Thank you to Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers for hosting this weekly Slice of Life Challenge!

This blog will include:

• signs
• work
• design
• jokes
• pictures images of things I find artsy

If none of these apply to you or strike your fancy there are tons of other good blogs around here.

First Post has to be gotten out of the way, so I am poised with my cup of HOT TEA (as my Grandpa would say), ready to act like a writer. I view blogging as a hobby and a creative writing outlet to talk about spiritual things I learn and wisdom I feel I can share on a variety of topics. I view everything as spiritual, so now that we have that out of the way, My favorite principal is giving. Am I an expert, not at all..Giving needs to be habitual in order to achieve consistency and potency. So that means I view it as something that will need to happen on a regular basis for the rest of my life. This is not a season or a “what to do” decision, this is a call for all people who want to be satisfied and aware of the identity that is our Father in Heaven. Because He is what??? Always giving…and remember HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON(John 3:16) all out of love because GOD IS LOVE.  So buckle up and get ready, There are truths to be learned. I will discover these truths in the desires God has placed in my heart and the things I am interested in. If you share those same interests (probably at least some of them, for sure not all…) you’ll come back and enjoy being here.  I love to interview people, and I hope to be able to do that a lot. I love to learn and share that knowledge with others so that will be done here too.  Especially stuff that took me years to learn or acquire, I plan on giving that all away, believing GOD led you here to share with me in the Harvest. I also choose to take great joy in seeing those Reap where others have sown, and seeing believers reap their own deserved harvest. Lots of people do not share this view, which I am acutely aware of . Lets Build together. Ready, never steady, GO!

The email was expected; I had long wondered when they’d get round to prodding me to settle my accommodation at Cinnanon. But besides providing helpful information and links to aid me in doing so, the sender inadvertently included one other thing in the email: the list of email addresses belonging to the other recipients.

For future reference, Ms Hambali, well-intentioned but bumbling administrator of USP Admissions, those email addresses should all go under the BCC field.

No matter, I am not too bothered with my address being made public. Rather, this accidental breach in email etiquette has actually served as a great boon to me, as it has gifted me with a veritable gold mine of information. The list of recipients totaled 40; as the email was sent out to only RNSmen who were successful in their USP applications from 2011 or the year before, I now finally know the quota of places reserved for this particular applicant group (something which had crossed my mind a few times).

But all this is vain curiosity. Much more relevant would be the identities of the recipients, of the people whom I will soon call classmates and neighbours. Not all are in the habit of slipping parts of their real names into their email addresses, but it scarcely mattered. Simply copying and pasting the addresses in the Facebook search bar and pressing enter turned up the FB accounts of the owners. And for the addresses I did bother to run a check on, the results were startling. Four familiar faces turned up, all of whom were ex-schoolmates from SJI. And of the group, two were former classmates even.

I’m neither pleased nor upset about this revelation… only stunned. On some level, I knew I was bound to count a few acquaintances among the cohort, but to actually see and find out who those acquaintances were was, what I’d like to term, quite the WTF moment for me — more so when you consider that all four were from my secondary school, putting the count at a whopping five SJI guys out of the 40. Considering the number of secondary schools in Singapore (over 160, if Wikipedia is to be believed), one-eighth is really a staggeringly large fraction.

But even the list of 40 is, in itself, merely a fraction of the cohort of 180, and I still do not know the identities of the majority of my fellow course mates. Even more familiar faces will surely appear; I hope to count among them Cheng Heng, Titus and Joshua, who still await the results of their applications into the programme.

Join the Tuesday Slice of Life

Gratitude #1: My friend brought me gardenias from her garden. Just one deep breath and I relaxed into their sweet jasmine scent.

Gratitude #2: Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. In addition to gifts of chocolate, lunch every day, and 5 extra lbs., I received this beautiful note. My favorite line is: “You’ve given me confidence, and showed me that I can make a difference.”

Gratitude #3: To top off Teacher Appreciation Week was Mother’s Day. I am so grateful for my successful, beautiful, kind, and loving daughters. Here I am with 2 of my 3.

Katherine, me, and Maggie with mimosas for Mother’s Day.

Thought i should draw a little since I’m so flippin
bored haha i guess i’ll jist watch game of thrones…