A cappella - The Sregnis Singers - When I'm 64 Beatles

Here's a video from youtube by Hong Kong a capella group The Sregnis Singers. It's not as good as the original version, but I think they did quite a good job, though the original's more playful than this. Check out the background music!

When I'm 64

This song is very cute! It's by The Beatles. Well, if I can get the MIDI file up or the youtube video up, you can have an idea of what the song sounds like. But till then, here's the lyrics:

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now.
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings bottle of wine.

If I'd been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door,
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.

You'll be older too,
And if you say the word, I could stay with you.
I could be handy, mending a fuse
When your lights have gone.

You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride,
Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.

Every summer we can rent a cottage,
In the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera ,Chuck & Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four.

An Amusing Analogy

This is Yi Lun's revelation, revealed in the car earlier this afternoon. I should warn you, though, that it's a rather crude analogy, albeit a funny one, so read it at your own risk!

Imagine your exams have started, and you just passed one stressful week of exams. The next week is much more relaxed, coz you've already revised all that you had to revise in the first week. However, there's still that dilemma within you- you badly want to relax because you were under SOOOO much stress the last week, but you know that you'd never forgive yourself if you relaxed and didn't study and the next week's exams are difficult. You know that heart very itchy feeling?

This is a bit like when you need to answer the small call of nature very very badly. However, while you are answering halfway, you find that you can't go all the way. Now, isn't this feeling very painful? You're so near to the goal, but... you can't go all the way!

Hope you enjoyed it! =)

Happy Pepero Day!

Yep, most of you might not have heard of this kind of day. Neither have I, until today when Camella came into my room and gave me this:
















It's a packet of 4 peperos!

Why did I receive this?

Well, according to Wikipedia and Camella, Pepero or Pocky Day (depending on which country you are from), is day in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11 (today), since the date "11/11" resemble four sticks of Pepero. Or, if you're from Japan, it's Pocky Day, since the equivalent of Pepero is Pocky. This day is celebrated mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts.

According to the story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero" (Pepero means "thin like a stick"). However, it is more likely it was initiated by Lotte, the company which produces Pepero.

While in most countries of the world, November 11th is a day of remembrance (since it signaled the end of World War I), in Korea, Japan, Vietnam (according to Camella) and Philippines (according to Mira), it is a day of romanceMany students are truant on this day to celebrate with their friends.

In Japan, a similar Pocky Day was held on November 11 in 1999, which was the 11th year of the Heisei era. The date, 11/11 of the 11th year, resembled 6 sticks of Pocky. According to Korean sources this day was based on the Pepero Day.

From what I heard, some people actually go to the trouble to buy plain pocky sticks (think Yan Yan without the cream) and then dip it into their own chocolate and then decorate it with the colourful rice candy. But generally, I think the trend is buying Pepero or Pocky and then dividing them into groups of 4 or 6, then wrapping them in nice bags or paper.

Camella was real sweet to think to give us a packet! =D

Yep, and now you know that there's a Pepero Day! Cheers to an increase in general knowledge! =p

Careless Whisper

I like this song coz it's catchy, but for the lyrics.... well, I haven't met a situation like this yet. This song keeps playing in my head!! If you have time, maybe have a listen at it! George Michael really has a good voice, too bad he's gay... isn't he?

Time can never mend
The careless whispers of a good friend
To the heart and mindIgnorance is kind
There's no comfort in the truth
Pain is all you find

Should have known better, yeah

I feel so unsure
As I take your hand
And lead you to the dance floor
As the music dies
Something in your eyes
Calls to mind a silver screen
And all its sad goodbyes

I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I've been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you

Time can never mend
The careless whispers of a good friend
To the heart and mind
Ignorance is kind
There's no comfort in the truth
Pain is all you find

I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhyhthm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a foolI should have known better than to cheat a friend
(Should have known better, yeah)
And waste a chance that I've been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you
(Never without you)

Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd
Maybe it's better this way
We'd hurt eachother with the things we want to say
We could have been so good together
We could have lived this dance forever
But now who's gonna dance with me
Please stay

And I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I've been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you

Now that you're gone
Now that you're gone
Now that you're gone
Was what I did so wrong
So wrong that you had to leave me alone

- George Michael

On a lighter note....

Here's a picture I found...





















Hehe this is actually sold by an Australian lingerie shop. You can view it here: http://www.caryn.com.au/index.htm Naughty naughty design!! Haha!!

And I know just who would be interested in this. Unfortunately, though I was tempted to order one online for you, it costs AUD60, which is a whopping SGD$71.9984. No way am I gonna spend that much man... Haha maybe on your 21st birthday, then I'll order it for you. Or you could ask that special someone to do it? ;)

Yep, I must admit, it's quite creative, but.... a li'l too explicit, don't you think?

Motivation!!

It's a little more than 2 weeks to exams, and I haven't started studying yet. Wonderful. Now that projects are done, I find I'm wasting my time away doing rubbish online. Like blogging rubbish like this.

I need to find the motivation to concentrate!!!!!

Birthday

Haha THANK YOU JORENE!

She has just given me the earliest and a VERY expensive 21st birthday. She's sponsoring half the cost of the ticket to SHE's concert next year. It's a whopping $148 and she's paying half... whoa... Hey, you like SHE so much ah?

Haha I've never watched a live concert before. SHE's concert should be quite fun. I heard from Merrilyn that SHE's concerts always have a certain standard, which is good. Plus this time I'm getting premier seats! Yay!! I'm not very familiar with SHE, but so far I like their songs, and I like them. But ask me their biodata and things about them, and I won't know how to answer. So Jorene, be prepared! I don't really know much about them!!!

=D

Happy Land

Yi Lun told me to blog about the story about Happy Land, so I shall oblige her and let u see what a wonderful place Happy La-La-Land is.

The mosquitoes don't suck blood. They suck nectar.

The sun doesn't get too hot. It's like a bi-metallic strip, where, when the temperature gets too hot, it'll stop rising. Yeah, it's like auto-summer 365 days long. We won't ever have to travel to California or even dream about it, and Evon can stop yearning to go to some beachy place, coz NZ will be hot enough and sunny enough to get tanned. No more winters!!

The carnivores will be herbivores, and animals like the zebras and tigers will be Maths teachers. They teach the younger generation how to count. Like, counting the number of stripes on them. They will even teach abstract subjects like philosophy, such as whether the colour of the tiger is black stripes on orange or vice versa, and whether the zebra is white stripes on black.
Oh did I mention what the flowers look like? They all have plump petals and large centres between the petals. They will all have faces just like how you imagined them in Enid Blyton story books.

Whether there'll be humans or not is rather debatable, coz we realised that once there's the presence of humans, they'll try to change the landscape and the way the world operates. But then, because I'm the creator of the story, I'll say there'll be no humans in utopia. There's no such thing as a perfect human. You're welcome to invite them into your story if you want... ;)

si huan rocks!

Lazaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I feel too lazy to do work right now, and it's like, what? 11.32 in the morning. 2 hours have passed since I woke up and NO work has been accomplished yet. Makes me wonder how I'm gonna finish studying for my 3 tests next week. But u know what? I find that I don't have the energy to go and bother about exactly how much time I have before the tests. Thinking about it just makes my heart race and makes me panic and then I'll be as good as useless. Doesn't help that I have 3 more projects to do and all are clamouring for attention.

I really don't have confidence for any of the projects and presentations that are coming up. Did I tell you? I screwed up a presentation last week. I READ ENTIRELY FROM THE WHOLE BLOODY SCREEN. That's something I haven't done in a long time, and, unlike most events, it wasn't a thrilling experience. It was bloody embarrassing. I hope I won't screw up anymore, coz the next time(s), presentation counts for alot.

I just wanna escape. I wanna turn off all communication devices and just... I don't know, hide or something. But the moment I do that, when I turn on the communication devices once again, reality will set in and I'll be there slapping myself for turning them off. That's the horrid consequence. Backlog of work to be done. Yep, so I've planned something. I have an announcement to make.

ON THE FIRST OF DECEMBER 2006, MY HANDPHONE WILL BE TURNED OFF, MY MSN STATUSES WILL BE OFFLINE AND MY HOUSE PHONE WILL NOT BE PICKED UP. I WILL BE WATCHING TV AND STAYING HOME AND SLEEPING.

Yeah!! =D And I absolutely can't wait for that. So... yep, I hope you understand if I don't reply on that day... I've been looking forward to it so long that I think I'll really push whatever suddenly crops up that day to another day. I need a day to do mindless stupid things like watching tv. Yes, and if you're wondering, I'll be watching "Princess Hours". No detective/horror/suspense etc shows for me. That day's not for using my brain... Haha....

Yes well, I guess this entry will make some of you think I'm an escapist or a coward or a spineless weakling who can't stand the hardships of life. All right. Whatever you say. I probably am, but one thing: don't YOU get sick of obligations and social norms and whatever that comes with surviving in society?

On a lighter note, we went out to celebrate my mother's birthday yesterday at No Signboard Restaurant (Well I think the name's an irony, really, but that's for another discussion another day)!! The food was good. I liked the vermicelli with crayfish. The crayfish was so fresh and juicy and the sauce on the vermicelli was good- thick and spicy and tasty. The vermicelli was juicy (can u imagine?), and it was just the right texture, not too hard and not too soft. That's why every mouthful was also full of the sauce. Yum... The crabs were not bad too. We had pepper crab, and it was peppery, but not so peppery that it overpowered the taste of the crab. Ahh... we had sambal mussels too, and that was good. The mussels were JUICY, not fried till they were dry like some places tend to fry it. Yam ring... well that was ok, not bad, but I think other places which specialise in zhu chao would have done it better. Yam ring's just not a seafood food. A large chunk of my salary from the RA job done last month went into the meal =S but it was worth it. The food was good, the company was good, the weather was.... errr.... at least it didn rain (though a weather without the blasted haze could have been better). I wish I had taken photos. I brought the camera, but realised that my father hadn't put in the XD card after he used it for another camera -_-", otherwise I'd show you all the dishes!!

Von: Mummy says you'll get a chance to go there when you come back! But really, Kelong still wins in terms of price, and maybe the taste is slightly better there (kelong i mean...). Come back soon!!

It's now 11.55am, and I still haven't done anything. Yippeeeeeeeeeeee

Chivalry Doesn't Fade With Age

Remember we always learnt that we should always have a passion for learning? Well, qualities like chivalry shouldn't fade with age either.

Yesterday, I was on the train to Toa Payoh. There was this elderly man who boarded the train at City Hall with me. There was a younger lady beside him, and the train was full. He found the seat first, and therefore sat down. When he saw that lady, he immediately gave up his seat for her. The lady was rather shocked, and, I think embarrassed, so she tried to refuse the seat- I mean, how could u take the seat someone older offered to you? Well the older man refused to let her say no- I think he said, "You're a lady" and in the end she sat down.

I was impressed with the man's behaviour. In this day and age, he showed that chivalry's not dead, and that it doesn't stop when a person gets older. That's what I call graciousness. =)

Road to Redemption

12 steps (Malay):

With every word, I learn to keep it
With every criticism, I learn to understand
With every ego, I learn about humility
With every step, I learn to be careful
With every mistake, I learn to improve
With every doubt, I learn to believe
With every injury, I learn about healing
With every cry, I learn about regret
With every smile, I learn about sincerity
With every sin, I learn to repent
With every prayer, I learn about confidence
With every prostration, I learn to be grateful
With every pleasure, God bestows upon us

This poem (I think) is by a 40-year-old woman serving a seven-year term for drug consumption, from The Straits Times

12 steps, sounding deceptively simple and fast, but actually needing alot of courage and willpower to take each step. How many of us are actually able to take any one of those steps? How many of us have experienced a cry, a critism, a bruised ego, and never advanced from there, just staying on to dwell on it, or hide from it? I know I'm probably guilty of alot of it, and I think whoever actually manages to transcend these 12 steps and get on with life probably deserves an award for never giving up or something. If there isn't such an award, well, there should be one. Yellow Ribbon Project- the project to give ex-convicts a second chance. Well, I feel they really should be given a second chance. Following my previous entry, and understanding how much support means to a person, I now can really understand how much trust and support can help a person regain his/her sense of self-worth, and just a little bit of it can actually help the person a long way. We don't have to explicitly say, "Hey, I trust you" etc. Just our little actions or attitudes will do.

Some might say it's hard to judge whether a person is trustworthy or not, especially ex-convicts. Well I wouldn't disagree with that, but... Isn't it a fact that we really can't trust anybody, those record-free people included? Maybe we should take a chance, a leap of faith. Who knows, we really might make a difference in that other person's life.

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."
- Helen Keller
(http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/helen_keller/2.html)

Family Support

You know, I finally really realise why the abnormal Psych textbook always encourages family support in the course of the treatment of the patients. Family support IS really very important.

It was only today that I finally realise how much I need family support. Without it, I think I might have broken down or something.

There have been too many things to handle recently- projects, tests, CCAs, work etc... the list goes on and on... So many things to be done in so little time. I thought I'd be able to do it, but MAN am I so wrong. I was feeling so horrid about everything, and my temper was getting shorter and shorter... Thanks to my family, who has been so wonderful... They didn't lose their patience with me, and even tried to help me out, and tried to help me relax. Even Mira was a wonderful support, making Milo for me even though she was busy doing her work. Though they often nag at me and make me see things which I'd rather not see at the moment, they gave me the help and support I need by always being there for me.

Well, this stressful period's nowhere near over yet, but I think I'll be able to hang on till the load has gone off a bit.....

ok the past few entries have been depressing. Here's something nice:

Levi's new jeans! The Lady's Style. Isn't it nice? But I think it costs a HUUUUGE bomb, so I can only drool over it here. Enjoy!

























Well I know the model is babelicious, but let's just leave that aside for now and concentrate on her jeans, shall we? Isn't it gorgeous?

I am NOT STUPID

I am sick and tired of people insinuating I'm stupid or saying that I am stupid. Sure I may do things that are really stupid sometimes or most of the time, and I would be the first to admit that I'm really blur, BUT does that really mean that I'm stupid? Is there anyone who has never done anything stupid or been blur before?

Wow blogger's fast today. I expected having to wait for like 5 min before the page would load, but it was almost immediate! Haha wonderful!!

Anyway, I think I just had an epiphany. Muahaha. I have kan4 kai1-ed already. I'm gonna try my best for my studies, but I guess... I won't beat myself up over having too many things to catch up with. If I continue to do that, I may just end up with an anxiety disorder, and can then be a case study for the students taking Abnormal Psychology! There's no point worrying and ruminating over stuff which I can't control anymore. Things are just gonna pile and pile and what will become of me? I might not even get through second year. Yep. So I'm gonna take one day at a time. BUT that's not to say I won't work harder!! Hopefully this letting go thing will make me feel lighter and give me more energy to work harder. Hmm.. Maybe I should follow Si Huan's method, but I'm not really willing to sacrifice sleep.... Ah well, we shall just see how it goes, shall we? =)

Passion for something...

Everytime I think "This is it, I've found something I really like and hope to further my interest in it", I end up losing interest in it. In JC, it was Literature. This time, it's in language and Psychology, two of the fields I've always been very interested in.

There's just this block that prevents me from really having the desire to want to continue reading on and thinking more about it. It wasn't like this last academic year, but it seems to be now. Perhaps it's because of Cognitive Psych, or perhaps it's the textbook (which makes me rather shallow I think), or perhaps it's the increasing pressure of having to maintain my grades attained last year. Though I know it wasn't exactly very great since it wasn't first class, I like to think I've come out of my own shadow in Secondary school and have improved since then.

Or maybe it's the fact that this 2nd year has started off with several unknown variables- Research Assistant job, tuition, 6 subjects, a separate project group and a continuation of CCA in school- things which I have to take time to slowly get used to and feel my way around first. I realise now I shouldn't have been so ambitious as to take up so many commitments, but life isn't gonna be as kind to me as in school now, where I can have the option of choosing which commitments to drop and which to follow up. Furthermore, a word given is a word given. Ah, never mind, I shall take it easy and see how it goes from here. Stress and Yi Ling never goes well together, and well I should know that, from Secondary school when I insisted on taking 9 subjects when I simply shouldn't have.

Ambition, ambition. Maybe I should follow Evon's fantasy and go live as a hermit or something. Maybe then I'd recover my interest in humans. I feel rather drained. I think it's cos most of the modules I'm taking involve humans and a certain degree of empathy. I'm unable to feel that once again. This lack of empathy was what made my Lit results in Prelims so disastrous. I just felt so dried up. That's why I was a bit afraid of taking up Psychology. There was a fear I might go into something which I really felt I could feel for and then subsequently lose interest in it. Perhaps I'm not psychologist material after all after this episode, but it's the only field which I can connect with and feel a passion for.

Or perhaps this is just a result of the long holidays, where I got so used to slacking at home that subconsciously I was unhappy about the fact that I'd have to give all of that up to go back to study. I've just gotta change my mindset and get back to that studying mode.

Yep, 'nuff said. I'm gonna pull up my socks and try harder!!

Beginning of school...

Today was the last day of tuition. I'm gonna miss my students! Although I know I often complain about their lack of attention and whine about how to improve their standards, they've been an adorable bunch to teach. Not only adorable, they've been so sweet! I shall always remember Jonell's sudden remark, "Teacher, you know what? My hobby is saving money." and Bryan's generous gesture of giving Yi Lun two mechanical pencils when he heard it was her birthday. There're so many things which I can remember about them, but it would take quite long to repeat them all here. =) Suffice it to say that I'll miss them!!

Here's the picture I took with them!


From left: Me, Jonell, Bryan







Haha, what started out as a job became something of an activity. They're more like mentees rather than students, seriously. Although I never really looked forward to going for tuition (cos their tuition's after lunch and I get really sleepy), once there, I get kinda energised. You never know what kind of revelation they're gonna spring on you, seriously.

Anyway, with tuition ended, my Saturdays will be free of interruptions. Hopefully I'll get to catch up on my readings. I'm trying to keep up, but it's an uphill task. I've kinda decided to just start afresh this week and try to get my readings done. As for last week's readings... well, I guess I'm gonna have to let it slide for awhile. Man... I must get round to doing them. Especially for Cognitive Psychology, with the test one week away. Argh. How am I gonna remember the visual pathways etc etc?

DAC Welcome Tea's this coming Tuesday, and guess what? I'm gonna be the emcee for the event! Evon says it's cool to be able to do it, and would look nice on my CV yadayada, and I think it'd be a nice experience too. However, I do hope I'll be able to be interesting, cos I'm simply not the entertaining kind of speaker. I can't just pull jokes out of my head and say it in a deadpan tone that'd make people laugh. I wish I could do that. I always admire people who can think fast on their feet. No surprise why I gave up the thought of pursuing law then, eh? This is my first time emcee-ing, and it's in an LT, in front of possible 100+ people. I'm rather nervous about it, actually. It's not like presentation, where I'm presenting to a class. It's like... to a sample of the NTU population. I hope I do a good job!!

The Five Love Languages

My primary love language is probably
Quality Time
with a secondary love language being
Words of Affirmation.

Complete set of results

Quality Time:		9
Words of Affirmation:		8
Acts of Service:		5
Physical Touch:		5
Receiving Gifts:		3

Information

Unhappiness in relationships, according to Dr. Gary Chapman, is often due to the fact that we speak different love languages. Sometimes we don't understand our partner's requirements, or even our own. We all have a "love tank" that needs to be filled in order for us to express love to others, but there are different means by which our tank can be filled, and there are different ways that we can express love to others.

Take the quiz