Sunday, September 30, 2007
music or books?
Wyee dajie posed a question one day, “If you had to choose between the 2, would you give up music or books?” It was a no-brainer for me, but I discovered that majority chose the other. I cannot live without music. I listen to music when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m lonely, when I’m with friends, when I’m bored, when I’m stressed, when I’m relaxing.. music is my life~
cheap cheap calling!
During lunch at the market today, reb's daddy kept loitering around our table, chit chatting and talking about various things. He even insisted on buying us bazhang even after we'd had our lunch. We all came to the conclusion that he misses reb (who's away in London for 3 months for training), and thus needs to shower his love on someone else - us.
It's so common nowadays, for people to be flying from country to country, for either work or study. Some cheapo people (like me) insist on free methods of keeping in touch, but other people (especially the older generation) still prefer the more convenient physical phone. Expensive, we complain. But now there're some promotions for international calling cards with amazingly low rates! Virtual calling cards, they're called. Imagine.. 5 full hours of FREE international calling just by signing up with Pingo, a place for cheap calling card! There's also this Special phone card blog discount coupon: “ppp3” valid for $3 off Pingo. And receive $25 phone card for just $17. Alot alot of discounts and offers.. Pingo Mobile helps you save up to 90% on your International cell phone calls. And of course, there's always the benefit of recommending more friends to use this service. Pingo’s calling card affiliate program pays $15 for each new customer you refer!! ^_^ many many many things.. the Pingo business plan, the pingo family plan, Pingo's ratewatcher (that saves you from the hassle of digging through piles of prepaid calling card offers to see if you're getting really low phone card rate).. and my personal favourite Global Phone Card (coz it is applicable GLOBALLY, of course. haha).. all in all, they seem to have EVERYTHING you can possibly want! So.. Pingo's the way to go! ^_^
*this is a sponsored post*
It's so common nowadays, for people to be flying from country to country, for either work or study. Some cheapo people (like me) insist on free methods of keeping in touch, but other people (especially the older generation) still prefer the more convenient physical phone. Expensive, we complain. But now there're some promotions for international calling cards with amazingly low rates! Virtual calling cards, they're called. Imagine.. 5 full hours of FREE international calling just by signing up with Pingo, a place for cheap calling card! There's also this Special phone card blog discount coupon: “ppp3” valid for $3 off Pingo. And receive $25 phone card for just $17. Alot alot of discounts and offers.. Pingo Mobile helps you save up to 90% on your International cell phone calls. And of course, there's always the benefit of recommending more friends to use this service. Pingo’s calling card affiliate program pays $15 for each new customer you refer!! ^_^ many many many things.. the Pingo business plan, the pingo family plan, Pingo's ratewatcher (that saves you from the hassle of digging through piles of prepaid calling card offers to see if you're getting really low phone card rate).. and my personal favourite Global Phone Card (coz it is applicable GLOBALLY, of course. haha).. all in all, they seem to have EVERYTHING you can possibly want! So.. Pingo's the way to go! ^_^
*this is a sponsored post*
Friday, September 28, 2007
Illusion of That Shrinking Feeling
Was doing some research on the brain, when i came across this. So fun! haha.
The researchers, led by Dr. H. Henrik Ehrsson of University College London, fooled 17 people into feeling as if they were getting skinnier by outfitting them with gadgets that stimulated a tendon in each wrist to create the false sensation that both hands were moving inward.
The subjects wore blindfolds and placed their hands at their waists, and then the stimulators were turned on, while an M.R.I. scanner measured activity in different parts of the brain. For the subjects, the feeling that their wrists were flexing inward was so powerful that they felt their waists had to be getting smaller.
Dr. Ehrsson said he had tried the tricks on himself.
"It's a very funny sensation," he said. "The nose is my favorite. It really feels like your nose is getting longer. You start giggling."
The first time people feel the illusions, "they're very surprised and shocked," Dr. Ehrsson said.
"The illusion happens as a result of a conflict between senses," Dr. Ehrsson said, explaining that the wrists feel as if they are moving, but the palms of the hands, resting against the waist, do not. "The brain has to interpret the conflicting sensory information. The brain hates ambiguity. It always tries to come up with an explanation."
"It's a little bit of a forgotten sense," he said. "We know about touch, pain and position, but the sense of size of body parts has been a mystery. There are no receptors in skin or muscle that tell the brain the size of body parts, so the brain has to figure it out by comparing signals."
He said the research might shed light on anorexia, in which people can be wasting away, and yet still see themselves as fat. Shown body images on a screen and asked to adjust them to match their own size, people with anorexia often overestimate and create images that are way too large.
"They seem to have a perception deficit," Dr. Ehrsson said. "We don't know if it's the cause of anorexia, probably not, but it's clearly part of the problem."
Dr. Ehrsson's finding was not surprising, since other studies had shown that people with brain injuries in that area had sensations suggesting that the sizes and shapes of parts of their bodies had changed.
Also, in rare cases, people with migraine headaches suffer from the "Alice in Wonderland syndrome," in which they feel as if parts of their bodies are shrinking.
The full article is taken from the NY time here.
The researchers, led by Dr. H. Henrik Ehrsson of University College London, fooled 17 people into feeling as if they were getting skinnier by outfitting them with gadgets that stimulated a tendon in each wrist to create the false sensation that both hands were moving inward.
The subjects wore blindfolds and placed their hands at their waists, and then the stimulators were turned on, while an M.R.I. scanner measured activity in different parts of the brain. For the subjects, the feeling that their wrists were flexing inward was so powerful that they felt their waists had to be getting smaller.
Dr. Ehrsson said he had tried the tricks on himself.
"It's a very funny sensation," he said. "The nose is my favorite. It really feels like your nose is getting longer. You start giggling."
The first time people feel the illusions, "they're very surprised and shocked," Dr. Ehrsson said.
"The illusion happens as a result of a conflict between senses," Dr. Ehrsson said, explaining that the wrists feel as if they are moving, but the palms of the hands, resting against the waist, do not. "The brain has to interpret the conflicting sensory information. The brain hates ambiguity. It always tries to come up with an explanation."
"It's a little bit of a forgotten sense," he said. "We know about touch, pain and position, but the sense of size of body parts has been a mystery. There are no receptors in skin or muscle that tell the brain the size of body parts, so the brain has to figure it out by comparing signals."
He said the research might shed light on anorexia, in which people can be wasting away, and yet still see themselves as fat. Shown body images on a screen and asked to adjust them to match their own size, people with anorexia often overestimate and create images that are way too large.
"They seem to have a perception deficit," Dr. Ehrsson said. "We don't know if it's the cause of anorexia, probably not, but it's clearly part of the problem."
Dr. Ehrsson's finding was not surprising, since other studies had shown that people with brain injuries in that area had sensations suggesting that the sizes and shapes of parts of their bodies had changed.
Also, in rare cases, people with migraine headaches suffer from the "Alice in Wonderland syndrome," in which they feel as if parts of their bodies are shrinking.
The full article is taken from the NY time here.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Life outside the lab
At first glance, it just seemed like my university days were just school, hall, lab and nothing else. Didn’t do anything for the country, didn’t achieve anything big, didn’t live a worthwhile 4 years. Even my lab also nothing to be proud of. But, as I sat there at my first sculpture meeting today, I realized, I actually did a lot outside my regular schoolwork.
My resume.. has an ultra long list of things I did in uni. From all the committees I was involved in hall (pageant comm, environmental comm, production comm, writing comm, block comm, orientation comm), to the sports I was involved in, to the committees I was involved outside hall (funkamania, some other nation-wide video/photography competition).. it was in uni that I tried out various ministries in church like chijmes/youth/thai too.. and there’s the wonderful exchange at
So what sculpture meeting was I at today? That’s my newest commitment. I, together with 4 other students from my school (ultra long name of NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering) are gonna join the other 13 faculties in making a batch of 14 marble sculptures, that will be displayed in the new NUS Alumni House. Sculpture, means designing it and really chipping pieces off to make a sculpture lah! Haha. Sounds cool eh? My commitment for the next 4 months. ^_^ And of course, there’s a professional sculptor to guide us lah! It’s our alumnus, Fah Cheong. Today then I know that his art work is everywhere in
Hotelreservations.com
This year seems like a "traveling year", where every single FSC member went on holiday. From Shanghai/ Beijing/ Chengdu/ Jiu Zai Gou in China, to Tibet, to Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, and most recently Bintan. What a load! So amidst the hoo-ha and everyone leaving and returning with gifts and foods from everyone around the world, i sit here and surf (fine, i had my fair share of holiday.. but i miss it!).. Hotel Reservations. It is one of the more user-friendly travel websites, where it covers all services ranging from hotels, motels, flights, cars, to whole vacation packages.
I've checked out the airline prices at this webby.. compare compare.. since i had recently flown to quite a few countries AND booked these flights myself, i decided to check out the range of airlines this webby covers, and the price range it offers. (Well, being cheapo and more importantly POOR people, i just had to do this. compare and try to find the best deals.) I tried a whole range of countries, from various states in the United States, to Taipei, Shanghai (pudong), and even Tibet. The results from the search... showed that the range of airlines covered by this website, is comparable to many other travel websites. However, the price range is only average, being comparable to most websites, but not providing the best promotion rates.
Then.. there's the don't-bother-to-plan-your-holiday section... 'vacation packages'!! haha.. the easy way out eh. And i must say.. i was truly amazed at the wide range of holiday destinations these webby covers!! The whole list of cities/countries.. took me so long to scroll and decide what place i wanted to check out! And the hotel list given.. is as extensive as the country list! whoahaha... this is really quite good.. and it's ultra user friendly, with pictures of all hotels provided! i love it manz... it's really like a one-stop travel planner! With regards to the prices, they're quite normal. Nothing too exaggerating, but at the same time no ultra cheap prices that are too good to be true. But since the prices are average, and the hotel/country list is so extensive, i pretty much like this site now!! ^_^ Strongly recommended for anyone who's planning a holiday! ^_^ Doesn't matter which place you're heading to.. they have it! (At first i thought that the website would be more established for common travel destinations like US and Europe only.. but i discovered that it had some really exotic places.. more than 1410 destinations!)
Ah. so where should my next destination be? would it be Christmas in London? Or would it be my long-awaited Thailand trip after picking up Thai so many years ago? Or maybe.. just maybe.. something more exciting awaits me? ^_^
I've checked out the airline prices at this webby.. compare compare.. since i had recently flown to quite a few countries AND booked these flights myself, i decided to check out the range of airlines this webby covers, and the price range it offers. (Well, being cheapo and more importantly POOR people, i just had to do this. compare and try to find the best deals.) I tried a whole range of countries, from various states in the United States, to Taipei, Shanghai (pudong), and even Tibet. The results from the search... showed that the range of airlines covered by this website, is comparable to many other travel websites. However, the price range is only average, being comparable to most websites, but not providing the best promotion rates.
Then.. there's the don't-bother-to-plan-your-holiday section... 'vacation packages'!! haha.. the easy way out eh. And i must say.. i was truly amazed at the wide range of holiday destinations these webby covers!! The whole list of cities/countries.. took me so long to scroll and decide what place i wanted to check out! And the hotel list given.. is as extensive as the country list! whoahaha... this is really quite good.. and it's ultra user friendly, with pictures of all hotels provided! i love it manz... it's really like a one-stop travel planner! With regards to the prices, they're quite normal. Nothing too exaggerating, but at the same time no ultra cheap prices that are too good to be true. But since the prices are average, and the hotel/country list is so extensive, i pretty much like this site now!! ^_^ Strongly recommended for anyone who's planning a holiday! ^_^ Doesn't matter which place you're heading to.. they have it! (At first i thought that the website would be more established for common travel destinations like US and Europe only.. but i discovered that it had some really exotic places.. more than 1410 destinations!)
Ah. so where should my next destination be? would it be Christmas in London? Or would it be my long-awaited Thailand trip after picking up Thai so many years ago? Or maybe.. just maybe.. something more exciting awaits me? ^_^
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Eye Candy or Eye Meat? XD
The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be.
Monday, September 24, 2007
gifts that make me happy
Little things that people give, out of no apparent reason, make you happiest. Just because, we’re friends.
Something from Shireen, whom I’d heard of for a month before I met her in person. Friends for 2 weeks before she left for
I place this on my desk, and it’s the first thing that greets me every morning when I awake. My own smile makes me smile. HAHA
achievements
After looking at my friend’s list of achievements in his life, I realized that I didn’t lose too much to him. But.. somehow.. he seemed much more achieved in life. Why? I realized.. in the first 20 years of my life, I took part in more things and achieved more. I excelled in everything—琴棋书画— the equivalent of everything that an educated Chinese child should know. However, 小时了了，大未必佳 (to excel as a child doesn’t mean one would be as great in later years). Indeed, ever since I entered university, everything stopped. All my performances/competitions stopped the very moment I stepped into NUS as a student. I quit everything when I was at my peak. I stopped playing the piano right after I passed Grade 8. I quit playing Go/Weiqi right after I returned from my first international competition in
missing it...
2 years after i last met a friend, he suddenly appeared on the news, and facebook suddenly found him, thus i revisited his webpage. It's so nicely done up now. plus, there's a blog on his new life at Stanford. It totally reflected the life i had early last year. Miss the university life in US. haiz.
where’s the problem?
Yet another one. Through the years, multiple people have complained to me (directly or indirectly) about our problem. It’s prominent, it’s there, it’s never left us. But.. what can we do about it? We learn from it, we try our best to improve. But, we’re still humans. We can never be perfect, no matter how much we strive to be. Yes, I admit, maybe we didn’t try hard enough, thus there’s still a lot of room for improvement. And because of this, we did not lose just 1 friend, but more. So what should we do now, what do we need to do, so that this will not happen again? And.. is it just my thinking, or does this seem to always happen to someone around me?
Sigh. Can someone do something about this? Coz I really dunno what to do…
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Winterfest in Knoxville, TN
Really nice video.. just need 5 minutes of your time.. thanks weilin for sharing this with me ^_^
Friday, September 21, 2007
in remembrance of tibet
i hang this on my hp, an accessory from tibet.. something to remind me every moment of the day, how simple life can be..
Chestnutties Foursome
Yeah, tt’s how cat called us. Our new name. Only 4 of us left. But I really enjoy meeting up with them every once in a while, and I’m sure they feel the same too! Arzhou, Pacey, Cat and
(yay~~ I’m the first to blog about this. Lalalala~)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
distance
From 7pm channel 8 show today..
“the most heartbreaking distance, is when 2 people from 2 entirely different worlds come together, grow closer, fall in love, but end up returning to their 2 respective worlds, as far as before”
How true.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Love Song...
Was watching the 7pm channel 8 today, when i heard a familiar song..
There is none like You
No one else can touch my heart like You do
I could search for all eternity long
And find there is none like You
The male lead was playing this song on the piano, and singing it for the female lead. Wonderful love song indeed.. but i wonder who placed it there? The TV producer?
It's only when we listen to the other half of the song, that we know who this song was really written for..
Your mercy flows like a river wide
And healing comes from Your hands
Suffering children are safe in Your arms
There is none like You
written by Lenny LeBlane
There is none like You
No one else can touch my heart like You do
I could search for all eternity long
And find there is none like You
The male lead was playing this song on the piano, and singing it for the female lead. Wonderful love song indeed.. but i wonder who placed it there? The TV producer?
It's only when we listen to the other half of the song, that we know who this song was really written for..
Your mercy flows like a river wide
And healing comes from Your hands
Suffering children are safe in Your arms
There is none like You
written by Lenny LeBlane
Saturday, September 15, 2007
News-worthy friends
I got a huge shock when I saw the advert in Straits Times today. It said that this guy, Lo Min Ming, was featured in Zaobao today. This guy is someone I knew from sec school, and even went overseas together for competition 6 years ago. A couple of years ago, we met again and he told me he’d just completed his poly education, and had been offered a scholarship to Stanford U after he finishes his NS. I didn’t know that this would make the news 2 years later, after he’d served his NS! Haha.. how would I have known that my friend’s life would be so news-worthy?! Told JQ about it.. she blamed me for not telling her earlier, if not she could have been the one who took up the job of interviewing him! Haha.. maybe now I should open my eyes wider to notice who around me has lives that are news-worthy..
FEH-llowship
Somehow, everytime fewer of us Footprints meet up, we end up having such a good time. I really wish more pple would be able to benefit from such wonderful time together, time spent bonding, time spent sharing.. (and time gaining weight. Share the fats lah! Haha) Really thank yiwen, Stacey, vivi and pbgb for the time and effort. Had a really nice chat together while doing up the board! Looking forward to more such Saturdays spent together ^_^
Friday, September 14, 2007
Al-Hamra
Al-Hamra is a Lebanese, Middle Eastern Restaurant situated along Lorong Mambong in Holland Village (the stretch with Wala wala, NYDC ). We went there to celebrate Min-tea's birthday, and were given a special offer of paying the set-lunch price, but getting a sort of ala carte serving of various dishes to share and try amongst all of us! It was cool...
The appetizers.. so many types! Most of us still liked the humus most.. ^_^
The main course. With lamb chop, chicken kebab and all sorts of other meat.. it all tasted SO GOOD! Totally worth it.. $20 for the entire set of appetizers, main course, drinks and dessert!
Only thing i didn't like, was that the food was a wee bit too salty. Not noticeable while eating (as the wonderful taste of the food simply distracted us), but we were all gulping down water my the litre the rest of the day! haha..
The appetizers.. so many types! Most of us still liked the humus most.. ^_^
The main course. With lamb chop, chicken kebab and all sorts of other meat.. it all tasted SO GOOD! Totally worth it.. $20 for the entire set of appetizers, main course, drinks and dessert!
Only thing i didn't like, was that the food was a wee bit too salty. Not noticeable while eating (as the wonderful taste of the food simply distracted us), but we were all gulping down water my the litre the rest of the day! haha..
I signed up for PPP!
It's been a couple of months since i've signed up for this.. PayPerPost (aka PPP) thingie. Not like i'm a hardcore poster like some others.. (who thus end up earning thousands of dollars, literally, each month.. i bet they take this as a professional career!) Instead, i only blog about certain things that happen to interest me.. henceforth.. i get only enough $$ for tea from my blog posts. haha. well, tea isn't that cheap where i work! Each drink can cost 3-4 times more than some other places! So don't undermine my "coffee money" yeah. haha. But the interesting thing is, though i am asked to post blog ads about various places, i noticed a trend in my posts... i tend ot post about holiday destinations and things related to traveling!! and in the process, i discovered i've learnt much more than i've contributed! Now that i've got more knowledge about some online webbies on booking airflights, hotels etc, i'm all ready to travel! All thanks to PayPerPost! ^_^
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