Reflections for the New Year

winter break was wonderful. 

and as i have been telling anyone who cares to ask.

winter break was great.

my parents came up.

we went to LA, did touristy things

we went to SF, did touristy things

we went to stanford and i was their tour guide.

then i went on a roadtrip to tahoe with yitao and sharon. 

in my new car.

snowboarded. pain in the ass, literally.

came back early due to inclement weather.

watched movies in SF. 5 of them.

went to six flags.

went to sky high.

ice skated.

that's my eventful holiday for you. plus or minus a bit.

but it was a restful break. it normalized me. (in the sense that it re-tuned my very messed up sleep cycle).

it gave a break from thinking too hard.

so right now. its the 4th of january and the new year has passed a few days back. i'm into the second day of class and i am settling in -- getting into the groove of school again. no real homework yet. but some reading. 

on a rather contemplative note. i am going to set some goals and resolutions as we all traditionally do with the coming of the new year.

I will be basing it on 3 key principles:

1) Growing academically

2) Being worldly

3) Having a meaningful time at Stanford

In terms of academic growth, I'd say that there will be 3 practices I aim to keep this year:

- Don't procrastinate on work

- Work hard in everything I pursue

- Always clarify problems when in doubt

To be more worldly and other than learning about what the school teaches me, I will:

- Read the papers daily

- Read a book of interest/ Learn an important life skill once every 2 weeks

And lastly, but most importantly, I will resolve to have a meaningful time at Stanford by:

- Making more friends and maintaining those meaningful relationships

- Pursue my interest (-shouts- FLYING)

- Find a new passion and commit and work towards it.

I am actually in a very contemplative mood at the moment, but I guess I will add one more resolution to cap the list off. An important one or, rather, two:

- Be disciplined.

- Keep to schedule

I will turn in at midnight.

hi mum

i realize you actually read this. you get to hear my philosophical thoughts. aren't you glad.

a leap of faith

In life, there are always two choices, always.

Some choices are easy, but some are much harder.

Most times it involves a decision between the familiar and the unknown.

And most times, we choose the easier option - to go with the familiar, to stay within our comfort zones - so we need not put in so much effort in committing to that decision. 

Or so that it will be easier to follow through on our so-called 'priorities'.

But once in awhile, there comes a choice which takes us off guard. 

It falls beyond the scope of what we've ever considered in the past.

It forces you to choose between the easy priorities you've always had or to create a new parameter.

In these instances, I take a long time to contemplate the matter.

Deep thoughts, serious thoughts - the rationale, the commitment involved, the implications.

I always hope to make the right decision. 

Some times its not always the easy one.

And some times with incomplete information, you just have to take a leap of faith.

On the same note, its time to make the hard choice of getting back to work. 

Enough of thinking, more of doing. 

9 days till finals. 

9 days of guts out slog. 

It's all good. 

The hardcore workaholic in me is pumped. 

(Or trying to be at least)

Taking that leap of faith again.

life..

It's definitely been awhile since I've blogged. But I guess i can afford myself a break from all that needs to be done; my to-do-list is not short too! It seems thanksgiving is a break much looked forward to -- something I'd be definitely giving thanks for. To catch up on work, to get fit, to move forward in achieving my little goals that will improve life at Stanford, and, maybe, just a little recreation (we could all do with some).

I just planned the week out. Seems pretty packed -- reminiscent of my secondary school and junior college days. But definitely feels good to know that I'm using my time wisely. Hopefully its adequately paced though. I resolve to only go out once this week so that I can focus on getting ahead of work instead of merely keeping up.

Things seem to be falling into a comfortable cadence. I feel the push, but not the shove. Which is good in all respects. I just need to remain as motivated as I was in the first few weeks of school.

Here we go.

pleasure and pain;

after the night of fun. i guess it's time to get back to work. here i come.

on a random note, pleasure and pain mean bring to mind so many things right now. oh the conflict.

just some thoughts.

i should be doing work, but i'm here blogging just because something came to mind.

i was pondering over how some people play the piano really well

and wished i could express myself in a similar way,

and i thought of all the effort i needed to get to that skill level.

slightly daunting, but doable.

but the next moment, i thought of the years of practice and training i've put into sports,

and how i can express myself too.

through sports.

the sheer joy i feel from playing,

the frustration when i do not perform up to expectation,

channeling my emotions into physical exertion.

oh the joy.

i shall end off with a self-made quote:

some people express themselves through music,

i express myself through sports.

some people talk about things,

i like to do things.

some people like socializing,

i like making a difference (hopefully)

perspectives from boston

I am writing this from Boston. A place of much significance and memories. (and of course great company!!)

I will attempt to recount my experience chronologically.

day one.

I attended Singsem, and met many Singaporeans at the event. I realized I do not know a lot of them but it was a good opportunity to meet people 'from the same land, in the same land'. I must say I really enjoyed Prof Mabubani's plenary on Singapore's Defence and Security. Many thought-provoking questions asked, many clear responses given. It was insightful to say the least. As much as we get to learn about Singapore, it seems that a takeaway I have gained was the motivation to work harder just so that I could become more intellectually astute. It may be a stretch but something I definitely hope to work towards and not lose sight of.

After the seminar, we had a mini-RJ gathering

Toured Harvard, and as much as the buildings were fancy and all. Somehow i think stanford has started to grow on me. And i'm loving the country club feel! =]

Had dinner at Quincy's Market,

went to the Cheesecake Factory and headed back to the backpackers lodge. Walking around Boston was a pretty nostalgic experience but I think I will talk more about the nostalgia in day two. Boston Clam Chowder was the dish of choice, since we were in boston after all. and the cheesecake was just pure sin! the long walk back to our rock and roll lodge was -well for lack of a better word- long. but we managed to get there with our nifty iphone gps-es. and the shear power of bus 11. a good day overall, a tiring one.

day two.

Some of us went to tour Harvard again, but I decided to sleep in. At lunch time, we woke up to head to Little Italy. Had pasta at a decent pasta place and got cookies from mike's place. there was a queue. so i suppose it was good huh?

Those at Harvard went to the Charles River Regatta and said it was not that exciting. So instead we went back to the Quincy area for shopping. It was quite productive. =] I got a jacket and a scarf! no prizes for guessing the colour though! (especially if you know me well enough!) Towards dinner time, we headed to chinatown and had good food at penang, a malaysian restaurant. Roti Canai, pohpiah, asam laksa, bahkuteh, chickenrice,charkwayteow, sambal kangkong, stir fry veg. DURIAN MILKSHAKE, CHENDOL, PEANUT PANCAKE. I was a happy kid.

After that we went to visit Peabody Terrace. It was so wonderful to be at a place that was all too familiar. Almost surreal. The apartment buidings are still the same, the play grounds still woodchip. The function rooms, the diagonal walk way leading to our apartment. The water fountain's gone though. Needless to say, I was taking many many pictures of the place.

Momentarily lost my bearings but soon found the familiar route Marc and i used to walk to school every day. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and an insurpressable grin on my face -- such a nostalgic experience -- I recalled all the memories I had of boston, of peabody and realised how 11 years have just flown by and I've come back to the place where i once lived on my own this time. The school was very much as i remembered it as well. Those green doors the black words on a white washed building. The play ground at the side. but i guess i didnt get to explore more since it was at night and the school was closed!

we headed back soon after, stopping by 7-11 along the way to pick up some food for the hungry. the long walk back to the backpackers inn seemed less dreary this time round and we prepared to depart for California the next morning.

also, a picture of our truly humble abode.

my first attempt at photoblogging. =P and some of the pictures are pretty terrible. I will improve on my camera skills!