When Silence Is No Longer Golden

Hi readers! Long time readers might recognize this title, or any reader would notice the number "2" on the title, which indicates that it is the second of a series of posts with the same title! (Thanks, Capt) So yeah, basically I got a message from the same unexpected person as the that other post with the same title . Not sure what was the last time I chatted with her. Probably during our last meetup last year? This time round, again, she texted me to ask for help, but this time is for a speech she's writing. Before I even glanced at the script she sent me, I had already guessed that it must be her valedictorian speech, and I was right! Didn't expect any less from you, Cha! No pressure, though :p. But yeah anyway, very proud of her and I must say that I'm very surprised that she thought of me when she's looking for help with that. Honestly I don't get how people who ask me for help could even remember me; I always feel that I don't leave much of ...

Hi readers! It's been quite a while again since the last post (about a month). And just like I said in the comment of my last post, nothing really happens between us afterwards. It was probably my fault for not being there for her, but the difference in timezone at that time was really going to affect my work if we were to keep up our same routine when we were only 2-3 timezones away. Anyway, she's taken so that's probably for the best. Today's post wasn't supposed to be about her. It's about what I felt every time during this time of the year. What's with around this time of the year, you ask? It's the Vesak season, you uneducated moron (jk, I understand Buddhism doesn't get as much love in the "west" compared to other Asian religions. Funny that I used the word "west";  she was always so worked up every time I used the word to generalize cultures that are not "Asian"). Anyway, I digressed. Around this time of th...

So a friend who I knew from my internship in Sydney a couple of years ago came over to Singapore for the whole week last week. She said she did that because the tickets were very expensive if she was to fly back to Sydney right after the long weekend (it was the long weekend Easter holiday, and Sydney had the Friday and Monday off). For some reason, we ended up practically dating for the whole week. So it all started a few weeks leading up to her vacation to these parts. For some reason she messaged me almost every day in the different platforms where we are connected (there were just two basically, but for some reason we jumped back and forth between the two platforms depending on the time of the day). We were initially just talking about work stuff mostly, and some personal, but still work-related stuff like how I kept going back to the office on weekends ( :'( ) and how her rating during the last performance review was below her expectation (it was actually fine... But she...

Hi readers! Firstly I apologize for abandoning this blog for 3 months! The first month was due to me being busy with schoolwork (it being my last semester as an undergrad and stuff). The next month was due to me being busy having fun traveling a bit (grad trip hype woots). And the last month was due to me being lazy... Sigh. It is now nearing the end of my very last long break before I start working for real. It seems that I didn't see the importance of making it *really* counts, despite it being my very last holiday as a student. I did fill it with some interesting things in the first few weeks as you can tell from the summary of my last 3 months in the first paragraph, however after I was back from those trips, I am back to the same old me, lazing about in my house doing nothing much but eat, sleep, and play. Did I do whatever I can to make it counts? Is it money that held me back from doing more? Or simply my laziness? Looking at my bank account right now, it seems ...

Hi readers! It feel so surreal to be finally back to Singapore and my busyness as an NUS student. Did I really go to China for an exchange last semester? Just slightly more than 2 months ago I was still there? Doesn't feel like it at all, especially when you are 5 km deep within seas of responsibilities and school work. Just to update you guys, I am enrolled in Facebook Open Academy programme through my university this semester. It is basically a programme where students work on an open-source projects and Facebook becomes the intermediary between the project owners/IC and the universities. It took quite a lot of my time as the demand from my university is quite high regarding this, and I have been under-delivering results. Also, I become a laboratory teaching assistant for Data Structures and Algorithm I course in NUS, which takes much more time than I expected. However, for the money (which I need desperately) I shall persevere! Now, I am 2 paragraphs in and not a ment...

Hi readers! In a blink of an eye, it's already mid-December; more than a month after my previous post, and less than a month before my departure to Singapore. How time flies indeed... Especially when you busy making the most out of the days you have left here in China. Today was an especially fulfilling one.

Hi readers! Didn't realize it has been a month since the last time I posted! Actually there has been a lot of things happening in between (actually just the past 2 weeks had been pretty intense, the other 2 weeks were pretty boring). Just as a preview, I went to Xi'An with "the girl from the summer trip" (here onwards will be referred to as "the girl") and some bull crap happened during (or rather, after) that trip. But that's a story for another post (don't worry, this time I MOST LIKELY will post it since I already wrote the hard copy during the train ride back to Beijing). Also, last Thursday, I just experienced the first snow in my life! And it was a pretty one at that! (the rather thick kind, doesn't make you drenced if it falls on you, and can be used to build snowman and throw snowballs). Those two are not going to be about that trip, however. Just a few days ago, a monk from Indonesia came over to Beijing to celebrate Kathina with the ...

Hi readers! Has it been quite some time since the last time I posted (as usual)? Though it was only about 1 month, it feels like ages ago. You all will see why shortly. So just to keep you all readers up to speed, after my last post, school starts and I might have made some irrational/bad decisions regarding my modules, which, despite not jeopardizing my workload on other semesters to graduate on time, will evoke certain kinds of judgements towards me. Thing is, I dropped a course in favour of a Chinese class whose credit I cannot transfer back to my home university, and I started off with few coursesin the first place so by dropping that particular course, I am now in a position of only mapping 3 courses out of the supposedly 5 courses per semester (according to NUS standard). However, as it turned out one of the courses I managed to map supposed to be mapped to a higher level course in NUS whose pre-requisite I have not met, and thus I feel like dropping it too. However, if I drop ...