sure enough, the international lecturer gave us another surprise quiz.. shd hav double up my revision speed if i knew it earlier.. she realli love surprises, dont she??
jus hope my interest for international econs will not wane bcos of her..

got many things on my to-do list..
n looks like i need to move up my thesis research to top 3 position given the way thing goes..
haiz.. how to kick myself out of screensaver mode?? i hav too great inertia... lol..

today is the start of IT show.. wanted to get a digital camera.. that is e only item on my 'want' list now.. rare occasion.. hah.. but it is held in expo!!! stupid, so far away.. have no time to go there leh.. sianz.. n i oso haven even decide which brand to buy.. plus i super broke now.. now i truly believe that comsumption is a function of income.. ever since i started giving tuition early this yr, my expenditure has been only showing one trend: up north..
n e worse thing is most of e time i spend most of my tuition pay in advance (result of lack of self-control)!! have not been able to save much =( no wonder FK is shaking his head when i once told him this n he say tt PY will like me alot.. =D
back to e cam, hope i save up enough so my sis n i can share n buy one hopefully by end of e yr... if not she will nag again (she wanted e cam more than i do but she is equally broke).. =P

Scribbled by JuN at {12:25 am}

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cant believe it is already the third week which means e start of tutorial... ahhh..
n of all things, econo 2 tut starts later @ 10am.. hmph.. always thought tt econo tut will begin on the 4th wk.. now at a lost over how to prepare for tut.. jus crossing my fingers hoping that there is nothing like wat happen in international 2 lec last wk.. had a surprise quiz during tt lec last week, totally caught me off guard.. cos i haven been studying at all since it is onli e 2nd week aka honeymoon period.. now all my econs frens all on their toes, wondering wat kind of stunt will e lecturer dish out later..

still couldnt get myself out of e holiday mood.. having been watching dramas and doing zero work during e past 2 weeks.. perhaps i shd stop watching drama completely.. cos im e kind tt cant stop once i start.. n it oso din help tt i have quite a slack week ( 2 of my lecturers are overseas = no lesson) and i have quite a fair bit of activities lined up... well, looks like by hook or by crook i must get into school mode.. so many things to do and catch up... hope i dun disappoint myself..

Scribbled by JuN at {2:08 am}

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first full-attendance gathering for the econs gang (for those who are in yr 4)!! ^^
has been more than 1.5 month since we has such a gathering..
jingni even skip her lecture to come for it.. hah..
anyway went to get stuff with her for accessories-making before meeting up.. think we need to curb our cost liao.. kinda spending more than wat we would like..
n to my surprise, chinatown is actually quite a good place to shop!!
it is somewhat becoming like bugis village although bugis village still win hands down in terms of variety n perhaps price..
perhaps i ought to frequent chinatown more often, can also shun bian visit some of my frens..

back to the outing, we gather to celebrate sylvia's birthday..
n obviously we went to ktv..
start to like this ktv joint.. think i will start to 'ditch' kbox n partyworld liao.. lol..
its good, cosy & cheap!! =P

too bad quite a num of them need to leave before dinner n yenting couldnt come for dinner at e 11th hour..
nevertheless, enjoy every min of the gathering.. =)





















during ktv






















aft dinner

Scribbled by JuN at {11:35 pm}

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Cast:Patrick Tse, Andrew Yuen Man Kit, Michelle Ye, Pinky Cheung Man Chi, Gilbert Lam Wai Sun, Jo Koo, Raymond Wong Ho Yin, Bobby Dou, Faye Tung, Zuki Lee, Ben Cheung Ga Lun, Lui Yau Wai, Bao Hei Ching, Winnie Leung

Story:
It evolves around MIG Insurance Company established by Ching Man Ho (Patrick Tse), unfolding a series of power struggles in the company which further extends to the complicated relationships between two generations. The drama follows female lead Season Shum's (Michelle Ye) development from a simple and innocent girl to an unscrupulous businesswoman who betrays her family, friends and lover to achieve her goal.






















Review:
A fast paced drama with rather thick plot.. the story is rather captivating although it has some not-so-good scenes too.. it protrays the darker side of human.. greed, betrayal, lies, backstabbing.. somewhat find it hard to believe that a person can turn to the dark side within such a short period of time and can be so coldblooded.. nothing much to complain about the plot.. except the rather abrupt change of the male lead without much explanation & not forgetting the ending.. it is realli heartbreaking to see the 2 persons who are so in love with each other could be be together in the end due to external circumstances n Rachel (Jo Koo) 伊人独憔悴 *sad*




















For the acting, Patrick did a convincing job.. now i understood why he is so famous in the 60s & 70s. n he sure knows how to keep fit.. i can still see his muscles (even though he is almost 70 yrs old!!) when he wore fitting clothes in some of the scenes!! *wow*
with regard to michelle, i will not say that her acting is fantastic.. i feel that she has the same expression (cold looks and smiles) most of the time.. perhaps she is the way she is to protray the career-oriented Season, but i feel that there is more sides of Season than that.. nevertheless she looks gorgeous in this show, most of the clothes she wears simply bring out her elegance and style.. how i wish i hav such good fashion taste.. hee..
coming to raymond.. hmm, one shuai ge.. lol.. i can say that he did a good job.. there were times i jus wish he is dead, but towards the end, i actually pity him.. personally i think he ought to brush up on his emotions scenes, somehow there are times i couldnt feel his anguish/ 'cunningness'.. n also he ought to be given more screen time to show his softer side which i believe he has.. cant believe anyone can be so... lack of humanity.. it shudders me to imagine a person completely turning into another man jus out of the blue.. 难道人真的这么善变？there must have some reasons behind..

another thing to add, there is quite a few pretty actresses in this serial.. besides michelle, pinky, jo koo & winnie leung also have good looks.. personally think jo koo is prettier than michelle.. her features are more delicate.. make me so envious =P




















Credit: www.hkatv.com, http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=13458&page=1 & http://asianfanatics.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t171515.html

Rating: 7.5/10 ( a good drama!!)

Scribbled by JuN at {11:21 pm}

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a historic moment...
where ppl need to change a fact that they learnt it since young for the past 76 yrs...
where all geo n sci textbooks need to be rewritten...

there are only 8 planets as of now in the solar system..
Pluto is 'downgraded' to a 'dwarf planet'.
Reason: its orbit intercept the orbit of Neptune

actually there is no lack of argument about Pluto ever since it was discovered in 1930.
Main reason: it is too small, it is even smaller than our moon!! (& our moon is only the 4th or 5th largest moon in the solar system!!)
furthermore, its orbit is very eccentric as compared to the orbit of the other planets..
but most astronomers kind of close one eye when it comes to Pluto..
the incident that triggered hot debate is when Xena, the so-called 10th planet is discovered in 2003. it is larger and further away than Pluto. so if Pluto is considered a planet, shdnt we define Xena as a planet too??

so the purpose of this 26A International Astronomical Union is to come out with a universal definition of 'planet' as well as to decide if 3 other astromonical objects (Xena, Charon, cant rem e last one) shd be included as planets.
the latter agenda is still ongoing.. so there may be another historic moment in the next few days or so..

what me n my frens find puzzling is why the term 'dwarf planet'? imagine telling others, a planet is a planet but a dwarf planet is not a planet.. i think many ppl will go 'huh??' so why not come out with a new term to prevent confusion? but i guess it is also difficult to coin a new term ba..
all i can say is poor Pluto.. not only does it lost its status as a planet, it may also lose its moon as its moon in future.. its moon, Charon, is proposed to be redefine as a 'dwarf planet'. im really shocked when i read this last week.. still thinking of the rationale behind..

anyway one interesting thing to note. a mere 300 ppl actually change history. although approx 2500 astronomers/ scientists attended this union/meeting, only a small proportion of them (300) actually voted in the 'dwarf planet' issue.. talking about majority wins.. wat about those who din vote? what's their thoughts? can this majority (those who voted) reflect the thoughts of the true 'majority' (all astronomers, at least)?

Scribbled by JuN at {11:23 pm}

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not busy wif work but busy going out, making full use of my free day today.. =P
decided to venture into biz.. not realli a big event, jus wiggling my toes into e world of bazzar.. testin water.. heh.. have been playing with e idea for quite some time but never realli have a chance to do so.. din have a lot of capital to play with.. lol
then heard from jingni last week that she n her frens will be settin up a stall in a bazzar so decide to try for once..

went to look for materials and stuff to sell durin e bazzar.. bought quite a bit of stuff.. and when earrings are going for onli a dollar a pair, i obviously couldnt resist e temptation and bought a few pairs for myself.. =P
oh no, looks like i realli cant kick my soft spot for earrings.. ning is going to scold me liao.. think i bought 7 pair of earrings within these 2 mths even though she alr told me not to buy any more earrings cos my ears cant take so many anyway.. then lost count on the num of earrings bought this yr, or rather, dun dare to count.. one thing for sure, my earrings is standing at 35.. omg.. this means tt e amt of $$ i spent on earrings is actually quite significant..

anyway realise our theme for the stall is not v clear cut, seems like a plate of rojak instead.. think we nid to sort it out.. and now we nid to start making earrings.. praying tt i wont end up liking my creation so much tt i dun wan to sell.. hah.. but my craft skills and creativity is jus average, so doubt if i can come out with quality earrings.. hmm, perhaps i can take a look at my collection or go online to search for inspiration... hee..

then at night meet up with esther n shuying @ MOS for dinner.. so good to see them again.. =) esther say its e first time we met since clubbing, which is like, wow, months ago man! but even then, we still have no lack of topics to talk about and tts great!! cos at times u wont know wat things to say if u haven been in contact for quite a while and e conversation can be rather bland n dull.. its so good to chat with them (from school work grouse to e bag tt my tuition gal gave me (so nice of her, thanks! =] ) to guys to holiday trips to fashion etc), joking among ourselves.. then esther gave me n shuying a pair of earring.. its lovely.. like it lots! n add to to my collection.. heh.. how i wish we can meet up more often, but our timetable seems to be at odd with each other.. but at least we plan to meet up next week liao, cant wait.. hee..

on a more serious tone, read an article in the newspaper which say tt going to univeristy for china students is actualli a disinvestment.. my heart sank aft i complete the reading.. actualli this is not new to me, i have already read many heart ranching stories about how poor families pawn or sell every valuable stuff they can find to send their child/children to uni.. but the facts presented in this article still shocked me to some extent.

first, 4 yrs of uni sch n misc fee = 2 yrs of income of an avg urban family = 7 yrs of income of an avg rural family = 50 yrs of income of an avg rural family living in western china!!! and we are onli talking abt e avg family here!! can imagine the sheer num of cases where the family go practically broke or bet on their entire fortune when their child goes to uni.. it is literally like a gamble.. what if the child, after graduation, decide to forsake their parents?? they will be left with nothing.. & uni fee is not e onli complaint.. read somewhere tt even high school (= JC in spore) sch fees can go up to thousands per yr (= at least S$200, compared with ard S$360 my parents pay per yr for my JC edu).. IMHO, i feel that e govt ought to step in and intervene in the charging of sky-high sch fees that is beyond the reach of a large % of families and also perhaps to provide more scholarships or financial assistant.. the same goes to healthcare too.. im still scratching my head as to why the china govt decided to sort of privatise/deregulate these 2 sectors.. even in spore, these 2 sectors are heavily subsidised by the govt or at least play a significant role..

to make matter worse, the intense compeition for jobs among grads depress wages so it is now no longer true that when you own a degree = you can get a well-paid job.. wat this implies is some grad may not earn enough to make ends meet and some may still even need to depend on their parents! so e $$ tt e parents pour in initially is literally pouring down to a drain.. it may be better if they deposit e $$ into a fixed deposit account, at least it earns a fixed interest rate aka return.

IMHO again, i think the perception of parents plays a part in this situation (low grad pay).. in china, parents tend to have the thinking tt 穷自己却不能穷孩子 & 万般皆下品，唯有读书高。。so they will try all means to send their child to uni when he/she qualifies for a uni, so that he/she can 光宗耀祖。 but they forget about e basics of econs... when supply of one good shifts right, e price goes down! so actually e cleverer way is to go to a vocational sch (= poly in spore) instead.. there is already reports from UK sayin that plumbers and electricians are earning much more than a junior admin staff cos many ppl shun this type of job.. similarly, parents in china will definitely prefer their offspring to get a degree and then get a 9-5pm office job rather than go to a vocational sch then doing a menial job.. perhaps time for parents to change the mindset tt uni is better?? nevertheless it is not going to be easy, in spore it took yrs before parents become more open to poly.. however, even up till now, there are still ppl who think tt students who go to poly are those who cant qualify for JC and therefore interior..

e govt needs to play an active role in correcting the situation.. it is a good thing tt the citizens are receiving more education and it will be a shame if not enough quality jobs are provided for them.. in e long run the country may suffer cos some ppl may be depressed in the dismal job mrkt and decide not to pursue a degree or e grads may choose to migrate in serach of greener pastures which can translate to talent loss/ brain drain.. however i can say tt e govt is in a rather difficult position. on one hand, they did not want the economy to overheat and thus the rationale for raising interest rate.. on the other hand, the cooling down of economy may cause the unemployment problem to be more acute.. there are already millions of workers being retrenched from SOEs (State Owned Entreprise) due to the reforming of SOEs plus millions more of new grads. at the employment front, the situation is already quite gloomy at the current rate of economic growth (approx 9%), wat will happen when e economy is cooled = less jobs created?? but if the economy continues to overheat, there is a risk of high inflation. 难道鱼与熊掌真的不能兼得？

Scribbled by JuN at {2:19 am}

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Starring:
Sheren Tang as Hilda
Melissa Ng as Go Ling
Michael Tse as Ah Man
Raymond Lam as Siu Chai
Kate Tsui as Ida
Kenneth Ma as Ah Lik

Overview:
This story follows the lives of two women: Melissa Ng (Go Ling), the typical traditional woman dominated by the men in her life. Contrasted to her is Sheren Tang (Hilda), the epitome of the modern, successful and independent woman. They work for a company called Pluto and become great friends despite their different personalities. Their love lives are complicated; Melissa is paired with a man seven years her junior, Raymond Lam (Siu Chai), who loved her ever since he was 13. Because of their age difference, they face many problems, such as their family's opposition and their own internal struggles. Sheren, meanwhile, has a one-night stand with Melissa's ex-husband, Michael Tse (Ah Man), who is seen as a real jerk at first. However, their bond grows and we find out than Ah Man is really a kind person.

(Quoted from: http://www.spcnet.tv/reviews/review.php?rID=1187)





















Siu Chai (Rayomond) & Go Ling (Melissa)

Review:
A very light-hearted and entertaining drama.. cant stop once i started..
Although the theme is not at all new (eg a career oriented woman, 姐弟恋), the plot is rather intense with twists here and there, keeping me on e toes.. the characters are well developed and believable (they are not the perfect or too-good-to-be-true type), everyone has his/her flaw(s) and each go thorough a series of ups and downs, making the characters 有血有肉，有欢笑有泪水。




















I personally prefer the office scenes than the love scenes, especially the first few episodes.. reminds me of 'War and beauty' although the level of viscious is nowhere there. the love scenes are onli okay, dun realli feel the chemistry between the various characters except between
kenneth and kate.





















Ah Lik (Kenneth) & Ida (Kate)

For the acting, Sheren Tang realli did an excellent job in this drama! Im already impressed by her acting in 'War & Beauty' and she delivered again in this drama. she fitted the role perfectly. she is so natural in this drama, and handles her emotions very well. and i love wat she wear in the drama, super stylish and elegant.. hmm, perhaps i shd go take note of wat she wear in more details so i know wat to buy for my office wear.. and also have this urge to go shoppin in HK.. heh..





















Then i also like Raymond Lam!! he looks handsome in this drama!! lol.. usually he looks better in period drama than modern drama so imagine my delight when he looks so shuai in here.. hee




















All in all, this is a highly recommended drama. Be sure to watch it!

Rating: 8/10

Photos taken from: http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/la_femme_desperado/scene/index.html

Scribbled by JuN at {5:14 pm}

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before i know it, the first week of school already came and went.. unbelievable..
the lectures are well, so far so good.. cos its onli e first week mah.. hee.. but din realise there is a project for all my econs electives.. *faint* have this nagging feeling tt i will end up exactly what happened to me 3 sems ago.. back then i have a 3 day week, jus like now, plus tonnes of proj, eassys, tutorial assignments.. oh no...
last yr of school liao, still getting used to this fact.. my seniors told me to live it to the fullest, which i will be - start e ball rolling by hooking to dramas/ movies =P have been watching lots yesterday n today.. n somehow i always think today is a saturday.. hah
my stand is - if i do not watch them now, then when will be a good time?? as the weeks goes by, no one period will be a good time.. all e work n my non-academic committment..
one thing for sure, i will be posting drama reviews for the next few weekends.. so do check it out once in a while!

Scribbled by JuN at {4:41 pm}

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When will i be able to afford such cars??
*daydream* =P


















BMW 3 series convertible


















Chevrolet Corvette convertible
(nearly thought that it is a Porsche)

Ford Gt Coupe (another Porsche look-alike)

Ferrari F430 Coupe

Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

Scribbled by JuN at {5:24 pm}

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it has been quite some time since i last uploaded astro pics..
have been out of touch with astro recently.. actually as ive mentioned earlier, almost everything except outings with frens is taking a back seat now due to my dramas & movies committment.. faint rite?? hee..
okay, let's marvel at the beauty of the universe we are living in...






















Eskimo Nebula (cute right??)
Credit: Andrew Fruchter (STScI) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA

























M27 - Dumbbell Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Rick Krejci (RicksAstro Astrophotography)























NGC 2403
Credit & Copyright: Suprime-Cam, Subaru Telescope, NAOJ























NGC 7331
Credit & Copyright: R. Jay GaBany (Cosmotography.com)






















The 2 largest storms in Jupiter.. will they collide to form a supergiant storm?
Credit & Copyright: Travis Rector (U. Alaska), Chad Trujillo (Caltech) et al., Gemini Obs., AURA, NSF























The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
Credit & Copyright: Jim Misti and Steve Mazlin, (acquisition), Robert Gendler (processing)

Credit: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Scribbled by JuN at {11:11 pm}

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