Cooking day

Have offered to cook this Saturday night's dinner for ~15-20people later. Viks is missing out on this! Haha.. Menu for the night:

• Black pepper fried rice + some other kind of fried rice coz I don't have enough black pepper seasoning I think
• Two different kinds of fried chicken - one with cornflakes, and the other with hopefully what will turn out as some nice batter ;)
• Fried spanish-ish omelette (Spanish-ish coz I don't think it's exactly a spanish omelette)
• Fried salad with some weird & wonderful dressing
• Fried Tiramisu (new ingredient added to the old recipe...don't know how it will turn out)
• Fried Chilled strawberry cheesecake - my very very first attempt at any sort of cheesecake. Hope it turns out alright. *Keeping my fingers crossed!*

Ambitious huh...hopefully everything turns out alright lah. This dinner gathering is also partially to wish my boy gambatte for tomorrow's Great North Run! Let's hope he finishes faster than 2 hours 40 minutes coz that's what I managed last year crosses the finish line!!

Need to call home and start cooking soon. Love cooking & trying new stuff. Just don't like to clean up afterwards. Damn.

Ponteng kelas

I'm such a bad medical student. Don't study, now I even skip lectures. Oh what is to become of me? *guilt ridden like hell now but too late to go for the 3pm lecture anyway...shall I go for the 4pm one?*

*update - In the end I didn't attend the 4pm lecture. Instead I went shopping for tomorrow's dinner --> fried rice, fried chicken, fried salad, & desserts.*

Photos

This is a photo of my/Cyn's/Alvin's feet at the beach in front of Swiss Garden Resort back home. (yes i know i've got big ugly veiny feet, so what!)









That's the middle finger that Cyn gave me while I was trying to take a nice photograph of her lying down on the bench exhausted and half-dead after climbing 40 mins up a hill before dawn during our summer holiday. Cyn's my best friend from back home, who's currently in Dublin suffering worse forms of torture as a medic student there ;D



That's the rat that one of my dogs hunted & brought into the
house from the garden, dangling it from her mouth.
Gross, but fascinating! Haha...



Oklah, enough for now. Very slow to upload the pics. What, you thought that I was going to upload photos of myself? Forget it! Wait til I lose about 10 kgs first or something ;D

Annoying people who talk too loud in public places

In the computer cluster in the library now. (1st time blogging from uni!) Finished my seminar in 20 mins (which they timetabled us for a bloody 1 1/2 hours!). Got 2 lectures later at 3pm-5pm. Then hopefully later go out on a dinner date with my boy²! *g* Plus it's late nite shopping tonight. Hehehe...Haven't gone out for a date in like, the longest time man. You'd think we weren't even paktor-ing or something ;P Aih, whatodo...this is what happens when you stay together, or have stayed together for a couple of years now. So girls, before you commit to anyone, make sure he pampers you enough beforehand, and if you're one of those lucky ones, then he'll pamper you til you're 80 and using a walking frame ^g^ A girl can dream, can't she? Haha.. Anyway, our 3rd anniversary since we got together is coming up in a month's time!! Yippee!! How time flies huh. (Don't remind me, I know I'm getting olddddd...)

My 'getting annoyed' level was steadily rising just now as this idiot bugger (hmm, that rhymes with fucker) who wasn't even using the computers stopped by the computer next to mine to chat with (or maybe chat up, who knows what his true intentions were) this girl for the last 15 minutes or so. Talking is fine, since we're not technically in the library per se, but then again, talk softly lah darn it! These people ar...talk so loud that the whole cluster can listen in on their conversation about which phone are you buying lah, if you buy phones from 3 you can only get them 'unlocked' from the dealer la, whether or not you're going for medsoc later lah...isshhhh geram! Want to chat up a girl, go do it somewhere more private la dude!

Mmm...hungry hungry. Ate my lunch for breakfast this morning before I went out. Too kiam siap & lazy to get any food now. My stomach shall have to wait til dinner time. *growl*

Geek vs Nerd? Diss-secting vs Die-secting? To-ma-toes vs Te-may-toes?

geek  /gik/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciatio

–noun Slang.

1. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
2. a peculiar or offensive (eccentric) person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
3. an expert in computers (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)

[Origin: 1915–20; prob. var. of geck (mainly Scots) fool <>gek]

geek. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1), Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/geek (accessed: September 27, 2006). (Chicago referencing style)

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nerd

1. (slang) A generally intelligent person who shows interest and aptitude in multiple, usually academic-related subjects (as opposed to geeks, who are only interested in one such subject). This definition is independent of social skills.
2. (slang) A person with a passion for a seemingly trivial and non-sports related pursuit, misunderstood by society at large but proud of personal achievements.
3. (slang) A Geek with social skills, who fits in well in most groups. (?!!??)

(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nerd)

nerd also nurd (n�rd)
n. Slan.

1. A foolish, inept, or unattractive person.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

[Perhaps after Nerd, a character in If I Ran the Zoo, by Theodor Seuss Geisel.]

"nerd." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 27 Sep. 2006. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nerd&r=66> (MLA referencing style)

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Wah...so rajin huh, go and look up the meanings of these words AS WELL AS cite the reference! Unheard of when I'm studying! Hahaha... Anyway, the subject of geek vs nerd came up as I was channel surfing Telewest earlier (what to do, CSI finished already, nothing else better to watch), and I came across the show 'Beauty & The Geek'. As a passing thought, I wondered what the difference was between 'geek' and 'nerd', and why the show wasn't called 'Beauty & The Nerd' instead, aside from 'geek' sounding better lah. A few of the male contestants included an MIT graduate (who wasn't too shabby looking actually), a museum critic (didn't know such job positions existed! but then again, anything's possible), and a chess champion, or something to that effect.

A few of my housemates kindly enlightened me on the fact that geeks are usually more associated with computers (though not necessarily so, as it can be used to term anyone who's fanatic about something, e.g. American Idol geek who professes to know everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about all the ongoings of American Idol...I'm just a junkie, not a geek...haven't reached that level yet! ;p), while nerds are more knowledge-based/academically-focused and usually more socially inept than geeks. So, would you prefer to be called a nerd or a geek? I suppose that question's irrelevant anyway because they're actually two different things, although judging from the meanings given by various online dictionaries (as demonstrated above) these two words can be used quite interchangeably. And I really don't get the meaning given by Wiktionary (re: nerd = a geek with social skills?) Whatever...!!

And while we were discussing this earlier, the topic of how to pronunciate (or enunciate?) certain words came into the discussion as well. How would you normally pronounce the word 'dissect' (or dissection)? Don't think about it, I mean instinctively, how would you say it? Dai-sect? or Diss-sect? Apparently, the word dissection comes from 'dis' and 'section' (as in to section). So, if you think of other words such as disregard, dismember, or dissociate, they are all pronounced as diss-(insert other half of the word here), instead of dai-...Blame it on watching too much American tv shows/movies And we haven't even gone into the territory of mee-grain or my-grain, which will give me a migraine soon enough if I keep on harping on this subject!

Watched bits and parts of CSI (Las Vegas, which beats CSI Miami or NY hands down!!) earlier on TV with one of my housemates (who reads this blog as well, so I can't say anything bad about him lest he refuses to cook nasi lemak for us to eat this Friday!), and we kinda came to the conclusion that there seems to be a trend emerging in a few of the recent tv series -- young 20-something attractive independent girls seem to be gravitating towards (i.e. attracted to), get this, 'older 40-ish, anti-social, authoritative/in-power, intelligent, single' men!! And having stubble helps some men look cooler too. Haha.. Oklar, I've only got 2 examples so far, which are Grissom in CSI and his younger female colleague (can't remember her name, the one with the dark brown hair), and Cameron & House in, what else but House M.D. Oh yeah, wasn't it the same with Monica & Richard (I think that's his name) in the earlier seasons of Friends? Ah, and how can I forget, our very own Siti Nurhaliza & Dr K!! Growing trend? Maybe, maybe not. You decide!

Gawd..it's 4am already. BUT I only start at 11am tomorrow. Fab!! Yes Viks, 4th year rules! (Well, for the 1st semester at least!!)

Ramblings...

Another day, another story to tell. Or maybe not.

As I sit in front of my laptop trying to think of interesting things to write about (so that this blog doesn't seem quite so mundane and boring!), I realise that what I usually write about is quite bimboistic superficial. I mean, compared to some of the other blogs that I read every now and again, they're mostly quite 'deep' or reflective, discussing about important world/life-changing events, and here I am rambling and grumbling about little unimportant superficial issues in life, mumbling and bumbling along. But then I thought, what da hell, this IS my blog and I'm entitled to write whatever I feel like writing in it, and if anyone who reads it thinks any less of me they can just eff off who cares, rite? (You can tell that I just learned how to do strikeouts hahaha)

Well, I tried to think of writing something about how my day as a 4th year med student goes by, but then again, how interesting is it to read about going to lectures 4 hours a day, going for group seminars 2 hours a day, 4 days of the week (ooh we get Wednesdays' off though! ), and then repeat routine for 12 weeks? Even if you're not bored, I am! Wait til I'm doing my SSCs beginning of next year, then I'm sure I'll have more interesting stories to write about, e.g. my 12 failed attempts to get a venflon in a patient's hand bleeding him half to death/turning bright red with embarassment coz I did something stupid like trip over a patient's catheter stand/put my foot in my mouth and said something really idiotic etc. Just you wait...

Hmmm...what else could I write about leh? Bitching Singing praises Gossiping Blogging about my housemates? Erm, better not lah. What if they read this and declare war on me in the house later? Die la...cannot, cannot. Unsafe territory.

Oh well, can't think of anything ah now. I'll just do the usual and post some youtube vids up of a couple of songs I like right now. First one is 'Lover All Alone' by Clay Aiken. New image, new album, preferred his old hair style and thought WTF when I heard he was COVERING TEN old songs on his new album. Darn it! I like all the new songs though, and this includes Lover All Alone which is not on the album, but available from iTunes (hmm, sounds like I'm doing a commercial here). Anyway, I like this song and Everything I Have from his new album A Thousand Different Ways. Doubt if the album is ever gonna land on UK shores though. I wonder.

Here are the lyrics to go with it:

Lover All Alone (Lyrics)

maybe i've convinced myself i've really been in love
and i've been wrong all along
for all i know the feel and th epicture that i've tried
so hard to find isn't mine

could be its all just a waiting game
wanna share my everything

and on my own
its hard to tell my heart it will be alright
this love it holds will one day find a home
as hard as love can be
its harder still it seems
to be a lover all alone without love

picking up the pieces makes me wonder if
i only build it all to watch it fall
the faster it can go away it means the less of me
is gone to stay and i'm ok

but i've found(?) tomorrow comes anyway
i'm alone for another day, another day

and on my own
its hard to tell my heart it will be alright
that this love it holds will one day find a home
as hard as love can be
its harder still it seems
to be a lover all alone without love

and on my own
its hard to tell my heart it will be alright
that this love it holds will one day find a home
as hard as love can be
its harder still it seems
to be a lover all alone without love
a lover all alone... without love

maybe i've convinced myself i've really been in love
but i've been wrong all along

The other song is called 'A Song For You' by Leon Russell (or maybe it's by Donny Hathaway, I'm not too sure). It's been covered by many different artists from a couple of decades ago to a few months ago, including Whitney Houston (which judging from the comments on Youtube is what people are saying is the best version, but to each his own), Michael Buble, Christina Aguilera with Herbie Hancock (jazz pianist? I think...) and Beyonce. But the one I'm putting up is Elliott Yamin's version during American Idol, coz I think it's pretty good without too many runs or vocal histrionics ( I hope I used this term correctly). Enjoy!! *g*

A Song For You

I've been so many places in my life and time
I've sung a lot of songs I've made some bad rhyme
I've acted out my love in stages
With ten thousand people watching
But we're alone now and I'm singing this song for you

I know your image of me is what I hope to be
I've treated you unkindly but darlin' can't you see
There's no one more important to me
Darlin' can't you please see through me
Cause we're alone now and I'm singing this song for you

You taught me precious secrets of the truth witholding nothing
You came out in front and I was hiding
But now I'm so much better and if my words don't come together
Listen to the melody cause my love is in there hiding

I love you in a place where there's no space or time
I love you for in my life you are a friend of mine
And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
We were alone and I was singing this song for you

Yes I'm an American Idol junkie as well, if you haven't realised by now. Sheesh.

Another weekend gone by...

Sigh, the weekend went by just like that. Totally unproductive, laid-back, lazy weekend. And it's Monday AGAIN tomorrow. *yawn* Haven't even looked at my timetable yet. Arghhh damn I'm just too lazy, darn it!

Watched 'Hoodwinked' with Luke on my new 15.4" widescreen Dell just now. Testing the screen mah. Haha..it was good! Only thing about the laptop is that the speakers don't give you the rich bass sounds that external speakers normally do. Other than that, no real complaints, I guess. The movie was alright, basically just a spin on the ol' Red Riding Hood story. Wouldn't have paid £5 to go watch this 3D animated hour-long show at the cinema though, unlike some people heheheh. Not worth the £££ I suppose. Plus, the movie required you to sit through it and pay attention to what's going on and who's saying what, otherwise you'll get lost in the twists and turns of the plot. You know, it's one of those kinda 'intellectual' movies, not the kind of lame-ass comedies that you don't really have to concentrate on, i.e. hear but not listen, if you get what I mean.

Anyway, if you're bored and aimless like me, nothing better to do, goto www.miniclip.com and have some 'fun' playing tons of mind-boggling or maybe not-so-mind-boggling free games online. Also, if you want to listen to some good free music online and you've got a decent internet connection, goto www.clearchannelmusic.com where there's free streaming of full new CDs/in-studio recordings/concerts of various artists.

Too lazy to write anything more. Need to look up my timetable for tomorrow. And shit I still haven't cleaned up my room yet. Darnit!