..:: 614. The One With Marley & Me ::..

Marley and me was such a nice show... surprisingly not much humour from owen wilson. the firm sequence was jumbled up. can be quite confusing but i guess it is better than playing the whole life story. i think it is an interesting way to film... how they focus on the human elements and "downplay" the part that the dog has already been part of the family and present at every special moment - getting job, moving house, having children. the dog does not love u less when u have children. in fact, the dog loved the children.

why watch?
jennifer aniston! oh towards the end it was so touching... whenever i see her tear, it warms my heart... the children crying over the dog, that was when you can hear girls crying in the cinema. didnt quite expect that. i thought it would be like mr shaggy kind of laugh and forget show but it did leave a warm feeling after the show.

eric dane. the plastic surgeon on grey's anatomy. he was pretty much blabbering nonsense though :( would love if he had more screen time and he looked like he didnt train for quite some time. lol.

back to american idol, i was spot on! managed to rush back in time to catch adam got into the top 12.

oh, something i am irritated about. have you ever gone on public transport (bus, train) and have people playing mp3 through their phones loudly? i was thinking whether the next time i encounter it, i should step up and comment... dunno which approach is the best?

1. Do you mind using a earpiece? (when i am in a good mood and the person is good looking)

2. Your music sucks and we dont want to hear it (when i am pissed and the person is an ah beng or equivalent)

3. Your parents never teach you manners ar? (when i am faced with secondary schools kids)

4. Put on your f***in earpiece! (when i feel like getting into a fight or i am able to make a strategic exit)

lol maybe i am not that daring and vocal after all, i might just keep turning to look at the person with a frown and hope he/she gets the hint.

gosh some of the songs they play... really reflect their "class"...

..:: 613. The One With AI ::..

"adapted from my entry in one of my module blog"

I was watching the 9pm news today and they were showing this youtube video that was the most watched for this week. It involved a lady who became hysterical when she missed her flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVw7entkxg

The whole issue was not about the individual missing the flight but more of stereotyping like how it was "typical" for a chinese to behave like this, etc. As many have mentioned, it was also a case of self-discrimination, "chinese bashing chinese". There are also subtle differences (probably arising from politics and history) in how Chinese view themselves, especially Chinese from China, Hongkong and Taiwan. So, beware of how you generalise Chinese in different countries.

Today's american idol is so entertaining =) wonder why ch 5 decided to insert the local live and loaded into the 11pm slot :( now i have to wait till tml to watch the remaining contestants.

the 16yo Allison Iraheta is amazing... she is a sure-in for top 12. red hair and great voice. her rendition of alone by heart was O_O and look at the way she worked her mike and stage... cant believe she is only 16.



Kris Allen. i hope he gets in. firstly, he is so handsome and cute to look at even from a guy's perspective. plus, he sure gets votes from the chicks cos he is great with those soulful and blue songs. he turned it on and did his version of michael jackson song (Man in the mirror) which simon cowell surprisingly loved. i like it towards the end where he got more comfortable.



Last contestant (which i havent watched the entire show) i hope will get in is Adam Lambert. He got such a unique and mysterious look. i think he could be a damn gd rocker like chris daughtry.

haha cant wait for tml, just happen to watch it on youtube. gosh i was right. amazing.

..:: 612. The One With I Want To Go BKK ::..

ok. i am desperate to go bkk. anyone??? haha. i wanna go on first week of april which is their new year and water festival. so fun. get splashed for free. no need to go big splash.

just ended another group assignment by my wonderful rubric-queen prof. but i guess many will miss her as after recess it will be another boring chinese prof. hopefully none of that fengshui thing. for hr metrics, imagine he teaches you which angle to put the lucky charm in your company so that you will have good financial performance. miss 1 angle, lose how much profit. lol.

project overload in this recess week. i have 2 project meetings every day. fyp last lap.

i love "he just not that into you" though its a chick flick and quite crappy but i still enjoy watching jennifer aniston on screen. marley and me next! anyone?

..:: 611. The One With My BirthdaY ::..

happy birthday to myself!

this year so happy. first time celebrate in singapore after 2007 in finland and 2008 in china.

first off, thanks to all the well wishes and presents...

jiejiun - red limited edition puma watch
jiexi - mr. bump pouch
jiayi and yash - airasia e voucher and very cute and sweet powerpoint



*hearts* and loves my fyp mates. when i checked my mail at 12mn, i got an email prompt to redeem my voucher, i almost thought it was a spam until i saw their names. interesting gift! and i so wanted to travel to bangkok.

dinner at merchant and birthday song! thanks so much.

..:: 610. The One With Touch My Body ::..

saw this damn funny youtube video of a korean guy singing my idol's song. watch it and have a good laugh. must cross check the lyrics then u will find it more funny how he pronounces.



just watched american idol group 1 performance. i hope Alexis Grace, Anoop Desai, Danny Gokey get into top 12! they were awesome...

..:: 609. The One With Slumdog ::..

great show! i think it was better than benjamin button though. meaningful plot and reflect the "dark" side of india, especially with the children forced to beg on the streets. got me worried a little about my trip to india. more variation in the humor part, compared with benjamin button's old man being struck by lightning seven times scenes.

yest played mahjong, gosh bad luck man, never win anything. :( think its a sign to tell me to stop playing.

so happy bought my belt from vol.ta. unique belt.

cant wait to catch american idol later. bride wars anyone?

..:: 608. The One With Awesome Week ::..

so happy that i caught curious case of benjamin button. strangely i dont find it draggy or long-winded. perhaps i am busy anticipating how brad pitt turns out as he grows younger. wonder how much make-up they need to cover the mrt lines on his forehead. that is why at a certain stage when he was supposed to portray a teenager, he had headband on. even botox could not help. lol.

i want to watch slumdog! anyone?

spent monday afternoon in the hot blazing sun at gul road. going door-to-door to give surveys to the SMEs was freaking tiring. Poor yash has to go around in high heels and after we left the place, we smelt like metal rust, rotten banana and all the weird smell you get from warehouses.

went suntec to meet some ceo, wow, the view from the conference room is so nice. 33rd floor. see all the hotels and even marina bay. hope we managed our impressions well. =) had great phad thai thanks to yash's recommendation.

today i had an amazing psychology presentation. had to do it alone cos my group mates were psy majors and had to study for tests. So one-man show it was. i was glad i was the last one to present... save the best for the last :P

the prof's words "very good presentation" just sank in and fed my ego. for the learning points, she just had to read off my slides. was rather pleased with the slides cos i included frequency tables, defined every concept and drew correlations. my group mates said "no wonder you were from business". double ego-boost!

lastly, just when the class ended, another classmate came to me and requested whether i could send her my slides. o_O i was taken aback but agreed in the end, how could i say no right? triple ego-boost.

walked out of the classroom with a big head. haha.

birthday coming soon. no plans yet. should i do a shopping spree?

..:: 607. The One With V Day ::..

started the day volunteering with my red cross friends doing footdrill competition. was the competition official and it was fun. the poor cadets must be feeling stressed so i tried to be as nice as i could. the 7 teams i took were generally ok but perhaps the commanders were not exactly up to my expectations. how well the squad performs really depends on the commander's judgment as i believe all the schools have been training hard for this day. there were a few who gave wrong commands which sets themselves apart literally when the squads marched out of the boundaries.

made me reflect on the days when i was competing. the competition was so much tougher then. had a 2 day event rather than 1 now. Competed in the district level and the top 2 would enter the finals. During my time as a pioneer batch, we have so much drive. the first year we participated, we trained hard and you could see the teamwork and the desire to win in everyone's eyes. we had training twice a week and a training camp over the holidays. everyone pulled their weights, we spent little time settling individual differences and the product was a first runner up in our first attempt for a new school. Of course going into finals, we aimed to have our standards as close to the top schools. during my time, the CHIJ(TP), RGS and RI were the powerhouses. missed those times...

the final round this year was a fancy drill component. i dont understand why the first few teams had to count out loud while executing. maybe the echo from the music? but the main aim is to use the beat of the music to execute your drills right?

Also, i found another use for my 11B (green IC)! 1 for 1 buffet at holiday inn. surprised! anyway food is nice and so is the band.

you would have notice that there are a lot of singles during vday if you go lan-gaming. practically every lan shop is FULL! arghz. we went around hunting for one to play left 4 dead but couldnt :( in the end, we found one lan shop and played random games for near to 4 hours.

..:: 606. The One With Boredom ::..

two interesting encounters today.

first, one chinese student was trying to tap his matriculation card to board the bus. i guess you can forgive people for some moments when they slipped up.

second, something that i cannot stand. this girl waited for the bus to stop and dig in her bag to find her ez link card. in the end, the bus drove off cos she didnt sound off nor ring the bell in time. if you know you going to alight soon, get your damn card/wallet ready. dont make the whole bus wait for you. arghz.

managed to finish 4 essays in 1.5 days. quite a record for me not to mention mentally draining. the most useless essay i have ever done. reflection on role of hr metrics and strategic hr. to think my prof mention that she updates her contents every year but her lecture notes still dated 2005.

reflection should be straight to the point. dunno why would people want to even force an analogy in reflection when it doesnt make any sense. i squirmed while reading it.

did this 25 random things for my psychology module on self-construal.

1. my old name was TAN JIAN LIANG JOHN, got my new name from a fengshui master and hence I am known as CHEN XING TIAN JOHN now.

2. when i order mac, i always change my soft drink to milk.

3. i love travelling. i would spend my last penny on travelling.

4. i may do extreme things to make a person happy. when i see the person happy, i feel even happier.

5. i hate people walking slowly in front of me. maybe i am impatient.

6. i hate it when people tell me i should eat more. in fact, i eat a lot just that i dont grow fat.

7. i can be critical to the people close to me. it's a form of being frank and straightforward but somehow ended up offending people.

8. i am a super competitive person but of cos winning is not everything.

9. i try very hard to be tidy and i admire people who are neat.

10. i am a sensitive new age guy. i would end up thinking too much about how people think of me.

11. i immerse myself in fashion, at least i try. so i am willing to spend a lot on clothes.

12. i enjoy "bimbotic" and brainless shows like america's next top model and sex and the city.

13. dramas with hospital setting are must-watch for me like grey's anatomy and new heart (korean)

14. i love to dance. that is why i love to club as well. i am now into ballroom/social dancing.

15. i enjoy staying alone.

16. i dislike storerooms cos that is where i got the scar on my forehead.

17. i suppress my aggression very well. size is not in question.

18. i buy a shirt every month. cant wait for uniqlo

19. i love late night suppers.

20. i have been in red cross for 10 years and counting.

21. i would like to train up and have a try at modelling. (dont laugh). burberry uses lean guys.

22. i dont use wax. they spoil my hair.

23. i go for facial and use a variety of face products from scrub to cleanser to toner to hydrating gel to eye cream to moisturizer, etc.

24. i love to play volleyball - indoor or beach.

25. i love my friends, cannot do without them.