I probably say this pretty often, but you can never be thankful enough, so - THANK YOU cjqsg and Leong Wai Peng for having all these multiple skype conversations with me!!  I always feel a lot surer about myself, my beliefs, my actions, and also a whole lot more relaxed and comforted after chatting with you guys, haha =)

Quoting LWP: "rejection is never complete; there are always aspects of a person people reject, but ultimately there are usually other aspects that people appreciate and like as well".

Amongst other words of wisdom, haha!

I am writing this after some inspiration from dnwq , who reminded me recently that there was still a value in blogging.

(I saw your email but have not had time to read the blog you recommended! I WILL get down to it once my horrible papers and tests end!).

I am ALSO writing this as Finals week at UChicago approaches, so it is truly not a very opportune time to be blogging; I should be studying instead but I am writing this off as break time!

There was an empty space of 2 years (effectively) in between my last post and this one, which coincides of course with time in the army.  It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say of course: the good thing about the army is that it forces you to have real conversation with people, since technology is generally inaccessible there.  Real conversation and blogging are of course qualitatively different, so this isn't an excuse more than it is an observation.

(To be honest, I think the chief reason I paused with blogging was because I simply got lazy!)

I am writing this because looking back on my old posts, I realize there are memories and things that I do want to set down in words; things that cannot simply be talked over with people; things that need to be re-organized intellectually so that one can look back at them (I want to, of course).

It has been almost 3 months at UChicago, and my feelings have (like many others) been on a roller-coaster. Even so, I am happy and thankful for the experience so far.  I have been forced to confront my own beliefs/values, review my own behaviour and actions, and most importantly to try to be true to myself even in a foreign environment.  I am grateful for the people here, especially the special someones who are really the source of my happiness.  Thanks to the people here I don't miss home at all, haha!

Which goes to say, of course, that I'm glad I'm here instead of Yale.

(I LOVE UCHICAGO =))

I will be off to Toronto and mire this Saturday with kaoyi__ , looking forward to a good trip!

(also I hope to better concretize my thoughts once finals and holidays are over =))

I'm rushing back to camp but kissings has been bugging me for a month and my conscience is finally nagging :P

So here are some of the photos! No time to upload all YET so...

Whee!

EDIT: CURRENT GUEST LIST (I.E. COMING)
FOO, PENG, JT (LIVE FIRING), CHEN, KEVIN LIEW, DAVID NG, DAVID CHEW, YZQ, FRANK CHEN, HHC, BENSING, ERVIN, JOE, ME
13 PPL

Every week so far seems to have been some nice cute outing haha!

2 weeks ago (5 July) was Hooked on Heads with David Ng, JT, Peng, Kevin, Colin, BQ, MYF and Joe.
28 June was Table Tennis at Chen's House with Peng, then Cedele with David Ng, JT, Peng, Chen, Joe, BQ, Colin,
14 June was Simpang Bedok with Chen, Zeqi, David Chew, JT, Peng, Kevin.
7 June was The Square at Novotel with David Chew, JT, Peng, Colin, MYF, BQ.
30 May was Chiang Mai Palace Buffet and Narnia at Kallang Leisure Park with JT and Peng.
24 May was dinner at Toa Payoh Block 64 and Brewerkz with David Chew, BQ, JT and Peng.
17 May was a Mount Faber walkathon plus dinner at Fren(s)ch with Kevin, JT and Peng.
10 May was Inspirations VIII at School with JT, Peng, Kevin, Bao He, Bao Peng, Helen, Tiappy, Yan Min, Dun Jie, Kin Shun, Yibing and Lenard.
27 April wasTHE KINGDOM (oh that shitty show) at Marina Square (where we met Kao and LQT) with Kevin, JT and Peng. AND a walk back with Peng to East Coast ZZZ.
19 April was Zhou's Kitchen buffet with JT, Peng, BQ, Chen and Bensing.

SOOO the next event is....dinner this week (NVM lol).

But it's a BIGGER dinner =)
Who's coming or was asked to come: Me, HHC, Frank Chen, Foo, Zeqi, JT, Peng, Kevin, BQ, David Ng, David Chew, Colin, MYF, Chen, TYZ, Bensing, Ervin. THAT MAKES A GRAND TOTAL OF 17 PEOPLE WAHAHA.

What are the plans:

PLAN 1: Dinner buffet at Carousel for $56+++. But that's horribly expensive so forget about this one.

PLAN 2: Set Dinner at Huang Ting. It costs 43++ per person BUT it's 4 for the price of 3 (promotion). So it will cost $38 per person if all 16 of us go =).

The Set on Offer

1. Barbecued Delicacies Platter
2. Thick Soup of Dried Fish Maw with Mushroom Shreds and Bamboo Shoots
3. Nan Tian King Prawn
4. Sautéed Sliced Garoupa Fish
5. Imperial Special Roasted Crispy Chicken
6. Braised “Yuan Yang” Beancurd with Twin Mushroom
7. Stewed Ee-fu Noodles with Mushroom and Chinese Chives
8. Cream of Pumpkin with Ice-cream

PLAN 3: A-la-carte Buffet Dinner at The Paramount (30 East Coast Road, #01-01/01, Paramount Hotel & Shopping Arcade), a Tung Lok Group restaurant. This costs $33.80++ = $40 per person and:

The Menu
厨师长特别介绍
Chef's Special Recommendation

1. 迷你佛跳墙 (每位只限一份)
Mini Monk Jumps Over The Wall
(one serving per person)
or
黄焖鱼鳔翅 (每位只限一份)
Braised Shark’s Fin with Fish Maw
(one serving per person)

(任选一样 Choose One)

2.京式片皮鸭 (每人只限两片)
Beijing Roast Duck
(配于青葱, 青瓜及甜酱 served with Spring Onions, Cucumber & Sweet Sauce) (two slices per person)

3. 鲜虾 (每位只限一百克)
Live Prawns (Limited to 100g per person)
a. 白 灼 虾
Poached Live Prawns

b. 麦 片 虾
Fried Prawns with Oats and Milk

c. 咖 喱 虾 煲
Curry Prawn in Claypot


日本料理
Japanese Cuisine

4. 三文鱼刺身
Salmon Sashimi

5. 加州寿司卷
California Maki

6. 日式盐烧三文鱼头
Grill Teriyaki Salmon Fish Head

餐前小食
Cold Cut and Appetizer

7. 夏威夷披萨
Hawaiian Pizza
or
火鸡磨菇火腿披萨
Turkey Ham Mushroom Pizza

8. 香煎韭菜饺
Pan-fried Chives Dumplings

9. 香煎柳叶鱼
Pan-fried Shisamo

10. 越式炸春卷
Crispy Vietnamese Spring Rolls

11. 皮蛋酸姜
Century Eggs with Pickled Ginger

12. 迷你八爪鱼
Mini Octopus

13. 海蜇熏蹄
Sliced Pork Trotters with Jelly Fish

14. 十全药材烧鸭
Roast Duck with Chinese Herbs

15. 卤味拼盘
‘Teochew’ Style Combination 


汤类
Soup

16. 竹筒鸽盅
Steamed Minced Pigeon Soup in Bamboo Tube

17. 四川酸辣羹
Hot and Sour Soup “Sichuan” Style

18. 是日靓例汤
Soup of The Day 

海鲜/鱼类
Seafood / Fish

19. 鲜果海鲜沙律
Seafood Salad with Fresh Fruit

20. 沙律百花油条
Crispy Fried stuffed Dough Fritters
coated with Mayonnaise

21. 椒盐软壳蟹
Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Salted Pepper

22. 极品酱带子西芹
Sautéed Scallops with Celery in X.O. Sauce

23. 油浸笋壳鱼
Deep-fried Marble Goby Fish
with Chef’s Special Sauce

24. 蒸尼罗红鱼(港蒸, 豆酥, 剁椒)

Steamed Red Tilapia	: Hong Kong Style, topped with Bean Crumbs
	: Pickled Chilli

 
肉类 Meat

25. 镇江排骨
“Zheng Jiang” Pork Ribs

26. 黑椒牛柳粒
French Style Beef Cubes with
Black Pepper Sauce

27. 吊烧童子鸡
Cantonese Style Roast Spring Chicken

28. 姜葱鸵鸟片
Sliced Ostrich Meat with Ginger and Onion

29. 萝卜焖牛腩煲
Stewed Beef Brisket with Turnip in Claypot

30. 桂花叉烧包生菜
Fried Shredded Barbecued Pork with Egg
served with Lettuce and Sweet Sauce

31. 法钵咕噜肉
Sweet and Sour Pork served in Yam Ring


豆腐 / 蔬菜类
Beancurd / Vegetables

32. 鱼香茄子煲
Braised Spicy Egg Plant with
Minced Pork in Claypot

33. 干扁四季豆
Sautéed French Beans with
Minced Pork

34. 麻婆豆腐卷
Crispy Beancurd Rolls with
Spicy Minced Pork

35. 湖南烤酥方
Fried Crispy Beancurd Skin, served with
Pancakes, Sweet Sauce and Spring Onions

36. 白灼西生菜
Poached Lettuce with Light Soya Sauce

37. 金银蛋泡菠菜
Poached Spinach with Three Eggs


饭面类
Rice and Noodle

38. 干烧依面
Braised Ee-fu Noodles with Mushrooms

39. 家乡炒面线
Fried “Mian Xian” in Teochew Style

40. 凉瓜生鱼片焖米粉
Braised Vermicelli with Sliced Fish and
Bitter Gourd with Black Bean Sauce

41. 黑椒蟹肉炒粉丝
Fried Vermicelli and Crab Meat
with Black Pepper Sauce

42. 杨州炒饭
“Yang Zhou” Style Fried Rice

43. 蒸 / 炸馒头
Steamed / Fried Buns


甜品/甜点心
Desserts /Sweet Dian Xin

44. 药材龟苓膏
Herbal Jelly served with Honey

45. 蜜瓜西米露
Chilled Sago Cream with Honey Dew

46. 西米绿豆沙
Sweetened Green Bean Cream with Sago

47. 龙眼豆腐
Chilled Almond Beancurd with Longan

48. 巧克力雪糕
Chocolate Ice Cream

49. 擂沙汤丸
Glutinous Dumpling with Sesame Filling

50. 花生芝麻枣
Sesame Ball with Peanuts Filling

51. 雪糕夹心酥
Ice Cream Puff


So please confirm your attendance! And reply via here or sending me an sms so I can book early =)

Funness.

Whee! Just got back from Japan not too long ago. By some freak stroke of coincidence, I went to the same PLACE as Leong Wai Peng, stayed at the same HOTEL as LWP (The Sheraton Miyako), stayed on the same FLOOR as LWP (the eighth floor), and sat next to him on the same FLIGHT back.

ZZZ LOL.

Anyway, more importantly. For those with livejournal accounts, could you confirm your attendance for the GEP chalet by leaving a comment on this entry? If you know anyone who's coming but doesn't have a LJ account (or isn't looking at this entry) please leave their names too. If you want you can also go bug TYZ to tell him ur coming.

RESPOND FAST COS I NEED TO BOOK THE FOOD FOR THE BBQ. CJQ COMING BACK LATE SO YEAH.

Post prelims ennui mandates a little slackiness or so, and I decided to spend the weekend slacking with a random bike hike with Wei Long and Wai Peng haha. David Ng was supposed to go but I informed him a tad too late. And Mr. Chen Jinquan picked a most superb time to sprain his foot playing soccer -_-". AND MR EDMUND NEO CHOSE TO STAY HOME TO MUG =)


These few years have been rather satisfying for me I suppose. Emotional range has shrunk yet again - I'm starting to (or perhaps always did feel apathetic about the lives of people I know superficially. Loosely term them friends I suppose, but I think these things aren't so consequential to me as they once were. Don't regret my self imposed exclusiveness in mixing with friends over these years - I've always believed that friendship is purely an emotional issue. Never saw the point in forcing myself to mix with people I'm innately biased against or simply don't like for reasons of equity (?) or inclusiveness (more appropriate). My close friends know who they are (yongzi, yzq, bensing, cjqsg, dnwq, night_wraith, Peng, firenblast, kaiyang, occasionally neojr4 =P and a few others) and I've been satisfied these years interacting closely with them. Wai Peng tells me he regrets not interacting with everyone - or giving everyone a chance to be a close friend - but that is a feeling I (unfortunately?) cannot identify with whatsoever.

I suppose it will suffice for the normal person/acquaintance in school to keep his/her impressions of what Calvin Wong is like though. As opposed to most other people, I have come to the conclusion that JC life is the right time to develop emotional independence - especially from new people (new classmates and the like) - for the simple reason that JC (or at least HCJC) seems to be the completely wrong place to develop meaningful relationships (and I don't mean BGRs). What with the increased opportunities for class outings, social interactions and all - the academic atmosphere is far too pervasive; the normal interaction between opposite genders is frequently contrived; and because the tendency for a constant status quo is far too tempting (old classmates and schoolmates just seem so much more understanding and enjoyable to be with). This is not to say that meaningful relationships can't be developed (two sides to every coin, so please don't bug me on this), but the average JC student should focus more on maintaining normal interactions rather than pursuing meaningful relationships.

It is almost tempting sometimes to question one's interactions with friends. Are these interactions meaningful? If my class gels together (appearances, appearances), is it of great consequence to me and my interactions with people in class? Is class spirit just a matter of context and luck (e.g. a class made out of splintered groups from neither nanyang or chinese high, or a HP class consisting of people who...know each other already)? Questions most people won't want to answer, and questions that I have given up answering I am satisfied with whatever I have, I suppose.

I am emotionally upbeat, despite the fact that school is drawing to an end, since I don't have to worry about losing the friends I value. Wished more people would see that exclusiveness is no crime at all (?).

As always, blogging with 8 week hiatus-es in between means you have random snippets of information here and there you simply CANNOT organise into coherent entries (there are a myriad of reasons for this: lack of discipline, lack of brain power, and a happy surplus of distractions).

Snippets like:
- Having stuffed myself at a dim sum buffet with wai peng, chen, bsing, tyz, zeqi, hang, kevin liew and joseph tham
- Having watched movies ranging from la vie en rose to the blossoming of maximo oliveros
- Having bought approximately 20 packets of instant beef noodles from Taiwan, along with 20 packets of nougat and 20 packets of prawn crackers
- Having bought extremely stupid teachers' day presents with gargantuan price discrepancies
- Having realised than one can survive without 8 months of MSN Messanger (and with Gmail Messanger instead). Ha.
- Generally, having slacked more before a major exam than i did before a levels

Also, generally, my memory fails me. My intellectual state of being now is currently extremely screwed, since I'm most probably at the stage of intellectual development where everything seems correct because saying wrong is simply...the wrong thing to do. Which has worked out very well for my GP essays, I suppose, but does nothing else but create a reputation of an extremely flexible wind-blown weed for myself. Oh well.

...

I was looking through a couple of old recordings a few days back, and realised that like thousands of other classical music lovers (especially British ones) around the world, I had a little stash of Joyce Hatto recordings. For the ignorant, Joyce Hatto was the famous British pianist, who despite having a rather lacklustre career, recorded almost 120 fantastic CDs in her old age to become hailed as the most prodiguous of prodigies - the late bloomer. Earlier this year however, a classical music lover who slid a Joyce Hatto CD into his computer had a rude shock, with his iTunes library (linked to over 4 million CDs) identifying it as a recording by - my, my - a Hungarian pianist. Further investigations, of course, threw everything out - practically all of Joyce Hatto's recordings were koped from the CDs of other pianists - mostly, young, non-household names - though from the quality of the recordings, they certainly deserved to be household names.

I've decided, after the A levels, to bug my sister to rip a significant part of my CD collection, then force myself to listen to an uncatalogued array of music. Music, I suppose, is (beyond the pretty notes) creative engagement and communication. We want to be connected to another personality - or we might as well just feed U2 music into a Bono voice synthesizer. If our aesthetic perceptions can be so crudely shaped by our knowledge of an artist's background or story, then maybe the only thing artists need to do is to become famous.

...

On another note, why do people seem so satisfied on achieving intellectual high grounds?

It's amazing how people can be so good at ignoring things.

Like council elections, for example. People can expect reasonable, logical answers while lamenting the lack of humour and charisma at the same time. How they can disguise their desire for bitchfighting amongst the candidates, or for lame answers while groaning whenever one is given. Actually, they groan at practically everything, especially when questions are asked which demand either cliche replies or socially inappropriate lambastings (which candidates are obviously in no position to provide).

It is scary how a cohort consisting of the top 5% of all Singaporean students can be such an animalistic electorate. Is it any wonder then, that there are scattered students around the school who are wholly disillusioned with council and elections? Or dismayed at the fact that Hwa Chong students can actually be so hypocritical?

...

How much social responsibility do we have as parties in societal interactions? How do we, for example, deal with that overwhelming need to assume airs of intellectual superiority when we speak to those who are, bluntly put, more stupid than ourselves. How much responsibility do we have to interactions with others, or is interaction just a matter of personal utility?

What then, is our moral obligation to those who always try to make sure everyone in the crowd is participating? To the person who tries to get rid of feelings of ostracism or alienation parties in social interactions tend to have, what do we owe him?

In a selfish way, I sometimes get the feeling that if I didn't force myself to interact between different social groups and flit around like a butterfly, there would be groups of enemies in my class. I can't really justify why I have this strong feeling of not wanting anyone to feel left out in any social interaction, but I flit around anyway. Maybe this defines my social interaction with others, but I feel I'm always at the losing end most of the time anyway.

Or maybe I'm just trying too hard sigh.

...

Anyway, does anyone want to go on a short trip at the start of the June Holidays? Just to slack relax recharge do random things. Unfortunately I also dunno where to go and if anyone has any ideas we need to book soon lol.

It'd also be fun to have a GEP chalet since end of year will probably be hard...

Time to kope Chen's subject header lol.

Darn. I had a new year resolution to blog more (and not for the sake of doing so) but I haven't been able to fulfil it, me thinks.

What I have done this year:

watched blood diamond and Pan's Lab and the Queen.
finished my sandman collection (oh finally!)
messed up ALL MY BEAUTIFUL SCHEDULES

what i DID last year:

go to japan -_-"
had a strange christmas
shopped.

Bah. Damn boring.

---

anyway. played mahjong today with LWP and kinshun. Quite sian to play with only 3 ppl. Somemore I keep losing cos' I keep feeding stuff to kinshun T_T maybe its just beginner's luck. Yuan xiao yesterday was even more boring. Go to grandparent's house, eat dinner, then stone for four hours playing daidi cos none of my cousins know how to play bridge (omg.)

anyway - anyone interested in going for Rachel Yamagata's concert? 17 March, tixs are $40, $58, $88, $118. Right before blocks I know but Yamagata is so, so good lol.