FRS 39 and 1.49 AM

The title says it all. Reading the rambling FRS 39 is like trying to save Mark's 'spasmed' handball shots. Catch no ball.

Anyway some quick updates this late on in Week 13. I'm always grumbling about how each term seems more and more hectic, but thankfully this term has proven to be the exception to the norm. I feel pressed for time, stressed and think I have a fair bit of catching up to do (what's new). BUT! There's time for some meaningful reading and projects are creaking along fine. With the notable exception of ONE.

It's AMA-geddon I tell you. And this had made me cherish good group mates all the more. Defended Meng on some issues in a pretty measured tone - considering that I was extremely exasperated/irritated, THAT in itself was a measured response. Didn't expect a reply but still got one. And she persisted with her view of things. I guess it's the usual 'The Men Just Don't Get It' for her. Ah wells. Mediation failed. Negotiation failed. Isolation next?

On the brighter side, my search for a job has almost come full circle. I hope to get something nailed down soon. Like tomorrow. Really hate the pretense of an evaluation that they call interviews. This time though, I spoke my mind, and for the love of this country, I hope they understand what I'm getting at and my position on certain matters.
____________________________

Koof's in London and sleeping like a vagrant. If any Briton comes across some unwashed tramp of a SMU student at the local airport/rail station/cybercafe be sure to treat him nicely yea?

The Search is ON!

And in another term-and-a-half, I'd be officially a graduate.

And I'm still undecided on the choice of the career. It's just the small matter of having to choose between dreary hours/measly pay or a combination of both. I suppose as an Accountancy graduate-to-be, I have it easier than most. I can always count on the Big 4 and the numerous second-tier firms for employment. And some firms seem to offer better prospects than most (Boon Kiat would ask me to define better). That anal ass *LOL*.

There's Liling to offer her perspective on consulting, there's Jing to give a balanced view of what IB encompasses, there's Zhong to offer the other (radical) IB perspective, there's HER to moan about EY tax and ah-Pam on AABS, and finally, RA on EY IT Audit and Weiming on PWC's version.

Oh, and I slipped HER sis an application form for EY. She's gotten her degree! Many congratulations! And boy was I shocked when she opened the letter from RELC in her room. Sobs emanated from her room, and I was extremely concerned when they seemed to be sobs of agony. She'd actually passed subjects that she thought were bound to fail, and I felt nothing short of silly at panicking enough to ask HER to check on her own sis.

Dumbass me.

Oh well, it's back to mugging AFA, in which I am hopelessly lost at this point at the start of Week 4.

This is crap.

The green green glass of smoo.

Been trying to reconcile myself with the fact that school is starting in something like a week. And miserably failing. Gone will be the 4am sleep timings, the luxury of lazing in bed and knowing that there's plenty of NOTHING to do for the whole day.

The not-so-eternal struggle of books against evil will recommence with a vengeance. The evil being my absolute nua-ness. And yet, I'm strangely looking forward to school - though I'll always eat my words come Week 10-ish. The camaraderie of beating project deadlines, of struggling to complete our readings/quiz preps/homework and the mutual whining (wah I can't stand Prof XXX he so dam bloody gay/wah sian u thrash me in DoTA ur SK so dam bloody gay) and the block booking of our various GSRs of choice.

To arms, my brothers!

******************************

Just got back from the annual small-group chalet with HER. Had a great BBQ with the usual amount (read: alot) of leftovers. As per the routine, 终极密码 was the order of the day. Made KC eat a duck drumstick the size of Sisters' Island for his absolute confidence in not kena-ing. Oh, and I threatened a tao pok on just about everyone for the slightest deemed infraction.

Then went up to the chalet for a series of murderer/doctor/detective games which NEVER failed to end in my death/exit/discovery the very first round. Grrrr. Didn't realize that I had so many enemies. Dark is their malice.

And sadly, I had to cut the wonderful evening short as SHE had a headache and longed for the comforts of HER bed. Ah wells. After having been quiet the whole time, SHE told me (quietly) that she had a great time on our way back. OMG. Hehe. Trust HER to always be so reserved in her mannerisms. SJ/LAURA YOU ALL COME BACK THAT TIME WE BOOK CHALET AGAIN.
And SHE'S snoring snoozing away whilst I'm typing out this entry, at the ungodly hour of 3am. Woohooo! I'm longing to be somewhere in Downtown East, though.

An ASoc BBQ - And loads of Warcraft

Who says that accountants are straitlaced boring people? Just look at Honghan - he's a straitlaced boring drunkard - that's all. I foresee my Deloitte internship being a booze-fuelled frenzy of number crunching. HH would say - 'Meh'.

:p

Anyway yesterday saw the better part of the forgotten Accountancy people I know turn up, with Mr Teo HH gracing us with his numerous Yam Sengs and the many rounds of drinking. As usual, I had to restrain a certain Mr Teo BK from whacking himself silly with too much Kahlua on the rocks. (Are all Teos big drinkers?)

It was quite meaningful in the Hamachi sense - my network of keyboard warriors significantly increased after the party. And we've gone through rounds of Gem TD, some weird Chinese map and a Survival from the Past just today.

Too bad SM and BK weren't online. And Wei Loong! Install your bloody WC la! Succumbbbbbb...

The Price of Freedom!!

The weary warrior trudged through the heaps of corpses - the glorious dead. The royal knights stood on the escarpment, bellowing their valor at the banishment of the demons. Their squires waited patiently in attendance for their battle-weary masters.

The warrior was just another foot soldier. The dirt and grime was just another aspect of a grunt's life. "Noble blood ne'er did flow in these veins of peasant descent," muttering a curse at his distinctly ordinary heritage. He admonished himself for having thoughts that was not befitting of his person.

"For the kindness of the dukes, and their magnanimosity, I should be grateful."

"Thank the lords for the small mercies that have come my way."

And the fiery skies in the horizon was an ominous signal - the battle had been won, but the war was far from over.

This battle was just the fourth in a short span of 2 years. His duty was to serve - such mindless drivel would be of no purpose.

And that, in truth, was the price of his freedom.

Caught in the rain...

Someone wanted to head over to City Hall MRT from school. We accompanied him. And upon exiting CityLink, we were promptly greeted by a torrential downpour.

Boon Kiat's quite gay face says "Song Boh????"

Anyway you've gotta see BK's TWC video to really understand this fella's zany nature. Incredibly done and in good sport. Can't say so about the taste, though. LOL.

SMUggers are caffeine addicts.

A picture speaks a thousand words.

Pillar of Salt

There's gonna be one last hurrah left for me.

ONE more year. Let me get thru this. Anyway today was the SMU Open House. Spoke to a whole crowd of eager faces after Prof Tan Teck Meng, and I certainly could see myself back then when I was... equally confused. Let's just hope that the load of them won't make the wrong choice that I had back then.

Working really hard on Corp, a bit less so for Strat and then some for FIIM. Doesn't help that all the deadlines are in Week 10, and that Strat is just plodding along. The rest of the projects are doing fine, with fantastic groupmates to boot. However, I've a nagging feeling that this term would not be like any of the past 3.

It has 'mediocre' written all over it.

I've been offered the DT internship, but this part of me longs for EY, where SHE still resides in as an A2. Dammit. Even MayMay is leaving that place soon. Really wonder what might happen to me if I reject the DT internship even after acceptance. Owells.

Les Chansons De Notre Dame

As introduced by Celest.

Notre Dame - The Musical

"Quasimodo (Garou)"

Belle
C'est un mot qu'on dirait inventé pour elle
Quand elle danse et qu'elle met son corps à jour, tel
Un oiseau qui étend ses ailes pour s'envoler
Alors je sens l'enfer s'ouvrir sous mes pieds

J'ai posé mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
À quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
Quel
Est celui qui lui jettera la première pierre
Celui-là ne mérite pas d'être sur terre

Ô Lucifer !
Oh ! Laisse-moi rien qu'une fois
Glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d'Esmeralda

"Frollo (Daniel Lavoie)"

Belle
Est-ce le diable qui s'est incarné en elle
Pour détourner mes yeux du Dieu éternel
Qui a mis dans mon être ce désir charnel
Pour m'empêcher de regarder vers le Ciel

Elle porte en elle le péché originel
La désirer fait-il de moi un criminel
Celle
Qu'on prenait pour une fille de joie une fille de rien
Semble soudain porter la croix du genre humain

Ô Notre-Dame!
Oh ! Laisse-moi rien qu'une fois
Pousser la porte du jardin d'Esmeralda

"Phoebus (Patrick Fiori)"

Belle
Malgré ses grands yeux noirs qui vous ensorcellent
La demoiselle serait-elle encore pucelle ?
Quand ses mouvements me font voir monts et merveilles
Sous son jupon aux couleurs de l'arc-en-ciel

Ma dulcinée laissez-moi vous êtes infidèle
Avant de vous avoir menée jusqu'à l'hotel
Quel
Est l'homme qui détournerait son regard d'elle
Sous peine d'être changé en statue de sel

Ô Fleur-de-Lys,
Je ne suis pas homme de foi
J'irai cueillir la fleur d'amour d'Esmeralda

"Quasimodo, Frollo, Phoebus"

J'ai posé mes yeux sous sa robe de gitane
À quoi me sert encore de prier Notre-Dame
Quel
Est celui qui lui jettera la première pierre
Celui-là ne mérite pas d'être sur terre

Ô Lucifer !
Oh ! Laisse-moi rien qu'une fois
Glisser mes doigts dans les cheveux d'Esmeralda

Esmeralda.
_________________________________

Oh how much I love French.
Although I'm unable to speak it comprehensibly.
Shaowei can, though.

Guess who's the new face of SMU?

Meng looking every bit the studious SMU undergrad.
And he's the new face of SMU Vista! Haha...

Logos.

It's amazing how many logos have spanned my SMU life thus far
Presenting....

QM





FA






LTB








Comms









MA







MPW







Finance





AIS





And finally, TWC

Projects and more

On the topic of carbon dating, viz TWC...

Lianne: (whispers)

Dating is hard, you know...

You never know whether they are contaminated...
_______________________________

Where can we

a) have a LAN game of Counterstrike?
b) watch the match between Chel$ea and Pool?
c) do our coy law project?

Answer: SoA SR1.1

Meaning?

The talk by Ven. Mahinda was a thought-provoking one.

Lottery tickets
Smaller coffins
Expressing gratitude
Seeking forgiveness
Addressing concerns
Letting go

Anyway, cheers to SMUBS members who turned up at Tai Pei in full force.
Well, sorta.















And congrats to SBMY for once again organizing another event that was strongly taken to by the local Buddhist community. The tingling sensation of recognition was there when Ven. Mahinda chanted. I WILL BE BACK SOON
_______________________________________

AIS was a whole load of bull. COSO, COBIT and the ERM framework.
Spent the better part of the day just reading through the slides given on the webby.
Is this what Audit is all about?

If so, tax looks so much more appealing.

Was helping YYM with his QM stuff just now.
Was remembering how I used to LOVE coming up with working models that read this:












Anyway, should I have taken Operations Mgmt?

Let go, but do not let go too easily.
The middle path is the way to go.
Neither in excess, nor with deprivation.

TGIF!

First Coy Law meeting.
Samy and Son Pte. Ltd.
Samy's Wholesale.
Maria Liza and Leonadovich.
Piercing the corporate veil.
Corny names, corny cases.















Jiawei's voluminous book says it all:
I wanna get out of here!
And with TWC looming just over the horizon (i.e. tomorrow), sightings of the endangered (enfeebled?) yushengis orangutanus will be at an all-time low.

And IMF is overhyped. All sparks and no content. Songjie, Rash and Amanda can vouch for the scrappy way it is being conducted.

Project Groupies

And so school has started.

Circle Evo. Check.
Vivacé. 5 more hours.
IMF. I'm gonna miss 12 days of school.

Sure hope my sacrifices are worth it.

Je veux un peu de paix.

Accounting Information Systems
Sis
SM
YYF
WAH 'Zai' Wei

Income Tax and GST
BK SM

Coy Law
BK SM
WAH 'Zai' as in ‘华仔’

Finance
Lianne the Chao Ang Mor
Jayme
Jeremy
WAH 'Zai'

TWC
Lianne
Wanzhen

Looks like I'm gonna Brokeback with SM this sem.
LOL.

A Flying Dragon.

Loong's gonna fly.
Off to the land of the American Dream.
And American babes.
And Krispy Kremes (this piece of knowledge largely accruing to Celest's endless praise of the cholesterol-laden delight).
They go hand-in-hand. Hopefully, in Loong's hands as well.
American babe on the left, Krispy Kremes on the right.
















He might not be back.
As an SMU student, at least.
This makes it all the more meaningful.
Lets see.

ASoc OG
Was it like Grp 2?

FA Group (less him)















BGS Group
Did the course suck? Or did the prof? LOL!
















Biz Law!
Remember how we circumvented the problem of consideration by using some quirk of Phang's law? And WWY accepted! WOOT!



And MA!
Leong's amiable personality, our masterpiece of an Excel sheet and the numerous 'are we doing ABC or job costing?' discussions... And that very fruitful 6-hour MSN group meeting.
















And lastly, cheers to you, Loong.















An OG mate.
A project mate.
A classmate.

And, most importantly,

a friend.

Bon voyage!

It's all over!

The freshies at Circle run 3 were a privileged lot. They had the logs team cheering them on. Me and Nyan joined Bobbs' group for the 3-way tug-of-war component as well, and with the able direction of Jinghao, we won!

Then came the leaking barrel game, and we from Charlie Bravo Recon Squad had great fun in egging them on. ("Use your tongue! The secret is to use your tongue!!!!")















Leaking barrels, freshies and their tongues.















The flag of the 1st Log Battalion was officially unveiled by RSM MWO Nuhahahahaha on the 2nd day of Circle Evolution Run 3.















The entire logs team, with our sai kang equipment, which were later used to sweep up soap suds and all the fallout from the Soap Opera event.















Logs@Simpang Bedok-after a backbreaking trip to school at 10pm to return logistics to the room beside OCBC. If you heard weird sounds coming from the depths of the Concourse (X-man ar X-Man, Nyan's infamous "Neh-Neh Man ar Neh-Neh Man"), that was us.

We from Section L OG.















Our smelly, stinky and perpetually messy Logs retreat.
Guess which one my bed is?
Those two red packages you see are actually our comatose head and her sidekick.




















Post-event celebration, KFC@ PS.

Thanks loads, guys.

Prepping for Run 3

It's almost over. ALMOST.

Run 3's coming up like in 10 hours' time.

Have. Got. To. Psyche. Myself. Up.















A very hyper Don with the Soap Opera set in the background. Detergent, flour bombs and freshies make a good mix!

And Yilin did up a fantastic art piece. With a minimalist moniker. Her teacher gave it a B, though. What a bummer. She sucks man. Talk about stifling creativity.

Presenting 'Le Poisson'. (French by me. She calls it the fish.)
\














Zhong hurt himself badly in cage today. Needed someone who hasn't driven in months(read: me) to drive him back. He's currently recuperating from post-traumatic shock on top of his ankle problem. Haha. Anyway it's swollen to the size of an egg.




















And Koof's back! Like, finally?

Circle Evolution '06 - Run 1 Updates

Having been assigned to the Logistics team (as usual), it was a whole host of alien faces that greeted me *chuckle*. Rash, Nurha, Bee Lian, Jasmine, Gee Yong, Aaron and Minghui. Never seen these guys before , but yea they certainly made my stay at Circle 'o6 an enjoyable one. And who says that girls can't do hard work? They certainly work hard at making the guys do the dirty work.

And yea, no matter where we go and what we do, its always the people that make the experience either for the better or for the worse. Thanks Log folks!

































The gang hard at work. Brinjal, celery, bittergourd and tau kuah juice, anyone?




















Anyone notice the irony here?

Seeing the freshies trudging about their given tasks certainly evoked fond memories of FOCs gone by - Circle '05, especially. But we were a much more inspired lot, that I would like to believe.

A leaf has fallen...

Chow Guan Ren - 1984-2006

T'was a merry soul.

Rest in peace.