Introducing my new travel blog http://subwaytravel.blogspot.com exactly one year after my Taiwan trip. Oops.

More updates very soon, including my Hongkong trip in 2004.

Eh, that's about it? Haha, more after ORD I definitely hope. :)

I am still spirited about the rather debatable result that I look 66% like Jay Chou. Maybe I should style myself after him in uni and get hot.


Maybe not.

Anyway, back to the lookalike topic. I recently realised my favourite columnist and favourite singer kind of look like each other!

Life! editor/columnist Sumiko Tan

Singer/songwriter Chen Qizhen

Don't they? Charismatic, intellectual, with established identities. I begin to wonder if I admire them solely for their talent.

Sumiko Tan's whinings on singlehood never fail to evoke sympathy from me. But if she looks like fellow colleague Chua Mui Hoong,

it's a different story altogether.

Similarly, if Chen Qizhen looks like fellow Taiwanese Ru Hua,

whatever music of hers may turn out to be equally distasteful.

So, does it go to say my idolisation all while long has been a superficial affair? That I admire them in the name of appreciating their talents when under the veil, I am more enchanted by their appearance?

It's a package thing in the media/showbiz I guess. One needs substance, inner and outer, to win hearts over.

That aside, I am not sure if I will only go for girls who look like them. Remember the Ichiban waitress?

Till I meet one then I shall decide.

1ST ANNIVERSARY - In Loving Memory Of Granny

I was closest to her during my toddler days; she babysitted me as my parents worked. The times of which my memories, sadly, are the vaguest.

And as her first grandchild, somemore a grandson, she pampered me with such obstinate outrightness which I didn't at all deserve.

Time passed. I grew up. I learned and tried to be a good friend, a good classmate, a good student.

Yet I didn't put in a fraction of similar effort to be a good grandson.

Frankly, I thought it was hard.

There existed the crucial language barrier, which I didn't bother to break with my apathy towards Hokkien mastery.

And the innate awkwardness of being outward with expressions of love, especially towards family members for me.

Because of these excuses, her love for me remains unreciprocated. Still.

Qingming this year will have an added significance for me. Definitely.

Reading papers over the weekend has been, to say the least, a harrowing experience.

My belief in karma has never been stronger, thanks to this silly episode. For a while I thought I saw Flight Cat in the graphics!

Not yet. But I intend to be open with my students about my blog and through it, provide them with relevant case studies on topics like "Animal Rights". Haha.

I thought my blog would become famous after Mr Brown came.

True indeed. An educational site http://generalpaper.wordpress.com linked it as reference material recently!

But it's not exactly great news because...

It linked me under "CRUELTY OF PEOPLE AGAINST ANIMALS"!

Boohoo! I got myself INFAMOUS for the entry on the Flight Cat.

Check out how to write a convincing essay on "Do Animals Have Rights?" with a convincing case study ripped off from my blog HERE.

Sigh. I can picture people pointing fingers at me and commenting "Looks nowadays very deceiving hor. So guai-looking but so cruel to animals."

What if SPCA finds out and decides to take action?!?!?!

See, it doesn't pay to abuse animals. Don't ever do that ok?

If you do, don't blog about it lah. Oops. Just joking. ;)

Mr Brown (come here again please!) recommended MyHeritage.com on Tuesday, a site which has a face recognition system which matches an uploaded photo of yourself with a celebrity.

See who it matched me with.

Don't puke. Then again, he isn't really good-looking in the first place. Some smart stylist just somehow succeeded in making him look better.

Which means...

I HAVE HOPE!

Sigh. What's with all these vainpot entries recently?

ADIEU to...

Yep. I am a year-old driver with little driving experience and many broken promises. Deepest apologies to Wenhui whom I promised a ride the day I passed. Oops.

Other than black faces and faded passes the next things RPs see most frequently are obviously the cars which the black faces own. And their daily parades left me certain that I would be content with a CAMRY.

Boring right? CAMRY also somehow doesn't fit with Teacher.

Then again, got money first then say lah.

The Ubin trip left us thirsty for more rural escapades and the same three this time round conquered a more central territory called MacRitchie.

We set off at Venus Drive, basically a road for moneyed morons to drive their big cars like Jaguars to the nearby SICC. Meanwhile the adjacent pavement is lined with pathetic paupers (see above pic) decked out in their most unwanted clothes and looking all too excited about the upcoming cheap, erm I mean free, thrill.

I thought I looked cool in the National Geographic Channel jungle hat until someone told me I resembled someone very famous.

At least in the past.








None other than Hong Huey Huey The Great.

So we walked and walked. No deserving photos to be taken because if you are a guy you would have probably seen the likes in route marches and if you are not I doubt you are any botany zealot.

As we neared the bridge...

Horrors! My squadmates should know I am one cowardly acrophobe. What if I can't take the height from the suspension bridge? No U-turn back to sanity?

Chey! Nothing one. Felt slightly cheated to have walked 2km to this 100m bridge. Still, it's always good to see more of one's country and stop whining about wanting to go overseas when one hasn't even been to most of the local attractions. Shame on these whiners!

The most picturesque shot from the bridge. Of don't-know-what reservoir. To think that I asked my Geog students to memorise all the names of reservoirs last year. Shame on me.

Do go there someday. There is more to Singapore than Orchard.

I am having problems with a sensitive part of my body.

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It's my face lah. Well I know my whole face IS a problem but I would like to focus on one specific aspect today.

You're right. It's that hideous mole. With its scion right above. Ignore the one on my neck please. Me so moley!

So basically I have been pondering whether to go for some mole removal surgery. For vanity's sake I admit. If it blossomed on some less conspicuous part of me I wouldn't have needed to care.

I remember reading somewhere that good-looking faces are always symmetrical in shape. Ok my face is not symmetrical in the first place. Hais. So I thought the best I could salvage is to make it less asymmetrical.

Either by removing the mole.

Or adding one more on the right side of my chin.

Like this.

Do I look better because of improved symmetry?

Aesthetic concerns aside, there is the ever vital health issue too. Moles growing larger and darker by the days are likely to be cancerous! But the growth of my mole has somehow stagnated so this is just a bloody excuse.

Dermatologic study aside, there exists some study called kan xiang. Something like palmistry, just that the teller studies your facial features instead of your palm to scare you with impending tragedies or smoke you with news of forthcoming fortune.

Being very serious in this mole business...

I flew all the way to Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hongkong, to get my face studied. This Auntie Cloud assured me that the hideous mole was of zilch determinacy. I wasn't sure if I felt relieved when I heard that.

HOW?????

I want to end the days when I look at mirrors like this

and deceive myself I look better without a mole

when I actually look the same.

Can you help me making a life-changing decision?

It's the season of fabricating self-inflating resumes and Hwachong-ing grades again; all for a spot at your coveted place of study. I never knew why universities bother to invest in large-scale advertising. People smart enough to enter should be equally discerning not to make choices based on them. Then again, courses like Business are offered everywhere and there is a need to distinguish one's niche from the rest to admit a more relevant pool of students.

Fierce advertising surfaced only a few years back when SMU came into the picture. Look at the extravagance of NUS! A full page for a pointless Venn diagram! Ahems. Did anyone mention about hiked school fees? And seriously, will anyone choose it over NTU and SMU just because it is Area X?

I like SMU ads though. Minimalistic yet informative. The biggest player in advertising. No wonder school fees raise the most also.

With the sombreness of an obituary, a NTU ad. NTU ads never fail to turn me off. "The others are advertising so we better be as well" is the very impression they give me. While others advertise to impress and sway undecided morons over, NTU is doing the very opposite - deterring wannabes with its lacklustre ads. Might as well not advertise; then maybe more people will choose NTU.

Well, at least they are improving. Just look at above bus stop ad. Though it's kind of irrelevant. And still very styleless. Upon my first look I thought it was an OCBC ad, with its font and caption.

Pointless ads, really.

This comment almost choked me. How else to react when Singapore's No.2 blogger graces your blog?

And some entries of mine are going to be material for a NUS FASS project. To be read by 60 interviewees!

*Beams*

What next?

Get today-ed and tomorrow-ed?

Or get Digital Life-ed like him?

Or get a "100% of people agree that subwaysecrets is smug" in my Nohari Window?

Probably the last option I guess.

My first voluntary trip to Pulau Ubin, free of cadets and chores, full of cycling and camwhoring. Never before realised its potential for artistic photography. I suspect Steve Chia took his nude shots here. Though confident I don't look worse than him in that way, SMU-ish shots are all I settle for; albeit bluntly by bending knees to look like I can really jump.

Remember my birthday entry on the restaurant Stonegrill?

The one I said even Mr Brown doesn't get such endorsement deals?

Go read Mr Brown's entry yesterday.

He really didn't get anything. Or maybe he just didn't mention.

Hwa Chong Institution released a very questionable online report of its 'A' Level results this year.

"Seven out of 10 students scored 3 A-level Distinctions and better, with 45% - 382 students - of the entire cohort scoring 4 Distinctions."

How mathematically sound is it to round up 43.6% to 45%? The seven out of 10 figure is obviously another round up to shrink its gap from RJC's 76.4%. And why 'seven' not '7'?

"4 out of 10 Hwa Chong students scored Distinctions in General Paper."

My sincere congratulations to the GP Dept - last year's distinction rate was a mere 27%. Though I somehow suspect the real figure to be 34.95% and they blew it up to 4 in 10.

"This year, 9 out of 10 Hwa Chong students who took Biology scored a distinction."

The exact figure is 87.5%. Ahems. Does it hurt to be a little more precise, in words if not numerically? Add an 'about' before '9 out of 10' and I will keep my mouth shut.

"Like many Hwa Chongians, Lim Xin Yi believes strongly in the values of our multicultural society."

HUH?

That I didn't exactly enjoy my HC life doesn't grant me to slander the school at will. But I am just being truthful with facts here.

So what if RJ is champs again? HC is my alma mater and I ought to be proud of it regardless of it being No.1 or No.2. If I were to be so neurotic about academic performance I wouldn't have chosen DHS over RI and loved it so much eventually.

It is just disturbing to see an adulterated report card when there isn't a need for one at all! Results are good, just not better than RJC's, that's it.

And aren't the alterations a tad too conspicuous? There is better art to doing such stuff you know.

Isn't it generally accepted that a Hwachong education would put more emphasis, however slight, on upholding moral values than a Raffles education? Results aside, that is our undisputed edge.

Yet this online report displays traits which one would more likely, and often blindly, associate with the Raffles brand - superficiality, arrogance, reluctance to admit defeat.

Where is the humility, honesty and other virtues expected from a more cheena brand?

Ok I may be overreacting to a mere report but still, I am utterly disgusted by it.

Singapore Police Force scholar Teo Chun Ching. So what about him?

Gasp!!! He is my direct senior, and was a Cadet Inspector as well. Really didn't know of his existence; he was from NCOs 89/90 batch. It's after reading such articles I tell myself I should buck up and stop indulging in decadence. And I better be doing so.