Month: March 2003

4. Wonder when to use i.e. and when to use e.g.? When you’re listing examples, use e.g. It’s short for exempli gratia, which means “for the sake of example” in Latin.

When you’re explaining something, use i.e., which is short for id est, or “that is.” I can never remember the Latin, so I cheat here. “In essence” starts with the same letters. If you can use “in essence” and still have your sentence make sense, use i.e. Otherwise, use e.g.

I like big dogs, e.g. St. Bernards, Golden Retrievers, and Bernese Mountain Dogs. I like Golden Retrievers and St. Bernards, i.e. big dogs.
– 8:30PM

Aki sent me the photo of the snowman we made in Finland a month ago, it looks like this now.
– 11:30PM

Our Family law lecturer, Cathy Williams, organised a fund raising quiz for Comic Relieve. We had to guess what did her husband give her for Christmas. It’s 1 guess for 50pence and 5 guesses for 1 quid. She said it’s one of the most horrible things she ever received. And the person who got it right will get a mysterious prize.
In the end of the lecture today, she announced the winner. However, the winner’s guess wasnt entirely correct but was very closely related to the gift. The winner had 5 guesses and all of them are closely related to toiletry stuff. For example, scented toilet paper and toilet paper holder. Cathy called the winner out and asked her, “Lee, do you intend to get married?” Lee, the winner, answered, “mmm, welll…” Everyone laughed.
Cathy immediately said, “Well, everyone you should not marry this girl! It’s unbelievable that she could though of those things! (gifts, wasn’t really sure about what exactly Cathy said but it’s something like this)” She then announced the gift she received, it was a luxury wooden toilet seat.
Lee seems pretty embarrassed with the limelight of being a winner. She was openly insulted in front of more than 100 people. And lastly, her prize was, a plastic toilet brush.

Finally, after 2 years in Sheffield, I had my first haircut. I’ve been always stingy with the amount of cost of haircut here. The barber I went to offers cheap haircut (3.80 quid – quid is a slang for pounds in here).
I had a short conversation with the lady who cut my hair. She’s been working there for 14 months and she’s from Perth, Australia. She intents to return to Perth, as soon as her boyfriend complete his PHD here. Nothing interesting in our conversation, the only thing that interests me is that she took 18 hours to fly from UK back to Australia. Mine was 30 hours (including bus ride, transit etc)!!
– 11:00PM

Bad news. I’ve been rejected by Manchester Metro University even though it’s my first choice. This is the second university that has rejected me. The only hope I have now is Cardiff University, however I doubt that I could get into it as they have limited spaces and high requirements. I need a twist of fate!
– 11:50PM
Results are out! Siew Lee started knocking on everyone’s door at 8:30AM to pass us our results (they arrived on 1st class mail). Thankfully, I passed everything but I’m not really happy with it especially Criminal Evidence. I was expecting at least a second-class lower. However, it turned out to be a third class, just 1 mark away from a second-class lower. I’m so, so frustrated!! On the other hand, Intellectual Property Law result was really unexpected. I was expecting a third class but I eventually got a second-class lower. What a surprise. I though I screwed up my paper! Japanese language was the best of all. I managed to get a second-class upper, something that I’ve been aiming for all the while. However, I heard that non-law module subjects are counted differently when it comes to grading my degree. I need to do better this semester!
– 11:58AM

Fucking stressful. I got so many results to wait for. I’m still waiting for my bar school approval and tomorrow, my 1st semester results will be out. I hope I didn’t do badly. For the past few days, I couldn’t sleep well and it takes me more than half an hour to fall asleep on the bed.

Japanese class is getting more and more interesting. Instead of formal classes with serious discussions, we get to play games (educational games of course). The games require us to speak in Japanese. For example, today, Ando sensei showed a representative from a group, a picture of a person. The representative then has to describe the features of the picture in Japanese and the other members had to draw the picture out. hehe. And couple of weeks ago, we got to play musical chair. Hehe

Frederick got a new layout. Check it out.
http://www.blackhearts.co.uk/
– 11:29PM

Finally, a new server. The previous server had some problems. I’m on a new server now. Thank you for your loyal support! hehe

I’ve been on loads of stress lately. Loads of things to read and worst of all, results for bar school. I was rejected by Nottingham Trend Uni and my 2 other options are still under consideration. I’m hoping to get into Manchester Metro Uni as it was my first choice. Wish me luck!!!

Life is so full of surprises. I just found out that Starwing, someone I knew for 5 years from IRC, is my first cousin. He is my dad’s brother’s son! For the past few years, it didn’t occur to me that Starwing shares the same surname as mine until I visited his website. His name is Melvin Foong.
We soon realise that we were related after he confirmed that his grandfather is from Bidor, Perak (a state in Malaysia), operates a restaurant there and married with 2 wives. We do also share the same grandmother.
Couple of months ago, on my birthday to be precise, I found out that I have a half sister. I’ve always thought she’s some sort of relative due to the fact she visits my family sometimes. When I asked mum about her relation with my half sister, she said she’s just a relative. But that was when I was still in primary school. On my 21st birthday, my sister text messaged me on my 21st birthday. She wrote, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY! FROM YOUR SISTER” I was puzzled and replied the message, “Thanks but who are you?” I thought it was some long lost pet sister or something. My sister called and told me the truth. I guess you guys are wondering what truth? Hehe, it’s a very private matter. Oh yeah, by the way, I heard that my other (not the one i just referred too) half sister is fucking gorgeous (What other half sister???). All I can say is, I have a very complicated family.

Starwing’s website: http://starwing.shacknet.nu/

I love hero stories
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/11/britain.schindler.reut/index.html
– 10:20PM

I am soooo blur, I had no idea. 😀

I figured it was going to any random day – late lunch, classes, defrost chicken, eat dinner and then watch them play ps2 aGAin. But something unexpected happened to me during the day and I was pretty much down for the rest of it, even when Shane and Siew Lee brought me out supposedly for some coffee but instead, took me all around Ecclesale buying candles and halogen lights (riiigghhttt Siew Lee?) and rotting in Mike’s place watching Jay Chou videos and random canto-pop mtvs to my ULTIMATE despair :D.. I started to whine about going home but they refused to take me home (ermm yeah, I still haven’t figure it out by then) so we went to Cafe Rouge for some hot chocolate and tea – it was 7 in the evening and I was wondering when we were finally gonna go home for dinner.

Well, we finally head for home with Fred driving us home and eventhough Jon’s car was parked right outside the house, it still didn’t occur to me anything was up. Walked in and then WARRRRRHHH!!!!!!!!!! The most successful surprise any surprise party could ever come up with! They thought of everything from the balloons, confetti, banner, the MEGA CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE from Fat Jacks (woohoo!!!), the red eggs and the birthday noodles among others. And I gotta mention how the champagne cork fell strategically on Allen’s head – punishment maybe for being the first to attack the food, hmmm? 😉 hehe.. I wonder if he reads this site?

I shall get all mushy now and tell you guys how touched I was and still am right now. I feel loved! muaHAhaaa… Just when things seem to be at its lowest, I felt that the surprise party brought my spirits up once again… My 21st birthday has to be the best birthday I ever had and this has to be all thanks to everyone of my housemates – Fred, Chuo Ming, Alex, Leong, Khai Fei, Mindy and Siew Lee and also the people that helped and also turned up at the house 🙂 You guys are just the sweetest!! If I had 7 kids next time, I swear I would name them all after you guys, mannn!!! 😀

Alrites… going off now, am still bubbling from yesterday and before I start another all out attack on this entry with another long paragraph – laters all… 😉

11.23PM

On Shrove Tuesday – or Pancake Day – it is traditional for British people to cook pancakes – flat fried cakes of flour, eggs and milk, often served with just lemon juice and sugar – very tasty. The tradition started with the using up of foods avoided or forbidden during Lent, the 40 day Christian period of abstinence leading up to Good Friday and Easter. However, many British people enjoy the tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday [today, March 4th] even if they are not practicing Christians. People like to toss the pancakes – flipping them over in mid-air from the frying pan. Can be messy if you get it wrong!
– 11:30PMSorry for the frequent downtime. My website will be moved to a new server soon. My service provider is moving their server to a new one in US and hence new restrictions will be imposed on me.

I will have to remove the Melbourne Shuffle videos due to bandwidth restrictions (2gigs/month). Other files will have to go to. sob sob..

Btw, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO WENDEEE!
– 4:00PM

Say no to War!

http://www.csi.ad.jp/ABOMB/children.html
http://mothra.rerf.or.jp/ENG/A-bomb/photo-1/Contents.html
http://pathfinder.com/photo/essay/hiroshima/open.html
http://www.coara.or.jp/~ryoji/abomb/e-index.html
– 3:40PM