the marketing course was a joke

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I will try to blog more often, but for now, here are last semester’s grades.

ADV481 – A+H
BADM320 – B-
JAPN203 – A
MS326 – A

Total GPA = 3.71
Cumulative GPA = 3.72

The marketing course was a joke. It is the only reason that my GPA has gone down. Both semester and cumulative GPA. If anyone is thinking of taking it, don’t.

On a happier note, I did surprisingly well for advertising research. The “H” indicates that I took it for James Scholar credit. Yupz, I enrolled in the James Scholar Honors program. I can hear someone going “finally~~~” It was also the cause of my worries (the James Scholar program, not ADV481).  I was so worried that I’ll be dropped from the program since I knew I was going to get a B for BADM320 and I had not been doing too well on the ADV481 exams.

It was a tough time for ADV481 since I was doing a group project all by myself for the James Scholar credit. Yes, I surveyed more than 80 people myself. I figured out the data myself (ok, with the help of the professor). In short, what could have been 4-5 brains on one project, I only had one brain – my brain – to work on it. Of course the good part about it was that I didn’t need to deal with crappy group mates and I could structure everything the way I wanted it to be.

Now, I worry for JAPN204. Things are getting harder and I found myself having trouble making sentences for 2 new Japanese terms today. There is more weightage on daily participation now since homework is not graded and does not contribute to the total percentage. Which simply means less easy stuff to make up my final grade. To an extent, this is good coz it forces us to actually understand and use the language. It’s like taking off the trainer wheels on your bicycle so that you don’t rely on them too much and actually learn how to cycle. The bad side to it is…I can’t guarantee that I can keep getting an A. Which is a worrying thing coz I need to keep my semester GPA at 3.5 and above to remain in the James Scholar program.

I checked out with the College of Media office, I’ll get my cord no matter whether I was enrolled in the James Scholar program from freshman year or whichever year. I really want that cord. To other people it may be nothing, but to me it means everything. I have never been the smartest kid with the ton of awards. This cord will represent some sort of academic achievement and recognition, something which I never really had.

giveaways

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Annie and Michelle are giving away stuff and it looks good. Ever since I bought a bag from them, I’ve been getting updates about their sprees and pre-orders. They also have a shop on Etsy.

Head over here for the cool giveaways.

get a life, please

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Things just got messier huh? Click to read the article.

All this media attention Ris Low is getting has got to stop. What is she even thinking? That she can play on the sympathy of Singaporeans? Get a life, please. If she thinks she’s 19, she can jolly well act her age and not her shoe size.

Thought she had learnt her lesson and was taking steps to become a better person. Clearly not. She just craves media attention so much that she would lie and twist facts.

And to those who defended her, do you still want to?

oh yes, i am a “great” cook

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Let’s be honest here…

  1. This entry is for Nuffnang’s contest.
  2. Everyone knows I don’t have much cooking skills, so the entry can’t be about my favourite cooking experience.
  3. If you couldn’t get the hint from number 2, the entry is about my disastrous cooking experience.

This happened a long time back when all I knew how to cook was rice, omelette, instant mee, and canned food. There was some leftover spaghetti in the fridge, but no leftover sauce. I was to call Mum in the office to get instructions on how to prepare the sauce and that was what I did.

Thaw the meat out in hot water. Mix in some corn starch. Pour in the spaghetti sauce from the bottle. Add a little sesame oil for that extra fragrance. I never had the knack to know how much of something to add to make the food taste “just right.” I had to get really specific instructions. Like exactly how much water to thaw the meat out. Exactly how much of corn starch. Well, you get the idea.

So, all I remembered was everything that needed to be added in small amounts was one teaspoon. (Or so I thought.) Cooked everything as instructed. All was well until the last part, adding the sesame oil…

One teaspoon. That was how much I put in. After that, the whole sauce just smelled of sesame oil. Weird. Mind you, I couldn’t figure out what I did was wrong, but I ate whatever I cooked anyway.

That was when Sis came along and told me it was supposed to be…one drop of sesame oil. Wow, I’m such an idiot. :sweat:

Now that you’ve read my embarassing little story, go watch “Julie & Julia.”

the ris low saga

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Ok, I’ve been busy and the next thing I know, I have 4 comments on my previous entry waiting to be replied to. That means…my comments box is working fine now! Yay~~~ Thank you guys for your comments. That was the kind of comments I was looking for all along. I wanted to know how people felt, whether they had differing views and whether they were willing to share their differing views.

I shall reply to the comments via this entry.

After all the hype about Ris Low, the whole issue is starting to get a little stale. No doubt I’m still clicking on those news links regarding her in my Twitter feed, but I kind of think it’s time to move on.

I refer to this recent article about her. From this article, I can tell that she has learnt a lot. Despite the bad publicity, she has grown to face it and dealt with it in what I would say a “matured” way. I may have sounded like one of those unforgiving Singaporeans in my previous entry, but I think the most important thing is for people to learn from their mistakes and to strive to become a better person, otherwise, you don’t deserve other people’s understanding.

Perhaps as what Raynor commented, she is only 19 – one of those who hasn’t seen and come to understand the world yet. Maybe she thought a Miss Singapore World title was a glamorous affair and never thought about the other responsibilities that came with the title.

As for her poor English, if she were to brush up her skills, I don’t see why she shouldn’t be given another chance. I just feel that speaking good English is necessary for Singaporeans since we claim our first language to be English and our language of instruction is mainly in English. That should reply to Deanna’s comment. I would understand if she came from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan, or any other non-English speaking country. However, she comes from Singapore, a country where its citizens are native speakers of English, there is no excuse for speaking poor English. We probably use the language everyday. Having said that, I’m not boasting that my English is perfect either.

PS: Fran, you can send me that project email.

would you want her to represent us?

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As we all know, Ris Low gave up her Miss Singpore World 2009 title amidst the criticisms about her poor English and her prior criminal offences. The joke is still on her as spoof videos are made of her and viewed by a wide audience. However, there are also those who defend her. I refer to this letter in TODAY written in response to the issue.

Why do you think those two reasons are not sufficient for her to step down? Sure, Singaporeans may not be as forgiving as we picture ourselves to be, what with the yellow ribbon project, but the fact that she did not even report her prior criminal offences when taking part in the competition is going against the rules. It’s like lying on the immigration form that you have not been previously convicted of any crimes.

We are not fooling the rest of the world that Singaporean English standards are higher than that. Every country who takes part in the competition wants someone to best represent their country, so does Singapore. What is wrong with that? Seeing that your English is so much better, would you want her to represent your country in an international competition?

If Phua Chu Kang could go take English courses to brush up his English after being criticised, so can Ris Low and the rest of Singaporeans who speak as poorly as her. Until she learns how to speak properly, I really don’t think she should be given a second chance.

comments please?

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After a long long long long time, I finally reinstalled my ftp program and fixed the captcha issue that was preventing people from viewing the special code and commenting on my blog. Now, you may comment away~~~

if i could kill, i would

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I’m angry. I’m angry. I’m angry.

I’m angry that I chose to believe what those people said at the election day. All the talk about food festival was a good idea. All the talk about we want other people to know about Singapore and SSA. BULLSHIT. I don’t see the passion.

And…it’s making me lose my own drive and passion. One thing I realised from internship, all the excitement and high hopes will not go through unless there are people to share and support it. It takes two hands to clap. I don’t have the energy to keep up without any support.

Maybe I’m having too many things on my plate. James Scholar, trying to get a job at Illini Media, SSA, J-Net, AAF… I already gave up my dream of coordinating the Lolita segment for the fashion show. I couldn’t talk to Jenny on time and I…simply can’t do it all by myself.

Thanks to Tiarra, I finally realised why it has been so quiet on my blog. The captcha code thingy is not showing and so, no one can comment. Yea, my blog does not receive a truckload of comments, but recently it has been too silent…like something’s wrong. ARGH. See, one more thing to settle.

The aquarium is also waiting for me to settle it. It’s not that I find it a chore, but ARGH…where’s all my time? Why do I have to use my time to settle people’s shit? WHY?!

doing new things

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Omg…I can’t believe I haven’t blogged for a long long time.

So I’ve been busy trying new things and unfortunately being the slow learner that I am, I’m seriously battling with my confidence issues. The advice/encouragement I keep close to me to help me find the confidence to push on is from deary and an ex-colleague in Moove Media. Although deary is not a very patient person, he told me that I should tell myself that I can do it and he believes I can. The ex-colleague told me that if I keep being afraid to make mistakes and just keep doing things I already know and am confident of doing right, I will never learn anything new. So, I should challenge myself and do things that I have never done before.

Well, I tried learning to drive in the holidays which unfortunately wasn’t much since I started late and it was a short time back in Singapore. Deary made me drive a little near my aunt’s place when I came back to USA. Ermz…I almost mowed down the little bush on her front lawn.

The other thing I tried is learning to ice-skate. I’m trying very hard to master the little techniques. It’s kind of a pain to see everyone gliding on the ice effortlessly when I’m skating like a penguin who can’t seem to balance properly. But, I’m taking my time to learn and enjoying the short one hour per class. You see, sports and me don’t go together. It’s already a huge step forward for me to enjoy a sport – ice-skating. Maybe I’m just one of those who take a little longer than everyone else to learn. Just like the time I was learning to swim. I was the last one in my section to learn how to float and had to have my instructor guide me on a one-on-one basis.

The only thing I’m worried about is the skills test that is coming up next week. I have barely mastered the techniques that will be test. I managed to do backward swizzles today, but I’m still rather wobbly. For some reason, I can’t seem to find my balance to do a one-foot glide. I still can’t do a snowplow stop and obviously pumps on a circle. I wanted to practise during the weekend, but I fell sick so I couldn’t go to the ice arena. I don’t want to give up coz I’m having fun (although I’m the last one), but I don’t want to end up hurting my GPA too. Deary says to change it to a credit/no credit course. I don’t know…kinda in a dilemma.