Long post!

Wow... So all I can say is that I've been EXAMED and ASSIGNMENTED! So to make up for the lack of post last week... This week will just be really long! haha... Its also reading week so I guess I have some extra time to write more. Anything to keep me from studying...

So what's been up with me the last little while? Well I finally got my grades from the National University of Singapore... Thank goodness it's only pass/fail and that my grades don't transfer back. hmm... how much should I share... ok let's just say I didn't get any A, A+, A- or A+*.... Yeah NUS invented A+*... Must mean you just study too much... *sigh... I wish I could be at NUS now... in the nice warm weather, travelling, meeting people, and having a good time... I almost kinda regret coming back early... Actually no... I don't regret coming back... things are awesome here too. But I heard that Chinese New Years is totally crazy in Singapore. My local Singaporean friends tell me that when friends visit their homes... The parents are obligated to give out Red Pockets... even if the parents have never met you before... but of course you just can't go to random houses collecting red pockets... Speaking of Chinese New Years.... I had Hot Pot three days in a row! That's a good way to celebrate.... mmmm all that beef with the raw egg sauce.... *drool......
hmm... whatelse? oh I guess I should thank everyone who i asked to pray for me for my exams... My exam results came out and I did WAY better than I expected.... thanks guys and girls.... I also saw Ong Bak... staring Tony Jaa and that annoying Thai girl (if u watch the movie you know what i'm talking about).... I told Ken this... I mean I like movies on the extremes... you know like Stephen Chow... or movies starring The Rock (did you know he got a liposuction recently?) But Ong Bak was ridiculous.... like completely beyond extreme... I don't recommend watching it in theatres because I think you'll just go nuts. Everything is random about it... and people have to die four times over before they're really dead. For those who haven't seen it yet.... Tony Jaa dies!!! talk about craziness... haha

Alright... I may as well continue with some travel photos...


Schools in Bangkok are open for tourists to observe and take photos... How can you teach with tourists constantly walking through and snapping pictures? I guess the kids are used to it or something.


This is that famous lying sideways gold Buddha. When we were walking around the area... we happened to(but not on purpose) follow around this small tour group led by some local Thai lady... We figured they must know where they're going. The tour guide later demanded money from us for her tour services?! Thats crazy!


This was one of the weirdest things I've seen on my trip. This is a Cabaret show... Except everyone on stage are men that have changed themselves into women. Not talking just cross dressers here... weird stuff.... This just happened to be one of the shows in our hotel and is popular among tourists... The show was funny but also a little disturbing....



I didn't bother rotating this picture... But this is a GIANT Christmas tree in Takeshimiya mall in Singapore. Although we couldn't afford anything in this mall, it was one of our main hangouts.


Places like KL in Malaysia, Bangkok in Thailand are all fully developed cities. They are all more metropolitanized/modernized than Toronto. For starters the transit system is way better than TTC. These places aren't farm towns, or rural underdeveloped cities that TV portrays them to be.


This is outside Grand Central station in Tokyo. Looks pretty classic. Taxi's cost like a gazillion dollars to take.


This is a famous street corner in Japan...


There's no such thing as power conservation in Hong Kong. This picture is a bit blurry... But they sure go overboard with the Christmas lights.

Here's some interesting news that happened the last two weeks:

1)

Here's a snip from the news article:
The tiny face on this jar of coffee has just cost Nestlé $15m. A NURSERY schoolteacher in California has become an instant multimillionaire after recognising himself on a jar of Nescafé. Russell Christoff did not realise that he was famous until a woman next to him in a supermarket queue leant over and said: “You look like the guy on my coffee jar.”
Several weeks later, as he was browsing the shelves of another shop for a Bloody Mary mix, he came face to face with himself on a jar of Taster’s Choice coffee — the American version of Nescafé. In 1986, Mr Christoff had sat for two hours for a photoshoot for Nestlé — for which he says he was paid $250 (£133).
Nestlé, he learnt, had started using his picture in Canada in 1986 and his face had adorned its labels in the United States, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico and South Korea for about six years.The image had been used not only on jars but also on posters, coupons and even a computer screen-saver.
Mr Christoff checked his old modelling contract and saw that he was entitled to a $2,000 fee if his image was used, so he sued. Nestlé USA, part of the world’s largest food and drinks conglomerate, offered to settle for $100,000, saying that the employee who selected the photo thought the company had obtained the proper consent. But Mr Christoff demanded $8.5 million and fought on.
At one point in the litigation, Nestlé even tried to deny that the portrait was that of Mr Christoff. A jury at Los Angeles County Superior Court has ruled that Mr Christoff is entitled to $330,000 for the use of his likeness plus 5 per cent of the profit from Taster’s Choice sales from 1997 to 2003 — a total of $15.6 million. The award was made under a California statute designed to protect celebrities from exploitation of their image.

Here's some health stuff:
1) When's the best time of day to negotiate a raise?
Right after lunch, you boss's belly is full and he's simmering in serotonin, the feel good hormone. "In the morning he's too busy, and in the late afternoon he's too tired," says David J. Lieberman, Ph.D., a psychologist and the author of Get Anyone to Do Anything. "A raise isn't always based on your performance, but on how well you get along with your boss. It puts the odds in your favour to catch him when he's in the best mood."

2) Scientists in England found that pain seems less intense when it's administered by a woman. Researchers placed 40 people in thumbscrews and had either a man or a woman twist the screws until the subject asked them to stop. On average, female tormentors applied about 30% more pressure than males. Women are seen as more nurturing, so people expect to feel less pain at their hands, says researchers.

Here's some more photos:


'A Bold Bluff,' by artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge... This painting sold for $590,400 on Tuesday. I guess its a pretty nice painting.


I remember writing about coffee way back in one of my posts. I guess coffee ain't all that bad.


It's my year this year... The year of the Chicken!








This post is way too long....