Monday, March 31, 2008

And maybe someday we will meet
And maybe talk but not just speak
Don't buy the promises cause
There are no promises I keep
And my reflection troubles me
So here I go

Ooh who hoo

I’m not calling for a second chance
I’m screaming at the top of my voice
Give me reason, but don’t give me choice
Cause I'll just make the same mistake again

mais j'appele pour une deuxième chance..
Si seulement tu savais que parfois, j'y pense. mais je pense qu'il est sans importance maintenant.
juste.. maintenant, j'appele pour une deuxième chance.

on a separate note, i took over 1.5 hours to do one afa question. and i don't even know if it's correct. can't imagine the test tt'll be coming up next week. i am so dead.


------ Friday, March 28, 2008

writing a life story

so angelo was giving us the heads up about the format of the e4 test and one section is about you staying with a flatmate who's not around most of the time and the way u communicate is via post-its.

angelo: u know post-its? u can leave them in the fridge or something like that? so u leave notes ah. about 3 notes. but each note is about 12 words.
student: 3? okkkkk (starts jotting this down)
angelo: (jokingly) "dear jean pierre" is already 3 words ah don't forget.
student: (stops writing halfway) huh then we can only write 12 words???
angelo: eh this is a post-it ok? u know what is a post-it? no space to write your life story ah!


---

i was just listening to a lack of color by dcfc, and i'm just once again struck at how marvellous the lyrics are..

And when I see you, I really see you upside down
But my brain knows better, it picks you up and turns you 'round
Turns you around, turns you around

If you feel discouraged, when there's a lack of color here
Please don't worry lover, it's really bursting at its seam
Absorbing everything, the spectrum's A to Z

This is fact not fiction, for the first time in years
And all the girls in all the girlie magazines
Can't make me feel any less alone
I'm reaching for the phone

To call at 7:03
And on your machine I slur a plea for you to come home
But I know it's too late
I should have given you a reason to stay
Given you a reason to stay
Given you a reason to stay
Given you a reason to stay

This is fact not fiction, for the first time in years

ben gibbard is a lyrical genius.


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we ended yday's class with a game of pass it on. angelo started with 2 sentences and as we go around the class, everyone repeats what was said and adds their own sentence to it. this was the result:

Je m'appelle Fernand. Je suis restaurateur. Je suis gros et j'ai faim. Chaque matin, je fais le marché. J'aime les pommes et le fromage. Je fais souvent la cuisine. Je joue du piano. Je suis content mais je ne suis pas riche. Je déteste les clients. Je suis triste.

translation: My name is Fernand. I am a restaurant owner. I am fat and I am hungry. Every morning, I do the marketing. I like apples and cheese. I cook often. I play the piano. I am happy but I am not rich. I hate the customers. I am sad.

HAHA.


------ Thursday, March 27, 2008

Ken Lee or Without you by Mariah Carey (ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

------

j :. patience says:
im just saying i don understand y ppl thrash back office jobs so much
J***** says:
haha it's a contagious kind of mentality
we're a glamour sch
j :. patience says:
damn ocs
J***** says:
on the day of commencement
they shouldn't rank ppl in terms of cum laudes
they should
"front office"
"middle office"
"back office"
j :. patience says:
HAHAHA
yah lor
J***** says:
auditors can slot in somewhere
j :. patience says:
no wait is "investment banks front office"
then IB middle office
IB back office
IB tech n ops
then all other companies
then auditors
J***** says:
haha IB can eat shit and die la
no wait
they dun even hav time to eat shit
HAHAHA


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High School Musical - What I've Been Looking For (Reprise)

------ Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Liberté (Paul Eluard)

Sur mes cahiers d'écolier
Sur mon pupitre et les arbres
Sur le sable et sur la neige
J'écris ton nom


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COD, COI, CCL

so on tuesday we were introduced to another type of pronoun - complément circonstanciel de lieu (CCL), which is the use of "y" to replace places and of actions that are of the mind (eg dreaming, thinking, daydreaming). which is adds to the confusion considering we have problems with only COD and COI.

so brilliant angelo came up with a solution: practise more.
d'uh.

angelo: so you just have to practise more! it's just like.... learning to play mahjong.
(laughter)
angelo: so complicated ah, but i keep practising. (getting excited now) keep practising, and you will remember.
student: so you know how to play mahjong properly now?
angelo: (embarrassed look) no. so difficult!


------ Tuesday, March 25, 2008

但其实改变不只需要时间
(change doesn't require only time)

there are actually a lot of things i can do or have to do, but i'm procrastinating as usual.

finally downloaded L'auberge Espagnole, which was highly recommended to me while i was on exchange.

a synopsis from IMDB:
A straight laced French student moves into an apartment in Barcelona with a cast of six other characters from all over Europe. Together, they speak the international language of love and friendship.As part of a job that he is promised, Xavier, an economics student in his twenties, signs on to a European exchange program in order to gain working knowledge of the Spanish language. Promising that they'll remain close, he says farewell to his loving girlfriend, then heads to Barcelona. Following his arrival, Xavier is soon thrust into a cultural melting pot when he moves into an apartment full of international students. An Italian, an English girl, a boy from Denmark, a young girl from Belgium, a German and a girl from Tarragona all join him in a series of adventures that serve as an initiation to life.

i can't find a rip with english subtitles so for now, i'll have to watch it in french with separately-downloaded english subtitles on notepad. oh well.
another motivation for me to learn french properly i suppose?

meanwhile i shall finally go and do that assignment angelo set for us last thursday.


------ Monday, March 24, 2008

friday - sentosa picnic with the girls (sorry i almost pang seh-ed u girls, but hey, i still managed to turn up in the nick of time with my potato salad!).. it was too short, girls! more next time!
then wala's with the gang minus ray plus jac, yv and huiying. chao ray pang seh us and still told us not to disturb him when we called him. basket la bro.. but wala's was nice and we even faked that it was edmnud's bday just for fun. wala's always brings good memories, this one is no exception.

sat - AT meeting (my very first project meeting in 2008). i think rebecca is pretty smart, she catches things pretty quickly. and thanks yv! grocery shopped for a long time after the meeting in preparation for....

sun - cookout. promised i'll make meatball spaghetti from scratch for everyone so i finally set about making it. cooked about 7-8 servings for my family and extended family. it came with good reviews! either that or they were being REALLY nice by force feeding themselves thru the mountain of spaghetti and sauce and meatballs.

man utd vs liverpool ended in favour for utd! though it could have been really different had mascherano not been so stupid and gotten himself sent off. and wayne rooney, it's high time u scored! and oooh paul scholes was at his vintage and immaculate best last night.
arsenal vs chelsea almost ended in utd's favour if gallas did not misread the initial cross from belleti that led to the first goal. a 1-1 draw would have done us a lot of favour.
but all in all, super sunday turned out well for utd, the title is ours to lose now. it's been some time since i've talked about football here.

and i am officially SO SICK of doing consolidation adjustment double entries. it's.... horrible. 惨不忍睹!!


------ Saturday, March 22, 2008

the one time angelo was serious

a priceless moment on thursday's class-

angelo: ok i think the articles partitif is becoming very easy for u all right? and chapter 14 is easy too. so today we will revise COD and COI.

groans.

angelo: all of u remember what is COD and COI right?

groans.

angelo: compléments d'objet direct and compléments d'objet indirect?

more groans heard.
angelo gives a sneaky laugh and starts handing out an exercise.

louder groans.

the exercise is basically for us to pratise the following forms of a sentence: present form, the past tense, the present tense with pronoun, the past tense with pronoun, the present tense with pronoun in negative form, the past tense with pronoun in negative form, the imperative form and the imperative in negative form. so there will be a sentence in 1 of the 8 forms, and we have to figure out the remaining 7 forms.

which is damn tough!


angelo: ok go go! do the exercise.

total silence. no one moves.

angelo: (with an absolutely horrified look) u all FORGOT how to do them right???


guilty smiles from all around the class.


------ Tuesday, March 18, 2008

老旧的三轮 繁忙的店
就这样一步一步踩出明天
清脆的叫卖 攒动的脸
就这样一来一往每天上演
谁不希望生活会有所改变
但其实改变不只需要时间
有时候日子过得简单一点
未必不是一种愉快的体验
高高的屋檐 站了多少年
谁都拥有自己的一片天
愁眉苦脸不如乐观一点
学会满足却更要挺起双肩
高高的屋檐 一直在身边
日晒雨淋总在所难免
微微一笑代替所有抱怨
最重要的是让爱你的人能快了一点

pretty good lyrics, innit? this is actually the theme song for the 9pm show on ch8. it's actually quite funny and i actually do watch it almost every night if i can. and no, i didn't purposefully memorise the lyrics. i've just heard it so many times, i can sing it from memory.


anyways. today's funny episode in class:
we were learning the usage of "en" to replace the articles partitif - the present tense in positive and negative form, as well as the past tense. and so it goes..

angelo: alors, tu mange de la viande?
student A: oui, j'en mange. non, je n'en mange pas.
angelo: tu bois du café?
student B: oui, j'en bois. non, je n'en bois pas.
angelo: tu fais de la musique?
student C: oui, j'en fais. non, je n'en fais pas.
angelo: tu a fait de la musique?
student D: oui, j'en ai fait. non, je n'en ai pas fait.
angelo: tu a fait du courses?
student E: oui, j'en ai fait. non, je n'en ai pas fait.
and so it goes on until angelo runs out of ideas on questions to ask, but he wants to ask this guy 1 last question. and this happened:

angelo: (face screwed in semi concentration then gives up) skjlnwef90823rdkjwe933? (he is speaking gibberish)
student F: (astonished look) oui, sdfjk2389fhu23. non, sfriu2389vrfj23. (replies in gibberish)

whole class breaks out in laughter once again.

angelo good, u understood what i meant!

laughter again.


------ Thursday, March 13, 2008

seriously, angelo's class can get hilarious. the class is basically quite comfortable with each other (i think they all progressed since e1 together), angelo's style is very informal, some people in class are really witty, it makes for some funny moments.

today, we were talking about food and we had to translate an english menu into french and identify the articles partitif (dunoe what's that in english) that comes together with them. one of the items these 2 girls had to translate was "dessert of the day". and there was angelo, explaining why it translates to "les desserts du jour" and not "le dessert du jour". he went on to say that dessert or mains of the day are food that the chef has prepared for day and in france, some chefs do get offended if customers are ordering too much of the a la carte stuff.

and the more he explained, the more animated he gets. and the more animated he gets, the faster he speaks. and because his english is not that fantastic (he speaks english decently but it's slower and odd expressions pop up here and there), this really odd sentence was heard:

(face somewhat flushed with excitement)
"yes it's true, the chef gets angry! one time, i heard the chef shouting in the chicken..."

needless to say, the class broke out into a long period of really loud laughter that borders on being screeches.


------

High School Musical- Stick To The Status Quo

------ Wednesday, March 12, 2008

yesterday was my 3rd french class n it was also my 3rd new class. i signed up for E3 class initially and after 1 class, i switched to E4. After my first E4 class (2nd class for the term), the class was closed cos of insufficient ppl, and i was switched to the evening class. so it was my 3rd new class. and most of my classmates are girls (only seen 1 guy so far, in my E3 class). no kidding. girls are more inclined to learning languages i suppose? cos most of the teachers are female too.
my new teacher thou, is male. he's italian by birth, funny and he can't cook for nuts. that's what i learnt in class last nite.

anyways. AT class is resuming now. ht was right. it's.... incomprehensible. ah well. here we go again.


------ Wednesday, March 05, 2008

post no. 1001 is on change.

i keep saying i want to change something, change my life, change my habits, change. but i realised.. it's not as if i don't want to change, but that i don't know how to change. what should i do?

anyway. i happened to read a friend's blog on the meaning of friendship, and i think sadly that somewhere down the line, i've lost the capability to build a friendship.
or maybe i didn't have it in me in the first place. i just find it difficult to share a secret, to share a thought. sometimes i think all i lack is confidence. it's so weird that when i was younger, there were ppl who said that i am a confident person. but i am not, and it gets obvious as i grow older. which is bad cos most ppl grow in confidence. me, i regress. how to change?

so meanwhile all that has changed is my password. which, incidentally, is Change.


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