周杰伦，费玉清-千里之外MV
Monday, August 28, 2006

Apparently, youtube shut down down all videos that featured the song. Should be a copyright violation issue.

posted byWilliam at 2:09 AM 0 comments  

USP Dinner and Dance 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006

Jiatong and I covered the USP DnD tonight. Here are some of my takes of the event.

posted byWilliam at 1:27 AM 0 comments  

NUS Photographic Society
Thursday, August 24, 2006

I went to the NUS Photographic Society Media Centre in YIH in the afternoon. My intention was to check out the calibrated monitor. The computers and monitors are not bad at all. Powerful, high color accuracy and very very under-utilized. I think I will hang out there during my free time.

I met the secretary, Leonard, who has just got into the organizing committee. It was my lucky day, I told him I am interested in conducting Photoshop courses for the NUS community and there is an appointment in the committee not filled: course coordinator. I immediately signed up for it. Leonard told me there might be an interview next week. I think I gotta revise my Photoshop basics before I stumble at the interview; will also organize a portfolio to showcase my editing skills over the weekends. If everything goes well, I should be conducting courses during the holidays.

Also talked to FM about his idea of setting up a Media Dept in USC. I volunteered to help out as the photographer. Basically, I am increasing my exposure to events and people photography to improve my skills and techniques. I find myself really lacking in creativity and artistry. I'm pretty ok with technical skills. Still remember what the boss of Riceball Photographic Books told me: "A photographer shocks people with pictures, not technical knowledge. Though the latter is essential for a perfect picture". I think I am reading photography more furiously than chemistry. Have you heard of Brooks Institute of Photography? Really hope to study there, though I know it's not going to be easy.

P.S. I'm sure there are lots of Photoshop experts in NUS, I really hope to meet them to discuss on photo-editing and post-processing techniques. Not so interested in graphics design/processing though.

posted byWilliam at 11:32 PM 0 comments  

Birkenau Death Camp in Krakow
Monday, August 21, 2006

posted byWilliam at 11:10 PM 0 comments  

Thinking log for CM5245
Sunday, August 20, 2006

CM5245 Bioanalytical Chemistry is one of the few chemistry modules that I have taken and has a percentage allocated to IVLE discussion. Most USP modules in the "Science" basket have IVLE forum discussions but, even so, not all are graded. Therefore, CM5245 is one truly unique module in chemistry dept.

In this module, the assessment is in a form of seven weekly thinking logs which a student uploads to the Assignment in the Student Workspace. This is quite unlike a "normal" discussion on the IVLE forum. Here is my first thinking log, which is not a very scientific discussion.

Thinking Log 01

Name: Wong Yu Kai William
Matric no.: U031969B

The first lecture on bioanalytical chemistry touched upon the topic of the importance of analytical chemistry and some basic protein science. If I’m going to talk about the latter, it is going to be quite boring in a thinking log like this. Therefore, I shall talk about the importance of analytical chemistry.

I think Dr. Toh is one of the few lecturers in NUS to tell me about analytical chemistry as a problem solver. I think it’s quite sad that most lecturers focus so much on theory, instrumentation… that we forget that the importance of chemistry, or science in general, is to solve real-world problems. Dr. Toh showed us the changing definition of a chemical analysis which was quite a nice piece of new information for me. I have always linked chemical analysis to determining the components of chemical in a sample. The paradigm has been shifted!
I also used to think that analytical chemistry is so routine that it’s not exciting. Well, I have changed my thoughts after this lecture. I still remember Dr. Toh saying that a result is up to an analytical chemist to interpret. How true it is! In a broader sense, isn’t the world like this? Everything we see is a fact but how true are they? I think how true things/ analytical results are is up to one to interpret. How we see things and interpret results all depends on the cumulative knowledge one has; and all of us are unique individuals and we see things differently. And talk about science being objective…

posted byWilliam at 4:45 PM 0 comments  

More of Falling in Love

Here are more intriguing points from Falling in Love:

Times when one is emotionally aroused, positively or negatively, are times when he/she is more open to love. Sounds difficult to achieve? Activities like dancing classes, trips abroad, exciting concerts… are highly physical and emotionally arousing; these can make people more open to love.

Selecting a partner who is as physically appealing as you are is likely to lead to more harmonious and satisfying relationships.

Beauty still plays an important role as one of the first screens in romantic relationships. I’m a F-student when it comes to dress sense, I should take special note of the following point: You could be rejected because of an appearance that could be enhanced with some effort. As a result, your potential mate will never have a chance to discover the wonderful treasures buried deep inside your unkempt appearance. (Hmmm… I should really make a conscious effort to make myself as attractive as possible by improving the attractive parts of my appearance and personality.)

The general rule is still attraction of the similar. Forget about the exotic and mysterious princess from the distant kingdom (or maybe Prince Charming on the white horse for gals). A person who is similar to you in appearance, intelligence, attitudes, interests, emotional maturity, as well as background, is the person with whom you are most likely to live happily ever after.

Do not hold back love waiting for the perfect partner. Giving love freely and generously to the less than perfect people who happened to cross your path can assure you of receiving many coins of love from the people around you. Among them you might just find your beloved.

Be aware of your love screens and evaluate them. To what extent are they truly yours? Are they part of a social script that doesn’t really suit you?

How do we cross the first bridge of acquaintance? In most of the times, people are more likely to make acquaint someone who is physically/characteristically attractive. This presents two options for acquainting someone at the first meeting. You can either (a) play the dating game and present a mask of masculine/feminine persona, or (b) take the risk the present your true self. Take note that this bridge is a construct of stereotypical views; after crossing it, you and your beloved can progress to truly intimate relationship.

Is it true that one has to present oneself with a mask before he/she is given a higher chance for romantic relationship compared to one who portrayed a true but maybe weaker image?

posted byWilliam at 2:30 PM 0 comments  

Back to School
Monday, August 14, 2006

I had an eventful first day back to NUS as a Year 4 student. I am enrolled in CM1101 Principles of Modern Chemistry as a teaching assistant and today is a training day. I am very surprised that Miss Tan, the laboratory officer, still remembers my name. Here is a verbatim of what she said:" I remember William. He is the talkative guy!" Yup, I was pretty talkative when I was a Year 2 and 3 student in the lab. I especially like to talk to Miss Tan who is so friendly. She is unlike some officers who give me a black face (which speaks: this is so simple and you are wasting my time by asking me!?). I did all the experiments, which the Year 1s will go through, with Lijie, who is enrolled in the same-moduleTA duty.

In the afternoon, I met my Honors Project supervisors: Prof. Sam Li and a graduate student co-supervisor, Junie. They gave me some directions on the project and I feel more assured now. Two interesting statistics: I am the only guy out of 8 honors students under Prof. Sam Li; I am one of the two guys out of almost 20 students (honors, grad, post-grad, UROPS) under Prof. Sam Li.

Evening was spent on some photography books and blogging. I know I shouldn't be doing these... Hehe.

posted byWilliam at 10:50 PM 0 comments  

Proximity as a Hidden Matchmaker

In my 23rd year of being a bachelor and haven’t ever been in a relationship, I always want to find out what is happening. I am perplexed when it comes to relationship. I, again, seek help by reading. I understand that my life is unique, but I believe there is a collection knowledge shared by the entire human race and reading might help me discover a small portion of the encyclopedic information. I yearn to discover my life through reading other people’s experiences; in Grace’s words: I’m a “self-help junkie”. Anyway, junkie or not, I derive quite a lot of pleasure by consuming these (self-help) drugs. Recently, I have been reading Falling in Love: Why We Choose the Lovers We Choose by Ayala Malach Pines these couple of weeks and I want to share some of the contents and my thoughts on them.

I think we have all heard people tend to get attached during SEP; I am intrigued by the statistics. Chapter 1 of the book, Proximity, the Hidden Matchmaker, provides some psychological explanation for this phenomenon.

We all feel uncomfortable around strangers. A child would be told not to talk to strangers as it is dangerous. We all assume a stranger is crazy, trying to sell us something, cheat us… all sorts of negative things. If we were to see a stranger repeatedly, say, on a bus. Repeated exposure tells us that the person is not dangerous so we can relax and enjoy the encounter. From what I understand from the book, the attraction to familiarity may have a great effect on romantic attraction than a certain physical look. This is a provocative conclusion! Pines mentioned “We may not be aware of our preference for familiar faces, but this preference seems to play an important role in our attraction to certain faces (8)”. If this is true then familiarity breeds content! Could we develop liking, attraction and comfort because we are spending time with a certain person? Yes, this proposition has been given support in a study in the 1960s with a group of female subjects. I shall not discuss the details of the study here.

In this blog entry, my interest would be repeated exposure during SEP. In a foreign land, the presence of a alien environment would make repeated exposure to a fellow Singaporean more frequent compared to when the environment is familiar (like back in Singapore). Therefore, it’s no wonder people tend to get attached during SEP. But what about familiarity that breeds contempt? For example, some people quarrel really badly after being on a trip together. The author has given an explanation for this. When someone annoys us, repeated exposure, rather than making us like the person more, will intensify our negative feeling. I think repeated exposure intensifies the dominant emotion in a relationship. When the dominant emotion is anger, repeated exposure enhances the anger. When the dominant emotion is attraction, repeated exposure enhances the attraction.

Hmm… I think as a self-help: I should avoid platonic love relationships by means of letters, telephone, and emails. As I foresee, these communications can be exciting. But repeated exposure is yet another requirement for a romantic spark to turn into a steady flame of a love relationship.

posted byWilliam at 10:47 PM 0 comments  

NUS Rag Day 2006
Saturday, August 12, 2006

NUS Rag Day was held in the morning. I had a disturbed sleep as I need to cover some events (make-up, final touch-up of the float...) that happened during the night. Here are some pictures which I have taken during Rag Day. As usual, more to follow...

posted byWilliam at 11:44 PM 0 comments