Lappy Died Again
Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Lappy had a serious brain damage. The injury was so serious that I had no way of recovering her memory. And, yup, some of my memories which I had placed under her care are gone too. Isn't it fustrating? She went through a brain transplant less than a year ago (just before I went for exchange) and she totally lost it this time. I could at least get some of her memories back the last time. Her insurance no longer supports her after 1st August 2006 and I had to fork out ~$150 to revive her.

Lappy, please don't die or lose your memory again, it's very very stressful for you and me.

posted byWilliam at 6:51 PM 0 comments  

Fast, Very Fast
Monday, October 30, 2006

The Stockholm Nobel Museum is making her world tour and it has arrived in Singapore. It will be my first day of duty at the Nobel Museum later in the morning. I have procrastinated on studying the script until this weekend and hopefully I don't stumble when the visitors ask me some strange questions. Do come and visit the Museum at the new NUS admin building; it's free for NUS students.

Time flies super super fast this semester. It feels even faster than I was on SEP. In about 5 weeks, the semester will be over. The last semester in NUS will start very soon and I predict it will be faster than ever. Blink my eyes and I will graduate next May.

I think this week will be an interesting week. Nobel Museum tour guide duty, a possible test on Wednesday, a journal club discussion on Thursday, Swedish Embassy dinner on Friday. I am looking forward to all of them!

posted byWilliam at 12:14 AM 0 comments  

USP SPAN Get-Together Dinner
Saturday, October 28, 2006

The evening was spent at NUSS Guild House, Suntec with my USP old friends. I knew there is going to be lots of pretty decorations at the dinner and I wasn't disappointed. Click here to access the album. In case you are too lazy to click around in Flickr, I will post some of the better pictures here soon.

Time for bed. Going for a walkathon organized by Junyi and Kaixin in 6 hours.

posted byWilliam at 12:52 AM 0 comments  

Honors Lab Group Outing
Saturday, October 21, 2006

The lab group went for an outing yesterday at Suntec. I thought we enjoyed ourselves much since there was so much boisterous laughter at the dinner table that the 翡翠小厨 waitress had to remind us to lower our volume.

After dinner, the night was spent on the movie, The Prestige. I haven't heard much about the movie before Lijie recommended it to us. In fact, I thought it was quite a boring movie. Man, I was wrong when I read the reviews and I was convinced that it could be the best movie of 2006 after watching it. The movie intrigued me and I could relate to many of the scenes since I was an amatuer magician just a couple of years back. Through my interactions with fellow magicians, I have experienced much of the deceptive nature of magicians, the desire to fool fellow magicians and sometimes the ruthlessness in them.

Here's a short introduction to The Prestige on Yahoo! Movies:

It all begins in rapidly changing, turn-of-the-century London. At a time when magicians are idols and celebrities of the highest order, two young magicians set out to carve their own paths to fame. The flashy, sophisticated Robert Angier is a consummate entertainer, while the rough-edged purist Alfred Borden is a creative genius who lacks the panache to showcase his magical ideas. They start out as admiring friends and partners. But when their biggest trick goes terribly awry, they become enemies for life--each intent on outdoing and upending the other. Trick by trick, show by show, their ferocious competition builds until it knows no bounds, even utilizing the fantastical new powers of electricity and the scientific brilliance of radical inventor Nikola Tesla--while the lives of everyone around them hang in the balance.

Trivial:

• Nikola Tesla (the electricity-freak physicist) and Thomas Edison (the Inventor) appeared in the movie.
• The Chinese magician, Chung Ling Soo, is a real magician back in the Victorian Era. He died while performing the bullet catch.

There are lots of twists in the movie which makes you sit on the edge of the seat and the reveal is VERY surprising. The movie is magic at one of its finest and will leave you thinking of the details (just like a good trick will leave you thinking about the secret). I voted 10/10 for this movie on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Yes, it's that good. In fact, I am contemplating of watching it the second time to understand some of the finer points which I have missed. Or should I buy the DVD and keep it?

posted byWilliam at 12:38 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Drag Queen
Monday, October 16, 2006

After visiting the Rhine Valley, I took a 2h train to Cologne. You have seen the Kölner Dom in one of my previous post. Let me show you some German street scenes, people I met and food tasted in the upcoming blog entries.

I took this picture at one of the many events of Cologne Gay Pride; I think the most famous event is the Gay Pride parade. This event, which I witnessed, was not so big in scale; it's more like a carnival. There are more provocative images...

posted byWilliam at 12:11 AM 0 comments