Life is way too eventful

What a week. What a week man.

Let me say that again for extra emphasis. WHAT A WEEK!!!!!!!!!

Aaaanyways, classes started last monday. The first day was fine and good, cycling to uni, nearly getting run over by a truck (lies told to make the story more interesting).

And Tuesday came. Tuesday rocked my socks. And is still rocking. We had the fresher's fayre on that day for the Christian Union. So 845 i was at church with Toinpre carrying this 4 boxes of Gideons bibles. If I ever had a problem with bibles it was there and then. It was sooooo heavy (that even my 6"4' friend who can lift me up and throw me across the road with one arm
was suffering carrying it). Imagine me and my skinny ass dragging them all the way. No shit man. No shit. My arms told me that they did their quota of work for the week already.

But anyways back to tuesday, so we had a prayer in the stairwell, set up the stall, and OMG at the end of the day we had NEARLY 80 NAMES on the list. It was just such an amazing testimony for the both of us. Everything from the "strategic" position of the stall to the beautiful weather that day to all the people who just walked right up without us having to say anything, it was amazing. Incredibly amazing. But in between all that I had to go for a 3 hour class called survival models which was totally rape. The math that our professor threw at us was just mental. They were right in calling it survival models.

And when i got home that evening, i realized that i was coming down with the flu. But I had to soldier on. Like a man. Cause, OMGROFTLOLBBQ I had tickets to the Arsenal Porto Champions League match at the emirates stadium!!!

I've never been to a proper football match at the stadium before, so this was an exhilarating experience. When I got to the stadium my mouth was gaping wide open all the way till the game started. The WOW factor was just so there. The stadium was beautiful, the atmosphere was amazing, seeing the team i had supported (arsenal that is) for a decade in the flesh was totally out of this world. Never had I thought that one day I'd be siting in Arsenal's home stadium watching them play. And they won to make it a spendid night.

But then i came home. Sick with flu. Bleh.

Weds i went for my asset liability management class to see whether it was elective worth taking or not. The notes and all were very impressive, like the most complete and comprehensive indepth lecturer's notes i have ever seen, unfortunately i couldnt understand a single word the lecturer was saying due to his strong cypriot accent and soft voice. So it was a no go.

Thursday came and the flu got worse, and also 7 hours of lectures on that day. But later in the day we had our first CU meeting of the term, and it was amazing. Once again God's hand was evident there, loads of people came till we had to SHIFT rooms, and everybody felt at home, and the whole CU committee was very encouraged. Plus not to mention loads of people who said they couldn't make it for the first meeting but will be coming for future meetings. Praise GOD!!!

And after that on the way home i got caught in the rain -_-"

Anyways today the flu got worse, and my pensions class was very interesting, which leaves me in anawful dilemma on choosing what electives to take. I could go for the crazysuredienochanceofsurvival combination of Life Insurance, Pensions and General Insurance, or the more managable any combination of the two above plus a non actuarial science module. The whole problem is that I consider Life and GI pretty much "compulsory" electives (my personal opinion), but pensions is so interesting and i'll really enjoy learning it (for once - i think); but then if i take any combination of the two i dont know what othe module to take, or what module out of the three to drop for that matter.

Decisions decisions.

But the weekend is here, time to sort out some stuff, catch up on school work, practice some guitar, recover from the flu, and decide on my electives. TGIF!

When the going gets tough....

Alvin "SB" Choong showing his mettle

The tough get going, and the not so tough run away....RUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!

*composes self*

Anyways, it's been a hectic 2 weeks here in London, preparing for the new term, finishing the anime series Full Metal Alchemist in 4 days on YouTube (and now starting on 11.7GB of Futurama), planning CU stuff, getting myself a new bike, sorting out the mess in my room, and fretting over the disappearing act of my Final Year Project (FYP) supervisor, which at the moment leaves my FYP topic proposal pending approval with 2 weeks left to the deadline and supervisor nowhere in sight, meeting up with different people, and finding out today that they have moved the elective that I wanted to take to the next term. BLARGHH!

So now I'm in this dilemma of not chaging my module and keeping it for the next term, but which will mean 99% chance of death in the finals at the end (comparatively if i had taken it in the this term it would be a 95% chance of death in January exams), or I can change to other modules which I am not really keen on/had done enough research on it to make an informed choice.

Cycling to Uni so far has been really good, it takes only 15-20 mins to get to uni. 15 mins if i cycle like there's no tomorrow and don't get stuck behind a bus. But anyways its cool as long as IT DOESNT RAIN. But so far no incidences of getting caught in rain yet la... =D

So now i might have to take Asset-Liability Management instead of Investments as a module. Bah. Dammit.

On the bright side, I got myself a ticket to watch the champions league match between Arsenal and Porto this tueday night at Ashburton Grove. Hurrah!! And the odd jobs i did in Uni yesterday earned me 52 pounds which effectively paid for my match ticket with 20 pounds to spare.

But this week will be crazy with term starting on monday, freshers fayre/football match on tuesday, sandwich making(don't ask)/cell group on weds, CU meeting on thursday, and hunting down the whereabouts of my supervisor the whole week. And also my ongoing rock star wannabe project which requires me to put in at least 2 hours of practice a day (doesn't really happen as you will notice).

So now the tough gets going. I'll just need to get tough. Time to do the laundry.

AND ARSENAL BEAT MAN U!!!!!

*ahem*

Stuff stuff stuff

Part of my final year project topic, together with some still-not-very-widely-used-in-the-process-of-implementation branch of math called Tail-VaR. Why la why I go and make life difficult for myself.

I got more new stuff when I came home recently, notably more CDs. I finally managed to get my hands on Tommy Emmanuel's Endless Road album (see pic) and also Paul Gilbert's latest guitar instrumental album, Get Out of My Yard.

My 2 new CDs =D

Anyways, the Endless Road album is an awesome album. Anybody who listens to music will definately enjoy it. It's really really really good. I mean really. Especially if you want some inspiration to keep you going on the guitar.

I was trying the song Angelina last night (see previous posts), and I realized my fingerpicking skills are no longer existent. It's gonna be a while even before I get past the intro of the song.

And then there was this Get Out of My Yard album. All I can say that it's quite...erm. Weird? There's some fantastic guitar work on it, no doubt, but then it's no something that mortals like me would ever be able to play in 10 lifetimes. Alright alright, maybe 20. But that's besides the point. Well basically the album is just crazy, and I realized that as much I like to think that my musical tastes have further evolved into a higher plane, I still struggle to sit down and listen to a full blown guitar album. Cannot tahan. But maybe over time though. I did find some new cool YouTube videos of Paul Gilbert's stuff and I think they are absolutely the best. (heh.. many will disagree on this) But anyway here's a link to the song Individually Twisted on the album Alligator Farm. So if you have time, a decent broadband connection, a good set of speakers, crank it up baby!!

OK now it's time to devise a plan to con the lecturer into being my supervisor. Gotta pretend I know some stuff. Off to work then!!

Bah final year projects. What a pain.

OMG ITS AMAZING!!!

My new toy that I just got a few days ago. Sony Ericsson K800i, equipped with a 3.2 MP camera and lots of other geeky stuff that I don't know how to use. No matter.

Couple of days back, I got back to my new house in London, and OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMOMG you wouldn't believe the sight that greeted me.

When I first walked in, the house smelled different. Felt different. But more importantly, LOOKED different. And this is what I saw.

My new hallway. Notice its clean. Like spanking clean. Momma you'd be proud. Your son ain't no ghetto boy anymore.

A new toilet! New seat. New tiles. More importantly, nice smell and clean.

More happiness to follow. A brand new bathroom!! Totally remade.

And a BRAND NEW KITCHEN. This is the greatest thing ever. Especially after the kitchen flooding fiasco which I will tell one day. Soon.

Another view of the kitchen. We got a new washing machine too!! And its clean!! It's so cool to have girls in the house. (And no alvin no matter how long your hair grows you can't become alvina)

Unfortunately, my room is in this sorry state. All because everybody's tumpang-ed luggage was left here. And is still here. Blah.. -_-""

Ahh my beautiful new house. Now to get the room done.

While passing the time by

I finally got some of the CDs that i wanted, and they are:

The best of Fourplay
Mr Big: Greatest Hits
The Very best of Tommy Emmanuel
Joe Satriani: Strange Beautiful Music

I persuaded my dad to pay upfront for me 1st (which we all know that the likelyhood of me paying back is..erm..small.) But i did agree to bring him to the clark shoe shop to have the shoe of his choice when he comes to london next year.

But anyway, I was on watching Tommy Emmanuel on YouTube today... It's just so inspiring. And as such, with my long term rock star plans in mind, I've decided to work on 2 songs for the year (as mentioned by my crazy jazz pianist long lost brother that i need to set tangible goals to help me improve, and yes i know my tempo needs major work too). And they are....

Tommy Emmanuel's - Angelina
Mr Big's - Addicted to that Rush

Its gonna be a long long year of practice -_-"

So i'm leaving...on a jet plane...

I was watching THE chelsea barcelona game from 2 seasons ago, yes THAT game where the barca defence decided they liked to take a nap and conceded 3 goals in the first 20 mins, and the where Ronaldinho scored THE goal...yes THAT goal which I unfortunately missed cause my sis came over and changed channels... -_-"

But anyways... my head tells me that i should go practice more guitar and not slack, but my body decided that it wanted to do something else... ok that came out wrong. But you get the idea. Heck no, don't get any ideas.

This morning i woke up with the sudden realisation that i need bicycle to get to uni. It'll cut travel time to uni by half. So i defiantely be cycling this year. I can wake up later...hooray! no more 45 mins walk. Now all I ned to do is find the most ghetto-pariah-looking bike possible so people will look at it, feel pity for me and give me money. But the whole point is so that they won't steal my bike. So wish me luck in my hunt for a second hand bike guys. And pray too the a lorry doesn't run me down on my way to Uni. That's not the way to go man. Abosolutely not.

But anyways, flight is on sunday, my stuff are all packed (i think), so its adious malaysia for the year, i'll see you again soon.

Losing the will to live

This morning I woke up with a sudden realisation that I've lost the will to live. Before any of you panic, I'm not going to commit suicide or anything morbid like that, rather, just simply, I've lost the will to live. To live life. Or maybe I never had it in the first place. In fact if you think hard about it, you probably feel the same way too.

Back when I was busy and overworked with courseworks, assignments and exams, screaming "Lord take me home!!!" everyday, I thought once the exams were over, the holidays came, life would be good. Life would be something to look foward to. Waking up on a monday morning wouldnt be a dread.

Now that I've been on holiday for quite some time, the so envisioned bliss isn't really happening. It's been a while since I woke up in the morning with a spring to my step, something to look foward to. If its not the dread of woke, then its the aimless wandering around with no direction.

And most of the time when I think I have purpose, it's because I busy myself with so many things that I don't have time to sit down and reflect what am I really doing with my life, things like work, social outings, church, hobbies, this and that.

Its like I've lost purpose. And a zest for life.

Something is not right here. Something is missing. Life isn't meant to be like this. There's definately more than this. Much more. Am I'm going to find it.

Maybe google knows =p