Big shots are just small shots who kept shooting.

A very pensive moment indeed...

WHO raised the pandemic level to level 5... confirming the spread of this swine flu...
5 confirmed cases in UK...
90+ confirmed cases in US, 1 confirmed dead...

Just as the start of our thoughts lie on more of the holiday plans, right now I just wanna be at home and spend more time with my mum... Amidst all the pandemic scares, academic work (it seems we are stressing each other out over these days), tripos preparation, etc...

And looking at the way the swine spreads, with esp the pt abt showing no syndrome during the first 24 hrs which could be the most infectious, I really fear the worse is yet to be. Esp when u think that sars is such a problematic case back in Singapore.

Feeling quite agonised over my cells supervision...

No doubt he is a good supervisor, pushing us to work really hard...

"2/1. Good essay! But you know I don't give 1s."
"I wonder why your answers are so close to the answer scheme. Where did you get them?"
Me: "Copied the practical notes. Asked my friends. Yah I'm not as good as what my paper would suggest..." ESFJs are warm-hearted individuals who highly value their close personal relationships. They are very service-oriented, and their own happiness is closely tied into the happiness and comfort of those around them. They are valued for their genuine warm and caring natures, and their special ability to bring out the best in others. They usually do not handle conflict well, and may tend to be very controlling or manipulative. Relationships are central to their lives, and they put forth a great amount of energy into developing and maintaining their close interpersonal relationships. They expect the same from others.

ESFJ Strengths
● Put forth a lot of effort to fulfill their duties and obligations
● Warm, friendly and affirming by nature
● Service-oriented, they want to please others
● Take their commitments very seriously, and seek lifelong relationships
● Responsible and practical, they can be counted to take care of day-to-day necessities
● Generally upbeat and popular, people are drawn towards them
● Generally very good money managers
● Traditionally minded and family-oriented, they will make family celebrations and traditions special events

ESFJ Weaknesses
● Generally uncomfortable with change, and moving into new territories
● Extreme dislike of conflict and criticism
● Need a lot of positive affirmation to feel good about themselves
● May be overly status-conscious, and interested in how others see them
● Have very difficult time accepting the end of a relationship, and are likely to
take the blame for the failure onto their own shoulders
● Have difficulty accepting negative things about people close to them
● Don't pay enough attention to their own needs, and may be self-sacrificing
May tend to use guilt manipulation as a way to get what they want

ESFJs as Lovers

ESFJs are warmly caring people who give their intimate relationships a lot of special care and attention. They're usually traditional and take their commitments very seriously. Once the ESFJ has said "I do", you can bet that they will put forth every effort to fulfill their obligations to the relationship.

ESFJs want to be appreciated for who they are, and what they give to others. This need of theirs is sometimes intensified to the point where they are very emotionally needy, and constantly "go fishing" for affirmation if it is not freely given. ESFJs typically cannot stand conflict or criticism. They take any sort of criticism as a general indictment of their character. This is a potential pitfall for ESFJs to be aware of. In the face of negative feedback, or the absence of positive affirmation, ESFJ may become very depressed and down on themselves. Appreciation is the greatest gift that their mates can give them.

ESFJs have a tendency to be very conscious of social status and "what other people think". They should take care not to let this interfere with their close relationships.

Sexually, ESFJs are warm and loving, and welcome intimacy as an opportunity to express their affections and receive their partner's gifts of love. Many ESFJs have a tendency to be highly scheduled and traditional in their sexual habits, but this is almost always overcome by increasing their education and awareness of options. ESFJs are very service-oriented and will place a lot of importance on making their partners happy.

Being highly practical, the ESFJ is excellent in matters regarding home management. They're likely to be very responsible about taking care of day-to-day needs, and to be careful and cautious about money matters. They are interested in security and peaceful living, and are willing and able to do their part towards achieving these goals for themselves, their mates, and their families.

Most ESFJs have a strong need to "belong" - whether to institutions, traditions, or family units. This need usually causes them to be quite social creatures that enjoy attending parties as well as throwing their own. They're likely to strongly desire that their mates share in their social experiences.

Although two well-developed individuals of any type can enjoy a healthy relationship, ESFJ's natural partner is the ISFP, or the INFP. ESFJ's dominant function of Extraverted Feeling is best matched with someone whose dominant function is Introverted Feeling. The ESFJ/ISFP combination is ideal because it shares the common Sensing way of perceiving the world, but the ESFJ/INFP combination is also very good.


ESFJs as Parents

As parents, ESFJs are extremely committed to their roles and duties, and contain and freely express a great deal of love and affection for their children. They expect their children to honor, respect and obey their parents, and do not tolerate well any deviance from this rule of behavior. Their Feeling preference makes it difficult for them to punish or discipline their children. If they have not worked on overcoming this issue, they may tend to punish their children in less obvious ways, such as using guilt manipulation. This is a potential pitfall for the ESFJ to overcome. It is generally more effective and healthier to directly issue punishment when called for.

The ESFJ is very service-oriented and concerned with the comfort and happiness of those around them. Consequently, their children are likely to have their practical needs taken care of very efficiently and responsibly. Their ESFJ parents will create structured environments for the children, where their boundaries will be well-defined and known.

The ESFJ's tendency to be controlling, combined with their emphasis on tradition and security, makes it likely that they will be at least somewhat strict and controlling of their children. However, they will also be their children's strongest, loudest advocate. Children of ESFJ parents are likely to rebel from their authority at some point, which will cause a stressful time for both parent and child. In this case, the ESFJ natural tendency is to make their children feel guilty about their behavior. Depending on the extent of the guilt manipulation, this may cause serious damage to the relationship.

Most ESFJs are remembered fondly by their children for their genuine love and affection, and for the well-defined structure and guidelines they created for their children.

ESFJs as Friends

Although the ESFJ usually puts their family in front of their friends, they do place a lot of importance on their close friendships, and feel tremendous loyalty towards their friends. Since they feel tremendous pressure in their lives to constantly "do their duty", they may sometimes turn their friendships into another task or responsibility. Usually, however, they get a lot of enjoyment from their friendships, and give back a lot of affirming warmth.

There are a couple of ESFJ tendencies which may cause problems with their casual and intimate friendships: 1) they don't give things freely - they expect something in return, and 2) they have a difficult time believing anything bad about someone close to them.

ESFJs are valued by others for their genuine interest in people, and for their warmth and kind-heartedness. They have a special skill at seeing the best in others, and making people feel good about themselves. As such, they usually have a relatively large number of very close friends, usually of all different personality types.

ESFJs are likely to have well-furnished, orderly and attractive homes. They are usually excellent hosts and hostesses, and enjoy throwing parties and having a good time. They like to feel as if they belong to traditions and institutions, and are likely to have a relatively large group of people which they include in their social circles.

And yups to all the pple, it is the exams time now! Good luck for ur exams (though i know some pple like simin shld have ended their exams and now happily looking forward to their real JOBS!!) it just gets scarier to be reminded that how we have to be in the workforce some other time (at least not for me hehe, long way ahead!) and how all the responsibilities have to come into place one day... And very soon I would be hearing ppl lamenting how tough work is, or perhaps discuss about all the workplace politics, while i am happily insulated in the world of academics hahah!

Most importantly, what I couldn't help but notice abt the technology is that it helps to bring some of us closer together, esp my mum who logs onto the msn really quite often (after all she is the only one who is using the internet at home, and of course must maximise the usage!) And hope she has had enjoyed her bday and all the bday cards we've sent!! But it is just quite funny when parents have facebook accounts and start looking at their children taking lame quizzes or having some friends writing some joking comments on their walls... or worse still, being tagged in some photos that they didn't want to be tagged... haha... but i don't really anticipate that happening to me one day ba...

And just to update everyone, i've received my exam schedule! 2 to 10 June!!! but if u are wondering, it is one whole year of stuff... and it's not gonna be easy, esp given how slack and inefficient i am (with the comp right in front of me!)... so yups the best of luck to me to survive the rigorous demands that i have to go thru... and after that I would be looking forward to spain/france!! No more switz cos intending to visit there in winter, and no more amsterdam cos it is a bit out of the way... but ya plenty of fun to look forward to! esp travelling in the famous five grp man! hahaha...

Shall go on to my maths mocks now! Shall be terribly disappointed in myself and hopefully get a wakeup call!!! seeya!

It's Earth Day!

Yups... this blog entry comes at a time when everyone is studying really hard for exams, and even the slackest guy i think would be starting to prepare for the exams... and studying can come in a lot of ways too... picnic studying, sunbathing studying, chillout studying (these two are ironic, but i do see wines and books on the same table), library studying (hmm i spotted kim in the library and she happily daoed my message), comp room studying (a certain bunch of pple, hehe me included, hiding in some small comp room)...

And still the slackiness in me never fades. A comp in front of me essentially will wander me off to somewhere in the world of MSN, looking at the pple signing in and out, hoping to catch some of the perpetual absentees online... or somehow drifting to the whole of facebook, where u simply can't differentiate guys from gals, which sch u were supposed to be from... or the soccernet and the soccer tvs, where u might get disappointed from a lame penalty kick...

Somehow today is a different occasion. I clicked on the eco emails sent out by facebook (usually they will come in twos or threes due to the different grps in eco i joined, like the main grp, the pubs grp and the earth hour grp... and somehow i would start to ignore them as they simply asked for volunteers when i'm clearly not able to help physically back in Singapore)... and there I started to read about the eco publications once again (somehow it brings a different perspective esp when i re-read kenneth's perspective on doing ur part for the Earth and still a touching essay by another volunteer on being the leader for environmental change...)...

And the reading doesn't stop here... perhaps just as my eagerness to know about the current affairs back in Singapore blew up so greatly that I spent the entire morning re-reading the Straits Times pages... the eagerness to know about how the Earth Hour had been conducted (which was a month back), how the environmental scene in Singapore is evolving, and also about the environmental scene back in Cambridge (where there is still a certain level of guilt level involved that i have clamped down so much of my environmental involvement here)... and of course, as usual, I would go back to my bed, sit, and reflect on my stand for the environment on such a day (hmm if shaoming u are reading this, i'm sorry to have told u the wrong date)

In fact, to be honest, I'm not those activists u would imagine proclaiming about the effects of global warming, how each year the amount of temperature rise would result in how much of agricultural loss in output, how much of the inland coasts would be flooded, how much weather changes that the place would undergo (just like how our LBK talked abt ireland, which i found quite relevant)... cos after all, some activists have tried to paint such a picture, without themselves knowing much abt the implication of the meaning behind global warming... where it is more of the global change in weather patterns that would disrupt our lifestyle cycles, and it is not something we could say "stop light for an hour", or "abolish private transport for a day" could help averse the situation.

Rather, my stand has always stemmed from the fact that sustainable lifestyles shld be led in order to achieve an equilibrium with nature. Well, it is hard to even define "sustainable lifestyle", the key word that I have emphasised month after month in the volunteer induction programmes... cos what does it take to be sustainable?

For example, using paper and recycling them is effectively not sustainable as the process of recycling would use a lot of water and energy in producing the paper... on the other hand, afforestation is not sustainable as the paper has to be discarded somehow and waste is a big issue these days... Another example could be about the argument of biofuels (a fuel that one sponsor was kind enough to offer during our organisation of re-live) and hydrogen fuel (a fuel that i have insisted the way to go during the apec conference) is similar... for biofuels, it is claimed to be from natural sources, and can be qualifed as "sustainable", but in itself, the production is questioned to be sustainable in the first place, and can only play a small role in the long run (more of a 'hype' rather than distinct possibility to come)... while hydrogen fuel is an expensive technology these days, thus rendering it economically unsustainable...

So what constitutes sustainable living? one must wonder... good question, cos I can't be sure, and I have just received an email from the college mails that UNEP is trying to define sustainable as well... cos it can't simply be on the level of sustainable for our own... rather the word is being RESPONSIBLE for your own consumption. Perhaps someone could get inspired and write a short prose regarding the everyday responsible actions that one could contribute for the betterment of our environment... And this responsibility stems from education, from inspiring the younger generations and from there influencing everyone to change their lifestyles in their own ways...

I recalled the days when we were organising the environmental forum, and some grps made a very strong stand on some ideas and it was sad to be an observer to see a several few good ideas being overshadowed by 'better ideas' better phrased and crafted... And somehow I'm always very irritated by how some pple who will never fail to quote u statistics and esp from the IPCC panel while not having a good idea about the direction to look forward to...

The situation needs us to take a lot of concerted efforts to make things happen and being clear-headed about what you do, and without ourselves ever realising that hey it works... cos after all, it takes a lot of cycles and generations for the changes to see significant progress on the global scale...

And on this note happy Earth Day everyone!!

*On side note, I'm so envious of keting who gets to take part in the international water conference!! and so sian that i'm gotta give some events a miss due to clashing of schedules!! but seriously i can't wait to go back and see yingzhen and zhikai leading the VMD team, catching up with all my eco friends and perhaps talking to new volunteers, talking to wilson who has never failed to pop on msn and catch up on how i'm doing, and also making up bday celebrations for hanjie and dianne whose bday i've missed!!

[Haha... this is purely very much an envt post, tml (hopefully) will be updating about my lent term + break before embarking on the most terrorful term, EASTER!] 9:30 Start point: Homerton College West House
9:36 Lensfield Road and Hills Road intersection - Massive jam to stone for a minute
9:39 Outside natwest - saw justin
9:40 Reached christ porter's lodge
9:42 Ran to Shengrong's place, asked him to call shueli for my checkpoint no. 2
9:45 Christ Backgate
9:52 New Hall backgate
9:56 After waiting for a long time for shueli decided to just shout for her name cos I din have a hp... all the while jogging on the spot... Drank some water and asked shueli to call shaoming for my next checkpoint - Girton!
10:10 Set off from New Hall backgate
10:22 Reached Girton Main gate, started to feel a little strain in my ankle
10:28 Gave up searching for the way to Shaoming's window, ran back to porter's lodge
10:35 Reached Shaoming's room, topped up some water for my dehydrating body... starting to contemplate of taking a bus from Girton, but gave up the notion (must at least run back to new hall)
10:42 Started run from Girton (shaoming's window) back to New hall
10:49 Passed by Trinity Hall Wichfields, decided to just stop at New Hall due to the sunshine and my increasing ankle strain
10:53 Reached New Hall... drank lots of water, cool down...

Total distance covered: 8km
Total time for running: 10+7+12+11 = 40 mins
Fastest stretch: Homerton to Christ 10 mins in 2.4km (Might be able to get gold timing for IPPT if not for the traffic lights)
Talking crap with friends (Shengrong, Shueli and Shaoming): Priceless! 开始懂了

歌手:孙燕姿 专辑:我要的幸福

我竟然没有调头 最残忍那一刻
静静看你走 一点都不像我

原来人会变得温柔 是透澈的懂了
爱情是流动的 不由人的 何必激动着要理由

相信你只是怕伤害我 不是骗我
很爱过谁会舍得
把我的梦摇醒了 宣布幸福不会来了
用心酸微笑去原谅了 也翻越了
有昨天还是好的
但明天是自己的
开始懂了 快乐是选择 Just came back from a day of mathcad, physics and pool... apart from the usual serious (in our plays) and crappy (how we crap except during hitting of balls) games of pool with vin (always a game of light touches) and fai... and as i was reflecting upon the game of pool on life i can't help but snigger at myself, for thinking so much into things and drawing analogies... (as what i may agree at times, ignorance is blisss - shueli says must drag the s)

but there was this particular moment that i thought abt it when i had the black ball to hit on five different occasions but just missed the hole on those five... the first totally had no angle to it as there was a yellow ball blocking the hole where the black could possibly enter only, the second was one in which the black rattled the sides of the hole, which was why i had chosen to play the light way... but it was the fifth one that really caught my attention... one in which i had quite an open angle to it, but it was a cross table shot on the opp diagonal... and as i was looking far and wide aiming at the exact spot to nail it, my stick just mis-cued...

haha... had a high tendency to miscue one for every five shots... but for this, it would just draw me back to how i would usually aim ambitiously and then fail right at my own doorstep without having even started to do anything... or just like how i would usually like to think far ahead for most things when the most important elements now are not even there...

and how sometimes i would tend to go into a mini slump when things are not coming my way... reminded of how bridge games can get... when me and zh were brilliant, we could chop off wonderful contracts against pros (always that classic game of 19-11 against dcoup in mind), and when we slumped it would be 5 swings in a row or something to that effect... though im pretty much sure my mental aspects have improved vastly in bridge, but in terms of body coordination, i wouldn't be so proud of my previous records... like how the first open frame came in the sixth frame and i could stutter to a finish of 110-120s when it is up to 72++ in the first five frames (in case u are wondering i'm talking abt bowling)...

haha but anyway was pretty happy at how some shots went perfectly to my gameplan with the amount of strength and spin in some cases... haha really wanna go back and play pool with y'all man!! and of course christs jcr also reminded me of fussball with da man!

28 September 1987
21
HIPS | TCHS | HCI | NS | Homerton, Cambridge
Outgoing, fun-loving, pro-environment

Less homework
More time
Bridge!
More sunny days!
Good food!

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benjy!
tat
shouheng
soki
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Glendon
Dawn
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04S7B

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xuet ying

AYSF

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Chen2
David Teng

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My Bridge Blog
Lame Buddies!
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