Midnight Cookies | For All Times

Thursday, January 31, 2008

last friday night was super. i went laser-tagging with my dorm. it's a game where you wear black vests with four laser sensors - on your stomach, back and two shoulders - and carry a laser gun. you're let loose into a dark room with various walls forming a sort of maze, and then it's each man for himself. every time you get shot, the display on your laser gun shows the codename of the person who shot you, and where they got you. then there's some downtime after you get hit - you can't shoot anyone but other ppl can still get you.

that was my first time playing laser tag, and it was great fun. the running around left me dripping sweat cos i rather unwisely wore two sweaters into the room. since i was a noob among laser tag veterans, i got pwned and ended up at no.33 out of 36 people. but it was still cool. if only it wasn't so expensive ($8.50 per game) to play.

after the intense and super competitive laser tagging i decided to try out the relatively tame DDR machines. turned out to be more difficult than i expected, primarily cos my pirated DDR mat at home is really easy to master. but i still think i won the two people who played with me (:

this week has been rather busy. been rushing assignments and papers, and considering taking up a position as a research assisstant in a psych lab. so far i've met a grad and a post doc student who're looking for helpers. i'm rather interested in the face recognition study that the post doc is doing. it's cognitive psych and has a lot to do with neuroscience, plus the post doc seems really friendly. he spent 40min explaining his research to me. i'm waiting to meet with another researcher on friday, whose study is about how people choose to spend their money over their lifetimes. then i'll make my decision.

side note: i was clumsy while cycling to class yesterday and fell off my bike cos i turned too sharply. luckily the bike's fine, and i escaped with only 2 bruises on my right knee and hip. it was oddly comforting that a guy in my class had also fallen off his bike earlier yesterday.

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Friday, January 25, 2008

the three-day weekend last week wasn't as good as i wanted it to be, but still it was good enough. the main spoiler was my Comp Sci assignment that was due Friday afternoon, and that i didn't find out about until Friday night since i joined the class late. the instructor wouldn't give me an extension, so i had to use two out of my three "free late days" for the quarter to get it done. i probably spent about ten hours just catching up on the content and completing the assignment. so that was a bummer, and it took away my Friday night and Saturday. i am exceedingly grateful, however, for two of my dorm mates who gave me so much help in the assignment. they weren't even taking the class, but they still spent a lot of time solving the problems with me. who would've thought that there are actually people in their right minds who are willing to spend their weekends solving algorithms for my sake?

Martin Luther King Day on Monday was spent catching up on homework that i didn't do on Sunday, since i was preoccupied with The Sandman. But i did manage to fit in some baking on Monday, and made white choc and macadamia nut blondies. the egg curdled the mixture really badly - i didn't have enough bowls to beat the eggs before adding them to the butter and sugar mixture, so i cracked the eggs directly into the butter. but luckily the end result was edible. spent a good half hour after dinner making my dorm mates happy by going around the dorm, offering them blondies. it's surprising how all of them have never heard of the term, and i kept having to explain that blondies refer to white choc brownies.

yesterday evening was spent on Crossing the Line, which is a cool activity to get to know your dorm mates better. there's a white masking tape line on the floor, and the facilitator reads out a list of statements. if they apply to you, you cross the line and turn to face your dorm mates. we started simple, like "If you were born outside the US, cross the line." and got more intimate, like "if you were tested for an STD or HIV, cross the line" and "if you feel uncomfortable speaking out about race/gender/religion in this house, cross the line". i felt that people were really honest for the most part. and comforted that i wasn't alone in admitting to some of the statements. also surprised that most people aren't holding up as well as they seem to be. almost half the people present crossed the line at "i have cried recently," and more crossed at "i have felt the need to cry recently, but i couldn't." the activity assured me that i wasn't alone in thinking and feeling a certain way about certain things. all in all a very pensive 2.5 hours that were well spent.

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Life is only as exciting as you make it.

And therefore I am excited to annouce the revival of my oven. (:
And I'm on the team! (:

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

it hasn't been easy coming back to school, strangely. i assumed that it would be a breeze adjusting to life in stanford and away from home, going for classes, doing homework and checking out interesting activities. it all seemed so easy and straightforward when i look back on last quarter. my first week was rather depressing since i found myself homesick and slightly sick (cough, sore throat, runny nose).

but there were small little incidents which cheered me up. like going to roble for lunch and discovering that the sporeans' table was full. so i ended up sharing a table with a guy i didn't know, who saw my raffles hoodie and asked if i was from singapore. and meeting a korean math researcher afterward who approached me with the question, "can you speak chinese?" and who then proceeded to comment that i was very big for a chinese. and even at the regular table i met new people who were interesting to talk to. i must lunch with strangers more.

the highlight of the week, however, was definitely snow trip to Tahoe. we took a 5.5h bus journey on friday evening (including one stop at a supermarket) and arrived in our picturesque little cabin at midnight. i played 'apples to apples' and 'catchphrase' with my dorm mates till 3am. these are both word games, and with the right people they are exceedingly fun and competitive.

the next morning i helped with the dishes after breakfast (mushroom omelette cooked by one of my dorm mates) so Aubrey (first floor RA who was nice and waited for me) and i set off for the mountain later than all the rest. we couldn't find them, so we ended up drinking hot choc and reading graphic novels in the cafe at the bottom of the ski slope. and then we decided that it was time to play in the snow. there was a nice little patch of pristine, knee-deep snow beside the parking lot that looked as though not too many people had discovered it yet. the only signs of civilization were two snowmen. we pelted each other with snowballs made from snow that was easily compacted and held its shape when you threw it, falling apart only upon collision with intended target. this was unlike the powdery, wimpy stuff that is man-made snow.

after we got tired of the snowball fight i decided to see if we could decapitate the snowman someone else had built by throwing snowballs at it. that was indeed therapeutic, even if the snowman was so well built that we didn't accomplish our task.

dinner on saturday was spaghetti and choc milkshake. i skipped out on the milkshake out of consideration for my cold. i spent sunday morning learning how to make french toast from Katie, and frying ham for our lunch sandwiches. the ride back was much shorter than the ride there. we got back in just under 4h.

today's tuesday and so far it's been an exciting day. co-wrote a song with a friend for IHUM section, and i think we're going to blow the class away with it. despite my tone-deafness.

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

‘Danielle reflected that growing up, coupling, was a process of growing away from mirth, as if, like an amphibian, one ceased to breathe in the same way: laughter, once vital sustenance, protean relief and all that made isolation and struggle and fear bearable, was replaced by the stolid matter of stability: nominally content, resigned and unafraid, one grew to fear jokes and their capacity to unsettle. Where there had been laughter, there came a cold breeze... All of them, all three of them: a year ago, they’d been still linked, inexorably and, they’d thought, forever. It was supposedly better this way – each of them had found her heart’s desire- but did they laugh as they had done for so many years? Would they every laugh that way again, or was it over, now, in the Realm of Adult Sobriety?’
- The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

Been in a comtemplative mood over the new year. crossing over to yet another new year, reflecting on the year that has gone by.. sure makes the passage of time so apparent. Maybe 'cause of certain recent experiences, been thinking alot about what it means to grow up, about wisdom and innocence, about our choices and our dreams, and whether we should even be thinking about such things. maybe all my mindless ramblings just stem from the sudden realisation that i really am getting older. of course, i know we all are.. but i just somehow suddenly feel so unprepared to be my age. if that makes any sense at all =p well, here's wishing all you pple a blessed 2008!

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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

i watched 'across the universe' with my mum today at cathay, and it's the best of the three movies that i've watched since coming home. (the other two were 'mr margorium's wonder emporium' and 'my blueberry nights')

in fact, i'd say it's a really good movie musical. i can't remember when i last had such fun at the cinema. 'lust, caution' was the last great movie i watched, but that was depressing. although 'universe' dealt with the vietnam war, it managed to be fun and serious in the right balance. the effects were swell, making it a pretty piece of cinema that did justice to the beatles.

side note: my grandma made ondeh-ondeh today and i ate 9 little green coconut covered balls.

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