akiko satou

i can haz listening retest.

2009-02-09T13:24:08Z

^that.

I got a call yesterday telling me to go back to take a listening retest!!

Written & oral are both ok but my listening is quite (absolutely) CMI, I wonder what they'll do if I fail it again? Not let me continue to intermediate lessons? Make me retake Elementary 3? wut?!

confession: I finished watching Witch Yoo Hee ( k-drama.. ohnoez! ) on VeohTV last night

2007-12-21T06:47:43Z

I normally catch the series on Channel U on weekdays 10-11pm with my mom, but since it's the last few episodes already, I went to finish up the series online. till 4am. (/die) ( but I'm on leave today. so there. lol ) BUT. 囧 it's a korean drama nonetheless, and korean dramas are so painful to watch. 囧 The last few episodes were particularly terrible... though the male lead started looking good. In the earlier episodes his hair was some (strange) curly 'do, then in the last few his curly fringe was gelled up nicely and suddenly(+!) he looks very much better. Oh. and his scarves. zomg I have this sudden urge to get some nice scarves.. He has all these intense moments where his eyes are so 誘人. (mmm) and I don't even like guys with small eyes to begin with, but I think he's looking and acting really well here.

There is *a lot* of pretty eye-candy in this whole series. so much so that I kept staring at the clothes. the accessories. the american-born-asian actor ( Mr French Chef ). If I saw the tops that Yoo Hee wears in shops, I would have thought they were too OTT for my taste. ( many puffy sleeves + ruffles and garing colors + prints ) But in the show the tops are always paired with fabulous-looking matching necklaces + earrings + shoes + somehow she carries it off really well.

The male lead and Mr French Chef ( his mentor+good friend+possible gay partner (lol) ) look so hot together in the show. Srsly. They should have a spin-off cooking series just featuring them both. ahhhhhh. Then there's this annoying/terribly-written 'villian' played by Kim Jung Hoon (eh whos that actually) who is so pretty that it makes me feel sad about myself. ( He's a guy btw ) (囧)

This semi-review is dedicated to chicella because I think you'd like the show. Or at least go take a look at the eye-candy from this series. :) If you're too busy just look at some of the screencaps here .

fantasmer @ 2007-01-15T11:09:00

2007-01-15T04:16:10Z

Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.

1. I think I'm weird.

2. I'm addicted to World of Warcraft ... but I also want to dress up in gothic-lolita dresses (someday).

3. I like apples - I (try to) eat one every night. It helps me sh*t.

4. I love dogs .. I love my dog. In fact I always bite off small chunks of my apple to share with her.

5. I can't keep long fingernails.. when I was young and taking piano lessons my teacher would send me out of the room to cut my nails if they were long-ish and made "tick-tick" sounds on the keys. Since then i've not kept long nails. I don't paint my nails either 'cos it feels as though the nails can't breathe; i'm fine with painting my toenails though.

6. I read manga but I don't watch anime.

7. I troll forums and blogs ~~and refresh them every 10 min~~ at work when there's nothing to do.

8. I have <1 gb of mp3s.

9. My favourite color is brown.

10. I hate mondays.

err. I don't have 10 other ppl on my friends list to tag leh. tagging chicella i guess

/bored

2006-10-17T16:09:55Z

"I find it a bit random that Awesome and Awful mean the opposite of their components. One would think to be full of Awe is the better than possessing only some amount of Awe." - Jason Mraz

You know you're really bored at work when ...

not only do you surf wiki about the music (singers/bands) you're listening to, you're reading their blogs off MySpace.

well, at least they're not '85/'86 jpop idols (*snigger*).

zomg, no more creed =(

2006-07-29T00:29:45Z

I was at youtube looking at music videos.. when I read that creed has ceased to be. went to their main site and check, and zomg they've already ended on june 4th. gee, too much WoW does you no good.

"One Last Breath" is my all-time favourite because of the amazing guitar intro and the lyrics! /sob

Recently I've been toying with the idea of learning guitar + saving up to buy myself a new piano and continue lessons. But... I am just toooo lazy.... QQ

fantasmer @ 2006-04-26T15:02:00

2006-04-26T07:03:44Z

in 4 hours, my only and final exam of this final semester will be over.

wish me luck.

tagged by sk: photo meme..

2006-04-09T04:47:16Z

Your first name:

Your last name:

Your significant other:
hehee... secret!

Your favourite color: (brown)

Your favourite food:

One of your bad habits:
err..wasting time on online games?

those are really random pictures.. zzz

doh!

2005-10-20T17:03:56Z

taken from gothiquelolita ..

Summary of Nurturers

* Care for the important people in their lives
* Strive for harmony and avoid confrontation
* Think of themselves as gentle, conscientious and mature
* May have trouble making decisions that could hurt others

More about Nurturers

Nurturers are quiet people who believe in order and diligently look after the people they care about. They focus on the needs of others and establish routines to help them meet their commitments.

Nurturers are the most likely group to say they prefer a job where the same thing happens every day, according to a UK survey.

Nurturers remember details that are important to them, such as their friends' birthdays and anniversaries. People with this personality type value others' feelings and may challenge behaviour they think is insensitive.

In situations where they can't use their talents or are unappreciated, Nurturers may feel bitter and seek support by complaining to their colleagues. Under extreme stress, Nurturers may become preoccupied with the worst possible outcome and believe that they are heading for disaster.

Because they are so caring and loyal, Nurturers run the risk of being taken advantage of.

Nurturer Careers

Nurturers are often drawn to jobs that allow them to help others.

Click here to take the personality test!

in other words, I am nice and boring.

raffles city shopping centre lego exhibition

2005-06-18T04:23:04Z

I took these pics some time back... haha... u can compare them with scube's pictures of the same exhibition here!

Hong Kong Convention Centre

Sydney Opera House

suspicious chars on the Great Wall of China (wat are they doing!?)

close-up of the previous pic

I didn't take pics of the other exhibits like the harry potter one... but that one is pretty awesome too. haha ^^

明天要出国了！

2005-05-24T13:42:05Z

will be back on the 31st =) see you all soon!

taken from ashyz latest quiz...

"ｂ型　藍色幸福人
或許你的行為還能在世俗的標準裡被認同，但是你的想法和邏輯卻怪得可以，你有自己找快樂的方法、有自己生活的模式，對於沒有創意的人事物總是不屑一顧。你時而超脫、時而實際，全身散發獨特且自我的氣質，十分適合生存在充滿無限可能的二十一世紀。你的社交能力還算不錯，但卻往往表現得過於誇張，讓人覺得有些浮華不實。
Happy Point：同事．長輩"

你的想法和邏輯卻怪得可以 hahahahaha....

i've been tagged!

2005-05-23T04:37:17Z

from gothiquelolita

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
eh. none. I prefer watching films on the big screen.

2. The last film I bought:
refer to question above.

3. Last film I watched:
Kingdom of Heaven

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

* Quill
- made me and my bf cry uncontrollably at the cinema. i must get a lab one day! bonus if it's a chocolate lab =P

* R+J (the one featuring claire danes)
- sis had the vcd and soundtrack last time therefore we watched it quite a few times. meaningful? not really... hard to find meaning when I can't quite catch what they're saying. fave song from the soundtrack: the you and me song =)

* Chungking Express
- maybe because there's 梁朝伟 and 金城武, or maybe it's due to the song "California Dreaming" or its script, I always thought this film was hauntingly beautiful?

* 无间道 [Part I]
- main draw: 梁朝伟 (and Edison *grin*)

* LOTR
- everybody loves a good story.

( can't recall other films at the moment. plus i haven't seen many movies too kuz i'm a low-lifer. )

5. Tag ~~five~~two people and have them put this in their journal:
chicella77
tsh

I don't have enough friends on my lj list! hahaha

holiday wish list...

2005-04-30T03:27:14Z

shopping! - new clothes for me & bf, shoes (esp for bf), slippers, bags...

new comp please!! i wanna hear mp3s without the super-loud whirr of the cpu fan.

learn french again?

hk trip with trina? (confirm with me leh girl!!

play the piano again? (hoho, so long never play, psychological barrier already)

manga manga manga! i need my manga fix..

games games games... ! ro especially... need my ro fix..

tvvvv

go rollerblading a few times at least?

bring brandy everywhere ;P

meet up with friends... often!

read some books, not blogs.

slack.

friend asked me if i wanna join her for dance courses - but it's ballroom dancing.

gee.. where am i going to get the money for all that?

You know you're just really screwed when...

2005-03-15T18:02:49Z

you have a project due next Tuesday and you only realise it today.

your supervisor for another project wants you (and your friend) to recode some crucial parts of the project and submit 2693272346235 simulation results by Friday.

the itinery for tomorrow is lab from 9-12, project meeting at 1.30, another project meeting at 6 and with some luck, you get to go home.

you have another project meeting on thursday where we gotta get the content for presentation to the sup done. Problem is, 'we' is a team of 8 people - some agreeable folks, one who gives ideas too fast for us to catch, one who has done much research but has his own ideas, and one who speaks too slowly and seems somehow in a totally different bandwidth. Presentation is on Friday morning.

your friends are setting up a "kill me club" to protest about the overload of work for cpe students. We'll sit in a circle outside the Registrar's office and threaten to withdraw from school. (yeah right)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

2005-03-10T14:29:53Z

I read scube's review late last night and I told my bf on MSN that I wanted to watch the movie.. so in a bout of spontaneity, we decided to skip our our "Engine Professionalism" lecture (like, attend also won't learn anything wat) in the morning to catch the movie. ~~although I suspect that the fact that he wanted to hop down to Sim Lim Square to get his World of Warcraft Online game was one of the reasons he agreed to go..~~ So we were at Suntec cinema watching the 1st show of the day at 10:40am.. we had only just reached the cinema at 10:40 after some searching ( we no-lifers/mountain turtles couldn't remember where the suntec cinema theatres were) and hurriedly bought the tickets for the show. Me to the counter guy, "Two tickets for Series of Unforunate Events.. yeah for the show now." bf contemplated buying the Combo Set from the Snack bar, but I thought it was grossly overpriced ($8 for coke + 2 hotdogs!!) so we only bought coke and went in....... to a totally empty theatre. As we settled down in some seats (dunno whether we actually sat at the correct places, but nevermind lah, who cares.. haha), the opening was playing.. and we really wondered for a few seconds if we had walked into the wrong theatre.

Needless to say, I like the show.. wouldn't mind watching it again. The entire setting is really cool! And of course, Violet's dress is really pretty. bf agrees too, that it's very 梦幻. He tells me to get a good picture of the dress and get his mum to make it... ^^; (his mum is a seamstress and a very very very nice lady. =) )

A rare chance that I get to enjoy myself... although after that we walked to SLS, and then went back to school.. stayed in the lab for awhile.. went for project meeting.. and came back. Predicting that for hte next few days/nights, gotta hang around in school till really really late or really really early to meet those ~~damn~~ datelines.. or deadlines.

fantasmer @ 2005-02-26T21:12:00

2005-02-26T13:45:14Z

spent this afternoon rotting away after i got home from sch. [slept from 4-8]. haha... had a project meeting this morning. Sad to say, I have 6 projects this sem. That's really project overkill... my uni life is the most overworked period of my life. jc was damn slack.. i've got a senior who was from my jc (and same class 2s0*a, but 2 years before mine) in my project group. i feel a kind of affinity to him kuz he's my senior. i know this sounds incoherent, but today is like "miss jc friends day". sigh. kuz it's saturday and i've got nobody to go out with and i wish the guys were here in sg and we could go hang out somewhere till the last train goes. bah -.- and kuz it's saturday i don't really wanna touch my projects even though i should have been doing them. (i've got an excuse.. my supervisor didnt email us the code that we have to work on, so there.)

oh man i miss having a life.

i was randomly looking for songs to listen to on winamp streaming and i came across this band - Straylight Run. Their song "Existentialism on Prom Night" has an incredible piano opening. aahh!!! Listen to it!! Too bad their mp3 download links on their website is down.

4th day of the lunar new year...

2005-02-12T13:33:47Z

All my dad's goldfish died today. It's kinda devastating... the biggest one (and which is really really big for a goldfish) has been around for at least 2.5 years, according to my dad. The motor (pump) in the tank broke down last night and somehow polluted the water as it burned inside the tank... this morning when I took a look in the pail where my dad had evacuated the fish, there were only 2 alive. There was the big one and a small one... a while later I looked into the pail and the small one was gone too. *sweatdrop* Later in the afternoon, when the water in the tank had been changed, dad put the big goldfish back into the tank, but it was already 奄奄一息. *sigh* Doesn't sound like a good way to start the new year. And I remember on the variety show on 除夕 where they have a fortune teller to predict how the year will be for all the 12生肖, the prediction for those born in the year of the dog (which my dad is) is that this year is suitable for "养小宠物". Really huh. haha.. but anyway, my dad is showing some interest in making friends with Brandy now.

Just now we went to my grandma's house, and we brought Brandy there also. During dinner my grandma said that if Brandy 向她拜年，she'd 包 a red packet for Brandy. So I carried Brandy and tried to balance two mandarin oranges on her front paws and went to wish my grandma a happy new year. hehe =P before we left grandma really gave Brandy a red packet! If only I knew how to train Brandy to put her front paws together and do the 恭喜恭喜 move that malteses often do, I bet Brandy will get more red packets than me!

Test and a mini presentation on Monday - 30% of a 4MC module. -sigh- Many projects to do. -sigh- Another 10~11 weeks before the end of this sem.

sianz 1/2

fantasmer @ 2005-01-12T01:41:00

2005-01-11T17:44:39Z

You are a RAVENCLAW!

As a Ravenclaw and as an NFP, you value
imagination, ideas and intelligence. You are
probably somewhat of an individualist and avoid
conforming just for its own sake. You are
insightful and perceptive, and since you are
empathetic and value harmony, you usually try
to avoid conflict. Of course, you may enjoy
participating in heated debates but only as
long as they remain on an intellectual level
and not a personal level. In general, you are
open-minded and curious, and set high standards
for yourself.

Hogwarts Sorting Hat: Based on Myers-Briggs Personality Typing
brought to you by Quizilla

That's just odd, kuz it's kinda accurate even though I didn't give much thought when choosing the answers.

to Tanaka: I'm in Ravenclaw too! *hi5!*

无聊的一个entry.

2004-12-26T15:29:05Z

其实假期里很闲空，却也不怎么想update这个blog. 今天是我祖母的八十二（算中文的 - 她也是肖猪的哦）大寿。我们到一家餐馆庆祝祖母的生日，过后亲戚们都到我的家来坐坐。（为什么感觉好像在写primary school的作文... ^^;)我想在此祝我最敬爱的阿麽生日快乐，身体健康。呵呵...

刚才好不容易找到了 “范晓萱 - 眼泪” 的wma. 虽然质地很差，但是勉强还过得去。听着这首好久没听到的歌，感觉有点怀旧。哎，老了老了。

今天在电梯里碰到楼下的小媚媚。住在这里十八年了，常常在电梯里会碰到她们，看着她们从小学到中学到高中毕业，可以算是看着她跟她的姐姐/妹妹（她们是孪生姐妹）长大的。虽然她们应该已经十九岁或二十岁了，可是我还是摆脱不了她们是“小媚媚”的映像。她今天打扮得很成熟，化妆+高跟鞋，让我觉得有点惭愧。我的bf常常complain我没有花心思去把自己打扮得漂亮点，我总是回答他说“我没钱啦”，他就会说“heh，是因为你很懒...”

假期只剩两个星期了，应该多多在家里过着颓废的生活。嗯，我真的是超懒的。哈哈。

sorry for my disinterest in christmas...

2004-12-24T05:21:57Z

This year, there'll be no log cakes, stuffed turkeys, christmas trees, eggnog, no christmas parties, no presents, (not that there has been any of the aforementioned in previous years), no advent calender, no candy canes, no christmas cards (or e-cards for that matter).

I don't feel like "celebrating" christmas if it means paying $$$ to the retail/service industry. Maybe I'm getting quite jaded also. haha.. Christmas kinda means my holidays are coming to an end.. after going through a nightmarish semester I don't really want school to start siah -.-; Oh and Christmas Eve this year means I'll get back my results for the exams... *shivers*

Met xj, leon and trina for dinner yesterday with my bf, and saw Suzuki-san at Suntec.. err.. I kinda wanted to stop and talk to her but then she was moving away too fast. ^^; Dinner (at Old Airport Road hawker centre) was good... I love the 药材鸡 there.. hehe =) and I love those friends of mine very muchly too... pity wy is still in london.

And to the People-Who-Are-Named-After-Japanese-Textbook-Characters, why aren't we meeting up more often this holidays! gee!!! We must meet up again! Even if we're taking our own paths in life, I still feel very much attached to you guys =) Really treasure what we have here.. yep.. love you all very muchly too!

To all the people mentioned above (although not all will read this), even though I am kinda antisocial at times, have some faith in me hor. I'm really thankful that I have you all as my friends. ^^ I will not 'abandon' any of my friends (unlike what xj described last night) and I hope nobody will abandon me either. haha...

On Christmas Day, I know I'll wake up with brandy by my side. To me, nothing is more magical than that =)

I think I must have run out of good karma..

2004-11-04T11:10:10Z

Last night was an all-nighter spent in school working on the boat again. (yeah 2nd time this sem!) As we soldered and re-soldered stuffs and tidied up things through the night, CNN played in the background. We were ( or I was ) following the news on the US elections and at around 2-3am I saw the news about Kerry conceding defeat.

It was like, wow.

Anyway the boat refused to work.. so even after daybreak my friend and I continued testing the boat while the others went for their lessons. We finally gave up when my friend had to go for his project meeting and the lab had to close for lunch. Tired and depressed, I took a cab home to eat n sleep.

I received a sms from my friend while I was sleeping who told me that the boat is "70% working with all the features". Apparantly, one of my projectmate who went home at 4am this morning went to the lab in the afternoon to test it and lo and behold, everything was working fine. He didn't make any changes to the boat or anything.. he just plugged in the power and it worked fine.

I must really have run out of good karma.. I guess it's because I support Bush.

fantasmer @ 2004-10-29T01:44:00

2004-10-28T18:10:42Z

It has become a luxury to eat lunch at the canteen nowadays. It's usually sandwhiches from Dily's for lunch.. and cold leftovers for dinner. like my friend said, "when it's lunchtime the canteen is so packed you don't feel like eating, but by the time there's no more crowd the lab will be opened (for us to do our projects)".. so yeah.. projects projects and projects. For my remote controlled boat project, the progress is like '3 steps forward, 2 steps back' ... it's really quite irritating. -.-"" For the whole of this week I haven't been able to get home in time to enjoy eating dinner with my family.. and it sucks -.-"" i'm not really very stressed, just tired. And when I don't get to eat real food for my meals, I feel so wretched. (not to mention a nagging pain in the abdomen area... ) x.x

Today I decided that sandwhiches just couldn't do it for me anymore and had a curry puff + egg tart for lunch today. The sandwhiches sold at Dily's is actually pretty good - tuna, cheese and lettuce.. but eating it consecutively for the past two days isn't.

bedtime.

rain....

2004-10-22T16:51:31Z

-sigh- ..

A sign that I'm getting really old - I'm tuning into Class 95!!! x_x"" Mental block right now, trying to write a report but the sentences just aren't forming. =x You see, this is a project report I'm doing, and I've got a french guy on student exchange and an indian [person] in my group. (Don't ask me why my group is such an odd combi... I didn't know the other people in class and the indian [person] asked us whether we'd like to work together for the project at the end of the first lecture and I just said ok. -.-") Well actually the french guy is really pretty good and he's been working pretty hard on the project. I completed my part too. ... but beyond that I don't really know how to do what we have to do. Not that other groups of (local) students know either, you see, the french guy is really good at this that even the graduate assistant says our group is "the trailblazer" (all thanks to him). Anyway.. I volunteered to start on the report since at least I know how to write crappy reports. x_x"" But really.. I don't wanna be too "xia suay".. I hope said french guy won't go back to France and have this impression that sg students are so lousy that they can't even write a decent report. *sigh*

oh yeah.. I spent the afternoon of my birthday at East Coast park with my bf and Brandy. I wanted to get her to swim... err.. but I guess I only managed to instill a phobia of water in her. opps x_x; then we laid/lay (can't remember proper grammar rules) the mat on the grass and fell asleep. Unfortunately.. it wasn't really breezy but I guess I was too sleepy to care anyway. heh ^^; I didn't get any present for myself this year 'cos we didn't go shopping... (not with the dog even though she was in her carrier). hmm.. methinks I'm a closet narcissist 'cos I like to buy birthday presents for myself.. and I look forward to my birthdays because it's a reminder/celebration of my existence. Brandy is kinda grouchy tonight.. I think she played too much yesterday and haven't had enough sleep yet. haha =P

Happy birthday to myself.

2004-10-21T15:57:27Z

can you all do me a little favour please?

2004-10-14T14:52:59Z

hmm.. just fill up a short survey for my project.. ^^

the link is here.

If it's not too much trouble can you help me get your friends to do the survey too? thankss.. =)

fantasmer @ 2004-10-14T14:34:00

2004-10-14T07:14:38Z

To: The Project Co-ordinators of EEXXXX

Dear Profs,

As a third-year student currently undertaking this project module, I would like to thank you for arranging this challenging project of building a remote-controlled boat which has been a thoroughly enriching experience. I laud your decision to deviate from the past years' project topic of building a remote-controlled car, because it allows us to think creatively how we will approach the problem of waterproofing.

I write in with concern to some issues. Firstly, it seems that the project focuses not on what we, as a team, can produce but what each individual has to contribute. While I understand that this is necessary to prevent students from "free-riding" and also to facilitate the grading process, I find that the skew in focus has been taken to an extreme. It is apparent when during every lab session, we have to fill in a form which states what each person in the group has contributed over the past week. In addition, recently we received the updated guidelines on report writing for our group report which clearly states in bold that
"Each team should submit a combined report detailing the aims, project work and achievement of each team member clearly on separate chapters. Each member should be responsible to report clearly on a separate chapter his contribution to the entire project. You should state clearly the distribution of task in the Introduction chapter of the report. "
This caused some disagreement among my team, because even though we adhered to a rough job scope, each one of us helped other members when there was a task to be done. For example, for our group's PCB, on different nights different people from the team had stayed behind to complete the design and to verify it. In this way, not only did we manage to complete our PCB design ahead of time, each one of us could learn the relevant skills which was designing the PCB and familiarising ourselves with the Protel software. If the PCB design was solely left to an individual within the team, the rest of us would not have the chance to have a hands-on experience in this aspect. Depending on the individual's available free time, he might not even be able to complete it on time, much less complete it early like we did. This kind of teamwork was carried out not only for the PCB design, but also in other areas like the making of the boat. As a team, we came up with ideas, we argued and had objections, then we produced even better and more creative ideas. This wouldn't have been possible if one person was to do his or her part independently of the other memebers.

However, when we received the report guidelines a few days ago, we were quite stunned. We do not know how we should write our "separate chapters", because as a group, we did the project together. Furthermore, it is not logical that the report should be separated into different chapters where related parts are in different chapters. As my teammate commented, "a report should be structured in terms of the project components not by who-did-what".

Please do give some credit to our maturity level, that as adults, we do know what it means by a "group project" and that we will not let skiving teammates among us get away with it. Teamwork is about unity, about a common goal, and not about individual contributions. Teamwork is also about working together with other people, it is not just the summation of independent parts but also the interconnections between each part.

Therefore I hope that the co-ordinators will rethink your position on this issue and hopefully remove the suffocating guidelines and let us students do things our way.

Thank you.