Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2008 is coming to an end.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Tired.

Hello 2009 soon.

Facebook me to know more and see pictures.

I'm seeing clients again for Hypnotherapy sessions in Singapore.

=)

Back from Great Ocean Road

Went to Great Ocean Road (GOR) today. Didn't take lotsa photos due to the lack of time. We left Bundoora at 9am and had to leave GOR by 3pm or so as we had to get to box hill to meet the rest of the FOCUS people for dinner. The trip went well and I loved it.

Dinner was fine too and we went to a nearby park thereafter. I watched as the rest played games. And i became a little adventureous by attempting to climb up a lamp-post which i failed badly. I managed to get everyone to play a team-building game of forming a circle to sit on each other's laps and it went great, with everyone sitting for 21 seconds.

Have you ever felt like an outcast? I have. And that feeling's getting into me again. Sometimes, sacrifices are necessary for things to work out. But then again, you can only choose 1 or the other. One can't have both. But I'm fearful. If I choose that one and it backfires, I'll lose that one and the other as well. And if I choose the latter, I'll lose the former, in which, I can't bear to loose at this point in time.

1 more week and this shall end, hopefully. Then, I'll crumble as everything comes to an end for 2.5 months. Or it might just continue - for the better or for the worse.

I pray to God. It's been years now that I've been praying for this. But then, I'm not sure when He'll grant this to me. I'm still waiting and putting my trust in Him. That's because I know that he is :-

My Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is Mighty to save, He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave.

I pray for God to give me the patience and the strength to pull through this time of waiting and have faith in Him.

Goodnight peeps!

Back from Canberra

I'm back from Canberra. Really enjoyed myself there. I came back from SPRTE feeling really enriched and refreshed. And I've also made a new friend. =)

Took lots of photos. Will upload them slowly to facebook.

Time for bed. Will blog again soon.

Heading to Great Ocean Road with my new found friend, Joel, and ZY on Monday. Joel's driving.

Off to Canberra

It's finally the holidays. Ended my clinical attachments of year 1 yesterday and the feeling of saying goodbyes isn't something nice.

I'm using my laptop and my wireless broadband internet, which i brought along, in the waiting area of terminal 4 of melbourne tullamarine airport. Arrived here at 5.30am and the gate only opens at 6.35am. I'm so tired. Didn't catch a wink last night. I'll be heading over to Canberra for a conference. SPRTE - South Pacific Region Training Event. My handheld luggage exceeded by 1.6kgs. Each person's only allowed 7kg of hand carry luggage but mine came up to 8.6kgs.

Anyway, got to go now.

Cya all!

Week after Exams

It's the holidays for some but not for me. I'm having my clinical attachments now for this week and next over at Fred Combridge House over at Northcote. But before that, let me talk about the weekend.

Went over to Myer Christmas Parade in the city on Saturday morning. It was rather exciting. Something like Chingay back in Singapore, just that there are no seats for people to sit and that it's christmas themed. Almost got myself sunburnt after standing in the sun for almost 1.5 hours as I didn't apply sunblock coz I rushed out of the train for fear that I would be late. I ended up being very early - arrived at 9.20am instead of the 9.45am meetup time. Pictures for the Myer Christmas Parade 2008: Album 1, Album 2 & Album 3.

Met up with the rest thereafter a short walk down the road over at Chill On Ice Bar. We had to wear thick jackets and gloves to keep us warm from the cold. 2 door seperated the "outside" from the "inside". The interior was simply amazing. Everything was made out of ice - the tables, chairs, bar table, statues and cups. It was just like a big fridge literally as it was -6 deg inside. Barely 5 minutes into the "freezer", I was already feeling cold and wanted to get out, but I persisted as I didn't want my money to go to waste. Haha... Went over to Hungry Jacks (aka Burger King) for lunch and we went over to Lygon Street. Sam's birthday was a few days back so it was kinda like a late birthday surprise cum treat for him and since he loves ice cream, what better way to celebrate and give him a treat of ice cream on a hot day! Pictures here.

We headed over to Dudley Street thereafter for a theatre dinner. Went to Witches in Britches and it was fun. Doors opened and you were greated by a witch. And you had to make your way through a dark tunnel before getting to the lounge area for pre-drinks. We made our way then to a big hall with dinner tables with a medium sized stage, which was considered small in size for professional theatre, in the center front of the hall. Dinner was served and after dinner, the play started. I had steak for dinner and it wasn't too impressive, just the average, nor is it too bad as well. The play wasn't too bad as well. It was quite professionally done and the casts were good in using the audiences reactions and responses for the show, however, there was room for improvement. It's quite reasonably priced at $63 for a 3 course meal and a play. You'll be disappoint if you're there for a good meal and/or a professional theatre play. However, it's a real good place to just catch up and mingle with friends and for some entainment. I would suggest going there to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays though. And you get to "sabo" (sabotage) your friends. Pictures for Witches in Britches: Album 1 & Album 2.

Fred Combridge house is a 31 bedded aged care facility in 2 levels. The first level is the kitchen as well as the administrative office, meeting room and tea room. Second level is where the residences live - their rooms, dining hall, TV room and garden. It's a nice place, just that it stinks a little in certain places, something which I've got to get used to fast so life will be much better for me. My clinical instructor is someone new to La Trobe and doesn't really know much about LTU's nursing and she's still in the process of learning, however, I find that she's trying her best to help us and to find out things from us, which is good. The place is understaffed and I think the staffs would be happy these 2 weeks (I hope) as we're there to help them. However, it feels to me that they feel threatened by our presence. Not sure if this is due to the fact that wer're Div 1 students (as they're all Div 2 or PCA's) or some other factors.

Time for me to head to bed now. Very tired even though I didn't do much today. It's morning shift for me tomorrow. Davina and her brother as well as Felicia's coming over to my place for dinner tomorrow night. Am going to cook satay chicken, chicken rice, stir fried vegetables as well as red bean soup.

Goodnight people and God bless.

Post exams

The exams finally ended. Woohoo~~~~ 

Went to watch a concert on Friday evening with FOCUS (Fellowship of Overseas Christian University Students) in Vermount by the band Sons of Korah. It was the Myers Christmas Parade on Saturday morning, Chill On Ice Bar in the afternoon and a theatre dinner at Witches in Britches from evening till night. Had a great but tiring day.

Will blog about the events of Saturday again hopefullu by Monday. As for now, it's just a few preview pictures and time for me to get my beauty sleep.

Goodnight peeps!

Plagiarism: An Out-Dated Concept?

The article below was submitted to the Singapore Nursing Journal for publication. It was my very first essay for university and I had to write on something positive on plagiarism - making it from something wrong to right.

PLAGIARISM: AN OUT-DATED CONCEPT?

TAN CHIH HSUEH, EDGAR
NITEC (Nsg), Cert IV (C.H), Dip (MC)
BNsg Student, La Trobe University
Dip (C.H) Student, Academy of Hypnotic Science

310N/215 Bell Street, Preston, VIC 3072, Australia
+61 433353646, +65 96472689
mail@edgarmirantz.com

Abstract

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints. This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of what constitutes plagiarism and thereafter, giving a viewpoint on plagiarism. Plagiarism is also an ethical issue. Students continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it. This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed. The definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from.

Keywords

Plagiarism, Students, Teachers, Ethics.

Introduction

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints (Yeo, 2006), some positive and some negative. Universities view plagiarism as a serious issue (LAS-ESL, 2007) but students still continue doing it (Gaberson, 1997). This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of plagiarism and thereafter, giving my point of view on plagiarism.

According to Logue (2004), he defines plagiarism as “…the intentional or unintentional use of another’s work or ideas, published or unpublished, without clearly acknowledging the source of that work or idea”. Rephrasing the text could also be constituted as plagiarism. Simply put, it is a form of cheating and can also be a form of stealing (Vogelsang, 1997). In society today, cheating and/or stealing is a punishable act by law and it is enforced by the law of the country. However, in plagiarism, there is a lack of enforcement and there is no black and white as to what the consequences are. To some, plagiarism is unacceptable as it is the same as making a product which is already patented or using someone else's logo which is already trademarked or an infringement of a copyright. However, plagiarism and the infringement of copyright are two different issues. There are laws governing copyrights and trademarks but there are no laws governing plagiarism (Dames, 2007). To others, plagiarism is common amongst students (Brown, 2002). It is acceptable and happens all the time. For example, I remember when I was in primary school, we would always be lending and borrowing each other's work just for the sake of reading and checking to see if our answers were right. This even happens to me when I was studying in a post-secondary institution. In that case, would this be considered then as plagiarism as everyone would have the same thoughts, ideas and answers? Then there is also an issue on self plagiarism whereby if a person were to use his or her own ideas in an article which was published previously and to use it again in the current article, it would be considered plagiarism (Lowe, 2003). Once the original author has wrote the article and has it published, the copyright together with the article, belongs to the publisher (Griffin, 1991). Permission must be granted from the publisher if the original author wanted to use back the same ideas for his next article.

There are many tools out in the commercial market to detect plagiarism (Cross, 2007). One of them is Turnitin. This company has a database of over 40 million of student assignments (Turnitin), articles and assignments for lecturers to detect if the student has plagiarised in their work. The company profits in their annual turnover as educational insitutations need to pay a licence fee to use this program (Turnitin). However, this issue has upset students as it is a form of violating the student's copyright (Smit, 2005) as it does not pay the students for the use of their work and/or assignment. In the United States, students protested against the use of Turnitin and after collecting signatories for a petition, they submitted it to the administration. Thereafter, the university administration eased the mandate a little by requiring only ninth and tenth grade English and social studies students to use Turnitin (Glod, 2006).

The university views plagiarism seriously and even says that “in very serious situations, will stop your study in university” (LAS-ESL, 2007). Plagiarism is also an ethical issue (Davidhizar, 2002). If one were to do something wrong once, what would the possibility of that person not cheating again? For example, in a clinical setting, a nurse does not have time to take the vitals of the patient at 4pm and uses the vitals from the previous day's 4pm vital sign to chart it, what are the chances that the nurse will not commit this offence again? And would this be considered plagiarism as she had copied the work of someone else? In this situation, it would not only involve the nurse but also a third party. The vital signs for that particular day and the day before could be different. If a client was seriously ill and no vital signs were taken, it would cost the client his life! Plagiarism is also a learning issue. Students are able to get a degree by doing all assignments and passing them. However, to what extent do the students know about their subject and how much knowledge of the subject does the student know by the time they graduate from their course?

The university may be inadvertently be promoting plagiarism. For example, during tutorial groups, students are encouraged to voice out their opinions and the tutor writes down the opinions on the board. Isn't that considered plagiarism since the idea was from someone and it is being used by another? Lecturers are also partly to blame (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Assignment topics and question papers are being repeated from time to time. It is not surprising that students are bored and running out of creativity of what there is to write. If they write something which has been written by other students, he would have considered to have plagiarised even though he did not do it. Even lecturers are not able to agree to what constitutes plagiarism in different situations (East, 2006), how else would students even be able to then know?

However, students still continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it (Brown, 2002). This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed, that the assignment topics are considered boring or not relevant and having to quote a certain number of references which means that there are at least a certain number of materials to be read, having to bear in mind that the library only has limited number of resources. In addition to the assignment given, students also have to study for their examinations given that what is covered in the lecture is only merely the surface of the subject. If a student were to spend so much time on assignments and studying, this equates to the student having very little or even no time to relax and enjoy themselves. In cases of students with families who have low income, they would have to work part-time to make ends meet (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Access to the internet is easily available and sometimes, they do not even know that they are plagiarising while in the midst of doing so. The internet is such a powerful medium. It has millions of articles and knowledge of many different viewpoints from people all over the world. Many people in the world plagiarise and most of them gets away without being caught. Logue (2004) notes that in a class of 64 third year diploma and 10 degree students, 50% of diploma and 30% of degree students admitted to both intentionally and unintentionally paraphrasing text in their assignments without acknowledging the source. However, if plagiarism is unchecked, the result could be that no new content would be generated and the level of research papers would be reduced.

In the nursing and medical field, there are so many journals in the profession with more and more articles being published. With this trend, nurses are being encouraged to publish and given the stress to contribute articles. Some may have no choice but to plagiarise in order to get good quality articles. Cronin (2003) believes “that authors often are unaware that they are committing the act of plagiarism. Many never learned the “rules” for professional writing while in school.”

From my point of view, the definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from. It saves time and allows people to be able to express themselves freely. There would always be new problems therefore new solutions would have to be found and discovered. People should use the combination of drawing on the experience of the old, come with new ideas and methods to solve the problems. In this way, the old and the new would compliment each other. People should also be honest with their work. There was once this very good doctor who was well respected in his medical practice, had an academic appointment and enjoyed teaching. After he plagiarised from another publication, all his academic credentials and teaching position was lost. No one recalled about all his good things that he had done. For a period of time, he also lost respect from his fellow colleagues. Now, even when he wants to publish original and good articles, he has difficulty in doing so (Griffin, 1991).

Conclusion

Plagiarism can be good, yet harmful if overused. It helps people to save time and lets them focus on other more important matters. However, if everyone does it, there would be no improvements in life. Therefore, it should only be allowed in certain circumstances and that new findings should be used to complement it. A universal definition to what extent of reproducing other's work would constitute plagiarism is also needed. Institutions needs to draw the line to what constitutes plagiarism and what is not. There should also be instances which plagiarism to a certain limit or circumstances is allowed. These again, should be made known clearly. Students should be educated on plagiarism and be warned of the consequences of this issue.

References

Brown, D. (2002). Cheating must be okay - everybody does it!. Nurse Educator, 27(1), 6-8.

Cronin, S. (2003). The problem of plagiarism. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 22(6), 253-54.

Cross, M. (2007). Policing plagiarism. British Medical Journal, 335(7627), 963-964.

Dames, K. (2007). Understanding plagiarism and how it differs from copyright infringement. Computers in Libraries, 27(6), 24.

Davidhizar R. (2002). Duplicate publication, part 1: consideration of the issues. Nurse Author Ed, 12( 3), 1-4.

East, J. (2006). The problem of plagiarism in academic culture. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2(2), 16-28.

Gaberson KC. (1997). Academic dishonesty among nursing students. Nurse Forum, 32(3), 14-20.

Glod, M. (2006). Score one for mclean high students. Washington Post. Retrieved 27 March 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301466.html.

Griffin, G. (1991). Don't plagiarize - even yourself!. Postgraduate Medicine, 89(4), 15.

Larkham, P. and Manns, S. (2002). Plagiarism and its treatment in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 26(4), 339-349.

LAS-ESL. (2007). Plagiarism. Retrieved 24 March 2008 from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/plagiarism/index.html.

Logue, R. (2004). Plagiarism: The internet makes it easy. Nursing Standard, 18(51), 40-44.

Lowe, N. (2003). Publication ethics: copyright and self-plagiarism. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 32(2), 145-146.

Smit, M. (2005). TurnItIn.com - copyright and "fingerprints". Retrieved 31 March 2008 from http://www.mikesmit.com/page.php?id=23.

Turnitin. Reading, writing, research, & originality. [Brochure]. Retrieved 26 March 2008 from http://www.turnitin.com/static/pdf/Turnitin_brochure.pdf.

Turnitin. Pricing – how to buy. Retrieved 26 March 2008 from http://www.turnitin.com/static/price.html.

Vogelsang, J. (1997). Plagiarism - an act of stealing. Journal of Peri Anesthesia Nursing, 12(6), 422-425.

Yeo, S. (2006). Science and engineering students’ beliefs about plagiarism: ‘It’s only an assignment’. Proceedings of the Assessment in Science Teaching and Learning Symposium. The University of Sydney, 139-144.

Last essay for the year / KL Drift; My Special Friend

I've finally handed in my last essay for the year. Yippie! Stayed up the whole night to work on it.

I decided to take a break today after all the essay writing and watched KL Drift. It was something similar to Tokyo Drift, just that it's in Malay with English subtitles and that it was really very touching. It talks about car racing and the strong bond between brotherhood. No matter what happens, you may reject your *brother* or even insult him, he would still not forsake you and stand by you, to protect you. This movie really moved me and I couldn't hold back my tears any longer and began sniffing away, something not many movies can do to me.

This movie suddenly reminded me of something. It is just like our relationship between our Heavenly Father and us. No matter what we do to reject Him, push Him away, deny Him as our Lord, He is always still there for us. Just like in the movie, He would ask us not to do something but we'll still do it, and when we end up even in the brink of death, somehow or rather, He'll just appear out of nowhere and be there to save us at the last minute.

When things don't go our way, we reject Him. We deny Him. We stop acknowledging him as our Lord and Saviour and we turn away from Him. We don't even want to hear, see or have anything to do with Him. There is nothing He can do about it but to leave us aside and just look at us feeling rejected. He can't make us accept Him if we do not want to. All He does is to hope that we will accept Him again.

During misunderstandings and we think that God is to blame, we scold and even test Him. Then, someone else comes to attack us, in this case, a car driven by an enemy, rushes towards us at a very high speed attempting to knock us down. We do not see the car as we are all too distracted by the things we're too involved in or by someone or something else. However, He sees it and pushes us aside and He gets knocked down instead. He took the place for us. That's how good this friend is to us. Sometimes, even after all these has happened, we still get mad at Him and are not thankful for what He has done for us and am not willing to let the past go. We need to be waken up by others, by having our other close friends who has always been by our side watching, shout at us before we get our senses and thoughts back together.

This special friend is none other than God. He is always there with us and will never forsake us. He took our place and died on the cross for us, for our sins. Have we accepted and opened the door in our hearts to set aside a special place for him? We should and perhaps if you are still uncertain about it, take some time off to reflect what we have done to Him and what He has done for us. I'm sure if the things that we have done for Him and what He has done for us are put onto the weighing scale, it would simply tip to the side of Him doing things for us.

Let's be blessed by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.

Have a good week ahead and Cheers!

edgarmirantz.com on 883 Jia FM

I received a call from 883 Jia FM (A Singapore radio station) on Sunday night. I picked up the phone and was asked about my blog, what I was doing and such. I didn't know that it would be live on air and was caught off-guard. I wasn't even prepared for this and I answered the caller in mandarin which was so very baddd...

Here's the abstract of the interview on 883 Jia FM. Pity I didn't record the second part of it as the DJ said more things about my blog and such after she played the commercial. I should have continued recording it. Oh welll...

Sleep early

It's a Saturday and I'm heading to bed after this post.

Hosted a couple of my friends in my new apartment and went over to Sophia's over at Bell Street, 15 minutes walk away from my place, for dinner. The portion was huge and I'm still so full now.

It's church tomorrow and it's going to be at Festival Hall. We're meeting at 10am over at Melbourne Central and we'll walk over as a group.

I'm going to cook Tau Suan this coming Tuesday for the Glenn College bible study which will be in my apartment. I hope it won't be a disaster.

Cheers and God Bless!

My new home!

It's finally a place where I can truely call home. Room 310 North of Rydges Residences. I hosted a dinner last Saturday for 3 of my friends and a tea reception last Sunday for 17 of my mates from uni. I was glad and a lil surprised that all 17 was able fit in. Had dinner with Martin on Sunday as well.

It's the second last week of uni - week 12. Next week would be the last week of uni, followed by a week of swotvac and thereafter, exams. I'll be having my 2 weeks of clinicals in a home for the aged care 10 minutes away from where I live and will be flying to Canberra for a training event for 5 days and back to Melbourne to pack up and perhaps hang around for a couple of days before I fly back to where I belong. (sings the song, Where I Belong by Kit Chan)

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a job back in Singapore for just 2.5 (or 3) months. I'll be flying thereafter to Bangkok, Thailand for a short trip from the 5th to 12th of January 2009. I bought the tickets late last month for just 4 cents one way excluding taxes. Toto, my fellow faculty mate doing podiatry, is from there and has agreed to bring us (me and my friends) around.

Anyway, back to my new home. I'm living in a room/apartment all by myself. The building has 7 stories and I'm on the 3rd floor. Levels 1 to 3 as well as a wing on 4 are residences and the 3 other wings on level 4 to level 7 are hotel rooms. I'm loving where I'm staying as it has a kitchen (well, just 2 stoves and a mini fridge) and toilet right in my room. It also has a very comfortable couch (which my friend who nearly fell asleep on it), a round glass table and a study table - which the room in the room opposite room doesn't have. The room opposite has a nicer view, but it doesn't come with a study table, which I need it for study - duh!

My wireless broadband sux. MSN's been trying to connect for the past 20 minutes but to no avail. I've been disconnected for quite a couple of times from the net as well and I've complained numerous times to the ISP but nothing has been done. I might consider breaking the contract next month (with 5 more month to go).

Oh, I just realised that it's past 12.30am, which means it's past 9.30pm SGT/HKT. I'll go make a call to pL who's now in HK now for an exchange.

Goodnight everyone and God Bless!

Moved.

I've shifted. My new address with immediate effect is as follows:-

310N/215 Bell Street

Preston, VIC 3072

My contact number is still the same at +61 433353646.

Cheers!

Yawns...

Nothing much to blog about. Back from Bendigo. Twas fun. Was supposed to blog about it on Tuesday evening but I wrote a few sentences and abdonded it. Will continue with it soon, I hope.

I had 4 hour of lectures today. Nicolaas visited me today. How sweet of him. Dinner was good. In fact, I think Scholaris is a much better caterer than Spotless.

I've to conduct a training on the 22nd in greater victoria. And I've no idea how to get there actually. Taking a cab would be very costly - more than $200 one way. I might have to ask if John is willing to fetch me.

One health sociology essay due next Friday and my hypnotherapy semester 2 starts next friday as well and the hypno assignment's also due on that day - I've not started on it yet. 12 questions of minimum of 250 words for each question. And I'm working on the CU video which has to be done by next week. So many datelines. I need 30 hours a day. My sleep pattern's screwed up.

I've only a 1 hour physiology lecture tomorrow from 3 to 4pm. Would be able to wake up late again tomorrow but then again, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to have an uninterrupted sleep or if I would be able to sleep all the way till late. It's a trip to Richmond and Ikea thereafter. I've to scout for cheap lanterns, mooncakes, candles and snow skin pre-mix, if possible. Mid Autumn Festival is on the 14th and SingSoc's celebrating it on the 20th.

Time for bed. You - the one reading this blog now, is blessed by God. Goodnight.

La Trobe University (Bundoora) Open Day

It's been a long week. Spent most of my time today with the Division of Nursing and Midwifery in the open day of the university. It's a nice experience and I managed to interact with lotsa locals wanting to find out more about nursing and/or midwifery. Thereafter, I went to church for the third service at 5.15pm with Nicolaas.

He was so nice as to accompany me knowing that I would be attending the service alone. I liked the service today. It's different as there wasn't a sermon. It's the launch of the 3rd service at 10.45am and also the live acoustic album recording at all three services. I stood and sang my lungs and heart out for nearly an hour (or slightly more). The acoustic rendition of reflector was nice. I can't wait for the album to be out, which would be next year, I guess. I would happily say that my voice is in the album. Haha...

Went to Marcus's thereafter. He called me in the morning and he sounded horrid. I was kinda worried as he was having a fever a few days ago, but recovered yesterday. And it was back again today. Bought dinner for him and accompanied him for a little while and I came home. Whilst at the tram stop, I missed a tram and had to wait for 35 minutes just for the next tram and it was cold. Brrr....

It's the Physiology mid-semester exam on Tuesday and one essay's due next Monday. I hope I can do well in both. Oh well, even if I just pass, I would be glad.

I got to know this guy named Zhi Yang about a week ago. He seems to be quite a nice guy. We've been hanging out almost everyday for a week now. I hope things would turn out fine and not become complicated.

Wish me luck in everything. Cheers and goodnight. I am Blessed. You are too!

2 weeks

It's been almost 2 weeks since I last blogged. I'm just not motivated to, unlike last time. pL's now in Hong Kong for 4 months for an exchange program. He posted the pictures on facebook and it just looks so nice. I wish I could go there one day, either to work or just for a short holiday.

Hypnotherapy lessons has started and I've more assignments due in time to come. The Singapore Students' Society, or also known as SingSoc has been setup in the university and I've be appointed the president of it. I'm going to register the society once I get the bank account opened.

My life has just been rather stale. I'm heading over to Bendigo gtom the 5th to the 7th of September for a weekend homestay program. I'll get to stay in a local's house for a weekend to get the real auzzie experience, which I've more or less gotten when I went over to Davina's place the other time.

Well, I guess it's more of Facebook-ing if you wanna know about my updates as I'm always there. Perhaps, when I get into the mood of blogging again, I shall.

BTW, V's dating this guy, which is much older. I hope that things go well. I don't like seeing people getting hurt.

Ta for now.

National Day Parade & Responsible Serving of Alcohol

It's been a long time since I've last updated my blog. It's the time when I'm just lazy to write again. It's always the time whereby I'll blog just before I go to bed and there's the time when I just can't be bothered to blog at all. Life has been stagnant, nothing much.

Last Friday night, we went over to the IMAX theatre in Melbourne Musuem to watch Dark Knight. The cinema was nice and the movie was nice too. We took the tram home thereafter and there was 2 persons that puked in the trams. Imagine the stench I had to bear for the 35 minutes of the journey. Nick came as well and he stayed over at my place until Sunday.

I celebrated the birthday of Singapore on Saturday evening. I booked one of the rooms in college, which has a piano, a computer and a projector. We only used the computer and projector though. The fellow Singaporeans came together to celebrate National Day and all of us watched the National Day Parade using the live webcast. It was fun and after the parade, we ate and danced. All thanks to Felicia and the rest of the girls and we did the Hwa Chong mass dance. I wished that we had that back when I was in seconday school. It was so much fun and it brought along all the laughters as well.

It was church on Sunday afternoon. Planetshakers would be starting their third service at 10.30am begining 31st August 2008. There would be also a live album recording on that day itself as well in all 3 serivces. I would very much like to be there so that I can be part of the album.

Attended the Responsible Serving of Alcohol course on Monday and I passed the test. I received the certificate on the next day. Now I can work in any licensed establishment which serves or sells alcohol. That's provided I can get a job in the first place. And because of this course, I wasn't able to attend the Monday Night Training by the LTU Christian Union. Nevertheless, I attended the Glenn College bible study on Tuesday night.

It's the hypnotherapy course on Friday and I'm kinda excited by the thought of it. I'll have to wake up early though, at 7am as I've to catch the 7.56am tram to arrive at Clifton Hill by 8am in order to arrive at Elsternwick by 8.53am as my lesson starts at 9am.

Anyway, it's time to head to bed now, else I won't be able to wake up by 7.45am to have breakfast at 8.15am as my lecture starts at 9am.

Goodnight and God Bless.

New Moon

The week passed just as it came. Nothing much exciting. I wish I could turn back time. Perhaps, things would be very much different now. I went to Northland last evening and bought 2 more books of Stephenie Meyer, New Moon and Eclipse. Cost me $60. I pre-ordered her 4th book as well, which is due for release on Monday. I started reading the second book today and shortly after starting, I felt emo and hurt. It was a familar feeling, a feeling which I've experienced just not too long ago.

It's Davina's 21st birthday on Saturday. The group of us are heading over to Wangaratta to celebrate it with her. It's the furthest place which I'll be going to ever since my arrival in Australia. Till date, my furthest is still Ballart, 1.5 hours away from Melbourne. Wangaratta is 3 hours away from Melbourne and 1 hour away from NSW.

I should head to bed now. I've to be up in a couple of hours time. Breakie's at 8.15am and we're departing uni at 10am to catch the 12.13pm V/Line train.

Now, I'm tuning in to myiradio online and with the songs which they're playing, I feel so much like just staying up to listen. All the mandarin songs which are being played now, it's just so soothing.

GC BS

Nothing much for today again. Another boring day. Lectures from 9 to 12 followed by a 3 hour break and another lecture from 3 to 5pm.

Had the Glenn College Bible Study tonight. Studied about Romans. It was good.

Time to sleep. 4 straight hours of lecture tomorrow from noon to 4pm. Argh~~~

Tired.

Another tiring day. Lecture at 8am followed by two 1 hour tute and an hour of lab session.

Wanted to rest but couldn't. Went for talk and in-depth bible study after dinner, which was organized by the La Trobe Christian Union. Went to the library to watch the videos for this week's health assessment module. It's about 3 videos every week which I've to view.

I'm so damn tired now. So tired that I can't even form a proper sentence properly. Think I should go sleep and yes, I would be now.

Goodnight!

Twilight

Woke up early and went to Preston market with the rest. Bought pancake premix and I had the urge to eat pancakes ever since Thursday, after I ate 5 pancakes for breakfast. However, due to the change of plans for the day, I didn't get the chance to make them. Went to the city with Shamay and Minyi as Kat, my classmate wanted to have us at her house for hi-tea.

Her house is very nice. Views of the city from the 34th floor is simply amazing. Her rent's $280 per week though and that exclude meals and bills. I'm currently only paying $270 per week inclusive of meals and bills.

Went over to John and Lionel's house later. They have just shifted in so it's still rather empty. They're staying over at St Albuns, over at Zone 2. At least I have an idea what to get for them in future. Haha...

I've been reading the novel by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight. Chris and Faezah has already finished reading her third book and awaiting for her fourth book releasing next Friday. I'm still not even half done with the first book.

It's been a rather depressing day actually. My mood fluctuated throughout the entire day. From normal to good to bad and good to bad again. Right now, it's not that good actually. Oh well, I shall go offline and go wash up, read a little more of the book and go to sleep.

Goodnight.