Just got back from Getty Museum.. It is the best museum i have been so far..
Anyway the highlight is Hawaii!! leaving for Oahu tomorrow.. kekeke..
Hey people,Tomorrow morning i will drive to Arizona. Will return to LA on 27 Mar then 28 Mar will fly off to Hawaii! I booked a hotel in Phoenix Arizona but there is no Internet there.. i might not be online for a while so... will be MIA.anyway, must miss me.. haha.. oh yah, paulene! i tried calling you but you are not reachable.. what happened to your phone? I need some itinery tips from you...
Recently have been on this "stressed" topic.. haha shall tie up all of them together..
First, when you are "stressed", eat "dessert". Strawberry ice-cream would be good. haha..
Secondly, shout out loud at 12-midnight during exam week.. in UCLA it is like some tribal call.. at 12 am sharp you can hear echoes of screams and roars!!! Well this might cause some problems to the security as they have to write a report whenever a scream is heard.. and their action plan is to nab those people who screamed at 12 am. You will see those security people parking their vehicles outside residential halls at about 1150pm and looking upwards and try to catch the banshees and barbarians. haha
Thirdly, run around campus in just your underwear. It is called "Undies Run". It happens in UCLA every quarter during the wednesday 12 am of the exam week. Don't worry, you won't be alone.. see below for the pics:
Starting Line: Gayley/Strathmore. I walked along Strathmore daily to get to my classes and i cant recognise it now..
Look at the number of people.. Police came too..
Thru the Strathmore tunnel
End Point - The foundatain between Powell Library and Royce Hall. This is Powell Library in the background.
This is Royce Hall in the background. Those who watched "Love in Harvard" should recognise this. haha..
Us - but fully clothed.. It is actually super cold la.. But it gets warm with everyone around you. I think i will join in next quarter.. definitely. =p
Oh yah, i have been wanting to post such pictures but didnt have the time back then. Here goes:
Yes Hainanese Chicken Rice! But the rice does not have the ginger flavour but it tasted much better than the sticky rice that i have been eating here.. The one on the left supposed to be "Shao Ji" as promised on the menu but it is actually roasted chicken.. The "Bai Zan Ji" is not too shabby but the taste is not rich enough
This is the place. Many thanks to Kaiwen for driving us there (Near Monetary Park).
These are my UCLA Winter 2007 Chem 184 classmates (Sean trying to be funny..) with Dr Joseph Loo. I think i will miss all of them.. all of them are very nice.. especially the time when we have to endure thru the labs.. it is fun with them around.. 
Cu Team meets Hg Team (David, Willy and Chris)
My Environmental Geology Lecturer Dr Andrew Czaja. I really like his lectures alot. 
My Geology TA, Natanya.
Arun, my TA for Biochemistry. He is the coolest TA around. Always teaching us about Beer. Ha..
Dr Bates! The woman many warned against for Biochemistry as she sets the toughest papers. Well, actually she is very nice. i think i will remember her forever. Her NAG-NAM, Substrate level phosphorylation, Regulation by Substrate Availability, Glycolysis, TCA and Electron Transport Chain. 
This is how her classes looked like. I saw this every 9 am, 4 times a week for 10 weeks. (I skipped two.. not bad le ok? haha)
This was her last lecture and she is trying to bring a point across to us about Electron Transport Chain. "You can only pass electrons to higher Reduction Potentials".. Haha.. i will remember that.
Oh yah, Guitarists look out: i went to the G3 concert 2007 held in Los Angeles Downtown Orpheum. Led by Joe Satriani, this time round John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert were invited. They are simply amazing.. especially with all the tricks.. damn cool la..
The people who went with me: Charmaine, Hsien Xiong, Diana, Maryanne, Xinhui and Gabriel who is the most guitar siao among us..
All of us before the concert started.
The concert. I think the theatre is damn nice la!
Yay!!! exams are finally over.. sorry for being missing in action for so many days.. i have been studying VERY hard.. really very hard.. i don't know why but for science subjects, it is hard for me to enter the exam hall w/o knowing entirely.. i like biochemistry.. so maybe thats why.. i think another reason is that this is quite a heavy quarter for me. i dont even have the time to stop and do my own things with all the labs and assignments piling in.as a result, i have been waking up early and then make a trip down to Rieber Terrace to meet Xinhui and study.. until late at night.. w/o break.. for the past 9 days. this is even crazier than when i was back in NUS. i am not that disciplined back home..next quarter i must travel/party even more such that i dont have time to study. haha..I received a good news today.. i managed to get enrolled into my chemistry class next quarter - Biological Inorganic Chemistry. So now my next quarter classes are settled! Yay! And i got my grade back for one of my classes - Environmental Geology of Los Angeles. Got an A. yay! Today is such a beautiful day.. bright and sunny and yet cooling winds are everywhere. i can start to imagine how fun hawaii will be.. Oh yah, i think i am going off to Arizona, just before Hawaii! Whee!! haha.. really good day! =p
Today is the last day of my lab in UCLA. very busy and tough especially the first few weeks. 2 X 7 hours of lab sessions per week is not enjoyable at all.. but now i look back with quite fond memories.. =p
Presenting the Copper Team of UCLA Winter 2007 Chem 184 : Huang Xinhui, Kawai Ryuto and Tan Ching Tian. I still remembered the first day when we were divided up into teams, I laughed out loud when i knew my team is called copper.. Other teams were named the more expensive transition metals like Gold, Platinum, Silver, Mercury and Zinc.. We sounded so cheap.. at first we wanted to change it but oh well, i think we are the most useful one. haha..
Here is Eric Pang, my TA for the first three experiements:
Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) - Time of Flight (TOF): 
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC): 
Gas Chromatography & Quadrupole MS (GCMS):
Here is Jason Dunsmore, my second TA for the next three experiments: 
Anodic Stripping Voltammetry (ASV):
Infrared Spectroscopy (IR):
And Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-ES):
Alot of new techniques were learnt, especially the quantitative aspects.. More importantly, I will certainly miss my classmates, especially Ryuto. He is so funny.. always made me laughed alot.. and by not handing in his homework and lab reports.. i wish him all the best at chicago for his grad studies. =) I will upload more photos of my classmates next week when i meet them during lecture. Will take a group photo with all of them. =)
Just caught the movie "300". I think that the way it was film was nice.. alot of great scenes and fantastic warcraft etc... (ok i think you know that a 'but' is coming up).. BUT (haha..) i would think that it is slightly over-rated.. probably cos i have been watching too many movies and each time the trailer of "300" will be screened. so much so that i think what is going on next. my breathe was taken away already when i watched the trailers so.. not much was left to be taken away.. nonetheless, i think it should be watched.yes, californian weather is warming up i guess.. good.. now don't need to wear or carry heavy jackets around anymore. i want to wear berms and sandals! and that means more shopping for me.. haha.. oh i also need to shop for some beach/surfer pants for i am going hawaii soon!! yippee!tata~oh yah.. i went to University of Southern California (USC) previously for some steamboat dinner with the Singapore Student Association over there. The USC mascot is Trojan.. quite similar to spartans la..
Last thursday it dropped to 7 degrees celsius, and today (Sunday) it is 27 degrees celsius. I wore like a polar bear out this morning and i looked around me. all are wearing bermudas and singlets.
No wonder the people here have so many clothes (Haha.. more reason to shop here). I think i must start picking up the habit of checking the weather before i leave my house and then decide what best to wear. That means no sleeping on my bed until the very last minute. =( I usually just lazed on my bed until i realised i will be late then jumped out of bed and wash up and leave within 5 min.
Or maybe i can check the weather forecast and then plan my clothes for the next day before i sleep? hmm.. i wonder is the forecast accurate.
Oh yah, i forgot to update that i went to La Brea Tar Pit yesterday as part of my Geology course requirement (That's why i took this course actually). It is quite cool to see bubbles of methane/hydrogen sulfide/hydrogen popping out of the asphalt lake. So many fossils are uncovered here. Ok here are the pics:
bubbles of methane (not that pungent), hydrogen (small amounts) and hydrogen sulfide (very smelly. chemists should know.. smells like rotten eggs) The water is actually not boiling or hot.
A more closer look. The black stuff are actually asphalt.
Three Geology students from NUS: Hsien Xiong, Xinhui and Me.
It is super goo-ie. And you need alot of force to be able to pull out. Most likely once you are stuck, you are gone.. This is how an entire food chain got captured and their fossils preserved nicely in the lake. (First started with Zebra wanting a drink and got stuck. Sabretooth cat (not tiger) came and thought it is free food and got stuck too.. so does packs of wolves and even vultures..)
Jinzhan as tall as Mastodon
To my dear friends, dont worry man.. i am absolutely fine! In fact, i am getting quite a kick out of this incident. Previously, i simply assume that only my friends will be bothered to read my blog but now, even my enemies (yay, i have enemies finally! <-- makes life more interesting) also read it.. one from singapore and one living off UCLA campus. both are singaporeans who are saying nasty things about singapore.. (the language is very obvious) haha.. actually i feel honored! kekeke.. well, sometimes you need the bad guys to tell the good guys apart. Good exists cos' of evil (read it off some comic books.. haha..)Since I have decided to keep a blog, I must also be opened to criticism. My thoughts might not be depicted exactly by readers cos I can't control how my readers want to interpret my intentions. My only concern is the crude remarks made.. sometimes, before one scorn at others, one needs to see if one is any better. And to my dear friends who stood by me. Thanks! I know who you are. =)Tata~
A few days ago, i made a blog entry about my feelings towards the current school life.. apparently, some people (apparently two) are extremely upset and uneasy over what i wrote, so much so to the extent of taking up some nicks (crappy ones) and started calling me names. To my loyal readers, please comment on how you think of this issue. Have i insulted in any way? Being on an exchange program, am I wrong to even compare and reflect? What puzzles me is: what have i done to be scorned at? Somehow, i think they know me. Why don't we just talk it out instead of doing this behind-the-back thing..anyway, i just caught the movie "Wild Hogs". Not bad.. quite funny.. =)
