Surreality

Thought I might as well get a post in before I head off for the weekend =)

And this one comes with graphics. Hahaha.

You know how they always post museum pictures of those mega-companies when they were just starting up. Well.. here's my group's. Not exactly a multinational company in the making but still =P



Ohhhh... finally a photo of my room and a random shot of zk's Cooper's odometer. Pity I couldn't get those really cool scarecrows. Or sculptures. Not really sure what they were but damn they were impressive.















Lousy scenery shot of the hills surrounding the Bay area. Think these are the south and southwestern ones. Not exactly the best shots. You can't really tell how majestic those hills are until you see them. And it is a real pity I couldn't get a good enough angle to snap those with snowy peaks. Yeap, snow-capped hills. I could see them from our driveway. Real cool stuff.




Anyway, found Krispy Kreme. FINALLY. AT LAST! Donuts are sitting on the counter right now. Yay. And of course, the poor risotte that didn't make it. I think I turned up the heat too high during the simmer phase. Bleah.













Snapshots from Calif. Will be back with a ton more from Tahoe.

Don't make me worry, would you?

love
-five

Time once again for some updates on life in the US of A, the land of the free =)

Went to see a car today. Quite a decent one. But a tad too expensive for the mileage it had. So I don't think I'll get it. A pity though.

As usual, I felt like I was way over my head again, dealing with cars. Way over my head when I'm handling the codes. And keeping up but barely during classes. I guess it's a good thing, being challenged and that's what I came here for. Jumping into a completely new environment is daunting and exciting at the same time.

But I think slowly but surely, you start getting used to how things work. I got the damn invoice tool working today (FINALLY!) and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Lots of interesting events that I want to join but I'm suddenly reminded of that fact that I perhaps should be a bit more selective. Choose those I know I'm really interested in. But there's just so many! Hahaha.

Anyway, for the first time, I'm actually kinda excited about my OAP. Good feeling about it though Paul IS really in his own world :P I dunno. I still don't think that angle's going to work out. We'll see....

Tahoe this weekend. Should be fun. First time I'll see snow. And learn how to ski. Though I'm still wondering how the hell is the plan to get there. Probably the obsessive planner in me that NEEDS to know.

No photos today. Too lazy!

Be happy, busy beaver. Be safe.



love
-five

A New Home

109 Parc Place Drive, Milpitas, CA95035

New place, new beginning. And now it truly begins.

Under One Roof

We got our house today. Well... kinda. We're going to sign the lease tomorrow :P So, if nothing goes wrong, we'll finally have a place to call home.

So anyway, been a pretty normal 2 days(?). Nothing much really. Just life as usual. Except for the fact I now need to learn Java, MySQL, Hibernate, Struts, Apache Ant, Eclipse, jxl and Android. Oh yes, and CVS. Quite a challenge but like I said, I'm so way over my head that I can't even see the bottom =) Ah, took a snapshot of my poor empty desk and the coffee I grabbed from the cafe downstairs.


Great pizza at Pizza Chicago. Went there for dinner. Zhikuang and the uber big mugs. Andy and his grin. Too lazy to edit the colour for the photos =) Just another day in SV :P


















[begin random contemplation]
[exit IF boring OR != interesting]

What's it about Silicon Valley that makes it Silicon Valley? I don't really know. I haven't really been here that long. But I suspect it's the fact that anyone with a passion for technology, a passion for life and who dares to believe can succeed. Perhaps it's time to put down that conservative mindset and dare to believe.

love
-five


I used to read about it. Now I'm living it.

Rhythm

Everything is starting to set into a rather comfortable pattern though hectic. Work, rush to school, rush to view house, rush for dinner, rush home and rush to sleep so that tomorrow the cycle starts all anew. It's not as boring as it may sound. The whole SV experience is turning out to be pretty darn good and waaaay cool.

Getting used to the cold, getting used to the running around. And getting used to the juggling of work and studies. And so a new phase of life really begins.

And omg, it's so cold inside the house that my breath is condensing lah. Bleah. I can't wait for summer.



Anyway, some photos from a few days back.

We found this great Chinese place. Wong Kee or something. Authentic Hong Kong fare albeit at American sizes =) The roasted duck is awesome. We bought it for bootcamp. Got some photos of that as well. Bday boy Gerald and the leftovers. Damn that burrito was big.
















Anyway, cut to today. The famed San Francisco fog comes visiting =)

Classes at Stanford. Unfortunately I will not be showing my team photo unless per request. Hahaha...










After our meeting with the Ghostbusters, Huiling and me head out to Stanford grounds to snap some shots.

Helpful Stanford guy whom we stopped for directions and he whips out his laptop while on his bike to help us =) Go tourists! (He's shuai meh....?)



Hoover Tower.



And finally, the place I hope we'll call home. Well... at least the street beside it =)

Guess what.

Some really overdue photos. Here we go.

Dinner at Little India, 6th January. Boys' night out.



At the airport. Thanks to those who came.



*Insert 3 days worth of missing photos*

Sat, 11th January. When I got my camera back =)



Our 'refugee' camp =)



Jonathan watching Kah Meng play DoTA. Heh.



My brand new Smartwool socks. From Timberland. As you can see, I'm very proud of them. Lol. Cold toes no more!

Expect a lot more photos people =)

love
-five

Downloading at 400 kb/s. Woot, 30 mins CSI! =)

House hunting again. I think everybody starting to get a bit tired liao. But even though it's exhausting as hell, I think we have a lot of fun. Jonathon and Huiling are fricking hilarious. FRICKING HILARIOUS. It's just unbelievable. Hahaha. Toured a house that had a murder in it. We obviously didn't rent it even though we did have a lot of laughs about it.

But enough of me.

It trickles in. A bit of news here, a emotional msn nick. All those little stuff adds up. To those back in Singapore going through a rough patch, hey. I wish I was there for you all. And while I can't really be there, I'll be right here when you need someone to talk to.

Tell me about your long and tiriiiiing day because I promise I wouldn't tell you to not stress =)

Having many things going on right now doesn't make your life is in a mess. It just means you need a little bit more time to sort it out.

And all my beloved softballers, if even KE can win this year, so can we the next and if not, the next. We've always been the under-achievers but we're not the under-appreciated. Because it is thanks to all of you that have made my semester in Sheares and NUS this year memorable.

Kick butt peeps.

love
-five

The Leap of Faith

Huiling says she wants to blog 365 times but I think that's going to be kinda hard =)

Anyways, it's like 2:18 am and I'm pretty much just starting on my driving theory test reading tomorrow. Or rather, like someone likes to say, today =) But I thought I would just write a little.

Class today. Basically an introduction to E145, the history of SV and what makes the place tick. Some of the stuff you've heard before but hearing it in Stanford, hearing it from Randy Komisar and hearing it in Silicon Valley somehow makes it a helluva more relevant and closer to heart. Oh yeah, the cinnamon bagels ain't that bad but they're quite expensive sia. USD 2! Rawr. Oh bleh, forgot to take photo. And Daniel's over here with my camera but he didn't bring to class but at least it's not like half the world away from me. Hahaha.

House-hunting, Subway late lunch and home-cooked dinner. And oh my god, Ben's & Jerry's small tubs @ 10 for USD 9.99 at Safeway! So good =)

There are problems of course. I got really cold toes most of the time. I really should have gotten those socks from Timberland. And two people bailed out on us at literally the eleventh hour. Not to mention after saying 隨便 and anything. I really can't take that anymore. *poke* You know who you are =) Haha.

So yeah. Back to my notes.

Take care, peeps.

love
-five

Firsts.

Today's pretty much a first for many things =)

First house-hunting trip. First real full-day in the United States and my very first "real" Mexican food. And of course, who can forget my first cooking flying solo. Hahaha.

These 2 days have been a whirlwind of activity. So much so that I don't have much me-time. Haha. But it's worth it. Well worth it. Been a great two days. Great people. Interesting places and I really like to think we accomplished quite a bit since yesterday.

Really need to get my camera back. More photos. So we had this Mexican lunch and it was pretty nice. Quite a lot but I've been eating A LOT since I came. I think it's the weather. Food's not that bad. Burgers have been pretty decent. Thankfully, we cooked dinner though. I realised I was starting to miss Chinese food a little =)

Wish I had photos to post. Like they say, a picture tells a thousand words and I'm way too lazy to write more than a hundred.

Hope you're all doing fine. Where ever you may be.

love
-five

Touchdown!

Long, long flight. Few pictures here and there in Narita =) Will upload soon. (Yeah right =P)

Hopped on the plane from NRT-Tokyo to SFO. A photo I took of my "home" for like 10 hrs. Location: somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Hahaha. My Neil Gaiman book that I fell asleep all three times when I tried to read it.


So I'm sitting on the ground at San Francisco International, stealing some free WiFi while waiting for the seniors to get here and blogging. Already, we're all clamouring for photos. Photos in Narita, photos in SFO, photos everywhere.

It looks to be a blast =)

-five.

At the Beginning

Day 0: 10:41 PM GMT+8 or commonly known as Singapore time :P

-Watching brother play DoTA
-Feeling sleepy
-Waiting for flight
-Too lazy to move

Just finished setting up my new blog for the next year =)

Going to the airport soonish.

And happy birthday, sunshine.

And so it begins.

love
-five