kimchi's blog

 Before showering, my brother told me about how his new shirt looked like House M.D. merch ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ It was a muted orange shirt with a black square on the top left. On the square were the words M.D. in blocky white print. On the top right of the shirt was a string of jumbled letters. He pointed this out and said: Bigmedical soundingname! The joke instantly clicked and I let out a huff of amusement. He was referring to a meme that I had showed him earlier. Well, after the quick laugh, I actually felt jealous. Once I walked out of the shower, I immediately turned on my laptop and searched up House M.D. merch.  To my surprise, I found that Hollywood Pictures was selling the exact props that were used in the show! Just scrolling through their catalogue brought back great memories from episodes I'd seen long ago.  Unfortunately, I don't think that I'll be able to afford any of their mechandise. Maybe in the future? Or is that a waste of my money?  Who knows (～￣▽￣)～

 As my feet pounded the dark bitumen that was our running track, I stared up at the solemn dark sky (｀∇´) As I stared into the black that was our stratosphere, my brother panted beside me. Every so often he would manage a phrase of embittered complaint, but for the most part we made pleasant conversation. We were jogging at a conversational pace, that is, not too quickly. Despite this languid speed, the shin of my right leg hurt. I felt the bone ache as it jolted against the pavement, every step an impact reverbrating through.  Ow, I thought. Now that I am back home, I've had time to reflect on the night's affairs. And most importantly, my writing. Did you notice the subtle change in style? The truth is that I've been reading a new book, Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli. It discusses the new field that is quantum physics, including its birth, its many intepretations and (hopefully) its applications in the real world. I am currently on the last part of the intepretation section, a...

 Earlier today I had made an offer for a Sun Wukong dragon in Dragon Adventures (●ˇ∀ˇ●) An in-game screenshot of Wuonghou, a dragon from Dragon Adventures. Doesn't he look like Sun Wukong? My offer was 1.5 million coins, which was quite a lot but I was willing to do it because my brother loved Sun Wukong (the epic monkey king from Chinese mythology). Plus, I liked the dragon's animation as it was sort of endearing to me. It looked more like an eager puppy than a powerful monkey. Anyways, the seller responded to me with a sad note: she had already sold Sun Wukong. Ah, bummer. To be honest, I would go searching for another one, but I have a few reasons not to do so. Firstly, I have better things to do. I've just returned from the library with more books (so stay tuned for some snippets in my future blog posts)! Secondly, that Sun Wukong was quite special. It had one of those special cosmetic traits that, while not giving my monkey king any speed or damage boost, made him look...

 I haven't had breakfast .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.  It's 11:33 am now, and I woke up at 6:10 am. The smell of Japanese curry wafts in through my window. My stomach grumbles, low and guttural (literally).  My cup of finished milo sits next to my laptop. Brown froth had spilled over its sides, but now its dried on the smooth white surface, looking like rot against a pristine canvas.  Why don't I eat? Well, my mother is awake now and we're preparing to go downstairs to have lunch at the coffeeshop.  What should I eat? Yesterday, I had fishball noodles, so I can't have that today.  A picture of someone taking a big portion of fishball noodles. Personally, I prefer mee kia noodles, which are the thin, tube-like ones. But I actually haven't had mee pok, the flat ones, in a long time. Perhaps it's about time I've had it again. I mean, it technically is a different meal. Actually, maybe I will. The fishballs I had yesterday tasted really good. Not too fishy, like ho...

 I frequently play a game on Roblox called Dragon Adventures `(*>﹏<*)′ The game features many animated models of adorable, scary and cool dragons. The wide selection of scaled (or furry) friends to choose from had always enticed me, and with every passing month, more dragons are added to the game! You can see why I got hooked, right? Anyways, I had recently gotten into the breeding market. Dragon Adventure's breeding market comprises of two parts: breeding themes and breeding functions. I dabble in both!  In order to be an official theme breeder, you need at least 2 dragons with the same colour theme. A list of popular colour themes is available on the Dragon Adventures wiki page. A screenshot of the list of colour themes in the Dragon Adventures wiki. When you breed the two dragons, you'll get a baby with the same colours, which you can sell for money. Now, functional breeding is a different thing entirely. Most customers of functional breeders don't care about colou...

 Imagine a world where we all strutted around like peacocks, showing off our fancy watches and advanced degrees with no ounce of civility (ò_óˇ) A peacock strutting around. That would be a world without humility. Humility is a virtue as it keeps us striving for greater things and keeps us open-minded. To be proud is to have an ego preventing you from seeking help or looking weak. To be humble is to acknowledge your weakness in all of its reality and embrace it, moving on in spite of it towards success and glory. Many organisations and people have attained success, but only very few of them are humble. In the end, it is these modest powers that will prevail when the economy fails and everyone flails in desperation, trying to stay afloat.  One such power would be Amazon. Designed to aid the common people, Amazon had always adapted to suit its customers' needs. The company started by selling books, then expanded to selling e-books and devices to read those e-books. Eventually, it...

 Hi! It's 7:54 am and I'm going to write an informal letter as today's daily English practice (*^▽^*) The informal letter writing format, for my reference as I write. Hougang Avenue 10 Block 300 530200 Singapore 29 June 2025 Dear aunt and uncle, I hope my letter finds you in good health. Having heard that you are coming to Singapore from New Zealand for the holidays, I am simply thrilled to suggest some places you should visit.  Since you're going to be staying at a hotel in Sentosa, you might as well stop by Underwater World while you're there. I am sure that the little ones would love looking at the diverse selection of sea creatures, ranging from friendly dolphines to elegant manta rays. Plus, there's even a spot where you can touch real starfishes! I believe that your children would love having this sort of hands-on experience with wildlife.  On the other hand, I'm sure that you've heard of the exquisite beaches at Sentosa. After all, they are famed ...

 Yes, we all know that being sleep-deprived makes your memory bad, makes you tired (obviously) and makes you get ugly eyebags (╬▔皿▔)╯ Unfortunately, many of us are sleep-deprived, so why not make the most of it? Here are some good reasons to stay sleep-deprived (screw that bed, that useless meditation and that zen yoga music!): Spending less time asleep means more time awake. Being awake can allow us to feel more productive, can provide more time for ourselves, or can help us feel less pressured and less rushed.  Sleep deprivation fogs our mind and blunts our emotions. As uncomfortable as the resulting daytime sleepiness might be, it can take the edge off of waking life by rendering us desensitized or numb. In some ways, being chronically sleepy is similar to being somewhat inebriated (free booze, who wouldn't want that?). Recently, I've been sleeping at around 10 pm and getting up at 6 am. Unfortunately, despite getting in bed at a lovely time of 10, I actually don't get t...

 Do all good things have to come to an end? (￢︿￢) Whenever I watch a good movie, and get all the laughs and giggles and sombre moments of contemplation from the characters on screen, I dread the moment when all fades to black and the credits finally roll. If the ending was sad, the credits would make me cry harder. If the ending was happy (which usually was not the case), the fact that it was ending could sometimes bring me to tears.  That was sort of funny to me. It was like no matter how the ending was like, I would still end up crying. I guess that's just how it is when enjoying a work of art. It hurts when it ends, because you don't know when you'll get another one as good as this. Nowadays, I've moved on from movies to TV shows. I think part of this move was because TV shows usually lasted longer than movies, except for the movies with sequel after sequel (though the sequels still take time to film).  I noticed this after watching House M.D. tonight. The only times...

After watching 2 episodes of House M.D. tonight, I realized that proper capitalization was actually sort of important (●ˇ∀ˇ●) When I was reading through my recent blog articles, I found it hard to distinguish where one sentence ended and another began. The problem was probably because I did not capitalize the first letter of every sentence (or because the full stop was too small and my eyesight too weak). However, the real reason for me taking this drastic action of essentially rebranding my blog's style is this: I'm scared of getting into the habit of not capitalizing! Here, I fell prey to a logical fallacy (which just means when you're not making sense) called slippery slope. A slippery slope is an argument based on the claim that a relatively small first step will inevitably lead to a chain of related events leading to an undesirable outcome. An example: If you don't do your homework, you'll fail your exams, become dumb, won't be able to find a job, become ho...

for the june holidays, i was assigned to write one informal email as a practice for my english examinations ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ i was quite excited about this as i didn't have much experience writing informal emails (or informal anythings, for that matter).  unfortunately, i received a very low grade for my work, along with negative feedback: did not understand the question's context. informal style lacking. overall logic lacking. my immediate reaction to such a devastating blow to my self-esteem was to blame it on the question topic. i never liked mental health topics, as i found it dastardly boring to write about. plus, i had evidence to back up this claim! previously, i had written a formal email regarding recycling e-waste and received a 23/30. part of that amazing great is undoubtedly attributed to my passionate interest in electronics (and recycling, somewhat). ugh, i guess i'll just hope that the topic in the examinations won't be about mental health. buttt, the topic i...

 today's lunchtime conversation consisted of debates about sarcasm's effectiveness in manipulation (￣^￣） as i stuffed warm noodles into my mouth, my mom made a sarcastic remark. the words slid smoothly off her tongue, and that surprised me as she usually didn't get sarcasm, irony or any of the "higher order" language features of english. this was because whenever my brother and i made sarcastic jokes, or when i watched an american comedy show, she just wouldn't get it. sometimes, she even misses the jokes in house M.D.  that's why i gulped my noodles down and said: wow, you've learnt how to use sarcasm! "i bet it was from watching so much house M.D.," i continued, turning back to my bowl of fishball noodles.  my brother and mother continued the conversation as i focused intently on my food. in between bites, i picked up snippets of their chitchat, like "sarcasm is used to manipulate people". upon hearing that, my jaw went slack and ...

 writing this blog has made me think about one of the house M.D. episodes i had watched, wherein the patient had been blogging every part of her life (´。＿。｀) her boyfriend, being the normal person he is, was concerned about their privacy. he said this: i don't want our lives to be their entertainment! recently, i experienced this exact same thing with my own blog. she said that it was simply because she valued her personal life, and that it wasn't my fault at all. still, i feel slightly irked by this. after all, i'm supposed to be able to write anything i want in my blog, even if it concerns touchy subjects or other people's business. especially if it concerns other people's business.  unfortunately, i'll have to live with this restraint, because i live in a real world with many different people and i have to make compromises to achieve harmony. otherwise i'll end up pissing everyone off ⊙﹏⊙∥

 hii, i'm back with day 2 of the sparkseekers event at ngee ann polytechnic! (～￣▽￣)～ on the 2nd day, we went to jamiyah nursing home to learn from the nurses! when we first entered the nursing home, i took in the dim lighting and wide open space with half-lidded eyes. unfortunately, i was quite dazed with tiredness at that time. however, once i saw the residents gathered around a projector screen that looked like the one in my classroom, i immediately perked up. it turns out that they were watching a movie!  this was the open space i passed by in jamiyah! the residents were seated behind the tables, facing a large canvas screen with a movie being projected onto it. look at the man in blue in the wheelchair! the direction he's looking at was probably where the screen was located. the nursing students had come along with us to the nursing home, and now they led us into the elevators, pressing for the 3rd floor. despite all of us being packed tightly in the lift, i didn't find...

over the past 2 days, i've been going to ngee ann poly for their sparkseekers event (≧∇≦)ﾉ it's related to their healthscience department, which is actually quite small since they only have 2 courses: nursing and optometry (eye care). they have around 5 lecture theaters though (all air-conditioned)! on the first day, we visited the various simulation labs in the school! the first one was a fake patient model that could blink and breathe. it was hooked up to a heart monitor. the nursing students demonstrated how they would usually approach a patient: student: hello ma'am, i am _ and these are my colleagues. how are you feeling? patient: i'm fine. a bit tired, is all. student: okay, we are going to check your blood pressure now. student: okay, it seems like your blood pressure is fine. how are you feeling now? patient: very tired, i feel like i'm about to fall asleep. i... student: ma'am? hello? ma'am, are you awake? student: patient has lost consciousness, co...