Life of Thadii.

WREK 91.1FM
Friday, January 30, 2009

http://www.wrek.org/

So it's official...I'm now a trainee DJ for WREK 91.1FM, Georgia Tech's student-owned, student-ran radio station. Unlike Radio Fusion that we have back in NTU, WREK actually goes live on air across the city, boasting a 40,000W ERP signal...making it among the ten highest-powered college radio station in the United States.

This is definitely going to be one of my dreams fulfilled at long last. I've always wanted to learn to be a radio DJ and go on air live...gotta admit, listening to Perfect Ten 98.7FM since I was a teen inspired that dream...

Perks of being a radio DJ here, besides free training and experience? We get unlimited access to their entire music collection...wheee...time to buy an external HD and copy every freakin' song!

P.S. the radio station has been around since 1968...so that's really A LOT of songs I could potentially steal haha...

One of the Thadii blogged at 8:49 AM.
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On Hoodies and its Ilk...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Totally random musing here, inspired by this morning's rain/drizzle, while waiting for my psychology class to begin...

America seems to be the perfect place to put the hood of a hoodie up, zip up jackets and windbreaker right to the top, and make your collars stand erect, WITHOUT looking
1. weird
2. wannabe (ah beng, maybe?)
3. retarded

Oh and this is a shout out to Jac, Wenxu, and Mad who finally made it in one piece to America. Hope you guys will enjoy the weather and the place! See you guys in Elon (if I ever drive up to NC again, btw which city is it nearer to? Raleigh or Greensboro? Can't really tell from google maps), or see you guys in Atlanta if you come! It's only a 5hour drive via I-85 N/S.

Anyway, maybe I'll stop being so self-conscious when I return to Singapore and pull up that hoodie when the weather calls for it.

P.S. Umbrella? What's that? A decorative accessory? People here pull up hoodies unless you get a tropical downpour =)

One of the Thadii blogged at 11:42 PM.
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Bison, Hawks, and Phoenixes!
Monday, January 26, 2009

So you're wondering why this blog entry reads like a combination of foal and fowl? Read on!

Well it's Chinese New Year today...by right...but since I'm in America, no such thing really exists. Thus, instead of visiting relatives and stuff, we visited Phillips Arena for an NBA game, between Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns.

But before that, we decided to hit a burger joint called Ted's Montana. The food, service, and ambience there is superb for its price. For a mere 12usd we feasted like Kings. The portions were huge and tasty. We all ordered Bison Cheeseburgers (what they are famous for), and boy, it hit the spot! The food is so filling that even now at 1230am, I do not feel the LEAST bit hungry even though I had the meal at like 3pm. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Note how high the ceiling is. It's actually 2-storeys high!

Damn good salad topped with blue cheese dressing.

Soup is good, but the onion rings has to be THE BEST I've ever eaten in my whole life. The batter is simply perfect.

The fries are delectable and are probably house-made. The burger...oomph...words can't describe the delicious taste of bison meat (ok, PETA is probably gonna kill me now haha)!

After the meal, we realized that we didn't have time left to tour CNN building. So we made-do with just the gift store in CNN instead, and the Atlanta Hawks gift store. BTW, an authentic NBA jersey costs a whopping 195usd!

These pics are for Ah Bear (see, even in America I think of my friends!).

Pretty cool "hawk claws" eh? Watch out, I know wicked kungfu!

I gotta admit that watching an NBA game live was pretty awesome. The Atlanta Hawks mascot was really cool though. It's this big red hawk. Sadly, from where I was seated (far, far, up), I couldn't get good shots of it. Oh, and during the opening ceremony, a REAL hawk was taken into the court as a symbol of the home team. How cool is that?

The commentator was pretty anti-Shaq and Suns (but that's to be expected since the home-team was the Hawks), and it was really hilarious when Shaq did a foul that made a large outcry in the crowd, and the commentator went in a really sarcastic voice, "Shaquille O'Neal, that foul is offensive!" I got to admit, the cheering fever caught on to me, and many a times, I found myself chanting "De-fense, De-fense", "Let's Go Hawks!", and boo-ing the Suns. Steve Nash was a delight to watch as well. I guess the only reason why I cheered for Hawks was because I was in Atlanta haha...the Suns is definitely a more well-known team to me...

The time-out, quarter, and half-time shows were simply hilarious. We had the good, where hot dancers and cheerleaders strut their stuff, kiss cam where random couples caught on the big screen had to kiss (and yes there were guys kissing lol!), dance cam where random people caught on the big screen were made to dance; the bad, where a bunch of junior school teams played a short match (bad because it was boring, although the kids were certainly good for their age); the downright ugly, where people competed in the silliest games for sponsor prizes, such as racing across the basketball court and back...on a COOLER with 4 wheels...hahahaha...what a spectacle it was!

See, cooler race? How silly!

And people playing "The Price is Right" during time-out! WTF? Lol...at least the girls were hot kekeke...

And you saw it right! 2 guys kissing during Kisscam!

Anyway the game ended with the Suns winning 104-99. It was a rather tight match throughout, with the Suns and Hawks both taking the lead at different quarters, till the final 4minutes of the 4th quarter. I would say the Hawks have pretty poor accuracy when compared to the Suns. While the Hawks had plenty of opportunities to score, most went to waste.

Oh and it was really exciting to see slam dunks happening live. I think Mingfeng managed to get some good dunk shots. Gotta grab those pics from him!

The opening ceremony of the game. See the mascot there?

Cheerleaders doing their stuff!

Whee...look at the view from above, haha!

And now for some mandatory shots with the good friends of GIP!

Now it's time to return to my mundane world and finish up my biomed and culture essay on caffeine and coffee...damn I think I need some of those...arghhh...

One of the Thadii blogged at 1:14 PM.
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Mini Reunion Dinner
Sunday, January 25, 2009

I miss CNY goodies. 'Nuff said. So to make up for it, we decided to cook a relatively more scrumptious dinner. Kudos to Yongxiang, who even managed to make 三层肉 from scratch!

Well, it's really not much but I guess we had a good meal. Took quite a bit to prepare for it...while the meal has to be the simplest CNY meal I've eaten so far (no duck, no prawns, and none of the yummy 五香 that I like), it has to be one of the more meaningful dinners...

Oh well, better stop thinking about home, before I get too emo and can't finish my assignment. Take care all of you still in Singapore, I really envy the CNY stuff you guys are having there now!

Well, I'll be looking forward to tomorrow. We're gonna go watch an NBA game at the stadium, Atlanta Hawks versus Phoenix Suns. Let's hope it'll be fun!

One of the Thadii blogged at 9:58 AM.
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Becoming Girls???
Friday, January 23, 2009

As I'm contemplating the existence of God and the immortal soul through the convoluted writings of Descartes (yes Philosophy stinks ><), thoughts of Lunar New Year goodies are creeping into my mind...I miss the bak kwa, pineapple tarts, lup cheong, chocolates...haiz...

I guess there are perks to staying in Singapore... So I've decided...instead of going down to Chinatown to buy sweets and treats for the Lunar New Year, I'll bake pineapple tarts (or at least will try to convince some mates here to do it with me)! Hahaha...I guess being overseas makes you do crazy stuff.

Then the best part of this...I thought I was the only one going insane in a foreign land. Here's an excerpt from Adium chat after I suggested the idea to a mate here...

neo ming hong 11:09
omg
09:33
we r becoming gals...
09:39
nth to do bake cookies.. den take fotos
09:41
hahaha
09:51
juz nw we were saying abt how we can spend our weekend
09:56
bake cookies den take fotos
09:58
like gals

-thad-: 5month holiday 11:10
wtf
10:06
who is this "we"
10:06
lol
10:11
so genius!!

neo ming hong 11:10
justin alan n me lo

GG! So that's it. The verdict is out: We're becoming girls now hahahahahax...

One of the Thadii blogged at 12:13 PM.
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The Sun, the Snow, and the Ski
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wheee, many milestones in the last 3 days of the long weekend holiday (Martin Luther King). Let me summarize them in short before I start attempting to recount one of the most fantastic episode of my life. (Which is pretty long too...you've been warned!)

1. Drove left-hand drive continuously for 6 hours at an average of 90 to 110mph (1mile=1.6km, speed limit = 55-65mph, go figure how much I was speeding!) on the Interstate.

2. Experienced and played with snow! (I know I'm ill-traveled...)

3. Snowboarded and skied for the first time in my life!

4. Drove in snow...it isn't easy at all...had a near-crash incident...

5. Camaraderie and friendship =)

Ok so the long journey started at an unearthly hour of Saturday morning, 5.30am. Destination: North Carolina. I was the slated driver, with Alan being the backup. Anyway, here's some nice pics of the journey when we first started.

We took a pitstop at Chesnee for gas and breakfast. Believe it or not, it's the first time I've eaten Mac's in America. Their muffins are interestingly called, "biscuits", and taste really superb. It's like fried bread but more oily, delicious, and thicker.

The drive to North Carolina took about 5hours, and we headed for Sugar Mountains to ski. However, the crowd there was massive and the cold thwarted us. Realizing that most of us were ill-equipped for skiing, we headed down to Walmart for cheap buys for ski clothes. With a 25USD budget, everybody managed to procure good pants and jackets for skiing. Walmart is simply awesome for cheap and good stuff!

Then the real stuff began...skiing! But first we had to check into our resort lodging.

It's a quaint little cabin resort called Willow Valley located high up in the mountains. Getting there was a challenge due to our screwey GPS. It brought us up impossible slopes in the mountain and I went up inclines as steep as about 40 degrees!

It was the first time I really had to change to the lowest gear in an auto car and jam down on the accelerator just to get up! Friggin scary! And the worst part was when we realized it was a dead end at the top of the steep slope, and had to reverse back down...freaking scary! The experience is something words just cannot describe...literally at the edge of my seat, grabbing the wheels as much as I can, trying to counter-steer and control the wheels, while pressing down on the brakes for our dear lives...

I dare say my driving skill has improved tremendously after this trip. It's really hard to describe the perils of driving in America sometimes. I had monster trailiers swerving into my fast lane at 90mph without any signal warning; I lost control of my vehicle on the way back on the 3rd day and almost crashed; I drove into a shallow ditch and had a hard time reversing out...drive in America at your own peril!

Oh a word of advice for fellow friends coming to America soon for exchange, although I was a real speed demon, emulate me at your own risk. Along the way I saw MANY vehicles caught by the police/sheriff for speeding. I was just EXTREMELY lucky to escape these speed-gun ambushes. Don't ever think you can outrun their police vehicles...it's not possible lol.

Anyway, snow makes driving a hazard. I experienced extreme counter-steering and had to wrestle hard with the wheel just to gain control. The wheels can literally swing to the right even when my steering wheel is fully-locked at left! That's when you know you're screwed and have to jam the brakes (lightly!). Lane markings vanished, covered by the snow. Ditches too became invisible. Go slow in snow people, trust me!

Anyway, we eventually found our way to the lodge. Here's some pretty views of the mountain from our lodge on the first day before the snow fell.

Note the white in some of the pictures...those are frozen ponds!

Seeking advice from the locals, we decided to head to the Appalachian instead of Sugar Mountains, as Appalachian was a lot easier for beginner skiiers. I decided to be a daredevil, and try snowboarding instead of skiing. Along with Cedric, Alan, Angeline, and Justin, we took a "twilight hours" package and braved the slopes and started falling like idiots all over, our feet stuck to a snowboard. It was hilarious.

It is insanely difficult to snowboard and learning how to control it was a tall order. Lots of falls were involved and I think all of us ended up with really sore muscles. But eventually Alan, Cedric and myself got the hang of snowboarding. At the very least, we managed to board down the beginner slopes without falling.

And boy it was awesome! The adrenaline rush! There's no easy way to learning snowboarding except falling and falling.

Now I would LOVE to show you guys pictures of the skiing and snowboarding, but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera in because I was snowboarding and didn't want to smash my camera. Some of my fellow friends did though, and the ski pictures are all with them. I'll upload them ASAP once I get it. All I have is this ticket left behind from the 2nd day of skiing that I'll be holding on to as a keepsake.

Here's some R&R in our resort at the end of the first day.

Yes note the copious amounts of beer we had. It keeps you warm and sane in the cold weather, and is awesome for helping recuperate our tired bodies from snow sports =P

BTW, America is awesome, besides the good food, friendly people, cheap cars, etc, I've found another advantage. You don't need a fridge in winter. Just place your beer out in the cold for about 15minutes and you get nice, chilled beer!

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took in the morning of the 2nd day.

Anyway it started snowing on the first night and from then on everything became really awesome. We did a 2nd bout of skiing/snowboarding the next day AND night for a whole 8 hours, had really delicious Greek food (Gyro and Greek Fries, go wiki, it's late and I'm tired haha!), and more or less, mastered the basics of skiing and snowboarding! Yay!

It's really thrilling when one zooms down the slopes, and even more satifying when one can come to a proper stop without stumbling along the way =)

I guess we were too crazy-high after the 2nd night of snowsports, and we ended up doing a snowball fight at the carpark of Appalachian Ski Resort after it closed! You can see how thick the snow is anyway at this point in time...

and it got even thicker when we got down the mountain to get dinner/supper!

No prizes for guessing what we did that night too! (Besides the drinking, cooking, and camaraderie chat...)

Somehow this GIP doesn't feel like a study trip but an extended holiday. I think none of us have done our tutorials/readings yet and possibly pretty screwed...but oh well, S/U rocks! We left early in the morning of the 3rd day, heading back to Atlanta. It was a really surreal feeling of return.

To add to the feeling of the "holiday", we stopped by a factory outlet and shopped. Here's my purchases for the day, coming up to about 120USD for a pair of CK Jeans (27usd), a CK belt (29USD) and shirt (23USD), RL Polo tee (22USD), and TH tee (15USD). Talk about cheap haha...I'm definitely gonna buy more labels! I love the CK shirt (electric blue rules), and the RL polo has a really unique/rare green that convinced me to get it (I'm normally not a huge RL fan).

Well dear friends, some of you might have remembered that I kept mentioning about buying CK boxers when I came to America...well I didn't manage to this shopping trip, because the only one boxer design that I thought was nice, Alan wanted too. Buying the same boxers would be too gay so I guess that will have to wait for the next CK factory outlet!

Now I pray that my brother doesn't blow up when he sees the credit card bill...besides the shopping that is...the car rental (about 200usd for 3 days) was charged to his card too >< I'll pay him back when I return lol...

Time to sleep...it's 3.16am and there's class tomorrow...but I had to blog this wonderful journey before I head to dreamland...I'm really tired but thank goodness my professor cancelled the 9.35am class due to Obama's inauguration...guess that's the one good thing he has done so far for me...that lousy, full-of-fluff liberal Democrat...

P.S. sorry for the dearth of photos...I'll try to remember that I have a camera...

One of the Thadii blogged at 2:37 PM.
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Left-Hand Drive
Saturday, January 17, 2009

Ok so I got a rented car today (Chevrolet HHR), and Alan and I took turns to drive, with the very unfortunate passengers Cedric and Angeline seating behind. Why unfortunate?

Being new to left-hand drive, we both kept steering dangerously close to the right side of the lane, sometimes even getting out of it! This perspective thing is really tricky! Wide left-turns are easy and posed no problems. Right turns...hmmm...we both striked the kerb while doing right-turns about twice each. Alan reversed at the entrance of the Interstate 85 (think BIG expressway) at Peachtree Street thinking we lost Morgan (a local friend who we were supposed to tail), and I did some Singapore-styled lane switching on the Interstate highway garnering my first honk.

What exciting car-ventures!

Oh boy, and now I better catch some sleep (ok who am I lying to...probably won't sleep soon haha) for the 5 hour drive coming up in the next 6hours (we're leaving at 5am-ish).

Also, maybe cars here don't come with reverse sensors. At least mine didn't. It was helluva scary doing parallel parking (pretty common here) without reverse sensors. No freakin' idea why. Seriously when you're new to left-hand drive, driving a large vehicle, and you're still new to the dimensions of the car...

Stress!

One of the Thadii blogged at 11:56 AM.
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Static Fried my Apple!
Friday, January 16, 2009

Now I know a total advantage of Singapore's humidity. The lack of static electricity. The cold and dry weather here has left me shocked pretty often when opening doors and touching metal chairs/tables. Blankets and clothes crackle when you touch them, and my hair "naturally stands".

Cool...so what does this morning's record low of 10F do for my mac? The static charge build up (because I put my mac in my bag) screwed my trackpad. It's totally unresponsive now. At least that's what I believe is the reasoning for preliminary findings. Either that or I'm extremely unlucky to have contracted some sort of software glitch, which is another diagnosis.

Regardless, I hate this static business. Every morning my blanket sticks to me, literally. And it's not like you guys reading this blog don't know how hairy I am...

Anyway, my mac was working perfectly fine in the morning, and I didn't knock it or whatsoever...damn it man, hope I can save my apple from being totaled...and this has to happen just before I drive off for my ski trip...arghhh!

One of the Thadii blogged at 11:41 PM.
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Hot and Cold!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cause you're hot then you're cold.

Pretty weird weather here nowadays. Probably sums up how I'm feeling as well inside. Sometimes when the nights are cold and lonely, or the sunny days still chill my core...

Anyway, how can the sun be shining so brightly for the last few days but the temperature has been below freezing 27F (-3C) for the last few days? And the best part is that it's going to dip to as low as 11F over the next few days.

I'm in a south-eastern state! GG to global warming.

P.S. anybody has the song by Katy Perry, please send it to me via email or msn, thanks!

One of the Thadii blogged at 11:26 PM.
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Skiing?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Keeping the blog entries short now because of the colossal amount of readings and some planning stuff to settle.

Jac, Wenxu, Mad, I'm sorry to inform you guys, but I'm going to North Carolina before ya'll.

http://www.skiwolfridgenc.com/rates.htm

Ski trip planned for the coming long weekend (due to Martin Luther King's holiday on Monday, whee!). Stay tuned for updates when it happens!

One of the Thadii blogged at 12:57 PM.
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Coke and Culture?
Monday, January 12, 2009

Consumer Culture and Participatory Democracy: The Story of Coca-Cola during World War II

I'm reading that 20 page article now for my Biomedicine and Culture class. I love the little ironies of life, considering I just went to the Coke museum yesterday haha...ok back to muggin!

One of the Thadii blogged at 5:17 AM.
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World of Coke!
Sunday, January 11, 2009

Jac is going to love this entry since there's coke involved. Bear will love this entry EVEN more =) Read on!

Did you know that Atlanta is the birthplace of Coke? In 1886, chemist John Pemberton, founded coke. The poor dude died 2 years later in 1888 and never enjoyed the fortune. In fact, he SOLD the secret formula and rights of coke to Asa Chandler for only 1 freaking dollar! And look where the brand is now...

The brand of Coca-Cola was created and designed by Frank Mason Robinson, Pemberton's first partner in business and also his bookkeeper. Robinson felt that using 2 "C"s would make the drink more marketable and savvy in advertising. Indeed, how RIGHT he was! Skilfully, using the Spencerian typeface, Robinson designed the Coca-Cola brand by his own penmanship. How talented!

There were so many beautiful coke "artifacts" (if you could call them that!) such as the original coke glass bottles, bottle caps, paraphernalia, posters, advertisements, and even clothes! The coke museum treated us to a visual and historical feast of the amazing drink that we all love.

We got to see all the memorabilia (and I even got to hold the Torino 2006 Olympic torch!), learn the history, tour a REAL (albeit scaled-down) manufacturing/bottling plant, experience a 4-D show of Coca-Cola (which was totally mindblowing), take pictures with the infamous Coca-Cola polar bear (yes Bear, you'll love the pictures!)...and THE best of all...taste 64 different types of drinks that Coca-Cola company manufactures around the world, split across 5 drink stations (Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa)!

Besides the usual Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, etc that we have here, Coca-Cola company also creates all sorts of beverages around the world. (BTW, I wonder why Singapore doesn't have Coca-Cola Cherry, and Cherry Zero...they are DAMN AWESOME!) And me and my friends sampled them all. Some were really good, and some were downright funny/bad, especially a green drink from Djibouti (Africa), called Sunfill (green), or something.

Sampling all the drinks from around the world just made me want to really travel round the world even more...sigh. I have half the mind to apply for an overseas PI in year 3 now...and I'm not alone. Some of the dudes in GIP want to do that too...I can smell another plan cooking...

Anyway, less talk, more pictures! (Lots of pictures!)

This is Pemberton. His statue that is!

Told you the poor guy sold away a fortune for a dollar...

And now for some mandatory camwhore!

Hmmm...I wonder if the old vending machine accept AMEX?

No freakin' idea what I'm pretending to kiss...except that it has really kissable lips and it looked damn cute in the video documentary we watched earlier about Coca-Cola.

Torino 2006 Winter Olympics torch!

At the Europe drinks station. I'm about to try Beverly from Italy (which is really bitter but damn nice if you gulp it down like a shot of vodka!).

Bear is gonna love this photo. I'm damn sure. It was really cute!

The infamous Polar Bear from Coca-Cola!

Pseudo coke-can glass cups me and my mates bought as souvenirs.

Oh and before leaving the souvenir shop, we saw this poster that said "1.99 for a small surprise". So Alan and I both got one...

And jeez...

A pen...lol...but at least it has "Coca-Cola" and "Atlanta" on it, and the surprise pack is funky!

The 2 of us, trying to make a loser-ish situation cool =)

And something slutty to end the night!

Alright I was kidding (not about the slutty bit though, lol). That wasn't gonna be the last picture for today's entry.

TAKE THIS ALL OF YOU! THAT'S THE SECRET FOR AWESOME GPA!

One of the Thadii blogged at 1:00 PM.
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