cherry.

cherry blossoms at the UW campus

april 2007

seattle, washington

it's the time of the year where the cherry blossoms bloom everywhere. here a different species bloom, and though they aren't the sakura, they are beautiful nonetheless.

today i drove along bedok road on my way home (after detouring to get starbucks), and was so amazed to see the entire road lined with cherry blossom petals that fell during the rain.

i'm reminded of 2 things. how much i miss seattle, and how beautiful God's creations are. :)

engineering consent.

immunology quiz was a terror. it felt as though it was the actual exams already. and the count-down timer edward wrote on the resource room white board is starting to freak me out. 21 days to my first paper and i barely touched the lectures other than immunology.

welcome to year 4.

just this afternoon i peeked at this girl using the resource room computer and surfing a very familiar website. and i realized it was the university of washington school of medicine website.

she was finding subjects to do subject-matching!

well that certainly brought back a huge flood of memories of a year ago. where i was fretting over my insane 6-module-workload and exams, visa applications, MOE things, air tickets, accomm stuff. and i thought about everything i went through for the sake of my exchange, and everything i gave up for. somehow on hindsight now, it seemed like things could have been very different if i had stayed. or they may have been exactly the way they turned out to be.

it's common knowledge that things we do have repercussions. things we say too (today's incident involving my gd girlfriend and another friend of ours is a good example of that). my exchange has taught me so many things, and given me memories which i'd treasure for life, and opened my narrow-minded mind to so many cultures and places and perspectives. but there's always the sacrifices we make. the times i lost with my loved ones. the things i could have done as WSC's vice-president. the worrying that my family went through would be greatly reduced.

shoulda, woulda, coulda. why does "on hindsight" make it so much more difficult to move on?

anyway, i keep lamenting about how much fun i had in US studying. and for old time's sake i like to read through the things i've learnt or the work that i did over at UW. (: here is an example.

~

Qn: Discuss the origins of and the key figures behind the philosophy of "engineering consent". What is the underlying view of the public in this philosophy, and what are the best arguments for and against engineering consent in a democracy?

The key figures behind the philosophy of "engineering consent" are Sigmund Freud, Walter Lippmann and Edward L. Bernays. The origins of this philosophy came mainly from Freud's psychoanalysis of the human mind and the human condition. Lippmann and Bernays then concluded that the public opinion is not rational (as though in previous decades) and cannot be swayed using facts or reasoned arguments. hence the public can only be reached through its emotions, where images, symbols, stories that are relatable to the public and are able to stir up emotions. With these techniques, public opinion can then be engineered according to those who are able to come up with images that reach out to the public most effectively.

Engineering consent of the public restores order in a chaotic society. This is one advantage. It also puts the power in a selected group of people that have the knowledge and ability to engineer consent in a way that is "best" for the society, rather than let the power run in the hands of the middle class, who are irrational and uninformed, and hence incapable of making wise decisions. This is the argument put forth by democratic realists.

However, from a democracy standpoint, the philosophy of engineering consent is no longer democracy, because the power and rights are no longer in the hands of the masses, but the elite few who hold the power to sway public opinion.

~

you know i wouldn't rule out going to grad school after my bond ends and study communications or political science or something. i did get the best grade for this class on media, society and political identity, better than all of my other subjects i took. even in singapore. haha.

now it's back to the science. which i love learning it, but certainly not the memorizing part.

ferries and islands.

here we continue. on the ferryboat we arrived on bainbridge island 30 minutes away. lots of people who work in seattle live here. so they commute by ferry everyday.

bainbridge island is your typical idyllic island-small town. it's small, quiet, charming and amazingly beautiful.




the beautiful flowers blooming.

jiejie in a corner.

the sun sets and the shadow is cast.


on the way back to seattle. it was already 8pm and the sun begins to set.


one of my favorite pictures. i remember this funny scene where all 3 of us saw the sail boat coming by and we were like "quick quick! take the boat and the sunset!!"

the fluffy light pink mt. rainier.

the sun slips beneath the mountains. ready to peer out in singapore. oh it's actually already out in sg!


i like the trail that the boat leaves behind. it's just like the cloudy trail that the planes make in the sky. our footsteps in the sand. our past in the making.

hokay after that we hopped onto a cab and went to this nice brewery cum pub cum restaurant to eat seafood! it was yummy. =)

on wednesday i met the sisters after class to show them around my campus and yes my tiny miserable room. then took them onto the ave just a stone's throw away and my 2nd sis went mad. she loves it. all the vintage stuff and clothes and the university of washington sweaters.

this is my 2nd sis taking off her boots and wading in the cold water of lake union.

after walking around we headed downtown to catch hiromi, this unbelievable, girl-with-fastest-fingers, talented japanese girl who is so petite but packs SO much power in her piano playing. without score. and with a band. it was out of this world and i like her. i have a recording of her playing a jazzed version of "sakura" and the hairs on our hands stood. literally. she's the girl on the far left, behind the piano.

i shall steal the picture of us and hiromi from my sister's flickr. next time!

random: one huge box of strawberries make me happy. and i mean a HUGE box. not the usual punnets that you buy from NTUC.

ok now on thursday we went outlet shopping! and that's pretty much what we did. =)

then on friday we went to san juan islands to whale watch! it was fun and exciting and really memorable. i can fondly recall the days of watching free willy.

on the ferryboat from anacortes ferry terminal to san juan islands. it's an archipelago of islands and we're headed to friday harbor, which UW also has a research facility there. for marine biology/oceanography/geography studies etc. how cool is that.

spot the sister/drama queen.

the cars are on the boat!

just islands and more islands. beautiful.

3 of us again. it was cold cos of the strong winds at the bow.




a peak of friday harbor as the ferryboat pulled into the harbor. small quiet town, but more bustling than bainbridge.


we visited a lavendar farm! complete with outdoor sculptures! =) very pretty. and just touching the lavendar leaves was enough to make my fingers smell of lavendar.

favorite shot of the day. =)


pie = 3.142
spot the sister.

lavendar shrubs that only bloom in july. sigh.

here the bees are out and about grabbing their nectar. i took this shot and immediately ran for the tiny house that sells the lavendar stuff. bees freak me out.

okok. next time i'll kope pictures from my sister plus whale watching pictures plus some of the pictures from the weekend with gerri and her family.

school's driving my nuts by the way. just finished one paper and one presentation today. i have 100+ pages of reading to do, a project report+presentation to do, one more paper, and 2 final take-home exams. oh not to mention trying to absorb every sight of seattle, packing woes, booking accommodation for summer and planning the trip. looks like i'll only have time to plan during my plane ride.

argh.

(niagara) falls in love.

spring break part II.

we flew from new york's JFK airport to buffalo. the flight was only 45 minutes. like sg-KL flight. we flew within the new york state lah. that's how big america is. so at buffalo, we took a public bus to the bus station, hopped onto one of the greyhound buses to bring us to niagara falls, ontario in canada. research has shown that the american side of the falls is not very nice to see. so taking lonely planet's advice, we headed straight for the canada side. we checked into a nice hotel which is very cheap, like USD33 a night. then after dumping our bags we headed for the falls.

this is the american falls. the water is flowing from the america side and falling onto the border divding america and canada. and near to the bottom of the falls, were icebergs. the water hasn't quite melted yet. but the falls were all liquid so it was alright. and it was cold! you can see, if my beanie is out, it means it's cold. but the sun was nice. =)

the niagara falls, ontario skyline. see the canada side is more happening. most are hotels. and you see some observatory tower with a revolving restaurant. the usual.

american falls. the tree is still bare. winter lingers.

the horseshoe falls! it's much more magnificent and grand. this is the captivating one. it's where 9 million litres of water is dumped into the river every second. that's a whole lot of water. in summer there's evem more water dumped per second. i haven't figured out why yet. you can just see the cloud of water vapor that resulted from the impact of the falling water.

amazing amazing. if someone were to fall into the water, that's it. i think there's only one known person to have survived a fall.

princess diana, william and harry visited the falls! i was so excited. haha and coincidentally i read a People magazine article about how everyone's speculating that prince william is gonna propose to his girlfriend soon! =)

this is a tunnel that they dug through the rock behind the falls. it's quite a neat piece of engineering. we could see the water falling in front of us. okay we were supposed to see it. but because that little part where you can see, the water was frozen, all we saw was ice.

near to the bottom of the falls there's this observatory deck. and we saw 3 rainbows! =) very pretty. although it wasn't a complete arc.

the view of the horseshoe falls from the bottom. complete with icicles.

jieying, linda and me at the falls with the rainbow!

the next day we packed up and left niagara falls. there wasn't much to do, as expected because it was winter. all the attractions will open up in spring/summer. on the way back to buffalo the view was amazing. canada really has a LOT of land of unspoilt beauty.

buffalo city. it looks like any other city in US. it looks a little like downtown seattle too! haha.

alright, got tons of readings to do. as in really a lot. i'm only taking one biology subject, which is a genetics seminar taught by this brilliant but a bit senile professor. the other 3 subjects aren't really biology. one deals with the philosophy of science and truth, which is really fascinating and thought-provoking. another one is a match to a core back in SBS, on human resource management. and the last one is just an elective, and the toughest of the lot. media, society and political identity. i think i must be crazy to take this class, 'cos it's for political science majors and communications majors. and i'm neither. and it's a level 300 class. but i will press on! it was SO interesting and such a good break away from biology that i couldn't resist.

the flowers are blooming! now i get so much joy from snapping pictures all around campus. i think people would think i'm nuts. i'll post the pretty flower pics soon. =)

okok. my human resource readings await. everyone take care!

the power of N series.

ok. long time no update. midterm madness is in progress. had 2 midterms last week in the midst of my sickness. but still managed to do surprisingly well. although i don't know how the class did, but i'm happy with my grades. now i have one lab exam and one final take-home exam paper to conquer. but first, pictures taken with the nokia N73. so the quality is not as good as the lumix. but still good. =)

the microbe toys! edward this is for you! haha. this is the school of medicine bookstore, where i buy my textbooks.

the legendary gray's anatomy, where the inspiration for grey's anatomy came from. i just watched the episode on tv! it was good! but last week's was better. trailer for next week's episode looks smashing. can't wait. and lost will return on wednesday! i'm so excited.

the view from the south campus center next to my school, overlooking the lake.

the 1st snow fall! outside the grocery store. it's a bad photo but the only important thing is the snow on my hair. heh.

the quad. this is UW's version of the quad when dusk fell. it's beautiful. compared to NTU's quad. we had very clear days nowadays with the bright sun and cloudless skies. so students are starting to bring their picnic mats and lounging and basking in the sun, studying or reading.

the trees that line the perimeter of the quad. i have a sneaky feeling these are the cherry blossom trees. but gotta wait for spring. scroll down for a sneak preview.

snoqualmie pics. this was taken at the bottom of the tubing slope. where i didn't have my lumix. so whipped out the handphone from my pocket. you can see the lanes where the tubes go down.

dan and xander. posted this because xander looks so cute sitting in the tube and his eyes are barely open. =)

linda and me. with our tubing passes. waiting for the tube lift up the slope. i'm going back to snoqualmie this saturday with gerri dan and the kids again! yayyy.

japanese food for dinner one night! it was quite nice (not as nice as in tokyo of course) and cheap too! here you have the katsu donburi (? is that the name?). katsu don with omelette.

sorry wrong orientation. here you have the tempura soba! =)

on the way back home from fred hutchinson cancer research center. the sun sets over the space needle. see if you can spot it among the tangle of electric cables.

pretty flowers that look like cherry blossoms to me but i have no idea. anyone can confirm? there's only this one tree that blooms this beautiful pink flowers in front of the clinic.

here's the tree. =) love pretty flowers.

speaking of pretty flowers, this flower caught my attention as i was walking out of fred hutchinson today. it's so weird but yet quite nice. and it looks like cloves of garlic.

the sunset today was beautiful too. couldn't resist. this is the courtyard of one of the hutch buildings.

the marina opposite the hutch. this is lake union. the sun falls below the horizon behind the space needle. it was beautiful. i purposely walked to the marina after my class ended to take pictures and admire the scenery.



the lake. just on tuesday i saw a sea-plane land onto the waters of the lake. so cool.


the fred hutchinson cancer research center. from the marina opposite.


space needle zoomed in.


the sky is turning pink. and the sun is starting to set later and later. meaning winter is slipping away. yay!


the boats are lined up. i wonder if i can try fly-fishing. but that will have to wait till spring. i can't wait for spring to come! so many things to do. =)


and it slips away slowly. i was sitting on the bench, just looking out at the water. i like times like these. because i know that i'm stopping to smell the roses. sometimes people forget how beautiful this world is.

from seattle, with love. =)