Clarity

Chrystal Clear moments like this deserve Four Million Smiles. See our mugshots via the link. Won't regret it. Enough said. -Editor

Missionaire Natione Building

Since we're all pretty much steeped in Singapore politics/society, etc. I will now embark to inculcate a sense of national pride in our ffloosh members.

Like the local press which claims anyone/thing that is even remotely connected to us as our national pride and joy, so shall I bring to you news of Singapore in the eyes of the foreign alternative media!

And so...

We're on Boing Boing, which ridicules Singapore's Intelligent Nation 2015 program! Boing Boing is a very popular site that lets you in on the most interesting things happening in the world that you didn't even know you knew you wanted to know!

Boing Boing referenced it from someone who got it from C|Net's News.com, in this article.

I think this might help some of you who are in the 108 class, cause there are some things here to do with Technology and Singapore's plans for digitizing every damn thing.

Another site one should visit is the Reporters Without Borders' site. Considering how much we've heard about these people, don't you think it's time for us to find out exactly what the hell they do? Plus, they ranked us really low in the Press Freedom thingy, so go to their site and think on the issues or something.

No 4th Estates,
Ed.

Academia Mac

I was surfing around Lifehacker and I came across this link for College Mac users. Mac programs most useful to college students are recommended. The best thing about this article is that most of the programs are free downloads, so get them and free up more time for FFLOOSHING!

Hope it helps,
Ed.

more food.

now now...i see a number of food posts alr but they are all on this side of the school i.e the ntu side...if u are the 'adventurous type' who doesnt mind 'going the distance' and 'explore the undiscovered', then may i suggest this to you. go to hall 14. they have good canteen food. though it may sound far but i dun think it hurts to jus hope onto shuttle bus C, go for a ride and get there. i've travelled all the way there for bout 4 or 5 times alr cos the food jus makes me wanna go back for more. haha. n i've introduced it to several ppl and they too, have given thumbs up. =)

so, wad's good there? the jap food and the ban mian stall. =) haven tried the other stalls there namely the za cai fan stall n some other stall that sells the xiao wan mian thingy. these 2 other stalls look not too bad as well. ok, back to the jap food. the prices there range from 2.80 for fillet don to 3.50 for things like smoked salmon and SOFT SHELL CRAB don. yup. i cant rmb if there's anythin with higher price but most things are 3 bucks lah. dun worry that they might shortchange u cos the portion is actually quite big, u will be full but the thin is, u have to be prepared to wait cos sometimes it takes realli long but the wait will be worth it lah. my suggestion is that u go during lunch rather than dinner.n oh, they have ramen too but i think the rice is better lah.

n the ban mian stall..it's 2 bucks a bowl n i think the standard of it is quite decent too. haha. they have guo tie, i.e fried dumplings which are nice too cos the skin is realli crispy n phoebs found out one day that they have sesame seeds in there which prob adds to the fragrance lah.

anyway, these 2 stalls are actually the ones that the chronicle recommended as well so if u r doubting what they write in there, then let me tell u, they actually got it rite, at least for this hall canteen 14. =) go try!

Making The Band

Feel the energy surge within your fingers, itching to bang a few toms or strike a few strings? Ever wanted to make the music you always loved? (That didn' quite work, did it?)

WANTED: BASSIST/GUITARIST/MALE VOCALIST

Ok we are just a casual bunch of people who want to jam in our free time. It's me(Daniel), Angeleigh and Daphne and we need one or two pple more. We play anything from lounge to jazzy tunes to lounge and jazzy tunes. And a bit of alternative(rock only if we can get a good male vocalist). But the most important thing is to have fun! So anyone interested just stop anyone of us, say hi and we'll jam as soon as possible! We don't need a drummer and keyboardist cos, as it stands,

Drums: Daphne
Vocals/Keyboard: Angeleigh
Bass/Guitar: Daniel
Vocals/Guitar: Justin

Oh and if you're the kind who guest-plays for Sum41/Coldplay/big band when they come to Singapore, uhh, we are out of your league. We're just hobbyists. So have fun and have a great week ahead!!

P.S. Oh i always liked unagi, so hooray for 3.50 a pop here in the canteen, whee!! spiffy.

Shannon Speaks.

Just to answer a few lil questions posed by our dearest editor.



DINNER & DANCE

The annual CS Dinner & Dance (DnD) will be held at Coco Latte this year, on the 27th September 2006. Most of you should know by now that the theme's Hollywood Shit Chic, and tickets are priced at 25 bucks each. I distinctly remembered the organisers promising a discount of 3 bucks (a whooping 12%) first during the camp, but i guess that didn't entice many people to sign up. The discount rolled over to the homecoming bazaar, where i spotted a sign which states the same 3 dollar discount for the first 50 dudes or lasses that sign up. I spoke to the chairperson of DnD to ask if we could sign up at a later date, i understood from her that only 'ten plus people has signed up so far'. Ummm. And she promised me that 'we could work out something regarding the price' if i bought tickets from her at a later date.

So people, do your math, arrive at your own conclusion and make a decision. I think for 25 bucks, there might be some alternatives.




FOOD REVIEWS

Canteen A

The only canteen with a calorie & trans-fat laden fastfood outlet, this canteen actually serves pretty decent food. Avoid this canteen from 12 to 2, it'll be virtually impossible to find any seats within 5 minutes of your arrival. Extend that to 15 minutes if you don't try to run shamelessly across the canteen, shotput your bag onto the seat that someone barely vacated 10 seconds ago, or make a big scene over your fellow seat-contender from the business faculty.

A few worthy mentions:

- The japanese food store is probably the most popular store around, though my friend has mentioned that it's 'japanese food cooked in chinese style'. They serve excellent chicken katsu don and unagi don (at three dollars & 3.50 respectively), though the chicken katsu curry would taste loads better if the curry was thicker and warmer.

- The western food store is believed to be good. But i beg to differ. I think the only edible stuff there is the chicken cutlet. Don't ever try the fish and chips.

- Canteen A boasts the biggest fruit stall in the entire NTU, and they've got very affordable fruits and fruit juices, coming from as cheap at a dollar for the more common juices such as watermelon and honeydew (i think) juices. The fruits are fresh, though you've gotta take a chance with it's sweetness. I've tasted totally bland watermelon before, but i guess at these prices you have to take a chance.

- One point to note, canteen A actually sells cheaper can drinks than canteen b. Go check it out.

Canteen 16

- Being one of the two canteens nearest to my hall (the other being canteen 13), i went there quite a couple of times already. The place's new and nice, complete with aircon and feels like a food court. The drink stall actually serves ice-blended drinks at a little over a dollar in a really nice tall glass, so i guess it'll be worth going over to take a look and a drink when you guys have the time. (Of course, you can always pop by blk 3a to visit me as well.)

- The 'zi char' is touted as one of the better ones in NTU. I tried the beef hor fun once, and i found it pretty bland though. Too oily, but they actually did away with the MSG. So frankly, i don't know if it's healthy or not. Maybe someone could try the 'zi char' dishes and tell me more.





That's all, i guess. Mom's nagging for me to go. Cya.

Shoo-shoo Shakin'

Hello everyone!

When you see that no one seems to be posting, please start posting something. Be it to inform others of some secret shortcut to LT11 or maybe some cheap textbook lobang, just write anything okay?

Anyway, for you guys who don't already know, some of us meet at the Hall 4 bus stop (opp. side, bus route C) in the mornings before school. We meet half-an-hour before the lecture/tutorial begins. So if you're living in the area and would like some company, feel free to walk down to meet us. Cool stuff. Moving on.

NAH, BOOKS.

I've got the following books in my room for loan:
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Mammon Inc. by Hwee Hwee Tan
Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Mister God, This Is Anna by Fynn
Blink by Malcolm Galdwell
Love's Labour Lost by William Shakespeare
Southeast Asia, A Modern History by Nicholas Tarling

Feel free to come by my room, Hall One Blk 18 Room 2-290, and borrow whatever you want.

THE HALL ROOM PARTY

Another matter would be that of The FFLoosh Hall Room Party!!!!!!! (scream this out in adherence to the number of exclamation marks.

It's gonna be happening on Monday night, the 21st of August 2006, in my room (see above) and what we will be doing is ordering food in for a movie screening. The choice of movie will be decided upon the suggestions I get from you guys on the tag board. Tell me what you want to watch! I'll see if I can rent it from Video Ezy. My current choice would be V for Vendetta, but if I can't get that then maybe it'll be Sin City. Tell me, tell me.

The party is mainly for the August babies, Layming and Daena, so they'll be guest of honours and will have to attend this little get together. Cool? You guys can arrange a cake for them and all.

*please remember to bring some money so that we can all share and pay for the pizzas. This party begins @ 8 pm sharp. Beer will be served. I think. I'll get back to you on that, isn't this little note so fracking cool?

FFLOOSH OPERATION: DAY WATCH

How many of you have photos from the first day of school? Would you mind doing an upload of these photos? I'd like to see what we were up to on the first day. It was pretty fun, what with some people overdressed to kill and all.

FOOD CRITICS NEEDED

For here. I need you guys to begin posting on what's nice to eat in all the different canteens, especially those of you who have been more daring in trying everything. Just do a normal post with all the interesting little bits.

I shall go first to start the ball rolling!

Canteen B
- has bloody disgusting western food stall selling the worst pasta I've ever had in my entire life. This is agreed upon by both Daniel and myself. As he put it, it's eating puree. I agree completely.
- has a pretty decent Malay food stall. The beef rendang is not bad and the chicken's so-so.
- has a cool drink stall system that involves taking the styrofoam cup, filling it with the drink of your choice and paying for it at the end of the u-turn.
- has a fruit stall that makes not bad sugarcane and orange juice. Not fantastic, but not bad.
- has a yong tau foo stall that Cheryl shall comment more on.

Hall Canteen 4
- has only one shop. It's more like a restaurant really.
- makes you choose your drink on one side, and pay on the opposite end, no u-turns and what-nots.
- serves Chinese assorted dishes (zhi-cha), with the same vegetables served in the same way on each and every dish you order. Personal favourite is the Black Pepper Pork Rice or something like that.
- serves a dismal range of fruit. It's not really a range, more like watermelon. Don't buy the fruit. Stick to the drinks. Not too bad Nescafe machine makes the coffee you need (and love).
- serves soups! Like thsoe double-boiled soup thingies you get in Crystal Jade. Don't know about the taste. Never tried, but they look nice, hot and tasty on the other end of the glass.
- Is very dingy. But cosy in some weird way. Hall 4's technically a prison, all the rooms are so cramped and confining.

Hall Canteen 2
- is where some of us went to today to try the waffles.
- has waffles that take very long to be prepared.
- they didn't taste super-good, the peanut butter in mine didn't even get warm from the freshly-made waffle. Something's wrong with that waffle.
- also has prata, but according to one of our newest ffloosh members (Phoebe - almost spelt it Phobe just now and the first thing that came to mind was homo) the guy making it is damn lor-sor.
- has not bad authentic kaya toasts and teh tarik makers.

Hall Canteen 1
- has a variety of choices like hall canteen 2.
- has $3.50 Black Pepper Steak which I did not try but was amazed to find.
- has a not-too sloppy laksa from the noodle shop
- where the auntie was damn kan cheong I felt bad for her.
- needs more input from Cheryl who tried the noodles.

And I think that's about all the places I feel like talking about tonight. Or morning. My eye bags are getting damn bad. I need to watch Battlestar Galatica before I sleep too. So off I go.

Tingyi, remember what you were supposed to blog about!

Dearest little Char Bee Hoon, please take care of yourself. I've made a recording of Winnie The Pooh's performance from earlier tonight so you can see hear how they performed. Okay? Stay safe eh? - from All-of-Us @ Ffloosh!

Are any of you going for Dinner & Dance? Anyone paid to go for it already? Could you let the rest of us know how much it is for a ticket and does anyone think that maybe we shouldn't go for it but have our own outing instead? I feel like going for Papparazzi, if for anything to maybe show some support for our friends and fflooshers acting in it, people like Johnson and Scott for example. Leave a post everyone!

Till I Next Find Time,
Ed.

Internet Withdrawal

I am very frustrated with my hall room because there is no internet connection on my computer. The wire or port is faulty. I am using Faiz's computer which, using the LAN cable my sis lent me, is able to access the net. Thank God for nice roomates who are willing to share.

For those who are living in hall but still can't get their internet up, please follow these steps:
1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Under "Tools", select "Internet Options"
3. Select the "Connections" tab.
4. Go to "LAN Settings"
5. Deselect the first and third box. Select the second
6. Type into the address space http://www.ntu.edu.sg/proxy.pac

You should get the internet up and running. Of course, considering that you do not have an internet connection, this probably means that you will not be able to read this. Oh well.

I will see you guys in school!
Erwin Nah

The Answer is 42.

Here's a little reminder:

1. Remember to check your edventure email box for the announcements.
2. Don't panic.
3. Remember to bring your cameras for FO:DW
4. If you wanna know about the computers you can get from school, go here
5. My birthday's on the 22nd of August. I think Daena's is some time this month as well.
6. You can visit me in my dorm/hostel/bunk room tonight around 8 pm or so. If there's a large enough mob, we can begin visiting other fflooshers and culminate in a mass party at Nanyang Lake.
7. Or just supper.
8. Slippers are very important. Remember your slippers.
9. Bring your chargers.
10. Wake up for school. Or not.

Call me anytime of the day if you need any help of any sort. I've already been enlisted as a beetle catcher, so if there's anything you need at all, if I can help you, I will. Don't be shy. But don't be shameless either. Cool?

Take a Slow Dance,
Erwin Nah

we are going out on the 4th.

Hey people!

the matriculation period has started. you can now matriculate online at http://www.ntu.edu.sg/oas/matriculation/ if you haven't. i am sure some of the kiasu people were already camping in front of their computer screens at 9:59am, waiting for the second hand to strike twelve. but well, for the rest of you who haven't matriculated, then erm... i guess you are just not too eager to start school... =)

but anyway, here's to let you know that the flock has been separated into 2 groups. meaning there will be 2 groups of us taking different subjects in this coming semester, the common subjects being only CS101 and 102. whichever group you belong to, i just hope that you will be fortunate enough to end up in a tutorial group with someone you know at least. or some of you may count it a misfortune. or maybe that's not so important, because in my case, i have just found myself having to come to school on tuesday and thurday just for 1-hr tutorials each on both days. and mind you, i don't stay in hall. which makes travelling time thrice the time i spend in school. which doesn't really sound very sound. but yah... in any case, i just hope that you have gotten a timetable to your liking. or just be contented for that very matter. haha.

ok, i shall come to the point of this post. what are we going to do on the 4th? ok... i hope no one's asking, "are we going to do something on the 4th?" because i assure you, we are! haha. please... i was just thinking, if most of us are going for the welcome ceremony (which is one of those useless things that you thought wouldn't hurt to attend), then most of us will only be out at 530pm. so i suppose we could go for dinner already. (look, i do have common sense) but the thing is where? i suggest we could go to some places nearby to have dinner... because i am pretty (yah, pretty means not ugly and ugly means not pretty) sick of town. ok, if you don't understand the joke there, it's ok. anyway, i think going to some hawker centres or coffeeshops in boon lay area isn't a bad idea. but if there's overwhelming response for town, then town it shall be. since i think some people cannot survive without aircon. but we need to at least decide where to go. and then go! and please try to go. everyone! =) family dinner is not an excuse. neither is a date with whoever one. if you really have to, i am sure we wouldn't mind having dinner with your family or your whoever. =) although i do not guarantee that it will be a peaceful dinner. haha.

ok, how about let's all tag our opinions.

first thing: if you are in the group taking CS101/2/4/6 and 816, you are in grp A. and if you are taking CS101/2/7/8/11, then you are grp B.

second thing: suggest a place to go for dinner on the 4th after school.

third thing: suggest something to do other than dinner if any.

so for example, my tag will go like this: A. jurong/boon lay. nil.

ok, that's about all. oh, and for the Apple thing, i have been trying to contact her, albeit unsuccessfully. so i will keep trying and let you guys know again.

see you guys on friday,
Ting Yi

of 4th august and matriculation

eve and i have made plans for 4th august already. we're meeting at 9.30am at the SCI building/bus stop (i cannot remember which one she stated for the life of me).

it's partially an act of kiasu-ism and partially because we want to nab potentially good back-row seats in the biggest LT in school. and because there'll be a ton of other people there too. people watching can be pretty therapeutic you know.

most of us should be going, yes? if that's the case just turn up and we'll sit together as one big happy ffloosh family.

oh and do remember to matriculate online between 10am-10pm. actually you already know this and it can be done on thursday and friday too. let's all hope for timetables that aren't so terrifying that they put us off school for the next four years.

personally, i am toying with the idea of being miss kiasu (as if i don't fit the bill already) and get online at 10am sharp to help cause a huge internet traffic jam on the ntu website. heh. we'll see about it.

well, i'll see you this friday then (: