12 girls band

I spent my formative teen years in a relatively well-known cheena school in the eastern part of Singapore. It was a place where I spent 4 long years (even longer than the time I took to get my Bachelors degree) and have a love-hate relationship with.

One thing that has stuck in my mind all these years since leaving the school is relating all Chinese orchestral pieces to DHS. Afterall, those years were the first time I was exposed to the CO, and DHSCO was perhaps the most high profile ECA then at the school winning a large number of external awards and performing widely and regularly. It was the epitome of the school's "chinese" character, and in many ways its face to the public.

But I digress. I just want to say I like the music by 12 girls band. It brings back a flood of memories of sitting under the 木麻黄, watching/partaking in volleyball, basketball games while the background was filled with the sounds of my schoolmates plucking the various stringed instruments, blowing the flutes or hitting the drums. It wasn't the kind of pleasant harmony one would hear in a concert, but rather a discordant noisy mixture. And I actually grew to like that.

Icy Igloo; Girl and her guitar

It was unseasonably warm here when I arrived almost two weeks ago. My friend picked me up from the airport in T-shirt and berms. Imagine that! In Jan! Maybe Mother Nature realized this belatedly and this weekend saw the first significant snowfall for this region this year. Temperatures dipped well below freezing; even the area newscasters admitted the weather is unusually frigid.

This, plus the fact that the central heater for the dwelling has broken down, means that I have been reduced to living an Eskimo's lifestyle in my house. The space heater I have unfortunately is only good enough for my bedroom; even at maximum heat setting I go to sleep wearing 3 layers of clothes and under 2 layers of blankets, one of which a comforter.

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New tenants have moved in to the unit below mine. For the last two nights a girl was singing and strumming the guitar. I don't know who she is, but her music made me sleepy. It has been almost TWO years since someone last had that effect on me.

Stanford's Parody of Harvard's Econs; Aqua Harp; H1-B Quota

Taken from Greg Mankiw's blog - Stanford econs students' parody of Harvard's 2006 recruitment ad.

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Animusic's Aqua Harp reminded me of my childhood teens' visits the Singapore Science Center's planetarium. You know, the kind of music they would play while you waited for the show to start.

The background of the MV fits too - ...a serene setting -- a cross between a water garden and a planetarium.

The first thing that caught my eye was the visible harmonics on the harp.

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Lottery for the H1-Bs. This is just getting so crazy.

Points to note - 1. Students who have Masters or Doctorate degrees from US institutions are eligible for a further quota of 20,000.

2. Institutes of higher education and research (e.g Universities, research labs); Related or affiliated nonprofit entity; or Nonprofit or government research organizations are NOT subjected to the H1-B hiring cap.

3. Singapore citizens are eligible to file for the H1-B1 visa, which has its own 5,400 (separate) quota. The H1-B1 however does not allow you to apply for a green card.

Edit (8 Apr): Peishan's case.