i'm listenin to tony bennett and k.d. lang's multi-grammy winning album 'a wonderful world' for my saturday late night chillout. i never actually liked oldie jazz, but i admit, this is excellent stuff.

i just sent off my dad downstairs. hes goin to japan for a few days. he's gonna go to kagoshima first. hes having some sort of a reunion with all his university friends and professors. it seems like a grand gatherin of the glory days. all of his classmates are some sort of big shots now. most of them are deans of japanese universities or head of faculty of some sort. its only my dad that didnt go to the teachin profession. but i found out today that he's like the second in command of the whole asia pacific division. he handles sg, kl, hk, taiwan, manila, jakarta n bangkok division personally. i was like, whoa, tts so cool. even though he's second in command, he takes greater control and responsibility than the managing director of kyocera asia pacific. i guess the leadership thing runs through my blood then.

anyway, that made me start thinkin. few years down the road, i'll b travellin around for work too. i'm done schoolin already. uni is totally different stuff. work is another thin altogether. but its cool. i like travellin n if its gonna take me places, im more than willing. im lookin forward to these stuff.

n i hope there will be some sort of a reunion too for the SAJC ppl. u hear of proms n all, but we never actually hear of reunion in singapore. even if its not a school reunion, i hope there will b a clique reunion. its gonna b so cool. i hope there'll b one by the time i'm 30. i would hav finished graduate school, get myself a decent job, probably can get a nice house and a car by then (its so cheap to own em in US), hopefully married wit kids. tt would b fantastic. the guys here would hav finished NS by then, graduated from uni, got themselves work and all too. it'll b great to catch up on lost time.

im thinkin so much ahead. but it'll b like tt. although i get the general outline, i can never be sure wat ill b doin, where ill b at, etc. past few days happenings r like preparin me for the future. home owning, investments, finances, future planning, etc. im learnin stuff from my dad as well as cousins. i got a cousin in california, n he's doin quite well. relatively young age, annual pay is quite impressive, got himself a nice apartment n a cool merc. his colleagues r rather envious of him. i hope to emulate him in some way.

but america is a nasty place. laws govern every little thing. its the way of life, somehow. everyone has this idea of grand lifestlye that americans lead. its so not true. ive seen both the gd n the bad, i can honestly say, the gd we know only apply to a v small percentage. it would b challengin, but im gonna do it.

man, im thinkin so much of everythin, im forgettin wats ahead. its pretty much understood a levels doesnt matter anymore. but im gonna hav to complete it first anyway. so here are the 17 schools that made it to my final shortlisting. usually 8 is more than enough, if selected properly, but im not taking any chances. besides, more schools, more acceptance chances, more flexibility in choice too. when i receive the acceptance/rejection letter in april, i can consider everythin n make my final decision. so heres the list;

University of Pennsylvania
Cornell University
University of California - Berkeley
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of California - Los Angeles
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
University of Southern California
University of Wisconsin - Madison
University of California - San Diego
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Pennsylvania State University - University Park
University of Texas - Austin
Purdue University - West Lafayette
Marquette University
University of Massachusetts - Amherst

yea.. most of them are in eastern united states but frankly, location doesnt matter much to me. anywhere would b new environment for me. if i happen to go to lower ranked school, well, i guess it works to my advantage, mayb less competition so i might hav better chance to doin well n all. but of cuz, if i start off well, its gonna end well too.

yea its real excitin for me now. but lotsa thoughts are occupyin me. better hold it for 12 more days. tts when i hav to go all out of college stuff.

junli briefly food chem today. i always wanted to do environmental chem, coz the processes make more sense to me n its more my type of stuff. but considerin the lack of time and familiarity, im left wit no choice but to do food chem now. i mean, i'll do environmental if i hav the time to look it through, but ill prepare for food chem in the mean time. junli's gone through the stuff in detail, so the rest is up to me, to remember stuff n learn. thanx junz for takin ur time off to teach me! really appreciate it!

junwen came not too much later. we talked bt a lot of stuff as usual. i juz love the company of the two, weve talked abt almost anythin for the past two years and its really been great. even though junli n i r so busy wit our stuff n apart in terms of sch, wit junwen bein away in aussie previously n now in ns, we still manage to get together quite regularly. its juz amazin. this is wat u call strong bond of friendship. we would hav been able to spend so much time together once all these exams r over n all, but its real pity i would hav to leave em soon. its juz sad that things has to turn out this way, really. it happened rather late and its endin so soon. i wonder how the future will turn out for all of us.

n i juz start to wonder how everyone will lead their lives. it'll definately be interestin.

see wat schless, soccerless sat nite does to my mind. haha. but all these r gd thoughts. i cant put the rest of my thoughts coz those r rather private thoughts bt my own life. bt my love life, goals and stuff. im not sure if im ready to type all those stuff here yet. coz its still undecided kinda thing. hopefully it works out. itll b all sweet n all. it either happens or doesnt.

alrite then, i think tts enough for one day. im exhausted.

n the CD juz ends. tt was a gd companion. k this is one cd i would recommend to everyone then. jazz's cool.