Samomatic

After our last failure with KimChi’s diet we have to tackle the matter from another angle. Here he is sun-tanning himself after a nice meal.

So instead of cutting his calorie intake we have devised a workout plan for him. Now he has to work for his food in the form of push-ups and chin-ups. But alas we got out-smarted by the turtle again when he realized there are steps leading to the food and grinned at us triumphantly….

Exam time, I will write more when I am free!

So a while ago, we realized that Kimchi is getting fat. AJung performed the fat test (see if his can fit all his legs into the shell) and Kimchi failed spectacularly.

The instructions on the turtle food container suggested “Feed as much as the turtle can consume for 15minutes.” Well Kimchi can probably finish the entire container in 15minutes. When he is not eating he hugs the water heater and dozes off.

Being very clever engineers and a little bored from studying we designed a ‘motivational’ exercise machine for Kimchi.

The problem is that Kimchi also likes to jump off tables so we ended up doing more exercise to prevent him from committing suicide.

Once we put him back in the water he quickly figured out how to get his food. Back to the drawing board again!

As a very small country measuring 42 by 23 km in size, high ranking Singapore government officials are better paid than president of the USA. Its government has very high decision making power but does not abuse the power, the corruption rate is one of the world’s lowest.

Their subway, known as the MRT, is extremely well planned out and thus owning a car is not necessary. The public washrooms are extremely clean, though there is a fee of 10cents and I wonder if they lose money hiring someone to collect the fees.

I had the chance to meet Frank and Luke, fellow Pentaxians I met online. They were very kind and showed me the local Singaporean lifestyle and sights which added so much more to the overall trip. Frank decided to shoot film for the day, it was interesting to hear him worry about running out of film. :D

This is Sentosa, a resort island connected to Singapore, containing many of the key tourist attractions. Shuttle buses provide the connections between the different attractions on the island.

Underwater World, visitors can walk through an underwater tunnel.

Apparently built-in cellphone cameras are not replacing the digital point & shoot cameras, though I doubt it is any use inside an aquarium.

Next up was the Dolphin Lagoon show. The late comers sat in the sandy area in front of the chairs but some of them would not sit down and was quite annoying and unfair to the others.

I wonder how much power they can output in order to leap out of the water.

Outdoor Jazz performance, food, sunset. Not bad.

The Jurong Bird Park. The tropical climate allow them to house a wide variety of species.

But by far the best thing in Singapore are the people. The crime-rate is very low so the people are warmer toward each other and it is a joy just to walk around the street and see the different cultures and colorful shops.

Probably due to the diverse mix of people in Singapore the people are very accepting toward other ethic groups and English can be understood everywhere.

Their smiles are so beautiful and so genuine. They don’t seem very rushed and would usually strike up short conversations.

Overall it was a fanastic trip and I met a lot of cool people along the way!

Crunch time: 2 down, 3 more to go.
Yesterday after the exam Steve, AJung, and I went to Waterloo Park to feed the ducks.

We saw a seagull got its butt kicked by a mother duck because it got too close to the little ducklings.

Then we saw a snapping turtle in the water! It has algae all over its back and ll the other birds stayed a safe distance away. Steve was contemplating reaching down and grabbing it out of the water…

A bit of old news but our class Frisbee team are the Champions for the Campus Rec Advance Division!! It was an awesome season and some of the highlights were our ‘bus’, flying-V formations, and mercying Grebel.