2006 in review and 2007 resolutions

An important week coming up...with many results to be announced...the new year coming up and my final semester in NTU approaching..2006 simply flashed past...and lets look back on what I have done/achieved in 2006

1. Came back from 2 exchange programs...to become the first to finish the GIP triangle...sometimes I think back on the times when I was living in the US and China and everything seems to be like a dream...experiencing so much things in such a short time...living in these 2 countries has really been a milestone in my life.

2. Investments - 2006 is the first year that I started out in investing....stocks, unit trusts, forex, insurance etc....from a total idiot in investing to knowing how the market works, how to shop for the lowest charges and how to be a cool and calm investor..profits for the year stands at abt 10%..not bad for a first year...

3. FYP......topic is on stocks prediction...still on going and really gained lots of knowledge on the stock market and technical analysis by doing the project...progress is slow...lets hope I can finish it on time and get a decent grade...

4. Countries travelled in 2006...Hong Kong, Thailand....Both trips with my dear and they have been wonderful trips...particularly memorable was staying at the disney hotel in HK...really nice theme hotel where everything is Mickey shaped...haha...

5. Academic results....not a bad year in terms of academic results...but of course this could change in a few hrs time when the results for this sem will be released....

6. Family.....spent more time with my family in 2006 than in 2005...haha of cse...because I am back...finally will be moving back home in 2007 and there will be more time for my family...

7. Friends....Everyone seems really bz this year....but still had regular meetups for westlife, GLs, Hejia and Johnny and the drinking gang (Adrian/Guoxing/Hanxin)....Guess it's harder to meet up when some of my frenz have graduated and so bz with their work...well I am also guilty in abit lazy to organise outings..hehe...

8. My dear...2006 continues to be a colourful year for us....with 2 trips overseas and nice birthday celebrations...lots of nice memories....sorry for some small bickerings but guess that's normal with couples..hehe...2007 promises to be a better year!

9. Myself...think my living habits r not v good in 2006...continuing to have late nites...though better than in year 1 and 2 when I really slpt in the morning...on the lectures attendance front, tink 2006 is the year when I attended the most lectures...all thanks to motivation from my dear of cse..haha...lets hope I can keep it up for next sem...Think I ate too much in 2006...gained some weight...my mum keeps saying I am too fat every weekend when I get home...ok shall shed some pounds in 2007....

10. Almost forgot..hehe..got myself an x box and a new palmtop this year...=)

Think that's abt all for 2006...if I can remember den will update again....Now for 2007...what are my wishes n resolutions???

1. Do well for FYP/final sem and get a good honours.....
2. Go for a nice nice grad trip...I love travelling and I hope I can go for a nice grad trip b4 I start work....
3. Shed some pounds...hahah...
4. Get a job that I like and pays well b4 I graduate...
5. Good health for myself and all the people around me
6. Good returns on investment...though my horoscope tells me that my 'cai yun' for next year wont be too good...
7. Buy a car....if...and i mean if.....everything goes well this week....I will have a good chance for this...
8. hmm...get a few x box games?
9. Keep in touch with friends after graduation...
10. Keep my room clean/clear out all the rubbish in my room
11. No new year resolution is complete without food..hahah...being the glutton I am...2007 will be the same...wish to taste more good food!!
12. Lastly, achieve all of the above...haha

It's abit early for reviews and resolutions cos we still have a few days b4 2007...but juz blogging this so that I have time to fill in what I forgot...

My mood can turn to vvvvvvvvvv happy to vvvvvvvvvvv sad over the next few days as the results of my hard work start to unfold...the results from this sem seems to be less impt after what has happened over the next 3 weeks....I just hope everythin turns out the way I hope..Please happen for me!!!

Where sign language is far from foreign...

An article from New York Times sent by Guoxing...pretty interesting and meaningful...take a look:

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 22 — Waiters take orders using American Sign Language. Doctors’ offices are equipped with videophones that flash rather than ring. The latest movies are shown with captions.

Tucked in the western part of New York, Rochester is home to the nation’s largest deaf population per capita, with about 90,000 people who are deaf or hard of hearing living among the metropolitan area’s 700,000 residents. The city’s transformation began in 1968 with the opening of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

The community’s embracing of all things deaf has provided comfort to a city where many industries and young people have fled for more prosperous parts in recent years.

“What’s happening in Rochester today will influence the rest of the country years from now,” said Thomas Holcomb, a professor of deaf studies from Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif. “It’s on the frontier.”

It is here that the world of the deaf intersects the world of the hearing as in no other city.

“People outside Rochester know us for that,” said Maggie Brooks, the executive of Monroe County. “We’re proving ourselves as a leader.”

This was not always the case. When the institute was established here with the notion of offering the most mainstream environment possible, open not only to signers but to nonsigners alike, controversy swirled like snow in February off Lake Ontario.

“People were honestly scared,” Professor Holcomb, who is deaf, said through an interpreter. With signing at the root of the deaf culture, “they thought it would destroy everything we cherished, and the future of American Sign Language was in doubt,” he said.

Despite that initial concern, the student population here has grown from a few dozen in its first year to hundreds. What’s more, many have settled in the community. And that has attracted other deaf people with no connection to the college.

Francis Kimmes, who moved here in 1972, was born deaf to parents who were not, and for years struggled with a sense of isolation.

Mr. Kimmes, 60, knew only three other deaf people in his hometown, Niagara Falls, so he communicated with the world through a frustrating mix of lip reading and gesturing. But in Rochester he found he could make friends and lead an active life using his first real language, American Sign. He joined a Catholic church for the deaf, found work on the assembly line at Eastman Kodak, married, and raised two sons.

“I felt more free,” Mr. Kimmes said through an interpreter. “It hit me. It was powerful. I realized, there was no real life back there, where I was.”

As the deaf population has grown, the city has changed. T. Alan Hurwitz, dean of the institute, said he has noticed that in the last few years, the city has created more opportunities for deaf people to be part of the community.

“It’s everywhere you go,” Dr. Hurwitz said through an interpreter.

Three movie theaters show newly released films with captions. Nearly all of the high schools offer sign-language classes. The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester employs a deaf docent.

That can have a deep effect on newcomers.

“When I came to Rochester, people would attempt to sign; it was so neat,” said Lizzie Sorkin, 25, a senior at the college, and the first deaf student president of the entire Rochester Institute of Technology campus, which includes 15,000 hearing students and 1,200 deaf students at the institute. “I feel like I’m not deaf. I’m a person.”

In the last few years, there has also been an influx of deaf doctors, a rare comfort to patients who do not want to discuss their health in front of an interpreter. Dozens of other professionals, including real estate and insurance agents and bank officers — all of them either deaf or fluent in sign language — are part of the community.

“When I first moved here, I was shocked to see so many deaf people,” Alexandra Ling, 23, who came from the Boston area to attend the institute here, wrote in an e-mail message. “I decided to stay here because I felt really comfortable. People at stores and restaurants understand deafness, so there’s a lot less communication barriers even though they are hearing.”

When Spencer Phillips moved to this city three years ago, it was the end of a long and often difficult journey that had begun in a slippery backyard waterslide. Mr. Phillips was 7 when he fell and struck his head, and that night he lost most of his ability to hear.

As he grew up in Los Angeles, he knew he was different, though he did not consider himself deaf. That changed when at age 19, Mr. Phillips, a Mormon, chose to live among deaf adults and learn sign language for a two-year-ministry project.

“I realized it was part of who I was, too,” he said recently.

He was 27 and finishing law school in Utah when he read a magazine article about a deaf doctor who had opened a practice in Rochester. “I thought, that is so cool,” he said. “Why not go to where she is?”

Mr. Phillips won a two-year legal fellowship to help the underserved deaf community, and never left.

As for the deaf community’s fears that a mainstream college would spell the death of American Sign Language, Dr. Holcomb said those concerns have melted away. Indeed, the number of interpreters, professionals and services has sharply risen. “I can see that spreading across the country,” he said. “It’s a great model.”

Parker Zack, a real estate agent, has observed more people in Rochester trying to sign, even finger spell, than in other cities where he has lived. Mr. Zack, 50, who can hear, became obsessed with sign language after watching his deaf aunt and uncle converse growing up.

“The way they would communicate with each other was so beautiful,” he said. “It was like artwork.”

As a student at the University of Rochester, Mr. Zack became friendly with several deaf people, who suggested that he pursue his master’s degree at Gallaudet University for the deaf in Washington. He did, and after receiving his master’s in psychology, he joined the faculty there, becoming a director of student life.

But a request by a friend who was a real estate agent to interpret for her deaf clients changed his career. The agent made missteps, he said. “Deaf people don’t care how quiet the house is,” he said. When the couple was ready to buy, they showed up on his doorstep. “They didn’t go to their agent,” he said. “They came to me.”

With that, Mr. Zack became a real estate agent who specialized in serving the deaf. After working in Virginia, he returned to Rochester, where about 70 percent of his clients are deaf, he said. “I find it a lot better use of my counseling degree than sitting in a cubicle somewhere typing memos,” he said.

And he has never lacked for clients.

“There are always deaf people moving here,” he said.

December updates...

Sorry to all my readers out there for not posting for so long...haha if there are any readers in the first place...it's really been busy Nov/Dec...Exams are passable...*I hope* and so far..December has been a month of fun, excitement and so many things to look forward to...except FYP..sigh...made some progress last week...but still need to work harder to get better results...

It's been a v fun December...just had a fun filled weekend...Friday was drinking session with Adrian, Hanxin, Guoxing...we finished 3 bottles of red wine...hahah...celebrated my dear's bday for her on Sat and then had Westlife outing yesterday...it's been quite some time since we watched soccer together den play so many matches of W11 on PS....a few days of fun makes me feel recharged and ready for more work this coming week...

This week is going to be both exciting and fun...Thursday will be an impt day...Friday I will get out of Singapore for a short trip...After that will be sch reopening..sigh...haha last sem liao..hopefully...dunno when results will be out...hope can do well cos last year liao..weightage higher...*cross fingers*

Merry Xmas in advanced everyone!!