Kelvin's Blog

Spring Break Coming to an End

2006-03-17T03:01:00.000-05:00

Wow... i've been so bz tt i din post here since last july?!?! OMG!!! it's oreadi march in '06!!! spring break is almost over too. not much of a spring break too since i've been going to lab everyday. finally got done with 99% of my senior design project....yay!!! time 2 graduate..... i oso got the admissions letter from ECE in Purdue: accepted into direcct PhD program starting next fall (aug '06). Which means an extended period of stay here till AT LEAST 2010!!! can't believe i'd actually sign my life off like tt.... but oh well.... it's a small sacrifice for a dream i guess. juz hoping tt it will not be a nightmare. yeah. so henceforth, i can b classified as a PR in West Lafayette, IN, USA.

Too Much Sunshine, Too Much Heat...

2005-07-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

u know how often times ppl complain there ain't enuf sunshine in their lives, but they dun c tt getting too much of it is bad too! i mean literally, the heat wave here in Indiana (wateva happened to the gd o' Mid-Western weather?!?! wait a minute, since when was there one?) is the best proof of it. 99 degrees with a 100 index (tt's like 37 in celsius)?!?! how'd u survive standing even 5 minutes out there?! So 4 gdness sake ppl, we gotta reduce emissions & stop global warming!!

now, 4 the better stuff: life's been a hell recently (c how it relates 2 the weather?). the heat's juz make me wanna stay indoors or chill out in a pool. of course, i dun mind sweating it out in the co-rec (sports complex) with some games of badminton. it really helped my fitness, i think. i feel a little lighter and hv better reflexes.. but can someone pls make me run 4 cryin' out loud!!

neway, i think i can start planning some of my activities till dec. gonna go out on nightly drives (improve my skill) once i get my car back. other than tt, i was thinking of holding a bbq b4 sch gets tough. kinda let every1 chill out 4 a while, get 2 know the freshies or simply catch up on gd times. & pls bring more girls... there's too much yang qi ard here!! juz 2 let u know, my taste is japanese...but all east asians r welcome.. haha.. jk man...u guys think i'm a playboy or sumthing? man! yeah, gotta welcome back those who went on internships, study abroads or wateva activities & c off those who r going 4 co-ops or wateva. can somebody make up a time & locale? i dun mind doin it @ my place again.

hmm...well, can't really think of wat else 2 announce nemore. i'll c wat i can come up wif over the nex few days..

Another Late Night Weekend...

2005-07-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

Sighz...i'm up late again this wkend...hate it when i stay up late 2 do hmwk... and i've got an exam coming up on tues somemore... at least summer sch's gonna end soon... 4 all u guys out there taking summer sch too, march on man... the end of the tunnel is near...

i saw the Lego Star Wars game for PS2 at Blockbuster a while ago. quite fun 2 play... very cute somemore.. remind me of when i was like 6-12 when Legos still pretty much my life!! tt time still innocent, but everyday got time will build something, then tear up something else...

my car's well on track to completion too. now need 2 think of how to modify my carbon fibre (sry..still used 2 UK spelling) hood.. need to cut a hole in the front to accomodate a radiator piping & the alternator.. i need special machine cos carbon fibre stuff is manufactured wif epoxy as the "glue" to hold the fibres. so if i use a saw, the fibres might fray & it's hard to make it smooth. and i dun hv a laser cutter to cut it as well. so if somebody has some equipment tt i can use, please let me know... hopefully by this wk... i need to cut a hole abt 12" X 10" or a square foot... i'm going down 2 the shop l8r so they can measure where 2 locate the driver seat (specially fitted for me). Gonna paint some of the bars red as well... interior of the car's gonna b red & black theme (aka roses of the night). neway, 4 all who want a ride, pls bk ur seat now...oreadi got a few ppl in Q.

neway, big qn i hv on my mind recently: how many of u r "boobs and ass" and how many r "face and figure"? "Boobs and ass" meaning u like girls wif huge B&A. "Face & figure" meaning pretty face & matching figure (Not necessarily huge B&A). Juz so u know, I'm FF person.

hopefully my nex update doesn't hv as much crap as i put in 2day...hehe... enjoy ppl!! N b safe!

A Tough & Hot Summer!!

2005-07-23T01:00:00.000-05:00

Ah... another weekend has come. A long time has passed since I last updated this forsaken blog. Guess I owe everybody an update. Where shall I start?

Well, first thing's first. I've got to declare that I slept only 2 hours on Wednesday night.
Cause: EE 362
Motive: Lab / Assembly code
Accomplice: 1 can of "Made in Thailand" gold can Red Bull
End result: even after I woke up, I was wide awake till Thursday midnight. Oh man...

Even though life seem to suck a lot (especially when the thunderstorm that night shut off my com twice while I was working), there are some upsides:

The most important one being the progress of my Project RX-7! I bought the wheels for it on eBay for $1550. Was well worth the money. Each wheel was 18 inches in diameter and with wheels, weighed only 25lbs each!!! Some of the lightest huge wheels I've ever seen. And it seems like the engine's getting done real fast. I'm hoping that we can try to fire it up in 2 weeks.

Other than that, I'm alive and well. Kinda jealous of those of you who have birthdays this month. You guys get cakes and all that stuff but I never had such goodies. Especially when everyone says that they've gone home when my birthday comes on May 16. Oh well, at least my birthday wish this year is easier to fulfill than previous years. Still have to wait nearly 10 months till I get another chance to make a birthday wish.

A Saturday Night that Kept Me Awake

2005-07-16T02:24:00.000-05:00

It's been 5 months since I last wrote here. Life's been coming at me fast. Finished the spring semester and half the summer session is gone already. I've been going around talking to some professors about doing graduate school. It made me realized just how little I know. I was very enthusiastic about going to graduate school until now. It's intimidating if you think about it real carefully: the amount of time I need to commit to learning & building a good math and physics foundation to go to that level of course work.

Thinking about all these has really made me think about my future so seriously. I have not had such a huge dilemma in such a long time. It might seem like an obvious choice for me to dive head first into academics but I'm not prepared for a lot of the demands that comes with it. In fact, I'm still thinking about the potential sacrifices I have to make and whether I'm willing to make them.

On top of that, it boils down to the most fundamental question: why do I want to go to graduate school? Is it out of the interest I have for engineering? Or is it because people, like my dad, tell me to? Could it be my ego? And what do I want to get out of it? Is there respect, prestige? Suddenly, my black and white whole has turned so grey.

I admit that I'm intimidated by the prospect of graduate school. But how would it compare with life after school? Working life comes with a whole different set of questions that may not be answered. First off, you might worry about your pay check, whether it's enough to foot the bills you have, and if there are enough savings for you to prepare for a rainy day. If you have a significant other, you might ask yourself when you will save enough to move to married life or start a family.

At the end of the day, as I think about all these, it's hard for me to come up with a perfect solution to my problems; just like all solutions we have - none are perfect. Maybe I want to many things out of life but I can't have all of them. I played too much through elementary school, studied too much through high school and now, I feel like I missed a whole lot out of life. But that's how life comes at you and the next question is what else are you willing to give up?

My Cousins

2005-02-11T01:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Chinese New Year. Feel so sad that I'm not back in S'pore with my family and friends. Luckily I can look this picture of my cousins:

This was taken two days before I left home. From the right, they are Cedric, Sharon, Me, Junwei, Andy and Zixuan. I am the oldest among them. Cedric and Sharon are siblings while Junwei and Zixuan are siblings too.

I grew up with Junwei so we are kinda close. Furthermore, both of us studied at ACS(I). However, he went to RJC while I went to ACJC. I wondered why he stayed on even though he was not as happy there after his friends transferred back to ACJC. Andy was also very close to me. The three of us were very close to each other. I don't remember which JC Andy went to but he's now in NS. Heard he went to the commando unit. Think it would have toughen him up.

Zixuan and Sharon both studied in HCJC. Strangely, I have 4 cousins that studied there. The other two graduated a very long time ago. One of them is married with a daughter while the other's working. Sharon's in NTU now while Zixuan and Junwei are both in NUS.

I'm not sure where Cedric is now but I heard he's studying in one of the polytechnics. I hope he does well and finds out what he likes to do soon.

My Buds

2005-02-10T12:37:00.000-05:00

There's no meaning to life without friends. Here's a bunch that I will never forget:

They are (from left to right): Edwin, Henry, Kevin and Alan.

Edwin & Alan were my classmates since the time I was in ACS(I). I knew Edwin since Sec 1 (9 years) and Alan since Sec 2 (8 years). It's kinda ironic that they're on different sides of the picture because they are near opposites. Henry and Kevin were my close buds in JC. Henry's from Catholic High while Kevin came from Fairfield Methodist School. We're still close friends although I'm in the U.S. Alan's studying in NUS while the rest of them are in NTU.

Project RX-7

2005-02-10T01:20:00.000-05:00

This is what's currently keeping me busy:

Yeah. She sure looks ugly now. But don't fret. Here's the inspiration that spawned the project:

I intend to turn the white RX-7 into the most beautifully crafted machine in the mid-west! CJM Motorsports in downtown Lafayette, IN are the kind people who have took up the task of creating this machine. TRU Motorsports are the ones who have provided me with parts for this beauty. Kudos to Charles at CJM and Jorge at TRU! Here's the parts for the car:

20B Twin Turbo engine
Precision Turbo large intercooler
HKS SSQV Blow-off valve
HKS Stainless Steel racing wastegate
HKS Circle Earth grounding wires
SRMotorsports custom secondary fuel rail with 3 Bosch 1600cc injectors
A'PEXi AVC-R Boost Controller
Exedy triple plate clutch
Fluidyne radiator
B&M Oil cooler
Borla Catback Exhaust system
Axxis Ultimate front & rear brake pads
Brembo cross-drilled and vented front & rear rotors
FD3S 13BTT 5 Spd manual transmission
BNR Supercars rebuilt 20B twin turbos
Corksport reprogrammed 20B ECU

The car will be in the garage by next Friday (Feb 18) and hopefully, it'll be complete in about a month or two.

My Home

2005-02-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of my parents:

I am the only child born to these two very very nice people. They have given me all they could and shaped me into who I am today.

My dad's a MSEE graduate from the National University of Singapore. At 53, he's surrently lecturing in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. He enjoys teaching the young and puts a lot of effort into it.

My mum is now retired. At 51, she's the housekeeper who used to work as a computer system analyst. She has more than 20 years of experience in programming, from Cobol to Visual Foxpro to C and C++.

New Look

2005-02-08T01:31:00.000-05:00

Decided to revamp my site to give everyone a better perspective of yours truly.

Here's the intro:

Name: 宣耀 (Xuanyao)
Family Name: 冯 (Fong)
Birthday: 16 May 1982
Age: 22
Astrological Sign: Taurus
Born in Year of: Dog
Height: 168cm
Weight: 63kg
Ethinicity: Chinese
Nationality: Singaporean
Spoken Languages: English, Chinese
Hobbies: Billiards, cars, computers, electronics, music

I used to play competitive 9-ball and 8-ball pool in Singapore until I came to the U.S. I am currently doing a BSEE in Purdue University and will graduate in May 2006.