I have been playing Civilization IV for quite some time, and so far it is one of the best games I have ever played. Its deep gameplay is based on how civilizations survive, so strategies employed for the game, common reoccuring scenarios, and AI behaviours somewhat represent how governments of the world behave.

Size matters

A nation with larger territory usually wins over the smaller ones---but only if it is managed well. The more cities you have, the greater the cost for maintenance. However, more cities mean: Read more »

• more productivity, and productivity usually means everything: troops, buildings, or MONEY. So you can have bigger military force, boost education and research, or turn one city to a money-making machine to make up the cost for other cities.
• more population, so you can have political advantage and force the UN to agree with you on everything.
• more (natural) resources, so you can have competitive edge on trade or making citizens happy. The Arabian oil is a prominent example. If only the Middle East is one country...

So I've been enjoying myself in this vacation time, yay! :) Besides playing games and simply have fun, I still have quite a few "serious" plans to keep myself productive, so boredom won't come. My to-do-on-vacation list still had quite a few items, and in this atmosphere it's not going to deplete very soon ;)

Okay, back to the topic. I feel that I have not contributed that much into my major (well, my to-do list has nothing to do with pharmacy), so in this spare time I made the Drug of the Day page.

What this page does is that it redirects you to the Wikipedia page of one of the best money-making drugs in the world. Each day it will redirect you to different drug, so bookmark http://leapon.net/dotd.php and you can study about one new popular drug everyday. For example, at the time of this writing, the drug of the day is valsartan (marketed under Diovan by Novartis), an angiotensin II receptor antagonist. Of course I haven't really learnt that much about drugs, but wikipedia pages are very nice for learning something new. Read more »

This case of David Widjaja Hartanto is driving me crazy. This whole week I have been in constant barrage of information and request for comments from friends and even family about this case. Wow.

This loss of life must be shocking and we, people who share common bond with David albeit weak and small, share our deepest condolences for David's family.

Today I received an email containing a letter which supposedly was written by Klemens A., David's friend. Seems that this letter (in Indonesian) has fallen into many hands so I won't post it here. I will translate portions of this letter that fascinate me most, and have my say.

My subjective opinion and recent development are also added.

Note: I am an NUS student with Indonesia nationality. So bias is inevitable. Also note the disclaimer at the bottom of this post.

About the slit in the wrist

From the letter: Read more »

No! Ritchie caught me in this meme! Read more »

The Rules

1. Each blogger must post these rules.
2. Each blogger must start with 10 random facts/habits about themselves.
3. Bloggers that are tagged need to write about their own blog, about their ten things and post. You need to choose some people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment, telling them that they’re tagged and ask them to read your blog.

Why is everything so packed? Let me list all the items that needs to be done at the same time this Friday:

• Kent Ridge Hall Dinner and Dance (5.45pm)
• Intro to Nanoworld lecture (6pm)
• NUSSU AGM (everybody in NUSSU CBLC, which I am in, is “highly encouraged” to come) (6.30pm)
• Harmonica practice (7pm)
• Friday mass with ICy (which I’m also in) which will do all the work supporting the mass (about 5pm)
• (updated) Inter-faculty bash, which I am not really inclined to join – I gave away the ticket to someone already
• My mom is coming to Singapore! (at about 2pm though, can’t I just spend the whole day with my family? Duh…)

For Dinner and Dance (DnD) I have already paid a certain amount of money, so I’ll skip the others… It is also the first appointment that I made (excluding lecture)... That’s how life is…

It has been about a month living in NUS for me...

Life here is so much different from the past. There are so much CCAs (Co-Curricular Activities) and hall life needing attention that I barely have leisure time during weekdays. Add to the fact that we, fellow undergraduate students of NUS, are entitled a magnanimous task of STUDYING!

It is fun however. Really - I get to know a lot of people from extremely different backgrounds, I get to try a lot of new things, I get to know organic chemistry (hey that's not the plan >.<) ... I won't go through the details of FWOC, Flag, Rag, IBG etc because I am too lazy for that haha... I'm not really the type of person who writes everything concerning in his/her life (can see that in my previous posts).

But what made me so sad is the lack of free time. Part of this is my fault of not being able to manage time better, I know, but still... no matter how many CCAs there are in NUS, few things like making games (I want!) cannot be done in CCA scope.

I really do hope that my 4 years in Singapore will be enjoyable and most fascinating.

Sebenarnya udah basi ini berita, tapi bolehlah gw tulis di sini, setelah sebegitu lamanya blog ini tidak di-update…

Jadi ceritanya gw kan nungguin hasil Singapore Scholarship / SS. Karena pengumumannya selalu ditunda berhari-hari gw jadi stres juga, nanya-nanya Arie (dan ditanya-tanyain Davin) kalau-kalau ada berita tentang SS. Nah pada hari Jumat dua minggu yang lalu, gw jalan-jalan ke Artha Gading (jarang-jarang lo, jauh sih). Nah setelah selesai makan siang…

Ada telepon. Dari “Ignatius Sunrise” (tempat les A-level gw). Wah apaan nih, gw pikir. Ternyata… gw dapet SS!!! SS… SS… Read more »