I have been working for quite some time, both in The Singapore Mint and on my blog's layout.
I told myself to stop doing anime layouts but I simply can't help it. This time, I decided to feature Chise from Saishu-Heiki Kanojo, more affectionally called "SaiKano" by fans. SaiKano is also known as "SHE, The Ultimate Weapon". Chise is the female lead who is turned into a weapon under a military program.
After this anime layout, I am going to take a long break from anime-related layouts. This being the so-call last anime layout until I am in mood to make them again, I decided to put in all that I've got.
Like the "Neo and Smith", I included double themes for this one as well. You can change them by clicking on any of the 2 images from here. This theme is made with CSS (cascading style sheets) with both <div> and <table> tags. I tested it on Internet Explorer and Firebird. Everything works fine. Your browser will remember your last used theme if you have cookies enabled. You may need to reset the layout to view the new one, I have placed the font so huge that you won't miss it.
The About section has been updated too. I added a section called "Layout", it is pretty much self-explanatory. Changes in sections include addition of new tomodachi ("friend" in Japanese) - iCe. I also mirror the front page of //beconfused to my ISP (Internet Service Provider) site here.
Not forgetting the addition of music. I do not know if it suits your taste but I was looking for sad tones. Now it's playing "Kanashimi no Nukumori" from SaiKano OST (Track number 04). If you hate it, you can click on the stop button and it'll shut up. I do not know what "Kanashimi no Nukumori" means. I only know what's "no" but that doesn't help at all. Perhaps Hailey can tell me.
And the logo. I always change logos, it's a bad habit. Now this site even sports 2 different logos for 2 different themes, lol.
Minor additions include - colors. Yeah, the colors are back, there're around 6 of them, namely blue, green, orange, pink, brown, purple. If you have noticed, I have changed the tones slightly. And thanks to CSS, every single post's colors have been updated to reflect the ones.
I switched the comments service provider to HaloScan because it faster.
This layout is created with Adobe Photoshop for the graphics and Microsoft FrontPage for the HTML. Fonts used include Verdana, Tahoma and Moonbeam.
This design is quite daring, if you have noticed the side bar is actually wider then the main content itself! Go figure.
Also, I gotten my results back, I got something like 3 Cs, 2 Bs and 1 Distinction - for Web Publishing. You know, up till now, I never got an A. I got another distinction before too, for Computer Studies. Microsoft Excel and Access are being taught, I know Excel fairly well, so I kinda breeze through that one. I still wonder how I pass Access, I totally "catch no ball" (can't get it).
Hope you'll enjoy the layout. Do give comments, be it good or bad. Be happy, don't give that "Chise" look. :)

Originally I wanted to flame my younger brother in this posting as he irritates me by having the television all by himself.
You see, we only have 1 television set at home. We aren't that rich to own more. And because we only have one television set, and the fact that my brother is such a couch potato, I had to.. not watch the television.
One day came the VCR (video cassette recorder) that I ask my mother to get, since I always can't watch the television. So all is peace? No, all WAS peace, that is before those people invented the television. Having gotten a new VCR, my brother has all these new programmes he can record. Not only can he watch Channel 5's programmes, he can also record Channel 8's Holland Village. It's a 125-episode drama serial featuring a fat lady with some stupid 1980s Afro hair style. Today's the last episodes, I believe at least a quarter of Singaporeans watches this drama. Even the boss at the mint. He is not staying to oversee employees working over time today just because it's the last episode of Holland V. Now he can even record those late shows too. Great, I was just gotten another entertainment device just for my brother.
Things doesn't just end here. Most of the time, he is either watching his videos or the television programmes. Sometimes, I would like to watch television programmes at say, 10 in the evening. He is watching recorded items, we always get into a sibling quarrel.
My logic is simple - yours is a recorded item, you can watch it in future. With your type in the recorder, I can't record, with you using the television, I can't watch. What the.. er.. brother is this and he suppose to be my younger brother. Hey, read this carefully - Younger brother. Okay, I'll bold this one - Younger brother. Maybe I'll increase the font, oh well.. never mind.
His logic is simple too - I need to clear my tapes, or I'll no time to watch others. He records so many items! He does it everyday. If he's not in his room, look for him on the couch. If he isn't there too, trace the potato crumbs on the ground, you'll find him.
But this quarrel is one that he is set to lose. My mother will march angrily out of the room and announce the winner. That's me of course. His logic is not logical anyway.
Never mind, I'll just watch television programmes on my compu.. opps. I said nothing. It's really nothing. :)
Okay, back to the first line of the post. Why am I not flaming my brother now? Oh, you see, I was thinking of buying this digital camera and he sort of came into my room and announce that I stand a chance of winner one by participating in Survivor online quiz or something like that. I stand a chance of winning one of those Canon Ixuses, I do not know which model though.
Thanks to him watching the show that very much bore me - Survivor - that I get to know the presence of a contest as such. He kindly given me the answer for the quiz too.
Okay, now I'll just wait for my prize, if I get any. I'll flame him next time, he just wait.
By the way, my results are half out. I passed all my modules and got one distinction. Distinction for Web Publishing. Somehow it doesn't seem to surprise anyone. I'll know more details on my individual module grades tomorrow, I hope it'll be good news. Oh, my brother's off the couch! It's my turn.

I finally got the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children trailer with English subtitles. Some people called it "Final Fantasy VII-2". Frankly, the conversations does not quite make sense to me. I haven't play Final Fantasy 7 before. It's a sequel of Final Fantasy 7 I believe. It is going to be released to Japan straight into DVD only, skipping movie screenings. So get your DVD players ready. I am sure there'll be English subtitles as well, however I have a feeling that it won't be dubbed in English somehow.
Advent Children is the latest offering of Square Enix. Early this year, Enix merges with Squaresoft and form Square Enix. I always wonder why isn't it "Enix Square" since Enix innitiated the merger. It's based on the popular Final Fantasy franchise, bring back the characters from Final Fantasy 7. It's good to note that this is a full 3D animated feature. That means Cloud will be in 3D, although I have to admit that he kinda remind of of Squall merging with Tidus. Cloud will now be known as "Tidus Squall".
Cloud's weapon is back too, obviously. This time it's half the size of his body. Cloud is now a full grown man too, unlike his counterpart in the game.
And that Japanese narrator says something like, "Finalo Fantasi Seifen, Adofento Chirudan", basically it's "Final Fantasy Seven, Advent Children". The Japanese love to "katakana-lize" English words.
But what's "advent". I have no idea, I believe my dictionary does. So I called my dictionary on the phone and he says, "Advent is the period of 4 weeks before Christmas in the Christian religion". Huh? The Japanese turned themselves into Christians? I thought they fancied visiting the temples and.. hey, what's their religion anyway. Was it ancestral worshipping? And I thought
"advent" was the root word for "adventure", it's like "Yeah, Cloud's going for an adventure in Disneyland" or similar.
The trailer is from TechTV as I recognized their logo on the bottom right hand corner of the clip. TechTV is an American channel, I would like to have that channel. I like these technology stuff. The video quality is alright, not very good though since it's a TV-rip (read: ripped it from the television programme itself).
The graphics are well done, but I hope it will not be too dark or I can't see them fighting. My eye sight's not very good. The Spirits Within suffered because of the colors. It looks too dull, too flat ironically, after all it's 3D.
I don't remember completing any of the Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy 8 was half complete only. I played until there's this moment that I am very busy and can't continue. And when I get back, I lost interest in the game. The same thing happen to Freelancer. My skills deteriorate too, now I keep on watching my space craft burst into flame plus the game over screen in Freelancer.
This holiday, I originally planned to play games all day long. Sadly, I'm working. My brother's very happy that I'm working actually. He can have the computer for himself for the entire day. I just noticed he figured out how to un-mute the speakers, lol. I mute my speakers most of the time, it's a habit thing.
If you can't believe I'm going to end an entry this way, I did.

As usual, I hurried to the pantry room to grab some food and tea. It has become a daily routine. At fifteen minutes before ten, the siren will call.
Speaking of sirens, we have this ear plugs that we suppose to wear all they long. I never wear them, they're always hanging on my neck. It is only two minutes before the sirens that I plug it into my ear. The siren's annoyingly loud, lol.
Anyway, everybody has to pass through a metal detector gateway. They just want to see if you "remove" some coins from the production area.
This day, I walk past the metal detector, setting the melody off. It's not that I have coins with me. It's just because of any metal pieces with me, like my keys. Then this female Chinese security officer came to be and start scanning around me with a hand held metal detector.
No melody this time, I got off.
But hey, my keys! They're in my pocket! Shouldn't her detector sound? It didn't. She must be new. Apparently, she has no idea how to scan probably. What's more, this morning she gives me a visitor pass instead of a temp employee pass.
If I were to have coins with me, I would have got pass without detection.
Point number one is that The Singapore Mint is not secured enough. There are many other ways to get pass the metal detector too. I always think about this crazy stuff during work time. Me evil.
You can hold the coin together with your keys and stand in anatomy position. They never check what's within your keys! You have a 100% success rate of getting through. If you're the more daring type of person, just hold the coin and face the side of your palm with the coin downwards. That fellow doesn't check what's in your palm too. I believe that's a near 100% success rate. Actually you can slot it in your shoes too, saves all the hassle.
There're security camera around the mint too. However, it is very badly implement. This is the first time I see security camera plugged into an electrical socket. If I were a thief [I said if I WERE], I would have switched the security camera off, they have kindly included an on-off switch as well. Aren't those guy nice to the robbers?
But there kindness doesn't just end here. The security cameras are badly position. The one at the second floor shoots the toilet doors. Are they afraid someone might steal their toilet paper? I am sorry Miss CEO, I only used 1/256 of your toilet roll, I hope you don't mind.

Now for disclaimers. I have remove neither The Singapore Mint's coins, nor The Singapore Mint's toilet rolls and have absolutely no intentions to. This entry is written for amusement purpose and should not, on second thoughts, will not be taken seriously. If you intend to rob The Singapore Mint, please do not even quote my last name if you're caught.
Note also that I ought to receive some monetary benefits for revealing The Singapore Mint's weak points.
[I actually liked to include point number two, but I can't seem to think of another point. That's certainly prove of bad planning.]
Edit: I found out that the camera is pointing at the staircase too, not just the toilet.

As you have probably noticed, there is a change in the layout. This is the Matrix-inspired layout that I worked on 2 weeks ago. It's around 85% complete.
It features Neo and Smith. You can switch the characters at the front of my page. If you have cookies enabled, your browser will recall the selected layout and apply it for you.
This is a very messy layout and broke a number of web design rules. As a law(rule)-abiding netizen, I ought to be ashamed. However, I'm switching layouts in a week's time. If you hate this layout, just bear with it.
I also apologize for some color mismatches, it is still using some styles of my old layout - "yume", which means "dream" in Japanese. Speaking of names, this layout hasn't got a name yet.
Okay, now it's got one. I'll just call it "Neo and Smith". That sounds quite gay but.. Never mind, there'll be a change within a week, I promise.
I change it to this layout to show you my incomplete work, it'll never be completed partly because of Dreamweaver malfunctioning and the fact that the scrollbars start to annoy me. I did my last round of polishing with FrontPage in the end. Just some simple tweaks though.
Hate it, love it? I would like to hear your comments. Thanks.
Also, I added two new affiliates. They are Hailey Xie and katz. Check out their pages too. I also updated Emily's address.
Next layout is anime again. I think I need to take a break from anime soon. I am thinking of trying other layouts. Any ideas?
If you like the layouts that I've made and would like me to make one for you, do speak up. I might help you with it (if I like what you're featuring. If you are thinking of Christina Aguilera, please forget about asking me).
Thanks for reading.

I have to take bus 178 to work every time. I'll be waiting for the bus at the bus stop right outside Princess Elizabeth Primary School. I'll be looking at Michelle and Michelle will be looking back at me with her sexy eyes.
Not this time.
The advertisement company has changed the Michelle Chia poster advertising for some shampoo. Now, instead of being greeted by Michelle every morning, it's now stimulating words such as "Ohhh", "Ahh", "Mmm" and "Yes".
[Ohhh, so it's a sexy advertisement.]
Not quite.
It's an advertisement for Durex. You know, Durex, famous have their durable condoms? The advertisement is about a special condom from Durex of course - "Sensation". It features bumps on the condoms itself to give more pleasure. [By the way, the front page of Durex Singapore page has cute condoms wearing sunglasses jumping in front of the (I think) one of the Malaysia's parliamentary buildings.]
It has a tag line that goes something like "500 bumps for extra pleasure". It has got an artist impression of the condom's bumpy texture with comical words like "Ohhh", "Ahh", etc.
But isn't it not very appropriate to advertise right outside a primary school (elementary school, grade 1 to 6)? Imagine kids leaving the school and the poster reads "Ohhh", "Mmm". Hopefully they aren't thinking this is a food advertisement.
Durex also placed this particular advertisement on other bus stop's advertisement board. If you're wondering how big is the advertisement, it's bigger than my 12-year old brother. [I remember Benedict laughing when he saw my brother slamming the advertisement from the other side with his body.]
AdShell [the company that owns the advertisement space], can you bring my Michelle back?
I told some people about a Matrix-inspired layout that I am doing. Sorry people, I cannot deliver it. Feng Li is right about something, I lose interest very quickly. Dreamweaver went crazy and refuse to launch. I did not edit it for quite some time, it is 70% complete. But I no longer have to mode to code the HTML stuff. I am using FrontPage now, it is very different from Dreamweaver. There're some pluses, some minuses too. I'll be starting from a scratch for my new layout. Hopefully it'll be completed before FrontPage goes black. Next layout may feature Chise from Saishu-Heiki Kanojo (SHE, The Ultimate Weapon). Keyword: "may". A new layout will be here soon though, but I'll be using FrontPage, I am no longer familiar with it, there are a lot of changes.

From the ceiling air conditioner, a drop of icy-cold water dropped on my ear plugs. The water travels into my right ear; this send a tickling sensation. I laughed lightly. I laughed lightly with a plate of 7 coins. The 7 coins slide off my plate and fell onto the ground with, admittedly, a beautiful sound.
BUT these are the damn gold coins! [@#%^*!]
Yesterday, Jesse dropped 17 silver coins worth SG$1,700 (US$990) in total! I told myself to be careful about my coins. And today, I drop them. What irony. Although, I dropped (just) 7 coins, but these 7 coins are worth SG$8,400 (US$4,890) in total!
I walk towards Ah Chian and disclose my failure of taking care of the coins. Obviously, she wasn't too happy to hear. I tell her about the water-went-into-my-ear story. Her reaction is like - okay, so we have to reject 7 gold coins. She just tell me to be more careful.
Phew.
There's no docking of pay. How to dock my pay anyway, I earn less than a thousand Singapore dollars per month, I even have to pay them extra.
Did I panic? No. In fact, I am much amused. I laughed while revealing the water-went-into-my-ear story.
Fret not, I'll be more careful next time. I've still got 800 gold coins to pack, and I am counting it down. I finish around 200 per day (compared to Jesse's 400 plus, I am a slow worker).
I have been thinking: Ah Chian didn't say much probably because she herself dented 2 of the gold coins I'm packing too, lol. Why did The Singapore Mint hire a group of butter fingers? lol.
[The conversation rates are based SG$1 = US$0.582487 as of November 20, 2003, 11:50 GMT, these after-conversation values are rounded.]

The current exploited secondary 3 students are leaving The Singapore Mint soon. I am going to miss them I feel. Life's going to be much boring (it already is) without them. I met 2 people there. One called Paul, the other called Peter, no no, that's not it. The other's called Steven I believe. I apologize for my obsession with the kindergarten poem that ends with "Fly away Peter, fly away Paul; Come back Peter, come back Paul."
They have the same time slot for breaks at me. I have no admit that our conversations never went past "what work you doing today?", but it is already enough entertainment for me already. I always answer, "I am packing the gold monkeys". The thing is they never got tired of asking and I never got tired of answering.
Most of the students have left as they have finished their jobs already - Monkey Witty and Un-circulated (2004) coins. Paul and Steven's still here though. Now when I look out of my nearest glass window, there aren't any more girls. [sniffs] Their chattering is gone, the black table has no one sitting around it now.
Anyway, word has it that they didn't do a good job. My cousin complained that some coins are placed the wrong side up. I do not think that is accidental frankly, I feel it's a form of silent protest. They probably thought, "Since you give me SG$3 per day, this is going to be the result you get".
The other day, they dropped several 999K Silver 2Oz Monkey Proof coins, Ah Chian (my direct superior) was so upset. It was until I reveal to her how low these students are being paid that she kept quiet. It turns out that not many people know the students' pay.
Last week, Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp) visited The Singapore Mint to film some stuff for their news segment. These girls are not found at their usual black tables. I believe it is to avoid being filmed. The girls are at God-knows-where, hidden carefully. No students are seen at all. Then after the reporters left, the girls are back! [Thank God]
So these secondary 3 students are leaving, is that the end of The Singapore Mint Operation Child Exploitation? I will be answering my own questions this time, since Paul and Steven's not around. Anyway, the answer's "no".
The Singapore Mint has brought a new batch of students, from The Chinese High School. I always know these rich kids can't be any smarter..

I remember there this special reading period for reading in secondary school (equivalent to Middle School, grade 7 to 10). Most people will be reading there story books. Fiction books. Someone will be holding a Michael Crichton book for sure. But I, definitely not an avid reader, reads my literature text book - Animal Farm. Not that I enjoy reading about Napoleon and Snowball (both are the characters of Animal Farm); it is simply because I hate to read books. Fiction books to be exact.
The books that I very well remember reading in secondary school are Animal Farm, B.F.G. (Big Friendly Giant) and Charlotte's Web. These are all my literature texts. [I know you must be wondering why B.F.G. is a literature text; beats me.]
Animal Farm is a thin book, it is light, just the right size, good to keep in my bag and bring to school everyday. My friends will be saying things like, "wah lau, you not tired meh, always read this book". That is in typical Singaporean language, literally translated to: "<exclamation>, aren't you tired of reading the same book?". My reply goes like, "wun tired one lar, this book light also, bring like never bring like that." Roughly translated to: "Nah, I am not tired of it. It's a light book anyway so I don't mind bringing it along".
With the book wide open, we sit in the bloody, I mean really, hot school hall, crossing over legs like kids, bending our body forward, placing the damn book on our legs and read quietly as the teacher walks in circles that seriously give me a headache.
Those who forgot to bring their books will take out an exercise book, open it wide, sit in the once-again-bloody-I-mean-really-hot school hall, crossing legs tighter, bending body more forward, looks down guiltily as the teacher walks in circles as usual. They're probably praying that they won't get caught as well.
I don't remember being caught, as I say, Animal Farm is always in my bag. As you have probably guess, I wasn't reading, I was day-dreaming. I watch my digital clock refreshing second by second.
After half an hour, the torture period is finally over. I stood up quickly and started stretching myself immediately.
Just when reading these English books are bad, there is a certain day of the week that we have to read Chinese books instead. We all have to read the same reading text too. My Chinese is not that fantastic. I can't read well. I ended up viewing the pictures in the book only. There are lots of pictures in the book, I think every 5 pages has one full color picture, hehee.
Sometimes, I'll secretly studying for my Chinese spelling. I am caught by Madam Gao Song several times. She's a nice teacher, she just request me to put it away. If I get caught by the Madam what-is-her-name-again, I'll sure be standing till the end of the reading period.
In 2001, I took my 'O' levels, I got C5 for English and B4 for Chinese Language. At least that explains.

This is not a new news but I just found out about this. MSN has upgraded their Messenger to version 6.1 which includes security updates and interface changes. No longer do you have to stick with the traditional blue chat interface, you can customize it to any color you want (at least technically speaking).
Another interface change is that chat windows allows you to hide the window border to reveal a much-sleeker MSN Messenger (MSNM). The MSN alert pop ups have change their design too although I still prefer the old one.
Doesn't such interface reminds you of Windows Media Player 9 (WMP9)? WMP9 allows you to change the colors of the background via a hue and saturation slider, MSNM6.1 allows you to do similar with the those RBG (Red-Blue-Green or was it Red-Green-Blue, I am always confused) color picker. WMP9 also has the hide window border feature. One thing that WMP9 is better is the auto-hide window border feature; MSNM6 doesn't auto-hide.
MSNM6.1 seems to have further integrated ThreeDegrees into their product. If you are not familiar with such a product, you can check it out at http://www.threedegrees.com.
Download MSNM6.1 at http://messenger.msn.com/Download/.
With new versions of Windows coming out 2005 or 2006, maybe all the Microsoft entertainment program will all sport a similar interface.
I remember the time when ICQ rules the planet. No such thing as MSNM, no Yahoo Messenger too. AIM (America Online Instant Messenger) is vastly popular that time too. But ICQ's popularity has dipped ridiculously. MSNM has rose quite a bit.
Correct me if I am wrong, AIM is still the top instant messenger being used. MSNM is second I think.
I believe it's the integration that causes so many people to choose MSNM. Not with Windows, but with MSN web sites like Hotmail. MSNM integrates very well with Hotmail as compared to other messenger with their counterparts.
I think MSNM6.1 is really worth giving a try. A word of warning though, MSNM is NOT resource friendly.

I can't weave. To be more exact, I can't weave my dreams. If you still don't know what the hell I'm talking about, basically there's a program called Dreamweaver. And basically, it refuse to launch.
Dreamweaver is a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG, pronounced as we-see-wig) editor. It is the most popular one in the market. I used it to create almost all my layouts in the past so it's quite essential for me. I learnt it in one of my modules - Web Publishing.
Just when not being able to launch Dreamweaver is bad enough, my dear Photoshop decides not to launch itself too!
This is very frustrating. I intended to make a Matrix-kinda layout, but it doesn't seem possible at the moment, not when all the essential programs failed to work. I did CPR to my Photoshop by reinstalling it, now it has awoken from the coma. But I CPR fails to work for Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has departed from me on November 11, 2003. I did another CPR to it before I closed its coffin, obviously it still refuse to wake up. May God be with.. on second thought, go to hell Dreamweaver! It is uninstalled already.
I am left with another WYSIWYG program called Frontpage. I hate the way Frontpage inserts paragraphs automatically. Mr. Gates, your product has terrible Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support by the way. If not for my Dreamweaver's departure, I will not have adopted Frontpage. The only thing Frontpage is good at is the code view. They stolen Intellisense from Visual Studio .NET and threw inside Frontpage. It is excellent. That's the only thing that beats Dreamweaver. I just wish that Frontpage can use more standard HTML and for God's sake, add the quotation marks in every elemental attribute automatically!
Recently, Norton Antivirus is having problems too. That program warns me that it has been shut down unexpectedly. I did a virus scan in my computer but there's no virus.
The worst thing happened when Internet Explorer hangs. I visit some site and it hangs, with Google can hang Internet Explorer. It's not any particular sites problem. It's just my computer. So I launch Firebird, but it can't detect that I have a connection to the Internet.
Maybe it's time to reinstall my operating system.

EDIT: Firebird worked again, it's a firewall problem. Internet Explorer stopped hanging too, it's a problem with Norton Antivirus. I am going to gun Norton down soon. Photoshop works, Dreamweaver still doesn't. :(
MORE EDIT: I am sorry I flamed Frontpage incorrectly, I found IntelliSense can indeed insert quotation marks but I have to check the option in the Options menu. Also, this entry is generated with Frontpage, how ironical isn't it?

November 13, 2003 marks the official launching of the Monkey Coin Sets of 2004 from The Singapore Mint. It also marks Pei Shan's birthday by the way.
As you people have probably known, I have been working at The Singapore Mint for a couple a days. I have been packing silver, gold, copper-nickel coins and others stuff in plastic capsules. I have to admit this is a no-life job.
The lady who is my immediate superior worked on that for 25 years since the age of 19. [I know her age, lol.] I can't imagine myself working for a month in conditions of such; not that it is dirty or similar, it's just very dull and boring and tiring. The atmosphere is bound to get you into the weary condition within minutes.
From the silver monkeys, I proceed to the gold monkeys. Jesse's doing the silver monkeys. I am doing the GOLD monkey. [*evil grin*] It's not that I like gold. It's just that Jesse's silver monkeys are very high in demands and she has a target of 19,000 to complete (with the help of other's of course). The gold monkeys I am doing are very low in demand, just 2000. That means less work for me.
Unfortunately, handling gold monkeys are very pressurizing. The silver monkey coins have SG$10 monetary value, while the gold monkeys have SG$250 monetary value! No kidding, it's 25 times more! After seeing so much gold, I learn to appreciate the beauty of gold frankly. I used to hate gold. I still like titanium's color though.
Media Corporation of Singapore (MediaCorp) came to The Singapore Mint. The journalists visited the production area. Channel 8 News journalist to be exact. I've seen him on television before. It feels weird seeing someone from that black box of mine standing right in front of me wearing face mask.
The production area requires face masks to be worn at all times. I have to wear finger cots, otherwise known as condoms, on my fingers, it's basically gloves. I have to wear ear plugs too, but it's not much of use. After listening to so much loud music, the machinery sounds has become music to my ears.
I speak more in my work place today. I used to speak because of the age gap and those people don't look friendly. They don't smile. Now to think of it, who the hell smiles while wearing a face mask!?
[Dreamweaver is not behaving correctly, it refuses to launch. I am lazy to code for those stuff manually. So there's no web plugs, no quotes, no colors, no boldings and italics. ]

Today is my second day of work in The Singapore Mint. They've got this web site at http://www.mint.com.sg, how appropriate..
The job really tires me. I work in the production department which is basically a nicer term for "factory".
Yesterday I was sealing up 2oz 999K Silver Monkey coins into plastic capsules. Next year is the Year of the Monkey according to the Chinese zodiac, so The Singapore Mint is into some Monkey Business this quarter of the year. Today, I am air-cleaning plastic capsules of Gold Monkey coins. The monkey business never ends.
I did not manage to get the administration job (computer stuff) that I hoped for. David can't even work at all. I felt really bad because I confirmed with him that he could. He intended to join the workforce on Wednesday, but looks like he'll have to wait for another week.
And why's that so? A huge bunch, I mean "group", of secondary 3 students from various schools came to work. For free to be exact. They came here for working experience. For that, they get SG$3 per day plus a free lunch. And also, they will be rewarded with a 3-days-2-nights stay in Bintan (one of the many Indonesian islands) at the end of 2 weeks.
Fairfield Methodist is one of the schools who participate in this exploitation, sorry, I mean "work experience course". I really pity those students who got cheated here to work for SG$3 per day [not per hour even!]. They cannot take the free company transport too, the SG$3 is a transportation fee.
Let me reveal some company politics, read only if you're interested.
The reason why they got the trip to Bintan is simply because the boss of The Singapore Mint owns a Bintan resort! That cheapskate boss.. The transport to Bintan is very cheap by the way. I do not know how those people negotiate with the schools.
By the way, The Singapore Mint is a private limited company, although it's associated with the Singapore Government. And how is it associated? Basically, Ho Ching is one of the top executives on The Singapore Mint. Ho Ching is Mr. Lee Hsien Loong's wife. Mr. Lee Hsien Loong is the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore. His father, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, is the Senior Minister of Singapore (Kuan Yew used to be the Prime Minister). Mr. Lee Hsien Loong shall take over to be the Prime Minister of Singapore soon. [Everyone knows this, my younger brother even thought he's the Prime Minister already.]
I must stress that I haven't bad-mouth any of these politicians. If any of the Lee family (most are into politics) is reading this, please pardon my rudeness, but don't you think your family is like owning the entire country?
Don't get upset about my posting both Mr. Lees. Let me tell you something that you would love to hear - I don't like that Chee Soon Juan fellow too. [Chee Soon Juan is from the opposition party of the current ruling, People's Action Party, which is the party all the Lees are in.]
EDIT: Just to point out I work for SG$5 per hour, not considered exploitation, I have the lunch for free too, can take their transport. No Bintan though..

My semestral examinations have ended. It ended on Friday, with Molecular Genetics being the last module. It's a tough paper and I do till I am so frustrated that I came out an hour before the end of the test. (Then I went to Heeren Shops and Plaza Singapura with my friends but that's another story)
I catched the movie - Matrix: Revolutions - at 7 in the evening with my cousin, Jonathan. I have been excited about the movie for quite some time.
Warning: Matrix: Revolutions spoilers lies ahead of this line.

Revolutions, being the third installment, did satisfy me. Many people hypothesize about multiple matrixes (matrix/matrii?). A minority even suggests that the "Mother of the Matrix" is none other than Persephone. It turns out that these internet forum discussions are somewhat worthless. Most did not come true.
The story is not as complicated as I thought it would be; the Wachowski Brothers brilliantly concluded that story nevertheless.
So the content was there, Neo's cool factor wasn't quite though. No doubt Neo had a good fighting scene with Smith. It's the rain. It blurs everything, I can't see Neo and Smith very well.
Are the Wachowski Brothers showing off some new digital effects that they went overboard? Probably.
The fighting scenes in Zion is way too long. I felt "exhausted" after it ended. It's the lights flashing and flashing and flashing. They should have included a seizure warning in the beginning of the movie. Reminds me of the incident when some Japanese children being sent to hospitals due to seizures after watching an episode of Pokémon last century (that's a few years back only, lol).
I like that Smith, he never fails to entertain me with his sarcasm. No guns for Neo in Revolutions sadly, he discovers that his super powers are much better. But the guns are cool stuff.
Before I watched the movie, I have a feeling (though I am not The Oracle) that either Neo or Trinity would die. At least I believe in that. Trinity did died, but did Neo? I am quite uncertain about it still. I say with 80% confidence interval that Neo died.
The trilogy has been wrapped up well I guess. The ending is "inevitable". I'll give, say.. 4 upon 5?
I was hoping to see more of The Architect, Persephone and Merovingian. Nebuchadnezzar still looks uncool, as always.
By the way, I am constructing a Matrix-inspired layout soon, look out for it. =)

Thanks a lot, my counter has registered more than 500 visitors this morning. It's great to see that people are coming. I get 10 hits per day on average. That's very encouraging for me already. Once again, thank you all.
Some of my visitors come from people in my Tomodachi section, but most of them came by accidental Google searches. I am really sorry that you can't find your things
There are searches for:
+george +washington +success +powerpoint
+goto +maki +nude [Don't be an idiot! Maki is not a porn star!!!]
+informatics +ngee +ann +blog [That's the name of another polytechnic is Singapore.]
+lowry +reagent
+ayaka +hawaii
+msn +display +picture +anime [I only have one.]

But most people come by searching "+Barbra +McClintock". Barbra McClintock is the incorrect spelling. The correct spelling should be "Barbara McClintock".
Apparently I misspell in my October 07, 2003 posting called "scary//teacher". The interesting thing is that Google listed my site as the sixth on the list. Many people spelt wrong too!
Okay, I'll tell you how's Barbra McClintock, I mean Barbara McClintock.
McClintock is one of the most respected female scientist. She was born in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A, June 16, 1902. She reported results of maize experiment indicating movable genes, now called transposable elements in 1950. It is also called "jumping genes" I think.
However, it is only in the year 1983 that her work is being recognized by the Noble committee. She is awarded with The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1983) for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.
McClintock died in 1992.
Visit The Nobel Foundation's Barbara McClintock site. Other resources can be found here or do a search at Google for "Barbara McClintock".
If you're one of those who stumbled to my site through Barbra McClintock, do tag me and tell me about it. Thanks for visiting though. :)

We have witness the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) catching people who download music. It seems that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has begun to follow suit.
Adam Moss, who is a freshman in management information system, downloaded 52 movies while participating in distribution through Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
MPAA then contacted K-State, who provides internet access and shares liability for its Internet users' actions.
A representative came and deleted Moss' files as well as obtained his log files, which are proof the movies were present and now are deleted. Moss also was required to write a letter of apology to the MPAA. His punishment from K-State was having his Internet taken away until the end of the year. [I will mourn for my Internet if it happens to me.]
"I told everyone on the floor that got movies from me to delete them. I told other kids not to do it," he said. "People are looking for people like me. On top of that, they also took log files saying these are the people that actually downloaded from me and going after them. It's a huge chain reaction," said Moss.
And says who IRC is not targeting. Many of my friends thought so. For your information, I used to [keyword: used to] share around 50 gigabytes worth of anime in IRC. Although anime is not exactly the type of stuff the MPAA is after, it's better to be safe than to be sorry.
The actual reason that I stop distributing in that I am tired of it, I am tired of leechers [people who only download, and not share].
This people are trying to be on the safe side. They're thinking "I download but I don't share, the RIAA and MPAA is not going to target me". For that kind of selfish thought, no anime for them. I get pissed off when I see downloaders sharing their empty folders.
Now I use the BitTorrent protocol, which forces everyone to share. No share, you no get thing. Share, you good, you get thing.

I am busy with my exams. Anyway, I've got this joke email from Kenneth, I thought I share with you guys.

A guy phones up his Boss, but gets the bosses' wife instead. "I'm afraid he died last week." she explains.
The next day the man calls again and asks for the boss. "I told you" the wife replies, "he died last week."
The next day he calls again and once more asks to speak to his boss. By his time the wife is getting upset and shouts,
"I'VE ALREADY TOLD YOU TWICE, MY HUSBAND, YOUR BOSS, DIED LAST WEEK! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING?"
"Coz," he replied laughing, "I just love hearing it..."