As year 2003 draws to a close, I begin to reflect on this current year. I originally typed this posting to contain all sorts of negative events that happen. Events like SARS, GST hikes, my not-so-impressive results and my then-classmate committing suicide. [I written a posting about my classmate committing suicide but I don't know if it's appropriate to post it up. What do you think?]
However, as I tried to recall more and more negative events, the positives ones came up instead. Which is, good in a way. I often have negative thoughts, I mean they just keep coming and I have no stopping over them. For once the good triumph over the evil; I am inspired to write about the good stuff.
Truth is, good stuff do happen. It's just how you categorize your events. All year long, I have been trying to do those think-positive stuff. I read those self-help books occasionally, just for fun only. By the way, I just read "Who moved my cheese? for kids", lol. Although it's for kids, it's still a good book, nice images inside too.
I started watching Japanese animations [call it "anime"] March this year. I wasn't introduced by anyone. I downloaded an anime series from Kazaa called Serial Experiments Lain. Let me tell you this, so far none of my friends like this anime. Everyone returned it to me saying it's extremely dull and complicated. Dull and complicated? I thought it's mysterious and thought-provoking. I guess everyone has different taste. But that's the anime that got me all started. And also started my downloading spree. Which is bad, bad, bad.
At late June, I start to blog. Once again, I wasn't introduced by anyone. In fact, I don't visit blogs last time. Every time I click on one through a search engine, I clicked on the "back" button in my browser. Little do I expect myself to sit in front of my computer, typing this end-of-the-year posting. I started simply because I wanted to have a web site and maintaining one is not easy. Blogging is much easier in a way. Plus, I get the design layouts, which I enjoy.
I am relieved that I got into Bioinformatics on late June, just a few days after I started blogging. I guess I worried for nothing because there's only 16 people in my class and there's only one class. Bioinformatics is clearly not a popular choice. I chose it as I was bleeding badly in the biology side and I need some other field to balance the yin and yang. I am quite interested in informatics so I ended up here. It's the right decision as far as I know, hopefully too. I am still not doing well for my bio part, which accounts for 70%.
So the year draws to a close, so will this posting (soon). What's for next year then? I think I'll be watching more anime. I am getting interested in Japanese language too. Can't really form good sentences with it. I am only doing some self-study for interest's sake. As for my blog, I hope I can write better. I always wanted to be able to use those bombastic words, I can't at the moment. Not forgetting layouts, there'll be more but my creative juices seems to be running out. As for my studies, I can only say I'll study harder. I am a very lazy person when it comes to studying.

Hailey [who can finally comment, hahaa]: I don't remember visiting historical sites, I guess Singapore's a century worth of history is not worth seeing, lol. Anyway, I always tried to comment using the page you viewed with, it seems that the chances of opening the window is near 0%. I don't know what's wrong, I thought it's only my computer's problem. I will try to do something about it though.

Let me admit this embarrassing fact - I can't ride a bicycle. Now and then, my class (excluding the present one) would organize trips to places like East Coast Park, Pasir Ris Beach and even Sentosa Island. These places all have beaches. It must have been the SG$500 littering fines signs all around or the cleaner's hard work, because these beaches are, generally speaking, quite clean.
And you know the typical beach activity.
Years ago, when discussing about a class outing, my friend jumped and suggested excitingly, "I know! This is very good! Why don't we go to the beach, ride bicycles and have a barbeque there?". Okay, so the others thought it's a good idea.
A year or two later, when discussing about a class outing, another one of my friends jumped and suggested excitingly, "I know! This is good, trust me. Why don't we go to the beach, ride bicycles and have a barbeque there?". Oh God, why does history repeats itself.
So I spend most of my class outings going to the beach. I mean it's not a bad idea. It's just that it's not an original idea. It's an over-used idea. There's not much things to do in Singapore. So most of my friends agree to the idea of going to beaches.
This even happens in Japanese cartoons. They have summer vacations, so most of the time they end up in beaches. Plus, the artist can draw the female characters wearing bikinis. What better a way to attract male viewers.
But there're some differences. Not much people swim in the beach waters in Singapore. Our waters look quite polluted, lol. The Japanese cartoon characters don't ride bicycles in parks and beaches too. I always see those cartoons featuring characters smashing watermelons with a rod [baseball bat?], I think it's some tradition and they always do in beaches. If I do that in Singapore, I will look so silly, people will think I'm wasting the watermelon too.
Back to class outings, the highlight of every beach outing is no doubt the barbeque. Most of the money we put together goes into there. I don't like barbeque food so I am kinda in a disadvantage. I do not eat much of the barbequed items.
I spend more time in front of the barbeque pit starting the fire than after start the fire. Isn't it ironical? Or I did was to fan and fan to keep the fire alive. And boy, was I good. I mean, who can you find to have the patience to start fires instead of cycling? Me! Although that is partly because of the fact that I.. well.. couldn't cycle.

There's a performance by the alumni of Anderson Junior College Chinese Orchestra yesterday evening. Benedict was performing there; I went there to watch him perform. He's playing the cello, rather.. well.. big instrument. He most probably got interested in cello when he watches Bond strutting their instruments on television.
I went for several Chinese orchestra performance, I can't say I am a good music listener. So I can't praise nor criticize. I must have been tired after sitting in front of the computer from morning to afternoon yesterday, because my eye lids are closing during the performance.
So the performance went on, music pieces after music pieces. I surveyed the audiences, the hall is 85% filled. Once again, I must have been really tired, because I can't wait to return home to sleep. So I waited patiently for each piece to end.
After an hour and a half, an intermission arrived. I did my stretches, I am very good at that, especially after I worked in The Singapore Mint.
 - intermission -
Okay, back. I went for my own intermission [had dinner] when I am typing this post as well.
I looked at the whatever-you-call-it, there are 3 more pieces left. Excellent. The last piece was a gu zhen [that's a very nice-sounding Chinese instrument] soloist who refuses to reveal her age. The more you hide your age, the more people want to know your age. It is a rather strange piece and more importantly, long.
No matter how long the piece is, it stills end eventually. So as usual, there's clapping. Then I heard the word I fear most at this crucial leaving moment - "Encore". Oh no, encore.. Just because of one guy shouting encore, the audience was given an encore! Shouldn't it be like there's lots of demand for an encore then the audience is given an encore? Or did the Anderson Junior College Alumni Chinese Orchestra hired someone to scream "encore"?
So the encore was granted. Great, I can finally return home.
"Encore!"
Please, I allow you to insert your own vulgarities. The same guy shouted "encore" again. One person shouting again. Just one person. I thought "encore" means "one more time" or something like that. After you one-more-time, you one-more-time again? The more the merrier? That's very Singaporean by the way.
So another encore was granted. Great, I can finally return home.
"Encore!"
I tell you, I am really want to smack this fellow off his seat. Thankfully, there wasn't anymore encore. The orchestra probably hasn't prepared that much encores too.
Following that was some silly hip-hip-hoorays and cheers. It clearly reflects the un-professionalism of the performers. They clapped for themselves too. That's very egoistic as they're literally praising themselves.
I left hurriedly to return home after all that, fearing the same guy is going to scream "encore" again.

Okay, the alumni concert isn't that bad. I'm just falling asleep because I'm too tired, that's all.

Irasshai! ("Welcome" in Japanese) Hikaru Utada did it. Mika Nakashima did it. Shiina Ringo [or Shéna Ringö, or Shena Ringo, or Sheena Ringo, so many names..] did it too. They are Japanese artists who sang at least a song in English fully. What about the other way round? Picture this: Caucasians singing in Japanese. How possible is that? Apparently it is, or I won't be writing such an introduction. Meet the gaijin-s ("gaijin" means outside people in Japanese) called Nice Guy Jin (NICEGUY人). Puns intended.
Three Amerika-jin (Americans) who call themselves Novi Go, Eikaiwa Dave and Afropics. Interesting enough, Afropics doesn't sport an Afro ,lol. Their single - Hai, Irasshai - is released on July 23, 2003. The song is from the soundtrack of "Kochira Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo" (Kameari Park Precinct), a Japanese anime movie. Yes, I did my researches before posting..
This lyrics are actually conversations between a customer and a proprietor. The conversations are very casual by the way. pketh suggested that I can make a jukebox that includes the songs, I told him that it's quite easy. Okay, I am completely wrong, hahaa. It turns out I have no idea how to implement the loading of sounds correctly.
But I can still let you hear how it sounds like. Just a 38 seconds sample encoded in WMA file proprietary. Download the sample from here (164 KB). [Download it quick, as I'll remove it on January 2.]
I got my sources from Jpop.com. Maguro-chan [yummy] ran an interview with them too. Photos are included in the interview too. Official samples from their Victor Entertainment includes a video and music. Both requires RealOne Player, and I hate RealOne, it's a crap player.
You can visit the official Nice Guy Jin page too. It's in Japanese. Demo watashi wa nihongo ga wakarimasen ["But I don't understand Japanese", ironically in Japanese, I hope I gotten that right.].
EDIT: Okay, It turns out that I gotten it wrong. It's a typo error, but sharp-eyed Serene spotted it. I typed "wakarimasen" as "warikarimasen".

I have returned from Sentosa. It turns out my brother made a mistake with the dates when he told me we're staying till December 26. It's a good thing though. I was getting bored staying there.
The last thing I did in Sentosa was to have a nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant and returned home. There's some things that one most probably will notice in a Chinese restaurant.
Firstly, the waiters and waitresses are Chinese obviously. It's not a matter of being racist, it's just giving the Chinese restaurant feel. So I don't think it's wrong for Abercrombie and Fitch to use blondes, well, never mind. I don't want to talk about Abercrombie and Fitch and go out of point..
Anyway, it's easy to spot chopsticks too, since it's a Chinese tradition. Singapore is made up of more than 75% of Chinese. But truth is that more than 90% of Singapore Chinese doesn't know how to hold a chopstick correctly. I am included in the 90% of course. Everybody holds it the wrong way and can still pretend to teach a foreigner how to hold one.
Despite Confucius teachings stress that no talking is to be done during the meal, everyone talks. Confucius must have been so upset that's he passes down rules that no one follows. But talking during meals is really a good way to interact so no one complains. Unfortunately, it's not unusual see people chewing and talking at the same time.
There's still a little shyness in Singapore. No one wants to start eating first. Everybody will be waiting and waiting until one brave soul, usually the payer of the meal, starts first. Then everyone will rush to get the food in a particular order that's pretty logical. Obviously the food that's the nicest are snatched first.
Chinese eats lots of meat, chicken especially. So the food has got to get stuck in between your teeth quite often. If it doesn't, it only means that your teeth are either too neatly pack or the other way round. So toothpicks are available. Although you supposed to do it in the rest room or something, Chinese prefer the more unsightly method, that is to pick the dirt from the teeth right in front of everyone. Luckily, most cover their mouths with another hand while doing so.
Lastly, wet towels at the end of the meal. You'll hear popping sounds of wet towel packages. The popping sounds must have been so attractive, because lots of people pop here and there. Then there's a really strange culture to use the tiny wet towels to wipe the palms, the mouth, the face, the wrists, and everywhere reachable without removing the clothes. It's really funny to see people wiping their faces by the way.
Okay, all these restaurant traits does not apply to all Singaporeans. Some of which applies to me, I did that toothpick thing, lol. I was just bored, looking at my family, cousins, uncles and aunts eat their food. So most observations are written because they did that. Perhaps I should start learning how to hold a chopstick too, learn the right way that is.
This is written for amusement only and should not be referred to as a travel guide or the Singapore Tourism Board will kill me.

It's so noisy right now. My neighbor living above is having some construction in his house. Normally my ears can filter the sounds, but not when it is right above my room. I tried to type a post but simply get distracted time and again.
All that's in my mind right now is "trrrrr". [Sounds of drilling bits drilling and drilling.] That is the bad thing about living in an HDB flat. HDB stands for Housing Development Board. That's for Singapore obviously.
I am proud of my flat, it stood tall, 25 floors, who can ask for more. Nicely painted, lifts being reconstruct for the benefit of all. A beautiful park beside my flat. A balcony in almost every house.
Okay, so what if it has 25 floors? I stayed on the 3rd floor! So what if it's nicely painted? it's blocked by other buildings! So what if lifts are being constructed? I stay on the 3rd floor, you think I need a lift!? So what if there's a beautiful park? It's always flooded after rain and construction is going on on the running path! So what if I have a balcony? My father uses it to dry clothes!!
So basically, there's nothing good staying in my apartment. Now that damned neighbor from above is entertaining me with drill bits. My damned neighbor from above spoiled the interconnecting pipes that carry water. No wonder neighbors quarrel.
But I am a damned neighbor too. We simply damn each other. The air conditioner in my room causes them a lot of trouble. It's so cold that their room has water caused by condensation. So they complained to the authorities, we complain about the spoilt pipes. The represent got down and talk things out. He started speaking of good neighbor etiquettes.
You know what? The neighbors must have gotten angry that I am typing this because the drill bits just got a lot louder.
So today is Christmas Eve. I want to hear "Jingle Bells", not drill bits. I want to have a "Silent Night" too. But those people "Up on the Housetop" are not giving me a chance. If this continues, "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas" will not be giving them Christmas presents. They'll be saying "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas".
I can't stand it anymore. I can never sing "I'll be Home for Christmas", because I am not, I'll be at Sentosa. I hope by the time I'm back, they'll complete Project "Deck the Halls".
I guess I'll just have to go there to "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas", maybe I can see "Chestnut Roasting on an Open Fire" there too.
Anyway, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Enjoy your holidays. I won't be blogging on December 25 as I am in Sentosa. I'll be back on Boxing Day.

Recently, I have seen more and more coverage in the local news about neighbors not behaving as civilized as they should. These incidents often end up in the courtrooms. However, they're never settled on first try, hence local law firms have lots to earn despite the economy downturn.
These disputes worsen when some old man dances like nobody's business in front of his neighbor's house as a form of insult. How do I know? Oh, the local media filmed and broadcasted it. And man, it looks really hilarious.
It simply shows how ugly Singaporeans can get. Who is to blame for this? Should we simply blame it on the citizen's small-mindedness?
I say no, our very Singapore Government is doing the same. If you stay close to Singapore, you have probably heard that Singapore and Malaysia apparently are bad neighbors. Both of them publicly taunt and test each other's patience. Both of them send each other into the international courtrooms.
There is the water issue, about Malaysia selling too-cheap water to Singapore basically. Malaysia wants to increase the price but there's some 1960s agreement to sell at that particularly low price. Negotiations failed time after time. The Malaysian Government accuses Singapore of manipulating situations or something like that.
Matter got worse when Malaysia publishes an advertisement on Asian Wall Street Journal stating the facts over fiction for the water issue. Singapore retaliated by publishing a similar I heard.
Somehow, the government's behavior is clearly reflected onto their very citizens. But let's not drag all Singaporeans down though. It seems that those who quarrel with their neighbors are, well.. Chinese. That's my race. I never seen Malay neighbors quarrel around me. On the other hand, I keep hearing about Chinese quarreling. It's a disgrace, I tell you.

Sorry, this posting is written a month ago I think, I just found it so I post it, lol.
My neighbors came to my house moments ago and wished my family a merry Christmas. Gifts are exchanged. Minutes before, I opened it. I was given a huge Winnie the Pooh Bear towel. Er.. Okay, what makes them think I like Pooh bear. You know what I was thinking when I open the present? It's really strange, but I was hoping to eat sashimi. Apparently that didn't come true..

Here's a new layout with Ayumi Hamasaki. This layout is called "RAINBOW" simply because I took the images from her album with a similar title. Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer whose albums sold like hot cakes. Is she my favorite Japanese artist? Er, I'll prefer Hikaru Utada to her, but this layout's on Ayu.
All the colors are inspired by the scanned image of Ayu's CD booklet images. The designs are somewhat derived from there too. A tiny bit of it is inspired by the 2003 special issue of Newsweek, but seriously I thought it's not worth the mention.
I kinda given this layout a very dreamy look. Looking at it now makes me want to hover on my ground. Ayu looks so dreamy too.
I don't have themes this time because I feel this layout can stand alone, without usage of themes. I intended to put Ayu's song, "RAINBOW", in here too, but it sounds really bad after quality reduction.
The Ayu image is quite hard to edit, I need to stitch the images with Photoshop even, first time I tried photo-stitching. I need to erase all the Japanese lyrics, yet preserving the background too. I kept this images for quite some time but never work on it simply because it's too troublesome. But it's done and you're looking at the results.
I have chosen Century Gothic as the layout's font, which is Feng Li's MSN Messenger font, hahaa. The logo uses News Gothic Standard. There are still traces of Verdana around, never mind that. The Apple community doesn't have Century Gothic, so they should see Avant Grande (my secondary font). The font size is quite big unlike my previous too.
Originally, I intend to make Ayu's hair shimmer with the use of Flash's masking and stuff but I kinda messed it up, lol. So no flash too.
Actually the blog design doesn't fit my blog contents and my personality too. I don't even know why I construct it to be this way. It's like I'm following a client's order or something like that. Anyway it's done and it's staying for a month once again.
Also, new tomodachi-s. I have added Serene and xia. Check their pages out too. Want me to add yours too? Hate or love my current layout? Drop a comment. :)
[Okay, look people, I always wonder if you know that you can comment too.]

I just watch Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. No spoilers here, in fact this post is not about the film even. Well, seems like a lot of people knows how it ends anyway.
It's a great film. It's a great trilogy too. So great a trilogy that it'll put Peter Jackson's name into the film history books. It is, in fact, too good for a B-list (or C-list) director to work on.
For once, I actually feel that the film critics have done justice to a film. This time, I see loads and loads of praises. I mean, these critics are notorious for slamming both the good and bad movie. That's why they're called "film critics" and not "film praisers", if there's such a word that is.
There's one thing for sure - people love to critic. At least most, myself inclusive. Every time I watch a film, listen to a piece of music, my review goes like, "it's good, but..". I can't help it. It's just in me that I have to criticize.
But I never criticize (puny) human beings. I always praise. It's simply because I think so many people is better than me in terms of character etc. I am also afraid of hurting other's feelings.
We had this module called - Web Publishing. Then there's this assignment to make a web site from a scratch. So everyone did their web pages. These are first-timers. Most completed the assignment one week before the dead line. So everyone strut, I mean show off, their stuff.
People whose web pages I have viewed include: Ernest, Hai Jiao, James, Pei Shan, Shawn, Xinni and Zhi Yuan. The best I have seen is James, followed by Xinni, Hai Jiao, Shawn, Ernest, Pei Shan, lastly Zhi Yuan.
But I daren't critic them much, I do, however, told Zhi Yuan that his web page seriously needs a lot of amendments. For the others, I praise and praise. James really did put out something decent, very good try for first-timer. Xinni's design is great too, very consistent, right choice of colors. I shan't comment on others though.
Being able to criticize so much, thankfully I can accept criticisms rather well too. If people criticize me or whatever, I do not get upset. Well, not much. I do get sad when people say things like, "Hate your blog's writing". Who doesn't anyway.
In this blog, I try not to criticize too much. I makes me feel that I'm arrogant, and I try hard not to show it, although fact is, I am kinda arrogant nowadays.
I just keep reminding myself that when I think I'm good at something, there are 6 billion people out there who has a chance of being much better than me. That way, I feel pretty much er.. humbled.

Last Friday, I posted something about Ayumi Hamasaki's lyrics. The posting is titled "music//ichi". If you're wonder what "ichi" is, it means "one". And today, this posting is titled "music//ni", I don't think it'll take you long to figure it's number two now.
I plan to write one of these posting every Friday until I reach "music//ju" with "ju" meaning "ten". After blogging for 5 months, I am starting to run out of ideas on certain days. I simply have nothing in my mind. Focusing on a weekly subject gives a good start. Perhaps those who have writers block right now can try something like that. :)
Anyway, today, I'll do the same. The song is titled "Densetsu no Onsen", translated to be er.. "Legendary Hot Springs Turtle". Sang by Yukino Satsuki, taken from the soundtracks of Love Hina, a Japanese cartoon. Okay, this got to be the craziest lyrics so far. Actually, so far there's only two such postings, so there's not much to compare. I mean even the title "Legendary Hot Springs Turtle" itself is amusing already. I like the "KAMA yo!" which means "The turtle!".
This is how the song sounds like. The tune sounds like one of those I-love-my-motherland Chinese songs. Listening to it makes me want to join the Chinese wars to fight the Mongols off the border [that's a long time ago]. The singing reminds of sounds like Japanese folk singing. Just imaging Yukino (the singer) singing in her silliest and most confused voice. Her singing pauses with a chunk of Japanese text will sounds "sexily silly". With constant staccatos in her singing and slow rock background, I rate this song The Most Amusing Tune I heard.
 

Today is December 18. Crap, you can probably see the date from the top. My examinations ends on November 7 (Friday). I went to work part-time from November 9 (Monday). I worked for a month, then it's play time.
Time sure flies, my holidays are going to end in half a month's time. Einstein's law of relativity certainly applies here. When I'm enjoying or very busy to even think about time, time passes so quickly. However when I am in school in an extremely boring lecture, time seems to slow down significantly.
In school, I spend most of the time looking at my phone. Not playing the games, just watching the game. I wasn't a good student obviously. I often look around, up and down, waiting for time to pass.
Then the newspaper comes in. Singapore has 2 free newspapers that you can get from certain newsstands. One is called "Streats", the other "Today". There're advertisements all around though. You got to be early to get these newspapers though. I always get these newspaper from my friends, they don't mind giving them to me too, after all, they've read it while being half-awake in the North-East Line (local train line). [It's rather amusing to note that now these papers come to me before I even open my mouth to ask.]
Newspapers are a good way to pass time. But reading in class is quite disrespect to the lecturers, isn't it? Indeed, I have been told to keep the damn paper many a times. So I keep my damn newspaper.. under my table. I fold the paper into a quarter and continue reading it. It's either the lecturer fail to notice or has given up. My favorite module to read newspaper is Dr. Sim's Molecular Genetics class, which not-so-coincidentally, contributed a "C" grade to this semester's result slip.
Obviously, there are many other ways to make time pass faster in a lecture.
The most common is - sleeping. Something that requires a lot of courage. I can never fall asleep when someone is talking or looking at me. So this method doesn't work for me. It's not unusual to spot a classmate, facing their heads downwards, holding a pen with its tip on the paper, motionless.
There are some who are holding their pen with its tip on the paper, this time, actually moving! Taking notes? Er, not so. Doodling. The art of drawing on the foolscap paper. It's a perfect way to pass time. Best of all, the lecturer won't notice that you're doodling. Even best of all, after years of doodling, many upgraded their skills to sketching instead. [That explains the hentai (perverted) image I saw in room T4A51.]
With so many ways to pass time in class, says who lectures are boring?

On a side note, 2 people have expressed their interest on the background music - "Kanashimi no Nurimori". I wasn't expecting it. Thank you for your interest. Check your mail boxes if you requested for it. Also, I'm making a new layout, 20% completed already, features Ayumi Hamasaki. Will be taking over the current layout on Boxing Day (Dec 26). I always want to make this layout but my Photoshop skills are limiting me. There's lots to be done photo-stitching, erasing the lyrics on the background. Please look forward to it. :)

I haven't been blogging these few days. I thought I should write something or your people would have thought you're visiting a dead blog.
So here I am, trying to think of something to blog about. As for what am I doing for the past 48 hours, I am at my cousin's place, staying overnight.
I hardly had the chance of using the Internet in his house. His mom is rather strict and locks the computer in the room. Even if the computer room is unlocked, my cousin would be playing online games.
I looked at him play. I am fascinated with the language used in online gaming. The online world is strangely universal. A guy can be yelling "siao" (crazy in Chinese Hokkien Dialect) then the other party yells in some strange languages. None obeys online etiquette, everybody's just fuk up. ["fuk up" is a term meaning.. well, it's better not to know.]
Then there was Frosty the snowman. A toy my cousin's aunt got for him. It's rather strange to get a 15-year-old boy a snowman soft toy. There's this button there, you can press it and dear Frosty will start singing his theme song. What better a theme than a badly recorded version of Frosty the Snowman.
Nothing's more satisfying than solving a math problem for my cousin. I think I have returned all my math knowledge to my teacher. My cousin's parents are those really competitive sort. They have high expectations for my cousin, hoped for me to enter a good junior college, never consider a polytechnic. [I am from a polytechnic, what's so bad about it…]
Every time when I am not with my cousin, I am reading a Tokyo travel guide. I don't have intention to go there, I am just reading for the sake of knowing more about the city. But I am kinda more attraction to the color pictures. I can finally answer Shawn's question on whether Edo is the old name for Tokyo or Kyoto. [Answer is Tokyo.]
The day passes quite fast, it's nearing the end. My cousin's watching Me, Myself and Irene on television while I am well.. typing, quite obviously. [Yawn.]

A particular news caught my attention. Okay, so the swastika symbol is gone. But I don't see the fuss, I don't even think it should be gone. The Buddhist religion uses this symbol, I have seen it many times. I think the particular Jewish group is getting too worked up over this. [Jews suffered greatly under the Nazi rule.]
Come on, it's just a font. "Bookshelf Symbol 7" is a font distributed as part of Office 2003. It contains characters some Traditional Chinese or Kanji (Japanese) characters. Even includes the word "er" and "shan" which means good and evil respectively.
Anyway, a utility is available to remove this font, download from here. The company will also release tools to remove only offending characters.

Sources from Channel News Asia, Haaretz (Article) and Microsoft Knowledge Base. [Note that news web sites have a habit of expiring their pages after days.]

Do you listen to songs of other languages. A language that you are not familiar with? I listen to Japanese music but I don't speak Japanese.
And because I don't live in Japan or listen to a Japanese radio station. I choose artists either based on recommendation or the fact that that artist has a nice Japanese name. I end up listening to similar artists like Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro, Hikaru Utada, and occasionally Hello!Project groups. Hello!Project is some sort of an organization to nurture teeny pop princesses and throw them to form a group. The brain child of Tsunku, Hello!Project includes groups like Morning Musume [Musume=Girls], Coconut Musume, MiniMoni, PetitMoni, Aa! and more. Very successful due to marketing and looks.
Then the question comes. I always ask myself, "Why do I listen to music that I don't understand?". I can't provide a decent answer on that one. All I can say is that I like the flavor of the music. The beat of the music. The vocals, and well.. the broken English.
So the day arrives that I tell myself, I got to at least why out what they are singing! I roughly know it's what type of songs as I know some very common words, plus the tune suggests it too.
But I want to know the details. So one day, I did.
I start of with searching for Ayumi Hamasaki's "Real Me". I was surprised with the results. I mean, wow, she sang some parts in English! I didn't know it was English. I do know there's English in that song, but I didn't know there's so much in there.
---
Some parts of her song:
What I get? [No translation needed]
What you get?
Te ni shiteru mono wa [It may be an illusion]
Shinjitai dake de [And we may only want to believe]
Gensou nano kamo na [That we have got]

a woman could be dangerous
a woman could be generous
in order to survive
Sonna ni itsudemo [We cannot always be]
Ii Ko bakari de irarenai [So good girls]

a woman could be having fun
a woman could be like a nun
in order to survive
honto no watashi wa [As I know]
Anata ga mite de kureru kara [You see the real me]
---
Personally, I find the lyrics rather amusing. "A woman could be having fun, a woman could be like a nun", I didn't know that's what she sang before I checked. Sister Act 1 and 2 are enough to prove Ayumi wrong that nuns cannot have fun.
If it's the English that you feel doesn't make sense, I think Ayumi wrote it herself, please forgive her, lol. As for why the lyrics itself doesn't make sense, well, most of her lyrics are like that. It probably make more sense before it's translated to English.

Translations from Masa.

Recently, I been to Professor Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS exhibition in Singapore Expo. If you aren't familiar with his name, Professor Gunther von Hagens [von means he's a German?] is the person who invented (and also coined the term) - plastination. It's a method of preserving human bodies to its near-perfect form. And definitely, not very kiddie-friendly.
So the BODY WORLDS team brought many well.. bodies here, some of which are truly impressive. Most of these bodies have their skin removes, showing their muscles, skeletons and organs.
There are signs to constantly remind visitors to respect these exhibitions as they are all dead bodies after all. Let me tell you something - Singaporeans do NOT respect these bodies.
There are many teenagers there, should be aged 13-21. Some of these people went around pointing at the bodies' penises, then laughing out loud when they first saw one with it. As they walk to more exhibits, they soon figure, "oh.. So all these full bodies have private parts". [Why of course!]
It doesn't just end here, people went to compare the sizes of the penises. His penis is larger than his. His testes is larger than his. The joy of criticism never ends.
It's also interesting to know that there are only around 2 female bodies. There is a section containing fetus too, some are deformed.
So how do I feel? I have to admit this, I find it quite plain. It's not boring, but it is plain. Perhaps it's the interior decorations, the colors etc. Slowly, I walked around the entire exhibition. The last section is the comments corner, which so happens to be the highlight in my opinion. There're so many strange negative comments.
Here's some that I saw:
- This is so gross! [your body's gross]
- I want to eat French fries [what the hell is this person think?!]
- Show some sex positions [no comments]
- Good but too expensive [typical Singaporean]
- Too much men, show more women [that's quite true actually]
- <Strange, never-seen-before languages>

I spend more time looking at other's comments than writing mine.
After 2 hours, we left the place. It's indeed educational, but I am hoping to see more exhibits showing bodies that are different (e.g. deform) due to genetic disorders or illnesses. I keep seeing black lungs. Yes, smoking kills, smoking cause black lungs, but I'm sure there're more interesting things to display other than black lungs.
Finally, I shall conclude, this is also what I wrote at the comments corner - Despite the many criticisms people made in the comments corner, I believe the bodies are artistically portrayed.

Week 5, that is this week. Monday is the last day.
"I have to be early, I have to be early," I told myself. After going to work late practically everyday, I decided that I should be early on my last day.
Despite rushing out of my house at 8:20, I am still can't catch the earlier bus. The going-to-work routine is always the same. I listened to some music, walk to the bus stop. Waited at the bus stop with my fellow waiting-mates. Looked at the Michelle Chia advertisement, oh.. it's condom advertisement now. Never mind. Bus 178 arrived, I boarded the bus. I noticed people are often sitting at the same seat as yesterday. A female colleague who is a year or two older than me will be taking the same bus. I always wanted to speak to her, but she's always reading comics. She injured her leg today. I wanted to ask her what happened but then she's reading. We alighted at the same bus stop (obviously..) and walked to the work place. She walks very slowly due to her leg injury, I didn't dare talk to her and rushed to work.
I am still late.. [crap, last day, I'm still late.]
That day's job is rather light. I felt light, not literally. It's like a burden gone. Every hour, I am reminded that it's my last day by my colleagues. It's strange but that really cheered me up, lol.
It's a rather strange feeling. I am quite sad that this is the last time I'm going to see those people. At the same time, I felt excited when I thought about the million things I can do at home.
Time passed faster. Before I know it, it's time to knock off. Some of my colleagues said good bye to me, and tell me to work hard for my studies. I replied "I will work hard" to practically everyone although I know the semester is going to like the previous (and the previous and the previous and the..).
I went to the security counter and return the keys and the pass. Also said good bye to the security guard whom I also talked to when I'm bored.
I step out The Singapore Mint. I'm free.
I sat the company transport one last time. Oh, the girl who's one or two year older was there too. She never ever took the company transport. It's the first time I see her. That's so unusual. However, as usual, she's reading her comic, so..
Despite the times I almost slept, the times I day-dreamed, the time destroyed 7 gold coins, this has been a valuable experience. I learn many skills for there too. Skills that I would not have learnt in the admin departments. I met great people. Especially Ah Chian, who gave me to safest job in the workplace. There is no job safer than mine. The only time I got hurt is when a cardboard box's edge cut my epidermis (outermost layer of skin).
More importantly, I learnt how to talk to people older than me. I found topics to start with. These few weeks, I have worked hard. I have also skived [British English for being away from work] hard. I'll remember the people I work for and with. I'll remember the pantry room. I'll remember the annoying Pentium 1 computer that cranks up strange noises when I input commands. I'll also remember not to purchase any of the silver monkey coins. [They're badly made.]
It's Tuesday now. I woke up at 8 (by my brother's awful voice). I do not need to work. I looked around my room, and felt somewhat relieved. Relieved that I am not late (anymore). Relieved from the stress of work. The work has ended, so does this conclusion from the previous posting "mint//review". I'm a free man now.

I notice I have been criticizing about practically everything recently, especially my work place. I now declare it as my past work place. I stop working there today. This time, I'll try to write this post with little, if not none, criticism.
My examinations ended on Nov 07, a Friday. I rest for a couple of days and went on to work the following Monday (Nov 11). My cousin, Irene, got me the job. She told me it's an admin type of job, so I agreed working. It turns out otherwise, it's a production job. Meaning, work in the factory. For a week, I blamed my cousin silently. The blunder isn't really her fault, it's the human resource manager, Alice's fault.
Three schools sent their students for work experience courses. They are: Fairfield Methodist, Nanyang and Seng Kang secondary schools. I met 2 guys from Fairfield Methodist, namely Paul and Alvin. [Previously, I mention his name as Steven, it's incorrect. Steven is the truck driver.] I always look forward to meeting them in the breaks as there's no one else to talk to in the entire company. Irene doesn't work at the same storey as me. Our conversation seldom went past work; it is enough to keep me awake though.
I worked in the Proof coin section. It's a section that makes commemorative coins and medallions. I receive work instruction from Ah Chian (pronounced as Kean of Keanu). I find the job unchallenging and boring. There's a good reason why though, I do not talk to my colleagues. I simply can't find a topic to start with.
I begin working with the 2oz 999 Silver SG$10 Lunar Monkey Proof Coin 2004. I am helping Jessie to pack them into capsules and seal them. It's a rather simple job, but after doing the same thing over and over again, I got tired of it.
The second week was slightly better. I talk to Jessie a little more, around 3 times everyday. That itself is a great achievement. However, I didn't continue helping Jessie as often. I am given my own task now - 1oz 24K Gold SG$250 Lunar Monkey Proof Coin 2004. I did packing and sealing once again, but this time, there's something new - Edge marking. It's the process of marking the edge of the coin with "Monetary Authority of Singapore".
Unfortunately, as the second week is getting better, Paul and Alvin left. And in comes the The Chinese High School people. I don't talk to them, there's very unapproachable, always hanging out in large groups. The worst thing happened when I dropped 7 gold coins worth around SG$8,400 (US$4,890). Thank God that I don't have to compensate.
The third week was a bad one. I got very bored and tired. The thought of quitting is constantly in my mind. I complained to my mother about the job and told her that I'm quitting. The days past slowly, I didn't tell Ah Chian about it. Reason being that I haven't completed my gold monkey coins. I don't want to leave things half done.
So the forth week arrive. So did the boys and girls of Holy Innocent's. Another batch of The Chinese High School guys arrive. I met another 2 guys - Jonathan and Kah Sieng. I talk to them. Alas, something to look forward in the breaks. I start talking more with Jessie too. Jessie's 19300 silver monkey coins are completed by then. I completed my 2000 gold monkey coins too.
I did something new on the forth week too - Serialization. It's a process of engraving certain gold coins with serials. It's a very long process, each coin takes at least 40 seconds to complete. It took me 4 hours to complete 180 coins. [By the way, if you do some mathematical calculation, you would have realize that I could have done it in a much shorter time.] It's the easiest job I ever done.
Finally, I told Ah Chian that I'll be working till coming Friday. She request that I stay for another day, till Monday, to help Jessie with packing of Certificate of Authenticity for the silver monkeys. I agreed.
I spent days packing those with Jessie. When I'm bored, I start talking nonsense to Jessie. I found out that she loves American cartoons - Smurfs, Little Pony, Mickey Mouse, Lion King, Care Bear and a whole lot more. She dislikes Japanese cartoons sadly. I did not tell her that I actually prefer the Japanese cartoons though.

To be concluded tomorrow.. Mint-rix Revolutions

I found a joke, I rate it as very mildly dirty.
---
Little Mary was not the best student in Sunday school.
Usually she slept through class.
One day the teacher called on her while she was napping, "Tell me, Mary, who created the universe?"
When Mary didn't stir, little Johnny, an altruistic boy seated behind her, took a pin and jabbed her in the rear. "God Almighty!!" shouted Mary and the teacher said, "Very good", and Mary fell back asleep.
A while later the teacher asked Mary, "Who is our Lord and Savior?"
But Mary didn't even stir from her slumber. Once again, Johnny came to the rescue and stuck her again. "Jesus Christ!!" shouted Mary and the teacher said, "Very good", and Mary fell back asleep.
Then the teacher asked Mary a third question. "What did Eve say to Adam after she had her twenty-third child?" And again Johnny jabbed her with the pin. This time Mary jumped up and shouted, "If you stick that damn thing in me one more time, I'll break it in half!!"
The teacher fainted.
---
This is an example of a badly-thought joke. There's evidence from the very beginning. Firstly, who would ever thought of jabbing your friend with a pin. Also, Adam and Eve have so many sons and daughters? I don't think so.

Cell phones, hand phones, mobile phones, whatever you call them. These accessories has become part and parcel of our daily lives. Personally, I hold a Nokia 8310, somewhat an old model but it's still functional, I mean, at least I can still call.
Speaking of functions, cell phones has evolved from their very humble origins of a portable phone (that's equivalent to a modern day cordless phone) to the a gaming device like the N-gage (that's equivalent to a gameboy).
With my 8310 with me, I abandoned my watch. I thought, "Why bring a watch when my phone tells the time?". So my watch sleeps in my dark pencil case. 8310 has a digital FM receiver that is built in, it basically removes an FM receiver from my holiday to-buy list. It has got a few games too, although I never play them at all.
Nokia must be smiling happily that they're satisfying the crowds. Now phones have evolved into some sort of a mini-PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). It doesn't provide all the features of a PDA, but it does gives around, say, 20%? You can't expect much from the software synchronization part of course.
In comes color phones. It looks cool, but how many people really need it? I see many people with color phones admiring their phone's wallpaper only. Colors aren't need for sending messages, calling etc.. It just simply looks cooler. [8310 is not a black-and-white phone, dot matrix, I think that's what you call it.]
Then the phone companies though - what more can we add? The top executives looks at each other and one said, "a camera?". "Wahahahaa, you got to be kidding," the other execs laughed. The next big thing - built-in digital cameras. Huh? Poor resolution? Poor imaging quality? No flash? Who cares? It's the quantity that counts! Now we've got another new feature.
There're phones with MP3 players, organizers, games, WAP (I forgot what it stands for) and more. But the phone companies know their rules. If you don't introduce new features to the phone, you're going to lose out.
What's next? Customization of phone operating systems? Ability to install updates through WAP? Memory cards in phones like digital cameras? Voice recognition software for giving commands? Thumbprint authentication? You never know.
These phones are evolving so fast to even confuse Charles Darwin! Ironically, the number of features are inversely proportional to the looks to the phone, especially Nokia's. I find them getting uglier and uglier. It actually reminds me of Pokémon creatures. When they are young, their cute, when they got older and become more powerful, they got uglier. Same with Digimon. Same with humans too (perhaps). Oh, Darwin would have studied phone evolutions instead if he is present now.

After work, I return home with the company transport. It's simply because it's free.
The route is boring hence ear phones are often plugged into well.. my ear. I'll either be listening to the portable CD player or the radio on my cell phone. With music blasting into my ear, I fell asleep today. I think it's Ayumi Hamasaki's YOU. I'm not saying the song is boring, I like that album, it's from A BALLADS, track number 4. A BALLADS is the best Ayumi Hamasaki compilation album in my humble opinion. [It's the one with 2 Ayumis facing each other, almost kissing, in the front cover.]
Then I was awoken my a steep turn that the bus driver made. I woke up and look at the roads. Picture this scenario:
But first, select a suitable face pace song for its soundtrack. Anyway, think about a small road with many people crossing the road. Actually, they aren't just crossing the road, they're jay-walking.
Then this huge bus travels at it's usual speed, without stopping. Pedestrians grew increasingly worried of the outcome. They thought, with reference to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To cross or not to cross". [Don't blame me if it's not from Hamlet or if I spelled "Hamlet" wrongly, I am never good in literature.] They crossed.
It is a choice wrong made. The bus driver slammed on the horn angrily. The bus screamed, "Beeeeeep!". Roughly translated to, "<vulgarities>, you <vulgarity> humans made a <vulgarity> wrong choice. Turn back to the <vulgarity> pavement or I will roll you puny humans flat!".
The humans scampered frantically to the nearest safe location. The bus smirked.
I, too, smirked. I am neither the bus nor the bus driver, just a simple passenger who happens to be in the bus. The aunties¹
cried, "hen huai leh!", which roughly means, "very mean!".
Back to the point that I smirked. I look at the puny human and thought they deserve this scare. There's this Chinese saying that says - Ma Lu Ru Hu Kou - literally means the road is like a tiger's jaws. It's trying to tell you that the road can be dangerous so the Chinese people sure have to look out for it. It applies to all races as well.
It's dangerous indeed. And when this vehicle knock you down while you're jay-walking, it's your fault technically speaking. The insurance company is unlikely to pay you. Maybe the car owner can even sue you for damaging his/her bumper!
So kids, when you're thinking of crossing the road, do not jay-walk.
Today's posting is brought to you by the letters - "D", "E" and "W", and the number "13". [No humans are hurt while filming this posting.]

I tried to blog about my pay day yesterday but Blogger experienced some database connection problems that gives me no mood to blog. I got my pay check yesterday. It's a beautiful CitiBank cheque. If I had that chance, I would have kept it as a memento, but you know, it has got value in it.
But the question comes - er.. wait.. I can't seem to phrase it in a question. Basically, Blogger has some problems recently. I'm sure regular bloggers would have noticed. No doubt Blogger is a free service, at least I am using their free web space service - Blog*Spot. But shouldn't they provide better services.
I remember sending them an enquiry days after I join Blogger, they have yet to reply me. I sent that early July I believe. I am not going to wait for their reply, they have apparently forgot or probably refuse to read them.
Last time, I used ZonkBoard. They stopped their free service and force me to vacate in 7 days. For comments, I use BackBlog which provides not very good services. Their comments thingy go offline frequently. I wonder if it's a bandwidth constrain that they put their site offline.
I experienced a lot of bad free service providers. I keep on reminding myself it's free. Although this service providers did a bad job in maintaining their servers, they did an excellent job giving extras. Like those bad email provider gives very attractive email spaces. Hotmail gives crappy email spaces, but I can't deny it has one of the best interfaces I have seen. [This Hotmail has no additional services like other mail providers and gives a stingy 2MB mail.]
I guess it comes back to the point - Good things aren't free.
Which incidentally brings me to the point that I have been thinking of getting a host. Not as in being other's hostees, but to be hosted by some hosting company for a fee of course.
Sadly, I have no credit or debit cards. I do not know what they're about frankly. I cannot get a credit card, for obvious reasons. I am not sure what's this debit card. Are there disadvantages?
Then the problem comes to PHP and MySQL databases. I have no idea what they are. I checked my modules in the future. I think I'll get to learn ASP .NET instead. PHP is highly unlikely. I do not think Movable Type or Grey Matter supports ASP .NET. There are some blogging tools that are powered by ASP .NET, but it looks very lame.

Thanks to all whom enjoyed the new layout. Your comments have been generous.
Years ago, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is the King For Chicken. People go there for chicken. After all, that's what the "C" stand for. One day, the people of McDonald's decide they have enough of this crap from KFC. They thought, "We got to do something to sabotage KFC's businesses, they're always opening outlets opposite us to affect our feng shui. "
What better to sabotage than to attack right at the heart of KFC's business - chicken wings, thighs and drumsticks. So McCrispy is born.
I remember that advertising campaign of McDonald's introduce 2 heroes named Fast Fry and Steam Marinate. Two unlikely heroes save the world by freeing people from KFC's clutches.
KFC, however, was absent the entire time. They did not retaliate. They just sit there thinking, "We do chicken better. "
McDonald's is probably thinking, "We do branding better. "
Indeed McDonald's do branding much better. When ordering nuggets in my secondary school, my friends say to the lady, "Aunty, 1 McNugget." It's a pity, the lady didn't shoot back asking my friends for their sauce preferences. [Aunty, I want barbeque sauce!] Another of my friend visited KFC requesting for a "Fillet Burger". [KFC is called it "Fish Burger".]
After, say, 4 years? Both have a decent share of the chicken market in Singapore. But KFC is obviously at the losing end. KFC reports annual sales very much lower than McDonald's. I can't quote the figures, but it's negligible for a company with so many outlets.
Small is beauty. This phrase is always in my mind for both handheld device and well.. women. But this phrase never comes even close to my mind when it comes to food. Apparently, KFC thinks otherwise.
In order to cut costs, KFC has invented a "minimizer" to minimize all their food to smaller portions and yet commanding similar charges.
KFC has this burger called "Zinger Burger". It's never zing anyway, why did they call it "Zinger".. It consists of a piece of juicy crispy chicken thigh sandwiched between 2 round halves of bun with sesame seeds on the top. There's some vegetables and mayonnaise too I think.
Let's rephrase.. It consists of a elongated piece of chicken thigh chunked in between the top and bottom halves of the buns that clearly reflect serious alignment problems. Mayonnaise is dumped on the center of the top bun and left not spread. One important reason to note for the not spreading of the mayonnaise is they didn't put enough mayonnaise to allow a beautiful spread. I have nothing to comment on the vegetables.
From the side view, one can spot the buns aligned with a 15 degree error. In the mint, any alignment error more than 3 degrees goes to the rejected department.
KFC's advertisement campaigns are cleverly produced. Burgers are filmed with more fillings, chickens are large. Drumsticks really looks like drumsticks instead of mere nuggets.
Facts are distorted. They should be warn everyone that the images are not to scale. Such deceiving posters are plasters all around Singapore, even on the train's exteriors.
What's the use of "Finger Lickin' Good" food when it's of such minute content. I suspect tag line is suggesting to you that, "If you still ain't full, eat your finger".