Wei Liang invite me along to check out his work place, after which I get introduced to his supervisor. The main point of this trip is to work there of course and work there I did.
Last night, I set my trusty cell phone to wake me up at 5:45. I sat up on my bed, looked around and lie back onto my bed after I press the "snooze" button. Soon after, the phone beeped again, I press the "snooze" button. Soon after, the phone beeped again, I press the "snooze" button. Okay, you get the idea, yes, I pressed the snooze button.
Anyway, I woke up at 6:30 officially. I took a quick bath and rushed off to meet Wei Liang. I didn't know the work place and Wei Liang, whose details I forgot to mention earlier, is my neighbor. That fellow is sick but he insists to go for work and knock of earlier even though I repeated highlight that it's okay, he can go see the doctor and stay home, don't care about me. [Actually the main reason is that I myself is still half awake when I messaged him through my cell phone and I don't feel like working, lol.]
We set off to the work place. The traveling is a horrid, it's an hour long and the bus is filled with people going to work and some spoke Alien (language). Wei Liang slept in the bus as I tried to observed the industrial estate. It wasn't long that I give up observing; I figured I won't be coming alone to this place after all as the surrounding buildings, except for the colors, look freaking similar.
Just a minute before we reached the work place, my pal woke up and start pointing out landmarks. I nodded confidently although I am equally confident that I can't hear a word he spoke. He had this sore throat and needs the doctor badly. And he even proudly announced to me he had eaten 5 peanut butter sandwiches on Saturday to result in such a state.
Finally the destination is reached. Excitedly, I walked into the building seeing nothing but crates and crates. Disappointed with the interiors, I marched into the so-call workplace that mysteriously like an abandon medical facility (just that they're packing jeans).
The work looks simple - pack jeans into the boxes and listen to the other worker's chatter. They spoke in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect that I am supposed to be familiar with and they're talking about their sons and daughters. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I can't too, it's encoded. They spoke too fast that not much got into me.
I'll elaborate my job scope further. I am supposed to pack 18 jeans into a box and every box I pack earn me a dollar. Sounds good? My foot.
Let's elaborate my job scope even further. I have to arrange the jeans nicely (yeah yeah, as expect of me, I didn't follow this rule) in a plastic bag and tape the bad up. Then dump 18 of which into a box. Every box you pack earns you a dollar. Do as many as you want until you're fed up with it. The output is a message box showing "I packed 1026 jeans into 57 boxes. I earned a total of SG$57."
Well, the pay is quite good, but it's a lot of hard work and it's speed-dependent. Wei Liang earned SG$34 in his first day. I returned home tired, totally beaten. Which is precisely why I have to apologize - I can't continue anymore; I'm too tired.

I have another joke today. This one's from Feng Li. Recently, I have been reading my emails and clearing them. I spend lesser time with my computer recently and my computer's very upset by crashing twice as frequently as before.
This evening, I switched it on and checked my Hotmail account much to my computer's pleasure, she loves reading the jokes people send me too. Here's another one:
I don't know if this thing really happened. The email claimed that it really did but I am not quite convinced. It's probably written by another anti-American fellow.
If this really happen, the U.S. Navy ought to reflect on their behaviors and perhaps make use of their GPS satellites to differentiate a ship from a lighthouse better.

Jinyao sent me this shit. He is my friend of polytechnic first year, we used to hang out at Food Court 1 eating from the noodle stall. It's been a while since we last talk nonsense together. So, to reminisce the many nonsensical jokes we've exchange, here's one:
Any asshole can be a boss. I disagree on that statement actually. It's not the first time I see this joke too. It's probably been round the world for several times, like most forwarded mail. I never got tired of these jokes.

Okay, this is fresh out the school (microwave) oven. I gotten my results already. I'm very happy with it. This semester is indeed better than the previous.
This is the first semester I had in polytechnic that I don't get a C! This is also the first semester I had in polytechnic that I gotten an A for a module other than the awfully lame Character Education.
I gotten a distinction for Visual Basic Programming, I am really happy for that, I didn't see that coming. And for Database Management System, yes I hope for an A and I gotten an A indeed. It seems that computer modules are my strength. I'm in the wrong course. Definitely wrong course. [I am in Biotechnology in case you're wondering.]
And for all my biotechnology-related modules I got a B. "A" is for Apple and I guess "B" is indeed for Biotechnology. No mistake in that one. I seriously don't deserve a B is Metabolic Biochemistry frankly.
I am really happy right now. My girlfriend's results are fine too, I won her this time though. This is her best performing semester so far. It's definitely mine too.
I never thought I'll get these results this semester. Having a girlfriend didn't pull down my module results too. In fact my results improved.
Most of my friends did alright too. As far as I know, all of them passed, and no one is required to take a retest. I haven't told my mother about these results but I think she should be happy about it. And if she is happy, maybe I'll request her to pay for my web hosting fees, lol.

Edit: Okay, someone called me moments ago to announce that he failed.

I have a tiny plan to share. I have a plan to migrate. Not physically migrate though. I plan to migrate away from Blogger/Blog*Spot to another service.
Blogger has been a great home for me. I appreciate what they offer. I would recommend Blogger to anyone at any time. But still I am hungry for more services. What I am looking for is web space. Blogger doesn't offer that.
I plan to upload pictures online. And speaking of pictures, I need a digital camera to take picture. I plan to buy it. It's not for the blog thing actually. My family doesn't own a camera at home since a long time ago and I take around 3 pictures per year only. Very pathetic I know. And it's all taken by others and they developed the photos for me.
Firstly, there needs to be a domain name, like www.blogger.com or something. Since my blog is called //beconfused, I thought I'll get www.beconfused.com. I am happy that it's available, it used to be occupied months ago, and seems like the owner moved out. So I purchased the domain www.beconfused.com. And I need to get a web host to host my site at www.beconfused.com. [If you have checked, it points to beconfused.blogspot.com right now.]
Getting a web host is not easy though, I've seen many negative reviews about web host. I've seen stories about web host companies closing down and subscribers losing their site. It happens to quite a few web host companies. It's really hard to find one that I can trust. I haven't found one yet.
So, leave the web host thing aside. There's another thing to consider - which blogging software to use. I looked around and decide to settle with WordPress. WordPress uses PHP web scripting. Web scripting is something that I'll be learning next semester, but sadly it's ASP.NET, not PHP I think. Most of the time, I can't apply what I learn anyway, so it's okay.
The reason why I chose PHP is that when I read the codes, I understand what they're coding about and that's really important to me because I'll be running a software myself, I better have a bit of understanding on the coding.
I ran a web server software in my computer and installed WordPress, the more I use it, the more I like it. It's the interface and features that attracted me. So, no MovableType for me. I found something I like better. [pketh: that's based on personal opinion of course, hahaa]
I got a bit of layout up for that already too. But it's not compatible with Blogger's template. The reason why I haven't been updating my layout for so long is as follows. Firstly, there's no time during my schooling days, I'm quite busy with other things. Secondly, I did plan to deliver 1 layout, but failed in it. Thirdly, my school ended, but I ended up making a layout for WordPress. Lastly but certainly not least, my girlfriend says the current Ayumi one looks nice.
I'll do things step by step. It'll be completed in a month's time. Oh, I'll also redesign the Ayumi layout to make it compatible with WordPress. [..but my girlfriend likes it.]

In secondary school, there's this awful subject called "English". Don't get me wrong, I don't hate English. If I dislike English so much, I won't be blogging in the very language you're reading.
English is an awful subject because I can't perform well. To the extend that I struggled to pass and in the event where I don't pass, I begged my teacher to give me extra points here and there so that I can at least pass. This thing went on till the every end of secondary school.
And during 'O' levels examinations, I scored a C5 for English. I am happy that I pass already. So my English isn't good. The problem lies with comprehensions and probably compositions too. There's nothing wrong with my oral examinations I think. I can speak English quite fluently.
But I can't comprehend the damn passage I am given. I take longer time to understand the passage. For compositions, I can't write descriptive writings.
And both are the results of my lack of reading English books. I don't read novels, I can't bring myself to like them. I find them boring. The only books I read are non-fiction ones, like computer-related books. I find them much more interesting.
Perhaps that's the reason why I tend to write narrative stuff better. Most computer books are written in a narrative way. And my blog's postings, they're usually quite narrative too. The word "I" gets mentioned a lot. Just scroll down to the bottom of my page, you'll see that word all around. I am trying to cut it down now.
Some people told me my English has improved. Certainly it has compared to my secondary school results, due to this blog obviously. If only I know of this blog thing earlier. Then perhaps I'll get better scores for English.

Coming Wednesday, I'll know if I pass or fail my examinations of this semester. And coming Friday, I'll know the actual grades of my examinations. I never figured out why they give a 2 day processing time to reveal the actual grades when they have obviously keyed in the grades into the school database before Wednesday.
Is it a form of keeping us in suspense? I have no idea. I don't really mind too. I am excited to know about my results though. I won't score well, but I am still excited to see how I'll score. It's just like buying a lottery ticket. You know chances are high that you won't score but you're still willing to check the ticket in hope for Lady Luck doing her work.
I didn't work really hard for this examinations. I can only blame it on my laziness. I am the last minute sort of person and it's seriously not doing me any good. It's very stressful and I'll be a goner if I can't study finish.
However, allow me to defend myself over the last minute thing, although you probably have already figured out my defense isn't a clever one. Indeed it's not clever. Well, the reason is that I need the stress. I need the stress to drive me to study.
Unlike some people, I can quite easily motivate myself to do studying. I can sit in front of my table quietly and start reading and taking down my own notes. [My so-call notes are actually just copying out the PowerPoint slides I am handed, lol]
I can tell you quite frankly, based on the experience I had with my studying, that motivation doesn't help much. I need a stress. I need a deadline. I need.. something I need.
A deadline can't be one I set myself too. And I, being a man of not much discipline, give myself far too much freedom. I always miss the deadline I set for myself. So I figured I shouldn't set deadlines for myself at all. It's very depressing to note that I missed one deadline and that affect another and so on.
The only deadline that I don't miss is one that, well, cannot be missed. Like examination dates, I can't miss those, unless of course I go to the doctor claiming I have a headache and then demand a medical certificate.
So I always study on the day before the paper. It's not motivation anymore. It's stress. But this stress thing works surprisingly well. At least I graduated from one level to the next with this method.
There's a down side though, there will bound to be some times when I simply can't complete my studying and start cursing myself when doing the paper. And after the paper, I'll just regret and regret. And long after the paper, perhaps just days before my grades release, I'll just blog about it.

I dragged myself out of the bed this morning. Actually, to be precise, my mother dragged me out of my bed this morning. It's Sunday, also known as Church day.
"A little while longer," I announced, as I clearly fall back into deep sleep.
She returned into my room, grumbling about something supposedly Mandarin but I can't seem to make out this content of the conversation. A repetition this event then occurs. About 3 times believe.
It's the good morning ritual. My mother act as my alarm clock. She's a really good alarm clock. She's accurate most of the time. She is an early riser, she wakes at half past six in the morning on Sundays and at half past five in the morning on working days (i.e. Monday to Saturday).
Occasionally, I am late, because she fail to wake me up. But then, hey, modern alarm clocks run on batteries and may run out without your knowledge. My mother has a chance to forget the time too.
For the past don't-know-how-many years, she has been waking my brother and I up. Even if it's a morning phone call, that's counted too. I tell people that I wake at 6 sometimes. They call me crazy; I tell them to tell my mother about it.
But seriously, she's a really good alarm clock. I mean, she's the very reason why I don't get to school late. I never bothered setting an alarm on a clock - hey wait a minute - I don't have a modern alarm clock. That's how reliable my mother is.
I've taken this for granted for years. This action of waking me up, although simple, has been really helpful now to think of it. Think about it, I can't possibly be in school in time to copy homework in secondary school if not without her. I'm always early in secondary school, such a good student. A studious student. Okay, that doesn't explain my less-than-average scholastic achievements.
So, in conclusion, she has been really helpful. She made me early to school to copy (very important, can't blame me - fierce teachers), that's one. Second, she set my pace of the day in place by waking me in time.
However, I wasn't early all the time. At least not for this post. It should have been written on Mother's day and that's like 2 weeks or so ago. Happy Mother's day to all mothers reading. [I don't think I know mothers who read my blog.]
Just a side note, there's a disadvantage to my mother being my alarm clock. Just one tiny one - the snooze function is defaulted at every 2 minutes. Asides that, it's all beautiful (and punctual).

Early in the morning and I am having a stomachache. I just woke up 2 or 3 minutes ago. Half-awaken, I walked towards my computer and pushed the button for the computer to start up. My life has been like this sometimes. Wake up, use computer, sleep.
I am starting to review the food I ate yesterday evening to see if any of them could have been the culprit of the stomachache I have today. After some thought I realized that it's unlikely that any of them could have cause problems.
If my mother were to be here and I were to tell her I had a stomachache, she'll blame it on my computer. She'll point to my monitors and say my computer produces radiation that is bad for my health, resulting in my stomachache. I'll just agree with whatever she says and rush to the toilet.
If I go to the kitchen toilet, she'll continue to nag how she has feeds me with good food when I was a baby. And how I grew up and spoil my health by eating bad food. To her, all food is bad, except one that comes with rice or plain noodles. Western food like burgers and pasta are a no-no for her.
She isn't open to western food. I don't really care, as long as it's edible, it's nice to munch on, now I'll just eat that. She doesn't like the idea of Japanese food too. My mother says in Mandarin, "The sushi rice is so little, how can you be full?"
"Eat 1 more sushi then," I replied (and subsequently resumed my activity in the toilet).
"It won't make you full, you need to eat a meal"
"Japanese lives longer. They eat sushi," I answered (and resumed my much-urgent activity).
And so, my mother explains, "After I give birth to you, I have been feeding with all the healthy food, now you're spoiling your health by eating all the strange food. A meal must consists of.."
I didn't reply already. I resumed my toilet activity and prioritize that. There's no point arguing. It tires me. Her point is simple, she wants me to eat Chinese food and she wants me to choose rice, and try to avoid noodles.
Some of the food she blacklisted are Thai (every damn noodle that offer), Malay (Nasi Lemak), Indian (Roti Prata), Italian (ziti, spaghetti, linguine and everything pasta), Japanese (sushi, she allows ramen though) and English/French/American (Burgers, continental breakfast, everything is banned) food.
She's very troublesome, isn't she? Later, for lunch. Let's see, Italian food perhaps? Pizza. Yummy.
[After I typed this post, surprisingly, my upset stomach has recovered.]

Going to churches on Sunday is the norm for many Christians. However, there's a minority that chose the digitalized version of such services.
For the benefit of the lazy asses of technologically-inclined Christians, God granted Church of Fools. Of fools? Why of fools? Well according to the people who run the online service, it is due to it being a project of Ship of Fools, a magazine for Christian unrest.
Having said that, some computer hackers also brought unrest to the online church. CNN's Graham Jones [click for new article] reports that the online church has been forced into an urgent rethink after computer hackers logged in as "Satan" and disrupted services with four-letter expletives and racist remarks.
Bogus "worshippers" -- they join the virtual church as 3-D cartoon characters -- have logged in as "God", "Jesus" and "Satan". They have greeted newcomers with: "Satan loves you" and disturb people who're praying with familiar-sounding four-letter words.
The church is sponsored by The Methodist Church and is considered the first of its kind. You can pray there, but no sacraments there obviously. They say, "Maybe next time". [Anyway, how are you going to have Holy Communion there?] It is a 3D church. Now, you can't walk at the alter. Duh, I was looking forward to that, lol.
There's a crypt too, where there're some Christian resource exhibition. There are red arm chairs there too. I'm sitting there right now while typing this blog posting. Well, it's very comfortable. You can bless a friend, cross yourself and rise your hands while saying Hallelujah!
The service included a hymn, prayers, the collection (via mobile phone) and the Lord's Prayer, which the congregation were invited to say in the language and version they knew best. They responded by keying in the famous prayer in English, French and Latin.
For a church that first went online on May 11, just days ago, they must have been quite unlucky to get attacked by computer hackers. [Being a church, they should forgive them right?] But this isn't the first setback they had.
Church of Fools' startup is interrupted by the sudden disappearance Reverend Jem Clines' online 3D avatars. It wasn't an attack from computer hackers. It turns on that the poor Reverend's computer, located 225 miles away, has apparently crashed.
In the end, it's the bishop of London who saved the day. He was supposed to do some preaching of the sermon, but he did something extra by stepping forward to lead the (online) service.
Anyway, the next service's on May 16, 2004, a Sunday of course. Log in at 9 p.m. BST, next preacher is Steve Tomkins. I'm leaving the sanctuary now. There're 2 fellows looking so stupid. For the past 5 minutes, they have been raising their arms saying Hallelujah to one another.

Click here to Launch the Church, sources from CNN and the Church of Fools website itself.

Recently, there has been lots of talk about Google's 1GB web mail service. At first, it was thought to be an April Fool's joke [April Fool's is a great day, isn't it?], but it turned out to be a legitimate service. 1GB email? Is it too good to be true?
Anyway, I signed up as a beta user of Google's 1GB service called Gmail. Gmail is one of the gay-iest mail provider names I have ever heard. Gmail can stand for gay mail. Or probably, the Google marketing department is performing a word play with the word "g-string".
Speaking of g-string. Anyone has any idea why g-string is called "g-string"? Because that reasoning may very well be the reason why Google called their mail service Gmail. [Actually the "G" in Gmail stands for Google I believe.]
In my humble opinion, 1GB is not needed for email currently. I think Google is going to regret offering the 1GB email if too many people joins their services too. I don't think it'll be earning them money, even with the well-planned advertising.. er.. plan.
If you think Google is going to be the first offering 1GB to the public? Well, not exactly. Lycos Europe is the first. On Tuesday, Reuters [Click for new source] reports that web portal Lycos Europe beats Google to market an email service offering 1GB of storage space. [Gmail is currently in the beta stage only.]
Lycos Europe is charging 3.49 pounds (US$6.15) per month for an ad-free email service. Gmail will be advertisement supported. Gmail targets users with promotional messages based on their email conversations.
Personally, I like this idea with larger mailboxes. It's good that Lycos Europe and Google is offering these 1GB mailboxes. But I'm sticking with Hotmail. And I am hoping that Hotmail will increase their mailbox sizes. 2MB is too pathetic. May I just request for 4MB. It'll be a good blessing for the year.

So I went to the cinemas and caught Van Helsing. And how is the movie? Well, better than expected. I was expected the film to be a total horrid after seeing people at the IMDB [Internet Movie Database] calling it the worst movie of the year. I saw the reviews too, they're none to generous with the ratings.
Still, I want to watch Van Helsing, thanks to Universal's marketing campaign and the well-chosen name. The name sounds nice, perhaps it's because it reminded me of Hellsing, which is a Japanese animation series shown on television in 2001. [I never watched that animation.]
The idea of throwing characters, whom people are familiar with, is a smart one indeed. However, the character development could have been better. Some characters came in the motion picture and never make a return appearance. I spend the walking-out-of-the-theatre time wondering what the hell happen to them.
I thought for a while and figured it all out - they all went to hell. The movie isn't as bad as I thought. It's not going to be a film I am going to remember for more than a month though.
Do you trust all these reviews you read on the internet or magazine? Personally, I do. I just continue to trust them even though I know that 70% of the time, their tastes differ from mine, lol.
I return to the reviews after I watch the movie and giving thought to the reviews. I'm trying to align myself to the views of the so-call experts. After years of trying. I think I got it.
Comedies, as a general, should not be getting greater than 4 stars.
All romance comedies should get 3 stars. All romance only films should get 2 stars. If the romance film is R-rated, it can be either 1 star or 5 stars depending on the gender of the reviewer. If it involves married couples in the scene, reviewers can choose not to give any stars.
Action films have a chance of getting 5 stars, but only one movie should be appointed that 5-star honor per year. Action comedies are usually around 3.5 stars. Action films with female Asian actresses are usually welcomed. Action films with male Asian actors aren't welcome unless the actor is Jackie Chan.
Every damn epic, before-our-time film should get around 3 to 4 stars, Russell Crowe may be included again too. If it's way before our human era, reviewers are only requires to rate the graphics of the dinosaurs.
If it's an 2D animation, rate it 3. If it's a 3D computer animation, rate it 4. If the 3D computer animation attempts to draw human beings as real as possible, reviewers can choose not to include the movie in the review page at all.
Van Helsing is under action films. 2.5 to 3.5 stars should be given to it. [Too exaggerated. Stupid scare tactics. And they bullied poor Frankenstein!]

I download these peer-to-peer (p2p) programs. It's not a great confession or anything. I believe all viewers of my blog have tried at least one of these. [hehee, they're great, aren't they?] These p2p applications include KaZaA Media Desktop, Blubster etc..
Well, as good as they may be, some of which comes with adware or spyware or probably even both. Of course, there are cleaner variations of the popular adware/spyware infested p2p applications. But that isn't the point.
The point is that most normal computer users don't know and mind adware/spyware at all! Normal computer users refer to those users who don't use their computers to develop software or web sites.
I went to my cousin's place and saw a couple of advertisements popping up upon the establishment of an internet connection. I asked him what's that about. He told him his Windows has this for a very long time. I offered to help with get rid of it of those.
And his reply?
"I gotten used to it, so don't bother."
He doesn't know where they come from, and those it came with Windows. But judging on the many p2p applications he installed, there's no surprise if it comes from those.
He said he found it annoying at first, but now, he learnt to live with it. He doesn't mind adware, those they shows advertisements. But what about spyware? Or perhaps, you wonder - what is spyware?
"Spyware is software that collects personal information from you without first letting you know what it's doing and without letting you decide whether this is OK or not. The information spyware collects can range from all the Web sites you visit to more sensitive information like usernames and passwords. You might be the target of spyware if you download music from file-sharing programs, free games from sites you don't trust, or other software programs from an unknown source."
See the explanation? It's nicely written, I stole it from Microsoft's web site, but you know that's not the point.
The point is, these software are invading your privacy, especially spyware. You shouldn't be having those in your computer.
There are some tools to help detect or remove these unwanted software. They are Lavasoft Ad Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy (S&D). Both software are for Windows. Nothing for the Mac people, why? Well, you see, I never heard of spyware for Mac people. I guess the Windows users are more blessed in this case (sadly).
For more reading, you can read "Introduction to spyware". It's written specifically for Windows XP users it seems nevertheless it's very well written and easy to understand.

Last month, on March 14, I posted something on MSN Messenger nicknames. So I suppose this is the return issue kinda thing. Today, May 14, I figured I'll post "nick//two".
I wished I could make it a weekly thing, but some of the people who uses the strangest nicknames, don't change that often. Waiting for 2 months would've been more then enough to watch their nicks change hopefully. Unless there is another me out there who simply refuse to change nicknames. I haven't been changing mine for years. I don't even remember. 2 years perhaps?
I am noticing people's nickname more often now. The toaster alert thing helps a lot, although at times a nuisance. The toaster alert refers to the blue box that pops up on the bottom right of your screen when a friend comes online.
Enough of this nicknames. I'm going to sleep. I hope my mood will be better tomorrow. To all my friends under the low-paying industrial training program - enjoy your work. Seriously. At least try to.

My portable CD player. Okay, actually it's not "my". Let's start again. Our portable CD player. Well, the earpiece that comes with it. They're malfunctioning. The right of it. Inaudible.
Reason being, my brother and his clumsy hands. He pulled the wires of it too hard and the right earpiece produce no sound at all.
It doesn't sound nice with only one side, so I rather not listen to my CD at all. [My music is stereo, some songs don't sound right. I guess that's because my right earpiece has malfunctioned.]
Yesterday morning, I left for the train station. It's a 15 minutes walk. I usually listen to my player during the journey. But, thanks to my brother, I am able to appreciate the surroundings more than I used to.
Yeah, thank him. No sarcasm attached. I missed out on a lot of things when listening to the music device while walking. Minus the device, I hear sounds of chirping, sounds of cars, sounds of people's running. These sounds fused together and result in a strange disorder. A disorder that I found to be artistically performed.
It's hard to described. It sounds alive. My what-I-thought-to-be-boring neighborhood is actually alive.
I haven't heard those sounds for so long. Probably ever since I gotten the music player. Without this music as a distraction. I instantly reverted back to my thinking mode. As I walk, I think. And I thought hard.
A lot of negative things came to my mind. Events that I don't like to think about. And after that short 15 minutes walk, I reached my destination. I felt sad. I met up with my girlfriend, and well, I became much happier.
It's really ironical. Without distraction, I am more aware of my surroundings. However, I start to think of situations that upset me. Perhaps a distraction isn't that a bad thing. These sounds of the surrounding aren't for me to appreciate. I can't. The journey started with appreciation and ended with self-pity.
Today morning, I left my house to hand Pecilius some VCDs to watch over the holidays. I walked to the station again. This time, I brought a portable radio.

In case you haven't notice, Blogger has performed a facelift or the more popular botox on itself. The new site now features extremely huge buttons to navigate around the Posts, Settings, Templates etc.. It's good that they are providing improved visual aids to the needy like me, for example.
They even come up with a built-in commenting service. I am quite impressed with what they did, I never though Blogger will one day live to see commenting services, lol.
There are new templates too, great for beginners, they finally offered more than the 5 boring-looking ones. Great job on the facelift, whoever the plastic surgeon is.

It's pre-constructed blog entries again. This is the worst of them all. It's from an email from last year, dated October 10, 2003.
I kept it in one of my folders and forgot about it, lol. Anyway, this email is from Yun Wen. A joke, as usual. Email is for jokes it seems. This is probably not the first time you see the joke, but there's still this freshness in it when I reread.
Well, there's nothing to post today. Not much events happen unless you want me to blog about Freelancer (a game), I finally reached Mission 10. BUT I cheated for a mission that got my ship exploding in thirty seconds. :(
Looks like I won't be getting a birthday present from my mother too. Where's my pen? -starts writing "Dear God"-

Fact is, I have nothing to blog about today. I have nothing in my mind. I look around my computer and there's a dictionary on that computer table. Okay, I'll blog about dictionaries, as stupid as things can get.
Firstly, I'll search the dictionary on the meaning of "dictionary".
Please wait.
Okay, I thought they'll write something like:
My thick Longman dictionary has always been beside my computer so that I can check out the meaning of things or sometimes the spelling of the things I blog. Please don't ask me how I checked the spelling, I don't know how to explain too. [Apparently the word "blog" isn't in the dictionary.]
Technological advances has caused many to moved to the internet for searches on word meanings. Web sites like Dictionary.com, is one of the most visited web sites. [Then they started this Thesaurus.com too.]
However, I still prefer the traditional dictionary. Because I can touch and flip the book. Plus it makes a good excuse when my mother see me reading a dictionary in front of a computer. I always tell her I am writing a chemistry report. Well, most of the time I am actually blogging or chatting.
And Microsoft Office software has this red underline thing to detect your mistakes in spelling. It isn't exactly foolproof obviously, but it's still good enough for me. [I use Microsoft OneNote, which is under the Microsoft Office family, to type my blogs.]
I like that feature, it's really helpful. However, I find myself losing confidence with my spelling. When I want to write a report on a paper, I need a spell checker. I check the dictionary for many words that I should have known.
Just to let you know. Today, just for today, I switched off the auto-correct, auto-whatever-shit and red underlines. Everything is typed here without the extra help offered by the word processor. I even have to do uppercases!
Try doing that on your next blog entry, you'll notice an instant drop in your confidence.

I am free. The examinations come to a close yesterday. I was home late after eating dinner with the girls. I mean - what could be better than eating a fine meal after examination? Well, there's still eating a fine meal after examinations with 4 girls.
The last paper is Metabolic Biochemistry. Yes, it sounds cool. But I am totally uncool with the module. Which module requires you to study about 50 names of never-been-heard names of enzymes involved in around 7 never-been-heard metabolic pathways - Metabolic Biochemistry.
A total torture. Why am I studying things like - "Phosphorylase kinase phosphorylates glycogen phosphorylse"? [This is really in the notes.] It doesn't make sense to you? It's alright, it doesn't make sense to me too. It'll make a good tongue twister though.
And my stupid girlfriend tells me the urea cycle is not important. And what came out in the 20-mark question in Section C? Enzyme deficiencies in the urea cycle! If I hadn't study, I'll be in deep shit, or rather deep urine. [She says I haven't been using much negative adjectives in my blog so I have to use one - "stupid girlfriend"]
The paper ended, I came out of the hall happily seeing Zhi Yuan. This time, I didn't ask how he fare for his exams. The last time I asked him he answered, "No need to ask, it's the same answer." Okay, I get it, he is not in good condition.
I went to marina south to eat dinner with my friends. They call what they're eating steamboat I think. Years ago, I was still thinking of a boat that use steam as it's power source and travels around rivers and coasts. Well, apparently there's another meaning to it. It's just this pot for you to boil things. You just boil yourself and eat yourself. Okay, that doesn't look right, let's make it clearer - You just boil the food yourself and eat the food yourself.
Before we had dinner, we made a detour to Bugis Junction. There is this machine there which is all dress in pink. Then you can enter and this spastic voice introduce you to the controls. After which, you take the pretty photos and you can do a quick edit to the picture you have taken within 180 seconds. They even time you 180 seconds! Photoshop is a much better machine, I can edit 180 minutes for all I care and it doesn't even bug you. [Please note: Photoshop can crash occasionally and it'll get you screaming really mad.]
It's the first time I been into such a machine. It quite expensive though. 2 photos cost you 8 bucks [around 5 U.S. dollars]. It's cute, the girls like those a lot. Japanese businessmen are really smart.

I received this from Feng Li regarding the history of both presidents Abraham Lincoln. I can't say I know them well, just an acquaintance. But John did tell me that he has some similarities with Lincoln. Pity that John is assassinated or I can actually imagine us having sushi in a Japanese restaurant talking about Lincoln like he always do.
Enough of my self pity, let's look at the history lessons Feng Li sent me on May 1, 2004. [I love Labor Day.]
My examinations is ending tomorrow. After tomorrow there'll be no examinations. [Both sentences compliment each other a lot, ain't it?] After that, I'll be free from school.

Years ago, my parents got me a Compaq Presario. It's Pentium 1, that time considered as quite high technology already. It cost about SG$3,000 I think. Well, computers weren't exactly the cheapest thing in town I guess.
That time was still Windows 95. I don't know much about computers. The only thing I recall doing is to play one game of solitaire after another. You can't blame me you know, that's one of the few games I have in my computer.
Compaq bundled that SimCity 2000 Constructor Kit but it's absolutely useless without the SimCity game itself. Why the hell do I want to construct buildings for SimCity 2000 if I don't have the game?! What are the Compaq people thinking?
Then there's another game that got me totally addicted, even up till now. Minesweeper. Finding mines have never been so fun.
But these are very basic games. After a couple of months with playing Minesweeper, I start playing online games at Shockwave.com. Didn't play for long though.
One day, I called up my friend and ask him if he has got any good games. He recommended to me Age of Empires. So I followed the instructions and install the game.
That copy of Age of Empires is a pirated version. That time I really have the idea that pirated games are okay. Please don't sue me Microsoft, I got your Age of Empires game later from the stores and it's original. [Note to Microsoft: If you sue me, please withdraw your lawsuit soon. After which, send me an Xbox and tour me around your research faculty.]
Then, there's also the all popular Red Alert. Most of my classmates are playing it. To tell you the truth, I kinda suck in that game. All I know how to do is to build Tesla coils and watch my enemies get fried. I really like the sound effect too.
Most of the games I play requires me to build and build, raze and raze building. I like those types of games. Up till today, I still play this type of games.
I upgraded. Age of Empires 2 came. SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 came. Red Alert 2 and its expansion pack came. Windows 2000/XP/2003 includes Spider Solitaire which I find to be more interesting than the version of Solitaire that was originally bundled with Windows 95. The only game that doesn't change is Minesweeper I guess.
In the Visual Basic Programming module that I took in school, we're forced to make a space game for a graded assignment. I worked alone for that one. It's a game called "Alien Attack". I'll post it for download soon. I need to update some codes as the high score system does not save high scores in your computer. It reads and submits the high score to a Microsoft SQL database that can only be access in school.
This is the 3rd game I made, the most complicated one too. The first was Hang man, then followed by this 4 by 4 game with tiles and you have to move them around to arrange them in numerical order after it's shuffled. Both are in Flash. The Alien Attack game is made using the not-so-basic Visual Basic .Net language. I'll post it soon. :)

Thanks to all whom have commented on my previous post.

May 01, 2004. I woke up late in the morning. I lifted my cell phone and the words - 1 Message Received - was displayed.
Happily, I go on to read the message. [You see, few people send me messages, so I am happy.] It's from a girl.
I sent that to my girlfriend. Today marks the day we're together for a month. So if you did the math, we got together on April 1, 2004. Which, if you did you calendar flipping (and marking), it's April Fool's. At least the fools did make a right choice to get together.
I am not suppose to meet her today due to examinations. Thankfully, her notes is with me and I have to return it to her. I have to. It's a must! Or she can't study.
So I went to her area. Okay, I guess that doesn't quite explain why we spend 1.5 hours in McDonald's. Oh, Ronald McDonald was there too. She says she wants a balloon and a hug from Ronald McDonald.. [I can blow all the balloons she ever want and hug.. Oh, never mind.]
She did some studying in McDonald's. I can't seem to study. She needs the slight chaotic environment to study while I need the all peaceful environment. She says it's too peaceful so she went into day dreaming mode.
Hmmmp, That wasn't what I intend this post to be. It suppose to be a history lesson.
So let's backtrack. [Okay, I'll backtrack myself since no one is responding.]

July, 2003
I step into the class. The first lesson was Web Publishing, about two-thirds of the class turned up. I looked around at my classmates. Fresh faces, I only know 2 guys in class. One of whom was my previous classmates. The other is someone whom I chatted with [he wasn't there on the first lesson].
I looked at the girls. I never saw any of my class' girls before. It only took 2 seconds to glance and I concluded something - I'll find a girlfriend 2 years after.

August and September, 2003
During a quantitative analysis class, I got bored. I went to other's desk [that teacher doesn't give a damn]. I went to her desk and peeped at what she's doing. She was playing Metal Slug on SNES emulator.
Childish. [I have to admit that was similar to what I was doing during lower secondary.] Then she asked me if I want to play [I suspect it's out of politeness], I agreed [it's out of politeness too].
Okay, I suck in that game. I was having difficulty jumping around because I never hold my keys for longer than 200 milliseconds. But just when I was having difficulties, I heard her laughter. She was happy.

October, 2003
We took a half-a-class photo. Snap snap, it's done, on her digital camera. She collected everyone's email address. I was added to her MSN Messenger contact list.
She initiated a chat with me to send me the photos. The photos are in bad condition, the resolution is disappointing. I agreed to do some image editing when I am free. We chatted online - 3 hours.

November and December 2003
It's the holidays, no school, so we don't see each other. We chat sometimes. I like chatting with her.
She knows the existence of my blog too. She told me that she likes my writing because it resembles that of Raymond Goh. I am flattered and went to check out Raymond Goh's columns in the local magazine, 8 Days. Okay, my writing is far from his. I still got lots of work to do to reach his standard.
I finally edited the class photo too. My service's quite slow. But it's free so don't complain. The results are quite satisfying for her at least. [I was disappointed when one fellow, Ben(jamin), says there isn't much change. He plays too much games, eye-sight problem.]

January and February 2004
School starts again. Boring. She looks bored once again. She doesn't speak to me in school. I don't too. Nobody knows we knew each other. Life is the same in school. In front of our computers, we're different.
We appear to be total strangers in school. I daren't talk to her too. Maybe it's the length of time we spend talking through MSN Messenger that we are so used to online chats that we can't break the barrier to speak in reality.
One day, we went out together to study in KFC. It didn't work very well though, I can't seem to study in the presence of background music.

March 2004
We spend nearly the entire week of March holidays at home and in front of the computer. She was trying to find some friends to go out with her but none of them are available. Well, I was available. So I volunteered. We went to the city.
We chat regularly online. We only talk in real life when nobody is around us. Some classmates made fun of us, saying we're together or something. Strangely, I don't mind the rumors.

March 31 and April 1, 2004
We chatted online that night. It went over midnight, not usually though. It's April 1 already. This time, instead of chatting about our classmates or something, we were chatting about us.
I was telling her that few know that we chat so much online. Soon the topic drifted to 2 other people who did this online chatting too. According to her, they chatted online for a year, they don't talk in real life.
Curiously, I questioned if they had started talking to each other when in school.
I didn't plan to tell her on April Fool's. It'll be silly. But the conversation was right and I ended up confessing my love for her. I actually planned to asked on April 3, 2004, which is a Saturday and we're going out on that day. That plan didn't quite work out I guess.
On April Fool's, I went to school. We didn't announce anything on that day to our classmates. She was happily sending SMS-es to her friends to announce she has a boyfriend on purpose to see how many believed her. Well, she must be lying too much in the past, none of her friends believed her.

April 5, 2004.
On Monday. I met up with Shawn and Yong Liang to walk to school together from the train station.
This marks the day when our classmates first know of our relationship. I hope it's nothing to do with my credibility in school, but Shawn and Yong Liang refuse to believe me. Note that this Shawn fellow disappointed me because he refuse to believe me. He is the last person in the class to believe me.
Likely because every time I tried to convince him, I ended up laughing. Just thought it is funny to see him totally confused.

May 1, 2004.
Okay, you suppose to scroll up and read.

Note: I am tired after doing all these typing. I took longer than I expected. Also, the post is getting too long. Thanks for your patience in reading about our little (long) story. You just read more than 1600 words. This is the longest post. It's not the end though. I split this post into 2.

Also, in Singapore, some fellow working in Sportslink of West Mall got murdered. He is studying in Bukit View Secondary School I think. Well, 2 fellows just went forth to kill him. The police and I are investigating into this matter.