//beconfused

update//link

2004-06-23T23:02:00.000+08:00

Just to inform you, Mr. Dew has migrated his blog to beconfused.com/blog See you at the new location. Do update your links too.

first//blog

2004-06-20T08:43:00.000+08:00

Isn’t it annoying to search in a search engine and only to find your most trusted one return results of a whole list of blogs populating page 1?
It sure is. I hate it. Especially when I am trying to search for some serious stuff and all I get is blogs after blogs.
I am sure many people enter my blog by accident too. According to my referral tracker, I receive around 70% of my visitors from search engines. Not that I mind of course, however, I believe those people who enter my blog through search engines beg to differ. [If you’re one of them, do give a comment.]
Blogs are probably the single most evil object floating around cyberspace. It’s junk. It’s redundant information. It simply chunk up the number of irrelevant search results.
People keep online diaries. I dislike them too. These are attention seekers. Their mindsets are open. They are looking for this spot light to be cast on them. Why let the world know about your personal life and views? For all you know, it may be used against you.
Ironically, I started a blog on June 20, 2003. I posted my first message back then using Blogger. I can’t explain why I started a blog, I don’t have friends around me who own blogs back then. Starting a blog is a rather sudden thing for me. One day, I just accessed Blogger.com and just signed up.
That time Blogger is famous as its parent company, Pyra Labs, just got acquired by Google. That’s when I start noticing Blogger, it’s all around the news. I signed up for fun on June 20, 2003 and I continued the fun till this day.
Today, June 20 too, just of another year, it’s been a year already. It feel strange look back at my first post actually.
Lots of things has changed. My blog has grown too, from 0 visitors a month to a 1000 visitors a month. It’s quite a joy ride for me. Changing layouts after layout, adding affiliates after affiliates, doing site promotion. It has been fun.
And the fun shall continue, at least for me. So on this very day, my blog officially migrates from beconfused.blogspot.com to blog.beconfused.com. Do update your links soon. All the posts have been imported there. There’s still some problem with the HTML template. The theme “Fable” needs to be updated too. Theme “RAINBOW” is 90% complete now and “SaiKano” is 60% complete.
Thank you all for patronizing. Once again, sorry to all those to drop by this page by accident, lol.
You can comment here or email me at dew(at)beconfused_dot_com to tell me how terrible your Google search experience is when you landed on my blog.

hotmail//wakes

2004-06-19T12:04:00.001+08:00

With all the hype of 1 GB email from Google and SpyMac, the 100 MB email storage from Yahoo!, I often wonder what the hell is the Redmond giant doing. Maybe they didn’t read the news that I read and are not aware of the competitor’s storage space offerings.
Well, it turns out that they do after all.

In response to rival e-mail services enticing customers with high capacity storage, Microsoft’s MSN unit will soon announce its intentions to follow suit, BetaNews has learned.

Redmond executives have been mulling over how to respond to the storage frenzy, and are set to unveil a plan that will go into effect in July.

Although still in beta testing, the launch of Google’s free Gmail service heated up the competition by offering customers a whopping 1GB of e-mail storage. Yahoo! fired back this week by boosting customer inboxes to 100MB and unveiling an updated user interface, which Microsoft called “quite good.”

“We have been intentionally quiet over this period, as we formulated our plans, and waited to see the Yahoo response, feeling it would be best to see how strong Yahoo’s counter would be before going public with our own,” Blake Irving, corporate vice president of MSN’s Communication Services group, told employees.

Microsoft hopes that by giving customers enough space, it can move the media focus away from storage as a key selling point and reduce the emerging threat posed by media darling Google.

“We are going to respond in a big way and will eliminate email storage as an issue for our users,” said Irving.

E-mail is not the only area in which MSN is feeling pressure from competitors. Microsoft has been developing and refining its own algorithmic search engine, and plans to launch MSN Newsbot – a service similar to Google News – by the end of the year.

Source: BetaNews

So let me guess how much Microsoft will offer. Er, 20 MB perhaps? MSN Hotmail has the most email accounts I think, millions and millions, to offer 1 GB would be quite unrealistic. I’ll wait and see. Meanwhile, there’s Google’s Gmail for me. In case, you’re wondering what the hell is my email address, you can reach me at dew(at)beconfused_dot_com
Love to hear from you.

Also, I am wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a new layout. Provide me with the picture with good resolution and I’ll build it up. I’m trying to build other types of layout.

troublesome//salary

2004-06-18T23:36:00.000+08:00

I need to get my pay back. My neighbor says that he'll wait for a call from the guy who always contact them. But the person never called up. The person's name is Ah Tai or Ah Zai or Ah Cai.
Let's just called him Ah Fai.
I asked my neighbor - let's call my neighbor Ah Wai - Ah Wai to give me Ah Fai's number. Ah Wai says he doesn't have, so he rang up Ah Bai [New Character, Ah Bai is Ah Wai's friend who introduce him to work at Ah Fai's place].
Ah Bai didn't have Ah Fai's number too. Ah Bai instead gave Ah Wai another person's number. That person shall be known as Ah Mai. I was told by Ah Fai that Ah Bai suggest me to call up Ah Mai to get Ah Fai's number. I did so and Ah Mai answered with an angry tone. Ah Mai gave me Ah Fai's number. Let's delete Ah Bai from the picture since he's no longer needed.
Ah Mai told me that Ah Fai didn't give her the piece of paper where my working process is recorded. I called Ah Fai and found how he is no longer working there. Then I return back to Ah Mai and Ah Mai say she'll clarify with Ah Fai.
Ah Fai says he'll clarify with Ah Mai too. Ah Fai and Ah Mai probably had a quarrel the other evening because they apparently fail to contact each other as promised.
Thankfully, Ah Mai found my working sheet and suggest me to go down to that work place to get the pay. But I don't know how to get there.
So Ah Mai kindly offered to bring it to me in Bukit Batok (I live in this area). But she never did call me. So the next day, I called Ah Mai again. She says she works till 1 a.m. and wouldn't pass by Bukit Batok as I slept already.
I'm getting quite mad, especially when I have been trying to get the pay from Ah Mai since Monday!

This afternoon, I called up Ah Mai again. She says she'll pass by Bukit Batok today and she can bring my pay over to me. She's late by 15 minutes, but I gotten my pay. She gave me $60 expecting me to return her $3. Sadly for me, luckily for me, since I have only $2 in my pocket, I returned her $2. I earned a total of SG$58. For all the trouble, all the sweat, all the bumpy bus rides in Tuas, I think I seriously deserve the extra dollar.

teleportation//dream

2004-06-17T23:29:00.000+08:00

In the past, I dislike travelling. I thought it'd be great if I can just travel from one place to another in a split second. It'd be great for everyone, probably except airlines and FedEx as their purpose would have been pretty much expired. Well, it turns out that Nature reports the first step of my dream coming true.

Scientists have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time, the journal Nature reports.
The feat was achieved by two teams of researchers working independently on the problem in the US and Austria.
The ability to transfer key properties of one particle to another without using any physical link has until now only been achieved with laser light.
Experts say being able to do the same with massive particles like atoms could lead to new superfast computers.
This development is a long way from the transporters used by Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Kirk in the famous Star Trek TV series.
When physicists talk about "teleportation", they are describing the transfer of "quantum states" between separate atoms.
These would be such things as an atom's energy, motion, magnetic field and other physical properties.
And in the computers of tomorrow, this information would form the qubits (the quantum form of the digital bits 1 and 0) of data processing through the machines.
The landmark experiments are being viewed as a major advance in the quest to achieve ultra-fast computers, inside which teleportation could provide a form of invisible "quantum wiring".
These machines would be able to handle far bigger and more complex loads than today's super-computers, and at many times their speed.

Source: BBC News

Although I no longer fancy the idea of travelling around in split seconds, the idea of faster computers still excites me. Well, I'll wait for another 20 years to see if these qubit thingy comes true.

migration//problems

2004-06-16T23:56:00.000+08:00

Migration isn't as smooth as I planned. The importer that's supplied by WordPress didn't do a good enough job. That leave all the or in my SQL database.
I exported the entire database into a text file that is around 800 kilobytes and start editing them with FrontPage. Why FrontPage? Because it's the only thing I have that has an extremely powerful Find and Replace tool. I got it to remove all my quotes, did-you-knows and stuff. I got it to remove all the commenters whom I plugged previously. I got it to strip all the colors tags too.
And I replace or with (backslash)-n which means new line to make it more SQL-friendly. It's a lot more work to do than I expected. Everything turned out alright in the end. FrontPage helped a lot. I even used Excel to do some sort before I import it back to the database.
It seems that I did something wrong though. Some of my posts lost a space between 2 words. I don't know what's wrong. It's probably something to do with the "Find and Replace" tool in FrontPage. I probably replace the wrong strings resulting in these problems.
Now, all my 218 posts have been successfully imported into WordPress, minus the missing space problem of course. All unnecessary tags have been stripped. I replaced and with and respectively with FrontPage.
In WordPress, I can assign categories. I love categorizing things you see. So I attempt to categorize it into some else other than "General". I did so to about 50 posts and I got really tired soon after.
This time I did a lot of planning for the future. All posts only contain tags that are strictly XHTML-compatible. No , and . They have all been updated to XHTML standards. I use <blockquote> now too. It's lots of changes. It's been fun though.
I added excerpts, change the layout and stuff. I did some customizations to the script too. It took hours and hours. I don't know if it's worth it anyway. But at least I am doing something I like.

Rough statistics

Posts imports - 100%
New Theme "Fable" - 100%
New HTML Template - 95% (Problems with browser compatibility)
Renewed Theme "RAINBOW" - 70%
Renewed Theme "SaiKano" - 20%
Automatic Color Applier - 5%
Guestbook implementation - 1%
Image Gallery - 0% (I only installed it)
Tag-board - 0% (I haven't even look for it)

I spend the later half of my day hunting for PHP scripts since I suck at coding them anyway. I found a really really simple Guestbook script that I really really like. Any idiot can understand the coding. It's so simple, it has only one PHP page! But it lacks features. The features it has is to write and read a guestbook. That's all, that's what a guestbook is about anyway.
It took me an hour to finally find such a simple script, the others have all the really cool features that aren't need in a guestbook. I don't need smilies, I don't need text filtering. I don't care scold the "f" word. [Oh, what's it again? Puffer fish?]
After the hard work. I say my new site is quite ready.

short//down

2004-06-14T23:14:00.000+08:00

From June 14 to June 16, this blog may experience technical difficulties; inconvenience is regretted.
You know, I retype the first sentence several times to make it sound cooler. It does sound quite cool, doesn't it? About some technical difficulties shit I going to have. It's all my way of trying to sound cool.
Well, there will be such a problem, but it's a really minor one. I need to migrate my blog from one service to another, that's all. And it'll just take 5 minutes of downtime. Really.
So what the hell is with my "June 14 to June 16"? Well, I take my laziness into consideration. I plan to do a conversion fast, but if you know me well enough, you would have guessed that my exporting process is going to take quite a bit of time. -opens a can of green tea-
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Blogger. Blogger is a fine publishing tool. Very fine one, I love it. The thing is that it doesn't have web space. I bought some web space and start hosting myself. There's lots of things to be done.
Not long ago, pketh migrated from Typepad to er, pketh.com. I am doing a migration too. It's going to take quite some time. More time than I expect in fact. I need to strip a lot of codes from my posts too, just to make it compatible with the Blogger importer for Wordpress. -starts drinking green tea-
Ahhh. I love green tea.
Perhaps, at this point of this very post, you're wondering what the hell have I been typing about in the above 200 or so words. But trust me, I wouldn't understand them if I were myself of 3 months ago.
Basically, in short.. -drinks green tea again-
Where was I? Well, as I was saying, in short, I am moving. No longer using Blogger/Blogspot's services. I'll be hosting my own. A new address. It'll be the same old content. The same old me typing these post.
Coming up, there'll be image galleries. I just bought a digital camera and have taken some photographs. Forgive me if they're bad looking, it's my first time with the camera. I never owned one before, the last time our family had one is when I'm 10 probably. -drinks green tea again-
There'll be quite a lot of work to do after I finish this green tea. :)

afternoon//annoyance

2004-06-13T23:49:00.000+08:00

What a day for me. Jonathan (my cousin) came to my place. And he was using the computer with my brother playing Counterstrike: Condition Zero. I hate that game, it caused me to have lesser chance to use the computer, hahaa.
They were doing commentaries like those in television where two guys sits opposite each other trying to "brother" each other in a none gay way in other to entertain a stadium of people who are apparently are giving the hot dogs more attention than these guys.
"I am great, I am great," chanted Jonathan (translated from Mandarin)
"Look! There's one there," announced my brother (translated from Mandarin)
"Easy, easy. He's dead already," Jonathan replied nonchalantly. (translated from Mandarin. Hey, you know what? Those people only speak Mandarin, everything is translated, I shan't do a second mention.)
"Another one is.." announced my brother.
"Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click," Jonathan clicks furiously while upsetting my mouse and I.
I thought for a while, my computer is being used by them and I can't use it. I can't read too since their voices are awfully loud. That leaves me with one choice - sleep.
I laid on my bed for a while and I realized that their sound level is forbidding me to sleep too. It must be my low energy level or something, but after a while I did visited dreamland. It's for a while only though. I woke up soon after.
"Quiet.." my voice trembled sleepily.
"Quiet," my cousin echoed somewhat displeased too.
I got really angry for some reason, if I had a shotgun in my hands, I'll shoot them down the way the shoot their enemies down. They're in my room playing the computer (which I can't say is mine since I didn't pay for it) and they're not obeying the rules I set for them to not communicate loudly.
At 10, they left. My brother went to my cousin's house to stay overnight so as to play more Counterstrike with my cousin's computer. He's stupid, my aunt (Jonathan's mother) is going to limit their play time to 2 hours only. They played for 8 hours in my computer.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky, pketh and gj [tag]

thinking//men

2004-06-12T23:33:00.000+08:00

Junice sent me an email last year on September 25, 2003. Yes, it's another email joke. You see, I don't get tired of them. Yesterday I posted those dumb girl joke. So today, I got to be fair and post something about guys. Here goes my fellow species' story:

A man is dating three women and wants to decide which to marry.

He decides to give them a test. He gives each woman a present of $5,000 and watches to see what they do with the money.

The first does a total makeover. She goes to a fancy beauty salon, gets her hair done, purchases new make-up and buys several new outfits, and dresses up very nicely for the man.

She tells him that she has done this to be more attractive for him because she loves him so much. The man is impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of STRONG golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer, and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much. Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several times the $5,000. She gives him back his $5000 and re-invests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much. Obviously, the man was impressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money.

Then he married the one with the largest breasts.

It's about the breasts after all, at least in this joke. I just posted a joke about my own species. Before you yell traitor, you got to admit that it's got a nice twist at the end, lol.
I can imagine my girlfriend agreeing with the joke and trying to get me convinced that men are the worst living creatures asides her much-detested worms.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, tak [tag] and rain [tag]

witherspoon//dumb

2004-06-11T22:00:00.000+08:00

I receive this from Dimas, about dumb girls. Her email is like one of those dumb blonde jokes but the word "blonde" is no where to be found. I often wonder why is it called "dumb blonde jokes", blondes are that dumb?
I don't think they are, probably Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde only. Enough said, here's what Dimas sent. [Actually it's been shortened by me.]

I knew a girl that was so dumb that she
- studied for a blood test.
- sold the car for gas money.
- sent me a fax with a stamp on it.
- called me to get my phone number.
- asked for a price check at the Dollar Store.
- it takes her two hours to watch 60 Minutes.
- took a ruler to bed to see how long she slept.
- got locked in a grocery store and starved to death.
- moved when she heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home.
- wrote on the bottom of the application where it says "sign here" - Sagittarius.
- spent 20 minutes looking at the orange juice box because it said "concentrate."
- went home and got 16 friends when she saw the "NC-17" (under 17 not admitted).

You're probably wondering why the hell am I posting something that useless. Well, you see, I spend the past hour in front of my word processor thinking about what to blog. I couldn't think of anything in the end. My Muse's gone for a break to South Africa to check out the giraffes.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh

declining//dominance

2004-06-10T22:43:00.000+08:00

There was a time when everybody in Singapore wants to own a handset and chances are high that their dream handset is one of the sleekest models from Nokia.
Today, all has change. Some people are eyeing on Nokia handsets still, but many are keeping their options open to look at devices offered by competing companies like Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics.
Reuters reports through MSNBC.com that the Finnish giant see their global cell phone market fell sharply in the first quarter of 2004 as illustrated by a survey conducted Gartner.

Though the industry leader shipped more phones than in the first three months of 2003, its market share slid to 28.9 percent from 34.6 percent, market research group Gartner found, as Nokia lost ground to all of its top six rivals.

Gartner also noted that the overall handset market was growing strongly, with shipments rising 34 percent to 153 million units in the first quarter as consumers in emerging markets embraced mobile communications.

"The big story is in Western Europe, where Nokia has lost 10 percentage points of market share," said Gartner analyst Ben Wood.

"Nokia has two fundamental problems. One is its relationship with operators to provide them with personalized phones, and the other is a product portfolio that is not competitive with the models offered by its rivals," Wood said.

Nokia admitted on Tuesday it had been wrong to put its own brandname before those of the operators.

Gartner said global number two Motorola boosted its market share to 16.4 percent from 14.7 percent, while that of South Korea's Samsung Electronics rose to 12.5 percent from 10.8 percent.

Source: MSNBC.com

I guess it's time for Nokia to wake up. They lost ground to all of its top six rivals this time. I sense Nokia's end in the cell phone reign as they continue to put their time into the absolutely lame N-gage.

If you have been visiting my blog, you probably notice the disappearance of text colors. I'm thinking of moving from Blogger/Blog*Spot and is coding some automatic "color applier" in PHP to ease my life a little. This PHP is simpler than I thought, lol.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, vanessa, xia and tak [tag]

betting//advertisements

2004-06-09T23:01:00.000+08:00

There's something about movies. That should explain why I keep watching them. I just watch another movie - The Best Bet. Made by local film director cum actor cum singer cum writer cum comedian cum producer cum transvestite - Jack Neo. And yes, I think he enjoys sporting women wear in his evening primetime show "Comedy Night", that makes him a transvestite in my opinion.

Did you know?
In 1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs Hetty Green Wilks, who left an estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four pieces of soap.

Whilst I enjoy Jack Neo's style of comedy and local flavor, I find the local flavor is too exaggerated. The Best Bet is the worst movie I watched this year. The comedy is no doubt present but it isn't as good as the previous Jack Neo films. It lacks a good cinematic soundtrack, is poorly produced and plagued by advertisements within the movie.
This film is featuring their sponsor's products on purpose and they did it too obviously. I don't mind Britney drinking Pepsi in front of me as long as she isn't over-doing it. But in Jack Neo's film, the product name and function is even stated. Companies like Osim, Mitsubishi Electronics and Novena are mentioned. And it's so obvious that I guess the sponsors instantly. [These advertisements are in the film itself and not a pre-show feature.]
Advertisements not only plague the web sites I visit, it's even plaguing the films I watch! It's all around. On the telly, on the papers, the web sites, the banners and even on the freaking bus I boarded yesterday.
Before you're going to point out that I sounded annoyed right now, let me reveal a somewhat un-shocking piece of news - I like advertisements generally. But they have to be creatively done.
Advertisements offered through many mediums, seen practically everywhere. I see it as a form of knowledge increment sometimes. Some advertisements are indeed informative; those make you go, "Wow, I didn't know you can do such and such." Some advertorials are very interesting if you have lots of time that the news of the adjacent side of the paper is featuring war in Iraq.
Sadly, there aren't enough such advertisements, at least not enough in Singapore so I rather see less of it sometimes. And as for Jack Neo's film, I prefer seeing none of it. Jack Neo made me feel like I've just wasted SG$7.50 watching an anti-climax comedy and even more useless advertisements.
I rate the film 1.5 upon 5. It is really funny in the beginning but the whole story develops downwards. And the movie is rather anti-climax; choose to watch this film only when you have extra 15 bucks to spare. The rest of the money ought to be spend on pop-corn, because you seriously need it.

[I rate it low as it is compared with international titles, for a local title, I'll rate it 2.5 upon 5. I prefer the earlier Jack Neo films. As a compensation, I recommend you to watch Twin Effect 2 probably this holiday. It has got MediaCorp RainTree Pictures involved in it.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
ben, xia, valerie and yingru [tag]

lost//occasion

2004-06-08T18:05:00.000+08:00

My girlfriend went overseas and she managed to get into an internet cafe. So she sent a message to my phone demanding my immediate online presence. As much as I would like to meet her demands, I can't. I wasn't home, I was out at the library when she messaged me.
That's some luck I, or rather we, have. I'm out occasionally and it's really occasionally. I returned home and checked my Hotmail account to find an email from her.
While I won't show you the details of her email, I'll show a part of what I have written. Written in my blog style.

Dear dear,
Sorry that I'm not able to get online. I was at the Jurong Regional Library and they've just finished constructing that building. I went there with my brother for two main reasons. First of which, I want to see the building. Secondly, just as important, my brother wants to see the building.
When I receive your SMS, I was somewhere there and I was having the thought of booking an internet PC there to chat with you online. It's charged at 3 cents per minute and I thought it's rather reasonable. However fate forbids as every computer in every level is either being used or not functional. Even at the kids section!
The kids section upset me the most because all the kids aren't using the internet. They're just playing the computer. When I say playing the computer, I really do mean playing the computer. They can't log in as they didn't pay. So in front of the computers with their parents or Filipino maids, they occupy these computers playing with the log in screen.
Seeing the never-been-cuter kids slamming of the Microsoft keyboards, I can't bear to drive them away. I stood there and waited. No computers are ready after 15 minutes. Not that the children has successfully logged in due to parental consent and finance. It's just that more children crowd around the computer trying to "hack" pass the log in screen to play Neopets.com or something.
Speaking of Neopets.com, I helped you buy their stocks faithfully; but only to find that the stocks are somewhat unexciting, i.e. that don't change much. Your pets are probably dying as I play the stocks but you and I know they won't die.

That's 46.48% of the original email I sent to her. It's written in blog style so I thought I'll post it up so as to add one extra post to my post count. I'm in such bad luck to be out. She'll be back on Saturday I believe. I'm staying home tomorrow and The Day After Tomorrow (great effects from the movie).

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky and yingru [tag]

blunder//strike

2004-06-07T20:48:00.000+08:00

My brother got a new game. His birthday is coming and I feel the need to get my very much loved younger brother something. He was eyeing on this game called Counterstrike: Condition Zero.

Did you know?
Bolivia holds the highest turnover of governments. Since their independence from Spain in 1825, Bolivia has had almost 200 governments. Since 1945, Italy saw 57 governments and 22 Prime Ministers.

It's a first person shooter where you shoot the first person you see in the surrounding. Well, my brother followed that rule too well and ended up shooting down his teammates and the guys he needs to save. Blunder.
Perhaps buying the game itself is a blunder for him and for me. I transacted 5 bucks more my emergency financial unit for his birthday present. The game cost about 50 bucks and I'm being nice to offer 5 bucks to discount him a little. Am I being nice or being very nice? [Both of course.]
There's no string attached you know. Really. I even offered to treat him with a pie in Burger King and, unlike my much-desired wish, it'd be served into his mouth and not his face. Much of my brother's dismay (and my dismay too), it didn't happen, Burger King sold out their pies. Shucks, I was in the pie mood today.
But why a blunder for him and for me? Well, firstly it's a blunder for him. He went to a computer shop and bought Counterstrike thinking it's the cheapest. He explored West Mall (local mall) on the weekends and somehow confirmed it.
So today, being a wonderful elder brother, I went right down to West Mall just to bring him 50 bucks as he doesn't have enough money at the moment. He made that purchase excitedly and very promptly too. I went into that shop and was out within seconds!
It's so stupid to go to West Mall for less than 5 minutes and returned home, so I told my brother to follow me to Harvery Norman (Australian electric appliance store I believe) to check out the selling price for the digital camera I bought. And I saw some games at Harvey Norman, one of which never seemed more familiar - Counterstrike: Condition Zero.
Well, the thing that saddened my brother is the fact that Harvey Norman sells at SG$47.90 and includes a free game called "Die Hard" while the one at the computer store gave a free useless sling bag that probably just cost a dollar to manufacture. I wouldn't bring that sling bag out, it looks so stupid with counterstrike characters imprinted on them. Neither him I believe.
My brother proposed the strangest plan ever. He wanted to returned to that computer shop hoping that they'll return him the 50 bucks and later buy it from Harvey Norman. I told him it's impossible and stop being childish and his stupidity has overruled him.
Turns out that the stupid one's me. My brother is actually able to exchange the game (intact)! He told the shopkeeper he doesn't want the game anymore and the shopkeeper actually returned the 50 bucks. "Huh?" I thought, "Whatever the hell just happened?"
We then head back to Harvey Norman to make that purchase. He is very happy he saved 2 bucks and got an extra game.
As for why is it a blunder for me.. Well, now my brother is hogging the computer, playing that game and I can't use it. Damn. Big blunder for me, should have discourage him getting the game.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa and yingru [tag]

image//within

2004-06-05T23:10:00.000+08:00

I've been watching quite a few movies recently. First, there was Van Helsing with my cousin, Jonathan. Then there was Troy with Benedict and Cui Xia. And there was The Day After Tomorrow with my girlfriend two days before yesterday. Today, I went to Suntec City (local mall) to catch Harry Potter riding on his broomstick with my younger brother, my aunt and my uncle.

Movie Quotes
Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, offer their compliments to Professor Snape and request that he keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.
- Harry Potter

I can't say I am fully blown by the effects of the movie. It does showcase some interesting effects, I especially enjoyed the bus ride that Harry Potter rid on. It's much more enjoyable than the one I ride to Suntec City on.
After the movie, we split and I proceeded to meet my mother at City Hall train station. Our destination? Nope, it's not Hogwarts. I can't possibly be going Hogwarts all the times. -yawn- I went to Singapore Expo. Unlike Hogwarts, where the wizards and likes gather, Singapore Expo has a PC Show where the geeks and likes gather.
It's a long ride, it never felt more boring, even with my mother in the train. I wished I had a train conductor like Harry's bus conductor, my ride would be much exciting (and dangerous). But screw Potter. The highlight of my day is the PC Show 2004.
The PC Show is filled with people both young and old. In Singapore, PC Show is very much a family affair somehow because you can see a few father walking enthusiastically from one end to the other while his wife tagged along carrying a kid.
However, seeing these family outing aren't the strangest sight of them all. The strangest is seeing a Mac in the PC Show! Maybe Apple made a mistake and joined the wrong show. They should have been in The Heeren (another local mall with HMV) promoting iPod and iTunes. But today they're at the PC Show promoting the same thing plus some other software. So much for PC Show.
Since Apple is there marketing Macs, you can't blame Microsoft marketing Xbox-es and local telecommunication giant - SingTel - trying to get people to sign up 1,500 Kbps ASDL connection services. Xbox is going at a super low price there, SingTel is offering that 1,500 service at the cost of their 512-equivalent service too! You people might want to head down and join the squeeze next morning.
What I am really interested is none of the above I mentioned, not even Harry Potter. I am interested in a digital camera. I walked around watching one after another digital camera from Sony badly overcharged and finally settled on a Konica Minolta one.
Why Konica Minolta? Well, my mother thinks the salesperson is the friendliest of them all and she's paying for half of the camera. Indeed he is the friendliest and my father ought not to know about this. Actually only reason that my mother found him friendliest is because none of the other spoke Mandarin, the language that my mother loved (and only understand).
We took an-hour train ride home. Felt tired, so much that I never intended to switch on the computer if not for typing this post and spending 2 hours exploring the digital camera. And because I spend 2 hours playing around with my new friend, I have to make a post on 1:10 a.m.. What the hell, I will have to post with a date that's one day after. If only I had Hermione's Time-turner (just a less fancy name for a time-traveling device).. Hey, I do have. [The time of post has been changed to 11:10 p.m. from 1:10 a.m., i.e. 2 hours back.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Serene, yingru [tag] and wisestkid [tag]

creativity//locked

2004-06-03T23:00:00.000+08:00

There are many ways to earn an extra buck for companies. They can go around suing rivals. These lawsuits are often caused by patents. eWeek reports Apple recently filed a patent (U.S. Patent Application 20040098406) which covers "information-bearing windows whose contents remain unchanged for a predetermined period of time become translucent."

Did you know?
Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.

If you're wondering what the hell is Apple talking about. Well, I am not very sure either. But I suppose what they meant is that the window will fade away when the user didn't use that particular windows. I made a program to illustrate what I think that patent covers. Click here to download an application I made (with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET). This program requires Microsoft .NET Framework to function.
This is how to check if you have the .NET Framework. Firstly, you download the application I made form here. Then determine if there's an error message. If there's one, download your free copy of the .NET Framework here, it's for Windows machines. [Well, the right and non-lame way to check for .NET Framework being installed is go to your Control Panel and then to Add or Remove Programs. Scroll down and check you have "Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1" in the list. If you do, you have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed and need not install anymore unless you're super free.]
I thought it's a really common thing that shouldn't be patented at all. I heard that AIM is using that feature too. It's believed that the patent filing movement is aimed at Microsoft. Windows XP successor - Windows codenamed Longhorn - demonstrated a similar feature as part of Avalon, which is the graphical presentation system of Windows codenamed Longhorn.
But just as critics cry foul, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Microsoft has been granted a patent for double-clicking (U.S. Patent 6,727,830). [What the hell, you can even patent that.] The inventors have been cited as Charlton E. Lui and Jeffrey R. Blum and the assignee is Microsoft Corporation.
Patents are a good idea, but they can easily be abused. Apple's move is clearly to safe guard that feature from the hands of Microsoft. And Microsoft's move is clearly to, I don't know what they're thinking, double-clicking is a really scary thing to be patented.
Double-clicking has become so popular. I don't think Windows is the only operating system that uses it too. It's no doubt good money to earn though. Imagine having to license such a "technology" to others for a fee.
Patents aren't the best things on Earth. They did well in protecting rights, but it does, to a some extend, limits creativity. How are you going to work on something and only to discover that what you're working on clashes with some other companies' patents?
With this, creativity is likely to be restricted. IBM and Canon seemed to be very proud of the fact that they file many patents every year. With more and more patents are granted each year, if I were to be an inventor, the chances of me "inventing" something that clashes with someone else's patents also increase.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh and sky

pleasurable//rumor

2004-06-02T23:25:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, we celebrate our 2nd month "anniversary". Yeah, I know "anniversary" is the wrong word to use, but I can't think of another word.

Did you know?
In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period. The wood notes came in $1, $5 and $10 values.

She's the most reserved girl in class. She speaks little. Or shall I say, she speaks least. Words are rare from her. In class, she's doesn't talk much, she sits up attentively. At least, she seems to, she says she's day dreaming actually.
Her lower secondary math teacher looked at her after one semester has passed and insist that she is not from the class. She's quite invisible to me. I didn't notice her much. The first few days of my second year, I noticed there are 5 girls in my class. Out of the 5 girls, I can only recall 4 girls' name. I can't remember the fifth girl's name. Her name. I often have to think really hard to dig out her name.
Last October, she brought her digital camera to school. Took a class photo [some people missing though]. She send the images through email or instant messengers. I got it through MSN Messenger. I chatted with her.
For 3 hours. I can't say it's rare for me to chat for 3 hours, it did happen before. But my chatting with her is quite different. It's continuous, something it's drifting from topic to topic. We chatted in length. Strangely, time past really fast. Through chatting, I start to know a person I never noticed much.
The new semester comes and we meet each other in school. But we didn't talk much in school. I wanted to talk to her in school, but I thought if we just start talking like we're pals from secondary school all of a sudden, it's going to appear strange. So I came up with this less than brilliant idea to talk to her gradually. Unfortunately, it backfired. She thought I was pretending not to know her purposefully and she follow suit.
We met up a couple of times, somewhat secretly. Two of us only and I didn't announce to anyone in school. She's really punctual. I recall always have to contact my friend to query on his or her current location when they're five minutes late. Her records quite clean in that.
After a while, some of our classmates from my clique started noticing that I spoke to her sometimes. I can't say I speak to her much in school, but the thing that really stood out is that fact that she doesn't speak much to guys. So my a couple of my friend falsely assume that we're together to tease me. That's when a rumor starts.
She doesn't know of the rumors existence. I hope she doesn't too, with the fear that if she knew, she might avoid me in school or something. I don't like this rumor, I ignore them all the time. But words still reach her ears in the end.
It wasn't until March that we discussed about this rumor. It feels strange discussing. It turns out that she is used to having rumors concerning her and doesn't seem to mind another. For me, I can ignore that rumor too, but I still prefer not to have that rumor growing.
On April 1, we stopped this rumor. Not by presenting a press conference to clear things up, but by realizing the very rumor they're spreading.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene and tak [tag]

packing//jeans

2004-05-31T22:31:00.000+08:00

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.

Humorous Quote
Britain has invented a new missile. It's called the civil servant - it doesn't work and it can't be fired.
- Walter Walker

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.

If you're a computer, you can read this:
Dim i As Integer
Dim j As Integer

Do
   For j = 1 To 18
      ArrangeNeatlyInPlasticBag(Jeans)
      PlaceInside(Box[i])
   Next

   i = i + 1
Loop Until MyMood = "Frustrated"

MessageBox.Show("I packed " & i * 18 & " jeans into " & i & " boxes. I earned a total of SG$" & i & ".")

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene

stubborn//americans

2004-05-30T23:34:00.000+08:00

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:

BRITISH : Please divert your course 15 degrees to the South, to avoid a collision.

U.S. NAVY : Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

BRITISH : Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

U.S. NAVY : This is the Captain of US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

BRITISH : Negative. I say again. You will have to divert your course.

U.S. NAVY : THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS LINCOLN. THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. THAT'S 15 DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP.

BRITISH : We are a lighthouse. Now fuck off.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica [tag]

bossy//asshole

2004-05-29T23:55:00.000+08:00

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:

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss.
The brain said, "I should be boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions."

The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go."

The hands said, "We should be the boss because we do all the work and earn all the money."

And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs, and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work.

Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the boss just sat and passed out the shit!

Moral of the story: You don't need brains to be a boss - any asshole will do.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, pketh, Jessica [tag] and si1ent [tag]

semestral//surprise

2004-05-28T10:55:00.000+08:00

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.

These are my results:
Metabolic biochemistry - B
Molecular biology - B
Basic immunology - B
Introductory bioinformatics - B
Visual basic programming - Distinction
Database management systems - A

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
ben, Jessica, si1ent [tag] and tak [tag]

migration//wordpress

2004-05-26T23:13:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
The 1967 Russian movie War and Peace had 120,000 extras. The South Korean movie Monster Wang-magwi from the same year featured 157,000 extras. The 1945 German movie Kolberg had 187,000 and the movie with the most extras, the 1982 British movie Gandhi, featured 300,000 extras.

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.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica, Serene and yingru [tag]

narrative//english

2004-05-25T23:44:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
In 1961, Matisse's Le Bateau (The Boat) hung upside-down for 2 months in the Museum of Modern Art, New York - none of the 116,000 visitors had noticed.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky [tag], tak [tag] and yingru [tag]

enhanced//motivation

2004-05-24T22:40:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
Traffic jams are nothing new. In 45 BC, Rome banned all vehicles from within the city - and in other cities vehicles, including horses, were allowed only at night... because of traffic jams.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky, tak [tag] and ben [tag]

mommy//alarm

2004-05-23T21:59:00.000+08:00

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.

Inspirational Quote
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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).

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh and ben [tag]

conscionable//consumption

2004-05-21T21:47:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. When a coin was dropped into a slot, its weight would pull a cork out of a spigot and the machine would dispense a trickle of water.

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.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky

going//church

2004-05-20T10:51:00.000+08:00

Going to churches on Sunday is the norm for many Christians. However, there's a minority that chose the digitalized version of such services.

Did you know?
The Bible is the world's best-selling book. Yeah, lots of people know this. But did you also know that it is also the world's most shoplifted book?

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica and tak [tag]

bigger//better

2004-05-19T10:14:00.000+08:00

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?

Did you know?
Towards the end of the Forrest Gump, Forrest narrates that his wife died on a Saturday. When he is at her grave in the next scene, the tomb stone shows her passing on March 22, 1982, which is a Monday.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene

five//halves

2004-05-17T21:44:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
Measured in straight flight, the spine-tailed swift is the fastest bird. It flies 170 km/h (106 mph). Second fastest is the Frigate, which reaches 150 km/h (94 mph).

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!]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Jessica and sky [tag]

unwanted//software

2004-05-15T22:21:00.001+08:00

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..

Did you know?
The shortest verse in the NIV Bible is John 11:35: "Jesus wept."

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.

nick//two

2004-05-14T23:19:00.000+08:00

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?

Their nicknames are written in such a format usually: <nick> <a phrase>

Drak Lord
What's "Drak"? Is it spelt incorrectly? I never heard of this word before.
I witnessed the incident! On the frightening Mt. Akina downhill where a scream echoes of Iketani in the third corner passing out!
I don't know what's the purpose of this nickname. The sentence structure is even problematic.
YeAh SchOoL OvEr...BoooHooo AttAchMenT BegInS..
I feel you pain. The last time she got attached to a company, she didn't get paid! She's attached to some government clinic that time. I hope she gets paid now.
<nick> D for Desmond
Yes, I noticed. A for Alvin. B for Billy. C for Coconut. And D is for Dumb.
Doing final Kobold & Petit runs in RO juz b4 i leave for Penang in a few hours
I have no idea what he's talking about here except the back part.
<nick> hot weather + boring day...everyday face com...sianz
See the bottom.
<nick> lovin' the heat!
See the top.
Use cotton bud to dig ur nose? Hygenic and Effective!!!
This got to be one of the strangest nicknames I've seen. It's a good tip though. Frankly speaking, I use the traditional method, hahaa. Okay, it's time to change..
<nick> My Computer asking $$$$ from me again
Yeah, these computer are so expensive to maintain. Now my computer demands me to get a digital camera. I live in fear all day long in front of my computer. I better get one for its sake soon.
<nick> yeah...internet finally working after 2 days...
As far as I am concern, the world wide web is working fine, sending terabytes and terabytes of information from country to country with no significant problems.
a lOuSy liFe
Got it. My life isn't any better too.
love makes the world go round!!
Gravity from the sun attracts the Earth and causes.. Well, never mind. I get what you mean. Love does make the world go round I suppose.
pEacE aNd hApPy??? dUn tHinK so.....
I wonder what happen to this guy. It's been a while since I last heard of him. Judging from the nickname, he seems to have problems. Perhaps that's one good reason to have these expressive nicknames.
<nick> when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!
Prevention is better than cure. Keep your mouth shut and you won't be in deep shit at all. Just don't do that in oral examinations and job interviews.
<nick> Cheers to singlehood... wHaT's Ur PuRpOsE iN LiFe!?
Purpose? I am searching for a purpose too. I'm not in the mood to write comments on this nickname. Nowadays, my mood isn't that fantastic I guess. But it supposed to be the holidays..

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, sky and pketh

inaudible//reversion

2004-05-13T23:32:00.000+08:00

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.

Inspirational Quote
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Jessica and tak [tag]

blogger//botox

2004-05-11T00:58:00.000+08:00

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.

Google polishes up Blogger site

Google plans to introduce on Monday a redesigned Web site for its personal publishing tool, Blogger. The new features are aimed at making it easier for average people to run their Web site. Still a free product, the Blogger revamp will enable people to publish to the Web via e-mail, a personal digital assistant or a cell phone; to create simple "About me" pages that can be linked to multiple Web logs; and to enable readers to post comments to their sites. It also provides more than 30 templates for "blog" layout, according to Google.

"As blogging has taken off, it's started to reach more mainstream users," said Evan Williams, founder of Blogger parent company Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google last year. "Our focus has been to bring it to a wider audience."

Source: CNET News.com (Written by Stefanie Olsen, Staff Writer, CNET News.com)

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.

repent//sins

2004-05-10T22:25:00.000+08:00

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.

Little Leroy came into the kitchen where his mother was making dinner.
His birthday was coming up and he thought this was a good time to tell his mother what he wanted.
"Mom, I want a bike for my birthday."
Little Leroy was a bit of a trouble-maker. He had gotten into trouble at school and at home. Leroy's mother asked him if he thought he deserved to get a bike for his birthday. Little Leroy, of course, he thought he did.
Leroy's mother, being a Christian woman, wanted Leroy to reflect on his behavior over the last year. "Go to your room, Leroy, and think about how you behaved this year. Then write a letter to God and tell him why you deserve a bike for your birthday."
Little Leroy stomped up the steps to his room and sat down to write God a letter.

Letter 1:
Dear God,
I have been a very good boy this year and i would like a bike for my birthday. I want a red one.
Your friend, Leroy

Leroy knew that this wasn't true. He had not been a very good boy this year, so he tore up the letter and started over.

Letter 2:
Dear God,
This is your friend, Leroy. I have been a pretty good boy this year and i would like a red bike for my birthday. Thank you.
Your friend, Leroy

Leroy knew this wasn't true either. So, he tore up the letter and started again.

Letter 3:
Dear God,
I have been an "OK" boy this year. I would really like a red bike for my birthday.
Leroy

Leroy knew he could not send this letter to God either. So, Leroy wrote another letter.

Letter 4:
God,
I know i haven't been a good boy this year. I am very sorry. I will be a good boy if you just send me a red bike for my birthday. Please!
Thank You, Leroy

Leroy knew, even if it was true, this letter was not going to get him a bike. By now, Leroy was very upset. He went downstairs and told his mom that he wanted to go to church. Leroy's mother thought her plan had worked as Leroy looked very sad. "Just be home in time for dinner, Leroy's mother told him.
Leroy walked down the street to the church at the corner. Little Leroy went into the church and up the altar. He looked round to see if anyone was there. Leroy bent down and picked up a statue of the Virgin Mary. he slipped it under his shirt and ran out of the church, down the street, into the house and up to his room. He shut the door to his room and sat down with a piece of paper and a pen.

Leroy began to write his letter to God.

Letter 5:
God,
I GOT YOUR MAMA. IF YOU WANT TO SEE HER AGAIN, SEND THE BIKE.
SIGNED, YOU KNOW WHO

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"-

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh and tak [tag]

dictionary//off

2004-05-08T22:37:00.000+08:00

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.

Dictionary (n) - a book that gives a list of words in alphabetical order and explains their meanings in the same or another language.

Okay, I thought they'll write something like:

Dictionary (n) - you're reading the damn thing right now, you idiot.

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.]

Humorous Quote
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but 'That's funny...’
- Issac Asimov

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Jessica, sky and kaixin [tag]

steam//powered

2004-05-07T23:16:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
Although the two-finger V for Victory sign is synonymous with Winston Churchill, it actually was the idea of a Belgian refugee in London, Victor De Laveleye.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Serene, Sam [tag], yingru [tag] and tak [tag]

presidential//coincidence

2004-05-05T17:08:00.000+08:00

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.]

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their husbands while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Now that's really weird.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln. was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot in a theatre named "FORD".
Kennedy was shot in a car called "LINCOLN" made by "FORD".
Lincoln was shot in theatre and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theatre.
Booth And Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here's the kick....A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, ben and y|n`|uaN [tag]

game//around

2004-05-03T23:08:00.000+08:00

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.

Did you know?
The paper clip is invented in 1899 and later patented in 1901 by Johann Vaaler.
[When I read this, I was thinking, "Huh? This thing has a patent?!"]

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, Serene, ben, sky, pketh, Serene, Jessica, Sam [tag], yingru [tag], *39. [tag] and tak [tag]

smart//fools

2004-05-01T22:07:00.000+08:00

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.

In her message: ..Happy 1 mth anniversary!..
To which I replied: ..Happy one month anniversary too, it's such a coincidence that we both have it on the same day..

[I truncated our messages to save space.]

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.

Health Tip
Vitamin A is known to prevent "night blindness," and carrots are loaded with Vitamin A. One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin A. Carrots have zero fat content too.
So be good and eat your carrots.

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.

Thoughts:
She is a very quiet person, always looking really bored. She seems to have only one friend. Talks to no other in class. Very low profile, probably the lowest in class. Oh, she's a sleepy person too.

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.

Thoughts:
She is a very quiet person. Still looking very bored all the time. She now appears to have 2 friends. Good for her. She is shy. She is sarcastic too [I overheard a conversation]. As gloomy looking as she can be, she can laugh too. A rather strange person - how can a person be shy and sarcastic.

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.

Thoughts:
She is very reserved in reality. Rather computer-inclined, considering the number of words I got in return when I chat with her. She is sarcastic and funny when online. A nice chatter. I'll promote her to my favorites. She's probably having split personality too; she seems like a different person when chatting with me online.

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.]

Thoughts:
A polite girl. If I hadn't known her online, I wouldn't have known this "side" of her. I conclude her mandarin really sucks. She is straightforward. She lacks this confidence that L'Oréal is looking for in their lip stick models. Seems to be quite a loyal friend. Honest too [this is circumstantial].

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.

Thoughts:
Generally a well-mannered girl. There is shyness in her. Every time we meet up, we don't talk much. Worse than a 368 (lousy PC), we take a long time to start up. Her personality in reality and online world is still quite far. But I start to see the other "side" of her, just that it's in reality this time. We still do this chatting regularly.

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.

Thoughts:
I was wondering if she minds the rumors. I can't figure out that one. Her personality online and offline start to match a little more. Duh. Screw all these character analysis - I like her. I'll tell her.

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.

Our conversation on MSN Messenger

(12.57 AM) Her: Oh well they have gone steady.
(01.00 AM) Me: I start to think about all these rumors and thought what if I actually liked you.
[The conversation went on with some obvious hints. She took long to reply. If I had asked her straight, she probably faint.]
..
(01.31 AM) Her [exact statements]: uh... not really this is indeed a odd conversation ok, this is stupid.. sigh, let me ask you straight... are those hints?
(01.32 AM) Me [exact statements]: for once, i say you're reading right, hahaa. so let me ask you straight too can you be my girlfriend?
[you see, she is too sensitive and misinterpreted my words usually, sometimes, well.. occasionally]
(01:35 AM) Her [exact statements]: umm... you aren't kidding me are you? if you're not.. then... i suppose... yes

[I won. Oh boy, I love this MSN Messenger. Some messages are rephrased and truncated.]

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.

Conversation while walking to school

Shawn [jokingly]: So how is your date with her?
Me: Went okay.
Yong Liang: You and she are close.
Me [laughs]: But she's my girlfriend.
Yong Liang: Yeah right.

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.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Emily [tag], si1ent [tag], yingru [tag] and Sam [tag]

rip//burn

2004-04-29T23:52:00.000+08:00

I notice a rise in visitors. There's more people visiting. Most are looking for Windows Media Player 10 (WMP10) screenshots. Yeah, I have some.

Humorous Quote
See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time.
- Robin Williams

And yeah, I now have more. To satisfy the search engine visitors, I'll share more screenshots of WMP10
These are much better screenshots. I see the headers - Playing, Library, Rip, Burn, Sync, Guide, Guide, Movies, TV. Good job in renaming some of the sections, I like the words "Rip" and "Burn" better than "Copy from CD" and "Copy to CD or device".
It seems that Microsoft is trying to make their users more aware of the premium subscription stuff too.
Anyway, here're the screenshots:

Windows Media Player 10 Screenshots
- Installation
- Configuration
- WMP10 Playing
- Windows Media Guide
- WMP10 Movies
- Edit Playlist
- Windows Media Player 10 About Screen

Removed after May 15, 2004

The build number of WMP10 is 9.00.00.3409. Asides the installation that says "Windows Media Player 10", there is no where else that would suggest the change in version number.
WMP10 is part of Windows Media Center Edition Update Beta (MCE 2005) that has been shipped to Media Center testers.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, Serene, Jessica, si1ent [tag] and Emily [tag]

talking//trash

2004-04-27T23:47:00.000+08:00

Singapore is a really clean place. It is not that our people are such thoughtful beings and throw our litter into the bin every time. It is just that our environmental ministry hires more cleaners. That's it! There you have it - Singapore's secret to a cleaner city.
Well, look at Germany's then.

Berlin has introduced five talking waste bins which say thank you in three different languages or scream "goal" to help promote a cleaner city.
The talking waste bins - which curiously say thank you in French, Japanese and English but not German - are located in an area popular with tourists at the central Potsdamer Platz and at the Zoo train station in the west of the city.
Fifteen more solar-powered talking waste bins may follow in the short term, Bernd Mueller, spokesman for the city's waste disposal services, said Monday.
However, the city does not plan to teach all 20,000 Berlin bins to talk.
"That's much too expensive," said Mueller. "But everybody loves those bins."

Source: Reuters via MSNBC

I wouldn't mind one of these you know. I think these will really brighten my day. It's funny to note that they thank the patrons in all language except their home one, lol.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
ben, Serene, sky, si1ent [tag] and Alie [tag]

lengthy//consultation

2004-04-24T22:59:00.000+08:00

So yesterday, I went to see a doctor since my mother force me to. She say my forehead is suggesting a fever.

Did you know?
Michael Schumacher is the highest paid sportsman, ahead of Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer.
(Not including sponsorship endorsements.)

My mother accompanied me to the doctor's. And there is this female doctor sitting inside the room. Frankly speaking, she doesn't really look like a doctor. She looks like those ladies who should be having high tea at some restaurant in the city gossiping about the latest developments in the neighbor's extramarital relationships.
But there she is, she is my doctor. The consultation doesn't begin right away. I went in and she was talking on the phone. What the hell, she is wasting my precious time. I could have spend this time listening to an extra song in my portable CD player.
After 4 minutes [yes, I timed her], she puts down her phone politely and attended to me. I told her I have a fever.
She placed a thermometer under my tongue. I hate that. There's a ear thermometer too, you know.. Who cares if it's not as accurate, so long as it's faster. The thermometer stayed under my tongue for a minutes but this minute seemed to be extremely long.
Finally, a beep and the thermometer is retrieved. It says 36.9, which is incidentally the best temperature one can ever offer to delight the doctors.
The doctor scribbled abstract art on my medical record and say that I have no fever and she'll give me flu medicine and some antibiotics. All that takes only 3 minutes, including the temperature taking!
And she talked 4 damn minutes on the phone! To make things worse, my mother went on to talk to her about her children. They were merrily talking about job opportunities. About how good a job teaching is, etc..
Frankly, I don't give much concern to this job opportunities thing. What I am more concern is - why the hell are they spending 11 minutes talking about their personal views when I am suppose to be the sick one?!!

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, tAiJI [tag] and tak [tag]

version//ten

2004-04-23T23:21:00.000+08:00

Windows Media Player 10 (WMP10) screenshots has surfaced. The great guys from Neowin.net got an early copy of WMP10 for Windows XP.

Inspirational Quote
Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
- George Washington

New features include photo device support and scheduled media description updates. There'll be a slight change in the user interface as well. I noticed that the buttons have a more glassy look. [Hey, glassy look.. Doesn't it remind you of..?] Actually I prefer the WMP9 look.
But then again, WMP10 is still at the very early stages. The user interface looks problematic. The tabs "Now Playing", "Media Guide", etc., are no where to be seen.
I imagine how the interface will probably look like in the end and reproduce my imagination with a image-editing program. I actually imagine it with easy-to-recognize graphical icons to click on but I can't draw them.

Screenshots (provided by Neowin.net):
Installation 1
Installation 1
Now Playing
Full-screen mode
Options
About box

My idea of end product's interface:
My idea

baguette//mood

2004-04-22T22:46:00.000+08:00

I don't understand this thing about moods. They're really quite puzzling. I have absolutely no mood to blog yesterday.

Inspirational Quote
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
- Frederick Douglass

It's the studying week now, no school. I stayed home. I should be happy. I thought I would be happy. My first self-declared holiday started yesterday, Wednesday.
I woke up excitedly yesterday and turned on my computer. I am so looking forward to this day. Day after day, I go to school faithfully to see the lecturers and to get the attendance. Wednesday will be a break from this chore.
However, for some reason, my mood wasn't there. For some unknown reason. I probably spend half an hour pondering what the hell happen to my mood. I got no answers. Tired, I went to sleep at 11.
I woke up at 2 and ate some baguette.
At half past 2, I was back in front of the computer trying to be happy.
Apparently the attempt failed, because at 4, I was reverted to my sleep position on my bed.
I woke up at 6 and ate some noodles and more baguette.
At half past 6, I felt full. Too full, I shouldn't have eaten too much.
I went to bed.
At half past 8, I had a phone call. That call helped. I was feeling better. But after a while I grew weary and moody again.
What is happening? What's wrong with my mood.
I can't find an explanation yesterday.
This morning I woke up. My mind is clear. I start to evaluate my statuses yesterday. I got the answer already - I am sick.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky [tag] and tak [tag]

gaming//torment

2004-04-19T23:37:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. You see, I have been a rather busy man. I need to juggle with work and play [of which I much prefer the play part].

Did you know?
Mel Blanc, who played the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots.

I have Visual Basic .NET assignment to complete. It's 98% done, most of the things are working. I least expect myself to make a game, and it's a space game. It's a really simple one so don't think along the line of Freelancer and stuff.
I am not into these space games because I always lose in them. So for this game, I made it easier. I beat it happily. [Even so, I was terribly defeated occasionally.] Some of my friends say the game is too easy.
I went to school early to finish up the last parts of my assignment. It looks complete, but the coding underneath - like that lecturer's explanations - is an absolute horror.
But like he said in Thai accent, "I don't give a damn". I don't care as long as it works now. It's really hard to program a game. The last game I made is this square game that you have to rearrange the tiles back in numerical sequence. I don't know what that game is called, please comment or tag me if you do. It's much easier to make that game though.
I am quite shocked when I know that the assignment requires us to make a space game. I know it's going to be hard.
Congratulations to all my classmates who managed to survive, as you guys have made a game that is tons harder than all the previous tiny games I made.

Note: This is my first try making a game with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), the previous games I made are done with Macromedia Flash. Flash is very much easier and I got a culture shock - to be precise - syntax shock when I first see how VB.NET is structured.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica, vanessa and tak [tag]

super//ass

2004-04-17T23:12:00.000+08:00

Long time no post. 3 days? I received an email from Yun Wen about what Superman did. I am shocked, but not surprised.

Superman was feeling bored after a long break of crime fighting and wanted to go out and party so he called Batman to ask if he wanted to go to a club and pick up some girls.
Batman said Robin was ill and he had to look after him. A little disappointed, Superman called Spiderman to see if he fancied a few beers.
Spiderman told him he had a date with Cat Woman. As a last resort, Superman flew over to Wonder Woman's apartments to see if she was free. As he landed on her balcony, he saw Wonder Woman naked on the bed with her legs open.
Superman thought to himself "I'm faster than a speeding bullet, I could be in there, have sex and out again before she knew what was happening."
So Superman did his super thing in a split second and flew off happily. Meanwhile on the bed, Wonder
woman said "Did you hear anything?"
"No!" said the Invisible Man, "But my ass hurts!"

He is gay anyway, I mean - who the hell wears red underwear? And what's more, on the outside!

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
ben, pketh, Jessica, w3n [tag], Berd [tag], si1ent [tag], sky [tag] and tak [tag]

misfortune//overwrited

2004-04-14T20:55:00.000+08:00

This calls for a celebration! Two things to celebrate. Firstly, the most important one - the bloody [well, it should be since it's sucking my blood!] mosquito in my room is gone!

Strange Quote
Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.
- Anais Nin

Day after day, I am disturbed by this mosquito. I tried to kill it but it is simply too fast for me. Or maybe I am too slow.
Either way, it's gone. For good obviously. It feeds on my blood and it's really annoying obviously. It stays in my room like a fellow resident but fail to pay up the rent except to suck my blood. How parasitic.
I opened my door to encourage it out of my room, but it is apparently not working, because every evening I sit in front of the computer with some stupid mosquito trying to get my attention.
The second thing worth celebrating is that my ATM PIN is accepted. Joy to the world. I need to be nagged by my mother on the fact that I changed ATM card twice for this reason. This is my 3rd ATM card.
[Damn, my mother gave me a cup filled with what I would say looked innocently like water and it turned out to be ginseng. I just eaten oranges. It's sweet, now it's "bittering" my taste buds.]
I walked in front of the ATM machine and attempt to withdraw money. I tried another one of my many combinations of PIN. I was smiling to myself when I see the money coming out from the ATM.
I was really excited and if were to be all alone would have shouted, "YES! YES! YES! Oh my lord, the money's out! Bless the ATM machine!" [Thankfully I didn't, because people who hear it would have reported me to the police thinking I correctly guess someone else's PIN and withdrew money without authorization.]
Sadly, my girlfriend isn't there to share my joy. She has been struck by a series of misfortune, latest one being losing her folder. [It's a document folder, not computer folder.] She lost it with all her basic immunology notes and is upset over her absentmindedness.
If you do spot such a file [yeah right, like you will], please call her. Her number is in there. er... Just don't talk to her for long if you're a guy.

Note: There are some shifts in the date and time of the previous 2 posts.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
si1ent [tag]

misfortune//blackout

2004-04-13T23:59:00.000+08:00

SINGAPORE: The central, northern and western parts of Singapore were hit by a major power blackout from 11.30pm Tuesday to 12.30am Wednesday.

Inspirational Quote
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning.
- Ivy Baker Priest

Singapore Power (SP) said on Wednesday that the blackout was caused by a cable installation equipment fault at the Choa Chu Kang substation.
SP said the protection safety device was triggered which resulted in a total shutdown of sub station transformers.
Police received over 300 calls about the blackout but no major incident was reported. [They must've thought it's a terrorist attack. It's actually a good thing that they thought of it as a possible terrorist attack. It's not good to overlook such situations.]
Areas affected included parts of Bukit Timah Road, Choa Chu Kang, Woodlands, Clementi, Jalan Bahar, Jurong West, Bukit Batok and Marsiling.
Houses were in pitched darkness, traffic lights and street lamps were also down, and some roads were lit only by the headlights of passing cars.
At one of the condominiums in Bukit Timah, one resident struggled to find her way to the bottom level of her apartment to call me.
"In our apartment, there was one torch light, so it is not that bad. In the bottom level of the my apartment, there is a telephone. I can't use the cordless phone; it is not working. It was total darkness and there's no one except me on the bottom level, so it was very very bad!" said one resident, sounding all pissed and hopeless.
"I was kind of freaking out because I have to send Visual Basic .NET images to Pecilius. I told her I'll do so.," said the same, never sounding worse.
But power was being restored progressively.
At about 12:30am, the lights at HDB blocks along Choa Chu Kang Road were restored.
It was the same story for the other areas, with full power restored 30 minutes after midnight.
Thirty milliseconds after, her tone is restored too. She never sounded better.

Important: This blackout really did happen. However this post has been edited from the news posted at MediaCorp Channel News Asia website. To get the full and unedited edition, go here - Central, northern, western Singapore blacked out for an hour. Original article written by Yvonne Cheong and Derek Cher from MediaCorp Channel NewsAsia posted on their website on 14 April 2004 0649 hrs (GMT +8 hrs). This news article has been edited on purpose to fit someone's situation.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
si1ent [tag] and Sam [tag]

blissful//english

2004-04-12T10:00:00.000+08:00

Okay, I found this in the Love Hina art collection. It seems to be written by someone whose English need a little bit of brushing up.

Take a little walk, feeling a spring breeze. I wish a lovely happening again today.

Fireworks Festival Pool Frappe Watermelon Ice cream
What a problem to pick up some among so many summer things I like But the hardest problem is....Incurable love for you, as I love you more than I did in spring!

Just a little rest during working for college exams. But I feel somewhat loney as autumn wind blows. Well, why....?

Decorate the really tall fir tree. Cook some great foods. Then you look up the sky, and the flowery snow will fall down. Santa clause will bring dreams with him before you know.

Do I look differently? The only reason I dress up is for you, of course. Hey, look at me much more closer, otherwise my smile gets mad

Read the above part. Then you know it is entertaining. And they are somewhat writing about four of the seasons in order.

Did you know?
The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923, and in 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife Lillian convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.

Everything I see into this post. I type out simply. I follow also all punctuation. Last sentence indeed lacks a no full stop. What a embarrassing mistake to do by not proof read the book last page. Although they are only adding English so as to look cool. But they do not give a damn about the sentence all nonsense.
Now finish reading. Take a little walk to see the greens, feeling a little nonsense. For the treasurable days are just to begin. I, and you, together, we will have....Incurable love

Love Hina is a Japanese comic and also has a Japanese animation. It's one of the most popular series. Love Hina art collection is a book that contains artworks by the original artist. These sentences are taken from the back cover of the art collection

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, pketh, vanessa, Jessica, si1ent [tag], sky [tag] and tak [tag]

meow//ahhh

2004-04-09T09:15:00.000+08:00

I am annoyed. I slept at 2 plus in the morning. My mother came into my room at 8 and told me that she has made something for me for breakfast. I told her to let me sleep longer.

Proverb
One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.
- Chinese Proverb

I went to bed again. And at half past 8, there was some commotion in the house. My brother was screaming. And I want to sleep. Angrily, I woken.
I dragged my feet out of my room towards my brother's screams. I want to throw him out of the house. He screamed for at least 5 minutes! He pointed at a direction. I focused on where he is pointing and saw my father. Why the hell is he pointing at my father?
My father is mumbling something. Mumbling something to the cat!

Brother (exclaims in Mandarin): There! There! Ahhh!
Father (speaks in Mandarin): Shoo~ Leave.
Cat (replies in Cat Language): Meow.
[Translation: I can't hear you.]
Brother: Ahhh! It's on the chair!
Father: Go there. Go there.
Cat: MeOOOW!
[Translation: Shut up, you human.]
Brother: Ahhh!
Father: -stomps his feet hoping it'll go another direction- Go. Go. Go.
Cat: Meow. Meow.
[Translation: You're one persistent human.]

My brother looked so stupid when screaming. He was on a sofa too. Higher ground doesn't give you advantage. I heard a cat can jump up a sofa. My father looked equally stupid trying to persuade the cat to go out by it's own.
I picked the cat up and place it outside my apartment. It left.
I returned to the living room. My brother is no longer screaming (but still on the sofa). My father goes back to his television. I am crowned the hero.
Just when I was beginning to be proud of my new status, I recalled something - ain't I suppose to do something? Oh yeah, I'm suppose to sleep. What the hell, I am awoken for such a stupid reason.
I went to bed.
Tossed.
Woke up again. I can't sleep anymore. I switched on my computer and typed this post. Ahhh.

Disclaimer: As accurate as I wish to be, I find cat's language hard to understand. I tried to interpret it with the best of my abilities. Henceforth, please submit any amendments to my translations. If there is one that is. Meow.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
tak [tag]

autos//women

2004-04-08T22:54:00.000+08:00

There's something about cars. Some of my friends are crazy over them. These sports cars. What car enthusiast would have corrected me to call them "performance cars".

Did you know?
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.

I look at these cars and thought, "Nice."
And they thought, "Woah, this is the thing. Absolute beauty. It has been revved up. Check out the horse power. Man, this is going to be the coolest thing in the show. It's even got a NOS system. I can literally hear the sounds. Bang! Bang! Bang! This baby is kick ass! This car is so going to impress. My folks will be so mad at my financial management skills if I buy that."
The thing is, I know nothing much about cars. I am starting to know more about it now though. Since my friends are mentioning them to me. For once I understood what the hell is NOS; although just slightly, but it's better than nothing.
Some even bought car magazines. There's only 2 things to excite a car enthusiast about these magazines. Firstly, it's the cars. Then, there's the girls who pose with the cars. If you have noticed, some magazine made an extra effort to feature the girl more than the car too. And most of the girls aren't pretty there!
I often end up flipping and flipping and close the book within 2 minutes! Only 5% of the girls are pretty, compared to 50% of the cars that are pretty. Oh, I know what the magazines are doing - they are trying to feature not-that-pretty girls so that the readers will not be distracted while viewing the cars' pictures. How thoughtful.
If you want to see women, get FHM or something. And don't get the Singapore version, because they placed Vicki Zhao to be 2nd in Sexist Women of 2004. What crap. I can imagine Chanon saying, "She's so pretty" in Thai accent.
Get the car magazine only if you truly like cars, so-so looking women and advertisements in every alternate page.

Note: I made up what car enthusiast would have thought, they're unlikely to think like that, but I can't have a post that is too long. Also, not many car magazines have so much advertisements.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia

pin//denied

2004-04-07T21:59:00.000+08:00

Shit. This is the third time it happened. I must be really bad at remembering numbers. I simply know of too many numbers.

Did you know?
In 1952, John Cage composed and presented ' 4'33" ', a composition consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.

Damn it. [Ben: Dammi-]
This morning, I went to the ATM machine again. I tried out a different combination of number only to find it rejected and my transaction terminated. My PIN is incorrect.
Last week, I decide to deposit some money and tried to use my ATM card to do so. My PIN is also rejected. What the hell is my PIN number.
I lost my PIN number before and have to reactivate the card. Costs me 5 bucks. That time, I set a number that supposed to be meaningful. I used to set 6 random numbers, no wonder I can't remember.
However, having set my PIN with a meaningful string of numerical characters, I still forget that damned number. Reason being, I have too many so-call "personal" numbers. I set them as my passwords [for internet] before too. But there are so many of them, and all 6 characters.
The thing is that I remember all the numbers but I simply can't recall which is my ATM card number.
I walked home today, feeling absolutely dumb. I tried twice already. One more try left and my ATM card will be deactivated. I feel downright dumb. I almost utter one of the higher level vulgarities when I was directed to the "Transaction Canceled" screen.
Later in the day, I am going to school. I am going to try another number again. I hope it turned out right.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Serene and Jessica [tag]

summer//clean

2004-04-05T23:48:00.000+08:00

I decide to be a good boy this evening and clean my room because Santa owes me far too much presents. Let's see, when is the last time I spring-cleaned my room? 2 years ago I believe.

Inspirational Quote
Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
- Norman MacEwan

All my rubbish are accumulating and my choice method - which is to stuff things into my cupboards and drawers - is apparently not working very well.
My drawer protests angrily. It probably got a stroke or something because it can't open right anymore. It's crooked, due to the ridiculous amount of weight it carries.
My cupboard is in a not-any-better condition too. I can imagine it screaming, "get all your junk out!". I'll do the cupboard soon.
I brought the vacuum cleaner that sucks into my room. Plugged it in and hears it roar. And roar it did, my parents came out of their room immediately to see what has happened. I reminded my father it's the sound of his favorite electrical appliance operating in full blast.
Underneath my bed is papers all over. I often study on my bed. You see, studying is the precursor to sleeping, lol. Some highly recommended therapeutic methods are reading of basic immunology textbooks and magazines featuring the Indonesian elections.

Note: I haven't finish vacuuming, so my post can't be completed. I haven't finish clearing the papers under my bed too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, si1ent [tag], tak [tag] and sky [tag]

miss//ho

2004-04-02T23:03:00.000+08:00

Early morning, at eight that is, I am welcome by the most boring lesson this semester - Database Management Systems. Miss Ho is teaching us for that. It's either her voice or the lessons itself, but it's really putting me to sleep. I though I would never sleep in class, her lessons prove me wrong.

Did you know?
The richest woman today is Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of L'Oreal's founder. She has a net worth of $14 billion (variable to stock performance).

And Miss Ho is so passionate about databases. It's very theoretical and not many enjoy it. She speaks with such vigor, such anxiety, such.. Passion. I can feel her excitement (with the boring databases). She speaks with an American accent too. [I think it's American.] I love the way Miss Ho pronounce "parenthesis". She goes like: pearl-rrrun-THer-sis. [Give a tongue roll to "rrrun" and pronounce the "th" sound clearly.]
Her memory is good too. So good that she can tell you what chapters will answer your question! You can ask her a question and she replies, "It's associative entity type. Chapter 5 of your textbook. Enhance Entity Relationship Modeling. Chapter 5!". Her memory really is good. I don't even remember the location I save my documents and often go into a 15 minutes hunt in Windows Explorer.
Miss Ho's a really encouraging teacher. If you answer a question right, she exclaims, "Very Good!". It makes me feel so encouraged. So encouraged to recommend her to teach a kindergarten class of 16 instead. The kids will love her. Bring sweets though and allow the kids to eat in classrooms.
Eating in classrooms are allowed for her lessons. Simply because someone lied that my school operates differently and allows food in. [She is from School of Infocom Technology, while we're from School of Chemical and Life Sciences.] I mean, she is quite gullible. Think about it, which school will allow such a thing to happen. Not locally at least. Plus, the classrooms are air-conditioned and carpeted.
Finally - attendance. Miss Ho is very particular about it. She records your time of arrival if you are more than 15 minutes late. She marks attendance hourly. She gets the total number of minutes you are here and compute it against the total number of minutes of the module to decide whether to hand out warning letters. She's rather free..
If I were a lecturer, I will mark attendance but not that strict. One thing is for sure, I will note all the people who goes to the "toilet" and never return after their attendance is marked. They'll should marked absent! How can they do such a thing? It's so unfair to me, I always stay through all the boring lessons playing Hang Man or Connect 4 with Yong Liang!

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, si1ent [tag], sam [tag], ben [tag], Jessica [tag] and sky [tag]

fifty//yearth

2004-03-31T23:44:00.000+08:00

I never expect my schoolmates to love my school so much. Their love and adoration for the school is well appreciated.

Proverbs
One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade.
- Chinese Proverb

They even vandalize the tables with "I love SP". ["SP" is the abbreviation of my polytechnic - Singapore Polytechnic.] Their love is clearly written and engraved onto the school property. What better a way to express their love.
However, a better way is there to express their love. The right way that is. Celebrating SP's 50th anniversary, the oldest polytechnic in Singapore put on boards for people to write their comments and paste on the walls.

SP IS OUR CHOICE - Yeah, that's why we're stuck here for more years.
Shawn Rocks G4 - What the hell does that mean? G4 is an Apple computer??
Our poly is bigger and stronger - Yes, it is getting bigger, it better be. I wouldn't want it to shrink.
I love Nina 50th birthday - What a coincidence, your Nina is also celebrating her 50th birthday? So is our polytechnic.
I love Singapore - Kiss her then.
An antique - SP is an antique? May I remind you that SP cannot qualify as one yet.
Life sux, but when I come to SP, sux more - I can't help but to laugh when I see this. My life did become better though.
Alan Ow loves SP - Kiss her then.
LKY sux - LKY stands for Lee Kuan Yew, he is the Senior Minister of Singapore, it seems that not too many people like him apparently, lol.

SP used to have 3 campuses, it's really messy so the government put forth a plan to unite them into one on a new site at Dover. It's completed in the 1970s. Or should I say half completed. Because it seems that my polytechnic is always under construction.
Even the toilet! I just want a decent place to pee and the last thing I want them to do is to make want me climb several flights of stairs to the 3rd floor! My bladder and I are very upset.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, Emily [tag], si1ent [tag], Jessica [tag] and sam [tag]

breathing//difficulties

2004-03-29T22:40:00.000+08:00

My brother is switching CCA. CCA stands for Co-Curriculum Activities. It is compulsory to have at least one in secondary school. Such activities include clubs, societies, musical-related and uniform groups.

Did you know?
Seven suicides are recorded in the Bible.

My brother joins the symphony band and he plays the bassoon. [BBC Orchestra Guide explanation on woodwind bassoon.] He doesn't like it. Neither do I, frankly.
So he wrote a letter to his teachers to request for a change, signing off as my mother. He turned to his wonderful brother for validation of the letter. His wonderful brother helped obviously.

He (pretends to be my mother and) wrote:
My son has not been enjoying his days in the symphonic band. I hope you will allow him to change his CCA from band to NPCC as he could not handle the instrument correctly and could not breathe well while playing it. If it is inconvenient, he don't want to play the bassoon and want to play an instrument that does not require breathing. Thank you!

NPCC is another CCA, it's a uniform group where the students pretend to be police..

Okay, my brother can't write formal letters. I had a good laugh. I smiled upon seeing "...has not been enjoying his days in the symphonic band". It really brightens my day [night actually], lol. But the better ones are behind.
It is quite obvious that it's literally translated from Mandarin. He writes "he could not handle the instrument correctly", that is very "Mandarin".
What about "could not breathe well while playing it"? It sounded incorrect. I can't suggest an alternative though.
My favorite is of course - "play an instrument that does not require breathing". Okay, which instrument doesn't require breathing, you'll be dead if you play longer than 2 minutes! [Let's ignore those special people that can hold their breaths longer.]
If he had shown this letter to the teacher, I believe the teacher would have a good laugh too. She'll probably laugh till she forgets to breathe.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
tak & ben [tag], si1ent [tag], sky [tag] and sam [tag]

first//internet

2004-03-27T23:35:00.000+08:00

The first time I used the internet in my own computer was when I was 13. The internet, to me, is this mysterious place with lots of research things around.

Inspirational Quote
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
- John Wesley

I don't understand the internet. I heard it is for school researching. I was told that you have to use Internet Explorer to surf the internet. And I didn't know any web sites except Yahoo.com and my internet service provider's (ISP) web site.
Surfing the web at a 33.6K modem is slow for me. I never understood why my modem speed is called 33.6K and I download at 4.0KBps.
I can only use 12 hours of internet per month, exceeding it will contribute more to my ISP's revenues. The first time I see Internet Explorer, my cousin shows me some web sites. After she left, I sat in front of the computer and launch Internet Explorer.
I typed an address on the Address bar. I waited. And waited.
You guessed I forgot to connect to the internet? Nah.. I am not so stupid you know. I didn't know I need to press the <Enter> button on my keyboard to enter the web site. Well, everyone has a first try.
Soon, I realize that internet has games. Shockwave.com soon became one of my most visited sites, after my ISP site. That's because my ISP set itself as my homepage and I didn't know I can change that. And even after I figure out I can change, I fear that changing it would mean the end of my internet subscription. I didn't know they aren't link that way.
I even thought Microsoft Office can be downloaded from the internet through Microsoft's website. I thought it's free. I have the assumption that Windows comes with Office as every computer I see with Windows is installed with Office.
My hobby is to check email. And I was registered with Yahoo! Mail. I recalled checking all the free newsletters available just so that I can get email. No one send me mails when I first sign up. I don't read the newsletters, I just want to see more emails in my mailbox. I delete without seeing. When my friends start to send mail to me, they couldn't stop. It's never ending. But the newsletters, I didn't unsubscribe. I was too lazy.
And doing so many strange things with my internet account, it is not surprising that I often got scolded for exceeding the 12 hours per month limit.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
si1ent [tag], sam [tag], ben [tag] and tak [tag]

santa//existence

2004-03-25T20:21:00.000+08:00

I received an email from Feng Li some time ago. [Okay, this is a post that has been constructed some time ago, Feng Li sent me this email on February 24, 2004. That's like one month ago.] It's long, but it's worth reading.

Question: Does Santa Exist?

No known species of reindeer can fly. But there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer, which only Santa has seen.
There are two billion children in the world. But since Santa doesn't appear to handle Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 138 million or so. At an average rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes.
One presumes there is at least one good child in each. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west. This works out to 822.6 visits per second.
This is to say that for each household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining gifts under the tree, eat snacks, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh, and move to the next house.
Assuming that each of these 91.8 million houses are distributed evenly (which we know to be false but for the sake of these calculations we will accept) we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops. This means that Santa's sleigh is traveling at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound.
For comparison, the fastest man made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe moves at a poky 27.4 mps. The average reindeer runs at 15 mph.
The sleigh's payload adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds.
Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see first paragraph) could pull 10 times the usual amount, we cannot do the job with 8 or even 9. We need 214,000 reindeers.
This increases the weight, not even counting the sleigh, to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison this is 4 times the weight of the British liner Queen Elizabeth 2. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates an enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer in the same manner as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each!
In short, they will burst in flame almost instantaneously, exposing the next pair of reindeer, and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousands of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times the force of gravity. A 300 pound Santa would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,325,015 pounds of force.

Conclusion: There was a Santa, but he's dead now.

According to her email, NASA replied this. I am quite skeptical that NASA will reply this way, lol.

[Note: I have edited the email slightly. I don't like uppercases and the email's text has some verbs that are not agreeing with it's subject.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, si1ent [tag] and sam [tag]

muvo//reads

2004-03-24T23:53:00.000+08:00

Creative's Muvo2 is taken advantage of? Let's see, the mini hard disks are being removed from the players and later sold at a higher price. "Blunder," I thought.

Did you know?
Diamonds are the hardest natural substance on Earth, however they are brittle. If you hit one hard with a hammer, it will shatter.

Let's see.. hmmmp.. I wonder where to get a Muvo2, lol. Okay, I am done with the article.
Please flip.
Hey, why are you reading so slowly. I finished reading already, you tortoise. Finally. Good work, you flipped. What's there now? Digital cameras. Let's see, the Canon IXUS.. hmmmp..
Wait! Don't flip. That's interesting read. Damn you. You're flipping again. What the hell. How do you expect me to read like that.
Do you know what the paper is for? You can't possibly have just bought the paper to flip. Oh no, you closed the paper. I can't read. Damn you. I was hoping to read the article on digital cameras. Why can't you just let me?
Situation: Attempting to read a fellow passenger's newspaper without his or her permission in the train I ride to school.
Okay, the paper guy alight one train station before mine. No more papers. No wonder he was flipping at such a speed. I doubt he suspected that I was reading his paper from behind him.
Ever since two of the largest media companies in Singapore offered free newspapers on weekdays, reading news in the train has became a rather common thing. Likewise, reading other's newspaper in the train has became an equally common thing.
It's hard to get these papers, they're rare items. The paper guy I mentioned was reading Computer Times; it is a free weekly publication as part of The Straits Times which is a paid paper. I have been using other people's things without their permission.
I look at their newspapers. I look at their watches. I even peeped at another student's university notes realizing she belongs to a similar field as me and I understood her notes. [The notes is about carbohydrate structures.]
I just want to thank these people, who have unknowingly supported me for years. They prevent me from getting bored at trains.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
si1ent [tag]

memory//washed

2004-03-24T07:42:00.000+08:00

My polytechnic appeared in the news. This time, the tabloid news. It turns out that some of my polytechnic's student servers have been infected with virus. Not sure which virus. [Maybe it's latest talk - "Witty", but then it's a worm not a virus.]

Humorous Quote
I think people should be free to engage in any sexual practices they choose; they should draw the line at goats though
- Elton John

4 schools [or was it 3?] out of 7 schools in my polytechnic have their students affected. Affect parties see nothing in their student storage drive. Half of my school, School of Chemical and Life Sciences (CLS), is infected with virus.
[If you are confused here, several schools made up a polytechnic.]
Interesting enough, students of my school (CLS) with admission numbers being an even number (i.e. numbers ending with even digits and '0') got the virus. A total of 14 thousand people are probably screaming in a variety of vulgarities. Some people even lost their final year projects. [There may be a back up student storage drive in the polytechnic.]
Are they lucky or what? They? Yeah, I have one of those odd numbered admission numbers, so I ain't affected.
I never trust the school computer anyway. I mean it's just a school computer, I always store my important things in removable ware after saving it in the school's computer. I can't believe those idiots stored it entire project in the polytechnic's networked storage space.
I returned home and saw Ben's nickname appended with a string of text being - Damn SP computers...cause my M: to be removed...CURSE THEM ALL!!!!. SP is the abbreviation of my polytechnic and M: refers to the networked folder mapped onto a drive letter 'M'.
But Ben didn't lose anything important, what the hell is he so upset about? He merely lost all his visual basic tutorials. I recall backing up my entire student storage space less than 2 weeks ago, but the virus didn't find me. Even if I hadn't back it up, I don't give a damn with all my files is gone, because I have nothing important in the polytechnic.
Just let this be a reminder for all to make regular back ups in case of a hardware failure or a virus infection.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh and tak [tag]

stop//yoda

2004-03-23T09:42:00.000+08:00

Celine Dion sang "A new day has come". Indeed it has. Nothing is more refreshing in the morning than Windows Media Player performing a random function on my song list of a thousand and outputting Celine's song through my speakers.

Did you know?
Question: Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
Answer: New Zealand.

I have assignments, tests, examinations. Many things to do. Sometimes I rather time just stop so that I can continue with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I mean, for Yoda's sake, I am still at Sand People territory where the Sand People have their territories. Certainly made sense, it's less than half the game played.
I am not the busiest of all people however. If I were to be really busy, I wouldn't even have time to blog. I wouldn't have time to be able to chat at 2 AM with a friend of a different time zone. I wouldn't be able to watch anime. And there'll be no Star Wars game for me.
If I minus this and that, my time will be a lot more free. I refused. All these are part of enjoyment. I like what I am doing, which is rather problematic because chatting helps nothing in my school, Yoda doesn't help me too, and watching anime least helped me.
Perhaps I am missing out on a lot of things. Most of the things I listed revolves around the computer. I watch anime on the computer; I blog through a computer. I need a change.
I am reading a book called "Fish!" which Shawn just returned to me. Apparently, I bought the book for shelving purposes. It's one of those self help books. It's a bestseller. The book didn't induce me any change at the moment, I haven't finish it too. It's just that: when I pick it up, I am constantly reminded of the fact that I need help. I guess that's what self help books are about: make you realize you need help. [I'll continue to read the book, I'm at page 51.]
Animes are slowly being cut down. Games too. Blog is what I refuse to cut down. But it doesn't take much time anyway. The next time I use my PC, I am going to use Visual Studio .NET [VS.NET] since it has more things to do with my course. I launch Flash more than VS.NET which seriously should be the other way round.
I stopped clicking on Yoda too. I am going to stop playing games for 1 month, that includes even solitaire and minesweeper. [I usually play an hour of Minesweeper.] I'll see what happens with my test results.
May the force be with me (and Celion Dion, her career seems to be going down).

[By the way, in the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, there isn't Yoda, some other fellow was there who looked like Yoda. I just call him Yoda, I forgot his name.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica, Em [tag], si1ent [tag], Serene [tag], sky [tag] and tak [tag]

junk//one

2004-03-20T22:59:00.000+08:00

Some of my best pals contribute to my nightmares when using Hotmail. Nightmare being junk. Microsoft is a great company, they offer a fantastic 2 MB email. It's great you know, so great that you even receive emails from the MSN people telling you that your memory's in critical condition.

Humorous Quote
Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?
- Bob Monkhouse

I declared my war against junk mail from advertisers. Those people who send me things about insurance plans, interest-free financial loan, deals to buy Viagra and a dozen of commercial methods on how to enlarge breasts and penises.
If these mails are legitimate, I seriously would mind them sending advertisements of my interest. But if you just click on one of them to see, you'll notice their insurance plans are rather off. Their interest-free financial loan is off too, I mean I would rather borrow money from the mortgage-free financial loaners, also known as the loan shark. [Actually, you do mortgage - your life.]
I see emails telling me about stock picks too. Telling me to buy China World Trade Corp. (CWTD).

Listed as one of the reason to buy their stocks is:
With the recent tragic events of 9-11, the name World Trade Center has instant global recognition, and stands for unity, strength and prosperity throughout the worlds top economy leaders.

I see this different though. I wouldn't want to buy stocks associated with "World Trade Centre", Osama and company might just pay them a visit you know.
And there's health related mails. Telling me to purchase human growth hormones to build muscles. There is Viagra and other equivalents. Those are the usual, I see a lot of these emails flooding my junk box. As for enlarging breasts, do cosmetic surgeries if you're really interested.
As for enlarging penises, you can order one of those products and try, I have a feeling it'll be larger indeed. 'cause it's swollen.

[This posting is part 1 of 4. Continual posts will be submitted soon.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, si1ent [tag], sky [tag], takumi [tag] and sam [tag]

soup//secrecy

2004-03-18T16:49:00.000+08:00

You can count it as our second class outing this semester. We had it at a restaurant in our school. The restaurant is nothing fancy obviously, but it's still good to see that - everyone turned up.

Famous Quote
Love all, trust a few.
- William Shakespeare

Including our seemingly busy teacher. I never had a class outing where everyone turned up before. I can't recall of such a thing happening. So this day, it is an occasion worth a celebration. A celebration in the restaurant. A restaurant offering a buffet. A buffet that includes cream of carrot. Cream of carrot that contains a cockroach.
A cockroach?! Yeah, a cockroach.
I skipped the soup and went on to the main course. It's "cream of carrot". Do you call it "créme de carrot" or something in French? What's "carrot" in French anyway? I do know "madame" though. But there can't possibly be "créme de madame", can it?
I should have skipped the soup and never go back to it. But Ernest was commenting how well the soup is. Shawn enjoyed it too. It seemed delicious, despite the ugly yellow color of it.
I stood up, walk over to the buffet corner and poured a bowl of "cream of carrot". I returned to my seat staring at my soup and paused. You see, I'm not really into carrots. By that time, most of my friends have finished drinking the cream of carrot. I am quite sure Ernest, Feng Li, Mrs. Koh [our class tutor], Pei Shan, Shawn, Yong Liang, Zhi Yuan and many others sitting at the other table have finished the soup.
Carrot soup. I wonder how it taste. I look into the bowl and start scooping the soup up and putting it back while listening to my classmates' chatter. I stopped. I spotted something which I rather not be seeing. I returned my soup spoon into the bowl and announced that I found a cockroach in the soup.
I did some searching and found the cockroach again. I showed it off to the others.
No wonder Ernest said the soup is delicious. I just discovered: The Ultimate Secret to Soup-making.

[Note: I am a hundred percent sure it's not from the bowl I taken because I made sure the bowl is clean before I poured the soup inside. Nothing happen to my friends. hmmmp, Ben.. Ben went to the toilet. A stomachache.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Hailey, si1ent [tag], Serene [tag], Ryan [tag] and takumi [tag]

student//feedback

2004-03-16T23:08:00.000+08:00

Every semester, my polytechnic [Singapore Polytechnic] runs a survey for the students to rank the lecturers. Within the scales of 1 to 5, you can rate the lecturer with 5 being the best out of all radio boxes and 1 being the least.

Did you know?
The first train reached a top speed of only 8 km/h (5 mph).
[Cars travel at 80 usually]

In year 1, we had this bad computer studies lecturer, Lim S. K.. He taught us Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. I don't have good memories of his lessons. So when this survey came, I wrote a bad joke that he made himself. You see, we were learning how to make graphs with Microsoft Excel and he introduced the 3D graphs that you can rotate in all directions. He rotate the 3D graphs vigorously and turned it upside down. He commented: if only this is a woman. [He is suggesting it to be an upskirt.] I submitted his bad joke to the surveying committee, lol. He is not interested in teaching, that's all. What better comments to give.
Then there was Gregory Poi, who marched angrily to us claiming that we wrote nasty things about him. He says he did so much things - presentations, more presentations - and that the last thing he would expect from us is to not appreciate it. We listened to him a while. And we thought. We recalled: although he taught us, the computer did not allow us to vote me him! Blunder! We didn't even have the chance to vote and much less a chance to write bad comments. [Even if we can write about him, I won't write bad things about him. He's not that bad.]
Year 2, Tuesday, March 16, 2004. The surveying returned. Channon, who taught us Visual Basic Programming, walked into the computer laboratory. He shut all the doors and announced, "Vote all 5s for me and I'll give you good grades." He tells people to write that he is handsome too. Zhi Yuan wanted to write, "He looks so cool when he smokes." I wrote on Feng Li's computer: He told me to write that he is handsome. And what did I write? Nothing.

I recall the first time we met Channon:

Ernest: Sir, what's your nationality?
Channon: You guess.
Everyone else guessed different nationalities.
Me: You're a Thai.
Channon: Correct, how do you know?
Me: I..
Channon: Is it because I look like Utt? [Utt is a Thai celebrity from MTV Asia who is so-claimed by the local women population to be one of the best looking ones.]
I kept quiet. I wanted to say, "No, Iron Ladies". [Iron Ladies is a movie about transvestites playing volleyballs in the women's league.]

This semester, I gave all lecturers an average of 4. I didn't bother reading much. I placed no comments too. Last year, I give my password to a friend and tell him to help me do the survey, lol.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
serene, vanessa, Jessica, ben, si1ent [tag] and sam [tag]

nick//amusement

2004-03-14T22:54:00.000+08:00

I believe most of you tried instant messaging before. Popular instant messengers include (in order of most popular to less): AIM (American Online Instant Messenger), MSNM (Microsoft Network Messenger), Yahoo! Messenger and last but currently quite the least, ICQ.

Inspirational Quote
Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Personally, I use MSNM. I recall using it since a long time ago and my friend and I were the only ones in each other's contact list, lol. I was one of those who are pestering people to switch from ICQ to MSNM although I clearly know that at that point of time, ICQ was superior in all aspects. The only problem - my computer is very slow and ICQ crawls.
Now I have slightly more than 50 useful contacts. [I cleared my contacts sometimes, the connection is faster with MSNM's servers that way.] I don't chat with most regularly.
I do notice their notice their nicknames. Some are rather strange.

Their nicknames are written in such a format usually: <nick> <a phrase>

<nick> P.U.S.H (Pray Until Sometimes Happen)
I am quite sure that sentence is problematic. Does he mean "Pray Until Something Happens"? But that sound quite negative.
<nick> ok guys.. dun ask! It's D D E n a C5 for GP!!
I tell you, despite for poor A level results, she is very smart to know that people will ask her for A level results.
<nick> Broke le... :'( Hoping for Steady Pom Pi Pi~!
When I see it, my reaction is - what the hell is "Steady Pom Pi Pi". Because it sounded like what a fireman would have said to his fire truck!
I Am A Dictator
I check, that's my cousin. I thought I have Hitler in my contact list!
BeCoMiNg P@nDa @_@
If she becomes panda, she is going to be a cute panda, lol.
<nick> wonder did U realise
No I don't, what am I suppose to realize in the first place.
I_LoVe_BrIdGe
The last time I talked to her, she said she love Mahjong. Now it's bridge.
<nick> WISDOM TOOTH SUX !!!
Right. I suppose there's nothing to deny about it.
Had the worst birthday of my life
Wrong. You haven't seen all the birthdays of your life. There are sure to be worse to come.
MY liFE suXX~!!
What a coincidence! We're on the same boat.
<nick> Road to Level 80,now level 73,reaching my targets in 7 levels...
Okay, I figured 80 minus 73 returns a value of 7. Er.. Jia you [Work hard in Mandarin].
<nick> sHe bAnGs....sHe bAnGs...!!!
I can see his love for William Hung in American Idol.
Sleeping Dragon
He has the most appropriate nickname in my contact list. He is never online.
<<...sh0rT + swEet...>>
You gotta admit that isn't exactly the shortest and sweetest nicknames you've seen before.

That's the advantage of keeping my contacts: the nicks are rather entertaining.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, ben, si1ent [tag] and sky [tag]

match//stinks

2004-03-13T23:08:00.000+08:00

Just yesterday. On Friday that is. There's a badminton game. Yong Liang and Zhi Yuan eagerly organized it. They are so into it. They did the randomizations, the names. They even asked me what alias I wanted to call myself!

Inspirational Quote
One of the basic causes for all the trouble in the world today is that people talk too much and think too little. They act impulsively without thinking. I always try to think before I talk.
- Margaret Chase Smith

It's a badminton league. An intra-class badminton league to be exact. It's a nice idea actually. But the winner has been determined in the start already. I have a feeling the sporty Pei Shan would end up winning.
I like badminton. I never considered competitions though. I don't like the stress, I don't see the benefits. But the MLT1 [that's a lecture theatre], Yong Liang told me that I am in the badminton league. He made it sound like an obligation. Now, why the hell am I defaulted into such a league without my consent?
As much as I appeared to be talking quite fine, I am pissed. However, I kept quiet. Kept quiet when I see their enthusiasm. Kept quiet because I didn't want to be a spoil sport.
On Friday, the so-called league began. I was displeased. My first so-called match is with Zhi Yuan. And I.. misbehaved.
I did not cooperate. Purposefully not hitting the shuttlecocks back. Purposefully creating fouls. Zhi Yuan and I played the most boring badminton game together. From the start, I already concede defeat. But Yong Liang insisted that I have to play. Obligation again.
I don't like people to decide things for me. I have been defiant that day. An attitude problem perhaps? Likely.
Final scores, I lost 5-15 and 6-15 to Zhi Yuan. I felt bad. And also good. Bad that I gave a negative impression to people. Good that I stand by my rights. Somehow, the-one-who-has-been-named-hence-shall-not-be-named-again have crossed the line. Persuading is alright. Placing me into an activity without my consent isn't.
There is another match. With Ben this time. Maybe I'll..
I'll update you guys soon about the coming match results (with Ben).

EDIT: I woke up today. Fresh again. Forgotten about everything. Nothing will change. As for the match with Ben, I'll play it. I'll try. =)

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, sam [tag], si1ent [tag], sky [tag] and james [tag]

monoclonal//antibodies

2004-03-11T23:24:00.000+08:00

This is one of the worst presentations I have. I was shivering. And the fact that my cell phone is vibrating certainly doesn't help. I have the idea that the stupid cell phone of mine is causing my entire body to vibrate.

Did You Know?
The most expensive painting ever sold is Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, fetching $82.5 million. Van Gogh paintings also are the third and 6th most expensive artworks ever sold.

The PowerPoint slide was presented. This is the first time in a year that I present something in PowerPoint, I have been submitting Flash presentations. Why the change? Time constraints. Rather extra too, everyone submits PowerPoint and I throw in a Flash work. The PowerPoint presentation looks very simple. Went simplicity this time.
Unlike the PowerPoint presentation, presenting is no where near simple. Stage fright. Lecturer did not smile this time. Many pairs of eyes are looking down. I don't really know if they heard me, or perhaps they didn't want to listen at all.
I greeted first. That was simple. I can't seem to calm down. You see, these people are looking at me speak in a lecture theatre. 41 pairs of eyes looking down. I never presented to so many people before. I went on to do the introductions.
My presentation is about "Monoclonal Antibodies". It's a big topic. And I just discovered the ridiculous amount of information online, just last night! I have been busy with tests, reports and Rise of Nations. I simple have no time to do this presentation.
So yesterday, I read and read. I didn't fully understand monoclonal antibodies in the end. I consult 3 teachers: Mr. Sng, Mr. Foo and Mrs. Koh. Mr. Sng did not give me any information, he feels I should be finding information myself. Mrs. Koh is very nice to share quite a lot of information and saved me troubles in searching at Google.
I spend 4 hours in the school computer laboratory researching more. My presentation partner is doing the same. He is scripting his words even. You should have seen his words, it's very tiny and I can't believe he can read that out in the presentation.
He didn't. He planned to. He failed to. He simply wrote too many words. Possibly due to nervousness too. Our presentation ended quite fast.
The other time, I did a presentation that use Flash with 4 other friends. We seriously went way over time. This time, we're quite paranoid that the same scenario might happen.
I don't feel good today. I felt stupid today. My words, my actions (shivering), basically everything. It didn't go right.
At least I survived.
And the phone call? My mother called me, she wanted to ask me if I want her to buy food back..

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Jessica, ben [tag], si1ent [tag], s-gj [tag] and georg [tag]

technology//news

2004-03-09T21:52:00.000+08:00

Okay, nothing much to post today. I see a couple of good news at Neowin.net, so I'll share with you. Neowin.net is one of the technology news site I frequent.

Inspirational Quote
Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
- Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
[I just thought it sounded cool.]

Firstly, Google is going to have a new look. It still loads fast, so don't worry that your favorite search engine crawls. I don't see it as a significant improvement but it's still news worthy since I use Google quite often. Some blue gradients added. Some changes in their cache pages. Some changes in the image finder too I believe.

MSN is about to release the next version of their popular messenger brilliantly named "MSN Messenger 6.2" since it's at version 6.1 currently. The usual bug fixes I guess. "Launch Site" is renamed to "Fun & Games", new Music Exchange feature to share music like in threedegrees. But what really attracted me was - animated display pictures - well, in other words, your display pictures can move.

Last year, Eolas Technologies Inc. sued browser maker, Microsoft, for infringing a browser technology that allows mini-programs to work in the internet. Microsoft is order to compensate Eolas US$521 million. They just sued Microsoft for the money; all browsers [yes, Mozilla too] infringed that technology. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated Eolas' claims for their web browser plug-in technology. Hence Microsoft Internet Explorer and the other browsers are not required to make changes that would have crippled plug-ins such as Flash [good to hear Flash won't be affected] and Quicktime. Hooray for the verdict.

Okay, end of my news reporting. Back to my studying; there is a test tomorrow on Database Management Systems.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, Emily, Hailey, si1ent [tag] and s-gj [tag]

erotic//theirs

2004-03-08T23:06:00.000+08:00

Ben and Shawn bought a photo book. You know, those that feature a sexy girl kinda books? It's hard cover and she looks really hot. I can't remember her name! It's Hitomi something, I don't remember.

Did You Know?
In August 1983, Peter Stewart of Birmingham, UK set a world record by disco dancing for 408 hours!

She has this look that is cute and sexy. Sexily cute. Cutely sexy. Ah, page 33 even has her in the cute and tiny.. *ahem* Well, the book's very stylish. The photographs are very artistic. The scenery is really good too. I can't wait to get my digital camera and I'll fly to Japan and find her! I mean, her photographer. You know, so that I can know where the sceneries are from.
The book costs SG$71! As much as I would want to enjoy viewing them, I will not spend money buying such things. I don't think it's worth it. A chat with Ben yesterday revealed that he thinks it's worth the money. He also added that having spent SG$71, the only thing he can do to make his money worthwhile is to view the photo book every day!
There is even a comment that if the book is with Ben, the pages might stick together. [Think dirty.] I think Shawn said it. I told Zhi Yuan, if he wants to borrow it, he will be disappointed because the only page you can open fully is the one that details on the copyrights and publishing! [Read: The other pages stick together.]
Ben and Shawn invested SG$40 and SG$31 respectively into this venture. As you can see, Ben is the major shareholder. Before that, they bought UpToBoy, a Japanese magazine which they completely not understand. UpToBoy is one of those "hyper visual magazine for men", if you get what I mean. I looked at the cover and saw someone quite familiar..
Nah, it's not my mother. [!! No, Grandma, it's not you either!] It's Natsumi Abe. She was from Morning Musume. She graduated from there already. She's pretty, I tell you. I picked up the magazine and flipped it with disinterest. I got to pretend that I am not interested because Ben is telling me that I should pay. Now, where is my Nacchi music video..? [Nacchi is Natsumi Abe's nickname in Morning Musume.]
Ben and Shawn, being fans of larger-attributed women, didn't find Natsumi satisfying apparently. So they went on and bought back Hitomi. Hitomi's sexy poses reigns in every aspect of er.. photography, yeah, reigns in photography.
Oh, I found my Nacchi music video. I'll end now. Here's the conclusion:
If Shawn's mother found out about the photo book, he'll certainly get killed. At least he can die a happy man.
Ja ne [See you]. If only I can understand what's Nacchi singing about. Subarashii. Suteki. Suki. Sugoi. Super Sugoi. Subete Subarashii deSu. [Just a whole string of crap expressing amazement and fondness. Probably wrong, since I gotten it from Japanese anime and anyhow put them together.]

Disclaimer: Okay, let's be quick on this; my video has started playing. Ben and Shawn are good people. Posting has been exaggerated for reading and writing pleasure. Hitomi's beauty have been exaggerated too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene and s-gj [tag]

illegal//trading

2004-03-07T22:45:00.000+08:00

This post has been updated due to personal reasons. Sorry about that. Do read other posts though. Thanks.

This is what that is left in my post:
You can get pirated software from Smart Play Trading, or rather Smart Play Illegal Trading.
It's so advance now. They have a PC there. Choose the game you want and the copy the game into an Imation CD-R for you using Nero Burning Rom. I believe that is pirated too. You just have to wait for less than 5 minutes and it's done. It costs SG$4.00! An Imation CD-R costs less than SG$0.40 [buy a lot]!!
You can find illegal items from Smart Play Trading, at Blk 154 Bukit Batok Street 11 #01-310 Singapore 650154. You can call them at (+65)64251976 and fax them at (+65)65606443. Pirated Playstation and Playstation 2 games can be found there. The computer in the shop has full of those. I think they even store their CD-images into a DVD! I think the person in charged is David Wee. I am sure the local law enforcement will find their shop very interesting.

Enjoy your day. This post is amended and shortened on Sunday, March 14, 2004 on 11:16 PM, Singapore Time.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, sam [tag] and si1ent [tag]

pressured//arcades

2004-03-05T23:41:00.000+08:00

If I were to join a club or something, my club would have been either the Stay Home Club or the Going Home Club. For a surprise, I went out today. And I went to the city.

Did You Know?
The plastic things at the end of your shoelaces are called "aglets".

It's been a long time since I went to the city willingly. I have been going to the city the past few weeks. But none of them are quite willingly. Given a choice, I rather not go.
My friends are always going to the city for a sole purpose - the arcades. I don't find arcades enjoyable. The different mixes of people. The different mixes of soundtracks from different machines that ended up creating noise. I don't like the arcade.
Coming term, I will not be going to the arcade with my friends ever again. Truth is, I hate that place and week after week I have been suiting my friends. We go to Bugis Junction. We go to Heeren Shops. We go to Plaza Singapura. Would you mind appending "'s arcade" before the full stop of the previous 3 sentences yourself?
I rather go home.. And sleep.. Or probably play the computer games. I never paid for my arcade games, every game I played was sponsored as I was forced to play. [This really saves quite a bit of money.]
I rather stay in school and read Molecular Biology notes. I never pay attention to the classes and I am wondering what the hell is going on. I should work on Basic Immunology too, the last test.. I did something dishonest.
It's hard to say "no". Peer pressure.. I don't want to be a wet blanket. But it's getting irritating now. Everyone tried to "psycho" me to the arcades. ["psycho" is used in local young people language as a verb to mean intense persuading.] I tend to give in.
Anyway, coming term.. I did some checking and it appears that I am going to be quite busy. I guess I can't be going out too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, pketh, katz, vanessa, serene [tag], sam [tag], sky [tag] and si1ent [tag]

questions//answers

2004-03-03T23:44:00.000+08:00

I was at the Joint Admissions Exercise yesterday. It is an exercise where students register for polytechnics (and junior colleges). I was the student course advisor. My job is fairly simple, I just stand there and answer the questions.
After a while, I even scripted what I want to say. Basically, I just repeat the same sentences to them. I made lots of errors too, lol.
And why is that so? They were asking me about courses that I am not studying in. Quite a few asked me about Medical Technology (MedTech). Trust me, I know nothing about it. My level of understanding equals to what is written on the booklet.
I always try to refer students who are interested in MedTech to their student advisors. But they are no where to be found. In fact, fellow student advisors referred people who are interested in MedTech to me. They say, "MedTech and Biotech quite the same lar".
I assure you it's very different.

Favorite/strange questions:
Student: Can you tell me about Biotech?
[Oh no, this is the hardest question. Too vague.]
Me: It's a study of plants and animal cells. It involves genetic engineering and practically all other things you have heard of from the news.

Student: What do I grow up to be if I study Biotech?
Me: Biotechnologist. [Obviously I do speak in more detail.]

Student: Does CCA points allow deduction in the admission procedure?
Me: Er.. Let me refer you to a lecturer.
Lecturer 1: Er.. I don't think so.. Hey, Lecturer 2, CCA point still got count or not?
Lecturer 2: Have, I think have. Hey, Lecturer 3..
[Basically no one knows this.]

Student: Biotech got chio bu [This means "pretty women" in Hokkien"] or not?
Me: [laughs] Of course there are. Just look at our booth. [There aren't any pretty ones attending to the booths that time.] It depends on weather they want to make an effort to dress up. If they do, they aren't any far of from the School of Business people. [Words goes around that accounting people are pretty.]

Just to add, another reason why I answer questions so badly is that: I am from Bioinformatics!! It's not quite the same! There is another Biotech fellow who is always very busy. I am happily advising people who are not interested in going to my course. My friends, Shawn and Ben, tells me absolutely no one questioned about Bioinformatics on Monday. Tuesday morning, Yong Liang was on duty, no one asked him about Bioinformatics. Tuesday afternoon, I was on duty, no one asked me too. I guess no one is interested in this course. *yawn*

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh

uncle//oscar

2004-03-02T20:48:00.000+08:00

Face it, the Oscars is a bore. The 76th Academy Awards is so predictable and at the same time unpredictable. Predictable that Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (LotR: tRotK) is going to win in most of their nominated categories. Unpredictable that LotR: tRotK is going to sweep all its nominated categories.

Strange News
In Kentucky, 2 men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. The vehicle's license plate is attached to the bumper.

The most filmed person, asides the host for the night, is none other than Peter Jackson. Every time LotR: tRotK won in a category, the cameras look that direction. And LotR: tRotK won something like 11 awards? I really have to say this: he really got to lose some weight. The buttons on his shirt: they looked as though they're going to fly out anytime. If not for the LotR: tRotK, I would have imagined Jackson lying on the couch, munching packets and packets of Lay's Potato Chips, drinking strongly-brewed beers, holding a remote control, surfing the television channels until he found one with lots of bikini babes and scream "yeah, baby".
As Billy Crystal says, "It is now official that there is no one left in New Zealand to thank". I can't help but to agree.
Speaking of whom [is there "speaking of whom", 'cause it kinda sounded erroneous], the pre-show thingy that Billy Crystal did, it's not that particularly funny. The only funny thing during then is watching Billy Crystal sings not-so-funny stuff with the audience laughing like it's the funniest shit they heard whole evening.
Unfortunately, it is quite so. Crystal's singing turned out to be one of the more entertaining chapters of the show. Is it just me or is Oscars getting kinda boring. I looked at my clock [that goes, "tick tock tick tock"] again and again. I'm falling asleep after 2 hours of the show.
Although LotR: tRotK won so many awards, they are technical awards. I don't think they won any acting-related awards. Thankfully I say. You know, the fourth orc counting from the right, marching in. Well, he should win the award. And the other orc.. Oh, there's also the hobbit who lives in the third house from the entrance. Thank goodness, Frodo Baggins didn't bag another award for LotR: tRotK.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
none :(

term//break

2004-03-01T22:41:00.000+08:00

My term break is here. I don't have to go to school for this week. I start reviewing excitingly on possible activities to be done.
For a change, I am going to do some studying this term break. Yeah, studying. I'll start tomorrow.

To-do list:
Study. [I'll start tomorrow maybe.. But I'm not free tomorrow. I think I'll start on Wednesday. No, wait.. there's..]
Clear 5 GB worth of anime from my computer. My free disk space is an a rather unhealthy state. I cleared 1.2 GB already.
I'll be buying a pencil case.
I am trying to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I hope to at least get to half of the game.
New layout for my blog.
Make a Hangman game using Microsoft Visual Studio. [I made one with Macromedia Flash so I just have to reprogram it into another language.]
Find out on monoclonal antibodies, as I need to present it in front of Mr. Foo's class. Damn, I don't even have any idea what's that.

Okay, forget about the Hangman game. I am confident I can't do that, not in Microsoft Visual Studio. I'm study more first.

Poem
Happiness: We rarely feel it.
I would buy it, beg it, steal it,
Pay in coins of dripping blood
For this one transcendent good.
- Amy Lowell

1.5 years has passed. It's really fast. It feels like I'm still in first year or something. I am in the middle of my second year now. Coming July will be my third year. And coming December, the second half of my third year will start. The second half of my third year is work attachments to companies or universities.
I secretly [so much for it being a secret..] hope I could get attached to foreign countries. A conversation at my class tutor's house revealed that there's a chance of going to Japan for attachment. I never thought about going there. I hoped to go to a foreign country, but not Japan. It's just too foreign. I don't speak the language. I'll be in deep shit there.
After my days in polytechnic, I will go into compulsory national service. I am not looking forward to that. The pay is pathetic. It is going to waste around 3 years of my life. [I don't think I'll live to 80.] I was never into military stuff. I don't even know which rank is higher than which. Bah, they should just pray I don't betray the country or something..

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica, si1ent [tag]

sentosa//tomorrow

2004-02-28T22:02:00.000+08:00

I will be going to Sentosa for class outing tomorrow. Sentosa is an island located in the south of Singapore. I go there quite frequently in the past. Now I am returning to this place.

Crazy Riddle
Question: What is full of holes yet can still hold water ?
Answer: Sponge

I never understood Sentosa's appeal, if there's any. To me, it's a boring place. Right now, it's even worse with so many things there aren't construction.
We supposed to meet at 11. Zhi Yuan suggested that we go there earlier to play volleyball [and check out the girls in bikini].
But, you know, I am not interested in playing volleyball. I don't like the game. I rather kick the volleyball like a football or use the beach volleyball court to play badminton. I can imagine myself being hit by the damn volleyball now. Balls always have an affinity to me. They always come flying my way and I have to find all ways to avoid it.
Pei Shan, Zhi Yuan and Yong Liang were even practising volleyball at school so as to perform better in Sentosa beaches. They're so enthusiastic.
I hate to disappoint them. I doubt many will be there. I imagine around 8 people to be there only. I think some will leave early too.
The last time I been to Sentosa was a year ago with the Chemical and Life Sciences Club people. It's more like an ice breaker activity. We're just there to get to know our friends better. The only thing I can remember is Ming Hao being enthusiastic about eating in Burger King. So I went there with him and settled our lunch there. And then.. We left shortly.
I wonder if I'll end up leaving early this time too. If it's boring.. I might. [Wait, there's peer pressure that'll make me stay.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, Serene [tag], sam [tag], si1ent [tag] and kAixIn [tag]

studying//initiated

2004-02-26T19:21:00.000+08:00

It wasn't a good day to begin with in the first place. I woke up at 6 in the morning and start to read through my Basic Immunology notes.

Did you know?
A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.

Yesterday, I was right in front of my computer doing my formal report. I haven't even complete now. Apparently, I have no idea what's going on in school. I read the experiment worksheet from the front to the back and then back to front. Still have no idea. And Yong Liang, my practical partner, is needing my part of the work before he can further his part. [The formal report is pair work.]
There is a 5 hour break in school and it'll be a good time to study for my Basic Immunology test. It didn't happen as I plan. My clique suggests to book a discussion room to study in the library. Having heard that suggestion, I knew I wouldn't be able to study.
It would have been nice being right, but I wish I weren't this time. Zhi Yuan is surprisingly noisy in the discussion room. Joking. Laughing. Talking. Writing on the whiteboard. A rather active person.
How the hell can I study under such unfavorable conditions? It is not inducing me to study. I am just in the discussion room in order to not be a wet blanket. I suffered because of that. If I were to say I don't want to see them while studying, it would have sounded mean and unfriendly.
I can't study with a group of people talking about other things other than my studying subject. Zhi Yuan was talking, and the only time he is quiet is when he is listening to his music. He blasts the ear piece that everyone can hear his songs. Shawn was trying to study too. Yong Liang was half-asleep already. And Ben.. He needs to read aloud to study.
It wasn't long that I found myself chatting. I should just delete Zhi Yuan and Ben from the picture, it'll be quite perfect. Yong Liang is half-asleep so he doesn't talk. [Oh, now that Ben know the presence of my blog: Well, Ben is a nice fellow. He just needs to not read aloud when studying as a group.]
When the judgment hour is nearing, I really need to study. I fail to do that still. I went into the lecture theatre where the test is at.
Mr. Foo gave out the papers. I was shocked. I knew I was going to fail. Fail badly this time. I was angry with my friends. Frustrated, I reached for my bag and retrieve Mr. Foo's notes.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Jessica, sky [tag], ben [tag] and si1ent [tag]

day//initiated

2004-02-24T22:36:00.000+08:00

I plugged the ear piece into my ear [well, it's not called "ear piece" for no reason] and set off to school. It's a routine thing.

Humorous Quote
"Without self-confidence we are as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself."
- Virginia Woolf

I left my home 40 minutes before school starts. Unlock my gate and start wearing my foot wear [I suppose you know where these goes to now]. I even lock my gate the exact same way. I left my home, blasting my music.
I walked a short distance and start to review what I'm supposed to bring for the day. Usually, I end up heading back home because I forget to bring something out. Yesterday I forgot my Visual Basic .NET textbook, sometimes I forget my lap coat. There are times I wore sandals out of my house when there's practical lessons in the bio laboratories. [You have to cover your foot fully while working on experiments.]
It depends on the music I'm listening to. If it's slow, I walk slowly. If it's fast, I walk fastly [okay, "quickly" makes a better word]. I learnt not to listen to Misia on the way, because I always feel the world is such a nice place and I would like to walk slowly to enjoy it. I listen to people like Shiina Ringo. She makes me feel motivated and she seems to be screaming "you should up your gears and move faster".
My 15-minutes walking journey ends at the train station. I took the train to school and it takes around 15 minutes too. I like taking the train, squeezing and getting squeezed in the train. Watching the people who can't board sadistically from the inside of the cabin of train, thinking I'm so lucky.
The morning is all about rushing. At least in Singapore. Everybody squeezes and pushes just to get in the train. I do the same.
After 15 minutes, I'll reach Dover station, that's where my school is. I look around for Shawn, sometimes for Ben. I used to only wait for Shawn when he messages me to wait. So one day, I didn't receive his message. [You see, I always receive his message to wait.] I didn't wait for him, and did not inform him. I went to class straight. And then I receive a call starting with the question "Where are you?".
Opps.
The call ended with "Fuck you lar".

On a side note, I was nominated for Silent Fear Awards for the categories:
- Best Site Name
- Well Designed
- Best Layout
The voting is up again, it was down previously. Please do support me by voting here, since I egoistically nominated my own blog, lol. Do check out the other nominees too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa, sam [tag] and si1ent [tag]

duplication//initiated

2004-02-22T23:47:00.000+08:00

Yong Liang passed me the SPEED album last Thursday. I didn't ask for it, I am quite skeptical about SPEED doing a come back. SPEED is a popular Japanese girl group that broken up so as to further their studies. [Rumor says there are disagreements in the group that cause it.]

Did you know?
The term "Blue Chip" comes from the color of the poker chip with the highest value, blue.

I secretly owned one of the SPEED compilation albums called "Dear Friend 1". It's one of the two compilation albums released moments before their split. The second album was cleverly titled "Dear Friends 2".
I really liked that album of mine, but I didn't share with anybody. Nobody suspect I was listening to this type of music as I listen to English music mainly.
Enough of that, so Yong Liang offered to lend me the album. I'm quite surprised because no one offered to lend me their CDs before, lol. Then he told me it's copy-controlled.
Great. Can't copy. [He previously asked if I want him to burn a copy for me, I turned him down as I prefer it in WMA format, my portable CD player reads WMA.] I announced to him that I have my ways to get it ripped into my computer.

My method:
Place the copy-controlled CD into scorching hot water.
Put a teaspoon of pepper and 2 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce.
Stir well and put some strawberries inside.
Put everything in the oven and set the oven at 200 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.
Remove it from oven and it's ready to serve to the CD drive's tray.

Anyway, I didn't do my method, I just popped the disc in my CD drive and Windows Media Player (WMP) just popped up. I commanded WMP to search for the names of the tracks. The search is successful, WMP auto-fills in the names and even the composer too.
I clicked on the "Copy Music" button. I was in for a surprise.
Not that WMP explode [boom!] or something.. It copied! There was no message whatsoever, it just copied. So much for a copy-controlled CD.
The same thing happened for the Blue CD - Guilty. It supposed to be copy-controlled but I did a CD-to-CD Copy and the CD worked fine. The same thing happened to 5566's new album, I copied and ripped. It allowed me to. [I am not into Blue or 5566, it's my brother.. I want more Shiina Ringo.]
So what's this copy-protection about, can anyone tell me?

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sam [tag]

bang//not

2004-02-21T21:35:00.000+08:00

It's several weeks after that I wanted to make a comment about William Hung. Being a civil engineer student, William Hung tried the impossible to battle against fellow contestants in the American Idol audition. As expected, the impossible is indeed impossible.

Inspirational Quote
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing."
- John Powell

There is no doubt that William Hung is brave. I mean, who would dare to bang in front of national TV; what's more, in America which has something like - correct me if I'm wrong - 300 million people. William has been a great sport frankly. There is nothing bad about his personality.
However his innocence, courageousness and humble beginnings backfired. He appeared naive, silly and more silly. The narrator even told him to bang somewhere else. What has the poor Chinese did to deserve these embarrassing moments?
Everything.
He should have watched a couple of episodes of American Idol and think hard: is my singing of any standard? He tried hard, he probably knew he'll be the joke of the town, correction: world.
He sang Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" in front of 3 celebrated judges. One of which is Randy Jackson, who spend more than half the time covering his head with an A4 size paper. Judge Paula Abdul is probably thinking what to say to make that poor guy feel encouraged. The last judge, Simon Cowell, swallowed much of his sarcasms and didn't say much bad things for once.
I laughed in front of my 34-inch television. I told myself he's going to make it big. Not in the music field, but in CNN, CNBC, BBC, Fox News and all other news channels.
He became extremely famous. My local television channel, Channel 5, telecasted American Idol 3. Part of the screen shows distracting SMS-es, where the nothing-to-do home viewers sent in, claiming that they want William Hung to be back in American Idol to participate.
That is totally unacceptable, at least to me, likely to Fox too. It's sad to see William being laughed upon, but there's no need to make William into the American Idol. That itself is unrealistic. It is absurd and plain stupid. I wished the others can just wake up. Stop this William Hung crap, don't support him. It's not worth it at all. I see nothing good in him except his entertainment in the rather boring audition.
Show business is a harsh world, not for innocent kids like William. He makes a good comedian and a good sport. He belongs to Saturday Night Live (SNL), not American Idol! Just knock the door of SNL producers, he'll be part of the show in no time.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sky [tag]

music//finish

2004-02-20T23:54:00.000+08:00

I won’t be posting Japanese music lyric translations for a while. I sort of ended my run too. I planned to post 10 of these. I post every Friday until the there are 10. The feedback has been quite positive so far, but last week, I posted number 10.
So this week, there’s nothing. I decide to post some credits instead.

I listen to some Japanese songs, some of which have rather strange lyrics, so I posted them. I never did translations, I do not understand Japanese. I took lyric translations from fan pages etc. Sometimes, the web fails me and I ended up typing the lyrics out by copying the subtitles from the video clip.

The songs come from different sources, I shan’t talk much about it, lol. Some came from video clips. I use m&g Software’s AVI to WAV extractor 3.5 to extract out the sound from the video. [The software is free by the way.]

For song cropping, normalizing of volumes and fading in and out, I use either Ahead Nero Wave Editor or Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. Both are good programs, I use the latter more though.

Songs are encoded in Windows Media Audio 9 for smaller downloads at a quality loss. I use Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Series to encode all my music. [This is a free software too.] Windows Media Audio sounds best at lower bit rates as compared to other formats.

Some posts include still image captures, these are captured by Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series. [This is another free software.] Images are later cropped or edited by Macromedia Fireworks. [Photoshop committed suicide, great..]

These are the past postings [Most of the music are removed already, sorry.]

music//ichi [Ayumi Hamasaki – Real Me]

music//ni [Yukino Satsuki – Densetsu no Onsen GAME (Legendary Hot-Springs Turtle)]

music//san [NICEGUYJIN – Hai, Irasshai! (Hello, Welcome!)]

music//shi [Funta – Wake Up Angel ~ Negaimashite wa Mugen Nari ~ (Wake Up Angel ~ Wishing for this is unlimited ~)]

music//go [Aoi Tada – Wo Qui Non Coin]

music//roku [Yuuichirou Sakuraba – Hitoribocchi no Haburashi (Lonely Toothbrush)]

music//shichi [Gackt – To build a fire (To feel a fire)]

music//hachi [Judy and Mary – Kujira 12 gou (Whale #12)]

music//ku [Maki Goto – Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube! (An Authentic GAL Should Be Bold)]

music//ju [MiniMoni – Okashi Tsukutte Okassui (Making Sweets: Strange)]

I enjoyed posting these. I’ll do these weekly posting thingy in future too.
Yesterday, I posted a quote that has been posted a day before. I forgotten to change it to a new one in my template. Opps.

interesting//fellow

2004-02-19T22:30:00.000+08:00

Some people coin new terms. [I was refering to George W. Bush, he coined some rather amusing ones like "misunderestimate".] My classmates instead amended existing ones.

Bush Quote
""They misunderestimated me."
- George W. Bush (Nov 6, 2000)
[What? Is this misunderstand plus underestimate? He coined a new word..]

It is purely sarcasm, I tell you. When someone says "you're so interesting", it actually means "you're full of shit". A quarter of my class seemed to agree that Ben is the most "interesting" person. Ben must be quite disappointed.
Zhi Yuan says things like, "It's Ben. Expect the unexpected". Ben is pretty much a gamer. He plays lots of games, especially adventure and RPG [Role Playing Games] ones.
"I am level 99, H.P. 999," he reported to me when I requested for his status.
To Ben, everything explodes. His favorite word is "boom", the sound of explosions. The water fountain can go boom, the computer can be boom, and even the school can go boom. Boom!
Ben's favorite phrase is "dot dot dot", used to suggest the other party is speaking of something rather corny. It's like I am chatting with him over MSN Messenger or something. He literally says "dot dot dot". I used to say that in secondary school, but not often. I said it differently from Ben, mine is "dot <pause> dot <pause> dot", well, basically I pause longer.
Sometimes, Ben exclaims "question mark" when he is confused. [I never exclaim that before.] It's really amusing when I first heard it.
But these amusements fail to amuse me now, I'm tired. He does tell some jokes too. Most of his jokes are downright lame and corny. I can't help but to feel a sudden discomfort when I hear his lame jokes. 2 types of lame jokes, one of which is lame and funny, the other is lame and lame. Ben speaks the latter.
But people are starting to make fun of him. Calling him "interesting". Sometimes I say that he's "interesting", he'll say "shuddup lar" [Shut up]. Oh, he's angry. I'll be quiet.
He's rather gullible too. He went on a basic theory test for driving. Zhi Yuan insisted that the road sign for train tracks refers to the airplane zone. Yong Liang nods and agrees. Shawn starts to laugh at Ben because he doesn't know that road sign refers to airplanes.
Believe it or not, but Ben believed that it's the airplane zone road sign!
"Interesting" fellow, lol.
[Ben is a nice person. A person too nice in fact, to end up being joked upon. And why is he nice? Well, he never owe me money more than a day. Shawn still owes me 6 bucks..]

On a side note, I was nominated for Silent Fear Awards for the categories:
- Best Site Name
- Well Designed
- Best Layout
Please do support me by voting here, since I egoistically nominated my own blog, lol. Do check out the other nominees too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
serene, pketh, sam [tag] and sky [tag]

it//sucks

2004-02-17T19:34:00.000+08:00

My crazy father returned home with something extra today. He unpacked the box and he revealed to us what is known as a vacuum cleaner in modern days.

Bush Quote
""They misunderestimated me."
- George W. Bush (Nov 6, 2000)
[What? Is this misunderstand plus underestimate? He coined a new word..]

What I saw is this huge vacuum cleaner that probably has industrial-sized power to vacuum the water from the Singapore River. Hey, wait a minute. He did buy the damn vacuum to suck up all the water.
That vacuum cleaner looks bad on the exterior. It is bulky and I can't seem to think of any place to store that machine. Basically, it totally sucks.. Well, which is good in a way especially when I wouldn't want to get a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck.
My father place it in our balcony. It's already quite messy there and we don't have a big balcony. The last thing we need in the balcony - something that sucks.
Carefully, I plugged in and switched on the vacuum cleaner. I watched from afar hoping that it works well because it seriously looked as if it's going to explode anytime. I can imagine Ben doing that "booom!" sound effect really.
It works like a beauty and sounds like a frustrated beast. The sound is still ringing in my mind. The sound is enough to ward off mosquitoes and all other evil creatures. It sounded like those electrical insect repellent with a lot more decibels.
I found alternate users for it. When a guest requires an extra stool, the vacuum cleaner can certainly help. It can be improvised into a stool. And look ma, it even comes with a set of wheels! If my mother can't reach the clothes in the balcony, she can also step on top of the vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner looks strong enough to support my 55 kg mother.
The actual reason that my father bought a vacuum turns out to be quite an alternate use too. He wanted to suck the water from our air conditioners. That's so stupid. He has been grumbling since years ago. He claims our air conditioners are noisy because "the water is stuck in the pipe".
I tell you, it's crap. I have been in school for 12 years, I know my stuff. I don't see what has the air conditioner generator's noise level got to do with obstructions in the pipe. [The repairmen came a number of times and my father is very rude to them. It never got repaired.] And he bought a vacuum cleaner just like that. As in, he went out, and returned with it. There is no discussion whatsoever. I told you he's crazy.
Life is like a vacuum cleaner I guess..

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
vanessa and pketh

five//hours

2004-02-16T23:24:00.000+08:00

Early at 8, I reached school. I walked to school with Ben, James, Shawn and Yong Liang. [Just to digress: I have this thing with sorting things alphabetically, lol.]

Strange Quote
""If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now."
- Woodrow Wilson

I walk to school from the train station, it's a short distance. It used to be quite boring, but my wonderful polytechnic has done some landscaping to it. Now there's waters running down beautifully like a waterfall. I suspect the reason they construct it is to show it off to our dear so-call elected president. You see, he won because there are no candidates..
As we were walking towards the lecture theatre, I saw Pei Shan and her boyfriend leaving the school.
[drum rolls] Drum rolls not for Pei Shan but for the fact that the lesson is cancelled and the fact that we are going to be idle till 1 in the afternoon. That's 5 hours of break.
So we merrily talked in the food court. I was munching my Sausage McMuffin with Egg while talking and laughing. Then I ate the harsh brown. McDonald's made good breakfast. That's the only thing I like - breakfast. I tried the KFC one and I start to I'm-Lovin'-It McDonald's more.
We proceeded to the library and booked a discussion room. Well, it's a discussion room. We were discussing anything that is not related to school. Ben, Shawn and Zhi Yuan were discussing about Pokémon. Right, Mewtwo is better than Mew. Okay, got that noted down.
Yong Liang let me listened to the new Speed CD. [Speed is a much loved Japanese girl group; they recently released that come-back album - Bridge.] I didn't quite enjoy the songs. I am going into more unique sounding songs nowadays.
It was the last hour that we remember why we booked this discussion room for. We have a test later. And we haven't study finish.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
serene, pketh, sam [tag] and gj [tag]

music//ju

2004-02-14T19:44:00.000+08:00

This has got to be one of the silliest songs I heard. I especially like the bass of this track. It's rather "rockish" in a childish way.

Strange News
NEW YORK, NY. A man was knocked down by a car and got up uninjured, but lay back down in front of the car when a bystander told him to feign injury in order to collect insurance money. The car rolled forward and crushed him to death.
- Associated Press, 1977

The song is called "Okashi Tsukette Okassui". [I searched and found several similar Romanized names like "Okashi Tsukette Okkasi" and "Okashi Tsukette Okassi".] I can't find the title translation for this song so I translated the title myself to be something like "Making Sweets: Strange" or something. I don't learn Japanese so I may be wrong. Can someone tell me the correct translation of the title?
MiniMoni members - Mari Yaguchi, Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Kago and Mika Todd - starred in the movie - MoniMoni The Movie: The Great Cake Adventure a couple of years back. I first heard that song from this film.
The movie's about MiniMoni members running a confectionery that does wonderful cakes. Just hours before their shop's anniversary, an evil queen sought to destroy the cakes they made. Just when things go bad, their sizes got reduced. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all.
I have encoded 56sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 48 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people. This is the best quality I have encoded again, at the expense of file sizes again. :)
Download the sample from here (355 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 23.]

Okashi Tsukutte Okassui
[Making Sweets: Strange]
Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo!
[Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!]
Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo!
[Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!]

Issho ni okashi!
[Together: Sweets!]
Issho wa okassui~!
[Together: Strange~!]

Okashi wa itsudemo SHAI dakara
[Because sweets are always SHY]
Hotondo kaiwa mo nai keredo
[They don't really have very much to say]

Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okassui~!
[So strange~!]

Okashi wa itsudemo mirokuteki!
[Sweets are always fascinating!]
Shotaimenna noni oishisou
[They look so good at just the first glance]

Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
[Sweets wondrous!]
Okassui~!
[So strange~!]

Source: The movie itself

After I watched the film, the words "okashi fushigi" still rings in my mind. I watch it last time by the way. So it proofs how addictive this tune is to me. Okassui, isn't it?

Still images from the movie:
MiniMoni Land
MiniMoni Makes A Cake
MiniMoni Ai Kago and Nozomi Tsuji plus Ai Takahashi
MiniMoni Ai Takahashi being nervous
MiniMoni Became Small
MiniMoni Yaguchi Crying
MiniMoni's Cake Ordeal Ends
MiniMoni Looks To A Better Future

[shall be removed after March 19]

The thing about this movie is that it seems to be a satire of the actual MiniMoni group. In the end of the movie, Yaguchi left the confectionery she started and appointed Mika Todd to be the manager. Takahashi then joined the lovely cake-making crew. Yaguchi left to take care of the 4 kids as part of the story.
Yaguchi indeed left MiniMoni. With the addition of Takahashi and a new leader, MiniMoni also changed their styles. Yaguchi went on to manage Hello! Project Kids.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous posting:
Serene, Jasmine, GJ [tag] and k|inG [tag]

Additional links:
music//ichi, music//ni, music//san, music//shi, music//go, music//intermission, music//roku, music//shichi, music//hachi, music//ku

fucked//up

2004-02-12T19:54:00.000+08:00

"Fuck you!" he scolded. Right, he scolded me that. He should just fuck off because the whole incident is his whole damned fault.

Famous Quote
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
- Albert Einstein

School has ended for me and I was merrily walk out of school. [I always drag my feet to school.] I was walking on the pavement with Hua Ming, Shawn and Yong Liang.
That is when I met with an accident. With a damned bicycle.
There is this fucking middle-age man riding a bicycle. I so fucking hate bicycles right now by the way. He was riding his fucking bicycle on the pavement. It is illegal to ride a bicycle on the pavement in Singapore. All bicycles go onto roads with cars unless otherwise stated.
So as I was saying, he and his fucking bicycle come charging towards us. I didn't notice it because I was listening to Hua Ming talking about some stuff.
His fucking bicycle's fucking handle got hooked by my bag. He fell.
I apologized to him several times. I shouldn't have done so.
"Fuck you!" he scolded. He is totally fucked up, trying to get back to his feet.
The last thing I want to hear after apologizing is the word "fuck". I am sure he is furious. So, I thought for what to say.
Before I can open my mouth, Hua Ming opened his.

Hua Ming [spoke in Mandarin angrily]: What are you saying?
Fucking Middle-age Man [spoke in Mandarin angrily]: You never look while you walk!
HM: It's illegal to ride a bicycle on the pavement.
FMM: Bullshit. You aren't looking! Walk on the pavement without looking.

What did I say? Nothing came out of my mouth. I was angry when that fucking middle-age man scolded "Fuck you!", but after Hua Ming opened his mouth, my anger subsided. My anger was totally gone. Hua Ming's mouth does miracles!
Anyway, I don't feel sorry for the fucking middle-age man now. He and his total fucked up bicycle. I did felt it's my fault that he fell. But he has broken the law, scolded me "Fuck you!". I understand his feelings when that fucking middle-age man fell, but I don't like anger being vented on me.
I returned home cursing every single bicyclist I see that's cycling in the park. It is illegal to cycle in parks too, unless there are special bicycle-only tracks.
I just turned my blog to a not-for-children-below-15 (NC-15) page. Just to let you know, my mood is quite relaxed and amused when I typed this. The not-so-nice words are used for amusement purposes. Did I mention that he looked so stupid when he fell? lol.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
wei.ting, Jessica and sky [tag]

science//magazines

2004-02-09T23:33:00.000+08:00

Please don't say I'm mad, Feng Li. Truth is that, last Sunday, I borrow two issues of Scientific American from the library. I never read Scientific American much.

Proverbs
""Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

Scientific American is a magazine from America, judging from its name. Judging from the first word "Scientific", I suspect it's a science magazine. Now I am sitting on my blue chair, swirling around in circles and typing a sentence after each clockwise turn. I was excited about it. The magazine has a nice cover, plus my chair's quite comfortable.
You see [of course you can't see], the magazine is only inches from me. I looked at the bottom left hand corner of the magazine. It has got this vertical lines, with a somewhat gothic feeling. It's black and white too, very gothic. I like gothic art. It's well portrayed. Look, it even has got numbers. It's both gothic and The Matrix combined. Excellent.
Oh, sorry, that's the barcode.
I didn't borrow these magazines for no reason you know. All my good pals know I always borrow things for a reason. I mean think about the last time I borrow Shawn's pen just because I didn't want to reach my bag for a pen. What could a better reason be than that?
This time round, I really need these magazine. I am getting bored of these biotechnology things. I feel I'm in the wrong course now. I would have done much better in some computer course trying to figure out what does "VbCrLf" stand for in Microsoft Visual Basic .Net.
Quit? Hell no. I am not going to quit. I can quit the habit of going to toilet more often then I go to classes, but not this. I am going to continue.
As biotechnological terms, my biotechnology interests are repressed and I need an inducer to free that damned repressor from my biotechnology interest operon. [In layman's term: I need something reactivate my biotechnology interests.]
So I borrow Scientific American. I told you there's a reason. I was hoping it'll "induce" [motivate] me to be interested in biotechnology.
I'll let you guys know of the results. Meanwhile I'll get started on the book.
Oh, letters. I love the letters page.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
serene, sam [tag] and thirti-niNe [tag]

music//ku

2004-02-07T22:08:00.000+08:00

I am a day late again. Maki Goto started her career in Morning Musume, now she has gone solo. [Still under same record company.] I featured Maki Goto before in one of my themes in the past.

Humorous Quote
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian."
- Dennis Wholey

I listen to her album PAINT IT GOLD some time back and really like this track - Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube!. Without knowing the meaning of this song, I went on to listen. It's a good walking song ya'know, it's fast so it kinda sets a pace for me to walk fast too.
I tried to find the translation of Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube! for some time. It was until a couple of days ago that I chance upon it on the very site I'm viewing. Even so, I have difficulty understanding which English translation belongs to which lines. If the translations are incorrect, it's likely that I have pasted the lines wrongly.
The translations seems generally accurate but some phrases are rather strange..
I have encoded 1min 06sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 40 kbps, 32 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people. This is the best quality I have encoded, at the expense of file sizes. :)
Download the sample from here (343 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 16.]

Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube!
[An Authentic GAL Should Be Bold)]
Lyrics & Music : Tsunku
Arrangement : Takahashi Yuichi

Hitori no shuumatsu tte shinnjirannai hodo; Maji yabaissu!
[A weekend alone is so bad that you won't believe it!]
Kedo kono toki to bakari onna wo sora migaki makutte (Maji yabaissu!)
[But in this time I polish the woman in me]
"Kareshi ga dekita toki" Sonna yume ga
["When I get a boyfriend" That's the dream I have]
Dome no gobaibun
[It's five times the size of the Tokyo Dome]
Kitto mawari ga hiichau kurai LOVE LOVE ni nacchau mon!
[We'll be in love so much that the people around will take a step away!]

Tomodachi ttara
[All my friends,]
Nuke kakeshite ikachii koi
[they all stole away to have romantic relationships]
"Watashi ga saigo no kareshi nashi!" kka
["I'm the last one without a boyfriend!"]
Iinda mon Naite nai!
[I don't care! I'm not crying!]
"Eeeeeen"
["Eeeeeen" *cries*]

Genshoku gyaru wa hade ni ikube!
[An authentic gal should be bold!]
Shumi wa ryouri de ika ga?
[Is it okay if my hobby is cooking?]
Genshoku gyaru wa hade ni ikube!
[An authentic gal should be bold!]
Otsuke mono mo hade yo!
[My pickles are also bold!]
Supootsu taipu mo hade ni ikube!
[The sporty type should go bold!]
Michibata taipu mo hade ni ikube!
[The side-of-the-road type should go bold too!]

It's a rather kawaii [Japanese for "cute"] song, isn't it? Goto singing about her not having a boyfriend. I guess I just have to sacrifice myself to be hers. I'm very noble.
I first saw Maki Goto is Morning Musume when they are performing Mr. Moonlight. She really stood out that time, partly because of her wardrobe. There is no wardrobe malfunction during her performance though, lol. [Tribute made to Janet Jackson's left breast. Justin wants to "get you naked by the end of the song".]
Some phrases are rather strange as I said (before the lyrics). I wonder what's "my pickles are also bold". In fact when "Genshoku GAL" is translated to be "Authentic GAL", I don't feel it's right. Maybe it should be "Real GAL" or something. I can't decide, I can't read Japanese.

I captured from screens from the promotional video too:
Goto on stage view from afar
Goto gets the crowd ready
Goto smiles showing teeth
Goto looks pissed
Goto "Eeeeeen" [crying sounds]
Goto slight smile
Goto jumps with guitar
Goto looks scary [too scary that I removed, lol]

[removed after March 12]

She looks pretty, doesn't she? This song reminds me of Ayaya [same record company]. My favorite picture? I like the pissed look, she looks best when she's pissed, hahaa. Having said that, I wonder if Goto will be pissed when she reads this.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous posting:
pketh, xia and vanessa

Additional links:
music//ichi, music//ni, music//san, music//shi, music//go, music//intermission, music//roku, music//shichi, music//hachi

not//basic

2004-02-05T20:51:00.000+08:00

My Basic Immunology test came eventually. I prepared a hell lot for it. I was absolutely ready. Mrs. Mak walked in. Damn. She's going to force us to do that alternate sitting plan thingy. That means I can't copy.. sorry I meant to say that I can't perform cross-referencing of my work with my peers'.

Humorous Quote
"God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it."
- Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Contact

Yesterday, I returned home at four. I sat in front of my beloved computer and clicked on several items to download and went to bed. My mother forced me to wake up at 7 to have dinner.
I was getting all ready to studying after dinner I tell ya. I sat in front of my study table, experimenting with various positions [on the chair of course]. It wasn't long that I decide to moved to my computer desk.
I unlocked my computer and logged into MSN Messenger to check my Hotmail account [there's some integration so I don't need to type the password, I'm lazy]. The cheery blue notification popped up on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Shawn and Zhi Yuan was initiating a conversation with me. You know, I've got to entertain my friends, even though they are my classmates and I see them so frequently.
A computer, being a computer, has loads of functions. Let me demonstrate: You can click on this icon with a play sign and it launches Windows Media Player. I inserted Initial D Stage 1 VCD 6 inside and voila, it started to play the VCD. How helpful.
Takumi was going to race with Mako. Mako is willing to give Iketani-sempai her virginity if he fixed a race between Takumi and her. Mako was playing on her home ground. Will Takumi emerge as the winning on first try? Will the Akina Speedster's suffer their first defeat after 3 consecutive victories obtained by Takumi's Hachi-Roku [it's a car name. Treuno, AE86]. I got to watch it! It took 4 episodes to play out the stories and the race itself. Great, an hour and a half gone.
Yawn. I was tired. My bed looks so inviting. It wasn't long after that I slept.
Today, my classmates booked a discussion room at school to study. I was there. Looks like there's a reason why a "discussion room" is called a "discussion room".

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, serene, xia, Jessica, Em [tag], sam [tag] and tammy [tag]

digression//within

2004-02-02T22:31:00.000+08:00

My first test in this semester is coming. Basic Immunology. I like the word "basic". I assumed it to be very basic, common sense level of immunology. For the first few weeks, I didn't listen in class.

Humorous Quote
"My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry 'til a more convenient season."
- Mary Todd Lincoln

It's a boring class. Mrs. Mak and Mr. Foo took us. Both Basic Immunology teachers have a similar trait. It's probable that it's in their genes and the penetrance and expressivity levels favors that trait. It's coded in the X chromosome, nucleotide number 308 counting from the 5 prime end. Huh? Both sides ends with a 5 prime end on either one of the strands? Er.. Just make a 50-50 guess. Their common trait it that both teachers love to digress.

Mrs. Mak's digression:
Your body may reject an organ transplant. There isn't something like 100% compatible. You will need immuno suppressors.
Just to digress, you know, Singapore has this Organ Transplant Act that states your organs can be removed from your body after you die? Last time, you can sign a form to say after you die, you want to donate your organs. Few came forth. The Act is hence updated. Now, by default, your organs can be removed from your body unless you choose to opt out.

Okay, that's an interesting bit of information, I am not aware of it. I wonder where can I sign that, lol.

Mr. Foo's digression:
There is a man who was playing golf. Suddenly, he felt the urge to go to the toilet due to a stomach upset. He panicked and searched around for the toilet. He found a female toilet but not a male toilet. He went in immediately, given no choice.
He closed the cubicle door and sat on the toilet seat. Unknown to him, there's a snake in the toilet bowl. The snake opened his jaws and bit the man's buttocks. The man jumped up immediately, crying in pain.
He was sent to the hospital. He was bitten by a poisonous snake. So the doctors got the serum from.. blah blah blah.. [He went into telling how the doctors save the poor guy's ass using words like "antigens" and "serum".]

Okay sir, I get your point. But what the hell has it got to do with a female toilet?! He is assuming that the male toilet is free from snakes.
A bit of digression is good. Mrs. Mak digresses too much. Mr. Foo? Well, some of his digressions makes no sense.

tutor//host

2004-01-31T23:51:00.000+08:00

The last time I been to a tutor's house is 2 years ago. I went to Mrs. Yeo's place. I have to, since my mother paid her good money to teach me English. Today, I went to my class tutor - Mrs. Koh's place. She lives in the same condominium as my uncle. What a coincidence. She lives in the same apartment number as my uncle too. What a coincidence. Did I mention she knows my uncle too?

Inspirational Quote
"Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral."
- John Burroughs

The class met at Bukit Batok MRT Station at 11, well, supposedly. Blame it on the cursed alarm clock perhaps? The self-appointed chairperson decided the meeting time to be 11 and announced the 10 minutes grace period. I believe everyone reset the meeting times to the new time slot - 10 minutes after 11. You can't change it, it's in our heritage.
The self-appointed great one looks at around and asked we should leave. I looked around and told her we ought to wait a little while more. Her highness looked back with a smile. Not a Mona Lisa smile, it's a Monica Lewinsky smile, a smile that seems to be suggesting, "I'll get you good".
I am seldom late and since I live with walking distance to the MRT Station, I better not be. The late-comers did arrive in the end. Percillus, may God bless the Queen, moved off promptly. We reached Mrs. Koh's place and surrendered our Mandarin oranges to secure an entry ticket to her rather-small apartment.
Mee Siam, something like "spicy vermicelli", was served for lunch. Mrs. Koh makes a good host, treating us with Roti Prata after Roti Prata. ["Roti Prata" is crispy Indian bread, ideally served hot.] Soon, I was full. I mean, after eating 3 Roti Pratas plus Mee Siam, plus Mee Siam serving 2, who can't be full. To make matters worse, Mrs. Koh then took out 2 cans of Coke. Shawn, otherwise known as the spokesperson of Coca Cola, took one and Yong Liang passed me the other can.
I think it's a good trip, it's been a while since I last gone out on Saturdays. Saturday is my stay-home-and-use-computer day. Just to digress, I'm going to change my life style. Adding more flavor to it, adding more studying to it too. You see I haven't been studying. Oh, I reached my preferred post length, no need to digress back already. Ciao.

[In case you're confused: "self-appointed chairperson", "great one", "Her Highness" and "the Queen" all refers to the one and the same person - Percillus - our beloved chairperson.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
sam [tag] and sky [tag]

music//hachi

2004-01-30T22:41:00.000+08:00

Every time I post something, I always want to put a title for my post. Most of the time, the title is determined before I start typing. However, there are exceptional cases. Either way, it works. A title is given just to identify the post. Obviously, it should do well suggesting the content of the post.

Judy and Mary

Yuki, lead vocalist.

The same thing for songs I guess. A title well chosen is just as important as producing a good track. Judy and Mary released their 11th single in 1997 titled "Kujira 12 Gou" which means "Whale #12". It's a nice song, with a strange title. I read the translated lyrics and still have no idea why's it called "Whale #12". In fact, "kujira" (whale) is only mentioned twice. There's no mention of the number 12 too.
Well, at least there's mention of dolphins. I can't say it's positive though.
Now to think of it, Judy and Mary is a name of a band that has 3 guys and a girl.
I have encoded 1min 40sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 20 kbps, 16 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people.
Download the sample from here (260 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 09.]

Kujira 12 gou
[Whale #12]
kurakkaa to chiizu to wain de furu kaiten no sukuryuu wa guu
[crackers, cheese, and wine, the full revolution propeller screams]
suraidaa de jippaa wa hazumu hai bakkari no sora wo mite iru
[sliding undoes my zipper, and I see only ash in the sky]
kondo koso te ni iretai koboresou na yoru ga sameteku
[I have to really try this time, the falling night is coming]
imiteeshon no daiya de uso bakkari no koi ga shitari wa
[an imitation diamond of lies is the love I want]
koibito ga sarawarete akuma no shiro kara tasukedasou
[I'll save my lover who was abducted to the demon's castle]
dakishimete te ni iretai kirameku hoshi no aitemu wo
[hold me while I try to touch the twinkling stars]

ougon iro no tabibito ga matteru
[a golden traveler is waiting]
monogatari e isogou
[I'll hurry into the adventure]

taiyou ga mezametara ano fune de yukou
[when the sun opens its eyes we'll go by the ship]
yorisotte yukidoke wo oyogu kujira mitai na
[drawing close and swimming in the melted snow like a whale]
mada daremo shiranai ano sora no hate wa
[to the edge of that sky that no one knows]
kitto mabushisugiru garasu no tobira
[a dazzling door of glass]

dorufin kikku de shibirete mitai na
[I want to kick like a dolphin until I'm numb]

Source: Natsuki of Sweetusagi.com
I only include a portion of the lyrics, minor amendments have been made too.

I do not see the link in the lyrics. One moment it says "I'll save my lover who was abducted to the demon's castle", then it's followed by "hold(ing) me while I try to touch the twinkling stars".
My favorite part of the lyrics - I want to kick like a dolphin until I'm numb. At first glance, I thought it's "I want to kick a dolphin until I'm numb", which is rather amusing.
This is a feel good song, I listened to it, I felt good. A peep at the translations once again verify the fact that a good song doesn't need smart lyrics. Doesn't need smart song titles too.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous posting:
pketh, xia, serene and sam [tag]

Additional links:
music//ichi, music//ni, music//san, music//shi, music//go, music//intermission, music//roku, music//shichi

tekken//four

2004-01-29T20:44:00.000+08:00

It's Thursday again, four and a half hours of consecutive breaks. I don't hate breaks, but I can't love that four and a half hours break too. Originally, the plan for today is to watch Tom Cruise in the cinemas doing some killing (from film - Last Samurai). That didn't happen. Instead, we went to Zhi Yuan's house and watch Zhi Yuan in his room doing some killing in Tekken 4 with his game console.

Humorous Quote
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly; devils fall because of their gravity."
- G. K. Chesterton

The plan was nearly perfect, asides for playing Poker, Dai Dee, Blackjack, Playstation 2 games, FHM (For Him Magazine) and watching Ben over-reacting while playing games. Anyway to summarize, we went to his house for Poker, Dai Dee, Blackjack and Playstation 2. I don't get this Poker game actually. Neither Blackjack too. I just don't see the fun in it at all. As for Dai Dee, well, it's alright I guess. I'm not into card-based games.
So I ended up playing console games. Zhi Yuan popped in Tekken 4 and initiate a competition with me. What's Tekken 4? I am clueless before playing, it's some fighting game that is like Dead or Alive 3 and Soul Caliber 2.
The game started - Zhi Yuan vs. Me. Wait, let me recall when's the last time I held a game controller. 5 months ago perhaps? Oh, it's a Playstation 2 controller, I never touch it before. I touched the XBOX one at a gaming store 5 months ago. My virgin try on the Playstation 2 controller.
I gripped the controller tightly. Zhi Yuan gave me some advices. The others stop playing games and start watching the game. [All has never play this game before.] I tested the buttons out. Okay, so this is kick and this is punch and this is kick and this is also kick and this is also kick. Now how the hell am I going to play?
I slide my thumb across all the buttons of the right. My character jumped, kicked and punched. Wow. I start pressing buttons at random. I wasn't even looking at the screen all the time, I was talking to Yong Liang.
Zhi Yuan's character seemed to be badly injured after subsequent blows from me. I don't even know what I pressed! Soon, he's dead. He can't believe he lost!
Round 2. I did the same method as before - pressing buttons randomly. Our character's lives are depleted very quickly. Zhi Yuan made the deciding move in the end and my character is lying on the ground motionless. Final scenes are replayed. Zhi Yuan was overjoyed.
Round 3. I looked at the screen carefully, still determined to use the random pressing method. We exchanged heavy blows. The K.O. (Knock-out) sign flashed on the screen, ending the game. The others laughed and cheered. Zhi Yuan can't believe his luck. Neither could I believe mine.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, xia, vanessa and sky [tag]

dream//state

2004-01-28T21:13:00.000+08:00

Lectures can't be any more boring with Miss Ho teaching. Think about it: the first time I ever fallen asleep in a class. I do have to admit it's just 4 minutes according to Zhi Yuan's timepiece. I don't fall asleep in class, with a simple reason - I simply can't.

Inspirational Quote
"Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win."
- Bernadette Devlin

With the lecturer talking and talking, I really wonder how folks like Feng Li and Shawn can just drop dead on the table. Well, I guess when there's a will, there's a way. The other problem is the lecturer's watching that awakes me. I can't sleep when this lecturer is surveying the classroom. Miss Ho's lecture has only 16 people, and out of 16, only 14 turned up.
Miss Ho speaks very clearly. With an accent. I can't really tell but it sounded American. To be exact, it sounded like Days of our Lives. She speaks melodiously. In Singapore, I am very used to monotone lecturers hence she's quite unique in a way.
She reminds me of my past English tutor - Mrs. Yeo. Mrs. Yeo does speak like her in a certain sense. I find Mrs. Yeo's speech captivating. It keeps me awake. [Plus Mrs. Yeo is quite funny herself.] I won't fall asleep in her class.
I guess slight differences do matter. Miss Ho's class is boring, even with her voice. Zhi Yuan complained that her accent is "very fake". I can't really agree or deny with him. Miss Ho probably studied overseas before and imported that way of speech.
My eyes surveyed the class. Shawn seemed to have drifted into dreamland. Another down. Just how do these people sleep?
I looked at Zhi Yuan's time piece again, the lesson has only past 30 minutes and it seems like an hour already. My eyes grew weary monitoring the digital watch refreshing every second. I feel my strength is departing me. I rest my head on my arms, shut my eyes slowly.
I slept.. [..although only for 4 minutes.]

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene

tissue//booking

2004-01-27T20:40:00.000+08:00

There's a 2 hour break from 12 to 2 in the afternoon. Ben, James, Shawn, Yong Liang and I headed to Jurong Point for our lunches. We returned to school late. The 2 hour break is simply not enough to go out for lunch, because lunch is not just lunch. Lunch is lunch plus Initial D Arcade Stage 3 and Out Run 2.

Inspirational Quote
"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it 'the present'."
- Babatunde Olatunji

I left for Jurong Point with them hoping last week's history won't be brought forward. We were late last week too. We went to Jurong Point too. I watched them play Initial D and Out Run too. History is sure good at repeating itself.
Unlike eating at the Kopitiam on the third floor last week, we went to eat at the Banquet on the basement instead. We placed our bags on our respective seats and left to walk around to look through the variety of food available.
I don't feel good when my bag is not monitored by myself or at least someone whom I trust. What if it gets stolen. It is unlikely that bags would get stolen in the food court, however the possibility is still there. It's a trend to find the seat, then look for food in Singapore.
We need something there to book our seats, can't be taking our bags away. The trend in schools is usually to leave our bags on the seat. But any wise man will point out the dangers of theft. Schools are generally quite safe places, so if your bags disappear, you'll be first to suspect your close ones playing a prank on you.
There's a strange trend in Raffles Place too. I called it "tissue booking system", TBS for short. The key in TBS is tissue. You need to bring packets of tissue paper. I used to work at Raffles Place area so I've seen lots of it.
When you find your seats, presumably with your colleagues since Raffles Place is more of a business district, put a packet of tissue paper on your seat. Your colleagues should really do the same. It's a sign that this seat has been taken. No bags are left there. [Most don't carry bags out of their offices during lunch breaks, that might explain.]
Raffles people sure have their interesting habits. If I were a visitor to Singapore, I would have thought the food court has such good service to offer me tissue paper on the seats. I'll just take the tissue paper and the seat.
I supposed the TBS still have some flaws. It's recognized by working people in Raffles, I don't think it'll work if I do it at Jurong Point. However, it's still better than putting bags on the seat, inviting glances from thieves. I rather my seat and tissue than my bag taken.

I realized some terms will be unfamiliar to non-Singaporeans so I give a brief guide. Jurong Point is a local mall in western Singapore. Raffles Place is a place in central Singapore. Initial D Arcade Stage 3 is a Japanese import arcade game that's quite popular with car lovers. Out Run 2 is, well, another car arcade game. I don't play those. Kopitiam is the name of Jurong Point's food court, "Kopitiam" is literally translated to "coffee shop", translated from Hokkien dialect. Banquet is a Halal food court. "Halal" means "lawful" in Arabic, so it supposed to be a Muslim friendly place to dine at.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
xia, Serene and vanessa

mono//laughter

2004-01-26T21:27:00.000+08:00

Fifth day of Lunar New Year. Rainy. Highs and lows at 29 and 23 degree Celsius respectively. And a school day for me.
Lunar New Year is a rather long event. It lasts 15 days in total. China have holidays during the 15 days. Sadly we only have 2 days. I was happy that Saturday and Sunday were positioned in such a way where I can stay away from school 4 consecutive days.
But still, Monday comes. My mother woke me up at fifteen minutes to seven. I uttered some nonsense to her while half awake and took an extra few minutes of nap.

Humorous Quote
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
- John Lennon

I looked at my time table. Great. 2 hours of Metabolic Biology lecture followed by an hour of Molecular Biology lecture. I don't like these subjects. The word "biology" is turning me off right now.
It wasn't long [three weeks to be exact] when I realized I'm behind the class. I simply don't understand both lectures. Metabolic Biology isn't that bad, it's just plain boring. I watched Triple M cracked some jokes. She's a very stiff person. Her jokes aren't so funny. Many a times I just sit at the last row of the crowd finding meaning in her jokes. She can be quite a corny lecturer by the way.
Our class tutor happens to be teaching us Molecular Biology. I really have to be careful of words that comes out of my mouth. Zhi Yuan made a joke about getting red packets during Lunar New Year from her. She took it seriously and we somehow ended being instructed to organized a class outing to her place. [It is Chinese culture to go to friend's house to exchange Mandarin oranges and well wishes. A red packets is often returned as a token of appreciation kinda thing.]
We planned to go to her house of Wednesday actually. Unfortunately, things don't work out as she has to give a talk to the Year 1 Diploma of Biotechnology and Medical Technology students. So Ernest jokingly offer help, presumably that she will end earlier with his help. She took the offer seriously and offered 5 minutes of talk time to Ernest. Obviously, Ernest turned it down, I'm glad he did. I can imagine him trying to tell not-so-funny jokes to freshmen.
School then ended with Visual Basic Programming lessons. That's Zhi Yuan's favorite class. I thought it's okay. I am currently a step ahead of the class, finally more one module. Phew. That's just because I do occasional Flash ActionScript programming. And they have some similarities, except for the fact that Visual Basic is much harder. I never have to declare that "x" is a Boolean, string, short, long, single, double before hand in Flash. So I think it's a bother basically.
It's a bother basically in Visual Basic. Haha. Basically in Visual Basic, get it? Haha. You don't? It's such a basic joke. Haha. A basic joke basically. Haha. A Visual Basic basic joke basically. Hahaha.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Serene, Jessica and Heather [tag]

music//shichi

2004-01-23T16:06:00.000+08:00

So one of my favorite Japanese artists sang an English song. However, I'm not too eager to support him. He is known as Gackt, full name [so he claims..] is Camui M. S. Gackt (神威楽斗, Kamui Gakuto). He claims his birthday to be July 4, 1540, that makes him over 400 years old. He must be thinking that I'm a 3-year-ld to believe him.

Gackt

Click to view a wallpaper of Gackt.

Gackt was part of Malice Mizer before he went solo. His shoe size is 25.5 cm, 10 inches or size 8. [What the hell am I thinking to give shoe sizes..] So anyway, Gackt sang an English song. In Engrish to be exact.
Japanese pronounces English with much difficult, so speaking in English is quite a problem for them and now Gackt sang the entire song in English, correction, Engrish. Pronunciation problems are arose from different stress in vowels etc.
I included a portion of Gackt's song "To feel the Fire" and the lyrics for that portion. "To feel the Fire" is a song written by Stevie Wonder for a Kirin beverage commercial called "Fire". [Okay, "Fire" supposed to be some coffee brand..]
The lyric part with the italicized squared parenthesis [like this] is the actual lyrics. Those without are just lyric that sounded like what Gackt is singing.
I have encoded 1min 30sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 32 kbps, 32 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people. This is the highest quality I encoded so far, it's 32 kHz too! [Previously was 16]
Download the sample from here (374 KB). [Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 02.]

To build a fire
[To feel a fire]
'cause when I look inside my yard and I tell that toast to me
['cause when I look inside my heart and I tell the truth to me]
Loudly to my zoo I come, we stop upon the sea
[Loud and clear my soul cries out with total honesty]
I need the fire, fire, fire to keep me warm
[I need the fire, fire, fire to keep me warm]
I've got to build a fire
[I've got to feel the fire]

Your smiling face, me enough to warm a sign
[My smiling face, with laughter on the side]
You say "no duh", I get butt-sore every night
[You'd say no doubt I get passion every night]
But if you don't die, your underwater dive
[But if in our bed your arms don't hold me tight]
Means you leave much to be desired
[Means it leaves much to be desired]

'cause when I look inside my eye and I tell the two's too mean
['cause when I look inside my heart and I tell the truth to me]
Loud and cold my soul I come with stuff that rhymes with 'C'
[Loud and clear my soul cries out with total honesty]
I need the fire, fire, fire to keep me warm
[I need the fire, fire, fire to keep me warm]
I've got to fear the fire
[I've got to feel the fire]

And if you look into my eye and the toad does something dude
[And if you look into my eyes and you told yourself the truth]
You can make a bunny hop if you don't ride the goose
[You can't make a body hot if you don't light the fuse]
I need the fire, fire, fire to keep me warm
[I need your fire, fire, fire to keep me warm]
I've got to build a fire
[I've got to feel the fire]

Misheard lyrics taken from The Japanese Flannel, actual lyrics from Sawasdee Gackt: Lyrics ~Gackt~
I only include a portion of the lyrics, minor amendments have been made too.

Just take a listen to the song and you'll realize that Gackt's lyrics sounds more like The Japanese Flannel's version.
My favorite lines include "I get butt-sore every night", "I come with stuff that rhymes with 'C'" and "You can make a bunny hop if you don't ride the goose". Now I know what to do.. Since I don't ride a goose, I'll make a bunny hop. Gackt sure gives good advices.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous posting:
vanessa and sam [tag]

Additional links:
music//ichi, music//ni, music//san, music//shi, music//go, music//intermission, music//roku

skipping//layout

2004-01-22T23:45:00.000+08:00

There won't be a new layout this month. There are some reasons for it. Firstly, I have no idea what to feature. Also, it's Lunar New Year so I'm rather busy with eating those new year goodies. Lastly, I really like the current layout.

Humorous Quote
"December is the toughest month of the year. Others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, October, August, and February."
- Mark Twain

I don't force ideas to come out of my head. Every time I tried to do that, things don't work well. I do have a rather interesting way of generating ideas for my layout.
I do not plan my layout then start looking for the image. It happens the other way round. Often, I find myself browsing through galleries and galleries until I find a picture that I really like. I tend to look for images that I can fit in my side bar.
With the image, I start to imagine how a layout will look like on my bed. The bed is an excellent spot to think in my opinion. Just don't fall asleep on course. After much planning of layout in my brains, I'll attempt to construct the layout with Photoshop.
I always start with erasing the background, you can try using the Background Eraser for it. But for inexperience users, just stick with the Eraser, it gives you more control. Frankly, I sucked at using the Background Eraser.
Usually, the images I obtained from galleries are of good quality already, so I don't usually do sharpening and stuff. But if you were to face with that kind of trouble, er.. just pick another picture okay?
The key thing about making a layout is how to slice your images so that you can make it into a HTML document. That can be rather difficult for starters, all I can say is that practice makes perfect [almost perfect, no one is perfect]. You'll soon figure slicing images does require some brains, don't slice images without planning the tables before hand.
I recommend everyone to use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, it's a must nowadays, it speeds things up so much. Please don't listen to those ignorant old fashion fools who preach to you that the real way of coding HTML is by typing in a notepad. That fellow needs to be awaken. WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver and FrontPage allows users to code HTML too. Oh, and don't listen to those people who slam either Dreamweaver or FrontPage. Truth is, those people only used either one of the products more than the other, it's not a fair comparison. Dreamweaver MX 2004 [released in 2003 actually] and FrontPage 2003 (as part of Office family) is available in the market.
I'm happy to help people with Photoshop. I used to code with Dreamweaver, but I'm using FrontPage right now. I can only help with FrontPage, my Dreamweaver can't launch. I do a bit of Flash too, but I think I'm in the below-intermediate level, only ask me if you're a beginner.
Lastly, some of these programs aren't easy to start with, especially Flash which looks totally revolting to start with. FrontPage 2003 has the Office 2003 interface so it may be easier to use than Dreamweaver MX 2004. As for Photoshop, well.. there's a reason why it's my favorite program you know.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Serene and Sam [tag]

chinatown//walk

2004-01-21T23:08:00.000+08:00

I am in school for 4 hours today. 1 hour is spent for Mrs. Mak's Basic Immunology class and another hour is spent on Miss Ho's Database Management Systems class. Attendances of our class are 6 and 4 respectively, our class have a total of 16 people by the way. Such miserable attendance sure disappoint the lecturers, but there're classes as usual.

Happy Lunar New Year!
May your new year be a prosperous one.

School ends at 1, and we strolled slowly to meet Hua Ming and Jin Yao at Outram Park MRT Station.
Most countries have a Chinatown so Singapore has one too. I'm really tired when I reach there and got pulled up to a clothes store and watch them buy clothes. There's a totally boring period, I almost slept there. I began to wonder if I am going to spend my entire day watching a couple of guys going in and out of different clothes.
Thankfully, I wasn't. We proceeded to Chinatown soon after. It's quite crowd in the afternoon already. Some shopkeepers are shouting to promote their lunar new year items.
They're shouting things like, "yo, bun roller bun roller bun roller". Nope, they aren't selling bun rollers, they are just calling for "one dollar". I thought these people are really amazing. I mean, if I were to shout like that, I'll last for an hour only. All I can say in typical Singaporean language is, "Wah, their voice very solid sia". [Translated to be - "<Exclamation!> Their voices are very strong".]
I bought some lunar new year foods, those cookies and stuff. I am not good at choosing those things, I don't think they look nice at all. I bought 4 boxes of Chinese goodies, small boxes though, but they're quite cheap, at 50 cents each.
A huge black video camera is approaching us steadily. Yong Liang and Jin Yao quickly walked away. A sweaty reporter popped out of nowhere hold a microphone with a familiar Channel U logo. [Channel U is a television channel operated by Mediaworks.]

Reporter: "I would like to ask you some questions."
[I pointed at Hua Ming.]
Reporter: "It won't take long."
[I pointed at Hua Ming again.]

The reporter spoke in Mandarin by the way.

So the reporter turned to Hua Ming and start questioning him. I walked away promptly. The camera man aimed the video and shot Hua Ming. The reporter begins her question. Hua Ming gave some rather lame and useless answers. He is very nervous too by the way. I watch from afar guiltily.
At 10 in the evening, I turned on the television to Channel U News. I see a familiar guy, a small-framed guy, looked nervous, and quite funny, wearing red. He looks so familiar, lol.

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
Serene, pketh, Jessica and Sam [tag]

explorer//topped

2004-01-20T09:50:00.000+08:00

So the global browser statistics are out (again). OneStat.com conducted a survey on the global browser market. The winner is not of any surprise, with Microsoft Internet Explorer conquering 94.8% of the market.

Humorous Quote
"Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs."
- Jack Lynch

The current leading browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, seeing their percentages increased by 1.8% from 66.3% of July 2003 to 68.1% of January 2004.
Newcomer Apple Safari has seen a slight increase of 0.23% from 0.25% of July 2003 to 0.48% of January 2004. Soon it'll be displacing Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 with a 0.7% share of the market.
Mozilla has also seen some growth, with lots of technology geeks showing support for their Firebird browser. With 1.8% of the browser share, they have got lots of catching up to do, but these things take time. Individual statistics of Mozilla software, like Netscape, Firebird, Thunderbird and other possibly birds, are not provided.

1. Microsoft IE 6.0                 68.1%
2. Microsoft IE 5.5                 13.8%
3. Microsoft IE 5.0                 11.8%
4. Mozilla                                 1.8%
5. Opera 7.0                           0.8%
6. Microsoft IE 4.0                  0.7%
7. Apple Safari                       0.48%

Source: OneStat.com

You've seen it, Microsoft Internet Explorer is still number one. As for the moment, no browser can substitute Internet Explorer. It is still the browser to generate most codes correctly, just simply because most webmasters test their pages on Internet Explorer only. It's the thought of why should I waste my time to test on other browsers.
There are a few reason Microsoft won this game. First of all, Internet Explorer become free years ago, causing Netscape to suffer loses. [Netscape used not to be a free browser.] Then Microsoft bundle it with Windows, and claimed Internet Explorer is Windows, so they can't remove the browser when the operating system. Plus, Netscape killed themselves by not ironing the bugs in Netscape 4.0 before it is released. Microsoft added lots of additions into Internet Explorer which is not supported by other browsers.
By the way, Internet Explorer is the most non-standard browser I ever seen. I see many web sites with semi-transparent layers and colored scrollbars. I just want to let you people know that I can't see those stuff with Firebird (Mozilla).
Anyway, Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 2 will be out soon, with an in-built pop up stopper, I think they are the last to adopt that feature. Microsoft has finally awoken..

increment//press

2004-01-19T22:03:00.000+08:00

The people are complaining again! You see, local newspapers has increased their pricings by 20 cents on news stands and 10 cents on subscription based papers.

Inspirational Quote
"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."
- Thomas Carlyle

Local press - Singapore Press Holdings - announced such bold moves a week ago and it has gone onto effect already. The increment of newspaper cost is the worst thing to welcome the lunar new year with. And Singaporeans, being Singaporeans, voiced their opinions out rather critically.
Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has seen their profits increased last year, so the price increment is basically made to earn more cash. SPH also operates the money-losing television station - Mediaworks. SPH's top-selling paper is The Straits Times.
The clear rival for SPH is MediaCorp which does television as well. MediaCorp also has a newspaper called TODAY. TODAY is a free daily newspaper, it's a joint venture by 3 companies I think. I think it's MediaCorp, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit and Singapore Telecommunications.
So everybody who is angry about the price hikes posted their opinions into forums. Into TODAY's forums in particular. TODAY is so pleased about these complaints that they place the reader's opinions on the top of their forum pages, sometimes even highlighted. Topic headlines like "Read TODAY instead of The Straits Times" can be seen.
TODAY happily ran articles against The Straits Times and SPH. I have to admit that it's always nice to read their articles, lol.
SPH is trying to get newspaper readers to turn to subscriptions by offering a 10 cents incentive to the cost of each paper when you do a monthly subscription. Apparently SPH wanted to secure their subscription customer base. For what then?
About 2 years ago, MediaCorp has obtained a licensed to do newspapers, they rolled out of their free paper - TODAY. It's a better of time that MediaCorp goes into paid daily publications. [MediaCorp does have a paid newspaper but it's a weekly paper.]
Both companies aren't doing very well in the television competition. It is seen as impossible for 2 television companies to co-exist in Singapore. It's probable one of the companies will end up buying over the television assets of the other. [I am not speculating this possible merger or buy over, the Senior Minister or some big shot commented on this.] If that's the case, I believe MediaCorp to end up buying over Mediaworks.
Now that I completed my post, I'm wondering what spurred me to write this..

Those who commented/tagged in the previous postings:
pketh, Jessica, xia and Serene