dream cars asia 2005!

uh well yes i went today! first day of the event somemore. for S$10 entrance it's quite alright. i went in with YC and i'd taken tons of photos. not to say all of them are superb ones just so better ones over some sucky blur shots. i realise my camera works best indoors with flash. yc was giving me lessons in phototaking there hahaha... of course mine can't be compared to his personal dSLR digicam from nikon! there was a way to identify the amateurish amateurs vs the more professional amateur photographers. the former (including myself) carry a silver/white digicam that is no larger than the palms of their hands. the latter, sports a bulky big digicam. 99% of them digicams being black in body colour. i think i spotted at least 6-8 of them "more professional" amateur photographers. not that i can tell much difference from the reporters (i couldn't tell!) that were present.

to cut to the chase, there were plenty of fancy cars. there were also the race queens. two thirds of the 24 race queens present came from japan. the rest were singaporean. i took over 190+ photos (yes i know, not a lot) throughout. and close to 6minutes worth of video clips. i do believe i had equal proportions of shots of vehicles and the ladies. i'll post them up when i can sort everything out nicely. each photo is roughly 1600x1200 pixels, and are close to 1MB. the whole folder is worth 241MB.

the cars: some ridiculous, some cool, others plain out-of-this-world. the race queens: some were *ahem* chubby, some stick thin and flat, others were... japanese-standard? *uh* just a handful were really nice to look at. the rest are probably back-ups. xD i'm mean to say that.

ok so that was the highlight for today. but i'd certainly enjoyed it. my first time visiting such car shows in town. i think i was expecting more out of the event, but it seems to fall short of my expectations. they'd taken up the whole of hall 1, but only occupied half of hall 2. maybe they'll bring in bigger toys come weekend. they are having it at the singapore expo hall 1 and 2, tanah merah vicinity.

and if you'd endured through all that, i was actually checking out the designs on the cars in the show, and considering new decals for my car xD hehehe... but i'll probably KIV and that's it.

i'll also briefly announce i passed my exams once again. i'm really glad i passed. glad that jason got all HD too! happy that he's successful. will try harder next semester!

*that's not the important part!*

HENG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

i just passed! yikes!

here's the results for my subjects from this past semester:-

• Database Design & Implementation - 58% (Pass)
  
• Corporate Network Planning - 70% (Grade C)
  
• Software Process Management - 83% (Distinction)

so alright i'm glad. i'm heaving a sigh of relief. heave with me. *P-H-E-W* yeah... much better. i know what you people might be thinking. but i'm just glad i just made it with a passing mark.

and having a distinction helps too. of course *some* people probably has high d but that's not my call. haha so this marks a happy ending to one half of my voyage through my degree course.

ooh in case jason reads this (i'll email him anyway) i just checked and found out the price for the dilbert dvd is $121.00... uh SGD of course. yeah it's in a red packaging with 4 dvd's inside (at least that's what it said on the outside!) with all the episodes! wow... quite neat eh. so it's pretty fun if this collection was purchased. i just got myself a trance album with 9 tracks inside. i'm quite pleased with it, although there was another album beside it at that point of time in HMV. it was being priced $4 cheaper, with 2 CDs, but roughly the same type of music inside. i think it isn't as exciting as this one though. so i took this more expensive (in terms of amount of tracks in the cd) album and paid for it. whee... it's been a while since i got myself a new CD album!

then i saw the vinyls on the walls of the HMV dance section. i was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be nice and cool to have a vinyl player at home, and i can buy them vinyls to listen to at home. heck if i'd one of those machines at home i could even be scratching up something on my own in the comfort of my room! i did want to play dj in that sense before... not that i have any talent whatsoever in that.

oh and today was after a long while since i ever set foot on orchard road. not too crowded, given the time of the night. but i can't imagine how the pasta mania sucked. their branch down in the ascott basement food court had the sauce too dry! i ordered carbonara linguine (yes i do love pasta!) and the sauce was drying up fast by the time i started digging in. eek... all that starchy feeling made me feel full before i'd even finished up everything. not a good feeling at all. i was dressed normally today. long sleeves round neck tee, jeans, sneakers. hair lightly gelled, a dash of cologne. sounds frigging vain right? hahaha... but my point is, i don't get why there were girls checking me out so obvious lor. there was one girl who walked past me and was practically drooling while she gawked at me. BWAHAHAHAHAHA... omfg wtf was that about?! uh... maybe it's my dollop of white hair on my forehead.

alright enough of this ego boosting session.

*i won't let other girls get to know me (cue uncontrollable laughter)*

aimless?

uh, well, okae, so i took a spin in the car in the afternoon. i miss driving around aimlessly. i don't know why but i enjoy it. it's been a while since i did that really. here were the "checkpoints"

• home to bedok
• ECP
• flyover at tanjong pagar
• back on ECP
• changi village vicinity
• tampines central
• drive past Temasek Poly
  
• flyover along bedok reservoir
• ubi area
• upper paya lebar
• back home!

uh yeah i like doing that. and because it's long and boring plus the fact that i like to drive anywhere i like, i don't often have passengers on board for these trips.

along the route, i was jus looking at the roads. apparently nothing much had changed since i left singapore. the routes were still roughly the same. probably a few new buildings are up and ready. but it's still good old singapore in the end. of course i'd probably seen a few more ferraris, lotus exige and whatnot around town nowadays, but i'd assume probably more people had gotten rich so far.

i'd recently read some amateur findings online. and i tried out his experiment too! i can't locate the site url now but this is the gist: on the highway, if you drive slower, you can cancel out the effects left behind by an accident or whatnot. there'll always be jams on the highway. it seems to make sense that it might work. what i did was, knowing clearly that the cars in front of me are jammed up and moving slowly, i left a space of 4-5 cars between me and the car in front. as i went along, some cars switched over to my lane as there is a big gap. and i maintained the 4-5 car length spacing. but at that same moment i'm keeping a constant speed somewhat slower than the cars in front, so it seems that although my car and those behind me are travelling slightly slower, everyone can seem to be moving constantly, hence reducing frustration. isn't it amazing!? does it sound logical to you? because it seems plausible to me that, having done this, even if there was an accident or just a jam for whatever reason, i have enough buffer in front of me that can dampen the jamming effects. thus i won't experience excessive stop-and-go situations while on the highway. i just find it fascinating. it sounds counter-intuitive enough that it might just really work!

other than that, i'd gladly announce i'm starting on picking up .net of which i hope will not take up too long to learn. i can be a slow learner at times. dead slow.

PostSecret

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail-in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

crossing my fingers

ahh... the perils of the internet. i'm just recording my battle against some annoying spyware on board one of my systems, which had lasted for the past few days. i'm hoping it'd ended. i'd been running my antivirus from grisoft, spybot search & destroy, ad-aware, and spyware doctor. i think i find the most reliable to be a combo of spybot and grisoft's free antivirus still.

spyware doctor, and lavasoft's ad-aware, were telling me nothing's up with my system when apparently i know there is. my internet explorer "Page Not Found" page is showing some stuff that don't belong originally. what i had finally done was run a scan with spybot on startup of windows. the other spyware scanners couldn't do that. and i could set it to the highest priority and hence halts other activities with it. that done, i think it finally got culled. for now at least. looks like i'm not that up to par with my skills afterall. maybe it never did.

overall today wasn't a good day. not too good at all...

tech support!

i watched resident evil on tv just. milla jovovich (is it pronounced as ho-ho-vik??!) is so lovely to look at... but the rest of the critters scurrying about are so yucky. i was squirming in my seat throughout! *scaredy cat*

well anyway my cousin dropped by in the *late* afternoon to get help from me. her laptop's down with some virus, to which i managed to clear, and i helped install photoshop on her system. which made me realise, one of my systems still has spyware on board. i wonder if it's removed yet. i'm not sure. the thing is, it seems the saying is true to a sense. the doctor can cure others, but not himself. i might be able to help others in resolving their technical difficulties, whereas i myself face problems in solving my own. so what should i do? perhaps i need to get external help for myself in many ways...

this is the second sunday i'll be spending in singapore for my holidays. and apparently there are still people unaware of me being in singapore. probably everyone's at fault eh? i didn't inform them "hey i'm back" and they didn't read my msn either "oh he's back" so it's not exactly a win-win situation but those that i think should have been informed have been notified. but of course to err is human hence i might have overlooked. o_O

i should start on my little skills upgrading this coming week onwards. i wonder if anything will be done. or will i be busy doing other stuff. i'll probably be frustrated if i don't get to learn anything new for this holidays... -sigh-

movie review 2

Initial D. most people would probably be more familiar with the manga, and the anime series that spawned from the popularity of such a storyline.

the movie was ok mostly. exciting racing scenes, but the plot isn't much to speak of. it was a fun movie in general, with everything that summarises the main gist of the story compressed into 2 hours of this show. compression is never a good thing. at least the scenes involving the cars were quite realistic. the people acting in the show were mostly good. except for the 2 dumb ones. well anyway the sequence of events were good storytelling in general... and so was the background music, promoting most of jay chou's songs, and then some. oh and in the last parts of the credits, there was a disclaimer which goes roughly like this: "This film is not a an adaptation of the animated series Initial D." go figure.

to top it all off, somebody in the vicinity had stinking feet. the smell was so terrible the couple seated beside me changed seats to at least 20 rows away! it was rather unpleasant throughout the whole duration of the show. yucks!

i shall sleep it off before i start imagining myself to be jay chou and whatnot.

that was the main event of today, with everything else only to do with the words "home", "food", and "sleep". the last one, will next be repeated.

i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift. i will not drift.

Singtel 3loGy contest

think you can answer trivia like there's no kick? check out this contest to win some great prizes.

the new maid + a movie review

she's alright i guess. speaks english and a teensy bit of chinese. can chat with my grandma! which is good. the agency promised 12noon delivery of the new maid. they arrived close to 2pm. =_=

let's see how she performs then! the car is pretty dirty now that it hasn't been washed for 2 days the least. hahaha...

ooh yeah and batman begins was wonderful! the gadgets were cool as expected, and so was the standard car-chase scene. better not throw in too many spoilers here. BUT YES THERE WILL BE SPOILERS HERE SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! i think that the batmobile was so cool... i wasn't particularly impressed with it travelling on rooftops, but when it totally dimmed down and shifted around the few police cars was so cool! especially when the chopper lost sight of it because he slowed it down! the not too nice part was the driver having to change position for a better ride. looks weird. morgan freeman was pretty good in this too! he's like the Q, for batman(well sort of, not that he invented those stuff)... ooh and i don't think the female lead looks any nicer. just another sweet young thing. with a crooked smile? uh... right. at least she's not the "vase" stereotypes. but i find the ending part when they kissed too typical a gratuitous scene for the hero of the show. didn't have much meaning in it, i felt. but overall the whole show had a rather good plot, which i didn't quite expected to turn out. well ok i -did- figure the hallucinogen attack that batman got knocked out from was similar to the flower he'd plucked, but that probably didn't count. i'd rate it 4 out of 5 stars.

karen

uh highlight of the day: dinner with my cousin. the restaurant wasn't too good with service. food was ok. seems posh. i wouldn't want to go there again. =_= it's in mohd sultan, along the outside stretch in UE².

seriously. i think i'm having some sort of a gap with my cousin. posh posh style. i guess i'm a homie. the geeky nerdy kind that don't splurge on much. maybe i'm just stingy. am i stingy?

today is a day without a maid at home. the old one was taken away and the new one isn't here yet. the agency decided to send the old one back too. they agreed she had attitude problem. and the new one was going to be here only by tomorrow. so too bad for us.

my harddisks have settled down. i've finally gotten rid of the spywarez on my computer. i had spy doctor. seems better than spybot search & destroy(doesn't matter how long the name of the software is) and cleansed the system thoroughly, in 4 scans to make sure all's clear. the first 2 passes had detected some, so i ran through it another 2 times.

i'm filling up the ext hdd with my cdroms' contents. plenty of stuff.

i think, humans generally, cause their own stress. even when they don't have much worries, a human will still think of things with which to draw stress from. so let's all just sit back and think for a moment about the stuff we can be grateful that we have with us for.
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thought it through? my point is usually anyone who has their own worries won't see how others are envious of them to be fortunate in other areas (that does not involve the "worry"). so you can give yourself stress even if you are the richest man in the world ("what if people come to take my assets away!?") or the poorest man in the world ("what if i can't feed myself tomorrow!?")

just trying to put things in perspective there... hehe

my day was kinda spoilt?

well ok not really. but here's the full story. may seem kinda naggy but heck i'm gonna rant anyway. i do that all the time. xD

the maid we have with us sucks. she doesn't know english at all, doesn't follows instructions, and doing things at inappropriate times (eg: ironing because my mum's fixing dinner).

we requested the agency to change the maid for us. it was scheduled for tomorrow. but alas...

my day had begun early this morning, sending my sis to work. and subsequently accompanying my dad to tan tock seng. it was for pre-admission assessment for his operation in weeks to come. they took his blood pressure, asked some questions, and then the anaesthetist had to find out about his whole illness history. she was an indian. so naturally i had to act as the translator, briefing my dad about the situation, and asking him questions on her behalf. it was a tricky and rather long process.

• did he have diabetes before? no.
• high blood pressure? no.
• high cholestrol? no.
• previous recent operation? no.
• food allergies? no.
• drug allergies? no.
• heart attacks? no.
• undergone dialysis? no. (i thought no diabetes = no dialysis? correct me if i'm wrong!)
  
• ...and somemore...

my point is, apparently my dad had always been pretty fit. none of the above as you can call it. but it's a more reliable reply for her to see me asking him something she doesn't understand, and seeing him shake or nod his head. hahaha...

then they took his blood and ECG. and then xray.

ryan had been rather annoying today (what's new?) and wanted to play with me. i kept telling him i need to do my stuff. =_=

my afternoon after lunch, involved visiting Sim Lim Square! yay! or not. i barely stepped into the first shop to ask for prices when my brother called me up. he asked me to stop shopping and head home. something wasn't quite right with the maid. uh. okae. so i stopped and left the building. but i felt i better call back first. that i did. my mum asked me to settle my shopping first. well alright then. back into the building i went! =_= and feeling somewhat sian of all this running up n down (which is mostly my own fault really, for not checking home first) i bought the stuff i wanted all at the same place. 1x 80GB hdd, 1x 200GB hdd, and 1x external hdd casing. totaled $350. ho hum.

so i hurriedly made my way back home. the worse thing was my phone battery was totally flat out. i reached home and... nothing was up! she hasn't been eating. the maid that is. didn't take her breakfast, nor her lunch. my parents got the agency to send someone down to take the maid back. while waiting for the person to arrive, i just did my own stuff, configuring the new harddisks. the lady came, spoke to the maid, and the maid went to pack up. apparently she knew this will happen soon and had actually packed her belongings already. so she left the house with the agency person quietly. my mum didn't want to come down to show her face, lest the maid starts to kick up a fuss. -sigh- sounds complicated somewhat.

so no maid. suppose new maid coming tomorrow or the day after. this one is suppose to be able to speak chinese somemore! let's hope it'll be fine. else it'll be tricky once my dad is admitted for his operation.

i'm still trying to set up my harddisks. tricky stuff these are. too long never go down and dirty with my computers.

what next?

alright i've settled down in singapore again. i think. i shall next draft up a list of activities i will involve myself with.

• to begin with, my dad needs to make trips to the hospital. he's getting checkups before the operation a week plus before i fly off. great timing huh... =_= includes tomorrow as well.
• get harddisks! i don't wanna nag about this again.
• learn/re-learn stuff
• do artsy stuff

uh... ok i guess that's it. i'm beginning to wonder if i'll get the time to do all those.

oh and i shall also ask to meet up with my friends you people out there at least, to meet up before i disappear until christmas.

my nephew, ryan is really loads more mischievious than me when i was 2. but he's more eloquent too. he can ask me if my furry brown friend was indeed a gorilla. in chinese. my mum teaches him tang poems and songs. and he can sing to the rhythm (but not fully audible lyrics). and today, he is starting to treat me as another one of his toys! well ok i hope he isn't. but he was asking to "bring" me along to his room to play when he was heading to bed, led by his daddy my brother. *sweat* he's a real handful. and quite tactical at deploying his whining and sobbing. annoying kid. but we still love him no less. LOL...

and also

may i highlight also that, i weighed myself almost immediately after i came home. prior to departure in february i'd been 67kg. i am now 65kg. to cut to the chase, i lost 2 kilos!!! whahahaha... amazing. even with jason feeding me like a pampered spoilt brat (and so i quote) i still lost weight. hohoho...

oh and another thing, jason. i found the wollongong airport website. they have direct flights from wollongong to melbourne which started June 6th. could have saved you heaps on travelling time and dough... xD

my first item on the shopping list currently is a harddisk. i'm contemplating a hdd that can be attached to the network directly. or an external hdd which is very large. either way, i'll probably get another one or two more smaller hdd on top of that, for my computers at home. suggestions anyone? i'll probably do away with all the smaller hdd i have currently and merge into one larger one. and hey, the other computer's had one of its 40GB hdd crashed. so i should get another one to replace it anyway. suggestions are most welcomed related to this, be it regarding brands/models to choose (or not), which shop has the best prices around, which option (network hdd vs ext hdd) i should go for. or any other matter whatsoever. i'll need to do more research online for it too.

recap of the journey

here i am, all nicely settled down back in my cosy room.

so yesterday's flight was QF5, departure from Sydney at 1540. fortunately i checked-in my luggage around 1pm+. by the time i was there, i was already at the end of a long queue! so i got myself to the front after long last and it was finally my turn. i placed my luggage on, hmm 21kg. the guy didn't say anything. i guess he must have let it pass anyway. hehe so anyway i was relieved of my heavy burden and took a toilet break (before this i didn't dare go pee since that might mean leaving my luggage out the toilet which means risk of having it stolen) and walked around. i found myself an available free surfing station sponsored by Samsung, and posted the previous entry.

i sat around a bit, but deciding i should just go in earlier, i went through the door to the customs. this was surprisingly another long queue. i was lucky i decided not to muck around too much. so i made it through (the notices requested the laptop to be xrayed separately, on a tray provided) and shopped around their duty-free. nothing much impressive. and finally i made my way to the Gate 25 finally. there i sat, and there i waited. i think i changed position at least 3 times. i sat down once, went online check my mail for news. sat down at another spot, decided to take photos. sat down again at another location, and decided to take more photos. and then i sat down again. by this time i wanted to pee. so i left my seat for the men's room. and i came back to the same spot and sat down again. mundane huh... hehe. it was about 1520 when they opened the gate, tons of people started queuing. everyone started flocking to join the queue. i remained in my seat. by 1550, the queue finally began to shorten as most people had already boarded. so i got up and made my way through the gate.

hmm... 34B. no not cup size. my seat. it was along the larboard (left/port side, whatever) of the aircraft. and i was in the middle seat! not window! not aisle! middle! ho hum. at least my fellow passengers weren't fat. those 2 angmohs were rather polite fortunately. i hope i didn't annoy them when i was looking at the inflight entertainment comedy channels. the shows weren't too interesting. i had 2 meals. this is surprising considering it is an 8 hour flight, from Singapore time 2pm to 10pm. so i don't quite get it. of course if they give us food who are we to complain?

so we landed in singapore 20mins later than estimated. i got through the customs easily, since there's a lane for singapore residents. and to think i daftly put my hand out in the plane when they asked if i needed a form for singapore *visitors*. uh ok. i read the form after i took and filled it up, i read the instructions again, twice. i then deftly kept it before i found myself too embarassed about not understanding the situation. the belt took a while. there was probably too much luggage for those poor people working in CAAS. the belt was stopped abruptly once, which gave everyone a scare. and i was wondering if there was some dumb kid that got his head caught in the conveyor belt or something. i waited until at least 20mins before i saw my luggage. so i took it and left with my family. apparently most were present, save for my grandma who's at home asleep, and sis-in-law taking care of my nephew.

so whee! my brother drove my parents home. my sis and brother-in-law sat in the lancer, while I drive! hehe... so long! and this monster is still raring to go. but i meekly maintained below the legal speed limit. so guai! by comparison, the daihatsu charade in australia was already straining and gasping for help by the time it'd hit 100! and to think their highest speed limit i've seen was 110km/h.

and there, the end of the journey. i shall now return to fiddling around with my computers. the other computer had spyware in it. most probably thanks to my sister who's none the wiser. so i'd got it cleared. then my laptop wouldn't want to get online with the wireless network i have at home. that took me this whole afternoon. i'll see what comes next. i'm just about to export all 354 emoticons over from my laptop to my computers at home. let me know if you want them. they are in a zip file, 3.3MB size. :)

time to fly

uh well i'm posting this from the international terminal down in sydney. so i'll be taking off around 15.20 later on... apparently slightly earlier than expected. but anyway i'll be back at approximately 9.40pm singapore time. so till then... i'll be mulling around for a while longer in this airport... phew. at least i got rid of the luggage at check-in. V^_^ hasta la vista!

wheeeeee

Act 1 Scene 3: Ken has left the building.

in case you weren't at all aware if there were any other scenes before this, the first scene was when i departed Singapore. the second was when school term started. xD it's utter bullshit i tell you. ok so i'll be mulling around in the airport for a bit later on so i probably won't be able to get online. will try to access those free terminals at the airport, but you know how people like to hog those things. wireless = $ so i ain't gonna pay nothing for that either.

here's my plan for tomorrow! SGT means Singapore Time, the rest are in aussie ( which is 2 hours ahead of Singapore). 

and the protagonist returns

yup. finally after long last, tomorrow shall be the day! i'd been at home the whole day hanging around, mucking, downloading dumb movie clips to past the time. and also some bit of cloning. oops? haha and don't forget gaming in gunbound as well. hehe... and oh yeah jason i drove the car behind the low gate and locked it. the key is in your room. hahaha... so much for informing you. the car was in a tad tight spot but it seems ok now that i'd trimmed some of the offending plants in question. i promptly disposed of the dead bodies just behind the rest of the plants. hehe...

i hope i'd got everything packed. wouldn't want to leave somethings behind i'm not supposed to. i'll probably wake up 7am tomorrow. i've got the rough schedule planned out for tomorrow. mundane as it might be. but nevertheless important, as i have to be moving from point to point to point to point. =_=

*you IF my Butt*

when i stay at home too long,

i start to play with myself,

and i'll also watch tv,

while reading magazines,

think of what to cook,

and talking to myself. 

What Is Your Seduction Style?

Your Seduction Style: Ideal Lover

You seduce people by tapping into their dreams and desires. And because of this sensitivity, you can be the ideal lover for anyone you seek. You are a shapeshifter - bringing romance, adventure, spirituality to relationships. It all depends on who your with, and what their vision of a perfect relationship is.

a day is gone...

counting down: 2 days left.

i woke up around 10+ this morning. the only time i left the house was to take the bin on to the roadside, and taking it back several hours after. jason had mail in the letterbox. dude i left it on your table.

i did some rearranging and packing of my stuff today. not much since i'd already packed most of the stuff. just checking things twice over just in case. i've got a phobia for this kind of things. and then i was surfing whole day long. rosti was for lunch (what's new?) and my dinner of 4 satay marinated chicken wings didn't taste fresh. awww... so i only had the spaghetti-in-a-can. feeling lazy so that's how things goes.

i guess it's time i started planning on things i will be doing, so that i can keep a schedule of my activities... which is just as well since planning a timetable i can get things done more efficiently. the problem of whether i would keep to it is another problem altogether. don't ask.

i can't believe i spent my day surfing the web for nonsense video clips and flash files. but at least i gather i know what i want to do when i'm at the airport. i'll be stuck there for four hours or more as my coach from wollongong to the international terminal up in Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport will reach there around 11am+. check-in is at about 2.20pm. flight time: 3.50pm. ouch? i've decided i'll do pixel art. if i mull around long enough i suppose i've got sufficient battery life to last me until it's boarding time. so i should be able to work up something sweet. i hope. haha... still not too good in it so i'll need to practice.

and probably the days following this i'll be rambling about the mini projects i'll be picking up on. some more exciting than the others, some more fun, some more challenging, some more lengthy yet more educational. we'll see how things goes. when i touch down singapore. i miss my bed and room. not to complain that this room is any worse though. heck. this bed is larger than my own! but it's just not the same... i'll just have to bear with the waiting for another 2 days.

*leihaiorhwaiyat*

Angry Alien

do you love bunnies?

do you like parodies?

do you watch movie trailers?

do you also like non-violent horror/thrillers/sci-fi movies which are actually humorous because there are bunnies involved?

well then, this site is for you!

and then there was one

i woke up before 7am this morning! jason and i picked up one guy(Aaron) and one girl(Jiamin) in the vicinity before heading off. we were going to the airport! so i drove the 4 of us (the 2 of them were sleeping most of the time) out of wollongong and on to the freeway, on to sydney. jason and jiamin barely made it in time for the flight check-in (counter closes at 9.20am)! the traffic was horribly rush-hourly. i had to take a toilet break at a petrol kiosk, and by the time we reached the drop-off bay of the kingsford smith airport domestic terminal 2, jason was already super jumpy and agitated. =x they had barely minutes to check-in. so after that aaron and i headed to city.

to sydney central that is. i think after reaching central, we'd driven around for an hour or so. before we manage to locate proper parking space! aaron directed me to the chinatown area parking in market city. by comparison, it costs AUD$6.00 for an hour of parking here, instead of AUD$18! furthermore, full day parking maximum cost is AUD$19. amazing. so yeah we went in search of food and found the food court to be sufficient. i got myself some char kway teow, which i must say tastes not too bad!

then after briefly walking the floors of the building, we headed to paddy's market in the basement. i came here before, with my cousin and jason. but it was a whole lot less crowded this time! probably because it is a regular weekday. so happily we walked all over the flea market and he found sheep wool he wanted to buy for his dad. the parking lot is weird. staircases are not very accessible at all! the lifts were chugging like snails servicing just 8 floors.

when we were done with the building, we headed out. George Street is the main street running through Sydney. chinatown (where we were then) is at one end of it(well almost). sydney opera house was on the other end. we walked about half an hour or more along George Street to reach our destination. phew!

first we reached Circular Quay. this was located across the harbour from the Opera House. this is a place bustling with activity with buskers performing and people making out on the grass openly. we walked around and took some photos... and noticed a building. "Museum of Contemporary Art". guess what? we went in! it's the first time i stepped into a museum here. unfortunately, as with any museum, they don't allow photographs to be taken. i'll just have to describe what was inside.

well ok to be honest i don't really know how to describe the exhibits inside. they were simply... contemporary. we shall start with the first, ground floor. there are two floors in this exhibition hall.

• on the largest area of wall, there was a web of yarns, depicting a network of art associations around the world. used were a variety of coloured yarns. in front of this were about 6 small tv sets, each playing an interview with a particular artist. one could sit down, headphones on, and listen to the interview.
  
• there were paintings on a wall. one of which was depicting a huge roadside banner of a lady posed lying down in very little clothings. in front of this were car wreckages in numbers. try to picture it. =_=
  
• and then there were four doors, forming a small room of sorts. they had stuff painted on them, to appear like u are in a larger room than it appears.
• there was a lady standing around in a corner of the exhibition hall. we thought she was a security or curator, dressed normally. she wasn't! she was part of the exhibitions. in fact, she WAS the exhibit. she would, at intervals, start singing a short song (which i couldn't really make out the lyrics) and end with quoting who was it written by, and sponsored by. peculiar i tell you.
• there was also a projector playing a video. there was a box beside the wall where the image is being shown. title of this art piece? "The Box". supposedly the box is left there and doesn't do anything. the video replays animation of sorts, to do with depicting some things coming out of the box and behaving in strange, artistic ways.
• in another room further in, was a "meeting room" setting. there was a meeting table and chairs all around. the setting was in a bit of a mess. notes are spread on the table. there was a blackboard on the wall. scribblings were here and there on the blackboard.
  
• further in is the last room. a movie was playing. it was showing the lower half of a face of a guy. his chin had 2 dots. now imagine how this looks if it were inverted. yes! looks like a small character talking! he talked, but i couldn't really make out what he said.
• ah well, on to the 2nd floor. i got a shock. they were featuring a whole bunch of stuff from singapore. sheesh.
• they had a section showing different scenes along the singapore river. you can stand on a pedestal and have your picture taken. this is because the artists tang da wu or something decided that it was acceptable that anyone can be a Founder of art, and in the fashion of Sir Stamford Raffles (they didn't state this, i recalled from history class), you can take the stand and be your own statue! duh.
• they had a map showing how singapore looks like. eew.
  
• they showed a video of a guy at the esplanade, with 2 boards each tied to one of his hand like wings. one board reads "is art necessary?" while the other reads "what is art?".
• they showed a video of a guy who painted himself gold. he rose from a "coffin" and took a rope ladder. he dragged it across a field and some obstacles. then he reached the shore with the rope ladder in tow. tying it to a tree and a floating ball of "moss" in the water, he laid himself facing down on the ball. some extra then pulled him out to the water. i couldn't watch any more of that.
  
• they showed a video of an art piece that was done. this lady painted herself green. she was in teeshirt and track pants. she did some "ritual" and she laid down on a long roll of paper with wordings on it. how long? try 3 car lengths. can you guess what she started to do next? rolling along the paper, she started to wrap herself in the paper, covering her head. rolling and rolling, she rolled herself into this trail of paper.
  
• they had a art tour beginning in 15minutes. we had to get out before being trapped here any longer!

so we got out and continued our excursion. there were a bunch of japanese school students around. male and female. but in any case, we walked around circular quay and found the gelatissimo stall my cousin tried before. 2 flavors each! mmm... chocolate mint and vanilla. on a frigging cold day. no wonder they were having it at half price! so we sat down and finished it quickly.

we eventually walked to the opera house and took more pictures! walking round to the rear of the opera house, we managed to get a better shot of the harbour bridge. and then we went up the steps. this was when i got nutty with the photos. aaron helpfully took the photos for me haha... and we took more photos when we were at the top of the stairs! the opera house was still magnificent upclose... the tiles were pretty neat. only gripe was they were running waterproofing works on the building. so parts of it had the granite flooring tiles (each the length and width of a mini cooper mind you!) removed and placed one side, for the waterproofing (read: painting) to be done. the smell wasn't too inviting either. that done, we were finally expended. we made our way back to chinatown, taking photos along the way.

so finally we got to our car and left. darn car stalled at the exit of the underground carpark! it was not very happy with being started up. i took a while to force it to move by stepping on the accelerator while it was in neutral. we then navigated our way on to the route back to wollongong.

gosh by the time we were on the freeway it was dark! luckily i took a toilet break to freshen myself up after leaving the main sydney city. the thing about their freeways is... they DON'T HAVE LIGHTS! it's all pitch black. they rely on the vehicles having headlights, and installing reflective strips on the roads to guide drivers.

after what seemed like ages, we finally reached back in wollongong. dinner! we had red rooster, a simple set meal. and considering the fastfood restaurant was just in front of his serviced apartment, he just had to walk back. i drove home alone and tired, at long last this calls the end of the day. and i'm alone at home now.

we shall see what tomorrow brings!

*wo yao hui lai le!*

i got too close. and this turned out artsy. but i like it too...

a shot of the rooftops of the opera house. i love this one too...

me fronting the harbour bridge

circular quay railway station. amazing blue sky isn't it? i love this the most!

yup. a pub.

how the streets of Sydney look like, with artsy structures around at junctions. and notice the purty blue sky.

and then i decided to have a bit of fun amongst myselves(sic).

and finally reached the Opera House to get upclose and personal with the artistic structure.

and then i reached Circular Quay across from the Sydney Opera House...

i took a walk around town in Sydney

the deal is doned(sic)

yup now i feel like i'm having a hangover. a seriously heavy exam hangover. feeling like the shits. apparently this last paper was the toughest of them all. but the questions were ridiculously similar to past exam papers. i can only hope to get a passing mark. i just feel stoned wondering about my answers, and constantly trying to speculate how much of my answers were actually correct. not feeling too good about them at all.

right now is suppose to be the start of my holidays. i can't get into the mood just yet. sudden relief, too sudden. after 4months or so of toiling, the first half has come to an end. time for a breather.

i'll be sending jason to sydney airport tomorrow early morning. his check-in time is around 9.20am, so working back we'll leave wollongong around 7.30am. work back somemore and we'll wake around 6am+. let's see how my daytrip to sydney by car once again will turn out.

*orhwuiduileihouge*

digital world gets sued

Antor Media is suing everybody. they are are suing everybody who delivers content from a server to their subscribers. =_= how cute...

Michael Jackson acquitted

uh... well if they say so. i stand on neutral ground. but it will be unfortunate all the bad rep he'd gotten won't be easily wiped off.

also found here. (the other link is more detailed)

round 3 - judgement day

subject: Database Design & Implementation
time: 2pm
venue: Block 21 Room 105
length: 3h 15min
crap factor: 2 out of 5 stars
what it's about: there *is* a small amount of bullshitting. but it is a lethal subject nevertheless. by far the toughest subject i've encountered and may well cause my downfall. well yes i'd always been the negative sort. activities in the exam will involve in general:-

• drawing diagrams (consisting of little boxes, lines and arrows) that solves problems,
  
• writing down why the database system (DBMS for short) does certain responses for certain events,
• writing query language that is supposed to perform certain expected output (tables, tablespaces, triggers etc)
• calculation of cost of execution for certain optimisations
• there's probably more...

today's paper was ok i guess. 40 multiple choice questions weren't exactly a piece of cake. they were mostly tricky nasty ones. we were suppose to select the "most correct" answer of the 4. and then there were 4 short answer questions in the second section. these were TOTALLY identical to our take-home exam we had prior to this actual one. so i practically had a verbal/textual(erh is this used correctly?) diarrhoea, save for the fact that i'd cut things short a bit.

other than that, throughout today, i'd been studiously poring through my assignments and references to revise for tomorrow, with the occasional queries and clarifications next door.

i certainly hope i can make it through tomorrow. i'm afterall an average B student. possibly lower. and after tomorrow, it will be one phase complete. to which i certainly i'd be able to make it through tomorrow. -sigh- somehow i can't see myself enjoying my holidays much... of course then again i'd probably act like everything's fine. my ego online is smaller than in person. but then again i'm not an extraordinarily egotistical pain in the butt. am i?

*yigexiaoxiao lianggexiaoxiao...*

countdown to doomsday - round2

how bad could it be?

subject: Software Process Management
time: 2pm
venue: Polish Hall (off-campus, stone's throw from home)
length: 3h 15min
crap factor: 3 out of 5 stars
what it's about: blabbering profounding terms related to software development, and implications of ethics. also includes rationalising of techniques and processes that are to be used, with justification of the process of choice, as well as the processes not employed. a bunch of MCQs and 4 short answer questions.

i followed jason to campus today. he was meeting another clever guy to discuss about database topics for the exam. while they were talking stuff that seemed so easy for them, i was sitting between (behind) them checking out what they have comprehended about the subject so far. sadly i didn't contribute much to the discussion as only the two of them were discussing most of the time. i figured i should keep my mouth shut unless i have something constructive or i have something devastatingly not understood.

so anyway since afternoon i'd been trying to gather my thoughts and focus on what i'm less comfortable with and work from there. frankly speaking, neither of us are too worried about tomorrow's paper. still more worried about the database one...

so ok i need to rant here. it has come to my concern that, a majority of the people i know have lots the interest to blog. owing to health, work and laziness issues, i think there's probably left a small percentage of people who are still blogging. some blog occasionally, some less frequent. some kind of gave up. not that i'm scolding anyone, but was this just a trend? or do people really get so caught up in life that, they aren't able to sit back at the end of the day to just think (and record down) what they'd done for the day? well yeah if there're less exciting things that have happened in that day there's probably nothing much to write. but i'm just thinking for the waking hours of the day perhaps there are numerous thoughts that have gone through our minds?

maybe it's just me, owing to my own bad memory. i just try to make it a point to blog daily so that my daily activities get recorded down somewhere. so when i look back some time later, in case i forget or (touchwood) get amnesia(my one greatest phobia/fear), i would think to myself at that point of time and say "oh wow did i do all that? i sounded like a total asshole/lamer/idiot/weirdo/tiko/psycho/perv!" or something along that line, you get my point. of course i'll try to blog daily while i can. suppose if i (am lucky enough and) got a job in future, i probably won't have this much time eh? then i'll know how everyone else feels.

i'm done with my ranting now. wish me good luck for tomorrow! but then again i'll need more of it for wednesday. if only i can get the same amount of luck daily. then i can carry over any i didn't use tomorrow for wednesday.

*xunzakjihaiyaoyatgor*

comic sans?

ever wonder who came up with that disgusting comic sans font?

don't blame the guy. really. he didn't mean it. read the link on the title.

but in any case, webcomics such as Mega Tokyo do use it for the typefacing in the dialogues, which might mean comic sans is not necessarily a bad thing. just have to put it to use appropriately huh...

so far today i'd been reading *that* comic and it just kind of hit me (not too painfully) that that's one of the reason why Comic Sans was developed. so i google-d and found the rationale.

feeling some sort of brain dead inability to do much today other than stoning on my bed typing inane irrational words... oh i'm doing it again.

*orhoilei, leioiorh, daigapoumaihahaxiu, sekbaommhouzoeymiumiu!*

4 of 4, that long stretch is a table. and those are seagulls. another seagull wading in a natural pool, creating ripples in the water. the 3 cannons have stood the test of time guarding the perimeters of this town. 

3 of 4, again, the lighthouse, and the sun in the distance, showing in a crack amongst the clouds. the antique cannons faces out towards the sea... 

2 of 4, the waves crashing in...beneath the lighthouse. a hobby angler tries some fishing... 

1 of 4, the scenery i captured while trying to catch the sunrise on a cloudy day. the dark line over the horizon is actually a cargo ship. 

When There Is No Sun
by Sun Radio Ibiza

"the sky is a sea of darkness,
when there is no sun.
sky is a sea of darkness,
when there is no sun to light the way,
when there is no sun to light the way.
there is no day,
there is no day,
there's only darkness.
eternal sea of darkness..."

i'd wanted to catch the sunrise, only to see an overcast sky with clouds covering half the sky. it was as if darkness was lurking, unreluctant to leave. and the sun came out eventually, dissipating the clouds. 

sunrise!

well yes i woke up early this morning. 6.50am to be precise. i was sending jason to catch his train at 7.30am. he's meeting his sister who's up in sydney for the coming weeks! awww... so yeah i sent him to the train station and i drove off.

no i didn't drive back home to sleep. instead, i had actually brought along my camera. i drove down to the lighthouse where we went before, and saw the sun already up in the sky. and i took photos. i think there were at least 36 shots. i snapped around the area and basically taking in the sights... it was quite wonderful. and considering i only got to sleep at around 3am, i certainly felt a sense of euphoria from being there. so anyway i stayed there for about an hour (surprisingly) and drove myself home.

reaching home, i still didn't go to take a nap. the laundry was just done. so i made myself a sandwich toast with cheese and ham, before proceeding to hang the laundry out to dry. hey don't snigger! i can do these stuff too you know! so i was done, and stuck back in my room. it was hardly 9am even by now! i went around downloading funny movie clips, and came across the site for Top Gear that had a variety of videos to view! they had quite a number of cool stuff, from torturing an old Toyota 4WD, to pitting a Lotus Exige against an Apache helicopter. all were pretty amusing, british style of course!

subsequently, i made myself rosti for lunch, and surfed around online. what did i come across? as a continuation from yesterday, i read papers such as this and this. boring you say? they do have interesting point of views, in that they actually are saying that long-established ideas (by Einstein no less) are flawed. but their problem is the people who makes decisions are not listening! which is sad.

so basically i had wasted my day away surfing on and on. oh and i came across this online comic as well. it's cute; i like it.

and to sum it up, i had the photoshot of the sunrise black-bordered and if blogger doesn't show it large enough, it is also available here for a closer look. hehe...

let's hope i can do something useful tomorrow (or not!)...

of course how can anyone forget that someone's birthday is here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RACHEL!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

*alright i'll just put this last line for rachel anyway because it's her birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! XD*

trail of the day

i did some hyperlinking today. you know, the type where you follow one keyword from page to page, site to site? and so i did. let's see where i'd started. i worked off from my own blog surprisingly... and i was merely checking my page statistics... so if you are ready for the ride, here goes...

• poodreamvault - i started off from my dream blog to be precise.
  
• nedstat statistics - just the regular visitor pattern i see.
  
• nedstat (How) - this page shows how people arrived at my site, to which there is a section "Via which link". there was actually a keyword "jetpack" among links. so i followed the link
  
• yahoo search results page - the first link is showing this site called FutureHorizons and i went ahead.
• FutureHorizons jetpack - ironic as it may sound, they are showing stuff as though they mean serious business. i can't be sure myself if all this is bullshit, but you'll be the judge of that for yourself if you wish to.
• FutureHorizons antigravity - yeah right... that's what i thought too. so i just read what they have to say and came across this idea they called "poor man's Searl Disc" which was "suggested" by a guy named David Hamel. i then wanted to find out if this guy was really bullshitting. so i googled the name.
  
• Google search results - sure enough a number of results came up. 604k of them to be exact. i headed for the first link.
• The David Hamel Connection - what do these guys have to sell? nothing apparently. this is more of a page of links. so i followed one of them.
  
• World-Famous.com - wow he's got his own section under this site. and the pages ran his story over at least 25 pages before ending with a "buy his tapes" page. aha! you thought to yourself. well now, the tapes cost USD $30 each. it's not like they are selling at ridiculous prices. but no i didn't get any. i moved on, and practically got lost in the information. :( but for some reason i arrived at locating this book in Amazon...
  
• Angels Don't Play This HAARP - is a book that seems to be quite intriguing in what the US government is up to. so what is HAARP? i did a wiki on that, after i browsed through the first few pages of the book.
• wikipedia - HAARP - it actually stands for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program. it gave some information on what the project was about, and included some debatable topics that was related to the question of achieving levitation. of which was mentioned included Nikola Tesla, the man who invented the tesla coils. he had wanted to develop a tower that could provide free energy.
  
• wikipedia - wardenclyffe - the tower was given this name. but due to conflicts of interests with the businessmen Tesla had tried persuading to invest into the construction, the construction was not really completed.there was overall a skeptical but eerie feeling that this failure of a construction gave me. it seemed as though it was really possible that free energy could have been transmitted over the air, over communication.

the trip past reading all 25 pages from the David Hamel interview at world-famous.com left me somewhat spooked. could it be true? no one knows for sure. could he have just been an old man wanting to get attention while he last? or was he genuinely wanting to share this information with the world? perpetual energy that is free, and antigravity technology seems far-fetched, but should the current society experience a paradigm shift that is so gradual, it may not be impossible for this to happen. one may say that, the video tapes cost USD$30 each. but is that expensive? of course, if they really had enough funds, the video could be made available streaming to people who wants to see it, online. but that would cost too.

if i ever have the opportunity to travel to the US, i would most certainly like to find out for this myself personally. hey if this were really possible, think about how a small island like ours can do with it. and if it is exposed to be a fraud, then at least i'll be convinced there's no such thing as antigravity. not for another 100 years, at least?

the trail had lead me to several other locations but this was the main route i took, branching off here, here and there. and of course, till now i'd still be asking myself, if this story was just a scam, or is there really a conspiracy out there to hide anything from us...

what if everything was similar to what Douglas Adams had mentioned in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? i hope people don't get offended by me please, just stating out some what-ifs. you know who you are. suppose humans were *really* created and not evolved. suppose humans were *planted* by other beings. but i suppose all these won't ever be known to the world at large.

oh back to that first site. FutureHorizons.net? oh come on... i can't make head or tail of them! seriously. if these people were ever allowed to scam people on the internet, shouldn't they have been arrested by now? but what if they were genuine? why then, are these people selling the technology on the internet? shouldn't they be building all these things and making loads of money? or if they can't afford it, why can't they look for some rich capitalist to invest it with? and if they do succeed, shouldn't we be travelling about happily on a jetpack or antigravity vehicle by now?

and then one might think, if the US is capable of doing all these and has kept technology from the world, could the tsunami disaster last year had been caused by all these "tweaking" of mother nature by man? if eco-terrorists do exist, were the past number of incidents caused by man instead of nature, but the various governments downplayed the fact altogether?

argh the internet just screws with you all the time.

coach booked!

yeah!

this morning i woke up at 8am, jason woke me up as requested by myself. and then i woke up at 10.50am after falling asleep again just in time to brush, reply his sms(it came AFTER i woke!) and got out of the house to pick him up in campus. jason just had his first exam paper today and we were going to town for a bit.

first stop: jason accompanied me to the local coach terminal. at last a better piece of mind! i booked myself a seat on the coach to the international airport. for AUD 24 it's quite worth it for a direct route. trains take longer though cheaper. and i'd have to switch trains. so if i'm not careful i might just get lost and miss my flight! no i won't want that now do i? uh uh... so yeah the seat is more assuring so this is a good thing they had the coach here.

next we dropped by the mall to walk around. jason wanted to get some tees for his friend. i decided i shall get something for the guy-who-replaced-me-on-the-throne whose birthday is... erm tomorrow? and another for my brother. haha... now now i can't get too much. so happened there were interesting graphics on those tees. and i don't think ladies would like to wear these sort that much. -wink-

so after that we hit the fruit market place for a while to get some stuff, and we went to the carwash! wow... the short ride was AUD 9 but it was rather worth it to have the car washed. they have droughts here you see. so we CANNOT wash our cars. so we'll just have to let people wash it for us. so the car was dragged along a track and that little car of ours rumbled through safely, with us in it. oh come on jason had gone through it at least twice by now and this is just my first time while we are here. sad isn't it?

so yeah we headed home and i'd been hanging loose since. dinner was as below:-

• fragrant steamed rice
• pan-fried chicken cubes in sauce of bearnaise
• freshly baked kalamari rings

mmm it seems our meals had always been slightly elaborate. or at least that's how i'm painting the picture. haha...

oh and i was packing a bit more stuff into my luggage. and sadly i realised there was a leak in the space bag! i had to locate the source and taped it up with sticky tape. i think it should hold. i think.

i just checked on the qantas site and i found that my baggage weight limit is 20kg as i'm taking economy class. every excess kg will cost me AUD $20. goodness. i hope my luggage doesn't tip the scale.

ah well we'll see how tomorrow goes. today is such a slack day. the weather was fine and warm! at least i'd thought so...

*i'm gonna get you, and when i do i'm gonna get you*

just a recap of my good ol' gorilla... 

Global Personality Test

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion |||||||||||||| 53% Stability |||||||||||| 46% Orderliness |||||||||||||| 53% Altruism |||||| 30% Interdependence |||||||||||||||| 70% Intellectual |||||| 23% Mystical |||||| 23% Artistic |||||||||||| 50% Religious || 10% Hedonism |||||||||| 36% Materialism |||||||||||||||| 70% Narcissism |||||||||| 36% Adventurousness |||||| 30% Work ethic |||||| 23% Self absorbed |||||| 30% Conflict seeking || 10% Need to dominate |||||||||||| 43% Romantic |||||||||| 36% Avoidant |||| 16% Anti-authority |||||| 23% Wealth |||||| 30% Dependency |||||||||||| 50% Change averse |||||||||||| 43% Cautiousness |||||||||||| 50% Individuality |||||| 30% Sexuality |||||||||||| 50% Peter pan complex |||| 16% Physical security |||||||||||||||||||| 83% Physical Fitness |||||||||||||| 57% Histrionic |||||| 23% Paranoia |||||||||||| 50% Vanity |||||||||| 36% Hypersensitivity |||||||||||| 43% Female cliche |||||| 30%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

trait snapshot:
changeable, in the middle, suspicious, somewhat traditional, dislikes chaos, down to earth, group oriented, practical... you scored in the middle on the overall factors of this test.

downloadable software

i'm not sure. it seems questionable to me. highly questionable.

how was my day

i woke up 8.15am! i'd set my alarm 7.30am... which was not a good sign. i made myself 2 slices of bread with margarine and peanut butter. my usual breakfast diet. but i barely had one bite, had 2 trips to the toilet and had to dash off. :(

well anyway i reached the campus, only to take a long way round to reach the exam location. it is at the UniHall, which is one of the larger rooms on campus. the location was hosting the exam for more than one subject i was certain. at least 3 i speculate. i was given a random number corresponding to the table i was to be seated at.

so i sat down and wrote my stuff. i was seated near the back, closer to the entrance. right in front, on the stage, were 2 whiteboards on either side of the stage. on them were scribble handwritten notices. they were too far for me to read properly. above the whiteboards were a clock each, and a sign that reads "CHEATING LEADS TO EXCLUSION". i noticed people taking their exams next to me had different color-coded answer booklets. they had it so random that you won't know who will sit beside you. sure prevents cheating somehow.

the paper was 2h 15min long. i left 15minutes before the end. section A had me crapping about 10 questions, 3 marks each. section B involved choosing one out of two questions. the answer was to be in essay form, substantiating an argument for the question that has been chosen. for the 1000 words we could write(or had to, whatever), i had put down approximately 3 pages worth of words. that would rough out to 10 words a line, 18 lines per page. the grand sum would be around 540 words. barely half the total amount they told us to. but hey at 3 pages it would already be quite lengthy. any longer i think the marker would have fallen asleep marking!

and i'd gotten back my test paper finally. the one i'd failed (4/10 remember?) and it seems nothing can be helped. my syntax was so bad i probably would have gotten more marks deducted had i went back to try and get more marks. jason got his back too. at 7.8/10 it's quite reasonable for his calibre. but then again he'd have said he could have done better. so i'd been working on another aspect of the subject, trying to iron things out while consulting jason. fortunately he was patient enough to explain some of the concepts to me once more.

that's about all i want to talk about today. not good day at all.

*sigh i also messed up*

the list of subjects

i have a list of subjects i'm currently looking at. they are for my next session(semester). i'm available to choose one(other slots have required subjects to be filled). now i'll just have to boil down and filter out those i'm not eligible to take (take Human Computer Interface for example!) and the less desirable ones.

They all have to be available in Spring(meaning this July onwards) and are listed in no order:-

• Human Computer Interface - apparently i can't study this (even though i already did in poly) because i did not learn the CSCI204 (C family & Unix). sheesh.
  
• Interfacing and Real Time Programming - i think i will die attempting this subject. it's got all sorts of I/O handling and interrupts, rather low level.
  
• Organisation of Programming Languages - it seems that i can't attempt this subject as it is not reflected in my available subjects list. the scope sounds crappy but rather uninteresting anyway.
  
• Network Security - actually this sounds interesting. rather hardcore physical networking stuff but seems interesting nevertheless. oh and i'm not eligible. it requires me to take another subject called "Computer Security" as well.
  
• World Wide Networking - jason will be taking this subject. if i take means we'll be having another same subject again muahaha... it appears to be rather relevant to web development, although i had comments about it being crappy. on the other hand, it seems entirely up to the instructor to slack or crack us.
  
• Exploiting Collaborative Technologies - certain parts of the scope seems crappy. other parts seem quite fun and interesting. and the title of the subject rolls off the tongue quite nicely. makes for another long worded subject i might have studied...
  

The above were 300-level subjects. There are also a few 200-level (meaning year 2) subjects that may catch my fancy.

• 3D Modelling and Animation - unfortunately this was what was stated as well: "Results will NOT be declared until end Summer 2006, so this subject is not suitable for anyone wishing to graduate in December 2005"... so unless i can spare the time to wait for my degree until next June... i can probably forget about doing this subject.
  
• Distributed Systems - seems like something that is low-level technical stuff. of course the thought of using Linux makes me shift uncomfortably in my seat. but that should not be an issue.
  

And also i'm speculating... should i (touch wood) not make it for Database Design and Implementation, would i be able to apply to study this single subject in SIM and subsequently graduate there. =_= mundane as it may sound, it sounds better than having to stay in Australia for another half a year for the sake of studying ONE subject. I'm just preparing contingencies... :(

so basically i'm left with very little choices. sighsssssssss

will continue on this post when i feel like it.

round 1

subject: Corporate Network Planning
time: 9am
venue: Uni Hall
length: 2h 15min
crap factor: 4 out of 5 stars
what it's about: blabbering nonsense about how an organisation should cope with current economies and how businesses should be managed to get optimal cost/benefit ratio. the whole subject was built upon one book. and it's not even a textbook-ish kind of book.

wish me luck!

today consisted only of me waking up and revising some(second time around) and eating. that's about it! hope i'll make it...

i drew another one

booking!

well ok they said AUD 14 is for the trip to the domestic airport. the international airport costs AUD 24! but ah heck since the trip can guarantee me a comfortable direct route to the airport it's still worth it. i shall drop by on friday to make a booking with the travel agency.

the tasman sea

apparently i'd been mistaken. there is no way we can see the Pacific Ocean from the beaches here. this is because between Australia and the Pacific Ocean, there are in fact water regions known as the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea, the former above the latter. and the nearest body of the Pacific is the South Pacific Ocean, wheras further up is the Central Pacific Ocean. the the south of Australia is Antarctic Southern Ocean.

that should clear things up somewhat. hehe... the map link in the title should give a better picture.

Draw a pig personality test

Toward the top of the paper, you are positive and optimistic.
Toward the middle, you are a realist.
Toward the bottom, you are pessimistic, and have a tendency to behave negatively.

Facing left, you believe in tradition, are friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.)
Facing right, you are innovative and active, but don't have a strong sense of family, nor do you remember dates
Facing front, you are direct, enjoy playing devil's advocate and neither fear nor avoid discussions.

With many details, you are analytical, cautious, and distrustful.
With few details, you are emotional and naive, they care little for details and are a risk-taker.

With less than 4 legs, they are insecure or are living through a period of major change.
With 4 legs showing, they are secure, stubborn, and stick to their ideals.

The size of the ears indicates how good a listener you are.
The bigger the better. You drew small ears, you are an OK listener

The length of the tail indicates the quality of your sex life.
And again more is better! You drew medium sized tail

mine

a somewhat satisfactory day

it just dawned on me yesterday that, although i'd arranged for the flight back to singapore come june 19, i didn't have any arrangements to actually -reach- the Sydney airport yet! so i started panicking. i still am panicking now. i sent an email query out this afternoon but they haven't replied yet. i located Premier Motor Service which offers a service from Melbourne to Sydney going through Wollongong here. which means i can hitch the coach off to the international terminal at the airport! it costs AUD$14 apparently! the train ride costs AUD$12 and i have to get transferred in Sydney central to the airport! so it's probably more worth it. but... they have yet to reply me. certainly hope i can make the arrangements in time! then at least all i'll need to do is catch a cab within the town to bring me to the coach pick-up point on the other side of the town.

in other news, go through the notes for my thursday's paper. and in a way completed going through. will go through again tomorrow a second round. basically all 74 questions have several which are have close semblance to each other. and it seems logical also that, some of the answers to different questions are rather similar as well. given that there is only so much we'd learnt for the subject. so i'm pleased with that.

another good news is that, i checked online for results of my 2 other assignments that have since been graded. i got 7.5/10 for a take-home exam in one, and 4.75/5 for another subject. which i certainly hope bodes well...

in unrelated matters, ms yap had said (and thus i quote)

[23:53] -neXa- prob end 2006 or beginning 2007

so hrmm good luck to her for that. ladida...

*guai guai hor...*

that's a manmade breakwater... in front of it (from the ocean) is a pool that seems to never dry up because it is constantly filled by the water gushing in due to the waves... also to note, the straight horizon yonder...  

the lighthouse pales in comparison to the brightness from the sun despite being partially overcast by the drifting clouds... 

the wind was so strong i captured this when the seagull was practically hovering over me! 

temporary imprints is what we'd left behind... 

the last time we went to the beach... and to the lighthouse too! 

WILD COCK ON THE LOOSE! he lives around the surrounding blocks of the university. and he isn't too worried about the humans walking about him.