A Geeky Update! (Zhng My Rig Part 2)

Guess what?

I decided to go 1 step further.

When my dad suggested we go someplace in Little India for dinner, my mind immediately thought - Sim Lim Square!

And so I zipped in, bought a Cooler Master 120mm casing fan, complete with Benged-out LED lights and zipped out as fast.

After some prying, monster strength and nimble screwing... Tadahh!





My 2 year old brudder has just been given a new lease of life!

And he's much cooler too! I shaved off 4 degrees Celsius off each of my 4 cores (about 5 degrees less when at full load). Now they're idling pretty comfortably at a nice relaxing (on average) 36 degrees.

Man I love DIYing.

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Not-so-famous geek quote, "If they can zhng their cars, why can't we zhng our rigs also? We also Ah Beng what."

Next project will be... A new graphics card, complete with side grille and fan! Which probably won't happen for another 2 years.

Cable Management, Module 1 (Zhng My Rig, Part 1)

Warning: Not for the faint hearted non-techies

I spent the whole of yesterday morning with the innards of my gaming PC (or "rig" as we call it)

Why?

I've been trying to figure out ways to lower down the temperature of my processor as well the entire system. Its quite terrifying to stare at the numbers climb past 70 degrees Celsius whenever I start TF2 or some other high-end game. It gets rather hot in the room on a windless day too. Try stuffing your feet next to the exhaust of my com after a few hours of intensive gaming. After a night of researching on Hardwarezone and VR-Zone forums, there were a few options:

1) Liquid Cooling (geez that's expensive)
2) More fans (cheap, but I'd hate to drill holes in my casing =x)
3) Tidy up those cables (free!)

Obviously the effectiveness decreases down the options but I decided to choose 3). Partly because I wanted to see whether it really did help. And its really the easiest and cheapest thing to do.


My brudder, before ripping it apart. Note the bloody mess inside.


First thing I did was stuff the unused annoying power supply cables at the top, above the CPU heatsink and fan. This took a bit of thinking as well as inspiration, I was stumped initially on where to stuff them, untill I realised they could be bunched up into a bundle. Twisties are my friend =) I saw some excellent pictures at the forum where they stuff the cables behind the motherboard, but that needed some drilling as well.


Next, I flattened the irritating IDE cable against the casing wall, bundled it together with the main power supply cable and cable tied it down. Cable ties are my friends too =)


The finished result. Amateurish perhaps XD But I managed to clear the pathway of the mega fan there, resulting in uninterrupted airflow.

Most importantly, I reduced the temperature by 1-3 degrees! w00t!

Ok sorry you had to sit through that. But damn, its really satisfying.

Om Nom Nom Nom...

Random.

Anyway the songs of the first and last vid is by Parry Gripp, a singer/songwriter who takes random words and phrases and turns them into cant-get-it-outta-my-head jingles. Don't say I didn't warn you!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ParryGripp

The middle one is a tribute to TF2's Heavy =)

A tale of 2 Michaels

I just realised I never did a proper dedication to that special guy, the guy who could walk backwards looking like he was walking forward, who could do gravity and friction - defying moves, and make grabbing crotches fashionable.

Michael Jackson - RIP.

While I wasn't really a big fan of him (my childhood idols were the Bee Gees and Take That, horrors), his music always seemed to stand out from the rest of the stuff that was playing on the radio. Who could forget the unmistakable opening basslines of Billy Jean? That, together with Thriller, Beat It and Bad became my favourite MJ songs.

Of course I never really saw the genius that was MJ until my dad brought home a hulking bulk of a LaserDisc titled - HIStory. It was the video version of the "best" album that was released at the time. Because that was before I had access to MTV, it would be the first time that I saw his dance moves and videos.

The video Thriller was actually quite hilarious to me, the bunch of dancing zombies surrounding that poor girl. It was MJ moonwalking on lighted tiles in Billy Jean that really made me go "WTF!!!!" (Of course being at such a tender age I probably went "WA LAO!"). Smooth Criminal was another video that made me feel as if I was watching a mafia movie, complete with white suits, top hats, flying billiard balls and the iconic Tommy Gun.

Sadly MJ slipped from my radar after that. His newer songs were nice and singable (Heal the World, Black or White) but never had that impact. Then the weird stuff started appearing in the news, the eccentric "Wacko" things he did, the child molestation etc. I never paid much attention to those other than a shake of the head "Tsk.. He kee siao liao..."

Then he died.
MJ will always be the King of Pop for my generation. Simply because Elvis and the Beatles were already dead when I was born, and nothing else after that can match MJ at his imba best. No, not even cry you a river Justin.

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Who's the other Michael?

Michael Owen.

I can almost hear the "CHEYY.." coming from you guys.

No he's not dead, he just joined Manchester United from poor ol' relegated Newcastle on a free transfer. Man, how cheapo can Alex get? Still, its a good deal! How can anything that you get for free not be a good deal?

I hope he teaches Berbatov and Anderson a thing or two about scoring.

Take that Liverpool fans!

P.S Any fellow Man United fans wanna camp along the Singapore River waiting for the Liverpool team to float by? Wearing the ManU jersey and waving fake BPL trophies at them? kekekeke

Clickspam.

I don't if this warrants a new post but...

I just got a new mouse =D

Well. Its the first purchase I've made on impulse since... a long long time ago in a land far far away?

If you were wondering what on earth would make a mouse worthy of a blog post, no, its not a Raz0r mouse. Nor is it a purebred variety you find scurrying around evil laboratories. Its just another Logitech plasticky optical mouse that happened to catch my eye.

For those who don't know my spending habits, I rarely make a purchase unless it is absolutely of utmost necessity. And not without plenty of self-debating and consideration.

So why the impulse rodent buy? Well I had a niggling need to get a new mouse since my old (Logitech also, I'm a fan) one started acting erratically and began to clickspam. I believe I may have coined a new term here -

Clickspam .v

To unleash a flurry of clicks with a mouse/cursor, intentionally or unintentionally.

e.g "I was playing (insert random MMORPG) and suddenly got ambushed by this imba PKer, so I panicked and started to clickspam."

In my case it wasn't intentional. Damn furry thing went crazy and double, triple and quadruple clicked everything I clicked. And when I wanted to hold and drag something, the clicker gave up halfway and left the item dangling behind. Which isn't very handy especially when you find yourself engulfed by zombies and your gun stops firing.

Which brings me back to the original topic. I was walking along Eunos MRT when I spotted this new, tiny hole in the wall PC shop. The inner geek in me screamed "Lets go take a look!!!!" And so I did. Of course there was this little niggling thought at the back of my head reminding me of my mousey predicament, so I scanned the mice available, saw the brand Logitech, felt sudden euphoria, simply grabbed it, paid for it and hey presto!

I'm now happily clickspamming. On my own accord.

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Here's a video someone took of our performance at the Mascot Parade. Thanks, whoever you are!

QUIS @ Mascot Parade - Nobody (Wondergirls)



I wan nobody nobody bak chiu~

An ode to a Real Devil

Back when we were already champions

You were with the Hammers, fighting to stay up

We met on the last match of the season

And you single-handedly kept them alive in the League

Scoring a single goal that their fans will forever remember

We told ol' Fergie; "Sign him up!"

And he did

So began 2 years of loyal service

You fought for us

Chased for us

Heckled and closed down for us

Never gave up on us

And most importantly, scored for us

Who will forget those last ditch efforts?

The powerful strikes?

That wonderfully improvised back heel?

Then came the languid Berbatov

You found yourself on the bench

It must have been hard, watching from there

But when you came off it, you gave your all

The fans loved you

The players loved you

We told Fergie again; "Sign him up!"

But we were too late

Too late to mend your heart that was broken

We tried our best, but you thought us insincere

Its a pity that you chose to leave

Please, if you haven't already made up your mind

There'll be millions of us welcoming you back with open arms

I await your say, come first July

PS: Thanks for not joining Liverpool, but try to avoid Chelsea or Manchester City? We don't really like them either. I strongly suggest you consider Hull City, first-team opportunities won't be lacking there. You might be playing alongside Owen too, he'll complement you perfectly with his "charisma" and "looks".

What to do now?

Life as an unemployed is a nice, refreshing change from the mindless routine that began ever since I started NS. No waking up before the sun rises, no reaching home before the sun sets. Sure, there were the short periods of breaks, holidays and stuff, but nothing beats waking up at 10am in the morning with the thought "Now what shall I do today?" instead of "Argh, (insert number) more days before going back to camp/work."

Lately, the answer to the question above has been "Lets see, Final Fantasy XII, Rappelz (an MMO I've neglected for awhile), FIFA, L4D or TF2?"

I've become a no-life gamer ^^. Haven't done that since the last school holidays (minus the mugging).

In the meantime I'm trying to keep track of the Singapore stock market and try to learn a thing or two about investing to pass time. Quite interesting to see the numbers go up and down and linking those numbers to the performance of the economy and the individual companies. I might even try my hand at buying some stocks to keep and see what happens in time to come.

Why the sudden interest? I realised that plain savings and working like dogs for a salary ain't enough to keep up with the inflation rate. The recession also made me realise that the people who really earn the most out of it are those who dare to take the risks. And I happen to be very risk-adverse (i.e humji).

Anyway!

QUIS will be perfoming this Saturday at Ngee Ann City (Orchard Road) for the Mascot Parade Event http://www.mascotparade.org/

*EDIT* Our timeslot is 7pm!

We'll have a surprise in store for everyone ehehehe.

Cosplay isn't my kind of thing, but it'll be nice to see members of the 501st. Stormtroopers and ol' Vader himself in Orchard Road! What next? Podracers zipping past those Ah Beng street racers in their zhnged Evos and WRXs?

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www.fmylife.com just got mentioned in today's newspapers (I forgot which section). Have you had an FML moment?

Today, I stepped into the lift and into what seemed like a puddle of water. It covered the entire lift so it was hard not to step onto it. "Oh, someone just went swimming or something". There was this strange smell though. Now that I think about it, I might have been stepping in dog pee all the while. FML.

McD's, anyone?

lol.

And this one which I really like



Peter fails.

An ode to a Devil

When we first saw you in action, it was magic

The stepovers, the flicks, the tricks, we insisted that the gaffer sign you on

From the land of Portugal you came, to brighten the terrible English weather

You sparkled at times, fell spectacularly mostly, and yet produced magic that confunded the best of defenders

Others said you were a cheat, a boy with a penchant for mischief and a terrible hairstyle

We said you could do it, gave you the number 7 after ol' Becks left

It was a tough few years, til the World Cups came

You tumbled on the ground, ol' Wazza let loose his breath and saw red

Then came the wink, the boos and the jeers

Wazza left it in the past, so did you, and with each boo you ran faster

With each jeer you thumped the ball harder

And finally you showed the world who you really were

Those blazing free-kicks, the lightning headers, feet that dazzled, speed to rival the roadrunner

And those goals, those wondrous 42 goals, and with it came cups, trophies and honours

Heads were turned, from Spain and hitherto.

You were drawn, yet stayed for another year

We were glad, but knew that you would eventually leave someday

And so you did.

Cristiano Ronaldo, we thank you for those magnificent displays that you put in for us. We will not miss you, nor will we rue your absence, but we truly wish you well.

Rio and Co. will be eager to have a go at you should we ever meet again.

P.S Tell Ruud that he left behind his old socks when you get there, will ya?

Valve left us 4 dead...

Creative use of photoshop aside, I believe many gamers, including L4D players were taken by surprise by Valve's announcement of the development of L4D 2, slated to be released by the end of this year. For those still in the dark, here's a couple of additional reading to keep up to date.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L4D2

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/L4D2boycott
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174667
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/06/04/valve-on-l4d2-trust-us-a-little-bit/

I must say I share the same sentiments as the rest of the disgruntled L4D fans (I joined the group!), but primarily because I didn't like the idea of spending money to get another sequel just when I bought the original game. Its like how I gave up trying to keep up with EA Sports' FIFA every year. The coincidence with the 40% weekend discount also played a part, almost as if Valve was trying to clear stock to make way for new ones.

Sure it looks interesting, with enough content and storyline to warrant a "new game" status (hell, if I ever decide to buy it, it'll be because of that CHAINSAW), but I'm really concerned whether L4D will continue to receive updates and new content, just like the other fan favourite, Team Fortress 2. If it were EA or something, I wouldn't care less, but this is Valve, one of the few game developers that I actually feel a sense of loyalty to (the other is Blizzard). And its precisely their commitment to long-term post-game support that attracts their large fanbase.

Will I succumb to temptation and buy it? Guess I'll adopt a wait and see approach.

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Since we're on the topic, here are some games that deserve to be awarded a "Longest Lasting Game" award.

1) Counterstrike (1.6 - Source)

It's synonymous with LAN gaming shops and tournaments all over the world, ever since it was released in 1998. Thats a 10 year history boy!

2) Starcraft (and Brood War)

While not as popular now, its still one of the iconic RTS games that pro gamers train on for tournaments. The South Koreans in particular are still crazy over this. Another 10 year-old!

3) Warcraft III (and Frozen Throne)

Another RTS, albeit more recent one, to command a huge fanbase with thousands still playing on Bnet and LAN shops. Thanks to the custom map DOTA, WC3's lifespan has been considerably lengthened. Possibly the most widespread RTS game now too. Blizzard has been patching TFT regularly too. 7 years!

4) Team Fortress 2

This one gets in based on pure ingenuity on the part of the game developer. Its a newbie in terms of age (only 2 years) but updates have been coming regularly and not just to fix game bugs. You get whole new maps, game modes, new weapons and other goodies with every update released. If this continues, it'll probably be around for ages to come. Respect to the TF2 department in Valve!

Well its time to say goodbye to the past 4 months at Alpha Biofuels. I can't say I've had the greatest time there, but hey, there's bound to be ups and downs everywhere. I'm sure I not many people know what I've been up to since February, so now I shall dedicate this post to my short stint there.

So when I first started work, there wasn't very much to do, other than handling some banner designing stuff and manning the pump whenever customers came to pump biodiesel. I was still a noob, not really used to working since it was my first job (and internship). I spent lots of time reading up on biodiesel and its properties as well as production. I can say I learnt most during those first few days. I did my first lab-scale production of biodiesel as well.

Then our driver Siva fell while cycling home and fractured his elbow, so yours truly, armed with a driving license, became the substitute driver. For the whole of Feb, I was driving all over Singapore, collecting waste cooking oil as well as delivering biodiesel to our customers, together with partner-in-crime Wootien. This was the most fun period of my internship I guess; we got to meet lots of people, chat with the aunties and uncles who provide us with oil, explore unknown parts of the island as well as the unseen parts of shopping centres, travel around looking for good food to eat, all while rushing to get back to office by 6pm.

March came, and so did the official opening ceremony of ABF. It was kinda hectic to prepare for that day, though thankfully I wasn't much involved other than figuring out parking space and cleaning up. The day finally came, and it was quite a success. Everyone had a good time, and there was a sense of achievement that we managed to pull it off.

Once the euphoria died down though, work finally piled up. I was called to do some marketing campaigns in Eunos and Simei, by foot and armed with flyers and namecards, to spread the news about 2 new retail stations. I talked to loads of people, mostly the bosses of small workshops located within the vicinity. It was a good experience I guess, though I ended each day with sore feet. Thereafter was a sudden explosion of demand for biodiesel, driven primarily by a retail station in Simei, run by a very ambitious (and demanding!) customer. It was also the place where we managed to get a steady stream of taxis to run on biodiesel.

As a result things got pretty crazy in the factory, with everyone struggling to churn out biodiesel to meet demand. I was assigned a new title - Blender, which was basically to polish biodiesel and package for delivery. Also since me and Wootien were the ones who setup most of the retail stations, we were often called up to fix leaks, perform on-site maintenance and what not, as well as deal with unhappy bosses. We were the self-named Repair crew, and proud of it. As WT put it, by the last week of my internship we could deduce the source of the problem just by listening to customer's vague descriptions, bring along the right tools, and rectify them in record time.

April and May were pretty much the same thing, except that we welcomed new guys to the place, so we had to teach them from scratch and hand over our duties. There was a lot of restructuring and changes going around as well as back breaking work so there were a few conflicts here and there. But at the end of every day, I guess everyone went home without hard feelings.

I guess some memorable events which I joined in, aside from the opening ceremony, included the lab courses that we conducted at JJC and TJC, as well as Earth Hour. Although I was just helping out at the 2 JCs, it was quite fun being back in school again, seeing the students go about doing their lab stuff, explaining and guiding them in biodiesel making. I was a student too, listening to Mr. Tan give his lectures and learning at the same time. Earth Hour was fun and relaxed, we were basically just manning the ABF booth, fooling around with the bosses and fellow interns, talking to random people who passed by and enjoying the atmosphere (and free Starbucks, Coke and Old Chang Kee!).

I've also come to understand the feelings and cultures of the foreign workers who keep our economy humming along. I've made friends with Siva, an Indian national who wishes to obtain a PR and bring his family over someday, as well as Xiao Li, a PRC who came from Shandong to a unfamiliar and foreign land, hoping to earn as much as he can to support his family. Its quite humbling to watch them work with little complaints, scrimping and saving to feed their loved ones back home, and yet maintain a cheerful attitude towards work.

And so 4 months have come to an end. No more travelling insane distances to work, lorry driving or dirty work (someone suggested we have our own Dirty Jobs documentary). Its been quite a journey.

I didn't get a chance to say this yesterday so I guess I'll type it here.

Thanks to Woots for being my best buddy in ABF, guiding me from the start, joking together and creating lots of funny moments to make life at work bearable.

Thanks to Lynette and Jaimie for treating me as Xiao Di and putting up with our nonsense.

Thanks to the new guys who formed the Ground Crew, its been great working and goofing around with you guys.

All the best to everyone at ABF, hope it will eventually become a huge success in the local biodiesel scene.

Time to come out of the depression that befell all fans of the Red Devils...

And that's after watching the Premier League Review twice (i.e watching my team lift the BPL trophy twice).

I'll be finishing my internship/attachment/cheap labour job in 2 days! Its been a very interesting experience, guess I'll blog more in detail in the following post.

Just a little "Tweet" to keep this blog somewhat active =x

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Just replaced my music player Jaangle with Songbird, an open source music player that aims to be to iTunes what Firefox is to IE. In other words, highly customisable, with lots of add-ons to enhance that listening experience (heck, it has a built in web browser!) and a cool, iTunes-like interface.

Can expect many more improvements since its only version 1.1, but already you can feel its a finished product. My only grouse is the memory hogging - it eats up 100+ mb of memory while playing songs, which is probably due to the many functions and visual candy available. Definitely not for slow PCs. Slow to start-up as well as to play that first song (sounds familiar, Firefox users? Trade-offs, trade-offs...)

Check it out here - http://getsongbird.com/

In case you're wondering about the deluge of soccer-related posts, then obviously you're not a football crazy fanatic.

TOMORROW IS THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL !!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited, I've already run 2 simulations using FIFA 09 (with yours truly controlling Man Utd). The results so far? 3-1 and 2-0 in Man U's favour, both including a wonderful free-kick goal scored by Ronaldo. A sign perhaps?

The results are obviously very biased.

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I discovered 2 very interesting websites this week, thanks to Lifehacker.com and the How-to-Geek.

1) www.nintendo8.com

Play 100% authentic, classic N64/Gameboy/Sega games at this site! The games are powered by Java, so I doubt you can save that Pokemon game. I've been playing Super Mario Bros, Dig Dug and Megaman =)

2) www.socwall.com

Absolutely stunning wallpapers from every genre possible, a godsend if you love changing wallpapers everytime you boot up your PC.

I know this is somewhat belated but...

Manchester United are BPL Champions! Again!

But I bet we all knew that was gonna happen last Sunday. Save for those rabid Liverpool fans hoping for the impossible *cue evil laugh*

Looking forward to the Champions League final against Barcelona. Probably gonna go to work late just to catch it =) Dunno why UEFA must schedule on a weekday; half of the world's economy will probably freeze that following morning or something.

... end soccer ramble.

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Can't wait to get my NTU matriculation card. No not because I can't wait to start school, I just wanna throw away my Singtel mobile plan and jump ship to the green side. Unlimited SMS student plan ftw! Together with Maxonline and cable I'd get the Hubber discount too!

And I hope to get a new phone too, mine's becoming chui-er by the day. An E63 or something with a QWERTY keyboard, I'm tired of trying to type out long SMSes using predictive texting that isn't so predictive. No touch screen phones though! Surprised right? For all my techieness touch screen is one technology I'll never embrace wholeheartedly.

Yes I'm an anti-fingerprint, anti-smudge freak. If you've ever seen my laptop, you'll know why. Its almost 3 years old, made of cheap, easy-to-smudge glossy black plastic and I have friends who say it looks new. Ritualistic cleaning ftw! If I had an iPhone I'll probably wear out the screen from too much rubbing .

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To hall or not to hall, that is the question?

2 weeks before first infection...

No this is not about Left 4 Dead...



If you've been reading the comics page every Sunday in the Sunday Times, you'll be familiar with Lio and his quirky imagination.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hyqTxJlWHlv1yLyo-yETVjbOFroQ

Not too far from reality though eh? But its just speculation of course.

Haven't posted anything geeky in awhile, so here's a tidbit for you to nibble on =)


Top 10 Free Apps Installed on my PC/Laptop (in no particular order)

1) AVG Free Edition 8.5 (http://free.avg.com/)

2) Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" (Ok fine its an OS but hey, it comes with hell lots of excellent free open-source apps, some of which are listed below)

- Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/)
- Pidgin messenger (http://www.pidgin.im/)
- Banshee music player (http://banshee-project.org/) *Linux and Mac OS X only*
- VLC player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)

http://www.ubuntu.com/

3) CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com/)

4) Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html)

5) Mozilla Thunderbird (http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/)

6) Jaangle (http://www.jaangle.com/)

7) GIMP 2 (http://www.gimp.org)

8) Comodo Firewall Pro (http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/)

9) Media Player Classic (http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/)

10) Super Anti-Spyware (http://www.superantispyware.com/)

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Random musing of the day:

Can anyone remember Marshmallow Man, proton packs, ghost traps and ectoplasmic activity?

"Who ya gonna call?"

I bet that rings a bell. I used to love the cartoon back then.

"Ghostbusters!"

Saturday came and went.

For those who came, thanks for coming! Hope you guys enjoyed the food and company! I had a great time =)

(Especially after watching ManU beat Tottenham 5-2 muahahahaha!)

Best birthday present ever.

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In other news,

I have been promoted!

To lab tech. HAHA.

Anyway I've been busying myself doing stuff in the lab these few days, never knew it was that fun to conduct experiments and keep track of the results, especially if you don't know whether it'll succeed or not. SPA was horrible back then.

Driver -> Factory worker -> Lab tech. Upgrade! *ding ding*

twenty-one.

What's the big deal with turning 21, I wonder?

Besides being able to watch R21 movies. And besides, you could probably download R21 movies, watch PG shows without "guidance", NC16 shows by acting "mature" and M18 movies with your older brother's IC, all when you were just 12. Did I mention you could just download them all/watch online?


An excuse to hold a huge party that you never had?

A reason to finally go out there and have some fun (and use the excuse "But I'm 21 liao!")?

A coming-of-age when you finally get to "Be a Man!" (and do the right thing)?

Or just another milestone reached in life? I don't suppose many people go around shouting "Hey! I survived to see my 21st birthday!"

Which is quite sobering considering those who don't make it.


I don't feel that old.

FMA 2 : Brotherhood

Yes you read it right!

For all you anime fans who've got enough of Bleach and Naruto (you mean they're still running? @.@), this is one reason to rejoice!

Edward Elric is back!

Especially so since the 1st series ended like 4 years ago =,=

The story is supposed to be totally different from the previous one, and an adaptation of the manga, so I guess we can expect more interesting content! Something to satisfy the hunger for FMA while waiting for the next installment of the manga (its taking ages for it to get published)

Only grouse so far (as commented by various people) is the change of voice-actors (seiyuu), although the brothers still remain the same.

Plus the opening song pwns! "again" by YUI.

Its been ages since I last watched anime. Time to relive old days again!

I want to have my Okonomiyaki (and eat it, too!)

And so he flew away, towards a land full of opportunities, experiences and thrills.

Last Wednesday, I rushed to the airport together with the rest of BTT14 to send Kevin off to Japan where he'll study for the next 5 years.

I couldn't help but watch in envy as he walked through those gates. Another one to live the dream. A dream that I once shared (and I still linger upon), of living on my own in a country which has influenced and enthralled me so much.

And yet I know my place is here.

Perhaps that dream will remain a dream. A dream that I would love to fulfill one day, if only for a few months, and keep it forever in my memories. Heck, I haven't even got the motivation to pick up the language, even though I've always wanted to.

In the meantime, my place is here.

Reading blogs and Facebook updates, looking at pictures of far away, yet remotely familiar places, and genuinely wishing that I was there.

Just for that few, fleeting, online minutes.

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Ok I've said it, I will start to learn (basic!) Japanese by the end of this year.

Friends who are reading this, you be my witness. And if you too are interested, drop me a message! Because its so hard to learn something on my own without anyone to practise with.

Hong Yi wa ganbarimasu!

(I hope that was the correct way of expressing it =x)

Blackout Drill!

Its been ages since I've done guard duty (HAHAHA YESSS ORD LO!!!)
but I still remember the infamous blackout drill.

Anyway, I'm referring to the 1 hour blackout all over the world to celebrate (?) Earth Hour, in case it wasn't already supremely obvious.

So while the world poised their fingers on their light switches, I was milling about Esplanade Park where Alpha Biofuels had their booth, fooling around and generally not making myself very useful except to entertain some foreign kids with McD french fries. And a particularly shy Spiderman-bag carrying kid (boss's nephew). What were we doing there? The generator was running on Biodiesel of course!

Oh, and filling my stomach with free Old Chang Kee, Coke Zero and Starbucks (diluted) coffee. Like a particularly greedy person said, our booth was in a very nice position (next to Starbucks).

It was a rather small scale event, with a few booths (including some no-link brands like POLAR and Chipster) and a small stage. There was a surprising large crowd at the event, though the proportion of foreigners was high. It says a lot about their environmental consciousness. Like one of them mentioned, "We have Biodiesel in Europe too!". Nothing much happened before lights out except a few cultural performances. I can understand the percussion troupe using recycled bins, but a lion dance?!? Maybe the lion was made up of recycled newspapers or something =x

I met up with XJ for dinner just in time to catch the lights out at Marina Square foodcourt. It wasn't very concerted, but visually stunning all the same. First went Maybank and their nice decorative strips of light. Then slowly the tall office buildings in the CBD turned off their lights, followed by the Esplanade's twin domes. Even the Fullerton and Merlion went dark. The only cold water pourers were the IR constructions sites. Their spotlights totally spoilt the whole scene. Once the blackout was completed, the party started, with bands taking to the stage (yes, in darkness!) and picnickers lighting up their candles.

So for that 1 hour, it was just about sitting on the grass, listening to music, staring at the relatively dark cityline, enjoying the light of the candles, the company of friends and contemplating our impact on the environment. Ok the last point was probably the last thing on everyone's mind, but still I'm sure the message got across.

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In retrospect I think the candle burning probably released more CO2 than leaving the lights on, but what the heck.

At least it wasn't about 1 hour of non-stop lights ablazing, amplifiers blasting, all-over-the-world rock concerts.

OFF ALL YOUR LIGHTS!

Yes, even that tiny one that you keep on at night because you're afraid to wake up to a pitch dark room.

The one you turn on to read the newspaper.

The one you turn on to pee without missing the target.

The one you turn on to eat dinner.

The one you turn on to... see the switches to turn on other lights.

I think its a ridiculous idea personally. People are going to end up being frightened to death, spoiling their eyes, soiling their toilets, getting food poisoning because didn't see the fly that landed, and fumbling over the light switches and tripping and falling and getting injured.

So don't be a dumbass and obsessively observe the Earth Hour thingy. Its not like its some new government thingy telling you to speak more Mandarin.

Come to think of it, even Shan from 98.7FM is learning Mandarin from 93.3's Peifen. Hmmmmm.....

Anyway back to the topic - imagine if LTA/CAAS were to support Earth Hour. I wouldn't want to be on the roads/landing at Changi from 8.30pm onwards man.

.
.
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Seriously, I hope this event will spread more awareness of the environmental challenges we face. Its not just about wasted lights or light pollution. Its about getting the world to sit up and wake up and do something, even if it means turning off the lights at 8.30pm for 1 hour every year.

Earth Hour. Our Earth.


Note to readers: Above comments are made in good humour and are not meant to critise the event in any way. The author supports Earth Hour, really. He pledges to reduce his carbon footprint by turning off the lights on his mp3 player. And he sincerely hopes that every hour can be Earth Hour.

DIY for greenies!

DIY green tip #2

Did you know? The amount of water needed to flush down your solid waste is actually around 75-80% of the full flush. And for the liquid waste, its even lesser.

What to do if your home doesn't have a half-flush toilet bowl? For the really motivated a few scoops of used washing machine water will do the trick. But of course how many of us would actually go to such lengths to save water? Plus the solids probably require a whole pail.

For those who would really like the convenience of pressing a button, here's a DIY thing you can do.

Zng my Toilet Bowl

You'll need: A couple of small 250ml water bottles. Depending on the size of your cistern, you might want to try even smaller containers (Chicken essence bottles, hair gel containers etc)

1) Fill the bottles with water.

2) Open up the top of the cistern and throw them in. Try to arrange them neatly.

3) 3 - 5 bottles should be enough. If you're worried about the... stuff not going down when u flush, keep it at 4

4) Assuming a full tank of 8-9 litres, you'll be saving around 0.75 to 1.25 L of water per flush! Which is around 10-20%.

5) Test it out. If your... erm... stuff doesn't go down, reduce by 1 bottle. If it goes down nicely, you might want to raise that bar and throw in another bottle.

Rationale:

Since the cistern operates via displacement, once you throw the filled bottles in, the capacity of the cistern is reduced by that amount. Simple!

Plus you get to recycle those bottles! And save on the utilities bill!

Man, PUB should really hire me.

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Quote of the week:

Konfusius say, "Man who run after bus, will be exhausted!"

Saturday Bloody Saturday....

I never thought I'd ever experience being taunted by my Liverpool loving friends.

For the past 4 years through JC and NS, it was always US, the Red Devils, not the Reds, doing all the taunting and suan-ing. When Ferdinand scored with a volley, we laughed at them (a defender scoring against Liverpool! With his FOOT to boot!). When O'Shea scored in the dying minutes, we chuckled at the cruelty of it all. When we drew square, we always believed that our superior team had an off day.

Somehow 2008/2009 has been a different season.

When Torres scored, we cringed at the untimely stumble by Vidic.
When Evra hacked down Gerrard, we shouted our disbelief, until the replay confirmed our fears. When Gerrard subsequently slammed home the penalty, we cried at the near miss of Van der Sar's diving hands.
When Giggs, Scholes and Berbatov were subbed in, we prayed and hoped.
When Vidic pulled down Gerrard, we hid our eyes, hoping the card would be a nice shade of yellow.
When the red was shown, we slumped in our seats, all hope lost.
When Aurelio curled in the free kick, we hid our faces, embarrassed by the keeper's immobility.
When Dossena chipped Van der Sar, we laughed, not at all in mirth. At his staring, hapless figure as the ball bounced slow-mo into the net.

It has been a bloody Saturday in Manchester.

4 weeks after infection...

(Note! Numerous references to Left 4 Dead, non-gamers alert)

Besides going to work and sleeping, I'm left with 3-4 hours every night to do my own thing.

I'd usually fire up Left 4 Dead to start another zombie killing spree but I guess tonight will be different. Maybe its got something to do with being overwhelmed in the final scenario of Blood Harvest 5 times on expert mode.

I haven't been following the news recently, other than scanning the pages of Today every morning while I munch on breakfast (its really just a routine I go through, the real objective is to get to the sports page). One article in the Sunday Times really got my attention - regarding the recent suicide case and the possible influence of video games and WoW. Not an overriding factor but probably part of a box of tinder waiting for a spark.

Another red mark for us gamers. Its too tedious to delve into another discussion on the effects of excessive gaming on gamers but I do know there are a few (ok, maybe not just a few) gamers out there spending loads of time on their Maplestories and WoWs and L4Ds and DoTAs. Frankly speaking if I wasn't working I think I'd be joining that group =x. In a way I'm glad I'm not glued to the computer chair although sometimes I wish I was, just to blast away a few Boomers and watch them explode in glee.

A great stressbuster, Boomers are.

So if you think the world is 2D side-scrolling, have a night elven girlfriend and zombies as neighbours, get a life! Get a... job.

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Today a new worker from China joined the company. I really gotta start brushing up on my Mandarin proper, somehow English words keep slipping through the gaps whenever I attempted to communicate with him. Probably explains the D7 I got for Higher Chinese for my O levels.

Still, translating is hard work, especially when you have an Indian and a Chinese worker working together. Hand signals usually do the job.

To end off this post I shall start posting tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, in our Singaporean context =) Gotta justify the green in my blog title or I'd get reported for greenwashing.

Carbon tip #1

For all you broadband users (you, yes YOU!), turn off your modem and wireless router at night before you sleep. Yes I know its UNLIMITED broadband but surely you don't need to be all typical kiasu Singaporean and keep it on 24/7 just to make full use of the UNLIMITED access, even when you sleep?

So if you're not downloading anything, turn it off. Prevents the neighbours from leeching, too. You don't want to be giving free suppers to possible Bleach downloaders, lest you receive the dreaded xedo letter.

Today I was searching around for Firefox tweaks when I found this skin to make Firefox 3 look like Google Chrome, the all-new open-source browser by Google.

Feeling abit tempted to compare the 2, I searched "Firefox 3 vs Chrome" and the first comparison I found was hilarious.

From http://www.piggynap.com/google/google-chrome-vs-firefox/



I've always thought that the Google Chrome logo looked really familiar but I never really realised it until today.

Logo FAIL.

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Anyway for some laughs, check out this place:

http://failblog.org/

especially for those who love "FAIL" jokes like me XD

Death of the CD?

Poll: Does my blog load really slowly? Please post your opinion in the chatbox =)

After a night of scouring the Internet for new music (Japanese indie bands ftw!), I realised that I would never have known all this should CDs be the traditional choice for music distribution. Online music is blazing a path forward, bridging cultures and connecting musicians to fans all over the world! Heck, your neighbour could be a fan of a Ukranian punk band, who knows?

Saw this in the Jpop news:


Yes, that is a USB thumbdrive, uploaded with Ayumi Hamasaki's soon-to-be-released 10th album, [Next Level]. It will be the first album sold in Japan to take this format. Debunk the ugly rectangular stick of memory perception - that thumbdrive looks absolutely gorgeous. Does it signal the beginning of the end for the humble CD?

The signs are showing:

1) People are downloading more music online than ever before (legally or not)
2) CD sales are slipping down
3) When was the last time you saw a Discman?
4) When was the last time you saw an Ipod? (it probably sits on your table right now)
5) Sandisk is pushing for albums to be sold on SD memory cards
6) Artistes are releasing albums for download (remember Radiohead?)
7) Flash memory prices are dropping

It all points to a near future of downloadable releases and memory sticks filled to the brim with songs.

Still, I can't bear to see the CD die off just like that.

- Wonderfully designed CD covers and lyrics booklets!
- The feeling you get from ripping open the plastic wrapping
- Superior sound quality
- The sheer physicality of it (ever felt proud of your CD collection)
- Browsing in CD stores (and the free gifts like posters and stuff)
- Indie musicians still rely on the trusty old CD to earn the cash

Will the CD go the way of the prehistoric record? VHS and LDs are already extinct, VCDs are endangered while DVDs are threatened. What will the future entail? Music being confined to megabytes of data flying around cyberspace and residing in flash drives? Or Blu-Ray HD music cum video albums, anyone?

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Random nugget of information:

Did you know that bush fires can actually be good? In some temperate forests a fire can provide fertile material for the next generation of vegetation to grow, while eliminating the problem of insufficient sunlight reaching the forest floor. In such cases fire is actually essential for the forest to regenerate!

Still, don't go out there and start one. Fire = bad.

Me, the default lorry driver.

I think I've driven more in these 2 weeks than the past 6 months since I got my license. Its fun though, going to far flung and familiar places all at one go and trying out crazy stunts, all guided by a street directory.

Anyway, its been some time since I last made a decent post.

Valentine's day - We decided to do something different and went to the Science Centre! Both to catch an Omni-Theatre show and to see what's new there. I think the last time I went was 3 years ago, bringing a group of kids around for CIP or something. And so we embarked on a Journey to the West. Nothing much has changed, except that whole new areas have sprouted up (I noticed a new Climate Change and Alternative Energy section, yay!). The old exhibits were rotting though, with pieces falling apart and some not even working. One exhibit which went missing was the immensely fun mirror maze; I remember the crazy times I spent running around and getting lost. And who could forget the number counting wheel? I once had an ambition to stand there turning the wheel non-stop until the number reached 9999 or something XD

Then we roamed around the West and went to Jurong Hilltop restaurant next to Birdpark. The Japanese teppanyaki was not bad, but the fumes (some would say fragrances) were overpowering. Not much of an atmosphere either, with the whole place packed with families. The view was nice though, even if we could only see Jurong Island and lots of containers. Headed out to West Coast Park for a walk (surprisingly it was rather crowded, like the ECP of the West. Hmm.) and watched the container ships go about their businesses.

So ended our Journey to the West.

I think I'm getting the hang of things in the west side of Singapore. Anyway it'll probably be my new hangout place once I step into NTU. I'm still proud to be an Eastie (my friend coined the word) though, we've got more places with nice food =) And the roads aren't filled with container trucks. I've been dodging them everyday.

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Scholes and Giggs are phenomenal. They should be thinking of taking off their boots and relaxing at home now, not spraying 30m long passes, slamming home 25m volleys, curling crosses, dribbling past defenders and flicking through balls over defences.

Respect.

http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/download2.html

This is a really useful guide if you're new to Linux and Ubuntu, even I'm discovering new stuff by reading it =)

So if you've just installed Ubuntu, wanted to install Ubuntu but don't know how, secretly wanting to install Ubuntu but not daring to take the plunge, been using Ubuntu for some time or just someone intrigued by something different from Windows and OSX, download it! It makes quite an interesting read =)

Credits to Ubuntu Geek for this.

de de de de de de de de de de de de de

And so my first week as an intern has ended.

In case you're wondering, I'm currently interning at Alpha Biofuels in Jurong (horrors!). Yes its a stand-all-the-way trip Journey to the West every morning and back. Feet killer, our MRT system is. Especially when you're past Tanjong Pagar and you realise the guy in front of you sleeping peacefully is probably going all the way to Boon Lay. I guess thats the only downside to this job, apart from the delicious peanut butter allowance and the prompt bang kang timing of 6pm + service charge + GST, no less.

Seems like a dream job eh? So why in the world did I decide to take it up? For one its related to my course of study (Enviro Engi), and secondly its an SME, which means I'll get to learn much more than if I were to join say XXXMobile or seaShell. Who knows, I might draw on this when setting up my own company in the future. Plus its producing renewable energy!

And so far, it seems that my decision has been justified. In a span of a week I've been involved in marketing, project trials, delivery, collection, DIY furnishing and retailing. Stained jeans, oily hands, slicky shoes, all deja vu from the past 1 year. I can't say I've been looking forward to work everyday, but just by being there beats sitting in an office the whole day chatting on MSN and Facebooking. And for the first time I drove a lorry! Through the roads of NUS and Singapore Poly no less.

Not to mention the friendly atmosphere there - thanks to the 5 other interns running the show. As a colleague mentioned, we're all peons there. "hurh? Yes warchief... work work..."

Money vs experience?

Hong Yi has gained a level! *cue FF victory chime*

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Random nugget of information - Did you know that the MRT door closing chime has 13 beeps?

25 thingies u may not know about me.

Sigh. Its hard to avoid being arrowed even after ORD. Anyway this will be rather random and lighthearted =) since this blog is linked to Facebook, I hope you're satisfied.

1) I have powerful eyes. i.e 1000 megawatts of eye power. Cyclops would pale in comparison.

2) I woke up in the middle of the night to satisfy a craving for Warcraft III once.

3) I got spooked by my own battery operated Lego set.

4) I haven't had a single memorable dream ever since Primary school. My brain is already jaded with reality.

5) I have a large collection of Pokemon cards and figurines, Star Wars cards, Lego sets and other figments of my childhood.

6) I was fat. My sister says I still am. By her standards, a skeleton would be ideal.

7) I'm afraid of bees, wasps and any flying thing that stings.

8) I find moths cute. And I used to be crazy about creepy crawlies.

9) I'm really a nature lover. Too bad I love the great indoors.

10) My very first computer ran primarily on DOS and Monopoly was the only decent game installed.

11) I spoilt my own SEGA machine because I was too excited and pulled the controller, console and all. It crashed spectacularly.

12) I've been wearing contacts since Pri 4.

13) And spectacles since Pri 1.

14) I sleep with 3 bolsters every night - 1 big, 2 small. The latter because the cases were sewn by my late grandma.

15) I hate vegetables. I am unstrictly carnivorous.

16) Oranges, apples and bananas are the fruit I usually (i.e almost always) eat.

17) I love porridge.

18) I had a crush on a girl for 6 years.

19) I have an English name, though rarely used. Ken/Kenneth is just a name my parents call me at home.

20) I was a rabid fan of Ayumi Hamasaki. Was. Is still. But no more rabid. More languid.

21) I joined the Chinese Orchestra really because I wanted to get out of NCC Land. And I originally wanted to play the ruan.

22) I have a fear of tuning my liuqin.

23) The reason why I learnt the guitar was because of Yoshio, Ayumi's guitarist. Yes, that was back when I was rabid.

24) I fall sick easily. No its got nothing to do with point 15. The weather affects me.

25) I always thought that boys doing NS was fair because all girls have to go through pregnancy. Until I discovered the existence of contraception.

hello world, i'm back

and so it ends here.

Feels like being airlifted from the rooftop of Mercy Hospital while a horde of zombies rush towards you, outstretched claws barely inches from your face.

Feels like the end of the last exam paper of the A levels, when the invigilator tells you to put down your pens, no more writing.

Feels like when the tester ticks and writes the word "pass" on your driving test slip.

Feels like scoring the winning goal against an imba team during soccer.

Feels like... nothing special really.

7 weeks of fear, awkwardness, fatigue, fun, brotherhood and comradeship.

3 months of learning, friendship, expression and laughter.

2 months of unfamiliarity, mistakes and relearning.

14 months of work, routine, boredom and the occasional lighthearted moment.

2 weeks of India.

1 month of adrenaline rushes, satisfaction and happiness.

1 month of relaxation, waiting and anticipation.

1 day of mixed feelings.

ORD lo!

tomorrow, I shall walk away a free man.

double O

Remember this?

http://not-so-geeky.blogspot.com/2008/03/olivia-ong-esplanade.html

That was about 10 months ago.

Since then, she's got a best album in addition to her 3 mini-albums and 4 full albums (those crazy Japanese labels!), been travelling all over Singapore doing mini-concerts and lives, and of course the highlight of 2008 - doing the theme song for the crazily popular "The Little Nonya" . Even though I didn't catch the show, I sure did take notice of the theme song. I can safely argue that it was this song "Ru Yan" that catapulted her into the radar of many Singaporeans.

Wanna bet her albums are flying off the shelves?

I think she recently signed with HIM records, the same record company as S.H.E. I suppose we can expect more mandarin songs? Still, I find her chinese pronunciation kinda awkward, but we can't fault her for that can we? If you've been living in Japan for the past 6 years saying "ohayo gosaimasu" instead of "zhao an", you'll find it tough too.

Saying all that, I hope she does an album filled with jazzy, self-penned tunes. That would take the cake!

Not sure if you can get it here in Singapore, so here: Yesasia.com

Olivia Ong, the next Stefanie Sun? Maybe she'll even get invited to sing during National Day LOL

"Don't worry, I'll protect you"

When the opening screen shows blue with a huge Totoro and the words "Studio Ghibli" written on it, you know you're in for a visual treat.

Yup, I just watched "Ponyo on the cliff by the sea" yesterday. I've been a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's works ever since I watched "Spirited Away" so I was rather excited when Ponyo was released. My first reactions when I saw the trailer was: "Wa, so cute, sure alot of girls wanna watch". Incidentally, the cinema hall in which I watched the show was nearly 80% filled with girls =.=

Anyway back to the movie. Right from the start of the movie I was captivated by the stunning visuals and artwork. And the details! The opening scene showing Ponyo's daddy standing on his submarine was one of the most memorable ones, showing the ocean's best, what with crabs of all kinds and sizes, technicolour fish zipping around, menacing looking eels, bouncing jellyfish, octopuses and squids, all wonderfully drawn and animated. You know the old type of anime, where only 1 or 2 actions are being animated in the foreground at any one time? Well in this underwater scene, EVERYTHING was moving in its own natural way.

Amazing once you realise everything is fully hand-drawn!

Even the quaint seaside town and the sea was beautifully rendered. Check this out:



Looks familiar? Miyazaki-san based the town on this little Japanese port town Tomonoura. I can almost imagine Lisa's tiny pink car zooming along the coastal roads.

Like XJ said after the movie, it all seemed a little strange to be watching the 2D film. In this age of CG technology and 3D movies, its charming to see one of the best animators of all time sticking to his traditional hand-drawn medium, film after film. Another reason why the next generation of kids should watch Ponyo (if they haven't already). We grew up with 2D, and we only have Miyazaki-san to thank for keeping it alive with brilliance.

Although the storyline wasn't too deep (its meant for the kids really), you can spot some subtle references to themes that are prevalent in Miyazaki's works. The scene where a trawler dregs up muck from the ocean floor gently reminds us of our environmental impact, and it hammers home the message when Ponyo gets stuck in a discarded jar. Later in the movie when the sea turns a violent rage, it references to old Japanese folklore as well as their obsession with the ocean and its power. Imagination is the key here, with waves turning into giant fish slapping against the shore, a submarine powered by flapping flippers, sorcery and sea godesses, and a flood which submerges the world into prehistoric waters.

In the eyes of a child, the world is filled with endless possibilities.

For 2 hours last evening, I was a child once again.

happy new year (the irony)

The first week of 2009!

And from the looks of it, pretty lousy too.
Been a pretty uppy and downy few days...

Hit with a fever on New Year's eve (boo!), before meeting the XJ for Bedtime Stories, Brewerkz and fireworks watching (cheer!).

Fever gone on New Year's day (yay!), but in comes a sore throat (aww)

Back to camp on Friday (sian) with a sore throat (double sian), but went out with the guys for ramen and supper (cool!) but the ramen tasted bland because of a blocked nose (damn!).

Played soccer on Saturday (whee!) but too many people turned up (dang).

Slacked on Sunday (ahhh~) but then came a killer cough (cough cough cough ><)

Finally, my voice gave way on Monday. Now I sound like a demented killer.

Hoping to land my "dream" job for these 6 months after ORD.

The Top Five List of Top 10 Lists of 2008

Its that time of the year where top ten lists of 2008 start appearing in magazines, newspapers, on television yadayada. So I thought I'd do a lil' half spoof of it =)

Why 5? Because 10 would entail much mindless scrolling down.

Well as you can fathom from the title this is going to be one loooong and quite pointless post, but I'll just go ahead for the heck of it.

Note: All lists are purely of my personal opinion.

Top Ten Geeky Things That Happened to me

1) Deciding to take the plunge into Linux (Ubuntu) and discovering a brand new world
2) Trying to learn how to use the terminal to improve my Linux experience (and failing)
3) Zhnging my Compaq laptop so it dual-boots with Mac OS X and Ubuntu. Which is really Windows XP zhnged to look like Mac OS X.
4) Upgrading my Compaq laptop to 2 GB RAM with a cheaply bought used 1GB RAM module
5) Upgrading my monitor to a 22 inch LG one
6) Researching for days for a new printer and ended up buying one totally different from the initial selection
7) Starting this blog afresh
8) Ordering DVDs online from Amazon.jp and Yesasia.com
9) Printed T-shirts for an online forum
10) Eagerly devouring Digital Life (the newspaper add-on) every Wednesday
11) Surviving 2 weeks without touching a computer in India

Top Ten Green Things That Happened to me

1) Sleeping without air-conditioning since who-knows-when
2) Cycling at every possible opportunity as long as destination is within 5km.
3) Walking home from the MRT station in the wee hours of the morning just for fun
4) Turning of power socket switches at home with rabid obsession
5) Constantly adjusting office air-conditioning temperature higher, even as others turn it down
6) Recycling and sorting garbage if bins are in sight and trash is at hand
7) Declining plastic bags whenever possible. Even returning them
8) Tried to reduce toilet paper used when attempting bombing runs and found it to be near impossible
9) Starting this blog afresh
10) Watching "An Inconvenient Truth" at home instead of a movie theatre
11) Getting my license to drive

Top Ten Video Games that I've played

1) Far Cry 2
2) Fallout 3
3) Team Fortress 2
4) Portal
5) Red Alert 3
6) Crysis Warhead
7) Fifa 09
8) GTA San Andreas
9) The Frozen Throne (Battlenet)
10) Assassin's Creed
11) Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, 3

Top Ten Artistes (Albums/Singles) that I've heard
I've discovered lots of Japanese artistes this year, so lots of unfamiliar names =)

1) Chatmonchy (Miminari + Seimeiryoku + Somaru Yo)
2) Asian Kung-Fu Generation (World World World + Mada Minu Ashita Ni)
3) Tokyo Jihen (Kyouiku + Adult + Variety)
4) YUI (I Loved Yesterday + My Short Stories)
5) FREENOTE (Shuuden Master + Introducing the popline + Otonoha Triangle)
6) Mika Nakashima (Voice)
7) Ayumi Hamasaki (Guilty + Mirrorcle World + Days/Green)
8) Kimura Kaela (+1, SCRATCH)
9) Olivia Ong (A Girl Meets Bossanova + AGMB 2 + Fall in Love With)
10) Coldplay (Viva La Vida)
11) Money No Enough 2 Soundtrack

Top Ten Things That Happened that affected me in a big way

1) QUIS
2) Barack Obama = President
3) Overseas Exercise in India + Mumbai Bombings
4) The economic meltdown
5) Japan trip in April
6) Beijing Olympics 2008 (In particular, Team Singapore)
7) Manchester United being crowned Champions in England and Europe
8) Facebook
9) Passing my driving test
10) AHM
11) ORDDDD!!!

Goodbye 2008, a year of top tens

AHM (A "Hiong" Marathon)

And so I completed my first ever (and probably last) marathon. Oh all right it was a HALF marathon, if u wanna be picky. It was one hell of a marathon. And it wasn't because of the impeccable timing of the date (doors closing soon!).

I reached Padang on a wonderful Sunday morning with a lil' drizzle, around 5.30AM. Wonderful if you're still in bed, snug and comfortable with the blanket drawn over your heads. My first step into Padang was welcomed with a very satisfying *splat*.

That's right, the Padang had turned into Pa-dung overnight. Great way to start a Sunday eh? It was pretty dark (it WAS 5.30am) so I wandered around like a lost child before I finally found a bunch of people wearing the same singlet as mine. Met Ben and JH, before we started to hunt for a place to dump our bags. Funnily enough, all the bag deposits refused to let us deposit our bags (even the paying ones!). After running around like a bunch of confused chickens, we found some familiar faces and put all our bags together.

Thereafter was the start of the 21km run, which yours truly took part in. The run itself wasn't that bad. Hmm. Typo. The run wasn't that bad until I crossed the halfway 10km point. Up till then I was still sane, listening to my mp3 player, mouthing lyrics, looking at all the interesting people running past me, overtaking the slackers who were walking even before the first water point, and in general feeling rather good.

Once I turned the 10km corner in ECP, my left ankle screamed out "dude! this is the furthest I'll go!". My brain failed to heed its warning and told my legs to keep running. After awhile the pain dissolved into plain numbness, as I tried to concentrate on the music. Then around the 12km mark civilisation turned into wilderness as we wound through the forested area that is Marina Bay. Suddenly marathon wasn't an approprate term for the run anymore, x-country more likely. Mud! Uneven tracks! More mud! Potholes! Everyone slowed down during this segment. I think I went crazy and just overtook as many people as I could. Maybe it was the fresh air coming from the forest.

After crossing the Marina Barrage (around 15km), my knees started to complain. 16km. Thump thump thump. 17km. First sign of cramping. Ok, slow down, chill, don't use the calf muscles. 18km. ARGHHAGFHG where the hell is 19. 19km. OMFG finally 2km more. CRAMP. Ouch wtf. Ok lets walk then. walk walk walk. damn everyone is overtaking me. 20km. oooh yeah. F*** it just run. Run run run. 20.9km. AHA I CAN SEE THE FINISH LINE! *drools rabidly*. Run run run. 20.98km. CRAMP CRAMP CRAMP. Why are my legs dragging? wtf not now. hobble hobble hobble. Beep. Hmm I crossed the line? cool. am I supposed to feel euphoric?

That sums up the run. And I'm still having chui legs, ankles and knees.

ping and pong.

I haven't been blogging a lot, have I? I've had to dust away several dead spiders and their webs before I could find the "NEW POST" button.

Ok suddenly global warming stopped for a second.

Anyway! Today our born-in-China-play-for-Singapore table tennis mercenaries will fight for their own personal glory, and ours, for the flag that goes up has white instead of yellow stars. If you ask me I'll say it'll be easier for the 3 of them since the burden of winning for the team and our first medal has been lifted.

People have been playing down the significance of the silver they won last Sunday mostly based on their birthplace. But hey, weren't we all from the same 'ol China (if you're Chinese, that is)? Sure, Chinese Chinese talk like machine guns (or rather, we're the ones who maul the language), but deep down inside, the blood, the DNA, the roots, the culture, its all the same. Its the same phenomenon that happened way back after a certain ang moh spoke cheem English to our Tunku, made him sign some dodgy documents and declared that Singapore was open. And in rushed all those kiasu (mostly Chinese) immigrants, our great great great grandparents, queueing up since the previous morning, wanting to grab the best bargains of the Singapore Dream.

Its the same thing, only faster (LOTS faster). We go where the money is. We're all Boba Fett at heart. Boss pays good, we do it. And if we do that something really well to make Boss really happy, why not?

So erase that niggling thought (yes I know you have it nestled in your brain cells somewhere) that the efforts of Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu and Feng Tianwei (even Tao Li) will be lesser than if they were to be replaced by "pure" Singaporeans.

The medals are for all of us.

NDP weekend!

Singapore celebrated her 43rd birthday last Saturday (damn!)
somehow this year feels like the previous year's one, with all that water stunts, floating balloons and stuff.

Anyway, me and XJ celebrated our 3rd year together with Singapore. 3 years seems long huh? Time flies real quickly...

Somehow I managed to get hold of cheap SG Flyer tickets, only to find out they could only be used before 6pm. There went the chance of catch the fireworks.
Once there (in some ulu part of marina bay, on a plot of land obscured by ECP), I was reminded of the purpose of the Flyer as a tourist magnet (money changer, check. expensive souvenier store, check. luxury stores, check). Nice atmosphere though, with live music and a tropical garden. The viewing deck was crowded with people waiting to watch the fireworks (it was only 6pm!).

We got into the same cabin as a bunch of tourists (Bangla, Japanese, Ang Moh, Indo, maybe Chinese). I felt like a tourist in my own country.



We could see the parachute segment, tiny dots spiralling down to the floating platform, the water performance segment, followed by the 25 pounder guns lined up below (the guns kept in my camp garage!) and the gunners from Charlie (the battery I'm attached to!). Never saw NDP upclose before until now (unless u count P5).

Then we headed off to Lau Pa Sat for some zhi char BBQ seafood! yum yum. Standard hotplate tofu, cereal prawns and pepper crabs!



not bad at all! though the crabs were kinda messy, my brand new shirt kena black splats. We missed the fireworks though, and had to make do with distorted reflections off the glass surfaced buildings and lots of booms.

Caught a late night movie after that. Our plan was to catch the 9pm Mummy show, but we missed it so we "sneaked" in at 9.40 with legit tickets (only wrong time LOL) to make the most of the 8 bucks. In the end had to settle for Money no enough 2 front row seats.

Good show! Cheesy laughs at the beginning, serious heartwarming and teary stuff near the end. Predictable plot, good acting (from the Ah Ma), usual jibes at the government, and issues close to our hearts.

Feeling rather lazy today. Bummed around the house sweating it out in this crazy hot weather (another sign of global warming!! al gore +1)

Just realised my last post was 2 weeks ago, which is quite pathetic. Since then I've done lots of stuff (which probably explains my neglected blog lol)

1) Watched the Dark Knight

Really good, dark movie. The Joker (I know, all that hype surrounding him) was portrayed really well, considering the skeptical view I took while watching the movie. Sadistic, insane, cunning, ugly. Now the phrase "Why so serious?" is popping up everywhere, even on my TF2 games. Looks like everyone feels the same way. Too bad Two-Face died though, I was expecting him to be the baddie in Batman 3 or something. I couldn't understand some parts probably due to the twisted storyline, involving Batman vs Mafia, then Joker vs Mafia, then Joker + Mafia vs Batman, then everyone vs Batman. The ferry scene was the best IMO, I would have been terrified to be in those people's shoes.

2) Stayed over in camp

Can't say much about it, except it involved a really cold night. Brrr. And some noisy rats/lizards.

3) Got burnt by ash

Friday was the first day of the Chinese Seventh Month and so we burnt some incense in camp for safety and protection. I had hot ash fall repeatedly on my finger while trying to stick the incense into the pot, which hurt like hell (pardon the pun). I hope it didn't mean anything else.

4) Ate Muthu's Curry for the second time + Bought a new pair of ear phones

Went with XJ to eat Muthu's at Suntec on Saturday. The naan and briyani were delicious, though the main courses were so-so. The mutton curry in particular didn't agree with my stomach, I felt uncomfortable the whole day. Pappadums! *crackle*

We both went to Creative and got a pair of in-ear earphones each. I've been wanting to get one for ages, and I aimed for Audio Technica, until I learnt of their prices. My Creative one cost only $45 (ok, 45 may seem abit expensive, but its the real deal). It works like a charm - I couldn't hear a thing outside while plugged in (except baby screeches which I don't think even the best ear plugs could block). I even fell asleep on the bus without noticing it. And it keeps sounding better and better the longer I use it. No wonder my recently failed Hyundai mp3 player earphones sound sooooo good despite being 4 years old. Quite sad to throw it away T.T

1 week to NDP! And boom (7% GST!) boom (so many ERP!) boom (Public transport fee increase!)

Whew.

After 1 and a half weeks of tinkering, configuration and troubleshooting, I've finally enabled a near-perfect Ubuntu cum Windows XP dual boot on my laptop. Lots of problems cropped up initially - No wireless, no sound (which was took the longest to solve), no youtube, no video, songs with screwed up ID tags.

Now its complete! The only buggy thing left is the viewing of certain videos with dodgy encoding. I was surprised that I could almost do the same things I normally do in XP, from using MSN to viewing Guitar Pro tabs, even more. The only thing I haven't tried is installing the games which reside on the XP half of my hard drive. At the very least I'll boot XP if I ever feel the urge to play Sonic or Starcraft =)

On the downside, I think I lost many hours of gaming time while trying to solve the linux problems. Its time to catch up LOL.

In other news -

I've passed my driving practical test! Finally I've got that coveted license-to-pollute-and-contribute-to-global-warming. I'll stick to my personal preference of driving only when absolutely necessary. I still relish the feeling of sitting comfortably (if I get a seat) on a bus or MRT with my Zen plugged in and just dozing off, waking up just before I arrive at my stop.

Now do that in a car and I'll prolly wake up in CGH, or even Mandai Crematorium. Touchwood.

Ubuntu for fun!

Weekends fly by so quickly, they barely even registered on my calendar before they're gone. Well I suppose I can attribute this to a well-spent weekend?

Saturday was spent in usual fashion, playing soccer in the morning (albeit with still-aching legs from the weekly dose of 10km runs at East Coast). Then I came home, intending to chill in front of the computer when Kheng Yong popped up with an offer of free tickets to Hellboy II. Hell, who can resist an offer like that? So I headed down with Wenyang and KY to Suntec for the movie. Free popcorns and drinks to boot lol. The movie was average, not as much action as I would have expected, but it was compensated for by the free-ness of it all LOL.

Then we headed to Marina Sq food court for dinner where we saw the fireworks for the NDP rehearsals. With each explosion goes our higher ERP charges. When the actual day comes our transport fares will probably end up having the same fate, as well as any surplus from that 7% GST.

Milled around the place before I went to meet XJ at her Yoguru workplace in Raffles City. We had supper/dinner at Brewerkz in Kallang (nice ribs man! tender, juicy and bbqy!). Then we sat along the Kallang river and had a nice long chat. Really nice place to hang out, away from all the noise and crowds of the city.

And when I woke up late on Sunday morning, I suddenly had this urge to either fix up my spoilt PC or condemn it to the scrap heap. So I stripped it up, randomly plugged components in and out until I reached a conclusion - the motherboard's fried. Then I had another urge - to install Linux in the old 20gig hard drive!

So I slotted in the otherwise-condemned hard drive into my other not-so-old Compaq PC.

After several hours of backing up and research and configuration and troubleshooting and installation, here I am, typing this post on Ubuntu Linux!



Cool right? Only problem is, its not compatible with a whole host of (Windows) programmes. The font is also kinda woozy (they don't support any "commercial fonts" like Arial). Right now I'm contemplating converting my laptop to Ubuntu, which would be a drastic move. Maybe once I've gotten the hang of Linux.

But damn, its so cool! With this I have reached another level of geekdom. *cue Final Fantasy Fanfare*

I. Have. Hydraulic. Oil. In. My. Hair.

And I can't get it to wash off completely even after 5 shampoos. ARGH. Just another non-typical day at work.

Oh well, guess I'll have to make do with perma-wax for the next 2 days. Hey, at least my hair looks spiky now.

the fat green pipe is getting clogged

Torrent + TF2 + video streaming + peak hour

and you get this - 900ms ping on Team Fortress 2.

I die a second before I actually see it. Doors take 1 second to open. My screen flies everywhere during intense battles. I can actually miss a pointblank because the guy already moved when I clicked.

12mbps? more like 12microbytespersecond.

Too many greenies in my block man.

I've just ran 10km at East Coast today as part of AHM (army half marathon) training. In slightly more than an hour, which is not too bad considering I've never ran any distance more than 6km, much less 10km.

Strangely running at ECP seems to take away muscle fatigue or something, I felt as if I could just go on and on (yes, my pace was rather slow, so it could be that). Maybe its the wind, the fresh air, the change of scenery (compared to boring army camps), and maybe another kind of scenery for some LOL.

Anyways my legs feel like agar agar right now.

These past few days were spent discovering some great new (and not so new) funky music from Japan! After much delay I finally decided to listen to Tokyo Jihen and Kimura Kaela, 2 very different and talented artistes with distinct styles of music. Jazzfunkrock for TJ, quirkyrockpop for KK. Can't get TJ's "Ringo no uta" and "OSCA", and Kaela's "Yellow" out of my mind for the whole of today.

At the same time thanks to some good people at a chatmonchy forum I unearthed some pretty solid indie J-rock bands and other musicians who didn't make it commercially, but really sound good! Bugy Craxone, FREENOTE and lots lots more.

"get over myself, so get over myself, so get over myself, so 1, 2, 3, 4"

Been some time since I blogged eh?

Don't feel like doing a long post now, so...

In the past week I...

- went outfield for exercise for the second time
- slept in a tonner
- did flag marshalling for AHM training at ECP
- despaired when Germany beat Portugal
- played soccer until sunblack
- finally bought and downloaded Team Fortress 2
- played bowling and had highly fluctuating forms
- almost fainted when Holland lost to Russia
- went for combat shoot and had loads of IAs
- passed combat shoot despite the IAs thanks to my buddies
- had a niggling bad throat

That's it.

Lots of stuff happened this past week. Lets see which had most impact on me...

The 2 NSFs who died while training.

I can't say much about this piece of news, except that its sad that 2 guys my age died for no apparent reason. Especially when it could have been anyone, even me. That's the scary thing about this whole sudden cardiac arrest thingy. Already I'm a bit paranoid walking in open spaces when there's heavy rain =x I don't know how the SAF is gonna come up with a "solution" or whatnot, people are still gonna die of this, no matter how thorough the medical checkup is. Kinda reminds me of "Deathnote".

The PC Show 08.

The sole reason why I'm going to brave the crowd later on is to grab that LG 22 inch widescreen LCD monitor for $359. Hopefully, today being the last day, it'll cost even less.

Euro 08.

Its a great feeling when both your favourite teams, the Portugese and the Dutch (strange, weren't the 2 fighting for control over the colonisation of Southeast Asia?) are doing so well in the tournament. Finals - Portugal vs Holland!

An update of what I've been up to:

Playing Sonic the Hedgehog!



Remember this? My childhood was spent playing this great game! Feeling nostalgic all over again =) I even have Sonic 2, 3 and Sonic and Knuckles! Now if only I can find that aeroplane game...

And so it ends... But its just the beginning for us!

We didn't win anything yesterday, but at least we walked away with something much more valuable - experience and advice! Plus we had (or at least I had) a great time on stage.

By the time we got up on stage (we were the first band, quite stressed), I think most of us had the mentality "ah heck it, finals liao, just whack ah." And whack we did. I wouldn't say it was our best performance musically, but image wise I think we did our best to work on our showmanship (we were practically jumping around).

Seeing other bands play on stage was quite enlightening , and it really showed the many ways in which we have yet to improve and work on. The top band Xcalibur totally owned everyone with their technically sound skills and crazy showmanship. They had the real classic "rock band" vibe that you don't see much nowadays. Supernova were not spectacular, but what impressed me was that they looked good on stage, the so-called "tai fong" or stage presence. Although the songs they played were relatively simple, they were tight and in tune with each other. The 3rd band Hidama was the usual Tokyo Jihen funk style, unique and refreshing (though I still can't appreciate the vocals lol). To be fair she had that natural, "look-at-me!!" singing style.

The other band which didn't win, Xbred, was quite a surprise actually since I thought they'd at least get something. But their guitarist was quite right, without a vocalist they already had a disadvantage from the start. Still the stuff they did was crazy! I've still got a long way to go before I even touch the tip of their iceberg.

We were disappointed of course. But like Joe the soundman said, there are many opportunities out there for us. Really gotta thank him for all his advice and comments since the Jrock festival 2 weeks ago. Hopefully we'll get a chance to work with him again. And thanks to everyone who was there to support us!

For now I think let my Cort take a lil' break and give my accoustic some attention. Been ages since I touched it =.=

Something random, tagged by XJ =)

#1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
eh. be damn sad and move on. no guts to whack the other guy (maybe knock into him when he waiting for train, den drop onto the tracks LOL sadistic)

#2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
for the earth to be clean, free of all pollutants, no global warming, all life living in perfect equilibrium. and the widespread adoption of green technology.

#3. What will your dream wedding be like?
hmm. somewhere cozy without much hype, with a jazz band playing, no sharks fin!

#4. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
not really. ORD!!!!!! that goal is very clear in my mind LOL. go uni, get that degree, work in some green company, save the environment, get married have kids, get a green house with a green car, live like a greenie (with the only sin of having a super ultimate powerful gaming machine). I'm green da ba dee da ba da...

5. What's your ideal lover like?
interesting, outgoing yet knows when to stop, smart dresser (not too outrageous), attentive and fun!

#6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone ?
the latter. the former is hard when that someone doesn't reciprocate.

#7. How long do you intend to wait for someone u really love?
not very long? dont wanna remain single for too long den become some 40yr old virgin.

#8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
find someone else to secretly like.

#9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
hmm. disappointed at not winning anything yesterday, but rather short-lived. camp politics.

#10. What do you want most in life?
personally, just have a comfortable life, nice family, rather normal. no need to be rich or famous or what. although I sometimes dream of being a rock star.

#11. Is being tagged fun?
well, sometimes. when the questions are interesting (and no need to spill too much brain juice to answer)

#12. How do you see yourself in ten years time?
married, possibly with children. with a comfortable career. godly guitar skills. (LOL) inventor of some radical new green technology.

#13. Who is the current most important person to you?
everyone who is close to me.

#14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
one heck of a girl =)

#15. Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?
too extreme sia. married but average ok anot? i know everyone wants to be rich, but i don't. (too much) money is evil.

#16. If you could have any animal for a pet, what would it be?
parrot. den i can train it to answer my calls.

#17. What are one of those things which you would prefer not to do?
sai kang.

#18. What kind of person do u think u are?
normal, unassuming, slack, relaxed

#19. What do you define as a bad day?
when everything that can go wrong goes wrong.

20. If you have to choose between love (as in boy-girl relationships) and friendship, what would it be?
love. not that i'll throw my friends aside. its all relative.


The 8 lucky people to be tagged are
???????? i dunno who reads my blog so if u feel like doing this just do la

we're in.

FINALS @ PLAZA SINGAPURA, SUNDAY 7PM!!!!

whirlwind!

Pretty interesting weekend!

Met up with XJ at Central on Friday after work for a Japanese dinner :) The restaurant we wanted to go (Ma Maison) initially had a waiting list of 45mins, others like Waraku had uber long queues and the only choice left was this curry udon restaurant Wakashachiya, which was relatively "empty". Not surprising, considering that Japanese curry + udon makes a strange combination. I ordered the standard Tonkatsu curry udon while she had the salmon. It tasted pretty good at first, but after awhile the sourness of the curry overpowered everything. Looks like mee rubus too lol. Not bad, but for the price it wasn't that worth it. Went for a nice walk along Clarke Quay :)

Saturday was the big day (sort of). Went jamming in the afternoon before heading down to Orchard Cineleisure for the SSF WOW! band competition qualifying rounds. Just before we headed out to *scape youth park for the sound check it POURED. Had to chiong across 2 roads, getting totally soaked as a result. Luckily our instruments weren't affected by the rain, though I had to walk around in wet shoes ><. Thankfully the rain stopped which allowed us to grab a quick dinner before the actual competition. I was quite impressed with 2 bands, the first one which had a charismatic vocalist, and the one before us which did a wicked sick instrumental (the guitarists pwned all of us LOL). Hidama did a pretty good cover of Tokyo Jihen songs, though I can't appreciate the vocals. Then it was our turn. We did Big Machine by Goo Goo Dolls, followed by Stay Away. It was all over in a flash. I can't really remember what happened heh. Anyway the big news is - we got in!!!

Semi - finals @ Plaza Singapura, this Friday (6th June), 7pm!


Met up with atheon from Malaysia on Sunday with some Singaporean YLs for lunch at Ma Maison (this time the waiting was 15mins lol).



Yup that's the fabled "It's happy line" single! Finally got a chance to see it (thanks to Danny).

The food was good, although rather expensive considering the portions were quite little. I ordered the beef stroganoff omurice set. Man the omelette covering the rice was damn good! I think I finished the plate in 10mins. benzwong had the strangest item on the menu, squid ink spaghetti! It tasted like char kway tiao haha. Although not exactly Japanese food, I think 80% of the customers (and even the staff) are Japanese, which definitely says something about its fame.

After that we started our guitar shop tour, first to Peninsular shopping centre, followed by Swee Lee at Bras Basah complex. I didn't realise there was a new guitar shop called Blackwood Guitars, they sell rare guitars! Imagine the entire shop selling stuff you can find only in the special room in Swee Lee! It also sells stomp boxes (besides the usual BOSS) and amps of never-seen-before brands.

I was pretty tired after walking around the whole day. Sigh. Lately I've been feeling rather sleepy when I wake up in the morning, I probably need to start sleeping early again zzz. Its tough especially since you wanna make the most of your time out of camp.