Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

Moved

2009-09-18T01:04:00.001+08:00

I have decided to stop posting here. For latest updates, check http://iamjenxi.com

Walk on

2009-06-29T23:27:00.001+08:00

I haven't been updating this blog for quite some time. I'm still in the midst of adapting to the life as a retail pharmacist. While there are some things I miss about working in a hospital setting, I feel fulfilled to be able to spend more time talking to my patients in the retail setting. People come back to me and provide feedback on my recommendations. It makes me know that I made a difference in their lives. It's not that one doesn't make a difference in the hospital setting. It's just that I enjoy seeing familiar faces coming back better than they last I saw them. I'm the face of the pharmacy outlet. Not just another person behind the counter serving a queue.

Aside from my duties in the dispensary, I need to manage the staff, inventory and accounts. Learning new things every day. I like that.

Went shopping with baby today. I laid my eyes on a pair of Solvil et Titus watch from its Soldier series. I fell in love instantly. The gothic themed watch impresses with its subtle design features that make it a beautiful timepiece. Definitely saving up for that... after I get my iphone and new camera lens. =p

Read that Tim Burton's working on a new movie - Alice in the Wonderland. Looking forward to it. Love his quirkiness, and that of Johnny Depp. =)

I'll try to update more but no promises.

dA = datedArt?

2009-05-22T15:44:00.001+08:00

I remembered to check my deviantArt account yesterday, and I was greeted with 10,000+
new watched items. I wonder how long it will take for me to go through
all of them. I was surprised to see 300+ new favourites for my art
pieces, with most of the +favs going to Dragon. I am still amazed by the popularity of a simple experimental piece, even after all these years.

Baby's back!

2009-03-08T17:07:00.001+08:00

The silly girl cried when she saw me, cried when she hug me. Eep! She said it's cos she missed me so much. I missed her too. I guess she won't want to run off on her own on holiday again. :p

Can't wait to see her photos of her trip! :D I want to go on a trip too! I just wish everything will settle down and I can look forward to proper working life.

A & Me

2009-03-02T13:13:00.003+08:00

On my way to work, I made a surprising discovery. I wake up at around 6:45am nowadays and I'm usually half asleep as I trudge through the Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints. Despite being clouded by lethargy, my mind often wanders through a journey of random thoughts.

This morning, I realised that I like the letter A a lot. I don't have affinity for As back in university but I did prior to that.

Here's a list of things that I like... and they happen to start with the letter A!

Armani - my favourite fashion label
Adidas - my favourite sports brand
Audi - my dream family car (and yes, it shares the same parent company as Lamborghini :P)
Asus - the brand I trust for computer hardware
Arts - my passion
Airport - where I feel like working
Angelababy - my current dream girl
Advent Destiny - my RPG

Alright, alright. It's a pretty random post. Bite me.

What money can't buy

2009-02-02T21:21:00.001+08:00

Now that I've started working and have a steady income, I can afford to spend. My largest single expenditure include my new desktop PC and my Nikon D40. With these, I am able to fulfil my wish to work on Photoshop and Maya on a more powerful computer, as well as have a camera to play with to learn more about photography. However, work has taken something away from me. Something important. Something that money can't buy. I long for the good old days when I had lots of time for myself. Instead of rushing for deadlines, I could do the things I want to.

This has made me reconsider the career path I wish to take. What I hold dear is the freedom to do what I like. I want to pursue a career in informatics. I enjoy building websites. I enjoy creating graphics work. I want to share the fantastic stories of my imagination with the world. All these can't be done if I don't have time. I need time and space to work with. Yet I'm faced with the dual dilemma of: 1) whether I want to have a job based on my interest or have a job with a working environment I enjoy; 2) whether I want to stay with my parents and dogs to keep them company or pack my bags once again and move out to live on my own.

The career choice is a headache. I hope to find an answer soon. As for my family, I find that I tend to get lazy when I'm home. I take things for granted. Things are done for me. Living alone makes me a more responsible person.

Oh, before I forget. Happy Chinese New Year. I hope it'll turn out to be a good year.

And, by the way, I've started twittering again. I was one of the early adopters of twitter but haven't been posting since the explosion of its popularity. If you are interested to follow me on twitter, visit http://twitter.com/jenxi

My first DSLR: Nikon D40

2009-01-23T08:28:00.002+08:00

On Tuesday, I bought my first camera ever, which also happens to be the first DSLR I own. After doing some extensive research and spending a few days testing out the cameras, I decied to go for the Nikon D40. Although it's an old model that is already out of production, it is still a good camera. It's a good set for beginners like me. At SGD750, it was a pretty good deal. It came with two 4gb memory cards, UV filter, camera bag, tripod and an extra battery. The other cheaper offer I encountered was SGD680 but that did not come with any gifts other than a memory card. So I'm satisfied with the deal I got.

The experience has been great so far. The learning curve isn't steep at all and I'm having fun with the camera. The image quality is great! Just as the reviews reported. I'm going to play around with the camera and learn the ropes of photography! I just need more subjects for me to shoot. I'm just too lazy to take out all my gunpla kits to photograph them. Perhaps I'll get more practice over the weekend since Chinese New Year is around the corner.

Here are a couple of photos from my fiddling with the camera:

Beat of my heart

2009-01-21T23:05:00.001+08:00

心跳 - 王力宏

想跟我吵架我没那么无聊

不懂得道歉我没那么聪明

好想要回到我们的塬点

你又在哭泣我给不了安慰

我又在摇头有那么点后悔

爱情的发展已难以回头却无法往前走

但身不由己出现在胸口两颗心能塞几个问号

爱让我们流多少眼泪

你的眼神充满美丽带走我的心跳

你的温柔如此靠近带走我的心跳

逆转时光到一开始能不能给一秒

等着哪一天你也想起

那悬在记忆中的美好

Time goes by

2009-01-14T00:45:00.001+08:00

It was great meeting up with my JC classmates recently. We haven't been able to meet up much in the past few years but it's touching to see them more willing to come along for outings when someone tries to organize one. We've had quite a few outings lately. One was with Yilun, Andy and Wern Wei at NYDC Holland V. Next with Yilun, Wern Wei, Wee Kiat, Q and Bor. Ivan joined in later for "Ip Man", which was a good movie that was well worth the ten bucks. Tonight's outing was special in it's own way. It's the first time our civics tutor, Mr Lim, joined us for our outing. It's been five years since we last met! How time flies! And for once, a girl is in attendance! Sze Li managed to rush down from work to meet up with us.

I hope that going into the new year with a few outings, we would have more to come in 2009. With proper planning and organization, we can have very interesting outings to have fun together and help us keep in touch!

Work has been busy but I hope to get some respite when I head off to Batam with baby this weekend!

Endless Story

2008-12-09T22:46:00.001+08:00

Beautiful song by Yuna Ito from NANA: The Movie

ENDLESS STORY (English)

Lyrics: D.A.Thomas & ats Translation: Jonathan Wu

If you haven’t changed your mind
Then I want you by my side Tonight

I’m so tired of always having to bluff
Everytime I think about you baby, I feel so young
If I could just tell you I miss you
It’s so hard to say I’m sorry

You see, I want to sing this song, not for just anyone
but just for you
An ENDLESS STORY that keeps on shining
Always, I wanna show you, forever and ever

Memories of our time together
this way, they don’t go away

Once I knew that the warmth between us had disappeared,
gentle tears started to spread over my chest
This is not where it ends, I’m missing you
please don’t let go of my hand

You see, I wish I could sing this song, just for you
just one more time
An ENDLESS STORY of undying love
tell me why, please tell me, forever and ever

You see, I want to sing this song, not for just anyone
but just for you

An ENDLESS STORY that keeps on shining

Always, I wanna show you, forever and ever

You see, I wish I could sing this song, just for you
just one more time
An ENDLESS STORY of undying love
tell me why, please tell me, forever and ever

说好的幸福呢

2008-11-25T22:45:00.000+08:00

Love this song...

说好的幸福呢 - 周杰伦

你的绘画凌乱着.
在这个时刻.
我想起喷泉旁的白鸽.
甜蜜散乱了.

情绪莫名的拉扯.
我还爱你呐.
伴你断断续续唱着歌.
假装没事了.

时间过了走了.
爱情面临选择.
你冷了倦了我哭了.

一开始的不快乐.
你用卡片拭写着.
有些爱只给到这真的懂了.

怎麽了.你累了.说好的.幸福呐
我懂了.不说了.爱淡了.梦远了
开心与不开心.一一叙说着.你在不舍
那些爱过的感觉都太深刻.我都还记得

你不等了.说好的.幸福呐
我错了.泪干了.放手了后悔了

只是回忆的音乐盒还旋转着.要怎么停呐

Half-way mark

2008-11-10T01:17:00.001+08:00

I hate to be cliché but it really seems like it was just yesterday that I started my pre-reg training. I'm almost at the half-way mark now. So much has happened. I've learnt a lot from my colleagues and from my self-studying. I've met many interesting people and befriended a few who might become very good friends, especially if I get to stay here. My only fear is that my poor clinical knowledge would be an obstacle between my dream placement and me.

This very fear has ignited a determination within my heart to strive hard and improve so that I will be posted to where I want to be. This might well signal tough times ahead but I'm more than willing to put in the sacrifice for my dream. I've been chasing dreams for as long as I can remember. This one is within my grasp and I should do whatever I can go get a grip and tighten my hold on it before it is out of reach for good.

Spoke to several people at FAPA today. People whom I have not met in a while. It was good catching up. It also opened my eyes to opportunities. I'm really interested in medical informatics, though I'm not sure how interested I am because I haven't really been exposed to it enough. Perhaps I should keep all options available to me and see what happens.

I'm really in love with my new desktop. Though I need to take some photos of it to show you people.

Here's a shout out to my beloved bunny. Thanks for the novels! Although I couldn't find the Dune Classics, getting the Legends of Dune trilogy is still as satisfying! Thanks for paying! =) It's the perfect birthday present! I'll keep an eye out for the Dune prequels. Though I doubt they have a special box set for those. I'll go for the ones published by Harper-Collins. I like the ACE Berkley version for the Dune Classics! After I get the whole set, excluding the Dune sequels, since those would take a while to be published, I plan to get my hands on David Eddings's books and round up my Wheel of Time collection.

Desktop

2008-10-01T12:52:00.001+08:00

Screenshot of my desktop. :)

From Drop Box

情歌王

2008-09-26T22:14:00.000+08:00

My current favourite. Can't wait to go sing the song at KTV!

Sad, sad MTV for the song...

Best Damn Thing

2008-09-11T17:59:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I've updated. I'll try to post more but it is largely dependent on how much time I can spare. I'm writing this on my pocket PC phone on my way to work. That's how little time I have for personal leisure.

Quite a bit happened since my last post. My failing memory prevents me from listing all but the most memorable. The highlight was the Best Damn Concert. I have been a fan of Avril since her debut album. That was way back in JC1. So it was nice to be able to go for the concert. Despite the poor performance by the opening act and the half hour wait before Avril showed up, the performance was enjoyable. It wasn't an exhilarating performance but she tried her best. I blame the lack of atmosphere on the middle-aged uncles and aunties who simply sat there and looked glum while the youngsters were up on their feet bouncing to the music. One woman even told the guy standing in front of her to move away just because he was blocking her. She was sitting peering at the stage with her binoculars. I thought that's something I would only see at operas and theatres! What a spoil sport. I managed to ignore the glum faces and enjoyed myself.

I've been at KK for three months now. It has been a very enjoyable period of time. The friendly staff at outpatient made these weeks memorable for me. I'll definitely miss working with them. I'm attached to the store for the week. Pretty boring. So it was nice to meet up with the OP staff for dinner last night.

From next week, I'll be in inpatient for three months. I'll survive some how. Less time for myself and more time for studying I guess.

Sacrifices

2008-08-19T01:17:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since I started work (and since I last blogged). Working life has been fun. I learn a lot every day and I'm lucky to be working at the Outpatient pharmacy where the staff are friendly and great company. There's a lot of stressed involved. I need to work on my project, start to prepare for presentations and finish up homeworks and tasks that we have been assigned with.

This has led to the inevitable sacrifice of time that I could spend on my other areas of interests. I haven't been visiting Advent Destiny as much as I should and I feel very guilty. I hope the site would not suffer from my prolonged absence. I also haven't had the time to pursue the development of my own portfolio site and a mecha site that I've been planning. So much to do, so little time.

Writing novels has been put on hold until I can find a time for it. I really want to have the story written out soon instead of letting it drag on and on. It's been almost 7 years since I started work on it.

I had a wonderful birthday and I'm sure my mum enjoyed hers even more. Baby and my bro's gf both came over to my place on my mum's birthday to celebrate her birthday. Lunch and dinner were sinfully delicious. It's really heartwarming to have such family gathering, which I hope would happen more often in the near future.

For the first time in a long while, I bought myself a birthday present! I bought a Samsung i780. It was worth every cent of the $268 spent. I reckon the usual retail price to be $798. With a 2 year mobile plan contract, the phone costs $368. I got it during the National Day sale and got $100 off! I'm still exploring the perks of owning a PDA phone. I'm considering getting a mobile broadband plan so I can blog and post on AD while I travel to and from work.

It's rare for me to still be online at 2am on a weekday. I'm on night shift this week so I don't need to wake up as early as usual. However, I still need my beauty sleep. I'll post again. I hope it won't be ages before I do so.

Graduation!

2008-07-13T23:34:00.001+08:00

I've finally graduated! After four years of ups and downs, I'm officially a graduate of NUS Pharmacy.

Working life has been very busy. Commuting to and from work is taking a toll on me. It's really tiring to have to travel but I have no choice cos I need to save the money to pay for my loan. I can't wait to pay off my loan and earn enough money to get married!

I've decided to hone my writing and graphics skills despite the hectic working life. If not now, when? I just need to find the time to do it all. I know I can survive! The hardship will make me stronger.

I really must thank my parents, my siblings and Shu Yi and Liyin for coming down to congratulate me for my graduation. I really appreciate it!

A new phase in life

2008-06-15T22:50:00.001+08:00

So, I'm becoming a shakaijin, which is Japanese for social person. I have finally made the transition into life as a responsible working adult. I wonder what this new life would be like. I know it would be a tough 9 months of training but it is necessary to prepare me for my duty as a licensed pharmacist.

There's a lot of changes I need to adapt to. First and foremost would be readjusting my body to having to wake up early in the morning and travel for about an hour and a half to get to work. With the amount of work expected, I hope I would be able to cope. This means I need to sleep early. No more late nights. I'm looking into getting a PDA so that I can surf the net and do some simple work without having to bring my laptop around.

The laptop is also barely holding up. I managed to get it to work faster after switching to Ubuntu Linux. However, I doubt it can hold up for long before I need to reformat it. I need to get a desktop within this month or the next. No more laptops since a desktop is more value for money. I don't need the portability. I doubt I would have time to fiddle with it as much as I did when I was an undergraduate.

Some of you might be wondering about the Taiwan trip. It was a blast. I haven't gotten to posting about it. I'm still deciding if I should make a blog just for it or simply post it here. The things on this blog are too cluttered for my liking. It needs some tidying up.

I'll post more after I get settled at work.

End of school

2008-05-18T01:53:00.001+08:00

Well, it's been a while since my last exam paper ended. It took me a while to get myself to sit down and post. Yes, I have no excuse for not posting. Still, I couldn't get myself to write.

I don't think I did well for the exams. I felt very unpreprared going into the exam halls but, oh well, what's done is done. I can only hope I won't do badly. I've been pretty busy since exams ended. There was a lot of work that accumulated over the exam period. Advent Destiny updates are almost complete. However, the recent release of the new Drupal 6.2 resulted in the need to upgrade the AD main site as well as my own website.

I really want to get AD and my site done before work starts. I know that the workload will be heavy and I probably won't have the time to work on coding. I just hope I can finish the upgrades so that I'll only need to worry about getting the articles written.

Oh yeah, Liverpool lost in the Champions League Semi-Final against Chelsea. I had lots of things to say about that but... it's been a while since then and the swell of emotions died down. I guess I'll just look forward to next season and hope that it'll be a better one for us.

I'll be flying off to Taiwan on Monday! I'm quite excited about the trip.

More updates when I get back. =)

Studying in the Science Library

2008-04-21T18:52:00.001+08:00

Whenever I study in the Science Library, or rather the Medical/Science Library as it is called now, I can't help but miss the Medical Library. The atmosphere there was more conducive for studying and the people are more considerate. That is, if we exclude the odd PRC or Indian students who talk loudly on the phone in the explicitly-labelled quiet area of the library. Just a disclaimer, I'm not being racist nor am I targeting these people specifically. I blogged before about my bad experiences with such individuals about one and a half years ago.

The inconsiderate people in the Science Library, happen to be Science students. I'm not making assumptions since you see all kinds of students from NUS using this library. The jackets that they wear bear the word "Science" rather prominently. They actually hold discussions about certain problems that they encounter. While I don't mind some short discussion to clarify certain concepts, talking away for almost twenty minutes isn't what I would consider polite, especially when they don't even attempt to whisper. When told to keep their volume down, they just respond with a half-hearted apology. They lower their noise level by a few decibels, if that makes any difference, and then the volume goes back up even higher than before.

These people really need to learn some manners. It's rather shameful to behave so, especially when they are sitting in front of a sign that tells them to keep their volume down. The NUS Libraries have come up with an interesting way to remind the users to be considerate by not talking, clearing their rubbish when they leave and not reserving the seats. They even have some cute art to go along with the messages, such as a hedgehog for seat hogging and ants carrying an appl for clearing the rubbish. These messages seem to have failed to get across to the people who were sitting around me today though.

I'm glad I won't be coming back to the Science Library after today. I'll be camping at the Central Library until the end of exams. I better get back to studying.

You'll Never Walk Alone

2008-04-12T14:37:00.001+08:00

I've been wanting to post about this since the day I watched Liverpool beat Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals to progress to the semis.

The match was one of the best matches I've seen in a while, perhaps even the best ever since Liverpool's triumph over AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final. It kept me at the edge of my seat and I found myself holding my breath unconsciously more than once. To be honest, I never expected to see six goals in the match, unless the game went on to penalties.

Liverpool was expected to be in the driving seat since they had the advantage of an away goal from the first leg. However, by the time I managed to tune in to the match, it was already one nil in favour of Arsenal. Liverpool seemed extremely suspect in defence in the first 20 minutes or so. They appeared to have some problem coping with Arsenal's swift passing style of play. The team held on and restricted Arsenal to only a few chances.

Then came the equaliser. It was a great header by Hyppia. Once again, the towering center back has scored for us in a Champions League quarter-final. Senderos turned his back on the ball and gave Hyppia the free header. The KOP roared in joy. So did I.

That goal sparked Liverpool to life. They started to look more dangerous and pushed forward with purpose that they lacked before the goal. Arsenal was equal to task and continued to threaten on the break.

Liverpool took the lead when goal-machine Torres scored yet again. His 29th goal of the season gave Liverpool the upperhand. It was a great goal. Senderos was at fault for giving Torres the time to turn and pick his spot in the net. A simple turn and the ball rifled into the top right corner of the net. In his first season at Anfield, Fernando Torres has more than sealed his place in Liverpool history.

7 minutes from time, an Arsenal counter attack resulted in a goal. Theo Walcott made an amazing run from his own half to set up Adebayor for a goal. The Arsenal players were elated. Their fans were euphoric. They had the upper hand. Two away goals. Surely, with less than 7 minutes left, Liverpool would not be able to score... or so they thought.

Right after the restart, Babel was fouled in the penalty area and the referee did not hesitate to point to the spot and showed Toure a yellow card for the offence. I think the penalty is a point of contention for many but in my opinion, it was a right decision. There are some who compare the previous matches where Arsenal did not get have penalty decisions go their way. I think that is just an excuse. A match is a match, whatever decision a referee makes should not be linked in anyway to a decision made by another referee in another match. The replays showed that Babel did not go down easily. He lost his balance but he was still trying to push on with his momentum. When he really could not stay on his feet, he went down.

Gerrard stepped up and fired an unstoppable shot into the net. The smile on his face spoke volumes. The Kop was smiling with him. I was smiling, almost close to tears. Less then a minute ago, Arsenal fans were jumping in joy while Liverpool fans saw their hopes dashed. In less than a minute the positions reversed. It was a very emotional moment.

Arsenal seemed to have subjected to fate. Their tired legs could not carry them on much longer. A counter attack by Liverpool saw Babel racing with Fabregas for the ball. Although Fabregas had a headstart, his tired legs was no match for the fresher Babel, who got to the ball and tucked it into the net.

4-2.

Liverpool progressed to the semi-finals.

The Kop went wild. Reina ran the whole length of the pitch from his goalposts to join his team mate in celebrating the goal. That was indication of the joy the players felt.

It is Chelsea yet again in the semi-finals. The performance of the team gives me much confidence that Liverpool will triumph against rivals Chelsea.

Time is running out

2008-03-31T20:32:00.002+08:00
I told myself to enjoy the last semester of the Pharmacy course. It could well be the last semester of studying life when I graduate in July. However, it seems that time will run out before I can truly enjoy myself like I once did back in Year One.

There's just so much to do nowadays. I was busy getting Advent Destiny moved from the Singapore host to a new server hosted in the United States. The new host seems to be faster and the features offered are much more attractive than what the previous host provided us with. I hope this will help the site to grow. Also, I've upgraded the forum to vBulletin 3.7 RC1. I think the release candidate is stable enough for me to try out on Advent Destiny. All things seem to be going well so far. However, due to lack of time, I have yet to finish up with the upgrade for the main site.

My design portfolio and aspiring professional blog have not been fully configured and thus is kept in the maintenance mode. These will have to wait until more pressing issues are dealt with.

Individual patient counselling sessions have started and these require us to revise a lot on the topics we'll be tested on. It's rather stressful even though I keep telling myself that it'll be good practice and will prepare me better for pre-reg. I know I'm not as good clinically compared to my classmates. That just makes me even more stressed!

Now, I'll digress from the topic for the day...

I've downloaded Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon". I'll be testing it out. It seems to be a promising OS for me to move to. I can't wait to try fiddle around with it. It seems like Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" will be released soon. Perhaps I should wait for that. Regardless, I think Ubuntu would be a good platform to get me started on my journey down the path of Linux. I plan to use Linux fully when I get a desktop. From my research, I should be able to get a decent desktop at less than SGD1,000. Not buying Windows XP or Vista would allow me to spend more on the hardware. Tentatively, I plan to make the purchase when I get my first paycheck. I'm looking forward to a less laggy working environment. =)

Recently, I've started playing 9Dragons. It's based on Jin Yong's wuxia novels. It's been fun so far. It's great to be playing with Mao and X. They are great buddies from my Jedi Academy clan. It's just like the good old times... voice chatting on TeamSpeak while we play.

I guess that sort of wraps up this update on my life thus far. I hope the next entry will not be too far away from now.

Stress

2008-02-27T18:02:00.004+08:00
It's been a while since I updated. I have been wanting to post but time just runs out too fast. The mid-sem break has started but none of us are enjoying, perhaps except Max and Elgar. It's the time of reckoning as we await our fates. I'm still waiting for the hospitals to call me up for interviews.

Of all times, I fell sick yesterday. When I should be busy preparing for my interviews, I was huddled in my blankets, shivering in bed. I feel much better now though, thanks to the endless TLC from my baby. She came over to keep me company and took care of me.

I'm too stressed to think of what else to say, so I'll just leave you with some pictures.

Taken before we entered the theatre for Chesty Nutty Bang Bang.
The musical was one helluva show. Lots of parody that made me laugh endlessly.

Baby's long long lashes.

Showing (off) MG Freedom to baby

Funny cloud that looks like a dino head.

Crab meat steamboat! VDay @ Sushi Tei

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-08T01:34:00.001+08:00

I can still remember vividly when baby come over last year for Chinese New Year. We played mahjong with my bro and sis. Haha. It's amazing how time flies. It's Chinese New Year again. Sadly, we don't have the time like we had last semester. Baby would only be coming over for a short while rather than stay over. Too many things to do and too little time to do them.

With the pile of readings, projects, assignments and tests due, we can hardly find time to enjoy the festive season much. The workload has been so excessive that I have been forced to stop my personal projects. Plans for writing and designing works have been put aside so that I can better spend my time revising my work and preparing for the impending interviews.

I can only channel whatever remains of my energy to Advent Destiny for now. The dip in activity is rather depressing. I just hope that the people there would get interested once more.

Unexpected popularity

2008-02-02T01:25:00.000+08:00
I checked deviantART today. It's the first time in ages since I last logged in. I haven't been too diligent in checking and the number of notifications piled up inevitably. I have 8000 devWATCH updates. I doubt I'll go through all of them.

Interestingly, I noticed that I received 31 favourites for my art pieces, with Dragons being the most popular, in January. That makes it 1 favourite per day. It's a pleasant surprise. I never expected that piece to be so popular. I did it one afternoon while waiting for my dad to visit me in Raffles Hall back in Year 1. It was meant to be a casual experimentation with Apophysis.

The statistic for Dragons read:
Comments: 139
Favourites: 262

I think the recent popularity of this particular piece is due to it being in the front page of deviantART or at least the front few pages of the recent favourites list gave it more exposure than before. When it dropped further down the list, someone else marked it as favourite and it goes back to the top again.

This has perked my interest in working with Apophysis to generate art once more. However, I'm trying to learn how to use Blender right now. Perhaps I could come up with a good 3D render. I don't want to stick to the same style of art just because something is popular. I want to go with something that I would enjoy creating.

I'm trying to post more on this blog but it seems that I don't have the time nor inspiration to do much. I tend to want to engage in graphical creativity nowadays rather than literary works.

The most recent design was done for my planned professional blog cum portfolio. It is located at www.iamjenxi.com. However, due to the server limitation, the site seems to be going down quite often. I might wait for Drupal 6's gold release before I seriously consider launching the site. It is currently running on one of the release candidates. I would have to register for a new server, most probably a US-based one rather than a local server, to host Advent Destiny and IamJenXi. I have a few other projects that I want to host as well but I think those would have to wait.

There are many hosts that seem promising but I end up realising that they are actually overselling. Most of them have large storage space and bandwidth but that I find important is the amount of processor usage they allow. My sites tend to use up a lot of that, especially when the sites' traffic go up. I'll need to find a reliable and relatively cheap host.

On a site note, I can't wait for the launch of Drupal 6. It is a big leap forward from Drupal 5. I think it would be a significant launch for the web publishing community.

Zhou Da Xia

2008-01-20T14:45:00.001+08:00
Jay Chou's new song!

First in 2008

2008-01-18T00:04:00.000+08:00
Hmm... it's been a long while since I last posted. Well, I've been really busy trying to revise diligently as well as working on AD. I hope the site will take off and we can finally get the RP into full swing.

Aside from that, I want to get my other projects running as well, though I'm afraid they will have to inevitably go on hold if I start getting too busy with school, or once I start my pre-registration training.

Here's a tag from Shuyi XD

1. Where were you at 3:02 AM this morning?
Trying to catch a giant spider so I could go to sleep in peace.

2. What was the first thing you thought of this morning?
I need more sleep.

3. Is the person you have a crush on older or younger than you?
What crush?

4. What did you do last night?
Watched Tian Xia Di Yi and studied the Top 90 Drugs. I also spent some time on my daily browsing of sites, blog feeds, forums etc.

5. What do you hope to do this weekend?
Spend some great time with darling. Once the semester kicks into gear, we won't have the time or mood to hang out. I also hope to finish some of the work I've been planning to do.

6. Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 months from now?
Yeah!

7. What song are you listening to?
Forever Love - X Japan

8. Have you ever told someone of the opposite sex you loved them?
Yeah. =)

9. How’s your heart lately?
Normal heart rate.

10. What were you doing at 7 a.m?
Dreaming.

11. What were you doing this afternoon at 12 p.m.?
Having lunch in Science canteen.

13. What was the reason you last cried?
When I watched the Warlords.

15. What was the last movie you saw in theaters?
Vexille.

16. Have you ever driven without a license?
I had no license when I was learning how to drive. :P

17. Have you ever talked to someone when they were high?
Yeah.

18. How many red lights have you ran?
None. =)

19. Have you ever cried while in the shower?
Nope.

20. Have you ever, in any way, been betrayed by someone you trusted?
Yeah, I have. Several times.

21. When was the last time you were given roses?
Never. =(

22. Is there anything that you are craving for right now?
Sashimi!

23. Where did your last hug take place?
In school! Haha.

24. Do people ever make stupid mistakes when spelling or saying your name?
Yeah. All the time. Zhen Xi, Jian Xi... etc

25. Do you drink tea?
Yeah.

26. When was the last time you saw a cop?
I can't remember.

27. Do you wet the toothbrush before the toothpaste?
Yup.

28. Does someone like you?
I hope she does. XP

29. What do you hope to accomplish before the year ends?
Set up my personal portfolio and start to blog seriously on a regular basis.

30. Tag 5 people:
Darling, Bro, Sis... I'm not sure who else would do this! XD

Finally... an update

2007-12-30T00:20:00.000+08:00
I haven't blogged for a long while. First, it was all the CAs and then the exams. Since the holidays started, I've been working on Advent Destiny. Things don't look good after the failed attempt to get the site moved to Drupal. The members were just too unaccustomed to the native forum system the Drupal offered. I spent my savings to buy a vbulletin license and migrated the site. There are still some problems but at least the site is working again.

It's been a good break. I spend most of my time at home, going out sometimes to meet dear. She came in to stay a couple of times and we had fun! I hope I didn't bore her while checking my site or watching my football matches. =P

I managed to build the MG RX-178 MKII Titans ver. but I haven't started working on the HGUC Blue Destiny and MG Freedom which are sitting in the room. No time! And school's starting soon. Sigh.

Ekin a Gundam fan

2007-11-28T05:44:00.000+08:00
I came across Ekin Cheng's blog and turns out that he's quite the Gundam fan! He was a judge for some Gunpla modelling competition!

Baby steps as a Drupalist

2007-11-26T23:23:00.000+08:00
I was first introduced to Drupal back in 2004, when the software was still in its early stages. Fate has it that I've gone through a full circle and end up diving into this open source content management system - both in terms of themeing and developing. I hope it won't be long before I start to get the hang of things and bake pretty websites.

www.drupal.org

Tables and chairs

2007-11-19T00:48:00.000+08:00
It seems that many people seem to not understand what these two terms mean: table and chair.

ta·ble noun, verb, -bled, -bling, adjective –noun
an article of furniture consisting of a flat, slablike top supported on one or more legs or other supports
chair –noun
a seat, esp. for one person, usually having four legs for support and a rest for the back and often having rests for the arms.

These are definitions from dictionary.com.

I went to the Jurong Regional Library with darling today. I don't understand why I see so many people using the seats in the library as the table. Can't they tell that those are seats? ie, meant for sitting, not for them to use as a table and study there.

People who actually need to sit down while browsing the books there end up having to sit on the floor along the aisle or against the walls in one corner. Aren't those seats meant for people who actually come to make use of the library's resources rather than just to study?

Some even go to the extent of leaving their pencil case and bags on the chair to reserve the seat while they go for lunch or wherever it is they went. I'm sure a toilet trip wouldn't take too long. The librarian told me that users have the right to remove such belongings left to reserve seats, if the owners do not return after fifteen minutes. I didn't expect these people are smart enough to leave some friends on the neighbouring chair to help fend their territory.

These aren't school kids, mind you. If I'm not wrong, exams are over for most schools. There are young adults and middle-aged men who were being so inconsiderate. A woman was actually sitting there practising her presentation/speech. It's a library, for goodness' sake! I could hear here muttering to herself. It was loud enough for me to actually make out every single word she said.

And, oh, you can also see a whole row of people with their laptops trying to tap on the free (and rather slow) wireless service there. I understand their rational. Free internet, free air-con, free electricity to power their laptops. Isn't that the perfect place to hang out?

There was this guy who had his laptop speakers on, playing Hindi music! I would think he would know better than to do that in a library. What are headphones for? The whole library doesn't need to listen to your music.

I'm rather disappointed with the librarians. They don't seem to be doing much to curb such inconsiderate behaviour. I don't mean to say that they don't, but from the time I spent sitting there trying to understand my notes, I didn't see any action taken. I know there isn't much they can do, short of trying to question and educate these people's civic morals.

My suggestion is to teach these people what a table and a chair means. Get a five-year-old kid right in front of them and ask the kid if that's a chair or a table.

Librarian: What's that, Johnny? (Note: fictional name)
Johnny: That's a chair.
Librarian: What is a chair used for?
Johnny: A chair is for us to sit on.

Alternative scenario

Librarian: What's that Johnny?
Johnny: That's a table.
Librarian: Why is that a table?
Johnny: Because this person is sitting on the floor and is using the table for writing/reading.

It might seem like a lame idea. But it just might get the point across, depending how dull these individuals are. I'm not sure how much intellect one would require to comprehend the fact that a child can differentiate between a table and chair but you can't.

Shame on you.

Dolphin slaughter

2007-11-05T22:23:00.000+08:00
The Japanese love seafood. So do I. But, personally, I feel that it is going overboard when they slaughter dolphins for their delicacies. I have no awareness of where this sense of morality comes from.

Why is eating fish alright but not dolphins? Just because they are mammals? How about cows and pigs that get slaughtered every day just so that we could indulge in their meat?

What do you think of this? Do you agree that dolphin slaughtering is different from killing any other animals for food?

Here's a grim video of a report in which Heroes actress Hayden Panettiere and her friends from the "Save the Dolphins, Save the World" campaign attempted (and failed) to stop the Japanese fishermen.

I understand the fishermen's hostility stems from their defence of their livelihood. But, still...

Eddie Izzard

2007-11-02T00:08:00.001+08:00

Rainbow

2007-10-29T00:00:00.001+08:00

Jay's new song! I love it! I can't wait for the new album!

http://www.tudou.com/player/skin/JAYPlayer.swf?id=10674998

Funny Signs

2007-10-25T17:37:00.001+08:00

If you're bored and need some entertainment, check this out:

http://eightsolid.com/24-very-strange-funny-signs/

Thoughts

2007-10-25T14:00:00.001+08:00

What is it that I want in life? What is my ambition? I don't think I can answer these questions. It might seem simple but the fact is, I don't know what I really want.

Should I just do what I have passion for? I love to write and design. I find fulfilment in the completion of a literary or design piece. I enjoy the process of it. But is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Would doing these every day for the rest of my life take the joy out of the activities that I enjoy the most?

Many people are desperate to get into Pharmacy. Yet, here I am, an unhappy student in Pharmacy. I had passion for the course. I liked it but for some reason, I just got turned off. I knew that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in this line.

Is it just a case of me being too stressed up or jaded by the profession? Am I looking for an escape in the form of the imaginary ie writing and designing?

What is it that I truly want?

Gmail Video

2007-10-18T11:11:00.000+08:00
Gmail got their users to take videos of themselves passing a Gmail envelope. Here's the compilation of some interesting ones submitted by the users.

Busy Cowboy

2007-10-18T00:16:00.000+08:00

Dead Fantasy

2007-10-17T23:31:00.001+08:00
When Dead or Alive meets Final Fantasy.

How a Coke vending machine works

2007-10-15T03:01:00.001+08:00

Now you know what happens after you slot in the coin.

Cars in 2057

2007-10-13T11:58:00.001+08:00

The car makers showcased their concepts of cars in 2057 in the LA Auto Show 2007. Check out the pictures. You can read more about the background story for each car by clicking on the images.

2057 Audi Virtuea Quattro

2057 GM OnStar Ant

2057 Honda 124

2057 Nissan OneOne

2057 Toyota Biomobile

2057 Volkswagen Slipstream

Harvard scientists predict the future of the past tense

2007-10-13T00:47:00.001+08:00

Here's an interesting post about how Havard scientists examined the evolution of language using mathematical analysis. Harvard scientists predict the future of the past tense

"We're really on the front lines of developing the mathematical tools to study evolutionary dynamics," says Michel, a graduate student in systems biology at Harvard Medical School and an affiliate of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. "Before, language was considered too messy and difficult a system for mathematical study, but now we're able to successfully quantify an aspect of how language changes and develops."

Lieberman, Michel, and colleagues built upon previous study of seven competing rules for verb conjugation in Old English, six of which have gradually faded from use over time. They found that the one surviving rule, which adds an "-ed" suffix to simple past and past participle forms, contributes to the evolutionary decay of irregular English verbs according to a specific mathematical function: It regularizes them at a rate that is inversely proportional to the square root of their usage frequency.

In other words, a verb used 100 times less frequently will evolve 10 times as fast.

Hyphenation woes?

2007-10-13T00:34:00.001+08:00

Do you find yourself always wondering if the words you use should be hyphenated or not? Is it ice-cream or ice cream? Yes, the dictionary states ice-cream as the proper way of spelling it but most people seem to use it without the hyphen anyway.

Here's a piece of good news from Russell Smith of Globe and Mail. Bye-bye (or is it byebye?) to 16,000 silly hyphens

The following is an excerpt from his post:

These rules are called, in publishing, strangely, “style,” as opposed to grammar. Different journals or institutions use different style guides, so it is pointless to try to stick to one. There is a person at each institution called a copy editor whose job it is to have this guide by his or her side and to change each writer's texts so that they conform to the rules. So I don't have to worry about them. It's like picking a typeface or a point size. Not my job.

And now I – and you, and all the copy editors – have to worry about these vagaries even less. That's because the new edition of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary has done away with about 16,000 hyphens. The editors of the dictionary have decided, in an awesome display of ruthless language modification, that the conventions of hyphenation were arbitrary and needed simplification. They changed most of the hyphenated words – such as leap-frog and ice-cream – by turning them into one word (leapfrog) or two distinct words (ice cream).

There are many reasons for this, one of them being that the rules of hyphenation were just silly. The other is, of course, the slow elimination of punctuation that the digital age is necessitating. Electronic communication tends to be more streamlined: We use punctuation less, generally, in e-mails and text messages, and in advertising slogans.

Of course, the Shorter Oxford retained some hyphenated phrases to avoid ambiguity: They will permit the phrase “twenty-odd,” meaning “approximately twenty,” because to say “twenty odd people” has a somewhat different meaning. Copy editors love to give examples of the ways in which missing hyphens can cause confusion; perhaps the best-known example is “used car salesman,” which can be read in two ways unless you make a hyphenated compound out of “used-car.” The phrase “50 year old kittens” will also need a hyphen somewhere if it is to make any sense.

It's fascinating how the language is evolving to keep in line with the digital age. I just hope they won't add silly words such as "O rly", "pwn" or "leet" into the dictionary. It's just... improper.

Jay's new song

2007-10-11T12:57:00.001+08:00

Jay's new song with a nice cowboy feel to it. I can't wait for his new album. Lyrics are below the song.

牛仔很忙

作曲：周杰伦作词：黄俊郎

呜啦啦啦火车笛随着奔腾的马蹄小妹妹吹着口琴夕阳下美了剪影
我用子弹写日记介绍完了风景接下来换介绍我自己

我虽然是个牛仔在酒吧只点牛奶为什么不喝啤酒因为啤酒伤身体
很多人不长眼睛嚣张都KAO武器赤手空拳就缩成蚂蚁

不用麻烦了不用麻烦了不用麻烦不用麻烦了不用麻烦了
你们一起上我在赶时间每天决斗观众都累了英雄也累了
不用麻烦了不用麻烦了副歌不长你们有几个一起上好了
正义呼唤我美女需要我牛仔很忙的

我啦啦啦骑毛驴因为马跨不上去洗澡都洗泡泡浴因为可以玩玩具
我有颗善良的心都只穿假牛皮喔跌倒时尽量不压草皮

枪口它没长眼睛我曾经答应上帝除非是万不得已我尽量射橡皮筋
老板先来杯奶昔要逃命前请你顺便喂喂我那只小毛驴

不用麻烦了不用麻烦了不用麻烦不用麻烦了不用麻烦了
你们一起上我在赶时间每天决斗观众都累了英雄也累了
不用麻烦了不用麻烦了副歌不长你们有几个一起上好了
正义呼唤我美女需要我牛仔很忙的

Gundam 00 OP and ED.

2007-10-07T10:05:00.001+08:00
Gundam 00 was aired in Japan yesterday!. I prefer th OP to the ED. It's sung by L'arc~en~Ciel.

[/

Jokes

2007-10-07T02:53:00.001+08:00

A man was sitting in an aeroplane seat when he noticed his old friend sitting behind him. The man immediately got up and greeted this friend behind him. After that, the pilot made an announcement.
The man, realising that the pilot was also his friend, went to the cockpit to greet the pilot, who happened to have the same name as his old friend. However, the man was taken away by the FBI and CIA after he greeted the pilot. Why?

Ans: HI JACK!

Osama bin Ladin, W. George Bush, Saddam Hussein and Tony Blair were playing mahjong. Who wins 1st?

Ans: Saddam, cuz he 'hu xian' (Chinese)

Someone accidentally dropped a dumpling onto the ground. Who will pick up the dumpling?

Ans: Xiang Long Shi Ba Zang (Descending Dragon pick up Dumpling)

How do prawns laugh?

Ans: Hei hei hei (prawn)

Which Chinese Emperor in history is bilnd?

Ans: Kang Xi (Can't see)

Which Chinese host dun hav centre parting?

Ans: Wu Zong Xian (Jacky Wu)

Why can't foxes (hu li) climb trees?

Ans: Because fo

Once upon a time there are 2 bros Da Ming and Xiao Ming. Xiao Ming grew up by drinking milk everyday. What does Da Ming drink, then?

Ans: Wine (Jiu3 Yang3 Da4 Ming2)

Among Xiao Hong, Xiao Bai, Xiao Hei, Xiao Lan, Xiao Huang, who cannot tahan roller-coasters?

Ans: Xiao Bai!! Cuz Xiao Bai Tu!! (little white rabbit) which also means xiao bai vomits

An ant knocks the door of a HDB flat. House owner opens the door. "I want a place to stay", said the ant . "I have a vacant room which you can occupy for free of cost", said the owner. Ant went inside and occupied that vacant room. After some days, the ant brought in another ant and requested the owner "Can you please allow this ant to stay along with me". "Oh sure, you can do so without paying any rent" said the owner. After some days the ant brought one more ant and requested the owner to allow that ant to stay with it. Owner agreed to it without asking for any rent. This continued i.e ant brings in one more ant and owner agrees for it. On one fine day, the ant brought in tenth ant and requested the owner to allow that tenth ant also to stay with it. The owner said "Ok, you all can stay here but you need to pay rent". Now the question is Why did the owner ask for rent when the tenth ant came in?

Ans: Because they are now Tenants (Ten ants)

How do u know which of the 8 tentacles of an Octopus are it's hands and which are it's legs?

Ans: Knock the octopus on its head, the tectacles that rasies to massage its head are its hands.

Why is fish cunning ?

Ans: cos yu pian mi fen (fish lie to bee hoon) actual :fish beehoon

Why Zhou Jie Lun Cross the Street Kana fine by police?

Ans: Cos Jay Walking actual :english name is Jay Chow

How does a fish laugh?

Ans: HE HE HE

Which animal should you look for if you're unable to open a bottle cap?

Ans: peacock, cos kong que kai ping (peacock open bottle)

Why baby don't need to brush teeth?

Ans: cos bei bi wu chi (baby no teeth) actual :despicable

What creature is blind and deaf?

Ans: Lobster (long xia)

What mouse use two legs to walk? What dog use two leg to walk? What duck use two leg to walk?

Ans: mickey mouse, goofy, all ducks

A duck called Xiao Huang cross a road and was knocked down by a car. Guess a vegetable.

Ans: Xiao huang gua

If you take egg throw the stone, which one will break?

Ans: Both won't break. You take the egg in one hand throw the stone with the other hand.

If Jacky Wu plays basketball, who guards him?

Ans: ci mu, cos ci mu shou zhong xian

Free Burma!

2007-10-04T19:39:00.000+08:00

Human LCD

2007-10-04T11:04:00.000+08:00
Football fans using their jackets to make these amazing animations. They have a colour on the front, back and inside of the jacket. You can also notice them using their pants colour for shading. They do this by having some of them sit down to cover the colour and have other stand up to show the colour.

Hey There Delilah

2007-10-02T16:45:00.003+08:00
Fantastic tune by Plain White T's. I love the lyrics. :)

Paralyze - Tila

2007-09-30T20:17:00.001+08:00
Here's a nice tune from Tila Nyugen aka Tila Tequila.

Mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee

2007-09-30T17:24:00.001+08:00

Here's a very meaningful story that I came across in my inbox.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things-God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions-and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else-the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical check-ups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room or a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Concept Cars

2007-09-29T18:05:00.001+08:00

I'm always intrigued by the kinds of concept car that designers can come up with. There are, of course, some abominable designs such as the Subaru Impreza WRC Concept. I just can't appreciate it's ~~horrendous~~ beauty.

I must say, Suzuki does have some very interesting concepts. I'm never a fan of Suzuki cars so this was quite an eye-opener.

Suzuki X-Head

Holden Efijy Concept

Volkswagen Up!

Peugeot Flux

Citroën C-Cactus

SEAT Tribu Concept

Nissan Mimim Concept

Toyota iQ

Suzuki Kizashi

Subaru Impreza WRC Concept

Kia Kee Coupe Concept

Ford Verve

Mitsubishi Concept cX

Mercedes Benz F700

Photos courtesy of Autoblog.

Unrests and tragedy

2007-09-28T18:45:00.001+08:00

You might have heard about the unrest in Myanmar. In response to the government raising the fuel prices by over 500 percent, over 10,000 monks marched in peaceful protest against the government.

The military junta reacted by mobilising security forces to suppress the protest. Many arrests and a few deaths have been reported. The security forces fired warning shots at the protesters.

A video shows a Japanese reporter shot dead at close range by a soldier. A soldier is seen pushing the journalist to the ground. A loud bang is head as a soldier pointed a rifle in front of the reporter.

The Japanese embassy has confirmed the death. Japan has said it will protest the killing and investigate if the reporter was killed intentionally.

Change is the only constant

2007-09-27T22:57:00.001+08:00

The biggest news this week in the footballing scene is the departure of Jose Mourinho. I have no love lost for the former Chelsea manager. In fact, I particularly dislike his arrogance and antics. I take great pleasure in the knowledge that Liverpool gave him a tough time, throwing his team out of the Champions League in both times that they met.

Chelsea is cracking under pressure. I'm not sure if Abramovich took the poor start the London club had this season as an opportunity to remove a manager who did not do things the way he preferred. The appointment of his friend as the new manager does lend weight to the speculation. The players are in disarray. Reports of an unhappy team seem to be true given the way the team performed in their match against the Manures. Now, they are going to face more problems as the FA looks into the Blues players' intimidation of the referee. John Terry will most likely be punished for attempting to snatch the red card out of the referee's hand. The club could be fined for failing to control their players.

Perhaps Mourinho might be having the last laugh, leaving when he knows that things are going downhill at Stamford Bridge.

Well, enough of the Blues. Red is a more cheerful colour and there's lots of reason for joy. Torres hit his first hat-trick against Reading in their Carling Cup match. Three fantastic goals from Torres. But the most fulfilling knowledge is not the new boy's scoring touch. The match highlighted El Nino's professional attitude. He was murdered by the Reading defenders Duberry and Bikey. Still, he did not react like an immature C. Ronaldo or Rooney. He kept his head down and worked hard, tracking back and winning the ball for the team.

The referee might not have given a penalty when he was brought down in the area. He did not complain but worked harder. Despite the reckless tackles, some from behind even, Torres kept trying.

He thoroughly deserved his goals. My personal pick is the third goal that gave Torres his first hat-trick for Liverpool. He was one-on-one with the keeper. With a feint to wrong foot the goalie, he was through with an empty net begging for him to score. Which he did.

After some poor performances by the Reds without Torres, I believe it's time to start firing all cylinders with Torres leading the attack. Credit to Crouch for his hard work too. I believe he will team up well with Torres, just like Kuyt and Voronin would.

Here's some pills for the headache, Rafa.

Smart Squirrels

2007-09-22T20:08:00.001+08:00

Watch how a squirrel completes a complex obstacle course and another stealing food from a vending machine!

http://www.maniacworld.com/squirrel-obstacle-course.html

In memory of Robert Jordan

2007-09-22T12:04:00.001+08:00

I have often marvelled at the literary abilities of Robert Jordan, one of the authors that I look up to. He has spent 17 years writing a single story. An epic fantasy novel of the story of the Wheel of Time. A single 800-plus-page book is usually suffice for a great novel. RJ churned out eleven of such book, all depicting the epic story of the Wheel of Time.

He is a towering figure in the fantasy novel scene. Book 12 of the series has yet to be published. And I don't know if it would ever be completed. Robert Jordan has left us with a mammoth legacy and it is a pity that his last novel is incomplete.

Here's a letter from his family about his peaceful passing:

http://www.dragonmount.com/RobertJordan/?p=90

Lamborghini Reventon

2007-09-12T00:50:00.001+08:00

I have been really busy recently. Busy till I can't even have time to blog, despite several pressing issues that I have been wanting to rant about. When I came across this news article, I couldn't resist the temptation to blog anymore.

I was having my daily dose of AutoBlog news and came across the revelation of the new Lamborghini model: The Reventon. It is named after the bull that killed toreador Felix Guzman in 1943. The car has been unveiled at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Based on the Murcielago, the car has been given sharper features. The angular look has not taken away any of the sleekness. I think it just makes it look more streamlined. I like the aggressive lines and the price tag is equally intimidating. You would have to pay a whooping 1 million euro for one of these beasts.

The bad news is, all twenty of this lmited edition supercar has already been sold.

If you think the exterior is fantastic, wait till you take a look on the inside. Let's open up that scissors door and take a peek.

I think the dashboard looks like a cockpit of a starfighter. The whole design is simply astounding. I'm sure Anakin Skywalker would enjoy piloting the Reventon. Lamborghini has not failed to live up to expectations. It has made a car that might just fulfil my childhood dream of becoming a starfighter pilot.

The Reventon is in a league of its own. Not even my beloved Gallardo can compare to that. Respect to the designers of this magnificent car.

Picture source: AutoBlog
For more high resolution photos of the Reventon, visit the AutoBlog Gallery.

Gundam x Zaku

2007-09-01T01:24:00.001+08:00

I have built the MG Zaku II that my brother bought for me. I shall post photos of it on another day. This post will be dedicated to a very masterfully-done work of art by Max Watanabe-san. What's so wonderful about his Zaku II? He modified it so that it looks like an RX-78 Gundam! I can only hope and be inspired to be able to produce such wonderful gunpla modification.

Photo source: DannyChoo.com

Audi A4

2007-09-01T01:17:00.001+08:00

The new Audi A4 has been announced. Rumours are that it would be launched in 2008 but some say it might be a 2009 model. I like the overall design of the A4. My choice of a car has always been a Lamborghini, which happens to have Audi as its parent company. However, dear said some time ago that we should get a sedan rather than a sports car. It's more suited for family and we would be able to drive friends around. After conceding to her point, I did a research and made a short list of possible cars that I would want to buy, if money wasn't a concern. I found myself only satisfied with BMW and Audi. The other cars just don't appeal to me as much.

If I was asked to choose between BMW and Audi a few months back, I would have chosen BMW without any hesitation. BMW make beautiful cars, no doubt about that. Audi's design appeared to be rather plain to me. However, I started to take note of the improvements it have been making and the latest models seem to be increasingly appealing. The A4 is a great work and I can't wait to see the how it performs on the road when it finally starts to roll out of the factory. It also seems that the headlights may have optional LEDs. I really dig those LEDs in the photo.

Click here for the full gallery.

Source: Photos credit of AutoBlog

What are you saying?

2007-08-27T15:50:00.001+08:00

I was queuing up for dinner at Subway @ Yusof Ishak House in NUS. There was a long queue, not surprising given that it was a Sunday night. I was willing to wait for my food. What I didn't expect was the number of PRC students who were in front of me in the queue.

They had trouble understanding English. It was plain obvious. They thought "get a free meal with every purchase of a 6" sandwich" meant that they had to get sandwich number 6 to get the free meal. They were debating quite heatedly about it and I didn't feel like bursting their bubble by telling them what it means. The Subway staff told them about the special offer anyway.

Now, I must take my hat off to the Subway stuff for the immense patience on their part. Can you imagine having to serve a whole long queue of customers who can't tell you what they want properly and can't understand half of what you're saying? I'm not sure how these PRC students gained entry into NUS. No offence to PRC students in general because I those I know personally seem to speak rather fluent English. Those that I met yesterday were hardly able to order their food. I was under the impression that if you are going to a foreign country to study, you would require to have basic communication ability in the language.

Moreover, English is used mainly in the courses in NUS. I know that Chinese will become big in the future. Many Westerners are learning it. Some speak more fluently than me, I know. Still, they come here knowing that they would need to speak English. Or perhaps they assumed that they would be able to survive since Chinese is quite widely used here. I guess it's bad luck that the Subway staff were all non-Chinese speakers.

Some songs

2007-08-26T16:33:00.001+08:00

Here are some recommended tunes:

This is from the latest album by Avril. I think the first single from The Best Damn Thing didn't do justice to the album. The pop-ish marketing didn't help much either. However, if you are like me and chose to ignore the pink album covers and the candy pop song, "Girlfirend", you'll realise that the rest of the album is actually quite good. It sounds like the Avril that we know. Here's a more mellow song from the album. I really like it. I find it very thought-provoking. I hope you'll enjoy it.

If her voice sounds familiar, you might just have heard of her before. She's the former lead singer of The Cranberries. Her solo debut album was received with mixed reviews from critics but I think it's a special style that would appeal more to certain audiences only. Take this song for example, I think it's a very interesting and unique style. What do you think of it?

Here's another by Dolores, in a style more reminiscent of The Cranberries:

Star Wars vs Harry Potter

2007-08-26T15:03:00.001+08:00

Notice the similarities?

Jedi Last Supper

2007-08-25T23:59:00.001+08:00

Back

2007-08-23T19:49:00.001+08:00

I haven't been very dilligent in terms of blogging. I must say, this semester is unexpectedly heavy. Pharmacy Practice 3 is a killer. It feels like the hospital attachment all over again. Every lesson seems like a discussion session where all of us would be posed with difficult questions. I won't blame the lecturers though, since these are reasonably questions that patients would most likely bring up when we go out to practice in the future.

The other modules are pretty alright. Introduction to Media Writing is pretty interesting. I hope that at the end of the course I would write better in terms of churning out articles for the web. My tutor's blog is an inspiration and I hope to be able to emulate his blogging professionalism one day. Here's a video our lecturer showed us in today's lecture. It's exactly the potential of the web that makes me so enthralled by web designing and web publishing. I feel that I can contribute so much to the web but I don't seem to know where exactly to start.

I constantly see myself as a jack of all trades. I would like to find a niche where I can blossom fully and become a professional in the field. Enough of my ranting, here's the video.

I'm also taking Programming Methodology. Having some interest in programming made me want to take up this module to have a taste of what it's like to be a programmer. Rather than sitting there and think about being a programmer, I decided to have actual hands on experience so that I can judge for myself whether is is my cup of tea. So far, the lesson has been quite easy. The lecturer scared us by saying that the module is very heavy and that it should be worth 50 MCs rather than the 5 MCs it carries. Nevertheless, it's just the beginning of the course and I shouldn't be so quick to judge. There are several girls in the class and they often require the help of the lecturer, hence slowing down the class. I'm not complaining though. I enjoy fiddling around with the codes while the lecturer saves the damsels in distress.

Genting trip!

2007-08-09T21:16:00.001+08:00

Dear and I took a short trip to Genting Highlands. I must say, it was load of fun! Although the temperature was warmer than the previous times I've been there, it was still cooling nonetheless. I wonder if it's because it's summer or if it's due to global warming. I could go around without a jacket and not feel cold.

The highlights was playing (almost) all the rides in the theme park and trying our luck in the casino. I haven't tried all the rides and there was the new pirate ship ride. And, of course, I had to take my favourite Corkscrew rollercoaster.

Here's the relatively big hotel room. It is so much bigger and cheaper compared to the standard room we got the other time.

Clouds!

More clouds!

The hotel disappeared! *gasp*

Lazy girl! =P

More pictures would come once I get them from dear. =)

Gunpla madness

2007-08-09T21:09:00.001+08:00

My birthday came and pass. I had a real nice birthday dinner thanks to dear! Haha.

I got myself a couple of gunpla kits. MG ZAKU II and 1/144 Blue Destiny. Both seem great and I can't wait to start working on them! My bro and I bought a total of 5 kits! He got the MG MKII and MG GOUF Custom. And we bought an MG ZAKU II for Hong Wei.

My bro and I were on the train grinning like idiots with our purchases. 30% discount does that to people sometimes.

Here's the five kits we were hauling around in town

The two ZAKUs. The Char Aznable custom (the red one) is mine. The standard build is Hong Wei's present.

More pics showing the differences between the two. Basically their handheld weapons, legs and backpacks are the main differences.

Here's my bro's MK II...

... and his GOUF custom

We were lucky to have gotten there earlier. Two guys came in wanting to get the Char Aznable custom ZAKU II and the MK II but we were already paying for those. So they had to settle with the RX-78.

I bought myself a self-healing cutting mat and some other tools. Perhaps I'm on my way to become a full time gunpla hobbyist, especially if I decide to take up the airbrushing lessons at Park Lane.

Book sharing

2007-07-31T22:49:00.001+08:00

My bro told me about BookMooch.

It's a site where you add books that you do not want into your inventory and books that you want to have to your wishlist. If you send a book to someone, you gain 1 point for a local transaction or 3 points for an international one. The concept behind this system is to get you to send more books to others to help fulfil their wishes to gain points. The more points you get, the more books you can add to your wishlist.

It seems like a fresh idea but who knows what kind of conditions the book would be in when it comes to you.

Panda poo

2007-07-30T19:40:00.001+08:00

Source: Yahoo! News

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base has come up with a dung-for-profit scheme that turns droppings from the endangered species into odor-free souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic-themed statues of the animals, state media and base officials said Monday.

"They don't smell too bad because 70 percent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest,"

I wonder who would want to buy these.

Seat reservation

2007-07-30T16:41:00.001+08:00

Every time you go a fast food restaurant or a hawker centre, I'm sure you would notice people using all manners of items to reserve the seats for them, especially if they are eating alone. The most common item seen: packets of tissue paper.

I don't understand why they would want to use these packets to reserve seats. Is it because it is the least valuable of belongings they have?

Personally, I find using tissue paper packets to reserve seat a very silly thing to do. The tissue packet doesn't identify you in any way. Still, there are people who dare to argue with those who take over these so-called "reserved" seats, despite them having very little basis for such an argument. How does these packets identify with their owner at all?

Simply asking someone sitting in the neighbouring table to help you reserve the seat would suffice, in my opinion.

And it just gets better when you see a four-seater table with not one but four packets on it. Even though they have friends who can stay behind to help reserve the seats while his friend buy their meal, or even help the one staying behind to buy, they choose not to do so. I'm baffled.

Above is something we saw at Subway in Amara Shopping Mall. Someone actually used the tissue packet from Crystal Jade to reserve the seat! Using normal tissue paper packet isn't enough for this lady. She wanted something more high-class apparently. So she used a packet of wet tissue that she took from Crystal Jade restaurant. Talk about cheap.

I love my new room!

2007-07-30T16:30:00.001+08:00

My new room in Ridge View Residence is so much bigger than the one back in Prince George's Park Residence. Guess what? The rental fees are the same. Yes, PGP might have more facilities within the residence and the building is newer. However, I find things cosier in RVR and I can live with the less appealing facilities available.

Here's peek at my room. I have the space to nicely layout all the electronic devices. I can even place my tablet in the keyboard drawer!

I just got a new speakers. SonicGear Tatoo 303 It's worthwhile since it's only $15, half the usual retail price. I found it on Yahoo! Auctions. I think it is very worth the money since $15 can only get you a USB speaker from most stores. The sound quality is not bad. Enough to make me happy. And it looks stylish too!

Funny fact of the day: The girl selling the speakers met me at Clementi MRT Station. And then we realised that we were both staying on campus! If we had known earlier, we wouldn't need to waste the trip there.

Lost my job

2007-07-30T12:19:00.001+08:00

For the rest of this week, I'm very free! That's because I lost my job at MIMS. Apparently dear and I were supposed to gather a list of 2000 URLs together. We thought we had to meet a target of 2000 each so we worked extremely hard. (Please note that extremely in this case refers to working hard but yet able to surf the net, chat on msn.) So we finished two weeks' worth of job within one week. Since dar found 1400+ entries while I could only manage 980, the company decided to retain her to do the collating of data.

So I'll only be getting half of what I expected. I'll have to forego getting a new camera I guess. I was quite looking forward to getting the camera cos after touching it the other day at Sim Lim, I realised I really like it!

Check it out!

Lens: LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT
Camera Effective Pixels: 12.2 Megapixels

Bad luck

2007-07-22T19:41:00.001+08:00

As dear pointed out to me, I seem to have very bad luck. Murphy's Law applies to me oh so well. Everything that can go wrong just seems to go wrong for me.

Just a few days back, I was unable to close my room door because the door knob came off. Yes, it fell off. So I was stuck in my room until the technician came to fix the knob, and thus late to meet dar.

Then, the shoutbox I used on my website overloaded my webhost's server, causing them to suspend my site. Many others use this script and I don't understand why the server couldn't handle the script. There are other sites which have much more traffic than I do and everything runs smoothly for them. Not only did the suspension halt the momentum we were building up for a storyline reset, it also deleted my .htaccess file. That led to even more problems with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which I have yet to resolve. Advent Destiny is in a huge mess right now.

To top things off, I have to pay $40 dollars because my transponder decided to stop working all of a sudden, causing me to be locked out of my room. I have no idea what happened to the transponder but I'm sure it didn't touch any water. It was still functioning perfectly well last night! I would need to head down to the office tomorrow to collect the new transponder. I hope this wouldn't make me late for the first day of my part time job. I wonder what other problems would come up. Sigh.

What can I do for better luck?

Gunpla wishlist

2007-07-22T02:09:00.001+08:00

I have drafted up the list of gunpla that I want to get. It would take quite a while to buy them all but my passion for Gundams will prevail! XD

MG Strike Freedom Full Burst Mode

MG Strike IWSP

MG Zaku II ver 2.0

MG Strike Noir

MG Hi-Nu Gundam

HG Blaze Zaku Phantom (Heine version)

HG Saviour Gundam

Images courtesy of Dalong.net

New skin!

2007-07-21T11:10:00.001+08:00

Grunge, tech, retro, vector, floral, tribal, fractal. These are just some of the styles that I use in my graphics works. I was considering using any of these methods to do up a design for this blog. It would be my style in any case. But it just didn't feel completely like me.

With this skin however, you can really get to know me better by just looking at the header image. I chose a simple, straight forward way to present myself. Yes, it's all about the fives. V. The quote contains five words. There's focus on five different pictures (excluding the big, adorable image of dar). These photos tell a story.

Kira Yamato/Gundam Seed
I love Gundam Seed. That's an understatement. Kira is my favourite character. The Kira you see is one that has matured greatly and has transformed into a leader and one of the greatest pilots in the Cosmic Era. Of course, we can't have Kira without Strike Freedom, can we? So there you go, my current favourite mobile suit in the background.

Yoda/Star Wars
I'm a big Star Wars fan. I wanted to feature my favourite SW character, Anakin Solo, but as he's a character in the Expanded Universe, it's a little hard to find images of him. Even harder to find one that would convey a strong message in the small box.

Jay Chou
He's a composer, a singer, an actor and, recently, a director. Boasting of such talents, he has been amazing us time and again with his abilities and creativity. I have to admit that at one point in time, I didn't like him at all. In fact, I was a detractor... until I took the time to listen to his songs. He won me over and I've been an ardent fan since. He is definitely an inspiration to others.

Lamborghini Gallardo
The Gallardo is my dream car. I babble about it every so often. Since I first set my eyes on it, the Gallardo has captivated me. It is small and compact, unlike the Murcielago. I shan't even mention the Diablo or the Countach. Oh wait, I just did... >.< The Gallardo exudes style, performance, reliability. For some reason, the Ferrari just doesn't cut it for me. I won't drool at a Ferrari the way I do when I see a Gallardo.

Fernando Torres/Liverpool
I'm a life-long Liverpool fan. They were the first team I watched playing football on TV. I can't remember why but I just fell in love with the team. Perhaps it was because I was given a Liverpool jersey. Perhaps it was the way they played. Whatever it was, I have grown as a Reds fan. I have seen the departure of Gerard Houllier, the advent of the Rafalution which led to the memorable night of 2005 in Istanbul. I have seen star striker, Michael Owen, leaving us. Since then, there hasn't been a striker who can consistently score goals for us. This season is one that's full of expectations from the fans. We have spent 20 million pounds on Fernando Torres. I hope it would be good money spent.

I have been a fan of Torres for a few years. When I watched football regularly, I watched the Spanish La Liga more frequently than I did the English Premier League. And in Football Manager 2007, I acquired the services of Torres and he repaid that faith by banging in 54 goals in his debut season. I'm glad to see him in a red jersey and I hope he would do us pround in the coming season.

Darling~
Of course, what is my blog without a nice picture of dear? I love this picture. Isn't she cute? Haha. My little cosplayer.

Blog title
I have changed the blog title to a famous quote. "Vi veri veniversum vivus vici". It means "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe." Interestingly, every word starts with a V and the Latin phrase contains five words. I first came across this quote in the movie V for Vendetta. I won't tell you why I'm using this phrase. Ponder upon it on your own and perhaps you might gain an insight.

With all that said, I hope you like the very personal new skin that I'm using. I must say, it was a very enriching experience working on this skin. I learn how to layout the whole template simply by using Cascading Style Sheets alone. If you like me to help you out with your blog template, simply leave a tag or a comment or, if you have my other contact, get in touch with me some how. I'll try my best to help.

Work in progress

2007-07-20T14:50:00.001+08:00

As you can see, I'm currently working on the skin. =) I apologize for the ugly look but bear with it! Hehe~

Better Gmail

2007-07-19T13:27:00.001+08:00

If you use Firefox and you use Gmail, I'll recommend you download the new Better Gmail add-on for Firefox. It is a compilation of all the Gmail optimization add-ons for Firefox and this is a very handy tool if you use Gmail very often. I use Gmail to check all my emails, including my ISP and NUS emails.

Skin change!

2007-07-17T03:25:00.001+08:00

I decided to try out the new layout system from Blogger. I had to compromise my old blog skin. I would be customising the skin once I get a hang of the code changes and all. For now, I have edited the colour scheme. It reminds me of the very first blog skin I used back in 2003. Ah... nostalgia. =)

Seriously, I think the layout system isn't too fantastic. When I need to add elements (a name they came up for the different sections in the page), the browser would open a new window. After I'm done with the setup, the window closes. This is a rather... primitive way of doing things, in my opinion.

Being an avid user of WordPress, I can't help but compare Blogger and Wordpress. The latter has a much better templating system. In WP, when you add widgets (their equivalent of the elements), it doesn't open a new window. The software uses AJAX to open "windows" in your window. If you use Gmail, you would be familiar with such an interface. After all, Gmail is what boosted the popularity of AJAX.

The only pity is the restrictions placed on WordPress. If you wish to take full advantage of the system (ie being able to make complete edits to your templates and add plugins), you would need to host the blog on your own server or sign up for one of the plans they provide. The power of WordPress as a software is indeed quite impressive.

I worked on the NUSPS website and I doubt many people realised that it runs on WordPress ;)

Ska

2007-07-16T12:36:00.001+08:00

Dear was asking me what kind of music falls under the genre of ska. It's not a very popular genre in Singapore, as far as I know. Let me introduce you to a very interesting music genre. I'll quote from Wikipedia:
"Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was a precursor to rocksteady and reggae.
Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line, accented guitar, or piano rhythms on the offbeat, and in some cases, jazz-like horn riffs."

If you have heard songs by rock band No Doubt, you would have a taste of what ska is like. Though not a ska band, their style is ska-influenced.

My favourite ska band is Save Ferris. Take a listen to their songs if you have the chance. ^^

Ambitious ambitions

2007-07-14T02:23:00.001+08:00

Well, ambitions are supposed to be... ambitious, aren't they? I have quite a few ambitions which I yearn to fulfil. Do I need to list my aspirations? You can see them listed on the left column. Some things may seem insignificant while others seem so impossible. I dream big but yet simple things can make me happy too. I know that many people around me put me down for these big, unrealistic ambitions. I have learnt to take what they have to say and continue to do things my way. I listen. I know that sometimes things that they say might actually point out things that I never noticed, although most of the time these comments tend to be more demoralising than anything. I have learn to listen selectively.

I am a strong believer of someone who should stick to my style. I have faith in myself and my ability. So why do I need others opinions of me? If their criticism is constructive, then fine by me, I'll gladly listen and if I really need to change, I would. Do I sound stubborn for wanting to stick to my guns? Well, why not ask Jay Chou if he regrets standing his ground despite others criticising his style. Look who's got the last laugh.

I admit I have flaws. Guess what? I'm human. I can't be perfect, although I try to be. I tried too hard perhaps. But I have learnt to ditch the perfectionist in me. It has helped me tremendously, in terms of my general outlook in life as well as the way I do things.

My only regret is that I have not lived up to expectations. I have been trying hard but others seem to always assume better of me. In their eyes, I'm superhuman. Perhaps they don't realise that I'm not as skilled as they thought. I'm sorry to disappoint but I can only try my best.

Me, myself and I

2007-07-10T22:47:00.001+08:00

I realised that I have neglected to mention in my past few entries that I have dyed my hair. Now, I'm the "boy with brown hair"... or so my sister calls me. Although "那个brown头发的" sounds so... shall I say, less refined. XP

Just a side note (since today's entry is all about me), I was kinda pleasantly surprised to read on my sister's blog that she's interested in writing. Perhaps I could get her to watch Gundam Seed and then make her RP on AD. XD

Alright, back on topic. Me. Yes, me. I love myself. I guess all my friends know that. If you don't, I'm a narcissist. A very bad one. My friends complain about my... love to snap photos of myself. I believe Peiyu has, unfortunately, caught me in the act of "photo-whoring", to quote from her.

Here's a photo of me... ignore the fact that I look a bit stoned. Lack of sleep does that to you sometime. Laugh if you want, just not in front of me. =P

This is a photo taken when dar and I went to the Art Museum. It was a very nice trip. There were many interesting art pieces. Of course, there were some that tends to... stretch your imagination, to put it nicely. But the saving grace are the few that can really captivate you with their creativity.

Take the following piece for example. It's a very exquisite piece of work by the late Singaporean artist, Anthony Poon. The photo doesn't do the painting any justice. The colours didn't come out right. (I got this off Wikipedia by the way. I didn't manage to take any photos of the paintings in the Museum.)

The vivid colours and the blending of such contrasting yet complementary colours is a master piece. I was rooted there, admiring the painting for quite a while.

And then there's the paintings by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, with his own style that is messy in an organized manner.

The trip there, coupled with my regular surfing on DeviantArt now that I have the time to spare, has rekindled my interest in graphics. I haven't done art work for quite a while due to my schedule and, perhaps, the lack of inspiration made things worse.

With AD getting back on track, I won't have much time to spare either. I better start to manage my time better so that I get to do all the things I want to do.

Asus-Lamborghini VX2

2007-07-08T21:12:00.001+08:00

Check this out!

What a lovely cover! Aluminium-magnesium alloy or carbon fibre to choose from!

Exquisite leather palm rest

The logo!

Even the cooling vent is so stylish! It's a mini wheel rim!

Dear God! This is the laptop that I want! (Even though I have a preference for desktops now, given my bad experience with my Toshiba laptop.)

The price is around RM11,800. =/

Cute pups!

2007-07-07T22:01:00.001+08:00

不能说的秘密 - 周杰伦

2007-07-07T16:20:00.001+08:00

冷咖啡离开了杯垫
我忍住的情绪在很後面
拼命想挽回的从前
在我脸上依旧清晰可见

最美的不是下雨天
是曾与你躲过雨的屋檐

回忆的画面
在荡着秋千
梦开始不甜

你说把爱渐渐
放下会走更远
又何必去改变
已错过的时间

你用你的指尖
阻止我说再见
想像你在身边
在完全失去之前

你说把爱渐渐
放下会走更远
或许命运的签
只让我们遇见

只让我们相恋
这一季的秋天
飘落後才发现
这幸福的碎片
要我怎麽捡

Jay's new song!

2007-07-07T03:09:00.001+08:00

Very nice! I love it! I can't wait for the new album.

Holidays and driving woes

2007-07-03T02:28:00.001+08:00

Here's a little something for dear.

Now that the attachment is over, I can finally enjoy my holidays. I've been trying to find a part time job though. I wouldn't mind getting a job that can help me cover my expenses during the holidays. It's not cheap to have to rent a room in PGP during the holidays. It can't be helped during school term but this is excess expenditure.

I haven't found a job. I'm still trying to but there are more pressing things in my mind. Advent Destiny is going to be two years old! That's my pride and glory. We have come very far since our Invisionfree days and I hope to push for changes to be announced on the anniversary.

I spend half of last week back at home. It feels good to be home. Although mum and dad nag a lot, it's still good to be back. Darling went over as well but she couldn't stay longer because she had to come back to give tuition. We had fun! We were practically spending the days just playing Trickster Online together. Haha! It's a fun game and playing with dear makes it more interesting!

Being home means I get more chances to drive. However, I don't really relish the opportunities. I almost crashed into another car. I was trying to filter into the right most lane after I dropped dear off at the check point. I have been signalling for very long and there was a Singaporean car, a Toyota Corolla, which was travelling quite slowly. From my judgement, there was sufficient time for me to change lanes. However, this stupid driver suddenly sped up when I just as I turned. Luckily, I was quick enough to swerve back into my lane.

I find myself ranting at Singaporean or female drivers. No offence to anyone within these to categories, but I think these people tend to be quite reckless. For the former, it could be due to the fact that they are so used to the way they drive in Singapore. The roads in Singapore are well maintained. Here, the roads are often in bad shape. I've seen Singaporean drivers who drive so close to the edge of the lane that I worry that they might fall off the road. There are curbs in Singapore. In JB, you don't see them on some roads. What happens if the car goes off the road? If the road is very high up compared to the ground beside the road, chances are the car would roll over.

I have also noticed their tendency to overtake me and then cut into my lane... and then BRAKE! I hate these drivers. Why overtake me in the first place if you are going to move to my front and brake, making me slow down? Are they unhappy that I'm driving faster than they are so they pull this stunt to make me slow down??? Well, actually the real reason is that they can't judge the speed of their cars. When you overtake, you have to speed up. But when you move into a slower lane from a fast moving lane, you have to slow down. These people just cut in at the same speed and then brake to reduce their speed. Smart eh?

Another kind of drivers that I hate, those that do not signal, or those that signal and expect other drivers to give way immediately. Those that do not signal irritate me. Why? Because they would change lanes without any warning. They assume that other drivers are telepathic. It's very dangerous! There's also an irritating problem. If they don't signal, you wouldn't know that they are going to turn. If I'm at a T junction turning out into the main road, I need to wait because the other lane has the right of way. If a car comes along on that lane, I would have to wait. It is very frustrating in that I wait only to find that the car was going to turn into my lane. This means I could have made my turn if the driver were to signal his intention earlier.

There are some drivers who signal and turn or change lanes immediately after signalling. The purpose of a signal is to let other drivers know in advance that they are going to change their direction/lane. How different is that from not signalling at all?... other than making themselves look dumber than those that don't signal.

Before I end, I better make a disclaimer. I refer to Singaporean drivers I encounter driving in JB. Not all Singaporeans are lousy drivers.

Back again

2007-06-26T22:38:00.001+08:00

Well, I haven't been around for a while, as you might have noticed. This is by large due to the excessive work load from the attachment to a hospital as well as the unfortunate infection of my laptop by a trojan.

There were many things I wanted to blog about, but I guess my laptop going out of order for a week kinda knocked everything off track. By everything, I mean everything. Other than my appetite for blogging, it also meant the loss of a lot of valuable information. I've been working on my book very conscientiously for the pass two weeks or so. All that wasn't backed up. I'm back to square one and I'm not too happy with that.

Lesson learnt, disconnect from the internet when I'm uninstalling a firewall and installing a new firewall. I can get hit by a trojan within the five minutes interval.

I'll leave with a picture of me happily holding a bottle of morphine syrup. No, I'm not high. :P

Blister namecard

2007-06-14T23:31:00.001+08:00

Here's an interesting namecard that I wouldn't mind having!

Gundam 00

2007-06-14T23:24:00.001+08:00

Here's the new Gundam Exia from the upcoming Gundam00 series.

Amazing buffalos

2007-06-10T23:23:00.001+08:00

Check out this video of a pride of lions attacked a buffalo herd, their struggle to protect their prey from crocodiles and finally losing it back as the herd returns in full strength.

http://www.zappinternet.com/fullscreen.php?video=ToBnDiyXev

World's largest marionette doll

2007-06-05T05:45:00.001+08:00

Check out the world largest marionette doll! It's 50 feet tall! It's amazing how those hundred or so men operate her.

A trip back home

2007-06-03T23:49:00.001+08:00

I haven't been going home since the preceptorship started. It has been a very hectic period. Every day is more or less a routine. I wake up early in the morning, rush to work. From nine to six, I would be scurrying about in the hospital. After work, I barely have time to unwind and relax. I don't even have much time to work on things on my "to-do" list. Before I know it, it's already bedtime. And the cycle repeats itself once more.

Although that much is a routine, what I have to face at work each day is far from that. There are so many different situations that we are faced with. I learn a lot every day.

However, that's not the main point that I would like to delve into. I finally found time to go back home with darling. It's been three long weeks and it felt good to be back home. I could see that my parents were glad to see me home. My dogs were overjoyed. Then again, they go crazy every time they see me come home.

I miss the time I spent playing with them. I used to be able to spare a lot of time to keep them company. When I was in year one, we had a three month vacation break and I was able to play with them almost every day. An insignificant game of catch means a lot to me and my dogs. It is when we go wild and feel the adrenaline rush as we take turns chasing each other around the garden. Nowadays, I'm too tired when I get home to be able to do that.

I'm glad I was able to play a bit with my dogs last evening. Dear was saying that my dogs don't seem to like her as they ignored her and kept pestering me. Perhaps they heard that because soon, they were bothering her whenever she came out of the house. Pippy even pounced on her. I was surprised because I've only seen him do that to my brother and I. I guess he must like dar a lot. =)

Garfy was being his usually silly self. A silly dog doing cute but silly things. Hehe. I find that endearing.

As usual, going home means being able to drive, especially when dear is around. I would drive her to the nearby shopping malls and enjoy the weekend with her.

Although I don't like to travel home too frequently, I often find myself reluctant to come back to my dorm each time I go home. I realise that I have not been spending much time at home these days. I wonder why the sudden pang of homesickness. Perhaps it is because dear has become a part of my family as well and that's where I find myself enjoying most.

Healing wounds faster

2007-06-02T23:41:00.001+08:00

"Researchers at the University of Cincinnati say that a topical gel derived from a patient's own blood may help prevent infection while speeding up the healing process. The finding could mean that, in the not too distant future, a concentrated "cocktail" of a person's own blood could be used to help dress wounds, particularly in patients with diabetes or other disorders that slow the healing process."

This is due to the platelets in the blood. Somehow they help to speed up wound healing. The increase in effectiveness of such a wound healing process compared to the conventional treatment is not cost effective in normal wounds, yet. However, it appears to show some hope in patients with diabetes, multiple fractures, poor vascular disease or undergoing radiotherapy.

It is an interesting find and I hope to see more progress in this study!

Shy Pup

2007-06-02T19:02:00.001+08:00

Wandle?

2007-06-02T18:54:00.001+08:00

Guitar Goodness

2007-06-01T23:46:00.001+08:00

This sixteen year old kid, Chelsea Constable, is just so inspiring!

Jie Kou

2007-05-22T01:18:00.000+08:00
Here's my new favourite song. 借口 (Jie Kou) by S.H.E.

It's basically a song with elements of Jay Chou's songs as well as the song titles of Jay's songs. The tune is catchy and it's a very interesting song. Enjoy.

在伊斯坦堡的你
爱情最后的战役中
说了第一九四三句对不起之后
想简单爱却开不了口
倒数后开始与安静斗牛
像龙卷风一扫而过
过去的影像不再有
情话飘散成千里之外一曲东风破
听妈妈的话别让我受伤

你的烂借口
分裂了你我
同一种调调
没有轨迹的痛
好瞎的借口
飘移了你我
困兽之斗
在在在在在在在
在这乱舞春秋

烂借口
每当孤单的时候
望着那反方向的钟
寻找那暗号让我回到过去生活
相信发如雪你也爱我
现实中完美主义不再有
是老斑鸠提醒着我
欢乐时光双刀挥过
情感像断了的弦好一个黑色幽默
听妈妈的话
别让我受伤

外婆可不可以告诉我
在爱情悬崖有没有
我期待的将军等候
园游会里夜曲美妙弹奏
庆祝开心的朋友
我强颜欢笑的度过
外婆你可不可以告诉我
在爱情悬崖有没有
我期待的将军等候
园游会里夜曲美妙弹奏
别慌我的超人朋友
你的秘密我会保守
你的烂借口
分裂了你我
同一种调调
没有轨迹的痛
好瞎的借口
飘移了你我
困兽之斗
在在在在在在在
在这乱舞春秋

你的烂借口
分裂了你我
同一种调调
没有轨迹的痛
好瞎的借口
飘移了你我
困兽之斗
在在在在在在在
在这乱舞春秋

喂在配唱啦
石锅拌饭
加颗蛋喔
好 bye

Shopping trips and a musical and work...

2007-05-22T01:13:00.001+08:00

Hmm, I just realise that dear and I have been going on little shopping trips to buy groceries! Here are some interesting things we came across...

Would you want to eat blue chips???

How the term spam came about...

Dear and I went to watch Midsummer Night's Dreams in Fort Canning Park. Watching a musical an open space while snacking on our picnic food is a unique experience and it was a special evening spent with darling. The only blemish was that we forgot to bring a mat so we had to sit on the wet grass. Well, I sat on the grass, dear sat on the plastic bags. Hehe.

Here's something from the set

By the time we got there, the place was packed! We still got a good seat though. No one expected the actors to be running amongst the audience and many people thought they had good seats but ended up having to strain their necks.

Just a side note, I didn't realise my phone's camera can take such nice photos. Look at the nice gradient of the sky! =)

The pretty Fort Canning Park entrance.

We also went to Chinatown! I never knew the OG in Chinatown sold so many Gundam model kits! Perhaps that might be a reason for me to visit there more often. Here's a picture of the huge figurines on display. Too bad they aren't for sale!

Well, I have been attached to Alexandra Hospital for a week or so now. It's pretty fun and interesting. we learn new things every day. However, I find it stressful as well. With all the pharmacists bombarding us with questions, we have to be on our toes and refresh ourselves with clinical knowledge that we would need should we go out to dispense.

I got to dispense to a few patients and I'm appreciate the opportunities. I learn a lot from each experience.

Although I'm not sure what I would be working as when I graduate, I'm at least enjoying myself here.

Here's my name tag.

My notebook with notes and answers to the homework given.

Food for Thought

2007-05-20T15:10:00.001+08:00

I StumbledUpon this site. The questions there are really interesting. Do try it out!

I'm stuck at question 12 of the very easy logic questions. If you know the answer, do share!

http://www.folj.com/puzzles/

Toshiba woes

2007-05-18T23:48:00.001+08:00

I disappeared from the internet for the past week. My dear hard disk decided to die on me. Perhaps I should have seen the signs coming. Nevertheless, I have changed the hard disk (yet again) and I hope this one would last longer than the previous two.

The very first hard disk failed after about a year and a half. The second hard disk lasted only two days. It got corrupted right after I finished setting up all my programs and preferences (Argh!). The third hard disk lasted until last Thursday. And now I'm on the fourth hard disk.

I wonder if this only happens to Toshiba hard disks. There's a lot for me to update on but I have to work tomorrow morning so... I'll catch up with this another time.

Powered by ScribeFire.

2007-05-07T22:14:00.000+08:00
I just received the following email from Action for Singapore Dogs.

Hi everyone
We will be having an adoption drive next Sunday May 13th and there will
be about 10 or more puppies/dogs for adoption to good homes

The details are :
Date : 13 (Sun) May 07
Time : 11am to 7pm
Venue : Pets & U,
28 Clementi Rd
(Near NUS)
Tel : 67776679

Please click on this link for the location of the venue :

http://www.streetdirectory.com/asia_travel/travel/travel_id_1/travel_site_10258/

Please help us spread the word around to as many people as you know as
we have so many puppies and dogs awaiting homes. We also need help with
the publicity posters, so if anyone lives around the Bukit Timah or west
area and can help put up the posters at pet shops, vets, notice boards
etc, do let us know which area you can help and we can email you the
posters for you to download and print out.

Please help, a click of the mouse or word of mouth will mean a world of difference to them !

How I wish to have a dog living with me in my room! Haha. I always miss my dogs back home so much. And all these puppies are so adorable! I feel like adopting them all!

Well, do your part and help them out!