Mushroom soup

Since I may exit the 15day limit to china, I went to apply for a chinese visa just now. Very fast, done in like 5mins, including waiting time, cos I did make an e appointment earlier. Not pleased with getting off the train for just 10mins, I wall ard the raffles xchange shopping area and will be g marks n spencer in city hall to buy body soap + conditioner.

Chanced upon the soup spoon at raffles xchange. Didn't have much in the morn and haven tried it before although I've passed by the shop a million and one times in bugis. Tried the velvety mushroom soup, regular sized, $6.80. Quite a large bowl really, and super thick, u actually need a drink to go with this thing!


Loads of mushroom chunks in the soup, and the bread is nice and soft. However, despite the abundance of mushroom chunks, the taste of the soup isn't very mushroomy. I prefer the new York new york's version. Both the mushroom soup and clam chowder there are heavenly. The staff were very polite and cheerful tho. Maybe I'll try it again if my friends want to, but I certainly wont crave for their mushroom soup.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Taipei Trip - Day 6

12:54am 20th June
So it's day 6 already and Sunday is the last day of the trip! As always, time flies, in no time i'll be back in sg again... Monday we have to leave for the airport at 8am, do yeah we have no time on mon at all.

Went to beitou and tamsui today. Loads of nice food at tamsui, bought back quite some bit of 'metal eggs'. Went to tamsui 1st, reached beitou quite late. All the gov run museums and stuff were closed alrdy, nothing much to do or eat there. The public hot spring bath... Cheap at NT40 per pax, but uber crowded in there, and personally I don't fancy taking a ht spring bath with my half burnt skin-bathing with luke warm water hurts enough already. Had previously tried taking hot spring baths in japan and Korea, but it was winter then. Taking a hot spring bath when the weather is like 30degrees seems weird to me...

Don't feel like typing much today... Oh yeah, they kinda chose a hat for me at tamsui old street, very lovely salesperson, but really I don't think I'll wear the hat in sg. It's just not me. Heck, they seem to like the idea of me wearing hats tho, for reasons I can't comprehen. The hat is gonna rot in a corner of the house pretty soon anyway, and it's too big for my sis to wear...  Wat a waste of 25sgd.... Oh wells. The hat does look nice, but not on me thank you very much.

Nothing much to eat at beitou, went back to the beef noodles stall near our hotel for dinner. Walked ard the area only to discover there's a night mkt nearby too. A stretch of food stalls selling all the small stuff, and some game stalls. Guess we will be gng there tmr night-oops I mean today.

Intending to put up loads of photos later on. Originally wanted to edit those earlier posts. But now I think I will make new posts instead. Increase my post count wahahahaha!!! Maybe if I'm bored I'll dig up some old photos and post them too. Or take some random pics and post. Said earlier that I felt like upgrading this blog posting app subject to the price and more details abt the full version which I can't check w/o Internet connection. I do know I can upload photos with the full version tho, and edit posts. Maybe that will let me blog more often- like say take a random pic on my itoy, tweet and blog abt it. We'll see. I must say I am really tempted tho.

Dad complains that I keep playing on my itoy when I'm actually typing, but doesn't complain abt my sis who's writing things down on paper... Oh wells, it's always like that... They assume and I can't be bothered to say otherwise. They don't believe me when I'm say I'm not playing anyway, and I don't want to tell them i'm writing a dairy or a blog. Too bad, things will stay the way they are. There are plently of things they keep from us and I from them. Even. Don't wanna let him see me typing on my phone again so I'll end here.

Well despite all that, I am really thankful for the itoy. Really wonderful bday prezzie, and I am only just discovering it's usefulness.

Taipei Trip - Day 5

1:19am 19 June

Ok, it's super late now and I am tired... Shall make it short and sweet, or at least try to. Went to yangmingshan from the morning till afternoon. Than went back to Keelung and had a ball of a time eating the delicacies at the night market.

Due to time constrains we only visited two sites at yangmingshan. Yangmingshan is a dormant volcanoe. Nonetheless you can still see clouds of sulphur smoking out thru vents at the xiaoyoukang area. Mudpits with boiling water, yellow sulphur accumulated at vent holes, clouds of white smoke withering in all directions before being carried away by the extrememly strong wind... The entire area stunk of sulphur dioxide aka the smell of rotten eggs. The wind there was also exceptionally strong. The ranger told us that the area also happened to be a wind pass, and the wind yesterday and today (past midnight already ah!) is ultra strong. The iPhone app of mine showed like 24km/hour of wind speed. Might be even stronger nearer the xiaoyoukang location. The weather was very nice... The wind was very cooling, felt like the temperature at genting. Sun wasn't too hot either, but cos we were high up in the mountains the UV light is much stronger and well, dive we didn't bring any sun screen... I'm now a little burnt. Not too bad tho, just a little red, not painful or anything. The wind at that location was so strong that you can really get blown forward (or backwards) by the wind. When walking away from the wind, all you need to do is to lift up your leg, and the wind will blow ur leg forward w/o you having to move. Nice eh? Cos of the sulphur, only one type of grass grows in the area. From afar, the vegetation take the appearance of sheets of moss on a rock, similarly existing in clumps, and with hairy like surface. The grass is like macro scale moss... Love how it looks when the long blades of the grass sways in unison to the wind.

The second place is a flatland up in the moutain. They let cows graze in the area, in the past and today. The view fromthe area is quite nice... Getting really tired now...

Went back to keelung for the food thereafter, since we were too full to eat like the day before. Had cream crab, sushi and sashimi, papaya with milk and watermelong with milk, friend oyster and egg, lamb and beef.... Very nice, a must go night mkt, even more food than in shilin me thinks. Ok, I wanna slp now. Shall cont next time. Nites!

On case you guys are wondering, it's 1:44am now, and unlike when I'm at hm and I do nth much the whole day, stay awake till 4-5am... Walking the whole day is really tiring. Thankfully my feet didn't hurt as bad today. Think it's frying more used to it now, but the trip is ending soon anyway... Ok nites!!!

Taipei Trip - Day 3 Part 2

Gonna do a short post for now cos it's June 17, 1:02am already... Went to yeliu from Keelung by bus, visited the geopark and we took tons of pics, and I took some pica on my itoy too... Nah, some is a gross understatement, I took like 27X pics on my iPhone today alone. Not counting the canon ixus camera we have, and the nikon dsl camera my dad uses. Yeah, my dad is into photography too... Heh. The rock formations... Incredible. I'll elaborate more when I put up the pictures later. Probably will edit in the same post on the 'final product' you are reading now ain't all written in Taiwan nor at the same time. Think I will buy this blog writing app when I'm back in sg. Full version will allow post editing(of published posts) and adding photos to posts. Depends on the price of the full version of cos.

We took a taxi to jiu fen after a seafood lunch. Spent like 4 hours or so at the park in yeliu. Went the visit the jiufen old street. Shops and more shops, alot of same shops selling fashion items and food.

Taxi back to Keelung thereafter, went to the night market there and my sis got a pair of sandals. TONS of food there, but sadly we were all too full from the old street town delicacies at jiufen to eat anything else. Train and mrt back to hotel, and now it's time for me to sleep! Shall attempt to write in more next time, till tmr!

Taipei Trip - Day 3 Part 1

9:56am 16 June
Taking the Taiwan railway now. Breakfast at hotel 捷运 or mrt to the Taipei main station changed to railway aka 火车 to Keelung 基隆. Board the train at ard 9:45, will reach ard 10:25 - 10:30am. Total of 10 stops-getting off at the tenth. Quite fast, and the train... I can't quite tell the diff btw trains and mrt except that mrt is short distance, the railway goes to all parts of Taiwan. And there's toilets on the railway trains... Technology wise i think it's essentially mrt technology. Gonna take a bus from Keelung to yeliu later. Btw, train tickets... 43NT for one way per pax, we got the 2 way tickets which offer a 10% discount at a cost of NT312 for 4 ppl.

One point of interest is that the signs in taipei are in Chinese, English, and Japanese. While annoncements like on the railways and mrts are in Chinese, hokkien, Hakka(I think?) and finally English. Japanese words can be seen everywhere. When we went to the night markets the foot massage palors play type recorded advertisements in Japanese....

Okays, that's abt all for now. We've reached!

Taipei Trip - Day 2

Ok, 15th July, 10:56pm

Went had breakfast in the hotel. Not an emorous spread, but enough
choices and the food was good. Unlike in china where the food tends to
be too salty and too oily, food in Taiwan is neither, more like the food
in sg... But even tastier =)

took the mrt n a bus to the national palace musuem after that, get off
at shilin stn and take red bus 30 to the last stop. Spent like a total
of 5 hours admiring the collections... Tickets are NT160 for adults btw.
Whole day ticket, you can go out, get in an unlimited no of times in
the day of ticket purchase. Have to leave our backpacks outside tho...
Free deposit service, and very friendly + helpful staff. Ate lunch at a
cafe there... We bought 2 sandwiches and a mango cheesecake which looked
more like a fruit pie... Price was okay, those + 2 drinks n coffes was
ard 30sgd. Considering the place I think the price was okay... And the
food was good! The sandwiches are uber nice! The cheese, the mayo, and
the ham... Very nice mix, and the ham was unlike anything I've tasted in
sg. The meat was very fragrant! Normally in a big mouthful of veggies,
tomato and bread the bland ham would be lost in the ocean, but not this.
Very fragrant taste of the meat-not saltiness, but fragrance. And the
sandwiches ain't small. One set composed of 3 and the other had 4 slices
of regular size square bread. The cake was nice too, looked very
exquisite and overall taste was good, just that I like cheese cakes with
a strong cheese taste like the one from ikea. The cake alone costs NT
80, less than 4 sgd. My mum or it as a set with coffee that costs ard
9sgd for both. The coffee came with a few gold flakes on top... Very
high class cafe eh? Which was why I said earlier that 30bucks total
ain't too ex...



Ok, the museum artifects... Large collection of porcelain items... Must
say beforehand that my family are uber fond of all these stuff... Diff
types of porcelains... My dad collected quite a no. of them... My dad
did quite alot of caligraphy in the past, and my mum learned some as
well, while boh me and my sis admire the beautiful handwriting...
Cravings and such... Furniture... Yeah quite a lot of them. The
porcelain collection was bountiful, and many extremely delicate pieces
of work. Really amazed at how modern looking some of the pieces were.
They can very well fit into any home deco shop of the current age. No
photo taking allowed inside, but we got a guide book and cd from the
shop. Shall try and put in some pics and describe when I'm back in sg.
Kinda troublesome to keep switching btw typing chi n eng here cos I've
got like 5 or 6 keyboards...



We went to the shilin night mkt aft that. Tried alot of local delicacies
today... We had...

蚝煎蛋 - very nice, they plonked tons of tomato sauce ontop. The flour and
egg blended together very well, resulting in a very silky like texture.

青蛙下蛋 - essentially very milky bubble tea. With super alot of pearls.
Liked the taste a lot

炸鸡扒 - very juicy, but I didn't quite like the chilli powder.. I don't
like chilli much...

猪血汤 - gosh I miss this one! Pig blood used to be sold in sg and I
absolutely adore the unique taste and texture of the blocks of blood...
It's like uber smooth, and uber silky... Had it yesterday with the 卤味 as
well.

蚝面线 - normally pronouced in hokkein so idk wat the name shd be in chi.
But a trademark Taiwanese dish, very nice.

木瓜牛奶 - very thick, and the papaya is very sweet. Natural taste of the
fruit, not artificial flavouribg or sugar. The drink is so thick that
when I suck hard enough for the drink to travel up the straw, the straw
travells upwards as well.

芒果雪片 - this dish has reached sg too, but here it's super nice! They've
added condensed milk directly into water, which is frozen into blocks of
ice that gets shaved into thin, snow like strips that melts the moment
you put it in ur mouth.

七里香 - chicken backside but boy they made it so well and nice that it
doesnt stink one bit

Ice cream with a horn shaped biscuit thing instead of a regular cone. We
got the choc n vanilla and it came with chocolate chips! also had the
炸奶油 thing which I mentioned earlier.



The only thing we got today besides food was the CDs... We went to the
cd shop and my sis got two arashi cd and two DVDs. The CDs were like
10-20 sgd a piece and DVDs cost ard 40sgd. Way way cheaper than in sg.
We saw the CDs

In HVM, costs like 40-60sgd each, and they don't sell the DVDs... Can
tell u my sis was absolutely delighted. I'm sure she would have bought
all of the arashi titles but despite how much cheaper it already is, it
still adds up to quite alot. Spent like ard 100bucks on the 4. I didn't
get anything, ain't fond of any particular singer and those songs I
like... I already have them... Why get the cd? Most of the time I only
know one or two songs in the entire cd anyway... -.-'''



Went back to the hotel thereafter. My feet really hurts. 1st the heels
started hurting, then the balls of my feet started hurting too. My sis
is worst tho. Her last two toes were blistering... Shoes ain't too
suitable for walking so much I guess, plus she's flat footed... Even now
my feet are acheing badly...



Sis tried out the DVD in the hotel already. No subs T.T, but very nice
still, got an animated flim of believe. I only watched halfway tho, went
to wash my socks aft that. We've pretty much handwashed almost all of
our clothes lol. Guess we didn't need to being that many clothes here...



I must say that I'm truely impressed by wat I've seen thus far. Many
very very friendly n helpful shop keepers... When ppl on the street
accidentally bump into you, they immediately offer an apology.. And I'm
talking abt youngsters on the street offering a very polite apology,
something u might very well NOT see in sg... And all the shop keepers
I've come across are very friendly, cheerful, happy to answer all the
qns we have... Even when we were only buying a NT20 fried cream stick -
less than $1 SGD - the vendor happily chatted with us, answered our
queries and warned us to eat the fried cream sticks in small mouths so
we don't burn our tougue.



Gng to 野柳，基隆，and 九份 tmr. Getting tired... It's past 12midnight now,
almsot 1am in fact gonna turn in, nite nite! Sad no wifi here haiz, u
guys can only read my posts way later :( really takes alot out of the
'feel' lol. Yeah, did some other stuff in btw the typing... But still
takes very long to type on my itoy. Plus I type alot, battery drained
like 2X% during my typing alone... Shows how long it takes. I wonder how
long is this post... I want a word count! Okok, really shd go slp now!



Signing off!!!

Taipei Trip - Day 1

as promised, posts of my trip to taiwan, as written during the trip itself on my iphone, but no wifi to publish the posts!

Ok, so I'm in Taipei now, aft a 7 hour plus travelling time including a 2 hour transit time at hong kong international airport. It's now 15th of June, 12:38am... But alas this post will only be sent much later as unfortunately this hotel room doesn't have wifi T.T. The hotel has like a main building and some rooms elsewhere. I believe only heir main builing has wifi :( sad, means I can't check the forums every night as I had hoped to be able to do... Or hunt my mousehunt etc... At least make sure I get the hourly trap checks but I guess getting online is gonna be hard.

So we reached changi airport at like ard 6am yesterday morning. Check in was at T1 row01... Nice number lol. Flight took off at 8.25am or so, somewhat 20mins behind schedue... CX710... This holiday we are flying all on Cathay pacific... Well the return flight from Taipei to hong kong takes us on dragonair, which is a subsidary of Cathay anyway... So we reached hk at ard 12noon... Walked ard the transit area, bought a bottle of evian water(abt the only brand they sell in the airport), some chocolates... Ate the milk choc digestive biscuits I got at marks and spencers the other day when I went orchrd with my sis as our lunch... And boarded the plane to our final destination at ard 2+pm. Short flight to Taipei, landed at 4.15pm or so... Than took a bus to our hotel. Travelled relatively light this time round, only 1 large luggage and a small hand carryable size luggage that was checked in(for 4 ppl!). The rest of the hand carry were just the bags we'd bring with us to go shopping... Guess it's is we aren't visitng somewhere in winter time... 1st time going overseas to a place that has similar weather to sg (at the time of visiting duh). Weather: 24-32degrees, rainy... NOT counting gng msia of cos...

But back to the flight... I was very pleased to find he all our flights have in fligt entertainment! Cathay ftw! Previously we travelled on some china airline that doesn't have in flight entertainment... In fact the only other time I had the small tv in front of us was went we took JAL when we went japan... The movies they show was pretty cool too, I watched "how to train ur dragon". Quite a new movie eh? :D watched an episode of GLEE on the flight to Taipei too:)

So yeah, we reached the hotel at like 6plus or so. Was taken aback by how wonderful the service staff were... YOMI hotel:) very nice service personal, good facilities and a very nice room. Double story apartment style room! With sink to wash the dishes, quite a large fridge, a tv downstairs and upstairs... Nice sofa... Really love the loft kinda apartment... Was always excited by double story houses and now I get to stay in one! Only downside is that the toilet is downstairs and so getting up in the middle of the night you'll need to climb the stairs... And staying in one room for the whole family... Sucks when my dad is snoring so freaking lousy like he is now... How am I gonna sleep later gosh???

Went to shida night market after resting some bit in the delightful room. Took the metro there, ate 臭豆腐 and 卤味 for dinner... Walked ard for a while before returning to the hotel... My sis got a jeans material shorts and my mum got a pair of jeans and a shirt...

Guess that's abt it for the 1st day:)

happiness!

sry, the taiwan trip update will come a little later but...

iOS 4 Software Update

This update contains over 100 new features, including the following:

• Multitasking support for third-party apps*
  - Multitasking user interface to quickly move between
     apps
  - Support for audio apps to play in the background
  - VoIP apps can receive and maintain calls in the
     background or when device is asleep
  - Apps can monitor location and take action while
     running in the background
  - Alerts and messages can be pushed to apps using
     push and local notifications
  - Apps can complete tasks in the background
• Folders to better organize and access apps
• Home screen Wallpaper*
• Mail improvements
  - Unified inbox to view emails from all accounts in one
     place
  - Fast inbox switching to quickly switch between
     different email accounts
  - Threaded messages to view multiple emails from the
     same conversation
  - Attachments can be opened with compatible third-
     party apps
  - Search results can now be filed or deleted
  - Option to select size of photo attachments
  - Messages in the Outbox can be edited or deleted
• Support for iBooks and iBookstore (available from the
   App Store)
• Photo and Camera improvements
  - 5x digital zoom when taking a photo**
  - Tap to focus during video recording**
  - Ability to sync Faces from iPhoto
  - Geo-tagged photos appear on a map in Photos
• Ability to create and edit playlists on device
• Calendar invitations can be sent and accepted wirelessly
   with supported CalDAV servers
• Support for MobileMe calendar sharing
• Suggestions and recent searches appear during a web
   search
• Searchable SMS/MMS messages**
• Spotlight search can be continued on web and Wikipedia
• Enhanced location privacy
  - New Location Services icon in the status bar
  - Indication of which apps have requested your location
     in the last 24 hours
  - Location Services can be toggled on or off for
     individual apps
• Automatic spellcheck
• Support for Bluetooth keyboards*
• iPod out to navigate music, podcasts and audiobooks
   through an iPod interface with compatible cars
• Support for iTunes gifting of apps
• Wireless notes syncing with IMAP-based mail accounts
• Persistent WiFi connection to receive push notifications*
• New setting for turning on/off cellular data only**
• Option to display the character count while composing
   new SMS/MMS**
• Visual Voicemail messages can be kept locally even if
   they have been deleted from the server**
• Control to lock portrait orientation*
• Audio playback controls for iPod and third-party audio
   apps*
• New languages, dictionaries and keyboards
• Accessibility enhancements*
• Bluetooth improvements
• Better data protection using the device passcode as an
   encryption key* (Requires full restore.)
• Support for third-party Mobile Device Management
   solutions
• Enables wireless distribution of enterprise applications
• Exchange Server 2010 compatibility
• Support for multiple Exchange ActiveSync accounts
• Support for Juniper Junos Pulse and Cisco AnyConnect
   SSL VPN apps (available from the App Store)
• More than 1,500 new developer APIs
• Bug fixes

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPod touch 2nd generation
• iPod touch 3rd generation (late 2009 models with 32GB
   or 64GB)

* Requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 3rd generation.
** Requires iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. SMS/MMS messaging and Visual Voicemail require support from your wireless carrier.

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the user guides for iPhone and iPod touch at:
    <http://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone>
    <http://support.apple.com/manuals/ipodtouch>

For more information about iPhone and iPod touch, go to:
    <http://www.apple.com/iphone>
    <http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch>

To troubleshoot your iPhone or iPod touch, or to view additional support information go to:
    <http://www.apple.com/support/iphone>
    <http://www.apple.com/support/ipodtouch>

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: 
    <http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222>


yes i'm in seven heaven! multi-tasking! gosh! haven read all yet...!

no turning back

its been so long since i last played weiqi or even showed up at SWA. so long since i kept in touch with any of them and since i didnt use fb much till recently... haven been in touch with any new at SWA either... just looked thru pics with me tagged in them and saw the picture of this scrapbook photo album they made for yang lao shi. very cute cover page... yeah the pic was put up like in aug last year... but goes to show how little i check of my FB PLUS how out of touch i am - yes i hate to admit it but it was the 1st time i'm seeing that photo. it was... as yang lao shi's farewell present. after like decades of teaching in sg, he's decided to go back to China for good...

despite how i've given up on the game... abandoned it... how i dislike swa at times even... yang lao shi is really someone unique that i'll never ever forget. a very friendly, fatherly figure... despite the fact that i hadnt bothered to practice, hadnt bothered to improve my techniques... very warm, very nice... i'll nvr forget his face, his smile... the face of some ppl fades in my mind over time... but some will remain embedded forever... i remember his speech, his actions, gestures, stance, posture... his smile... all so very clearly as if i've just met him once more yesterday. how i used to call him every week for zhi dao qi until he knows its me the moment he picks up the phone - or maybe he just has caller id, i dont know. for some reason, i was one of his favorite students, something special... but i nvr made anything out of the time playing weiqi - i was neither strong nor lucky enough. than i got sick of the whole thing and called it quits. nothing to do with him... i wont say its entirely my fault/mistake that led to the quitting, not trying to push the responsibility, but lady luck just wasnt looking down on me during my stay... the chore of being the 'star player' in sch wore me down, i got less and less interested in improving myself, my parents pushing behind my back made things worst (same thing happened for chinese and maths, i just cant survive that way)... i gave up. towards the end i was just sleeping in every single lesson - struggled to stay awake but failed, same as i do in every lecture now, and finishing each game asap just to get away. i even skipped class with my sis who was equally sick of going for lessons. (skipped class alone too)

i knew i had to work hard to get anywhere in weiqi, but i knew that i was too uninterested to make a difference... dont quite like the wave of ex poly students taking the helm at swa... (maybe i'm just an stupid biased idiot, and a lazy one at that) but the last straw came at the lanke cup when i was in jc... 1 or 2? i cant quite remember now. by then i'd stopped playing for a long time... i went back and realised that the calm and the coolness i once had was completely gone. as much as i pretended to look cool on the outside... my heart was thumping like an idiot inside. so hard that i could really hear my heart beat. my pulse racing. literally. NEVER had i ever had that feeling before in ANY game. and it was just a small game against a noob guy and i'm feeling the heat... on top of that... my memory skills was gone, my area recognition skills gone... all gone. i used to be able to tell that a particular plot is a 7 x 3 or 5 x 6 area in a milli second glance. not anymore. and now that i've given up, nvr again. everyone says its such a waste that i've given up halfway, that i'm so good yet... so wasted... but truth is, i was nvr good. yes, in the beginner classes i 'shone' in class, but dude, that was against other fellow beginners, many of whom were much younger than me. against the other players, i was nothing. amongst the females i can still 'hold' a bit of place, but amongst the rest of the guys, i'm just average. eons away from the top HC players, or even my own jc senior like xudong.

and now... my shi fu is 'gone'... all i can say is... it'll bring a closure to the weiqi arc of my life - not a full closure, i'm certain bits and pieces of it will still resurface, but a closure nonetheless.

敬爱的杨老师，谢谢你为我们做的一确。您的教诲我会牢记在心！

tweet with me!

another failed attempt and doodling i guess... wanted to draw a little birdy icon but my doodles guess dont look right... i think i'll have better luck if i just take a pen and draw and snap a pic later....

blogger layout/blog skin... still... deciding what to do with this...

a new blog skin

ok... so i've gotten a new blog skin... but i'm less than happy with how the background picture ends so very abruptly and how everything is on the left side rather than centered as i prefer it... guess i gotta go read up more on css...

might try to come up with my own back ground picture... or use some other background pic from else where... but i aint very good at photoshop... okays... there's some stuff i gotta help my mum settle now... and no, i've not made any progress on the taiwan trip prep since yesterday... guess its time i do some proper work... oh shit... almost forgot... i promised my sis to go out with her tmr... her friends are taking part in some YMCA comp and my sis is helping out... and they are certainly in need of manpower and i am quite free... i absolutely would love to help out... just that i slacked the whole day and didnt do any taiwan trip research... crap.... i better get my butt moving....

luv Firefox and iPhone

ok, so as i mentioned earlier... this post will be dedicated to the iToy apps and firefox add ons that i absolutely love/adore.

1st up. why firefox (ff)?
FF runs way faster than IE, and it has really nice add ons that make my life much easier.

google chrome is good too, but i've yet to check out the add ons - in fact i plan to do so right after this post. unfortunately, too many add ons slows down the program, and too many add ons in FF will cause occasional crashes... so dont go overboard with add ons... (after my latest round of add on searching in FF, it'll crash occasionally now, previously none at all, still i cant live w/o those add ons...)

ok the 1st add on: snap links
(listed in order of usefulness/importance/reliance)

right click, drag, and it'll open up all the links in box in a new tab. or in a new window etc... u select in the options menu :)

i use this all the time. eg. there's several new threads to read in forums, i open up all the threads at the same time to read. or there's several links to check out in HS/other sites... right click, drag, done! simple, but very very important. esp if u play games like pet dogs or fluff friends etc... open tons of links at once with this add on for easier petting!

2. easy drag to go
uber useful. select a text, drag and it will do a search for you. you can drag in all 4 (top,down,left,right) directions and each direction it can perform a diff task for you (once again, u get to set!)

you can set it to open pics in a new tab, copy the link location, or even save a picture... the save a pic part is especially useful for me when doing HS updates... when i'll need to constantly save pics from extractions and upload them to HS. saves me alot of time when this add on

3. Auto Dial
saves a whole list of the pages u visited recently and displays them when u open a new tab. the downside that is you cant arrange the display order :(
nonetheless, its still very useful for me... much better than the recent pages displayed in safari or chrome, as this allows the display of... 20 or more sites??? the 8 sites or so in chrome/safari just aint enough for a user like me.

those abv, are the absolute essential ones that i use every single time i'm on the web... the rest are also very useful, but not as essential/used that frequently

colorful tabs
as the name suggests. changes the tabs so that they look very pretty, and you can see at a glance which tab is which. allows you to fade the tabs that aint selected too to make it more obvious which tab you're at.

split browser
allows you to move a tab into a side window --- top, bot, left, right, ur choice. anyplace you like. you can make the two pages scroll at the same spd even... very useful when i'm copying stuff from say south perry to HS. i can just look at the two pages side by side (w/o having to open them on seperate windows, and resize both windows.) you can resize the size of the 'side tab' webpage. the down side is that your apps like snap links dont work on the 'side tab' window. so make the window that you need to use the rest of ur add ons on to be NOT the side tabbed window. if you need those add ons (like ez drag to go, snap links) on both, guess this still aint ideal :(

but already it makes life much easier for me when i added in stuff from south perry extractions to HS. (i didnt need ez drag to go on both tabs too)

clippie
allows you to store your copied text, pretty much like the clip board in msoft. downside is that there isnt a shortcut to selecting which copied text to paste. would very much prefer it if there was a keyboard shortcut to select which text to paste, would make my work on HS much faster/easier

reload every
the one and only auto refresher for firefox. used it alot when i was playing some broswer rpg games but since i've now quit them all, i dont use this at all anymore. used to set some forum pages to auto refresh every 1min or so, so that whenever i go to the site i dont have to manually refresh to see if there's new stuff... hmm... maybe i shd do that for the warrior's hall page again...

anyway... this app sits very nicely as just a small drop down button beside the original FF refresh button. really neatly tucked away indeed. you can set the exact amt of time to wait before refreshing, and you can control each window and tab separately.

FoxClocks
i use this to check the time at various cities... sits as a neat row of times at where your status bar is(bot of the page). basically i used it quite often previously to check wat time is it at XX place where my fellow troops/other friends were... but now i refer to the times less often

ok... now for those apps that i use to keep in touch... i've come to rely on these add ons so much that they are absolutely essential now... but i felt they deserve another category of their own, plus they aint that 'work related' stuff, so their here rather than at the top of the list

scribe fire
the oldest of the 3 'keep in touch' add ons that i've got. basically its a platform that lets you sign in to all ur blogs, edit ur entries, and make new posts. w/o having to go to the website itself to sign in, create new entry... scribe fire is much more convenient... click the little icon on the bot right hand corner, and this screen pops up where u can make ur blog entry. there's a panel on the right that lets you choose which blog to post to, or choose a blog entry to bring up for editing/deleting. you can make the entry in rich editing or source editing (html)... can see a preview before you post too. very very convenient... in fact, all my entries theses days are made from scribe fire and scribe fire only. i only log in to blogger itself when i have changes to make to my blog layout/template.

TwitterBar
as the name suggests.... its a twitter tool! you type your tweet in the address bar of FF, and hit a button to just tweet away! convenient eh?

oh speaking of which, yes i've gotten myself a twitter acct. i do talk alot abt gaming stuffs there tho, so be warned... still i'll be glad if you could follow me at http://twitter.com/darkillertg

and the last FF add on that i'll talk abt...

Yoono
a very very useful tool... appears as an expandable bar on the left side of the browser... lets you sign in to sites like FB and twitter (the only two i use), and it'll inform you when ever there are updates. you can sign in the msn from there too, but i wont suggest that.. you'll get logged out of the msn live messenger program, and if you aint looking at ur FF page, (e.g. working on word) you wont know if ppl sent u a msg on msn.

but for FB and twitter wise its really great... i nvr bothered with FB updates... but with this i get to see if anyone made any updates, or sent me a msg etc... same for twitter... i'll know if anyone talked in my channel, or if those guys i'm following made any new post. you can reply right away from the add on too, very convenient. this together with the twitterbar... made me a much more regular user of twitter.

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ok, now on to iPhone apps - listed in no particular order. i'll break them into two main categories. utilities and games. basically utilities will include all the work related stuff, while games are just.. games and other fun apps :)

1st up, Utilities!

AppBox Lite/Pro
all in one... very useful, so much so that i've paid abt 1.5bucks sgd to buy the pro version. since that's the one i have now, i'll say wat's in the pro version only

currency converter!
battery status, phone memory space info
alarm clock
calculate the no. of days btw dates, no of days till XX
level - you know the carpenter tool with liquid and a bubble in the middle?
flashlight - it is really bright...
holidays info
calculate discount price (doubt i'd use this tho, mental calculation ftw!)
apparently you can download some add ons to this app too! cool!

there's a units converter too, but its a bit troublesome to use, i prefer another separate units converter app...

MultiConvert
very good units converter app. from weight to length to pressure to light intensity to... anything... everything! very user friendly too, it was very helpful when i did my biophysics on9 quizzes this sem

SG buses
lets you check which bus goes where. you can check by road name or the bus no. comes in handy at times when you are 'stranded' outside and need to know how to get hm

TouchMouse
control ur comp/lappy with ur iPhone thru wifi!!!

Remote
Control iTunes on ur comp/lappy using iPhone :)

Translators
there are quite a few translators out there... i've got quite a few of them on my phone... not sure which is better and all... ><

Dictionary
dictionary! now you can check the meaning of any word anywhere you want... if only i had this when doing my essays or comprehension in jc...

Stick it
basically a post it note pad :) i prefer this kind of 'timeless' notes to the date ordered notes as in the bulit in note pad.

UYH - Use Your Handwriting
basically you just doodle watever note you have down, not type :)

Channel News Asia/ Straits Times
Lets you read article stubs on ur itoy

Office Plus
Lets you open office (word, excel etc) documents! i've got several apps doing the same stuff, not quite sure which is better... didnt use any of them much, dont really use office files on my phone so yeah... ><

Timetable
save ur timetable on ur phone, pretty self explanatory...

Facebook
basically lets you know of any notifications/pms/wall post on FB :)
you can reply from the app, but seems like you cant delete from the app...

MeRadio
you've probably seen the advertisements... since iphone has no radio... you have an alternative... download an app to listen to the radio from the web... yes its in real time :)

PandoraBox
often apps have discounts for limited periods of times... this app keeps tracks of all the discounts and the new apps available!
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ok, that's abt it for utilities... other small stuff here and there but... let's move on to GAMES and other FUN stuff!

Backgrounds
Tons of nice background designs to choose from. you'll nvr get bored look at em

DoodleBuddy
As seen from my previous post, i really really enjoy playing on this app. the glitter effects and color add on are must gets! download some free apps for the doodlebucks!

Tap Tap Revenge 3
the ultimate game on iphone! gosh... i'm so addicted to this game that i've spent quite alot of $$$ buying tracks. extremely fun... so many song packs that i downloaded and liked... my very very most favourite one has to go the the owl city pack though. fireflies and vanilla twilight. love the song, love the blue background, love the rhythm. its perfect!

aint a person with good hand eye cooridination? no matter! i started off flanking songs in the easy mode! now i still fail at some songs in the hard mode, but very much improved already. i still panic when i see hoards of tappers coming my way but hey... this game IS fun. started off having to play with two thumbs, now i can play with three fingers, and i can play on my left hand too! really addictive game!

Tap Studio
lets you make ur own tap tap games from the songs in ur ipod!

iBubble Lite/Pro
If u like those bubble shooting game, this is it. very simple game, yet the game play format makes its so very very addictive. really. i've spent days playing this game on my itoy till i run my battery flat. a word of warning tho, this game seems the drain the itoy battery rather fast...

Solitaire
a classic game, nothing much to introduce abt it:)

Flaboo
Very fun arcade style game... u send a chicken flying thru the clouds and see how far up you can go

Fingerzilla
tap as fast as you can! very addictive too... so much so that i spent like 3 bucks to unlock more maps and the names pack...

Music Quiz/Name the Song Lite
picks songs from ur ipod, plays them for a while and gives you a list of song titles to pick from :)

WordSearch
just... word search :) good at training ur... searching spd :P

Links
its... smthing like teris... but with slightly different gameplay. i'd say the style is very interesting :)

Paper Toss
addictive... toss the paper ball into the basket! but beware the fan blowing....

iDragPaper
Drag a roll of toilet paper as fast as you can, very fun... compete among ur friends ;P

Sodoku
Just ur regular sodoku puzzles ;)

ADoodleFly
if you've played hedgehog launcher... yeah this game is quite similar to that :) cute drawings, cute upgrades... wat more can you ask for?

Charmed
something like bejeweled, but even more fun since you have to flip the phone in all sorts of directions to complete the level!

Piyo Blocks
also something like bejeweled, this game allows you to make multiple moves even before the previous combo ends. here, running out of moves wont lose the game, you only lose when you run out of time (yes, so many bejeweled like games, i'm a huge fan of bejeweled and bounce out, but since those aint free, i've to look for alternatives)

Creaturez
the third and last bejeweled like game i've got. in this game there's timed and untimed modes... either way, if you're out of moves... you out!

Quest Knight
Very fun tossing game... kinda like... heh... playing the flash game before but i've forgotten the name. you toss guys and prevent them from reaching the castle. too bad the free version has limited lvls, but still, its fun.

Lemonade Tycoon 1/2
i love the tycoon kind of games... you can play on... forever and ever!

there's also the farmville like series of games that i play... all with similar concepts... shant list them all here... i'm sure you can find them urself on the app store :P lazy and it IS getting really late...

ok... nite nite all!

loads of updates! hold your breath and get ready for a long read!

i'm going on holiday to taipei next week form 14th to the 21st. of June
yes. we only booked the hotel and tickets online yest morning at like
3am... uber last min stuff as you can see... i cant believe its thursday now already and we are flying off on monday morning gosh!

been reading bryan wong's blog for the past 2 days or so. my sis chanced upon his blog to find that its amazingly updated... yes, bryan wong the media corp artise. and yes his blog is updated! with very nice pics of his travels, shows, entries on his emotions/thoughts etc... he's set up a fb page and twitter too, but his twitter isnt very updated... anyway his fb page is at http://www.facebook.com/bbryanwong

lol, why i am so random to start promoting his blog etc you ask? well honestly i've been quite a fan of bryan and kim ng... i remember the time when they hosted shows after shows after shows together... their shows were abt all that i watched on tv... and these days with the much decreased standards of many sg tv shows... bryan's shows are just abt all that i watch on chn U/8 (well almost, occasionally there are funny, worthy shows like the ѫp show and the paris and milan show where aunty lucy made her debut... oh the noose is good too, but that's a chn 5 show). esp when there are irritating hosts like mark lee. really really dislike him, idk why he is so popular/hosts/appears in so many shows...

anyway... on tv programs... aint watching any sg made shows atm lol...
hmm, back to bryan's blog... yeah, very surprised that he keeps a blog, keeps it updated, and bothers to upload all those nice pics from his trips/shows etc... very nice entries really. i highly recommend you to go read em :) quite surprised, his english is really good actually... enjoyed reading his entries, really shows the.. human/real? side of him? very interesting experiences that he shared too... was after reading his entries that kinda motivated me to come back to post smthing on my blog :)


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ok, so the taiwan trip...

did some more research just now. perhaps half of the research is done already (or more)
tmr gotta plan out the itinerary... and finish up the research.  gotta do all the small things like freeing up the camera's memory card etc too...

dl-ed more apps onto my phone... and i've been having quite a blast on doodle buddy. esp with the new color tone thing (now i can use just abt any color under the rainbow!) and glitter brush! gosh, i love the glitter brush! it looks so good from afar/on my iPhone! heh... doodles on mine are nvr meant to be stared at/taken seriously, mind you!

okays... so the pix!


and some random crap i drew previously w/o the nice colors and glitter tool


and on mousehunt... still discovering all that long tail has to offer... but i absolutely LOVE the new trap checks that dont require entire page refreshes... the new crafting/inv and travel page... the much more convenient trap/base/cheese change on the camp page itself... gosh i <3 all the new non-page refresh changes, THEY ROCK! MUACKS MH! really wont mind donating to the game... the devs deserve the donations... however still hesitating since i'm not yet in dire need of sb+ atm, and just remember abt my FB credits which i can use for buying sb+ later on. previously wanted to buy sb+ already, but didnt know how much to donate... the more u donate at once, the cheaper it gets... but the largest amt to donate really is quite a huge sum... plus i've spent some $$$ on buying songs for Tap Tap Revenge... so yeah... see how things goes later on.

man, when i wake up later... it'll be thurs already (i know it IS thurs now already)... and we're flying off on sunday. gosh... so little time left! guess i wont have time to start up on my new training grounds thread till after i come back... gd thing is that the hotel we booked has free wireless! so i can still check up on forums when i'm in taipei... IF i'm not too tired that is. (of cos, i <3 my iPhone!!!)


currently listening to Love Story by Taylor Swift over and over on replay on the cute mp3 speaker i won (connected to my iToy, lame i know, but if u dont use stuff, they'll spoil quite fast). i <3 that song, and can listen to it hours on end...

yeah yeah, i've been copying and pasting stuff over from the other blog but well....


okays... so... exams ended... results were out, i did as badly this sem as i did last sem. exact same lousy gpa GOSH. seriously... i suck. i cant make myself motivated to study anymore. i really... feel like quitting after looking at my results. i did study. i did try. but not hard enough. nor consistent enough. and i still cant make myself stay awake, pay attention to 2 hours of lect. i just fall asleep halfway through. as usual, i say i will do better the next time round... but as usual... its not going to come through. oh gosh... someone slap me awake... someone... anyone...

so far away from my goals.
so far
1st class hons i guess has just became an impossible dream
nah, it was impossible the moment i stopped studying when i entered jc.
its like i stopped all my gears, and things nvr went right since then.
once stopped... my gears could no longer be started...

i guess there is some hope though... all that involvement in HS and other stuff... now i can happily not maple even if its 2x exp or when there's events going on... playing lesser... but it could very well merely translate to time spent on other game related stuff... or just non sch work stuffs. e.g. my training grounds guide. not that those are really bad... but not having the motivation to study...

promised to do things like read up on my chem and jap during the hols... time is slipping by and i've not done anything! next week will be gone... tho i've got an uber long hols till end of aug... but i'm intending to visit a friend in China in aug... she's from chong qing and we'll also be gng to visit the shanghai world expo! but being the lazy person that i am... i've not done anything apart from check the air ticket prices. absolutely nothing..... gah................


so in the mean time.. apart from a whole sem that flew past... and the exams... my dad got me an iPhone (aka iToy) as a bday prezzie! over 500bucks... plus an expensive plan... at 1st was reluctant to change phone... their all so ex these days... was looking for smthing similar to my old phone... candy stick type, not slide, with keypad, no touch screen... but those type were really... extinct! really couldnt find a single phone that fit the bill (esp cos i wanted SE back)

however cos the ear piece contact on my old phone was really... dying... i decided its better to take hold of the opportunity of the IT show to get a new phone... already settled on anio by sony E... took the queue number... but at the very very last min... realise that the touch screen of anio was really really sucky. cant even like unlock the phone properly... used iPhone for a while... the touch screen was uber good... and my dad kept tantalizing me with getting the iPhone... so yeah, last min decision made right at the counter - get an iPhone instead of the anio. Black - i wont have it otherwise, white is really not my color despite how my dad says white is nicer. really i think it looks better in black. my mum got a sumsung jet at the same time :)

no research, no nothing done prior to that. my sis helped did some research but it was btw anio, jet and omina... not iPhone. i didnt even know that the ear piece jet is the normal one... and the touch phone idiot that i was didnt even know how to lock the phone... nor how to take out my sim card...

but after that... gosh now i really <3 my new toy. the touch screen is fantastic! everything works really well... expect when i dropped it from like wrist height in the toilet... the one and only menu button didnt respond... like i had to press it really really hard/hold it... sometimes it just didnt respond at all... really gave a quite a big scare.... thankfully it 'recovered' after that (i dropped it at night, the next day it was working almost completely alright again)... i think the parts just went lose or smthing, but got back into place later. phew! (now the button works perfectly fine!)

i do miss the music ID feature on my old SE phone... where the phone will sample the music being played in the bg and search on the SE site for a matching song... and the bluetooth on iphone doesnt allow sending of files... well there are apps that allow for that, but mostly only btw other iphone users... :(

but apart from those two... gosh i love the phone! all the millions of apps and games! its just grand! the currency converters... unit converters... the fantastic fast speed, convenient web surfing... heh esp the web surfing... really makes my dad jealous everytime - his is a HTC touch pro 2. windows OS, so he can run xcel and stuff really just like a windows comp, screen resolution better than mine too, but the downside is that things aint as userfriendly, and the touch screen is no fight compared to itoy. case in point regarding the userfriendlyness...

itoy: there are only two buttons, pressing the top button offs the screen, AND locks the phone
htc: you have to 1st lock the phone, than press the top button to off the screen. turning the screen off DOES NOT lock the phone. you have to lock it 1st, than off. no doubt its uber irritating... so much so that ppl made programs that re-programs the top button to lock the phone directly... basically its an iPhone emulator... just that it gave the user even more functional tweaks than on the actual iphone. so now my dad happily has a iphone mimic in his pocket :P (at least the lock function and the background when the phone is locked part, yes they even mimic the clock and the slide button) oh yeah... the htc original unlock method is just touch two diff parts of the screen, making it very easy to accidentally unlock the phone and end up calling random ppl... so the iphone slide to unlock mimic solved the problem (as with the slide the answer stuff, made things more user friendly...)


yay! wang xin and sandra are both coming back in june/july <3 you troopers! gosh, how much would wx have changed!!! lol, i wonder if she still remembers she's called wx and not just Yvonne!

hmm... seems like i have a hell lotta stuff to say... i shall continue in my next post that'll be on FF add ons and iPhone apps! :D