1 more pic...

Left this out earlier on, n since posting to two blogs just making a new post is easier... Ate 麻辣抄手 just now, n brought this sauce


Tried the 素酸辣粉 as well as 臭豆腐. The smelly bean curd they made is weird tho, dunnoe wats with that shop, my friend says it's not like that else where too... They dipped the toufu in breadcrumbs n deep fry, making it taste more like deep fried chicken bits, barely any toufu taste.
Oh and cute watermelons they have here. It's quite small n they eat it like this.


The skin is really thin... Ok, really time to sleep now!
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CQ trip day 1 n 2 cont

Think I wrote too long or smthing, the app kept crashing on me. So I'll cont from where I left off. Hmphs like 5 time retyping the bloody same thing already.






Yup so that's the expo ticket. 100 bucks each time 3 since we spending 3 days there. Tilt ur head n bare with it cos I can't change the pic orientation on my hp using this app.

Some pics of my friends rm. A little messy... Took the pics w/o her knowing while she was taking a bath... Sssshhhh! Don't tell her hor!





Her table, can see some of my stuff there too, like my trademark water bottle.


My bed! A mattress on top of two wooden planks on the floor, it's quite comfy tho



My friends bed. The mattress I'm using is taken from a bed in another room. The room faces another side of the hse n is really hot in summer so she decided to bring the mattress over instead. Really very thoughtful of her.

Thus far it's been quite good. Nothing big that I'm not accustomed with or anything. So far she hasn't brought me to try too spicy foods yet. mind the word yet.. :s. The weather is freaking hot but there's nth u can do abt it... They all knock when going into rooms tho, like when she or her mum comes into her rm, they knock b4 entering, smthing I'm still not very used to yet.

That's abt all for now, getting tired n typing on my phone takes extremely long, been at it for like 1.5 hrs already, plus the crashing n posting which took a while. Kk, signing off now tata!

Btw yin, pics of her hse as u request...living rm pics probably tmr bah...
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Chongqing trip!!! - day 1 n 2

Happiness! My friends hse got wifi n together with this blogpress app I can blog n post pics I took on my iToy! Didn't take much pics thus far tho, n all he scenery pics I only took with my camera. So only have pics of the stuff I bought today!

Arrived here ard noon yesterday. My friend n her dad n her uncle who was driving were at the airport to fetch me. We went for lunch on the way back to her hse. Ate 老鸭汤 with radish. The radish is diff from the ones in sg. These ones are slightly sour n gave the soup a lovely sour tinge that made it super nice! They eat it with green chili as a sauce, but since I don't take spicy food well I didn't take much of the sauce. It isn't too terribly spicy tho. We ordered some veggies to add to the soup, sort of like hotpot style. There was thinly sliced cucumber too! Nvr knew it can go into the hot pot, I'll definitely want to try it at home - need some good cutting skills tho.

After that we rested in her home till after dinner. Dinner was cooked by her mum. Porridge or wat they call 稀饭 (we normally just say 粥 in sg) was serve with tomatoes, bitter gourd, some veggie dish, meat slices with 咸菜长豆, and a 麻辣 dish with slices of tripe, pork telon, beef... Quite a lot of stuff in there, can't rem wat else, but it was super good, and not really that spicy.

Went to walk ard the neighborhood after dinner. Not that hot aft the sun sets. It's really super hot here. Like way hotter than sg. Even stuff like the soup n shampoo are lukewarm. Feels like ur constantly in an oven. Thk god for air cons! Dunnoe how I'm gonna survive when I visit the expo - long queues and all outdoors in the burning weather! I will die!!!! Anyway I got a china sim card, and after that we went to the supermart n bought like breakfast for today.


Woke up at 9 this morn n had breakfast. Ate the stuff we got yest, some local 糕点, n had yogurt drink too. Think they eat a lot of yogurts n yogurts drink here, alot of it in their supermart. Their supermart also sells cooked food like duck feet, pork slices, fried preserved veggies with meat... All sorts of stuff!

Went to the city area today. Took mrt there n visited several shopping malls n a bookshop, the largest in CQ. The bookshop is like 6 stories high. Got the following items there...



Japanese textbook! My friend has it too n she says it's good. Our sch course teaches sososo slow. No wonder my teacher last seem had such a great time laughing at us. This ones the most beginner lvl textbook, and has book 1 n 2. Both for only rmb64. N comes with cd too!






Yup! A DVD abt expo! 8 hours long on 4 DVDs, this one is more ex, rmb100.


My friend kept asking me to buy clothes, shoes, assesories etc. Trying really really hard to change my tomboy look... Took the abv pic in a changing room - she made me try a shirt but me being the fat pig that I am... The shirt was uber fitting n show off my tummy real well, smthing I have no intention to do...


She made me try a dress too... Seriously!!! A dress that shows off ur shoulder too at that! No way I'm gonna buy that thing! The last time I wore a dress is in jc 1... That is if u count rg pinafore as a dress. Besides that... Maybe in kindergarden or lower primary??? Getting me to buy a dress failed... Than she spotted the bear as shown in the pic abv in the same shop. I tot it was a pencil case, but turns out o be a recycling bag. Asked me if I wanted to buy it cos it's so cute, I find it ok I guess... But just that I took the blue bear instead of the pink one she showed me... If there wasn't a blue version I might not have gotten it... N if cos it's on offer too.. Usual price 99bucks, a whooping 20sgd can u believe that???!!?!?!? Thankfully 有打三折 which means 70% off in case u r wondering. 6 bucks... Still kinda ex but oh wells...



Went to an accessories street. Quite a huge area n loads of shops, didn't really buy anything... N well the necklace abv, my friend ask me if I liked it, I didn't want to keep saying no so I just smiled, than bravo... She haggled with the shopkeeper, succeeded n got it at 15rmb for me... Yes she paid, not me... Gotta treat her to a nice meal when we go shanghai n aft she come back sg. She's been paying for all sort of small stuff n makes me feel so bad n pathetic.




A keychain I got for me dad. 15bucks too n I paid this time.

A fan... Didn't bring one from sg so we decided to get a battery operated one so we can use at the expo. She got a strawberry pink one. 10bucks


Printed leaf vein bookmarks! 10bucks each.




Mint leaves n a mint drink. Just need to soak the mint leaves in cold water will do, can just add them to ur water bottle before u go out. Tastes quite good, tries it today. Haven tried the drink yet,
bringing it out tmr.





A snack that I got today, it's sesame, peanuts n macadamia nuts fried with dried chili. The stuff fillings into the dried chili. The on I tried is the less spicy one, n it really ain't very spicy. It's very crispy, and tastes quite good really.

That's abt all the stuff I bought today. Some other pics... 1st up is the expo passport. My friend ordered on9 n it got delivered today.


That's the cover.


The first page... N below ish the last


The passport cost 30rmb, but add in another 10 for the shipping.
-











Yup that's the expo ticket! 100 bucks each times 3 since we decided to spend 3 days there. Can't change pic orientation on my iToy so just tilt ur head n bare with it yeah?

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Wats for dinner tonight!

Here's wat I cooked for dinner tonite whoohoo!

Pan fried cod fish with butter, garlic n button mushrooms!



Smells super good i tell ya!

And it goes with this...



Choice of side dishes a bit weird I noe, but my mum already cooked those in the afternoon

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hello peeps!

1st of all...
Happy Belated Birthday to our dear Michelle!

it was really great to see like all the long lost peeps from sec sch n jc at the party! didnt expect to see so many ppl i know... hope mich likes to bag n earrings we got for me :D

still haven upload the photos yet... lazy me... my sis took the camera... and i think its still in her bag, with her, in sch... (or on the way back from sch). well i didnt take much photos anyway... but still i enjoyed the time we had hanging out to chat... and for the 1st time ever, 1) meeting those long lost friends after jc, and 2) all, yes ALL of us 6 troopers could meet up... really 1st time in two years sia... still thinking abt how to send the photos over... dunnoe how big the pics are and whether ppl's email can take it haha. i stand by not posting any pics with faces on my blog and fb. yeah fb i get tagged by others... and i dont wanna be a spoil sport and untag all of it... but i dont want to post any... same reason why my display pics are nvr pics of myself. i'm just not very keen on showing the whole world how i look like...

meeting up with em troopers again tmr for lunch... sandra dear has to go back to aussie this sun cos her sch starts on mon :( sad :( wanted to go msia with wx n ash next week, but were are like how near and have no plans... whee! oh wells, good habits from sec sch... we are the last min peeps!

and heard from my sis rgs got into the NSC FINALS! 1st time ever sia... last time always kena kiked by ri... wahaha u go gals! go kick ass and make some noiseeeeeee!

zok... that's all for now... whee!

Sushi!!!

Ate like a pig again yesterday at sakae with yin n ash! Gng out to meet dear wx n mich for lunch later! And darling Sandra is coming back on Tuesday! I cant wait!








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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.

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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.

==================================================================

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!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 :)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Exams are over.... and omg...

exams are over. the papers were disgusting... maybe i'll talk abt them later or some other day... but for now... gosh. i must say this 1st.

was talking to this wonderful chap i met in maple (so hard to find nice ppl there these days) on msn. he asked me abt some sch work in the afternoon, chem and bio related stuff... and thanked me again for helping him just now (really nice). we started chatting abt sch, bio, science related stuff... i told him abt my attachments at ibn and encouraged him to go for attachments... told him abit abt the hydrogels and sent him the paper... than i went to check for the title of the 2nd paper my mentor published. the one that i saw my name hidden somewhere in the acknowledgments... than i realised there were two papers... and lo and behold... my name was in the acknowledgements on both of them gosh. such a privilege, wat an honor! a mere jc kid having her name appear on a paper. yes its just a small, insignificant name in the acknowledgments, but still... hopefully its a nice start to a great beginning >< shot, i shdnt screw up my studies like this... T.T thks to my horrendous performance last sem in which i took a hefty 24AUs, my gpa now is PATHETIC. really PATHETIC. gosh. maybe i shd go back to ibn this hols... but i got an invitation to go visit my friend in china which i do intend to take up >< and than again, this hols is probably the longest hols i'm ever gonna have... and than again, i want to go china... didnt want to go back ibn cos i've been there quite a few times. wanted to go else where but looking thru the list of institutes in astar nothing much else seemed appealing. in the end i hesitated and ending up doing nothing. now i've got plans to go china... and attachments? i really dont know. gotta rethink my holiday plans again. have yet to contact my friend in china. promised to do so tmr. maybe i'll do attachment for two months, and go china in august. nvm, i'll contact my friend 1st. i want to stay in sg during jun-jul period cos that's the stars registration period. and i've got to apply for overload this time round to cont taking jap lvl 4.

haiz...

gotta thank that friend of mine for reminding me perhaps? of those ibn attachment days. okays, i shd go and read those papers now :P

thanks alot to fan, really the best mentor anyone can wish for, and of cos, kuri the very funny and nice boss.

4 down to go!

2 more papers left, tmr morning and friday!

lalala

and you tot i'd abandoned this blog eh?

haha... almost... well maybe not.

wanted to post some stuff, but decided that some things are better kept offline...

anyway.... exams are coming already.... *gosh* my last post was abt me taking how many modules this sem. yeah. time flies, and it will only go faster as we age and our internal body clocks slows down... NOOOOOOOOOO!

1st paper: jap on thurs
26th april - bs209
28th - 207
30th - 210
5th may - 206
7th may - 208

still not sure abt wat to do during the hols. i shd have msged my mentor long ago if i want to return to ibn... but dun ask me why... i'm still hesitating....

taking on too much?

well my dad was quite surprised when i said i took 8 modules in total last sem... and this sem i have 7 core... and i still planned on taking 2 electives cos i desperately need to clear my electives... he was saying i'm taking on too much.

yeah maybe...
this sem i have 7 core, + lab, planning to take 2 electives, one of them is jap lvl 3 which WILL take me alot of time to remember all the new vocab and such...

and then i have:
HS DB mod
self imposed warrior's hall regular poster/helper? not sure what u call it
hero's lounge... thread starter (not lounge starter!)
my training grounds guide
and my latest project. HUGE project. a website of my own (still its free hosting) with:
the entire encylopedia of all the warrior related FAQs
SM guide
hero guide
aran guide
NW guide
training grounds guide
acc calculator and damage calculator (my own version)

alot of my new project stuff are not done of cos, and that's gonna take an awful lot of time... already i've pushed the new project aside for a couple of days, in favor of playing the game itself.
of yes, how can i forget my array of characters to train....

gotta... yes... gotta force myself to study during certain periods of time per week. MUST do....

...

okay ok... i decided to write some stuff here...

exams came and passed. my holiday in korea + china came and passed... -.-

i really have to think up of ways to make earning interesting to entice myself to devote more time to studying, apart from the host of games and game related stuff i do. results was a... kiss your high almighty 1st class hons dream gdbye... terrible. i can believe my dad didnt really scold me abt it. i guess we all know. i've been playing games right up to the very last min again and arghs. i hate myself for doing such things. yet when the time comes to actually mug for exams, i JUST CANT do it. man i suck! yes i do suck... even though... arghs... As was one big failure already... i'm doing it all over again. and again. and again. do i ever learn? i guess not. yes in a way i'm still freaking childish i guess. so old and still playing such childish games actively. and than spding so much X on it. arghs.............

i dont know.

i give up.

maybe i'll try typing out my own notes next year and see how things goes. at least that'll force me to actually read my lect notes more. yeah.

a million years since i blogged haha

as per title....

hmm... 1st paper down... 5 more to go. the japanese paper was still okay, felt better than i did the last sem. at least i hope i can get an A. haiz. so near yet so far. last paper on 8th dec! 2 papers tmr... haiz. hope i can do well for my other elective paper too... i think i'm pretty screwed for some of my core modules so yeah... :(

gah... i'm bored!

wanted to go maple forums... but nope... the forums are under maintenance! imma bored!!!!!!!! yesh i still have a bunch of work to do later on... part of the 102 draft needs to be edited (work split up) and emailed out by tmr, i have to find papers and read up on the causes n prevention of type 2 diabetics cos we are meeting up tmr... gah! 5 hours of break tmr but at least 1 hour will be spent on discussing the diabetic thing. the guy in my grp is like the super worried, kan choing... i dunnoe.. just find his character a bit weird. like how he suddenly come n ask me if i'm in 2nd year (like not direct entry) and know how to search for journals. yes yes i've done so much journal searching while at ibn. then the other 2 gals in my 102 grp were like, huh? year 2 means know how to search for journals arh? how arh? we dunnoe! wat's a journal anyway? proves my point that there are really a lot of ppl so far backward i dunnoe how to describe... their idea of research n all is still like the very childish, primary or secondary sch kind of idea ><

gah. dont wanna talk abt this anymore... i'll go play some games or smthing ><

yo peeps!

hello all! in sch comp lab now... biostats lesson LOL. OMG THIS MODULE IS SO SLACK!!!!!!!!!!!! I SWEAR! i just looked thru all the title of all the lects for the module... like all but 1 of the lecture is stuff not taught in jc... and considering that i really aced jc stats... i've already finished all the qns for today's lab... which plenty of time to spare to check out my gc syntax, check wiki for CLT formula and all etc... play facebook even.. hehe...

2 projects stuff on going now with an undone assignment for ACB... ok lah... nothing compared to all that 3, 4, 5, or more performance tasks at once in rg... lol. now my greatest challenge is trying to keep awake, and at the same time still be concentrating on lectures. still have yet to find a way to do so... imagine if i fall asleep half the time during that techno speak elective... where all the lesson content is in this 3 hour lecture once a week... i'll die in the exams lah ><

haiz. okays. her still gng on n on abt approximation n CLT... wonder if the use to gc to skip all the approximation, standardizing etc is accepted in exams... gotta ask the guy later on. <3 my gc ^^

tough days ahead?

been sick for the past couple of days... like fever, running nose, cough n the like.........

been totally heck care abt getting any electives... until like just an hour ago i decided to check out the stars planner thingy.. and to my amazement found this prescribed elective that doesnt clash with my core, has a title that looks interesting, and had 2 slots! OMG! so i went to search the ntu webby on details on the course. turns out that its a course abt english... technologically speaking is the course title. sounds interesting, no? smthing abt how technology changes the usage of language... even things like chat slang and all... the assessment still looks do-able. 50% ca - 2 take home assignments and a quiz. 50% final exam - mcqs and short qns.

then i went to check out on jap lvl2... which i've actually wanted to take but cldnt find a slot that fitted well with my time table... amazingly once again i found slots. picked one that's on tues n friday. the tues one is right aft my adv cell bio lect but i'm hoping the trend of that lecturer always releasing us early continues... probably gotta grab a bite before the lect n eat during the lec or smthing, in case i starve during the jap tut from 6:30-7pm... ><

not sure if i'm taking on too much. well if i slack like i did last year, i'll fluck everything no doubt, but that's the point - i dont want to waste my 4 years in uni n not get my 1st class hons. i dont wanna settle for anything less ><. yeah, a big chunk of it depends on the FYP, which u must get an A for, but if i'm not the one getting the A than who else? hell i did not waste my years rushing PTs in rg for nothing, nor did i spend my holidays at ibn doing nothing... the other day during one of the tuts 2 poly students while doing self intro said they worked at imbc n some other a-star insitute for a year before coming uni - cool stuff, but i did too had attachments at ibn for a total of over 8 months ><. yeah i was a student and they were dip holders so i believe they were lab officers/bio/watever its called in the insitute, but i did learn a lot from fan too. yeah i'm still extremely unsure n not confident if u ask me to come up with a project, design all the experiments and stuff, but compared to the rest of the students where i believe way more than half of them have had no experience watsoever... i'm definitely a lot ahead of them. thks fan!

gotta thks rgs a lot too... we were learning aseptic techniques to culture bacteria the other day... stuff we were taught in rg... >< yeah yeah, some small details like u shd always leave the agar plate inverted to prevent any condensation on the lid from falling back on the agar where not taught before, but the bulk of it? we learnt in secondary sch! they are teaching us how to write reports as a module too. yeah i appreciate them teaching us some new linguistics terms, but i've already picked up quite a bunch of scientific report writing skills... from the time we did a scientific project for RS in rg, to the srp in jc... no i'm not a fantastic writer, i'd probably be taking lit or smthing otherwise, but i really wonder how far back some of my peers can possibly be? i mean, i'm sure there are peeps who did srp also, who knows how to write reports... but if EVERYONE already knows all that stuff, why have such a course? that extra confidence boost, practise etc is always helpful, but i'm sure there are still ppl out there with no concept of report writing at all.

anways... i've missed the 1st 2 lects (bravo!) of the technologically speaking course, and the 1st 2 tuts of jap class. oh wells. the price to pay for not signing up for electives early. i must say that i'm really lucky tho, i didnt expect to get any electives this sem so late.

we have this biostats course this sem and i'm loving it! haha, stats was abt the only part of jc maths i liked anyway, and thus far i see a lot of repeat of jc stats. and the thing is, its BIOstats. basically, they know that in today's world of wonderful computer program and convinences, we dont need to bother abt the mathematical formulas and such (cos we arent taking math!!!!!!!!!!), we just need to understand the concept, and know how to use the programs... haha, my point exactly! just what i like! <3

we have a couple of projects thus far. actually, only 2 lah... not a lot. one on writing a doing a project n writing a proposal, report etc - basically its just PW all over again but with less time to complete. the other is a short presentation for tut class. my topic is on diabetics:causes n prevention. pretty cool topic, but not the coolest :( was hoping i cld get stuff like the bovine growth hormone, slimming pills n such... but oh wells. gotta think of some possible projects for the mini-pw and start searching for journals on the diabetes one tmr. both also got discussion on monday :X

gah... time to get start with work, just hope that this flu will be gone fast ><

sch's in!

1st wk of sch is over, i still have not found an elective to take. found an interesting one in psycology that doesnt clash with my timetable BUT it needs a prerequisite course which i, being a bio student, obviously didnt take. no hope in changing my mon afternoon class to a more desirable time either it seems. so i guess i'm stuck with waiting for FOUR hours on mon and FOUR hours on tues. sucks!

still hoping i can get in an elective before the add drop period ends next week. GAH!

sch's in

yup, sch has started.... met up with dear linger aft my lect n her work, had sushi again (wat else is there in ntu haha). she was really impressed with the sch buildings - cos just nice all the food place n my sch are the nice looking new buildings, the just nice they are repainting the old buildings for next yr's youth olympics, so i guess compared to nus, ntu looks so much better, haha! but seriously... ntu has a lot more new buildings than nus, and the new buildings do have quite a nice design - my sch doesnt look too bad, and the marble floorings inside does make the building look quite high class. the sch of art and design takes the cake - 2 buildings, with all glass on the exterior, in the shape of 2 slops, with grass grown ontop of the slopes. super nice looking - its been featured in the papers before...

anyways, no more slacking for me, i want my 1st class hons gpa and i cant get anyway near it if i continue slacking. i promise to read my lect notes before and revise it again aft the lect. no i've nvr mugged or memorized for any exams, and i WILL nvr do that. okays, i did study for exams still in rg, but its nothing like the way ppl mug for A lvls and such. i'm a smart person, and smart ppl dont mug and memorize stuff! we REMEMBER things haha! no more last mins work, i wanna know things inside out like the way i used it. okay, not exactly inside out, but at least i was sure of more than 80, or 90% of the course content in rg... now i step into the exam rm being sure of... less than half of wat i was taught. >< i wonder how i still get such a good gpa really =.=

okays. lect notes for tmr are still not out....... zzzzzz and tmr's lect is 1st thing in the morn so i guess there's no gonna be any notes... oh yeah, gotta try to stop falling asleep in lects too. last time i'll sleep thru half of EVERY lect. once again i wonder how i got such good grades zzzzzzzz. ok, my grades werent really that good, but i think its still abv average... at least it still starts with a 4... out of 5... either way, i'll make sure that this sem i know 100% for sure that my grades will be a lot better than average. its a promise... and promises are not meant to be broken - <3 linddy for teaching me the value of promises >< haiz... i'm not a good person when it comes to keeping promises, but i know wat i want n wat i must do to get there. well at least i know i want my 1st class hons ><

today's lect was pretty entertaining. or rather, very entertaining. as expected from dr. ken yu's lects. super duper funnieh. great thing abt it is that i dont have much trouble keeping awake ^^. bad thing abt it is... there's none! haha... i like his lects and style of teaching. a teeny weeny bit like hhx's style yeah. my laughing lect... really hope that he's taking us for all the lects, cos in the intro slide it say's he's the course coordinator and he didnt mention anyone else in the slide that's gonna be teaching us...

okays, enough time spent on blogging. i'll try to blog more often but i'm lazy. gah, i haven upload the pics we took for the outing with troopers to my com even. took me so long to upload the pics to shutterfly the other day, plus i cldnt load any webpage properly while uploading the pics >< gah... >< wat am i to do? haiz, still need to find an elective to add to my time table ><

outings!

3 outings lined up for the week!

1) sushi tea time buffet at novena with ash n mich tmr! yes, no more sakae this time! not very sure where we are gng, but i think its the one they showed on tv that time...

2) lunch with the students i meet at ibn on thurs! venue still undecided.

3) outing with my dear jlf on sat! venue n time both undecided.

hehe, jlf helping me play my nightwalker on maple... hmm... maybe i shd log on n visit my night walker later :D

life is full of surprises!

hehehe.... its been so long since i blogged or even visited my blog. sandra reopened her blog (surprise surprise!) which prompt me to take a look at mine (and hers of cos). which was when i realized that mich left a tag regarding her blog moving....

sandra's flying off again tmr :( i'll miss ya darling! <3

sch's starting on the 10th... or 11th... or august.... cos 10th shd be a hol in lieu of nat day on sunday right? anyways... yest when i check the elective module i've been assigned to aint out yet... so i'mma still waiting... haiz. next sem's timetable aint that great... 3 days starting at 8.30am. 3 days of squeezing in the crowded trains... arh wells... that' the life of a bio student i guess... unlike other courses where they can pack their time table to have free days... ours we dont have much of a choice... lects are fixed timings, tuts are more or less fixed... yeah... we only get to select which tut grp we are in.. hmps... so much so for letting us 'plan' our time table. we only get to choose our electives... but even then, u have 5 choices and its the computer that allocates which one u get into. and worst still... most of the courses have like 1000% of more ppl trying to register... and... ALOT of the modules clash with my core classes so yeah... so much so for the choices... ><

luv Sandra & JLF

still haven gone out with sandra but i swear we must meet up more than the one time we met with wx :(

and jlf is back in sg too! yay! :D <3 u all!