Genting Trip

Just came back from a 2D1N Genting trip yesterday.

28 Dec 2004
1600 - reached Lavendar MRT station bus stop and waited for Regine.

1640 - Regine finally arrived (estimated time). At this time, it was raining heavily and so we decided to have something to eat in the ICA building.

1730 - Rain had stopped. We walked towards Golden Mile Complex to ask the tour agency on how to check in for hotel, our free breakfast, etc.

1740 - This time, we really felt we had too much of time to spare until 2130. At 2130 then we can board the tour bus. We took a bus to Bugis to kill time.

2000 - Took a bus back to Golden Mile Complex.

2030 - Had dinner at a Thai Restaurant.

2115 - Check in at the tour agency. Got our seat number and bus number. Okay, we were to sit at the very first row.

2140 - Bus arrived and we boarded the bus. The bus was quite spacious.

2200 - Finally, the bus made its way to Genting. I am so exicited.

The journey was really long but we were awake all the way to Genting. Even the bus driver was a bit shocked I guessed.

29 Dec 2004
0300 - Made its way up the Genting Highlands. The bus we were travelling on had problems moving uphill and had to engage 1st gear all the way. Even on 1st gear, the bus often went dead. Hope we could reach our destination.

0410 - Bus engine went dead again. A tour bus travelling from the opposite direction happened to pass by and our bus driver quickly signalled for help. We changed to that bus and continued our journey.

0440 - We REACHED. It was really cold and misty when we alighted.

0445 - Queued to get number for hotel check-in.

0500 - Counter finally opened and we got queue number "46".

0510 - Settled down near the check-in counter and had a sleep until 0900 before the check-in counter opened.

0900 - Check-in counter opened. We waited for our number "46" to be called.

0930 - We finally got our room key! Initially, we thought we could only check in after 1200. We were lucky.

1000 - We went to have breakfast.

1200 - Proceed to Theme Park for some fun! We tried quite a lot of stations and all were fun. I also tried sweet corn in cup for the first time in my life!

1730 - Went back to our room for a bath and a nap before we had dinner and casino venture.

2030 - Had Kenny Rogers for dinner.

2115 - Tried to enter the Genting Casino but then Regine was checked and found underaged. We end up playing in the arcade.

2300 - Went back to hotel after 2300 and had a good sweet sleep.

30 Dec 2004

1000 - We woke up and quickly brushed our teeth and washed our faces. We were to have our free breakfast buffet at Tropical Cafe and 1030 was the closing time for breakfast.

1015 - Reached Tropical Cafe. We "grab" quite a lot of food for just 2 persons but in the end, I would say we managed to finish 95% of them.

1145 - Checked out.

1200 - Wandered around outdoor to enjoy the cold air. We also took a photo.

1345 - Checked in for bus and we would be going back to Singapore on a double decked bus!

1415 - Boarded the double decked bus. This time, we were allocated seats on the upper deck second row. Seats were spacious and bus was quite grand.

1430 - Bus started its journey back to Singapore. On our way downhill, we took some photos.

1900 - Reached "Yong Peng" rest point. We settled our dinner there.

2230 - Reached Tuas Checkpoint. Super long queue there!

2300 - Bus finally made its way to Golden Mile Complex.

2330 - Reached Golden Mile Complex.

2340 - Regine took a bus home while I took a cab.

I am really happy throughout the trip :) Looking forward to our next trip.

Tomorrow I am going to Gentings with Regine :)

Really don't understand why CNA keeps using the word "tidal waves" to describe those giant waves in Sri Lanka when the correct word to use should be "tsunami" or "harbor waves". CNA needs to learn from BBC.

I am still sufferring from cough and runny nose.

Never Give Up

I'll never give up fighting till the end
If I fall along the way I'll get up and try again
But never shall I accept the fact of defeat
I've set goals in life and those I must meet
But never will I let negativity hold me down
Those who think positive I keep them around
Never shall I dwell on things in the past
Bad times come but never do they last
I shall never give in to those who are weaker than I
If I give up now why not lay down and die
Never Give Up

Tomorrow is my last day of work :)
I am still a sick cat.

Hope I will get well by tomorrow.

I am seriously sick.

Expecting "tang1 yuan2" from my dear later :)

5 more working days.

I cannot wait for 24th and 28th to arrive!

Whenever my handphone rings and I see "Andrew Calling", I will feel a bit annoyed. I will get his call at least twice per day.

Off day :)

No one can psycho me to work 7 days for next week. I need a day off.

Wow!!! I received this sms from Andrew few minutes ago:

"7 days to Christmas.Need 4000 from each store.Hope u all can push hard. I will be organising a dinner after u all stop working.Those interested pls sms.Treat by mi,eleanor n celeste."

$4000 is not a problem to me I guess since I already hit $1400 for just today! However, I think I will choose to forgo the dinner. I just want to finish my work and get off with it. Count me out!

12am soon and hope my gf has made up her mind.

Long long week...

Met up with my gf for breakfast this morning at 8:30am near her house. Poor Regine, she had to wake up so early in the morning just to have breakfast with me. I left for Takashimaya at around 9:20am and reached there at around 9:40am. I was attached to help out in ammending price tags and stock replenishment. Arriving too early or on the dot was not a good choice at least for sales line. I was made to loiter around for 20 minutes before Andrew called me to meet up. His life being a sales merchandisher wasn't that good either. He had to bear any responsibility should a sales promoter commit anything wrong. The Taka sales promoter had got the price tag for both toys at the Civic Plaza and the level 3 stores mixed up and this created a big hoo-ha yesterday. Because of this mistake, Andrew had a good couple of hours of lecture from Eleanor, his superior. Eleanor even came down personally with her assistant, Celest, to oversee the running. All was done by 2pm and then Eleanor called for lunch treat to all of us, 6 in all. Her original plan was Crystal Jade Kitchen but then it was full-housed. Celest suggested a Thai restaurant but again it was full-housed. Finally, we settled down at an Italian restaurant, Pasta Cafe. Eleanor was going to give a lunch treat to 5 staff but she proved the saying, "There's no free lunch in the world", correct. In return, she wished to see better sales in the coming ten days, all the way to Christmas. I ordered "Liguine Carbonara" and "Iced Lemon Tea". Lunch setting was dull because all topics were on work except on questions like, "Where did you study?" and "Which course?". If I were to choose, I would prefer leaving the table and making a move to Suntec Carrefour for work straight to sitting down conversing in dull topics. From the many conversations, I learnt that Eleanor actually came down last Tuesday to spy on me, making sure I did my sales promoter job dutifully. Thank god I was not working that day. I have a strong feeling she will come down within the next few days. I reached Suntec Carrefour for work proper at 3:30pm.

Tomorrow will be a long day. My working hours is from 12pm to 12am.

Borrowed 2 books few days back but I doubt I have the time to even start any of them.

Slightly more than a week before my job assignment ends. Hurray!

It's working day again for tomorrow. How I wish 28th Dec arrives sooner.

I am still surviving even though I did not sleep for a day.

Yesterday after work, I took bus no. 97 and rushed to Harbour Front to meet my gf for a shooting stars sighting at Tanjung Beach, Sentosa. This would be our second shooting stars sighting together. We settled down at the hawker near bus interchange for dinner at around 10pm. It was quite late but we knew we had enough time for the last bus to Sentosa. Regine had checked that the last bus to leave for Sentosa was scheduled at 11pm. After our hearty fried prawn noodles dinner, I decided to buy some finger food. Just 1 curry puff, 1 banana ball, and 1 roti john required almost 10 minutes! We happily walked towards the bus berth to board the bus to Sentosa only to realize last bus was scheduled at 10:30pm instead. We were about 5 minutes late. Without much of a choice, we took a cab to Sentosa.

This time round, we were more well-prepared than our previous one. We laid newspapers on the sand, forming an area measured approximately at 3m by 3m. Strong winds did not deter us but rather, it made the whole process more enjoyable one. We grabbed anything we could find, from water bottles to jacket, from wallets to keys, simply anything, as weight on top of the newspapers. Another brilliant idea strucked us and that was to use scotch tape to piece the newspapers together. This proved to be a major innovation and was soon tested solid when a strong breeze blew past. After the foundation of our "home" was set-up, we then proceeded to lay mahjong papers on top of the newspapers. Using newspapers as the base was a new innovation and this was not used in our previous sighting. Scotch tape was also used for the mahjong papers. We spent about 2 hours just for setup but the time was worth it. Space was big and comfortable.

Finally, we could now lie down to concentrate on catching shooting stars. Sky was clear, weather was cool, mosquitoes were absent, thus provided an ideal condition for shooting stars sighting. We were lucky to catch some nice and bright shooting stars. We stayed awake until 4pm before consuming our supper. The next event for the day was playing with fireworks. They were very beautiful.

First bus out to Singapore main island was 7am and so we spent our free time sitting on our "base" chatting. Our night and very early morning was spent like this before heading for bus out to Singapore main island and back home. Overall, our mission was a successful one. I had an enjoyable encounter.

Called my gf just now but then no one answered the phone. I called in a bid to have an early lunch with her but... never mind.

2 pallets of stock arrived and hell began. Already, my department has not much space for new stocks and yet 2 pallets of stock came. I first attempted to stack up high up but then was told by the assistant manager not to stack up too high. That is contradictory because my supervisor wants me to stack up high and then the manager forbids me to do so. Okay, I heed the manager advice and create a new column to stack. My area now really resembles a warehouse, with lots of goods. I will be expecting 120 more remote control cars tomorrow.

Today was unlucky for me. I was trapped in the goods lift for 15 minutes. At that time, there were 3 victims including myself in the lift, and one of them was a lady. That lady was a promoter but acted like a distribution assistant to me. She banged the lift, shouted like nobody business, scolded vulgarities, and all-in-all, she was an impatient person. I tried to keep my cool so as to conserve my energy and not to perspire. We were saved in 15 minutes time.

Sigh..

Yeah!!! My gf and I will be going for a Genting trip 28th this month. This is our honeymoon part 1.

Today is tiring..

My dear is so sweet. For 2 consecutive days, she has dropped by my work place just to have dinner with me even though I can only spare her less than 1 hour after I minus off time taken for me to walk back to my work place to continue my work after dinner break. She needs to take a bus from her house, alight at the Suntec Convention Centre bus stop, walk all the way to Carrefour, and then have dinner with me. After the less than an hour dinner with me, she goes home straight. Poor her.. I really really appreciates her effort. I will cherish her!

Today is my 2nd day of work at Suntec Carrefour. Sales for today is better than yesterday's maybe because finally I am able to demonstrate remote control cars, all thanks to fully charged batteries. There is one product I am selling named "Fast Track Street Racer" which I really condemn. This is one product which I will need to send for return everyday because of its poor mechanical construct. It breaks down easily. However, that unreliable machine is my best seller because of its cheap price tag at only $10.90. Many will be attracted and fooled by the price to buy it for a gift for somebody. God bless him or her.

Malaysian ringgit has risen. Luckily I have exchanged S$110 for the ringgit 2 days ago.

Tomorrow will be my first day work. I will be working as a sales promoter promoting toys. Look for me at Suntec Carrefour.

Too boring this afternoon and so I went to check out friends' computing web site. I come to conclude something. I hate those people who put up group projects for sale without gaining approval from the other group mates. I see this as low and cheap.

I shall name the person here with an encryption: olxtpy

Decryption Hint: I am using Caesar Cipher. It cannot be that difficult to decrpyt it since the keyspace is just 25.

I cannot imagine anyone with a proper mind will do this. This world is becoming filthy.

Uploaded several photos for my friendster account.

My mom finally cooks today!

Took me 3 hours to get home from JB custom to my house! There was a heavy causeway jam on my way back and I was stuck along the causeway for more than an hour! Mind you I am standing all the way on the 170 bus, shifting my weight from left to right umpteen times. It was just sheer poor luck for me.

Bought a pair of track shoes for my gf today. Cost of the shoes is $119 but with 15% off and my $50 gift voucher, it end up only $47.25. Shopped at Raffles City Royal Sporting House, Taka Stadium, and then Lucky Plaza Royal Sporting House before making our mind on a pair. The pair I would say is not bad at all. My original intention is to spring a surprise on Christmas and pass her a pair of shoes for her. But my acting skills is just too lousy and my supposedly scheme becomes too obvious. Sigh.. But never mind. $47.25 is a lot to me but then I find it worth the money since it is for my dearest dear!

Forget to add.
I AM A LOUSY ACTOR.

I went to my gf's house after my today's paper to watch vcd. I made a call to her informing her of my arrival so she could come down for lunch first. Instead, she requested me to buy a packet of soya bean before coming to her house. I wondered why she did not want to come down for lunch or request me to help her pack lunch. Really weird.

With the packet of soya bean, I walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. I entered her house and saw 2 bowls of rice and some side dishes with plates on top as covers. I knew it. I was really touched. Oh my god! My dear actually woke up early this morning to wish me good luck for my exam. My dear actually woke up early this morning to buy fresh vegetables from the wet market. My dear actually woke up early this morning to prepare lunch for me. I was and am really touched.

My dear is so sweet.

After more than a month of hardwork, ordeal of having to study long hours for exam is finally over. My examination spans across 2 months - 19th Nov to 2nd Dec. Isn't that torturous? Ya, as if.

I am going to start work on the 6th this month. Find me at Suntec Carrefour toys section.

DoomsDay = #2004/12/2#

I want to wish myself best of luck for my tomorrow's history paper. I know I won't be able to do very well for this paper but I do hope I can get a S for that paper. Bless my pen, bless my handwriting, bless my brain, bless my mind, bless my 2hrs, ...

2 more days to liberation - Long March

Going to wrap up my cleanup volunteer job asap.
December will be a busy month for me.

I still have got no idea what am I studying for my history paper.
But I am enjoying reading the US history after the Great Depression. It's more of leisure reading and hope I will remember the details.

My rank keeps dropping :(

I WANT TO PUKE

As I kneel, head bowed, puking,
as I choke and snort my sputum
croaking, coughing, retching, groaning, on the bathroom floor,
I think, though brain is dizzy,
things I've never thought before
Things I've missed, though often
spewing, or somehow managed to ignore
While I lie bedraggled,
on the stinking cold hard floor.

Now with head a-throbbing,
o'er the great white bowl I'm bobbing,
Bobbing, throbbing, weaving, chucking,
surely there can be no more?
No more vomit I lay praying,
Jesus! save me now, and seal my maw
And send a team of maidens
to mop this stinking cold hard floor
And if you do, I promise,
on my honour, Nevermore!

But lo! my gut's ill-fated,
and my heaves are unabated,
And now my thoughts turn back
to whence they were before,
As I'm squirming, smacking, flopping,
like a spastic being ignored.
And no maidens do I hear,
not one wet-wipe does appear,
Nought but dread convulsions
on the stinking cold hard floor.

Tis curious, I wonder,
as I purge more sauce-filled chunder,
How the saucy slick of chunder,
appears, oh what a wonder!
As a likeness of myself
such as I've never seen before
As a likeness of myself,
writhing on the cold hard floor

And the likeness set me thinking,
how my doping, not my drinking,
could result in such a stinking,
stinking on the cold hard floor.
And two things I did conclude,
"Thank you, torrid interlude!"
And thank you Gods, all praise to you,
for there's truth in floating spew.

Waiting for dinner time...
So boring now!!!
No one at home :(

He don't know how to spell the word "Die".

I am not suitable to be a history student.

The sky is clear :)

This is even worse
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19270&item=5535890757&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Some more the bid is very high.

This is funny
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1523&item=5537940792&rd=1

But it is going to disappear in 4hrs plus.

...
where are you?

Stop dreaming!!!
Get back to study now!

My expectation for my other 2 papers is just a "Satisfactory" grade.
Anyway I have opted for Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade. Yeah!!!

Third hope is my CS3235.
My CA is just average but I think I did okay for my final.
A B+ will be very good.

Second hope will be on CS2281.
Looks like a minimum B+ for me.
Hope to get A- or A.

yeah!!!
only 2 questions wrong for CS3266 exam..
hope my structured question will turn out okay as well.
CA marks at the moment stands at 60.75/61.
I am seeing A+ or A grade but of course hope for a A+.
This will be my second A+.

Hardest paper - Computer Security.

I am so disappointed with myself. I got a question confirmed wrong for today's paper. So sad...

So sad.. regine does not seem to have done well for her stats paper today. Hope she can at least get a B+.

Wish myself luck for my 1pm paper.
Wish regine luck for her 5pm paper.

Folks, I am going to school now for the battle.

Sufferring from bit of misery now.
Exam is stressful.
I yearn for more sleep!

It's going to be a stressful period for my dear. She just had a paper few hours ago at 5pm. She will be having another paper on tomorrow 5pm, and another one the day after tomorrow 9am.

I am no better off than her. I will be having a paper tomorrow at 1pm and another one the day after tomorrow at 5pm.

Her last paper and mine are on 30th Nov and 2nd Dec respectively. And so this means there is ample time for our last paper. I promised myself to have a good long sleep on 24th Nov night after my computer security paper.

God bless our health.

Stats as of 22nd Nov 2004 showing number of questions I solved for respective topics.
Have to scroll down many times because stupid blogger does not render HTML tags well.

Topic	Count
Active Server Pages (ASP)	930
Visual Basic	236
JavaScript	122
Web Development	99
C++ Programming	68
HTML	60
C Programming	40
Lounge	38
Microsoft Access	34
Community Support	33
Programming	29
VB Databases	20
Macromedia UltraDev	17
New to EE?	15
VB Controls	15
Web Languages	12
Microsoft SQL Server	11
New Internet Users	10
Databases	8
Expert Input	7
Java Programming	7
Suggestions	7
.NET	6
EE Bugs	6
Miscellaneous	6
ColdFusion	5
Mysql	5
Web Development Software	5
Browser Issues	4
Hot URLs	4
JSP	4
Pascal	4
Web Hosting	4
Windows Programming	4
Windows XP	4
Feedback	3
Internet Information Server	3
Unix	3
Applications	2
C#	2
Cascading Style Sheets	2
Macromedia Dreamweaver	2
MFC	2
Microsoft Office	2
Microsoft Visual Interdev	2
Networking	2
Operating Systems	2
PHP	2
Programming Languages	2
Application Servers	1
ASP.NET	1
Eiffel for Windows	1
Hardware	1
Linux	1
Math & Science	1
Microsoft Excel	1
Microsoft FrontPage	1
MS-DOS	1
Online Marketing	1
Perl	1
PHP and Databases	1
Unix Programming	1
VB.NET	1
WAP	1
Web Authoring	1
Web Images	1
Web Servers	1
Websphere	1
Windows 95	1
Windows ME	1
Windows NT	1
XML	1

my dear, jia you.

hope my dear have the mental strength to stay awake the whole day.

Primary school students had had their exams.
Secondary school students had had their exams.
JC school students had had their exams.
Polytechnic students had had their exams.
NTU students had had their exams.
Many SMU students had had their exams.
But NUS students had just started their exams.
Last paper is on 2nd Dec 2004.

Sigh...

2 papers down!
3 more to go.

Second paper tomorrow
"Principles of Economics"
Scope - Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.

I shall keep things simple and short because time is precious especially during examination period.

had unix exam this morning..found it manageable..hope can get at least min B+..went down to tiong bahru plaza after exam..found myself a seat in KFC..wait for my gf to arrive for our KFC lunch..set myself up for tomorrow's economics paper..brought out my water bottle and placed it on the table..reprimanded by a KFC auntie..told it was not right to drink water..told her it was plain water only..she walked away..i ignored her of course..i thought it was okay..gf arrived an hour later..she brought out her 500ml water bottle with plain water..told her i was scolded for drinking plain water..knew she will be next..my instinct was correct..we ignored her..bought some "chickens"..delicious..gf was particularly excited..wahaha..

Tomorrow is my first paper.

Bought a ruler this morning.
Lost it in a couple of hours.
Going to buy another one later.

realized a serious typo in my very previous entry.
It should have been "...start Macroeconomics asap"

I really blur.

Going to take on Microeconomics by tonight and start Microeconomics asap.
Fight on.

Wondering what is she doing now..

I can do it!

I can do it!

Left with lecture10, lecture11, lecture12 and lecture6.
4 more lectures to meet my today's target but then time now is already 0145hr!

I am in no mood to study today and I don't know why.
Think I going home now.

My Unix Practical Exam was actually scheduled from 2pm to 4pm but then something happened and delayed the progress. Almost no one was able to log onto the NUS domain and mostly this could be due to some network connectivitiy problem in the lab. This is my 2nd PE for this module and in fact this is my 2nd PE in NUS. My first PE went quite well and I scored 95% for that. And as this 2nd PE, it was promised to be more on UNIX programming but then the 2nd question was based more on C. Quite disappointed since I concentrated so much on UNIX programming few days ago. The delay was a blessing in disguise since it helped buy some time and this meant more reading time for us.

At around 2:15pm, we were told to pack our bags and moved to another lab in the opposite building. "Everyone, we shall walk to the lab together", said Mr Edward, our TA. This reminds me of primary school times. There we go, carried our bags and stuff, walking to the opposite building. The procession was led by Mr Edward and Prof Weng walked behind the pack. This arrangement was to make sure there were no discussion among students and no one could leave the procession. Down the stairs, from 8th floor to 3rd floor, cross the linkway from SOC1 to S15 block, down one level to level 2 of S15, and into predetermined lab. "Log in and we shall start immediately!".

Imagine close to 100 students walking down the stairs in twos, in silence, crossing a bridge, then into 2 labs, really sounds funny to me (at least for me).

Not sure how will I fare for this PE.

yeah!!!
one more point increment for my dear!!!
her CS2102 mid-term paper was marked incorrectly.

Think she is fine now :)

I am going to miss you...

Pray she will get well.
Pray she will have enough time for study.
Pray everything will be smooth...

My dear is still feeling unwell. I am going to pray for her and hope she will get well asap. 5 to 10 minutes is to be reserved for the pray before I go for a shower later.

I pray...

Quite happy today because I scored 45 out of 40 today for my CS33266 E-commerce website demonstration. The extra 5 max marks is due to my bonus features :) I do have 2 to 3 more bonus features yet to demonstrate and the grader actually stopped me since I have scored maximum. So happy today.

And as for my CS3235 Security first formal paper, my group scored only 11 out of 17. I think that is quite bad.

Temperature running at 37.3 celsius.. then climb all the way up to 38. Hope my gf will be ok tomorrow morning.

So happy today :)
My gf helped celebrated my birthday for me.. hehe..
She was playful enough to tell me she has not prepared anything for me (even a simple dinner) but then today, she got a watch for me :)
Reached school 7am+ just to have the watch kept in the locker, keeping it away from me for the time being... Reli playful but then eh.. really poor thing to wake up so early.
Went home after dinner and then was told an "anthrax" (a letter) was hidden somewhere with me. What I found was a card with some handicraft by her... It must have took her days to prepare and make all those.

Appreciate everything.

Very very very cold now.

My army friends remembered my birthday :)

1 final assignment left.
route to exam...

One last assignment..
One last programming lab...
Route to exam...

I major in computer viruses and worms study. From history, timeline, methods of propagation, variants, future trends, etc., I know them all.

All the best to my dear.. so many readings to read.. poor her.
support her mentally.

Too hungry now.. no choice got to eat some Tung-1 noodle...
Sorry for not heeding advice and have supper again.

1 more assignment to go!
Going to complete my part by tomorrow.

I ordered "gong bao ji jin rice" and my gf ordered "tou foo claypot rice" today for lunch and both let us down :( The gravy for the "tou foo claypot" is 99% all oil! Really cannot imagine it. I then went to ask for an exchange and of course my request was granted. The "gong bao ji jin rice" also let us down. There's so much oil at the base of the rice and one can almost misrecognised that as gravy.

That's the most unhealthy food I ever seen.

Finally I am done with the 3 assignments whereby all need to be submitted on 1st Nov. Phew.. What a day to remember.

Here comes my report.
My dear contributed 70+ photos for my Ecommerce site and that constitutes close to 80% of all photos I have got at the moment. I have got a total of more than 100 photos (101 to be exact) of Japanese food!!!

All thanks to my dear.

2 more assignments in 2 days!!

All thanks to my dear for finding several pictures for my website. I will account how many after I finished compiling them.

VERY VERY Interesting website
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/

Finishing my e-commerce website soon :)

All the best to regine for her CS2250 presentation in about 7 hours time.

Coded a total of 4298 lines of code today!
That's 2nd best behind my personal best - recorded during poly days (I think is slightly more than 5000).
I think I am the only one who ever keeps track of number of lines coded per day.
I am a weirdo.

Spent 12 hours coding a very complex 1044 ASP page with about half of it is JavaScript scripts. Of all the many webpages I coded, I think this is the most JavaScript-intensive one. Very proud of it.

1st November Deadline
1. CS3266 E-commerce website due (left with admin site)
2. GEK2000 US History 1,500 words essay (0% completion)
3. CS2281 Programming in Unix Game assignment (0% completion)

I am beginning to love to eat chickens more than usual. I had chicken rice for lunch and chicken wing rice for dinner today! OMG

Today is the third time it rained right after my GEM lecture and is my second time because of rain, I decided not to brave through the rain to attend my Ecommerce lecture.

Today is a special day.
Just remember.

I scored 5/5 for my CS3266 homework but I am not proud at all because almost all I see had the same score. No competition at all. Don't like this system.

Phase1 evaluation demo also was very brief and short. I did a very extensive and complete project with complete validation but then none was really shown because the demo is only 5 minutes!!! SP is better when it comes to demonstration for practical project. SP always require more than 15 minutes and sometimes even more than 30 minutes. NUS sucks!

The battle is on now. I will be busy from tomorrow till exam ends. Science library will be my 1st home.

My laptop is finally free from virus, worm and trojan horse. When I first log onto the internet after I reinstalled windows, virus, worm, trojan horse plus some spywares came pouring in like nobody business. My ad-aware, spybot and norton managed to catch some but then still there are some left lurking in corners of my harddisk. I am unable to go online because of some stupid trojan horse forbidding IE to go to any pages. I ran several diagnostic tests and found some deserving worth mentioned packages. On top of my original 3 musketeers - ad-aware, spybot and NAV, I am going to add online trend micro url, stinger, HijackThis and process explorer to my maintenance folder.

I am an expert in troubleshooting such similar cases now!

So I was correct that my gf scored above average for her network test.

Some updates
1. Spent my last Fri night in NUS with my gf to study. I spent my night there using her laptop working on my CS2281 assignment although I brought mine. Mine just wasn't working because of a corrupted system file.
2. Reached home sleepily on a Sat morning. Formatted my laptop, installed windows, and installed some drivers before going for a bathe. Went to school again.
3. Continue installing drivers and essential software on the bus.
4. Continue my CS2281 and managed to complete it except for formatting and commenting in the afternoon.
5. My new windows have got lots of problem. I think I am going to perform many tests on my system in few hours time.

Cannot imagine I actually did not sleep for 1 Friday night and to carry on with my usual routine without resting or sleeping until later Sat midnight.

So happy for my gf. She scored 53% for her CS2105 network test and I believe 50% is the average. I knew that was a tough paper with many new policies implemented, like getting marks deducted for wrong MCQ answers and that was never the case for my time. On top of that, they even had structured questions!

I am also happy for her stats paper. When I asked her how much she got, she gave me the gloomy look and answered me only after my 2hr lecture. This really made me worried. After my lecture ended, she showed me her script and my worry was all along unnecessary. She scored 66 out of 80! That is above average :)

Keep up the good work.

Having my favourite Tung-1 instant noodle now.

Myo was back from Bangkok job trip.
Junren will be going to LA this Friday till mid of next month for a job trip.
Wow!!! So envious.

I am enjoying myself in doing CS3266 project. For more than 5 years, I have been helping and answering questions on ASP and now, I am applying it. I think no one will believe someone actually enjoys doing a project.

So happy for my dear.
She got A+ for her network lab.

Very quickly, my To-Do list is growing again with many deadlines to meet.
1st Nov - CS3266 Phase 2
1st Nov - GEK2000 1500 words history essay
...

My gf told me I haven't had any good sleep since last semester and I never realized that at all. But I think I am doing fine.

Very full now,
Had chicken rice with some friends for dinner just now.
Now having kway teow soup at home.

Today's UNIX lecture was conducted by a guest lecturer. His programming skills really impressed me. I went on to check out his teaching information and realized he teaches "Competitive Programming"! No wonder he is so fast in programming.

I lost a cashcard worth $20+.
So sad.

So happy for my dear..
She got 35 out of 50 for her CS2102 test.
30 is the average score.

gmail is improved again :)

So happy that I got 95 out of 100 for my Unix Practical Exam.
My gf is going to give me a treat tomorrow.
So happy.

I am starting to worry for my gf. She did not score well for most of her mid-term tests but I cannot do much about that except to try my best to help her academically. However, my ability to help is limited since some modules she took are unfamiliar to me.

I think I also have got myself to worry for having scored not that good for my security test. I scored 26 out of 35 only. I have to pull my socks to be still in contention for at least a B+ grade.

My gf will be having her statistics test tomorrow. Hope this time she can do better. All the best!

I am going to miss my laptop tomorrow.
I will be lending my laptop to my elder brother and I will use my gf's laptop instead.

Had my computer security test about 7 hours ago. Out of the 35 questions, I had got 4 of them wrong because of careless mistakes. Sigh... I hope I can get at least 28 out of 35.

I have changed my blog header from
"Don't assume that it's too late to get involved." -- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
to
"The history of human opinion is scarcely anything more than the history of human errors." -- Voltaire

Slept at around 4:30am yesterday and am now seriously sleepy. Energy level is dropping to minimum. Think I will sleep early tonight.

The following problem was posed by Sun Tse 2000 years ago:

There are certain things whose number is unknown. Repeatedly divided by 3, the remainder is 2; by 5 the remainder is 3; and by 7 the remainder is 2. What will be the number?

This stupid theorem is going to stick with computer security.

We are all too stressed up.

My favourite linked list assignment is on the way :)

My elder brother lost his wallet together with his IC, student matric card, student ezlink card, some cash, etc. Going to be very troublesome for him.

Life is tough.

Really weird - there's no UNIX programming assignment for this week. Weird.

Have been studying Econs test the whole day since morning and there seems to have quite a lot left to cover. Lots of many many curves to remember and their patterns and derivation are very difficult to remember. This test weightage is 40% and it's going to kill me. Hope S/U option will be the correct choice for me.

Later I will have to allocate some time to do some research for my security project. Tomorrow, I will be attending another experiment by a HYP and this time I will get at least $15 from it. Immediately after the experiment, I will have to rush to Thomson for my security project discussion.

Another busy week for me.

I decided to opt for S/U option for both my GEM and breadth module.
GEM: US From Settlements to Superpower - No hesitation to opt for S/U.
Breadth: Principles of Economics - Initially intended to work hard and score but then realised this module isn't easy and plus there are many JC students who took Econs before during A Levels seems to know inside out even without listening to lectures, I think I better opt for S/U.

Hope to concentrate on my CS modules and try to maintain at least a B+ for all my modules (excl HCI since I got a B- for that).

Finally I am out of the stress period. What's left for me this week is just a Econs test. My Unix PE is again postponed because the other guy who missed the original stipulated PE cannot make it tomorrow. I actually feel quite happy when I received an email from my lecturer that the PE will not be conducted tomorrow unless both of us can make it and the date we can both make it will definitely be next week since that guy is not in Singapore.

This week will be a stress week for my gf. She has got a test on Fri and another on Sat and for both, she has yet to complete preparing for any. Hope she will be able to go through this ordeal.

Just another normal day for me working on my project.

An hour ago, I was told there's another one who is affected and will not sit for tonight's PE. And this means there will have one student to accompany me to sit for a make up next week :)

In my opinion, my Unix lecturer is a very lazy one. Lecture 1 to 5 slides are written by another lecturere and he simply used it for this course. Lecture 6 slides are taken from another University's website! This makes me wonder will he ever write any notes this semester for this course? I doubt so. Not only did he not write his own notes, he doesn't even bother to prepare to read them prior to every lecture. Just take today's lecture as an example - he had to spend some time reading each slide before he could deliver it to us. To make things worse, some of the codes are not working on my school's SunOS because of many versions of UNIX/Linux. This really irritates me as to which code are working and which aren't. Sometimes when examples get lengthy, he simply skips them. That is very irresponsible of him.

In an hour's time I will be sitting for a test.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here is my update for my upcoming hell.
17th Sep '04 - GEK2000 Test.
17th Sep '04 - Supposedly having CS2281 PE too but then it clashes with my GEK test. As a result, I will have to sit for the PE alone, and most probably 1-to-1 with either the TA or the lecturer himself. As for the setup, I guess perhaps will be in my TA's office or lecturer's room. Sucks!
18th Sep '04 - Supposedly CS2281 programming assignment deadline but postponed in mercy of the PE.
19th Sep '04 - CS3266 Phase 1 Deadline.
20th Sep '04 - CS2281 new programming assignment deadline.
20th Sep '04 - 23rd Sep '04 - to complete CS3235 assignment 1.
25th Sep ''04 - EC1301 Test
30th Sep '04 - CS3235 Test
1st Oct '04 - CS3235 Assignment 1 deadline
...
The list can go on and on...

Argh!!! I going to take it a step at a time. This entry will serve as a reminder for myself.

24 hrs per day.
>=20 hrs of it is used for doing my 1 project, 1 test, 1 Practical Exam and 1 programming assignment which all are due this week.

Just woke up not long ago and here I am in front of my laptop again working on my project. That's my life for this semester.

Logged onto NUS IVLE forum and found some are discussing how come the stipulated workload for my 3MCs CS2281 module has doubled from what is printed in the faculty's site. ARGH!!! Another programming assignment to be handed in on the week where I have got my Practical Examination. That's a bit demanding for a 3MC module. If I am not wrong, other modules will not introduce any practical assignments on the week where there's a test. That policy applies to my CS2106 and also to some other modules which I am exempted from like CS1101 and CS1102.

Stressed!!!

I stayed overnight in school yesterday to accompany my gf for her to complete her project. Of course I brought my laptop along to do my project. The night was chilling cold but we managed go through it and took an early bus home.

I am normal now :)
Mind is clear.

I find my life is a bit miserable.

Finally I am have re-coded the entire 500 over lines of coding which I lost it a day ago because my laptop hang. I was using the internet yesterday and because I need the USB port, I did a safely remove of the hardware but before the removal process was completed, I plugged out the port and nightmare came. System hung and I had no choice but to force reboot my laptop. I then realized the file which I had been working on for days was gone!

Worked through the night till 3am+ before I went for bed. I continued re-coding the entire file and finally completed it few minutes ago. Actually I was done with it by early evening but then when I tested it on school's Sun Solaris OS, one particular function just ain't working as expected. It worked fine on my Windows and Linux machine but I just couldn't figure out the reason for the difference. I took another 6 hours or so to re-code that particular function to make it work for all OS and thank god it was done before 1am. At least today will be the earliest time I get to bed for this week.

Tomorrow will yet be another busy day for me...

Posted a thread in EE and ask for interested parties for gmail account.
Going to invite a total of 6.

Time waits for no man

These few days I just don't have the motivation to write a lot. Anyway, I am just back from a chalet at Pasir Ris organized by my gf's sister. Regine's brother and his girlfriend, Regine's sister and her boyfriend, Regine herself and I were the only few who went for the chalet.

My history module is going to kill me. Read up till chapter 3 but then after a mere 4 lectures, the lecturer has covered chapter 12! Cannot imagine it. It seems I have got lots to catch up.

Trying to crack my brain to factorize some prime numbers and the smallest of them is of 77 digits. Going to be a challenge.

Today is my gf's birthday :)

Ronald Susilo and Li Jiawei are getting married :)

Still feeling very happy.. hehe..
Even though I am very stressed up this week..

I am very happy today :)

1 more Gmail invites to go.

2 more Gmail invites to give and I will reserve them for my gf's brother and sister.

First bug found!
http://secunia.com/advisories/12321/

WindowsXP Service Pack 2 is out.

Invited Poh Lee, Ser Nya and Sui Yin. Tried to invite 3 other guys but then all said no because they have got too many mail accounts to handle. 3 gals want gmail while 3 guys don't want.

Left with 3 more Gmail invites.

Headache again!
Now able to invite 6 friends to GMAIL.

Spent a total of more than 7 hours downloading oracle (3 Discs) from the internet, an hour to install Oracle which takes up 2.8GB of my disc space, half an hour to realise how user unfriendly it is, 10 minutes to find out it actually run 11 daemons, half an hour to deinstall (term is used by oracle) oracle, but nevertheless, I will still waste 3 CD-Rs and an hour to keep the installer (typical kiasu computing student).

I think I will stick to my friendly familiar neighbourhood MsSQL. There goes my sleep.

Invited Myo for gmail.
This is my second time I invited someone.
The first time was for my elder brother.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave an applaudable maiden rally speech yesterday night which lasted 3.5hrs. I only managed to catch just a bit of his speech on bus. From the papers, he seemed to have covered and included every single Singaporeans in his future plans. Hope he will carry them out. PM Lee also emphasized on his stand in Singapore's One-China policy. I wondered what Taiwan will react upon hearing his comments. Will the much favoured Taiwanese variety shows in Singapore banned replacing them with China's jiang shan wan li qing? Who know.

I am beginning to feel the pressure upon me. Getting more and more stressful as time goes by. Sleep is going to be a luxurious commodity to me. Bear in mind that I am categorizing "sleep" as a commodity now.

The world of Windows news watchers has been abuzz over the upcoming release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP.

Microsoft has made the release available to Microsoft Developer Network members on August 10, and will push it out to Windows users via the Automatic Update feature on August 25.

EXICITED!

I have got an assignment to rush and hand in next week but then the lecturer has not uploaded onto the course site. Please be faster.

Managed to get all my tutorial/lab time slots except one. That one is one of my most wanted slot and I am not able to secure it. Guess I have to set it on my free day.

Watched "Twins Effect 2" yesterday.
Yet another hilarous movie (but it's supposed not to be).

yeah!!!
finally sold my "Genes and Society" textbook.

Went to school today to attend a makeup lecture "EC1301 - Principles of Economics" because of the National Day. I saw SP's "god", Tan Wee Kek! The "god" also takes EC1301. According to the "god", he is aiming for a honours in IS and I think it is no problem for him. Why do I address him as a "god"? The reason is because he is the top student when I was studying in Singapore Polytechnic many years ago. The "god" often was seen skipping lectures and tutorials but then he almost never failed to get a distinction for almost every module. On top of that, he held 2 MCPs and a certificate in Systems Engineering awarded by Compaq. Isn't that fantastic?

THE "GOD" HAS ARRIVED!!!

I have decided to drop 1 module to make it average workload. Other modules' workload is too demanding and there are a total of 4 projects and of which, 2 are of 50%. CS2281 is the most incredible module with its final exam contributing to only 20% marks.

Met up with poly friends today. Purpose of this gathering is to pass Ser Nya's and Myo's belated birthday presents to them. It has been due for several months. Initially, I suggested to dine at Orchard Plaza food stall but then I changed my mind to the Somerset's outdoor hawker last minute. I guess it's a good change. This is the second time I had my dinner at the hawker. The previous time I did not manage to have my omelette because of the super long queue and so end up ordering only fried prawn noodle, char kway teow and fried carrot cake for 2 person. Today, we ordered BBQ seafood comprising of sting ray, sotong, kangkong, you tiao, prawn omelette (this is not the one from the super long omelette stall queue), 7 plates of rice for the 6 of us whereby I had 2. I think the dinner was quite worthwhile with each of us having to pay only $40 divided by 6 and of course I myself paid an additional of 50 cents for the extra plate of rice.

After the sumptuous dinner, we went for a drink at coffee bean. I ordered my usual "Iced Mocha".

I witnessed the change of Prime Minister and his new cabinet on TV few minutes ago. I am impressed by new PM Lee Hsien Loong for his remarkable, eloquent, and inspiring speech. Hope for the best.

I have washed my hands off in selling my "Genes and Society" textbook.
Please stop sms-ing and calling my hp anymore.

GEK2000 and SSA1201 readings are a lot!

I have to thank many who have been too nice to me in providing me notes / textbooks.

1. Quek Ser Nya - for giving me OS textbook for free.

                - for providing help in finding a book for CS2102 module.

2. Eliane - for giving me the whole bundle of SSA1201 readings.

3. My girlfriend, Regine - for providing me Maths assistance if needed.

4. And many more. Apologies to those whom I left out.

Hey, I saw "Invite a friend to Gmail"!!!
It's at the left hand bottom corner (below the Labels).

Going to invite my brother :)
He surely be ecstatic hearing this news.

I was watching NDP just now. The parade procedures and music was very similar to what I been through during 2003 SAF Day. Of course what I gone through was more tiring than this one because of the duration of the parade. I wonder when will they change the music played for marching. No creativity.

SCHOOL REOPENS AGAIN tomorrow.

I saw many familiar faces yesterday at City Hall on my way to Esplanade. Saw Joel with a girl and they are not holding hands. Seems like Joel is interested in the girl. I also saw my seconday school friend, Boon Kiat. I also saw Sgt Daniel. wow!! so happy to see so many familiar faces.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Singapore. Today is Singapore's 39th birthday.

I went out with my girlfriend and her friends to Esplanade yesterday to witness fireworks display. The fireworks display has been going on for some Sundays and yesterday, there was particularly many people who went for the display. One word to describe the fireworks display - FABULOUS.

Think I will go to school alone tomorrow to come out a theme for my CS3266 project for my coming semester. Anyone wishes to accompany me? :'(

I woke up early in the morning to accompany my girlfriend to JB today. We reached Singapore customs at around 10am and the queue for Singapore was longer than normal Saturdays maybe because of the super long weekend. We finally reached JB customs at around 10.30am and saw what was simply incredible. Queues for Singaporeans were all very long and disorganized. Queues at the right side even stretched up to the public road. My girlfriend was sweet enough to accompany me in the queue. The queues were so disorganized that I couldn't even figure out any queues from the crowd. The crowd became rowdier as time passed by, with people beginning to complain the slow service of JB custom officers and the condition of the air in the customs. My girlfriend accompanied me for around 45 minutes before she advanced to the Malaysian gantry, leaving me to fend myself in the midst of the rowdy crowd.

There were a minority lot whom I classified them as barbaric, uncivilized morons. There were particularly 2 morons, a pair of old Malay couple, who made their way all the way from the back of the pack to the front, ignoring the eyes of everyone. The atmosphere became tenser when the air condition became stuffy. The old couple was stopped by a Malay young lad. The lad challenged them, asking them where were they from and asked them to go all the way back and fuck off. Sad to say, "Fuck off" did not deter them from making their further advances.

Queuing alone in such a cramped packed crowd was kind of tough and boring for me. I had got no one to talk to, no room for movement, and nothing to keep me occupied. There was a family of four people queuing in front of me and one of them, a girl, suddenly felt giddy. Her lips turned pale, her eyes became yellowish, and her hair was wet with cold perspiration. The girl's mother quickly took out a bottle of Chinese medicated oil and passed it to her another daughter. The daughter applied the medicated oil on the girl's nostrils, temples, neck and hands. The mother used her passport to fan the sick girl hoping it would help. Another couple in the queue offered the girl a "mentos".

The distance between "Counter 9" and me was less than 5 metres but though near, yet it seemed so far. At this point, the crowd separated itself into 2 queues, one for "Counter 9" and the other for "Counter 10". The situation became worse with the queues did not seem to proceed at all because of many barbaric, uncivilized morons. There were 2 male "mama shop" look-alikes morons, carrying a huge luggage each, making their way through the crowd. I was not alert enough to let one of them past me. He ignored many stares. I deliberately crossed my arms and used my elbows to block the other guy. That second guy whom I shall name him "Stupidest of all morons" here, tried to evade my block by looking for any free space around me to sneak in, however, all possible free space were blocked by my rocking left and right motion. The "Stupidest of all morons" had got no other options other than applying constant push on my back hoping I will let him get past. I would never give in to violence. No matter how hard he pushed, I remained rooted to the ground, not wanting to give in to his pressure. What the "Stupidest of all morons" could do was just watched how his friend made his way to the counter. Very soon, the "Stupidest of all morons" and I was just one queue from the "Counter 9". I noticed he attempted to squeeze his way from my left side along the left railings. I quickly hold onto the left railings to block the "Stupidest of all morons" and used my right elbow to guard my right side. The "Stupidest of all morons" finally lost his cool and told me to move forward into the queue in Malay. I understood the only word "Masuk". In English, I told him to wait for the person in front of me to have her passport checked before I could move forward. He placed his passport on the counter in an attempt to grab attention from the counter officer to have his passport processed before me even though he was behind me. To counter his actions, I placed my passport on the counter nearer to the officer and of course not letting my left hand off the left railings. I was careful enough not to let the "Stupidest of all morons" have any opportunity to sneak in like a smelly little rat.

My poor girlfriend must had waited for me until mushrooms and fungi started growing around her. Poor thing. Other than the legendary MacDonalds' "Hello Kitty" soft-toys craze few years ago, I couldn't recall having queued up for more than 1.5 hours long. Today's queue definitely earned a place in my "Guinness World of Records Book".

We had our lunch at one of the coffeeshops near City Square. After which, we had a movie "House of the Flying Dragons" at City Square's Mega Pavilion. The show was average to me.

I think I did something wrong today. I will not commit it again. Stupid me.

Module bidding is in a mess for me. I managed to secure 3 desired modules at 1 programme account point each and another module at 365 general account points. I was unable to secure EC1301 (Principles of Economics) and was out-bidded. Can you imagine minimum bid for that module in round 2A was 2000 and in round 2B was >2000? Because of I being out-bidded, I have to look for other alternative module and I found GEK1038 (Scientific Methodology). Pre-requisite is 'O' Levels Maths, Physics, Chemistry or Biology and I meet them. However, when I tried to add that module, I got an error message saying I do not meet pre-requisite! I guess this has to do with I being a diploma student and not a JC student. I have already made a total of 4 (excluding the one I going to make for GEK1038) appeals because of pre-requisite issue and so I would have made 5 appeals altogether and this number is just enough to make up modules for a semester! A big WOW! The appeal got approved after the bidding round ended and so I bidded for GEK2000 (US: From Settlements to Superpower) instead. I am not going to give up EC1301 and will fight till the end. I will bid EC1301 as my 6th module. Yes, I think I going to take 6 modules again just like last semester.

Going to rest till the next round (3A) opens on next Tuesday.

Today then I realized how slow ICQ saves its message history. The time taken to save is longer than the time it needs to take to format and reinstall WinXP. Of course the time taken to save message history is exponentially dependent on the number of message events but then it just simply is taking too long to do that. It's simply ridiculous! Hope my gf recovers from her sore throat asap.

My poly friend, Myo, just earned himself a promotion from analyst programmer to senior analyst programmer. Because of his promotion, he decided to give me a dinner treat to whatever place. I suggested bringing my girlfriend so I can introduce her to him and of course I and my girlfriend will settle her bill. We went down to a jap restaurant at Bugis for a $9 per set lunch. On top of the jap set, Myo ordered side dishes comprising my favourite soft shell crab and beancurd. The dinner cost a total of $58.25 and he was generous enough to pay for everybody including my girlfriend's. He's a very nice gentleman.

Justice has been served. The ASP cheater alorentz got a complaint from the fritz_the_blank (overall No. 1 in ASP) for being a copycat. We shall see! FtB, you got my support!!!

So happy today because my gf made oreo cheese cake yesterday and I have a share of it :)

Last Friday of every July is "System Administrator Day". All system administrators please do not work too hard.
http://www.sysadminday.com/

The vote is a cheat now.
I bet one of the EE members has written a script that makes automatic removal of cache and voting. Votes for EE has shoot up by 100 in just few hours.

Vote EE as top tech site
http://www.w2knews.com/

Went down to the Somerset outdoor carpark hawker with my gf yesterday. Very long queue for all stalls except Bak Kut Teh. We had fried prawn noodles, fried char kway teow and fried carrot cake. Just too bad that the queue for omelette is just too long :(

Managed to sell my CS1231 textbook at $15 :)

I don't like this expert, "alorentz". I understand he is the current number 1 in ASP for this year but then he doesn't earn my respect. Of course I have no doubts in his knowledge in ASP but then he should behave professionally. He always jumps in and says this is incorrect and that is incorrect, and then he will sometimes come out with something that is often a repeat of what is already said. I call that copycat. It has happened to me when he tried to answer his first question and today, it happen to me yet again. He accused my code will not work without going into detail and came out with another piece of code. My most respected ASP expert goes to Patrick. Patrick is the overall number 1 in ASP TA. Patrick is very professional and always, he will interfere and judge what is right and what is wrong. This time, he came and supported my code :) .  alorentz did apologise but then I don't give a damn.

alorentz, please do better than that.

"CS2102 - Introduction to Database Systems" course website used to be in serious infinite javascript error whenever the mouse is moved. I emailed to the lecturer and suggested a possible solution to the error and he tried my solution and made necessary ammendments to the code. IT WORKS!

It's working like a charm now. I am so happy :)
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs2102/

Saw another Ponggol Marina full timer again today on bus 74. Guess if I were to take bus 74 at around 11pm back to Ang Mo Kio at MacRitchie Reservoir, I will be able to bump onto them. haha.. I actually deliberately took bus 74 today instead of other buses like 165 or 132 just to confirm my instinct. I was correct. This time I saw Ah May, a cashier.

I wonder who would I see next time.

Brazil advances to the finals meeting Argentina.

Finally I have set my mind on the modules I will be taking for this coming semester.

Did I mention "Ponggol Marina" in my earlier posting? Yes and an hour ago, I saw an auntie who used to work in Ponggol Marina with me on my way home on a bus. That's pure coincidence.
 
Her name is Mary and we used to call her Auntie Mary. She is one of the most experienced aunties around in Ponggol Marina. BTW, she is not the auntie I mentioned in my previous post.
 
Some updates from her:
1. Choon Seng Seafood has got 2 branches now - one at Bt Timah near Raffles Girls Pri and the second at Indoor Stadium. The Indoor Stadium branch will be shifted to Changi near the prison very soon.
 
2. Only Susan survives while the other 2 managers, Jessica and Pauline, are no longer working. The best manager survives! According to Mary, Jessica (the mean manager) was the one who suggested to get the Indoor Stadium ground and now the place turned out to be non-profitable. Very few customer patronizes that place.
 
3. None of the part-timers survive except Ah Meng. Ah Meng is one of the longest serving and he has been around even before Ponggol Marina was built. He is the only one who is earning $9/hr. Eric Ghoo ($10/hr guy who started work before Ah Meng) has quit. All the $8/hr staff including myself no longer work for Choon Seng. $7/hr staff too are no longer working. At present, all part-timers are strangers to me :(
 
4. Li Huang auntie, the one who always care for me, no longer works for Choon Seng. She bidded for a place in a primary school's canteen, got the place, and then end up giving it up. She used to told to me how badly she wanted to get a tuckshop place but then now she gave it up! According to Mary, she is now working as a cleaner in that primary school. Ah Lau, the 60 plus years old bachelor who always behaved like a kid is now seriously ill. He is down with cancer and is hospitalized. I am sad to hear that.
 
Very sad to realize that I have lost contact with many and at present, only Sharon and Angela are still in contact with me.

I boarded bus no. 132 at MacRitchie Reservoir on my way home and saw a group of aunties and one teenager. They worked in a same catering service company and were on their way home. There was one particular auntie who was particularly concerned with the teenager boy. She kept telling him where to alight, telling him many times not to cross the road after he alighted and to take bus 25 home at that bus-stop, etc. She even checked her watch making sure the boy would be able to catch the last bus and she even offerred to give the teenager some money if he did not have enough with him. That reminds me of the times when I was 16 working at Ponggol Marina, there was an auntie who always came to me asking me do I need this or that. Maybe because I was the youngest then.

Went to school today early in the morning to get a 2nd hand textbook from a friend's friend but then end up he bringing a book of an earlier edition which is not what I asked for. I remembered very clearly that I emphasised many times the edition of the book and I guessed it must have been overlooked. Sigh.. but it's okay.

Today is the last day of work for me. Few days ago, we had made a deal to wear formally on that fateful day ie. I and Kumar have to wear long sleeve preferably with a tie, and the girls to wear collar shirt, shirt and office shoes. However, Kumar told us he will not be wearing long sleeve shirt because he don't have got one and so agreed to tuck in his shirt instead. We agreed. Everyone came to the office casually except Kumar. I wore slightly different today with a polo-tee, Poh Lee wore a shirt and jeans, while Geraldine wore a blouse and a dress, and as for Kumar, he wore a collar shirt tucked into his pants. The whole scenairo was so awkward because Kumar was tricked. I could see that he felt disappointed with the way we dressed but he decided to forget about it and smiled especially when he saw a card made for him by Geraldine (definitely not by me). She made a card each for Kumar, Desment and Fadzli to express our or rather her appreciation towards their care and concern over the past 2 months or so. Geraldine was the one who suggested making cards for them. She was the one who suggested buying chocolates for them. She was the one. Poh Lee and I just couldn't see the need for all these. Perhaps we were heartless.
 
We did not do much of work before lunch perhaps because we were simply too excited. I repeat again - Today is the last day of work. We chatted, played and joked, waiting for lunch time.
 
Finally the bell for lunch time rang. It was drizzling at that time and so I volunteered to buy in lunch the 3 temps plus Fadzli. Fadzli handed me a $10 note saying that was for us. So this meant he gave us a Mee Goreng treat. The Mee Goreng was hot and spicy, without any meat with merely slices of cucumber and pieces of egg.
 
Mention of Fadzli reminds me of he being a liar, indecisive and irrespsonsible. He mentioned of giving us a Pizza Hut treat 1 day ago (14th July), making appointment on 15th July. I could not make it because I had already made prior arrangements that day. Fadzli then rescheduled the dinner treat to that day (14th July) instead. He asked what we wanted to eat so he could order for delivery. After he left for a meeting, I mentioned to the temps it could have been better if we ordered KFC instead. After several minutes, we realised Fadzli actually was behind us all along! He came back from the meeting very early and we did not even notice his presence. I guessed he must have heard all Poh Lee and I commented because he walked towards us and asked us to order KFC instead of Pizza Hut. Oops... I really couldn't understand why he couldn't make the call himself since he was the one giving the treat. I guessed he's not sincere at all. Few minutes later, he suggested to have lunch at Simei KFC instead on that day. If we had our lunch at Simei, we would need to take a cab to and fro between Norelco to Simei. All of us (temps) found that troublesome and a bit of a rush. The bell for lunchtime rang and we prepared ourselves for KFC at Simei. At this moment, Fadzli approached us and said perhaps it's a bit too rush for us and it would be better to make it tonight (14th July) instead. We could only shrugged and nodded. I really felt he was not sincere at all, making empty promises, making irresponsible decisions, etc. We made our way to AB food court for lunch. After we came back from our lunch, he told us he decided to give us a treat to a Thai banquet instead at Parkway Parade. This time we simply said "anything, you decide lor". We were indifferent this time because we knew all were lies. Few hours later, he apologised to us saying how sorry he was because he just remembered he had got something on and so had to postpone the treat to next week. Bingo! All were lies. Today (15th July), he told Kumar to make arrangements for the dinner treat next week. Why can't he organize the dinner himself since he's the one giving the treat? Isn't he is be the one asking us when are we free? We decided to have the dinner when Thuy is back from Vietnam. Seriously, I feel this dinner treat will not be successful and frankly speaking, I really do not like this arrangement. I cannot believe my eyes why such a simple dinner can be made so complicated. Could today's Mee Goreng treat be the treat he "always" wanted to give? I am not sure.

Let's get back to today and forget about Fadzli. The last hour of today was exciting. We rushed and used our fastest speed possible to complete whatever tasks we were holding onto. That was the speed I used to use on the first few days of work. I bet Kumar really will miss us after we left. He will be bored to death and life will be back to normal for him. There will have no one to joke with. Sigh...
 
Below is the sms he sent to Geraldine, Poh Lee and I after we left,
    "hi guys, first of all thanks for ur hardwork. Second thing i am sorry, i know behaved rudely to u guys sometimes, please don't take it personally,its all because of work stress. GOOD LUCK FOR UR FUTURE. KEEP SMILING.keep in touch MEOW"
 
My reply to him,
    "No lah.. you are nice most of the time. when in stress, remember to MEOW"
 
His reply to my sms,
    "I WILL"
 
All this meow came about because of Poh Lee. She has got the talent of imitating the meow of a cat. She demonstrated meowing today and she really impressed all of us. That's made all of us practising meowing the whole afternoon.. haha... I couldn't mastered the art of meowing but then I had mastered that art of making sounds made by a lizard. BTW, I recorded the meowing sound made by her onto my handphone and I will play that to my gf one day.
 
That's about it.

12th July - My younger brother's birthday
15th July - My mother's birthday

Tomorrow most likely I will be working overtime again.

This coming Friday will be my last day of work and I will go back holiday life, waiting for the new semester to open. 2 more working days and no more. Should I feel glad or sad for it? I am not sure.

I will not be stubborn in the future.

Choosing modules is a headache.
I hate it.

Competition for providing better email services is getting very tense now. Yahoo is now providing auto completion for email addresses just like GMail. Monkey see monkey do...

Just received a sms from Kumar early in the morning telling me that the old woman Jacqueline is not working today. I think he is really happy without her around.

Yesterday (Friday) was very fun. I had a dinner with my working colleagues which invovled Poh Lee, Geraldine, Thuy, Kumar and Fadzli at Changi Village. Boon Ming and Desment were both supposed to be with us but then because of some reasons they couldn't make it. Boon Ming had to work OT and as for Desment, he was late for the company transport to Tampines. Desment told us that he will join us at Tampines Kenny Rogers and that was shocking because we thought all along he knew we had changed the venue to Changi Village. In the end, he decided not to join us.

Fadzli made his trip to Changi Village on his bike. This was the first time the whole gang plus Kumar took the same bus and the trip was exciting. We chatted, joked and laughed all the way from Norelco to Tampines. After 15min, we finally reached Tampines bus interchange where we took bus 29 to Changi Village. Along the way, Kumar pointed out some pretty babes and alerted my attention on them before asking me to rate them. I was never surprised by his actions for he was like that even at Ang Mo Kio, telling me what time that same girl will walk past this or that footpath. Sometimes I really did find awkward with so many pairs of eyes staring at us as if both of us were some peverts but I still stayed in the "game" with him.

Finally, we reached Changi Village. Each of us forked out $10 each to make up $60 for our sumptuous dinner. I volunteered to buy drinks while the girls make decisions on the food. Fadzli, being a muslim, bought himself a plate of don't know call what food but I knew it must be hot and spicy for its bright red colour, and 40 satay assortments comprising of mutton, beef and chicken meat with some ketupat to come along. Fadzli's noodle came followed by the satay. The girls ordered carrot cake, omelette, fried prawn noodles, indian rojak, and BBQ sambal stingray. The table was like so full and the girls started to wonder if we were able to finish everything. I assured them that we would finish it no matter what especially with me around.

Kumar's favourite was the carrot cake and he really really liked that a lot. We ordered a second plate of that and in the end only he and I were the only left surviving. The rest had enough. The carrot began to take Kumar down and I eventually emerged as the sole survivor. There was like about half a plate of carrot cake left before Kumar came out with a very stupid and silly contest which I found that rather interesting. He gathered a portion of carrot cake on the centre of the plate and said the one who managed to use a pair of chopsticks and grabbed that portion would be the eventual winner. We decided to play this game with him and like little kids, we picked up our chopsticks and positioned them at equal distance away from the portion. The game started and Kumar scooped up a big portion of carrot cake up that wasn't the portion as specified saying he were the winner. I thought I also did make myself like a clown for following him, scooping up another big portion of carrot cake from the other side of the plate. The reason as to why he fel he was the winner because the portion he scooped up using his spoon was bigger than the specified portion. That was childish but was fun. I continued finishing the remaining 5 or 6 satay, indian rojak, omelette, and carrot cake.

After the "main course", we decided to pack away some desserts and had them at Changi Beach. We bought 4 servings of desserts and then we headed towards Changi Beach. Kumar came out with the idea of sitting on the sandy beach to have our desserts, chit-chatting and enjoying the breeze. We thought that was a good idea and out of nowhere, Thuy took out "The Straits Times" and we used the "Classified" section to lay out "mat" on the sand. We formed a circle and placed our desserts in the centre. That was real fun. Five of us excluding Fadzli shared the four desserts. We talked about our life experiences, things we did in the past which we thought was exciting but wrong, etc. Here came the part where we really went crazy which was just before we left for home. There were quite a lot of desserts left and Kumar, Poh Lee and I unknowingly got ourselves into a "eat dessert" contest. The 3 of us were supposed to have a bowl of dessert in our hands and we had to have a spoonful of dessert before passing to the next one beside us in a clockwise direction. The speed just got faster and faster and then the 3 of us really got ourselves into a real mess. The next bowl of dessert came into my hands before I could even swallow the dessert in my mouth. Our hands got wet by the dessert in the process of passing around.

We left the place at around 10pm. I find tonight all of us really behaved like little kids. Finally Kumar is able to behave in the way which he prefers to be. Seriously, I thinks he will miss us after we leave the company. There will be no one around to joke with him anymore, no one to be entertain with his lame jokes, no one to have ice cream with him on our way back from lunch, no one.... The old woman, Jacqueline, definitely is not a candidate and without her will be better of. Boon Ming is tied down by the old woman's everyday nags. Fadzli is too old or rather I should say not young for Kumar to communicate in the way he is to us now. Document control department will be back to square one - quiet and boring. There will have only 4 people left working in the department.

I will miss the group of friends (small group).

What's the hell with Arts faculty? Till now they haven't updated their course site.

I have GMAIL was my MSN display nick for a mere less than an hour before my working colleague jokingly told me "hao lian". I never meant it.

I just got myself a gmail account all because of a friend who is kind enough to invite me :)

Went to ginza plaza today to meet a friend, Myo. We have not met each other for many months because of busy schedules. I suggested to have lunch at west coast hawker to save some money but then he preferred to have them at a restaurant. I simply said "OK". We ordered 3 dishes and 3 plates of white rice whereby 2 of the rice were mine. I guessed I had been eating too much these few days. Seafood at JB yesterday plus today's heavy lunch! After lunch, we had a pool session and I think he really played well today.

At around 3pm, I left for Bugis to meet another friend. We are supposed to meet at selegie's Mechmaster at 5pm for a pool session before heading for dinner. Dashun, Shaowei and I decided to meet at Bugis at 4pm instead because we really did not wish to play pool. On my way to Bugis, I called up a Japanese restaurant at Bugis to make reservation for 15 people. At 4pm, I reached Bugis and only Dashun was there as Shaowei was late. We bought orange juice and had our usual crap session and this time at Long John Silver to wait for Shaowei and at the same time wait for 7:30pm for the dinner. Unexpectedly and sadly, something happened and I needed to get back home to settle some family matters and had to leave in a rush. I waited for Shaowei to arrive before taking a bus to Yishun. I made a reservation and registered as "Mr Loh" and now Dashun had to take my place as "Mr Loh". I heard they decided to change venue and had dinner at Selegie's self-proclaimed famous "starhub" chicken rice stall. This gathering was meant to celebrate and welcome the return of JB from Australia study. I feel so bad to leave like that but then sometimes life is so unpredictable.

Life is full of surprises.
Life is full of disappointments.

Match is starting soon! My prediction is Portugal win.

Finally learnt something at work today. I was asked to help solve a PC problem. Today was the first time I ever tried "System Restore" feature and it indeed worked like a charm. So glad.

I had a super heavy dinner today. Went home early today and called my mom to ask her what she wanted for dinner. Initially, she said she wanted "cai fan" but then she changed her mind right after I ended the phone call. She calle back telling me she had already bought her dinner earlier on and so I should not buy her share. Blur and that was me, I bought dinner for her and myself totally forgotten she telling me not to buy hers. I ended up finishing all of them.

Something unpleasant happened in my department today. An IT technician, Teo, quarrelled with Fadzli because of something very trivial. Our department once had friction with the IT department when PCs were moved and shifted from the meeting room to the document control room without notifying IT personnels. This I understood and agreed that Fadzli was at wrong of doing so without the acknowledging them, however, today's case was a bit ridiculous. PCs were shifted from a table to another within the document control room and for this, Fadzli was reprimanded. Fadzli argued how unreasonable and ridiculous it was and in the end.. I really don't know what was the conclusion. I just know that it is better not to use PCs to listen to music to avoid any more friction with the IT department. Okay, no more music for me :( Ya, I made a stupid remark today and made the entire department laughed and it was, "Can I move the mouse?". hehe...

Today is a busy day for me. I was told to do scanning on all new drawings, afterwhich I was supposed to do appending on them before doing uploading onto the Edoc system. The heavy duty scanner was down for more than a couple of days already and no choice I had to make do with the slow scanner, one that required I performing manual transfer of scanned files onto my mailbox and then retrieving them. I managed to complete scanning but am left with 50% appending work and 100% uploading.

Tomorrow have to continue with that. Hope I can complete them before I knock off tomorrow.

I have lost the zeal in helping answering questions. I think I just stay in helping being a cleanup volunteer instead.