[Who would have thought?]
The player who missed the Champions League final in 1999 scored the only goal over two legs last night to take Man United to the finals.
[Silly grapes...]
I know what they meant, but still, I found it rather amusing...
Once broken, consider sold. Not considered. They still need to sleep on it.
In any case, it isn't some decorative glassware or anything. How the hell can you "break" a fridge? Doesn't seem like something that could be done easily. Seriously, I don't think they have anything to worry about.
Then again, they seem to have some really strict rules regarding shopping behaviour...
These water-bottles were not wrapped in plastic. So I guess if someone were to unscrew and open the lid, they would have effectively bought the bottles. This would never stand up in court.
They spelt "seedless" wrong. Say the wrong word out loud. That's right....Crimson silly grapes.
A bunch of cherry shrimps were gathered in the front of my aquarium and I took several photos, including this one.
And then, I killed an insect that was on my fan. Green stuff oozed out of its body after an encounter with rolled-up newspaper. Ewwww...
[The (not so) Great Khali's wrestling school...]
I came across this article that says that The Great Khali is planning to open up a wrestling school in India.
If you don't know who he is, use Google to find an image of him. He was in The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler. And now he's in the WWE. He has no business there if you ask me. They really only wanted him because of his size. He's so bad, it's not even funny. He can't punch right, he can't kick right, and watching his matches make me want to kill myself him.
I can just imagine his wrestling school:
Lesson 1: Chop to the head. Khali's only move, as far as I can remember. I fast-forward his stuff. Lesson 2: Shouting nonsense. And then you graduate.
It probably took Khali months to master all this, but if you're a fast learner, you can start after lunch and graduate before dinner.
The I-don't-want-to-turn-on problem on my new phone still exists. I can't seem to figure out what's causing it. Other problems are minor and can be easily avoided or prevented, but this one, I just can't figure it out.
[Random stuff...]
I've been thinking of getting a new phone for the longest time. Yesterday, I finally got the phone I've been eyeing for a while - Nokia 6500 slide.
It's not a new phone. In fact, it's been on the market for a while. I usually never buy phones shortly after they are released. I prefer to wait a bit for the price to fall and for stable firmware to be released. At $98 (roadshow offer) and a 4GB microSDHC card for $49, I paid a total of $147 for the phone.
All things being equal, I'll always take a clam-shell over a slider or candy-bar. But the truth is, it seems that no clam-shell on the market can give me what I'm looking for in a phone. I picked the 6500 slide because of the sleek stainless steel exterior (my second phone with a stainless steel exterior) and because of the way the calendar function (which is very important to me) is designed. Ironically, although the screen is the same size as my previous phone, I now see less on my screen due to the way the people at Nokia tweaked the Series-40 platform.
On the whole, it's an improvement over my previous phone in most aspects. The 6500 slide has a well-documented problem of not being to detect the memory card due to rather piss-poor design (compared to the rest of phone) with regards to how it dealt with the memory card. But I haven't had any problems so far, and if I do, I'm sure I could fix it myself (I came across a DIY fix while researching the phone, basically, there's a small piece of metal on the back cover that is supposed to push down on the memory card, lest it loses contact). This creates a dilemma for me cause I usually put my phone in this little pouch I secure to my arm when I go jogging. I'm not sure if the constant jiggling and impact would cause problems.
There is, however, one irritating problem. It seems that with the memory card I bought, I cannot turn the phone on properly. It would start, reach the active standby screen and shut down. Repeatedly. If I took out the memory card, it would be fine. If I turned it off then and inserted the memory card, it would be able to boot up the first time. I just couldn't turn it off again, because otherwise it would not start up again unless I "reset" the memory card by taking it out.
I normally turn my phone off at night when I go to bed. Guess I should just leave it on now. And for those of you thinking of messaging or calling me in the dead of the night with reminders to visit the bathroom (you either know this prank or you don't), I'm going to leave the phone in silent mode.
EDIT: Found a new bug. Say the phone is at Profile A. I went through all the profiles' settings without switching to another profile. When I'm done, I'm still using Profile A, but when an SMS comes in, Profile B's SMS tone rings instead. I'm not sure if the same thing happens to ring-tones, both Profiles A and B are using the same ring-tone and I'm too lazy to try it out. If I ever go through the profiles' settings, I would need to re-activate my current profile for everything to work the way it should. I don't get it. Series-40 isn't a new platform. Why are there so many bugs?
EDIT: One more bug. Sometimes, the backlight of the phone will stay on and not dim nor go off. It can be easily rectified, not a big deal. But still, yet another bug.
If I don't get enough sleep over a few days, I tend to get pretty bad headaches. I've had some sleepless nights in the past week, waiting for the call that never came. It came in the end, on Friday. So...I guess I could get a good night's sleep? Wrong. It rained cats and dogs at 3am in the morning and the thunder and lightning kept me from falling asleep for about an hour.
And when I finally did fall asleep, I woke up again a little later with the most insane thoughts (at that time of the night). Not to go into the details, but with the call that finally came, my liquid assets would soon be flowing again. This is a rather bad trait, but I tend to spend money I haven't gotten yet. And it suddenly occurred to me that I could finally get the phone I wanted (as above). It was good time (?) to think about that too, I suppose, since prices of phones are usually slashed on Saturdays. So never buy a phone from Wednesday to Friday because chances are, a lower price would be offered on Saturday. For those of you who do the shopping, the same applies for supermarkets on Thursdays (that's the day their new weekly offers are announced).
After 40+ applications and 5 interviews later, I've gotten a job offer at last. I'll probably take it. I have three "tiers" when it comes to jobs. Jobs I really want, jobs I'm not 100% interested in but could do, and jobs I definitely didn't want to do. This one seems to be in the second category, but we'll have to wait and see. The pay's pretty good as well.
Hopefully this job would open up more opportunities for me, in more ways than one.
[Random ramblings...]
Took the following pictures on a bus today.
With the ever-increasing bus fares, the least they could do is to do something about the cleanliness of the buses.
I guess they are too busy counting their takings to worry about cleanliness.
Ikea's restaurant is undergoing renovation, so we went to a nearby food-court instead. It's been recently renovated as well. If at all possible, I don't want to ever eat at that food-court ever again. Here's why.
I think that if you're observant enough, it can be easy to spot the manager at a food-court. He may be the only guy in a long-sleeved shirt and tie, talking to one of the cleaners every once in a while. Or he would be the guy walking around and talking to the stall-holders. Whatever.
The manager of said food-court is a real prick.
When I was about to order food at a particular stall, he was talking to the stall-holder. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but there was something about him that made me dislike with him from the on-start. When he was done, he saw me, and said very loudly to the stall-holder, "Take the order!" What's his problem? Hell, if it wasn't for him, the guy would have taken my order already.
When I got my food and sat down at my table, I noticed that the table in the corner seems to be occupied by students doing school-work. Truth be told, I didn't think it was right of them to do that. It was dinner-time on a Saturday evening, it isn't right to take up a table for such a purpose.
A few moments later, the unpleasant manager came up to that table and told them to leave. I didn't hear what he said, but he didn't seem like the kind who would ask nicely. The moment he turned his face from the student at the table, he shouted to some people standing a distance away, "There! Sit there!" (at the student's table) The student was still there, with a horrified look on his/her (can't remember) face. Even if the students were being inconsiderate, as the manager of the food-court, this wasn't the way to go about solving the situation. You're in customer service. Ask nicely. Don't ask like an Ah Beng. So that on your own time. And anyway, you're in your 30s and wearing black plastic glasses. That's just not...right.
It was at this very moment when the student's friend came back with a tray of food.
Talk about being 0wn3d. On your own turf, too.
I was at the photocopy shop yesterday to get my certs and transcripts printed. I've ran out of copies and I have two interviews next week.
It's one of those typical neighbourhood photocopy shops which also printed photos and took passport photos. This auntie in her 30s wanted to print some photos she took using her phone. It was a high-end Nokia phone. Series 60. Can't remember the exact model.
The shopkeeper asked her to remove her memory card. She said she didn't know how. The shopkeeper asked her to turn on her bluetooth. She asked, "Si mi see bluetooth?"
The shopkeeper tried directing her, but got nowhere. In the end, I said I knew how, and I took the phone and turned on bluetooth for her.
I don't get it. Why do such people pay so much money for a phone with so many features that they don't need? Better yet, don't know how to use?
Why would someone open the letter-box on their way out, take out the letters, put in into their bags, go out, come home, then take out the letters?
Wouldn't it make more sense to check for new mail when you return? Or if you just need to know if you have new mail, checking it when you leave is one thing...But why would you carry it with you to where ever you were going, and then back home again? Why not just leave it in the letter-box?
I don't get it.
Why would someone complain about updating his/her bank account passbook and "not getting the government money"? The "government money" won't come before the end of the month. Are you spastic? Or do you not know how to tell time or read a calendar?
Why would someone lament that he/she is getting less "government money" than her spouse, who isn't working? You're still working, and you get a decent pay-cheque every month, which is more than whatever amount the government is giving this time. Why would you lament on and on about this and compare yourself with your retired spouse who has no monthly income but is getting more "government money" than you?
[Exploding brain...]
I can't think on my feet. Or, at the very least, I'm not good at it. I think best when I'm alone, in a quiet place, where I can map out the variables in my head and work through the possibilities. If I know I'm going to have to be in a situation where things can go either way or where I don't know what would happen, my brain would go into over-drive, trying to make out the possibilities beforehand, choosing which conclusion I want the situation to end up at, and then trying to thinking of ways to make it happen.
Because of that, my brain feels like it's going to explode.
The job search hasn't been going well. I should have sent out close to 40 applications by now. I've been to a total of three interviews and was formally rejected for the first two. The last one, I'm guessing I didn't get it neither.
I've got two more interviews lined up next week, which is really the cause of my soon-to-explode brain.
The first one is an MNC which came down to NUS for a recruitment talk a while back. Based on the information I have at this point, it pays rather little, long hours, and the job scope is neither interesting nor boring. It's a complicated situation, but basically, I'm going to be interviewed by people from the department that I don't think I want to be in. So now I'm thinking up of ways to try and position myself in a different way, to have a shot at an interview with the people from other departments. I'm also open to the idea that maybe there is something I can do in said department. I'll just have to ask very "cunning" questions during the interview. I hope I can pull it off. Basically, my objectives would be to find out as much as I could about the department (that I don't think I want to work in) and decide on the spot if that is something I can accept. If so, yay! Otherwise, I would need to lead the conversation and make the interviewers talk about the other departments and make it known that I would be interested in those departments instead.
The next one is a local distributor. I've actually had contact with them in the past when I was working in corporate sales (at company X) before I matriculated in NUS. The job description wasn't very detailed, but based on my knowledge of the company and the applicant requirements, I believe it would be a sales or marketing related job. Or maybe a product manager. I would love to be an IT product manager. I think I would be able to do a good job.
When the HR person called me to arrange the interview for said distributor, she told me to ask for this person when I reached their offices. It didn't occur to me at the time and hit me later - that's the name of someone I worked with at company X! We had the same job title and function (in corporate sales), except that he was way more senior and spent way more time there than I did. It is entirely possible that he's moved on and would be the one interviewing me. I don't know for sure, but his is rather rarely-used English name. He has contacts at the distributor (seeing how we needed to order items from them). He could very well be the one.
I'm not sure if that would be in my favour. I wasn't at company X that long. Didn't make much of an impact. I don't know what they thought of me. Didn't care, to be honest.
[One month on...]
I've been on my new Internet plan for about a month now. It's with the same ISP (Singnet), except that I've downgraded from 3.5MBPS to 1MBPS. Saved $17/mth in the process.
All in all, I'm not entirely pleased with it. I have this software that lets me see the amount of bandwidth used instantaneously (as opposed to averaged out values that you see in the IE download dialog). When I was on the 3.5MBPS plan, the speeds I get were constant. That is to say, for example, I'm watching videos on Youtube. The file is coming in at a constant speed, with very little variation. Now on the 1MBPS plan, the file will come in in "spikes". Which sucks. I'm not very sure, but I think this has something to do with latency.
Web browsing's okay, though. 1MBPS is more than enough. Downloading huge files is a pain.
[Losers...]
I crossed paths with the three losers below when I was at the supermarket earlier.
They were hanging out next to the frozen foods section. That's right. It's not very clear, but the girl in black has her earphones on and actually danced after I took their photo. What kind of losers 1) Hang out by the frozen foods section in a supermarket; 2) Dance by the frozen foods section in a supermarket?
I can't stand people with earphones on and listen to music when they are in the company of friends. I think it's rude, and what....Will you die without music? Com'on...That's such a poser thing to do.
I'm filing this under "people who shouldn't be allowed to reproduce".
[No free market....]
Whenever the prices go up, the voices on the ground would always wonder if the government should step in to control the prices. The government would always say no, let market competition and the free market mechanisms sort the prices out. A recent example being the insane prices football fans have to pay to continue enjoying their football on TV. In the past, taxi and bus fare increases.
The government needs to wake up.
The market in Singapore isn't big enough for "free market mechanisms" to work. It just isn't. The "big boys" of a particular industry would set a price, and the other smaller players would just follow suit. Free market? My ass....
So why does the government not want to face up to the fact and keep pretending that the imaginary "free market mechanisms" will sort itself out? Simple. If they were to step in, their revenue would take a hit. Singapore is being run by like a company. Think about it. They want us to work till we're old and grey. Remember the ads they ran? "Face it, you have to work until you're 85." They forgot the rest of it. The rest of it says, "If we remain in power."
It makes no sense for them to step in. They just remain in the background, in their ivory towers and share the spoils.
Broken for now. :( If anyone knows of a good way to display tweets without using Twitter's awful looking widgets, please let me know. Preferably something that allows me to retrieve my tweets in plain-text format.
What's this about?
Anything and everything under the sun. I write about my day, my thoughts, things I see in public, things to get off my chest, or sometimes just some senseless rants that make sense only to me.
About Me
30 year old male. Always with too many ideas in his head and too little time. For my 15 minutes of fame, I want to be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Interests
Movies, TV, cycling, computers, planted tanks, cherry shrimps, P2P legal issues, Manchester United, WWE, TNA, UFC, etc...
Disclaimer
Best viewed @ 1280*1024 or above. Views are expressed are mine and mine only, and are not meant to offend or influence anyone. Designed for readers with a sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you probably won't like my style of humour.
