[Random rantings...]
The Amazing Race was broadcasted earlier today at 1pm. I was in school at the time, so I set up the VCR to record it. As it turns out, the Oscars over-ran its allocated time and AR was shown late. So the VCR didn't manage to tape the whole thing. Looks like I'll be catching the repeat later at 8:30pm. I prefer watching it on tape...Cause I could fast-forward all the commercials and save myself 20 minutes.
I'm really disappointed with Singnet. You'd think that the national telco/ISP wouldn't suck. For some reason, they can't seem to configure their proxies properly.
These days, most ISPs no longer require their customers to manually enter the proxy server in their browser. It's all "invisible" and "transparent". Well done. One problem though. This is how askmen.com is supposed to look like (I manually entered the proxy server for this one):
And this is how it looks without proxy (using the transparent proxy):
Same thing happens to Soccernet. Without the manually-inserted proxy, pages don't load correctly. I think they couldn't download a CSS or JS file. Images on eBay could be missing as well. With manual proxy, things work/load fine, except sometimes it's slower than 56K. I expected better from Singnet.
Received an email today from the faculty. They are conducting a poll. Now that HYP is no longer compulsory, they want to know how many students intend to pursue it, so the lecturers know how many projects to propose.
The change in rule, however, does not apply to me. Missed it by one batch. 6-months, to be precise. Damn it. If I saw this coming, I wouldn't have matriculated earlier. I wouldn't mind extending my graduation by one semester (which is what would happen if I dropped HYP now and did three level-4 modules instead) if it meant that I didn't have to do HYP. Screwed by the system, hooray!
Saw this old man on the bus. For some reason, older Chinese men love to sit at those type of seats, remove their slippers and put their feet up. That's freaking disgusting. I'm reminded of what Keith said about such people, "they think that they can do anything they want just because they are using a purple EZ-link card".
And to make matters worse, he started digging his nose. Wonder where the droppings (?) ended up...
At the bus-stop on my way home. It was raining. Not sure if you can tell from the picture, though.
Incidentally, Billie Myers' Kiss The Rain came up on my MP3 player at the same time. What're the odds?
[We changed our minds...]
Every few years, medical researchers change their mind regarding the benefits or dangers of...whatever they are researching in.
Remember the time they said cell-phones can cause brain tumours? Now they say they don't. Remember the time they said Vitamin C was good for you, then too much of it was no good, and then saying again it's okay, since excess Vitamin C would pass out in your urine? What about coffee? They change their minds regarding that every 5 years or so.
Now it's antioxidants. Look at the cover of next month's Readers' Digest:
I haven't read the article yet. But I've flipped through the magazine, and I think they are suggesting that some free radicals in your body would be good for you.
Next month's Readers' Digest also came with a "health planner" insert for 2007. Isn't it like...2 months overdue? It was in conjunction with the HPB...Maybe that's why they're late.
Anyway, there's an interesting suggestion in the planner:
I've tried working out in the morning on an empty stomach. Not fun. I was tired much faster and couldn't even complete the distance I usually do. I was incredibly breathless and when I pushed on, felt like passing out. I did a search online, and it turns out that there was a time when people believed that exercising on an empty stomach would burn more fats because you have nothing else to burn since you haven't eaten for 6 to 8 hours.
Since then, the view on this has changed. Most trainers recommend not exercising on an empty stomach. If you have something to burn, you can work out longer, and at a higher intensity. Not to mention that if you have nothing to burn...You might not be burning fats. You could be burning muscles (they're supposed to be more easily "available" than fats as a source of energy).
That is the best of my understanding. Depending on what you read online, you'll be told different things.
[Printer woes...]
My printer hasn't been printing well for a while now. Something is wrong with the blue nozzle. It's difficult to explain what the problem is...Let's just say it's not working the way it should. This is my third print-head, all of them had problems with the blue nozzle, so I'm inclined to think that the problem lies somewhere else, not in the print-head itself. This sucked...Because I'm otherwise very happy with the work-rate of my iP3000.
When I buy an ink-jet, the most important criteria for me is not so much the price but whether can I easily refill the ink using third-party tools. The iP3000 allowed me to refill inks using SEPOMS very easily, leading to a very low running cost. This is important, especially since my sister and I print most if not all of our notes at home.
But because of the problem with the blue nozzle, I've been looking around for a new printer. This is really not the right time to get a new one...Because I still have a few bottles of SEPOMS ink lying around. 125ml bottles, to be precise. Before my sister entered NUS, the 125ml bottle of black ink lasted me a whole year. Colours lasted even longer.
I've been looking at a few models of laser printers. I refuse to buy one which can only print black. That would be such a step down. But those that could print colour are either too expensive or lacking in features. One of Canon's Lasershot colour models is selling at $599, a reasonable price. But it didn't have settings for duplex printing, not even manual duplex. WTF...? And I wonder how much the consumables cost.
I'm now looking at the iP4200. The recommended retail price at $179, is very affordable. It seems to be the next one in the product line after iP3000. It looks good, using individual ink tanks (always easier to refill). But SEPOMS do not have refills for it. Orink does, but only the ink tanks. They don't seem to have a refill kit for it neither.
I should have gotten another iP3000 when I had the chance.
Anyhow, as I was exploring Orink's website, I noticed something odd. They had this flash animation playing on top of their site. For a moment, I thought I saw the word "outstanging". I thought I saw it wrong, so I waited for it to appear again.
I was right. It says "outstanging".
It's really supposed to be "outstanding". Really doesn't instill a lot of confidence in your potential customers if you cannot even spell a simple word correctly. Worse still, no one in Orink managed to catch the error in the flash animation? Tsk tsk...
[I know what's best for you...]
There was a letter in the Straits Times forum from a parent regarding the way to answer mathematical questions during PSLE. It seems that his/her child was not allowed to answer using algebraic methods and had to use the model method. I remember drawing those silly models during my primary school days. Teachers insisting that they be drawn neatly, using rulers and all. What a waste of time...
But I digress. Here's the reply from the authorities in today's papers:
Interesting. Each and every child is different. How can they be sure that the use of models was the "best" for every child?
To other countries (especially the US, since they wanted to use our maths textbooks a while back), it seems that the primary/secondary education in Singapore was top-notch. I beg to differ. They change their policies ever so often, with regards to things like streaming, importance of mother tongue, etc. Some say they're just keeping up with the changing times. I say that they haven't got it all figured out, and were making mistakes as they go along.
Of course, I'm biased in this matter. I hated my time in primary and secondary school, mainly due to having to study what I had very little interest in. I remember taking higher chinese when I was in secondary school. My school did not offer it, and I had to attend the lessons at another secondary school after my regular school hours. Regular hours were from 7:30am to 1:30pm. I had higher chinese twice a week from 2:30pm to 5:30pm, and softball practice from 3:30pm to 6pm twice a week. And assembly (I can't remember the hours) once a week. The best part? They didn't clash. That's right, five different activities and they fell in nicely, one per day, after school. I was often exhausted due to the punishing schedule. I often wondered if it was all worth it....
Taking higher chinese was a big mistake. Firstly, the material back then was insanely dry and boring, compared to the regular chinese most people take. The only reason I took it was because if I passed, I didn't have to take chinese in JC. And, at the time, you needed either higher chinese at AO level or chinese at A level or you'd have to take chinese lessons in University.
Of course, none of it came to pass. I didn't go to JC, and Universities no longer has the mother tongue requirement. Why? There's actually a conspiracy theory regarding this, which I heard once a long time ago but I won't be repeating it here.
I don't know how I started from modeling vs algebra during the PSLE to conspiracy theories.
Tomorrow's Chinese New Year. I remember being excited about it when I was younger. Now, it's a drag. Meeting relatives I don't want to see, faking smiles when I don't mean it, and being nice when I really just want to give them the finger. It's all so fake. Behind the smiles and the pleasantries, we're just trying to one-up each other.
The only saving grace is...You guessed it...The ang-pows. In the past, the topic of how much our haul was came up between friends and I realised my haul was usually one of the highest. I'm not trying to rub it in anybody's faces here. Just lucky, I guess. Lots of relatives on my father's side, fewer but richer relatives on my mother's side.
[Not for convenience...]
Saw this chair in the canteen today. Doesn't it look like the chairs they use in WWE?
On closer inspection, there's a message on the chair!
The message obviously didn't work. Someone left the chair in the canteen. "Don't throw me around for convenience"....That's so translated from Mandarin.
[Childhood trauma...]
Everyone of us has it. A traumatic childhood experience. Today, I saw a child experience his.
My lecture today starts at 6:30pm, and I don't have to be in school till 3pm. So I went for a swim. It's a weekday, and there were very little people about. There were a lot of kids though. Most of them were at the medium pool.
Then a swimming instructor brought his class to the competition pool. The "deep" pool, if you will. I believe the kids in his class belonged to some before/after-school care service. The kids certainly wasn't from the same primary school or anything, since there were only like 15 of them. Two "teachers" were in charge of the kids. The swimming instructor was with the SSC and probably has nothing to do with the before/after-school care service except to teach the kids swimming once a week.
One of the kids was terrified of the water. The depth of the competition pool probably has something to do with it. He was crying bloody murder, and refused to get anywhere near the pool.
Guess what the "teachers" did?
One of them shouted at him to stop crying. "I said STOP!", at the top of her lungs. Repeatedly. The other threatened to "throw you in the pool if you don't stop". Honestly, is this the best thing to say to a kid with a fear of water? Will this help him overcome his fear? He's probably going to be traumatised for life over this episode.
They finally managed to push him into the water. He climbed onto the swimming instructor's back and hanged on for dear life, crying the entire time. The swimming instructor, to his credit, didn't force him to do anything.
I turned my attention away for a while. When I saw them again, the kid was no longer in the pool. He was on the deck, trying to get away. The two "teachers" continued to throw all sorts of threats at him, some of which I couldn't remember. Then, another kid climbed out of the pool and wanted to go to the bathroom. One of the "teachers" said no, he was pretending and made him re-join the class. He was holding his groin. Wasn't pretty. How would she know whether he really had to go or not?
These people are not fit to be in the early-childhood industry. Parents entrust them with their children, and they treat them like cattle. I hope there's a special place in hell reserved for people like them.
On my way home, I ran into a reporter interviewing someone. I took a video of it as I walked past. Notice the guy on the left. I never understand why people cover their faces or run away to avoid being on TV. What are you afraid of? Are you wanted or something?
[Crushed!]
When I sit next to someone on the bus, I try not to sit too close to him/her. Even if this meant that half my butt-cheek was hanging in the air. Actually, if that's the case, I wouldn't have taken the seat at all.
Not everyone thinks the same way.
I was preparing for a presentation on the bus on the way to school today. The bus wasn't packed and I managed to get a window seat. So there I was, with my pen out and two sets of papers on my lap.
Somewhere along the way, this guy got up. I don't know if he did it on purpose or something, but he sat really close, next to me, on the aisle seat. I was irritated as hell because I was moving my papers around, scribbling some last minute thoughts onto them for the presentation. It was difficult because his right arm was actually pressed up against my left, limiting my movements. He's about my size...We're both a tad above-average.
I didn't give a shit. I went about my business. He finally got the message a little later, and switched seats. Phew.
I thought it was over. I was wrong.
At the very next stop, a mastodon got onto the bus. I have nothing against "bigger" people. Hell, I'm above-average sized myself. I just felt that if you belong to the "big" category, you need to be considerate in situations like this. This guy made the previous guy looked like Kate Moss.
New guy crushed me. For real, this time. Look at my left shoulder/arm.
And you can see here...My right shoulder was pressed up against the side of the bus. I wasn't hoarding space or anything.
There's the guy. Mind you, I'm not a small guy or anything. But I was properly crushed against the side of the bus by this guy. You know the phrase "between a rock and a hard place"? Well, I'm between a fat "big" guy and a hard place.
I was half expecting to be on Punk'd or something like that. What were the chances of getting squashed by a big guy followed by an even bigger guy? I really felt crushed, as he was pushing on my left shoulder/arm and I had no space to move. I had difficulty taking things from my bag because my left arm was immobilised. And he didn't even have the basic courtesy to move/adjust himself when I was having trouble with my stuff. I could actually feel him breathing because when he inhaled, the pressure on me was stronger.
The only saving grace? They didn't stink. Unlike another incident that happened about 2-years ago.
After I got off the bus, I realised I had pins-and-needles in my left arm/shoulder as the blood circulated again. Cripes....Never again!
[Tired...]
I'm pretty tired as I type this, so I'm just gonna make it short and sweet.
Saw this on one of the computers in school today. If a display card fails just because it's switched to a higher resolution, that's probably a real shitty card. It's a Dell machine. *grinz*
I never understand the rationale for this design. Usually they keep fire extinguishers inside these boxes. You're supposed to break the glass on top to get the key to unlock the box to get the fire extinguisher. Why can't we just break the glass to get to the fire extinguisher directly?
This was taken at the Community Centre behind my block. A security camera, spun around so that it films the ceiling. Just in case the ants or spiders on the ceiling decide to launch a terrorist attack.
[Help help! The ice is melting!]
I went to the Career Fair today with YQ. Sure, I wasn't going to graduate this semester, but it'd be useful to know what are the jobs out there right now for fresh graduates. Talked to some of the people manning the booths, and learnt some interesting things. For one, Republic Polytechnic was willing to accept fresh graduates as lecturers academic staff. They don't teach in the traditional sense of the word, so they don't use the "lecturer" label. But at the end of the say, everyone is saying that their company was the best, hired only the best, and pay the best salaries. In a way, they're just blowing smoke up our asses.
I did see this guy at the fair. Look at his bag. Doesn't that bring back memories? This was the type of bag that was very popular when I was in primary school. You can't find it anymore. In secondary school, it was the "Outdoor" branded bags, with the ah-lians carrying the extremely small version, carried very high up on their backs. In polytechnic, I think it was the age of the Deuter biking bags (with the "breathable" mesh). Right now, I'm pretty sure it's the age of Crumpler. And backpacks are kinda passe (especially for girls). Most people carry sling-bags now.
The muslim stall in the Science canteen underwent a revamp during the holidays. They now have a wider offering and a new signboard to go with it. What I found amusing was that the "set meal dishes" listed on the menu were not inclusive of rice. Huh? Considering how rice is a staple for practically all the races here, how is that still a set meal?
I went for the "An Inconvenient Truth" screening after school. It was a packed LT.
And a girl was eating McDonald's for dinner inside the LT. We're really not supposed to do that...But it happens.
[Missing the goals...]
Last night was an unusual night. I watched two football matches. I normally don't have time to watch the full games of any team other than Man United. But last night, it's different. It was Thailand against Singapore for the second leg of the finals of the Asean Cup. Isn't it weird to have the finals of a tournament split over two legs?
Anyway, I missed Singapore's equaliser. I was walking into the kitchen when Amri scored. I managed to catch the goal on replay immediately after, and I thought it was a deflected goal. They made it sound like the goal of the century.
Yes, I'm glad Singapore won. Singaporean by birth, after all. But I don't think they deserved to. Their passing was sloppy and most of the time, the Thais were the ones attacking. Their passing were so bad, I thought they were playing with the mindset of I'm-gonna-hit-it-there-please-let-a-teammate-be-there. The Thais, with more accurate passing and through balls, managed to cut open the Singapore defense time and time again. The Singapore team also got away with a ton of school-boy mistakes.
Fast forward to the Spurs-United match. I saw the first goal, a penalty by Ronaldo. Then I promptly missed all the next three goals because I was switching between the game and the "World's Most Amazing Videos" on AXN. (That was when I found out that Amazing Race is returning in Feb! Whoo hoo!)
I saw Vidic's and Giggs' goal during the replay, but I had no idea who scored the third one until after the game. This means I missed a total of 4 goals last night.
The talking point of the United match would be what happened to van der Saar at the end. I've followed United since the 98-99 season, and this was the first time I saw them using an outfield player to replace the goalkeeper after they've used up all the substitutions.
[Mind your language...] Saw this van in the car-park below my block today. It's not too clear, but the side of the van says "An ISO Awarded Companies". Excellent projection of image, huh?
Saw this in the Business canteen. I didn't know why I thought it was funny at the time. I was thinking "free food!" when I saw it. But now that I'm home and having uploaded it onto my computer...I thought it's kinda lame. Oh well. It'd have been funnier if a crow or something was pecking at the food.
[Don't look back in anger...]
Half the time, my dreams are full of random, unrelated nonsense that my brain digs up for entertainment.
Other times, it's an outlet.
I'm easily annoyed and angered. I let my annoyance show, but usually keep my anger in check. I believe I've only truly "lost it" once, and semi-"lost it" once as well. That makes a grand total of two outbursts for almost 25 years. Not too bad.
So where does all the anger go? In my dreams, it seems.
I've lost count of the number of times I've woken up from a dream in a blind rage. Basically, in my dreams I didn't keep my anger in check. More often than not, during my "anger" dreams, I usually wake up just as I'm about to punch the living daylights out of whoever pissed me off, or I'm in the process of looking for that person. At the moment when I wake up and realised it was all a dream, I'm usually disappointed. I really wanted to do some damage to whoever my brain decided was my target. Even if it's just in my dreams.
This morning, something different happened. I woke up (a little), and realised it was a dream, and went back to sleep "looking" for the person to take my frustrations out on. If you must know, it's a teacher from my secondary school. I graduated in 1998. 9 years on, and I'm still pissed. Pissed enough to spit at her if I passed her in the streets (in real-life).
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.
In the past, the topic of how much our haul was came up between friends and I realised my haul was usually one of the highest. I'm not trying to rub it in anybody's faces here. Just lucky, I guess. Lots of relatives on my father's side, fewer but richer relatives on my mother's side.
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