TechieEat: Starbucks and Coffee Bean

Ok so like, I'm sensitive to caffeine but I still went for a drink at Starbucks and Coffee Bean lately. I had my usual Green Tea Latte. The photo below shows a Tall size drink. Ok I'll admit that I ordered a miserable tall size drink. And I'll admit that I mention before that tall size drinks are for pussies. But here's my excuse. I drank it 30mins before I was supposed to meet my friends for dinner. So a venti size just don't do.

I went to Coffee Bean with pals and gang yesterday night. I was never a fan of Coffee Bean but Junction 8 doesn't have Starbucks. Coffee Bean had this new series of cappuccino in the flavours Spiced Honey, Salted Caramel and Cinnamon Chocolate. I love cinnamon coffee but I wanted to try something else. I ordered the salted caramel but they ran out of caramel, well done. So I went with the spiced honey. It's an interesting taste with spices obviously. But I can't taste the honey. Overall its a good drink I guess.  

Starbucks - Vivocity Level 1

Ambience - 4/5

Green Tea Latte - 5/5

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf - Junction 8

Ambience - 1/5

Spiced Honey Cappuccino - 4/5

TechieEat: Green Tea Soya Ice Cream

I finally got to try Mr Bean's green tea soya ice cream. It's not bad, but people who prefers Green-tea-er green tea may avoid it. Macha lovers usually avoid green tea with milk. However for Mr Bean's green tea soya ice cream, you will taste the distinct soya instead. So it's up to you to try.

Mr Bean - Raffles Place
Green Tea Soya Ice Cream - 4/5

Ramblings: Caffeine Addict

The world is unfair. Amongst all the things you like to do or like to eat, there must be some you can't do or eat because of certain reasons.

This morning I drank a can of Nescafe Latte. It's not even a double shot caramel macchiato, and I felt it. My stomach can't really take caffeine, apart from tea and green tea. Maybe that's because I don't drink as much tea as coffee but I definitely drink a lot more green tea compared to coffee. It's been a couple of months since I last drank coffee. Chi Weng and Chin Hua would probably laugh at me.

I love coffee (not black though). I used to drink a lot of it. I started drinking it when I was in primary school, to the surprise of all my relatives since coffee isn't really a favourite drink of a kid. But ever since my regular gastric started, I believed that spicy food and caffeine were the cases since my problems always come after I drink coffee or eat spicy food (I still eat a lot of spicy food though, there's just no escape). If there's some coffee in sight, I would drink it. There was a period of time when I was addicted to Starbucks and I would just spend my time sipping my favourite caramel macchiato.

I still have the urge to drink coffee nowadays though I try not to. There's no stopping me totally though. Darn this stupid restriction to drink my coffee.

Ramblings: Paper Heart

I was reminded of this a few days ago when Valentine's Day was coming. I remember Edwin teaching the method to fold the heart to Bang Hui and me. It was during a Civics class and the topic was about loving parents or something like that. Part of the lesson involved making a heart but it was simple and it didn't look nice. That's when Edwin boasted that he knows how to make a nice one and intrigued Bang Hui and myself.

Cool eh?

Sights And Sounds: Baby With Doraemon Shoes

Look at his shoes! There's a face of Doraemon sown on each shoe. It's cute! Too bad this is the best my camera phone can take without letting the whole world know I snapped a photo of this cute baby with his cute shoes.

Food: Hokkaido Cream Bun

I needed a snack when I was working. S Mart at 8 Shenton Way sells this cute looking bread originating from Japan. There are many flavours but this is the most odd one. The bread itself is soft and feels great to the bite. Unfortunately there isn't any "Hokkaido Cream" though. The packaging boast of a different method of preservative in a form of a card. It says it's alcohol. Interesting. $1.50 for one.

Food: FairPrice Treats

I went to FairPrice at Punggol Plaza as usual to do my grocery shopping. I saw a few new stuff that I never knew were there before.

Papaya milk. We saw this in Taiwan and we really loved it. It's expensive here. $2.85 for a pack of 3 250ml. When chilled thoroughly, it's quite nice.

Since I'm a fan of ice lemon tea, I just had to try this out. Unfortunately its too sweet for my liking. Seasons is still the best.

This shaker-fries alike potato chips looked very interesting. Its unagi flavoured with seaweed powder. But both packets of seaweed were too dried up. It's a failure on its part. The unagi chips itself were also too blend. $3+ for 52.5g pack.

Ramblings: Mood Swings

This morning I was in a very good mood. That was all the way up till early afternoon. Then I guess the ang mohs at my company pissed me off, certain smses sounded way insincere etc. Then I blew it. Now at home, the kiddos are driving me insane, I get blamed for hurting them etc. Darn, soon to be 21 years old and still having mood swing. This is wrong.

Side story.

This 2 ang mohs at my company wanted to open a DBS bank account. My direct supervisors ask me to bring them there, though it's just a stone throw away. They do look that stupid though. So I led them downstairs, and because we walked out of the wrong exit (hello I'm a temp, I don't know the building that well) and they decided that they could well walk themselves to the bank. So they walked in front of me, despite my efforts to walk fast (they're ang mohs, their legs are twice the length of mine). I overheard their conversation. Without hesitation, they walked into DBS Tower 1, which is the main office. Believe me, I wanted to ignore them and just let them make a fool of themselves. But I didn't, I'm so nice.

They also mentioned something about working in a primitive environment at my company cause the screens are all so small and they'll need binoculars to see. HELLO, you use a magnifying glass for this purpose, stupid retards.

Brain Storm: I'll Be There For You, Not Be There For Me

When I was in Sec 3, my friend got into a pretty bad cycling accident. A small section of his forearm was smashed. He was hospitalised, needless to say. We were all kinda worried.

Then came one day, another friend suggested visiting him, and tons of his other friends whom I do not know are going as well. I hesitated, and I said "but there's so many of his friends going and I don't know them". I was put off by the fact that I have to be surrounded by strangers. Then one of our mutual friend muttered, "are you going there to see him? Or are you going there to see his friends? Why are you hesitating?"

I was shocked. And I was ashamed of myself. I was supposed to go visit my friend. I'm not going there for my own sake, but for his. Why did I need to care who were there?

Years down the road, it becomes common. When a gathering comes along, people start asking, "erm, so who's going?" Usually, this means that this person more or less will not be attending the gathering. A gathering is but one of the many. And then there are departures, or events of great significance.

"So who's going?" Not you, that's for sure.

Event: Mardi Gras And Pancake Day

http://food.theatlantic.com/abroad/your-mardi-gras-my-pancake-day.php

When I was in Xinmin, I read that Mardi Gras was a gay parade event in some Europe country. When I entered Temasek, I was surprised to find that we hold our own Mardi Gras once every two years. I soon found out that Temasek's Mardi Gras is an art festival where many arts-based events are held on that day. My wushu team mates participated in the opening ceremony when I was in J2 as well. Though I regret that I did not fully indulge in that day's event, I must say it was fun while it lasted. Naturally we ended off with our mass dance at the mustering square (we always end off everything with that). The atmosphere was great, everyone was feeling high.

Another event that was held in Temasek was Pancake Day. It was just a day where instead of normal Civics period, each civics group were allowed to join games organised by the council. Each game involved pancakes in some way, hence the name. I remember Edwin represented 15/06 to do the balancing-pancake-on-head-and-turn-many-rounds-to-get-dizzy game (I remembered correctly I hope?). I then went to join 23/06 in their games cause they needed more people (hey I was from 23 before alright? so its not betrayal).

Where else but Temasek Junior College have such fun and exciting events held throughout the year?
(we also have Go Green Day, annual stay-overnight-in-school day etc...) Geez I miss my JC life.

News: Marksmanship Awards Delayed For Some NSFs

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v463/ffsl89/?action=view&current=marksman.jpg

  Several hundred national servicemen - many of whom have already completed their mandatory two-year commitment to the Singapore Armed Forces - have not been paid merit bonuses due to them for aceing their marksmanship tests.

The Straits Times understands that about 300 full-time national servicemen (NSFs), most from the 1st Battalion, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1SIR), are affected.

They were to have been paid $200 each for scoring well on the tests, conducted last October. The Defence Ministry confirmed yesterday that the soldiers had not yet been paid. However, it refused to say how many men were affected. its spokesman, Colonel Darius Lim, said a technical glitch in the payment process" was to blame. He added that payments would be made next month, and that the SAF was in contact with those affected (techiewen: they did!? oh, speak of the devil, I JUST received an sms from them).

It is given to those who score at least 80% in their annual shooting test, which involves firing live rounds at targets over varying distances while on the move, and in different positions. Soldiers are also graded on how quickly they respond to moving targets from different directions.

Many of the affected soldiers said they were unhappy that there had been no official word to them about payment for months, even though many of the 1SIR servicemen completed their NSF stints in December. As a result, many of the men vented their frustrations online, on the social networking site Facebook. Several said they were angry about the delay in payment, while others speculated on the reasons for the non-payment. When contacted yesterday, several servicemen said they had not yet heard from MINDEF. But when told they would be paid next month, all said they were relieved that something was finally being done after months of silence from the SAF.

Said one soldier, who held the rank of third sergeant but who did not want to be identified: "At least now, there is some confirmation that the authorities are doing something, but we hope such instances will not happen again."

But others said they were miffed that they had been left in the dark for so long to begin with.

One lance-corporal, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he had had no word from his unit right up to leaving the Army. "We were told that people in the battalion were looking into the matter and there was a technical error," said the 21-year-old, who is now working as a part-time assistant in a local bank.

"Some also said the scores had been processed and the money would be credited into our accounts soon, but who's to know whether that was true?"

Tech Speak: Sony Ericsson Rejected Google's Request To Make Nexus One

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/02/19/sony-ericsson-rejected-googles-request-to-make-nexus-one.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+IntoMobile+(IntoMobile)

Sony Ericsson said they don't want to be a sub-participant in Google's entry of the mobile phone market. While it's true that Google wouldn't want half the world to know that HTC was the one who actually made the phone (and contributed a lot of input, I'm sure), the fact remains that the letters "HTC" appears on each Nexus One and HTC did get a lot of recognition from this collaboration.

I would say Sony Ericsson could have benefited a lot if they had hitched a ride on Google now. After all HTC is well known for its Android phones due to the fact that it launched the first few Android phones and its Sense UI makes Android absolutely gorgeous. HTC continues to have advantageous relationship with Google with regards to Android, though notably Motorola is catching up (with rumours of Motorola Shadow being Nexus Two).

Tech Speak: Netiquette

http://lifehacker.com/5473859/basic-netiquette-for-email-lists-and-forums

Netiquette, meaning etiquette on the net, is generally not a well known knowledge to many people. For example many people do not know that TYPING IN CAPS MEANS YOU'RE SHOUTING and sometimes shouting is rude.

This Lifehacker's article is based on your work email lists and forums that you use. Short and simple. Everyone ought to follow it. And also stop SHOUTING ON THE NET.

Tech Speak: Social Networks Comparison

http://lifehacker.com/5472223/which-social-network-is-right-for-you

I read this article with interest. It showed me a few things which I didn't know about these 3 social networking websites which I used frequently. I daresay Lifehacker got their facts quite right. The image below, courtesy of Lifehacker, shows how the services fare in each category such as privacy issues and usability.

For me, Facebook is used to connect to my entire social network. This includes primary school friends whom I can't even remember how they look like (thank goodness for Facebook), secondary school friends whom I am the closest with and my other friends from Junior College and work place. As long as I see one's name and don't ask "do I know you enough?" or say "I think you pissed me off before" AND the invitation to be a "friend" was initiated by the other party, I will agree to add this "friend". FYI I very rarely invite other people

News: Name-calling In Google Age

by Jeremy Au Yong

- Straits Times, Life 13/02/2010

  I know I'm coming late to the party, so I won't go on and on about how dumb a name Apple has given it's tablet PC, the iPad.

Yet, I would be remiss in my duties here if I did not at least devote a few sentences to the feminine hygiene product jokes inspired by this product.

So if you don't mind, I'll try to get it over with quickly. Here goes:

Will the 64GB model be called the maxipad?

Will there be two data plans - light flow and heavy flow?

Will it come scented for the days when my data is feeling "not so fresh"?

If I order an iPad, will my girlfriend and I have to worry if it arrives late?

Is it true that for one week every month the iPad will be unresponsive and harsh?

Ahhhh, that feels better. Ok, I'm all done with that. No more iPad cracks from me today, I promise. Thank you for your patience.

With that absorbing matter out of the way (sorry, this is the last one, I swear), I can now move on to the real meat of today's column, which is: Why are there so many dumb product names these days anyway? Have we already used up all the good ones or what?

I mean, ask any random person in the street and they'll tell you straight away that you should not name your product an iPad, unless your product might be something guys are embarrassed to buy at a FairPrice.

Yet, here we have a situation where one of the world's premier IT giants is proudly using the name for its latest flagship product.

Not only that, we have a second company, Fujitsu, actually wanting to fight Apple over it. They claim they had come up with and used the dumb name first. It's their dumb name, not Apple's. (techiewen: wow I didn't know Fujitsu used it and want to claim it for theirs. read more here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/fujitsu_ipad/)



Of course, it would be grossly unfair of me to single out the iPad as the only bad product name out there. There are heaps of other examples.

Tech Speak: Zen X-Fi 2 Branded As Top 5 Player For 2010

http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/news/Best-5-MP3-Players-for-2010/283492.html

This must be a joke. How can Creative Zen X-Fi 2 be a top 5 mp3 player for 2010. Firstly Zen X-Fi 2 came out last year not this year (that said, all the players in the list came out last year). Secondly, this is the second month of the year, it's still too early to say. Thirdly, how can Microsoft Zune HD not be one of the top 5 (okay I'm biased here, if there's anything good that Microsoft had ever produced, its the Zune HD, but I digress). Lastly, look at the video below, featuring the X-Fi 2. The user interface is too laggy. I used it myself at one of the flagship stores so it's true. Even though the interface improved a lot after the firmware updates and the sound quality is impressive but still... Top 5?

Tech Speak: A Phone With A Keyboard, NOT

Have I grumbled before about how frustrated I am that HTC is not coming up with an Android phone that I'll be satisfied with this year?

My ideal smartphone is one that is
1) Android based
2) Has capacitive screen (AMOLED is a bonus)
3) At least 3.2inch diagonally
4) Has a qwerty keyboard
5) Is made by HTC or Google-based

I prefer HTC because it's build quality is solid. There's also plenty of reviews saying that HTC has among the best qwerty keyboards around. I'm a Google fan, so Android is a natural choice. 3.2inch screen is really the smallest I can accept. I really want a qwerty keyboard because I don't like virtual keyboard (that said I don't like capacitive buttons too but I can make do with it).

I would want to use the HTC G1 Dream. But it's old, slow and not compatible with the latest Android OS. The next closest option is HTC Touch Pro2 but it runs on windows mobile and the processor is considered slow too. I'm not that fussy I guess and since I'm going to root it anyway most likely if I get a Touch Pro2 it will become Android. Frankly I was overjoyed when I heard that the Nexus One's Google Voice is rather accurate. But the thought of not being able to blog or tweet by voice when surrounded by people (I'll get embarrassed) is a turn off. I still prefer to type.

Geez, which one should I get? The closest upgrade to the G1 is HTC Lancaster but it only has a 3inch screen, has a slow processor too so I don't really think it's that much of an upgrade. Maybe I should just get the G1 and wait another year.

Ramblings: Laughing Stock Again

Danny said he's "damn curious to know what kind of girlfriend I will have". I'm only to classify that under the same type of comment as Jason's.

I'm not going to friend you already! Humph!

LOL~

Brain Storm: Time, It Does Not Wait. Society, It Does Not Forgive.

Many of my closer friends say I'm a cruel, heartless, nose-in-the-air bastard. That's because they know me better and because in front of them I speak truth from my heart and nothing else. And yet here I admit, the extremist in me has lied many times, for I do not believe in compassion, for I do not give in to excuses. There's no such thing as "he's just like that" or "she'll know one day".

While everyone is unique, I cannot tolerate certain characteristics. Maturity and sensibility is a relative thing. But how can one not have any common sense at all? Though I am sure that I have yet to meet a person who has none of it (apart from little bratty or bitchy 12 to 16 year old teenagers), I have met people who have come close to it. At first, I was horrified. Then I was amazed. At the end of the day, I was horrified again.

It's like, there appears to be a fine line between people who act like they are retarded, people who are half retarded and people who are really retarded. But actually there isn't. It's so obvious. A comparison cannot be matched among them.

Ramblings: Lonelytine's Day

14 February. There was a time when I didn't care at all. That was when I was younger. Even up till secondary 4, when there was a rose on my desk without a name, I didn't really care much (up till now I still don't know who it was from, or if it was even meant for me). Then came Junior College. Everyone was suddenly in a rush to get a girlfriend or boyfriend. There was school wide angel-and-mortal game, many roses flew around, and perhaps it was then that I started to get affected, by the lack of a valentine on Valentine's Day. JC2 and through, I was still, erm, dateless. When I was in the army, I remember how Chris sent me a SMS on Valentine's Day during BMT to cheer me up. Perhaps he saw the sadness in my eyes (or, maybe it was my grumbling). 2 years from then, till now, for 21 years, since I am born, I am still dateless. I thought I'd be totally desensitised by now. I would think of all that buddy talk, like "hey who needs a girl? I have my buddies, that's all I need" or "I would never place my girlfriend in a higher priority than my buddies". Then suddenly, we grew up, we see couples around, some of us get attached, and the words aren't as true as they used to sound anymore. We all know this, so even if some of us still remember the promises, we don't mention it anymore.

It's hard when I see couples around. Maybe I do need one certain someone by my side, sulking at my joys, laughing at my sorrows, spending all my money and wasting all my time afterall. But I'm really not someone who seems to be able to get attached at all. Kudos to Ching Yee and Jason. Ching Yee for saying that "you're someone who don't look like you are attached" and Jason for saying that "if wenqin is attached, it's interesting". Guess I should start working on living alone till I grow old, retire and die.

And gosh the bloody fag**t at the Chinese New Year celebration show on Channel 8 yesterday said that those born of the zodiac Snake (that's me) will have a lousy year in business, money, health, and RELATIONSHIP. Thanks. Oh well, not like the purist romantic (read! - http://infinitelyme.blogspot.com/2009/07/brain-storm-love-is-in-air-or-not.html) is going to get attached anytime soon.

Event: Chinese New Year

And here it comes again, yet another Chinese New Year Day. Year in, year out, this supposedly festive season never fails to prove to me how much I've grown since I was young (or rather, how much I've aged).

Mayhaps it's because I havn't seen my relatives for almost a year now, this year's CNY really showed me how I have approached adulthood and might as well considered a 21st year old adult already (though there's still some time left). This year, I didn't show much of a childish whims to my elders and more so, I spoke to them about serious issues. I was discussing about army life with some of my cousins and uncles. I was discussing about some of my younger cousins' rebellious stages in life with my uncle. I spoke to my cousin-in-law about Facebook and its undesirable effects. I shared some stuff about time management with my older cousins. Strangely, I felt that I had these things in mind all along. Was it a subtle change in my mindset? Was it due to the fact that I havn't seen my relatives for ages? Or did I just boom and grow up in an instant?

Maturity is a strange thing indeed. I also spoke to 2 of my closest cousins, both only a couple of years apart from me, about how we grew up. It was a intriguing thought. Who knew that we grew out of our bratty selves back from when we were 10 and so on, except when we spoke about it ourselves?

Perhaps you will find new-found maturity, if you stopped to think about it? I truly hope my family members will stop to think, even if a while. It's time to grow up, even if you don't want to. Harsh reality, yes. But it'll be easier if you mature. Take heed.

(that said, it was a really enjoyable time to have met up with my relatives again. these are the people whom i share blood ties with, and I can imagine how so, and why I enjoyed the time spent with them. it's in the blood, they say.)

Ramblings: No Sex This Year Please, I Don't Want A Tiger

It's going to be the year of Tiger tomorrow onwards. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned that he was concerned with Singapore's low birth rate. I mean, what's new? Dipping again, our fertility rate fell to 1.23 last year, down from 1.28 in 2008. He said that he's worried that it will drop again this year, because some Chinese couples prefer not to have Tiger-year babies.

Lol. This is laughable. I mean, what's the big deal. Your tiger baby's not gonna eat you. Like what? Before you have sex you suddenly remember, "oh shit, it's the tiger year, gotta get a year's worth stash of condoms again, or we might as well just no have sex until next year."

If you see a lovable geek out there who has a blog and love Google, and you think you need some sex, I say go for it. No need to fear tiger babies, I'm right here.

That said, I'm alone again this Valentine's. Geez I knew I should have gotten the Nexus One as a girlfriend. Now I gotta be alone.

Tech Speak: I Want To Move My "House"!

Each person has made a statement of them in the cloud. Some people have online profiles, some have Facebook account (ok admittedly not every person has Facebook), some have blogs and there is something that I'm sure most if not all have - emails. I'm sure for most of us Singaporeans, our email accounts are also linked to our messenger service, namely mainly MSN or Yahoo. When we were younger, we didn't have so many contacts, and our messenger contact list was few. It was easy to say "i want to change my email" on a whim. I mean, personally, I've changed my email like 4 times? I have been on my current one for 4 years odd now. It has a contact list of 400+ people, my messenger service has many contacts as well. I suddenly have the feeling of changing my email. But it's hard, I shouldn't and I can't. Just change it, you say? It seems like it's just emailing 400+ people about my new email, export my current MSN messenger contact list and import it into my new one. Tada, all done.

No, if only it is so easy. I have many web services linked to my email. I realised that many of those web services do not allow me to change my email address. Personally I find that ridiculous. My email now acts like my passport. Even for those which I can change my email, there's too many services and I can't even remember some. Though some say that I might as well just abandon those web services since I can't even remember them, but hey at least my browser remembers the login name and password and I can just login if I ever come across them again.

Actually the bulk of the problem is due to the Google Products I am using with my Gmail. Since I am a faithful user of Google, I use plenty of their stuff. It'll be hard to backup every single one of my 3500 Gmail messages. I have no idea how to move my blog over. My Google calender is totally filled with birthdays and appointments. My Google Contacts has 400+ people. I have 31 documents in my Google Docs. I have a halfway done website under Google Sites. My iGoogle homepage has 40+ gadgets and 6 tabs with tons of bookmarks. My Picasa web albums have 29 albums, taking up about 500mb of space. My Google Profile is properly done. My Google Reader has 25 subscriptions. My Youtube has a ton of favourites.

Best of all, Google says "if you do not have a Gmail account under your Google account, you may change your username. If you do, it is impossible to change the username. You may however, sign up for another account." Are you nuts? And gosh, my username "techiewen" is taken up for Gmail. I guess I'll have to stick to this for a while longer.

Brain Storm: Facebook For Nuts

I refer to the article on Straits Times 13/02/2010 - Racist Facebook Postings.

Now now, there we have it again. Some shit faced brats posted some racist stuff on the net. And by golly, of all places, it has to be Facebook. 2 polytechnic students and 1 youth created this group which used a derogatory term referring to Indians as its name. The kiddos were arrested but let off with a caution. There are 2 issues in this saga.

Facebook is a all powerful entity. Even though other social networking websites like Myspace and Twitter (does Friendster and hi5 even still exist?) has influences on different countries, but Facebook is one that has integrated into most communities. Everyone knows that by now. I mean, who doesn't have a proper Facebook account nowadays. (Okay maybe except you, stop looking at your crouch, I'm talking to you. Shame on you.) That said, most people still do not understand the meaning of being part of a extremely influential and far reaching online social networking service. It simply means that there's too many ways of affecting a person, whether you want it or not, and whether you do it upon yourself or others do it upon you. Say, a person wants to reveal that you were double dating (naughty naughty, but its your personal life, i mean it used to be your personal life), all that person has to do is snap a photo and post it on Facebook. Heck, he can just type some comments, that ought to do some damage. Nothing's personal anymore. The photos you posted of you drunk when you went to club yesterday will be seen by many, even those whom you didn't

Tech Speak: Sim Lim Square Against Piracy

Microsoft and Sim Lim Square Partner Against Piracy :: News :: www.hardwarezone.com.sg

This must be the joke of the year. Do you know how freaking many of the shops in Sim Lim Square are not STAR certified?

Tech Speak: Making A Google Buzz

At 9am today, My Google Buzz was activated. Okay, it might have been activated earlier but I was sleeping. It works much like Twitter, you follow people, people follow you. But there's no 140 letters limit (something I really dislike in Twitter, it could have been just a little longer you know). You can share links right on, and the links shows a little preview. You can also link some web services to share on your Buzz automatically. The web services shown on my Gmail includes Picasa, Flickr, Twitter, Youtube. Blogspot, Google Talk and Google Reader. I use almost all of them regularly apart from Flickr and Google Talk. I daresay though, that I wouldn't want every single one of my blog post, tweets and photo uploads to appear on Buzz. Sometimes I tweet and post some personal thoughts which I don't think everyone will be interested in. Somehow though, my tweets and Google Reader stuff hasn't appeared on my Buzz. It's not like I have a lot of followers on Buzz now but still...

Chin Hua told me he's buzzing too but the friends suggestion tool in Buzz doesn't seem to be working well. I can only search from my Google Contacts and for eg. Chin Hua has 3 email addresses and I don't know which one he uses to Buzz. Another feature I hope to see is to be able to control which tweets and blog post to appear on my Buzz. I don't think that's too hard for blogspot since Google owns blogspot but it might be of an issue with Flickr and Twitter. Last but not least, I think I would appreciate it Buzz hides part of the buzzes to say a standard length. Shortening it will decrease load time and considering that we can share even Youtube videos and pictures on Buzz, I think load time will become significant.

Will be back with more.

Tech Speak: A Frozen Yoghurt, Gingerbread And Whatever Starts With H Please

http://www.htcheroblog.com/2010/02/10/android-after-froyo-get-ready-for-gingerbread/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+HtcHeroBlog+(HTC+Hero+Blog)

And next up is Froyo, short for Frozen Yoghurt. We had Cupcakes, then Donut, and Éclair. After Froyo they predict it's gonna be Gingerbread. What do you reckon is up next?

Tech Speak: Make A Google Buzz

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/introducing-google-buzz.html

Here it is, this is Google's answer to online social networking. (actually Google has a social networking portal call Orkut but I think it kind of sucks, appearance wise at least, havn't explored much yet).

Google Buzz is integrated into Gmail and will be rolled out to users within the next few days. You can create a buzz from Gmail to start interesting conversations with others where you can share with them and they will see it. You can set your buzzes to be public or just within your circle of friends. Unlike Twitter, you can comment right on the buzz, attach photos, videos, links etc.

The mobile form of Google Buzz has an extra feature and that is geotagging. Geotagging seems to be the next big thing for Google, along with their I'm A Favourite Place On Google, Google Goggles (http://infinitelyme.blogspot.com/2009/12/tech-speak-put-on-your-goggles-from.html), Google Maps (where you get Geotag your favourite locations) etc. So create a buzz say when you were at Rocher's Soyabean snack house and it'll show right on the buzz where exactly you had it.

Take note though, geotagging in the form of social networking is not a good thing. I have heard of a website that mimics Twitter, only that you tell people where you are. It's sort of Google Buzz too. However when I first heard of that, I kind of didn't like it cause the whole world will know where you are, including people you dislike and your enemies. But Google Buzz will allow you to choose who you share it with, I hope. I havn't gotten it yet, I sure hope they do soon! I'll be back for more.

Tech Speak: MY Nexus One. I Wish...

If I have a Nexus One.. That's what I'll engraved. The second one appeals to me more. Though admittedly, I think I may not want to engrave after all. Then I can sell it. On the other hand, I think it'll make such a good phone that I would want to keep it. Oh well, no $$ anyways.

Brain Storm: Hamonious Singapore And Numbskulls

You must have seen it or heard about it by now. It was all over facebook, it was on youtube, there were thousands of views within a short time. Today's news brought light to the troubling video created by Senior Pastor Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism, a self proclaimed mega church which is independent. In the video, he sort of interviewed a supposedly ex-monk and ex-nun about Buddhism and ridiculed both Buddhism and Taoism. That's in the gist. The papers said there were 3 short clips but I didn't watch any cause it sounded boring and damaging to Singapore's religious harmony.

Now, I think we've been through this a lot. Wasn't there an immature guy a couple of years ago who spouted rubbish which promoted religious disharmony and got busted? Yet here we are, facing a man of great status in his religion, one who is experienced both as a pastor, as well as a Singaporean. Truth be told, I don't think he should be just let off with just a warning. It is a grievous crime. Any Tom, Dick or Harry in Singapore, would know that the foundation of Singapore's peace lies in our racial and religious harmony. Without it, how can our economy or political scene be stable? As Ministry of Home Affairs, Internal Security Department mentioned, it only takes a little effort from few persons to disrupt the religious harmony that we took so much pain to build up. Then again, I suppose in this sensitive topic of religion, more people would be in favor of letting it go in the name of their whatever kind religion (hey don't blame me, I'm a free thinker, I just want to see the deserved being punished). The Taoist said they prefer to maintain harmony with others rather than to pick a fight while the Buddhist said they are taught to forgive. Oh well, whatever I guess, I just hope that his apologies were sincere and he doesn't go around preaching something else behind our backs. You can say all you want about how great your religion, just don't bring other religions into the picture.

While Singapore is multi racial and religion and we should all be sensitive and all, one interesting part of our culture (at least for the youths) is that we poke fun at each others' race and religion. (Russell Peters anyone?) If it is done in good fun, such jokes are fine if not overboard. I'm sure most Singaporeans will agree with this. However, it doesn't appear that Pastor Tan was "insulting and joking about Taoism and Buddhism for the sake of love and funnies". It is no fine line. As one of great stature, it was unwise of him to make such remarks. (and videoing it up, what the heck was he thinking!?) Just imagine Obama going up to the press and saying that Singaporeans are a bunch of kiasu and kiasi people. True that may be, but it will still portray badly of Obama as well as straining the ties between the 2 countries. It's about context.

I have met many people who are totally devoted to their religion. Oh god goodness I've been through it so rough that I'm banned from the word "god" cause I'm supposed to be a freethinker, says that someone. I think its quite understandable if someone totally puts his or her faith into the religion. FYI, when you think that dick in the other religion is a stupid fool and will go to hell, that dick also thinks that you're a penis in the other religion who is a idiotic lunatic and will never reach enlightenment. It's the same, alright? In our country, nobody's religion is wrong. But if you don't understand and appreciate how delicate and important our racial and religious harmony is, you are a complete insensitive lunatic, foolish dick who is stupid and idiotic. That's our Singapore's way of life.

Ramblings: Sharethis

Notice a new green icon at the bottom of each post? I've been using this program called Sharethis for a long time in other websites now. I've been looking up on ways to increase web traffic on my blog and one of the ways suggested was to include Sharethis.

Sharethis is quite a convenient program. It allows you to share a certain post from a weblog or news blog to your favourite online social portal. I've always used it from Cnet etc to share stuff on my Facebook and my Twitter. However I rarely use it to share stuff on my blogspot cause it's not very well integrated.

I should start working on other suggestions to increase traffic on my blog, such as having more attractive content and having more regular posts. Hmm.

Ramblings: Acrophobia

Acrophobia is the fear of heights. Ok I am blogging about this because I have slight acrophobia. I say slight because I do not hyperventilate when I am at great heights. But I do shiver and become nervous excessively. It's a pain in the ass. That is because I am a rock climber (a little) and I used to do outdoor adventuring when I was in secondary school. Outdoor adventure club was my part time CCA for a while. Despite that, I am fearful of heights. Make me go near the glass ledges of shopping malls and my heart will skip a beat. My friends didn't really know about it until the recent Taiwan trip, though I myself wasn't sure how bad it affects me. But it seems that it's quite bad and Taipei 101 really triggered it. When I went to Recruit Express at UOB Plaza on the 56th floor 2 months ago, I didn't really feel a thing. After I came back from Taiwan, I started feeling a little dizzy when I went to Google at 8 Shenton Way on the 38th floor.

Today was the worst. I went to Google on 38th floor, my work place was a bank company on 48th floor. Just when I thought it's all over for the day, I was made to go to Recruit Express on the 56th floor. My lifespan just got decreased by a few years again.

Though frankly, all these has reduced my fear. With help and more experience, I may be able to reduce it to a minimal and go up Taipei 101 again!

Senseless Stuff: New Emoticons!

I got these from one of Chrome's new extension that uses Grease Monkey. Now that Grease Monkey is enabled, there's so much more to making use of Chrome. But the database is a little messy and I'm kind of lazy to go search. Oh well I'll just wait for some kind soul to fix it up or a new site to spring up.

Food: Favourite Drinks

Okay okay, the general category for food and drinks is Food. I don't see a point in renaming. But here goes.

After a few months, I'm finally back to drinking my favourite fruit juice of all time: Pokka's Carrot Juice! It's a drink which disgust a lot of people I know, so I guess you can say it's a acquired taste. In fact I don't know of anybody at all who likes this drink. I fancy many drinks and the brand is an important factor as well. Here's a list of my favourite drinks.

Favourite Fruit Juice:

1) Carrot Juice (Pokka)

2) Lychee Juice (Yeo's)

3) Powerberries (Marigold)

4) Sugarcane (any)

Favourite Iced Tea:

1) Iced Lemon Tea (Seasons)

2) Iced Apple Tea (Pokka)

Favourite Starbucks Drink:

1) Green Tea Latte (hot)

2) Green Tea Frap (venti ten scoops green tea powder no whip)

3) Caramel Macchiato

Favourite Milk:

1) Fresh Milk (Marigold)

I'm a green tea freak and I can drink green tea and iced lemon tea like water!

(anti jasmine green tea though)

Brain Storm: I Like You Not

Today I saw 2 persons whom I, well, don't really like.

Truth be told, I am someone who judges by look, by impression, and worst, by feeling. That is to say, if I don't think I can get along with someone, then you can more or less expect us not to get along at all, at least for quite a bit of time. While I do know that being this unreasonable and stubborn will get me a anti social status, and it did, that is just how I act. Of this 2 people, I dislike one of them due to "a feeling thing". The other was because I just hate how he treated me/us/the whole lot of them.

However as time pass by, I do try to reduce judging the people I meet by these factors. As I get older, I realise that a wide social network is essential for survival. Whether or not the relationships are "fake", it is a must for me to make more friends than foes. That is life, most unfortunately. Not that my way of judging was right in the first place. However I must say that I really don't like to treat someone whom I dislike nicely.

Even so, with experience, I realise my "feelings" are not always the least bit accurate. There's this girl I really disliked in the past, but with projects and interactions I realised that she's actually a nice girl and became good friends thus.

Beautiful ending.

Sights And Sounds: All In A Day's Work

It was sunny and I decided to go for a swim at Hougang swimming pool. A few observations I made deserve to be noted.

1) There were swimming lessons going on and there's this coach who was disciplining his students. He asked his student which lap he was doing and his student replied "third lap". I was surprised when the coach corrected him and said "You should say it correctly. This is my third lap." I'm glad to see educators in different aspects making an effort to rid Singapore youths of undesirable speech habits.

2) I was changing out after I was done in the changing room when I noticed about 4 or 5 students from my secondary school. They were noisy, and childish. They were mainly teasing each other about changing into their swimming attire outside the cubicles, as if some of them have balls and some don't. Intriguing. Kids will be kids. Then again, I wasn't like that when I was younger.

3) I then went to Hougang Mall's Popular bookshop. I was browsing through some guides for my tuition students when I overheard this secondary school couple talking about Ten Year Series (TYS). The girl was commenting that it's about time to get one and she wants to buy the nicest looking one. Such a wise decision.

4) On my way back, I saw one of my army camp mates. We weren't close, but we talk sometimes and do acknowledge each other's existence. To my surprise, he already forgot about me and worse still, he pretended that he knows me. He was exposed when he asked me when am I going to enlist. It's so disturbing and awkward that I quickly finished off the conversation and left. Did my appearance change so much? Or was I that insignificant? I hope I was insignificant. If he forgot about me cause he can't recognise me, it would really be quite sick.

All in a day's work.

Brain Storm: Stomping Blues

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/what_bugs_me/309058/school_forces_studenst_to_wear_shorts.html#commentSection

I read the above article with amusement. But I read the comments with sadness. The article was funny, as the kid who sent the complaint seem immature. His command of the English language was rather weak, but at least it's not totally broken English or Singlish, he saved his school's face at least this much. I used to be a hard core disciplinarian. Perhaps that's why I see the punishment as a valid one. Many people, the kid included, mentioned that such a punishment was stupid, and does not serve it's means. As a school disciplinarian long ago, I knew immediately that the rule was implemented merely because "the students are seen to be naughty and not mature enough". The school, firstly, will not present this as the main, or only reason to the students. It will be backed with examples, especially one related to long pants. To my surprise, according to old Saints (what an alumnus is called in St. Andrews), it had been a tradition for Sec3 students to earn their rights to wear long pants some one decade ago. Fair enough, a tradition is what identifies a school. Then, current Saints also revealed that they were already told about this policy before the school holidays and were told the specific reason why. (I'm working on the basis that the commentators were real Saints and speak the truth) The reason was due to a large number of students in the previous batch tapering their pants, thus the school wishes to check them when school reopens before allowing them to wear long pants the week after.

If the Stompers-Saints were speaking the truth, then the article will really funny, and the kid who wrote it, is utterly hilarious.

Now, on the issues I am concern with...

Firstly, I am amazed that the kid stomped this issue. No I am not militarised (I ORDed already btw), but I feel that the kid should really have spoke to the school first. No school management in the right mind, when a student approaches them to ask for a reason for a rule, ask them to get lost and blindly follow the rule. Neither will the school management agree to such a rule at the whim of the DM or the principal. I'm afraid that's not how it works, dear Singaporeans. Back when I was in school, we had to discuss with the DM, then discuss with the principal and the rest of the management team before we can pass a policy or a rule. Don't you think it is childish for someone who due to frustration wrote to the mass media to appeal for help from the netizens? A mature student, even deaf ones who failed to hear the announcements, would ask their friends first. Then again, I guess birds of the same feathers flock together. (actually I really think it's just that one guy) There are proper procedures in each organisation and even just based on common sense, one would not publicise their organisation in a bad way without solid evidence. I feel for the school.

Secondly, I am amazed at how many Stompers commented that the kid is right about bringing this to light. They spoke for free speech as well as the fact that "a kid don't have the power to go against the school and thus should appeal to mass media". I think this is disgusting. Why would we encourage our younger generation to be such pussies wussies? If for every minor issue a Singaporean would publish in caps on the internet, wouldn't all of us become immature and spoilt soon?

Last but not least, I am quite horrified by how many Stompers insist they are right, with such a command of the language. It's like getting a male blanga to say 我的阴胫很长 (my penis is very long) but he pronounced as 我的阴道很长 (my vagina is very long), it's not convincing at all! I understand that many people make careless grammatical mistakes sometimes but some people just looked like they try too hard when they actually know nuts. And don't get me wrong, I am not saying that those people can't express their views. When you can't really put it in the right words and right expression, just don't make it sound like you're God and whatever comes out of your mouth (or whatever you typed) is right. It's all about the tone.

That said I do hope I am not one of those who are immature, spoilt, inaccurate, make assumptions without evidence, hasty and has a lousy command of language while sounding like I am absolutely right. Another thing is, I think the tradition thingy is quite cool. While many will argue that tradition that is old and doesn't make sense should be removed, I do keep my stand that every tradition is special and as long as it doesn't hold back efficiency by too much, we should keep it and respect it. Traditions come from our roots and it defines us, no?

Event: Taiwan Trip 2010

Congratulations to myself for having my first overseas vacation! (army ones doesn't count)

This is the first time I went overseas and its really cool that I had my closest friends with me. I never imagined that I would be late for something that excited me so much but still I was late :p While on the train towards Changi Airport, I was so excited that my heart kept thumping hard. It was nice to see everyone at the airport and knowing that we're going to spend the next 9 days together in Taiwan playing our hearts out.

Edwin da terrorist wearing bomber shirt!

Bye bye Singapore, Taiwan here we come!

Day 1
We landed, abit not smoothly but still, and felt the cool winds of Taiwan. While indoors, it was still fine, I kind of erm, didn't bring any jacket on my hand held bag and insisted that I wanted to "taste true Taiwan on my skin at least once without any jacket". But when we touched down, Danny insisted that I take his spare jacket and so I did. We went to do the youth thingy and then walked out. The reaction was "OH MY GOD ITS SO COLD IS ORGASMIC"! Ok we didn't say that but it was something like that. Thank goodness for the jacket. But alas the hero and heroine of the day was still Yinning and moi, as we were both wearing short pants. Everyone was staring at us as if we were stark naked outside. We took a bus to Taipei Train Station

Book: Lopsided

Lopsided by Meredith Norton.

This book is a memoir about having breast cancer. Meredith writes a realistic experience in a humorous way. Despite having a not-so-common personality and attitude, she pens the natural reactions of human beings in face of a grave disease. Take note though, this book is slightly vulgar. But I feel that adds to the realism. This book is really captivating and I finished it pretty quickly though I don't have a habit of reading that much.

From her website, I think she is still well and alive. The battle she fought as a resilient or rather, stubborn person seems worth it. She sidetracks a lot in the book but you will never feel that it was out of point. The many little stories, crude or hilarious, makes it a very human read.

Tech Speak: Nexus One

If only this has a keyboard...

Tech Speak: How Search Ads Work

Music: 夜访吸血鬼

After my Taiwan trip, I was again reminded that I totally love this song, cause I sang it in a KTV there. This song is called 夜访吸血鬼 by May Day. It's about vampires, how they're lonely, neither demon nor angel, how they can't die even though they want to. It's a really nice song with pretty interesting lyrics.

满怀忧伤却流不出泪
极度的疲惫却不能入睡
只能够日日夜夜
然后又日日夜夜
无尽的日日夜夜
永远的深陷在人间

我是蝙蝠却不能飞
困在日复一日的街
无止尽的狩猎
彷佛一种天谴

夜色就是我的披肩
日出就是我的风险
舞池里的狂颠
是我宿命制约

上帝遗弃我们却又要给
黯淡的月照亮世界
要我们无尽又无情的繁衍
看爱过的人一一告别
做过的梦一一凋谢
只留下我独自残喘的千年

无法挥舞天使的纯洁
也无法拥有魔鬼的果决
只有像每个人类
贪嗔痴傻和愚昧
找寻着体温和血
找寻着同类

满怀忧伤却流不出泪
极度的疲惫却不能入睡
只能够日日夜夜
然后又日日夜夜
无尽的日日夜夜
永远的深陷在人间

饥饿是最好的调味
孤独是最强的催眠
疯狂找一双唇
能够当我酒杯

早就对这一切厌倦
也曾愤怒喝下圣水
却又无助醒在
下个漫长黑夜

青春遗忘我们却又要给
回忆的美就像玫瑰
要余生流血又流泪的受虐
看镜中的脸慢慢枯萎
高举的拳渐渐粉碎
只留下了无限唏嘘的相片

无法挥舞天使的纯洁
也无法拥有魔鬼的果决
只有像每个人类
贪嗔痴傻和愚昧
找寻着体温和血
找寻着同类

满怀忧伤却流不出泪
极度的疲惫却不能入睡
只能够日日夜夜
然后又日日夜夜
无尽的日日夜夜
永远的深陷在人间

无法挥舞天使的纯洁
也无法拥有魔鬼的果决
只有像每个人类
贪嗔痴傻和愚昧
找寻着体温和血
找寻着同类

满怀忧伤却流不出泪
极度的疲惫却不能入睡
只能够日日夜夜
然后又日日夜夜
无尽的日日夜夜
永远的深陷在人间

一个又一个孤单的千年
只能够日日夜夜
然后又日日夜夜
无尽的日日夜夜 wu~~
我不能飞

Ramblings: Inexperiency

So I got another temp assignment. But the road to get this miserable one day temp packer assignment was a long and annoying one.

First I was told that this job may have interactions with customers so I should not have any "overly vulgar" appearance. Well she didn't say overly vulgar but she asked with concern if I have "any piercings, dyed hair or tattoo", as if having them is a crime. No can do, missy. Maybe being overly pierced or having like, dyed white hair or gigantic tattoos down my own arm can be too intimidating. But mine isn't like that. Later on I was told I can wear jeans and tee shirt. This is so on the same wavelength.

Then I was told to wear formal for the interview. Right, "interview". Temp packer, wear full formal, interview. The society nowadays is so high class that you need more than A level certificate to be a temp packer. My agent also told me not to wear my ear rings to the interview and the day itself to give a good impression.

When I went the room, the "interviewers" didn't even give a half hoot about my studs (right, I rebelled, I refused to take it off). The other guy who got "interviewed" was in jeans and tee shirt. They just called us in and started briefing us in a matter-of-factly way, as if we were already hired. So much for good first impression. Even so, I must say that the HR Dept. is overly serious. They checked all my photocopied certs against my original ones and then took all my photocopied ones away. Well done. Shouldn't have given them any of my non-educational certs.

Alright, I smell inexperience from my agent. Not that I discriminate against beginners. They should have the chance to learn as well, since I have had many interviews for many odd jobs already. But still, they should do a bit more research. And be a bit less naggy. I think I'm not going to associate with them after this one.

Gosh, what a long day.

Tech Speak: Your Email Is You

Read this article from Lifehacker.com about your email addresses and domains.

http://lifehacker.com/5447335/know-what-your-email-address-says-about-you

Your email says a lot about you. Lately, I have been preaching about how important it is to my friends, especially since we're all stepping deeper into society. That cheesy email address of yours will work no more. I mean like, what do you expect your employers and colleagues to think of "frens4va@hotmail.com" or "hotstud88@hotmail.com"? It is not professional, it does not portray a good image of you.

Then comes your domain. Okay, I used to use hotmail and perhaps I did not use the newer versions of it well enough to know if it is good (since i jumped boat to Gmail since 2004 and since never looked back). I do use it once in a while and it never fails to "impress" me. Furthermore, it gives an impression that only unprofessional people uses it. Maybe it's just me, but even yahoomail sounds so much more appealing to me. As the article above stated, the aol domain sounds so 1996. Thus in truth, your domain speaks a little about you, though there are indeed people who are less judgemental about it but hey, don't take that chance.

Everyone should have at least one yahoomail account or even better, Gmail, whose username is your own name. Eg. alvinli@gmail.com. If your username is taken, try other sequences such as lialvin@gmail.com or li.alvin@gmail.com or alvin.li@gmail.com.

I am always relieved when I hear my friends say that they actually already have a formal email account with Gmail that spells their name out. Good job there.

Event: Yet Another Decade Coming - It's 2010

My older colleagues says when you turn 21, you will start to grow old very quickly. In the blink of an eye, you will become 25. Then in another blink, 30. Thereafter, it takes only half a blink to reach 40. Scary.

Next year, I am turning 21. Shit, next year comes in 30 minutes.

No matter, this time of the year generally means new year resolution, for me at least.

Let's take a look back at what I blogged as my 2009 new year resolution.

My resolutions for 2009:

1) Try not to be so desensitised that i dont even give a damn about my closer friends

2) Try to spend less and save more for my university

3) Try to catch up on my Chinese and English language as well as some basic computing stuff

4) Maintain my weight around the range of 52kg to 55kg

5) Gain so much muscles that i will look hot in tight-fitting clothes

6) Down pes in August

7) Beat up at least 50% of the guys in my i-want-to-beat-you-up-cause-i-dont-like-your-face list by the time i ORD

8) Train my eye-rolling skills until my powers suppass Storm's

Looking point by point, it seems that I didn't even fulfil half of my resolution. For number 5, I think I look quite hot already, but I guess there's always room for improvement. Lol, just joking. For number 7, I am really disappointment that I didn't beat up a single person, but oh well, some things happened and I didn't feel like beating up anyone, though most of them did continue to raise my blood pressure throughout the year. As for number 8, I think my eyes are too small, so oh well. No count.

Joking resolution aside, I didn't save much, my bad. Will try again this year.

I did try to pick up my Chinese again, but it's not enough. I'm still trying to start Chinese blogging again, will see how. As for computing knowledge, it's really hard to start. But now that I have plenty of time, I should really start borrowing some books to read.

I didn't manage to keep my weight around that range, but I must say that I don't really care that much anymore. A light person has his advantages.

Okay, I did not down pes, cause I kind of have a less-than-willing specialist to look at me as a weakling who needs to down pes. My fault, for not being a natural liar and deceive my way through to statuses and down pes. I shall repent.

Ok so the only resolution that I managed to keep was number 1. I did try to, and manage to contact many of my friends. It's really hard to start calling them but I'm glad I did during my block leave. It's true that I was still out of touch with most of my friends until August cause army made me so busy. But well at least I did try. And actually, I did fulfil another resolution which I didn't write down - that is, to complete a full marathon.

The larger part of looking back at this year goes to thinking back of the army. So I shall leave that to the next blog post.

For now my resolutions are as follows:

1) Get a good paying job and really start saving up for university

2) Have a good start to university life, cast off my loner self and make lots of friends in university

3) Remember everyone's birthday, for once, cause this coming year, most of my friends are turning 21

4) Work out consistently and get IPPT silver by end of March

5) Complete Sundown Marathon 2010 and StanChart Singapore Marathon 2010 with a timing of less than 5 hours

6) Restart my skills allocation program, to learn either cooking, instruments, wushu, Japanese, roller blading, computing, photoshop etc.

7) Start a Chinese blog, food blog and maintain them

8) Drink way less Starbucks

Well, that's it for now.

The year we turn 21, we become adults. That's a traditional way of thinking, but I think most people still appeal to it. My closest friends, we're becoming an adult soon. Many great things in our lives are just starting. We have come a long way, we have matured. This will be a great year. The year to adulthood.

Happy New Year~

Event: Christmas Celebration

I can't say I really celebrate Christmas. But I vaguely remember that there were lots of little gatherings at Danny's House on Christmas yearly, though I rarely attend. This year I was there and we had steamboat again. It's good to sit around with your friends and have a good home dinner together. Its really hilarious when Yinning tries to stop people from polluting her food source too. Luckily nobody cut her off from dinner this year.

I baked a chocolate honey cake this year with some chocolate honey sauce. I won't say it's a success but hey, my friends havn't complained that they're having diarrhoea yet. It's a good first attempt. I'm trying to make baking one of my skills. Till the next time then.

gosh my camera phone totally sucks, its so grainy

chatty chatty after dinner~

i did cut off the top layered which is obviously burnt, but the rest of the cake was still not so bad

Brain Storm: The Water That Reflects My Body, Mind And Soul (The Beginning)

2 years ago, I was excited about entering the army. Finally, I am going to become rock solid fit and the army will force me to eat healthily. My friend used to say that he will just pretend that it's just some extended chalet and try to enjoy all the outdoors. I guess we never thought deeply enough, and we didn't know the army enough. I really cannot recall being worried at all, though I did make preparations just in case I couldn't sleep on the first day of enlistment. (I barely slept the day before on purpose, so that I would be so tired that I will fall asleep on the first day easily)

The Story... 2 days before I enlisted, I sms-ed my friend who enlisted already, and I did the same 1 day before I enlisted to 2 other friends. They both sounded alright. No big deal. But we all didn't know the first few days was just the relaxing administrative days. When I went to the interchange, I saw Tsun Wang and that really put me at ease. But I began to tense up as we boarded the ferry and went up the steps towards the back of the auditorium. Many people said they felt detached from civilian-ness when they gave their pink IC to the army. Being truly innocent and oblivious, I didn't. Even when we met the CSM and he spoke in such military style to us, I still thought that everything's gonna be fine. When we responded to him, we were zealous, we were loud. I felt that I was so into it (like Yayyyy! Army!! lol). The sadness sank in starting from the time CO spoke to me in the cookhouse, telling me to eat more. When it's time for the parents to leave, I really felt tears in my eyes. Mum pat on my head and told me to take care. I told her "不用担心, 我会照顾自己"

"Don't worry, I'll be alright, I can take care of myself."

So it begins. BMT wasn't the toughest thing I went through, despite me being only a LCP. Though it was intense, it probably wasn't as tough as it was supposed to be cause the garang spirit was still strong. I remember having the ADF in my platoon, along with a certain white horse.

Here's a few things that's imprinted deeply in my mind.

1) I happened to meet Guan Wen when I was collecting my kit, I still had my hair while his was gone. I remember we were discussing on "How we were told to wear our socks". That's the army for you.
2) I remember all the recruits mass called our parents on the first day, cause we were forced to. I hanged up promptly. At that time I still did not miss home that much.
3) I remember dragging my duffel bag to the 3rd floor and feeling tired. Wonder how the rest bring up to their 4th level bunk and 5th level bunk.
4) I remember asking my section commander if I can wear my knee support as if to do so was a crime. I was so afraid that he will scream "NO!" Instead he just said "Sure, make sure you don't get injuries from the army, it's not worth it" and my eyes just went O_o
5) Quite a few of my personal equipment were wrong size. I was totally freaked out cause I thought it was my fault when I keyed my data into the system. Turned out my platoon kept saying that he will make sure that our equipment were perfect.
6) On the first day, (even after many days from then), there were lots of sniffing at night. Lol, guys have emotions too.
7) My platoon sergeant confess that he "sniffs" everyday during his BMT. We were all so shocked, yet impressed, cause he's such a mature looking guy but he has his soft sides too. He loves his mother so much.
8) During the first few days, I called Yinning to wish her happy birthday. I was already on the verge of tears, then she passed the phone to Ching Yee. I was totally like "omg just stop this" and after a few sentence I told her I have to hang up.
9) My first impression of the ADF was good. He seems nice. Then it turned hellish. We hated him, but you've got to give it to him for making us so fit. I was the first person to do 100 push ups, given by him!
10) After a while, flutter kicks were common, push ups were alright, 100 counts of 4 of jumping jacks are nothing.
11) I remember shivering like hell during our one and only swimming lesson cause it was at night.
12) During the last few nights before the end of the confinement week, I felt numb about missing home already.
13) BMT was the time I realised guys can be really so darn vain.
14) I remember doing Own Time Own Training with Tsun Wang, forcing him to train hard so that he can pass.
15) I always like to sit next to or opposite Tsun Wang at first, cause having somebody to talk to takes my mind off my civilian world outside.
16) I remember crawling through mud and water like it was natural. I didn't squirm, didn't scream, didn't complain. It was there, and I just know I have to go through it. Though I was so glad that we only had to do the combat aggression thing once.
17) I remember my OC telling us how the army fights and how we're all here to be trained to kill. My OC is a funny person. He always say "J-T-B ah, just too bad" "I don't kid you, you're here to learn to kill. If you don't kill your enemy, he will kill you"
18) OC gave us 5AX (5 advance exercise) as punishment for being late during field camp. It consisted of diamond push up, alternate leg thrust, jumping jacks, flutter kicks and can't remember what's the last one.
19) During field camp, I swear half the time I don't know where I am walking towards at night.
20) I remember how 3SG Au hao lian about having the camouflage scarf and we can't have it.
21) The basic close combat course was utterly stupid. And I was able to tell who had martial arts background just by looking.
22) I remember lots of guys baby crawling to the staircase outside after lights out to cut our nails after being punished earlier. The whole ninja thing after lights out was fun though its because we were never caught before
23) I like the days when training wasn't so harsh and we could sleep later. Daryl and I were always the last to brush our teeth. Sometimes he would sit on my bed and we would talk. That's the best time of the day.
24) I remember shouting at Daryl (well the whole bunk was shouting at him) for over using his powder. It was so hard to sweep it.
25) My birthday happened to be 2 days before POP and to date I don't know how my bunk found out. They totally kiwi-ed my butt in the day and camo-ed me at night. Weng Kin taped up my mouth like 6 times. I had to bathe after that and kept asking Daryl who was still brushing his teeth to help me check if there's any camo left.
26) Sports day was fun and I saw lots of friends in other companies. It rained and my bunk mates threatened to wipe my face with mud. Lol.
27) Chris once commented that I'm very poor thing cause I bring my PSP in every week but I always don't get to play it. It's always in the hands of my bunk mates.
28) I remember how one of the NSPS tried to teach us VP. Thinking back, he was such a noob.
29) I remember how we shouted and singed so loudly during POP. It was the best day.
30) There were lots of bodyguards on POP day sia...

BMT was a good time of my army life. It was harsh but fun and bonding as well. I really wanted life to be even harsher after BMT. (No I'm not a maniac.) I will never forget the MO who stubbornly refused to let me go to command school. Many times were good, like having the BIC as the finale of the field camp, the route marches, the times we spent in bunk challenging each other for the stripping of our rifles etc etc. I grew stronger, and I learnt to tolerate people, communal living, and being treated like some low class species. It was the grand opening of the 2 years. And the Section 3 I so loved paved the way.