it's a friday!

went early to school with Jac since it's a good habit to (oh yes =x). Xiexie JY, so caring! haha...

morning was spent travelling to Tiong Bahru for her iriver. But this time was quicker, because after so many trips there i've found a faster way to go via Newton -> SBS 5.

and evening was like, YCK to JE and back. Fun eh? Someone said i'm so irresponsible :(

actually it's true la, but since the rain was quite heavy i thought i'd spend my time more usefully =x


from 10pm to 2am was with my secondary school peeps. Pictures speak a thousand words!

I reached at about 10pm. Belinda and Sijie's beau came by.

Mr Yeo, our form teacher dropped by in the midst of his busy schedule!

Alvin's girl, Sandra

"Mr Yeo! Cannot remember me!? I was your student neh!"
"Oh isit, how come i cannot recall ar"

Wenqun, Shuhui and her boy

Mr Yeo spoke to us on some of his teaching issues, such as pursuing a Masters and choosing a leadership and master teaching path. It is indeed not an easy decision considering his age, and whether it is worth the effort - i'd agree since it's important to strike a good balance between work and quality of life.

Mrs Ng SB has went on study leave to pursue her Masters. (!)

o.O

Fan the flames! Fan fan fan!

Our yandao John. Where is Trina?!
Wenqun gave an post ops briefing. Everyone was surprised, but i shrugged. oops lol

Thanks to Faizah for mobilizing her tentage!

There you go, Trina managing the pit well

Eze, ZM, Sijie, John, Wenqun (picking his nose), Guowei and GY

What's up with that megawatt smile!?

It was 1 plus, we finished our stock of prawns, nuggets and wings. Time to put out the flames

Comparing to Friendster 2004 pic, who has changed!?

Yuck.

My hair is so messy!

this has been one of the best gathering, small yet cosy.

to Faizah and others, please send your pictures to me via ?. I'll consolidate the photos for everyone to download!

updates on SIT Level 6

before the updates, let me recall what i've done today. Jac called me to print some stuff, so i woke up at 8+. Then she told me no need anymore, i felt tired and went back to sleep, since the room was still cool. =x

brunch was at CWP's foodcourt again, then i went to visit RMG to get my flu medicine. So expensive!! Anyway the next trip is to Guardian.

wanted to repair the iriver, but did not due to time.

now the updates. It's going to be open soon! The security cams are already up at the helpdesk. However the 2 3/4U machines running these digitised cams are making a din with their noisy fans. When will the existing CRT based screens be changed to LCD or plasma? Your guess is good as mine - god knows.

This is the view on my left after entering the main door -
the open air space on the right of the picture is converted into classrooms

The view behind me. At the background is the access door to staff area, formerly L619 to L625

New male toilets which overwrote the old club room

A peek into one of the rooms

The corridor from L601 to 608.
This is the only corridor (and 8 rooms) that remained intact, except for the glass windows and flooring

The other corridor. On the right are staff rooms


A dried up xiao ming in the server room. Aww

Boliao #1 - Mr Brown

Boliao #2 - Who lost a durian on the bus?

bad hair day

wednesday was a rather bad day.

no idea why, but i just didn't feel good from morning towards lunch time. Towards the end of my duty, someone screwed up the demo PC in one of the lecture theatres, i had to close the helpdesk to attend to him. Then my hp beeped while troubleshooting. My mood got switched off... even took my time to solve the screwup.

after my duty, Sabrina once again volunteered to lend a ear. Actually i felt so stupid as i related my thoughts. It's simply myself trying to take things too far thus feeling so down when something exceptional happens.

*zm ah zm... why you're so ti ki! why insist to bang into a wall when you know there's a wall in front of you!? you're already very lucky, why ask for more?*

i have to agree with Celeste. Compared to her situation, i should be contented. I recalled the uncle running FJ/Koufu's japanese food stall saying - 自足长乐 to be really happy

Anyway i just didn't want to be in school anymore. Went to pick up her iriver.

This bus is especially clean, because it was just overhauled - TIB 473B, Sv 851

then i was back in school. For no good reason except to burn my usual images, and to wait ...... sigh. Nothing happened, so i went down Little India to meet 27vir from VR-zone to take over his P4-2.8 chip.

dinner was at Simlim, my korean noodles. Surprisingly, i didn't bloat. I'm depressed, but my digestive system is working at its best!? Went on a bus spree and even went to Esplanade.

Which bus stop did i snap this?

Ferris Wheel!

Waterfront stage for NDP07 - built by our army's combat engineers

know what? The iriver hung upon startup. Sometimes, it doesn't even want to power on.

i don't drive and that place is freaking far, i thought i need not go back again! Guess what? I think 老天 is punishing me for being too greedy.

physically and mentally exhausted. I'm off to sleep.

overslept!

had a dinner with Wenqun, Huiting and Shupei last night at Vivo's ThaiExpress. So much of laughter! From Bio's Chapter 14!! And the gals are now teachers!!! =x

got home at around 9.30pm, then after some surfing i napped at my sofa. Then i decided not to wake up and went on until 10.30am =x

i napped from my sofa to sleeping on my bed after my mum made some noise.

ok... gotta work back my working hours. catcha.

st mobile bill - oracle vision!?

zm: edited on 27th - added pictures

my bro is back! however for the wrong reason; down with fever and flu. Hope he recovers fast to go back for training again. Sometimes when there's a first, there's never a last.

went to town to look at some stuff with YX again. Then, we went to Botak Jones at Braddell (near Lee Fan). We realised we had little cash on reaching, then we went around Lor 1 and 8 to search for ATMs at their mini town centres... nil! Omg!

TPY North 970

Botak Jones!

glad michelle is ok now! No need for lollipops. haha...

there's this content provider Oracle Vision that appeared on my ST Mobile bill. $5 only. Why i'm so geh gao? Because i didn't subscribe to the damn content in the first place. Called 1626 last month, and this shit reappeared for 2nd time -.-.

TrueTones? simi lai eh?

if the darn $5 appears for the 3rd time, i'm not calling 1626 anymore. Since the calls were logged, i make sure they return me every $5 i shelled out while waiting for their inefficient staff to cancel this service.

simlim shopping, airport roaming

woke up late thanks to the long insurance writeup yesterday.

i wanted to Simlim to get a 2GB microSD card for Vincent and mine's U600 toy, which i happily settled for Sandisk after some price checks ($36 per 2GB). Didn't feel safe getting from the ABNN shops. I'm not racist, but sources of some of their goods are dubious; eg. parallel import thus real cheap. I believe in spending a bit more and enjoy better after sales support ... choy!

z-nix's auntie offered me $28 for a cakebox of 50 pcs Verbatim DVD+R media (Made in Japan). It's cheap, thus i got 1.

met my cousin and Johnny, they were shopping around for a laptop. Of course i happily obliged to accompany them for some sales talk. After my dinner at basement, i took a short walk from Bencoolen Street to North Bridge Road, passing by SMU and Malaysian Embassy.

I wanted to take 147 or 166 to Funan. However the NDP rehearsal at Marina has caused some jams

The pains of driving

SMU's SIS. For DBI peeps, you can consider this degree. Fyi, it's more management based (duh)

Modern uni!

Fort Canning Tunnel

reached Funan to search for the SE Bluetooth stereo headset i was interested. But no thanks, Challenger is selling it at too steep a price. Mobilesquare is only offering at $145, versus Challenger's $188. Or i shall pass this and wait for HBH-DS980 to come instead.

I don't really like the orange casing and plastic-metallic buttons

left on SBS 36 to Changi Airport, since i had nothing to do. So today was a photo shooting trip.

SBS 2730P - transmission needs some servicing, too loud

Terminal 1 - crowded with people waiting for their loved ones

The new Skytrain waiting area!

Terminal 2

It's close to 15-20 years old, but it still looks modern

i chanced upon a large group of teens wearing green, and i realised all of them are NYPians, from Chinese Orchestra! I believe they're leaving for an event in Australia (AIMF). Lucky ones who can run away when term is restarting next week!

supper was with GY and Eze. Saw 0502 Jocelyn's boy at 211! Look forward to gathering next week!

... and going to fall sick!

i'm having a sore throat plus slight cough these days.

Gary recommended me Leftose for my throat, Benadryl for cough. Thanks for the suggestion; now i know Guardian is the shop for GP-ed medicine.

doing my finances right now. Apart from the normal expenses, i have spent on a handphone, and need to reserve $492 for my flight booking. Headache.

now i realised all my Prudential policies are on the chopping board, because they are simply not performing well. It's partially my fault for not reading up in the first place.

So for all who are planning to purchase Prudential/AIA policies, i have something to forewarn. Be aware that their products may not be the best among all. Financial agents are trained to close sales by attacking YOUR psychological fears and may unethically recommend highly profitable policies that don't provide you with basic risk coverage (and then pocket 6-12 months of your hard earned premiums depending on the nature of policy),

Once you signed on the dotted line you're in trouble. Yes, there are free-look periods, but your advisor will try to persuade you not to terminate. If you don't know of better products elsewhere, you'd probably be convinced and carry on. Until you realise you're screwed 20-25 years down the road.

the first plan to be killed was PruShield, whose offering was poorer than many others. Although they realised it by revamping it, it's too late. I've already crossed over to NTUC Enhanced IncomeShield.

the second plan is PruCash (lose all my premiums as a punishment), for other better alternatives. At the end of the year, my PruLink SA II will be cut too. I will probably retain my PruLink A for retirement purpose, and the latter's advisor has been serving me well (thanks WG).

i'm sorry if any of my affected advisors are reading, but after reading a little i believe my money can be better grown elsewhere.

dead tired

don't know why i have been so tired these few days. Woke up a tad late, then i went back to sleep, ended waking up at 11am =x

had my lunch with somebody as usual, then proceeded to do my work in the other swapped lab. I had enough of my rants earlier, so i save my breath (and the eyes of my dear readers).

Blk 211 - where bizarre stuff happens

my dinner was the tomyam fish soup from cwp's yukee foodstall. Just so normal. Had tea and siew mai with Wenqun just now, and his topic was on his ex (again). Actually, realising that you may be at fault is too late. Damage is now done, and never attempt to enter her life again. It will devastate you AND her.

here's a song dedicated to myself, readers and you, Wenqun.

i know you're lousy in chinese, but hey China is booming! Good to learn some 中国话. We should visit Tibet someday. :D

i've set up an account from Imeem for this song. Enjoy!

S.H.E - 说你爱我

下着雨
让尘气稀释回忆
我靠着你不出声音

看着你
看着斑驳的甜蜜
爱你困住你也困住我自己

我那躲也躲不掉的微妙伤口
隐隐作痛
你那戒也戒不掉的甜蜜借口
也让我精神腐朽

说你爱我
变成一种问候　
不如趁早放手
把爱坠落
让满地鲜红　

说你爱我
变成一种折磨
不用陪我走到最后　
我承担不起你的承诺

下着雨让尘气稀释回忆　
我靠着你不出声音

看着你
看着斑驳的甜蜜　
爱你困住你也困住我自己

我那躲也躲不掉的微妙伤口
隐隐作痛
你那戒也戒不掉的甜蜜借口　
也让我精神腐朽

说你爱我变成一种问候　
不如趁早放手
把爱坠落
让满地鲜红　

说你爱我
变成一种折磨
不用陪我走到最后　
我承担不起你的承诺

说你爱我
变成一种问候
不如趁早放手
把爱坠落
让满地鲜红

说你爱我
变成一种折磨
不用陪我走到最后
我承担不起你的承诺

说你爱我
变成一种问候
不如趁早放手
把爱坠落
让满地鲜红

说你爱我
变成一种折磨
不用陪我走到最后
我承担不起你的承诺

overslept

the trouble was that i overslept, and Jac had to ring me at 7.57am =x

however, i was dead tired the night before and hands badly strained. My wrists were rather painful from opening and closing of floorboards, lifting of computer furniture. Took a cab to school, and worked into the night (change of shift).

bought a towel from her booth! Since mine is already mouldy. ooops. =)


now the ranting part. It's understandable that the 2 labs are swapped (fyi, it's really swap - the exact arrangement is brought over to the other lab and vice versa) for the commercial training in July. I even thought of the way to minimise the work, by carrying the tables with cable installation intact.

however it's not understandable when abrupt changes occur.

the tables and computers exchanged rooms, layout and floorboard positions set. Suddenly some higher management came in and discussed about a plan that wasn't mentioned at our technical level before.

now the technical implication. It involves a possible change of layout, relocation of servers, installation of an additional network connectivity PER workstation, plus multiple virtual OS installation for that plan. Tell me, who in the world can do these, especially the lab is reopening for normal classes next week? Tempers of course got frayed, and my colleague got so angry that he didn't mince his words over a phone discussion with manager.

should we rename ourselves as lego builders?

i told my colleagues; the only permanent thing in our work is CHANGE. We have been handling changes well so far. However, change should be coming at a measured and predictable pace. Such plans and possible hiccups should have been floated and carefully documented in the beginning.

i understand TSOs are nowhere in the school's staff hierarchy, but we provide the technical know-how to ensure computing facilities are put to best use. Our domain knowledge and familiarity with NYP's culture is stronger than any outsourcing companies out there, which can screw up operations if planning is ad-hoc (this is the case now). Then why information flow is stuck at management? Confidence in our technical abilities, or simply you-must-do-or-else-you-die?

going by the trend of such movements (there's even a plan to swap 2 particular LEVELS in the block), i predict the school will be in a totally different state by the end of 2008 or 2009.

new phone!

after a year and 4 months user of O2's Xda Atom, i decided to relieve its phone function and go back to a consumer phone. A compelling reason was software conflicts in my Windows Mobile that caused my phone to be intermittent. Another reason was that the battery is deteriorating. Not good for work since students will be calling me frequently.

and i decided on the Samsung U600 earlier! And i mentioned the phone collection was on Wednesday, and so the mini cockup came.

- just as i was going to continue, a power outage shutdown my entire home, argh. -

i ordered the phone for $530, from WhyMobile online. Shortly after, Mobilesquare changed their price to $508 (O.O!!). I thought since i've ordered from WM, if their service is ok then i won't mind the difference.

The WM guy told me i could collect the day before (i couldn't make it though) or on Wed itself, after 1.30pm. The website stated the opening hours as 1-9pm. When i reached there at 2pm, the darn shop was closed. I tried to be more patient and waited till 2.30pm, the freaking shop was still shut.

i was pissed as i took time off from the lab-swapping chaos in NYP and this shop played me out. Went down a level and ordered from Mobilesquare instead, and got HK (thanks bro) to collect during dinner time. Had a makan with him at S11 AMK and took 169 home.

This is the 1st purchase from MS, however i nearly bought my Atom from MS too.
Too bad MS didn't offer credit card installment.

The U600 box. Too simple and small...!

Aka Ultra II Edition 10.9, it's only slightly thicker than 1cm.

another plus of the phone is the supplied software, Samsung PC Studio. The Sync feature allowed me to import all my contacts from Outlook, plus appointments, tasks, notes etc. Strange, the appointments just couldn't get sync-ed.

i was tired but played with the phone into wee hours. And my next trouble started.

lots of stuff in my head

let's look beyond my loanshark role that i angrily adopted yesterday.

- blog-sphere -
i chanced upon somebody's blog. Didn't know that she blogs, and for 3 years already! She mentioned stuff like "he" blah-blah... but who is this he? Don't get me wrong, i've got no special feelings for her, but she has been linked symbolically via my ex and Wenqun. Anyway, a good read.

i've received some comments that my bro looks older than me. But hey, he's an improved product because he's more sociable (i have those AP look sometimes). Going by his personality, he should excel in the army. The only quirk is that he spends, thus savings are definitely recommended.

- work -
my cash register is still ringing for the 3rd week running. Went to sch with Jac this morning, it's better since i get to wake up on time. For many motivating reasons =) hope she recovers fast and well... no more chilli crabs!!!

there are lots of work to be done this week, hope with combined efforts the outstanding task can be completed.

my manager wanted to shift my desk to the Helpdesk room, to make way for additional staff that are joining our Dept. I was like omg! Isn't that full time helpdesk? I pray this won't happen soon. I rather not have a desk.

- army -
i read with sadness that Master Warrant Mike Gee has passed away due to cancer recently. His last appointment was RSM of 3 SIB. Although i have no direct links with him, i believe his men has seen him in a positive light. His sheer determination to stay alive for as long as possible is much respected by me (i heard of the sudden hospitalization since CNY 2006, through my boss)

now comes the shitty part. There's another silent mob coming Oct! Once again i'm appointed tio arrowed to be my detachment's 2IC. My field pack and SBO are gathering dust, and i have to clean and prepare them again. Roarrr.



- moolah -
i have ordered a Samsung U600 white, and expecting to collect later! But i've to get a microSD card, plus a Martin Fields screen protector for the phone, setting me back by another $50.

My dearest HK has managed to source for the cheapest SIA flight to HK in Dec, thanks to Airfares/Misa Travel! It's $520 per pax, after the relevant fuel and airport taxes. Not bad i thought, spend $150 more than a Jetstar flight and enjoy in-flight entertainment plus a meal onboard. Of course, the flight timings are good; depart in the morning and home-sweet-home at 10+ PM. Just nice to squeeze the last day dry in HK, but still able to avoid mid-night surcharges, or even take a bus home back in Changi.

looking forward to going to Airfares' office to book this weekend. And accumulate UNI$ for this mega bill. Good night folks.

i hate to be a loanshark, but....

testing my patience for 3 full months is not a joke. To K, i don't think you want people to test you this way either.

it's not the amount (ok, perhaps so). I thought we're old enough to think, that i wouldn't need to remind again and again. Wow, i'm so amazed by the empty promises that you have given me.

plus TOTALLY IGNORING my messages.

even though u're a fine lady, its a lil' too much to take this matter lightly, isn't it?

This is what i've got for being too kind, huh?

what's up this weekend, doc?

after my bro went to Hell, the house is so quiet. He was always at home playing his AuditionSEA, now no more.

anyway, the weekend was a lazy one. Saturday's lunch was spent with Eze and GY at Sakae CWP. Didn't really plan for it, but i felt i wanted to have some japanese food and called them. Then, we walked around to look at phones, in particular the Samsung U600 that i'm going to get soon.

the CWP's Samsung shop sells the full set for $598 and i can choose from garnet red and black, apart from the default copper and sapphire blue that telcos only have. But $598 is too steep! Mobile Square sells it for $518 with the same extra colors, still no white either. Argh...



dinner was ultra late, because i decided to wait for Wenqun. There again, he started to talk about what happened recently. Seriously bro, it's time to put away your thoughts (and any negative impressions of Web 2.0) and move on.

sunday was spent on updating my Windows XP installation CD. Why update; it's to include the latest security/critical updates since service pack 2, plus inclusion of IE 7 and WMP 11. So when i install XP, these stuff goes into the system without me going to Windows Update (until new updates appear).

there were almost 100 updates since SP2! I have a feeling SP3 will be out soon.

went to Simlim to get the power supply for my colleague's computer. It's a Seventeam PSU, which i've got for the first time. Looks ok, hope it works well.