Settling Down

Things are beginning to settle down over here(except for the anger from the shifting incident). My new housemate arrived on Saturday night, he and the undergraduate cousin's(previous post) new housemate moved all the extra stuffs from our apartment to theirs the next day.

I took this house video after we have re-arranged the furniture and a maintenance check. I am hoping to get a small coffee table from maintenance to put my printer. The dining table is not a good spot for the printer.


3mins, no audio.

There are a few things I bought that I want to mention. 1st, did you see a headphone hanging on the wall? I like this type of head phone as the usual type always clip off some of my hair, furthermore it costs just 10 bucks, what a bargain!. My housemate bought it after I showed to him. However, when I showed it to my gf on webcam, she commented that I look like Ultraman wearing it...

2nd, is a foam polystyrene beads human shaped cushion. I originally wanted to buy a normal square shaped cushion that was in stock since last year but deem it unnecessary at that time. However, my neck suffered through months of sleeping on inflatable pillows since last year.

Last June, I bought a cheap pillow when my gf came over to stay with me for a week. The pillow turned out to be too flat, it was not enough to support the head even if folded into half. I placed both pillows top-bottom after my gf left but it did not do any good to my neck. Now, I place the inflatable pillow inside the pillow cover together with the flat pillow.

I decided to buy a cushion just in case my neck feels stiff again but the square shaped cushion is out of stock, and being replaced by the human shaped cushion. I purchased it without any second thought. However, my gf gave me a weird look when I showed it to her, she did mention that it also looked like a weird figure from a toilet sign. Then it crossed my mind what she might be thinking(& what others might think too) and I joked with her that this human cushion represents her. Hahaha......

The cushion turned out to be more useful than I thought. During the night when my housemate arrived, his room's light glowed through the glass between the walls, affecting the darkness of my room. Then I placed the human cushion on my face/eyes to block the light. It was very comfortable, the cushion did not block my nose at all as I placed it on the sides of my face and used its arm to cover both my eyes.


Semester starts on 27 Feb but my laptop seems to have gotten a virus(W32.rontokbro@mm) after I arrived. It was great knowing that Norton deleted the files for me but the problem is that the Norton alert keeps popping up every now and then(the time difference ranges between 5-20mins) with the same virus name. I updated the virus definition, updated my Windows, the alert still pop up. So I did a Norton full system scan which came up nothing. I did a search on the virus name online, and followed the instruction on trendmicro and symantec website but I could not find the autostart entries it mentioned in the registry.

Then, it hit me that the virus might have infected/corrupted either Norton Scan or Windows. I tried to uninstall Norton but the process failed. That was where I realized that I needed another reformat which I done it 2 weeks ago!

What are the odds of reformatting another time after just 2 weeks!?! Not to mention it was one day before semester starts. I stayed up late that night till about 4am to get my laptop back to its working condition. I had a hard time staying awake in lectures even after I had a cup of mocha. lol
posted by Estan @ 10:11:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

For A Certain RMIT Graduate, a good friend of mine, is or was...

This post is about the anger and frustration I felt throughout the shifting of stuffs from my old rental apartment to my new 1. There was supposed to be a total of 7 people's stuffs in the old rental apartment, 4 in my ex-housemate's room, and 3 in mine. That was because the apartment's lease end date was the nearest to the next semester's start, so all 7 of us chipped in to pay the extended rent. Whoever arrives earliest will shift all the stuffs to the new apartment and let others collect them when they arrive later.

My ex-housemate and I were shocked when we entered the apartment, the kitchen was full of utensils, various cooking ingredients, all unpacked. The drawers contain cleaning solutions and breakfast cereals(large). The fridge is not emptied too, like it was when I left. In the living room, there was an IKEA(I think) table, a bag, towels and blanket...etc. In my room, there were piles of unpacked books, there was also a jacket and several more towels on the bed too. The bed even had a bed sheet on it.

I thought it was my ex-housemate's friend who was supposed to arrive earlier and stayed in the apartment. However, my ex-housemate said his friend had a change of plans. The apartment was never touched by any of his friends. I was shocked and embarrassed. It had to be 1 of my friends as my group was the last to leave, and it turned out to be the 1 who was uninvited. How I know? There was an SAF Special Forces application form for commando fighter on the desk with his particulars.

I mentioned in 1 of my earlier posts that I know a pair of cousins whom I consider both as good friends. 1 of them was my neighbor who has already graduated. All the stuffs were put there by him! I tried calling the other cousin who is still an undergraduate but could not get to him. The graduate lost his mobile recently and I did not take down his temporary number.

My thought at that moment was, why did he leave so much stuff there? Why were all of them not packed? My mind went through different sorts of possibilities and the decision as to what to do with those additional stuffs? I was supposed to check out the apartment by 2:00pm. We arrived there at about 11:30am. 3 hrs were definitely not enough to move all those stuffs.

The management gave us an hr extension and we hurried up and moved the stuffs. We decided to move our stuffs 1st and unpack those big luggages that required a lot of spaces. I am moving to a smaller apartment and I have doubts that the new apartment will be able to contain all the stuffs.

It was near to 3pm by the time we moved and unpacked our own stuffs so we went to talk to the management again and asked for another extension. They gave us till 6pm, so back we went. The unpacked piles of books in my room were giving me the most headaches. I removed all the stuffs from the boxes I had and packed those books in it. It was damn heavy, a lot of strength was needed just to carry them onto the trolley(which was finally available by then as a lot of people was moving apartments too).

By the time, I finished all the stuffs in my room, it was already 6pm. My ex-housemate still has about 1/4 of stuffs left in his room. We thought of extending our lease for another day but the management said we had to check out by that day as the new tenant is coming on Saturday and they needed 2 days to do the cleaning and other necessary procedures. They were very kind to give another extension till 9pm.

By that time, I was really frustrated and decided to throw all the things that were still in the kitchen and living room(have not touch those yet). I will only keep new/necessary stuffs and throw those that are expendable. Below are photos I have taken with my mobile. I regretted that I did not take photos when I arrived at the apartment which will give a better idea of how high my anger level was and still is.


There were also some trash in the green rubbish cart. Note: The white flask is not 1 of the trash.


I was so pissed in carrying small plastic bags down(trolley was being used by my ex-housemate) that I decided to lay out the blanket and throw everything inside. See how big it was......


Look at the number of plates. My ex-housemate took and kept a few.


The stuffs from the room that was moved to the new apartment. 2 boxes are mine, 1 big the other small.


More stuffs from the room that had to be put under the dining table.


These are the stuffs that I decided to keep and the only place left is the sofa.

My ex-housemate and I managed to finish everything by 8pm. We decided to go for lunch, yes, LUNCH, and then returned to do the check-out. The undergraduate called me when we were doing the paperwork for the check-out. He explained and apologized to me on his cousin's behalf. He told me that his cousin said he would be giving us 'some' of his stuffs as he was not coming back. He was the latest to return to Singapore as he stayed to attend his graduation ceremony.

Why weren’t the stuffs packed? The graduate told his cousin that he awoken 2 hrs late during the flight day so he did not have time to pack. Well, seeing all the stuffs he has thrown at my place, both my ex-housemate and I concluded that 2 hrs is not enough to pack everything, a very lame excuse.

I recalled about a month ago, the graduate chatted with me on msn. He was very friendly and asked about my well-being, and was very helpful in giving advices to help my gf who has also just graduated to look for jobs. I found it strange at that time but I did not think too much about it. Now, I know there was a hidden agenda.

Among the 3 good friends, the graduate struck me as the most sensible and responsible but it turned out I was wrong. The only good thing to look in this situation was his intention. The kitchen wares he gave us were enough for 2 families. All of us has our own kitchen wares. Didn't he think of that? Is it so hard to put in plastic bags and throw them away?

From the undergraduate, the piles of books that I packed in my boxes are his too. Why give us those? All of us either taken those subjects or not going to take them. Why give all? He can just leave those final year notes for us, right? Oh, I forgot to mention that there are at least 5 stacks of A4 printing papers. 5 stacks of printing papers, what does he want us to print? Our school gives us $30 of credits per semester. 1 page only costs 10 cents.

I am part-current-tenant of the rental apartment during the holidays and I was not even told that he had stayed there. He is not 1 of the 7 that chipped in the extended rental cost! I cleaned the fridge before I left as it was quite dirty and I did not want to incur extra charges. However, I had to clean it again as there were various stuffs inside, eg. eggs, skim milk...etc for 2-3 months! The skim milk might be mine as I remembered I left it in the fridge after I had left. However, I did tell the graduate and ask him to use/throw it away for me, and he promised to.

It was lucky that my housemate's friend had a change of plans. I was supposed to make my room available for her to sleep in as my ex-housemate's room had too much stuffs. If she was to come back early, I would be ashamed of myself that I did not leave my room cleaned as I promised her. Not to mention the misunderstanding I would give her in her presence when I was back.

All I can say is total disappointment. He is now a graduate, he does not need to come back. He left all those trash for us. Who clears? Us, of course, but it is me as I returned the earliest. I was totally gutted as the original plan was to move the stuffs in my room then helped out my ex-housemate(the stuffs in his room were thrice as mine). However, due to the surprise package, my ex-housemate helped me to throw the trash instead.

The graduate have lived with 1 of the 3s(not the cousin) who will be my new housemate, for 1 semester. When he knew we were going to live together, he threw out all the criticism he had on my new housemate to me while my new housemate did not mention anything when I asked(like bygones be bygones). I listened to his stories and said I will be prepared for any shortcomings from my new housemate. Now, I wonder who is the 1 'that cannot not live with anybody'.

I look forward in listening to his explanation after I return to SG if he still think of me as a good friend and wants to meet up with me. I will not entertain any msn chat from him on this issue as it is not a good setting for a serious conversation(past experiences).
posted by Estan @ 12:00:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

For Special Audience

There must be some knowledge of China's history and history based games to understand this post. My friends would know me as a person who loves sci-fi and, myths and legends show. Eg. Startrek, firefly, buffy, angel...etc. I bet they would be surprised to know that I am Originally a historical show lover.

I was crazy with Romance of Three Kingdom when I was a kid, and still is. Through that novel I began to interest myself with bits and pieces of China's history. I was most focus on China's history during history classes and those chapters were the only 1s, I enjoy studying.

A few weeks back, I saw a drama showing on cable channel 55. It was about how the 1st emperor of Han Dynasty rose to power and founded that Dynasty. After watching a few episodes regarding strategy play, I could not help but played an old sega Romance of Three Kingdom game. The romance happened towards the end of the Han Dynasty.


Check out the year the game was made.




The famous 3 sworn brothers. Majority should at least know about the 2nd brother. He is worshipped as a god.


Another famous character, there is a phrase using his name that is passed down generations after generations.

I continued from a saved data that I could not recall when I stopped but I remembered why. There is a bug in the game, it will randomly hang the game whenever there is a screen change. The screen is changed from the below to the characters' screens above then back to that screen. The bug surfaces randomly during the switching back of the screen.



Hang......

After some trials and errors, I noticed a pattern and found the cause. The bug will only surface when there are additional objects on the screen. Eg, Troops, troops destination mark or carriage.



I am willing to spend time to debug this game, is because the game play is different to the later similar versions of it. 1 of the features that I liked is, there is much more control in war play. Troops deployment and movements are less restricting(below).




The players are able to choose the formation during pre-engagement.






The best part is during the duel. The player is able to control the character to fight his opponent. There are options to persuade, anger, surrender and retreat.

Engaging and persuading the opponent to surrender.







Winning the duel(The opponent was killed).


These features are not seen in the later versions. I am not sure about the last few versions as I stopped playing since secondary school. :P

The saved data was about 1/4 ahead of the game, most of the key characters were well-trained. I completed the game yesterday night. I am not sure how long it took me as I played less than 2 hrs per day and even on alternate days. Here are the screenshots of the animated ending.











I will be flying to Melbourne in less than 9 hrs. This will be my last post in Singapore for quite sometime and 1 of the most pictured post.
posted by Estan @ 3:22:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Surprise

I went to NTUC Fairprice at Kallang Bahru a few days ago. On my way to the entrance, I saw this(below) barber shop and was surprised to see there was a row of LAN desktops in it too.



After digesting what I saw, I felt that this was a really good idea to increase profit and attract business. Spaces were loan out for these desktops to serve net surfing and gaming and people can watch/play the games while waiting for their turns. Even the people getting their haircut can watch the game through reflection of the mirrors!

My school's timetable was out yesterday, I managed to squeeze all the tutorials and laboratories on Mon-Wed along with the lectures falling on these days as well. Basically, it will be a 3 days week, Mon being the longest from 1130am-530pm with no breaks.

There maybe a possibility that I might shift an elective that I am supposed to take next semester to this semester. If I do, Mon will be even longer as the classes for that elective are on Mon 530pm-930pm.

5 days are left before I fly to Melbourne. Though I am sad about leaving my family and gf again, I am happy that I will be able to watch Liverpool's Champion League 1st leg knock out match with Benfica! I just checked the schedule on starhub cable tv website. It will be on ESPN, Wed early morning. I always have the fear that the match will be on the next day or that ESPN will choose to telecast other matches but I am glad that my fear did not come true.
posted by Estan @ 4:58:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

An Informative Two Weeks

I had visited each of my relatives living in Singapore, over the Chinese New Year celebration period(Lunar 1st - 15th). For my mother's side, it was different in the past where all of us would gather in our grandparent's place. Now, after our grandparent passed away, we have to visit each family at their respective house. As for my father's side, we will still visit each relative's house even after we have gathered in our grandparent's place(been like this for a few years, don't ask me why).

These visits are like 1 on 1 conversation where both families will be able to gossip on a more bigger scale. Through all these visits, I know more about my relatives and my family members from stuffs I have not heard of, incidents in the past that lead to results in the present, 'cause and effect'. It will be too long to write everything down so I will just stop here.

I am 7 days away from flying back to Melbourne so I guess I will be posting less. Perhaps returning to the frequency of posting once a week when I was at Melbourne last year.
posted by Estan @ 2:50:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Survey Lucky Draw Winner

I won a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse from a TP graduate employment survey 2005. Below is a picture consisting the letter stating what I won and the prize.



A survey that comes with a lucky draw, who would have thought I would win something out of that? Guess, it would have to be my Polytechnic, 'Temasek Polytechnic'!

I received a phone call sometime ago from them saying that there was a survey and they wanted me to do it. I was reluctant to do it through phone so I gave an excuse to them and ended the conversation. After a few weeks, I received a letter from them about the survey. I was given 2 choices of doing the survey, through phone or online. I put the letter aside and it was forgotten.

A few days later, I received another phone call from them. They asked if I had received the letter and what choices I intended to take. My choice was online and I did it after the phone call, seeing that they were putting quite an effort to get graduates like me to do the survey.

Few weeks gone passed, I received another phone call from them. They told me that I had won a lucky draw prize! I was shocked as I did the survey so fast that I did not even notice there was a lucky draw.
posted by Estan @ 6:57:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Was It Bad Luck?

I went to Nokia centre to get my camera lens cleaned. The staff recommended me to upgrade my software as well and I agreed. After I got back my mobile phone after 4 hours of servicing, they told me that they could not get the lens fully cleaned up. They needed to send it to their main branch to get it cleaned thoroughly. It will take 3 days which is too long so I collected my mobile phone and left.

I did not notice anything wrong about the mobile phone until I was homed. The mobile phone had no reception at all! No reception bars in my room, 1 out of 4 bars if I was in the living room and 3 bars if I was outside my house. I tested with the various mobile phones from my family members, my sim card had full reception. I tested my mobile with their sim cards(M1, SingTel & Starhub), the reception was just as bad.

So, it was another trip down to Nokia centre. After hearing my story, the staff was very suprised and told me to wait as she went to find out if the technician could fixed it straight away. Sadly, the technician could not find out what was wrong so the mobile phone has to be sent to their main branch. It will take 3 days to fixed it...
posted by Estan @ 4:29:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

Mobile Phone Problem

I took this picture of a funny construction sign outside Cuppage Terrace. Below was taken from my mobile while the next was from my friend's mobile.





Dust, moisture or whatever has been collecting on the len inside the case.



Guess I have to make a trip down to Nokia centre to get them to clean it.

About an incident at Cuppage Terrace, I went there to have dinner with my friends. We were walking around the compound, looking at the choices we had for dinner. We walked towards point 1 where an auntie was standing there. She immediately started to persuade us when we were within her speaking range.



We ignored her and continued what we were doing. When we reached point 2 which was a seafood stall that the auntie worked for and surprised, she was there to persuade us again. We did the same thing and walked to point 3 after we had seen every stall and were deciding on what to eat.

To our horror, the auntie came over to us and began her persuasion for the 3rd time! 1 of my friend whom our dinner was organized for as he just came back from a business trip, gave in to her and decided to eat at her stall. She really represents what 'thick skin' truly means as during ordering, she did not even give us the time to decide on what we wanted. Every page of the menu we flipped, she would suggest what was their best dish and how much we would have liked it, and that she was not lying to us! What was worse, was that during waiting, she walked up to us and tried to chat with us. The way she did it felt like a person who had won a 'trophy'.

I dislike this type of person. They can cross the line so far off to achieve what they want. In this case, pissing us and her competitors off, spolit our discussion on what we wanted to eat and what we wanted to order and still have the face to come and talk to us like we had fallen into her trap. If my friend was more decisive, we would have thwarted her plans and I bet her competitors would have laughed.
posted by Estan @ 3:54:00 PM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments

120 Bucks Inches Away

I went to Singapore River Hongbao on Tuesday with my gf. There is a gigantic 'Fortune God' model which will sprinkle tons of small pieces of numbers every 30mins(not sure from when-when) for people to collect. We waited for a sprinkle in front of the model but it did not land on top of us due to the wind. We decided to pick up 4 pieces from the floor that were scattered from previous sprinkled as we did not want to waste another 30mins of waiting.

The numbers of the 4 pieces which I picked up were 0, 1, 2 and 5. I did not take note of the sequence of the numbers that I picked up, so I randomly chose 2 combinations and bought 4D the next day. Below is a picture of my random combinations(on the left) and the results(on the right). Look at the numbers circled in red. I was so closed...... T__________T


posted by Estan @ 1:44:00 AM (GMT+08:00). 0 comments