hot days, hot tempers

Very precious weekend, because my Saturday was eaten up by a guard duty. The weather added salt to the wound by maximising its heat and humidity.

As mentioned before, I like "major events" because they make the days pass very quickly, as was what happened in the two middle weeks in March. In this last week where there was no "major event", we simply had physical training everyday, the rest of the days just waiting for things to happen. The weekend took forever to come.

Its actually quite sad to see Creative being reduced to this, after having being emphasised for so many years by the government as a small local company that made it big internationally, and labelled a "role model" to brainwash encourage Singaporeans that we can all one day do great things too. On the other hand, I have to agree what Creative has done has indeed gone a little overboard, since what that guy has done was very well in the interest of the company, minus the donations.

The root of the problem, as it appears to me, is the fighting over what is mine and what is yours. Has always being a problem for mankind isn't it? Since young one would already have fought with siblings over whose toys belong to who, and as one grows up this argument balloons to money, custodies, land mass, airspace, oil, kidneys, the list goes on.

Won't the world be a happier place if people share instead of fight?

Ok maybe not. Maybe a little respect and compromise going both ways instead.

Forummers have since seized the chance to bombard Creative with cries of poor QC, with many of their MP3 players "up-lorry" after a year or so. While I admit that my Zen Micro has not been in the best of conditions for a long time, it has nevertheless served me for three good years, and I have never regretted my purchase.

盘底的洋葱像我
永远是调味品
偷偷的看著你
偷偷的隐藏著自己

杨宗纬's 洋葱.

如果你愿意一层一层一层的剥开我的心
你会发现你会讶异
你是我最压抑
最深处的秘密

Was a little surprised when I you-tubed to find 五月天's 阿信 singing this song on a Taiwanese variety show, where I then realised it was written by him.

如果你愿意一层一层一层的剥开我的心
你会鼻酸你会流泪
只要你能听到我
看到我的全心全意

Interesting to use an onion as a comparison; a novelty. And the lyrics are aptly written. I like!

two great jokes

After stopping for almost two years I restarted my problem solving recently, in one of my several moves to "keep my brain alive". Being out of touch with it for so long I am very rusty now, already forgotten all the little tricks hidden inside the problems to trap me. Like the fact that the first value read in is not necessarily always smaller than the second value.

Thankfully there is a forum full of helpful people who pointed out all the hidden tricks, so I can correct my mistakes before submitting.

"Marking" is done by a robot, as in a software bot, and the data it uses to test the programs we submitted is kept secret; all it tells us is the end result, so awaiting the result yields the same feeling as receiving my O Level or A Level results.



At that moment nothing can be happier than seeing the word "Accepted". And nothing can be worse, in my own opinion, than seeing the word "Wrong Answer", because to me its the most vague result among those it gives.

Right now I have only solved a pathetic number of forty problems, out of the two thousand over problems it offers. And to complete this joke my ratio of submissions to accepted problems is 5.875 : 1, which means on average I have to submit a particular solution six times before I finally get it correct.

Wahaha.

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My first major problem after "upgrading" to Service Pack 1 has just surfaced. Apparently my save files for my racing game DiRT have all been "corrupted". I check that my files are still there, but somehow the game can't read them, which include the many days of effort I put in to complete my "career".

Service Pack 1. Wahaha.

yesteryears

One highlight during my years in AHS and VJC was watching sports matches and supporting my schools.

VJC days were much more fun because the staff there were much more flexible; they allowed us to cancel lessons to go down to external venues for important matches. AHS, being a secondary school, could not afford that. The only time I remembered going out of school was in Sec 1, to support a basketball match at a very old stadium to be torn down.

Fortunately AHS had an indoor basketball stadium (just about the only thing left that we can boast about), and most East Zone matches would be held there. Because we usually ended up among the top four in basketball, students from other schools found it unfair, going by the comments that they left here.

Stumbled across this sometime back, which I think is not bad, given that sports matches are not played on weekends. The bad thing is that the reports are submitted by volunteers, so if no volunteers, no report.

Looks good for AHS in their nationals; may the best team wins.

*****************

My Zen Micro is dying =( It is showing its age; Connecting it as a removable drive throws me a empty drive, and I cannot get any songs out into my computer, which I had planned to do so to back up. Also its battery now runs out noticeably faster than last time.

I'm thinking of getting its upgraded cousin: the 8GB Zen MicroPhoto which was on a Chinese New Year sale at $99 at the Marina Square Creative Shop at when I went there last month, although production has stopped long ago. $99 for a 8GB player is very good a deal, but common sense tells me I should be using my PlayStation Portable instead.

On the other hand I like to play games while listening to music, which the PSP cannot do at the same time. And I actually listen to the radio more often than my songs, which was one major reason I chose the Zen Micro over the Ipod Mini back in 2005.

*****************

My @#$%! Vista SP 1 is still @#$%! sluggish. Its @#$%! eating up @#$%! 1GB of my @#$%! RAM in @#$%! idle mode. @#$%!

Good [thing it's] Friday

Really glad that there is a public holiday today for me to rest. Past two weeks had been tiring alternating between two different places for two different events, and the short weekend did not help.

Nothing physical, but there was the mental stress with the bars and crabs all over the place and we were expected to fix any computer problem they encountered, in the shortest time possible. Everytime they called for me my heart would skip a beat because I would wonder what to do if I was presented a problem I have never seen before and had no idea how to solve.

Maybe that's why I have more white hair now; I worry too much.

First time I saw so many bars and crabs there. The one who left me the deepest impression was one with six different wings across his chests, excluding the one on his collar and another on his sleeve.

But good thing everything is over now. At least until the next event comes.

***********************

After reading all the hype, and all the [mostly] negative comments, I decided to go ahead with the installation of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

Download via Windows Update and installation took about an hour in total, and the first thing it did was to cut off my Internet connection, although it was solved with a restart. Noticeably more sluggish now, although forummers say that things will be back to normal after a day or two.

Other than that, not much difference; the service pack was not meant for any visual changes though.

2X

I think, there is no need for me to hide after all.

Thanks for the help!

***********

Never knew saikang can come in the form of exercises. For the first time since I entered my company I reached home only after midnight, missing a dinner with my friends, and instruction to us is: Sunday 5pm in uniform.

Hurray.

***********

Went NUS Open House today, which was about the same as last year. Mind Cafe after that, [Sua ku me was the first time there.] and ended the day with a class bbq at a friend's house.

***********

This has got to be the most happening birthday since ?; I cannot recall the last time a celebration(or somewhere near one) was thrown for me. After the class bbq a birthday song and cake was presented to me, together with two others whose birthdays fall in the month of March. [The last time I had a birthday cake was.....primary four?]

I have been officially labelled a nerd, because I was given a Rubik's Revenge as a present from the class -.-.

Fifteen SMS birthday greetings, which is another record I think. Thanks to all; really touched.

Having said that, I am still not used to birthday celebrations, and I don't think I will ever be.

And so my 2X has started. Its a long ten years before I enter 3X, which is..., haha too far away to think about it now. 2X sounds old =(, hopefully these ten years will be a good one.

Huat ah!

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Its so painful when you have bought something but you could not get to touch it until a week later. Then throughout the week you will be missing it very dearly...

Bought a Maxtor 250GB external hard disk last week at IT Show, but because I was going straight back to camp after that, and obviously I could not bring that in together with me, I had no choice but to leave it in my friend's care. Finally today I managed to get it in my hands.

An external hard disk has been on my wishlist for quite a long time [some friends are already irritated that I keep harping on it for the past few months but has not bought it, till now.] Two hard disks had kee chia before, and I had lost many many many things, and I don't think my heart is strong enough to withstand a third hard disk crash.

Hopefully this new guy does not disappoint.

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Formula One is starting! This year should be an exciting one, partially because of the Singapore GP, and partially because of the three way rivalry between Kimi Räikkönen/Ferrari, Fernando Alonso/Renault and Lewis Hamilton/McLaren Mercedes, not forgetting the black horse Felipe Massa/Ferrari and newcomer Heikki Kovalainen/McLaren Mercedes.

Local newspapers take out several of their precious Sports pages to analyse this new Formula One season, and maybe I am wrong, but I don't recall our newspapers having such an extensive coverage in previous years.

Biased.

Too tired to continue, or maybe nothing important else to continue.

[Entry created on 160308 0210.]

countdown 2

11 more months to ORD!

Still bloody long.

E*

I have seen the phrase "ASUS Eee PC" popping out in forums for some time, but back then I did not take much notice of it because I thought it was simply a small sized Windows PC.

Until I went to the IT Show and saw one.

While there is a Windows version of it, there is also, interestingly, a Linux version of it, and instead of a hard disk drive it comes with a 2/4/8GB Flash Drive, with sufficient memory and processor to surf the net, play simple games, and from my guess, the Linux can be hacked to do programming. Heh.

*remembers the VJC days where my senior was still using a Pentium laptop*

Very portable, and rather cheap at $598 only. Good product! Hopefully can get my hands on one next time.

I have to report back to camp very early tonight, and will setting off now for some errands before meeting my friends for dinner. Good week ahead!

F*

Good weather this week, but not in a good health to enjoy it.

After sneezing and coughing for almost two weeks I came down with a slight fever on Wednesday. Seeing the medical officer was a very troublesome process, and given the number of ridiculous rules coming up in the past two weeks, I reckon I may even be punished for falling sick. So in the end I survived on eleven-month-old Panadols, loads of water, more Panadols from my friends, and very cold water during my night baths.

Was lucky enough to skip Wednesday's physical training because I had work to do, and Thursday was Games Day instead of S0C. By today I was well enough to participate in today's training, though weakened, perhaps by the medication.

I was considerably cheered up today, thanks to my friends. I was asked to stay back to wait for a meeting to finish, and my friends waited together with me for two whole hours even though they could spend their time better elsewhere. Really apprectiate that.

Conversion of my unit life back to recruit days is almost complete, now that they have implemented a chin up regime. Forty eight every day, or two sets of eight each 5BX, lunch and dinner. The only thing they have not implemented yet is marching to the cookhouse.

So you attended a talk where the big boss asked for feedback, which in the end backfired on you after a whole new set of ridiculous rules came up, all in the name of discipline. Then now there is another talk by the small boss to tell you to decide carefully what you want to feedback, because it may backfire on you. Then at the end you are asked for feedback again. Will you still say anything?

The coming two weeks will see a change in usual routine as there are major events coming up, although its at these major events where punishments will be given out like free gifts. Like how a friend describes, "in packets of three".

If where I am now is a reflection of society, then I can be quite sure society is a f* up place.