.:: Azure Euphoria ::.

Photographs Overload!

2008-03-02T16:41:00.003+08:00

Aaahhhh... Finally I've posted the majority of the backdated entries here, phew~ There are actually a few more, but the pics are already uploaded in facebook, so I won't double-post here, nyahahaha...

Each entry have lots of pics and some of you may not be interested to look through each and everyone of them.. So for your convenience, here are direct links to the entries that I've just uploaded. You may click on those that may interest you and view them. But if you don't mind can just scroll down and read one by one la, hahaha.. XD

- Enchanting Indonesia

- Gals Day Out to Sentosa

- INT210 Exhibition Day

- MINT Museum of Toys

- Noise Singapore 2007

- Singapore Airshow 2008

- Long time No See~

PEACE~ (^0^)V

Long Time No See~

2008-03-02T16:39:00.000+08:00

Hello all!!!!!

So yup, very long time no see!! Have decided to start blogging again after being busy at times and have no mood to write at other times for the last few months, lollll...

So what have I been up to these days? For those who didn't know yet, I've been doing my Industrial Attachment (IA) since early January at Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The office I'm working at is located in Changi Airport itself! As for my job scope, the only IT-related work would be dealing with accident databases - designing and creating a DB system (which I havn't starter yet, hehehe...). Other than that, what I've been doing are not much related to what I've learnt in SCE!

However, the working experience so far is great and eye-opening. The people I work with (or work for) are a very very interesting lot, in a good way that is. They are also very nice to work, talk and hang out with. Won't write the detailed experience now, because too many many stuff have happened although it's only been almost 2 months, hahaha... (If you want to hear more stories, will share with you if we meet next time, keke...) All I can say is: I really like my IA here so far and looking forward to see, hear and do many more exciting things until it ends in early June (the only thing I'll be worried about is my log book and report, lol). Honestly, now I prefer this working life more than schooling.. probably because I'm already feeling tired of studying for exams in school for so many years (yesh, I hate exams to the core! Raaaaaa!!!!). Would still have another year after IA before I finally graduate, definitely looking forward to it, kekeke... =P

Ah, I've been leaving my laptop in the office during the weekdays because I don't want to carry it to and fro every day, so most probably I'll only be updating this blog in the weekends. Now I don't go online so often too, since I don't have internet connection in the office, and the only way to go online would be either to use my supervisor's computer or go to the transit area and use the free internet there, hehehe...

I've posted the pics that I took in the recent Singapore Airshow 2008 in the previous entry - one of the many great things that I've experienced this year. Hopefully I'll be able to post the pther backdated pics soon, got a whole bunch of them saved as draft entries, lol...

And before I go, here are a few pics in the office that I have so far. The first 2 were taken by myself in the first few days, while the rest were taken when a few other interns from TP were leaving a month ago(I'm the only NTU student in that office, btw.. meh~). Ciaoz for now~ ^_^

My desk

A reflective safety vest - must be worn at the airside

Working? Playing games la, LOL XD

Trying to act cool~

A few of those working here

(the rest were not in this pic, and 1 still putting on make-up behind us, hahaha..)

Singapore Airshow 2008

2008-03-02T16:37:00.000+08:00

I never went to the previous Airshow, that's why this time round I really wanted to go.. Asked my supervisor and some other people in the office for a ticket for the trade day show, didn't manage to get my hands on one until the very last last minute, lol.. During the 4 day long Trade Days, different groups from our office took turns to go to the Airshow (all couldn't go at the same time and leave the office empty, hehe..). So on Thursday (21 Feb), after a bit of running around to grab my registration form, (very) fortunately I got it and our group headed to Changi Exhibition Centre. Yay!!!! \(^0^)/

Unlike the Public Days, the crowd that time was still manageable, so it was still easy for us to walk around and watch the displays. The sky was quite clear too, which allowed to sun to shine on full power! I actually brought my cap, but the venue was just beside the sea,so the wind was so strong that my cap would've flown away if I were to put it on, lol... Good thing I rolled down my long sleeves, or else my hands would be half-black-half-white (but of course my face was still sunburnt, meh~) >_<

Onto the day's programme: First stop was to check out the Aerobic Flying Displays. One of the the most impressive ones was the performance by the Black Knights. Hmmm, hard to describe it here, but all I said while watching the amazing aerobatics were "Oooo!", "Woah!!!" and "Waaa!", hahaha... The maneuvers that the team of 6 F16-C Fighting Falcons are also simulated here, but it's definitely nothing compared to seeing it your own eyes! I took a video of them instead of pics, but the file's too big so I can't post it up here, kekeke =P

After the Black Knights were a few other solo displays of fighter planes, which were rather boring.. Ah, one thing that I've learnt when watching such shows: wear sunglasses! I looked up directly at the bright sun for waaaaay too long that my eyes were feeling extremely uncomfortable for the next few days, urgh... =S

Then before we were going to step into the exhibition hall, a gigantic A-380 soared close above us! It was so damn huge, I tell you!!! Managed to take a few pics of it while it flew around above us (but I only posted 3 of the best ones here). Inside the exhibition hall were many booths set up by different companies. The designs of the booths were really nice. Unfortunately, the people that I was with walked through the exhibition quite fast, partly because we had to go back to office quite soon... I just stopped to take one or two pics, and they're far in front already... so I could only take very quick and not so many shots then.. didn't even get to check out and grab the free gifts, haiz... Luckily one of them also wanted to take pics of the aircrafts exhibits outside, so I tagged along and managed to take some more pics. After a quick walkabout the outdoor exhibits, it was time to go back already.

Overall I was quite satisfied attending the Airshow, although I didn't manage to take more time to shoot better pics, hehe... I did read that people who went during the Public Days complained a lot about the event though, mostly due to the crowd and transport. So anyone who went, how's your experience there? =D

And here are some of the better pics that I took that day. Enjoyz~ ^_^

Noise Singapore 2007

2008-03-02T15:32:00.006+08:00

Chanced upon the exhibition at Heeren one fine day, then went back there again with my camera few days later, lol... There was a variety of art works made by several young local talents - illustrations, graffiti, music, photography, etc. After walking around to check out the exhibits, I also bought 1 Noise Singapore t-shirt and received a free booklet which also contains a CD of songs composed and performed by local musicians.

And here are the pics =)

MINT Museum of Toys

2008-03-02T13:22:00.009+08:00

This museum is located at 26 Seah Street, just opposit Bras Basah Complex. There are really lots of old and vintage toys which occupy 5-floors of the building. All of the toys collection are well-categorized on each level, and you'd see a number of your old-time favourite characters there, like Popeye, Tintin, Bonzo, Disney characters, Flintstones, and many more. There are also lots of memorabilias. Furthermore, there is a Cafe/Restaurant/Wine Bar in the basement (but I didn't get to go there then, hehe...).

I took more than a hundred pics there, but shall only post a few of them here. Maybe your childhood memories would resurface when you get to visit this museum yourself =)

INT210 Exhibition Day

2008-03-02T13:12:00.001+08:00

Here are the pics taken during my elective's Exhibition Night, where several interactive art installations done by students were exhibited in the ADM building. Most of the exhibits were good and interesting, and thecrowd that evening was better that I expected, hehe... I also had a lot of fun 'playing' with the other groups' art installations. After all, they're 'interactive media', so the point is for the audience to use and interact with them.

My group's work? Here's a write-up for it:

"The world has been changing due to the rise of technology. The actions that humans have done affect the environment greatly, whether positively or negatively.

These changes can be observed not only visually but audibly as well - sounds that could be heard in the urban environment today can reflect the changes that the environment has experienced. However,there are still may people who do not pay much attention to those changes. Hence, we want to create the awareness of sound in the space we inhabit in this project.

This video installation is about how the environment and its soundscape is changing due to what humans have been doing - due to progress - which is reflected through generating and changing urban environment sounds due to a person's movements."

The good news is that the people who interacted with our exhibit could interpret the message behind it even without reading the write-up pasted up in the studio! We received very good feedback for our exhibit, so it definitely made all the sweat, blood and tears shed while making the whole thing worthwhile, haha... A very fulfilling and memorable experience ^_^

Prof. Ken recording our art installation in the studio

"So do I just walk here?"

The visuals generated
Guess which one is my silhouette? =P

The write-up

The next few pics are some of the projects done by other groups.

And here's our group (from the left): Lawrence, me, Fiona and Matthias. Thanks so much for all the hard work, great team work, and also all of the fun and laughter we've shared throughout the production of our project. Cheers to you all~ =D

Gals Day Out to Sentosa

2008-03-02T12:38:00.001+08:00

Kit, Sham, Hamsa & I went to Sentosa to relax by the beach. It was a cloudy day, but the wind was really nice~ Good thing it didn't rain, phew... We just sat/lay down there and yakked for the whole afternoon. Played the game called 'I Never', too! But I only took a few sips when it's my turn to drink, just to be safe, ohohohohohoho... ^0^ Another fun thing about that game is that we also shared some interesting stories, especially those we've never shared before, hehe...

And here are some pics =D

First time taking the new tram from Vivocity, whee~

Coffee Bean!!!!

Me & Sham

Kit: "Pleassssssseee!!!"
Hamsa: "No! I won't buy you ice cream!"

Nice place~

The beach!

Laze round~

An interesting sign outside the carpark area XD
(Click on the pic to enlarge)

Yay, puppy balloons!!!!

The girls

One last look before we head home

The tram~

Enchanting Indonesia

2008-03-02T12:30:00.001+08:00

Actually I have quite a lot of pics taken during the event, but lazy to resize the whole bunch of them, hehehe... So I'll just post here the pics of the fashion show that evening. Found out that taking fashion pics is not that easy because the models kept walking around and didn't keep their poses for long, lol... But here are what I've got and compiled according to 3 different th.emes.. actually there's another one, but it was the starting of the fashion show and I was still trying to find out how to take the pics, so the results were... quite bad, hehehe... ^_^; Not sure whether I've done a good job for this, so pardon me if they're not good enough. Enjoyz~

Pizza Hut & Rush Hour 3

2007-08-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

After school today, Yixuan and I met Kit, then we went to Pizza Hut at Jurong Point for lunch, wheee~ We ordered the $5.95 Lunch Express sets (student price, of course! kekeke...). Other than enjoying our lunch (cum dinner, in my case), we talked about our first week of the semester - all the funny and weird stuff, etc. It's really amazing, week 1 has ended!!! Time has passed too quickly once again, haha... XD

Here are some pics taken during lunch~

Yixuan & Kit - both in white =P

Pepsi & Soup of the Day (a bit too watery, but taste nice)

Yixuan's Hawaiian Pizza

Kit's Pasta (sorry, forgot the name, hehe..)

My Peps 'N' Spice *yum yum*

Hut's Platter - shared among us ^_^

Then in the evening I watched Rush Hour 3 with my dad and sis. Cineleisure was so damn packed! Both outside and inside the building. There were actually 2 queues formed near the 1st floor's lift area, probably to control the crowd using the lifts - so we took the long way up via the escalators, haiz..

Now about the movie. Lots of hilarious jokes throughout the whole screening, even the bloopers shown in the credits (usually shown in most of Jackie Chan's movies) were highly entertaining, lol.. I really laughed a lot tonight - probably too much... It seems that there so much humour was put into the movie that the thrill during the car chase and fighting scenes, for example, didn't get into me much.. I would've liked the movie a bit better if I didn't laugh that much while watching the 'supposed-to-be' thrilling scenes.

Two words to describe the storyline - quite predictable (there was only one unpredictable part of the movie, but shall not leave any spoilers here, hehe..). The plot's not developed deep at all in the movie, it's rather simple. Quite disappointed with the story, but other than that, I guess the movie managed to relax my nerves with all of the humour after the first week of school, haha...

So if you're looking for a great plot and action, don't watch it! BUT if you still want to watch it anyway, waiting for the VCD would do fine too =P

PEACE~

Happy National Day!

2007-08-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

A shout-out to Singapore: HAPPY 42ND BIRTHDAY!!!

Haha, that's right! Today Singapore celebrates its 42nd National Day. I didn't go out at all today, so I don't know what it's like outside. Unlike the last few years, this time I didn't get to see NDP or even its preview in the flesh, sobz... so I only watch it on TV today T_T

It's definitely different in many ways, especially since it's held at Marina Bay. Although the venue doesn't hold as many spectators as in the National Stadium, the whole place including the huge floating stage looks great. All of the performances - dances, army showcase, music - are even more fantastic! The whole event made good use of the water surroundings, like having beautiful fountains here and there, having a lighted boat sail from the other side towards the stage, huge lighted balloons representing colourful jellyfish flying over the waters... Pity that I didn't get to experience everything there, but I still enjoyed the whole event at home, hehe... ^_^

This week is also my first week going back to school. It's great to see more of my friends so far. On top of that, a few of them who already finished their NS period have joined us in NTU this semester! I've met a few of my JC classmates, and also those who were in different classes last time and I didn't expect to meet in NTU, hahaha...

As for the classes... so far so good, not bad. Mostly are introductions to the new modules and what's expected of us for the semester. Regrettably, I actually dozed off during the last few minutes of 3 lectures already... AAAAAaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! That's not good at all... don't know is it because I was really sleepy or the lecturers are too boring, but I definitely was paying attention before I was suddenly thrown into dreamland, lol.. Hopefully I won't sleep as easily for the rest of the semester. CAFFEINE TO THE RESCUE!!! >=D

Last Tuesday I also attended the very first lesson for my elective. The area of studies for this module itself is already interesting, and we're expected to make our own interactive art installation as our final project! How cool is that? Haha... It won't be easy of course, but will try my best and hope will learn more and more new skills. And maybe I can get some ideas for my FYP in 4th year? Ohohohoho... XD

I shall end this entry here then. The pictures from the Indonesian fair are almost ready, will post them here as soon as possible, hehe... Good night~ =)

Backdated Pics

2007-08-05T23:27:00.000+08:00

Yup, I went to the Indonesian Fair earlier today. But I've just reached home not long ago and I took too many pics of the event, so will resize and post them here tomorrow instead, kekeke =P

For this entry, I'll post some backdated pics, hehe... I finally got the rest of the pics of Jinny's birthday, and here are the group pics ^_^

So many people!!!!

DD Group XD

There's a similar pic in one of my previous entries,
but I think this is better, lol

While I'm posting backdated pics, figured that I'll also include the pics from Shiva's 21st birthday last June, nyahaha...

What are they discussing? =\

Kit with her new short hair! @0@

Shiva & her cute niece

Look at how happy the birthday girl is~

Makan time!!!

Don't know how many close-ups of Sham I've taken to-date, lol

The giant birthday card!!!

Kama trying to act cool once again
(*Note: Bhara already drank more than 3/4 of the bottle before this pic's taken)

A small group pic before some of us leave

And before I go to sleep, below are some pics that I took during work about a month ago (*Note: the pics has nothing to do with work at all, hahaha...). It's time to go to school again tomorrow! So most probably I won't be posting as much as the past 3 months of holiday, hehe... Oh well, shall see how it goes. Until next time then XD

Ready.... FIGHT!

Discovery of the orange jellybean!

Oh no you don't! I won't let u get away with the whole jellybean!
F I G H T !!!

Oh no!!! He devoured the jellybean!
GIVE IT BACK! GIVE IT BACK!!!

The Last Week of Holidays

2007-08-05T00:18:00.000+08:00

Sorry for not updating this blog for more than a week... it's mainly because I didn't have the mood to write, muahahahaha... So today I'll just give a summary of what's been going on for the past week =P

I spent most of the time slacking at home actually, hehe... Especially last weekend when it rained a lot and the weather was rather colder for a few days. I played a bit of video games, watch tv, read comics... but I definitely slept a lot, nyahaha... Oh, a few days ago I also finally went for a dental check-up (after not going for quite long, lol). My teeth are generally fine, but there's one problem... which is caused by one single stupid wisdom tooth! To cut a long story short, it has to be removed! The dentist explained why and how, etc... "It doesn't have to be removed immediately, but the day will come", she said in the end... Just thinking about it is freaking me out! WAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >_< ...and so I was rather depressed for the rest of that day... I don't try to imagine the whole process much now, but still have to keep mentally prepared... for 'the day that will come'. Sobz.. T_T

Moving on to the happier stories, lol... What else did I do for the rest of the week? Well, a few days ago was my sis (Lidya) 17th birthday! Since it was a weekday, we just had a simple birthday dinner at home. I always love the birthday noodles that my mom cooks, yum yum... =P The day after that, I went for a 5-hour Kbox session with Waifong and Kenneth (I think Jinny was also coming at first but she couldn't make it in the end). It was the first time that I sang for so long (with breaks in between, hehe..), however it was so fun that time passed by much quicker than I expected! Then again, the after-effect was quite evident when we had dinner after that, because I almost lost my voice when we all talked and talked, hahaha... guess I didn't drink enough then ^_^; But I definitely had a great time! Looking forward to our next Kbox session, whee~ (don't know when, but I'm still looking forward to it)

I spent the next few days tidying up my stuff in my room, which is not really completed yet but almost, heh... and yesterday I finally found out the result of the electives allocation for the new semester - I've got my first-choice elective! Yipeee~ It's called 'Interactive Media Workshop I'. I definitely will enjoy it no matter how heavy the workload is (I hope, lol...) So now my timetable's quite finalized - I still couldn't get a less than 5-day week timetable, haiz... However, my classes are spread out quite fine, and there's only one day every week that has an 8.30 AM class - which also means I don't have to wake up too early for the rest of the week, muahahahaha.... XD

A few stuff happened today. Firstly, my sis decided to celebrate her birthday today by having BBQ with her classmates. About 15 ppl came, I think, and there were lots of food prepared! I only took a few sticks of sausages and crab-sticks, and also a bit of corn, because I didn't want to end up gaining more weight, hehehe... Judging on my current 'situation', I seriously need to exercise more... argh! Oh wellz -_-

Later in the evening, my other sis, Linda, and I went to meet my dad at Kinokuniya, since we thought that the 20% discount promotion ends today. But when we arrived there, we found out that the offer ends on 7 August intead, lol... Fyi, the promotion's called 'KINOKUNIYA PRIVILEGE CARD - 3RD ANNIVERSARY MEMBERS' EXCLUSIVE PROMOTION!' Yup, it's for members only. If you are not a member yet, however, you can still apply for the privilege card in any of the bookshop. Click on the pic below for more details.

Picture courtesy of www.kinokuniya.com.sg

My purchase for the day is: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle artbook! Including the cover art, content and the free clear file, there's a total of 80 beautiful full-colour illustrations, whee~ Finally another illustration book added to my collection, hehe... *sitting in front of the book shelf and say, "Preciousssssss"* Below are a few shots of the book (didn't take any pictures of the content because it's quite thick, don't want to damage it by opening it too wide, kekeke...).

Front cover - Syaoran & Sakura

Back cover - Kurogane, Fye & Mokona

The clear file that goes with it XD

When I was out, I found out that there's an Indonesian Fair at Civics Plaza, Takashimaya. There were a few booths featuring arts and crafts from Indonesia (it was quite late when I checked it out so I only took a peek). And according to my dad, there were a few dance performances and a fashion show today. The fair will still go on tomorrow, if I'm not wrong.. will be going there to check out more of the activities, and hopefully more performances. Will blog about it tomorrow if I'm home early, hehe...

Until then, ta ta for now~ =D

1-Click Award

2007-07-26T22:22:00.000+08:00

Want to know how a mouse cursor works? Here's something interesting, check it out: http://www.1-click.jp/

Try moving your cursor around in any direction, move it continuously then stop suddenly, and also try clicking you mouse! I laughed a lot when I saw this this website, hahaha... Oh, and in case you don't know Japanese, all of the men will be shouting out the direction they're supposed to go to whenever you move your mouse, like "FRONT FRONT!", "BACK BACK!", "RIGHT RIGHT!", and "LEFT LEFT!" ...not so sure whether they're also saying "DIAGONAL DIAGONAL!", that one I couldn't hear well, hehe...

Edit: after playing around with it more, now I'm quite sure that they said "DIAGONAL", too XD

It may get rather noisy... so if you don't want to wake up your neighbours, do lower down the volume XD

Thanks Nas for sharing this! ^_^

Burp~

2007-07-25T22:51:00.000+08:00

Met Kit this afternoon to pass her the cat and pig figurines that she had ordered, and so we also took the opportunity to have lunch too. We went for the All-You-Can-Eat teatime buffet at Sakae Sushi, and oh boy, did we eat a lot! We ate and talked and ate and talked and ate and ate... then when we were leaving the place, it felt as if we were pulled down by a stronger gravitational force and our stomachs were going to explode any second! Hahahaha... Felt rather guilty eating so much... but I haven't gone to a buffet for a loooong time (don't even remember when was the last time I had one, lol), and it was great spending time with Kit after not meeting for quite some time, hehe... ^_^

I took pics of the first few plates that we grabbed, but I was enjoying all of the food so much that I forgot to shoot the rest, kekeke... Click on the thumbnail for a better view... and drool~ =P

Booth Artists Collaboration

2007-07-23T17:25:00.000+08:00

Last week during Day 3 of Cosfest, there was this A4-sized paper being circulated around for booth artists who were present to leave their mark on (ie. just draw and sign), sort of like a collaboration piece. To my delight, it's finally posted in the art forum! Yayyyy~ Can you find which one's mine? =P

The above pic was scanned and posted online by Lancer (don't know his real name, hehe..). To see the complete listing of the artists' drawings in the collab, check it out here ^_^

A weekend of 21st Birthdays

2007-07-23T10:02:00.000+08:00

The past weekend I went for two different 21st Birthday celebrations, two days in a row! Hahaha...Met different groups of people on both days, but both parties were enjoyable =)

On Saturday, it was Jinny's birthday party. I met Waifong and Gin at the mrt station, then the three of us headed to her house. It's supposed to be not a very long walk, but somehow we ended up making a few cuts and turns, walked in a big circle. Good thing we bumped into Sarah along the way, or we would've walked completely the opposite direction, lol... but even so, we still had to walk a BIIIIG circle until we finally reached our destination. The whole journey took quite a long time...we actually walked from when there was still sunlight until dark! Hahaha... XD

In the party we met quite a number of familiar faces, mostly from NTU. Good food, great company - really enjoyed myself there. There was even a pool table and karaoke room there, so everyone had something to do if they're not just sitting around and chatted with one another (too bad I was too shy to join the karaoke group there, just sat and watched the others singing away, hehe...). Thanks Jinny for inviting us to your party, and hope you had as much a great time, or even a greater time there ^_^

I managed to take a few pictures there. There was also a DD group picture and a group picture of everyone in the function room, but not in my camera, haiz... will go after Jinny for those pics and update them here =P So here's what I have~

All were taking turns for group pictures
(seems that Waifong and Gin caught me taking this pic, oops =P)

Since it wasn't our turn yet, let's take our own pics, kekeke...
Here's Waifong & I

Joel & Gin

Overview of one side of the function room
(quite a lot of people, right?)

A group pic with the birthday girl before we head home

Now moving on to Sunday evening, this time it's Mingzhi's birthday. He actually also invited our class people from yj, unfortunately many were busy with work and other stuff... so in the end only three of us went for his party: me, Yixuan and Nas. Oh well, it's better than nothing, hehe... Again, it was slightly raining o our way to his house, and we had to searched quite a bit for the place.. But this was not as bad as the misadventure in the previous day - The day before, we had to walk around a neighbourhood. Whereas this time, we were walking in circles in a carpark building! Wahahaha... and good thing we didn't have to walk for too long =P

Other than our group, Mingzhi also invited (I think) his secondary school friends, and the majority there were his family and relatives. We could see how close the members of his family are that evening. All of us ate and watched a hong kong drama on tv. I've watched that series before, so I know the whole story, hehehe... and good thing it has English subtitles, if not most prob Nas would be quite lost there XD

So thanks Mingzhi for the great time, although the majority of our classmates couldn't make it, heh... I also took a few pictures there, but just gonna upload one group pic here:

210 cum Computing class group =)

Ah, and before I end this entry, we found something interesting hanging on Mingzhi's room door. Also took a pic of it, just to share with all of you (click on the thumbnail for a clearer view). Enjoy~

so which one are you? =P

20.07.2007 & The Four Meme

2007-07-20T22:08:00.000+08:00

I didn't realize the significance of today's date until I met my dad and sisters after work earlier this evening.

Dad: "Do you know that today's a special day?"
Me: "Eh? What day is it?"
Dad: "It's 20.07.2007 (read twenty O seven, twenty O seven) - Double twenty O seven!"
Lidya: "Pa... you've said that 3 times today..."

Apparently he said exactly the same thing to my sis at home and to his friend on the phone, then to me, hahaha... XD

An update about work: Today we've finally finished transcribing and reviewing all of the voice samples! Yaaaayyyyyyyyy~ Which also means it's the end of our work for this project - ie. it's the last day of work! It's a huge relieve to have completed going through hundreds of voice samples to be sent to the research centre, not a small achievement indeed~ Although we had to extend our working period to another week due to the shortage of manpower, we've done a great job here.

I worked a bit slower today than usual, so there was actually one last batch unreviewed and it was almost 6 pm! In the end the work's divided into 3 smaller parts, and Nicole and Eugene helped to clear everything before we called it a day. Soooo sorry had to trouble the two of you after you've done a lot of work yourselves... and thanks so much! Its been a pleasure working with you all this holidays. Ah, and also not forgetting Theresia and Junyien, although the both of you stopped working earlier.

Working the last 2 months certainly had its ups and downs, but it's still a fun and memorable experience. Gonna miss going to the office everyday... and also searching for different food to have for lunch everyday, lol... Looking forward to meet you all again at school~

Speaking of school... now I have exactly 2 weeks left to do other stuff in this holiday before school reopens in August! Don't really have a fixed plan of how to spend my time during that period... but one thing for sure... I gotta clean up my stuff in my room soon, hehehe... there's a mountain on my table now.... didn't get to sort them out, so I'd better do so before I'm busy again with school stuff, muehehe.. =P

A few days ago, I found out that Nicole has tagged me again... Zzzzz... thanks a lot, hor.. Hahaha, joking2. I'm not unhappy about this =D Good thing it's quite simple, hehe... I promised her that I'll do it in my next blog entry, so here it goes~

The Four Meme

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1) Student (duh)
2) Game characters designer (very short & brief, lol)
3) Research Assistant
4) Freelance artist? (currently not really a paying job... just helping some friends, hehe..)

Four places I have lived:
1) Jakarta
2) Central Singapore
3) In a small tent at Kota Tinggi (2 nights)
4) A computer lab at YJC (1 night)

Four places I have been on vacation:
1) Bandung
2) Bali
3) California
4) Singapore (that's before I moved here, nyahaha..)

Four of my favourite foods:
1) Ramen/Noddles
2) Tempura
3) Carrot cake
4) Sweets

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) my bed
2) laying down on top of a mountain/hill looking at the stars~
3) Kinokuniya, or any bookshop that sells comics XD
4) cinema (I wanna watch Transformers, Harry Potter, Paprika, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.... so many movies.... GYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!)

Four friends I would like to tag:
1) Hendri (I know Nicole has tagged you also, so you only need to do this once! See, I so nice, ohohohoho...)
2) Patricia
3) Nasrul
4) Jinhua

I think I gonna play Pangya now...before I sleep... long time never touch that game, kekeke... Toodles~ (^-^)

Cosfest 2007 (Day 3)

2007-07-16T23:42:00.000+08:00

Ya ya, I know this entry's rather late, considering that the finale for Cosfest was last Sunday... but some stuff happened so I could only update this blog now. Sorry.... >_<
So yup! Last Sunday (15 July 2007) was Day 3 of Cosfest VI, which was also the finale of the 2-3 days event. As expected, the number of people who turned up was huge!! The cosplayers, photographers, spectators etc filled up D'Marquee at Downtown East not long after 1 pm when the event started. It's evident that Cosfest is bigger this time round - not only has it expanded into a 3-days event and there are more booths set up on the 3rd day, even the venue is larger now! Some booths and workshops were also held in D'Tent, just next to D'Marquee. Too bad I was occupied enough handling my own booth and taking pictures of cosplayers in D'Marquee, so I didn't manage to check out the activities at the other side later in the afternoon, haiz.. I also didn't attend Day 2 of the event, therefore no write-up for that, hehehe... ^_^;

There were many many different characters being cosplayed on that, maybe almost countless! Examples are characters from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (a BIG group of them), Naruto (oh yes, the same characters appear every year, lol), Bleach (another big group), Kingdom Hearts 2 (Sora and a whole bunch of Organization XIII @0@), Chobits (there were both Chii and Dark Chii present, but didn't manage to take any pic of them together, boohoohoo T_T), Sakura Taisen (the pair were selected to represent Singapore in the coming World Cosplay Summit in Japan, yay!!!), Chrno Crusade (only saw Rossette, no Chrno, sobz..), Gundam (the chibi Gundam's armour was a job well done, bravo!), Harry Potter (but I didn't see Harry, lol), Star Wars, Star Trek, Chicken Little (his costume's definitely not so little, too bad didn't take his pic)... and many more which I didn't recognise, oops =P

Actually on that day I forgot to put my camera into my bag! Already left my house when I realized that, but in the end I went all the way back just to pick it up and then rushed over to Pasir Ris! It was a hassle, but I'm glad that I got my camera with me in the event, or else I would regret it for a long long long long..... long long time XD So yup, I took lots of pictures that day. I was practically so trigger-happy that I took a total of 161 photographs on Day 3 alone! However, I managed to select about 50 of the better pics to show you later in this entry, phew ^_^;

As for the cosplay competition itself: there were definitely the not-so-good ones, funny ones, good ones etc. I did witness a few of them looking rather lost on stage, which in turn looked a bit awkward... But most of them performed quite well, and one of the memorable ones was the short skit by KH2 team. Why?

For those who plays or knows the game KH2 (and even KH), there were various weapons for different characters, and the KH2 team that day appeared with the live-sized versions! They looked really good... and were made of... maybe styrofoam or something about as 'strong'. Imagine if you were to get involved in a fight without using them carefully, you can guess what would happen - they would break easily! I didn't really watch their complete performance due to the huge crowd and I was quite busy attending to some people at our booth. What I could hear was mostly "Whoa whoa", something like that...then I suddenly I heard a loud, "Oh shit!" So at that time I already guessed they broke something - specifically a keyblade - ouch! Of course the whole audience exclaimed, but the group just continued with their performance and everyone cheered loudly. So yeah, they broke one or two of their props, but it was still a good and entertaining performance (could've improved the fighting scenes, though). Furthermore, their costumes looked great, one could instantly recognise which characters they were cosplaying as (as long as you're familiar with KH2, hehe), and it was evident that they've put in a lot of effort into making all of the weapons. At the end of the event, they won the Best Group award, whee~ Kudos to them! ^0^

Ah btw, I accidentally found a video of their performance in youtube, recorded by keesiao (but never see her there le, hehe...). The video shows clearly what happened on stage, so here it is:

Of course all of the other cosplayers also did a great job with their own costumes, props and also playing their own part well, and most of them professionally posed for the cameras. The quality's definitely much better compared with when I first attended such an event a few years back.

It should also be taken note of that the event's not just about cosplay. There were 2 singing performances by the winner and 1st runner up from the anime karaoke competition that was held the day before. I recognized the 1st runner up, because last year she also performed in Cosfest by singing 'Endless Story' from the movie NANA (which was an adaptation from a manga with the same title). Last year she performed beautifully and it was very memorable. This year it's no exception! She performed (I mean sang AND danced) one of BoA's songs... I think...actually I'm not sure what song it was, do tell me if anyone of you knows, hehe... Anyway, her voice is still as good as ever and she danced well. She was even accompanied by a few other dancers, dun pray pray! Haha... XD

Another notable segment of the event was the screening of a few short animations that were part of Digicon 6+3 Singapore, which was followed by Digicon Awards Ceremony. Furthermore before the selection for the pair of cosplayers who'll represent Singapore in this year's World Cosplay Summit in Japan started, a video of last year's WCS was shown to give an idea on what it was like. There were cosplayers from Italy, China, Brazil, Singapore, Thailand, and of course Japan (not sure whether I missed any other countries who participated, but tell me if I did, hehe..). The standards were really high, and no doubt it'll be even higher this year. Everyone's amazed at the costumes, props and performances shown in the video. Including me, my jaws dropped throughout the video showcase and kept on saying, "Wowww!!!!" and "Woah!!!!" =P

And how about the booths? For my own items, the sales was better than Day 1, although just slightly, hehe... SS also sold plenty of her postcards and posters, but I'm not sure whether it's better than last year's... she said it's not as good, hmm... Our booth's location this year's not very comfortable... that's because we were situated right beside the gigantic sound systems (same as last year, but at the left side instead of the right)! So whenever there's any loud techno and booming music, and also cosplayers sceaming into the mic, it would as if we were blown away by the impact of the sound and we had to cover our ears in agony... what made it worse was that I had a migraine due to maybe lack of sleep, so I guess the effect was much greater on me compared with SS and Zijian (btw, he is SS's friend and my new friend who volunteered to help out in our booth), sobz... Thankfully i didn't faint because of that, but it felt like I was going to, lol... My head got better later that day, and I still enjoyed the whole madness, muahahaha...

I also met some familiar faces there. I saw Ren Wei walking by with his friends, never seen him for ages, siah... (actually since after JC, lol). I also recognized some of the booth owners and cosplayers whom I believe are faithful participants of Cosfest. Eugene also went there to show his support and bought a few items from our booth. Then he went to 'stalk' the cosplayers and took plenty photographs, huehehe... Thanks so much for coming and hope you also had fun there =)

When we were packing up our stuff after the event, a few other booth owners got together and traded our items with one another. It was really fun to trade and interact with the others, and I managed to get good stuff from them in exchange with mine, hehehe... Click on the left pic to get a better view =D

Overall I think this year's Cosfest is a huge success. I definitely had a blast! Minus our booth location beside the speakers, it was a great day at the booth, enjoying the performances and taking pictures of the cosplayers. I'm not disappointed at all and looking forward to next year's, yay~ Thanks and congrats to Takahan and Stephanie for organizing Cosfest for the past few years, hope it'll also be another great one next year and years after that ^_^

Hmmm, I guess i wrote too much already, hehe... How about the freakin' pictures? Where are they?? - No worries! As promised, they coming up next. It was very hard to select only a few among all of those that I have taken to be posted in this blog... so the easier solution is to just post a slideshow containing ALL of the short-listed pics instead, nyahahaha... Sorry if they're too small to view here... If you really want any particular pictures with bigger size and better quality, just leave a message in this blog, hehe... As for now, enjoy the slides! (^0^)V

Banner Done!

2007-07-14T00:36:00.000+08:00

I've replaced the plain and empty banner with this one - graphic background and stylized title. It's 100% made using my own images and done by yours truly! Yaahoooooooo~ \(^0^)/

Do not hesitate to give me your honest opinions, whether good or bad, hehehehe... If you have any suggestions on how to improve the above banner further, by all means leave you comments =)

Nathan

2007-07-13T10:48:00.000+08:00

Live from office! Just taking a 10 minute break before I tackle a 'not-so-easy-to-listen-to' recording, lol... Nicole kidnapped.. I mean 'catnapped' my cat sculpey, don't know what she's doing to it now in the other room, sobz... T__T

On a side note, I want to show you Nathan's personal website (He's my nephew, btw.. My cousin's first-born whose whole family are also currently living in sg). He's not even 1 year old yet and he has a homepage already. Power, siah! Dun play play, hor XD His website basically contains his diary, progress, family pics etc. It's a cute website, so do drop by there and take a peek: http://nathank.mytinybaby.com/

I've also added his website to my links section at the side. Ok la, back to work! =P

Simple and Clean

2007-07-13T02:34:00.000+08:00

The title above is not referring to the song 'Simple and Clean' by Utada Hikaru, but rather my latest blog template, kekeke... Yes, again I changed it! And this time it's just a simple one, currently without any beautiful graphics as header etc. Why? Well, although I liked the previous skin's header, I felt that the whole layout itself was too narrow (or maybe it's just me, lol). So for now, this is the layout that I'm using =P

Time really flies, and very soon it'll be the weekends again! While continuing to work as usual, I've been making more preparations for my booth in Cosfest 2007 finale this Sunday. Gotta make more of my cat sculpeys. Oh, and I've found a way to improve it's stability, so that they can rest on more types of surfaces without sliding too easily, wheee~ A few friends have also shown some interest in them, so I have to make them even nicer than the previous batch! (^0^)

The project that I'm involved in, which is the voice collection and transcribing, is going to be wrapped up very soon, hopefully by early next week. The initial plan was to complete everything by this Friday, but we have to verify the voice samples again for the last time before submitting them, that's why it's necessary to extend... I was hoping that we could enjoy the rest of the holidays next Monday onwards, but oh well... Gotta make sure that we've done a good job before saying, "It's a wrap!" - So hang on, ppl~

Aiya, look at the time! I'd better hit the sack now if I want to wake up on time for work, lol... Tata for now, then (^_^)V

210 Gathering & Cosfest 2007 (Day 1)

2007-07-09T00:15:00.000+08:00

A very busy week, yes it was! Lots of stuff happened, had to run here and there everyday, but all of the happenings were good things, hehehe... Won't be blogging about every single day of this week, though, too much to write about =P

I spent most of today just relaxing at home and watching Live Earth, a 24-hour concert held in 8 cities - namely New York, London, Sidney, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai & Hamburg. This concert's part of the move to create awareness about the crisis in our dear Earth, which will get even worse if all of us don't do anything about it... sad but true... Lots of great performances, interesting short films... really enjoyed myself watching them, and was reminded again of the crisis, at the same time. You can find out more in http://www.liveearth.org, and you can also view the concerts if you missed them in http://liveearth.msn.com . I do hope that more people have opened their eyes and became more aware of the crisis; OUR crisis - Answer the call!

The rest of this entry would mainly be about my class gathering a few days ago and day 1 of Cosfest yesterday. Therefore it will be divided into 2 sections, plenty of pics XD

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Thursday, 5 July 2007

This evening 'flew' straight from my workplace to Marina Square, to have a dinner gathering with my dear friends from JC. After having the gathering canceled quite a number of times for the past month, we finally had one today, hehehe... Not a bad turnout, it was - a total of 9 of us went for the gathering (this is considered not bad, lol). Those who appeared were (in alphabetical order): Farid, Kama, Nas, Lorraine, Pat, Sham, Shad and last but not least Shiva ^_^

After walking around in search for a place to eat in, we finally settled down in Swensen's. The prices there are rather 'ah-hem'... but once in a while I guess it's ok =P All of us just chatted away, catching up with what we all have been up to these days, joked and laughed like crazy! Especially Kama, he made us laugh and (almost) barf so much, haha... Farid has to fly back to Perth tomorrow and the next time he's back in sg would probably be end of this year... we gonna miss ya~ (especially Shiva, ohohoho... *hides*).

So it was a great and fun night, hope that we'll have our next gathering soon. Took a lot of pics, too, and here are some of them =D

Pat, Shiva, Sham & Shad

The only guys this evening: Kama, Nas & Farid

Kama thinking extremely hard to make the right choice...of food XD

The OOHs and AAHs~

Me & Lorraine

I wonder why Shiva's looking at Kama that way =\

Pat & Shiva

Shad & I

Nas & Farid - my ex-bodyguards (...nah, they bullied me a lot, too)

The cute Lorraine & the oblivious Kama

Me & Mommy Shiva

Settling the bill...

Now, a group pic~

Me & Sham, my pet parrot =P

This pic's spoiled because of Kama's tiny muscle, haiz..

Me, Shad & Kama

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Saturday, 7 July 2007

07/07/07 - a unique day, it is...it might be even cooler if it's a Sunday, too (get it? XD). Definitely there are couples who had chosen today for them to walk the aisle, duh... Today we are also witnessing the start of Live Earth concerts. Hundreds of music artists performed brilliantly in all of the 8 cities (I missed most of the first part of the performances on TV because I was in Cosfest, sobz).

And yes, today also marked Day 1 of Cosfest 2007 at Takashimaya! The event was also part of Tanjong Pagar GRC Fiesta, in which the guest-of-honour was none other than MM Lee Kwan Yew, thus the security was particularly strict for such an event. I had to let the police scan through my bags before I could go in and find my table, lol... It's rather warm this afternoon, so I decided not to wear my unusual outfit and put on a t-shirt and pants instead, hehe...

The number of cosplayers that I saw today are not as many as I thought it would be... but I'm sure the number will explode sky-high next week! XD Today, other than the cosplay competition, there were also dance performances. I also managed to catch a glimpse of MM Lee giving his speech, but it's quite far from my booth which was right at the other end... As for the booth? The sales were definitely great for SS's artworks, while I sold a few (I mean very few) of my clay figurines, which is quite expected, lol.. at least now I understand better about what people wants and know I have a better idea of what to bring next week =P

By the end of the event, we got to know a few other artists and booth owners. I even got to trade 2 of my clay figurines with another artist's artwork, yay~ Another fun day have passed and I'm looking forward to the finale next week ^_^

Now for the pics, enjoy~

Our booth

Overview of the crowd

Lelong lelong~

MM Lee Kwan Yew giving his speech

We have long hair, whee~ (what kind of comment it that? XD)

Other booths near ours

Kitty drooling at Cloud Strife *slurp*

The only cosplayer whose picture I took today (will take more next week, hehe) =P

Precioussssss

A salsa fiesta to end the day with

Cosfest VI - The Golden Experience

2007-07-01T22:22:00.000+08:00

COSFEST is finally here once again!!!!

This year it's a 3 day event: 7th, 14th and 15th July 2007 \(^0^)/

For those who're not familiar with it, Cosfest is an annual cosplay event organized by SCC Square. People of all ages (mostly youngsters, though) would dress up in their favourite anime, manga or even movie characters, be it to participate in the competition, or just to join in the fun and meet other cosplayers. Selections for World Cosplay Summit (Singapore) will also be held, so the competition would be a more intense one. Furthermore, there would be music and dance performances, anime karaoke competition, as well as several booths selling various merchandises - like original artworks or fanarts, cosplay-related items, second-hand animes, mangas, collectibles, and many more! Even if you're non-cosplayers, I guarantee that you'll still have a lot of fun taking pictures of the cosplayers and enjoying the whole event. It'll be a fun experience for all, and thus you shouldn't miss it =P

Below is some info about the dates, times and venues for all 3 days. Check out the official website for more detailed info (including the programmes): http://www.cosfest.com

7th July 2007 (Saturday) - "World Cosplay Summit SemiFinals"
Venue: Ngee Ann City, Civic Plaza
Time: 4.00pm - 6.00pm (Cosplay Competition)
5.00pm - 9.30pm (Booths)

14th July 2007 (Saturday) - "Cosfest Showday"
Venue: Downtown East, D'Tent
Time: 12.00pm - 8.00pm

15th July 2007 (Sunday) - "Cosfest The Golden Experience"
Venue: Downtown East, D'Marquee and D'Tent
Time: 12.00pm - 7.00pm

I won't be cosplaying there (might be wearing something that I don't normally wear to blend in though, hehehe...) But I'm setting up a booth with my friend WP aka SS (check out her deviantART page for her beautiful artworks). We'll be selling some artworks and sculpey figurines on the 7th and 15th, so your support would be greatly appreciated, hehehe... SS will be selling plenty of her artwork prints as postcards and posters, while I'll be selling sculpey figurines and some of my older artworks. Unfortunately I may not be able to complete my new artworks for this Saturday, but they'll be ready for next Sunday ^_^; I'll post some pics of our items hopefully 2 days from now, so you'll catch a glimpse of what we'll have in our booth.

In the meantime, here are some pics of last year's Cosfest at Downtown East, D'Marquee. I also have pics of the previous year's but it'd be too many to post here, lol... The event is getting bigger and better so far, so do attend the event this year and have lots of fun there! And remember to bring your camera and/or video cam along, or you'll regret it =D

The big crowd... the gorgeous, the scary, the funny, the crazy ones... all in Cosfest XD

And once again, looking forward to see you all there... and remember to support my booth, ok! Ohohohohohoho..... PEACE!!!

The Office

2007-06-19T22:55:00.000+08:00

Now I'm back working in the office, normal 0900-1800 working hours. The first day was spent heading to the research centre in the morning to get a briefing on how to use the improved transcribing software. The first thing that came to my mind when the window opens: "Waaaa... so many buttons~" Hahaha, yup! Compared with the software that we used last year, this one's interface is filled with more & more buttons. But we didn't actually have to touch all of them except a few essential ones, so it's just a matter of getting used to staring at the window full of buttons, lol... The rest of the day and today were then spent on getting familiarized with the new interface and functions. My progress has been very slow so far, also due to some technical problems... but all is well now so tomorrow I'll be able to go full speed, ohohohohoo..... XD

Mainly in this entry, I'd like to share with you a music video that my sister showed me last week...or was it 2 weeks ago, hehehe... The song's titled "I Eat Cannibals". I find the lyrics sooooo funny, that I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed for quite some time!!! The melody kinda got stuck in my head for a few days too, though, lol... So here's the video that my sis found (watch the video to also see the lyrics):

Then I found the original MV for this song. It's actually performed by Total Coelo, a British new wave vocal group formed in the 1980s. The hit single "I Eat Cannibals Part 1" actually reached the Top Ten in UK back then =O Check out the original MV:

Somehow the first video is more entertaining, I think... maybe because of all the colourful dancers, haha... And after a closer observation, there's another funny thing about this song - if the woman's actually so attracted to the guy that she wants to eat him, won't that make her the cannibal here? Then, shouldn't the title be something like "I am a Cannibal" instead? Hmmmm... =/

The Aftermath of the Adventures at IMM

2007-06-16T02:36:00.000+08:00

The adventures at IMM finally ended last Thursday! We didn't actually reach the final target, but it was really close... Oh well, we did our best and were quite satisfied with the final turn out. Definitely a rewarding 2 weeks experience - got to learn new skills, made new friends & know them all better, worked with great and fun people, interacted with strangers in a good way (including with kids, lolz). I definitely have gained more things now to be carried through my future endeavours (pardon me if this sentence don't make much sense, because I myself don't know how to express it, meheheheee~).

Of course I've got the chance to take a few pictures when we worked there, kekeke.... So here they are:

Us at work

The 'forever-modified' banner

An admin table, just for moi =D

Some shots taken using my laptop ^_^;

The latest form of the modified banner XD

The crew~

And thus from Monday onwards, we'll be back working in the office to transcribe all of the voice samples that we've collected. Will it be fun? Will it be boring? Gonna find out soon enough ^_^

My Programmer Personality Type

2007-06-13T01:09:00.000+08:00

A week has passed working at IMM, and we haven't reached our target yet! Still short of voice samples of English-speaking Malays and Indians, so most probably we'll have to extend the collection to Thursday, haiz... The statistics looked quite bad last weekend... but the past 2 days has been much much better and looks more promising. I'm quite positive that we'll finally reach our target by this Thursday, whee~ After which is a short break, before we start transcribing all of the voice samples from next Monday, then another 'headache' will begin, lol XD

Today when we all chatted a bit during work (got time to chat because almost no one pass by our booth at that time), Nicole suggested that we take the 'Programmer Personality Test' online.. said she has done it but never post the result in her blog, haha... I don't actually code much except at school during labs, but thought I'll just do the test for the fun of it (and my hair's still wet so I can't go to sleep yet, hehehe...). Got the link from Hendri's blog, and here's the result...

Your programmer personality type is: DHTB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.

Hmmm, the result's rather true... not so sure about the Doer part, though, haha... If you want to try it out as well, you can find the test at Doolwind’s Game Coding Site .

Have fun~

And the Results are.....

2007-06-08T01:48:00.000+08:00

Finally the exam results are out!!! Tried my luck to check slightly after midnight, and my grades for the semester just appeared on my monitor - I passed all of my modules, whee~ So that means I don't have to repeat anything & am promoted to year 3!!!! I'm so happy now that I couldn't sleep, although I have to wake up early for work later, hehehe... If I didn't calculate wrongly, I've done better than last sem, so it's a great great great relieve, phew~ ^_^;

And yes, my part-time job also finally started from last Monday, it's been 4 days already now. For the next 10 days, I'll be stationed at IMM to collect the voice samples every day, including this weekend *sobz*. So far it's been a very interesting experience. The first day started off a bit slow due to the first time setup on site, and also was rather shy & afraid to approach passersby in that mall, hehe... We were supposed to get people to record their voices for the research for 10-15 minutes. After all the jitters and hiccups, everything went very well. The response was much better than I expected, lol... Indeed, the $10 compensation for the participants is a very attractive offer.

Many many people agreed to spend their time recording their voices for us - students, office workers, aunties, uncles, tai-tais, grannies, grandpas... People from all walks of life were there! Interacting with them has been very interesting, too. I've learnt many new things like how to approach people, how to convince them to participate, how to pull in the groups of people that we're targeting at, thought of new strategies to improve the response from time to time, a bit of admin skills... and I think the way I speak has improved, maybe just a bit, hahaha... As usual, I'm experiencing something that proved to teach me several new skills that could be useful in the future =)

There are quite a number of interesting observations on the way people behave or react so far. Unfortunately, I have to head to my bed now because, as I said in the first paragraph, I have to wake up early, and need to conserve my energy to survive through the rest of the week camping at IMM, lol... Ah, but before I leave, I'd like to take this opportunity to do a bit of an advertisement:

"Get $10 cash in just 15 minutes at IMM, level 2 (outside Kopitiam). All you have to do is let us record your voice while you read several short and simple sentences, and the $10 is all yours! Only for Singaporeans above 25 years old, until 13 June 2007 (everyday including weekend, 1230 - 2030 hrs). Only left 200+ voice samples needed out of the target of 500, so come on down before it's too late! See you there~"

Oh and by the way, the voice samples are to be used to develop a voice recognition system (which could recognise Singaporeans) and the research is conducted by a local research centre. Currently we really need especially more Malays and Indians' voice samples (but still need the ones from the Chinese community as well, hehe). So your support in this project will be greatly appreciated (^_^)

5 Reasons Why I Blog

2007-05-27T22:19:00.000+08:00

Few weeks ago, Pat tagged me and this time I'm supposed to list down '5 Reasons Why I Blog'. I've read what Pat have written for this tag herself, but she wrote quite a lot of stuff! I'm feeling a bit lazy now so will just keep each point short, hehehe... So here it goes:

1. Stories
Simply, I'd like to share my experiences with my friends & anyone who happen to come across my blog, especially the interesting ones...whether they're exciting, new, happy, sad, tragic (hopefully have none of this type, lol), funny, etc. I also write about any events that I attend or even participate in, also for practicing since I'm part of the Publications team in my school club and attended a few events in the process. Although I was only the photographer, I also want to tell stories about those events not just through pictures. I've learnt for the past year that write-ups are also important and they're not so easy to write, for me that is... Whatever I write may not of good quality, but will try my best to make them understandable and descriptive enough so that others could actually visualize what went on in the events =)

2. Share
Other than stories, I also like to share other interesting media that I come across. Sometimes videos, most often would be pictures (those that I took, of course). Hmmm, sometimes I take some pictures for my online art portfolio, also uploaded most of my artworks there. So if you want to take a look at those, they're in my deviantart page, can find the link at the side, kekeke...

3. Not to Forget
One of my greatest weaknesses... is that I'm super duper forgetful! I've forgotten most of my childhood, the stuff that I did in primary and secondary school, except for those with deep impression on me... I could even forget what I wanted to do or say 1 minute before! Hahaha... yah, that's how bad it is, which is one of the reasons why I don't do well in subjects that require more memorizing work, haiz... So hopefully by blogging I could record down...whatever I want to record down, hehe, I could look into my past entries whenever I want to remember some things... Btw, before started blogging, I originally take pictures often for this very purpose in the past. But now I also take pictures for publications and art purposes =P

4. Networking?
I don't know...currently I don't use my blogs to find new friends and contacts, it's mainly for sharing stuff with my current friends... But why not? Maybe someday, when I'm brave enough, I may join some local blog community and get to know more local bloggers, just like what some of my friends are already doing now. Then again, it may happen, it may not happen.. We'll just see how it goes~

5. Waste Time
Hahaha, I usually blog only when I have stuff to write about and when I have free time to spare. So maybe I also blog just to waste my time if I have nothing else to do? .....actually can just ignore this point, I'm just crapping because I myself am not sure what's the 5th reason I blog, muahahaha...

So those are the 5 reasons why I blog! Hmmm, I actually wrote much more than I intended to... thought I said I'll keep each point short, lol... Oh well~ Guess now I have to tag others, kekeke... Not sure how many people I'm supposed to tag, but I'll just choose these people as my victims, nyahahaha :
Noriati
Ashley
Nicole
Hendri

I think the last time I tagged Atie and Ashley, they didn't write anything... haiz... You'd better respond this time and write something! >=(

Btw, is this font size too big? Which is better? this or the one I used in the previous entry? Do leave your comments in the tagboard.

And thus I shall end this entry now. PEACE!!!

New Template!

2007-05-25T23:29:00.000+08:00

Yeah~ Changed my blog skin to this one for now - just a simple layout, but I like the image and words of the blog banner so much, hehehe... It seems that when I switch to the skin, the font size of my previous entries appear smaller... so I've edited the last few entries. Do inform me if you think the size is still too small, I'll definitely use a bigger font in the future =P

Hopefully the next skin will be my own design..... or maybe.... someday.....

Ah, also a shout out before 25 May ends: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VIKREM!!! \(^0^)/

HOLIDAY~

2007-05-17T21:18:00.000+08:00

Long time no post! The exams ended 2 weeks ago, and about less than a week ago completed my DDP. So now.... it's the holidays!!!! Yahoooo~ \(^0^)/ It almost felt that the semester would never end, but it's finally really over! Just hope that I won't have to repeat any of my core modules next semester *touch wood* >_< Edit: Somehow a big portion of this entry disappeared, and I don't remember all of what I wrote, waaaaaaaaa..... I've re-typed whatever I could remember of the missing pieces, but it's not as detailed.... so for those who read this entry for the first time...sorry, u missed quite a bit.. so please settle with what you see here now... T_T

So far this week, I've been trying to catch up with all the sleep that I missed for the past few months, play some video games, watch some animes, and even managed to complete a short flash animation for Pat. She's setting up a new online business with her friends, so she asked for my help to make an animation to promote it. In the past I've made simple animations before like for text, image transitions and other effects..but not character animation. This time, the video consists of short character animation scenes. It's quite a challenge, but I managed to make a simple character animation and the final video looked decent enough, hehehe... A good new experience, learnt new stuff & revised flash techniques after not using it much for quite some time, yeah~ Might be making a new deviantart avatar using flash, just a simple animation. Actually, I've been planning to change my deviantart avatar and ID pic but was too busy to make them, haiz... Will make sure I make them this hols, lol... During last year's hols, I was busy with rushing Digital Design stuff most of the time. But this year's different since I'm not involved in any event, so I should have more time to do my own thing, hehehe... It's not that I didn't enjoy DD... I miss the whole thing and also the people... *awwww* XD

On another note, I've also got a part time job. It's similar with what I did last year - voice sample collection and transcribing. But this time it's slightly different. The voice collection is not via phone conversation, but in a noisy indoor environment, like a mall for example. The voice samples will be used for some voice recognition project, if I'm not mistaken. My work will start either next week or the week after, so will still have some time left to rest before I get busy again then, hahaha...

Anymore interesting things happened lately? Well, there was another traffic accident occured near my place. Note the word 'another' - this is because such accidents occur quite frequently around here, especially at night.... Somehow quite a number of drivers like to speed here in the evening...don't know why... Anyway, this time it's a taxi vs a motorcycle. Seemed that the impact's quite strong, because the motorcycle was laying a few meters away from the taxi, and the front part of the taxi was crushed quite badly. What different with this particular accident? Before the taxi and motorcycle were towed away, my mother noticed that the last two digits of both their plates were identical - 13! A mere coincidence? Don't know, but it's quite scary when you think about it @_@

Ok, enough of the scary story, haha... Oh ya, I also went for a Photoshop CS3 Preview Seminar 2 days ago! ---------WARNING: This long paragraph mostly about stuff related to Photoshop and some other similar content. So if you're not interested to read this topic, you're welcomed to skip to the next paragraph ^_^ ---------
During the 2 hour seminar, the trainer didn't really talk about CS 3... but CS 3 'Extended' instead, lol... I did't know there's such a version before I went there, so it was quite a surprise. What's so different about CS 3 Extended? First of all, it includes an improved Adobe Bridge for file browsing, organizing and adding details to files. Secondly, there's an 'Auto align layer' function where Photoshop could align two similar pictures which are not really aligned exactly the same - this is really helpful especially in photography editing. The trainer demonstrated how to use that new function together with masking to edit a group picture. It's the solution to the common problem when I took group pictures and I sometimes want a better expression of one person's face in another similar but better version of the same group picture! (Don't know if you know what I'm talking about, so pardon me if you don't, hehehe...) There's also a special 'Black and White' function where we could modify a picture to a greyscaled one, but at the same time still able to apply other colour tones over it. It's different with changing the whole image into a greyscale mode, since in that case we can't apply colours over the image. There are a few more new and improved functions in CS 3 Extended, but the most notable one is the capability to support 3D files! We could actually import a 3D format file into Photoshop and add some lighting, rotate the 3D object, and even switch from shaded to wireframe mode! That would eliminate the hassle of taking a screenshot or exporting a flat image from a 3D software, then do some editing in Photoshop *drool*. Although it's a rather short 2 hour seminar, I got to know quite a lot of CS 3 Extended's new features and it made me want to get my hands on the software! Muahahahahaha.... well, at least I want to try it out somewhere someday XD

Quite a long entry there, hehehe... Will end here for now, gonna watch American Idol in a few minutes, wheee~ So tata for now and watch out for more of my holiday adventures! >=D

Almost there...

2007-05-01T20:40:00.000+08:00

I added some countdown displays on my laptop desktop for the exam period, just to remind & scare me whenever I turn on my computer, lol... So here's what I have now (*the information shown in the screenshot is true at the time it's taken). Click on the thumbnail to get a better view =P

Just a bit more... and I'm FREE!!!! XD

2 down, 3 more to go~

2007-04-25T19:48:00.000+08:00

2 papers down, and 3 more to go!!! Finally I've tackled down CPE207 and GD02 within 2 consecutive days, hohoho... My exams schedule's rather crazy this semester: 2 papers this week back-to-back, 3 papers next week also back-to-back! Good thing my first paper started in the second week of exams period, so I have more time to study, hehe... but I still haven't touched 2 core subjects...gonna touch 1 shortly, hopefully can finish studying all before next wednesday >_<

So far so good - should be able to pass CPE207, but not sure about scoring high overall, lol... and today's GD02 paper's not so difficult, the first time I'm having an evening paper, haha.. However, my mind actually went blank for the first 10-15 minutes when I was goin to attempt the first question, which is design analysis.

It was a National Geographic print catalog, and what baffled me was the huge headline that said, "Indelible." I was like, what the hell does indelible mean?!?!?! I've never seen such a word before!!! (my english vocab's not so powerful, mind you) So that single alienic word shocked me to the core, and as a result I suddenly didn't know what to write AT ALL! I stared and stared and stared, finally I decided to call the prof and asked her (wasn't sure whether we're allowed to do that, but it was worth a try). Thankfully she whispered to me, "cannot be erased". Then I look at the design again, which is mainly a picture of a fully tattooed body, and I saw the light!!! At that very instant I knew exactly what to write and my answer booklet started to fill up, lol...

I actually spent slightly more than 1 hour to complete that 40 marks question (I wrote 4 pages, hehe), and I only had 1 more hour left to answer 2 questions weighting 30 marks each!!! So I speed-write whatever I could come up with within that last 1 hour, and times up! Not sure how many marks my answers could gain me, but I wrote as much as I could. Overall it's an 'ok' paper, it's just that I wasted too much time on the first question alone... Hopefully it's enough to get me a good overall marks, including my project grade.

The paper ended at 7 pm, and now my fingers are stiff and a bit painfull, thanks to the speed-writing that I did earlier. I won't write anymore for the rest of the night! Muahahahaha... Even typing this entry is causing some slight discomfort in my fingers, it's never been this bad #___#

So yupz, 3 more papers to go, all of them are core subjects (ie. killers). Shall read a textbook now before I head home (yeah I'm still at school)... and I won't write any notes! Kekeke... Wish me luck & cheerio~

TAG!

2007-04-20T11:10:00.000+08:00

I've been tagged by Hendri. So here it goes~

Layer One: On The Outside
Name: Listya
Birth Date: 1 November 1984
Current status: Online
Eye Colour: Dark brown
Hair Colour: supposed to be black... but somehow on one side's a bit red-brown (I didn't dye it!)
Righty or Lefty: Righty

Layer Two: On The Inside
Your Heritage: Chinese
Your Fears: those-that-can't-be-seen... & sharks
Your Weakness: doze off quite easilyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Your Perfect Pizza: with cheese, cheese, and more cheese!!!

Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Your Thoughts First thing when I wake up: damn, 2 hours late...
Your Bedtime: After midnight
Your Most Missed Memory: childhood..because I've forgotten most of them, lolz

Layer Four: Your Pick
Pepsi or Coke: Coke
McDonald’s or Burger King: Burger King
Single or Group Dates: single, la
Adidas or Nike: Nike
Tea or Nestea: Green tea!!!
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Cappucino or Coffee: Coffee

Layer Five: Do You..
Smoke: that's a big NO NO >=(
Curse: nope...not really...don't think so...did I?
Take a shower: Of course!
Have a crush: nah
Think you’ve been in love: don't think so, since I don't even know what it feels like, mehehehe...tragic...
Go to school: Yup... damn it
Want to get married: Leave it to fate~
Believe in yourself: not always
Think you’re a health freak: sometimes, depends on my mood.. now where's my instant noodle? =P

Layer Six: In The Past Month
Drank alcohol: not in the past month, but even if I did it'd be very very little
Gone to the mall: have to go through a few on my way home almost everyday, hehe
Been on stage: yesh, very scary
Eaten sushi: oh yeah
Dyed your hair: nay

Layer Seven: Have You Ever..
Played A Stripping Game: nope & I never will!
Changed Who You Were To Fit In: hmmm...not drastically, i think

Layer Eight: Age
You’re Hoping To Be Married: before 100...bcoz most prob by then I die liao, haha

Layer Nine: In a Girl/Guy
Best Eye Colour: not particular
Best Hair Colour: depends, must suit the person of course
Short Hair or Long Hair: no longer than mine, muahaha... not too long, la

Layer Ten: What Were You Doing
1 Min Ago: typing these nonsense
1 Hour Ago: hanged the laundry
4.5 Hours Ago: just woke up
1 Month Ago: should be at schools rushing out projects...
1 Year Ago: studying for exams

Layer Eleven: Finish The Sentence
I Love: Noodles!
I Feel: Sleepy~
I Hate: Hypocrites!!
I Hide: My Undergarments (hehe)
I Need: To Stop Writing This & Go Start Studying!

Layer Twelve: Tag five people..
I'll do even better. I tag 6 ppl, muahahahaha XD
Noriati
Ashley
Patricia
Melisa
Lidya
Linda

The Exams are Here Again

2007-04-17T10:01:00.000+08:00

Exams in NTU started this week, and many muggers have conquered the study areas and tutorial rooms around the school. I was lucky bcoz Atie & Imran reached school earlier & got a tutorial room to study in, so I joined them for the day, kekeke... Have lots to catch up on..but will try my best to revise everything on time =P

Yesterday at the carpark, after Atie & I went to buy 'supplies' from 7eleven (hehe..), I saw this car with what seemed like a red and yellow doll inside (saw it from the back at first). I thought, "hmm..maybe it's a chicken doll..". As i walked towards the front of the car, found out that it was a yellow duck. "So what's the red thing on top of it?". I looked above it, & there was an Elmo doll. After that, I looked at the bigger picture, & behold~

CHILDREN'S ICON WENT WRONG!!!! Wahahahaha.....almost fainted when I saw this. Naughty naughty Elmo, tsk tsk tsk XD

There are lots of other funny things that one could encounter around the school.. Like the time when I saw a YELLOW motorcycle, opposite a YELLOW car, on top of a double YELLOW line, hahahaha... Too bad I didn't have my camera with me that particular day. Oh, and check out what I found at NIE when after I had lunch there last week.

If you can't see it clearly, it's actually a big blue garbage bin below the CashCard Top Up Station sign, hehe... There are many other things that I saw not only in school, but everywhere else! So keep your eyes peeled wherever you go, you'll never know when you'd encounter unusual things. These kind of stuff could make your life & whatever's around you more interesting, ya? ^_^

Oh geez, I better pack up my stuff & make my way to library@orchard now to get a table, or else I'll have to try study at home & most probably will end up sleeping the whole day, lolz... Good luck to all who're having exams!!! =D

Until next time then (^0^)V

My VisualDNA

2007-04-13T22:02:00.000+08:00

tried this out for fun =P

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Almost the end of the Semester

2007-04-13T02:08:00.000+08:00

So sorry for the slow update! The last few weeks had been filled with lab demos preparations, reports, presentation, deadlines, deadlines & deadlines.. This semester is the WORST one I've had so far, due to all of the assignments and deadlines that are squeezed in 2 consecutive weeks (total of 3 lab demos, 1 project + presentation, & 1 report, phew..). It also causes the worst stress that I've ever experienced! A mad rush running from one lab to another, trying to complete all assignments on time, lack of sleep (even when I sleep it's mostly on the sofa) & forgot to eat at times because I was way too busy (but hey! I lost 1 kg, lolz XD ). I thought that I'd never complete everything on time & made a job well done... Fortunately all turned out well in the end - completed the preparation for all lab demos & didn't do badly, completed the designs for my art elective & the presentation ended on a good note, and also did whatever I could for the lab report (although I submitted it 1 day late, but don't care la =P ).

Another highlight of this semester is that I've made many new friends in my faculty, since a few of the labs are group work & I belong to 3 different tutorial groups! Previously I only know a few people in SCE, and I kept on wondering how come I know many more people from other faculties compared with my own.. That's why it's still a good semester for me in terms of getting to know more people & making new friends, hehehe... =)

Here are some group pics that I took with the different labs and elective groups that I'm involved in. There's still another one which I've yet taken picture of because the project ends only after 1 week following the exams period, but will definitely take a group picture then ^_^

GD02 Project Group

Uh... CPE206 Lab Group

and last but not least, CPE207 Lab Group (Cyberdyne Inc's Tracker team)

And so, all of the projects (except 1), lectures and tutorials for this semester have ended, and I finally can start to prepare for the coming exams. Will be having my first paper in 11 days, so I better buck up fast! Gyaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! <(0[]0)>

Alright! Gotta sleep now, going to school early morning to continue with my DDP & watch lecture videos in the afternoon, hahaha......... So....... that's all, folks! XD

Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End Cinema Trailer!!!

2007-03-20T22:34:00.000+08:00

...but alas, I've got school the whole day........ Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
\(@[]@)/

SCE's Exclaim 6

2007-03-17T20:23:00.000+08:00

Last Wednesday, 15 March, was my faculty's anniversary celebration - Exclaim 6. All classes in SCE were closed at 1030-1530 so that everyone in the school could join the celebrations. Even the labs were closed, so there's no hope for anyone to go there and rush their assignments, lolz... XD

So I had one lecture in the morning, a short discussion for one of my projects, then I headed there with Yixuan. First there're prize giving ceremony and performances in the auditorium. The crowd was...rather quiet for such an event (taken into consideration that only about half of the auditorium was filled, hehe..). As for the performances, there were dance and singing performances by UAN - a group/network of performing artistes. They were fine although not fantastic (no offence, I was hoping for something better). Ashley joined us halfway through the performances.

After that we headed outside the auditorium, where we collected our goodie bags and had a lunch buffet! There were also a few games and booths that sold accessories, IT gadgets (small ones), and the yogurt stall which appears around the school quite often (whee~). Bought a pair of dice-earings and a chain necklace. On top of that,we got to redeem free popcorn and cotton candy, long time never eat cotton candy, hehe... The crowd was bigger during the lunch buffet, but the size became noticeably smaller most probably because there were less food after some time, hahaha... XD

There were 2 pillars in the middle, covered with big pieces of paper, for people to write their thoughts and messages. Many sorts of messages and drawings were there, mostly are funny, had a great time laughing while examining each of them, lolz... I also left my mark there, didn't look so nice because I drew it low and didn't bother to squat down, hehe... I took a few pics of one pillar, see whether you can spot any written by you or your friends~ SCE student could definitely identify the jokes in them =P

One of the highlights that day was the very first SCE Idol. It was the semi-finals and only 4 contestants were on the stage. Only about 1-2 of them were quite good, though.. I heard that there were very few people went for the first auditions, probably less than 10 people! Maybe the reason for the poor turnout is that most of the students were too busy with school assignments, or they just couldn't bother with it at all, lolz...

Overall I had fun that day and managed to relax my nerves. I even participated in a group game, which turned rather violent towards the end, hahaha... This year's Exclaim was bigger than last year, although not all of the students were enthusiastic about it. A big round of applause to the organizers!!! Hopefully next year they'll think of ways to make more people stay longer for the celebrations. Cheers~

Electric Guitar Canon Rock in D Major

2007-03-12T23:48:00.000+08:00

Today in the train, I told Ashley that I like to listen to songs with electric guitars in it. Then she told me that there's a really good video of Canon D played using electric guitar in youtube. So I checked it out, watched the video below, and I love it loads!!! It's played extremely well done (although some people noticed that there are about two mistakes, but what the heck =P)! I especially like the part towards the end of the song. The Canon Rock was arranged by JerryC, and the boy in the video is Jeong-Hyun Lim a.k.a. funtwo. He really played the electric guitar part, although he recorded the audio and video separately. Go go watch it! XD

Apparently funtwo became very very very famous because of this. Below's some info about him (found in Wikipedia), in case you're interested:

Jeong-Hyun Lim (임정현), also known by the online alias funtwo, is a 23-year-old South Korean guitarist known for his cover of JerryC's Canon Rock. Lim has been playing the electric guitar for 6 years (self-taught, though he attended formal guitar lessons for only one month in 2000).

Lim attended Auckland University in New Zealand before moving to Seoul, but plans to return to New Zealand in March to continue his degree in Technology. He says: "I think the quiet and peaceful circumstances of Auckland really helped my musical motivation." He says that whilst living in Remuera, Auckland he was a musical catalyst.

Jeong-Hyun Lim played and recorded his cover of Canon Rock during 2005. On October 23, 2005 he first posted his Canon Rock Video on a Korean Online Community called Mule. ^[1]

Funtwo's cover of Canon Rock had garnered 16 million views, over forty-two thousand comments and favorited over one hundred and seventeen thousand times, as of March 11, 2007. It is the fifth most viewed, most discussed, and second most favorited video on YouTube. It has been mentioned on CNN, 20/20, The New York Times, and National Public Radio in addition to MBC news, KBS news, and other Korean news stations.^{[citation needed]}

Many viewers have speculated and thought the video as fake since the music is not in proper sync with the video. Lim later stated to The New York Times that this had to do with the fact that "[…] he says he recorded the audio and video independently and then matched them inexactly."^[2]

There is a re-synced version of the video here.[1]

Due to the initial secrecy surrounding the guitar player in his video, several other people have claimed to be Funtwo. One of these was Alfonso Candra, a 12 year old classical pianist who performed 'Canon Rock' for a small crowd at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, DC in August of 2006. ^[1]

IT Show 2007

2007-03-10T15:30:00.000+08:00

This afternoon I went to the IT Show at Suntec, also to join my dad and sis who reached there first. Reached Suntec before noon, & the escalators were already packed with people who're heading there, too. Took the pic at the right after I went up to the 3rd floor, many people were still flowing in.

The IT Show's on the 4th floor. Not much difference with the previous IT events, where there're a number of companies selling their merchandises & most of them are on offer. Most of the companies that participated in the event are the big ones, like Sony, Canon, Samsung, Apple, Epson, Brother, LG, etc. I guess because the exhibition halls were just opened not long ago, that's why I still managed to look around and take pics. I still remember not being able to move due to the crowd in a few past events because I went there later.

My initial plan was to get a new pair of headphones, since my old ones got damaged, hehe... currently using the ones from my PSP, and they're rather short. But the ones that I spotted in the event were those that you have to plug into your ear...wanted one that I could clip onto my ear instead =P

Then I visited Brother's booth (actually not a booth la, it's a section). There I bought an electronic labeler & an extra tape for it, which was sold 20% off because I bought the machine, nyahahaha... On top of that, I got a free notebook and stick-notes, & a chance at a mini lucky draw. I dig deep into the box & retrieved an orange ball, which entitled me to either a free lazer pointer or webcam! The pointer's no use for me, so I decided to get the webcam for my sisters to use (I already have a webcam inbuilt in my laptop, kekeke...)

By that time, my dad & sis were already outside, & had to go home fast because she's going to have a tuition. So I pushed my way out of the exhibition hall (it was getting much more crowded then), met them & headed home. I went out only for a short time today, but I'm pleased with my purchase & free gifts, hehehe... And I also got to unwind a bit after being busy at school this week =)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few minutes ago someone rang on my door, then I looked through the peep hole. There's a small boy in Scouts uniform standing outside! Was quite shocked, but I opened the door anyway. He asked whether there's any job needs to be done in the house. Being the first time I encountered this, the blur me answered, "Hah? Uh, don't have." Next he asked whether I could give a donation for under-privileged children, so I gave him $5 & signed his form. Seems that he has visited quite a number places, after looking at the list of donations & jobs that he has done in a few houses... Not sure whether he was on his way up or down my apartment building, but either way he's only halfway through the whole building since my place's on the 7th floor while the top level is the 14th. Good luck to that boy & his friends, & hope they don't get too tired on this warm day.

At first I thought my mom was sleeping, but she was actually watching the TV in her room. I told her about the scouts boy, & she told me to be more careful when I encounter those kind of stuff again because it could've been a fraud or something. True, I MIGHT have been tricked, the little boy could've charged in with a few bigger guys behind and rob the house (imagination going wild here, haha...). However, I would regret it even more if I don't donate at all & later find out that he was really just a scouts boy visiting several houses for jobs & donations to help the less fortunate children. Not saying that the boy's definitely cheated me, but I'd rather got cheated off a few dollars than missed the chance to help those in need. But I was already being cautious just in case - at least I didn't open the door too wide, just enough for my head to go through, lol... XD

Come to think of it, there are probably many other people who wouldn't trust such acts & wouldn't open the door at all, especially in today's society. People are becoming more & more cautious towards strangers & those who ask for donations. Trusting others becomes harder, whether outside the house, in offices, even in schools. Sad, but it's true nowadays... =(

Guess that's all for this entry. It's quite unusual that I blog about something immediately on the same day, lol... Gonna start doing some schools assignments after this, can't slack too much ^_^;

Also gonna have fun with my new electronic labeler, hehehe... Ciaoz for now~

The Launch!

2007-03-10T01:31:00.000+08:00

Hi all! Welcome to my new blog!!! \(^0^)/

Before this I have another blog in multiply, but I got bored of the layout and finally decided to make another one here, hehe... With the nicer layout and blog-skin, maybe it'll motivate me to write more often =)

Just want to use this entry to welcome everyone & hope that you'd take a peek here once in awhile. I also have a tagboard in this blog, which I couldn't have in my multiply blog since only members could write messages. So feel free to drop a few lines there. But no spamming, please! Lol XD

Ah, you may notice that you have to scroll sideways instead of vertically. This unique layout is one of the main reasons why I chose this blog-skin. On that note, I'd like to applaud the creator (a link to her website's under the Credits section) for her creativity and the wonderful graphics! Wheeee~

That's all for now, I better sleep now, hehehe... Stay tuned for more updates here! (^_^)V

An Even Cooler Skin!

2007-03-09T23:16:00.000+08:00

Found this cool & unique blogskin, yahooooo~ \(^0^)/

Time to fix the rest of the contents!

Cute Blogskin~

2007-03-09T01:23:00.000+08:00

Gonna stick with this skin for now, no time to make one by myself, hehehe... =P

Weekend's coming soon!!! But it'll end just as fast, haiz... that's life (-_-)

First Post

2007-03-04T22:36:00.001+08:00

Testing testing 1 2 3