Now that I'm out of BMT and in Signals, we get to book out on Friday evening, instead of the Saturday afternoon back in Tekong. In addition we have night's out every Wednesday, whereby we get to spend the evening outside.

I will do the same thing every Wednesday and Friday late afternoon - sms my two good friends to agree on a time and venue to meet up. We are in three different camps, but still not too far from each other. Time is precious, especially nights out where we book out at around 1800 and have to be back in our respective camps by 2200++.

Actually for nights out we do not do more than just sit down somewhere to have a chat while having dessert, but to me its important. Its quite an enjoyment simply listening to them talk.

Nothing spectacular after booking out too. Just a dinner, then home. But there is a big difference between having two friends to laugh with while taking one-hour MRT trips and sitting in a corner seat all by yourself staring into space.

The cookhouse at my camp is getting seriously overcrowded, now that the officer cadets had joined us. Last Friday there was a brillant idea to give a talk to the entire camp just before lunch. We spent more time queuing than eating the food.

I have a test come Tuesday, and I have a hefty 10 chapters worth of physics to study, but I ended up wasting more than half the day today rotting away.

Die Hard tomorrow morning, then a trip to the library, then a quick drop-by to my friend's house, and then studying for the rest of the day before I book in again.

Life.

Everyone has more or less settled down in the second week in Signals. Its still lessons and more lessons everyday; there is more laughter now, but a slight hint of low morale still lingers.

I'm lacking something to keep me occupied after my lessons end in the evening. I'm trying to cook up some ideas with regards to a project I hope to do, but so far I have not come up with anything useful.

Its Live Earth today, and some people are pointing out the irony that they are setting up stages that can power up 10 cities to tell us to save the Earth. Well personally I thought the videos and messages on environmental conservation should be useful, but celebrities blasting out their hits are..hmm.

I thought I will only have a brief brush with computers during my signals course, but never did I expect that I will be diving deep into computers for my 8 week course.

The BMTC e-posting put me into the 'infocomm 2' course, which is manpack radio. But on my first day there I was instead posted to the 'infosys' course, where my main job is well, computers.

Not too bad I guess, after looking through my schedule for the next 8 weeks (7 weeks as of today), because I will be learning very, very, very useful stuff.

Then again, I do miss the days of chiong-sua-ing with my friends by my side.

For now, I just sit back and enjoy my course.

Now I have so much free time at night, its time I bring in some books to read.

For the past week I have not done anything worth mentioning here, which explains the absence of entries here. But it seems like I'm not the only one to have outdated blogs around. Hmm is the blog trend dying out? Haha.

Block leave went by too fast for me to enjoy, and soon I will be packing my bags off to CCK where I will start my next phase of national service. Not sure what to expect yet, though there's nothing much I can do anyway. Just 走一步算一步 lor.

Besides gaming and web surfing I have not done anything related to computers for the past few, erm, months. Not sure if I will get to play any computers during my signals course, but now I have a sudden urge to start creating games using Macromedia Director again, something which I have stopped doing since secondary school. I'm glad to see Adobe is coming out with a new version of Director; previously I was still wondering if they are going to stop producing Director, since Flash is much more popular now.

I personally prefer Director, because I only know how to use Director hahahaha.

My urge came about after spending an hour in the library today reading a book on how to create racing games haha. I fell aslp after reading less than a fifth of it, because I have already half forgotten my maths haha. Besides the following chapters on OpenGL was getting too complicated for me to understand. Now.

But too bad, my urge comes as my block leave ends, so I no longer have whole days to sit in front of the computer to program. I should be spending my weekends outside camp, but I will be busy meeting friends. Anyway my first week in Signals shall be spent doing some observations, to see if it will be appropiate to bring in some books haha.

Till the next time.

Life sucks when one has no friends. Its my block leave but I have no one to enjoy it with.

Contrary to popular belief I am not spending all my time playing games. Gaming is only fun when you play with friends, not with some predictive AI.

And it doesn't help when I am neither close to my platoonmates, nor share the same interests to them. I don't find clubbing or DotA fun, for instance.

POP loh!

Tuesday and Wednesday were perhaps the most enjoyable days of my entire BMT. Tuesday night was one rare night of total havoc. While waiting for the tonners to come and fetch us back to Rocky Hill the recruits splashed water at the commanders. The commanders took revenge by making us fall in and knock it down, then made us all wet too. Then there was the push ups and jumping jacks which everyone for once enjoyed doing.

But perhaps the single most memorable thing that night was cheering as a company of 400 men: 200 lao jiaos at coy line, another 200 from the new mild obese batch, something which the neighbouring Hawk Coy could only envy. The roar produced was magificant.

After a final exchange of well wishes between the two batches we went back at Rocky Hill. Back in our own coy line we were given a lights out timing of 2359, and a last minute decision to order pizzas resulted in a party till late at night.

POP itself was just waitng and more waiting.

And now I'm a private. What's next for me? A good 11-day rest before I report to my new unit next next Monday. I don't know where I will be posted to; for now I just sit back and enjoy my block leave.

All right, my friends say I reveal too much about NS, so instead of just removing sensitive stuff I turned all of them into drafts. Yes we were told by our OC on our first day of enlistment with regards to blogging about national service, but I thought whatever I have blogged previously are already freely available in the forums and Wikipedia. Never mind, it doesn't hurt staying out of trouble.

Thanks to NS I have lost touch with all the latest news. Computex, the second biggest computer expo in the world and the largest in Asia, is ongoing now in Taiwan. The difference between Computex and the numerous IT shows we have here is that, Computex is a place where the different manufactors exhibit their latest technologies, whereas all our IT shows are simply giant while-stocks-last sales.

Anyway I was reading the various articles on Computex, and I realise exciting stuff like the Intel X38 chipset and DDR3 memory on motherboards are coming up. My computer is becoming outdated!

Then I surfed game websites and realise EA is coming up with a new Need For Speed game. I want!

In other news, Nvidia may be slashing the prices of its latest Geforce 8 series of graphics cards. Wonderful news to me, since I am really hoping to get one soon. I do hope the price cuts will come as soon as possible.

A few more days to POP!

While waiting for Hamachi to connect I might as well post an entry.

If you think I have been doing nothing but playing games the past few days, you are wrong! [I'm not a game addict!]

Spent Tuesday and Wednesday at home, didn't dare to go out because my CSM has once told us they do random calls to our houses to make sure we are at home resting and not outside having fun. Thursday and Friday went to PC Show [yes I went twice, not because I was crazy, but because I was going with two different groups of friends whom I have not met for some time].

Yesterday I spent three hours looking intensively at both NUS and NTU's websites, trying to decide which course to accept before the deadline is up.

So today evening I will be booking in again, at the record early time of 1740. This week will be a half-xiong week for me, thanks to my fever last week. There is re-IPPT [I heard will be tomorrow! I definitely rather go tomorrow than book in again during block leave], SOC, and the last major event before we pass out - 24km route march on Tuesday. The consolation is that there is Recruit's Evening tomorrow night, and we are booking out on Wednesday, because of the obese batch that will be coming in.

Now I am [im]patiently waiting for Hamachi to connect me up with my friend so we can have at least a game of Tiberium Wars before I book in. But sian Heaven seem to be out to spoil my day. Haix.

At the top of my wishlist: a 8600GT 256MB GDDR3!

I have been talking too much about army isn't it? Can't blame me actually, since my life now is nothing but army.

On my trip home today it suddenly dawned on me that I have not seen a weekday Singapore for a very, very long time. Today I saw a typical noon where students have just finished vacation lessons and were lazing around the bus interchange chatting with friends while waiting for buses to come, and office workers walking through in groups either to have their lunch, or to return to office after their meals. The entire crowd created a buzz that is usually not seen on weekends, where people would generally just be heading towards town to meet friends and shop. It is even worse at Tekong; I don't even get to see anything that is not green in colour, or hear anything else besides the firing of gunpowder.

I miss being a civilian.

In other news, computer games are getting more and more realistic these days, which is supposed to be a good thing, but the games are improving too fast for the hardware (and our pockets) to catch up. An example is this. I have always loved playing off road racing games, but the previous game, Colin McRae Rally 2005, could not run on Vista, so I was excited when Codemasters was coming out with DiRT.

But alas, the system requirements of the game are too high! My five-month-old computer just reached the minimum system requirements, and when I tried out the demo, the game was very laggy, even at the lowest settings (640x480!), so laggy that it was almost unplayable.

I recall my good friend told me before, meeting the minimum requirements only means 可以动。Haha.

I thought maybe the problem lies with my graphics card, because 7300LE is an entry-level card which was created for the purpose of home entertainment (aka watch movies), and not for intense gaming. I realised in recent days that the GPU temperature is 70degrees when idle, and easily shoots up to 80degrees when playing games!

Ok fine, I am just giving myself an excuse to buy a new card, since the PC Show 2007 is coming. Haha. Then again, the 8600GT looks like a good buy, and the fact that my good friend has got himself a powerful card recently is tempting me furthur.

Ever since I got my own NETS card and allowances from the SAF every month, I have become more and more greedy. You know, NETS is scaringly convenient. Just one swipe, press in 6 digits, and ta-ta, the thing is now yours (Recalls purchase of my $106 RAM. Bloody hell it cost 50bucks now nia.).

Fortunately my willpower to resist temptation is rather strong, because I frequently think about where I am going to find money to study in university (yes, I lied to my PC when I told him I do not have any financial problems. Well I do not have any now, but I foresee that happening in the future.), which is why you don't see me with an external hard disk or a PSP in my hands.

Going back to games, I don't think this advancement is going to slow down, going by the description of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a to-be-released game. While PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers can enjoy all these games without worrying about lagging or hardware not being able to run the game, PC gamers will have to burn large holes in their pockets.

I'm tired.

Its good to hear that our dear Prime Minister is donating his pay rise to charity for the next five years. While I personally think its more of a case of succumbing to pressure, it is nevertheless a good move. Hopefully the other ministers will do the same too.

Recently the airing of a radio drama on yes933 has introduced listeners to a song which they use as the theme song. Quite nice I like.

小情歌
这是一首简单的小情歌
唱着人们心肠的曲折
我想我很快乐
当有你的温热
脚边的空气转了
唱着我们心头的白鸽
我想我很适合
当一个歌颂者
青春在风中飘着
你知道就算大雨让这座城市颠倒
我会给你怀抱
受不了看见你背影来到
写下我度秒如年难捱的离骚
就算整个世界被寂寞绑票
我也不会奔跑
逃不了最后谁也都苍老
写下我时间和琴声交错的城堡
最后谁也都苍老

Everything is packed and ready; now I am just waiting for the time to come. This will be the single thing I will miss most during my BMT:



It is in its most unglamous state because I was lazy to put the casing back after I installed the second hard disk to it. Hopefully I can still recognise it (and more importantly, remember how to use it) when I come back.

See everyone in two weeks!

Recently the press and the public are hot over the issue of raise in civil servants' pay. Now our dear Prime Minister is going to be paid five times the salary of the US President.

Of course anyone in the low-to-middle class will be unhappy with this raise. Why the F* are the ministers getting millions of dollars a year in salaries while I get barely enough to survive? Of course, credit should be given to them for running the country well, but isn't $3.1 million a year abit too much?

I had a little discussion with a friend not long ago, and I think maybe I am too idealistic; I expect those ministers to serve the country out of their interests and love for the country rather than for the pay. If I were to question them then I will have to question the CEOs and talents of commercial companies and top professions as well, in which their salaries are being pegged to by the benchmark used. It makes no sense for me to question, since they have already gone ahead with the pay hike and they are not going to listen.

I find it amusing that they are debating about their own pay in Parliament. They can't possibly object to a raise in their own pay right? Quoting from CNA: "In the debate that followed the announcement involving civil service pay revisions, Members of Parliament generally agreed with paying competitive salaries for top talent in the civil service. "

The lust for money and power blinds all.

Then there is also the issue of the use of means testing in hospitals. During the elections two years back the Health Minister, standing for his party in a GRC, said that there may never be means testing at all. Now the same person is saying means testing will be carried out within the next 12 months.

I can't fault him anyway, for he said there may be no means testing at all, meaning there may still be. They give all sorts of reasons to back up their actions, leaving no room for arguments and flaws to exploit. What to do, bo bian accept lor.

In two days I will be enlisting into National Service. I am saying this here so that readers have the time to know and give me all the good luck I need. Haha. Perhaps if I am enlisting on another day there will be no need for me to do this, but sigh, I am enlisting on the Friday the 13th. Its a just-in-case kind of thing. Haha.

Time passes very fast; not too long ago I was still cursing the whole world why I am going in April instead of January when many many others are going in. Work has blurred my prespective of time, and very soon now its my turn.

National Service will be the start of another phase of my life, which will last two years. While I have already heard alot from my friends how BMT is like, hearing is still different from having to personally experience it myself. Its like orientation all over again, and orientation has always been nerve wrecking to me, because I have a big problem with going to a totally new place and talking to strangers [Recall that ECG test during my medical checkup].

Except this time, I am living with strangers. Hopefully I can adapt quickly.

In this world, there are very lucky people who are born into very close kint families, and have many good friends around.

There are not so lucky people, they either have no friends, but they have very close families, or they have no families, but they still have plenty of good friends to depend on whenever they need someone for company.

Then there are the real suay ones who have neither.

There are many times when I will feel that I belong to the last category. Sometimes when I sit infront of my computer eating my dinner, while everyone else sits down in front of their tables with their families enjoying nice meals. Other times I come up online to see none of the good friends online, before I find out they are outside happily with their own groups of friends.

No one actually hear me complain about it, because at the end of the day I will realise that at the very least I still have a complete family living under the same roof. And that I do not have to turn to drugs or cigarettes to fend off any loneliness [On the other hand, computer games seem no different from drugs or cigarettes haha].

Then again, relationship is a two way thing, and I think I shut myself out too much.

I don't feel like ending here, but I have to agree with G that 'blogger seems to have a negative induction force that blocks out all thoughts except the useless ones'.

Oh great. I can't get any linux installed on this computer.

After many days of procrastination I finally decided to get myself to work today. Hooked up my spare hard disk, formatted everything inside, and popped in the first cd of my Fedora Core 5.

To my utmost surprise a bunch of garbage text appeared, after all the initial booting. After trying a few more times to ensure its no freak accident, I went to try it on an old computer, and it worked. Suspected the error has something to do with my SATA hard disk, because the last thing it was loading before it hanged was some "sata_sil drivers", so I combed the Internet to see if anyone else have the same problem as me.

Found one here. Exactly the same except I only had 2 lines of garbage text and not one entire screen of them. But the help did not seem helpful.

Decided to try Ubuntu instead. Downloaded v6.10, burnt it to a cd, and tried it out. I was not expecting any problems with Ubuntu because I have v5.04, and the live cd worked when I tried it earlier on.

Surprise surprise, halfway through loading it hanged. Again I suspect its the hard disk.

So now I am back using the v5.04 live cd, typing this entry out. Very interesting to see that an old version works while newer ones don't. Maybe I am too noob to know why.

Have not decided what my next course of action will be. Most probably I will install this v5.04. Wonder if updates are still available for it. Either that or I disable the SATA controller, which I have no idea how and don't wish to because I don't like the feeling of something missing.

Or I physically plug out the SATA cable.

I just realised my previous post was my 500th post. I have blogged so much crap! May this blog live forever!

I experienced my first hiccup with Vista just now when my Hamachi could not enable the [virtual] network adaptor. Did a fresh reinstall and it worked. There wass a slight lag at the menu when I first opened up Generals, although the game itself was alright. Maybe because I used 800x600 low settings.

Tiberian Sun was the first strategy game I played, introduced to me by my primary school friends [wow there was like, six years back!], and I pretty much enjoyed it. Ever since I had been a CnC fan, hence my email address haha.

I still remember back in those days my mother had rather strict controls on my playing computer games, so I would wake up very early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to play, because she would be out at the market for at least an hour hahaha.

Later the Firestorm expansion came out, and got me all excited. Helped my good friend buy a copy at the *ahem* shop opposite my house [At that time the market rate was $8 for one cd, $15 for two, bought together with my friend, saved 50cents each ha]. At that time the game was rather popular among my classmates, so we spent alot of time talking about it.

Early secondary school days another CnC game came out, Red Alert 2. I remembered wondering why the name Westwood Studios was gone and replaced with EA, but I did not really know the story until I came across Wikipedia. Anyway my gaming experience went up to a new level as my classmates and I would meet at LAN shops to play. Usually we played the map Arctic Circle [because it was the only 8-player map?], and even formed alliances or stategies to gang bang those we don't like first lol. We came up with very interesting rules then, like no one is allowed to use France [because its Grand Cannon was too powerful], and also 30-45 minute truces so we could build up our forces.

I did not play the next game, Generals, because I was still using that Pentium 3 450Mhz then. My first encounter with that game was during a LAN session, and I remembered I was one of the first to be killed, because the gameplay was completely changed and differed from the previous CnC games so much so that I don't know how to play at all.

Along the way we also played first person shooters like Counter-Strike and Battlefield. Then all of the sudden the trend shifted to Warcraft and DotA and MMORPGs, which I don't play at all, so I was immediately ostracised.

Wow I digressed too much. Actually all I wanted to say was that the sequel to Tiberian Sun, Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars has hit our shores. The launch at Lido was apparently overwhelmingly crowded with hardcore fans eagerly wanting to grab the game plus all the free gifts.

What about me? Well initially when I read about this game was in development [that was last year I think, when I surfed Wikipedia during one of the computing lessons :p] I was very excited about it, simply because I liked Tiberian Sun alot. Its a different developer now, but EA promised to keep the game as close to previous CnC games as possible.

Last month a demo for the game was available for download, so I tried it out. However having played that I find the game only quite alright; somehow I just don't like it as much as previous games. I can't exactly place my finger on any particular aspect, but I suspect its the overall feel of the game. It doesn't bring back the fun I had when playing Sun.

The new game is abit too sophiscated, unlike Tiberian Sun or Red Alert 2 where everything was much simpler.

I think again, maybe its because the game is abit too similar to other games.

Then I think again, maybe its because I am older now. Last time I had alot of friends whom I could talk about the game with, like how to complete a particular mission or which unit was better etc. There is no one I can talk with now.

Then I think again, maybe its because I have played too much games.

I may be too quick to pass the judgement, since I have only played the demo and not the actual one.

After so much trouble and time I finally got Vista installed. About reading and hearing about all the bugs and problems and whatnot, I am glad to say I have not experienced any of those. Yet.



Initially it was a "wow" because of the visual effects. But later it became "chey" because otherwise there is really nothing new about it.



That is the glassy effect on the sides of windows. Looks pretty cool, but apparently that simple effect itself requires a rather powerful graphics card.

Perhaps the only thing that I really had fun with was the Sidebar, where you place Gadgets, or tiny programs on the side of the desktop. The ones that came with Vista were not fun. I found pretty interesting ones on the Net:



There is one that tells me the weather in Singapore, one that tells me the weather on the eastern side of Singapore, and one that shows photos of traffic conditions of our expressways, all updated every few minutes. There are lots more, from stopwatches to mini notepads to even Sudoku games.

Performance wise, it runs decently on my computer, perhaps because I have packed it with enough RAM. But booting up takes a much longer time compared to XP. Games run with not much difference as in XP, although loading seems a little bit longer than usual.

To conclude, from a consumer's point of view, Vista is not a must have.

Yesterday was my last day at work! Finally!

After three months of endless slogging and another 1 week plus of dragging, I finally worked for the last time at that store yesterday afternoon.

As if heaven is out to play me, the manager was transferred to another store and a new manager, the one ofrom the store at the nearby MRT station, was transferred here. Apparently she is much better than the one who left. I only had a few hours of interaction with her, so I could not pass any judgement.

The new manager actually asked me to work another day today, because there is a shortage of staff. I went to the schedule to check; oh the one doing the morning shift took a day off today, perhaps to take advantage of the fact that there is a new guy working. After some consideration I still decided not to. Seriously had enough. Besides the multi-tasking auntie colleague is back today, so should be no problem.

There was no farewell or whatsoever yesterday. The most was a simple "Take care ah!" from the old auntie who took over me for the overnight shift.

[To sidetrack a little, it turned out that the old auntie did not turn up on Friday because she went off to Malacca; a close relative was sick and admitted into ICU etc. Well I was never angry with her; she's a very nice person. I was angry with the manager for not having enough staff on hand to handle last minute situations. There was supposed to be two person doing overnight, not one.]

I have learnt quite alot during my three months of work; that will be one post by itself.

Yesterday afternoon my mother called me asking if I have any friends in Taiwan. Immediately I know why she asked that. My Vista is here!

Having read the forums [again] I knew what to expect; a postman turning up at my house to pass a parcel that comes from Taiwan, which consists of a big brown envelope holding two discs inside.

I have not decided when to install Vista. Most probably at a later time.

I am going to make sure that next Tuesday will be my last day. I have had enough.

Everyday I reach the store to get scolded by the colleague doing the morning shift because I arrived on time. (I'm supposed to reach early to take over her, so she can go home earlier. Then she herself can arrive like half an hour after her working hours started.) Then every night I always have to wait well past my working hours for the one doing the overnight shift to take over from me, because they always come late.

Then there are times like today when the person taking over me did not even come, so I had to wait till 1am for someone from another store to come and relieve me. I was told 1am, so I told me father to fetch me home at 1am. Then i waited till 1.15am, before I decided to call that store if that person was coming. At 1.15am he was at his store saying he was going to come.

So by the time he reached, and checked that everything was in place, and I was allowed to go, it was already 2am. My father, having wasted an hour waiting for me, was angry, scolding me and saying I should not have asked him to come at 1am if I was not allowed to go at 1am.

Coincidentally, the area manager called some time after midnight, and was surprised I was alone and from the afternoon shift and was waiting for someone from another store to relieve me. So he asked why the store always seemed so short of staff.

I think I should be the one asking why the bloody store is so short of staff. I, a bloody part-timer, is working a bloody full six days a week. I had already asked to quit last week, but because the auntie colleague was going back to Malaysia, she asked me to help my boss out another week, which I agreed on her account. (I had actually anticipated this from earlier experience, which is why I asked to quit at an earlier date; to allow for a buffer)

I could not argue with the area manager, because a customer came halfway through the conversation. When I picked up the phone again he was gone, and he never called back. Luckily he didn't. I was going to erupt then.

I clearly asked my boss if this week would be my last week, and she agreed. Then yesterday she smsed me (wah, don't even dare to face me) to ask me help out another week. 也是她说，过了这个礼拜我就不用做了，现在她又叫我做多一个礼拜。好咯，什么都是她说，我什么都不用说了。

I rejected her immediately, saying I can at most help out one or two days. Today's schedule came out, and I was scheduled to work next Monday and Tuesday, after which from Wednesday onwards, the auntie colleague will be back.

In the past few days at least three people have applied for a job in the store, with another two (one of them is ex staff I think) applying today. But I still don't see their names anywhere in the schedule, which I wondered why. I still remembered in my case, I was asked to turn up for work immediately the following day, after I applied. Why can't they do that?

This work has made me realise just how inconsiderate people can be towards others. They can pass you a cash register without a single $10 bill and leaving you to die in hell when a customer passes you a $50 bill for a New Paper, because they have already knocked off and don't care how you are going to survive eight hours with nothing but only $50 bills and 5cents coins in your register.

They can happily sit in the storeroom reading magazines munching on hot piping sandwiches while you are outside at the counter placing a customer's purchases into plastic bags, mental calculating how much change to give back, apologising to another customer's enquiry why there are no more Gulp cups left, and getting panicked because the queue was reaching the door.

So now that I finished this bloody post its already 3.15am, just as I finished my dinner/breakfast/supper.

It has been a long time since there are three people working the afternoon shift. Work is so much more relaxing when there are three people working, because there is at least one person standing at the counter at all times, so I-who-do-not-want-to-touch-that-damn-cash-register can run around doing stock up.

Tomorrow will still be ok because I have someone working with me. The challenge will be Friday and Sunday, my supposedly last day of work.

I still have no clear idea what I should take in university. Some ideas yes, but the exact course and university, no. Maybe that is because I have not yet decided what I want to do as a career.

And I still have not decided whether I want to apply for a scholarship or not. Not that I can go for any with my results, but I need the money. However the application process (read: essay) and the selection process (read again: interview) is seriously putting me off.

For now I am more inclined towards applying for financial aid instead, but I have a few days to consider before the only scholarship I am applying for, if I am doing so, closes on the 23rd.

All the talk about going with your heart and going with your mind and go for your dreams etc, its so much easier to say than do.

Yay I think my vista is coming!

After nearly three weeks of seeing the following message:

Order Status : Order awaiting shipment
Shipping Date : TBD. Check back in 2-3 weeks for more information
Carrier : Standard

almost every night I checked, I almost wanted to call up and ask them when I will receive my Vista, when I logged in last night and saw a new message:

Order Status : Order sent to Back office
Shipping Date : TBD. Check back in 2-3 weeks for more information
Carrier : Standard

Then this morning I checked again and it was another new message:

Order Status : Order received
Shipping Date : TBD. Check back in 2-3 weeks for more information
Carrier : Standard

And very soon later:

Order Status : Order is approved
Shipping Date : TBD. Check back in 2-3 weeks for more information
Carrier : Standard

Coupled with the fact that the people in the forums are gradually receiving their copies, I should be getting mine soon!

Now I am only scared that there is no one at home to receive the two dvds when the postman comes.

Working in the last week before quitting is like running the last lap of 2.4km. The end is so near, yet so far.

My last week of work started today, seven days from Sunday to Sunday, with an off day on Saturday so that I can go for my class outing (if there is one) and a buffet dinner courtesy of my cousin. This last week will be a difficult one, because the auntie colleague will be taking leave from work from Wednesday afternoon onwards. Analysing the timetable Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will be my worst days of the week. Wednesday because I will be working with someone I don't like. Friday and Sunday because I am apparently the only one working the afternoon shift. Friday still looks okay because the manager is around until 6pm, while someone will be coming at 6pm. Sunday is the jia lat one because the manager does not work on Sundays.

The first day has passed. six more days to bear with.

I think the problem with running the last lap, especially for me, is that I keep thinking how long more do I have to run before I finally reach the finishing line, thus that makes time seem to move really slowly.

On a brighter note a thirty-year-old has applied for a job in the store. His application form is still lying on the table, but hopefully he will turn up very soon, learn the ropes quickly, and I can step down asap. Given his age I assume that he has already worked for many years and will have no problems getting the hang of things.

I'm very tired.

The word "Fire Drill" was non-existant in my mind until today, when a fire cum evacuation drill was held to see if people can run for their lives fast enough in a real fire.

At 3pm, the fire alarm went "RRIINNG!", twice. Because money making > everything else, only my boss went to gather at the assembly point, while the rest of us remained in the store, business as usual.

So at the end of the drill (I have knocked off by then), all I saw was a couple of Civil Defence vehicles and officials. I still don't know where to run to if an actual fire occurs, but unless one happens within this two weeks, I guess there is no need for me to know.

After work I went down to Suntec for the IT show, with the primary purpose of getting a new pair of earphones. Walked around, besides the Sony and Microsoft booths screaming their Playstation 3 and Vista, everything else is about the same as previous shows.

I believe that the Playstation 3 is overrated.

Specs-wise, the PS3 is impressive. Cell Broadband Engine, G80 graphics core, Blu-ray, full HD support. All sounded great. But the gameplay has somehow stayed the same. Flagship games like Resistance: Fall of Man and Ridge Racer 7 seem no different from any other first person shooter or racing game out there. Its still big bad monsters running towards you with its fangs open wide open ready to eat you up, and you using that super duper ultra ultimate laser atomic nuclear explosive machine gun to kill them. Or you controlling a powerful nitrous powered R34 STi Evo 206 306 911 995 999 RX CXX XXX Concept Rally WRC GT chasing the opponent down twisted repetitive tracks round and round and round, who, using the old 1cc turtle beetle tortoise, can, for some reason, still run faster than you.

Sure the gaming experience has improved. One can drift that tofu shop's AE86 round a bend at 1, 000, 000 km/h while the screen stays fixed at 30fps without lagging (I personally witnessed that). Perhaps now the monsters get smarter and all count 1 2 3 and blast you together instead of one by one so you die a faster death.But its still the same old objectives of killing all the baddies and save the day or winning all the races and becoming the race king. Sooner or later people will lose interest in gaming.

Nintendo came up with a great idea in the Wii remote. A personal opinion as a step in the right direction. I think that games are not simply about how faithfully they follow the laws of physics or how (eeringly) close they look like real life objects. Its also about how innovative the objectives are.

Then again, the PS3 is still in the early stages, so (again) I need not comment so much. Perhaps precisely with the cutting edge hardware the PS3 have the resources to support future gaming innovations.

Maybe there is something wrong with my eyes, but I don't see any difference between playing games or watching tv on a conventional television and on high definition capable ones.

I believe the Vista is overrated too, but never mind.

I am sick.

Came down with fever and a sore throat yesterday evening. When I woke up this morning my fever was gone, but was still feeling lousy all over, so I called to ask for a day off, and went to the doctor to get an medical certificate. After lunch I got myself all excited when the forum I was reading started started threads about having felt tremors all over Singapore. Gone to sleep, just woke up, still feeling lousy all over.

I realised that this is the first time in two weeks that I actually got decent rest at home. Since 年初三, I have been working every single day, only getting an off day last Friday to get my results. My next off day is supposed to be this coming Saturday, which I requested so that I can go to the university open house.

I am overworked!

The first thing we did when my friends and I reached college was to rush to the noticeboards outside the office that list all the students with 3 and 4 As, together with the statistics.

Looked through one time, my name was not there. Looked through second time, my name was not there. Looked through third time, my name was not there. Looked through fourth time, my name was not there. Looked through fifth time, my name was not there. Give up.

Smsed my computing teacher to ask her to tell me my results. She replied asking me to predict my results first before she tell me. Smsed her 'abcc?'

She replied with my results in four alphabets, along with a "but ur gp good'. Replied to ask her which subjects the alphabets corresponded to, and what my GP grade was. She kept me in suspense, asking me to find her to find out.

Impatient me ran around the entire school before finding her in the hall.

A - Mathematics
B - Computing
C - Physics
D - Chemistry
GP - A2

Results wise, I found myself rather okay with it. Not exactly a good one, given that I was surrounded with people with 3 and 4 As, with distinctions in S Papers. But perhaps because I had worse results in my past two years, my A level grades looked good.

Subject wise, when I first saw my teacher's sms that I got abcd, my initial guess was A for Computing and B for Mathematics. However I got the opposite which left me a little surprised. I had expected myself to do better in Computing than Mathematics. Surprise then turned to slight disappointment because I had really wanted an A for Computing.

I also expected a C for Chemistry, because of the relatively easy paper. The truth was otherwise; maybe that goes to show that even my foundation was weak.

GP was definitely a pleasant surprise.

A Levels was my best set of results during my two years in college, with an improvement (from Prelims) in 2 grades each for Physics, Chemistry and Computing, 3 grades for GP and 4 grades for Mathematics. It also marked the first time I passed every single subject in the examinations. End result wasn't impressive, but decent enough I guess. Of course I would be lying if I say there was no disappointment at all, but as 阿信 says it best, 知足的快乐叫我忍受心痛. Haha.

Receiving my results slip has definitely removed a heavy burden from my shoulders. Unlike others who were worried they could not get perfect distinctions, I was worried I could not even get into university.

Coming home to see the letter from NUS carrying my admission PIN number gave me a big sigh of relief, now that everything has fallen into place.

Now that another phase of my life has finally come to a close, I will soon start a new chapter of my life, by tendering my resignation, applying for university studies, perhaps applying for scholarship as well, and National Service.

Heaven knows what is in store for me.

(I work at the convenience store at the hospital if you still do not know by now.)

Last Tuesday I was working at the store when two men came in. I recognised one of them as my college vice principal (I could not recognise the other one, but I guessed he was the other vice principal, the one who came in after I left.) They left after buying five packets of tissue paper.

Later a PE teacher from my college came into the store as well. I recognised him because, well, there aren't many PE teachers in college. I had a short chat with him, and I asked him why there were so many people from college doing there. (Three is quite alot for a place so far from college.) Then he told me that a girl was hospitalised.

I did not think much of it then, dismissing it as a girl from a sports CCA who came down with an injury (It was not too uncommon). I was busy, so did not ask anymore questions.

It was until this morning when I read the newspapers that I realised what happened.

I feel sad for her, not for the fact that she passed away at a young age, but that she passed away too quickly, without any chance to say her last words. To me death itself is not exactly very scary, since everyone will die someday, only either early or late. But its kind of sad if one died before saying at least a goodbye to the loved ones. Cruel not just to the one leaving, but also to those left behind.

**

I am very, very, very scared about tomorrow today. No words can describe the fear in me now.

Past couple of weeks have been very ordinary, even the Chinese New Year period, which explains the absence of entries here (pointless mah). Everyday had been either work or gaming. Right now I am waiting for my boss to return from her trip home in Malaysia, which I will then tell her I am going to resign. The ~1month from my resignation to my enlistment will be spent doing things that I had missed out in the last two to three months.

I finally got my Vista upgrade application done, thanks to my cousin. Right now my status is "Order awaiting shipment", asking me to check back in 2-3 weeks time to find out the delivery dates.

The results will be released this Friday. I will receive it, regardless I have done well or not. It seems too late now to voice out any regrets. Regrets are always ever so easy to say.

I am trying my luck to get three days off my work, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. One day to prepare to cry/celebrate, one day to get my results, and the last to cry/celebrate. My first try was met with strong objections. I will try again when my boss returns.

Someone posted a poll on Cosiety asking whether it is "fair for cabbies to circle n cause commuters to call n incur an increased fare of up to $4". Among the fourteen people (at last count) who voted, nine thought its not fair, finding it "underhand and irritating". That leaves me to conclude that not many people know how difficult it is to make a living as a taxi driver.

Taxi driving in our motherland is actually one of the worst jobs one can get. Taxi drivers have no base salary like salesmen have (and earn more from comissions), and their earnings depend solely on how many passengers they take, how long their journeys are, and perhaps how short they take to eat their lunch and pee. Look, it cost ~$90 to rent a taxi everyday The old 2-Litre Toyota Corona cost only ~$80 in rental, but because commuters find those too small to have comfortable legroom, they were eventually phased out and replaced with the bigger 3-Litre Toyota Crown. Of course, bigger = higher rental fees.

Taxis run on fuel, and it takes ~$30 worth of diesel to fill up the tank. With a total of ~$120 to cover, how many of those $4 rides do taxi drivers have to do? And then how many more of those $4 rides do taxi drivers have to do in order to earn money decent enough to pay electricity bills, buy rice, and send their kids to school?

Rental fees applies regardless whether the driver drives or is sick and decides to take a rest.

Commuters complain that there are not enough taxis, so the government released more licenses for taxi companies, resulting in a surge of taxi drivers. It is common sense that more taxis = more competition.

Thus, we can see that taxi driving is no easy job of simply sitting on leather seats in air-con. Taxi drivers have quite alot of burden to shoulder.

Having said all that, I am not saying that it is entirely fair for cabbies to take a detour to earn that extra bit of money. Like all other things on earth, it is that handful of black sheep that caused this steorotyping, partially thanks to us human beings who never remember the good things, but never forget the bad things. Most taxi drivers do try to get their passengers to their destinations using the shortest route possible. However there are times when drivers forget there is a shorter route to a particular destination, or they are unfamiliar of that particular area (Who can actually remember each and every single road and street in Singapore? Well some may say they can, but do bear in mind that many taxi drivers in Singapore are well past retirement.)

Lastly, I guess there may be a temptation somewhere to drive a slightly longer route to earn a cents more, something like peeping at your friend's answer scripts during examinations. Taxi drivers are also humans, but they are definitely not greedy when they want a few more cents from you. They just want to end their day earlier so that they can go home earlier to accompany their families or have a good rest.

Then again, the length of routes are quite subjective. What the passenger thinks is long may not be long to the driver.

Waiting for calls and taking detours all the time are indeed underhand. But one should learn to forgive and forget drivers who make an occassional mistake. When it comes to money, everyone wants to keep as much as possible of those to themselves. Who doesn't love money? Instead of complaining, I think people should think of others and try to understand and compromise each other. I wish to repeat that most drivers do not simply wait for calls or take detours all the times. Only some. (One can't just sit around the whole day waiting for calls. There aren't enough.)

To end off, I want to say that there are other options besides taxi. Not happy, don't take lor.

Valentine's Day was not a good day for me.

Immediately after I logged in to Blogger I was greeted with a forced upgrade to the new version, leaving me no choice to stick to the old one. Of course there is nothing wrong with the new version, given that nothing will be changed (or so they claim), but I disliked the way they forced people to change without any alternative options, or at the very least, the allowing of "deferment".

I was switched to the morning shift today, and because I trusted the jovial old lady and the newbie who worked the previous overnight shift, I did not check the money inside the two cash registers.

Turned out it was a bad move. At the end of my shift one of the counters had a shortage of $15 bucks, and I had 5 bucks deducted from my pay (the remainder was offset by an excess). And I was unhappy.

I was unhappy not because I had my pay deducted; I don't really care. I was unhappy because they seem to blame my trust in my colleagues for this shortage, with words like "you are too kind liaox" or "you must count the money no matter what" etc etc. Actually I don't know why I was unhappy. Maybe because I refused to believe that I had made an error in my judgement skills.

Perhaps money is too evil an item to be placed together with trust, but I think basic trust among colleagues will make work slightly more enjoyable.

My mood got slightly better after I managed to get my newly purchased RAM to work on my computer. After work I went down to Sim Lim Square, and bought a stick of 1GB RAM to add on to my computer. RAM prices have been dropping drastically for the past few weeks, from $160+ three weeks ago to $105 this week, the price at which I purchased mine. Went home and put it in; worked flawlessly.

So now my computer has 1.5GB of RAM. Tried out Company of Heroes, and the game now runs much faster. I can even afford to push the graphics level to a higher one.

At Sim Lim I checked out 7600GT graphics cards, and although all the boxes stated a minimum of 300W power supply, the salesman insisted 350W to ensure sufficient power. Which means my computer does not make the cut. Never mind actually. I don't think I am spending any more money on computer related products for now.

There was an interesting piece of news report just now. Apparently CASE investigated and compared the prices of items in various supermarkets and convenience stores, and found out that the the same item can cost more than two times in convenience stores as compared to in supermarkets.

Well everyone knows things are more expensive in convenience stores, but it still comes as a shock to see a bottle of mineral water costing $1.10 in convenience stores when it cost a mere $0.34 (average price I guess) in supermarkets.

Assuming that all items come from the same supplier, one still wonders why things cost more expensive in convenience stores. Maybe convenience stores will try to attribute the higher prices to the fact that their stores are open 24/7, so high cost of electricity used on lights and air conditioners. Then again, supermarkets, although not 24/7, are much bigger in size, meaning more lights and more air-cons per store? Thereafter, convenience stores will say that they have larger numbers of stores, albeit much smaller in size, while supermarkets, although fewer in numbers, are much bigger in size, thus possess the advantage of economics of scale?

All things equal, the only thing they can justify their higher cost is the word convenience I think. Convenience comes at a price.

I don't know why, but one thing for sure, convenience stores love money. They love to sell toothbrushes at outrageous prices when they know they hold a monopoly in the area. And dumb policies like charging drinks by the cup, which means even if you want to use a cup to hold air, you still pay as though you are buying a drink. Alternatively small disposable cups are available, but one cup cost 20cents!

Personally I think that while maximising profits is important, building up a friendly environment is even more important. A store may initially earn alot from charging of empty cups, but unhappy customers may not come back a second time, and the store loses out in the long run. On the other hand, a store may not see significant profits by giving free cups away initially, but I guess little actions that make customers happy will make them come the second, the third, and more times.

In short, I think being too money-minded is not good. Hmm maybe I am not cut out for business. Haha.

Ah! What am I talking?! Everyone loves money! Who will not want money to flow seamlessly into their pockets every moment?

I do not recall any convenience stores participating in charity events, are there?

Then again, those remarks are made from a consumer's point of view. Perhaps there are plenty of unseen costs which they need to cover, thus the higher prices. On the other hand, from a lowdown employee's point of view, I see no extraordinary procedures in everyday work that requires exceptionally high cost.

I predict that in the next few days well-read customers will be using this particular report to bombard us with questions on why our things cost more. We the store assistants are in the frontline, the first to get hit if someone gets angry. Hopefully they will understand that we are mere employees, and have no say in the prices at all.

Talking about dumb policies, there are plenty of dumb policies. But that's besides the point for now.

Wahaha I wonder if the above remarks I made will get me into trouble. Hopefully not. Its just some random ranting.

I have entered/am entering my third month of work, which will be my last month. Looking back, time really flies; I have (fortunately) survived two months without much problems. Soon A Levels results will be released, and before I can settle down from the excitement/happiness/sadness of my results, I will be entering the army and missing out of the delights of civilian life.

Somehow there are people in this world who loves to spoil your day at work.

"Err madam do you have smaller notes? Because we don't have enough $10 notes. Very sorry..."

"What? I thought [the store I work at] should have enough small notes what."

"Err because throughout the day many people give $50, so now not enough change. Ya. Sorry..."

"Like this you should tell your superior about it."

Not wanting to make the situation worse, I gave her her change.

"Thank you very much."

*Gave me black face and walked off*

That was one rare occasion where I nearly, very nearly, blew off and spewed a whole of vulgarities at that woman and her eighteen generations of ancestors.

The abovementioned situation happens nearly every weekend, where the cash registers will be short of coins and notes, because the boss does not work on Sundays, so there is no one to open the safe and retrieve the money we throw in at the end of each shift. Most of the customers will reply politely that they do not have smaller notes, and usually add in a sincere apology. Some give a slight black face, shake their heads, and say nothing. But giving me a very black face and giving me dumb replies really put me off.

I almost wanted to decline that business deal, and let her scold me and take pictues and write in to whatever online newspaper portal, but my head was still cool enough to tell me not to do so. Maybe I would have done so if I were the boss of the store, and not some low down employee.

This job has certainly allowed me to broaden my scope of view on this world, and see the so many different types of people that exist.

Luckily there are customers who will brighten up my day. Especially those who acknowledge my efforts in helping them, with generous servings of thanks or smiles.

Chinese New Year is coming, and I think because I am no longer in school, I no longer feel any excitement. In school I usually look forward to CNY, because the eve usually meant a trip back to primary or secondary school to meet long time no see friends, or an outing with friends. Of course the main highlight was a much needed break from schoolwork.

Now CNY means stocking up the store with enough stuff to last the entire CNY public holiday, because stock doesn't come in during CNY. The only thing I look forward to is the long break from shortage of coins and small notes and cups and lids and straws and chopsticks and spoons and forks and everything else.

That's all the ranting I have, for now.

What a week!

Earlier on I was complaining how my work schedule for this week sucked because I had to work six days a week, all in the afternoon shift, with only a day off on Wednesday (which I requested because I had to go back to college to help my juniors).

The reason behind my packed schedule is due to the fact that the store, already short of "store assistants", was facing a crisis as the three Olvls kids, together with another guy, were all quitting soon. There wasn't enough people to cover them.

Anyway, unable to take it, I got my brother to stand in for me on Tuesday, thus having another day of break for me to play my Need For Speed: Carbon.

I went to bed on Wednesday night feeling very sian, because of my next four working days. But I woke up with a sms from manager asking me to work the overnight shift instead, and going an additional two hours earlier, effectively meaning I work 10 hours.

So I worked the overnight shift yesterday. Initially I thought i was going to work alone, until someone from a nearby store came and helped me out. She was great, doing all the washing and cleaning, which I hated. Haha.

Then I realise that my original schedule for today was to work in the afternoon, starting from 3pm. But with my overnight shift ending at 7am this morning, it is impossible for me to start work at 3pm again. So I smsed my manager, and was delighted when she replied today is off for me.

At around 6.15pm today, while I was sitting at the sofa waiting for news to come, I got call from manager, asking me to go to work immediately, from 7pm to 11pm. So poor me rushed down.

A new schedule was out, and it stated that I have an off day tomorrow. Looking through I think the off day tomorrow is assured, since one colleague has just been promoted to a full time staff, so she has to work 6days/week now.

Anyway I just hope I will not receive any call from her tomorrow to go down immediately.

Next week's schedule is already out, and because two of the four guys leaving are the ones who usually work the overnight shift, so now that they are leaving, I am assigned to the overnight shift for four days in a row. >.<

As mentioned, I went back to college on Wednesday, to help teach my grand juniors in something which my juniors doesn't know, at the same time assisting them in their organising of ViCOMP 2007. Nothing much changed, except that most computers are now using LCD monitors.

I'm tired.

Its damn frustrating when I am one step away from getting Vista but could not because I do not have a credit card. I wonder why credit card payment is the only mode available.

As mentioned earlier, my computer is eligible for a "free" upgrade to Vista, needing to pay only for the shipping charges (which cost $29.99 for me). But I am still at square one because I am from a poor family.

Vista is no great operating system actually, which I found out after reading this and this. (It doesn't matter if you don't understand what its saying, I don't either.)

Besides those above, there are also issues like hardware requirements and the use of DX10.

Of course there are always teething problems when an operating system is launched, just like what happened when XP was first launched.

As for me, the main reason why I want to get Vista asap is solely due to the fact that it is cheap (The retail version of Home Premium upgrade cost $200+! The Ultimate cost $600+!!) But I have not decided if I want to install it after I get it. Maybe I will wait until it becomes more stable. It affects me greatly because I don't know if the software I use can work in Vista or not, like utorrent (heh), hamachi (gateway to fun!), DAEMON Tools (heh), all my games, avast, adaware, among others.

I need a bloody credit card now!

Weekends are busy times for those national slaves as they try to make the most out of their short two-day civilian lives.

Weekends are also busy times for people who have national slaves as friends, as they try to make the most of their friends' short two-day civilian lives.

An example is me. Nowadays every weekend of mine is spent rushing home after work to meet one of my friends online for gaming. As more friends get enlisted, I have more friends to meet up with.

Last weekend was the first book-out for most of those in the January batch, in addition to the usual book-outs for those already inside long ago. So I spent Saturday gaming with one till the wee hours, then woke up the following morning to rush down and meet more friends. That is after I had swapped my shift with a colleague (I was supposed to do the morning shift that day), and skipping an appointment with my class, who were meeting up for the same reason, to see the bald talking about army life.

All these actually tire me out, because I still have to report for work before/after those meetings. Bo bian ma, if dun meet with friends, later they angry, don't friend me. Such is the price for being a good friend.

Hahaha. Just kidding. I prefer being tired but happy rather than full of energy but lonely.

This world is a very small world. One of my long time good friend is actually in the same section as my JC classmate.

Weekdays are lonely days.

Work has been okay in the past few days. Nothing much happened, although "office" politics are slowly showing up clearly in my workplace. Accusations, Tyrancy, Bootlicking, Backstabbing, etc.

A photo showing the woman who got into so much trouble (that fake voucher lor) came, but that photo did not help at all. To quote my friend: wah u mean its a human in the photo?

Tomorrow is a much-needed off-day for me, although I have not decided how to spend tomorrow. After tomorrow, its work all the day until Sunday. Because next week's schedule is not out yet.

I am tempted to do one, or both of the following:
1) Request for shorter working days per week, perhaps max 5 days a week with two resting days. (If I'm not wrong this week I am the only one who works six days among the part-time staff there.)
2) Quit earlier, from the original End-of-March to somewhere in mid March. Or even End of Feburary.

But both will result in me getting less pay, which my house is kind of short of now. There is also the list of the luxuries that I want leh. Top on my list is a piece of 1GB RAM, which cost ~$130 now.

I spent almost the entire day playing Colin McRae Rally 2005, and I should say its one of the more difficult racing games that I have played.

I just found the prices for the low and mid range Geforce 8 cards! At here.

I am getting very excited. The prices in USD, and after conversion to SGD, are definitely very attractive. Also when these cards reach our shores the prices of Geforce 7 cards will drop to rock bottom. I want to get my hands on one, but I am worried whether my 300W PSU can support it or not. =(

I need to apply online for my upgrade to Vista, but I need a credit card to pay for the shipping fees, which I don't have. =( Anyone is kind enough to lend me one?

This has got to be one of my happiest days since I started working.

After working consecutively for eight days, I have a two-day break tomorrow and Thursday. The boss seems to be kinder this week, with everyone getting at least two days of break except for herself and a full-time staff there. The past eight days had been very very tiring, working the afternoon shift every day where human traffic had been the heaviest, made worse by that police report incident.

I was supposed to work in the afternoon yesterday, but the friend who worked in the morning had something on, so he switched with me. So my two-day break started at 3pm yesterday afternoon.

Working until 11pm the previous day and continuing at 7am yesterday was no doubt tiring, but actually I quite like working in the morning.

I like working in the morning because on my way to work I can see all the half-sleeping students queueing up at the bus interchange berths for their buses, which will remind me of my good old days in school haha. Also I find that time seem to pass faster in the morning. But the best is that the morning shift ends at 3pm, which translates to a whole afternoon and night of relaxation.

Too bad there is already someone holding permanently to the morning shift, and I find it stressful to work with a boss lurking around.

Time passes very quickly, and soon it will be the end of Jan, but I have not gotten any work done! Wtf! I better start soon.

I realise that as one joins the working world, one has to shoulder heavy responsibilities like an adult, regardless of one's age.

My hope to just peacefully earn some money before going off to become a slave of the nation has been dashed completely. As if being a "nice thief-catcher" -.-'' is not enough, now I have to assist in upholding justice.

A couple of weeks back when I was the cashier in the store, a customer came to purchase things and used a voucher given by the company. As I did not know how to process it, I called my manager to help me with it.

Later we were told by HQ that the voucher was actually a fake, and insisted that a police report be made. So today me and manager went down to the police station to make a report.

As the saying goes, 生不入棺材，死不入地狱。I was reluctant to go, but manager said to go with her, so bo bian.

Turned out that at the police station I was the one who made the report, the one who left my contacts, the one who showed my IC. She? Sat there just waiting to rush off for her meeting so that she would have a place to sit.

And so now I got myself into such big shit. The person in charge was busy elsewhere, so the policeman who attended to us told us that if we are needed to assist they would call us. And the number left there was my handphone number.

I am not mad at the report making itself. I am okay with giving my account so as to help the police catch the culprit, who apparently had struck in other places before. What I am mad is the manager is not doing what she is supposed to do. Isn't the manager supposed to help me, the tiny store assistant? Shouldn't the report be in her name instead of mine? Shouldn't she be calling the shots?

I'm just a bloody temporary assistant! She is the store MANAGER! wtf.

I guess the ultimate was that when we left the station, I told her that if I am called to go down for questioning I would want her to come with me. Her reply was that she don't want the trouble and asked me to go myself.

That was itself a mental toture, and I was not in any mood to work for the rest of the day.

Well rightfully speaking I hope the culprit will be caught soon, so that there is one less cheat in Singapore. On the other hand I have the selfish thought that that person will never be caught so that I would never have to be bothered again.

Was happily playing Company of Heroes when my computer suddenly closed everything and shut down. Did save the game when I first "secured the town square", but all my "advances towards the coastal batteries" were gone. Also missed out what my friend told me on MSN before he went off.

Signs of overheating. Haha.

My life in recent days is either work or computer games.

Encountered an incident today. There was this serial thief, whom my very experienced colleague, an auntie in her forties, has taken note of for a very long time. The thief, herself an aged elderly, knew very well that the auntie knew she was a thief, and thus knew when to strike. The thief reappeared today, where only the auntie colleague and I were the staff in the store. The auntie colleague had already seen her from afar, and had told me to keep a lookout for her. I was taking a break at that time, waiting for my sandwich in the oven, while she manned the counter.

Just at the moment when my auntie colleague was busy with a customer, I saw it happening. The thief, doing what she had done like before, grabbed a loaf of bread with skill and agility and immediately walked out from the side door, all happening within a split second. I dumped my sandwich (gently, I still wanna eat that!) on a shelf and ran out chasing after her.

I stopped her and politely (you know my character) told her she had not paid for the bread. She acted as if nothing happened and asked how much it cost. I told her to go to the counter and pay, and then she returned me ther bread and said she don't want it anymore, and walked off.

Perhaps having lived under a sheltered environment for so many years, this is one of the first, if not the first, times I actually witnessed a theft, and definitely the first time in my life that I had to intervene in a crime. At that time what ran through my mind was that the thief was a bad woman because she stole, and should be locked up in jail and kept away for many many years. After a while I questioned the reason behind her theft. Perhaps she was too poor to pay for food so she had to steal?

That I may never know. For now the instruction I am told to follow is to catch all thieves and hand them over to the police if required.

Today was an exhausting day. Besides the above mentioned incident that actually wore me quite abit mentally, stocks came in today, with boxes and boxes of Pokka bottles making up the majority. Then there was an unusually high traffic flow today.

I am seriously getting very sick and tired of working. Everyday is a torture. I guess the cash register is the main problem, for fear of getting into trouble. But other factors like customers in bad mood, colleagues in bad mood, and the fact that it is eating up all my time, makes me dread every new day.

I'm tired.

What can be more important than blogging my new computer? The new computer itself! Haha.

Woke up early on Tuesday morning and went down with my father to this uber ulu warehouse in Jurong to pick up the computer. There was quite a few people there, but processing was fast; in 15 minutes the PC was already in my hands.

Went home, unpacked, and set up the new computer immediately. I have read enough to know what to expect.

The first thing I did was to delete the thirty HP 30-day-trial games that came with it. Because I don't like it taking up my hard disk space.



I also deleted the Norton Internet Security, because it can only be used for 60 days before renew-ing is required. I have heard alot of how Norton products love to crash computers. Being a support for free software, I downloaded avast. Haha.

I was tempted to delete all the HP-Compaq related software, but I decided to leave them there for a while.

Changed the background too.

After using Linux for the past few months, I am now back using Windows. I downloaded IE7 and Live Messenger. Both are ok, although IE7 is not much different from Firefox.

Last, GAMES!

So far I have only installed one game - Command and Conquer Generals. Tested in on a full-blown 1024x768 High details, and there is a very slight lag. Ran it at 800x600 and it was smooth. Have been playing that since. Haha.

Of course playing with/against the AI will not be enough to stop me from blogging. I have download Hamachi, a LAN-over-Internet application. With this I can play with my friends, which is what I have been doing the past 2 days, besides working. Haha.

Have not tried the other games, because I have not thought of how to bring those 4GB g@m3 150s (heh) from the old comp to the new one.

Will post up some pictures next time, I'm lazy to install the Bluetooth dongle now. Haha.

Ur collection date will be on 9/1. Our operating hours are 9-5pm on wkdays and avoid 12-1pm. ADD: C&P Logistics Hub 1, 46 Penjuru lane, RichLand Logistics #01-01. Please do not reply. Thank You.

Yay I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!

I specially requested for a day off tomorrow so as to follow my father down to retrieve it, then spend the rest of the day 'customising' it for use. Haha.

I realise the position where the new computer is to be placed will be directly hit by sunlight in the late afternoon when the sun sets. Given that the Pentium D is infamous for the heat it gives off, I wonder how long it can run before it shuts itself down for overheating. Hmm...water cooling kits? Haha.

I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait!

Life is normal in recent days, spent quite abit of money on movies. Went back to VJ to see 07S44 (only one from ahs...) and the orientation (there are much much more girls than guys!). Met up with friends. Had a little chat with primary school mates online (I'm quite surprised there are actually many people going NS in April. In the conversation between seven guys, five are going in April.).

Right after a Christmas promotion LG is now holding a New Year promotion. And while I bought mine at $380, they are now selling my model at $369. Wtf?!

I have nothing else to say for now.

The order status from HP's website actually displayed my order as "shipped", meaning that my computer is actually already in Singapore, somewhere inside their warehouse. The reason why I have to wait till next Tuesday is to prevent the warehouse from being overcrowded with people redeeming their computers.

Thanks to a friend I now have two more games added to my list, making it a total of nine, enough to keep me busy until I enter NS. There are still about five games which I want to get. Haha.

I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore. I can't wait anymore.

I'm tired. Still can't get used to the twisted biological clock.

YES!
I finally called The Call today!!!!!!

Next Tuesday! Yay!

I had actually received a miss call yesterday, and I immediately thought it may be them, but I did not call back.

This morning I woke up halfway [I worked overnight last night] to see another miss call. It was a different number but from the same number. This time I decided to call back, only to find it engaged. Then I decided to call both numbers, about 30 times before I gave up.

Not long after I gave up the first number from yesterday called back! And yea!

But one week is still a long time from now. Sian. Still have to wait.....

I have already prepared seven games, all just waiting for it to arrive. I am still thinking of getting another couple of games, which I have not decided using which method =x Of course ultimately the game which I want to play is Tiberium Wars, a long awaited sequel to Tiberian Sun, which was my very first "strategy" game. But I think the graphics card that comes with the new computer will not be able to run it. Haix.

Actually I am already quite lucky, because the call to Starhub accelerated the process by helping us alert HP. There are people who still have not received any call till today.

I think I shall apply leave on that day, to personally go down together with my father to retrieve it. Haha. I can't wait!

Working the overnight shift is twisting my biological clock upside down left right front back. I will start to get very tired from 4am onwards, barely having enough energy to get me through to 7am and then a bus ride home. Now that I am paying adult fares, I opted to walk home from the interchange, which is a struggle. Then I will hit the bed when I reached home, sleeping all the way until early afternoon, where I will wake up feeling very lousy.

Otherwise, the overnight shift is actually quite a good shift. Not many customers, meaning no need to touch the cash register so often, meaning less chance of getting myself into some trouble. The washing and sweeping and mopping can get a little stressful for the back, but that is alright.

I swear I am never going to clean the Milo Freeze machine ever again! Its so @#$!!

Without school a new year doesn't really feel like a new year. Haha. Except with some new year greetings I exchanged with some customers, it seems like another day.

I did not ask my manager, so tonight I will be spending my countdown at the store.

In a few hours time Year 2006 will be over, and Year 2007 will be here. 2006 has been a very eventful year, with all the ALevels and what not. Definitely a major highlight of my life and an unforgettable one.

As a recap, let's see what I have done in the past year.

1) NOI. Well bronze was not exactly a good medal, but I guess I should count my lucky stars to get that.

2) My new @#$! computer! Its still being processed, but at least I'm sure it will come...one day. Besides the new computer which can finally replace my seven-year-old Pentium 3 450Mhz, there is also the LCD monitor which many others already for a few years.

3) VJC. Hectic and eventful, but overall, enjoyed the time there.

Hmm I see there are not much things to say. But the third point itself can be expanded to pages, like the college exams, the ALevels, iCOMP, Robotics Club, which I don't have time to elaborate. Haha.

I looked at my 2006 New Year resolution, and it is as below:
1) Get 4 As! (This actually also means keeping my 4 subjects =X)
2) NOI gold! (Abit far-fetched..but..)
3) Complete my senior's micromouse diagonal movement C program! (This will end in May haha)
4) Keep myself fit! (So I won't have to suffer in NS T.T)
5) Be more optimistic! (As i have sweared in my holistic report)
6) A new computer! (Wtf i have been wanting one since 2186986320462034671 years ago!)
7) To go out with my gay friends more often! (missed so many outings with them......)
8) To celebrate Chirstmas 2006 and New Year 2007 countdown somewhere outside! (I don't want to be left out anymore!)
9) World a better place! (Copied from G**'s blog haha)
10) Contribute something to society! (Not sure how yet..maybe CIP ba)

So,
1) Well I did manage to keep my four subjects against all odds, but I did not achieve any A haha. As for ALevels, I have to wait, but hopes are not high.
2) Nope no gold. Can only blame myself.
3) Haha attempted. But did not do anything in the end.
4) If keeping fit means passing napfa, then yes I am fit. Haha.
5) I am always quite optimistic, if not I would not have survived till today. But whether its more or not I don't know.
6) Considered done!
7) I did meet up with them quite a few times. Considered done ba!
8) Wtf I did end up spending Christmas 2006 countdown somewhere outside. And I will be spending New Year 2007 countdown somewhere outside. Have to consider it (unfortunately) done.
9) Sadly the world has become a worse place.
10) I was vague..I did not do any CIP, but as a consumer and a worker I guess I am contributing to society. Haha.

And now 2007 will be coming. Its different from the other years, because this new year, there are no more uniforms to wear, no more school to attend, no more cca to be busy about, no more exams to worry over, no more getting surrounded by four walls with many other people listening to one person talking.

This new year, words that come out from my mouth when I talk to friends are army jargon and work politics instead of physics terms, I am suddenly concerned about how much money is placed into my bank account every month, and to just to be able to see my friends' faces becomes a major challenge.

As for the resolution for the new year, I hope to
1) Get into army in one piece, and survive in it until the end of this year in one piece.
["Come out in one piece" is 2008's resolution haha]
2) Enough money to support my [slowly increasing] gaming expenses, with enough to support myself, and also enough for university expenses. [That sounds difficult.]
3) Learn something useful and thereafter, build up a portfolio perhaps. This is really difficult, given that I have not much time left. But I definitely need to do something if I want to have some form of a "bright future".
4) Keep my brain alive. [Two years inside the camps can apparently make people lose all forms of thinking skills.] I may restart solving programming problems.
5) Seriously, the world a better place.
6) Peace and health and happiness for everyone around me! Including myself haha.

Maybe I have more to add, but I can't think of any now, and I don't have all the time to think. So,
To everyone, friend or enemy or stranger,
Happy new year to all! May all wishes come true!

"Your HP-StarHub MaxOnline order is successful and is now being processed. We will contact you when it is ready for delivery or self-collection."

That was the SMS I received this morning.

And now what begins is the painful wait for the PC to be shipped to Singapore. -.-

I feel kinda sad for myself that I have to work the overnight shift tomorrow, meaning while many others are celebrating the coming of the new year at Marina Bay or VivoCity or whatever other places, I will be celebrating mine at the small lonely outlet in the middle of somewhere no one wants to go.

Its not that I will be going to any of those countdowns, but I would prefer a day spent peacefully at home to welcome the new year, instead of sweeping and moping the floor. Haha.

Maybe I shall just casually ask the manager later if it is possible for me to get a day off, or change to another shift tomorrow.

As if working with the store manager around is not stressful enough, the area manager dropped by today.

He came today apparently to help spring-clean the entire place (for the new year maybe?). So while we continued working outside, he and the store manager was busy at the back throwing all the old stuff, cleaning, rearranging etc etc.

Then I was called to help him, so I ended up cleaning the room with him. He was very fast in his work, so I struggled to keep up with his speed.

After huffing and puffing and getting myself dirtied for a few hours, he was off.

My morning shift is gone! The one working the morning shift tomorrow called to switch, so now I will be doing the afternoon shift tomorrow.

HP replied to that half-polite, half rude email I sent them a few days back. The sender promised to get an HP personnel to call me soon. Apparently he did not bother to check that my order was already being processed, meaning its meaningless for HP to call anymore.

Then again, one day has passed and its still stuck at the "Order is being processed" status. And they have neither called nor smsed me to say that they have received my payment, which they should. Although I do know that payment via SingPost will take three working days to process, I have always thought that to be the maximum processing time possible, and that usually it will take a much shorter time.

And so I am stillllll waiting. In six days time it will be exactly one month since I did the recontract at Sitex. Some efficient service they have.

I want my bloody new comp!

Yesterday:
Status: Order pending payment acknowledgement / order confirmation

Today:
Status: Order is being processed

YESSS!

Hopefully they can get all these done as soon as possible so I can get my computer as early as possible! I have been checking the website so frequently that I have already memorised the order ID, in the form of 15 alpha-numeric characters.

When I went online today the whole computer was very sluggish and slow, and I could not access any blogs and hotmail. I thought it was a problem with my computer, so I thought of going to Google. Even Google was not accessible!

It was when I headed over to the forums that I realised I was not alone.

It cannot come at a worse time. Today was supposed to be the day the speed "upgrades" of my ISP's plans kick into place. But now that this has occurred, it seems like the speed upgrades has not made much of a difference.

Still,

=D

Anyway while the problem has been solved, it has very well revealed our vulnerability resulting from our over dependence on technology.

With a change in roster, Friday will become my first time doing the morning shift. Personally I prefer working in the morning and knocking off in the afternoon, because that is a more normal working time, and I have more time to do all the things I want to, and of course able to watch all the television programmes which I will otherwise miss. But working at that time means the boss will be around, and it can get stressful working under her eyes.

I am getting quite sian of working everyday. Really very monotonous. Yet at the same time, in my heart there is that bit of excitement over that bit of money that will be channeled into my bank account soon. I seem to be becoming one of those lifeless, work-for-money-only, inspiration-less souls out there we see on Shenton Way every morning. I dislike that, but the temptation of money is becoming a little to great to resist. Heh.

I should start some serious work soon. There are only four months left.

Yay!

Mine is in silver instead of black. I woke up and received an sms from boss, who switched my off day from Thursday to today, so I ended up free today to do the purchase.

Its huge!

This monitor cames with a zero-dead-bright-pixel warranty in addition to the three-year on-site one, so the guy offered to check the monitor right after we purchased it. And a dead pixel was present!

The guy immediately changed it, and the new one was fine. Still that kind of shook my confidence, so after I came home I thoroughly checked through again. But so far so good.

The warranty card states that this monitor comes with a three-year-zero-bright-pixel warranty, different from what the guy said, which is three pixels. Hmm....I shall act dumb and take the appropriate advantage haha.

I very much wanted to use the photos I took with my phone camera instead of the above picture, but to my horror I found out that the hard disk in my other computer is spoilt, so I could not use the Bluetooth.

But not being able to use those photos is a small thing; not being able to retrieve my stuff inside that hard disk is a big thing!!!!!!

I have a whole lot of shit inside that hard disk leh...the most important ones include all my solved spanish judge questions and all my Director programs that I have made over the years.

This time round I am not very optimistic, because the hard disk gives off a weird sound when the computer tries to read it. It gets stuck at the startup screen, throwing me a "primary disk fail to boot". I have a feeling that hard disk is gone case liaox.

=(

Yes my new computer is on the way, but the old one holds much of my really really really important stuff. Hope a miracle will happen soon.

Also I paid for my new computer today. Payment through SingPost will take one day to process, so hopefully tomorrow I will receive the confirmation sms, and maybe the computer can be delivered in days.

I would have been very very excited if not for that hard disk. Argh.

The monitor comes with a free keyboard and mouse. I have started using the mouse, the house's first ever optical mouse. Haha.

Haix.

Yay.

We have not paid yet...wonder if can pay tomorrow since its a public holiday. I hope payment can be done quickly so that I can get the computer asap. Apparently there is a shipment at the end of this year, don't know can rush out by then or not.

I can't wait! Any longer and I will go crazy. Haha.

This desktop comes with Windows XP Media Center Edition, and I can get a "free" upgrade to Vista Home Premium when it launches! Its not free because I have to pay for admin and shipping fees, costing about 30 bucks.

Yay!

Yesterday I was working halfway yesterday when my boss asked me if I can take the sunrise shift or not, meaning work all the way to the following morning. I agreed.

And what I have learnt that night is more than what I have learnt in the previous five days.

I was wrong about the sunrise shift being a slacking shift. The fact that there were few customers at night meant that I had to clean all the machines, sweep and mop the floor, write off the previous day's buns, puffs and newspapers, put in new buns and puffs, top up the cups and lids etc etc.

Well I was thrown into the sunrise shift without knowing what and how to go about doing all that. Luckily the boss brought in a guy from a nearby outlet. This guy was very experienced, knowing exactly what to do. He patiently showed me around and told me exactly what and when to do everything.

Provided that I still remembered what he said, I should be able to handle next week's three sunrise shifts. Sigh.

Working straight for 16 hours was really tiring, and I had no chance to rest during the early morning. When I finally went home I fell aslp for a moment on the bus while sms-ing a friend halfway. Haha. I woke up just as the bus stopped at my bus stop, with my handphone flip still open showing the half written message, and my ex-link card on the floor. I knocked out the moment I reached home, and had trouble understanding when my mother told me my brother fell and hurt his hand the previous night.

Back to my beloved Internet Service Provider, and the computer company it partnered with for the promotion. Both had already received a slew of complaints about the slow progress of the computer company calling up the Internet subscribers about retrieving the computers. Now both are in the limelight for apparently, cheating.

Well on the promotion posters and advertisements it was said that a subscription to the Internet service comes with a laptop that has "Intel Centrino Core Duo Mobile Technology".

For those who don't know, Centrino does not refer to a processor, but instead to a technology. To be named "Centrino", a laptop must have a particular combination of 1) an Intel processor, 2) an Intel chipset, and 3) an Intel wireless LAN card. All three, when added together, will result in the saving of power, or rather, extended battery life.

Although the "free" laptop is termed as a Centrino in the posters, those who got the laptop realised that the WLAN card is not from Intel, but from Broadcom.

Sounds like a small case huh? (just a lan card ma) Haha but some are saying that that results in no power saving features, resulting in a shorter battery life.

The computer company says its the ISP's fault, who made an error in promoting the laptop. But I was wondering the company never realised the mistake although it was hung for one month.

As if they do not have enough complaints yet, they have terminated the promotion due to overwhelming response, about two weeks from the original date. Now people complain that they do not stay true to their word.

What to do? This is Singapore ma.

EDIT: YES! HP finally called! I was eating my lunch when someone called. Turned out the person was already on the phone with my father, but my father does not have an email address, so she called me and asked for mine. (Haha it was quite weird hearing my father going ya, ya, ya at the background.) 5 minutes later, which is now, I checked my inbox and the mail was there! Looks like complaining works huh..don't make noise think we sick cat.

I made a mistake yesterday and resulted in some slight dissatisfaction in a customer. I did not realise that there was a twin pack offer for milk, and it was not reflected in the computer. So the customer ended up paying 55cents more. The 55cents was returned, but I ended up slightly shaken and a little queue forming at my counter.

Somehow people think that our cash registers are very flexible like those in neighbourhood provision shops, but actually they are not. Because at the end of the day the money inside the register has to tally with what the register has recorded.

I guess after working for 4 days, I still don't really like this job. I am comfortable with interacting with the strangers now, but all those unexpected situations easily scare the hell out of me.

Later I will be off for work, my first swing shift on a weekend. Hopefully I can match up to the speed required. Hopefully nothing goes wrong today.

In other news, HP refuses to reply to my email. Yesterday my father called up Starhub, whose customer service officer said he will tell HP about it.