a love hate masquerade

Recommended Cydia Apps 2010

2010-10-11T22:21:00.002+08:00

Recommended Cydia Apps

For iPhone 3G / iOS 3:
Backgrounder + ProSwitcher - good combi for multitasking

Categories - folders

Cycorder - video recording

Five Icon Dock + Five-Column SpringDock - squeeze more icons into one page

SafariQuitter - iphone 3g has very little memory and safari takes up a considerable amount of memory. install this to force safari to quit running in the background after exiting

ALL:
Auto3G? - we know 3G drains our battery fast, so this app is supposed to save battery by switching to the slower EDGE network when the phone is in lock mode. tried on my iphone 3g but it was not working though

AppSync *must have* - allows cra*cked apps to install

AdBlock - block ads on safari

BiteSMS *must have* - a powerful SMS app, comes with sms counter, quick reply, quick compose, etc

CyDelete - allows you to remove Cydia apps as with normal apps. very convenient if you like to test Cydia apps

iAdKiller - block iAds

Insommnia Pro - allows WiFi to run in lock mode

Lockdown Pro / iProtect - individually password protect your apps

MakeItMine *cool* - change your carrier name

NoSpot *remove annoyance* - removes spotlight from displaying and getting in the way when browsing between pages

SBSettings *must have* - a quick and convenient way to toggle settings

Rotation Inhibitor - adds a toggle to SBSettings to enable/disable rotation. useful if you like to use the phone on your bed

ShakeToUndo Killer *remove annoyance* - disables Shake to Undo feature of iOS. remember this popup that comes up accidentally while typing at times?

Snappy *must have* - allows you to activate the camera without exiting an app. snappy can be accessed from the lock screen also. very convenient. my fave feature is to be able to use the physical volume buttons as a shutter button

3G Unrestrictor - makes apps think that they are running on WiFi so that they can run on 3G. useful for apps like WiFi-restricted apps like Facetime, Skype and Youtube?

ToneFXs - shuffle ringtones & customize sound effects

AndroidLock / AndroidLock XT - change your lockscreen similar to an Android OS

iBlacklist / MCleaner - block/filter calls or sms

LockInfo/Intelliscreen - powerful lockscreen customisers

Winterboard - themes for iphone

QuickLock / QuickLock 2 *must have* - reduce the amount of abuse on your physical lock button as it acts as a lock button. i place it at the right corner of my dock so it becomes very convenient to lock my phone

Infinifolder / Folder Enhancer - remove 12 icon limit in folders and many other folder tweaks

MxTube - download from youtube

iFile - file manager and viewer

iBluetooth - first app that enables the file transfer via bluetooth

frash - flash for the iphone if you still insist, but be warned it is not stable

Added in 2011:
FreeSync - allows you to use your Device while it is syncing with iTunes

CallLock - locks your iPhone screen during a call

Recent/CallLog Delete

SMS vibration boost

Kuaidial - vibrate on call getting through, send sms to predefined groups

MyWi - wifi tethering for iphone! super useful, lets your iPhone act as a wireless access point. this feature will be included in iOS 4.3

*Please note that some apps mentioned are actually paid Cydia apps, so if you want to use it, you have to find a workaround. simply, some repos host cra*cked versions of these Cydia apps. of course do support them by purchasing if you like their apps.

Recommended Cydia Repos

1. http://cydia.xsellize.com/
2. http://www.sinfuliphonerepo.com/

[10 Sec fix] iOS4 upgrade: Stuck on Backup

2010-09-26T14:05:00.000+08:00

i had encountered this problem when helping a colleague to update her iPhone firmware. searched for solutions online.. tried most of them, some of the solutions were too lengthy, but most importantly none of them fixed my problem. accidentally found this fix while trying my luck. learned much from the web, so i thought i could contribute back in a small way.

specs at time of issue:
OS: Win 7 Pro 32bit
iTunes: 10
iPhone OS: 2.2.1 -> 4.1
iPhone: 3G

now for the 10 sec fix as promised:

simply open up the Task Manager (hold Ctrl + Shift + Esc or Ctrl + Alt + Del)
under Processes tab -> select AppleMobileBackup.exe -> End Process

like many others, i am still facing the issue of iPodService.exe crashing on Windows XP, iTunes 10. so i would advise users to avoid updating to iTunes 10 at the moment. the new iTunes logo and color theme sucks anyway :/

Software - My Brief Anti Virus Reviews

2010-04-08T23:28:00.001+08:00

Software

Software - My Brief Anti Virus Reviews

posted this on HardwareZone forums, figured out that I might as well post it here too to share with my readers (if any).

i personally have encountered and tried many AV software..

Norton is bloatware and likes to include many unnecessary features.

McAfee is failware with low detection rate

Eset Nod32 is light on resources, but stopped using after it didnt detect 1 of my infections

Kaspersky is the best among the paid, but i only recommend for advanced users only as the default settings is too damn strong and secure which will cause problems for your system.

furthermore i dont believe in paying for antivirus.. so below are my brief reviews for free AV:

Avast - the one i'm currently using.. for the latest version 5 remember to uncheck Behaviour shield during installation or disable the shield after the installation as the shield is overkill and it caused problems for me. other than that, it has been serving me well for years. just need to fill up a short registration form in the program and it will auto register a license that lasts for 1 year.

AVG - used to be a fan of AVG, but i stopped using AVG since it became bloatware in version 9. 80mb for the installation file? fail.

Avira AntiVir - used AntiVir before i finally settled on Avast. has an irritating popup screen that nags the user to upgrade to the premium version. can be disabled via some means, but eventually stopped using because the update servers for the free version are very slow.

MSE - an AV that has received high ravings despite being a MS product. i usually install MSE on my users' system because it does not mean any tweaking. however it requires the Windows update agent to be enabled for the updates to be working.

in short? either get Avast or MSE :)

Best Modern Rock Albums 2009

2009-12-05T17:05:00.017+08:00

Music

Must haves!
Adelitas Way - Adelitas Way: broke into mainstream for their song "Invincible" for WWE theme song. caught my attention a few years ago, and waited a long time for them to be noticed and signed. finally an album release :)

Breaking Benjamin - Dear Agony: solid album, as always.

Daughtry - Leave This Town: Daughtry's debut album took me by surprise, his sophomore effort is no different. i have viewed a few video clips of Daughtry doing covers, damn this guy is talented! get the bonus tracks if you can, cause they are just as good as the main tracks.

Decyfer Down - Crash: i would have preferred the previous lead singer Caleb Oliver, fortunately the new singer TJ Harris formerly of Fighting Instinct is as good.

Evans Blue - Evans Blue: another band which changed lead singer. the former was a talented guy who wrote songs with weird title names. Dan Chandler, the new guy isnt as talented but he fits in well. this album is kinda easy to listen.

Three Days Grace - Life Starts Now: give "Break" a listen.

Skillet - Awake: 1 of my strong fave bands. i got hooked onto Skillet by their previous album "Comatose (2006)". the band members use cello and violin. what you get is a very addictive and unique combination. Skillet is Grammy-nominated! strongly recommended Skillet to a few friends and they dig. Wei Liang even bought "Comatose (2006)" :) "Awake (2009)" is not as great as "Comatose (2006)" but it still has a few strong hits.

Red - Innocence And Instinct: similar to Skillet. similarly i prefer both of their album released back in 2006. Red released "End of Silence (2006)". perhaps my expectations were set very high by their previous albums. still good anyway.

Renegade Five - Underground Universe: highly rated unknown band.

Plan Three - Screaming Our Sin: the first few tracks of the album will blow you away! surprise find of the year. similar to Renegade Five.

Papercut Massacre - If These Scars Could Talk: another surprise find, the lead vocalist has a very clean and good-sounding vocal. the "Left 4 Dead" song fits the game with the same name very well!

Honourable Mentions
Default - Comes And Goes
Thousand Foot Krutch - Welcome to the Masquerade
Something to Burn - Transitions
Joan Red - Side Effects Of You
Like A Storm - The End of the Beginning
Creed - Overcome: Creed's comeback album.
Dead By Sunrise - Out Of Ashes: i have to mention this. Dead By Sunrise is a side project by Linkin's Park vocalist, Chester Bennington. very different from LP, darkier and moodier, according to Chester. try "Too Late" and "Let Down".

Disappointments
Madina Lake - Never Take Us Alive
Hoobastank - For(n)ever
Papa Roach - Metamorphosis
Paramore - Brand New Eyes
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Lonely Road
Saosin - In Search of Solid Ground

Software - My Compilation of Useful Software [2009 Edition]

2009-04-27T15:07:00.003+08:00

Software

Software That I Install On Comps I Use [2009 Edition]

suddenly got kick to compile this list, so here i am. after a few years of trail and error, i believe my recommendations have matured compared to the list i compiled last time. it took me quite a few hours, so be nice :)

Anti Virus: AntiVir Personal [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: i used to be a fan of AVG Free 7. however from version 8 onwards, AVG became bloated and takes up alot of system resources. The detection rate of ClamWin and Bitdefender are bad, while Avast's interface didnt appeal to me. AntiVir worked out the best for me personally for far. the only bad point is the nag screen.

Anti Spyware: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware [ Download here ] - Shareware
Why: Spyware Doctor is the most powerful antispyware software i ever used, but you will have to pay for the full version. and you must off the IntelliGuard or whatever guard. crazy protection which lags the comp. for freeware i didnt like Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-aware as both werent effective for me, even though for their popularity.

Anti Spyware: Spyware Blaster [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: the software above are for removing infections (cure), while Spyware Blaster is the protection (prevention). it will prevent the installation of unwanted software, block tracking cookies in IE and FF, etc. well, not all, at least a portion. should help abit to protect those comps under the use of your trigger-happy family members, for example. update to the latest database file under Updates and remember to click on Enable All Protection.

Zip Handler: 7 Zip [ Download here ] - Open Source
Why: my fave Winrar being shareware (nag screen). 7 Zip is fuss free and easy to use.

PDF Reader: Foxit Reader [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: simple, Adobe Reader is way bloated, installation file of version 9.1 itself is 25.5Mb. even the Lite version of 9.1 is 21.1Mb. Foxit Reader so far is still under 4Mb. need i say anymore?

Browser: Firefox (FTW!) [ Download here ] - Open Source
Why: because i can use Adblock Plus to block ads. i hate ads! because i can customise it like crazy. because i have around 35 add-ons and i'm loving it. if you still do not like FF, do give Google Chrome a spin. definitely faster and better than IE.

BitTorrent Client: uTorrent [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: uTorrent is the most lightweight client. i was a long time BitComet user, lazy to try out uTorrent despite the glowing recommendations then. finally tried it and never looked back. BitComet is 5.1Mb, Vuze is 10Mb. uTorrent is only less than 300Kb at the point of writing.

Imaging: Paint.Net [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: you and i know MS Paint sucks and Photoshop is overkill for casual editing of pics. however if you frequently do image batch processing, try out XnView.

Uninstaller: Revo Uninstaller [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: if you just use the default Windows uninstaller, many registry entries and entries in the Windows Profile folder are not deleted usually. this is not a clean uninstall. software like Revo Uninstaller will scan to make sure those entries are deleted. highly recommended by many sites. another point to add is that such software loads much faster than the Windows uninstaller. i am using Your Uninstaller. paid version though.

Video Accelerator: Bywifi Video Accelerator [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: remember i covered Speedbit Video Accelerator? i've tried it but it didnt seem to be working well for me. until recently i tried Bywifi Video Accelerator recommended by Raymond.cc. i am impressed because i can see the results on Youtube. furthermore it doesnt show the popups like Speedbit Video Accelerator.

Download Manager: Orbit Downloader [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: i hate Download Accelerator Plus and Flashget, Internet Download Manager is trialware. Free Download Manager is a decent alternative to IDM. for me, as i am a heavy FF user, DownloadThemAll has been serving me very well.

Media Player: KMPlayer [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: if you are still using Windows Media Player to watch your shows, you are so outdated. because i'm so hard on hearing, i insist on having subtitles on shows that i watch. read this article on how to search for subtitle files. or manually search on a website like podnapisi.net. after that you can load the subtitle file into your show. easy. another plus point is that software such as KMPlayer or GOM Player can play broken media files, enabling you to skip the damaged frames.

Video Converter: Handbrake [ Download here ] - Open Source
Why: i'm currently using Super Converter, but its chim interface may not appeal to everyone. Handbrake on the other hand is a recognised software and is easier to use.

Software Updater: FileHippo.com Update Checker [ Download here ] - Freeware

Why: bug fixes are not just the important part of updating your software, security fixes are even more crucial. since most of my download links are from filehippo.com, why not use their own update checker? they have fast mirrors and their update checker is user-friendly compared to the others that i've tried.

Must Have Piriform Software:

Cleaning Software: CCleaner [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: removes the unused and temporary files in your system. you may be surprised at how much of space your junk files are taking.

Defragmenter: Defraggler [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: if you still do not understand why you need to defragment your files, damn. basically data fragmentation occurs when data is broken up into many pieces and scattered all over the drive. theoretically data blocks of the same file should be placed next to each other right? however due to allocation algorithm this does not happen. therefore you will take more access time to read the file. data fragmentation counters that by rearranging data storage so that related pieces are close together. Defraggler is the fastest i've tried out of the myriad of defragment software out there and you can even defrag individual files.

Recovery Software: Recuva [ Download here ] - Freeware
Why: ever accidentally permanently deleted a file which you needed? Recuva can even retrieve from memory cards or MP3 players. it works! as with other Piriform software, Recuva is fast and easy to use.

Fave Misc Utilies:

Unlocker:
Annoying Error Msgs?

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Unlocker can unlock all processes tied to the files you are trying to delete or remove :)

[ Download Unlocker 1.8.7 ] - Freeware

Taskbar Shuffle:
Ever wanted to rearrange your taskbar buttons?

now you can with Taskbar Shuffle by drag and drop! you can even use middle click to close programs on the taskbar. its the same as tabs in internet browsers. saves you the trouble of right clicking the tab and clicking on close.

[ Download Taskbar Shuffle 2.5 ] - Freeware

MP3Gain:
Stop reaching for the volume control on your MP3 player!

ever wondered why all of your songs are of different volume? fret no longer :p MP3Gain will analyse and adjust mp3 files so that they have the same volume (normalization). i usually put the target "normal" volume at 99.0dB even though the program's default is at 89.0. 89.0 is way too soft. personally i do not use the Track Analysis but the Track Gain only. and dun worry, it will not damage the mp3 file nor affect its quality.

[ Download MP3Gain ] - Freeware

hope you had learned something from this article!

Personal Update - Recovering from my latest surgery and other updates [Mar 09]

2009-03-13T12:21:00.003+08:00

Personal

status: recovering from my latest surgery due to a personal problem.

general anesthesia is imba! total knock out. when i woke up i was like struggling very badly because i needed to release myself urgently. come to think of it, i've been through quite a few minor ops/scans in this and the past year. most of them were painful experiences i must say.

last year i had a fish bone removed from my throat. tubes were inserted through my nose twice. x-rays didnt reveal anything. 1 to check, and the other thicker tube to remove. local anesthesia was sprayed to my throat. the painful part was the damn tubes running through my nose. curse my camp's cookhouse for such lousy-tasting food and luck.

i am going to skip mentioning about another personal surgery which i had in last november.

i almost forgot that i went for a MRI scan for my lower back problem. there was no problem with the bone structure of my backbone. hence the MO refused to downpes me. im still a freaking A! hmm that means i have very weak back muscles, most probably due to my body structure. remember my left leg is longer than my right leg by 2cm? i must be playing too much vball during my puberty years. so also cannot blame me for standing on one leg. lol.

while somewhere in january i underwent endoscopy for my gastric problem. i remembered i was semi-conscious throughout the op and i was tearing due to the pain. the findings were that my stomach lining is slightly red due to excessive acid. so i had to take medication and was advised to cut down on smoking and spicy food. but i cant help it! i love spicy food too much. now as a precaution i just take small frequent meals to regulate the acid in my stomach.

the one which i went for on wednesday is excision, thats all i prefer to reveal for now. although it was a straightforward surgery, i wasnt prepared for the aftermath. i was given the impression that it was going to be a minor op, but apparently i was wrong. now i'm in stitches and feeling sore at times. no wonder i was given a 7-day of hospitalisation leave. i gladly took it of course. it will last me until next tuesday. i went for the surgery alone as no one was available to accompany me. aww. although the hospital strongly discouraged me from getting discharged alone, i just signed the form and went ahead anyway. they were afraid that i would like faint or something lol. i did not, and i even met jeff for dinner as he was on off. jeff likes to complain about his problems to me as i am a good listener. he has a positive energy and he always encourages me, which i appreciate as i am surrounded by too much negativity.

regarding the upcoming one, i am going to remove all of my wisdom teeth. while i am still covered under saf ^^

so many health issues, no wonder i am in hq platoon. but i got silver for my ippt in one shot! okay even though i did get a little help from my bunkmates... i am a mentally strong person, when i choose to be i can really push my body to my limits. or rather sometimes i neglect my own limits. i need to take care of my body more.

oh yes i am going to ORD in exactly 3mths' time! i didnt believe when friends said that the last few months is the hardest period, but now i do. time flew past last year as my unit was in high-key and super active. my unit is the first and last evergreen unit. last time we had thought that evergreen means active throughout the whole period; we were only partially right. evergreen means the unit is forever running as we have 2 batches of recruits coming in. the major flaw of this concept is that the second batch will face a shortage of manpower when the first batch ORD. we are given the false hope that our unit will be very slack after atec. but sadly because of this flaw my unit is currently suffering as the previous batch ORD-ed in last year december. in general everyone is unhappy about the unnecessary workload. until the day i ORD, i will be worrying about my future plans. i am pretty stressed up as i am a natural worrier and a perfectionist. i do not want to waste time nua-ing. yes yes i may be still 'young' but very soon i will be not. there are too many things in life to achieve. my favourite personal quote, "we all need something to look forward to".

and damn i really miss playing vball and bball. i miss vball more. last month i represented armour in inter formation vball. me and scofield were the only 2 players left from the previous batch. he took over the role of team manager, while he appointed me the team captain as i got the most 'sa qi'. it proved to be a difficult task as we had a large squad. 16 compared to last year of 8. we had to manage team selection and tactics. some players were having attitude problems, while others had form problems. team morale is especially an issue for armour team like the previous year. i realised that my teammates were not mentally strong enough to overcome a deficit whenever we are on the trailing side. as team captain i tried very hard to rally them on, but to no avail. despite having a decent team, we lost so many matches to the point that it became nauseating for me. (i was trained with a winner's mentality during my sec days. throughout that whole year when i was sec 2, we only lost 1 match.) vball is an interesting sport as you must really grasp the strengths of weaknesses of different teams especially one's own team. every player is critical and the psychology aspect of the game is very intricate. it is also the only sport where i get to release my aggression. i am usually a quiet and reserved person, but on the court i get to scream ^^ the adrenaline i get from scoring/blocking is simply indescribable. that is why i will never get addicted to nicotine or whatever. nothing simply compares to natural high of adrenaline.

and since i no longer wear specs, i feel like a reborn player in sports. specs were an very irritating obstruction as i have an oily nose bridge.

all i need now in vball is a coach or friend who appreciates my strengths. and playing time of course.

Personal Update - Dirty Linen?

2009-01-18T20:37:00.001+08:00

Personal

it is wrong to wash my dirty linen in public?

i no longer give a damn. i have suppressed my problems for far too long. it might be cliché of me to say that i have family problems. but seriously, i've been at the verge of about to having a broken family many years for now. cause of problem? my mom. after giving birth to my sis, my mom started having mental illness. from time to time, she will suddenly flare up over the smallest issue. the most extreme times were the times when she completely lost her sanity. i will never ever forget the scene when she pushed my sis against the wall and my sis fell. my sis was so traumatised while i felt useless, that i didnt manage to protect her. when a person has completely lost their sanity, they turn into a different person. i can say that i am a person with very little fears. but however when it comes to mentally ill people, my body will tremble uncontrollably when they are triggered. because you can never predict what will happen next. and with the mentally unsound, they are capable of doing just anything because they have lost all sense of self and logic. i've encountered not just a few incidents, and not just for my mom. i highly doubt anyone will ever understand what i went through. and hopefully not.

from young, my mom has kept me on a tight leash, as i am the eldest (elder) and only son in the family. partly because she expects me to grow into a responsible adult and setup my own family as a guy. i received the caning treatment till secondary level. she used to grab anything in sight to hit me when i made her upset. everyone makes mistakes right? humans are made to learn from mistakes, and especially when young we tend to make more. apparently she doesnt understand this simple point. so i was punished and berated even for the smallest mistakes. for my lunch money in school, i was given peanuts compared to my peers. seriously. it doesnt matter now since i survived anyway. my freedom was severely restricted. for the others when they are kids, they get to travel around the world. for me? only shanghai for my vball training during sec 2. when my friends describe their overseas experience when they are young, i cant help but to feel envy and hurt inside at the same time. i cannot talk to her about anything at all, as she will keep insisting on her own viewpoint. hence, i grew up to become an introvert. up till now, she is still trying to implement her ideas on me. like how i should live my life.

lately, i tried to communicate with her but it totally backfired. she feels that i am talking back to her. just today, i told her to stop repeating some stuff. i was very irritated. one line was all it took to make her snap. like always, she commented how she wish that she was a mute so that she wont be able to show her unncesssary 'concern'. a while later, we were supposed to leave for a reunion dinner. she shouted at me telling me to remove her sim card as it was inside my phone, when i was only just standing beside her. she said she doesnt want to use anything that belongs to me. like wtf? shortly after that, she hit her hand against the wall which gave a loud thud before going into the toilet to reel from the pain. remember what happened on the night of my 19th birthday? things like that always repeat itself time and time again. how many years already. c'mon la, it is not as if your children are hooligans whom always get into trouble. you had to snap over a small issue? cant we talk like adults? no wait. we seriously cant. whatever you say is always right and we are always wrong. you always must be on the winning side. thought of bringing her to a psychiatrist, but after some consideration, i know it will be useless. first of all, the mentally unsound do not know that they have mental disorders. they will deny everything and think that you are trying to be funny, which of course is not the case for me.

my dad always blames me and my sis for provoking her. but dad, you will never understand cause you are not in our shoes. however sometimes she is way too overboard la! at times she even say appalling things like shes better off dead, she doesnt care even if she takes the whole family down with her. since it is her who build the family, she feels that she has the right to break everything apart. there are still worse stuff. no doubt i respect the fact that you are my mom but i have my limits. it is you who need me, not i who need you despite what you say. no, or rather you will only need dad. cause he has been a pillar having to put up with all your insanity and nonsense for all these years. i really admire my dad. i can also say he cant bear the consequences if he decides not to hold on. up to my current age i still have people telling me just dont care about my mom, i do not need her anyway. its true, but you guys have no idea the severity of my problem, nor fathom the consquences if i take action against her. so all these years i've been trying to be a good son, while my sis has been the rebellious one. there must be some sort of balance right? to the others, i might seem to be like a mummy's boy, going along with her wishes and etc. but things are not just that simple. i have sacrificed a few things just to maintain the delicate balance in my family so that at least we can stay together. i do not want to be the bad guy who triggers her. i do not want a broken family. i do not wish to be the cause if she ever decides to commit suicide. i will be guilty for the rest of my life! i do not want my dad to hate me and my sis to suffer.

well i dont expect anyone to understand that as no one is able to do it so far. sorry for reiterating.

its only recently for the first time in my life, i have seriously thought of leaving the house for good. i really cannot take it anymore. i tried to confront the problem but to not avail. so what can i do? suck it up? no this is not ns. i will take the last resort of running away. so dont be surprised. running away may sound like an easy option, but there are too many factors that i have to consider. currently i already have other problems and worries on hand, it sucks to have another major one. i cant bear to throw my sis in the house alone. if i go, i must at least take her out also. but how? finding a place for accommodation is hard enough. if it wasnt for my sis, i would have left earlier.

i am sick and tired of you interfering into my life and my future plans. i am tired of your demented, narrowminded ways. you have suppressed me for far too long! i am suffocating badly. i hate always being accused by you for nothing. what lack of basic trust in your own son. i fking hate it when you keep complaining that i am thin. i may be on the thin side but i am physically fit. i eat as much as anyone else. i do not need you to tell me how to live my life. i live for myself and not for you. i do not need the lump sum that you saved up for my future use. even if you do not go crazy, i will be the one that goes crazy if this goes on. this problem cant go on forever. you are pushing me to the very edge. i do not want to live in fear anticipating when you will lose your sanity again. i have better things to worry about.

Personal Update - Panda Eyes and Budget Earphones Recommendations

2008-11-25T00:00:00.005+08:00

Personal

call me gaara

im really getting irritated by the dark rings under my eyes. i sleep more than 8 hours a day, drink lots of water, what else can be wrong? lol im still short of trying cucumber slices and eye creams. found myself leaning towards the metrosexual type, which is a bad thing. maybe it is due to my past influences. anyway, this is bad because it will only increase my expenses on grooming products, and the weight of my heavy bag. in my bag, i have oil blotting sheets, wet tissue, alcohol wipes, plasters, eye drops, deodorant spray, travel pack, grooming kit. i still have moisturizers which i dont carry around. chargers are essential and one can imagine how heavy my bag is with just my bare essentials. im like damn ps after revealing all this. i can say i am not a vain person, but someone who is neat and takes care of his appearance.

Tech

are you still sticking to the default earphones, or rather, stock earphones? actually they are cmi. therefore i did several days of research, these are the decent in-ear alternatives within the $50 range that i found. however if your budget is higher, around $150, it becomes a totally different game.

1. Creative EP630 - Retail Price $45 (was $69 a few mths ago)

the most raved in-ear budget earphones at hardwarezone forums, looks similiar to sennheiser's cx series which costs around $100. surely the selling price of ep630 will be even lower at sitex. overall gets a good rating without any mod.

2. JVC Marshmallows - Retail Price ard $35 (excluding potential costs incurred from mod)

the next highly raved earphone, with the help of the so-called kramer mod, it has the potential to be on-par with $100+ earphones on the market. there are quite a few color selections to pick from.

3. Koss SparkPlug - Retail Price ard $30

very low-profile in sg and performs well considering its price.

for my sis i will be getting her ep630 as she likes bass and i do not need to mod it. after reading the reviews by users who had done the kramer mod for the marshmallows, it made me very gian haha. but i dont like to physically zeng stuff >< for myself i will be getting ep630i (retail $79), which is designed for the iphone. eh i didnt mention im getting an iphone right! this is because i just recontracted to singnet broadband. the other offers like 8Mbps ASUS Eee PC™ 900HA and 10Mbps Apple Macbook wasnt attractive enough for me. (fyi starhub is giving out PS3 for online sign-ups) i intended to get this phone after i ord, so im lucky to be owning one so soon. im waiting for my letter to come. i checked the singnet webby awhile ago, the broadband promo i recontracted had ended recently. i will check out what offers (or stunt) for their new promo during sitex out of curiosity. hopefully its not something even better or i'll be cursing myself lol =x

Personal Update - My Frequent Local Blog Reads

2008-11-11T21:05:00.006+08:00

Personal

nevertheless

ignorance is bliss, but the feeling of not knowing why i was totally ignored sucks. since you chose your blog as a channel to express instead of telling it person to me, why cant i either? its plain to see we've come to a point where we cant see eye to eye so everything you say i will find it unacceptable and vice versa. i find a shame that things have to turn sour. you may find me fake, well, i tried to maintain our friendship. things will never be the same, but still being friends is not impossible right? nevertheless, i am really grateful for all you have given. ^^

few of my frequent local blog reads

again, good things are meant to be shared.. so i wanna intro some of the local blogs that i frequent, other than the blogs of friends and random babes.. as usual im lazy to do pics.. check it out yo.

ieatishootipost.sg
which foodie fan hasnt heard of ieat before?

Simply Jean
talks about singapore life and how it affects us

I.Z. Reloaded
covers all kinds of news from a local perspective

Sheylara.com
gamer girl! too bad i dont own a console

Shane+Wei
watch the journey of a hot milf raising up her beloved son single-handledly

Singapore Girl @ Berlin
as the title goes, jeslyn blogs about interesting stuff and personal life outside singapore

Holly Jean
can you believe that she used to be a teacher.. i like her posts for they are well written, her fave topics are relationships and sexuality. her blog was featured recently in TNP, though i dont know why the article was removed online.. too much sexual content?

if you're into local blogs with content, and not-just-another-self-obsessed-girl-blog, check out the winners and nominess for S'pore Blog Awards.

Personal Update - We all need something to look forward to

2008-11-10T15:17:00.003+08:00

Personal

honesty and integrity will get you further in time

sad to say i havent found anything that truly makes me happy from the bottom of my heart. the time of discovery is different for everyone. i've seen too much of the ugly side of human nature. i always live my life with an open mentality, thus bad and good stuff i've seen alot. the negative side is easier to absorb isnt it? makes me weary of life but im not tired of living yet.

okay a bit random here..

quote from a particular guy blog:

"Living everyday as if it is the last is simply too tiring, and it gives me no future to look forward to.

I am going to live everyday as if it is not the last. Things must be done correctly and foundation must be set. There is a future to look forward to and that gives me hope. To live like that everyday is to live like a dying man with cancer. There is no future for him. There is a future for me.

Seize the future."

i totally agree. we cannot live our lives begrudging our family background, thinking about our past mistakes, etc. even if we are bounded by circumstances, having limited choices, it is up to our will to sway the other factors in our favour. we do not live for our partners. we live for hope. hope for a better future.

i would rather say, live life as if you were reborn. constant renewed energy, open to new ideas and suggestions. positive, with a pure heart yet able to discreet right and wrong.

we all need something to look forward to

late nov and dec is a period i look forward to. my buddy jeff is going to pass out from his medic course, my bestie is finishing her semester, ah yiang is returning from overseas exercise. more friends for me to talk to. btw i laughed when i read jon's blog saying that he realise that his posts are getting shorter and incoherent. its totally normal! its the army-is-wasting-me-away syndrome.

after my unit finished atec in early sept, i thought that would be the end. i was wrong. my company was on standby for a period of time, we had to deal with COC, wargaming, all kinds of audits, checks, parades. last week was the actual closure for my company. for the next 3 weeks my csm is on overseas leave! yay no government le lol.

in a few hours time i'm going for a surgery which i wanted to do for a very long time. hope all goes well :)

Personal Update - Choices in my head [Oct 08]

2008-10-25T19:03:00.003+08:00

Personal

blogger.. forever so gracious..

blogger deleted my previous post regarding my monthly compilation songs lol.. oh well. i should have read the signs. before that i had noticed that from one of my frequently visited music blog. a few of his old posts were removed. further more for my post, the songs i were promoting were very new.

crossroad

spent my whole afternoon scouring the net for info regarding the bachelor courses i was interested in. forums are particularly useful. it made me more convinced to drift away from my more-favoured IT line. to do well in IT, it usually requires a high level of maths and programming proficiency. which both are not my forte knowing after i completed my dip course. thinking back i kinda regretted taking info-comm. i blame myself for not taking my studies seriously during my freshman year 'cause at that point of time i did not realise that a degree paper is so essential nowadays. lack of foresight, took things for granted or absence of wise advice? perhaps all of the above. what companies seek for these days is cheap and good IT support.. so what will they do? no doubt they will outsource to MNCs or indian/cheena personnel. i should listen to what boozie meant.. be more practical.. liking may not last forever. but if i didnt take info-comm would i have known myself better?

i've narrowed down to 2 choices.. either to study a relevant degree, skip 1-2 years, get the paper and faster work.. or venture into another course which IT is not a main component and spent the full 3 years to complete..?

if you are happy-go-lucky, worry more about being single instead, have your plans laid out for you, or have your family to rely financially on, good for you. although at times i will envy you guys for not being a worry-fret like me, i tell myself that my life condition is not that bad.

the gravity of my situation hits me hard and cold as i realise i am at a critical crossroad of my life now.

by the way, it may interest you guys to visit Salary.sg for the list of Best-Paying Jobs in Singapore (2008). For the latest money deposit rates, check out this thread over at hardwarezone. i hate the font but still a decent guide nevertheless.

Personal Update - Random [Oct 08]

2008-10-12T18:28:00.001+08:00

Personal

for a pessimist, i'm pretty optimistic

okay i must admit i got this line from one of Paramore's album 'Riot' song title. it reflects how i manage to be positive among the negativity around me. the ironies of life.

my friends should know i am not the type to voice my problems and worries easily. i listen more than i talk. thus inevitably my blog has become my main channel of random rants and thoughts.

its official: singapore is in technical recession

as they say when Wall St sneezes, the whole world catches a cold. analysts said singapore had become the first Asian economy to fall into recession after the government revised downward its full-year growth estimate and eased monetary policy for the first time in years. this is to be expected since singapore is dependent on global economy, especially the US.

for commoners like me, other than inflation, do you feel the effects? its time to be more stringent in terms of money spending.

ERP ↑, public transport fares ↑, electricity ↑ 21%, whats next?

on a side note, a few days ago Singtel announced that their fixed home line is going ↑. the next day Starhub offered free fixed line for their customers – hardware all thrown in for free. heh.

pursuit of happiness

i really envy those people who are happy-go-lucky, cause simply i am not one of them. some times, especially when i am alone, i will have so many thoughts running in my head. until the point of losing my sanity. however i will always somehow manage to constrain it. life is singapore is very stressful, its no wonder it is one of the main reasons that emigration rates are getting higher.

education in singapore has only taught me to be average, but i cant be average! average is never enough for a perfectionist like me. dont think that i am one? that means you dont know me ne. the environment i grew up in trained me to be one. when i was young, i was disciplined by force, the old skool cane. whenever my handwriting not up to standard, i will erase and erase. since i was very young i would keep my room very neat and tidy. i do most of my housework. you think kids nowadays give a damn? during schooling i would receive very little pocket money compared to my peers. during secondary school, my vball coach instilled a winner's mentality in us. losing is not an option. even when we won, we would still get punished. reason being the winning margin was too little according to our opponent's strength. that's how i got to be a perfectionist, meticulous, thrifty, and competitive. sounds like good qualities but they have their negative side. with all these traits, when i want to be good at something or achieve something but to no avail, i will be very demoralised. so what if i'm a jack-of-all-trades. i'm a master of none. of course there are a lot of other factors in character-building, but im avoiding telling a grandmother's story. i strongly believe the environment plays a significant role in moulding one's character.

i want to break out of the poverty cycle. it does not mean that my family is poor, i mean that my family is very average. it is not because of the sin greed that i want to, but because i want to live off comfortably without having so much worries. damn rat race. "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat." -Lily Tomlin. which leads me back to the worry of balancing work and life. yes i can be rich, but i'll need to work like a dog. but by the time i earn a decent sum for retirement, how old will i be? not many years to sit back and enjoy le. at 21 years old, my friends say that we are still young. i beg to differ. i feel so old now! 21 years effectively means ¼ of my life is gone. or even a higher part gone if we are less fortunate. at my age i already worry so much le, no wonder i look so aged. *sighs*

i've been having very awful dreams recently, to the extent that i found myself struggling very badly when i woke up. i shall not read too much into it.

another reason why i have so little posts, cause most of the time after i type halfway, i would be disgusted at myself. lol i feel i dont make sense to myself some times. my articulation is failing me. most of the time i do mind what i type and have to say. the next thing i will do is to delete them. my old posts are not spared. i've got alot of disorders and this is merely one of them.

been playing my fave game genre, turn-based strategy, only to remind myself that my P4 128MB graphic card computer really cannot make it. even at its lowest graphic setting. im so sad. when i got money to spare i sure buy a hardcore one like Alienware.

theres so many things i want to do, but i'm short of kakis! i am game on for everything except drinking, gambling and other illegal stuff. vball, bball, bmt, table tennis, gym, pool, shopping, club, makan, all steady. i go club for the dancefloor. supper is out because i got tummy since i entered ns.

Tip #7 - Index of Local Contest Sites

2008-10-12T17:51:00.008+08:00

Tip #7

try your luck at local contests!

never won before anything in contests? dun fret. winning can be a joyful experience regardless of the value of the prize. these are 3 local blogs recently featured in TNP that is dedicated to local contests. to increase your chances of winning even one contest, why not whack all? you never know which one you may win :)

1. i ♥ Contests
large community. no need to worry for lack of updates.

2. Cornflict
gets my vote due to the relevant content. who doesnt love free movie tickets?

3. Feeling Lucky Today
contains some interesting contests..

4. Contest sg
jabalang is all i can say. just look at those scan pics lol.

hmm i decided to do some posts on this rare occasion as i have been very free this weekend, being staying at home. so if you look forward to more, i guess it will depend on my availability and mood =p

Personal Update - Just Want to be Happy

2008-10-05T18:58:00.002+08:00

Personal

too many things to say

but so hard to express them in words. trying to deal with things appropriately is harder. i am constantly in a state of dilemma. to clarify, i wasnt angry when i made my decision. neither i am now. believe me when i say i do everything for a reason. its similar to the analogy of quicksand; i was struggling.. but i learned to remain calm and think things straight. by looking at the bigger picture and overcoming my weakness i saw what was important..

i wont be updating my blog. i ask myself why do i always try to please everyone but me? i always wanted to make a blog that is insightful or post tips that will help my readers.. but guess it is too hard to maintain at my current time and energy level. how can i be happy when i force myself to do things..

i cant take it anymore. i worry too much.

i just want to be happy.

Personal Update - Worst B'Day Ever

2008-09-02T20:30:00.004+08:00

Personal

the significance of 21st

happy? 21st birthday to me

and course to these friends whom share the exact same birthday with me:

brad
jen
james
zhenghui

happy birthday mates =)

my bday is almost over. i spent the whole day restin at home recoverin from food poisoning. so far less than 5 friends remembered or cared to msg me to send me wishes. its a very unfortunate and sad way to spend a bday. fked up would be more appropriate to describe my 21st.

Personal Update - Low Morale

2008-08-17T21:47:00.003+08:00

Personal

low morale

last weekend activated due to you-know-what, this weekend got confined by our encik over some lame shyt, next weekend going to burn over Army Half Marathon. what's next? i can only console myself that things will be better.

i resent myself very much for not being to attend the majority of my friends' birthday celebration. im having difficulties trying to balance time on myself, my girl, my family and my ns life. its either you understand or you dont. my 21st birthday is just around the corner, 2 weeks more to be exact, and i still havent have any decent plans at all. my birthday off cannot be used , since my unit is in the middle of ATEC. i will be free after the month after sept! back to my birthday plans again, most probably it'll be simple meals with my family and friends respectively. age of 21 means maturity, a new chapter in one's life, however to me, it just feels insignificant.

hmm i've got a random item on my wishlist, well not really random.. its..

Gatsby Megahold Wax!

i have experimented with many types of wax, this was the only one with decent results for my hair. sure it was very hard to wash off, but i could do some crazy stuff with it. sadly it was discontinued, superceded with the moving rubber series. gone are my good hair days lol.

Personal Update - Disconnected and Drained [Aug 08]

2008-08-02T00:22:00.004+08:00

Personal

disconnected and drained

what can i write? what can i say? where do i start again? its hard to update after a long period of inactivity. all i know is that i can finally say i am halfway through serving my 2yrs of conscription. what have i learned from ns? i learned that polities is everywhere, learned how to cover my arse, learned that ns is nothing but a facade. freedom of speech and human rights in singapore has many covered up flaws. the ugly truth about surviving well is to learn how to curry favour. can help to improve one's life considerably. but i am the type that hates to do things just for the sake of doing, so curry favouring to me is gay and superficial. i will not change the way i am.

everyone got a shock when my best ns buddy jeff suddenly got a revocation order a few days ago. he accepted his fate; i was crestfallen. most importantly that he is happy with his direction in his ns life. who knows i may be next. its silly to say that only me and james are the survivors without a vocation. the whole group of us are separated since the decision was made to optimise the strength mortar platoon. 4 posted out, 2 remain in mortar, 2 in hq. i've know jeff since day 1 of my unit days. his posting out will be a painful loss to me, since we took care of each other especially when we were transfered to hq platoon. i have very few close friends in the company, and now what happened has only left me more lonely.

my thinking has dampened, like a sword that has been dulled. my energy drained, my motivation lost, my articulation deteriorated. i have many stuff i wish to do, but simply not enough time.

ever since i quit gaming, i spend the bulk of my time online to surf for the latest tech news and songs. its like an never ending quest. i've amassed a considerably huge library of bookmarks. i am realising the power of the web. the power of information. the tips and tricks that make our lives a little easier.

it has been my wish to share my useful links with my readers but i have this sickness. i am a 'selective self perfectionist'. i coined this term myself. it means that i am a perfectionist who is meticulous and sets high standard for the things i do. but it only applies on certain stuff which i want to do well in. well if i do not care about a certain stuff of course i will not bother at all. for my blog i want to display/present my posts in the best way possible so that it will interest my readers and hopefully help them in any way. the way to achieve this is to put in a lot of effort and time. which both i obviously cant afford in this period of my life.

i have visions of making my blog into a full-fledged music blog cause singaporeans are only open to mainstream music. i haven come across any decent local music blogs either. (there is one, but the layout is very bad.) singaporeans need to be exposed to more bands as there are so many talented bands out there waiting for us to discover them. every weekend i sample at least 20 bands, i can say that i have acquired a taste over the years. the genre i like most is modern rock. instead sad to say i guess my 1st priority should be worrying about my plans after ns.

things aside, i want to feel adrenaline in my veins again. my heart thumping so hard. my body pushing itself subconsciously to its limit, my back pain is not the barrier. for that moment i feel alive again.

i took a long hiatus from competitive volleyball since my poly year one. the main reason i dropped out of vball because my coach was very biased. my batch of players consists mainly of the players which he coached before. therefore other players are overlooked. to add salt to my wound, the captain was inflexible and nonchalant regarding second-stringers. it is just like how soccer players are. everyone wants to play first-team! anyway playing competitive 6v6 vball is no longer feasible for me, so deep inside me i've been wanting to play beach volleyball. my problem now is that i am not even able to find a partner. damn.

sometimes it feels good to be a jack-of-all-trades, but most of the times it sucks to be one. especially when i am one who sets high standards for myself in the things i want to be good in. like sports. second-best is never good enough for me. i tell myself to let loose afterall i am just a human but i cant. guess i cant really be helped. i only place additional stress on myself =/

Software - FF3

2008-05-31T15:31:00.004+08:00

Software

Firefox 3 the fastest, most secure, most customisable browser yet. i'm a loyal fan of firefox and even since i started using firefox, i haven been looking back. firefox has a large user community that contributes to the great add-ons. i can say that i cannot live without the wonderful add-ons that firefox has to offer. so if you haven done so, change to firefox and experience the web in a new and different way!

Try Firefox 3:

Migrating Bookmarks From IE to FireFox:

Open IE. Select File > Import and Export again and choose to export your favorites. Save the file as bookmarks.html and open up Firefox.

Click on Bookmarks > Organize (Manage) Bookmarks. A new windows with all your Firefox bookmarks should show up. Click again on File > Import from File and select the saved bookmarks.html file. Bookmarks should be imported automatically from then.

You could try and import them directly from Internet Explorer using the Import from IE option as well but this only works if both browsers are installed on the same computer.

An easier way would be upon your 1st time installation of firefox, you will be prompted to copy your bookmarks. Select copy from internet explorer and you're done. As easy as that.

Tech

Starhub blocks BitTorrent

WEB surfers are up in arms over a new report that says StarHub is blocking a popular software program that allows netizens to share movies and other large digital files.

According to the report, released last Friday by a German research firm, only two other Internet service providers (ISPs), both American, block BitTorrent.

The program allows users to download the latest movies, music and software in a matter of hours. While it has become popular among the growing legion of online pirates, BitTorrent has also been used for legitimate purposes, such as distributing free software and new rock albums.

The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, which compiled the report, said StarHub blocks users from sending data to other users, but not from downloading files. However, this can hamper download speeds as BitTorrent works on a reciprocity model: Those who upload more will be able to download faster.

StarHub’s head of Internet Protocol services Lim Seow Thong did not dispute the report, but defended the company’s actions as something ‘many broadband network operators in the world’ are also doing. He said it helps ‘to ensure that all our customers receive an optimal surfing experience’.

Another possible reason it did this may be cost savings. BitTorrent users are known to be huge bandwidth hogs, and are much less profitable for ISPs, compared to surfers who use their connection to surf or play online games.

But it is a decision that has not gone down well with some subscribers.

On popular technology website Hardwarezone, users lined up to protest against the move, with many threatening to switch Internet providers.

One StarHub user, undergraduate L. Tan, 22, said he would try to convince his parents to switch from StarHub to another ISP once their contract was up. ‘The only reason we’re paying $60 a month for broadband is so that I can download stuff. Otherwise, I might as well just get the entry-level plan,’ he said.

But StarHub customer and shareholder Ken Tan cheered the news. ‘Right now, BitTorrent is primarily used to distribute pirated materials, so people who don’t use BitTorrent, like me, are basically subsidising those who do.’

The Max Planck Institute, which does research on computer and networking-related issues, collected data from over 8,000 BitTorrent users from 1,244 ISPs across 90 countries for the report.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 22nd May 2008

Starhub first started by blocking port 80 (or more popularly known as the HTTP port) which effectively prevent any of their subscribers from hosting web pages on their home computers. Lately, they started blocking BitTorrent ports (one wonders how many ports that are) because they felt that "many broadband network operators in the world are also doing so", and that it "helps to ensure that all their customers receive an optimal surfing experience". from what i see, that is a bad move by Starhub. While i am a Singnet user, i am quite enraged by the move and netizens are questioning why does Starhub oversell in the 1st place. If they can't deliver, citing insufficient bandwidth, do they have to resort to limiting and downgrading our services so we can get optimal surfing experience?

Throttling bittorrent traffic is not new, hence there is a very good article on How To Encrypt BitTorrent Traffic by TorrentFreak.com. I mentioned before about encryption, it is a solution to prevent throttling ISP’s from shaping your traffic. 'The RC4 encryption obfuscates not only the header but the entire stream. This means that it’s very hard for your ISP to detect that the traffic you are generating comes from BitTorrent.' One more recommendation from me would be enabling the option for Randomise Port each time your torrent program starts, since Starhub is using the lame method of blocking ports.

Personal Update - Current Health and Random NS Rants

2008-05-31T14:31:00.002+08:00

Personal

health updates and some random rants

if i haven mentioned it before, i've been having a persistent lower back pain problem ever since my secondary school days as i was active in sports. therefore i voiced my back pain problem to my unit MO, and hence i got a referral letter to SAF MMI for medical checkups. the MO decided that i should go for physiotherapy. the 1st session was diagnosis, and i found out several things that i never knew about my body. i am flat-footed (i know that), bow-legged and my left leg is longer than my right. a normal person can have a difference of 0.5-1.5cm while mine is 2cm. amazing to know that i've been living with it without noticing it all my life. all these could have place additional stress on my back. physio didnt improve my condition, so MO gave me a letter for MRI scan to be sure. i went for the scan just yesterday, it was kinda scary at 1st, and they made me wear this freaky pink dress. but the whole procedure was brief. lmao. if my results are negative and i get a down pes letter, i will go ahead with it. i do not give a damn about anything in ns. my motto is: "dont know, dont care".

the organisation of my whole unit is damn screwed, everything is never in the right place and things are never done in time. in my company, we have a screwed up oc and csm. buay zai de just throw into our company just because we are support company?

my unit is very active and busy, with all the exercises and stuff and this will only cease around the end of this year.

other than that, coming to HQ platoon, i realised that polities are inevitable within groups of people in our society. blame me and my friend for stereotyping people for all i care, but this is very true. poly grads like to play polities, jc grads are arrogant and think that theyre damn smart, while mono intake guys are generally very inconsiderate and ill-disciplined.

its always good to make lots of friends, but be advised, choose your close friends wisely.

i'll reiterate again, it does not pay to be kind. this is especially applicable in ns, where people will just take advantage of you. they assume what you've done is not their problem. that is why i always believe a bad guy has an easier time compared to a nice guy. the bad guy doesnt help, doesnt worry about himself or others, and gets the things he wants to be done. the nice guy basically suffers. ns has taught me to be selective.

time flies, coming june, it will be 1 year since i enlisted. 2 years in ns is a total waste of time. i've seen all the negative and ugly side of things. everything is just wayang. since most regulars are screwed up or have personal issues, how can we expect them to improve the social and the leadership aspect of our army? our government believes in "why fix it if it aint broken". why would our army change a system has has been 'working well', if thats what they see?

i always have a plethora of thoughts, but its hard to write down in words or filter those which are worth writing. i have so many music and software stuff i want to share with my readers but again, i blame my shortage of time and energy.

Tip #6 - StreetDirectory.com alternatives

2008-05-01T16:43:00.005+08:00

Tip #6

StreetDirectory.com alternatives

in case you didnt know, popular online map StreetDirectory.com has shut down since early April, after the company behind it, Virtual Map, lost its appeal against the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) over copyright infringement last week.

The SLA, which originally issued Virtual Map a licence for its maps of Singapore, sued the company in January 2007 for continuing to use the SLA maps even after the licence had expired.

[ Read Full Article Here ]

if you have been dependent on the user-friendly Streetdirectory.com and you are missing its service, fret not. i've compiled a decent list of alternatives which you can use.

1. ShowNearby - in beta, but Highly Recommended

2. Gothere.sg

3. eRoutePlanner

4. Route.sg

5. Can.com.sg

did this article help you? :)

Tip #5 - MSN Repair

2008-04-19T18:11:00.004+08:00

Tip #5

MSN Repair - fix problems and common errors in Windows Live Messenger and MSN Messenger

Here is the list of errors that are fixed:

81000314 - 800b0001 - 81000370 - 80040111 - 800401f3 - 80048820 - 80048883 - 80072ee6 - 80072efd (9 in total)
Unable to send / receive sounds (Plus)
Incorporates Windows Messenger (version already installed on Windows)
Not accessed but not by errors
Unable to add contacts

to most of us singaporeans using MSN is bread and butter. so i understand that it can get very frustrating when we try to log in but an error pops up instead. MSN Repair has a simple user interface. the website is in italian so i wouldnt recommend you to visit it.

[ Download MSN Repair 2 ]

MSN E-Fix - another tool to fix MSN Errors

Error Fixed:

80072ee6 - 80048820 - 80048416 - 81000314 - 81000301 - 81000306 - 81000344 - 80048412 - 80004005 - 800401f3 - 81000378 - 81000370 - 800b0001 - 80040111 - 80048869 - 81000362 (16 in total)

MSN E-Fix is at least available in english and it claims to fix more errors than MSN Repair. its just a matter of choosing the right tool for the job.

[ Download MSN E-Fix ]

Credits to gHacks.net

Personal Update - Blog Update and NS Rant

2008-04-15T20:53:00.005+08:00

Personal

much needed blog update

reasons why i haven update my blog for such a long time:
- i need a conducive environment to write my post
- i tend to procrastinate
- ns life is very draining and it makes me tired easily - when you get to book out for the weekend, you're thinking finally you get some precious time off, you want to do the stuff you want to do; you want to make the time worthwhile. but instead you feel so tired, the comfort of one's bed is too much. you begrudge yourself for resting too much, but you really cant help it.

this new blogskin is a xml template, not a classic html one, therefore i am able to make use of the capabilities of the new Blogger. editing my blog layout has become much more convenient. i will update my blog with more software and music related posts so stay tuned. i believe some of my software tips will help and maybe make your time on the computer more productive.

i will change my banner in a few weeks' time when i have the time. which band do you guys think i should put? leave a comment or tag!

april bdays

happy belated birthday to these april babies!

7th - benjamin
9th - mathew
11th - wei an
13th - benny, jerome and edwin
15th - thomas and jian wen

and of course to the others which i missed out on :)

ns talk, what else

since my last personal update, too much changes in my ns life has been done. i know ns talk is boring, so i'm going to try to cut this short. throughout this period of time, my company had a change of command for oc and csm. i was transferred from mortar platoon to HQ platoon along with several other guys from other platoons. these guys had either been down pes or deemed as excess to our individual platoon. this was all done by the new oc. new broom sweeps clean as they say? therefore being placed in hq platoon we could at least contribute something to the company. i was happy to move out of mortar platoon as the old mortar specs are childish with the exception of a few. a group of of the specs would ostracise my group as the OOC guys and always treat us differently from the group that went for wallaby (australia). they would talk behind our backs and even play politics. i'm glad that it is all over. life in hq platoon is one of the best one can get in a screwed up unit like armour. currently i am the company's ration ic and admin staff so i do not have to answer to any specs even though i am just a man.

on a side note which leads me back to the topic why am i only a man, not a commander. if you read my previous posts, i was OOT in BMT due to my recurring fever and was supposed to go for BMT recourse until the last day when my oc decided to mark me as attended BMT. the rest of you guys would be marked as completed BMT. hence i lost my chance to become a commander. ever since i entered unit i have really lost my respect for sergents. so what about the rank? does it mean that being a spec one has leadership qualities or is worthy of the rank? it merely means that one is able to endure the training as a spec, nothing more than that. they are there to fill up the positions and numbers. respect is to be earned, not expected.

back to the present, i got lucky again, when the flying list for the india exercise which started late march was published. hq platoon was excluded. how long more can i have a good life in ns? a few months the most i guess. my small group of friends in my company seems to be diminishing with the posting out of several guys. i should be posted out in a few months time as i am still without a vocation. the thought of being able to be posted out any day is dreadful but i try to keep an upbeat outlook. all good things must come to an end.

yes ns really makes one dumb and boring. i find myself having difficulty writing blog posts and expressing myself in words for the 1st time. it upsets me to know that my language skills are deteriorating.

Personal Update - Alive and Kicking [Dec 07]

2007-12-02T19:45:00.001+08:00

Personal

this post is inform all my readers that i'm still alive and kicking. whenever i feel like blogging (or obligated to), it is about time to book in. time is so limited when one in serving ns! gahhhh! i did not go for exercise Wallaby as my lower back pain problem resurfaced during the 2 week course at Khatib camp. so i together with other 9 OOCs (out of course) stayed back at company line at Kranji camp. we spent most of our time mainly doing sai kang for the company, or playing psp in bunk =x i bought a black psp slim, and i'm hooked on to Monster Hunter 2. the Wallaby guys are coming back next week so i can expect our honeymoon period to be over. training comes again. next week will be mostly physical training. i've stopped training for at least a month already, i certainly hope that i can quickly regain my fitness level. one more thing, i've applied for my leave, which means technically speaking i will be free from 20 Dec till next year. its really time for some serious catching-up with friends. this is just a very causal post, i will definitely update my blog within this month.

miss my friends.

Personal Update - Blessing in Disguise

2007-09-30T11:05:00.001+08:00

Personal

blessing in disguise

on the road to Kranji camp 41 SAR, i was crestfallen. when i fell in with my new platoon. i could see that all the other faces was as depressed as me. armour has a reputation of being very xiong. or rather, armour infantry. the enlistees were divided into 2 platoons. unknown to me, i was assigned the mortar platoon. the other platoon turned out to be armour infantry.

my company is Shrike company, spells like Shrek -_- my platoon is on the 4th floor. 3rd floor is pioneers, while 5th is scouts. my company is support company, in other words it means sai kang company. my posting is quite unique, because mortar is supposed to be artillery, but our platoon is assigned to armour camp to support them. armour infantry is combat unit, while mortar is under support combat unit. that is new to me. on the 1st day, our officer even said that my platoon is good life as we will be vehicle-bound. which simply means, no road marches. throughout the 1st week we got to know more about our vocation. and we were quite relieved that our vocation would not be as xiong as we expected it to be. the vehicle we will be learning to use is new, it is Mortar Tracked Carrier on Bronco.

our 1st week was just orientation, much of it was just admin stuff and sai kang. the food at our camp is so much better than tekong! >< as privates we are already enjoying more privileges than chao recruits. on our 2nd day, we had nights out. it was mid-autumn festival. 3rd day we had games day. 5th day our book day, we moved to Khatib camp. i am going for a 2 week+ course at artillery. this is the shortest course one could ever ask for. after passing out from this course, i will be getting my black beret. passing out = even more privileges. i will be able to book-in and book-out in civilian clothes and go for canteen breaks etc etc. straight after the course, 12 out of 23 men from my platoon will be going for Wallaby at Australia for about a month. the names are not announced yet so i have no idea. next year Feb will be India (omg), while the other 2 unconfirmed overseas attachments would be America and Australia again.

Personal Update - Daughtry Showcase Letdown and Unfortunate Posting

2007-09-24T01:19:00.001+08:00

Personal

daughtry showcase a total letdown

the official starting time was 7.30PM, so me and my girl starting queuing up by 7.00PM. when we reached the place, my immediate reaction was 'wtf'. the queue stretched so long that it almost covered the perimeter of st james powerhouse. we couldnt believe it, as we thought it was just a private showcase. we joined in the never-ending queue nevertheless. by 8PM, the show had started and we were still in the middle of the queue. so by the time we managed to get it, you know what happened. it was very disappointing for me, for i had expected that the organiser at least would have the common sense to gauge the capacity of the place and give out the number of tickets in proportion. the crowd waiting to get in after the place was full house was totally atrocious.

my demise

My posting is Kranji camp, vocation is Armour Infantry Trainee. one of the worst one could get. i would much rather go command school. suffer for a few months and at least have a rank. a poly friend of mine whom ORD-ed from armour told me his experience that it is very xiong. i called my BMT company OC to ask some questions, he also commented that armour is xiong, told me to take care. damn. i am trying very hard to be optimistic. i am booking-in in a few hours time.

i feel that i am fcuking weak.

good night and good luck to me.

Personal Update - Summary of the End of my BMT Life

2007-09-19T13:03:00.004+08:00

Personal

BMT - twist of events, mental and emotional rollercoaster

my BMT life was finally over on Sept 11. field camp was one of the worst experience in my life. i'm not exaggerating. throughout the 6 days period, it was raining on at least for 5 days. imagine walking on the yucky slippery mud and sleeping on it. albeit with a groundsheet on it. your back would feel so frickin wet and gross. training was tiring and i couldnt sleep well, i kept having nightmares. interesting stuff i saw: a spider when stretched out was as big as my face, centipedes and i was the only one who encountered a scorpion, a small red scorpion on my LBV to be exact. i caught a fever again in the middle of field camp due to the rain and the powder baths we had to take. i also had a very bad running nose where i would have difficulty breathing for several days. it was really adding salt to my wound. i had no medication. if i wanted medication, i must visit the Medical Officer but i understood that after visiting i will receive status which will prevent me from taking part in any activities. in the end i endured through, missing the second last day which was Battle Course. the last day is the most important part of field camp - BIC (Basic Innoculation Course), so i did not take any chances. retake field camp just because im going to miss BIC? over my dead body.

once i returned to company line after field camp ended, my body totally broke down. i couldnt take it. luckily i had nice section mates who helped me to settle my rifle and other stuff so i could visit the MO without any worries. the 1st shock came to me on my next book-in. my platoon sergent called for me and said, "i've calculated your attendance. as of today, you will be OOT (Out Of Training). you do not need to participate in any more training. from tomorrow onwards report to the company office every morning and the rest of the OOTs will show you what to do. any questions you want to ask?" i was stunned. i was looking to passing out together with my section mates. mixed emotions. glad because OOTs definitely will be posted to service side which is slack, as i do not intend to chiong. but upset as the news came so sudden that i couldnt immediately accept it. and i had only one month to passing out. so by the next few weeks, i had already adjusted well to OOT life. very very boring, but good life i must say.

the 2nd shock came on this day, when my company 2IC officer told me that i had to go for this medical checkup for immediately recourse. wtf? the usual sequence for OOTs is that they will receive their posting first, re-BMT will come before the end of their ORD. needlessly to say, i passed the medical checkup as i do not have any medical problem or injury. which means i definitely have to go for immediate recourse. this was very hard for me to swallow, as i had already adjusted my mindset that i will receive a service posting soon. recourse? going road marches, live range, and the damn field camp again? kill me please.

the last shock was a much needed one. on the day before POP, my company OC told me that he had already changed my status to attended BMT. which simply means i do not need to re-BMT. there are 3 major parts: live range, field camp and IPPT. passing 2 parts is the requirement. i had fulfilled all 3. upon hearing this news i was so happy and relieved. up till today, none of my platoon mates know that i do not need to recourse again. i've kept this news from them because i do not want to cause any resentment among them. this is because you can say i have 'passed out' from BMT with an easy life. one month of OOT life. causing resentment would be a sin to me. the bad points are that i occasionally miss training with my section mates and i do not have to honour of taking part in the POP parade. and most importantly i have lost the chance to go command school. my chances of entering command school is very high because of my IPPT and my relationship with my platoon mates (peer-appraisal). however this factor did not affect me much as i mentioned earlier i do not have the intention of chionging in ns. no drive.

currently, i'm enjoying a 2 weeks break till Monday, Sept 24. i will receive my posting on Friday, Sept 21. combat or service? i have no idea.

daughtry showcase @ st james 20 sept

STOMP (Straits Times) Daughtry contest

i've won a pair of passes to watch Daughtry in an exclusive showcase at St James Powerhouse by participating in this forum thread with my reply. my username is xinfukuaile and my post is on page 4 =x i came across this contest when i was reading the strait times at my company office lols. i was determined to try my luck as i felt i had a strong opinion and i love Daughtry. reading papers is good~

Band of the Month - Framing Hanley, Madina Lake, RED, Papa Roach, Paramore

2007-09-19T04:00:00.004+08:00

Music - Band of the Month

in no particular order, these entries are from the month of May till September.

Framing Hanley - Rock / Alternative

Framing Hanley's "Hear Me Now" is my one of my fave songs of all-time. just take a look at my "Hear Me Now" song stream at imeem.com. 19 comments and over 14,000 plays. the sudden breakdowns in the song are sweet but sadly the other tracks fail to live up to my expectations. you can get "Home" as a free download here. Framing Hanley is a very talented band, however their sound for their debut album seems to be strangely tame. if their next album moves in the heavier direction i can expect them to sound tighter and appeal to more listeners.

Number 1 Hit:
Framing Hanley - Hear Me Now
Other Recommended Tracks:
Framing Hanley - Built For Sin
Framing Hanley - 23 Days
Framing Hanley - Home

Madina Lake - Rock / Electronica

Madina Lake was formed in 2005, and is comprised of twin brothers in vocalist Nathan Leone and bassist Matthew Leone, guitarist Mateo Camargo and drummer Dan Torelli. Very interestingly, the Leone twins first gained nationwide media recognition when they appeared together on a special episode of the television series Fear Factor, using the money they earned from eating cow guts and hanging from helicopters to pay for a demo for their new band. The $50,000 was the start up money for Madina Lake. They sent the demos in to Roadrunner Records, which ultimately landed them their record deal. Madina Lake has a refreshing and energetic sound, a band which you will want to hear on a feel-good day.

Number 1 Hit:
Madina Lake - Here I Stand
Other Recommended Tracks:
Madina Lake - Adalia
Madina Lake - House of Cards
Madina Lake - One Last Kiss

RED - Rock / Ambient

RED is an underrated Christian hard rock band which coincidentally also consists of twins in Anthony and Randy Armstrong. they are my fave band in the genre of ambient rock.

Number 1 Hit:
RED - Breathe Into Me
Other Recommended Tracks:
RED - Already Over
RED - Break Me Down
RED - Wasting Time

Papa Roach - Rock / Metal

Papa Roach's debut album Infest (2000) was very successful, reaching the status of three times platinum major label. one of the few nu-metal bands which got me listening to metal. since then, after 2 more releases, they revolutionise to a more 'rockier' sound in "The Paramour Sessions (2006)". "Forever" and "Time is Running Out" are the best tracks so far.

Number 1 Hit:
Papa Roach - Forever
Other Recommended Tracks:
Papa Roach - Time Is Running Out
Papa Roach - The World Around You
Papa Roach - To Be Loved

Paramore - Alternative / Pop

Paramore was a pretty low-profile pop punk band until they recently recorded their latest album "Riot! (2007)". Their first hit "Misery Business" is a major hit although the lyrics may sound too cocky. For weeks in August 2007, the "Misery Business" video was the number one streamed video at MTV.com. Paramore's lead vocalist is Hayley Williams, a pretty female, who will help the band to turn heads as there are few successful bands with a female lead vocalist. "Crushcrushcrush" will be the band's next single off Riot!.

Number 1 Hit:
Paramore - Misery Business
Other Recommended Tracks:
Paramore - That's What You Get
Paramore - Crushcrushcrush
Paramore - Emergency

Music - Album Direct DLs

Saosin - Saosin

1. It’s Far Better To Learn
2. Sleepers
3. It’s So Simple
4. Voices
5. Finding Home
6. Follow and Feel
7. Come Close
8. I Never Wanted To
9. Collapse
10. You’re Not Alone
11. Bury Your Head
12. Some Sense Of Security

[ Download Saosin - Saosin ]

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

1. Wake
2. Given Up
3. Leave Out All The Rest
4. Bleed It Out
5. Shadow Of The Day
6. What I've Done
7. Hands Held High
8. No More Sorrow
9. Valentine's Day
10. In Between
11. In Pieces
12. The Little Things Give You Away

[ Download Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight ]

Personal Update - Down with Fever, again and again

2007-07-24T16:27:00.001+08:00

Personal

damn fever

this is the 3rd time i've booked out due to fever. again. that means for the past 6 weeks, on an average i've been down with fever for every 2 weeks. when all the others say to be able to book out is something they yearn, i beg to differ. being down is fever is a terrible experience. especially when throughout the whole rainy night that i caught fever i was shivering incessantly, even though i had already off the fans, shut the windows facing me, wore additional clothes. everything but to no avail. theres a price to pay to be able to book out on working days, i must say. so basically no one knows how much i suffered in my feverish state. this time i booked out on Monday, and booking in on Wednesday which is tomorrow.

i managed to pass live range, which is the shooting test. a borderline pass i guess. it may seem that i have a weak body resistance system, but i can say that i was 1 out of the 4 guys who got at least a Silver for IPPT cat test for my platoon(silver is the requirement to pass IPPT). the dreaded field camp starts this Friday and ends next Thurday, therefore my coming weekend is burned lamentably. the good news for me is that my 20th birthday falls on a book out day ^^

on a lighter note i managed to resurrect my Chief Bandit guide which i posted on the previous Asiasoft forums using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. screw Asiasoft, for not notifying anyone before moving the forum domain and for not backing-up the posts. and thanks for not replying to my message which i dropped in the Qbox for a few months already. unprofessional shyt.

i've also uploaded a total of 30+ new songs into my media player, enjoy it while you can. i chose the best track from each band, for promotional purposes. many of the tracks are from relatively lesser known bands so they will be hard to find on the net. just drop me a request if you like any tracks and i will see to it in my free time =)

as much as i've adapted to army life, to be honest, i am unmotivated to serve. i miss my simple civilian life.

Personal Update - Temp Job and Start of BMT

2007-07-01T09:51:00.001+08:00

Personal

temp job

time flies when u look back, time crawls when you look forward. then again it depends on how you view things. looking back, its been 2 long months since i last updated this space.

for the whole month of May, i've been working at Orchard as a business caller. given a database of SMEs for the 1st week i had to call up each company to check whether they have received the government-supported survey. after the 1st week, i had to start calling the companies to conduct the survey with the key executives of the companies as the response rate was too low to hit the target by the end of the month. throughout the 4 weeks i worked with pohsiang and i'm glad i introed him this job as i got a companion whom i could have lunch and bitch around with.

between the end of my temp job and my enlistment date i had 2 weeks. i spent that time mostly with my girl and friends before going in. my enlistment date was 140607, which was basically the day i lost my freedom and my hair, lol. my Pass Out Parade (POP) will be on an auspicious date, Sept 11. lastly i will know my posting on Sept 28.

start of BMT

i'm currently in BMTC School 2, Raven company, still in a dilemma whether to chiong command school. being an officer from OCS or sergent from SISPEC no doubt is honourable, but i wonder if i can tahan the training. 2 weeks into my BMT i'm already having all kinds of problems, mainly my health and mood swings.

Thursday afternoon was my official 1st book out day, and today evening around 6pm i have to reach pasir ris interchange to book in again =/ ns life is full of bitter and funny moments, and hell yeah i tell myself i'll get through this tough period.

apologies to anyone if i missed their birthday.

we all just slaves to the system.

Music / Software - EvilLyrics, and Setting up MP3 Streaming from PC to PC

2007-05-02T01:18:00.003+08:00

Music Software

EvilLyrics

this post will be different, as it is a mixture of music-related software. in this article i will introduce the use of EvilLyrics, which i've been using for 1 year+ so far.

from the publisher: EvilLyrics is a free utility that automatically searches for lyrics as your song is played in your media player. It searches over 15,000,000 lyrics. Currently supports Winamp, Windows Media Player 9, iTunes, RealPlayer and others. It contains no spyware or adware and is completely free.

you can get lyrics either automatically or manually. automatic mode is on when you are running one of the supported media players. all you have to do is to start your media player and play a song. if it is properly tagged, EvilLyrics fetches song information from player window title and searches for corresponding lyrics.

manual mode is on when none of supported players is running. in this mode EvilLyrics works as lyrics browser. You type song title in the form "Artist - Songname" (without quotes) into song info line and press Enter. EvilLyrics then searches and displays corresponding lyrics. if you are unsatisfied with any of the returned lyrics you can edit them yourself using edit mode. displayed lyrics are saved in the lyrics cache on your computer so next time song is played they are displayed instantly without downloading.

personal comments: EvilLyrics is free and has a small installation file standing at only 700kb. makes searching lyrics quite convenient, especially when you have a large music library. EvilLyrics may return garbage results some times, if so press the Next button on the top left to return a new result. if all fails, this is mainly because either wrong song information is provided or the song is too fresh therefore no lyrics has been submitted yet. therefore properly tagging your songs is recommended. makes your library neater too =) EvilLyrics has other neat features too, like karaoke. when you click on the mouth icon on the bottom, you'll be asked to dl a file. then EvilLyrics will highlight the current line, and the timing of the scrolling highlight will be synchronised with the song.

LyricWiki - find reliable lyrics online (ads free)

if you do not like to use software.. LyricWiki is a good website. building on the success of Wikipedia, LyricWiki is a free site which is a source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song from any artist without being hammered by invasive ads. from there, you can also find out what songs were the American Idol contestants singing each week.

Stream MP3s from your PC to any other PC

There most 2 common methods are hosting at home and hosting online. i shall cover hosting at home, as hosting online requires you to upload your whole library to a server which can be very tedious. hosting at home however requires your computer to be on at the point of time when you want to stream songs.

the 3 recommended servers are Hamachi, Orb and Vibe Streamer. all of them are freeware.

Hamachi

most guys should know about Hamachi; it is very useful for networking games and requires zero configuration. i recommend this as this is the easiest set up. once the computers are connected to a network in Hamachi, follow the instructions below.

To share your library with other computers:

Choose iTunes > Preferences, click Sharing, and select "Share my library on my local network."
Select the items you want to share.
Type a name for your shared items in the "Shared name" field.
To require users to enter a password before they can see your shared items, select "Require password" and enter a password.

The name you enter appears in iTunes on other local computers (in the same subnet) set up to look for shared libraries. For others to see your shared items, your computer must be on and iTunes must be open. the only drawback is that you can only listen to the songs remotely not download them, and you must be using iTunes. using other players is possible but you will have to do your own research =x

[ Download Hamachi ]

Orb

Rick Broida, LifeHacker: During the installation process you'll be prompted to create an account. You'll then be asked to choose what kinds of media you want to access remotely. Deselect everything except audio (unless, of course, you want to stream other stuff).

The final step is to point Orb to the folder(s) containing your music, which you can do by clicking the green Orb icon in your System Tray and choosing Configure. When that's done, fire up any browser on any PC and head to mycast.orb.com. Click Open Application and select Audio. Presto: Your music library awaits!

personal comments: Orb 2.0 is buggy and its interface is slow. other then streaming MP3s, it is able to share videos, pictures and stuff. and lastly Orb supports PDAs, Mobile Phones and gaming consoles such as PS3, Wii and XBox360. cool. WiFi is required.

[ Download Orb ]

Vibe Streamer

for Vibe's setup you'll need to know about very basic networking like port forwarding. other than that, Vibe Streamer is easy to use. for the configuration, you may want to refer to this article.

[ Download Vibe Streamer ]

Personal Update - Aftermath of Accident.. Continued..

2007-04-27T02:00:00.001+08:00

Personal

Thursday, April 26, 2007

the company which i signed a contract to do a 1 month temporary job didnt contact me again.. so i called the HR manageress, she said the project is still not in yet. she even mentioned that this project is important to the company, however i would like to think that the company isnt particularly serious about it as the HR manageress isnt updating me on the status. i had to take the initiative to call her to enquire about the start date. the job scope was to make business calls to companies to collect survey data, and the start date was tentatively 16th Apr which is way over by 2 weeks now. as my enlistment date is 14 June, she agreed to confirm with me the details tomorrow Friday again so i can look for another temp job asap if the start date delays any longer. sigh what a waste of time.

i drove my girl and my family to bedok for dinner today, i'm a good boy =p but i do not intend to inform my parents of the accident, as i know my mom isnt actually the calm type who will sit down to listen to my explanation first.

the aftermath of the accident, continued...

to clarify certain things, the car i've been driving is my girl's dad's car. her dad trusted me enough to lend me the car over the 2 weeks which he will be overseas even though he only monitored my driving once.

my girl has been having a bad headache, worrying for me if my points would be deducted, and to face her parents. in the afternoon, we decided to inform her dad through sms. he replied any matters just consult a guy whom he gave the number to us before he left.

earlier in the afternoon, the motorist called me saying that he has made his case to IDAC and my report is needed. in case you do not know what IDAC is (like me), IDAC stands for Independent Damage Assessment Centres where professional reports of accident damage are made so that insurance can be claimed.

fortunately for me and my girl, we had several people to consult. firstly was my girl's di, who told us not to go down to IDAC, as it would be as good as admitting that the accident is my fault. secondly, we met my girl's godsis Serene in the late night as she was working late. she came down along with her husband, and she has a very friendly personality. we then explained the events to her, and she kept reassuring us that things are alright, most importantly that there are no major damage or injuries. furthermore i was on the right lane, which is meant for overtaking/switching of lanes. it was very nice of her to send me back home as it was after midnight, even though she was staying in bedok.

right now, most importantly is knowing how to present and protect myself. depending on the presentation of both parties, it can be my fault, the motorist's fault, or both. so protecting myself comes first. tomorrow afternoon i will drive to fetch my girl from school, afterwhich we will meet the guy who will help us. from what we hear this type of company will help you settle almost everything, like car repairs and insurance. hopefully that guy will assess the damage (which is a small dent on the left back door) and my side of story, so that he can help me.

just one minor car accident can cause so much trouble and headaches for us. driving isnt that simple after all? it isnt just road safety, topping up of petrol, car park coupons and stuff. it comes with much more responsibilities, especially when we are adults now.

days of unrest

on Friday, i fetched my girl from school before heading to look for the guy from the repair shop. spent alot of time on the road since we werent familiar about the directions. hah driving a manual car in busy traffic really sucks. the rock songs didnt help my mood either. he advised us to make a police report as a form of self-protection. therefore later in the night we were at tampines NPC. a senior policeman was kinda attitude, he even suggested to cancel my statement to the policeman who was serving me. so now i know, when the injured in an accident has more than 3 days of mc, it is required to make a police report. i called the motorist to confirm and continued with the statement. no offence to the policeman who was taking my statement, he has poor english writing and communication skills. caused much distress to me and my girl, as the words used in a statement can be critical and it was written rather poorly. i rather write myself =/

saturday, drove down to find the repair guy again with the statement. he took us to the idac in ubi, and i must say the atmosphere there is totally different from police center. it was very relaxed, unlike the policeman who was hard on me yet he couldnt write the statement well. everything is almost settled now, i just have to leave things to the insurance company. for the small dent in the rear back door, i will have to fork out a hundred to repair it. still, i must tell myself that i am considered lucky already.

Personal - Car Accident [Apr 07]

2007-04-25T01:44:00.002+08:00

Personal

badly shaken.

that is the best words to describe what me and my girl are still feeling now after being involved in a car accident earlier. i shall leave out some details. basically, the motorist apparently was sandwiched between my car and the taxi, and collided onto the side of my car because i switched lane a tad too late because of the damn taxi which just wouldnt give way to mine. we consider ourselves lucky, as the situation could have been much worse. more damage could have been done, more people could have been involved, the motorist could have demanded me to pay for his medical expenses. the damn taxi ran away, for i think that the driver was thinking that it wasnt part of his fault. fortunately, the motorist only had external bleeding on his right arm and experienced pain in his shoulder. he called the police, and they refused to come down as they considered it as a minor accident. we drove him to the nearest hospital. the motorist seemed to be a reasonable guy, he talked to me throughout the visit at the hospital. the wtf part of this whole event is that his queue number which he showed me was 8888 and the room number was 08!

i am lucky, for the accident was too minor for the police to come down, my points are safe for now, for a probationary driver only has a max of 12points to deduct. the motorist didnt demand for personal damage fees as he said he could claim vehicle damage from insurance. we exchanged particulars before parting. this is a lesson well learnt for me especially, to enter my desired lane earlier and most importantly look out for motorists! they are easy casualties due to their nature. a few days ago, my girl showed me an article in the straits times of an unlicensed guy who had duplicated his camp mate's key and rode this bike and collided onto another bike, which a couple was riding on. the girl died on the spot. road safety is important and the lives of many motorists are already taken. its better to not ride a bike; the passengers in a car are at least not as vulnerable as motorists. and i must really emphasize, do look out for motorists when on the road.

Personal Update - Enlistment Letter

2007-04-19T01:45:00.001+08:00

Personal

enlistment letter!

got taken aback when i received my enlistment letter hours ago. i guess i'm one of those who received their letters earlier. my report for enlistment is on 14 June 07 (Thurs) at 9.30am to BMTC School 2. by any chance anyone the same? o.O aww my poor girl she is sad. must accept okay. a man does not shrink from his responsibilities =x lol just kidding.
Graduation Ceremony for IFC on 23 May 07 (Wed) at 2.00pm. still must rent the graduation attire so mafan. i need an extra ticket anyone can spare?

Software

Disable Auto Restart Nag in Windows Update

one of the most irritating dialog boxes ever? i think so. below are the tweaks you can do.

For Windows XP Pro:

In the Start Menu > Run > type “gpedit.msc” and press Enter
A Group Policy editor will open. In this window navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Template -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
Double click on No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations
In the settings window Choose Enabled and click OK
Close Group Policy Editor

For Windows XP Home:

Go to Start Menu > Run > type "regedit" and press Enter
The registry editor will open. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies \Microsoft\Windows \WindowsUpdate\AU
Change the “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” DWord value to the required number.
0 = False (Allow auto-reboot)
1 = True (Disallow auto-reboot)

Credits to Aviran's Place

Software - Speedbit Video Accelerator

2007-04-16T00:43:00.002+08:00

Software

Love watching Youtube videos but hate the freeze?

Speedbit Video Accelerator is the answer for now. It is able to reduce YouTube 'movie freezes' and 'buffering' problems as well as accelerates embedded YouTube videos around the web (MySpace.com, Blogger etc...), and includes extra features.

totally no configuration needed. just download, install and run SpeedBit Video Accelerator. you'll see a small icon on your traybar meaning that the acceleration service is running. Once you visit any of the YouTube videos link, it'll start accelerating.

"With SpeedBit Video Accelerator installed, your browser’s connection to specific streaming video server is being rerouted through the Video Accelerator Daemon. Unlike the normal browser connection, the Daemon uses a unique patent pending technology, that substitutes the single connection with a sophisticated multi-connection algorithm. The end result is an (up to) 5 times faster connection, which handles the cache buffering (the "preloading" of the movie) much more efficiently. See diagram below for more details."

the video accelerator currently only supports embedded Youtube videos, but the company promises to improve the software to support more video services. best of all, this software is free and does not contain ads.

[ Download Speedbit Video Accelerator ]

Band of the Month - Breaking Benjamin

2007-04-15T01:31:00.002+08:00

Music - Band of the Month

Breaking Benjamin - Rock / Metal

I could have made my job easier by featuring Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy or Evanescence but i saw no point since they are already well-known locally. i had to bring Breaking Benjamin into the spotlight. Their latest hit "Breath", has been topped the Billboard and R&R Radio Airplay charts for 14 weeks and peaked at #1 spot. but why are they are not receiving any damn airplay in Singapore? benjamin, the lead vocal has a unique voice that brings out the gloomy mood of the songs.

Number 1 Hit:
Breaking Benjamin - Breath
Other Recommended Tracks:
Breaking Benjamin - Had Enough
Breaking Benjamin - Diary of Jane
Breaking Benjamin - Until The End

Software - IE7Pro

2007-04-05T03:16:00.003+08:00

Software

The best Add-On for Internet Explorer 7 - IE7Pro

IE7Pro is an add-on for Internet Explorer 7 which adds lots of features and extras that make your IE easier, more useful, more secure and more customizable. IE7Pro does not make any changes on the looks of Internet Explorer.

Important features includes:

Crash Recovery - something similar to Firefox's session manager which allows you to recover your windows/tabs after IE has hung. When you restart IE it will prompt if you want to restore your last session.

AD blocker - blocks all forms of advertising, including Flash ads, pop-ups, spyware and adware ads.

Spell Check - will check any text you enter and alert you to possible errors by adding a red underline to any potentially misspelled words.

Webpage capturer - enables you to save screenshots of entire web pages and save them to various image formats (GIF, PNG, JPG etc.). this is more than a screen capture and is not limited to the display size, it will be the entire size of the web page.

[ Download IE7Pro ]

Software - Windows Live Messenger

2007-03-30T02:11:00.003+08:00

Software

Windows Messenger

Q. How do i remove the annoying ads in Windows Messenger?

A. Use Mess Patch to tweak it. make sure you're using an unmodified version of Messenger. the current version of Mess Patch works with the latest version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5.1302.1018 Final. to know which version of Messenger, go to the Help tab > About Messenger or simply run the Mess Patch and it will show you. with Mess patch, you can also enable Messenger to show display pics beside each contact in the main window just like the previous versions. i missed this old feature =)

if you use the extension Messenger Plus Live, make sure that you install Plus 1st before trying to patch Messenger with Mess Patch as this sequence worked for me.

[ Download Mess Patch ]

Q. Can you see who blocked you on MSN Messenger?

A. According to Mess.be FAQ, no single MSN block checker out there can make a distinction between a contact that has blocked you or is just simply offline. Moreover, you are STRONGLY ADVISED AGAINST using online MSN block checkers for Messenger because many of them collect e-mail addresses for SPAM or worse. Some even auto-install worms that spread to all your contacts.

Windows Xp with Windows Vista visual styles

Q. How can i achieve the Windows Vista look without upgrading to Windows Vista?

A. Use Window X's Vista Transformation Pack Version 8.01.

It can change such things as:

* Boot screen
* Welcome Screen / Logon Screen
* New msstyles files (visual styles)
* New desktop and file icons
* New toolbar icons
* Progress Dialogs
* Sounds scheme
* System Tray icons
* New Wallpapers
* Windows Media Player Skins
* And much more

[ Download Vista Transformation Pack V8 ]

Q. Changing only certain parts of Windows Xp with Vista visual styles?

A. For themes only: Use Universal Vista Inspirat Brico Pack 1.1

*Update (Apr 15, 2008):
Windows Live Messenger have upgraded to version 8.5.1302.1018
Vista Transformation Pack has updated from V7 to V8.01

Band of the Month - Skillet, 3DG, TRJA, MCR, Saosin, Daughtry, This Beautiful Republic

2007-03-17T00:42:00.004+08:00

Music - Band of the Month

it was last year August since i posted my featured artist of the month.. so i have a whopping 7 artists/bands to post on till the month of March. this is the section where i feature bands or give credit to underrated/unsigned talents. here's the update, not in any particular order:

Skillet - Christian Rock

one of my favourite bands of all-time!

Number 1 Hit:
Skillet - Rebirthing
Other Recommended Tracks:
Skillet - Live Free Or Let Me Die
Skillet - Whispers in the Dark
Skillet - Comatose

Three Days Grace - Grunge / Rock

Number 1 Hit:
Three Days Grace - Animal I've Become
Other Recommended Tracks:
Three Days Grace - Pain
Three Days Grace - Riot
Three Days Grace - Never Too Late

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Pop Punk /Rock / Screamo

Why such a weird band name? singer Ronnie Winter explains why: "The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus means absolutely nothing. It's 100 percent completely arbitrary. When we started the band, we only cared about having a good time and writing good songs far more than coming up with some symbolic, incredibly intelligent name." The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus sounds so great that i prefer them over the overrated Fall Out Boy and The All-American Rejects =)
*grats The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus "Face Down" & "Your Guardian Angel" for receiving airplay in sg! i have taste =p [Sept 19 07]

Number 1 Hit:
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down
Other Recommended Tracks:
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - False Pretense
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Atrophy
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Your Guardian Angel

My Chemical Romance - Rock / Metal

My Chemical Romance imo is an extremely mainstream and overrated band which you will either love or hate. MCR is the band which got many people whom i know are non-rock listeners to like rock! ironically, while these listeners seem to love "Welcome to the Black Parade", i feel the latter belongs to one of the band's weaker tracks =( at least, Gerald's whiny, screamo singing is virtually gone on this album. the guitars are fast and sound unique. less emo, more mainstream rock. "Famous Last Words" is the track which got me hooked back onto them again ><

Number 1 Hit:
My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words
Other Recommended Tracks:
My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
My Chemical Romance - I Don't Love You Anymore
My Chemical Romance - Helena

Saosin - Screamo / Rock / Psychedelic

Interesting trivia: despite former vocalist Anthony Green's explanation that Saosin's name came from the Chinese proverb meaning "small heart" and that he, the one responsible for the name choice, pronounced it "say-ocean", the current members of the band primarily pronounce it "Say-Oh-Sin", meaning either pronunciation is widely considered acceptable.
I love "Voices" and its lyrics:
We speak in different voices
When fighting with the ones we've loved
We speak in different voices
Why can't we say what we're thinking of
Cove's vocals are awesome and very likable, with the drums and guitars blending very well with overall.

Number 1 Hit:
Saosin - Voices
Other Recommended Tracks:
Saosin - Collapse
Saosin - You're Not Alone
Saosin - I Never Wanted To

Daughtry - Rock

Number 1 Hit:
Daughtry - It's Not Over
Other Recommended Tracks:
Daughtry - Home
Daughtry - Feels Like Tonight
Daughtry - Over You

This Beautiful Republic - Christian Rock

Number 1 Hit:
This Beautiful Republic - Going Under
Other Recommended Tracks:
This Beautiful Republic - Casting Off
This Beautiful Republic - The Surface

Personal Update [Mar 07]

2007-03-16T14:46:00.002+08:00

WordPress

spent a few fricking hours trying to figure out how to use wordpress. initially i was stuck at learning how to customise and upload wordpress themes to my account, but then i realised wordpress.com doesnt support themes zzzz! wordpress.com only allows you to choose the themes in their website. wordpress.org, on the other hand, allows much more flexiblity so that the user can upload themes, plugins and tons of customization. however wordpress.org requires the user to have a web host which generally costs $7-12 a month. hais sad. i do not wish to use wordpress.com even though its free as the customization is very very limited.

pros of wordpress:

uses Web 2.0 (which is perceived second generation of web-based services): very cool
can be very professional-looking
many useful features

cons of wordpress:

can be overwhelming for a beginner, as the blogging software industry is constantly evolving; the Getting Starting instructions are not clear enough
if you are using wordpress.org, you will be dealing with PHP instead of the traditional html codes. however PHP allows for much more functionality and moreover it is open-source. some basic SQL knowledge is needed, as a wordpress server requires MySQL and PHP.

if you are confused about the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org, click here for the FAQ with the details of differences. this will most likely save you considerable time before you decide to move to either wordpress.com or wordpress.org =)

Snap Preview (Renamed Snap Shots)

i added a nice feature to my bloggy. just place your mouse anywhere over a link and tada! a slick preview popup shows ^^ Snap is free.

credits to Snap

Personal

a few updates:

i just received my results 2 days back and i've completed my course of study! yays.
many times i forgot to update my blog that i earned my class 3 driver's license back in Nov 06 le =)
poly chalet is coming again!
i've cleared most of my older posts as i wanted to tidy things up and have a fresh start in this year.

Music - Lostprophets 4:AM Forever M/V

2007-02-21T12:18:00.001+08:00

Music

lostprophets - 4:AM Forever video clip

a very touching and beautiful song =)

Personal Update - My Thoughts on R/S [Dec 06]

2006-12-20T01:38:00.002+08:00

Personal

i'm seriously getting very fed up with blogger and my luck nowadays. blogger is so damn laggy for me. apart from this problem, i am bound to lose several paragraphs whenever i edit my posts. this always happens when i alternate between the edit html, compose and preview mode.

i just feel like penning down some of my thoughts on relationships thats been on my mind for a very long time now.

i always believe that the foundation is very very important in a relationship and both partners should put in alot of efforts especially into the foundation.

it takes two hands to clap. if your partner has to let you down once, do you give him/her a chance? if you do, what if he/she lets you down again? a leopard never changes its spot. if it happens once before, definitely there are very high chances of the second occurrence. for example if your boyfriend is already showing signs of violence like using force to push you aside when hes agitated, then fall out of the relationship already. do you really wanna get hit by this guy then you will decide to end it? i would advice you to leave him/her before you sink deeper and get hurt more. sometimes its not longer about holding on to the relationship. in your mind and heart you have to really ponder whether your partner is worth all the efforts. loving someone is to love him/her deeply but not BLINDLY. you may say that saying is much easier than doing. but i've experienced it myself. even if your partner shows some form of remorse or change, dont give in. bu yao xin luan.

maintaining a relationship is very delicate. do it well and you'll reap the sweetness and blissfulness. make a little mistake and you'll experience pain you've never tasted before. when you decide to take the wings of love and fly, be prepared to get your wings burned. theres always a level of balance in everything, visible or not. like karma. if you treat your current partner like shyt, in future your partner/s will make you suffer the way you made your current one.

i also believe that consistency is very important. dont be super sweet to your partner in the initial period and then start to slow down. in most cases your partner will accuse you that you've changed. sad ya?

when you go out with a guy/girl, notice how he/she treats the people that serve him/her. "A mentally healthy person is consistent, they treat almost all people the same way all the time. If you find yourself dating a guy who treats you like a queen and other females like dirt -- hit the road" -Joseph M. Carver

some couples like to play mind games when they quarrel. things like "die die cannot give in arh, later her/she take me for granted how". since both of you are already together why still play mind games? be open to each other ma. when a couple quarrels, can both parties just show each other some affection and cool down first? slowly talk things out afterwards. especially when you feel like you're always the only one showing affection and giving-in in quarrels, communicate with your partner and tell him/her your thoughts and feelings. im sure if he/she truly loves you, he/she will try to change for the better for you. no point getting so frustrated and start to say or do things that hurt each other. i believe a simple act of affection can make a world of difference.

last of all when your relationship is unsuccessful, dont intend on getting answers from your partner. even if you do most likely you'll get illogical answers. it will rarely make sense so dont make yourself suffer. just take time alone to reflect on your mistakes. and most importantly treat each relationship as an experience, not as a gamble.

Personal Update [Dec 06]

2006-12-14T20:22:00.002+08:00

Personal

a collection of unfortunate happenings

a few days back, my broadband connection suddenly went down and after hours of troubleshooting i decided to call the singtel customer service hotline. a phone line check was arranged for the following day. the service guy couldn't even get a reading in my house. so what was wrong? he checked the cables in the centre and changed the cables for me. my connection recovered after that. i never heard of such a problem before -_-

today morning, my LCD monitor decided to die on me after 2 years. great. while trying to move out my old bloody CRT monitor, i cut my wrist zz. and i will have to replace my LCD monitor. *sigh*

a few hours later i headed for school early hoping to revise for my paper. i hopped on to bus 27 as usual. after finding my fave seat at the back, i noticed something. there was a weird burning smell. now guess what? just when the bus was take its normal route into TPE, it went straight into punggol instead. the bus stopped shortly by the road and the passengers alighted. the bus driver, didn't even arrange another bus to pick us up. somemore the location we alighted was out of the way leh! unfortunately, fortunately my paper was in mid-afternoon and the incident didnt affect me much. a friend of mine happened to take the same bus as me and he called for his dad to fetch us to school with a car. this is like the 3rd time in my life i tio such a thing le leh!@#!@%

my nose has been blocked for several days now even though i'm not having a flu. it has been affecting my mood and concentration especially on revision. the pain in my head just wont go off =/

and i think i'm running a fever now due to irregular hours of sleep and getting caught in the rain several times this week le.

some things to remind myself to be positive about:

today's paper was easy! everyone thought we were going to have a hard time but i really wanted to burst out laughing after i completed the paper. we all studied so hard and was so damn stressed but it turned out to be an easy paper instead. wahaha =x

tomorrow is my last paper and i'm going for steamboat with my poly friends. yay.

*i'm having a problem with blogger: i lost a paragraph! forget it.*

Music > POD - This Time

2006-09-04T22:54:00.001+08:00

Music

P.O.D - This Time

And is this, where we need to be?
Or are we tired of looking?
Searching for more than eyes can see,
For something to believe in.
It slipped away, fell away, tried to play yourself
No turning back, all alone and there's nobody else,
Who even knows I'm missing.

And I and I will run
But this time,
It's worth more than the chance we're taking.
And I and I will run
But this time,
Wanting more has got me waiting
This time for Love.

And I have done this all before,
And nothing ever changes.
Waiting gets harder everytime,
I don't know how to stay still.
And nothing more left to lose, throw it all away
Maybe the last chance i get to see your face
I can't afford to leave here.

Personal Update - My 19th B'Day

2006-09-03T19:17:00.002+08:00

Personal

Friday, Sep 2

went straight to marina buffet after clock-out and water bomb session x)

received presents and i love them ^^

logitech gaming keyboard and mouse - thanks F409

braun buffel leather wallet - thanks thomas, jeremy, jianyong, william, kk, bryan, pohsiang, zhenyue, jianwen, ivan

adidas shoe bag - thanks ken

and thanks to everyone who helped to make the 200 bombs lol, and friends who went for the marina buffet :) sorry if i missed out anyone.

Saturday, Sep 2

Happy Birthday to ME :)

went to sentosa with my secondary sch clique: huyi, joanna & her guy, weian, weekian, benny, benjamin, russell and mat

jeremy, thomas, jianwen joined us in the noon.

it was a good chillout session. i had fun and a good tan :) hope you guys enjoyed it too.

headed down to Fish & Co at Park Mall for my 1st time =x had salmon and yummy fresh oysters for my dinner.

i received an sms from my mei exactly when my meal was served.

"faster come back hm. dad told us to be prepared for the worst. mum says theres no way for amendments."

i immediately teared in front of friends and i guess huiyi and weekian was shocked. thanks for the words of encouragement. i managed to fight my inner emotions and started my dinner, albeit with a very heavy heart =/

*my parents had a big quarrel a few days before. they had cold war for days already, not talking much to each other and not sleeping together. what worries me most is my mei. i saw my mom totally lost her sanity once before and she was so frightened that she ran to my room and cried so badly.*

wanted to catch a movie with my clique after dinner, but i had no choice but to head home, despite how much i wanted to stay out on my birthday night. i had to protect my mei, i told myself.

sunburnt and jaded i reached home, only to see many fresh blood stains everywhere on the floor. it appeared to me that my mom was provoked again and trashed a glass panel with her fist. i rushed to my room and tried to clean up the blood stains while my parents were still having a conflict among themselves. i had a hard time cleaning up, it was really a lot of blood lost. fortunately her wound had almost stopped bleeding when i reached home.

i'm trying to be very patient with mom already, she will be easily agitated and kan me for nothing. zzz.

she started to talk with dad again today, but i dont wanna live in fear at home everyday that she may lose her sanity any time again.

"dun let ur parents get to ur head. they live their lives we live ours"

wtf do you realise you've made an irresponsible and childish comment?

you deserve to be kan by me even though you are an important friend to me.

my parents every year without fail would buy a cake for me de, except this year. i dont mind. but somehow it just doesnt feel right. my dad apologised, his apology cut me =/

no birthday cake no birthday song no birthday wish. i want my birthday wish =(

Personal Update [Aug 06] - 2

2006-08-13T00:16:00.001+08:00

Personal

worked at a company family event at Sentosa Palawan beach on Sat with william, kenneth, kenny, louis, ahpok and teohwee. it's been a long time since i've last been to sentosa. somehow, i felt depressed despite the relaxing surroundings, hot babes and great sun.
*i don't need these memories everywhere i go*

i'm a good boy okay, i've been working on weekends.
*forcing myself to be occupied away from all these foolish thoughts*

no matter how hard i try, i'm just not good enough for anyone. i'm feeling very fucked up now. whipped up a meal, got a scolding from my mom instead.

"why are you cooking noodles? i thought you told me you had dinner already?"

"ya, still hungry la"

"are you sure you had your dinner already?"

"i had a light dinner at the funfair only, as the food wasnt very nice"

"are you sure you're not lying?"

"lie for what. i hungry jiu cook lo"

"who knows you. you're not that simple nowadays anyway."

"walao, what's wrong with cooking noodles?"

"i dont wan to talk to you anymore. whatever"

earlier, she even kept asking me if i really was working at sentosa. not once, not twice but THRICE she asked if i was playing at sentosa instead of working. the 3rd time she asked was when i reached home and the moment she saw my sunburnt skin she asked, "you went to play ball ah?". working outdoors at sentosa cannot get tanned ah? c'mon mom.

fuck la i've had enough. yes i did tell her white lies when i was very small. but now i've grown up already. can you just fucking give your son some trust? i'm trying to talk to you in a nice tone yet you had to screw it all up by asking me fucked up things. THIS IS SO FUCKED UP.

why is she always so suspicious of the things i do?
why is she always so paranoid?
why does she always have to say negative things in such a crude manner?
why cant she leave some things for me to decide?

it's not as if i've committed a crime before. it's not as if i can't think for myself.

you want me to study hard for my own good. i try.
you want me to do housework. i do.
you want me go chanting with you. i go.
you want me to work to help out in household expenses. i work.
you want to restrict some of my activities despite my age. my friends mocked me. i didnt complain.

am i not good enough as your son? wo ming bai, i only know how to play and make you worry only.

and it's because of frustrating things like these which i cant control i broke down inevitably. i'm not superman. i'm trying very very hard to be strong and take things in my stride already.

Personal Update - My 1st Blood Donation [Aug 06]

2006-08-03T20:31:00.001+08:00

Personal

The Singapore Red Cross Blood Donation Drive Aug 2006

Venue: TP Library, Level 9, Seminar Room
Date: 2nd to 3rd August 2006

i went with william, jianyong and ivan. thomas and charles didnt join us because of their own personal reasons. eee hum. lol =x

registration > medical screening > blood test > blood donation

i feel a little sense of satisfaction as it is my 1st time :)

do a deed today, be a blood donor.
learn more about blood and blood donation here

Personal Update [July 06]

2006-07-20T02:32:00.001+08:00

Personal

i broke down again, uncontrollably. am i done drying my tears? i've tried.. really tried.. i'm very tired.

why do i have to suffer this emotional pressure? can't i just do what i need to do to alleviate my pain?

if me keeping quiet keeps everyone happy, i rather die.

no one ever helped to make things easier for me. if i had a very close female friend (a pillar of support) it wouldn't be as bad.

you'll only understand this pain after experiencing it yourself. (instead of critising me)

i chose to drift away from some friends as they only cause me more pain and unhappiness.

i chose to force myself to forget about some things so that i could move on.
i had to force myself to do many things i didn't like at all. i hate that.

i don't seek for anyone's pity. i don't seek for understanding.
i long for salvation and comfort.

Band of The Month - Makeshift Romeo [July 06]

2006-07-06T22:07:00.001+08:00

Music - Band of The Month

wow love at 1st sight (hear)!

i fucking love MakeShift Romeo, cool vocalist, guitar beats, lyrics.

Recommended Tracks:

MakeShift Romeo - Dream
MakeShift Romeo - The Way I Was

Band of the Month - Faktion, Rev Theory, Egypt Central [June 06]

2006-06-10T12:11:00.003+08:00

Music - Band of the Month

Faktion is a new, extremely-talented band from Texas. this is their first full-length album and there are no frills. each song is simply so polished.

Recommended Tracks:
Faktion - Letting You Go
Faktion - Take It All Away

There is an art to mixing power with chords, and the guys from Revelation Theory are masters of their medium. Offering a potent blend of hard and heavy guitar rock, forceful and impassioned vocals, and a muscular and melodic rhythm section, this four-piece infuses enough energy and honesty in their music to power their home city of New York.

Recommended Tracks:
Revelation Theory - Slowburn
Revelation Theory - Selfish and Cold

Egypt Central is rising from the streets of Memphis. The edgy young rock band has been together for a little under 2 years.

Recommended Tracks:
Egypt Central - Over and Under
Egypt Central - You Make Me Sick
Egypt Central - Taking You Down

i'm been listening to these 3 rock bands recently and they're great! i discovered them through radio stations and modern rock charts. They all are new bands with immense potential.

School

as you can see, i'm not updating my blog frequently mainly due to school. school is very very tiring and sickening. there are so many many times i have thoughts of fcuking everything up and quit school. many friends do not understand =/ i'm not trying to critise anyone yea. my apologies in advance. buddies like wei an, having Business Studies for their course, their timetable is very slack and they rarely need to appear for lectures and a few of my clique even skip tutorials. mine is a different case. in the past i thought that my course InfoComm would be in the IT school since it is more IT-related, but somehow its in the Engineering school. my timetable, esp for students like me who have failed a module before, is damn screwed up. maximum per week we allowed to have 30hrs of classes, and mine will always be like 28-30hours as i have to squeeze in the retaken modules. my timetable is always damn packed la =/ attendance is taken very seriously in my school. even though i know we do not spend a lot of energy in classes, but the long hours are certainly taking a toil on me. it makes me feel even more lonely and moody. 5 coursemates i know have quitted school and you can see how crappy our course can get.

but why did i choose InfoComm and TP in the 1st place? heh, i chose TP only because its nearer to my place. long transport is a drag. i always had a interest in the IT field but i do not like hardcore programming therefore i chose InfoComm over IT as there is a significant aspect of Telecomm in InfoComm.

sometimes i worry about my future prospects, i guess most of us do. i wonder why do i have to suffer so much in this damn course while i most probably can have a easier time in other courses. there is also many more babes in Business school! jk =x

my course is crappy. but afterall, its still the path i chose and i should find the will to complete it at least.

to my readers: follow your interests and chase your passion. there is no time for regrets, everything will be just fine in the end =)

Rihanna - Unfaithful Music Video

2006-06-04T21:49:00.001+08:00

Music

Rihanna - Unfaithful Music Video

this is the mtv i was promoting in my msn nick a few weeks ago. written by Ne-Yo, it is a slow ballad which addresses the feelings of guilt a girl faces as she cheats on her boyfriend. beautiful song, beautiful rihanna.

girls, please be faithful be your boyfriend.
commitment is a problem in our deluded world.
guys will appreciate honesty. trust me.
if you do not truly love your guy kindly leave him earlier, rather than dragging on and causing more pain =/
guys shouldnt be greedy too.
~~don't be a fucking bastard to steal other's girlfriend. thank you.~~

Personal

i've learnt not to put too much hope, as it will only cause me more pain & disappoinment.
i've learnt not always to be so nice and giving, since many people will take me for granted and leave me unappreciated.
it doesn't always pay to be nice.

My 1st Post

2006-05-21T18:23:00.002+08:00

yep 1st post =) did some minor edition of the original background as it was a little too girly -_-" i initially wanted a more rock and goth looking blogskin, but couldn't find any to my liking =/ will stick to this until i find a better one. the rock chic is beautiful isn't she?

i started this blog partly because some of my friends encouraged me to do so. yea, i thought why not? i could express some of my inner thoughts and feelings, and put some of my english vocab to good practise lol. i'll be posting some music and software update goodies in my free time yea?

speaking about school, i'm currently in year 3.1, in-house attachment (sip/mp) now. the company my team (standard 3 students each) is attached to is Kestrel Technologies. their business is basically about simulators or whatever. there are tons of things i'm unhappy about.

firstly, sip/mp runs full-time, which means the mandatory time i spend in school is Monday-Friday 9am - 5.30pm. you HAVE to clock-in exactly before the system clock time of 9.01 am. any later, you'll have to queue up after that to fill in an AWOL form to explain your reason for being late. the system time is faster by at least 4mins! zz. and hell yea, we have another bitchy Mother Superior here.

secondly, out of the 3 company supervisors who came down for the 1st meeting, my team had to be assigned the strictest supervisor! wtf. not friendly at all, v authoritative and most of all expectations fcuking high. he even said he barely passed the other 2 teams that worked with him before my batch. die la. my group is that type which will be satisfied just by meeting the minimum requirements =/ my 1st year classmates all assigned groups by themselves way before sip/mp registration started, so i joined this group since they are people i can work with. i'm not the group leader, yes even though supposedly less stress for me, but i feel unease not being at control with some things, for example the standard of our work. its not right of me to criticise the work of my teammates ba. but at least if i'm a group leader i could work some things out easier =/ if i do get serious in my work, or even play, my standard i set for myself can be very high. i can be a perfectionist at times.

the company supervisor brian, even threatened to drop my team if we do not meet his expectations! fcuk it. i do not wan to waste half a year repeating this.

after all, we are still students and we're not getting paid a single cent for attachment damn it. please understand our plight zz.