Thursday, June 29, 2006

Chikaru~~~

i.e. Site updates.

Banner girl this time is Chikaru from Strawberry Panic. A very happy and open character. Definately my type of girl.

I've decided to use a fairly simple background, and see what I can do with the picture instead. The video quality isn't the best, but after working with the adjustment curves, and adding a bit of blur, the colour bleed isn't that noticable.

This is also the first time a colour sash was added to the banner. Worked pretty nicely, I think. The picture reflects her simple, yet happy character (I think. I'm never an artist...)

Wow.

So, I was having a pretty shitty week so far. Team messing up, world messing up, referees messing up.

Yet, as they all say, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Rachel SMSed me on Monday to ask if I wanted to have dinner with a bunch of peeps from 4E1 on Wednesday. Naturally, I said yes.

I went out early that day, because simply, I needed to change a RAM card (256mb lags my computer. Bah.)

Which means, I was at Raffles Place a full 40 minutes before we are supposed to meet up.

Surprisingly, Raffles Places Xchange has no place for me to sit down and enjoy my book. Bah.

However, time did fly by pretty quickly, especially when you start counting the people coming out of a gate. I was enjoying the new Fate/Stay Night OST on my mp3 player, counting 1582, when suddenly, a huge slap on my back jolted me back to reality.

>_>

Lin Pin and Rachel are here.

We headed to Pasta Fresca at Boat Quay. I was at most, expecting 5 to appear, and that is in one of my best dreams.

However, when I saw Kok Wei, Kui Siang, Steven, Edwin Lee, Nick and Sean appearing, I was very surprised.

And, very very very happy.

Dinner was basically, ordered by Rachel, who knew the area well. We just used the time to catch up. The bonds between 4E1 is still as strong as ever, and this put any stupid ideas of it being otherwise to rest.

And ffs, I need to stop having people paying my dinner for me.

After dinner, Rachel and Lin Pin went back. While I sorely wanted to join them, and send both of them back, I realised that the guys should also be thanked, because many had Army and godknowswhatelse. So, since they proposed for drinks at One Fullerton, I agreed to join them, and pay for the drinks as a way of thanking them.

The pub, was fittingly called "Babyface Chillout", since we just got 2 jugs of drinks and enjoyed the highlights of the past few days of football.

All in all, a fantastic day, especially given the shit I had the past few days. Thanks people! This is one day I won't forget!!

---

So, it seems like Singapore are being a much more open society these days.

For example, some dude (Nicholas H) remarked about how just before he went into BMT, he won't be seeing condom ads on the MRT. Now, the ad proudly proclains that their condoms are the "strongest" and "thinnest" and whatever. On another side, is some lubricant for females, as well as some wash to get rid of "odour".

And now, the police is thinking of making certain massage palours do their stuff in full view of the public.

Oh.... joy.

I wonder how that's going to affect business. <_<. Can you imagine yourself getting a massage in full view of others? Would you even want to do it?

While Singapore is slowly embracing the idea of sex more openly, even though it's just the people who refuse to face it, this is getting ridculous. Of course, it could be more fun with sex toys ads and even more obscene stuff, but this massage in the public is kinda overboard.

While it is a way to counter vice activities, I think this will seriously affect those who aren't into "That" type of trade. What's needed is just more checks by the police. There's no need to go to such a step to stop vice activities. It's like saying "Because you can download illegal things via BitTorrent, you should not use it at all" (for the uninformed, BT is used by MANY sites to save bandwidth to send huge files to uses, for example, Linux OSes, huge game files for free games.).

However, if the checks don't work, how about even more stiffer penalities? I'm always one who likes the idea of having very harsh penalities as a deterrent. Canceling visas is one sure fire way to ensure that it won't happen.

But then, if the people prefer to have everyone looking at someone getting a massage....

*shugs*

---

Song of (Whatever) changed to God Knows... by Hirano Aya, who also sang Bouken Desho Desho? . This song appeared as an insert in Haruhi 12, and once again, shows that Hirano Aya is someone who should havea much longer resume than she should be having now. Her work as Haruhi in the anime is absolutely fantastic, delivering the character to us very well. This song, along with Bouken Desho Desho?, showed her ability to play with her voice, both on the high end, and the low end on a rather fast paced rock tune such as this one.

I'm definately a fan of her now.

But still, Mai > all!

Monday, June 26, 2006

Nokia repair shop

So, after mere months, my mom's handphone broke down. Stupid LED screen can't light up.

Century square was the nearest to our house, and since I needed to pick stuff up as well, it's there we went.

To be honest, I'm VERY surprised with the queue for the Nokia repair service, even if it's a sunday. I've had enough time to go to the arcade, mess around with House of the Dead 4, twice, watch some dudes fight in Maximum Tune 2, and still wait for my turn.

And right beside the repair shop, with the queue snaking to the Haagen Daz area, is the nokia shop.

Really, I wonder if anyone, looking at the mere size of the queue, will want to buy a Nokia phone. My dad remarked that Samsung's customer service center has the staff there doing nothing.

So, does that mean that no one buys Samsung phones?

...or something else entirely?

I don't know about you, but I might skip over Nokia. This isn't the first time it has happened. At least they are willing to do it for free though. Could be worse if it was out of warrenty.

However, I think that Nokia should not put a shop right beside the damned repair area. It took nearly 2 hours to talk to the people into fixing it, and more than an hour to get the phone back the next day (I actually played ghost squad while waiting. Go me. >_>) Creative also has a huge line at their repair center during weekends, but at least, it's hidden in some unseen area, a tag telling people what it is. If you don't look hard enough, it could be hard to find the repair area in Creative HQ.

But well, either way, is kinda like cheating one's money. It's not as if the phone I'm using now (motorola) is absolutely fantastic anyway (sound is terrible. Can't hear the other dude talking on the other side at times).

However, if motorola's shop has this huge queue at their repair shop before I brought the phone, I don't think I would have this phone today.

Heh. Business. >_>

Saturday, June 24, 2006

3 yellows = 1 red

Lesson learned.

Go Graham Poll! In GameFAQs community, no one understood why he was chosen in the first place.

But at least, it wasn't a final, and the decision in the end, didn't anger too many fans (except the Croats).

But damn. That was one of the worst refereeing I've seen in a while.

Go Shamsul!

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Prison full = no need for law?

England's prisons are filling up, according to Straits Times today.

While it didn't surprise me, since England can always build more prisons, I was surprised by a comment which was along with the article.

It questioned "whether the government ministers fully appreciated the severity of overcrowded prisons when they made calls for tougher and longer sentences."

O_o

Seriously, O_O.

Just because a prison is maxing it's capacity, you are going to reduce laws? What, snatch-thieves and arsonists do "community service" instead? Prisons are left for those idiots who are stupid enough to commit a really horrible crime, such as murder?

Are they crazy? What kind of lawless country does these people want England to be? Take, for one, Singapore. It's extremely tough laws is one reason why the crime rate is low. True, idiots still commit the crime, but if rape only carries a 1 year prison sentence, I think we'll be seeing a lot more rape cases.

Thing is, the solution isn't to "reduce" the sentence, or to keep it as it is. he government ministers obviously understood the need to enforce a tougher rule because the older ones are not strong enough to deter people (hence overcrowding). In short term, yes, prisons will be emptied "fairly" fast.

However, in long term, what kind of a country will be left? People running around with rifles and shooting into the sky when they want to protest against something?

No. The solution is to build more prisons, tougher prisons, prisons which make everyone think twice before committing a crime. True, these come from taxpayer's money, but just fine those criminals more to cover up the costs, and make them work on the vegetable plantation if it's really necessary. However, substituting the toughness of the law for prison space is a definate no no.

Hope they get that, for the sake of their country.

Monday, June 19, 2006

"This is very special" is another way of saying "What is this? O_o"

Lesson learned.

So, finally, it's Fengzhi's birthday, or at least, the time to celebrate it.

Once again, I'm "surprise" package.

For some strange reasons, I just felt so... used. Like I should be wrapped in ribbons, and be presented to the birthday girl, again.

=(

XD. Hahahahahhahahaa.

Ah well, but the "surprise" failed, because I was writing a long birthday wish (I usually keep them short and sweet), and partly because I thought of a rather stupid idea to hide in the toilet, ending up meeting Fengzhi and Joanne within 5 seconds of leaving my seat.

Bah. Silly me.

2nd of all, the Sizzler was rather disappointing for me. I've been there quite a fair few times to celebrate things like Birthdays and Father's Day, but today, it was not up to their usual standards. THERE WERE NO NACHOS, FFS. It got replaced by some horrible pasta and noodles. >_>

I'm never going back.

But all in all, a fairly nice birthday dinner. Of course, the "mastermind"'s surprises is by far, not complete. No Siree. She decided to hide the present, and we got a fake present for her. The fake present was supposed to make the birthday girl go "What is this?". It's those kind of badass punk bands or something of that sort which I saw on 77th street.

Trust me, that isn't a easy decision to make. Me and Xin Lan had to go all over the mall, and decide what would be very shocking for her. It came down to that, or black lipstick. >:D

But, to my ultimate disappointment, she merely said "Wow, this is so special. I don't have this in my collection".

My efforts! One mere attempt to surprise her. WASTED.

An absolute failure!

I seem to have underestimated the birthday girl. =( Obviously not one to be surprised easily.

Hehe.

Or not? Later, she revealed that she was "a little" shocked with the initial present. Her words, were, but a mere way to cover up the shock she received.

Clever. Hehe.

Then came the cake, which was really nice, despite Xin Lan all ready to stick TNT into it and blow something up. However, despite Xin Lan and Joanne eating so little during the dinner course, they barely touched the cake.

:o

How can they survive on that dinner? EAT MORE! \o/

Or I should eat less.... ._.

But after that dinner, Xin Lan surprised even me, by paying the entire thing. This breaks rule 3 in my book. Totally absurd. I don't know, but to have her paying the entire thing was.... madness in my sense.

But many thanks for treating.

But, I'll find a way to even the score. Somehow.

Just watch me. =)

The thing after dinner was watching Cars. Again, due to my sheer stupidity, I didn't get the tickets at Suntec, but all the way at Lido. <_<

However, thankfully, the movie itself was fairly nice to watch. As expected from Pixar, yet another movie with the words "Win" stamped all over it.

A nice birthday celebration, although I some things could have been better. Still, I enjoyed myself.

And pre-happy birthday, Fengzhi!

P.S. Photos should be sent via yousendit. If you have troubles, talk to me on MSN.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Na na na na.....

Hey hey hey....

<_<

So, the Othello team recorded their worst ever defeat in history, coming back empty handed.

Bah. Down goes the chess club. <_<

Oh well, was fun.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Maple....sweatshop.

-_-

Ugh. Too many happenings this week.

But I caught up with Ron and Sean as they graduated from Tekong.

The usual LAN and Xbox came. Hehe.

However, after I brought them aimlessly to Park Lane Mall (I got scammed. >_> There isn't any pool/LAN there), we headed to Dhoby Ghaut Xchange, where there used to be Zone X with Xbox.

Used to be.

<_<

To my horror, it became a mapling sweat shop. In it, are brand new computers (2ghz, at least?), suffering to this game called "Maple Story", and god knows what else (there seems to be a dancing game).

Maple Story, for those who have no idea what it is, is a game which rode on the MMORPG wave. Basically, you go around, killing the same damned things till you reach level X. At level X, you get an upgrade to some sort of uber/stupid armor, and you go farm something else till you reach level X2. Rinse, repeat.

At that time, most games just have some cool warrior, leveling up. It's bloody, it's violent, and it's generally, stupid. Generally, games make money by offering you super items at a price. If you can pay, you can dominate the entire game. No skill required.

Maple, on the other hand, saw the market in kids and females, given the popularity of Gunbound. Basically, instead of monsters, you get to kill some random mushrooms, ghosts and... really, I don't know.

Ugh. Seeing kids wasting their money at a LAN shop, mapling when they can do it at home already saddens me.

Now, a whole lan shop is out to cheat the kids money? I mean, if it's a PVP game, then it's understandable. For example, in Guild Wars, you can order a spike much more effectively together because on Vent (a voice comm).

But Maple Story has no PVP function. It's just a bunch of kids hammering the space key.

It's very very sad.

I want back my Xbox area! A place where I can enjoy playing Burnout on the Xbox, because Cinileisure don't have it! Bah!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Police forcing people to comit crimes?

Interestingly, the Straits Times reported two fellas who was nabbed by the CNB because they were "lured" into buying drugs. The tactic was to go online (Galaxynet perhaps? Hmm...), talk to these sheeps, pretend to be some cool dude, ask them to come down and "have fun" with drugs. The moment they come down, catch them. Quota fulfilled.

:o

If they refuse, continue to SMS them until they break?

Well, according to CSI:NY, the police are allowed to lie legally to get a "confession" out of their suspect, for example "I just smashed his head with a seigehammer! I didn't stab him!". In Singapore, police actually baiting a suspect to bring drugs is actually legal.

Scary thought. I mean, how are you supposed to know that the guy behind that fake IRC nick is a CNB officer?

Actually, simple. According to the famous IRC rule, "All females on the internet are males, all the males are females, and all 13 year olds are FBI agents", it actually makes sense in this situation.

Basically, trust no one. Even in my fansubbing team, if my co-translator decides to ask me "Hey, get me some Ice dude.", I'll ask for him to get kicked out of the team.

However, I am surprised that the people involved actually broke. I mean, one of them is a medical school student, he should have sufficient common sense to know what it means if he's caught (bond broken, and a shit load of things). If he had any sense at that time, he would know that the person asking him to bring drugs should be fishy, and report him to the police with the logs immediately on the charge of harassment (the trace-up would be funny though.)

Yet, why did he do it? Why did he actually even show up with the drugs? Ugh, an entire career wasted.

And for what? Some dude on IRC?

Seriously, trust no one on the net. :o

Unless you know them personally.

Even then....

---

Song of (whatever) changed to Sanctuary by Nami Tamaki, the opening theme of Kiba.

God, I love Nami Tamaki. One of my favourite singers.

But damn, why is she singing the opening theme of a rubbish anime? >_>

----

Stop smiling NF.

>_>

Even if you can't help it after reading that message.

<_<

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Everything set....?

Seems like Queensland gave me the offer, and after much consideration, I think I'll take it.

Joy joy. Flying on the 14th. Not sure it's morning or night. But, what the hell.

:o

Time to get things done.

---

Song of (whatever) changed to Ending Movie, by Hitoshi Sakimoto, from the Final Fantasy XII soundtrack. An interesting soundtrack. It seems to lack any sedimental songs. Even this ending theme isn't tear jerking at all, unlike the ones you hear in FFVIII, FFIX and FFX.

But it's way better than FFX-2 soundtrack, thank god. I didn't like the battle theme though, lacked the extra punch factor.

Well hey, it's not Nobuo, so....

Sunday, June 04, 2006

You can't keep a secret forever.

Sooner or later, some one will find out.

Sooner or later, you will be caught.

Especially if it's something as serious as a teacher flirting with a student.

This is the internet, ffs. What were you thinking when you tried to cover up with a "server hardware" issue? Perhaps there WAS a server hardware issue, but according to friends who run Distros for Warez/Anime fan-sub groups (Hence, 100mbit unmetered or Gigabyte pipelines), if there's a problem with the computer, it's those idiots are the server database who's supposed to check it. After all, they pay USD$600 A MONTH. No one asks for the server to be brought to his home, inspect it manually, then realise that it's a hardware fault. The dudes there should be experienced enough to tell you what's wrong.

If they aren't, as one of them has said, "I'm switching. WTF man."

So, finally, the whole thing blew up hugely as it made the front pages (page 4 is still "front page") of Sunday Times today, along with a few lines which were from the "conversations".

Imagine you, a parent, and your only child (perhaps a daughter) happens to be studying in TPJC. Neither one of you knew about it until the press reported it today.

What would you think? No official word from TPJC, and assuming that your child believes what the teachers say about "Server error/virus/whatever", what would be your impression about the college now?

Pretty bad, right?

This won't be so freaking huge if the school authorities has just commented breifly on it. Of course, if they denied it, it would be incredibly hilarious right now. However, if they said that they are "investigating this matter, and will only comment once the results are obtained", then, it won't be so huge in the school. The students know that something is going on, and instead of having to hear of the news from their friends or via rumors, or for me, via a sibling. The parents, will then also know that it is being investigated, and if it appeared on the news paper today, everyone will just laugh it off.

But no one is laughing now. I can already imagine a parent or two preparing to toss their child into a Poly/another JC right now.

Basically, the image of the school is ruined. The students know that there's a cover up, everyone knows what the college was trying to do was absolutely stupid.

However, like in the case of Manchester United, and their 4-5-1 without Roy Keane, everyone knew it sucked. Except Fergie.

If Manchester United was playing 4-4-2 the entire season, who knows? Chelsea might not have won the title.

Sadly, as Fate/Stay Night 22 has put it, "It's useless to try to change the past, for the tears of dead, and the memories of the forgotten will forever be seared in your heart" (or something of that sort. My japanese skills isn't all too fantastic yet. Gotta watch Eclipse's version.), it's too late to change the past. What's done, is done. You have placed that disc on the wrong square, you played the Ace with no more access back into the dummy...and so on. TPJC is in need of some serious damage control here (TPJC.net is down. Again. Ah well, I have a few fantastic FFXII soundtracks for all to hear. =( ).

So, where now, for TPJC? Admit that there was actually such a case? That's the only option I see which can work, even if it is egg in the face for the staff, and for all who has supported the staff's version of "server down/virus". It's finally time to come clean, and now is the best time to do it. They are lucky that it's the June Holidays now, or it will be even more funny when the students go to school tomorrow.

Or, it can still put it in the shadows, smoke a cigar, and pretend nothing happened. "What? It was in The Sunday Times? I didn't know that. O__o" type of response will seriously crush whatever image of the college is left. GP tutors have told everyone to read newspapers, and now, if the staff is going to be ignorant, it's just going to be their error, again, in their judgement. It is already huge enough without the need of the media in the school. However, with the media, even those who hide in the library after class WILL know about it.

It makes absolutely no sense to hide from this article, although with TPJC, you can never be sure of anything. LoL.

It might actually happen.

I hope not. The coming clean step is the right one, IMO.

Speaking about egg in the face, it will be funny for those who stood steadfast beside the teachers all along. Going to the forums, abusing the moderation system by giving "yellow" and "red" cards to such messages (even though they are in no way offensive). Since your name is known to all when you post in the forums, what would their friends think of them now? It's like those idiots on GameFAQ's MBH, pretending to be moderators, answering all newbie questions with an air of arrogance, for example "It is definately fair. I see no reason for it to be overturned, at all.". In the end, not one of them became a moderator when the new round of selections came up. The staff knows it when you are kissing butt, and you are the only one who don't know it as you plucker up.

More importantly, what would THEY think of the school? They believed so firmly in the school, they stood beside the school, even as more concrete evidence points the other way. And now, with the media reporting with the principal, the student, and the teacher all commenting, hence agreeing and confirming, what would they think of the college now?

Ah well. Sucks to be them.

Sucks to be known that I had studied in the school too. Hehe. No matter, I still carry the fact that I've studied in that hellhole like a badge of honour.

Like those idiots who get caned every other week back in secondary school.

Haha.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

3rd of July

Hmm, test date confirmed.

Let's just get it done. >_>