"So, how's your girl? Back in Singapore?"

Me: O_o

Girl: Yeah yeah, c'mon, tell us about your girl.

Me: I... don't have one.

All: Wtf.

Dude: You serious?

Me: Er.. yeah.

Dude: You don't have a girl yet? Why?

Me: ...

Me: ...

Me: >_<

I LIKE BEING SINGLE, FFS. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT? >:O

But bah. Almost everyone of my housemates are in a relationship of some sort.

I almost feel left out.

Almost.

It's... done. =O

About freaking time too. Bah.

And I swear, my drawings gets worse every year. >_<

Gotta send it on Monday. Case close. Hehe.

I'll NEVER complain about Singapore ISPs EVER AGAIN

Seriously. It shows my pathetic myopic sight when I was flaming Singnet/Starhub (commonly known as crapnet and slowhub, among others).

When it rains here, there's no internet.

When it is peak hours, there is no internet.

WTF. Is this 1997?

And, I think I can't blame my administrator(The landlord) unless I have more concrete proof. I've done some research myself, and unlike my roomies who simply blame the admin for throttling the network or something like that, I actually believe him.

Some what.

Because a tracert can easily show that I cannot connect to the net, even though I can connect to the modem. Pings time out, or if they do get a reply, it's way over 100ms. (Normally, it takes at most, 10ms).

Really, this is shit. Blame my remote outback Ipswich. LoL.

The problem I have is that the telephone company which the land lines are connected to, is a rather rubbish one. Just check out the aussie forums on ISPs (Whirlpool, for one), and you see lots of people flaming Telstar.

Well, Telstar wants to put fibre optic cables around the entire island (We are using copper cables here. COPPER CABLES, FFS!). However, their intention is to take control of the entire internet service, something like what Singnet has done (Singnet holds like, 90% of the ASDL2+ service in Singapore. Starhub goes cable).

However, as usual, the government screws around, and tells them they can't do that, and if they put fibre optics, they have to sell their access to the rest of the ISPs, like what it is doing now, to ensure fair competition and not a monopoly.

Result?

No fibre optics for me. Blah.

The only place with decent internet access is the University, which has wireless around the campus which links it straight to the main campus in St Lucia (where I'm hopefully going next year. LoL. But it makes no difference now. Year one courses are taught in both campuses). In St Lucia, they have a mainframe which allows them direct access into the internet.

However, with 150mb download quota, I'll probably exceed that in an hour or so. Maybe even 15 minutes.

And speaking of download quota, most aussie internet plans have a download quota. So, the more you pay, the more you get to download, despite the very fact that your speed is the same as your neighbour, who opted for a lesser option because he does not play WoW or DOTA every night.

So, it's like, $20 for 100mb, $40 for maybe 1 gig, $60 for 10gig.

And $100 plus for some gay 20gb. More if you want unlimited.

And oh, did I say that the speeds are 1500/256 Kbps? (KILOBITS, not even Kilobytes.)

Damn.

One other option is to switch to Optus, who plays with cable instead, so it's a little more stable. However, the prices isn't exactly fantastic, and you need to do a set up box and all that crap, and they put you on contract for a year or two, depending on your plan.

I will never complain about Singapore ISPs again (although I still feel that they are overpricing it. XD).

Damn. I miss my DOTA.

And so, it begins.

And so, lectures begins.

The lecturers are all fairly good, with the exception of the very first lecture which was canceled without notice because the class was "too small".

Lecture power points are always found on the school's server, and you can print them out, but they don't really care. Neither do I, since I'll use my comp to refer to them while studying while taking down notes.

Accounts was fairly dry, but plenty of stuff to write down. The female lecturer seems nice enough as she made the whole thing as straight forward as possible.

The laws lecture was at 6 at night, by some Singaporean Indian called Muru. Of course, he has a much longer name, but he tells us to call him Muru. He lectures fairly well, keeping the class attentive and awake, since it is rather late for the school.

On the first day, it's obvious that the lecturers have one thing in common.

Once it's over, you can go.

Especially the laws lecture. He ended the lecture by saying "I rammed through 3 chapters in, what", he pauses to look at his watch, "it ends at 7:50, right?"

It's barely 7:10.

XD

Fun.

Hospitality and management lectures are on today. Same interesting lecturers who keep the class moving by asking questions. However, one thing I noticed about Aussie students, is that they are very active in lessons. The ones who usually answer the questions, especially in a large lecture such as Laws, is a westerner.

A huge difference Singapore JCs, where the wall answers the lecturers, and some moronic lecturers will hold you back till there's 5 seconds left on the clock even though they finished 15 minutes early. If you pack, they will stare at you and say stupid things like "Why are you packing? Have I dismissed you? I want to hold you back. What can you do? Huh?"

Down here, it's "Dude, I finished like, 40 minutes early. Have fun."

XD

However, there is one common thing I noticed between here and Singapore.

Politics.

"Politics is dangerous", was the words of my Management lecturer.

XD

So true, even though quite a fair amount of people hate the American government (Figurehead reference), and seems like their government as well. It can't be avoided in laws, but the Muru dude kept it down as much as possible. LoL.

Although he did say that constitutions in Aussie is much harder to change than it is back in Singapore.

Why?

I'll leave that answer to you.

Hint: Who holds 82 of the 84 seats in parliment?

=)

Operation: Falcon's Nest

Greetings, commander. As requested, I've forwarded the photos our "passerby" took when he was in the area. I hope you find them useful.


Overview of the target's area. Target's location is on the left.


This is the main building. While the target does not reside at the stated area, it is worthy enough to note that the owners of the two houses do live in there, as well as at least 10 other students.


The driveway. Notice the garden at the back. The landlady loves gardening, so it might be critical for you to steal the keys when she is happily eating starfruits.


Target's nest. There are a total of 3 main points of entry into the house: The front door, the kitchen's door, and the back door. This is, of course, not including the windows.


Upon entry to the front door, will be the main dining table. Target usually eats alone, so perhaps, a 7.62mm NATO sniper round would be effective, although a little messy.


The stairs leading up to target's roomates' rooms. As of present, there's 2 females living in 2 of the 4 rooms. They are to be left unharmed. Heading up the stairs is forbidden.


The kitchen, as well as the 2nd entry point of the building. Target has his food stored in the cupboard located on the far left, as well as the fridge.


Target's room, as well as the 3rd entry point you see on the right. This entry point is accessable via the driveway, and is the only one not fitted with a lock. It is locked merely by a latch found at the top of the door. Fiber wire should be more then enough to open the door, or perhaps the usage of a glasscutter would be more efficient.


Upon gaining entry into target's room, the shelf is what would be first noticed. A laser motion detection trap is found hidden on the bottom shelf. However, as it is messy as hell, it should be deactivated rather easily by simply placing a mirror in front of it.


Target's work area. The laptop provides critical information which will benefit our cause. Obtain the hard disc's data for a bonus bounty.


One key access point into target's room. It is merely latched just like the 3rd access point into the house, and is also accessable via the driveway. However, because our target is of a careful nature, the door is secured with a pickerman's lock, as well as a lego motion detector. And oh, do take note of the steel pole, commander. It won't be funny if you walk right into it.


Target's bed. Probably the easiest time to eliminate the target is when he is sleeping. The sheet is not fitted with any cover because that sheet is specially designed to withstand bullets as it's made of kelvar. However, since the target's head is exposed, a simple 9mm would be more then enough to complete the job.


Target's self cleansing room. Nothing much noteworthy except for the fact that the mirror allows him to overlook his entire room easily.


A final entry point into the target's room, and perhaps, the easiest. It is accessable from the back of the house. Getting there would be easy, and it's difficult to be spotted due to a lack of lights in the area. The window is merely latched, with a laser detector on the window. A glass cutter should be more then enough to open the window. While the access point is small, a small action personale can crawl in quite easily.

All the best, commander. We cannot afford to screw this up.

Brisbane Central

So, I'm finally ready for school. After running all over the place the past few days to confirm my enrolment and stuff, I finished everything by waking up early today getting everything done, i.e. paying my school fees and getting my student card.

The student card was critical because it would allow me to have 50% discount on every mode of transport.

In the afternoon, I met a fellow boarding member, Serina to head to Brisbane central, since I don't know that damned place. The landlady introduced the both of us the day before, as Serina was stuck in Aussie the entire holidays. She's from Taiwan, but her English is excellent.

The ride to Brisbane took roughly an hour, but $4.80 for both ways (bus, train, maybe even ferry if you are lazy), was cheap as hell. Yay for student passes.

The train ride was boring to say the least. The trains are really old, and at certain areas of the ride, the lights get "shocked" out for a bit, or gets dimmed. Scenary is mostly trees and "street art" i.e. vandalism.

However, Brisbane central is NOTHING like remote Ipswich I live in.

It's crowded as hell. No where as crowded as MongKok of Hong Kong, but more people then Orchard Road. For once, I'm happy to see some kind of crowd. There is people everywhere. In the shops, in the malls, in the bookstores.

Everywhere.

The clothing isn't exactly cheap, but I bought a jacket because it can be very cold sometimes. Discounted, of course. Borders had some fairly good price for books, so I got the Song of Ice and Fire volume 2 for $17.

And in the meantime, the both of us were walking all over the central area, looking into every shop.

My feet.

Hurts.

LoL.

And the fact that I had to walk to the damned bank and back to school in the morning didn't help 1 bit.

Ate dinner at the food court there. The food is edible, but a little expensive.

But hey, that's Aussie for you. Rather expensive stuff. But they earn quite a bit more too. LoL.

Pretty fun day. I found out where to play Time Crisis 4 in Brisbane, but because I had company, I didn't bother to complete the game as I had initially planned. My shopping partner did turn out to be fairly nice to be with, despite the initial impression that she's an ah lian. LoL.

However, on the train back, as I was reading my book, and Serina nodding off, some dude came behind, and said,

"Ticket please."

So, I showed him my stub. He muttered his thanks, and moved on to the dude in front, who was a China tourist.

When he started frantically searching through his pockets for the piece of paper, which resembles a receipt, something is obviously wrong.

So, the ticket inspector asked his superior over, and told him that dude can't find his ticket, and moved on.

The china dude just paniced and started babbling about how he had his ticket today and stuff. Everyone was looking at him.

After 3 stations, he just gave up, and the inspector explained the rules to him.

And lucky him, he got a good inspector who was in a fairly jolly mood.

Appartently, there's this neat warning system which gives you one chance if you forgot about the system. That china dude didn't get fined or anything, just got off with a ticket (ride back home. Free. :o) and a warning. If he is caught without his ticket again, he's screwed.

That's basically the gist of it.

Neat system.

However, on the ride back home, Serina pretty much told me about the landlords.

The evil side of them. LoL.

Like they enjoy pigging out and stuff. They pay $60 more then me a week to eat Sandwiches at lunch, and some weird stuff at dinner.

That's why, self cater > all. Hehe.

So far, so good. I'm enjoying my boarding so far, because it is 3 minutes walk from Uni. I can wake up late, or head home for lunch and stuff. The other "near" boarding house is behind the golf course, so you have to walk through the golf course to get there. LoL. And besides, the rent isn't that great either, plus the fact that you'll have to share one tiny toilet with 5 people, kinda reminds me of a concentration camp. For that extra $20, I'm VERY willing to pay it.

School on monday. Here we go.

And damn, 7pm lecture. :o

Welcome to University of Queensland, mate.

So, orientation started today. Yay. Usual boring, but necessary talks. Singaporeans overwhelm the 17 or so of us new international students.

However, strangely, most are over 20. I am the youngest at that place. O_o

Scary.

Place is quiet, which has it's pluses.

But damn, why does the uni keep screwing up my application? >_>

Oh well. Time to mail them again. LoL.

City is roughly 10 minutes walk, which is the preferred choice for many, because the buses come in the frequency of an hour (there are roughly 10 buses), because they travel interstate.

The city isn't exactly much. 3 supermarkets, but I'm going to the one which the landlady said is the best. Just about everything can be found there, cinemas, lan shops, arcade..

Blah blah blah.

Oh, never mind they are old as hell. I think my laptop runs faster then their comps in the lan shop. LoL.

But, if I want to play arcade, I'll save it till I go to Brisbane city, which is an hour of train away. Should visit there soon, like, this week or next.

I should add some random thoughts on the middle east war and how the "superpower" isn't doing nuts about it, but I'm very tired. Had to carry a laundry basket for like, 2km, with rice, sugar, and whatever.

Yay shopping.

And I need to visit that place AGAIN tomorrow.

Zzz

Pictures:



The UQ Business school, where I'll have most of the stuff done. Neat eh?




The tutorial "houses". There are rooms in it, but it is quite small. This house reflects roughly the type of housing you see in Ipswich. All small houses. They are building Ipswich's FIRST (yes, first) high rise right now.

LoL.

Welcome to Australia, mate.

And so, here I am.

The sending off was rather emotional. However, I just can't cry. I don't know why. Seems like I've disappointed people though.

I wonder why too.

:D

However, I am very touched by their work into that book they produced. It is absolutely beautiful. One look at it, and I feel like crying. I really do, but the tears just won't come out.

Sorry again. :o

But still, I would thank the three of you, Fengzhi, Xin Lan and Joanne for spending time to make such a magnificant farewell gift! I will NOT forget it. Same goes for Wei Jie for coming down to send me off.

Mina Daisukides. ;)

Chess club 4eva~

(woot?)

After clearing the customs with ease, I wandered around for 10 minutes, surfing the net for 6 minutes, before heading to gate 55.

Only thing was, it was gate 52. Which meant quite some walk back.

Silly me.

On the plan, there is aussie dude who sat beside me. He and his wife just enjoyed a holiday in Singapore, and are flying back home. He did provide me with a few details on what to expect, especially during the orientation which is to come on monday.

The flight itself was rather smooth, if you ignore the airline food. I'm quite sick of fish, so I decided to gamble and take lamb instead. With rice to boot.

Let's say I wasted quite a bit of it.

The rest of the flight was spent watching Kung fu Mahjong 2, playing chess with some dumb comp, watching CSI:NY, playing mahjong, and finally, playing Pokemon:Silver. Yes, Pokemon:Silver. I initially wanted to complete the entire SNES super mario world, since I had always failed during my 3 hours HK trips. I was thinking that 7 should be more then enough.

Only for it not to be there. >_> Only Pokemon Yellow/Gold/Silver and Super Mario Bros. Chip tunes to boot.

Boo.

At least I got 5 badges before I got real sick and fell asleep.

Only to be woken 30 minutes later to break fast.

As usual, I went for apple juice (I NEVER go for orange juice. It's always apple for me). The bread is the usual rock, so I told them to save it for some other sucker, and ate their less hard muffin.

Soon, it was time to land. Seems like the wind was kind to us, so I was 10 minutes early.

Customs was cleared fast enough too. Some other japanese dude on another lane couldn't speak english, and so could not understand the officer's questions. This meant that he held up the entire queue. LoL.

Finally, my only feared part: Declaration.

As I was sick, I had to bring my medicine. On my declaration card, I had clearly said that I had them. Hell, the sniffer dog started clawing at my pouch when I was waiting to get my luggage, probably because of my mom's shop, anything which stays there for longer than 4 hours will have a "nasi lemak" smell.

The dog seemed to love it.

Strange.

However, because that mutt was clawing at my bag, and only a sharp word from the trainer did he sit down, I had no choice but to empty my contents. Satisfied with nothing which could pose a threat to Australia's wildlife, he thanked me and continued on.

When I was about to send my luggage through the X-ray, I told the guy once more that there's medicine inside, in case he forgot. Seeing the number of people who are asked to open their bags to be searched, I was afraid that I would have to join the crowd. However, already, I was quite prepared.

"Thanks. Proceed to the exit".

:o

This meant I was the first one to meet my driver. LoL.

The new place is fairly quiet, as is the entire Ipswich town. Did 90% of my shopping today, but I realised I have no breakfast tomorrow.

However, the funny thing is this. There are 5 rooms in the house (3 houses in total, the main one had 9, mine was the smallest one). 4 upstairs, 1 downstairs. Mine was downstairs.

But get this: The other 4 are girls.

Or so, the landlady said, since one of them is called "Alex".

Well, 2 are on holiday, and one is a korean.

I forgot her name again. Yay me.

Dinner tonight on the landlady.

But hell, it's quite freezing down here.

Gonna check out the uni tomorrow. :o

Maybe I'll start reverting back to my usual blogging style once I got used to this area.

And I just had to get sick. >_>

Oh well.

At least I got past Wednesday.

Although, I must admit, she's the first girl who ripped by plans to shreds by snubbing her favourite place for sandwiches.

:o

As expected. Hehehehe.

However, it was fun though. The movie, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest was fairly interesting, but the ending leaves you hanging for movie 3.

And she laughed quite a bit too. XD

Guess she did enjoy herself. Those laughters did sound very nice.

But I didn't.

Damned sore throat.

Too bad she didn't want me to take her home though. =(

However, I was thankful for it later, as I was on the verge of collapsing when I was near my doorstep.

Fever, sore throat, cough.

All thanks to my Mom/Dad, since they both had it a week ago. Combine that with 3am nights, beer and lots of chips....

Yay. Sickness.

And to think I'm flying off in 22 hours time. Haha.

Everything is packed, more or less. Some nitty gritty details to be ironed out, but if I need to fly now, I should be all ready.

But damn, the sickness.

The way you drive makes me want to vomit - Tester

\o/

So, today was my last chance at officially being allowed to drive. With the mounting of the kerb in the crank course still fresh in my mind, I asked my instructor yesterday to allow me more tries at that area. Today, during the warm up, I've also requested the instructor to allow me a few more spins in the area.

And, it paid off.

I passed!

Woo hoo!

At the testing waiting area, I was a huge bundle of nerves, as I almost physically felt the stress on me this time, which was unlike the last time. The tension in the room is still just as thick, so thick, you could slice through it with a butter knife.

At the ballot, the usual killing test routes 6 and 7 have 3 slots each (1 for 6, 2 for 7).

And I just HAD to get route 7.

Oh well. At least I get to drag some one down with me. Muahhahahaha.

The tester used roughly the same tactics as the last guy (go! GO! FFS, what are you waiting for?!?). But again, I mentally flipped him the bird and just went on my own speed.

However, at the turning areas, I had this very bad habit of braking and releasing, making the car feel more like a ship in a stormy sea.

Of course, the instructor chidded me on it during one of the turns. However, after the S course, which I practically used my (soon to be) patented "Brake release" movement, he said "Sit your car can vomit one, you know?"

XD

Crank course was much better now, although I took a slight risk at the parallel parking. However, I was fairly sure I had enough space so that I won't hit anything.

Was lucky then. Hehe.

After the perpenticular parking, I was so glad to hear him say "Ok, exit the circuit".

Finally. >_>

No E-brake for me, because the car in front E-braked. My speed was sufficiently slow anyway, as I had to ensure that NO one was crossing. There were some dudes waiting, so I just made my car crawl.

No problems.

However, since I was on route 7, I know that I was only half done. Route 7 is the one which you have do change lane twice on a major road, usually full of traffic.

At that time, I was thinking "bring it on!"

That's how confident I was with my road. Hehe.

As I made the turn to the main road leading to the U-turn, picking route 7 turned into a blessing in disguise.

"In front jam. Turn left instead."

WOO HOO. No need to do that rubbish U-turn. The road test turned out to be a mere spin around the area. They didn't even test my U-turns. I actually enjoyed myself to such an extent, I remembered a joke by Sean about some superior officer talking to his squad.

"You don't yes sir yes sir three bags full!"

I smiled, because due to the nature of the route he chose, he had to say quite a few times "Turn left" and "Turn right." Each were met with "Left. Yes sir!" "Right. Yes sir!"

XD

A quick spin, and I'm back at the driving center.

Easy.

Or so, I thought.

It seems like Honda is receiving a shipment of cars today, and it so happened that the damned truck is parked right smack on my lane. However, having encountered a similar situation before, I just overtook it easily.

The tester then picked up my sheet of paper, and started ticking stuff. There are plenty of times when he said "Go!", and to be fair, I should. However, I could see a car coming, so I've decided to wait instead. Why risk?

Well, that kind of mentality ensured that I got docked the maximum 6 points possible for "delay in moving off." My uber braking technique cost me another 4. Toss a few things here and there, I got 16.

4 shy of the failing 20.

Hehe.

At the end, the tester seems to have a reason to rush. Before my car was even stationary back at the school, he opened the door and stepped out once the car was stationary. He was nearing the stairs after I picked up my bag, which meant I had to hurry to meet up with him. At the review area, he just sat down, said "You are not confident enough.", scribbled some stuff, flung it at me, and walked away.

I don't care.

I PASSED.

Since the chief tester was instrumental in ensuring that I get this chance, I went to his office to show that his efforts are not wasted, thanking him once again for giving me this chance.

At the area which you are forced to watch the video, I counted the number of people sitted there.

5.

With me, 6.

Later, a guy came in, who was called out later. Seems like the tester counted his points wrongly. LoL.

Since he joined us, I can safely assume he passed. LoL.

It began with 17 people.

It ended with 7.

41.17% passing rate.

And I think it got easy this time, since there is a huge ass jam.

Imagine, if I had to make the U-turn. :o

Maybe it would have ended with 6.

Why?

Because the guy whom I forced into taking route 7, wasn't there.

Heh.

Zidane HEADBUTT!

Materazzi: I'll give you 5 million Euros if you headbutt me.
Materazzi: No I'm just Kidd-
Zidane: *HEADBUTT*

It's all over Wiki. It's everywhere.

World Cup final. The great Zidane's very last match, and he goes out on a high.

A red card.

*HEADBUTT*

XD

But still, the draw means I've got enough money this week. :o

Wednesday, wednesday.....

---

Ron's a medic, and Sean's an engineer slacking.

Damn, maybe I should go for army. There IS a chance that I'll end up in Sean's position. XD

Marina Square was the area we chose on Sat for dinner, because it had bowling at that area. Obviously, we all can't bowl for our life. But still, it was mighty fun.

Before that, we had dinner at this Japanese resturant with the waitress dressed in maid costumes. >:O Interesting, although, they are lacking the bunny ears. XD

Damn. Wayy too much fanservice animes =(

However, that place is out to cheat you. When we ordered our Bento, it came in a huge box, and we were all thinking that there would be plenty of rice.

To our utter dismay, the layer of rice is only like, 5cm. Bah.

Dessert was interesting, but it's just ice cream and fruit, although Ron took the fruit and ice. LoL.

But hey, the maid outfits made it all worthwhile. :o

Damn. I need to stop that. XD

Ended up at Pasir Ris DTE for some pool with Nick. Along came this girl called Josline (I wonder if I got the name right >_>). Fairly quiet and nice girl.

However, as I've learned, you can't judge a book by it's cover, and the 45 minutes all of us played pool did giveme an impression that she is a nice girl.

Maybe there's more? XD

Nah. Doubt it.

No way.

Maybe...?

As I was heading back, I met Kel, Mig, YW and Joel at Macs. Damn, it's almost like a Coral basketball reuninion. :O Thank god for my camera. They are all looking so different from their Coral times though, when they were till innocent....

XD

Damn. Great night.

---

Mmm, I reached Changi Internation Airport at 5 today because I'm supposed to meet up with Joanne, Xin Lan and Fengzhi. Since it's aftermy driving, I've just simply decided to head straight to the area, and look around the place which I'll visit again on Friday.

Thing learned today: Mcdonalds can't serve a hot drink for their life. I wanted a warm drink to warm myself up as the area was rather cold, and since their tea and coffee taste like some diluted wicked witch's love potion, I've decided to try their Milo.

It did get me warm.

Although, my taste buds would say otherwise.

At 5:30, I head down to the meeting area, and decided to stake out a nest so I can observe the place. Joanne came first at 5:54, while Xin Lan came with the next train.

At 1800 hours, I went down.

And no, I wasn't late. I just didn't want to be early. :P

With our last member somewhere in the north, the three of us decided to go to Expo for our pinic.

And damn, that place is deserted. The resturaunt have no business. Wth, do they only do the lunch crowd? Insanity. What's the point of wasting all that money, building this huge Expo, and still use Suntec, or have people going to Hong Kong's Asiaworld?

Bah.

After looking around for some benches, we settled down at Burger King's most isolated area, since the chance of us getting chased away will be slimmer. However, the staff saw us, and didn't care. That place isn't exactly bursting with people as well. The fact thatit closes at 8, speaks for itself.

At 7, the final person arrived (finally. :P). The dining started. Pasta, some cakes from Joanne, and Jelly from Xin Lan. All delicious in their own right.

However, strangely, when they played truth or dare, I found out how boring my life is. I found myself a little uncomfortable when talking about myself, because I barely talk about it at all with anyone. Even for me, that area seems to be one huge fortress with a moat of vipers surrounding it.

Awkard stuff, at times. Bah.

I'm just not good at talking about myself, or my life in general (which can be summarised in 1 word: sucks. \o/)

We finished the evening with some whacko pictures at Coffee Bean at Century Square after we got chased away from Expo.

For once, I have a rather embarassing moment. XD

Or, should I say, finally. :o

Fun evening. Many thanks! I will not forget it!

With the weather so hot....

It's so good to have a swim.

:o

But why is the water so cold? >_>

World Cup 2006 < World Cup 2002?

Mmm....

Well, with all the refs screwing around (Japan's goal against Aussie, 3 yellow cards and the like), I can't really say that this is one World Cup I enjoyed.

And the diving, oh the diving.

Just how can ANYONE justify C.Ronaldo's antics, and call him "possibily one of the best footballers of all time"?

You dive, you = loser.

http://f10.putfile.com/7/18517044558.gif>

That picture made my night/morning.

Sure, you can do all the step overs, but running with your chin down? Do you even care where your team mates are? Run into two defenders, then jump over them and end up on the grass. Then, look at the ref and put your arms in the air as he waves play on.

>_>

And it makes no sense to say "Robben, Drogba and Gerrard dives too. Why can't Ronaldo?" So, just because someone else dives, it's alright to dive?

Thank god the ref yesterday wasn't that stupid.

French won, that's all I care.

And oh, thanks to Italy, I have earned $18. Woo hoo. Long live draws.

A second shot. / Time Crisis 4 First Impressions

After a rather exhausting night of work (slept at 5. Ugh.), I woke up to Nami Tamaki's Reason at 9am.

Reason? (No pun indended...)

I got a second chance at the test!

Woo hoo!!! \o/

The new test date is on the 11th. Got a lesson on the 10th to boot. Man, those peeps are really helpful, and I really thanked them from the bottom of my heart.

So, last chance. For assassins, a second chance is something which only happens when the gods won a football bet (and made money out of it too).

But, when it comes, you got to take the head off.

And I WILL pass this one. Failure, is no an option.

As I was practically skipping out of the driving school after everything was confirmed, I boarded service number 94, and as usual, tapped my card on the ez-link reader.

"CARD EXPIRED." (kthxbai) the reader shouted, as it made whines which made the bus captain look at me.

I should have heeded Lan jie's warning on the blog. But hey, I'm a risk taker (which is why I failed the driving test. Ugh)

Then, I realise, I wasn't alone.

This girl beside me, had the same problem. The bus captain then made a rackus and said that he would have to confiscate our cards. However, after some talking about how it's just the first week on July, and we mean no harm, coupled with some attempted mind controlling, I convinced the bus driver to ignore us this one time.

And at the same time, made a friend, at a very unlikely place: on the bus.

She's from RJC, and will be studying medicine. Interestingly, we just talked about the driving tests and stuff, with her saying that she's screwed as her test is next wednesday, and her instructor is saying "I'm worried for you."

At the interchange, the card turns out to be fairly interesting. I can get a refund at any ticket office. The one at Eunos, happen to open at 12. >_>

Back to Tampines to pick up a package, and on to Orchard for her as she goes out for a date/meet up with friends/whatever (Didn't ask. Duh.)

However, before we left, we exchanged our MSN contacts. As my train arrived, it struck me that it was fairly interesting how technology changed our lives. It used to be "write to me". Then "Call me."

Now, it's "MSN/IM me."

Not to say, safer too. If she's a complete bitch, I can always just show the finger, and block her, although I think the chance of that happening is slim to none.

But, as in EVA, that doesn't mean 0%. :D

After collecting the package from Angela, I treked back to Century Square, with a bit of training of HOTD 4 in mind.

Then, I saw her.

The most beautiful thing I've seen since looking at HOTD 4 at Century Square.

Time Crisis 4.

Well, the difficulty has obviously jacked up from Time Crisis 3. I reached the Stage 1 boss only on my 2nd try. The red bullets just fly way too fast. A great game to eat money, I say.

However, Namco shocked me once again with their creativity. SEGA simply changed guns in their HOTD series. Namco kept the weapon changing style found in TC3, but added a totally new feature.

A multi-screen feature. So, this means instead of always look straight ahead, you have to defend, say, from enemies coming at three directions at once. This means you need to switch between 3 directions to kill the enemy when you are told to do so.

Very very very neat. Namco lives up to it's name again.

Oh yeah, I was walking at Far East when I saw this:

http://www.aaaanime.com/cat.asp?view=item&code=GSC060701

:D~

SABER!!!!

But $70 is out of my budget range. =( Especially for a piece of plastic which I'll hug to sleep everynight

But still, seeing it makes my heart warm and fuzzy. Hehe.

---

Song of (whatever) changed to Kodoku na Junrei by Kawai Kenji, from the Fate/Stay Night OST.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful OST with lots of such music, music which is slow and carries lots of emotions with it.

Me = Rooney = IDIOT

Bah.

I ****ing mounted the kerb on the crank course. It totally sucks, because it is simply my fault for being stupid. EVERYTHING was perfect.

Until that stupid crank course. It WAS supposed to be on the perfect list too. >_>

But 1 late turning, and another stupid mistake of not reversing means instant fail.

Bah.

Boku wa, hontoni baka desu.

But the tester was fun, to say the least. Initially, he kept rushing me, but I mentally gave him the finger, and drove at my pace. He's always like "Turn! TURN NOW" even when there's a car coming not too far away, or when I'm no where near the turning point.

Too bad. I'm having fun.

Or was.

Then, he knew I was just happily taking a ride. Slow, yes (got docked 2 points), but safe.

The vertical parking was fun indeed. Given lot 24, which was smack right in the middle of 2 other lots, I was waiting for the car behind to reverse, so I can start mine. I was looking back all the time, waiting, checking. Estimating.

Until I looked in front.

That idiot was reversing when my car was at LEAST taking up half his car lot space. I actually said "What the hell?" under my breath (quite loudly though), and did a quick safety check before reversing. Tester told me that the guy in front is definately failing, but he docked me 10 points because I should have horned at least 15 seconds ago, and not when his car was about to kiss mine.

All was well, until that stupid crank course. Once it hit, I was praying that it was only a strike, but one look, and I knew I've failed.

Bah.

Came out of the test wanting to walk into the path of an on-moving vehicle, and then some.

Since I'm disappearing on the 14th, chances of me taking another test, is slim, to none. The dudes there are very kind and helpful, but their hands are really tied. Even the chief tester came down to help out, but really, unless someone cancels their test, I'm looking at a retest in 3 years time.

Bah.

2006 is turning into one hell of a year which I'm very willing to forget.

Then again, it's mostly my stupidity which is causing me in wanting to forget it anyway.

Wtf, brazil.

Nuuuuu

Oooh. "Say No to Racism"

Lilian Thuram, France's most capped player, last night hit back at suggestions by Jean-Marie Le Pen that there were too many "players of colour" in the national side, denouncing the National Front leader as being ignorant of the make-up of his country's society.

The 34-year-old Juventus centre-half won his 118th cap against Spain on Tuesday and, hailing from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, is one of 16 non-whites in France's 23-man squad. He and his team-mates learned of Le Pen's comments immediately prior to the second-round match in Hanover, which Les Bleus won 3-1, with the 2007 French presidential candidate having reheated his criticisms of the 1998 side - which he denounced as "artificial" - by arguing it was not reflective of French society.

Le Pen, who was runner-up to Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential elections having beaten the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin to the second round, had insisted that France "cannot recognise itself in the national side" and that "maybe the coach exaggerated the proportion of players of colour and should have been a bit more careful".

"What can I say about Monsieur Le Pen?" said Thuram ruefully. "Clearly, he is unaware that there are Frenchmen who are black, Frenchmen who are white, Frenchmen who are brown. I think that reflects particularly badly on a man who has aspirations to be president of France but yet clearly doesn't know anything about French history or society.

"That's pretty serious. He's the type of person who'd turn on the television and see the American basketball team and wonder: 'Hold on, there are black people playing for America? What's going on?'

"When we take to the field, we do so as Frenchmen. All of us. When people were celebrating our win, they were celebrating us as Frenchmen, not black men or white men. It doesn't matter if we're black or not, because we're French. I've just got one thing to say to Jean Marie Le Pen. The French team are all very, very proud to be French. If he's got a problem with us, that's down to him but we are proud to represent this country. So Vive la France, but the true France. Not the France that he wants."

That brought a round of applause from the assembled media, with Thuram equally baffled by Le Pen's criticism that some of the players, and primarily the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, are failing to sing La Marseillaise. "Whether you sing it or not doesn't make you any more or less French," he said. "Maybe we should invite Monsieur Le Pen to celebrate our next victory with us. Then he'd see that we are fiercely proud to be French and he might change his mind. Actually, he's got too much to lose by changing his mind, hasn't he?"


Well said.