Underpaid. Unappreciated. Unhappy.

Not anymore.

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:59:59 GMT

During the period where I had a bout of viral infections, I had a lot of time to lie in bed and think about stuff. More importantly, I thought about work and work performance for the past half year, and my conclusion is that it is not worth my effort. I've realised that I have been working like a mad dog within this short 6 months with no... proper break or anything whatsoever, and when I mean mad dog I really mean like one.

I don't think you will ever see another guy be in charge of training other people so fast [3 months into the job, inclusive of 2 months learning everything], or a new guy writing a project proposal in place of a senior. Okay maybe those are just uncommon, bit I just got the news I will be the one cleaning up all the shits before auditors come next year. For half of my damn unit.

I feel I have put more focus onto my health this year, especially needing to deal with all the whirlwinds of back aches during work. By the way I'm exercising for my back, in case you didn't know. In fact you are lying if you say you do, cause I've not told anyone about it. So how the hell did I fall sick; the only thing I can think of is because I'm overworked = =. Fatigue should become a legal medical excuse for people.

Is it worth it? I have to deal with colleagues who - I solemnly swear - are out to give me a stroke by the age of 19¾. I have to try and rehabilitate these people cause my boss thinks I'm (too) capable. I have to take care of my station cause some of my seniors don't give a shit. I have to babysit the new people cause they don't know shit. I have to clean other people's mess because they don't know how to clear them, or outright deny they ever did them.

In the end I fall sick, there's no way in hell going to be a freaking pay rise. There's no increased privileges or anything beneficial. At this rate I'm going to be more burdened and people will throw me more shit. I don't have the energy to do all this nonsense, [especially when I have part time courses now] you can ask some people and they will tell you I look like a walking zombie when I go out. I think even dogs are treated better than this, at least they get fucking free food. I don't even have to do anything in the month and $250 is already spent on food.

I'm not obligated to help anyone. I'm not required to perform tasks outside my job scope. I'm not going to give a 2 hoots about other people's mistakes anymore, its all their own fucking problem now. I'm not going to be Mr. Mentor and Mr. Problem Fixer anymore, because its simply not worth my time and energy. If people sign extra because of a mistake, I'm not going to care anymore. I do my job, you do your job. If you fuck up, or Satan decides to open a can of surprise on you, its your own damn problem.

I want to get out of this shit hole right now. Fuck work.

Radiation detected.

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:41:13 GMT

You know your job sucks when you wake up in the morning and suddenly, you are down with fever and some hardcore cough. No, this has nothing to do with my job hazards, I will still have my Father's Day whether you like it or not lol. Not many things have changed in my life so far, which sucks because I hate it this way.

Soon, I will start taking ACCA (accounting) classes at Kaplan (behind Centerpoint). It is a professional cert, and I will take it part time. 3-4 classes a week, this is going to be damn siong lol. To be honest I don't know whether I can take it or not, because work sucks the shit out of me. Sometimes I feel as if I've been dragged through the depths of hell and back again everytime I start to go home. In fact, here is my work motto:

1. Go home.
2. Work.

Contrary to popular belief, clerks have it heavenly and a bed of roses, but thats very wrong. I believe people feel that clerks are slack is because they are portrayed as sitting in an air-con room doing I don't know what on the computer, and that they get to go home everyday. I'm going to tell you this: clerks and other combat vocation suck equally.

But but but, clerks get to go home everyday!

It is a huge price to pay, I'm sure combat fit personnel would like to go home everyday too, but they don't have a choice lol. By the way, there are such things as stay-in clerks, I feel very very sorry for them. Also, its a bitch-fest in the office. Prepare your shields and rear protection, because you will need it. Yes I know its like that in real life, which makes it suck even more.

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:32:12 GMT

I don't feel like updating ._.

shooo

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:47:56 GMT

NSF is like an occupation, just like a student but with a lot less privileges. Imagine if your hair is long, you parade it around in school until someone (usually of higher authority) randomly picks you out of the entire student body. Then you proceed to challenge authority and get another week of grace period. Being an National Service (Full-time) personnel, you'll just get fucked on the spot and get extra guard duties. If you have balls of steel, you can try to challenge authority, but it will never end well. You have been warned.

Yes I have ~16+ pairs of shoes, like a typical member of the female species.

liek many lewls

Tue, 27 May 2008 13:27:29 GMT

Day-am, I thought that nobody reads my blog anymore ever since I got emo and shit' yo, so I didn't really bother updating. Anyway, do you notice that anybody and everybody who gets out of camp only talks about their army experiences? I don't know about you but I think everybody hates the *** and shit, but every single NSF still talks about it. I think this is a clear example of people unifying against a common enemy.

Well, being an NSF sucks. This is why:
1) We can't talk smack about xxx and ***. Oops.
2) We can talk about our work, but nothing specific and classified and pink-paper'ed etc.
3) We still keep talking about the army, that's because the army is the only common topic that every guy shares.
4) Girls don't like it when guys keep talking about army stuff.
5) See point 1.
6) See point 4.

Okay let's try not to talk about the army. I think I am less emo now, but I wasn't emo to the point whereby slitting wrist + angst = HALP ME NOW PLZ stage. Did you know that cutting your wrist won't actually kill you? It's a myth established by TV dramas and movies, and the main artery in your wrist region is quite deep inside your arm. As in, 1-2cm inside, so if you actually go and cut it with a pen knife you're kinda brave. But uh, if you're brave you won't be so emo and QQ in the first place.

~~By the way, day-am is how negros pronounce damn. >_>a~~

I think in some point in life, you will question your own existence; why the fuck am I here? Why can't I just not be born and carry all this worldy shit and stuff? But oh well, that doesn't happen in one in a billion people, so just suck your thumbs and toes and live with it. For all those people in JCs and/or taking As somehow in someway in some method, please study until your balls drop off. I still don't know how I screwd it up, and I see people everywhere with extremities. I'm talking about U AAA B, A AAA B, BCDxmany people, [insert more shit results here]. Trust me, you don't want to be in a position where your grades can't get you anywhere at all.

Let's do the math;
Total number of places in local universities: ~7000
Number of JCs: 18
Estimated of JC2 cohort per JC: ~600
Number of A level students THAT year: ~10,800
Number of polytechnic students applying THAT year: I dunno, 25000?

Gee, I didn't even add in students from the previous year who failed to secure a placing. Oh and for those people born in year 90, the dragon people are still going to apply next year, especially those still in NS. Very promising right? So what the hell am I doing now? Well, I still have 2 years to write this blog, so you will know eventually lol :D

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:18:15 GMT

Sometimes I feel that I need to explain myself.

I am not dead yet.

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:43:24 GMT

To whom may be reading this,

Yes I am not dead yet, it would take more than a B BCD C to make me commit suicide. Anyhow I have no idea why I am posting this, maybe its because I am in a cold, desolate and forsaken land... fishing.

You can't tell, but I'm not wearing any pants.

I am incredibly on this Saturday afternoon. Some additional background information of my character: This is my 4th year playing FFXI, and my character is female. Yea I play a female midget on an online game, so bite me. Perhaps one day I would bring you into my moghouse to take a look at my room, then got furniture and everything one, but I haven't gotten around to really decorate it. So far I have a stool, a cabinet, 3 mannequins and a couple of posters on the wall. No, a nice house isn't mandatory in this game. Characters do not need food nor sleep to survive, and every character's facial expression is of joy for some reason, even if the person playing it just got screwd over an item.

Ever since I server transferred I didn't really get any new items. Wait, I have not gotten a single, new (or old but desired) item since I came over, but that's fine cause those things need too much time or our Linkshell (guild) doesn't/cannot do some stuff. Which is totally fine I guess? Anyway I'm leveling a new job; Black Mage for the win, after that, Scholar. I want to wear a skirt.

Okay, back to fishing.

tmd...

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:04:10 GMT

One of my NEW orange sticks of ram died 2 days ago, caused me a load of angst. I came home from dinner and the computer greeted me with a blue screen, what the hell give me attitude. Blah blah damn disappointed in Crucial rams; can't overclock well, can't run at its rated voltage 24/7 (that's why it died)... No wonder got life time warranty la~. Tomorrow going to exchange the spoilt one, hoping that I can make it since their service center closes at 6pm.

In other news, my hair is long enough to warrant a hair cut ^-^ And I got the Sweeney Todd OST from you-know-where, got all the singing and stuff. KEKEKE

You know I was just wondering, if there were really vampires in the world, I think they would be living in great fear. Medically speaking, they should have some super duper ub3r immune system since they never ever fall sick. I don't think I've seen a sick vampire, just a lot pf physical fatigue and damage from fighting, which brings about the second point: Vampires regenerate like a fake Wolverine (since they can only heal at night, as well as at a slower rates, therefore a 25% Wolverine). Hmm, to put it in another way, vampires are walking containers for stem cell research and related shit. And then, for the multi-biliion dollar industry, they have the secret to everlasting youth. Of course let us not forget those 9000 year old ancient vampires, they probably look like shit and scary and scary shit.

They will be hunted down like dogs.

So, how do vampires trim their nails? Will they straight away grow back or what? Will they even grow cause their aging is slowed down significantly? Can they even be trimmed given their super physical vampire strength trait? You always see vampires clawing out walls and stuff right lol.

Vampirism can be classified as a viral infection through.. body fluids? Saliva? Since the vampire bite the guy then he kenna liao, so this should be it lol. This would make vampirism more contagious than the flu and aids combined, cause you just share food with a vampire then you will get it. But on the other hand, vampires are solitary individuals and their victims *most* likely won't survive due to massive blood loss. Ever wonder why onions can repel vampires? Maybe because vampirification will develop an extra sensitive sense of smell, so if they don't like garlic or durians you can also use them. Hey, they always know when a damsel is approaching the haunted woods near their castle right? How do you think he knew? Holy Water... Maybe he will become allergic to plain water, they got blood to drink why touch water right? We need water and food to live and he needs blood and its nutrients due to his metabolism/diet change.

So, why is piercing a vampire's heart with a wooden stake while he's dozing off the only way to kill him? I think it's crap, vampires probably existed super long ago so mere humans are unable to forge metal, so they just take a big branch and anyhow poke, then poke his heart by accident. You see ah, the heart pumps the blood around the body, and in effect pumps the vampiric virus around also. This virus will give them all their traits and shit, so no blood flow = no virus + stopped heart = dead person. Duh. And why only when he's in the coffin? Cause he cannot move inside right, and he will only be inside if its daylight. Vampires are probably very sensitive to UV light, you know how blacks never get tanned? Vampires are the direct extreme, they will just burn from the excessive UV rays lol. The moonlight is still okay cause its intensity is a lot lower. I mean cmon la, 1 circle in the black sky vs the bright blue day?

How to kill vampires:
1. Shine UV rays at them, easily available from hardware store.
2. Somehow get silver into their bloodstream, since everyone has some form of silver somewhere (jewelry etc). Silver coated bullets will do fine, cause silver is actually anti-microbes. Werewolf also virus right lol.
3. Shoot/poke their heart.
4. Drain their blood.
5. Flamethrowers also work.
6. Don't clean your room.

Aiya, anything to do with smell or intense UV rays and heat and poking their heart will kill them la.

Woe is me, 50%

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:07:59 GMT

Have you ever wondered why our transport system sucks? Or why we will never reach to be come a society with grace and etiquette? I fucking hate how our own local commuters behave on the public transport, and as you can see, everything that I have just said is linked very randomly. Do you know what qualities make a restaurant a good one? No, its not the food, because that's a basic requirement for setting up an eatery. It's the ambience; your date can be slightly plump but the subtle lighting and the nice wine will make him/her look better than usual. And since you're in such a nice environment you will continue to be relaxed and have a (hopefully) great time. Similarly, its the experience that one gets while being serviced makes it more memorable. Or nice.

Everyone will definitely bitch about late drivers and trains breaking down and traffic jams and someone killing kittens, but don't tell me you've never screwd up with things to do with time before. Remember this quote: Same shit, different day. Highly applicable to life I would say. You know, the last thing I want to see when I get on the damn bus during peak hour is 80% of the people sitting on the outer seats, and they all give you the "I paid lol so I get the whole chair" + "lol move in and I will take the chance to look at your ass" face. Same goes to those empty heads who crowd around the entrance of the trains and complain that its too squeezy. I mean, what the fuck? There's space within 10 steps and you choose to squeeze at the door, then complain too crowded. Then got those fuckers who die die want to chiong into the train when the door opens, and the courtesy lion is in their damn faces.

There was once when I went "What is this sia, people trying to get off then everyone chionging in, slightly rude man", and I'm sure everyone heard it. Nobody batted an eyelid. Fuckers. I'm seriously disgusted with my country.

Hohoho, I took the *e*** test on Wednesday and I owned it, got like 90% overall. I was quite worried about the theory cause... there's nothing to study so you won't know what will come out -.-; Anyway I went to clean Komputer™ today, and I got quite a shock at how dirty it was.

In case you forgot (or I didn't tell), I am using filters for air ons on my computer; obviously the left one is the dirty filter after 2-3 months of 24/7 fan operations. Quite shocking to be honest, its like choked full of dust and stuff. And then when I opened up my case doors at the sides...

Yes that is a dead moth. So far I have ants, spiders and bees dying inside, but this one is the latest champion. I think the UV cathode sticks are attracting these dudes, but that was when my see-thru window wasn't done. Now it has, and I don't know how this teleported inside, I can't imagine being stuck in a hot steel room with lots of air turbulence in it. Good thing I capped my reservoir...

Kinetic Energy.

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:45:08 GMT

Twiddle dee dumdee~ It is Tueday and I have recovered from my bout of Monday blues! Actually, me posting here meant that I have enough energy to do so, because everyone knows Mondays suck. Here is a simplified graph of my energy levels against day of the week:

That small increase in energy from Monday to Tuesday is able to transform me from a walking zombie to a computer geek, quite a great contrast. Anyways you are able to (or would have already..) see me high from Thursday or so onwards, cause weekends are when all the fun comes in! Here are some facts from sitting too much on the director-looking chair: you can actually charge your energy if you sit long enough; you will fall sleep easier if you've been playing an mmo; playing a FPS (First Person Shooters if you live over a rock) is the greatest way to stay awake.

Anyway, remember me bitching about not being able to play?

Hohoho!

Again, if you live over a rock, this is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. I finished it in like... 5-6 hours? Too short, but it's a good game. Of course like all shooting games, you will be able to take your little squad of 4 people (yourself inclusive) and kill a country load of people, but it ain't stand-there-and-machine-gunned-everything Rambo style. You have to hide around and play peek a boo with bullets and enemy soldiers, knifing fucking dogs, and lobbing grenades back at the enemy; and with a country load of people, it didn't take too long lol. Not like you care anyway~

*Ahem* I have already bought some CNY goodies.

Oh yes. PC-8500 Crucial Ballistix (kinetic energy, get it?). Finally, some new ram for my wife =)

lalala~

And this is for Peter to see. Harlo.

Not surprisingly, work has been fun/interesting so far. Sometimes I wonder how I can get such good luck in being posted there as a *e****e *e***, but nevermind that, I shall not question the higher authorities on that. In other news, I have a theory and practical test tomorrow, so hopefully I will cement my vocation for the next 2 years. Anyway I don't know if they will kick me out if I fail lol, since they have already given me my perma pass.

I'm supposed to be happy.

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:54:02 GMT

Imagine yourself slogging away at your job everyday, and that one day, you will go home and enjoy yourself. Now changing scenarios, picture yourself on a half work day, which means you can spend the afternoon doing whatever shit you want upon reaching home. Then you go back and find... that you can't do it because something fucked up. In my case, I turned on my spouse's screen and started to install some games which I have been itching to play, only to find out they are full of system bugs which render them unplayable.

Welcome to my Chinese New Year eve, which is probably filled with the worst kind of cynicism you will ever encounter in a festive mood. Thanks to windows (yet again) and their wonderful Windows Play Live :D or whatever shit they call it, I can name at least 3 games that came out recently which are unplayable. Let's not talk about pirated copies, even those who paid get shafted. And then there is CNY, where people will start to throw me with "you got gf yet?", "wahh how come u so skinny/tall/both" and most recently "HAHA U GO ARMY LIAO". As you can see, I have (I think) the worst type of relatives you can actually get.

I am sure a lot of you got such relatives also, but they don't ask those in your face; they laugh at you in their minds. Maybe they do say it, in that case you just bitch about their thin hong baos and pawn them. If their hong paos are thick then you should just smile and look into the distance. In such a case at least you're being paid for getting ridiculed. CNY is such a joyous and friendly occasion with no bad mouthing and stuff.

I like Lara Croft. Stolen from some other website.

Then you will have the damn boring long weekend, where you will spend half the time at home to escape from your bastard relatives. But then! Cooping up at home surfing online forums and YouTube will probably bore you to death, so this is when the decisive moment appears: you rally a group of like-minded, relatives-hating mob to go watch a movie. See? This is why a movie opening on CNY is guaranteed to earn money. Unless it got half a star from 8 Days. (can you imagine? from 8 days and got half star? lol)

Anyway back to Lara, some [huge] snippets from wikipedia:

"Some fans, as well as Lara's original designer Toby Gard, considered Croft's growing status as a sex symbol in the video game fandom through each progressive game sequel—with increasingly gratuitous artwork and advertisements—detrimental to the character, who gained more attention from her appearance than her tough-as-nails spirit and determination. In response to this, it was stated that she would undergo a redesign and become more "demure" in Tomb Raider: Legend for the sake of becoming more appealing to female gamers.

However, some of the outfits she wears in this game are far more revealing than anything seen in previous games, with many of them showing cleavage and/or midriff (though some of the available outfits are fairly modest). Some have still derided her form as being unrealistic (especially in regard to her BMI).

Some fans had been critical of the series for portraying her in an increasingly bloodthirsty manner, and occasionally not giving players the option to avoid lethal force against human characters. Tomb Raider III was heavily criticized by some for showing Lara committing acts of murder against security guards, police officers and tribesmen."

I bet you that those who complained are the same ones who blame video games for recent increase in violence and shoot outs. Click me. I already knew it was fake when I was watching it, anyway a true game won't flip the shit out on his gear lol.

Didn't bother resizing her.

As you can probably tell by now, my downloaded games were my last line of defense against boredom at home and watching some crap show at the cinema. See, once again, I'm bored to the point whereby I'm writing shit here again. Actually I think the new Lara is quite nice, last time she was a mass of polygons la. Anyway I go sleep liao, gotta prep for today's crap.

What did you say?

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:08:27 GMT

It is official, I am experiencing brain rot. Even now, every sentence that I am typing here requires a moment of pondering to type. See? That came out funny as well. Anyway an asshole that I know had this on his msn nick: "WIll Smith + Jack Neo = I Am Stupid", which is both funny and lame at the same time (at least to me).

Soo..... my work is extremely hazardous. You will meet EVERY type of people, even bitches and all that shiat. You will be exposed to radiation, loads of radiation. You will get flicked by piss from someone. You will tear your head off saying "Hello, please pass me your file and take a seat. *waits 2s* So, do you have any history of eye related problems, injuries, surgeries (inclusive of lasik) blah blah blah" at least ~130-150 times a day. You will experience the worst type of management system ever, with a slow as shit com processing x-ray films. You will find out that someone has Aids every fortnight. You will be working in the playground of bacterias and viruses and whatever shit that's in the air. Finally, you will become stupid.

Actually I think the part of becoming stupid is quite universal once you get out of school, cause you don't need to know how much energy is lost when a satellite travels from point A to B, or the intersection (if they even intersect) of 3 imaginary lines, of which 98.95% will never become an eventuality. So today, I was trying to memorize some medical stuff and all I got was a headache. Then when people are teaching me how to do stuff, I will go "Ohhh okay" and I can get it, but not get it at the same time. I don't know what's that supposed to mean. This is, I believe, a symptom of the transitioning phase from intelligence to stupidity.

However, work experience teaches you how to say stuff correctly. For example, saying that I am becoming more stupid is admitting that I'm already stupid and getting worse liao, but if I were to say "I'm getting less intelligent" it sounds a lot nicer. I hope that makes some kind of sense with you. Oh yes, and the magical phrase that should be used whenever and wherever you are is not "thank you", "sorry", "teamwork!" or whatever. Remember this Legendary Phrase™ for it will get you out of a lot of shit. It is "I will check it out for you". This magical phrase, when used appropriately, will make the other party feel awesome as he is experiencing the pinnacle of all that is customer service. Then, you will direct him to a seat which he will gladly do, and you can breath easily and say "Ay, wtf did that guy want ah?", and slowly do whatever shit he wants to get done.

I hope the above paragraph is not too fat. Anyway, continuing on, I sometimes don't blame people for offering poor service because frankly speaking, up to half of the customers don't even fucking respond when you say "Hi hello good morning" (yes all 3 at once) to them. They just give you the "Okay since I'm the customer I'm gonna treat you like dirt" face, and proceed to flick piss on you. It's so busy at my workplace to the point where we don't have time to tell people what they are doing. "Place your file over here take one stick one bottle go to the toilet there are instructions inside" is a very typical 5s sentence, which is most likely responded with a "har?".

I'm also getting some occupational habits already. Now when I see people in public, I will think "omg this guy has a squint, he needs to see the eye medical officer" or "crap that guy's back is worse than mine, sure Pes E liao". It has only been 8 working days man, sooner or later I will be advising people to go check themselves for G6PD deficiency or go for lasik or some shit. Bah.

Tonight I foregone (is that even correct?) an outing with friends to present you some red pants and red gloves.

Wilhelm sucks cock.

Man, you can't even see his pants properly, but they are berms with a thick red lining at the side (obviously duhh). I forgot to take a picture of Junette (red glovesss) >_> oh well. Pimp in the making! You're long due for those pants already. Don't know why I would put an FFXI update into this real life thing, maybe because its still part (although slightly smaller now) of my life. Yay.

bored bored bored

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:10:13 GMT

It's been 8 days since I've enlisted, but the terrible, terrible thing is that I am bound by the (military?) law to not talk about it. I can't say anything lol, in fact, I think my blog will be tagged thanks to the intelligence officers who are probably bored out of their asses and sweeping for keywords such as 'enlistment', 'I'm now a recruit!', "ORD" and whatever shit they can think of online. In fact, I would do the same as well if I were them cause I won't have anything to do. Seriously.

Anyway I didn't know the first intake for JCs would be cut short to that extent, this Thursday (24th Jan) O level results will be coming liao, means our own Ragnarok is approaching soon. Just in case you didn't know, Ragnarok is the term given for the end of the world in Norse mythology, it basically means Armaggedon or Apocalypse la. I think I mentioned this somewhere on my blog before, but wow it has been 2 years since the blog has ran. Truthfully speaking I thought blogging would be some kind of a ... fad thing, but I sometimes find blogging extremely hard lol. The content, pictures, and what-to-say-in-a-not-guai-lan-tone. I don't want my livejournal to be the "HAY THIS IS WHAT I DID TODAY AND I MISS YOU GUYS" type >_>a I mean I am guilty of it sometimes la but I try to minimise it.

As you can tell I am really, really bored. My current vocation is **R**** M****, you will see me around if you come for health checkups at *M** there. I don't think this information will get me charged lol. But anyway I get to visit Poh everyday for the next 2 years of my life (don't know why I'm saying this), but fuck, I think I'm starting to get brain rot liao. I actually want to learn something now! Oh shiat man. In the meantime, to while away the hours, I've been thinking on what color to spray my eventual computer case. Oh and Komputer™ died yesterday because the OS fucked up again (as usual). Don't want to talk about it liao.

Silverstone TJ-07 ($488)

Interior

ImageShack is fucking up again. Sian. Anyway the case looks 100x better than this in real life (for advertising, Silverstone really sucks man), there will be a pre-cut sidewindow at the left panel (opposite the main one shown in this pic) so I don't have to do so much work with this casing. Anyway there will obviously be feet for this computer as well, cause it will be damn heavy with water inside it. I am thinking red + black or yellow + black for the casing currently. The middle aluminium divider will be sanded and polished to a mirror finish, bottom fans will be blue, I don't know what main colors to put in the main compartment (water and fans).

I will either buy:

Cooler Master Real Power M850 850W PSU Modular ($298) vs SilverStone ST75F 750W Power Supply Unit Modular ($329). Both have received good reviews, but I don't really trust CoolerMaster much lol. Knn their case also do like shit liao (which is their specialty), then how about their power supplies man. I'll also most likely get another 500GB, new CPU and graphics card. Maybe ram also. Siao liao, this is like buying new com, need to save 2k+ for it I think. Estimated prices lol.

Above playing computer hardware still got the Hong Kong trip in June/July, which I have no idea whether I can make it because I may end up using all my 14 days leave for medical reasons. >_>a Annnndd I don't even know whether I got the money to do it lol. Using my handy-dandy calculator, and my average pay of $395 per month (thank you community chest for eating into my pay), I am paid a grand sum of $1.975/hr for the rest of my 2 years in NS. Wonderful, need to work 4 hours to buy MacDonald's. I spend somewhere around 10 bucks a day - 2 meals + transport cost. I think may be higher on somedays la, but wah lau this is terrible, 50% of my income is spent on keeping me going. Bloody hell I already so skinny liao still need to think about $ for food.

But anyway, something to look forward to within the week:

I know it looks boring, but.. hehe..

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:55:40 GMT

Man, my poor toe is still swollen. I don't know about you guys, but when I consciously think about my unfortunate toe it starts to hurt damn badly, but in normal circumstances I don't feel anything. This is some universal "omg I ssaw my wound and a thousand stabs started to rain down upon me" reaction. However, you cannot not try to think about it, so no matter what it will hurt whenever you think about it. Hmm....

In a few more days I will be in the army. Like, seriously fucking lol man, I will be out by next Saturday (Or Sunday) afternoon I think, very fast one. But i really wonder what will the 5.5 days of induction camp be like. Since my whole barracks will be a bunch of Pes Es, with me being the fittest, and that we will engage in "recreational activities (which are game based) and static exercises will be conducted", its going to be damn boring. Bah, I'll fill you guys in after I get out all shaved and stuff.

Here are the things that I want to buy this year:

Airbrush + compressor. $600, for GunPla.
I open my closet and I see dark colors and orange, more happy shirts please.
When I was drunk my favourite Guess jeans got ripped somehow. moar jeans plz
Wallet? No need lah.
New computer casing. $500.
New ~modular~ power supply unit for computer. Around 750w and above, probably $350.
New graphics card. $400.

I think thats about it so far, very expensive liao leh lol. After I drew out money to pay for the Japan hotel fees... argh wallet no more. Summore need to save some money to go Hong Kong in June/July. Summer sale +_+$ Come to think of it I'll probably use up all my army leave this year to go Hong Kong, and if I mod my computer again it'll take like 2-3 weekends at least. Oh man, this is such terrible timing for me (since you can't cut metals or make so much noise w/e in the night).

Aiya tired liao. Go and sleep already.

Oh boy, am I pissed.

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:11:52 GMT

So i came back from Japan like 4 days ago, and I was like "Hmm maybe I should do a LiveJournal update for the Japan trip, but damn I don't have any pictures.". on the 7 hour flight home. Back to my usual lazy self again I guess, but 1 hour ago I was already thinking of what to type down (I didn't do any blog thinking on the way home) and then I went "Oh man that means I gotta take pics of what I bought from Japan" which is extremely taxing for me. I think I used up my pictures quota while making my computer. Anyway just when I was walking about outside my room, doing even more blog thinking, I yelled out in pain cause I stepped on a bee and it fucking stung me.

There has always been bees in my house and all kinds of creepy crawly infestation but I've had it. The fucking bees which have been living in my house for like 6 years (?) are going to fucking die. DIE! Even though this is the first time I've been stung by a bee, I think I'm pretty lucky since I've been in close contact with them. Those fuckers. Here are a list of infestations in my house:

1. Termites. They ate 2 papaya trees and destroyed the kitchen before we decided their gladiatory use of Termite Vs Red Ants Vs Spiders isn't worth it.
2. Red ants. I don't remember how we killed them. I think I stuffed a permeating pipe into their nest and just Baygon'ed inside it.
3. Bees v1.0. Previously pest busters killed them all.
4. Shit load of caterpillars. Ahh so memorable. They are thick at adult size, like 3/4 the size of a typical pen or longer. I kill them with thinner + fire, pour bleach for the plants to drink, BB gun, etc. Easy to spot, just see if the floor got their shit. Hohoho.

I think that was about it, but fuck the damn bees man, give me so much damn pain. By the way I won't do any New Year resolution or whatever crap cause almost nobody ever achieves them or anything anyway. >_> It'll be a waste on my blog space, at least for my case. I think 1 of my previous New Year resolutions was to be more outgoing. I guess I did that, I mean I play a lot lesser this year compared to the previous years, as incredible it may sound sometimes. And I think another was to study like super hard so I'll get to do a double degree for Law and Econs. I don't think a bajillion shooting stars will make that happen now so nevermind.

*Ahem* I bought:
1. Some shirts.
2. Quite a lot of Hobby magazines. Those GunPla ones.
3. Strike Freedom Full Burst Mode.
4. Scythe KamaMeters (fan controllers) x2
5. Some computer wires lol.
6. 2 Evangelion plushies.
7. A few keychains.
8. A few jigsaw puzzles.
9. Vampire teddy from Nightmare Before Christmas.
10. A syringe.
11. GunPla equipment such as snippers and Gundam markers (since I don't know where mine are in this big house).
12. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 guidebook for my bro.
13. As usual, some alcohol.
14. A bag to fit all those in.

Now bear in mind there's always the possibility I missed something out, but that's a general outline of what I brought back home. I can assure you 95% of the things I buy cannot be found in Singapore, even 4 5 7 8 12.

Edit: my mum said that we can't kill the bees cause they bring good luck. I don't see how our house being hospitable to vicious insects brings good luck

Le Grande Update. I think LJ fucked up my 4 hour update.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:21:59 GMT

I am incredibly - it has been 3 full weeks since the "completion" (You will know why later. Very later.) of my Komputer™ and I only went to upload the pics today. Since I will be flying away to the land of the cherry blossoms and samurais, I thought it fitting to post more these few days. Actually I am supposed to have posted ages ago, but nevermind that.

Click any of the links below and you can go get yourself a cup of coffee. There's like 120 pictures to load, hence the LiveJournal Cut and preventing the great rape of the millenium upon my friend's FriendsPage section thing.

This grand plan has been etched in my mind for quite a long time; I think around 3 months ago? This is also the first time I'm modding a computer, complete with water cooling and an (almost) new look. There is only 1 new piece of hardware in it, which is an extra hard disk and contrary to popular belief, I do not have a pr0n archive. Neither do I stash it away behind hidden mushrooms in my Komputer™ Kingdom. Anyways this will be a kind of project worklog, but nothing of the JC standard nonsense.

Before we start with the transformation I'll pull a Jean Yip and put "before" pics. If the pics are too blurry, blame the camera; if the pics are too big, try a bigger resolution OR get a new monitor >_>a; I would also like to declare that I do not own an Uber Camera of True Sight.

Exterior.

Interior.

Take note the orientation of the Komputer™: where the front is, which side is facing you, and how things are arranged inside.

The first step is (obviously) taking it apart. Now now, I have a love/hate relation with CoolerMaster cases. They suck big time, but they rock at the same time. The casing is built poorly; with an unnecessary amount of rivets, screws at weird places, and an utterly crappy paint job. To be short, its very modding unfriendly. Yet at the same time the functions of the case saves it... though barely. You shall see.

Easy enough: motherboard tray sliding out of the main case. And it didn't look so dark in the LCD screen of the camera.

I've already removed the power supply, hard disk and cd-drives in this picture. Note that the black top (Which has been removed and is propped beside the body of aluminium, just in case you are blind. But if you are blind you won't be reading this anyway. So.) took me an hour of drilling to get it out. Ohh in some pictures you would see a pencil or something for size comparison. But I always forget to put a pencil when I'm taking pics.

First of all I had to test fit all my crap and mark out the areas which I need to cut. Take note of the orientation now, this is how its supposed to look like. The black rectangular thing at the bottom of the aluminium body is the radiator.

I fitted the radiator fans to the bottom of the casing with the Komputer™'s black skirts on to get an accurate position of where its supposed to be, then drew out the outline for the fans and the fan screws itself.

Using a fan grill to mark out the fan screw positions. Squares are where the fans are supposed to be, black dots are the screw positions.

If you see at the bottom of the pic there's a portion with lots of small holes. That's the area right above the power supply unit for air intake if its mounted upside down; I'm going to cut that out too. Then with the stuff marked, masking tape over it to provide some minimal protection for the aluminium body that is not supposed to be cut; just in case I get a kickback from the cutting and stuff.

It looks okay.

Well, off to cutting!

Right above the power supply location. I cut this thing in my backyard.

Then drilled out the damn holes for the fan screws. To be honest, I wasn't accurate in the drilling lol.

The above is me cutting halfway (probably a third) through. This was before I had the Jigsaw of Haste. Before this I only had the trusty Dremel (A rotary tool. Imagine a hand held device spinning a disk at 30,000RPM) so it was slow. I'm talking about 30cm-45cm of aluminium in 1 hour. You can imagine how long it took me to cut all the unwanted aluminium away. It was also so noisy to the point I resorted to wearing the shooting ear plugs lol. And let's not forget the aluminium dust; I was wearing a mask kind of thing all the way.

2 afternoon's of work.

Note the I-want-to-cut-you-now! edges, sanding was in order, as was a bath with the aid of a garden hose. Hey, I can't have aluminium dust floating around... It will spoil my hardware.

Next up is the skirt of the Komputer™. It's already short enough (Who the fuck wears a 3cm skirt?), so no alterations there. I would like to remove it, but I can't. Since I'm mounting the radiator outside of the case, I need the added height for airflow. You will understand (much) later. I'm also a skirt type of guy. Anyways I'm going to do something more awesome: adding wheels to it. Simple reason being it will be much easier to move it around. Do not fear, the castors have built in locks and so my dearest Komputer™ will be unable to roll off my desk.

Close up marking of 1 corner of the skirt...

...and another all-round view.

Okay. This is possible the WORST part of all the drilling. I can't straight out drill out the holes because 1) I do not have the drill bit at the correct size. 2) I have a crap drill so it gets STUCK while drilling more than half the time. Not enough torque, useless shit. 3) Like the fan screws, its definitely not going to be accurate no matter what the fuck I do.

So I had to...

1)Make a giant drill bit guide using the dremel. By the way the dremel is in the picture. Use your imagination for the other half of it.

2) Drill out as much as I could, humanely possible. This is halfway drilling I believe (Look at all the nasty, sharp, angled edges.). Midway I got fed up with the stupid drill that I took it out on the masking tape. Pft.

3) Using the dremel's sanding bands, sand out a hole large enough for the castors to be placed through.

Yeah this is how it looked like. From top left, going horizontally to the right: metal files, the silver thing is the shine from the castor's metal bits, the black skirt, pack of drill bits in the rectangular thing, the dremel (is your imagination true?), half of the totally crap drill, screwdriver (What is it doing there?), and crap. Oh I see a MacDonald's paper bag too lol.

Here's a scaled representation of the wheel components thingy: the castor itself, 2 rubber washers and a gigantic nut. That sounded wrong but I assure you the pun isn't intended. Maybe its the alcohol and the late night doing me in.

Fitting it on.

The 2 holes that you see at the bottom left is pre-cut. It isn't for the wheels, but to allow access to the screws holding the skirt and the aluminium body together. If you look carefully, you can see 2 half circles at the top right of the skirt. They serve the same purpose. I told you the case wasn't designed properly.

I can see that my maid is doing a good job.

Now for even more cutting. I'm going to cut out the motherboard tray too, so that I can do some very, very clean cable management. The effect is so good that its probably going to be the neatest innard of a computer you're going to see. I made some very big mistakes in this part, but you won't notice it in the end product. At this point, 3 weeks ago, I declare a hater of anything to do with the shaping of metals.

Getting a feel of what to cut...

...and then labelling it out.

After a shit tonne of cutting with the aid of the Jigsaw of Haste.

If you noticed, the right rectangular thing doesn't have straight edges. I think I did a pretty damned good job on the curves; you can't use a jigsaw to cut such tight lines, you gotta use the definite integrals method. Cut a lot of rectangular lines to make the curve.

Test fitting.

It looks perfectly aligned with the motherboard. The square is right behind the CPU so I can install/remove any CPU coolers without dismantling the whole computer itself. The top rectangle is for the power cables (for the motherboard) and any IDE cables. A second vertical rectangle will be on the left, which will align with the bottom of the motherboard for all the rest of the cables (sound jack-in, USB ports, SATA cables, front switches etc)

Then on further fitting... I realised that the power cable cannot go through the rectangular hole -_- I don't think you'll understand anyway so I'll let the remedy pictures attempt to explain it to you.

Enlarging the error. See the bold marker lines.

And some adjustments at the bottom. Note that I cant just Jigsaw it cause the area's not big enough to work on.

The Correction Pit.

It got too hot outside, so I went inside to continue.

Sawing murderously halfway, I noticed brown dust coming out! It's all supposed to be clumps of aluminium dust stuck together. Upon close inspection...

Oh shit. Nobody knows I made this in the house yet. And then that was it for the motherboard tray. I don't know why but I don't have any pictures of the tray solo, but you will see it in the other pictures.

Next, I went to do some modifications to the fan controllers.

Original look.

I dismantled one of them to show you the pieces. It's silver, I want it matte black so it will look naturally in place with the black bay covers.

Put masking tape on the bottom one, prepping for spray painting.

Choice of weapons: 100 grit sanding sponge (lol), surface primer for dark colors, black spray paint (duh), matte coating.

First coat of primer~

I think first coat of black.

Finished product! Looks better than I imagined.

For those of you who do not know, there's a certain degree of skill involved in spray painting. First the primer ensures that the subsequent colors will stick onto it indefinitely, and also providing a good contrast for whatever color you're using. Simply put, the primer will bring out the true color of the color. That sounds weird.

The next thing is, no matter how perfectly you do the spraying of the colors (Which also requires some amount of technique.), the surface will always be uneven, hence the need for sanding. You need multiple coats and multiple sanding to get a good surface, and this applies to the primer and the finishing coat itself. For such a small thing alone I took like 2 hours to get it done.

Pieced together.

To be honest I didn't expect the shine from the plastic covering thingy to be so strong lol, means my perfect paint job and matte black is done for nothing. But it still looks good; like a proper, finished product that some company will roll out.

I had to do some minor modifications itself to the motherboard. I gotta clean it up, and make it better for the airflow.

Denatured alcohol, a lot of cotton buds, a syringe of thermal paste.

Took the CPU fan off, the grey thing is the crap, stock thermal paste that Intel uses.

I then took off the Northbridge and mosfet coolers, and peeled the bogus thing out. It isn't bogus really, but why does ASUS (motherboard manufacturer) purposely impedes airflow through the heatsink, I do not know. Also, the cover isn't even copper, maybe some cheap tin thing. REMOVE!

That's how the cooler is supposed to look like. Blur pic for the lose.

Southbridge (Finished) heatsink with the Southbridge chip on the right.

Looks brand new lewls.

This wasn't really needed, but I wanted to do it sometime. If you do not know what you're doing, please do not do so. I had what it feels like to physically clean and modify 700 bucks of silicon.

Now for the assembly~ It is in parts because I did some stuff while assembling the thing.

Here's what the motherboard tray looks like. I did some last min corrections for the vertical rectangular.

Skirt, power supply and motherboard tray in.

Peek a boo in the top hole! Notice I tried to tuck away the excess cables at the top.

I finally decided to tuck it away in the other side.

The wire I'm holding are for the hard disks, the other one similar looking one is for the pump and the 2 fan controllers.

The back of the motherboard tray, going to hide all the wire mess here.

The acrylic U-channel. I'm going to mount the pump upside down.

Yeah I'm prepping the pump to be mounted upside down. It sounds mad but it works fine lol. I have to use very very strong 3M double sided tape to do it. Yes it works as well.

Prepping~

Housing it on the U-channel~ Note the rubber pads on the side of the acrylic; its to absorb vibrations.

You see that fan? The grey thing behind it is the hard disk module. It has all the hard disk inside it. I'm getting tired already. Above the fan you will see another rectangular thingy: that's the DVD-drive.

I fixed the top back on and it was so damn bloody difficult to hold it in place. If your non-ailing memory still retains some information, I did mention drilling the top black thing out, so imagine putting it back into place. Now there are more wires at the back, its going to get even messier soon lol.

Also, this project is all about watercooling, but where the hell are the watercooling components? In truth I was waiting for an extra copper housing to arrive. Just to share some deep chemistry secrets, mixing metals in a water loop will cause corrosion. I am talking about aluminium + copper = bad, and it so happened that one of the stuff I ordered weeks ago had an aluminium component to it, so I had to get a copper replacement.

I waited a week for this to come.

It contained this.

Now we're talking watercooling. The thing on the left is called a CPU waterblock. The thing on the right is the copper replacement top for it. Just for explanation sake, water will go through one of the holes, and exit from the other, in effect carrying away heat. The whole waterblock will be on the CPU itself, heat from the CPU will be conducted to the whole copper housing, which water is running through. I hope you understand, lol. This is really a half-assed explanation.

Taking it apart more, the thing on the right is the back plate for the motherboard. Its to hold the CPU waterblock in place.

Pieced together. A mock.

So i screwd everything in place but that's not enough. I have to leak test it overnight to see if anything weird happens. And no, the slight U shape at the bottom of the copper piece is NOT a mistake. This is a technique called bowing to ensure greater contact between the CPU and the waterblock itself. Sometimes, a great bow will warp the motherboard, and that's what the backplate does: to prevent warping also.

This is why you stop working at night...

This. This is the graphics card waterblock. It's basically the same thing but the inlet/outlet flow is different. Yes, I did leak test it overnight as well.

Dear Radeon,

After dismantling and cleaning the crap out of it.

I don't know why its so dirty in this pic (reflection probably), but the important thing is for the surface to be flat.

Fixed up with copper ram heat sinks and the thing.

Back view of the motherboard tray with motherboard/backplate in place.

The other side.

And another view.

Hard disks now in place. More stuffing of the side wires will occur.

Radiator and fans in place.

Front view. Note that this is where the fan controllers and pump will be.

With both CPU and GFX waterblocks in place.

Behold! The cool looking reservoir!

Yes I did say reservoir. There's going to be a reservoir of water in my computer. It sounds insane, it really is, but ultimately fine if you do it right. Just screw it properly so that it doesn't leak. Pray that the rubber O-rings last, or else Leviathan will be upon Komputer™ Kingdom. You must have an open loop for air bubbles to escape, that's one function of the reservoir. The other is to ensure that there's enough water in it (That's why its called a reservoir.) because water will evaporate through the tubing, as incredible as it may sound.

The tubing was a bitch man. I'll tell you which ones are.

Reservoir in place, tubing all done.

Hidden at the side, the upside down pump and more tubing.

These 2 tubings WERE A TOTAL NIGHTMARE. It was already hard enough to slip the tubing onto the metal barbs, then I had to secure them in place using hose clamps, which took me forever to fasten due to the unreasonable amount of space to work with. If you look carefully, the outlet of the pump isn't in line with the radiator lol, that's why the tubing is slightly slanted. Error on my part. At least the coiled up wires looked nice.

And then there was bling! Cold Cathode tubes aka Ah Beng lights.

Tying all the wire adapters and crap together for Ah Beng lights.

And this is how it looked like even with the tying.

All safely hidden away!

...

And~ Komputer™ is reborn!

Okay okay, there are missing pics between the previous and the next cause I could not be bothered to photograph the tedious bleeding process. I just filled the thing up with water, turned on the pump and kept tilting Komputer™ at many weird angles until there was no air left inside the water loop.

The next is me spilling the blue UV reactive dye on the table.

There are actually 2 cathode ray tubes in there, the one resting at the bottom is hidden away when Komputer™ is closed up. The thing under the reservoir is a temporary holder since the 3M double sided tape wasn't strong enough (So I had to get even stronger ones).

Okay so I have to admit. It's not done yet lol. I've done the side window, which according to my brother is thick enough to block bullets, but the double sided tape is proving to be the error again.

It isn't obvious here, but you can see the double sided tape there in the center of the pic. Oh, I see that I've fixed the reservoir problem already lol. It was quite scary to see the reservoir toppling over because the old 3M tape couldn't hold it there. Now that I've gotten the uber strong one, it shall remain there until the end of time. The next problem was the stupid side window, I have to spray paint the sides black to hide the double sided tape, and in the process...

Oops. And since when did I cut the sidewindow? I think it was a week before I went to Bintan, I then sanded it after I got back from there. Yeah its a long time frame, but I did warn you that I was lazy.

Masking tape'ing it up.

The side which are not covered by masking tape will be sprayed black. Angle on the right looks weird.

White primer'ing.

going black on teh shiatz.

When I realised the black spray was dying I had to stop... It started to stutter and like, cough out "blood" lol. The above is an example. I had meant to get another can by this week, but I doubt that's possible now given that I am the embodiment of Sloth itself. So yea, my computer isn't done as of it. Its most likely around 97% done or so, I will finish it sooner or later.

And I need to sleep. I will edit this some time in the future.

Coming soon!

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:07:01 GMT

Sneak previews

Holy shit, Batman!

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:01:31 GMT

I am such a procrastinator, I really meant to do this update 6 days ago, and I am seriously behind my blogging schedule. Blogging schedule? Well not really, its this internal feeling saying things like "you should blog this within 2 days" and "you should have blogged this 2 days ago" kind of thing, so it isn't a schedule. Just some nagging ritual to myself I guess. I don't even know why I can't update my blog nowadays; its the holidays and the end of A's and yet I can't seem to find the time to do it. Maybe I should direct my time from thinking such stuff to writing blogs instead, then I'll have a hell load more entries.

Not so recent events (last Sunday) consisted of watching Batman: Begins at a friend's house with a group of friends (duh) has led me to believe that nobody knows the true history of Batman, or how awesome he is. In fact, I'm not 100% sure myself, but I definitely know more than you, and that's plentiful enough.

To truly appreciate Batman, you have to accept the fact that he's just a normal person. When I mean normal person, I really meant no-super-ability-therefore-normal kind of normal, and not Bruce-Wayne-Clark-Kent type. You see, Batman is one of the few superheroes with no super abilities. You can sum up Spiderman as Spider sense + super physique + shoot web + emo as his superpowers and his innate intelligence as his normal Peter Parker trait. While Batman on the other hand is a rich and smart ninja. That's it. Well, maybe not.

Batman is an Olympic level athlete with Mensa'ish intelligence (probably higher), with a mastery in all sorts of melee combat and melee weapons, as well as possessing intimate knowledge of chemistry, biology, physics, criminology, forensics and computer science. I am extremely confident that there is not a person who can learn so much shit in his life time and still kick some serious ass. To top it off, he's rich like hell and according to Wiki, "Forbe's Magazine estimated Bruce Wayne to be the 7th-richest fictional character with his $6.8 billion fortune".

Here's the list since its interesting:

I dont know who is 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, and 13. Mario strikes me as odd while I thought Lara Croft would be much higher. She's only richer than a plumber?

Given the amount of crap he really knows, Batman is the true modern day Renaissance man, though he's a fictional character. So yes, Batman is just a damn bloody smart and rich ninja.

So how awesome is Batman exactly? Let's get this straight: Batman sees himself as the only person capable of taking down Superman if he goes rogue. Superman acknowledges this, and passes him a Kryptonite ring, which Batman keeps in his utility belt 24/7 as part of his "I'm prepared for any shit, any time, anywhere." kind of vigilance. On 4 out of 5 occasions, Batman won Superman with pre-planning and lots of brains which Superman, despite being called Superman, does not have. Seriously, how many times have Clark Kent opened a box (sent by none other than Lex Luthor) lined with lead only to find *gasp* a chunk of Kryptonite?

On one occasion (by some weird plot twist which is too long for me to explain) Superman was enlisted by the US Government to take out Batman. In a nut shell, just as Batman has beaten the Jesus out of Superman, he conveniently dies of a heart attack. Give the man a break, he's in his 50's and has been fighting like hell since 20+? At his funeral, Batman's superhero friends + Clark Kent was there, and Clark was obviously overwhelmed with sadness (Batman was his best friend) as well as guilt (duh). Just as he was leaving, he heard a faint heart beat from the coffin, and knew of Bruce Wayne's plans. He had faked his death with planning, skill, and his knowledge of chemistry. Awesome?

Oh yes, Bruce Wayne is his mask while Batman is his real personality, unlike Clark Kent being the real and Superman being the mask. That means that Bruce's stuck up, arrogant, play boy image is fake (but I think him being a philanthropist is real, duno), just in case you didn't know.

Well that took quite long for me to type out, I can understand why I like to procrastinate updating my blog a teeny bit more. But of course, I am not done with the history of Batman yet and I shall not bother too, just the itsy bitsy info that I've done so far should be enough for your internet tastebuds. Batman is really awesome (and I am not a fan of Batman).

Wow.

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:09:54 GMT

This is the ultimate compliment. FFXI gil selling advert on my blog. What's next? Ego enhancements?

Update: In Transit

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:10:13 GMT

Fear not readers, for I am still alive. It has come to my attention that there is a sore lack of updates depsite the end of my exams, but have faith in me, dear readers, for I will have a mega update so humoungous that it will kill my friends through the functions of LiveJournal (the Friend's Page, in case you didn't know) For now, I shall offer you a transitionary entry, but it has almost no link whatsoever to whatever I'm about to post in a few days, provided that I am even done by then.

*Ahem*

To: The Management,

Before I start to verbally pile drive you and your company I would like to start with a pair of complementary (not complementing you..) quotes:

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.
-SAM WALTON

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
-DONALD PORTER

To this date, 22/11/07, I have nearly exhausted all available avenues in an attempt to do business with you and your company. I have sent a handful of emails, used your customer inquiry form on your website, as well as phoning the company, yet the lack of even a whispering response leads me to a few conclusions:

1) That somehow or rather, you have no paid the phone bills and the telephone company has no choice but to cut your phone line and internet connection, leaving you wirelessly helpless for the 3 weeks that I've been trying to contact you guys.

2) Your company is in such a fantastic financial situation to the poinbt whereby you do not need my business.

3) Your employees that you have hired do you no justice whatsoever.

It will be too hasty for me, the consumer, to thus conclude this matter, but how do you think this letter would reach your hands in the first place? I cannot possibly hand it over to the local postal services, given that it is possible for a big firm to have their phone lines cut continuously for 3 weeks, then by induction, anything can happen.

If you have read this far it would imply that I am physically in front of you, but the question remains: to such a great length a customer tries to reach you, what does he expect?

I expect the same from the party that I am trying to contact.

Oh shi-

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:19:19 GMT

Today, I thought it was maths paper2. I found out it was paper 1 at around 7:20am. Wonderful.

It took me like 2-3mins to draw the loci alone (with the aid of a compass, mind you) cause my hands were fucking shaking. Then of course, the other graph question obviously took me longer.

Well done.

English. Do you speak it?

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:07:50 GMT

The bane of the government but yet the bonding glue of our general society, Singlish has time and again been the target for local and international criticism alike, but of course I'm sure this topic is like beating a dead horse now. Do you always wonder if your language lessons during school was a complete waste of time? Given that one doesn't need a superfluous command of any language to get their messages across, why bother? Well, take a look at the wall of text below.

"well on the sheer basis of bang for buck x1950pro is £70 spend the extra £25-£30 and you can have a x1950xt which is roughly the same price as 8600gt a good gts is around the £140 marker personal opinion id still have the x1950pro over the 8600gts not because i purely own 2 of them and not because im on the ati wagon yes the 8600gts does have a couple of points dx10 one and shading the x1950pro in a few areas but simple fact it is it costs twice as much so in that review you showed where it pulls 4-5fps is it really worth spending that when you could simply oc the x1950 and make up the difference this always have and always will be a big debate over x1950's and 8600gts like the x1950 excels in shading heavy games because of its heavy shaderhorsepowers. 8600 is like the old 6600gt it grabs a few bits from the halfords show it sticks to it and quiet insane clock speeds

keep a cool head lads"

By the time you reach this sentence, you either: 1) skipped the whole chunk 2) spent 10mins deciphering what the fuck this dude's talking about 3) read it and have no idea anyway 4) really understood wad he was talking about. Given that I took this great excerpt from a tech forum talking about graphics cards, number 4 is definitely out, so my wager is option 1 or 3. I would like to point out to you that this guy is from mainland UK from the use of "lads" and the sterling pound. Yes we all know that most UK schools are like shit, but this literally takes the cake.

Due to the lack of punctuation and whatever English mumbo jumbo, this... "thing" isn't even considered a sentence by definition lol. I only know a certain individual who is capable of writing this sort of style, although in his defense, he was only exposed to moderate acceptable level of English when he came over.

Do you know that the most commonly misspelt/used words on the internet are: they, they're, their, and they are? Also among the family are you, you're, and your. You ever wondered why teachers preach the banning of the use of "it's"? Its because people get them confused with it is and it's (Heck, even I do ), so they just put the forbidden sticker onto it and pray you don't make the old peeps over in the UK more miserable than they already are.

Getting back to those vital language lessons, I know there are people who loathe doing summaries and all, and here is a great example of putting it to good use. I can safely summarise it to: x1950pro has a better price to performance ratio than an 8600gts. Also, this guy has not tapped the full potential of the keyboard.

How about Singapore? chu noe? dish ish how singapork ppl tok on teh fourums. no wonder the gahmen du shpeek gud engrish camping. Scary right? On a side note, my IQ fell 10 points while typing that. In fact, I sometimes wonder how Singapore got to where she is right now. Condusive domestic policies aside, we're a bunch of people who can't speak good English nor Chinese. Actually, I think English for us isn't a problem, just that people haven't realised the need (nor ability...) to code switch appropriately. Yes, after all that bad negative rep that Singlish has chalked up, the solution is so simple that people think its simplistic, but that's another debate for another time.

Until then, please remember to use your keyboard to the fullest potential. Thank you.