Two down... more to go...

Remember this : http://calamariforthought.blogspot.com/2007/07/one-down-another-to-go.html

That's down. And my colleague got this for me from Margaret River :



That was very nice. Doing some beer and I have more...

Like this :



and this :



and this :



and this :



and all these :

For me to do something meaningful...

Contributions of money here and there to charities are not really that meaningful to me anymore.

A friend is now deeply involved in helping the Hmong refugee camps in Thailand.
http://newlifeoutreach.blogspot.com/


I am now asking for all your assistance. As individuals, I think I am not in any power to change the situation.

But I can contribute a little to their living and making it more comfortable : Winter is coming soon. And many will die in the refugee camp.

If you have any blankets and winter clothes to donate, please let me know.
If you feel like making monetary donations, please let me know too.
Or you can contact the site author directly.

This is going to be totally trust-based, though I am sure the author (my friend) will do his utmost to ensure that donations and trusts are not abused. But we have to know, he has no money to hire accountants.

A Week of Fun...

Last week, I was overseas in Bangkok, in part a retreat to celebrate my birthday. It was enjoyable to say the least.

Weekend trip to BKK, relax and shopping aint bad. Though I am not really a good shopper.

The only interesting thing that happened was in the Hotel room. Shan't say which hotel it was, but it wasn't any 5-star ones.

Seems decent at first. Then at night, while laying on the bed to watch TV, I spotting a small black dot on the white bedsheet... It moved... *eyes wide*

It looked like a bed bug. Then I looked around, hoping that I was wrong about it. Then I found one more, under a pillow. Then another one. That's it.

Changed room. Haha.. Ok, that was my first encounter with a bed bug. Should have taken a photo.

The only other 2 memorable encounters were in Philippines : A cockroach at my night-stand when I woke up one morning ; A small and cute mouse in my 3-bedroom suite which took 4 guys to kill and get rid of.

*~*~*~*~*

The day after I returned from my holiday, I went on a company anniversary holiday :



A 2-day-2-night cruise to :



My first time on a cruise. It was ok. The cabins are a bit small though, and no fridge. Not sure if it is smaller than First World Hotel in Genting , hahaha.

Won about $150 on my virgin try at roulette. Took the money and ran. So whatever I spent on this trip is free, wahahaha....

Lots of Swenson ice-creams, free food, spent $100 credits (Balcony class) on drinks...

*~*~*~*~*

Ok. A week of fun. My holiday tomorrow will probably be quite tame.. And time to get back to work... *headache*

Traffic Accidents and being 'Kaypoh'...

I have been stuck in traffic jams, especially those caused by traffic accidents.

And the usual complaints are always "People slow down to gawk", causing the traffic to be slow even AFTER the vehicles were moved away.

Though I would usually grumble when I am stuck in such jams, I know sometimes, things just happen in this manner. With everyone thinking for themselves and reacting to situations which will feed itself.. Self-organized events, I think..

http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200404/backpage.cfm

Sometimes, even without and accident, one person in a dense traffic flow, not paying attention to the road will cause a jam too..

Just imagine.. all around, everyone is travelling at 90km/h. One guy decides to jam brake, for 2 seconds.. Either not paying attention to a slowing vehicle in front, or a piece of debris falling in front of his path.. And then accelerated back to 90km/h after that brief 2 seconds..

The guy behind him hits the brakes hard too, but this time, he will take more than 2 seconds.. maybe 3 or 4 seconds.. cos of shock.. and he has to make sure that the first guy did accelerate before he will press his accelerator again..

Imagine the guy behind THIS guy, will take another 1 or 2 seconds longer than HIM. And it goes on.. and about 10 minutes later.. that stretch of road has slowed to a crawl to 30km/h...


Oh, and how about accident vehicles ? Is it that bad to take a look ? Why not ? Let those who drive recklessly take a close look and hope they do not do that.. Let the kids who just got their license know how their cars will look like should they decide to test the laws of physics..

But then those who will heed such "warnings" will not need to SEE these accidents.. looking at newspaper photos will be sufficient.. Those die-hard racers and people who think they are immortal, no amount of gore is going to scare them.

So perhaps being kaypoh is good, perhaps it is useless too.. I will never know..

Another step in becoming a seasoned traveller...

I have been travelling, for work and for holiday, for the past 10 years.

Yesterday, I have another point to clock into my season traveller mileage - I missed my first flight.

I arrived at Taoyuan International Airport on time. I checked in with almost 2 hours to spare. I proceeded past immigration, where I had to consume all my drinks.

(I couldn't remember whether they had another layer of security check at the gate and have taken the decision to go in rather than stay outside. I tried to finish my can of coke, a bottle of H2O and a bottle of mineral water. I can't and had to dump whatever I couldn't finish.)

In I went, then up to the next level and settled for a cup of latte and a croissant for lunch. Light, since I will be having another round of late lunch on the flight.

Then I took out my laptop to play my game (no points for guessing what game I was playing, ha ha.)

I didn't double check my flight time. I kept on thinking it was 2.40pm. So I played until about 2.25, turned it off, and proceeded to the gate. I know SQ closed the gate 10 min before departure. I could make it on time.

As I was walking into the gate, I looked at the signboard and it said the flight time was 2.20pm! I ran down. Nobody was sitting at any of the chairs. One of the staff saw me walking down and apparently know my name. Wow ! How did he know ?

So the plane had just left the gate, and my luggage was in it.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, they arranged me to get on the next flight. Gave me my boarding pass and I have another 4 hours to kill. This time, I found a comfy sofa, sat down and read my novel.

When I arrived in Singapore, my luggage was sitting on a trolley waiting for me already. Nice SQ service.

*~*~*~*~*

So, I have had close-call connections where I had ran from one end of the airport to the other. I have had flight delayed for hours due to weather (though it wasn't snow nor typhoon). I have had stand-by for 4 days at the airport waiting for empty seats on full flight season. I have had incredible flood that didn't stop me from getting back home on time.

Now I missed my flight trying conquer the world in a chair... :)

Only experiences left that I haven't had are lost luggages, missed connections, air accidents and hijacks. I really hope I will never have to live through any of it. Missing a flight is enough excitement. Excitement that did no harm except my kill my time and my mood.

*yawn*... tired... had a whole week of work and late night partying. Going to sleep early so that I can enjoy my weekend.

Conquer the World !

Ok. All done with Theme Hospital.

Just bought Command & Conquer : The First Decade.

Remembering the good old times of Win 95, Win 98, playing games with loud-speaker in hostel room...

So far, all seems to load and run well in Vista.

Starting from the very first episode too.. Weird, playing 640x480 on my 15.4" Wide screen laptop. Not to mention the window size havoc it makes whenever it changes resolution with open windows in the background.

Also, when my screen-saver kicks in it screws up the video colours... But nothing I can't deal with.. hahahaha

Ok, I guess my $60 of C&C:TFD is going to keep me occupied for the rest of the year.

One down.. another to go...

Clearing out my stash.. No point keeping them...

So this is one down :


And dealing with this now :

My Books are in hot demand...

For those who already know, I have given out a list via email to my close friends.

This morning, I sent out the remaining list to my whole office (about 65).
Lo and behold, 20 out of 26 books were taken up within an hour ! Some books even had multiple bookings.

Haha. Was joking with one of my colleagues that if only my work-related emails get such fast and good response. He mentioned that it was my title "Knowledge to be shared" and the list of good books that attracted such reactions.

Of course, things like A-Level physics had no takers.

So good, I don't have to make a trip to sell at 2nd hand bookstores..

I want to be Hospital Adminstrator...

I said I was playing with Command & Conquer , right ?

Being the fickle minded me, 2 days ago I was packing my software and games collection and I installed this game in my Vista - Theme Hospital.

Pretty funny and interesting. Hooked on to it now.. Damn...

Found Home ... Don't Go...

Finding new home for my old pets

Find new home for pets - a dog and a bear.

Nostalgia ...

As you would have known, I have gotten a new computer, running on Windows Vista Home Premium.

So, while in a weak attempt to clean my room, I started installing old games onto the machine.

So now, I am playing with "Commando" and "Command & Conquer : Red Alert For Win95".

Some other games just cannot be played.

I can't get "C&C : Tiberian Sun" to work. Though search round the net found that there are ppl who got it working in Vista. Maybe I haven't searched deep enough.

So its playing a Win95 game, on my nice screen, but at resolution of 640x480.. hahaha..

But sometimes, Cheapo is still quite good !

So I finally got my cable working, and I have managed to do some tests - Transfer Speed.

So for technicality, I will have to put my PC specs here :

Dell Inspiron 6400, with Intel T5600 chipset, 120GB SATA HDD (Now, I am not sure if it is SATA 1 or 2), USB 2.0 and 1394a ports.

Tested by copying almost 8GB of video files from my HDD to the External HDD and back. With Internet and other applications turned off. Timed with my handphone stop-watch.

So comparing the few external HDD I have :

(1) Cheap S$39 USB to IDE/ATA External HDD Case, with 120GB 3.5" Samsung IDE/ATA HDD (5,400rpm) :
Average Reading Speed : 15.5MB/sec (That is MegaByte per Second)
Average Writing Speed : 19.6MB/sec

(2) iCute brand $49 USB to IDE/ATA External HDD Case (with fan), with same 120GB 3.5" Samsung IDE/ATA HDD (5,400rpm) :
Average Reading Speed : 18.4MB/sec
Average Writing Speed : 20.6MB/sec

(3) WD MyBook Premium (USB and Firewire Combo, without fan), with its own 500GB 3.5" HDD (also 5,400rpm and SATA I assume) :
Average USB Reading Speed : 15.9MB/sec
Average USB Writing Speed : 19.2MB/sec

Average Firewire Reading Speed : 17.6MB/sec
Average Firewire Writing Speed : 20.4MB/sec

Surprising results, I have to say. MyBook Premium performs worse off than the cheap $49 iCute casing. Though I am not entirely sure if the larger capacity HDD is supposed to be slower than the smaller capacity ones.

Usually reading from a HDD is FASTER than writing. So my results of Writing into external is faster than Reading from external basically means that the bottleneck is at my laptop HDD.

But one thing is for sure : Performance is increased by having a fan.. hee hee..

And just out of curiosity, I compared it with my portable USB 2.5" Casing with 120GB Samsung HDD (5,400rpm) (and I am assuming it is IDE/ATA and not SATA) :
Average Reading Speed : 11.7MB/sec
Average Writing Speed : 11.2MB/sec

Well, I guess I will need a better performing PC instead of a notebook (whose HDD should be slower than the 3.5" HDD) to really bring the transfer speed faster.

My Gadgets and My Luck...

I have recently purchased a WD MyBook Premium edition. Got it at the PC Show with more discounts.

Yesterday, went to buy a 1394 cable (4p-6p) to use on my notebook.

And it is always my luck that my newly purchased IT products are never perfect.

First, my notebook had a strange "smear" on the screen that I cannot clean.
It was replaced by Dell on Monday afternoon. The new replacement had a similar defect, this time, it looked like a short strand of hair was stuck there.. Had it replaced again yesterday morning. At least this time it seems fine.

Then I went home last night and found that I cannot use MyBook with the new 1394 cable, even after I have installed the driver for it.

Then I thought : MyBook is faulty, the cable is faulty or my notebook is faulty.

So I brought the whole thing to my office.

I tried in on my office notebook's 1394 port - not working.
I asked around for other 1394 cable - none.
I asked around for any other 1394 devices I try with my notebook - none.

I was almost at my wits end. Then I spied the eMac sitting at someone's desk.

I took the MyBook's bundled 1394 cable (6p-6p) to try it out on the Mac. It works !
So MyBook is ok !
And unless both 1394 ports of my own notebook and my office notebook are faulty, it is now 95% chance of faulty cable.

*Sigh*

Maybe next time I shouldn't buy el cheapo cables... ?

Update as at 4.30pm :

I went down to the shop, tried out other cables of the same brand (rather, the same non-brand). All didn't work. At least the shop was good enough to refund me, as they do not have stock for their "higher-end" cable.

Went to another shop, bought a slightly more expensive looking cable, tested it on the spot with MyBook. IT WORKS !

Moral of the story : Really, do NOT get el-cheapo cables to save a few bucks. AT least, make sure the cable is of good quality (read : not as flexible, with knobs at the end that is supposed to be EMI shield).

Harry Potter = Star Wars ????

Got it off the net

Missing my new Laptop

I got my new Dell Inspiron 6400 (with 2GB RAM, Truelife Screen, Vista Home Premium, blah blah) over the last weekend and was exploring and admiring .. AND LOVING.. my new machine.

Hey, gimme a break. Its my ONLY Computer purchase for the last, what, 7 years ? I have been using old machines and upgrading with spare parts that other people threw away.

Anyway, to cut the story short, Today is the first day I am separated with it. (I brought it to office yesterday to solve some performance problem with Outlook.) And by lunch time just now, I am already missing it.

I miss the large screen (as compared to my office one)...
I miss the WIDE screen...
I miss re-organizing my data (photos, documents, videos, etc)...

In short, I felt love-sick.. craving to touch my sleek and sexy machine quickly.. hahaha..
Ok.. this is getting pathetic..

Now I am filling up by HDD space, and I have barely 30GB left in my laptop. And I haven't even transferred my porn-videos.. hahahah... I need more storage !

:)

More Jobs taken from Older Singaporeans ?

I'd learnt about this small bit of information from my course of work.

You know those small kiosk at bus/MRT interchanges, where you have the uncles and aunties sellnig drinks, newspapers and magazines ?

Well, seems like SPH will be buying them over on phases, and franchising out to youngsters. Why youngsters ? So that they can also start to sell technology products (like mobile phones, etc) as they want to showcase wireless hotspot as well (allowing people to surf the web while waiting for buses/MRTs).

So, another small group of jobs taken away...

Sleepless, on a cool rainy night...

Had an enjoyable day. Went out for picnic. Then I was back home very late, showered and tried to sleep.

Once again, I am lying in bed, tossing and turning.
After about 2 hours of failing to make myself sleep, I finally turned on my PC.

What is keeping me awake now ?
D has flown to Australia.
Reminded me that time has drawn closer for me to execute my plans to move over as well.
Something that I have logically and rationally decided to do.
(And I think this is the first time I admitted this ?)

But logic and rationale usually always fight big battles with emotions.

This time, I experience first-hand the fear and apprehension that KOP had faced, and what D must be facing now.

I can only imagine it growing in time to come...

Starting life in a new place, having to re-establish everything all over again ?
What if I can't make it ?
What if I become miserable ?
Am I stupid to throw everything that I have now ?
What if this is the worst mistake I will ever make in my whole life ?

These are the things that kept on running through my head...

And the rain is pouring outside...
Lightning flashing frequently...
Wind howling through my window...

I think I will have darker eyes, bigger eye-bags, and whiter hair for the next few months...

RTA Update

I heard more about how my relatives' RTA happened.

They were travelling along (probably a not-so-familar route) and at a turn or slope, there was a puddle of water.

The vehicle skidded and slammed into a pole (or lamp post). They were injured and shaken, got out of the vehicle. Apparently, they were hang around there for a while (how long, I don't know) and along came another car and a it happened again.

This time, the car slammed into my relatives.

Uncle and auntie died on the spot. My cousin-in-law died either on the way to hospital, or at the hospital. My cousin is stablized but require multiple operations.


Moral of the story, if accident happened, please stay away from vehicle and stay clear of the road.

More Bad News

I just heard that today, my auntie and uncle (who were staying in Malaysia) passed away in a RTA in Malaysia. My cousin is still in hospital, not sure of her condition, while her husband died as well.

Still not sure of many things, but appears to be skid gone awry. Not sure if other vehicles were involved...