The Present and the Past

2008-03-02T18:34:00.001+11:00

Blog moved to http://thestrangevision.blogspot.com/. This blog will be maintained for testing out templates.

Thanks.

2008-02-19T13:00:00.003+11:00

Mmmmm.. Life is good especially when you'd jumped over the biggest hurdle in the near forseeable future. In this case, of course, my driving. LAWL.

Well, it wasn't too bad. Took ages to complete though, I started lessons mid of Dec (law), and ended yesterday. That was just too much. All in all I had like what, 12 lessons I believe. 8 weeks is like 3/4 of a semester lol. Ah well. Did pretty alright, but I'll run ya all through the entire process, since I can't figure out what else to say anyways =P

My test time was supposed to be at 2pm. The clerk at the academy asked me to arrive at 1.30pm. So I hitched a ride on my dad's friend's car and arrived there on time. 1.20pm. The sun was blazing hot. And I was all alone there. Everyone was talking to the person beside them and I was basically staring at everything that was interesting (and that includes the bee flying about and the old guy painting the wall). JPJ finally arrived at 2.30pm and the registration process began which took another 20 mins. Done.

Then the test began. The academy has 4 cars for the internal test (hill and parking) so 4 driver-wannabes are tested simultaneously. I was the first driver in the 3rd car. Shyt. So I hopped in, turned on the engine and off I went. The hill part was done really smoothly. A complication though, you know how we look for indicators and shit to find out when to slam the brakes but there was a car beside me that totally blocked the indicator. So yeah I had to estimate -.-" After that everything was a breeze and I was vaguely aware of my left foot shaking on the clutch.

Finished part 1 of my car test, went off to go for my motorbike test, did pretty alright on the raised platform test, my time was 0.08.88 secs. Hehe. The problem I had was that I was way to excited though, and I forgot to turn on the bike before kicking the starter xD I was panicking cause it won't start until a woman in front of me spoke in Mandarin, (so that the tester can't understand I think) "Is it on?". Lol.

Finished part 1 and part 2 of my bikey test, I went into a car to drive out. Only memorable case was that the traffic lights weren't working, so the JPJ guy beside me suddenly said "Go" when the coast was clear and I went. I remember thinking that I can't fail the traffic light part anyway since they were not working. Drove at about 65 km/hr. Felt pretty good, arrived back at the academy, was told that I passed and went for the final part of my bikey test, which I passed as well =)

One weird incident though this morning, a woman failed her test spectacularly. Well, her car just won't budge and the JPJ guy beside her was looking really impatient. She couldn't even enter the first gear lol. Finally he came out, and asked impatiently, "Dia tidak pandai memandu pun. Siapa cikgu dia ha?" Lawl. Turned out that, she couldn't floor the clutch but interestingly she didn't attempt to adjust her chair. o.O

A happy belated birthday to YikShien who turned 19 recently. I'll catch up in a few months =P

*Hugs everyone who reads this post*

2008-02-14T14:16:00.008+11:00

Happy CNY! For those who are thinking, hey, isn't that kind of late, well, CNY lasts for 15 days anyways...

Was a quiet one for me though, basically stayed at home the whole time and played Utopia and Final Fantasy VIII the whole time. And in Utopia one of my kd-mates just got provo-killed after these guys multi-ed and made new accounts to make OOW hits on him. Bleh but we're winning anyway. Definitely the longest war I've been in, it's been dragging for like 10 days and will not end till they are rolling on the floor in pain =P

Here are some Final Fantasy VIII boss tips for you guys out there, note that the guides aren't that useful, I followed them but got pawned badly.

Diablos
This GF is no pushover. His gravija damages approx 3/4 of your health no matter how high it is. Now that's painful. So basically the idea is to hack at him using GF's and limit breaks. Draw cast Demi early in the battle to damage him badly, but bear in mind that Demi gets weaker when you've used it multiple times. Use limit breaks when possible. I found Selphie's limit break to be the best of all, the Full Cure heals everyone in your party that is not kayoed to full health. Btw Renzokuken does hurt if you use it properly =P which I can't.

Cerberus
This GF beat me 6 times. 6 freaking times lol. How to beat this boss? Carbuncle GF is quite useless, Cerberus can cast Triple and triple Dispel your party. And it doesn't block quake and tornado. So how do you beat it? Junction aero or tornado to you element defense. Enter battle and start by casting Float on all your party, which protects you from his Quake. Diablos is by far the most powerful GF I've used on this guy, Diablos can deal 2000+ damage in one hit. Summon Diablos and Shiva over and over again. I used Rinoa to cast self spells whereas the other two summon GFs and used physical attacks. Oh and cast Dispel to remove his Triple magic. At the end of the battle however, all my 3 characters were affected by berserk and they just randomly hit Cerberus over and over again till he was killed =S

And I've got the shooting star for Rinoa!!!!! <3 Okay, enough of games, now for the third day in Miri before it becomes stale news. It was a Sunday, so we went to St Joseph Cathedral for Sunday mass. Rofl and I realised that I've been there before like a few years back. Then both ZQ and I went back to the hotel, had brekky again and left for the City Fan. Guess how far we walked? A freaking hour. Without stopping. The City Fan is supposed to be a main attraction area, but somehow I was disappointed to see the things on display. Taman Awam Miri was better (see post below).

A scene in the Fan

Apparently this pic looks like a scene in Japan where you get flowers on the ground and emo people looking around.

Some random pose

After walking around in the Fan we went to the Stadium Tertutup Miri. Sure brings back memories of the band competition though. Though we got our arse kicked that time but still, it was fun =)

After that we went to Bintang Plaza (again?) and Boulevard (again?) before going back to Bintulu. My rating? 9/10! Yeah, not many activities but I got to go to Miri with Zhi Qin, got to meet up with Roni and got to see these places that I've been to last time. *edited*

Mmmm... next up, CNY updates, though it will be quite short as I practically did nothing =)

2008-02-05T22:40:00.005+11:00

Damn life had been really busy lately. With DotA, FF8, Utopia and cleaning the house, I have no time to run around and update this blog =P

Well yeah as promised, the 2nd day of my trip in Miri.

Woke up pretty early in the morning, and went for brekky in the restaurant in the hotel, thanks to 2 complimentary breakfast coupons from the hotel staff. And yeah food wasn't that great, but hey, it was free (yeah I know it's included in the rate lol but the room rate was pretty cheap too). Ate fried noodles for brekky. Then, we set off to Imperial Mall.

On the way we stopped by Million Inn where we lived during our band competition in Miri in Form 5. Here it is:

And after shopping a bit where I bought a pair of Converse which Zhi Qin deemed as "Gothic", Roni picked me up for lunch. And yeah basically she drove me to some place which I can't remember (lol that was quite sometime ago) where I had some Japanese pork slices. Apparently the milk shake there sucked, judging from her reactions after drinking it. Lady luck wasn't on our side, however, after lunch it was raining.

So yeah after thinking a bit Roni decided to bring me to Curtin. Pretty far though, from her place to Curtin University took about 25 mins I think. Curtin's a small but pretty campus. Has lotsa interesting stuff, even a mini island which people claim to look like Australia from above.

Then we walked around and checked the campus out. And I stopped by to take photos at the entrance.

After that, we went around to Taman Awam Miri. The place was pretty nice as well. Here's a pic:

We decided to clean our muddy feet in the pool but decided against it after seeing some adults there. They would have murdered us in the pool for making the pool muddy for their kids. >.< After walking about this Taman for like probably half an hour, we head to the city again. Roni brought me to St. Joseph Miri school where she studied secondary school. Didn't get any pics though, and the security guard didn't look friendly so I did not get to go inside the school. Then, the destination was Bintang Plaza where we headed straight to Giant's to buy water. Parking there was awful though, the whole basement parking was flooded and we circled the area for about maybe 20 mins before finding one. Then we just roamed around and chatted till it was time for me to go back. So yeah I was brought back to the hotel after that. Here's a pic of us in the car, the best out of 4 attempts since I'm a noob at camwhoring =P

ZQ did not join us though, he had to buy some CNY clothes etc so that's why I did not mention him. Owh and I had no pic of him since he refused to take any during the ENTIRE trip. Lol. I'll post 3rd day sometime later, this post is freaking long already. Cheers and a happy CNY to you all.

PS: Thanks for a wonderful time Roni! (if you're reading this which I seriously doubt =P)

2008-02-02T13:51:00.000+11:00

Damn! Checked my mail a minute before and found really sh1t news.

"You are hopefully by now aware that Week Zero is being introduced as the official first week of Semester 1 and Semester 2 at the Kensington and COFA campuses. It is the week before the commencement of the main 12-week teaching periods. All students should ensure that they are
available to attend in Week Zero."

Wtf? I booked my ticket on the 6th of March! The university mentioned about the start of the sem being the 10th and so yeah Tim the smart-ass decided to go a few days earlier and prolly effed his timetable. >.<

Well have been playing Final Fantasy VIII lately. It's really hard to pick up, especially junctioning and magic and etc. Even the card game takes a while to get a hold of. And every boss except Granaldo and the fake president has beaten me at least once. Diablos even whipped my ass three times! >.<

Veronica aka Roni happened to read my msn personal msg and replied with this:

veronica says:
how can u lose to diablos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

veronica says:
just use shiva niah.

veronica says:
=P

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
shiva only 500 damage

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
>.<

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
his health is a freking 8000

veronica says:
use shiva niah

veronica says:
and magic lah

veronica says:
it's like

veronica says:
very easy leeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
eh he gravi-whatever once shiva nearly dead aldy =P

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
owh i think it's gravija

veronica says:
shiva can die one mer

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
can lar if his/her hp go too low

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
eh i seiorulsy am stumped

<[<ραφαελ>]> **Ticket rulez** [Final Fantasy VIII] says:
spent the last 30 mins trying to beat him lol

veronica says:
i serioulsy never had any problems there o.o

Rofl!!!

Next post will be on my 2nd day in Miri. Was originally planning to write on it today but yeah, whatver. Ta!

*The above conversation wasn't used with Roni's approval, but I think she'll be okay with it =)*

2008-01-30T17:21:00.000+11:00

Miri - 1st day

A trilogy spanning 3 days will be unfolded now. 1st part is, of course, the boring-est of the lot. Well I went to Miri with my friend, Zhi Qin and the plan was quite of a sudden as well. We're supposed to go with Lee Keong and Lynda as well but somehow the girls were busy and so the plan was called off. Then I, being bored to the extreme told ZQ that I felt like going, over dinner after thrashing "easy computer AI" on Rise of the Nations and lol, we went.

Bus ride at 12.00pm, we arrived in Miri at about 3.30pm. That was Friday, the 25/1. Felt really bad after that ride, was bus-sick and having headaches and sort. Was really happy to see the bus station at the end. And lol, that was the first time I noticed that Boulevard was really close to the bus station -_-

ZQ's aunt and uncle picked us up and brought us to the hotel, Park Hotel. Placed our stuff, and they then took us for tea. After that it was resting time @ the hotel. Took a few pics of our nice room which costed each of us only RM72.45 for 2 nights and we got 2 single beds for that price!

And about 6pm ZQ's relatives took us out again for dinner before bringing us to Boulevard. There I bought my Final Fantasy 8 game. The place didn't changed much (lol) but honestly it felt a lot smaller. After that the destination was Bintang Plaza where we wandered around aimlessly without buying anything except a bottle of water each.

It reads Hong Kong Duck Eating House, I was too lazy to go back a few steps. Our dinner venue where we had hotpot tofu, pork with chilli and bittergourd.

One weird incident though, at night both ZQ and I decided to go out, and in the dark alley some guy suddenly stood up and walked towards us, talking nonsense. I freaked out and started walking (in a running sort of manner) back to the hotel. Rofl. ZQ was freaked out too. But the guy seriously looked like he was about to rob us. Wtf. Anyhow, we went back, and instead spent the night watching a horror movie titled "Dead Birds" which I had no clue on what was going on apart from people screaming and dying.

After that, it's goodnight! Owh and I showered before sleeping =)

2008-01-28T16:26:00.000+11:00

A long debate with myself on whether I should post on Miri or Niah first but yeah finally decided on Niah since it was earlier.

T'was quite random as well, was having dinner on Tuesday night when Mariah called me up and asked me if I would like to go Niah Caves. After arrangements were made to accommodate my driving lesson (in which I'll be having a pre-test 2moro), we agreed on a time. Badriah joined our venture as well.

Took the coastal road to the caves which made the trip really short. 1.5 hours and we were there. Not to mention that we keep wondering if we were lost as we couldn't find the signboard to direct us to Niah Caves. Sarah jokingly said that we could end up visiting Miri if we couldn't find Niah. =P

IMO Niah is quite interesting. Not as gr8 as Jenolan Caves in Sydney but hey, you're paying RM 5 per entry as opposed to A$50 per entry. Well first we reached the park's HQ where yeah the fee goes. Btw my trip there was free as Mariah paid for everything =) Thanks!

The HQ

Then we crossed a river to the cave area. Lol, and that was when I found out that the reason for the dirty looking rivers wasn't like mud or anything but apparently because of tree roots. And no, I don't know what the reason is.

The non-muddy muddy-looking river

And after that, another 1 hour hike to reach the caves, first of all called the Great Cave. Yeah I've got pics of different caves but I've no idea which is which so I'll just post one up.

The Great Cave?

Then from there it's another like 1 hour walk to reach the Painting Cave. Now the Painting Cave supposedly contains ancient paintings etc, but when we reached there I just felt disappointment. Here's why...

The painting cave. Note the fence placed about 4 metres away from the wall, thus visitors can see very little of the already dismal paintings.

After the Painting Cave it was time to turn back and walk all the way to the river. Reached the river tired like hell as I had been walking for 5 hours. Then, we got lost on our way back, ended up on the old road instead of the coastal road and arrived back safely.

A stunning view from the caves. Sarawak's nature beauty is comparable to that of Australia's. Too bad I'm not one for nature =P

That's all folks, next up, Miri!

2008-01-24T20:06:00.000+11:00

Thanks to WenY who asked me to change my crosshair cursor >.< now it's back to normal mode with the arrow thingy. Lol =P Blame the designer for all the fancy cursors haha.

Nothing much to update, just that I'll be outstation starting Friday till Sunday. So yeah basically will post on my trip to Niah Caves which was yesterday as well as the trip to Miri which is 2moro =) Server for Utopia has been reset, so yeah come join at http://games.swirve.com/utopia.

Something to round off this post...

The Province of Fort Elven (7:17)
[http://www.UtopiaTemple.com All-in-One v4.22b]

Server: World of Legends (Age 36)
Utopian Date: January 8th, YR16 (47% in the day)
RL Date: October 17th, 2007 (13:28 GMT)
Formatted: January 23rd, 2008 (13:27 GMT)

Ruler Name: Lord BingBong the Warrior
Personality & Race: The Warrior, Elf
Land: 2,130 Acres
Money: 9,518,455gc (28,322gc raw daily income)
Food: 388,090 bushels
Runes: 324,819 runes
Population: 64,349 citizens (30.21 per Acre)
Peasants: 14,161 (82% Building Efficiency)
Trade Balance: 729,956gc
Networth: 428,687 (201.26 per Acre)
Thieves+Wizards+Science Networth: 78,923gc

Military Eff. with Stance: 122.8% off. / 109.5% def.
Soldiers: 210 (59% estimated draft rate)
Rangers: 0
Archers: 3,253 (16,265 defense points)
Elf Lords: 31,966 (191,796 off. / 159,830 def.)
War-Horses: 14,250 (up to 14,250 additional offense)
Prisoners: 0

Total Modified Offense: 253,282 (118.91 per Acre)
Practical (75% elites): 194,401 (91.27 per Acre)
Total Modified Defense: 193,006 (90.61 per Acre)
Practical (25% elites): 61,794 (29.01 per Acre)

Thieves: 2,536 (1.19 per Acre / 100% Stealth)
Wizards: 12,223 (5.74 per Acre / 95% Mana)

Crystal-Ball on your province will show:
Max. Possible Thieves/Wizards: 19,731 (9.26 / Acre)
Estimated Thieves Number: 7,892 (3.71 per Acre)
Estimated Wizards Number: 2,960 (1.39 per Acre)

Buildings: 1,535gc to build, 883gc to raze
Away bonus: 70,805gc (12h) / 212,415gc (20h)

2008-01-22T13:11:00.000+11:00

Finally got my hands on the Pocket by Ai Otsuka! <3

The songs in the single include:

Pocket
Ticket
Love-Live Circle
Pocket (Instrumental)
Ticket (Instrumental)

A summary of all the songs:

Pocket is not too bad. By that I mean not that great, I'm not a big fan of this kind of songs. Slow type, it is accompanied by acoustic guitar.

Ticket is the best song in this single! Great drum beats and voice creates a catchy tune. The happy mood of the song makes it a great song.

Love-Live Circle is pretty good as well. Well played instruments in the background. Definitely the second best song in this single.

2008-01-21T15:10:00.000+11:00

Was bored and so decided to make major changes to my blog. So yeah basically the first thing to do was to look for an interesting template. Found a few but this one featuring Yuffie was the best =) Note: I did not plan to use one with Yuffie! And it's black as well! Then came the interesting part. This template was written in the classic blogger type so there is no widget support. Wtf. Hence everything has to be done manually. To top it off, the designer doesn't want to host the images as well so I have to host 'em (anyone who wants to use this template, I can host 'em for ya!).

Then the next thingy is to prevent write clicking on the blog. That was easy, but preventing left clicking on my images is hard. For what reasons you may ask? It's because of the poor quality of some pics which are better seen at smaller sizes. Spent hours in front of my lappie and retired last night in defeat. A night's sleep and voila! I got an inspiration as soon as I got up. Yeah. In bed as soon as I woke up. Bang! And the answer is very simple. Remove the anchor for the image so that it doesn't link to the source file. LOL!!!! I was like wtf!!!! Tested it on a few old posts and it works =)

Other than that, changed the url for the blog. I still don't like the way archives are managed in this template, but am too lazy to figure out something. Someone help me pls?

PS: To view old posts, click on archive, and then on entries...
PPS: A big thank you to Kuroda for the design of this template! *edited*

2008-01-19T13:24:00.000+11:00

When 3 bored guys come online and chat in the same conversation box, things come out pretty interestingly XD

An excerpt from such a conversation, used with permission from all the participants...

**********************************************************
raditya says:
bleh, dun like yuna.....

raditya says:
like's rikku

TonG says:
eh yuna n rikku are both imaginary

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
rikku is also quite chun

raditya says:
what's chun?

TonG says:
i like misty from pokemon

raditya says:
bleh...

raditya says:
ehehehe

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
HAH

raditya says:
like the nurse from pokecente...

raditya says:
pokecenter....

TonG says:
i like tifa in advent children

raditya says:
nono.....

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
LOL

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
LOL

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
chun = pretty

TonG says:
didit, u gonna say u like sephiroth from advent children?

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
lol

raditya says:
like....dun like advent child

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
eh the police Jenny >>>nurse Joy

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
=)

raditya says:
uph joy...

raditya says:
luph joy...

raditya says:
hehehe

raditya says:
also sakura from naruto, eheheheh

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
haha darn but honestly though i think that anime misty's the best

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
=)

raditya says:
why?

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
cute

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
eh rikku >> sakura

TonG says:
yea rikku

raditya says:
rikku ownnnnnssssss

raditya says:
h

TonG says:
eh i prefer the gals in ff8

raditya says:
rikku has just pawn sakura for 1k

raditya says:
hah ha

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
who's the girl in ff8?

TonG says:
rinoa, quistis, selphie

TonG says:
wiki2

raditya says:
selphie nice

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
dunno how selphie looks like

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
lol

TonG says:
lol

TonG says:
u're too obsessed with yuna

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
quistis >>> selphie

TonG says:
they're both useless in the game lol

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
yuna >> tifa >> rikku >> quistis >> selphie

raditya says:
rikku owns

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
XD

TonG says:
eh i feel rikku and selphie quite similar

TonG says:
just hairstyle different

raditya says:
dunno....

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
rikku's hairstyle damn nice

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
nicest in all FF series

TonG says:
wah u're talking like u know all the characters in ff series lolx

raditya says:
hah a h

raditya says:
rikku owns

raditya says:
hhah

TonG says:
eh u've repeated that so many times

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
lol

[Fort Elven] <[<ραφαελ>]> **Yuna pwns** says:
yea

**********************************************************

Yuna portraying the "Sending"

2008-01-17T18:46:00.000+11:00

Jeez.. Wtf is wrong with me lol.. After I'm done with all these FF stuff and now I've got a latest obsession with Ai Otsuka's songs. Yeah Weny's action of calling me a horny bitch is thus well justified. -_- And now I'm getting seriously nooby at DotA as well, haven't played with humans for ages. Sigh, my last attempt at using Anub'arak badly flawed. Guess it's time to hang up my keyboard.

Yeah, did my first driving class yesterday. Motorbike lessons were and will continue to be pretty uneventful. I was just given the keys and helmet and asked to ride. Lol. Fell off the raised platform twice (its like 15 cm wide wtf). Sigh. Not that injured, but I suppose the injury to my pride was greater. Lol. Car was more eventful though. My instructor looked at me and asked "Can you drive?", to which I replied "To a certain extent, yes". And he said, "Good, lets hit the road". I was like, shyyyttt does he mean go out onto the main road? And minutes later, I'm driving with other cars and lorries and wtv other vehicles out there. On my first lesson too! Lol. But that was seriously cool =)

Activities lately? Listening to songs, watching lotsa movies, and er.. sleep and eat and all those bullshit people do when they are bored at home during the summer hols. Games I play include Neopets (yes, neopets), O2 Jam and Stronghold. 02 Jam is not as easy as it looks so all you out there who think it's for kids you should try (probably alone for the first few hours haha). Met up with friends a few times, but that's all. Hope and pray that our plans to go outstation comes to fruition.

Pics?

Anti-clockwise from right: Penny (our VIP for the day), TZQ, Damien and I. Scene at Ice City.

The better attempt of two attempts, both of which were destroyed by Penny =P Scene at Summer Tea.

Another unrelated meeting at Parkcity Mall. From left: Iris, KLK, Lynda and TZQ.

Same, except TZQ is the photographer this time =)

Well, I suppose that's all for now. If you've not seen the FF Cosplay vid I embedded on top, please do. There is one pic of Cloud which owns (the one with the sunnies). Cheers!

PS: Those bloggers who blog please blog more often so that I have something to read =P

2008-01-09T17:12:00.000+11:00

2 posts in 2 days! Lol.

Anyhow yeah I guess I'm just bored, lazy even to shower............ I should be showering now but what the hell, after this post...

Gonna talk about something which will bore most of you out there but something I find fascinating, which is computer programs =P My fav past time used to be searching for the best program out there (mostly freeware) and then installing them and trying each and every one of them out.

Entertainment

As far as entertainment goes, nothing beats the Windows Media Player (WMP) which is bundled with the OS itself. Sure enough other competitors tempt you with small-sized files (eg Real Player) but when it comes to versatility nothing beats the WMP. Download necessary codecs and I believe you will be able to watch almost any video you can find.

Compressing programs

WinRAR wins hands down in all the programs I've tried. It can compress/decompress multiple file extensions. Worth buying!

Burning programs

A difficult choice here. I prefer Sonic DigitalMedia which I'm now currently using =P Nero however is more popular choice among computer users for its wizard which is very user friendly. However, my attempts to create ISO images using the 2 programs failed as they don't support (either that or I'm a noob at using them). For burning ISO images, BurnAware Free Edition is the perfect program! And besides that, its free. What could be better? =)

Firewall

McAfee Firewall is cool. Its powerful and its built into a suite which is named McAfee Security Center. Now, the suite is awesome in which different security options are built into the suite so you don't have to click on different programs for different security options. For freeware programs, I'll go for COMODO Pro. Not newbie friendly though, its Defender + keeps popping up in a very frustrating manner (it asks the same questions over and over again!). But yeah, for something free, its very worth it.

Antivirus

Norton? I do not use Norton but apparently it's popular. Might want to check it out. But since I'm a poor ass, I'm now using Avast! Home Edition which is of course, free. The updates are quite regular and other users' reviews are very positive. Avast! seems to be more popular than its Czech counterpart AVG, so that's the reason why I picked it =)

PSX emulators

Can't seem to get any programs that work properly. Connectix Virtual Game Station (CVGS) seems to work best but there are no new updates =(

Note: You have to own the Sony PS to own the BIOS which controls the PSX emulator.

Chatting programs

Windows Live Messenger aka MSN. Need me say more?

2008-01-08T23:10:00.000+11:00

What a day! Completely destroyed my lappie in a matter of minutes --> trying to run ePSXe on my lappie -_-

Reinstallation is the answer and I've been preparing for it since days ago, painful days of backing up my files in portable hard drives (damn, photos are the worst!). And today, the attempt to run the emulator failed, the lappie went crazy and I decided to go for it.

Did many mistakes in the reinstallation, spent HOURS on it, from about 9 am to about 5 pm, pausing only for lunch. Well, I learnt stuff the hard way, acting like a self-proclaimed computer specialist. First attempt, after installation of the OS, I checked my hard drive and swore when I saw that I only had 5 GB available. Further checks confirmed that I did not manage to format my hard drive. The manual given was of no help either, the steps aren't exactly follow-able. I mean, come on, the real situation wasn't like what is stated in those manuals. Made the same mistake in my second. Then after I've got my OS running, I had problems in setting up my Internet connection (for goodness sake?).

Here's a post on how to completely reformat and reinstall Windows OS for all you noobs out there, trust me that this will help you save hours. I'm using a Dell Inspiron, so the guide here will closely match the steps I took, though other lappies should be around the same =)

First of all, do you really want to reformat your lappie? If not, then repairing Windows is a good choice. If you really do, then back up your files. Seriously.

Now for the installation. Place the Win XP CD into your CD-ROM/RW/whatever. Here's the catch: Do NOT install when prompted, I made that mistake twice and spent about 2 hours getting nothing done. Exit the prompt. Shut down computer and reboot. For Dell Inspirons, the key to press upon rebooting is F12. Others you'll have to find yourself the key which will lead you to the page letting you choose your boot-up medium. Select the CD-ROM which contains the installation CD.

Your lappie should now reboot using the CD. Follow the prompts and you'll find yourself in a page about partitions. For Dells, the lappies are equipped with Dell MediaDirect in which you'll have to allocate certain MB to, I think its about 1 GB but please check your manuals. Delete the existing partition containing the existing OS and recreate the partition. Your lappie will prompt you as to what kind of formatting to use. Select NTSC. The next few steps are easy and you should find your OS installed and ready to go!

Post installation guide:
You should install some antivirus software, firewall and Microsoft Office. Defragment your drive and create a restore point. After that it's time to install games and play!

Note: The author is not responsible for any damages caused by the guide.

2008-01-03T23:44:00.000+11:00

Back for the first post of the year!

Firstly, happy New Year to all, happy birthday to Jenny Ngu, my classmate in kindi =) Whom I don't remember studying with, but there are photos of me with her O_O which I suppose is pretty good proof =P

Went Hartz Chicken on the 23rd of December, a small meet-up between ex-5S5'ers. Joining are my buddies Damien, Zhi Qin, Johnny, Eng Ann, Lynda, Lee Keong, Karen and Joyce. Joyce was the organiser of course. After dinner, went to Everly Hotel to have another drink (wth?). I was so bloated by then and could not down anymore liquid. Damien however, was in an adventurous mood and ordered "Blushing Everly Colada" which turned out to be some sour drink which wasn't to mine and his taste. Lol. Watching him down the drink while being teased about some chick named Angela (who turned out to be his professor) really made my night =P Owh and Zhi Qin apparently brought a Mandarin text which contained sexual elements!

Clockwise from left: Damien, Lee Keong, Lynda, Joyce, Eng Ann, Johnny, me, Karen and Zhi Qin

The girls: Lee Keong, Karen, Lynda and Joyce

Went to Sibu on the 30th December and returned on the 1st of January in search for badminton shoes. After going to many shops and looking at many different models from different makes and all having different prices (omg) my uncle finally located his friend who sold the shoes at a bargain price. I got a pair of Yonex for RM250, a discount from the original price of RM329. Yay!

The result of a long and hard search

Finally, a good movie I watched in my cousin's house titled "Just Follow Law" starring Gurmit Singh and Fann Wong. The plot is good and Fann Wong looks damn pretty =P An excerpt from the movie..

"I just have the goodest plan!"
"Goodest?"
"Haiya, let me explain. Good, ho. Gooder, jin ho. Goodest, xi be ho!"

(in Hokkien, meaning good, very good, and "die not good" respectively in a word for word translation)

2007-12-19T01:04:00.000+11:00

Passed my law =P Now for that thingy called engine course, some practical and finally the long awaited P license. And that being the target for the hols. Well, apart from the work of course, which is still pending...

Stop 2 for the day was my school. Went to see my brother conducting the school band as its president (O_O) and yeah had to admit he did a pretty good job. Met up with Janet and Johnny and decided that we should meet up sometime for dinner. Mmmmmmm... They have not changed much though but I supposedly look different from before. Quoting Janet, "Your face don't really look fatter, but longer!"

Went for badminton just now, and found that my skills rusted dramatically. Whacked the rim like 30% of the times which is like, "wth?" and sparred against a guy who looked professional, ending with me surrendering after 15 mins of play with a hurting tummy and a blister. Definitely need to train up that stamina during this hols or Mike will just demolish me next semester!

Next up, another checkup 2moro to see if I'm at optimum health and hmm.. nothing else I suppose. I'm bored to the extent of adopting a virtual pet to place on my blog and embedding a video of 1/2 by Kawamoto Makoto at the foot of this blog. She rulez! =)

PS: Happy birthday to WenY!

2007-12-15T02:13:00.000+11:00

Back @ home! Have not posted anything for ages, my bad on the part. Will update events accompanied with pics soon.

Well I suppose things could've been worse. Not really having the days of my life ATM, but hell yeah, things could've been worse. And I'm happy with the way some of them went, sure enough things did not go as hoped, but the assurance was positive. <3 the way WenY handles stuff! Some more challenges facing my way, I'm praying for the best and crossing my fingers that nothing's bad gonna happen. Please... We shall see, but whatever happens, it has been planned out for me and there is nothing I can do to change my fate.

No, I'm not depressed, but life's a lil hard =(

I miss Australia and life at G02 and the following people: Stef, Adam, Mike, TonG, Didit and more.. Cheers guys for a wonderful year and I look forward to the next year.

2007-11-18T15:45:00.000+11:00

If the proof of a theorem is not immediately apparent, it may be because you are trying the wrong approach. Below are some effective methods of proof that may aim you in the right direction.

Proof by Obviousness: "The proof is so clear that it need not be mentioned."
Proof by General Agreement: "All in Favor?..."

Proof by Imagination: "Well, We'll pretend its true."
Proof by Convenience: "It would be very nice if it were true, so ..."

Proof by Necessity: "It had better be true or the whole structure of mathematics would crumble to the ground."
Proof by Plausibility: "It sounds good so it must be true."

Proof by Intimidation: "Don't be stupid, of course it's true."
Proof by Lack of Sufficient Time: "Because of the time constraint, I'll leave the proof to you."

Proof by Postponement: "The proof for this is so long and arduous, so it is given in the appendix."
Proof by Accident: "Hey, what have we here?"

Proof by Insignificance: "Who really cares anyway?"
Proof by Mumbo-Jumbo: " For any epsilon> 0 there exists a corresponding delta > 0 s.t. f(x)-L < epsilon whenever x-a < delta"

Proof by Profanity: (example omitted)
Proof by Definition: "We'll define it to be true."

Proof by Tautology: "It's true because it's true."
Proof by Plagiarism: "As we see on page 238 ..."

Proof by Lost Reference: "I know I saw this somewhere ..."
Proof by Calculus: "This proof requires calculus, so we'll skip it."

Proof by Terror: When intimidation fails ...
Proof by Lack of Interest: "Does anyone really want to see this?"

Proof by Illegibility: " ¥ ª Ð Þ þæ"
Proof by Logic: "If it is on the problem sheet, then it must be true."

Proof by Majority Rule: Only to be used if General Agreement is impossible.
Proof by Clever Variable Choice: "Let A be the number such that this proof works."

Proof by Tessellation: "This proof is just the same as the last."
Proof by Divine Word: "And the Lord said, 'Let it be true,' and it came to pass."

Proof by Stubbornness: "I don't care what you say! It is true!"
Proof by Simplification: "This proof reduces to the statement, 1 + 1 = 2."

Proof by Hasty Generalization: "Well, it works for 17, so it works for all reals."
Proof by Deception: "Now everyone turn their backs ..."

Proof by Supplication: "Oh please, let it be true."
Proof by Poor Analogy: "Well, it's just like ..."

Proof by Avoidance: Limit of Proof by Postponement as t approaches infinity.
Proof by Design: "If it's not true in today's math, invent a new system in which it is."

Proof by Intuition: "I just have this gut feeling ..."
Proof by Authority: "Well, Bill Gates says it's true, so it must be."

Proof by Vigorous Assertion: "And I REALLY MEAN THAT!"
Proof by A.F.K.T. Theorem: "Any Fool Knows That!"

Proof by vigorous handwaving: Works well in a classroom.
Proof by seduction: "Convince yourself that this is true!"

Proof by accumulated evidence: "Long and diligent search has not revealed a counterexample."
Proof by Divine Intervention: "Then a miracle occurs ..."

DISCLAIMER:
The above "Proof"s are not my work. The source is Dotaportal.com.

2007-11-09T19:02:00.000+11:00

Getting owned by my courses. Blek. Starts next Monday, ends on the 21st. Been studying more intensely than I have done throughout the whole semester, and God knows why I have not put in more effort during the semester.

A lil interesting thingy Not sent me, unsure of the source but yeah, whatever.

New school semester:

At the first week:

At the second week:

Before the mid-term test:

During the mid-term test:

After the mid-term test:

Before the final exam:

Once know the final exam schedule:

7 days before final exam:

6 days before final exam:

5 days before final exam:

4 days before final exam:

3 days before final exam:

2 days before final exam:

1 day before final exam:

A night before final exam:

1 hour before final exam:

During the final exam:

Once walk out from the exam hall:

After the final exam, during the holiday:

The scary part of this is.. it mirrors me all too well... Sigh, its dinnertime!

2007-10-26T22:10:00.000+10:00

This is an attempt to revive my poor dead bloggie. Been plagued with never ending assignments for the past 3 weeks or so, and I'm so happy to announce to the world (or at least to you guys) that I've completed my last assignment for this semester! Now all that is left is tutorials undone for the past month =(

The International Surfing Night was held last night. Food served was Thai cuisine and chicken with salad. Mike sort of guided me to choosing Thai cuisine for dinner -_- And oh, the highlight of the night, I won the doubles pool competition! Well I've got a good partner who was in my opinion, the best player of the night. My game, well, pretty alright, though I was so damn nervous and my arm was obviously shaking but I still managed a few good shots (and many bad ones >.<). Stef confessed that she might've bet that I'd never win had I brought the idea up, but I didn't! My biggest mistake of the night XD

And for the past...

5S5 classmates (look carefully for names!)

2007-10-16T20:38:00.000+10:00

So. Here's the overdue post on Melbourne trip. It wasn't that overdue, just about a month old anyway.

Here's our timetable:

Monday
1) Had lunch in a Viet restaurant, Mekong to be exact.
2) Visited Melbourne Uni.
3) Visited International House.
4) Dinner-ed at some Jap restaurant.
5) Went to Yiara river, played at some playground.

Tuesday
1) Lunched at a Thai restaurant, had Gelati.
2) BBQ at Boon's.
3) Lantern festival at Melb Uni.

Wednesday
1) Went to Grampians.
2) Clubbing.

Thursday
1) Visited Royal Melbourne Show.
2) Sushi night at Furry's.

Friday (Stef's fav =P)
1) Shopping!

A trip that was well worth the time and effort. Enjoyed my time there. Thanks Boon for sharing your place =) U're welcome to stay at mine if you happen to visit Sydney.

Grampians
This trip was pretty expensive, think I paid a total of A$90 for the trip and all I got was a bus ride to the Grampians and back (not to mention some lemmingtons and tea). But still, this was the part of the whole Melbourne trip I enjoyed the most =) The scenery was heavenly I should say. And best of all, Melbourne is cool, which is so unlike Sydney (today's highest temp is 33 deg, OMG).

Waterfall at the Grampians

Clubbing
Stef's idea. =P basically we went clubbing. And here and now I admit that clubbing isn't my type of thing, I dont really like the atmosphere and I'm not a good drinker. Had a shot of tequila and I'm basically dead. Check Stef's blog for my look-alike who looks drunk =P Oh and I had another beer before going back at about 3am, slept at 4am, and woke up at 6am feeling dead.

Royal Melbourne Show
Missed the Royal Easter Show in Sydney during the Easter break and made up for it in Melbourne. Royal Melbourne Show is, in short, some event where people set up rigged targets for you to shoot at, some rides and goodie shops. Oh, and there are some random animals for you to look at =)

At the Royal Melbourne Show (damn windy)

2007-10-08T21:26:00.000+10:00

While waiting for Stef to pass those Melb photos, I'll post up something random, and 2day's post is on my msn contact's personal msgs.

Here are selected ones, all of them are recent.

"You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it. -G.K. Chesterton"

"kill the moths"

"time is money.....-.^"

"~Vandoserk"

"I am monopoly!!!"

"hmmmm"

"need a gf desperately ~.~"

"why do we have to learn vba? just use the excel wah! wat for have to learn the backbone! gimme back pain only!sia0 man!"

"The world forgetting, by the world forgot."

"wat the hag.............. "

"love u TONNES!"

"play every game as if it's ur last game"

"doing my assignment"

"happy,hapy!!"

"AUD/HKD 7.0075...what the.."

"that's the way the world goes round =)"

"52minutes."

"there is always a choice, the only matter is if the choice you make is right or wrong"

"forever love..."

"ASSIG"

"rawrrrr!!!"

2007-09-23T00:47:00.000+10:00

Feeling tipsy. Blame that on either the alcohol or the chips. Most likely the chips. Symptoms are sleepiness, difficulty in focusing and feeling like throwing up.

2007-09-16T17:20:00.000+10:00

Knocked
By S.A. Jenkins

“That’ll be a dollar sixty-five please.”

I looked at my wallet. The miserable five cents lying in the base of my wallet caught my eye. I grinned sheepishly at the girl behind the counter and took off to my house to get some money. Running down a road, I shivered as the cold spring wind caressed me gently.

“Run run run!” I thought to myself. She’ll need the butter soon. I reached the traffic lights and it was red. Of all times to be red, it had to be this time. I waited. Sixty seconds passed. The traffic light still showed a bright red. I tapped my feet impatiently. Another thirty seconds passed and there neither the green light nor any car was seen.

It was then the decision to cross was made. I ran across the road and out of nowhere, a car zoomed into the scene and knocked me over. Pain shot through my foot as I fell onto the ground. I immediately picked myself up. Gingerly testing my foot, I waved at the driver to signal that I was alright before crossing the road.

“Argh! Call the ambulance! Do something!”

The woman’s scream jolted me and I turned to stare back across the road I had just crossed. A crowd was gathering at the scene of the accident. The driver, a young man in his twenties, was crying. “Odd,” I thought. Torn between going back and checking out what had just happened, I finally decided to check. “Just five minutes,” I promised myself. I crossed the road and squeezed through the crowd. And stared into my own eyes.

2007-09-13T21:31:00.000+10:00

Mumble
By S.A. Jenkins

There she was looking at me with those unfathomable eyes. Her pretty face was distorted, as if she was trying to figure out what I was going to say. I opened my mouth to speak, yet no words emerged. All I managed was to let out some random noises which resembled a mouse squeak. Desperately hanging on to my self-esteem, I mumbled, “It’s a nice day today, isn’t it?”

She looked surprised at the comment but replied, "Yes, I love this sunny weather." I breathed a sigh of relief, mentally promising myself to memorise a speech before speaking to her again.

2007-09-09T14:35:00.000+10:00

South Coast Excursion (Geology)

The name says it all. Some field trip to the south of Wollongong, and one can just picture himself looking at rocks all day long. Not a very tempting thought I must say, waking up early that morning, dragging myself all the way to uni where I have to wait another half hour for the bus. Then settled into my seat, felt like vomiting throughout the journey over. That would be the last time I skipped brekky, for a week at least. =P Stef looked positively green as well.

There are 6 stops in total, and at each stop we're required to complete a worksheet. This is worth like probably what, 30% of the course, and the guys are giving the answers to the questions! Which makes me wonder, maybe we're just there to have fun. So fun we had. Even the most pessimistic person would have had fun on that day, we took so many pics, I had to steal Stef's cammie for those purposes, the scenery was heavenly and the weather was pretty good.

Here's some of my fav pics:

Some old rocky grounds. Suppose Hell would've looked like this! :P

A shot at taking Stef's portrait.

There are other great ones posted at Stef's bloggie so yeah check 'em out if you are interested. The bluish background on the pics could not be helped, so maybe pretend you did not see it?

The day was completed with dinner at Yong Jing's which we picked at some pork and dim sums. Which inspired me to propose a dim-summy meal for last night Sat's dinner. =P

A short note on a movie titled "Perfume", it is a really odd show. Has value for money, combining the following elements: comedy, action, drama and even porn. A must watch for movie-addicts!

2007-09-08T00:06:00.000+10:00

Snacking on chips. Algebra. DotA. All in one, an interesting combo :) Did that for the past 4 hrs!

Quite a tiring day, of movie, badminton, pool and work. Ratatouille (or sth like that) was pretty good, interesting plot and stupid jokes. Would have given it a rating of 8/10 if the graphics are as cool as those of Final Fantasy 7. Badminton was interesting as well, played someone new 2day, as usual observations are set at work and ta'da! got his rhythm of play. Then after badminton a last minute decision to join Jane and her gang, Cindy and Samantha (or was it Sabi?) for pool was made, so both Mike and I went to Coogee for pool. And found out that my pool skills decidedly suck! :( The ball just won't go in!!

And now, typing this post when I should be washing up and then sleeping. Rawr.

Will update on South Coast excursion when Stef passes me those long-awaited photos!

Au revoir and goodnight!

2007-08-30T21:03:00.001+10:00

Meet
By S. A. Jenkins

It was a Friday morning. It was just an ordinary start to an ordinary day. And I was just walking down Oxford Street towards my place of work, feeling the effects of morning coffee running in my veins as I hummed "Car Wash". And then, I passed an ordinary lady, presumably on her way to work as well, in the opposite direction. Nothing interesting about her, an ordinary person who looked a bit in a hurry. Her hat was decorated with flowers and she had a pink hood over her black blouse. That was when something unimaginable happened. I felt myself reaching out for her, yet my hands were tucked comfortably in my pockets, out of the reach of the cold winter frost. My heart started beating wildly as if I had met the Queen herself. A memory crossed my mind as I attempted to decipher this new feeling.

*************************************************************************************************
"Anna, I'm sorry about what had just happened."
"I don't care. You've hurt me badly. Don't look for me anymore."
"Please Anna, let me explain."
"I don't want to hear your voice!"
"Fine. If that's the way you want it to be, you will not see me anymore after this. I will not attempt to contact you."

*************************************************************************************************

I applied to study in Germany and used the study application to avoid meeting her. Time passed, and I had forgiven her. But pride stood in the way and I did not attempt to contact her to say how sorry I was and how much I missed her. The last I heard of her was that she had graduated with honors and that was 10 years ago.

I turned and looked at the lady who walked past me. There was something vaguely familiar about the way she walked. Yet, I could not be too sure.

2007-08-26T23:07:00.000+10:00

Monday starts in less than an hour. Another week had passed, and we're entering week 6 out of 14.

Well, I guess I'm just bored, did some Calculus which are pretty tough and managed to finish my Materials quiz this afternoon, played some badminton and returned a couple of nasty smashes, etc.

Feel like eating sth, maybe the stuff Stef bought from M-Fest but her room is just too far away. Rawr.

Back to Materials info hunting I guess. Lalala...

Oh, and happy belated birthday to Aerona and happy be-earlied birthday to Amy Ting! Not uploading any pics with them (which I seriously doubt I have anyway), so look them up on Friendster if you wish, if you can't find them, too bad! =P

2007-08-22T16:44:00.000+10:00

The end of geology rock and minerals test! Think I did pretty ok, though a slight panic when the last rock reached me wasn't very reassuring. Guessed the correct answer though, so yeah basically that's one thing to be grateful for.

Another thing to be grateful for is my first 10/10 mark for my Calculus test! Though technically its 9.5 but it'll be rounded up. =)

Next up, Algebra class test 2moro, but this is way lighter than today's test. Whew!

Thanks Adam and Jac for best wishes for 2day's test!

PS: Sorry for long inactivity it has been busy lately =P

2007-08-11T11:32:00.000+10:00

Oddest thing ever! They surrendered after all those deaths :P

A sneak peek at their CE:

The No Theme Moron captured 161 acres from MMM.

February 20, YR6

Vehemence of Fury captured 86 acres from QQQ.

February 20, YR6

Legione Granata captured 231 acres from Legion of Quebecus.

February 20, YR6

The Knife captured 229 acres from Underground Blues.

February 20, YR6

Luddite Empire captured 181 acres from Keeper of Manners.

February 20, YR6

Dalelands captured 122 acres from MMM.

February 20, YR6

Mad as rats captured 204 acres from Killer Bong.

February 21, YR6

The No Theme Moron sent aid to Bracada. (1 time(s))

February 21, YR6

Legione Granata sent aid to Vehemence of Fury. (1 time(s))

February 21, YR6

Mad as rats sent aid to Legione Granata. (1 time(s))

February 21, YR6

The province of Legione Granata has perished.
[Intra-Kingdom Action]

February 22, YR6

The province of Dalelands has perished.
[Intra-Kingdom Action]

February 22, YR6

The province of The Knife has perished.
[Intra-Kingdom Action]

February 22, YR6

The province of The No Theme Moron has perished.
[Intra-Kingdom Action]

February 22, YR6

The province of Vehemence of Fury has perished.
[Intra-Kingdom Action]
February 22, YR6

*************************************************************************************

Here's a trick story but the logic looks correct!

Lets say I want to buy a basketball which costs A$20 but I have no cash.

So I borrow A$5 from Stef.
Borrow another A$5 from Mike.
Borrow another A$5 from Adam.
Borrow another A$5 from Jac.

That makes up A$5*4=A$20

I went to the shop to buy the basketball and find out that it only costs A$15 which is a discounted price. That leaves me with an extra A$5 from the A$20 I borrowed earlier.

With the extra A$5, I returned Stef A$1, Mike A$1, Adam A$1 and Jac A$1. That leaves me with an extra A$1 which I kept for myself.

So far clear?

Now I owe Stef, Mike, Adam and Jac A$4 each, which means I owe them A$4*4=A$16. Adding up with A$4 which I returned them and A$1 which I kept for myself, the new total is A$21! Which means that, I make a net profit of A$1! Quite impossible, isn't it?

2007-08-08T21:14:00.001+10:00

First some clarification on the blog appearance. The old one was deleted because of some bad HTML work on the previous template causing new posts to appear invisible. This new one I did not check beforehand (only knew the title is "Chocolate Beach") and hence the heart sign on the top of the blog was unintentional. But whatever it is I suppose it's pretty good looking. What's wrong with a heart anyway?

From now onwards all posts will be untitled. The worst part of every post is deciding on the title of the post. RAWR.

Today's post is on my birthday! Stef, Adam, Mike and my HongKong housemates Adrian and Kevin threw a surprise birthday party. Was woken up at bout 12am hearing "Emergency, emergency, evacuate now, evacuate as directed". First thought running through my head "WTH which dude cooks and burns his food at night???" Then some dude knocked on my door loudly, and I thought "OMG this is a serious fire!" And opening my door I saw Adam's room glowing and was like "Adam's room is on fire!!"

LOL. Turned out that its the fire from the candles and the evacuation order was the recording I made of a previous fire which I gave Adam. Then blowing the candles, smoke covered the fire alarm (which was in front of my room where I was blowing the candles) and I was genuinely worried that the fire alarm will be set off for real! But nothing happened, thank God.

Stef baked me a choc cake and the guys bought some beer and smuggled it in. That was a great party and lasted till 3 am! My pressies come in 2 different shapes and sizes :P Here's a look at them.

L2R: Hand mixer from Nadia and Ivy and Nike basketball from Stef (tata!)

That's it, Stef provided a much more detailed account of the occasion so please visit her blog if you want more photos. Erm, next post will be on Jac's tag I sppose, if I decide to do it!