Andere Woche

Yep, another week has passed. Time flies...

Life was ok for the past few days, giving tuition as per normal. Nothing much to update about I guess, since I'm at home most of the time, only going out to give tuition. Had Burger King on Thursday night... I went over to buy after tuition. The person cheated me of a Taro Turnover :/ I paid for it lo... but he didn't give me. Not the first time BK staff left out food items I ordered and paid for le.

Completed the marking of the first C lab submissions... 10 scripts only though. Marked, submitted the results, then sent an email to all the students with their grades and some feedback. It's non-graded labs... so quite rubbish ba. That took quite fast though, no complains with regards to the amount of time I have to spend on handling those students and the money that I'll be receiving.

Hmm, perhaps I'll just talk about some things that I learned while playing Maple Story.

1. Kill Stealing (KS)
Well, I'm not fully aware of how to define this term, but for me, kill stealing is when someone else hits the monster that I'm currently hitting. I've encountered one scenario where by there's this person just standing on a platform, with monsters below him. Well, seeing that he wasn't doing anything, I went to hit the monsters below him and that elicited his response, that I KSed. Not really kill stealing if you're talking about him standing there just to "reserve" the monsters isn't it? He's not even hitting them. How can one steal a kill if the monster was not injured in the first place?

Well, I always kena KSed de. Ha... low level is lidat one.

2. Being super careless
I think I'm not suited to drive. I've died umpteen times in the game due to me being inattentive or careless. Smelly smelly also die at least 15 times. A few times it was because I didn't notice that my character's blood was nearing 0 le. A few times it was because I accidentally pressed the "Enter" key on the keyboard (which made the game enter the "chatting mode") and couldn't "drink" potions to heal my character and I was too slow to realise. A few times it was because I just wasn't concentrating on the game and was distracted by something else on the screen. A few times because I wondered too far and encountered monsters which killed me with one touch (touch lo... not even hit).

So, conclusion... I cannot be a driver.

3. It's good to play with friends
Well, first thing, it's less boring... can chat with them while playing (and risk dying :P). It's a game which involves repetitive action of just whacking at the monsters... and the number of monsters that one has to kill increases as one levels up. In a sense, it's quite a brainless game. Secondly, friends give you items that you might need and even free potions for you to use :P Of course.. it's good to have friends who are of a higher level and can pass you their weapons and clothes. No need to buy... save money. Heh.

It's the same in real life isn't it, the act of borrowing/taking textbooks from relatives.

And just to sidetrack a little,
4. It's profitable to make a popular game that is free, charge cash for certain game items
It costs minimum SGD8 to own a pet (which lasts for 3 months) in the game. It costs SGD1.50 to buy a Gachapon ticket and play "tikum" on the Gachapon machine. A charm which prevents you from losing your experience points when you die costs SGD1. Getting married costs just SGD15 and comes with rings (engagement and wedding) and wedding clothes. Other nice-looking clothes and accessories cost quite a lot too (and they are just for seeing only lo... not even helpful in making the character stronger), but... I see so many players with cash items. One can easily spend SGD20 on the game without even truly realising it.

I've seen many players with cash items which replace their whole wardrobe (hat, top, bottom, shoes etc...) and having pets with add-on items like red ribbon or just a name tag.

Yes, the bottomline is, go make a free MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) and start charging for the attractive add-ons today.

And to end off this entry, I shall leave you with an IQ question which my friend got in his interview...

A person walks 1km south, one 1km east and 1km north and is back at the same place he started out from. how is that possible?

A trip to New Tech Park

Accompanied my friend over to New Tech Park at Lorong Chuan in the late afternoon to count cars. I think I have a friend who stays around that region. It was opposite St. Gabriel Primary and I think it was 放学时间 when we got there. Wah, I tell you... the children at the bus stop were really really really noisy lo. Coupled with the warm weather, it is not hard to imagine my mood at that time. Ha.

Anyway, not many cars to count de lo... Ha. Only about one or two cars going in and out of that place per few minutes. We left early, since it was a waste of time to count cars when there aren't many cars to count. Extrapolation will do the work for the minutes not counted.

We went over to Orchard after that. My friend wanted to get a new phone and upgrade his mobile plan as well. He ended up getting a Sony-Ericsson K750i. Not bad leh... I also like :P The Nokia designs are not that nice :/ I'm a Nokia person, so I would want to get a Nokia phone if possible... but... the Sony-Ericsson phones are really quite nice. I'll get them when I really want to change my phone ba. Think will not get a Nokia le.

Dinner was Teriyaki Chicken Rice at one of the food stalls at Takashimaya SC, then it was time to go home. Watched the 翻身赛 for Campus Superstar. Hmm, I think a lot of them chose wrong songs :/ Anyway, am satisfied with the final results. The two best singers got in =] Didn't like the way the organisers made the losers sing sad songs which were reflective of their mood. It's not nice lo... :/

Cafe Cartel 'n' TCC

I spent half a day at home on Sunday. Went out to meet my coursemates for dinner at Plaza Singapura though. Took the opportunity to bring my spoilt pair of rimless spectacles down to Optical88 to get them fixed. The new frame costed SGD117... initially I thought it was SGD170. Lucky not too expensive :P But still expensive I guess... this time must be extra careful with that pair of spectacles le. The new frame looks sturdier than my previous one though. But I still prefer the previous design. Too bad no more le. It's been about 1.5 years anyway.

Ok, so I met a few of my coursemates at Cafe Cartel for dinner. A total of 7 of us. I ate a Teriyaki Burger and had a glass of "Death by Chocolate" milkshake. I have always liked chocolate milkshakes :P It was over to TCC for a drink and more chatting after dinner. I had a glass of Iced Coconut Latte. Ehz... a bit weird ah, the taste. I think I'll just go for normal coffee next time. Ha. Hmm, it was about 9.30pm or so by the time we left the place and headed for home. Quite a nice gathering ba... chatted quite a lot.

Idol fever

So many of these competitions these days - Star Idol, Campus Superstar, Superhost, Superband and the on-going auditions for Singapore Idol. A little overwhelming. Question is, how will the society be affected by all these competitions? The effects won't be immediate, but I think the repercussions would be negative.

The shows are fun to watch I guess but I'm not a fan of any of them though.

It rained...

...on Friday afternoon. I was on my way to meet a friend to go somewhere and it rained. Well, had to cancel our plan in the end due to the rain. Heavy rain also... though it didn't last long.

Was playing a little Maple in the morning when I saw something funny between two players.

Guy A: Trading fame (fame is something like popularity... you get to fame/defame a person once a day and once you do that, the next time you can fame/defame the same person is one month later)
Guy B: Fame me
[Guy A fames Guy B]
Guy A: Ok, your turn
Guy B: I didn't say I wanted to trade fame

Poor Guy A.

Anyway, slept early at about 10pm I think. Hmm

Wednesday and Thursday

Dunno what to put for the entry title these days... No particular theme for entries ba, just writing about the day in general.

Ok, so Wednesday was TA day and no students turned up. Yep. Zero. So I stayed in the lab till about 9.45am and then went over to collect the TA module form to fill in. It was a quick affair. I took a bus home after that. Met one of my friends on my way to the bus-stop though. He was on his way to his tutorial.

Thursday was more interesting though. I went grocery shopping in the morning... woke up at 7am I think, since I slept early the night before. Yep, it's been quite some time since I last went over to NTUC to buy anything. Anyway, packed breakfast-cum-lunch back home to eat... Nasi Lemak again. I think the Nasi Lemak from the Malay stall at Dawson's Place Foodcourt is not bad. The Lontong cannot make it though. Mee Siam is quite good too. I think I will try the Mee Soto some other day.

Met a friend for a tan/swim in the early afternoon, followed by a meal at the nearby hawker centre. Ate fishball noodles before going over to the other side of the hawker centre to get Ice Kachang as dessert. Eh, the lady selling Ice Kachang found me familiar although it's the first time I'm buying from her I think. The scenario reminded me of the Singapore Idol Ice Kachang advertisement. For my case, it could have gone something like this:

Lady: 你看起来很面善.
Me: Oh, 我不是 Singapore Idol.

But it went like this instead:

Lady: 你看起来很面善.
Me: Ah, 我没有跟你买过东西 leh.

Ok, a bit bo liao. Hmm, tuition in the evening as usual. Nothing exciting.

Valentine's Day 2006

Well, let's just skip Monday since there isn't anything remotely interesting about the day, so much so that erm... I don't really remember what I did even though it's only 8.30am on a Wednesday morning now. I'm in Programming Lab 1... TA day today and guess what? No students here at all. How nice =] Now I can spend the next one hour or so typing this entry. Hmm, I think I can type more entries if I want to.

Ok, so yesterday was Valentine's Day and what did Winston do? Well, he slept the morning and the late afternoon away and went to give tuition in the evening. Yep, exciting isn't it? Not the first time I'm spending Valentine's Day alone anyway... and I predict that it will be the same in the years to come. Maybe next year I'll ask friends out, but I don't really like going out on Valentine's Day. Too many couples and flowers around. One thing though... I'm not a romantic person I guess. A little too practical to be romantic le... Ha. Perhaps I'll have romantic ideas, but carrying them out would be a totally different thing.

Time now is 8.36am and someone just entered the lab. I don't think it's my student though... I've not seen him before, at least not the week before. Ah, another person entered the lab. Not my student as well I think. Hmm, this week's lab is rather simple, perhaps that is why no one turned up. Actually I doubt anyone would when the lab is not graded and is at such an unearthly hour.

The night was spent playing a little Maple Story. I got myself a pet... a pet Panda to be exact. Quite cute ah. A pity it's only going to last for 3 months. I could extend it's lifespan if I wanted to though, but will need to pay more money to get this thing called the "Water of Life" which will revive the pet.

The Weekend

Oh, I remembered what I did on Saturday. Ha, was trying hard to recall.

I went for worship practise at about 3pm in the afternoon. Quite tired, so fell asleep with my head resting on the sound control panel. The worship leader was quite funny also... she said, "Sorry to disturb your sleep, but can you adjust ... ...?". Aiyah, I'm supposed to be doing sound mah. So by right I should keep myself awake de. Tsk.

I went over to my grandmother's place after that for dinner. Hmm, played games with my cousins again, this time with the younger ones. A game called "99" I think. It's more of a number game. The aim of the game is simple: to try to make the cards in the played deck add up to 99 so that the next person will lose.

The rules are as follows:
Ace - 10: represent numbers 1 to 10
J: 0
Q: -10
K: -20
Joker: any number from 1 to 99

You will lose when:
i) The played deck is 99 and you have no cards to save you.
Saving cards are J, Q and K.
ii) The played deck is not 99 but any cards you place will make it exceed 99.

It was home after that.

Well, I managed to get to church in time on Sunday. Yea... was there at 7.10am lo... so early. Anyway, went home after sermon then gave tuition to my cousin in the afternoon, followed by a nap till evening time before starting to do some work.

Dunno why feel so tired... hmmm.

The week

Well, I haven't been blogging... since nothing much has happened.

Just some highlights ba...

Ehz, I've just started playing Maple Story. A bit slow, but yep, was restless enough to get an account and to playing. I'm playing on the Aquila server with a nick of "littleTort". Quite fun ba... a little monotonous though, doing the same thing over and over again, whacking the monsters. Some monsters are cute. Anyway, the game's fun because I've got friends in there, which breaks the monotony of whacking monsters. They introduced a wedding system yesterday or the day before... and Elaine and Victor got married. It was fun attending their wedding. Heh. But I think it costs a lot of money... real money... because they had to purchase some stuff using cash from the cash shop.

Tuition as usual on Tuesday and Thursday evening. Nothing much. My cousins haven't really settled down... so most of the time I'll just be accompanying them as they do their schoolwork. Need to start teaching them in advance soon, if time permits. Being in par with their teachers' pace is not enough.

I went jogging last night... at about 1am I think. Jogged over to Ridout Macs for eh... supper? It's been quite a few weeks since I last had a meal from Macs. Had the McSpicy... nice :P but a bit spicy. Ate an apple pie as well. If only Burger King has 24hr outlets elsewhere other than the Singapore Changi Airport. I'll like to have a yam pie. Hmmm, haven't been having regular meals these days, with FYP to be done and playing Maple Story as well. The deadline for FYP is nearing... and I haven't had anything concrete yet I think.

Need to focus...

Sleepy Sunday

Ah, missed church today :/ I overslept by a lot... only woke up at 1pm I think :/

Didn't do much today also... dunno why the time passes so quickly when I'm not even doing anything. Haiz.

I think that's it for today ba. Nothing exciting or interesting worth mentioning about.

Hmmm, wasted day...

It's time...

To panic... and work hard and fast.

Ah well, the happenings for the day... I reached home this morning at about 8am. The bus journey was rather unbearable. It's not the first time I'm travelling such a distance by bus. Perhaps it was because I was tired ba.

Set up my laptop on the floor, then lay down on my mattress and begin typing the past few days' entries. I fell asleep once or twice I guess, just short naps of 30 minutes or so. Ah, didn't have lunch though... I think I was sleeping during lunchtime.

The evening was spent playing... ah... ya... :/ Was playing Bejeweled 2 Deluxe. Wasn't in the mood to do anything else. Anyway, did I mention that I will officially stop fiddling with webpage stuff until I've settled my studies? Well, I hope I'll be able to do it. Perhaps I'll spend my time "stoning". I always do that... then realise that the day has passed without me doing anything constructive. Bad.

Life is rather meaningless these days... just a passing thought.

Pensive pensieve (Part 2)

Well, this post is in response to the response from my friend to an earlier entry...

My friend said:
I think... after going through the process of "wanting possession", to have the "nobility" of not wanting it is just a sign of resignation.

That is, I don't think it's "nobility" at all.

The resignation stems from the fact when you know that you'll never have that possession in this lifetime. And possibly the next one. And the one after.

Hmmm, after mulling over his response, I think that he is right. Being able to not want possession does emcompass a large degree of resignation. I wouldn't agree totally that there is not a tinge of nobility at all though. I would think that positive resignation would in some sense contribute to the factor of nobility. Can this resignation not be seen as a resignation but nobility if a person not just does not want possession, but is also truly happy for the person who he/she likes?

I would like to perhaps touch on something new here. My question is... is it possible to "raise your value" if you are in a relationship involving multiple parties? Eg. Guy A likes Girl B and Guy C also likes Girl B. So if Girl B like Guy C, can Guy A do anything to raise his value in the eyes of Girl B?

Currently, my answer is that it is not really possible. Anyone has any alternative theories or real life examples which will refute the above answer?

Steamboat @ Marina South

Was sleeping when I was awakened by an SMS from the friend I was mentioned about in yesterday's entry. Well, he managed to get someone to drive his PC and him down to Sim Lim Square and his PC is now ok. The problem with the DVDRW drive was that the parallel cable that it came with was the old type and there was a need to change it to a newer type. Ehz, the casing fan was indeed spoilt and it was replaced.

The evening was spent at Marina South eating BBQ steamboat. My friends and I reached there quite late... so we didn't really eat a lot. We had the pleasure of watching fireworks while we ate... since the River Hong Bao thingy included a fireworks display segment everyday for the 15 days of the Lunar New Year. There's fireworks every night at 9.30pm. A lot of money spent ah... the fireworks. We had quite a good view from the place where we were eating our BBQ steamboat.

This time, it was mainly chicken and crab for me. My other friends kept eating crabs... I think we managed to roughly make full use of the SGD10 that each of us paid for the food. The later part of the night was spent playing Mahjong at a friend's place. I think I'm ok at the game liao ba... just not sure how to win big wins. Winning small wins is not much of a problem. A lot depends on luck ah.

Stayed over at my friend's place for the night and left early in the morning at 6.45am...

Thursday

The bulk of Thursday was spent sleeping, to make up for my lack of sleep for the past two days.

As usual, due to the fact that I'm writing this a few days after the actual day, I cannot remember what I did for the afternoon. I know that I went to give tuition in the evening though... and my cousins and I ate bbq pork and drank Justea during the tuition session.

The lunar new year season is a time when it's not hard to find food when one is hungry at home... there will definitely be titbits and drinks available. Well, which means to say that it's also a time when quite a substantial amount of money is spent... especially in the giving of red packets.

I met a friend at Queenstown MRT Station to pass him a few CDs because he just got a new desktop PC. The night was spent helping to find out what was wrong with his DVDRW drive and it was finally settled that he had to bring the PC down to Sim Lim Square to get it fixed. Anyway, the frontal fan of his CPU casing was faulty too... the LED was lit, but the fan doesn't spin at all.

Wednesday

Wednesday was the first of February, which meant that it was Neopets Games Day.

The morning was spent at PL1, where I had my first lab session of the semester with 14 students. Ah, a bit slack lo... either they didn't have questions to ask, or they did not dare to ask questions ba. I took a bus over to Engin after that to join a friend who was there. Lunch was vegetarian... and two slices of fruits, namely papaya and honeydew. It's cheap to eat in school...

Anyway, stayed in school till about 9.30pm I think. Almost missed my bus stop on the way home because I fell asleep on the bus. Didn't sleep for more than 36 hours loh. I did some things on my computer and went to lie down for a while but fell asleep instead. Woke up at 1+ am to switch the computer off. Didn't continue with what I was doing because I was in a blur blur mode.

Lunar New Year (Day 1 - Day 3)

Day 1, 29 January 2006
Let's start from 12am.

I was watching tv on my computer while my parents were watching tv in the living room. As the clock struck 12, I could hear fireworks going off probably in the direction of Chinatown or Marina Promenade. Yep... that signified the end of the lunar year of the rooster and the beginning of the lunar year of the dog.

I spent the rest of the night watching tv... first channel 8, then channel 5 I think. I finally slept at hmm... maybe 5am? Must "shou sui" ah. Didn't have to go "park" at my grandmother's place so early, so I could afford to sleep late. I woke up at 11 or 12am I think. Cannot remember le. Changed into my long sleeves shirt, pants and leather shoes and walked over to my grandmother's place with my brother.

We were considered slightly late, since a few of my relatives have already started lunch. Steamboat. Heh. Got nice nice scallop, abalone, quail egg, fish, etc. Actually, I normally just go for the quail egg and fish. Can say that they're my all-time steamboat favourites ba.

The rest of the day was spent playing cards with my cousins... Dai Dee and Bridge. The late afternoon was spent coaching one of my cousins with her Maths homework. Ha, erm... yea... anyway, she volunteered to bring schoolwork over de lo. I couldn't really think with all the distractions from tv and relatives talking.

I left my grandmother's place at about 7.30pm to join two friends to go down to the River Hong Bao thingy. It was a humid night... with a slight drizzle. I tried the snow something something... ah... looks like ice kachang, but smoother. I tried the peanut snow with red bean. Nice. I met another friend there who was with his cousin. Talk about coincidence... that place was so packed and I managed to see my friend.

The night was spent at another friend's place playing mahjong. First time me playing it properly lo... and erm, with money involved. Not easy ah, the game. I only managed to win a few times... just small wins though. Lost about 2 dollars in the end. Not too bad ba, considering that I don't really know how to play. I'll learn how to win bigger wins next time. Heh

Day 2, 30 January 2006
So... the whole night was spent playing mahjong till 6.15am, followed by Dai Dee till 7am. I think I managed to recoup my loss from mahjong during Dai Dee. Forgot to keep track of my money during Dai Dee. Heh

Took a bus over to Lot 1 to change bus to my friend's place where I stayed till night. Slept the morning away. It was afternoon by the time I woke. Had dinner of rice with BBQ pork, prawns, pig stomach soup, leek and fried fish. Then watched "百年好合" on tv. It's quite a nice show... Heh. Watch a "雀圣2" VCD after that too. Quite a funny show which revolved around playing mahjong. It was already about 10.45pm by the time the show ended. A day gone just like this.

Day 3, 31 January 2006
I woke up only in the afternoon and went over to my third uncle's place for lunch. Ehz... spent the whole afternoon playing Dai Dee and Bridge again lo. So "no life". Played until we got so bored of it that my cousin went to do her Maths homework... and she kept asking me questions.

Left my uncle's place just before dinner. Ehz, not in the mood to have dinner. Actually whole day no mood due to something which happened the night before. Ah well. I'm too easily affected le... I should learn to take things easy and have a more "heck care" attitude sometimes. I bother too much about things which I shouldn't be bothered about.

I went to school at night. Was worried that I won't be able to wake up for my TA duty the next morning, so might as well stay over in school.