Quick update 2

Last Thursday:
- Postponed tuition
- Went to Ikea for dinner
- Jogging at night

Last Friday:
- Dinner at 10.30pm at MacDonalds
- Watched "Over The Hedge" at Tiong Bahru Plaza
- Took a cab home
- Downloaded Pangya from www.pangyasea.com and started playing, aim to get at least a Beginner E rank by end of this month to qualify for free A-cash

Last Saturday:
- Suspected food poisoning, had diarrhea and vomitted
- Could be just that I ate spicy food and drank cold drink with empty stomach
- Spent the whole evening sleeping

Sunday:
- Slept till about 2pm
- Still feeling sick, but much better
- Spent the night playing Pangya with friend

Monday:
- Went to take passport-size photo for my NIE thingy and realised that I've became very 憔悴 compared to four years ago
- Went to bank to change thumbprint to signature
- Pangya at Rookie A rank... about 130 more EXP points to go

Quick update

A quick list of events that happened over the past few days. Will elaborate on them tonight I think.

Last Saturday:
- Accompany friend over to Queensway Shopping Centre to bind thesis
- Lunch at KFC
- Sound duty in church
- Relatives came over for dinner

Sunday:
- Trip to Jurong Bird Park

Monday:
- Photo-taking at Paya Lebar
- Lunch at Beach Road
- Tuition in the evening

Tuesday:
- Met church friends for lunch to discuss about website

Wednesday:
- Ludibrium map out in Maple Story
- Played Maple Story for most of the day to complete all the new Ludibrium quests

Thursday:
- Release of examination results = I finally graduated liao

Backdated entry: MSN Live Messenger

Tuesday and Wednesday... hmm...

I think I downloaded MSN Live Messenger Beta on Tuesday and had it installed in my computers. The most attractive feature of this new version of MSN Messenger is that it gives the user the ability to leave offline messages to friends in his/her contact list, something that ICQ provided long long ago. A very useful feature I would say =] I'm waiting for the compatible version Stuffplug and Msgplus to be out... so that I'll be able to install them when MSN Live Messenger goes official.

Went jogging on Tuesday night, after I reached home from tuition.

Wednesday... had tuition again in the evening. I think I spent the afternoon mapling. I haven't been playing much the past few days.

Oh yar. I think my NIE package arrived either on Wednesday or Thursday... didn't write about it because it slipped my mind I guess. I'll soon be starting "work" le... but I haven't played enough lo. Ahhhhh. Oh well, having a regular salary and the means to support myself is more important I guess.

Let's see... the envelope contained some forms and instructions from MOE and NIE, with dates of activities clearly stated, a range from 19 June 2006 till August 2006. I'll officially start on the 20th of June, where I'll be registering for my 1-year course at NIE, after which I will be given a crash course on how to teach and be assigned a school for about a month before I start my studies proper.

Hmm, a bit excited I guess... I wonder if I'll be bullied by the students, since I look like one myself.

Backdated entry: Dim Sum & Poseidon

Right... I've written entries for Thursday and Friday, so I shall now complete the missing pieces of the puzzle for the week by filling in what I've done on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in two seperate entries.

On Monday, I meet up with some of my campmates for lunch, those who are studying in NUS as well. A total of nine of us went I think, for a dim sum buffet at dunno which hotel. My memory ah... lousy these days. Actually, it has been rather lousy all along, when it comes to remembering names of people and places.

Anyway, I met the gang at Chinatown MRT Station at about 11.15am. The rest carried on with the plan to go over to the hotel first while I went over to Chinatown Point's SingPost to fax my manual application for the broadband recontract. Stupid lo... both "Sing" companies, but I can't fax my application for free. Ah well, I didn't have the time to travel over to one of the Singnet outlets, so I ended up forking out SGD9.45 to fax three sheets of paper. Super ex... Zzz

Buffet lunch was rather sumptous... we ordered a wide variety of dishes and had quite a pleasant time eating. We split ourselves into three taxis and went over to Suntec to catch Poseidon after that. Hmm, I quite like the storyline, althought it's just another disaster movie. Different from Titanic I guess, since Titanic has the storyline based more on the love. Poseidon has its plot based more on how the few tried to save themselves from a sinking cruise ship.

It was tuition in the evening. I ordered Macs delivery while I was on my way to my cousins' place and had dinner there, since my cousin wanted to eat Macs. A rather long day for me... It's been quite some time since I last went out for almost the whole day.

No more lappie woes

But still no lappie.

Miraculously, the laptop managed to work properly for one last time on Thursday night before going haywire again during the next boot up. Well, I managed to transfer the files from my laptop to my desktop, which means that the laptop can now be thrown away. Now that I only have my desktop PC, I should quickly find a day and have all my stuff backed up... just in case my PC dies due to my torturous usage.

Tuition again on Thursday night. Well, I've been giving tuition for four nights in a row again this week. It won't be the case for next week though. *phew* Anyway, went over to Ridout Macs for supper again. This time, I tried the new pepper wings set that came with four pepper wings, curly fries and green tea. I ordered a McChicken as well, which served as my "main course". The pepper wings were not bad... but I think I prefer the McWings. Perhaps the pepper taste was a little too strong.

Friday morning was spent sleeping, while my coursemates went to Sentosa for beach volleyball and soccer, followed by a LAN gaming session in the evening before meeting me for dinner at Scotts. Since I was at the Orchard area, I popped over to Popular! Bookshop before that to scour for suitable TYS for my cousin. Well, I couldn't find the ones that I wanted.

Dinner was at Scotts food court. I had sambal chicken with fried rice as well as honeydew sago for dessert. Next was a chit-chat session at Specialist Centre Starbucks. I had a Caramel Frap. We were there from about 10.30pm till 1am, discussing about quite a few topics, from career to family, army to society, blah blah blah... It's been quite some time since I last went out with my coursemates, since I'm seldom in school and so didn't have the chance to meet up with them.

Lappie Woes

My laptop is dead... after about four years of unfailing service, with one or two months of old age symptoms, my laptop is dead.

The previous few weeks of seemingly ok functioning was just 回光返照 I guess. It started behaving weirdly about one or two months ago, with the display being reluctant to show anything. Then suddenly, it was ok again, until today.

When the power button is pressed, the display blinks for a split second, the laptop fan spins and the harddisk shows some activity... after which one can only hear whirring of the laptop fan and nothing else. Once in a while, I'll be able to successfully get it working, but... the display would be totally erm, "screwed".

Should I repair it? Perhaps not ba... I'll just try to retrieve my data. I'll bring it over to the Fujitsu Service Centre one of these days.

On a sidenote: It's time to get a new lappie!

T3h w33k3nd

Saturday was a day spent at home, sleeping till noon. My friend bought me lunch when he came over to play. A pity he had no extra hands to carry bubble tea. I so wanted to drink bubble tea that day.

So the day was spent playing Maple Story I think. Well, my life isn't totally revolving around Maple Story... I've been doing webbie stuff as well, trying to make a guild website for my cousins' guild which I am in. Progress has been slow, but the photo gallery and the member list is out. Interested visitors can just drop by at m3soinc.notsniw.net. The design template follows that of my myFLASHbox website though :P I'll try to modify the look when the functional part is done, which I think will take quite some time. It wasn't easy getting the photo gallery incorporated into the website, even though the photo gallery application was downloaded free off a website.

The night was spent "mapling" with my cousins. We went to fight Tauromacis as usual. I'm waiting for the day when we can go fight the Taurospear... then I'll be able to complete one of the game quests. Heh

Sunday morning was spent in church.

I didn't sleep the night before, so I took a nap in the afternoon. My cousin came over to ask me some questions from his mid-year A-maths exam paper, then he "mapled" while I continued with my nap.

Oh yar, was online before that talking to a friend who alerted me about Singnet's recent broadband promotion. I was sleepy, so I recontracted with a wrong plan. Zzz. Ah well, there was nothing I could do about it since the application was done online and Sunday was a non-working day. All I could do was to wait until the next day before calling up the Singnet sales hotline. Blur me... a total waste of time.

Vesak Day

Public holiday! Ehz, not much of a difference to me though, since everyday seems like holiday to me now that I'm just waiting for my results as well as waiting for my work to start.

Dinner out at a chinese restaurant at Liang Court. A treat courtesy of my aunts, in celebration of my 25th birthday. Actually I wanted to go Kenny Rogers... but they insisted on going to a chinese restaurant so that my grandmother can go along and have something to eat too. Hmmm, I haven't been spending time with my grandmother although I have the time :/

Anyway, I think it was a 10-course dinner, with cold platter, yam cake, Peking duck, noodles, fish, vegetables, chicken, soup and dessert of honeydew sago. I could have missed one or two dishes out I guess. Anyway, not that fantastic, but rather filling. The honeydew in the honeydew sago was bitter lo... but I ended up finishing it anyway.

A bit of window shopping at the Japanese supermarket before heading home.

May 7 - May 11

Well, very infrequent updates... anyway, here's a back-dated entry for May 7 - May 11.

Was at Ridout Macs again on Sunday night for supper. The dead fishes and the foul smell from the pond were gone but the pond still looked depressing though, with just a few tortoises swimming in the water. I think I ate a McSpicy meal.

Monday... I went for a tan in the afternoon. The sun was rather scorching and I think I managed to get a bit of tan. I still look a little pale though. That was followed by lunch and I ate duck rice. Hmm, the soup that came with the rice was nice. The duck was nice too... no bones. Heh. Over to NTUC after that and then back home. Tuition in the evening as usual.

Ehz, had tuition on Tuesday as well. That's all that I can remember :P

Wednesday tuition too... Ah, tuition from Monday to Thursday for this week, since I'm having my holidays and am supposedly very free, so my cousin request for me to go over almost everyday. There was tuition on Wednesday because my female cousin will be going to Malaysia from Thursday till Sunday. Tuition on Thursday for my male cousin as usual. Four days of tuition :/

I went for a late night jog after tuition on Thursday. It's been a long long time since I went for a proper jog ba. Nothing much for the week I guess, since most of my time was spent playing Maple Story.

5th of May

Thanks for the well-wishes from my friends.

Yep, 5th of May, a supposedly special day for me, since it was my birthday. I'm officially 25 le... so old. Ha. Anyway, 人老心不老 can le. I don't look 25 anyway :P

Nothing much for the day... helped a friend with his FYP presentation slides, then went to Popular! Bookshop to get assessment books for my cousins. It's not easy to find a decent Popular! Bookshop outlet near my place. I think I'll have to go down to the Orchard one one of these days to get more books. I couldn't really find the ones that I wanted to buy from the Bukit Panjang Plaza outlet.

It was evening by the time I got home. My mom bought me a Blueberry Cheesecake for my birthday =] She does that every year... heh. She'll also email me a Powerpoint greeting card in the morning of my birthday from her workplace. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Ha

Ah well, 25 years old le. Perhaps one-third of my life is through. It'll soon be time to step into the working world, into reality. A little excited, yet apprehensive.

May 1 - May 4

Right... I'm back with some entries for last week =] Taking a break from playing to get some of my own administrative stuff done.

First of May was Labour Day... a public holiday. My cousin came over to play Maple in the afternoon, after doing project at his friend's place I presume. I played Maple as well, just not as intensive as him, since I get bored healing zombie lupins and tend to fall asleep. Come to think of it, I've been healing them for more than ten levels already... and I have to do it for another few levels before heading to another place to heal wraiths for another fifteen levels or so. Life as a lone cleric is boring I guess... It's more fun (but very stressful) when I'm in a party with my cousins.

Went jogging on Tuesday night with a friend over to Ridout Macs, only to witness a tragic scene; dead fishes floating in the pond just outside the outlet, with lots of foam on the surface of the pond. There was the fishy smell of dead fishes as well. It was a sad sight, looking at the remaining tortoises in the pond, some nibbling at the dead fishes, and having to withstand the already polluted water. My friend, with his supposed sense of public duty, informed the counter staff who appeared to be in the dark. Weird though... the fishes looked like they have died for quite some time and the staff do not know about it.

Dinner on Wednesday was just around my place, near Queenstown MRT Station. Had cooked food... Curry Grouper and Stir Fried Vegetables with rice. Nice ah... but I was very very full after that :P Next time can go eat again... quite a luxury.

The entry's mainly about food... because I can't remember what happened last week, so I'm just tracking my expenditure :P Anyway, dinner on Thursday was at Sakae Sushi. I think I ate quite a lot... had Udon as my main dish, with other side dishes like Chawanmushi. Was at Tiong Bahru Plaza... much has changed... I should spend some time walking around next time. Coping myself at home everyday is not very good.

Okie, might write more after I get back from supper at Macs =]

Busy playing

Ah, yea... as mentioned in the entry title :P

Well, should be updating tonight, since I think I should take a break from gaming.

Last week...

Right... a short summary of the happenings for last week.

I went to give tuition as usual, twice a week, during weekdays. The rest of the time was basically spent watching 大长今 DVD and playing Maple Story. I was initially playing in Aquila server, but shifted over to Cassiopeia server a few weeks ago to join my cousins who were all playing there. My character's a fire wizard in Aquila, but I'm playing a cleric in Cassiopeia. I think generally, one would feel that a cleric is a boring "job"... damage on monsters is low and there's only a limited variety of monsters to train on. On a few occasions, I nearly fell asleep healing zombie lupins (zombie lupins are undead monkeys, so healing them would kill them).

Saturday was a full day out, lesson in church in the morning, followed by a KTV session with #JustBlog friends in the afternoon. A total of 14 people turned up: Elaine and two of her friends, Victor, Victor's sister and her friend, Tammy, Holly, Boon Seng, Jinde, Howard, Spoilt, Vince and me. Quite ok ba, just that we weren't happy with the KTV outlet. I was down with sorethroat and flu, so couldn't really sing. Nice listening to others sing.

Dinner was at Cineleisure. Suki Ramen or something... I had the Teriyaki Chicken Ramen. Quite ok ba. The rest went over to M1 Shop after that and I headed home, since the bus stop that I board my bus from is near Cineleisure. Popped over to NTUC FairPrice to get some grocery and decided to get those magic wipe mops for my room since the mop that my mother is using will make the floor "furry". The Magic Clean brand wiper is too expensive. Fortunately, I managed to find a no-brand wiper from a store selling household items in Dawson's Place costing SGD4.90. The branded one costs SGD21.95 lo...

My cousins came over on Sunday and my room turned into a LAN shop, with one PC and three laptops, all playing Maple Story. Hmm, I haven't been writing for too long and it seems that my writing skill has deteriorated. Time to write more entries... if time permits.

Really backie :P

No update of the past week before my "mini" hiatus and no 10k word update. But I think I'm back to blogging, hopefully for good this time. A little late, since I said in my previous entry that I would post a full entry on Saturday or Sunday and it's now already Monday morning. Well, it's tiring to type lo :P

The past few weeks were just fading memories for me, since I cannot seem to remember things that happened if I do not write them down. Well, most of this entry was written about a week ago, on paper. Happenings for the past week will be up tomorrow I guess. I'll highlight some significant happenings which I guess can serve as milestones for the past weeks and perhaps for some, milestones in my whole life.

1. Re-signing of acceptance form
Yep, received a letter from MOE some time back asking me to attend a briefing. I did attend a similar briefing in July or August last year. Time flew and it's already April 2006. Four years of university education is now coming to an end. Not a bad thing, considering that I have already sort of lost interest in what I'm majoring in :/

Anyway, back to the intended topic. There was a salary adjustment back in September 2005, not long after I accepted the teaching position. I only knew of this a few weeks ago, when my friend told me about the current starting salaries for teaching. It's an SGD400 difference... but since I accepted the job before the adjustment, I will be receiving my salary based on the old salary scheme. It's a lot of money... guess I applied a little too early. Not a bad thing also ba, at least I know that I will have a job once I graduate.

So I attended the briefing again and re-signed the acceptance form (well, I could reject it, but I don't think they'll allow me to apply for the job again).

2. HYP submission
After two semesters of not doing much work, HYP is finally over, or almost over, with the submission of my HYP report during the first week of April. Not my desired kind of end to my university education, but somehow, things are no longer what they used to be, so what I had in mind initially could no longer be fulfilled.

All I can say is that perhaps I've changed. Well, there are definitely some changes, just don't know to what extent. The past few weeks or months of hibernating has made me lose touch with quite a bit of stuff I guess, especially with friends. Not updating this bloggie makes it harder for others to know what I've been up to too.

3. TA PE invigilation
CS1101C practical exam, a day which struck horror in the hearts of many first-year engineering students was finally concluded on one fateful day in the second week of April. Everything went on smoothly and I ended my second semester of TA-ing, with an earning of SGD560, 20% of which will go to CPF. Means I'll get less than SGD500. Hmm, it'll be quite a substantial amount of money, coupled with the Progress Package that I will be getting.

4. HYP presentation
First of all, I was under-dressed for the occasion :/ Well, my understanding was that it was an exhibition sort of a presentation and wouldn't really be that formal. Erm, so I went in my jeans and collared t-shirt. Everyone in the same room as me (there were three others) were in long-sleeves shirt and pants. Ah well, what to do... no time to go home to change also.

The first examiner who came to look at my poster (oh ya... the printing the poster cost SGD35... the quality is good, but there really wasn't any need to have spent that much) was less friendly compared to the second one. I was more prepared after the first examiner though, and I think I did a better job at presenting my lousy project to the second examiner.

Oh, it was raining very very heavily on my way to school. The field was flooded and rainwater from the drains was overflowing onto the pavement. Hmm, reminded me of the time when I was on my way home one evening and I had to brave the heavy rain, amidst flashing lightning and loud thunder, to get home.

5. Health check
I went for a health check last last Friday at Raffles Hospital. It was a free health check for my soon-to-be teaching job. Hmm, I spent a total of two and a half hours there, with about two hours spent waiting. A total waste of time for something so simple... just an eye test, taking of weight and height, a urine test, a routine body check and a chest x-ray. I wonder what's the point of giving me an appointment date and time during the briefing at MOE a few weeks ago when the health check is not even appointment-based. Zzz

Would have gone earlier if I had known that I had to queue, and for such a long duration. That disrupted my plans for the later part of the day. I had to postpone my tuition session with my cousins at 4pm by an hour.

Hmm, more updates tomorrow I guess, for the happenings for the past week. Life is rather mundane while rotting at home, playing Maple Story and watching 大长今 DVD. Hmm, not even 1000 words :P