sick

friday, 28 december 2007

sorry, it actually began on thursday, 27 december 2007, lunch. and dinner. i had fishball noodle for lunch and mixed vegetarian rice for dinner. after lunch, visited the latrine and defecated twice. after dinner, before i could have the packet of mixed vegetarian rice, i defecated again. right after i had dinner, again, i defecated. met bud for a game of pool and defecated. reached home at about half past eleven and defecated for another two more (long) rounds. by then, i almost fainted. got no choice, informed dear i had diarrhoea and called bud. i needed someone to take me to the doctor.

bud came to my rescue. he got me a pack of ultracarbon pills, took 2 pills and sent me back home after we couldn't find any clinic which operate round the clock. yes, we got one at ang mo kio but consultation fee starts at $72! decided not to go but headed back home, but i couldn't sleep peacefully. i defecated for the next 10 times! and i got fever at 38.4 degrees in the wee hours (4am).

came friday, i was on MC. dear came to my rescue. she accompanied me to the doctor and got the appropriate medication.

sun, 30 december 2007

as of now, i am well. but my dear fell ill. she went down with a stomach flu (probably due to food poisoning like what had happened to me). luckily, i had my medication with me. yeah, i carried it around where ever i go just in case 'it' returns. been attending to her (and blogging) for the day. she is well now.

i am just utterly disgusted with the way some of the food sellers handle their food. they are just being ignorant about hygiene of the food. hey, nea, what's the use of the grading for the stall holders when most of the time, i see cases where food being served are contaminated? i once found a dead cockroach in a plate of lasi lemak which i had ordered. it was a full-size bug in its entirety! and when i displayed it on my table (i sat in front of the stall), the stall owners simply acted as if nothing was there.

i have a word of caution to you guys who frequent bukit merah central for meals. avoid those above-mentioned stalls at all cost! i am sorry i couldn't name names. however, on request, i could check it out for you since i am working around that area.

disgusted.

i have a gem

i have a gem
a gem so precious i would hold it to my grave
it lightens my mind
it brightens my life
its inner beauty incomparable to anyone's
it always smile brightly
it always touch me
it is always here with me
i treasure it for it is my one and only gem
i take it with me forever
for it is my life

(dedicated to my dearest)

Pre-Christmas shopping

exams are over! finally i can catch a breathe. catch a breathe, i must, and shopping is the best form of breather. had a hair cut at dear's aunt's salon. then we went to town for pre christmas shopping and i got myself a polo, a belt and a pair of jeans. dear got two dresses, a belt and a sling bag. damage? two hundred and seventy two bucks. satisfaction? priceless. don't get it wrong, we planned for it. it's supposed to be my treat to dear. each of us would be allocated a hundred bucks to shop for whatever we want. does it hurt? well, not at all. *smile* ladies would reckon.

merry christmas! ho! ho! ho!

mini review of toyota corolla axio

this is japan's top car maker. it makes cars just as fast as you would drink a glass of water. many of it's cars earned top accolades. it is none other than TOYOTA. and this is its latest creation. it spans ten generations and over its past glories, it is still TOYOTA's best selling model. it is the COROLLA. and in this life, it has been given a revitalized name "AXIO".

here it is:






i am no fan of toyota, honestly. i marvel at their engineering ingenuity of creating quality cars with good performance. basically, that's it. this car, without doubts, carries on the tradition of TOYOTA. having driven this car, i give my honest opinion:

1. handling
this a big car with a relatively small engine. weighing about 1.1 ton and propelling forward by a 1.5-litre engine, engaging corners tends to be a little harsh. oversteer is apparent, most probably due to the car's small set of wheels. the wheels are only R14. steering is sharp but not as precise as i had expected. one qualm i had while driving this car is its ultra-light steering. it makes me feel insecure

2. ride comfort
cabin is quiet and wind noise is minimal. engine note is noticeably harsh when push to around 2 to 3 thousand mark. as there is no technometer, i couldn't tell the exact rpm

3. engine
you can't go wrong with TOYOTA's patented VVTi engines. it's main strength is fuel-saving. at about 14km/l, it is one of the most frugal oil sipper around. its engine capacity also attributed to the figure. performance wise, it is not unsatisfactory. it has 110 horses pushing it forward and 140 newton metre of torque getting it up from stand-still.

4. looks
as with the previous generation COROLLA (G9), the body is tall and wide. although the AXIO is now more streamlined, it is still wide, in my opinion. i feel the same difficulty in driving the car because forward view is neither of SUV-typed nor a van-typed i.e. high sitting position resulting in better frontal viewing. in short, the views in front are rather obstructed. as with all TOYOTA cars, it does not score well in this department. however, i admit it still look better than the its predecessor. and with a set of body kit (there i go again), it will definitely look even better.

what i like about the car is its ride comfort. it performs well under various conditions.

what i don't like about this car of my sis's is the lack of technometer, small rims and as i had just found out, the use of electric-powered radiator fan! oh, not forgetting the use of plastic dip-stick! my dad would second that too!

overall, i would give a rating of 7/10.

well, ultimately, this is a good car (because it is a TOYOTA).

Ah Mei Concert

yo! been away for quite some time.. ya, i know, i know... it's always about work, study and the usual stuff (if you know what i mean). anyway, zhang hui mei's concert is fantastic! it's worth every cent spent. i tell you, it's good. very good. ok, that's it. will be posting about ah mei's concert in detail soon. got to go now. work @ 830 later.. ciaoz.

mini review of lg kg270

today, i am reviewing a lg's low-end mobile phone. it's the kg270.

lg kg270

backlight on

here are the screen shots of the menus.

i've been using the kg270 mobile phone for over a month now. the only reason that made me buy this phone is its price and also becaue i need a non-camera mobile phone. i got it for sixty-eight bucks without mobile plan contract. not a bad deal, actually. however, usability is a big problem.

1) messaging

it has t9 and messaging feels very much like nokia's. i.e. pressing the '0' inputs a space. we all know nokia has the best messaging implementation and that is mostly attributed to t9 and the arrangement of the keys. i'm sure all lg mobile phones have the same implementations as nokia's. however, i feel lg's is not as refine or its software is buggy.

i'll illustrate,. supposedly, you need to type the time '12.30'. on this lg, you would press, on the keypad, '1' -> navi pad 'up' to get to '1' first. then, you press '2' and press 'up' to get '2'. after that, you press '*' to select '.' from the symbols menu or just hit '1' to get '.'. for '0', you first have to change the input type to numbers before pressing '0' on the keypad to get '0'.

annoying? i bet.

on a well-implemented messaging system like nokia's and sonyericsson's, all you need to do to input the time is to press and hold the number keypads to get the numbers. unfortunately, it's not the case here with the lg.

2) phone calls

basically, calls got dropped and receiving parties usually could not hear properly from the caller. it's reminiscent of conversing using signal sets.

3) stiff buttons

as this is a budget phone, the materials used in the construction of the phone are usually of low quality. messaging on the lg270 can be a daunting task. the buttons are simply too stiff and unresponsive.

of course, the lg270 has its plus points. at least it has a radio function which pretty comes standard with a budget phone. secondly, it functions well without any hardware glitches.

honestly, i would not recommend this phone. there are better budget phones like the nokia 6030. lg is just does not work for me. i call it "lousy gadget" ("life's good")...

fault lines of a relationship

in a relationship, both parties almost certainly will get the taste of happiness, betrayal, despair and disppointment. all these emotional entities are the fault lines of a relationship. at any one point where one of the lines starts to crack, it can gradually weakens the relationship and too much of it can destroy a relationship.

if someone were to hurt you emotionally in a relationship, how would you take it? as the receiving party, would you be angry and turn revengeful? or would you take everything, swallow it up and hurt yourself? or would you even take it just fine and move on, thinking nothing is so great as to break yourself into pieces?

humans are emotional creatures. just like any other living creatures on earth, we need to talk (to someone) for comfort. without communications, we would die, literally.

it's really an art to communicating with another human being. messages conveyed sometimes do not get understood but yet, if one doesn't talk it out properly, things will certainly go wrong.

think about it.

seventh of august

my dear turned twenty-two on the seventh of august. i've been with her through thick and thin although our love journey started out about two years back. yup, our journey never ends. *smile*

ah..how sweet..

i had been planning hard to give her a very memorable birthday celebration. well, things turned out just perfectly well and i'm glad she loved it. *smile*

right, allow me to reveal the master plan.

i knew there would be more than one celebration. that had been confirmed with dear (part of my plan). dear was very persistence. she knew there would be one from me, so she kept hinting me about where and when i would do this and that. of course, i let nothing out of the bag. information i gave her was graded 'restricted'. ok, she knew there would be one and also the venue for dinner. but that's that.

i took a week to give it a serious thought as i was too caught up with work. first of all, i thought i would only join xuan, leon, wah and jy to give dear a celebration. then i thought i didn't want to get involve with the surprise they were throwing. that left me with a pool of ideas from which i could pick from. in that pool were rose, bracelet, pendant, watch, and, not forgetting, a brithday cake.

the rose: i could get the florist to deliver a bouquet of roses to dear's place in the morning so she would be thrilled. at night, we would have a lovely dinner at miss clarity.

the pendant: she likes a pendant with two metals. we saw one at lee hwa jewellery. get it and surprised her at eski bar.

the watch: a casio sheen watch. surprised her at miss clarity.

it was mentally taxing to pick one from that pool. i had to find out exactly where to get all those stuff and how much they would cost (not that i'm rich, but budgetting is needed). on wednesday, thursday and friday, i went downtown, up north and west-ward to do my research. it was physically exhausting and i had to lie to dear about my whereabouts.

finally, i decided on a watch and a pendant. the pendant wasn't from lee hwa though. the cake came as a surprise as dear's brother told me he would get the cake and the family would celebrate with her. so, i bought the watch from up north and the pendant from west-ward. i would surprise her with the pendant at eski bar. then at miss clarity for dinner, i would surprise her with the watch. perfect.

but what about the other items she likes? i haven't count them out yet. they would appear right before her eyes in time to come. very soon. *wink*

[ presents and gifts are stop-overs. the only thing that is important, is for us to finish the journey together, with courage, hope and faith ]

last day of july

i've a feeling of deja vu. i'm on sick leave today, on the last day of july and the first mc after a week with S. it happened in the past. whenever i moved to a new location, i would fall sick within the first week or two. i think i'm jinxed. i caught a flu or influenza. the common symptoms of influenza infection are fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, and weakness and fatigue.

i woke up the usual time. only this time, i had to drag my body out of bed. immediately, i knew i was sick. however, i told myself it was just the usual morning hangover. it would be gone after a warm shower.

it didn't.

after shower and breakfast, i felt weaker. my feeble legs are fighting to keep the body straight and from falling.

damn. the words 'dr wong' kept reciting in my head. damn shit, i had spent thirty five bucks on medication.

obviously, i need a change my lifestyle, i.e. to exercise and have a healthy diet.

out.

mon - fri, 16 - 20

that week, i was at tanjong gul camp for re-service. honestly, every in-camp training is a waste of time. never will i ever say in-camp is fun. the negativity stems from the fact that the personnel from my camp isn't co-operative, spontaneous and most importantly, love to exercise favoritism.

every in-camp, everyone is expected to be working on something. true, everyone plays his role or duty in accordance to his vocation or appointment. there are some, like me, who does not have any appointment. without an appointment, there is no role to play. it is as if i am a spirit floating around camp, aimlessly.

how to survive (not getting caught)? well, one has to be very very spontaneous and helpful. even if you are sick of wearing the uniform or hate national service for whatever reasons, you have to be seen doing something. it's purely for survival.

for all in-camps, except the first where i was with my boss for the exercise, i was the helpful soul. following the survival rule, i volunteered to help with the armskote. that would be my 'role'. then, i helped at the store, then for the exercise with the s1 guys and then helped s4 with his stuff. still, some big shot thinks that by doing all those is just to avoid going to field. why would i avoid going to field? it isn't tiring and not punishing at all. i would go. really. if you haven't know, i agreed to go but my 'boss' didn't allow. so you guys went field, i stayed to help with the armskote.

there are far more things needed to be sorted out than just finger-pointing anyone for not working cohesively (me, in this case). check with my boss, not direct to me. if you can tell us to go up the channel, why can't you go down the channel? respect, please.

april fool's on friday, the thirteen?

i reckon my sis would have agreed. in a nutshell, someone called her and told her that she has won two hundred grand from the recent lucky draw!

breaking the shell: my sis told me about the mystery call and asked me to help verify the details. she said the call was from hong kong and the caller was a lady by the name of 'miss zhang'. miss zhang had told my sis she had won the second prize from a lucky draw and that she could check the details from the given website. miss zhang gave my sis a login details, saying my sis could check. although from the start, my sis was dubious about it, she went ahead to check. the login was successful but her name wasn't on the list. miss zhang explained that my sis wasn't at the scene of the lucky draw (she couldn't be because it was held in hong kong), so her name wasn't included in the list. miss zhang then gave my sis an address, telling her to meet a lawyer at the given address, to make a deposit of four thousand eight hundred dollars as an insurance before she could claim the prize money. miss zhang did not give the lawyer's name nor his/her contact. miss zhang also told my sis that the place was 'wesermiuom'.

although both of us were skeptical about the whole thing (anyone would be, for that matter), we decided to check based on the information we had on hand, just for the fun of it.

the address: 211 new bridge road #01-08. name: wesermiuom.

being sherlock holmes, i was determined to get to the bottom of this. first, i checked google for the given address. at first, it directed me to a jewellery shop name 'Your Jewellery and Goldsmith Pte Ltd'. i felt it didn't make any sense, therefore, i checked its roc profile. the search returned 'status in registrar: struck off'. weird. next, i checked yellowpages. no luck. then, i checked google again. this time, it return the correct company name.

the address: 211 new bridge road #01-08. name: western union. bingo!

pressing further, i called western union to clarify. i was immediately told that another person had called in to verify. same story. the only difference was that person only had to pay four thousand dollars.. i was told that management from western union had already been looking into the matter. great, this would confirm the hoax!

you are a smart ass, miss zhang. and, a dumb ass too. if you think you could get money this way, try harder.

ok folks, never pick up any call starting with these numbers: 008 526527*******.

needless to say, look at their cars (copied from brands like bmw and lexus), look at how they used chemically processed cardboard boxes as filling for buns and many many other scandals. sad to say, but the chinese are really a disgrace...

the next days

today is friday, the thirteen. so far, has it been a bad day for you? it hasn't been for me.

*laughter*

today also marks a week since i left that 'pile of shit'. it would be better to leave a good impression on someone after leaving. that is true and everyone will agree with it. the main reason i guess is about not spoiling your own personal record and the image you portrait to others. to me, it depends on circumstances. take for example, an artist. usually, an art piece will be remembered when the artist no longer paints for many reasons. the artist could have passed away or simply stop painting.

ok. i've to admit i'm finding excuses to cover my deeds. anyhow, situation is this: i got acceptance from S (after many many meetings), their package is way better and there are growth prospects. here, increments or bonus is considered a can-do-without thing and the people are full of crap (except for one or two). here's what they had to say on the many many talks with each of them:

crap 1: go and update the project schedule. divide into different sections a day. for those work that needs research, kiv them and then slot into the 'free' sections to do it. do those which the sales feel are important.

fact: impossible. what i do is simple. spend the morning clearing ad hoc things before moving to projects. research usually takes about two to three days and sometimes i would use the weekends to do research. get this, sales are a bunch of selfish people.

crap 2: i've have screwed many people here, including the biggest f**k.

fact: not important at all but what's your point?

crap 3: we sell in packages or bundles. need to be fast if not customers run away

fact: a case has already happened before (i handled it). customer backed out after the service was registered. you told me it's alright to trace back and you would answer for everything. i say it's a waste of our time.

crap 4: use the easiest method. if there is a need for improvements, we come back to it again. some of the things can be opted out.

fact: you tell me for the newsletter stuff, let customers copy email addresses to outlook/outlook express or any other mail agent one by one before they can send out the newsletter. you say it's time saving. if you are the customer, would you accept lousy product developed by someone as sloppy as you?

crap 5: yes, i know your point of view, they are true but the other side is also true. we will have a meeting with everyone to sort it out.

crap 6: we agree with you there should be some standards.

fact (5 & 6): none. no meeting.

i never trust local smes anymore. everything is weighed against cost. i consider myself the unlucky chap to have joined them. with the recent updates, it seems like you guys are falling apart. i can only say "your story touches my heart".

*heaved a sign of relief*

i am just happy that the transition is smooth. thank you, S.

come monday, i'm going for i-c-t. will start at S after that. if not for that time-wasting i-c-t, i would have moved on to S on the ninth. i guess two weeks of rest is more than enough before i move on.

@ tao's restaurant

monday 9 july

i wanted to bring dear to miss clarity cafe for dinner but due to the lack of information about the location of the cafe, we had to settle for something else. anyhow, i've gotten the information here: missclaritycafe.com. your turn is next, miss clarity! we window-shopped at some hobbist shops in sunshine plaza for glass cabinets but couldn't find any. so we have to check out other places, most probably ikea.

we ended up at selegie so dinner was at tao's restaurant. we were greeted by jeremy, a punk-looking waiter. i was put off by the cost of the set dinner initially, but went in as i thought we could spend lavishly on dinner on the ninth.

ok, dinner was priced at $28.80++ per pax with 7 courses. here they are:

tao's restaurant @ paradiz centre

starter. forgot its name but it's mushroom based with cheese

free-flow bread. comes in a basket of four

jasmine hot tea and chilled peach juice. you are supposed to drink this before you start eating. the jasmine tea is free-flow too

a closer look at it

let's start!

you are supposed to eat bread with the mushroom-cum-cheese starter. i wonder why they serve their bread in such big chunk. just two of them make me feel full already..

up next: fruit salad. it consists of mixed fruits of apple, peach, cucumber & unknown topped with minced crab meat. not bad!

next: chicken salad. i felt the vinegar tasted a little too strong for my liking

this dish is made up of deep-fried mushrooms (shitake?), sweet potato, a long strand of vegetable (kang kong?) and unknown. nothing special about it but i like the fried mushrooms. tempura!

creme of mushrooms. we were put off by the strong hundred-year-old mushroom stench.

chicken herbal soup. it's a very home-made dish but it's nice and refreshing.

close-up: rich soup, red date and ginseng

one and only in singapore: ice peach tea and..

ice apple tea. i highly recommend these. mr tao, you've done a wonderful job!

main course: lamb cutlet. juicy and tender with very very mild 'goaty' taste

grilled fish. this is nice as well

desserts! this is called the xxx brulee. pardon me, i can't remember the exact name.. anyway, this tastes like portuguese egg tart so nothing to shout about

a closer look

green tea ice-cream. nothing special. i would prefer addition of peppermint while dear prefers adding of chocolate chips

...at the end of it

overall, i give it a rating of 7/10. i felt the dinning experience could be fine-tuned a little. they could reduce the number of dishes to five or six because it's simply too much! you may say both of us shared our food but still, if you were to dine alone for the seven-course dinner, it would be over-whelming unless of course, you have a big stomach.. oh, and not forgetting, i got this (not sure if every patron gets it):

the most valued guest card!

it's my first time dinning at mr tao's restaurant and got the card.. would i visit again? yeah, i would but not for the next few months...

Life's Good

let me introduce you to my sony ericsson k800i cybershot phone. i bought her home from m1 because nokia 6280 has died of old age after just serving for fourteen months.. ever since, cyberworld has become more lively. here's why:
my introduction	dear's introduction
macro shot of my acer travelmate
shot with dale. chip got in the action but i felt dale wasn't her mischievous self that day so i let her join in the shoot	becoming elvis presley
dinner at sake sushi
$1.90 only. attack!	yum yum. nice nice steam egg a.k.a chuwamushi
salmon sashimi! attack!	wasabi soaked in soy sauce. attack!
sepia shot. am i right?
at jy's place
this poor kitten was picked up by lw in ntu. a lot of attention given to it but to ensure it's survival, the spca was called in to take care of it.
lunch @ nydc borders
when pigs fly	deliciously mine!
when 2 becomes 1	deliciously hers!
another look	and... another
grandma goes nuts mudpie! ...did she?	somemore look at it
picture frames and more frames...duh.	thank you. do come again
@ borders we decided to shop for dear's adidas jacket at border. we had a little misadventure while shopping for it. nevertheless, the salesperson managed to get us the jacket we wanted but we had to wait for about thirty minutes. while waiting...
so many of them!	yeah! got one!
i call it miniature-cum-candyball-cum-replica	let's get started!
the manual...	started. tick... tick... tick...
did i drop something?	still at it... almost done
it's done!	yeah! two thumbs up! just timely for us to go collect the jacket which we have reserved
oh, as we were walking around, we caught this. she is stuck!	another look... she desperately needs help!
@ premier cab - we had to go back to my place after dinner at jurong point to get tools needed to make the s15 toy model. we took train back to sembawang but decided to take a cab since it was already late. sorry to cabbies out there, it's a fact that we have the rights to choose say a mercedes cab over a toyota, even when there are five cabs zooming pass us. we chose to sit a skoda octavia. it's way better than those three litres toyota crowns. my k800i reported this:
it isn't obvious in this shot, but there's actually dim light coming out from the door handle. cool.
nissan silvia s15 @ dear's
the mess - as you can see, the car body has already been spray painted blue the night before. cobalt blue actually. the chassis had been done up too. in the background is the evo which we had made.	the manual - mainly in japanese
fixing the exhaust pipe	exhaust pipe installed and the chassis. i've set the while balance for this image effect. looks like transformers. "autobots, attack!"
the rim on potenza tyre! cool!	the interior of autobots
done! evo vs silvia! let's race! oh, not chip and dale...
wooh... didn't realised i had spent the last three hours putting up this post... ok... these are all the activities for the past one week or so, as seen thru the eyes of my k800i cybershot phone. cheers!