many new things...

one week din blog liao... the week has been rather routine.. school, home, school.

had opened the mail box on friday and discovered a shitload of letters... my father din check the letter box for nearly a week!!! among the bills, i found:



and my ibanking device:


press the red button and it'll generate a string of 6 numbers as a 2nd pin for the ibanking. According to the combinations formula, 9x9x9x9x9x9 = 531,441 possible combinations!!! so throughout its lifetime, the devise can generate 531,441 strings of numbers to be inputed.

went to mustafa on wed to get a new calculator. after 6 years of faithful service, my CASIO FX911Z finally decided to call it quits. the display had spoilt/degraded to the extent that i can see wad numbers i'm typing in.. very frustrating.

and so i went on a quest to replace it.. popular sells such scientific calculators at > $30... i got my 911Z for $18. then salman and shawn suggested MUSTAFA. so why not? if i could save a shitload of money, its worth a try.

so after CCA on wed, i met up with salman at little india. we went for a thosai. i think its very nice and fresh... at $1.20 per servinig, very worth it. somemore damn filling. after makan, we walked to the mustafa. quite far, but since got company, so its ok.

when we got there, we had to tie up our bags with the cable tie... apparently this prevents shoplifting. so we went direct to the calculators section. got alot of models. but dun have my FX911Z. damn... i quite like that calculator. in the end, settled for the FX85MS.


911Z on the left, 82MS on the right


the buttons are rather similar, so i chose this as i din want to learn how to use another calculator. plus, i like the solar panel on top.

as mentioned b4, the 911Z had cost me $18 6 years ago. now, the 85MS cost me only $13.90!!! if i had to buy it at popular, i think it would surely cost me >$30. bottom line: go to mustafa to buy calculators.


got this bottle of spray for $2.90!!! i think its damn cheap...

yesterday was my grandmothers 86th birthday. as per tradition, the entire LEE family gathered to catch up and celebrate her birthday.


4 generations of us.. less abt 3 people due to work commitments. the small girl is the latest addition to the family, my cousin's 1 yr old + daughter enya.

my grandprents had 5 sons. 1 passed away due to cancer when he was young. so left 4. these 4 sons had 2 kids each. so got 8 of us cousins. 1 out of 8 of us had a daughter. so is:

1+4+4+8+3+1=21 of us in the family.

the 8 of us are split into '2 generation'. 4 of us being older and 4 of us being younger. out of the 4, 1 is a Captain in the army, another a chemical engineer with Seagate, another is a showroom manager with Subaru and the last being a cheft? that 1 i dunno. long time no see him.

the last 4 of us all still studying.

there's going to be another gathering next month on chinese new year at my cousin's new place at ang mo kio. so look forward to seeing his 138 SQ flat...

finally...

reached school at abt 8.30 lidat.. the journey was rather uneventful... wehn i reached the class, saw 2 ikea shoe racks and a few potted plants in the class...

was damn surprised... how did the stuff get there... then i realised is use class fund buy one... chey. but got 1 money plant, and 4 small cactus. sort of brightens up the class slightly. we din have flag raising as it was drizzling. then we heard that all the yr 3 classes were supposed to relocate to the container classes. wah lao. very happy... finally the school heard our complains and decided to shift the stinking yr 1 up...

then we got confused, cos we din know whether is move for real or just temp, so everyone was in a panic... then Mr Chang came in... he said that our class was 1 of 3 classes that will be staying put. no container classroom. no aircon room. we were obviously unhappy... protest and all. then mr chang said that the school will turn on the aircon for the entire block in the afternoon. means we must endure the heat till noon where the office will on the aircon. then we can study in comfort.

so for chinese, we went to o5S1, the container class. there is nothing la. the class is smaller, and the aircon like not powerful enough lidat. only the people under the aircon will feel it, the whole class is very hot and stuffy...

so after HT, ronald went down to the office to remind them to turn on the aircon. then we happily close all the windows. nothing. after 10 mins, shu yuan went down to check again. turns out they forget again.

finally the aircon on, then we could study in relative comfort. the room took some time to cool down, but after it did, was very comfortable and condusive..

just now i mentioned abt the 4 cactus right? one of them fell down 3 stories after it slipped off the ledge. some smart aleck went to put it there so that it could get more sunlight... then jamas went to retrieve it. one part of it broke off.. so i took it home and replanted it in a glass with some soil.


looks very poor thing.. dunno if the roots will grow out anot..


i'll leave it in my room... a few hours of light a day should be enough..

A new week tomorrow....

the weekend came as a relief.. a promise of late mornings and early nights with little work in-between. but i was wrong la.

received an email oh thursday from one guy in NTU asking for the 10 page technical report with regards to the NRP... sian la. thought the NRP was dead and long burried le. now it come back and haunt me... had emailed Dr Tan immediately for advise when i saw the email. on friday, he said that it was better that i sent in something, else there'ld be really no record of us ever participating in NRP... and the programme is prestigious... all the students from the branded JCs and schools... not even anyone from the regular JCs like JJC, TPJC or SRJC... you don't believe go take a look:

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/nrp

so i rushed the report lor... but how to come up with something out of nothing? i re-read my log book of the



experiments and the NTU-JC Challenge report for help lor.. i also re-read the abstract of the Challenge...

initially it was very hard to get going la... damn sian. on a sat afternoon, who got so free to type 10 page report? but then i had promised the prof tan, mrs kuek and mr ting dat i'll get it done by friday night. (i went to sleep.. cannot come up with anything) so anyway, i die die must complete it on sat so that can send to the teachers and prof to read then sunday, today can send to the NTU guy.

and so i typed. and typed and typed and typed. i managed abt 1,723 words in 5 hours... including bibliography, titles and so on... very taxing man... but in the end, is worth it la. feel a sense of accomplishment.

the dryer came yesterday... the Fisher & Paykel guys were very fast.. 10 ten mins, they had unpacked the dryer, carry it into the yard and left. BWK... bo wei kong... the dryer is abt the same dimensions as the washing machine... but a little shorter and is front loading.


and so we tried it... the 1st load came out still damp after an hour.. then my mother says the dryer is useless one, not even dry. i said to try again, since is new wad. so 2nd load went in... after an hour, come out damn hot. and dry. haha... my mother's turn to BWK...

like a new car's engine, the dryer has to be broken in ma.. means to let the parts season and warm up... then it can function at its optimum... so with the new dryer, we managed to clear 2 weeks of accumulated washing in a night. damn shoik. now the yard is empty... no more pilled up bed sheets or dirty clothes waiting to be washed and dryed. just wash and dump into dryer spin 1 hr can wear immediately.


control of the dryer very simple... the knob, just turn clockwise to the setting you want. blue zone for delicate materials and black zone for normal clothings.


the shoe rack that we can put into the dryer when need to dry shoes... cos the rack won't move, so the shoes will stay on the rack, with the drum moving round it..


fisher calls it lint.. i also dunno wad to call it, so i'll just call it lint too. i think this comes from the fibres of the clothes that come off as the dryer drum spins round and round...


the stainless steel drum.. can see inside still got alot of lint.. later need to go remove, if not will increase energy consumption as it prevents optimum air flow throught the dryer..


this is the 'net' collecting the lint.. its hidden in the area below the door there.. everytime before using the dryer, must clear it, cos apparently the lint is a fire hazard..


the net can be taken out and opened up like this so that can clear off the lint...

dryer will make life much easier la.. no need to be at the mercy of the weather gods anymore!!!

i had decided to select my 100 photos that i will need to send for printing yesterday.. so i spent the whole night selecting the photos and touching them up using photoshop. very tiedious and boring. i wasn't familar with photoshop, so need to keep flipping the manual. couldn't finish yesterday, cos too shag le. ended up finishing the job just now at 5+.

then i had burned the pics, 100 of them onto a CD-RW and then brought it to the Kodak photoshop at Hougang Mall. initially the lady told me i must pay a charge of $2 per piece. i got a shock la. $2 per photo? that's $200!!! then i think i huh damn loud...

turns out she say wrongly. i must pay a admin charge of $2 per voucher. as i had 2 vouchers, i had to pay $4. each voucher allows me 50 free 4R prints. means i got 100 free prints lor. if i had to pay, would be

100 X $0.35 per photo + $1.50 admin charge. means a total of $36.50. i saved $32.50.

haha... tue collect the photos... wanna see how some of the photos will turn out, after they do touch up and i did my own touching up.

just sent the email to the guy from NTU. one load off my mind... =D

and just checked my timetable.. tmw start late... can wake up late too... haha.. got time to go for breakfast then go school!!

Learning a new language...

went for 2 periods of tamil lessons yesterday... as we had taken our Ao levels chinese, we din really have anything to learn these 2 months b4 the results are out... as such, we have only 4 lessons per week. these 4 lessons are spilt up into 2 chinese lessons on monday and 2 other language lessons on thursday. we had a choice of malay or tamil. since the whole class wanted to sign up for tamil, i tagged along...

was rather surprised that the class was full. was expecting the class to be half empty, with the rest of the students learning malay or chinese...

the teacher was very nice la, very patient and i think he really wanted us to pick up something, rather than just to pass the time.


here's the handout that he gave us... it's half completed as he din want to go on for fear that we won't be able to absorb...

besides, by the end of the 1st period, half the class was not interested already. haiz... whether is wasting time or not is another issue. what matters is that we can learn something new during this time. its not as if the school will let us home early if we find that this is time wasting. they'll still want us to stay in sch till the day is over.

i find that the lessons is ok la, just have to be very careful with the pronounciation of the words as each syllable has to be enounciated clearly and they speak damn fast la... like machine gun lidat... lol...

today it rained like mad... morning rain, now also rain. rain non stop... then hisham cancelled the training cos he had something on... @#$!@# make me stay back for nothing...

then had to walk out to the opposite bus stop to take bus... was sharing an umbrella with sheila, the yr 1. when we reached the bus stop, my shirt was half wet and the back was also wet... then the shirt will stick to the body one... very uncomfortable..

video of school on the news...

is really a high tech world that we live in...

the school issued us (students) with the contactless cash card today. it works just like the EZ-Link card lidat. just have to tap can already. the old one have to slot into the reader. and the disadvantage of this is that need to top up from atm. means must keep depositing cash into the bank acc.


personalised cashcard... the school says that it costs $8.50 per student cos have our name and NIRC. only the 'permanet' students have. the yr 1 from the PAE batch don't have. they have to go outside buy themselves. if not cannot eat in the canteen. too bad. they're noisy, slow and take up resources that can be channeled to us regular students.


the card has a new feature... notice the logo beside the 4 hr heat resistant thingy? that denotes that its contactless...

just hope that by paying with the cashcard, the canteen queue will shorten. is damn long now. people cut queue, the allow others to join them. then the others will allow their friends to join them. wah lao. like a geometric progression lidat... the number keep increasing. then we honest people queueing behind, the queue will not move at all for 20 mins.

the situation is damn fucking bad. queue until will feel damn pissed one. since no one reads my blog, i'll just rant... and i won't mind naming those who did cut queue... sally from o5s1? and her friend min hui i think. yea. those idiots. she cut the queue of a person's friend's friend who cut another person's queue and then got her friend to join her and buy food. wad an idiot la. in the first place, you already cut queue. dunno cut how many people's queue, and then you somemore get your friend to join you.

Its like you go rob an old lady. then you also get your friend to go rob the old lady. very unethical right? damn rude also. pity is not like sec sch, where the DM got the time to go patrol the canteen... then can catch those dumb fucks that cut queue.

"... is suspended infefinitely from the institute..."

received this letter on friday... apparently my hair was too long and the edge touched my collar... so we (me and shawn) were told to go get our hair cut and we could return to sch as soon as that was done.

but seriously la, who would reject the sch allowing us to go home early? so we went back la. to my house. so that shawn could collect the dumbells which i sold to him for $5... then we went to compass point, with the hope that the queue at the posb bank won't be too long so that i could get my atm card... but when we reached there, it was damn long la!!!

so fine, we went to pasir ris to cut our hair instead. the auntie use scissors to cut, but it looks like it was shaven lidat. now my hair is damn short. there's no way i can get caught for long hair again. ever.

haha... after cutting hair took a bus 81 to shawn's house. then took a shower and had lunch... at abt 3, we went to the bank to get the card done.


i used my own name to open a new account, so that i din have to touch the savings in my other account. as of now, i have $14 in it... but there's greater freedom. i dun have to bother my mother to top up my cash card or to wait for her to buy the bus concession for me. she can transfer the $$ and i can do it myself.

Chirstmas lights...

my yi yi (auntie) asked me and my mother out to walk walk around orchard road on 1st jan... since my mother wasn't feeling well, i went alone. brought the camera, tripod, some batteries and a few dollars. on the way out, i thought abt salman, since we were supposed to go taking photos and we had not met up yet.

he said ok and we were supposed to meet up at 9.30 pm. so i took a train to orchard mrt to meet up with my yi yi and her husband... took quite a bit of photos, but realised that to use a tripod to take photos is very troublesome... is easier to shoot lidat. saw a father and son team taking pictures too... stupid idiots were using DSLR la...




the lights strung across orchard road... very nice... i think it really sets the whole mood for christmas.


another photo... notice how the lights form a semi-circle? very nice...


close up of the decorations..


the facade of a hotel... forgot which one le, but is the one directly beside Cineleisure.


i think these two are husband and wife... cos at around 10.30 lidat i saw them sitting together and wiping off the make-up.


the fountain in front of ngee ann city... had to enhance the picture as the original one din have enough contrast.


in the spirit of christmas, even the trees have been dressed up. haha...


the gigantic christmas tree inside taka... i think its very nice and that this photo does not do it justice... or maybe i should have enhanced it?


close up of the deco on the tree and all the lights and stuff hanging on it.. did some enhancements to bring out the colour.


very nice green tree.. literally!!! i feel the whole concept of having water running through it is very new...


the crystal tree outside the heeren... i think its very nice.. every layer is like a star lidat..


close up of the crystals... not sure if is real anot.. but not likely la... so valuable, put there under the rain and sun..


the lights outside the heeren... again, very christmasy...

so after we left orchard, we went to esplanade there to take photos... was quite late when we arrived le. nearly 11 pm.


the walkway outside the esplanade... got ghostly images cos i used a 8 sec exposure time and in that period, the people in the pic moved... but otherwise, i think the lighting is good.


the symbol of Singapore's financial strength and status... the Raffles City skyline..


another world famous attraction... The Fullerton Hotel... very nice facade...


who can forget the Merlion... the very reason why Singapore was called Singapura... abit of distortion cos the tripod probably shaked...


from this trip, i've learnt that the white balance settings on the camera are very important. it refers to the why the camera CCD interprets th e light source, whether white light is really white light...

from left to right, the 1st pic was on auto white balance. up to the camera to interpret. 2nd was on tungsten. last was on flurorescent. only the flurorescent setting match the lighting there. as such, the camera sensor can be fooled into interpreting the wrong lighting type.