this post covers starting from thursday, to saturday. Gear up, this is frickin' long.

As each day goes, I'm needing a handphone more than ever.

I was actually hyped up for this BBQ with the club at ECP. I mean, I had so much fun at the Exoro games with them. Sigh, they are probably wondering if or not i'm secretly hating them now or something. My dissapearance surely would have sparked something, I mean, I gave my word. I said I would be there. It was a strong assurance which I gave. All that, just broke into a million pieces. Sigh. I don't have anyone else to blame but myself here. It's always like this. I look forward to the best, and then, after trying so hard, they couldn't contact me, and it all just gets thrown away. Makes me angry at myself, for some reason. I really feel I could have done something. Just something, so that they could just pass a simple message of where the club was meeting prior to moving into East Coast Park. Or at least, the BBQ pit number, and the time. Anything like this, it would have saved me from a awkward dissapearance at such a major social event for the club.

What a step backward.

didn't know exactly what to expect for this, because CIP, is usually, USUALLY, retarded. I'm however pleased to announce that this is officially the easiest, most personally rewarding, AND most fun CIP i've ever done. If you simply hate CIP to the core once, i'd bet I just made your jaw hang.

Our group was stationed at City Hall. We planned to meet at Outram Park MRT station at 10.45AM. My sleeping routine during holidays are always screwed up, so I slept at 3AM the day before, and wake up at 10AM. I was so pissed at myself, that when my mum told me it was 10PM, the first thing I said was "FUCK!"

What a great start to the day. the F word, first thing out of bed.

I rushed morning chores like crazy, and was out 10:30AM. I was so worried that I was going to be keep my other groupmates, Siti, Shafiqah, and Ancherle, waiting for such a long time at the station. But alas, I reached outram park MRT station at 11.30AM, and didn't see anyone. As I was walking from the East-West line to the North-East, I noticed other students, with bags. It made me even more worried, I was obviously late for the collection.

I reached the station's exit, and looked around, and saw this dude sitting on the stairs that led up to the exit, and that was about it. No one else was at the station. Thinking that my group might have already left for the CNB building to collect the items that we were giving out already, I asked the passenger service for directions. However, as he was just about to point the direction, I heard someone shout my name.

It was Shafiqah, she was sitting behind the dude on the flight of stairs. That dude, it was Shafiqah's boyfriend. The first thing Shafiqah said to me was that Siti and Ancherle hadn't arrived yet. Say what?!

Partially relieved, and confused. I sat down on the stairs. It was pretty much small talk, waiting for them to arrive. Shafiqah mingling with her bf, naturally. She told me her bf and herself arrived at the station at 11.20AM. I was thinkin' they were there waiting since 10.50AM or something. Daaaamn!

More groups of students with bags came from the down-riding escalator to our left. We saw Jacinthe's group. Earlier on, I saw the bunch of girls from ETP club I knew. Waved to them, and they waved back. They volunteered to do this CIP? Surprising. I was tempeted to get off the stairs, to ask them if they went to yesterday's BBQ session the club had (which I didn't go to), but instead, I just laughed it all off after waving to them. Judging from the wave, i'd say that they didn't go for the BBQ session too. But I might be wrong.

Point is: WE WERE SOO TOTALLY LATE.

Shafiqah wanted to go up to the collection point in "advance", rather than insisting on waiting for the other 2 to arrive. It was logically a good idea to do so anyway, so, we did. We were the last group there, all the other bags of anti-drug campaign goodie stuff were all gone already, except for 4 bags which belonged to us. Hell, the distrubution crew were packing up to leave already. At least we came just enough to let them know our group was on its way, but we're just freakin' late. Thank god they didn't pack and go already.

I thought people would be rather hostile that we were late, I thought the distribution crew would be some kinda nothing-to-do people who came up and helped to volunteer to give out the bags, and get it over with. But I was wrong. They were being nice. Very, very nice. A girl there even figured out I was the Ramesh in our team, and cracked a joke on how calling my house made her ear painful (I have a fax machine for a house phone).

"Ramesh, right?! Wah, call your house my ear pain!"

Laughed Out Loud. Literally. Our station master, along with a few others, mostly girls (lolwut), they were being nice.

"okay, we'll just wait", the event-in-charge, Irene Loong, said with a smile.

Shafiqah finally got word from Ancherle and Siti, they were at Outram MRT station. They arrived at the CNB building soon enough. We all signed our presence, and took our stuff. Everyone got Cardholders, but Ancherle's bag had Keychains. We mixed up the Keychains and Cardholders abit, which payed off greatly later on. Our station master, and a few others traded numbers, just in case.

We left CNB, and walked back to the station. Our station master followed us! She looked like a poly student, or so I thought. But guess what? She was from ITE too. ^_^

We were stationed at City Hall today. Shafiqah's boyfriend drove us to City Hall from Outram in...Shafiqah's car. Her car is a red Hyundai Getz, I think.

SHAFIQAH'S BOYFRIEND DRIVES LIKE A NUTCASE!

From the point we took off from the carpark, right to the end of the journey where he dropped us off, it was one hell of a crazy journey.

...

We could have died!!!1

Shafiqah! how do you even get used to his driving? I mean, he goes from zero to 80km/h in less than 5 seconds!! wtf! And no, we were NOT on a highway. I blame the automatic Hyundai car. D=

While my heart kept going into my stomach and back up again in the front seat, Ancherle, Siti, Shafiqah, and our station master (lol), sounded like they were having a roller coaster ride in the back seat. Listening to 91.3FM on the car's stereo didn't help, k?

I play racing games all the time, and while I love the thrill of speed, i'd never take it to the real road even if I ever get a car. It's kinda scary, my heart would go into my stomach again. I thought Shafaqah's boyfriend driving was kinda cool, but what the heck. I don't want to die early just because I drove like some cool kid.

Hitting 80km/h on normal roads in less than 5 seconds (isn't the limit 60?), accelerating while doing a right turn when the traffic light's right arrow has already flashed twice, and braking from 80km/h to zero less than 20 feet from the traffic lights, yeah. I'm sure Singapore's roads are safe because of drivers like this.

I've never ever felt so secure with my seatbelt on. /sarcasm

So we finally got off the car at City Hall. I was pretty shaken up, to be frank. The turns he did sent my brain's thoughts into a internal whirlwind of some sort. It was crazy. Anyway, we took our stuff, and set off.

We split up into 2 groups of people. I was with Shafiqah, and Siti + Ancherle took the other side of the road. It was our station master's suggestion, I think. Shafiqah and I started out pretty slow, and picked up over time. We ended up both on the same side of the road, Shafiqah and I were giving those cardholders at City Hall MRT station, with Ancherle and Siti just a little further down. In this time we took to pick up our pace and give those cards, Siti and Ancherle had finished their entire bags already.

There was this girl, around the same age as us, giving out fliers at around the very same spot we were giving out the cards. Not sure how it started, but Shafiqah and I ended up chatting with her. She was 17, and studied Nursing at Ngee Ann Poly. She was saying it was her holidays, and she was supposed to have a week more, but had attatchement, and needed to return to school a week earlier. She was giving out fliers, and got paid $6 per hour for it. I ended up chatting more to her than Shafiqah, because Shafiqah stationed herself a little further inwards in the station. I love it how stuff simply just start out as small talk, rather than a formal introduction. I didn't even ask her name; that's the power of small talk. It was fun, there were several instanced where we laughed at each other, when people simply just didn't take our stuff.

She: "of course you all finish faster la! giving out free stuff!"

Me: "you also giving free flyers! and, you're getting paid!"

something like that.

Shafiqah took the soft approach. She stood there, and gave out the cardholders with a extra-broad smile. I walked around outside the station, giving out. As with that girl. Sometimes, we would cross, and just exchange a few words, like "sian ar, giving out free things also people don't want".

Siti and Ancherle came over to help us. Ancherle said that giving out at her spot would be much faster, rather than giving at the station, and asked me to go there.

She was liek, "my fengshui will work, just go there, will finish all one!"

Sure, her "fengshui" did the trick. I finished faster than Shafiqah. We walked back empty handed, and I was waving my empty hands to that girl who was giving out the fliers for $6/hour.

"Finish? So fast??"

Ancherle eventually told that girl to do some "fengshui", too. But she said there were other people giving out fliers stationed there already.

Siti arranged the cardholders in a fan in her hands (just like how you would hold poker cards in a fan), to make it look fancier, so that more people would take it. Thing is, Shafiqah was still with her soft approach. Smiling, and stretching out her hand to give the cardholders. Well, she had her nice smile to help her, I guess.

After we were done, our station master came over, checked on us, and we were ready to leave. Shafiqah's boyfriend was coming to pick her up, so she didn't follow us. Siti, Acnherle and me went to Somerset. Siti wanted to eat at Pastamania!™, so we went to Cinelesure at somerset. Ancherle got tempted, and ordered some for herself.

took some pictures.

...I got no idea what made me smile like that, and neither do I know what i'm looking at. Picture courtesy of Siti's pprz (tm).

I got this fruit smoothe for $3 outside the mall. It was a promotion, so why the hell not. Mmmm-Mmm.

Okay, what else. Oh, Ancherle wanted to go to Kinokunia to get something, so we went there. I baaaaawed about how Louis Vuitton sucked.

While Ancherle was going to make her purchase, she said she was short of 20cents. I was going to take my wallet out, and it was then I realised my wallet was missing! I got all paranoid, only to figure it was in my left pocket. I must have been still paranoid from shouting "FUCK!" at 10AM while getting out of bed.

Anyway, I got a nice, yellow notebook at Kino. ^_^ Ancherle likes yellow. I don't like it very much, to be honest. It was the color of my PE-shirt in CCKSS.

We had time on our hands to burn, so we just sat on a ledge outside of Takashimaya S.C. Talked about a whole lot of random crappy and pointless stuff, but it was fun. Ancherle spotted gays! (omglol) I cracked bald jokes (which failed).

Was just burned time, till our asses hurt. As night approached, music started coming from somewhere. Initially, I thought it was coming from Takashimaya S.C, but no. It was from a old man and woman playing live nearby. It was so good, I was really convinced the music was coming from the mall. But yeah, the old woman and man made a pretty good team. They were pro.

Walked further down, and hit ION orchard. Of course, it isn't opened yet. I read on the My Paper forums that, with the opening of ION orchard, orchard road would be officially over-retailed. I totally agree, all the malls there have the same thing over and over. I mean, remember me baaawing about Louis Vuitton at takashimaya? yeah, they're opening another Louis Vuitton at ION orchanrd. These two malls are side-by-side, mind you. How so very clever. But, architectually, ION orchard is the best looking and most attractive mall yet. It has these pretty lights running on the curved surface of the mall, followed by a mega-huge screen. It's pretty.

Went back to the MRT station, where the three of us took the North-South line back home. It was pretty quiet. Ancherle alighted at Yishun, Siti alighted at Admiralty to take a bus to her home at Woodlands, and I alighted at Chua Chu Kang, and took the painful 975 bus home.

today started at 2PM, so we decided to meet up at 1.45PM. I woke on time, but slacked. I reached Outram Park MRT at around 2.30PM. They saw me the instant I came up the escalator. My brother took my expensive shirt I wanted to wear, so I was forced to wear a crappy shirt, which is getting small and old, and looks like my dad's.

We signed our names, and this time, we were forced to split into 2. I was with Siti, and Ancherle was with Shafiqah. I and Siti would be at Tampines 1, and Ancherle and Shafiqah would be at Century Square. Reason? The mall's security didn't want random people going around giving random stuff to random people in random places in their mall. So we couldn't swap locations this time round, even if we wanted to. We were designated.

Shafiqah's boyfriend was with her today, too. Yep, he drove us to Tampines. This time, he used his own car, a manual Chevrolet Optra. I had a feeling today's ride was going to be worse than yesterday's, but the manual car just couldn't jump off the line like an auto car. You know, auto cars, you just hit the pedal and it just goes. Manual can't do that, so it was less extreme today, I guess. hahaha noob manual. Damn, screw squeezing in the back seat. I've had enough of that in my dad's van already. >_>

Siti works at Seoul Garden at Tampines mall. We were giving out the cardholders at a traffic light near the MRT station. I thought it would take us a long time, but Siti gave a whole bunch to her manager, I gave a whole bunch to a guy who said was from CNB previously, and wanted to help us give out to his collegues. Another woman admitted to me she took drugs after seeing we were giving out anti-drug campaign stuff, and the old woman and small kids took more than 1 cardholder everytime. Some took, 2, 4, some 12, and some even an entire bundle. We were on fyah! I struggled to give the rather large group of people that has gathered around me (yaytraffic light crossing). It was almost overwhelming, but Siti came back soon enough.

We finished in record time, i'm sure. It was like, 15 mins? we get 4 hours of CIP for giving out stuff for 15 mins? EPIC

god. I love tampines.

Siti called up Ancherle and Shafiqah, and we went over to century square to help them out. They finished shortly after. We called up our station master to come down and check, and he was rather surprised. We were "dismissed" a little later, after taking some pictures.

Shafiqah's boyfriend arrived (pro!). Took the train to Pasir Ris, where her boyfriend asked if I had been clubbing before(!?). I said I was underaged. I dunno, her bf seemed like a nice guy to me. Siti, however, thinks otherwise.

Reached Pasir Ris together after that, and met up with Alicia's group. They finished shortly after, too. Our station master has here at Pasir Ris. We took pictures together as 2 groups, with Xin Hui, Alicia, Yen Chee, and our group (serious lack of guys all in all). Our station master then treated all of us to a drink at SweetTalk. Nice dude, he was from SIM. He also treated us to doughnuts at Doughnut Empire. Nice dude.

More pictures at SweetTalk, and then Alicia's group left. Siti, Ancherle, and I, together with our station master, we continued munching on doughnuts from doughnut empire, and have small talk. It was fun. Our station master soon needed to go check on the group at Bedok, where Jacinthe and Divina were stationed. Bye-bye, nice dude!

It was back to the three of us. We ate chicken rice at white sands, with Ancherle being my proud sponsor (thank you!!!). Not only was it back to the three of us, it was back to Tampines. hahaha. Tampines is Siti's territory, as she said. She works there, goes there all the time. It was now, when I would discover Tampines 1 looked so huge from the outside, it was actually one of the most crammed mall i've ever been to. Tampines Mall was more croweded. As they say, old is gold.

Oh, and Japan's no. 1 casual wear brand, Uni Qlo, which opened it's first outlet here at Tampines 1, yeah. It sucks. The prices sucked.

Tampines is yet another example of an over-retailed area. It has 3 malls, Century Square, Tampines Mall, and Tampines 1. The laughable thing is that, i'm the these 3 malls, put together, still won't be able to beat the size of the new Jurong Point extention. Just, so over-retailed.

Uni Qlo is opening at ION orchard, too. Poor over-retailed areas.

Walked around the malls, went past where Siti works, Seoul Garden (damn, the smell!), and then went to the arcade. lol. Ancherle played the para-para agian -_-. A whole lot of other crap, and we left the arcade too. I was mostly bored during this time, I don't like arcades very much, to be honest. Especially when you're not playing anything, LOL.

I guess it was time to leave for home, Ancherle wanted to burn time until 7.00PM. It was around 7.30PM, we split ways at Tampines MRT. Siti and Ancherle took buses home. This is where Siti works, so she had a direct bus home. I guess buses from there could go back to Yishun, too. I could have taken 67 all the way back to Chua Chu Kang, but I hate the bus. I've taken 67 to bedok before, and i've had enough!

So, after a goodbye (sad), I took the train from Tampines, all the way back to Boon Lay (what the heck). I didn't even get a seat on the train until after Jurong East. Got off at Boon Lay, took a painful 172, and transferred near a cemetery to a bangla-infested painful 975. Screw living in Lim Chu Kang. Alas, I reached home. It was 9.45PM. Wow, and we left Tampines at 7.30PM. I took more than 2 hours on the journy getting back to home. What the fuck, seriously.

Still, I had so much fun these 2 days. I can't thank you guys enough! yes, you guys, Siti, Ancherle, Shafiqah, and everyone else involved.

3 words: you guys rock!

I still remember how uncertain things were on my first day of school. I'm just so glad I found and got to know such nice people from my class. It's been a discoverey, i've discovered a whole new side to the people in my class, which is beautiful. It just isn't the same as school. Thank you guys so muchhh, you're all awesome fun! <3

no matter how emotionally postitive I feel about the things around me, there's always this thought at the back of my head, the thought of how I fail miserably at life. I fail at life. But ah, Chelsea's there again, and this time, her PM read:

"Life's to short to be anything but happy."

...I totally agree.

here's what got me interested into the Splinter Cell games:

Splinter Cell 2: conviction!

oh god, it looks so awesome.

here we go:

when I pose the question "which blog looks better, blogOSHT or welcome2thesocial?", the answer is always blogOSHT. Which is kinda sad actually, i've always thought this blog looked better than blogOSHT. I did spend more time on this skin that that. I also spent more time here (and still will) thinking up of the name for this blog, than blogOSHT. and thus that name, lol.

maybe it is true. blogOSHT does have a better skin than this. Sigh.

ah well. Bright side is, i'm confortable with how things are right here now. Anx said it was "cute". Sankarsh said it was "rather crude", and made several other valid points (surprisingly). Chu Ming said I could perhaps reduce the brightness of the lighting, and make it dimmer. I could, but right now, i'm just too lazy to re-render it that blgoOST banner, and working the lighting all over again will be a BITCH. Zephyre said I could write in proper sentences, with proper capitalization, but that isn't going to happen (LOL). It's called blogOSHT for a reason. I'll see how time serves that blog. It is a GFX blog, afterall. I'm bound to change that banner after i'm bored with it.

and speaking of change, this blog could do with a better, more meaningful name. Seriously! Problem is, I can't think up of any. Suggestions, anyone? speaking of change (again), this blog could do with a change after all those 30 posts.

moving on.

the PC show wasn't bad. It was VERY bad. For me, at least. To sum it up, let's just say the PC show is for the maintream consumer market. Computer enthusiasts (like me or so) looking for discounts on internal SATA HDD's, Processors, etc etc etc should stick to Sim Lim Square. If you're looking for a camera, printer, Notebook, or a HD screen, then go to the PC show. Seriously, notebook prices were rock bottom. Not sure about everything else, though.

Also, Games were slashed to half thier price. Awesome!

that aside, the show was crowded as hell, and while I don't understand those "booth babes", they are pretty nice to look at. Maybe Chelsea is right, they are some kind of "ornamets" of some sort. LOL.

SAY HI TO M1's "ornaments"!

It's funny sometimes, the way Chelsea puts things across. But, it works, and it's damn right. That's the funny part.

ok...they seriously look like an orange or a pumpkin

the one on the left looks really pretty
=)

okay, is it just me, or does the girl on the left look like Charmaine? what the the odds? and no, I didn't take this picture. I got it off a google search (pathethic, I know. But spare me okay? I don't have a camera!)

Ling Jie bought Team Fortress 2. As I type these words, he's playing it. His PC is a beast, and I know it, because I was there when we chose the parts for his "budget" PC at Sim Lim Square. Well, he can run GTAIV on his PC. It gets sluggish as times, but hey. At least it runs, and that itself is a achivement on its own. Most computers can't even run the game. That said, GTAIV is sluggish on consoles too, and the graphics aren't any better. Even on Jonathan's PS3, GTAIV can get pretty bad, in terms of lighting and framerates. The latter is especially terrible, GTAIV on the PS3 runs at horrible framerates, which is disgusting. Consoles lagging is disgusting. I'm not sure about how GTAIV on Xbox360 is like, but I heard it was alot better.

I remember how bad the lighting could get in GTA:SA could get on PS2 also(which is why I've always preferred the PC version), so this is just dissapointing. I thought things would improve.

PC games FTW!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

the day before this, was a compeition for ETP club. Was fun, even if we failed. The Exoro games is a stock trading game of some sort, and to say the least, it's difficult. NJC came up tops (yawn). We were against other JC's, virtually every single JC I know, besides PJC (lol). There were a few teams from SMU and NUS itself, and that's about it. Oh, a team from ITE college central was there too. And they did better than us.

Tetrina cracked a joke,

"aiyah, just let them take over us as the business college lah!"

sigh. But we had fun.

It still feels semi-retarded sometimes to be around people from my school. Not saying that they are bad people, but they are...just, different. The people i'm used to, I miss them. They are gone, I i'd bet the farm that I won't get to see even half of them, ever agian.

While walking back to the "nearest" bus stop, it was then we all realised how crappy the NUS campus was. It was even worse than a poly. Huge, barren, and old all over. If I ever make it to Uni (lol godsend), i'm not going to NUS.

it's true what the lecturers said about class SB. The people there are nice, and the guys I talked to in ETP club, from SB, are really pleasant people. Even if that class only has 9 guys (oh, damn). Still, no matter how distant we may grow, everyone in ITE can relate to each other; one way or another.

"We all ended up here by a similar set of circumstances" - Mr. Sunny Chow

Singtel was the sponsor for this event, and the chief of consumer marketing was present as a VIP. He gave us a talk, on young entreprenuers. Was really quite the eye-opener, especially coupled with some of the history tied back to singtel. Apparently, insing.com [where singapore clicks lol] is owned and was started by Singtel Digital Media, a subsidiary company of Singtel itself.

but that wasn't the point. The point was, the people behind those commercials. Those commercials, which gaurenteed insing.com's success as a awesome web portal for singaporeans almost instantly. Those commercials were created by just 8 people, 25 years of age, fresh poly grads. They formed a stuido called: *drum rolls*

you bet these 8 people made some serious cash right now! I wish I could be like them, but screw that, the shape of media industry here is just sometimes purely appalling, if you were to look at it from an angle.

made by 8 people of 25 years of age. This is pretty amazing, I mean, I never would have guessed. But then again, it isn't THAT surprising either (to me). 40-year olds would have never managed to come up with an ad like this.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

went over to Jonathan's house to play games yesterday. He has a nice room, and a nice PS3, and a nice Macbook (which are now Macbook pros, blame Apple). Burnout Paradise is really pretty on the PS3, i'll say. However, what we really had fun with was the Nazi Zombies mode in COD: world at war. I wasn't used to consoles, and playing a first person shooter was even harder, but I got a little used to it later on. Hell, it was so fun. SO FUN!

He has NFS: undercover for the PS3, and as much as that game lags like hell on the PC, it lags like hell even on the PS3. The graphics, aren't any better. Same goes for GTAIV, which I mentioned earlier on. NFS: undercover is bullshit anyway. GTAIV, is a pity.

Other games he had, like KillZone 2, were pretty cool too. KillZone 2, to start off, is really pretty. Problem is, it suffers from sluggish controls. It's impossible to aim. He also had stuff like Battlefield: Bad Company, which was hilarious, and a whole lot of fun. Too bad it's a console-exclusive game. Bad Company is a pretty game, too.

funny shit. Made by the same studios that made Mirror's Edge, which I happen to like alot. EA DICE musn't be that bad afterall.

Jonathan likes Rainbow Six Vegas 2, but that game just isn't my cup of tea. He had Bioshock also, but it's a ton harder to play that game on the console compared to my experience with that game on PC.

Lol, I miss those Nazi Zombies now.

sure, it doesn't fit the rest of the game, but it's fun! and that's all that matters!

talking games, i'm going to try Splinter Cell. I've heard and seen good things about it. It's made by the same developers that made Jonathan's fav, Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Haha, I pray that my PC can handle that game.

and alast, I did it:

coming soon.

EDIT: blogOSHT is live. Let me know what you think. =)

Let me rant here. Sorry guys. And sorry if you like Apple. I think they suck, deal with it.

it's motherfuckin' ridiculous. Here's how stupid it is: it's so small, it's actually dwarfed by the tiny charging cable.

it's too small, and does too much. Apple has gone off the deep end here: the device is just way too small. There's absolutely so buttons or dials on this thing, except for one switch, which controls if your songs play in shuffle, in order, or to turn the device off. Everything else is controlled via a bizarre set of button presses -on the earpiece.

and when I say "bizarre", I mean it.

the iPhone, while being undoubtedly the best smart phone on the planet today, still has its flaws. I pity all iPhone owners, actually. The battery life sucks, the phone runs hot all the time, and the web browser loads pages slower than the network's actual speed, trying to conserve battery life.

Well, they added video recording functionality, and a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus. They also added a compass (who the heck wants a compass when there's already google maps in it?). Gee. The Samsumg OMNIA records HD 720p videos at 30fps. This so-called new iphone only records VGA video at 30fps. Screw it, we've had 3 megapixel cameras with autofocus in phones for ages already. This one's long overdue.

They also added cut, copy, and paste. That's right, the iPhone didn't have copy&paste until now. LONG OVERDUE. They've added some voice control feature that's been around in Nokia phones since, well, forever. Along with this, is the ability to perform a phone-wide search for your stuff.

Finishing the list, they claim the iPhone is much, much faster, with an increased battery life. Riiight.

and yes, iPhone 3G S really stands for "iPhone 3G Speed". Not a big list of changes, and the iphone is still pretty much the same, but yeah. Apple just had to make a big deal out of it, marketing it as a new product. People with the existing iPhone 3G have to pay to get this upgrade. Yep, it isn't free. This said, Apple's implementation of these new features is actually pretty clever. and the iPhone, still remains the smartphone of choice for many people. This so-called "new" iPhone 3G S, is however just a retarded update.

when it comes to computers, it's pretty clear Microsoft is the undisputed winner here. Apple has failed miserably here, because there is absoulutely not a single visible difference between Snow Leopard and Leopard. Not, not one.

Apple says Snow Leopard is Leopard "finely-tuned", so that the system will run alot more faster. So, basically, in the windows world, Snow Leopard is just a service pack. And service packs are free in the windows world. BUT NO. you gotta pay for this, too! It's not even a change, it's not even an upgrade, and yet, Apple's marketing it as if it's some kinda brand new operating system.

Screw it. I don't care about macs anymore. Sure, the new unibody macs are pretty (and expensive as sh**), but it's running Mac OSX, and that, my friends, it ends there. Windows is better. Period. Just wait will windows7 comes out late this year, just wait.

NO FRICKIN' CHANGE. NOTHING

okay, i've pointed out before that the the 2008 Aluminium Macbooks were very similar to the Macbook pros. The only difference between the two, was the the pro version had a bigger screen, better battery life, had a memory card slot, and a more powerful graphics card. So, why were these two seperated? combine them into one la!

and that's what EXACTLY apple did, to the frustration to every single aluminium Macbook 2008 owner today (and that happens to be alot of poly students, mind you). AND, it's cheaper. Well done, well done! And look, they threw in a 7-hour battery and a MircoSD card slot. Yeah, I know people are fuming all over this one.

so, here you go, all of you, take a look for yourself. The 13-inch Macbooks are now 13-inch Macbook Pro's. If you were once a proud Macbook owner, go ahead and drool over this stupidity.

Left: Macbook 13-inch 2008. Right: Macbook pro 13-inch 2009.

you are not, I repeat, NOT seeing things.

oh, look. It's the next version of quicktime. And, it's pretty. Maybe it's because its....a little too simple, perhaps?

is there even such a thing as "too simple"? I mean, come on. Sure, it's pretty. I also like how it looks so completely divorced from everything else on Mac. Thumbs up!

and..

Apple is (finally) unglam!

the ugliest icon ever? that's butt ugly. I mean, even google chrome, which looks like a pokéball, looks better than this.

...

it's the recession. Apple, spare us your expensive iNonsense already.

today was one of those days, where I was still in the morning daze throughout the entire day. Isn't a very good feeling, but i'm sure I brought it up upon myself. I shouldn't have slept so late.

I came into COB lesson just within the grace period (thank god, because they're being stringent with the attendance these days). Along with me, was Siti, who I met earlier at the MRT station, and Divina, where Siti figured that Divina would arrive around our timing. And she was right! So, we 3 walked to school.

So we had to do yet another role play for COB. This one was regarding body language. The interviewee would give false information to the interviewer, and the interviewer is expected to be able to point out these pieces of false information via analysing the interviewee's body language. Body language signs such as supporting the head with the hand, tapping your fingers on the table, and scratching your ears are supposedly give-away tell tale signs of the interviewee giving false information.

Of course, not much of this actually did work out in class. But we get the idea. Joel was in my group, and he was comlpaining on how ridiculously open the questions are, that Mr. Chin have been giving us recently. With that note, the person with the best body language in my group, in my opinion, would be Amira. I could have been better, but I was unfortunately, still in the morning daze.

What I really wanted to do today for COB, was to get my transcript reviewed for the COB assessment by Mr. Chin, so that I could carry-on to do my next draft. Averic's my partner this one, but even after explicitly stating over a conversation on Messenger that I intended to finish a first draft of the transcript today, he didn't turn up for today's COB lesson. He came for the next lesson, POA instead. He said he needed more sleep, so he decided to just sleep a little more and skip COB lesson altogether.

All in all, I didn't manage to get to discuss the transcript with nither Mr. Chin or my partner. Mr. Chin said that today just wasn't "clinic day". Tommorrow would be "clinic day". For some 15 minutes during COB, I dozed off.

Grand!

After that somewhat useless COB lesson, it was a slightly more useful (and rather hectic) POA lesson. We've started on a Case Study, which is the in-module portion of our assesment for this module. Our out-module assesment was a written paper, and apparently there were alot of people who did very well for it. As such, they're moderating it using this Case Study that we're doing. So, Case Study just got a whole lot more harsh.

It was kinda hectic in class. Ms Cynthia did guide us step-by-step, but damn. Those *fake* invoices, cheques, payment vouchers, Goods Recieved Notes, and oh my. They were driving me crazy, and I was a little slow on picking up how recording those transactions were like, but Ancherle and Alicia had already started recording them. I tried to help Ancherle with those transactions as soon as I picked up on how to record them (so many numbers!), while Alicia did the filing. We exchanged places sort of, and I did filing, and Alicia helped with those transactions. If only I could understand those transactions faster. It must have been the morning daze affecting me once again. It was kinda hectic, because there were papers all over the 3 desks we had combined, with Ms Cyntiha repeating that she wouldn't repeat her instructions (although she did repeat).

Each group is supposed to design a cover page for thier group, and since I had a printer, Ancherle asked me to just do it anyway. I guess I could, becuase it did feel like I wasn't contributing to the group enough, when I couldn't grab those transactions.

So, at home, I opened up Photoshop, and whipped this up:

Not sure what to describe it, but it works anyway.

Seriously, I have NO idea what to describe it.

...

Note to self: Bring a paperweight to school.

We had a change of OFA teachers, for the second time. This one's another Female teacher, Mrs Felina (I think). I liked Mr Henry, but ah well. Mrs Felina is rather flexible, allowing us to do our own things in class, so as long as we follow the lesson. I slept three-quarters into the lesson (the class was crazy), and after I woke up, I continued with the excel spreadsheet that we were supposed to be working on. Razmeer, as usual, pointed out that I was sleeping, again.

"cher', this guy always sleep in class one!"

"ah, but he woke up and he still got continue to do right? It's okay if you sleep, just as long as you follow and keepup with the lesson, it's fine with me."

I was a little surprised when she said that. The class could get used to her easily, I guess. She's pretty nice. I guess only time will tell. Like I said in my previous post, there might be a threshold.

well, recently our class has been cropped out among the lecturers. And it's for all the wrong reasons. Our class has the worse attendance. Also, we happen to leave behind every classroom that we use a mess. For reasons like these, the lecturers have decided to be a little stricter with the class. It's fair, I guess.

What Mr. Chin pointed out was that, as individuals in the class, every one of us are alright. However, when we're together, in a group, we turn devils. Mr Chin called this phenomenon "group think". Nice way to put it positively, but if it was to be put negatively, it would probably be called "Peer Pressure".

It's true what they say about school/social politics, Peer Pressure really is everywhere. I myself find myself influenced much easier by friends, rather than people i'm blood-related to. If my mum gave me a motivational speech or some sort, it probably wouldn't work as much a friend coming up to me in school and asking me to study harder. That's just my guess.

So, our class, SC, in the light of all these events, have been compared to other ADN classes, such as class SB. Ms Cynthia told me that the number of graduates entering polytechnic from the Nitec to Higher Nitec progression classes is always higher than the number of students from the 'O' level certificate holders' classes. Ms Cynthia told me it's because the progression students have the drive to work hard, and the 'O' level cert holders just lack that drive. I was surprised when she presented to me this, but looking at how SB is like compared to my class right now, it does seem to be true. And, it's worrying.

After Mr. Chin explained "Group Think", he pointed out how the guys at the back of the class would normally just be louder than a bunch of girls sitting in the front row. How, these people in the front row, want to collectively pay attention to the lesson, and how the people at the back of the class collectively want to just are something else.

and so, Mr. Chin went on citing examples. He said some of the people in our class would probably be better off in class SB. With an open gesture, Mr. Chin turned his palm towards me, and said:

"hahahaha Ramesh, you're at the wrong place at the wrong time man!"

what he said genuinely pieced my heart right through, and stayed there. I shouldn't be here, I should've been studying in a polytechnic now, with a sleek campus and a personal notebook. Well, all the more, that is enough drive for me to tell myself, i've got to get outta here, graduate successfully, and be where i'm supposed to be. And that, is just the beginning.

hah. Beginning with the end in mind. I never really understood all those crappy motivational talks in secondary school and earlier, but i've learnt the hard way now. It's true, beginning with the end in mind is important.

Mr. Chow was talking about our class in general during his lesson, too. It was the first time I see Mr. Chow telling people off genuinely in class. He dismissed Daniel's random cut-in questions as "trying to irritate" and some others' as "is that even a serious question?"

It's becoming evident that some of the guys in my class detest Mr. Chow by now. That's sad, because Mr. Chow is cool.

I don't know how long this can carry on for. I mean, everyone has a threshold. Mr. Chow has already somewhat lost his cool with some of the guys, and term1 ends only next week. I don't think this can go on for much longer, before other lecturers begin losing it with our class too.

There have been rumors on how there were plans to put all the students who are willing to work, and those who don't into separate classes. Yup, our SB and SC may have a shuffle of classmates. I cross my fingers that this doesn't happen, because that will just fragment the classes within themselves even further, even more than they already are. Sure, my class SC may suck, but we still are SC, and we are used to each other, even if the different cliques don't talk to each other much. I might cry if this happens.

BSE CA was a killer. I think I just would barely scrape through it, and nothing more. Hell, I didn't even study much for it, because I know how those short answer question would just leave me dumbfounded again, even after if I studied hard. It's not about studying hard, it's about studying smart.

Still, I wish Mr. Chow would teach us how to handle those 15 mark questions. I really don't have a clue. Are we supposed to write 15 points? where are these points? how is it assessed? how will we lose marks? what do we score according to? i've got NO idea wtf.

OFA CA, on the contrary, was almost dirt easy. Mr. Chow's crash course on OFA during his BSE lesson the day before really helped quite a ton, especially in dealing with how the exam paper presented to us to Mail Merge recipient's records (we have to re-arrange the records, lol).

...

and here's a crappy weekend. I don't really like weekends or holidays. There's always nothing to do, and no one much to hang out with. Everybody seems to be busy these days.

get this: holidays are next week. Sigh.

SOMEONE ASK ME OUT ON A DATE PLS LOL

I know it's near impossible, but I wish these annoying everyday politics could be done away with, abolished.

Being simple is a virture.

whoever thought of bringing those zombies into daylight must be shot in the head (fail game design much?).

okay, this wasn't exactly at E3. But still, it's pretty darn awesome, and it came in at quite a time. It's just so awesome. (i've been saying awesome alot in this post huh)

and the following, is awesome too. If you haven't watched this, you're missing out!

Meet the Spy!

LOL

I find it weird, how the guys at Valve working on TF2 are so intelligent, while the guys working of L4D are a stark contrast. But then again, L4D isn't exactly created by Valve. It was first started by Turtle Rock Studios (the same studio which created the official expansion pack for Counter-Strike, called Condition Zero), and then when Valve acquired Turtle Rock Studios, it became their project.

L4D's AI was created by Turtle Rock Studios first, before Valve bought it from them. Turtle Rock Studio's new AI engine used in L4D was a updated version of the AI which they created for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Turtle Rock Studios also were using the newest version of the Source engine for the AI even before Valve acquired them.

But then again again, TF2 wasn't exactly started by Valve either. TF2 first started off as a Quake mod, done by a bunch of college guys.

...

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oh damn, this game nearly slipped my mind.

Yes, yet another racing game lul. I wish need for speed would be more like this, but ah well. This game actually encourages full-frontal contact into falling environmental structures. The last time any racing game encouraged interaction with the environment sucessfully, was Need For Speed Most Wanted'd pursuit breakers. And it was fun, while it lasted.

This game offers the same type of fun, just that, here, you try sabotage your fellow racers. Which means, in multiplayer, you get to sabotage your friends by knocking down huge structres against them.

how cool can this get?

here it is, a trailer they released, claiming it's completely genuine gameplay footage (the previous trailer was cinematic). If this is how the actual game looks like, i'm hyped up!

environmental destruction For The Win.