Weeks

Exams are over and we get a 4 day break until Monday which is erm... youth day? Yeah.. Something like that...

Finally got my website up and running.. Manage to get two domains... my main one at: http://fusedthoughts.x10hosting.com and a secondary one at http://fusedthoughts.googlepages.com. Althought currently, the x10 one doesn't work. I assume that the uptime for the googlepages one would be better although, it lacks full server benefits.

I never thought my computer had so much files. My C:\ Drive, which has 40Gb now has only 15GB left.. And thats when most of my files are on another partition. I desperately uninstalled over 10 programs and my free space count didn't improve much. I concluded that its all due to the every increasing number of updates for Microsoft Windows and Office... Its really getting out of hand. A base install of XP can take up so much space....

I've been thinking of dual-booting my system. Windows XP and Ubuntu or Kbuntu. I've haven't decided what I like better. The GNOME desktop environment. or K desktop environment (KDE).... Moreover, I'm a bit hesitant as one wrong installation move would require a re-installation of not only the Linux OS but Windows OS as well....

On a sidenote, yesterday was the last day of June and also the last day when Goods and Service Tax (G.S.T.) was at 5%. Starting today, G.S.T. is increased to 7%.

I went Vivocity yesterday. Got a programming book. My only programming book in like 5 years... Been always borrowing from the library. Its on Adobe Flex 2. Wanted to know it as it is integrated tightly with the upcoming Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and I thought it would be interesting to get to know more about it. Got a 24% discount on the book. So I don't think its such a bad buy...

Oh wells. 2 more days of bliss before going back to school....

Milestones: Passing the baton

Its been a few days, (3 days to be precise), since the last training. Been enjoying myself these few days.

Yep. Thats right, I had my last training last Wednesday, May 30th. It marked the end of 6 years in bowling. Memories aplenty. I don't know to feel happy or sad.

May 30th, has, with it, another significance. It was the stepping down of the 2006-2007 Executive Committee of Bowling. I relinquished my post as the Secretary and the Webmaster of the Temasek JC bowling events and announcement website.

It seems not too far ago when I was propelled into the team, blur and all, not knowing many of my team-mates and I still remember my reluctance to go back into bowling after my stint in secondary school. However, I still don't know what enticed me back into it. Ok... Maybe I do know the reason... buried somewhere in my mind.... Its just that I don't want to admit it =P

Since that fateful first training, many things has happened...

Over 2 years, (slightly over 1 year to be precise), I've made some good calls, made some bad calls too.
Came up with a id system for attendance filing as well as my personal database for attendance (for my use only though).
Designed, implemented the website, brought most things online etc.
Although some were scrapped later, looking back, it wasn't really how effective it was, but rather, the process which was required before finding a suitable method was the part which was enjoyable and filled with learning points...
On top of that, there are also other learning points (HR and social for example), that just can't be put into words here...

Fast forward to last week, I've already been through another 2 National school's competitions, National Age Groups, other mini tournaments and stepped down from the competition scene for good (at least for now).

Its been days.. and I still don't know what to think.

Starting 31st May the new committee (2007-2008) has already taken over. All I can say is, congratulations to Darryl, Chris, Marcus, Yixuan, Natalie and Petrina, in forming the new committee.
May you bring the team to greater heights....

Migraine or is it?

Migraine. Or is it not. I don't know.
All I know My head is spinning in a circle as big as earth....

Probably due to a disturbed sleep pattern yesterday, when I woke up almost every 20minutes to half an hour.
Situation was exacerbated by staring at the Overhead Projector (OHP) and the PowerPoint projections during tutorial and lectures respectively. Much better now though. My eyes are like 20 times more tired when I stare at an OHP or projected screen as compared to using the computer.

I really dislike them. Nothing I can do though.

Hope tomorrows tournament goes well.

Anyway, lets end with a quote shall we??

Fighting isn't good. But if you must fight, WIN!

Cherios.

New Layout

I guess this is obvious. After a day's work, (time slightly wasted), I've finally rolled out a new layout for this blog and will soon port it over to my technology blog http://tech-no-borders.blogspot.com.

This is my first Layout for the new Blogger. It is a full eXtensible Markup Language (XML) template.

There are still some features like tagboard which aren't up yet. I still need to do some fine tuning. so for now please post any comments you have at the respective comments link in the posts. Non-article related comments are also welcomed. Cheers.

And to all my friends, thanks for the concern. I should be going back to school tomorrow.

Cheers!

One Errr... Week

Its one err... week. Can't find a word to fit in there.

It wasn't fantastic, neither was it so horrible. Probably next week will be worse with all the tests cramped into that space of 4 days (Friday is good Friday).

No handphone now as it is in the Repair center. Went to get that Service Provider customizations out. So troublesome. Wished the service provider didn't customize the phone in the first place. The Service provider replaced the Menu button with a shortcut to GPRS button.. So irritating. Always end up having to pay for data charges at the end of the month because of accidental access. Especially infuriating is when u finish a call and hang up, if the other party hang up faster than you, there is a chance that u will access GPRS because the end call button is the GPRS button after the customization. Really was a dis-service.

Got some interesting views to post... But too lazy to complete it.

I set up a satellite blog, which is aimed at documenting interesting technology (software) finds and useful tips among others... it is located at http://tech-no-borders.blogspot.com/

Thats all for now.. ciao.

Risks...

This is probably a follow up of the last post: "Broken as it is..."

This poem was brought to my attention through my friends blog... Its aptly titled: "To Risk" by William Arthur Ward... So credits to YX for bringing it to my attention and to the author, William Arthur Ward

It should probably help me refocus...

"To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.
Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

The pessimist complains about the wind;

The optimist expects it to change;

And the realist adjusts the sails."

Broken as it is...

Its been a week since I last blogged... Everything is going past very fast... A blink of an eye an its gone... Busy with almost everything. Schools not making anything easier. 8 hours of sleep? Thats history...

Broken as it is

Come to the topic. Nothing was actually broken.. Perhaps mentally but not physically...

I guess 2 main events. Caused my heart to break like a thin glass.... One happened a while ago (Event Number 2), and that I need sometime to organize before could write about it...

Lets start with Event Number 1...

Event Number 1 (only a small crack): Ok.. for the boring one... bowling today was a bit of a heart break. Videos and friends say otherwise, but to the coach it still seems wrong... time delay? Friends say yes, videos say yes, but coach say no.

Just what am I going to do???

Now for Event Number 2 (its broken entirely): Well... its already some time... but this was a big heartbreak.. Ok.. not that big.. but at least it was a closure... Or so I thought..

Still got lapses of aching-ness.. But at least I can sleep at night now... I really shouldn't dwell on it... but sometimes just can't help myself... at least everything went back ok... Certain degree of changes definitely.. my HP also went darn silent.. it became so eerie....

I really need to refocus...

-out-

Sick

I'm as sick as a dog...Got food poisoning or stomach flu.

Ok.. today was probably better than yesterday which was darn bad...

Had diarrhea 3 times and vomited 5 times.. Feel and taste horrible. Threw up everything including stomach acid and bile.

Didn't eat the whole day. I think I'm gonna lose weight again. Haiz.

Haven't finish my holiday homework and school reopening on Wednesday. These few days were spent sleeping. Too sick to do anything..

These few days really horrendous.

Guess its goodbye AND Dangerous Lorry

Guess its goodbye...

Yup.. its so sad.. Ms Ng gonna leave the school to venture into the "darkside". Came as a surprise to many... Showed no hints of leaving... STill cracking so many jokes...

The whole of the science department came to bid her farewell at her last lecture here... Lectures will never be the same again...

Dangerous Lorry...

Like the heading suggests, it was really dangerous to load the lorry with this much things... I snapped a picture of it but turned out a little blur... He was driving so dangerously and to make matters worse, he was talking on the phone without a handsfree set... Really negligent driving...

Below are photos of it... Couldn't actually take the driver talking on the phone because of two reasons.

1. He was driving with that load, on a phone. I was afraid that if he sees me photographing, he may swerve unexpectantly and it would be a road disaster.

2. I don't know what he will do if he finds out he is being photograph...

Wanted to send the photos to STOMP but decided against it..

A few things

Just for fun, I'll reverse the order of the points my post this time... haha

Random-ness

I know this is totally random, but yea.. I thought it was quite innovative to put the ashtray in a swivel design... haha

Sportsman Appreciation Talk

Today marks the official day that all JC2 PDP heads stepped down. Thus is also marks the new exco official undertaking of their appointment. The rest of us got our certificate of appointment... Sadly.. there there was a glitch somewhere... Won't elaborate further... haha

Haze

The haze isn't getting any better. SG hit a high PSI of 106 and stayed in the unhealthy range for quite sometime. Below is a picture taken in school... The buildings are supposed to be clear...

OH, OP and others

Since I have not blogged for sometime, this would be a longer post.... Let me go backwards, from wide to narrow... GP style.

Global

It seems that situation is still quite unstable with North Korea. They are threatening the global committee by saying that their response on the development of the Nuclear Warheads will be linked to American Action.This is really bad as you can be sure that the United States would definitely not back away.

With the probe still ongoing on whether the nuclear test was real, it no doubt be a matter of grave concern as it may threaten to split the world into two camps again – against and for camps. It really reminds me of the 1955 Warsaw Pact and the 1949 North Alantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as well as all the appeasements policies during the war era. However, this time, I do not think we will see appeasement being used very much.

With the war on terrorism still ongoing, this is going worsen the feelings of unsafty of the global committee.

The feeling of safety has again plummeted. The recovery from all these problems and war does not seem to be anywhere near the visible horizon.

Home

Global problems are one thing, but closer to home, the indonesian forest fires caused haze does not seem to be slowing down much. Though the situation has certainly improved, the Pollutants Standard Index (PSI) is still fluctuating

It is irritating to note that this happens every year... I shall not comment further already as actions have been taken against it.

OH: Open House

The TJC open house was held today. Oh man.. I spent so much time updating the bowling blog to reflect the open house event, up to the extent where I opened a new blog just for the open house details.

The actual open house was quite uninteresting to me. With all the expected stuff that can happen. Probably because I've past that stage... But oh well... at least the brochures were all given out.

here is my design for the brochure:

OP: Oral Presentation and other exams

The PW oral presentation and other A Level paper – Chinese, is drawing nearer... and with the ending of our promotional exams, it is a mark of the start of another stress period...

The Written Report is due next friday... Chinese A Level is coming at the end of the month....

And just last thursday (i.e. Yesterday), there was a talk... Asking us to think about our Epitaph....

oh what are we going to do....Arrrrgh

Worse and worse... PSI

The haze problem caused by the Indonesian forest fires is getting worse.

Today's PSI (Pollution Standard Index) reading has alot of flactuations, with readings going as high as 150. This is supposed to be a unhealthy level.
I cannot concentrate properly today either... Had alot of eye irritations.... Extremely frustrated now...

The farmers just never learn. This happens again and again, year after year. Put it in economic terms, their action of burning the forest to clear the lane is causing alot of NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES to their country and the neighbouring countries...

I think time for some concrete actions to be taken to stop this again. If warning and signs don't work, I think they should confiscate the lands. Although this may not be the best alternative, taking into account other factors that may be present, but Hey, I think it is a very good form of deterrence...

For now, I can only hope that the skies will clear up by tomorrow morning

Below is a list of readings until 10pm today, taken from the National Environment Agency website.

For more recent updates, visit http://app.nea.gov.sg/psi/

7am — 89

8am — 101

9am — 119

10am — 130

11am — 128

12pm — 115

1pm — 102

2pm — 91

3pm — 83

4pm — 80

5pm — 86

6pm — 98

7pm — 126

8pm — 143

9pm — 150

10pm — 145

3 Days and countless things more to do

School

Yup.. 3 more days and its the promotional exams. However, there is still a pile of things to be done and revised... ARrgh!!...

Went to school today.. Class was half empty / half full.. Half of the class stayed home today...

For the first time, we had lessons in the Watson and Crick biololgy IT lab...

Oh gosh.. I did not know that sitting in the school were 13 Apple G5 Macs... I aren"t sure whether its G5 or the new macs with Intel Processors, but definitely a Mac... And thats only the Watson lab... I assume that Crick"s lab would have the same facilities which means that we have 26 Apple Macs.

Those labs must have cost a lot.. And oh... I like Apple"s mighy mouse... haha

Net

When I was surfing the net to relief some stress, I was surprised to find that Microsoft made Virtual PC 2004 free.

Wow.. I've been hoping for this to happen. However, it seems that the only supported platforms are Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional... Windows XP Home aren"t even supported.. But I installed anyway... Shouldn" be a problem since XP Pro is supported..

Blog Layout and Singapore Idol

yup.. changed layout.. so happy with this new one...

For the first time it is a fully fluid layout. Its still standards compliant as usual, although I am still having problems with the blogger inserted codes as they aren't standards compliant rendering my site uncompliant with stricter doctypes..

Couldn't migrate fully from iframes also because browsers have restrictions on cross domain XmlHttpRequest. Thus I have to use back and iframe for the tagbaord...

Any comments welcome... whether its on the improvements of the site or the layout, or the accessiblity... Thanks.

OK.. enough tech stuff.

Singapore Idol!!! Finals!!

Yup Singapore Idol 2 finals result show is now shoing... wonder who will win... This time round its a bit hard to determine...

Oh well... off to watch it...

Wrong Timing

Oh man... first mouth got ulcers, then found out that one of my wisdom teeth is growing. Arrgh...

"Wisdom teeth are third molars that usually appear between the ages of 17 and 24 (although they may appear when older, younger, or may not appear at all). They are commonly removed when they affect other teeth—colloquially known as "coming in sideways."

Wisdom teeth are often described as an example of a "vestigial" trait. Some argue that recent changes to softer diets which cause less wear on the teeth may be causing the third molars to be less useful, and, in fact, problematic in many humans. Alternately, it is possible that wisdom teeth were useful when it was common for humans to lose several teeth to decay by the age when they appear.

Although most people have four wisdom teeth, it is possible to have more or fewer. Absence of one or more wisdom teeth is an example of hypodontia. Any extra teeth are referred to as supernumerary teeth.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Hope it can hold out until after my A Levels when I decide to remove it.

More chaos and something else...

On Thailand

Martial law.. Never thought I will hear the phrase out of the history class context.

For those who are unsure, "Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a military authority takes control of the normal administration of justice." (source: Wikipedia)

Whats even more surprising.. Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Wednesday, 20th Sep 2006, endorsed coup leader to head the new governing council, according to a televised announcement. (Source: International Herald Tribune)

That was something quite unexpected... Endorsement of a coup... I am curious what's going to happen next...

On a SideNote

Quite a remarkable download speed... Didn't believe my eyes... Too bad its a one off thing.. Never happened again since then.

Anyway, for those curious, xampp is a integrated installer for a WAMP setup (i.e. Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP). I was setting up a development server on my computer to test my websites...

Starting Soon

Promos are starting soon.. I really need to find time to mug...

oh well

-jz out-

IMF Woes

So its been decided that 22 out of 27 banned activists will be allowed into the country, with the remaining 5 subjected too screenings and interviews first...

While there has been outcry, surely there are people out there who agrees with what SG has done (the ban)...

You may argue that I am young, but I believe and agree that security is also a human right. If we were to make an exception just because a world body is coming here, then will the citizens or even other people respect our laws?

I really can't comment... I don't know the entire picture... Neither will we know the actual impact of this event...

Maybe we should have done things differently... We could have relaxed the security... Take the risk... But if something really happens, they will blame us for not increasing our security...

haiz.. such a dilemma.

Going on and on.. and getting no where....

yea right.. life's going on but it seems that I aren't getting anywhere with revision. Promos in 3 weeks and still got hmwk to clear which is taking time away from revision.. sighz...

Today, the area was undergoing fogging. Came back... on the pathway back to my block, I conuted... About 110 cockroaches and 8 were still alive, before I lost counted.. Thats because I got too distracted when I walked past the lift landing of the adjacent block... There were already about 30 died cockroaches in that area..

oh man... should have taken a picture of that gross situation.. too bad I didn't think of it... BUT I aren't too keen on seeing that scene... HAHA.

.......gy.jz out............

Finally the green light for SJI (International)

Just in the news a while ago. Its announced that the Ministry Of Education has approved the application for the opening of the third international school in Singapore.

St. Josephy's Institution (SJI) International is now officially recognised. An announcement will be made to the current students and parents soon... I think recruitment has already started. Even the new principal for SJI(International) has been chosen.

I wonder we will hear from the SJI Old Boys Asscociation (SJIOBA) too... haha

YAY!

Shock the other day, Scare today

On Steve Irwin

The other day, the news of the untimely death of Steve Irwin met with disbelief... I actually got the news early in the afternoon when i chance across a blog post about it. I was skeptical of it until I double checked the authenticity of that claim with Australian News site.

The fact finally sunk it when I saw it on the television.

At home

Got such a scare when my uncle's maid called saying that she couldn't wake my grandma up from her sleep.

Turned out to be a false alarm... It seems she had fainted or something along that line.

We still don't know the cause, but I'm are just thankful that nothing happened.