teddY-risatioN™

A Layer of Dust

2006-09-11T17:03:00.000+08:00

It've been a year since I've left this blog untouched. Phew, I can see a whole inch thick of dust that has collected over the 12 months.

I miss blogger. Sort of. Especially when people can't really blog-hop to my new blog so often as compared to this blog. So I get less visitors...

Hmmm, well. I hate to repeat again but this blog has been moved to a new domain called http://www.teddy-o-ted.com.

Will check back next year XD

For verification purpose: Technorati Profile

Announcement

2006-03-27T15:32:00.000+08:00

Hi all, this is a very important announcement, especially to those who accidentally landed on this site through search engines.

teddY-risatioN has shifted!

Anyway, the main reason why I've shifted my blog to my own domain a month ago because I want Wordpress which can help me categorise my posts and password protect them (sometimes). Because I hate people sneaking upon some sensitive post and accuse me of defaming them or blowing up the issue.

Wordpress also offers my blog a search function whree visitors can search for the things they want.

teddY-risatioN has shifted!

2005-06-22T12:52:00.000+08:00

Hi people! teddY-risatioN has completed moving from Blogger to my own server. It is time to change a new look! Visit here:

http://www.teddy-o-ted.com

Cheers =)

teddY-risatioN Is Shifting

2005-06-18T12:45:00.000+08:00

Well, I have a big news to announce to my readers:

teddY-risatioN is shifting!

I have registered and paid for my webhosting service, and the new teddY-risatioN is now under republishing. This is very very trobulesome as Blogger does not have the feature of helping its users to export their blog entries. This means that I'll need to do the cut-and-paste job from my blog to the new one directly.

My new blog is not yet up, not because I have problems using Wordpress, but because I have simply no time. Next term will very extremely busy so I think I'll have to finish this as soon as possible. The new blog is proudly hosted by Eternal Solutions, and I hope it will be up as soon as possible.

To my supportive readers who have commented a lot on this blog, I have to say a big sorry because it is impossible for me to export all your comments to my new blog, and this means that some of them will be deleted off from the ever-expanding cyberspace. I have take this factor into consideration before shifting my blog to the new domain, but then I think it is time to give my blog a new environment.

The new blog address will not be announced unless my new blog over there is completed, and this blog will also be updated until it has been fully shifted to the new server. Sadly, this blog will be torn down after the new one is set up to avoid confusion.

Thank you very much to my readers who pay lots of visits to my blog and also posted precious comments.

Enjoyed The Genting Highland Trip

2005-06-17T15:53:00.000+08:00

Before starting to describe how enjoyable is my trip to Genting Highlands, I would like to thank Jin, Fairygirl, Aishah and Desmond for their precious comments before I departed for the highland resort =)

Not much happened on the first and the third day of the trip, but I would like to give a detailed description of how I enjoyed my life to the fullest in the Genting Highland Theme Park.

Woke up at 7.30am in the morning although the theme park only opens at 9.00am. Got pretty excited for the entire night that I barely got any sleep. Thanks to my younger brother, who hates to wake up early, we only entered the theme park at 9.30am after waiting him to brush his teeth, get dressed and have his breakfast.

Spinner spinning into action!
The first ride that I went on is Spinner. Nothing much special about it, just a mushroom-shaped structure, using Centrifugal forces to swing the chair outwards while spinning. A wake-up call for myself in the chilly morning so that I can ride on much nauseating rides in the theme park. Rode on it twice and find that the queue is getting very long so I went on to another ride, which is the flying coaster that I've mentioned.

Flying Coaster in motion - you can see the sky, 'coz you're inverted!
The funny thing about this Asia's first flying coaster is that we need to pay a wholly RM$10 to ride on this metal vehicle ONCE, although we have bought the Outdoor Theme Park Wristband, which means we can have unlimited rides on different attractions in the theme park.

Anyway, I like the part when the train (means the movable part of the coaster, which holds the passengers) reaches the first drop. Not very high though, but then it gives you the first taste of experiencing negative G-force on a flying coaster. Exciting and fun! Then you'll experience and sharp bend, followed by an in-line turn (inversion) and you'll suddenly see the ground disappear and the sky appears right in front of your eyes!

Solero Space Shot in thick mist.
I went on this intense ride with extreme negative G-force 3 times! Wow! Thinking of me having the courage to get on this horrible ride really sends chills down my spine - where the hell did I get such courage?

This ride involves a car (the vehicle that holds 12 riders, 3 on each side) that is pushed up gently by pressurized air up to the top of the tower. The tower is measured to be 185 feet, which is 56.388 meters and also is 18.796 stories high.

Okay, so it is approximately 19 stories in terms of height. When you reach the top of the tower, you'll get a panoramic view of the entire highland resort, and you have 10 full seconds to enjoy the scenery, as the car will drop at an acceleration of 10m/s^2. And the maximum speed of the fall is 67km/h, and this gives you a lot of air-time ( weightlessness calculated in terms of time). Woah, for the first time in my life I experienced the similar sensation of jumping off a 19 story building.

I think I can commit suicide from a great height now with far less hesistation than there might have been before. And after this ride, I was shot through with adrenalin for the rest of the day, and when I rode on Rolling Thunder Mine Train (another non-inverting roller coaster), all the small drops and turns failed to get any reaction from me. Hehe =)

Getting On Asia's One And Only Flying Coaster

2005-06-15T08:07:00.000+08:00

Well, dont throw eggs at me after reading this post... because I'm going to enjoy three-days of fun at Genting Highland, starting from today!

Once I step my foot on the exciting Genting Highland Theme Park, let me tell you, I'll go totally wild. I will hop on the most nauseating, most horrible rides first, such as the Corkscrew, Cyclone, Rolling Thunder Mine Train, Solero Space Shot and last but not least, the newest and only Flying Roller Coaster in Asia!

The Asia's one and only Flying Roller Coaster is there!
Well, this roller coaster is Genting Highland Theme Park's new ride, a unique hang-gliding roller coaster, designed by renowned coaster designer Werner Stengel and manufactured by Zamperla of Italy. It gives thrill-seekers the incredible sensation of zero gravity, together with the realistic effect of flying.

The ride lifts the flyer to a height of 20 meters and releases the flyer to a hang gliding flying experience over 391 meters of the track length, with a maximum speed of 25.7 mph.

Click on any of the image to see a larger version =)
The unique positioning of the passengers - four riders "fly" together, side by side - is a new way of experiencing drops, spirals and swooping turns from the "front seat." The flyer will experience a constant change of acceleration throughout from negative 1G to 3.6G on the vertical movements and 1G on a lateral movement.

Looks damn cool, right? I'm surely going on it this time! Remember to try it out when you get the chance to go to Genting Highlands! Oh by the way, you can get more of those pictures from here, and read more about this exciting flying coaster here!

Mom is screaming downstairs, wanting me to shift the luggage up the car. So I got to leave my blog un-updated for 1 days (the day after tomorrow). Will be up the beatiful highland resort for 3 days and 2 nights =)

Bye!

Happy Birthday! #2 - Dear Miracle

2005-06-14T12:12:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday To Miracle!
Tomorrow is Jin's youngest daughter, Miracle's birthday! I've been waiting for this day so that I can wish dear Miracle a big Happy Birthday at my blog =)

Happy Birthday, Miracle!

Well, I have not seen Miracle before, but you can know a lot about this chubby little girl on Jin's blog. Miracle is surely a very active baby, and likes to howl in the night. On the other hand, Miracle inherits the same characteristics from her mother, Jin, and this makes them a perfect match for mother-and-child.

About Miracle's miraculous story (that's when she got her name from), click here!

*Dear Miracle and Jin: Sorry for posting this early as I am going to Genting Highland tomorrow for a 3 days 2 nights stay over there.

Towards A Healthier Lifestyle - Home Remedies

2005-06-13T11:19:00.001+08:00

Good news to all those who have fallen sick, and might have inadequate or no medicine around you. Don't worry! Below is a list of home remedies that can work as effective as medicine!

NOTE: Some information in the following article is obtained from Reader's Digest March issue.

"Bla-choo!" You have a cold, and you don't have any medicine beside you. Fret not. Cook a bowl of chicken soup for yourself, serve it warm, not chilled, and you might just recover in a few days without any complicated medications and trips to the clinic. According to doctors at Miami's Mount Sinai Medical Center, chicken soup has a decibgestant effect, and it clears up nassal mucus, hence eases cold symptoms. Warm water can also clear your nasal passages, but not as effective as what chicken soup can do =)

When you're suffering from overidulgence, eat some pineapple. Unlike other types of fruits, pineapple contains a type of enzyme called Bromelain, which helps to digest proteins and also fight inflammatory disorders. It has some antiparasitic action too! On the other hand, eating pineapple is also great for people wo suffer from arthritis, gout, and allergy problems, whose symptoms may be worsened by undigested proteins. While knowing how Bromelain helps, you also must know in which part of the pineapple there is most Bromelain. Sufficient amounts of such enzyme can be had from fresh pineapple, primarily the core =)

Croaking like a frog? Salt is here to save your day. If you have a sore throat, gargle five times a day with a solution of half to one teaspoon of salt and one cup of warm water. It'll help to wash phlegm away and sooth the scratchy throat. Reminder: Do not overheat the water - hot water will scald your throat lining, irritating even more. Remember, gargle the salt solution as long as possible, about half a minute or so to ease sort throat; and not swallowing it directly when you sip it from your cup - this only helps to replenish the salt you've lost during sweating.

For those suffering from hangovers, dirnk as much water as possible. I know it is never ever pleasant to wake up in the morning, realising that there is a strong bitter taste on your tongue and your head bobbing in mid-air. This happens when you comsume too much alcoholic drinks the night before. Well, the solution is that next time you go to a party, gobble down a tall glass of water after every alcoholic drink, and remember to drink another glass beofre you turn in. This helps to slow down overall alcohol comsumption. And since alcohol is diuretic, drinking plenty of water helps replace lost fluids and prevent dehydration.

Feeling nauseous? Ginger is the key to stop you from feeling nauseous anymore. Besides doing more than just add zip to cakes and cookies, ginger can aslo help reliece nausea. In one Danish study of 30 women with morning sickness, most of them felt less nauseated after taking ginger. Ginger may also help to prevent motion sickness, says Dr Adriane Figh-Berman, chairperson of the U.S. National Women's Health Network. Read the next paragraph about her remedy of making a cup of ginger tea! It works miraculously good for those who suffer from constant nausea and motion sickness!

So, you can drink a cup of ginger tea 30 minutes before a trip. It is pretty easy to make the tea: Take a piece of fresh ginger about the size of the knuckle. Skin and dice it, put it in a mug of warm water with some sugar (just a pinch of it!). Cover the container with a cap and leave it for 5 minutes. Good remedy for making your own ginger tea!

To those who fell sick and tried out the home remedies above, hope that you'll recover soon and take care!

What Makes We Malaysians Unique

2005-06-12T16:50:00.000+08:00

The top 15 things that makes we Malaysians really unique from people from other nations:

1. You order Maggi goreng and fried chicken, complain about how oily the food is, and then proceed to finish it anyway.

2. You complain about the quality of the pirated DVD you just purchased. "What, RM10 for DVD5?! Aiyah, boss ... sound no good, cheaper lah ..."

3. You hit the accelerator the moment the first drop of rain hits your windshield. "Alamak, it's going to rain. Sure traffic jam one. I'd better drive faster."

4. You seize the opportunity to make a U-turn anywhere ... especially where there is a sign telling you not to. Well, so long as the cops aren't in sight.

5. You fail to function normally without your daily dose of teh tarik, kopi-o or nasi lemak.

6. You plead, bat your eyelids and relate a sob story to the officer at the town council office to let you off the hook (or reduce the amount considerably) for the fine you incurred when you parked your car on the double line.

7. You pop open the wet tissue packet at the Chinese restaurant by squeezing the trapped air to the top of the packet before proceeding to smash your fist into it. The louder the pop the better.

8. You have roughly six meals a day (breakfast, mid-morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper). Then there's the snacking Â keropok ikan, pisang goreng, muruku, jam tarts and the like.

9. You exclaim loudly how expensive everything is, even though the items may in fact be going for a steal. "Wah! So expensive, ah? Hak sei ngor (Scare me to death)!"

10. You take a highway route frequently, and you spend half a day figuring out what highway intersections should you use or avoid, in order to get the cheapest toll fee for the entire journey.

11. You get the whole family dressed to the nines, jump into the car and head for the minister's open house Â and ask for styrofoam boxes and plastic bags to tar pau (take-away) food.

12. You always tell foreigner how tall are the Petronas Twin Towers and it is worth it to pay it a visit... but you've never went on it before.

13. Your accent and language style vary according to the race of the person you are conversing with.

14. You slow down at an accident site to take down the car number plate, but won't step out of your car to help - the victim could be a robber!

15. You're proud to be Malaysian - and you pass these jokes on to all your Malaysian friends!

Obtained from Blogthings - You Know You're Malaysian When....

You can also try the other test of You Know You're... at the site too!

Mom's Shopping Spree

2005-06-11T19:19:00.000+08:00

My family followed mom to shop today. Wow, let me tell you, my mom is surely a great shopper! She can go shopping up to 7 to 8 hours a day without buying a day, and she can tell us that she has enjoyed her shopping trip. Maybe women are genetically modified to shop for household products, clothes, food and also to window shop, strolling around the mall for the whole day without buying anything.

This is particularly unacceptable to men. While their husbands go with them shopping, trying to bear with them for that day, the kids will surely make noise. Like my brother and I. Mom took us here, took us there, went to buy shoes and bla bla bla.

Buying shoes with my mom is the worse thing I can ever imagine (worse then me getting an F9 for a subject). She enters the shop, look for a pair of high-heel shoe that she thinks it looks nice, then ask the lady to bring another size of the shoe if that pair doesn't fit. This will take about 30 minutes, since she's spending a lot of time choosing her best pair of shoes.

When the shopkeeper comes out from the store with many pairs of the identical shoes, mom will try them ONE BY ONE, walk around the place, asking us whether she looks nice in them. We would normally say a big yes or not she'll go choosing shoes again (another 30 minutes). However, after judging whether the shoes are comfortable, she will not go straight to the cashier, but then choose a few the most comfortable pair of identical shoes.

After that, like a mad scientist examining a strain of bacteria, mom would check the "selected" pairs of shoes carefully, ONE BY ONE. This is will take quite a lot of time, ranging from 45 minutes to an hour. This is driving us (except for my mom) nuts, including the shopkeeper who looks very impatient.

Finally mom got the PREFECT SHOE, then she'll check the price. If mom goes: "Oh it's too expensive!" we're doomed, as she'll repeat the entire thing again.

Next is buying furniture. We're planning to get a new sofa, and it is really a bad decision for us to bring mom along. Argh, not that I don't what her to follow us, but you'll sympathize me, and not her, after reading this:

Mom will start to see what type of sofa do the manufacturer has. Then they'll bring her the catalogue, and mom will look through the extremely thick (thicker than a dictionary, duh!) catalogue, and ask for advise and comments from the manufacturer. They'll recommend her a few, and she'll start picking.

Pick here pick there pick everywhere:

"Aiya, and hand-rest doesn't look good."
"Erm, I don't like the colour of the sheets."
"Can you change this back-rest for me? Looks really awful."
"Are they the same colour as the kitchen table I bought from you last time?"
"Will they look good in my living room?"
"The legs are too thick, my maid very hard to mop the floor underneath leh."
"Why the design so weird one har?"*

* And the list goes on...

Argh, this is driving me nuts! After an hour mom chose the best design and the entire family was so relieved. Home sweet home!

Identity Crisis On MSN

2005-06-11T09:39:00.000+08:00

Uh-oh. I faced an identity crisis yesterday. Not myself is experiencing it but them I am the victim. When I was using MSN Messenger yesterday night, I met another Jin from the Internet. She's a Thai, 22 years old, single, studying in University. Wait a minute, that isn't the Jin from jinxiaoyang.blogspot.com that I know! There are two Jins!

Maybe you think this is insignificant but I think it is. This is because for hours we've chatted happily. I assume she was the Jin that I knew and she assumes that I am her schoomate from Thailand. The entire mystery was revealed when I asked her about Boo and Miracle, which is the real Jin's children. She stunned and screamed over the messenger that she is single.

Then she asked for my name, as my nickname didn't appear on her MSN. I told her I was teddy. She said, "Hey, I think I'm chatting with the wrong person. No wonder you're not from Thailand."

So after this we revealed our real identity to each other. She even asked me to recognise her in a photo. To my horror that is not Jin! (Truth here: Jin is really not so, erm, ugly!)

After checking her MSN address then I found that I've made a big mistake eons ago. I added the real Jin's address as jinxiaoyang@hotmail.com, instead of jinxiaoyang@gmail.com. I don't really think Jin has a MSN Messenger ID yet. Argh, why am I also so stupid? Making a fool of myself, but I think the other Jin is also embarassed too =)

Yes, I know this sounds really stupid but this story is true =)

Some Very Weird Feeling

2005-06-08T17:42:00.000+08:00

This post is written after getting the idea from Jin's post. Again I've stolen her idea. Sorry.

Every time before a disaster strikes, some people (maybe fated) will have some very weird feeling, for example, my aunt.

Many years back, my aunt have the same repeating nightmare and lasted at least a fortnight. It is about a burning plane, like a fireball, crashing onto the ground. Every time she woke up and found that she was alright. She thought that it might be just some dream or some nightmare and meant nothing much.

A few weeks later, a disaster occurred that shocked the world - SQ006. The plane, on the 31st October, 2000, entered Runway 05D instead of Runway 05L. Runway 05D was closed for repairs, and that numerous pieces of construction equipment were parked on the runway. Approaching 140 knots, the 747 impacted the construction vehicles, breaking the fuselage into three parts and igniting a large post-crash fire. 78 innocent lives, out of the 178 passengers on the ill-fated flight, were lost in this disaster.

There was a time when I also had this type of feeling. Don't know how to describe it how it feels like, but then it can make you have sleepless nights and you just can't sit still. You can feel that something bad is going to happen and this message, or feeling, is bothering you.

During the June holidays in 1995 (when I was about 6 years old), I was crying for many nights and have not much appetite. Mom was getting worried, since we are going on a planned trip to Genting Highlands with our grandparents. Because I kept crying and crying, and because of lack of intake of food I grew very ill, so the family's trip was cancelled. Mom later told me that my grandparents were quite disappointed as they rarely come down from Penang to Kuala Lumpur to visit us, and because of me they can't go to Genting Highland. Dad was a little frustrated, as he has paid the confirmation bill for the room-booking.

But after a few days later a disaster stunned the nation. On June 1995, a landslide in a Genting Highlands slip road resulted in at least 21 deaths and 22 injuries. This landslide severed the connection between Genting Highland and the highway that links the mountain resort to other parts of Malaysia.

Mom and dad was shocked after hearing about this disaster. If I didn't show any sign of illness of what, maybe the death toll would be 28 instead of 26! Some people might call this coincidence, but I don't really think so.

What do you think, and also if there is, share your experience with me here =)

Picky, Picky & Picky About Vegetables

2005-06-07T21:47:00.000+08:00

Why there is a lot of kids and even adults out there just hate to eat vegetables? This question has been in my mind for very long. I just can't figure out what is the real reason behind it.

Don't they just taste great? Spinach is fantastic when chewed, and so do tomatoes. I have an eternal love for broccoli and bean sprouts, especially when the served after steamed or fried! Wow, don't they taste just great?

All the quotes below are found online, showing how kids are trying to aviod eating vegetables.

"Mommy, can I sacrifice tomorrow's pocket money and don't eat vegetables at dinner?"

"Mom can you help me pick out the veg in the soup?"

"Not brinjals again!"

I have a cousin brother, staying at my house for 2 days. And these 2 days, according to his description, is like HELL. No wonder for this vegetable-hater, as my mom cooked spaghetti today (with lots of mushrooms and beans). He was having a real horrible time for the entire dinner as he just can't swallow those vegetables my mom put in the sauce for the spaghetti. Don't tell me he's only eating raw spaghetti noodles.

Poor thing. I always wonder why little kids doesn't like to eat vegetable. Is it a genetic disorder of human beings? Or they hate vegetables because their parents also do? Vegetables contains irons, vitamins and nutrients that we really need a lot. They help to build bones and other stuff (leave this to the Biologists) - getting all of them from meat is obviously not enough!

On the other hand, vegetables also have fibers, that helps to prevent constipation. Since fibers cannot be digested along our alimentary canal, they increases the size of the faeces and fasten up the process whereby the muscles along the alimentary canal; transport faeces (peristalsis).

So what's the reason for not eating vegetables?

Wedding Anniversary & HaVaii

2005-06-07T10:54:00.000+08:00

A few years back, my brother and I housesat for our parents who went away for their wedding anniversary.

As we were about to sleep, the phone rang and it was a telemarketer.

Me: "Hello? Who's on the line?"
Telemarketer: "Good evening. May I speak to Mr Mun?"
Me: "My dad is out of town, celebrating his wedding anniversary."
Telemarketer: "Oh, I see. Nevermind then, may I speak to Mrs Mun?"

On the other hand, I've come across another joke about wedding anniversary and HaVaii while reading Reader's Digest.

There was a couple spending their wedding anniversary at Hawaii. While boarding the plane, the husband exclaimed: "Yay, we are going to HaVaii!"

"No! It is pronounced as HaWaii," explained the wife.

Both husband and wife were then arguing over this issue for the entire journey from the airport to Hawaii.

When they arrived Hawaii, the husband asked the flight attendant before alighting the plane: "Is this place pronounced as HaVaii or HaWaii?"

Flight attendant: "Oh, it is pronounced as HaVaii."

Husband to wife: "See? I've won!"

Flight attendant: "You're Velcome."

Haha! =)

$5 And $50

2005-06-06T14:38:00.000+08:00

Read this joke somewhere online:

Once upon a time, there was a lawyer sitting just beside a lady on the airplane. To kill some time, the lawyer asked the lady whether she wants to play a game of gamble. She agreed.

"Now, here are the rules - we ask each other a question, and when you can't come out with an answer, you'll pay me $5," explained the lawyer.

"How about me?" the lady asked.

"Oh, when I can't answer your question, you'll get $50," continued the lawyer.

The lawter asked her a very difficult and complicated question. The lady gave up, and pass him a $5 note.

"Now it's my turn," the lady said, "What goes up the hill with 10 legs and comes down with 5?"

The lawyer gave up. He paid her $50. Then he asked the lady, "What is the answer to the question of yours?"

The lady fished out a $5 note and passed it to the lawyer.

Hehe *giggles*

Power Down

2005-06-05T11:39:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I was spending my night over at my cousin's place. The motivation that kept us staying awake till 1.00am in the morning is the excitement. Yup, excitement fueled our bodies to stay up real late today morning.

When we were telling jokes at 1.10am and laughing our asses of, the air-conditioner and the table lamp suddenly went off. Horrified, we crawled out of the bedroom and found my uncle checking the fuse downstairs. (This reminds me of the New York black-out)

"Nope. The fuse didn't blow. It's fine," he told us while climbing up the stairs, "But then I think it'ssomething wrong with the power line. The entire neighbourhood just blacked out."

Oh great. This means that 4 of us (my cousin brother and sister + my brother + me myself) will be spending a night in the humid bedroom. Now then I started to think why we should be cretaed to respire and transpire. Creating too much carbon dioxide and water vapour.

Argh, the atmosphere is suffocating and I am sweating profusely. Got out of bed and found my cousin brother panthing for breath. This sucks, especailly when you know that you can't open the bedroom door, as uncle says it is dangerous since the alarm system of the house is down.

We decided to sleep on the floor. Luckily it is made up of marble, so it conducts a considerable amount of heat from us. Cooling effect takes place but then we are still unable to sleep. Both of us are ligh sleeper, and so a sudden change in the normal environment will keep us awake.

What a night, that gives me only 5 hours of sleep since I'll have an appointment with the dentist today at 9.00am (I have to wake up at 8.00am). *Yawns*

Japanese Food Tastes Great! #2

2005-06-04T23:07:00.000+08:00

Besides Sushi, this is also another highly recommended Japanese food that I would like to introduce to you. This is surely a good news from heaven to those, like Aishah, who doesn't enjoy eating raw salmon and other raw stuff (but they taste really great!). It is well cooked and roasted, and this is what makes Teppanyaki so attractive to lots of people.

You can click here the access the post - Japanese Food Tastes Great! #1 about Sushi *yummy!*

On the left you can see people cooking their own stuff on the metal plate, which is quite rare over here. The main point is not about who's cooking but look at how people cook their food. They heat up the metal plate (which is quite big, measuring about 1m across and 0.5m deep. After the plate is heated up then they'll pour a considerable amount of oil on the plate and then they'll start cooking.

Sometimes they add spices like sauce and pepper to make Teppanyaki even more attractive and saliva-inducing. Mmmm~ it smells really nice if you're walking past a Teppanyaki restaurant, especially in an air-conditioned shopping mall. The smell is virtually everywhere, luring you to visit their restaurant and after eating filtering out big bucks from your purse =)

Forgot to mention that the chefs cook in front of the customers in a Teppanyaki restaurant. The cooking area is not only the place where everybody focuses on their food, but also a platform for a chef to perform his really cool cooking skills.

While cooking their can pour oil slowly and high-up the metal plate, and then slicing the cutting the meat into small fine pieces within seconds. This is really cook and you can't stop watching them cooking although you've got your serving.

A must-eat for those who disliked Sushi, since you're missing out a big lot by avoiding eating Sushi. Enjoy Teppanyaki!

Calm Down, Man!

2005-06-04T17:33:00.000+08:00

This is what I've been hearing what my inner voice is telling me since I posted that post complaining about somebody. Well, I sincerely apologise to the person whom I've overly-insulted, and also to my readers for throwing my horrible tantrum.

As what Vivian has commented, this is the first time I've ever shown my real anger on my blog. Told my family members about this incident on the car while we're driving to One Utama Shopping Mall this morning, and they tell me that I should not take things so seriously, and also maybe this is a way some people speak.

I'm not trying to kill the freedom of speech over here, but this was just sparked off with my anger and low tolerence level. Sometimes I just cannot tahan control myself when I'm really irritated, including scolding Yanmin for pulling my hair (but that's an isolated case). Dad says that sometimes people speak like that and they don't intend to do so, hence I cannot actually put the blame on them for ruining my blog and my day.

Sorry!

Cannot "Tahan" Anymore!!!

2005-06-04T09:50:00.000+08:00

This is really too much. Oh yup, before I start to complain who is the guy and what did he do, let to explain the post title to those who can't understand it. Well, basically it means I am unable to bear somebody's attitude, where the "Tahan" means stand / bear in Malay.

There is one guy, whose name is Mr L. Well, the first thing I cannot bear with him anymore is that he is using MY shoutbox to ADVERTISE his blog. What the hell! I don't remember getting a cheque / bank draft / cash payment from THAT person for the advertisement fee. This is crossing MY border line and I've reach my patience limit!

Here is what he wrote in MY tagboard:

L***c Y**n (a.k.a. Mr L)
12:01am 4/6/05 IP 111:9

anybody here.pls click on my name...my latest post is cool

Don't you think this is really too much? Would you like somebody (not your blog's co-author or something) that you do not have close relationship with to abuse your tagboard, by ADVERTISING their blogs on it without any shame or asking for your permission / consent before psoting such idiotic advertisement?

Not that I hate you, but then what I hate is the way you phrase your comments. Don't you think it is far too direct? I could still remember he once said that he've placed my link in his blog, so he DEMANDS (hello? I have the right to place your link on my blog you know? This is NOT YOUR FREAKING BLOG!!!) me to put his link up on his blog. That time I am still okay with his rotten habits so I just put up a silent protest by now placing his link button over here.

But then he proved to me that he is some blind guy who can't see whether his button was placde over here, and keep commenting in such a direct and hurting way. Can you please, like, rephrase all your comments? They're just ear-stinging. Actually I wanted to delete them, since they get very destructing, but then deleting them means I ahve no evidence to accuse you for such act in the post.

Well, a case in point would be over here:

Maybe you should paint the wall beside ur gate?

By J* Y**n, at June 01, 2005 6:41 PM

Oh yp, before ending this post I still have anoither thing to complain about his rotten commenting habits. In this post, he complained that I am not rating him high enough. This is stupid. I can rate you 100/10, but your review removed, since I think this is UNFAIR towards my blog and my readers. Can you please remember that this is MY BLOG and NOT YOUR BLOG?

I agree its (refers to the rating system) a bit unfair!

By J* Y**n, at May 22, 2005 10:07 PM

Feel free to remvoe your link from your blog, as I don't really need such support from such peerson! You should now know who you are.

This is totally stupid!!! I am really angry now and... argh!!!!!!!

Japanese Food Tastes Great! #1

2005-06-02T23:11:00.000+08:00

After reading Jin's post about bringing little Boo out for a Japanese meal at Sakae Sushi. Wow, I really envy her being able to enjoy such a great feast at a Sushi outlet... and I'm hungry now, but then it's so late mom refused to fix something for me to eat *stomach growls*

Hmm, the ones that I like the most in Sushi restaurants are the chawanmushi, udon noodles and sashimi. Let me start with chawanmushi first.

Well, to those who've never noticed that Sushi restaurants actulaly sell such tasty dish, chawanmushi is actually steamed egg with mushroom and fish nuggets in it, and sometimes it is decorated with vegetables. Sounds great right? It is so smooth and sometimes I swallow it down without chewing, and it tastes best when served warm *yummy!*

That's why I just love it the most! Sometimes I can eat up to 2 chawanmushis, because they just taste simply too great!

Well, another one that I loved is the udon noodles. What makes it very special and irresistable to me is it's very thick noodles. The thickness of noodles give it an extra bonus for the taste of the noodles!

Udon noodles are not served as plain noodles in Sushi restaurants. You'll have a wide range of side dishes and ingredients to be added into this fantastic Japanese chef's creation! You can have chicken teriyaki udon noodles or vegetarian udon noodles. Each type of such noodles give you a totally different and unique taste! High recommended by me myself!

Last but not least, I am also recommenting you to try out the exciting sashimi. Warning here: this is a taboo dish to those who hate the smeel of raw food, as it is mainly made up of raw stuff like salmon, octopus, squid and bla bla bla. Me myself is an addict of raw food, like raw salmon and raw octopus. They just taste great when served raw and chilled! Remember to try it out too when you go to a Sushi restaurant!

The above dishes are highly recommended by teddY, but please remember that teddY shall not be held responsible for any illness or sickness caused directly or otherwise, indirectly after consuming such recommended dishes.

Bon appetit!

Madagascar - Movie Review

2005-06-02T15:06:00.000+08:00

Madagascar
Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath
Sound cast: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jana Pinkett Smith

teddY''s rating:
world's rating:

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) is the king of the urban jungle, the main attraction at New York's Central Park Zoo. He and his best friends Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) have lived their entire lives in blissful captivity, with regular meals provided and an admiring public to adore them.

Not content to leave well enough alone, Marty allows his curiosity to get the better of him and, with the help of some prodigious penguins, makes his escape to explore the world he's been missing. Alex, Melman and Gloria go after him, but before they can go wild in the streets, they are captured, crated and put on a ship to Africa... to be ultimately set free.

When those plotting penguins sabotage the ship, Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria find themselves washed ashore on the exotic island of Madagascar. Now, these native New Yorkers have to figure out how to survive in the wild and discover the true meaning of the phrase "It's a jungle out there."

A lot of fun happens on the beautiful island of Madagascar, with the 4 New Yorkers being worshipped as heroes of the island and enjoying the perfect paradise, and also going through some problems.

I want to move it move it
I want to move it move it
I want to move it move it
I want to...

MOVE IT!!!

A marvellous and must-watch movie!!!

Need HTML Help? #9

2005-06-02T14:44:00.000+08:00

A million sorries for Jin for positng this help article late! Sorry *sobs*!

Have problem aligning photos beside your text as what I do in my posts? Actually it all depends on a very simple code. The code have 2 variables - "left" and "right". Here is the code, with the image code:

<img src="your image url" align="*" vspace="#" hspace="#">

Well, you can replace the your image url with your own image url, and * with wither the word left or right. Inserting the variable left will make the image be placed on the left side of the page, and right for the opposite result.

For the #, it means the spacing vertically (vspace) and horizontally (hspace), means the space surrounding the image that separates it with the text. I storngly recommend for you to use 5 as it looks the best in any websites, as it is seperates the image from the text neither too much nor too little.

WARNING: Remember to place this tag before the text where you want it to appear!

Tutorials can be seen below:

<img src="your image url" align="left" vspace="5" hspace="5">

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam a quam vitae sem ultrices euismod. Ut condimentum ante et urna. Vestibulum venenatis. Phasellus nec ante. Ut sed arcu sit amet nulla facilisis pulvinar. Phasellus non lectus sodales mi malesuada laoreet. Sed cursus, orci laoreet tincidunt convallis, leo purus scelerisque orci, eget elementum pede ipsum non nunc. Vestibulum viverra mi id lectus. Curabitur luctus massa feugiat lorem. Praesent ultrices pede non nisl. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

See the difference in the position of the image in the paragraph of text?

<img src="your image url" align="right" vspace="5" hspace="5">

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam a quam vitae sem ultrices euismod. Ut condimentum ante et urna. Vestibulum venenatis. Phasellus nec ante. Ut sed arcu sit amet nulla facilisis pulvinar. Phasellus non lectus sodales mi malesuada laoreet. Sed cursus, orci laoreet tincidunt convallis, leo purus scelerisque orci, eget elementum pede ipsum non nunc. Vestibulum viverra mi id lectus. Curabitur luctus massa feugiat lorem. Praesent ultrices pede non nisl. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

<img src="your image url" align="left" vspace="5" hspace="5">

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam a quam vitae sem ultrices euismod. Ut condimentum ante et urna. Vestibulum venenatis. Phasellus nec ante. Ut sed arcu sit amet nulla facilisis pulvinar. Phasellus non lectus sodales mi malesuada laoreet. Sed cursus, orci laoreet tincidunt convallis, leo purus scelerisque orci, eget elementum pede ipsum non nunc. Vestibulum viverra mi id lectus. Curabitur luctus massa feugiat lorem. Praesent ultrices pede non nisl. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

See the difference int he spacing between the image and the text?

<img src="your image url" align="left" vspace="20" hspace="20">

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam a quam vitae sem ultrices euismod. Ut condimentum ante et urna. Vestibulum venenatis. Phasellus nec ante. Ut sed arcu sit amet nulla facilisis pulvinar. Phasellus non lectus sodales mi malesuada laoreet. Sed cursus, orci laoreet tincidunt convallis, leo purus scelerisque orci, eget elementum pede ipsum non nunc. Vestibulum viverra mi id lectus. Curabitur luctus massa feugiat lorem. Praesent ultrices pede non nisl. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.

Cheers!

Need to know more about the paragraph of Lorem Ipsum I'm using? Click here to know more about it.

Home Sweet Home

2005-06-01T23:29:00.000+08:00

Yay, now I am back at my home sweet home in Kuala Lumpur, I'm just feeling so excited!

Immediately after I alighted the bus, my family is waiting for me already. We went out together for supper before returning home =)

My house changed quite a bit already. The piano which stayedd here for more than 10 years is gone, as my mom gave it to my aunt... aih, I am just so reluctant to see it being given away *sobs*. Oh and dad is installing a brand new air-conditioner in the living room! So next time we can watch movie while enjoying the cool breeze!

Happy holidays!

Balik Kampung

2005-06-01T14:45:00.000+08:00

Hi people! Going back to my hometown today, and this is called balik kampung in Malay.

My home in Malaysia
My home doesn't look very outstanding, but this is the place where I've been living in for 12 years! I just love this cute little building, as people staying around it are so friendly and helpful.

On the other hand, I've not been seeing my parents for more than a month and I can't just wait to see them! And I've not been sleeping at my real home for 10 weeks already (that's 1 Term!!!). Dad says he is fixing a new air-conditioner in the living room... sounds great, as my brother can finally watch Sponge Bob Square Pants in a cool environment while I go online happily =)

Read more about My Neighbourhood here! I will be reaching Kuala Lumpur at 9.00pm today =)

Taxi Tales

2005-06-01T08:30:00.000+08:00

After reading Jin's post about her encounter with a cabby with a rotten attitude, I decided to post my own unhappy encounters with some very idiotic taxi drivers in Singapore.

For the past few years saw the rise of two whole new taxi companies, hence the competition for customers in the taxi-arena became very fierce, and now it's growing fiercer. Now, this let me wonder why some taxi drivers have rotten attitudes that annoys their customers a lot while they are busy competing for customers? Where are their basic courtesy, some may ask. I am one of them who will bombard these idiotic taxi drivers with this simple question.

The first case. A few years back I was waiting for a taxi to fetch me and 3 of my friends back to the boarding school after the cross-country run at MacRitchie reservoir. We waited and a Comfort Taxi came. From far away we see that the taxi is empty and it if ready to be hired. But when the cabby saw us as students waiting for a cab, he immediately changed the state of the taxi to "HIRED" with NO PASSENGERS IN THE TAXI.

What the hell is he thinking? Is he thinking that "Oh, you students sure don't have money to pay for the taxi fare and will either rob me and get off the taxi without paying a single cent, or push the responsibility of who should pay for the taxi fare among each other and reaching no consensus and resulting in a heated argument."

If he is really thinking so, he is sure nuts. We were wearing our school uniform at that time and we really dared to rob him or not pay for the taxi fare or even behave like idiots with no consensus who should pay the cabby. Stupid cabby number 1.

Second case, which is a rather horrible one. Last time I went to Kallang Avenue to get my gadgets checked and repaired if there is any damage. I wrote down the address of the building (25, Kallang Avenue... *bla bla bla*) on a piece of paper. When I was boarding the Yellow Top Taxi, the cabby asked me whether I know how to get there and I showed him that piece of paper. He suddenly, like erm, suffer from a stupid mood swing and became very angry. He shouted at me, "You don't know how to go there right? Then don't stop me from doing business!!! Get off my cab now!!!" I just feel like sending a hard punch right into his fat and oily and pimpled face.

"Idiot!!!" I scolded, "If you don't have the basic courtesy to be a taxi driver, then don't be one!!!" In answer, he roared at me, "I don't have basic courtesy? You don't know how to go what? Don't know how to go then don't' board my taxi lah!!!"

So in a burst of anger I get off the taxi, and told the taxi driver that I will copy down his number plate and lodge a complain to his company about his rotten attitude. He was somehow shocked, so he wind up the driver's window and sped away. Another road crime from speeding so fast on road. Hello? If a foreign tourist boards your taxi and he / she doesn't know how to go to a place in Singapore, don't tell me you would shout at the tourist! You're spoiling Singapore's name!!!

However, besides complaining about how badly Singapore cabbies actually perform and act, I would want to praise a particular taxi driver here. I don't know his name, but then I would like to thank him for his patience. Two years ago, I bought a ticket to watch the Animal Farm drama at Singapore Chinese Girls School (SCGS). I don't know where is the school located to I have to take a taxi there and hopefully that the taxi driver could take me to SCGS. I board the taxi and I asked whether he know where is SCGS. He told me that he doesn't know. So I called my friend's father and asked him for some direction. The cabby was so cooperative as when I was asking for directions he actually signaled me to pass my phone to him so that he can get the exact location of the school quickly.

I'm impressed with his kind gesture! Finally I reached the school and I thanked the cabby a lot for his patience and help =) After the drama I wanted to call the Customer Care hotline to praise the driver but I didn't record down the plate number of the taxi and also his name... sorry!

Please Be Considerate #2

2005-05-31T20:12:00.000+08:00

Well, before starting to write more about such small social flaws in the Singapore society, I would like to thank these people: Jin, Stephanie, Rei, Jazz, Vivian and Aishah for their support and priceless comments!!! Thank you people =)

Thinking of some scenes that I see in public which displays the attitude of inconsiderate people makes me laugh.

Besides occupying the seats, "die die" do not want to give up seats to those who needed them more that some inconsiderate people do, some people even funnier (and looks more stupid). Know about the metal bars located in the middle of the walkway in the MRT Train (see photo on left)? Some people just like to lie against it instead of holding it. This causes a lot of trouble as all the people around him / her can't get a good grip on it while the train accelerates or decelerates.

I could still remember how I told a person off in the train for doing so. For like 30 minutes he was lying against the metal bar, and many people around him, including me, cannot hold onto the bar and forced to stand on our feet without having good grip on objects around us. This is totally idiotic. How can he do so just for his benefit and not thiking of how others feel?

Yup, like what Aishah has said, some people just don't like giving up their seat for pregnant women in buses and MRTs. Hello? Do you know how taxing is it to stand for the entire journey with a baby in your womb? Of course the men doesn't know, no wonder I always see ladies giving up their seats to pregnant ladies, maybe because they know how it feels when you have a baby and you're standing.

Wake up, these selfish people!

Please Be Considerate #1

2005-05-30T17:20:00.000+08:00

I took MRT to Clementi today and found that some Singaporeans are still so inconsiderate as before.

Sometimes MRT can be as crowded as shown in the photo on the left, or sometimes even worse, especially when your on the train bounded CBD during holidays and weekend. And at these peak hours, some people who deserved a seat do not get it.

They are senior citizens, pregnant women, mother with child (children) or carrying a lot of stuff. Thanks to some inconsiderate people, they have to stand for the entire journey on the MRT. The seats on the train is limited, and so in order to let these people have a seat, somebody needs the courage and love to stand up, pass their seat to them. The sad case is that, till now, there is still so many inconsiderate people.

Maybe you've hear about this before, and the government keep emphasizing about giving the seats to those who needs them more than we do. But I see not much people have such generosity.

Sometimes these people pretend to be sleeping, listening to music, looking on the floor, counting dust particles in the air... (and the list goes on) so that they do not need to give up their seats. This is totally stupid! Give up your seat to others, stand for a couple of minutes during the journey, is it a torture or something to let you feel ashamed about?

Some people even worse - they feared that others might recognize them on the MRT and think that such act is just stupid. So? It isn't wrong to give up your seats, right? So what are you ashamed about?

On the other hand, remember the government once advised the public while using the escalator, keep left while not moving, keep right while walking up. This is to facilitate the movements on those very hurried commuters. But till now I still see not much people doing so.

Sometimes people complain why Singapore isn't graded as a "developed" nation yet, but still a "developing" nation. This is not because we have not enough achievements in the science and R&D field, but because some people over here lack courtesy!

Holiday Lesson Starts

2005-05-30T11:05:00.000+08:00

Holiday is when people go back to their hometown, spend time with their families. While I am still stranded in the Garden City (Singapore). Biology lesson is scheduled to start at 8.00am today morning (I slept at 2.00am yesterday night) and I reached the class at 7.55am. Phew, that's close. Anyway, Ms Koe arrived 15 minutes later. Had only a mere 5 hours of sleep *yawns*.

Biology lesson was about plant reproduction, quite a boring topic that induces sleep in student. Luckily I managed to keep myself awake throughout the lesson. Met Mdm Ang, the most experienced lab technician in our school. Get to know her last year and I did lab duty to fulfill my CIP requirements. She quite good and kind, and even "belanja" (means treated in Malay) me to have lunch in the school canteen =)

Ms Koe told us that we will have Biology practical today. Heck! Almost everybody didn't bring their Biology Practical File (including Biology Represetative, Junkai). Before the practical starts we make a "detour" to the library to get copies of the Biology practical worksheet done.

Lesson ends at 10.00am, and now I am in the boarding school blogging. Suddenly I felt that I am so lame to mention about what happened in school today. Argh, anyway, going to Kallang afterwards to get my digital camcorder fixed. It spoilt.

A Message To All Drivers

2005-05-29T19:55:00.000+08:00

The story below is true. And this is of course, not make up by my mother and I. It is true, I swear!

Well, my mother came down from Malaysia to pay my brother and I a visit. So when we were having lunch together my mom told me a story about my youngest uncle (about 21 years old) encountering gangsters on the street in mid-night. Okay, this is definitely NOT a ghost story.

He was driving around Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a few days ago. And that was midnight. He was sending his girlfriend back home, whose house is obviously somewhere around Wangsa Maju. Because of some traffic congestion on the main road he took a short cut through a narrow street with not much illumination.

"Jalan Mati" (Dead End in Malay) the sign board reads. And me met the end of the road, with a few ghostly figures walking very near to his car. While he was about to take a U-turn, he heard a series of loud bangs from the rear part of his car. He saw a man hitting his car, with his bare hands, pretty hard.

He became very alert, and a little frightened (his girlfriend even worse). Then the man signaled him to wind down his window. Scared and being street-smart, he asked the man for his motive for asking him to stop his car. The man said he is an inspector.

My uncle didn't believed his words, and so he asked him to show him his identification document. Anyway, with some logic you'll find it very weird for a inspector, so nothing-to-do that he asked you to pull aside the road mid-night. The man "searched" for the document (obviously he didn't have one, he is just a car-nabber). My uncle stepped on the acceleration pedal real hard and the car zoomed away from the "inspector".

However, to his and his girlfriend's horror, another man jumped from the side of the road and grabbed tightly on his wipers. Feared that he might be able to get in the car, he immediately turned the steering wheel making a 180 degree turn back to the dead end. He man fell off the car and so did the two wipers.

The "inspector" was charging towards the car, as if he is confident that he'll be able to rob my uncle and drive the car away. My uncle, this time, was unable to react as fast as just now. With two big rocks in hand, the man hit my uncle's car real hard, leaving two big dents on the car body.

Although both my uncle and his girlfriend left unscratched, they were so traumatized that the went all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Puchong (that's really far, about 10km). The main reason why both of them escaped from this horrible incident is that my uncle did not wind down the window and get out the car with the "inspector". Or not, my mom says, he'll sure be dead by now, girlfriend raped and then killed, and the car being stolen.

This case is just a tip of the iceberg! So, my advice to all drivers on road is that do not wind down your window or get out the car unless the police shows you his identification document!

My Holiday + Evolution Of My Blog

2005-05-28T20:28:00.000+08:00

The mid-year holiday commences today, and will last for a month. That's about 30 days or so. My holiday will not start by this weekend (that applies to most of my juniors), as I'll need to attend some holiday lessons in the school. Great.

Anyway, my friend told me that those Secondary 4 seniors last year (2003) suffered even more than us as there taking O Levels, which requires lots of drilling during the precious July Holidays. Lucky for us to be the very first patch of Integrated Programme (IP) students, who will get directly promoted to JC by just taking an O Level Subject Examination (Higher Chinese). Suddenly I felt quite relieved.

Evolution. I agree with Kevin's point about evolution of air-con advertisement over the year, competing over purifying the air, less noise generated and bla bla bla =)

My blog evolved, to a great extent, over the past 11 months (oh yup this reminds me of the birthday of my blog!). At first it started off as a piece of crap about nothing but just my life.

Then I started to blog about things around me, not just limited to my own daily life. Got exposed to BlogExplosion by Jiayi in November. Stupid enough for me to come under his referral, but I've gained lots of blogging skills while surfing other blogs.

I started to turn my focus to the world. Blogged about recent news, especially the coverage on the tsunami disaster. Some readers complained that I'm posting too much about the tsunami. Sorry about that =)

Then at the start of this year and started to blog more about the world, taking interesting pictures and posting funny posts. Turn a little towards humor, but not as such a great extent as Desz. I started to realize that my blog is lacking of posts about my daily life, but I've really nothing to blog about.

Recently I've got more visitors, thanks to Jin! She have managed to direct lots of readers, after reading her marvelous blog, to this humble little blog. Thanks again!

Reaching the end of the post... but can you please, after reading this post or blog and feels to leave, can you please please pay Jin a visit? Thanks a million!

Visit Jin Now!!!

Cheers =)

Fun Cooking At Sunrice

2005-05-27T17:29:00.000+08:00

Today is the last day of the term. What makes me very excited about today is not only because I'm getting back my results but also I am going to participate in cooking course at At-Sunrice located near Fort Canning Hill. It is also known as the The Singapore Culinary Academy & Spice Garden.

The chef that taught us how to cook was Chef Xihong, while the one who tested the sensitivity of our taste buds is Chef Dean. Well, this End-Of-Term activity started off with Chef Dean introducing us 4 types of sauces and food with different tastes to test our taste buds. Tested all 4 and but Samuel and Wuxi only tasted 3 as they are unwilling to eat the raw bitter gourd. The fish souce (made of fermented dried fish) is far too salty that it paralysed by taste buds for quite some time =)

The first dish we were taught to make is the Shanghai Dumplings. Looking at Chef Xihong making and kneading the dough as if handling kids toy, I first thought that making the dough is just as simple as ABC. Then she flattened the dough that has been cut into small segments using a traditional Chinese rolling pin, and added some fillings onto the flattened dough. Quickly she wrapped up the dough skillfully and a Shanghai Dumpling is done.

During the hands-on activity, things get so easy that we were asked to make the fillings by mixing some vegetables with given amount of soy sauce, vegetable oil, salt and sugar. However, we find it extremely hard to wrap the fillings nicely into the dough. It requires skills, Chef Xihong said. I screwed up my first one and took quite some time for me to pick up this skill.

While waiting our Shanghai Dumplings that were in the steamer to be cooked thoroughly, we learned how to make rainbow dumplings. Unlike the normal Chinese Dumplings shown in the picture on the left, the Rainbow Dumplings have different colours. We made green (colour from spinach juice) and orange (colour from carrot juice) Rainbow Dumplings, and this time wrapping up the dough with the fillings inside isn't as difficult as that of Shanghai Dumplings.

Firstly I fold the flattened dough into half with the fillings in the middle, then wrap the dough up on both opened ends of the "dough container". Then we cook them in hot water for about 10 minutes. My group (consists of Samuel, Wuxi and me myself) made the most Chinese Dumpling, amounting up to 33 pieces - each of us can have 11 pieces each! Others only managed to make about 3 ~ 4 dumplings each person.

Although the course fee of S$40 might seem to be very expensive, I've obtained lots of invaluable experience for this course... hmm, now I'm wondering whether mom lets me to make dumplings at home during the June Holidays =)

P.S.: I've got my results back! My average MSG is 2.13, yay! Yay!

My results are somehow quite good - I ranked 6th in class! However this mgiht not be the final ranking as there are some problems with other's result which might turn them to be my greatets rivals overnight!

Argh, just hoping that I can stay in the Top-10 ranking =)

For Jin

2005-05-27T17:08:00.000+08:00

Sorry Jin for this late reply! About being unable to place the code on your blog, maybe you've copied the wrong code. Well, the code being blockquoted below is lifted from the Google Search Code page. This is the HTML code for the search code of the web and also your personal blog.

WARNING: This code is specially tailored for Jin and also slightly modifed to meet current web standards. If you need the code, please visit this post - Need HTML Help? #7.

<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search">
<input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8">
<input type="hidden" name="oe" value="UTF-8">
<table bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><tr><td>
<a href="http://www.google.com/">
<img src="http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif"
border="0" alt="Google"></A>
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="q" size="31" maxlength="255" value="">
<input type="submit" name="btnG" VALUE="Google Search">
<font size=-1>
<input type="hidden"
name="domains"
value="http://jinxiaoyang.blogspot.com"><br><input type="radio"
name="sitesearch" value=""> WWW <input type="radio" name="sitesearch"
value="http://jinxiaoayng.blogspot.com" checked> Devil's Advocate <br>
</font>
</td></tr></table>
</form>

Oh, before putting an end to this post, I would like to say a million "Thank You"s to Jin for directing a lot of visitors from her blog to my blog =) Thanks a lot Jin!

Cheers!

Everything Grows... Except For Height

2005-05-25T13:50:00.000+08:00

Woke up today morning and found that my hair needs a grooming, as it've been left uncut for 1.5 months already. Went to water my little bean sprouts that I've secretly planted in the flower bed just downstairs, and found that it've grown much taller.

On the way to school, found that the road in my school gets much congested compared to the first year I'm here. Hey, traffic actually grows, too. Took a last glance on the construction work site of our new school block before entering the school compound. It've "grown" a lot compared to a few months ago when it started off as a piece of cleared land.

If you think I'm some very handsome guy, let me tell you, you're wrong. Totally wrong. Sorry to burst your bubble, if I really did. I'm short and skinny, like a starving child suffering from malnutrition. I've been the laughing stalk of people around me, but then I've accepted it as a fact, since I've not grown any taller since Secondary 1.

My height is kept secret here, but feel free to ask from my friends, which might give you an inaccurate information of my height. They thought I'm actually 130+ cm. Hello? I'm not that short, okay?

Mum tried lots of ways to let me grow, including giving me some medicine that the Chinese doctor says that will induce a fever in my body and increase cell metabolism, temporarily increasing my growth. That's stupid, and of course, it didn't work. She cooked lots of weird soups that will help my growth. None of them really helped.

I went swimming every weekend. Neither it helped. Play basketball? I am not interested. I think it is quite ridiculous for a bunch of people chasing around the court for a miserable ball. Like Jin, I just like staying at home doing some non energy-consuming stuff, like cleaning, reading, programming, computing and BLOGGING.

Argh, just don't know when or whether can I grow any taller... will I always stay at the height of X cm? I really hope I don't =)

How Scary

2005-05-24T14:22:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I've found out that my latest referral from Google is from a keyword "13 letters ted bundy"... and the very first site listed on the searchpage is my blog!

Secondly, Wilson and I are asked to present our reflections on the Penang Exchange Programme on the consortium assembly today. To my horror Yanmin says he is not going to present since he have other things to do and so both of us struggled to get the powerpoint ready by today morning. During the assembly I was so nervous at first that I misspelled some words and lead to lots of people laughing their asses off.

Thirdly, the spookier thing about that presentation is that many teachers are listening, inlcuding Ms Loh and Ms Koe (Arghhhhh!!!!!!!!). Can this thing turn out to be any worse? Definitely no.

What a spooky day!

Weird Keywords That Brings Visitors Here

2005-05-23T19:00:00.001+08:00

It've been ages since I checked what site referred to my blog (to by referring to the one in this blog as it is a generalised version) using sitemeter's tracking machine.

While viewing the list I saw a few referrals from search engines like Google and Yahoo. Out of some curiousity I checked out what keywords that people type which eventually referred them to my blog.

Google:

1. gastric flu contagious
2. maths test percentage
3. trans-atlantic railway
4. supervolcanoes + siberian traps
5. Teddy O
6. job prediction
7. jason+chinese high+track
8. borders time square mph megamall
9. "rest stops" list "north south highway" malaysia
10. simcity 4 rush hour mosque

Yahoo:

1. teddy recess
2. teddy

Sort of weird =)

Great Blogs To Share #2

2005-05-22T21:05:00.000+08:00

After receiving loads of complaints I decided to spend some time working on the episode of Great Blogs To Share. This is really taxing as I have not much time to go online today. And those who desperately wanted me to review their blog should know what is this entire thing about. *Coughs Coughs*

Now I'm starting to review the blogs of the people around me (for example, by classmates). I have to emphasize this point again, although it has been mentioned in the past episode:

Fret not if your blog is not listed here because yours will be featured soon, and I have no intention in making this post very long and wordy. The reviews are arranged alphabetically, and not according to priority. Ratings are given by me myself, and not others. So the ratings might be quite unfair, honestly speaking.

URL: 0xymoronic.blogspot.com
Owner: Weixiang (or WEX: pronounced as candle WAX)
Rating:

If you're an outsider or not a student of my school you might not get a full picture of what Weixiang is saying. His blog is totally dedicated to his daily life, saying about his family, results and gym (his CCA).

Actually I think that his result isn't that bad. He have the potential to be a successful person... so Weixiang don't give up!

He is Yanmin's good friend. Really good friend, or can be said as BEST FRIEND. They've been friends many years ago (Jurassic?) and they really get in good terms. Okay, now more about his blog. He also likes American Idol, is frequently discuss about the singers in there. He doesn't reveal much about the world beyond his daily life, but this blog is a sure read to those who wants to peek into a typical teenager's life.

Great blog! It's all about life.

URL: bingyuan.bo0.com
Owner: Bingyuan (or Bork)
Rating:

Lots of sarcasm, but not as much as what Jin has =) Anyway, a great blog to pick you funny stuff about our school, and his blog concerns about our classmates, for example, his version of Job Prediction. I was said to be a Radio DJ next time. Argh, I will remember this forever.

A great blog to read, especially for my classmates. Bingyuan is the "cute, fat little boy from 4J" (quoted from our Biology teacher), but then he isn't very cute after you read his blog. You would think that he is quite an insightful student who have no problem with his English (unlike me, boo-hoo).

URL: blog.erpz.net
Owner: Haomin
Rating:

He is the real owner of erpz.net. He is staying in America, and he was once our dearest classmate. His father is working over there so his entire family went over the country where Mr Bush is the Mr President, and where Rice is staying.

His blog is more about his daily life, and he just love to talk about politics. He might be another John Kerry next time. His critically analyses some political situations and happenings, and what is attached is his personal, insightful comments. Great blog to read if you want to get a better hand on politics.

I think he loves Mr Bush.

URL: simplicity.erpz.net
Owner:
Rating:

Comments on the post on other's people blog, mostly mine and Bingyuan's. He have such a great passion is Chinese that about 30% (I guess) of his post in English, unlike mine, only a few of them.

He like creating poems (Chinese), so if you don't know how to read Chinese, you're at a little disadvantage. But fret not. His English posts are more readable than mine and more entertaining. Talks about his daily life a lot and this makes his blog a must read more those who wants to peek into another teenager's daily life =)

Comments about the Singaporean society, sometimes he supports some decisions made by the government but not always. He has more of his personal comments on stuff happening around him and hence I decided to rate his blog a big 8.

Next episode of Great Blogs To Share is coming soon!

Great Blogs To Share #1

2005-05-21T19:58:00.000+08:00

Hi people! Back from a gloomy afternoon after being scolded by some stupid women as a little bastard. A big thank you to Jin for giving me plenty of mental support *bear hugs*!

Now, I'll have my favorite blogs being reviewed in this post. Fret not if your blog is not listed here because yours will be featured soon, and I have no intention in making this post very long and wordy. The reviews are arranged alphabetically, and not according to priority. Ratings are given by me myself, and not others. So the ratings might be quite unfair, honestly speaking.

URL: deszgoh.blogspot.com
Owner: Desz
Rating:

Need some humour? Desz gives you more than what you need to brighten your day. Filled with humourous jokes from daily life and his surroundings, Desz's blog is a very entertaining blog to visit!

Long ago when Desz first started blogging, it is more about his daily life, but now, he is turning much to the humour element which gained lots of support from plenty of webfriends, including me!

Writing about oneself is easy, but writing a joke ain't easy. Making sure that it isn't lame, does make some sense and last but not least, suitable to most of his readers, Desz is a genius is posting brilliant jokes!

URL: jinxiaoyang.blogspot.com
Owner: Jin
Rating:

Bored and need some spooky stories to keep you awake in the middle of the night? Desperately need to pick up sarcasm so that you can argue like a professional with your foe? Jin's blog is your best choice, then!

Jin is a unique single mother with the ability to see THEM. She says that THEY wonder around, and it is a myth that THEY only appear in the night and not in daytime. Actually she doesn't only see THEM, but can sometimes feel THEIR presence and also hear THEM (but they rarely talk, I suppose).

Jin is also a busy mother, being kept really busy by her two little adorable children, Miracle and Boo. Both of them are going to be great people when they grow up, my instinct says, although they have totally different characteristics. Miracle is a baby with the quite a bad temper (sometimes), and insists on things that she wants. She have "hell-like howls", said Jin, and very "cheeky". However, Boo is a very obedient girl. She cared a lot for her mother and her younger sister. When Jin was really tired, she actually helped her mother to feed Miracle with baby biscuits! How nice!

Jin also talks about her daily life to a great extent that what I actually do. She can manage things well and knows that poking her nose into other's people matter isn't good. A very wise mother and blogger!

URL: logicyuan.blogspot.com
Owner: Jiyuan
Rating:

Jiyuan keeps you updated with the latest funky news around the Internet which he picks up from sources that are still an unknown to me. Anyway, those news are really entertaining and that makes his blog unique from others. He focuses on funky and funny news reports that really injects some laughter into your boring daily life. A recommendation for office workers that wants to get some humour in a short time.

Jiyuan is one of the greatest guy I've met in Penang. Oh yup, forgot to tell you that how I got to know him. I went on an exchange programme in late of May this year, and made friends with him.

Oh, by the way, he loves Manchester United.

URL: momo4ever.com
Owner: Michelle
Rating:

One of the greatest I've came across in the blog-o-sphere. A young lady residing in Perth, Australia (a great place to go for your holidays!). She has the sweetest boyfriend on earth called Tian, that cares about her a lot. He bought her an iPod mini and two cute little pet dogs! She blogs about her daily life and also her two pet dogs, Momo (as seen in her blog URL) and Coco. They are just so cute! Michelle loves them a lot and frequently post their pictures on her blog. Check it out!

She is also a very good person for designing templates for other people, including me! See this beautiful teddy bear template? This is made by Michelle and look how nicely it fits into your web browser! She also designed templates from Jin and Logic Yuan. How nice she is!

Desperately need some funny SMSes that you can send it around? Michelle has lots of them! She frequently posts funny little SMSes that she received from her friends, and that really brightens up your day!

Stay tuned for the next episode of Great Blogs To Share!!!

You Little Bastard

2005-05-21T14:02:00.000+08:00

Today finally I've got a chance to go online by booking a terminal with a LAN cable in the boarding school computer room. I booked Laptop Terminal 3, and saw a daly using that terminal.

I went forward and told her that I've booked the terminal. She acted to be so innocent.

Erm, I am downloading something halfway... can you book another terminal

I was stunned. Hello *tap tap*? You DID NOT BOOK the terminal and you're here using it. It is YOUR FAULT for using it and it is ANOTHER SIN for not letting somebody who booked it use it.

Anyway, I kept my temper down and went on another trip to the guardhouse to book another terminal. The guard asked for my reason for changing the terminal that I've booked, and I told her what happened. She asked me to ask that lady to come to see her.

Back in the computer room I told her that the guard wants to see her for not booking the laptop terminal and insisting that she have the right to use it (because of downloading some shitty stuff?), and also told her this:

Next time, if you want to download something, please book the terminal.

5 mintues later the LADY stormed back to the computer room. After shifting her laptop from terminal 3 to terminal 4, she said,

You little bastard, I am using terminal 4 and you booked terminal 3. Why did you chase me off?

Crazy b*tch!!! You stupid *sshole, you should know what did you do jsut know before scholding me a little bastard! Argh, I am so angry with that crazy b*tch! Spoils my day.

On second thought, I am now planning what to tell her when I leave this computer room at 3.00pm...

YOU CRAZY B*TCH

Argh.

Good Grief! Got Great Grades!

2005-05-17T13:51:00.000+08:00

Today is a lot of excitement and anticipation. I'm getting my Integrated Humanities Core (IHC), Maths and Biology paper back!

The third lesson since school starts is IHC. At first we thought we're doomed because Mr Samuel Lim was quite angry (very angry indeed) about we people handing in his lesson reflections essay late. Then he had a mood swing and he started smiling at us *eeeek!* He started distributing my papers while I was sitting on my seat, as a very impatient student waiting to get his papers back. I've got 21/30! Ok, that's an A2, much lousier than a whole lot of people in our class... but luckily I have 80% for my Geography. Since the marks of the two humanities subject are to be averaged, I will get a beautiful border-line mark for A1 - that's 75%!!!

First A1 confirmed =)

The second lesson after recess is Maths. For yesterday I was praying like hell so that I don't get a fail, but a pass... and I really passed! I got 60%, which is below average (most probably), but I am happy with it. C5 for Maths this term, mom might get angry *uh-oh* Not really good grades for people around me, but to me it's good enough already, since I suck in Maths.

Last 2 lessons of the day is Biology. Instead of going to the lab today we are ordered to stay in class to get our results back. Got an A1 for Biology and the second highest in class, losing to Lujie (the genius!!!) by a few marks... *argh*

Anyway, I think I like this post title... all words start with a beautiful "G"!!!

Me and Maths

2005-05-16T15:35:00.000+08:00

Today is when all of our class will take Mr Lee's horrible Maths test. For some reason his Maths test questions are totally different than that of Bing Yuan's revision question, making it really hard for me to cope with. Argh.

The entire day started off with me having not enough sleep. Yesterday night I was studying Maths until my brain was raising it's white flag. Then I went to sleep. I tried my best to let my body rest but then my brain seemed to be extremely excited / nervous about today's test. So I was forcefully kept awake by my dear brain till 4.00am when I finally slept. Two hours of sleep, impressive.

Next is a heavy rain that lasted for an hour since 5.30am. I was deciding whether to go to school early or later, as the rain is pretty heavy. Thanks to the demolished covered pedestrian walkway, I would be drenched if I go to school now. So I stayed put until the rain stopped at 7.00am.

I've spent all my effort and lots of time in studying Maths. In the Parents Teacher Gathering last week, Mr Lee told my parents that my Maths ain't bad, but I don't think so. When faced with slightly tricky (and tweaked) Maths questions, my brain would turn blank, rendering me useless. I am just not a person suitable to study Maths, unlike Bing Yuan.

So, I will not regret if I got really bad grades for this test. Anyway, I sincerely hope that I will pass this Maths test. That's all. Maths isn't the subject that I hated the most, but just the subject that is most hazardous to me during exams.

Blogging in class now. The class is in total chaos after the test... everybody look so relieved. Me too =)

My Version Of Job Prediction

2005-05-15T19:24:00.000+08:00

100% readable to 4J people and those who knows our class pretty well. This is a follow-up post by me myself after reading Bing Yuan's INSPIRING post about my classmates' job prediction.

What 4J people will end up 10 years later:
Chen Lujie - CEO of Sony / Honda / Microsoft
Chen Shuang - CEO of Acer
Samuel Chong - Minister of Health
Perry Chung - Badminton King of Singapore
Terence Fong - No offence, but jobless?
Gao Chong - Award winner "Best Comedian of Singapore"
Bing Yuan - The CEO of Food Junction or McDonalds. A Maths professor.
Heng Zhiyong - A brilliant biologist or a doctor
Ho Fuwah - Biologist, collegue of Mr Gohyy
Ho Shaohsien - I think he will turn out to be a sucessful person - Doctor
Jack Huang - The next Kofi Annan
Jason Tan - The founder of the Purple Mascara Franchise
Jeremy Tan - A composer / violinist
Jiang Zhou - Singer, Calligraphist
Jonathan Kee - Businessman / chapteh seller
Koh Yanmin - Director or DreamWorks
Liau Weixiang - Sales Director of Durex
Jasper Lim - Minister of Health
Tristan Loo - Sucessful entrepeneur
Low Lekchia - Dentist
Low Weixiang - Manager of the future KBox Franchise around the world
Luo Dachunan - Minister of Tourism (China)
Neo Junkai - Biologist - the very sucessful and weird type
Ng Koonyu - Famous gymnast, businessman
Edward Seah - Writer that suppoorts the Left-wing
Benjamin Tan - Singapore's next table tennis player
Tan Weijun - Mad scientist (same catagory as Junkai)
Tay Ruiyang - MOE officer that do not check other's blogs
Bryan Tee - CEO of Tesco / Carrefour
ME - A travel reporter (not a very sucessful person, in conclusion)
Wayne - Person that monopolises Indonesia's plantation industry
Wong Jiayi - Propagator?
Wong Yanhao - CEO of Suntec Coperation
Yang Wuxi - Manager of LAN Gaming Centers
Ye Haomin - American businessman?

My possible jobs (taken from Kevin's blog):

Oh yah, Terry won’t be a Deejay. His taste for travel will definitely prevent him from getting a job that encloses him a in dimly lighted room for hours talking to himself and a bunch of nothing-to-do idiots. He probably open an arcade and play Para Para Dancing all day or be some kind of travel reporter who goes around the world and bumping into all sorts of people. It would be fun though.

What do you think?

"Uh-oh!" Says Bill Gates

2005-05-15T19:04:00.000+08:00

Bill Gates might have been scratching his head, thinking of better solutions to this Microsoft's crisis. Internet Explorer share slips below 90 percent, with Mozilla Firefox gradually 'taking back the web'.

The below article is taken from CNN.com, with part of the article taken out to save space:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s share of the U.S. browser market has slipped below 90 percent as the Firefox browser continues to grow in popularity, according to independent tracking by WebSideStory.

Firefox, an open-source browser collectively developed by the Internet community under the Mozilla Foundation, had a 6.8 percent share as of April 29, an increase from 3.0 percent since WebSideStory began tracking Firefox separately in October.

Other browsers based on the Mozilla code, including America Online Inc.'s Netscape, had a 2.2 percent share, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer share was 89 percent, a drop from 95 percent in June.

Outside the United States, Germany is among the leading adopters of Firefox, with a 23 percent share, compared with 69 percent for Internet Explorer.

Microsoft is strong in Asia, with Internet Explorer commanding a share of 94 percent in Japan and 98 percent in China.

Looks like Bill Gates is facing a strong enemy with great potential - it is not as vulnerable to spywares and adwares to Internet Explorer, and with it's very inspiring slogan - "Take back the web", it poses a great threat to Internet Explorer's monopoly over Internet browsers over the world.

I'm using Mozilla Firefox, so those Internet Explorer supporters might as well label me as a traitor. Okay, anything. What Internet browser are you using?

Bumping Into People

2005-05-14T20:58:00.000+08:00

As I am far too bored to do any Maths revisions (boredoom will not fuel my motivation to study), I decided to go to Jurong Point to just do some weekend window shopping.

As I stepped onto the MRT I met my SPH colleague at Jurong East MRT Interchange. Lucky she didn't see me so immediately I rushed onto the train heading for Boon Lay. Phew!

Walking from Boon Lay MRT towards Jurong Point. I became cautions of myself, as when I start to bump into people I know I will continue to face such situations for the rest of the day (according to my past experiences). Maybe I was too cautions I spotted my form teacher, Mdm Ng, with her daughter. Where is her husband? I don't see him, but I see both of them happily chatting away on the 2nd floor.

So I purposely took a longer way to go to McDonalds, to avoid bumping into my form teacher. At the arcade, I met up with a friend I made in Lot 1 Shopping Centre. He is Tony*, 16 years old, a typical Singaporean. He was with his girlfriend, and his girlfriend saw me looking at them. As she was about to inform him about a 'stranger' staring at her / them, I faster hide myself behind the Dance Dance Revolution machine. Phew!!!

Jurong East MRT Interchange
This is not 'lucky' for me enough. Then lady luck played a joke with me the very last time when I was about to return home. Bumped into Kevin at the Jurong East MRT Interchange, with his family. His is wearing a orange shirt, and looks like a fruity little tangerine to me far away, until I managed to recognize him at short distance.

We popped each other with the same question:

Why are you here?

I told him I was heading back home, but looks like I forgot to ask him where is he going, as I have totally no memory about myself getting an answer from him.

What a day! Don't know whether did they see me... anyway, happy weekend =)

*Name changed to protect his identity

Lonely Me

2005-05-14T12:41:00.000+08:00

Saturday. The Secondary 3 people are back from their OBS (Outward Bound Singapore) Camp but then none of them are seen in the boarding school. Xian You returned yesterday afternoon, but then after having a good grip on his laptop he disappeared in thin air. Maybe he went to Block A to play Dota (okay, I don't know much about it, so do it's spelling).

Xian Yong and Jiawei will be returning tomorrow morning from their Chiang Mai Adventure Camp in Thailand. So since we live in a room of four, this tells you that I've been staying alone, or having the entire room to myself for the past week.

I am lonely. Although I have Wilson and Yanmin and entertain me and even provoke me (by tickling me intensively) in school, I am still a complete island in the boarding school. Well, I don't mix well with other Secondary 4s except for a few, and most of the people living in my floor are either out for camp (as stated above) or went somewhere else.

Argh these few days my only friend is my laptop and my little soft toy. Okay, some people might think that it is ridiculous to keep such a stupid thing at such age, but then it meant a lot to me (look forward for a post specially dedicated to it).

Past few nights have been stormy. I'm afraid of the dark and afraid of sleeping alone. What a torture can that be! Aih, and the only one I always meet online is Jin. Thanks Jin for accompanying me for this week! You made me feel much better =)

When Picture Speaks #7

2005-05-13T21:12:00.000+08:00

Stupid price verifier that does not actually verify the price... then what is it there for?

Friday The 13th

2005-05-13T20:06:00.000+08:00

Below is a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993 entitled "Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" With the aim of mapping "the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th in the United Kingdom," its authors compared the ratio of traffic volume to vehicular accidents on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years.

Interestingly, they found that in the region sampled, while consistently fewer people chose to drive on Friday the 13th, the number of hospital admissions due to accidents was significantly higher than on "normal" Fridays.

Their conclusion:

"Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."

Paraskevidekatriaphobics (this is surely a long word) — people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th — are no doubt pricking up their ears just now, buoyed by evidence that their terror may not be so irrational after all. But it's unwise to take solace in a single scientific study (the only one of its kind, so far as I know), especially one so peculiar. I suspect it has more to teach us about human psychology than it does about any particular date on the calendar.

What is the origin of the unlucky number 13? Why do people say that it is an unlucky number?

It is said: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, all will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.

Though no one can say for sure when and why human beings first associated the number 13 with misfortune, the belief is assumed to be quite old and there exist any number of theories purporting to trace its origins to antiquity and beyond.

It has been proposed, for example, that fears surrounding the number 13 are as ancient as the act of counting.

Primitive man had only his 10 fingers and two feet to represent units, so he could not count higher than 12, according to this explanation. What lay beyond that — 13 — was an impenetrable mystery, hence an object of superstition.

Which has a lovely, didactic ring to it, but one is left wondering: did primitive man not have toes?

Despite whatever terrors the numerical unknown held for their prehistoric forebears, ancient civilizations weren't unanimous in their dread of 13. The Chinese regarded the number as lucky, some commentators say, as did the Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs.

To the ancient Egyptians, we are told, life was a quest for spiritual ascension which unfolded in stages — 12 in this life and a 13th beyond, thought to be the eternal afterlife. The number 13 therefore symbolized death.

NOTE: Information obtained from Urban Legends.

Complaints? Suggestions?

2005-05-13T10:54:00.000+08:00

Today morning Kevin told me that my blog is boring. And what makes it boring is that I just keep helping out others on some LAME (that's what he said!) HTML stuff which everybody should know.

Well, I might agree that my blog is getting more and more boring but then helping out others that is in need is not a bad thing. Hello Kevin? Did you tkae your medicine today morning or you took the wrong one? Did you escape from Tanjung Rambutan yesterday night? Don't tell me that you're not going to stretch a helping hand when your good webfriend needs HTML or other types of help while you're quite familiar with it.

My dear readers, if you think that this blog is boring, simply tell me how should I imrpove it. Don't tell be why it is boring, and never ever tell me that my HTML Lessons are useless. Those are meant to help people, you know? People say never ask why when a problem pops up - ask How to improve / solve it =)

Cheers.

Need Web Help? #1

2005-05-12T19:55:00.000+08:00

Don't know what does this mean?
Well, many of you must be using some Internet image hosting or webpage hosting programmes. Have you ever been bothered by a message (either automated or non-automated) issued by the host / ISP saying that you have exceeded your bandwidth? And you've got this messgae now, but you do not know what the hell are they trying to tell you. This post might help you a lot.

While, let's see the most user-friendly definition of 'Bandwidth' from Google:

Bandwidth: A measure of the capacity of data that can be moved between two points in a given period of time.

So that's basically about bandwidth. It is like a measure of cars (the amount of data travelled from the server to the user, for example, Photobucket host to the viewer of the hosted image) that passes through the road (the path taken by the data) to the user.

So, bandwidth limit is basically about your host putting a limit across the 'road', limiting the number of cars (data) than can pass through it. So when there amount of cars that have passed through the limit reaches the appointed number by the host, the limit would then ban cars from reaching the user.

Cheers.

When Strong Winds Blew

2005-05-12T18:23:00.000+08:00

Today's early morning is a pretty spine-chilling one. At 2.05am, a gale started. Then the winds blew like crazy into my room, followed by a heavy rain. The trees with branches metes thick swayed in the wind, and my friends, who were still awake, ran outside the room enjoying the gale.

Not really a breeze, I can say. The wind speed is surely so fast and so strong that my windows slammed itself shut. In order not to suffocate myself I opened the window a little bit and can still hear the wind gushing in from the gap. Phew.

Then the rain came. A really heavy one. Accompanied with thunder and lightning. I am sleeping alone, as my roommates either went to OBS (Outward Bound Singapore) Camp or a class camp at Thailand. Leaving me alone. Frankly speaking I am scared. Don't know why, just feeling afriad. So I grabbed my blanket and wrapped myself in it, till the next morning.

Argh, I just hate stormy nights.

Need HTML Help? #8

2005-05-11T19:34:00.000+08:00

Well, maybe you're wondering how did I place such FREE, wonderful and funny videos on my blog. The code sometimes looks a little complicated but it's up to current internet browser's standard.

Here the code goes:

<embed type="application/x-mplayer2" src="your movie url" showcontrols="1" showdisplay="0" showstatusbar="0" autostart="0" width="your choice" height="your choice"></embed>

For the italics letters:
You can replace it with your own stuff. The movie url is to be inserted at the "src" part, and you can change the width and the height of the entire player that displays the movie as you like, but remember don't make it to big.

For the bolded letters:
You have only 2 choices - to enter a 0 or a 1. Earlier version of Internet Explorer doesn't read 'Yes' or 'No', but recent versions do. So it's better to stick the these binary codes, 0 and 1. 0 means No while 1 means Yes.

Good luck! If you do have any problems kindly place your comments here and I will reply you as soon as possible =)

Wireless being useless?

2005-05-11T18:53:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we people who registered for the Wireless Connection got our ID and password that allows us to gain access to the boarding school's new Wireless system. That's great and being sold at a promotional price of a mere S$50! Wow!

However, the entire thing turned to my horror that all Window's Service Pack 1 computers are unable to access the Wireless Internet Connection, and they didn't even tell us before we register! What the hell is going on? I thought.

Then I went to the General Office to attend the Users Help Session. Not much help is rendered and the ways they provided us is totally useless. The wireless connection requires a WPA Network Authentication and a TKIP Data Encryption. We poor Windows Service Pack 1 people do not have these stuff in our wireless card so our S$50 is like being dumped into the drain. Argh.

It meant to bring more convenience to us so that we do not need to queue up to book computer terminals in the computer room like people in the concentration camp *giggles*, but in the end it turned up to be a pain in the vein to people who have Windows Service Pack 1. Help!!!

An Apple A Day...

2005-05-09T19:36:00.000+08:00

Researchers at the national Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland, studied the diets of 60,000 men and women over the course of a year and found that individuals who ate apples the msot frequently were 12% less likely to die during the course of the study than those who rarely bit into a Machintosh.

Apples can slice your risk of...

1. Asthma by 45%
2. Type-2 Diabetes by 27%
3. Stroke by 25%
4. Lung cancer by 60%
5. Heart disease by 25%

Eat more apples! Remember!

I've Been Turd Tagged

2005-05-08T16:52:00.000+08:00

I would like to express by 'graditude' towards Chenoah for turd tagging me.

Here are the rules:

1. Write a four line poem with the 1st and 3rd lines being "turd in a punch bowl"

2. Make lines 2 and 4 rhyme, using any topic.

3. Pass along to 3 unsuspecting punchdrinking bloggers and make them put it on their blog site.

Turd in a punch bowl,
Why I just love blogging?
Turd in a punch bowl,
Because every post is a new beginning!

Turd in a punch bowl,
Why I just like joking?
Turd in a punch bowl,
Because every word is just so entertaining!

Okay, I've done my part... now I am going to pass this to 3 unsuspecing punchdrinking bloggers. They are Desz, Jin and Michelle. Sorry!

It's A Happy Day

2005-05-03T19:15:00.000+08:00

Today is quite a happy day to me. Not sure if this apply to others.

The day started with me taking Integrated Humanities Core (IHC) term test. I've studied quite a lot over the weekend and desperately hoping that he (Samuel Lim) will not fail me. I spent a little more time than usual on writing the essay question, leaving me less time to complete my source-based questions. Aih, hope that I will at least secure a PASS.

After the test we had Chemistry. Boring - Mr Chew just keep yapping in the class. I nearly fell asleep. Next lesson, Biology, when Ms Koe gave us back our Biology Test Paper. I was really surprised to hear my name being called as the first few ones (papers are arranged in such a manner that the marks on them are in descending order). I was even happier as my marks tied with Biorep* and beat Ah Shuang* and Bork*.

*Names are changed to protect their identity.

After school, as planned, Wilson and I went to Tiong Baru Plaza to play the Korean version of Para Para Paradise. I am now quite addicted to it. Why I go so far (from Bukit Timah) to such a place? This is because the price here is cheaper.

At Lot 1 Shopping Centre, S$1.05 (non VIP member) for 5 dances: S$0.21 / dance.
At Lot 1 Shopping Centre, S$0.95 (VIP member) for 5 dances: $0.19 / dance.
At Tiong Baru Plaza, $1.00 for 6 dances: $0.17 / dance.

By comparison, which place is cheaper? Obviously is at Tiong Baru Plaza. We played many dances over there and finally figured out to modify some setting for the dances. Fun.

The most funny part is when two gals came to play the game. They chose Para Para Mode instead of Freestyle Mode. They're sure amateurs. Then they just kept missing all the steps in the dance along the way. How pitiful. Lucky for them to choose non-stop play or not they've wasted their money as they would be easily kicked out of the game (if they failed the stage). Sorry lah.

Crowded MRT Station
This part isn't really happy. Came back from Tiong Baru Plaza at 6.00pm proved me how horrible is Singapore's rush hour. The subway is packed with people and the passengers on the train just keep squeezing and squeezing until I am drowned in the crowd. I am deprived of oxygen, maybe, so I got a little blur and missed Newton station and went on to Novena. Took an opposite direction train back to Newton. Argh.

Back at the bus station near my boarding school, it started to rain like cats and dogs. Doe to some construction works the built covered pathway is demolished and I'm forced to use the zinc-roofed wooden walkway back to the boarding school. I'm drenched, thanks to the punctured zinc roof. Argh, have to change a new sets of clothes. Anyway I have the change them =)

Happy day? To a large extent, I agree =)

How's yours?

Fishy - Game Review

2005-05-02T19:16:00.000+08:00

Bored and need a simple Macromedia Flash game to entertain you?

Want to challege the limit of having control over an innocent little fish?

Want to give your fingers a little exercise on corresponding key arrows?

If you answer YES to any of the above questions, you are a suitable candidate to paly this simple game, named Fishy. I forgot where to got it from, but I cna gurantee that it is copyrighted and most importantly, FUN! Meet the Flash game, Fishy!

Please note that you'll need a compatible flash player in order to play this exciting game! You can download the flash palyer for free here (http://www.macromedia.com/).

Let me explain some very simple instructions of this game. You'll have a little fish, very small at the start. It'll get bigger when you eat more and mroe fishes. However, you'll need be aware of something.

Only eat fishes smaller than you. This can be easily compared with the size of their eyes (this is my way of knowing how big is the fish and whether I can *gulp* eat it up). You can also compare the sizes of the fins, but this would make the game more risky than before! On the left is a typical example of you (top) eating a fish much smaller than you =)

Well, you are STIRCTLY PROHIBITED to eat fishes that are bigger than you! Remember! Your attempt to eat them up will be futile. Instead of feeding your dear fishy, you're your fishy to fill other's stomach. Hence , this game is mainly about eating fishes that are much smaller than you and also on the other hand, trying to avoid the big fishes from eating you up.

This is what will happen if you attempt to eat a fish much bigger than you! Your fishy will be eaten up! Dont' ever attempt to eat up a fish that looks smaller or same size as yours! It's better to be safe than sorry, duh!

Remember that this game cannot be paused nor saved when in progress. Hence ensure that you're totally free when you're about the start the game. Now then... are you being tempted to play this game? Well if you say yes, you can download it right here!

Enjoy!

FREE Funny Videos!

2005-05-01T15:25:00.000+08:00

My friend introduced me this website, FunnyJunk.com, which holdds plenty of funny and hilarious videos! However, don't forget that viewer's discretion is needed!

Right below this paragraph is a really funny video about how an old women have nothing to do when her husband is driving and see what she does to an innocent driver on the road!

Download it here.
Find the above video funny and want to watch more? Get them at FunnyJunk.com!

I Fell Sick

2005-04-29T19:54:00.000+08:00

Again, thanks to my very sensitive stomach. It just doesn't go well with some food I eat which I am still unclear.

The entire thing started off on Thursday morning when I vomited twice in school. How horrible and my throat hurts - got burnt by acidic stuff from the stomach. Then when I return to the boarding school headache followed, then fever comes. Onset of high fever, how frustrating.

Then I start to have really horrible diarrhea. Yucks. Went to see doctor and the doctors says to got gastric flu. Contagious. No sharing of tasty food *yum yum* (sorry Jin) and drinks with others.

Despite taking medicines, I still keep throwing things out for the entire yesterday night. I didn't even sleep for the entire night, as I feared that I would vomit on my bed. And the painful stomach ain't allowing me to get some rest.

Today morning I went to see the doctor again. He gave me an injection for my intensive vomiting. Wiping alcohol on my buttock. The needles went it. It hurts. Then when he pushes the liquid into my bloodstream, that's the part when I nearly screamed. OUCH!!! This reminds me of the horrible experience of drawing blood sample when I was admitted into hospital last year.

Along the way back to the boarding school I slept in the bus and nearly missed the station. Back in the boarding school I slept till 1.00pm. How tiring.

At last I feel much better now. Hope that I cans till enjoy my beautiful labour day weekend.

Bogus Blogs Snare Fresh Victims

2005-04-28T14:07:00.000+08:00

Warning! Recent Internet studies show that there is an increase in the abuse of blogs - instead of using to it express one's views, it is used to hide malicious codes and viruses that attacks the visitors from the dark. How horrible!

My advice - only visit blogs which you're confident in it (virus-free). Use safe surfing websites and strictly blocks virus-containing blogs, like BlogExplosion. Below are some articles that I've obtained from the Internet, heightening public awareness about those virus-containing blogs.

From BBC News:

Cyber criminals are starting to use fake blogs to snare new victims.

The bogus web journals are being used as traps that infect visitor's machines with keylogging software or viruses.

Filtering firm Websense said it had found hundreds of bogus blogs baited with all kinds of malicious software to snare the unwary.

Websense warned that the baited blogs could get past traditional security measures that try to protect people from malicious programs.

From Blogosphere Zoo!:

In particular, keyloggers, trojan, malware and other spyware writers are turning to blogs and away from traditional hosting and/or e-mail services because they offer large amounts of free storage space, they dont require any identity authentication to post, and most blog hosting services dont scan posted files for viruses, worms, or spyware.

While end-users can do little beyond keep safe and smart practices in mind however, Hubbard said, there is plenty blog software makers and hosting services could do.

Oh yup. Don't forget to get the latest updates for your anti-virus software. It's better to be safe than sorry!

Someone asked me to take down THAT post

2005-04-28T13:39:00.000+08:00

Well, I received a e-mail from somebody from my class. He asked me to remove that post (about the cheating incident) from my blog. Not really asked, but advised. But I think he really wants me and Bing Yuan to do so.

Maybe he thinks that it isn't good to say such things to other people from our school. Some people think that he is restricting people to have free speech. I respect his decision.

No means of insulting, but just the mail that he sent me:

Hi people,

pls STOP blogging abt the test incident.

ppl who have posted their two cents worth on the net, i think it's advisable that u delete those posts.

if u think i'm joking, ignore this msg then. bleh

Hmm, I wonder whether he is trying to hint something to me and Bing Yuan. Argh, no other way out, so I removed the post.

To the one who send me the mail:

Sorry if I accidentally offended you. But next time do tell us in advance. By the way, you're also one of the people who joined the gossip session. Just a gentle reminder. No offence.

Ok sorry about that. Anything else you want me NOT to post?

Need HTML Help? #7

2005-04-26T19:03:00.000+08:00

Well, sorry for deleting this psot once because of some buggy problem that it has caused (making the entire right navigation bar go below all posts). So I decided to retype it again and see whether it affects the template again. Hope not.

Jin asks me how to place this cool little Google site search on her blog. It is easy. Just cut and paste the code from Google's search code page. Google provides 3 types of searches - Google Free WebSearch, Google Free SafeSearch and also Google Free WebSearch with SiteSearch. Isn't it cool? Take a look at the screenshot of how it looks like:

Get it here!
It makes navigation easier as I am able to find keywords in all your posts, making searching work for a particular post easy =) It also attracts more visitors too, as your blog becomes much more user-friendly!

Enjoy searching with Google!

Jumper Redux - Game Review

2005-04-25T18:20:00.000+08:00

Well, if you decide to be sadistic, I strongly recommend you to play this game. The storyline? A 'living' weapon created by the US is held in a prison where there are lots of traps to kill it. It is Ogmo. So your mission is to control Ogmo, instruct him to walk, jump and go backwards using corresponding keyboard arrows.

Sounds very unfun? I disagree. You should give it a try before denying that it is really a boring game. The graphics are plain, but the levels get increasingly difficult.

Remember, Jumper Redux is a high accuracy requirement game. Thus you need to have PERFECT movements at a PERFECT timing at a PERFECT location. Don't touch the spikes nor the electricity (unless it is red in colour instead of yellow) - you'll kill poor Ogmo. Read the instructions in the game for more tips and ways to play a good game of Jumper Redux.

Here is the screenshot of Jumper Redux:

Not the first level duh! It's really difficult!
Eager to play Jumper Redux? Download it here, from my school server, by right clicking the link and choose "Save Target As..". No virus, and I can guarantee this =)

Thank you everybody!

2005-04-24T15:03:00.000+08:00

"Thank you everybody!"
Thanks for your visits and support that helped me to achieve a total of 10,000 hits since 1st of July, 2004! I could still remember how excited I was when I got my 100th visitor on Tuesday, 12th of October and the 1000th visitor on Sunday, 14th of November!

For the total of 10,000 visitors, I owe a lot to BlogExplosion, as I got 1/5th of my visitors from it, but at least my effort has paid off! Here, I would like to thank Jin, Desz, Michelle, Chenoah, Rei, Jazz, Fairygirl and Zahra for their frequent visits, commenting and support! Remember to visit them after reading this =)

Sorry because I am not good at expressing myself in English, but I would like to extend my gratitude to those who have commented and visited this site, and also posting links on their blogs that links to my blog. Thanks a lot!

Looking back at the very first post that I've posted... it's about 9 months ago already! Time flies and now it's 9 months later, I'm celebrating my 10,000th visitor! I've never ever imagined that I can know new friends along the way of blogging and in the blogsphere, and even get help from my blog friends! Last, but not least, I would want to say...

THANK YOU!!!

YaGoohoo!gle? Try it!

2005-04-24T14:23:00.000+08:00

Have you been reading the news about Yahoo! and Google putting up a fierce fight for web customers? Yahoo!'s Yahoo!Mail is planning to upgrade its mailbox starge to 1 GB while Google's G-Mail storage space is increasing arrithmetically every second. Wow. Read more about the war between the two online titans.

After testing the same keywords on both searching engines I've found out that they have different search results, and sometimes you spent hours searching something on one of them and you find none, but then you'll find your desired reuslts in another one quickly.

Hence, a genius from earth invented this miracle search engine, which helps you to search for your keyword in both Yahoo! and Google. And it's name? Easy. It is pronounced as:

YaGoohoo!gle
You can reach it here, and the creator here. And below is it's screenshot, featuring search results of Yahoo! and Google.

Another interesting part of that experiment? Yahoo! ranked Blogger.com (Google owns it) #1 when searching for “web logs”. Hehe. Does this mean Google wins this round?

On the other hand, I am happy to know that the first search reuslt of the keyword "teddy-risation" gives my blog... means nobody is using some blog title similar to mine =) Haha!

What do you think?

Para Para Paradise Dances

2005-04-23T11:51:00.000+08:00

Hmm, this involves some very senstivie copyright issues. So I am here, declaring that the dances / videoes below are obtained from Para Para Online, which is a free Internet resource for Para Para Paradise fans.

Does the picture on the left looks very familiar to you? Right, if you've read the post about me Crazy About Para Para Paradise, you'll sure know about this game that is quite popular in arcades all over the world.

The songs below are also obtained from Para Para Online, titled Can't Stop Falling In Love (Super Eurobeat Version), Burning Desire, Eurobeat and Boom Boom Fire. It is the song and the video of the typical Para Para style dance, so the quality tneds to be a little low since the file size is proportionally small. If you like it and would like to try out other dances, you can download it here.

CAUTION: You might have to wait a minute or two for your browser to download the dances. And for best performance please play one dance at a time =)

Can't Stop Falling In Love(left) and Burning Desire (right).

Eurobeat(left) and Boom Boom Fire (right).

Actually I downloaded it is not for the video but just for the songs =) They injected life into my ears!

Sending You A Lucky Fish

2005-04-23T10:20:00.000+08:00

I received this funny SMS a few weeks ago and thought that it would be good if I share it with you =)

><((:>
Hi there! I'm sending you a lucky fish, which brings lots of good luck to you!

But remember to take good care of it in your phone! Most importantly you must not forget to put your phone is the water at least 12 hours a day and remember to change the water every day!

Do not ever try this in your phone =)

A TributeTo Mum

2005-04-22T21:26:00.000+08:00

My mum will be celebrating her 45th birthday on the 10th of May. This day is one of the very special day in the year as it falls very very near to Mother's Day celebration. So, besides celebrating mum's birthday my family also celebrates Mother's Day with her too.

One of the most memorable birthday celebration of my mum would be a few years back when my brother and I decided to use our own pocket money to treat mum dinner at the restaurant. Although the meal was little expensive to us but we feel it's okay as it is mum's birthday.

Now let's talk about my mum. Maybe you've read some posts of mine complaining mum's refusal to buy things I wanted. Maybe that's the way how she teaches me to save money. As a typical Chinese housewife, she is very 'ghiam siap' (means 'stingy' in Hokkien) but then she is willing to save the money to buy good things for us. For example, she and dad saved quite a lot of money and tightened their belt to buy the laptop I am using now to type this post =)

Since I was young my mum has great influence to me. She taught me how to talk, write, walk and also sing. She is not good in playing the piano so she enrolled me in a piano class so that I can pick up some piano playing skills. She ensured that I can speak and write English and Chinese. Luckily she did that. Although my English isn't really very good but then I am glad that she gave me the chance to pick up the 2 very important languages. She taught me a lot of her view of life - instead of holding a pessimistic view why not get a optimistic view? We live our life once, and why we want to make it so miserable?

She is a caring mum. I could still remember her reaction after hearing me suffering from a head concussion after falling down from the monkey bar when I was in Primary 6. When I was sent to the hospital I could still see mum and her teary, red eyes. On the other hand, I once had a surgery and so I was sleeping like a log for 2 days straight. When I woke up in the middle of the night after that long sleep that lasted for a solid 48 hours, I saw mum sleeping beside my bed. I cried. "When you are successful, everybody is your friend. But when you aren't successful, your only friend would be your mother."

When I was in Primary 1, 2 and 3 because I fall sick so frequently she insisted in fetching me to and back from school, and also fixing breakfast herself instead of our maid every morning. I suddenly felt the warmth from the motherly love when I see kids at age of 6 and 7 buying their own breakfast and lunch in school.

Thanks mum! And last but not least, happy birthday!

Ouch~!

2005-04-22T14:54:00.000+08:00

I fell down today.
Maybe you think that I cam summarize the entire thing with just that 4 words. Well, I don't think so.

I was walking around the school after lunch when I was thinking about Para Para Paradise. My bag was really heavy and my whole stack of notes and files even added more weight to my body.

I apporached the drain, as I attmept to take a shortcut, which would save me 5 seconds of walking time. Wow. My leg reached out for the opposite side of the drain but then I was looking elsewhere.

I heard a thud sound. I suddenly felt like I was jumping down from somewhere... erm, yup, the word is weightlessness. AS expected I didn't hear a splash sound since the drain is dry. Great. But then my knee hurts like shit. Some good people ran towards me and helped me to stand up. Thanks =)

Thanks to the concrete drain wall I cut my knee. Ouch. That's all about stupid me falling into a drian, not more than 30cm wide.

[UPDATE]
I read Bing Yuan's blog and found that he fell on today also. Check this out.

Somehow I completely missed out the HUGE step of the amphitheatre at the Concourse, so my left foot came down before the step, which resulted in me falling on my left side of the body. For a while I couldn't really hear properly if I covered my right ear and my left hand didn't seem to respond to any response as effectively as before. And the searing pain in my left leg didn't help either. As Jeremy caustically put it, I had crushed my entire left body.

Pooooor thing =(

A Saddening Week

2005-04-21T16:38:00.000+08:00

This week is pretty saddening to me. Firstly on Monday I got back my Maths paper. I got 23/50, and so obviously I failed. I failed my Maths. Wow, great. Frankly speaking I cried the shit out of me when Mr Lee was discussing the paper. Some people thought that I was making a fool of myself. Well, there is also a reason why I cried. If I really did not pay attention in class, did not do any revisions, did not give a damn to Bing Yuan's maths revision worksheet, I would just accept the fact that I failed.

However, I've invested a lot of effort in for the preparation for this particular test, as I know that me myself is quite weak in differentiation and circular measure. Since a week ago I've been studying Maths. But then I still failed. How disappointing to me, and what makes me even hate myself more is that I forgot to attached a whole question that I did and got it right. Damn!

Secondly, I lost my Chemistry notes. It is approximately 40 pages and I've spent really a lot of time summarizing it. Jiayi told me that he saw Edward flipping through it on last Friday. Edward claimed that he didn't take it. At first I denied what he said, since we had a really bad relationship since secondary 1. After a dialogue session with my form teacher and Edward, we got the problem resolved and I believed that Edward did not take it. Now I'm just hoping that the one who took it can return my Chemistry notes to me. Please?

thirdly, not really saddening to me but another person, Ms Sarah Foo. She realized that we are calling her nicknames. Well, EVERY TEACHER HAVE NICKNAMES> Don't be so sad and dwell about it. What we called you are some stuff like stupid FOO, April FOO and etc. Funny but then not insulting. Don't be sad, okay?

Looks like I vent my anger via sarcasm. Feeling much better. See ya!

P.S.: Sorry for not posting for sometime as there is lots of tests this week!

Crazy About Para Para Paradise

2005-04-17T16:19:00.000+08:00

Yesterday Wilson and I went to Lot 1 Shopping Centre's arcade to have a good dance on the Para Para Paradise Machine. Maybe you should think that we guys are really weird as usually gals dance and not guys, but anyway, I am sort of addicted to it already.

Hmm, if you don't know what is Para Para Paradise about, it is a machine with sensors at the top and the bottom, located at 5 sides of the 'stage'. The 'stage' refers to where you stand at the middle, move your hands towards the sensor when looking at the screen instructing you how to dance.

In other words, your hand movements are required to be corresponding to the arrows and flying from the bottom to the top of the screen. If you can't pass the 50% mark then you'll fail that stage, and you are not allowed to continue anymore unless you feed it with more coins.

When you enter the game you can choose between Para Para mode and the Freestyle mode. Para Para mode is when the player can enjoy the lag time of the sensors, meaning that the sensor would still assume your hand is still there for a second or two although you've moved your hand(s) away; while in the Freestyle mode the machine requires very accurate timing and directions. While I flung my Freestyle and got the highest score for Para Para mode.

The image on the left shows the 5 important directions of the sensors:
(1) Left
(2) Diagonal Left
(3) Front
(4) Diagonal Right
(5) Right

Remember, the game does not only require you to move one of your hand at one time. Sometimes you need both. Also, some tricky dances require you to 'wipe' your hand from left to the right or vice versa. On the other hand, the Freestyle mode is much difficult and I still can't manage to pass some stages. That'll make the game for challenging and fun =)

The image on the right shows a typical screen when you're dancing. With some observation you can see that the player has just completed the movement required by moving you hand diagonally right towards the sensor. This can be seen by the pink bar on the right where the arrow shines.

Isn't that fun? And this game also allows you to move your hands freely and without much restrictions, but you'll still need to follow the arrows!

This picture shows a gal dancing on the 'stage' of the machine. It makes the game for fun if there people around you. However, yesterday when Wilson was dancing came a bunch of gangsters, that was really very horrible. They 'booooo' when he missed the arrows and when he dances quite well they asked him whether he wants to be a bar-top dancer. Stupid people crapping stupid stuff.

Anyway, I highly recommend that you should try out this machine! It's really fun and erm, quite healthy to a certain extent since you sweat quite a lot after dancing!

Cheers to Konami that invented such a marvelous machine =)

Happy Birthday! #1 - Daddy & Michelle

2005-04-16T10:18:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday!!!
To my dear Daddy and Michelle, Happy Brithday tou you!!!

Michelle turns 23 while my dad turns 46 =) Oooh~, both of them are 23 years apart!

P.S.: If you're concerned about the environment, please read the post below, or visit Discovery.com to know about supervolcanoes that might wipe out life from the surface of the earth.

Alert! Supervolcanoes - the emereging threat to all life forms on earth... right below Yellowstone.

Possible extinction by supervolcanoes

2005-04-15T19:12:00.000+08:00

To those who have watched The Day After Tomorrow would find this title very familiar to them. In fact this was told by a geographer, Jack Hall, in a meeting that aimed to come out with a solution to the world's climatic shift in the movie.

Information below obtained from the Discovery Channel.

WARNING: The article has been summarized, but it might still be very wordy to my readers. If you do not like to read wordy stuff, please move on to other posts below this post.

THREAT #1
The world's first national park, the Yellowstone National Park sits atop one of the largest active volcano on earth. Yellowstone National Park sits atop a subterranean chamber of molten rock and gases so vast that the region, known for its geysers and grizzles, is arguably one of the largest active volcanoes in the world.

Click for larger image. Supervolcanoes, such as the one at Yellowstone, experience a violent birth when a vast reservoir of magma rises from the hot spot and creates intense pressure beneath the earth's crust. As pressure from the magma chamber builds, the ground above bulldozes upwards.

Then, at its breaking point, the ground and rupture in an explosion powerful enough to spew magma, ashes and gases far into the atmosphere in volumes so large that debris can rain down for thousands of square miles.

Click for larger image. During the period that the Yellowstone region has been aligned above the hot spot, three major eruptions had occurred.

While many visitors to Yellowstone National Park may be oblivious to the science at work, geologists and volcano experts have long known about the region's explosive prehistoric past.

The image above shows the projected area of ash fall of different volcanic eruptions. We can look to past eruptions to see what kind of damage a future supervolcano would bring.

Mt St Helens, 1980 (white) - Ejected about one quarter cubic mile of ash and lava. 57 killed. Ash fell over an area of 22,000 square miles. Particles of ash circled the globe for 2 weeks. Volcanic Eruption Index (VEI) - 1.

Yellowstone, 640,000 yrs ago (red) - Ejected about 240 cubic miles of ash and lava. Dropped several feet thick of ash at most parts of Western US. Volcanic Eruption Index (VEI) - 8.

Yellowstone, 2.1 million yrs ago (cyan) - Ejected about 600 cubic miles of ash and lava. Dropped several feet thick of ash at most parts of Western US. Volcanic Eruption Index (VEI) - 8.

A full-scale eruption of the Yellowstone hot spot would result in a major disaster of global proportions. It would obliterate the entire Yellowstone National Park and nearby communities, spread ground-glass-like volcanic ash from the Pacific coast to the Midwest, and cause worldwide weather changes from the airborne dust and gases, according to Smith, who described the potential effects in detail in his book Windows Into the Earth, published in 2000.

THREAT #2
The 1,080-square-mile Toba caldera is the only supervolcano in existence that can be described as Yellowstone's "big" sister.

About 74,000 years ago, Toba erupted and ejected almost three times as much volcanic ash as the most recent major Yellowstone eruption (Lava Creek, 630,000 years ago) and about 12 percent more than Yellowstone's largest eruption (Huckleberry Ridge, 1.8 million years ago). That comes to several thousand times more material than erupted from Mount St. Helens in 1980.

THREAT #3
New Zealand's Taupo caldera has been filled by water, creating what many describe as one of the world's most beautiful landscapes.

Lake Taupo itself was created by a massive eruption 26,500 years ago. The caldera the collapsed and subsided basin left after the huge eruption became today's lake.

But Taupo did not die. The 485-square-mile caldera let loose again in the year A.D. 181, with estimates of ash and magma reaching as high as 22 cubic miles. That's on the order of a hundred times more than Mount St. Helens.

THREAT #4
One of the most recently troubling calderas in the world is the 150-square-mile Aira caldera in southern Japan, on the edge of which sits the city of Kagoshima.

After a century of peace, the Sakura-jima volcano, which forms part of the Aira caldera, awoke on Jan. 10, 1914, and gave local residents two days' notice of its intentions by letting loose hundreds of earthquakes.

On Jan. 12, after 23,000 people and their farm animals living on its flanks were evacuated, Sakura-jima erupted with ash, steam and lava. It was not really a super eruption, but it taught people a lot about how volcanoes erupt.

There was another eruption in 1946, and since 1955 Sakura-jima has had hundreds of small eruptions every year. The biggest eruptions, however, took place 22,000 years ago when 14 cubic miles of material burped out of the ground and formed the Aira caldera, which is now largely Kagoshima Bay. That is equal to about 50 Mount St. Helens eruptions.

THREAT #5
While a worst-case-scenario supervolcano eruption sometime in the future would be catastrophic for large parts of the world, that destruction would be minor compared with what scientists believe could be the largest lava flow in Earth's history: the Siberian Traps of 251 million years ago.

The gigantic lava flow in Siberia lasted upward of a million years and flooded an area about the size of the lower 48 United States with layer upon layer of dark basalt lava thousands of feet thick.

Some geologists suspect the eruption was caused by an extra-large plume of hot material welling up from the edge of the Earth's core. But what makes it especially important is that the Siberian Traps is the prime suspect in wiping out 90 percent of all living species 251 million years ago the most severe extinction event in Earth's history.

A Special Bond

2005-04-13T10:11:00.000+08:00

Since prehistoric time men was already bonded to dogs. There is a common theory why we can go so well with dogs - the dogs showed sign of friendliness and loyalty towards a human, millions of years ago. They're not only intelligent but they also cared fro their family members.

Let's take a dog barking fiercely at a stranger walking past your house. Why did they do so? Not because they have nothing much better to do but because they think that the stranger is up to no good and might even pose a threat to his 'family', means his owner's family, members. That's why he barks. Don't try to beat a dog up for barking at a stranger. That's animal abuse.

You might wonder why am I writing this. After reading Michelle's post about Momo getting sterilised and he looks really exhausted and tired. Well, Michelle said in her post that she was very upset about that. If I was her and I have also a pet dog extremely bonded with me, I would also shed tears if it doesn't look really well.

Not because that we are emotional people. I agree that emotion is one of the factor, but then it is not the major contributing factor. It's all about the love and care that we have with our pet dogs. As we get along together for a very long time, we would feel uncomfortable when we didn't see the 'other half of us'.

I believe that each person is half a circle. And for our entire life we're searching for the other half. Sometimes pet dogs make up the other half of us because they're just so bonded with each other. We need them because they give us the feeling of security when we feel vulnerable, and sometimes even warm our hearts up when we feel depressed. Dog is simply a bowl chicken soup of the mind.

Maybe you would think that dogs bite because they hate you. Well, sometimes dogs are very irritated but they couldn't express themselves well enough for we humans to notice. The only way they communicate with us is using it's tail. A dog is friendly when I sees you and it waves its tail. Do not approach a dog which look really spastic with the tails below his butt. He is going to be dangerous if you provoke him further!

Dogs are creatures that are nearest to human except for our own species. So, why not get along well with a dog? Offer it dog food and biscuits. They like munching on fake bones. Ymm.

Last but not least, good luck to Michelle and Momo!

When Picture Speaks #6

2005-04-10T12:06:00.000+08:00

A Chinese women with the snakes, taken at the photo gallery of Snake Temple, Penang.

LIVE picture - An australian smiling, shaking and screaming in awe in an encounter with the snakes.

You Did It Right!

2005-04-09T21:15:00.000+08:00

Flipping through the Chinese newspaper today afternoon I came across a very touching story about a teacher in China, Ms Yin, sacrificed her life to save at least 6 kids from a car accident in Beijing.

It was a sun-drenched morning when Ms Yin brought her form class in an outing to the theatre near the school. Along the way they have to cross a road where vehicles zoomed past at great speed. When she was instructing the kids to cross the road, to her horror Ms Yin saw at least 6 of her students crossing the road while a car was tearing towards those innocent kids. Without thinking much she ran onto the road, pushed the kids a side and hence got knocked down by the speeding car. She flew 20m away where she was hit.

I was really shocked by the courage she'd got to sacrifice herself for the children. It's really a very saddening story - why again, good, or otherwise, innocent people have to die of a tragic death? They did nothing wrong, but saving other's lives! One typical example is the Pope, who helped to life the Iron Curtain decades ago and also promoted racial and world peace.

Ms Yin did it right, and the driver is really wrong! Although China drivers have their cars secured with insurance, not most of the people have life insurance! The practical solution for this case is to heighten the awareness of the China public about the dangers of roads and also impose heavy fines and sentences on those who violates the already strict rules.

I Want! I Want!

2005-04-08T21:37:00.000+08:00

Sorry my dear readers / visitors for not blogging for Thursday. Well, thanks to the school's 'time table arranging computer', we Secondary 4 people get afternoon lessons till 4.00pm in the afternoon. Back in the boarding school I fell flat on the bed and snoozed off until 9.00pm. Sorry, but yesterday was really very tiring.

Mini iPods
I read Michelle's blog today and read about her getting a new iPod from her boyfriend, Tian. Wow, how nice if somebody can buy one for me too. I negotiated with my mom last year end about getting an iPod (or a mini iPod) this year, and I told her I am willing to sacrifice my birhtday presents for the next 3 years.

My mom, whose decision is always ultimate and allows no more negotiations, threw me back with a big no, as she claims that I can buy it when I grow up. Heck. Great. Wow. Imprssive. Hello, mom? When I grow up there might be no more iPods but maybe iTeevee or maybe iRocket. Anyway, I didn't. Maybe she doesn't allow me to buy because it'll be a waste of money.

Okay then. I'm getting S$200+ a month of pocket money from the Ministry of Educaiton (MOE) for my scholarship. So I'll just have to tighten my belt, eat less, buy less, spend less, so that I'll save S$50 ~ S$100 a month. At this rate, I'll be able to buy a mini iPod in 5 ~ 10 months. I just can't wait to get it =)

Now I declare that I'm on budget. Hope that mom doesn't get angry after reading this. Oops.

Last but not least, good luck to myself.

Close Encounter With Lightning & Thunder

2005-04-06T17:26:00.000+08:00

The photo on the left shows you a lightning hitting a big tree during a thunderstorm. Looking at this photo really sends chills down my spine.

Today afternoon is a gloomy one. The sky was dark and the wind blew strongly. Phew, I just had my lunch and I was really bloated. The Chinese common test starts at 2.00pm but we have to be seated by 1.50pm. Argh, how stupid, so I have to walk fast, I told myself.

At 3.30pm, it started to rain like cats and dogs. After several rounds of lightning and thunder I felt that the thunderstorm is getting really near, although it had been raining for quite some time. Suddenly I saw a bright light that disappeared immediately, followed by a huge roar from the clouds above. The entire class heard the horrible 'buzz' sound, probably made by the lighting when it hit the lightning rod just above our classroom.

Chaos. People upstairs were screaming. The fuse blew. Electrical blackout. How horrible. Luckily our classroom was okay as the classroom upstairs absorbed all the shock from the lightning.

After that we still heard a lot of roaring outside the classroom. How horrible. I was not scared, but my heart just pound very quickly. Maybe I was really panic.

After the Chinese common test Wilson and I went to the staff room. While walking along the corridor of Block C we were talking about lightning and thunder. Wilson told me that you divide the total time (in seconds) difference between the occurrence of the lightning and the thunder, the number you get will be that distance (in km) the source of the lightning and thunder away from us.

I was fascinated when a lightning flashed just 100m on our right, hitting the lightning rod of the classroom block just beside our tower block. Sparks flew all around the place.

Before I could figure out what is the time difference with the thunder, we heard the thunder that sounds like 1 million people playing the drum just beside me. I was nearly deaf by then.

I awe, I asked Wilson: "Looks like we just had a (in fact, numerous) close encounter(s) with lightning & thunder."

Yay!

2005-04-05T20:32:00.000+08:00

Yay! Time to celebrate!

Goodbye...

2005-04-05T17:35:00.000+08:00

This week is a pretty saddening one, especially to the 1 billion Catholics in the world and also the supporters that wanted to keep Terri Shiavo alive.

1. The Pope:
Although me myself isn't a Catholic, I am still saddened by his death. The pope was born Karol Wojtyla in 1920 in Poland. He became pope in October 1978, the first non-Italian pontiff in 455 years. The 84-year-old pontiff died Saturday from septic shock and cardiocirculatory collapse triggered by a fever caused by an infection at the urinary tract, the Vatican said. He suffered from a number of chronic illnesses, including Parkinson's disease.

Numerous world leaders -- including U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- are expected to attend Friday's funeral.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday that the president and first lady Laura Bush will fly to Rome on Wednesday. Bush will become the first U.S. president to attend a papal funeral while in office.

Bush told reporters Monday that John Paul II showed that "one man can make a difference in people's lives."

2. Terri Schiavo:
On March 31, 2005 at approximately 9.05am, Terri Schindler-Schiavo lost her nearly 14 day struggle against starvation and dehydration and died at the Hospice Woodside in Pinellas Park, Florida. Such a cruel death - she died of severe dehydration since her feeding tube was removed on March 18, 2005.

I wonder why some people need to die. Sometimes they don't even deserved to die, just like Terri. She collpased 15 years ago and now she isn't in PVS (Persistent Vegetative State) - her behavior does not meet the medical or statutory definition of persistent vegetative state. Terri responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her.

Goodbye - Air Supply

I can see the pain living in your eyes,
And I know how hard you try,
You deserve to have much more,
I can feel your heart and I sympathize,
And I'll never criticize,
All you've ever meant to my life.

I don't want to let you down,
I don't want to lead you on,
I don't want to hold you back,
From where you might belong.

You would never ask me why,
My heart is so disguised,
I just can't live a lie anymore;
I would rather hurt myself,
Than to ever make you cry,
There's nothing left to say but goodbye.

You deserve the chance at the kind of love,
I'm not sure I'm worthy of,
Losing you is painful to me.

I don't want to let you down,
I don't want to lead you on,
I don't want to hold you back,
From where you might belong.

You would never ask me why,
My heart is so disguised,
I just can't live a lie anymore;
I would rather hurt myself,
Than to ever make you cry,
There's nothing left to say but goodbye.

You would never ask me why,
My heart is so disguised,
I just can't live a lie anymore;
I would rather hurt myself,
Than to ever make you cry,
There's nothing left to try,
Though it's gonna hurt us both,
There's no other way than to say goodbye.

Goodbye... however, you'll always be in my heart.

Who's fault?

2005-04-04T17:40:00.000+08:00

Maybe mine, maybe hers. Okay, you'll sure wonder who that 'her' is, she is my English teacher, someone called L*h W** L*ng. Looks like it's a little too long. So I'm calling her L*h.

L*h asked for my English comprehension today morning. I admitted that it's my fault for not doing it - I planned to photocopy the worksheet form Yanmin today morning, but then he was absent. That's what I told her.

Then she went very angry.

"Don't put the blame on Yanmin! It's your fault for not doing my assignment. When it is due?!"

"I don't know."

"When did you come back to school?"

"Wednesday."

"So you should have the courtesy to ask for the assignment and tell me like, '(very animated) Ms L*h, could I hand up my worksheet on Friday?' or something like that."

Ok great. I've admitted that it's my fault ALREADY, and she just keep blasting me with such terrorising and pressurising words. Stupid bitch. Then L*h asked Jason for yanmin's worksheet. He gave it to her. Then I heard her asking, "Who's collecting homework for Yanmin?"

I replied, "Me. I am helping Yanmin to collect his homework."

Then that bitch said, "Huh?"

I repeated, "I will help Yanmin to collect his homework."

That ugly, yucky, bitchy bitch raised her voice, staring and me, saying, "Don't tell me that. Don't ACT LIKE A HERO."

I was really hurt by her words. How can she say that to me? I heard her quesit0on wrongly and have her a different answer and she blasted me like shit. What the hell teacher is that?

Maybe my dear classmates won't notice that my tears smeared my words written on the first page of my composition. Stupid bitch. She humiliated me like that. Am i wrong to colelct worksheet for Yanmina dn most importantly, am I wrong for interpreting YOUR question worngly? What the f*ck!!!

Damn pissed now, and I am a little not myself. Maybe I should calm down - but doesn't mean that I am forgiving her. Read Wilson's blog for more details about L*h.

相信我们会像童话故事里,幸福和快乐是结局

2005-04-03T14:52:00.000+08:00

Hi all, this is the very first Chinese Post I've ever posted. My apologies to those who don't know how to read Chinese for any inconvenience caused. Maybe suggest whay should I make up for you =)

昨天Wilson和我到彦民家去打麻将。老实说，我在一个星期前才学会打呢。难怪他们一直骂我：“大笨蛋”之类的话。哎，我心想：“我何时才会真正的打麻将呢？”这也难怪啦，我把“碰”和“吃”都给搞乱了。

打着打着，正打得兴高采烈的当儿，收听机突然播出光良的主打歌《童话》，气氛突然间冷了下来。与其继续打麻将，我们情不自禁的随着音乐唱了起来。我们的声音中带着伤感，带着些颤抖，我抬起头来，发现大家正在互相对视，眼眶马上红了起来。

虽然没有台湾电视剧中的大哭特哭，但气氛满伤感的。可能那首歌勾起了我们大约一个星期前，在槟城与朋友分手时的那一刻。光阴时间，日月如梭，我们已经分离了差不多七天了。

谢谢你们，为我们带来了许多欢乐。
谢谢你们，为我们带来了很多欢笑。
谢谢你们，为我们的心中，留下这么美好的一段记忆。

《童话》- 光良

忘了有多久
再没听到你
对我说你最爱的故事
我想了很久
我开始慌了
是不是我又做错什么
你哭着对我说
童话里都是骗人的
我不可能是你的王子
也许你不会懂
从你说爱我以后
我的天空星星都亮了

我愿变成童话里 (1)
我要变成童话里 (2)
我会变成童话里 (3)
你爱的那个天使
张开双手
变成翅膀守护你
你要相信
相信我们会像童话故事里
幸福和快乐是结局

一起写我们的结局

Mahjong Mania

2005-04-02T20:40:00.000+08:00

Went to Yanmin house today. Glad to know that he has Internet Boradband access - 3.5mbps. Unlike my boarding school, although 100mbps, shared among many computer users, making the Internet connection very slow.

Raining today morning and I was in a bad mood doing my laundry. But I was left with no choice. If I don't do it today, I would not have any undergarments to wear anymore. Haiz.

Wilson called me at 12.30pm. He says that he will be going to Yanmin's house. I agreed. Ended up at Yanmin's house in the afternoon playing mahjong with his little brother bugging me with a lot of horny stuff. Argh.

We played mahjong for the entire afternoon. Hours of fun. Teehee =)

Frankly speaking I just learned how to play mahjong a week ago... they say me skill sucks =)

Fishy - Game Review

2005-04-02T16:57:00.000+08:00

Bored and need a simple Macromedia Flash game to entertain you?

Want to challege the limit of having control over an innocent little fish?

Want to give your fingers a little exercise on corresponding key arrows?

If you answer YES to any of the above questions, you are a suitable candidate to paly this simple game, named Fishy. I forgot where to got it from, but I cna gurantee that it is copyrighted and most importantly, FUN! Meet the Flash game, Fishy!

Please note that you'll need a compatible flash player in order to play this exciting game! You can download the flash palyer for free here (http://www.macromedia.com/).

Let me explain some very simple instructions of this game. You'll have a little fish, very small at the start. It'll get bigger when you eat more and mroe fishes. However, you'll need be aware of something.

Only eat fishes smaller than you. This can be easily compared with the size of their eyes (this is my way of knowing how big is the fish and whether I can *gulp* eat it up). You can also compare the sizes of the fins, but this would make the game more risky than before! On the left is a typical example of you (top) eating a fish much smaller than you =)

Well, you are STIRCTLY PROHIBITED to eat fishes that are bigger than you! Remember! Your attempt to eat them up will be futile. Instead of feeding your dear fishy, you're your fishy to fill other's stomach. Hence , this game is mainly about eating fishes that are much smaller than you and also on the other hand, trying to avoid the big fishes from eating you up.

This is what will happen if you attempt to eat a fish much bigger than you! Your fishy will be eaten up and that's the end of the game. Don't eat fishes that are same size of yours or you think that they're smaller than yours. Someitmes there's parallax error.

Remember, the game cannot be saved and paused. So ensure that you're really free when you're playing this game! You can download it here too.

Good luck!

April FOO!

2005-04-01T16:27:00.000+08:00

Today Wilson, Yanmin and I went to the staff room to look for our teacher in charge of the Penang Exchange Porgramme, Ms Sarah FOO. I joked about the issue that I have not written my reflections for the exchange programme.

"Ms FOO ar, I lost my reflection leh... aiya, April Fool (FOO)"
Then she replied,

"I am allergic to the word "FOO"
Oh okay then.

My train of thoughs...
1. Did she know that we are calling her nicknames (i.e. FOOlly booked...)?
2. Omigosh I think she heard that Wilson commented about her nicknames.
3. Why she suddently so sharp?
4. Wow she is so allergic to the word FOO.

Missing My Friends 800km Away

2005-03-31T18:52:00.000+08:00

Returning back to school yesterday, I found that the piled-up work that I have to do wasn't as horrible as I've expected. Lucky me to prepare for the worst.

However, Wilson, Yanmin and I still kept thinking of our friends in Penang. Especially for Wilson. When he sees Ms Laura Ng, which looks 80% identical to his host mother, he just feel like bursting into tears. He said that his host family treated him really well. Maybe we are a little vulnerable right now, as we are sill caught in the transition period. Sometimes thinking of the exchange programme really saddens me. Not because I regretted of going there but I miss the people and my new friends that I have made over there.

Maybe this is the way of life. A Chinese poverb stated that "人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全，但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。" Direct translation to English, this would mean that we people (human) have to separate, come together, and sometimes feel happy or sad, and even the moon will someitmes be bright, dark, rounded or curved. These things are rarely perfect since long ago.

And sometimes humming a section of the song 童话 (Fairy Tales) sang by 光良 (Guang Liang)would also make us feel very sad:

我愿变成童话里，

你爱的那个天使，

张开双手，

变成翅膀守护你，

你要相信，相信我们会像童话故事里，

幸福和快乐是结局。

Translated to English it means as follow:

I am willing to transform into the angel which you admired in the world of fairy tales,
open my arms,
change them into wings to protect you,
you must believe that we are like in the fairy tales,
where hapiness is the ending.

Sorry for the lousy translation, but that is roughly what the song means. Meaningful right? Will upload the song as soon as possible =)

Feeling Really EMPTY

2005-03-29T15:44:00.000+08:00

Finally I reached my boarding school at 9.00am today morning. Well, I am not feeling tired but rather empty for the moment. Maybe I have not recovered from yesterday's departure.

The bus was stuck at the customs of Malaysia and Singapore for 2 hours. I wonder why they took the Causeway and not the Seocnd Link, since they used the Second Link the day we left for Penang. Sometimes I really think that Ms Foo should not get the ticket back. Her purse was pick-pocketed a few days ago and there goes our bus tickets. If she really does, hope that the bus would be full by then and we would have the buy the bus ticket scheduled a few days later.

Managed to unpack my stuff in a hour's time, and from time to time I jsut feel like crying and feeling very depressed. Maybe I'll be okay tomorrow.

See ya.

Penang Exchange Programme Day #9 - Sad

2005-03-29T15:02:00.000+08:00

Although today we went on a trip to the famous Penang Hill on the Penang Island, I still can't stop thinking about tonight's departure back to Singapore. Basically what we did on Penang Hill is do some sight-seeing and an interesting detour on the Canopy Walk after taking a 30 minute railway ride up the hill.

Firstly I thoguht that Canopy Walk is just about a relaxed walk along the tracks in the jungle, but then to my horror when I reached the entrance, the walkway is hung between trees and we can only walk on the 20cm wide wooden planks which is approximately 20 ~ 30m high from the ground. I screamed when my leg first touched the walkway and Wilson was happily jumping on the walkway. Maybe I was too scared, my feelings were confused and I ended up laughing and giggling. Looking down is forbidden to me, as the walkway is really too high from the ground. So I closed my eyes and hold tightly onto the railings.

We missed the 1.15pm train down the hill, so we have a little more time to walk around. With RM$1 I bought a hand-weaven grasshopper, looks very very cute. Too bad I lost it along the way back to Chung Ling High School. At my host school, I took a very last glace at the school and headed back to my host's home with Wilson and Weibin.

Around 4.00pm both of their host parents came to fetch them home, leaving me busily packing up my luggage in my bedroom. Phew, got it done in an hour or so, and then my host mother took me to Prangin Mall for some last shopping before departure.

Met up with Wilson at the carpark and we shopped together. Finnaly I was able to dance two last rounds of Para-para Paradise before having dinner with our host parents and brothers at the Sushi restaurant. Yum =)

At 7.30pm most of the people had arrived and we were busy shifting our luggage up the bus. While loading my luggage happy days which I spent in Penang floated up in my mind and my eyes started to fill with tears. I looked at Wilson and Yanmin. I see two teary faces.

At 7.50pm, we were well seated at our respective seats. I started crying, so Wilson and Yanmin also broke into tears. Ghee Boon and Yin Tung's face were filled with tears too. We all cried.

At 7.55pm, I ran down the bus to give them a very last hug. Tears flooded our faces. We sang the Auld Lang Syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?
And days of auld lang syne, my dear,
And days of auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days of auld lang syne?

We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine.
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne,
We've wandered mony a weary foot,
Sin' auld ang syne.

We twa hae sported i' the burn,
From morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.
Sin' auld lang syne, my dear,
Sin' auld lang syne.
But seas between us braid hae roared
Sin' auld lang syne.

And ther's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

At 8.00pm, our bus departed for Singapore. Ghee Boon chased our bus for some distacne along the terminal. Tears again, filled my eyes.

Goodbye Penang!

We love you, Terri Schiavo

2005-03-27T18:41:00.000+08:00

Hi all. This post expressed my personal view towards the case about whether Terry Schiavo should be kept alive. The information and statistics of this post is obtained from Terri's Fight. teddY shall not be held responsible for any damages caused by this post.

Terri's Fight
Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 following a heart attack. The brain damage left her unable to care for herself so for the last 15 years she’s had a feeding tube in her for nutrients and fluids. (Quoted from Terri's Fight)

However, things changed when Terri's husband appealed to the court that Terri shall have her feeding tube removed. I wonder why he did that! He won a suitcase by sueing the hospital about Terri's incident, and he got about 1 million dollars for that. Now what is left is only a ere 50,000 dollars. Instead of using them on Terri, he used those money on himself! What a selfish guy!

Terri has the right to live on. Her husband, although is a legal guardian, shall not have the right to determine whether Terri should die. He just can't do that! On the other hand, Terri is not PVS (Persistent Vegetative State).The definition of PVS is a permanent and irreversible condition of unconsciousness in which there is:

(a) The absence of voluntary action or cognitive behavior of ANY kind.
(b) An inability to communicate or interact purposefully with the environment.

Terri's behavior does not meet the medical or statutory definition of persistent vegetative state. Terri responds to stimuli, tries to communicate verbally, follows limited commands, laughs or cries in interaction with loved ones, physically distances herself from irritating or painful stimulation and watches loved ones as they move around her. None of these behaviors are simple reflexes and are, instead, voluntary and cognitive. Though Terri has limitations, she does interact purposefully with her environment. (Quoted from Terri's Fight)

Here is a quote from the DECLARATION OF SUZANNE VITADAMO:

Mrs. Weller stood up and learned over Terri. She took her arms in her hands. Mrs. Weller begged Terri to try to say, "I want to live." Terri's eyes opened wide, she looked at Mrs. Weller with great concentration and said, "Ahhhhhhh." Then, with great effort, she screamed, "Waaaaaaaa" so loudly that Michael Vitadamo and the female police officer who were then standing together outside Terri's door, clearly heard her.

Terri had a look of anguish on her face and she seemed to be struggling hard, but was she could not complete the sentence. Terri began to cry and Mrs. Weller and I began to stroke Terri's face and hair to comfort her.

Terri, I would always suppirt you and I really hope that your feeding tube would be again, reconnected. Today is the 9th day you're left without any food and water.

To Terri: Please , just say "I want to live", and this entire ordeal would come to an end. I felt very sad to hear that you're left with no choice but to be starved to death. May God bless you.

To Terri's family: I am touched by your effort to keep Terri alive.

To those who cared about Terri: Thanks for taking good care of her. You're really good people. Thanks!

To Terri's husband: What do you want to het? You've spend a lot of money you've gotton after winning the suit! What do you want??!!

I feel like crying while typing out this post. Why should Terri die? Is being immobile and unable to speak a crime??? Why the world is always so unfair?

Support Terri. Donate money. Write in your support. Do it here!!!

Penang Exchange Programme Day #8 - Getting Around

2005-03-27T17:16:00.000+08:00

Well, today is very tiring as we were on a Heritage Trial around Penang. We visited a lot of places like the fort along Gurney Drive, and penang Museum and bla bla bla.

We woke up at 7.00am today. Very early to us as we slept at 2.00am yesterday ngith after many rounds of mahjong and card games. *Yawns* I am just very tired. I washed my face with real cold water but it doesn't help at all. For many times I just refused to get down the van because I was simply too exhasuted. I treated myself a calamansi drink (the very sour fruit) but then my body remained as tired as before.

Lunch was frustrating. I ordered char kuay teow and teh-o ping but then none of them turned up until everyone finished their desert. Argh how depressing.

I bought 3 packets of dao-sha-bia, a type of Chinese biscuit that really taste great =) Those are for my teachers, and not for myself. I enjoy eating it but not crazy over it, unlike my mom.

Bought some souvenirs for my friends. I don't know whether they like it but I hope they do =)

Nothing much to say. I'm really exhasuted. Going to post a story about Terri Schindler-Schiavo's case. Stay tuned!

Penang Exchange Programme Day #7 - Being An Entrepreneur

2005-03-26T12:35:00.000+08:00

Today is quite exciting. Yesterday I told Wilson that I am going to run for their cross country thing, but then I changed my mind and Wilson claimed that I back-stabbed him. Anything.

I waited for them at the carpark at the entrance of Youth Park. I waited for 30 minutes and none of them came. I paged Wilson and he told me that they're at the open amphitheatre. Oh great. I inched along the congested road. Had a had time searching for those guys, erm , I mean Wilson and Yanmin.

Actually I was wearing my PE attire but then I changed my mind. I am better at managing than walking / jogging / running, although my Maths 'rocks' big-time. I enjoyed selling things and this brought back my enjoyable experience of last year's carnival. 600 cans of 100-Plus were sold out in 1 hour, with a net profit of RM$330, while we managed to sell only half of the amount of the 800 bottles of mineral water, which brings us only RM$4 of net profit.

It's still afternoon now so please wait for updates tonight. Oh yup, by the way, I'll be at Yin Tung's (Wilson's host brother) house for a barbeque party =)

Penang Exchange Programme Day #6 - Laughing Our Asses Off

2005-03-25T14:53:00.000+08:00

Well, today's lesson is really BORING, and maybe you could read Wilson's blog for more details. Maybe I should introduce Wilson's blog a little more. A place where you can learn A LOT OF SMS LANGUAGES, and where you will have a 'great' time analyzing the languages he is using.

After our lesson ended at 12.00pm, and having lunch with Ms Sarah Foo, whose purse was stolen the day before yesterday, we met up with Ghee Boon at the counselling room. He showed us his school magazine, and keep pointing at Ms Ong Bee Leng's picture. No point in protecting her identity. If you sue me, I'll see you in court.

She rebonded her hair into a very straight thingy, and then she would shake and stroke them during lesson time. That's not the funny part yet. Then she would continue that for the entire period. Looks like she was enjoying her hair a lot. I wonder when the hair is caught in the ceiling fan.

Okay, let's stop being sadistic. Next Ghee Boon showed as another teacher's picture. Too bad I forgot her name. Anyway, her hair shapes like a big bowl, quite funny and entertaining. Looks like she got that hair style just by placing a bowl on her head and then trimming the excess hair off the side of the bowl. How fascinating.

Lol.

Penang Exchange Programme Day #5 - Oh no!

2005-03-24T15:06:00.000+08:00

Oh no! Bad news! Ms Sarah Foo, our teacher-in-charge, lost her dearest purse (ok, well, she wants me to say "her purse got pick-pocketed", as she insisted that it is not her fault to lose the purse) while shopping at Tesco. She said that she needs coffee badly so she went there by herself.

Maybe because of the headache. Maybe because of the crowd. Maybe because of the hot weather. Argh, anything. Ok, but then she did not know that some very professional pick-pocket was unzipping her handbag, taking out the purse, and even ZIPPING BACK THE HANDBAG for her. Wow.

She lost RM$500, S$700, and another S$2000 because that pick-pocket made a huge transaction using her credit card. Total lost: S$(500 / 2.33 + 700 + 2000) = S$2714.59!!! That can buy me... 4 iPods that I've dreamt of. Never mind. The 'greatest' thing out of that incident is that she LOST OUR TICKET BACK TO SINGAPORE!!! Hope that she could buy back those tickets.

My leg hurts a lot, thanks to me who was over enthusiastic by dancing 5 hours almost non-stop. Wilson nagged that I didn't write much about the dancing part, so... okay, what we basically did yesterday afternoon + night is dancing, dancing and dancing. Yup, and that's all.

Bye!

Penang Exchange Programme Day #4 - Having Fun!

2005-03-23T21:14:00.000+08:00

Yay, today we did not attend any school lessons because we went on a fieldtrip with the Youth Enterprise members from our host school to Intel in Penang. What we did there is basically about providing us a chance to express ourselves, materialize our creativity and also most importantly, teambuilding and ice-breaking.

Before the teambuilding activities we started with the ice-breaking activity. We were given questionnaires with different questions that require us to seek answer from our advisors. How fun!

The first activity is about building a plane from only paper, paper clips, straws, masking tape and a string. We are giving limited amount of the stuff mentioned above... what a challenge! We came out with our brilliant design and started building it. At last the plane is done, we called it the Aviator, and named our airline company as American Airlines. Our plane crashed after taking off at the 1m point, but then we flew the furthest. Looks like American Airlines would sue us for using its name without its consent and also producing such a dangerous and humiliating plane =) Anyway, we won 2 awards, which are "The Plane That Flew The Furthest" and "The Plane With The Best Design".

The second one is making an egg-capsule. We were given, again, paper, straws, masking tape and paper clips. That's all. We spin into action by weaving the straws around the egg, then make a box and fill it with shredded paper. In the end our plan failed and we just simply wrapped it up like a ba-chang (dumpling). The name of the stupid product is *egg head dumpling capsule", and that won us (we did not expect that!!!) "The Most Creative Award"!

Three prizes, wow! The exciting part came when our host brothers and I went to Gurney Plaza again. I danced in the arcade for more than 3 hours, almost non-stop. My hands and legs hurt a lot! *ouch*

Exhausted now... maybe I should turn in early tonight =)

Penang Exchange Programme Day #3 - Slack

2005-03-22T20:51:00.000+08:00

Teehee *giggles*, okay, I confess that I slacked real long today. Thanks a million to the Essay Writing Competition which is held from 9.40am to 11.25am, we could enjoy the air-conidition at the counselling room, because we are not expected to participate.

Before I move on, I would like to comment about their morning assembly. Today we attended their morning assembly which lasted for about 50 minutes, standing on our dear feet while some really old teacher is yapping on stage. Anyway, during the assembly I can still feel people throwing us that ooh-i-see-a-martian eyesight, which makes me a little bit uncomfortable. The most funny thing is about the morning exercise. We danced, or just moved, according to the music. Hmm, I feel like a clown while doing that lame activity with my uniforms on.

Back in class we attended Chemistry lesson. Much better than Chwety's (my Chemistry teacher) and very fun. She enjoyed calling out tha Latin names of the elements instead of their, erm, English names. They don't call Fe as Iron. Wierdo.

After that its the compuetition time. Wilson, Yanmin and I went to meet Ms Sarah Foo at the counselling room and we had a good chat that lasted for 2 hours *coughs* and we cracked a lot of cold jokes about teachers in our school, which she NEVER EVER HEARD BEFORE (and this year is the 2nd year she's teaching in my school!) - looks like she's not good in picking up office-gossips. Wierdo the second.

We atteneded Physics lesson where the teacher spent a whole 35 minutes explaining what is concave, convex and plane mirror. Well, he is some kid of old and keep repeating what he had just said a few seconds ago. Wierdo the third.

I became a vampire while having dinner - I ate a full bowl of pig blood *yum yum*. Maybe some people would freak out if they were asked to eat pig bloog but I am a fan of it. It taste very nice and some sort of spongy feeling.

Have you tried pig blood?

Penang Exchange Programme Day #2 - Fun-filled

2005-03-21T22:43:00.000+08:00

Today is the very first day we are going to experience the daily school-life of the Chung Ling High School students. At 6.45am I woke up and took a cold bath *phew* that's really refreshing.

On the way to school I asked my host brother more about their school. I knew more a little bit about their school and find out some differences between mine and theirs:
(1) They do not have gohyy, koehy, teocc, laomao (honyp), slim and loi. (Only 4J students would know)
(2) They do not have borkster, junk, psyborg, and edward. (Again, only 4J students would understand)
(3) They do not need to sing the National Anthem and read the pledge every morning.
(4) Their assembly only lasts for 35 minutes at most (unlike mine, which last for a solid 2 hours of clarinda crapping on the stage)

Hmm, due to some POLITICAL reasons we could not join our host brothers at the governemtn school side. We could only join the students at the private school side. The headmaster of Chung Ling High School told us that students that are unable to enter Chung Ling High School would enter the private school. Then we wondered is that a 'gangster school'.

But when we entered the classroom we found that the students at the private side were friendly too, just that their results is a little bit o 'rocks' big-time - the Malay teacher read out the class test results and none of them passed, witht he highest mark of 48 and 3 big eggs (zero mark!) in the class. At the same time he really impressed us, especially Wilson. After knowing that our dear Wilson could not understand Malay, he talked to him in CHINESE, and he himslef is a MALAY! Omigosh!

At night we went to Gurbey Plaza and hang around the arcade, where Wilson and I played some very fun games including dancing on the dancing pad. The dancing game which 'game over' very quickly after we just played for a while tells us that our eye-leg coordination sucks.

I'll try to blog tomorrow and be online (not for so long). See ya tomorrow!

Penang Exchange Programme Day #1 - Exhausted

2005-03-20T22:25:00.000+08:00

Today is pretty tiring, owe to the couch that we took from Singapore that broke down near Yong Peng along the North South Expressway. Wilson and I did not get a good night sleep because of the entire rocky journey, but Yanmin snf the other three Sec 3s sleep like logs on their cozy seats. Sometimes I really envy people that are non light-sleepers.

FINALLY... we reached Perangin Mall at 9.30 in the morning, 12 hours after we departed for Penang Island. The couch we took should reach there at 7.00am as schelduled and thanks to the lousy couch our jouney is delayed and lengthened.

Mrs Lim, the Head Councillor of the Chung Ling High School, received us at the bus depot. She sounds like Lingky, but then I bet she's much better than Lingky. She treated we people a tasty meal of dimsum near the bus depot. Thanks a lot, Mrs Lim!

For the rest of the afternoon we rode on Mr Eric's van, touring the entire Penang Island. He took us to famour landmarks of Penang Island, for example the Snake Temple, the Batu Ferringi Beach, Butterfly Farm, the Botanical Garden and some bustling sea-side fishing villages.

Although exhuasted, we enjoyed a fun-filled steamboat meal somewhere along Gurney Drive, with our host family. We reached the restaurant before any other host families, so the entire atmosphere is filled with great anticipation.

"Who would my host parents look like?"
"How about our host brothers?"
"Hmm, I wonder how's our host school is...."

Finnaly our respective host families reached the restaurant. They're much friendly than I've expected =) Besides enjoying the fine food, we, especially Wilson and I, had a good laugh about the school magazine which Siyuan brought along. We were ROFLOAO (Rolling On the Floor Laughing OUR Ass Off). Back at the host family's house I introduced myself to them at greater detail and also knew them more.

Hmm, I wonder what would happen tomorrow?

A Lil' Notice - (Might Be) Leaving For 10 Days

2005-03-19T14:43:00.000+08:00

Hi there! Just came back from Malaysia yesterday evening. Well, I should have returned only by tomorrow, but because I'm involved in an exchange programme with Chung Ling Seocndary School in Penang, which we are to depart today evening.

I am actually quite excited about this exchange programme, since it is the very first one in my life. Although I was told that I would miss a whole week of lesson, I insisted in going because the chance of getting involved in such meaningful events is really minimal.

For the whole duration of the exchange programme (from 19/3/05 to 29/3/05), I will be staying in a host family, but I am not very sure which family it is. I will try ot get online over there, which is about 700km away from where I am typing this post, and also continue blogging. My apologies if I am unable to post for the next week if I am so 'lucky' that the host family doesn't have any sort of Internet connection.

Gonna miss you people and goodbye then!

Girls @ 8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58 & 68

2005-03-18T17:04:00.000+08:00

I received an e-mail about this subject today morning, from my cousin sister.

*NOTE: To all women in the world / reading this blog, this post does not show teddY's discrimination towards women and does not show that he is abusing women rights. This is ONLY FOR FUN.

What is the difference between girls aged 8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68?

At 8 - You take her to bed and tell her a story.

At 18 - You tell her a story and take her to bed.

At 28 - You don't need to tell her a story to take her to bed.

At 38 - She tells you a story and takes you to bed.

At 48 - You tell her a story to avoid going to bed.

At 58 - You stay in bed to avoid her story.

At 68 - If you take her to bed, that'll be a story!!

Lol =)

Need HTML Help? #6

2005-03-17T17:01:00.000+08:00

This post is posted to those who have problem putting Haloscan commenting system on their blogs and on the other hand wants to retain their blogger comments. Well, I have a ~~easy~~ a little complicated script here, maybe it could help you out, as I tried it on my blog and I found no problem with it.

The benefit of this script is that when you click on the blogger comments you can still see your haloscan comment link there (this applies to the ones who set their blog settings to not to pop up comment window).

Sorry but I could not upload the script's screenshot (as what I do in the past few posts) because it is simply to wide for my blog to display. Please enlarge the image (or maximise your browser window) before viewing. It's dimension should be 907 X 72 and you could view the words clearly.

Click Here For The Script

If you still encounter any problem please feel free to post your comments here. Thanks! =)

Ooops! #2

2005-03-16T17:53:00.000+08:00

Today mum brought my brother and I to go ice skating at the rink located in Sunway Pyramid, an Egyptian-themed shopping mall near my house.

We reached there as early as 9.15am to avoid the crowd. Why did we avoid the horrible crowd? You'll know if you continue reading =)

The main focus of this post is not about why are we there to ice skate or how did we get there to ice skate or... (and the list goes on), but about what happened when the crowd appear just after lunch time. Sorry for some of the blurred image =p

Look at the crowd!!! *Click images for original file.
And now let's move on to the part where the *ooops* will come into your mind. Took some pictures about falling, tripping, and crashing-onto-the-ground people in the ring, as a result of the chaotic crowd that gushed into the rink.

Lol! (Trying to be sadistic) *Click images for original file.
Enjoy!

Omigosh! A Car Accident!

2005-03-15T19:05:00.000+08:00

Today while crusing happily on the New Pantai Highway (some stupid highway in my place which took years to build because of being abandoned), Dad suddenyl slowed the car down... and in our greatest horror we saw a car lying on it's top on the highway!

Omigosh, a car accident!
The car slowed down ahead of us before we could see anything. Dad told us that a car crashed ahead, so immediately I picked up my camero and switched it on, but I was so shocked that I forgot to adjust the focus. I apologise for the blurred image.

Mum was shacking in fear as she claimed that she saw blood on the road surface under the mangled piece of metal. Dad wasn't looking at the wrecked car at all as our lives are all depending on his hands which are steering the car. Little brother was somehow shocked that he kept commenting about the crash hours later, when we were doing some shopping at Midvalley Megamall.

Me myself was shcokeed too. Looks like no other cars were involved so I could say that the driver had probably drove so fast that he lost control of the car. Here I would like to ask ll drivers to pay full attention while on the road. Drive samrt and drive safely!