Friday, February 29, 2008

The Leap Year

Today is Feb 29th... yup its the leap year, only happens once in 4 years and guess what, I'm stuck in school doing my FYP report. Sucks man. Just went to get my car, sent it to the workshop for maintance and inspection. And it cost me a bomb, $872. This car is really getting expensive, the maintance is super high, and my summons just keep coming in. I try my best to evade parking charges, but these summons are just as high. Actually I found the perfect place to park at my place, which is at the private housing, because these parking aunties don't go there unless someone complains. So of course, thinking that Singaporeans are all so friendly and kind, I happily parked my car there. And then it happened. Some bugger really did complain, and I got a fine of $70 for parking on double yellow line. Damn it. Can't they just pity me and mind their own business. The space there is so big, and I'm not disturbing them or blocking their way, so can't they just let it be. Damn those busybodies. Well I've come up with a new resolution, that I am not going to get another summon for the next 2 months (wanted to say 1 year, but a little difficult, and 1 month seems pretty short), so I resolve to park my car carefully and escape these fucking aunties who keep summoning my car. Fuck you.

Well for this leap year, I'll be going to drink again. Will be meeting my band boys first at Walas, then I'll go over to meet cy and gang at our usual hangout. Probably will not dinking too much tonight I guess, a bit poor these few days (because of the car), now rushing out my report, hopefully I can clear majority of it today. Oh yeah, I got my first interview date. Its on the 11 Mar, with SIA. I applied for the post of administrative officer. When my mum heard of the post I applied for, she was sort of disgusted. She say that after studying so hard in engineering, I went to apply for an admin job. Haha. Well I'll see how it goes, its still early so I'll just keep to my look see look see attitude.

So happy leap year everyone!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Nothing much

Actually I've got nothing much to blog about today, just wanted to write something before I start my work, as in school work. Well, this week is term break, so I've got a lot to catch up, hopefully I can catch up. Suddenly it seems like there are so many things to do, haiz I've really been too slack for the past 2 months, really have to buck up now. So I've come up with a to-do list for this break. So hopefully I'll be able to complete all of them at the end of the break.

1. 4E03 Presentation
2. 4E03 Q&A
3. FYP
4. Read all my notes

Well as you can see, there is actually not that much to do, but each item is pretty time consuming, so good luck to me! Huat Ah!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Singapore for the first Youth Olympics

Just got the news today that Singapore was awarded the chance to host the first youth olympics. Hearing this news makes me pretty happy, and very proud to be Singaporean. It does feel that Singapore has got a stage that we are able to compete with big nations and cities to vie for bigger things. Although the youth olympics is only a smaller scale version of the olympics, but for a small country like ours, there is almost no way we would have been able to host something as huge as the olympics. So this is like the biggest sports event that we are capable of hosting. Well, even the built up to the announcement, there was big hopes for us, and I really think that it is only sensible for Singapore to get the hosting rights.

The youth olympics was, in the first place, meant for smaller cities and countries to get a chance to gain experience of hosting a major sports event (just a smaller version of it). So it makes sense to award the rights to Singapore rather than Moscow, a city that has already hosted the olympics before and will be hosting the winter olympics soon. Whats more, this being the first youth olympics, there is a need to set the record right, because if Moscow gets the right this time, subsequent YOGs will be dominated by cities like Beijing, Barcelona, Sydney and Athens. And the whole event will lose its focus and meaning.

So congratulations to Singapore, and I hope that the 2010 YOG will be an astounding success and the whole world can recognise Singapore as a sporting nations as well. Kudos to SG, cheers!

First Rejection

I just got my first rejection, probably of my life (not that I can remember when was the last time I got rejected), and its not over a relationship. Its my job application. I've always tried my best to avoid such situations, and only go for areas where I'm confident that I can at least manage, all this so that there is minimal chances of rejection. Well I guess there's always a first time. And it doesn't really feel good. Although I know my limits, but I've been sending out my resume to a few companies and just 2 mins ago, I got my first rejection email. But on a comforting note, at least the company bothered to email me to say that my application was rejected, that's a little better than letting me wait and wait and wait right. Haiz, so I guess its back to the old drawing board, gotta learn to accept these situations because I got a feeling that this is going to be coming on to me for quite a few applications. Good luck to me!

PS. Today is the 15th of CNY, which also means that its the last day of new year, and it also means that there is the million dollar Toto today, already bought my numbers yesterday. Super good luck to me, Huat Ah!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Gold

Took my IPPT today... and I stuck gold again this year, whoppie. This year is a little difficult because they've started to computerise the course already. And the first to be computerised is the 2.4 run. For the run, everyone is issued a tag (that comes with an electronic sensor inside). So every time the tag passes the sensor line, it will record how much time you have used and how many more laps to finish. So as expected my run time went down. Finished it in 9.40 mins... very very lucky. By the last round, I was really damn shack already (plus it was pretty hot today), I kept telling myself to dash for the finishing point, but my legs just don't seem to be responding, luckily I still made it. So its $400 Ang Bao from the government to me (damn missed out of the $200 shooting ang bao).

But I must say the IPPT this year was very much a cock up. First, of course, was the administration. That Shakil (don't know how to spell his name lah) guy initially called me on wed to remind I had shooting on thurs. And the best part was, that was the first time he called me. Then it was the ROs. No RO was sent to me, I wait and wait and wait for nearly 2 months. And when did I get the ROs, yesterday. after my shooting. And even the ROs were not correctly sent. I got an RO for my shooting on monday (which had already been taken the day before), and 2 ROs for tomorrow's retreat, and no RO for today IPPT. Well I'll just leave this to our top management to settle, I'll just attend tomorrow's retreat and see how things go.

And of course I'm pretty happy now, that $400 in my pocket. Hope they remember to bank it in my account, because I think I'm still missing 1 pay, which I have no idea what happened to it.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Shooting

Just came back home from HTA, and damn it my shooting has de-proved. KNS! Not only did I not manage to get marksman, my total score went down by an astonishing 20 pts. What an ass, there goes my $200 ang bao from the government. Looks like I gotta work hard for wednesday's IPPT now. But it seems like the money is not easy to earn this time round. Been going for some training, but it seems like I'm not going to make it to gold this time. Haiz, sadz... Guess I'll just have to work it on wednesday. Now I'll go and practice my shooting skills, to show the whole world that I can shoot, ass!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Edison

From my previous post, it comes to remind me that I did not say anything on the current scandal between Edison Chen and a whole bunch of female celebs. Well I have to acknowledge that Edison is a pretty attractive guy and he is one hell of lucky person. It appears that he has done it with some of the hottest stars now. Well to give my 2 cents thoughts, I really feel that there is nothing wrong about taking nude photos of yourself or your partners (of course I referring to cases when both parties are in the knowledge that they are being filmed and that they have agreed to be filmed). Just for own pleasure, keep sake, remembrance, whatever you'll like to call it. I mean since the people are all adults, and that sex is not really anything thats so evil, so there is really no harm in taking a few photos of yourselves having fun together. But always bear in mind the consequences that may follow when such photos are being circulated around, through the years, there have been many instances that sexy photos are leaked out to public, in this case its laptop recovery, previously there was a handphone stolen case. So always be prepared for the worse. Maybe I just a little more open minded than a lot of people out there, because I feel that sex is not all that sacred, to me its not something that must be kept to marriage. Lets just face it that many young people are having sex in our society, and I'm perfectly fine hearing people tell me that they are not virgins anymore. Even when it comes to gay sex, I'm quite open to it (this does not mean that I engage in it or that I lead a different kind of lifestyle okie, I'm straight, it just means that I do not crucify gays and that I'm not homophobic). I've had gay friends telling me about their sexapades and their parties and sex romps. Its not something that would encourage people to do, but I just feel that everyone has his own idea of how he wants to lead his life, so there's no reason why I should condemn their type of lifestyle. But then again, this is also very contradicting, because we can be accommodating to our friends who do this type of actions, but when it happens within the family it becomes a whole new story all together. So I'm still in the midst of learning to strike a balance. And I think in the near future more will be done to bridge the gap, and that more differences will be resolved.

Disco at home

Sometimes I begin to wonder what the world is getting into, well right now, my neighbors are blasting away chinese new year techno songs, which I find a little amusing and maybe also a little irritating. I mean who in the world actually listens to these retrofitted techno songs. They just sound so wrong in the heartlands. Then yesterday I got a message from my good friend, who told me that he just did his own porn video with his boo, goodness, does he think he's gonna become like Edison Chen, haha. Well in any case, I'll just have to bear with this music for the time being, I still have my report to clear, Kambateh!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Jobs, jobs, jobs

Lately I've been looking around for job openings, been to a few career talks and went to my school's career fair, went online to checkout openings and all. And there is one thing I find about this whole job hunt thingy, it is quite a chore to fill up the online forms and online resumes. My tutors have said that we should all write very nice resumes and make it as presentable as possible, but whats the use when a lot companies don't want our resume, but prefer that we fill up their own forms. And the forms are damn long, so much information to fill in. Well, I've sent out a few already, hopefully from those few I'll get some response, keeping my fingers crossed now.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Yet another day at home

Its another day, and again I'm spending the most of today at home. Probably, will doing a bit on my FYP (actually really think that I have to buck up on my FYP, a bit lagging behind). Yesterday went to get my mahjong set and table back from Serene, I've like lent it to her for 2 years already, finally got it back from her. And after that I stayed over for a while to play international chess with her (she wanted to challenge me, haha) and guess what, I won both rounds, wahahaha. These few days have been looking through the papers for phone offers, my phone plan is almost up (ends in june), I've been looking around to see what phones are available now. I've even went to Starhub to get a voucher for phone purchase, haha, so thats a $50 discount for my phone, just wondering if my current phone can still be sold for at least $50, if thats the case, then I would have a total of $100 discount for my new phone. After my 'research', I've narrowed down to a few models, one of them is the samsung music loud thingy. That phone seems not bad. Not too expensive too. It has all the criteria that I need - can call, can sms, got alarm. Another one is the LG viewty, that phone is nice, got a large screen (which is what I like), but the downside is that it is a little more expensive. So I'm still weighing my options, my voucher should reach me in about a week, and expires in about a month, so I would have a month to decide what I want to buy.

Tonight I have a wedding dinner to attend, its at harbourfront. Think its the same one as the one I went to for my Aunt's wedding (the auntie that is only about 2-3years older than me). Just got the Ang Bao rate from Koh, so I will be giving a grand $60 for the couple + my blessings for a great relationship and life together. To Ho and Jesslyn (like they will see my blog like that, no one sees this anyway), congratulations and happy always.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Catching up during the New Year

Hey folks, just came home from a bit of catching up with my ex-band mates. It was a pretty nice meeting for everyone (I think everybody enjoyed themselves, at least I did), caught up with a lot of people whom I have not met in a long time like Weijian, Chermin, Rushan, Kimberly, Sijie (she's married and has a kid already, and the kid is already 2 months old), Imis, Arthur and Melvin. It was really great to just chat with them and just to get to know how everyone is doing now. Its a very different kind of feeling chatting with people you meet every now and then, and friends whom you've not seen in a long while. And surprisingly, I still feel quite close to a lot of them, especially Weijian (no wonder he is my best friend in school). Its like sometimes when you meet each other so often, when you see them, there's just nothing much to say. But today we were like chatting and chatting and chatting, and the conversation just doesn't stop. We had so much to share with each other, even just listening to what he's working as now to his family and his relationship, it just doesn't seem to end. Well, its great to know that everyone is doing pretty well now, some of us are still studying now, some have already graduated and are working now. And some are married (even with kids), others are in pretty strong relationships that seem to be going in the getting-married-soon category. I never thought I'll think this way, but looking at all my friends getting hitched, sometimes I do feel that maybe it is time I try to find a mate for myself. At least I should try to pluck up some courage and maybe get a partner. I always thought that there's no big deal about getting a partner or not (I mean at most I'll just remain single all my life), but really when you start seeing that everyone is working towards a married life, the reality does set in that I'm going to be only one who is lonely (and it doesn't help that I'm still into those stuff). So I guess my new year resolution this year would be to try and get a girlfriend, haha. Well V-day is less than a week away, and I guess I'm gonna be spending it alone again this year, haiz.

After the catching up session with my band-mates, I drove over to Huan's place, they were playing poker there (Huan and Cy bought a set of chips just to play poker, and it cost something like $150). I wasn't too keen on poker (never seem to have luck in card games), so I just sat there to watch the game and try my hands that doing the poker chip tricks. Trying the chip tricks was actually quite interesting, but of couse got a little tired so I left before thery ended. There are another 10 more days before CNY 'officially' ends, so I guess I'll just keep enjoying myself and see what my life has installed for me... haha. Huat Ah!!!

Friday, February 8, 2008

On the second day of new year, my true love gave to me...

This new year has been pretty quiet so far. Generally my AB Index (Ang Bao Index) is in recession, haven't counted the amount, but can sense that its much lesser than before. I'm expecting it of be less than 1/2 of what I on a good year. So far haven't visited any of my friends yet, but in any case I seldom visit my friends during new year. Have been at home of the last 2 days, didn't really go anywhere except the usual places that I go to during CNY.

Well now planning the annual trip to mess up Pauline's house but we are sort of in a bit of a fix. Initially I thought that only Dennis will have some problem about making it on Sunday evening so we tried our best and arranged it in the afternoon, then Ah Hwa had to drop the bomb that he's occupied from 10.30 in the morning till about 4 in the afternoon. So that basically seals the entire day. Now I'm just hoping that Pauline did not free the day just for us (because initially she told me that she could not make it on Sunday afternoon, after that she messaged me to tell me that her appointment is canceled). It would be so bad of us to make things so difficult for her. I mean if I am her, I would be pretty pissed off, I'm opening my house to all of you and even rearranging my time for you guys and you play me out at the last minute. So I just hope that she did not make any special arrangements for us, or I would feel so bad. Think I'll message her to say thank you to her after the date is settled.

Once again, Happy New Year, hopefully this year will be a much better year for me and my family! Huat Ah!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year Everybody!!!! Huat Ah!!!! You huat, I huat, everybody huat ah!!!! Wahahaha. Yup, here's the first blog of the new year, nothing much to do now, just had a very hearty and super filling reunion dinner. As usual we didn't managed to finish even 1/2 of the food, also had the usual Lo Hei. Well now watching some new year variety show by channel 8. So practicing the usual Shou Sui ritual, its supposed to be something that every child does, legend has it that the later you sleep during the first day of new year, the longer will be the life of your parents. So I'm doing this not only of my parents, but also my grandma and all my aunts and uncles. Here's wishing them all the best for the new year, stay healthy and wealthy for ever and ever....

Everybody Huat Ah!

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Tis the season to be jolly...

Its CNy eve today, and I'm stuck at home preparing for the reunion dinner. More or less settled most of the cutting, the soup is ready, so we just waiting for my mum to come back and finish up the rest. In the mean time I was looking through the career pamphlets that I took from the career fair last week, and its giving me quite a headache. I really have no idea what I should apply to. My brother and mum told me to just apply to every company (which was what I was thinking of doing initially), because not all of them will reply and also it'll increase my chances of getting somewhere after graduation. I thought of doing things like that too. But the problem is, some of the job scopes really don't suit me well. I don't really want to do a very engineering job, nothing too technical (maybe just a little bit), but the investments and bank jobs are not hot property. Everyone, including business and engine students are vying for jobs there, so that means that there's a larger number of competitors. Not only that, the financial world is not really all that familiar to me, so I not sure if I'll be able to make it there. But one thing for sure I'm confident I'll be able to pick up whatever is thrown to me. But that'll take some time, don't know is the companies have the patience to wait for me. Well, I haven't decided on my employment strategy yet, now gotta get my cover letter written as soon as possible, and hopefully everything will become clearer soon.

Monday, February 4, 2008

CNY

CNY is just looming around the corner, its ang bao time again. hahaha. Well just had my reunion dinner with Mum's side yesterday. We went to Jumbo seafood at Tanah Merah Safra for dinner. Dinner was great, super filling with lots of seafood... Had a great day, we started off with bowling, and my uncle wanted to up the stakes said that we should pool in $10 each, so the winner of the round gets everything. Of course he won, damn. I was pretty unlucky, wasted my strike or I would have had a chance of topping the table. In the end I came in second. After bowling was dinner and followed by KTV. As usual, KTV became sort of a personal concert. Don't know why the kids are all so shy to sing, the same goes to most of the adults so I was sort of singing song after song to entertain everyone. It was until the end that the kids were more into it (because my uncle told them that they would get $5 for every song they sing, haiz the sad truth).

Well something more interesting happened the other day, I was asked by jteam if I wanted to help out to be an usher for his new movie, "Ah Long Pte Ltd". Of course I agreed, and it was so fun. Basically we had 2 sessions, one at the press conference, at Inter-continental Hotel and the second movie screening at Vivo-city. At both sessions we had to act as the henchmen of Fann Wong, so when she walks the aisle we had to raise the fake parangs. It was pretty funny, especially at Vivo. People around us were frightened when we took out the parangs and walked around the mall. And the best part was, we even went to celebrate someone's (some passer-by) birthday. The crew was great, very fun-loving. The down side was the grumpy bus driver, we forgot to take our stuff and he kept shouting Joey. He was so rude, come on, its his job to be driving our things around, so just do it lah. Even if we ask you to drive over a thousand times, you'll still have to do it because thats your job. So quit grumbling. Yup after the gig, we were treated to view the preview screening of the movie. Overall, the movie was ok, not that fantastic but about the same standard as all of Jack's other movies. The malaysian accent was very strong and Mark was pretty funny in the movie. But still overall I wouldn't rate this movie very highly, maybe just 2 1/2 - 3 stars. Just watch it when you really don't have any other better things to do.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Cream Puffs

Yoyoyo, Okie to kick start my recipes blog, I will now give everyone a recipe of making cream puffs. I've done them myself and they turned out great, they are very easy to make and these will be making their way to my friends' home this CNY.

Cream Puff Ingredients
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Butter
4 tbs Sugar
1tbs Salt
1 Cup Flour
3-4 eggs

1 Cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbs Custard Powder
2 tbs Sugar
1 tsp Salt

1. Puff: Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius. Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar into a large pot. Bring this mixture to a boil on medium heat. After the mixture starts boiling, turn off the heat and add the flour to the mixture. Note that all the flour should be added in one go. Once the flour is added, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until it forms a yellowish dough. Continue folding the dough a few more times.

2. Transfer the dough to another bowl and mix the eggs in one at a time. Ensure that the dough mixture returns to a smooth consistency after the addition of every egg. (Note: if the dough feels too wet after the 3rd egg, just skip the 4th egg).

3. Drop the dough mixture on a baking tray, making each puff about 1 inch wide and 1 inch high. Ensure that some space is kept between each puff as the puff will expand a little during the baking process. Bake the puffs in an oven 180 degrees celcius for about 25 mins.

4. Cream: Add milk, sugar and salt into a saucepan and heat the mixture up on low heat. Stir the mixture continuously to prevent the bottom from burning. When the mixture starts to bubble and cuddle, add the custard powder into the milk and stir. Continue stirring until the custard becomes much thicker, add a little more custard powder if required. Once the consistency is attained, put the custard into the fridge to cool.

5. Cut the puffs in half, the inside of the puffs should be hallow. Spoon a portion of the custard into the puff. Put the filled puffs into the fridge to chill. Serve them cold (well I like them cold, but its really up to you to decide), you can also dust some sugar powder onto the top of the puffs to give them a nicer look, a little snowy effect.

Cooking Ma Ma

Hey dudes, my Wii is coming home soon. Going to collect it a little later, finally I can start playing all the fucking games that I want, wahahahaha. And one of the games that I've ordered is cooking ma ma. haha. Which comes to remind me, I do like cooking and baking and stuff like that, so why not I turn my blog into a cooking recipe heaven. So from now on, I will try to update this blog with some recipes of foods that I like, and also include some of the stuff that I made myself. So cool rite. I'm so excited that I think I'll start immediately after this entry.