Major milestone for 2.4km run!

Yesterday was a breakthrough! For the first time in 3 years, I've managed to pass my 2.4 run at a groundbreaking (For me at least) 12 min 58 seconds! I'm so touched and overwhelmed when I completed the run. Thanks to all who "help" me on my way...I love you all!

This Sunday will be the Japanese "O" Levels...no...more like PSLE...no, maybe Kindergarten leaving examination...but whatever. I have to do my best!

I'm overloaded with a lots of thoughts lately. Here's a small list to remind myself of the things I wanted to do...

1) Find a file logging program so I can keep track of my CDs
2) Start hunting for S.H.E again!
3) Continue training for NAPFA!
4) Revised my mathematics (Yes I mean it!)
5) Clean up my H/D!

Bu Xiang Zhang Da!

Yes! S.H.E long overdued 8th Album is finally here. This is the longest period of "rest" they've taken in between albums (1 Year!). They used to release album on average like every 8 months.

Anyway, my "initial impression" of the album songs after listening to the songs like once...is that, this is a very "spread-out" albums. Most of their albums in the past are like: 4 ****1/2 Stars Songs, and the rest are like *** stars.

There's no "groundbreaking" songs in this album, but all the songs I've heard so far are above average ones. So it's definitely worth it! Track 9 (Their first ever own creation) is the most interesting one so far...

P.S: The best songs are the one that can last...

Rest in peace Eddie...

What a loss for the WWE and wrestling fans. Eddie Guererro has passed away...it's sad indeed. I don't think there will ever, ever be an entertainer like Eddie again. You are the man!

For my work updates, it's Flash, Flash and more Flash. First we got Flower Kitty, then we got Magician Gift, and now, coming soon, Scary Girl. Internship = ADVA course, but I'm getting more and more used to Flash and it's syntax/coding style.

Basically, I've got my "weekly schedule". I'll go running on friday, saturday/sunday, and tuesday/wednesday/thursday. Monday I'll got for Japanese class. Goody goody~

Update next time see ya.

1st week of Internship....

Well well. First week of internship, 5 full days of Flash really killed my brain cells. However, I must say that I've learnt a lot more about flash. Hard to imagine that 5 days ago I can barely do any actionscripting, and little more than the most basic user interactions.

Over the week, I've learnt how to organize movie clips, naming, loading external text files and much more. I am able to do all these in Java, but now I can do them in Flash as well.

There's this guy name Hong Hui in the bunch of interns, and he's a very interesting person I must say. I forgot to mention that he asked our supervisor about the presence of "Fire Escape Routes" during the 1st day of our tour.

Yesterday, Zhimin and I was heading for lunch and we met this blind lady. Him offering to guide her to the station gave me a better impression of him. Today, I discovered that Jolene actually listens to Chinese Pop music as well (I always thought she's a "ang-moh" person). Good to know that she like S.H.E as well.

Finally, I've completed the first task given to me...(Watering Flower Kitty -_-)...now...I can finally rest...in...

...

nah! Time to play game!

Holidays are over, 1st day Internship!

Yes, the short holidays are over. I've generally accomplished most of my stated goals. I've revised Japanese, completed my Flash portfolio and trained up more.

1st day of internship was an extremely stressful one. We reach there exceptionally early and our supervisor briefed us, then we took a tour around. Pretty cool place. The employees there are like hungry ghosts trying to poach us to work. We were very quickly assigned tasks and went off to our own business.

I really had a hard time adjusting. Flash is REALLY not my speciality. I hope I can do better...I must not like this 4 months go to waste like this. I vow to master Flash.

Class Chalet...

Yes, our 1st, and possibly last Class Chalet was over, last Friday to Sunday.

Friday: Meet Ben & Adriel in school to check up on internship posting, and yes, I got posted to MOE. After that, we took a cab (Each paid $6) to Pasir Ris, White Sands and ate at Swensens...Very expensive...Anyway, we reached the Chalet at around 4pm, and almost went to play soccer straight away. The ground was extremely muddy. Adriel was going about his usual craze again (lost control). Ben did some extremely funny crap, showing the "Angsana" around trying to distract people. After the soccer session, we went back to proceed on with the BBQ. A group went out to KTV while me, glenn, zhiwei and xuanjie stayed back to play the "Blow Cow King", the loser have to take a sip of beer. Zhiwei was extremely unlucky and lost like 50% of it, most where he "catch" and the amount was just right, or being caught with 1 less dice.

Later that night, we "bluff" our way all the way from like 1am to 3am before "deciding to sleep". We never actually did. We were doing all kind of crap in the dark like watching "Ah Lang" and talking lot of bullshit. Mengzhi was extremely gay & tried to "violate" me...

Saturday: Bluff more, Blow more cows, play more soccer, play more mahjong. Later, we hired 11 bikes. Went back to the chalet and played "murderer" game. From eye twitching to hand wave plumping...We ride the bikes to bowling, then began the "true ride of the life". We ride from 1:30 to almost 4 to reach a "ulu" coffee shop to eat a piece of roti prata, then ride another 2 hours back...very shagged...and my butt is still pain now...

Sunday: Sleepz...and more sleep. Finally it's time to go home...And when I reach home? Sleep from 1pm to 10pm...

Holiday goals update 3

Been a freaking long 2 weeks or so. I don't know where to start, but basically the "Main Event" is the CMPB trip, which I will remember for a long long time. That place is horribly hard to get to, and I had to waste like $8 cab fare to get to and back from Redhill MRT.

Anyway, thanks to Zhiwei advice, I decided to go there in the morning instead of my appointed time of 1pm, as he suggest it would be very crowded, and if I couldn't finish it in time, I would be request to come back another day (nightmare!) Luckily, everything went pretty smoothly for me. Of course, there were embarassing moments (which I shall not mention). At the end, there's a sort of test, followed by a very very very (x100) survey...the questions asked were extremely repetitive and really peeves me. I didn't really take the test very seriously, and most important of all I've long forgotten 90% of what I've learnt in my secondary years...sigh...

Following up the trip, I've been focusing more on my NS training now. Been constantly going swimming with Mengzhi (now I can swim 6 laps when he swim 10). I remember like 2 months ago when I barely know how to swim (and don't even have to stamina to swim 1 lap). It's a huge improvement. Yesterday, I went for my first ever 2.4km run in a LONG time, and I mean it. I don't think I've run 2.4 ever since 'O' levels. That's holy 3 years! I did a "record-breaking" 14 mins...I need at least 13:10 to pass, so I better buck up!

Other than that, most of my time are spend warcrafting (dotaing...) at home. Oh, and of course, not forgetting my Portfolio! It's almost completed as I write this! It's not of "professional" quality yet in my opinion (I'm not skilled in Actionscript), but it's already a huge improvement in design if you compare to what I did merely 1 - 2 years ago...I looked through A LOT of portfolio designs & revamped my ideas various times before getting this one.

Finally...Black & White 2 gone gold! Civilization 4 gone gold! The Movies gone gold! So many games...so little time! I'll be getting them one by one in the upcoming weeks. Gonna be great fun!

Well, that's about it!

Holiday goals update 2

Alright, it was a busy busy week.

Tuesday to friday, had to go for JLPT preparation course in school. The time spent is definitely not wasted as I finally had a chance to gauage the difficulty of the test and how well I'll do...and I say, not very well. Nevertheless, I still picked up a lot of things, clear up lots of aspects of the language. My listening is still very weak although. Will try to buck up in this coming week.

Thursday, went swimming with Mengzhi. I think he quite pro...or maybe I too lousy. I can't swim for "extended" period of time -_-. Still, it was a "breakthrough" for me...I think I swim around 4 laps (back and forth), highest no I ever did.

Friday, went to Sentosa...been a long time since I went. Lots of people too. We played soccer & dodgeball (I skipped the basket). Also talk about lot of crap with toby ("wuxia" stuffs). When we're done, we kind of sat in "darkness" and see if Toby can spot us. He didn't...and he went off to the bus-stop on his own before we reveal our prank.

At the end of the day, most of them went to Serangoon to eat. Me, Zhiwei and Lamb ate at the Habour Front MRT before returning home...And when I reached Ang Mo Kio station, I message toby, and he told me they haven't even start eating yet...

So...that's a wrap.

Holiday goals update 1

Yes, I am listening to "Reaching for the Stars" album right now! Pretty cool and the majority of the songs were good. (All 4 S.H.E ones were nice too, and I like JS one) So this bring the total number of S.H.E songs to 69...cool!

Alright, for my holiday goals, today I went to Amy's house (yes the lady who asked me to teach her Computer stuffs) and earn some extra cash...the place is really far although. It's been a long time since I earned some money on my own, 2nd time to be exact. And I don't want to remind myself of the 1st.

For my Portfolio, everything is going pretty smoothly. I've came up with the basic concepts (I redraft it like 3 times), and picked up this book call "Marcomedia Flash MX 2004 Hands On Training" by Rosanna Yeung and studied it pretty throughly. So at least now I've got the basics of Flash, so hopefully I won't flop during the Internship (and this preparation can make my internship easier) Hopefully I can get the overall structure & theme of my Portfolio by the end of next week, then I can start adding in the content.

As for the NS training, I'm making good progress. Been to the gym & swimming...Ganbatte! I think I worked out a bit too much during the gym trip although...nose bleed...

P.S: he client that we're supposed to do a website for...don't know he go where die liao...GG client.

Holiday Goals!

Alright, 5 weeks of holidays, but big goals ahead! Listed from most important to least important.

1) Train up for NAPFA. About a little more than 3 months left! Have to buck up! Been constantly training push up & sit up at home for quite some time already. Say...by end of the holdiay, I must be able to do 45 push ups at 1 go, and 40 push ups in a minute. (Currently is about 40 & 30..Haha) Also, here's the schedule: Train for 2.4km run at least every alternate days & go swimming at least twice a week!

2) Learn Flash! This is to prepare for the highly possible upcoming internship at MOE where I'll be doing Flash. I have to go through Actionscript...(Which is an absolutely pain)...but one big motivation is that I'm planning to do a Flash Portfolio by the end of the holiday! It doesn't have to be a very 'pro' one, but it would serve just as an "mini assignment". If I can complete the Portfolio...then I must know some Flash. Perhaps at the end of the internship my Flash will be more pro, then can redesigned my true Flash Portfolio.

3) Japanese JLPT (The only test recognized worldwide) prepration class, gonna be from 4th Oct to 7th Oct (Tue - Fri), 9am to 1pm. This will definately serve as a good change to "recompile" my Japanese knowledge.

4) Ben planning to start another project already (conceptualization stage), and it's massive, VERY massive, easily 10 times bigger than the Final Year Project. Regardless of whether it gets started or not, I think it's good to pick up DirectX. Of course I don't think I can mastered it in such a short time, but if I can program some simple stuffs out using DirectX, then I'll be very happy.

5) My website! I'm planning to revamped it (again), but this time to a really more "professional" one, not such a casual one. Of course I'll still put lame information and crap but the current design is too newbish. I think I've establish a lot more design sense after about 1 year. :D I'll include my portfolio on it too, but this will only be doen if I the free time.

Some Possible Jobs:

1) 1 lady at the WCG asked me to teach her on computer literacy, basically she can ask me anything (Photoshop, Web Design) during about a 2 hour session. I gave her my contacts. I think I'll charge her $40 - $50 a session (market price)

2) Mr Tan Boon Yan got lobang for Ben & me! Anyway, we're suppose to design this law firm site (mini) and we're planning to charge $800 for this project.

3) The law firm guy wants to offer a Law Firm job as an errend runner. I'm not sure if I'm going to take this up as my holiday schedule are heavy enough. But the greatest incentive I think is probably the testimonial at the end. It would greatly depend on the timing, the location, and salary of course.

As you can see, tough schedule ahead! 'Ganbatte' for me!

1st KTV session in 2 years!

Today is the last day of semestral exams! So happy! I should be able to do pretty well. After school, I went for the 2nd KTV session in my entire life.

My first KTV session, I still remembered quite clearly, was with Chee Hoong on the day, before S.H.E Superstar Autograph session. That time was like only the 2 of us and a friend of his in a small room.

Today is different. It's much bigger in scale (and price too!). There were Me, Ben, Zhi Wei, Sean, Ken, Zhe Yu (Not sure how to spell his name, aka Lamb) and Toby! Even though our singing sucks (I must admit), I think we had a great time overall, so it was money well spent!

Erm...some memorable parts to note about the KTV session (In chronological order as I can remember)

1) One night in Beijing by Toby & Sean...nothing to say. They were literally just screaming in the highest pitch possible...Haha...Sean "self high". Speechless...

2)Ben's "mastery" of Jay's rap are incredible! All his rap I catch no ball but Ben seems to get most of them. (8/10) Haha. Too bad I'm not a fan of Jay's songs (I only know a few). Best part was when he sing "Shuang Jie Gun" and we were repeating the chorus after him. Pro~~~~~!

3) Zhi Wei + Toby sing "Honey"! That was probably one of the highlights of the night. I was laughing my *** off. Their "killer baby voices" combined + The super act cute Honey song owns everyone.

Other lame things worth mentioning, we sang some songs like "Rong Shu Xia", even queued a stupid "Xiao Ding Dang" (Doraemon song), then of course we got Jacky's Wu own "Xiao Jie, Zhe Shi Wo De Min Pian"...Towards the end we also sang the "Tuo Diao" together!

Good times~!

Gonna be a great holiday season!

Finally, some of my most anticipate games will be coming out. As of this writing, I'm already playing Fable, Black & White 2 gone gold, The Movies's coming in November. (Great games from Lionhead, thanks Peter Molyneux!)

In addition to those are Civilization: Rise & Fall, Age of Empires 3, Civilization IV, Heroes Of Might & Magic V, Smackdown VS Raw 2006, the new Suikoden spinoff...& I could go on and on. All these great games will be coming out 1 after another in the up-coming 6 months. I can't wait! It'll be my last wave of gaming craze before National Service. :D

2 more days to GAME exam & this semester will finally be over. After which I have 4 - 5 weeks of holiday. (Black & White 2 should be the only game, but my most anticipated one, which will be coming out during the holiday) Meanwhile, rumor that Stronghold 2 Deluxe pack would be coming out soon. (An example of a great game that was forced to release before it was ready. The developers have been working on the latest patch for more than 2 months now. It's gonna be off the chain)

I'm gonna have to do lots of stuff during this short holiday. Hope I can accomplish them...

Before the exams...

Wah...another few days didn't update. Anyway, finally cleared the final presentation of FYP, GAME interview and JSPG interview today. All the assignments are offically done.

This morning went to Queenstown with Ben to collect Hyper Relay Polo Tee receipt. Ate at the Oscar's Food Mall. Really nice food there.

Talked a lot about this ambitious game project. I shall not reveal it here. Perhaps we may be able to embark on it. Also Tan Boon Yan and Shirley got some external & freelance works for us. I'm ok with it, but it depends on our abilities and the client requirements.

For now, I shall study for the JSPG exam next monday...I have lots of things to accomplish this holiday. I shall write in again my goals in the next post. Later.

3 Assignments gone gold! Japanese test!

I think it's been a long long time since I felt such great satisfaction. I handed in 3 assignments today.

JSPG Zap Engine -- Gone Gold! ZapEngine sells automobile parts. I have no idea whey they want hardcopy which DRAINS my printer ink at an alarming rate...I think there's probably 80+ pages hardcopy of the codes...Vanchin - Ho Li Si!

GAME Pacman3D 2005 -- Gone Gold! This is my first 3D game written in OpenGL Java, and probably the best game I've created in the Poly. The GAME module was actually one of the main factor which resulted in me choosing this course 3 years ago after 'O' Levels. And finally I've completed this module!

FYP Hyper Relay -- Gone Gold!
16 weeks of Final Year Project finally came to an end (leaving only the final presentation). It was great. Everyone's hard work finally paid off. Woo!

In addition, the Year 3 Japanese test today -- finally cleared, with "flying colours" (Not very sure, but it has been a LONG time since I believe I did well at the Japanese test) Also think it's the best oral I had. I was able to quickly grasp and understand and answer what Yukiko Sensei was saying! (Even myself was shocked. I was never good at the japanese oral and always flop) This test definitely bring back some of my confidence in Japanese Language...

World Cyber Games 2005...

Been a long time since I updated as I was too busy rushing assignments. Yesterday was the end of WCG 2005.

Very interesting events. Lots of pretty girls (Samsung section...), lots of cool gadgets & of course the cosplay. Then there was Xbox gaming, with particular interest is the Conkers game which Xuan Jie seems to take a particular liking of.

There were a lot of "Kopers" that came to our booth just to "kope" the souvenoirs...they stayed throughout the whole event just to do that. Not like I could say them because at the end of the day, Xuan Jie, Ben & Me each kope at least 1 box of Screwdrivers, about a dozen magnets & 2 dozens post it...

Looking forward to WCG International...wonder if I'll be able to see Grubby?

The superstar reign has ended...

Finally...the 5 months long Jue Dui Superstar finally ended. Kelvin, Wei Lian won. Not that I really care since those I supported already out.

The one I support the most from start to end was Derrick. I think his singing is really unique, listen already very got "feel". Too bad he got eliminated at the 2nd last round. Some said it's because he's going for NS and Mediacorp would lose money by letting him win. But whatever. He is still the one I support the most, and if 1 day he release his album, I will DEFINATELY support.

The 2nd one I support is Shi Xin Hui. Unlike derrick, I didn't really like her at the start. She looks really terrible. Like the judges say, 42 inch television. Her hair is horrible. I didn't like her. Watch the clip where she sings Revolution (F.I.R). Terrible. But later on, she really improved tremendouly, from the semi-finals onwards. The one that really struck me and captured my attention was "Kang Ding Qing Ge". That song was really what won over me. Super powerful. Even now after listening so many times, it can still make me "high". I think she can be the successor of singers like Zhang Hui Mei (especially with so many "little princess" style of artists nowadays). She has a really powerful voice. Too bad she got eliminated at the final round by Kelly. Very very disappointing.

Another I support is Junyang. Like him from Jie Kou (2nd Quarter) onwards. I hope he gets together with Candyce (I think among the female she is the most pretty). ^_^ Leon's not bad. Unfortunately it was down to him and derrick at the revival round.

Well. I've said my piece. Contest over! Looking forward to it coming back again next year! Jia you Derrick & Xin Hui!

Fallen sick again...

I don't consider myself to be a sickly person, but I estimate that I've fallen sick about 5 times during my 2 1/2 years so far in the Poly.

Actually wanted to post this up yesterday but was too sick to do that. Even now I'm too weak to go to school. Doctor fees cost me $32 and the medicine given to me was exactly the same I fell sick the last time. This is terrible. I hope I don't fall sick again.

Advanced lifts at MOE

On 24th August, I went for my first ever job interview as an Intern, at MOE (Yes, the one that all students in Singapore dread). It was an..."eye opening" event for me. I felt like a retard. (At least when I first reached there) It took me a considerable amount of time to find the security guard and exchange for visitor stuffs. Then I went into this "lift waiting" area. The lift door opens and about 3 other guy went in. I followed.

The door closes. The lift starts moving upwards. I looked around. No buttons! Not a single lift button! 4...5...6 up the lift goes. The other guys in the lift simply stood there and look at the "floor display" while I continue to hunt for buttons. The only thing I can see on the wall is the "press when lift is stuck"button and a red thing that looks like a button. I thought I need to hit that on the floor I wanted the lift to stop. Then the lift stops at the 10th floor and 1 lady stepped out. I followed after her not knowing what to do. (I'll go crazy if I continue staying in that lift)Now I'm at the 10th floor.

All the lifts have no buttons that enable you to summoned them. Instead, some kind of strange "security panel" is placed at the lifts. I thought I need some security code to use the lift. Alright, now what am I gonna do? Luckily, the lady came back to my rescue. That was not a security panel. You hit the floor you wants to go to, then the display will show the lift you're supposed to go to. Then you go there and wait for the lift. I felt like a complete retard from a 3rd world country after that.

Seriously I've never seen anything like this before. Woe is me!

Anyway, everything went more smoothly after that. Met some other familiar faces from the Poly and went for the interview together. By the time I posted this, I already know that it's a success. I'm gonna have to work for MOE for my last bit of time left in the Poly as an Intern. Good luck to me!

The beginnings of time...

On 26th August, around 6am, I woke up and something struck me - It's time for me to create my own blog. I've never kept a dairy, and I know that 20 years down the road I need to have something, some memories that will remind me what I have dowe 20 years in the past when I'm still a "kid". Anyway, I'm very glad to sign up with blogspot. Very easy interface & procedures. I took less than 5 minutes to register and the time now is 7:00am. My blog is borned!