Zhi Wei's 21st Birthday Gathering

2nd June 2007...

Originally wanted to go early one...but no transportation. Anyway, I eventually decide to meet Ken and gang at Pasir Ris...

Man... what a nightmare. Once again seeing the "White Sands" shopping center. The all too familiar "Interchange to Hell"... I still remember it so vividly like it's yesterday. I almost got the "booking in" feeling... Hard to imagine that's already 6 months ago.

The scenery, the surroundings... just give me the creeps. The only thing that save me is that it doesn't fall on a Sunday. I still remember last time. When Sunday afternoon time arrives (3pm), my mood will immediately take a dive... and hit rock bottom at around 8pm.

Well...well...anyway, that's ALL IN THE PAST! And I am so relived that I'm BACK IN REALITY. And reality is I am a FREE man now. (Well, not totally...yet. But at least better than the past)

Alright...back to the birthday. We arrived just in time to sing the birthday song for Zhi Wei. Haha. Anyway, it's good to see the old friends again... even though the things we do is a little... lame.

Congrats Ben for the one year anniversary, and the "soon to come" Xuan Jie and Glenn. And of course, Xuan Jie is getting the Kit Kat soon? Let's give our hands to PC Chew! (aka PCC!) Also seen Ken, Xinting, Yiwen, Mengzhi (3 Stripe-per that sleeps everyday), Waicheng, Samantha. Some whom I totally never seen since the Poly times.

As for the things we do... we played "Card games". The first is one where everyone attempts to get a Straight by exchange cards. After that, we must subtly place our index finger above our mouth... The last one to realize it will lose. -_-

Next is a "Calculation Game". Basically, 4 cards are randomly chosen, and you have to attempt to add, minus, multiply, divide them in any order to get 24. A very interesting game, but can be a huge headache, especially when everyone else got it. But no matter how hard you try, you can't figure it out. I think there's some special technique to this game. Like to get the "factors" of 24. Or try removing a card (For example, a 10 - 5 = 5, and you get rid of the 10). Or try grouping the cards together to form 2 numbers. I think the people around us are all like "WTF is wrong with these group of strange people... sitting in a circle and staring at 4 cards".

Yah. That's basically all we did. -_-... A bit lame. They went to Cage after that but I decided not to go. Tiring activity.

PC Show 2007

A nightmarish total disaster... at least that's what I've heard, and it probably is.



1) Long traffic jam which starts all the way from Sim Lim.
2) Human traffic jam as far back as Suntec Harvey Norman.
3) A suntec elevator which requires you to press down in order to go up.
4) Escalators which are so near yet so far because of the tight space and huge crowd.
5) Exit staircases which double up as a smoker's corner and the floor littered with cigarette butts.
6) Booth passageways which is as narrow as 1.5 metres and jam packed with people squeezing. (At every corner mind you)
7) Prices which are more expensive than at Sim Lim.
8) Items which you want to buy but out of stock.
9) Doesn't help with the World Book Fair going on at the same time.

What's more, LOTS of Ah Sohs and Aunties who probably know NOTHING about computers, there to "join in the fun". Woo! Some were even "garang" enough to bring the prams with toddlers, "machiam" shopping in supermarket. Then there's those families, that probably only the father is shopping. Wife and kids tagging along. Father stop, WHOLE family stopped and block the walkway. Super terrible.

Please people. The PC Show is NOT Takashimaya... If you have no business there, then don't go there just because everyone else is going -_-.

And adding to that, there were no floor plan. As a result, I spent nearly 2 hours searching for the Razer booth. (When your movement speed is like 10m/min)

Well anyway, I managed to hoot a Razer Diamondback + ExactMat package for $69. Originally want to hoot the DeathAdder one.. but have to top up for the ExactMat, and they don't have any sample of the product to test. Anyway, I'm extremely happy with the Mat, but the Diamondback a bit too big for my hand. The scrollwheel especially too far away. But all other aspects is great (especially the clicking).

Saw Andrew at the PC Show! LOL! Didn't expect to see him again so soon. Seems like he's doing part time at the PC Show after ORD. Haha.

And finally, I am still undecided on with 22'W LCD to get. Haiz. Samsung, Dell, Asus, Viewsonic. So many different brands, mixed reviews and response. The price is also not particularly attractive (only like 5% cheaper than SLS). Some-more buy there cannot test. Ahhh... headache. Think I'll hold out a little longer, but before the GST hike in July. And I can't wait anyway.

Super shagged today cause just came back from overnight stay at "chalet"... After that straight away go to PC show liao. Then went home. Totally no mood to go to the S.H.E Exchange Album Cover thing... :(

P.S: By the way, do you know the "4 Big Events" of the Singapore IT Industry? It's the IT Show in March, PC Show in June, Comex in September and Sitex in December. Basically there's a big show every quarter. Somehow, it reminds me of Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania (Also termed as the "Big 4"), LOL!

2nd Annual Official TCZ Gathering...

Ahh...It's been a year?

Time...

is moving...

so...

SLOWLY...

Why?! Why?! Why has it only been a year?!

Haha. That's what happen when you're in the army. I remembered during the 1st Gathering, I wasn't even enlisted yet. That time I was still listening to those "horror stories" of the army life. And now I'm already part of it.

I went to Sim Lim before the gathering to survey the prices of some of the items I want, namely and most importantly the LCD, as well as a mouse and keyboard (Razer). I finally saw the highly recommended by HWZ fans, legendary Samsung 226BW... Whew. It's amazing. I just stood there staring at the screen for like a minute. It looks freaking awesome but the price tag looks freaking awesome too. Haha. Still I am very very very tempted to get it. If it gets to the right price I will definitely get it at the show.

I'm also looking at the Razer mouse and keyboard. Looks like there's one "Value Combo" at the PC show with a mouse built for RTS Gaming! Just what I am looking for~ A noteworthy mention is I got to try out the "Wii" machine! LOL. So Fun. At that time it was showing a demo on a bowling game. So basically you just do the bowling action, and it'll detect your swinging speed, etc... Really cool.

Anyway, the gathering was mainly just sitting down and chit-chatting like last time. BRS already signed on and now a "3 Stripe"... First time actually sat down with the Mr Wee and talk with him. LOL Later on I went around with GS to look around Marina Square, and I stepped into an aracde. Something which I haven't do in months.

Finally saw the "3 Kingdoms" game they were talking about. Nowadays, aracde games also can be so advanced. It's basically like an RTS games, where you buy character cards (acting as armies) to move around the field.

Last event of the day was "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"! I was quite disappointed actually as I was expecting more action. I liked the previous 2 much more. The 3rd one was a lot of story-telling, and more story telling. Doesn't really have as much sword sparring/ship battles scenes. They only throw in a huge fight scene at the very end. I guess it's a satisfactory conclusion to the Trilogy... Oh yeah. Don't miss the cut-scene after the credits (more than 80% of the people left right after the credits roll), it showed a bit of what happens after 10 years...

That's all folks~!

At A Very Downtime Of My Life...

I am so OVERWHELMED this few weeks. Things just kept happening. Things just kept getting dumped onto me. Sometimes I feel that I am going to get buried by all these crap very soon. Buried ALIVE.

So stressful. I've been doing "OT" for the 3 consecutive weeks, and I'm been called up to do all sort of crap. Everything I've planned since the start of the month got
ruined.

Even during my free day (which was way overdue), I receive 4 CALLS from my workplace telling me "Hey you got more OT to do!". WTF... I can't even rest in peace.

Then that day, when I received the bad news, I kanna whack by bird shit. Hit 4D also not so "zhun"... That was the FIRST TIME ever in my life that I was hit by a bird dropping. It landed (luckily) on my bag, not my head. At that time I know that I'm like going to 走酶运 for quite some time liao...

My health also gets greatly affected. I'm been having this chronic headache for the past 3 days (but I still teng to go to work), as there's no other choice. Worst is when the condition worsen on my rest day. I've barely eaten anything the whole day, and I even felt like vomiting.

And on top of that I still have this very difficult to handle assignment to take care of. It's been going on forever and doesn't seem like it's going to get done. I've wasted at least 3 of my rest days doing this in addition to time after work. Yet what I did kept getting scraped, modified, rejected... Imagine you're a chef and you've spent 2 hours cooking this dish, and its get dumped into the garbage bin just because the customers decided to order another dish (and you get "sai" for it).

ALL OF THESE....are like rocks crushing down onto me. One by one their damage is not that big. But when it all comes together it's really fatal...

I hope this period of time can go pass soon... If it continues for any longer... I don't know what will happen to me.

S.H.E 10th Album Review

Alright I think by now all the songs have "stabilize" enough for me to do a good review for the album...

中国话 - Eastern tongue twister combined with Western Rap. A brand new style of song "invented" by them that's easy to pick up (the tune, not the lyrics) It really set the "Play" mood for the album. I thought there could be a climax for this song (like one more super duper difficult verse), instead of repeating the chorus 3 times at the end...Usually, a song that's easy to catch on lose its flavor just as quickly.

謝謝你的溫柔 - I thought it was a nice song when it starts...until I heard the chorus. Gosh. Totally spoilt the song. No doubt Wen Rou is one of the best and classic song from Mayday...but Fei Lun Hai totally ruin the song. First, their vocals are not that good. The lead (Jiro I think) male sounds so deep and forced. The song is like so soothing and releaxing...and then suddenly, "RAWH RAWH RAWH!" (The chorus)...What the hell man. They let Fei Lun Hai sing for the sake of promoting them, at the expense of a song with such a huge potential. It would have been much better if they just let S.H.E sing all of it.

听袁惟仁弹吉他 - Again, another brand new style of song not found in their previous albums. I absolutely love the "La la la la~" background tune. It's just so soothing to the ears. This song talks about a fan of Yuan Wei Ren and his "Song Writing Journey", and how he never gives up, and how we get to see S.H.E works after such a long time. I love the lyrics that goes "運氣好被公司保留, 但保留不一定會用, 用又不一定會被打". Very simple words, but totally describes the pain of composers. And of course, Hebe's solo part is really unmatched.

P.S: Yuan Wei Ren is one of the most important composers to S.H.E. Without him, they would be missing so many of their classics. Think of Yuan Wei Ren to S.H.E as Fang Wen Shan is to Jay Chou.

五月天 - Another tranquil song that's really sweet. The one that's easy to make everyone fall in love with. It's actually the sequel to 触电. The former talks about 2 strangers that just met, and have this "chemistry/electricity" going on between them. Here, they're already a couple and enjoying the sweetness of the new-born love.

借口 – Jay Chou’s parody. The lyrics are made up of a lot Jay’s songs. The melody is like 止战之伤 plus 忍者 plus 乱舞春秋 plus 以父之名 plus…well, a lot of that kind of elements. You can actually hear the tune from these songs quite clearly if you listen carefully. Very creative. I like it. Beats Jay at his own game.

BOOM - It has a nice beat and rhythm, but the western flavor is too strong for me (personal opinion). I don't really listen to English songs, so this doesn't appeal to me a lot.

再别康桥 - This one is like the direct opposite of BOOM... the kind of China Style music and lyrics. The words are really "chim"... I can barely understand it at all. But the tune is very nice.

伦敦大桥垮下来 - Playful, Whacky... Better than I.O.I.O, but still can't match up to 怎么办

说你爱我 - It reminds me of 我们怎么了. I used to think of it as a typical love ballad, but the more I listen to it the more I grew to love it. And now it's one of my favourite S.H.E song. This song is having the same effect on me. I love the chorus part, especially the "把愛墜落讓滿地鮮紅".

好心情 Just Be Yourself - Groovy, Hip Hop. Typical Tao Zhe song -_-. It's not bad but it's not that fantastic either.

老婆 – Sounds like a sequel to 魔力. Written by Selina and Ella. Tranquil, soothing, even touching. But it still can’t top its prequel.

This album marks a major change in their style for a long time (the last time was way back in the Superstar era). It doesn't have so many of those 'S.H.E-ish" song anymore, which is like a good and bad thing. I like all the new styles they've attempted, but they could have kept a few of the "S.H.E-ish"?

I miss my 天灰，候鸟 etc... There's not a single song close to these in this album, which is kind of disappointment...