Renovations Complete!!

It took me many hours, but the new blog theme is finally done!

The old theme had way too many broken CSS/HTML codes and looked like it was gonna fall apart anytime. Probably coz I didn't know any web design at all back then. Totally zero. But internship has let me learned much CSS and web design. So, now puttin' it to good use eh?

Anyway, regarding the changes. Well the first thing you'll notice, is the new layout. Duh! It's now more grayish and clean looking, compared to the messier one before. I was trying to go for a more Web 2.0 look, and I really loved the cursive fonts the moment I saw them. And of course, the icing on the cake, is the touch of Javascript animation running at the top of the page. Like floating clouds.

The old theme basically represented a diary scrapbook. Where I randomly penned my ideas, thoughts and reflection. It worked for awhile. Until you realized that nobody really cares about your thoughts.... So, this new theme is kind of like me living by myself in a lonely house on a hill..

Okay, the second thing you'd have noticed by now if you waited for it. I totally removed the Jukebox. Mixpod wasn't working anymore, and  even when it did it only blasts at max volume. It was just a legacy piece of crap that had to go. So, I spent many hours finding a suitable alternative.

So, what we have now is a slim and stylish music player bar, located at the bottom of your browser. The great thing about this new one, is that it doesn't just "reset" you, when you click on any link. Your music will literally follow you from page to page and continue playing seamlessly! I was also kind enough to set default volume to 10%, but you can turn it up if you like. Hopefully we'll save quite a few eardrums this way.. The next thing I did, was to completely revamp the entire songs playlist. I painstakingly combed thru my entire music list to find more mellow, acoustic and feel-good songs, that didn't start with a bang, albeit still containing great lyrics. You can even view the new playlist by clicking the bottom right button.

Hopefully now, some people (ahem), will be better able to enjoy the music on my site!

The only bad part about this new theme, is that you can't access the comments from the main page anymore. But then again, that's always been blogger's limitation. You CAN still comment on the posts. But you need to click on the post title first. You will be brought the the full post page, where you can comment. So, no excuses! :P


In any case, thanks for the wait. And thanks for supporting and reading my blog. The new face-lift and revamp is finally done. Though I won't consider it 100% complete. When I have the time (I won't anytime soon), I will continue to make tiny new additions. Like more widgets, links or designs.

So stay tuned!!

Knighthood

YES!!

I finally got it now! Feels like I have just been knighted. lol

To be honest though, the event was kind of a let down. It was held in SR1, not even in an LT or something. Then the whole time is just sit through long talks by various people, mostly of which is only applicable to the freshmen. Boring... Then when it comes to the moment, it's just our names and pictures flashed on the powerpoint with no words said. We were then asked to stand and people clapped. Good enough I guess.

But nonetheless, I feel totally overjoyed. This is like the first big thing I've achieved in quite awhile. I think the only other thing I've did before that is top my level for H2 Computing back in JC. But that was damn long ago liao. Although, that one had a $50 popular voucher to go with it... Haha, I digress.

Wah, today I saw a whole bunch of new faces sia. Freshmen everywhere. Freshmen, freshmen, freshmen.... Oi, I'm not that old okay!!! Hopefully I'll get a chance to mix around with them or the year 2s in IS2102. Really need to expand my group of friends..

So anyway, looks like I'm taking IS3223, IS3102, IS2102 and CP3201 this coming semester. If anyone of you are taking same modules as me, do let me know. I still need project group mates. Still super happy about my award. Dunno what's left to say. Except.... Do check out my picture on the wall when going pass COM 1 level 2 toilet! Hahaha :P

Btw, my internship has ended recently too, that's why got time to blog. I will be posting my thoughts and experiences on that soon enough. But I do hope Damien will send me back the forms soon. I need them so I can submit! 10th Aug deadline sia!



Baby I'll be your everything...

[Photos] Malaysia Trip Dua!

Hello everyone! I finally found some time to post this!

So I went to Malaysia again recently. Probably my last trip there in awhile. Don't think I will be going again soon. :(

This time round though, I took quite a number of pictures. They moved their office from the super ulu i-City to somewhere in Petaling Jaya. At least this new place slightly more happening. lol. Pity this time we only went for 3 nights. Not enough time to fully explore.

While I was there, I got to try quite a few different dishes. First thing then I reached Malaysia, I ate Ninja Joe's pork burger! So funny, to think that Malaysia will have a shop that sells ONLY pork. I thought that wasn't even possible! It wasn't too bad, and the place looks nice. But ghost-town, not many customers around, and I think I kind of know why.

Sunway Pyramid mall is so damn huge we couldn't find our way on the first day. It's probably like Suntec size, and hard to navigate. Some more that idiot walking never wait for me one zzzzz. And I had to carry my luggage up and down an overhead bridge. By the time reached office, totally drenched in sweat. I really hate impatient people who panic too much. Can't stand it.

So anyway, about the area we stay. Well, there were many pubs around haha. Didn't go lah, dun dare one. :P Other than that, not much happening in the area. The hawker food is not bad there, very traditional. I tried their Char Kuay Teow, Chinese rice, Cai Tau Kuay, Satay, Roti Prata, and even the Thai food! All really not bad.

The hotel we stayed at was pretty bad though. Service wise, it totally sucked. The wifi coverage is nonexistent. Water dispenser no water. And the first thing when we tried to check-in, the guy said he gave out our room already. WTF? We got book lor. So he asked us to take the room with window, that apparently costs 20RM more. Not sure why, there really isn't any view.

On day 3, we really went full out for exploration mode. Apparently Google Maps was wrong! Totally wrong! Such that we spent 1 hour walking all over the place in the wrong direction! Eventually, we asked around and found out that it was on the other side. So in the end, we spent about 2 hours just trying to reach Sunway Pyramid again from our hotel. lolol

Overall, it was a nice place though. I took many pictures:

So sad, no more chances to go again in the near future. Overall, I found both trips pretty fun, and I was glad that we got to go different places because they moved their office. I only wish that I had a friend in Malaysia. It would have been really nice to have someone show me around so I don't need to explore by myself....

Oh well, internship is ending soon. Worse still, my holidays are ending soon! Sian!!!! I didn't even get a chance to enjoy much. Work-Sleep-Repeat. I still have so many things to do! Waahh. Nooo.

Summer holidays are ending...

Haiz, tomorrow is back to work. Honestly, I'm slightly getting bored of this. I guess I like to seek change. Excitement. Innovation. Something different. But that's just me.

Ceremony of a lifetime!

BE THERE, OR BE SQUARE!  :P

Feel free to take pictures! Haha jkjk. >_<

Beautiful Lyrics

So I hear there's a new Spiderman film?
Found this appropriate song while on Youtube.




I haven't watched the new Spiderman film, but personally dislike it already. Basically, the new spidey does not look nerd like enough to seem authentic. I mean that seriously! The basic background is that Peter Parker is a nerd turned superhero. And this new dude, whatever his name is, does not look the part.

It matters to me because to me, Spiderman was my favorite comic book hero since I was a small kid. He is the personification of so many things, and a beacon of hope for many people. I loved all the movies as they came out in my teens. I would wait 2 years for every new movie, coz it would always turn out awesome, coz the director and the cast were great.

In my mind, Tobey Maguire will always be the real Spidey.
I'm sorry, the new guy just doesn't cut it.

I'm Alive...

I hope.

It's been a hellish couple of days since I got back from Malaysia. First thing I got back, I went and chiong one IPT training, and the PTI there super garang one lor. We did a whole much of exercises with Medicine Balls and weights. So shack sia.

Before I knew it..... It was Sunday afternoon, and I woke up with a high fever. WTF?

Fever I thought still okay. If normal fever, I can handle no problem. But this one, take a few Panadol still haven't recover. Then there was also the immense stomach pains and diarrhea. Like, I dunno how it really feels, but the pain is probably equal to or worse that a girl's cramps. And I heard those were bad.

So... Either Malaysia food fucked me up bad, or I exercise until too hiong liao. LOL

Then, Monday morning go see Dr. KP Tan coz he is kind of famous. He charged me cheap, but he didn't give me Anti-Biotics leh. And worse, until today still not fully recovered. Sian. I was feeling so terrible that I really felt like I was dying.

And then..... I went and blew a ton of money today. Not worth mentioning, but long story short, it turns out that whenever I have a serious problem, I just need to make one trip to the hospital, step inside, and I'm all fine. Seeing the doctor is totally optional.

Weird......

So basically, I'm feeling slightly better right now, but I will take tmr to rest as well, since covered by MC. A bit guilty of blowing off 1 week of internship, but hey, illness is not a choice of mine. I'd rather work any day.

I do have quite a few photos from Malaysia I'd like to upload. However I'm not really fit to be doing anything now. Will upload soon, I promise.

See y'all soon.







Damn, my tummy still hurtz... >_<

Mind. Body. Soul.

Greetings!

I'm still happy about my recent surprise "present" from the school. It proves that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. However, besides just developing my mental capabilities, I should probably work on my physical fitness too.

Yesterday I just went back to camp for my IPPT, results damn chui. I literally haven't exercise for many many many moths. And I gotta do stupid RT if I can't get it cleared by this year. 20 sessions sia, no way that is gonna happen.

So, I've made up my mind to work on my physical fitness over the course of the next few weeks. Just went for run again today, super tired. But I must keep it up as a consistent effort to lose weight and become fitter. Perhaps I should also sign up for a gym membership while I'm at it, but I don't really know of any good gyms around my area. Any recommendations?

Another challenge I realized is that I hardly ever eat any healthy food. I always tend to go for junk foods instead. LOL. But cannot lah, must cut back a bit. At the very least, I'll still have my Subway okay? :P

Today is just another boring Sunday. My weekends are so hopeless one. Nothing much to do, so usually spend the time sleeping to recharge my battery. Work life can be so tiring sometimes. There is always a TV show on Sunday afternoon that my Dad happens to be watching, so sometimes I walk past will see a bit. But ok lar, looks quite nice.

The soundtrack goes something like this....


it's never so easy.


Today, my spectacles suddenly broke. The white one that I basically wear everyday. I don't wanna think too much into it, but usually when I say that I end up doing it anyway. So here goes. I got my white specs just before Year 1 semester 2. Year 1 was a period of hope for me. I had high hopes for many things and people. But as a passive person, I was usually more reactive than proactive.

As time passed, that hope and aspiration grew more and more faint, and eventually all but vaporized. I guess in a symbolic way, I can see the breaking of this object as an end of that era. It was like something that I had held on for too long, but in the end it finally broke. Coincidentally the recent Dean's List Award bestowed unto me, can be viewed as a beginning of a whole new era of possibilities; of greater investment, development and attention to myself. If nobody is gonna care about you, you gotta look after yourself right?

As egoistic and narcissistic as it is, it's fine by me.
It's not like I have any other priorities right now.


Then again, maybe I'm just thinking too much. I guess I'm just an overly sentimental being.

Certificate of Awesomeness!!

=D

Yooooh!!!!

I'm so happy I'm not even gonna tease or slow roll it at all.

I made it onto the Dean's List!! :)

It was just a random day where I'm minding my own business and doing mundane work stuff. Seriously, they haven't even started us on mobile development even though we only have 1 month+ to go. But anyway, I digress. Basically I was going about my stuff and preparing to knock off from work. Then out came a random email from NUS. It went a little something like this:

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/undergraduates/award_dean.html

At first I thought it was another random spam mail from NUS that I get oh so often. I think I had to read it 2 or 3 times to realize what it meant. Then I was totally shocked and stunned. But that was soon replaced by an overwhelming feeling of achievement, happiness and satisfaction.

Seriously, you don't know how much this meant to me. I totally thought there was no way in the world I was gonna get it. In fact, I made up my mind to work hard to try and get it next semester. Little did I know I could get it now! BUT, that doesn't mean I'm not aiming to get it again next semester!!! :P

This is not just a mere certificate of awesomeness. It is in fact a validation of my determination and efforts; of the many great sacrifices I made along the way; of the pain and hardships I went through; of the sorrow and #foreveralone-ness; and of the exorbitant opportunity costs and "no-life"-ness, that were a prerequisite. I guess in the end... I exchanged one form of happiness for another. Oh well, at least this one I can keep forever.

But I'm really happy right now! So happy that:


I feel like dancin! Hahahaha

=DDDD


EDIT: Thanks to everyone who congratulated me! You guys are awesome too! :)

If I was your boyfriend

LOL




I hate bieber, and the original song. But somehow, I like this version by davedays!
He always puts a pop punk twist to the songs. And this one turned out quite nice!


So anyway, here I am blogging again. Actually I'm waiting for my Visual Studio to download, hence I am typing on a laggy Windows 8 installed via VMware. I literally have to wait for my text to appear after typing them. Doing too many things at once.

So here's a quick update / check-in about what I've been doing these days.

Basically been busy at work most of the time. My company is making me churn out a high volume of website templates at high speed. So all I've been seeing is HTML and CSS full-day everyday. Having went in with absolutely zero knowledge, I would say I'm rather proficient in CSS now. Not that they trained us very thoroughly, but I picked up a lot on my own. Turns out CSS3 is pretty awesome, and I'm barely even scraping the tip of the iceberg.

Now that I've learnt up a lot on CSS though, I'm hoping they move us on to work on the mobile apps soon. Coz that's my main interest, and the crucial goal I had for this holiday. Now that I've pretty much familiarized with HTML and CSS, the only thing left is Javascript. In fact, those 3 technologies are the main foundations of all modern web technologies.

I mean, web 2.0 is all about these open web standards, and making pages as interactive as possible right? Personally, I'm still trying to understand the phenomenon, and the trend in which the web is heading. If I'm not wrong though, every modern site is into Javascript or AJAX to be precise. AJAX being active javascript and XML. Using it means that users are not constantly redirected to new pages or having to spam the refresh button. For example, new Facebook posts just appear at the top of the page without needing you to always hit refresh.

Unfortunately, that is not what is taught in school, and not what my company is using. They are using JSP technology, which is familiar and easier for me to code coz Java is familiar. But it is kinda outdated leh. Hmm... Not completely outdated per se, it has it's uses still but not so useful if you want to go for the more intimate and interactive way of web development.

My suggestion with regards to the mobile app is to use Phonegap. It applies web standards to develop native-like apps, and is very suitable for making phone apps that work on almost every single brand and OS of smartphones. If they want to develop for iPad and other tablets though, that might be a little different. There are different requirements of a bigger screens, and I'm not sure I know how to design for that yet.
But I prefer working on Windows 8 rather than iPad leh, it is the cutting edge new stuff of the future and it is a great opportunity to jump in early. Got chance to earn money. lol

In any case, I will be heading to another Windows 8 training this coming weekend. Hopefully I will learn more from the workshop. After that, have to see how I can port stuff over to Phonegap or something already. Coz lady boss is expecting us to do an app that looks roughly Metro-Style-ish. She likes to swipe through the app.

Starting to feel a bit more stress, coz it seems like a lot of responsibilities is being placed on us. We get to propose our own platform, but also means we will have to deliver a finished product regardless of how long. Meaning to say.... it could eat into our semester! Normally I would be fine with that, but the effing 8MC is no joke leh!! Imagine develop an entire ERP system from scratch! Ouch!

But still...... I'm very interested in doing mobile apps. :P
Let's hope all goes well ya?

[Photos] Learning Trip to Malaysia!

So as many of you know, I recently took a 1 week trip to Malaysia for some company training. I had quite an enjoyable time there, though the journey there and back was immensely tiring.

Anyway, I took some pictures!

Took me some time to figure out how to put them in a slideshow, rather than dump out 20+ pictures in the post. Picasa provided a simple enough to use solution.

Enjoy!

The people in the malaysian office were quite nice to us, and were friendly and willing to talk to us.  The only problems arise when ordering food on our own. Normally the people there will speak Cantonese or Malay, both of which I do not know.

Other than that, coffee shop food is super affordable. The mixed veg rice is self-serv meaning you take the dishes yourself, buffet style! My standard plate only costs 3.50 MYR ($1.50)? Singapore how to find this price?! LOL. The wanton mee there costs slightly more at 5.50 MYR ($3.30). But even then, it came with curry chicken and potatoes. Much more filling than the SG serving size. I usually buy one of those two for lunch, and top if off with a 500ml bottle of Soya Bean at only 2.20 MYR ($0.90)!!

Feels good when your currency totally pwns theirs. LOL!

The KFC and Pizza Hut pricing is quite close to ours though, at most save a little nia. The hotel is slightly disappointing, but fine if you just need to sleep. The promised free jacuzzi is a total scam though. It sucks and is totally isolated one. The hotel room didn't have the promised digital safe, and the hair dryer only came on the last day. The shower inside of the room is awkward to say the least. Having army experience helps... sometimes.


Well, that's all I have to say / can recall about the Malaysia trip at the moment. I know I posted this quite late. Like 2 weeks late? But hey, better late than never right? I'll probably be heading to Malaysia again soon, for second round of training. But this time will be a new place, coz they moved their office (previously was in Klang). Next time round, probably got more things to see and take pictures of.

Til next time, bye!

Results Day

Today was results day!!

I am moderately happy with my results. They were all pretty good. Well, at least good enough that I can't complain. Though if I were to be very picky, IS2104 was rather wasted. Could have scored an 'A' on that one. And IS3221 is another one which was slightly disappointing, I think my presentation/report no good or something. But still the grade is more of less acceptable so cannot complain there. What I will complain about.... is SSB!

OMFG, I was so shocked to see my SSB2216 results when I got back! I was on of the highest for the individual assignment, and I participated, though very rarely. That can only mean one of 2 things. My report screwed up, which is highly possible given that it is written by a group of bloody engineers. No offence, but engineers don't come across to me as great writers. Either that or my exam messed up, which is also possible. I have traditionally sucked at NUS business essay exams. And this one is 2! Two essays in 2 hours is madness. WHERE GOT TIME!!

I guess I'm fated not to take business modules. I tried time and again, gave it chance and tried some more. Total 3 time failed. Fucking upset. I do have a strong interest in business related subjects. But when interest != results I guess you gotta give up... 2 out of my 3 S/U options will be used up by biz mods.

Yeah, looks like I gotta use up my final one liao. :'(

To make matters worse, my Liferay system is not working properly. Remember when I said my laptop harddisk died? Well, I had to replace it. Meaning every fucking thing got wiped clean. So coincident the files I need are the ones that are corrupted. WTF right? Adding to my pressure now, is that boss-man is expecting me to solve everything by 12 noon tomorrow. A bit siao, if you think about it. I have tried more or less every possible thing I can think of.

Then he also kind of expects us to know everything, which can be quite unreasonable. Gary, the guy who maintains most of the system, spent 2 years learning the full ins and outs of it, and he told us that it would take us months to get the proper training. Hence he dun tell us everything, there is no documentation we can read up on, and everything is learn as you go. It's not that I'm not willing to learn. In fact I pretty much impress Gary with my understanding already, but some stuff is still a little too deep for me to grasp. And the entire system is one damn big ER diagram that we dun really get to see. So....... What to do?

Me and Ben have found a few other possible causes for the error that we will try to fix tomorrow. But if all that doesn't work, we might just be fresh out of ideas.

I can seriously go on ranting all night. Unfortunately I have to wake up for work tomorrow and it is 1am+ right now. So this will have to do. I know I sound pissed, but overall still pleased with my results. Scored 'A' for IS2103, which proves my legit Java skillz. Except my work doesn't let me touch the Java code right now. So... Yeah.


Enough complaining! Listen song, then go sleep!





Cute sia...

♪ My Blog Playlist ♫

Yo wassup folks.


I always thought that my blog's music player is very irritating / disturbing to most people. Maybe that's why I don't seem to be getting many visitors, and nobody ever leaves comments anymore....

But I was surprised that I was wrong!

I was even told that a song on my blog is nice. That sure is a pleasant surprise that doesn't happen a lot. So, for the benefit of those who are still curious, I have retrieved the whole playlist and posted it below. Enjoy.

View the Playlist:

[HD/HQ] Simple Plan - Take My Hand
All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret (lyrics)
All American Rejects - Move Along
All Time Low - Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don't) Lyrics
Another Heart Calls(LIVE) - The All American Rejects feat. The Pierces "The List
Automatic Loveletter - Let It Ride.
Automatic Loveletter - The Day That Saved Us
Behind These Hazel Eyes - (lyrics) by Kelly Clarkson
Bruised and Scarred Mayday ParadeFull Lyrics on Screen
Check yes Juliet! (Run baby run) -We the kings w/lyrics! (Studio Quality)
Dear Maria, Count Me In Lyrics
Decoy-Paramore with lyrics on screen
Face Down - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (Lyrics & Song )
Fall Out Boy - I Don't Care
good charlotte the river WITH LYRICS
green day - holiday - lyrics
Hey Monday - Run Don't Walk (With Lyrics)
ignorance paramore lyrics
Let It Ride - Automatic Loveletter with lyrics
Linkin Park - What I've Done(OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO HD)w/ Lyrics
Lost In Stereo
Mayday Parade Anywhere But Here
Mayday Parade-Kids In Love (lyrics)
Paramore - Brick By Boring Brick *LYRICS*
Paramore that's what you get lyrics
Secret Valentine- (lyrics) by We The Kings
She's Killing Me - A Rocket to The moon [DEVIL AND HER LOVE SONG] amv
Skyway Avenue Lyrics- We the Kings
Thanks for the memories
The Academy Is-About a girl with lyrics
The Academy Is-The Test
The All American Rejects - It Ends Tonight With Lyrics.
The Click Five - When I'm Gone Lyrics
Turn It Off-Paramore (lyrics!) HQ
We The Kings - Heaven Can Wait Lyrics
Weightless by All Time Low
Who I Am Hates Who I've Been by Relient K With Lyrics
Wish You Were Here - Hey Monday w/Lyrics

It's just small curated set of songs from the thousands I have on iTunes. I chose some of the more upbeat / high tempo songs. If you would like to add a similar music player to your blog, you can go Google for Mixpod. I am also trying to look for alternatives when I have the time.

My current playlist is super outdated, so most of the songs are at least a few years old, and the selection isn't a lot. I guess I'm just too lazy to go add it at mixpod. But if you happen to like listening to the same types of song as me, you can click on the "Music Videos" link on the right.
------->
That should bring up all the posts that are tagged with the "Music Videos" label. Then you can slowly listen one by one. LOL. But word of caution, I just post what I like one. It's not 100% pop punk songs.

Basically my musical taste is primarily Pop Punk, but I also enjoy good acoustic songs. Occasionally I listen to some chinese songs, though very rarely. I also listen to a good amount of J-Pop/Rock songs but it's just a small selection because I'm not familiar with too many bands. And no, I don't listen to K-Pop songs. Not yet anyway, I haven't found a compelling/attractive enough reason to change my bias.

So, that's that about my music.



About my day, today was considered quite a relaxed day lah. Boss is overseas, and my laptop just resurrected from death. Somewhat at least, it still crashes once in awhile. Dunno WTF is going on with it. I sent my work over to Gary for vetting, but he also took half a day to get back to me, so I was half chillax and half tweaking mode, to improve the CSS.

Moral of the story? I need to get a Macbook Air soon.
Why don't they release it already!!

Oh ya, McDonald's is having the Hello Kitty promotion again! Hahahaha.
I just happened to want to eat it today. Ended up buying one for my sister. LOL. It's the Hamburgler version. Quite cute lah, you can check my tumblr for the pix.

Again, all links on the right --------->

Affinity Indeed, Not Bragging

Just saying...

I went from this :

To this:

To recount what happened, I went home from office after being stuck with the error. Created a bootable Windows 7 USB like every good boy does. Entered the repair/recovery mode by booting from USB. After which, I tried a bunch of different so-called "guides" that supposed to solve the problem.

Namely these few:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=sg&cs=sgdhs1&docid=DSN_362030&isLegacy=true&l=en&s=dhs
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2605/fixing_the_dreaded_unmountable_boot_volume_error/

And the last one made me wait for five f*cking hours for it to complete.
I tried several variations along the way too. But the point here is that none of them worked AT ALL!!!

Then, I got pretty pissed off so I was just throwing random searches at Google. Turns out, most of the "guides" ask me to do some kind of CHKDSK command. Quick search throws up this wiki page. Since "/p" and "/r" did not work for me, I decided to just randomly try out "/f" for the sake of it. I also did a "bootrec /fixboot" after that since it seemed to be beneficial, lol. After that, I just reset-ed my BIOS to the default configurations, and.... voila! It works!!

The Windows 7 flag never looked so pretty to me before...



I recovered from the dreaded UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME BSOD by my own experimentation. Affinity for Technology. 'Nuff said.

Affinity for Technology

I wanted to post up my photos and account of my Malaysia trip, but I haven't really had time to do so. I have more pressing matters to attend to right now.

My freakin Dell laptop died on me out of the blue! Yes blue as in BSOD kind of blue. Grrr...

I only hibernated it last night coz the battery died, and then I resumed it this morning and it was sluggish already. I tried restarting, but it freezed at the closing programs screen. So what was I to do right? I just did a hard-reset lor. Hold le power button for 5 seconds or so, and power on again.

Come on, I'm sure you've done it before. Seems harmless enough. But when I boot up , I get the much dreaded UMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VLOUME error on a BSOD. WTF??!!

In fact, you can't even see the error, it will BSOD, then auto reboot before you can see it. I had to meddle around to stop that, then read the error message. After a bit of Google, I found out that it is one of the worse problems one can get. That means boot sector chui liao. Woots?


I'm trying to create my bootable USB stick, but that one also don't wanna cooperate with me, dunno gimme wtf error. Haiz... Just my unlucky day. Dunno what happened to my affinity for technology lately.

You know, I've always believed in such a thing as an Affinity for Technology. What I would describe as having the natural intuition to figure out and just "Know" how to operate and manipulate technology. It doesn't just apply to technology. People can have it in other fields too, but mine is technology specific.

I've always had an affinity for technology since young. I always just seem to figure out how stuff work, and understand how everything functions together. In contrast, I've seen many people struggle with technology, some even avoiding it altogether. There are also a couple of people I know taking the same course as me, who have no affinity for technology. It is evident in their constant struggles to get simple things to work, to no avail.

But that is besides the point.....

DELL LAPTOP!! Y U NO WORKING TODAY!!! RAWR!! 
>:(

Chapter Four: Growth Unleashed

Yo minna!


I know I haven't been keeping this blog updated. I was simply too tired after getting home from work each day. There are probably a few other things that I should get to doing, but I haven't quite done it yet...

So anyway, I've recently started the Student Internship Program (SIP) thingy. It gives me free 6 MCs credits which I don't even need anyway, but more than that, it gives valuable learning opportunities and work experience that will be helpful when you are looking for an actual job. Not to mention, it does give a little bit of spare cash. Not a lot, but enough to maybe pay for my meals everyday.

I'd recommend everyone to go for an internship. Though it might be too late to apply now. At least get a part time job, and don't be lazy and slack off for 3 months. Brain will rot one, trust me I've did it before.

You may have notice that I titled this post as Chapter Four. I am not longer in Chapter Three anymore. As I mentioned quite long ago, each new significant stage of life will be a new Chapter for me. Last year I was too slack and didn't do anything, so holidays was not a new chapter. But I think this time it is significant enough to warrant it.

I applied for numerous companies for internship, but eventually settled for Barterfli coz they replied first. Barterfli is a very small start-up firm that aims to help other SMEs get the right connections and e-commerce platforms online. You can read up their website to learn more, but I think that's the gist of it.

About the people in the company, I was originally hoping to meet many new people at internship, but here only got me and Benjamin. But I guess it's okay lah.... This is like a really tiny company. The "office" is just a small room in a clinic, and typically it's just the 3 of us: Boss, Me and Ben. A little boring sometimes, but being a tiny company has it's benefits. Like greater transparency and freedom, I hope.

Now, I don't wanna give the wrong impression. Our CEO Rita is actually quite a nice person. She does look after our welfare. Sometimes she will give us a lift to the nearest MRT, and she treated us to lunch once. Perhaps I'm just picky, but I feel communication and planning can be done better. You see, how it works is that we have another person in charge of us, Damien who I think is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO)? But the thing is that he and his team are never in the office, and all communication is via Skype. Going by the Media Richness Theory (from IS2104), I feel it can be really hard for a proper team to work like that.

I will be heading off for Malaysia today, to get training from Damien's team who are located somewhere on the outskirts of KL, not the city itself... While I relish the opportunity to travel 'overseas' and have comprehensive training, this is one of the areas of my main gripe. Planning between Rita and Damien wasn't very clear to us, and the official plan wasn't really done even on Friday (travelling on Sunday!). A formal itinerary of sorts would have been helpful.

We weren't even sure if we had to take cab, or someone would pick us up, whether we check in to hotel early or sleep over at some guy's house. I didn't suggest this, but what I feel is that it would have been better to travel in the afternoon, and reach and check-in the day before (i.e. Sunday night). This would give us enough time to settle down and unpack our stuff. Perhaps this is just my nitpicking, or perhaps as a tiny company they lack resources, both in terms of getting people to plan properly, and the budget to let us stay an extra night. Oh well..........

Ya, I'm heading off by bus tonight. It's gonna be a 4hr+ rocking and stoning trip to Malaysia. I wish we could have at least got budget flight tickets, but I can understand the limitations of an SME's small budget. I don't know why I sound like I'm complaining a lot. But actually I think I'm fine with the current arrangement. I hope to have a fun time there though! =)


So guys! Don't miss me when I'm gone! Otherwise I'll be singing this song:


Hahas. Just kidding.... Nice song though!


If you all need to contact me, it's just like I said on Facebook, use LINE for free sms and calls. Alternatively, you can just add me on Skype since that's what my company uses. Other than that, you can try use other forms of online communication (such as blogger comments?), all my account info is on my Facebook info page. Go to my profile and click "About", it should all be there.

If you haven't even added me on FB, what are you waiting for??!!

I know this has been a super long post. If you've read until this far, you deserve some kind of pat on the back. In any case, I will be gone for about 1 week, until Saturday morning (midnight-ish). So, anything urgent you need to tell me, do so by 2359 hrs tonight. Until then, I'm all ears.

So I guess that's it!

I'll be seeing you guys in a week's time. Don't worry, I'll try to take photos where possible! If you want souvenirs, better contact me fast! Haha :P

See you later folks!


Ciao.