Last Day of Internet Access from Home

Well, writing the damn poster took less time than I expected, leaving me free yet again to post something.

Well, as of my writing, it's another 98 hours before I reach home. Provided of course that there's no flight delay or anything out of schedule. And boy am I excited. In fact, this conversation was the result of that excitement:

C: excited abt comgin back?
Zueig. 99 Hrs!!: u see the countdown?
(breaking with tradition, I show my full nick for effect)
C: yup
Zueig. 98 Hrs!!: see it change?

I'm just sitting around waiting for tomorrow to come so I can go and print the poster and go settle some stuff with my future housing company. So in the meantime, you'll have to bear with some of my thoughts.

1. Insanity is thy name indeed. I think Mark Cuban has some really insightful thoughts about technology and how it affects the world around us. What makes it even more interesting is that he's a multi-millionare and he has the same grouse as a college student.

2. So much pressure. Aiyah says not to be asleep when I return. But it will be 1am in the morning!! Well, I guess I'll still go and look for something to eat first, before sleeping anyways.

3. Spam, who doesn't hate it. But people over here have managed to turn it into a source of chuckles. Good going guys. Even though I don't understand some of the jokes.

4. Speaking of jokes, again from strategypage.com, Murphy's Law as applied to combat. It's long (over 100 points) but it's really funny if you understand them. Some good ones:

A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
If the enemy is within range, so are you.
Any ship can be a minesweeper . . . once.

And,

If you need an officer in a hurry take a nap.

Haha. All I can say is ORD LOH!! So good riddance to all that.

Now I have 20 more minutes before the time becomes 97 hours. Can't wait.

Adventures in Moving

Well, it seems that I have a little resting time tonight. I've moved most of my stuff, my project will be reviewed tomorrow and the rental company isn't open till Monday. So I'll just say a little about the moving of my (and Ms Ball's) stuff.

First and foremost, a great big THANK YOU to BSK Hwang for helping move and letting dump my stuff at her place. I think I don't have that much stuff. 2 car trips were sufficient in moving most of my stuff. The only thing that couldn't fit into the car was my chair. All in all, pretty uneventful. Except that I was a little late and got scolded.

And that leads to the 2nd part of my story. To move the bigger stuff in the apartment like tables, chairs and mattresses, we (me and my roomate)rented a U-Haul. A 14-foot U-haul. Speaking as someone who's more used to driving a small sized car, that's quite a change. Sitting in the driver's seat, you get quite a sense of power. I mean, short of driving a Hummer, what other vehicle can actually ram another car and probably still be able to operate normally? But the steering on that thing sucked eggs. I was afraid to go above 35mph as the thing tend to go to the right and there was no power steering. I totalled 28 miles in that thing. and it was a real driving challenge.

But that's only half of the tale. The less taxing half actually. Moving the stuff was another matter altogether. Since we are subleasing this summer apartment, we had to move the original tenants stuff as well. And boy, is that some stuff. My roommate's original tenant had like 548306 boxes and 1 metal desk to move and some (ESPECIALLY the desk) of them were really heavy too. I really pitied him. Since we were moving in the afternoon, I got a tan from doing all that stuff. And now I think I have the flu. Ugh.

Okie some random stuff now.

1. Hinduism in a (sexual) nutshell. No offence to any religious people out there. It's a joke mmm'kay.

2. From the lovable Asian-Eskimo with questionable sexual preferences, what WWII might have been, if it were a Real Time Strategy game. If you don't play any online games, it might be hard to catch the jokes.

3. Who's heard of Pilsner beer? I didn't, at least until I found this. Good stuff yeah, that beer. If it can do what it can do in that game, I'm getting myself a lifetime supply.

P.S - For the first time in this summer, we have commercial water in our house. Just a note. Sure beats drinking (filtered) tap water.

Quick Post

I'm moving most of my stuff tomorrow and Friday, so I'll be busy. And then after that I have to concentrate on the report due next Tuesday. A really tight schedule. So this is a heads up. This might be the last post in awhile. At least till I get back home.

Just 6 more days to my flight. Booyah!!

My room is a mess now. With boxes strewn all over. I packed away my comforter already. But now it's kinda cold. Like 17 degrees C cold. Damn weather.

Okie, if I don't post again till next next week or so, I would like to wish all my readers who are taking finals soon , all the best. You guys can take my luck. I don't need it this time round. =). To those people who are gonna stop working for awhile, enjoy your vacation. School's just around the corner and God knows we need a break after working the whole summer. To the bestest dudes back home, 6 more days guys. 6 more days. Then you can bring me out and let's go eat. I want to eat Dim Sum, Char Kway Teow, Mee Kia, Ban Mian, Loh Mee, Hae Mee, Kway Chup (spelling??), Laksa, Hokkien Mee, Stingray, blah blah blah. I'm sure you guys get the idea. But most importantly, I get to see my friends and family. Awesomnessticism.

SWEET MERICFUL RELIEF

It rained today. And it's FINALLY cool. OMG. Thank god. I can sleep better now.

Proof that people think I'm younger than I really am:

X:fine..little kid
Z:u crack me up. i bet u have no idea of my age :D
X:21 max

Haha. It's good be a youngwanabe. Better than being thought of as a lecherous old man.

Well it's just a week to go before I fly back home. It's so close, I can almost taste the mee-pok and mee-kia already. Sooo don't want to do anything already. Just packing and getting ready to leave. But I still have to do that report for my summer research. Just hope I can concentrate enough to do a reasonably presentable poster. Haha. Or else I'll just write "In conclusion, the HAE MEE is separated from the MEE REBUS by the Chicken Rice Bed".

Day of Many Baths...

I took 4 today and it's still blardee farking hot. Weather.com reported a high of 100 degrees F (which is around 37 degrees C). That's like human body temperature!! To top it off, the A/C in the lab is busted. UGH. That TOTAL sucks.

This is like the weather back home, but worse. I was trying to cope with it by telling myself that it's just getting me used to the temperature back home, but I don't think that it's this bad back home. Well, unless global warming is a bigger threat than I thought. But it's almost exactly the same post-bath scenario here and back home. You know how it goes, bath, dry, sweat in 30 seconds... Disgusting.

A little helpful flower advice can be found here, regarding grammar. And while we are still on the topic of language use, BSK (haven't heard that one in awhile) has said that "true that" isn't the source of her ghetto-ness. Like so:

BSK: true that
Z: haha
Z: ghetto
BSK: no
Z: c'mon, u telling me "true that" isn't ghetto?
BSK: no
Z: really?
BSK: it is not..
BSK: my friend say that
BSK: friends
BSK: they r not ghetto

It is at this point, I go and urbandictionary "true that" and whip out it's definition to her. Case closed. There you have it,GHETTO.

Miscellany

Just some little bits of interesting (to me) news today.

1. What men have always suspected.
Especially about the alcohol. In fact, this news is so interesting that this post would exist just because of it.

2. Snaggy has just commisioned. CONGRATS man. Just another 300+ days to ORD LOH.

We were just discussing a retirement hobby, Snaggy & I. We can record a chorus of "ROD LOH" (his choice since we will be retirees)/ "ORD LOH" (my choice since it's more diao) on a CD. Drive to the ferry terminal, park along the road and BLAST the CD. Every sunday evening. What a thrill.

Eventful Day

Boy, what an eventful day I had.

First thing, I wake up with a start, extend my arms above my head (while still horizontal on the bed), hit the cupboard at the head of my bed, knock the hair dryer off the top of the cupboard and eat a mouthful of plastic for breakfast. Ugh.

Then, I went to the lab, and spent the better part of the morning (or at least, the morning that I spent in the lab), trying to fix a leak that mysteriously disappears when I'm searching for it. Like I leave the the setup to do something else, upon my return I see a wet spot on the ground. So I start checking my connections and everything, but nothing's wet, indicating that there hasn't been a leak. Doubly UGH.

Lastly, I spent about an hour in the sun at a traffic junction today, waiting for help, cos my friend's car's battery died. It was most amusing, looking at the people slow down to stare at me as they drove by. I should have flashed my phone number at the chicks... But a great big THANK YOU to everyone who tried to help. And hell, a great big thank you to those who even answered their phones. Thanks.

In a gaming related issue, I'm not sure if you guys actually know (or care) but recently, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA) has come under fire for leaving codes for a allegedly dry-humping mini game inside their worldwide best seller. Personally, I think the only mistake was that they left it in there, but apparently, now that's a huge brouhaha. Here then, is a counterpoint about the whole thing. I guess it's good to see that gamers care about politics. But I can't stand those politicians who see only an issue they can exploit. I'm beginning to see why the popular vote here is RED.

Extras

This comic struck me as quite amusing. Many thanks to my mum.



And this is just a private joke. HAHAHAHAHAHA. OMG!! HAHAHAHAHAHA. Courtesy of charchen.blogspot.com.

Jin Juat

Hmm, not too sure about my hokkien there, considering that I would fail a hokkien 101 class, but anyways, IT'S BLOODY HOT!! And it sucks when you run out of cold water in the day and have to resort to beer and orange juice to cool down. Not that I'm against beer or orange juice but it sucks not having the option to drink water... Luckily, it's raining tonight, so I don't need to sleep in an oven.

I'm supposed to be working on my project full time, but there are a couple of recent discoveries that have derailed me from that objective.

The first is THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES.
The title says it all. All the stories of one of the greatest detectives ever to grace our collective imaginations (the other is Batman, I think) found free on the internet? I'm having SUCH a field day re-reading all the classics.

And the second is Full Metal Panic : 2nd Raid.
Sequel to Full Metal Panic and FMP:Fumoffu, if you liked the last two, go check it out. I think it's gonna be interesting. PLUS you get to see Chidori Kaname again. And how she abuses poor Sagara... Classic

Lastly, today's cool latin phrase of the day is "vox populi, vox Dei". And who says you can't learn new (latin) stuff from Zu31G...

Birthday Alert!!

Happy (Slightly Belated) Birthday to Mum !!

Damn, I was hoping to make the midnight deadline. Anyways, hope your birthday was a wonderful one mum. Sorry I couldn't be there, but I did send a card. =)

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Random Observation #1.
Full moon tonight. Waah.

Random Observation #2.
Jogging seems easier at night.

Random Observation #3.
Why is it called "random"? To the extent that I wanted to write these, I guess they aren't random. But I really didn't set out to write these when I went out jogging earlier. So "50% random observation"?

小弟弟

Hilarious. Since JC (or in american terms, HS) I can count the number of times I've been called "小弟弟" with 1 hand. But last night, I was called just that, and on internet radio too.

Interestingly enough, if I'm a younger kid, by checking out the DJ profiles on the site (which, I might add, has an amazing library of titles), I wonder how old the DJ really is. Considering that she didn't list her age (only given as "sexy") and I'm like older than almost everyone else.

For americans, there's Party Poker or Poker Stars. For Asians, there's VINAgames, or more specifically, Big 2!! It's free, convenient and is accesible anywhere with internet and Javascript. What a deal.

Anyone game to play?

Edit - I have ATROCIOUS writing. Ugh and NOBODY thought to point out my incomprehensible writings to me??

NKF = Whore ?

From the self-depreciating Neelia,

Right. I am not going to say that $600K is peanuts.. But at the request of dear Zueig, I present my side of the story.. or rather my pt of view. Don't slam me.

They need someone of calibre, of vision to head an organization like the NKF. It is a large organization no doubt. You can't take a cut from his salary, saying he doesn't deserve to be remunerated that much becoz it is a NON-profit organization. In that case, who wld actually work for these orgs? If you are saying those volunteers who spend their free time looking after the needy but get paid nothing, these volunteers have a full time day job to keep them alive. Durai's full time day job is heading the NKF. If he doesn't get remunerated here, he wldn't take on the job. I don't think many wld. We learn in economic theory that men are realists, rational pple. Getting paid $60K per mth (including bonus) is just a reflection of market mechanism. If you don't remunerate them enough, who will head the NKF? and I mean one of calibre....

That said, doesn't mean I condone what durai as done. Yes, first class flights and gold plated taps are bordering on overindulgence. But, I think the remuneration is fair. It just shld be disclosed.. so the public knows where their funds are headed and decide if they still want to donate.

That said, I am disappointed that many singaporeans have withdrawn their donations becos of the incident. Think it was common knowledge that the NKF is very cash rich, just that the tangible facts didn't come to light until recently. But pple withdrawing their funds, one after another, seemed to me, an emotional reaction of the poor man on the street vs the rich. The beneficiaries still need help. Withdrawing your funds wld only deprive the poor and needy of the little support they get from the NKF.

So let's go over what was said.

I agree that there is a need for someone with vision, drive and ability to lead. However, the caveat being that this is a publicly funded charity, people would EXPECT most (if not all) the money they donate to go to the needy, NOT the upper management. So 25K per month with a 12 month bonus with the perks (1st class travel, gold-plated bathroom fixtures) is GROSS indulgence on the part of the CEO. And on the perks, I would dare say is gross misuse of public trust. Surely the water won't turn into acid because it reacts with stainless steel taps? And business class, first class, it's still the same plane, if it crashes, you still die.

No wonder they wanted to keep their pay secret. Why would the public donate (and essential fund) an organisation that puts earning money above helping the people the money is supposed to go to? I can't remember where I read it, but I read that something like $0.10+ for every dollar donated goes to actually helping the patients. The rest, I guess, goes to ensuring the upper management gets "fair" recompense. It's a Brilliant rack, you have only overhead and minimal amout of wages to worry about. Half of the people doing the grunt work are volunteers who work for free, so even MORE money can go into your pocket. Wow.

You mentioned that 60K per year is fair value for someone in that position. I would agree if it's a private for-profit company. However, it seems like in order to get the 60K per, certain very questionable practices were engaged. 12 month bonus? OMG. That's just greedy. Just as it is greedy to keep asking for donations (and blatantly lying to the public) when they already have 200+ million in reserves which can last another THIRTY years!! Looks like the Board had forgotten that NKF is a NON-Profit organisation.

I didn't know that NKF was THAT rich. And maybe it's because I'm not back home often, but I don't think that kind of information is splashed across the headlines of the news. i think it's fair that people withdraw, because what's the point in donating to an organisation that, without further donations, can last another 30 years (bearing major catastrophes)? Also, if I were to feel like donating, I would rather give to the Kidney Dialysis Foundation or Red Cross(links are given in the previous post). The NKF is playing the "Oh pity the poor patients" card when they are sitting on a veritable treasure trove of (morally questionably acquired) money. The NKF doesn't deserve any sympathy. It got itself into this trouble, it can get itself out of it (with that nice 200+ million it has).

Besides, even IF you donated to the NKF, there's no guarentee that (with the current practices) most of your money will ever reach the patients. I read somewhere that only less than $0.20 per dollar donated ever gets to the patients. At that rate, I'd rather toss the money to hobos on the street. They get a greater rate of return on my money.

See? No harsh words. I didn't even say F*CK once.

FUCK NKF. Okie, now I have.

P.S - C'mon, lets hear what you have to say. Surely Neelia isn't the only one from Singapore who actually has an opinion? Don't let people say we are an apathetic nation!!

P.P.S - Weird sounding phrases:

Talking about mosquitoes
"Sucks to be well, sucked"

Talking about Photoshop-ping pictures
"NO WAY am I letting u deface, my erm face"

I guess the "NON" in Non-profit just went to hell.

First off, let me congratulate 형님. See I told you it would be 괜찮아.

EDIT - Looks like the whole thing is OVER before I could post this entry. Cos I felt sleep was more important than finishing this entry...

Well I was going to link to a petition to ask singaporeans to sign to call for the resgination of the CEO, but I think most singaporeans are happier that not only the CEO stepped down, but the whole Board also resigned.

I think there wasn't any other way to go. The NKF couldn't have explained why it has such huge reserves, paid its CEO such obscene (for a Non-Profit Organisation) amounts of money and the perks it gave to upper management. Especially when it used to portray itself as a relatively tight-budget charity, with only 3 years reserves (instead of the actual 30). Such decit from a well-known (and formerly well-respected) charity is very disturbing. Plus, the patron was the wife of our Senior Minister. I wonder if she was in the know about all the numbers or just a figurehead for the organisation?

I just want to say that the CEO was a FUCKER. And I'd bet he was Forced to resign due to public pressure. The NKF deserves its fate, if you want alternatives to help the less fortunate, the Kidney Dialysis Foundation or Red Cross are more deserving of your good-intentions (and monies).

EDIT - Unstruck what I struck through previously cos the saga isn't over and it's really hard to read with a line across the letters. What do you guys think? Leave A Comment! Show your interest in Community (if you're singapore)/ Foreign (everyone else who actually bothered to read the reports) affairs!

Next, a little disclaimer. I'm not the most morally upright person in the world, nor this postal district, hell, I might not even be the most morally upright person in this block, but any evil I partake in is a "small" evil, if you will. Downloading stuff, littering, jaywalking and the like. Having said that, I would also like to say that I'm typing this at 330am while waiting for my hair to dry, so I'm sure that there will be mistakes in what I will say next. Lastly, this is for SINGAPOREANS only. Other people can take a look if they want to see what's the hoo-hah all about (or if they want to play "Spot Zu31G's mistakes") but if you're singaporean and you don't take a look, Shame on You.

But given all of that, this is so fucked up. If you're too lazy to actually click and go take a lot, a brief (possibly biased) summary:

1. Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) ran a story on the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) last year, alleging that the NKF had installed gold-plated bathroom fixtures in the CEO's private office bathroom.

2. NKF sued SPH and the reporter for defamation.

3. In court, NKF was forced to reveal the salary of its CEO (25K per month, a cool 600 grand a year, inclusive of a 12 month bonus) and the various perks the upper executives have (like travelling via first class, hiring expats from over 17 different countries).

4. Keeping in mind that the NKF bills itself as (or rather, is registered as) a not-for-profit charitable organization, the public was rather enraged at the CEO extravagence.

Something like that.

Ask A Stupid Question...

Like so:

J: hey
J: how do you spell pia?
Z: P-I-A

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Haha, what a classic. Folks, this is what happens when you don't think before you type.

Nothing really much to say today. Just wanted to share that faux pas. Can't wait to go home and leave this place behind. Homesickness is indeed a powerful urge.

Well I'll be

Ever heard about people who photoshop pictures? Just to make them look better? Well, I always thought those kind of people were myth, but it turns out that they are very very much walking amongst us. I present proof of their existence:

Zueig: still working on the PC?
A: yeapz
A: photoshop
Z: wat's wrong with photoshup? (I truncated my nick to Z. To long to type.)
A: haha
Z: Oh, u doing ur own pics so look better issit??
A: i m photoshoppingmy pics
A: yeah
Z: OMGGGGGGGGGGG

OMG indeed. Now I know better and shall view the world thru a photoshop-ped lense.

NEW VOCABULARY, courtesy of Ah Seng.

Pissifying - what happens when your fullhouse loses to a 4 of a kind TWICE in the same game. And just to clarify, I wasn't the one who was pissified. Haha, what a loser. LOL

P.S - The washing machine looks like a pretty innocent machine right? A little noisy maybe but just rumble rumble rumble and tada your clothes get cleaned. However, this is a fallacy. They are sneaky little buggers that like to make items of clothing disappear. So be afraid, be very afraid, the next time you need to use one. It's better to lose a sock than to mess with the dark forces...

Good Idea Bad Idea...

1G. Writing things down so you can self-reflect.
1B. Forgeting to erase said writings so everyone who came in after you can read your innermost thoughts.

2G. Taking out the trash before it rains.
2B. Procrastinating until it rains.

3G. Getting a cellphone...
3B. That sucks so badly cos it isn't 3G (har har har. Punned.)

4G. Going to your boss' office to get your time-slip signed.
4B. But staying long enough so that you get arrowed. Ugh.

5G. Save the Earth! Use less disposable gloves!
5B. Letting Distilled Deionised Water onto your hands cos you saved the Earth...


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Okie, on a more serious note, I'm no superhero. I'm a super shmuck. I don't have superpowers, well at least no cause to use them anymore. But I do need a reason, a reason to believe that it was innocent and not pre-mediated. I want to believe that life's cool, so please just give me a reason.

P.S - You guys wanna see how a good boyfriend behaves? I'm DEFINITELY taking classes from Zee. (The entry is "The Best Boyfriend In The Whole Wide World")

P.P.S - I HATE FIREWALLS... FINALLY, after a total of 300 online hours, I have my precious Saiyuki Reload. Which is an AWESOMENESSISTIC series. 300 hours!! Why? Cos my stupid torrent could never go green on me... Farking Firewall. Ooo aliteration!!

P.P.P.S - I KNOW that there are a few punctuation errors in this post. But I can't quite put a finger on it. Zee? Any help? "."? Anyone?

P.P.P.P.S - Okie, changed some of the punctuation. Should be better now eh? And remember folks, if it ain't punctuation, IT DUN COUNT!! And I mean YOU, Ms Ball.

Sad Case I Am

It's the 4th of July weekend and I'm stuck at home and will be in the lab on the actual holiday tomorrow. Talk about a lack of a social circle huh. I think in this case, I (most unfortunately) win a certain nerdy accountant who likes reading manuals before bed. (Okie, maybe a little embellishment over there. But hey, artistic licence, so bite me.)

Justice League Unlimited is AWESOME. ANY animated DC cartoon is AWESOME. They are the very essence of awesomeness. JLU, Teen Titans, The Batman, Batman:The Animated Series, Superman (I didn't watch so much of this), don't think I missed anything else. These are AWESOMENESSISTICISM!! Gosh, I can't stop expounding the greatness of these cartoons. 6 thumbs up.

Seth Mcfarlene likes retro songs. And thanks to him, I am getting in touch with more and more old hits.

Lastly, simple games are still the best. Minesweeper is an old love I rediscovered thanks to my bro. New Best Time is only 139 seconds... I still have aways to go before I regain my former glory of sub-90 expert clearings.

I have SUPERPOWERS

You know, in every superhero story, there is always a question of origin. How did he/she get their awesome(ness) powers? I think I got mine by a cosmic incident that altered my being. From that mess, I emerged with the power to make people unhappy.

But with great power comes great responsibility and I'm not sure that unleashing such power is a wise decision. After all, the incident has only just passed and I might be unstable due to it's occurance and who really knows how it has changed me?

But I swear that I can feel the shock gradually wear off and replaced by anger. Will it reach a critical point? I can't tell. I hope not. I'd rather not turn a lose situation into a lose-lose, but sometimes, you go with what life gives you. And if life bites you with a radioactive spider, you go out and catch some flies...

Some other, less introspective thoughts,

1. THINK before answering any question posed to you by a professor, especially one who is in-charge of your work.

2. Apparently, the phrase "young and innocent" if and when applied to a young man, is some code for "Eat more. We are counting on you to finish the food."

3. Brand new equipment is SOOOO much nicer to play with than old equipment. At the very least, you don't need to troubleshoot it at all.

4. And we will fade into the night with a "ChEEEEE BAIIIIIIIII".