Solve This

If you missed the hoo-ha on the increasing difficulty of exams in PSLE. Here you go:



Did you managed to solve it?

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Well, personally I could. But it took me quite a bit of time and I'm like 22? Those kids taking the exams are like 11-12?

Anyway, here's the original article.

Kids, Exams and Stress.

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And I also have this interesting article on a certain Japanese war veteran talking about his experience with WWII surgical killings. (Warning: Not for the faint-hearted)

If you are interested with the above, here is a Wikipedia entry on the infamous Unit 731. I also found a comprehensive article on Japan's war crimes. I'll leave it up to the individual to scrutinize the accuracy/reliability of the articles for themselves.

(*That pig in the shining armor)

Clearing Bookmarks (Part 2)

Here's the continuation to my clearing of bookmarks. I realize I missed out some videos the previous round. O_O

Beatboxing



Vid of Steven Lim Beatboxing (Kudos to Guang Jie for the link)

Vid of The Pro Beatboxing

An Article of how to Beatbox (Cool)

I have been taking up a bit of interest in beatboxing ever since I went to Acid Bar @ Somerset Area and saw this guy perform some cool beatboxing on stage.
Anyway, Steven Lim... -_-" The pros and maybe the not so pros...

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Alcohol

Fine Art of Mixing Drink
A Wikipedia entry on a famous theory behind mixing cocktails. Hmmm.. Martini, Manhattan and so on? How about Flaming cocktails?



Beershots
Now this is interesting. A mini-encyclopedia on the different Beers in the world. Didn't know that Carlsberg's from Denmark? Tiger's a Singapore product? Then this is the place to learn if you're interested.

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Other Useful Stuff

XE.com - Universal Currency Converter
Website to check up on exchange rates anytime. Cool.

Skateline
A company selling skates in sg. I heard from my friend this shop offers good low end skates. For those interested. (Not me)

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Okay, this marks the end of my bookmark clearing session. Is this terribly boring? I hope not. -_-" I hope it helped someone somewhere somehow. Hopefully.

Dogs: Woof Woof

Yoda:



Bull Vader:



Sun Wu Dog:



Sleepy Soldier:



(Yes, I suck at naming stuff)

Clearing up my Bookmarks (Part 1)

First off, I'm feeling much better already. The viruses had decided to leave my poor body alone. That's great.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone surfs the net at least once every few days or so. I do that too but I got this bad habit of bookmarking everything there is, even slightly interesting only. This causes me the need to clear them up every 2 weeks or so. -_-"

Since I couldn't come up with anything to blog and I had to clear up my bookmarks, I decided to well, share these bookmarks with you people out there. Could give you all an insight of what I like to surf anyway.

Here goes:

Wikipedia: Eye Circles
It's Wikipedia's article on Eye Circles. Why do I have it here? If you've seen me taken off my specs, you'll know. The average Singaporean's fate I guess.

Anyway, that link doesn't give that much info nor help on it either. There are so many various school of thoughts on the issue of these panda eyes such that no one knows the exact way to eradicate them.

*Kept

Blogs and Blogs
Over the days, I realized that certain friends actually have blogs. And I added them to my links. =)

*Added: Kim Guan, Daniel

Videos
Now this is my favorite part. What would life be without YouTube?

1. Lin Jun Jie Beat-Boxing
2. Watch Darth Vader deal with a cell phone
3. Nothing against Indians but this MV is funny



*Kept

Windows Alt Key Codes
No more memorizing of alt plus key codes to get all those funny symbols... © Þ ú... and such. For the average geek like me.

*Kept

Taking Exams
This is a great read, must read. But don't imitate it please. Great read but not one to waste a bookmark space for.

*Deleted

Golden Numbers
The price of a handphone for a number. Anyone for the taking?

*Deleted

Dempsy Hill
No, it's not a nature trail. It's actually a group of shops/pubs/restaurants located on some random hill near Orchard to Holland V area. My friend recommended it as a place to chill cause it's quite some distance away from the town area so you can avoid the hustling. One downside is that's it's not going to be cheap.

Might need it for future reference.

*Kept



Hmm... And I still have a ton of bookmarks to clear. Ok, I'm leaving this for part 2.

Vindication

KeviN~ says:
facebook is addictive

That's my friend on MSN. Yes, I agree facebook's addictive. For those not on the bandwagon just yet, go try it.

(And I'm still sick. Zzz...)

Sick

Erm, I am feeling sick, quite sick. It has been at least a good 1 year plus since I last fell sick. I don't know if it's the Army but somehow or another, I have managed to keep the viruses at bay. Till now.



I'm down with some sort of flu or cold. Don't really know what it is. But the irritating thing about my illness is that I keep sneezing and I have to go to the toilet every few minutes because of the mucus. (No, I don't use tissue cause I'll need a whole box of them.) This has caused me to become rather dehydrated and drowsy.

I'm kind of tempted to report sick outside of camp tomorrow if I don't recover by tomorrow morning.

Sick.

Social Creatures (Be independent or not?)

I don't know if it's the beer or what. But I seem to be having a lot of thoughts today. I was wondering about how beautiful/terrible it would be if humans could be more independent of each other...

I sure you, just like me, experience seasonal bouts of emotional waves in life. It could be due to physical factors (PMS?), but it's seldom so. More to be likely, it's because of the people around you. You could be happy because your boyfriend/girlfriend got you a very special present for your birthday. Other times, you could feel sad because a friend lied to you. And there are the times when you feel angry because of a (oh-so-common) irritating co-worker/group member.

I think most will agree with me on the above. Well... unless you are a self-centric (self-obsessed, self-centered) person, which means that the above might not had happened to you before, or only occasionally.

I'm sure I don't need to dwell too much on how a self-centered person's like. I'm sure most of you all have encountered one or more of them through your life. It could be this very solo-playing soccer player who refuses to play any other position other then striker and hogs the ball more often then not. Or it could be this bitchy/slutty dancer who goes around trying to seduce attached guys treating them as a form of trophy (win). You could say I'm stereotyping them but that's what come to my mind first.

Ironically, these are the people who I suspect escapes from the unavoidable bouts of emo-waves that comes with being dependent on others. To put it simply, they don't give a crap about others because they are way obsessed with their own lives.

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(You might be wondering...) So what's my point?
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Actually not really anything much.

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Maybe it's because of the 'bouts' I've had experienced personally. It sometimes make you want to clamp up to yourself and nobody else because that's the only way you can escape from the 'bouts'.

Nobody can escape from being a social creature I guess, even the most self-centered ones.

O_O"

Click for full resolution pic.

(*My fav is the biz analyst)

Hoax or Truth?

Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it


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Really? Only so few people can read it? If you can't read the above message, can pls leave comment on my blog? Or simply email, msn, call, sms, wadever me so that I know. I'm just pretty curious. Nothing more. Lol

Life's a Drag (at times)

I don't really know why but life's been feeling like a drag of a sudden these days. Time passes slowly, motivation's to do anything is at an all time low, just feel like eating and sleeping, don't feel like talking. It's kind of bad. -_-"

Sometimes I wonder if it's because of the fact that I'm going to be out of the army (ORD) soon and that I feel empty and/or insecure. But it's pretty much not a valid argument cause I already have plans for that. (Yes, even for that period of 8 months before my entry to SMU.)

Or perhaps it's because of how I keep falling or failing at the things I do these days. I suck at the recent PC games I picked up, I've been gaining weight significantly; something that hasn't been happening for 2 years, I've been slow in whatever I've been picking up; photoshop for example (it's pretty tough though I would say).

Perhaps I've been expecting too much of myself or I have simply been overworking/overplaying too much(lol).

Or maybe it's because of some other reason. Anyway, I hope this feeling goes away. -_-" Thank you for hearing me rant.

I'm sure this is just a passing phase. =)

(I somehow feel that I'm missing out a lot of friends' blog in my list of links. Do let me know if your is not there anyway. Thanks)

Long Weekend Part 2

Baaaargh... I can't believe how fast this long weekend just zoomed past. It was a rather eventful one though somehow or another, I didn't manage to recharge (read: sleep) as much as desired.

[I'll choose friends and fun over a bit of sleep anytime I guess. Haha =)]

Just a few highlights of my weekend...

Saturday - Running
I actually woke up at 8 just to go down to Serangoon to have a morning run with some friends; Kevin, Keith, Elin and her sister, Jessica. We actually did a short route around the area (about 2km) because Serangoon Stadium was hosting some event.

Lots of upslope and downslope. Lots of uneven terrain. But with all that running in camp, the route was generally still manageable. A rare occasion on which I feel thankful to NS.

Altogether a fruitful and fun workout. =).

(Wait a moment, we had MacDonald's after that... Hope it didn't cancelled out my efforts of the run. lol.)

Sunday - Meeting up with an old friend
I met up with a old friend way back from polytechnic days. She's actually an air stewardess, which is pretty cool I feel. These people actually get to fly all around the world earning far more then decent money while I'm serving my liability. No, I'm not saying it's unfair. Nooo, Nooo, Noooo. ^_^

Well, because she was wearing heels, I decided that we walk as little as possible. Not too clever a choice in hindsight. We ended up eating a lot ^_^". First there was Sakae Sushi for lunch, Coffee Bean (Cheese cake and Mocha) for high tea and lastly Thai Express (Green Curry/Some Bee Hoon Thing) for dinner. Girls are usually not great eaters and guys often end up being the garbage bin if you know what I mean. =)



She's flying off next month for some training so I'm wishing her a safe journey in advance if I don't see her again before that.

Monday - I like this bag
Yes, I know technically Monday does not qualify for a weekend but I don't care. =). Went to Bugis Street to get a new bag (SGD35). There's really tons of great and affordable stuff there but the crowd's usually unbearable so I wouldn't really recommend that area unless it's a weekday. Lol.



I chose this bag because it's simple and unassuming. I like designs that are simple yet somehow different from norm. Pretty much to my liking except for the 'Zinc' logo on the front. Not too conspicuous luckily.

Proceeded on to meet up with Jiawei and Kevin for dinner at Manhattan's Fish Market @ Plaza Singapura. It was my first time trying it. The food's pretty much like Fish n Co but at an even lower price. Quite a pleasant surprise in all. I recommend this place to those who haven't been there at all or those who loves seafood a lot.


I'm looking forward to my next long weekend. Back to camp for now.

It's a long weekend =)

Well, I'm on leave today (Fri) and off on the upcoming Monday. This gives me a long long (4 days) weekend, something I think I'll never come to not like. =)

Today was a good start. I went to town; bought some ankle socks, met up with some friends and even bumped into some others (Elin, Keith, Jeremy).

Well, one downside was that I didn't got a book that I wanted because I simply find it way too expensive. This certain book titled, "Search Engine Marketing Inc". It costs 70++ (about 80) at Kinokuniya. (O_O" I'm one poor guy) I think I might find it more economical to order from Amazon.com instead. I've never tried it before so might have to look for friends to help out on that one.



Anyway, I have this camp mate, Ethan, whose birthday is actually today (12 Oct 07), so I would actually like to wish him happy birthday here too. Quite a nice fella; loves singing, likes talking crap too, helps me out in work sometimes, has an almost impeccable knowledge of old Chinese Pop Songs too. Oops, hope that didn't gave any hints on his age. Haha.

And I'll have to catch some sleep. Promised some friends to make it for a run. Life...

(And here's a random MV. Might help one to take life more positively. Love the lyrics.)



[谁比谁好能差到多少]
[迟早都要向上帝报到]

Crazy Drawings

Adjective: Cranky
Easily irritated or annoyed

Hmm... What's the best way to relieve a day of crankiness?

I took to a friend's way, and did a drawing.

After all, I'm reading up on Photoshop and this would be a good time to further familiarize myself with it. (And I'm only at page 250... I need to checkup on the due date -_-")



The Blue House in the Cranky Land


(Did I mention I never passed Arts & Crafts in my whole life before?)

Wait a moment... I remember reading this article of 1 out of every 6 Singaporeans having mental problems. I hope I'm not going to become one of them. -_-" Anyway, here's a blog talking about it. Straits Times doesn't provide free access to articles above 30 days of 'age' from what I know.

*Cranky day. No reason nor rhyme. I need to wake up on the correct side of the bed tomorrow.

A worrying(?) Sunday night

I'm still awake at this time when I should be asleep. It's yet the end of another weekend. This weekend's pretty much same as others; a drinking session on Saturday, and a K-Box session on Sunday. I'm not going to complain, cause it beats doing nothing at home. =)

Anyway, it rained today (071007 - I never liked referring anytime before 3am as the following day) surprisingly. It's been really hot these days.



It has been quite a journey but I'm now around 2 months away from my ORD date. I already have my plans, but the future still worries me. I can't come up with any logical explanation why. Guess there's no rhyme nor reason to it. I think we need to give it a name. Hmm... Pre-ord illness? Sounds ordinary... -_-"

Anyway, I need to sleep. Zzz... *snorez.

Nice Queer Stuff

Now here's a website that advocates on changing how website interfaces should works. They say that actions should be determined by movement and not clicks. DonClickIt. Will the day of no more clicking ever really come? No one knows.



Do all of you out there know of this Gallery Hotel? I didn't personally. (Maybe cos I don't club). It's actually located along Mohammad Sultan Road/Robertson Quay area.

To me, it's like many windows of different colors popping out of a irregular gray building. Definitely not symmetrical, not normal. Looks queer... but pretty nice at the same time. Unique.

Life's full of peculiar stuff.

The Man Stand

Now... I've just logged in again after my Facebook post. Well, I thought that this thing I found on Urban Dictionary would be funny.


Man Stand
The act of a man standing outside a shop while his wife/girlfriend/partner shops inside. Man Standing involves looking into space, at other women, or in the case of multi story shopping centers, leaning on the railings of an upper floor watching the people below.

Ive been doing the Man Stand outside New Look for an hour!

I'm sure fellow men out there will understand this quite well.

The Facebook Phenomenon

Crapz, if you aren't onto Facebook yet, you are missing on quite a phenomenon. Perhaps you might had been busy with school or work or had simply refused to join onto this huge-growing bandwagon out of pure obstinacy.

To be honest, I've never been one to be interested in social networking websites. The only ones I know of are Friendster, WhoLivesNearYou and WAYN. And Friendster's the only one that I actually actively took part in before. I don't really know, but I just can't find the motivation to add and maintain my list of friends in there. And I don't really feel comfortable finding/meeting new friends through there. Do you?

Well, it all started to change when I decided to join Facebook after receiving multiple invite emails from friends. I wasn't really expecting much at first, considering how I felt after trying out sites like WAYN. However, I turned out to be impressed.

There are so many interesting applications in there. It's unlike Friendster whereby it's the same old functions. And best of all, in Facebook, you get to choose what applications you want to have, and what not to. Here are a few of my favorites applications offhand:

> The Likeness Test; You take a test to see how alike are you with your friends, be it your preferences of movies, what you look for in your ideal partner and such.

> Group Function; It's not really a add-on application. It's rather more of a default function but this one's indispensable. I just joined the "Support the Monks' protest in Burma" group.

> Super Wall; It's a virtual wall that almost everyone has. This wall can be written on, drawn on and whatever not. I think you can even post a video on it.

All in all, I would say it's a revolutionary social networking site, far different from it's previous peers. And did I mention that the applications are open for development by anyone? Haha.

Lastly, if you're going to join Facebook, remember to add me. *I've got a pathetic 30 odd friends in my list. x_x" Thanks.

The Conqueror

My newest quest...

To conquer the below book which I borrowed from the library...



So if you don't see me updating this blog that often, you know what I'm doing.

It's a whooping 1027 pages. Pretty insurmountable for such a half-wit like me. But I'll try. =)



(*And thank all of you out there for hitting the site so that the counter can go over 50 finally. Haha.)