take a walk around town with...

Monday, April 29, 2002

taken from elaine's site,


Take the What Sex Position Are You? test by Ley Ley

i cycled over to soon watt from home in the evening, to check the prices for the giro helmets. i only found the pneumo, priced at S$320! actually i was eyeing the eclipse instead, because the pricing stated on the giro website says, us$159.99 for the pneumo, and us$99.99 for the eclipse. so i was thinking of getting the lower priced helmet, naturally. but i guess, since the auntie there was pretty sincere (she was teaching me how to be a good son) i think the business has to go to her instead of the male snob of a boss called colin at bike haus.

after the visit, i continued my way over along frankel avenue, and saw the treknology bikes 3 branch for the first time. but that wasn't my destination - it was cannondale asia. this time, i carried my bike and left it outside the store, and went in. oh my goodness! the bikes were just simply beautiful! too bad i didn't bring along my digital camera with me. anyway, i saw the multisport 700 model that jess just got recently... gosh, she got it new for $2900!... woah, it's expensive, but i like the quality of cannondale... triathlon, here i come!

while i was at the cannondale shop, i gave mavic/guoping a call, and asked him to pop over. in the end, since he was going home, i met him at bedok central and we went over to the bike shop at block 128. saw a couple of new khs bikes as well as specialized bikes. he was drooling over the giant xtc team frame that was going for $950... yes, that's for only the frame! yikes...

after reading some fellow bloggers' sites, and reflecting on what i've been through as a former network marketing agent... i realized some things -

  1. the big companies that earn the biggest bucks make the most out of cheap, raw material and turn it into something that can bring in massive profits.

  2. consumers will always be poor. manufacturers will generally earn truckloads.


and that all brings me closer to my own ideal - i don't want to work for anyone else. granted, i'm with the ministry of education, but after that when i pull out (wonder when that would be), i definitely won't want to work for anyone else, other than myself. i could always be my own boss, working in a kind of business where i need not even register with the registry of companies, and still can earn some good money. this is not tax evasion, but working smart.

imagine, all you university graduates, polytechnic graduates or just student bloggers out there, when you finish your course, what's your first instinct? go and find a job, right? a "nice, safe, secure job", right? sorry, if that was your answer, you're dreaming a very hopeful dream. in this economy, where even bill gates has declared to be one that is as fast as your mind (or was it light?), you have to be able to take changes continually. a job means just over broke. do you like that? how about working for a boss? he's generally a double-sob spelt backwards.

Sunday, April 28, 2002

i'm back in business! so dad actually has a usb keyboard stored in the house, and i'm using it liao! i can forget all about changing for a new motherboard liao! yaay!

just now i came back from alston bikes and assessed the data recovery job that i'll do for them as a favour (in other words, volunteer lar...) will be returning back to xinghua tomorrow morning to clear all my personal artifacts from the table that i used to take...

Saturday, April 27, 2002

wah biang eh, now i'm at gordon's place in bishan updating my blog... anyway, this is a quick summary of what happened for the last three days...

on friday, (26th april), i started out from home at about 5:50am and cycled some 26 kilometers to nie. reached there by about 7:20am. ok la. we then had our kayaking water safety workshop conducted by steven tan, and basically it covered how to capsize, how to right the capsized kayak individually, as well as rescueing a person's kayak when it has capsized. got this feeling that i got sunburnt though... later in the evening i left nie to cycle back, but i did not use boon lay way as i expected it to be super crowded with people trying to make their way back home... i then dropped in by chinese high, to take a look at the speedplay pedals at bike haus, but as like the previous visit, i was peeved by the shopowner's (colin)attitude... anyway, i picked up the messengers vcd and watched it thoroughly... and was really happy!

anyway, next month i have plans to get myself a giro eclipse helmet (don't know the price) and probably speedplay pedals... who knows, but the helmet is in top priority... i'll try to figure out how to cycle better in the meanwhile... i'm thinking of changing to road slicks for my bike... how much would that cost?

oh yeah, before i forget, the reason why i'm typing away at gordon's place is because my stupid motherboard failed me again. grrr... and some more, it's the same old fault again - the keyboard cannot be used by the computer... to think that last year this same thing happened, and due the the inavailability of the same motherboard, i had to wait for one full month before i could use my computer... and then now, even my warranty for the board is expired... argh!

Monday, April 22, 2002

watch out for the w32.klwz.h@mm.html worm!

i've received multiple mails that originate from email addresses i do not know of, and the caution is that the subject topic is very very convincing! please go to the link above! a lot of people could fall victim to this worm!!!

Saturday, April 20, 2002

here are four pages from sky and telescope magazine regarding the planetary alignment appearing gradually this month... page 1, page 2, page 3 & page 4.

i think it's a gone case. homex's ftp and http serving seems to encounter massive problems of late. anyone willing to host my site?

in the morning, because my student su shan requested some help from me to do some maths problems, so off i went early over to xinghua, and after helping her out and watching the class' performance for the speak good english movement, i decided to cycle on to bike haus. i cycled via yio chu kang road -> lorong chuan, then braddell road. as i was near toa payoh lorong 8, i looked at my watch, and felt that i would be reaching the store too early, so i decided, why not i pay a visit to pei chun and see how it's like now, since i haven't been back for almost a decade since i finished my psle? so off i proceeded blindly via toa payoh lorong 7... which happened to be the current front of the school - during my time, that was the rear of the school! the grandeur of the new building was overwhelming!

i cycled along lorong 7 and went along the former front of the school along lorong 6, to see the school building in blue... what a difference it was from the beige it was during my time! the first thing i saw - the then oh-so-big courtyard seemed to have shrunk massively, but keeping its proportions. even the trees there seemed to have shrunk too! the stone benches where some of us would place our schoolbags at the end of the day... in the basking golden evening sunrays... looking around, the dental clinic that i used to dread - only to realize much later that it would have saved my teeth from severe discoloration in my teenage years - and looking up, the main school block, with its dingy boys' toilets and et al... the front porch where a statuette of the school's main founder (???) was placed... his bust was gone. looking up at the fourth level, i recall my primary 6d classroom. always found some parts of a dead rat that almost weekly. in fact, i was so convinced that satanic cults were using my classroom for occult practices! i admit - i was reading too much hardy boys when i was growing up. turning, i saw the sports hall that we were all so proud - we were the only primary school which had owned its own S$1.5 million sports hall!

i wanted so much to take a look at the old classrooms that we used for our class during my primary school years - 1c, 2g, 3g, 4c, 5d, 6d. the only one i managed to access was the 1c classroom, but it was locked. in fact, the reason why i could access it was because that it was on the ground floor. everything that seemed pretty big then now looked so miniscule! the then-big tuckshop, the then-big sports hall - all shrunk! inevitably, a strong sense of nostalgia hit me - and i decided to call hui to tell her how i felt. right after i hung up the call, tears just kept flowing out of my eyes - that feeling of rediscovering my childhood past - only to find out the school buildings were disused now, it kind of hurt.

memories of my primary one classroom, outside of which my grandmother would wait patiently for my recess time, where she would bring along some yummy pancakes with honey for my meals... with me so much looking forward to recess time - that was back in 1986, a full 15 years ago. grandma passed away in 1988, when i was in primary 3. i felt so much come-of-age... though bittersweet, but i'm thankful for the memories that i still have in color in my mind. comparing the premises now with the memories of the old times, with students bustling all over during recess, the prefects maintaining the queues in the tuckshop during my time (i was a school prefect then)... and seeing that everything that used to be was no more - i suddenly treasured all the memories that i had when i was there even more. the small bird aviary - i used to sit down there by the side of it when i was four or five years old, watching the budgies inside flying - was still there, but lifeless. the fish pond near the tuckshop - was there but dry. it has already been a decade since i left there! even the corner right opposite my primary 1c classroom, where there used to stand an orange coinphone, remains vivid in my mind.

the music room, where i remember sitting down on benches in an air-conditioned room (air-conditioning was a massive luxury then), learning how to sing the national anthem... wow. the basketball court where most of the times boys like me would be playing football and send the ball flying into the then-existent east payoh secondary's tennis court. the stretch of the table tennis tables - that we all used to call ping pong tables... the area where the tuckshop vendors would be sitting out to chit chat, the glasses of orange-flavored syrup at 10 cents a cup... sometimes i would spend my 30 cents out of the daily 60 cents allowance i had then, on filling up my waterbottle with syrup, especially a hot day with physical education...

the animal farm where there used to be chickens in coops... the narrow lane that used to be the school bookstore, where me and my guy friends used to go in and buy erasers for spinning... the outdoor volleyball courts were no more, with container classrooms now embedded in their place... the av theater, where we enjoyed some short filmstrips during recesstime, the language labs where we went back on saturday mornings for supplementary maths lessons... and the library. i remember the first time that i was on duty as a student librarian, my mother was furious that i only was able to go back so late, at 4pm! and how about now? what's 4pm to us anymore? as i was going up to the old hall, i was surprised to pick up a volleyball bearing the school's name. i remember now, i used to pick them out from this cage at the indoor sports complex and giving a hard punt to it, to see how high i could get it to fly! the science lab - that was almost always infested with termites... but the saddest thing was when i couldn't find the sandpit where i had my first bad fall as a toddler. when i first saw that it was gone, another stream of nostalgic tears fell out again...

i then dried my tears, proceeded over to the new school building, hoping to catch a glimpse of my previous teachers. i was wondering, how come the school was so quiet? anyway, i pushed my bike to this area where the grand old dame of the old school's hall, the piano was placed on a special platform. i then passed the volleyball to this staff called melvin, and it was he who told me the school was having the sports day over at toa payoh stadium. i took a quick tour of the first level of the school, and snapped a few last pictures. the missing bust of the founder was now placed just near the canteen/general office area. at least it's still intact! i soon then left for the stadium to witness what i could of the sports day. to think that i hated pe lessons when i was a child during the lower primary years, but now, i'm becoming a pe teacher myself! the ironies of life...

i got to the stadium, only to see quite a lot of old students (much younger than me, of course) standing outside the complex itself. i locked my bike at the main gates, and went in looking for mr chan. he was my form teacher for two years, after all. i met one of my seniors from pess as well, sherlene. or was it sherlyn? anyway, i can remember her face, that's ok enough already. mr chan was the firer for the day's events, so i couldn't walk up to him at his starting point area, could i? so i wrote a note for him, and passed it to a mr lee, who then relayed the letter to mr chan. one thing i tell you folks, there ain't nothing in the world that beats your former teacher signing your webpage's guestbook!

after i left the stadium, i headed for bike haus in search of the speedplay pedals. i cycled via toa payoh lorong 4, lorong 6, braddell road, lornie road, then to bike haus over at bukit timah road. when i was on top of the adam road flyover, i gave razi a call, and arranged to meet at the shop. i just continued my way easily and then parked my bike outside the store, and went looking around - there were a couple of cannondale scalpel 2000s in the shop - at an astonishing S$6100! that is crazy! mavic would have died in there! after a good time around the store, razi helped me to brush up some of my going upslope and coming downslope skills. so much better now! but it was somewhat unnerving to hear that he once crashed really bad about two years back. after this session with razi, i asked him to bring his gf... i mean, gary fisher bike as soon as possible so that we can go for some cycling together. he's more of an off-roadie, as far as i know. after the two of us parted (i had to go for cell group gathering at charles' place), i met robert from the triathlon association, and that was the first time he saw me with a bicycle. *beams* he then ran off for evening training... and i just pedalled my way to meet w140 at tiong bahru plaza.

after the cg gathering, i then cycled back via orchard->serangoon road. as i was coming from paterson road, there were these about 10 or so toyota celicas all in a mass outing! anyway, i was cycling really dangerously - on the middle lanes of orchard road! kids! don't try that, please! anyway, i managed to reach home at 11:50pm, not bad! just 50 minutes to cycle all the way from the tiong bahru area back home to serangoon central! *beams again*


Which Nokia handphone are you?


quiz taken courtesy of shihui.

some images that were overdue - on the right you see the ancient cash register that is still in usable condition at song seng chan at joo chiat. i requested the boss to let me take a picture of it - real cool!

anyway, i forgot to mention that i saw my vjc classmate michelle tan while i was at the bike shop. she was having vocal lessons at a centre nearby. haha, she, eileen and me would be going out for prata suppers if we can confirm that they both have bicycles, while i cycle all the way to nus from ntu just for that!...






















Thursday, April 18, 2002

ok, got both of my flat tubes fixed. thankfully it's not the outer tires that were busted. PHEW! i got the flats fixed at alston bikes, which is just beside the upper serangoon shopping centre. and today when i reached there, you could imagine how "thankful" i was to find that there was a impact piledriver (you know, the type that goes TAK!-TAK!-TAK!) right outside the shop. what an earsore!

i saw this super big sized iron horse dual suspension bike that had a cool price tag on it - S$5000! but i don't understand how come it had only one chainring... it has disc braking too... anyway, i'll be helping the company to do a better website than it already has now... so now i'm tentatively doing two websites - one for xinghua primary and alston bikes!

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

suddenly i've got this crazy business idea that will definitely earn mavic, and me some spare cash. i think i'll be going down to the registry of companies next month to register the business... mavic, you wanna know what it is?

cool link of the day: messengers. oh yeah, and this cycling site is damned cool too!


Which car are you?

damned! i busted both the tubes for my khs... now i'm struggling to think of the closest bicycle shop around the area... anyone knows where i can find one such store around serangoon central?

the sunrims of mine also got slightly dented... sigh.

Monday, April 15, 2002

fwah, i'm now at the ngee ann polytechnic library, the internet cafe/bubble tea corner. just now i just came back from the former centre for computer studies, and i went all over, up and down looking for good friend edmund, but i just didn't know where to look for him. anyway, i went with hui from the sixth level down to the fourth level, but i still could not find him. exasperated, i went up to the eighth level, looking for my former tutor mr lau hang kong, but he wasn't in. then i knocked on mdm thai's room door, and she was in! all i had to do was to pull down my oakleys and then tada! she could recognize me! we spent a while talking... she actually keeps practically all her students' photos with her! she said something that struck a chord with me - that she would let her students know that they have to have a common set of rules to work by, otherwise nothing can be achieved. also, that indirectly reminded me of this age-old question - do freedom and discipline go hand in hand together? the answer is a resounding "YES!". why? because imagine, if you're a railway train, you can't get to anywhere if you don't have your train-tracks (discipline) to run on!

anyway, before i went up the building, i thought i saw someone who resembles jasmine and then i asked her... then she said she wasn't even from the school i think! bleah! win already lor! then meihua wasn't around either (she didn't pick up my call then) nor did i have edmund's phone number... sigh... next time i'll be better prepared!

Sunday, April 14, 2002

finished a ride today wee hours from bishan over to bedok - but before that, gordon and me went shopping at song-whatever store at joo chiat and bought each a specialized body geometry saddle for ourselves. i bought the comfort men's and gordon bought the s-works men's saddle. mine was $44, his was $160! then we each got ourselves one pair of specialized comp gloves too, each for $40+. wow... one night alone i spent $90 on bike accessories...

anyway, for the wee hours we cycled to fengshan makan centre for bak chor mee as well as bbq chicken wings. each of us had two bowls of the noodles, and two chicken wings each... crazy!

Saturday, April 13, 2002

yes! i just cycled back from sengkang where lenca lives, back past my home in serangoon central enroute to aljunied where hui stays. i then cycled back home - all these on the khs bike that i just took over... had a couple of falls when i tried some funny tricks, but i'm unscathed otherwise. yaay! i know how to cycle liao! the dual suspension is damned shiok, but then i would agree, some of the speed has been wasted because of the rear suspension... sad, sad. hey mavic, we're in the same league now! i just saw a lady teaching the taf kids in my school - she uses time pedals and a rocky expedition bike...

Friday, April 12, 2002

folks, it's the last day of teaching practicum at the school now... even though i think i'm gonna flunk it, might as well, flunk it happily. main thing is, i've got to learn to love and hate kids. obviously more to the "love" side lar! haha... just shot a video assignment due for monday with the kids... the kids from 5a1 gave me a token, i'll only open it today while i give them a small ice-cream treat... i think the stallholder's gonna go bonkers trying to get enough stock to sell for the day... anyway, i think i'll be meeting lenca tonight for the KHS bike... mavic, i want you to be my rims!

hey, mavic, do you know where to buy the specialized pro men's or comp men's bike saddles? i wanna keep myself "functioning" when it is the time...

Tuesday, April 09, 2002

yesterday, the worst things that could happen just happened. bervyn came, gave me an "F" for my lesson, citing "inappropriate task", "lack of objective" for it. then i came home, turned on my pc, and took a nap. when i woke up, i found out that my ibm ultrastar 36lzx 18gb, scsi hard disk, has gone the way of an ibm deathstar. great.

Sunday, April 07, 2002

just finished washing up, after coming home from a pretty adventurous (or should i say, torturous?) 8 hour cycling trip, interspersed with eating breaks (hey, sounds like army life, doesn't it?) at various places. gordon was cycling jenny's giant act suspension bike (i couldn't figure out the model anyway) and i took his trusty diamondback. we started out at about midnight, and we proceeded from bishan over to geylang for beancurd, soya milk, you tiao and guo tie. wendy mei dear, you should try the guo tie here! you'll LOVE it! it was soooo nice!

from geylang, we decided to head over to east coast. in then end we cycled over to east coast park, where i test rode the giant bike. this aluminium front suspension bike was definitely more responsive than gordon's steel framed, zero suspension diamondback. from there, where we stayed for a while, we pedaled over to fengshan blk 85, which is the home of the apparently famous bak chor mee in bedok. too bad, when we reached there, it was closed! the time was about 4am then. we then changed our mind, then we headed to kembangan for the sinfully delicious black pepper makan there. when we reached there, it was 4:30am, but then, the store was closed! sigh... so we both had nasi lemak from the adjacent muslim store... it was a trifle stingy proportions lor, i think. anyway, from there, i suggested cycling to orchard (i'm not joking) and so off we went!

as we were cycling through the eunos industrial estate, we were chased by three crazy dogs... initially i thought that gordon who was behind me was pulling my leg... until i turned my head and caught a glimpse of a dog barking and springing to its feet... i was convinced! we both cheong-ed our way away from these three hounds... scary man! bad thing is, i didn't know how to change the bicycle to a faster gear setting! anyway, we were both unscathed... phew!

the rest of the ride for the morning, was smooth sailing. so after reaching orchard, we went back to his place in bishan, then we called it a day (for cycling). imagine, an 8 hour trip including eating and pursuit by dogs, and hard cycling... when i get the khs from lenca i'll definitely remember to change my bike's saddle to specialized's pro men's or comp men's... so that i wouldn't have any chance of erectile dysfunction!

Saturday, April 06, 2002

can anyone tell me if this cracked lcd screen on my 3310 can be fixed?

Friday, April 05, 2002

haha... i was just reading through the talkingcock.com website, and looking up more info on the movie, and guess what? jeanette's in the show! good for ya, g-net!

you can read what she said on the cast interview page.

Have you heard about the next planned Survivor show?

Three businessmen and three businesswomen will be dropped in a primary school classroom for 6 weeks. Each business person will be provided with a copy of the latest school syllabus, SIOs ,the Desired Outcome of Education and a class of 40 students. Each class will have 5 learning-disabled children, 3 more with A.D.D.; one gifted child and two who speak limited English. Three others will be labeled as severe behavior problems. Each business person must complete lesson plans at least three days in advance with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize or create materials accordingly.

They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement IT-lessons, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, join a WITs team, set exam papers, and arrange IPW projects.

They must also supervise recess and monitor the hallways. In addition, they will complete drills for fire. They must attend workshops,subject committee meetings, level sharing and conduct item analysis. They must tutor those students who are behind and strive to get their 2 non-English speaking children proficient enough to pass PSLE.

If they are sick or having a bad day they must not show it. Each day they must incorporate reading, writing, math, science and Social studies, not to mention critical and creative thinking into the program. They must maintain discipline and provide an educationally stimulating environment at all times.

The business people will only have access to the golf course on the weekends. On their new salary they will not be able to afford it anyway. There will be no access to vendors who want to take them out to lunch, and lunch will be limited to 30 minutes. On days when they do not have recess duty, the business people will be permitted to use the staff restroom as long as another survival candidate is supervising their class. They will be provided with a 30 minute planning period per day while their students are at specials. If the copier is operable, they may make copies of necessary materials at this time, without fringing on copyright laws.

The business people are given 100 training hours, of which must be recorded in their TRAISI. They must continually advance their education on their own time. The winner of the "Suvivors" will be allowed to return to his or her original job.

Pass this to your friends who think teaching is easy and to the ones that know it is hard. They will both benefit.

Thursday, April 04, 2002

wow... this is cool! the major events in the Bible told via lego bricks! take a look at The Brick Testament!

yesterday my supervisor bervyn paid me a surprise visit, just on the day that i didn't do the necessary paperwork. got an "f" for both my maths and pe class observation. good in a way, bad in a way. good - at least i now know what i gotta change. bad? that he didn't come earlier to nab my mistakes...

won't be blogging for a couple of days. by the way, i think i wouldn't be going to robert kiyosaki's seminar this weekend. damned. richard tan from success resources said he would ask his wife veronica to give me a call, but then so far? no call. i always get this feeling that i'm being snubbed by her. damned.

one last thing, i would be buying a second hand bike from lenca, edward's girlfriend, for 500 bucks. it's a khs fxt sport (1999) with front and rear suspension. problem? my folks said that i can't put it anywhere in the house... damned. with a bike like this, isn't it asking for trouble by parking it downstairs? the only best solution i have is to chain it up along the corridor railing...