you're surely counting down to 2003, aren't you? i'm not. i'm looking forward to getting a step-up lens and filter for my camera...

folks, those of you who own jumping beans, please return all of them to the ava (agri-food and veterinary authority of singapore). they are potential pests, just like how rats are pests in many countries! please read the article at the electric new paper online for more info.

so far, as i can diagnose, my stoopah computah gave me problems because of memory problems - located in my 2nd stick of 256mb kingston valueram (it's different from kingston ram, although valueram is a subsidary of kingston memory). diagnosed it with a linux-based utility called memtest86 version 3.0. it's freeware!

yesterday was a fairly ok-ok day. went to meet up my classmates at orchard, but on the way to starbucks liat towers, i saw ghostami, caniggia and one more chap staring at a burning motorcycle on penang lane. took some pictures of it, and eventually a fireman told me that his superior didn't want me to shoot pictures.

the class turnout wasn't much more than 50%. good to see the boys back from india, and alwyn who's pretty much alright now.

met up the people from clubsnap at a mass order gathering at burger king, peninsula plaza, and you should been there to see at least 20 to 30 men there all gathered to get either sanyo 2100mah rechargeables or the battery holding cases. massive! i learnt loads of stuff from ziploc, fundee (especially!), rty. met desmond, mystic, imaginarynumber (who happened to be a hostelmate of mine!) and some more chaps as well. so i finished the day with a haul of 12 more batteries, plus 10 battery holders.

learnt better, the combination of f-stop, aperture, shutter and iso from both ziploc and fundee. good!

no pictures until i can get a host. sorry!

and there's an idiot who's short-horning 70 times in a row "bor-bor-bor..." in the carpark somewhere around my place. at 1am. and it wasn't once, it was at least five times already. so one new good number to memorize for me - 6488-0999 - for the serangoon neighborhood police centre.

went for the mr25 ultramarathon today, and i just ran one single lap, without registering. the 10km northern route, i did in 57:50 with an average of 169 bpm (heartbeats per minute) and a maximum of 190 bpm. then i took over 120 photos for the event with my olympus c4040 with a 128mb smartmedia card, and a change over to my sanyo 2100mah nimh batteries.

aunt shirny gave me a present of an ocean pacific basketball top, along with a card; while the bishan running group gave me a handphone stand that has lights running when the handphone is active, as well as a card - all these for helping aunt shirny out to get her to the medical point on the day of the marathon. aiyoh! so paiseh! they keep on calling me "hero"! i'm serious... so malu!... met adrian koh, one of my primary school classmates there as well.

track 15 killed me. the handling, that is. short but furious - but is it me, or is it because i didn't sleep and still pushed on to cycle from home to mandai? anyway, met zaskarboy's cycling mates - most of them somewhat clueless marin users. how some of them talk about shedding weight off the bikes - it was pretty hilarious - i was thinking - the easiest way to drop weight off the bike is to drop the owner...

cycled on to t.e.f. and later on to gee hin chan to have my bottom bracket serviced. in the end, changed to a fsa sealed cartridge headset for 60 dollars. met eaglet, clown, bullit, radio69, foeszz, gary, alex84 all there. my frame gave me a scare when it was evidently that the full-suspension lower pivot was seriously flexing side-to-side, but thankfully it could be rectified by slopping on loads of grease. have to clear up the frame and the cabling though. sigh.

better visit ash ng's western food stall before it ceases operation on 31st december this month - promised to do so, and take photos for him for memories' sake.

just came back from the fenr, and i'll be going out to track 15 in a couple of hours' time.

for all those sexually active, here's a flash for christmas that donggal sent to me - funny, but a caution for safe sex. you can try to sing along with it with the tune of "the 12 days of christmas", too!

guess how much? give up already? (that's fast! ) beach shorts for $13.90, trunks (made in spain, i presume) for only 25 bucks!


these are what make all those frustrations that are encountered during lesson time, vaporize into thin air. who says teaching isn't worth it?

last night i received a call from shirley, the lady whom i helped out during the marathon this year. today morning, i got a call from jane, her friend who was tending to her first - wow - two thank-you calls in less than 12 hours! my poor handphone suffered though - each of them talked 25 minutes to me on my mobile... sigh... there goes some more money to singtel!

went out with kit leong, first to the tyr distributor to get another pair of trunks for backup, and three beach shorts that i can wear to school when teaching. fairly conservative colours, but it might become a "uniform" - i now have three identically coloured, and designed beach shorts - the students may think i'm wearing a uniform! or worse still, wearing the same shorts for days on end! yikes!

went with kit leong over to gee hin chan, and saw mas cycling on a garang 24 bike, on a freeride setup. it's funny when you see a person on that kind of bike wearing flipflops! but the act of the day, was that he was cycling to t.e.f. on a urata-class bike with one of his alex rims wheels installed with a chris king hub tied to his front basket! cool!

met kit leong's dad, and we proceeded to sim lim square. they'd bought a stick of kingston 256mb ram for 56 bucks from chamoxa, which is in use now. i'm thinking of getting a 512mb stick on payday as well. then imagine - a pc with 1 gig of ram - with the much better memory management by windows xp... drool! oh, before i forget, we went to mustafa's where they'd gotten a pair of energizer nimh aaa batteries. my first visit to mustafa's - it's really big!

look at what i can do to my ikea mammut stool just by sitting on it...

popped a look into seph's blog, and got the following result:

You Are Furry Cuffs!

In the bedroom
You like to play cop
So keep fucking hard
Even when begged to stop!

What Sex Toy Are *You*?
More Great Quizzes from Quiz Diva

cool! i'll get one for my girlfriend... when i get one, that is...

and here's some photos for you before coolconnect shuts down...

people breaking the symmetry on an escalator


rooflights


santarina looks upon people afleet


streetlights

the lady whom i helped to casevac during the singapore marathon just gave me a call, thanking me for the help that i rendered to her when she bonked big-time.

kit leong mentioned to me the mr25 ultramarathon this sunday. i think i'll go there to just do two rounds so that i can record something into my polar s710. miss the greenery of macritchie especially now that i have the hrm to play around with.

sent out the three christmas cards to three of my former 5a1 students - anabelle, melissa and jianing on my bike around 6:30am. i had fixed up the front and rear derailleurs myself in the wheel hours - to my perfection. good. around noon, i set off on my bike again, and travelled to ang mo kio to pass jeam the pair of gloves i bought for her on monday afternoon. she accepted it, this time. i came back home, and johnson came over just as when i was about to set off for the airport to take photos of effy coming back home after goodness-knows-how-long, with her boyfriend larry and ping, and effy's family. surprisingly, zaskarboy was on the same flight too, and i gave him a great shock by snapping photos at him while he was wondering "who's that siao kia?"

then i went to orchard and shopped around - bought bike, sport diving and bicycling. forgot that i also bought rally xs from wh smith's at the airport too.

came back at just about midnight after meeting the clubsnap folks at peninsula plaza's food court. had a quick dinner at burger king for a couple of minutes - tried to use a coupon - but it was just past the valid dates for usage! but the nice girl called yiying helped me to get the same stuff as the coupon mentioned for only 3 bucks. thanks!

went to hup leong and met ek7 and sammiay there. hmm... same bikes, cyclocomps, helmets... even tights! what's next? heehee... gilbert gave me the shifter cable housing free of charge! wow! i also picked up a pair of adidas cycling gloves, will give them to jeam when i see her later today...

by the way, it's not everyday you can hold a $4000+ digital slr camera in your hands... i had the chance to last night, thanks to robert and amos! yeah!

will be going out soon - today's itinery - to visit hup leong, get the shifter cable housings that i need, maybe a rollamajig if there's stock, then travel down to peninsular plaza to meet up with some clubsnap people for a seed - shop for equipment & expendables day. maybe with a night shoot as well... only problem? i'm not feeling well now...

there's one attitude about my old man that i really cannot stand. imagine this - when i ask him to just pop over from looking at his luohan to come over to my computer, for me to teach him a cool trick or two about photoshop, he will just say he's not interested. or better yet, he might at times say that he doesn't need it. hello? he's the kind of person to splurge big money on a digital camera, and not want to learn how to enhance the photograph digitally. not as if his photography skills are that good, anyway. any photos that he takes with his sony f717 are pooped, from what i know. no experimentation of angles, apertures or anything else. just at best, the +/-ev levels and zoom in/out. that's all i know he would play with his camera. in fact, he just said he only needs to adjust the brightness of the photos, that's all? that's the #1 leading reason to quality loss in digital photos, if you didn't know too. i'm dead sure that he doesn't even know how to tweak his camera to do a depth-of-field adjusted shot - he's the kind who wants 100% of the picture to be absolutely clear. anyway, i'm still learning and reading all around

i'll write some articles about digital photography soon. must get buckyball up first though.

by the way, he doesn't know how to take care of the fish. some of the "fish food" - small catfish - are cooped up in this small plastic container which fouls up with fish poop every two days - and guess who's the one changing the water to keep the conditions more humane for the fish? the old man's attitude of he's-learnt-all-that-he-needs-to-learn. wastage of money. not my money, but it's a heartpain when you see people doing that.

here's the list of the things i bought at ikea on friday evening (specially posting so that i can suan san)

1. 02 x fabian shelf - 70x24cm @ $6 --> $12
   
2. 01 x svenning swivel chair @ $39
   
3. 01 x chris noticeboard @$9
   
4. 03 x komplement lid @ $5 --> $15
   
5. 01 x dokument letter/document tray @ $15
   
6. 01 x rationell drawer mat @ $7.90
   
7. 01 x jutis cd tower @ $35
   
8. 01 x mackis mini drawers @ $29
   
9. 01 x mammut stool @ $5.90
   
10. 01 x pack of noticeboard pins @ $0.90
    
11. 03 x komplement box @ $9 --> $27
    
12. 01 x rullmard castor wheels @ $3.90
    
13. 01 x mard storage crate @ $9.90

just realized that xiaobell is a pal of both diodev and charmane!

went to ikea to buy a lot of stuff - total was just a tad under s$210. oh my goodness!

met up with sai wee the day before at my place, trying to get his quirky notebook computer up to scratch - i suspect his "end" key got stuck. valerie came over to my place to burn off her photos from her canon ixus v2 to a cdr the day before that.

just cleared up my room yesterday - my computer desktop and my desktop are now 100% ok. the floor still has the small bits of stuff all around - but it's really much better now.

by the way, my computer screwed up big time on me - that's why i didn't write anything for the last few days. now i'm running win98se off my quantum 15gb hard disk, after a fresh install. gotta move off everything to the 80gb ibm hard disk before i try to reinstall winxp pro on the 73lzx hard disk... in short - more work!...

hey, look at how spiderman dances!

damned tired... took 90+ photos for the trip. but it's a good experience. my "virgin" passport finally got two stamps - one for going in, one for going out. didn't manage to buy anything, other than sticks of chewing gum, because we only stopped over at a petrol kiosk before we hit the trail. a culture shock though - after passing either the singapore checkpoint, or the malaysian checkpoint, the condition of the road... oh man. potholes all over! well, it's an eyeopener alright. at least i'll appreciate the surroundings i've been blessed with all the while without realizing! and those folks out there, they actually use scooters on steep downhills and such! and mind you - it's sloppy and muddy conditions too! incredible!

just called lta and talked to a customer service officer called lali, and reported that hole-in-the-road that's growing along paterson road, opposite borders. this danged hole has already eaten up the width of a yellow line out of the two on the leftmost side of the road...

one of our local blogger's leaving for qut come 4th february. no wonder her site's down...

just got back home after going to mustafa's to change s$70 into malaysian currency, for tomorrow's mass ride 4. siva guided me there, and we stopped by at a prata store, and i met guna, my ic back in unit, with his girlfriend, and a large group of fellow indians. played around with my s710, and got the curves (altitude, speed, heartrate) all captured on my computer. will figure out how to make the most of it soon...

i can't take it! i was on tv for 20 seconds! you know, the interview i mentioned that was done before the start of the stanchart singapore marathon 2002? a fair bit was cut off, but heck, at least i'm on nationwide tv!

rod: you will hit the wall at 21km right?
me: err, that's supposed to be at 35 km.
rod: err...

and guess what? betty was interviewed, for the same show by the two "brother, brother"s on whether liverpool will win the premiership. of course, rod cheekily said he'd rather see betty sans her liverpool jersey... kind of like how fhm does it eh?

the bigger joke is that, when i gave betty a call just now, she said that she hardly watches soccer!

oh, and earlier in the morning, i watched this movie shown on channel 5, called the sea chance. a business-only business executive overcomes his fear of swimming, just to win his lady's heart - all overnight - and he jumps into the sea, only to hear the agreement for his marriage proposal. maybe it should have been shown on valentines' instead...

i got 12 pieces of sanyo's 2100mah nimh rechargeables for 45 dollars at w3cube as planned, but before i got there, i met yin hui, a senior of mine who was from pei chun and vjc who just was there too at grandlink square because she and some other friends started out a mani/pedicure shop call s-nail. cool logo they have, you know!

bought lennard zinn's zinn and the art of mountain bike maintenance for 43 bucks from borders. there's a separate version - zinn and the art of road bike maintenance. i don't think i need to explain the difference. saw heng meng just outside armani exchange (takashimaya) with whom i thought should be his girlfriend. he just looked at me, and didn't reply.

by the way, i think i'm gonna be on tv for saturday noon's glenn and rod show on channel 5. ooh! can't wait to see how i look (dorky or similar adjectives are welcome) on national tv!

so much stuff to read up now! photographytips.com holds a lot of information for beginner photographers like me, i've got my two copies of maximum pc magazines to dig through, a copy of runner's world (actually, a backlog of at least four months' worth to wade through), and another new issue of bikemag as well. phew!

i should be going out to grab some fresh 2100mah sanyo nimh rechargeable batteries from w3cube, in anticipation for sunday's johor ride...

bought the polar s710 heartrate monitor, along with the optional usb to infrared adaptor, all for a grand total of just under s$520. will need to figure out how to make full use of this toy before i go to johor for the togoparts mass ride 4 on sunday. met adrian mok at united lifestyle while i was trying to figure out the usage of the device. went over to sim lim square to pick up a 128 mb smartmedia card, as well as a 4 port usb hub from chamoxa. need all the memory i can get to snap photos like crazy while in johor, you know. i'm a damned suaku, because i haven't been out of singapore before! but things are gonna change now...

after the sim lim stop, i rushed over to kino to get some magazines, and just after hoping off the bus, i spotted kelvin from w180 there as well, with his pal, jessman. bid them farewell, got the stuff i wanted, and off to magic cuts i went. xiaoyang was there - lucky me! her massage is top-rated (at least, by me), but since i'm not really feeling well, i couldn't enjoy to the max. she herself had a slightly swollen right lymph node on the neck, hope she's ok.

i spent over $700 today! thankfully, most of these things are one-time purchases.

i dreamt of my old home back in toa payoh. nostalgic. i remember how the wet market used to look - and that girl whom i thought was pretty, working at the store selling frozen vegetables - and how i so much loved to eat green peas sold there. the curry powder store, with the slightly fat indian lady scooping out the various curry powders as the order was made. i long to see the changes made there. i'm going back there tomorrow to snap photos. oh my goodness. i'm gonna cry there, i think. no, i'm not electing to be effeminate - but it's the sense of nostalgia.

oh yes! i'm going ikea on saturday to get some storage boxes. otherwise i'll be saying "i really don't know!" like on the local ikea advertisement. but first... the polar heart rate monitor... oh, and i've offered to help katie to clear up her room for free, in exchange for a photography model/subject. eh, help me katie!

jackie said, be the best in whatever you want to be. and peg your clothes on the clothesline in the colours of your nation's flag. simon said, it's best to be paid doing what you like best. wait, did he say that? urgh, my short term memory... trying hard to recall the important points of the talk.

anyway, got a surprise as robert choy came to me asking me how to pronounce my surname. wonder who's the chap out there reading my site who told him about it. thanks to whoever you are... but the "lobang" he had for the cervelo p2 at $1800... it sounds enticing, since it comes with visiontech usa bars... but then, the fit...

singaporean christmas carols, courtesy of talkingcock.com.

jingle bengs (to the tune of ‘jingle bells’)
chorus:
jingle bengs, jingle bengs
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to squat
and then shout, “wah lau eh!” (eh!)
jingle bengs, jingle bengs
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to squat
and then shout, “wah lau eh!”

hooting down the road
and piah-ing down the street
later go geylang
and get something to eat
geylang is damn tok kong
‘cos down every lorong
you’re sure to find things all night long
to make you si beh song (eh!)

*repeat chorus

gst is coming to town (to the tune of ‘santa claus is coming to town’)
you better buy now
you better now buy
you better shop now
i’m telling you why
gst is coming to town

it will increase your bills
by fi-ive percent
courtesy of the go-overnment
gst is coming to town

it’ll hit you when you’re shopping
whether food or household wares
so you better start applying for
Your ee–ar-ce-ee shares

you better buy now
you better now buy
you better shop now
i’m telling you why
gstT is coming to town

o come back ye quitters (to the tune of ‘o come all ye faithful’)
come back, ye quitters,
bring your kids or sisters
come back, o co-ome back to si-ing-ga-pore
come and assist us
in this big recession
o come back to your country
o come back to your country
o come back to your country
we mean Singapore

i'm dreaming of a white husband (to the tune of ‘i’m dreaming of a white christmas’)
I’m dreaming of a white husband
just like the ones on tv shows
so i stake out boat quay
or ho-lland vee-ee
to snag some rich expat ang-mors

i’m dreaming of a white husband
i read about in women’s mags
i’m an spg, all right
and i want my husband to be white

isd is gonna find out (to the tune of 'santa claus is coming to town')
you better not pout
you better not cry
you better watch out I'm telling you why
isd is gonna find out

they're reading your mail
they're bugging your soup
to find out if you're
a communist dupe
isd is gonna find out

they watch you when you're sleeping
awake it's still the same
and if you act boh tua boh suay
you will sure kena detain

so better not pout
or kau peh kau bu
or they will reserve
the air-con for you
isd is gonna find out

fill the malls (to the tune of 'deck the halls')
fill the malls with christmas spending!
fa la la la la la la la la
use your visa till it's bending!
fa la la la la la la la la
till you reach your credit ceiling!
fa la la la la la la la la
and the interest starts increasing!
fa la la la la la la la la

see the letters all demanding!
fa la la la la la la la la
see the writ of seizure coming!
fa la la la la la la la la
bailiffs come with smiles-a-gleaming!
fa la la la la la la la la
what a novel christmas greeting!
fa la la la la la la la la

o little town of singapore (to the tune of 'o little town of bethlehem')
o little town of Singapore
how small you are in size
and yet you like
to use your mike
to go and proselytize
though your Asian values
you know are but a ruse
to justify
making folks cry
their liber-ties you bruise
"you must obey your elders
nomatter what they say
to be unfi-
-li-al, you see
is a treasonous display."

silent fart (to the tune of 'silent night')
silent fart
smelly fart
eat durian
chin chia lat
bastard
why you so
buay tze tong
just let go
like that, si beh hiong
damn incon-si-der-a-ate
da-amn in-con-sider-ate

south in east asia (to the tune of 'away in a manger')
south in east asia
by a flag white and red
the little lord Harry
lay down his vast head
he's built up this island
it's rich though it's small
the people love Harry
and carry his balls.

we three singhs (to the tune of 'we three kings')
we three singhs
of paya lebar
one in taxi
one in car
one on scooter
peeping his hooter
all going to khalsa.

refrain:
oh-oh, bhai what colour?
ouch! It's white!
why you pinch
so bloody tight?
homeward heading
ghee a-spreading
bhais want chapati tonight.

didn't clear my scv cable modem bill in full, so here i am, back to dial-up networking.

tomorrow evening, the talk at national stadium's theaterette by jackie gallagher, and one more on friday evening for dr. koh's talk at the same place.

heard that alwyn is responding well. good news! another good news - i managed to work out to 53 strokes for frontcrawl for a 50 meter distance. and just minutes before that, it was 62! practically a 20% efficiency improvement! yes!

tomorrow i'll call stacey to ask her to check with lawrence, hopefully for better still prices for the polar heartrate monitor. with the 25% discount voucher, the polar s710 should cost only $439++.

coolconnect.com is going to shut down on 31st december. time to look for another place to host from. any folks with free space, who can host me?

collected my new passport, and got my olympus camera back from the service centre. met jerry at kino while i was browsing through some biking magazines. forgot to mention that i learnt how to change a car tire when zongde's rear left tire decided to leak air on us last night.

there will be a talk by world triathlon champion jackie gallagher and olympic gold medalist in archery, simon fairweather. it would be held on 11 dec 2002 at 6.30pm at the national stadium theatrette! i believe this would be a good opportunity for people who want to compete. learn about their struggles and success stories! should you have further enquiries, please feel free to email ms peh min min, executive (athlete development) at peh_min_min@ssc.gov.sg or call her at 6 342 5112.

programme
6.00 pm arrival of participants. (Light refreshments will be served.)
6.30 pm introduction of speakers by wayde clews, director (athlete development), ssc
6.45 pm talk by jackie gallagher
7.30 pm talk by simon fairweather
8.15 pm q&a session
9.00 pm end of programme

say hi to b******** computers.

website and logo coming up soon.

trivia: do you know what is a buckyball?

i didn't finish the marathon today. in fact, i started walking from about 13km onwards, because my left knee started to trouble me. it didn't help too, that my stomach was churning - i told stacey and emily that i needed to download my stuff, after i find a "network point". after an unsuccessful download session, i gave up, and in the end, i helped a chinese national who was running, to do some stretching for his tight calves. basically walked-jogged, and met emily again. she had to drop me, since my knees weren't that cooperative. lucky girl, she could just cross the road and reach the school she teaches at. by the way, i think there's a vocal problem with robert choy. he tried to call me when he spotted me, but he called out an "orrr" instead of "ngoh". sigh. i don't bother to his total mispronounciation of my family name.

in the end, while i was walking just after the 20km mark, i spotted a lady who was sitting on the sand, along part of the journey along east coast park towards the city. she had a friend who was somewhat frantic, trying to get her up. obvious signs of trouble faced. i went up and took a look at the sitting lady - her face looked half-dead. seriously. so, with a few other guys (and ladies') help, i piggybacked this lady who was probably the age of my mom, and carried her to a spot where some st john's medics took a preliminary look at her. they then decided to send her to the medical tentage a couple hundred meters up. her friend continued to finish the half-marathon they were intending for, and i took off the groggy m'am's number tag to look at the next-of-kin contact information. i must commend though, the tag is very well thought of for this year - there's a portion to write in the contact number of the next-of-kin in case anything happens, of which we just found handy.

the groggy lady, was apparently burning up real bad. imagine - the warmth of her upper arm is feeling even hotter than touching the forehead of a high-fever patient! now, that was scary! i was assisting a couple of medics to attend to the lady - and i kept her awake by continually talking to her. in the end, with medics timothy and yun si (who was on attachment to changkat secondary's st john unit), i followed the lady in an ambulance to tan tock seng hospital. she'd repeatedly ask, "am i going to become retarded?", "am i going to die?" and similar stuff that i thought only casualties who had shock or trauma would say. had to continually reassure her to keep her conscious.

by the way, before the marathon, i was videocammed a brief interview with the two brothers from perfect 10 - glenn ong and his "brother"! luckily i didn't laugh out like crazy when they kept on referring to each other as "brother"! met a lot of people - ronnie ng, george chong, steve choo, uncle lim (lian hock), ah leong, evelyn, steven lee, edmund, vernon, bakthier, sham, imram, jingjing, jennifer, zaman, andy, goh hor, alston? foo, leng leng, stacy, geri, richard leow, mr. oh, steven quek, jess, ruoying, mokhtar, colin and his girl, vivien tang, chuanjie, pauline (obs), magnum force, and many others.

yesterday evening as i visited alwyn at changi general hospital, it seemed so much that life is fragile. he isn't really responding much, but he can understand what we say - but he doesn't seem able to talk properly yet.

i just told some girl to say cestlavie to me from my icq. she's 17, from nanyang poly. the last time she told me over icq that she was interested in me, probably just a month and some ago. so i'd hid myself online by being invisible on icq. after all, there's no telling who the other person is - a miss piggy? so here we are, after a few weeks. i asked if i was mistaken that she declared that she was openly interested in me. she replied yes, but... (yes, the proverbial, quintessential "but") she's already attached. wow! so fast? so i tried to cajole her out, but she flatly refused, saying that a girl who defects after another better guy pops around, is not a girl that any guy would like - hey, i agree with the reasoning. the reason why she said that, is because she was involved in such an incident before, after which the new guy wasn't interested in her, really, and she had already broken with with her then boyfriend. once bitten, twice shy. i'd propose to part ways, anyway since that i'm more of the third party than anything else now. this was what she typed that peeved me - "why can't we remain as friends? because no one knows what will happen in the future?" isn't that selfish of her? i mean, if she wants to stay to her guy, i'll just let her be the faithful girl she has intention of being, while i depart from her life. so why should i remain as a substitute, right?

and i finally threw away the ticket stubs to waterboys that i attended with janice back in march. it is so good to rid myself of the burden of remembering such a girl.

this feeling inside me
finally found my life, i'm finally free
no longer torn in two
i learned about my life by living through you
- nicholas, "finally free" - off dream theater's metropolis part 2: scenes from a memory

young girls like janice (note: i'm not classifying all girls of the age bracket to be the same as them) are the bane of my life. lavish some care for them, but they don't reciprocate, nor indicate anything - good or bad. she can go ahead and go woo any her pastors if she wants to - for she'd say to me, that she wants a guy who loves Christ more than he loves her. huh? i still can't see the logic. i'm not bitter, but i think it's stoopah. through experiences, i've learnt, never, never, never to woo younger girls of the age bracket 16 to 18. those generally 19 and up are more mature regarding relations. but there are many delusional ones, who don't seem to be able to recover from broken relationships at all.

in summary, some relations are better to be totally discarded of, than to linger in the mind, with bad memories.

is this being published?

today's photoshop class was too basic, but i managed to relearn the combinations of shift, alt, and ctrl on and their effects on layers, copying, and selecting and such. a nice primer. i'll refer to my photoshop 7 bible for more helpful tips though.

dad must be overjoyed now, just got the delivery of a spanking new sony 34 inch wega tv. man, with the money, i can almost buy myself a cervelo already...

went out in the afternoon to apply for the passport - it was refreshing to see photoshop being used to process the digitally taken photos in the booth... cool! saw chua, who was my fellow mt-line mate back in 6 division there with his girlfriend.

i just learnt from xuan that alwyn is stuck in cgh icu for an accident... sure hope it's not a motorbike accident... damned, and i didn't know what happened!

update: it was a motorbike accident, involving a taxi.

i asked for permission to leave the flash introduction class early, and went over to the hotel and sent off the two young ladies, and sent in my olympus camera for servicing the dead pixel on the lcd monitor at the olympus service center, located at high street centre. will only get it back next week earliest. so no photos from me for some time. eh, i also bought the photoshop 7 bible by wiley for 57 dollars at computer book store, funan. a tad of nostalgia as i read the fresh book at mcdonald's funan, where i used to read the specification sheets/datasheet for all the computer hardware that dad bought for me. it was so long ago - probably from 1995 up to 1999. i can't remember the exact dates though.

i'm damned tired from the last few days' lack of rest - but i'm glad that i managed to click well with cherry and lilian. she (cherry) gave a whole new reasoning understanding/revelation to why some girls would go out on the streets with a rather large waistpouch covering the butt... any guesses why? no prizes even if you get it right though. i managed to have an (eyeful) as we were playing pool at a pool centre at the meridien hotel early in the morning (1:30 to 2:30am approximate). and i must comment too, that lilian is extremely ticklish, and i had good reason to tickle her silly when she didn't want to wake up to go for late dinner (or should i call it supper?) last night...

tomorrow, i plan to visit homemaker to get the cheques, and on wednesday attend the photoshop 6 class, just the way that i had my flash introduction class today. will need to redo my website's legacy coding soon...

just remembered that i saw valerie with whom i presume was her guy, on orchard road yesterday as i was walking along with the two malaysia girls. the two girls are really sweeet - but their shopping/walking endurance can be further trained so that they can last longer. hope to see them soon. that reminds me to apply for my passport soon...

friday morning, i cycled from home to homemaker's to clear up the rest of the raid 1 setup that didn't go well on thursday when i went over. this time, though i brought along the wrong software, i still managed to create the image from the larger hard disk to the smaller one. but no payment yet - the cheques have to be signed by melise first. soon i'll be back at the office to pick up the money...



once the job was done, i cycled over to two wheel action in holland grove and ask lynten if i could see his famed wooden bike. alas, it wasn't around. next time!... so i'd continue on my way to nus, to meet huiling for a swim. she'd got stuck outside her room, as i found out later, and that caused her to be much later than we arranged. so gary showed me the way in, and i managed to show him how to do the butterfly stroke. pretty easy! huiling came later and explained her predicament that had just lapsed to me, and we had a good laugh over it. i gave her pointers on how to position her body to maintain good balance, that is so ever critical to maintain a hydrodynamic position in the water. we'd finish the time in the pool soon, and had a simple quick lunch at bean factory. after she left for her committee meeting, i cycled back home admidst a drizzle and prepped myself to attend the network security talk at sitex. kind of disappointing, i was expecting a larger scale event than that. met royston mo there too, my primary school classmate.

went home, pooped, and got ready for the fenr again. photos are online at my latest webshots account (7th!).

>saturday, was spent doing nothing, except for meeting zongde and going to sitex to trade in for the tdk cyclone cd-writer drive. he'd passed off a 5.25" floppy drive as a cdrom drive! anyway, saw jois there in a horny attire as you can see... pinyan was there too, and they are both from ntu hall 5 as well... zongde and me took two cd's for the online game, and tentatively planning to use them as coasters soon...

went to teck hock hin, and met brianttm, who used to be zongde's campmate. so happened that i'm so (in)famous in the togoparts forum for posting photos - i think that's a compliment eh? we travelled to blk 85 for bak chor mee and barbecued chicken wings, and hao jian as well.

today (sunday), i'll wake up early to go to the ice skating place in jurong east to watch cherry from kl, malaysia taking part in a skating competition. i guess it's a figure skating competition though... so there's plenty of uh... figures to look at?