Internet has been at crawl mode the whole day. Some hacker must have unleashed some god-damn virus which caused the havoc again.

My plans for a new handphone hits yet another snag.

First of all, the plan about Yin Chuin getting the starhub line, and me getting the new phone while taking over his current singtel line has been abandoned because he doesn't want to switch. Never mind. Plan B, get my own line. So, today at Clementi, finally decided to get myself a snazzy new Nokia 6100 at S$298. On top of that, there is no charge for the SIM card and registration, which will save me about S$50. But the stupid buggers at the Singtel shop decided that they cannot serve foreigners, and I have to go to a Hello! Singtel shop instead. And on top of that, I need a guarantor who is a Singaporean to make sure I don't run away with I-don't-know-what. For extra assurance, there will be a S$200 deposit too. And to make sure I don't spend too much, I cannot send international SMS, make international calls, and a whole load of other crap.

So, Plan C. Postpone! And think more about it.

Perhaps if I did as much thinking for my FYP and my modules as I put into this handphone, I might be a Second Upper now. Sigh.

Oh yes... MERDEKA!

Today, Maria, Meiru and Junda all said I look thinner. Wow, I didn't know that falling sick for one day would have such a significant impact on me. But somehow I already felt like I had grown thinner. Damn, I better do something about this.

Today, Ah Joo was a bit boh steady with me. Why? Hear me out.

Remember my EE3204 Computer Communications Network module I took last year? Remember the project which I almost died working on? Well, one of his friends happens to be taking it this semester (Let's call this guy "Ah Meng" for simplicity sake). So, Ah Meng asks Ah Joo for the code of the project from someone who did it before. So, of course he came looking for me, asking me for the entire programme.

Of course, I balked when he asked me for the whole programme. Naturally I refused, due to a few reasons. Reason one being that the backbone of the programme was kindly given to me by Sze Lee. And I still remember clearly when I gave it to Oliver, boy he sure was pissed! So, of course I don't want to piss him off anymore now, do I? Haha. Also, besides that, I remember clearly that I spent 2 whole weeks working on the backbone that Sze Lee gave me. This 2 weeks ate into my study time before the exam, and boy did that have an impact on my exam. So, a lot of work was put into this programme of mine (legally, Sze Lee, its mine now, since I modified it, hehe).

And when somebody comes and asks for it, so early in the semester, what other reply can I give apart from a firm "no"? I mean, this is so early in the semester, why can't he go and figure it out himself. If he needs some help, I will gladly offer some. Also, another point I forgot to mention is, I don't even know who this fella is. If it was Ah Joo, then yeah, maybe I won't mind giving it to him, and helping him out along the way. But Ah Meng just asks like that... nah, don't think so. Yeah, okay, a bit selfish, but heck... can't be Mr Niceguy all the time.

Anyway, came to a compromise. I truncated the codes, and just gave him the connection and sending packets part of the code. Sze Lee, hope you don't mind. Been a year already. Hehe. At least it isn't the whole code. He has one whole semester to work on it. I had two weeks. Should be a breeze for him.

That apart, Ah Joo was really, REALLY surprised that I refused to give him the entire code. I'm a bad, bad boy...

But then, well, maybe I'll change my mind and give him the entire code one of these days... we'll see...

Had a free for all at the JCRC Corner of the Raffles Hall forum. Not exactly that. But, I just rebutted some stuff that our future Vice President said about an earlier post. Apart from that, another hot boring day.

Went to Dr Teo Kie Leong's office today because he asked me to look for him after getting the books he recommended. However, he was quite busy when I went to his office. So, he asked me to leave my number so that he can get back to me when he is free. With nothing to do, I went to the comp suite just outside, checked soccernet, checked email, played minesweeper... until I got too bored of minesweeper. So, after about 1/2 hour of waiting, I went to outside LT2 and took out one of the books, and started reading on photoluminescence. At 3PM, a bunch of Civil Engineering people came out of LT2. People like Soo Sing, Boon Ching and Justin. Haven't seen Justin for ages. I had a blur look when he said hi to me.

Then came 3:40PM, and Avneesh came over because it was his turn to have a lecture in LT2. Chit chatted for a while before he went in. After reading a bit more, I got bored. So, it was back to Dr Teo's office. Nobody was in. Comp suite looked appealing... again, soccernet, news, minesweeper. At 430PM, I checked my email, and I received an email from him. He said he couldn't see me today, and asked me to look for him tomorrow at 930AM...

Damn...

Oh well, I would have spent the 2 hours waiting doing something not worthwhile anyway.

Sigh.

Brujah

Congradulations you've been choosen by what is
arguably the most bad ass clan (who cares if
their brains no bigger then peas). Seriously
though you need to take some anger management
courses and some serious counseling wouldn't
hurt. It's not too late to change your path
but I'm guessing you don't give a fuck what I
say.


What Vampire Clan would choose you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Finally feeling better, although my head is still a bit heavy. Woke up feeling a lot better. Temperature was lingering around the 37 degree mark. But still felt like lying down and doing nothing. Ended up with bed sores from lying down for too long. So, now only suffering from a bit of a headache and... hunger pangs. Haha, haven't been eating too much. Afraid I would puke it out.

Back to school tomorrow. Boy, a free day doing nothing sure is fun.

Today, suffered my first food poisoning, as far as I can remember. Vomitted twice. But no blood, just a little bit short of Jenny's curse. At first I thought that it was because of the roadrace, but then Dr Patrick Tan said it can't be, since it was so long ago. So anyway, puked once around 530PM, and another time around 10PM. Second time was right in front of Dr Patrick Tan's door. Oops. Some got on the floor as well. Temperature went to 38.5 celcius, the highest I have ever seen. Think I have killed some brain cells already. Temperature has subsided to around 37.3 right now. Hope things will get better after some sleep. Won't be going for HRM class tomorrow morning.

Anyway, would like to say thanks to Chi Anh (for taking care of me), Chin Long (for giving me panadol), Jin Sheng (for packing dinner for me, which I did not eat...), Keng Joo (for discarding the plastic bag full of vomit) and Oliver (for... hmmm, for not laughing at me when I was lying halfdead on the floor).

On a separate note, Jenny, I will explain to you what happened privately. No point telling everybody about it. Unless that is what you want...

Participated in my first ever IBG Road Race today, and I finally realized why. I was really, REALLY dead by the end of the race. Reason? Ran too fast at the beginning past Engine Faculty. That's why Shaun told me not to run too fast at the beginning. I actually slowed down but I was alreayd quite tired. Luckily I didn't puncture when I was running up past the Central Library. So, in the end, came in 15th. Haha, not too bad I think. Made me lose my appetite, and almost made me puke. Okay, no running for a few days...

Oh man, the Indians in block 6 are back at it again. This time, the blinds are drawn open, so I can see one girl and a bunch of guys. All too busy hanky-panky-ing to notice that everyone can see them at it. Gross... I hope they will be too tired by tonight, and give us some peace and quiet.

Here's a story which I found in my inbox from Yin Chuin. Hilarious. Read on....
______________________________________________________________

Remember the book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”? Here’s a prime example offered by an English professor from the University of Phoenix: From a class exercise.
“Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.”

The following was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca (last name deleted), and Gary (last name deleted).

THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)
At first, Laurie couldn’t decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. “A.S. Harris to Geostation 17,?%? *?? he said into his transgalactic communicator. “Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far...” But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship’s cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards,Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. “Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel,” Laurie
read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days
had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. “Why must one lose one’s innocence to become a woman?” she pondered wistfully.

(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu’udrian mothership launched the first of
its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu’udrian ships were on course for Earth,
carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret Mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. “We can’t allow this! I’m going to veto that treaty! Let’s blow ‘em out of the sky!”

(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Gary)

Yeah? Well, you’re a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. “Oh shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F**KING TEA??? Oh no, I’m such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels.”



(Rebecca)
A*****.

(Gary)
B****.

(Rebecca)
D***!

(Gary)
S***.

(Rebecca)
Get ******.

(Gary)
Eat s***.

(Rebecca)
**** *** - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!!

(Gary)
Go drink some tea - *****

(TEACHER)
A+ - I really liked this one. Only group to get an A.

Just watched House of a Thousand Corpses. I think it's a piece of crap, although some people reviewed it as really good. Yes, it is different from Scream and its clones, but, heck, I don't understand what is the point. Also, the movie makes the police look like a bunch of idiots. Not really my type. However, the editing is not too bad. It has the same style as Natural Born Killers, which is yet another disturbing movie.. Only difference is that Killers has some morals in it, about the influence of the media on our society these days.

So bottom line is, don't watch this crap. Unless you are into Jennifer Connoly. If you are, you are better off with Requiem for a Dream. She looks better there.

Time for FYP...

The Indians are still making a lot of noise. And the girl sounds like she is getting raped...

A bunch of Indians in block 6 are making a hell lot of noise. SHUTUP!

Amazing Race 4 is finally over, and the winners are Chip and Reichen, the gay couple. Boy, they are gonna be the heroes of the gay community. The second team to come in were Kelly and Jon. The last team was the sad team of David and Jeff, who were still stuck in Honolulu when Chip and Reichen crossed the finish line. Their mistake was to take the flight from Cairn to Sydney to catch a flight to Honolulu. Unfortunately for them, the earliest flight out of Sydney to Honolulu was ages away. So, while they were bumming in Sydney, Chip and Reichen, and Kelly and Jon flew to Tokyo and connected to Honolulu from there. The challenge at Phoenix was tough, just stating "Valentine's Day + White + White". They had to decipher Valentine's Day as 214, and White + White as the names of two people on the walls of the football stadium. The names were preceeded with the numbers 11 and 33. So, the clue was at Section 214, row 11, seat 33. Reichen and Chip were lucky because they just happen to walk past the clue, while Kelly and Jon managed to decipher to clue.

So, here are the winners, and the second team. No pictures for the third team who were at Honolulu.

Last night I decided to give away my fridge, since I figured it was no point spending S$110 bucks on registration and fine for the fridge. It would be cheaper to buy a second hand fridge at the end of my final year at an even cheaper price. So, first to grab this chance of a lifetime was Puisan.

Today, I found out that the dateline for the fridge registration is today. Oops... I guess I will be keeping my fridge after all. Told Puisan about it, to the response of "Basket". Owe her a supper at Tasty now...

Am the guarantor for Keng Joo's new laptop. Still have to wait for him to get his IC first. He was probably too busy drooling over the girl at the loan counter.

I have decided not to spend anymore money on anything besides food and academic stuff until the end of the year. I'm broke. Just have to wait till December to replace my 5110 with the Nokia 6100 at a lower price. Anyone who sees me thinking of spending money unnecessarily, gimme a whack.

Found out that Wen Jing, the hall's Stefanie Sun, is a fagger. Oh well... I guess she is now every Mauritian's wetdream.

Joanne Lee's birthday today. Her friends decided it was a good idea to wake everybody up or disturb the peace at 12:30AM this morning with singing, clapping and shouting. Besides that, they also decided to intoxicate Block Five with the smell of cream.

Chin Long's turn to get stripped soon...

Was planning to get my fridge yesterday because yesterday was the dateline for registering fridges. Instead, I got stripped, and forgot all about it. And because of that, I'm late for registering.

Went to office today to register the fridge, and they said I will be fined 50 bucks. Dammit. What an expensive affair it was yesterday. Well, since they are gonna fine me 50 bucks, I am not going to register my fridge. Let them come to my room and find it themselves. If they want to fine me, they have got to earn it. There is no such thing as a free fine anymore.

Jackie is smoking again...

Tuesday Aug 19, 01:00:00 AM

Oliver was finally given the license after much hard work by the usual suspects. After hiding in his room and in Malaysia for the weekend, it was finally time to... show off his "beast" as he claims. And what better place than UCC to show off our cultural person. As usual, timing was perfect to allow a "lucky" driver to see a naked person run in front of him. And the driver even gave a honk to show that he saw the whole thing.

Today....

Dammit, time finally caught up with me, as I joined Oliver in the licensed group. And it was at comm hall, right at tea time. Damn, right in front of the whole hall. Worse than at UCC because although it's not so far away, but EVERYBODY in the comm hall could see what was going on. Heh, and apparently I ran quite fast. Haha. Maybe I should run for Raffles Hall during IHG. And after that, Chin Long still had the balls to be "kuailan". He is definitely next. Tried to con the rest of us by saying that he got his license during RHOC, which Desmond refuted. Either way, it's time for him to get his license, or renew his license.

Today during dinner, everyone was waiting anxiously for Oliver to make his appearance so that they can "licence" him. Unfortunately for them, he pulled off his disappearing act. Even more unfortunate for Jin Sheng, they decided to vent their frustration on him. So, Jin Sheng now has the licence. Imagine Jin Sheng running naked from the front porch to the toilet, in full view of the people having dinner. I wonder how they managed to continue with their meal. Haha. Next on their hit list is "muscleman" Ah Long. Incidentally, Ah Long trespassed into Avneesh's, Sandhosh's and Joyshwin's corridor, and for that, he was almost thrown out of the corridor... all the way down to the ground floor. Haha.

Had a nice dinner at Thai Express last night at Esplanade. First challenge was to get past all the police and VIP cars who were coming into NUS to attend the National Day Rally at UCC. Then took a bus 10 ride all the way to Esplanade. What a boring ride. Upon reaching Esplanade, I had a tough time trying to find Thai Express. Bumped into Dezhao as I was about to go the wrong way. Luckily, else I would have been even later. But when the both of us reached Thai Express, only Haijie and Perd were there. In the end, there were quite a lot of us there: Perd, Haijie, Dezhao, Chen Peng, Peter, Angela, Rashmi, Ravi, Aileen, Wei Wee, Valerie and Dean. First time seeing Dean, and he looks okay. Like what Valerie said, she is like me, stretched a bit more. As for the presents, there was quite a big misunderstanding, so we ended up with... FOUR presents for the birthday boy. Rashmi and Ravi got him an office shirt. Wei Wee and Aileen got him a name card holder. The rest of us got him an office bag AND a wallet. Everyone chipped in 17 bucks for both those stuff.

Sold my CS1102 textbook to Amy this morning for 15 bucks. Good deal considering that the book now costs 38 dollars, compared to 33 dollars when I bought it 2 years ago. Furthermore, the book had NO highlights or scribbles or notes or underlines. Hmmm... but I think I did quite okay for CS1102. Anyway, point is, Amy is hot. Woohoo! Hehe...

FYP supervisor asked me for my timetable today. I foresee that I won't be having anymore free Fridays anymore. Sigh.

Speaking of FYP, I created a blog for my FYP so that I can see what my progress was like when I write my final report. For those of you who are utterly bored, check it out at my FYP blog.

I seem to be a magnet to the men in uniform.

Last week, the cops came over to check out the "bomb" explosion.

Yesterday, the cops were around me when they were going to apprehend the guy who killed the prof.

And today, they paid me a visit in my own room.

Actually, not so dramatic. Heh. Just wanted to make an impact. Reason why they came over was to check if I could see UCC from my window. An plain-clothed cop and a NUS security officer dropped by my room around 4PM to check it out. They took a photo of block 5 from UCC and they could see my window. So they wanted to check if my room is a strategically placed sniper point. Well, after snooping around, they left. Hmmm.... maybe I'll put a broomstick out of my window on Sunday when PM Goh arrives at UCC. Then this time, angry cops will be coming to my room. Nah, scratch that idea. Stupid idea. No point looking for trouble.

By the way, Oliver's birthday today (Friday)! Everyone is invited to meet Oliver's little brother during tea. Come one, come all!

Tragedy struck NUS today as a professor was murdered this morning at 945AM at the EA block. Apparently, Professor Lee Kwok Hong was killed by a 14-cm long knife that the technician used when he barged into the meeting room where the prof was. After slashing his throat in front of around 14 staff members, he left the room. The shocked staff members locked the door behind him and perform First Aid on the prof. But how much can you do with a slash on the throat? First you have got to apply pressure to the wound, which, considering the size of the knife, would be enormous. And with the amount of blood lost, the prof would have gone into shock. This would cause the loss of consciousness as less oxygen goes to the brain.

Anyway, I had class this morning at 10AM in the same building but on the lower level. As I was waiting for the lift with Jenny on the ground level, two cops cut our queue (grrrr) and went into the lift. They were followed by Dr Patrick Tan and several nurses. One other staff member warned the policemen "He still has a knife". That was when I knew something serious was happening. Anyway, no time for that. Had to go for class.

After class at 12PM, Oliver and I found out that the lifts were not working. So we walked to the other wing of EA to take the lift down. That was when we saw police officers at the upper level doing some stuff, with police lines cordoning off the area. We went upstairs by stairs, but then people were coming down. So I guess the area was out of bounds. Down at the ground floor, the area around the lift was also taped up with police tape. And there were patrol cars and a big van saying "CID: Forensics Department" in front of EA Block.

The police apparently still don't know the motive for the killing. What did the vice-dean have to do with the technician anyway? I feel pity for the family of the professor who had no idea at all that when they said goodbye to him that morning, it would be their last time doing it. If found guilty, the technician will be sent to the gallows. And that would be the end of him. Or maybe he will plead temporary insanity (if there is such thing in Singapore legal system). Or perhaps, even pull off the Edward Norton trick in Primal Fear. How cool is that? Haha.

___________________________________________

The M1 booth at science bazaar was selling the Nokia 6610 for S$261. Out of curiosity, I asked the salesperson if the price was applicable for upgrades as well. She said yes. I further asked if I could purchase the phone at that price when I am on a supplementary line. She said that they can make arrangements for that. Wow, not bad. After that, Chi Anh and I went to Clementi to have lunch, and I dropped by the M1 shop there to ask the same questions. And I found out that hey, they will only allow me to buy the phone at the RETAIL PRICE, which is about a HUNDRED bucks more expensive than the S$261. DAMN!!!! I was about to buy the 6610 at the science bazaar when Ryan told me that he couldn't make it today, since I need him to buy the phone. And today was the last day for the bazaar. Shucks. I hope there would be another bazaar coming up. Then I can get the phone.

However, this experience points out one weakness in the plan: I am severely limited in many ways because it is a supplementary. For example, I could not apply for autoroaming when I went to Europe because I'm on a supplementary line. And now I find out that I have to buy a new phone at retail price. Seriously considering being independent. And if that happens, I'm switching to Singtel Classic.

A virus strikes mankind once again. This time, it's the Blaster Worm which "wormed" its way into my computer when i booted it up around 3PM. For a moment, I thought it was because of some kind of programme that I installed, but I don't recall installing anything recently. And the virus just rebooted my computer after giving me a one minute countdown. After rebooting, the same countdown started. Started to look like an infinite loop. Luckily, people like JyeSheng and SzeLee wised me up and I realized it was a damn worm. Managed to get rid of it after some hassle. Eric Choo reformatted his harddisk. I bet his face must have turned purple after the same countdown appeared after reformatting. Haha.

Why the hell do people create this crap? It only gives me a headache. Not to mention a whole load of other people, especially the people in computer centre. They are finally earning their keep. But nothing beats the bloody Chernobyl which cost me an entire sleepless night and a whole load of mp3s from my home computer. At this juncture, I would like to thank the good folks of Norton Antivirus and McAfee who are keeping the world free of these punks.

Saturday

Woke up "early" at 11AM to join the rest of the hall at Sentosa. Weather was good to hold activities: not too scorching, but still no cloud in sight. By the time the truck reached the place, the games had already started. So we just walked around, bake in the sun, grumble about the heat, and ate lunch. Could not get into the sea because of my goddamn toe nail. I was dunked in and because of that, sand got under my toenail. Boy it stung. After that, used some gauze and tape to cover up my big fat toe.

This year's Island Princess is the best among the last four. Took some creativity for the freshmen to come up with "Mistress Melinda". Actually all four were good, especially the last one who had a man's voice because "she" was sucking the night before. Felix, "Timo" and "Ruhul" were also hilarious as the emcees. And the RHOC Slam was a 100% English version, as opposed to last year, when half of the slams were in Hokkien. One good reason could be because the people who did it this year were Prem Subra, Prem Vadi, Shaun de Souza, Avneesh and Sandhosh. Must be it...

After the campfire, a whole load of people decided to go back to hall. Was thinking about staying till morning, but with only *ME* the only one from my batch left in Sentosa, besides Shaun, Avneesh and Sandhosh who were the island "guardians", I decided "Heck it". Don't need to give face to RHOC already. So, Jin Sheng, Prem Subra, Wanying and I called a cab to pick us up from Sentosa to get back costing 13 bucks. An extra of 7 dollars, even more than the actual fare.

The ball lifting event took goddamn long: 2 hours. Freshies these days surely can't think much. But can't really blame them, there were VERY few people today. Most probably the rest were out having fun or getting sleep in their comfy rooms. The glowing phoenix was back after one year in hiding. No more fire. Actually, no more a lot of things.

So, now that orientation is over, let's recap the successes(?) and failures of orientation (in my humble opinion, of course)

Everything started well with a whole load of freshmen turning up on Sunday. This is always the case anyway, nothing much to shout about. The real test came the next day, which was glaring when a substantial number of people disappeared. Can think of several reasons:

(1) increase in number of locals
(2) decrease in number of Malaysians (less than 20)
(3) a BIG increase in number of PRC students (around 80)
(4) a BIG increase in number of Indian students (around 20, and at most 3 or 4 turn up at a time)

So, very poor turnout. Most glaring during the Sentosa trip, when the number of seniors actually outnumbered the number of freshmen. What can we do about it? Nothing. Oh well, I felt like bitching anyway.

Next, very lousy cheering. Possible reason? The cheering ICs. What was Jupe thinking when he appointed Chin Yee, Mei Kit and Charlene as cheering ICs. They looked downright bored when they were leading the cheers. And the boredom was contagious. I bet the freshies were actually falling asleep when they were singing the goodnight song. As a result, cheering sucked.

Next, the big Initiation fiasco. Not only did we get in trouble with OSA, with got in trouble with the police and ISA. Wow, who says orientation is boring? Haha. I bet heads are gonna roll.

Next, cancellation of many, MANY activities. Among them, water games, Senior-Ayam games, one video game, and FLOAT. Okay, these probably could not be avoided because of OSA rulings. But if we can burn the phoenix, go to Sentosa, and other OSA violations, who says we can't extend the orientation? X-Men and Mise en Scene were also cancelled, for no reason given. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out why when just the night before, explosions went out and the police were hunting down the culprits.

Next, float. No involvement of freshmen in the float. Having four freshies as dancers is not counted. Also, everytime we have allocated time for freshmen to help with float, the numbers suddenly dwindle. Except for maybe the eve of Rag, when the turnout was... respectable. Reason for this is the short duration of orientation, which hardly gave the freshmen any sense of belonging to the hall.
_____________________________________________________

Enough of orientation. School starts tomorrow. In six hours actually. Notes all printed, and all ready for school. What a great way to start the semester. Ahhh.... hope I can keep it up. And I have to reserve 20 minutes per week for Gundam Seed. I managed to watch 14 episodes of Gundam Seed within 3 days, and I have to say that this show is EXCELLENT! So many twists and turns. Can't wait to watch more.

Eight Hours Before Rag

It's eight hours before Rag, and we decided to fulfill the responsibilites as seniors to carry on a RH tradition. So, Desmond and Prem got to work with producing the "finger" with cardboard. Armed with the "finger", the dinos, Tai, Timothy and Colin drove the rest of us, Chen Peng, Sam, Prem, Desmond, Heshan, a first year girl (the "finger" bearer) and I in the truck to visit the other halls. Every year, we get a first year girl to have the honor to be the "finger" bearer. Still cannot remember her name, although she told me twice. That's what I hate about Chinese names. Anyway, she looks like Sun Yanzi, so let's leave it at that.

First hall to visit was Temasek Hall. The entire hall was there, all armed to the teeth to bash us up if necessary. And we were so close to them that we could actually reach out and touch them. First thing we did was to go "ooooh. ahhhh" at their float. Then, as we speed off, we showed them the "finger". After Temasek Hall, we went to Eusoff Hall, Kent Ridge and Sheares. All the halls were quite sporting. We even showed the "finger" to the NUSSU people at SRC. Haha. That was enough fun for one day.

Orientation Day Three

Freshies woke up to sit for the HA1004 Hall Admission Exam. Haha. They actually fell for it, the same way I fell for it before. Shall skip the boring parts, disability game included, to the initiation. This year's initiation is the MOST happening initiation in my four years in RH. As usual, initiation must include fire and some wild pattern to go along. And no, fire is not enough. We must have fireworks also. Imported from Malaysia of course. So, we used the sparkle type of fireworks. And that's where things went wrong. The fireworks burnt too fast, and three of them went of with a HUGE bang. Three big explosions. I could even feel the soundwave hitting me from at least 10 meters away. Sounded like machine gun fire. Anyway, the RHOCers pretended like everything was expected, and the freshies went back to the hall to cheer and celebrate master's birthday. For the uninformed, Master's birthday is always on initiation day. Haha.

On my way back, Avneesh asked a few of the guys to help clean up the mess. So, off to the roof we went. While cleaning, people were looking over the ledge. Curious, I looked down, and I saw (horrors) a patrol car driving around the car park. And then it was joined by another. And another. Someone must have reported the explosion to the cops. Anyway, we just continued cleaning the mess, especially the kerosine and the powder from the fire extinguishers. After that, we noticed the patrol cars were gone, but they were driving around YIH area. Obviously still looking for us. Best part was two policemen even found a lower rooftop. Thinking aobut our graduation, Hao Yun, Keng Joo, Oliver and I decided to scram. Haha. Yeah, I still want to graduate. So we walked back the long way, and strolled past two parked patrol cars. Two policemen were looking at the map at the YIH bus stop. Luckily the Engineering Faculty is a maze. Give the RHOCers some time to clean up.

Latest I heard, the cops found them (duh) and I suspect OSA will find out about it. Once that happens, heads will roll. Two heads that will definitely roll will be RHOC head's and JCRC Prez's.

Orientation Day Four

Mise en Scene in the morning and X-Men in the afternoon were cancelled. I wonder why. Could it be because of the initiation fiasco? Another reason could be because float needs freshies to help out. Not many freshies went down anyway. Started off with about 30 of them. By 430PM, it was 8 people. Float is rushing, even right now while I'm typing. But I don't think I'm going down to help out. Nothing to help out with also. Comm hall is full of people doing stuff. Nothing for me there. The main structure is bustling with activity. No space for me to do anything. Some freshies were even bumming around doing nothing. Oh yeah, Shaun was busying kao-ing a Malaysian freshie. Very fast... as always. Will this be the year for our president....?

My LCD Monitor

After taking it to Sim Lim Square for the third time this week, they found nothing wrong with it. The damn blurry fonts didn't appear at their place. They suggested I changed the refresh rate, or change the cable. So, I went back, uninstalled the goddamn Samsung driver and reduced the refresh rate to 60Hz, and it worked.

Finally....

Orientation Day Two

Woke up late today since the freshies had to go for the Freshmen Inauguration Ceremony in the morning. It's basically a propoganda and crapping session by the powers-that-be for the freshies. Most of the freshies didn't know about this, and didn't bring any formal wear. Good for them, more time for them to sleep.

In the afternoon, there was a game which involved a lot of spraying of water. Seems like we seniors enjoy spraying water at the freshies. But I think they enjoyed it since it was a goddamn hot day. Went to the science library for the first time in three years to borrow some books for my FYP. Better get started soon or else I'm gonna get into trouble by CA1. Crusade was at night, and I could not find my SICG at all, so I decided to follow Gwindor around. The same old stuff again. Sigh, it's getting boring. And the finale was really boring. No fire, no nothing. Just a "king" talking for about 2 minutes. Like what Colin Tan said, there should be at least some "pattern" and it should at least be more than two minutes.


Orientatoin Day Three

NUS Flag Day!!! Hide! Sure enough, was awaken by banging on the door by Charlene the RHOCer. Told her "uh huh" and went back to bed. Few minutes later, Shaun came and woke me up. Again, said "uh huh" and went back to sleep. And then, Chris called me, and I said "won't be able to make it". Man, what does a guy have to do to get some rest? I kinda swore that I won't join Flag Day after my first year. Got loads of gossips about Flag Day, interesting ones actually. For more info, ask me. Cos I don't think its a good idea to put it on the net. Might get sued. Or screwed.

So, with all the freshies away, well, most of them anyway, I went down and helped out with float. Can really see the whole structure forming now. But we're still quite behind time. What else is new anyway. Furthermore, the freshies are not even going to be helping float. However, RHOC had enough brains to remove the useless IBO scheduled for tonight to get the freshies to work on the float instead. I really think orientation should have started maybe 3 days before Sunday. Maybe RHOC is getting lazy.

Orientation Day One

Actually was yesterday, but I was too tired to do anything. So, with almost all the freshies in, we guys finally evaluated the scenario. Majority from PRC. Less than 20 from Malaysia. The rest from Singapore. But, I doubt the Singaporeans will be around tomorrow onwards. Also, to the despair of all the guys, we are yet to see a single "candy-eye" or "someone worth looking at". Hey, I'm keeping an eye out for my single buddies ok...

Apart from the usual crap, e.g. icebreakers, tea, getting to know each other; orientation is kind of boring. I think 3 years of orientation is enough for me. Among the few crap stuff that we can get rid of from orientation: formal dinner, semiformal dinner, goodnight song, and the brainwashing by RHOC and JCRC and SCRC. Was arrowed to conduct room session last night, but was held in Chin Long's room instead. But I had to do all the talking, and when I said all the talking, I really mean ALL the talking. Chin Long, Jin Sheng and Keng Joo hardly said anything. And on top of that, the freshies didn't really talk much also. Unsurprisingly, all the freshies that I have talked to have met the biatch from the office. And all of them don't like her already. So, it has begun. Let the revolution begin!

My Samsung is back in working order. After spending 1 hour to travel to Sim Lim Square, the guy just had to snap here, bend there, and the monitor is okay already. Boy was I pissed. What a waste of time. Well, at least it is working now.

I'm officially broke.

After purchasing a Gun Metal Samsung 152S LCD monitor, I now have to shelve all my plans about PDA and handphones. True enough, I took about 1 1/2 hours trying to decide which monitor to purchase. It was a tough competition between the Phillips B4 series and the Samsung 152S. Specification wise, the Phillips B4 Series was slightly better, in the contrast ratio section: 400:1 compared to Samsung's 350:1. But, when I compared the two monitors side by side, I could not find any difference. In fact, in one shop, I noticed that the Phillips monitor was better, in terms of color depth. But, in another shop, I found out that the Samsung was actually better. So, feeling DAMN confused, I decided that it is all down to the settings of the monitor. Therefore, price is the same, specifications about the same: decide based on asthetic factor. And Samsung wins hands down. So, I am now S$518 poorer.

After opening my package and setting the monitor on my table, I found out that the monitor is slanted to the right!!! Argh! I'm pissed. I tried adjusting it to be straight, but it just didn't work. And then, the CD with the monitor drivers had a big, deep scratch along it. Luckily it still worked. Nonetheless, I'm gonna march (ok, take the bus) down to Sim Lim tomorrow and change this monitor. Grrrr... Apart from the crooked look, this monitor sure is fine....

From PDA to LCD monitor. After checking out Jenny's LCD monitor, my fingers felt itchy again. So, I spent the entire yesterday night reading up on LCD monitors: Samsung, Phillips, Asia CNet ratings, etc. If only I put this amount of effort into my studies, I would be fine. Somehow, time passed real fast when I was reading up on the monitors. Before I knew it, it was already 3AM. So there went my day.

Today started at 12:30PM (ahhhhhh) to the sounds of Prem talking loudly at Block 6. I hope I won't be waking up this way for the rest of the year. Had bak kut teh for dinner, which was not bad compared to the ones that were served at RH before. But it was a bit steep at S$5.50. Bought myself a nice table lamp for S$29 at Ikea. The sales is a bit of a con job. Not everything was on sales. Only a selected few that, obviously, not many people wanted. But still, the crowd was there. Can't imagine how it would be like during the weekends.

Shall go to Sim Lim tomorrow to check out the LCD monitors, and make my final decision. If I spent 1/2 an hour deciding on whether to buy a 50 dollar Outdoor Activities backpack, I wonder how long it would take me to decide whether to buy a 500 bucks LCD monitor. Stay tuned for the results tomorrow.