A Merry Holidays

Last Tuesday Flooding
Well, the news report that there are floods in Thomson road, at the platns and flowers nurseries, destroying a lot of plants there... Hmm... That is quite near my area. At least Bishan is not low-lying, so there isn't flood near my area. Kind of unconvenient to go out especially when it rained heavily, and there were flooding in certain areas. Some areas also have soil erosion, which causes mudslides.

Paper Mario
Finally completed the storyline for Paper Mario. Haven't finished certain task yet, but never mind, think I'll leave the rest of the things until the next holiday period.

Movie: A Night at the Museum
Watch this movie myself last Friday at GV Bishan. The movie is quite funny, especially when the main character tried to tell what he experienced during the night inside the museum when he was working as a night guard there.

Movie: Curse of the Golden Flower
Watch this movie with Wei Qiang, Chun Hoo, Wenhao, Chit Chin and Weibin at GV Vivocity last Saturday. Before the movie we had our lunch at SuperDog at the basement. Yup, the fries are still as good.

The movie, I have to say, doesn't have much storyline. Hmm... Maybe I didn't really understand the movie. Well, what I see was mostly the glitters of the clothings the people are wearing. My sister also said that Jay Chou only had one expression in the movie, which I kind of agree after watching the movie.

Movie: Charlotte's Web
Suppose to just have my lunch with my sister on Monday before she went to catch a movie with her friends. In the end, I decided to buy a ticket for myslef for another movie at Cathay Orchard. The movie was not that bad, just feel that the talking animals were kind of cute. It's amazing how Charlotte the spider is able to come up with words using the words. I wonder when they shoot the movie, they really used the web and form words using their hands, or just use some synthetic materials to form a web.

Victor's Chalet
Well, last Monday (Christmas Day) was Victor's birthday. Suppose to organise his chalet on 25th Dec, but there are no slots left on 25th Dec, so he has to booked he chalet from 26th Dec to 28th Dec. Anyway, the 6 of us, Wei Qiang, Chun Hoo, Wenhao, Chit Chin, Weibin and me bought a shirt for him right after the movie. The shirt looks interesting, hopefully he would like it... :P

Anyway, I had problem getting to Victor's chalet, which is at Aloha Loyang. I took the wrong shuttle bus, which bring me to Coasta Sand resorts, so in the end I walked to Aloha Loyang under the rain. After that, I had problems finding the bungalow he rented, so it took me quite some time before I found it...

Anyway, I washed my hair after reaching Victor's Chalet. Hmm... Hopefully won't fall sick because of that... Anyway, I only had a light dinner there, since I'm not really feeling hungry.

Well, as the last train from Pasir Ris is at 2323, we decided to take Andrew's car to MRT station. As there are a lot of us going back, Andrew decided to sent us back in batches. Well, I was in the first batch. Imagine, excluding the driver, there are 6 of us squeezing into his car. Yup, Kai Quan, due to his height, sat in front of the car, while the rest of the 5 of us squeeze behind... Luckily the ride was only a short one.

NUS Results
Ok results out... Anyway...



Hmm... Oops? :P

A Nice and Cooling Rainy Day

Greetings
Good evening, thank you for visiting and reading my low-visitor-count blog. I decided to put up a new blog entry tonight, since I'm surfing the net currently, and I'm not playing any games ("The Sims 2" and "Paper Mario" to be precise) at the moment.

Rain
It had been raining a lot quite recently. This is somewhat expecting, since there are usually a lot of rain at the very end and at the beginning of the year. I heard that there are floods along and near Thomsom road and Lornie road. That is quite near to where I lived. Well, at least there were no floods today in Bishan, even though it rained a lot from morning to evening. So, I assume that Bishan is at a higher grounds, or it has proper drainage which drain rain water easily.

Gaming and Sleeping
Today, I spent most of the time sleeping. A cool raining day makes it a good time to sleep as it is cosier. I only spent a few hours playing Paper Mario so far, just managed to complete Chapter 7. Just one more Chapter to go, and I'm done with the game. I still thinking whether I should sleep early tonight, or to continue playing Paper Mario. How about The Sims 2, some people may asked. I'll continue to play once I complete Paper Mario. Gamecube games can be very addictive, especially games that is published by Nintendo. Even though Gamecube only has about 600 game titles (as compared to 2000+ for Playstation 2 and 1000+ for Xbox for 6th generation consoles), it has many good games available within the 600 game titles. That is how it managed to survived despite it's low popularity. Even though the games are good, it is not officially sold here in Singapore, which I think it can be a pity. Yup, my gamecube is an imported one, just for your information.

Food
After reading Hong Joo's blog, I really feel like going around Singapore to eat, but recently I have constipation. Yup, constipation for about 1 week. So, currently I'm trying to take those food that is very high in fibre, so that I can do my business as per normal. Ok, I admit that I still eat a lot of junk food. That is what happened if you exert too much pressure and stress during exams, which can even carry on after your exams (for me especially).

Movie
Currently there are 2 movies on my mind, "Night at the Museum" and "Charlotte's Web". Hopefully, I can catch "Night at the Museum" by this week or early next week, and "Charlotte's Web" by next week or before my Academic Semester starts, that is provided I can stay away from my Laptop or Gamecube.

Nintendo Wii
Just last Sarturday, before meeting my NUS friends for lunch, I went to Gamescore at Funan to preorder a Nintendo Wii. Anyway, I told my parents that I will be getting one Nintendo Wii, and there are fine about that (provided I don't neglect my studies). So, I paid a $50 deposit, and wait for their phonecall once Nintendo Wii is officially out in Singapore and pay the rest. My bank account is going to have less money, but I'm fine about that, since I've plan to get one of that console for a long time.

Meeting Up with NUS Friends
After preordering a Nintendo Wii, I met up with my NUS friends, Kian Heng, Meijun, Hong Joo (also considered as my NUS friend, so he is one of them that has 2 or more friend status, namely NS friend and NUS friend), Yaoliang and Gavin, for a lunch. Kavan (another one that has 2 or more friend status, in fact 4 to be exact) is not free on that day, as he is caroling at Tiong Bahru. If he told us earlier that he is caroling at Tiong Bahru, we might even go there and hear him sing Christmas Carols. After some pondering, we decided to settle down at Din Tai Fung at Wisma Atria and have our lunch there. Ordered some noodles and sides for my combined breakfast and lunch.

After that, we walked to Meridian Hotel to play pool. It's about $10 per hour per table, so we played for about 2 hours. I think I'm quite lucky at the beginning, getting a lot of pool balls into the holes, considering the fact that I'm still a newbie. The luck wear off after that, when I keep striking my opponents pool ball into the hole.

It is a fun day, and the good thing is I didn't spend the whole day playing electronic games, at least reducing the chance of getting eyesight problems.

NUS Examination Results
The official release of NUS examination results is between 26 Dec to 27 Dec. For me, I will be getting my official result online on 27 Dec at 7am. Well, some people managed to have sneak preview of their results a few days back. It is a pity that I missed the sneak preview, but I ok about that. At least I have a few more days to survive in that case. Well, I heard that some people hacked into the system and let out the results, but still, I don't really know what is the actual case.

Anyway, I heard that Kai Quan is doing very well for his exams, so I assume that he had gotten 4.9+ for his CAP (Cumulative Average Point), that is assuming that it is very difficult to get an A+ or an A for EG1413 (Critical Thinking and Writing). Well, I'll never be able to get that high for my SAP (Semestral Average Point), not to talk about my CAP. Anyway, I will just be less than 8 days before I get to know my results.

Ending
Ok, it comes to an end of this blog entry. Hope that you will visit this blog again for updates and so on (and also to increase my visitor count :P).

Good night!

Mad About Another Game...

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Hmm... Just a few days back, I decided to set up my Nintendo GameCube after it hibernated in a box for like 4 months. Hmm... Anyway, I bought the game Paper Mario quite long ago, but never get to finish it. Ok, in fact I'm still stuck at the Prologue (Chapter 0), yup so that's quite pathetic, because I thought it was difficult to play... Anyway, I decided to start a new game, and now going to start on Chapter 2 (and now I find the game getting easier to understand and play... :P).

Of course, whenever I play role-playing games (RPG) or adventure games, I would have to follow through a guie. Yup, I'm just an RPG/Adventure game idiot, so I really need to use the guie, or I'll get stuck in one place forever...

Nintendo Wii
According to a moderator from GameAxis forum, Nintendo Wii has been approved by IDA for its Wireless LAN 2.4GHz and Bluetooth. Now we just need to wait for the final registration of Consumer Protection (Safety Requirements) Registration Scheme to complete the process. That's really a good news for Singaporeans here who are waiting for Nintendo Wii to launch here. Just hope that the protection scheme can be completed very soon. Hopefully, the console is not overpriced by the distributor...

Anyway, there is at least 1 store accepting pre-orders for Nintendo Wii. So, anyone here had done so already?

Movie: Open Season
Just don't know why, I feel like watching this movie yesterday. I was suppose to have my lunch myself, but in the end, I spent my money for this movie plus a popcorn combo. Anyway, the movie was not the bad. It is about a bear who was kept in captivity by a female "environmentalist" (not really sure if that's the correct term). The bear was badly influence by a mule deer and "misbehaved", hence was being put into the forest. The bear was however unable to adapt living inside the forest, so all the comical parts happened.

Before the start of the movie, I saw a movie advertisement, which is an animation where a boy was being travelled to the future by another person from the future. Quite interested about the movie, but don't know what's the movie title... Can anyone enlighten me?

To Korea
Ok, I'm not the one going to Seoul, South Korea. Anyway, our family sent my sister off for a 6-Day trip to Korea yesterday night. Well, she was going with 3 other friends from NUS. Hmm... Come to think of it, I haven't been for a tour for a very long time (excluding the Wallaby training exercise 2 years ago). If I'm not wrong, the last time I went for an overseas tour was 7 years ago. Travelled to Bangkok, Thailand with my family. Hmm... Think I should consider going for a tour the next vacation, well, see whether I have that money or not first... :P

Haven't Been Playing Games for 4 Months

Game Madness
Just bought a new expansion pack for The Sims 2. Now I'm playing it like mad... Yup, that's what happen when you did not touch any computer games for a long time. I'm playing this from morning (10+am) to morning (1+am). Think at this rate, I need to change my spectacles soon.

Anyway, I've some interesting screenshots here (the quality isn't good though). It is about a Sim who painted 2 paintings based on the photographs that I have (one picture taken in Yoshinoya where we had our breakfast after SSBR/AHM, the other picture taken by a photographer while I was running the vertical marathon). Quite a good artist that Sim is. :P

Exams Over!!!

Finally, Exams Over...
Yup, my exams for Semester 1 AY 2006/2007 ended on 2 Dec 2006 at 11am. Ok, don't think I'll do so well for my exams, so just hope I could at least get 2.50 for my CAP... Haiz... For PC1432 Physics IIE, think I'll have no hope already, only completed at most 50% of the paper and out of what I've written in the paper, think only at mot 50% correct... Ok, maybe only 25% for my paper... For other modules, still ok (as compared to Physics), just that I couldn't finish most of it on time... Never mind, I left out those that I don't know how to do anyway... Hopefully can get at least Cs and some Bs for this semester... :P

Well, results will be released on 27 Dec 2006 (for 1st year students), which is like just 2 Days after Christmas... Ok, think that got to be one of my worst Christmas presents that I have...

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon
Just last Saturday, I ran the Standard Chartered Singapore Half-Marathon 21.1km, with Wei Qiang and Dezhi. Supposed to meet up with them in the morning, but I forgot to bring my handphone along, so in the end, I just start of with myself. Before I start, I deposited my bag into the bag deposit counter. At least I don't have to carry my pouch along with my while I run.

The first 10km is ok, I managed to jog continuously without exhaustion. After 10km, my legs feel a bit tired, so I decided to slow down my pace. From 15km onwards, my legs start to have cramps. Yup, it's a little bit painful initially, but I still try to hang on with it. After running for quite some think, think from 16km to 17km onwards, the pain is getting quite unbearable. I couldn't run properly, so I have to run for like 100m, and walk for 200m... After the last turning point, which is from 18km onwards, I decided to walk throughout my last 3km, as the pain is getting too unbearable... Haiz... think I didn't do my warmup properly, could have run at a much shorter time instead since I'm still not exhausted yet... It's a pity, but never mind, I still managed to complete it under 3 hours... To be exact, my GunTime (based on the time they sounded the horn) is 2h41min47sec, and my ChipTime (my net timing based on the time I stepped on the mat) is 2h36min58sec. Yup, it took me about 4 to 5 minutes for me to reach the start mat.

Anyway, after I completed the run, I decided to rest for a while, drinking water and 100-plus given there, before collecting my bag. Well, tried to find Wei Qiang and Dezhi, but couldn't fins them. I suppose they have collected their bags, so I decided to collect mine. Haiz... Didn't expect the queue to be so long. The queue is just like a squeezed S-shape at the beginning, and it went around the baggage tentage at the end. Yup, it's quite long. After queueing for quite some time, a Cisco officer called me and the other 2 people out (those that carry the number tag starting from 17XXX and 18XXX) to join the queue near the tentage. Ok, it seems that there aren't that many people with tag number 17XXX and 18XXX collecting their bags at that time... Anyway, I managed to collect my own bag without a very short time when a volunteer managed to find me with my bag immediately...

Thought of finding a public phone to find Wei Qiang, but I managed to spot Dezhi there while collecting my bag. Ok, at least I could save some money from calling back home to ask someone at home to find Wei Qiang's phone number, and to call him from the public phone. We then went to Burger King to get a drink. Well, have to say that the drinks in Burger King had shrunk in size... The medium sized drink is the same as McDonald's regular size, while the large is McDonald's medium... Hmm... looks like with increase of GST, if price doesn't increase, then there will be a decrease in quantity...

One more thing about the marathon, I like the finisher medal. It looks like a souvenir made for tourists from Singapore. :P





Movie: Happy Feet
Just yesterday, I watched the movie "Happy Feet" with Wei Qiang and Dezhi. The movie was not too bad, the content is there. Well, it is quite musical I have to say, hear a lot of singing from the movie. Well, the penguins get their right partner by singing. Anyway, didn't really expect the ending to end that way, which was kind of a surprised to me.

After the movie, we went to SuperDog to have our dinner. Well, never tried that "fast-food" joint before, so decided to eat there. Well, the SuperDog are not as big as the one sold in "Wallaby" (most of the hotdogs contains beef by the way), but well, the meal is still very filling. Anyway, I ordered a Chilli Dog with Chilli fries. Have to say that the "Chilli" doesn't have much taste, and it is not spicy, even though they said that they are "proud of their chilli"... Hmm... Anyway, I really like the fries there. Think it's one of the best I've eaten. Not only it taste good, the crispiness of the fries is also "correct". Not too soft that it is like soggy fries, not too crispy that it is like crackers, it's just nice!!! The outside skin of the fries is very crispy, and the inside is still quite soft... Ok, I'm not good at expressing things, but it is one of the most perfect fries that I've eaten. Even thought the meal cost us about $8 to $10+ each, I have to say it is still worth it, especially the fries... :P