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Geoff’s visit from Melbourne

Shaun
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Geoff’s visit from Melbourne
Dinner at Swensens

Geoff’s back in Melbourne now, on a flight last Tuesday. But I didn’t actually found time to update (because of tests & such) on the gathering last Saturday:

Its the time of the year again when my old classmate Geoffery come through thousands of kilometers back to Singapore to meet up & catch up on time as old JC classmates. The old 5 musketeers of St Andrews. The day started with an invitation, the usual gang, Shup, Yingxian, Zongjie & me to Geoff’s pad in celebration of his niece’s 1st month birthday. & everyone’s invited. A mini buffet was held at the corridor together with lots of fast food (which I could never consume due to my sore throat & cough) . We ended up booking tickets for Harry Potter through Geoff’s home only to find out how slow & disorganised Golden Village online bookings can be if we were to add additional seats at the last minute. With that saw a change in plans & a cancellation of the reservation at merchant court (our intended place for dinner). Which is too a good thing as it was expensive anyway! In place was the movie & dinner at Marina Square Swensens thereafter.

& man! did Marina Square change alot. But any old timer to the place will instinctively know that its actually still built on the old floor layout, with some minor touch ups, openings & coverings here & there, & did I mention the air-conditioning is like super-new? & brrrr cold too? We had a good chat, not only at dinner but amazingly at the end of everything when we even found a nice camping spot to talk on standing for like 30mins or so before calling it a day due to “last buses” (it was late anyway!). Till then through next year, we will meet again.

Standard Chartered Marathon

Shaun
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Standard Chartered Marathon
Stand Chartered Marathon

It was already 10.30am, the time where most marathon runners would start finishing. A very hot day last Sunday, with the sky clear blue & only a thin streak of white in sight – a morning scene to behold too at the Padang. Only thing is that I am not clad in my running attire, neither was I exhausted. Yes, I didn’t ran the marathon. Contrary to what you may think of me as a siao-on runner. Partly as I was down with a fever since last week’s Trialthon & didn’t have enough time to fully recover to take on the 42.195km this year. But I was very much there in person to cheer on the community runners, not to mention my school mates at the finishing line.

The failure to return the champion timing chip will result in a $50 penalty, it being a loaned item from the Singapore Sports Council so all non-finishers have to return it hook or by crook. But why mail it in when I can return it at the event? The interesting thing is that upon personally returning it there, I was immediately given a finisher medal & shirt… duh regardless who whoever did it, even if you never ran it!

Heard that baggage collection & distribution was as messed up as that of AHM this year, haha looks like the professional reputation & organisation SCm04 had was definitely tarnished by that of this year’s event.

Back at home, I made a stand not to wear the finisher’s shirt, nor display the medal till I rightfully clear the 42km, next year of course! Infact I shouldn’t have taken it as I didn’t deserve it at all! I won’t take “qualifying the 42km distance from past marathons” a benchmark to don the medal nor the finisher’s shirt but only ones which I yet to face & complete. Only when then a new benchmark will be made, then the fruits may it be reaped.

Oh yea, last but not least, to those who ran & completed this year’s marathon with whatever timing you made, whether its even sub 8hours, 4hours or even made your PB, Congrats. See you all at next year’s marathon! & remember always as quoted in the Olympic creed, its not the competition which keeps the games on, but the desire to participate & complete.

– Pierre de Coubertin

Day at the Boys Brigade

Shaun
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Day at the Boys Brigade
The afternoon at the boys brigade

Located near Zion road is where the Boys Brigade (BB) HQ is. The class pretty much spend the whole friday afternoon there. Part of the CIP hours programme thingie, most of our time packing boxes clothing, toiletries, foodstuff & toys collected/donated into the Sharity Gift Box 2005 onto pallets going out to various homes such as the Singapore Christian home, Centre for exceptional Children & the Hougang Care Centre. All for a good course of course! We even got 5 CIP hours in return, with very good working altitude in the remarks! whee! Good thing the place is also near my home, so I very much know the best eating places around the vincity for lunch & breaks. Good thing we were there to help out today as they were really shorthanded on manpower & volunteers to cope with the Christmas donation & giving efforts, guess will be dropping by again to help in fortnight or so.

With that, here are some eye candy!

Packed stuff
Packed stuff
A salty situation
A salty situation
Thats 4 pallets for the day!
That’s 4 pallets for the day!

If you would wish to contribute & help out for a good course for the Sharity Gift box/warehouse this december before christmas, feel free to check out the Singapore Boy Brigade website for details or call 6737 0377. The BB HQ address is 105 Ganges Avenue, Singapore 169695.

SP Mini Triathlon

Shaun
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SP Mini Triathlon
Sp Mini Trialthon

This was old news last saturday, but didn’t find time to update the site due to a small fever coming out since last friday. Yes I ran a triathlon on the 27th Nov with a FEVER hahaha, slight though & came in the 10 top too. A mini one though: 200m swim, 6000m bike followed by a 2400m run. May it be in 34mins total for me, slow for the tops, but the fastest in my group. My timing could be faster if it won’t for the Bikes provided by the SP cycling club, which gear shifters can’t even go beyond GEAR 3! So its like you can’t go any faster on the downhill, pedal & you are just kicking air & won’t go any faster! darn! If not I could easily be up in the top 5 or even 3!

Its organised by the Singapore Triathlon Family, aka trifam together with SP, in SP. Track practice was on the whole morning too, where they cheered us on as well, very motivational. The thing about exercising when you are sick is that you can’t really feel the fever or so when you are in the heat, only when you are cool & rested, guess so as your body temperature is significantly higher on the run. Popped in self-medication of paracetamol thereafter, wishing that I will be well in this for the Singapore Marathon.

& old school 4-bit players, check this out this classic pong clock!

MRT no petrol ah?

Shaun
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MRT no petrol ah?
Mommy the train broke!

No, its not your typical excuse to give when you are late. Apparently the MRT I was on today “broke down” because one of it’s 48 doors refused to close, resulting in a 15min delay on a train packed no other than a can of sardines similar to that of Tokyo’s rush hour. The staff all tried frantically to isolate & close the door, but to not avail, its stuck half- open.

Its all underground at city hall, they kept trying to open & close the doors in so many configurations till one point, all the train doors remained open while all the outer platform doors closed, tunnel-ly freaky. They eventually came to a concluding point where it too dangerous to run a door open with full passengers, so everybody have to “abandon train” turning city hall into a scene no different to that of a sell-out Rock Concert. Thank goodness the next train arrived within the minute, also all packed… dammit!

Ending November

Shaun
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Ending November
FC5 Line dances

School’s rather manageable this week, with the exception of a few hiccups here & there, not to mention training in the rain last tuesday… still good, luckily didn’t catch any fever or cold whatsoever, like what most people I know are having now.. eww “mucus-maximus”

Highlights of the week includes workshop. Finally managed to get almost most of the project done ahead of schedule, only to shave off addtional 1mm off my metal work on the milling machine! barggh! accuracy marks say bye bye… Maybe I can consider making another one if time allows.

Managed to put together pieces of VB & C++ programing into place, next week will be the VB test. Mmm, the funny thing is… programming what to study for ah?

The business people are always good at organising flea markets & stuff on a frequent basis with one coming up, the thing is that we all usually don’t even get to see any stores at all. Even when the event is held at the plaza- MY TURF! Maybe they are good at publicising it, but horrible to even make their stores be seen!

Very bad time trails for IVP:
2400m – 10.20, 3000m – 12.30, 5000m – 23.00, 10000m – Timings Next Week
The thing about long distance running for me now is not aerobic endurance, but speed. I am more or less adapted to running long distances, like 21km+ but only at a constant slow 400m/2min pace. Coach suggested more interval training for me, maybe those 100m sprints & drills will work out.

Still on sports, the 2005 Vertical Marathon placing results are out on their website. Came in 22th position out of 118 people in my category (Mens 20-29), that puts me in the top 20% of the athletes in the category & dang! I am like 10 seconds away from top 20… grrrr. It must be the last 10floors… must push harder next year. (Official .pdf file here)

They are finally getting those newer superbuses to ply the route between my house & SP. Think they are the newer generations of the Volvo Super Olympian. The automatic transmission is rather smooth compared the older superbuses, but can be rather draggy at times too. Yea & they seats they have are rock solid, so I can fold up & lean my legs with whatever pressure on the seat in front of me without annoying passengers in front. Hehe e-v-i-l-m-e

SP Mini Trialthon will be on this Saturday, consiting of a 200m swim, 6km bike & 2.4km run. Should be very managable. Standard Charted marathon will be on in 2 weeks time, 4th december, should be starting carbo loading sometime early next week.

Singapore Waterless Washing Machine

Shaun
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Singapore Waterless Washing Machine
Singapore Washing Machine!

Got some time up on surfing today, & see what our peeps in the university had came up with:

A waterless washing machine that removes stains from garments in a few minutes has been developed at the National University of Singapore, the facility said on Wednesday. The appliance uses negative ions, compressed air & deodorants to clean clothes. Industrial design students Wendy Chua, 21 & Gabriel Tan, 23, said they were inspired by the technology in air purifiers, which uses negative ions to clump dirt & bacteria, making it easier for the particles to be sucked out. The ions are a natural cleaning agent.

Whee, maybe I do not even need to get my hands wet in the future!

Same news also on Engadget & The Gadget Blog.

Tablet Research

Shaun
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Tablet Research
Got Tablet?

Ahh Notebook research.. Been doing alot about it over the last month or so, though I always hate surfing & drooling over items which ultimately… I COULDN’T even afford in the first place.

You know its something like Pictures—> wooo! *scroll**scroll* Specifications —> wahh! *scroll**scroll* —> Price: DANG!

Its the love for technology I guess *grins* which always keeps me glued to whatever tech… For me, its always like “oohh new phone out ah? Then ok *checks watch & marks on calender* I guess I have to wait approx 5760 hours or 8 months before the price comes low enough for my pocket!”

Poor me…

On a lighter side, been saving up for my new tablet PC I would be purchasing sometime early next year, just in time for the very much rumoured “compulsory laptop policy” SP’s gonna have like next year or so… why? monkey see monkey do loh, as NYP, RP & Nee Ann are ready doin’ it… Then what’s free access for dude? oh well brrr… I guess doing so could maybe give our school the braggin rights in the education industry… E-learning? my NOooo! No human – teacher touch, only opens up possibilities & opportunities for us to hack & temper with the school e-learning & result system… mmmmm which is not too bad either! Just don’t distrupt my wi-fi or I will BITE!

Moreover, I guess the recent failure of my desktop’s motherboard did set me back by a considerable amount of dollars, nevertheless, these are the main nominiess to replace my aging 333Mhz Althon socket-7 (yea its ancient all right) notebook I had since 1998.

  • Ultra portable tablet (Sonoma Centrino 1.7Ghz, 2kg) = Fujitsu T4020
  • Ultra performance tablet (Sonoma Centrino 1.8Ghz, with Geforce 6600GT Go) = Toshiba Tecra M4

So its a matter of wanting to carry a brick which allows your to play DOOM3 for 2hours at all settings maxed or a light small lappy where u can carry anywhere with out a bulge & run for 5hours. Decisions, decisions…

Everything looks good, now I all I need is an additional $3,720,50. :mrgreen:

Semester 2 Barghah!!

Shaun
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2
Semester 2 Barghah!!
Rawr! Semester 2...

I guess I had been away for quite sometime, duh been quite busy lately, as usual with life, business & training.

Nevertheless, semester 2 started rather slow & easy. Though I am taking EIGHT modules including GEMS bawrr! But I guess its gonna be quite a managable semester as subjects such as Character Development & Critical Reasoning Skills are just like “extra” modules. As usual the CCA points for the whole track & field team is not updated for the previous sem, sending more or less the whole team screaming at our president (in a very polite manner of course! 🙂 WHERE ARE OUR CCA POINTS!!! especially when the ownage for me last sem being like 40 points, dun play play leh… gimme points like, I earned it leh…

The sport event season for 2005 is coming to a close, ending with the standard charted marathon on 4th december. Then the 1st event next year will be the Safra Bialthon on March 11th, mmm dunno should I participate or not…

For Sem2 we have, on the 1A Module for the year:

  • Workshop – 🙄 Hands on! My Fav! Project of the module is to make a metal contraption to dispense scotch tape.. don’t ask me why… duh.. looks easy though, I was looking forward into building a drivable beach buggy or so…
  • Engineering Materials – The most daunting module, very very textbook based.. grrr
  • Electrical Technology – Its like a repetition of my previous Electrical module, with plus learnt at O levels.
  • C++ Programming – Finally get to learn some prog stuff, very primitive though I guess I won’t be writing my own OS very soon…
  • Engineering Maths – Very much like Maths C at A levels, minus my super hated STATS! yea!
  • Character Development – Basically a tok-cok session :mrgreen:
  • Critical Reasoning Skills – Very very toned down version of General Paper.
  • GEMS – Visual Basic Programming – My second programming module for the sem, since I am taking C++, why not VB as well?

I guess its wise to take difficult GEMS during the 1st 2 years of poly, then take easier modules as term progresses, like maybe web design or entrepreneurship something where u dun even need to study… hehe 😈 teacher me dunno design what webpage ah!

Oh well, gotta juggle school, training, competitions & business together again… A fresh sem, new aims & schedule whoa haha!

Weekenders Work – Nil!

Shaun
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Weekenders Work – Nil!
A day trip to Malaysia

Well its Sunday now, but I will just ramble about saturday 1st as I didn’t actually had time to talk about my day trip to Johor – Malaysia yesterday!

Saturday
The whole of saturday was more of less spent at johor where dad brought us to his favorite western-chinese coffee shop some where in johore. While crossing the causeway, I learnt a few tips from dad about driving in unfamilar places (though hes actually kinda know the place at the back of his plam anyway) & car security parking like not parking openly in public carparks, best options being hotel carparks or private ones with attendants.

I had alot to catch up on Johor. It had been like ages since I crossed over the straits, with the exception of my last visit to KL early this year, otherwise umm its like since early secondary school? ahah The place certainly had many more shopping complexes, not to mention the very big ones like city square, etc & the good old holiday inn (which is renamed now). Mum & Sheena very much spent most of the bulk on shoes & clothes while I just got a simple shirt & some fashion accesories, dad was naturally got on his ever-lasting-quest to find his ultra rare bata leather shoe whenever he chance upon any of their stores. The very interesting thing any shopper will inevitable experience are the number of pirated CDs & DVD stores around, not only in shopping centers but on the streets as well, I happened to chance upon a “high class” pirated CD store in a particular big shopping center where they even had staff serve customers professionally.. whoa! talking about class! brr! I dislike especially those on the streets where they just keep mocking you even if u are not interested in their goods. The day ended with dinner at “big horse” night market where we had a scrumptious seafood meal, even the drink store aunties recognized dad as we used to be regular, after all these time, man those those were the days…

Saturday ended with a return trip after dinner, but not before filling up a full tank of gas. On our way back the we chanced upon a rather funny sight of an overloaded Honda jazz at the checkpoint area, its was so full, that it could not even clear the speed bump at the immigrations, you can guess how panicy those drivers were behind that car if it were be to stuck there in the middle of a jam. hehe

Comp Up!

Sunday
Yupyup, Saturday actually started with a short trip to Simlim in the morning to purchase my new gigabtye 8IPE1000G motherboard before the johor trip, which in turn is still “not too new either”- it has AGP8x to the present PCI-16x, supports 478pins processors, very much a board to fit into my current system parts without a complete overhaul. I didn’t repair my old board as firstly its too troublesome to do it yourself, motherboards are freakin damn afforable now, lastly it actually costs $10 per capacitor if you were to replace them in a pc-clinic, (& my board have like 15 capacitors.. duh!). So all point towards a new board.

The greatest welcome are SATA support & dual channel ram slots, allowing my existing modules to go in dual channel mode & increasing memory bandwidth & speed by a considerable amount. After my bad incident with bad capacitors, I’ve introduced 2 additional fans in my system for optimum cooling over prolonged uptime, specifically one active cooler dedicated to the ram modules & the other for capacitors in “hot dead areas” aka areas of stagnant hot air. Cable ties are my best friend in case cable organisation, (why didn’t I thought of using that previously?) & they can really keep the interior clean, tidy thus allowing air to circulate more efficiently.

I would be running 3D mark 01,03&05 on my new sytem config soon, hope it can put through some reasonable scores with directx9.0c shader support my 6600GT can offer now. In the meantime, yea my system is finally up!

Workstation MIA

Shaun
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Workstation MIA
Computer MIA

Yea, you guessed that right, my personal workstation blew up today. Duh! & here I am posting for the 1st time on my family living room computer…. 🙄

My system had been acting up the past few days, restarting randomly at first, I needed to get work done but heck how can I work on a system which restarts itself anytime it feels like? Even in safe mode? Initially I thought its some graphic problem so I went to purchase a GF6600GT for a quick afforable fix, (in answer to BattleField 2 & Quake 4 too :lol:), well I guess I was wrong when the computer couldn’t post or even tell me the right amount of ram my system has! Moreover, it could only boot up into OS only after like 10-20 restarts, & it keeps forgetting system information & config & yea the restarting symptom was still eminent, then I thought my PSU was faulty – because restart equals no power? or power surge maybe?

Only after a in-depth search off the net given these unique symptoms when I found that that my MSI 648-MAX motherboard is actually capacitor fried. Well I guess hardware nowadays have very limited lifespan, due to mass production & cheap parts. Though it will usually comes a time when hardware reaches end-of-life, but not like in 4 years (or so)!

You can read more of the problem here.

Vertical Marathon 2005

Shaun
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Vertical Marathon 2005
The finisher's kit...

Well its competition time again, a time to participate & compete for the fun of it. This time, its the swissotel vertical marathon. Responses to this year’s event was so overwhelming that registrations have to be closed a month early. Luckily for me & my team we registered early. Met tiwazz, a SGrunner at the swatch shop around 6.30am, stayed & chatted for a while before its time to register for my category where I coincidentally met ahlong too, followed by kops & brokenruner at the registration booths.

Overall the race started off in groups of eight participants, flagged off at one minute intervals. I let everybody in my pack to overtake me at the start only to overtake all of them past the 20th floor 🙂 hehe evil me. From there, its up towards overtaking those from earlier flag off groups. Finished with a time of 11.43, achieving my aim of not exceeding 12.00. The interesting thing about rising so fast up a high height in a short amount of time is the lack of oxygen at high heights, coupled with the fact that the stairwell is not a very well ventilated place. Therefore the sub-set of temporarily dizziness is quite eminent in a few participants immediately after the climb. The view up there is nice, but not that eyebow raising either. A finsher’s kit consist of a personalised cert with official timing by tissot & a finisher’s medal on top of a standard free flow of redbull/mineral/spring water not to mention being able to keep our bibs as well!

Everything looks set for next year’s event. Next stop standard charted marathon!

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