What's up with technology today? Everything! And now it's our turn to place it up for everyone to look right into our complaints everyday ah! Back to Jenad.com
Thursday, November 29, 2007
One Day Outing
One day, we decided to just jalan jalan and we saw some interesting stuff.
Biggest celling fan in Singapore!
It has dunno how many blades but it looks so huge that I'm so scared that it might fall down on me. It does give out a strong blast of wind, almost feel like you are in a wind tunnel. Cool stuff!
The HUH? advertising Firstly, what has all this hip hop musicians, artistes got to do with our latest tunnel, KPE? Secondly, Why do you advertise road safety, speed limits in a pedestrian tunnel? What are the chances that these pedestrians own a car? If they own a car, they wont be walking in this tunnel to and fro the MRT station! And even if they own a car and walk in this tunnel, they may NOT be traveling on the KPE! So its kinda a waste of $$ to advertise about KPE in this prime space to the WRONG target group!
What does this mean huh?
Comprehensive Bus Information There's this board with very comprehensive bus information on it. It shows all the buses that ply along Orchard Road and their end terminals. So its a all-in-one signage. Very cool!
Electronic Bus Arrival Times I like this board! It gives you an estimation on when the bus that you want to take is going to arrive. Which means: 1. if you need to go pee, you CAN, cos you can pee real fast and come back before your bus arrives! Hooray! 2. if you want to go grab a burger, you CAN, cos you know that you have enough time to get that burger, settle your meal on the bus and be done with it! 3. if you wanna do abit more shopping, you CAN, because there's some buses that takes forever to arrive anyway. So its more efficient to shop this way!
One evening a few girls were gathering under the starlight with some good cakes from Shangri-La.
They were so yummy!
First one from the left is a Almond Nut Cake, followed by something White Chocolate cake (was it apricot? hmm...), then it was the something chocolate cake and then the very tasty, very sweet Chocolate cake.
They ALL were so yummy! You gotta go try it yourself someday.
This weekend has been one that brought bitter news to many of us. Of those who know the 5 national dragon boaters who met with accident in their Cambodia race.
Ad was shell shocked when he read the news on Sat morning. Because he knew one of them. They had been to the same primary school, secondary school, junior college, entered army at the same time, went to the same university and after all these years, they ended up in the same industry. It is hard to count how many shared experiences they both have together. The fights maybe as kids? The jokes? Maybe even lots of pranks!
Just a few moments ago, I realized that another member of my extended family knows another victim at a personal level as well. Grieving is not an easy task and I'm glad that she took a brave step forward to grieve for her loss. She has decided to share what she knew of him with everyone who is interested to know through a blog. RVHS 2J 2001
It is during such shocking times that we remember all our interactions with these lovely people who has passed on.
In a conversation with a friend who used to BE in the team, so imagine his grieve.... he was wise to chose to TRUST that the accident happened because they were possibly unconscious due to the capsized boat. With that he could bring some closure to the accident and not try to be upset with anyone for it. Because anger cannot bring them back either.
This accident is yet another reminder for us to cherish those around us, tell them that they are important to us and let them be assured of their presence in our lives.
So go tell your loved ones you love them today. Tell them that you thought about them today.
I have ALOT to be thankful for this year, let's start from the top!
I was thankful for a short getaway to a city which took me 15yrs to re-visit. My first visit to BKK was quite a nightmare, on the night of arrival with my parents, my mum had a stroke. She had to be rushed to a private hospital at the mercy of the cab driver. Back then, tourism wasnt a huge factor and hence the cab drivers were not so fluent to deal with tourist. By God's grace, we managed to communicate sufficiently with him and he brought us to the best private hospital there was in the city. Although we were alittle hesistant with its exterior structure (being a short 4storey building in between two huge buildings, decked in grey), I was very impressed by how much medical equipment they had and their medical skills were impressive. We were assured that mum was in good hands and although unsettling, we spent a week sleeping in the hospital ward with the kind understanding of the medical staff. I thought I would never really return to that city without having to re-live those days of nightmare but thankfully, in this Jan trip, it was filled lots of fun, excitement and not a luggage bag was empty! I discovered the joy of shopping, the relaxation of having massages and the fun of discovery! Even tried my first hand at shooting a pistol! So cool!
I think I am very thankful for a chance to go back to place that was filled with so much negative emotions and be able to drive them away with good, positive emotions. It was a great experience!
Next came CNY and when it was barely over, I had to start work on my research, yes by digging soil... thankfully I had some serious MANpower! Yes, my ever supportive, ever ready Ad! He's the BEST! Never a single word of complain nor grumble, just asked me where? when? what time? And off we went! This persisted for a seriously long period of time to the point which I was really thankful when I can hide in the safety of our lab to process the soil samples, away from the sun, the heat, the everything! Not only was I thankful for Ad's support, I was also very thankful that the collection went on smoothly as planned. :)
As time passed, the grieve of dad's passing also slowly eased away. I am thankful for the time, the space and the grace to grieve. Slowly but surely acceptance came and peace that followed. Now, at times, I can even joke about dad with my mum. I pray for that same peace to envelope her whenever she feels grieved.
Very quickly, Lent came, after hearing so much about The Purpose Driven book by Rick Warren, we decided to gather a small group of friends to share the 40days journey together. Thankfully, we found some expertise, someone who actually run a similar group before! It was definitely a time when we were reflective, learning and experience more of God's mystery and our own purpose. I am still reflecting on some of the topics that was covered! I am thankful for the constant guidance and having these inspiration to keep pushing us forward.
This year was indeed filled with tonnes of beautiful memories, so much that I am at loss what to say sometimes. There were so many friendships formed and built, made to last longer and stronger than I have ever imagined. One thing I am very sure, all these would not have been possible if not for God's grace upon us. Thank You Lord! (And I think this Prayer of Jabez has got to do with it!)
In June, my family and I took a trip back to our hometown in Donggun, Guangzhou, China. It was my virgin trip to our hometown. I was very very impressed by the amount of effort that my grandparents put to "repay" the kindness of the villagers who has helped my grandfather leave their hometown and come to work in Singapore. If not for their fore-father's help, we would not be here today, enjoying the fruits of their labour. In return, my grandfather built a school (because he feels strongly about education, believing that anyone can learn anything if they desire to, he watches the Tamil news at home at 70 to pick up the language!). He was also often called to raise funds for re-building projects in the home town, there were so many stories of my grandfather and our fore-fathers that we kept thinking of how fortunate we are. And indeed we are very honored decendents of many great people in our family. I am very thankful for this trip to help me learn so much more about my family history, at least I have some juicy stories to pass on to my kids and grandkids! hee hee
One of the themes that really stood out for me is: Marriage - a lovingly marriage is a lasting marriage. We witnessed how over 400 couples stood before God to profess their love for each other some 50years after their wedding and some as "youthful" as us barely 3+yrs of marriage. The common denominator is the commitment to build a lasting marriage TOGETHER. And how to be able to achieve a lovingly marriage? The trick is to surround yourself with people who share the same values as you about marriage. People who are commited to each other, who value the importance of commitment which entails faith, hope & love. If you can love, you can forgive and forget. Every marriage will meet their test somehow, some time, how each couple deals with that tough situation lies very much in the crux of their friends and family. If their surrounding values the importance of sorting things out peacefully, lovingly, chances are that these two persons will stay together. And vice versa. So go figure if you want to stick around those whom you are sticking around with now.....
I am thankful for being able to indulge in my crazy "hobbies", hee hee; more hee hee; hee hee hee hee ;lagi more hee hee Yes, I am very thankful for finding that childhood that I miss, the senseless giggles which I enjoyed. Its GREAT to just giggle! hee hee
AND ok ok this one, I am like so ultra thankful for it that tears can roll out any time....
I am thankful for FB, I have found my sec school best friend, SC! Yes that one that i blogged about like Jan 2006!. All this time I kept wondering about some individuals that has left some part of them behind in me and slowly, they are all coming back to life again! I am just ecstatic! Some of these old friends are counting back 20yrs of MIA! ha ha ha..... If there was a chance of relocating my kindergarden pals, now, that would be a real treat!
Thank You Lord. You have made my life so colorful, so wonderful, so full of adventure that I can only be thankful for! *muaks*
I have been having problems sending out emails, posting on blogs etc for the past 1week? 2weeks? cant remember how long I've been struggling with them.
No problems in receiving though!
Made a call to our broadband provider and found that my proxy settings were not in place! Aiyo! so much braincells died from this simple issue!
So nice to have a weekend packed with activities to look forward to....
What is YOUR weekend like? Going out to have fun?
Or just lazing around at home?
Or got to mark tonnes of scripts? ha ha ha... yes I just remembered Otterman and his predicaments, you will survive Otterman!
Or going to the Food Fair at the Expo? There was this period of time when me & Ad used to go crazy whenever these food fair "appear". We'll go without lunch and by the time we are done trying out the different food varieties, we are usually quite full hee. These food fair are quite good for launching new products, I recall getting hooked onto Marigold's juices, those with aloe vera bits, simply delicious. We even lug a few litres home after testing them! We also bought so many other snacks from these expo, including ultra good deal from Eu Yan Seng medical hall's "fake birds' nest".
ooohhhh so exciting just thinking about the different possibilities!
My dream mobile phone has been added to our collection of electronics and gadgets at home. And certainly it is one of the BEST mobile phones that I've ever had. Simply because its got a fantastic camera feature of 5megapix.
Ha ha ha
Here's what Linus did on our short walk about the neighbourhood... I've always wanted to capture a picture of this recycling bin, it usually filled to the brim with bags and plastic bottles. However, one morning, I noticed that all the big plastic bottles around it were gone, yet the bin is still FULL of the other recycling trash. Strange hor? Looks like someone is taking the recycling waste for themselves!
Cant see clearly? Here's a better shot after using iPhoto to "enhance" it with the magic ward. Okok, I know I need more practise with this camera, i mean phone, i mean camera phone... see i'm confused. There are quite a few selections to this camera mode, so gotta practise abit MORE.
Next I climbed to a higher ground, attempting to capture more images, wondering if the shutter will take in the light from sources further away... looks decent eh?
Then, I found a young, model, without her permission hee hee... I snapped pictures of her like a paparazzi (must practise to see if I can work fast!) Surprisingly, the camera response time is pretty fast unlike the previous Sony Ericsson mobile phone cameras which I've used.
I have yet to test out the 9frames/sec shots on a real model, tried it on myself and the results are definitely not nice cos of the choice of model.
I am having so much fun with the camera phone that I even took pictures of me "processing" my dinner ha ha ha...
here's a video of how I'm thawing my dinner hee hee... yes, as you can tell, i'm darn bo liao!
What makes Linus truly amazing is that it can take pictures, videos and any function until its last bits of juice. I took a 2min long video clip when it was at 3% of its battery life, even with the low battery warning, it still allows me to continue filming and viewing the clip. Right till its last bits of juice!
Previous models have alot of restrictions on minimum battery life when using the camera functions on the phone.
More things I like about this phone: 1. it has an addition shortcut key in addition to the 4 (top, bottom, left & right) shortcut keys which are usually used for sms, calender, contact list & alarm. I set the profiles, sound record and bluetooth on this additional shortcut key, extremely easy for me to access these functions.
2. its radio reception is of very high quality. It can receive FM transmission in places which my iPod add-on radio receiver experience break ups especially in the lift. I'm surprised! Next time gotta try it in the trains ha ha...
3. Its ultra easy to access its camera & video functions with the buttons and shortcut keys on its side. works almost like a normal digital camera! *sweet*
4. it does seamless bluetooth connection with my Peppermint! (ok this one requires alot more story telling) In most of my previous mobile phones, the most painful process of acquiring a new mobile phone is the transfer of the contact list. In the earlier models of mobile phones, they have functions to copy all the phone numbers onto the sim card and I used to do that transfer 250contacts at a time. Then when it came to my Samsung E730, it does not have this feature! I cant even copy any of the phone contact to the sim card! aiyo so painful! I tried so many times to bluetooth the contact list over to Peppermint but only partial of the list are transferred. So sad hor!
I was determined to get the contact list sorted out right this time. Hence, I spend one whole afternoon, or was it day... to painfully, go through the 400 contacts on my list and sort them out accordingly. When they were all sorted out nicely on Peppermint. I did the bluetooth magic and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, Every single one of my contact went over to Linus!
Now isnt that just perfect? *muaks* I LOVE BLUETOOTH technology! also all photos, videos, music were transferred using the bluetooth option at the rate of 100kb/s. quite fast hor?
5. its got a great size, not too bulky like the N95 (which has a newer model that comes with 8Gb harddisk space internally, so you wont have to depend on the memory cards, but for that size? like a brick? how to fit it into my tiny purses?) Yep for its size, its easy to hold onto it, not too tiny which might slip out of your hands while you are trying to take a snap at something. I saw a guy holding onto the ultra slim K something mobile phone on the train, he looked like his fingers were going to have a cramp from having to press it to his ears so hard! ha ha ha
6. It has a SOS feature where you can make use of its light from the camera to flash the emergency SOS light signal to get help in times of need! Now isnt that cool???
7. it has everything that I ever wanted in a phone! yeah! I am loving it!
I love them all! Each has its own story, flavour and meaning that they bring to my life. After sorting through all of them, I have categorised them into Bags (118), Pouches (21), shopping bags (9) and free bags (23). A grand total of 171 heng ah, still under by 200 quota hee hee
here's my most lovely, most loved, already inducted (meaning no longer virgin bag, used a few times and loving it) no. 118!
ps J, you may find this bag very familiar... i think its because it looks exactly like the one which you bought in bkk, the source of this bag is also from bkk. priced at $15.90 I thought its worth it because the original price at bkk, wholesale market would be around $8-13.
Once I saw a bag which I really liked but cost $30, I refused to pay for it since I knew that I'll would have been fleeced at that price hee hee
We warmly welcome the latest music player cum web surfer cum games player cum digital address book cum calender buddy cum youtube grabber cum calculator cum alarm clock cum world time cum timer cum stopwatch cum digital photo album cum podcast player and whatever else you can think of or find to install into this neat little gadget.
I am loving it! She's thin and light weight wont feel a thing even if you were to hold her for a long time to watch a video or photoslideshow. Music albums can be viewed with the cover flow series makes it alot easier to look for the music that you want to hear.
I love the fact that you can just add a new contact to the list and sync it with your address book on the Mac, makes it so easy and seamless to keep intouch with your friends again.
I have been struggling with 89-92% usage on my gmail account due to the large amounts of data, pdf, picture files which I am so conveniently "storing" on the gmail server hee...
But I noticed that as the storage gets closer to the 90s% range, the mails get sent out slower.... and there are more bugs also...
And the fear that it will just shut down on me suddenly because I've overloading my account is frightening...
Am so glad that they did an overnight increase in the capacity to bring my % back to a healthy 54%! Yeah!
After working really hard today, I opened up my mailbox to find an interesting broucher, photocopied, scanned and sent to me by a not-so-IT-savvy friend. She got ALOT of heart, remembered that I LOVE Snoopy stuff and bothered enough to send it to me.
So I decided to take a small detour to Watsons before my dinner this evening....
I even planned to buy just 2 Snoopy items because you will need to spend $15 for every two Snoopy items. I cannot really figure out what I'll need at Watsons at the top of my head.
So I called for backup!! (yah like when Macs have their snoopy collection for their value meals, I also request for reinforcements)
I called up a good friend who is usually very sporting hee hee... (although I have to bear with her teasing for a long time to come... nevermind all that, its norm for people to tease me over Snoopy)
She was indeed very supportive, she "ordered" enough items through me to support my cause... hahaha which means I get to purchase another two more Snoopy items if I just throw a few things into the basket.
Then hor, their baskets now come ON wheels... which makes shopping alot easier, you just keep throwing things into the basket, full, overflowing nevermind, got a 2nd basket below it, can continue to fill it up, with its ultra light wheels, even if you put an elephant on it, you wont feel it when you push it around. So you just keep topping it up! (see how evil that is??)
I spent the next 10mins very constructively looking for items that I will NEED and will USE like tissue paper etc, I was even tempted to get shampoo! but it'll be too heavy for me to lag back alone haha
THEN! One innocent looking sales girl walked by and asked me if I was interested to learn more about their products (Silkpro).
Deep deep down inside me I was violently saying NO NO NO
But I just nodded my head because I had to "get MORE stuff" to buy MORE Snoopy items (might as well right? Since I'm at it anyway...)
Then she disappeared!
I should have just ran off that very instant! But I didn't (or else, there wont be this long essay on why Watson's is evil...)
She returned with another lady who was the beautician for Silkpro products, she started with moisturiser, then why I would need their toner and went on to the night repair and why my skin is the way it is now and blah blah blah.... I ended up with 3 bottles in my basket (overflowing already but still can put them on top safely)
Sigh, I'm weak lah. How??
When the cashier kept scanning the items, my heart kept jumping.... total damage $140.
I NEVER EVER EVER spend so much at Watson's before.
See how evil Watson's is?? They put up the Purchase with Purchase for Snoopy items and made me spend SO SO SO much!!
Just as I was leaving the store, I spotted this booth that is operated by Roman (a Germany company that sells pretty good quality stuff at good prices). They were selling anti-slip insole gels for shoes, in many shapes and sizes. Even some for men. Okay lah I thought of Ad and how tired his legs must be daily, I took a set for him. And I also chose another set for myself.
THEN the sales girl said that if I buy 3 sets, I will get a free gift! An anti-slip thing for shoes (on the outside when it can get slippery on rainy days)
Okay, I'm a freebie queen, mention the word FREE and you see my eyes light up!!
So I bought 3 sets lor. another $30 fly away...
See how evil Watson's is??
Now I have to go put on my 3 bottles of newly acquired stuff to see if it does all the magic that the lady claims, if not.... SOMEBODY's going get hurt real bad!!
