. . Forget! . .

Oh gosh! I forgot that I haven't blogged for a long time. I mean, I know I have a blog. Just that I kept forgetting to post! Hah!

Ever since the time my computer died on me, I'd stopped blogging. I did picked it back. But I guess it didn't last. Well, so many things had happened in the last couple of weeks.

Things like, 2 weeks ago, Syn came back from Dubai; we *me, Trixx and Syn* had dinner at Marina Food Loft before we head for chill out and satay at Glutton Bay next to the Esplanade. Bry dropped by and had a good catching up.

Hmm, other than that I don't really seems to fully recall. But today, I met up with Trixx at Downtown East and had some Korean style barbeque dinner. Was quite good, though Trixx thought it was just ok. *She didn't like the rice there though, right Trixx?* Hmm, maybe next time can bring Frecky there for dinner.

Downtown East new *eHub* mall was still having some major contructions in but some areas are fully done up. There's also a cinema there. But strangely, it felt like it was not fully utililse, or should I say, there were not many patrons there. Hmm, maybe it's a weekday night so not so packed. Or that it its still under constructions.

Wonder if the place going to be a flop.

. . Olympic . .

Didn't have anything much to do today, Monday, and also last weekend. Was an off day today from The Company in lieu of the public holiday on Saturday. Stayed at home and watched the Olympic Games on TV.

Saw the Games Opening Ceremony last Friday and was very proud for the Chinese People for an awesome/fantastic opening. Was really very, very good. The fireworks show was simple inspiring! I joked with my younger brother that the Chinese didn't had to import those fireworks 'cause they invented them! Hah! Most probably they bought those fireworks somewhere down the streets. Heh! If you didn't catch the ceremony, see if you can find it on YouTube or something. It's simply can't be missed.

Caught some of the Games in these few days and alreay lots of World Record had been broken. It's very inspiring to watch these finest atheletes fight it out in the sporting arena. It's not everyday to watch these kind of spectacular sports in action!

Maybe I'll pick up a sport. Like Archery! HAH!

. . New Computer . .

It has been nearly 3 weeks since my old computer died on me. Well, actually, I'm not sure yet which component of the hardware which failed on me. Anyway, I am on my new computer right now and I still have a few more programs that I had yet to install.

This is my new setup.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66GHz 6MB 1333MHz LGA775
Gigabyte EP45-DS3 Intel P45 Chipsets mainboard
Asus GeForce 9600GT Black Pearl 512MB DDR3
Western Digital 400GB 16MB HDD SATA2
Corsair PC6400 800MHz 1GBx2 DDR2
Sony 20X DVD Writer SATA
Cooler Master eXtreme 550W PSU
Cooler Master Elite 330 Black version

I actually had this new computer delivered last Sunday. Yeah, delivered to my home as I bought it on a local online shop. But had some hardware problems with the new computer initially. My new PC kept having random crashes and bluescreens of death. Wasn't sure at that time what was the problem.

Told my colleague L10 about this and he offered to help check my computer out. He came over on Tuesday and tried to help search for the fault *if any* and also to help see if I did set up the computer properly. I am not a really knowledgable on this computer hardware stuffs and I needed help.

Went through a lot of different situations and steps to reinstall the operating system *OS* to the old harddisk. Long story short, we were not able to reinstall the OS and were facing frustating obstacle.

He also was stumped over what was wrong and didn't managed to find the fault. He was sure though, that it was a hardware problem. Myself, I wonder whether my old computer had a virus and had contaminated this new computer *as I had installed the old harddisk to the new computer*.

The next day, while at work, I was even considering of getting a new fresh harddisk to install but L10 advise me to consult the guy from the shop that I bought the computer from. I listened to his advice but decided to have one last installation trythat Wednesday night.

During work that day, I managed to researched on computer crashes and installation of OS. And that night, I tried some of the procedure that I read up on. I followed a simple basic setup for the computer and finally managed to installed the OS! Was so happy that night!! On closer inspection, one of the RAM that I took out from the motherboard was actually faulty. The RAM's cover *heatsink, I think* was not properly aligned to RAM itself the and I think this made the memory unstable when installed and thus the random crashes. This also prevented the OS from any proper installation. Called up the shop and going to have it replaced.

Anyway, it took me a few days and today to get my computer to what it was. Did managed to backed up my stuffs and data before the OS reinstallationbut had to reinstalled a lot of programmes *as I formatted all the harddisk during the reinstallation as we thought it was harddisk problem that causes the initial problems* . And it really took a while.

But it was worth it.

*Today, Saturday, is Singapore's 43rd National Day. Wishing all Singaporeans a Happy National Day! Have a great long weekend!*

. . F##ked Up Computer . .

Today is Sunday, and I'm using my younger brother's laptop right now as my long serving computer is down. Switched it on and there's nothing on the monitor. Think the harddisks is gone.

Was using the computer yesterday, Saturday, transfering my photos from my recent visit to the Jurong Bird Park on Friday. Completely transferred the photos, and when I plugged in my external Harddisk USB *for my back up copy* the computer suddenly freezed.

There was no keyboard and mouse response so I thought I had to hard reboot it. So the next moment when I restart the computer and it didn't response *nothing on the monitor screen*.

Fcuked up computer.

Lucky I copied the photos and not "cut & paste" the photos. And all that my other photos had been backed up. But there were some stuffs I think that were not backed up.

Hopefully the harddisk is not the problem *maybe the chip or the motherboard problem* which then I could still reuse the harddisk and back up my other stuffs.

But if it's the harddisk problem, then all my stuffs are gone. Haiz.. Another bad luck strucked.

What's happening to me?! I'm so frustatedly fcuked-up.

Think I need to wait til I get a new computer.

. . Jurong Bird Park . .

Today Friday, took leave from work. Woke up to a great sunny morning and had a tiring, but overall great day at the Jurong Bird Park (JBP).

Trixx had free passes to the JBP today and she invited me and Wei2 *thanks for the invite Trixx!*. I asked Frecky along too as she is not working today. Was wonderfully surprised at the JBP as it had been ages since my last visit.

Had been having thoughts that there is not much to see at the JBP. Only birds. But I was surprisingly wrong. There's a lot to see there! Well, a lot of birds, but there's a huge variety of birds there.

Reached the place a 'lil before 2.00 pm and met Wei2 at the entrance. Trixx was already there as she reached there earlier. Going clockwise through JBP, we came across owls, cranes, beautiful hornbills *my favourite!*, cute kingfishers, kookaburas, toucans, eagles, vultures, ducks, flamingos, the huge pelicans, the graceful swans, penguins etc etc.

Oh my gosh! It was such a great trip. Me and Frecky also went to the "Birds Of Prey" show at 4.00 pm and was greatly amazed. I especially like it how the Falconers made the eagles flew just a 'lil above our heads, at where we were seated. I forgot how beautiful these birds are. Seeing them on tv *like those wildlife shows and National Geographic channels* are so much different from seeing them up close.

And then there's this awesome, faboulous, fantastic, Lory Loft, where it's actually a huge, HUGE, HUGE bird cage that visitors can venture into and have a close experience with the Lory birds. There was like hundreds of them when we were there and they were feeding noisily. But then it's alright 'cause they're so cute!! *can't believe I'm saying this*. They were flying around pass us, some flew over my head and one actually flew and rested on Frecky's shoulder. Hah! What an experience!

There were some other cages that visitors can venture into also, but it wasn't as awesome as the Lory Loft. There's also this huge birdcage that has the tallest man-made waterfall. Hmm, wasn't as what I expected and not as exciting as the Lory Loft.

There was a glass exhibition for the penguins *but not as big as the ones at the Zoo*. There's also a small corner near the extrance, where they put up caged some macaws, cockatoos and also mynahs. These birds can talk! Hah! *Hello!? Ni Hao Mah?!* Hah! Had a great time trying to make them talk! But not as fun as at the Lory Loft.

I love the Lory Loft! Hah! Left the place all tired, sticky, dirty but definitely satisfied.

What a great day! ☺☺

. . Hancock . .

Simple work day on Thursday. Work had been not much since I've been working straight with The Boss. Not much things tro rush. Well, maybe the workflow haven't picked up yet since the move. But anyhow, I'm definitely not complaining.

The Company new office is still under a lot more renovations. Works for the 1st level and 3rd level is still not complete and even small stuffs *like the conference room and pantry area* on the 2nd level is not fully complete. Think need a few more weeks til The Company is fully complete and up and running.

After work on Thursday, went to meet Frecky at Suntec for a quick dinner and movie "Hancock" starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bates. Was actually a "not bad" kind of movie. Least the storyline is more or less original. Hollywood had been re-imagining, re-make and also been basing after novels/comics so much movies these days that it's kind of refreshing to see a movie that's quite original.

There's a great twist to the movie Hancock, about how Will Smith's character Hancock got his superpowers and where he came from, so I'm not going to review on the storyline. Overall, I give this movie "3 and a half star" *out of 5*.

Go check it out.

. . $1,000 . .

It rained the night before. Got up to a wet Wednesday morning and quickly got out of bed. Didn't actually woke up on time so had to rush the shower. Before I stepped out of the house, looks like the drizzle had stopped. When I had worn my other shoes, *wanted to dry out my Adidas shoes that was wet out the day before* the rain started again. "Another bad luck day?", I thought to myself. Changed back to the Adidas shoes as it was more worn out. Reached the carpark and the rain stopped. !#$%^&*

Go ahead. Laugh. It's not funny to me anymore. Anyway, after that, the whole day seems alright. No bad luck whatsoever. During lunch time, our *2nd level* office set out to the nearest supermarket to topped up on our pantry stock. The nearest supermarket is Cold Storage located at the basement of China Square Central.

Bought a tremendously lots of stuffs today. Altogether there is around 22 staffs on the 2nd level. But that doesn't mean that we can afford to buy a lot of stuffs. I think a few of my colleagues are very oblivious and decided to splurge on pantry shopping. I only took a few stuffs. After I saw that they were piling food on 3 shopping carts, I stopped taking any more food. It was scary the amount of stuffs we bought today. So much so that the billed had to be splitted.

Ah San volunteered to pay the 1st $800. Yeah, was that much! After that, the rest of the stuffs I volunteered to pay. Why I volunterred? Because the rest didn't bring cash/credit card/NETs card to the pantry shopping. Can you believe it? Frust! Ah San paid around $800 while I paid around $270. That totalled to more that $1,000!!

Later received an email from the accountant saying that we spent a ridiculous amount of pantry and that some items were too expensive to be considered a basic pantry stuff. Funny this accountant. He was there at the supermarket also and he did nothing to stop anyone from buying the expensive stuffs. I think The Boss will flip when he sees the bill for the pantry. No wait, I think he will do some triple somersault or something.

I think the pantry budget will get stripped down after this.