No More Zapper

My parents came over to Melbourne last week, bringing along what i hoped to be the weapon of mass destruction to flies, the ZAPPER!!!!! (repeat until fades) However, the f-ing customs classified it as a human weapon and confiscated it and the process took about an hour while i waited anxiously outside for my parents to arrive. How are we going to go up against the flies now?

Technical support (my ass!)

Don't you just hate it when you call technical support and they put you in a queue and you just sit and wait there while listening to dodgy repetitive music? Well i've just experienced the worst of it. My problem was simple: my connection was shaped 10 days ago, but shaping period only lasts 7 days. So i called to get my connection back to full speed. (btw shaped means your connection is throttled to 64k speed for using the internet too much, dodgy aint it? unlimited my ass)



Call 1, waiting time 2 hours 15 minutes:
"Your account has no problems. We have released your account since 2 days ago you just need to restart your modem and everything will be OK"
Fuck you, it was still shaped.

Call 2, waiting time 2 hours 30 minutes:
(same dude)"Yes your account is shaped" But a while ago you said that my account was released, i said. "No your account is still shaped" Fuck you a thousand times more, now he's making it sound like i'm the wrong one here. "So you said that you were shaped since last Friday, so do you mean YESTERDAY?" Oh my god you fucking idiot i said it was more than 7 days, can you freaking count? I won't be freaking calling you if i was only shaped for one day! "I will manually unshape you from the list but it will only take effect after midnight so try again tomorrow morning" Fuck you, it was still shaped. Go fuck a wall, thanks for wasting a total of 5 hours last Saturday on the freaking phone with a moron.

Call 3, waiting time 3 hours 55 minutes:
Got disconnected. Fuck you and your whole company. I will spread the word and make sure no one else applied to your dodgy internet service.



Lets do some math. Call 3 was on a Sunday, i called at 10.30am and i was the 7th caller in queue. i managed to reach number 2 before i was disconnected. That means it took them roughly 4 hours to get through 5 people. Their opening hours are 10am-5pm. Thats 7 hours. Without whipping out my ultra cool scientific calculator i can tell thats an estimated 8 people they go through in one day. Ain't that cool? 8 fucking people in one day. Technical support, my ass. I just got off the phone again and they say ill be unshaped in one or two hours time. We'll see about that.

Inspiration

Just got back from my trip in Adelaide, which i am going to blog about later. Jooyee told me about this "Pay Per Post" thingy which i found quite interesting mainly because.....well i get paid for blogging. I dont know how much i'll end up earning or whether ill be earning at all but i've been thinking a lot about my finances recently and while im still feeding off my parents, i feel bad if i have to use their money unnecessarily to buy things to I love ie. basketball gear or video games. Since i have just quit my job recently and looking how stressful third year was, i doubt i want to start work again during fourth year.

So why am I even writing this post? To try to stop my bad habits of having long non-writing periods for my blog, because i want to keep my blog as something interesting to read consistently not just for other ppl but for myself. It was initially meant to be an online journal for me as well. I always have trouble expressing or opening up to other ppl (except certain ppl) about my thoughts and ideas on things happening around the world or things happening around my world. Hopefully ill manage this time.

Ok i half-lied. PayPerPost requires the blog to not have a 30 day non-writing period within the last 90 days. So here's my start. Plus all the things ive mentioned =P

The Stressful Semester

A straightforward topic that says it all. This semester has been crazy for me. I've never had so many things to do in a month, and it just piles up on you until the submission date. I'm talking about design of course. I didn't like the way the second half of the semester is structured cause i had a few problems or faults in my design, but I didn't get the chance of correcting it. It only created more and more stress for me because the faults became more severe as we got more detailed into the design. to make things worst, guest critiques who were supposed to help us with our structure, starting pissing us off by poking our designs instead. Everything built up to a long season of sleepless nights, all-nighters and heart-pumping stress and panic attacks. Non-architectural ppl probably wont understand what im talking about but hey, blogs are for rants and ramblings right? (Maybe)


Source of my pain - Station Pier ferry terminal

Despite that, i managed to pull through thanks to some great support from my family and friends and most important Deedoo who was there for me to encourage me and all the other small things that help reduce my stress. The final presentation wasn't actually too bad, like i said i already knew a few faults in my design and i was ready to take the critism for it. However the critiques were very polite in their speech and they also pointed out a few good things in my design, which is always a huge plus. Overall reward still didnt equal effort, but i am relieved with the way things turned out in the end.

Now, with only 2 exams remaining, im relaxing and studying hard at the same time to make sure i dont fail and graduate and not disappoint my parents when they come over to see me next month. I might sound contradicting putting relax and studying together, but hey after experiencing design this year, studying is relatively relaxing.

New Photos

Uploaded a bunch of new and old photos onto my web albums. Here's a few teasers from recent times :


Tulip festival at Lilydale


21st birthday dinner


21st belated birthday tea

Taking a break

Ahh........... finally some refreshing freedom time to do whatever we like. Having two weeks off to clear our mind off architecture stuff and not being bound to university timetable is just what we needed. I'm doing everything i want to do : play basketball, hang out with friends, Wii-ing...........everything feels great! Till you realize that you're procrastinating and there are assignments/submittions waiting around the corner. So its not a holiday after all, just a non-teaching period (direct quote from my tutor, which probably meant we're supposed to use every minute doing our design).

Argentine 1-0 Australia

Just came back from watching a live friendly match of soccer between the Socceroos and Argentina. It's been a while since i watched any live matches and i must say i really enjoy the experience and the atmosphere. Although most of the time you cant tell who the players are except a few obvious ones like Messi and Tevez who has magnificent dribble moves, its still great fun to watch. Near misses actually feels more exciting than the goals that you see on TV. The players also look kinda huge....even Messi is not tiny at all! And to think that Argentina is a team that struggles in the world cup because of their height....

The actual match itself though, it was disappointing that it was so low scoring. Apart from Messi's solo effort that hit the post, Argentina barely looked like they were trying after they got the lead through a header from a corner (i dont even know who scored!). The socceroos tried really hard to equalize but simply did not have any quality finishers at the end of the play. Bresciano came close though, with a free kick that hit the crossbar.

The highlight of the match was when someone sitting behind us shouted:

OPEN YOUR EYES!!!

SEE THE LIGHT!!!

ITS HAPPENING!!!!

I CAN FEEL IT!!!!!




MEEEESSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL


Overall, it was still a fun match to watch. I definitely hope that one day i will be able to watch a more competitive match rather than one-sided friendlies. (say, Malaysia - Brazil?) But of course, i'd trade any soccer match to watch a live game of NBA any day.

Sydney Trip Post

My long long overdue post. As most of you already know, me and Deedoo went on our "romantic getaway" to Sydney a week ago. It was a great trip, we did a few interesting tours, snapped some beautiful pictures and ate some great food over there. The horrible weather was a shame, but could be easily overlooked nonetheless. Anyways here's a quick summary of our trip, skipping all the mushy bits =)

Day 1: Arrival. Took a train from the airport to the station nearby our backpackers hotel (called Wake Up! ). This is my first time staying in one of these. It was an excellent choice, the place was very nice looking and clean, and the room provided us with minimum necessities. And to our surprise, we even had a TV!!! We stayed near Chinatown and was walking distance to the Darling Harbour. We had a good rest and then strolled to Darling Harbour to snap some quick pictures before the sunset and had a wonderful dinner at a place called the Black Bird. We ended the day with a night stroll through the Aquarium.




Day 2: Spent the day at Circulay Quays. The weather was wonderful, sunny and not too cold. We had a full English breakfast to fuel us for the day and quickly worked our way up the steps of the oh so famous Sydney Opera House. Then , we took a long walk to this park where we had a great view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge behind it. In the evening we went to Bondi Beach and treated ourselves to some awesome bbq pork ribs at The Hurricanes! Those of you who've been to Sydney would probably have been there and those of you who havent, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU TO DO SO!!!



Day 3: Long bus trip up to the Blue Mountains. Walking through the trails was pretty fun for the first hour or so was pretty fun, but it started to get tiring and the light rain didn't help either (it made the steps slippery). Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience and we had a good breath of fresh air. We also managed to catch a glimpse of the Three Sisters....



Day 4: Next up was Port Stephens for dolphins watching. Things looked gloomy at first as in it was pouring cats and dogs when we left. (Un)fortunately it take 2-3 hours to get there so by the time we reached there during lunch time, the storm was over. Going out to the sea and looking at the dolphins were probably the highlight of the trip, and we caught a good video of them jumping around too! Also included with the trip was a short detour to the sand dunes. They were pretty huge, and we were allowed to sandboard down the dunes. It was really fun going down, but climbing up in the sand isnt as fun.



Day 5: Nothing much here. Visited my aunt in the morning and we chatted and yamcha-ed till lunch time. It was pouring once again so we had to stay in. We did, however managed to go to Lowenbrau Keller for dinner. They are famous for German beers and pork knuckles (and of course, sausages). The beer was pretty good but the pork knuckle was so-so (disappointing since i was most looking forward to it)



Day 6: Check out time. Met up with Sue Ann and her friends for yamcha and to catch up a bit on old times. I think she is starting to develop some slang, cause she sounded 100% malaysian 2 years ago. After that we went to indulge ourselves at the Lindt cafe. Anyone familiar with chocolate will know what im talking about. Absolutely sinful, yummy chocolate. Anyways that kinda rounds up the trip. This is the first time I've travelled without anything planned beforehand (and without parents) and i must say its quite an experience and i think we managed to cover quite a lot of places in a short amount of time.

I've got a brand new toy!

Guess what it is??? A freaking, spanking, brand new iphone baby!!! Go ahead! Get jealous!


Ooo Yeeeah!













Just kidding. Just a well crafted paper model, mate.


Three monkeys

Photo albums re-done!

After scouting around a few photo sharing sites i decided to go with Bubbleshare. Kiddy name aside, the reason i chose it was because of unlimited uploads and a simple interface that any kid or grandparent can use with ease. The downside of it is that they only provide low resolution pictures, which is enough for sharing cause i wouldnt want to see every tiny detail when looking at someone else's albums. Loading times is quick and effortless. Added a section on the right of the blog with links to the albums. Will fill up very soon!

Mouse Caught!

Well we discovered a hole in the corner of my room where the mouse usually comes out, so i installed a new trap (from wikipedia!) using a coin and an upside down glass with PB a.k.a. peanut butter on the bottom of the glass, kinda looks something like this :



And the results after a few days :



Mission success!!! Feeling accomplished right now =)

Photo albums up!

At http://23hq.com/frenccw

Havent got much on in yet (includes my recent Sydney Trip, which i am going to blog about pretty soon) but ill be updating it soon. I've been trying to find an alternative to Flickr and i think this is the best so far. Yahoo photos is alright but the interface is a bit too bland/ugly for me. I'm not so bothered about the upload limit for Flickr but what really annoys me is that they only allow for a maximum of THREE albums! So 23 looks pretty good to me, it has better upload limit and no limits for albums. Perfect.

I've Been a Bad Bad Boi

I did something that i shouldn't have....putting the tele and my Wii in MY ROOM!!!! Omg!!!! And i did it before exams too! What a bad move..... Oh well at least it was fun studying this time :P

Now that the holidays are starting i can finally sleep well, go to gym regularly and not to mention tons of Wii gaming. Looking forward to going to Sydney on Friday and then when i get back i'll be expecting Keth Lyn and Joo Yee! Better clean up my room before then lol must not leave a bad impression (although it has to be even cleaner when my parents come over end of the yr).

On a side note, it's freaking FREEZING here in Melbourne! Ironically when I'm back in Malaysia i couldn't stand a minute without air-conditioning........ now i got my wish. That brings me to my latest poll, which do you prefer: a freezing winter or a scorching summer?

The E-Rat-icator!!!

The war with the mouse(s) continues!!! Show no mercy!!!!

*Picture is upside down -.- Brown paste is peanut butter......mmmm......yummmy.....hope i dont get trapped first*

Going to Sydney

Right after exams I'm gonna spend a lil less than a week in Sydney with my deedoo. You can call it a romantic getaway.....from my housemates? Lol. Anyways this could spell disaster considering i could get lost in Melbourne itself. I once took 40 minutes to get to a mosque in Drummond St (for assignment, not prayer), which is basically the second perpendicular street from my place. Actual time needed = 5 minutes.


My advice is to never count on me for directions. Especially when I'm driving.

On a side note, whoever's been to Sydney in these recent years please contact me to recommend me places to visit/dine. Thanks in advance!

Almost there...

Just finished a whole full week of an architect's life. Which means less than 5 hrs a night for sleeping and working on your design every other second. Excluding meals. But thank god now that's over. Now to work on that essay due in a week's time and ONE exam that follows ten days later.

Which means ill probably update in a month's time. Planning to go to Sydney after exams. We'll see how it goes.

There's a Mouse in the House!

Time to get a cat. There's a mouse in the house and we've spotted it in almost every room (albeit in different times of course). Its' pretty small, but heck its freaking fast. I cannot recall a single time where i've seen it static cause its always moving swiftly from one spot to another, always hiding behind stuff. There has been attempts to kill it with a tennis racket, text book, basketball....all to no avail. So we went out to buy a trap...thinking of one with poison. But then, none of us want to open our closet to find a dead rat thats needs disposing. So we came across this cool looking trap which basically lures the rat into it (duh!) and then it detects the impact and shuts the entrance. And its covered so we won't actually need to see the rat or touch it. Cool! So we stuffed some cheese into it and set it at a corner of the room. And so we wait.

After a few days, we wonder if the mouse is still around. The trap is still empty. I wikipedia-ed about mouses and it suggested to use chocolate instead. Fine. I'm a bit unwilling to part with a block of my dark chocolate bar, but it is a sacrifice i am willing to make. So i stuffed it in and some butter. If that doesnt spell DELICIOUS i don't know wat else does. (i almost caught my finger in the trap!)

Days went by. Still no signs of the mouse. Maybe it got scared. So i was sleeping in my Deedoo's room, and suddenly she screamed "MOUSE!!!!!". It woke me up and i grabbed a nearby racket and started prodding the spot where the mouse was spotted. We chased it out of the room and it ran into the corner of the living room. We alerted all the housemates. We grabbed a weapon each and started chasing the mouse all over the place. Even with all of us it was unlikely that we are able to kill it. So we thought of a perfect plan to chase it out of the house. And we succeeded. After a whole hour chasing it around. Mission accomplished!

So i went up to do my assignment, feeling relieved and accomplished. I look towards the mirror of my closet and saw this black thing on the floor with a tail looking thing. Then it starting moving into the corner of my closet.



...............fuck.


Still no mouse in the trap.

Our life....

I leeched this comic strip from Liq's blog cause it pretty much summarizes what we face every week in design studios.

If you wish to avoid thickening your glasses, i recommend you clicking here for the full size image.

AC Milan are the Champions!

After overwhelming Manchester United in the semifinals, AC Milan continues their dominance over English teams by mauling Liverpool in the rematch at Old Trafford to win the prestigious Champions League trophy. Luis Garcia's surprise return to the squad was overshadowed by two early goals by Gillardino and Kaka and that was enough to demoralize Liverpool and their defense made sure there were no miracles this time.






And so it is confirmed, Kaka is the best player in the world right now.

Just 5 minutes in the game, Kaka made a quick work of the Liverpool's defense with a precision short pass that set up Gillardino for the perfect finish.

Before the Liverpool could regroup, AC Milan and Kaka was on the attack again, courtesy of a clever flick from Pirlo. Kaka then made a quick side step on Hyppia to free himself to unleash a sensational finish that left Reina dumbfounded.

The first half saw AC Milan dominating in every aspect of the game and Liverpool did not even have a shot on goal. Liverpool were looking desperate and it resulted in yellow cards for Gerrard and Finnan just before the break.

Second half though, Liverpool came out with a purpose and Gerrard was unlucky not to score when he picked up a loose ball and unleashed a curling shot that narrowly missed the right post.

Liverpool finally got a goal back in the 50th minute when a rare slip up by the AC Milan defense allowed Luis Garcia too much space and he coolly applied the finish.

With the game up for grabs, Gerrard took control of the game in the second half, keeping possession and releasing his teammates on the wings to give Liverpool a few chances on goal but seldom threatened Dida.

Finnan was then guilty of commiting a foul which resulted in a second yellow card and a penalty for AC Milan. Pirlo stepped up to take the penalty but must have been kicking himself for shooting the ball right at Reina in the middle.

Despite their miss opportunity, Kaka led the way on the counterattacks, looking dangerous every time he touches the ball and AC Milan was unlucky again not to put the game away in the 70th minute when Gattuso saw his low curling shot bounce off the far post.

In the end, AC Milan's defense was too strong as Liverpool failed to equalize and AC Milan was crowned the champion of Europe.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Kaka, no contest. Assisted on the first goal and a brilliant individual goal led the way for the champions. Gerrard was the man for Liverpool as he took control in the second half but his teammates failed to follow up.

Watch the highlights :

NBA Semi-Finals Predictions

Back for more predictions! Surprise surprise. The West had two upsets for me: First, the obvious and biggest upset in the history of the NBA, the Mavs losing out to the Warriors. Second, the Rockets losing closely to Utah. After all their struggles and injuries i thought this year they could finally go deep into the playoffs. Poor T-Mac. He really did put up a lot of effort to get over his first round curse. On the other hand, the East had 3 sweeps!!!! I only predicted one!!!! Oh well at least i got the winning teams right. No upsets there. Now on to the.....



EASTERN CONFERENCE

CAVALIERS 4 v NETS 2

No sweeps this time. A real test for the Cavs but overall i think they have more depth than Nets to have any trouble with this one. The Cavs are really lucky not to face Pistons in the second round so this is probably their best chance to move into the Eastern Conference finals. But the Nets are an experienced team and Kidd/Jefferson/Carter should be good enough to pull back a game or two.

PISTONS 4 v BULLS 1

Its a bit too late for this one cause the Pistons are already up by 2 as we speak. Its not my fault they started this game before the Jazz-Rockets series ended! Anyways judging from the dominant performance by the Pistons in the first two games i don't see them having any trouble finishing the young Bulls. Bulls should be able to pull one back at home but i won't be surprised to see a sweep here.



WESTERN CONFERENCE

JAZZ 3 v WARRIORS 4

The Warriors sure played a heck of a first round, but the Jazz is no walk in the path. The Warriors lacked the intensity they had in the first round and closely lost to the Jazz. But knowing the Warriors i think they will fight back and will grab this series (im biased i dont want such a miracle postseason for them to end in an unfairytalelike manner) Jazz are an equally tough team so it could go either way in game 7.

SUNS 4 v SPURS 3

Another one that could go either way. Fast v slow. Offense v defense. Me v Nick. =)

Casino Royale is the best bond

Few days ago, i rewatched the latest Bond movie starring Daniel Craig with my deedoo (she didn't watch it before) and i still think that it is the best ive seen so far. Keep in mind that i'm comparing it only to those by Pierce Brosnan (haven't watched the old ones) which followed the same style and concept for 4 films straight. Some people don't agree with me though, saying it was quite boring. I guess the argument here is that there was only one true action scene in the movie which was the first 10 minutes of the movie. I didn't mind though, not having mindless gun fights and explosions that dominated the past movies. I thought the story and plot was more rich, and the characters are much more interesting to watch. It felt more like a movie on its own rather than an episode in the series, which i realli liked. There was some down moments though such as the dumb secondary Bond girl and the mushy moments almost at the end. But that will be nitpicking, i though it was a really good movie.

Other movies along the same line includes Superman Returns and Batman Begins, which i thought were very good movies for the same reasons. I guess you can't ever satisfy both mainstream and movie purists. I'm a lil bit in the middle.

Demolition Works

This is how we reward our own hard work.

NBA First Round Predictions

Ahh, its that time of the year again. And they decided to put one match after another. Damn. How am i gonna sleep or do my work??? Last year my bro criticized me for giving my predictions a bit too late, so i thought i'd give it a shot now and shut him up.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

MAVERICKS 4 v WARRIORS 2

The Mavs has been the best team in the NBA this year and i see no reason why they would lose in the first round of the playoffs. The mavs would most probably take this one, but if Game 1 is any indication, they're gonna have to work really hard for it. I'm rooting for the Warriors though. They're playing very exciting basketball and i would be glad to see an upset over here.

JAZZ 3 v ROCKETS 4

I'm a bit biased here as Rockets is one of my favourites so i'm picking the Rockets no matter what. Even if i'm not, the Rockets are playing extremely well especially TMAC who's doing everything on the court for them. The Jazz are a tough team to beat though so i wouldn't be surprised if they decided this in 7 games.

SPURS 4 v NUGGETS 1

It's exciting to see A.I. and Melo working together and getting game 1, but i don't see them advancing the first round. The Spurs is much deeper than the Nuggets and they are also much better as a team. As soon as they make some adjustments and tighten up the D they should win no problem.

SUNS 4 v LAKERS 0

More like Suns v Kobe. With the Suns (with Amare) playing their best basketball ever and Lakers struggling since a month ago, this could be a sweep for the Suns. Unless Kobe scores 81 again. Or more.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

PISTONS 4 v MAGIC 0

Pistons sweep. Magic just ain't good enough yet.

HEAT 3 v BULLS 4

Oooooo tough one. Despite being no.4 in the East, they're still capable of playing like no.1 . On the other hand, the Bulls are playing their best basketball since MJ left. This is gonna be tight but i personally like the Bulls more so i'm rooting for them in 7.

RAPTORS 3 v NETS 4

Another tough one. I think they are both on the same level right now. The Raptors are a rising team with Chris Bosh leading and a bunch of experienced rookies that they grabbed from all over the world. The Nets, despite not playing their best ball, still have one of the best trios in the league with Kidd, Jefferson and Carter. I think Nets will go away with this one because of one word, VINCESANITY.

CAVALIERS 4 v WIZARDS 1

Cavs for the sweep, almost. Really not much the Wizards can do with two of their All-Stars out except pull one back. The reason why Wizards have one game is because the Cavs are inconsistent.