fondue for under $10? i can half that amt!

just tried a new cookin' experiment yesterday...

found 4 different bars of Toblerone Chocolate... you know... the triangular shaped thingy?

Anyway, 3 of the bars have expired...

But my aunt decided to melt all of it down into fondue...

How?

Easy...
Here's a step-by-step guide...

1. Prepare a non-metal and microwave-safe container. You'll be dealing with quite a bit of heat, so you have been warned.

2. break down the toblerone into single pyramid pieces. This will ensure a faster meltdown. Pour the pieces into the container

3. add approximately 1 cup of water into the container. I used half a cup The water will ensure that your toblerone melts without popping too much, splattering your entire microwave with a coat of chocolate.

4. Depending on your microwave's power, set the microwave to 3 minutes.

5. HEAT! and watch your toblerone melt into fondue + hot chocolate. Yes, Hot chocolate is a by-product in this meltdown process!

6. When the bubbles start getting near the brim of your container, stop the heating and remove the container carefully to let the thing cool. pour out the "hot chocolate". Pour in approximately 1 cup of water again. Remember: 400g tolberone to 100ml water (half a cup).

7. Continue heating until the chocolate has completely melted. Once done, pour out the "hot chocolate" and let both the hot chocolate and fondue cool down.

8. Serve the hot chocolate with a bit more water (to reduce the sweetness / concentration) and ice (for the fun of it and the chilling effect)

9. Spread the fondue over a piece of bread before it hardens! or, if you want, just freeze the fondue after it hardens from cooling to get chocolate!!!

Have fun!

Still waiting...

I'm waiting for an iPhone...

I'm waiting for an iPod Nano and a Nike+iPod Sports Kit...

I'm waiting for OS X Leopard...

I'm waiting for a Genius Bar at AppleCentre@Orchard...

I'm waiting for a Tech Support to repair my poor macbook pro...

I'm waiting for iLife 2008 and Microsoft Office for Mac 2008...

I'm waiting for OS X Liger (after Leopard)

I'm waiting for WWDC '07...

I'm waiting for SA1 / MYE to end...


I shall wait... not...

music chart for da moment(um)

sampler for the making of the line-up courtesy of iTunes 7.0.2 and the iTunes Store for some of the songs...

1.
avril lavigne - innocence

2.
maroon 5 - makes me wonder

3.
timbaland feat. nelly furtado & justin timberlake - give it to me

4.
avril lavigne - runaway

5.
justin timberlake - what goes around comes around

6.
nelly furtado - say it right

7.
daughtry - it's not over

8.
linkin park - what i've done

9.
katharine mcphee - over it

10.
fergie - big girls don't cry (personal)

Whoa f***. It's 1000+ views & counting!

How bout a celebration week?!

First, there's d Silver Award from SYF...

Now, Flickr just gave me a surprise present! One Thousand and two Page views on my Flickr Photo Page!!!

It's been a long time, and I finally hit a four-digit number!

thanx for thoe who've been visiting my flickr!

SYF over at last... Now time for exams....

Finally... SYF has ended for our choir...

I'ld like to announce that the St. Andrew's Secondary School's Saints Choir has achieved a Silver award in the 2007 Singapore Youth Festival Central Judging Competition. This is not achieved without effort. This could only be done by numerous years of breathing, running, practicing, nagging, shouting, et cetera.

We understand that many are disappointed in the result which we have attained. Trust me, we did not wish for a silver. however, the choir faces many problems such as the measly number of singers (30, compared to 60 for other schools), and being an all-boys chorus, we have a problem getting our Sopranos and altos to adapt to the Tenor voice (half of our members have underdeveloped "deep voices" / voice boxes). To add to that, we lack the experience of taking part in an SYF. Unlike the band and drama, which took part in SYF regularly, our choir is making a comeback into SYF this year, making things slightly harder on us. As such, this could have been considered our first SYF. Most schools start getting Bronze before attaining a Gold (w/out Honours)

We wish we could have gotten a triple streak of Golds for every Performing Arts CCAs. however, that was not the case this year. But rest assured, because our school has been awarded the Sustained Achievement Award for Performing Arts. This can only be attained if (as far as I know) all Performing Arts CCAs get a minimum of a Silver or above for SYF. With the Choir's Silver and the Drama + Band's Golds, We have achieved this as a school.

Overall, the choir has put their best performance during the SYF. Never in any single practice had we done as well as our judged performance.

On behalf of the choir, I would like to thank all those who had been helping the members out with catching up on homework, studies, etc, and for the prayers and well-wishes from everyone. Specifically,

-Mr George Danapal
-Mrs Angela Lim
-Mr Matthew Tong
-Mrs Charles
-Mrs Joyce Ang (VP)
-Mrs Daphne Ang and the SFC members (we heard that you guys prayed for us. Thanks)
-The Drama team (thanx for coming down to personally give moral support)
-the numerous classmates...

And how could we forget these names? These teachers / mentors have trained us to be better choristers for this SYF
-Ms Deborah Gan
-Ms Jacinta Lim / Mrs Leong
-Mr William Lim (Conductor)
-Ms Felicia Chua
-Ms Chua Xin Yuan
-Mdm Alifa
-Ms Jennifer Tham
-Dr Zechariah Goh
-Mr Albert Tay
-Mr Matthew Tong
-Ms Juliette Lai


So once again, Thank you. Now who can help me w/ Chemistry???

Blogging from Word in Office ‘07

Yeah, if you could read this, then the self-posting feature works... I promise you, I did NOT "Ctrl-C_Ctrl-V"-ed this post...


Anyway, I just added one more album to my lossless collection... Avril Lavigne's "The Best Damn Thing"...


K, back to ET... watching ET on Channel 5... bb.

23 + 16 = 39

added another album to the lossless collection...

don't ask me why I added the album, I just found their songs favourable again all of a sudden for no reason... but honestly, who really hates Maroon 5?!

It's not new, but it's still good... it's their album "Songs About Jane" all 16 tracks, including the Kanye West remix of "This Love" and 2 acoustics tracks...

23 + 16 new tracks... i have 39 lossless tracks!!!

Now, I need a 60GB Flash-based iPod...

+5 lossless tracks = 23 lossless tracks in total

added 5 new tracks today...

Lindsay Lohan
-A Beautiful Life (La Bella Vita)
-Edge Of Seventeen
-If It's Alright
-I Live For The Day [this track's very clipped... don't rip this if you listen to loud music... where loud is 50% of your iPod's volume]
-Confessions Of A Broken Heart (Daughter To Father)

adding more soon...

of bad temper and raging hormones...

yeah, in case you didn't hear me at all today,

i was really cranky...
really bad-tempered...

i blame hormones!

blah blah blah... argh.... gargle gaggle gargle... hummm... hum....

hakuna matata, baka!

Disappointment in everyone...

everyone in SAS is really "disappointed" today...

First, Band got Gold (no honours)... they had numerous practices...

Gold is a respectable grade, but it's not up to expectations... so d guys were kinda pissed at their results, i guess, seeing some of them looking upset, down, or even crying...

then, Rugby. 15:3... enuff said... but they struggled really hard today...just see for yourselves...






they were down... but well, 2nd is better than getting nothin'...

btw, after tomorrow, [---edited due to C&D takedown notice---]

[---edited due to C&D takedown notice---]EL Paper 1 be brought forward to Tuesday, 24 May...

[---edited due to C&D takedown notice---]

k. all d best for choir syf now... and after which it's exams, mugging, and catching up w/ schwork...God, i'm so confused... what am i saying? and where am i? I know who i am, though...

deviantart trial

http://ronfiles.deviantart.com/

trying deviantart out first before i shut down my "gallery"... it's totally dead, anyway...

any experienced user, pls guide me on how to use d service. thanx in advance

songs for the mentally ill...

From "Where Is My Mind" by James Blunt

Where is my mind Where is my mind Where is my mind
Way out in the water See it swimmin'

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
If there's nothing in it And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind Where is my mind Where is my mind

(Ooooh)With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
(Ooooh)Try this trick and spin it, yeah Ooooh, Ooooh

---

From "Over My Head (Cable Car)" by The Fray

Everyone knows I'm in
Over my head Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind She's on your mind

---

From "Baby Be Brave" by The Corrs

Maybe deep down inside, you don't believe it
Your wailing wall, it isn't weeping at all
And you're not worthy of adoration
You're scared that somebody somewhere's gonna find the burst pipe
And as fast as they bow down they'll leave you behind

But baby be brave
'Cause what's the point of it all What's the point of it all, yeah
Baby, don't blow it
Tell me what's it all for If you're not terrified to fail
Are you terrified to fail

Way far down below you don't feel it
Yeah, everyone knows but we don't believe it
The pain of a pop star, you're breaking my heart

But baby be brave
'Cause what's the point of it all What's the point of it all, yeah
Baby, don't blow it
Tell me what's it all for If you're not terrified to fail

(Confide in me, tell your story)
Are you terrified to fail
(It's your fear that makes you worthy)

I know what you're doing 'Cause
God I've been tempted You are
Drowning the special To
immortalize the rise
And what's the point of it all

But baby be brave
'Cause what's the point of it all What's the point of it all, yeah
Baby, don't blow it
Tell me what's it all for If you're not terrified to fail

(Confide in me, tell your story) Are you terrified to fail
(It's your fear that makes you worthy) I am terrified to fail
(Confide in me, tell your story) Are you terrified to fail
(It's your fear that makes you worthy)

---

these are my "life anthems"... what's yours?

Final Design for the blog...

After some consideration, I have decided to drop the "v2.3.0" thing from my blog title.

I think the blog is looking really good the way it is now with the current format and layout template (whoa, im speaking in similar and related synonyms!)

Aside from that, I will still update the design in minor ways. The layout shouldn't change much until (estimated) next year. So, like it or not, this is the (tentatively) fixed layout. So Happy surfing!

ronaldLIONG

waiting for leopard...

let's restart our predictions, with the statement by Apple saying that iPhone will only come out in late June, and Leopard in October...

I will place two predictions at the end of this post...

my first prediction: 26 June will still be a release date, but not for Leopard. It'll be for the iPhone (unlocked version in the U.S.). From what I understand, Cingular / AT&T will release the iPhone on 11 June...

my second prediction: before i reveal my prediction, let me show you my analysis...

In 2005, Apple held a Special Event on 7 September 2005. the 1st gen iPod nano and new iMac G5 w/ iSight was released here.
In 2006, Apple had another one on 28 February 2006, releasing the Intel Mac Mini and iPod Hi-Fi...
and 12 September "Showtime event"...
Apple only announce things on Tuesdays or Wednesdays...
Possible dates: October 2,3,4, 9,10,11, 16,17,18, 23,24,25, 30,31

apple doesn't announce things on dates which are prime numbers and single number dates... so...
16,18,24,25,30,31* (*- end of the month: memorable)

Apple makes announcement on Wk 2, 4, and 5 of the month... so...
24,25,30,31

let me try to feel these dates... see which fits best on an invitation...

24 Oct 2007
25 Oct 2007
30 Oct 2007
31 Oct 2007

Final say: I say 31 Oct 2007 on Leopard Release!

Evolution of an audiophile...

I've made my new mark in my journey towards audiophile status...

When I first ripped CDs, i did it at 128kbps WMA

then, i jumped to 128kbps MP3

then, i skipped up to 192 kbps MP3...

and last year, i went for AAC 160kbps. lower bitrate, but good quality.

Today, I've just went from AAC 160kbps...

to Apple Lossless (+/- 1000kbps) !!!

I must say... lossless is great... it's basically CD Quality with almost no compression...

best of all, there's still no DRM...

anyway, just to show you my collection so far, it consists of there tracks.. (hey, lossless isn't 3MB in size!)

-Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
-Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around
-Gwen Stefani - Now That You've Got It
-The Fray - How To Save A Life
-The Fray - Over My Head (Cable Car)
-Black Eyed Peas - They Don't Want Music

and this Album...

-The Corrs - Borrowed Heaven

Liking the quality so far... [maybe it's coz i only re-ripped my favourites in Lossless]

LOSSLESS| the way music should be encoded...

"Apple Statement
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones. [Apr 12, 2007]"

--Taken from "http://www.apple.com/hotnews"

k... so i was wrong with my prediction...

didn't see the iPhone affecting Leopard's release till now...

t-minus 12 days to SYF...

that's the ticking clock, people...

work it!

No pun intended...

Went to IKEA today...

Just wanna advertise IKEA for a while...

they have the weirdest name, i must say... i rarely see a company with their entire name spelt in CAPS... like, it's IKEA, not Ikea...
IKEA is a really cool place if you haven't been there... Basically, it's a DisneyLand for wood and furniture and home interior decor thing-a-ma-jig. I love the prices as well... I really wonder how they break even, at times... Sure, they mass-produce everything, but how do they SELL the MASS numbers? everything has its cost price... even water!

I must also say, I love the Sweds, but I HATE the PUN of Sweds... like, have you read some of the notices around the carpark, entrance, and food court? They post rude answers to rude questions.

E.g.:
Q. Why is there no-one to help when I need them?
Ans: That's how we keep the prices low for you. So you won't need to pay for what you didn't get.

And also, I must say, IKEA has really cool roller-shutters... They're so silent, fast, but at the same time, AUTOMATIC!!! Bet our school can't do that!

Well, anyway, i've got a message...


see the picture? it's a bear... no, not a polar bear... not a panda bear either... just a teddy bear... so BEAR with it....

No pun intended...

Choir people should read this...

Here's a link to check out with regards to the rules & regulations of the choir Central Judging... ...

http://www.moe.gov.sg/ccab/musicdance/doc/SYF%202007%20Notifications/SYF%202007%20Central%20Judging%20(Choirs).pdf

to summarise:

-choreography: not marked. So doing any such thing will not change our marks in any ways...
-they have our scores. they know our music. so sing according to the scores, coz it's the rules!
-8 minutes for choice piece. more than that? fine... 10% of your final marks.
-late? cut 5% from your marks!
-your choir strength should be x, where 30 < x < 80. if x<30 or x>80, minus 10%!
-
Marking: 50% Technique. 50% Musicianship. Total: 100%

0-59%: COP
60-69%: Bronze
70-79%: Silver
80-84%: Gold
85-100%: GwH (Gold With Honours)

No limit on number of schools getting a certain grade.

Impact of School on people...

Here's some evidence to what school does to you...

---

"4/03/2007
I don't want to go school...*loathes school now*
Bah...*dies*
School is zombiefying me... *choy*
I dun wan goooooo... *sleep*
I'm on like, temporary hiatus on so many things...i think i shld list them all down.
Blogging
Fanfics
Homework
Sleeping
Bible-ing
Da-ing
I dunnoe?"
--Adapted from s'woH neY eeS nimajneB blog

---

"Wednesday, March 28, 2007
i blogged...=]
yay!!!!!!"
--Adapted from Ernest / decicoverage's blog

---

"NIL- TOO BAD FOR YOU XD"
--Adapted from Isaac Wong's blog

---

"haha. just remembered something i forgot to blog about.
during PE, nigel, melvin and jasper were like" come on step on my stomach."
so they were going around taking turns to walk over each others stomachs.
then they asked me to try.
so i laid down. then just as nigel was about to step..
i started laughing like some maniac.
and i didn't stop for real long.
think it was 5 mins.
super pain tummy after that.
it was super funny.
"lie down and stop laughing la!. then i can step on you."
which is not a good way to get me to stop.
i just laughed more..."
--Adapted from Ryan's blog

---

"About Me
Name: chemistry-topics-iiFb"
--Adapted from Walter Chan's Blog "supposedly"

---

"I LOVE [insert noun / collective noun here]!!!"
--Adapted from Raymond.

---

"Cannot believe im posting at this time....okay, gotta go back to work!
/Hopped!
5:41 AM"
--Adapted from Ethan's blog

---

"I'm...doing homework (Yes, of all the things I could do, I'm doing this) | After 16th April, I'm gonna take a break. SYF IS BAD FOR OUR HEALTH."
--Adapted from Tan Zexun / HeadshotZX's MSn Nickname.

---

My point? If
-you became a chemistry topic, or
-SYF became a cigarette, or
-you blog @ 5.41AM, or
-School becomes a game of Resident Evil 5 for the PS3, or
-you excessively use the phrase "I Love...", or
-you are asking to be stepped on by your classmates during PE, or
-Blogging is celebrated, or
-you tease ur visitor by telling them you've got nothing to tell on ur blog... or
-you think you're a psychiatrist, though you do not have any degree / diploma in psychology...

Come and see me. I can [try to] counsel you for free.

Trailer recommendation...

yeah, whatever... i enjoy HD content... and free is always good, so the QuickTime HD Trailer library rocks in my opinion... So here's my favourite trailers from the library...

1. Shooter [Paramount Studios]
2. Spiderman 3 [Sony Pictures Studios]
3. The Simpsons Movie [20th Century Fox]
4. The Number 23 [New Line Cinemas]
5. Shrek The Third [Dreamworks SKG]
6. Breach [Universal Studios]
7. Georgia Rule [Universal Studio]
8. Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix [Warner Bros.]
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle [Warner Bros.]
10. Iraq In Fragments [HBO Films]
11. Letters From Iwo Jima [Warner Bros.]
12. Music And Lyrics [Warner Bros.]

Non-HD
1. Resident Evil: Extinction [Sony Pictures]
2. Beyond The Gates [IFC Films]
3. Freedom Writers [Paramount Pictures]*

*- Featured movie title. Do check out the story behind the movie!

best choir prac ever!

what happened during choir today...
-warm-ups started smoothly @ 3.40pm
-4.02pm: St. Gabs' Choir arrived.

---choral exchange, etc.---
[might i say, I think our choir was performing quite well just now...]
[St Gab's was very good as well]

6.05pm: chatter time...

6.15pm: sent d St. Gabs choir to Potong Pasir MRT...

6.35pm: dismissal for d non-runners... some of us stayed back n changed up in prep for...

6.47pm: run begins from SASS Courtyard...

to Jln Toa Payoh... [6.49pm]

to SAJC side of Kallang River [6.51pm] and down towards Braddel Road [6.59pm... estimated time report]

and then accross the bridge all the way till we reach the road which we had to cross before reaching Bishan Park[7.16pm]...
and then turned around and back to school by the exact same route... [7.53pm]

Total time: 1h 4 min...
Total Dist [estimated]: 5.8km

and after the run, we were completely exhausted, so the next thing we should do is obviouly to lie down on d courtyard ground and stargaze till 9.10pm!

that's my evening today!

*HINT-HINT| we may do d exact same things for June Choir Camp! sleep outdoors, anyone?

about my name on d tagboard...

I switched my nickname on d tagboard to "ronaldLIONG|" coz it matches my MSN nickname... and i want that to be my online "signature"... so eventually, I shall claim the trademark and / or copyright. so don't mess w/ me...

remember, the tagboard can be removed...

update to 2.3.0... and update on my life...

i removed a few bloopers since this afternoon... the title bar on your browser shld say 2.3.0 now...
a wallpaper's in place again [aww...]

anyway, I hope you like the new design layout....

Here's an update on sch life...

It's been pretty hectic...

pretty up n down... Getting lost in Physics, Chem, A Math... but still hanging in there...

Getting more anti-social... definitely communicating a lot less with the others... trying to segregate myself a lot less, but still talking very little...

i heard from a pretty good friend that Choon Zhe actually didn't take me as his enemy at all... just neutral... Well, im just glad my preyers' been answered...

Still praying for a good, reputable SYF result... with SYF crawling nearer, hoping to clinch a Silver or Gold...

Getting more & more sleep recently... from 17.5 hrs, i feel like I only lack 3 hours now... the power nap on wednesday really did the trick...

Starting to hope Ms Lee [A math teacher] comes back from her course ASAP!!! the relief teacher's not doing a very good job...

HCL MYE's approaching... SYF's approaching.., MYE's also coming... Math & Sci competition's crawling... NSW Sci competition... Art Trip to Italiano... Hope my Visa will be done in time this year... [couldn't get my visa done in time for choir trip last year...]

May not blog alot in the near future... Rest assured, i will blog whenevr i can. How often that would be, I cannot assure anything...

Waiting for OS X Leopard... remember this date: June 26... <--my predicted date....