New Year's Resolution 2008 REVIEW

I shall get 5 A1s for my O Level [not over yet]

I shall do badly for CA1, especially for Chemistry. [1 wrong]

I shall make more enemies than I have now in school. [yup]

I shall NOT make new friends in 2008. [wrong]

I shall join minimum 2 study groups gatherings in 2008 [The Tripartite Humanities study group and S.O.S. = yup]

I shall try to apply to go somewhere outside Singapore for my post-OLVL studies [trying, so yup]

I shall go to 4 different countries in 2008, even though it's my OLVL year [Singapore, Indonesia, China, Slovakia, Hungary]

I shall CONTINUE to blog during my OLVL study period! [doing so now]

I shall watch 2 NC-16 movies next year.[Only Juno. So 0.5]

I shall ace English Oral. [yup]

I shall survive choir performances. [morning assembly, Musical, etc.] [yup, except musical, but that was an exemption.]

I will make sure the other PA guys respect Melvin. [hmm...]. if that plan backfires, I willmake sure somebody else takes over. [hmm...]

I guess BenSee is getting pissed with me. That's gonna need a fix. [fixed, since he wasn't pissed]

For the first time in 10 years, I will go back to Indonesa to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family. [I did!]

I will eat a total of 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream throughtout 2008.[2pint + 1 cone +1 cup + 1pint = 3.5 pints]

I shall get my blog on the "Blog of Note" list! [not likely.]

and my photo [1 of] will be marked as an "Explore" Picture [even less likely]

I'm no longer buying anymore iPods. Nor iPhones. [heh]

I may buy a gaming console. think PSP... [nope]

I may get a Blu-Ray player to call my own... [no]

I shall make around300 250 posts in 08[exceeded 300, anyway.]

I will change the blog skin 3 times. [3 of 3]

I will not get the things I put on the wishlist [no. no. no. no. no. no. anymore 'no'?]

I will leave Singapore for the UK or US or AU by 2009. [yep]

min.13/24! a projected pass!

MacBook Pro

In March, I made a list of things I want in my new MacBook / MacBook Pro. Let's review that list as we enter a new year.

1. BD-RE Drive. Not Yet.

2. New Design / Chassis. Yup.

3. 4 USB 2.0 Ports. Not getting it, But I don't need it, so this is removed.

4. Wireless USB. Nah. It's not really necessary anyway.

5. Lower Heat: much better.

6. Comparative Speed improvement of 450% over the 2.16GHz Core Duo that I'm using, and 500% over my underclocked ATI Mobility Radeon X1600. [by Moore's Law, this should occur by 2009] I asked for too much. Core i7 and Nvidia 9400m would be enough.

7. Battery life rating of 5.5hrs Close enough.

8. eSATA slot. It's faster for External HDDs to connect over eSATA than USB or FireWire.

9. new keyboard: more like the MacBook, MacBook air, and the wired / wireless keyboards: more spaces between keys! YES!

10. larger trackpad, smaller [Much larger] left-click button. YES!

11. Touchscreen. 

12. DDR3 RAM support, and hopefully a cap increase up to 8GB of RAM.

13. OS X 10.6 Lynx Snow Leopard. Not Yet.

14. iLife '09 Not Yet.

15. 500GB 5400rpm HDD. Not Yet.

16. upgraded speakers. Not needed anymore.

17. REDUCED: Thickness of the dream MacBook Pros: flat 2cm or 0.78". That's "MacBook Air-ish". Nah. .95" is good enough.

18. 1920x1080 native resolution screen. It's currently 1440x900. what's another 480x180? Not needed.

19. Hookless magnetic latch. I think mine's damaged. YUP!

20. an upgraded iSight camera. Not important, ...

Ok, so, what's lacking:

Blu-ray

8GB RAM

iLife '09

OS X 10.6

500GB.

Apple, or maybe Schiller and Ive, I hope you guys are (still) listening.

Sent from Mail.app in OS X 10.5.

waiting...

...on the world to change...

...on the new path in life...

...on the keystone to my next part in life...

...for the announcement of the O Level results release date...

...for the embargo on the date of the release of O Level results to be lifted...

Oh, check out the links. I added a few links to my cell group & ex-cell group friends' blogs. enjoy reading!

Random shootout.

Just had to clear the trash bin in my brain by off-loading it onto my Blog. Kinda like placing the burnt refuse onto Semakau.

Bromides are bad for you. They soothe you, creating the illusion of having a problem solved. In actual fact, the problem is still there, not being dealt with. They're like marijuana. So don't you dare blanket any problems you have with bromidic ideas or statements.

If you thought of Chemistry when you saw the word in bold, I suggest you look through the dictionary. You'll add on to your English talcum powder bottle.

daronfiles| helping to keep people's English powder-full.

900th post and more!

Ok, this post is not my 900th post. It's my 902nd. But just so you
know, I just passed the 900mark.

Aside from that, I have reached 19,500 views on my blog! 250+views in
5 days. No idea how. (I have Internet connection problems, remember?)

Also, I'm 18 hits shy of the 4000 hits target for my flickr. I'll try
to post stuff when the telcos and ISP allow.

Sent from my iPhone via Mail.

Tagboard reply!

Something I've not done in a while...

eerong: omg, i tried blogging on iphone but nothing came out... how did you do ittttt.... x)
my reply: On the page where you create a new post in Safari, tap on "Edit HTML", rather than "Compose". Now you can type your text. You can't do formating unless you code in yourself, but it's better than nothing.

Andre: hey man.. i'm missing you too badly.. glad you're doing great man..
my reply: Thanks Andre! And Merry Christmas!

Zexun: Hahah, shameless advertisement! Keep uploading stuff to your flickr for ppl to look then
my reply: Wish I could. The internet connection here is unstable. It's gonna be hard for me to upload stuff. Will try, though.

Oh, on an update, seems like I may not be going to Australia, but instead, either UK or US. We'll see how tomorrow, when I consult the education agent.

Merry Christmas!

I don't have anything much to say, except Merry Christmas!

Yeah, if you were wondering why this message came so late, it's because the HSDPA service has been inaccessible the entire morning. But hey! Better late than never!

What a week!

It has been an amazing week, if I could say so myself.

Let's see... I watched Transporter 3 and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Both are great movies, by the way. Watch if you can.

And speaking of movies, I just watched Transformers on HBO (yeah. We have HBO, even though we don't have BBC or CNN. Fascinating. ). I kinda regret being critical of the movie. It's good. I approve.

Besides movies, my family hosted a Christmas party cum gift exchange, where my mom's jogging friends (our neighbours) and our extended family came together to celebrate Christmas. Fun, food, fellowship.

Oh, on a "personal achievements" note, I drove a car. Manual/Shift stick, not Automatic. Well, I signed up for driving lessons. Today was day one. 5 more lessons to go.

One tip I'll give to any prospective drivers: push the clutch down ALL THE WAY. As in really. ALL THE WAY. I stalled the car once. Hey 1st (actual driving) time. The previous attempt with my sis-in-law doesn't count.

By the way, I'm getting my license and Indonesian I/C next year, after my birthday. Woot!

K. Bye. My iPhone is quite moist from my palm sweat. Not sweet at all.

Blogged on an iPhone.

P.s. Can somebody email me when the O Level results day is announced? And if you want to contact me for whatever reason, use my Gmail. My iPhone is On a local telco. I.e.: not using a SingTel SIM card. I check my email nightly. So, yeah.

What I think would be nice for the next few months...

Ok, I need your help.

At the moment, my blog has 19,246 views.

And meanwhile, my Flickr page has 3,969 views.

Ok. This is so cheap of me... But heck, it's my little space.

I would like you to visit my flickr page and blog regularly...

Such that by 1 Jan 2009,

my Flickr page views has bumped up by 31 views to 4,000.

And as for my blog, I'm not going to be unreasonable.

By my 17th Birthday, let's make it 19,500.

And by June of 09, hopefully, we can hit 20,000!

So spread my links!

Flickr => http://www.flickr.com/photos/ron_liong

Blog => http://ronfiles.blogspot.com

Thanks in advance!

P.s.: if you haven't done so, Go check out Aaron Chua's blog. The latest post is pretty interesting.

Finally...

After hunting...

roaming...

scanning...

through several hotspots...

I've found...

A pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!

[You have no idea how hard it is to find this stuff over here now, with the recession and everything.]

heh. so much for stability

ok. i'm going on blogging hiatus. I don't have enough bandwidth allowance to blog. Kinda nearing [or maybe exceeding already] the cap.

Really sorry.

Give me time. I'll try to blog from my eldest bro's house.

Darn HSDPA. The signal is so unstable, my 2nd bro's phone keeps returning to 3G.

As a comparison:

3G [WCDMA] = 368KBps

3.5G [HSDPA] - 3.6MBps = 10x improvement.

finally! internet!

Phew. Thought I won't be able to update my blog.

Ok, I'm in Indonesia now. In the new house. Pretty big, but pretty empty. Heh.

There's no proper Cable TV connection here. Only some weird cheap-o cable with no MTV, CNN, BBC. At least we get CNA, CNBC, Channel V, Bloomberg, Discovery. That's all I need [for now].

And as for internet, I don't have Cable / ADSL. But since my bro has a Windows Mobile phone and a HSDPA data plan, I'm using his phone as a modem to get on the net. It's decent. Comparable to Wireless@SG. hey, it's a cellular network. Not too shabby, I would say.

BTW, I have a 32" TV of my own now. It's not HD, not even HD Ready, but I'm thinking of getting something to hook up to it. Should I get:

1. A VGA cable to hook up my Mac to it?

2. A PS3?

3. A PSP?

4. An XBox 360?

5. A Wii?

6. A Blu-Ray Player? [NO!]

7. An TV (Apple TV)?

8. Others?

Vote by tagging!

by the way, Number 1 will be something I'm definitely doing even if it isn't voted to the top.

Ok, I have to cut off soon. Only have 500MB limit per month, and I just downloaded OS X 10.5.6 update. That's 190MB off the allowance. Bummer.

as promised.

a blog post from the airport.

Initially, I thought of posting a happy post, but with what happened in the past 1hour or so, I'm sorry to bring you guys a pretty vulgar post. Hey, I have lots of bottled-up teenage angst over the past couple of years. Let me have my little room of anger.

Seriously, what the f*** is wrong with my guardians?

My auntie kept pushing me to pack faster. FASTER. FASTER! MUCH FASTER you bloody *literally. my nose has been bleeding. toot.

As a result, I lost the lock to my luggage. And guess what? My luggage is overweight by 10.1kg. I had to pay $104 in overweight fine or whatever you bloody screwy call it, I don't give a sh*t. Anyway, I went to the ATM, drew the money, and shoved it in front of the person at the counter. Did I mention? My guardians just dropped me at the airport, and then fled. The last I saw of them was in the car. I had to settle check-in, luggage check-in, payment, and the money thing alone. Heh. No biggie. Adults suck, and ironically, I'm one myself.

Seriously, had my auntie not been there to rush me like an ass [i.e.: donkey], I would have been ON TIME, not BLOODY EARLY, I would have more money in my bank, not $100 less, I would have been able to open my luggage with EASE, not by prying some bloody lock apart, and I probably won't be sick, since I would probably be getting PROPER food. not cakes and nyonya kuehs. Don't get me wrong. I love nyonya food, but when I have jetlag, I don't think trans-fat and cholesterol is what I need. Not yet, anyway. What the f*** is wrong with my guardian. Did some alien take over her brain? Or maybe she lost half of it while playing some retarded computer game. Seriously, for the past 8 months, that's what she spends hours a day doing.

I'm calm. With a grumbly stomach. In the departure waiting area. No way out, nor food around.

So now you know, I fly alone. No, I check in, lug around my luggage, and fly alone.

What's assistance? It's for pussies.

[seriously, cats need assistance. You can't let them fly alone. very dangerous, since they don't know where the hell do they want to go, unlike Matt Harding.]

Going off to Jakarta.

Today.

Afternoon.

GA897.

Departs 4.40pm GMT+8

Arrives 5.15pm GMT+7

Sayonara.

Strike.

Hey! I'm back in Singapore!

There's a whole lot of things I should tell you guys, but I'll start with the basics.

Firstly, not everyone is back yet. Mrs Leong got very ill on the flight from Budapest to Amsterdam, so she didn't fly with the rest of us to Singapore. Instead, she, with Mr Leong, are still in Amsterdam, staying at the airport hotel. Let's continue to pray for Mrs Leong's quick recovery and their safe return.

Secondly, we are considered very fortunate. If you didn't know, the staff at Budapest Ferihegy Airport were on strike from 10 December 2008. Our flight from Budapest to Amsterdam was at 5:30pm, on 10 Dec 2008. Taking this flight would lead us to arrive in Amsterdam at 7:40pm, enought time to catch a 9:10pm flight from Amsterdam to Singapore. The strike led to interruptions in luggage services, catering, etc [i.e.: anything related to land support / transport]. As a result, some flights were cancelled. Fortunately, our flight was not. It was, however, delayed, to 6pm. As a result, we had to rush in Amsterdam; from getting the transfer boarding pass, to running to the gate, to passing through the customs. In the end, we made it! I really think this is a good example of how God is in control of everything, even flight plans.

Thirdly, I'm really impressed with customs in Europe. The two customs checkpoint we had to pass through in Budapest [don't ask why 2. I also wonder] seem to have a hard time telling the validity of a visa. They held Peng Cheng and I for a good 5 minutes each. By comparison, EU passports took ≤10s, and Singapore passports took ≤1min. Trust me. The first guy was placing my visa under the UV light 4 times to check for the hologram [it was visible, obviously]. The second guy [a lady, actually] had to ask her senior official if there's anything wrong [they spoke in Hungarian to each other. I couldn't understand.]

Anyway, Still on Customs official, I'm really impressed with the Amsterdam customs official [seriously]. They guy there saw my Indonesian Passport, and then asked me, "Apa Kabar?" which translates to "How are you?". Impressive. Not only that, he also greeted Peng Cheng in Chinese. Maybe it's to validate your passport is your origin or something, but nonetheless, I like this kind of guy. Very impressed.

Ok, let me get my beauty sleep. zzz.

UPDATE: Quote from Budapest Airport Website:

Strike at Ferihegy

Dear Passengers,

The strike situation at Budapest Airport is still very unpredictable and no prognosis can be set for Thursday’s traffic expectations with any certainty. Budapest Airport does everything in its power to ensure the best possible services and at least a minimum level of traffic.

Operation on Thursday, 11 December 2008 will probably be limited to Terminal 2A and 2B with passengers going through the passenger security screening at Terminal 2B.

There will be no flights and no check-in available at terminal one, even the airlines normally using T1 will be directed to T2. Due to the constrained passenger screening capacity delays in the departure traffic should be expected.
We kindly ask all passengers to go to Terminal 2 to catch their flight. Also, please contact your airline for further information and assistance.

Thank you for your cooperation, patience and understanding.

Budapest Airport

And click here for more from Malev, the airline which KLM code-shared with for Budapest-Amsterdam flights. We took Flight MA668.

Back from Bratislava

I'm currently in Budapest again, after being gone to Bratislava.

We had so much fun in Bratislava, shopping and singing. We had the privilege of singing in 2 churches, the Christmas market square in the city centre (a very hustling and bustling area with lots of great food and Christmas ornaments + toys), and. 1 competition. We clinched a bronze for the choral competition.

Having been in Europe for the past 7days or so, I really think I'm going to miss my friends in choir when I am gone. It's been such a blessing to have such fun people on the tour

Itinerary for next few days:
Today (8): Visit Parliament in Budapest, and indoor hot bath.
9: Christmas market and some town 30km away from Budapest, and River Danube cruise
10: Checkout, depart for Singapore from Budapest via Amsterdam
11: Arrive in Singapore
12: return Cheng his blazer
13: depart to Jakarta
14 onwards: in Indonesia.

In hotel...

I'm in Budapest, Hungary right now. Blogging.

Going to Bratislava, Slovakia tomorrow. Bye!

P.s. I'm not sick anymore! And sadly, it's been snowless here...

Mia Rose and Hanna Gargour

From QueenRania's YouTube channel, a cover of a song that I like.

Queen Rania of Jordan is the recepient of the Visionary Award on YouTube Live '08. She set up her YouTube channel to allow YouTubers to send in their stereotypes of the Arab World and let her respond to them. I admire how she uses modern technology to inform and educate people about the issue of stereotypes that is separating the West from Arabs. She may not be able to change the world, but she hopes to change people's mindsets in the process.

Waiting on the world to change...

Band Aid 20 - Do They Know It's Christmas Time?

As we enter December, the Christmas season is approaching, and the Christmas songs start thawing from the storage freezer. Here's a christmas song! Anyway, I'll be offline for the next 11 days or so, so enjoy the music! Meanwhile, you could also look through my archives to read the posts that you could have missed out, so you can catch up when I start posting again. Also, check out the other links! click on 'links' on the nav bar! here's wishing you farewell! daronfiles is officially on hiatus.

to all the geeks out there...

to all the geeks who are frustrated by idiots who constantly ask you questions...

even though they can actually google that question to get their answer...

you can sigh a heavy sigh of relief...

as you can now SHOW the stupidity of that friend of yours...

and teach them how to Google!

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com

For example, if someone wants to know "who's Ronald Liong?", and he asked YOU instead of Google, send them this link.

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=who%27s+Ronald+Liong%3F

breathe...

more photos- one saturday

chem class, CCAs like the BB, and the band POP, which was one of the last few photography assignments that I did officially for CIP hours. Oh, wonder how's Jon Phang, speaking of BB.

more photos - CCA Display

Credits: Benjamin See. Mostly unglam shots of people doing normal things. Ah, the art of Ben See.

2008 in photos - First day of School, 2 Jan 08

Sent directly from Aperture

Tech predictions...

Every year, I do a series of predictions and resolutions for the new year.

Since I may not be online after 1 Dec 2008 [I do not know the internet connectivity arrangement in my home in Indonesia], I'll be rushing through hundreds of blog posts in the next few days...

So let us begin with my tech industry predictions

1. Snow Leopard will come out in the first half of 2009.
2. Windows 7 will come out at the second half of 2009.
3. Intel Core i7 and Atom will cause AMD to drop their efforts in CPUs. Rather, they'll shift to CPU-GPU combos and standalone-GPUs.
4. Apple will release a netbook [or claim to have done so].
5. Canon will release a 1D Mark IV with HD video shooting capabilities. Sony will also have DSLRs with HD video capture capabilities.
6. Twitter will be bought over by a larger company.
7. Facebook will become outdated in 2009.
8. Google stock will NOT go above 500 points in 2009.
9. Nokia will no longer release smartphones with T9 input [e.g.: most of the Nseries phones] after October 2009. It'll either be physical keyboards or touchscreen.
10. 4G will be widely rolled-out in Singapore and Australia. [FYI: 4G does exist in Singapore. Singtel and Qmax has been doing WiMax trials.]
11. Google Android will spread across the globe the same way iPhone did. Android phones in Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia by 2009.
12. Apple Store - 2 more in Australia, 1 in Singapore, 1 in Jakarta, iPhone 3G in Indonesia on Telkomsel / XL.
13. E-ink, OLED displays, and flexible displays are ... still not widely adopted.
14. I will buy a new MacBook in '09.

Welcome to Youtube

ok, this song is just hilarious if you've been on the youtube scene... Warning: A little offensive, but still, it's hilarious...

YouTube Live '08

have you seen YouTube Live 08?

Student Writes to Steve Jobs, Gets Free Final Cut Studio 2

Sometimes Xmas comes earlier and when you less expect it: A Greenwich High School student wrote a letter directly to Mr. Jobs himself asking politely for an student discount on Final Cut Studio 2. Two weeks later, he got way more than he wanted, shipped directly from Cupertino.This is just insane. This guy, who can afford an octo-core Mac Pro, gets a free copy of FCS2 just by sending in an email and his mailing address! I'm stuck with a dying MacBook Pro, and here I am, crying for a copy. Oh well, at least this lucky dude's Christmas wish came true...hmm... should I try to email sjobs [at] apple [dot] com?

read more | digg story

Up, up, and away, before going down under.

ok, Just a heads-up...

I'll be gone from Dec 1 till Dec 11 for my school choir's trip to Europe. We'll be dropping by Amsterdam for a 5-hour transit, before heading to Budapest for 3 days, and then a transfer by coach to Bratislavia, Slovakia. We'll be in Bratislavia for 3-4 days, before going back to Budapest for 2-4 days again, then it's back to Singapore.

After this trip, I'll probably stay in SG for a couple of days, before flying off to Jakarta to finally see my new home & the new room that comes with that. Apparently, I get a 32" 720p/1080i flat panel. Nice. Just need a 2.1 sound system to go along with that. Think harman kardon soundstick 2?

I'll be cooping myself in Indonesia until Results Day, January 19 2008. [Note: one day before inauguration of Barack Obama as president.] In the meantime, I'll be submitting my application to go to University of New South Wales Foundation Programme and my Australian student visa. I'll be studying Accounting, just to clear that out of the way. After completing my Foundation year at UNSW, I'll probably be doing my Bachelor degree in Charles Sturt University [We'll see how things go at the end of next year. Otherwise, I'll be doing the degree at UNSW].

My UNSWFY term should start in April, since I can speak, read, and write proper English. ya?

Anyway, I'll be posting photos over the next few days. Watch this space. You're in for a surprise. If you're still not surprised at what I post, then at least act surprised.

BTW, Phil Pringle's artworks are pretty cool, now that I see them.

UPDATE:

For the sender-off-ers:

01DEC08

KL838

Changi Airport Terminal 1

departs 2250

but we're meeting at 2000

sic[k]

yeah, I forgot to add ERNEST to the list of names in my previous post.

so, there. I even made it CAPS, large, and bold. totally the opposite of the real ernest.

ok, nobody will get that.

oh,

yeah, i am ill.

so, the title of the post is sic[k].

ok, this post is dry.

oh, realise something about this post?

19-23

Finally, I can catch my breath and post something on my blog. Phew!

I've been really really "busy" the past couple of days.

Let's see, I last posted on Monday Evening, close to Tuesday Morning.

On Wednesday, I worked for Ms Chua by helping to design with Kevin Chiam, the routanda and toilet in the school.

After my 'job', I went to Expo for the opening night of Asia Conference!

In fact, for the past 3 days, I have been going to Asia Conference. For the past 3 days, the night services end at 10.40pm [earliest]. As a result, I can only reach home at 1215am the next day, resulting in me being unable to post to my blog.

Asia Conference has been great so far. The word that has been preached by the speakers have been an eye-opener and mind-blowing thus far. Really, I believe that this conference will be one of those that impacts people in a great way.

The message ...

of cultural mandate,

of reaching out to the marketplace and the "3rd space" just as Paul was when he was in Athens,

of knowing the Holy Spirit,

of what the New Jerusalem may be like,

these are just the beginning.

Furthermore, there was great performances and musicians, such as Don Moen, CCC Oxford Falls, True Worshippers [yeah! Indonesians!], and of course, CHC band!

Can't wait for the remaining two days...

Oh, Matthew, Ian, Abraham, Theodore, Raymond, give me a while. I'm cutting the songs as we speak.

me likes this new skin.

People will always belong in between any of these 3 different camps when it comes to redesigns:

1. They proclaim "Hallelujah, thank GOD this change was done!"
2. They say "hmm... ok... it's neither good, nor bad. Really, it's nowhere."
3. They curse like crazy and say "[insert delete-explicits] this redesign!"

I felt that my blog's previous design has been way too long in the tooth. It was a Blogger template. A very generic, 30-second job. Well, for me, anyway. I'm sure Google and the guys at Blogger spent a lot of effort picking and choosing colours and templates before delivering the goods online. And to be honest, those designs that Google / Blogger have are quite nice. Very fast, easy, simple, quick, convenient, and it became much easier to add elements, like tagboards, polls, etc.

However, I felt that I needed to be more original. I want to spend more time on the overall aesthetics of the web layout. I needed more flexibility.

A year ago, I made the switch from a HTML/CSS-based layout to a very simple Google layout. I cited reasons such as the then-approaching 'O' Levels and my code-phobia [fact: till today, I still can't code HTML professionally. Need prove? check out the code for this blog here], especially since I had other things to cram in my head, other than HTML coding. This can be easily justified as a valid reason for me to NOT use HTML.

However, seeing that the exams are over, and I still have the willingness to blog [in fact, it grew into a habit], I felt that a redesign back into HTML was apt.

So, I do hope you will like / enjoy / appreciate / be able to tolerate this new design / layout.

Of course, feel free to inform me of any bugs that I may not see outside Safari / Webkit & Firefox 3, the only browsers I use frequently.

By the way, for now, this blog is certified to be functional and rendered correctly on WebKit browsers [that includes Chrome, Webkit, Safari, Mobile Safari for iPhone / iPod touch, and apparently, Nokia S60 Symbian browsers], Firefox [3 and later. May work with FF2], and Internet Explorer [best on 6 and 8 RC2. 7 may render certain things differently, but the experience shouldn't be too different].

I do not know the Opera browser in my dictionary, so don't mention it to me. You should know better, Opera users.

tag!

>18k hits?!

Views: 18,207

no. of days: just 836 days, or 2 years + 106 days

w00t!

Desert Song

definitely one of my favourite hillsong / praise&worship songs. What's yours? comment! tag! post!

Albums of the year - 2008

Album Chart Round-up for 2008

1.

Viva La Vida

by Coldplay

2.

The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts As One

by Hillsong Untied

3.

Sleep Through The Static

by Jack Johnson

4.

We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.

by Jason Mraz

5.

Perfect Symmetry

by Keane

6.

Lenkaª

by Lenka

7.

One Of The Boysª

by Katy Perry

8.

Under The Radar

by Daniel Powter

9.

We Satellitesª

by Electrico

10.

808s & Heartbreakªº

by Kanye West

ª - I do not have the album yet as of time of post.

º - Album is not yet available for sale at time of post, but will be by the end of 2008.

music chart of the week: 5*songs from my iTunes Library

I thought of doing my music chart a little differently this time around. Since there hasn't been much that is new in the music scene, I thought I should just look through all the songs I added to my iTunes library in 2008 and pick songs that deserve my 5*s...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music worthy of the 5* rating...

1.

Life in Technicolor

Coldplay

Album: Viva La Vida

2.

Une Voix

Les Petits Chanteurs De Saint-Marc

Album:Nos Revês

3.

Saviour King

Hillsong United

Album: The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts As One

4.

The Heart Of Life

John Mayer

Album: Continuum

5.

I'm Yours

Jason Mraz

Album: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things

6.

Soldier's Poem

Muse

Album: Black Holes & Revelations

7.

Miles Away

Madonna

Album: Hard Candy

8.

Shut Up and Let Me Go

The Ting Tings

Album: We Started Nothing

9.

Viva La Vida

Coldplay

Album: Viva La Vida

10.

Spiralling

Keane

Album: Perfect Symmetry

11.

Perfect Symmetry

Keane

Album: Perfect Symmetry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, there you go, 11 of the best of 2008.

[well, the ones in my iTunes library, anyway.]

Watch this space over the weeks leading up to 2009, as I start posting my new year's resolution for '09, my music summary for 2008, and my predictions for 2009. Oh, let's not forget to review my new year's resolution in late January 2009.

The 'O's are over, but the blogging hasn't slowed down at all!

This blog will live on!

what I wish for Christmas 08

Let's see...

1. A new MacBook

the 2.4GHz Unibody 13" MacBook, so that I can carry it around when I get to Australia next year. Price: S$2588, or A$2549

2. A new earphone

The Apple In-ear Headphone, if not, a Shure or Bose or Audio-Technica. Budget: ≤S$129

3. Hillsong "This Is Our God" 

A Praise and Worship album to enjoy with my earphones. Why not?

4. A new speaker that is actually isolated.

So that I won't hear GSM signals coming from my speakers when I plug my iPhone in. Sorry, iM7, you make too much noise.

5. A 1TB HDD or Drobo

for my Time Machine and Aperture Vault

Guitar <3

Guitars are such fun...

I went to the Biennale yesterday w/ the Art students + a few teachers & non-teaching staff. Strayed around the City Hall / Old High Court building. Then, Jasper, Kevin, Isaac and I went to Funan to eat. We then wandered around Raffles City, looking for stuff. Saw a few 4SB people, and a few more teachers.

After all this, I met with Theodore Koh to buy guitar strings with him. Then, we made our way to my house, where I packed. I was going to stay over at Theodore's house, along with Abraham, Matthew Ho, and Ernest [although Raymond went along instead of Matthew, who went off to play pool after Grad Dinner and... well....]

Jammed a bit after Grad Dinner. Learnt a few chords, did a few recordings, and even learnt a song! yay!

Lacking sleep, but still have PA camp planning later. uploading the photos for Grad Dinner while I'm gone, so brb!

This week in Science...

The 'O' Level Science Papers [Paper 1 sections] are here, and gone.

One paper left to go. [Bio]

The Mars Phoenix Lander is dead.

RIP, Mars Phoenix Lander.

It's winter on Mars..

Yes, I can't get over the Mars Phoenix thing.

A farewell to a good friend in Science.

On this day, we bid farewell and goodbye to a little baby. Born as a genius, it had a purpose and great destiny which began from the moment it was conceived.

It was born on a planet not too far away from us on 25 May 2008, yet it continued to communicate with its scientific partners and fellow online pen-pals via twitter. This was in spite of the fact that it lacked the proper nourishment [it has an oven, but no light to gain energy], resulting in constant starvation, and hence the inability to communicate over such long distances. It suffered multiple deaths throughout its short life, but was fortunately able to resurrect itself when the climate permits.

Of course, now, the winter is coming in, and with the little light that this rover is able to get, it does not seem to be able to survive.

It was last heard from on November 2nd, 2008, and was never heard from since then. And as it heads for the winter, all it can do is to hunker down and remain where it is, unable to carry out any more science experiments. Chances of a successful revival after the winter is slim, so all we can really do now is to bid our last farewell to a partner in Science, Mars, and Discovery.

The Mars Phoenix Lander|

may you rest in your own warmth and peace.

A message from Phoenix.

Source: MarsPhoenix on Gizmodo.

Read more from:http://gizmodo.com/tag/phoenix-mars-lander/

Agape?

Agapella.

Launch of Christmas Light-up @ Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza

Sat, Nov 15, 6.30pm-9.00pm.

Just spreading the word. [I can't go. I have church.]

PIC - Is MC Escher Working for Google Maps?

Photographic evidence seems to sure look like it.--Blogger from Digg

read more | digg story

Bush.

US Elections are over...

But Bush is still the leader of the free world, as far as the next 74 days seem to me. [Source: http://www.change.gov]

So, in celebration of one wacky Texan's last less-than-100 days and counting, let's appreciate how Bush has been doing things his way. A way that has landed us in a deep pile of poodle-wax™.

Oh, God, why was this man elected into the presidency, and not Gore? Because the Californians played God? Because you want Americans to care about the Elections and choose Gore? Because you want the Communists to be proud and overly-arrogant of their ways of life, and then let them cave themselves in before the Capitalists make a comeback, and then everyone is happy with Democracy? Or so that politics will cease to exist? Well, at least we had Bushisms while the fun lasted.

oh how could I forget.

I bought a guitar.

It's acoustic.

It's killing my fingertips. The ones on my left hand.

But it's fun.

SHOUTOUT: Thanks to Matthew Ho for helping me pick the guitar and how to play a few chords. Still learning. Give me time...

ok. that's all for now. Back to Paper 1 Sciences + Pencil sharpness strategizing...

Talk about the FINAL COUNTDOWN...

Thanks to Mahalo Daily for the heads-up to this video.

Also: Link to Original video by Europe.

P.s.: I changed the Links section a little bit. Go figure!

P.s.s.: Obama = President Elect, Biden = VP Elect! woot!

feature

feature, originally uploaded by dratz.

it's not a bug, it's a feature.

what's left of me...

5NOV HCL1 1111/01

5NOV HCL2 1111/02

10NOV PHY1 5058/01

12NOV CHEM1 5072/01

13NOV BIO1 5094/01

And that marks the end of exams in Singapore for me!

No more assessments!

Oh, by the way, got this in my email...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VOCAL MANIA, 10 NOVEMBER 08, SINGAPORE CONFERENCE HALL

The A Cappella Society is happy to present Vocal Mania 2008, a choral cum a cappella concert to be held at the Singapore Conference Hall on the 10th of November, in support of presenting more performance opportunities to local choirs in larger venues and allowing them to explore a variety of acoustic settings and of course, to perform for a sizable audience.

Perhaps your school choir may appreciate an evening outing to a concert that will showcase not only traditional choral works but also pop a cappella? We would definitely love to have you at the concert.

This year, we present a range of established choirs in performance and they will present a host of songs from different musical genres. The stars of the evening are: St Andrew's Secondary School Choir, Christ Church Secondary School Choir, Ang Mo Kio Secondary School Choir, Pasir Ris Secondary School Choir, FajarCappella, TAS Youth Voices.

Vocal Mania 2008

10 November

Singapore Conference Hall

Tickets: $15 available from The A Cappella Society

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ok, if you want to go, you can drop by the music room and also get tickets from Miss Gan / my choir juniors. erm, no, I'm not performing, but I thought I'ld pimp this out and get people going!

Review of New Year's Resolution 08 at a glance...

Because there's just so many resolutions, I'm going to do a 'summary at a glance' now and see how well I've done...

• I shall get 5 A1s for my O Level [not over yet]
• I shall do badly for CA1, especially for Chemistry. [1 wrong]
• I shall make more enemies than I have now in school. [yup]
• I shall NOT make new friends in 2008. [wrong]
• I shall join minimum 2 study groups gatherings in 2008 [The Tripartite Humanities study group and S.O.S. = yup]
• I shall try to apply to go somewhere outside Singapore for my post-OLVL studies [trying, so yup]
• I shall go to 4 different countries in 2008, even though it's my OLVL year [Singapore, Indonesia, China, Slovakia] [one more to go...]
• I shall CONTINUE to blog during my OLVL study period! [doing so now]
• I shall watch 2 NC-16 movies next year.[1 left, Juno watched]
• I shall ace English Oral. [yup]
• I shall survive choir performances. [morning assembly, Musical, etc.] [yup, except musical, but that was an exemption.]
• I will make sure the other PA guys respect Melvin. [hmm...]. if that plan backfires, I willmake sure somebody else takes over. [hmm...]
• I guess BenSee is getting pissed with me. That's gonna need a fix. [fixed, since he wasn't pissed]
• For the first time in 10 years, I will go back to Indonesa to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family. [I did!]
• I will eat a total of 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream throughtout 2008.[2pint + 1 cone +1 cup down = 2.5 pints, 0.5 pints to go!]
• I shall get my blog on the "Blog of Note" list! [not likely.]
• and my photo [1 of] will be marked as an "Explore" Picture [even less likely]
• I'm no longer buying anymore iPods. Nor iPhones. [heh]
• I may buy a gaming console. think PSP... [nope]
• I may get a Blu-Ray player to call my own... [no]
• I shall make around300 250 posts in 08[exceeded 300, anyway.]
• I will change the blog skin 3 times. [3 of 3]
• I will not get the things I put on the wishlist [no. no. no. no. no. no. anymore 'no'?]
• I will leave Singapore for the UK or US or AU by 2009. [AU]

Total greens: 11

Total reds / unlikely at all: 8

Swing States [getting all mavericky]: 6

Needed for majority: 13.

total: 25

So, let's see... I can:

finish half a pint of Ben & Jerry's for Christmas,

go for the choir trip to Hungary + Slovakia,

get ≥5 A1s for 'O' Level,

watch an NC-16 movie in the cinema,

and I'm gold, with 15 resolutions considered a success!

w00t!

a freaking haiku

a freaking haiku,

this i type onto my blog,

just for you to read.

it has been much fun,

preparing for the exams,

the major, big 'O'.

through the ups and downs,

countless papers and time spent,

prepping for the 'O'.

let us not forget,

we're all in this together,

toiling day by day.

a decade ending,

a new journey coming soon,

where we separate.

so let's end it well,

let's end with a major bang,

unforgettable.

the end.

Heads up! Discount!

http://www.mine.com.sg/train/mall/productdetail/4900

Remember that $79 student price on Adobe CS3 Web Premium?

Well, The guys at mine.com.sg have started pre-orders for students & MOE staff for CS4 Web Premium at $99.

GoGoGo!

Yes, Zexun. It's CS4.

coming End November.

UPDATE: btw, 14 days.........

Windows 7, Microsoft's saviour.

I never thought I'ld say this, but I kinda like the look of Windows 7 and how it's turning out in its current pre-beta release.

Link 1: http://windows7news.com/2008/10/28/official-windows-7-m3-screenshots/

Link 2: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081028-first-look-at-windows-7.html

Why I like Windows 7...

1. No more friggin sidebar!

2. Look at that beautiful taskbar. It's so much smaller than the dock + top taskbar on my [still] favourite OS [hint: OS X]. Oh, by the way, it's customizable, which I'm a big fan of.

3. Calculator is so much smarter now.

4. Ribbon interface everywhere. I'm a big fan of the Ribbon, and now, WordPad, NotePad, and Paint has it.

that's about it.

Let's see how 7 turns out...