TGIF

The psychologist interview was pretty interesting. Jasper found his really interesting. Just went for the NIQCC presentation, wonder how we did in the end. Will know tomorrow, I believe. Been looking around for hotels for the wedding dinner. It won't be anything grand, just for family mostly. But that's still quite a bunch.

The right pedal of my bike broke several days ago while I was cycling up an incline, and the chain slipped off too. Can't use a pedal from the old bike because the screw diameter is different. Used the headlight when cycling home just now.

Went to this Indian Vegetarian restaurant several days ago, it's nice, in Peninsula Plaza (or Tower, not sure). It's buffet style, and it's part of a charity for culture/arts, so you just go and eat and then you pay what you want to pay. The food is pretty good. I'll post the restaurant name some other day, I've got the name card.

Tennis seems to no longer be in De En's place anymore, and it looks like it'll be shifted to morning. Which conflicts with my other tennis session. So this Saturday just playing once in the morning, and not with Sam. A pity, but maybe there'll be some way to fit both in eventually.

Going to Say Yang's place on Saturday night to reinstall linux. I've had strange problems burning a Debian CD. Errors when I used a CD-R, which ruined the disc. Then I upgraded software and used a CD-RW, and it seemed to work fine. I tried again with a CD-R and it got trashed. Also, on the other computer at home, the CD-RW drive has disappeared in Windows XP. Totally weird, the drive not detected at all. And it used to work perfectly.

The scroll-wheel of my mouse stopped working after I did a system software upgrade. Which was weird. Added two characters to a config file, rebooted and it worked again. Another weird thing is that my Windows FAT32 partition gets mounted automatically when Linux starts up. Not sure when also, whether the OS or the desktop environment is responsible for it. The /etc/fstab hasn't been touched, though, it's still on "noauto".

I've been busy... oh, and I'd better remember to return my library books this Saturday, if not tomorrow. Maybe I should return them tomorrow. Friday, I mean. Which is today.

Absence

I apologize for my long absence. I've been away from my computer for quite some time now. Check email quite infrequently. There are tons of updates to be made, from the mundane to the earth-shaking.

Jasper's birthday is tomorrow. I think Andy's one is the day after, I'll have to check with him. Work-wise, been quite busy, but not too busy, making it a point to go home on time. Working on the website, adding features here and there and I'm afraid I'll have to take stock and simplify the whole mass of code. Cycled my bike a couple of times to lovey's place. The chain slipped the last time I did that, and for unrelated reasons, I haven't rode back from her place yet.

Didn't play tennis on Saturday, so it was just gz and hb at Hume Park (near MINDEF) in the morning. Br Hd saw Sam at the Civil Service 1/4 marathon. Her team came in 2nd, I believe. Got a pewter cup for a trophy.

Went to see lovey's brother's place, it's nice, on a really high floor. Got a view of the tennis court, which is always occupied. More on homes and living spaces later.

Installing avast! antivirus for lovey. Looks very pretty. Made a big oops. Must always remember to uninstall other antivirus on Windows before installing new antivirus. Screwed up the system badly, couldn't start. Eventually figured out it was because I was installing a second antivirus, so went into Safe Mode and got rid of the old program. Took a bit of trouble getting into Safe Mode, because got BIOS password, but luckily when get to the Windows logon screen it doesn't freeze right away and can choose to reboot.

Planning on Wednesday to fix the linux installation I did for sy that day. We had lots of weird problems with his new motherboard (not to mention his new hard disk). It seems there's this "feature" that if the computer is improperly switched off, if you switch it on again without waiting like many minutes, it make a constant beeping sound and refuses to start up. Took us much head-scratching before we figured out that what we need to do is wait (and not open up the case and poke around).

The linux installation was sort of ok (though not very functional), but I think I screwed it up because I ran cfdisk from the hard disk itself. Simplest is probably to just reinstall, should be a breeze this time. Since we already know the answers. I'm updating my CD (to upgrade my system also), so can burn an up-to-date copy for him.

Some more his motherboard is 64bit one, and the hard disk is SATA or something even fancier (not IDE, which I guess is a thing of the past). So the installer initially couldn't find the hard disk, it was ultimately assigned as hde! So that was quite fun. One thing is he seems to have lost his Windows XP authorization code or whatever it's called.

Have hardly read the books I've borrowed from the library. Oh well. Busy busy. Just checked my email and have to send some emails to PSC by today. Going for psychologist interview tomorrow. Yinglan is on leave, in China for some thingy. Went to the gym at Gombak today, and last Friday. It's good, got a lot of interesting weights machines.

Met Yvonne at the underground City Hall place where she was juggling. I guess the weeks went by so fast in part due to the physics symposium we went for. That was on the 10th of August. Not bad. But all the way in NTU. But soon NTU will be home. Or at least, it'll be near home.

Latest and greatest news! PSC has agreed to transfer lovey's bond to NUS, so she'll start work there really soon. Oh, and we also made an "Option to Purchase" a 5-room HDB flat in Jurong West, quite near to Boon Lay MRT.

Got new bike, got a headlight for the bike, collected my sunglasses, got this resistance tube with handles on both sides. Got a new LCD TV at home also. Reusing an old wallet that I've patched with duct tape. My sis lost her wallet and handphone at arcade. New car should be coming soon.

Bought two CDs also, listened to one of them today. I guess I'd better sleep soon. The antivirus scan for lovey's computer is done, and the Debian ISO image is downloaded. Using jigdo of course, which is so cool. Looking forward to tennis this Saturday, hopefully it materializes.

Bike Theft!

My phone now seems to have the same problem as gz's phone. The vibration doesn't seem to work at all, so I miss calls and messages like anything when I put it to silent mode. Maybe it's just that the phone's now old.

My bicycle got stolen yesterday. Came back at night and it was just not there. Not even a trace of the lock. I think this one CSI also can't help me. The thing to do is probably invest in a monster lock, maybe even one that employs aggressive defence. Just kidding.

So been walking in and out. Played tennis with Sam this morning, it was just the two of us, Yinglan pulled out yesterday, and Sam's friend Ben was reportedly hung-over. But Sam has definitely improved quite a bit, he's going to start "intermediate" lessons soon. He got a girlfriend now, someone at church he has known for some time already.

Going to meet gz and hb for tennis. Andy can't make it this week. Probably joining Aaron and Jasper for gym tomorrow. Ate durians just now, parents bought from Malaysia, damn good. Much cheaper than in Singapore, they pack into styrofoam boxes, and the boxes are bigger than the ones in NTUC, and they really stuff the boxes. Supposed to be 15 Ringgit for one box but my parents got 3 boxes for 28.

Bought a pair of sunglasses just now from a shop in Ang Mo Kio, it'll take about a week to make the lenses. The lens cost $100, but got quite a cheap brandless frame for another $40. They can put a mirror coating to the lens but it would be easily damaged by scratching, and there was some mention of mercury.

Went to the library and borrowed some books. Initially was going to just borrow the same books I borrowed that time but haven't finished, in the end borrowed several books on linux. I hope to have more time to fiddle with my computer. Haven't been fiddling with it much, really. 3 books on linux and 1 is a book I almost finished reading that time, but didn't.

Might write more about work some other time. Basically quite busy. But I guess a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that I'm going to take off next week, and will only go to work on Thursday. W00t!

Show and Tell

Boston Public is such an awesome show. A dramatization of the roller-coaster of public school life in America, you get these amazing situations. One moment it looks desperate, like what are the teachers going to do with this student, then it's so heart-warming and touching to see that the student is actually gentle and sweet, then something gets stolen, and it's "obvious" who stole it, then the teacher discovers the student is being framed...

And many other co-plots developing contemporaneously, each as interesting as the next, each with its own unpredictable emotional trajectory, each resolved interestingly and believably. And everyone finds their own way and it all kind of makes sense, it all kind of works out, so it's incredibly touching and inspiring. And they're going to move it from its midnight timeslot to 1 am. How nice.

CSI was great too, lots of sad stories too. This guy brought about $100,000 to the casino to play blackjack, and used a double-up method. Start with say $1,000, if he loses, he bets $2,000, if lose, bet $4,000, etc. This is practically miraculous, but he lost all the way. The last hand he bet about $50,000 (this probably doesn't add up, but bear with me) and got two picture cards, I think. Then the dealer has small cards, and keeps opening small cards. Dealer has 7 cards and only 13 points. Opens an ace, and another ace. Then opens a 6, for 21 points.

The guy goes home, desperate, in shock, in disbelief, strokes a knife. Jams the butt into a recess in the door frame and turns his back and rams into the knife. Moves forward, then rams against the knife again, 5 times. Turns around, throws his chest into the knife a couple of times, then staggers to the middle of the room and lies there to die. His mentally retarded brother, whose life savings he "borrowed" thinking it was a sure bet, would get a million dollars if the cause of death was murder.

And in real life, I've got quite a lot of work to do these days and I am going to sleep now.

Because we love our land, and we want it to be free...

I was complaining on Friday about a funeral procession that took up the entire left lane of a 3-lane road. This was in Yishun, on the main road that runs beside the MRT track. So there were probably 100 people walking slowly, with a few vehicles somewhere in the mix. People carrying a coffin, banging on drums and cymbals and the like. I was felt to be insensitive to complain about this. But must they take the main road? It completely kills off left turns for several minutes!

Got to use my new tennis racquet on Saturday. I feel like saying the string tension feels too low. Was feeling better in the evening, so decided to play after all. Cancelled the morning session, though. Andy joined us this time, he used to be school team in Secondary School. gz was able to make it also, and it was fun. 4 is a great number for tennis. 4 is also the number of points you need to win a game (unless you get to deuce).

Intending to write a letter to Straits Times or something about how public buses are in desperate need of upgrades. So many of their buses are out to bust our eardrums. The brakes are worn so thin it's metal against metal. What's the use of TV Mobile if your hearing has gone to bits before you've even boarded the bus?

On Thursday, went to see MO. Took afternoon off to rest at home. Met Aaron and Jasper that evening for dinner. Went to work on Friday morning, was feeling better. Went for PSC Career Fair in the afternoon. Then went for dinner with lovey and her parents. On Saturday went to Sim Lim, bought a graphics card for office and ordered a replacement projector lamp, also for the office.

Went to Mass with lovey this morning (Sunday), went my granny's place in the evening. She's ok, can move her arms about, can be fed solid food. There art thou happy. I'm almost fully recovered now, I don't feel sick, but still have a sore throat and a stuffy nose. At least I don't feel weak and no more muscle aches.

I think the crucial reason why public toilets get really dirty is the "dirty cascade". Someone gets it dirty then the next person at best leaves the toilet no worse than he/she found it, but more likely makes it worse in response to the bad state.

Tag-board seems to be down. Can't read it.