I’m moving on…

This will be my last post here… thanks and appreciate all the comments and visits.

For the latest posts and updates, I’ve moved to a new site: Supanova

1-900-NERD-GIRL

ROTFL…

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Finally on leave…

I’m really quite thankful for the CNY that I had this year. Went to see my mum’s parents, and they were really happy to see everyone gather. I must say we’re probably one of the healthier families amongst the rest. My cousins and uncles actually went down to play basketball in our new year clothes, and it was just great fun as my uncles were quite sporting together with my younger cousins. Pretty unconventional for a CNY gathering, but I really look forward to CNY now that we’ve been doing it for 3 years straight. We even played american football on the 2nd day when we went to my aunt’s place. Caught up with my handsome looking cousin who came back from New York, its been a really long time since we caught up with each other. He also invited me to go over to New York sometime in June and show me around. I must say… I’ve always wanted to go to the US… I’d probably feel at home there since I’m the ang mo pai. This year’s CNY was one of the better ones I had. Ang pow collection was also more than usual… not to mention went to EK’s place to play Blackjack, and won $24. *grin* After all the mahjong games I lost before CNY….

Also finally met up with E again since after we went to have yong tau foo at Tanjong Katong. We went to have pomfret “steamboat” (forget the correct name) which I thought was a bit pricey at $38, but nevertheless tantalizing.

The fish was really fresh, to the point I was wondering if it was swimming seconds before it arrived on the plate. Another thing that was very obvious, was how skillfully the fish was deboned and sliced cleanly and proportionately. It was really the most proper presentation I’ve ever witnessed. E claimed that once the fish passes by a day, they will fry it and use it for the soup base instead. The soup is darn good. For a carnivorous dude like me, I was impressed at how nice fish soup can be if done really well. But my fav dish of the night was the self-made tofu braised with brocolli, mushroom and dried scallops… my eyes just lit up followed by the sensationalized expression of “its… so… damn… nice…”

This is like the definite must order dish next time I’m there. Aside from the food, E’s company was good too. At times I also forget how nice it is to spend time with her. Tried to meet up before CNY but its either too tired or too busy… but its normal being Singaporean and leading a stressful work life. Nevertheless, treasure those precious moments and don’t take them forgranted.

Bought English Cumberland sausages on Mon night after meeting RN for supper… sharing about how some customers can be stupid yet smart, and working with an over-generous head chef (makes me wanna go there…) anyway, she asked if the sausages were nice… I think not too bad. Really tastes quite “English”… whatever that means…

really have to make sure they’re properly cooked through… there was some rawness in the centre after my first try at pan frying it. I’m still stomped at how hotels have such creamy and fluffy scramble eggs… My craving for American breakfast buffet hasn’t stopped since last year. First of all because no one really wants to wake up that early on a weekend, 2) they think its expensive which is true, 3) they don’t really have the craving like I do.

While I’m on leave, I also stumbled upon some funny looking stuff online…

These are the ang mo cosplays emulating Naruto. boy do they look freakish compared to these pros below…

Kakashi looks so damn cool can………. and Sasuke looks pretty correct here too. And I went ecstatic when I stumbled upon this…

Even Optimus Prime is an Arsenal fan!!! ARSENAL FTW!!!

Despite painting such a colorful CNY… Microsoft stabbed me at the back when I installed the latest nvidia graphics drivers… Vista simply refused to boot into windows, and I didn’t have any proper restore point saved… thus Vista couldn’t repair the problem… leading me to format my entire hard disk and reinstall all the damn softwares and drivers again. Lucky G came down to help a bit. If that wasn’t troublesome enough, Vista prompted me to install new updates which in the end, didn’t shut down properly and caused me to reboot from DVD multiple times to restore it to the previous working state… Its really the disappointment of 2007. I really should’ve gotten XP 64 bit instead. Screw MS Vista… for now. My advice to everyone out there is to get XP now… I think Vista’s gonna need another few years before it really gets stabilized.

Now my Call of Duty 4 saved games all gone…. nooooo…. after all the weapon and ability upgrades…

On the bright side… I had to reinstall my Creative Fatal1ty sound card, and realized I’ve been under-utilizing it from the day I installed it. Now that I’ve reinstalled with all the stuff… the sound is just gawking, amazingly great quality. Watch the Transformers DVD and it was almost as if I was in a theatre. Crysis is also running quite smoothly now at High modes with very high sound settings. In some way, the Vista screw up was also sort of a blessing in disguise… though it bloody better not happen the 2nd time. Need to backup stuff… might need another HDD in the near future.

Still have 1 more day of leave to go… ^_^

Think you had a bad CNY? These guys were locked up during Chinese New Year.

Excerpt from TodayOnline: http://www.todayonline.com/articles/237087.asp

Posted a thread on the bar. I got damn emotional after reading the whole thing on the actual paper. That’s just me… cos freedom of rights are there for a reason and its what defines our humanity and our existence. Locking up someone and sending people meals is nothing short of treating people like animals.

Additional facts from the printed version:

… meals were seen hanging on a hook outside the gate, which the workers inside could reach through a gap…

… Under the Penal Code, wrongful confinement involves wrongfully restraining any person in such a manner as to prevent that person from proceeding beyond certain circumscribing limits.

If convicted, one could be jailed up to three years, or fined $1000, or both, depending on the length of the confinement.

Fined S$1k??? I suppose that can’t be the maximum fine… how can that be sufficient penalty? Assuming if he is guilty, $1k isn’t even a mosquito bite. And just what was the boss doing in HK? working? seriously… HK people are also having CNY celebrations. As for the father of this boss… I’m sure he felt damn stressed out while being interviewed by the press.

I admit that I am overreacting to this issue, who knows it might be another conspiracy theory. Notice that there’s no info from the boss, no expressed intention to commit the offence, and simply taking countermeasures to prevent theft. Workers backstabbing the boss? Nevertheless, let justice be served accordingly.

The Newpaper… close to rubbish?

Yes my blog has quite a bit of rubbish, yet really couldn’t help but notice… but before I carry on this rant.. I admit that my standard of English is going downhill meaning I don’t really have good basis to criticise the newpaper. And as defaming as this post may sound… its merely a personal opinion and should not be taken as hard facts. Nevertheless The Newpaper does pose some entertainment value. I also won’t jump to the conclusion of it being shoddy work since the editors would know better… I don’t read it often anyway. Had to wait over an hour for G to knock off for dinner and thus needed sometime to help pass time.

But I couldn’t help notice the small print out of nowhere…

Anyway I googled the names and here’s the info on Tan Siew Sin courtesy of Wikipedia :

“… later Malaysia’s) first Minister of Commerce and Industry, Finance Minister for 15 years, and president of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA, later Malaysian Chinese Association).”

It does seem like Tan Siew Sin was the first finance minister… but then this link proved otherwise…

http://www.mca-selangor.org.my/en/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2

Don’t get me wrong here, people make mistakes and screw up just about everyday. It’s just a matter of how big the screw up is. It just caught the eye because the correction came out of nowhere… “huh?? is this related to the picture?”

I also think I’m pretty WOLS… I’m sure that quite a few people already gave up on reading the Newpaper, not just because of petty errors, but the structure and content as well… RN still reads it though… which is reasonable because you can’t always look at things at a single dimension. RN looks at things in just about every dimension possible and makes the best out of it… including newpaper… makes me feel shallow. *grin* Also personally, the choice of articles are just…. “Is this Taiwan?” not really, but close?

Though this was quite the profound…

“……………………………………………………..”

Ok so… try looking from the intellectual social standpoint. Its all about the target audience, and the kind of feeling that editors want to give to readers… (yah rite…) On the other hand quite frankly, it does qualify for a pretty good blog post. My question is… how on earth did this make an entire page of a newspaper!? On a more positive note, thankfully the editors had enough pride not to put this one as the headlines on the front page.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not complaining about the standard. I hate the part of being an adult and being bored, anal and just complaining about anything one can complain about. This article just seems quite amusing and am just exploring greater depths with my limited knowledge of how the world works.

But what is news fundamentally? Its text and information… its discourse meant for the public. In layman terms, news is one huge plethora of discourses lumped together to tell everyone what’s happening. So does an article about a man not getting his box with his $625 Montblanc qualify as news? Well… then begs the question of definition and qualification… and of course… what’s the point? Where’s the box for the Montblanc? I seriously, still don’t get it. Because even after reading the long article, it merely stated that it was a mistake by the salesperson. Ok so does Montblanc’s service suck? No, despite a pathetic attempt to hint it.. I mean… its so bloody out of context. An article about the art and value of Montblanc pens would have been so much more interesting, and probably have side notes to tell people not to buy a Montblanc without a box… Unless the guy just wants to be known as a person with Montblanc who almost didn’t get a box… uurrgghh… Which led me to conclude…

One whole page about nothing! haha! duh…

Nevertheless, thank you Newpaper for giving me something to blog about when I’m seriously bored… I wonder if there’s more…

3, 2, 1… ladies and gentlemen, we have lift off… The Asus Silent Knight II

If anything, I have to be in the geekiest mood to write this… perhaps most ladies will take a detour out of this entry… nevertheless… I’ve got something pretty “cool” to rave about and here it is…

The Asus Silent Knight II. Probably be thinking “what a cheesy name…” but I find the name to be quite creatively appropriate. Its one of the quietest CPU coolers in the market emitting no more than 26 decibels. Yet… its so friggin huge…

Its surprising that this beast weighs just 610g, which is great because its so much easier to handle when you install it. There are some beefed up coolers that are just too heavy to the point that mounting it on the motherboard seems like it’ll just make the PCB snap. For those who are really lost reading this post, the Asus Silent Knight II is a CPU heatsink which is dedicated to ensure sufficient cooling on the processor chip in your PC. Processor chips (for e.g. Intel Core 2 Duo) run at extremely fast speeds which in turn generates a lot of heat. Without the heatsink to conduct heat away from the chip, its fry baby fry… I mainly decided to get this because since I’m planning to overclock my processor, its gonna need a very good cooler to preserve the lifespan of my $400+ chip.

Just look at it… its like some jet turbine engine out of an F-15… its got a little fan in between to suck in the cool air and expel the heat dissipated through the copper fins… this thing looks insane and yet it’s just a CPU heatsink.

However, I will also add, that I have never attempted to physically dismantle a PC before. But I finally got the chance to meddle around dismantling it in order to install the new heatsink.

Here’s what the inside of my PC looks like originally:

So I had to take out the side panel…

So its time to remove the original heatsink. Disconnect all the peripherals/cables and switch off the power… Just took a screwdriver to release the clipped heatsink on top of the processor chip… and then take out the old heatsink.

(above: taking off the heatsink revealing the heart of the system. Grey stain is actually thermal paste (acts to conduct heat between the chip and heatsink)

Up till this point it seemed pretty easy. Followed by taking out the processor,

(above: removing the processor. You must not touch the bottom of it… and hold it along the edges…)

I wiped off the old thermal paste with tissue and applied a fresh layer of it (using toothpick below)

And then remount it back onto the motherboard securely.

I felt pretty good at this point because it was the very first time I had physically handled a processor chip. Next thing was to disconnect all the cabling/video/audio cards and remove the whole motherboard from the PC casing… which was tricky as I had to remember where cables and connectors belonged to when I reassemble everything again after installing the heatsink (the Asus Q connectors helped a ton). Followed the instruction manual which was easy to use and understand, and managed to install the Silent Knight onto the board…

Now to get this whole thing back into the casing. Just look at how big the Silent Knight is… looks like some turbo afterburner that’s gonna make the motherboard lift off…

Now to reconnect back all the cables/screws/graphics/sound cards…

It was easier than I expected thankfully. Hence I tilted back the PC casing upright normally and moved on to connect the keyboards/mice etc… Powered on… vuala! It works!

The blue LED fan looks really cool and the airflow in the casing has also improved…

It was quite an interesting experience. Looking forward to overclock soon… =)

Interesting weekend…

Vacuumed my room, washed the laundry, and washed the kitchen floor too. Followed by a trip to the library to catch up on my POA syllabus. Not gonna order Passion Orange freeze anymore from Galilee cos its got bitter after taste despite getting a replacement. But their potato wedges are irresistable and service is not bad. Thumbs up for the Jurong branch so far.

Caught my first local play this afternoon…

I couldn’t catch all of the gags, but some of ‘em were jaw breaking hilarious. I’d probably catch it again the next time they show a new one. Went together with RN, KM, SM, LP and his Missus (AG). After the show, RN and KM had to rush off, leaving me in a slightly awkward situation with SM together with LP and AG, thankfully we settled at a nearby Starbucks to chat and do the usual crapping with lameness and a bit of pun. LP’s really larky cos AG’s really nice and they just look natural together. Way to go dude.

Chatted with SM… and found that she does lots of volunteer work, meeting lots of people with different needs… most of the time in emotional distress, if not plagued by medical conditions that prohibit what we would deem as a normal life. I’ve not met anyone actively doing volunteer work before… and looking at SM who does it on a regular basis and even as a passion… speaks volumes of care and kindness… but also at the expense of some emotional baggage that comes when sometimes doing your best doesn’t yield the results that you hope to achieve… especially when you’re involved with people abandoned, others with genetic defects… etc. When you see sadness, pain and suffering in its various forms and in large numbers, it can get to you and make one look at life so differently from the norm. It even seems like a convenient excuse for us not to do volunteering because of that…

Yet she still persists and mentions of having to be an “aunt agony” after receiving an sms when I sent her home. It just made me reflect about what I do nowadays…

Despite getting a blister on my toe after this morning’s run, I need continue more often now that my virus is gone. I’m in the worst shape ever since I was a little fat-ass in primary school, and there’s a long way to go to get rid of the belly. Gotta control my diet…

But I still crave for american breakfast buffet… uurrrgghh… the temptation… devil is seriously after me… and its about time to fight back.

Soulfood…

Yes its one of those days where stuff just doesn’t go your way, just about everything feels farked up even though its really not as bad as it seems. You’re just fine… in its “fine” sense. I for one, have found a small outlet of relief from “fineness”. Life didn’t feel that farked up when I had this for dinner before attending my night classes.

For those who don’t eat cow… TOO BAD… you can read further below though. But I must express the innate feelings that derived from confounded senses by the aroma that extrudes from Cowabunga… Yes ladies and gentleman… its Beef Fried Rice at its finest when you’re feeling just “FINE”. I… am tehhling you peepurl ah… this beef fried rice is Si beh ho jiak… (die father very tasty). Because this dish brings me all the way back in time where uncles have their meals while resting their foot on the same chair they sit on… no I would’ve ripped my pants if i did that… It just smells of the 1980s… and that’s the time where food is usually cheap and so much nicer than now. It smells fragrant and just the way beef fried rice should be. Simple. But how many of us know that good fried rice = master of a lost art. I’m not completely blown away by the texture and quality of the food, but when the basics are right: not too salty, fragrant, rice not too hard or soft, consistency, tender beef that’s properly marinated, a real proper “he bao dan”… there’s just no need to ask for more here. My colleague claims that the uncle cooks better when the younger (middle aged) lady is helping with the stall… so far, its the same standard with or without that lady. I shall not divulge where to find this place in my blog for fear that I’ll pollute it in the public sphere of madness. (can still ask me personally if you really want to go and try)

I really find peace and satisfaction when there’s good food around. Its like everything else can be shitty… but at least I’m not eating shit. I’ve not cooked for quite awhile since M, RN and KM came for a cook-over. Which reminds me, I wanted to blog about it but was just too tired at that time to do so… That was last year in November I think, had a long shopping session at IMM to buy the ingredients… and I personally thought that I tried too hard again… nevertheless the results were still good though it was tiring. RN and KM took forever to arrive, and M and I were taking forever to cook everything… it was the time I wished I had one of ‘ose big kitchen ovens like Jamie Oliver has. Because we made baked chicken.

Looks good right? But I didn’t feel it was as good as the chicken chop that I did the last time round. Nevertheless its the first time experimenting with the recipe so I wasn’t that disappointed. M stir fried some of the leftover veges which I thought was the highlight of dinner… she did it just right and I just wanted to keep eating it. We also steamed the live prawns with hua diao…

… which is always good. And doing all this just helps to settle one’s soul… knowing that we’ve still got the basic stuff that we need to move ahead and drive us to greater things. Although things might not look too bright in life, we still have the little things that matter… and no wonder… we can still smile here and there, and remain alive. Cheers to the soul, and to life.

Microsoft’s Sidewinder vs Logitech’s G9

Supposed to catch Dan in real life today with E, but end up she’s too tired. Luckily, I went to funan this afternoon and hooted these…

Razer eXactMat Xspeed mouse pad (comes with wrist rest), Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse and… I finally got these balls!! WooHoo!

Overclocked these babies to 1066 Mhz… *silly grin*

Also decided to do some review/comparison with my Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse. Quite frankly I’m putting myself to shame doing this review, on the basis that my writing sucks now. Nevertheless, I will base this review along this set of criterion:

1) Comfort
2) Functionality
3) Value/Price
4) Features
5) Cool factor

Also, I’m strictly reviewing right-handed mice… no offence to lefties. =p

here’s the Microsoft Sidewinder up close…

Its probably the biggest gaming mouse ever seen in the market as of late. I’ve used this coming to about 2 months without a mouse pad/rest till now, and thankfully nothing bad has happened to it yet (even after slapping the mouse onto the desk when I keep dying while playing Call of Duty 4). Which really makes me pretty glad that the construction is solid. For someone who has longer fingers, I found the grip to be very comfortable, and despite its size, its actually quite light. But that’s really subjective because it might feel a little bit too chunky for others with smaller hands. There’re many other mixed reviews in gaming websites with regards to the Sidewinder. Some say its just too big, whereas some end-users really adore it (think its the bigger hands). Just to set the tone right, its one of those types meant for gamers who have more palm/large movements as opposed to finger/delicate movements.

(above) a look at how the mouse fits. Notice that my fingers are quite extended but not reaching the front, and my palm’s fully in contact on the mouse.

The Sidewinder has a flurry of buttons that seem to bode really well for the hardcore gamer. Its the 1st mouse to have an LCD display showing the dpi (2000, 800, 400 default) with 3 red led buttons at the topside just behind the mouse wheel to toggle the desired sensitivity. The mouse wheel feels really solid without the side to side clicks found on other mice. I found this to be good because you don’t have to worry about accidentally clicking on the wrong button (cos there isn’t one). There are 2 silver thumb buttons strategically placed and only work if you deliberately click them. In front of the silver buttons is a macro button that I’ve not tried yet.

Another really nice touch was the fact that Microsoft actually went the extra mile to think about how to make the mouse even better. They did that by introducing a weighted box that actually clips on to the mouse wire to prevent excessive wire slack that messes up the desk. The box also doubles up as case containing interchangeable weights, and even 2 sets of interchangeable mousefeet. Makes one wonder, if only MS did the same for Windows Vista… (they must be playing too many games with this to do real work…)

On the downside, I found that the weights made the mouse too heavy and sluggish. I also felt that the smoothest set of mouse feet, is still brought down to its knees compared to the G9’s slick glide. Its also only 2000 dpi at max, which is kind of low for gaming mice. Having got this at Sitex for S$139 together with Gears of War was a really good deal, now its probably retailing for about S$120 just by itself. Rather average price-value ratio if not for the additional features like the weighted box that solves the wire slack problem. This mouse is a real looker with the Sidewinder logo embedded at the top (actually brings up the Games folder when clicked) and the red lights shining out under the mouse yells out awesome coolness. The macro button is a good idea from MS that separates the Sidewinder from its competition with additional functionality.

On a score out of 10…

1) Comfort – 7
2) Functionality – 8
3) Value/Price – 8
4) Features – 8
5) Cool factor – 9

Overall – 8/10

Next up……

Logitech’s G9 Laser Mouse

Logitech has been at the forefront of the PC peripheral market churning out tons of gaming hardware (i.e keyboards, speakers, mice, media controllers etc). If there’s any company that knows how to make great mice, its Logitech. Their stuff is always good, and hard to beat. And this G9 mouse is nothing that I’ve ever experienced before.

The G9 is light and seems to make more sense in terms of size compared to the Sidewinder. There’s also a box of interchangeable weights that can be inserted for the hardcore gamer. Logitech have also included 2 different types of “grip-casing” which provides a choice of soft satin feel, or rugged dry feel. And both grips are equally comfortable. Its just a matter of preference to which feel you like. Shown above is the soft satin casing, below is the rugged dry casing.

Interchangeable weights for the G9

Moving the G9 is a very soft and delicate affair. The mouse is extremely nimble without weights and even though it doesn’t have interchangeable feet, it feels like the mouse is floating on a cushion of air. Its nothing I’ve felt before and its insanely smooth. This thing glides like nobody’s business, and it requires such minimal effort to use. Its ergonomically sound in design and very suitable for those with smaller hands, or those who prefer smaller movements relying on fingers.

(above) my palm is hardly touching the mouse so its moving more delicately with my fingers.

The buttons also have a softer feel to it, but in no way should be misunderstood as risk to misclicking. Everything about the G9 is simple and delicate. When its movements replicate running your hand through silk, it almost feels feminine and sexy even. The mouse also comes with its own inbuilt memory, and requires no software to install. Just plug and play. There’s a toggle switch on the topside to adjust up to a max of 3200 DPI, and the red led indicates the amount of sensitivity of the mouse. The thumb buttons are in their usual traditional location, and have a very nice solid feel to it as well.

Logitech have again produced another strong contender for gaming mice. Aside from the Razers, this thing glides as smooth as butter. Its really the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used. The high sensitivity also makes it great for quick sharp movements needed for competitive gaming. Despite its rather awkward looks, it should satisfy the most nitty picky gamer looking for a good gaming mouse. However, this is also the most expensive gaming mouse in the market at S$159 (after discount pay in cash only, S$169 on credit) which is really expensive taking into account there’s not as many features as the Sidewinder.

On a score out of 10…

1) Comfort – 9.5
2) Functionality – 9
3) Value/Price – 6
4) Features – 7
5) Cool factor – 8.5

Overall – 8/10

Conclusion:

At head to head, the Sidewinder loses out to overall performance due to its size compared to the G9. But it does however make up for that with value added features with the box solving wire slack and doubling up as a casing for interchangeable mice and feet. Not to mention the macro button for added functionality.

The G9 makes up for lack of features with a sublimely smooth glide and exceptional nimbleness and quickness. But you have to pay a high price for sublime. The interchangeable grip-casings feel fantastic and its very easy to change them whenever you want to.

I really have a hard time deciding which is the one to own… so coming to personal preference, I’ll choose the G9. Because this thing feels so good once you use it… nothing else really matters.

More details of the products can be found at the following links:

Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse