New Hair Job Done

Phew! I had just completed a long hair job at the Reds salon at Suntec City today.

This was a cut, colour, highlight, wash and blow hair job that took almost 5 hours to complete. Throughout the session, I kept falling asleep as I was very tired and there was nothing much to do other than sit in the salon chair to get my hair done. As it was a special xmas package, the total cost for the whole job was $188.

Plus I had a treatment done in for my hair and that cost me another $35. Whoa! All in all, I spent close to $240 just on my hair alone. Boy, come to think of it, it was quite worth it as my appearance looks much younger and fresher than before.

My hairstylist picked the colours for me and I am happy that she got it done so nicely. The base colour was mahogony brown and the highlights were copper red, though the red wasn't that bright like an ang pow. *grinz*

Now I am feeling so light and wonderful with a new hairstyle. Gee, I hope the colour will last me for a long time since I paid so much for it, eh? Anyway, it's still worth it.

=)

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Anime Watch: New Episode for Vampire Knight Guilty is Out!

I had just checked the online website for new updates to one of my favourite japanese animes, Vampire Knight Guilty, and the latest episode has already been uploaded for viewing. Wee!!!

The only thing is, there are no english subtitles dubbed for the episode as yet. So even though I can watch the episode, I won't be able to understand a single word. Damn...

I hope some kind soul out there would quickly uploaded a subbed english version so that I could watch. Anyway, for now I will still watch the episode. Well, at least I can try to hazard a guess to what the characters are saying.

Yay!

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Merry X'mas!

Merry X'mas and happy holidays! I went to celebrate X'mas with my friend and just got back home. I will do an update post of my x'mas gifts later. Well, not that I have received a lot of gifts but then, at least its better than nothing.

Cheers!!!

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Anime Watch: In Love with Vampire Knight

Lately I have been watching many animes on the new TV channel, okto, and now I do admit that I have become an anime fan. Long long time ago, I remembered watching Doraemon and Sailor Moon on TV and memories of those animes have been vague. However, I wasn't that hooked on them as I do now.

Mainly this is due to the new influx of animes that are beautifully drawn and the storylines are getting very good and intriguing. Among all these animes that I have liked, Vampire Knight and its sequel, Vampire Knight Guilty, is one of them.

Vampire Knight is not officially shown on Singapore's channel. So I watched the anime online. The anime itself is adapted from a popular manga of the same name. A cover picture of the manga is shown below with the three leads.

From left to right: Zero Kiryu, Yuki Cross and Kaname Kuran.

The manga is written by Matsuri Hino, as seen on the book's cover. The story is about a young girl, Yuki Cross, whose earliest memory is of a snowy night in winter, when she was attacked by one vampire and was saved by another, Kaname Kuran.

Yuki is the adopted daughter of the Headmaster of Cross Academy, Kaien Cross and has grown up and became a prefect for the school with one main purpose: to protect the Human Day Class Students and the Vampire Night Class Students from each other. Yuki is actually a vampire but her mum had blocked her early childhood memories as well as her vampire side in order to protect her from her evil uncle, Rido Kuran.

Her fellow guardian, Zero Kiryu, a childhood companion whose parents were killed by a pureblood vampire, is now determined to kill them all and refuses to trust them. Through a cruel twist of fate, Zero becomes a vampire himself, having been bitten by the same pureblood vampire four years before, Shizuka Hio. Having come from a family line of vampire hunters, he rejected his vampire side but was eventually forced to accept his vampire side when he was overpowered by the thirst of blood in him. However, he still set out to destroy vampires and through a twist of events, he ended up being the strongest vampire hunter ever and managed to defeat Rido Kuran together with Yuki.

For Kaname, he leads the group of Night class as their President. On top of that, he is also a pureblood vampire who commands awe and respect from his fellow mates. Unknown to Yuki, he is also her fiance and they had pledged to marry each other when they were young. Unknown to Yuki, Kaname is actually the ancient ancestor of the Kurans, and Rido is his master who awakened him from his grave, making him unable to kill his 'master'.

Because of the theme of suggested incest, this anime will never get to premiere in Singapore. It's a pity though. The story is intriguing yet humourous at the same time. I enjoyed watching the anime as it has many light-hearted moments. Kaien Cross provided many of the comic reliefs in the anime and it's a good thing that I watched this anime in the comfort of my home. Ha!

I like the way the vampires activated their powers by turning their eyes red, or something like that. When they are not sucking blood, their eye colours are normal. However their eye colours turned bright red when they reveal their vampire side. See the picture below of the vampire side of Zero:




Eh, it's kind of different from the Twilight vampires. They just suck blood normally and the Cullen family only feeds on animals and not humans. Zero had fed on Yuki on several occasions when she was still living as a human. For the rest of the vampires in the Night class, they survived on blood tablets which was not quite the same thing as human blood.

Nonetheless, all the vampires are so cool and gorgeous in Vampire Knight. Just like the Cullens in the Twilight series. I think being cool is part of the job description of a vampire. But Yuki is so, erm, uncool. However, she is still loveable enough for both Zero and Kaname to fight over her. I'm so envious of Yuki. She gets to choose between 2 gorgeous guys who are willing to do anything for her.

From I have searched on the internet, Yuki finally makes her choice in Kaname and Zero wishes her all the best before leaving her. Aww... Honestly if it were me, I wouldn't know who to pick. They are good in their own way so it's hard to make any comparison. Many fans out there actually hoped that Yuki would choose Zero because he's so protective towards her.

In the second season, Vampire Knight Guilty, they have shown up to the latest episode 11. Now I am waiting for episode 12 to be aired so that I can watch. Zero actually has a twin brother, Ichiru, and in the previous episode, he had sacrificed himself so that Zero could finally gain power as an individual rather than be split into 2 parts as twins do. For it's a curse for twins to be borned to a vampire hunter family.

Oh man, I can't wait for the next episode! It's gonna get exciting and things are certainly going to get rough between Yuki, Kaname and Zero.

w00t!

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AFF Suzuki Cup Semi-Final: Singapore vs Vietnam

Tonight's soccer game has not been very satisfying at all. Both sides took possession of the ball yet no goals have resulted even after 70 minutes into the game.

Both sides' players have not been awe-inspiring in their passes and kicks. Vietnam wasn't playing as well as they should. Personally, I had thought that they were a better side than Singapore. So far the score is still nil to both sides.

I wonder who will win eventually.

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First Half of AFF Suzuki: Indonesia vs Thailand

Barely 13 minutes into the soccer match between Indonesia and Thailand in the AFF Suzuki Cup 2008 Semi-Final match, Thailand scored a point against Indonesia.

Thailand looks set to be going strong against Indonesia and it is hard to see who will emerge the winner tonight.

It's still early stage. Let's see who is leading after the first half.

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Tales of Beedle the Bard is the Fastest Selling Book for 2008

According to Telegraph, J K Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, has just become the fastest selling book for 2008.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard – mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest book in the wizard boy series – sold 367,625 copies in the first three days after publication on December 4.

It is apparent that her fans are still very supportive of her even though she had wrapped up the Harry Potter universe. That includes me as well. So I am very happy that her latest book has done so well, especially since it's going to be sold for charitable purposes.

Till to date, I still can't bring myself to read it as I want to prolong my reading period as long as possible. Then I won't have to let go of Harry so fast. Weird, isn't it?

Anyway, let's savour the book's success for now, before another new book comes in to take away the feat.

=)

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Damn Drivers! So Arrogant!

I was having my dinner when it was rudely interrupted by incessant car honking noise from below. Damn the driver. So I went to my kitchen window and found a single car which was parked below. That car's driver had to be the culprit.

The only damn thing is that I can't see the car plate number otherwise I would report it straightaway to the traffic police. Damn stupid driver.

My post is gonna get flamed but who cares!! The damn driver is a damn brown guy. Damn them. So what if they have a car?! Does that make them more superior than us? Damn them!!!

I should have gone down to copy the car plate number and post it online. I am so angry now. But I must give a name for such people in future. The law here is not very forgiving of bloggers who are racists. But I am!!! Oh who cares!!!

*sighs*

Anger is getting right to my head and making me lose sense. Damn. I better stop writing now.

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iPhone 3G Glory

Now that I am starting to get excited over the iPhone 3G (i know it's a long time), I am keeping a lookout for any good iPhone 3G deals from Singtel.

In the meantime, I can only goggle at these iPhone 3G pictures:


















There are even talks of a red iPhone that might be released by Apple in conjuction with the holiday season as well as to boost the sales for the PRODUCT(RED) charity project.

I wonder what are the next plans that Apple has for its red-hot product. Last time, it used to be its own iPods, now its overtaken by its own iPhone. Things are certainly looking more and more exciting now.

For the consumers, things can only get better.

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Microsoft Makes its First iPhone App

According to CNET, Microsoft have just rolled out its first iPhone application, Seadragon Mobile, which was added to Apple's iTunes on Saturday.

Seadragon Mobile is a free image-browsing app that allows users to quickly "deep zoom" images while online and is intended to demonstrate what is possible with a mobile platform.

Hmmm, looks like the iPhone is starting to get attractive as the days go by. Many interesting and fun accessories and apps have been made specially for the iPhone. So much so that even I have been tempted to want to buy an iPhone for myself.

Too bad I had bought my Nokia N95 8GB way back in August and if I want to do a handset upgrade, I have to wait till August 2009. However, I have got another phone line to my name but its of a lower value and the number is different. I wonder if I could use that to upgrade my handset but limit it to my own mobile number?

That sounds very complicated, doesn't it? Oh well, at least I could wait till Apple releases a third version of the iPhone. That's when it would be the most ideal handset to purchase. Hopefully it would be end of next year, then I could trade in my N95 8GB for that droolicious iPhone!

w00t!

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Watching videos on my PSP 2000

All right. I admit that I am a super duper slowpoke when it comes to my psp 2000. I only just got my unit this year and started playing games that were outdated compared to those gamers who are probably playing the latest titles for their PSPs.

There are many things that a psp 2000 could do. Like playing music, watching videos and of course, playing games.

All the while I was only using my psp to play games. It was only a few days ago that I thought it would be nice if I could watch my favourite animes on my psp too. The only problem was the video format. Or so I thought.

I had read online that the psp is very picky in using a particular format for video playing. The only acceptable format was MPEG-4 and nothing else. Well, I had some of those format video files and I thought I could use them for viewing on my psp. Boy, I was wrong.

I thought by just putting the video files onto the memory stick would solve the problem but yet I still couldn't view my videos. Something had to be wrong somewhere. It was only through research on the internet that I realised that I had to create a video folder in my memory stick and transfer my video to this folder before my psp could read the file.

Oh man, I felt so stupid when I found the solution to my problem. Nonetheless, here's a really old piece of news about the newly-released psp 3000. Here are some of the pictures taken of the psp 3000 as well as the psp 2000:

PSP 3000

PSP 2000

To me, the 2 versions does not look very different from each other. Maybe the psp 3000 looks a slightly more sleeker than the psp 2000. But other than that, it looks almost the same. Sony probably could have done much better with the new version but for now, the opportunity is lost this year.

Now I'm looking forward to the release of Nintendo's DSi next year and it looks better with each version upgrade. Pictures of the new DSi are posted below for references:








The new DSi will much more slimmer than ever before and it will also comes with an SD card slot, as seen in the picture above. Looks like things are going to get very exciting as the 2 gaming devices gear up for the consumer dollar next year. Who knows, I might even be tempted to buy the DSi next year.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed now.

=)

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Boring Superman

After watching the TV premiere of Superman Returns on Channel 5, I can only conclude in one word: Boring.

The film ran way too long with the plot going nowhere in the first half of the film. It ding dong between the past and the present of Superman's life. Then the super bad guy turns out to be, well, not very bad after all. Though this bad guy does have the ambition of killing billions of people with a newly created landmass that contains kryptonite and will destroy Earth's existing continents. Thus making Lex Luthor into the new owner of such a landmass.

The film starts to get a little better at the back with some action but then it drags again towards the part about the love triangle between Superman, Lois Lane and Richard White. Superman seems to get it easy all the time. Plus he always manage to get to the dangerous situations at the right time to save people.

This is unlike Spiderman, who has to fight conflicts within himself for most of the time even though he's a hero. For Spiderman, it would always be "with great power comes great responsibility". For Superman, I only see his pain at losing Lois Lane. Hmmm... nothing much to compare here between the 2 heroes.

Although I do wish that Superman would clear up his dress sense and start to wear his underwear inside his clothes. It looks so weird sticking out.

All in all, this movie is pretty average and does not really impress me much. I would still prefer to watch Spiderman movies over this Superman anytime.

Here I come, Peter Parker and Tobey Maguire!

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Movie Watch: Superman Returns

And now I'm watching an old movie which is premiering on Channel 5 tonight at 7.30pm. It's titled Superman Returns and is directed by Bryan Singer.




A short synopsis from imdb.com is posted below:

--
For five years, Superman (Brandon Routh) has been away from Earth, coaxed into space by a belief that Krypton may still exist. Finding nothing, he comes back to a changed world--not only has terrorism become rampant, but Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has married, started a family, and won the Pulitzer for her piece "Why the World Doesnt Need Superman." After a stop in Smallville to see his adopted mother (Eva Marie Saint), Superman is back in Metropolis, and Clark Kent has his old job back at the Daily Planet, with everyone still incredibly oblivious to his alter ego. But where theres Superman, there's Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey), and he is likely to be planning something dastardly--in this case, using a piece of pilfered kryptonite to grow an entirely new continent that he will control.
--

I have not watched the movie before and so when Channel 5 decided to premiere the movie, I thought it was a good chance for me to watch. Hopefully it would be as good as those Spiderman movies. I adore those Peter Parker movies, especially when Tobey Macguire is casted as the tragic superhero.

w00t!

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Twilight Phenomenon Unique to USA

I was browsing through Google for some various pictures of Twilight the movie when I came across this gorgeous picture.



This is an example of a Twilight Phenomenon. An excerpt taken from wikipedia is posted below:

--
A Twilight phenomenon is produced when unburned particles of missile or rocket propellant and water left in the vapor trail of a launch vehicle condenses, freezes and then expands in the less dense upper atmosphere. The exhaust plume, which is suspended against a dark sky is then illuminated by reflective high altitude sunlight, which produces a spectacular, colorful effect when seen at ground level. The phenomenon typically occurs with launches that take place either 30 to 60 minutes before sunrise or after sunset when a booster rocket or missile rises out of the darkness and into a sunlit area, relative to an observer's perspective on the ground.
This phenomenon usually produces a cloud of green, blue, white and rose colored hues which takes on a corkscrew appearance as it is whipped around by wind currents. It is seen within two to three minutes after a launch has occurred. Depending on weather conditions, it could remain in the sky for up to half an hour before dispersing.
--

The above picture was taken at Tranquillon Peak in northern Santa Barbara county. The twilight phenomenon lights up the night sky over Vandenberg AFB following the launch of an unarmed Minuteman III missile on Sept. 19, 2002.

Only a small percentage of the malfunctioning missiles would create this twilight phenomenon as most of them would have been destroyed by a Range Safety Officer.

Nonetheless, it's truly a sight to behold if I could be there to witness it first-hand. That would be so spectacular. We could never have this kind of sight in Singapore as our army do not fire missiles so openly. Even if they do, pictures such as these would probably have been destroyed before they could be circulated.

For now, I can only envy the beauty on my laptop screen but that's enough.

=)

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New Moon Gets a New Director

According to this report, the new sequel to the hugely successful Twilight, New Moon, will be getting a new director, Chris Weitz.

Director Chris Weitz. Hm, doesn't look very good, imo. LOL.

Stars of Twilight, Robert Pattison & Kristen Stewart.

His previous work included The Golden Compass, which was a box-office bomb. At least, that was the case in Singapore. Hmmm... would he be a suitable steward for New Moon? That remains to be seen.

So far, I still have yet to see Twilight in the theatres although sneak previews are out. I'd rather wait for the official release of the movie which is coming this Thursday. What's the difference between sneak previews and the official release anyway? I still don't get it.

=)

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Gmails get a proper PDF viewer feature

According to this CNET report, Gmail users get to open up their PDF documents inside Google Docs instead of getting their own native Acrobat Reader to start up on their own computers.

I think this is a cool feature as it helps to cut the loading times of the PDF file as compared to using the Acrobat Reader. So far I have yet to try out this new feature as I don't have any pdf files that are stored in my emails.

Nonetheless, it is good to know that my gmail account is now able to do much more things compared to its earlier days.

=D

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Singapore Wins 2 - 0 over Indonesia in AFF Suzuki Cup 2008

Woo. I had just turned in to Channel 5 and saw that our home team had won the match against Indonesia in the AFF Suzuki Cup 2008. The score was 2 to nil.

Looks like our lions are in good form and they might be facing up against Thailand or Myanmar. I didn't pay attention earlier on as I am pretty bad with soccer.

Oh well, at least it's an achievement that we Singaporeans can be proud of before the end of the year.

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SPEED : Sky of Tommorrow

Yeah!!!! SPEED is finally back together permanently as a group this year! They have just released their 15th new single on 12 November 2008, titled "Sky of Tomorrow".





I am very happy to see them back together and I can't wait to buy their studio album!!!

w00t!!!

=D

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SPEED : Walking in the rain

A 14th single was subsequently released by SPEED after the "Save the Children" campaign. This was to be titled as "Walking in the rain".





This showcased a much mellower SPEED as compared to their debut days. In addition, they put on more make-up and more lady-like clothes to look more sophisticated.

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SPEED : Be My Love

Even though SPEED disbanded in 2000, they still came back together to support charity drives such as 2003's "Save the Children". They released their 13th single "Be My Love" specially for this charity drive.





See how grown up the members have become. =)

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SPEED : Long Way Home

Finally a music video where you can see Takako and Hitoe singing alongside Hiroko and Eriko, the 2 main lead singers of SPEED. This song is titled "Long Way Home", a final single shortly before the disbandment of the group on 31 March 2000.





This song has a R&B feel to it and the moves are slicker compared to their early days.

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SPEED : Steady

"Steady" is the first single to hit the first million sales for SPEED. This is a ballad single which was released after "Body & Soul".





It's quite a normal song which doesn't quite hit the spot the way "White Love" does. To me, "White Love" is the most definitive SPEED song. Of course, there are others who might or might not agree with me but that's just my opinion.

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SPEED : Body & Soul

The very first single for SPEED is Body & Soul, which was released on 5th August 1996 and was their longest chart-topping song at 31 weeks.





It's an upbeat song and definitely fits the younger generation of their time too.

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SPEED : ALL MY TRUE LOVE

Here's an upbeat single from SPEED, ALL MY TRUE LOVE. The music video was shot on location in the Grand Canyon Arizona. Amazing, isn't it?





The fast tempo of the song helps to lift up my low spirits whenever I listen to it. w00t!

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SPEED : April

This particular SPEED song is a tribute to SPEED's 10th anniversary. Titled "April"





I loved this song lots as the strains of the music arrangement is very touching and I could feel emotions coming through from the girls. Some of you might or might not agree with me but this song is special.

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SPEED : Alive

Yet another favourite SPEED song. This time round, it's titled "Alive". I seem to get stuck in memories of SPEED today. Kind of feeling nostalgic, ya?





I sure missed them lots ever since they disbanded long time ago. Although I do have a favourite female japanese singer that I'm also following faithfully right now.

That female singer is none other than Ayumi Hamasaki. Her songs are simply awesome and they filled the void left behind by SPEED.

Maybe I shall post Ayu's songs sometime too.

=D

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SPEED : my graduation

Here's yet another favourite SPEED song of mine: my graduation.





I love the music arrangement of the song and it brought back memories of my own school graduation ceremony too. Hmm, but there weren't much pleasant memories to choose from. *sighs*

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SPEED : White Love

While browsing through Youtube, I had came across a really old favourite song that I used to listen to while I was still studying in secondary school.

The song is titled "White Love" and it's sung by Japan's all time popular female group SPEED.





This was one of my favourite SPEED songs ever. Oh my gosh, just listening to this song brings back many memories of my younger days in school. That was like in the late 90s back then. Oh, I missed SPEED and boy, I was so sad when they disbanded. But there are news on the net that they have reformed back together this year. I hope I can hear them again soon.

=)

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Twilight director won't return for Sequel

According to this report, Twilight's director, Catherine Hardwicke would not be returning to direct its sequel, New Moon.

It was quoted as saying that due to timing differences, Hardwicke had to bow out of the commitment. Some say that Summit Entertainment wanted to do the sequel as soon as possible, given that the current Twilight movie is doing extremely well at the box office.

For Hardwicke, whose previous films include Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, had the highest opening ever for a female director when Twilight made nearly $70 million in its first weekend. It has grossed over $138 million in three weeks.

Twilight will officially open in Singapore on 18 December 2008 and that's when I will be watching it along with maomao. She's very excited over the movie though she has been claiming otherwise.

So for me, it remains to be seen whether the film is really that good or I should just concentrate on Harry Potter, whose next film release will be in July 2009. Boy, that's such a long, long time. Warner Bros better catch up quickly if they want to beat the Twinkies in their movie debut. Hee...

=(

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HTC Touch HD Only Exclusive to Starhub

I was so happy when I read in the papers that HTC Touch HD will be coming to Singapore this month.

Yet to my dismay, this new phone is an exclusive item specially sold by Starhub. Since I have a Singtel mobile phone contract, I am unable to purchase this new baby to replace my Nokia N95 8GB.

Looks like this is going to be the mobile operators latest strategy to lock in new customers, by selling phones that are not offered by other competitors. Yes, it's convenient for the companies and those new customers. But what about the existing customers? Does that mean we are penalised for NOT changing our mobile operator?

All these exclusive thingies are not doing us justice. Already in the US, AT&T practice this with the iPhone. Or maybe the party who's truly at fault is actually Apple.

Damn stupid Apple. It wants to earn big bucks and through all these exclusive deals, it ensures that Apple fans will be lured and tied to one of their desired operators, i.e. one who would pay them, Apple, the most premium fees for selling the iPhone.

I guess that's when the trend of selling exclusive phones kicks in for all mobile operators. This is so unfair to us, especially if we don't feel like changing our operators since we are comfortable with them.

Life sucks, doesn't it?

=(

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My new 6-cell battery

I know this has been way too long in coming ever since I collected my 6-cell battery last month. Now I'm posting this to make up for my promise.

Overall, the battery life is definitely a great improvement over the 3-cell battery. Most of the times, I could log in about 4 hours of usage compared to my previous usage of 1.5 hours. I also got the technician at Corbell to overclock my wind but the guy only gave me an increase of 4%. It's pathetic but at least I'm having an overclock function rather than an underclock function, as was the case before.

The overclock function is made possible through MSI's latest bios update for the wind. Now my wind is better than ever and I'm so glad that I made the decision to buy it. Worth every cent, I must say.

Below are some of the pictures that I took of my 6-cell battery with my wind. I also took picture of the overclocking mode. Note that the power light turns to orange instead of its usual blue colour. Interesting and pretty, right?













What do you think of my wind? Worthy enough to dethrone the eee pc? Now my wind is perfect. Battery life is good. Has overclocking function. Is small and portable. What's there not to like about my wind?

=D

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Yay! I finally got my copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard!

Tales of Beedle the Bard is finally released in Singapore on 4th December 2008 and I am very delighted to have bought my own copy at Popular's Bookshop yesterday evening.

Tales of Beedle the Bard was initially intended to be given to six people who are most closely connected to its author, J K Rowling and as well as through helping her throughout the 17 years of her Harry Potter journey.

A seventh copy was eventually made to be auctioned off at Sotherby's in London to raise funds for The Children's Voice campaign by The Children's High Level Group. The book was bought by Amazon.com at a record price of £1,950,000 and the proceeds helped to improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.

Below are some images of the original hand-made book by J K Rowling:
















Amazon.com has decided to publish the book to all Harry Potter fans, much to every Muggles' delight. w00t! A Collector's Edition is also available for sale through Amazon here. However, at a price of $100, I am better off with buying the standard UK version. The Collector's Edition comes with the following:

• All five fairy tales from the original The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Outer case disguised as a wizarding textbook from the Hogwarts library
• 10 ready-for-framing prints of J.K. Rowling's illustrations
• Exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction
• 10 new illustrations by J.K. Rowling not included in the Standard Edition or the original handcrafted edition
• Velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling's signature
• Metal skull, corners, and clasp
• Replica gemstones
• Emerald ribbon

The collection sure sounds cool but it's simply too expensive for me to buy, especially since the Sing dollar is so weak against the UK sterling pound. =(




So I contended myself with the standard edition. A picture of my copy of the book is posted below:




Hmm, the picture is not very well-taken though. In any case, the book is being retailed for S$19.26 at Popular's Bookshop. With the 20% discount off top-selling books, I only had to pay S$15.41 for my copy.

Thank goodness I didn't make a preorder as the price would have been S$21.95. So now I am still admiring my book and I have yet to start reading it. It's such a joy to be holding it in my hands for the moment. For this book will almost signify the end of the Harry Potter world, which has kept me enthralled for so long.

Rowling did mentioned that she might one day publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia of her own but how soon will that day come, no one knows. However, no one ever wants the Harry Potter dream to end. At the very least, that's how I'm feeling right now.

During the years when Rowling was still writing the story through to the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I could still remembered the long wait for each Harry book to be completed, published and released to the world at the exact midnight. Though I did not queue overnight to get my hands on the books, I did made preorders to ensure that I get my own copy of the book.

The moment I get my book, I would hurry back home and settle down in my bed to start my journey into the magical world once more. And each time, Rowling did not disappoint. I'd still remember the day that I flipped the final page of the Deathly Hallows. Harry's journey had came to an end. No more eighth book or nth book to look forward to anymore.

That's why when Rowling announced that she had written Tales of Beedle the Bard, I became instantly happy for I know that there will be a day when this new book will get published and come into my hands. When that happens, I will get transported back to Harry's magical world again, even though it will be for a short time.

Boy, I sound so much like a crazy fan, don't I? Still, I don't mind going through all that again if I have a choice once more. For now, I shall be walking through the magical world with Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Tada!

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Oil Prices Dropped to Lowest Since 2005

Here's a piece of good news for all of us: According to AFP News, the oil prices has dropped to the levels last seen in Year 2005 at 43.67 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January fell 3.16 dollars to settle at 42.28 dollars on the InterContinental Exchange, also at the lowest since January 2005.

In intraday trade the New York contract fell as low as 43.51 dollars and the London contract dropped to 42.04.

This is good news for all of us who have been weathering against the economic downturn ever since a few months ago. On top of that, oil prices used to record at sky high prices which led many transport companies to increase their fares and this hurt our pockets deeply. Electricity at home also cost more since the increment of at least 25% on our monthly bills.

In short, we could barely survive with the high oil prices pushing everything else up. From food to transport to leisure to electricity to our basic daily needs. Prices could only go up and up.

However with the decrease in oil prices, we could possibly see a ray of hope shining through our despairs. Due to the falling oil prices, the transport companies, mainly the taxi companies, cut back on charging the oil surcharge to customers.

As for the electricity at home, it is most likely that the lower oil prices will result in lower electricity bills in the next few coming months and that's a relief for us. Money is hard to come by and every saved cents counts a lot.

Hopefully the situation will improve over time as it's not easy to get out of an economic crisis as serious as this current one. But nonetheless, we still can hope for more rays of hope to shine through our lives in the near future.

=D

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A simple yet delicious lunch

Today I had a very simple lunch. Despite that, it was delicious enough to remain indelibly in my mind.

I took a picture of my packed lunch with my Sony camera:




I had 3 dishes to accompany my rice. One is fried fish slices with apples, one is chilli-fried long beans and the last one is fried white cabbage.

I had some chicken curry sauce poured onto my rice to make it more tasty. I love the fish slcies the most as they are very crisp and tasty. It's milky sauce also makes the taste more unique. To top it off, apple slices are added to give more zing to the dish. Yummy!

So there you go. My simple lunch and a simple post for the day. Cheers!!!

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Farewell, Miss Lo Hwei Yen

Finally, we have gotten more information about the Singaporean woman who was tragically killed in Mumbai's worst terrorist attack in recent years.

Her name is Lo Hwei Yen, who was a lawyer and was in Mumbai to give a conference talk. Cause of death is listed as: 'Fracture of skull with abdominal injury. Firearm injury.'

A Mumbai senior hotel executive at the Oberoi Trident confirmed that she sustained gunshots to her head and abdomen. It is a cold way of killing.

These terrorists really stop at nothing to ensure they got what they wanted. Which was nothing compared to the loss of human lives. Everything makes no sense in these terrorists' minds. They are probably just as normal as the boy who lives next door. Underneath the exterior lies a mind so shocking that it defies the very existence of humanity.

It is very hard for anyone to accept that their loved one is gone. Just like that. To add salt to the wound, it was a tragic end to a vivacious life. That can't be right. I mean, based on news report, this woman is so lively and so cheerful that she deserve a better fate than this. Life shouldn't ended in this way for her.

She had just gotten hitched and her career was going on so wonderfully. Yet death's jaw snatched her away from life's hand in a snap of a second. There can be no satisfactory answer for this.

C'mon, is there a reason to start a war over trivial matters like race? Why does violence become a necessary negotiation weapon for these terrorists? All the commoners will suffer for nothing. Poor Michael. His life with Hwei Yen had just barely started and now he's all left alone. Thankfully, the strength of family love still keeps him going and I hope he will stand strong and live life once more, this time without his beloved Hwei Yen.

I don't know all these people and I only got their names from newspapers reports. Yet because we all share the same thing that ties us together: our home country, Singapore. Because of that, we are one big family and we give each other support when in times of need. At life's bleakest hour, we rose to the occasion and unite as one family, one heart.

No matter what life has to offer in the future, Singapore will unite and stand behind Michael for we will never condone terrorism. Ever.

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Celebrating my mum's birthday

This year I celebrated my mum's birthday right on the dot at midnight.

I bought a birthday cake from Four Leaves at Tampines Mall and it's a mango cake. See the picture below for illustration:




I made my mum ate the cake before she goes to bed and she was happy with the cake. Mango is one of her favourite fruits, you see.

I am also happy with the cake as it's very soft and creamy. The mango taste is not too overwhelming but I don't recommend eating the mango bits on the top. They are too sour for my liking. Yucks!

Other than that, this cake is worth the buck and most importantly, my mum enjoyed the cake.

Cheers~!

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JK Rowling Talks About Her Fave Harry Potter Scene

According to Mugglenet's source, JK Rowling has contributed an extract of her favourite Harry Potter scene to The Birthday Book, which marks the 60th birthday of the Prince of Wales.

In it, she talks about Harry's walk into the Dark forest, where Voldermort is waiting to kill him to end the prophesy that was foretold by Professor Trelawney many years ago. She wrote on Harry's accepptance of his fate by his own will rather by the expectations of the Wizarding World which expects him to destroy the evil Voldermort once and for all.

He could have chosen the easy way out by rejecting his fate and goes away from the Wizarding World to avoid confrontation with Voldermort. Yet he's brave enough to face his own destiny, that he is the only one who can destroy Voldermort and he walks his final path with conviction.

Albus Dumbledore is proud of Harry and is rightfully so. As a fan of the Harry Potter series, I am also feeling proud of Harry. JK Rowling's portrayal of Harry is so vivid and rich that makes it easy for readers and fans to connect to him on a personal level.

Now that the series has drawn to a close, I feel very sad that there will be no more insights into Harry's wondrous world. Nonetheless, I still possess the 7 books of the series and can still re-read them to relive the memories of Harry and his friends.

There is also the release of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and I am going to preorder it next week so that I can get my hands on the book. Man I can't wait for 4th December to arrive soon enough!

w00t!!!

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Crazy ACJC Students Truly A Disgrace to Singapore

For the past few days, netizens have been very active in Hardwarezone.Com for one very interesting discussion: the ragging of an ACJC female student on her birthday.

Youngsters these days have the tendency to carry things way too far and often at the expense of other people's feelings. This poor girl's only problem is that it happened to be her birthday and her "pals" decided to do a special celebration for her. The whole celebration was videotaped and uploaded onto Youtube.

Things got out of proportion when netizens picked up the video and were disgusted by the degree of ragging done. Soon word got around and everybody got on to forums to talk about it. The next thing we know, it was soon published in the newspapers, mainly The Straits Times, Today and mypaper.

In my opinion, the ragging went too far and if my own friends were to do that to me, I would severe all ties with them. Can you imagine being tied to poles and having food forced down your throat, milk poured all over you anf not to mention being videotaped and having that video posted online with a tag labelled "loser"? To add the cherry to the topping, all these ragging were done right in the school's compound, in full sight of other students and heck! even the discipline master had walked past the ragging with little interference.

Aren't teachers supposed to protect students as well as imparting knowledge to them? ACJC is SUPPOSED to be an elite school with top-notch students. Yet those "top-notch" students are nothing more just animals without brains and feelings.

I bet the poor girl went along with it as she had no choice. She might run the risk of getting ostracized if she reject the ragging. In our younger generation's world, you apparently have to have a mind made from steel in order to survive all these ridiculous pranks. I don't understand why these youngsters see the need to create all these chaos just to make themselves seem powerful in the eyes of others.

Boy, I'm glad that I don't belong to this weird generation and therefore I don't have to face with being humiliated on my super special day. Birthdays are something to be enjoyed, to be savoured slowly as you embrace the day with new beginnings.

Yet for this poor girl, it's all humiliation. I don't know what this girl is thinking but some netizens had checked and said that the girl does not harbour any bad feelings towards her friends. This girl is way too weird for me to understand.

Nonetheless, it made us sit up and realised what kind of future leaders that Singapore will be getting. This makes my hairs stand on ends and I wish I will never be around to witness Singapore's fall from grace due to such rascals.

Bah!!!

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Things you would do to get a Blackberry Storm

Pocket-lint has this interesting article to share with us.

"What would you do for a Blackberry Storm?" is just what Research in Motion had launched to get consumers to tell them what they would do for a phone.

Well, this man went ahead and got a tattoo of the Blackberry Storm done on his arm. Just like that. And the guy got his free Blackberry Storm as a prize.

If there were such a contest in Singapore, I doubt there would be any of us who would go to such extreme means to win the phone. But then again, I probably should never say never. You might never know there could be a possibility of another same fanatic guy who would tattoo the phone onto his body.

Anyway, it would be weird if the guy were to change his phone and he would still be stuck with the same tattoo. After all, a tattoo is for life and a removal is a very painful and expensive process. I'm not sure if I can deal with that. So too bad I can't be a tattoo girl the way Angelina Jolie is right now. But even she won't be tattooing a phone onto her body. Or not?

Perhaps. But it's sure refreshing to come across such an interesting read. Plus you can't deny the fact that the Blackberry Storm is indeed a stunning art of work.

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MSI Wind is Product of the Year

According to MSIWind.Net, pocket-lint has announced the winners of the Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards and the MSI Wind walked away with both the Best Laptop/Netbook award as well as the Product of the Year award.

The awards are decided by the UK's top technology and gadget journalists from online and print and MSIWind.Net has stated that it is one of the more reputable sites around.

I'm feeling so proud of my MSI Wind's achievements and the fact that I am an owner of a MSI Wind makes me dazzled. LOL. I don't know much about technology but I do follow the trends going on in the technology world.

It's a wonder for the MSI Wind to take the Product of the Year award straight right from under Apple's iPhone 3G. After all, you can't deny the fact that the iPhone has redefined the boundaries of the mobile phone world. Just like the way ASUS's eeepc single-handedly created a market of its own: Netbooks.

Besides, both the MSI Wind and the eeepc come from the Asian people, not those elite engineers from Silicon Valley, mind you. This make their achievements in the technology world much, much more significant.

In any case, I'm delighted to have my MSI Wind with me and hope it will last me for some time to come.

Right now, being part of the MSI wind users, I'm savouring its victory in the Gadgets awards slowly. Ahhh...

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It's Raining Heavily Now..

It's raining heavily outside now and judging from the thunders booming, there must have been a lot of lightning striking across the night sky too.

I wish I had a camera with the most advanced technology so that I can take pictures of the lightning. But these cameras are usually priced out of my reach. So I can only contend myself with lightning pictures posted by other photographers on the internet. See some of the interesting lightning pictures that I found just now:











They are so lovely and well-taken! Kudos to the photographers. I couldn't have taken such excellent photos myself, man. To take lightning pictures, you will need the right amount of time and especially luck. Lightning strikes anywhere in the skies and there could be some difficulty in pinpointing the exact strike location of the lightning.

I don't have much skills to talk about. Perhaps the experts will shed more light on that. Hmmm... I will need to do some research on the technique of taking lightning pictures. Then in the near future, I could take some lightning pictures of my own.

For now, my flu seems to have gotten worse and I hope the weather won't be making it worse. *sighs*

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HTC Touch HD comes to Singapore!

According to CNET's Crave, the HTC Touch HD will be coming to Singapore and Starhub will offer the phone in November this year. The rest of the authorized distributors will offer the phone from December this year.







I just flipped through the Saturday's The Straits Times and to my disappointment, there was no advert for the Touch HD yet. According to the website, the phone will be priced at $1,388 and will be categorized as a premium phone.

Oh boy. I hope the telcos will cut the price down reasonably enough. If the reviews of the phone are very good, I might just buy it to replace my current Nokia N95 8GB. Will the Touch HD be a successful iPhone killer? Stuff.TV has put the Touch HD and the iPhone side by side for a picture comparison. See below:




Only time will tell.

If it fails to beat the iPhone, then it's not a big problem to me since I'm sure there are still good virutes about the Touch HD. There's the generous screen with its 3.8-inch WVGA display touchscreen. Plus multiple wireless connectivity options that makes this baby absolutely a techie's dream. The gorgeous design also helps to increase the droolicious factor for this baby.

The only thing that might, a huge MIGHT at that, be a deal-breaker for me would be the keyboard. See illustrations from Stuff.TV below:




The setup of the keyboard is, unfortunately, not a QWERTY version but a conventional one. How well the screen will survive on my heavy SMS usage will be a constant question in my mind. I have not yet tried a touchscreen phone and have no idea how good or how bad the keyboard will interfere with the mobile experience. I hope everything is not as complicated as it may sounds. I just want a phone that works and works well.

So far, it's still early days yet and there are other soon-to-be released models by other phone makers and it remains to be seen who will eventually win the consumers' heart, and also my pocket money. Hahaha!

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Barack Obama Wins the USA Presidential 2008 Race

History has just been written into the books of USA. Yesterday's race for a new US president resulted in an expected win for Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

Hundreds of thousands of American who had been yearning to see a shift change in the political scene casted their vote behind the man who would become America's first black president. In addition, they also showed through their voting that support for the Republicans is rapidly waning. Many Americans are very unhappy with President George Bush, who kept waging wars endlessly for the past five years and often with many fatalities that left families broken.

To add salt to the wound, the current economic crisis is proving too much for the US government, and the public, to handle. Thus loss of confidence from both investors and citizens might have contributed hugely to the Republicans' loss. And more specifically, to John McCain.

For me, I am hoping that Obama will not follow in the footsteps of that damn Bushfire and start waging fires wars on Afghanistan again. It's time to pool precious wood resources into other areas, more specifically the US economy.

With the lousy US economy crisis, everywhere else in the world is also feeling and getting the pinch. Here in Singapore, prices of essentials like rice, oil and water have gone up largely due to the US economic crisis.

Furthermore, we are still facing the onslaught of tainted food from damn China and that has definitely NOT help us a single bit. Most of our products are currently sourced or made in China and many people are worried about getting food poisoning from eating such stuffs.

Well, I'm not surprised by that. C for China. C for Corrupt. China and Corruption comes hand in hand. All right, I may sound very harsh here but that's just the way the officials work in China. No money no gain. So the China people are quite a bunch of practical and intelligent species. You can't doubt that.

Every small little thing can transform into a poorly made China product. From Louis Vuitton to Hermes to toothpaste to soaps to biscuits to drinks. You name it, they already re-make it. It's interesting how these China brains work so fast and seize a money-making opportunity.

Between the US and China now, I really don't know who is the greater evil. Both countries' economies have major impact on Singapore's economy and God knows that we can't afford to have either one of them being belly up. That would be a disaster. If both economies go belly up, then we are in deep shit man. No joke.

When that happens, I want to find my Edward Cullen a.ka. twinkie in cleolinda language quickly and get him to whisk me off to some obsure places where I can escape from the impending calamity. I would swear on my grave, if I had one, of course.

In really extreme cases where survival is at stake, i.e. I can't afford to buy staples like rice, bread or even potatoes, then I would get my twinkie to give me that special love bite so that I can feast on bears instead. Lions are welcome too. Or penguins. Hmmm penguins are so so so cute. Oh all right. I will spare them on the account that they are nearing extinction now. Then when I had my fill, I would dance with my twinkie under the stars on the arctic ice. Won't that be so romantic? Plus I won't even need a winter jacket since I'm supposed to be dead and get as cold as the ice. Wee!

Ok ok ok . Enough of my dream talk. I'm sure it's gonna disgust some people. Wahahaha! That would have been my goal. You are tricked! Ok, I think my sanity might be at stake here. Hmmm...

No matter what, I am definitely looking forward to see the changes as promised by Obama and see a transformed US. Otherwise, it will be just like another round of suffering like the one bestowed on us by that Bushfire. In that case, I will grab and activate my twinkie!!! Muawahahaha!

Meanwhile, Obama looks forward to his victory celebration before eventually settling down to his new office. Well, he better celebrate and enjoy his victory to the fullest because after that, a daunting task is awaiting him back in office. Hint: Economic Crisis.

I won't envy his position right now. It would be a big challenge to tackle the economy successfully and it might just make or break his presidential seat. Will he prevail? Only time will tell.

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This is a follow-up picture to my first discharge on the 6 cells battery for my MSI Wind. Click on the thumbnail to get a bigger picture.



As the battery is still new, I will need to discharge it a couple of times before it finally stabilizes. But overall, the battery life for the 6 cells is around 5 hours, give or take. This is provided if the screen brightness is set to the minimum level and with only WIFI turned on. I rarely use other functions like the webcam or the bluetooth technology.

This in turn, helps to increase the battery life and giving a much more favourable lifespan than the 3 cells battery shit. I am a light user and my main activity is web-surfing. So this Wind works out to a nicely timing of roughly 5 hours and that's more than enough time.

However the battery life is still pretty much dependent on the user's usage pattern. If you turn on all the functions and do intensive work like photoshopping or browse videos all the time, stream music in the background, etc then you will drain the battery much faster.

Me is something of a computer idiot so web-surfing and a little bit of photoshop is pretty much all I do on my Wind.

Next I will post up comparison pictures of the 3 cells and 6 cells battery as well as the overclock function to give a rough idea of what my Wind is capable of doing. Not by much though. =(

Oh well. At least it's better than nothing. Tada!

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Today's My Lucky Day

I am feeling so lucky right now.

I had just gotten a free ride home from my colleague and that's a rarity in itself. Mostly our dismissal times do not match and thus being able to get this ride today is giving me such a good feeling.

First, I get to reach home @ 6.45pm. That's at least 15mins to 30mins earlier than my usual time if I were to take the public transport combo of MRT and bus.

Second, I don't have to wrestle with other strangers for a seating. I get to rest my legs during the 45mins journey, rather than enduring the usual 1 hour standing ride home.

Third, I get to escape from the horrid service of bus service no. 228 for once. To me, that's a very good thing because the bus drivers aren't very nice people. Just because they are driving the bus don't mean that they can be rude and mean to passengers. Hmmpf!

Just based on these 3 factors alone is more than enough to make it my lucky day. Ok, I'm probably exaggerating a bit here. How about a lucky transport day? Better?

Hmmm... if only I can get this lucky for every single day. Yeah I know, I am such a greedy piggy, aren't I? But that's just wishful thinking on my part. My colleague doesn't owe me anything so if I manage to get a voluntary ride, I should start counting my lucky stars already. w00t!

And so, with that, I'll get an early dinner too! How's cool is that? Oooooh kimchi!!!! Here I come!!!

*Yum*

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McLaren's Lewis Hamilton Wins the F1 Driver 2008 Grand Prix

According to the Formula 1 website, McLaren-Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton win the drivers' championship with 98 points, just 1 point ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa. Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari rounded up the podium with 75 points, coming in at third place.

Even though Massa really tried his best and won the Brazil Grand Prix, it was not enough to stop Hamilton in his tracks. Darn. I was actually gearing for Kimi to win but his point difference is simply too great for him to catch up to Hamilton. Oh gosh. Hamilton is really proving his mettle to be strong in racing. Lucky McLaren-Mecedes for getting such a superb driver.

Plus Hamilton must be feeling great that last year's disaster did not happen and he did managed to win the title by 1 point. Hee...

As for team constructors' championship, Ferrari won with 172 points on the table. Far from closest rival McLaren-Mercedes' points of 151 points. Well at least Ferrari can console themselves with this win instead of the drivers' championship. Bah!

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A Really Cool Old Song by Bangles: Eternal Flame

I had came across a truly old classic song that sound good even after all these years. This song is almost as old as I am, mind you. LOL. Here's a video of the song below:

This song is sung by Bangles and its title is Eternal Flame. I thought the lyrics are quite cool and the music is very soothing to the ears. Well, to mine, at the very least.

Here's the lyrics for some references:


Close your eyes, give me your hand, darling
Do you feel my heart beating
Do you understand
Do you feel the same
Am I only dreaming
Is this burning an eternal flame

I believe it's meant to be, darling
I watch you when you are sleeping
You belong with me
Do you feel the same
Am I only dreaming
Or is this burning an eternal flame

Say my name, sun shines through the rain
A whole life so lonely
And then you come and ease the pain
I don't want to lose this feeling

repeat bridge

repeat verse 1 and 2


Simple yet alluring. Too bad there's only 1 famous hit to this all-female band. It would have been great if the rest of the hits are as famous and well-known as Eternal Flame. Sadly enough, internal rifes within the band caused them to break up. Even though they have come back together again, things are never the same again.

Oh well. At least they had 1 hit song to their credit and that's saying something after all.

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A short update on my 6 cells battery

I have just collected my 6 cells 5200 mAH battery from Corbell yesterday and left it to charge for around 10 hours.

Today is my first discharge and I started using my Wind at around 2:13pm and the battery has lasted till now, and the time reads 9:16pm.

That's like 7 hours of usage for me, with the brightness level set to minimum and with only WIFI turned on. Nothing else. All I did was just web surfing, which is my main purpose of getting the Wind.

Now my battery indicator tells me that I'm left with around 12% of power or about 33 minutes of usage time. Wee!

So far, I have been very pleased with my new battery set & coupled together with my existing 3 cells battery, I can safely chucked my power adaptor at home without any worries of running out of battery power.

Now, MSI should have done this a long time ago and not make users wait infinitely for the 6 cells battery to arrive. That was such a torture. With my 3 cells battery producing only 90 minutes worth of battery life, I am literally bound to my room AND to the power adaptor. Not an amusing thing, I can tell ya that.

So, all in all, this 6 cells battery is a worthy bargain @ $99 for early adoptors. Now I'm truly mobile! w00t!

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Interesting Commentary on Twilight Series

If you haven't heard about the Twilight series by now, you should seriously thank your lucky stars for that. No, seriously.

IF, by chance, you are interested to know about this series, you should try wikipedia. It's got a brief summaries of all 4 books that will help you to understand the series in a jiffy.

Alternatively, you can also check out Cleolinda's LJ, in which she gives her own commentary on all 4 books and trust me, you will have fun reading her comments. She's downright hilarious and witty in her excerpts. Which kind of makes me feel inferior. It's true, I swear.

My writing is so boring compared to hers. I should really, really learn a pointer or two from her. But for now, you should satisfy your Twilight craving by visiting her site. It's definitely worth a visit.

Cheers!

PS. I should have just stick to my Harry Potter. Darn. I absolutely love JK Rowling.

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Felipe Massa on Pole at Brazil Grand Prix

F1 website has reported that Felipe Massa of Ferrari wins the pole position at the qualifying round for Brazil Grand Prix.

He is closely followed by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Together they will form the pinnacle of the race in the Grand Prix, which is also the final race in this season.

Tomorrow's race will decide who will be the winner for this season and the Brazil fans get all the action. If Hamilton keeps his pace, he could well be on his way to win this season with a flourish.

Can't wait for tomorrow to arrive. =)

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Felipe Massa is Second While Kimi Raikkonen is Third in Chinese Grand Prix

According to this Bloomberg report, Ferrari's both drivers took the rest of the podium standings at the F1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa took the second spot while Kimi Raikkonen took the third spot. McLaren-Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton won the top spot with an ease that sprung from his pole win on Saturday.

During the race, Hamilton had led Raikkonen while Raikkonen led Massa. At the last crucial laps, Raikkonen allowed his teammate to overtake him to take the second spot, thus bringing the points closer to Hamilton's lead to seven points.

Now it all hinges on the final Grand Prix in the race, the Brazilian Grand Prix. If Hamilton continues his win in Brazil, he will be the youngest driver ever at 23 years old to win a Grand Prix Championship. That makes him one year younger than Fernando Alonso, who won the Championship in 2005 at age 24.

The Brazilian Grand Prix will be THE race to look out for in deciding the eventual winner for this year.

Watch out for it.

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McLaren's Lewis Hamilton Wins the Chinese Grand Prix

According to the Formula One's website, the newly crowned winner for the F1 Chinese Grand Prix 2008 is Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes.

So he finally won a race after so many rounds of failures and disappointments. As the Chinese Grand Prix has only just been completed, I don't have the full details of the rest of the podium standings.

I'm still waiting for Formula One to update their website. For now, at least we know who's the winner. Hamilton's dangerous driving certainly paid off here. As I don't subscribe to any sports channel, I can't see how the race turned out. Especially for Ferrari.

With Hamilton's win, McLaren looks set to win both the drivers' and constructors' championships this year.

Let's wait for more news from Formula One on that.

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Jay Chou's Latest Album: Capricorn

Finally this day has arrived and I can get my hands on Jay's latest album, Capricorn!

I did a preorder at Tampines Mall's Music Junction and the album was supposed to be released on 9th Oct 2008. But due to a link of the album's songs on the internet, Jay decided to postponed the release date and to add on 1 more free gift to preorders.

The initial free gift was a Jay's rubik cube. Now the add-on will be a Jay's poker cards. Not that I'm planning to use either of them. They are meant for keepsakes. So I collected my items and took a snapshots of them. See below:















As for the songs, no doubt they are still Jay's signature songs with his distinct music style. As per tradition, you will need to listen to the songs a couple of times before they would grow on you. Most of the songs are my favourites except for the 3rd song, Snake Dance. I suspect Lara of Nan Quan Mama lends her vocals to this song and thus, making me hate this song. I have never like Lara's voice for it sounds very scratchy and irritating. There is absolute no good value about her voice. Bah!

The opening bars of the 1st song, Dragon Warrior Knight, has now become my newest ringtone on my Nokia N95 8GB. Heehee...

Now I shall devote my time to listening & learning the lyrics to Jay's new songs for it will be another year before the next release of his future album.

w00t!

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Renault's Fernando Alonso Wins the Japan Grand Prix!

Wow! According to Formula One website, Renault's Fernando Alonso had won the Japan Grand Prix, right after he won the Singapore Grand Prix.

That is a truly unexpected win for both Renault and Alonso. Wow! Looks like the former World Driver Championship holder is back with a vengence.

Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber won the second place while Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari won the third place. Judging from the writeup on the F1 website, it seemed to be a tight race for all the drivers and Lewis Hamilton of McLaren continues to encounter bad luck again.

Felipe Massa barely managed to grab 1 point from the Fuji race, thus reducing Hamilton's lead to 6 points. As for Hamilton, he bowed out of the race without grabbing any points. It was truly a bad day for both Hamilton and McLaren.

In any case, it was nice to see Kimi back on the podium, although he finished in third place. With 2 races left to go, it would be interesting to see how well he finish off in this year's drivers' championship.

Overall, it has been fun to catch all the results of the F1 race. Will Hamilton be crowned the winner finally?

Only time will tell.

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New MSI Wind U120 Coming Soon

Fudzilla has reported that a new successor to the highly popular MSI Wind is due for release in around December. The new netbook, which is known as Wind U120, will be targeted at business users and hence its colour scheme is geared towards a more serious theme. Fudzilla has kindly posted the pictures for us to drool over:

























Based on the pictures and Fudzilla's observations, the netbook does not seem to differ much from the earlier version, the Wind U100, which I am using right now. Thus there is no real incentive for me to do any upgrading to this new machine.

Besides, my current Wind is still working very well and I am very happy with it (except for the lack of optical drive). Nonetheless, it's interesting to see what new products MSI is coming up with to whet consumers' appetite.

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