computers .. computers...

Ah well. since I'm so free these days, decided to tweak the computers in my house. as it stands, there are 3 desktops (1 spoilt), and 3 laptops. Out of which ALL are ancient dinosaurs (and snails), except for my mum's laptop, which ironically is under-utilised by my sister.

So by some weird twist of fate, the person who doesn't use computers much (and properly I must add ... haha) gets the fastest chip in the house. Oh well.

Happy new year everyone! =)

1 sem remaining...

Since Sem 1 '04, to borrow some financial trading terms, my CAP has been on a bear run since. Well, mostly because I had quite an extraordinary 1st sem results but rather mediocre ones later on. So I was quite pleasantly surprised to see my CAP rise for once. Dead cat bounce? We shall see.

Still, was a little disappointed to get a B+ for my HR, as I thought it was very possible to get a A- at least. Oh well. Can't complain too much I guess.

1 more sem to go. Focus on FYP!

Happy Holidays everyone =)

All I want for Christmas ....

... is to get rid of this damn annoying headache. Argh. Really hurts. Sucky.

2007 Han-ee awards

haha what a name. Han-ee. Inspired by the Office's Dundees, well I've decided to acknowledge the more memorable events in 2007. Well by that I don't mean personal experiences like some anniversary, but rather, like best movie, best match etc. or worst. It would be quite cool to look back years later and see how my tastes have changed. heh.

And even though 2007 ain't over, I think I've had about enough material to start giving out the awards. And even if some of the things listed were not made in 2007, but if I experienced it during 2007, then it counts. haha. Give chance lah.

OK! To the inaugural Han-ee awards (note to self: need a new name)

Entertainment

Best Movie: Well, I watched a lot this year so it's really the toughest choice for me. Sentimental fav is Transformers. Other notable ones include Cashback, American Beauty (old movie), Zodiac

Worst Movie: Chronicles of Narnia (old movie). It's really just a C-grade LOTR. And a talking lion, I don't quite get it. haha.

Best TV series: I must say, Sopranos rocked my socks off! A pity they ended, (but what an ending! great! ), so that's the end of the legendary series. The first few seasons may seem somewhat dull compared to today's TV, but the right comparison should be made by the era of TV then, late 90s. I think it must have been quite the ace in the 90s. Nevertheless, who never liked mafia show heh.

Memorable mention: I'm currently hooked onto The Office (US). Brilliantly funny, and I think Dwight Shrute outshines Steve Carrell in the show heh. And I don't know why but the simple love story between Jim and Pam is so touching! heh imagine that in a comedy.

Worst series: not really, I'm quite selective of what I watch. Maybe Pirate Master hah!

Best Musical: Mamma Mia!

Best concert: (only attended 1...) Muse @ Wembley

Best album: Surprisingly, not a rock album, but a jazz compilation known as Jazz Manouche volume 2.Irresistable!

Worst Album: I seem to recall deleting the new Bon Jovi album as soon as I got it.

Best song: Toughie.... hmmm....... this hasn't been the best year for breakout songs, no?

Irrannoying song: It's a decent song, but hearing Snow Patrol's you-know-what song 3 times per hour on UK radio is enough to make my blood boil haha

Worst TV moment: The writer's strike. Sigh. no more Office for now....

Sports

Best Soccer match: AC Milan vs Liverpool, CL Final. suck it up. Actually the Milan - Man utd one could have won this category. but then again. Lpool. hmm.

Best Tennis match(es): 3 come to mind. 1st, Federer owning Roddick Aus Open SF. Total domination, and AR was hot coming into the match. masterclass.
2nd) Federer vs Nadal, wimbledon final. what a 5 setter!!!! fantastico nadal.... vamos next year !
3rd) Nalbandian vs Nadal some final in October. It's hard to play Nalbandian in that form

Best F1 race: Can't recall the venue, but the one that was pouring nonstop, and had for a moment the world's costliest parking lot when 4-5 F1 cars slid off the SAME corner on the SAME lap and pretty much collected themselves together

Best Crash: Kubica @ Montreal. evidently, F1 cars are really really safe.

Best karting race: Of course, the championship clinching run by Team Apex at the Caltex National Karting Challenge. (No one believes me when I say I'm a national champion hahahaha)

Lifestyle

Best Meals: Back to Basics (London), Hokkien Mee @ ChompChomp, Punggol Nasi Lemak@ Upp Serangoon Rd

Best trip: Tie between Budapest and Greece. Love central-eastern europe! Actually Norway was also kinda memorable, for different reasons hah!

Best car ride: Greek island driving loh...haha

Best hostel: Greek islands, cheap n wonderful

Worst airport experience: Heathrow and the stupid curfew

Best plane experience: Forgot when, but it was when a delay allowed us to go into the cockpit and see for the 1st time what it is really like in it. And its much smaller than you think. and Smarter.

Best Game: Hold'em.

Best Website: footytube.com, and rapidshare.com heh

Best blog award: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

Education

Best Book: Mostly read non-fiction this year. Hmm. Haykin's Neural Networks.... NOT hahaha. perhaps WetFeet

Best Documentary (yes.. educational ...): NGC's The Seven Ages of Rock. I wished I had seen this earlier, by 5 years.

Best course: Roman Empire (IC)

Best lecturer: My HR2002 tutor, Mrs Ma

Worst course: BY FAR, Microwave Technology (IC), scoring a world class 46.8%. I wondered how I passed.

Best exam: let's wait and see.

Best FYP moment: let's wait and see about this too.

Best project moment: Seeing my own brain waves on the screen ... 3 days before the presentation day!


OK! I think that's about it. Anything else you would want to know? =)

the feeling of argh.

A little rant here.

1st day post exams, and day 2 of my 'exercise' regime heh. Anyways played tennis for the 1st time in weeks, with EJ. I mean, he was a former KR captain so it was obvious who got spanked. Anyway we booked the court till 7pm... and about 630 a group of older ladies came by the court and asked if we were students. This was in TC2, and beside us happen to have a group of staff professors playing their regular tennis. all fine and dandy, except that I didn't bother to print the booking sheet as I never did, and no one ever checked. Even security only check our matric cards.

Anyway this particular male prof, came up to us and said that there was NO WAY we could have booked it, as they block booked the courts every tuesday and friday at those times. They had the sheet to prove it. But the funny thing is, I also managed to book it yesterday! Maybe there was a glitch in the system. and because I had no booking sheet, he was adamant that we didn't book and we had to leave the court immediately. While he does have a point, I was just really put off by his arrogance stance, and demeaning tone. As if a pri sch teacher to a child. I mean, so what, I know you're a prof but you don't have to show your 'power' over me. Argh. By the way, I would not divulge his name, but he did teach a common engineering year 1 module, and is always seen regularly around the tennis courts.

Ask nicely la. We know we no proof we also will go. Stop showing attitude....

In the end, I went back to check and I did manage to book it from 6-7pm. Not blaming the profs for this as I honestly think its a system glitch as they always block book those courts.

But dammit stop your arrogance.

the blog is dead .... NOT!

Ok. My last post was in Oct. That's pretty bad. hurhur.

Anyway exams are done, so its just left wqith FYP CA2 on 19th Dec. and then soon xmas ! and then new year! and then... school restarts. bummer. Can't wait to start work.

FYP I think for CA should be fine. Will be running the main bulk of simulations over the next 10 days or so, before finishing up the CA2 report. Sounds quite reasonable to me, but of course gotta put in effort. Still. tennis first tomorrow. hahaha.

Don't know why but I just thought of this today

"The smartest people around, are not the ones with the highest CAP, but the ones who know where their own priorities lie."

Ok this may sound like BS to some, but it's rather meaningful to me anyway haha.

And of course. Happy anniversary to you dear =)


And many more to come .... !

What a finish!

The F1 season is finally over! And what a great finale it was. Stayed up late in the wee hours to watch the Brazilian GP ... Hamilton went into the race with 4 pts over Alonso and 7 over Raikonnen. It was his race to lose.

Remember Shanghai? When he parked his car in the world's most expensive parking lot ie the pit lane gravel pit?!?! What was he thinking of? A decent finish and the title was his. But that moment of sillyness, losing his head when he could have slowed down more going into the pits, showed a weakness mentally. Can he handle the pressure.

Going into Brazil, I was telling some friends that I expect Alonso to finish strongly in the top three. That's because he has a really cool and mature head on his shoulders, winning 2 championships already. Hamilton will be too eager, and it will be interesting to see if he crumbles under pressure. Raikonnen... 7 pts behind, nah no choice unless the Mclaren blows up. Thus I think Alonso would win, even though I was rooting for Hamilton.

Guess what. He did lose his head once again. Start of race was frantic, Raikonnen got up to 2nd, Hamilton got caught behind a little and let Alonso past. 2-3-4. finish in that order and we have the world's 1st ever rookie F1 champion. but NOOOOO. Turn 4 and you know he wasn't thinking properly again. He's a racer no doubt, wanting to win the title with a victory, but it was barely 1% of the entire race and he didn't need to go on the outside of turn 4. Not very likely. I would say give any driver the chance to finish 4th and win the title and they will snap it up. Perhaps some youthful exuberance from Hamilton? In any case, he ended up 7th I think in the 1st lap.

Of course the electronics problem later didn't help and when he got to the back of the field I knew the title was lost. A brilliant attempt to get into the points got him into 7th , but he was hoping for a miracle (ie a crash from the front runners) to get any chance to win. Ferrari 1-2, so obviously Raikonnen would get no. 1 . Alonso would finish a strong 3, but 1 point short of the title... Raikonnen world champion! Wow. I think the crowd was quite stunned. in the end, the top 3 drivers were separated by 1 point only! Very very close.

In any case, we can judge the drivers by comparing them to their teammates. Hamilton has had a wonderfully successful season and should take heart from his rookie year. Same points as previous world champion is a remarkable achievement. Alonso won't stay in Mclaren, I don't see that happening. Racing is rather pro british if you look at all the key players. he's probably better off joining a non-british team.

Anyway well done to them. a juicy season indeed .... =) next year! (n the night race !!!)

Today's Stock Market lesson.....

... be very, very careful on intraday trading.

Ok. I'm no stock expert, even though I'm holding some counters. I've never tried intra-day trading before, but was tempted to try once, since the returns seem so good for the short time involved.

Uni-asia has been performing hot for the past 2 weeks. It IPO-ed under 60 cents and it opened today at 2.6-ish. Since mid August only! It was rather weird. Obviously there was some speculation going on. So now, do I ride the wave, or just stay back. I know nothing much about Uniasia besides they have some insurance services. That's all I know. I may even be wrong!

This is exactly how speculators do. Ignore the fundamentals, just gamble.

And so I did. Bought 2 lots at 2.6. (abt 10am)

Within the next 30 mins, it went down 2.55. I was sian diao. I really ignored my strategy, fundamentals, research everything out of the window because of this greed. Should I sell? Wouldn't that be so stupid. 2.55. hmm. I don't feel so good. Stupid decision? What was I thinking! It's such a ridiculous idea at this point to even buy it!

Went for lunch and back. Did some calculations, told myself. ok sell at 2.65 if it ever goes there. can cover transaction costs. hope and cross fingers.

1pm, started watching webcast. Saw that the counter was rising. hmm quickly put in my selling bid. I didn't want to have heart attack playing this speculation. It wasn't very fun ... too exciting for me even though not a lot was at stake (pple were buying 100 lots at a go). queued in at 2.66, and within seconds it sold. ok not too bad. made $70 in 3 hrs. Take profits, watch webcasts.

2 hrs later, 3pm. Saw that it had went up to 2.77. Damn! Why couldn't I be more patient. What was I thinking of? Where's my guts?! Hello .... this is trading. can I be more risky. :S

Or... maybe I should short? Since this was totally a rubbish price based on spec. Aiyah. stay off it la. Not worth the heartache....

Went to do some other stuff, TV, newspaper. came back at 4:30. Took a glance. Blinked, and blinked again. What's going on??? from a +10% it was now -26% ! Price = 1.88!

Frantic sell queues, trades made by the second. Volume up and up, prices down and up, fluctuating in the region of 1.9. What can I say? I must have been really lucky. Teresa was just telling me to be happy with my gains (and buy her sth ... ... ... ) Bless her for her advice!

End of day, closed near $2 region.

Moral of story? Buying low selling high is a simple concept. buying low ain't hard, its often the selling high that's the problem. Want to take risks? Be prepared for roller coaster ride. You will enjoy magnificent gains, but also astounding losses. Game for it?

Uni-asia's intraday stock for 15/10/07.

Roman Tennis

Wow this vid creator is such a creative genius... he/she made 2 vids which combines 2 of my loves, the Roman Empire and Tennis! haha and obviously a fan of Rome the TV series as well...

So let's go back to 44 BC when Gaius Julius Caesar was dictator of Roman lands....




... where he was enchanted in Egypt by the Queen Cleopatra... but had to fend off his greatest nemesis in the clay of Paris (de Gaulle??? From another era leh. haha)

Go Kart, go Fast!

ok I hope not too harp too much on the karting thing but it's just quite a momentous occasion la... hahaha oops. Anyways, AsiaOne carried our story here....!

Go fast, Go Kart!

A total of 96 go-karters representing 15 nationalities from various walks of life competed in the finals of the Caltex National Karting Challenge 2007 held at East Coast Park on Sunday.

...

APEX OF THEIR AGE-GROUP

AsiaOne chatted with the winners of Category B (19-25 years), Team Apex, which comprised of four young men who came together for this challenge only a month ago.

"It was great fun preparing for the competition. We met each other just a month ago. It has really helped us to get to know each other better," said 24-year-old Apex team-leader Melvin Teng.

To prepare for Sunday's race, the team made two trips to their Johor Bahru training base, where they spent a total of 40 minutes on a rain-swept track, prior to competing in Sunday's final.

The ace in the Apex pack according to his team mates, is Chen Zhonghan, who has five years of karting experience in places like the UK and the USA.

The 'Lewis Hamilton' fan humbly declined to be identified as the team's 'best racer', suggesting instead that all the team members had learned from, and helped each other in the process of racing together.

hahaha I still remember that interview it was rather funny. But yeah well the media as usual do their usual 'framing' of articles so it didn't exactly come out as expected, but its good enough lah, can't complain. Will update more here if I find more articles hehe.

clean tech!

I honestly believe that clean tech will be one of the main driving forces of the next 'growth' technology. Well we shall see. Anyway here is a great invention, in my opinion, which could really go a long way in helping reduce wastage ...

How 'disappearing ink' can cut waste paper

Scientists have unveiled a new kind of 'ink' that disappears from a page 24 hours after printing, allowing paper to be re-used

Mission Impossible-style self-destructing messages may soon cross from the realm of fiction into the wilds of the nine-to-five office, according to scientists who have developed printer ink that vanishes after 24 hours.

Read more here ...

Anyway, I'm not saying that karting is exactly a very environmental friendly sport ... haha! But it's fun nonetheless!

Pictures from the National Karting Challenge 2007!

Here's some pics as promised ....


Here's us before the race. Excited, but not THAT happy yet haha. Brandon, JP, me, Melvin L to R.

Us again ...

heh like some MTV. We were about to do our routine track walk...

Race to begin soon ... tension in the air...
The Start/finish banner ..

The karts lined up ... we were kart 3. 3 is really my lucky number....

Race underway! Don't know who's this though .. but definitely not me. Think its Brendon

One of us .... could be me. Ooops but that was a poor line into the double right heh.


Then it was announced... we won! Up on stage with president of NUS motoring and Minister of State.


Yummy medal. This was the media room where we had our interviews... (sadly tho none were published in today's papers...)

Another pic... we wonder why the Chevron backdrop

Chatting with the ST photographer haha nice guy.

Along team Speedy Gonzalez (Cat A winners), who were all over the news. 3 of them had no driving licences! Really impressive young team...


Tada! Our winning medal. =)

Champions of National Karting Challenge 2007!

Wow. What a day.

Ok let's just start from the beginning ... our team Apex (Melvin, jp, brendon and me) formed about a month ago to enrol in this competition. None of us were professionally trained in karting, but we all had a passion for speed....This challenge is open to anyone, and every team was classified by the age groups. So we were in the group of 19-25 yrs old. It was a relay, so each driver had to do 5 laps (400m each), total of 20 laps. Results were determined by time trials. Place was ECP carpark E1 converted to a mini race track.

So Friday was qualifying, and we clocked a total time of 12min 13s. Not bad. We felt quite quick that day, and kart was good, no spins nor crashes. Got the call on Sat night that we'll be racing on Sunday, where the top 6 teams on Friday will get to the finale race.

On Sunday ... I know that qualifying and racing are just 2 totally different things. How many times have I seen on F1 the pole holder lose his position later on. Or crash. Or complacent. We qualified as the 3rd fastest team, and the 2 teams ahead of us were more than 1 minute faster than us based on Fri time trials. It was going to be hard, but we had a podium chance.

Walked the track as usual. Talked through the corners. Discussed the new chicane. All was ready. Focus... focus.

When the race was underway everything was a blur! Brendon was unbelievably quick, and before long he had managed to overtake the 1st 2 teams, out of sight! Just a small lead then, but the 2 teams had started a good 5-10 secs ahead of us, so we were positioned very well.... fingers were crossed. maintain, maintain....

Melvin hopped on next. Kart 1,2 came in, so his exit was delayed. Race on! wheel to wheel, the 1st 3 karts went. At the start finish straight, Melvin applied the forward jerking technique, and helped gain 1 place!! Subsequently he was bumped at the back by some other kart but thankfully all was fine, very well in fact. He came in 1st again...

JP's turn next. quick engine on, and go go go! I was busily putting on the rib protector, gloves n helmet, psyching myself up.... come on. a few more laps to go. Pit in sign shown to him. He was coming in.. and I had the last leg.

JP off, I was on. Pit marshall said "Wait" but the karts in front were out of the way already. come on, let me go!!!! Pit was clear, and I didn't need the delay...

Finally gogogo! Grip was good. In fact damn good, better than Fri's already very good kart. The double right can be taken without lift off. Chicane 1... chicane 2... hairpin, ... double chicane... left-right and back to the straight! 1 lap done. no one behind me , no one in front of me. It was my race to lose. Gotta maintain. No pressure. Uneventful racing will win. Keep cool. No spinning. Get the tunnel vision.....

Yellow flags on last turns! Darn! Gotta slow down.... kept checking my back to make sure no one was closing on me..... and still had to squeeze into a small slot between the fallen tire and the side of the track. slowly... slowly.... I don't need the fastest lap. Just finish 1st.... when will the "pit in" show? It was to be my chequered flag.

Finally....... I saw the "Pit in Kart 3" on my last lap! It was the chequered flag!!!!!! Fist pumps... woohoo! Did it.... Went back to the pits, still quite not believing that we pulled it off. But we did! Super exhilarating!!

Handshakes with competitors .. "you guys were damn fast...." Wow. Soon after, the media flooded us, interviews and pictures (I kid you not... watch out for AsiaOne and CNA. Sadly ST didn't find us, but they had our pic) We had our 5 mins of media fame. haha. What an experience. But it all gone away when the celebrity race started and all the media focused their attention elsewhere. I saw Andy Penders, Melody Chen and Wong Lilin! heh.

Prize persentation, quite a formality.... Got a Timex and a medal. Damn cool. My 1st racing medal! yay! After that, more photographs, a few random interviews, and yup that's it. We managed to catch some precision driving by some professional stunt drivers that was really cool. tyres were burnt out! heh. Quite an eye opener.

Then the sky opened and the rain fell. Ooops. Sorry Cat C and D. Wet race for ya. Enjoy it!

End of day, our total time was 10 min 25 secs. That was really unbelievably quick... for us. We expected to go under 12 but not so much! Really proud of everyone in the team... cos we helped each other so much along the way..... even though none of us were very good. In fact the fastest lap time went to a team which didn't even make the top 3. Guess this really shows how important the team is. Racing is really a team sport!

Still we know that there are so many people who are better than us. Perhaps they didn't join this challenge. We also knew some teams in Cat C (26-35 yrs) who did 9.55 which is really impressive. But at the end of the day, we were the fastest team in our age group in Singapore, and that counts for everything! It was soooo worth the effort put in!

Whew! What a Sunday. Pics to come soon, so do watch out for them.... next time... if anyone of you goes karting.... do jio me along too! =)

The irony ...

... when I'm sitting in a HR office, speaking to a HR officer, and there she was, telling me that she's considering leaving the firm, but is clueless about where to head towards.

Guess no ones an expert when it comes to careers eh. Hmm. Interesting....

late night encounters...

haha... nothing of the spooky kind tho.

Today had lab in school till 6pm, and since it has been raining for the whole day and still was, it only meant the inevitable CTE jam (I drove today). So I decided to have dinner in school and do my lab report. So I kept on doing till 930pm when the guard chased me out of the classroom, and thats when I left towards Eng Aud. Thinking that it was term break, and nearly 10pm I thought there wouldnt be many people left in school, no?

No! All the benches in the EA block were filled, with people pouring over their laptops and books. Not just chatting at the end of the day but hardcore focused studying. Wow. And they weren't PhD students... they were undergrads (I know some of them) ! well well. Maybe cos I used to stay hall so I don't roam around school at 10pm at night. But at 10pm it was either in the band room, watching tv, playing guitar, attending some meeting, chatting with friends, dota, jogging, whatever. But definitely not studying, not even during exam period! Well, it really is competitive here eh?

Anyways, I noticed that there are ongoing professional engineering examinations (a test for pple who want the Engineer chop and can chop on official documents) .... Usually people who worked 3-5 yrs in industry. Man, they were struggling (via overheard conversations) ... Can't imagine myself studying engineering after 3 yrs working. All the formulas. I'd rather much do a MBA.

Well... guess its one less thing for me to worry now, then... =)

By the way ... it still jammed on the way back home... :S

Nice!

Just finished watching the MotoGP race in Motegi, Japan, where Capirossi won, but the main story is that of Casey Stoner wrapping up his world championship when he finished 5th, ahead of his main rival V. Rossi who finished 13th.

Seriously, he has achieved so much already ... at 21 years old, married to a beautiful wife, racing in the premium class, winning the world title. All in 1 year! oh well ... congrats to him! A mature head on his shoulders indeed!

And who knows, Lewis Hamilton may yet win the F1 title. All the young dudes, carrying the news....

2007 MotoGP Champion -- Casey Stoner

Back to MAF

Ok, stop with the MAF/muff jokes... ahem.

So I went back to Hwa Chong's annual mid autumn festival for the 1st time in 4 years... haha glad to see that some things hasn't changed much. Caught a bit of the lion dance performance, where they did some obstacles, but none of the stunts that my batch did... but then again my batch was quite different as we had the talent coming in from RV.. but wow this year at least 2 of the lion "heads" were done by girls, so that's really impressive....

There was a dragon lantern made, pretty huge, hung up across the plaza, very nice, though I must admit I was a little let down by the lack of fireworks ... this year they only lit up a rather meaningless word (I think). Anyways, the company is the most important, and met up with the OAC bunch again! So glad to see some of them since many months ago... like Chermaine and Dyan...and I couldn't stop calling Xinhui "Gigi" Giselle hahaha. She's so gonna kill me soon. So we went for the annual OAC gathering, and for the 1st time, our batch is the OLDEST batch that went back. I mean, now its the 33rd and we were the 26th! Never thought this day would come so soon.... I'm really olddddddd. But our turnout was very strong, and hock gave his usual inspiring speech... so pretty much same old =) It's so glad to see everyone moving on with their lives, but still remembering the friends that matter every now and then....

Ok. Enough of nostalgia, back to FYP!

oh the memories!

Aye how I love this song! heh. Enjoyed jamming/singing/listening everytime. The Darkness Rocks!

Happy/Sad

Well, don't really know how to describe my state of mind now. Obviously I'm elated with this proposition, as it looks very attractive right now. But on the other, demoralized because I was 'given' so much help along the way. Somehow, it didn't feel as accomplished as I had imagined.

It's like, winning a marathon on drugs. Or winning a F1 race using stolen technology. It just don't feel quite right.

Anyhow, it's not that extreme, and I must say I'm mostly delighted how things have turned out.

Imitations...

Well, anyone who's been following tennis would have heard of Novak Djokovic. Ok, young Serb, no.3 in the world etc. He's good ... but everyone should see him in his off court antics mimicking the other tennis stars, ala sharapova, nadal etc. Totally reminds me of how Kevin Spacey did his impersonations of movie stars in the Actor's Studio .... This is good stuff, enjoy!