Oops i shouldn't have done that.

Man, i just did something really stupid today.

I gave the two interns at the law firm my blog address.

Not that my address is very hard to find anyway (in fact, it's hopelessly easy), but like man, what a mistake. Now i can't bitch about them on this blog like i wanted to!!! *Ahhh* ok lol sorry i'm joking. :D

Anyway, let's just hope they conveniently forget the address or something haha.

Oh, and before i end this post, i'd like to do some casual advertising for MANGA READERS ONLY!

...have you people read VAGABOND yet?

You really should! It's an ongoing, super serious (warning: 18+years only i think) historical fiction manga about samurais and fighting with a tinge of romance (think a more realistic and barbaric Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen a.k.a. Samurai X OVA), and it's produced by Inoue Takehiko-sensei, the guy who gave us the all-time favourite SLAM DUNK!!!

The art is super-detailed and really beautiful and, after all those manga lessons, i can finally appreciate all the work that has been put into hatching/shading and screentones - more than most manga series, i bet.

You can go get it using the...dark side...but i've seen the english versions at Kinokuniya outlets and other miscellanous shops as well and i don't think it'll be very costly. So go give it a look; i know i'm definitely going to buy the whole manga series soon!

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Feeling down again.

Sigh. I'm in a bad mood right now. And it's mainly because my computer just screwed up on me again. Yup, the bad luck with technology strikes once more. :\

This time my CMOS-dunno-what-fan that cools my chips has stopped functioning. According to Goat, computers can usually function without that fan for quite some time, but i can't seem to get past the stage after my computer detects hard-drives - even after clearing my CMOS ram - and i cannot go into my BIOS to "ignore" my fan problem.

What all this means is that there could be some kind of permanent chip damage. Which means that i'll have to change my motherboard. This is where my 3 year motherboard warranty comes to the rescue, but sadly, my receipt from Fuwell has been missing for the past 2 years or so. :(

Sigh...Goat recommends that i get a whole new computer, keeping the graphic card, disk drives, and peripheral stuff, if i want to. But if you've read my previous posts, you should know how much i ABHOR spending lots of cash (i.e. >$200-500, depending on the item) to repair or replace stuff which shouldn't have gotten broken or missing in the first place. I also don't like having to go to some faraway place and wait there the whole afternoon just to replace stuff using a warranty. Although i kinda wish that i HAD that option right now.

Anyway, i was so very unproductive on friday at work, spent friday evening doing nothing of note, and besides going for a short run, i don't think i did anything productive today as well. Wasted 2 whole days, in my opinion - and now this happens - and i'm feeling the pinch right now during today's final hour; so i'm rather depressed at the moment. And when i get depressed, the introvert in me makes me want to just have some time on my own doing something distracting...hopefully with a coke or something at the side.

And now Nicholas and Maryann (from my JC class) has just called me and asked me to go down to a pub like RIGHT NOW to celebrate Meixian's birthday, but i've never been a last-minute outing guy, and as things stand i'm completely not in the mood at the moment. Should i go or not...:|

...I've decided not to. Haiz. Just gonna end up spoiling the mood anyway.

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ORD slackness, go away!

Whew! I ran my first 2.4km this year; my first in over 3 months LOL talk about lazy. In fact i don't think i've even ran ANY distance AT ALL for the past 3 months. 0_o On the treadmill, of course; i'm not so hardcore as to go running around in East Coast Park or something hahaha! Well, my treadmill has got a crap-ass maximum speed of 12km/hr that only allows me to finish 2.4km in a fastest time of 12 minutes. At that pace, however, i think i was pretty tired at the end of the run...so i'm guessing that my actual timing now would be somewhere near 11 minutes, hopefully a bit faster than that.

Sigh...all that army tiger trail/cross country team training gone to waste...i think i should make it a habit to run 2.4km every saturday morning from now onwards. The whole process of warming up, running, cooling down and taking a shower would use up about an hour of my time. That'll take up about 130 full days of my entire life if i keep it up till i'm 60...hmm that's actually quite a good tradeoff, if you think about it. Just a completely random geek thought though whaha.

...Anyway, on that note, i'm wasting time thinking of more things to write LOL. Time to go play Suikoden V on the PS2 or read some economics or practice my touch-typing on the computer or whatever.

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A weekly life update.

Well, monday was slack as hell...or more like heaven lol (haha although i was still bored as HELL, regardless...). But then tuesday came, and i ended up working twice as hard as i did compared to my first week at the law firm. And the workload didn't subside any, today. I was 30 minutes overtime when i left the office today, with lots of unfinished work. Which i'd normally prefer to stay behind to finish, except that i was in a rush this evening as my dad was waiting for me 'cos we were eating out.

I suppose that's what they mean by having greater responsibilities the longer you're an intern at a firm, which also means that the workload will probably increase in size or weight as the internship goes on. And hopefully in complexity as well. And even then, i don't think i'd even be working HALF as hard as the lawyers and perm-staff at the firm. I think some of them stay back in the office till past 10pm...before bringing whatever work's LEFT home. 0.0 In fact, i suspect some of the lawyers stay overnight at the firm every now and then too...Charmaine has, i'm quite sure, and Thomas looks the type. All without over-time pay, i assume.

Anyway i'll be taking a shower and going to bed early today (hopefully) since i'm rather shagged out. Of course, my vampiric abilities could suddenly kick in as midnight approaches LOL. I've just got crazy amounts of energy at night haha...all my weariness fades as night falls......>:D

Hmm, but what else...oh yes, i ate at Ajisen Ramen today (relatively low-priced jap food). And when i ordered a set which came with salmon/sake sashimi, and finished the sashimi...the thought suddenly occured to me again: WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO EAT AT A JAPANESE BUFFET??????

Like it's been a bloody 3 MONTHS since i wanted to eat jap buffet and advertised it on my blog, and it's not as if the restaurant's overseas or anything; there're so many of these restaurants in Singapore! But most of the responses i get are "I no money to go...treat me lah" or "Aiyah i can't eat so much anyway lah...don't waste money". Mostly money issues. Sigh maybe i should just go on my own...with just my own lonely self lol.

Oh and today, we were on our way out of the Parkway carpark when i saw a freakin LAMBORGHINI REVENTON like WTF!!! When they first released the car there were like only 20 of them WORLDWIDE and each one cost a sweet 1 million euros...:| I suppose they've made more of this model lately...otherwise the guy driving in front of us today either bought an imitation or has a really rich, fat ass!

The Reventon is like my dream car sia...and yep, the only way i'll own a vehicle like that is probably in my dreams...i won't spend money on a car like that even if i struck TOTO man lol. Anyway, according to my dad, everyone in the parking lot was staring at the Lamborghini as it drove past them...and of course i couldn't have known about that myself, since my own eyes were completely trained onto the Lamborghini the whole time hahaha.

Anyway it's 9.45pm; time to prepare for my shower. Later!

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Ahh...now my laptop's having problems!!

Gosh i'm bloody unlucky with laptops too. I just remembered that my old Dell laptop went bust with a graphic card problem a few months (or was it days) after the one-year warranty had expired. Lol then again my sister's Dell laptop was like this too, which has led me to completely black-list that laptop brand.

But predictably, i've run into a problem with my new laptop, this time a problem with the buggy Windows Vista OS instead of a hardware problem. To put it simply...my laptop now starts in Reduced Functionality Mode!!! In other words, the "Black Screen of Death"...an OS problem which affects mainly those who use pirated/unactivated copies of Windows Vista (check it up online if you don't know about it).

The thing is, my copy of Vista isn't pirated! And i even re-activated my Windows Vista via the phone with Microsoft last night, all to no avail. When i get the black screen, i don't get prompted to activate Windows too, so i don't think it's a problem with activation.

What then? I've got 2 theories. Firstly, something went horribly wrong when i uninstalled the pre-installed McAfee Antivirus program last night. I did that because i couldn't seem to register the Antivirus/Internet Security program 'cos the process kept hanging after i provide my personal details. So i got sick of them asking me to register/install product everytime windows loaded up. And i started getting the black screen right after i rebooted the computer following the uninstallation, so it could be due to that.

Secondly, i had tried to run a WinRAR key-generator program before performing the uninstallation of McAfee, which perhaps screwed-up the system registry or gave my OS the impression that i was trying to hack into it. Like wtf. Haha although in the end the generator program had problems and didn't work, so my copy of WinRAR is still in trial mode. So could that keygen program be some kind of sick virus instead? I actually find that unlikely, given the comments and discussion i heard with respect to the program. And yes, i'm aware that keygen programs are a bad, bad thing and would gladly pay WinRAR $10-20 if they were to come knocking at my door lol.

I've written an email to NEC's customer/service support or whatever it's called. But their own telephone helpline is only available on weekdays, so they'd probably reply to my email only on monday as well. Bummer. And even then i don't think they'd be able to help. They'd probably have to send someone down to perform an OS re-installation (because it's an OEM Vista so i don't have the installation CD with me!! >.<).

Until then, i guess i'll have to chuck my laptop to one side and pretend it doesn't even exist and that i didn't even purchase it, so that i can stop wasting time thinking about this problem and getting all depressed. Gosh. 0_o

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Nothing in particular...

Phew, yesterday i had a big battle with diarrhoea that turned out to be gastric and it seems like, tonight, it's finally cured! :) Oh and today was quite interesting too...got to meet a client and stuff.

And i knew i'd be doing lots of things for my internship but i never thought it would involve a bit of baby-sitting LOL. A very cute and mischevious 3 year old boy...but that's all i'm going to say on the matter hahaha.

I visited VJC tonight too 'cos there was like free food HAHA. but of course it was ALSO to see the new house committee having their house comm orientation camp lah and ESPECIALLY to have a chance to catch up on old times with some of my house committee friends. :D Chatted with Zeya (i swear he's grown a bit taller in the one year that i haven't seen him lol), Nicolas and Yong Sheng and talked to the old bear Mr Chow. Pity the rest from my batch didn't pop by. And none of my direct juniors visited the JC too. Still, i'm starting to realise that, as we get older, we start finding it fun to just sit around a table and chat LOL. Really...i don't know whether that's a good thing or not. 0.0

Anyway, i actually brought some work back from the firm to do at home so i better get to it...:| it's going to be a past-midnight day again. Hopefully i'll get to knock off early tomorrow night since i won't have anything on like today and don't plan to watch any anime too.

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!!! b4b3 5p0++3d.

I've never thought, in all my shallow-ass years, that a short, bespectacled young woman could ever be considered worship-able material or even simply very attractive, in my books (at the most just quite attractive haha). But after today, i suppose a bit of charm and intellect can go a rather long way to remedying things like these. My goodness. 0_o

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So much better than...

When i stepped out of the office today, the first thing i thought was "Wow...this is a great place to work!" :)

Seriously. The people here are extremely helpful and sociable, the atmosphere's surprisingly relaxing, and my top boss is a lively and friendly person and, as a senior counsel, almost disarmingly amiable. Employers here actually chase me to go home and rest...quite unlike another association i used to be a part of >.<. Over-time is no problem in any case, because the MRT station is right beside the office building.

It's also a good thing that the only two interns at the law firm at the moment are two girls who, like me, haven't even done their first year at the university yet. Makes me feel like less of a n00b there. What's even better is that be it photocopying and filing papers, highlighting stuff or carrying documents around, i somehow feel like i'm actually doing some REAL work. Now if i can get to help out a bit more at cases and do some research for the lawyers it'll just make my day. Let's hope that i can keep this kind of enthusiasm up for a decently long while.

All in all, this is so much better than ARMY hahaha! :D

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Last Minute Laptop

I bought a laptop. And it's like one day before my internship. Talk about last-minute. Got it at the IT show at Suntec today, and boy, i've never seen an IT show THIS crowded. The queues were humongous too; it took like over 30 minutes just to get in (or out) of the exhibition hall from outside suntec. And the UOB redemption counter had such a long line that i think it'd take over an hour just to get from the back of the queue to the counter itself. I believe it's my first time going on the last day of the IT show though, so that could be the reason.

Anyway, my laptop's from NEC. Which isn't what i expected my internship/university laptop to be; i always thought it was gonna be a Sony Vaio/Asus/Lenovo Thinkpad/Fujitu Lifebook/Acer one, and NEC was like nowhere on my shopping radar. But after looking through all the brochures and asking salespeople about extra offers, unmentioned battery-life, etc, the NEC Versa S5500 just impressed me the most in the end with its good balance of price, features, weight and freebies, although Asus had a super-light 1.55kg, $3099 model which could still fit in a top class proc and a nvidia 9300 graphics chip (although i don't need my laptop for gaming). i would've jumped at that if Asus had given me a spare battery and a further $100 discount.

So my dad and i were discussing whether to get the NEC laptop or not, and i was still torn between getting the laptop now or waiting for those at the NUS fairs when my dad started complaining about the 60days-only Microsoft Office to the salesman. The salesguy decided to ask this senior salesgirl (a small girl in white who actually seemed younger than BOTH the salesguy and myself lol) and she gave us the whole Office software with a two year warranty extention (to 3 years) right on the spot, and both of us jumped. Hahaha!

The salesguy had told us at first to top up another $150 to get that Office, so this was a great turn of events. All of it still cost $2299 though...i'm not sure how great my deal is but i'm not going to care because i won't get to enjoy my buy if i found out later that it could've cost less...lol being voluntarily ignorant and all that stuff.

This laptop hasn't been something i've been wanting to get for very long, anyway, so it was only when i'd gone back, turned on the laptop and started filling in details did i realise that, hey, i'd just gotten myself a spankin' new personal computer!! :D A "new toy", as they like to call it. I'm actually using it right now to type this post. :) The keyboard'll take a few days to get used to and i must say that i still don't like how Windows Vista works...>.< Give me XP any day!

Well i've got to go off now! The spare battery's finally fully charged so i'll have to hurry up and get to bed...my internship starts tomorrow!

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Similar traits huh.

Hmm...i met a guy on MyAnimeList a couple of days ago who's surprisingly similar to me in some ways. Like we both talk a lot online; we try to be all-encompassing when we write, in an attempt not to leave any holes and appear stupid. But we fear appearing arrogant as well, so we're almost excessively self-deprecating, at times.

In other words we both tend to take ourselves a little too seriously. He's 2 years younger than me and a far more severe case of it (at least that's what i hope lol), but anyway it was fun reading his posts and his profile hahaha.

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Finally!!

Okay. I've passed my driving test.

Finally!! Haha, with 4 points too. Not exactly the zero points i said i was going to aim for, but since those 4 points were for really silly things (i stalled my engine twice while starting off 'cos my feet were just shivering out of pure nervousness. -.-), i'm not really bothered by them.

Wait, what am i saying? I wouldn't care if i had gotten 18 points or whatever, so long as i could get that licence and get all that driving lessons out of the way. This period of my life is finally over and i'll do my utmost to make sure it STAYS that way. >.< Ohwell anyway i'm going to fetch my sister to Siglap right now with my dad sitting beside me LOL so off i go! :)

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I'm starting soon. Gulp.

My goodness. I've got a driving test coming up in 2 days time but i can hardly even bother about it. My mind's currently occupied with another important, arguably more pressing issue: i'm starting a law firm internship next monday!

I don't want to reveal too much here, but what i'll say is that it's a 9am - 6pm job. I don't know what i'll be doing, exactly, but i'll be directly under an all-powerful Senior Counsel on my first day (and probably more to come) and i shall be following that Senior Counsel to High Court on my first day as well! 0.0

Talk about being thrown into the deep end of the pool. We're setting off for High Court 15 minutes after i arrive at the firm so it's going to be very rushed and i don't think there'll be time to discuss attachment length and any allowances before moving out. I haven't even started my university courses yet so i shall have to do a lot of reading up on my own (much more than i've done so far) on the weekend before work starts.

There's also all these urgent matters to take care of: i've got to find the black leather shoes, black suit, and black pants that i've stashed away at home and haven't taken out in ages. And i will have to go to G2000 or wherever to buy more suits, pants and white shirts for the long haul. High Court's a very formal place too so i might even need a pure black tie.

Plus i'll have to borrow one of my dad's laptops (yes he's got a few laptops lol) to take notes for the Senior Counsel during the trial. To be honest, i felt his laptop was a little big and would stand out too much...it's like a bit of a multimedia laptop in a very formal, working environment. But what the heck. Hopefully they won't care about it.

Anyway, i'm feeling a bundle of emotions right now; fear, nervousness, uncertainty and raw excitement thrown into a devilishly confusing mix. It's a little like waiting in line to get on a scary, yet famous rollercoaster ride at some theme park; i'd be honoured to have experienced the ride first-hand, but that doesn't diminish my fear of getting on it any.

At the moment, i'm somewhere in the middle of that queue. In four days time, i'll be at the front. I really hope that i'd be able to fall asleep come sunday night.

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Reading problem solved and driving test woes strike. Again.

I think my room's got a nice smell to it. Turn the air-conditioning on, leave the room for awhile, then go back inside, and it smells quite like my former home in Illinois, and also a little like my room in Hong Kong. I've got this very exquisite "smell-memory" so nostalgic smells are always very nice. :)

Anyway i haven't blogged in some time...just a little laziness on my part lah haha. Recent happenings...I went out with Shawn, Yuen Kay and Andy for dinner, then met the usual group to watch Jumper and met them again on another day for dinner at this expensive Japanese restaurant that really wasn't worth the money (i forgot the name of the restaurant, so they're spared for now! >.<). Then there was my cousin's daughter's birthday that i went to 2 days ago where i played with all those cute little toddlers again.

Besides that, i've been spending time at home, reading books, posting on Facebook and MyAnimeList, playing random computer games, watching anime and reading up on economics (apparently an economics background will help when you study Law, so what the heck, i'll just study it)...quite a relaxing life. Unlike some people, i definitely think i'll never be short of things to do when (and if) i retire in the distant future. I'm just too acquainted with visual entertainment to actually RUN OUT of entertainment.

I also believe i've discovered why i can't read as much as i used to! I think it's because i've become too used to "studying" whatever i read. Like, instead of speed-reading, i'd read every word silently so i'd be able to absorb every detail. I do the same while reading anime subtitles, too, and i'd rewind and watch again if i missed out on anything. So i tend to take much longer than usual to read books and watch anime...which also results in me losing interest in whatever i'm doing much faster.

So i tried speed-reading the rest of One L (a book by Scott Turow) last night. And i ended up getting so engrossed in it that i read for 3 hours straight and only stopped because it was already 4 o'clock in the morning. Quite an achievement as compared to my 30-minute attention span previously. And i think by doing the same thing, i'd be able to watch, say, 5 episodes of anime a day instead of just 2 - using just a little bit more time as well. I'm going to have to read the last section of One L again though, in case i missed out on any details.

...I wonder why i have that sort of urge, though. :| Like i have this fear of overlooking even the most minor details on the most inconsequential of tasks...some kind of obsessive disorder, perhaps? 0_o

Ohwell, random things aside...i've decided to talk about the very odd incident that happened to me last wednesday.

If you didn't know, last wednesday was my driving test! My fourth time as well, and lots of crappy things happened to me then...

Firstly, i had trouble sleeping. I had been adjusting my body-clock little by little and managed to sleep at midnight and wake up at 7am the day before. But, on the night before the test, i had a bit of insomnia. You'd think that taking the test for the fourth time would make me more relaxed, but somehow i was never more nervous for the previous times. I tried to sleep at 10pm, and then tossed and turned in bed till it was 2 in the morning. -.-

During that period of time, my heart pounded so hard i could feel my pillow shaking. I'd feel warm and sweaty one minute and then shivering cold the next. I tried playing mind games with myself; telling myself that tomorrow's test was not important, that it was easy-peasy, that i could always try again if i failed. All to no avail. Then i changed my game plan. I told myself to just pretend, in my mind, that i had already failed, all in an attempt to calm myself down. But instead the sweating got worse and the pounding of my heart got more intense.

To me, it was really the oddest kind of nervousness. My mind was calm but my body wasn't. Or rather, my conscious mind was calm but my unconscious mind wasn't. I don't think it was the test itself that got me so nervous; rather, it was the pressure i put on myself to get that 7-8hours of sleep that did me in. The only thing that stopped me from shouting at myself or getting angry at myself from frustration was the fact that this had all happened to me before; the incident on the night before my first A level exam and the night before my army enlistment had given me sufficient experience to deal with my anxiety.

In the end, i took a sleeping pill, tossed about again, and managed to fall asleep at 4.30am. I woke up a short while later at 7.15am to get ready for my warm-up lesson at 8.30. I felt like crap. I was so going to fail, i thought. Things were quite uncertain already but my actions last night practically INSURED my failure. I felt like a loser...the type of guy who couldn't handle stress, who couldn't perform at crunch-time, and who would never flourish under pressure. In fact i still do.

Surprisingly, though, my warm-up went well. No stalled engines, no bumped kerbs, only one mistake when i steered through the crank course while on 2nd gear without realising it, because i'd forgotten to drop gear before going in. And even that in itself is quite an achievement! :D The situation was much less than perfect but i was ready to tackle the test head on.

Later on, however, something really weird happened to me.

My PDL went missing.

PDL meaning Permissible Driving Licence (edit: PROVISIONAL, not Permissible. Thanks goes out to Celine for pointing that out). It's what allows me to drive during lessons and a must-have when you go for the test. I had given it to my instructor at the start of the lesson. He'd given me a plastic slip with my IC, receipt and PDL inside and i had gone straight to the test's waiting room to drop it into a basket. But later, the examiners told me that my PDL was missing, although my IC and test receipt was still present. I went back to check the path i'd walked on the way to the waiting room but it was nowhere to be found.

Really odd. I still wonder where it went. My instructor said that it wasn't with him and double-checked his car and pockets. My PDL's stapled to my 2 old ones so it's 3 pieces thick. I had held the plastic slip tightly as i walked towards the waiting room, and given the thickness of the PDL, i'm sure i would've noticed if it had fallen out. In fact, i'm willing to swear on my grave that it didn't drop out that time. And, in response to my mother's initial suspicion, i swear on my grave and on my life RIGHT NOW that it was never my intention to lose the PDL in an attempt to escape the test or anything else of the sort. Such a thing is way below me.

This leaves the examiners. I'm guessing that because my slip's 3 pieces thick, it got clipped together with another person's PDL and they didn't notice the difference between 3 and 4 pieces of paper. There's no way to find out in any case.

So, in short, i couldn't take my driving test last wednesday. After hearing the news, my dad told me to go and pray to dunno-who to improve my crap-ass luck with driving. But besides my lack of belief in organised religions, i've just got too much pride to do such a thing...after all, you can only pass your driving test once in your whole life (hopefully), and i want to pass with just my own skills; i don't want to pass and then have people say that it's because i prayed or whatever (as my dad definitely would). And do i care about what other people say?? Lol of course i do!! :D

My instructor and i pleaded with the chief examiner at the driving centre, and fortunately for me, he was kind enough to find an earlier time-slot so i could take my next test earlier. The test-date's this friday, in fact.

So in the end, am i unlucky...or was that actually a stroke of good luck? I had gone and screwed up my sleeping plans, so this event allowed me to get a second chance, with the test date just a little more than a week away. I had to pay for another PDL, but to be honest, i can't deny feeling a sense of perverse relief when the instructors first told me my PDL was missing. And back then, i didn't even know if i'd be able to get an early replacement test date - or if such a thing was even possible. I was pissed at how my PDL had gone missing - not a case of me misplacing it or whatever - but i was still happy, after the whole incident was over, to have been given another chance to correct my wrongs.

I hope things go well on friday; i really want to get this whole "driving" chapter out of my life. It's been almost a year since i started practical driving lessons already, and i'm just tired of the whole thing. In fact, it's starting to feel like NS, except that NS gave me money and now driving lessons and tests are COSTING me lots of money. >.< I'll be so happy when i don't have to go for driving lessons anymore.

To end off on a completely unrelated note...i believe i've found people to go to MAROON 5's concert with!! But the cheapest seats, at $75, are really far from the stage, and the $125 ones are not much better. How sia...regardless, i better book fast before it's too late.

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