Anyway, being the Economist that I am, I realise that people really do respond to incentives. Like duh! And sleep is one of the strongest motivators out there. I went to school early for lessons @ 9am. I was supposed to have lessons until 6, and then a project meeting at 630pm. However, the project meeting got cancelled, and so I was supposed to end at 6. Then I thought to myself, the tutorial at 5 to 6 can be skipped and I can go home at 4 to sleep since I have a break from 4 to 5. Further into my lessons I thought that the programming lab too could be skipped since I did not have much to do at the lab anyways so I could go home at 2! By the end of the lesson, I decided not to go for the Statistics lecture since the lecturer would put me to sleep anyway.  So here I am, through the rain and at home @ 12! For a day that was supposed to end at 7+ and which ended @ 12 I think that is really good!

On a side note, I got 34/40 for my Econs Mid Term MCQ test, so I guess last minute studying really does pay off!

Just a thought,  Li Lin did said in The Leap Years movie that “it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”. I wonder if I can synonymously say the same “it’s better to have studied and failed than never to have studied at all!”. Somehow, it just doesn’t have the same meaning when used in this context…

Anyway, went to school today after 1 week of “holidays”. Most of my friends were busy with projects and stuff for this so-called holidays, or recess week to be exact, except it didn’t seem much like a recess. Ok, it was not supposed to feel like a recess week for me too, since I had some assignments and projects to do, and also had to study for an Economics test I have this thursday. However, I made it more or less like a recess week by the fact that I procrastinated and did close to nothing for the whole week! So, now I have to rush a few assignments and also study for the test! And they say time flies when you’re having fun! I think time flies when you’re not working/studying! Unless you’re Kermit, then “time’s fun when you’re having flies!”.

So you see, now we know why you should not use a fan if one of it’s blades is broken! The explosion threw bits of the blades around my room, and I’m quite surprise I’m still alive to be typing this post here. The next time you see you should be thankful that I’m still able to spend time with you, and was not stabbed to death by flying blades of a fan. I will be thankful that I’m still able to be with you still, and not stabbed to death by flying blades of a fan. Jokes aside, my fan is resting in pieces, my aircon is leaking, life sucks for me. Go shopping for a new fan anyone?

On a side note, it’s the recess week of NUS today! I asked my mini boss whether she wanted me to go in for work more days this week, but apparently the medium boss thinks there’s no need for it, so here I am slacking my time away at home. I actually have a few projects and stuffs to do, but I’m too lazy to even touch them! Maybe I will start on them later. Or maybe not :P

After that, my next chance to take photos and play around with my cameras was at dinner time when I went out with the group of friends to Serangoon Gardens for dinner and chilling out.

Well, I’m too lazy to type out comments for each picture so I’ll just throw everything in for you to see!

Also, I’ve integrated Gallery into wordpress so click on the memories link to view all the pictures!

Decided to splurge on a new digital camera! Got the Canon Ixus 860 IS. Went with my mini boss during lunch to Macs for lunch then proceeded to Harvey Norman to purchase my camera. I was telling her to help me bargain, and I also quite determined to bargain cause I heard you could bargain at Harvey Norman. However, when we got there, I asked to look at the camera, and she offered no support from the side! I had already set my mind on that model, so I just looked at it, turned it on, tried it for 5 secs before deciding to purchase it. I think the person was also quite eager to sell me. I had $100 worth of Harvey Norman vouchers that my mother had won at her company dinner, and so I took out the envelope to ask if I could use it. He didn’t even bother looking inside the envelope and said that the vouchers could be used, thus proving how eager he was to sell me! Well, that’s me when I buy stuff. Normally I’ll do my research online then check out some prices and then just purchase it without thinking twice. Sales people must really love me because they don’t really have to hardsell. Later in the evening, my boss told me that the guy didn’t even bother checking inside the envelope, and I could have just put some NTUC or other vouchers inside. Haha, I wonder what would have happened if I did that. I would have acted blur and said the guy told me they could be used!

Anyway, I believe the gimmick to selling camers is to give as many freebies as possible. They gave me 2 x 2GB HS SD cards, 1 Camera Case, 1 Digital Camera Kit, 1 LCD screen protector! And they even make you feel happier by putting the price tags on the items. Those prices are probably marked up anyway, to make you feel that you’re getting a great bargain, since on the price tags it’s written (not for sale) too! I guess they did the trick though, and my boss also was jealous that I bought my camera and got so many freebies and she didn’t when she bought hers! So, the summary of my purchase are as follows:

1 x Canon Ixus 860 IS Black - $669
1 x LCD Screen Protector - Free (No price tag)
1 x Camera Case - Free (Costs $39.90)
2 x 2GB HS SD Card - Free (Costs $38 each)
1 x Canon Digital Camera Kit (Digital Camera Bag, Mini Tripod, Cleaning Kit) - Free (Costs $29)

In all I paid $669 - $100 (voucher) = $569 for all those items, so I guess I got quite a bargain! I’m still charging the battery though, and have not used the camera. We were not allowed to bring it into the Supreme Court, and had to safekeep it at the security. Hopefully, I would use this camera much to take great photos, and it will not become a white elephant like my last one. :P

Hi,

Thank you for participating in the Prime Time Morning contest for The Leap Years.

Congratulations!

You have won for yourself a pair of tickets to catch a very special Valentine’s Day screening of The Leap Years at GV Marina.

…

Cool, I merely signed up for the contest because I was lazing in the living room while Channel News Asia was on and I heard them talking about an online contest which seemed rather easy. So, browsed to the webpage, googled for the answers, and the next thing I know, I got the aforementioned e-mail! Reading through the e-mail, I realised that the movie was on Valentine’s Day! One problem… Who should/could I ask to watch a movie with me on Valentine’s Day? Who would be free on that day anyway? So I asked Joanne and she was free!

So, I took a bus to Suntec today, and went to collect my free ticket to The Leap Years. After that, I walked around Marina Square alittle before Joanne finally arrived after work. The movie was not bad! It was around 1 hours and 40 minutes, and was a nice heartwarming romance movie. There was quite a nice cast too, Joan Chen, Ananda Everingham, Li Lin, Qi Yu Wu, Vernetta Lopez, Nadya Hutagulung as mentioned on the movie’s site. The plot was interesting too, and the movie didn’t make me fall asleep even though I’ve been deprived of sleep the past few days. The soundtrack was nice too, and during the movie I felt the singer’s voice was rather familiar, somewhat like Corrinne May. At the end of the movie, my doubts was confirmed as I heard Corrinne May’s The Birthday Song being played, unless of course only this song was by her, and the rest of the songs were not, which I highly doubt. Also, the movie is scheduled for release on the 29th of this month. At first, I thought it was just a regular date to be released, but during the movie, I noticed that the movie was about “The Leap Years”, and the 29th was a special date chosen for the release. And, I guess I’m one of the privileged few to get to watch the movie 15 days before it’s official release.

After the movie, we headed to Chomp Chomp for our late dinner. It was still rather crowded, and we had to wait quite long for our food. I don’t know how it started, but we ended up chatting about those IRC days. Those were the days, when we were still young and noisy, with energy to log on every night to have idle banter, and flooding of the chat channels. It was quite a nice reminiscence of those days, when we didn’t really have a care in the world, and we all had time for each other more or less. Ok, I might exaggerate a little, but nowadays, meeting up is such a chore, as everyone is busy with work/school and what not, and you would not be able to have a gathering with everyone there. I wish those carefree days were back.

Anyway, heres wishing every single one of you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

PS. Should I get a Canon Ixus 860 IS? This deal at bargain city looks rather tempting, and my hong bao money is looking to be spent!

Anyway, on my way home, there was a massive traffic jam on the CTE. I thought that it was due to people rushing home for their tuan yuan fan (reunion dinner), or maybe it was because certain roads around chinatown were closed, and so people were forced onto the CTE. It was highly unusual for a traffic jam on CTE at 4pm on normal days. However, when just before the PIE exit, I saw 5-6 cars along the shoulder of the expressway, and most of them weren’t in very good shape. I can only imagine there was a 5-6 chain accident, since most of the cars seem to have either their front or rear or both smashed. I guess that explains the accident. I wonder if the upcoming ERP gantries will prevent jams due to accidents and such. “85% of motorists will have a smoother ride”. “Road tax prices will be reduced”. “CEO prices will be reduced.” What they don’t tell you is ERP gantries will be come up by the dozens, so you should buy a car, pay instalments, and not drive it. One thing the Government is wrong about though, a car is not a luxury item, driving a car is. This podcast from Mr Brown more or less sums it up all.

Also, on my way home, I had to pump petrol, since my tank was already on the reserve fuel and anymore travelling without refueling would need me to get down and push my bike to the nearest petrol station. Going past the petrol stations, I saw many cars trying to turn into the stations, and I was wondering why. Then I realised most of them were turning in to get their car washed, and so promptly went ahead and zoomed into the petrol station to refuel my bike. I wonder why everyone needs to wash their car on the eve of CNY. Is it because of some unspoken tradition, or simply because of a “since everyone else is doing it, I must do it too” mentality. Who cares anyway? My bike is washed my nature, and I don’t really take the effort of washing it :P

Anyway day 1 of CNY was uninteresting. Went Bai Nian-ing at a few places, and proceeded home to sleep. I also tried learning how to play a guitar, since Joanne passed me her guitar. My fingers hurt now, and I’m trying to play Ronan Keating’s When You Say Nothing At All. Oh well, I can play up to the chorus now, but more practice is definitely needed. I don’t really like playing chords, since it seems like playing twister with my fingers, and my fingers are too fat! :( The 2nd day of CNY wasn’t all the interesting too, but after dinner at my cousin’s place, I got together with my cousins and talked for a few hours about stuff. We only see each other once a year, so the talk was definitely good for catching up and stuff. Anyway, after that we decided to go back to my uncle’s house, where it looked more like a makeshift gambling den. The younger generation (my cousins and I) proved we weren’t that lousy at gambling after all. At the end of the day, I won $40, Mei Ching won $115, and Kian Ann won $15. $40 wasn’t too bad for my 15 rounds of ban luck (chinese version of blackjack) after all…

The first suay story is about my boss. She related the story to me and I thought this kind of things only happens in TV/movies and the likes. Well, she was on the way to work on the MRT, and she was happily standing inside the MRT at a spot deemed fit for one person so stand. Ok, maybe not happily standing, but I like to exaggerate and make up things to add effect to the story, so sue me! After that, someone apparently came to squeeze into the spot, and she practically was smelling the person’s hair. As if that wasn’t bad enough, at one of the stops, someone was apparently in a rush to get down, and in the midst of that hurrying, her earphones got caught and got pulled out of her iPod. So there she was, thinking to herself what a bad day it was. Of course it didn’t end there, else why would I bother blogging about it? After she got down at City Hall MRT, her recently bought pair of shoes decided to break, and so she had to practically drag her feet to walk. So, she took a bus for one stop to a bus stop outside our workplace, but she was still stuck there, sitting at the bus stop not knowing what to do. “Aha!”, she thought to herself. “I’ll call Amos to bring my pair of slippers for me.” I guess the reason why she thought of me was because I am always earlier than her at work, and I really do mean always. Oh well, it isn’t her fault I go to work early to avoid some of the morning MRT traffic, and also to not rush myself. Anyways, she took out her handphone thinking how brilliant her plan was, but guess what? Well, her handphone battery was flat! Therefore, instead of dragging her feet to work, she decided to take off her shoes and walk in barefooted into the Supreme Court, making her way to our office on the cold unforgiving floor. Isn’t this Murphy’s Law at it’s finest? Well, after she related this to me, I told her she must have woken up at the wrong side of the bed, and told her to change the direction she wakes up from!

And now, on to story number 2, which isn’t quite as long and detailed, but definitely worth mentioning too. Huijing came back from the US, but apparently not everything followed her home. Firstly, on the second last day of her trip, which was for work, the car she and her colleagues used was broken into, and their laptops got stolen. She had just gotten a laptop upgrade from work recently, and seems to be quite contented with this new laptop. She even got a new mouse for it, which is a “Cute Pink Logitech Mouse”. But alas, it was not meant to be, and the laptop together with the mouse got stolen, together with 3 other laptops that they decide to leave in the car. This might not be the ultimate suayness, since it was their own doing for leaving the laptops in the car in the first place. Anyway, when she got back to Singapore, she heard her name being announced on the PA system. Apparently, her luggage did not follow her back, and it was still in the US since it did not “board” the plane with them. So there we have it, the shorter but definitely not less suay story.

So anyway, hopefully the Chinese New Year will chase everyone’s suayness away and bring luck onto everyone! It is afterall the year of the rat, and since I’m born in the year of the rat, whatever I say counts! Ok, not quite how it works, but who cares anyway? I wish everyone good luck in the year ahead and may you win big at the gambling table. Luckily for you all, I’m not really a big fan of gambling and so I’m willing to spare abit of my gambling luck, so to speak! Whether it’s luck or not, is up to you to decide anyway. Truth be told, I’m not really a big fan of CNY. I mean, it’s the same usual routine of bai nian-ing (visiting) and getting ang pows (red packets). It seems rather superficial to me, but hey, who am I to complain. At least we get to enjoy a super long weekend, and the break might help me get rid of my insomnia! I’ll probably do a few hours of bai nian-ing on the first few days, and spend the rest of the day at home. Sorry, but I’m not one who’s very enthusiastic about CNY and all.