A Better Title

Dear Diary,

Whoo… Just found out quite a few of my friends who are blogging too. Heheheh…

Ok, time to take a nap…

Linky,

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Dear Diary,

I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE. I SHALL NOT DRINK COFFEE AFTER 5 PM ANYMORE.

You’d know why if you look at the timestamp of this post, and if I tell you that I’ve got a lesson at 9.30 AM and I’m not sleepy now.

Whee,

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Dear Diary,

How do you put one particle in a box? And how did Schrödinger derive his famous equation? And why are there no solution to his equation?

On the other hand, what exactly is utility? And what does imposing tax have to do with the demand and supply graph? What happens when there’s a price floor or price ceiling effected by the government?

Yet on the other hand, what is an sp² orbital? <geek mode>Does it have anything to do with Microsoft’s latest Service Pack for its operating system?</geek mode> What’s hybridisation and what does it have to do with the structure of a molecule?

I think I’ve got a lot to catch up… Sigh…

Service Pack 2,

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Dear Diary,

Sometimes I just do plain stupid things. So today I finished early at 3.30 pm. I thought of going to the Indonesian Embassy to collect my passport.

You see, Indonesia has this funny rule that requires all Indonesians to pay a fiscal tax when they exit the country. This is obviously not a good news for those who study or work overseas, since everytime they have to fork out IDR 1 million (~ SGD 200), which is quite a sum of money.

So to be exempted from paying this tax, one has to report his address to the Indonesian Embassy in the country where he is staying. The passport is to be submitted together with a completed form to the Embassy.

At first I wanted to collect the passport yesterday. I didn’t manage to do so because I was too tired then. So I decided to collect it the following day, which was today. So I thought I made a good decision. Happily I took the MRT to Red Hill.

And then suddenly I recalled my nickname last night: “Hendri Budi - Happy Independence Day to Indonesia”.

Oh no, it was Indonesia’s Independence Day! And that meant it was a public holiday in Indonesia! And since Indonesian Embassy should be run based on Indonesian system, that should mean that the Indonesian Embassy was closed!

Trying to convince myself that this was not the case, I decided to take a short taxi ride over to the Embassy. I alighted, paid for the fare, walked to the front gate, and lo and behold! It was closed!

So I was disappointed. Today was supposed to be a happy day. And there I was. Stranded in front of the Indonesian Embassy. No passport. No help. No help at all. (This is getting too dramatic…)

The next time I can spare some time to go there would be Friday. Wish me luck.

(Well, luckily I had to give tuition later on in the night, so at least the trip wasn’t so wasted. Heh…)

Passport-less,

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Dear Diary,

So out of the blue I decided to just say good night to everyone not busy or away in my MSN list.

So noone replied my hi. Save for one soul.

Is Trillian not delivering my messages? Are they busy? Do they see a window popping up, the title bar saying “Hendri Budi - Happy Independence Day to Indonesia”, and think “oh, it’s Hendri. Now where’s that close button”? Who knows?

So to everyone else: Good night…

Sigh…

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Dear Diary,

Yeah, this post is very lim. I can’t even walk now. Edit: Actually it’s not that lim. Just that I couldn’t find a good title.

Anyway, both scenarios, although exaggerated, are based on true stories, the first happened a lot of times, and the second just today.

Scenario 1

Suppose you are a guy. You go to this place called Sim Lim Square, the place where you can get bargains for electronic goods. If you’re good at bargaining, that is.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the crowd, you spot a shop. It looks rather promising, notebooks lined up for the passers-by to ogle and for serious buyer to take home. You walk into the shop. You take a look at the different specifications of a few different computers. You’re confused, because you’re not sure which one you should choose. You want a lightweight laptop, yet you don’t want to spend big bucks on one.

Thinking hard, you find a shopkeeper approaching you.

Shopkeeper (S): <Flat face> “Can I help?”
You (Y): “Yeah, do you have a model which is less than 2000 dollars?”
S: “Yes we do have one here. This model here is 1799 dollars.” <Points at a bulky laptop> “It is actually a desktop replacement. It comes with a 15″ LCD screen; large, comfortable keyboard; ATI Radeon 9200; etc; etc; etc. And it weighs at 5.6 kg.”
Y: “Um, actually I’m looking for a lightweight one.”
S: <Starts to frown> “Ok, if you take a look at this model here, ah. Twinhead one ah. Very good one. Comes with AMD Athlon. Cheap one, only 1999 dollars.”
Y: “This looks good. I’ll get this one then. It’s with GST isn’t it.”
S: “Yes, with GST.”
Y: “Oh ok. Can I pay by credit card? By the way do I get a mouse or something?”
S: “Yes but you’ll need to add 2% credit card charge. You can get a mouse but you’ll need to add another 30 dollars.”
Y: “Oh… Ok. But can I just keep the price at 1999?”
S: “You siao ah?” <Shoves you out of the shop> “You think laptops fall from heaven is it?!?”

Scenario 2

Now, rewind to the time when you were outside the shop. Now add a sweet-looking girl friend of yours. (note the gap between the two words) The two of you walk into the shop. The two of you take a look at the different specifications of a few different computers. Both of you are not sure which one to take. Your friend wants a lightweight laptop, yet she doesn’t want to spend big bucks on one.

Thinking hard, you find a shopkeeper approaching both of you.

S: <Smiles> “Yes, can I help you?”
Y: “Yeah, do you have a model which is less than 2000 dollars?”
S: “Yes we do have one here. This model here is 1799 dollars.” <Points at a bulky laptop> “It is actually a desktop replacement. It comes with a 15″ LCD screen; large, comfortable keyboard; ATI Radeon 9200; etc; etc; etc. And it weighs at 5.6 kg.”
Y: “Um, actually we’re looking for a lightweight one.”
S: <With a bigger smile> “Oh yes, we actually do have one here. This Twinhead model is running on AMD Athlon. It’s pretty cheap for its size. It has 12.1″ screen and it’s only 1.8 kg. It’s only 1999 dollars, and you can upgrade to 40 GB hard drive and 384 MB RAM by adding only 99 dollars. So the total would be 2098 dollars.”
Y: “Is Twinhead good? Is the brand reliable and what about the service?”
S: “Yes, Twinhead is actually quite established in Singapore. It has been here for 10 years, although they previously dealt with motherboards and chipsets and only started releasing laptops in the past 3 years.”
Y: “But will using AMD mean your laptop will be very hot?”
S: “You’re not going to play games are you?” <Your friend shakes her head> “Then it should be ok.”
Y: “Oh ok. This looks good. We’ll get this one then. Do you accept credit card? By the way do we get a mouse or something?”
S: “Yes we do accept credit cards. But you’ll need to add 2% credit card charge. You can get a mouse but you’ll need to add another 30 dollars.”
Y: “Oh… Ok. But can I just keep the price at 2098?”
S: “Erm, let me check with them first…” <Checks with colleagues, comes back after a while with an even wider smile> “Yeah, we can absorb the credit card charges, so we can keep the price at 2098 dollars.”

But then… Things are not so good for your friend, because your friend keeps on getting things like: “xiao jie, ni yao mai dian nao shi ma?”

Bastards…

Oh, in case you’re wondering, I got the friend a Twinhead Efio A121. It’s pretty good for the price, especially because she wants a budget small-sized laptop. I can’t comment on services yet as I really have no experience on the brand yet.

Not a bastard,

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Dear Diary,

Yes, I’m still alive.

Although I’m very tired. I never knew uni would be so tiring. After all the lessons in school, I always go home to find Elmyra waiting for me to switch on and use. And then I will do so until early in the morning. Damned computers. And free, fast Internet access. They’re so distracting. The past few days alone I’ve downloaded tonnes of demos of games. (Gotta block Download.Com one day…)

Oh yeah, so I’m taking the minor in Communication Studies. To my horror, the first lesson (which is within the module called “Fundamentals of Communication Studies”) is almost the same as General Paper. This week we discussed about stereotypes, which may affect our communication. Actually it’s quite interesting, it’s just that I don’t like doing essays, which I’d have to do for the exams. And I’d need to get at least a B to proceed with the Minor.

I joined a lot of Extra-Curricular Activities.

SIGGRAPH is a society dedicated to the 3D modelling and animation scene in Singapore.

Visual Arts Society is a club which is divided into three: AnimeWorks, Designer’s Club, and Comics Ensemble. What they do is quite obvious from the names of the subclubs. I’ll be joining Designer’s Club.

Other than these two, I also joined BP Mentoring (a mentoring programme for kids in primary school and secondary school), Photo-Videography Society, Computer Society. Quite an overload eh? Chances are I’ll drop some soon. Just like what I did in JC.
Oh yeah, did I tell you I’ve been to Sim Lim at least four times since I came back? And tomorrow I’d be going there again with another friend to get a laptop for her. Hehe…

CHEM SUCKS! Really. The lecturer assumed us to have at least some JC knowledge of Chem so those of us who don’t are quite dying. (Of course, I laugh at those who didn’t take Computing before) Edit: Ok, I shouldn’t have laughed. Sorry. Physics is alright. So is Maths. Econs (which is compulsory) is as bad as Chem. Effective Communication is another compulsory module we have to take. Fortunately this overlaps with Communication Studies so I can kill two birds with one stone.

Oh and I got exempted from Maths, Computing, and next semester’s Physics. So that’s quite a lot of free time. BTW, I pity those who are in NBS (Nanyang Business School). Even though they did well in the A Levels, they can’t get exempted from any subjects because none of the subjects taught in A Levels are available here (except maybe Econs). At least that’s what I heard from my friend.

Oh CRAP there was a cockroach in the room! ARGH! Time to clean up…

Uh… What else… Maybe that’s all for now folks! Gotta wake up early tomorrow.

Cockroach,

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