Wee! I'm in for RMIT University!

Finally! The day that I have been waiting has arrived!

I have gotten my letter of acceptance from the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) that I have successfully get in to my course at RMIT University.

The course that I will be taking is Bachelor of Business (Management) and I managed to get the Pathway C, which means that I can complete my degree in 18 months, provided I study hard and pass everything! =D

So if everything goes well, I could graduate by the end of next year! That sounds so fast! Oh my. I'm getting so excited that my mind is kind of a whirlpool right now.

The utmost concern for me is the payment of the cost of study. I wondering if I should take up some finance loans but I am so blur with all those finance stuffs. Anyway I have got to submit my reply to SIM by 27 May 2009 in order to secure my place in the course. Oh man. That's only like a few weeks away.

With any luck, I should be able to start school by 1 July 2009. Hopefully everything will go well for me. Oh man. Even though I couldn't get into my first choice of university (that would be the University of Manchester), RMIT university isn't that bad either and it's an Australian university too.

All right. So I have to start pulling up my socks and get into it. Otherwise it would be money going down the drain, eh?

Heehee... I am so happy! Wee!!! I still can't believe my luck that I got into the course. With my lousy scores, I thought I was a goner.

PS. Today is actually Selina's birthday, I wonder did any of her luck came to me? Hmmm.... I am thinking too much. XD

Ayumi's New Album: NEXT LEVEL

Tada! I finally got my hands on Ayumi Hamasaki's latest album release, NEXT LEVEL. I am actually quite late in buying this album because I totally forgotten about it. It was only until my colleague had asked me whether I enjoyed listening to the latest album, then it dawned on me that I forgot cleanly about the buying.

So I went down to Plaza Singapura yesterday and promptly bought the album from Sembawang CD shop. It was quite expensive, being pegged at S$27.50 but since it's a 2CD+DVD packaging, I didn't mind it that much. After all Ayumi's albums are always very impressive.

This new album is so pretty that it makes me feel as though I'm carrying a candy around with me. See the CD cover below:

She's very pretty, right? Awww...

In fact, I had just realised that I have been supporting Ayumi's works for a decade, well almost a decade anyway. That's a long time, isn't it? Right from her early days when I first heard of her in the song, SEASONS. That song was first released in the album, Duty, way back in 2000. However I only started buying her albums when she released a compilation, A BEST, in 2001. That was my very first Ayumi CD and I was immediately drawn to her wonderful and strong vocals and moving music.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she wrote all the lyrics in her songs and even arranged some of her own songs too. Sometimes she would credit herself as 'crea' but sometimes she would also use her own name.

However, I am honest enough to admit that I don't own ALL her albums at all. By this, I mean all her singles, all her remixes albums, all her compilation albums as well as her regular studio albums. That would break my bank, not to mention that I would be buying the same songs over and over. I'm not such a fanatic fan after all. But I do own almost all of her studio albums and compilation albums.

Nonetheless, I still get to enjoy her songs and she's really the best in Japan. Too bad I don't have the opportunity to attend her concerts. That has been one of my longest dreams but sadly enough, Singapore can't afford to host her concert here due to economical reasons. Well, that is to be expected, since she's the top earner in Japan's entertainment world.

Too bad I don't get to share the same birthday as her. She is born on 2 October while I'm born on 3 October. Argh.... Just 1 day difference. Well, at least we share the same horoscope, Libra. Wee!

All right, I'm off to listen to her new album and wander into Ayu-land!!!

Whoa! AIG gives out generous bonus!

According to Yahoo News, troubled financial group AIG is reportedly giving out millions of dollars out in bonuses to its employees. This is after the group has received massive bailout money from the US government.

"After pumping some 150 billion dollars into the crippled insurance giant, the US government earlier this month unveiled an additional rescue plan worth 30 billion dollars."

That's hell a lot of money spent on rescuing AIG and now they are spending it all on bonuses. See below quote:

"Bonus payments to thousands of employees totaling "in the hundreds of millions of dollars" are to be given out, the daily reported."

The damn stupid firm already reported huge losses and it is throwing out money again. See how much losses it incurred:

"For the fourth quarter, AIG announced a loss of 61.7 billion dollars -- the biggest ever for a US firm in one quarter -- pushing up its net loss for 2008 to 99.3 billion dollars."

American International Group CEO Edward Liddy deserved to be sacked for allowing such a misappropriate HR measure to be approved. So the whole world is going into a limbo just because he don't want to risk the mass exodus of senior employees leaving the company.

Well those senior employees don't deserve the money if they can't act in the best interests of their clients. The clients are leeched dry of their money while all these senior employees could possibly be enjoying their high-flying lives at their expense.

AIG don't deserve to be rescued and the US government should buy it out and turn it into a state-owned firm to stem in the losses. AIG is indeed a huge shame in the financial industry and there are possibly more firms doing the same thing. Such a financial crisis has never occurred before on a large scale that threatens the global economy.

What on earth are those stinking Americans thinking? Money to fatten their pockets? Aren't they rich enough as compared to the rest of the world? Why do they want more money? Human beings are very greedy creatures. Enough is never enough.

Oh well. It can't be help. I am also greedy, though not to the American's extent. Living within one's means is very important to ensure that one don't fall into debts unwittingly.

How the US government is going to sort out this AIG mess is still a big question. Surely they can't be pumping in more money into the firm? How much money is actually needed to prevent the collapse? If it collapse, does the rest of the world dies? Maybe. I don't know but it sure seems like a big deal to keep it surviving.

If that's the case, they better stop wasting money and start to keep its money rather than earning. I suppose we will not see the end of this economic crisis any time soon. The impact could possibly be felt for years before things will get better. If that day will ever comes.

Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe on Yahoo! Movies '20 Stars 20 and Younger' List

According to HPANA, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe are listed in Yahoo! Movies '20 Stars 20 and Younger' List.

Apparently, Watson tops the list with her famous role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie franchise. Overall her total domestic box office gross is $1,461,797,64! *gasps* That's hell a lot of money that girl's been raking in for the studios!!!

As for Daniel Radcliffe, he ranks number 2 in the list alongside Watson. He also owes his success to his titular role in the Harry Potter movie franchise. Overall his total domestic box office gross is $1,411,173,590! Slightly lesser than Watson but still an awesome feat. So now we know Warner Bros is actually a super rich studio firm, eh? They have to thank JK Rowling for writing such an amazing book series in the first place. She's amazing, aren't she?

Now I am looking forward to the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie which will be showing in July 2009. Gosh, time better fly faster this time!

Kuroshitsuji Manga on Sale at Kinokuniya

I had finally submitted my application to a degree course at Global SIM earlier this evening with one of my colleagues from Nursing.

As she knew how to get to the place, Wendy offered to accompany me to submit my application and we went for dinner after that. Well, I was disappointed that I couldn't apply to the university of my choice as my results weren't that good enough.

It was a UK university but I ended up settling for an Australian university which had a much lower ranking than the UK one. Oh well, I am truly not qualified to study in prestigious schools anyway. Let's hope that I can succeed in entering this Australian one otherwise I'm better off sticking with just my diploma. Who in the world needs a degree to survive as a human anyway?

Hmmm....

Right so after that, we headed to Bugis for a simple dinner at NYDC at Parco Bugis. There was a cute Elmo plush toy on display and we promptly took picture of it with our handphones. See mine below, taken with Nokia N95 8GB:




As for food, I chose the Hawaiian baked pasta and I added lots of cheese onto it. Hee... Wendy was quite shocked to see me putting so much cheese onto my food.




For window shopping, we popped in to some shoe shops as well as Kinokuniya.

Whoa, I was so excited to see that they were selling the Kuroshitsuji mangas at $6.71 each. I wonder if I should buy them even though I have access to online scans. If only I have a Kinokuniya membership card, then I could enjoy a 10% discount off the pricing. Hmmm but the subscription fee is not cheap and I don't really shop very often at Kinokuniya.

But the Kuroshitsuji mangas made me feel very tempted to buy as the drawings inside are superb. Too bad the books are all skrink-wrapped so I can't browse through them. Currently they are selling volume 1 to 5. The latest volume 6 is not among the selection so I can only assume that it's not yet available outside of Japan.

I think all the mangas are in chinese versions so I might have a little problem reading as my chinese has really gone down the drain. Oops.

Hmmm so should I apply for the Kinokuniya membership card then buy the mangas? Or stick to online reading? Hmmmm....

Well I suppose it might not be worth getting the membership card after all. A yearly subscription fee of $21.40 means that I would need to spend more than $200 per year at the shop to recoup my membership fee. Honestly, I don't spend that much of money on books.

So I'm better off with my online reading for now. Until the day when I truly become a rich person like Emma Watson. Heehee...

Movie Watch: Slumdog Millionaire is worth to watch

Yesterday I went to watch a newly acclaimed and crowned Best Picture at the 81st Academy Awards 2009 recently, Slumdog Millionaire, together with Queenie. A winning film directed by newly minted Best Director, Danny Boyle, it's a heartwarming story about how a boy from the slums win his way to a 20 million rupees prize on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

Poster for the movie

Poster for the movie

Dev Patel, Actor for the main protagonist, Jamal Malik

Overall, the movie is neither too serious nor too light-hearted. It has just the right amount of story twists to entertain viewers while ensuring that the plot doesn't sink. I admit that I watched the show mainly out of curiousity generated by the Academy buzz. So many articles has been written about this film and critics have been giving it a glorious report card.

Since there are none other movies that I want to watch, I thought this movie might just be the one to beat the blues. After all, it is marketed as a feel-good movie. Hmmm, I think the feel good part is due to the fact that Jamal has a happy ending together with Latika and that probably makes all viewers, including me, happy at their joy. So our protagonist got his money and the girl, what's there not to like? And of course, being an Indian film, we get to see the compulsory dance routine performed by Jamal and Latika at the movie's ending despite the fact that the director is a foreigner.

Generally speaking, it all seems too good to be true and so when I found out that it's just a fiction story, I heaved a sigh of relief. If you have watched the movie, you'll understand why. Who on earth will get to live a life like Jamal? Or have a bastard of a brother like Salim? I really can't think of anyone.

Good or not, it's all based on personal preferences but still, this movie is worth the movie ticket price. Wanna see how much I pay? See below:



Ahahaha! Yep. S$7.50. Not that cheap nor that expensive. So go watch the movie while it's still being aired. Again, this movie is distributed by Warner Bros so now we really know that they have lots of moolah to spare. LOL. Well Warner Bros has to share the moolah with Fox Searchlight though.

Slumdog Millionaire is now raking in all the money from all over the world. Worldwide total as of Mar. 6, 2009 is estimated at $217,030,943. With all those cash, Warner Bros can comfortably rest its laurels this year. Not to mention that they have another blockbuster on hand, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. That is a certain huge cashcow for the studio.

As for us lesser mortals, we can only drool at the amount of money that we will never get to see in our own bank balances ever. Haiz....

My Cable TV at Home

After subscribing to Starhub cable TV for 3 years, I finally bothered to search and locate the respective channels that I subscribed to.

For a long time, I didn't tune in to the cable channels as my mum preferred to watch the local channel 8 chinese dramas. But despite not watching any cable channels, I still have to pay for the monthly subscription fees that amounted to about S$40 per month.

In any case, I have checked upon Starhub's website and found the subscription plans here.

Currently, I am subscribing to Education, Entertainment and Chinese Entertainment basic group package. I didn't even realize I had access to Star World, which is currently showing Heroes Season 3.

However, I am not watching it as I probably have missed too many episodes and I don't know which episode the season is currently showing now.

Anyway I'll see how things go because I rarely watch TV nowadays even though I bought my Samsung 40" LCD TV last year. *grinz*

Superb XO Sliced Fish Bee Hoon at Buona Vista

Today's lunch is simply superb! My colleagues and I went to Buona Vista as my Malay colleague wanted to try out one of the Muslim stalls there. It's a good thing I decided to try out the other stall's specialty dish, seeing so many people placing orders for it. The dish is none other than XO sliced fish bee hoon.

It was quite a long wait for the noodles to arrive but it was worth it. I took a picture of the noodles to share:

XO sliced fish bee hoon. Yum!!!

It has a creamy soup base and the slices of fish meat are plenty and thick. Not to mention it contains more than just a dash of the XO liqueur. The taste of the XO was so strong and so seductive that made me want to slurp up the whole bowl.

It costs S$5 per bowl and it's money well-spent. I don't mind coming back to this stall again for the noodles. Yummy!!!

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.

=)

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...

=(

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!

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

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!

Everything's Gone... I've Lost.

Well, what can I say? Everything is gone for me. Totally destroyed. In my career. My current job. I thought it would be a better future for me since it's a statutory board. Boy, I was so so so wrong. In all accounts.

I have been badly backstabbed in this company and it doesn't help that I am way too ignorant of the intricate things that go on in big companies. I have never worked in a big company before and certainly not as big as my current company. Never in my wildest dreams would I realised that I would be a victim of office bullying.

But it happened. And I was helpless to do anything.

I never stopped to think that all the while, I have been doing things wrongly in this job. Everything. I should have suck up to my boss. I should have suck up to the FM manager. Especially the FM bitch. I stubbornly did things my own way and this FM bitch was not pleased with me at all.

So she plotted to get me into trouble and she succeeded. She had something that I don't have. Power. She can wield power in her favour and I would be defenceless against her.

That is how things work in the corporate world and I was too naive to show my real feelings and thoughts to my "colleagues". To people whom I had put my trust wrongly. Right now, I am feeling the pain, the hurt that my job has given me.

Hurt by colleagues whom I thought were reliable. But I was wrong. My thoughts and feelings somehow managed to get to this FM bitch and poof! Here comes the attack. In this company, you have to do everything and you can't bitch about it. Every single work that comes into your hand has to be accomplished and you can't say that you aren't paid to do that job. You have no choice in any matter.

Guess what? I did exactly that and it's career kamikaze for me. Not that I minded much. It's just that my colleagues are so unreliable that irks me to no end. Yes, I admit I am a stupid person to believe them in the first place. Work is something that you can't find and build true friendships or relationships.

I know some of you will disagree with me on this. But to me, that's how I perceive my workplace now. This FM bitch even went to the extreme of getting my colleagues to stay away from me except for work-related matters. So I have become an outcast in my dept and a loner too.

I have been truly stupid to think so simple of these workplace matters. This FM bitch is not to be trifled with and she showed that to me. Now I have no more future left for advancement in my job. She put paid to that by complaining excessively about me to my boss, thus giving my boss a bad impression of me and my work attitude.

Now this FM bitch is leaving for another organization and that's a relief. However it's too late for me and my career. I can only hope to stay till end of this year and start looking for a new job next year and start things afresh. This time round, I will be smarter and interact less with my colleagues.

Also, I must start doing more work so as to appear extremely busy in front of the boss so as to increase my chances of promotion. Life's cruel and harsh but there's nothing we can do. It's a survival of the shrewdest individual that will win the competition.

For now, I just keep to myself and don't talk to anybody unnecessarily. I work alone, I lunch alone, I go home alone. Everything is just one word for me: ALONE. That would be the best way for me to proceed even though it will turn me into a super outcast.

Now I just want this whole year to go by and I can't wait to get my hands on a degree. With a degree, I would be able to get a better job and probably get to boss other people around. Wahaha! Ok, that's mean of me. Just joking. I just want to get out of the admin mold. Nothing else matters.

As long as I get to put food on the table, nothing else matters. There are people out there who live to work. But there are others who work to live. I belong to the second group but I would still put out my 100% into my work and hold nothing back. It's only when I feel that injustice had been done to me that I start drawing clear lines around my work.

Why should I do other people's work when they are supposed to finish it? And it's not as though they are too busy to do anything else. Rather they are spending time doing unneccessary work instead of prioritize their work. It's not my fault if they can't finish their work in the end.

However, I have no say in my dept and so I kept my mouth shut. But I do bitch around just like everyone else. No one is a saint in their lives. It's just that I'm pure unlucky that my bitching gets round to the boss. I'm resigned to it now. I stay clear from everybody so that I won't have to face awkward situation whereby no one talks to me. In fact, all the executives have stopped talking to me as they have been conditioned by the FM bitch.

I will never know the real reason behind her actions but one thing for sure, she's evil and probably that's why her husband left her together with their son. Yep, she's a divorcee. And I tell ya, this FM bitch is probably the best paid manager in my company as she did the least amount of work, choosing to delegate her work to the executive. She usually spent most of her time having tea/coffee breaks, long lunch breaks and shopping.

YES! She does shopping during office hours. How lazy can she get?! Anyway she's leaving in a couple of days and I won't be seeing much of her during this time. Hopefully by the time I go back to office after my training, she would already be gone by then.

By then, I hope my working life would be more peaceful without any troubles. I need to have a peaceful mind in order to survive in this cut-throat place. All right. Tonight's rambling is certainly long-winded. Time to stop. I'm falling sick to the flu virus soon. Argh! My nose has turned runny and I'm sneezing non-stop. Plus my throat is feeling the itch and I can't seem to stop coughing. Gosh!

Time to rest.... Orhmmmm......

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.

Value of Websites

Through the MSI Wind forum, user dennis_advent had posted an interesting website and it appears to calculate the value of websites that you might want to buy.

If you are interested to find out the worth of your website. you can click here to enter the page. However, I suggest do take this with a pinch of salt, ya?

Kekeke...

New Versions of MSI Wind Soon

Wow. Laptop Mag just posted an article on the MSI Wind's future models coming to major retailer and looks like the newer versions are going to be beefed up with lots of yummy specifications.

But for me, the most important is the arrival of the 6-cell battery and MSI is saying that by the end of October, they should be clearing up the battery problem. I most certainly hope that the 6-cells battery will be 5200Mah by the time it's ready for collection.

If not, then perhaps this might be worth checking out. The only thing is, it's all quoted in USD and so the price of getting a 9-cells battery will be very high. Plus the 9-cells battery is estimated to give around 7 hours of battery life, which might not sound like much when compared to ASUS's EEEPC 6-cells battery which can give around 6 to 7 hours of battery life.

Hmmm... all these talk about batteries is confusing me these days. Anyway I just want the battery which can offer me the longest battery life. Everything else can wait.

=)

Ha! A Retard Reads My Blog?

I am very amused to log in to my blog and found a guy who calls himself retard posting on my cbox. So far, I have very little responses gathered in my cbox, so it's quite fun to see this retard posting about nonsense.

Well, billovee is a CHEAPSKATE guy. Freebies are given freely and willingly by the IT fair vendors. No one actually goes around comparing freebies instead of pricing. No matter what the freebies are, the most important thing is that your buying focus is on the main IT product, in my case a MSI Wind.

My Wind doesn't come with any freebies but I don't go round demanding people to give me freebies either. That's just plain shameless. If the product doesn't come with freebies then it's fine by me. My main focus is the Wind, not the freebies.

But if the vendors are offering the freebies themselves without the consumer asking for them, then that's ok too. It take 2 hands to clap. If the vendors don't want to give any freebies, then no matter how much the consumer demands, they would get nothing. If the vendors are willing to give based on their own initiative, then the consumers will get a good deal.

In fact, the price of the freebies is probably calculated into the selling price or is probably not worth much. In life, you don't hanker after things that you can't afford. There is no such thing as free lunch in this world. Everything comes with a price. You want cheapskate products with lots of freebies? Go to China. Everything is cheapo there. And probably poisonous too.

Hmmm... I think this retard guy is either billovee himself or just plain retard. Didn't I wrote about my experience at the recent Comex 2008? I don't even need to ask the vendors for freebies at the kiosk. All I did was to ask about the main products and they offered the freebies willingly. I don't have to be thick-skinned and demand for freebies before I make my purchases.

Still, everybody has their own opinions and no one will be fully convinced by the other party. This retard/billovee has his own view but so do I.

Plus this is my blog so I can and shall write whatever I feel is right. And billovee can't do anything about it. Other than being a online pest. Wahahaha!!!

Preorder for Wind 6-cells battery

Just now I had submitted a preorder for my MSI Wind netbook to Corbell. They are now giving a special price of $99 for the battery and each first batch buyer can only buy 1 unit at the special price. So add on to my earlier purchase price of $864, which includes an upgrade of RAM to 2GB, the total cost for my Wind comes to $963.

Compared to the people who bought the Wind during the recent Comex, I'm paying much more than what they are paying. The specifications for the Wind at the Comex remains almost the same except that it now comes with a 160GB SATA hard disk, a 6-cell battery with a free 3-cell battery. If the option of upgrading the 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM applies to them, these new batch of owners are looking at a grand price of only $934, which is $29 less than what I'm paying.

It might not seem like much but with that extra money, I could have gotten myself an optical mouse AND a laptop skin.

Well, I guess that's the price to pay for being the first adopters of the popular netbook. At least I get to use it for a few months before others. Should I console myself based on that? Hmmm....

But you have got to admit it's pretty tiring to wait infinitely for the 6-cell battery to arrive. MSI really tests its customers patience to the limit.

Damn...

Finally my K800i is gone...

After debating for a week, I have finally come to a decision.

When I bought my Nokia N95 8GB at the Comex 2008, I was supposed to trade in my Sony Ericsson K800i to enjoy the trade-in rate of $110. However, I did not return to the Comex the next day to get the trade-in offer.

The reason being that I still can't bear to let go of my K800i as I had liked it alot. Eventually I came to this decision after several long hours of thorough thinking. If I want to cling on to my K800i and sell off my N95 8GB, I would have to use it for at least 1 more year before I can change my phone. By then, the value for the K800i would have dropped drastically compared to now.

On the other hand, my N95 8GB is still relatively new and thus would be able to fetch a good price even if I were to sell it off a year later.

And so, I decided to sell off my K800i to my friend's uncle, who quoted a price of $120, $10 more than Singtel's buying price. Just now my friend, mayi, came to collect the phone from me. Hopefully everything will turn out well and I can get the $120 soon.

For now, I still have to get used to my N95 8GB as it's way of functioning is totally different from the K800i.

That's all for the day. See ya!

=)