Spray paint my friend, pair of tweezer like things my enemy

I have been looking for a pair of glasses that have the right shade of green for quite some time. And needless to say, if you are smart enough from the title of this post, that I could not find a pair so I took matters into my own hands with a nice lovely can of spray paint. Spray painted my old pair of glasses which previously had a gold frame and viola!
glasses.png
Practically the perfect shade of green I was looking for! Some slight inconsitencies with the paint but doesn’t really matter to me. All I know is that I have a lovely pair of specs waiting to be used after the smell of spray paint fades away. The lenses I have for these pair of specs seem to have different degrees with my current pair so may get new lenses. And if that is the case, I may spray the current old lenses with the spray paint as well as the paint is actually pretty thin and is translucent-like so perhaps I could get green tinted lenses as well =p

On a side note I was dripping blood a few minutes ago when my left foot was standing on the instrument below and my right foot happened to be in front of it and wanting to move backwards.

Pretty bad blood leakage if I do say so myself and that’s coming from a person who crashed on his bike going down a slope and ending up having to have stitches in my chin. I don’t think I’ve seen worse blood leakage from any other injury I’ve had.

Anyway it’s time to sleep… soon. I guess. Windows data backup complete, format will come this weekend. And probably I’ll boot back in Linux and hopefully not turn back. Got used to Windows again since I had to play Warcraft 3, I don’t have any free space on my Linux partition to play around so after the format hopefully will get some games running in Linux =D

The tubes have been filled =p

Courtesy of this bandwidth speed test.

51.2 kilobits per second
Communications 51.2 kilobits per second
Storage 6.3 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 2.7 minutes
Subjective rating Slow

Problematic broadband connections since Saturday night. I was unable to surf at all from Saturday night until late Sunday afternoon. And since then the bandwidth seems to have dialup speeds or worse. Welcome to Brunei’s ISP woes.

Anyway starting to help mom out a bit. Just a bit so nothing much to say aside from being a driver. Got my dear’s old bluetooth enabled phone, the Philips Fisio 820, as her dad won a new phone in a lucky draw. So I was trying to use send AT commands to the phone and for some reason I can’t seem to send SMSs via the phone. It just keeps coming up with an error :S Tried with her new Sony Ericsson (SE) phone and it was kind of problematic as well. I can’t even use my Tungsten E2 to send an SMS using the loaded software with the Fisio. Strange… The SE phone didn’t have text mode which I think is being phased out so all that is left is PDU mode. Anyway should be getting a new phone soon hopefully, eyeing the Motorola L2 as it has bluetooth but no camera, just the way I like it but now I’m looking for a phone with bluetooth, no camera, external memory slot and costing around BND$300 =p I guess I can’t be pleased easily can I? =p I think I’ve seen phones that satisfy the 1st 3 attributes but then the cost factor comes in. Especially hesitant for the ‘unemployed’ like me.

Bye for now people. Going to be driver again….

Back home

Yeah I know I came back on Sunday but it’s been kind of a rush back here in a few ways but that should end soon. Honestly came back on Sunday and more or less stoned the rest of the day away. (delta change / delta time) was too high. Felt isolated. Everything I knew so well for the past 4 years (but especially for the past 1 year plus) all disappeared. Didn’t think I would get emotional about it but I guess I couldn’t help it like 45 minutes before flight. Photos available here and here. I guess it didn’t matter that my dear was out of the country when I came back =( It also didn’t help that when I got out of the airport it started raining and so I got a bit drenched while getting my stuff to the car. I was 8.8kg overweight so ended up paying S$53 for the excess baggage ($6 per kg) which isn’t that bad considering it’ll cost slightly cheaper to ship it but then I would have to worry about picking up the goods. This way it comes back with me straight away so it was good. A new chapter has started in my life back here in Brunei where I know God has called me to be in this season of my life. Now something that just popped up before me was should I work for my mom or not. Surprisingly it didn’t even come to my mind when I decided to come back home, I thought it was obvious. Well so I thought. It doesn’t help with people saying that there are IT companies looking for people. Well will pray about it. So I guess that makes the job searching people count to 4 in my cell (yes I still consider it my cell =p). At least I have some ideas in store and I guess time to do it as well =D

Monday I was also kind of lost of what to do. The friend I was supposed to go on an eating spree went to Malaysia for the day and dear dear was still in Malaysia. I don’t remember what I was doing honestly, but I guess I was moving on. Tuesday was the eating spree!!! Sugarbun, Ideal Cafe & Grill, Swensen’s, Satay and some Pizza Hut. To Denise they do have the 3 layered tea in Sugarbun now ;-) Ideal chicken and spagetti is always good to me =P Too bad my chicken didn’t have any skin =( Swensen’s was not on the itenerary but Tuesday was 1/2 price for the Giant Earthquake so how can I refuse? =p We also ordered a “Topless 5” made completely of sticky chewy chocolate!!! Satay was good especially since it’s like 4 sticks for $1 for chicken and beef. They even have weird meat choices like camel, rabbit, ostrich and a few more which I can’t remeber. On the table they had pictures of the meats they had which I found amusing especially that of the rabbit which looks too cute to eat to many. Still on the yet-to-eat-but-I’m-sure-as-heck-going-to-eat list is Jollibee, rojak, Gin Chew peanut buns and Youme black bean paos.

Today I’ve been fixing computers, well actually trying to find out why a computer wasn’t booting up. Ended up to be the power supply. Unluckily/Luckily I tried using the house desktop’s power supply to test to see if that was the problem. And viola! The computer finally booted up properly. The problem came back when I put that power supply (my beloved antec power supply) back into the house desktop. I attached it back and switched it on to check and I see smoke coming out of the CPU!!!! Quickly shutting it down then I found that the power cable for the floppy drive (yes there still is a floppy drive, mainly for my mom) was melted and smelling a ‘great’ smell of molten plastic. So ended up having to buy 2 power supplies.

Well I guess I better enjoy the days in Brunei as I will be living them for a while. To all those back in Singapore, take care and don’t miss me =p

It’s been a long time I guess huh?

Guess I’ve been busy with things like trying to extend my stay in Singapore and having to spend like 10 hours in total doing something in regards to ICA. If anybody wants to renew / apply for a social visit pass go in the morning, trust me it’s worth it. Despite the queue almost wrapping 3/4 around the building it was a quick visit compared to the other visits I had there. Was in and out in just over an hour instead of the usual wait of 2 / 3 hours waiting in the hall.

Been busy attending convocations as well: 4 in total including mine =p. Also been doing some part time work for the past 2 weeks which is pretty interesting and it has flexible hours and I didn’t have to go down to the office in Jurong East for the past 2 weeks. However I have been to the office today as I am typing this as McDonald’s in IMM (how I love free wireless hotspots =P) and I’ll be back there tomorrow due to some hardware testing.

Went to watch 2 fireworks displays, well.. more like 1 and the other 1 I was there for like 2 minutes but I didnt look at the display as I was trying to get through the crowd to chop (reserve) seats at Max Brenner’s Chocolate Bar at the Esplanade. The day before (Friday) we resorted to going to Haagen Dazs for supper while on that Saturday had chocolate for dinner =p Well I guess I should enjoy this while I’m still here which is like 5 more full days.

Anyway I’ll being going back home this Sunday at 0905, should be picking up the ticket tomorrow at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yes its hard to go but alas there’s a bigger calling to go back home. So for those of you who don’t know the story or the full story here it is…. It all started back before I came to Singapore for my university education. I always thought of studying and working here. So if anybody came to ask me what were my plans after studying I would say I would stay in Singapore. Well that all changed about a year ago. One fine day the thought of going back home after graduation crept into my mind. Sounds a bit strange to get thoughts like that especially since it was a drastic contrast of what I always wanted to do. But I just felt a need to go back and after some processing I feel that God is just telling me to go back for now. I think if I were to stay here I would get too caught up in work and things. That basically happened to me in my final year, in my work that I’m doing. Also I believe that my plans for myself are incomparable with God’s plan for me, whatever that may be. All I know is that I have to go back. Won’t know how long. I could be back in Singapore to work in the future but who knows but God. I shall place my life in His hands as He becomes the light upon my feet guiding me through what lays ahead. Also there seems to be some open doors that I wish to go through that have been opened in the past year of actually letting go of the idea of working in Singapore. Time to leave is soon. Enjoy the time here in Singapore. Enjoy the time with the friends that I’ve made here. Friendships that mean so much. Memories that hopefully never get forgotten. God bless people.

Finally! Wireless in Linux

I have been trying to configure the wireless settings at my friends place for a few days now and today I finally got it.


ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ap_scan=1
network={
proto=WPA
mode=0
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
ssid="theSSID"
psk="thePassword"

The problem was that I was trying to configure it as WPA2 because in the Intel PROSet/Wireless configuration it stated that it was “WPA2-Personal” as the Network Authentication type. It was only after I tried using the Microsoft Wireless configuration that enables me to select the wireless access point (WAP) and then input the keyphrase that I realised it was WPA. Strange. Must be the SMC wireless router or something…

2 Timothy 3:7

Resumed my 1 year schedule to finish the bible today after quite a long break. I admit at times I was too lazy to pick it up again due to the extra length of time it takes to read and digest much more material compared to my QT materials. Anyway hit the verse as follows
2 Timothy 3:7 “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth”.
This verse means quite a lot to me because it seems to be talking about my life in my first 2 years of university. I always wanted to learn something. Something that I could use in life or at least put to good use. There are times in my life where I’ve been running the rat race of obtaining knowledge and learning, but never seeking and finding the truth. I think it doesn’t help being in Singapore with the fast pace of life here that seems to be pushing you here or there. Just need to take a step back and take a breather. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pursue knowledge but as always there is a time and place for everything. God gave each of us talents and we need to nuture and use those talents but we should not let them become something that distracts us and takes our focus away from Jesus. Lesson 1 of the ooo-some YDM L.I.F.E. youth camp about eyes and how to affix them on Jesus. Let not the distractions take a hold of your life and focus on what needs to be done. Focus on the giver not the gifts, i.e. focus on God.
Have a blessed weekend people =)

Convocation in a few hours

I’m getting ready to go to my convocation. Got the clothes on, got the gown in the bag, got the camera, got the extra batteries. Don’t have a larger CF card for the camera though but I think 80 photos should be more than enough. It’s a strange feeling. 4 years and it wraps up in just this 1 day. Student life ends, employment life begins well currently more like unemployment life begins. Well should be having my holiday here until the end of the month then it’s back home to work. Though I always wanted to work here after graduation I had a thought come to my mind about 1 year ago that kind of said like “why don’t you go back home?”. A voice in my head. So it may seem like the thoughts of a loon but I believe it was God telling me to go back for a while. I may not know what’s in store for me but I do this.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
So I shall go home and see what plans are in store for me and where I shall be headed in the future. I could come back to Singapore to work, I could stay back home in Brunei to work or I could even end up somewhere else doing who knows what work that only God knows. I shall follow my shepherd wherever He shall lead me. So Lord I offer my life to You, everything I’ve been through, use it for Your glory. In Jesus name, Amen.

Portable applications

Just came to me that I would like to have portable applications running on a USB drive. So in my search I refer to The Portable Freeware Collection which has a whole lot of free portable applications. An in the process I think I found my almost perfect file manager called tabbyFile.

My current list of applications are as follows:

  1. Browser & Email client: Opera-USB
  2. FTP server: Baby FTP Server | Quick ‘n Easy FTP Server Lite
  3. FTP client: FTP Wanderer
  4. HTTP file server: HFS
  5. Telnet/SSH Client: PuTTY
  6. Compression/Extraction: Portable7zip
  7. MSN messenger: PixaMSN
  8. MD5 integrity utility: MD5 checker
  9. Text Editor: Notepad++
  10. BitTorrent client: uTorrent
  11. Offline browser: HTTrack
  12. Audio recording/editing/encoding: Audacity

That’s the current list for now but will be updating as the list grows as I’m sure it will.

Digital camera hunt

I’m my current state I almost bought a digital camera yesterday. I guess ever since I got back from my short trip back home I realised that I want to take photos for keepsake purposes so with that I kind of got into a digital camera hunt yesterday…. online =p So I kind of narrowed it down to like the following Canon cameras: Powershot A430 (4 megapixels) , Powershot A530 (5 megapixels). Powershot A540 (6 megapixels). The only real difference is the megapixels and I guess price. So I just went out to look at the prices yesterday. The A430 is going for around ~S$280 and is bundled with a 512MB SD card and a bag. The A530 was around ~S$360 with the same bundle. This being my first real digicam I thought I would just start low and actually S$300 is more or less my price point for gadgets like PDA’s, phones, handheld consoles and digicams. Perhaps I’m a bit stingy with the money but I also feel its not really worth paying so much for a gadget, plus if anything happens it won’t cost that much to replace. Anyway I was a good thing that I decided not to buy it yesterday as my sister says she has an old Nikon camera that I can use. Kind of felt it was too rushed to buy it, guess it was God telling me there is a way to get a camera without paying for it =D. As Dominic shared before how God not only just provides but helps you save money ;-). She says its the Nikon Coolpix 3200 which seems pretty good for a novice like me. So I will wait for my brother to bring the camera over probably this weekend when he comes. Yay! =D Thank you sis!
Need to thank the following websites during my camera hunt hehe
CNET Asia (more for rough Singapore pricing)
CNET
Steve’s Digicams (for great reviews)
PC Magazine

During the search I kind of ran into Creative‘s Star Buy promotion. You can get a Zen Vision for half price!!! First 5 customers get 50% off, the next 20 get 30% off, the next 50 get 20% off while the rest get 10% off. It’s some online offer which is a pretty good deal if you are looking for a portable media player which is better than the iPod in terms of performance, screen size, file formats and extra features. Now I wonder if ladyada will make a media player device as a possible successor to MintyMP3.

Also met up with Denise, Dominic and Ruyi yesterday. Had a great time just chatting and eating. It’s going to be different when I go back, going to miss the fellowship of the trippers. BTW the photos I took when I was bored are up here (need to add me to your contacts first so I can share with you, on request of Mr. Tee =p). Nothing much to see except people sleeping haha. Anyway I need to go school later and after that run some personal errands. A great new week that the Lord has blessed us with: don’t waste it. Take care and God bless! =)