Tuesday onwards was okay but still a bit =S here and there. 12+7 hours until my results are out. And found out that I have a module clash for next semester so I have to change plans.. sigh.. Sucks plain sucks crap.
Anyway I should get back to doing the work I am supposed to do =P But I’m lazy as always :P
Good luck everybody with your resuls and Merry Christmas

Left my laptop on last night and when I woke up I found the screen to be off, so I thought at least. So I tried moving the mouse around but the screen did not turn on. Then I realised that I could see something on the screen. I saw the windows I had open and realised that my screen was dead =|=|=| Backlight dead :”( So hooked it up to my junior’s desktop monitor. For some reason I adjusted my laptop screen and *poof* like magic it was working again =| Now I have to say that was a scary experience. This is after I saw my laptop ‘blink’ at least times yesterday. The screen was on, then it ‘blinked’: the monitor screen turned all black for like half a second then came back on. And this is also after I’ve had ‘flickering’ problems with my display where the brightness just changes slightly. And that has happened like 3 or 4 times while posting this…sigh…. On the brighter side I’ll probably buy an monitor (hopefully LCD screen =D) if the screen does die, or better yet I’ll buy a whole new desktop / laptop =D. Crap just ‘flickered’ again. I think I’m still under warranty though :P But arent excuses fun to buy new stuff? :P

Or so it seems. Need more sleep. Need to play less. Need to work.
Motivation where have you gone? Or maybe more like ‘sleep’ where have you gone?

Trying to make things more manageable in the underlying code. I could use those management systems like PHP-Nuke, Mambo and b2evolution but I prefer to do things myself. Yes it’ll much more time and wont be as good as the management systems but its something I like to do and makes me learn things. Anyway tiring day went out with my dear dear :D Tomorrow going out with my cousin again :P Anyway I should go shower

Cousing in town, so ended up having dinner with him, uncle and aunt and Tony Roma’s: Famour for Ribs. Nice ribs I have to say :D
After that went to play pool as we always end up doing due to my cousin’s ‘obssession’ to play and beat me. He hasn’t beat me much despite my lack of playing while I’m here. I play like maybe 5 or 6 times a year since I came to Singapore. Played quite a lot when I’m back home. Well most of my wins involve lots of kalokness (luckiness) :P
After that went to Burger King when my cousing took the Swiss mushroom meal. Then went looking for a taxi and walked passed Parco Junction where they have this broadway thingy (Broadway Christmas @ PARCO – Sales Promotions and Broadway Musicals). Watched them practise a while as we ate McDonald’s 25c ice cream cone :P Then took a cab back. It was a Mercedes cab :D:D Nice and comfortable. At first life was being itself when we got to the front of the queue and suddenly the taxi’s just disappear. None. Zilch. That’s life for you. But then it gave a nice unsuspecting twist :D Anyway I’m off to shower now

I !&*$^!&*$^!&*$^!$&!*($& HATE IT!!!
It keeps disconnecting and I can’t even save my password so I have to manually type it in time after time after time.. $*!&$*(!&$*(!&$

Anyway back to work…

Running about quite a bit. Still working as I always do :P
Playing bits of Half-Life 2 in between and it still so cool, though the AI doesn’t seem all that great. Maybe its just because I played HL1 on hard and the enemies were pretty hard to kill compared to HL2.
Anyway the immersion factor is just great in game. Never had a game feel like HL2 feels. Anyway I should get some sleep, off to meet possible UROP supervisor tomorrow

** Updated at 5:13:33 on 2004/12/05 **
I can finally play Half-Life 2 on a desktop but the thing is, the display is too dark and it is so eye straining because its just way too dark and its the beginning of the game where you dont have a flashlight yet. Now looking for software to increase the gamma settings of the monitor or something. Life just has to do this to me doesnt it?

====EDIT====
Finally found the settings. Dont know why I couldnt find it just now. Who cares off to play HL2 now :D

** Updated at 7:11:50 on 2004/12/02 **
Monday evening when to play pool with Naved and Anirudh (I hope I spelt it right, can never seem to spell properly :P).
Came back and fixed my Apache 2,
PHP 5, mySQL 4.1 configuration so that it actually works on my computer. FINALLY it works :D.
Tuesday went to Sim Lim in hopes of buying Half-Life 2. No luck because Steam offers a better package I think. I got silver :D
So after the long day I came back and tried to buy HL2 online. For some reason it kept rejecting my credit card :”(:”(:”(. Lucky my bro was online and that ‘broadband’ was just installed at home so he downloaded the Steam client for me and bought HL2 for me :D:D yay!!!! So I thought all I had to do was unencrypt the HL2 data from my computer because I thought the files were are preloaded into my computer, thanks to Steam, something they did with CS: Source. Apparently I was soooo wrong :'(:”(. 848MB to download and finished like in about 35 hours.
It was a good thing it was downloading though, because I was helping a friend to do a C++ project. I kind of know C++ now :D yay!! haha. Yes I’m a freak or a ‘freaaak!!’ as a friend told me. I love programming so what can I say? Might be trying to program and authentication mod for CS to authenticate users in order for better statistic tracking.
Anyway back to HL2. Finished downloading. But I cant play :'(. Several times it hung on the menu screen due to the fact that a level is loaded and is the background of the menu screen. I think it hung because there isnt enough video memory :( 16mb is pathetic :”(:”( The strange thing was on the 1st start up it was fine. I loaded properly but I couldnt see my mouse cursor. Then I realised my comp hung :| So restarted (thank goodness I’m NOT on the NUS domain and can boot up within 1 minute :D) and tried again. This time it hung before even showing the menu items on the menu screen. So tried again same thing. Then I decided to load it without the background as I read you could do that on the Steam forums. Tried that and it loaded and I started a new game. Took some time, but it loaded then I heard the G-Man asking Gordon Freeman, the character that you play, to wake up. So naturally I think the black screen I see is normal. Then suddenly the audio stops. Comp HUNG AGAIN!!! :”(:”( I give up. Just need another computer. Will be getting 2 desktops within the next 2 days I think :D:D So I will be able to play HL2 :D:D
Right now I’m settling to play CS : Source for a while. By myself because I cant play online because NUS is doing something funny with the network connections and stuff.
Happy holidays people!! And for those left with exams good luck and study hard!

====EDIT====
I CAN PLAY HL2!!!! ON MY LAPTOP!!!! HAHAHAHA
‘Pathetically’ at 640×480 but it still runs!!! hahaha
So fun to play around with the physics. I played with a see-saw and swing and slide!!!! hehehe
Okay I should get some sleep, slept like 4/5hrs last nite.
I think I’ll try BIOS upgrade later, because if I screw up my laptop then I will have to buy a new 1 :D:D haha :P A newer 1 that I can play HL2 on :P:P Can’t wait for the desktops to come for me to play HL2 :D

HL2 88% finished downloading. After like 30hrs?
More update of holidays later. Too sleepy. :P
Good night world