life around the looop

It's time to say goodbye

2009-09-09T20:29:00.004+10:00

Wow, i really am quite sad this is endding!!

it's been so fun, blogging with these guys has been amazing and yeah who would of back in year 12 accounting the idea of a combined blog would of lasted this long =)

Although i may have stopped kinda blogging ever since uni started i still felt quite apart of this looop that teoh and jason has built. Blogging my friends is truely a talent one must learn, as it's really hard and tiresome but if you can pull it off it's really rewarding.

I remember back in highschool i used to try really hard to blog each night in great detail what had gone on just do i had some kind of documentation of my life (which i still do XD) and i remember sometimes it took up to 1 hour plus to put a good entry up with heaps of photos ahha

The looop has been good guys, really it has. It feels like this blog was somewhat like this tree, and with each entry 1 leaf would fall and i suppose the final 3 leaves remained for each of our farewell posts =( aww ..

yeah so follows teohs post on his blog and visit jasons post for a wave of Korean Pop Girl Groups ahhaha jk..(but not really) and yeah who knows maybe i'll reopen the old timmy blog ahah.

TTYL

2009-09-09T16:33:00.013+10:00

[If I remember correctly]

'It's like a river overflowing!' proclaimed David fantastically, finishing off Tim's spiel about a certain individual on his mind. He proceeded to open his exercise book to illustrate exactly what he meant by a river while Ms. Blazejewski's disapproval slowly drifted towards us from across the room.

...

That night, after some discussion over MSN, the looop's blueprint was drawn up. With the idea that Tim would fill the void for us if we didn't end up writing much.
And two hundred and thirty odd entries later,
/Tim's saving his secret blogging-powers for when the world really needs them;
/I've had Livejournal as my voluptuous mistress for a year, my little extra on the side;
/and the Chronicles of David have emigrated to a mysterious, not-so-distant land.

And so, the looop is no more. Maybe we'll try and sell the rights to it one day and Penguin will make an anthology. Not any time soon, but later, when we're old men and our superannuation has been almost completely wiped out by the global recession in 2053.
The royalties should be enough to last us another ten years. At least!

a circle with a end?

2009-09-08T18:44:00.002+10:00

hey guys,

as most of you can guess, thelooop is closing down. I have decided to move to a new blog of my own, and since tim is past his blogging days, and ling has his own, it only makes sense to close down thelooop.

it worked great, I still remember the day we talked about creating it in accounting year 12. I must say I loved posting here with them both (while they did). jason's done a great job in bringing out changing layouts through the two years, and we got a good 230 posts out of it. I'd imagine we bulit up a solid list of readers (maybe 4 or so?) as well, so thank you to all those who kept coming back.

catch me now at teohcron.blogspot.com.

thanks looop buddies, it was fun while it lasted =]

teoh,

Man's best predicament

2009-08-23T13:47:00.005+10:00

Good predicaments are hard to come by these days. Predicaments that will really stay by your side and remind you that they're there when the going gets tough. And whenever they give you that malicious smile or a hug, you know that they've got your back! And that's what counts, for that is the badge of a true predicament.

Mmm... doesn't it just chill your heart?

I know that my best predicaments are always right there with me through the thick and the thin, 'cause they're my most loyal and untrustworthy companions.

So the next time you and your friends being chased down by a rolling boulder, just remember who are your predicaments and who are your friends.

(Oh, man, subversive much? I've confused even myself.)

flowing on

2009-08-13T23:29:00.003+10:00

Achievement: did not fall asleep in any of my lectures today.

Whether or not I learnt anything from them is another story though.

Saw 'Public Enemies' on tuesday night with some 1st year friends. The movie was about...do you really want to know? Or do you just want to see it cause it's got johnny depp!?!? Cause that's apparently what half of the female audience was there to see. Giggling, losing their breath and they see him topless. *sigh. But the movie was good, I quite enjoyed it.

Me and lil ended up staying back waitin for her sister to finish work at pancake palour. It was awesome catching up with her. Did you know glenny is sooo foggy during midnight? Barely could see anything, even with fog lights on...but as soon as you clear glen waverley, it's all clear. Magic.

Ok yes, facebook is quite addictive...especially when you have free access on the phone =_= Hopefully I'll get bored of it soon (but the games are fun...)

Thinking whether or not I should quit thelooop and make my own blog. The other two have moved off, so I don't want to linger on like I can't bear to move on =[ Probably can't be bothered making a new blog for awhile though.

teoh,

Time Capsule

2009-08-11T22:46:00.007+10:00

Dear reader,

How are you? I am well, thank you. I am sorry to have not written back any sooner than I have.

With the increased pressure to post on thelooop lately, I've been somewhat pensive. And over the last few months, David's been racking up more posts than either Tim or I can poke a stick at. So here I am writing to you now, eagerly tap-tappity-tapping away at my keyboard like a technology-familiar 'beaver'.

What I should reveal though, is that - I'm having an affair. Don't look at me like that. You knew all along. I didn't deny it or try to hide it. Wh- you never asked! Oh, come now. I'm sorry... Don't cry... ...W-Who is she? ... L-L-Livejournal... I-I said LIVEJOURNAL! ... ouch, that smarts. Don't call her that, she-- No! I love you both equally! ... It's not bullshit! ... Just calm down. Look, I'm stepping away... I'll just grab my keys and I'll be back at twelve when you've calmed down a bit ...and after you've put down the knife. ... Hey! How is this conversation even taking place in a letter?! You have driven me to schizophrenia, you nut job! ... I am not changing the subject!! Anyway, that's all I had to say for now. D-...digest it... please? Look, do our two years mean nothing to you? ... I'm trying!! -f***!

..........[And end scene!]

Okay, so I started writing a letter to the reader, and it turned into half of an imaginary conversation. Anyway, it's true, I've been pampering a livejournal and paying it half my attention for the last year. And yeah, I haven't purposely been hiding it either, I posted once around August of '08 saying that I would make a livejournal and make it a dumping ground so that my posts in 'thelooop' would be only those of a more passable quality.

I also put it in our links page back then, but never mentioned it after that. And until recently, it has never been intended for an audience, in fact, there were a few times I openly discouraged an audience in my posts, and I did in fact keep comments disabled up until about six months ago.

So why now? Why is it open now?

My livejournal has developed into a more serious relationship and only until Hong posted a comment about a week ago was I struck with the fact that maybe what I write there is worth sharing after all. Maybe people out there appreciate my compulsive obsession with semantics and formatting after all... I mean I always realised I had some readers because it would come up in conversation once in a while, but with somebody as random as Hong reading, it really hit me, you know?

Anyway, I'll keep a place in my heart for both 'thelooop' and my livejournal.

EDIT: oh yeah, my livejournal is found at readaboutling.livejournal.com

is it really such a bad thing?

2009-08-09T21:00:00.004+10:00

i've decided to remove a few moles on my face.

now everyone is like
O.O?!?!

Which isn't that suprising because the people i've told so far have given me pretty negative comments about it but i couldn't really care less. People now been saying i'm going in for plastic/cosmetic surgery and it kinda makes me angry because im not sure if it's true or not.

okay i admit im a pretty vain person but honestly i believe everyone is a vain person just that some people are better at it then others.

and so what if im vain?

it still doesn't give people any right to call me that. It's just like how if someone is fat you can't run up to them and go 'OMG ur so fkn fat!' it's just uncalled for yeah?

Essentially i'm just looking at it as something im just correcting. And even though people may tell me it's fine and theres nothing wrong with it, i personally think it's damn ulgy. And if you ever had braces you would know exactly what im saying. Why did you bother correcting your teeth? because you didn't like it right, and basically it's to improve your overall appearance yeah? and if your justifying it because my dentist told me i need to as screwed up teeth leads to problems in the future, well moles are also a risk to human health as they are potentially cancerous. (btw i had braces too ^^)

Furthermore removing moles cost about 200 dollars, but im fortunate enough to beable to get it for free as my aunty loves me =) Just think... if you were a burn victim and one of your family members could help you regenerate healthy skin again to better your appearance what would be your reason to reject such an offer? (that example was pretty bad i hope you get what i mean)

Im just soo sad sometimes how people really are quick to judge you and if it really really awfully disturbs people then i guess just don't talk to me? plastic/cosmetic surgery isn't such a bad thing, and i think they should be respected more. btw my aunt isn't a plastic surgeon, shes a dermatologist. I just wish people would just relax about the whole thing..

it sounds like im angry but im not, im actually really happy and excited about it! i know theres going to be a bit of pain and soreness for 2 weeks and then a scar is going to be there and it's going to take at lease 1 year before my skin turns back to normal but i rather remove them now then in the future. I also have a lot of other reasons for it but i don't feel like i need to justify them here.

i know people are entitled to their own opinion and they are right ^^ however, i just can't help but feel really judged and attacked, and even though it may be all such a joke it's not really that funny. It just kinda makes me more insecure about the whole thing, and when did friendship turn so ulgy? =(

AHAHHAH anywayss just though i shall let my fellow looop members knoww so in the nearby future people aren't asking me why i've got bandaids on my face ahha :)

party!

2009-08-09T09:06:00.002+10:00

Went to Nick Woon's, a baker friend, 21st party last night.

It was held at Kingston Link Golf Course/Function Centre, just off Wellington Rd in Rowville. It's a very impressive place, especially after you drive over the bridge and into a estate looking area, complete with gate walls and lovely lawns. The function room itself wasn't very huge, but big enough to accomodate for 50 - 100 people comfortably. There was catering for fingerfood and the bar had a tab for lots of beer and soft drinks, so it was really good. It looked expensive, but it's not a bad place to keep in mind for your own 21st.

Night started out nice and awkward. Besides my baker's crew, I didn't really know anyone else. I was also driving, so I wasn't able to drink to boost up with fake confidence. I actually planned to leave early, since I had work at 7AM (actually at work now, and thought I started at 730AM so I was late...), but the night ended up being lots of fun, and I stayed til the end at 1AM with my friends. I was really glad I got an invite, cause it was strict numbers, and even some people working at baker's didn't get one =]

lol I also met Nick's sister, May (think it was shortened from seomthing-May), just a hi while she took my photo with Nick. But she was really pretty, wore a nice dress, and I have a feeling I've seen her before at uni, maybe at the bus stop. I didn't have the courage to try and strike up a conversation with her after though =[ maybe I can facebook her...I'm considering joining tonight to grab some of the photos that my friends took at the party.

ah joining facebook..I thought I saw the sun explode this morning.

teoh,

the bottle speaks.

2009-08-06T19:52:00.004+10:00

4 stages of learning from a bad lecturer:

boring/not understanding - either he speaks with a heavy accent, stutters alot, doesn't know what he's teaching, or you start to count er's and um's instead of sheep.

sleeping - cause you're tired of a) lecturer b) lack of sleep last night c) uni d) wearing weak glasses

frustrating - cause you know you're not going to be able to do the weekly prac work, never ending assignments, difficult tests and the dreaded exams.

failing. yup.

now to struggle to do this assignment for the subject I was drawing the above in.

teoh,

selling thelooop

2009-08-04T20:11:00.004+10:00

Being bored at work:

The estimated value of thelooop.blogspot.com is: $2
This value is represents the approximate value of the website entered. Of course, this value does NOT include the worth of the company behind the website but rather is an estimated value of the website itself. Some of these valuation factors include: PageRank, traffic, backlinks, age of the domain, directory listings, and other items not shown in the summary above.

Courtesy of sitevaluecalculator.com. Pretty sure that I'm not allowed to sell a blog that isn't even hosted by me though =[ shame, I could use a coke from the vending machine right now... Let's aim for $5 by the end of the year, ey?

Today was my day off, but I went into uni anyway for some group work at 10AM. After some boring work, went off to wander around uni. Pretty exciting to see who you'll bump into, as I'm not usually at uni at this time.

Ran into esther and samantha, so we had a chat at the campus center. Then met up with Lillian and her friends Suki and Karen. Funny thing happened, after spending about 40 minutes in their company...

Suki: Do you have a brother by any chance?

me: *nods yup.

Suki: Is his name Anthony?
me: o.O how do you know that?

Suki: I go to the same church...you remind me alot of him.

Now, I'm told me and my brother don't look that simliar...sound alike, but not look. Scary how we might act like each other. =S

But hey. What a small world huh?

teoh,

sound of fantasy

2009-08-03T18:35:00.006+10:00

On september 26th sat, eminence will be flying down to sydney to perform A Night of Fantasia 09 in the Sydney Entertainment Center. For anyone who likes gaming arrangement, anime or orchestral music, it's definitely having a look.

Me and marco plan to fly down for the weekend, see the performance at night, then explore sydney a little in morning before flying back here. Tiger is selling cheap tickets at $40 one way, so now is a good time to book. Tickets for concert go on sale tomorrow. Let me know if anyone goes so we can say hi to them while we're there !

Also, you'll notice a new tab 'List' that I've made. I was bored on the weekend, so I've started making a list of star wars books I've read/own/need for myself, and thought I'd save here. Not like ling and tim post here anymore... =P

also,
TWO YEARS AROUND THE LOOOP
so ling hardly posts, tim rarely, but we're all still here and we all see each other still. I'd say it's successfully alive. hurrah!

edit: I'd actually like to leave a small verbal snapshot of how I'm doing at this point of time, for future reference (last one year post didn't have anything)

self: feeling slightly lost, trying to re-establish independence. trying to improve on self.
friends and family: Feeling closer and loving them more than ever. Made a regretful mistake and paying the price for it.
uni: grades dropped, subjects are mediocre in enjoyment. look forward to weekends a lot.
overall: more or less content. financially stable. sick of apartment.

prediction: by 2010, teoh has implemented Order 66, killed ling and tim, and taken over the looop as the new Emperor.

teoh,

melon paaaan

2009-08-01T20:58:00.003+10:00

my results of today's baking:

Got up around 9 to get things started. Failed first bowl of yeast by having not-so-warm water. So threw that out, and started another. Happily read off the recipe:

7/8 cups of water

'Oh yeah,' I thought to myself. '7 or 8 cups of water...'

Only by my 2nd cup of water did it strike me something was wrong. My bowl was overflowing already and I hadn't even reached the fourth cup. doh david, doh. *tips contents away* my mum had a good laugh about that one.

So third time lucky, managed to get up to the kneading part this time. This part was the most enjoyable. For fun, I ran my hands under hot water to try and get the famous SOLAR HANDS! Unfortunately, my hands went cold after a few seconds =[

After that, things went pretty smoothly. my sister helped me with the cookiee dough (she's the baker of the family) and I passed 2 hours of fermentation by reading my star wars books and watching naruto.

end result: salty melon bread.
why? Cause I realised I accidentally doubled the amount of salt in the dough. LOL. I'm so hopeless.

But besides that, it tasted like it should I guess. My parents actually went into the city and found it at Bread Top and brought home some. Tastes pretty much the same, but better bread ;D

It was pretty fun cooking though! Haven't done that in awhile.

teoh,

needs a routine.

2009-07-28T18:33:00.004+10:00

I want melon pan (bread).

After watching Yakitate! Japan, I now of course want to make bread. Typical. And since I can't find melon pan anywhere (disappointing bread top =[), I've decided to give this one a crack on saturday. I'll let you know how that goes.

Speaking of projects, finding the DDR mat very hard. That site I posted previously takes lots of welding, and I don't particularly want to do that. I'm thinking maybe looking into types of timber that could work. Again, this will probably have to wait til next holidays to start, but no harm on thinking about it...

I'm living by myself again in the apartment. It's quiet lonely, now that I've experienced apartment sharing in queensland. Upstairs indian people are very annoying too. They talk so loudly and late at night. Got woken up at 3 am last thursday grrr. Wild plans of throwing stink bombs into their apartment plague my mind...

Been trying to make new groups at uni, since my last few groups didn't work out. Alot of them are amor, but it's been okay so far. Just glad I was able to find new people to work with and not struck out fishing randoms again..although my last randoms turned out pretty well.

today was my free tuesday...planned to go to officework to buy another notebook and stapler, but never ended up going. I definitely need a routine, instead of staying at the apartment all day =_= excerise could be an option...is it time to rejoin the gym perhaps?

oh, and I could be changing to 3 very soon. my whole group is now on 3 for goodness sake. won't be able to talk to ann anymore though =[ goodbye 2300 free minutes.

teoh,

DDR construction?

2009-07-22T21:08:00.005+10:00

have a look at this picture. looks cool right?
now I'll tell you it's self-made. Whooa, impressive yeah?
and you can make it yourself!
all up, this project will cost you $400 to make.

yeah my interest dive was probably the one your having right now.
I found this link while searching for some home-made DDR 'hardmats' as they're known (or metal mats as I tend to call them). This mat not only has pop-rings for easy movement, sensory sensitivity adjustments, while being pretty damn identical to arcade ones, it also lights up real pretty with additional LEDs.

over the next few days, I'm going to try and draft my own design. There are so many things I can cut out (such as the LEDs..as pretty as they are T_T) that will reduce the cost. They have part listings there on that site too, which is pretty handy.

just imagine...ddr in your own home. *drool.

teoh,

my ki is your ki

2009-07-21T20:02:00.004+10:00

I've got this feeling in my stomach that something isn't quite right. It's been there since late last week, and it's not going away. For a stab, it might be uni. It could be getting used to living alone, especially after queensland. I wonder what it is..

On the bus on the right to ddr with ling, I noticed there was a myki machine installed. It's little box with an display screen, saying 'get ready for myki!'. apparently it's already been implemented in places like Geelong and Bendigo (I wonder if our dentist friends there have used it), but no date of release here in Melbourne.

It's a system used in many places over-seas, including Singapore, where you have a single card with prepaid money in it. You swipe your card when you get on, and again when you get off. The system them calculates what zones you've been on and deducts money from you. If you swipe it again 3 hours later, it will also detect this and charge you less to make the total expenses equal a daily cost. Pretty smart.

Now that I think about it, Julian used something simliar up in Queensland as well.

Btw, yes I've started using labels cause Marco has convinced me how smart they are. But I'll probably give up sometime soon.

teoh,

and cut.

2009-07-19T16:40:00.003+10:00

that's a holiday wrap people.

this holiday was pretty crazy for me. crammed a lot of things at the beginning...rushed off to queensland..and then surprisingly crammed a few more things at the end.

I've got a lot to think about from this holiday. things to chew over on those lonely nights in the apartment, as I didn't manage to find a new roommate (which I'm perfectly fine about tbh).

attachment was a common theme in my thoughts. Anyone got a who-to-deal-with-change-for-dummies guide? I've been thinking to try and join a outside club of some sorts to try and individualize myself. The thing is to try and find something interesting...and the time.

pact: try and implement one positive change to myself this semester.
disappointed: didn't get my new star wars book in time this holidays. oh the emotion.
unkeen: uni
positive: uni timetable seems better

I wish everyone I might not see for awhile a good semester and all the best. take care and I can't wait to see you all next holidays for more fun and memories.

teoh,

p.s I signed up for guitar hero tournament at timezone knox today =]

queensland vlog #4

2009-07-13T21:39:00.003+10:00

hi all,
not teohsulfate here, and we're all back in melbourne now. this last vid is of the final 3 days of the trip: movieworld, dreamworld and this morning. i'm pretty tired, so that's all i got to say before i post the last vid david put together.

all the qld vlogs so far have been put together by david, so all video making credit due to the jedi please.

day 3, sea world and night out.

2009-07-10T21:41:00.002+10:00

hey guys,

bit sleep deprived at the moment. hardly had any sleep last night.

here's blog 3 from yesterday: sea world and a night out.

I'm getting better at using this iMovie program. It's really nice. I migh consider getting one in the future.

enjoy,

teohsulfate.

queensland day 2

2009-07-10T02:17:00.001+10:00

posting at 2 am in the morning.

we're having some fun discussions at the moment.

planning to go see the sunrise at 6:35am at the beach.

dave, your menu.dat file got corrupted some how =[ it's out of the holiday until I replace it back at home.

vblog2:

teohsulfate,

queensland day 1

2009-07-08T19:34:00.003+10:00

hey guys, teoh here, on Ling's new mac.

below is our first video blog! starring us, complied quickly by me and ling using mac applications. I must say I'm very impressed with the video capabilities.

the vblog says pretty much everything. hope you guys enjoy it!

teoh and co.,

off we go!

2009-07-06T15:29:00.002+10:00

we're off to queensland tomorrow!

holidays is so exciting. I've caught up with alot of people I haven't seen for awhile, which is always good. Still many more to see when I get back.

exams were horrible. never want to do them ever again!

stay tuned, for we will attempt to post video blogs here while we're up in queensland.
I'm already disappointed...it's forecasted to rain and cold up there at the moment =[
still, it'll be good to go off with friends for awhile.

everyone else stay safe and have a good holiday,
teoh

so it begins.

2009-06-22T19:26:00.003+10:00

tomorrow is my first exam!

tues - maths, thurs - steel/timber, fri - water systems....wednesday - solids

and for all those people snickering behind my back cause you're done.......you make me cry =[ lol

good luck to me.

one week...until the FUN BEGINS! oh yeaaaaaaah! crown, hats tournament, catch up dinners/lunches, DDR, late nights, even later mornings, hardly any work, lots of money saved, QUEENSLAAAAAND, more hats, more catching up.

wooooooooooooooooooo.

*2 exams later*
gg I'm going to die after this exam.

teoh,

msn is depressing.

2009-06-18T17:00:00.002+10:00

when everyone's display name are:

WOOHOO FINIIIISHED SUCKERS
ONE MORE TO GO!
WEEEE IT'S HOLIDAYS!
OFF TO FIJI FOR TWO WEEKS!
I LOVE HOLIDAYS
WHO WANTS TO GO OUT AND PARTY!

..i haven't started exams yet ;_;

my swat fly post

2009-06-08T22:41:00.004+10:00

exactly two weeks until my first exam. *home alone face* ahhhhhh.

starting this week, I will not be staying up past 12, and getting up before 9. I will eat breakfast, and then cycle my ass to uni to study, whether I like it or not.
I think I'm forcing myself to stress, because I need to.
two not confident exams, two semi. Not looking good at the moment.

in other news,
parents have gone to china for 2 weeks.
did the usual car bump; brother takes my mums, sister gets my brothers, and I get my sisters (all cause me and my sister don't like driving the bigger cars)
stocked up on as much food as I could. Was tempted not to go back to the apartment, especially since my housemate is freaking annoying. But easier access to uni.

ddr tomorrow :D (i'm still going to uni after to study though!)

oh, I forgot to bring a towel back to the apartment. So I had to dry with two teatowels (dw, I'm washing them tomorrow =_=). lol.

edit: wed, cirque du soleil: dralion
pretty awesome show. some breath taking acrobatics going on, impressive little asian guys doing flips and stuff, girls supporting themselves with one not-even-tanky-looking arm while doing sorts of acrobats. britain's got talent has nothing compared to these guys.

dralion didn't have many dragons in it though. there were a few nice themes in their acts. touched on the four elements of fire, earth, water and something gold (humanity?). there was no real story told or anything though. there was a nice romance act of a male/female that was really touching.
each performance was interupted by comedy acts by these two 'hosts'. they didn't speak english, but they were pretty funny.

the stage and setup was so cool. potholes appeared, people jumped out, potholes disappeared like they were never there. people came down from the ceiling, people jumped from high walls onto trampolines etc.

throughly enjoyed the show, was fun sharing it with amanda. definitely worth it. I also bought the soundtrack if anyone wants to borrow it. It's pretty nice music.

teoh,

littera

2009-06-03T21:16:00.007+10:00

It's been about 9 months since ~~my personal reading renaissance~~ I started reading again (EDIT: i'm no da vinci). It started when I discontinued my two Arts units in the second semester of 2008 to pursue a double major in Commerce instead.

I found myself with too much time on my hands, so instead of studying and investing more time in the remaining two Commerce units (...), I spent a bit of my time wandering into Angus & Robertson, Borders and Dymocks every so often to buy books faster than I could read them.

Starting with buying Animal Farm from Angus & Robertson back then, Classics and Literature quickly became my favourite genres by far. And whenever I finished another book, it went into the same pile on the desk in my room.

Here it is:

The pile actually starts at Animal Farm though, cause Volume #1 of Ranma and the 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy were already there to begin with. So here are the books that I've devoured over the last ~9 months in chronological order.

Animal Farm - George Orwell (short, but.. grand.)
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak (nothing great. too easy.)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding (David still has it.)
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (one of my all-time favourites.)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (didn't live up to the hype, I preferred '1984', maybe I should reread it though.)
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (pretty good, dystopian story again, but not as good as '1984' either imo.)
Lolita - Vladmir Nobokov (bloody good. somewhat explicit at times, but what an engaging novel.)
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (not a classic! and did I say 'Lolita' was explicit? well, this trumps it. but it's pretty much Murakami's style and it works so I can't criticize him for it.)
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (this guy again? yup, also pretty explicit, probably a bit more. but moving and thoughtful.)
The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad (this. took. way. too. long. to. read. it wasn't even long only about 300 pages iirc. but it's Conrad, so yeah it was good just a bit hard to read.)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (i recommend reading this before 'Tom Sawyer', even though this is the sequel.)
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov (careful when reading this, keep in mind it's fiction... so good though! wish it were longer but unfortunately the writer died before he could finish it and his wife actually had to tie it up. oh, Mikhail, what could've been...)
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess (lived up to the hype and then some. quite short, definitely worth the read.)
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami (not as sexually explicit as Norwegian Wood but it's still there. typical Murakami novel, you'll know what you're getting yourself into when you read this if you're familiar with his works. NB: he wrote Norwegian, then Wind-up, then Kafka, and you can clearly see his writing style progress.)

Reading through some of Franz Kafka's short stories too, they're also pretty good. And finished 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens but it doesn't fit in the pile and I can't remember when I finished it.

So that's it! Best reads of those 14? Um.... 'Animal Farm', 'Catch-22', and 'Lolita' I reckon. Get cracking!

(Oh! But what about all the books I bought and didn't read or didn't/haven't finish... well, there's Moby Dick, The Odyssey, Atlas Shrugged is still going cause it's the biggest book I've ever seen, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Great Expectations to name a few off the top of my head...)

PS: Yes, that's a bulbasaur.

sharing funny moments with randoms is pretty fun haha

2009-06-02T20:48:00.003+10:00

No suprise im blogging when exams are comming around, this is of course what we do. Blog when we don't have time and when we do we don't blog at all, ahah.

So recently i've had a few experiences with totally random people and hey i love random people they are cool, you know nothing about them so theres no friendship contract yet (haha i jokee friendship isn't a contract :p). But i got to say sometimes things can become weird.. really weird and awkward and yehh. And sometimes it's a little sad because you meet someone really cool and awesome for just a short time and then realise you'll never see that person again and yeah, ohh well.

anyways i'd like to share some random people stories with you guys that has happend over the last few weeks.

So yeh lets start with the ASEAN ball, which i'll kinda update you on now i suppose but i'll keep it short. I really liked it, and if u speak to a lot of people everyone has their own judgement on the whole event but i personally thought it was much better then last years.

Positives:
+ well for instance i went with my bestesttt friend catherineee!
+ The venue was at docklands really nice!
+ inside was decorated better then last years and the atmosphere was great
+ awesome company! seriously everyone i enjoy hanging around with was there it was awesome!
+ bar and service was really good
+ entertaiment was proo! (they had pro hip hop dancers performing in the middle of the night)

Negatives:
- food was terrible
- dance floor wasn't as big as it could of been
- the music was poor, i think the guy needs more experience..
- it was slightly more expensive then last years

well yeh anyways overall, i liked it =) but anyways back to the random people story. At the asean ball i was at the bar with a friend yeh and we were going to get drinks and she was like i think more towards the bar and i was standing back because i didn't want to overcrowd the place but yeh soo weird these like international japanese guys just like stand next to each other and full on like start talking in japanese just staring at me o.o! and im like... wow... any more obviouse? and soo it was getting quite awkward and then my japanese friend (aya) she comes across like a few tables because she sees the whole situation and she wanted to listen in to what they were saying but when she came they like suddenly stopped .. hmm.. odd.. i wasn't angry or anything but come on thats like a little rude yeh? but then after i took my shot i had like i don't know extra confidence so i went up to them and said, u know 'hello, hi im tim and this is aya, whats ur name?' and at first it was awkward cause i didn't know like if they knew english or not but like after a while they are like oh hey im rah rah rah rah rah rah (i forgot.. but seriously maybe the alcho was effecting me) all i remember was that i think one of them was called Shin? Shinji? oh i don't know.. and that they are international fobs taking a gap year and going to go to melbourne next year or something.. and the rest is a blur. and GRR... stupid japss never did find out what they were saying.

----------

so yeh another random moment was that on my way back from uni one day i was on the bus and you know those chairs near the back with 2 chairs facing another 2 chairs to make like 4 chairs in a square kinda thing? well anyways i was sitting there with Jenny (eng one), her friend .. im sorry i forgot his name lol and this random guy was sitting on the last one yeh, his name was JASON! LOL (linggggs got a brother ^^) nahh nah he was korean yeh and it was awkward because somehow the topic got on about Koreans and korea and stuff, and we kinda said some things that might be slightly offensive?? but we were joking and stuff. i don't know and then i didn't know he was korean at the time because i wasn't looking at him, but the more i looked at him i was like ... oh shitt.. soo like i had to say something yeh? so all i did was say 'hi??... your korean aren't you? ohh noo im sooo sorryyy' LOL! HAHA AWKWARDDDDDDD haha. but he was a cool guy, didn't take it too seriously he was just laughing most of the time.

----------

my final story with a random is just damn embarrassing, lol. i was like at the candybar buying popcorn and things for a movie and the girl was really really really cute! adorable lol and then after we brought stuff and was walking up the stairs i was like to my friend 'oh my goshhh shes soo cute i wonder what time she finishes her shift we should ask her to join us!' LOL and like it was a bit loud.. and i turned back to look at her and she was just smiling and i was like thinkinggg... ohhh shittt.. i just want to hidee now LOL! ahahh.

Soo yehh those are just a few of my many experiences with randoms.. haha, although looking back it seems quite awkward to begin with it's quite comical and sometimes when just like doing nothing these stupid memories come back lol. So i've concluded that although strange and weird and awkward at the start, talking to strangers isn't soo bad like well no one has really blown me off and been cold and just given me the piss off vibe before. Soo im just trying to say if you ever have the confidence one day, maybe actually talk to a random, it might be the funniest thing that makes your day ahha.

it's my party, and i'll do what i want tooooo...

2009-06-01T23:19:00.004+10:00

this is a post about my silly roommate. again.

for those who read, you know all about how she wastes so much water. Little did you know, there are far more silly things that she does. I do not do this to bag her (well not completely), I promise. I have a point to make here.

she hasn't exactly moved into this apartment with joy. Granted, there are a few little setbacks in this apartment. The showerhead is water saving, so is gives a little less spray. The stove is hot plates, so it's not very good to cook on. But other than that, it's a cosy little apartment.

- first she complained about how small the window was in her room. It's pretty standard, the only reason she complained was because her last room had one of those big four paned windows.
- then she complains about bugs and moths in the apartment. and the mouse which was a fair
- argument, but it only happened once.
- then she complains about the water not being hot enough (all while using a lot of it)
- then she complains about noisy neighbours who have just moved in above us.
- and finally about the warm water hurting her bones...I know, I don't get it either.

From this, I can genuinely say she must be spoiled. Trying to see it from a international perspective, c'mon you can't expect everything about a place to be perfect. However, I learn something from this as well.

You can't fight everything that sit well with you. Somethings are out of your control. And we can adapt. That's what our species are known for. You can get used to anything if you try and give it enough time. Be more tolerable for god sake.

hopefully this will give me a chance to find a better housemate to get along with. one of my questions will be: do you use alot of water? is this showerhead bearable?

next post: keeping old ties with friends and enjoyment of conversation.

edit: this post was brought up cause my housemate has told my sister she wants to move out asap cause of the noise haha. Forgot the important part.

teoh,

p.s notice like 3 bits of italics, bold and color =_= i have no idea how to be more creative with posts.

experience things.

2009-05-23T23:26:00.002+10:00

yesterday I had chili hot chocolate. how did I come to having such a thing? Because recently, I have begun to appreciate how fast time flies, and how now is the perfect time to experience life to the fullest.

Next year, people are graduating, getting real jobs, and moving on from what people like to call 'education' (Of course, you never use half of the stuff we get educated in, but that's beside the point). You think people drift after high school, I can imagine what after university will be like. But I digress.

Now is the perfect time to enjoy what life has to offer. We have established a strong core of friends from high school, and made new ones in university. Most of us will have jobs (apologies to those currently unemployed), and despite all the studies, we actually have a fair bit of spare time to do stuff in.

I'm pretty excited for the rest of the year to go past. I've got:
1. Cirque du Soleil Dralion
2. Queensland trip
3. Possible Sydney trip to see orchestra group Eminence
4. New Zealand ISV trip next year

I want to try and do more things with my time now. I've got the money to comfortably to not be restricted by financial aspects (excluding trips to UK). I'm thinking of going to a uni ball this year, since I've yet to go to one still. Maybe a snow trip, though I doubt anyone else can afford after queensland.

btw, the chili hot chocolate ended up being hot chocolate with chili flakes =_= didn't taste bad, but just wasn't that great either haha.

teoh,

太鼓 Encore

2009-05-23T17:21:00.010+10:00

I don't know about everybody else, but SWOTVAC has pretty much started for me. So I now have a lot of free time that I'm supposed to be using on study and I've taken a bit of that time to revisit my beloved Taiko no Tatsujin DS.

It's been a while, old friend.

Anyway in other news, moving the laptop downstairs has severely stemmed my flow of creativity and I've ... what was I saying?

Anyway in other news, this should only be temporary as I should be getting a shiny new macbook some time in June during the EOFYSs.

Good luck and Hafnium in your studies, all.

Hafnium...? ---> atomic symbol Hf... ---> HF? ---> have fun?! (yakitate japan pun reaction: WHAT??!!)

can't we all just get along.

2009-05-18T21:45:00.003+10:00

The answer is no.

My housemate has some serious issues when it comes to water. She takes really long showers, and because we have a water saving head installed, she uses that as an excuse. Fine, 20 minute showers I can deal with.

But it's the extra 20 - 30 minutes after, when I can hear the tap on constantly, spewing out precious water that really ticks me off. And then morning after, another 20-30 minutes with the water spewing. God it makes my blood boil.

I'm not a particular hardcore water saver. Not too many posts ago I mentioned it. I am aware of it. And as a guy, I understand that females need more water to wash their pretty faces. But this is so over the top. Tonight was the second time there was no hot water for me to shower with. I snapped and told her very angrily that there was no hot water. Things will be tense at the apartment from now on.

I don't understand why the government doesn't up water usage costs. Money will make everyone more aware. My housemate can spew almost triple the amount of water I use, and only be forced to pay $30 over 3 months. =_=

If this post was too ragey for you, listen to this: Remix of Hey Ya Cover, very nice.

teoh,

Hewlett Packard, Episode VI: Return of the Notebook

2009-05-15T15:35:00.003+10:00

Well, well, well, how the turntables.

After a couple dozen emails between HP and myself over the course of 10 days or so, I have finally managed to convince them that it is a hardware issue.

'I understand from the case notes that the wireless network is not functioning properly and you have tried reseating the WLAN card. However the issue persist.

I see that you have updated the WLAN driver and removed and reseated the Wireless module but still the issue persists.
This proves us that this is the issue with the Wireless module which is faulty.
Hence please carry the notebook to the service Centre to get it services.'

- HP tech support's most recent email.

So the final step is to see if they're willing to cover the cost of repairs. If so, I'll gladly bring it to the repair center in Clayton to have it fixed.

If this follows through, it looks like I won't be getting a macbook after all then.

And as for the happenings between my second post and now... One day I might sell the movie rights to them or produce the in-between episodes when I'm a bit strapped for cash.

[EDIT]

A couple more emails later rejecting my request to have HP extend the warranty of my laptop and I finish with this.

HP: Epilogue

To put it simply, I do not wish to pay for the repairs because I believe that I have been sold a faulty notebook.

And I am disappointed to hear that HP would not like to bear the cost, so I regret to inform you that HP will no longer be receiving my patronage in the future.

Jason Ling

***

I guess that's the end of that.

HP, Episode II : Attack of the Clones

2009-05-09T20:06:00.003+10:00

Well I got a quick reply from a nice Indian fellow. But I would just prefer them to take it in for repairs or refund me the cost of the notebook. The latter is preferred and highly unlikely.

Here's his reply:

-----

Dear Jason,

Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's eSolutions Center.

This is in response to your email regarding HP Pavilion tx1312AU NB PC.

You mentioned in the e-mail that there were many issues with the unit since you purchased it.

I will surely help you regarding the issue.

I would like to inform you that I apologize for the occurrence of the issue and I am extremely sorry that the unit is not working fine.

I would suggest you to provide us the details of the issue you are facing so that we will be able to work together in resolving the issue. We will isolate it to software and hardware.

Regarding the wireless drop I would suggest you to perform the steps provided below:

Go to services.msc >> go to wireless zero config >> right click and go to properties >> go to recovery TAB >> select restart the service on failure >> for all the three option.

We appreciate your assistance in collecting the above information. Please revert at your earliest convenience and we will be glad to assist you.

Please feel free to get back to us for any further assistance; we will be glad to assist you.

Once again, thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Commercial Solutions Center.

Regards,

Abhishek Sharma

----------

Here's my response:

I appreciate your prompt response. (Note: The model is a HP Pavillion tx1000, not a tx1499us or a tx1412AU as stated in the email.)
The suggested steps did not resolve the issue and I am continuously unimpressed with the wireless adapter in this notebook which, I have previously mentioned, has inexplicably stopped working 8 months ago, whereupon it was sent in to a technician and repaired.
I rely heavily on the wireless network adapter in my notebook and it may as well be a typewriter without it. (What is the use of a notebook if I have to sit one metre from the router and plug myself in to access the internet? And if I am not at home, shall I carry an ethernet cable with me and be so fortunate as to find a port whenever I need one?)
To have the same piece of hardware inexplicably stop working again so soon is greatly disappointing to say the least.

I have attached two images. The device manager still shows the wireless network adapter, but the connection suddenly drops to 'limited connectivity' a few minutes after connecting. Moreover, it displays a 'fair' signal when I am sitting right next to the router.

I ask that you bear the cost of a technician to replace the wireless adapter, motherboard, or if it's a software issue, to fix whatever the problem is. I have had enough of trying to fix this over the internet or over the phone. At this point in time, I am considering the purchase of a new macbook, after which this notebook, unfortunately, will be of little use to me.

Although it is unfortunate that HP seems to have become this ureliable notebook manufacturer (and I cannot possibly encourage the purcahse of any of its products to my friends or peers), I hope that you can change my mind.

Awaiting your reply,

Jason Ling

*****

I'll keep everybody posted on the adventures of HP. (I get to play the bad guy!)

Letters to the Editor

2009-05-09T14:42:00.001+10:00

Just sent this out to HP's tech support. I think I'm getting a Macbook.

PS: This is post #200.

----------------------

I am writing in regards to my HP Pavillion tx1000 (S/N: ######, P/N: #######), a model which, I have recently discovered, has a significant trend of disappointment and malfunctions.

I have a URL to a post in the HP forums for your perusal as a small sample of the feedback in regards to this line of notebooks:
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1241681894560+28353475&threadId=1268501

To my dismay, I too have experienced great dissatisfaction and frequent frustrations with the shortcomings of this notebook computer over the last 18 months of ownership.

Prior to entering university, my decision was to buy a HP branded notebook – a brand that I thought promised value, reliability and care for its customers. These were traits that I placed great importance in, being a keen student that would rely heavily on this notebook throughout his studies. And eventually, I purchased the notebook in December of 2007 whilst on holidays in Hong Kong.

There were problems from the very first boot-up:

1. Upon installation of Vista, Vista had failed to properly create a user account and I was unable to log in at all for my very first experience with using Windows Vista. This problem is somewhat commonly experienced in the early years of Vista and can be easily found with a quick search using Google.

2. This would have been a simple issue to resolve had HP’s recovery function worked. It did not. Pressing f11 during the boot-up had no reaction whatsoever. And I could not reinstall Vista without creating a recovery disc first.

Luckily I was still in Hong Kong when this happened and the notebook was brought back to the shop to have Vista reinstalled.

The second instance of issues is regarding the URL referenced above, where literally hundreds of tx-model users have testified that the wireless adapter inexplicably stopped working approximately one year after purchasing the notebook. I heavily rely on wireless networks from home-use to accessing the university-network and unfortunately, I too experienced this problem where the computer could not detect a wireless adapter. On instruction from HP’s technical customer service, I reinstalled the drivers to no effect, I reinstalled Vista to no effect, and as already stated earlier, HP’s f11 recovery function also did not work. It was now very evident that it was a hardware issue.

Long story short, a while later, the laptop was sent into repairs under the 1yr warranty period and it was returned to working conditions in a few days at no cost to me.

Unfortunately that is not the end of my experiences with your notebook. I am yet again having issues with the wireless adapter within ~8months of repair. This is extremely exasperating. Upon boot-up I can establish a connection to my wireless home network for anywhere between 30 seconds to 15 minutes after which I am informed there is ‘limited connectivity’ and the connection eventually drops out. After which, I cannot establish a connection to any wireless networks nor detect any wireless networks until the next boot-up.

I have called your technical support and been informed that my 1yr warranty has expired and the technician would not even speak to me about the issue without a warranty, let alone cover the cost for repairs (there are dozens of instances of your customers being treated like this in that linked forum post alone, could you imagine how many customers you are losing as you read this?) This is unacceptable service to say the least.

I am writing to inform your organization that at this point in time, you have most definitely lost a customer and many more, as I will not be recommending any HP products – in fact I will be discouraging the purchase of HP products whenever consulted – with my family, friends and peers. Nevertheless, I will enjoy my $1,500 paperweight.

Regards,

Jason Ling

we are warriors.

2009-05-06T19:51:00.002+10:00

after reading books about soldiers and warriors going into battle, having courage and doing amazing feats, it's no wonder some kids dream of being one of them. Wouldn't it be cool to be so brave, facing down your enemies, slashing them down with your awesome sword. Think back to history, Troy with their heroes Hector, Achilles, Genghis Khan (ling will probably know more than me), Alexander the Great, Caesar etc. Warriors, kings and explorers.

And yet, a passage in one of my latest books struck a note. It goes something like:
"The real warrior is the farmer. He who labors from dawn to dusk, keeping his farm alive. Fighting off droughts, diseases, wild beasts and poverty. A farmer does not give up if his crops fail to grow, but preserves to survive to the next season. We soldiers, who simply kill, are nothing compared to them."

Are we not warriors? Does it not take courage to continue our education at university? Half blind in our choice of course, we take the plunge. Do we not preserve through weeks when everything is due at once and all we want to do is give up?

Okay, maybe it doesn't apply to all uni students. But my point is that a warrior's courage can be found in our own lives, even if we aren't all soldiers.

teoh,

Ling's Extraordinary Trivia Session!

2009-04-29T18:06:00.012+10:00

Free Entry for Children Under 8!

All questions and answers are from current knowledge. No research done.

GEOGRAPHY! (kind of)

1. Height of Mt. Everest? (answers within 500m accepted)
2. People from Melbourne are Melbournians. What are people from Moscow called?*
3. And people from Paris?
4. Order these three continents in size: N. America, S. America, Africa. (not entirely sure myself lol)
5. Where is Belfast?

HISTORY! (admittedly its mainly Asian history)

1. What dynasty followed the Taiping Rebellion in China?
2. What relation is Kublai Khan to Genghis Khan?*
3. When was Malacca considered the absolute epicentre of trade in Asia?* (century)
4. Where was Captain Cook killed?
5. When was China unified by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China? (century)

SCIENCE & MODERN TECHNOLOGY!!

1. Ohm's Law? V = ?
2. What does HTML stand for?
3. What shape is a truss?* =D
4. Everybody know's Pi to two decimal places, what is Pi to four decimal places?
5. How much bits in a byte?

LANGUAGES!!

1. What is 'piscine' French for?*
2. What is 'cuttlefish' in Japanese?*
3. What is 'poo, no.2, faecal matter' in Hokkien?
4. What is the structure of a haiku?
5. What was Jesus' native tongue? (not sure if i spelt the answer right)

MISCELLANEOUS!

1. What is the title of the occupation for one who makes and edits dictionaries?*
2. What is the suffix '-cracy' indicating?
3. What fashion label's icon is two letter Cs overlapping (one mirrored horizontally)?
4. Which country invented the gesture of the middle finger up?*
5. Who is the current world record holder for the 100m dash?

ANSWERS FOLLOW----------------------

g1. 8848m above sea level; g2. Moscuvites; g3. Parisians; g4. Africa, N. America, S. America; g5. Ireland I think?

h1. Ming Dynasty; h2. great-great-grandson i think, possibly great-grandson; h3. 17th Century (~1600); h4. Hawaii (speared by natives i think); h5. 221BC i.e. 3rd Century BC

s1. IR; s2. Hypertext Markup Language?; s3. Right angled triangle? s4. 3.1415; s5. 8

l1. swimming pool; l2. ii ka (whatever the hiragana is); l3. bang sai; l4. 3, 5, 3 syllables; l5. Aramaic

m1. lexicography; m2. a type of government; m3. Chanel; m4. England (english archers specifically); m5. Usain Bolt

DONE. With mistakes.

*double points

Got any trivia yourself?

taste buds deceiver

2009-04-26T20:02:00.002+10:00

What you're looking at are some pretty funky berries. Alone, they're just some tang berries with a bitter seed. However, after consumption, lime tastes like candy, vinegar tastes like apple juice, and goat cheese like cheesecake! It's what known as the Miracle Fruit.

'The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste. Dr. Bartoshuk said she did not know of any dangers associated with eating miracle fruit.'
- New York Times

Interesting yeah? Basically it gets rid of all the sour/acid tastes of foods. People have these parties called Flavour Tripping parties, where you pay $15 entry fee, eat a berry, and then sample all sorts of weird things: 'citrus wedges, cheeses, Brussels sprouts, mustard, vinegars, pickles, dark beers, strawberries and cheap tequila'.

The thing is, you can order them internationally, where it's packed with dry ice and shipped off. Me and my brother were thinking of having a party and order some!

Read more here.

teoh,

god dammit.

2009-04-23T22:06:00.003+10:00

Sometimes I wonder. Am I too hard on people? Or do I let myself get pushed around. Usually I would answer the former, but lately I've been finding myself in situations where people have really ticked me off and I don't stand up to them.

For instance, group members at uni not pulling their weight. Housemate taking up to an hour in the bathroom. These are some of my NOT favorite things and really irritate me. But I have yet to speak up to them about it.

Maybe it's cause I fear I will look hypocritical. I have a lot of personal flaws myself, and I don't want to criticize people when I'm not too gold myself.

Is anyone else having a bad week?

teoh,

p.s our posts look really bland. I'm going think how we can post more creatively.

im still alive

2009-04-19T23:03:00.002+10:00

hello hello,
I haven't written a blog entry in agessss arghh im soo lazy, my bad :( but i thought i'd write one now. Well this holiday has been pretty good, i have to say go us for surviving half a semester of uni yahooooooooOOo! Theres just been so much thats been going on, so much so i haven't done any uni revision or work and it's terrible! honestly i told myself as i always do, that this holidays i will catch up on things. I don't think that really happend but it's not my fault! i mean the break was way too short it was just 1 week, grrr.. stupid monash U for being soo retarded.

I actually didn't go out that much.. ahah nah i did who am i kidding, i'd like to think that i didn't because when i wasn't like going to things i was working and when i wasn't working i'd like to think i was studying but nahh .. opps ... ahha in part i blame Kevin, Ed, Yuky and Amanda for having birthdays in this break :). Nahh they are awesome, love them all, each one was really cool and different like for Kevins had a guitar hero rock band day! woohooo followed by hmm.. an interesting night that left me with many sexually questionable photos appearing on facebook.. lol, okay tim.. lay off the alcho, my poor liver is going to breakdown soon. Ed turned 29, shes one of my workmates and she looks so young and shes awesome! because not only is she married and working part time at my workplace but also she's doing her PhD at Melbourne U and she has the most adorable cutest baby ever! whoa .. thats full on i don't think i would work, study and raise a family =/ and just so ur wondering ed isn't her real name, we just call her that because we don't know how to pronouce her name ahha. Yukys bday was a bbq picnic at jells park with cool cool party games although sometimes painful and awkward like a 3man team tied together by the legs to run around the park rofl.. funny.. and then once getting to the checkpoint passing this tiny piece of paper from the first person to the last person only by using their mouth haha .. awkward hahahha, along with other crazyyy weird games lol. That actual same night was amandas and yay it was a korean bbq and very enjoyable! getting to hang out with close friends from highschool, it was great.

This week my relatives came down from malaysia too, so really i had no time to study lol because i was playing tour guide around melbourne and stuff. because not only that the whole weekend was taken because my cousin got married yay! it was soo pretty really, shes 26, wow... i was just thinking can u imagine in another 5-7yearsish we may all start to marry off, thats a scary thought but also exciting at the same time. Anyways even if there wasn't anything to do my house is always noisy now and filled with people so that is also another reason of lack of study lol ahah..

other random things i've learnt/done over the holidays
-i accidentally drove in the opposite direction and got lost for 1 hour.. don't ask why i did it.. i don't know i was obviously lostt and it was like at 11pm at night i couldn't see anything =/ so mental note i promise myself i will not drive if given the choice because i was quite stress about it and additionally i think i picked up a speeding fine on the way too.. oh no.. not good, trying to save for my holidays is really hard when u have to keep paying off these freakin fines... (i already had to pay a speeding fine before.. yeshhhh im a shit driver just ask anyone whos been in my car ahah)

- i cleaned my room! fainlly it was disgusting and messy and like feral really.. ahha, i got to say living in a clean room feels awesome so if u want an awesome feeling then go for it. actually it wasn't too bad to clean because my computer is in my room so i just turned on loud music and before i know it it was done.. although it took me 2 days ahha but i split it up ahha all good.

- when buying cakes at like bread kingdom if ur not a fussy person they give u freebies. okay i didn't really explain but like when i went to buy amandas cake i actually wanted another one but they ran out so i asked for the other one but it was a bit frozen still and not as fresh so i just said any cake is fine and for my troubles they took out this awesome cake and gave me free cookies too woohooo and alsoo becaues the side of the cake the cream was a little like wiped off, not as nicely decorated they took off 3 dollars woohoo discount! that and while i was waiting bigbang and wondergirls was on the tv screen and i talked to the counter girl in korean and the more i talked to her the more cookies i got lOL haha funny yeh? my korean lecturers always told me if u spoke korean to korean people they have the tendency to give u more food or discount things for you, and it's really true beacuse for my bday last year i took cat and nam to eat korean and i was talking like a retard and probably wasn't making any sense and the girl at the end charged us 60 dollars for a 90 dollar meal, woohoo =).

anywayssss uni tomorrow and im tired of typing, im actually pretty tired for my next blogg entry i want to review some products that i bought and i'll discuss my findings and results ahah so u can all learn from my trail and errors haha.

How to drive the elderly around 101

2009-04-19T12:58:00.002+10:00

Every blog needs a 'how-to' post once in a while...

So I've been driving old people back from church a bit this week because my uncle, who normally does it, is in canberra at the moment.

I do not profess to be an expert on this in any way, but there are essentials to know when you go about this activity.

1. Drive slowly. i.e. v = (speed limit -5km/hr) +/- 5km/hr

Apparently you can cause the elderly to have back pain if you drive too fast due to the need to brake harder when you slow down. You have to imagine any possible pains you are causing them when you brake and then double that potential pain. It's just a safety margin.

Your braking has to be so gentle and gradual that nobody jerks forward even remotely when you stop. If any passengers jerk forward in their seat when you stop at some lights for example, you have failed your mission. *fail buzzer* 'buh-bunggg'

2. Change the radio station to Mix 101.1FM or Light 89.9FM

It must be easy listening. Acoustics are a plus. Metal is game over.

Sometimes even Mix 101.1FM has loud and potentially stroke-rendering music! If Miley Cyrus - See you again (or whatever that crap song is called) comes on, I think Mix does play it ocassionally, change to Light FM.

And it may be obvious, but avoid any songs with expletives in the lyrics. The elderly folk do not need to hear the words f*** and c***. Agreed?

Notable songs to avoid:

Ian Carey Project - Get Shaky;
Anything from Metallica's album: Kill 'em All;
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane;
etc,

So keep your ears pricked up and ready to change that dial before a guitar solo starts and bursts somebody's coronary artery.

3. Acceleration: do not rev too hard.

If you are going up a steep hill and your car isn't powerful enough, don't sweat it.

Do NOT try and build up speed 30km/hr over the speed limit to get some momentum to cruise up that hill...

Just chug along and go up the hill at whatever speed it ends up being by the time you get there. There is no rush.

4. Slow down excessively at speed humps and stop before roundabouts and cut-out left turns.

If you normally cruise through that left cut-out at 50km/hr when you see it's clear. Do NOT do that this time around. Slow down to a complete stop, check for traffic even though there won't be any and proceed. Same applies for roundabouts, but even more so.

5. Finally, do not drive a beast.

The elderly do not care for turbo.

They do not care how loud your engine is.

They like peace and quiet, and a smooth ride.

give and take.

2009-04-16T19:10:00.003+10:00

quick update on the holiday break:

the first few days were pretty awesome. friends, work, poker, guitar hero, hats and repeat.
happy birthday ann (we didn't sing happy birthday =O) you are beautiful =]. 3D glasses suck.
happy birthday amanda (not quite there yet) looking forward to another year for great friendship
queensland trip finalized! woo! possible 5 taiwanese girls! woo! ling decided to come =_=. (just kidding :D I'll share.)
tim vine was funny =]

OKAY HOLIDAYS OVER. gwad' I have so much work to do.

today started out terribly. terrible start on the project construction. we were all late. I was, of course, stressing out. Halfway through the terrible start, it started to pick up. our group assembled, rallied and started work. Problems started to be solved, extra construction time was discovered.

Then a meet up I was looking forward to was canceled. The bailer was bailed on (only warren and tif will get this.). Being honest, I was quite disappointed. Doing uni work the whole day was only brightened by the prospect of going out to dinner.

But then I realised after, that because dinner was canceled, I was able to work til late at uni on the project, getting more work done. And while I was very disappointed with dinner being canceled, I should've seen past it and been grateful for the things given in return. Give and take -> balance.

this blog needs a make over. soon. after uni. after exams? when's that? It's too far away to see.

teoh,

post before test.

2009-04-08T22:14:00.007+10:00

as I have a test tomorrow, it is of course tradition to post on the blog the night before.

something random, I was walking around the lake in my neighborhood the other day, and I took these sad photos.

Where I'm standing used to be filled with water. Now the lake is literally almost 3/4 it's original size. This was my wake up call to the water crisis (though probably has little relevancy to it) and how precious it is. It scares me that something like this can happen. Just imagine, in a few more years, the lake will have dried up completely.

So people, take shorter showers, don't waste water and be more aware!

That's my good deed done today, spreading environment friendly advice =] Now on to 'holiday' 'break'! 'Holiday' cause it's not really a holiday being only one week, and 'break' cause it's really just a break from travelling to uni..all the studying still applies.

Despite the fact I have multiple projects, I am still finding time to enjoy it. I've got DDR and comedy festival lined up with ling, poker with uni friends tomorrow (looking forward to it!), catch up with some close friends, ann's birthday party and having fun at 'work'.

"I walked into a butcher shop, and the butcher said to me: "I bet you 10 pounds you can't touch those pieces of meat hanging up there." I replied: "No thank you, the stakes are too high." - Tim Vine (who me and ling are going to see)

Oh, my contract at work got renewed, so woohoo! Pay also maintained at the same level!

ok back to studying!
teoh,

edit: changed title from good luck post, as it could most likely back fire on me.

The best of thelooop's Spoken Word - where's my bongos?

2009-04-01T21:22:00.005+11:00

MARCO! You've been uncovered for bad mouthing my pokemon haikus!

- QuiZZie - says:
who writes haikus about pokemon

And if Arj Barker had his way, it would've been written in the font Rhetorica...

So I've composed another one :D

Quick attack
It's too quick, Gamefreak
So imbaaaa~

EDIT: that's right, you've been rattata'd out, marco!

Hundreds of students undergo "painful work"

2009-03-29T20:42:00.007+11:00

MONASH University has allegedly employed several infamous war criminals as lecturers in their business & economics, management faculty.
This week students will embark on a mission to write a one-thousand word essay regarding "the most wishy-washy subject imaginable", as described by a second-year student, unwillingly to disclose their identity.
"It hurts, it really does", says another, as the unit offered by the university undergoes severe scrutiny by the media after a group of students discovered last month that one of their lecturers had a suspicious scar behind his already suspicious eye-patch.
Further inquiry lead to upper-level staff at Monash University refusing to comment on the issue and it has quickly escalated into a ludicrous blog post...

Anyway, instead of working on my management essay, I wrote a haiku:

Magikarp,
Use your splash attack!
"Karp-~karp~karp~"

*flop flop*
(Ideally it would've been:
Go, Magikarp-
Use your splash attack!
Magi-karp-karp~
But then its 4/5/4 :(...)

degrees or radians

2009-03-25T20:40:00.002+11:00

okay, so we were doing group work at uni today. and I got totally owned by my friend simon.

in excel, we were making calculations, and I realised (quite belatedly) that excel works in radians. Silly Microsoft. So I go into options to try and change it, when I'm challenged by my friend to stop!

radians is so much easier to work in! he claims.
hah! I retort. as if! you can picture degrees so much more easily!

This went on for a few minutes before I confidently put forth a task for him to draw what 2 radians were! Yeah sure, this will get him, I thought, as I had no idea what 2 radians looked like myself. While he prepares to draw, he throws me a 'draw 2 degrees!'.

I drew a 10 degree angle.
He drew a 2.23 radian angle.

...

teoh,

the mousetrap.

2009-03-18T22:23:00.003+11:00

for the past two nights, i have woken in the middle of the night to the sound of small feet pattering across my carpet, and the rustling of the plastic rubbish bags. I'm actually insulted that a mouse has come into my room. I generally consider myself a clean, if not always tidy, person.

when I first switched on the lamp at 4am in the morning, I couldn't figure out what was in my room. I thought maybe a bug within my rubbish bag, but once I took it out, the sound continued. Only the 2nd time I turned my lamp on, did I see a brown furry rodent running around on the floor. I must admit, I was a little freaked out. I've never seen a mouse inside my living area before.

so yesterday, I set a mouse trap, and stuffed the crack of my door with clothing so it wouldn't get into my room at least. I slept soundly, thinking I would get my nice rest. Then I awoke at 3am to hear the same rustling noise, to find SOMEHOW the mouse had gotten back in. AND to top it off, it ate the cheese on the trap without setting it off. So I've pretty much FED this mouse twice in a row.

well no more. besides putting a firm raisin on the mouse trap, behold my own trap:

yup, it's a bucket lined with aluminium foil, with a plastic bag filled with more foil and plastic, with bits of cheese scattered around and a big chunk hidden at the end.
my plan is to wake myself to the yet again rustling of the foil and plastic, and simply tip the bucket upwards. Since the bucket will shield my movement from the mouse, I'm about %60 confident of this plan...

hopefully it'll just trip the mouse trap.

teoh,

lessons from fantasy

2009-03-15T21:19:00.003+11:00

here's a passage from Waylander, David Gemmell:

"When a fool sees himself as he is, he is a fool no longer; and when a wise man learns of his own wisdom, then he becomes a fool." This caused me great trouble, for it seemed mere word play. But after many years I have come to this conclusion: that only in certainty is there moral danger. Doubt is the gift we must cherish, for it forces us to question our motives constantly. It guides us to truth. I do not know if we chose wisely the path we now walk. I do not know if we are right in what we do. But we walk it in faith.

Cherish your doubts.

on another note, john medley library has a lot of fantasy/sci fi books I want to read. I'm gonna go buy the culture card for it =]

teoh,

hell, it's about time

2009-03-10T20:34:00.004+11:00

okok i've been slack! but what better time is there to return to blogging than when uni starts up and you have lectures to study, worksheets to complete and tests to prepare for.

note to self: must remember why i dislike playing dota and not play when tempted. Anyhow!

The Experiment: Friend making.

Aim: To make new friends.

Method: 1. sit down to desired friend, and strike up conversation. Either i) ask about present tute/lecture and befriend as such ii) introduce yourself and hopefully receive a warm return iii) slip them a $X bill, where X is the money equivilient of how much you want a friend.

Alternate methods may arise depending on situation e.g meet a friend through already established friend.

Results: befriended two randoms with methods ii). Also befriended one random through forced group work.

Discussion: I was really looking forward to meeting some new people this year. But I've found that 2nd year is really hard to meet new people. Everyone's already in their own little groups, and despite our engineering course splitting into our specialised courses, it's so damn hard to meet new people.

I purposefully made one tutorial free of any known friends, so I could force myself to make new friends. What ended up happening was me going around to groups asking if they wanted to form a group for this tutorial =_= so embrassing. Like I'm some poor little asian with no friends (which isn't too far off the truth in this context). Got rejected like 6 times, before I ended up having to picking off loners to form a group of four. One of them, Li, was quite nice and ended up meeting him later on in the week.

I managed to gather enough courage to try and strike up a conversation with two randoms sitting near by me, but only got a dead pan response and a mildly interested response.

Conclusion: The only way I see of making new friends is meeting them through other friends. In this way, you form a group in which you all have a connection to at least one person, and you eventually branch out. That's what happened last year anyway and it was great. 2nd year seems so much duller.

Maybe I should look for that public speaking/debating club.

teoh,

p.s I got a new mouse, logitech 550nano. so much fun using the hyperscroll. weee!

p.p.s the picture above is a fruit my housemate gave me to try. It was very interesting to eat, not strong in flavor, but very passionfruit like? Anyone know what it is? The box it came in said 'something' figs.

p.p.p.s: happy birthday ling for tomorrow! come on over to the 19 boat.

AO2009

2009-02-04T22:07:00.004+11:00

Hi all,

Time to talk tennis wahahaha
I actually had a huge rant detailing the itinerary of the day. But it wasn't sound writing, so I've scrapped it.

So the day started at 1pm at melbourne park. We saw the last 15minutes of safin's match, where he won soundly in straight sets. And moved off to hisense arena where the main chunk of action occured.

Started off with the last hour of Jankovic vs Flipkens... bit boring :/
But there were these belgian supporters with bodypaint and very creative cheering, so that spiced it up.

What followed was a grim 4-hour 5 setter between Nalbandian and a random taiwanese guy (Lu). Nalbandian lost in the end, which was very disappointing. And an even bigger slap in the face for the poor guy when Lu got knocked out easily in the next round 3 sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 or something. :(
But during this match, the belgians were reapplying their bodypaint which was great fun to watch. I think they actually brought an entire tin of paint to do it with. Oh, good on them for being considerate fans too, they left the backs clean so they wouldnt get any on the seats when they sat down. (Y)

Nalbandian feeling a little good about himself...

And Lu serving his ass off.

And then we saw Roddick and his trademark serve taking on Xavier Malisse, the belgian guy the supporters were waiting for.
Up...

and down...

Realising it was already 9pm, we headed out of there after 8 hours of lovely tennis :)

And so ends my *very* brief synopsis and photo dump of day 3 in the aus open in hisense arena.

That is all! Who wants to come next year? :O

cleaning out the mind

2009-01-25T14:39:00.003+11:00

chinese new year eve. small random post.

spent the day cleaning. somehow I feel like it's helped me clear my mind mentally as well. as I was cleaning everything, I thought about alot of things. It was a lot of messed up thoughts. And now it's (mostly) all clean.

happy chinese new year everyone.

teoh,

fatal blow

2009-01-20T19:34:00.002+11:00

hey everyone,

first off, I am typing this in bed on a brand new shiny macbook pro. And I must say it is a lovely experience. The wide bright crisp clean screen, the lit up keyboard, the weird one click touch pad and the overall apple look is making me fall in love for macs. Now if only I knew how to use it.

you might say, where did this macbook come from. Well I stole it from an apple store cause I was sick of waiting for the damn SONY PEOPLE to hurry up and confirm my overseas warranty so it can get 'fixed'.

but seriously, it's my brother's and I'm so envious T_T sony looks so uncool atm...

second off, I am in bed because I am sick. Ugh. I haven't been sick in so long. When I think of being sick, usually my mind is filled with images of not having to go to school/work/some unwanted usual occurance, getting treated nicely at home (bwhaha) and doing whatever I want and call it 'resting' (I finished guitar hero careers mode today..worst songs ever at the end).

however, I now realise that I would trade all of that for being well. For the first 4 days of being sick, I could swallow without it being followed with a scream of pain..which then I would have to swallow again anyway after that. Couldn't breathe..felt sick..headaches all the time. Terrible.

anyhow, away from all that. I am getting better, just got another day's of rest tomorrow before hopefully all will resume normally.

holidays! have been progressing okay-ish. 09 has gotten off to a very sluggish start imo. quick flash of what's happened (that i can remember):
marley and me - great movie, saw it with amanda. I don't mind admitting that it caused tears in my eyes, cause it was a very touching movie, especially if you're dog-lovers.
dinner with the guys - good to finially see them all. Most of them I hadn't seen in months. Had a good catch up with nat.
a few gathering with my group, involving guitar hero, lots of hats (BTW who has the hats videos? WO YAO), shameless karoke, OMGBBQ, movies and such.
got to see my 'yr12' friends..who I guess should be dubbed 'firstyear' friends now. congrats to them.

upcoming...my birthday. har har! chinese new year...year of the cow! must go to the beach! must catch up with anthea who arrives back next week! must hunt down sony people and kill them! must finish code geass! must go the Ledge! must go to the park! must play more hats and make more embrassing hats videos! must have a guitar hero night! must try and convince ling to make a new layout for the blog! must do all of these things before holidays end!

must not get sick ever again!

teoh,

Bah! Humbug!

2009-01-11T20:28:00.002+11:00

Atlas Shrugged has been added to the list of novels I don't quite finish cause of whatever reason. This time, I blame it on being sick and hence not willing to tolerate a coughing fit every 3 lines. :)

What else is on the list?
/The third instalment of The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. I was about three quarters through if I remember correctly. And it was, of course, directly in succession of reading Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers over the course of several weeks perhaps a couple months, so it was a bit of a waste of an investment in time. (But I've seen the movies anyway, so that's okay! Got the plot, to some extent.)

/Great Expectations by Dickens. Got through about four fifths of it (so I was pretty close) and it was approaching crunch time for the vce so I put it down, and haven't picked it up again since. I know Marco finished this one. His comments when I said I found it boring and couldn't finish it were, "I found it quite exciting!" (Marco Kwok, 2007, October possibly September, around 2pm in the back foyer of the sci-tech center if I remember correctly)

/Homer's Odyssey. It is quite action-packed, but [sorry,] I am just not used to reading ancient greek plays, not since Women of Troy have I gotten that drowsy reading seemingly endless discourse between a bunch of Greeks. I was about halfway through. I *am* about halfway through. It is still on my bed, so I may pick it up for a peruse again soon.

/And now: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. MAN, that book is long. Please try reading it though, don't let my lack of commitment deter you from one of contemporary literature's great works, or so I've heard. I was one TWENTY-TH through that gargantuan! Oh, man. Embarassing effort by the noob. Maybe one tenth to save face. Possibly. Or one fifteenth..

So what now?

I will probably finish A Christmas Carol by Dickens. And then I will fail ABYSMALLY (I think I have spelled that *in*correctly) in attempting to read Ulysses by James Joyce! Or perhaps Dubliners, because I already have a copy of that and won't need to fork out $20 for Ulysses just yet. Or maybe I will buy it just because I have a $5 coupon already.

ARGH! That reminds me. I have something to get off of my chest, it's nothing big but hear me out.
I bought A Christmas Carol from Angus&Robertson with the intention of using the $5 coupon I earned with my A&R card, but it was not in stock, so I had to order it. When I picked it up, I paid for the book and was on my way.
So, not only did I forget to use the coupon, but I forgot to scan the card. So I am effectively down 30 points I would have earned, paid $5 more than I needed to, AND if I want to use the coupon before it expires, I have to buy ANOTHER book before mid-Feb. MAN! What a noob.

iNfirmity

2009-01-05T20:50:00.006+11:00

I have been sick with a cold/sinus infection/virus for nearly 1 month now. It is preposterous.
The festive season has crippled me!

If it were any other time of the year, I would stay home and probably recover in a matter of days. But since it's christmas and new years, I went out every couple of days. And the days in between I wasn't out, I was delirious with sickness.
I would recover slightly, then go out again, empower the bacteria's hold over me, and wake up the next morning feeling like s***.

Here's the first instance of the cycle.
Three Thursdays ago, I developed a sore throat and was rapidly losing my voice.
-> Friday the 19th, we had our end of year BBQ for yg. So we're all hanging out outside and it was quite chilly iirc.
--> Saturday, I wake up with my throat absolutely decimated and call my boss (my mum), with a very convincing gravelly voice, telling her I can't work that morning, so I stay home all day trying to recover, and I start taking a bit of Codral.
---> Sunday, I have developed a runny nose, and I have church in the morning, so I go and cough all over the PA system. And THEN AT NIGHT, I go to the Christmas party at Elisa's, chat my head off, get mascara (or whatever it was) put on by Cat and obliterate my throat further.
----> Monday morning I cannot remember too well. Needless to say, I was deliiirious and I would've honed my nose-dripping skills further.

TADA!

I sincerely apologize to ng and my sister for probably spreading something to them. :(

I can't wait to be healthy again. Hoorah! :)

the end of year '08

2009-01-01T21:20:00.005+11:00

21 hours and 21 minutes into the new year of 2009.

I took a look into the blog's archive, and I realised I didn't write a reflection post of 2007, which was a shame. So I've decided I will write one for 2008.

We spent the last day of '08 once again at my house. And although it was disappointing we didn't get to go to the city as planned, I found it kinda comforting that we were determined to do something together no matter how many people bailed (ling =P) or if it was something that fell short of our expectations.

Anyhoo, reflections:

university, first year.
I'll be honest, I was disappointed with first year. It wasn't all that I thought it would be. But then, it wasn't so bad either. I met some new people, expanding the social groups a bit them, learned new things and started nuturing an interest in my course. Academically, I was quite happy with my results. I'm looking forward to '09, especially since I start my specialised course of Civil Eng and with a little luck, get into Eng/Comm (girls! lol jks (lol so not (woo!)))

apartment and working
Living away from home and closer to uni was a awesome experience. It made things much easier for me. It was a lot of fun, and I learned heaps from it. Living away from home and closer to uni AND working near by was even better. Getting the Coles IT support job in August-ish was awesome and will continue to be awesome as I become even more comfortable with the job.

friends
made some new friends, grew closer to others, as well as distant to others. all up, it's been an awesome (yes I'll be using that word alot in this post) year with my friends. I know at the start of this year I wanted to keep all my close friends, and I'm really appreciative that I have them all with me still. thanks to all my friends, and look forward to spending '09 with you.

family
..not much has changed. bro goes out more, sister enjoys her work more, everyone's one year older. my dog is lazier, I got pet mice as an addition to my family, lost a mouse (rip jess =[) and my fish still survive! oh yeah!

mmm I just can't seem to remember anything...significant from '08. it was a pretty blur year. But all the significant memories stay within my mind (even though at this very moment I can't remember any). we're getting older...

looking forward to '09 !

teoh,

merry christmas

2008-12-25T18:24:00.002+11:00

merry christmas all ! =]

t'was a good christmas this year. My dad gets a 'family-sized' ham leg every year from the company, and we usually end up having ham for the next month. Ham sandwich, ham quiche, ham and egg pies, green eggs and ham, ham salad, just ham, ham and ham ham ham.

anyhow, my mum had the good idea of having friends over to help us eat it. So me and my siblings were to invite people over to help us eat. It turned out having four of my friends, one of my sister's and my family.

dave, ling, marco and amanda came, thanks so much guys. really blessed to have good friends like you guys.

we played hats, with my siblings + sister's friend, which was an interesting experience. but still maintain the same fun hats always does.
and of course, guitar hero world tour, my christmas present. And I can tell you by the way ling plays the drums, he has very pent up feelings (and hidden talent in singing) XD and marco is really a secret guitar hero pro.

will post up photos of our feast and activites soon. til then, everyone continue to enjoy a safe holiday!

teoh,

RE: Please excuse me while I have my midlife crisis now

2008-12-19T12:07:00.002+11:00

xanga.com/quizzieness

marco's fantastic adventure (12/12/08) into the future got me thinking, so here goes:

Career:
Moderately well paid office job in Melbourne of no specific purpose, high enough to keep the parents happy, and low enough to keep me out of the news if I stuff up.

Love life:
Successfully seduced Marco's wife and I am currently helping her with the weekly payments which Marco and the authorities are yet to discover are mostly counterfeit.

Social life:
Getting progressively difficult to maintain with the growth of my counterfeiting firm. Nevertheless, I secretly play SSB13 online under the alias 'diddyhumiliation' and try to smash everybody with the peanut gun despite 9 nerfs since it's gloriously overpowered induction in SSB3.

Hobbies/Activities:
I have a massive library full of my favourite classics such as catch-22 and animal farm, and a sneaky volume of slam dunk might be found if you look hard enough.
I still make Specialist Maths jokes with anybody who can remember basic vectors and complex numbers.

Others:
During the Cyber Cold War of 2023 between Google and the United Online Fronts (Facebook and WoW), the UOF successfully pokes and raids Google time and time again, eventuating in the liquidation of Google and all of it's subsets (youtube, gmail, blogger, etc.), afterwards, I finally finish the new template for thelooop and am unable to use it due to the shutdown of blogger. I am sad :(

Just A Song

2008-12-12T21:07:00.003+11:00

Hey guys, this is just a song Felita and I did
it's called Nobody
Originally by Wonder Girls and it's Korean but then i found this english version sung by Jeffrey Phung soo credits to them =)

Click here to play Streaming Audio

"Pea up your bottom" - a health tip

2008-12-09T23:08:00.006+11:00

Now, I listen to a lot of afternoon radio. I really enjoy hamish&andy (bought their cd on the day it came out, unfortunately had commitments and couldn't make it to their cd signing) and nova's 'the wrong way home' with akmal, cal & ed.
I have a playlist filled with podcasts and sometimes/a-lot-of-the-time I just put the whole lot on shuffle and play them all instead of music.

'The Wrong Way Home' is aptly named, they really talk about stupid things, enough to anger at least 1 demographic or celebrity over the course each show.
So anyway, I want to share this specific podcast with you guys. Specifically aimed at people who have a few minutes to spare, and I assume you have a few minutes to spare if you're visiting this blog.

right-click and save as to download the mp3: wwh081121.mp3

It's not the whole podcast that I'm interested in sharing, so fast-forward to 14:18... and I hope you enjoy it.

Alright, here's the closer:
Did you like it? Let me know in the comments.

happy birthday janice

2008-12-06T16:16:00.002+11:00

happy (belated by one day) birthday janice =]

that is all.

teoh,

Forgot to think of a title

2008-12-01T19:13:00.003+11:00

The other two are at rye or rai or whatever, so i'll drop a ninja-post for them to read when they get back.

It's been holidays for a while and there is something that I've come to realise.
I can go out all day and have a lot of fun, but then when I get back home, I am completely drained and devoid of life.

Or I can stay home and relax/recuperate, but then I experience a severe case of boredom. Mind-numbing boredom. Radio can't even save me because this is the last week 'Hamish&Andy' are airing for the year, 'Merrick+Rosso+Kate Richie' finished last week, and 'The Wrong Way Home' is probably over soon as well.

Anyway, there has to be a formula for a successful balance and I will let everybody know if I ever figure that out.

Meanwhile, there are several issues to bring forward. That is, I was halfway through making a new template for the blog, which can be seen at *somewhereorrather.blogspot.com*, and it's just fallen on its arse from a lack of conviction/creativity from my part. It would be nice if I promised it would be done soon, but that isn't going to happen. I may get around to it eventually. You can count on that. I swear in the name of the irony present in that oath.

Now here's another issue: why am I not posting?
Well, I am posting right now aren't I? Heh, I'm only kidding. I realise that this might just feel like I'm posting as some sort of administrator interceding with important news concerning the blog. Anyway, there's not much to say here. Just not feeling it.

Uhh, what else...
I suppose it is semi-officially Christmas season now, since it is December.
This isn't a segway into anything.

I've decided I'll try to end my posts with a simple question for readers from now onwards.
Did anybody buy Hamish+Andy's Unessential Listening CD over the weekend? (Were you perhaps expecting some loaded question, filled with potential for discussion? ...Wait, this is two questions now.)

casinoooo

2008-11-29T15:29:00.003+11:00

above is my mementos of my first trip to crown. a spontaneous (and excellent) idea for me ann and erica to go off to crown resulted in much fun and profit $$$!

crown is huge inside. I've never wondered what were beyond the big burly men in MIB suits, but boy was it a surprise. Pokie/slot machines everywhere, card tables, roulette, some digital, some old fashion wheels. It was so cool, but so intimidating and scary. Everything just seems so grown up and I felt so out of place. even ordering food was different. You pay for your food, and then line up somewhere else, and give your receipt to the cooks, who then get your food. I was so lost @_@

anyway, cause I was too scared to go gamble, we started off at the bar. erica was designated driver and ann had a blood test the next day, so it was only me drinking any alcohol. The bartender we got was really nice, since I told him it was my first time at Crown. He made erica and ann some mocktails; one was a really refreshing lychee with mint blend, and the other was a really smooth tropical mix. Mine was some midori, lime with other stuff in it that I can't remember.

then finally I worked up the courage (after like an hour of standing at the table, and making up excuses everytime someone gave up a seat) to pull out 10 bucks from my wallet and played at the $5 minimum bet blackjack table.

boy when you sit down, your whole world suddenly becomes that small table. A ring of players, the dealer and the cards. and the chips of course. Two aussie blokes sat down beside me and were quiet amusing. They 'picked' on me cause I was the small young asian boy I bet lol. But they were just joking around with me, all in good fun. Anyway, not wanting to get addicted or anything, I promised erica and ann I would win $15 dollars, then I would /quit. And I did! woo, winnah!

everyone else must be thinking..wth this guy came with 10 bucks and left after 5 rounds?

anyway, much fun, and would very much like to go again. firey picture below

and the winnings went to erica, for driving us there and dropping us off home =] thanks pong.

teoh,

stand firm, unlike my tree

2008-11-24T12:49:00.004+11:00

so falls my mighty tree =[
t'was so green and tall, provided much shelter and protection to our house. even fallen, it still gives us respect by not blocking our driveway, or not falling onto our garage. rip tree.

and LOL at marco for not noticing it when he came over. *points to my dp* "is that your house? when did that happen?" blind doctor coming through people..

hats night turned out pretty well, despite having odd numbers again. group: me, ca, sassy, grace, amanda, ng, marco, ling and tim. good fun my friends. me ca and sassy pwned (oooh gg says grace) at 56 i believe? and 50's for everyone else, nice come back amanda and grace.

went to pancake parlour with dave amanda ling and tim, after playing taxi and dropping everyone off. i hate driving in the rain. ling and tim left after eating, while the three of us caught up til 2 am. good fun.

sunday. my brother decided to take me to planetshakers church. it was a pretty cool place, nice auditorium and band playing. but i really enjoyed the message, which basically relayed that christmas time was a dangerous time for christians cause there are alot of chances to backslide/temptations. so the advice was four points:
1. stand firm
2. stand up
3. say something
4. have something to say
can't remember all four, but i remember 2.. (some chapter, some verse), Peter? (LOL) stood up with the other 11 apostles together. Together was the emphasis. And I liked it a lot cause you can apply it no matter if you're christian or not.

I've always like the idea of a united group, always backing each other up no matter what. Never fighting, always understanding, always supporting and if the times comes, a gentle nudge to the correct path. I look at the close friendships I have and I'm so happy that I can see that united-ness within them.

SW: Republic Commandos play out this storyline about a squad of four commandos. But they're also clones (if you follow episode 2 at all), which makes them brothers. And the way the story is written, drawing out the emotional bonds, the way they always look out for each other, taking extreme risks and defying even the top command chain for each other. It's so awesome.

When the speaker, Matt, was shouting his heart out about having to stand together, and the whole church responding, cheering and stamping their feet, that was awesome to see in real life. I can only hope that one day, all of us can be like that.

anyway, I took that away from church that day.

teoh,

edit: i just went through all my memories stuff from yr 12 including my year book....good times. hard to believe it's been a whole year. *tear lol.

happy birthday ca~

2008-11-21T20:17:00.003+11:00

woo, today was ca's birthday! yes terrible photo, but the only 'clear' shot within my phone XD

met up at the station at 11..I was so lucky to get a car park near the station. Must've been someone coming back from a midnight shift or something. The group was ca, joseph, charlie, wilson, sassy and myself.

went to lygon street, to some nice restaurant that had a outdoorish setting, but without all the bother of sun beaming down, flies, cold drafts..it was quite cosy (I think that's an appropriate word for it). share a healthy chicken and salad meal with sassy, which was quite yum.

then we wandered around the city alot..mostly in myers haha. 18 and still indecisive jess. The whole group was pretty much haha. anyway, headed back around 4ish, and then went to sassy's house to play wii! very enjoyable day. I love those two girls so much.

other things happening..yum cha with workmates, getting back into ddr, expanding the mouse cage quite epically, learning card tricks from danny and brawling it out with ling marco and dave. all good stuff!
hats tomorrow. i'm sure hilarity will soon follow. so I'll leave it here for now.

2008-11-17T01:12:00.002+11:00

http://www.utipu.com/app/invited/id/f135908da3c647609308865a41cd13c1

that is all.

well yeh basically ive been wanting to make a photoshop tutorial for a while now, and i finally got a program to do it but i wasn't sure how to use it so this is my first draft and yeah it's all over the place and a little bit messy but yeah umm i will make a better one in the future.

thanks for catherine who was my top model in this tutorial =)
p.s. there is audio it maybe a bit soft i don't know?

holidaaays~

2008-11-11T22:56:00.002+11:00

just to prove ling wrong..

holidays are finally here ! um yes. it's not that exciting actually. a fair few of us are working almost everyday. some are going overseas. but ah well, no pressure of uni at least ey!? what I'm going to do at work now that I don't have to study I don't know..I need that ds!

one by one, we are all free. Yesterday amanda, ng and I watched walle at amanda's house. must say, wall-e is indeed a nice movie. and it was fun catching up with ng, who I hadn't seen for awhile.

anyhow, I'll write a nice post once we actually do something. but before I do, list of TO-DO's!

Rye trip
Jells Park
Play music with dave and marco
Shopping (phone, watch, shoes, clothes, ds, storage device)
Pool at xuan’s house
Brawl tournament
Movies
Sleep over
Fireworks on New Years Eve
Dumpling day
Hats and mafia and risk and monopoly and stacks
Paintball
Christmas party and never do Kris Kringle
Karaoke

A lot of it has to wait til JANICE, the slowpoke, finishes exams. haha, I'm kidding, gl with exams for those who have it remaining. gl ling for your accounting exam tomorrow!

teoh,

a new jedi emerges...

2008-11-05T15:30:00.003+11:00

This is why I should go to uni to study...

teoh,

I need motivation!!

2008-11-02T19:18:00.002+11:00

So yes ive come to blog even though i should be studying hard for my last paper on wenesday. Hmmm yes and it's worrying because i don't actually know very much biology at all and yet im sitting on a really really really high internal grade, shivers that just doesn't make sense! 팀씨 너 바보야?!! yeah it's pretty badd but yeah i just have no motivation to study at all, i mean all i've been doing all day is just watching dramas and such and yeah wasting my day away. which is bad! i should be stressing, and im not? Maybe because i know deep down i can't fail biology... thats why im not pushing to study it.. although in reality i really can fail it badly LOL! haha. Oh wellllll. So lets update whats beeen going on

Hmm well living almost by my self has been really challanging i mean i have so many chores to do and yeh it's really draining too, i think i can say although my parents anoy me at times i love them soo much, i never want to live alone by myself without my parents ever again as long as im a student!!!! it's just tooo hard! I think it would be better if i lived in a small student apartment but like with the house that i've living in nowww i think thats too big for 1 person T.T

Well i've done 3 papers already and unlike some people i found these papers really hard >< arghhh i don't know everything just seemed so much better last semester lol. But once wenesday is over i'll be free for 4 months yay! actually hmm okay i won't say free, i'll say free from studies ^^. Because im actually going to work on thursday and friday and i know it sucks i was thinking of taking that whole week off to celebrate a bit but then my friend at work was like 'am i going to see you next week?' and im like 'well i finish on wens so i could come in on thursday and friday' and shes like 'yeah would you? we really need your help' okay... as if they need my help im sooooo uneducated where i work i've been working there since feb and i still have no idea what to do sometimes hahah but nah i think though it's true in a way because at the college the new block is starting and so we're doing an intake of so many new students the student servicers counter is going to go crazy, yikes!! Also i suppose i don't mind working after all im trying to save money and if i work i can't go out which mean i don't spend money so i'll be happy, well not when i can't go out but in the future i'll be happy for saving money =). Additionally a lot of my melbourne uni friends would still have exams on so if i push hard after i finish exams i suppose i can slack off a bit later?

Anyways i was talking to my friend last night about certian things and stuff and yeahh i think well you know how things are all good at the start and then you start thinking of yehh everything is soo awesome but then in reality it's not as awesome as you hoped, yeahhh something like that (린씨, 남자 친구 있어요! 그대 다빋씨 하지마!) yeah i was going to write something else but then i realised im not too sure how to write it lol ahha.

Anywaysss, i really really wanan go watch a movie or something and then when strike is open, go visit it and have some fun! ahha but yeahh we shall see, firstly i have to live though my last paper and then 2 full days of work and then organise when im going back to work again. Hmm also this korean drama i've been watching has been really really good! i understand soo much without subs it's almost scary now... in a good way but more importantly the plot is really funny but still interesting to think about. Im watching this Drama right now called 3 dads 1 mum, and it's very entertaining! watch if you ever have time, just go on the net and find it ahah.

Anyways enough blogging i think i've wasted enough time writting about nothing soo yeah i need to study/cram really badly now!! hahah. but before on a totally random note this song is awesome, i like it very very much go look it up

A Drop in the Ocean - Ron Pope

A letter from one of the Three.

2008-11-02T15:33:00.002+11:00

Good afternoon, readers

It has been brought to my attention that our web log has not been reviewed as brilliantly as I should hope so. With a certain rival state bringing to our attention a website ascertaining that only an elementary level education would be required in order to fully comprehend thelooop in its all its excellent splendour.

Nevertheless, this isn’t a problem, friends. [Quick dismissive speech accompanied by a hand gesture of some kind.]

If one were to careful assess the objective of said rating, then it would only be possible to come to the conclusion that - thelooop aims to broaden its audiences, not to marginalize them!

We have, in fact, expanded our horizon, comrade! We welcome all readers: young, old and angst-filled inbetweens. Such has been our goal all along, an admirable democratic ideal.

Fear not for our well-being as a web log, this is indeed a great triumph for thelooop, and we look forward to your readership in the times to come.

Your mentor through adversity,
J.L

exams start now.

2008-10-30T21:19:00.002+11:00

ready. set. go.

today: electrical. the most amusing exam ever.

night before, I pretty much gave up. it's such a difficult subject, especially if you're not very interested in it. I spent the whole night posting furious and frustrated posts on their How To Improve The Unit discussion board that they foolishly put up. It was full of angry students, like me, on how hard electrical is, how badly organised the unit was (they did a poor job teaching the whole unit) and how we were all going to fail. Had a good time doing it too. One of my favorites was: "I wouldn't be surprised if the exam tomorrow was missing half of the pages, or had incalculable questions." And "the text book was a piece of duck turd." (which it was..gave us problem sets with no solutions =_=)

anyway got in, opened it up expecting it to blow up in my face.
and it was easy.

THE WHOLE SEMESTER, they give us impossible concepts and problems to do, making us all almost fail the mid semester, putting up past exam papers that had no relevance and scared the crap out of me cause it was so hard, and they give us the easiest paper ever.

I couldn't stop laughing through out the exam. Pretty sure I got a question wrong, but I believe I could score well in this one. (lest I jinx myself). This was suppose to be the worst.

And so the exams begin! and a good start it has been.

things i'll be playing next week: red alert 3, dead space, alone in the dark, finish star wars unleashed, dl a billion movies to watch, ~~gloat to the people that still have exams~~.

good luck to my yr 12 friends whose egghams start next week. all the best guys!

teoh,

morning after

2008-10-27T08:41:00.004+11:00

*read previous post first*

Aggregate Expenditure

The Expenditure Multiplier (k)

'k' represents the amount that you multiply an initial change affecting output, to find the total final change in output.

e.g. Assume an initial increase in Government Expenditure (G) by $10m.

ΔG lead to ΔY because (Y = Consumption (C) + Investments (I) + G + Exports net of Imports (NX))

ΔY is divided into ΔTax (T) and ΔDisposable income (YD).

ΔYD is divided into the Consumption of either domestic or imported goods (C_d, C_m)

And ΔC_d will lead to ΔY, leading all the way back to stage 1 of the flow, where it starts off again but with a smaller amount to flow through.

In other words, you have smaller and smaller increases within each cycle which are determined by your Marginal Propensity to Consume Domestic Goods (MPC_d = ε), where ε is [0, 1]. i.e. You spend between $0 - 1 of every dollar you earn on domestic goods.

And so you have:

ΔY = ΔG + ε*ΔG + (ε^2)*ΔG ... + (ε^n)ΔG

= ΔG*(1/(1-ε)) <---- [doesn't make sense to you mathematically? well then get cracking, cause it does make sense]

= ΔG*k

where k is the multiplier (1/(1-ε)).

Aggregate Expenditure (AE) Curve

AE = C + I + G + EX - IM, and it is plotted on AE versus Y, where there is no P, hence it is held constant.

NB: This assumes constant P despite changing Y, hence, it is a Keynesian model.

(Okay, this topic is hard to explain without a diagram...)

To derive the AE curve:

Plot autonomous expenditure (expenditure independant of income) as constants on the plane. i.e. horizontal lines at the appropriate levels of AE.

e.g. Government Expenditure is to be $100b for the period, hence, a horizontal line at 100 is plotted.

Add autonomous Investments in there too. So you now have a horizontal line G + I, representing total government and investments expenditure.

Add autonomous Exports in there. Exports are independant of Y because we're not the one's buying them, people overseas are. Now it is G + I + EX.

And now the most devillish component: Consumption.

C = a + bYD

where a is autonomous consumption, e.g. rent, food, electricity;

b is the marginal propensity to consume domestically;

and YD is disposable income.

It can be further broken down into C = a + bYD = a + b(Y - T0 - Yt) = a - bT0 + (b - bt)Y.

T0 is tax independant of income, t is income tax, and Y is income/output.

So the "Y-intercept" is (a - bT0) for this component, and the slope of C is (b-bt). So just chuck this onto the AE, Y plane...

(nearly done...) To get AE net of Imports (IM), you decrease the curve by IM.

IM = IM0 + mY, where m is the marginal propensity to consume imported goods, makes sense I hope.

So you should have a slightly flatter slope, and a lower Y-intercept. And that's your AE-curve.

FINAL STEP. Construct a 45 degree line to intercept with your AE-curve. Where it intercepts is your planned expenditure. Being displaced by any amount along the curve from this point of equilibrium expenditure will mean that there has been either: unplanned investments along the way, where C > YD or vice versa.

OK STUFF THAT, bad topic to try revise without a diagram.

*publish*

ecc1100

2008-10-26T21:56:00.008+11:00

macro exam tomorrow!

so i'll be wasting time the night before of course

WRONG! HAH! in your face, prejudiced FOOLS! :D
I am here to explain a topic as a way of studying.
Here I go!

NB: No time for diagrams/graphs. Suck it up, use your imaginations.

The Asian Financial Crisis

It involves 4 countries (ASEAN-4) during the early 90s: The Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. And they have a few characteristics that caused this crisis:

Strong economic growth (i.e. growing gdp)
A fixed exchange rate
And a Balance of Payments (BOP) surplus, despite a Current Account (CA) DEFICIT

In other words, you had all these countries with booming economies AND a fixed exchange rate, so foreign investments (nearly typed infestments) flooded in.

So that's where we begin. NB: It is going to be analysed from the point of view of the Thailand Baht (THB).

Aggregate Demand (AD) is going nuts cause of increased Investment Demand (ID), so you have a price (P) and output (Y) increase.

So, with prices up in Thailand, their exports (EX) become more expensive, so they will export less, meaning that the demand for THB (D_THB) will have decreased. Meanwhile, imports (IM) are relatively cheaper to the Thais, so they will import more, meaning that the supply of THB (S_THB) will have increased.

What you have there is an excess supply of THB and hence, a shortage of foreign exchange (FX), which is where the CA DEFICIT is apparent. (CA = EX - IM + NIP[net income payable isn't very important, don't worry about it])

However, there is a BOP surplus!! What the?! Apparently Thailand's Net Capital Inflow (NCI) is enough to cover the CA deficit and then some. How does that happen?

As P and Y have increased, Real Money Supplied (MS/P) decreases due to the denominator there increasing. And Real Money Demanded (MD/P) increases because you need more money to buy things and furthermore, your output has increased, so you're consuming more. And these two changes (regarding MS/P and MD/P) lead to higher interest rates (r).

Now you have:

High r
Strong eco growth
and the fixed XR, which means that there is no risk of currency depreciation

SO, huuuuuuge amounts of foreign investment flows in. I'm talking massive amounts of NCI. (Enough to cover the CA deficit.)

Leading to big increases in D_THB (D_THB = EX + NCI), and a shift of D_THB to the right, far enough to induce a BOP surplus.

Now, the economy has a shortage of THB and a surplus of FX, so, in order to stop the exchange rate from appreciating (cause they fixed the thing), the reserve bank up in Thailand sells THB into the economy and buys FX from the economy, thereby increasing their foreign exchange reserves (FXR), increasing their money base (M0), increasing their money supply (MS), decreasing r, which results in a series of auto-adjustments:

With lower r, investments increase, AD increases, P increases, EX decreases, D_THB decreases and shifts left. Also, with lower r, NCI decreases, shifting D_THB left too. (Team effort by EX and NCI.)

So with higher P and Y, IM will increase leading to S_THB increasing, and tada: we have a BOP balance again.

Oh wait, this is a crisis isn't it. There's gotta be more.

With lower interest rates, the price of bonds and shares increase, investors are happy, they consume more, aggregate demand shifts up further, inducing higher P and Y.

And with further increased P, EX decreases due to less competitive prices, and so D_THB decreases and shifts left. Meanwhile, IM are more attractive as opposed to domestic goods, and S_THB increases and shifts right. This is not good for Thailand.

The CA deficits worsens, and their old buddy NCI can't get them out of it now.

By the mid 90s, everybody is thinking, "Can they really keep this up? I'm worried about it all crashing and my money will be gone :'( "

So while Thailand has this HUGE CA deficit, everybody panics and pulls their money out of Thailand. OH NOEZ!!

NCI disappears like the ninja that it was and D_THB decreases masssssivellyyyyyyyy ai yah gg thailand

So in an intriguing plot twist: Mr. C.A. Deficit turns into Mr. B.O-P Deficit. Ohmaigarh~

Thailand is all like, "Bail!!!!!" and they choose to un-fix their exchange rate, and it is allowed to fully depreciate into the fiery depths of hell.

The lessons learned here:

Thailand relied too heavily on foreign investments, so when these disappeared, there was big big trouble. gg rax down.

And there was another lesson, but I can't remember!

*clicks publish post*

pro...

2008-10-20T18:44:00.003+11:00

sorry for the bombardment of posts but...just had to:

Who: Princess Zelda
Cost: Under $35
From Where: Home made
Time to make: Roughly less than a month (did it gradually)
Judgment: Freaking pro.

I'll start the bidding at $100. Anyone? (ME!!!)

GAH stupid blog. what do i have to do to upload a picture.

teoh,

maths quiz.

2008-10-19T20:50:00.002+11:00

I did no studying today. =_=

I went to baker's delight to buy some bread for the apartment (I did grocery shopping today all by myself ^^) and my friend is doing childhood education at uni. So she gets to do primary school maths for her homework LOL. Anyway, this question took me like 5 minutes to answer =_= just wanted to see if it took other people the same time. It's a numerical pattern question:

A man walked into a shop and said to the shop keeper: "Give me the same amount of money I have on me, and I'll spend $10". The shop keeper did so, and the man went on his way. He did the same thing to another two shops before having no more money left. How much did he start out with?

Answer:

8.75 I think I got. Basically I worked backwards, starting from $0, +$10 he spent, then halved it to get what he had leftover from the store before. Then that becomes a formula of (result + 10)/2.

So yup. My little post for today.

teoh,

SUMMER IS GOOD!

2008-10-19T00:39:00.002+11:00

In responde to davids blog about heat i just felt that maybe i should write a blog about why summer is probably my favourite season of the year.

I will admit sometimes the australian summer is just scorching.. it's really hot, but you know it's really not that bad when u really really think about it. You just need to know how to deal with it.. Like lets try to focus and think of the good points about summer and try to forget a bit about the heat.

1. Don't you rkn daylight savings is an awesome thing? it means theres more daylight to be enjoyed with friends going out. It doesn't get too dark too soon and i don't know ive yet to meet someone who has gone 'crap i hate this light i wish it was dark at 5pm'. It open windows and doors i think.
2. Isn't summer fashion awesome? isn't it great waking up and it's not scorching.. but relatively warm so it allows you to go out with just a singlet/teeshirt and some shorts and not bother about a jumper ^^. Like don't you hate those days when you know it's going to be hot but like it's soo cold to go out without bringing more layers and then ur like .. shivers.. this crappy jumper is soo anoying to carry..
3. Entertaiment in summer is awesome! Sports! (tennis ^^), the best movies come out over the summer, shopping! christimas and boxing day is awesome then theres also chinese new year and that means money because we're asian and then also celebrations in the city for NEW YEARS and stuff and that means pretty fireworks! Theres just soo much to do over the summer! Additionally when it's too hot to do anything watch TV! i know a lot of you asians out there has given up on tv and don't touch it because for some reason it doesn't appeal as much as internet tv or whatever but the best shows come out in summer!! and summer tv is awesome!! im pretty sure they use the Australian Open (Tennis) to advertise like Heroes and Greys Antomy and Desperate housewifes and all the other cool ameican imports we get.
4. It's also a time to work extra hours save up a bit more, summer jobs are awesome, if you already have a job you can just work more and get more money =) yay for that!
5. Yes i'll agree with david UV rays is disgusting and can kill you but sunscreen isn't all so bad you know. it acts as a skin moisturiser (okay maybe that just applies to me since i have dry skin =.=)
6. Don't you find when hanging out in the summer and yes sometimes its uncomfortable and the heat is on and it's disgusting .. hmm... it's relaxing in a way? i mean hanging out with ur friends in the summer after exams, no commitments no nothing it's just seems soo carefree you have nothing to worry about and yes it may become really boring after but i still love it haha.

Hmm i suppose the summer heat never really bothered me soo much as like i always looked at it like it was just a season to hang and chill, relax and unwind, and although uncomfortable a lot of the times, im pretty sure your most happiest memories are made during that short 3 months of scorching heat.

ANYWAYSSS after saying all that i will add to davids fustration to the heat (i know im just going against summer now)
- it's too hot to wear scarfs =(
- you have really bad water retrictions
- mossies are SOO ANOYING!
- ulgy tan lines x.x

p.s. OHH GOOD FRUIT IN SUMMERRR WOOP WOOP! CAN"T WAIT TO EATTT

heat wave

2008-10-18T19:53:00.003+11:00

yes, the world is upside down in order for australia to be up there.

you know it went up to 32 today. THIRTY TWO. And I can't take it already!? If I were a pokemon, I would choose charmander..so I would have fire resistance. But it's more likely I'm a wimpy bulbasaur cause I hate heat. (I like fire in the pyromania sense).

sure, 'warmer' weather means we get to go the beach, girls get to wear flashier clothes, guys have an excuse to wear singlets and shorts out (I wonder if ling has grown out of this yet with his matureness-spurt this year) icy poles will be stocked in the freezer and eaten everyday.

BUT.

it means making sure you put on sunscreen everyday, else you'll die of sun rays, you'll sweat just getting out of bed, you gotta drink a lake-ful of water everyday, the car will be hot and stuffy if you leave it for a minute in the sun, all the air conditioners will use up more energy including fuel and electricity (and hence money) did I mention YOU'LL DIE BY SUN RAYS!?

heat has always effected me very badly. Cold is alright, cause the clothes pile on and you just tank it. The only way it can kill you if it's like subzero and you die from hypothermia or something. Tanking heat? No way. There's a good chance of fainting (like pokemon!!), just blacking out, sapped of energy, dying of thirst, DYING OF ULTRA UV RAYS (of course this is present when it's cold too, but it's more obvious because it's SO HOT.).

heat also tends to make me more frustrated easy. Like really easy. Playing piano, playing games, reading, everything. It just makes me throw down whatever I have and try to escape the heat. Or vent it. Somehow. So watch out.

boy you can tell I'm stoked for the summer.

teoh,

as this blog as my witness..

2008-10-14T10:28:00.002+11:00

ok, I just woke up half an hour ago (10:30am) and I just had one the longest, weirdest, most random dream ever. so I'm blogging it.

the first thing I remember is me, dave, janice and amanda on a plane..and some instructor I'm pretty sure I knew from somewhere. Anyway, we were skydiving..rather strangely. It was like, at the door of the plane, it's a like a bungee swing..where you just drop out of the plane on two ropes, fall, and then spring back up again? Don't remember that well, but yeah it wasn't full sky diving. Meanwhile, as we all took turns doing that, we were just talking. And then I remember janice saying something about being hopeful (blog reference?) and stomach pains. OH, anthea was our instructor. Cause she was there saying how it would be a tough life. That is when I understood what janice was saying: she was pregnant =_= and I remember the shock I felt VERY REAL LIKE. and it was ng's, cause he said sorry LOL.

second thing I remember is janice and amanda going to dave's house, while I drove to work. I got to work, which strangely enough had turned in the meldy library at uni (I remember seeing the star wars section vividly). Anyway, I got there and took a CGI call and it was really annoying as always. The person left me hanging for a long time and then hung up on me. And then work ended o.o

Driving back along kingsway, I get to these two ambulances where people are getting carried away by stretchers and such. I slow down, and see sakshi, arani and soumya (this is I assume because I saw sakshi's name on msn last night for the first time in awhile). I wind down the window and asked them what happened. sakshi, with her usual enthuasium I remember from high school, said "the indians are fighting against the iranies!" LOL!?

Anyway, making my way to dave's house, it's dave's birthday again? But only us four there and his parents..and I remember his mum asking me what I did. I said work, and she's like ai ya! so much work to do. (reference to uni exams coming up??) anyway, for some reason I had presents too, but I never got to open mine =[ Janice had made ng some nice special card, but when we went to give it to him, he was sitting down talk with his dad...and his dad gave him this ring box =O AND THEN HE WENT TO OPEN IT..

and I woke up.

there was another even that involved 'pop inventory nike kangaroos' (figure it out and comment! (only ling will figure it out I think..)) and that was a nice dream.

so yes. I've always had a feeling that some of my dreams show up in real life after awhile..you know, that deja vu feeling? BUT IF THIS ONE DOES, THEN OMG.

teoh,

FOOD.

2008-10-12T12:05:00.003+11:00

Just a quick post.

Janice, Amanda and I went swimming saturday morning. did laps in outside pool, tried the spa and sauna (in which janice nearly died in) and the kids (amanda and janice) wanted to go to the wave pool, so we did that too.

while sitting in the sauna, we had the important discussion about what to eat. and boy did we over do it.

So it was:
1 satay pizza, 1 serve of prawn (i said pork damn you !) dumplings, 1 family size charcoal chicken chips, 3 subway cookies, multiple bread top cakes, ice cream, kimchi and solo for drinks.

bleh.

lynn says we're weak and she could eat it all by herself! (ok she didn't say that last bit, but it was implied). but as if! it was soo filling. =_= we lost a little weight..then put on like triple.

and then i had garlic pizza at work and just sat there playing games. yup.

teoh,

Operation Money Save

2008-10-07T23:02:00.002+11:00

So yes hello hello looop readers (if any) i really should be finishing my assignment but i can't be stuffed so yes ahah blogging is good. Hmm i think my blogging days are over though from my personal blog .. i don't know who knows when i will restart it, i blame my stupid social life though, it means if i were to blog how i used to blog my entries would take me hours and such and hence ive realised i don't need to. Anyways combined blogs for the win!!

end of 2009 and start of 2010 i really hope i would be in korea!! yay! one of my dreams for ages is to go back to korea and more then ever does this seem realistic now! Ive met a lot of new korean friends this year and yeh their soo nice and cool and their studying english in melbourne and sadly a lot of them are flying back soon but i still have one of my other friends with me and he said he's going back end of 09 and start of 2010 so yeh the plan is to go back with him =). This is perfect yeh? because yeh i don't know perfect! hahah he's really nice and like im so glad im if i was to go back to korea id at lease have a friend with me. I mean like my dream was to travel to korea alone and just explore and be awesome but like hmm thats kinda unrealistic with my crapp korean language skills ahha.

So thus this is my new inspiration and motivation to save! i know i know .. most of you are thinking 'crap .. tims saving money? is that even possible?' and YES it is possible! When i first got a job my motivation was to buy expensive clothes and have expensive lunches and go to bars and have freedom and like spend like crazy but NOO MOREE im not saving for a holiday. Which i am going to aim 5000 dollars, thats reasonable i think. I know i'll be spending a lot and some months i'd probably go crazy and still spend heaps of money (boxing day no?) ahha. but i am confident i can do it. I just checked my bank account and it's like close to 2000 dollars... oh man i can't believe i spend so much money sigh sigh sigh but yeh lets say this, i have 2k already, all i need is to save 3 more thousand dollars.. hmm.. easy summer time is awesome to earn money i mean 4 months of holidays yay! ahha. But the aim is still 5000 dollars, because the airflight to korea is about 1800 dollars.. but im going to round to 2k OHHH!! Conservatism!! the tendency to understate insted of overstate - accounting! sorry just flooded into my brain just then hahaha .. hmm idon't know how that applies but okay i will just say 2k for that and so hopfully 3k spending money or 5k spending money ahhah either way im going to have 3million won and feel rich rofl! HA HA HA

okay okay moving on .. thats the plan .. and it's reachable but it's going to be hard .. and yes i'll have to admit i have self control problems, i just take my card out and swipe it in any crap to buy things these days... bad tim bad! and everytime i go out i always seem to end up swiping even more and withdrawing more then i planned. ahha did i tell u guys once i had 100 dollars in my wallet and by the end of a dinner there was only 20 dollars left... man where did my 80 dollars go!! argh >
in sum
> 2009/2010 Korea with Kim Won Jeh
> meet up with Bonnie, Michelle, Yong Hee and Min Soeb my Korean friends and OHH wow i just remembered my friend Jean (HaJeanWoo) he's korean too from America is going to be in korea that time tooo oh wow i can meet up with him too! yay!
> Must save 5000
> Must control going crazy spending!!!! (soo hardddd >.<)

update!

2008-10-07T14:23:00.005+11:00

jason certainly right about blogging when you shouldn't be, and never blogging when you can. so here i go, in the middle of two assignments and one lab report~!

well those 'holidays' certainly passed very quickly =_= highlight time!
- 5pm sat, dave's birthday party! woot woot.
- 12pm sat, dave's after party at maccas!
- 2am sun, my after after party at my apartment!
- 8pm sun, the...ridiculously spontaneous get together, HATS!^^
BEST weekend ever.

- finally having proposed dinner (like 3 months back) with nat
- finally catching up with my yr 12 friends <3
- chocolate overload at yunn's party (max brenna's x_x)

mmm, i don't see any studying in there..do you? WAIT~ i did studying on the weekend! *whew. seriously packed holidays, with work stuffed in the nights between. but it was good, although i would've preferred a bit more studying in there...hah, who am I kidding.

buying a 4 gig usb and a 1TB external this week hopefully. will be nice to have some storage space at home to dump movies onto. i really need to start saving up for holidays. and discussions about buying a car for me are still in the works too.

okay, back to work! no pictures sorry..when i buy my nintendo dsi, i will ahve a portable camera (3 megapixels). OR when i get my new phone (crummy 2 megapixels though).

good luck for exams and such people! i start 30th oct, finish 7th nov. CAN'T WAIT. the short exam period exciting and depressing at the same time.
and NO the depressing part is NOT HOLIDAYS MUM! =_= parents.

teoh,

edit: reminder: will update my old old profile, my banner and username when we move to the new layout.

SWOTVAC limbo

2008-09-23T19:03:00.004+10:00

Finished the last piece of assessment till exams today! It was a macroeconomics test and I have the high hopes of getting a 2.5/5 =]

So what will I do with all my free time?

Well don't get too carried away, I still have classes and new topics to learn. Just that none of it needs to be applied till the end of semester exams.

I am actually working on an entirely new layout for the blog, cause although there has been positive feedback from the spring update, I can't say I like it. I haven't seen david online recently (and I mean really really recent), but I've spoken to tim about it and he wants a change too. So! I've already started working on a new one. Got a bit of a problem with div layers and tables... :( anyway it'll be a little while till it's up. Hopefully before summer.

But yes, nothing until exams! And the mid-sem break starts next week.. oh, what to do what to do... (get a job)

Things to buy: a nice shirt, a bookshelf, a deck chair, 'farenheit 451', 'a brave new world'

And yes! A belated happy 19th to Timothy =D

Also! A premature happy 18th to david!! whooooo

(oh my gosh i just spent 30min trying to draw a cupcake in photoshop. here's an asaparagus instead)

EDIT: days spent going in circles trying to fix the navigation for this thing... the prototype is finished so here's a sneak peak. [click click]

things ~~to look forward to~~ i will struggle to implement:

cbox (where am i going to put the damn thing)
archives/previous posts (segregated in another tab)
a neat little gif animation/flash movie i have in mind (chucked into the oh-so-bare links page)
a tasteful display pic of the poster attached to each blog entry :)

till then! i'll be hard at work

my dog, magie.

2008-09-20T21:36:00.002+10:00

dedicated post to my dog magie.

it's her 11th birthday on monday..same as tim's i believe. Wonder why I've never picked that up before. Anyway, she's oooold, for a dog anyway (77 if you believe the x7 factor), but still as energetic as always. She'll never pass up a walk (unless it's dinner time), and she can still chase me down easy.

Sure, she bites about every friend I introduce..today lynn came over for group work, and she got 'bitten' (though I would debate it was a nip..), cause she was standing over magie while patting her, and I think it's a bit intimidating for her..anyway, she just needs to get used to you, and you her. Then you'll realise how great she is. I think it goes for most pets.

Won't go on too much about her, but I love her very much. Hard to believe I've had her as my dog for so long. I know there were times were she was annoying as, chewed up alot of things I needed (I actually got to use my dog ate my homework excuse in primary school once), but all in all, I'll never stop loving her and appreciate every moment with her (now that I'm more mature and can see past the little bites and annoying attention seeking acts).

teoh,

WOW

2008-09-19T14:47:00.002+10:00

This has got to be the most inspiring add ive ever seen. I thought this was like a movie trailer or something but yehhh go watch it, i must say i did like go 'whoa at the endding' ahha but yeh it's really sadd but inspirational.. but i don't exactly know what im inspired to do? 'get more shiny hair?'

chain thinking combo +2 !

2008-09-18T16:57:00.002+10:00

I am an organised person..at least that's what I like to think myself as. I like planning my days' out, events in the future, what order I will do things in (e.g eat breakfast -> change -> brush teeth -> pack bag -> get to uni), when to do homework etc. And I love it when it just all works, and everything goes according to plan.

unfortunately, most of the time it doesn't..and it annoys me, it really does. It pretty much ruins the whole day for me when plans go horribly wrong. I can adapt sometimes, but you know those days that just go opposite to what you want?

so yesterday was chadstone vip night. And I had asked ann if she wanted to go shopping, cause I owed her for screwing up the reunion (another story). and the plan had been that I would pick her up and drive there...but then my family ended up going, and I couldn't pick ann up (my mum's fault... =___=) anyhow, the whole plan was ruined, and my day did not go so well either, and we only got to shop for an hour together.

anyway, I digress from my point. While I was walking around chaddy waiting for ann, I was thinking how I really hate shopping..well not even hate it. I just don't seem to know how to shop? Like I can go into Knox, meaning to buy clothes..but I just can't get into it.

And then I realised, shopping is a very spontaneous thing. And me, being an organised planning person, is not very spontaneous at all. Taking it further, I realised, I've never really bought anything on the spot. Whenever I buy something, it's pre-planned, researched, walked by it 4 times over 2 weeks, checking other prices and then I will buy it. Which is good up to a point I guess..but not so applicable to others.

anyway yes..that was my epiphany for the day.

quick game reviews:

spore
the game did a lot of what they said it would. customization was pretty awesome in the creature creation. you can make some pretty exotic looking creatures. it would be interesting to go online and dl some other people's creatures. but it got a bit tedious later on, when you had to start customizing every buliding..for every colony..for every planet...for every system... =_=
game play was soso. imo, cause I've played some good RTS, the tribal and civil stages were rather boring and rather 2D (in a matter of speaking). The cell and creature stages were entertaining enough...but the space phase is pretty damn addictive for some reason. It's not that great..but just addictive.
overall a decent game, for those mysims fans and civilization like-games.

force unleashed
picked this up last night, plowed through about 3 hours of it so far. First impressions was disappointment. The graphics were definitely down there, explosions and such not looking real at all. Expected in the wii version I guess, but I was hoping for alittle more. Story line likewise is a little weak in my opinion. Definitely not in epic proportions or anything and no real emotions playing out. Dunno what the producers were so excited about when they talked about the plot..
gameplay on the other hand, is quite fun once you get the hang of it. I still stand by that all these kind of games are better off with the traditional buttons, rather than the motions. Nevertheless, you do still have some nice feeling to some of the actions, force push for instances (motion forward with nunchuck) is quite nice. Lightsaber swings are a bit hard for accuarcy though.
it was a must for me, since it was starwars anyway. but it's not a bad game to download, if you just want to 'unleash' your frustration of uni =]

teoh,

26 Things You Shouldn't Strive For

2008-09-13T22:09:00.002+10:00

I totally forgot to do this! Was meaning to do it as a celebration of the return of my laptop. Yes, it is back. =]

It turns out it wasn't as simple as turning to page 12 or 444. I ended up turning to page 444, holding my finger at the original page, then turning back cause it wasn't so great and trying page 12 and then finding out neither option was very good... Who would'a thunk it? Anyway I just sent it in to the repair center and it turns out the motherboard stuffed up and they replaced it. Been using the laptop for ~9 months and the motherboard stuffs up already :(

Anyway anyway!

26 Things You Shouldn't Strive For

To be...
Arrogant
Boring
Cuckooooo, you crazy guy, you!
Dead
Egocentric
Frivolous
Gaudy
Hostile
Idle
Juvenile
K - because it's a sucky letter, you don't want to be somebody with very little adjectives do you??!
Lavish
McDonald's - fattening :(
Needy
Ornery
Precocious
Qonfusing
Rowdy
Syphilis
Troublesome
Undulated
Vexed
Wanton
Xenophobic
Yucky
Zesty :( (My poor taste buds)

That's it [for now]! Waaay too lazy to theorise about puaeconomics. Still can't get a logical system for explaining supply and demand (although I haven't exactly been trying to).

I guess it's coming soon...

Oh, the same goes for the taiko vids, but they're probably sooner than soon.

oh how thy float

2008-09-11T21:14:00.003+10:00

okay so I was waiting at the bus stop for lynn (uni friend) to arrive (she was late, as usual) and I was just listening to my ipod, looking around lazily...and I glanced up in the air..looked down again, and then did a double take and looked straight up! And I SWEAR, I swear clouds form a symbol of a spread-winged eagle, complete with the beak and tail. It wasn't perfect, but it was AWESOME.

I really wish I had my new phone at that time to take a picture...

So I was like, okay I'll wait for lynn, and use her phone to take a picture..and I waited for a few seconds, pondering this magnificent event, looked up again..and found that it was GONE. Not completly, but the clouds had floated apart..I could only just make out the head that was so clear only moments ago.

And then I realised all the clouds were floating in a certain direction...as if something had flown through the eagle, destroying the symbol. It was like a cut in the clouds...so sus (I suspect some sort of secret stealth plane..). So then I thought I would take a picture anyway when lynn got here, so I would have proof..but they wisp'd away so fast =O I didn't realise clouds moved so quickly...so I spent the night at work wikipediaing clouds.

and that was the highlight of my day.

p.s new games out i'm excited for:
spore (dling as we speak)
star wars force unleashed

Double standards

2008-09-11T18:29:00.002+10:00

Anyways i think its time for another rant by tim.
Hmm.. this will probably make no sense at all and probably have no flow and structure to it, haha not much difference to my biology essay ahha!

Anyways i was just thinking. Yes i do think a lot, but for some reason i've decided to actually blog this thought, not that it's a special thought and not that i really want to but i just feel like blogging tonight haha. That makes no sense at all beacuse i've just had a full day of work and im super super super tired, nonetheless im just typing crap right now.

So yeh i was thinking... <<< omg.. did i just type that again? ahha.. Anyways... we've all had thoughts and impressions on people yeah? And we have our own morals and such and some peoples morals are more tighter where as other people might be a more laid back. Hmm, so say you hear something about someone yeh? and like u don't particulary like what ur hearing and ur friend is just going 'rah rah rah rah rah' and all your saying is 'oh reallly? oh no! wow.. yeh thats really bad rah rah rah' back. But then now this time ur actual friend does something you don't really find too good either but after their story you just say stuff like this 'oh really? nah it's okay i mean ur not over reacting all good' and stuff like that. Hmm... do u see how wrong it is sometimes? i think it's a few things.
1. Friends turn u really bias it's really hard to see clearly sometimes because your thinking 'oh my friend, gosh she/or he has always been soo nice i can't believe this im going to give the benefit of the doubt...'
2. Also sometimes you just have weak people like me. I believe im a weakling, honestly im talking to one person and that person tells me their story and i comfort them and say things even though i don't even know the full picture. Then later the other person comes talks to me nad tells me their version and i say almost the same thing. Actually in fact sometimes i go to person A 'oh don't worry about it it's obviouse person b is sooo wrong' and then to person B i say 'oh don't worry about it it's obviouse person a is sooo overeacting' ... well i don't say it in such a corny way but along those lines... argh it's bad.....

Anyways how do u overcome this problem?
and is it really even a problem? well when u think about it yeh... your not really doing anything ur just comforting the person ur talking to and trying to calm them down, unless of course ur a pot-stirrer and ur saying all these crazy things to hype the person up even more .. and NO im not a pot-stirrer i can soo see jason thinking that right now hahah. But then also potentially the danger is what if both parties find out ur not sticking up for them and ur kinda sitting on the fence.. hmm troublesome, it's like ur going to he verbally whipped for choosing brunch insted of breakfast or lunch.. haha lame example ahha but anyways u get it yeah? Plus internally how much of a two-face do you feel after? i mean again it's not so bad if u just say really unhelpful dull general comments like 'awwWWWwww Ohhhhhh Awwwwww aww' then you might as well go talk to a cat or something because yeh ur saying something but ur also saying nothing at the same time.

Right, soooo i'll cut it there haha because ive lost inspiration to blog lol ahha. also my friend is trying to get me to enter a tennis tournament this weekend, but i don't know if i have time... or am i really scared because i don't know if i have the skill or even fitness abilities to play.. sigh. haha.

26 Things You Should Strive For

2008-09-10T18:15:00.023+10:00

To be...

Affable

Benevolent

Considerate

Death-defying

Eloquent

Faithful

Generous

Honourable

Individual

Joyful

Keen (but not too much)

Laudable!

Magnanimous

Notable

Open

Persistent

Qualified

Ready

Sure

Timely

User-friendly

Vigilant

Welcoming

eXuberant (but not too much either!)

Youthful (another option is Yummy)

Zapdos

~~Also, I'm not sure Tim is big enough of a fan of Taiko to warrant that logo: how does this one look?~~

give me the ol' thumbs up and i'll slap it on.

Oh, I should probably blog what happened to the laptop. Well. I brought it into repairs under the warranty, so I'll have it back in a few days. Fingers crossed that they can't fix it and I get a new one! Yeah, so I won't be posting anywhere for a little while probably. More PUE8800 if I got time for it!

EDIT: what on earth?! why are there so much teenage girls re/watching my videos... youtube must be buggy.

It also seems that of these teenage girls, a considerable percentage are Asian...

My viewer demographic:

Australia 22%
Japan 6%
Hong Kong 5%
Singapore 4%
Canada 4%
Chile 2%
USA 2%
Malaysia 1%
Italy1%
Taiwan 1%

Hrmmm... I wonder how many stumble across our blog...

Hi? I use msn =D

LOL jkjk - why are tim and david looking at me like that :(

click for further perplexities

Oh! And: yes. More videos soon. Just waiting for the laptop...

I've figured it out.

2008-09-04T18:28:00.012+10:00

If you haven't already heard. Once again, Vista is f***ing with me again, with help from the HP cheerleading squad. And yes, I repeated 'again' because it deserves to be repeated in a grammatically awkward fashion to emphasise the fact that this is not the first time, nor the second time, nor the third time, that I have had major issues with using Vista as an operating system. I have in fact lost count of how many times Vista has served me crap on a plate - I just realised that.

I died a little inside with that realisation.

Well, service pack 1 was released a few months ago, and Vista has been out for ages now, so major problems should be fixed right?

AM I ANSWERING THAT RHETORICAL QUESTION? Seriously?? I am shortening my lifespan because Vista keeps raising my blood pressure to volcanic levels on a regular basis.

This time, the wireless conked out unexplainably.

The wireless network adapter stopped working out of nowhere. Nowhere! I didn't install anything. Didn't change any settings. If anything, it could've been an auto-update from Vista that triggered it.

And so I'm stuck having to plug my laptop directly into my modem to get internet access. I am loving the convenience of a laptop and a wireless router! s2 s2 s2 s2 s2 s2 s2 ~<3

ANYWAY. I've concluded that nobody that successful could be this stupid. The dudes at Microsoft can't possibly be [complete] buffoons. So there must be some kind of reasoning behind this abomination of an OS and its complete inability to do anything - to any degree of ...ANYTHING. Well I'll give it this much, it can sit around looking pretty and consume 1gB of ram while idling. NICE. Soooo nice. I am crying tears of joy! Seriously. Look. There's a tear. I am so happy to be using Vista.

So how did Vista come to be? How was it conceived in Billie Gate's womb? (Who was the father?!)

Nah but seriously. I've figured it out.

I've realised that the state that Vista is in at the moment is a manifestation of the experiences of unhappy parents down at Microsoft. Just imagine for a second.

***

You have an unruly child that doesn't listen to your commands or prompts, it doesn't matter if you're their mum or their dad, they will not allow your instructions to pass through their auditory canals, instead, they deny you the satisfaction to see them do what you wanted them to do. You want to write a letter to grandma? Alright, just leave it on your desktop and when it mysteriously disappears, you might find it in one of your folders by the windows, where you don't usually poke around in. Or maybe in the recycle bin if you're lucky!

But why should they have the option of allow/deny in the first place! You're the admin! I mean... parent!

They don't automatically do things like brush their teeth or eat breakfast when they boot up in the mornings.

In the mornings, your scream careers through the corridors, "I'm not telling you again, get your ass down to the dining room for breakfast, Vi..Stanley!!!". The picture frames wobble a little.

To which they reply, "Allow or deny, Dad?", an irritating catchphrase that they've developed in recent years, no doubt from that Internet.

In fact, in the mornings, often they'll do things you don't want them to do like steal from your wallet and hog the memory, I mean bathroom, and they will proceed to do all these automatically and without your permission, despite the fact that you are their administrator. I mean parent.

Furthermore, you thought you already taught them their timetables a few weeks ago? You might have to reinstall the multiplication drivers. Often they just mysteriously disappear after you spent hours getting it in their memory in the first place. And then a few weeks after that, you'll have to do it all over again. Cause that's the way they are. They're just kids after all.

Anyway, a few months later you give up on the child and abandon them at a shopping centre.

You then feel lost and wonder what to do next...

Turn to page 12 to return to the train station where you abandoned your other child, XP.
Turn to page 444 to give Vista another chance.

Fly me away please

2008-09-01T17:52:00.002+10:00

Oh no please leave me alone!!!!
Uni life is harder then i thought. Firstly i have to say it's really busy and hard and like i feel like i have no time left to do much yet i still manage somehow.. lol. Hmm.. Let me introduce you to the life of a science student ahha. Well lets see science is such a weird course i swear i mean the enter score is like 75 or 72 or something but the amount of work you have to do is sooo much and difficult. I mean... look at arts, u need like 86 enters to get into it or something like that and they do jack all literally! im soo angry sometimes at how unfair it is. I know the government is in desperate need for more scientist but like come on... it feels soo unfair. Firstly hmm .. in all units in science there are on going assessments and such that are due in all the time, you never get a break at it at uni. Either you have to hand in lab pracs or do online quizes or actual reports, etc. Hmm yes and for some odd reason all the science lectures seem to be really really early in the morning arghh it's soo difficult to wake up sometimes =( yehh... the work is hard too! argh i've probably said that a lot but seriously!!!! Anyways today i was thinking about what kinda pathway i want to go down with my degree i know im striving for psychology with honors but i need a minor as a requirement for my course and i just natrually thought of biology. Hmm.. problem is there are so many different areas in biology to focus on and yes today the lecturer was talking about Microbiology and trying to promote how awesome this feild is. Haha I for one have no interest in Microbiology but then she pointed out that it's linked with Molecular Bio, Immunology, pathology, etc.. and then i think i've realised that no matter what i want to do it's going to all link back somehow.. lol.

Anyways come to think about it i shouldn't even be blogging. I should be doing my assignments because i have a lot of them to do .. hmm.. but now that i'm already blogging why not keep blogging yeh?

OTHER NEWS
WORK has been crazy these days! i swear the students i have to deal with are out of control i have almost reached a point where i actually feel like punching them in the face.. argh of course i can't and won't and in reality probably don't feel that angry but it's just really anoying at times. I love the easy 1 line answers like 'Excuse me but can u tell me when my fees are due' and then bang u just tell them. I really don't like the long long complicated responses because i even confuse myself. For example i had to calculate the students fees and we can't tell them how much money is given to their agent and therefore hes confused and im trying to explain to him but he doesn't understand still and then after that matter is sorted like after 10 mins .. he wants to know where his class is and such.. suprise suprise it's not on the system due to his fees being late.. argh.. then right i have to go look in the group list and find it on the spread sheet, reallocate him, give him directions to his classroom and also fill out a class permission slip.. these are the questions u don't want to deal with =.=. In addition yeh my manager is quitting and also one of my friends as well so yeah and before that someone else also left so it feels like the whole team is slowly leaving and i hate that feeling because you have already networked a good relationship with them and now their going =( and when new people come in you will be more senior and more responsibility will be thrown onto you which is bad because i don't think i know much still ahah! jkjk.. nah nah i do but theres still a lot i don't know, hmm..

I feel like i need to go grab my closest buddies and go take some new sticker photos, seriously i swear i haven't seen some people in like months and i feel like i desperately need to catch up with them. Also im undecided if im going to the glenny reunion for some reason, i have a lot of work and such comming up but more importantly im really lazy to go to school to hand in my form. Hm... plus my mum told me not to go because she told me i already have too many friends and that if i didn't go it wouldn't matter because i can compensate for it .... sheesh shes funny sometimes, and NOOo i don't have a lot of friends i just have a good handful honestly! like on my facebook right it's not like 700+ friends like some people =.= ... i actually just add and accept people that im sincerely close to. SOoo yehhhh i have about 2 days to hand in the form but .. i don't knowww soo yehh. My girlfriend tells me i should go because shes going .. ahahha don't u just hate that line? not that i don't want to go because at first i was like OMG yay! got to go rah rah rah but uni life is draining me bad right now =(.

Anywaysss i shall finish this here because yeah i really need to do work and im aiming to finish a lot tonight actually my whole assignment! without fail! ahhah. Hmm.. in addition this month of september is really really really busyyy ... and like a few people have asked me what im going to do for my birthday.. but like honestly i don't feel like anything, i think i'll just go out for dinner with a few friends and like spend time with my family or something. Argh yeah which is strange because even my mum was like 'what? no party? you love parties tim!' and im like 'i know i know!' ahahha but yehh once again i shall just blame uni for draining me hahaha.

BUT on the flip side right? come on like a few more months until 2009 i can't wait! a fresh start again! ahhaha, and in reality only a few more short weeks of study ahah yay! Hmm i think i'll be high when that time comes!! ahha.

big bombad post~

2008-08-30T21:20:00.003+10:00

hey everyone,

man what a week. I've been so flat out this whole week, I've been meaning to write this post since the beginning of the week..but just haven't had the time. this is going to be a huge post btw..the main event i want to blog about is amanda's bro's wedding ^^ lots of fun. but first, just a quick over view:

uni life

booooring. busy. we had three mid semesters this week, monday wednesday friday, along with a lab session on friday morning. I don't think i did so well in them all either =/ I feel like work is starting to effect my studies (see below) but yeah. next week it should slow down, even though we're starting some project work (hehehe group work.... =] )

work
work is both good and bad. let's start with the bad first. I think it's starting to tax my energy working every night. So yesterday I biked down to work from uni (only took like 10 minutes (20 minutes uphill -_-)) and asked my boss for some less hours for the coming weeks.
good: today i got paid for watching kung fu panda and starship troopers. exceeeeellent.

also, i have restricted internet usage at work..so everyone's blog is now my entertainment. so everyone, can you please put youtube vidoes, and interesting posts =] (i've looked back at dave's and marco's blogs for the past...5 months worth of posts for half an hour haha)

wedding - 26th aug
woohoo! what a day. congrats to amanda for organising the whole thing by herself!

me and amanda =]

bride and groom (joy and tony)

ceremony in the morning
went over to janice's house first..and she was wearing a white dress! anyone see monster-in-law?
then a quick jog over to amanda's house...and then ontowards the city (along the way janice got attacked by a spider while ripping flowers apart..which i saved her from and didn't even get thanks =[)!

wedding party on the altar

the ceremony..was very real. it's nothing like the movies. but it still held that feeling a wedding should have. i got to be groomsman (2nd best man) cause amanda needed a partner in the wedding party..it felt weird, but at the same time i was really honoured. and it wasn't that awkward, the cousin that was best man and the bro were really friendly... tony (amanda's bro) was really nervous haha. the vows and everything were really nice..oh yeah, janice sharon and I were there btw..

janice and sharon blowing bubbles lol

after the signing of legal papers and lots of photos, we went back to amanda's house to eat. I got to know the cousins a bit better..who for some reason knew alot about me -___- how many times did they ask me if i was amanda's boyfriend? alot lol. anyway they were really nice..i took liking to anna (in a brotherly way please =_=), she's 13 but was easy to get along with. we all played uno for most of the afternoon (which i didn't suck at!)

interlude
after that i went back home..and then to the doctors. i haven't been feeling well (low on energy) and i have excema really badly during this weather. so i got some prescriptions..and a blood test again T_T i hate the feeling of blood being drawn out of me..

reception
the reception was even more fun! dave joined us, all smart in his suit as well. we started off by stealing specific lollies off tables and rigging out wedding presents to get the right one (there were three different options).

benny!

we sat next to a benny lookalike...it's so benny! and then we ate through 8 courses of seafood..lobster, crab, sea cucumber (hahaha sqiushy!) pidgeons (not a seafood I know but..) fish etc. etc. AND i found out i'm allergic to a certain type of wine..i had a sip and i got really hot and itchy all over at once. yup, no drinking wine for awhile now.

and then we took all these photos with the younglings. it was fun!..until the point where they all shouted at me and amanda to get together and take a photo =_____=" seriously, it was like i was meat and they were all lions. ROAR ROAR STAND CLOSER ROAR ROAR..

us five

cousins and whatnot. anna is the middle one in pink.

anyway, thank you amanda for inviting for such a great day..i haven't had that much fun in awhile. now i will proceed to upload photos into this post.

good night!

teohsulfate.

SPIRIT BOMB

2008-08-28T21:53:00.001+10:00

He missed Freiza! All that charging up gone to waste...

An unhealthy diet

2008-08-28T00:10:00.004+10:00

This makes 5.

I've been feeding the audience of thelooop a little too much spiced ham lately. So I've posted in a livejournal for things that lack substance. It can be found at "readaboutling.livejournal.com"? I think that works.

Now, this post itself actually lacks substance, but it wouldn't really make sense to post it there so... this shall be the one exception.

Anyway, if the ideas get substantial, I suppose I will post it here as well. I don't particularly recommend reading the journal though, as I expect it to be the drivel of a full-time procrastinator.

I'm writing this so you guys don't think I've gone emo all of a sudden and stopped posting spews of random.

Cheers,

Jason.

btw, no worries i dont want to displace our audience with the journal, just stay loyal to thelooop and thelooop shall stay loyal to you!

*a salute carrying scary political connotations*

There are some things in my hand, would you like to see what they are?

2008-08-25T20:28:00.012+10:00

*opens clasped hand*

*periodic blinding light!!!*

1. The thought of "Man, I will never get sick of this song". And you proceed to stick it on loop for a period lasting one week (timbaland - apologize, last month) up to rare accounts of 6 months (metronome - odsanskrit in yr10)

2. Looking through your rear view mirror to see the driver behind you picking their nose.

3. Accidentally pressing a key whilst a msn convo is open and backspacing frantically. Your thoughts: "Nooo! If they were watching the convo window, they'll have seen 'jason is typing a message' and then think that I have proceeded to delete the message because I changed my mind about typing it for a myriad of reasons when there was, in fact, no message to begin with! Noooooo!"

4. Farting when you thought nobody was in earshot. Guess what: somebody was.

5. Farting in the shower and trapping yourself in the 1x1m cubicle with the surprisingly ghastly stench. Don't inhale, get low, and crawl your way out of there or camp the cubicle floor until the exhaust fan sucks the bad stuff away. Either way, there's a trapped soldier concept you must incorporate!

6. Nearly crashing into a tree while driving because you were balancing a meat pie* in your left hand and looked over to check if you got crumbs on the seat.

*Replace with your accident-inducing food of choice. Most people prefer something with sauce/crumbs/soup.

NB: I've uploaded taiko vids to my youtube channel! :D

http://www.youtube.com/bv2thetiger

EDIT: omg "Why didn't anybody ever tell me?" Pt.2

Why didn't anybody tell me that the font came up as wingdings on internet explorer for the post regarding the "Letter to life"? That was unintentional! It came up as a nice italic 'times new roman'-ish thing on opera. It was meant to look like a neat handwritten letter font :(

-_-

anyway i fixed it now

Just like Horgs

2008-08-23T19:27:00.006+10:00

I got an idea for an invention!

For automatic cars,

What if the place where you rest your left foot.. was the pedal for a bass drum?!

OMG

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that thumps along to the radio...

I realise it doesn't sound feasible considering the space available. But it is an idea nonetheless.

Till it is invented:

I thought of it first!
I shall pound relentlessly on my steering wheel instead, for that extra bass

doof doof doof

Why didn't anybody ever tell me?

2008-08-22T15:55:00.023+10:00

A letter to Life:

Dear Life,

I can't believe I've never before realised that I was such an extreme optimist.

Throughout my life, I've confidently relied on incredible amounts of luck and coincidence, (to the point where I find it to be evidence of the grace of God acting in my life,) to get to where I am today.

And it has created in me an illegitimate and unshakeable hope that will inevitably cause unknown amounts of self-destruction which have only recently come to light.

As I have finally come to understand this, may I begin to work hard and earn the life that has been laid ahead of me, and in doing so, attempt to stem the flow of self-destruction that I await in the near future due to my past inequities.

Thanks for understanding,

Jason

PS: I guess I can see why I am not dead just yet.

...

Anyway,

To my friends,

I truly apologise for being such a slacker, it probably didn't help to see me through high school with my sad excuse for a student passing VCE and getting 95.25.

Cheers,

Jason [again, obviously]

PS: Should I be optimistic about curing my unhealthy optimism? Catch 22(?) :<

Principles of Puaeconomics Part 3

2008-08-21T14:58:00.019+10:00

1.2 The economic way of thinking

e.g. 1: Striking while it's hot [versus] Biding your time

Take a look at this diagram.

- What the heck is that? (Also, it's a little crooked.)

Well, it is a [crookedly scanned] graph of opportunity versus time. But I used 'P' for prospect instead of 'O' for opportunity... 'cause, you know, 'O' looks like zero...

So I guess the model is something like P = R(t-T)² + A, where R ≺ 0, t ≥ 0, and positive values of P are good and negative values of P are bad.

There are two curves: the blue one (1) and the red one (2) that depict possible scenarios when it comes to opportunities.

Firstly, when does t = 0? There are several possible explanations:

When you first meet the person;
When you begin the pursuit, not necessarily marked by any physical move;
When you initiate something, ie. a physical move;
When the other party initiates;
Also, the sucky one, when the other party commits the second one and you are most likely unaware.
- (Others I may have not thought of)

Alright, time to start analysing the graphs.

NB: Each individual target will have their own curve where R varies accordingly.

Curve 1: This curve is displaced to the right and starts off positive with an intercept at point B showing that from the very 'beginning', you're good to go. However, it is widely accepted that acting too fast is often seen as desperate/tacky and you are wiser to wait before proceeding. Hence, the curve rises to a universal point of maximum prospect*, P = A, at point (T, A), before logically falling again as it passes T units of time and eventually goes into the negative.

Curve 2: The difference here lies in the coefficient R, which determines the gradient of the slope, and hence the window of opportunity(W), and furthermore, the duration of the no-go zone (0 ≺ t ≺ to).
As shown in the graph, it is definitely a possibility that from the very start, P is a negative value (point C) and hence, any action is at your own expense. This lasts until t = t0, where P = 0 at the intercept, and then the window of opportunity (ie. for all values of t where P > 0) opens up, but for a shorter duration as the higher value of R has shrunk the window's range of values.

So what is R? It can be referred to as the magnitude of risk.

So as ↑R → ↓W

Finally, a common point to be drawn from these models is that as t → ∞, prospects will inevitably reach negative. ie. Do not wait too long.

BUT, *the quadratic model discussed is a very standard and very general take on the concept. For some people, there may not have been a window of opportunity at all for you, and the maximum prospect has already occured below the t axis. Furthermore, there very well may be individuals whose opportunity curve is a sin(t) or a loge(t), and perhaps even asymptotal components.

So, I will conclude this example with a special treat for ~~Marco~~ anybody that is interested.

[Nevermind, I couldn't be bothered parodying an extended response from my Methods 07 Checkpoints, took me long enough to write this up already. Maybe some other time.]

NEXT TIME: More stuff

EDIT: Wow. This is relevant, fascinating, and well its the Gradual Report, so it goes a little wrong in the middle somewhere. Also, it's about economics so time to slap it onto the end of the post as an edit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4upRZ4TEdVM

picture finished.

2008-08-18T16:45:00.000+10:00

teohsulfate,

Starcraft II among other things

2008-08-17T21:21:00.012+10:00

Has anybody ever realised that the three races in starcraft embody general stereotypings of ethnic groups in the world?

Terran - western civilization: europe, america

Protoss - eastern/oriental civilization: china, india, japan

Zerg - "barbaric"/"primal"/"uncivilized" dudes left over: african tribal dudes, south american jungle dudes, any dude with a spear and little more than a loincloth.

What? I can't just type that out and expect you to understand?

Alright, well, correct me if I'm wrong, but there aren't any asian or primal looking terrans, they're all white guys/girls: jim raynor is american, so is kerrigan, and there are those eastern european dudes, and sci vessel operators have a british accent. Just off the top of my head.

And a few black dudes: SCV operators and Duran.

Then we have Protoss, it's clear that they're meant to seem like some kind of ancient powerhouse (think China anyone?) with a distinct sense of religion (the tier 1 unit is a zealot?? and templars later on??) and of course you got all these runes and stuff all over their buildings and units and technology.
This one is a tiny bit of a long shot, but zealots/templars look kind of asian with their squinty eyes and distinctly slim and agile kind of build as opposed to being buff and just punching things with your hairy fists (like the stereotype of a caucasian brute), plus: zealots run like ninjas. Combine that with a martial arts kinda thing they got going on induced by 'psi blades' + melee combat and you have a stereotype of an asian fighter. And just take a look at the costume. I don't see any suit of armour, guys. Just give him a rice farmer's hat, Blizzard. Finish off the costume.

So then we got the zerg left. They're just freaks fueled with a killer instinct. Soulless creatures intent on just killing things with their biologically imbued weapons such as claws, poison, tusks, weird glaive things they shoot out of their mouths(? go mutalisks) and randomly coloured goo. (Y)

This has been a very nerdy post accredited to Jason Ling. Thanks for reading.

Laters.

EDIT -> "among other things": the tablet was surprisingly capable for crappy doodles.

please check ratings

2008-08-16T17:14:00.003+10:00

Okay, so I just got back from Star Wars, Clone Wars. In one word: (as) expected.

Although I knew that this movie was geared towards kids, I had hoped they would try to incorporate some classic Star Wars elements in...but nope. It was Kids Show all the way. I saw the movie by myself, as Racheal pulled out, and had a bad feeling when everyone around was little kids. Surprisingly, they weren't causing the usual disturbance. Here's my review of the movie:

Star Wars - Clone Wars

The movie starts off with a nice variance to the classic star wars intro, and the usual big yellow letters scrolled up the screen, making me feel a thrill down my back. Then it faded, as no further words followed after the main screen. And then some annoying voice started to commentate on what was happening.

That pretty much sums up my feelings for the whole movie. It almost felt like Star Wars, but it was obviously not. It was so geared towards 12, no wait, 4 year olds, cause I'm pretty sure 12 year olds can read, so where's the classic word intro!? But it was expected I suppose.

The animation of the movie was nice though. The movements of troopers/commandos in particular I was watching, and they were very smooth. The actions of Jedi seemed to be very choppy and meant to look really fast, but it just hurt my eyes trying to follow them. This caused lightsaber scenes to look pretty mediocre.

The storyline was indeed 'meh'. As I predicted, the plot had to be something that just wouldn't change the movie trilogy. There were some nice Star Wars like scenes (cliff climbing was pretty good), but otherwise nothing really memorable.

Again, as predicted, there was no new weapons or vehicles that could've made it exciting. What I am confused about is the lady who turned out to be Ventress..who is from the Clone Wars Cartoon series. AND she didn't die, just seemingly disappeared. I have no doubt she'll appear in the TV series in the future. But I thought she was already dead...Asho ka, or however you spell it, did not die either. In fact, NO ONE died, except poor nameless troopers. This was done so the little kids wouldn't get upset I guess. Again, disappointing.

The music, which I said was okay previously, did not stand out much at all during the movie. It was overridden by the sound effects imo.

All in all, only recommended to children. No true Star Wars fan will appreciate this movie. I was actually bored half way through, cause I already knew how it was going to end, that typical children's movie ending.

1/5. Shame. I was hoping for a little bit of real Star Wars in it...wasn't worth making a movie imo, should've just made it a online video or something..

teohsulfate.

future always in motion...

2008-08-15T21:54:00.002+10:00

A little interlude to the lectures, which are going oh so well. Good work Ling...or is it Doctor Ling (pHD in Puaeconomics?)

I am seeing Star Wars, Clone Wars tomorrow. Yes, that crappy animation looking thing. No, it's not a remake of the second. Yes, the newspaper gave it 1.5/5. No, I don't think it'll be good either. Yes, I'm seeing it anyway cause I'm a Star Wars freak.

Enough of the FAQ section and onto the blog.

Though not confirmed yet, I will be seeing it with Racheal, though she is yet to get back to me. Either way, I'm seeing it tomorrow night and nothing's stopping me this time. It's in Vmax, which will help boost entertainment factor, as it's only 1 and a half hours long =[

I know the general response to this movie is negative. I mean, animation? In my opinion, it's just a lead on to whatever TV crap they're making, games based 'off the movie', toy figurines etc. etc. The music album is a bit disappointing too, not live orchestra performed, and not John Williams. The new guy did a nice attempt, and has some nice bits, but nothing special in my own opinion (he worked on Star Trek for god's sake, WHO LET HIM NEAR THIS FRANCHISE??)

But I am looking forward to the adventure/plot/story line. For the first time, I really have no idea what's going to happen. Everyone knew in Episode III that Anakin was going to turn into Darth Vader, the Emperor would rise etc. etc. So hopefully they don't screw up the story line, else it's going to get a 0 from me. I'll be paying close attention to make sure it all fits together with the rest of the Star Wars Universe. What really gets me is that they can't show anything fantastic...cause it wouldn't make sense for it not to show in episode III. So nothing should be new. Just the story.

Anyway, the real reason of this post was for me to make a few predictions, and seeing how it goes. So let's go!

1. First off, no idea who the girl with horns is. So she must die. I've heard a few dramatic bits in the music where it would perfect, and it would contribute to Anakin's darker emotions (she's his padawan I believe). SO yes, she will die.
2. Bad dark scary lady. No idea who she is. She must also die. Else she would've fought in Episode III as well.
3. They're going to be focusing a lot on the Clone Troopers, and their individuality. Which could be good or bad. I've read a book portraying this, so it wouldn't seem that out of place. They will probably die too though.
4. Obi wan and Anakin will face off Count Dooku, and Dooku will do some dodgy thing again to get away (maybe kill the girl...?)

And I have a feeling I will be disappointed with the story line, cause the movie is so short. And whatever happens in the movie has to be "meh", cause it can't really have a big effect on the following movies. So, "oh my, we're doomed!" (3CPO btw)

I'll post up a following review after I see it! I'm still excited!

teohsulfate.

ps. nice work with the site maintenance ling. I'll see if I can come up with a logo.

Principles of Puaeconomics Part 2

2008-08-13T20:18:00.004+10:00

Introduction to Puaeconomics

Index:

1.1 Economics: micro, macro and pua

1.2 The economic way of thinking

1.3 Supply and Demand

***

1.1 Economics: micro, macro and pua

"Economics is the science of human choice in which resources are limited in relation to human wants, assuming that individuals are rational maximizers of their own self-interest."
(R.Posner, Law and Economics, p.3)

Let's unpack that.

Firstly, it should be understood that the science of economics is not solely applicable to the expenditure of money. A decision that is "economic" may not always encompass things of this nature. For example, it is likely that you have heard of phrasing such as "the most economic decision" being applied to topics which are not at all to do with money.

Instead, economics revolves around "human wants" and hence, also how you obtain or achieve those ideals. How do you go about getting that dream job? That dream car? That dream girl? That dream cake? one of these is a lie

And importantly, were the 'means' worth the 'end'.

But, it is paramount that you understand "limited resources" must be taken into consideration. For if you had all the money in the world, what couldn't you buy. So, now is the time to do a stocktake of your 'wallet', my students.

A Breakdown of the Categories of Economics

Micro

deals with individual households, firms, industries and markets
focusses on: relative prices, allocation of output, employment etc.
policy issues include: minimum and maximum pricing schemes, taxes and subsidies, tariffs and quotas on international trade, licensing and other entry restrictions

Macro

deals with the economy as a whole, including both the financial and real sides
focusses on: the overall price level, aggregate output, aggregate employment and unemployment
interest rates and exchange rates
policy issues include: monetary policy, fiscal policy, wages or incomes policy

PUA

deals with the population of the preferred gender as a whole, including both physical, psychological/emotional and sometimes spiritual components, nevertheless, different markets will be discussed
focusses on: the overall afc level, aggregate putting-out, aggregate employment and unemployment of the potential ~~labour~~ pua force
examines interest rates and exchange rates of a different nature to that of macroeconomics
policy issues include: -TBA-

Of course, only puaeconomics will be discussed in this unit.

NEXT TIME: 1.2 The Economic Way of Thinking