Please Relink

If you’re using the old URL to visit this blog, it’s time to change it to:

www.josephang.com

The Last Post?

This might very well be this blog’s last post. I’m thinking of trying out something new in the next few days.

The Down Fever

I’ve got friends who thinks their whole life is a failure, everything they do is wrong. The world hates them and they hate themselves too. Seriously, I don’t understand why. I can’t stand having a conversation with them because they kind of irritate me. Here are some true examples of what they will say.

Me: What do you like to do in your free time?
Them: Find a quiet place, play some sad songs and cry.

Me: But why cry?
Them: My life sucks. I don’t like my family, my friends are avoiding me. I’m so hurt. I’m so ugly, nobody will like me. [And the list goes on...]

Me: The world is so beautiful!
Them: Forget it, it’s useless. I hate this world, it has done nothing for me.

Okay, now I’m getting irritated – even by typing out some scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong being sad. But there’s something wrong when you’re sad for your entire life.

Parrots Talk, Don’t They?

This is a parrot. It’s name is Mr. Yosuke Nakamura. Apparently, this parrot flew out of his cage and got lost in Japan. Nothing amazing? Wait till you hear what happens next.

Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor’s roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.

He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.

“I’m Mr. Yosuke Nakamura,” the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.

Japanese are a bunch of funny people. I mean, in one article alone – I’ve so many questions to ask! First of all, who would teach their parrot to identify itself with “Mr.”? Secondly, why does the police need to rescue a parrot from a roof?

Thirdly, doesn’t the local police have anything else to do than rescuing parrots and search for clues to find out where they live? The Japanese never fail to amaze me with the things that they do.

Talking about pets, I feel like keeping a small turtle. Maybe I can name it Mr. David Armstrong.

NDP 2008 E-Balloting

I’ve been taking part in the National Day Parade Balloting faithfully for as long as i can remember – and for as long as I can remember, nobody called and tell me that I’ve been selected to participate.

You can take part in this scam E-Balloting right here!

Engineering Essentials

In school, I’ve this module called Engineering Essentials.

It’s difficult, boring, full of numbers and formulas. The End.

Free Software: Backup

Bought the Creative I-Trigue 200 speakers today. My rig is now officially completed.

Few months back, my Toshiba laptop died on me – taking away all my photos and documents. But I wasn’t worried at all because I did a backup using MozyHome days before it died. That link brings you to the paid version which gives you unlimited storage. The free version only gives you 2GB storage.

But here’s a better deal, registering through this link gives you (and me) an additional 256MB of free backup space. If that method fails, simply key in Q9NB8K for the referral code.

Here Comes, The Big Boy

They didn’t allow me to extend my passport, was told to make a new one. I’m going to look for whatever money I have left and try to make a new one. Anyway, went down to Sim Lim Sqaure yesterday to get a graphic card. Managed to cut the price down to $65 – which I think is quite cheap already.

That’s my ASUS EN8400GS graphic card. Doesn’t look very cool in terms of packaging but they’re still the best graphic card manufacturer. This graphic card wasn’t in my budget but my motherboard doesn’t have with a VGA port, so have to get this too. If not, I would have some extra cash to make my passport.

But anyway, I just take it as an upgrade for my computer in terms of graphics. So finally, The Big Boy is up and running. Very big thanks to my aunty, who lent me the money to get this.

I like the power button, reminds me of Iron Man. Only the power button looks cool, the rest of the casing is just plain simple. It’s fine with me because the speed is more important that the looks.

BenQ Monitor combined with Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse may not the best combination. As long as it works, it’s fine with me. My Dell laptop has been thrown away in the corner of my room, waiting for them to come and collect on Tuesday.

Day Of Pain & Joy

Went down to ICA today, intending to extend my passport expiry date. In the end, I made a wasted trip down there because I realised I forgot to bring my passport.

The conversation with the Service Staff is short but sweet:

Me: Excuse me, I would like to extend my passport
Lady: Sure, show me your passport please
[Searched my bag, only to realise I didn't bring it]
Me: Opps, I forgot to bring!
Lady: (-_-)

After that, met Alex because he’s helping me to fix up my DIY Desktop. Walked around Sim Lim Square and got the cheapest prices for the parts we need.

Motherboard: MSI P35 Neo3
Processor: Intel Dual Core E2220 – 2.40Ghz
RAM: Kingston 2GB PC667 DDR2
Hard Disk: Seagate 160GB SATA
Optical Drive: LG 20X DVD-RW
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic

And all these only costed me $546! Fixing your own PC is the best way to get good specifications cheaply (Monitor, Casing, Speakers, Mouse, Keyboard and stuffs are not included, mine costed about $800 plus in total.). A big thanks to Alex for his help. Now I just need one more basic graphics card to get the whole thing working.

So tomorrow, going down to ICA and then Sim Lim Square.

My Japanese Experience

I’m blogging from my Dell laptop. Somehow, it managed to repair itself and came alive again – but I’m still going to refund it and get a DIY Desktop instead.

Went to Clarke Quay today, to this shopping mall called Central. Faith said that it’s been open since very long ago, but I only seen it today. This shows that I’m a thrifty neighbourhood guy rather than wasting my pocket money in expensive places.

There are tons of Japanese people in the mall and it’s still quite new, not many shops are open yet. Worse, the mall is filled with Japanese shops.

Went outside and sat down by the Singapore River – which stinks.

Left, right and center view. It’s great to have a good camera phone in your pocket at times. Was admiring the dirty residue by the river when some loud screams broke my attention. It was the G-MAX!

I felt scared for the people sitting on it. It’s as if they’re going to fly out any moment. But it’s a total waste of money because it cost $40 and it only lasted for a few swings. I rather jump into the Singapore River and immerse myself in dirty water than waste my money on that.

Anyway the highlight of the day was a little Japanese girl smiling at me in the lift at Central. I don’t know why she did that. So in the end, I decided not to smile back.

My Deepest Apologies

My Dell laptop of less than one month of age has died. Actually not really died, it can be fixed but I’m not going to because I’m going to refund it and buy something else.

A month back, I lambasted people (family, relatives, friends and strangers included) who said Dell was lousy. I thought I could believe in Dell but they disappointed me. Dell didn’t just disappoint me – they kicked me so hard in the stomach, sat on my face and farted on it.

After that, they left me to die in the wilderness. So, until some beautiful princess come and revive me by kissing me like in the fairy tales I buy a new computer (still deciding if I want a Desktop or Notebook), no blogging for me!

Dearest, FC Bonito

It’s been a long time since I last played a serious game of football. In the past, I used to play soccer everyday when school ends. That was how much I love playing. I play the role of a defender, it’s my favourite position. I like the feeling of stopping everything that comes at me.

I saw my soccer team-mates last night. They asked me when I’m coming back to the team. I stopped playing because I simply don’t have enough time. After a year long break, the passion for soccer has slowly faded away. My team has been doing very well recently, beating Arsenal Soccer School (4-0) in a friendly match.

I felt like joining them back, but I am afraid if I could cope in terms of time and my ability. They’ve been improving a lot but I’m still stuck at my own level or maybe even decreased because I haven’t played in a long time.

This photo was taken at Soccer Mania 2007 (Street-Soccer Competition). We sent two teams and we won first and third position. I’m quite proud to be on the team which got first (White Team) and I’m the captain! Okay, pride aside, that was in my glorious days. Now, I think I’m the weakest player in that photo already.

It’s a long story of how FC Bonito was formed. We started out as friends who loves playing soccer, get together once a month to play a match. Now, we have our own manager and has some financial backup. Come to think of it, it was truly amazing.

Should I join FC Bonito again?

My Threadless Tee

Just a short update. My Threadless Tee will be arriving in about a week’s time!

In A Lift For 40 Hours

Now I need you to imagine again. You’re working in the tallest building of Singapore and you decided to go downstairs to grab a quick bite. When you come back up in the lift, it jolted and the light flickered for a moment. And you realise, you’re trapped in the lift.

This is what happened to Nicholas White in 1999. He was trapped in the lift for more than 40 hours.