Upgrade and Standardisation
The office is on a program standardisation rampage...they basically want to make sure that everyone is using Windows XP and Office 2003. My pc was upgraded this morning to comply with this standardisation but in doing that they also revoked everyone's "administrator" status which basically means we cannot install any software without their permission, knowledge and assistance...for me that's not really a big deal...just means that I won't be able to use my fave graphics software so I'll just have to do all that at home, and no installing of games...which is all good...as long as I can access to the internet its all good.
Bug in the system and a surprise from an old friend
Curse the twit who put it there...my poor treasured home pc got infected by a trojan and a worm!!! It happened last weekend while I was trying to view something and the dumb anti-virus software I had didn't block it.
Been trying the last few evenings to de-trojan and de-worm but nothing seemed to work so I went to the extreme...I backed everything up and then wiped everything clean and implemented "Operation Recovery" in other words I put in the recovery disk and made my pc revert to how it was when it left the factory. Did that this morning, of course the next thing that was installed was the drivers for my cable modem so that I could download a better anti-virus software and some other free softwares. Logged on to my yahoo messenger and there was a message waiting from me from an old friend....JOSHUA BARNETT!!!
The message was 3 days old and he said he was in Singapore. Told me what hotel he was staying in but sadly by the time I called the hotel he had already checked out!!! In fact he checked out this morning. I'm really surprised to hear from him cos I haven't spoken/chatted with him for a while. I think the last time I heard from him was just before he and his wife were heading back to the US for new duty assignments. He was being assigned shore duty and she was getting sea duty, and both were based in Virginia. I guess that must of been 2 years ago cos he must be on sea duty again - each duty session is for about 2 years but sometimes you get them back to back. It would of been nice to catch up with him to find out what he was doing here but I guess we really weren't meant to meet. I left him a message on Yahoo and sent him an email explaining why I didn't respond. Will let you know if I hear from him, though I get the feeling I may not.
Well I'm gonna go watch the tv now and then probably head to bed early given that I woke up at like 8.30 am this morning!!! It's all my boss' fault cos he made me go into the office at 8.30 am yesterday which meant I had to wake up at like 6.45 am so I was so tired and went to bed early last night hahaha
Found an interesting site
Came across this site during one of my ramblings along the amazing information highway we all call the internet.
It allows you to do some unique photo editing like making a magazine cover with one of your phots. But it's linked to your Flickr account (which is free anyway) so it will automatically upload the final product to your flicker account. No biggie for me cos I have a Flickr account lol.
Even if you don't have one, check it out all the same...
Flagrant Disregard Flickr Toys
SMRT Challenge
Joined the SMRT Challenge again this year. This time we had to have a team of 4 so Vivien and I roped in 2 of our colleages. The whole idea of the race was that we would receive a clue sheet at the beginning of the race and solve the clues for the 8 locations, at each location we had to perform a physical challenge as well as a challenge on SMRT safety. There was no particular route we had to followas long as we went to the 8 locations and we could only use SMRT trains (including the LRT), SMRT buses and SMRT taxis. We didn't have to pay to travel on the trains and the buses cos we had on race tees and we had a $20 voucher for the cab - we were only allowed to take 1 cab. Once you completed all 16 tasks you could head back to the start/finish line.
There were 3 categories: Open (that's what we were in), Student and Family
Start time : 10 am
Here's where we had to go and do:
- Orchard/California Fitness - 2 team members perform 10 squats while balancing on a rubber dome thing while other 2 team members compete a short quiz on SMRT safety
- Dhoby Ghaut - locate a store for next clue, put in order the train door closing announcement (chimes, annoucement, buzzer)
- Raffles Place/California Fitness - 1 team member performs 10 squats while balancing on a rubber dome thing while another supports, other 2 team members compete short quiz
- Dover/Singapore Polytechinic - 1 team member does rock climbing while the other 3 team members solve a quiz regarding train derailment
- Chinese Garden - 1 team member holds a small plastic jug over their head while the others take turns running over to fill the jug up using plastic cups, once the jug is filled that team member must run back to the start, write a 4 line poem containing the phrases "SMRT", "yellow line" and "eating and drinking"
- Segar LRT - 1 team member has to skip rope the number of times of the number that they draw, roll a die and then find the safety equipment that matches that number on the platform
- SAFRA Yishun - 1 team member has a go at using an air rifle, must hit anyway on the target, get in a taxi, put on safety belt, tell the driver where you want to go and which route (in that order)
- Bishan SMRT Staff Recrerational Club - 1 team member has 6 attempts to score 2 goals in a netball hoop from a given distance, place 3 signs at the emergency equipment stated on the sign
Once we were done there we headed back to the start/finish line which was outside Ngee Ann City in Orchard.
Finish time : 3 pm
Here's our 4 line poem:
No eating and drinking or you kanna fine,
Always remember to stay behind the yellow line,
SMRT rules are very easy,
don't you think this poem is kind of cheezy?
Not the best of poems but hey I'm a science student not a English major hahaha.
After we checked back in and got our goodie bags the first thing we did was find food cos we had been surviving on the breakfast we had at about 8.45 am and water lol we were hungry!! Ended up eating at this Japanese/Italian place in the basement of Ngee Ann - I call it that cos it serves Japanese style Italian food lol. After that we headed back up to wait for the results and plus there was supposed to be a lucky draw. It seems we missed the lucky drawn (typical - they told us 4 pm and when we went back at 4 pm it was already over), so we waited for the results. After that we headed on home totally knackered. There will still student teams coming in as we headed on home.
Got home around 6 pm, had a nice cool shower and a tall glass of 100 plus. Spent the rest of the evening just relaxing, went to bed early too
possible reason for...
HRB's attitude of late...HRB has been unwell with a persistant cough which only seems to get aggravated by A/C. Another possible factor is due to stress from work (been a lot of late). Guess I'll have to just cope...been saying a lot "Gof give me patience" prayers of late!
New Counter
Decided to get a new hit counter and came across the ones are Precision...some really nice and funky ones there...have a look at the one I chose, it's on the bottom right of the page
Death of a DVR
Well my DVD recorder has up and died on me...don't understand what happened...it just doesn't want to power up. I know it's getting the power because you can feel it getting warm but it just doesn't turn on. I suppose I could send it for repair but I can't seem to find the warranty card lol - so typical of me...I think I had better go and search for all my warranty cards and put them in a safe place together lol.
Gonna go and have a look during lunch on prices for dvd recorders cos they've dropped some in the last few months. Will probably get a new one if it's not too expensive, especially if I can't find the warranty card plus the servicing office for my current one is kind of out of the way.
Will let you know.
An Oscar the Grouch Day
HRB has been a total grouch for most of the day!!!
You have to watch this!!!
A friend of mine at the office sent me a link to watch this vid. It seems to be from a Japanese variety show of sorts. Don't need to understand Japanese to enjoy the vid though, I sure don't and was laughing so hard I even started to cry lol
Japanese English Lesson
Meant to tell you...
Bumped into TGOT the other day...I was on my way to lunch and he was just coming back from lunch. Actually there have been a couple of times where we've walked past one another but given that he's normally with someone I don't bother saying anything lol but this time he was on his on and I was on my own so we said "hey" to one another and then chatted for a while...no biggie but thought you'd like to know
Added a media player
Found this really cool site that lets me upload music, vids, photos etc so that it can be played on a my blog. Right now I've only uploaded a few songs, so go ahead and have a listen!
Did a little tweaking
ok did a little tweaking on the layout...basically I just changed the color of my hyperlinks so that at least now it's easier to see the links in blog entries...hoping to get a media player up a little later today (still uploading the music).
Spent most of the day tinkering around with a layout for my Asian Entertainment Blog...hope to have that up and running by either tonight or tomorrow. Got most of it done, just need to do some video links and some blog entries to begin with. After that I'm gonna try and get the google adsense on it and then I'll have to try and promote it at a few places
New layout
So what do you think? Thought I'd do it a lighter color so that it would be a little easier on the eyes...also added a couple of new things too like links to my photos and vids. Tried adding a music player using Javascript but it didn't seem to work properly...wonder what happened - shall have to look for an alternative.
I've put a link to my "Asian Entertainment Blog" but I'm still working on that layout and blog...it's gonna look a bit like this one but with a different color scheme and maybe so different features.
Worked on this layout pretty much from scratch and may still tweak it a little over the next few weeks. Hopefully, the pics look better on this layout then they did on the last one...they always seem to come out a little weird cos the background would sort of "bleed" through - main reason for the overhaul.
4th of July Celebrations
I know it's a bit belated but I've only just gotten round to "tweaking" the pics we took and uploading the videos of the fireworks.
Well it was that time of year again, time for the annual 4th of July celebrations over at the Terror Club. Food as usual was great. There was food from the Terror Club, Outback Restaurant, Jerry's BBQ, Michaelanglo's, Ben & Jerry, Canadian Pizza (something not quite right there lol) and one or two other stores and of course beer from Brewerkz.
It all started at 3 pm and the weather was great (thankfully the weather man was wrong - he predicted thunderstorms but not a drop in sight or a thunder roar to be heard). It was nice and sunny with a nice breeze and extremely low humidity!
Lien and I got there first at about 4 pm but we didn't have to wait long for Yass and the others to show up. After getting some opened up cartons to use as a mat, we got some grub!! Purposely had a late breakfast and no lunch to enjoy the good eats. Fireworks started late at about 8 pm but lasted an enjoyable 20 minutes. After the fireworks were done, Lien, Yass and I went up to the terrace at the Terror Club to enjoy the band while the others headed on home.
Here are some links of vids I took. Don't worry they're all really short:
Fireworks Video 1Fireworks Video 2Fireworks Video 3Fireworks Video 4Fireworks Video 5Fireworks Video 6Fireworks Video 7Photos I took at there can be found at my Flickr album under friends...just click the link on the right or click here -
4th of July picsThere were 2 bands playing, the first one, which was a mix of expats and locals, was ok but one of the girls singing had a tendency to shout into the mike...I guess she thought shouting meant she had a very powerful voice...eh no!!! The second band, which were all expats, was really good though. A really good rock band. The guys and I finally left at about midnight even though the band was going to play till 2 am.
