merry christmas '10

Merry Christmas from the Teoh Family!

teoh,

moving movies

What makes a movie moving to you? What makes you love a movie so much, you watch over and over again, no matter how old it becomes?

As of late, the movies I've been seeing have failed to impress. Most recently, we saw Tron 3D. It was a good movie, and despite it being a Disney movie, it was very mature in terms of action and plot. But nothing was there that really moved me.

So what movies have moved me. I guess what I really love is epic/inspiration movies. You know, those final speeches given by leaders before leading all their men to death, or that final surprise that allows victory, with all the glorious soundtrack behind it. The rising feeling in your stomach as you watch the movie, wanting to stand up and join in, that's what I love.

Emotional scenes work too. I think the climax of Tron near the end (without spoilers) could've moved me more if there were tears shed or something. The animation Up was quite touching in some scenes.

I hope a new movie comes out soon that meets these expectations.

teoh,

the salmat christmas party

Salmat Christmas Party

My company christmas party was last night, at the Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance venue. Apparently Jason Coleman is some judge on Dancing with the Stars, and he was there, but I didn't take much notice (no offence mr.coleman :3 just not a fan)

This was one of those events where I umm's and err'd about going. I felt like it was going to turn out like clubbing events, and I had already made loose plans with friends. On the other hand, I recently felt like I wasn't so close with my workmates, so I wanted to go and connect with them more; there was also the slightest chance of meeting new people, a wish I always seem to have with these events. However, the environment of the party tended to reflect any attempt of meeting new people as hitting on the opposite sex. So I contented myself with the former reason.

In the end, I decided to go, and my friends were kind enough to accommodate my change of plans (half of it fell through anyway, not enough mah-jong players dammit!). And I was glad I did.

It was a good adventure. For one, I drove into the city, as the place was nowhere near a train station. It was an easy drive, and parking was sweet. The party started off slow as always, bit of standing around and talking and drinking. I almost was tricked into drinking an alcoholic drink, as they gave out ‘slurpees’ but they were clearly not after my first sip >=|

And then we ‘danced’. The girls did anyway. And so did of the smoother guys that ‘had it’. I just bopped around and made a fool of myself. But it was fun and no one made too much fun of me. There was a live band who were quite good, and I enjoyed myself immensely. The night ended at midnight and thank god my friends didn’t go to after party stuff (as I was driver for one of my friends, Lucky), cause my legs were killing me. Fun times!

next post: the forge and the dawn treader!

teoh,

Phillip island

So on the 4th December, we disembarked on our first 'road trip'!

Phillip Island can't really be called a road trip I guess, since it's only one and a half hour drive. But it was the first time our group had gone away on a trip together since gold coast. I was so excited to have pulled off organizing it with amanda. In total, there were 8 of us: me, amanda, tangs x2, david ng, esther, edward, and sharon. We linked up with ling on both days, as he was down there for missionary work.

I think food was the hardest to decide. Buying for 8 people was slightly tough, and I'd like to

make a note here: 3x sausages, 1x meat pattie, 3x chicken wings and salad is a pretty good amount for each person. We did end up having leftovers, but we had a lot of it for breakfast on top of the bacon and eggs we bought. We did have a leftover bag of chicken wings though.

Anyway, we only had rough plans of what to do at Phillip Island, but due to the fact that most people had been to the place, we couldn't decide what to do. In the end, it didn't matter, cause the weather was SOOOO PERFECT. I was so scared that it would rain through out, but boy was I wrong. Even Sunday cleared up, as predicted by David's inner weather instincts.

So we spent both days at the beach. Frisbee, soccer, mucking aroun

d, splashing around. I don't know about the others, but I really enjoyed it. I love the beach, making stuff in the sand, wading in the water. It was awesome.

We also played some games at night: mafia, stupidhead, jenga, and one of jason's friends came over and taught us psychiatrist, in which one person left the room and the group would make up a rule such as: everyone is the person to the left of them. So any questions Julian would ask us, we would answer as if we were the person next to us. It was a loooong game, but entertaining (mostly).

It was also Janice's birthday on Sunday, which made it even more special of a trip. Happy birthday Janice! =] We surprised her with a cake. We failed to light a sparkler for her, lacking matches. We tried using the car cigarette lighter - it doesn't work hahahaha.

Thanks to everyone who came, it was goooood times~!

teoh,

one hundredth post

so by now, facebook is probably being flooded by monash uni student updates about whether or not they have graduated/passed/repeating etc. I'm neutrally stating that I have passed all my units with distinctions. Once again, I am glad I have passed and disappointed that there were no HD's involved, yet with the same doubt if I deserved one or not. Whatever. Getting over results gets easier and easier as the years pass.

So me and amanda have organised a Phillip Island trip this weekend, which should be fun. Doubtful of the weather, but should be a good time anyway. I am looking forward to getting away, even for just the 2 days and spending it with good company.

I have recently shot off a resume to K-mart helpdesk upstairs (I am currently Colesgroup helpdesk), as I have become very frustrated at work. However, I believe the frustration is mainly due to the fact that I did not get vacation work and I'm very stressed about it. Still, a change of work environment would be welcomed. I hope I get the new position.

100th post, yet I am struggling to make this post interesting, if at all.

Christmas time is here, and it's time to think presents! My sister also coming back from living in the UK for a whole year! So there will be no doubt various family events in the next few weeks.

Also my 21st is coming up but I don't feel like doing anything. Jan + Feb seems very empty. I could possible go to Malaysia with my mum. Or Sydney.

Ok I give up.

Teoh,

harry potter and the movie review

This is my 99th post on this blog =]

So it's been a long break between my posting. Exams, interviews, parties, holidays; all of the above have gone and past, except for the last which is thankfully still going. I'll have a brief overview of all of it later. What I want to talk about is.. HARRY POTTER!

First and foremost, in order to give a proper review for this movie, it is ASSUMED and critical that you have read the book. If you have not, then you will find the movie rubbish and have no idea what's going on at all.

Before we get to the movie...

Turning novels into books are always difficult. In the handful of such movies I've seen, I can barely think of any that have done a good job. I believe that these movies only have one purpose: bringing the book alive into imagery with all it's environments, characters and the emotional attachment readers associate with them. This is very dangerous, as a person's unique imagination as they read is far better than a director's vision of a cinematic production.

I would like these movies to simply guide you through the important parts of the plot, bringing the more iconic places alive as beautifully as possible, and having the characters' emit their personalities. So as you sit there watching it, you're drawn back into the story, remembering the adventure as you read it. The movie should definitely make you want to go read the book again after seeing it.

As a vivid Harry Potter reader since grade 4, I have read the books many times and know the plot quite well. That being said, most of the first four movies succeed quite well in turning the novels into films. The last three movies however, have had more difficult jobs, as the plots become more intense, complicated and longer. Breaking up the last book into two parts sounded like a good idea, as this would allow more detail that those last three movies lacked.

The movie (as none of my readers that I know of are HP fans (except for hong), there will be spoilers)
The plot of this book is very complicated, as it ties up a lot of loose ends of the whole series. The way some of it was communicated through the book is very hard to put on screen, such as Dumbledore's past which was pages and pages of a newspaper extract in the book. So hard, that even I had a hard time keeping track of the plot in the movie. There were flashbacks that probably made no sense to a lot of people out there. But as I've said, the movie is for Harry Potter fans, so most would've been OK. I was glad to see that most of the plot was the same as the story, with minor changes.

However, the actual movie wasn't executed very well. For starters, it was quite dull. Granted, there are not many action scenes in the first half of the book, but there were scenes which could've included much more special effects and action. I was especially disappointed with the Lovegood's house, which just ended up with a black shadows blowing up a house. People are correct in saying that they just walk around a lot - it doesn't even feel like the quest to kill Voldemort. It felt like camping in the woods, running away from people to kill us.

In fact, there were many scenes in which I felt had large potential to draw out emotion from the audience, but just wasn't. Rupert Grint(?) did the best job in keeping laughs through out most of the movie, but other than that I can't see why Hong was crying in the movie. Hermoine erasing her parents' memories could've been acted out much better with some tears, some actual memory flashes disappearing or something rather. Mad eye dying. Hedwig dying!? (c'mon that was so sad, but it was dealt so flippantly) Harry at his parents' grave and the destroyed house. Dobby dying was almost done so well, until (I thought) Daniel Radcliff's acting ruined it.

The Three Brother's story was indeed animated well. But it was an animation, so I don't give it any real credit as part of the movie. And as with the last Harry Potter scene, I cringe at all the pointless stuff they put in. Ginny needing her dress zipped up? Harry's dance with Hermione? None of that is needed to convey anything to the audience and just furthers frustrates me.

In conclusion, it was a weak movie. I am disappointed (but not by heaps) both as part of the audience and as a Harry Potter fan. And sadly, I can't help to think that the 2nd part won't be much better. Thanks to Sharlina for coming to watch it with me!

teoh,

friend hopping

I've had the pleasure of making some new friends in the past few weeks of exam studying. First I started studying with Branavan, who I hadn't had the chance to work with through out the year, which introduced me to his group of friends, who I now enjoy the good company of when I study.

Although it's not the most efficient study group, as we all study different thing, it's a really nice group to hang out with and to have company of. I am grateful that they invited me to their little group during exams.

I should get back into social networking. I used to have 4 or 5 groups during high school I would catch up with. Now it's just my close group and one or two uni groups. Hopefully these holidays will allow me to do this.

On the note of social network, the movie was quite entertaining, though I'm not sure if it's worth seeing in the cinemas. But the way the story was presented was entertaining and drew me in. Interesting little back-story to the popular website most of the world now uses.

I have a pre-interview with a HR rep tomorrow for a potential vacation spot. Wish me luck.

teoh,

money ambitions

It was perfect that I decided to watch 'the social network' after my exam today, because it's furthering my thoughts in my future career.

Mark Zuckerberg owns an online social network that is worth more than 25 billion dollars, that was built back in high school. Amazing. That's only 6 years after it was first launched back in 2004. I'm not sure how true the movie depicted the foundations, but it seems fairly accurate to the facts in wikipedia. The movie is a good watch for some college drama, but not too sure it's a blockbuster worth seeing in the cinema.

At the moment, I am studying engineering, a professional trade, in which I plan to take into the industry, and work my way up through the positions, hopefully ending up somewhere near a project management position. That's annual salary, increased through promotion.

The way Mark did it was to take an idea and explode it into money. Granted, it was one in a billion of an idea, but the concept is still there. But to explode that idea, he had to apply his insane programming skills and use his friends economics degree knowledge. Skills and experience.

Not that I'm saying I want to be a millionaire or anything. In my opinion, the more money you have, the more trouble comes with it, despite the obvious benefits. But I am curious about the different paths of earning money.

Then again, you also have the moral side of things. I remember a year or so back, a person tried to scam me and jason into joining pretty much a pyramid scheme (look it up, pretty common stuff). One of the excellent points that jason brought up was that the pyramid scheme was all about making more money; there was hardly any contributions to society in general. True, you can make lots of money and then use it to contribute that way, but come on (a point to be further discussed in the future maybe?)

Anyway, the whole point of this is not the money, but taking on a challenge and making it to your goal. Something I lack a lot in my life. I wish to think on this further, after exams (and during.).

teoh,

exam tomorrow!

Pr(Exam tomorrow) = 1.

Magie is now almost back to her normal self, after 2 weeks of hardship. Thanks to everyone for called/texted me about her, your concern was greatly appreciated. She has a lot of patches of fur missing from all the tests that we did, but otherwise is eating lots more and acting like her old self more. Unfortunately, now my mum is sick! Haha! Nothing to serious though.

teoh,

looking ahead

So I no longer want those depressing posts on my blog, so on we go. Had Andrew's 21st on Sunday night. I had a really good time hanging out with some of my favourite high school friends. It was a good night.

Magie is still sick, we just cannot find out what's wrong with her. She's had a pretty terrible week, in and out of the vet, hospitalized and had an ultrasound today (which turned up negative). She's really exhausted, but ate some chicken thanks to some drugs to make her feel better. As little as she means to my readers, I ask people to keep her in your thoughts and prayers, she means the world to me.

I am currently trying to figure out what I want to do with myself in the future (better late than never). Engineering sounds good, but I think want something more. My dad has given me some articles and magazines about young millionaires, and I'm wondering how to get ambitious. Not millionaire ambitious, but just ambitious.

I was watching some of The Apprentice, which is so much fun to watch people back stab and yell like children on television, finger pointing etc. I feel like tim watching it, laughing evilly as someone gets verbally bashed. Anyway, my point was, as a prize, project managers get to meet with CEOs etc. One of them said, all the most successful people in the world right now are breathing the same air you are.

So after reading some of the stuff my dad gave me, I figured to get ambitious, you have to be inspired or passionate. Since I don't have a strong passion towards anything particularly, I guess I have to go for inspired. So inspire me. I might look into reading some books later after exams.

I would also like to talk about bathroom conversations. There should be a rule that if you are in the bathroom, doing your business, no talking is allowed between fellow bathroomers. I mean, it's so awkward! And I do not want to be holding a conversation in a echo-y room, with flushing toilets, running water, really LOUD hand dryers. A friendly nod and a hi, OK fine acceptable. But that's it! Also they need to soundproof cubical.

Talking about work, I had a fun time getting to know two new people at work today (so much that I didn't do any study =_=) I think I enjoy getting to know people. There's a position at work for Cultural Committee (one person being a committee) that organises events and stuff for people. I think I might take it when I get back from work. I wouldn't mind organising a bowling night or something for everyone.

Good luck to all fellow students doing exams right now. All the best.

teoh.

that time of year

it's been a continuously terrible, even though we're in the next week. just happens to be my life low for now.

magie has been sick for the past few days. Long story short, at first it was just her licking herself to the point of not being able to walk around properly, and now she seems to have digested something bad. She was doing a lot of crazy things, like eating grass (apparently dogs do that when they're stomachs hurt), not coming inside the whole night when it was freezing outside, vomiting etc. I was up all saturday night and had completely lost it by sunday morning and broke down; just didn't know how to help her anymore. Luckily my brother came from his place and helped me out.

Her conditions seems to have slightly improved today, even though we had been suggested to hospitalize her. She ate by herself tonight, which is good as she hasn't eaten since saturday. I pray she gets better soon. Nothing is OK until she is.

Still no calls on vacation work either. On the brink of giving up. Bad kick start to my career.

Even though all this bad stuff happens to you, it's amazing how life still goes on. You could have your arm amputated, but when you come home after surgery, you'd find bills and stuff in your letter box. The world doesn't stop because your suffering. You just have to troop on. I am struggling to follow this concept I admit. But one day I will look back on this post/time, and realised I survived through it.

teoh,

that time of year

it's been a continuously terrible, even though we're in the next week. just happens to be my life low for now.

magie has been sick for the past few days. Long story short, at first it was just her licking herself to the point of not being able to walk around properly, and now she seems to have digested something bad. She was doing a lot of crazy things, like eating grass (apparently dogs do that when they're stomachs hurt), not coming inside the whole night when it was freezing outside, vomiting etc. I completely lost it sunday morning and broke down; just didn't know how to help her anymore. Luckily my brother came from his place and helped me out.

Her conditions seems to have slightly improved today, even though we had been suggested to hospitalize her. She ate by herself tonight, which is good as she hasn't eaten since saturday. I pray she gets better soon. Nothing is OK until she is.

Still no calls on vacation work either. On the brink of giving up. Bad kick start to my career.

Even though all this bad stuff happens to you, it's amazing how life still goes on. You could have your arm amputated, but when you come home after surgery, you'd find bills and stuff in your letter box. The world doesn't stop because your suffering. You just have to troop on. I am struggling to follow this concept I admit. But one day I will look back on this post/time, and realised I survived through it.

teoh,

R.I.P Flora

Sigh, this whole week is full of death and gloom.

My last fish Flora seems to have died from being a lone/depression, as I couldn't see anything wrong with the tank itself. It's saddening, but at the same time I'm sure 'she' would've rather not lingered around by herself all alone.

Ah, I can't wait for this week to be over..

inspire me.

wants to read an inspiring engineer autobiography.

teoh,

R.I.P Rainbow

my oldest fish, rainbow, passed away tonight.

rest in peace my friend. it was a good 10+ years of life. you taught me the responsibilities of keeping another life. thanks =[

teoh,

different minds

let it be known that I owned myself in this post.

and you will never read it.

banned!

These are dark days. The coming month looks very bleak at the moment. Mid-semester break was a joke.

We were talking about banned companies or brands the other day. Here is mine:

Sony VIAO - expensive, nothing more. First-hand experience.

HP / compaq - generally crap, terrible customer service.

Western Digital - passport harddrive cables seem to be a large problem nowadays

Apple - just kidding

Pets Paradise - horrible customer service

Telstra - nothing else needed to be said.

KFC - it's not worth it

I swear I had more, but I forget. I'll come back and edit when I remember.

teoh,

infinite abyss

currently still in a grouchy down mood during this past week. I don't know what's wrong, I'm suddenly really tired of everything, physically and mentally. I just deleted all the stuff that's bothering me, cause it was just a big whine list. Apologies to anyone who has interacted with me this past week.

I finally caught up with Lillian the other day, who told me that she was actually doing part-time uni studies. She's actually doing a lot with her spare time; she's picked up another job, doing some volunteer work down at a disable home, some church stuff and catching with friends. She seemed really happy with it, and it sounds well worth the extra few months added to her time at uni.

It got me thinking about the path I've always thought I wanted. While many people had dreams of successful jobs, travelling the world, going to [insert country] and doing [famous thing], I had pretty modest hopes of the future. A family, a house, a secure decent job, with the occasional holiday. For that to happen, it was a straight line through high school, onto university, out in the work force and just steadily build all of it up. Not that I've got any of it yet.

Now I'm wondering if that straight line is a terrible idea. New Zealand was definitely not in that straight line, but it changed my life for the better. Again, I keep thinking that I have no real deep passion for engineering (even though I do enjoy the course), I'm not sure if I can make it a big part of my life later. My straight line now seems so monotonous and boring.

I remember having this conversation with my friends, about the point of your life. In the big picture, what does it all mean. In 200 years, will anything you do survive the sands of time? But that's another topic, for another day.

and I will end my gloomy post. hopefully the next one will be cheerful.

teoh,

slightly down

my poor fish rainbow isn't looking very good at the moment =[ I'm a bit sad. It's sorta just floating around at the bottom of the tank, moving only so slightly. 'He' (as I like to think of him) has had a good life though, I've managed to keep him and his 'partner' Flora for a good 7 or 8 years. I'm quite proud of taking good care of them. Hope he passes along as peacefully as possible.

I bought some new seaweed and cleaned out the tank for him, which brings me to my second topic. Pet's Paradise is a horrible place. Terrible service, the staff don't seem to care about your needs at all. Terrible product, more than half of my sea weed is already browning and dying. The lady should have checked for me. They have lost me as a customer, never going back to them again. Sad for such a large franchise that deals with such cute puppies.

GHD interview is nearing, slightly nervous. I'm scared that the cognitive test is going to reveal me for the true retard I am haha. Hope I've kept my problem solving skills from high school. I shall be spending most of tomorrow preparing.

Had fun at tim's 21st yesterday, happy birthday tim. Hope you enjoy your new camera. Also hope I didn't base you too much in my speech. I actually did have some nice words in there, but I forgot to mention them up there. Whoops. You're a pretty fun guy, glad to have you as my friend. Looop buddy!

also, I've changed to Google Chrome. opera was doing something funny and I couldn't get it to stop. Plus I've been slightly frustrated with opera in that it doesn't support a few things that I use. I've discovered the Chrome has supported mouse gestures and shortcuts, so I'm all happy with it now =] I'm going to miss Speed Dial though.

teoh,

the world needs a slap in the face

It took me a long time to motivate myself to write a post. I had a few times when I would open up blogger, but then get distracted with starcraft 2 or just sleep.

Instead of an update post, this is about a tv show I watched on SBS the other day. It's called Insight, and the topic was global warming. They had a professor from harvard trying to pitch global warming to an audience of skeptics. It turned into a somewhat public debate forum.

At first, I was tempted just to switch it off. Having a professor rattle of research jargon to an audience isn't really going to help convince them; he just doesn't have the charisma to influence them positively. On the other hand, the skeptics just didn't seem to want to be convinced either. That just seems the way we are, once we get an idea into our head, it's very hard to change our mindsets. There was this one doctor, who was very aggressive, and even though the professor seem to address it very well, kept just shouting over him going "you're not answering the question!".

But then I realised the whole point wasn't turning people about, but more about getting people's opinions and concerns out there. Some of the skeptics had some very good point, in terms of questioning data and whether small changes would warrant a large economic change. It was good to get the other side's point of view. So it turned out to be an interesting show.

On the topic of global warming however, I still stand by my opinion (see what I mean about stubbornness?) . Global warming is definitely being caused by us; an interesting point someone made is that global warming is actually natural and all we're doing is accelerating it (which is also bad anyway). An economic pricing on it is not going to change people's lifestyle or opinion about it. It'll probably just spark more heated debate and it'll just go down hill from there. What we need is a global disaster which will wake up everyone to it. Even then, people will people argue the cause of the disaster and that it wasn't global warming.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I had a more structured post about this, but I've seemed to have lost it.

On another note, I had fun karaoking with ann and erica yesterday at my house, followed by lots of ice cream. hehe.

teoh

now that's service.

Remember that wireless problem I was having with my new laptop? Well it was starting to really annoy me, especially at university, so I decided to chuck it into the repair shop to see if they could do anything with it. Not only did they fix it, but they did it with perfect customer service!

I've put in my old sony vaio in for service a year or two ago, and it was a horrible experience. My dad had to go drop it off and pick it up from South Bank (?). They did not really resolve my issue and they also made my laptop dirty with stains. They also charged us and had minimal customer service. So when I went to Toshiba, I was expecting pretty much the same treatment. Boy was I wrong.

For one, the Toshiba repair shop is literally 2 minutes away from Monash University, Clayton. On the corner of Blackburn road and Ferntree gully, really easy to get to for me. And even if you don't live close, they offer free pick up and delivery services too!

The lady I spoke to was really polite and cheerful, listened to all my complaints and what I had done, and did not treat me like an IT dumbnut (it happens often in the IT industry, I would know lol). She even reassured me that it sounded like a simple problem, and would probably be resolved faster than the 7 - 10 working day estimate given to me. At the time I didn't believe her.

I got sms alerts that night, about the status of my laptop e.g waiting on spare parts, which I thought was pretty cool. No wondering what stage they were at, or if they had looked at it yet. Then today, I got a call from the technician himself, who explained what he had done, tested the wireless while on the phone with me (though I had to take his word for it) and asked if there was anything else I was concerned about. Wow! This was within two days of me dropping it off.

Picked it up a few hours later, and tested at home: I now have access downstairs! Which I previously did not, and was pretty upset about. Awesome! The final test will be on Monday at uni though.

But wow, that is the level of service I wish all companies had. I wrote them a nice e-mail about my appreciation, which I hope they actually read. Good on you Toshiba.

I was so happy, I decided to buy a webcam and mouse online for $40 =]

teoh,

when cooking

Teoh's cooking tip of the day:

When cooking and you suddenly find that your automatic salt shaker does not work, do not attempt to take it apart right there and then. Because it is most likely that there is a spring inside that shaker, which will most likely pop out when you take it apart. That spring has a high probability of bouncing around. Into your food. Specifically your shaker with your quiche mixture in it.

And springs don't float.

Not that it's happened before. But for future reference, okay guys?

teoh,

you have a virus!

Boy I'm so out of it right now. Struggling to finish off this cover letter and then heading straight to bed.

Just something I forgot to post a week ago. A call for me came the other day, from some indian fellow who is part of some company that is with Microsoft. And he was there today to talk to me about my computer. Interesting. How did he get my name is a bit scary, but I suppose that kind of information is easily found nowadays.

He then proceeded to tell me about a malicious (nice word) virus had infected my PC. Zomg! However, I already knew this was a scam, and he was interrupting a movie I was watching, so I was a bit over aggressive with him. I demanded to know how he knew there was a virus on my PC, how I got it when I 'hadn't touched the computers for days', that I would know if I had a virus cause I'm actually an employee of Microsoft myself. At that point, he actually said I'm not putting up with this and hung up. Which I thought was a bit odd, as he was the scammer.

Anyway, I've researched this before, cause my friend Elisha told me she had the same kind of thing happen to her a few weeks ago. It's a known scam, and they try and instruct you to install some kind of program on your computer.

Sigh. So people, tell your parents, cause this is obviously targeted to people who have no idea about computers. Fact: no anti-virus company, Microsoft etc. will ever contact you directly unless you have first contacted their service desk.

I wish I had controlled my frustration and strung him out a little long for fun.

teoh,

this strange feeling...

so I've been using a itrip that my friend greg at work gave me (so generous even if he doesn't use it anymore) and I use the station 99.9 cause it just looks cool on my radio. Niiiiinety nine, oh yeah. Kinda James Bond style. Maybe I should get some matching James Bond music...mmm. 

Anyway, I've discovered a strange alien broadcast on 99.9 just past the stud road and high street intersection. I drive down stud road everyday to get to uni via ferntree gully, and without fail, my music starts to crackle and fizz, like you usually have when another device near by over rides yours. I guess the experience level of my itrip is not high enough. Maybe I need to equip it with better items (like, not my sister's old ipod?). Or maybe itrip is weak to belkin-type. I digress again.

So this particular area seems to have a broad cast on going all the time. I can hear the faint thump of drums and murmurs, but I can never quite hear what it is. Sounds alien like to me. Maybe they're not building houses in that construction lot at all. Maybe it's a government cover up for alien landing zones and you need the decryption to understand the broadcast.

So yeah, when you take a drive down to knox via stud road, switch your radio over to 99.9 and join the mystery fun.

(picture of starcraft 2 carrier unit =] may or may not be real.)

On a more realistic note, here's a fun fact: we're running out of helium (via gizmodo):

Apparently, the world is running out of helium. Robert Richardson, a Nobel Prizewinner, believes that helium supplies will run out in 25 years. And since no other substance has a lower boiling point than helium, this could be a problem.

I guess we’re wasting helium by throwing it into birthday balloons because Richardson thinks that “helium is far too cheap and is not treated as a precious resource.” And he’s right, when you inhale something for the sole purpose of talking in a funny voice, you’re not exactly treating it as a precious resource. Helium, because of its low boiling point, also makes for a great cooling source and is used to manufacture fibre optics and LCDs. So it’s actually kind of important.

Yeah I bet you regret those happy moments with those balloons that you probably accidentally let go of anyway and let it flew away. Now our children won't have floating balloon. sad. =[

teoh,

all in a day's work

alright, update finally. today will be a general update, movie review and laptop review, so prepare yourself for a long-ish post.

For some reason, university has been quite light on work so far. Mind you, I'm not complaining, but I'm getting a little paranoid. Everyone else seems to have work, where's ours? It could be that they are giving us time to do our vacation work, but surely they can't be that considerate

I've been putting my free time to good use. I've done a lot of research for my dream job at GHD, and applied to a few other companies. Speaking of vacation work, congrats to Amanda, who secured a internship at KPMG, way to go. Proud of you.

I've also been dabbling in a bit of Starcraft 2 now and then, which has been good fun. I hope to get good enough to do a bit of competitive gaming, if time will allow. It's also a nice workout for my graphics card, which I haven't really used that much. A game review might be in order later on.

A few 21st coming up, September has always been a busy birthday period.

Work lately has become a bit dull, as a lot of the regulars have left, which is disappointing. Not as fun as it used to be, but I'm glad that my friends have moved on to new places. Good for them.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World

For starters, this movie is based on comics, which is based on games. So it's obviously a nerdy movie, but oh it was so much fun to watch. The opening Universe logo was displayed in retro 32-bit graphics! How awesome.

The general plot is about a boy who falls in love with this girl, who has 7 evil ex-boyfriends he must defeat if he is to go out with her. There isn't a lot of reality in this movie, with characters suddenly gaining the ability to fight, surviving being thrown into a castle, coming back to life, pulling a sword out of your chest etc. But what reality was taken out, is replaced with sheer nerdy awesomeness. Watch the trailer, and you'll know what I mean.

As movies go, it was very enjoyable to watch and worth my money. The acting was nothing special, although the dialogue was quite entertaining. There were a few special effects that were very cool, but nothing Avatar-like. If you didn't like the trailer, chances are you won't like the movie.

Laptop: Toshiba T130-0E1

So that dead pixel I had awhile ago? The whole laptop was replaced thanks to my Dad, so this is officially my new laptop. Specs: 13", dual core 1.4, 4gb ram, onboard Intel graphics, 320gb harddrive. Nothing that wow, but the laptop itself is quite light (1.7kg I think) and quite portable.

The only faults I have with it are: glossy keys get dirty really fast and not sure if the wireless is slightly worse than normal. Seems to have a hard time picking up wireless signals unless close to the router. Otherwise, it's nice fit for my purposes, mainly doing work at university and work.

teoh,

Meat & Wine Co Review

It is my dad's birthday on Tuesday, so we decided to go out to celebrate at a fancy place in the city.

Meat & Wine Co is located on Southbank, just near MacDonalds, on Queensbridge street. It is famous for it's wide combination of meat and wine. It features a restaurant with two levels, and a lounge bar which sometimes holds special events.

The Restaurant

I've actually been in this area a few times from crown, and was surprise to find it was not a fancy dress place. No one wore anything more fancy than my own outfit that you can see in the pictures, so it's a very casual restaurant. The restaurant itself is very nice, the bar is quite comfortable, dining tables are spacey enough. The restaurant actually extends out onto the footpath, but you wouldn't be able to tell thanks to tight plastic walls and heaters.
Make no mistake though, the prices are not casual. As you would expect from a meathouse, the prices range from entrée dishes for fifteen dollars to steak and chips for as much as fifty dollars. Sides extra four dollars. Not a place for the tight budget.

Service

The night started off terribly. My brother told them his name and the time he booked, and they could not find it. The lady then proceeded to tell my brother that it was booked for 6PM, not 730PM and quote "you must've misunderstood me". She then rudely gave us a look of 'you are so inconvenient' and told us to wait in the bar while she sorted something out. No apology. No when she'll come up and tell us. Just shoved us aside. I was ready to let loose some Teoh rage at her.

Thankfully, that was the end of bad service. 10 - 15 minutes later, we got a table, where we were served with one of the friendliest waitress I've met. She took care of us like a waitress should, inquiring if we were celebrating and arranged a birthday scoop of ice cream for my dad (then again this could've been a trap: see below). All waiters and waitresses were very polite, with sir's and lady's. Food came at a respectable duration of around 20 minutes.

The service at the table was very satisfactory. Front service, look out.

FoodThe prices drove my expectations quite high, and I can say that they were met in some regards. I had a rib platter ($50), containing beef, lamb and pork ribs and chips. It was huge. 1kg of meat. I managed to get t hrough most of it and it was delicious. The sauce was nice, and the meat was really tender; very easy to eat off the bone. However, it was a bit disappointing that salads were not included in my meal. I felt a bit sick after a while just devouring a whole plate of meat and fried potato chips.

My brother's steak was delicious, the meat was so tender and he got 600g of it. It also cost fifty dollars. I had a nice chunk of it and enjoyed tearing through it like an animal (I used my fingers cause they were already dirty from the ribs). Overall, I think my family was pleased with the food delivered.

The dessert was an apple and rhubarb crumble, which was satisfactory but not outstanding.

Verdict

I would like to re-experience this place again, maybe next year. There's no doubt it is expensive, but the food and nice table service makes up for it. However, the trap I mentioned before: the ice scoop that my dad got for his birthday surprise? They charged us for it, $3. That's just wrong in principle.

I will probably never take my high school friends, as they are both pov and not used to eating that western food. But my workmates might enjoy it. 21st possiblitiy? Only with a few people.

Recommend for steak enthusiasts and those who can afford a nice night out.

teoh,

undercover boss

I have recently just watched episode 4 of undercover boss, and I must say, I really love it.

I know, it's mostly television-ised and there seems to be a lot of set up scenes and such in there. But a little part of me really hopes that some of it is true. Because I believe so much in the concept behind it.

I've only had 3 part time jobs in my life, but in all of those jobs I have experienced some awesome co-workers. The work environment is the easiest by far to make new friendships and become close with one another. You support and work together all the time, share the same issues, connect in a way unlike any other I have yet to experience. I have been lucky to have had 3 awesome part time jobs, and even luckier to meet the people that I have.

There are so many great people out there, and so many of them are found right down in the labor front lines. The positions don't have to be respectable or high class for people to be the same. The front line is one of the toughest positions there is and you have to work so hard to do your job well, and receive almost no recognition for it. The amazing people do it anyway.

My workplace is a good example. It doesn't take too much to do my job properly. As long as you meet certain targets, you're considered a good worker. However, I know many of my co-workers who go the extra extra mile. Will they get recognition for it? Not really. So why do they do it? Cause they're just decent people. You know who you are.

People like them deserve to be recognized and rewarded. I love watching the CEO meeting amazing people in their company, and then speak to them afterwards. I look forward to watching more of these inspiring stories.

Some day, if I'm ever a manager, or who knows, a top boss, I hope I will remember these stories.

teoh,

long and let live

okay, time for an overdue update:

Mum's birthday

It was my mum's birthday last wednesday - happy birthday mum! my brother came home and we bought her a cake, magazine subscription, flowers and hairspray tickets. the cake was a hazelnut flourless cake and was quite nice!

Vacation Work

I've been stressing a bit about vacation work, cause I'm slowly coming to terms about how competitive it is out there. My top preference company (see I won't say due to paranoia that you will go apply - like it'll make a difference) is quite elite and I'm not really sure of my chances with pretty average marks like mine. Fingers crossed for me please! I'm doing quite a bit of preparation, even signing up for mock interviews and such, so I hope it pays off.

Technology

Currently in the market for a new laptop, and almost got one today! Toshiba T130 is quite suitable for my uses and it was on sale at harvey norman for 1000! Unfortunately I found a dead pixel on mine and it was the last one in stock. Ah well. Hunt continues.

Also quick review, I finally replaced my old harddrive with this! I do love my tech toys.

Lacie 500GB rugged, USB 3.0! For those who don't know, everyone is universally using USB 2.0, so this is the next gen stuff. My computer thankfully is next gen, so I already have a USB 3.0 slot. So testing it out, I get rough speeds of around 78MB/s, which is triple the usual speed. Nice! It did, however, cost me a little extra than usual ($210) and are only available online shops so far.

teoh,

going for office

I just watched the most amount of television I've seen than in the holidays. Hurrah for MasterChef, good fun. Very pleased with the outcome.

The only thing the Great Debate gave me was confirmation that politician are so frustrating. Always dancing around the issue, repeating their slogans over and over and generally annoying me. Initially I wasn't going to vote Labor due to take over from Gillard, but Tony Abbott used the word 'fair dinkum' too many damn times, so he's lost my vote. Also, he hasn't got any charisma, do not like him at all.

Therefore we should all vote for me to be Prime Minister instead. I have past experience! Back in Primary school, when we were learning about Parliament, we set up a mock Government, and I was elected Prime Minister, no joke! As leader of our country, I would address the real issues of our country.

Teleportation would be the highest priority and my driving force for my election. With Teleportation, our country would both be more sustainable and boost our economy to make our country not only the strongest in the world, but in the galaxy (beat that Gillard). It will help decrease the cost of living, as there is no need to spend money on fuel, transportation for major companies will cut out, decreasing the price on goods and generally improve our lives. It will resolve the ridiculous Myki system and the coming waste of money on it.

This would also solve the boating problem, as a detention center with minimal space could be easily created within weeks (and in Australia, not in some unstable government place I've never heard of), by throwing people into a teleporter back to where they came from. Easy.

Teleportation will help create more jobs for people and emphasis education in the Mathematics field, which is lacking. I would personally supervise to ensure research is completed by 2020. That is my promise to YOU.

I respect the Australian electorates, and I think they will respect me as a fellow Australian. As a hard working student, I know many of the grits of life and the common problems in our lives. As Prime Minister, you can count on me to know the people of Australia and the important issues.

Vote for Teoh, and help me teleport Australia forward!

teoh,

back to mediocre

so I'm sitting here, looking through my subject unit guide, getting a glimspe of the miserable semester ahead of me. A lot of constant assignment due every week, group formations of 3 only which means I get kicked out of my usual group of 4, tests/labs/reports/presentations, yuck! Back to the student life as my mum would say.

Things are getting pretty depressing at work too. A lot of my colleges that I have known pretty much since I've worked there are leaving. I'm happy for most of them, as there are a few people at work who deserve much better than a 1st level call center operator. But it makes work less enjoyable, though it is still a good job to have.

I am currently resisting getting a can of coke at work. I ate so much crap this holidays, probably causing all the pimples on my face =[ Instead, I'm drinking lots of tea. Which is making me go on personal breaks to the toliet alot.

I still have yet to write a melbourne post. And I think I'll make a new banner and layout too.

And that's all I want to write. Or complain. My friend sarah said I complain a lot. That's probably true. (but it was cold in adelaide) What a crap post.

teoh,

july trip - radelaide

spent most of the day feeling that emptiness when you travel with friends for so long, and then suddenly they're gone =[ miss my friends already.

so on the 3rd of july, I left for Adelaide, flying solo with Tiger Airways. Tiger has a new check in process, where you can self check in online if you have no check in luggage, which I did. Surprisingly, it went quite smoothly, I was at my boarding gate within 2 minutes of arriving at the terminal 4 (aka the tin shed next to the airport).

I was reunited with an amazing five people at Adelaide: visiting with me was Sarah, looking pretty with straightened and dyed hair, Hao Zhe the magician who we were staying with, Nicolle, Kim and Adrianna. We also met a few of Nicolle's friends who entertained us to no end; Juliet, with a cool nickname Jet, the proper speaking Maria (hilarious accent) and various of Nicolle's boys =]

My first time being in Adelaide, I didn't have much expectations. People had always dubbed it as a hole, but I knew it couldn't be that bad. My first impressions were that it was less fast paced than Melbourne. There were less cars crowding the roads (road limits were mostly 60 zones too), the community felt closer at a bar we went to, no high rise buildings. It was quite nice actually, as a person who does not like crowds. I'd imagine I would feel more comfortable driving into Adelaide city than Melbourne.

Hao Zhe took us to Mt.Lofty, sort of a look out towards Adelaide, and it's very spread out. Reminds me of New Zealand a bit. Cleland Wildlife Park was pretty fun too, feeding kangaroos and wallabies (they're so cute!).

Me and Sarah had the chance to explore the city one day. I think we only went down a few well known streets, and it wasn't anything special, but a nice city to hang out in. That said, I'm not a city person, so I probably wouldn't appreciate the nice things about it anyway. It was definitely smaller than Melbourne, but not in a bad way.

Nicolle took us to the Adelaide Zoo (where we met up with Kim) and Victor Harbor. The Zoo was entertaining, but nothing that much different than any other zoo. Victor Harbor was quite beautiful, I wish I could've gone swimming. We went around Granite Island, which the high light of the day for me was sitting on this huge rock on the edge, close to the ocean. It would've been a favorite hang out spot for me, looking at the waves crash against the shore. Awesome.

Other than that, we hung out at Hao Zhe's and Nicolle's place. Hao Zhe's unit is quite amusing, his room has a hole in the roof where the room light should be and his car matches the unit (emergency brake light doesn't work, engine often dies, 20 km up a hill). Funny moments include (but not limited to) fail to see karate kid (Adelaide get their movies a week later than us), tiger in the bathroom and sarah's tassie devil enthusiasm born.

Absolutely great to catch up with them all in Adelaide. Hope to return there someday soon to visit. Thanks to Nicolle and HaoZhe for showing us around. Also interesting to see their houses and family =]

teoh,

that was heaps good.

phwor, the end to an amazing 11 day holiday !

I'll probably write up a few specific posts about the past week and a half at work when I have time. For now, a few thoughts and feelings.

First feeling, dead tired. I usually take holidays pretty easy, but I've pretty much had something on every day, which is definitely a good thing. No time wasted doing unproductive things on the computer, or sleeping in so late I feel groggy the whole day. But I have absolutely no stamina, and I was pretty eager to have a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

I was also pretty surprised at how well the whole thing turned out, some sort of Mega Catch Up. To think that at New Zealand Airport, I felt like I would never see these guys for years, maybe even fade from memory. But I managed to see so many people this holidays, it was an awesome feeling, cause I missed them heaps.
At first, it was just Sarah coming down to Melbourne, then Genevieve and Ellen headed down too. Then I decided to go visit SA to catch up with HaoZhe, Adrianna, Nicolle and Kim, inviting Sarah to come along. And then Nicolle also decided to head over to Melbourne. Cass also made it down there and caught up with us twice, and Jarryd too.

The one thing I love about these close friends (I no longer think of them as ISV friends), is that they seem to push me to expand myself to places I wouldn't usually go. For example, everyone knows I suck at driving, especially to new places, but we went to quite a few these holidays. They're also different to my usual close group, and I love their different way of thinking (grandma is quite cynical), speech (nicolle has a funny SA accent) and weird little habits (ellen has stiff elbows).

From left to right at the back: Gen, Nicolle, Me, Sarah and Ellen sitting in front. Purposely made to look like a family photo hahaha.

It was fun having them at my house, like a little family. My parents were really good in letting them all stay, and everything went really smoothly. I was a little stressed out, cause I didn't know if they were going to have a fun time with me, but I think it turned out ok! We watched a lot of movies though haha.

Facebook has improved their photo uploader..I managed to upload all 170 photos within a few minutes. Nice.

Events and places we went to follow. Mt.Lofty, Cleland Park, Adelaide Zoo, Victor Harbor, Science Works, Dandenong ranges, Balacava, Movies, Healsville, Lygon street and random fun moments.

teoh,

off on holiday

so 1st July was an awesome kick off to the holidays.

spent some time with a friend in the morning, going around to jells park and knox city. Then had a fight with telstra over our latest bill (which in hindsight seems correct, but still their fault for stuffing up the past ones, confusing me!!) and won, so I got a month of internet free. Then had a big catch up with glenny people, which turned out surprisingly well, despite some last minute organising (=P tim). Watch toy story 3, which I classify as a 'movie worth paying for'.

Awesome day.

Anyway, I'm really lacking sleep, and I'm heading off to Adelaide tomorrow! It came so soon, I haven't even packed yet. So adiós until next thursday. have fun in your HO HO HO HOOOOLIDAYS!!

teoh,

last few steps

as always, i'm struggling to get through my last few days of studying T_T sorry urban water.

so instead, i've gone onto ebay and found the adidas star wars shoes that my brother showed me on facebook =] decided on a pair of x-wing sambas, but will probably buy another high-top shoe if this purchase turns out alright. original price is aorund $300 in the stores at melb central, but got these for $180. fingers crossed.

mmmm so cool. nice subtle new republic logo, not a fan of the x-wing word though. can't wait. nice present to come back to after adelaide.

dammit, i was suppose to be saving for my new laptop, which I'm having second thoughts about.

teoh,

out of the study box

two down, two to go my friends.

I spent today mostly relaxing, sleeping and watching the news. I only just heard about the wild teenager running around with a shotgun in Richmond, crazy stuff. I also caught up with news about the oil spill - I'm interested to hear my friends reaction to this, as it's not really discussed in public. Frankly, it's pretty damn shocking, especially after you see the oil spilled covered birds and such.

At the moment, BP's got a cap sucking up more or less half of the leak, but there's still at least 25 000 barrels of oil being leaked every day. crazy. This is what the oil spill will look like soon, as ocean currents carry it to the Atlantic =[

there was an interesting article on ideas from the public of how to plug it and why they wouldn't work listed here. I personally like the epoxy warhead lol. Cause blowing stuff up always works. (yes, sarcasm)

In other news, the missing plane with 6 mining personnel in the western regions of Africa, including chairman on the company Sundance and a billionaire. Apparently flights in the mining industry are quite hazardously usually, I guess cause you go out to the rural areas for the mine. Poor families of those 6 people, I wish all the best with the search and rescue effort.

However! I was thinking. Strange timing for this to happen isn't it. With the whole Super-Profit Tax mining thing happening that I hear on the radio. You know what. I think it's CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME. Mind you, it's most likely full of holes, as I don't know much about the current mining tax or how mining works in Australia, but let's have fun anyway.

Looking at keepminingstrong.com.au, and doing a quick google, reveals that at least 4 of the missing personnel's have past ties to large mining companies, such as BP and Macarthur. Sundance is not listed under MCA (Mining Council of Australia), but I'm pretty sure they get effected by the tax too (although most of their mining is based in Africa, so I dunno how that works).

Anyway! Assuming all of that holds true, this could all be part of a big conspiracy to undermine mining companies so that the mining tax goes through. Imagine, you're a big CEO of Teoh Mining Co., earning billions about to get cut by 58% (I saw this figure on the website, not sure how it applies lol). Of course, you fight the tax. Then, after a dinner of watching the news, of a 'mysterious' explosion and then suddenly a missing plane full of CEO and billionaires, you start to think, hmm. Then, unknown to the public, you get a letter. IT COULD BE YOU NEXT. After a few sleepless nights, you decide to withdraw your support in the pention against the government.

Yeah, think about it. And think about investing in Teoh Mining Co. as well, their shares are well up (or will be when you give me money).

teoh,

begun, the exam war has.

May the Force be with us all...

and all is still.

a single moment can make everything ok. =]

art by greg martin

macho man

Ever since my sister has left to UK, I never get to eat yummy cupcakes anymore. But my mum still likes to bake, so yesterday I decided to help my mum bake some stuff. We made a lemon meringue pudding and some apple cupcakes. The lemon pudding turned out quite nice, zesty and sour sweet, while the apple pies were a bit overcooked as I soon found out at work. Guess we should've kept an eye on the timer instead of watching masterchef haha.

And then at work, my workmate aunty nicky brought in her daughter's netball skirt to do some sewing. I teased her, which then prompted her to challenge me in a sewing match. After taking awhile to thread the needle, I actually did a decent job of sewing on a patch.

And then I realised I'm baking. And sewing. Some of the most manly chores in the world. Oops.
Haha, but I don't really mind. I figured I should learn how to do some of this stuff anyway. Mum's not going to sew my jeans back together forever. And cooking is always a good skill to have (although whether baking and cooking are the same thing is debatable). Still I wish I did more manly activities. Like gyming. Drinking gallons of alcohol. Beating people up. Yup, that's the life.

In other news, ling, xuan and I had a DDR session at our normal boxhill location. It's been way too long, and predictably sucked. Still, it's been awhile since I've done that much physical work (haha sad) it was pretty enjoyable. Wish my exam wasn't next tuesday, otherwise I would've went again. We gotta lift our game ling. Beat that Monster Battle Course (or whatever it was called).

Studying is a bit slow at the moment. Can't seem to pick up the pace. I'm sure after failing groundwater next week will prod me into action.

Good luck to all those with exams and curses to all those that don't.

teoh,

driving blind

well, it's damn foggy out there at the moment isn't it? Or is it misty? Or cloudy? Interesting question, let's find out!

it all starts off with condensation nuclei which is basically a clump or form of dust, pollutants etc., nasty stuff hanging in the air and cold weather. so when things get really cold, usually around 4 degrees, water vapour in the air start to condensate, like the water on the side of your cold drinks. The water droplets that have condensed around the dusts and pollutants (hence the name nuclei), which is allows it to be visible as fog to us. Or mist. Or clouds? Which one!?

Well apparently, fog is when visibility is reduced to 1 km or less, and mist is when visibility is reduced between 1 km and 2km. Clouds are up in sky people, sorry, just like where your common sense is if you believed that was an option.

Oh yeah, you can also get flash fogs, where certain temperatures allow fog to gather and dissipate really fast. So don't worry, you aren't seeing ghosts. - curious teoh (source: wikipedia)

So yeah, I drove home from work today and it was really foggy. haha.

Sigh, this week has been quite messy. I gotta get my mind into studying mode asap. But it will be a memorable week I think. My head hurts.

My friend Henry Lim makes these awesoooome powerpoint presentation. Just looking at them makes me want to make one. He's got an eye for presentations I tell you. I'm really proud to present our Shang Hai Expo, everyone's all ooo and aaah. I'm half afraid that my presenting is actually not even important. But I still get a kick out of it anyway.

teoh,

sigh.

to: sensible me.

it's not fair.

The past few days were pretty amazing and fun. I felt like I had found someone. And today was a milestone in my life. It could've gone far and I'm mainly posting this to remember it.

Now you've ruined it. I understand the reasons why you did it and you might be right, but that doesn't stop me from hating you. Dammit.

from: lonely me.

my gwad gumball!

me eating a 10+ year old giant gumball. My brother got it when we visited some family friends up in queensland who owned a lolly shop and had kept it in this metal container ever since. He wanted the container, so I ate it...for a minute before getting sick. Thankfully it was soft, I can't imagine eating it properly...

so after doing some reading, apparently the 'theory' behind tony's new element is quite plausible. Using his home-built particle accelerator, charging whatever blue particles he had in there to high energy, and then fusing two elements that when combined together would add their atomic numbers together to the desired new element, yes it is quite plausible.

However, if any of my readers are highly qualified scientists (no, you're not marco (neither are you ling)), here are a few questions: what is the triangular case made of to withstand and capture the beams energy to fuse whatever elements are inside? how does the accelerated high energy beam held constantly when it was diverted from the accelerator? I would've thought it'd need to keep it's circular motion in order to sustain itself. And finally, how does Stark make it stable? If you can answer all of these, then please join my team in building an iron man suit, as I don't want radioactive poisoning when I wear mine either.

In other news!
I don't know why, but I've got a craving for watching digimon. ><>teoh,

the giants that will never fall

I. Am. Sick. Of. Telstra.

 You'd think changing to a newer more recent plan would be easy; especially when I already had all the per-requisites. But NOOO. Not so apparently. Telstra goes out of it's way to STUFF IT ALL UP. So bear with my rant, I do have a point to make.

First, the stupid store doesn't even put the order through properly. Then the deal doesn't apply within 3 days. THEN, they charge me the normal price instead of the discount special. THEN, the stupid operator who gave me my discount CHANGED my plan back to the normal one. Like double-yuu-tee-eff? So that means not only do I get charged for normal price, but I get double charged for the month remaining of my non-existent faster plan. And I'm pretty sure I didn't get my $30 discount either.

So now everything is confusing, I don't get any quotes so I'm pretty sure Telstra came out of this laughing it's multi-billion ass off. 

Man. I hate it when big companies can get away with stuff like this. And there's nothing we little people can do about it. Banks, telecommunications, governments, they're all the same. We need a modern Robin Hood. Someone who will go past the law and sort these guys out, cause let's face it; what else is going to hurt them? A law suit is like throwing a rock at a steel building, and having it bounce back and hit you in the eye and kill you. I'm tempted to be that person and spend the rest of my life plotting to somehow make Telstra's stock fall to negative infinity.

Btw, call-operator Alan, from one operator to another. Saying "I'm juuuuust cheeecking" for like 2 minutes does not help my patience. How about you just check it faster instead of wasting your breath saying that phrase over and over? Or put me on hold dammit, that's what soothing music is for. I'd actually prefer you to actually fix my problem, but I know that's TOO MUCH to ask from Telstra.

angry teoh,

p.s hi stalker =]

the life of luxury

 so I went to see Iron Man 2 again...but this time in gold class! (note my lovely 2MP pictures above) 

I went with my uni friend Linda, who actually works at the doncaster village as a waitress in gold class (free tickets =]). She hadn't been once herself, so when we talked about it, we decided to go. Linda hadn't seen iron man 2 and I didn't particularly mind watching it again. It was actually good, cause I could fully enjoy the experience, while not caring too much about missing out on stuff in the movie. Also, I don't spend too much time with Linda at uni as she's only in one of my classes, so it was fun to hang out.

Gold Class Experience.

As I open the heavy glass doors that lead into this fantasy world fit only for the wealthy, first thought is: I hope I'm dressed ok. I was wearing my 'good' clothes, but nothing fancy. Despite that, I immediately felt out of place. The nice carpet, the dim lighting, the fancy plush couches, the brightly lit bar with shining wine glasses, the uniformed waiters/waitresses; it felt only the red carpet was missing.

Linda had asked me to come half an hour early, which I thought meant we were going to eat first or something. Turns out, you use that time to not only order your food, but decide what time it comes! How bizarre. And yet strangely pleasing. Power over what and when? And since I had already seen iron man, my choc-mint choctop came exactly just before the exciting end =]
The food and drink prices were, of course, through the roof. At first, I saw meals at $10 - $12, and I thought, hey not bad. Then Linda explained that they were actually snack size stuff; 2-3 pieces each. The pizza, which wasn't that great, was $24. Luckily for me, having Linda with me slashed everything by 50%. But for a normal gold class experience, good luck you cheap asians.

And now, for the one thing I would pay $25 bucks for. The chair. Oh my god, the chair! It's so big! Respectful Red. So soft, yet firm enough at the same time; comfortable. Electric relining action (made me feel like iron man to see my legs brrrr up). A nice big compartment on the side for my jacket and things. A little table on the side for my food.
The cinema was quite small; two big chairs made up a 'table'. 4 by 4 of them gave it a capactiy of 32 people (yeah, that's why me engineer, I can maths! (the next tony stark)). Tonight, there were only 6 others in the cinema.

So once the glory of it all wore off, I started criticizing things in my head.

Having waiters come by every now and then was slightly annoying. I would rather it somehow be elevated up through my little table. Cause there weren't many people in the cinema, yeah I didn't notice it as much. But if it was a full house, I could imagine people going up and down delivering stuff. Yeah that could definitely ruin my movie.

Eating and drinking in the dark is not cool. I couldn't tell what I was dipping my fried calamari into, cause I couldn't see. Plus, trying to eat and drink while a movie is on...takes my concentration away from enjoying the movie. Instead I'm trying not to spill stuff on myself. And that takes a lot of effort.

The little call button next to me was too bright. Turn it down yo.

The atmosphere wasn't there. Even with a room of 32 people, I don't think that's enough of a crowd that's usual for a movie. There were some really amusing parts in Iron Man 2, as most of you should know, but I found that Linda and I were the only ones laughing about it. New reactor core tastes like coconut, that's worth at least a room of chuckles.

Linda said many people actually go to gold class...they even have regulars! Crazy. I'm not sure if I would prefer gold class or not. The chair is such a deal breaker. Wish it had one of those sliding tables like on airplanes, and then a decent laptop and oh boy.

Awesome to experience it for the first time. My thanks to Linda for taking me. Also, driving to Doncaster was an experience. It's actually not that far from my house, but took awhile from uni.

teoh,

p.s I am still NOT convinced about how tony makes his new elements. stand by for theory.

reading in the past

this week isn't turning out too badly as expected, but hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.

I was cleaning up my hotmail inbox today...and it's actually pretty cool how I just left alot of old emails lying around. Because now when I looked through them, I got a nice self-reflection of myself and things that happened.

The history only went as far as first year...warren and tiff sending me stuff for uni, my excitement of meeting a particular female, first year stress, a few correspondents from online forums, Yoda's Yarn stuff (good old days), beach days in the summer, yearly carols by candlelight, all the oxygen and lifegroup invitations, Queensland organisation, parents forwarding me stuff, family emails when everyone is overseas, recent fights, old fights, old romances, new romances.

I wrote to one of my old correspondents, just cause we used to talk a lot, and while I was writing, I thought, what has changed since I last talked to him. I'm in university now...old and new friends..some new experiences. But other than that; I'm just the same?
I wonder if me being the same since three years ago is a good thing. Surely I should be changing as a person (hopefully for the better), but I don't think I have. Same interests, same kind of life style.

I did do a self-journey thing awhile back, made me more certain of where I was going and what I wanted to do. Coming up to graduation year is not to be taken lightly. Yet personal changes have never quite come around. I feel like I'm stuck in a black hole, unable to break free of being me.

teoh,

oh fritter.

ingredients for a week of uni hell: 2 tests, 3 major assignments, 1 report and no motivation. Serve hot.

so my friend Long just got his new phone yesterday, the HTC Desire. It's pretty nice, the touchscreen responsiveness is about on par with iphones, and since smartphones are pretty much mini-computers nowadays, it's got a mini computer processor 1 GHZ which makes it run very smooth.

So tempting to get a new phone as I've been on an open contract for so long, but I'm also at debate with myself that I don't actually need one. But it'd be sooo nice to get one. HTC Evo has a bigger screen and coming out in July, but really expensive =[ But it runs so fast, and so many apps, first 4G phone, HTC aren't that common (among my friends anyway), oh so cool. But then, do I really need mobile internet? Just one more distraction, more time spent looking at a electronic device. But then it could be useful for like looking up things on the spot, GPS etc. But then money...

My friend simon bought an Ipad from eBay over seas. Very nice, so impressed with the touch interface. The screen is really clear and you can actually type notes onto 'Word' app pretty accurately. Wouldn't mind having one for lectures, make things a bit more interesting. But, with any new tech, I will wait for better generations (I remember buying first gen ipod 'nano', big brick compared to the new ones and no colour)

My mum told me a funny story today, how she had used compost and soil in a part of the garden a few weeks ago before she left for the UK/Malaysia. Then a creeper vine had grown around (not uncommon in our garden) so she pulled it all out...and out...and pop comes out:


aha so cool! Home grown rock melon. Well done mum.

And also, made banana/pineapple fritter tonight. Was a partial success, the batter turned out alright, but the fruit inside wasn't sweet. Had it with ice cream and wasn't too bad though. It's fun deep frying stuff =]

teoh,

p.s while looking at myself at my haircut today, i thought to myself: my face is fat. =[

night out with the guys

so me and my two uni mates Henry (left) and Long (right) went out around the city on saturday night. Our other friend Wil was sick and also at work and missed out on a fun night. The idea was just to go around to a few pubs and just hang out. Me, being a city noob, was also interested in exploring the city a bit more. Here's a google map of our route, both for anyone interested, and myself to remember:

we met up at (A) melbourne central, and headed out to (B) stalactites, a greek souvlaki restaurant. I had a steak, which was cooked very well (very close to medium-rare as you can get), so overall a nice place. Typical melbourne city restaurant price though ~22 bucks for the meal.

we had slurpies straight after, which turned out to be a horrible idea haha. Headed over to (C) Red Hummingbird, which has a really nice open roof space. I could see a small 21st function there easily. Then off to melbourne central, to some bar I can't recall...had a nice open view of the state library. A quick drop by maccas for some chicken nuggets, and then to a bar called (D) Softbelly. Had some cool retro gametables, and a nice atmosphere. I was surprised to see a fair few asians hanging out at pubs, just drinking socially. Had some Lord of the Fries (well they did, I passed) after as well. I want to try their onion rings next time I go in.

And then of course, ended up at (E) galactic circus to show off some DDR skills lol. After that, was feeling pretty dead and sick. Then we ran for the (F) Flinders station for an 11:05pm train. Got there at 10:59, and then hung around for a minute talking about nothing, and then realised it was a 11:00pm train. GG, missed it. Ended up buying the Age and read for half an hour until the next one came.

GOOD FUN.

On another note, have finally obtained a copy of Mass Effect 2. Always respected Bioware's games, and Mass Effect 1 was damn good. About 2 hours into the game, and I'm already hooked with it. They've made some nice improvements (which I won't bother to list, since no one really cares :D), but most importantly they've reduced the amount of that far off distant motion blur. I think the remains of it might be cause my graphic card isn't up to scratch =[

Speaking of which, trying to bring my 'old' laptop out of retirement for uni. Will not install VLC or anything entertainment wise besides MusicBee (music player). Trying to put windows 7 on it, but it's putting up a fight at the moment..damn you vista.

next: new phone thoughts? ipad thoughts.

teoh,

optical illusion

ACDC Vs Iron Man 2

Another clip I know, but this is pretty cool. Advance projectors play some cool features on the Rochester Castle in time with ACDC music. There's not that much Iron Man 2 in there, but seeing the castle crumble is pretty awesome. Take a look.

teoh,

talented youngesters performing classics

These guys are pretty talented for a high school performance, and arranged by themselves. Brought back some nice memories of those ever lasting classics.

teoh,

presents from over seas!

love it when family come back from overseas, i love opening up all the bags and boxes, looking for treasures and prizes! above are japanese figures luke and leia, who will now guard my computer for me.

behold the holocron mark II, my new usb 8 gig stick. mark I's plastic shell eventually crumbled to nothing, so this is the high tech replacement! awesome.

my sister loves cupcakes, so she saw this cute cupcake bib and bought it. I put it on mags for some highly amusing entertainment.

and my belated birthday present, flown across two countries to get to me, a stormtrooper jumper! thanks sis =] it's got a cool stormtrooper button on it as well, which I will rip off if I ever grow out of the jumper, cause it's that cool!

teoh,