the usual.

alright, daily update, simply cause i have no interesting thoughts in my mind right now. I'll get right on that.

I really have to hurry up and order my passport. Third passport form I've filled out in a couple of months. Not many people can say they've done that ey? Or paid for it..

Last uni sprint until the easter break. A few project milestones due here and there, but I'm fairly confident I can break through them. Haha, there are these white guys I frequently hang out with at uni, they're so funny. They think I'm really asian cause I'm 'good' (I will define this in a sec) at computers and laugh at me playing DDR. Then again, these guys do shoeys' back at home (where you drink a shoe full of beer apparently..true or are they just kidding with me!?)

So yeah, one them David has an ancient Compaq laptop, the first time I worked with them, it took like 15 minutes to boot up (I exaggerate, but you get it). It's a single 1.66 Hz core with 1GB memory and more than a few years old. Still works pretty well considering. Anyway, I told them about formatting, defragging, partitioning and how to upgrade to Windows 7 and how to get it for free at uni. They're so amazed at all the things you can do haha. They're a really smart bunch and hard working, I want to work with them more in the future.

Easter break! Carolyn is coming down, and we've made plans so she's staying with me for the first few days. I should say it's going to be exciting fun (and it will be) but I also feel pressure and stress in hoping I can be a sufficient guide (or escort as she puts it haha) and make her trip worthwhile. She's a city/valley girl, so I'm taking her to the city on Saturday, see the Gardens, dinner/drinks at Red Spice Road and then Comedy Festival session at night, along with Amanda and Ling...though I'm still loss for city highlights anyone?

Nevertheless, I'm excited to see her again, and will be going to 1000 steps/dandenong ranges, and there are few nice cafes I know up there (hopefully they're still there lol). Past that, not sure where to go around locally. I figured I might just take her around chaddy (chocolate cafe?), jells park maybe if the weather's nice, maybe even kingsway just to show her where I'm usually at. Recommendations, drop them in the comment box!

Amanda's 21st and Ann's party next week as well. Got a few catch ups in the holidays as well; lil, anthea and others. . Will be glad to see my usual group too at those parties, it's been awhile. As well as a huge project my group haven't started on haha; but all of this will come in time.

Me and my dad are surviving pretty well so far without my mum, with my brother floating in and out like a ghost. I made curry for the first time, and it was pretty yum! Had nice blinds installed in my room, no more girly-like curtains (dunno if anyone's noticed them before), gives my room a more professional look, along with the star wars posters and bobblehead ;]

p.s ugh I really hate the way blogger manages photos in posts. :[ hate.

teoh,

there must be clovers in the atmosphere

okay, conspiracy theory time.

has anyone else noticed that all centralized buildings that the public visit, are always pleasantly cool? Office building, shopping malls, university admin buildings, tourist attractions, halls etc. etc. All have air conditioners to keep us nice and cool.

but why do we never hear pleasantly warm inside a building?

my theory is that the world is slowly being conditioned to be weaker to the sun; which is odd considering with global warming and all, you'd think we should be upping our resistance to heat. There was a time where people could enjoy a hot sunny 30 degree day, with nothing but short, t-shirt and maybe an icy pole. Wind down the window in the car. Now, it's all a/c this, a/c that. And the thing with a/c is once you turn it on, as soon as you turn it off, you're hot! so back on it goes.

How silly is this? Plus using the a/c will only accelerate global warming, needing more a/c, thus accelerating faster and faster until the world just stops spinning because of the huge amount of irony interfering with the magnetic fields.

I am now resisting this conditioning, by refusing to touch the a/c (i shall have to learn from the master of stingyness ling) and always putting down the windows. This also saves the environment. woot.

teoh,

back to questions

so, for some reason in the shower, I was thinking about how I was waiting for ling's new post on God's existence and I started to think of some awesome cool thoughts. Unfortunately, I don't remember most of them, but here's where I think they were going.

I had a conversation with Esther briefly at uni, and she asked the much asked, what do you believe in question, in which I replied with my usual there is something out there, some sort of mystical spiritual force that is part of our lives. This led to the thought that God is a personification of such force that I think of. 

So then I think, maybe this God idea is born out of human arrogance. Hear me out.
Let's agree with my awesome assumption that there is a spiritual guidance out there for a moment. Luck, chance, fate, life etc. all of that is deviated from this spirit/force. So when something happens, good or bad, we want to reason that it was due to this, or that. Personifying this force/spirit into all powerful being is part of us wanting to have something to explain it, and making it into a being of sorts helps us relate to it, instead of being some unknown force out there in the universe.

The problem is, why is it a being that humans can relate to. If this force/being is something that created the world, the very life of our universe, then really it shouldn't relate to humans at all. We are sooo insignificant compared to the rest of the world, why should we be such a big deal to 'God'. Who are we to label something big flowing the whole universe along to a level that we can communicate to. A bit arrogant maybe?

Now, you can probably tell this isn't well thought out, and it has more than a few holes. But it was just a thought. Not a case against God or anything like that. Just a humble point of view from the shower.

question for the christians reading this: what was man's purpose in God's plan for everything? Were we his final product or something? I forget my early teachings...

teoh,

life bending

So I got Avatar: the last airbender from my friend Long at uni...it was actually the series I was most reluctant to take from him; turns out, I don't want to watch anything else he gave me but~!

It's surprisingly on par with things like Naruto (the good episodes) and has hooked me to watch all 3 seasons. It's got a decent story, has my favorite themes like powers of elements, destiny to save the world in the form of a long quest and some nice characters. Disappointingly it's a Nickelodeon cartoon, so the animations are nothing flashy, but maybe it was simple to make that the action in it is not too bad and pretty constant too! So that was my whole weekend gone.

I was quite stressed and frustrated this week, but it really felt like as soon as friday afternoon came, it all disappeared and everything was put into perspective again. So this weekend was not bad, though I didn't get much sleep due to 6am starts. Hopefully that will stop soon.

My taste in music has changed this year. Since I've played less games than usual, I haven't come across any nice soundtracks, and the movie ones this year have been meh (though I'm seeing Hans Zimmerman in everything!?). And I've had more clubbing experiences (mostly in NZ) than I've had my whole life. So I really enjoy listening to the radio now, and I've started to make a playlist of...mainstream songs? I'm a big fan of strings in these songs; favourites at the moment are Train - Hey Soul Sister, Jay Sean - Do You Remember and Closer by whoever.

Mum's leaving tomorrow =[. Need to get work hours down asap so I can cope with home stuff, work stuff and uni stuff.

teoh,

looking ahead

I've just found out that blogger does not work very well in opera. Can't move around images and such. Was very disappointed that I had to resort to using internet explorer to fix it up.

Returning from a very frustrating shift at work, and procrastinating off a project report, I am going to write a post about the things I'm looking forward at the moment.

The nearest event is my friend carolyn from New Zealand is coming down from Townsville (I think, or another town around QLD) for easter break. Very excited to see her, although I'm not exactly sure where or what I'm going to do when she's here. Maybe just somewhere nice in the city (yea like I would know where that is), go to the beach or something. Just exciting to catch up. Carolyn spent the first hour of us meeting telling me lies about her life, which she loves referring as 'conning david'. What's it with people and feeding me lies? First the Malaysian wall, now this...

A few birthdays here and there along the way. I've been keeping Amanda's 21st present since I got back from NZ and I'm planning to go hunting for something special in mind later.

Then comes July! Three friends, also from New Zealand, Sarah, Genevieve and Ellen are coming down from Sydney. We plan to spend a few days around here, exploring together since I haven't really explored Melbourne at all haha. Then I'm going off to SA with Sarah to visit some more New Zealand buddies. Ahhh can't wait...

Okay that was enough to motivate me. Starting work now!

teoh,

missed the bullseye, by heaps.

ahh being capped. just a little reminder to be grateful for the little things, like loading up facebook within seconds, not minutes. I will dress up this post when I'm uncapped (hopefully tomorrow), but for now I would like to write something.

I proceeded to do archery last sunday, at the Waverley Archery club, located just near the corner of springvale and wellington road. I had my doubts, especially driving up to the club; I was almost ready to turn around and just forget about it. But I went ahead with it, not expecting much.

And I didn't get much. Haha not your typical feel good story, but it was a rather mediocre experience. The actual archery was pretty fun, once you got into it. I can definitely see it being a national sport, there are all these little things that help you control where your arrow goes, things that you can only master after so many years.
But the actual club was disappointing. There were only three other people beginning with me, none of them exceptionally worth mentioning, and a extra dude who was there for practise. The coach was an old fella, and with no disrespect intended to the eldery, but he went on about nothing for quite awhile. I think my impatience started to show, cause at one point he asked me if I was bored, in which I quickly flashed a smile and said, no not at all!

Not sure I will go back, because the lessons aren't regularly based either, so between work and uni, I won't be able to make most of the lessons. I guess I wasn't really looking for a sport to invest time in, cause let's face it, I don't have much of it to invest with. I was more into meeting new people, but I guess not everyone I meet can be as awesome as the people I met in New Zealand. It was a good effort though, I'm proud of myself.

Plus my bow arm hurts. I'm such a weakling.

teoh,

the flood

so first off, we had a huge storm on Saturday night. Today at uni in Urbanwater, we found out it's a 50-year ARI (average rainfall intensity) storm, which means on a average, we only have such a storm every 50 years! That's pretty significant. Most storm systems are only designed for about 5 - 10 ARI.

I was at work when it happened, so luckily my car was underground, and the window walls were pretty strong. Heard people's windows got smashed and cars got dents, so I count myself pretty lucky in terms of damage. Would've sucked to be in the city though..seriously, if I found my car submerged in the streets, I would just stand there and cry...maybe.

anyway, I wanted to make a small rant here about advancement in technology. Now, I'm definitely for advancement in technology to improve our lives. Being a computer geek, I may be a bit biase in saying computers are OK. But seriously, the internet, while having it's cons, is definitely an improvement in communication.

But nowadays, technology advances not to improve, but to make things easier (which is not necessarily good) and some are just pure waste of resource. 3D movies for one, is something not needed..I mean, yeah it looks a bit better, but I think I can enjoy a movie in 2D and have the same amount of entertainment than in 3D. Plus, it costs a whole lot more.

Computers are getting faster, smaller, more common, but really, is it really necessary to continue improving them? Imagine how much money Apple must spend into coming up with new computers..millions if not billions. And WHAT IS WITH TRYING TO BRING OUT ELECTRONIC BOOKS. That just gets my blood going. Nothing will ever beat a good paperback book. Ugh.

That said, there are good things going for medical and other such things. But in terms of entertainment..when does it stop? We're losing touch with nature and going out. How often do we go out to the parks now? Move to New Zealand, it'll give you perspective (they ONLY just got broadband in most places).

teoh.

the busy start

so yeah, none of those posts that I thought about actually made it here. My bad.

Actually I've been pretty busy at the moment. Just between uni and work this week, I've pretty much had no time for anything else, including studying. Somehow I managed to do 33.5 hours (including this upcoming weekend) at work, and my many hours at uni. I can't wait for next week, which is looking a bit calmer.

assessments and presentations are already due next week, made it through the initial group making week. Pretty happy with my groups, I managed to get 3 different groups. I like to keep them diverse so I can experience different cultures/personalties. I'm actually looking forward to project management this year.

my mum's currently sick at the moment, and I'm trying to help her out as much as I can, but it's tough since I'm hardly at home. One of the things I'm trying to keep with me since New Zealand is gratitude. Gratitude to my family, friends and life in general. I really have things easy, not even comparing to those more unfortunate than me, and I have to be more grateful, rather than always wanting. I really want to do some volunteer work this semester, but I'm finding it hard to make time...

proper posts soon, I promise..

teoh,