Asia 2011 - Singapore

Singapore - 19th Nov - 24th Nov
Our first destination: Singapore! The tiny land of good food, funny accents, strict immigration and a whole lot of fun!

The first three nights were spent at 5footwayinn, a month old hostel that Amanda found on the internet. I was surprised at what a nice place it was. The rooms were definitely very small, but they provided big lockers under the bunk beds and there were nice facilities in the attic (internet, tv etc.). Wrote a review on tripadvisor on this LINK if you want to know more.

Anyway, it was right outside the Chinatown MRT which was really convenient. Chinatown was pretty ordinary in comparison to other countries, though I enjoyed watching other foreigners get chased by stall sales people all the time. I enjoyed the rest of Singpore's city, it seems a nice place to work and live in. Very clean, not too different from Melbourne (though obviously more Asian elements around). The food is definitely good, but not as cheap as other Asian places. We tried some famous chicken rice at one of the remaining hawker centers in Singapore though, that was yum! We didn't get to experience much else though, because our days were pretty packed with activities.

First up, Singapore Zoo & Night Safari. Definitely very fun! The zoo is based on a no barrier open plain concept, so you can view all the animals without any annoying fences blocking your view. They have a large variety of animals and you can feed a select few (like rhinos!) for 10 SGD each. We started off with a great sunny day, but then later got rained on. Amanda bought a adult poncho which seemed to be made for big big adults cause she was almost tripping in it haha. The Wildlife fights back show was pretty lame, definitely aimed at smaller kids. We missed out on seeing the elephant show cause of the rain. But we still had a good time!

We had a bit of dilemma, as it was still raining near the end of the day: the Night Safari is located right next to the Zoo and they are both quite far from the main city. So we weren't sure if we should stick around for 2 hours if the rain would ruin the whole thing. But we were already there and had bought the ticket, so we decided to go for it and play Mario Kart at the near by KFC until Night Safari started.

It was definitely worth it! The Safari is a bit different to the Zoo, as it is more based on sitting tram and going around the park while someone commentates. You get to see some awesome animals, some of them up close! Sustainability is really promoted here as well, which Amanda was especially pleased about. Although we took the tram a 2nd time and got a really lazy girl who didn't really bother to say much about it (angry Amanda after that...).

Sentosa island was the next day! Universal Studios (US) was our main reason to visit, although there were some smaller attractions to go see. We had heaps of fun going on the rides though! We were very lucky with the lines, because it seemed to be a really quiet day at US. All the rides had meters and meters of queue up room. It literally took us a few minutes to walk from the entrance to the actual ride for the Return of the Mummy attraction!! But it meant that we could go on the Battlestar Galactica rollercosters five times! They were seriously really good! The new Transformer ride was also a blast! We spent all day there and then walked around the island until the Crane show started at night (see above). That was definitely worth staying around for and then we had a nice walk back on the beautiful boardwalk bridge to Singapore island.

We then moved to Marina Bay Sands, the most expensive hotel in our trip. For those who don't know it, it's a five star hotel made up of three hotel towers, with a boat like structure on top. Beautiful views from the SkyDeck and there's an Infinity Pool at the top that is engineered to look like it just flows off the edge to 'infinity'.

It was definitely an experience and I loved it. Amanda called me a snob after our visit, but I loved the VIP treatment. Complimentary this & that, exclusive guest access to the pool, room was massive with an equally massive TV, hotel robes and slippers, it was soooo nice. We spent half a day just exploring, as there is a shopping center and a few other tourist attractions around it, including the original Merlion (symbol of Singapore? Mascot?). Worth the price? I would recommend to do it at least once in your life.

Caught up with my Singaporean buddies I had met on my Europe trip, Sarah & Milton. Delightful couple, so cute together, and so friendly. They made my trip in Europe and made my visit to Singapore as well! They took us out for dinner, had yummy seafood (cereal prawns and chili crab) and then took us for a drink afterwards. This is the only time through out the trip when I may have gotten slightly over my alcohol limit. But everyone had fun and made it back safe. Priceless night!

That's about all the highlights for Singpore. KL & Penang next!

Final 2011 words

So it's been awhile, yes? I've been back from holidays for a few days, slowly returning to the normal routine life in Melbourne as the year 2011 comes to an end. I won't go on a huge reflection, but there a few things I want to end on.

There has been a change in my career path already. My previous post denotes my last working day at Civilex. Well, that has become my last working day for awhile at Civilex. A few days before the end of exams, I received an offer from Humes to be part of their graduate program for 2012. After considering many factors, I decided it was too good of an offer to refuse. So, starting 16th Jan, I will be working at Humes :) more details on them later.

Holiday in Asia was awesome. There were a few rough bumps i.e bad weather, getting tonsillitis, passport getting damaged AGAIN, but amanda & I still had an awesome time. I have put together a few photos for blog posting, so I will be doing that in the next few days.

Christmas was held at the Teoh's again this year, with a few absences due to unforeseen circumstances. However, it was still a solid effort by my mum & dad to host, as the very next day we had another 'boxing day' party with more family friends. Look at the huge leg of ham! We're still eating it..

I am also now looking for small studio apartments to rent, as I need to move closer to the west side, so I don't crash and die on the 1 hour drive on the M1.

Anyway, 2011 will be a memorable year for me. The year I turned 21 and tasted two great steaks in two days. The year of great travels, with Canberra, Europe and Asia having felt my presence, which I think is quite an achievement and still have money haha. It was also the year of easing into my profession while dealing with lots of stress at university. It was the sad ending of my time at the CSC, while graduating from university finally (and without failing a single unit!)!

And I am looking forward to 2012! There are many exciting things going for me and I can't wait to experience them all. Happy New Year everyone, have a safe celebration.

teoh,

unemployment or freedom?

So yesterday I did my last day at Civilex for the year. It's a bit strange saying, see ya next year guys! and, have a good Christmas! in November, but there it is. I think I've made a good impression on the company for now and I'm grateful that I have a job secured for next year.

What this means is that I am technically unemployed for the next two months! Or I guess you could just say I'm on holidays for two months. Either way, I have not been without my own income since my first part time job at KFC, in year 10! Since then, I have smoothly transitioned into another job, one after another.

How has this affected my life? Well, for one thing, I should be pretty grateful for all the people who have helped me find employment. Credits go to: Amanda - KFC, Daniel Tung (Family friend) - Baker's Delight, my brother - CSC and finally David Blamey (Uni friend) - Civilex. And my parents for being my taxi driver for the first few jobs. It is both encouraging and discouraging, the former as it proves I have many good friends and family, the latter because I have yet to make it somewhere myself. I'm sure I will get there eventually.

This also means I have had my own income for the past couple of years. I have managed to save some money aside for whatever the future holds, while also spending it to go on amazing holidays and to experience many things. It has made me more responsible in some of my choices in life and given me a greater sense of independence. I believe it has also increased my appreciation of what money can buy and more importantly, what it can't.

I do think it also has had a negative impact on me as well though. My concept of money is limited to the number in my bank account and what I need/want in my life. I don't have a credit cards, I don't take loans, I have yet to make tens of thousands of dollars purchases. I'm not too sure I can handle being in debt for 20 years, because I will literally feel like I have to stay at home and not spend any money until it's paid off. My brother is currently freelancing over in the UK, surviving on whatever work he can get as a graphic designer. I find that way of living scary, but I know I shouldn't and it would definitely be a good experience.

teoh,

late night travel thoughts

So after an exhausting day of exams (two exams in one day really is way too much..), I'm taking a short few days break from studying and looking at travel plans for the upcoming Asia trip. I've been travelling so much the past few years, that I've almost gotten use to the preparation part and actually kinda enjoy sorting everything out.

Looking back at my pre-Europe posts, I remembered I had those five goals of the holiday: 1. decrease anger, 2. decrease employment stress, 3. less worry, more fun, 4. make new friends, 5. new experiences. I never got to reflect on those when I got back (mainly because I've been too lazy to post my Europe adventures STILL). I think in all goals, I more or less succeeded during the trip. It was definitely a relaxing trip, had lots of fun, hardly thought about work/unemployment, made a few good friends and experienced wonderful Europe. What a great trip, hard to believe it was only a few months ago.

The Asia trip ahead is going to be the icing of my year. Everything seems to be concluding well coming the end of November and I'm glad I have this last chance to travel before the year is up. I think I'm going to focus on my career mostly next year and there will be many moving parts to keep me grounded in Australia for a few months at least (moving out, updating all my details as non-student, figuring out fees and covers etc.). So I see this as my last travels for at least a year (but who knows!). And I haven't been back to Malaysia for so long, I feel I should at least stop by and see some relatives.

The above combined with the fact I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong with Amanda makes me excited for this trip. Can't think of a better friend to spend a long holiday with than Amanda and I'm looking forward to all the fun we're going to have.

A part of me is a little nervous, as I've never really been comfortable travelling in Asia. In general, I guess all countries have their dangers (pickpocketers in Europe for example), but Asia just seems the most dodgy of all in my opinion. I also speak a next-to-nothing amount of Chinese (going to hold onto Amanda so much), which just makes my confidence drop so much. But I'm sure it will be OK!

teoh,

Google Extras

Because of the new tab menu screen for Google Chrome, I decided to see what this Google App Store was about. My initial guess was that it was just a online store for apps that you can buy for your web browser. And it is. But much more!

They've actually bundled it all together with additional software, extensions and themes, which is really smart. One of the hardest things about using Chrome was figuring out how to put 'add-ons' or 'extensions'. It took me ages to find out how to do it, so I could have my mouse gestures (which incidentally is really useful: hold down right mouse button, make a shape/gesture and it does a function, such as go back a page, close a tab, refresh etc.). But now it's all in the AppStore, and you just need to click install and it does it all for you.

There are some really useful ones, like currency converters on the fly, games in browsers (Angry Birds), Google App tie ins (Calender, Reader, Gmal) and different themes that can be applied so easy. There isn't a huge range, as compared with Android or Itune stores, but I guess it's pretty early.

The only thing is, once the excitement and wonder had died down, I realised that I didn't quite like the whole idea. The one thing going for Google Chrome is that it's light (software wise). It's one of the, if not the most, fastest browsers on the market. It's simple and elegant. Adding all these extensions don't come without consequences, and the consequence is processing power. Obviously, some of these apps need to run in the background (e.g Gmail icon needs to constantly check if you have mail), so it's running even when you're not doing anything. Have a couple of these, and Chrome is suddenly slowing down not only itself, but your computer in general.

So I installed a few...and then uninstalled them when I saw them eating up my processing power. Maybe when I have settled down, and I have a monster PC, I will use them. But for the humble laptop, I can't afford it.

Still nice advancements. Also, using pictures on blogger is SO much easier now, thank god.

teoh,

P.S Good luck to everyone for exams.

VICTORY!

Today is a day of victory! For I was able to win my car insurance liability dispute. Hurrah!

For those who might've not known, a quick summary of events: basically I had turned left into a Coles Express site, to be impact with another car who had gone onto the road shoulder to by pass the line to get to a slip-lane after the Coles Express store. What followed was about $4000 worth of damages for my poor SAM and insurance, while first inclined to not assign liabilities to me, then turned around and said that it was not completely clear and liability was currently sitting with me.

Not to go too deep into the debates and arguments, after about 6 weeks, the claim is finally resolved in my favour. This has been hanging over my head for so long, cause it's $900 excess that I cannot afford at this point after recently quitting the CSC and cutting back on work hours. Not to mention savings for my Asia holiday trip.

What I would like to record are the steps I took to win the argument, so that others may also learn from my Insurance Turnabout episode (I've also been recently playing Phoenix Wright Attorney on NDS emulator hehe OBJECTION!). Basically, here is what I've learnt:

At the scene
It is important to document as much as you can on the scene. Photos are the most valuable things you can get, so hopefully your phone can take photos. Take photos of 1. your car damages 2. other party's damages 3. location, specifically road markings. These photos will most likely only be used as evidence if the case goes to court, which is very unlikely. But they will help you remember the incident and what has happened as weeks go by (and insurance claims can take a very long time!).

Also, obviously take all the other parties details. Name, phone number, licence plate (take a photo too), address and insurer. Be polite and make sure the other is OK. It never hurts to be nice, as most of the arguing will be spent with insurance. Don't spend time arguing about who is right or not, as ultimately that is all decided by insurance. NEVER admit that you are in the wrong, even if you're pretty sure you are. Until you have thoroughly looked at the road situation, you may be in the right.

Witnesses are good to have. In my case, I did not have any, so I'm not too sure how involve they become in drawn out cases, but I'm pretty sure they would be very helpful. Most cars won't stop to help you, so if you know someone saw something, try and flag them down safely and grab their contact details at least.

Obviously if you're car is not drivable, you will need to contact off-road assistance. If people are hurt, I believe you need to call the police and obviously any medical assistance if required. This falls outside of my scope.

Notifying Insurance
From my experience and other's, it best to contact insurance as soon as possible. Get the ball rolling, especially if your car needs repairs. Before you call them, take a few minutes to collect yourself and prepare what your statement will be. The guy I spoke to in this incident was very helpful in phrasing what I want to say. Some insurance people may not be as good.

What is important is that your story matches 1. the evidence/damages and 2. road situation. Remember, the insurance was NOT with you at the time of accident. So while it may be obvious to you, keep in mind that these people may not even drive in your area. Keep it simple and to the facts. They do use Google maps, so have a look yourself before you call.

If you are not sure if you are at fault, another thing you can do to assert your position is call your local police station. They enforce all road rules, do NOT call VicRoads for clarification of road rules/markings. The police will have a traffic department that will confirm whether or not something is legal or not.

In the long run
Never give up. My friend William gave me this piece of advice: Insurance companies are bastards and will 90% try and take your money. Don't feel intimidate or flustered when they call you up to tell you are at liability. Simply ask the reasons why and logically dispute it. Don't get defensive, just point out the facts that you believe makes the other party liable and ask them to explain why this isn't valid.

Insurance companies expect people to dispute when they are at liability. I was told to fill in a mailed traffic diagram to explain what happened, which was good as I was able to more clearly explained what happened. I believe this is what tip the decision in my favour. I described a situation that clearly saw the other party's car leaving off the road, based on the evidence that the speed that the car hit me at (shown by the damages), it couldn't of been directly behind me. As the Coles Express entrance was only just after the single lane, the other party must've left the road and therefore illegally created their own lane. (TAKE THAT!)

Do everything and then forget about it
What I wasn't able to do. Dealing with insurance is stressful and requires a lot of patience. Whenever you are frustrated with the situation, just remember this: What can be done to see that the situation is turned out in your favour? Have you done it? If you have, you cannot do anymore, so forget about it.

This has turned into a very long post, so I will stop there. Goes without saying that I am very relieved and happy =]

teoh,

surviving the week

I am digging blogger's new layout/theme. In fact, I am digging all of the google transformation.

I am not digging the new facebook's privacy invasion.

**

I have never really liked the phrase TGIF. But today, after surviving two weeks of home alone, week of uni, multiple stress events and three days of full time work in Hopper's so far away Crossing, T.G.I.F.

Today I came home to a letter addressed to my mum, naturally I opened it (don't worry, I have been instructed to open all mail, I'm not a freak). It was from the Metropolitan Police, apologising and sympathising that she had become a victim of crime.

Victim of crime? VICTIM OF CRIME!?

My first thought was, no kidding, was my mum attacked before she left and never told me about it? Then I realised it was the Metro Police in London, West End. Then I remembered my family telling me about how my mum lost her wallet in London and suspected someone taking it from her bag. But never fear, the Metro Police has offered support for any mental or physical trauma she might have incurred and some local information about how to be safer. How nice.

Have a good Grand Final weekend everyone (that's all they talk about at work).

teoh,

many many bytes..

from whatsabyte.com:

Exabyte: An Exabyte is approximately 1,000 Petabytes. Another way to look at it is that an Exabyte is approximately one quintillion bytes or one billion Gigabytes. There is not much to compare an Exabyte to. It has been said that 5 Exabytes would be equal to all of the words ever spoken by mankind.

Yottabyte: A Yottabyte is approximately 1,000 Zettabytes. It would take approximately 11 trillion years to download a Yottabyte file from the Internet using high-power broadband. You can compare it to the World Wide Web as the entire Internet almost takes up about a Yottabyte.

hahaha, 11 trillion years to download a yottabyte! amusing.

teoh,

circular wounds

here's a random post for you.

I cut myself with my razor the a few weeks ago, right in the corner of my mouth. It was only a small cut, but because it was in the corner of my mouth, it stretched every time I opened my mouth (to speak, eat, brush my teeth etc.). So it eventually became a circular wound.

Because of the constant flexing of my mouth, the wound would never really heal properly. The initial um, I dunno, regrowth of skin tissue would begin but then it would split again when I opened my mouth. It also hurt. I applied my usual treatment for cuts (aloe jelly), but to no avail.

Eventually, excess skin built up around the wound, creating a small mound of skin, making it look like a big pimple in the corner of my mouth. It took a weekend of not going out and not talking (no one at home to talk to anyway) for the skin tissue to finally stretch over the wound chasm and allow the wound underneath heal.

It made me think about something I read in a book about back in the olden times, if you got a wound from a spear, they would actually cut the wound bigger so it wasn't circular. This allowed it to heal faster apparently. Wondering if that would've helped, I googled it but alas found nothing.

It was a very frustrating wound. Doctor Marco, any advice (that's not sarcasm?)?

teoh,

leaving the csc

It is with much sadness that I announce my resignation of my position at the CSC....is what I wrote in my resignation letter.

WOOHOO! Haha, well not really. I've decided to quit my three and half year old job due mostly to time issues. Had a huge week (gee it's been awhile since I've updated) involving large amount of uni reports due, construction work, Monash Pharm ball, and CSC shifts and it was just getting a bit too much. Money is not too much of an issue, as my construction job pays pretty well and I am doing 18 hours a week there anyway. Now that I've quit, I have forgotten what it's like to have nights and weekends free.

A rather blurry rotation shot of the CSC.

I will seriously miss the CSC. The job was easy and at times, fun. Mostly due to the amazing people that I've met there and I will hopefully try to maintain some good friendships that have come out of there. They gave me a nice send off, including a nice card and $100 chadstone gift card :) Thanks guys!

In other news, I was given a verbal job offer for full time position at Civilex next year! Yay! I guess I now have to believe that things do work out eventually (I feel a told you so from Tracy coming..). That being said, you also have to allow opportunities to happen (my being nice enough to fix someone's computer :D).

In other other news, me and Amanda have booked most of our accommodations and flights for our asia trip at the end of the year. I'm super excited; I've always wanted to go to Hong Kong with Amanda and now we're finally going to get the chance to go. Our travel plans are Singapore, KL, Penang, Langkawi and Hong Kong.

Even more exciting is that we moved our accommodations around so that we could stay at the Marina Bay Sands for two night! For those who don't know it, it's a 5 star hotel with a ship on top of three separate hotel 'columns'. I've read a few bad reviews about the service though, but hopefully it'll still be an experience !

That's all for now I think...til next time! Hopefully with this extra time I can make more blog post :P (doubt it).

teoh,

*sweatdrop

Taking a break from stressing out.

Okay, back to it. There's too much to be done!

Dad's birthday

Happy birthday dad! Getting older, but at least you're still very fit!

*BTW: see how magie's foot is just about to go into dad's green dessert? Just after this picture, she kicks it off the table hahaha. Luckily the glass didn't break and pudding just fell out intact!

We went to Wheeler's hill hotel bistro to eat. It was a very good dinner! I had the special steak and lobster for $29. Not a big fan of lobster, but it was nice. Steak was cooked quite well as well. Finally got my Heiniken (haven't had one since Amsterdam) and got another blue something for free with a newspaper coupon. We also got free calamari through coupons. Bless my mum for keeping coupons haha.

teoh,

Magical musicals

Okay guys, I know I just did a post and the second post may be too much for you to handle, but I implore to my loyal readers, just bear with this unexpected but hopefully pleasant surprise. I was going to include this in my soon-to-be-but-forever-delayed London post, but I simply have to post something about it here.

I saw three musicals while I was in London, which were, in the order that I saw them in: Lion King, Wicked and Phantom of the Opera. Before I get into the actual musicals themselves, I will talk a little about musicals in London.

For those who don't know, London is littered with theatres. It's one of London's biggest revenues and there's a huge industry behind. Not like here, where

TicketTek (boooo) and TicketMaster (boooo) control most of the plays in Melbourne, there are literally dozens of outlets where you can buy tickets for shows. Most of them offer discounted tickets, in which they try and sell last minute tickets or restricted views. Seeing a show almost seems like seeing a movie over there, but no where near as cheap (or should I say 'cheap').

Official tickets range from 60 pounds to as much as 200 pounds. Discounted tickets can get as low as 20 pounds. Pounds = AUS, roughly 1.5x. Now, my opinion on show tickets is this: I hate discounted tickets. You don't know what you're really going to get, because the people sell them really well (or just blatantly lie in your face).

For Wicked, I bought one of these discounted tickets, in which the lady said they were midway, dress circle. For those who don't know, theatres usually go in the order: stalls, dress circle, grand circle, balcony - from ground up. So I thought, middle row, dress circle not bad for 30 pounds. Turns out the theatre for Wicked only has stalls and the dress circle. So I was pretty much up the back, which while it wasn't completely a show breaker, it was still annoying. Now why would you pay so little, and give up enjoyment for a show you obviously want to see (otherwise what are you doing there?). So I like to buy with having mind enjoying show the best way possible. Lion King, me and tracy paid 65 pounds for 2nd row dress circle, and it was awesome.

Anyway, enough about tickets. The shows themselves:

Lion King

Easily the best thing I've ever seen. The costumes themselves are beautiful, the masks that they use to portray the characters that they're playing are magnificent. The music, which we all know and love, is as great as ever and the extra pieces they added in a pretty good too (with a few exceptions in my opinion). The translation from movie to stage is excellent, it really is a different experience but the whole story line is still there. The whole thing is so good, by the end of the first scene, the epic Circle of Life, I was satisfied. 65 pounds well paid for one scene. In short, it was BRILLIANT. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Can't recommend enough. Stampede music and scene was my favourite, so epic.

Wicked

Had slightly distant seats as mentioned above, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this show. I had only very little idea of what it was about, and was really surprised at how much I loved the story. It relates to the behind the scene and is the prequel of the Wizard of Oz. The characters are cute and lovable, the songs are really nice and I've been singing along with them in my car for the past 2 weeks. People like Amanda will really love this show. Also highly recommend (and for the love of theatre, get good seats).

No picture =[

Phantom of the Opera

This one was slightly different in style, and an interesting deviation from the two above. Followed the storyline of the movie (from what I can remember anyway) pretty well and I did enjoy it. However, not sure if opera singing is my thing, cause I don't think I appreciated it as much. The songs in this one was very much more solo style, showing off some good talent. They had some nice special effects too, like fire balls (oooOOoo) and gunshots (everyone jumped, really unexpected). Recommend if you liked the movie and the songs. Theatre was kinda small though, my legs were pretty cramped.

So that's it. If you see a crazy asian boy driving, bopping his head and yelling out gibberish and bashing his wheel in some kinda of stampede pattern, that will be me. Makes the drive to Hopper's Crossing easier though =]

teoh,

Not convinced

So I've finished two full time days at Civil EX and thought I'd just give my impressions of the place and what I do there.

Civil EX is a construction contractor company, that is fast expanding, getting more and more staff and projects. Basically I'm known there as an intern/student, just helping out my supervisor Matt in Estimating. Estimating is where clients send their initial tenders/plans to us and we estimate the amount of money and work that Civil EX would need to do to take upon the job. We then send back the numbers to the client, and if we're one of the lowest estimates, they will sign on with us (or maybe there's reputation also involved, I'm not entirely sure).

Matt's gotten me doing some document preparation, a LOT of printing and sorting into folders etc. I really hate printers now, I've had one jam on me a few times. The interesting things I got to do was actual estimating on some plans using a computer program and getting to know how the place works.

The people there are nice, but older than me obviously. I'm not too sure how much relationships I can establish being there only one or two days a week. It's too early to tell what future I have at Civil EX, but part time work is looking pretty good! The drive isn't as bad as I thought it would be either.

Captain America Movie

"I've just finished kicking Captain America's butt, here's the shield as proof"
Iron man still beats the crap out of any marvel movie I've seen.

Maybe I'm just too harsh, but this is another mediocre movie for me. In fact, it doesn't feel like a lot of effort was put into it (not to dismiss the work they probably actually DID put into it, but that's just the impression I get), an almost 'oh let's make captain america because we need him for the avengers movie' feel.

That's to say, it wasn't entirely not enjoyable. The beginning of the movie was enjoyable, a scene where bravery was demonstrated certainly made a good impression of character depth. I appreciated all the links to other movies, such as Stark appearances and the tie onwards to avengers. There was a sense of lacking during the 'putting together Captain America' for me, nothing like what Iron Man had when he was building his suit. No real exploration of his new found powers or anything like that. Besides becoming really buff, they didn't really show off his speed, his strength or shield in such a way that was a definite link to Captain America. Movies exaggerate men strength all the time! Show me that this is different!

Slight spoilers ahead

And then once Captain America is establish, it's all just explosions and gun shots (all which miss Captain America through terrible marksmanship) with no narrative. Character depth is all gone. All I know about the 'personal' squad that Captain America choose is they all like to drink and one's the token asian guy. No names or anything. The storyline is so terribly simple and predictable. There's a point in the movie where I wanted to stand up and scream ITS A TRAP in my best ackbar voice. A girl kisses the hero just as he prepares to jump on a plane to save the world; I'm thinking, what if the plane left while you did that? GG world for romance. But that would've been more entertaining than the completely anti climactic 'boss' fight.

AND BY THE WAY. How does Captain America know how to fight? He wasn't trained in combat, guns, flying ships, driving bikes or any of that. How does throw the shield so well and catch it so well?

Not too sure why people said it was on par with Iron Man - for me, definitely not. I know Xuan, Edward and Marco enjoyed it, but me and amanda remain unconvinced. But it was definitely better than Thor *snigger*.

teoh,

How things change

I was watching the news today with my mum, and the weather report came on. Water storage levels are at an amazing 60%. Well, maybe it's not suppose to be amazing, but I'm sure for most of my friends it must sound amazing.

I'm referring to the times when we would open the herald sun in our free periods at school, to watch ling, sidney and matt tear through the brain teasers, but would first notice the little blue rectangle at the front (or was it the inside of the front page?) that would tell us our dire our water situation was today. 21.5%. 16%. Down down the levels went (just like prices are down at coles :D (we all hate that ad, mostly because there are giant hands pointing down all over at our workplace) anyway I digress).

And now, here we are, four odd years later and levels are back up. I have a feeling I'm more water conscience because of that water drought that I grew up. But the point is, how things change over time. Look at the graph above!

Anyway, I know I promised Europe posts, and I do have London almost done in a word doc. I want to photoshop some photos together though, cause blogger is really bad at showing photos.

In other news!

For those who don't know, I have gotten part time work at a civil construction firm! Hurray! The firm is called Civil EX, and unfortunately based in Hopper's Crossing. So yes, I will be making the long one hour and a bit trek across the west gate bridge to go there. Could be worse (like not having a job and staying at the call center forever worse!!!).

They pay pretty decently, 22 an hour, and the experience is worth way more than that. They have also mentioned full time work after uni, so it's something to fall back on! I've committed to every Thursday, and maybe Friday's when uni workload allows. I've also arranged to cut back on CSC hours to a mere 12 hours a week =] I start on Thursday, so I'll let you know how I go.

How I got the job? Well, it was (as is everything in my very early career life) by referral of course. My uni friend David Blamey mentioned me to one of the owner's of the company (there are three, and some history behind which I might share later) when he asked if he knew anyone who wanted to do part time work while studying. The funny thing is, we are not best pals or anything. I first met him in second year and helped him out with some computer stuff, so I'm good friends with him and his group. We help each other out with uni projects too. But I did not expect him to go out of his way to think of me when this opportunity came up. Just goes to show that if you treat your friends right, they will return it!

My dad mentioned that I have a pretty balanced life style now, and I have to agree. Hopefully badminton will continue to be regular on Sunday's and I'm sure I'll be able to cram more than one social event now and then. Things are looking pretty good.

teoh,

happy birthday mum

and plus, happy birthday mum =] I appreciate you more every day.

the end to a long holiday

So my long long holiday is finally over. And what a holiday it was.

I do have a draft post saved on blogger, with some quick notes about my days around Europe. I will probably refine them and put pictures with it in the next couple of days (hopefully). The holiday was awesome, so much more new experiences under my belt. I really enjoyed my time in London especially, seeing my sister and shopping around.

The snow trip was also great fun, another post to come. Unfortunately, I think the jet lag and large amount of exhaustion made me unfit for company with my good friends, as I slept most of the time when not out in the snow and probably seemed in a bad mood (actually I was so tired I felt very little).

The next couple of days will see some changes and some rejuvenation to my life. My brother has left for the UK, so I am officially the only sibling left in the house. I have some plans to move some things around, hopefully for the better. I also have some other things I want to bring back from my time in Europe and incorporate into my life.

But first, rest.

teoh,

In parii

Greetings from Paris! I realized I havent been online for awhile , but I figured this is a good thing. There were a few opportunities to get online but I did want to go out of way to get on. Nice break from dependancy on the Internet. I gave in when my friend offered his iPad for me to use with the hotels free wifi. Pardon any grammar or typos for this post.

It's two days away from the end of the tour. I wont go into too much details, as I'm pretty tired and we're getting up early to go to the Lourve. but it has been really fun. As I type I'm sitting next to my new good friends, Jo and nardia and a singapore couple milton and Sarah, both who remind me of Jason a lot. I'm going to write out and post pictures when i get back to London of what I've been up to. But have been seeing many grand and historical things in Europe, it's amazing.

Mainly just wanting to say im alive and well, no dramas yet. Should be arriving back in London around 6pm on Saturday. Haven't done much shopping so that's what I'll be doing for the four days I'm in London.

Ciao,
Teoh

4 days on tour

this was a photo that was sent from the heineken brewery and is the only photo I can currently access with ease.

so it's day..4? now on the tour. It's such a crazy tour that I don't even count the time passing by days, I count them by the cities I've been. So far I have covered the white dover cliffs of england, pass through france and Belgium, finally arriving at Amsterdam. From there, we went to Rhine Valley, and then onto Munich, where I am currently sitting in a stair well with a borrowed laptop, as the wifi doesn't get to my room.

I've done some wine tasting, beer drinking, sight seeing and sleeping on the coach. I didn't get to get any hashies in Amsterdam unfortunately. I chickened out the first time I saw a coffee shop, and then I didn't get a chance to go again. The Heinikin tour was really good though, I really enjoyed learning about the beer. Wine tasting at the Rhine Valley was quite nice too. Otherwise, it's been really great so far all the things I've seen. Amsterdam has a great bike riding system, something they need in Melbourne city. Rhine Valley is beautiful and now I know a tiny bit more about wine. Walked the same beer halls as Hilter and drank 1L of beer at once, and spent the rest of the city walk a bit tipsy, probably the most tipsy I've ever been with alcohol.

Let me tell you about my fellow tour travelers. A big chunk are Aussie, mostly from Melbourne or Brisbane. One or two Americans, some from Canada, a pair from Singapore. They're all around 21 - late 20's. There are hardly any guys on this tour! There's about 7 of us, 4 having partners, 2 guys traveling together, and me. This means I get a room to myself every hotel so far! Personally, I prefer it that way; I'm picky with my life style.

Now, being one of the few single males, you'd think that's good news for me. Unfortunately, it's much harder to join groups, as most of them are girl groups. Girls tend to stick to each other much harder, so I've had to spread my efforts around a bit. I've managed to make a few friends that I can hang out with on the tour, so all is well in that department. Chances don't look good on the romance side unfortunately.

Anyway, I'm going to try and make more friends. So I'll leave it at that. Just letting my loyal friends that read my blog that I'm alive and well. Haven't lost anything yet, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Again, hope everything is well back home =]

teoh,

whirlwind london

just a keep post, before I need to go pack.

The past few days in London have been pretty fun. I must say, I'm pretty lucky that Tracy was also in London, as I would've not had half the amount of fun I've had with someone to share it with. Not only does it provide motivation, but also helps with picture taking and appreciation of what you're doing.

So I've seen more of local London, eating some pretty good food and drinking some unusual drinks (pimms & green is good smoothies). I've seen more famous landmarks, including the royal parks (got lost in hyde park cause it's that big), buckingham palace, pretty fountains etc. etc. Went to the British museum today, which had so much history, I couldn't keep my attention span long enough to appreciate it all.

The Tube system. I originally thought it was brilliant. Gives quite a bit of access to anywhere in central London, unlike our crappy City loop. Also, the Oyster card works quite well..in terms of performance. However, it's SO EXPENSIVE. I've already eaten through 30 pounds on my oyster card. Sadness.

Saw the LION KING MUSICAL yesterday. And man, it was worth the flight over. It was AWESOME. Brilliant. Best thing I've ever seen. Beautifully done. I can't really describe how good it was. After the first act, with all sorts of animals and the music coming together, I was so satisfied already by the end of Circle of Life.

Anyway, I've been so tired, I decided to take this afternoon off. But now my sister is making me go pack, for my whirlwind tour around Europe!

hope everyone is well back at home.

teoh,

I have arrived

So I have arrived in London OK. No luggage lost, passport still on me, things are still good!

The flight and transit times are death though. I am already cringing at the thought of the return flight. My travels to London was broken into three sections: Melb to Brunei, Brunei to Dubai (which is catchy) and Dubai to London. Each transit was about 7-8 hours. Each.

The first flight was okay, as I had all three seats to myself. It still takes a lot of trial and error to find the best sleeping position though. Dad, I don't know what's so good about these new planes. They may be new, but they're using old entertainment equipment. No touchscreens, just tiny screens couples with the old handsets I remember from Malaysia airlines. The movies are not that recent, although I watched Unknown which was pretty good.

It was easy to know that I was in Brunei when I stepped off the plane (besides the captain telling us we had arrived in Brunei) because the humidity smacked me in the face as soon as I walked off the plane (and into the bus that then drove very slowly to the airport). I bought a magazine and read until it was time to get on another 'new' airplane (which had the exact same old equipment and movies, yay). The second and third part of the flight was pretty hard to take. I sat next to these nice Brits/Indians ladies, who had come back from a jungle trek in Malaysia.

I decided to try and talk to them, made some nice conversation and got some advice about London. One of the sisters was a underground attendant, and rewarded my slightly exaggerated enthusiasm for riding the Tube for the first time with a exclusive Oyster card, which was one of the 25000(?) made to commemorate Prince whatishisname and Kate's marriage. Pity it doesn't work. But apparently I can sell it for 45 quid (which apparently is slang for pounds) on ebay. At this point, I felt like I was in an RPG. Hit X to interact with the character next to you, and some NPCs may reward you with random loot. Yay for my video game training.

Anyway, I arrived at the airport, pretty scared as I had no idea what I was doing. I realised I had not written down Tracey's apartment address, just memorized the station I needed to get to (which was so (not) helpful). I bought a sim card from a VENDING MACHINE??? Did not realise it did not come with any credit and didn't see a convenient way to top up. So I called Tracey on at a payphone, and said to meet me at the station in however long it would take me to get there.

If you're thinking this sounds like a very vague plan, then you are correct. Luckily I managed to get to the station and Tracey was waiting for me and saved me. So now I'm in her apartment (after cooking and cleaning her breakfast!?), typing on her horrible ACER laptop, half deluded with lack of sleep / sleeping in a upright position during my TWENTY FOUR HOURS travel. Like really? People keep saying how it's a small world. LIES. Otherwise I would've arrived YESTERDAY.

Anyway, as you can see, no anger has left me yet. I might grab a nap and then plan with Tracey where we're going to go exploring. Yup.

teoh,

btw, my phone number is 07554615693. For all those who miss me so much. :D

my holiday aims

so, two sleeps away from going to europe and these are my aims for my holiday.

1. decrease amount of anger inside of me.

2. decrease employment related stress

3. forget about worrying and focus on enjoying

4. make some new friends

5. experience as many new things as possible

if I can achieve these five things, this holiday will be a success.

teoh,

unshackle those chains

Okay, so it's been a while. Let's update.

I am currently a free man, finished exams so early that almost none of my friends want to talk to me. That's cool guys, no hard feelings AT ALL (caps for emphasis, not subtle hate). What am I using this free time that would've otherwise been used to stress continuously for multiple exams over the next two weeks? Stressing out about other things of course!

At the current stage of my life, I have come to realise that there will always be something to stress about, plan about, something unknown to come. My carefree university life is rapidly coming to end (at least I hope so anyway) and the next step is into the bigger world of not just the workforce, but boundless opportunities of things to do. Move overseas? Travel overseas? Save for a house? Buy a new car (because I've once again scratched poor SAM on the right side bumper =( )? All of those things are now possible (technically), whereas I'm used to dusting my hands of the final assignment and settling in for some holiday fun.

These fairly mundane thoughts aside, I am actually just working a lot and planning for Europe/Snow. In case I have not mentioned this in the past few blog posts, I am actually leaving for Europe on the 22nd of June for around three weeks, flying back to arrive on the 16th July, and then heading off to the snow for three days on the 18th. Currently, I'm more excited for the snow, most likely cause it's with my close friends and I get to do snowboarding which I've never done before. Though I must say, booking accommodation and transport has been the bane of my life for the past few weeks. To prevent any misfortune on the actual trip however, I will wait until AFTER trip to write my displeasure.

But don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to Europe; I guess I'm getting pre-departure jitters as I usually do. Europe is such a far away country, it's almost more like a concept than a real thing to me. I'm a bit worried about how the tour will be, but I think as long as I'm open minded, I should have a blast. Seeing my sister will also be fun =] and LIOOOOOOON KING!! I've been sore about missing out this musical since I missed the high school excursion in year 9? And now I get to see it in the best place ever (well apparently LA was the best, butlookoverthere!).

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll survive 6 days straight of full time work. I think the greatest motivation of finding a job is so I can quit that place at the end of the year. Yes, the location is great, the job is pretty easy, the money is good, I understand all of that. But you don't understand the frustration, the crap that goes on, the way the place gets to you while you're there. I do not feel respected for my three years of loyalty, I do not feel valued by my employers. Please let me find a job soon. Otherwise I might strangle myself with my headset.

I've seen both X-men First Class and Super 8 since I've finished exams. I won't bother to do a proper review, bar saying that they were both entertaining and not too bad. But I bring it up because neither movie was worth the expensive tickets we paid. In fact, I'm pretty sure no movie will ever be worth the $15 dollar ticket we all pay at the movies now. Food, yes. Oil, yes. Why the heck are movie tickets going up for!? You are driving me into piracy or bankruptcy, either way we all lose. I'm thinking of creating Teoh Cinemas and bringing back old ticket prices and making a fortune. I'll set it up next to our hospital that we're going to make. And I'll sell pies for <$4.

I am sorry for the lack of exciting pictures.

teoh,

Friday Night Lights

I need a break from FYP, so I'm going to blog a bit.

I've been using a TV show Friday Night Lights as my breaks/relaxation time during this busy period. And it's the best thing I've ever watched. Not that I should hype it up or anything, because to many people, it's going to be a pretty ordinary drama TV show. Based around a small town called Dillon and their strong community culture built up around their American Football team, the Dillion Panthers, the show follows primarily around the Taylor family. Coach Eric Taylor is the main star, trying to take the team to State Championship. But obviously some of the main players and their stories are also told. The drama tries to address real issues that are happening in America, such as drug use, racial issues, team spirit, believing in yourself, life in general etc.

So what's so good about it? I find it so inspiring and touching. I don't know if that's cause of the acting, the way they film it or what, but I have connected with so many of the characters, so easily. Their troubles also seem to remind me that things I get frustrated about are nothing compared to what's out there. Family and friends are the best thing in the world. The human conscience, the difference between heart and mind. It's sooo good.

When it comes down to it, it really is just another drama show. But I love it! Five seasons in total, although season 2 was chopped in half due to writer's strike at the time.

BTW, saw Thor yesterday with Amanda and Edward. It's very so so. Disappointed. And I had to pay extra to see it cause they cancelled the 2D session we were going to see.

teoh,

Mobile post

And there you go. Blogger app :)

So I'm using my new Google nexus phone to write this post.

After finally taking the plunge, I have a new phone! I got it on $29 cap with vodafone, for 2 years unfortunately. I'm not thrilled to be locked into such a disreputable company but there it is. So far, 3 has tried to overcharge my last bill and I'm expecting something to go wrong with my first bill. Telephone providers. What can you do?

But the phone itself is great. It's one of the newer phones and comes stock with the latest software to boot. Over the past week, I can say I am enjoying the phone immensely. No real faults with it so far and I am fast becoming comfortable with the style of integration of multiple services. The phone is very smooth despite being only one core lol, and android is very nice, once you get used to it. I have yet to root it (another form of jailbreak) but not sure I want to yet. I can't be bothered.

I think the feature I love the most is communication centralization. It allows me to have constant access to my multiple email accounts, which I am finding in these modern times, a crucial communication tool, especially at the moment with grad apps and project announcements at uni. It works great and easy to set up. I haven't noticed a huge drain in my data usage yet. Apps like WhatsApp, facebook, vodafone usage and dropbox all help keeping all the important things I constantly check on the one device. I think I've definitely noticed a drop in computer use, cause I no longer need to turn it on just to check things and then get distracted with other things!

If there was one thing I would share from this new phone experience, is this advice to new phone shoppers: don't over-research. You can constantly read reviews, get people opinions, test a phone for a few minutes and repeat over and over, but nothing will compare to actually getting the phone. There are features you're not going to like that you won't find out about until you actually use it, and vice versa. As long as the phone roughly fits your basic needs, just get the phone after a week or two of research.

teoh,

It seems like everyone is feeling a bit of pressure at the moment. I think it's the stage in our lives where we are being forced to make a life changing decision and we're trying to find the right answer for ourselves. Life seems to be getting more difficult as it goes on.

I've written three or four paragraphs, and then deleted them after this. I just want to remember this point in this year, how bleak and hellish the next few weeks seem, and be able to look back and laugh. Or cry.

teoh,

easter break fun

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you are all having a good long weekend.

I was feeling a little burnt out at the end of last week, so I decided that I would take Friday - Sunday off completely from any university related work. It was a good plan, I feel much better and have been smashing grad applications all day. I think my company count is up to 20's so hopefully one of them will want to hire me.

Amanda's birthday was last Friday, so happy birthday to my best friend (you are now older than me, hah!). It was a good night of old high school friends (+mich) and rounds of classic games of mafia and jin.

Went to Bright on a loooong family drive on the Saturday. 4 hour drives are killers. But I will always remember Bright for the gorgeous fresh air and the nice creek that I was dying to play in.

I'm feeling quite tired of social outings now actually. I'm so ready just to stay at home for the rest of the week. Have quite a bit of uni work to catch up on, so good timing!

teoh,

party all night long

So last weekend was party after party after..nope, actually it was just those two. Cat's & Ann's 21st birthday parties were both on the same day, one after another.

Catherine's was a Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter high class tea party, located at One Tree Hill picnic grounds, a rather clever theme I thought. I was told to wear a touch of 'mad hatter'-ness or wacky, and my family helped my put together this strange costume with a bowler hat and giant gold ribbon as my bowtie. And then no one else dressed up =_= except tim and his polka dot shirt. Grr. Haha, but it was pretty fun.

Cat & Lauren put a lot of effort into setting everything up! It looked beauuutiful! The classy food was delish and the hot tea came in handy as it was quite cold up in the Dandenong ranges. We had a good time! Happy birthday tomorrow Cat!

And then it was on to Ann's birthday. Boy I was stressing out on this one, as I had a rather ambitious project to complete and it was all done rather last minute. I had recruited my brother to help me create a life size cut out of one of Ann's many Korean actor/singer idols, so I could present it to her as her boyfriend! It turned out very well thanks to my brother's high creative talent.

The party was held at Gertrude Hotel in Fitzroy, which was quite a nice venue. I'll be curious to know what the bill was, but it was well staffed and very neat. It was a very nice turn out and I enjoyed the night. Dave used his magical talents to make a fantastic performance with his guitar as usual. I wasn't very happy with my speech at all, but Kim Bum made up for it and saved my ass. Happy birthday Ann.

teoh,

To go or not to go!

I am in the midst of planning my July holidays, and it's quite stressful/indecisive. When I found out we actually get four weeks of holidays, and I only had one exam (increasing chances of even more holidays), I was so determine to go over seas. No way I want to spend my last real holiday at home doing the usual, and especially not at work.

So since my sister is on her last year in the UK, I thought it'd be a good time to go to Europe! I haven't been before, and I'm quite eager to experience it. Since I'm not a big traveler, I'm aiming for about just over two weeks. I know it's not as long as most people do it, but I don't like to travel for too long!

Since I'm going alone, I was also thinking of doing a tour, Contiki or TopDeck. They have some nice ones that give me a taste of all over the place for about 12 days, for around 2k. Accommodation is hotels, which is nice and it contains most of the travel fees and some meals/activities. So I'm pretty happy with that.

HOWEVER. Now I'm having a financial crisis. Because flight tickets are ridiculously expensive. I was expecting around 2k, but the cheapest I can find at the moment is 2.6k with Singapore airlines. =_= what the hell. so that's like 4.8k together with the tour, and then +spending money, I'm looking at well over 6k.

I really want to go, but now I'm not sure if it's worth it/can afford it. On top of that, we're also going to the snow that holidays too. Eep.

Decision decisions. And prices only get higher from here on!

teoh,

=_=

I have bitten off a bit more than I can chew at the moment.

Stress!

belated wishes

So with all that's going on, I haven't had time to update a few birthday celebrations I've been attending.

First up, Jason Ling! Happy 21st birthday buddy. Even though you didn't have a birthday celebration, you still get a mention, cause you're that cool! Actually, cause you're such a close friend of mine, I do want to say something!

Thanks for your friendship since grade 7, it's been good times all the way. In fact, I cannot recall a time when we've been at odds with each other. That itself kinda tells what kind of friend you are: always supportive! We've shared many good memories together and you've also taught me many things on the way. The best thing about you is that you're the best kind of company anyone could want! It's no wonder you're really popular nowadays. All the best.

Secondly, Marco Kwok! Happy 21st birthday to you good sir. We all went to Langham hotel for lunch buffet, and I was very impressed. The service and presentation were all up to the price, so I was quite happy by the experience. Not somewhere I'll go often though!

Marco, you've been my longest friend to date now (you beat dave by a few months? or a year?)! Even back then you were smart, so I knew you were going to go to elite places in the future. Now look at you, Dr.Kwok! I think the most impressive thing about is how hard you work. Not just study wise though, but life in general. I think back to the quiet timid boy you were in year 7, to now the confident guy who unfortunately still stabs me in the back with sarcasm now and then, and I think of the effort you put in to change yourself for the better. I applaud you and to the result. Good on you. I also put up this terrible photo of you as revenge for all the times you've annoyed me. =]

Next is Willie's and Danny's 21st! Unfortunately I don't have a picture for either of their's, but they were good celebrations to catch up with their 'crew'. Danny's was near Crown Casino, and we had the honour of dining at Willie's family's little restaurant for his! Even though we are quite distant, I'm glad I went and refresh those old friendships. Some people should never be forgotten, and although there were times when it was rough, they were still my first group of friends in high school and included me. Cheers to our friendship! (even though they don't read here =])

And finally, last but not least, Sharon and Grace's birthday! I was quite swamped with work last week, so thankfully Amanda organised something for us to gather up and celebrate these two strong girls birthdays! They went to Zest at Glenny, and I joined later on. Each one I think has had struggles to deal with but has been given some much courage and strength to continue on. I admire both and glad we still all can keep in contact, even though these two girls are the most busiest of the group.

Happy birthday guys!

Whew. And there's more to come. Ann's, Amanda's and Cat's are all in April and quite close together. More fun ahead!

teoh,

wireless resolved.

hey all,

man it's getting busy. Good thing I set myself up to have a less stress time at uni with subjects this semester. So many birthday parties as well. And so many career events to do. And so much work. I'm losing sleep over a few things as well, like final year projects and nightmares of unemployment next year.

One good piece of news, I've finally taken the bullet and bought a wireless USB dongle to see if it would help my terrible wireless capabilities of my laptop. So far, success! I have now have internet in extremities of my house.

This is excellent, as my brother has moved back home, but I love having my PC next to the router, cause I get super speeds =] So now I can leave it in there for leisure, and use the laptop for work when the PC isn't available. Although the 21 inch screen is so nice to work on.

The final test will be of course, at uni, but I have high hopes. I bought a TP-Link TL821N in case anyone was interested, $24 at MSY. Not a bad investment.

Stupid Toshiba and their lies. I disabled my wireless card on my laptop and tested it, and vice versa. It's clearly the card. ALSO, Toshiba has crap algorithms for their wireless status. It will read FULL bars when connected, but in reality it's like 2/5 (not to mention it'll drop out as well). TP-Link's connects with 2 bars and smooth surfing all the way.

Disappointed in Toshiba =[

teoh,

gasland

hey guys,

I thought I would share a documentary that I've just finished watching. As I type this, the credits and banjo solo music accompanying it is playing in the background. I want to write up some of the strongest impressions and memorable parts of the documentary to share.

It's called Gasland, directed and produced by Josh Fox. I first heard of it during the Oscars, as it was nominated for best documentary. In summary, it investigates the natural gas mining method called hydraulic fracturing and it's environmental impact. It is a industry that is actually growing in size today.

Hydraulic Fracturing, or fracking, is a method of freeing up natural gases trapped within a formation of rock called shale. It uses deep core drilling to pump liquid at high pressure into the ground, to fracture the surrounding shale to free up the gas. It resembles a small earthquake.

The first issue is that out of the 1 - 7 millions of gallons of liquid that is pumped into the ground, about only half is recovered. This isn't too much of an issue if it was just water. But in fact, the fracking liquid that is used contains over 596 types of chemicals; drilling additives, anti-corrosives, acids etc. All of this goes straight into the environment, and because almost all of them are non-biodegradable, it's in there for good.

This kills local wildlife, poisons all the near by streams and rivers, goes into live stock's drinking water, decimates plant life. The list goes on. There was a sad part of the doco, where a lady had frozen multiple species of animals for proof. Rabbits, frogs, birds, even a baby doe. Fish get their gills eaten by chemicals and die.

It also goes into our groundwater and thus our drinking water. The scariest part was when a farmer filled a tub of water from the tap, and applied fire to it. You can actually SEE melted plastic forming on the surface of the water. That's how much poly-whatever is actually present in the water.

Another scene was when a man let his tap run for a few seconds, and then applied a fire. There was so much gas within the liquid, it lit on fire and burnt his arm hairs off.

Some communities are on this water right now, and suffer large amount of brain damage because of the chemicals. Most suffer headaches, lack of taste, lack of smell, unable to see clearly.

The documentary goes through interviews, investigations, researchers and even congress. It's a really good perspective. I really enjoyed this documentary and encourage anyone that interested to have a look. I have a copy if anyone wants it.

teoh,

super selling spree

Hey guys,

My brother is moving out of his apartment, and has loads of furniture to give away and sell. Hit the link below to have a look!

http://oralli.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-sale.html

Marco, you might be interested?

teoh,

- blank -

we humans are illogical creatures. sometimes it makes me sad. sometimes it brings me joy. all in all, i'm confused.

new phone

It's about time I upgraded my phone. Not because I don't like it anymore..I don't think I'll be sick of the awesome black/gold combination! But unfortunately one drop too many has caused the speaker to become filled with static sometimes, making it hard to call my many many girlfriends (har har).

I have a few choices to make. The first thing I decided: I do not want an iphone. Yes you apple lovers, don't even bother! I actually do like the iphone itself; it has nice apps, runs okay, but it's everywhere and I hate that. Plus, Android is open source, making it more customizable than iphones (without jailbreaking it). Therefore, no iphone.

A few weeks ago, my workmate Steven told me about the Motorola Atrix (above). I was a bit skeptical, as Motorola isn't generally well known for good phones. However, the reviews look good and the hardware is impressive. It's the next generation phone, dual core (which means it's faster and will help battery usage decrease), graphics card/chip, nice resolution screen, next G enabled etc. It's basically a mini-computer. It ships in early March, but costs $900 outright as it won't be available here for awhile.

Another alternative, but by no means cheaper, is the Google Nexus S (above). Pretty much the Samsung Galaxy (it's also made by Samsung hardware), but with a few slight difference in software. It gets constant updates from Google, and it starts off with the new Andrew OS, Gingerbread. It's around $800.

But while looking at these two, I'm not sure if I want to spend so much on a phone. I have the funds, but will it really make a difference? I don't want to come off as one of those people who NEED the best (though I do like it =]) and often when I have given into that feeling, I've often regretted it.

So I might look into some other cheaper options. And I need to start looking for a better plan too.

Suggestions are welcomed.

teoh,

jump the sinking boat

I've been really frustrated with work the past few weeks. The call center management is just becoming less and less respectful and caring towards it's staff. Maybe I don't see the full picture, working only part time, but from what I hear, it's worst during the day.

I won't go into too much detail here, I've already vented enough. In actual fact, it's pretty much the same for me in terms of working conditions. But somehow, it makes me really tired and sad to think about how bad the workplace has become.

if you don't look after us, then why should we care about you?

teoh,

to the mysterious ACT.

So after much celebrating, I went to Canberra for a few days of chilling with my friends. It was really good to see Sarah, Ellen and Gen again.

I've never been to Canberra (or was too little to remember any of it), and it was a pretty chilled four days there. Just like Adelaide, it's not as boring as people make it to be. It's just not the huge place Melbourne is.

Ellen was a pretty good guide, despite not being use to driving around (everything is so close, everyone bikes about). We went to Black Mountain (a lookout), Na

tional Zoo/Aquarium, the National Gallery, Parliament House and a quick look at the War Memorial.

I actually quite enjoyed Parliament House, imagining all the powerful politicians that walked the same corridors that I did. We also swam in a local river, which was so nice. Brought back memories of the waterhole back in New Zealand. Other times, we just chilled out. It was blistering hot, except for the last night in which we ran through a storm.

I did get introduced to Zambrero, which is basically a Mexican Subway. Choose your filling in a burrito, add salad, guacamole and wrap it all up = yum. Unfortunately, they are not yet in Melbourne (coming soon though) but it's pretty awesome.

Fun times.

Also, this video, despite it being for a commercial, pictures my young dreams of star wars:

teoh,