saving $$! : )

Yeah! Actually i am quite happy this week. Although i was very busy the whole week, but i thought it was well-worth it. I am starting to adapt to life that is more happening than the couldn't-care-less kind of life. It might be alittle late, but at least i know i am making good progress. Its always better than those who are still slumbering their remaining days away. In fact, i am only 1 day away from the hall orientation camp, which is also the first orientation camp for me in NTU. That aside, i shall talk more on my tips on saving.

I asked myself, how am i going to reach my target of achieving $60,000 in 4 years while studying. To me, it was a HUGE and IMPOSSIBLE task. I was greatly disheartened after my application for bursary from the TeoChew Kong Si failed. Duh, isn't my family poor enough? That aside, MOE offered me a measly $800 bursary tenable for a year. Sigh... better than nothing i thought. If i were to be able to hit my target under 4 years, i would either need a HUGE miracle or SHEER hard work. There were times when i was very worried about my financial problems and i couldn't stop feeling depressed for quite a while. Most of the times, the feeling did not last very long as i would be found probing into alternatives to earn money to ease my financial burden. Recently, i came to an realisation that earning money is not the only way to reach my 'target'. There is another way that is as efficient, but works in the opposite way - saving. Saving can help reduce the amount i need to set for my target and if i do save enough, i might not even need such a colossus target.

For me, i have made 1 HUGE saving on my laptop. :) As it was indispensible, i had no choice but to buy one. Its was only after much price-comparison that i decided to buy the ACER notebook. There was an offer going on and i managed to bargain for a good price on top of the offer too. I even told alot of friends about this value-for-money purchase, but obviously only one was interested. I really have one comment for those who are buying notebooks sold in university, you're either crazy or stupid. I know i am going to offend many people out there, but that's really what i think. In my opinion, if you are buying a laptop, you should be buying one that is value-for-money with decent performances. Whats the point of spending 1+++k~2k buying an utterly useless notebook, when you can get one which is a zillion times better and have a much better resale value by spending a couple of hundreds more? If you are settling for lousy notebooks, it is just an indication that you do not even need one in the first place. I guess poor people like me will never understand the rich kids and their ways of thinking. For those who are clueless, ignorance is bliss. I had a few friends who bought their notebooks from the university as they were not familiar with computer in the first place. I could do nothing to help them, but to console them by not trying to bring it up again.

Saving should start with eliminating unnecessary expenses and also reducing the expenditures on indispensible stuff. I am trying my best to keep track of my expenditures and earnings, and if there is really 1 day when i can achieve my target, i guess this will be a great help to those in my shoes. KAMBATE to all those who are struggling to support yourself out there!

是不是这样的夜晚你才会这样的想起我

是不是这样的夜晚你才会这样的想起我

歌手:吴宗宪 专辑:《吴尽的爱宗于实宪》


结束忙碌的一天换回熟悉的寂寞
懒懒的躺在沙发上像母亲温暖臂弯
转到昨天的频道让声音驱走寂静
总是同样的剧情同样的对白同样的空白
是不是这样的夜晚你才会这样的想起我
这样的夜晚适合在电话里
只有几句小心的彼此问候
系着两端的猜测
是这样的夜晚想起我 oh
是不是这样的夜晚你才会这样的想起我
这样的夜晚适合在电话里
虽然几句小心的彼此问候
现在牵未来的手
是这样的日子需要改变

Hectacomb (Wizard Coast's new card game)

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ht/welcome

here is the link if you are interested. =D

FF7 characters, =D

*seriously, i am not sure if this Zack is the one from FF7 or other FFs. lOl*

if you guys want to have any Final Fantasy characters (yes, any series from 6 and above), leave a comment and i will try to upload it. credits go to www.ff-fan.com !!!

self esteem

You Have Low Self Esteem 12% of the Time

Which can be translated to mean, you have high self-esteem and a healthy sense of self worth. You believe in yourself, and you know how to be the real you. You love yourself, imperfections and all.

How is Your Self Esteem?

what kinda brain do you have?

Your Brain is 40% Female, 60% Male

You have a total boy brain Logical and detailed, you tend to look at the facts And while your emotions do sway you sometimes... You never like to get feelings too involved

What Gender Is Your Brain?

language i would love to learn! =D

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

Financial worries in my dream

Its 7am in the morning now and i am sitting right in front of my computer. I slept at 2am earlier today and faced a rude awakening on the exact same morning at 6am... I had a very bad dream, something that has been bothering me since the end of my army life. Yes, it is the financial problem i am going to face going into university. It seems like a neverending horror and now it has even invaded my dream. 2 days ago, my dream was about relationships with my friends, friends of all places. Yesterday, it was another problematic weird dream and now, its the financial bug catching up on me. To be exact, i have been having bad dreams recently and it cannot have been worse than the latest one. Although i did not find myself breaking into sweat when i woke up, but i was shaken and momentarily petrified. I was in a daze which lasted for quite some time. What made it worse is that, the first thought that came into my mind after the 'blackout' was 'did i miss my tuition time?'. Money, money, money. It was as if the aftershock that was left by my dream wasn't bad enough and i had to scare myself with another problem that seemed so real. Luckily, i came to realise that it was 6am in the morning, not 6pm in the evening. In the latter case, i would be very, very late. I have come to a realisation how big the amount will be snowballed if i left it alone for 4 years. I have calculated the estimated amount spent over 4 years to be $50k. That includes school fee, hostel, personal allowance and a one-time laptop expense. Yup, you will be asking, why hostel when you can't afford it? In fact, i have thought long and hard. Yes, financially wise, it is a NO-NO to stay in hostel, BUT i will be wasting a hell lot of a time if i spend it travelling from one end of the island to another every weekday. After the consideration of the importance of time, hostel became an indispensible part in my life in university. To my pleasure, there is finally some news on the work study scheme at NTU. Though there is still no mentioning of pay, but the limit of working hours per week has been published. 10 hours per week is the maximum. If they offer $5/hr, i can possibly net in $200 per month in school, which will cover my hostel fee. Every bit of money counts now... its time for me to go money-hunting.

$50k is a rough estimate. $60k during the course of 4 years will be what i am aiming, in case any other expenses pop out (I am sure there will be. Though negligible, but they will still incur quite a big sum over the 4 years).

TARGET - $60,000

What i should major in *happy*

Your Scholastic Strength Is Developing Ideas

You can take a spark of inspiration and turn it into a full fledged concept. You are talented at brainstorming, visualizing, organizing, and independent thinking. You should major in: Natural sciences Computer science Creative writing Math Architecture Journalism

What Should You Major In?

Superband Result (last round before finals)

sigh. Brods really did go out of the competition. This further certify the presence of consipiracy in this competition. Brods was never meant to be the champs no matter how good they were. The reason is clear, they are not really considered a band. That is why they booted them out FORCEFULLY to let the 4 remaining teams fight it out. In my opinion, from now on, it will be fair and square. The fight for champion will be between J3 and 迷路兵. If you really think Soul and Lucify stands any chance, you must be joking. Yes, it will be fair and square, just for J3 and 迷路兵. For Soul and Lucify, they are destined to be 3rd and 4th. Its up to you guys to believe now, all i have to say has been said. LONG LIVE THE CONSPIRACY!!! Too bad, you still can't win Da Vinci Code sUxXx0rs!

Superband (last round before finals)

lOl. Ok, it has been quite some time since i last posted about superband. I have been observing them every week and were totally unimpressed by the performances in the past few weeks, except for last week. As i have expected, judges score is once again concealed, as its time to boot out the weaker teams by BRUTE FORCE. So... sorry for Kelly's fans who voted for 馒头, you got ROBBED, ROFLMFAO!!! Face it. Even if they score full-marks for their voting, they still have 0% chance of getting through. That is why i stopped for a few weeks. To see if the same O' trick is being carried out again. And yes it did. So who's next? There are only 5 teams left... and its a tough choice. If i have to base my prediction on performance, Lucify gotta be my banker bet for sure. They were able to pull it off, all thanks to the revival round. But there
was 2 revival rounds this time and 迷路兵 was the 2nd team to be revived. Has Lucify's fate been sealed? Or will it be BRODS? Yes. If i were to base my prediction on logic, Brods might very well be the next to go. They are the only 'singing-based' team left... and they were badly critisized by the judges in the past using this fact. It seems like there is no way Brods can be branded Superband even if they were really the best. So why put them through to the Finals? These are my initial thoughts... my 2 cents worth.


B1) J3

波间带
原唱者：林俊杰

最后的战役
原唱者：周杰伦

Wow, wow, wow. J3 had a tremendous improvement. All the way from a band that was thought to be a top-14 material, to a top-5 band now. J3 has undeniably put in the most effort (迷路兵 comes in 2nd imo.) in this competition and has shown the greatest improvements out of the 5 teams left. If there is something even better than this in store for the Finals, they should have no trouble getting crowned. Yes, i am already forseeing them in the Finals with no doubt.

Slow Song - 9.50/10
Fast Song - 9.00/10
Overall - 9.25/10

B2) Lucify

踢馆
原唱者：K ONE

枫
原唱者：周杰伦

Quite ok for the fast song. Quite a good effort. I though they could involve 1 more singer to help ease the burden off the lead singer. He was rushing to sing different parts in the chorus. And as for the slow song... it was a disaster. He obviously didn't know that with his vocal, he is totally incapable of singing '枫' with the key Jay Chou used. For myself, i have tried god-knows-how-many times to sing it using Jay's key and it went horribly wrong. It was as if seeing myself on TV struggling to sing '枫' using Jay's key. If you have enjoyed his singing, you will certainly like mine. Jokes aside, he had put in too much emotions too, which made the song more terrible.

Slow Song - 6.00/10
Fast Song - 8.00/10
Overall - 7.00/10

B3) SOUL

Rising Sun （纯真）
原唱者：东方神起

Unforgettable（傻瓜）
原唱者：东方神起

Soul is famous for their dancing and is equally infamous for their singing. The flaw was very prominent in comparision to the earlier performances tonight. Dancing was their forte and still is. I especially loved the effort they put in making each set of dance-steps unique in every performances. They might be very close to the entrance to the Finals as they are the only 'you-know-what'(5566, energy-alike) band... it all depends on Brods now.

Slow Song - 6.50/10
Fast Song - 9.00/10
Overall - 7.75/10

B4) BRODS

奔
原唱者：孙燕姿

很想你
原唱者：张智成

Mixed feelings. Guess what? I am gonna give their attempt of singing '奔' a 9.3. They were nervous when singing '很想你'. Obviously, they weren't very comfortable with singing it and were off-beat on several occasions. The vocals weren't that great either. Just when i was starting to worry, they interrupted with a powerful performance. They were brimming with confidence when singing '奔' and were able to create a very ecstatic atmosphere. I thought their choice of fast song was fantastic. Only a little error in the ending part of the song. The 'you-know-what' part.

Slow Song - 8.00/10
Fast Song - 9.30/10
Overall - 8.65/10

B5) 迷路兵

独一无二
原唱者：郑秀文

黑色毛衣
原唱者：周杰伦

Their slow song is the one that touched me most tonight. Sam showed how a slow song should be sang. The feeling was 100% on the spot and the b-box by WeiQi was terrific. With no gimmicks, its was totally awesome. Fast song was good, but i thuoght they could do better with another well-chosen song. They have long got their tickets to the final, while the revival was just another ploy to carry on the 'revival confirm reach final' tradition that was omni-present in all the SUPER-**** competitions till now.

Slow Song - 9.90/10
Fast Song - 8.50/10
Overall - 9.20/10

So what will be my final prediction? I will go with Lucify. I believed they have outlived their usefulness in this competition and its time for them and their fans to move on in real life. I won't be surprised to see Brods get the boots too (refer to the top). So... my guess for the Champs? Seriously, i wasn't at all impressed with 迷路兵 for the past few weeks, but tonight, they did really great. But... im my humble opinion, one band rises above them tonight. J3. Champs? definitely worth a gamble.

My Dream Team

After watching the World Cup, i am inspired to hone my soccer skills to yet another level. Without further delay, i shall reveal my Dream Team this World Cup.

Goalkeeper
--------------------------
Oliver Kahn
Alexandre Ricardo
Petr Cech

Defenders
--------------------------
Roberto Ayala
Lilian Thuram
Willy Sagnol
William Gallas
Phillipp Lahm
Fabio Cannavaro
Gianluca Zambrotta

Midfielders
--------------------------
Cristiano Ronaldo
Anderson Deco
Juan Riquelme
Gennaro Ivan Gattuso
Harry Kewell
Zinedine Zidane
Luis Figo

Forwards
--------------------------
Carlos Tevez
Lionel Messi
Hernan Crespo
Thiery Henry
Fernando Torres
Andriy Shevchenko


My first 11 would be

Oliver Kahn
Roberto Ayala
Phillipp Lahm
Lilian Thuram
Fabio Cannavaro
Cristiano Ronaldo
Anderson Deco
Juan Riquelme
Gennaro Ivan Gattuso
Carlos Tevez
Lionel Messi

Oliver Kahn showed that his concentration level and alertness were never decreasing. With his superb goalkeeping, a decent defence is all that is needed to keep a clean sheet.

Roberto Ayala has been absolutely wonderful, no question asked. Phillipp Lahm has attacking possibilities, while Lilian Thuram and Fabio Cannarvaro can add to the defence which is already solid with Ayala around.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Anderson Deco did very well for their country. C.Ronaldo determination and showy skills are undeniably a top player's stuff, while Deco's inspiring play adds on to it. Its a pity C.Ronaldo missed the chance of getting the Best Young Player award due to a stupid Spin-A-Rooney. Juan Riquelme was just simply great for Argentina and Gattuso's never-say-die attitude earns him a place in every dream team.

Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi. What more can i say? Both of them can create endless possibilities. And if they can't take up the job, who else can?

3rd and 4th placing

Congratulation to Germany for winning 3rd place. The German team that was fielded 2 hours ago must be applauded for their victory over the Portugese. They played fair and were great. Personally, i do not like the German team due to a few play-acting players, mainly Ballack. Kehl did something dirty earlier on too, much to the dislike of the portugese players. As Ballack had to stay on the bench with an injury, this German team won with pride and honour. What we can't deny that 3-1 isn't a fair scoreline for Portugese. Ricardo did superbly well and was unlucky as there were 2 goals out of nowhere and of course a dreadful own-goal by Petit. How unprofessional was that. There are some very big problems with the Portugese. They have weak defence and weak attack, but they got so far, mainly due to their talented midfield. Yes, i am talking about Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco. They are the only professional players that i can spot in Portugese and they might very well be among the best in this World Cup. Are you hinting that i missed out someone in Portugal? Of course i know. Alexandre Ricardo. What more can i say? Without him, Portugal is nothing. Just like Germany is without Oliver Khan in the past. Ricardo is argueably the best goalkeeper in this World Cup. Despite having to deal with such a weak defence at his disposal, he managed to carry Portugal single-handedly into the Semi-Finals. If only Portugal had a few better strikers other than the inefficient Pauleta, Portugal could very well lift the World Cup and create history. Pauleta was nowhere near of a threat and was more of a nuisance to Portugal, as passes to him were always wasted. Gomez required not much time to show Pauleta how a chance should be pursued. A diving header couldn't prove more. Pauleta had shown no effort close to what Gomez put in in less than 25 minutes on the pitch. Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, had been trying very hard to get Portugal to qualify. Obviously, it takes at least 2-3 players to break any defence that is World Cup-worthy. C.Ronaldo was still able to take on keepers himself and posed a great threat. On several occasions, C.Ronaldo should have got a goal and might very well lead to a hat-trick. It was the GREAT OLIVER KHAN that threatened to steal the show from him. With countless great saves and stoppages, Kahn is no doubt the best goalkeeper in the world. Kahn has great concentration and was flawless till the end. Gomez's goal was inevitable, as Figo floated in a Winning-Eleven cross and Gomez was already in position to score the consolation goal. Now the only match left is Italy vs France. I sure hope France will rise up to the occasion and seeing Zinedine Zidane hugging the trophy in his arms is the least i expect. It will be a big NO-NO for me to see the MATCH-FIXING Italy tainting the holy grail in soccer world with their filthy hands.

End of World Cup

It has been quite some time since i last posted. Actually, there isn't much of a reason why i stopped posting for so long... just couldn't manage to remember or find time to update my blog. World Cup is part of the reason. Due to World Cup, my sleeping hours were messed up and it hasn't been back to normal even now. Watched alot of the matches at MacDonald and i have to applaud them for providing us with live matches in the comfort of an air conditioned room. Just finished watching France vs Portugal... It was emotionally unbearable to see Portugal crashed out of the World Cup despite giving such a superb performance. During the last 5 mins (excluding injuries time), i was acting like a mad man, pulling my hair, biting my nails... I thought Portugal deserved a place in Finals. Same goes for France... but only one can go through and it had to be decided by a single penalty. I just felt that it isn't fair for Portugal and i even had tears in my eyes when the final whistle was blown. This is the first time throughout the whole competition i am so emotionally involved. Whats the deal with Cristiano Ronaldo? He was the one doing all the great work and yet get all the boos. People have to start appreciating talents instead of doing stupid things. Yes, he went down easily to challenges, but what do you expect with his size? He is just a young player with not much physical dominance over his opponents.

In my opinion, both Portugal and France should be in the Finals instead of Italy and Germany. The germans were just a bunch of cheaters while the italians were a bore to watch. I have seen and loved a few players in this World Cup.

Ayala from Argentina. He was no doubt the backbone of Argentinian's defence and deserved nothing less than a Final. Possibly the best defender in my eyes. Its a joy to see him play.

Tevez from Argentina. He was simply great. As a young player (he is only 1 year older than i am), his passion for football and workrate were incredible. You will be expecting to see him fighting for the ball even if he was on the ground. He will be the guy to count on to take back the control of the ball.

Messi from Argentina. What more can i say? If you have ever seen him in any matches, you will be mesmerised by his performances just like me. At only 19 years old, he had already pulled out so many tricks in World Cup. His amazing dribbling and quick thinking should no doubt earn him the Best Young Player award if Argentina were to reach the finals.

Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal. Enough about his involvement with Rooney's send-off. England was a crap team which Chelsea could beat them easily on any day. Rooney is well-known for his bad temper and the devil in him got the better of him. He threw his temper when he got substituted in an earlier match, all these were expected, its just a matter of how soon it will take place. Do you actually think Ronaldo should PLEAD with the referee to let Rooney off and even give him a freekick? Duh. C.Ronaldo-haters should just get on with their lives. Stop being obssessed with such a lousy team and start admiring great talents in the making. C.Ronaldo has the talents every footballer yearned. He is capable of mazy runs, clever touches, delivering pin-point passes and many many more. He is able to combine all these with some great moves which people considered him to be SHOWY. Come on, he has already learned teamwork and isn't something spectacular the thing that you are waiting for? Despite all the contraversy, i still think that C.Ronaldo should be and will be a great player in the making.