Monday, March 19, 2007

Quiz Quiz Quiz..

Quizzes galore this past week.. been one hack of a week and a really short weekend..

So anyway, I stumbled upon this website that was promoting mybloglog.com.. For the bulk of the time I started this blog, other than posting some useful (and mostly silly) posts, I’ve also been looking and snooping around the various ways to increase traffic into my site. Everyone has his own winning formula and they all have the statistics to show it.. and of course, there’s the never-ending spam sites out there that promise to deliver 1000 visitors to you if you would just sign up with their program or something.. well, so much for that. I realized that traffic may be important, but well, as long as the content of a site is good, the traffic will eventually come, alright, so maybe it’ll take a while but the word’ll probably get around and soon ppl will get to know your site.. my point is, I believe that content should be the highest priority.. not so much about getting the right keywords that will serve some high paying advertisements or stuff like that, but more of getting readers to gradually like your blog.. and to like it for the good posts that you have on it..

Ok, how on earth did I get all the way talking about that.. uhh! Right. mybloglog.com. ok, so I was looking through it and it’s a really massive community. It’s got so many kinds of blogs, you name a word, and there’s probably a blog about it.. there are some pretty good sites that I came across that teach you how to do neat stuff with your blog (tips and all). It’s really quite eye-opening.. so far, I’ve only been looking around blogs that are written by friends and ppl I know, but these blogs I’ve seen.. that’s some good stuff.. good quality.. it’s perhaps the reason why these ppl are full time bloggers and making a living from it... It’s inspirational I guess.. it makes you want to create a good blog.

Alright, so anyway, on the topic of Quizzes and tests, i thought the following are some pretty interesting stuff. I’m taking a math module this semester (and for the next 2 semesters.. how sad) and just MAYBE.. I might try one of these.. heh.








This one's my favourite. It's so original, why didn't i think of this at my O Levels..

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Tick Tock

Time check.. it’s 14th march. 5 more weeks to exams!! *scream*

So anyway, this week is one of the crazier weeks, for a start there’s 3 tests, 2 have passed, now left with one on Saturday. Then there’s practice later tonight and I’m probably gonna be involved on Saturday’s services too.. so that’s gonna be quite a rush on sat. And it’s raining so heavily now.. hopefully it’ll stop soon or I’ll have no idea how to get to church without getting my guitar warped in the rain..

Completing the online scholarship submission to Singapore Airlines.. let’s hope it goes well this time.. hopefully I’ll at least get thru the first part. It’s such a pain trying to complete the thing.. so much information that you have to fill up.. I kinda doubt they actually read thru everything.. like seriously. I cannot be the only one applying for it.. there’s gotta be like tonnes of A level students.. and while your at it, add in the poly students who will be enrolling this year. And then top it off with ppl like me scouting around for scholarships who are open to current undergraduates.. that’s a lot la! It’s getting quite demoralizing counting the odds actually.. wateva.

Oh well, oh and it was Jean’s birthday this week.. so had quite a hearty meal.. abit too much actually.. I think rendang, prawns and Belgian chocolate cake (which tasted like it had liquor) don’t mix. At least not for me.. I think I had a nuclear fall-out in my tummy (think rolling about in pain). It’s weird tho.. it feels a little like gastric and I had a really stiff tummy.. lots and LOTS of air. Haha.. well, so that was one terrible night and the next day was math quiz. Sickening.. Laplace and Fourier.. BAAH!


Happy birthday Jean!

Oh and it’s march. I forgot this month’s quote of the month. Haha.. coincidently it’s ‘Despair’. Haha..

It’s March! Quote of the month.. Utter despair.. heh.

==updated on 15 Mar @ 0036 hours==

I GOT IT!! LTA yaukhai sent me the whole list of checkpoints that reside in lower mandai! haha. now it's just a matter of time before i find you cp drum. unfinished business.. =) great, now i can't wait for the papers to be over so i can go for a walk again. the anticipation's killing..

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Millionaire Not

So Heart-Warming!! I actually have ppl who want to go for a walk with me! SO COOL.. (read Took a Walk for more details) haha.. hey smurf, I need.. NEED to find cp DRUM.. unfinished business.. haha..

Alright, so anyway, school’s back in action this week.. dreadful with all the quizzes.. but on the plus side, after more than 4 years of trying to get it to work, I finally did it. I finally managed to get my Worms 2 to run on windows xp. We’re talking sheer joy here.. and the satisfaction you get after turning the internet upside down and shaking real hard, with all the forums and FAQs.. baah.. anyway, there seems to be some issue with the patch that the Official site gave. Apparently, you can’t exactly play in a network game if your machine has DirectX 9 (it’s a conspiracy man).. and since Microsoft made it such that you CAN’T rollback directx versions, once you have the new version, you’re stuck with it.. so there’s pretty much nothing I can do.. so it’s only Alvin vs CPU.. but it’s still fun.. anybody wants?


I also came across this article.. everybody knows about the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Parodies, spoofs and jokes have all surfaced about it. But I guess the ultimate joke still lies in the fact that if you’re dumb.. well.. you’re dumb. Quoting from the article: -


Idiotic 'Millionaire' Contestant Makes Worst Use Of Lifelines Ever


Kathy Evans, the single dumbest contestant to ever get on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

NEW YORK - Idaho resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family Tuesday when she set a new standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

It seems that Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question, and proceeded to make what fans of the show are dubbing "the absolute worst use of lifelines ever."
After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans assured her that she was ready to play, whereupon she was posed with an extremely easy $100 question. The question was:
"Which of the following is the largest?"
A) A Peanut
B) An Elephant
C) The Moon
D) Hey, who you calling large?

Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she realized that this was a question to which she did not readily know the answer.
"Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie," said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief and disgust. "I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be."
Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the 50/50. Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained unsure.
"Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!" exclaimed Evans. "Darn. I think I better phone a friend."

Using the second of her two lifelines on the first question, Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is an office assistant.
"Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!" said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call. "Ok, I got an important question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 15 seconds hun."
Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon. Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds.
"Come on Betsy, are you sure?" said Evans. "How sure are you? Puh, that can't be it."
To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice and pick 'The Moon.'
"I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright. So I think I'd like to ask the audience," said Evans.

Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.' Having used up all her lifelines, Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life.
"Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking," said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. "But you know, sometimes you just got to go with your gut. So, let's see. For which is larger, an elephant or the moon, I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant. Final answer."

Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath, and was told that she was wrong, and that the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'


Meet Lumpy - Bigger than the moon

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Took a Walk..

Decided to take a walk yesterday.. yet another recce trip and this time I covered an area that I’ve always wanted to go to. Quite nice.. still as scenic as ever..

Ok let’s see.. there was the packing that began just after lunch.. didn’t bring too much. Just some basic stuff and about 3 litres of water (which I later regretted) . hah. Anyway, I’m not complaining la, I’d rather have an excess than a lack of water..

some of the stuff I brought along.. well, you DON’T exactly need some of the stuff; you can even go in empty handed, but just in case.. u know, like if u found some BIGFOOT prints and decide to follow it.. =P


Went in by the same route again.. nothing much. Saw some tortoise or turtles.. wateva. Reptiles ya. But no monitor lizards.. beeps was hoping to find one too but we didn’t see any.. and it’s MONITOR LIZARD, not KOMODO DRAGON (I’d be freaked out if it was). The route in was scenic as always, pass the golf course with ppl teeing off and the nice reservoir to accompany you.. nice and refreshing, it’s always nice to take a walk away from all the cars and buses, ppl and all the work. This trip’s quite different too though, beeps was with me and it became more like an educational trip kinda thing.. identifying everything from wild berries to wild ginger and tapioca and sniffing out little trails here and there.. =)


TOP: Meet Uncle Vern.
BOTTOM: The dark thing in the middle is a wild berry. It looks butt ugly, but it’s nice and sweet. Managed to convince beeps to eat some.. oh and if you’re gonna try some urself, chew it in the back of ur mouth.. (think purple lips and teeth)


Stopped at the usual place (area b on the map) to heat up a snack and then left it there to keep warm while we went on around the area. There was quite a few places that I managed to cover the previous time I went there in December, so now I thot I’d go to the other places that I wanted to.. and well, pretty much drag beeps along. Hah. It was raining in the morning, so everything was wet, thankfully there’s always solid fuel.. something you’d probably trade blood for in Brunei.. and thankfully there’s not too many ppl. The last time beeps went to the Tree Top Trail, it was some weekend and she said there were lotsa ppl, I agree.. so here’s a tip, go on a weekday, there’s much much lesser ppl. And stay clear of the evenings too, that’s when the joggers and mosquitoes start to come out. =)

Somewhere near area b on the map. This place has changed so much since the first time I’ve been here, which has got to be like a good 10 years ago. The stream wasn’t so wide, there was no bridge and there wasn’t this board-walk thing..



Next up was to go venture further up north, to one of the fingers of the Lower Pierce Reservoir (area a on the map). Samuel brought me in there once, like maybe 10 years ago, on the first trip that I went there.. I remembered it to be scenic and true enough; it pretty much stayed the same. There was this unique stairway thing which led up to the reservoir, really interesting design, sorta came across to me like a ‘stairway to heaven’ sorta thing.. right. Anyway, the view there’s fantastic. It’s one of the rare places where you don’t really find any buildings in the background.. so you can just take in the whole scene and just drift away, forgetting all the buses, schoolwork, stupid quizzes, deadlines for reports.. ya.. u get the point.


That’s the stairway thing.. unique design.. it turns out that the teeth-like things helped to trap the leaves and twigs.. ingenious idea.. simple solutions to big problems..

Taking it all in..

Oh, and the really interesting thing was that, there was this little spur line thing that I tried to climb; I wanted to skirt and follow around the edge of the water just to see what’s on the other side.. on the map it shows that the view would probably be much nicer.. so anyway, it got too overcrowded with thorns and I decided not to drag my poor sister along with me (joel, if you’re reading this, we’ve gotta try it someday, seriously). And that’s when we realized that there seemed to be this abandoned road inside the bushes.. sorta reminds me of the silly essays I’d write in sec 4 but that’s another story.. we took a closer look around and lo and behold, what seemed to be like a hollowed-out tree turned out to be some i-got-no-idea-how-old-it-is lamppost. All rotted and rusty.. and looking up you can still make out the shape of the lamp.. how cool is that la.. so we braved the bushes and mud and got onto that road, only to find it leading up to some back entrance of an army camp. I did a quick check and found out that the restricted area is mainly covered by 2 facilities, the Ammunition Command Camp 1 and the Advance Materials Engineering Pte Ltd.. hmm.. So typically, yes, the stupid ideas of the gah-men doing secret testing and experimenting with the monkeys and water came into mind.. but I shall just stop here *gulp*


LEFT: That’s the lamppost, look closer and you’ll see that there are 2 wires running in them.
RIGHT: That’s the top of the lamppost, you can still see the area where the bulb should be in..


So much for a trip, we decided to head out to Thomson Road (area c on the map). They’ve built this nice new trail, I think it’s called the Venus Trail or something.. it leads out all the way to Thomson. Really useful and I only found out about it on my previous trip.. well, then again, it has been 3 years since I last went in, thanks to the army which put me off the whole forest thing for a while.. anyway, caught some pretty nice views on the way out too..



I’m looking forward to the next trip, and beeps brought up something interesting. You see there are 2 ways to traverse in there: main tracks and tiny little jungle trails (think minor bashing).. the common folk would take the main tracks, these are the huge ones that ppl jog on and you pretty much won’t get lost.. the more adventurous well.. might be interested in snooping around and seeing where that tiny trail leads too.. (my bet is that it’ll probably lead to some SISPEC or OCS or RGR checkpoint, I’ve found some).. my point is, if anyone.. ANYONE is interested in the latter, let me know. I’d like a companion to check it out with.. =)


I FOUND YOU !!!