Earthquake!

Goodness me! I just had my very first experience that is closest to being an earthquake in person!

Initially I felt the whole building swaying a little. I thought to myself that I was deprived of sleep. So, against all odds, I slept. I couldn't care less about the world after that. In the middle of my blissful sleep, I woke up after receiving a message from Xing Ji.

And that was when I realized that something sounded wrong. After checking Straits Times, I finally acceded that my previous haunch was correct. It was an earthquake!

This quake, though origination from Jakarta, Indonesia, could be felt by people here, especially in high rise buildings. And I was one of them! At least nobody evacuated the hostel here, though that's not necessarily a good thing, since if a tsunami struck everybody would have been dead by now.

Anyway, I'll be waiting for the whole story to unfold. Hopefully there isn't much carnage this time.

Sweet Joys Of Freedom

Temporal freedom, if anything.

Anyway, I'm so glad that trials are finally over (although it was already over a day ago for me). The poor biology students, unfortunately, only finished their exams this morning, while my friends and I slept the whole morning away. Either way, exams should have finally finished in totality by now. Now I get to (sadistically) laugh at students from other JCs that still haven't begun their prelims, and those who have their prelims split into two by the September holidays (SAJC). But, that's really besides the point.

We missed breakfast this morning, so I decided to treat myself to my last spaghetti before I return home to KL. The spaghetti turned out all right, but I think I was too generous with my chilli pepper flakes this time. And on top of that, I fried a cheese omelette (again), which I failed to fold properly (again). Luckily another friend of mine was awake enough to help me fold the omelette over and flip it to fry the other side. Well, pepper (ground) did make a difference to the fragrance of the omelette, and so did some (sparsely used) garlic salt. The omelette turned out savoury, but I only managed one small nibble as I was already quite full after wolfing down my spaghetti. What a waste though, I spent 20 minutes cooking it, and less than 5 minutes to finish eating it. Oh well...

Anyway, after that, I went out to shop for gifts for my teachers, which were to be shared with my friends. What else can be sweeter than a box of chocolates? (Regardless of how you argue it, a box of sugar does not count!) I got a box of Merci chocolates for my Economics tutor, whose gift was eaten by a hostel mate last year who even up till now have not own up. And for our beloved Maths tutor (in the words of my Maths Rep), I got him a nifty-looking box of swiss chocolates that I have not heard before in my life. Well, considering that it's from Switzerland, it should be quite good right? Anyway, with what we're going to do to that box (don't worry, it'll just be decorations), I think the chocolates will taste sweeter!

Gosh, I love free time! :)

Olio Spaghetti

After shopping for olive oil and some spices on Friday, I decided to prepare my (somewhat) favourite spaghetti - Aglio Olio. I may have mentioned this spaghetti in one of my obscure posts in the past before, but anyway, I haven't blogged about myself cooking it before. At least I think so.

Anyway, after a failed attempt on Friday, I was more cautious with the temperature of the frying pan this time around. I made sure the pan was sufficiently warm, but not too hot, to roast my garlic to a light golden brown instead of totally frying them to a crisp. As a result, I managed to retain the fragrance of garlic. And that, with the equal fragrance of my (extra virgin) olive oil, allowed me to recreate my favourite spaghetti with respectable resemblance to what it's supposed to taste like. Which, by my standards, is good enough!

Anyway, I was so bored I decided to take a picture of my art.



And I think I was too generous with the oregano spice. Maybe a bit too generous. Have to find a way to properly sprinkle them next time.

Soundtracks

Of late, I've taken a liking to movie soundtracks. Most of them are soothing and pleasing to the ears, great for when you're studying and you need a conducive environment.

If you're like me, and you (desperately) need a site from which you can listen to soundtracks without paying a single cent (cheapskate), head on over to StreamingSoundtracks.com for your hourly dose of movie soundtracks.

Of course, it's not just all ensembles and quartets, there's also the Phantom of the Opera. But if you're opera-phobic, well... Shame on you! It's one of my favourite musicals!

So just head on over and listen to some nice selections of movie soundtracks. They'll blow your ears away. (Try the aacPlus stream, they're of better quality.)

GP

2 years ago, if you were to have said "GP" to me, I'd have responded with "Gopinath?" Yeap, the big guy who's always going around forc... Well... Asking for a hug. Okay, maybe his name doesn't sound like "gee pee", but when you're too lazy to say Gopinath, or even the truncated Gopi, "gee pee" sounds like the next best choice in the progression right?

But then again, GP can also mean General Practitioner. Speaking of that, I wonder how many of my former secondary school friends are going to take medicine as a degree. From what I've heard of so far, only a few of the original 10+ managed to gain entry into a medical school.

Well, if you're more inclined to F1 racing, then GP to you may mean Grand Prix. For those more sports-challenged, Grand Prix usually refers to a motorcar race whereby the cars can be driven up to 320 km/h, and usually, they have to be in order for you to win the race.

GP can also refer to gigapixels, a term used to describe the resolution of images. In this case, a gigapixel is 1000 megapixels, which is currently 100 times more detailed than the highest end camera available in the market today for end users. However, this type of images can still be obtained indirectly by patching or "sewing" hundreds of smaller pictures together. Interesting right?

If you are an accountant, however, GP can mean gross profit to you. Of course, to really see GP and immediately think of gross profit would mean that you're really quite a hardcore accountant. I mean, who in the right mind would think of gross profits just by seeing the acronym GP? You must be money-minded - all you can think of is money. You eat money, you drink money, and you even breathe money. And you live money. Yeah, if you can live money.

GP is also a type of battery named Gold Peak, usually abbreviated to GP (D'oh!). Anyway, due to the onslaught of global warming, I'm here to tell you an inconvenient truth. Cheap alkaline batteries are a conspiracy to warm the Earth faster! So, buy rechargable batteries whenever you can! Support Mother Earth, help her stay cool and hip.

And finally, if you are an A-Levels students, GP may sound eerily familiar to you, because it stands for the infamous General Paper that everyone just adores. That's right. Everyone adores GP. I'm speaking the truth. You won't find any sarcasm here. Really. Because sarcasm is a literary device, and for quite a while now the GP papers I've attempted (including the prelims today) fail to include this literary device.

This disambiguation page is brought to you by Al Gore, the inconvenient truthsayer.

$20 Note

Since it's my birthday, I decided to "buy" myself a present. Well, what do you do when you don't have enough money to buy a present for someone? What if you neither have the time to make something for the person too? You'd think to get the person a voucher from a retail store so that he/she can get him/herself a present right?

Well, that's what I did for myself. I didn't get myself a concrete present, but a "voucher" in the form of a $20 note. "What $20 note?" you may ask yourself. This brand new note, released on the 16^th of July, was created to commemorate the 20 years of Brunei having their currency pegged against Singapore's currency. Limited? Well, I suppose it is, because a notice in the banks state that a customer is only allowed to change two $20 notes per visit. Obviously, I got myself the maximum amount allowed.

In case you haven't seen it, here's a sample I took myself:


I'm not sure whether I'd want to spend the new note. Maybe I'll keep it for souvenir's sake.

Electric Stove

Food, glorious food!

Our hostel has just provided us with electric stoves on every floor! Finally, we can prepare our own meals at the comfort of our own pantry. What we once thought of as the inescapable monstrosity that is hostel food is finally avoidable! No longer do we have to subject ourselves to a daily torture of gross, ill-prepared food and poor serving attitudes of the workers there.

Well, thanks to the stove, and Wei Kit who bought some pans, now I can cook myself some spaghetti aglio olio with ham (or luncheon meat). I prefer not to eat any spaghetti with tomato purée. Reason? I'm quite sick of it already. What a way to treat myself! I am disinclined to attempt to prepare fried rice though, since I'd have to buy all those seasonings and stuff. A bit troublesome.

All in all, I think I can still afford still love staying in NUS High School Hostel. :)

August

Good day, noblemen (and noblewomen). I bid thee welcome once again to my august presence.

Thou shall acknowledge that my silence does not mark the apocalypse of my domain. All naysayers shall be brought to heel and be treated like the hounds they are. I will rule my domain once again with sagacity and courage and strength, none of which would be complete without the other. I daresay that those who made the prudent choice of dwelling in my domain shall live forever in prosperity and harmony, never in obscurity. Man (and woman) of the world, heed my words of wisdom and decide for thyself what thou think is best for thee.

Of course, I shall need to fill up my coffers so that I can govern this realm with sufficient resources. Thus, I bid thee to spare 3 minutes of thine a day to visit this site and pay thy taxes. To find out how to pay thy taxes, read this decree of mine.

• You will need a PayPal account. Register here, and choose the option to not register with a credit card number.


• There may be 6-10 advertisements available for browsing a day. You can only click on the same advertisement once a day.


• You do not have to read the advertisements at all. All you need to is just to open the page, and allow the timer to finish counting. Note that you can only open one window at a time though.

That is all for now. Thy contribution is greatly appreciated. Maybe I shall, with the power vested in me, knight thee if thine contribution to the construction of my domain is significant. For now, I shall proffer my gratitude to thee.

On another note, SuprNova.org is returning. Unless thou have been living under a rock in the past few years, thou would have heard of this infamous domain that serves torrential amounts of movies and music to the public. If thy hands are not still not sore after paying thy taxes, thou may have the time to spare to pay homage to that site, and hence leave with a sweet aftertaste in thy mouth.

That is all for now. Court adjourned.

Godiva Chocolates

I first stumbled across this brand of chocolates in, if memory had not failed me, Marina Square. Well, at first I thought nothing much about this chocolate, except that it has its own shop (just like Häagen-Dazs).

Initially, I thought it was just another local brand, specializing in (cheap) chocolates. How mistaken I was! After a few times passing by stores island-wide, I decided to take a peek at how much those chocolates cost. And blimey! They really do cost a bomb!

Being the premium chocolates they are, I was not surprised that a piece of chocolate costs S$2.50 by itself. Obviously I wouldn't be allowed to sample it. But man, it is seriously expensive! I could've bought a honeydew sago dessert and obtain more utility than eating that chocolate! (That's Economics for you by the way...)

Anyway, my dad received a box of Godiva chocolate as a gift from his colleague. You wouldn't hear much of Godiva here in Malaysia because I've yet to see a Godiva shop here. So, my dad didn't really think much of the chocolate, especially since the packaging was just what you'd expect from a present and nothing more. That is, it did not have any elaborate designs. It just looked elegant, but plain in its own way.

I, on the other hand, knew exactly what it was. Especially since my Maths tutor expressed his insatiable craving for it in 30% of his tutorial classes (and that's Statistics for you). At least hearing him describe how a box of Godiva would be the best Teachers' Day present a student can ever give beats hearing him boasting about his past achievements (including being a First-Class Honours graduate). Anyway, I digress.

When I opened up the box, even my usually stoic brother got a shock. There in front of us was a whole array of assorted chocolates!



Of course with chocolates such as these, you have to eat them with care, savouring every taste and every bit of the chocolate. Despite employing my best imagination to predict how the chocolate would taste like, I was thoroughly shocked at the richness and smoothness of the chocolate. It tasted as though I was eating liquid chocolate that is as rich as... Um... Godiva chocolate! There's just no other words to describe it!

Not that I'm promoting Godiva (such an ostentatious product needs no advertisement - you don't see Häagen-Dazs adverts around do you?), but the taste was just heavenly! Friday's mud pie pale infinitely by comparison! Finally I understood why my Maths tutor expressed such craving for Godiva chocolate. They're the perfect gift to melt anyone's heart. Or if not the heart, then the stomach. Failing both, the most it could do is the melt in your mouth. They just taste so good! :)

At World's End

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.
Drink up me 'earties, Yo Ho!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.

After a year of waiting, we finally have the last of the trilogy of the Pirates of the Caribbean. After the rather far-fetched 2^nd part of the trilogy, I was inclined to believe that the 3^rd part would pale in comparison to the 2^nd one.

Even though it was indeed more far-fetched than ever before, I actually found it rather enjoyable. Although there was considerably less jokes in this movie than the first one, nevertheless, the special effects in this movie far surpasses the ones in the previous two. I especially loved the part where two ships were battling it out in a maelstrom. It was really stunning.

The show was not that bad, though I doubt it'll be able to surpass the first movie in terms of creative screenplay and the quality of the dialogue. The dialogue in the first movie was really stupendous. Then again, it's probably because this is my first time watching P.O.T.C. 3. Maybe the dialogue would resolve itself clearer if I were to watch the movie again.

Anyway, at least now my appetite has been satiated. Pirates was one of the "must-see" movies that I promised myself to watch. Now that I've watched it, well, who knows what other movies are there to expect this year? Maybe Harry Potter? Well, we'll see.

By the way, if you are watching this movie in the cinema, make sure you stay on after the credits (if you've learnt your lesson in P.O.T.C. 2). There's a very sweet scene at the end. Don't miss it!