T\Day

It has been a week since I started work at my new company, TBWA, and so far things are looking pretty good! :D Nice and cosy environment, friendly and cool colleagues, lots of cheap eating places, I can go on. :D

Last Friday was a very memorable day, not only was it T\Day, which is a day when accomplishments were reviewed, people were thanked, new directions of how the organisation is moving forward were disclosed, it was also our Christmas party (pretty early!). To top things off, it's also the first time I got drunk.

Let's emphasise it. Very drunk. wahahaha.. More on that later.

The theme of the party was "Military", and when the clock ticked around 5:20pm that day, a guy dressed in a grey German uniform (which I kinda gathered it's the Nazi soldier uniform) barged into our room and shouted at us, ordering everyone to stop working and get changed. :P Was darn funny and it momentarily reminded me of myself being in an army. *shucks*

I wished I had photos to show you! :D From the interactive team people dressed up as Jap soldiers, there's terrorists (I'm one!), people from the SWAT, medics, peace-loving sign-waving people, monks (Myanmar?), Empress Dowager with machine guns, a lady in Moscow(?) uniform, and finally the guy whom everyone loved, an ex-army personnel with his legs blown off, wheeling around in his wheelchair (try to imagine, he knelt on the wheelchair most of the time). :D It was not just army green that I initially imagined it to be, but rather a cocktail of very interesting and vibrant characters!

When we arrived at the scene of party, we were each given a drink (frankly till now, I have no idea what that was), which actually tasted pretty good! It was alcohol no doubt, with lime and leaves in it. Was I thirsty at that moment? Because even before eating any food, I already drank 3 army-style cups of those!

After the buffet dinner, I mingled with my colleague Danny, who introduced me some types of drinks to try (since I was a total noob at this). :P With the sweet music playing by a performer by the name of Jill, I cruise slowly on the wooden dance floor, sipping on my vodka lime. It had a very similar taste to what I had before food actually. hmm...

Since the booze was free, I helped myself to a glass of red wine. I was pretty much soaked in the atmosphere at this time. After this glass, Lynette, my project manager, gave each member of the interactive team another glass of red wine, and wanted us to down it all. I dint felt game enough to finish it all at one go, but still took and drank at a pace I was comfortable with.

Actually at this time I could feel things were shifting about already, but I wasn't quite sure what's my limit for alcohol, so what the hack, I took another white wine and gave it go. White wine certainly ain't my thing. I felt it had a weirder taste compared to its red counterpart. Chatted with Danny a little bit more and thought to myself that I could do just one more, so I asked him for a recommendation. Along came vodka cranberry. haha...

Cheers after cheers, I realised that I haven't touch glass with another friend. Thinking back, finding her was totally wrong. haha.. Here's why. Firstly, we didn't touch glass at all, and secondly, she administered a tequila shot to me, which I gamely accepted. :S Just to try try, you know.. haha..

By now you know I'm not in the right state of mind. :P My drinking sessions are far and few, once in a many months actually, and each session will consist of at most a ~350ml bottle of ~15% alcohol. Suddenly that night I drink so much. Tsk tsk tsk.. It was around 9pm that time and I felt really, really wrong. The lightness of my head escalated to swirls and I had to sit down. Jasmine from the HR even caught me stoning on the chair, but I couldn't care less, because I couldn't. :S

I saw people in front of me dancing happily, but all I could manage was to sit and fix my eyes on the same position. My brain seemingly got so heavy it was hard to balance. It must have gotten pretty obvious that I was drunk by then, for I had people coming to ask if I'm alright. A noob at drinking never knows if he/she is alright, so guess what I did? I still showed them a thumb's up! :P

9pm to 10pm, nothing changed, I was still in the same position. I needed a quieter spot, so I tried using my malfunctioned navigational system to get to the place where we kept our belongings, and stoned there. My head crashed on the table, and I was in too bad a shape for anything. Time passed and the alcohol took over, wrecking havoc from within. Something started to well up, and the need became pressing.

I HAD to go to the gents.

My head was heavy, my steps were wobbly, the floor was shifting, walls were warping in on me, and the deafening music went on. I grabbed hold of whatever I could lay my hands on and suppressed all that was inside me. It was imminent.

Upon arrival at the toilet, I struggled to the cubicle and let it all out. Yesh... I vomited. :S When was the last time I couldn't remember, but oh man I'm gonna remember this. I felt so wrecked I locked myself in, and squatted at a corner of the cubicle, trying to gather whatever that's left of me together. :(

11pm to 12am, I stayed in that miserable cubicle. Squatted, stood, leaned, supported, sat, and changed positions through countless times trying to pick up the pieces of my consciousness. @_@

When I finally managed to step out at a little past 12, two guys who were standing outside apparently thanked me! :D What followed was vomit noises. :P I got back out, and saw the rest of the guys from the interactive team. The girls were looking pretty much clear minded except for dear Lynette :P, and the guys in general just seemed tired and tipsy. I thought KC looked wrecked too. :P

Thanks to Yian Phing, a cab was called in and I finally got home.

So after this memorable day, here's a few important lessons I want to share with you all:

• If you drink, DON'T drive! (courtesy of Danny, who does what he preaches! :))
  
• Never underestimate the power of alcohol.
• Never overestimate your power of overcoming them.
• If you are a noob like me, stop at 3 glasses.
• If you feel something is wrong, something IS wrong!
• Even if booze is free, don't keep drinking!
• Have nice friends around you, in case you get too drunk to do anything.
• If you see people drunk, ask them if they're ok. They probably need help.

Finally the most important lesson:

• Don't HOG the toilet, people are waiting to vomit! :D

IPPT 2007

Nearly died from IPPT and totally suffering from body aches now. :S Here's the details:

1st Station: Shuttle Run - 9.6s
Pretty clueless and non-strategic of me to go and take this as the first station. Nothing was actually going through my head la. :( I should have at least taken the Broad Jump first before taking this station. But oh well, it landed me the only 5 points of the entire test. haha..

2nd Station: Sit Up - 38
I still can't believe what used to be an easy easy 5 points became a struggle today. Was aiming for 40 but try as I might till the last second, only landed myself with a 38. Sigh.. I really need to shed that layer of fats around my tummy. :(

3rd Station: Broad Jump - 213cm
My weakest link dated all the way back from primary school. :( Totally can't grasp the technique that they mentioned even back in army, and it seems I'll be forever plagued by it. With the tiredness accumulated from the shuttle run earlier on, I only managed to jump 213cm, and got myself a "glorious" 1 point. :S

4th Station: Chin Up - 10
I can't believe it, and neither should you. It had been so long since I last did any chin ups due to my wrist injury. I wanted to inform the Physical Training Instructor (PTI) of my condition but I thought I just give it a shot. :D Who knows! haha.. Thing is, after I came down, my wrist gave me a short numb which only went away after a few minutes. :S Still happily lala-ing though. *glee*

Special thanks goes to Geri! Seems like the physiotherapy occupational therapy that she gave me back then did help my condition! *w00t!*

3rd Station Revisited: Broad Jump - 225cm
Seeing that my Shuttle Run, Sit Up, and Chin Up stations all had fairly good results, I requested a retry for my Broad Jump. I'm still filled with both satisfaction and regrets now, here's why.

I had to jump 4 times because the machine kept throwing me "Line Fault" and ask me to "Clear Platform". :S By my last attempt my knees were already shaking and beads of sweat kept falling off my forehead. I believed I hurt my back during one of the jumps, cos now I can't even sit or walk with a straight posture. Making my back straight sends a pain signal throughout my entire body. :S Think I need physiotherapy for my back now. *lol*

At last, I cleared with a final 225cm. 3 super-hard-earned-and-possibly-making-me-regret points. *phew*

6th Station: 2.4km Run - 11:43 min
Just 3 stupid seconds away and I would have gotten a 3 points. Ended with a not-so-desirable 2 points. *sigh* At least I survived after not running for about 3 weeks, which I consider to be ok le la. haha.. Consoling myself. :P

Yay!! So I passed! :D

Though I feel I can improve on many areas, I'm not going to stay in that spirit. I'm actually very happy that I survived and made it on first attempt, and the next time will be next year! Finally MINDEF will stop bugging me with their SMSes/emails/letters spam. :P

Time to rest for now...

(OUCH! My back...)

Rocky Balboa

Rarely has a film so inspired me. Rocky Balboa is already in his fifties, but to pursue his burning passion, he decided to come back from retirement and get in the ring with the current heavyweight champion, Mason Dixon.

This dialogue between Rocky and his son, particularly moves me. His son was complaining that his dad, getting into the ring at his age, was a joke, and he being his son, will also be made together with the joke. Here's what Rocky said:

The world ain't all sunshines and rainbows.
It's a very mean and nasty place,
and I don't care how tough you are,
it'll beat you to your knees
and keep it there permanently if you let it.

You, me or nobody...
...is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain't about how hard you hit.
It's about how hard you can get hit,
and keep moving forward.

How much you can take,
and keep moving forward.
That's how winning is done!

Now, if you know what you're worth,
then go out and get what you're worth.
But you gotta be willing to take the hits.

And not pointing fingers saying
you ain't what you wanna be
because of him, or her, or anybody.

Cowards do that, and that ain't you!

I can't imagine how I'll feel if my dad tells me such powerful speeches. T_T

Kudos to Sylvester Stallone, for writing an amazing script that develops the characters, producing it, and finally, being himself. I think after shooting five movies about Rocky, he must have put his heart and soul with him as the character while making it. Absolutely amazing.

It ain't over 'til it's over.

N95 SGD200 Cheaper?!?!?!

Talk about feeling cheated. I just heard this from my god mom and checked it out over at Singtel's website.

For those who dint know, I bought Nokia N95 on 22 Oct, just a day less than 2 weeks ago. The motivation behind this was because Singtel sent a mailer that I could save SGD30 on my next 3G phone with it. I had to use the mailer before 31 Oct, if not the promo will be over, and since I had to head to Japan on 25 Oct, I had to use it before I leave. It had been 21 months since I changed my phone, and added with the fact that I wanted a phone that I can play Flash Lite with, I invested SGD568 on the N95.

WHO KNOWS!?!?!

Singtel came up with this surprise that threw me off balance. My god mom messaged me today that for this week only, the N95 is going at SGD200 lesser! WA KAO!!! Can you believe it???? :( Instead of saving me SGD30, I spent an additional SGD170 just because of that mailer. :(

For the rest of you guys, lucky for you. Go get this phone this week before Singtel ends the deal. Feeling totally dumb and cheated. BAH~~~

If Singtel reads this, I hope they can offer a percentage rebate (like what Steve Jobs did with the iPhone price cut) to those who just bought the N95 (say.. 2 weeks ago?) before this current offer, I will be so happy with them I will kiss the Singtel logo in their AmkHub store.

Really! I'll do it!

[Update 04/11/2007 23:03]
I've just emailed Singtel with a "complain", and I hope something good comes out of this.

Hi,

I've just upgraded my handset to N95 less than 2 weeks ago (~22 Oct), and paid SGD568 for the new phone.

Just saw your new hot deals this week that N95 is going at SGD200 cheaper, and I can't help but feel unhappy with the entire event.

Having been a loyal consumer of your good services till date, I hope that something can be done to make a paying customer happy again.

If an example is required, please kindly refer to what Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, did after the price cut of the iPhone.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

If customers are informed of future offers, say for those within the next month, we would have a better idea of when to get our desired phone, and such unhappy events can well be averted.

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks in advance.

Lionel

Disarray

Suddenly I find my life in an utter mess. To be specific, my luggage is still not yet unpacked, my room is still messy, my digital life is so lagged behind it's getting unbelievable, my geek blog has been left untouched for nearly 2 months already when I have so much to say.

The entire November has already planned itself for me till it's fully packed. Funny how things fall into place even when you have nothing planned in the first place. Getting hard to convince myself already. haha..

And yet, other things that are inconvenient to blog about are happening that's throwing the direction in my life a little off course. For concerned friends, please don't worry. It's nothing bad. :) They are just things that got me thinking a lot broader, a lot deeper.

Really need to set aside time to list and plan things out, though time is again, not a luxury. But I know I can rest assured, that God will keep my life intact and in control. :D

Back From Japan!

The time flies when you're enjoying yourself. - Mr Bean

Well how true. haha.. Japan is a wonderful place to visit, especially during this period when it's their autumn season. The weather is superb, services are top-notched, people are friendly, and really, it has been a very good experience.

The 8 days tour took me around so many places that I believe will take several blog entries to detail them. Throughout this trip, I took about 7gb worth of photos(!), and it's gonna take me a while to sort them. My schedule is darn tight at the moment, so don't expect these two to happen soon. I really hope to bring Japan to you soon as I'm able to. :)

Going Japan

w00t!

I'm leaving for an 8 days tour in Japan, and I'm expected to be at Changi Airport in about an hour's time! Rush rush rush~~~~~~

Equipped with my new Canon 40D , I can't wait to capture Japan for all my dear friends to see! whoohooOOO!!!

Till I come back on the 1 November guys! :D

First Time To VivoCity!

Yay... I'm no longer a mountain tortoise as at 21 Oct 2007. I had always assumed that I might be the last 23 year old in Singapore to visit this "new" shopping centre. sigh.. Even Arul has been there a few times according to him! And he's from India! I'm from Singapore! haha...

Ok you can stop laughing now. :P Haven't laugh enough meh. Anyway, that day I went shopping with Geri, and when we went into Toy'R'Us, I found it!!!!!!!!!!





...........





what?





:D







PROFESSOR'S CUBE!!!!!!!!!!!

PS: I'm so lazy to write the details, since it's slightly outdated too. Check out Geri's post. haha..

Last Day At Radixs...

Just a week ago I celebrated my anniversary in Radixs, a week later it's my last day.

A bit emotional, a bit sad. Not much photo taking because I was still rushing for features. haha.. so don't ask me why no photos hor.

Just want to thank all the wonderful colleagues who played a part in making my time in Radixs such a memorable and valuable experience. And of course, to both my bosses, thank you for having me in your company.

It had been my great pleasure to have worked with you all. :)

Happy Anniversary At Radixs!

I can't believe that I've gotten so busy lately that even my personal blog has been brought to a nasty halt, and started collecting digital dust! I wish I had more time for more things, but oh well, we got real jobs to do. :D

Anyway, today marks the anniversary of me working at Radixs! waa... Suddenly I feel the year passed so quickly. Exactly a year ago, I was just out of army, looking around for a good job that I can utilise and expand my programming skills (You know la, after 2 years of army, things get a little rusty. :P).

Till today, I'm still very glad that I found this job at Radixs, which had been absolutely tough, steep learning curve, and possibly everything that I never expected I will be doing. Why am I glad? Well because since I survived, it only meant that I grew! :P

From procedural programming, I advanced to writing modular codes through Object-Oriented Programming. For a period I was totally obsessed with Design Patterns, and then I learnt about different frameworks for deployment of projects, and animation engines to tween using codes. I've also gotten the chance to develop in the company's latest project with Flex and Cairngorm!

Looking back, before I entered, I was writing AS1 codes. Several months down the road I learnt and adapted to AS2. Recently AS3 and MXML are the main tools of the trade. haha.. talk about the pace man!

Thanks to great bosses and colleagues, the time here has been made absolutely wonderful and fruitful. Would like to extend special thanks to Arul, for his guidance and invaluable experience, which hopefully some had rubbed off on me. *chuckles* Oh.. for those who didn't know, I came in on the same day with Arul. :D

Ok la.. today is a happy day. :D But I still have to get back to work. Deadlines are real, and I still have real stuff left to complete. haha..

One Side Done!

After spending 20 minutes on this, I finally got one side done! wahahaha.. so slow. :P

My Rubik's Cubes!!!

Bought my first Rubik's Cube like ermz... one and a half weeks back? haha..

Just bought it today! Rubik's Revenge! Time to mess with it! w00t! :D

I asked the auntie at Dollz Inc(Wheelock Place) today, and she mentioned that the Professor's Cube is out of stock! On the other hand I hope she start to get stocks for the Pyraminx. I really want to lay my hands on these two! :D

I'm hopelessly addicted. hahaha...

Best Rubik's Tutorial

This is by far the best video tutorial that I found online. Other videos' methods were either too hard, or the instructions were too confusing. If you wanna solve your Rubik's cube, learn the essential skills from here. ;)

Rubik's Madness

It's official. I'm addicted to this 3x3x3 cube called the Rubik's Cube. :D

Last Saturday I have this sudden urge to go and conquer this toy, and so I went ahead to the bookshop downstairs of my home and bought that was just $1.50 only! What a steal! (yeah right~) I eagerly tore open the plastic wrapping and started messing the cube up. To my dismay, turning the individual layers was hard, and after applying some strength, the cube broke! *doh!*

Just to satisfy my crave, I tried my best to fix the cube up again just to play with it. It was however, totally unsatisfactory in my opinion. Then on Wednesday, it broke officially, and I gave up fixing it back. Was too much a pain.

After work that day, I head over to Suntec's Toys"R"Us and finally bought an official cube! It costs $10.95, but it's so worth it! haha.. The turning is smooth and colours are awesome. Just looking at that makes my day a little brighter in fact. :P

After watching several tutorial videos online, I'm now able to solve a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. My best record is roughly 4 mins now, and I'm still trying to get up to speed with it. At the same time, I'm intending to get Rubik's Revenge (4x4x4 in layman terms)!

wahahaha... I'm mad. :P

Blogless August

Hello everyone! Missed me? haha... Just in case you thought I was captured by aliens, well I'm not. Hope you're not disappointed to hear that! :P

It's ridiculous how fast time flies. Blink blink blink one month just flew away like that. Of course, I haven't been wasting my life away. :) I've basically just kept myself very very busy with work, coding some additional features for our software, and making sure bugs dare not appear. :P

My bosses promised more work coming, but I'm sure I can make time to write some things down. I have so many things to blog at the moment I'm lost at where to start!

Till next post! whoohoOO~~

Reminiscing My Army Days

My friend Geri sent me a link to this video and my oh my... how it reminded me of the days in army! I'm not lying over here, but I actually kinda miss it. :D

This video reminded me of my own BMT (Basic Military Training), my own weight plus the layers of fats before army (72kg?? I'm 62kg now!), and my "wife"! haha.. What's featured in the video, SAR-21, is a more advanced rifle that belong to those lucky infantry units (I'm not envious! Their training is way tougher!). For me, I had a M16-S1, which is a Singapore modified version of the older M16. Still my first wife though. :P

Nevertheless, it brings back some really good memories. Day in day out all we had to do is to focus on not signing any extras (extra duties), throw smoke bombs (escape from superiors), "delegating" duties to junior soldiers, trying our best to make up reasons to get out of camp, and faking the innocent face (kiam pa bin) to show that whatever that screwed up had absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH ME! *istroke*

In short, CAO GENG! (trying to escape from anything and everything.)

Don't you think it's exciting? :P But yeah.. I also miss the not-so-exciting-but-rather-good times of that kind of life. Regular and routine lifestyle, daily exercises that keeps you really super fit, regular meals that you don't have any say (but yet still taste good!), and the kind of bonding between all of us who shared in the same bunk (including whatever nonsense that occurred during the night!).

To those of my friends who are going in, it's not all that bad! It brings a certain level of maturity into you that is needed to go through this working life ahead of you. Teaches me to be humble for an instance. :) To those who are in midst of it, trust me, you're going to come out a much better person than before you go in. To those who are out, I have no advice you need! :P

Oh well, I don't have to wait too long myself. Two and half more months and I'm going back for reservist. Wonder if I'll see any of my old time buddies. haha...

An Awakening Nightmare

~ 4:00am
I was starting to have consciousness of the dream I was having. It was a weird dream, though nothing that I've never had.

A usual game of run and hide away from people who are trying to find you in a treacherously designed place. I was pretty good with the surroundings, jumping through holes, across buildings, running around.

The stunts that I did in the game became routine, and soon enough I wanted to try something different. While I was jumping off from a ground higher than usual, I kinda slipped, and crying out through the air.

What followed was flashes of passing light, with medical sounds (you know the regular beeping with gas pumping kind of sounds), with lots of weird numberings fluttering in front of me. Everything was blur.

The next thing is that when I woke up in the dream (not I wake up FROM the dream), I realised that it was already 10 years later. Straightaway, an immediate notion came to me, almost as if God spoke to me.

"Life is but a fleeting moment."

A terrible sense of lostness overwhelmed me. I dint know what to do. What can I do? 10 years had passed and Flash must have already moved to dunno which version! (This thought really came in my dream, not an afterthought.)


~ 4:05am
I was awaken, startled by the nightmare and how things turned out to be. Hyper-palpitating just like any usual person will suffer from after a bad dream.

My lines of thoughts were strange, confusing and interlacing. I was still lost. Kind of like I'm trying to figure a way to recover from it, and hopefully go back to sleep.


~ 4:06am
At the other end of my room, something big fell on the floor with a huge thud, and along with it was the crashing plastic sounds.

I got startled twice in a row! I mean it was already so late in the middle of night, I just woke up from a bad dream, and some loud noises have to echo through the soundless night.

Took me a while to get back to my senses to realise that it was actually my guitar that fell, and brought along with it my toothbrush holder to the ground.

Immediately I knew something isn't right. Nothing was moving in my room, how could things just fall? And this fall seems to be targeted to get me out of bed, it nearly seems intended.


~ 4:11am
I can no longer sleep. Switched on my computer, and started to blog about this series of weird happenings. I was obviously shaken up for a reason, and the only reason that I felt compellingly important was to blog about the dream.

4:39am
"Life is but a fleeting moment."

Our life is fragile. It was given to us by God because it was His love and pleasure to create us. Yet it can be taken away from us just as easily. There's no guarantee that You are going to wake up tomorrow. Don't take life for granted.

The fact that Flash itself was shown to me in my dream meant another thing on a different level altogether. Was I too caught up in chasing technology? Yes I survived the fall, but hey! All that I was chasing then (which is exactly what I'm doing now), is not of any significance any more!

The codes that I write, the news/blogs that I read (probably more religiously than my bible), the time spent on Flash, will all be for nothing when life/time is taken away from me. What's Flash in 10 years? Will there still be a Flash? What will the world be like? That scene of wandering in the hospital is scary.

What I think God was telling me is this. Spend my time on earth on something that'll last forever, and not on something so ephemeral. Yes, compared with God's promised eternity, life on earth IS but a fleeting moment.


4:49am
How are you using your time? Are you running about in circles daily, concentrating ONLY on things that will not last forever? Should it be time that you start doing something about it? Should it be time that you start investing your time on lives, rather than self-centered desires?

Living is not your right. Your life was bought at a price, a price that Jesus paid on the cross. Are you acknowledging Him? Or are you still resisting your one true salvation? If all comes to an end today, what will be your biggest regret?

For me, it will probably be that I did not share enough testimony to my close friends and families. The fact that though I was saved, yet I did not save people close to me, to ensure that I will have them for eternity, is a sense of loneliness lingering in the air.



"Life is but a fleeting moment."

Are you getting this?

Live Earth 2007

Today is 7th July 2007, Live Earth Day. I'm not gonna act like an environmentalist and preach all about what humans have done, the ignorance and negligence of their actions that have caused global warming, animal extinction, blah blah blah...

What I wish to bring across is just simple.

Earth is a place we all live in. We have to be responsible and at least do a little part on our side. If each of us does a small bit, the impact will be great when it's consolidated.

We probably just have to do a little bit of adjustment here and there in our life, small sacrifices like taking public transport instead of driving, switching off appliances when not in use and using environmental friendly appliances. Who knows, if everyone acts in faith, the entire world's population can make a HUGE drastic change!

I'm writing in faith. A faith that will possibly give a better tomorrow. :)

Will you join me?

iPhone Stressed

Under this kind of stress tests, don't expect your iPhone to survive. These guys are nuts. They must be either filthy rich, or they stole it. Oh my gosh...

iPhone Stress Tests

Well, what more need I say? My worries are all extraneous! :D

20 Must-Have Firefox Extensions

Found out that I wrote so much on Firefox add-ons that it's better to just redirect. :D

If you're still not convinced why Firefox is the better browser amongst all it's competitors, I hope this article shines more light.

It talks about the top 20 Firefox add-ons in each of the following categories.

• Tools for taming the Web
• Visual improvements
• Matters of convenience
• Information gatherers
• Web developer essential

Plenty of great things to check out, so well.. check it out! :D

Answers in Firefox

This must have been one of the coolest add-on in Firefox that I've come across. :D

Some questions:

• Do you read blogs/articles/news online?
• Do you hate to be puzzled by a word that you dint know?
• Do you go to dictionary.com, or any other online language resource reference in that matter, to check up words?
  
• Do you want to improve your vocabulary?
  

If your answer is "Yes" to any of the above questions, probably what I'm going to introduce to you might be of most helpful. :)

Firefox Answers.

Every time when I'm reading there's bound to be chances of stumbling upon difficult words, and what I would usually do will be:

• 1. Open up a new tab in Firefox.
• 2. Type "www.dictionary.com" and press Enter.
• 3. Wait for the page to load.
• 4. In the search box, type the word in query, and press Enter.
• 5. Wait for the page to load... again. :S
  
• 6. The meaning of the word appears.
  

What a hassle! I had to live with that kind of flow because I couldn't find a better one. One fine day, while reading the web, I came to know of Answers. After installing this little thing, it blew me OFF! :D

This is my new flow of finding out the new word:

• 1. Press the Alt key, and right mouse click on the word.
  

Ermz.. I'm done you know? haha.. It's just that simple! Alt-click Alt-click. The beauty of this add-on is that Answers is not limited to just words. If it detects that it's a phrase, it'll even look that up and bring the answers(well literally? hehe..) right to your web! :D

Please enjoy. I know you will. ;)

Dreamy iPhone~~

This is no new news. iPhone will be launched in US in 3 more days, 29 June 2007, and it's probably the biggest gadget bang this year. But right about a week ago, Apple announced that the dreamy iPhone has just gotten better. :O

Now check this out:

• Talk Time: 8 hours
• Standby Time: 250 hours (more than 10 days!)
• Internet Use: 6 hours
• Video Playback: 7 hours
• Audio Playback: 24 hours

See the full technical specifications.

It's astounding stats from any angle that I see. I can get a 8GB iPhone that plays my favourite songs(for even longer hours than my current ipod nano), podcasts, videocasts, while at the same time enjoying the long hours of talk time, and checking emails on any journey. Important thing is that I can finally use VelvetPuffin! :D Now how cool is that package? It's north-pole-cool. **brrr***

There's probably 2 areas that I'm very concerned about. The prone-to-scratch-glossy-surface, and that I'm a prone-to-drop-phone-person. :(

Apple addresses my first concern that "the entire top surface of iPhone.. has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity". Now how nice is that! :) I don't have to worry about scratching the surface now! **YAY!!**

BUT the glass gives me more reasons to worry than ever! I drop my phone so regulary(once a month on average), will the glass shatter? :S I mean I would rather have a scratchy phone than a phone that shatters if I do drop if you get what I mean. Furthermore, the advanced hardware that's in this baby might break after dropping once! That's why I always go for cheapskate phones(free ones especially). Not that their hardware won't break, but it's just that they're easily replaceable. sigh... :(

In an indirect way, I'm glad that the US market gets to be the first batch of guinea pigs. :P When iPhone eventually comes to Singapore, I'll most probably read up on some reviews before deciding if this is the phone for me. :)

Until then, this is just a **dream** phone. :P~~~~

Caricature and a Lobster!!

Thanks to 3D for her very nice caricature of me! Think she drew me till she nearly vomit. Not that it's hard work till vomit blood, but it's vomit cos have to keep staring at my face! wahahahaha... :D Note how much details she put into this illustration! My half open eyes (ever so tired), the flex book that I was obsessed with, the product I've been working on, velvetpuffin, and last but not least, my MBT shoes. *w00t~!*

Thanks to Arul for the damn cute red lobster you gave me! It has found itself a permanent place to stay (atop of the tissue box on my desk), and a permanent job tending to my mouse cord (look carefully at what the lobster's pincer are gripping!). :P Life at work will never be the same with the cute lobster's constant gaze at me. :D

Geek Blog Announced! Again?!

Wow, how many days had it been since I first announced my geek blog? hahaha.. just 2 weeks? :D

Anyway, I found that while it's great to get the wordpress blog, everything seems to be so limiting. I dint like any of those. In order to have the ability to change the Cascading Style Sheets(CSS), I have to pay USD15 a year? Forget it. Even blogger gives it for free. To add to my pain, I can't add any side widgets or tools and there's no upgrades I can buy to do that(not that I will really buy if there IS really an option. :P).

I was desperate.

That naturally lead me to the thought, shouldn't I get a hosting service for myself? It's high time if you ask me. :D I had my limited website on freewebs.com for way too long. Friends recommended godaddy.com, and so after checking out and comparing a lot of other hosting services, found that godaddy.com had the best deal of all!

For 4 kick-ass years of hosting service, I only paid SGD320! Did I mention that the package gave me 100GB of space and 1TB(terabyte) of bandwidth? haha.. It was absolute awesomeness. In addition to this, I shared the hosting with 3D, which meant another ~SGD75 off the bill. :D Can't get any cooler than that. ;)

Anyway, after all that long grandmother story, here's the link to my new geek blog:
http://blog.flashmech.net

And do check out my portfolio website!
http://www.flashmech.net

PS: I just have to say this. Wordpress on wordpress hosting sucks. But wordpress on your own hosting rocks big-time. :D It's no wonder that they're the winner of the Webware 100 in the publishing category. :D

Best FTP Client for Windows

File Transfer Protocol, or better known as FTP, is used to transfer data from one computer to another over the Internet, or through a network.

I've just gotten my web hosting service recently, so in other words, there's a whole new world out there for me to explore. But first and foremost, without a FTP client, I would not be able to put anything up for the world to see!

Here's my personal view of the attributes that a good FTP Client should have:

• No Hassle
• Intuitive Interface
• Fast startup/load times
• Small size/lite weight
• Free :P

Windows Explorer 0/5


Never knew that Windows Explorer can be used as an FTP! :D It wasn't a good experience though (could be some settings that I set, not too sure on this). In fact, it was a pain to use. I mean, if I have to login EACH time to upload ONE file, that's a huge drawback! I needed to upload thousands of files, and if that's the message they're sending across, forget it.

Dreamweaver 3/5


Strictly just rating dreamweaver as an FTP client here! First, the startup was pretty slow (well of course, it's a huge software to develop websites with!). Second, it's not free! Thirdly, somehow it always throws me an error message saying that it can't connect to my site, when others could. :(

(As a side note, I must add that the power to sync with your files at your hosting server while developing in dreamweaver through the FTP is absolutely dreamy. :D)

FileZilla 4/5


Open source, ease of use, pretty intuitive UI made me love this piece. :D Overall, it performs very well, and when I'm disconnected from the server, it connects me back. No fuss, no prompts (take that windows explorer!). The only major irk will be the directory panel, as it doesn't auto refresh (took me a while to find the refresh button too).

FireFTP 4.5/5


This is my winner. :) As an extension to firefox, it basically installs itself in my browser. No additional download to install, unlike FileZilla or Dreamweaver. Simple and great UI that overlooks your local drive files and your hosting files. Unlike FileZilla, FireFTP auto refreshes! Just in case it doesn't, which I have yet to experience, there's still an additional refresh button for your "mental security". :P

Why isn't it 5/5 then? Well, two minor issues. FireFTP does not show my "desktop" in the directory listing, which means I have to navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\{owner}\Desktop. FileZilla on the other hand, does that. :)

(Updated on 20 June 2007 17:45:00 SGT: Shunjie pointed out something important that I missed. Since FireFTP installs in your Firefox browser, it may be the only effective FTP that you can use if you're working on a limited access user account.)

Do you have a preferred FTP client?
Do you disagree with I wrote above? Leave me a note and let me know! :D

Mouse Gestures in Firefox

I'm so happy! :D Found something that I lost for so long!

Have you heard of Mouse Gestures?

According to Wikipedia, a mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command.

I first came across mouse gestures in myIE2 (a free browser now better known as Maxthon). This technology totally changed the way I surfed the net! :D Opening a new tab was just a matter of holding down the left mouse button and clicking the right one. Closing a tab was vice versa. Back and forward had never been easier as well. Mouse gestures seems so intuitive, so natural to use. All actions are customisable according to your own liking too! ;)

myIE2 was not perfect though. It was based on the Internet Explorer(IE) browser engine, and as everyone knows, IE uses ActiveX which indirectly increases exposure to viruses. After a virus successfully attacked my computer sometime last year, I decided that it was simply not worth the risk, hence I dropped myIE2 to use Firefox.

If only I had searched earlier!! Came across this Mouse Gesture add-on for Firefox during one of my blog reads today and I immediately knew, the one thing that I so loved about a browser is now back in my hands! :D

muahahahahahaha.....

For those who have yet to try, I highly recommend it! It may change the way you browse the net. :)

Apollo For Flex Pocketguide

Seems to have found this a little too late. :D

Apollo is already Adobe AIR Beta, while Flex 2 is already Flex 3 Beta at the moment. Anyway, found this pocket guide book on these two technologies and uploaded it to my box.

Download it to get yourself some direction (if you require any).

Personally, I would think I need it. :P

Annual ICT 2007

Received a SMS yesterday night, from an unknown number. The first 2 words in the SMS probably sank my mood into the deepest realm for the year. :(

(fm MINDEF:)
Still got smiley some more. pengz..

For the uninitiated, MINDEF is Ministry of Defense (Singapore). sigh... As expected... a Call Up Notification! This is gonna be the first In Camp Training (ICT) post my army days and I must say the feeling is pretty dreadful. To break away from my job, from what I love doing is.... IS..... SIGH............................................

It's gonna be a 5 days ICT at Seletar East Camp, from Oct 15 2007 0730hrs (SO EARLY!) to Oct 19 2007 2359hrs (SO LATE!). Oh well... I know I know... being a Singaporean male , this is unavoidable. Every guy has to do up their responsibility to protect the COUNTRY!!

At least there's one good part amidst all these, and that's the *timing*. They did not take away Oct 20, which is xf's bday. :D Army still clever after all la... know it's my best friend's bday know cannot take. wahahaha...

PS: I know it's just pure conincidence. Army got nothing to do with xf's bday perfect timing and if they really wanted to call me back, they still could! :( Just glad they dint. :D

Geek Blog Announced!

The objective of this blog post is simple. I've decided for certain reasons to get another blog to satisfy my geekiness. :P

Had been a very tough decision though, as I love my current address, flashmech.blogspot.com, a lot. I wanted to change it to a more personal, lionellow.blogspot.com and make way this place free for a full geeky blog.

Thought it over, and nope, that's not gonna happen. :D Though this blog has not been established for long, I like the current way it is, and it should stay that way. I've thought about other site names on blogger and somehow, ideas along that direction were pretty lame.

Hence, it was decided that I create an account on WordPress, another popular blogging website. This new blog will be entirely use for the geeky stuff, like the latest news on the Flash Platform, my own experimentations, silly mistakes, things like that.

Still awaiting for MXNA to add my blog to be aggregated at the moment, and planning to get a Creative Commons license for it too. Still pretty much in the infancy stage, but will get it bigger I promise. :)

Here's the address for my geek blog:
http://flashmech.wordpress.com

(Updated on June 25 2007 16:40:00 SGT: Oh no! I've moved again! http://flashmech.wordpress.com is no more! Official geek blog at http://blog.flashmech.net)

Lesser Space After Uninstalling CS3 Than Before?

It's weird, but I need confirmation. Solutions are more than welcome. :)

I've installed and uninstalled Adobe CS3 Design Premium roughly twice, and with each uninstall, the size on my hard disk seems to have gone down quite a bit (~600mb). I can't confirm the actual size because in between the installation I've been adding some files on my computer but definitely not ~1.2gb worth.

After each uninstall, I'll be emptying whatever contents (if any) in my recycle bin, cleaning up the temporary internet folders, and even defragmenting my registry and doing disk clean up. Tried to look into the Program Files folder to find any repository of temporary installation files that might have facilitated the installation, but to no avail. All that couldn't get me back my lost space.

Anyone experienced this as well?

History Panel in Flash IDE

Ever tried the History Panel in Flash IDE? :)

Even though the history panel made it's way into Flash since the MX 2004 days, I couldn't find a good reason to use it. I mean, why would I need an extra panel to clutter up my screen estate when it's already tough to juggle between the designer and developer related panels? I could easily do a Ctrl-Z(Undo) and Ctrl-Y(Redo) at any time that I want~

Well, time has changed. :D Since I've started messing around with JSFL, the history Panel becomes the basic tool to learn JSFL commands. Don't believe me? Follow me through then. ;)

1. In Flash IDE, go to Window --> Other Panels --> History (Ctrl-F10)


2. Click on the options button , under View, you should see a menu as follows:


The Default view that you see, shows the commands in normal layman English that everyone will understand. I have still yet to find any purpose with the Arguments in Panel view, so I'm gonna skip that. The JavaScript in Panel view is what we're interested with.

3. Here's the JavaScript in Panel view.


Did you notice the lines and lines of codes in the history panel now? Well those are JSFL codes! If there's something that you wish to create for Flash IDE, and have no slightest idea where to begin, yet you know that there's something similar been done already, you now know where to look!


Further Reads:
Using History and Flash Panels for Faster Development

New toy: JSFL

I first came across JSFL when I tried to compile a Flash file through FlashDevelop. That was the time when I saw in Flash IDE's Output panel, some error message about a particular JSFL file failing to execute (I can't remember what's the exact error message, as it's so random and I never really take note).

Of course at that time, I had no clues about what JSFL was and I'm not bothered to find out what it might do. I'm more pressed with the concern that my Flash file is failing on me. :D (The dateline was so tight, JSFL don't blame me. :P)

Recently, while reading Grant Skinner's blog, I stumbled upon his gAlign extension tool for Flash IDE. In that blog post, he mentioned about using "custom JSFL calls" to accomplish his stuff. Seeing how JSFL is able to manipulate Flash IDE's content, that got me seriously curious about the technology behind it.

Googled for JSFL as I had absolutely no idea where to start from, and found this introductory article by Guy Watson. In the article, he establishes facts about JSFL and where did it came from. Unfortunately, it didn't seems to be what I'm looking for.

How can one ever forget about Flash Help? :D I did a search in there and found exactly what I needed. All the treasures and secrets about JSFL were all lying in the book Extending Flash, waiting for me to uncover them. hehe..

So now, I'm getting all excited about this new discovered "power" (of course the power itself is not new, and existent for a pretty long while. it's just my ignorance. :D but no more!). Got some opinions from friends about what should I develop as an extension for flash, and Arul in particular gave an interesting one.

My first JSFL project will hence be,




*drum roll*




*drum roll*




*drum roll*








an Arrow Drawing Tool!







Stay tuned!

The World's Fastest Indian

This movie managed to moved me even though I'm not a lover of motorcycles. Can't imagine if someone like Arul watches this movie. :P

Burt Munro, an ordinary man with extraordinary determination, had an ambition to set the land-speed world record using his 1920 Indian motorcycle. His passion overcame all difficulties, obstacles, barriers, and even to the brink of risking death.

In 1967, he finally sets the under-1000 cc world motorcycle land speed record, which still stands today, at Bonneville Salt Flats with his self-modified Indian motorcycle that originally could only run at a top speed of 86.90 km/h (54 mph). His official record?

295.44 km/h
~183.58 mph

Burt Munro
If you don't follow through on your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable (not your regular cabbage kind of veg! :D).

Burt Munro took 25 years to realise his dream.

How far are you willing to go for yours? :)

The Prestige

The prestige, the final act of the three acts of a magic show, the act that will leave the audience astounded, mystified, shocked and overwhelmed. With the success of a prestige, acclaimed magicians will always want to find out that secret, how the trick was being done.

Robert Angier and Alfred Borden were two friends when they began their career as magicians. Through an accident that caused the death of Angier's wife, their friendship turned into hatred, which leads to rivalry. With the prestige of an ultimate trick, their rivalry evolves to a battle that promises to tear their lives down and affect everyone around them.

Intense. That's the word to describe the movie. It keeps you to the edge of your seat through the brilliant performance by Hugh Jackman (Robert Angier) and Christian Bale (Alfred Borden). To see both in a movie was almost *dreamy*, as I admire both actors a lot. Hugh Jackman is best known for being Wolverine in the X-Men series, whereas Christian Bale as Batman Begins (which I love thoroughly, can't wait for the sequel!).

This is a must watch for people who love drama, thrills, twist and turn of plots.

Charlotte's Web

How many people had grown up without reading Charlotte's Web? haha.. Well, I'm one of those few. Since young, I really dint like to read, which probably explains why my English is horrible! :P

As I said, since this is the first time I get in touch with this story, on many levels I'm not distracted by what the book actually wrote, how the plot unfolds, and more importantly, no spoilers. :D

The story is a simple and straightforward one. Of trust, loyalty, and sacrifice between friends. Do not judge a person by its cover, like how Wilbur sees Charlotte. Charlotte in turn teaches us that promises made are to be kept. Their dynamic relationship creates a spark that changes everything in their town, both human and animals.

If we apply those precious lessons to our lives, wouldn't that make our world a better place to live in? ;)

The Illusionist

When was the last time I watched a magic show? haha... This movie though, is many levels more than that. The plot was intriguing, and the ending carried such a twist it blew me off.

It was a direct pit of intelligence, between Eisenheim (the illusionist), the chief inspector and the crown prince, as Eisenheim tries to use his powers as an illusionist, to secure a future with his lover, a woman who is well above himself in regards to social status.

Prepare for the ride and be mystified. :)

The Pursuit Of Happyness

Inspired by a true story based on the life of Chris Gardner, this movie shows the struggle of a father trying to hold the family together despite of the tremendous daily difficulties that he face. His sales job was going downhill, his wife left him, his inability to pay his fines landed him in jail, he had no money for daily expenses and eventually, homelessness. In spite of these, he was determined for a career change to be a stockbroker.

The love between Chris and his son was also extremely moving. It almost seems that Chris motivation behind his daily struggles was his son, that he wants his son to be happy. In one scene when Chris was teaching Chris Jr., this dialogue left a very deep impression in me and I felt it captured the essence of the movie.

Chris Gardner
Don't ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.

After months of being deep in mud, struggling with life and at the brink of depression, Chris finally have a chance at happiness with life when he got chosen to be a stockbroker out of the 20 that applied for it. That joy that he had was incomparable.

That joy moved me to tears.