Mission 14: Ipod Touch

When you thought the world is simple if you're using a Macbook with an Ipod Touch.

THINK AGAIN.
Seriously. That copyright thing with itunes got me going round and round like a hopeless noob.
Isn't this supposed to be easy?
Sorry Apple/Ipod fans out there. This complain has to go down.

1st of all:
> I cannot backup my mp3 from Ipod to itunes. It works one way.

> You thought you have the Copytrans? Oh wait, only works in Windows OS.

> And you thought boot camp solves it all. Oh Wait... w/o itunes in Windows 7, Ipod is a Camera device.

> And finally you get it all going, oh CRAP, trail version only allows 100 songs backup.

Nvm that I decided my friend's playlist is superior enough to command some space in that 8 GB.

Man I'm thrown and I don't know what to do

I guess I got to give part 2 of my complaints

(Lyrics ripped off from Confessions part II by Usher)

> Nvm about the danger of Sync-ing my itunes with the Ipod and killing its contents in the blink of an eye

> Oh I can't upload Apps one by one using itunes w/o using the Sync function and killing all existing Apps already in the Ipod.

I know nobody borrows Ipod touch these days since kids are affluent enough to own Iphones. No kidding. A stone throw and any of those school uniform clad fellas can summon an Iphone out of their school uniform's pocket.

And here, we have an oddball, 20 something, having to suffer the consequences of copyright protection by itunes, just because she decided to borrow a good old Ipod from a friend.

Geesh. I'm tired. Grateful but tired.

Countdown to trip : 3 days

Mission 13: Set up a travel blog

I'm so glued to the manga Watashi ni XX shinasai that I'm writing like the mangaka.

(btw. a small translation: Watashi ni XX shinasai means Please do XX to/with me, how assertive...)

Basically, Yukina creates missions for her "love game" counterpart Shigure in almost all the chapters. And I'm creating missions for myself, now that I'm an official freeloader.

So there you go: Mission 13 (coz starting from 1 is damn noob)

Set up a travel blog.

But of coz, with HTML knowledge dating back from Neopets era (yes, self-taught HTML from experimenting "decors" in my Neopet shop.) and all that Web 2.0 ya-duhs, I found myself going to tutorial after tutorials to get this whole thing going.

What labels? What blogger widgets? What XML? Geez...

Hindered slightly, but fairyland-dust.blogspot.com will be up in no time, giving you real-time updates across the globe (that is if I manage to hole myself near in a Wifi hub)

Countdown to take off: 11 days

Cross Roads

On the crossroads of career paths once again.

And this time I going comms crazy all over again.
Really? Communication and Mass Media?
Death by covering terrorism and warfare?
Sued for reporting political taboo?
Becoming unofficial copywriters of corporations?

Why did Esther even suggested? =X

But Malcolm Galdwell: Inspiring writer for the New Yorker.

Back to Muse's Uprising, who inspires millions. And only those who seek shall find its true message. That inspires me.

We all have to begin with an end in mind.

And I've decided mine after months of soul searching.

Can I be your inspiration?

Lack of privacy

This lack of privacy is driving me crazy.
I need to be left ALONE.

The only reason I'm up at 4am in the morning is because I want to BE ALONE.
So why is there people lurking around my personal time and space, making it impossible for my to move on. I didn't sacrifice sleep for fun DAMN YOU.

And somehow, I'm allergic to red wine....
Damn itchy.
Sorry for the ranting but I'm FREAKING pissed off right now.

Honey I know this act...

Mark: Have you ever doubted a kiss or two?
Joanne: This is spooky...

Who would have thought I'm back to the Rent musical craze?


The Tango Maureen
Gotta dance till your diva is through
You pretend to believe her
Cause in the end -- you can't leave her
But the end it will come
Still you have to play dumb
Till you're glum and you bum
And turn blue
Why do we love when she's mean?
And she can be so obscene
(Joanne) My Maureen...

I know why this song sticks. Coz it's about how Mark and Joanne likes this girl Maureen despite her cheating on them etc. Unconditional love, not viable in rational utility-seeking individuals (in theory of economics) but they nonetheless exist.

Isn't this abstractly beautiful?

The Lottery Moment

The probability of 1/5040, that is how much chance you have to win in 4D (a local authorised lottery game in Singapore).

However with a cummulative shareholder returns of -21.60%, what are the chances that a lottery moment could be on the way?

Background Explanation: This is a simulation game from a mod in school. It's like Theme Hospital and Rollercoaster Tycoon without the visuals. All we have are numbers. The business is on cell phones and we have no idea what the cell phone we are selling look like and so on.

Imagine the shock when I entered the site to see this:


Nope I didn't notice the largest profit. What I first saw was that my team was NOT the firm with the largest loss.

Then I came to this chart:

Wow, some firm just made a breakthrough from that "red ocean" of intense competition.
Wait a minute! Isn't green our colour?

And I went back to the previous site (this) AGAIN:

And just imagine the shock when I saw MY team at the largest profit rank.
Imagine seeing yourself at the "largest loss" position for more than 1 month since the game started, who would have thought that Lord would be so kind to grant us this miracle?

Even if it were for a moment, a moment was all I needed.
I who notice the short-lived beauty; the fireworks that took hours to set up and last only 10 seconds; the dance show we rehearsed for 3 months for that 30 mins to shine; the falling leaves; this is one of them. Thank you for the chance.

To continue the winning streak or not, let us use mortal means to achieve them from now on.
.
.
.

Here's a beautiful song that fit the moment:
"Chances are when said and done, who would be the lucky ones who will make it all the way?"
- Chances, Five for fighting

But a final shoutout to my darling team: we, the resilient bunch. Keep on rocking. =)
(and of coz I believe it was the great minds that made this possible, not just the bunch of superstition-sounding crap at all.)


Ps. Btw, just to debuff, I'm a freethinker. Perhaps some God out there had been kind to us. Perhaps the forces of nature did the trick. Or maybe it's just a trick of chance and statistics.

Chicken Soup for the bored undergrad

Even with assignments piling, you are caught in the "dreamer's disease", you are absolutely not alone. Undergrads like me are inherently bored and need some otherworldly assignments to humour ourselves.

One example of an otherworldly task for the bored:
Reading Shojo manga in Japanese.


Translation notes (thoughts):
Girl: Ee.. why why but I've checked (thoroughly) yesterday.
Guy: (gloating) Unbelievable...
Girl: Oh ya! That time, I wanted to bring my mechanical pencil and pencil but I forgot to put them in!!!
Guy: There's an idiot here. Although this is a boring school, there's an idiot here.
Girl: What should I do? What should I do?
Guy: Interesting.

Coming from a pre-advanced amateur who doesn't hand in homework, there's all I gather here.
But it's fun putting your language skills to test sometime. But I bet those pros out there are probably laughing at my interpretation errors. =X


Always love the nature scene best. Isn't it just beautiful?
Here's an epic tree in Chinese cemetery Lim Chu Kang.

I believe there's no such thing as no beauty in the natural landscape of urban Singapore, we just got to look hard enough to find them. And it's always coincidental to stumble upon one. Just wished I bring my camera with me daily wherever I go.

Photo credits: Mei Juan