Currently being 11am EST when I am composing this, it means that there is less than 13 hours to NYE. This also means that there is less than 24 hours till I get on a plane. This also means that I need to make it alive through tonight... One can hope.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
An hour left
With the one hour left on this laptop I will make a post. This will probably ensure the post is very short. I will make a post about food some other time.
Following Dom's advice of going Capitol to buy a laptop rather than the unreachable MSY I decided to just rock up there and pick a cheap notebook for the pure purpose of studying at uni. After only about half an hour of contemplation I decided on an 13 inch ASUS. Even though it took little over an hour to go city and buy the laptop, it was much more difficult to come back since someone was hit by a train at Burwood.
Problems continued when I realised that small laptops do not have optical drives....So no recovery disc for me. I hope I can use the recovery Partition properly. Awesome thing about notebook is that it is more than 10 hours of battery life, air travel on cheap Chinese airlines will not be boring any more. To beautify this post, I shall insert a picture somewhere of the laptop I bought.
Following Dom's advice of going Capitol to buy a laptop rather than the unreachable MSY I decided to just rock up there and pick a cheap notebook for the pure purpose of studying at uni. After only about half an hour of contemplation I decided on an 13 inch ASUS. Even though it took little over an hour to go city and buy the laptop, it was much more difficult to come back since someone was hit by a train at Burwood.
Problems continued when I realised that small laptops do not have optical drives....So no recovery disc for me. I hope I can use the recovery Partition properly. Awesome thing about notebook is that it is more than 10 hours of battery life, air travel on cheap Chinese airlines will not be boring any more. To beautify this post, I shall insert a picture somewhere of the laptop I bought.
Saturday, 24 December 2011
Christmas?
Labels:
Carols,
Christmas,
Commercialisation,
Critique,
Stores
This is literally my fourth attempt trying to post something. Every time I open the browser and go to the Blogger dashboard page some matter of interest arises, dragging me to attend to more urgent issues at hand.
First and foremost (as clichéd and untrue as it is due to the line above) I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or to be more politically correct/considerate Happy Holidays. It should, according to the Greenwhich Mean Time website, be Christmas for people in most part of the world. Despite it's original symbolic value, it had now become an overly commercialized holiday to bring in sales - to be an excuse to introduce discounts after prices have been intentionally increased and to create items which 'must' be purchased for the holiday season. The more fightening aspect of this commercialization is that whilst I might be criticizing this now, it is very likely that I will be subsumed by this reckless purchasing culture and grab some discounts during the Boxing Day sale. This profiteering (I use this word very loosely) attitude by stores is further evident from this pre-Boxing Day sales. Since they foresee a decline in consumer confidence, methods are introduced to increase purchase to ensure they earn 'adequate' revenue.
That aside I am glad that celebrating the origins of Christnas have not completely diminished. As I previously mentioned the spirit of giving regardless of how skewed it is, is very much alive. Whilst exchanging gifts are a nice gesture and by all means do, one cannot help but ponder whether exchanging gifts to satisfy our own desires outweigh that of altruist donations. (Undoubtedly some will unfortunately say yes). Moreover the carols which are sang at various events similarly echo the spirit of Christmas - recounting the birth of Christ as in 'Born in a Manger' and 'Joy to the World.' Hopefully these remnants will be enough to overcome the distorted modern celebration of Christmas.
Now I have completely ruined your mood, I will compensate by uploading some pictures of food that I made for Christmas.
First and foremost (as clichéd and untrue as it is due to the line above) I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or to be more politically correct/considerate Happy Holidays. It should, according to the Greenwhich Mean Time website, be Christmas for people in most part of the world. Despite it's original symbolic value, it had now become an overly commercialized holiday to bring in sales - to be an excuse to introduce discounts after prices have been intentionally increased and to create items which 'must' be purchased for the holiday season. The more fightening aspect of this commercialization is that whilst I might be criticizing this now, it is very likely that I will be subsumed by this reckless purchasing culture and grab some discounts during the Boxing Day sale. This profiteering (I use this word very loosely) attitude by stores is further evident from this pre-Boxing Day sales. Since they foresee a decline in consumer confidence, methods are introduced to increase purchase to ensure they earn 'adequate' revenue.
That aside I am glad that celebrating the origins of Christnas have not completely diminished. As I previously mentioned the spirit of giving regardless of how skewed it is, is very much alive. Whilst exchanging gifts are a nice gesture and by all means do, one cannot help but ponder whether exchanging gifts to satisfy our own desires outweigh that of altruist donations. (Undoubtedly some will unfortunately say yes). Moreover the carols which are sang at various events similarly echo the spirit of Christmas - recounting the birth of Christ as in 'Born in a Manger' and 'Joy to the World.' Hopefully these remnants will be enough to overcome the distorted modern celebration of Christmas.
Now I have completely ruined your mood, I will compensate by uploading some pictures of food that I made for Christmas.
Monday, 19 December 2011
Resuming schedule
I think I have finally reached a point in Blogging, or any other activity which requires continued attention, where I simply cannot find sufficient time to do it. Nevertheless I do not think it had any severe impact since the past few days has been characterised by its mundaneness and the evidently reduced speed of time.
Despite the fact that my friend and I were suppose to go to Max Brenner today, after five minutes of hesitation we decided to leave the store to go eat pancakes. Whilst this makes the both of us feel kind of bad just wandering in and out of the store, we quietly sneaked out. This was followed by a twenty minute trek to Pancakes on the Rocks which I completely forgot the location of; thankfully we did not wander into the Australian Customs at Circular Quay. If my memory serves me right, this is the second time that I've been to Pancakes on the Rocks at The Rocks, how ironic that I went to the Darling Harbour store more often.
We ordered the pancakes, a lot of pancakes and some nachos. Apparently the lady forgot that we ordered an extra plain pancake. So when we reminded her that we are missing a pancake she gave us a chocolate one instead. On top of that when we told her that we asked for a plain pancake since the chocolates ones are as sweet as a mud cake she decided to give us the chocolate one for free (yes Victor, free - that must constitute as interesting). Looks like I need to exercise some more when I get the time to work off the pancakes.
After going to a café where I had the possibly most amount of skim milk in a latte ever I had to take my friend back to Wynyard station. In the pouring rain as we were attempting to cross the uncovered section of the pedestrian walkway I had to slip in front of everyone - what a wonderful way to end the day. Thankfully my (dare I say) ninja - like reaction speed allowed me to support myself with one hand, so only half of my pants are wet. Since my phone and wallet are both intact I will just classify that event as being "lucky".
Despite this post clearly lacks intellectual discussions I feel obliged to write at least something after not posting for a while alas I can only hope to maintain this effort.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Waiting...
WARNING: There will be 2 (TWO) sentences on the HSC
Oh the joys of waiting at Alan's before we eventually get somewhere is so rewarding....cough. However I'm glad that I have finally found a reasonable way of wasting time before he finally decides that we should leave.
Moving on from trivial matters as such I would like to express my disappointment at the Talent 100 ATAR calculator, you were suppose to be good. Nevertheless I really cannot complain about my marks since my parents were so satisfied that they agreed to buy me a Mac book.
Moreover I just realised that It's less than 9 days to Christmas and I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for it especially when that is basically the only day of the year where I try to make food that everyone likes and not just for myself. Also I need to buy new decorations since my dad doesn't think very fondly of a white Christmas as it reminds him of dead people. Hopefully I can avert from tacky green and red.
Oh the joys of waiting at Alan's before we eventually get somewhere is so rewarding....cough. However I'm glad that I have finally found a reasonable way of wasting time before he finally decides that we should leave.
Moving on from trivial matters as such I would like to express my disappointment at the Talent 100 ATAR calculator, you were suppose to be good. Nevertheless I really cannot complain about my marks since my parents were so satisfied that they agreed to buy me a Mac book.
Moreover I just realised that It's less than 9 days to Christmas and I have done absolutely nothing to prepare for it especially when that is basically the only day of the year where I try to make food that everyone likes and not just for myself. Also I need to buy new decorations since my dad doesn't think very fondly of a white Christmas as it reminds him of dead people. Hopefully I can avert from tacky green and red.
Doable? I hope so....
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
For Michelle
Thanks Michelle I appreciate it. I must say your blog looks pretty neat too with the stars in the background. However I couldn't help but notice...
Monday, 12 December 2011
Conformity
Since everyone has made a post regarding the results floating above our heads tomorrow, I shall, in the spirit of the season make a post too. Jeremy said that "tonight will be a nightmare" and Chelle is trying not to worry. Even though I can say here that I do not care, the fact is who is not worrying, scared and nervous about their HSC results?
Whilst before and immediately after the test we criticise its quality - how the HSC is a rote-learning exercise and the annual incorrect questions such as the Biology multiple choice question this year, when the results are near we simply become involved in what we, as individual, receive. Even if a person vehemently opposes the HSC test structure and the HSC syllabus in general, if that person does well it is most likely that he or she will no longer be concern with this matter. More likely than not he or she will be celebrating their achievement and be congratulated on the hard work and effort which they have put in.
It is unreasonable to assume that every individual will do well, so there will be a few that continue or start to oppose the system due their lack of a desire result. Whilst I am not saying that the system is perfect and any failures in result is simply derived from one's own fault, however it has become evident that each person will slowly come to realise that their argument is futile and will be unlikely to evoke any change.
From a democratic point of view the absence of change despite intense student and other professionals' lobbying may seem abysmal for a country such as Australia, however this is just one of the flaws with all government systems - appealing to everyone or even continuously pleasing the majority no long becomes feasible or practical.
Having said that, I do wish that I can acquire a good mark and continue to judge the currently education without bias (or do so even with a bad mark). As superficial as it may be I think the emphasis in the last sentence was getting a good mark, cause after all our unbiased nature will unlikely to have any immediately bearing on our university admission.
Revamp
I don't get why is it so difficult to make blogger look better. There must be a better way than to go through the thousand line long xhtml codes and aimless searching for anchor texts. I wish everything was just much simpler. After spending 12 hours experimenting and basically ruining my test blog, the new look will be ready soon, as soon as I re-tag everything.
EDIT: Everything today is stuffing up
first MSN won't log on
then blogger gives me error codes
now the link to reverting new blogger is missing
WHYYYY
EDIT: Everything today is stuffing up
first MSN won't log on
then blogger gives me error codes
now the link to reverting new blogger is missing
WHYYYY
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Rage
Labels:
All,
anger,
Chinese Trip,
church,
fustration,
Hong Kong,
rage,
Rant
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines rage as a "violent and uncontrollable anger," I think it is more befitting to give an example to demonstrate this emotion. Rage is what you feel when you need to organise your way around 6 Chinese cities in additional to Hong Kong. To add to that there are restrictions which are as follows;
only entering the Chinese border twice (Kong Hong for this purpose is NOT a part of China)
spending as little money as possible (always a killer)
store luggage somewhere whilst in Hong Kong
Somehow get from Shenzhen to Haikou airport before 02 Jan 12 (If we get there in the early morning then we need to wait all the way till the afternoon i.e. around 14 hours, if we go by sea then we need to find a ship which departs at 11pm which is also impossible)
No overnight stay at Haikou or Shenzhen before departing for Harbin
You might not get it, or most likely skipped it, but that is what I am facing - a combination of continued anger, confusion and frustration compounded by poverty. Now is the time when I get why people use ARGHHHHHHHHHH, WHYYYYYYYYY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in their posts.
Aside from that today I went to church and that's about it. Also today I realised you need to separate labels with commas, how intelligent of me....
only entering the Chinese border twice (Kong Hong for this purpose is NOT a part of China)
spending as little money as possible (always a killer)
store luggage somewhere whilst in Hong Kong
Somehow get from Shenzhen to Haikou airport before 02 Jan 12 (If we get there in the early morning then we need to wait all the way till the afternoon i.e. around 14 hours, if we go by sea then we need to find a ship which departs at 11pm which is also impossible)
No overnight stay at Haikou or Shenzhen before departing for Harbin
You might not get it, or most likely skipped it, but that is what I am facing - a combination of continued anger, confusion and frustration compounded by poverty. Now is the time when I get why people use ARGHHHHHHHHHH, WHYYYYYYYYY, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in their posts.
Aside from that today I went to church and that's about it. Also today I realised you need to separate labels with commas, how intelligent of me....
Friday, 9 December 2011
That's mean Miles
Labels:
All,
entertainment,
gift pack,
Inbetweeners,
Others
I'm glad that you read this Bo and also that I have the inspiration to make a light-hearted post all in good fun. Expect red underlines. Also Bo you are probably the driving force behind the long Colossus length article cause I thought you would be bored. Additionally thanks for the title :D
Today was actually productive, even though I only had to do 1 thing. Bought a Shiseido gift pack for my mum's work friend and that was about it. The sales assistant spoke Mandarin and so she talked more about the product that she originally intended. Even though I kind of dosed off, I'm glad that I remembered what the cheapest/best looking one was so that made things a lot easier.
The "Inbetweeners" was decent for a film that wanted to provide mindless entertainment. Crude but enjoyable.
And just to keep to last post's promise. ARGHHHHHH why is picking presents so difficult.
Today was actually productive, even though I only had to do 1 thing. Bought a Shiseido gift pack for my mum's work friend and that was about it. The sales assistant spoke Mandarin and so she talked more about the product that she originally intended. Even though I kind of dosed off, I'm glad that I remembered what the cheapest/best looking one was so that made things a lot easier.
The "Inbetweeners" was decent for a film that wanted to provide mindless entertainment. Crude but enjoyable.
And just to keep to last post's promise. ARGHHHHHH why is picking presents so difficult.
On time ( when I started)
Labels:
All,
Chinese visa,
Critique,
Peter Phelps,
Rick Perry,
stream of consciousness
For once good has sprouted from my boredom - I am writing this not at some ridiculous hour in the morning on a mobile device but typing away in-front of a computer in the evening . However I'm presuming that this will be a stream of consciousness post. [edit: if you want proper discussions go to paragraph 4, if not skip to end]
Today was comprised of sitting in front of a computer and trying to figure out how to make picture thumbnails and going to the Chinese Visa Service Centre. Apparently there are too many people applying for Chinese visas that a separate office had to be created just to deal with visa applications, what a surprise! As I hypothesised, one receives better customer service if you speak English, oh Chinese bureaucracy how fair you are.
Before I discuss political faux pas I must say why are visa applications so expensive? $130 for an application is ridiculous, keeping in mind that my visit to China means that I will be spending money on tourism and accommodation. There really is no need to butcher us again by making it so expensive. On another note I feel that I require some Chelle or Bo light-heartedness, help?
On to the more serious section (you must be wondering how it can get more serious after that, well wonder no more). As I frequented the Sydney Morning Herald an article entitled "Go @%! yourself: O'Farrell's whip lashes out on Twitter"caught me and undoubtedly every intelligentsia's attention. Politics being buffeted by the winds of comedy, a rare occurrence. The Liberal Senator Peter Phelps twitted during the coal seam gas inquiry that
This caused Twitter user @Nyx2701 supposedly a lawyer passionate in human rights to tweet that
Today was comprised of sitting in front of a computer and trying to figure out how to make picture thumbnails and going to the Chinese Visa Service Centre. Apparently there are too many people applying for Chinese visas that a separate office had to be created just to deal with visa applications, what a surprise! As I hypothesised, one receives better customer service if you speak English, oh Chinese bureaucracy how fair you are.
Before I discuss political faux pas I must say why are visa applications so expensive? $130 for an application is ridiculous, keeping in mind that my visit to China means that I will be spending money on tourism and accommodation. There really is no need to butcher us again by making it so expensive. On another note I feel that I require some Chelle or Bo light-heartedness, help?
On to the more serious section (you must be wondering how it can get more serious after that, well wonder no more). As I frequented the Sydney Morning Herald an article entitled "Go @%! yourself: O'Farrell's whip lashes out on Twitter"caught me and undoubtedly every intelligentsia's attention. Politics being buffeted by the winds of comedy, a rare occurrence. The Liberal Senator Peter Phelps twitted during the coal seam gas inquiry that
‘‘Rhonda V at committee ...complaining we were ‘‘too tough’’ on female witnesses. HTFU [harden the fuck up]".
This caused Twitter user @Nyx2701 supposedly a lawyer passionate in human rights to tweet that
"Dr Phelps "needs a good punch in the head".And what did this LC member with a PhD from the University of Sydney do? Did he do the sensible thing of talking and discussing with @Nyx2701 in a calm and sensible manner and ignoring her violent remarks? Of course not, or else I would not be discussing it here. Instead Dr Phelps LMC told the user to
"go fuck yourself, commie! And you can't complain because I put in smiley ;-)"As far as the Twitter community and I am concerned, the smiley does not rectify the possibly defamatory nature of the statement. If I were to post libellous comments it would mean that I will be held accountable for my actions, resulting in a civil law suit and there are no laws in any jurisdiction which states that a smiley face negates defamation claims. Whilst I know Dr Phelps did not put in as much thought when posting that comment as I have here, I cannot fathom how that tweet came across to a LCM as witty and rational. For now I shall (reluctantly) have some journalistic integrity by giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was aggravated and it was written in the spur of the moment.
Nevertheless it is an alarm, causing us to question our representative despite the relatively trivial nature of this incident. More importantly it highlights how the employment and integration of technology into politics has influenced its ability to result in some entertainment (about time). I truly wonder how he can explain this when asked by the media, I can imagine the "um"s and the stuttering now. I'm glad that I am not in his situation.
Lastly on to a disproportionate mention. Rick Perry's ( for those who do not know is a US presidential candidate) ad 'Strong' is just in my opinion disgusting and in a way funny. Disgusting because it addresses a very sensitive issue in a discriminatory manner. Funny seeing how he continues to try after garnering 400 000 dislikes on a single video with 2.2 million views and only 9 000 likes. Whilst that is still a long way to go from Justin Bieber's Baby having 2 million dislikes, but that insignificant considering it has 672 million views.
Hopefully the next post will include more ARGHHHHHs and NOOOOOs and other words with repeated letters for emphasis to make this impulsive blog a tad a lot less formal. Or I might need to separate rants aiding my release of anger from news critique .
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Yes YOU!
Labels:
All,
Others,
Take that Victor
Purpose of this post:
1. To add some pictures make blog look better (Superficial? Probably)
2. That's 70. You know who you are. (Revenge for talking to Bo - achieved :D)
Note: BO is not both capitalised this time
An effort continued
Surprised by my ability to remember the name of the blog without having to add a bookmark on my computer has caused me to doubt my initial instincts that this is just a phase. It had even made me think that Colin was right that it enables one to develop organisational skills, though currently it has only caused me to develop a habit of posting in the early hours of the morning (a euphemism to hide the fact that I should be asleep now).
Today I learned to label cologne/perfume samples and to keep each sample away from another to avoid feelings of embarrassment when you ask the sales assistant to spray you a sample which they gave you a minute ago. Nevertheless I did make a purchase in the end so I don't feel that bad. Also a mechanical error in Westfield happened today which means your purchases aren't recorded if you use a Westfield gift card...but then who knows what will happen if you take advantage of it. Additionally applying for a Chinese VISA requires too much paperwork.
All in all aside from fiddling with this blog to find a more attractive design it has been an enjoyable day. Without photoshop I would never get a good background picture that has the weird dimension of 1800 x 1600.
I hope tomorrow's post will be more exciting and more on time.
So far I hoped I have not breached the pretentious diction clause of Orwell, though that was more of a dramatic truism concerning the incomprehensible URLs comprised of convoluted Latinised phrases. Never knew I would ever refer to Why I Write in real life.
Today I learned to label cologne/perfume samples and to keep each sample away from another to avoid feelings of embarrassment when you ask the sales assistant to spray you a sample which they gave you a minute ago. Nevertheless I did make a purchase in the end so I don't feel that bad. Also a mechanical error in Westfield happened today which means your purchases aren't recorded if you use a Westfield gift card...but then who knows what will happen if you take advantage of it. Additionally applying for a Chinese VISA requires too much paperwork.
All in all aside from fiddling with this blog to find a more attractive design it has been an enjoyable day. Without photoshop I would never get a good background picture that has the weird dimension of 1800 x 1600.
I hope tomorrow's post will be more exciting and more on time.
So far I hoped I have not breached the pretentious diction clause of Orwell, though that was more of a dramatic truism concerning the incomprehensible URLs comprised of convoluted Latinised phrases. Never knew I would ever refer to Why I Write in real life.
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
The Begining
Let me start by lowering the bar of your expectations, this blog was written in the very early hours of the morning (nearly when trang is about to wake up) so don't be so critical.
All blogs have to start somewhere...
For some it may be a moment of inspiration , for others it may be a moment realisation - a need to use this tool for the betterment of their lives, then there are some, which through no particular reason decided to create a blog, that is based on pure impulse. Whether it be the subliminal need to conform to the masses with blogs, or to feel a sense of achievement and encapsulate the underlying exhilaration as something I always wanted and admired came to fruition this blog has undoubtly taken on its electronic form despite hindrances.
At 1:50 am the blog was created under BO's guidance, marked by the unholy hour when I really should be sleeping contemplating about the title has only caused me to revert the name to what it truly is. My fatigue is evidenced through the poor choice of color schemes and the even more terrifying layout. Then came the crash. Never underestimate the ability of a blog to crash your computer. Though in hindsight it might have crashed due to the Adobe CS4 software running in the background. This leads to the me now, using advanced (cough...) singled finger typing techniques writing this on a mobile device.
As much as I want to make this first post immaculate I'm sure I erred somewhere as my large (euphemism) finger tapping on letter beside the correct one. Please don't look down on your keyboard to see if my typo is socially acceptable, you know you all do it. But in all seriousness I would like to thanks the blogs which have instilled this idea in my head especially Colin's, Michelle's and Bo's.
All blogs have to start somewhere...
For some it may be a moment of inspiration , for others it may be a moment realisation - a need to use this tool for the betterment of their lives, then there are some, which through no particular reason decided to create a blog, that is based on pure impulse. Whether it be the subliminal need to conform to the masses with blogs, or to feel a sense of achievement and encapsulate the underlying exhilaration as something I always wanted and admired came to fruition this blog has undoubtly taken on its electronic form despite hindrances.
At 1:50 am the blog was created under BO's guidance, marked by the unholy hour when I really should be sleeping contemplating about the title has only caused me to revert the name to what it truly is. My fatigue is evidenced through the poor choice of color schemes and the even more terrifying layout. Then came the crash. Never underestimate the ability of a blog to crash your computer. Though in hindsight it might have crashed due to the Adobe CS4 software running in the background. This leads to the me now, using advanced (cough...) singled finger typing techniques writing this on a mobile device.
As much as I want to make this first post immaculate I'm sure I erred somewhere as my large (euphemism) finger tapping on letter beside the correct one. Please don't look down on your keyboard to see if my typo is socially acceptable, you know you all do it. But in all seriousness I would like to thanks the blogs which have instilled this idea in my head especially Colin's, Michelle's and Bo's.
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