A New World

Vienna, of course, is Windows 7. To be more specific, Windows 7, Build 7000. I downloaded Windows 7 quite a while ago, a few days after the Beta was released to the public. I didn’t use it, until yesterday. I don’t know why. I think I forgot about it. Anyway, it looks good. It’s a bit laggy, but now, after a bit of tweaking in the registry, it’s working fine. I like the new taskbar. It gets rid of the Quick Launch bar in previous versions of Windows, and merges multiple instances of the application together, leaving only one icon of the said application left on the taskbar. Nice. Neat. Takes getting used to though.

Windows Media Player 12 comes with Windows 7. On the surface, it doesn’t look that different from WMP 11, aside from the fact that the buttons are in different places, and that there is a “Media Guide” thing in the bottom left, which doesn’t work in Singapore. I don’t know if this is because of my childishness at having a new OS to play with, but I feel that the sound quality is greatly improved when compared to Vista.

Windows 7 is also supposed to support multi-touch technology. Sadly, I don’t have anything I can use to take advantage of this feature.

Now, this is just a beta, and yet, when I check my System Properties, I see the word “Ultimate” next to “Windows 7”. Does this mean that when it finally goes into the market, there is going to be a whole lot of versions again? That sucks. If it’s going to be like Vista, where there is a Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate, then it is going to be bad. This is one of the reasons why Vista didn’t really sell as well as planned. You have to more for different features? Can’t they just sell Vista Ultimate? It works just as well on every computer. I have used both Ultimate AND Home Premium, and I dare say, Ultimate works better and faster. Does this mean Microsoft is deliberately slowing down systems so that people will buy Ultimate? That’s the world’s WORST business strategy. Imagine going to McDonald’s and buying a burger. Just the bread will cost you 50 cents. Want to add meat? Sure, another 50 cents. Cheese? 50 cents more. Ketchup? Why not? And the list goes on. If that happened, people would get pissed off, because the price gets higher and higher, and in the end, it wouldn’t be worth it. They might just walk out, and buy something simpler, like for example, an Apple.

That said, I think Windows 7 will be worth it, and if Microsoft can find more ways to tweak it to make it faster, it would be the BEST OS they have come up with, and it would be the first Windows OS to be faster than it’s predecessor. If you want to try W7, you can go to the Microsoft website. They are extending the Beta Download till 12th February 2009. After that date, it will be impossible to download it, unless you do so from torrents. Good torrent sites will be those like the Bay of Pirates, or a mini nuclear explosion. :D Try figuring those out! Haha. Also, Windows 7 comes with a new font, called Gabriola, and I shall use it here.

The intelligence of the Singaporean People in general is very high. They do well in terms of exam results, and Singapore is rated as one of the most literate countries in the world. I would be proud to belong here, if not for one fact. The people would make a Great White Shark look genteel. They will not open the door for you at shopping centers, but will rush to go in right before you did, just so that they will not have to open the door for other people. I swear, Singaporeans could be world class athletes if they wanted to. They behave as if opening the door was a great physical feat, and perhaps, if you were to get in first, there would be a grand prize. When you want to get into the lift, they will not wait. They will, instead, repeatedly hammer against the “Door Close” button. What good does that do, I wonder? It’s not like the door closes faster. I like watching these people do their best to attack the button. I just calmly press the button on the outside, and the door opens right back. After thanking them for opening the door, I walk into the lift with that dumb look of pure satisfaction on my face. I can’t help it. They look so dumb when they do that.

In the trains in Singapore, there are seats that say, “Please give this seat up to the needy.” Now, I’m not going to say that I am saintly and have never sat on these seats, but if you want to sit on it, and I don’t give it to you, you could ask. You don’t need to stare at me, and you sure as hell don’t need to scold me. What I see as “needy” is that you have a walking stick, and can’t stand straight. I do not see pregnant women, who can really move fast and with great agility in grocery stores, as needy, and I do not see children, who run around wherever they can just to irritate people, as needy. If I see an old person with a walking stick and a limp, I will give up the seat. There are times, however, when I am asleep, or when I am simply not paying attention. There is no need to glare at me. You could just ask. Ask, and you will receive. Yell, stare or glare, and you shall NOT receive. I have a right to sit on these chairs as much as anyone, and if I give it up, I give it up of my own free will. I’m not being an ass, I am just asking that you request for things civilly, and without thinking that I owe anyone this seat.

There, I’ve let it out. I feel much better. I hope people reading my blog will take note of this, and we can, a small part at a time, make Singapore that much nicer to live in. As a gesture of kindness, I shall share some nice pictures I found in my random searches.

Parkway Parade is the place where one goes on EoCNYEE, or any other date related to CNY when one wants to get seriously annoyed. If I was forced to make a choice between going there, and staying home and repeatedly hitting myself on the head with a stick at home, I would stay home. Seriously. It seems like half of Singapore is there to shop. The other half would be at Chinatown or some other weird place where people shop for CNY goodies.

The taxi fare nowadays is insane. Someone I know woke up late in the morning, and since his school is on the other side of the country, decided to take a cab there. For travelling about 80+KM, he paid SGD22.80. It sucks. Seriously. The fare goes by the meter and starts at SGD3.00, and every 100m or so, it goes up by 20 cents, and there is a surcharge of 35%. Which is supposed to  make paying for a taxi ride in Singapore more affordable. More affordable than what? Buying a car? Just looking at the meter can give you a heart attack. If that happens, of course, one needs to be admitted into a hospital, which, by the way, means you have to pay another insane amount of money. All the companies in Singapore are in cahoots, I tell you. The traffic lights change at the rate of the erosion of rocks, which means you have to pay more when you are in a taxi, and in the taxi, the meter is in such a place that it is difficult not to look at it, causing you to get a heart attack that would result in you being admitted to the hospital. I would also bet that there are a lot of fake accidents being created so that there will be traffic jams, further increasing the cost of taking a taxi. Of course, all of this is ignoring the fact that one would have to go through those dreaded Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries, again further increasing the fare. There are 80 of those suckers in Singapore. Thus, if I were forced to take public transport, my best bet would be the MRT. If the destination is close by, take a bus. If it’s far away, take a train, then the bus. Do NOT, under any circumstances, take a cab. The weight of your wallet, and your mood for the day depends on it.

Now, my laptop is running out of battery, and I have to stop writing. I shall try to come up with more weird things to complain about.

I done some inward thinking, and I have realised something weird. I have two phobias. One of which I already know of, which is bees. Another is boredom. I have a rather irritating fear of boredom. Which is why I download and play with all the Linux distros. Boredom means I read all the weird flyers that come into the house. Boredom causes me want to read something every time I eat. Boredom makes me want to go out and buy random stuff, just so I can waste time looking at all the random stuff out there, and just so I can waste more time trying to bring it back.

The reason I watch anime is because I am bored, and the reason I like networking so much is because it stops me from being bored. During holidays, I read up on the next term’s lessons because I am bored and have nothing to do. I randomly search words and study them in Wikipedia because of this strange and irritating disease called boredom.

I also have a really short attention span. I get bored of things really easily. I play games to relieve boredom. When I get bored of it, like after one week, I stop. It is pointless for me to buy games, since I get bored of them really easily. I tend to not finish most of the games. I guess it might be because games always have a certain way of doing things, and when I grasp that concept, it gets boring, because there is nothing left to learn.

I guess perfection would be dumb. If one achieves perfection, then there is nothing left to learn. If there is nothing else to learn, then it gets boring. Which leads to my first paragraph. One should always be able to improve oneself.

I’m really bored. Hence the title. I’m playing Tony Hawk Project 8 on my PSP, but after a while, I get bored. I wonder why my attention span is so short. If I’m not really interested in something, I get bored of it really fast. Otherwise, the boredom is quite gradual, but happens anyway. Man…  Can’t I be one of those easily contented guys?

I need stuff to do, but …  I can’t really find anything fun. I can’t go bowling, since it would be really boring if I go myself, and I don’t have money anyway. I want to play tennis, but I can’t wear the shoe and run around, thanks to an ingrown toenail. This sucks. Totally.

I have installed a variant of Ubuntu on my laptop, and it's called Kubuntu. The main difference is that it utilizes the KDE (K Desktop Environment) as opposed to GNOME which is used by Ubuntu. I don't really know what GNOME stands for.

I like Kubuntu a lot, but I don't really find it very feasible, as, because it is still in it's early stages, it is laggy, and it, like all other Linux distros, is very bad when it comes to installing things. Installation is troublesome and slow. You need to use the Terminal or "Konsole" as it is called by Kubuntu. Also, many things require other programs, or pre-requisites to be installed, making installing a single program a long and ardous task.

On the other hand, Kubuntu has all the makings of a good operating system. Firstly, it looks good, and the way the desktop is organised is innovative. Secondly, many of the Windows programs we need have similar Linux equivalents.

So, unless you have a really bad computer, don't like experimentation, or want to play a lot of games, I recommend Kubuntu.

Christmas is coming soon, 5 more days. The thing is, I haven't actually bought any gifts for anyone. I have decided, due to my poor financial situation, that I shall only buy gifts for my immediate family members. Now, the question is, "What shall I buy?". I hate buying Christmas gifts. I can't seem to think of something that would be useful to the said people.

I'll cross that hurdle when I come to it, though the hurdle is pretty damn close. I'll probably have to cross it either tomorrow, or on Monday.

Anyways, I'll have to budget myself, so as not to spend too much money on one person, and leave the rest with cheapo gifts.

Ahh. I'll go do something else now, and try to relieve myself of my boredom.

I'm bored, and I can't sleep. The reason for the first symptom may be because I'm bored of the stuff in my computer, and there is nothing really interesting for me to do. A solution would be to go amuse myself by erasing my hard disk and installing Ubuntu or something. The next symptom may have something to do with the fact that I just woke up about 3 or 4 hours ago. A solution would be to go do something really tiring, or boring, so that I will fall asleep.

Now that I have diagnosed my problems, and tried to implement solutions, I think I shall start with my real reason I wanted to write this blog entry. First of all, Christmas is coming. I don't know what to buy anyone for Christmas. It would be dumb to buy them something they don't need, and it would be cheap not to buy them anything. But, that doesn't really apply to me, as I don't have the cash to buy anything, anyways. So... I guess, there isn't much I can do.

** Since I'm bored, I decided to include a picture. This is, I think, one of the classrooms from my WSS training.**

Today, I have no school. For some reason, the poly course I was attending ended last Monday. I did the final exam, and I didn't think it would be so simple. Not trying to show off or anything, but maybe it was because the people haven't done this before, and as such cannot be expected to do something complex.

For the final exam, we had to move to a different class. We had to follow the lecturer, since we were not proper students in the school, we were on an attachment kind of thing. I didn't know the school had a zoo in it. Unlike my regular class, this class was full of monkeys who couldn't follow instructions. Also, for some strange reason, they enjoyed screaming and yelling. Hmm. Perhaps monkeys are too powerful a word for them. Let's put it this way. I've blown more intelligent life into a hankerchief.

Anyways, now I have Monday afternoons and Fridays free. How nice. I shall now go gloat at my friends who, incidentally, have school today. How weird. :D

I realise I haven't been blogging much. I know I should, just to let people know what's happening around me, but I get lazy, especially with the tons of school I have now. By the time I come back, I don't really want to look at a computer screen anymore.

Well.. Anyways, these are the things that have changed since my last blog, about a month ago.

1. I signed up for a FaceBook account, after much bugging from my brother and my sister. I don't use it much though.

2. I realised that actually having to study is difficult.

3. I picked up tennis about 2 weeks ago.

4. There are many annoying people in my class. (I know this isn't really a change, but I just want to reiterate that point.)

5. My sister got her PSLE results.

6. I lost the cover for my thumbdrive.

7. Realised that Poly is much more fun than ITE, and the food is better.

Heh... Offhand, those are the things I can think of.

I was reading some stuff on the Internet, and I found an article stating that a game was being pulled off the shelf because one of the soundtracks contained ONE line from a holy book. The game company is afraid that the game may offend the religion in question.  That's stupid. Why are they so easily offended? Are they purposely looking for reasons to get offended? How stupid.

I am in a bad mood today. My siblings are..  How do you say... Fickle-minded and self-centered. I will not go into details, but it is embarrasing to be their brother.

I just read somewhere that Microsoft is suing DHL over the loss of over 21000 XBOX 360's in a train crash. Well. That's a lot of 360's..

Microsoft should sue. I mean, it was really unethical of DHL to let their train crash like that. It's just wrong. Really unprofessional, these people.

How do I find out if others are jealous of me.  They behave in ways that suggest jealousy. They have no reason to be though.. They enjoyed more than me in the past. They had better things. No reason at all. Can't they just leave me alone? I don't ask for much, just for some peace and quiet once in a  while.

The stupid people probably feel inferior to me. That's why they need to bring me down with all their insults.

It sucks. It’s too slow to run Vista. I can’t play games. I can’t even play low level games. Even those free ones which are free to download can’t be played. It’s bloody annoying. It’s too damn slow to do anything. Mostly it’s the graphics that are stupid and pathetic. I can’t even put desktop themes on. How stupid.  I’m bloody irritated. I can’t play games with my friends. Then I have nothing to talk about with them. It’s so stupid.

My PSP memory stick is spoiled, and I don’t know why. I didn’t do anything with it. I was playing a game halfway, and it hung. Now, it won’t even recognise the damn card. Seems like the whole damn world is trying to irritate me. And it all has to happen during my holiday. BLOODY IDIOTIC SHITS.

As above, I cannot sleep!!  WHY!!!! IT IS 3.18 in the bloody morning!! This is quite frustrating, as I get hungry. I most of the time I only manage to sleep at about 4 or 5. Irritating.

Hmm… I need sleeping pills. I cannot think of a reason why I cannot sleep. I can’t be worried about anything. I am not in pain. I am not suffering mentally. So… WHY?!?!?!

.. in my opinion. I am very bored. I have nothing to do. I have no money to go out. I cannot get a job. I have finished slacking. Therefore, now, the following statement is true : Holiday = Waste of Time.

Anyway, my BIRTHDAY is coming!!  It's on the 7th of October. I shall be turning nineteen, the last of my so-called 'teen' years. Hmmm.. I can't really think of anything realistic I want for my birthday. For example, I want a Ferrari. I want to go to Australia or Japan. I want a private jet. I want to take a flying licence, if there is such a thing. And the list goes on. All these things are impossible for me to get right now. As such, there is nothing that I really want. What would be nice is for everyone to have a nice BBQ party, and drink lots of wine. I like BBQ parties. Satay is my favorite. I like chicken and pork satay, but mutton would do too.

Good thing my birthday is during my holidays. Some people in school can get really childish. For example, they want to punch me 19 times each, since I'm 19 this year. I wonder where that stupid tradition came from. I warn you people. I will practice self-defence. I'm not really one for tradition.

And I don't know why. I'm bloody tired, and my eyes hurt. However, I feel really uncomfortable when I close them. Weird feeling. The right side is now red, due to the consistent rubbing I have given it. I know that I shouldn't be rubbing my eye, but I can't help it. It becomes so itchy. Stupid eye.

Man..  This totally sucks. I WANT TO SLEEP! Now there's a stupid song playing. I don't even know why I have it on my computer.

I need money. It's not that I'm lazy and don't want to get a job, but it seems that no one wants to hire someone for 3 weeks, the duration of my school holidays. I don't want to work during school time, since I cannot afford my standard dropping. Anyone have any openings?

***That guy in the picture is General Marian Cross from the Anime D.Greyman. I found it on some guy's forum signature.***

Well...  I returned home at about 10 pm. The car show had some nice cars, but nothing seriously outstanding. No Zondas, Maseratis, or whatever... The girls were kind of stupid looking, with their ugly outfits and fake behaviour. There was loud music, but that was to be expected, since it's a beng kind of thing. The music of choice was, of course, trance. Horrible and repetitive, especially with the extremely loud bass.

Super Import Nights was, truly, a great disappointment.

I will be going to the Super Import Nights at Singapore Expo later, and I am meeting four of my friends. I hope the cars there will be good, since the girls don't look good, judging from the website. They look like ghosts, probably because of their 10 cm thick layer of makeup.

Ah well, I may report more on the car show tonight, with some pictures, if there are anything worth taking.

Well. Obviously, I just came back from a chalet with my family, and it was quite fun. We didn't really do much, but it was a good way to de-stress, with all the slacking and all. We went to the SAF Yacht Club, where my father is a member. The place is really nice and peaceful, with a nice sea view, although mostly we are looking at some patch of land quite a distance away (Indonesia, I think). The food there is great, and the atmosphere is nice. What more could you want. Heh. It was a 2 days 3 nights thing.

If you had noticed, I removed the "Song Of The Week" section, because Imeem was being annoying, by not allowing me to play the full song on this blog. I'm only playing the song, not letting people download it. What's so bad about that? I'm not infringing any copyrights. Hmm... I'm bringing publicity to the song, which is a good thing for the artistes. Stupid people.

Oh yes.. Just to vent : MY PAY IS NOT IN YET!!! AFTER MORE THAN 2 MONTHS!!!