9.29.2004

 

[alive & kicking]

in college now. moved in all my stuff, unpacked it really nicely.. the room's much bigger than expected (but hey, i'm paying £700 / term!!) and i *should* be able to occupy it during holidays (less moving around) but i'll have to pay rent (abt GBP500 or thereabouts based on per-day rates).

Net access in my room is not up yet, but should be up by thu or fri; can you believe i din bring an ethernet cable? so i have to buy one - 3/4/5m for £3, from college. if you buy outside of college its about 1m for £5.

My room's pretty dark, so i had to go lamp-hunting. it's a real problem finding lighting here - courts only sells furniture, bedding and carpeting, and i couldn't figure out how argos worked (apparently you pick stuff from a catalog, the guy disappears into a big storeroom and emerges 5 min later with your stuff) so i went running around all the big stores from supermarts to DIY shops to computer shops before I finally found a desk lamp from Office World. 35W halogen bulb, but the lamp cost £20!!!

Intl students orientation will be starting later this evening. Time difference is SGP -7h (for now). A few weeks later daylight savings time kicks in and it becomes SGP -8h. Bought a 2nd hand bike for £50 from wayyy out of town (but the guy was really friendly. "Mr Bike".. haha. runs a one man show, repairing and selling 2nd hand bikes & accessories.), after adding accessories like helmet, lock (v impt!), basket and stuff, total was £95. almost as much as a new bike! but it's a blue Shimano 10-speed and it rides pretty well, so i think that's OK.

Using common computers now - can't get used to the british keyboards! the " key is Shift-2, £ is Shift-3, @ is above R Shift, ~ is above R Shift, and ¬ is above Tab!!! Argh!!! Upload photos and stuff once my room account is up. Been living off sandwiches, pies and horribly expensive, yet untasty chinese takeaway food the past couple of days with my parents. Trying to make new friends and stuff, the apprehension is gradually fading. Oh well. Update you guys later. Cya!

PS this was rehashed cos somehow i managed to clear the original post before i hit the publish button. *grumble*

timestamp: anonymous 22:14 0 comments

9.25.2004

 

[leaving]

well, i promised to update my blog again before i left, so here i am, typing away in the departure lounge of changi airport terminal 1. theres no way i can upload photos here, so i guess you guys will just have to wait! a big thank you to jun, teck, kaiwei, jacob, jingcong, boss, Dy and tim! be uploading photos once i've settled down and stuff. i'm not exactly in the habit of taking photos everywhere i go YET, so don't go expecting something like yk's blog which is full of photos!

ok gotta run now. ebdy take care, ill catch up with you soon.

timestamp: anonymous 13:19 0 comments

9.19.2004

 

[packing]

busy busy busy packing, unpacking, repacking... too much stuff (a perennial problem) and too little time. im way behind on my reading (and since there's so little time left i'm quite tempted to ditch it altogether already!) and *seriously* need to rip my CDs into my jukebox zen and organise my computer / palm (yes, a rapidly aging b&w one that's gone thru NS with me) in preparation for the trip.

anyhoo i replaced the batteries of the trusty old casio fx-D400 (some of you may remember that as THE calculator to use in A Maths back in Sec 3/4.. that is, unless you were naughty and broke/lost/misplaced/killed the calc. then you had to get it replaced with something else - either a sharp model or another (more ugly IMHO) casio model. but i still love the fx-D400.) and it was interesting enough to warrant a shot. well, i'll just test the link here then -



how was that?

planning to update my msn icon etc soon, but that can only come after i install some photo-editing software and *really* thrash out my hard disk.

leaving this saturday. was feeling a little blue last week, but now that there's so little time left the melancholiness is being rapidly replaced with anxiety (and more packing)!

that's it for now..

timestamp: anonymous 20:27 0 comments

9.09.2004

 

[odds and ends as i update the ID3 tags of my MP3 collection]

two really cool things i never knew before:

• The KLF (forever remembered as the people behind 3 AM Eternal - yes, *that* mass dance song. dunno how it got picked but it's definitely off the beaten track, if you ask me), a little biography from the All Music Guide. Interestingly enough, the version of 3 AM Eternal commonly heard was recorded live at an early 90s Brit Awards, where the KLF were performing, complete with automatic rifle shooting blanks (thank goodness this was pre-Sep 11), backed up by an outfit called Extreme Noise Terror, and the cryptic ending remark "The KLF have left the building". Apparently the original, live, one was "The KLF have left the music industry." Really eccentric characters, and very very interesting!
  

  
  

• A response from Jyoti Mishra, the man behind White Town, on what the hit 1997 single "Your Woman" is about.. hilarious.
  

i've since discovered that it pays to do simple housekeeping of files - in the case of MP3s, filling up all the minutiae in the ID3 tags - as soon as you save them, before you come back 6 years later wondering what the HECK dream.mp3 or more.mp3 is. there just aren't enough clues to narrow it down (and believe me i've dug up as much info as i possibly can). spent most of this week just sorting my old ID3 tags, and i haven't even got down to the real business of ripping my entire CD collection into my spanking new creative jukebox [hard-disk type MP3 player -Ed].

timestamp: anonymous 20:32 0 comments