Monthly Archive
Browsing entries posted on November 2007
The ‘Save Kipley’ fund.
Kipley is a small white-and-brown mouse, nearly a year old.
She’s not quite as small any more, because she has a massive tumour growing on her left shoulder. Obviously, surgery is on the cards.
The money I have earned from doing paid posts so far is going towards her operation. I’m just waiting for the funds to clear and *plop* into my bank account.
So thank you for putting up with the paid posts. If you want to help some more, I have other revenue streams on the sidebar *ahem*.
Cute picture after the jump, squeamish people take note - potentially frightening image.
Die, Bugs, Die!
*Paid Post*
The issue of termite control isn’t really something most of us worry about, until they actually appear. They never attacked my house, but they did settle on a shed in my high school. It happened to be our Girl Guides’ Den, and now it was a termite den.
That shed was termite heaven, because it was constrcted out of wood. The school finally tore it down some years after I left, but not before the termite infestation had cost quite a bit of money in fumigation fees, as well as grossing out all of us.
If you suspect that termites have invaded your home, want to get rid of termites, or just want to know which product is the best at getting rid of them, then this is the site you should look up. It’s impartial and not affiliated to any companies, but contains information on various products as well as an FAQ section.
Deadlines, we got deadlines
It’s Reading Week, which means the university campus is stuffed full of muggers. And at this point in time, everyone’s a mugger. Exams begin on Saturday morning, and I have the honour of being one of the season openers with my Forensic Science exam.
This late in the semester and I still have deadlines? Indeed. I have a topic review due tomorrow. In a huge break with tradition, it’s already finished, with a good 24 hours to spare. Usually I cut it terribly fine.
But from another point of view (namely mine), I’m already 3 days overdue. I was supposed to get it done by Monday, so that I could have 3 comfortable days of poring over the intricacies of Forensic Science. The plan was to write it all weekend, tune it up on Monday, and then pat myself on the back.
Well, nothing ever goes as planned. Saturday was spent lazing around, Sunday was spent watching Beowulf (great fun), and Monday and Tuesday passed in much the same manner. On Wednesday I couldn’t motivate myself enough to get started, even though all the readings had been done, and I just needed to type 2000 words. But I just couldn’t get my ass in gear.
It’s very strange. I’m starting to think that I am only motivated by deadlines. 10 years ago at the age of 13, I was feverishly doing piano theory homework in class, where I hit upon the insight that “I work better under pressure”. It’s still true now.
This doesn’t mean that I’m not a self-starter, or that I’m inert until someone comes along and gives me a push. I’ve never missed a deadline, you know. I just… like living on the edge.
I have your prints!
It’s Week 13 of school, which is the final teaching week. I’ve just returned from my final class of the semester - indeed, the final class the entire school shall see, since it’s a Friday night class. This is my Forensic Science module, code GEK1542. It came highly recommended as a real-world, behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on in CSI, as well as the courts, the morgue, the police station and the labs.
As part of our continual assessment, we did a fingerprint dusting practical where we had to dust A4 papers for our own fingerprints, deposited previously. In addition, we had to match some sample prints to a selection of choices. Apparently I got all of the matches correct, because I was one of 40 people chosen to get a prize.
My prize is the black film fingerprint lifter and the vial of white fingerprint powder. In the practical, we used black powder and a white film lifter, so this is for me to play with. I probably won’t, I’ll just keep it to show off. The background is my practical report on the dusting session.
As it was the last class, the lecturers also released the list of top scorers for our midterm quiz. Interestingly enough, there was ZERO overlap between the top scorers and the 40 people who got all-correct matches on the fingerprints. Very interesting. Perhaps the top scorers read so much that they spoiled their eyesight? Haha.
It was a fun class, despite being 3 hours long and rather tedious at times - spending a Friday evening in class isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, it’s one of the most popular modules, as evinced by the massive number of bid points required to secure a place. And it’s really very informative.
Finally, vindication!
When I was about 11, we got a Sega Mega Drive 2. The rest of the world knows it as Genesis.
Like everyone else of my generation, I moved the controller when I wanted to move my character/vehicle/avatar. In my hands, the little black pod became a steering wheel that I pivoted, or a leash that I used to pull my character up when he jumped.
Of course, I looked stupid. Those things didn’t even have force feedback, much less accelerometers to detect spatial movement. But now, I can claim vengeance!
All those years of implicit learning will finally pay off!
To view full-size, please visit toothpastefordinner.com, as I do every day. I had to tweak the picture a bit to fit my blog width, so it looks weird.
Things Fall Apart
My possessions seem to be falling apart, being damaged, not working… general state of disrepair, or did someone cast the evil eye on me?
My Nintendo DS started it with its hairline fracture. Still, no functional damage, everything working fine.
One of my pets developed a tumour quite suddenly. It doesn’t seem to be affecting her, but we’re monitoring the situation. Worrying, and also quite costly, but she’s still alive and living well.
On Saturday, I scheduled a disk check for my laptop. On Sunday, I started up the machine and it spent the next 2 hours checking my hard drive. Verdict: Everything fine. It started to boot up, and then suddenly -
Error code c000021a Unknown Stop Error.
You tell me what that means, Google!
Google said it means not-very-bad-thing to very-very-bad-thing. It seemed fixable. Never mind, a quick press of the power button will soon put things right.
It put things wrong. Now there was a horrible, hollow, clack-clack-clack sound coming from the side of the machine. It requested a bootup from a floppy disk, a cd-rom - anything but my hard drive. I tried a dozen more times, nothing worked. Thanks! There goes my entire day.
Monday morning, I took it down to the Acer service centre. Thank God for small mercies, it’s not terribly far from NUS. The dude wrote off my hard drive as a failure and quoted me 200 bucks, not including GST, for new parts and labour. Couldn’t he boot up from something else and try to recover my data, because I had a presentation due in 2 days? Nope, all gone.
I sat in the waiting area and numbed my pain with Rune Factory. Less than an hour later, I was notified that it was ready for pickup. The receipt said they’d put in an 80GB drive, which is a slight improvement on my previous 60GB one - for $150 bucks.
What! I bought my external HDD for that price, and double the capacity! Mine’s 2.5″ too! Okay, so I bought an IDE drive. A quick poke through “My Computer” says the new one’s an IDE drive too. So what gives, Acer? You overcharge customers now? Seeing how my warranty had already expired, I should just have lugged it down to Sim Lim Square and got the job done for less. I really don’t see any reason why it should have cost that much - it just doesn’t seem to make sense. I will acknowledge that they may charge a premium because of warehousing costs and all that, but $150 is just too much - and the label on the packaging said the drive was made in October 2007, and we all know how much hard drives cost back then. If I’d been using my brain then, I’d have brought the issue up. As it was, I was just reeling from the shock of losing all my data.
Backups saved me from huddling in the corner and whimpering like a baby. Apart from when I got my very first laptop back in 2002, I have never had to start from scratch with a computer. When I got this Acer, I just transferred everything over from the previous one. It’s reassuring to have your own wallpaper and avatar instead of the bland default XP meadow. It’s like moving house, really. You want some familiarity to ease the transition. And of course, the prospect of having to rebuild my media library, not to mention the loss of videos and photos, would probably just devastate me. So yes, backups are the best. Nevertheless, when solid-state drives become mainstream, such problems will be a thing of the past. I am saving up my money in anticipation of the day that I can spend it all on a new laptop with SSD!
Unfortunately I hadn’t backed up my school files since the beginning of term, and more importantly I hadn’t made a duplicate of my presentation by emailing it to myself or something. Sunday and Monday had been set aside for doing the presentation, so not only did I lose that working time, I actually went into negative figures because I had to redo my work. That’s even worse than if I had just slacked those 2 days away. I spent most of Monday reinstalling programs and restoring my media files, as well as tweaking some settings here and there.
I lost my installation of Office 2003, so I have to use OpenOffice now. Great, now I get to rush a presentation while learning the ropes of a new program! Lovely! My plans for Tuesday have been shot to bits - I’m skipping formal dinner and the hall bash to stay in and do work. I’m already skipping class, but that’s because I don’t feel motivated enough to attend.
At the rate I’m going, the next thing to fall apart will be me.
Kopi vs Coffee
I didn’t have time to grab breakfast today, so I queued up at Coffee Express for a muffin before my lecture began. Unfortunately, the line was terribly long so I gave up and got something from the vending machine instead.
Who are these kids paying 3 bucks for a cup of coffee? I don’t get it, but I’m not a java junkie anyway. I just want a hot, sweet milky drink. I don’t care where the beans came from, what kind of flavour and acidity they have, and whether or not sugar helps the taste.
50-cents-coffee from the Arts Canteen it is. Even then, I get ripped off. Ask the uncle for a carrier handle, because a paper cup full of hot coffee is a bit difficult to keep hold of, and he puts it in the plastic bag containing my takeaway lunch instead. I don’t mind saving the world’s landfills from unnecessary plastic bags, but if you’re going to charge me an extra 10 cents for a takeaway, give me the carrier, dammit!
For 20% of the price, you get 20% of the service.
Great Guy Gifts
*Paid Post*
I love guys, but I hate buying gifts for them. I never know what to get them, whether they’re boyfriends, classmates or relatives. I usually take the easy way out and ask them outright what they want, because they might not totally appreciate getting a plush toy, Britney Spears CD or a t-shirt that looks like something I picked up on a whim at Chatuchak Market in Bangkok.
It makes life easier if you know the guy’s interests, but then how do you get a suitable gift? You can’t buy the geek a new computer or gadget every year, plus you might get the specs wrong. You certainly can’t buy the motoring enthusiast a new car every birthday or Christmas! However, Car Guy Garage may have something that will make him just as happy.
Their range of gifts for guys include car-themed practical gifts such as salt-and-pepper shakers, a wine cooler reminiscent of a race-car wheel, and even a brake disc mirror. I’m sure my F1-loving uncles and cousins would love some of this stuff in their homes.
Recent Comments