Upgraded my computer

I finally upgraded my computer. I went with my Dad to Sim Lim Square yesterday and bought an AMD64 3200+ with motherboard to replace my current AthlonXP 2400+ processor. I also bought the Panasonic HJE-50 In-Ear earphones. I've yet to test the earphones though, hopefully it'll be great. I spent about 2 hours replacing the motherboard and re-installing Windows XP. It's only my second time fixing up computer hardware and I have learnt so much about the proper procedures to plug in the parts. All these cost me about $500. My Dad only agreed to sponsor a portion of it... Anyway, I sold the AthlonXP 2400+ and MSI KT4 Ultra-FISR motherboard to a guy from HardwareZone for $170. I don't know if I could have quoted a higher price, but since the hardware is already 2+ years old, I decided to let it go at a lower price.

I have been trying to get myself to do the holiday homework. But even I tried, I couldn't solve a few Maths questions which I could before the promotional exams. I've really been relaxing too much. Time to get myself into shape before the holidays end...

Nothing much today

I spent much of my time today preparing for my flight no 8. I memorised the checklists, theory behind the controls of the aircrafts etc. I also spent some time playing computer games. Time to play computer games has become quite a luxury for me ever since I entered JC. The weather in the afternoon was exceptionally good today. The sun was shining brightly, every part of Singapore and Johor Bahru was visually clear while in the air. I learnt to turn the aircraft today - medium lvl turns, climbing & descending turns. I was flying with an instructor who gave me a low grade last time. His mood was surprisingly good today and it was quite relaxing flying with him. It was totally contrary to the last flight with him.

I finally have free time tomorrow. I'll probably be going to the IT Show at Expo. I'm looking to buy a motherboard and CPU combo, and two pair of earphones. I hope to see some new stuffs at the exhibition, maybe a new graphics card, iPod Video or Creative's Zen MicroPhoto.

Anyway, some funny videos to share:
http://section3.net/stevejobs_SNL/
http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea

Harrrrrry Potttttterrrr

I finally got the chance to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I went with my friend to Cineleisure to catch the movie. The movie was really exciting, and Hermoine was so pretty in the gown! After watching the movie, I'd definitely pluck up my courage and ask a girl to be my prom partner when the time comes. =P 2.5hours may seem long for a movie, but I stil feel that its quite short for this instalment of Harry Potter. If my friends are watching it, I'll definitely not mind watching it a second time.

The new Apple Store at Cineleisure is very, very nice too. The store is very spacious and all the iPods, iMacs and speaker systems beautify the space with the white colour naturally. It really makes me very proud to own an iPod Nano. :D

Hopefully there'll be flight scheduled for me on Thursday, cause I don't have it tomorrow. =( I really hope to complete first solo by the end of December.

Fun day

I had my sortie 7 today which is learning to descend the plane with power and flaps. All went quite well, I did almost all the radio calls and could finally climb the plane without letting it yaw to the left. My instructor was in quite a relaxed mood too, so I guess it helped. He explained many things to me clearly and patiently, and helped me out alot in the radio calls e.g. tell me exactly what to say before I press on the buttno and transmit it.

Later on I had a dinner gathering with my NJ friends at Marche Suntec. The food there was very expensive. I ate a chicken drumstick rice meal and it cost me $7.90. I also bought a root beer drink that set me back another $3.80. I'm probably never going there again unless I've lots of money for some reason. We then went to the Esplanade and spent about 1hour there chit-chatting under the night sky and cool breeze. It was really relaxing. Everyone's still the same, very lively and fun loving people. It's kind of wierd but I feel closer to a few of my friends from NJ than my classmates in NYJC.

I was supposed to watch Harry Potter with my classmates tomorrow but it was cancelled in the end because too few people could make it. I was kind of disappointed but well, there's nothing I can do. I'll probably watch it with my ex-classmates on Tuesday.

Chalet @ Costa Sands

It was my first time staying 2 days overnight with my friends at a chalet. It was a real adventure indeed. The chalet was at an ulu area, a distant away from the main Downtown East area. But it cost only $20 for 3D2N, so it's quite a good deal.

On Sunday, we rented 4 bicycles overnight for $15 each. At first we thought it was quite expensive, but after a really eventful night cycling trip, it was worth every dollar. Wilson, Tess, Ian and I decided to cycle from the chalet at Pasir Ris to Changi Airport.

We set out at 4am. It was quite scary at first to cycle on the road, but when we reached the expressway, it was even more scary. The road was so wide with all the vehicles travelling at 90km/h. We cycled along the TPE and got off at Loyang Ave. It was the wrong way because we should have continued cycling on the TPE and we'd have reached the airport in the next 30-40mins... We cycled to the Changi Beach and the sight was amazing with planes on the final approach landing. It was a pity we didn't bring digital cameras along. We spent the next hour cycling, making a big loop around the airport. There was this stretch of road we cycled which was about length of two runways. This was the terrible as it drained our energy. I almost fell asleep cycling... Somehow, we got lost and decided to cycle to the Expo MRT station. It was already 7.30am when we reached the MRT station. We asked the MRT staff for help and one very helpful malay staff drew us the map back to Pasir Ris chalet. We took the MRT from Expo to Changi Airport and thus ending up at the Airport by default. We had breakfast there and then cycled from Expo to Pasir Ris. This is the most adventurous thing I've ever done. Although we got lost in the end, we didnt give up and got to the Airport in the end. We got back to the chalet at 10.30am and returned the bicycles. The $15 was worth every cent.

I was so exhausted when we got back. I took a bath to refreshen myself. We actually wanted to go to Escape Theme Park later on, but it was closed. I saved myself $16.50. The next few activities we did were eating, chatting, playing mahjong and sleeping. We did all these on Monday night till Tuesday morning. When I got home, I took a bath, ate lunch and fell asleep right away...

I've got extra lectures in school, flying lessons etc the next few days. It's going to be a very busy week ahead.

Fun weekends

I'm going to have a really fun weekend coming up. There're lectures at SYFC tomorrow afternoon followed by dinner with friends. On Sunday, there'll be a t.r.p chalet which would probably be very fun. =D

Anyway, I went for a movie with wilson and jiamin at cineleisure today. We watched Just Like Heaven. It was kind of a comedy with a little touching romance story in the plot. I'm really looking forward to Harry Potter next week, hopefully I'll be able to watch with either my classmates or other friends. :D

My aim now is to get very familiar with my aircraft checks and radio telecommunications. There'll be crucial from my next flight onwards. For my previous flight, I tried R/T for the first time. Although I screwed up very badly, like forgetting to say the callsign and very unsure about what to say, it was a great experience.

I tried out the Airport Tycoon 3 just now, and it is the worst game I've every played. The tutorial sucked badly, the graphics made it look like a 5 year old game and the control interface was totally un-user-friendly. Gosh, why is this game even published and sold? Blarh.

Numa Numa!

Here's a great stress relieve video for everyone!
Click here to view it

The song in the video is Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone. The first time I saw the video, I could not stop laughing! Hope that it'll make your day! =)

Holiday week

This week is a really relaxing week with alternating days of holidays. Deepavali on Tuesday and Hari Raya on Thursday.

I went on my third sortie today. At first I thought it'll be my primary instructor M Singh taking me, but Simon Sim took over instead. Probably M Singh is on leave. Everyone in SYFC says that Mr Sim is a great instructor and you'll not feel as stress when flying with him. I think it's true! He explained all the checks to me slowly unlike M Singh. He even explained why some of the checks are done and it really helped me to appreciate the purpose of doing flight checks. In the air, we explained many things that M Singh did not, such as to identify landmarks more easily and the purpose behind doing R/T (lol). Although we had to land early due to heavy cloud base, we managed to complete the air exercise. Those students who have him as the primary instructor are really very lucky! I had probably the most enjoyable flight so far.

It's holiday again tomorrow. The thought of it simply makes me ecstatic! I'm going to Temasek Club tomorrow with my cousins and it'll definitely be a day of fun with badminton, swimming and pool! :D

I hope Man Utd wins against Lille tonight! :D

Outing

Today's badminton game was quite fun, I feel that I've improved from the last time as I can now smack the shuttle better and do more accurate dropshots. Now I just need a new racket to replace my old one as the strings are all getting loose. We played for about 2.5 hours at Hougang Sports Hall. Later on, we went to Hougang Mall for lunch at the foodcourt and then went to Plaza Singapura to play a little arcade games. It is a good sign that I'm part of a clique in the class. It makes it alot more interesting in class and we can have fun and also learn more about each other and from each other.

I sent my civics tutor a SMS yesterday night asking her whether I should apply for S-paper or not. This morning she replied. She felt that my chances of the approval of my S paper application would be quite high and that I should give it a shot even if the chances do not favour me. Her words of encouragement have really boosted my morale and I've decided to apply for Maths and Physics S paper. I've already made a mistake for not even appealing to get into NJC in March because I thought that it'd be too big a challenge for me. I will not repeat such a mistake and will give it a try. I've got everything to gain and nothing to lose. Now it all depends on me to manage my time well and pave the way for my future.

November!

October is over, and November has started...

Yesterday was my Chinese AO level examination. The composition was quite alright but the summary (chang wen shuo duan) was tough! Jin Zheng also agreed with me. I hope to get at least a B3 or B4, else I'd be very sad. But with the overhaul of the Chinese AO syllabus in 2006, I'd have to think twice before deciding whether to retake Chinese next year.
After the exam, I went to play pool at Toa Payoh. It's the first time I play pool with my NYJC classmates. It was fun though. After playing two rounds, my mind started to tire out and I couldn't aim properly. We played for 2 hours and each had to pay about $6, quite expensive huh~

I'm going to play badminton later on, it's quite fun with all the activities planned for the week. :D