Livin’ With Sukino

Mood: Sleepy … Very very…. Zzz..
Listening to: Love Song by Sara Bareilles

First, I have problem sleeping yesterday night. For some reason, I just can’t fall asleep til after 5 am. Staring at the ceiling doesn’t seemed to help one bit. At least I still manage to have about 3 hours of sleep. Better than naught.

Today, I have bought a book by Piers Anthony. It is called Under the Velvet Cloak. The book has the author signature, so it is burning my pocket through and through. I got to be nuts. Then again, I’m probably am. (laughs) The book costs 49.90 USD, which is about 70 SGD. Next shipment.

I really.. really hate shipping charges. They make cheap books expensive in the end. UPS charges 89.90 USD to ship to Singapore from Ohio with their express services. (swoons) USPS is charging about 27 USD or 12 USD with their Priority services, which I have chose in the end.

Catch (there is ALWAYS a catch) is, I have no idea when this book is going to reach Singapore, but I am damn sure that it is not going to be within this April. Also, I have no idea what SORT of package they are using for the book. So I am pleading to all forces of the universe. PLEASE, don’t let it be a brown envelope. I am not going to have my book arriving in Singapore in a awful state. Especially since it is costing me about 100 SGD now.

My mind is going to imagine all sorts of damages that could happen. Shit. I am not going to be able to sleep today, am I?

This is probably the first time I watch a horror movie. Ever since I watched an old chinese tv show when I was about 8 yrs old, for two years, I have been afraid of dark places. It is more gory than Sweeny Todd. I have never been that scared before. I used to love watching horror shows, old ones are the best, though without the new technology and its special effects. Maybe simplicity is the best.

Sweeny Todd as a musical is really good, though not all appreciate musical. Someone in the cinema fell asleep in the cinema and fell off the chair. Horror movie wise, it is rather disappointing, unless you are the type who love blood and gory stuff. I have to admit that I have shut my eyes a few times whenever Todd slits the victims’ throat, but as the movie continues, I find it most annoying and hilarious.

No, I don’t have a dark sense of humour. But imagine seeing the barber slit someone’s throat over and over again, it is really tiresome. It is simply senseless killing. The blood is bright red. Very fake looking. Hmph.

The story plot is not too shabby, though I find the ending rather short. Nothing much is mentioned about the young sailor and the barber’s daughter after Todd is killed. I do hope my friends enjoy the movie, though I doubt it since a few of them are not a huge fan on musical.

Mood: Happy to the MAX! 哈哈哈！
Listening to: A La Nanita Nana By Belinda
Weather: Nice!

On the left, is the NEWEST member of my family! An An （安安）is a lutino cockatiel between 5 to 6 mths old. Still a young little one and needs to be handfeed everyday. -_-’ Hopefully it will be weaned soon.

My dad bought this little fella on the 19th Dec 2007. I almost wept when my parents called me in the office and told me that they have bought a cockatiel for me. Very touched. *Happy* So far, I have taught it how to step up or perch on my hand/finger and poo into the wastepaper basket. Compared to Shin, it is rather slow in learning and VERY naughty, but still the naughty aspect is soooo adorable!

Mood: Happy!
Listening to: Garnet Moon By Shimatani Hitomi (Ups)
Weather: Cool but quite stuffy

Yesterday went to the parrot clinic. One of the forum member offered to take me there. I think that I might get lost if I take the public transport and by foot. >.<

Most people brought their parrots along. (Sigh, I do wish that I could buy a new parrot soon. Seeing the lovebirds really tempts me LOTS!) Pity I don’t have a camera, so I have to use my handphone to snap some photos.

Photo Here!

Nowadays I am so stuck watching one of the anime that I have bought. Law of Ueki. Also, I really like Shimatani Hitomi’s songs. You should really try Prima Rose, one of her album. I am now searching for her other albums. Sigh.

Mood: Feeling like shit atm
Listening to: *
Weather: Cooling

Name of Software: Trillian™
Type: Chat Client Program
Description:

Trillian™ is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC. It provides capabilities not possible with original network clients, while supporting standard features such as audio chat, file transfers, group chats, chat rooms, buddy icons, multiple simultaneous connections to the same network, server-side contact importing, typing notification, direct connection (AIM), proxy support, encrypted messaging (AIM/ICQ), SMS support, and privacy settings.

Notable Features:
- Supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC
- Tabbed messaging
- Global status changes
-  Instant Lookup (automatic Wikipedia integration)

Ratings (max 5*):   * * * *

Pretty good overall, on the good side, I could now log into multiple msn accounts and irc accounts using one software. One issue with the software though, it consumes resources. After using it for several hours, some of my programs slows down.

Download Page: http://trillian.cc/downloads/

Name of Software: GOM Player
Type: FREE media player with popular audio & video codecs built-in.
Notable Features:
- Play Broken AVI Files
- Codec Finder (GOM Player includes many codecs (XviD, DivX, FLV1, AC3, OGG, MP4, H263 and more) so you won’t need to install separate codecs for most videos. For those videos that require a separate codec, GOM Player will find one and direct you to a place where you can download open source version of the codec. That way, you won’t get stuck with unnecessary codecs on your system.)
- Powerful Subtitle Support
- Screen Capture

Ratings (max 5*): * * * * *
Download Page: http://www.gomplayer.com/download.html

Mood: Neutral
Listening to: Secret By Ayumi Hamasaki
Weather: Warm

I have booked three tickets to watch the Transformers movie (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_the_movie). Tomorrow is going to be a rush for time. I have to get the tickets, eat dinner, buy a new cable modem from Starhub. My old one has died from old age. *sobs*

Mei Feng is going to try her luck with the ballots for Harry Potter’s upcoming movie. I do hope that she will get those tickets, since I am also waiting for another movie to arrive in Singapore. The name is Ratatouille (Ra-ta-to-louie). The reviews and traillers can be found in http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille .

More software to introduce to you people. Recommended by my colleague, a free antivirus software. AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic provides protection against viruses, worms and Trojans, protection against expensive dialers and phishing and detects and deletes root kits. Standard stuff with no cost at all. I have the software install in my pc myself. Pretty good so far and detects virus from a thumbdrive very quickly. What’s more, every three days it will auto-update itself. Downloadable from: http://www.free-av.com/ (You will need to select a mirror to d/l from.)

Once, I almost pulled out my hair. I had deleted something that I shouldn’t. A file that I had d/led. Huge file of near 1 GB. Hell I am not going to download the file ALL over again. Common stuff that most of you people gone through for various reasons. Took me more than 1 hour, freewares that find the stuff I wanted, but oh! Guess what? It is free, so I have to purchase the product’s license in order to RETRIEVE my deleted file. *Grumble* There my saviour: PC Inspector File Recovery. It is quite difficult to use without reading the help. (I know that I should read the readme first txt, but usually, I don’t. I’m sure most people does it all the time) But at least it is a truly freeware that retrieve my file from the outer space of nothing. Note its functions:

- Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged (does not work with the NTFS file system).
- Recovers files with the original time and date stamp.
- Supports the saving of recovered files on network drives.

Downloadable in most software sites, but I usually use download.com, so: http://www.download.com/PC-Inspector-File-Recovery/3000-2248_4-10378268.html

Hope that you find them useful!

Mood: Numb
Listening to: What I’ve Done by Linkin Park
Weather: Hot. I think I am frying.

I have my four wisdom teeth extracted. Opted for the ‘knock out’ surgery since I fear the feeling of the extraction. Still have bruise on my wrist from the needle. 5 cm into my flesh. It is not painful going in… it is the pulling out that HURTS!

Lower jaw still numb as I am typing now. I am sick of eating porridge or mee sua very day. I am sick of the fish (urgh). Tomorrow I will have to go back to the hospital to remove the stitches. (Nervous) It is not going to hurt too much…. I hope not…. prays… *sweatdrops*

While talking to my parents today, my mum commented on my baby past. (silly smile) Seems that sleeping time is ALWAYS very tiring. My dad had to rock me to sleep. ALWAYS. Even if he had just came back from work. Then they found out that one of the cowboy songs on the radio can send me to lala land. So they bought this cassette tape and played it very night. (hehe) Volume of the cowboy music doesn’t seemed to bother me. (Cowboy!? I thought that I am more towards rock music.) Imagine their panic when the cassette was spoiled.

Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Nothing at the moment
Weather: Aircon is cold….

I have placed my favourite scenery photos in the online album. Take a look!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52365063@N00/

Mood: Cheery
Listening to: Juice! By B’z
Weather: HOT! Still MELTING!

Since it is going to be long, I have split up the itinerary into two parts:

8 Apr

We took a train to Rui Fang. For a moment there, I thought that the station master had sell me the wrong ticket. Then I realized that I had read the ticket wrongly. (LOL) At Rui Fang, I have to drag my friends shops after shops to catch the bus to Jiu Fen. Pity I was sitting down, there was a GREAT view on the left view of the bus and the standing people are blocking me. (Sigh, all the pictures that I could have taken. *Sob*) The mountain overlooks the sea. It was magnificent.

Jiu Fen is ONE of THE place NOT to be missed. It has shops on the slopes. The bus stopped at the pavillion. Great place to snap some shots. It is freezing, and the wind is smacking my hair all over my face, but it was definately worth it. Lunch was at the fishball shop. Fabulous food there. It would be better if I didn’t whiff the almond juice from the opposite shop. (yuck!) Mei Feng and Mei Lian went to ALL the accessories shop. I couldn’t understand them at all. What is so different about those shops. They seemed to sell the same thing over and over. Bought some foodstuff for my office. By the time we have finished, our hands are all full of many plastic bags. (My arms weakened at the thought of it)

We later took a cab to Keelung’s Miao Kow. The taxi driver offered to wait for us so that we could leave our stuff in his cab. We refused his kind offer. It is very big  market that opens 24 hours. Foods, clothes, caps and all sort of stuff. There is even a temple there. I forgot what gods this temple has though. Watching the time, I have to rush my friends through. We had dinner at this foodstall that sells soup. This soup has 10 types of ingredients. Very fragant, a bit on the saltish side though.

We then walked to Kee Lung train station and return back to Taipei.

9 Apr

It is still raining. But at least it is a small drizzle. Long Shan Temple is huge. It may not be as big as Wen wu temple, but its size makes most of the Singapore Temples looks small. I was struck by its beautiful man-made waterfall, which my eyes saw almost immediately after I have stepped into the temple. I prayed a while in the temple and took more photos at the pond. The pond has a staute of a fish and the dragon. Pity for the colors, otherwise the gold color of the statues would be better.

Bookstreet was HARDER to find than expected. First, I didn’t trust my directions I found on some websites. Secondly, it seemed that Bookstreet is not called Bookstreet. Mei Lian forgot the ACTUAL name of the place. Look on the bright side however, we shopped in Taipei MRT station’s underground shopping mall. Decent prices on shoes, clothes, and bags. Plus I found a stack of manga that I like at a good deal. (I am still reading them, but I should be able to finish the 12 books soon.)

It later turns up, my directions ARE correct. (Sigh….) So we walked through the cold rain and wind. There are SO many book shops! My nerd side of me is in HEAVEN. (Book heaven that is.) Me and my friends shopped for hours. Shopped with different reasons though. I was aimming for books. My friends fascinated themselves with the stationary.

Since we are carrying lots of stuff, we return to our hotel and then went to CKS memorial hall. Huge. Enormous. Wow. Cold. Brrr… We stood around and manage to catch the guards taking down the flag. Quite impressive. Though it is still cold. I found out in Singapore that most of my photos are in the blur. (Sobs) Must be the shiverings.

Next time, if you are interested in going to Wu Fen Pu. Drop off from the Hou Shan Pi mrt station. Never go from Yong Chun. Hou Shan Pi station is much more nearer to Wu Fen Pu. In my entire lifetime, I have never seen SOOOO many clothes stalls in one area. They have the most awesome clothes. One more advise: Travel with at least person who is not so fond of shopping. Otherwise you will ended up at one shop for a LOOONG time. Fortunately, my friends have me. (LOL) Unfortunately, they have me.

I then whisked my friends off to Taipei 101. It is a long walk from the Taipei City Hall mrt station. Pity we didn’t have time to walk into the building. But we did took some photos of the building, before taking the cab to Rao He Street Night market. My friends bought themselves some bags. I also bought myself and two of my colleagues some stickers to paste the EZ-link cards. (Managed to find some bleach theme) What a fruitful and busy day we have!

10 Apr

I have to change the National Place Museum trip to shopping around Xi men ding. Much to my disappointment, since I was so hyped to see the artifacts. (Maybe next time?) We checked out early and collect our pineapple food stuff (Feng4 Li2 Su1). I bought some Tai Yang Bing (some pastry) and we shopped around xi men ding. Then we ran through the rain to catch Freego bus back to the airport. Seemed that the bus was even later than us. (Lucky?) I caught some sleep in the bus. At our terminal, my teeth are chattering. The weather at the airport is COLDER than anywhere I have ever been. We are like: Hurry UP! It is FREEZING cold in Here! Let’s GET the hell out of here! Quick! Quick!!! (Hehe)

Photos should be ready by next week. I need to edit some photos. (Like removing the raindrops from the photos, change the lighting of some dark photos, etc.)