Chinese Horoscope

I wonder if they take in chinese Date of birth or the English term ? And the result derived 2 types of reading .... from my assumption chinese has this eight character (shen chen ba zi)


Your animal sign is Dog

Your year name is Zen Hsu

The faithful male Dog.
Loving, devoted, reliable, fussy, diligent yet pessimistic and cowardly, you prefer to air your views fluently than to act on them. If urged, you’d withdraw. You are a good worker but lacking in ambitions. However, if prodded, you’d get going on it. Fearing rejection, you work hard at friendships, being loyal and devoted. In your relationship, you’d look after your partner well although you need to be encouraged time and again.

The water male Dog.
Pleasant, friendly, good-looking, cowardly, impulsive, you need a strong mate to keep you from being too cynical. There’s a good chance you’re always taken for a ride and your intentions as interfering. You’re a good friend, only don’t let others use that against you.

Try your chinese horoscope at World of fengshui

Interesting Comments on survey

Have you done any survey before ? The 'yes', 'no' or multiple choice questions are the easiest, straight forwards. Some of those questions might have blank lines for ya comments. Most people will leave those lines blank and only write something if you have strong opinion to voice out towards the question posted - objective. But lets take a look at what these students have to say about their lecturer's teaching ?

Magical Touch

Took this picture from Roger's blog, his training trip to Taiwan and behold the magical effect of his touch, Ops not sure if it works for male.

According to his source, It is believed that woman who touch this prick will give them good luck and they will bear sons for their family...

Which is better ?

juan pop me a msg awhile ago. Before going to that, thinking about this question,
What comes to your mind when you see the word "departed" ?

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Here's part of the conversation.

what comes to your mind when you see teh word " departed"
j u a n says:
yA
j u a n says:
reminds me of the movie
[shulouto] says:
eee
[shulouto] says:
no fun liao
[shulouto] says:
normally ppl tell me stuffs liao people leaving
[shulouto] says:
sad stuff
[shulouto] says:
separation etc
[shulouto] says:
then i will ask them how abt the positive side and they will reply wif ??
j u a n says:

[shulouto] says:
I will reply meeting me and i will show you
[shulouto] says:
watch the movie "the departed" lol
[shulouto] says:
anyway the show kinda of 95% similar to internal affairs
j u a n says:
you nothing to do lor..
j u a n says:
is it..
[shulouto] says:
the whole story exactly the same
j u a n says:
nice
[shulouto] says:
nothing to do ?
[shulouto] says:
make it more interesting mah
j u a n says:
nothing to do..ask people these qns.
[shulouto] says:
compare if i jio u out
[shulouto] says:
hey jo wanna watch movie ?
j u a n says:
okok...you win
j u a n says:
you win
[shulouto] says:
and tat question "what do comes to your mind when you see "departed"

Well watched "The departed" on Saturday. For those who had watch Internal affair, the storyline is exactly the same with minimal different. I like the part where Matt Damon start a conversation with Vera Farmiga in/out the lift. Interesting pickup line and ending with a deep impression. I cant remember the conversation but the last move left a deep impression. Imagine a guy trying to check you out, you guys started an interesting conversation. Before the lift door close, he pass his namecard to your hands and 1.5 second later, "hey I m kidding, I need that card" cya. Will this guy leave a deep impression to you ? Yes, for me ? why I still remember the scene now =D.

Out of nowhere

Took this picture from TTSH ( Tan Tock Seng Hospital) ward 12B. The doctors drew up the curtain to perform some diagnosis on my mum's illness and I was instructed to wait behind the curtain. Scrolling fore and back beside the windows, I noticed this out of nowhere building. IT's surrounded by all the BIG Brother

Local flash Production

A fast pace overview of newly enlisted national serviceman.


Some comments,
- Content presented is pretty interesting ( activities link to game like damage and leisure stuff boost the morale)
- interesting animated graphic
- Pace of the chain of events could be slower.

Killer Network Card

Saw this web advertisement awhile ago - introduction this product -

Killer Network Interface Card.

It's a word advertisement with no picture, the marketing line that caught my attention was "41% increase FPS in World of Warcraft" FPS - Frame Per Second. If 41% is real, that a awesome performance improvement.

Their Marketing paragraph,
Kill or Be Killed!

Whether you have an hour to play at night or you are a dedicated pro gamer: the Killer NIC is for anyone that cherishes their online gaming time. The Killer™ Network Interface Card (NIC) is the world’s first Network Card designed specifically for Online Gaming. Powered by Lag and Latency Reduction (LLR™) Technology, Killer gives your computer superior speed and performance. More Frames Per Second and lower Pings when they matter most: during intense online gaming action.

About the LLR technology,

Lag and Latency Reduction (LLR) Technology is the power behind the Killer NIC. It has two modes of operation: LLR Game Mode and LLR App Mode.

During your Gaming hours change to LLR Game Mode - It completely changes the way networking works in your computer: fully tweaking it out for Games.

LLR Technology is 400Mhz Network Processing chipset that allows the Killer NIC to completely bypass the Windows Network Stack, and implement it’s own interrupt driven stack technology.
Bypassing Windows reduces your latency (Ping), and shortens game frame loops: boosting FPS.

The Killer’s NPU is also designed specifically for online gaming, and handles gaming network traffic much more quickly and efficiently than standard networking products, including packet prioritization, gaming interrupt modeling, and FNA.

The best part is that LLR is plug’n’play, and requires no software changes by game developers. This means that you can just plug the Killer in, and get the benefits right away in your favorite online game.

FANTASTIC for Gamers!! The killer NIC cost - $279.99
With the above info, I see a potential of this NIC but the price is holding me back. =\

Check out Killer NIC
iv>

OV-Watch

Do you know this ?
Researchers in the late 50s and early 60s noted that numerous salts (chloride, sodium, potassium) in a woman's sweat fluctuated in relation to the menstrual cycle.

Chloride levels are low at the start of the menstrual cycle and peak three times during the cycle (see graph below).



Using a patented biosensor, "OV-Watch" detects a baseline chloride ion level for each woman and then accurately predicts ovulation based on the timing of the first peak.

The OV-Watch detects the chloride surge 5 days prior to ovulation, making it an earlier predictor of ovulation than any other chemical surge during the month.

During the clinical trials result, approximately 3 out of 4 women received the full 5 day notice of ovulation

For women trying to conceive, knowing the days before ovulation not only lowers the stress level for her and her partner , but it increases her chances of getting pregnant.

Find more about OV-Watch

Dinner

"Hey are you gonna have dinner at home ?", question from my Dad. I replied "yes". Following that, " you cooking ?" from my dad. Arghhh I told me Dad straight, it's so troublesome to cook, you have to spend time slicing, washing, preparing, cooking, washing bla bla just go "ta bao" buy dinner from outside. Despite hearing that he insist on cooking at home, "those food outside, eat till sianz" and wanted to do it himself. Out of the no choice act, as he has been doing all the chores at home for the whole day and looking after mum and granny who just discharged today. I offered to cook the dinner for the family as it's been a long time (last dinner I prepared happened when I just came back from Australia)

Here's the preparation process, de-froze the food and washing.

Dad helping with the rice.

The end product.

Recipe:
[Golden crisp fillet]
-slice fish to strips
-marinated with salt
-prepare 1/4 bowl of corn flour mix with 1 teaspoon of sugar
-2 eggs

Steps:
-Prepare a pot for deep fry
-Pour enough oil and heat up.
-Dip the slice fillet in the flour
-follow by a fast dip in the mixed egg and put the coated fillet into the pot
-Fried till golden brown and serve

[Bacon broccoli]
-broccoli
-1 pack of strip Bacon

Steps:
-wash and cut the broccoli into fish ball size
-wrapped the strip bacon on the cut broccoli
-arrange on plate and put into oven ( 200 Degree-Celsius for 20 minutes) and serve

[Mix Vegi]
-broccoli
-cabbages
-mince meat

Steps:
-marinate the mince meat with corn flour, soya sauce, pepper
-wash and cut the broccoli and cabbages
-pan fried the broccoli and cabbages for 2-3 minutes
-add in the mince meat and stirred fry
-mix a bowl of oyster sauce with half teaspoon of corn flour in cold water and pour it in
-mix the ingredients well and leave for it to heat up until the mince meat changes it's colour.

[Ikan Bilis Soup]
-one handful of Ikan Bilis
-cabbages
-1 egg

Steps:
-wash the Ikan Bilis and put them into a pot of boiling water
-Turn the gas down and let it steam for 10-15 minutes
-Add in the cabbages and boil with low gas for another 10-15minutes
-Before serve, mix the egg and pour in a circular direction into the pot.

Palm Reading

Yawnzzz before I go to bed, here's something interesting. Palm Reading. You need to answer a whole list of questions - 60 of them. I tried submitting the reading with only about 21 questions answered and it actually let you pass. Here's my reading,

THIS IS WHAT YOUR PALMS REVEAL ABOUT YOU.
You are ambitious, energetic, independent, and even erratic! You are clever, rational, articulate, and orderly.Your nails give you away as someone who is placid, easy-going, and a dreamer.A pale pink nail color belongs to someone who is warm with an outgoing nature.Things don't come easily for you. You will have to struggle hard to succeed.You are independent, and love your freedom.You are not easily influenced by people around you. You are independent in your thoughts and actions.Your finger length tells that you are intelligent.Your slender finger shape reveals that you are both introverted, and you have an artistic nature.Your smooth joints show that you have an impulsive nature. You are quick-thinking.You are a leader, with much power to govern over people, situations, and events.You have many good prospects in work, business, and in the entire outside world.You love the country. You enjoy nature, and taking care of things.You are conceited, and you long for your day in the spotlight.You are creative.Your Mercury finger shows that you have a difficulty in making the best of yourself, and your situations. are emotionally balanced.Your large thumb shows that you are forceful, and a capable person.You are healthy, warmhearted, compassionate, sincere, and you love children.You are able to keep a level head in a crisis.You are enthusiastic, ambitious, friendly, generous, good-tempered, and loving.You are prudent, serious minded, introspective, and studious.

Nobel Prize - You might not know

From CNA article, "Ten things you didn't know about the Nobel Prize"

Up till 30 minutes ago, I thought Nobel Prize awards are only recongitions awarded to nomaniees for their outstanding contribution or research. In year 1901, 150,782 Swedisk Kronor (SEK)(150 782 Swedish kronor = 32 448.4418 Singapore dollars) was given as a monetary prize. Currently, it's 10 million SEK (10 million Swedish kronor = 2.15201031 million Singapore dollars)

6. Red Cross actually got the Nobel Peace Prize for 3 occasion.

8. The youngest recipient - Lawrence Bragg, 25 received the Nobel Prize in Physics

Fund Tranfer

Dan!! I made a fund transfer request last week on 8th Oct 06 from my OCBC bank account to POSB bank account, it's suppose to be credited within 2-3 working days. I headed to the nearby ATM opposite my house to withdraw some cash after the driving lesson today. The lesson cost me $62 bucks, this driving license is costing me a bomb man. I NEED TO PASS the Traffic Police Test this coming!! I CAN DO IT! Kinda of shocked initially when I saw the message "the amount exceed your account limit", I thought there will be enough cash for me to withdraw after the fund transfer.

With the little penny left in my wallet, I bought a packed of duck rice for lunch and went home. When I got my hands to my labby, I found out that the fund transfer was unsuccessful and reason - invalid account no#. Hmmm I took out my POSB bank book to double check, it matched exactly. Next action, call the customer service hotline and got things sorted, I made a wrong selection. For those using OCBC internet banking, when adding 3rd party bank account to POSB - select DBS Bank and put option " All POSB branch - 081" for the branch section.

Do you like attending course?

Been away from work for a week or rather almost away (still need to check some work related mails and send out a couple of mails to sort things out during lesson time). Overall it's been rather relaxing - a temperory student life again for a week haha. No worries about meeting deadlines for work projects, meetings, freezing in data center etc

All I need to do is to wake up every morning and go to the classroom. Just get yourself comfortable in the air room with a hot tea in your hand and let your mind wanders once in awhile. Good thing about the course, they provide morning breakfast & tea break - selection of 3 different snacks daily. Frankly speaking, how many of ya actually, put in 100% concentration on free course or courses that company sent ya. Though we are on course, most of my peers spent more time doing their personal stuff - be it surfing net or sending emails.

I think most people will only pay full concentration only when they pay hard cash out from their pocket or it's hit on their interest button.

Nevertheless, I did learn some hardware and software knowledge on a few server model. It will definitely enchance my work capabilities. Practise make perfect, lets pray for more chances to practise my knowledge or rather force me to accquire new knowledge to resolve problem =D.

poverty in the world is an artificial creation

That's the quote from this year "Nobel Peace" Winner, Muhammad Yunus.

A paragraph quote from a telephone conversation of him and a reporter.
"People can change their own lives, provided they have the right kind of institutional support." They're not asking for charity, charity is no solution to poverty."

I believe in order for others to help you, first and foremost you must have the mindset and desire to help yourself.

How he did that?
He's creation - Grameen Bank (rural bank) and invention, Micro-credit

One of the testimonials,

Hajeera Begum was born in 1959, in a village not far from Dhaka. Her father, a farm labourer, could not feed his six daughters, and he married her off to a blind man simply because he demanded no dowry. Hajeera and her husband survived on what little she earned cleaning houses, but she was unable to feed her three children regularly. One day she asked her husband for permission to join Grameen, but he had heard it was a Christian front organisation bent on destroying Islam. He threatened to divorce her if she joined.

Without telling anyone, she travelled to a nearby village and attended some introductory sessions where Grameen workers explained the principles of the bank. The first time the members of the group she had joined took the oral exam to show they knew the rules of Grameen, Hajeera was so nervous that she couldn't answer the questions. "All my life I was told I was no good. I was told I brought only misery to my parents because I was a woman and my family could not pay for my dowry. Many times I heard my mother say she should have killed me at birth. I did not feel I was worthy of a loan, or that I could ever repay it."

She would have given up, but the other members of her group encouraged her, and she passed the exam. At last the day came when she mustered the strength to ask for a loan of 2,000 thaka ( A335). When she received it, tears ran down her face. Her group persuaded her to use the loan to buy a calf for fattening and a share of the rice harvest to process and sell. When her father brought the calf to the house, her husband was so excited that he forgot his threat of divorcing.

Within a year Hajeera had paid off her first loan, taken a second loan and used it to rent a piece of land, planted it with 70 banana seedlings, and used the balance to buy a second calf. Today, with a mortgage, she owns a rice field, and goats, ducks and chickens. "We now enjoy three meals a day," says Hajeera. "We can even afford some meat once a week. I intend to send all three of my children to school and college, even university. You ask what I think of Grameen? Grameen is like my mother. She has given me new life."

quite a interesting article to read, the good banker

Google is buying YouTube for $1.65B

YouTube cofounders Chad Hurley, 29, left, and Steven Chen, 27. They are so young !!

Google is in the process of accquiring popular internet video service provider, YouTube for $1.6 billion! The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

YouTube will continue to retain its brand, its new headquarters in San Bruno and all 67 employees, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Google video will still be around.

Google's co-founders, Larry Page, 33(left) and Sergey Brin, 33 (right)

About google buying YouTube

Nokia Aeon concept phone

Concept ideas are simply attractive man!! Remember the black box, PISM, now Nokia Aeon. A concept phone by Nokia (I m a nokia supporter, ever since I start using cell phones mainly because of the user-friendlyness), it's design had already do most of the marketing. Not much information on the specification of the phone, ops it's a concept phone lol. Wonder how much you gonna pay for this>

Mega Moon

World’s Largest Kite: Mega Moon

Specification
Total Size/Area: 10,968 Square feet/950 square meters (about the size of an Olympic swimming pool).

Kite Measures: 131.3 feet wide x 83.7 feet long with an inside height of 21 feet/40 meters x 25.47 meters x 7 meters.

Kite Weight: 400 Pounds/200 Kilograms

Kite Material: 27,000 square feet of specially loomed rip-stop nylon/2,500 square meters.

Hours to Manufacture: 750 hours to sew.

Flying line strength: 20 ton braided spectra line

I guessed the person above had tied the kite's line to some weights, flying this big giant ALONE will probably send you sky high.

Niagara kite festival

Mummy pain

Last Sunday, Mummy went suffered from severe abdominal pain out of suddenly and went to consult the doctor. She could not sleep due to the intense pain and actually asked me to call up the clinic(24hr- clinic) at around 0130hrs to check if she could take another dose of the medicine. As advised by the staff, she bear the pain for another 30-45minutes(dosage of the medicines was once every 6-8hrs) before the taking the second dose of medicine.

After she took the medicine and I went to bed. Two hours later, my mobile phone rang. It was daddy, he told me that mum was feeling very uncomfortable and need seek medical attention again. Kinda of disturbed at that short instance due to the lack of sleep. My bro, bao kun, was awake too and bought mum to the clinic first while I wash up and changed.

We went into the room with mum and was SHOCK!!! The doctor diagnosed that if a normal indigestion, the pain would have wear off and left with only 2 possibilities now, (1) hole in the intestine (2) infection of the ovaries. The next course of action was to send mum to hospital for a more in depth diagnosis.

Mum was warded at TTSH, Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Monday morning. The doctor took her urine samples for analysis, Urinalysis (took them about 4hrs to get the result) and suspecting appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix) that caused the pain and discomfort.

What is the appendix?

The appendix is a closed-ended, narrow tube that attaches to the cecum (the first part of the colon) like a worm.

What are the symptoms of appendicitis?

The main symptom of appendicitis is abdominal pain. The pain is at first diffuse and poorly localized, that is, not confined to one spot. The pain is so difficult to pinpoint that when asked to point to the area of the pain, most people indicate the location of the pain with a circular motion of their hand around the central part of their abdomen.

Patients often have an elevated temperature, and there usually will be moderate to severe tenderness in the right lower abdomen when the doctor pushes there.

I was so worried yesterday afternoon as mum's temperature was floating between the range of 39.1 to 39.5 Degree Celsius. I became agitated with the nurses reply "doctor says to keep the patient under observation" Based on my common knowledge prolong high fever could be very dangerous. I kept approaching the nurses to check on the next course of action ? But they can't do anything. I understand they were merely following the doctor's instructions. Thus I request to see the doctor but it only after a long 2hrs wait before the doctor came at 1500hrs. (After looking around in the evening while mum was in the operation theater, there's a schedule of daily activities in wards, eg meal hours, medication, doctor visit which is at 1500hrs. arghhh). I only felt a little relieved after the doctor told me that the fever is related to the appendicitis. Mum went for the operation yesterday, wish her speedy recovery.

Reference from medicine.net

P-ISM

Got to know about this concept gadget from '我报'a chinese version of today.

A Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package
It seems that information terminals are infinitely getting smaller.
P-ISM is a gadget package including five functions: a pen-style cellular phone with a handwriting data input function, virtual keyboard, a very small projector, camera scanner, and personal ID key with cashless pass function.

P-ISMs are connected with one another through short-range wireless technology. The whole set is also connected to the Internet through the cellular phone function.

Carrying 5 pens feel funny too, why not make it all into 1 single pen right ?

Find out more about P-ISM

My Family Story Part 1

Had a pretty interesting conversation with dad today at the TTSH, Tan Tock Sing hospital food court. It all started off when I asked him out of all the siblings he had, who has the closest bond with him.

He and third Uncle, I address him as 'shu shu', their routine schedule to watch open air movies whenever dad is back home. Dad stop schooling after he's primary 6 and started working for in some British clubs in singapore way back in 1968. He went in as a helper in the kitchen by the recommendation of neighbour. Before that my second uncle, I address him as 'li bei' was in the same club doing a helper job. My eldest uncle, I address him as 'ah bei' was helping out at a Indian store and later went into sembawang shipyard

All my uncles started working at a very young age? WHY? Life was tough for my granny, ( it was time when Singapore was force to become independent ) my grandpa had died from fall during his work. And my granny had to take care of 7 kids in total, 5 males and 2 females all by her own. Put yourself in her position, suffer the lost of her most important person, lost the financial support for the family, need to take care of well being of 7 kids, How would you react?

She gonna work from early morning till late in the evening and do all the cooking and washing. Being the eldest son, 'ah bei' took the responsibilities to take care of his siblings when granny was out to work. My dad was telling me that siblings were so afraid of 'ah bei' when went home late. Will dig more content from dad again.

And got to know the hidden potential of 'shu shu' !!! OMG FIGHTER!! He would get into fights easily especially with my grandpa's brother's wife's ('sa jin bo') kid, 'wan di' and always won. Thereafter a good canning treat from granny. 'Shu shu' is kinda of playful type from his actions, eg disturbing people, stealing eggs. Oh that unfair old man, my dad's grandpa.

My granny and family use to be staying with my grandpa's father after my grandpa deaths. But somehow, was not being fair or rather always side 'sa jin bo' and her kids. Granny would always remind 'shu shu' saying that, 'they got backing, how many times must I tell you not to fight with them' while canning hard on 'shu shu'

There was this major incident when the fight between 'shu shu' and 'wan di' started again. And the result, 'wan di' crying again. Here's come the angry old man, (my grandpa's father) wanting to hit 'shu shu' with a pipe, seeing that 'ah bei' took up a stick and protect 'shu shu'. From dad's account, 'ah bei' was a very mature and understanding boy, it must been life threatening and all the compressed suffering and unfair treatment hitting the threshold that caused his reflexes to go against him. And 'ah bei' did not greet that old man after that incident.

Granny being so troubled with the her family basic needs. Not only my grandpa's father did not lend a helping hand, he added granny's suffering too. In the end, granny and my uncles and aunties moved out to the new kampong house which I stayed before( only remember the smelly little farm, the VERY old days monkey king god show, the river which we caught tadpoles, durian trees and lucky, our doggie)