Back Home

Well, just to do a little updating on da blog. Anyway, i am back in Singapore. Yup, i'm Singaporean born and breed. and proud of it. Its good to be back somewhere familiar... The year abroad was really about change. And change is always exciting.... Actually, nothing much has changed. London, apart from the surface, really isnt very different from Singapore. people are people be they English or Singlish... we are all, afterall, urbanites in a globalised society. Sure things are different. Lifestyle too may be different. But life itself hasnt changed. London may be 7 time zones away, but it doesnt feel far from home. I still do what i do. I still like what i like. I still am what i am. London hasnt changed me, not yet at least. Anyway, great to see friends, family and familiar faces. cheers!!!

Well, back in the comfort of home... I can finally watch TV, and more importantly cable, once again... and HDTV is here!! maybe i already got it before i left for london, but i cant remember... haha... but only got a few channels... what a waste... and the quality difference is actually quite visible... surprisingly... i initially thought that the difference would be subtle... well, its not very very very obviously... but after watching half an hour of hdtv and then switching back to the normal channels... the difference is really quite stark, extremely obvious... kinda like the difference between VCD and DVD... its kinda sad to think that not all channels have upgraded...

Another surprise is a new desktop... with the fabled windows vista... haha... cool... i finally get to see/use longhorn for myself... and honestly, other than some gimmickry, and nicer looks... its not much different from the XP... its still runs the same... feels the same... so just for its sleeker looks, it may not be worth its buck... some say it copies the OS X... i say it copies the XP... but its ok... i dun like macs anyway... went to the mac store on regent street before i flew back... and honestly, it was big, airy, nice, beautiful and erm... a little too white... ipods, imacs, ibooks and iTV all look the same... i went on to try the imacbook... and was quite sad that the double tap function on the mouse pad doesnt work... i actually had to move my thumb into an unusual position to press that one single button below the mouse pad to click the icon i want clicked... anyway, i should not judge mac based on that encounter, but it disappointed me after just 10 secs... i did see one thing that i really liked though... i am not sure what it is called... iSomething... but it is a flat screen LCD with the CPU behind it in a flat layout... looked really cool... kinda like a tablet laptop PC with the screen facing out... only a lot bigger, sleeker and whiter and ready to hang on a wall... cool... i think it will look great on my wall... haha... the ultimate desktop replacement... anyway... back to vista... for me, the coolest thing about it is the voice recognition. its quite good... with the occasional mistakes... but it works fine... although its not quite up to standard when it comes to dictating... with the inevitable dictation mistakes and correction needed... i think it will be faster to type... maybe its my singlish accent... i dun know... but for simple commands it is great!.. say if i am going thru my e mails... and i decide to open firefox... i just say "open firefox"... and firefox is up and running... going to the start menu to open firefox is no longer necessary!!... and instead of clicking that small little live messenger icon... i can just say "open messenger" and done... cool!.. surprisingly not much mistakes/misunderstanding here... but there are problems with effective voice recognition... for example... do not listen to the radio when voice reg is on... do not surf websites/blogs which have loud music when voice reg is on ... and do not watch downloaded tv shows when voice reg is on... or unwanted voice commands will be perceived by the comp... programmes will be opened and closed without your consent!!!... but it is still cool... kinda like barking commands to your obedient dog... hahaha

ok... apart from TV and PC... i have been meeting up with good old friends... living the life... talking about life... and have done a fair bit of shopping for clothes since many of them are still in london... GSS comes just when i needed it!! haha... God is good... everything planned out perfectly... haha... anyway... i am planning to buy and build a model battleship... i feel kinda too old for it already... but it will be cool... hopefully i can find a yamato-class battleship... the baddest ship with the biggest guns of WW2... i think it still holds the record of having the biggest naval guns to date... anyway... hopefully i can get down to it... its been years since i wanted to get it done...

cheers