It has been exactly one week after I back from US.. As a ritual, I will note down the highlight of those days:
Friday: Reached Sg at almost 1. Took taxi back to NTU.. which cost almost $40! Thanks God we’re sharing among 3 people. Reached NTU, sms family, tidying up and slept at almost 5 am. Wake up only at 7pm! Bye2 all my plans for Friday.. Having instant noodle as my dinner.. my first meal in Singapore is Indomie! Yes.. Watashiwa Indomie Gasuki…
Saturday: Slept at almost 3.. but can’t slept.. thus woke up at 7.. sent reminder email for booklet, changed my air ticket to 7 of July (a great date right? 07/07/07 :p ) then went to Orchard to get my Sony hospitalized. So sad that the LCD break wasn’t covered inside warranty.. and I need to spent another $150 for it.. huhuhu.. had lunch, then went for Vibrant Blood.
Sunday: Starting Ureca, but can not really focus on it. Still having jet lag. Eventually finishing Death Note. Meeting Johnson, then having gathering with Blazers at night. So happy that eventually can meet them again…
Monday: My mobile was broken. Thanks that it was only temporary or else I will need to go to Woodlands again.. (or will I?) Met Shifu for Ureca discussion, then having lunch with Blazers, then went back hostel.. Felt sleepy.. slept.. then continue with Ureca.. then make appointment with Apong to meet on Friday for FYP
Tuesday: Ureca
Wednesday: Ureca
Thursday: Submitting report only at 4pm. 1 hour before the deadline. Felt so much relieve after submission. Haha.. then having BBQ with Vibrant Blood Committee at night.. phaise2.. I only came to eat T_T reached back hostel at almost 12.. stared at FYP for 1 hour before KO.
Friday: Meeting Apong at 9am. Wake up only at 8.40 after the sms from him. Rush to shower, then listen dedicatedly to the explanation.. He was good in explaining.. thanks so much pong XD.. after the FYP rush, back to sleep for 15 minutes.. then da pao for lunch.. decided to start watching Proposal Daisakusen.. then found that it’s a bit weird.. haha.. stopped after 1 episode, then blogging.. and now is the time for dinner~
Btw... So many people had gone back to Medan already.. Since I arrived, Anton was back, then Handarmin.. Ryoma is in Malaysia, while Jess was with family too.. Tomorrow will be Tomy turn to go back.. then WK for the next day.. T__T I want to go back tooo.. huhuhu.. wait for me there, k... =D
Dinner, dinner,
Erlin.D
Friday, June 29, 2007
Lessons Learnt from the trip
(Not a reflection kind of notes.. just a random thought)
1. Now I know that San Francisco and Los Angeles are in US, America.. not in Europe. Even better, now I know that they are city, and part of California State =D
2. One city in a State is bigger than the whole Singapore. But their public transport isn’t as well developed as Singapore… some public transports are really scary! Some more, the distance from one place to another is very far. So walking is impossible (my poor toes are now getting new skin) So, to survive there, you must buy a car. But the parking and gasoline are expensive… So in conclusion, be sure that you’re rich enough to go there.. or get a salary of at least twice than those in Singapore.
3. People said Singapore as FINE country.. but US make me felt that I was robbed everyday. The internet service is $1 for 10 minutes… and even more expensive when you’re at airport. Do they know that we got it free at Changi? Then we needed to pay $3 for a trolley at airport too.. The car parking is $6/hrs and can reach $40/day. The train ride is $5 for day pass.. and the cab meter jumped faster than your heartbeats.
4. The Burger King there had bigger portion. It has been proven from the 4 times meal. And it’s one of the cheapest meal found. You wont’ be able to find any food cost less than $3. Because of that, I got Breadphobia during the few days back to Singapore. Lucky that now the phobia is gone.. Subway, anyone? ^^ But I miss KFC more.
5. The cold weather make your skin very very dry.. Now I know how to give thanks to the weather in Singapore.. Besides, we need to wear jacket everywhere.. So bring more jackets if you don’t want to see all your 2 weeks pics in same cloth.. (which I did with my pink jacket T__T)
6. The night life isn’t safe.. there are a lot of people asking for changes along the road.. scary.. Now I know that I really love Singapore.. Thanks mum and dad to let me study here.. luv you.. (hah?)
Ok.. until here is my story.. It has been a great experience in US.. especially with such a great group.. Many many thanks to all of you.. Thanks for making this trip such a wonderful one =) Flash back.. it was really amazing how I can eventually be there.. Me as someone who know nothing about Mac until half year ago.. Until the IA, the scholarship applications... All the opportunities.. Let's just call it a fate =) Thanks Apple and NTU for giving me a chance to know all those great people..
Last conclusion: I’m broke~
Erlin.D
The Story from Los Angeles
So, eventually, we reached Los Angeles.. ^^ Quite a good flight.. we got TV entertainment.. however, it didn’t mean much.. as all of us slept until we reached.. haha.. yep, we were too tired. ^^; Once we finished with luggage claim, we took bus to Union Station. From there, take Metro train (again, like MRT in singapore) to our hostel. The hostel placed strategically only across the train station. Very convenient =) The hostel fee was a bit cheaper than the one in San Francisco.. However, the facility was much much poorer ^^; One of the most complaint things was for the poor wireless. Haha.. I complained too.. as there was no free internet like what I had in San Francisco.. Then.. they provided locker.. which charged 20 cents for every use :s slaughter. They eventually use my bag as a locker instead. Haha.. 5 of us got in a same room.. so happy that we’re not scattered around again this time. And we don’t have to keep moving room. Hahaha..
After resting, we moved on to travel around.. Before everyone is going to faint, we decided to pamper ourselves with a fine steak in a fine restaurant called The Grill.. The food and service were awesome~ So did the portion. This is the first time I really gave up on my food.. Although it was really delicious.. (so sorry.. my dear mash potatoes..)
Western food @ Western country.. It was really really tasty… Fresh Beef surrounded with mash potatoes~
Fully charged, we then continued walking at the walk of fame.. they got a tile dedicated for every famous star.. of course… we kept looking for our favourite artist.. And I found mine: Britney Spears.. yeaah ^^v.. *take pic, take pic*
Britney Spears walk of fame :D
We went back at almost 5pm, rested, chatted, then charge our power for Universal Studio =D
Sunday, Woke up at around 8.. I remember having 2 toasted bread as breakfast before we set off to Universal Studio. It was very near to our hostel, so that the travel time took less than 30 minutes. It was not that crowded yet as we reached.. which is a good news, cause we can get to ride without a long queue.. ^^ Although I almost never watch any movie, the day there was excellent for me. There are so so many movie characters walking around in the universal city.. from Marilyn Monroe, spiderman, Shrek, to some of the characters that I didn’t even know.. It was so warm to be hugged by Shrek XD.. I must watch Shrek someday :p haha.. We’re having Doc Brown Chicken.. Supposedly to be something similar with KFC.. It was more expensive, but then it can’t beat KFC.. not even close.. I was really missing KFC there.. haha.. We continued our journey until around 6.. then went out to several shop.. and pack back burger king. While eating our Burger King, we started to watch Liar Game, which was proposed by Medy. Haha.. Thanks Shifu, the drama was great.. Being addicted, we eventually slept at around 1 that night..
Spiderman! I am your big fans! I watched all your movieess… from Helios’ share…
Complete Group Pics @ Universal Studio~
Monday, wake up at 4.. very determined to enjoy the Disneyland to the fullest. I was actually a bit worried to get sleepy there.. but then again, until the end of the day, the spirit is just there =D We’re so lucky to get a Dream Fastpass for all the ride.. We got it during our visit to Tiki Room.. a weird show that made all of us very blur… but thanx that we stick till the end.. we got the Fastpass :D it means a lot for us.. as it cut our queuing time by almost 1 hour for every game. The queue here was supperr long, 4-5 times than the universal studio.. It was very very crowded too.. I don’t understand.. it was Monday, rite? @.@.. So crowded.. maybe that’s why it’s called a ‘land’ instead of a ‘city’ ? haha.. Further more, beside the Disneyland, we also went to Disney California Adventure park.. It was amazing.. I knew that some of the rides were the same with Universal Studios… but it was still amazing. Each of them had their own uniqueness.. Universal Studios focus on the movie.. with a lot of real water and fire play.. (yes, fire, they set up a very big fire in some shows) while for Disneyland, it amazed us with its enhancing animations.. It’s very wonderful.. Make you feel that it was really dream came true. Haha.. Anyway, after all the fun, it ended with an excellent fireworks.. the best one I ever saw so far, seriously. It was almost 20 minutes fireworks.. very wonderful..
It's said that the disneyland was designed such that you wont be able to see outside at all.. It will make you feel that it is a land by itself.. quite true.. All the scenary were actually human made
Just one thing that ruined the excellent day.. during one of the last rides, I spoilt my camera by pressing it with safety handle.. T__T I was so sad.. I don’t even know about it at the first place. It was when Rui going to help me to take pics and then realized that the LCD break.. sob sob.. but then.. thanks so much all.. for encouraging me.. even gave me the privileges to ask you all take photo at anywhere I like :p Really appreciate it.. After the fireworks and quick shopping, we traveled back to hostel.. reached only around 1.. all were toooo sleepy enough to continue Liar Game as planned.. thus we just went to slept..
Tuesday morning, Shen Nan went back to China.. take care Shen Nan! So it was left with 4 of us as the survivals.. we spent the day resting, indulging ourselves with another great meal from the same restaurant (The Grill is the best~), getting some souvenirs, watching liar game, chatting, typing blog, and having Chinese food as our last dinner at LA.. the portion was really big.. and again.. I can’t finish it ^^; shame on me =.=
Wednesday.. time to say goodbye to L.A… So the travel will end here.. Nonetheless, I felt quite happy to be going back to Singapore.. (maybe because I got no mobile and no laptop there? :p) Ok then.. so the story of LA ended here ^^
Bye, LA
Erlin.D
PS: Due to narcism, all the pics are contaminated with author's face. If you want to see clear scenary, try to search google =D
After resting, we moved on to travel around.. Before everyone is going to faint, we decided to pamper ourselves with a fine steak in a fine restaurant called The Grill.. The food and service were awesome~ So did the portion. This is the first time I really gave up on my food.. Although it was really delicious.. (so sorry.. my dear mash potatoes..)
Western food @ Western country.. It was really really tasty… Fresh Beef surrounded with mash potatoes~
Fully charged, we then continued walking at the walk of fame.. they got a tile dedicated for every famous star.. of course… we kept looking for our favourite artist.. And I found mine: Britney Spears.. yeaah ^^v.. *take pic, take pic*
Britney Spears walk of fame :D
We went back at almost 5pm, rested, chatted, then charge our power for Universal Studio =D
Sunday, Woke up at around 8.. I remember having 2 toasted bread as breakfast before we set off to Universal Studio. It was very near to our hostel, so that the travel time took less than 30 minutes. It was not that crowded yet as we reached.. which is a good news, cause we can get to ride without a long queue.. ^^ Although I almost never watch any movie, the day there was excellent for me. There are so so many movie characters walking around in the universal city.. from Marilyn Monroe, spiderman, Shrek, to some of the characters that I didn’t even know.. It was so warm to be hugged by Shrek XD.. I must watch Shrek someday :p haha.. We’re having Doc Brown Chicken.. Supposedly to be something similar with KFC.. It was more expensive, but then it can’t beat KFC.. not even close.. I was really missing KFC there.. haha.. We continued our journey until around 6.. then went out to several shop.. and pack back burger king. While eating our Burger King, we started to watch Liar Game, which was proposed by Medy. Haha.. Thanks Shifu, the drama was great.. Being addicted, we eventually slept at around 1 that night..
Spiderman! I am your big fans! I watched all your movieess… from Helios’ share…
Complete Group Pics @ Universal Studio~
Monday, wake up at 4.. very determined to enjoy the Disneyland to the fullest. I was actually a bit worried to get sleepy there.. but then again, until the end of the day, the spirit is just there =D We’re so lucky to get a Dream Fastpass for all the ride.. We got it during our visit to Tiki Room.. a weird show that made all of us very blur… but thanx that we stick till the end.. we got the Fastpass :D it means a lot for us.. as it cut our queuing time by almost 1 hour for every game. The queue here was supperr long, 4-5 times than the universal studio.. It was very very crowded too.. I don’t understand.. it was Monday, rite? @.@.. So crowded.. maybe that’s why it’s called a ‘land’ instead of a ‘city’ ? haha.. Further more, beside the Disneyland, we also went to Disney California Adventure park.. It was amazing.. I knew that some of the rides were the same with Universal Studios… but it was still amazing. Each of them had their own uniqueness.. Universal Studios focus on the movie.. with a lot of real water and fire play.. (yes, fire, they set up a very big fire in some shows) while for Disneyland, it amazed us with its enhancing animations.. It’s very wonderful.. Make you feel that it was really dream came true. Haha.. Anyway, after all the fun, it ended with an excellent fireworks.. the best one I ever saw so far, seriously. It was almost 20 minutes fireworks.. very wonderful..
It's said that the disneyland was designed such that you wont be able to see outside at all.. It will make you feel that it is a land by itself.. quite true.. All the scenary were actually human made
Just one thing that ruined the excellent day.. during one of the last rides, I spoilt my camera by pressing it with safety handle.. T__T I was so sad.. I don’t even know about it at the first place. It was when Rui going to help me to take pics and then realized that the LCD break.. sob sob.. but then.. thanks so much all.. for encouraging me.. even gave me the privileges to ask you all take photo at anywhere I like :p Really appreciate it.. After the fireworks and quick shopping, we traveled back to hostel.. reached only around 1.. all were toooo sleepy enough to continue Liar Game as planned.. thus we just went to slept..
Tuesday morning, Shen Nan went back to China.. take care Shen Nan! So it was left with 4 of us as the survivals.. we spent the day resting, indulging ourselves with another great meal from the same restaurant (The Grill is the best~), getting some souvenirs, watching liar game, chatting, typing blog, and having Chinese food as our last dinner at LA.. the portion was really big.. and again.. I can’t finish it ^^; shame on me =.=
Wednesday.. time to say goodbye to L.A… So the travel will end here.. Nonetheless, I felt quite happy to be going back to Singapore.. (maybe because I got no mobile and no laptop there? :p) Ok then.. so the story of LA ended here ^^
Bye, LA
Erlin.D
PS: Due to narcism, all the pics are contaminated with author's face. If you want to see clear scenary, try to search google =D
Thursday, June 28, 2007
(Still) The Story from San Francisco
I promised to cut my story short this time.. I just realized that I was writing too long.. Even I myself was lazy to read back what I had written ^^; hahaha..
On Thursday, we’re having some Java sessions.. Not bad.. atleast I have some background with it. But then.. on the sessions itself, I slept again! Gosh.. T_T Medy said I snored… T_T can’t be true.. I never snored! Haha.. Anyway, after all the tiring sessions, we went to Apple Bash @ Yerba Buena Garden which is only across a street from the conference place, Moscone Center. I was a bit disappointed at the first place, since they usually had it at Apple Campus. But it turned out to be a really wonderful evening! The food was awesome (maybe this is the key factor of my statement) hahaha.. it ranged from the delicious softcrabs sushi, my favourite cheese nachos, until pasta, sausage and Chinese food. They even provided Häagen-Dazs as the dessert too.. The drink was overwhelming.. I was actually decided not to drink any alcohol.. but then, the cold weather was really unbearable. Thanks to a half cup of wine.. if no, I might have returned as a frozen student. The good news was, I wasn’t drunk this time :p..
@ Yerba Buena Garden, with Moscone Center as background
In the bash, they have Ozomatli band performing.. The band is popular from their song in the iPod commercial. Well, although I didn’t like rock, but must said that that they were really good. Almost everyone danced.. And I was really pushed to dance too T_T Lucky that I still managed to hide by saying that I will help them to take video instead. Haha.. We went back to hostel at around 9.. yup, their party finished quite early.. is it a culture here? Or because all the developers need to prepare for the session next day? Haha.. anyway.. Thanks for the great afternoon, Apple..
One of the pics after the warm band performances
Friday morning was spent sleeping and settling our hostel payment. Haha.. Afterwards, we headed to Moscone Center.. only for lunch (blush) then went to Fisherman Wharf for the tour to Alcatraz island.. which is popular of it’s prison.. The ticket price was really worth it. It was an amazing tour.. We can really walk to the prison, see the conditions inside, even touch some of the stuff. All the history was written clearly. Some of the cells was conserved at their original conditions.. enhanced with the audios, it really brings us back to the time while the prison was still active. Very very interesting ^^.. We sailed back to Fisherman Wharf at 6pm.. then having dinner with Leon. Leon was treating all of us, then brought us to several places using his car.. Thanks so much.. And sorry Dewei because we lost you in Alcatraz T__T
Scenary outside the prison. Very nicee..
On Friday night, Aakriti flew to Boston.. While Dewei was flying back to Singapore on Saturday morning. Xiao Yu and Chen Lin has went to LA a day before.. So it’s eventually left with 5 of us to go to LA on Saturday morning: Shen nan, Medy, Rui Ping, Liu Cia, and me. It was a morning 7am flight.. we planned to take BART @ 5am to airport.. however, the people told us that the BART will only open at 5.45am.. Didn’t want to risk it, we took taxi to airport. The taxi meter jumped really fast.. We took less than half hour of taxi, and it cost us $40.. Remember that it’s in US dollar.. sigh ^^; Now I shouldn’t complain about the taxi in sg, rite? Haha.. After all, thanks to the taxi, we mange to be there on time (err.. abit early) then checked in.. and say bye bye to San Francisco.. and saying hi to Los Angeles =)
Note: Unexpectedly.. I had been writing so long.. T__T will continue the story of LA in next blog ;)
I like to be in plane ^^
Erlin.D
On Thursday, we’re having some Java sessions.. Not bad.. atleast I have some background with it. But then.. on the sessions itself, I slept again! Gosh.. T_T Medy said I snored… T_T can’t be true.. I never snored! Haha.. Anyway, after all the tiring sessions, we went to Apple Bash @ Yerba Buena Garden which is only across a street from the conference place, Moscone Center. I was a bit disappointed at the first place, since they usually had it at Apple Campus. But it turned out to be a really wonderful evening! The food was awesome (maybe this is the key factor of my statement) hahaha.. it ranged from the delicious softcrabs sushi, my favourite cheese nachos, until pasta, sausage and Chinese food. They even provided Häagen-Dazs as the dessert too.. The drink was overwhelming.. I was actually decided not to drink any alcohol.. but then, the cold weather was really unbearable. Thanks to a half cup of wine.. if no, I might have returned as a frozen student. The good news was, I wasn’t drunk this time :p..
@ Yerba Buena Garden, with Moscone Center as background
In the bash, they have Ozomatli band performing.. The band is popular from their song in the iPod commercial. Well, although I didn’t like rock, but must said that that they were really good. Almost everyone danced.. And I was really pushed to dance too T_T Lucky that I still managed to hide by saying that I will help them to take video instead. Haha.. We went back to hostel at around 9.. yup, their party finished quite early.. is it a culture here? Or because all the developers need to prepare for the session next day? Haha.. anyway.. Thanks for the great afternoon, Apple..
One of the pics after the warm band performances
Friday morning was spent sleeping and settling our hostel payment. Haha.. Afterwards, we headed to Moscone Center.. only for lunch (blush) then went to Fisherman Wharf for the tour to Alcatraz island.. which is popular of it’s prison.. The ticket price was really worth it. It was an amazing tour.. We can really walk to the prison, see the conditions inside, even touch some of the stuff. All the history was written clearly. Some of the cells was conserved at their original conditions.. enhanced with the audios, it really brings us back to the time while the prison was still active. Very very interesting ^^.. We sailed back to Fisherman Wharf at 6pm.. then having dinner with Leon. Leon was treating all of us, then brought us to several places using his car.. Thanks so much.. And sorry Dewei because we lost you in Alcatraz T__T
Scenary outside the prison. Very nicee..
On Friday night, Aakriti flew to Boston.. While Dewei was flying back to Singapore on Saturday morning. Xiao Yu and Chen Lin has went to LA a day before.. So it’s eventually left with 5 of us to go to LA on Saturday morning: Shen nan, Medy, Rui Ping, Liu Cia, and me. It was a morning 7am flight.. we planned to take BART @ 5am to airport.. however, the people told us that the BART will only open at 5.45am.. Didn’t want to risk it, we took taxi to airport. The taxi meter jumped really fast.. We took less than half hour of taxi, and it cost us $40.. Remember that it’s in US dollar.. sigh ^^; Now I shouldn’t complain about the taxi in sg, rite? Haha.. After all, thanks to the taxi, we mange to be there on time (err.. abit early) then checked in.. and say bye bye to San Francisco.. and saying hi to Los Angeles =)
Note: Unexpectedly.. I had been writing so long.. T__T will continue the story of LA in next blog ;)
I like to be in plane ^^
Erlin.D
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Another post from California~
Has been missing my blog quite alot.. yet can't update it.. Not because I don't have time to... but because I don't have computer to.. T__T California here is almost wireless everywhere, thus a laptop will really make you feel at home.. ^^; Now I'm in the Moscone West, typing blog instead of going for the sessions.. :p Let me briefly write down what I had been doing so far here...
Saturday morning, Singapore: didn't sleep. Went to Airport at 3 with Medy, Aakriti and Liu Jia. Reach airport in half hour time. I was wearing glasses I felt really really dizzy because of that. And then, combined with the sleepiness, my answers during the check point was totally a mess.. the worst one was: "How long you took to pack your bag?" and I answered 2 years instead of 2 hours.. =.=.. the funny part is that, she laughed at me, and then repeat my mistake during the next question "so, during the 2 years.. eee.. sorry, 2 hours of packing, did anyone help you?" :p quite funny. haha.. I changed my glasses to contact lens again afterwards.. and promise not to wear it again unless it is really really unbearable...
--- Save as draft, going for lunch break, hybernate for 3 days, continued on my departure day to LA ---
The check point was kinda hard, we need to bring out all our electronic devices, and turned it on for them to check. I dont know what they are really checking. I only turned on my mobile and ipod for them.. then they let me passed.
Some time before the departure: meet the rest of the group... Zhang Jun was eventually there too. he really looked like student XD Before boarding, I really want to take pictures.. So I took out my camera... and.. found out that it can't be switched on! Further check, found out that I forgot to put my battery inside the camera!! After fully charged it!! Very stupid T_T Conclusion, I don't have any picture for my first long trip.. so sad.. I really wanted to take picture of all the food I ate.. eventually ended up that I can't even take any scenary from the plane... T__T
We transitted at Narita for 2 hours.. visited duty free shop and got lunch at the canteen. After that, continue with our next long journey of 10 hours.
All the packaging were wonderful, right?
--- Save as draft, going to LA, hybernate for 6 days, continued on my departure day to Singapore ---
Eventually can continue my long hibernated blog ^^ Typing blog from Rui Ping computer, at the Hollywood Hostel, LA.
Let me continue from where I stopped one week ago… After the long plane journey, we eventually reached San Francisco.. Thanks that the custom didn’t trouble us a lot.. All of us get through very fast, expect for Medy, who was dragged to office for short interview ^^; After all settled, all of us went to take BART (sort of MRT in Singapore) and reached our hostel safely. The hostel wasn’t bad, had quite an old European style. They even had free internet there, although it’s only for 15 minutes.. but that’s already good enough for me… just that I can’t write my usual long winding blog there XD
After tidying up the staff, we went for lunch at BK near the Fisherman Wharf. Fully charged, we then have a full day walk at the San Francisco. Thanks to all the travel guides, we managed to go to several popular places. I slept soundly at around 11pm, and wake up at 6am for the next day.
@ Fisherman Wharf
Sunday, we went for Tour with other Apple participants. We went to Stanford University (A place where Steve Jobs got dropped out), Golden Gate Bridge and other different places =D We have BK (again) for lunch, and Asian Scholar Reception at Hilton Hotel. We reached hostel again around 10pm, played some internet, and went to sleep at 11pm..
@ Stanford University
@ Golden Gate Bridge
Monday, wake up at 7am, having a nice free waffle from Hostel and going to WWDC at 815.. We had been eager to watch Steve Jobs keynote live.. but then.. we’re not allowed! Because we’re wearing student badge T__T Lucky Zhang Jun manage to make it trough the live keynote. We watched it from the Overflow room. Finished with the keynote, we went for one session before lunch. After lunch, went for another 3 session before the Welcome Reception at 7pm… The food was nice… I wasn’t managed to find the soft drink.. and eventually drink a full cup of wine… and get a red face. But I wasn’t drunk, k! I didn’t know how to get back simply because I never know.. Not because I drunk :p We reached back home at almost 9… have some chit chat, got scolded by our roommate (an Australian woman) then went to sleep at 10pm.
@ WWDC 2007 - After Lunch
Tuesday, wake up at 7pm again, have breakfast at the conference, followed with all the sessions. Nothing special happened.. at night, we have Apple Awards Presentation and Stump the Experts. It was very fun.. we back only at 11++, again scolded by the Australian woman.. T_T It’s getting irritating.. We got scolded because we showered! She said that we’re too loud and blablabla… sigh… to lower my tense, I went to play internet until around 12, then went to slept until morning…
Wednesday, the mood for conference had dropped by 50% :p.. we went for morning sessions. After lunch, we went to GooglePlex.. Thanks so much Aakriti for making it happened. We reached the nearest station to GooglePlex at around 3.. after that, we really had no clue of how to go there. Unlike Singapore, there is no bus anywhere. Even taxi wasn’t visible. While the guys try to figure out what to do (especially Xiao yu, Dewei, and Medy) the girls were taking pictures (Shen nan, Aakriti, and me)The scenes were awesome there. After spent half hour figuring out, we concluded that we can’t get there without the help of other residents.. so, we started to do the Mexican style, using thumb to ask for a ride XD.. It was quite funny.. and I actually didn’t believe there was anyone that will help us.. until I find one. I was really surprise with it. The more wonderful part is that, the guy was purposely drove us there, although he wasn’t going to there. He is very very friendly.. seriously. 6 of us loaded to his small car until we reached GooglePlex. Thanks so much sir… One thing I regret is that we never took picture together..
After being there, we having a tour for around 1 hour.. then have dinner. I find out another unbelievable thing: All the food at GooglePlex is free! It included café and all the canteens. @.@ And believe me, the food was really nice, ranging from pizza, salad, meat, and lots lots of other things. That’s the first time I ate rice again after being in US.. so happy..
@ GooglePlex! Thanks so much Aakriti.. and our host.. Subir Jhan
Ok.. now is time to go back to Singapore.. Wait for the LA story after I reached Singapore!
From L.A.,
Erlin.D
Saturday morning, Singapore: didn't sleep. Went to Airport at 3 with Medy, Aakriti and Liu Jia. Reach airport in half hour time. I was wearing glasses I felt really really dizzy because of that. And then, combined with the sleepiness, my answers during the check point was totally a mess.. the worst one was: "How long you took to pack your bag?" and I answered 2 years instead of 2 hours.. =.=.. the funny part is that, she laughed at me, and then repeat my mistake during the next question "so, during the 2 years.. eee.. sorry, 2 hours of packing, did anyone help you?" :p quite funny. haha.. I changed my glasses to contact lens again afterwards.. and promise not to wear it again unless it is really really unbearable...
--- Save as draft, going for lunch break, hybernate for 3 days, continued on my departure day to LA ---
The check point was kinda hard, we need to bring out all our electronic devices, and turned it on for them to check. I dont know what they are really checking. I only turned on my mobile and ipod for them.. then they let me passed.
Some time before the departure: meet the rest of the group... Zhang Jun was eventually there too. he really looked like student XD Before boarding, I really want to take pictures.. So I took out my camera... and.. found out that it can't be switched on! Further check, found out that I forgot to put my battery inside the camera!! After fully charged it!! Very stupid T_T Conclusion, I don't have any picture for my first long trip.. so sad.. I really wanted to take picture of all the food I ate.. eventually ended up that I can't even take any scenary from the plane... T__T
We transitted at Narita for 2 hours.. visited duty free shop and got lunch at the canteen. After that, continue with our next long journey of 10 hours.
All the packaging were wonderful, right?
--- Save as draft, going to LA, hybernate for 6 days, continued on my departure day to Singapore ---
Eventually can continue my long hibernated blog ^^ Typing blog from Rui Ping computer, at the Hollywood Hostel, LA.
Let me continue from where I stopped one week ago… After the long plane journey, we eventually reached San Francisco.. Thanks that the custom didn’t trouble us a lot.. All of us get through very fast, expect for Medy, who was dragged to office for short interview ^^; After all settled, all of us went to take BART (sort of MRT in Singapore) and reached our hostel safely. The hostel wasn’t bad, had quite an old European style. They even had free internet there, although it’s only for 15 minutes.. but that’s already good enough for me… just that I can’t write my usual long winding blog there XD
After tidying up the staff, we went for lunch at BK near the Fisherman Wharf. Fully charged, we then have a full day walk at the San Francisco. Thanks to all the travel guides, we managed to go to several popular places. I slept soundly at around 11pm, and wake up at 6am for the next day.
@ Fisherman Wharf
Sunday, we went for Tour with other Apple participants. We went to Stanford University (A place where Steve Jobs got dropped out), Golden Gate Bridge and other different places =D We have BK (again) for lunch, and Asian Scholar Reception at Hilton Hotel. We reached hostel again around 10pm, played some internet, and went to sleep at 11pm..
@ Stanford University
@ Golden Gate Bridge
Monday, wake up at 7am, having a nice free waffle from Hostel and going to WWDC at 815.. We had been eager to watch Steve Jobs keynote live.. but then.. we’re not allowed! Because we’re wearing student badge T__T Lucky Zhang Jun manage to make it trough the live keynote. We watched it from the Overflow room. Finished with the keynote, we went for one session before lunch. After lunch, went for another 3 session before the Welcome Reception at 7pm… The food was nice… I wasn’t managed to find the soft drink.. and eventually drink a full cup of wine… and get a red face. But I wasn’t drunk, k! I didn’t know how to get back simply because I never know.. Not because I drunk :p We reached back home at almost 9… have some chit chat, got scolded by our roommate (an Australian woman) then went to sleep at 10pm.
@ WWDC 2007 - After Lunch
Tuesday, wake up at 7pm again, have breakfast at the conference, followed with all the sessions. Nothing special happened.. at night, we have Apple Awards Presentation and Stump the Experts. It was very fun.. we back only at 11++, again scolded by the Australian woman.. T_T It’s getting irritating.. We got scolded because we showered! She said that we’re too loud and blablabla… sigh… to lower my tense, I went to play internet until around 12, then went to slept until morning…
Wednesday, the mood for conference had dropped by 50% :p.. we went for morning sessions. After lunch, we went to GooglePlex.. Thanks so much Aakriti for making it happened. We reached the nearest station to GooglePlex at around 3.. after that, we really had no clue of how to go there. Unlike Singapore, there is no bus anywhere. Even taxi wasn’t visible. While the guys try to figure out what to do (especially Xiao yu, Dewei, and Medy) the girls were taking pictures (Shen nan, Aakriti, and me)The scenes were awesome there. After spent half hour figuring out, we concluded that we can’t get there without the help of other residents.. so, we started to do the Mexican style, using thumb to ask for a ride XD.. It was quite funny.. and I actually didn’t believe there was anyone that will help us.. until I find one. I was really surprise with it. The more wonderful part is that, the guy was purposely drove us there, although he wasn’t going to there. He is very very friendly.. seriously. 6 of us loaded to his small car until we reached GooglePlex. Thanks so much sir… One thing I regret is that we never took picture together..
After being there, we having a tour for around 1 hour.. then have dinner. I find out another unbelievable thing: All the food at GooglePlex is free! It included café and all the canteens. @.@ And believe me, the food was really nice, ranging from pizza, salad, meat, and lots lots of other things. That’s the first time I ate rice again after being in US.. so happy..
@ GooglePlex! Thanks so much Aakriti.. and our host.. Subir Jhan
Ok.. now is time to go back to Singapore.. Wait for the LA story after I reached Singapore!
From L.A.,
Erlin.D
Sunday, June 10, 2007
A post from California
Few words:
1. Jet Lag - 15 hours difference with Singapore
2. Hiking - Now NTU hill is nothing
3. Cold - Not sweating at all even after 5 hours of walk and sun burn
4. Fat - Because no sweat
5. Continue later - Because the free 15 minutes internet is ended ;p
1. Jet Lag - 15 hours difference with Singapore
2. Hiking - Now NTU hill is nothing
3. Cold - Not sweating at all even after 5 hours of walk and sun burn
4. Fat - Because no sweat
5. Continue later - Because the free 15 minutes internet is ended ;p
Saturday, June 09, 2007
My Last Day @ Apple
Was very memorable.. :’) In spite of sleeping at 1, I can still wake up at 5.50. Managed to get bus on time (the 6 months training really show the result) Sleep soundly at MRT, reached Yio Cu Kang early, got the last Today’s newspaper for IA, then walked to office. Henry decided to walk too, since we reached quite early and the Motorola Bus will only arrive at 8…
As I was about to reach Apple, suddenly felt like going to Motorola to have a look.. Before the IA started, we used to think that we will be able to gather and have lunch together all together.. but then, the Motorola people were always be separatisms and ate at their canteen instead ^^; Still, eventually, I could step to Motorola place.. Thanks to Helios as the tour guide :p.. To repay, I brought him to Apple too.. took some pictures, before he went back, and I went up to start my last day at office…
Me @ Motorola :p
As I was about to reach Apple, suddenly felt like going to Motorola to have a look.. Before the IA started, we used to think that we will be able to gather and have lunch together all together.. but then, the Motorola people were always be separatisms and ate at their canteen instead ^^; Still, eventually, I could step to Motorola place.. Thanks to Helios as the tour guide :p.. To repay, I brought him to Apple too.. took some pictures, before he went back, and I went up to start my last day at office…
Me @ Motorola :p
Unlock my drawer for the last time, took out PowerBook for the last time, connected to wireless for the last time.. (alrite, I’m too much) haha.. basically, I did my routine. Then2, Jasmine asked if I wanted to go for breakfast.. yup.. so we had our last breakfast.. Back in less than 30 minutes, then took pics with Alfon, Tsubasa and Yuki.. Felt quite sad already that time :’(
Back to my seat, I found that I need to do another enhancement for the template.. Alfon preferred rounded edge than square.. The look might not seems to be not much different, but it was really different… from design point of view. The rounded edge means that we need images, instead of solely CSS.. Then it meant I will need an image editor. Since I had already used up my trial version for adobe Photoshop, I tried to look for other image editing.. and found one which is an online image editor. But then.. too bad that it only accept jpeg and gif, while apple in default can only produce PNG. I also tried out GIMP (which imam recommended me) but then.. failed during installation because it needed to took additional data from Mac OS X installation CD.. and I don’t have it T_T
Last resource was still to find those who had the Adobe Photoshop 3.. who are.. liao liang and loy XD.. liao liang wasn’t around, so Loy be the victim. I disturbed him until the lunch time. Today, I was having lunch with Alfon, Boon Wee, and Loy @ Jack’s Place. Quite a nice restaurant.. and it was very crowded.. Both interns ordered Dori Fish (me because don’t know how to call other menu) while the bosses order other things. When we’re sipping the appetizer soup, Alfon saw cockroach around the table! We directly called the manager.. Loy started with “Excuse me, we wanted to complain…” It really affected the manager behavior XD He soon gave us a new seat.. and even change all of our soup!! But then, our bosses were so nice that they refuse the new soup & bread.. and said that it’s alrite.. haha.. I wonder if I will be so considerate too? Quite a hard decision when it was dealing with food XD just jokin..
We chatted and ate.. Boon Wee teased Loy a lot.. lucky that Alfon didn’t do the same.. But he got asked how I felt in my stay at Apple.. what did I expect from the very beginning.. and whether it met the expectation? I said that I was expecting a more relaxing IA :P huahahaa.. then I asked back the question.. and he said that I exceed his expectation.. waah.. =D (hopefully not in term of food) I took it as compliment~
We returned to Apple before 1.30, then I continued with the rounding at Photoshop before Alfon sent the email for another enhancement on Inventory Tool. It was almost 2.30 at that time.. and I was so scared that I can’t finished it.. I rushed back to my cubicle and did it.. until 4.30.. the time is just nice to upload it to server… and the surprise farewell party for me.. XD
Alfon gave a short speech to introduce me, then passed it to Raymond while he went to take a gift for me. Raymond was giving me an envelop.. which was.. Takasimaya voucher! XD.. I didn’t really notice it that time.. I was very very surprise and happy.. until.. I think I was so happy that I can’t speak clearly when they asked me to give a farewell speech.. but then.. it’s really nice.. really.. Thanks so much Alfon for the celebration =) I heard from Si Leng and Yukie that you didn’t even allow them to go out from office when the time is about to come XD hahaha… I really appreciate it a lot..
The most shocking part was when Alfon gave me a gift. And with the confidence said that “I’m sure that Erlin will like it very much”. The Kinokuniya bag, the size of the book.. It was really like a dream when I opened and saw… The Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Artwork!!! OMG! How did he know it?? I was totally didn’t expect this.. This was even more surprising rather then if he suddenly gave me a new launch Mac Book Pro as the gift.. (At least I ever dreamt of it :p) But this!? I told it to no one but my blog and few friends that went with me to Takasimaya that time. Getting the information from my friends was quite impossible.. and it made me almost went to the conclusion that Alfon read my blog!! Can’t be!!! (err.. are you reading?) But I was stuck with no other possible solution available.. Anyone? Any solution will be considered.. I will really not expecting that my sudden and only conclusion is true.. T__T
Happy... and Speechless
Anyway, I really kept questioning him on how did he know about it.. but never get a satisfying answer T__T After the farewell, there was a feedback session.. At where I tried to be honest (as always, of course) and answered all the questions. Finished, tiding up my stuff, delete my whole inbox, I then went back at 6.10.. after another bye bye to Evelyn.. Geee.. I was really almost crying :’(
I was having dinner with friend at Ang Mo Kio.. then reached back home at almost 10.. doing packing.. until now.. is 2.20.. my eyes really hardly survive.. has been few days that I was lack of sleep T__T I’m going to airport soon…
For the next 2 weeks.. wish you all a wonderful holidays ahead!
Still figuring out @.@,
Erlin.D
Friday, June 08, 2007
Back to my normal diary blog~
Sunday, wake up at 11.30.. Felt very blurred.. Called home and being caught by mum that I just woke up from my sleepy voice (although i had brushed my teeth! mumm is unbelievable!) Talk for around 20 minutes, then continued with shower, and locked outside room for 5 minutes since Inche was going out to da pao and I didn't bring my key T_T Had 3 bread + sausage as my lunch while reading emails.. Continued with typing my lousy resume... Then writing thank you card with my poor handwriting.. (i'm not sure if it's readable..) Then started to take out some cloths for packing.. and enhance some booklet pages...
I can't say that I enjoyed my Sunday.. :( That would be my last weekend before I fly off.. This is one of the rare occassion when I felt not satisfied with what I had done.. Felt that there were just so many things I had missed out.. I want to watch Just Follow Law with the rest like what I had promised.. I want to go watch Pirates of Carrabien 3 with friends.. I want to relax, enjoy the Singapore Great Sale Shopping with others... I want to have one dinner with all fellows IA mates before we go off.. I want to test out the new KFC.. I want to.. do alot of things with friends.. By the time I came back to Singapore, I know most of them will have gone back to Indonesia.. Now I sort of regret that I didn't plan my stuff well T_T
..Ok, back to the story.
At least I got some task done. After those, I had dinner together with others.. before going back, chatting, and went to sleep.. Couldn't sleep well and had nightmare on Sunday: I messed out my project and Alfon was dissapointed, even angry.. blamed me and asked me to extend and called Apple to redraw my WWDC ticket ^^; when it went too extreme, I woke up... just 2 seconds before my alarm rang.. Then went to shower. Still have quite alot of time, so I tidied up my hanged cloths, had 4 slices of bread (with cheese and Mr.Potato crips topping) before went down for 2nd bus. Reach Ang Mo Kio earlier than usual.. Then went to office unmotivatedly.
When I reached, find a cute handphone accessories at my desk.. That was from Kim Hui, my boss' boss who just back from holiday @ Korea.. Thx so much ^_^ Brighten up abit of my day... Then I started to do total reformation with my project.. which included alot of javascript and structure change.. I hate it.. very tedious T_T At around 10, Jasmine came and gave me a sourvernir too: Keychain from ocean park at Hong Kong.. Kawaaii~ Thanx so much Jasmine.. and eventually, you're back!! I missed you lotz.. guys didn't know how to gossip during lunch time. hahaha.. She looked fresh.. and white as usual, although she said that she almost burnt there =__= It was raining just when we're going for lunch.. so we lunched at cafee. As expected, the queue was super long. I was having a $3.5 Claypot Chicken Rice... It was really very nice! (and expensive..)
After lunch, I went to Jasmine's cubicle to see some of her vacation photos.. geeezz.. It was very nice... especially the mickey train to disneyland.. I wanted to go too XD.. I back to cubicle at 1++.. When I was stress up, Jasmine was back with dragon beard candy.. it tasted nice o^.^o... Seems like my monday wasn't as bad as expected?
But then, I really need to spend alot of effort to make my program handling the huge email sending.. (>10,000). It took 5 minutes to send 100 emails. then for 10000? I bet you wont believe your calculation.. Anyway, I never succeed yet.. It always got error in different stages.. but when I retry, the error dissapeared and popped out at other place.. Eventually, I really need to implement the brute force inside my code: while (fail) create new object, try again until success!! The recommended programming is actually: if(fail) then report error and exit. I just wish that the infinite loop wont happen.. because I also set the time out to infinite.. (or else it will be timeout in 30 seconds) Quite an unsecure tool, huh? ^^;
I continued testing and debugging until 5++.. then Alfon came and the first word is: "You look stress!" :S was it written so clear on my face? Hope that last night dream wont became true. I replied "not really" to him.. (because I'll be lying if I said "No, I'm very happy") yet, my answered has already triggered his question if I was really honest.. ^^; He said that he would be ok to drop my project if I found it too stressing.. Since it is my last week here already. He even gave me choice whether for me to have another presentation or cancel it. "Where else will you get this kind of supervisor?" he joked.. haha.. Ok Alfon.. Thanks alot.. I'll do my best for this project =)
He left me 5 minutes before 6, asked me to go back soon.. An order that I wouldn't reject :p When I started packing.. Loy came asked something.. eventually went back only at 6.30 ^^; As expected, I reached at 8++.. Oh, I met Jipau at JP, he said that he just back from NTU, swimming.. ha.. ^^;;.. On my way waiting for bus, meet Ankur Patil.. So he worked at Exxon.. He said that he will be going to California for summer study.. Last time, I remember Handy was also applying... Why is it so popular all in sudden? haha..
Back to hostel, I showered, had instant noodle as dinner while helping calvin to edit abit of the Vibrant Blood tshirt design. The design was very nice.. Professional artist is really different! The editing finished in half hour.. but the stressful part was in the sending. My attachment kept bounce back to me!! Eventually, after an hour and 6th tried from outlook, msn, yahoo, webmail... Calvin can successfully received it. ^^; Finished with the photoshop, went to Ari's place to return the logbook.. The plan was to make my table more spacious.. but I eventually brought back a box of lecture notes in exchange.. The reverse turned out ^^; Seems like I needed to think of other way to empty my room. Back to room, dealt with booklet for awhile.. then reading blog before went to sleep at 11++..
Tuesday, very sleepy.. blamed myself to read blog until late yesterday ^^; wake up, showered, had my last slices of bread with cheese, then took second bus. As usual, it came earlier by 3minutes.. lucky that I was prepared :p.. As I reached MRT, heard someone calling, surprised to find the cause of my sleepiness infront of me (yes, yesterday I was reading suhu's blog.. too interesting that I can't stop reading before finished it ^^;) Had some proud feeling to meet the great writer (I hope that I'm still normal ^^;) Stopped at Jurong East, I managed to get corner seat.. so did Lily.. then slept again until I reached Yio Cu Kang.. I really should have brought jacket.. it was cool at MRT T_T..
I reached even earlier today: several minutes before 7.30!! Oh gosh. Of course, getting newspaper is no longer a problem. I even need to queue waiting for it now ^^; Reached office super early.. Shocked again when Erwin popped up to greeted good morning.. (Maybe partly because I was browsing and thought that it was my boss) Afterwards, I made my daily glass of coffee.. and continued with testing. Fixed some more bugs inside the program. Then test it from the morning... and still haven't finished until 6pm =__= boring boring boring.. sleepy sleepy sleepy.. I actually still need to do more enhancement and documentation.. but then the testing took all my poor laptop resource... so.. I told Alfon that i went down to level 2 to use the testing server. I just finished doing 1 of the 5 enhancements when Alfon suddenly iChat me, request for the heartbeat pulse clip. Hue? I dont really understand it, but i know it will be hard. And I was right.. It wasn't something that i can find easily from youtube.. and let say i found it, I will still need others help to convert it to other format .. frankly speaking.. this kind of thing bother me more than my project.. because I'm not experience with it at all T__T Eventually, I spent my whole afternoon looking for the clip (sorry to trouble you all, my friends..) Thanks loy for the clip at last.. I should have told you from the very beginning.. muahaha.. after asking liao liang help to convert, sent it to Alfon, I went back to my testing. It was stil running! So I took printscreen of the last state, surrendered, and went back. Slept at 12 because kept failing in burning CD T__T
Wednesday, be wiser to do the testing using ethernet instead of wireless. Can you imagine, the whole thing finished in less than 1 hour! Now I know the difference between them.. haha.. Had lunch all together at Tech Point.. It was full team member le! Imam, Liao Liang, Loy, Zhang Fan and Me.. along with Ha Lian, Jasmine and Erwin.. And on our way there, we met other NUS people.. so eventually, it was 13 of us. 6 of them wear white shirt on that day. We joked and related it with the new ghost movie: Man in white. hahaha.. I wonder if the movie is nice? We finished lunch at 1.. Liao liang rushed back for presentation.. Me was slacking for sometimes, taking picture with Jasmine and Erwin. Swati helped us to take pics.. and said "You look so happy today!" when I said that I actuallly quite sad...: "Come oon, you can't hide the happiness!" hahaha.. swati is very nice.. and very pretty.. I like to see her ^__^ Thank Swati~ After the 5 minutes phototaking session, they went back to work, and I went back for testing.
My testing finished at 5.30.. eventually.. I can say that my project is all finished! 12 projects in this 6 months.. with several scripts and other thing.. (e.g: typing boss' boss' medical claim-even boss'boss'friend's one, looking for chicken little video clip, creating poster, etc XD) I will miss my time here.. I went back to JP, having KFC dinner with my roomie~ We're teesting the new Miso crunch from KFC. Tell you that it's a must try! It was very nice XD Cheaper, and with green tea as the drink ^^ The long queue definitely worth it. muahaha.. I got my cheese fries as usual too.. eventually, KFC meal before I fly off.. We finished dinner almost 8.30.. went back to hostel, settling some stuff, then went to sleep at 11++..
KFC new menu: Miso Crunch
Thursday, still went early despite having nothing to do there.. Reached there, had my cup of coffee.. stared at my desktop for few minutes, then received an invitation from Jasmine for breakfast.. ^^ Have a nice one hour breakfast, then back and open my msn messenger. Alfon popped up all in sudden and it was too late for me to hide my messenger.. T__T lucky that he wasn't angry.. but he gave me a new task to design email templates.. hmm.. without photoshop and dreamweaver.. I hope that I can make it ^^; Then, he (eventually) remembered about the Heroes. Since I needed fast internet connection to share it, he gave me choice to sit in his cubicle (because he got router) or to move downstairs and use the testing server's connection. I picked second one.. XD.. So I moved down~ at almost 11, I went up to celebrate Janet's b'day.. Probably the last b'day I will be able to celebrate here.. Surely I will miss the time. Finished with b'day celebration, I went down, took some pictures with others, then back to work on templates. At 5++, my computer suddenly can't work.. fixed until around 5.30, Calvin came to take the CD I burnt. Around 6++, my computer worked again.. Calvin MSN me, saying that... The CD case was empty!!! That's really lammeee T__T I tried to open it yesterday to check if it worked perfectly.. then I forgot to put it back.. lousy lousy lousy.. XD I went back at around 6.40.. Reached JP almost 7.30.. just in time to catch the rest for another KFC XD nice~ We gossiped alot.. and back only at 10 =.=..
Back to hostel, I packed, sent the vb pics to calvin, transfer office pics to compie, blog, and.. going to sleep soon.. Tomorrow is my last day.. I hope that I didn't wake up late.. it's already 1am now ^^;
Can I ask the time to stop here?
Erlin.D
I can't say that I enjoyed my Sunday.. :( That would be my last weekend before I fly off.. This is one of the rare occassion when I felt not satisfied with what I had done.. Felt that there were just so many things I had missed out.. I want to watch Just Follow Law with the rest like what I had promised.. I want to go watch Pirates of Carrabien 3 with friends.. I want to relax, enjoy the Singapore Great Sale Shopping with others... I want to have one dinner with all fellows IA mates before we go off.. I want to test out the new KFC.. I want to.. do alot of things with friends.. By the time I came back to Singapore, I know most of them will have gone back to Indonesia.. Now I sort of regret that I didn't plan my stuff well T_T
..Ok, back to the story.
At least I got some task done. After those, I had dinner together with others.. before going back, chatting, and went to sleep.. Couldn't sleep well and had nightmare on Sunday: I messed out my project and Alfon was dissapointed, even angry.. blamed me and asked me to extend and called Apple to redraw my WWDC ticket ^^; when it went too extreme, I woke up... just 2 seconds before my alarm rang.. Then went to shower. Still have quite alot of time, so I tidied up my hanged cloths, had 4 slices of bread (with cheese and Mr.Potato crips topping) before went down for 2nd bus. Reach Ang Mo Kio earlier than usual.. Then went to office unmotivatedly.
When I reached, find a cute handphone accessories at my desk.. That was from Kim Hui, my boss' boss who just back from holiday @ Korea.. Thx so much ^_^ Brighten up abit of my day... Then I started to do total reformation with my project.. which included alot of javascript and structure change.. I hate it.. very tedious T_T At around 10, Jasmine came and gave me a sourvernir too: Keychain from ocean park at Hong Kong.. Kawaaii~ Thanx so much Jasmine.. and eventually, you're back!! I missed you lotz.. guys didn't know how to gossip during lunch time. hahaha.. She looked fresh.. and white as usual, although she said that she almost burnt there =__= It was raining just when we're going for lunch.. so we lunched at cafee. As expected, the queue was super long. I was having a $3.5 Claypot Chicken Rice... It was really very nice! (and expensive..)
After lunch, I went to Jasmine's cubicle to see some of her vacation photos.. geeezz.. It was very nice... especially the mickey train to disneyland.. I wanted to go too XD.. I back to cubicle at 1++.. When I was stress up, Jasmine was back with dragon beard candy.. it tasted nice o^.^o... Seems like my monday wasn't as bad as expected?
But then, I really need to spend alot of effort to make my program handling the huge email sending.. (>10,000). It took 5 minutes to send 100 emails. then for 10000? I bet you wont believe your calculation.. Anyway, I never succeed yet.. It always got error in different stages.. but when I retry, the error dissapeared and popped out at other place.. Eventually, I really need to implement the brute force inside my code: while (fail) create new object, try again until success!! The recommended programming is actually: if(fail) then report error and exit. I just wish that the infinite loop wont happen.. because I also set the time out to infinite.. (or else it will be timeout in 30 seconds) Quite an unsecure tool, huh? ^^;
I continued testing and debugging until 5++.. then Alfon came and the first word is: "You look stress!" :S was it written so clear on my face? Hope that last night dream wont became true. I replied "not really" to him.. (because I'll be lying if I said "No, I'm very happy") yet, my answered has already triggered his question if I was really honest.. ^^; He said that he would be ok to drop my project if I found it too stressing.. Since it is my last week here already. He even gave me choice whether for me to have another presentation or cancel it. "Where else will you get this kind of supervisor?" he joked.. haha.. Ok Alfon.. Thanks alot.. I'll do my best for this project =)
He left me 5 minutes before 6, asked me to go back soon.. An order that I wouldn't reject :p When I started packing.. Loy came asked something.. eventually went back only at 6.30 ^^; As expected, I reached at 8++.. Oh, I met Jipau at JP, he said that he just back from NTU, swimming.. ha.. ^^;;.. On my way waiting for bus, meet Ankur Patil.. So he worked at Exxon.. He said that he will be going to California for summer study.. Last time, I remember Handy was also applying... Why is it so popular all in sudden? haha..
Back to hostel, I showered, had instant noodle as dinner while helping calvin to edit abit of the Vibrant Blood tshirt design. The design was very nice.. Professional artist is really different! The editing finished in half hour.. but the stressful part was in the sending. My attachment kept bounce back to me!! Eventually, after an hour and 6th tried from outlook, msn, yahoo, webmail... Calvin can successfully received it. ^^; Finished with the photoshop, went to Ari's place to return the logbook.. The plan was to make my table more spacious.. but I eventually brought back a box of lecture notes in exchange.. The reverse turned out ^^; Seems like I needed to think of other way to empty my room. Back to room, dealt with booklet for awhile.. then reading blog before went to sleep at 11++..
Tuesday, very sleepy.. blamed myself to read blog until late yesterday ^^; wake up, showered, had my last slices of bread with cheese, then took second bus. As usual, it came earlier by 3minutes.. lucky that I was prepared :p.. As I reached MRT, heard someone calling, surprised to find the cause of my sleepiness infront of me (yes, yesterday I was reading suhu's blog.. too interesting that I can't stop reading before finished it ^^;) Had some proud feeling to meet the great writer (I hope that I'm still normal ^^;) Stopped at Jurong East, I managed to get corner seat.. so did Lily.. then slept again until I reached Yio Cu Kang.. I really should have brought jacket.. it was cool at MRT T_T..
I reached even earlier today: several minutes before 7.30!! Oh gosh. Of course, getting newspaper is no longer a problem. I even need to queue waiting for it now ^^; Reached office super early.. Shocked again when Erwin popped up to greeted good morning.. (Maybe partly because I was browsing and thought that it was my boss) Afterwards, I made my daily glass of coffee.. and continued with testing. Fixed some more bugs inside the program. Then test it from the morning... and still haven't finished until 6pm =__= boring boring boring.. sleepy sleepy sleepy.. I actually still need to do more enhancement and documentation.. but then the testing took all my poor laptop resource... so.. I told Alfon that i went down to level 2 to use the testing server. I just finished doing 1 of the 5 enhancements when Alfon suddenly iChat me, request for the heartbeat pulse clip. Hue? I dont really understand it, but i know it will be hard. And I was right.. It wasn't something that i can find easily from youtube.. and let say i found it, I will still need others help to convert it to other format .. frankly speaking.. this kind of thing bother me more than my project.. because I'm not experience with it at all T__T Eventually, I spent my whole afternoon looking for the clip (sorry to trouble you all, my friends..) Thanks loy for the clip at last.. I should have told you from the very beginning.. muahaha.. after asking liao liang help to convert, sent it to Alfon, I went back to my testing. It was stil running! So I took printscreen of the last state, surrendered, and went back. Slept at 12 because kept failing in burning CD T__T
Wednesday, be wiser to do the testing using ethernet instead of wireless. Can you imagine, the whole thing finished in less than 1 hour! Now I know the difference between them.. haha.. Had lunch all together at Tech Point.. It was full team member le! Imam, Liao Liang, Loy, Zhang Fan and Me.. along with Ha Lian, Jasmine and Erwin.. And on our way there, we met other NUS people.. so eventually, it was 13 of us. 6 of them wear white shirt on that day. We joked and related it with the new ghost movie: Man in white. hahaha.. I wonder if the movie is nice? We finished lunch at 1.. Liao liang rushed back for presentation.. Me was slacking for sometimes, taking picture with Jasmine and Erwin. Swati helped us to take pics.. and said "You look so happy today!" when I said that I actuallly quite sad...: "Come oon, you can't hide the happiness!" hahaha.. swati is very nice.. and very pretty.. I like to see her ^__^ Thank Swati~ After the 5 minutes phototaking session, they went back to work, and I went back for testing.
My testing finished at 5.30.. eventually.. I can say that my project is all finished! 12 projects in this 6 months.. with several scripts and other thing.. (e.g: typing boss' boss' medical claim-even boss'boss'friend's one, looking for chicken little video clip, creating poster, etc XD) I will miss my time here.. I went back to JP, having KFC dinner with my roomie~ We're teesting the new Miso crunch from KFC. Tell you that it's a must try! It was very nice XD Cheaper, and with green tea as the drink ^^ The long queue definitely worth it. muahaha.. I got my cheese fries as usual too.. eventually, KFC meal before I fly off.. We finished dinner almost 8.30.. went back to hostel, settling some stuff, then went to sleep at 11++..
KFC new menu: Miso Crunch
Thursday, still went early despite having nothing to do there.. Reached there, had my cup of coffee.. stared at my desktop for few minutes, then received an invitation from Jasmine for breakfast.. ^^ Have a nice one hour breakfast, then back and open my msn messenger. Alfon popped up all in sudden and it was too late for me to hide my messenger.. T__T lucky that he wasn't angry.. but he gave me a new task to design email templates.. hmm.. without photoshop and dreamweaver.. I hope that I can make it ^^; Then, he (eventually) remembered about the Heroes. Since I needed fast internet connection to share it, he gave me choice to sit in his cubicle (because he got router) or to move downstairs and use the testing server's connection. I picked second one.. XD.. So I moved down~ at almost 11, I went up to celebrate Janet's b'day.. Probably the last b'day I will be able to celebrate here.. Surely I will miss the time. Finished with b'day celebration, I went down, took some pictures with others, then back to work on templates. At 5++, my computer suddenly can't work.. fixed until around 5.30, Calvin came to take the CD I burnt. Around 6++, my computer worked again.. Calvin MSN me, saying that... The CD case was empty!!! That's really lammeee T__T I tried to open it yesterday to check if it worked perfectly.. then I forgot to put it back.. lousy lousy lousy.. XD I went back at around 6.40.. Reached JP almost 7.30.. just in time to catch the rest for another KFC XD nice~ We gossiped alot.. and back only at 10 =.=..
Back to hostel, I packed, sent the vb pics to calvin, transfer office pics to compie, blog, and.. going to sleep soon.. Tomorrow is my last day.. I hope that I didn't wake up late.. it's already 1am now ^^;
Can I ask the time to stop here?
Erlin.D
Happy Graduation - NBS: The event
The BBQ was excellent... As usual, during the first hour, there was aloot of people standing at the BBQ pit with an empty plate and watery mouth :p I was lucky enough to get constant supply of food, although I need to take plate with one hand and camera with another. I didn't know how much I ate that day.. but I surely got rotund belly for the next day XD (lucky no stomach aches) Our food varies from otah2, chicken wings, to bread, marshmallow and sate. Not forgetting dearest Mamme and Cheese ball... And even pringles for answering questions! (some of the questions: How many job interviews fieda gone through in this week? What did nancy ate first in the BBQ? Among us, who knew Ocvia for the longest time?) The food is all Nyummy2 ^^ two thumbs up for Boly! After that we also got watermelon as dessert.. Felt sorry that some people came back too late and miss it.. Jess needed to go back to JP to bring the cake and buy the wine.. and came back quite late too.. :'( After all people coming, all food cleaned.. here the time for performance!
Feel Hungry? Same here...
The performance started with a brief speach from head organizer... a ribbon cutting from the 3 graduating fellows... followed with.. Break Dance~ Yeah, live from the President and Vice President :p Soon after that, it continued with our singing.. ^^; Thanks Anton as the lead vocalist.. and thanks the rest too :') Thx Arifin to join our group :p After our performance, continued with Programmer's. Started with Tomy reading poem, then the song of Season in the Sun with WK as the guitarist.
Let's get the party started! ~ Fieda, Nancy, Ocvia
I can't really remember what is the next event following? If I'm wrong, it's cake and wine party.. followed with a 'game' which lead them to the 'Happy Graduation' words.. Then the nice flash presentation... And continued with dedication speach for each graduating fellow.. After each speach, there is a gift from all of us, which was our wishes for them.. It's then continued with their thank you speach to us (hehe) And ended with photo session..
Happy Graduation...
Felt very happy with the party.. and sad to the fact that they're really leaving soon.. We're going to miss you lotz.. nancy, fieda, ocvia.. wish you all the best career ahead..
I reached hostel at 2.. Felt like going to doze soon.. but then, still spent my time to recharge camera's battery and transfer the photo to computer (It was one GB for the 6 hours event!!) Only after that.. I went to sleep.. soundly until the next afternoon.. But it was another story :p
The report of the Farewell Party ended here...
"As we go on...
We remember...
All the time we...
Had together...
And as our life changes...
come whatever...
we'll still be...
Friends Forever"
Happy Graduation to whole Final Year Students!! Friends forever all... =)
Erlin.D
Happy Graduation - NBS: The preparation
I know that I supposed to start packing up my stuff. Tomorrow is my departure... But I just can't concentrate on what to pack.. because half of my brain memories is waiting to be freed up.. So, here goes the report of the big event :p
The planning had started more than 1 month ago. First of all, I need to thanks Ryoma for all the hardwork.. I really meant it. She was the one initiating almost everything, from the date, place, events... I lost count of how many "Ting Tong" smses I got from her. "Ting Tong, Can I know when will you be free? Please vote on these respective date", "Ting Tong, any suggestion where to do the graduation party?", "Ting Tong, Please vote whether you prefer BBQ or Buffet", and more more more ting tong XD.. In the midst of it, I still got some Ting Tong if we want to have KFC together.. hahaha.. two thumbs up for you, gal =)
Of course, All this wouldn't have been possible too without the help of others. I wasn't the coordinator, so I might not know who had contribute most.. but the turnout had been fantastic (At least from my point of view :p)
Beside being a publicity (as usual), I got another post.. which is.. Welfare =D (It surely matched with one of my greatest hobby) Together with others, I went to shop at Fair Price during the last friday. Ryoma was going along too. We bought lotz lotz of things.. I was so tempted to buy other things which weren't inside the list.. XD We finished our shopping with countless plastic bags (lucky that rin2 wasn't around :p)
Ah, that day, I tested 'Anything', which has been gaining popularity in these few weeks because of the name of 'Anything' and 'Whatever'. They said that it has different taste... depend on your luck. When I tested mine.. It was no different with 7up =.= Feel cheated ^^;
I was back to hostel almost 11, after putting everything at Ryoma's and Puka's room. Then started to look for the song lyric for the performance for next day. We decided on 'Wishing you a great journey ahead' from Nicky Wu. Thanks Ari to help me printed out the lyric. After some practice with roomie (I hoped our neighbour weren't deaf yet) I went to sleep at around 2.
The next day, woke up at 8.20.. Then went to bugis at 9.20, to wish for a sunny day ahead XD.. haha.. just joking.. it was one of the reason, but the priority was to book my ticket back to Medan.. Eventually, I can take airplane again :') I can't remember when was the last time I did. To fully utilized it, I will make sure that i carry at least 2 big luggage home ^^v hahaha.. Finished with the ticketing, Jess and I went for lunch at coffee shop before walking to Suntec (without you, I know I would have been wandering around Singapore before finding the way to Suntec) Jess shopped there.. Buy chocolate and Thank you card for her mentor (but not to supervisor =.=) haha.. I enjoyed quite alot.. It has been so long since my last visit to Suntec and City Hall...
We reached boonlay at 2++, just when we're about to reach bus stop (we were at 7 eleven, to be exact), Ryoma called and asked our help to buy more food. Of course I wont mind more foo.. eeer, sorry, I mean, of course I wont mind helping her! =D So we went back to Fair Price, buy the stuff in 5 minutes time, and reach bus stop.. just on time for the 199. However, when we were just going to board.. Ryoma sms again, asking if we can buy wine.. hmm.. it was reallly too late that time ^^;
Back to my hostel, my computer has been invaded by Helios and Puka.. Nice excuse for me to spent my time lying at the bed and rest for a while =D.. The BBQ food we ordered arrived at 4++.. Then we waited for Helios and Puka to finish the flash presentation.. It was very nice.. I was so much touched that I almost cried out when I saw it.. (although the main focus inside the flash isn't me, ofcourse) Ya, our 3 years friendship had been so memorable indeed. One feedback for me as the publicity was a request to use back my old 2MP Canon.. The new one cost them too much harddisk space XD haha.. too bad pal~.. But that's true.. my 2 harddisk partition was dedicated only for photos.. And it's expected to grow and grow... I really should sort it out someday.
After a quick teabreak for everyone (with my newest creation of melting cheese bread :p ), we started to walk to Hall 1 at 6++. Reached there around 6.40.. Then I met Peko for awhile to give her a small Doraemon doll as 21st B'day present.. Her b'day was the next day.. Happy B'day Peko! =) After that, I rushed back to Hall 1 kitchen, and started to prepare for the food.. The sausage, the fishball, the crabstick.. nyam nyam.. The guys were incharged of the BBQ fire.. Before eight, we officially started our event ^^
BBQ - The preparation XD
--- Continue to next blog... Seems like it's getting too long~
The planning had started more than 1 month ago. First of all, I need to thanks Ryoma for all the hardwork.. I really meant it. She was the one initiating almost everything, from the date, place, events... I lost count of how many "Ting Tong" smses I got from her. "Ting Tong, Can I know when will you be free? Please vote on these respective date", "Ting Tong, any suggestion where to do the graduation party?", "Ting Tong, Please vote whether you prefer BBQ or Buffet", and more more more ting tong XD.. In the midst of it, I still got some Ting Tong if we want to have KFC together.. hahaha.. two thumbs up for you, gal =)
Of course, All this wouldn't have been possible too without the help of others. I wasn't the coordinator, so I might not know who had contribute most.. but the turnout had been fantastic (At least from my point of view :p)
Beside being a publicity (as usual), I got another post.. which is.. Welfare =D (It surely matched with one of my greatest hobby) Together with others, I went to shop at Fair Price during the last friday. Ryoma was going along too. We bought lotz lotz of things.. I was so tempted to buy other things which weren't inside the list.. XD We finished our shopping with countless plastic bags (lucky that rin2 wasn't around :p)
Ah, that day, I tested 'Anything', which has been gaining popularity in these few weeks because of the name of 'Anything' and 'Whatever'. They said that it has different taste... depend on your luck. When I tested mine.. It was no different with 7up =.= Feel cheated ^^;
I was back to hostel almost 11, after putting everything at Ryoma's and Puka's room. Then started to look for the song lyric for the performance for next day. We decided on 'Wishing you a great journey ahead' from Nicky Wu. Thanks Ari to help me printed out the lyric. After some practice with roomie (I hoped our neighbour weren't deaf yet) I went to sleep at around 2.
The next day, woke up at 8.20.. Then went to bugis at 9.20, to wish for a sunny day ahead XD.. haha.. just joking.. it was one of the reason, but the priority was to book my ticket back to Medan.. Eventually, I can take airplane again :') I can't remember when was the last time I did. To fully utilized it, I will make sure that i carry at least 2 big luggage home ^^v hahaha.. Finished with the ticketing, Jess and I went for lunch at coffee shop before walking to Suntec (without you, I know I would have been wandering around Singapore before finding the way to Suntec) Jess shopped there.. Buy chocolate and Thank you card for her mentor (but not to supervisor =.=) haha.. I enjoyed quite alot.. It has been so long since my last visit to Suntec and City Hall...
We reached boonlay at 2++, just when we're about to reach bus stop (we were at 7 eleven, to be exact), Ryoma called and asked our help to buy more food. Of course I wont mind more foo.. eeer, sorry, I mean, of course I wont mind helping her! =D So we went back to Fair Price, buy the stuff in 5 minutes time, and reach bus stop.. just on time for the 199. However, when we were just going to board.. Ryoma sms again, asking if we can buy wine.. hmm.. it was reallly too late that time ^^;
Back to my hostel, my computer has been invaded by Helios and Puka.. Nice excuse for me to spent my time lying at the bed and rest for a while =D.. The BBQ food we ordered arrived at 4++.. Then we waited for Helios and Puka to finish the flash presentation.. It was very nice.. I was so much touched that I almost cried out when I saw it.. (although the main focus inside the flash isn't me, ofcourse) Ya, our 3 years friendship had been so memorable indeed. One feedback for me as the publicity was a request to use back my old 2MP Canon.. The new one cost them too much harddisk space XD haha.. too bad pal~.. But that's true.. my 2 harddisk partition was dedicated only for photos.. And it's expected to grow and grow... I really should sort it out someday.
After a quick teabreak for everyone (with my newest creation of melting cheese bread :p ), we started to walk to Hall 1 at 6++. Reached there around 6.40.. Then I met Peko for awhile to give her a small Doraemon doll as 21st B'day present.. Her b'day was the next day.. Happy B'day Peko! =) After that, I rushed back to Hall 1 kitchen, and started to prepare for the food.. The sausage, the fishball, the crabstick.. nyam nyam.. The guys were incharged of the BBQ fire.. Before eight, we officially started our event ^^
BBQ - The preparation XD
--- Continue to next blog... Seems like it's getting too long~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)