bliss.

hamsterballs — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:42:32 +0000

ARRGGGGHHHHHHH! while resizing these images i saved a file on top of my favourite pic and now it’s gone! grumpy.

totally dumb singaporeans doing totally dumb stuff while speaking horrible english.

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:01:05 +0000

18 days before i leave. time flies.

last wednesday i had this stupid little blob of meat removed from my index finger and it cost $7,500 to do that. wtf. i could have done the same with scissors and a bottle of alcohol.

microsoft should stop assuming that the 4 minute warning it gives before a restart following an update is anywhere near adequate for a user to respond. while i was getting a drink the computer just died and when it came back to life it had totally forgotten about the tabs i opened in firefox and the stuff i typed in ms word. at least i didn’t have any unsaved confidential data hanging around.

what they should do is fill the screen with a message in black and white warning about the impending doom with some flashy red background. and use the speaker on the motherboard to make some annoying polyphonic ring tones.

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:03:05 +0000

i’m not very talented when it comes to saving up. it’s probably not a talent in the first place, but i like to think of it that way so i don’t feel bad about myself as opposed to accepting that i’ve not been successful in nurturing a good practice. nonetheless, i’ve come up with a brilliant plan. tomorrow i shall ask for 50 $100 notes from the bank and i’ll keep a hundred dollar note in one compartment of my wallet and four more in the second compartment. that first note is my budget for the day and i’ll replace it daily, while the other four is there for safe measure. i suppose that way i should have a better idea of how much i have left for spending. i’m still thinking about whether i should allow excess cash to be rolled over though.

i’ll need to come up with a plan to deal with the credit card too. prior to all this i had a way too complicated way of recording my expenditure on excel which seemed to work pretty well initially until i formed a habit of selective recording. i like to lie to my future self about what i have spent on in the past.-

oh noes! looks like my computer is starting to die on me, and it’s not even that old yet!

moving tomorrow! =)

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:47:03 +0000

three and a half days of packing left to go, with most of the packing having to be done by me. having been coerced into reading the book ‘outliers’ which strongly suggests that the conditions of one’s upbringing has a profound effect on achieving success, i realize what an outlier i am. in a bad way. i don’t talk much at home and honestly i don’t blame myself for it because i think i get taken for granted far too often and i just can’t be bothered to engage in any conversation in the awkward, dull environment of my home.

today i packed a box full of rubbish which i want to dispose of in an attempt to keep my room neater when i move into the new apartment. annoyingly, the maid spends an hour going through my rubbish and decides to keep half for herself, which totally goes against my interests. after all, her space is really what she borrows from me. to make things worse, she goes through my unwanted fishing stuff and for no fucking reason decides to take them all out and fucking offer them to, of all people, my grandma, who randomly decides that she wants to try handline fishing at the jetty. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! i asked my maid to throw away the trash and instead she recycles it herself and my grandma who cannot tell a hook from a swivel decides to try fishing???

this is my ninth time moving. of the nine times, i was too young to be involved in packing three times. of the remaining six times, i’ve moved on my own for four times. the eighth time was a disaster, partially because there was much more to pack, but mostly due to incompetence. and i don’t mean myself. this time isn’t any different, and it’s a non-gentle reminder that the situation i’m in does not encourage cooperation and the interactions i’ve had at home over the last year has done nothing to foster teamwork, a sense of belonging, or whatever.

the book said that asians in general tend to be better at math because our cultural legacy of paddy-field farming influences us to be more hardworking. there ain’t no fucking paddy field at home besides mine.

so what kind of culture am i being exposed to? indifference, apathy, egoism, blame-it-on-the-scapegoat-mentality, introversion, exclusion… i don’t hear much at home, but one of the things i’ve not heard from my grandma is a compliment or an encouragement and it’s becoming very unpleasant when all i get are one or two criticisms every other day. but all this isn’t that bad when i think about the likelihood of such attitudes and behavioural patterns getting transferred to me. i don’t want to be a grumpy old folk, but the fact is that facing one everyday will eventually ruin my social life, thereby causing me to become a grumpy lad.

on the positive note, i believe this will be the last move in quite some time. and i’ll have other better things to worry about over the next four years.

today i met an old lady on a minibus who was trying to tell someone over the phone how to spell ‘business’. and she wasn’t speaking. she was yelling.

“B-E-U-I-S-N-S-N-E-S-S”

that’s pretty bad.

later,
jeff

hamsterballs — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:16:03 +0000

amidst all the giggles from aroused men about the new ferrari 458, i volunteer to be the target of ferrari fans because i think the 458 is staggeringly fugly.

look at that! it’s got frog eyes on its butt complete with eyeshadow, some parts from the tuba where the exhaust should be, door handles that resemble donkey ears and the whole rear end just looks… naked. unconventional would be too much of a euphemism for it. i don’t like how the details on the rear are cramped into corners, leaving the centre all so exposed and plain. the tire rims should have more spokes too, or at least thicker ones. thin five-spoke rims just remind me of childish street racers who get over enthusiastic about flaunting their ceramic brakes and brembo calipers.

here’s another look from the front. it looks far more presentable than the back, but as a supercar it does not really stand out from its rivals. it may be easily identifiable as a ferrari even without its badge, yet i get the sense that from this perspective all i’m seeing is the offspring of a f40 and a 430, only sleeker to suit modern tastes.

so then, ferrari hasn’t impressed me in the aesthetics department yet again. the last time they showcased a new car which i liked was the 612. that car looked bold, powerful, expensive and speaks of the man behind the wheel even though it was probably only the size of it which gave me that feeling. performance matters, but only to an extent; a supercar owned by a person who can afford it only needs to be fast enough to create envy, not to collect speeding tickets. if you’re actually going to race the car, then get something fast and half the price. like a r35 gt-r.

i think the only good looking supercars in production today are the gallardo lp560-4, aston martin vantage, and the less well-known ascari a10. that’s kind of sad considering how many rich people are eager to get their hands on pricey rides, and even sadder to see that porsches are taking over the streets. i hate them.

speaking of cars, i can’t wait to get my own car in the states. well actually i’m not sure if i’m even going to get one, but i’ll just keep my optimism going. the more i think of it, the more serious i get, the more i think about practicality and the less i hear the voice of the kiddish side of me telling me to just get the fastest car within my budget. because i’ve written so many essays on economics and as a result used the term ‘opportunity cost’ so damn many times, it automatically pops up in my mind whenever i need to make a financial decision. i suppose that’s a positive thing. anyway, the first things i consider now, besides the price of the car, are lame stuff such as the projected depreciation rate and fuel economy. that takes away half the fun. and then i realize that it might not be a good idea to get a cool coupe, since i don’t think my friends will appreciate riding in the boot when both seats are filled.

basically, what i mean by all this is that i need a car which is cheap and will remain cheap (but not much less), has 4 doors, runs efficiently, safe, slow and dull.

after some thought i decided that a evo x fits the bill pretty well. at least i tried to find a car that fulfills these criteria…

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:27:13 +0000

the problem with not logging in on facebook often enough for me is that i tend to distance myself from everyone so much that i lose touch with their achievements; the very thing which keeps a perfectionist like me hard on my heels to ensure i exhaust every resource available to prove my worthiness among the people i know. yes, i make myself sound like the mole desperately trying to undermine my peers, but it is true that i ensure i know what my friends are up to. my observations inform me of my every assessable aspect in relation to those around me, so that i have an idea of my position in the crowd and push myself to work my way up. being a subscriber to the traditional and arguably outdated concept that education is the pinnacle of priorities at this point, i tend to cast aside activities which do not contribute to superior performance in pursuit of attaining the highest score possible, try to take the shortest route to the goal and then spend some time feeling good about myself. over time i figured out i was probably only developing in one direction, but it didn’t bother me much.

now it does, because it suddenly struck me how much lost ground i have to recover in the next 4 years. four years to excel among energetic classmates fresh out of high school, four years to find an enjoyable socially respected activity other than fishing, four years to decide on my career path, four years to determine my income for forty years… money always gives me the motivation to work when all else fails, unless you’re talking about the salary of my previous accounting job.

my to do list:

1. join a club to do meaningful work and make it an obsession

2. get a campus job and get internships

3. get in the top 20th percentile in academic results

4. try to know everyone

5. make 5 best friends

6. find potential business partners

7. save money and make money

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:29:10 +0000

because i’ve been either very lazy or busy fishing, there’s a lack of visual treats recently. upload pictures of squids, i shall!

i’ve developed this thing for taking pictures of squids before hauling them up.

that’s the catch from two half-day fishing trips. i must have got at least 30 in total, but as usual the smaller ones don’t get the chance to have their photos taken.

this only accounts for a marginal portion of my expenses.

but i like to think of this in terms of economics; my (over-priced) tackle being the fixed and variable costs, while the squids are the revenue. assuming that my squids are worth the market price of around $25 for 700g, it goes to say that i am… err… okay, i’m making a loss.

on the other hand, happiness can’t be quantified, and therefore in my very subjective opinion i shall price my fishing fulfillment at $100/hr. ah ha! i’m making a fortune!!!

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:13:34 +0000

when someone’s position is challenged by someone else (ie. “are you trying to defame my dear Britny Spears?”), most answers fall within 2 categories:

1. over-enthusiastic defence (ie. “nooooooooo!!!! of course not! i lurvvveeeee her too!!”)

2. all-out offensive with lots of explicit vocabulary (ie. “fuck you, asshole.”)

there is actually a third category of answers. some of these cases arise due to a accidental mistake during the attempt at using category 2, but the large majority happen when uneducated kids try in vain to launch a barrage of insults which are beyond their comprehension or spelling abilities. so there you go…

3. all-out offensive intended to be an all-out offensive which turns into something we can all laugh about (ie. “hey man you can go fuk u’re britney okay shes a slut an u dont even no how to spell BRTINEY properly go back to hi skl”)

actually, i just realized that there is a fourth category and it goes like this:

4. totally irrelevant information provided by a hacker tapping into our network from 2.4 million years ago (ie. i’m martha and i live in central. i’m horny and all alone now. can’t wait to see you. meet me on www. naughtymartha dot com.)

i’m not sure if the website i made up actually exists. don’t try.

i’ll be moving… again!

it’s gonna be the 10th place of residence in my 20 years as a jerk, and the 5th place i’ve lived at in hong kong over the last 3 years! i look forward to the move because i’m excited about it being the first apartment that i’ve owned and it’s also the first time i’ve got the authority to decide how most of the things ahould look like. it is a good thing that the apartment is about 70 square feet larger than where i’m staying now, but with that additional space the unit is still a far cry from my good ol’ 4000 square foot penthouse in singapore. i shall try to convince myself that 840 square feet is not claustrophobic, even for several mammoths.

my room is painted yellow, though not exactly the shade of yellow i was looking for at the beginning. but nonetheless i reckon it stands out from the usual white walls everywhere else. despite the 70 extra square feet, not much of that has trickled into my room. every part of the house is a little bigger than my current apartment, but how i wish the contractor had the foresight to see that jeff would like to have a significantly larger room. back to the good news about my room, it’s got a sliding door to save space (thanks to my ingenuity) and a wardrobe large enough to hold all the clothes i’ve had in my life, a little corner in the closet which will be home to my precious fishing rods and a 40″ gap between the bed and the wardrobe as opposed to 26″ at the moment.

the kitchen was designed by me and i hand picked all the materials too, so without a doubt it is as brilliant as ever. and as for the rest of the house, well i don’t really care.

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:43:25 +0000

more peanuts.

later,

jeff

hamsterballs — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:03:38 +0000

this guy is insane.

oh noes. i might have caught 15 squids last wednesday but they were all so small. i gave some to a kid who looked like he was going to drop dead if he didn’t get any calamari rings for supper.

i wanted to blog about something but i forgot what it was.

sorry.

later,

jeff