frase.id.au archives

frase.id.au archives for November 2005:

29-11-2005 - Singapore Recap Part 2 (frase)

28-11-2005 - rise to the top, bay bee! (frase)

28-11-2005 - Singapore Recap Part 1 (frase)

27-11-2005 - Singapore... Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, etc: Arg! (frase)

20-11-2005 - Singapore... Chapter 2: Departure (frase)

19-11-2005 - Singapore... Chapter 1: Anticipation (frase)

16-11-2005 - soccer (frase)

12-11-2005 - the un-pale-ing begins && the Airbus A380 (frase)

12-11-2005 - it's a bit rich (frase)

09-11-2005 - sheesh kebab! (frase)

09-11-2005 - ntp craziness (frase)

09-11-2005 - two years ago I'd never have dreamed of it (frase)

06-11-2005 - appreciating Half Life 2 (frase)

04-11-2005 - Omaha Stylee (frase)

02-11-2005 - behold! a post! (frase)

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Tuesday 29-11-2005

Singapore Recap Part 2

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Posted by frase @ 16:09 on 29-11-2005

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Today I'll be recounting Thursday and Friday of the trip to Singapore. I shall start with Thursday.

I woke up at about 2am on Thursday morning and felt like I had been sleeping on and/or under a pile of bricks. I had felt not so good when I went to bed and was certainly expecting to feel a lot worse the next morning but I very alarmed by just how crook I felt... seriously the worst in years. I didn't get back to sleep either :(

So Thursday I just spent the whole day at the apartment... I did some work on Blogurk and by the end of the day I was feeling quite a bit better. I can't remember what we had for dinner... actually yes I do now. We went to an Italian restaurant down the road, which was a bit of an effort but the meal was good so no complaints there. I went home and stumbled into bed. So that was Thursday.

On Friday I woke up at 4am and didn't get back to sleep. I still felt pretty crook but a LOT better than Thursday and so I endeavoured to do some things. I went down for breakfast, went back to bed for a while as I had a tummyache, then went out with the rest of the family at around 11 to Suntec City which was a big shopping centre on the north side of the river, west of City Hall. We were only out for about three hours but I was buggered eh! I got some new clothes there and went home with the old man to rest for the rest of the afternoon.

At 5, Dad and I went out to Orchard Road to pick up our jackets. I also went to HMV there which I was authoritively told was the best music shop in all of Singapore. Sadly, they didn't have any Pillows (which was surprising considering they had quite a lot of Japanese music... it even had its own dedicated section but I suppose they are alternative even in Japan so them's the breaks) and although they did have the largest range of 311 I've seen in any store, they didn't have the DVDs I was after and so all of my music buying intentions for Singapore came to nothing.

Anyhoo, Dad and I went home and then we all got dressed up and went out to the Tanglin Club for dinner. Now, let me tell you... the Tanglin Club is really something else. It's ultra-exclusive... membership is something like $30,000 initially and then several thousand per year; but they reciprocate with (in Queensland) the Brisbane Club, Tattersall's, and the United Services Club, which Dad happens to be a member of.

Ah man... words won't even come close to describing what the club was like, but it's certainly one of the poshest and most amazing places I have ever been... and all we did was have a meal there (which, by the way, was bloody delicious - the tasiest and tenderest eye fillet I've ever had the distinct joy of devouring).

So that was Thursday and Friday.

t

Monday 28-11-2005

rise to the top, bay bee!

comments (2) »

Posted by frase @ 23:51 on 28-11-2005

Just a quick one to let you all know that I've made it back into the Google top ten. Good ol' frase.homeip.net was once up there (at number 10) but of course, changing your domain name means you start from square one again. After spending several months lingering on the second and third pages, sometime last week I noticed that I was back at number 9, and just now I've made to sixth which is my highest placing ever in Google.

End self pimpage.

t

Singapore Recap Part 1

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Posted by frase @ 14:52 on 28-11-2005

First things first... (whoa that's going to be quite the oxymoron) I've decided to recap the trip starting from the end and working back to the start day by day. Don't ask why; I'm not really too sure but right now that's how I feel like doing it so... nuff said, let's start!

On Saturday (that's two days ago, ftr), I was feeling well enough to have a whole day out doing stuff, so I set out early (about 8am) for a walk through Fort Canning Park, which was kinda inbetween where we were staying (Robertson Quay, right on the Singapore River) and the main shopping precinct. It was damn warm and steamy but an otherwise fine day, and the park was very nice. It's basically a big hill that used to have a British fort on it; much of which has been preserved. There's also a big resivoir up there, and some broadcast towers. Anyhow, it was very nice and green and I got some great photos (will update this post later with some, once they're processed), particularly of the fort gate.

It was then my intention to waltz on down to the Singapore Philatelic Museum which was on the edge of the park. It would have opened at 9 but unknown to me, it was actually closed for renovation until the 29th (gah, missed it by two days). This was disappointing but I had a nice walk back to the apartment along the river. Shortly after, I departed again and headed over to Clarke Quay, jumped on the MRT and travelled up to Jurong, where I got off, randomly walked around for a while and generally appreciated the atmosphere, then checked out The Art Of Star Wars exhibition that was on at the Singapore Sciencecentre, located in Jurong East.

The exhibition was pretty damn cool, lots of original props and models from all the movies, and some totally amazing concept art! Flash photography and tripods weren't allowed so a lot of the photos are pretty dodgy... probably can't post them anyway because of copyright but it's no big deal because it was definitely an awesome exhibit!

I headed back to the MRT and went a bit further up to Chua Chu Kung, and grabbed a bus out to the Singapore Zoo which is where Mum and Claire were. A dirty great thunderstorm rolled through about the same time I got there (around 2pm) but fortunately it subsided and we went in and enjoyed the zoo for the rest of the afternoon, before heading home.

The evening was uneventful; we went to a cafe for a bite to eat, packed and slept. Our departure the next morning was at 10am local time, so we left in a taxi at 7 (bit before, actually) but as we found out the trip was far shorter than what it is from Burpengary to Eagle Farm, and so we got there at about 7:10 and were checked in by 7:30. Fortunately, there was plenty to keep us occupied as the duty-free area was pretty much about the size of Chermside so we all went and spent the last of our monies - I grabbed a new pair of Sennys; Ali, you'll be happy to hear that it's a headset with a mic! Dad and I went off to the gate at about 7:20... Mumsie showed up about 10 minutes later... without Claire. "Oh, I though she was with you". "No, she's meant to be with YOU!". So the old man pretty much went into a panic and was frantically ringing Claire to find out where she was. Anyhow, we told her to get her but down there as boarding had started and there was a line about 100 long to get through security. Fortunately, though, she made it with not that much time to spare and we took off and that was that.

The flight was largely uneventful; I watched the live action Initial-D movie (freakin weird ending but seriously... it's awesome!) and then I watched Downfall, a film about the last days of Adolf Hitler during WWII, which I'd been meaning to see for a while. It was quite long but seriously an awesome flick, which I recommend that everyone should see, except Kerri-Ann and Renae - sorry, your attention span is too short and you'll spend the whole time complaining about the subtitles. This film is not for you :P

Flying into Brisbane was... interesting. We had tail wind in excess of 100km/h approaching from the west; naturally, they became cross winds when we lined up with the runway and from then on it was a very bumpy ride (the view of Brisbane was awesome though... the storm has passed through by then and the air was very clear. Oh yeah, the storm looked awesome from up above as well). Of course, the runway was wet and the winds were quite strong, and all of this added up to a pretty hairly landing. We hit the ground kinda hard and the front of the plane was going left and right along the runway. Although it probably wasn't all that bad as far as bad landings go, it's certainly the worst I've been in, and Dad was... hmmm... well very tense as we landed, and for a while after. He doesn't like flying much because a few years ago (well, like 15 or something) he was on a plane and the landing gear jammed... they spent an hour circling above the ocean dumping fuel and were preparing for an emergency landing but fortunately the flight engineers fixed the jam and lowered the gear manually. But that's another story.

Anyhow, yep. We made it home alive.

THE END

Fort Canning Gate

Sunday 27-11-2005

Singapore... Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, etc: Arg!

comments (1) »

Posted by frase @ 10:56 on 27-11-2005

well seems the webserver was down most of the week due to power outages and whatnot, so pretty much every time I was in a net cafe I was unable to access it and write anything and so now I'll have to save all my Singapore reports until after I get back - I'm in the departure area at Changi airport at the moment... they have free internet which is cool.

Anyhoo, I'll wrap it up for you, and fill in the details later... I didn't see any scorpions... they do indeed have toilets that are just holes in the ground (more appropriately called an Eastern toilet) but they have plenty of western toilets too; which is what most of them are. I didn't get arrested for anything but hey, we haven't left yet so you never know!

Ummm... Singapore rocks and I hope to come back sometime... so much we didn't do but still it was a great holiday, even though I was crook as a dog on Thursday and quite unwell but no so much as to be unable to do anything for the rest of the trip (and still today). Anyhoo, I'll be back in BNE tonight (I expect I'll be home around 9) so I look forward to catching up with everyone throughout the week... even though I was only gone a week so it's not like you all miss me lots.

Time is running out so I must be off... ciao for now; expect reports and pics in the near future!

t

Sunday 20-11-2005

Singapore... Chapter 2: Departure

comments (3) »

Posted by frase @ 10:24 on 20-11-2005

Well... we're here in the departure lounge - one of Dad's colleagues with contacts got us into the business class lounge, which is pretty damn nice! And there's free wireless internet access here, which I'm taking advantage of as I write this :)

Anyhoo yeah... the airport is pretty cool and we didn't have any trouble checking in or getting through emigration, so now we're just enjoying the comfy leather lounges and waiting to board our jet. I'm gonna shut down now as the flight is seven hours and I must conserve battery power :D

t

Saturday 19-11-2005

Singapore... Chapter 1: Anticipation

comments (2) »

Posted by frase @ 19:26 on 19-11-2005

Well, tomorrow morning I'm off to Singapore with the folks and Claire! (that reminds me, still haven't posted the pics from her party :/)

I CAN'T WAIT!!!! Ah man, how exciting. What is most disappointing, though, is the fact that tomorrow is the last day of the WCG 2005 Grand Finals; I will be arriving too late to attend! But alas, we couldn't book earlier as the uni exam timetable was unknown at the time, so oh well, them's the breaks... the Art of Star Wars exhibition is on though, so that will be pretty cool.

And of course, I have a list of things to buy :D Although I originally planned to get the best part of my next upgrade over there, I really don't need to upgrade at this stage (not until HL2:Aftermath comes out next year most likely), and having just bought a laptop means that I don't have a great deal of money to spend so that's that. I am, however, going to buy a wireless access point and a wifi card for atomsk, and also a shiny new HDD and a stick of RAM for dreamtime2, which will actually be recomissioned shortly after I get back as fortune2, since the function it performed is now spread between atomsk and my laptop. But more on that later.

Also, I hope to get lots of cool music over there, since they'll undoubtedly have stores that put even JB Hi-Fi to shame. Going to find as much 311 as possible, and of course some Pillows to round it out, plus whatever else I happen to stumble across that's worth getting.

Beyond that, I don't have much planned, other than to visit Changi and the Kranji War Memorial. But of course, I'll be keeping you posted so that's that. I'm off for now; gotta pack as we've got an early departure in the morning!

t

Wednesday 16-11-2005

soccer

comments (1) »

Posted by frase @ 22:54 on 16-11-2005

Soccer has just raised the stakes. I hereby declare that it is now officially less boring than lawn bowls. Possibly even less boring than cricket!

GO AUSSIES!!! WORLD CUP 2006!!!

... doesn't mean I like it though :P

t

Saturday 12-11-2005

the un-pale-ing begins && the Airbus A380

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Posted by frase @ 21:48 on 12-11-2005

the un-pale-ing, that is. yup, went to the beach this avo with the usual suspects. good afternoon. very good. especially the mega-choc shake from wendy's. prefect way to unwind after a not so crash hot 8am Saturday morning exam.

I'm already several shades darker... my healthy computer monitor tan is being replaced by an unhealthy sun tan.

I hear the sun gives you a vitamin though, so it can't be all bad :)

In other news, baj and I went to the airport after the exam to see if we could catch a glimpse of the A380. We only saw its tail end poking out of a hanger but even that was mighty impressive. It is IMMENSE!!!

I'm planning to go early in the morning (leaving about 4:30am) to stake out a spot and catch/film/photograph it taking off at 6am (hopefully there will still be parking spaces and standing room when I get there). It should have its qantarse stripes on my then which is kinda nifty. Not that I have anything against Singapore Air.

Did I mention it's really, really BIG?

Oh, I did. Well... hopefully I'll have some pics up tomorrow if I am able to wake up early enough to go and see it.

EDIT - I didn't. Well I did actually, but I was completely stuffed from yesterday and thought it better to remain in bed. Might go see it on Tuesday though when it comes back to Brisbane.

t

it's a bit rich

comments (2) »

Posted by frase @ 06:38 on 12-11-2005

honestly, whoever's bright idea it was to have exams at 8am on Saturday mornings... should be shot.

t

Wednesday 09-11-2005

sheesh kebab!

comments (2) »

Posted by frase @ 21:29 on 09-11-2005

Tiger does not ship with gcc. Or any C compiler. And the developer tools package is 750MB.

Who's bright idea was that?!

EDIT - wow this is also my 200th post!

t

ntp craziness

comments (0) »

Posted by frase @ 19:04 on 09-11-2005

hmm... inexplicably, the webserver's clock was running about 90 minutes slow. I first noticed it yesterday afternoon after I authoritively told Ali that the time was [some time] which was what fortune was telling me... given that it really ought to be a pretty damn good clock most of the time.

I didn't do a thing about it under the assumption that it was just ntp having a spaz attack and it would correct itself shortly. However, some posts/comments were made and the times were incorrect by roughly the same amount as yesterday.

At the moment the times are more or less correct (I think... or at least I'll find out as soon as I hit the button) but I'll be closely monitoring the situation. My assumption is that ntp did in fact have a bit of a spaz - or rather a critical spaz that somehow wound the clock back - and was somehow unable to recover. Which is very very strange, if you ask me...

t

two years ago I'd never have dreamed of it

comments (1) »

Posted by frase @ 13:06 on 09-11-2005

... but two years ago I was a tad ignorant and now that the time has come for me to get a laptop, I have done the research and nothing was really more suitable than... an Apple.

Plus they look a treat (pics follow). And I'm already in love with OS X.

It was to the disdain and perplexion of many of my friends (including, stangely enough, Renae, who seemed violently opposed to the idea... as was Claire (hmm that reminds me still haven't posted the pics from her party) although that could probably be attributed to the anti-Mac sentiment I indoctrinated her with when she was younger) that I purchased the iBook, but now that I have it, I am even more certain that it was the right way to go. Red's reaction was also quite amusing; "I'm not surprised... but I still love you".

... did I mention it looks good?

t

the iBook

shiny *and* glowy... the best of both worlds!

Sunday 06-11-2005

appreciating Half Life 2

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Posted by frase @ 00:05 on 06-11-2005

well I've just finished playing HL2 for the third time, and I have decided that you really do need to play it through three times to fully appreciate how much of a masterpiece it is.

okay sure... so the ending kinda sucks (the gravity gun is cool but no so cool as to warrant a whole two levels with *only* that gun) but aside from that there really is very little to complain about. the source engine truly is a work of art (and the recently released Lost Coast HDR demo takes it to another level entirely) and is used to its fullest potential in HL2.

Also, third time around, now that I basically know my way through every part of the game, something interesting struck me. The level design. Is awesome. Deadset. Bloody awesome. I think one of my favourite parts of the game is just before Nova Prospekt, where you're basically going up a cliff with enemies on scaffolding above you. It's just... great! But it's just one of many awesome stages... and the variety is what makes it all so appealing! Even within the confines of City 17 you're constantly going down into sewers or basements, ascending tall buildings or running for shelter out in the open... all in the one level and all within a short timespan.
But rather than feeling claustraphobic or rushed, everything is timed perfectly... never spending too long in one place or doing one thing, but spending enough time so that it's fun. The only thing I would comment on is the airboat stage, which I feel drags on for a bit long, despite the regular peripheral missions to get a gate opened or whatnot.

Anyway, I'd better not let this turn into a review or anything but yeah... just felt like sharing a few things about it. HL2 still rocks, and from Lost Coast it's clear that Valve certainly haven't lost their touch in the past year. I am eagerly awaiting Aftermath.

Oooh yeah... and HDR coming to CSS as well. Better get that upgrade happening :)

t

Friday 04-11-2005

Omaha Stylee

comments (2) »

Posted by frase @ 00:58 on 04-11-2005

thought I should get this in before the day is out...

which day?

3/11. Oh yeah!

t

Wednesday 02-11-2005

behold! a post!

comments (1) »

Posted by frase @ 20:08 on 02-11-2005

hullo all and crikey doodle! what a long time it has been since I wrote anything... well, the uni work has subsided for now (still have one paper and two exams but it's more or less over and done with for another year) so I have much more time on my hands and, oh yes, I have been catching up on a LOT of sleep.

So, what else have I been up to lately?

Hmmm well naturally, I went and bought Episode 3 on DVD today, and I'll watch that just as soon as I'm finished writing this. Big W now has 'self serve' kiosk-y checkouts which I think is bizarre... talk about cost cutting! Couldn't they just... you know... pay a person to conduct the transaction. It's a damnside quicker and less frustrating/confusing for the customer. I mean... crikey... I'm a technophile and I couldn't work out how to use the stupid machines... imagine how poor Grandma would fare?!?! End rant.

I also grabbed NGE Platinum 07, completing my ultimate Evangelion DVD collection. Which is a Good Thing.

What else is there to say? Not much. Oh wait, yes there is. Claire's party. Well... that's for another post. I'm off to watch episode three.

t

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