Snake! Wee~ get to see it in the wild.

This happened while I was on my way home from my Japanese lesson, I think. I passed by a drain which was quite flooded with water and I saw many fishes swimming around. As I walked on and continued looking at the same time, I spotted this snake near a dark corner and I thought it was dead.

The snake wasn't moving and was floating in the same position all the while. I was even thinking of fishing it out with a branch to measure its length... anyway I couldn't find any. I then tried to take photos of it. The K770i wasn't really made to do night shots, even with the torch on and it was unable to zoom at 3.2 mp, making me place my handphone quite close to the water. I was scared that if I got butter fingers, my phone will confirmed be lost in the dark waters and spoiled. Made me miss the presence of my dear who have k800i which can take better night shots. Oh, after I finished photographing the snake all I liked, the snake started to move... still alive wor.

The snake was identified as a dog-faced water snake.

Another belated post

This I thought I have added in the November posts, but I have forgotten. Anyway, here it comes. The desire to make them came after eating Ramly burger in NUS and a pasir malam near my house.



The burgers that I have made did not taste as flavorful as the original, although they were less salty and oily. Yet I liked my edition with the addition of crispy lettuce and juicy tomato slices, making them more refreshing and healthy.

More dishes to come

These were made as an experiment by looking at a recipe, I wasn't sure if I can make the dish tasty hence the quantity was small in order not to waste ingredients lest they turn out to be horrible.
Overall, they were quite easy to make and not bad in taste when accompanied with rice (very crispy because of the deep-frying process), although a bit too salty if tasted on its own. This dish was bacon-wrapped celery topped with carrot.



These were made this afternoon after following instructions from my mom. The vegetables were quite nice, but the salmon and the stir fried egg with tomatoes and salmon were both plain in taste (due to adding too little soya light sauce).
The stir fried egg dish initially did not include the salmon inside which was caused by my blunder.
I took the salmon packet outside the box within the freezer then thought "why so many bones" and I sliced thinly to get the meat. Later, that made my mom laughed out loud because that was really bony parts meant for making soup. She took out the fillet from inside the box and thawed it. In order not to waste the thin slices of meat, they were added to the egg and out came the dish.

Posting again after depressing exams were over

These western dishes were whipped up after my mother was hospitalized due to post-operation complications. After getting sick of eating outsourced food, I decided to buy some ingredients to cook. The simplest was to start off with frozen food... :D Anyway, there is no need to worry about my mother anymore. She is out of hospital now after almost dying there, and on the road to recovery at home.



Using whatever is available and knowing how to cook, out came my breakfast and lunch respectively. The rice was so nice... after so long of not being able to eat rice since my mother still in hospital then. Well, not so many people eating at home and hence the rice cooker, with a minimum capacity of 2 cups of rice, cannot be put into use.

Cute photos taken and edited with my k770i :D

For the photo of myself, the butterfly on the shirt is an add-on clip art.

My new batch of tadpoles - very belated entry

These were pictures of my third batch of tadpoles, taken the day after I posted on the tag board that I would be going to get my new batch. The first 2 pictures were taken a few days later, while the other 2 were taken a few weeks later, so one can imagine how long they take to grow their legs in captivity.

As for those curious where I managed to find so many tadpoles, there was a drain that was somewhere behind Manjusri Secondary School. After rainy days, the frogs would lay eggs which became tadpoles eventually if rainy season persisted. The second batch (i.e. the experimental batch was taken when the tadpoles hatched not long and dry season arrived), were unlike this batch which grew quite big already when I took them. This current batch looked like black giant sperms (just joking) which keep swimming in my mind after a long observation.

Anyway, 2 died, I don't know why, after which I released 3 after they grew 4 legs and shortened their tails. After a few more days, 3 died, probably due to them being too picky on the food. Their tails have not yet shortened. I released 2 more out into the wild with their tails still hanging behind their butt. Finally, that last one still with me now have not yet grown its front legs... super 'wols'... but at least still surviving.

The mysteries behind a computer that keeps me pondering

Everyday, every time I switch on the computer, I am wondering how on earth did software come about? What is the link between software and hardware of a computer? How does the computer language, the codes or instructions transform themselves into signals or energy that make something lifeless as hardwares understand and perform as instructed? It is like writing words (commands) on a petal of a rose like "drop your petals one by one, dropping right side means he love me and dropping left side means he love me not" and expect the stalk of rose to perform as instructed.

I know that unlike rose's petals, the hardware of a computer consists of circuits which conducts electricity, but how do the codes transform themselves from instructions (maybe signals? No idea) to an action (like getting a graphic, making the cathodes shoot out in certain design to get a picture on the screen)?

To add on, when you write a program, you used a programming software to write that program, so how does the people write the most basic programming software, the original one used to create other programs?

If programming software language C is written with programming software language B, does it mean that one can use B and decompile C?

How does the computer differentiates between the storage of executional files and documents?

Some stuff which I heard long ago

There will be three people you will meet in your life:
The 1st is someone whom you like but he/she doesn't reciprocate the feelings.
The 2nd is someone who like you but you never reciprocate the feelings.
The 3rd is someone whom you like but not as much as 1st one, he/she who likes you but not as much as the 2nd one, but yet will be together due to the right timing.

Come to think of it, when one ponders back, the 1st and 2nd persons may become blurry and you may even wonder are they (the persons that come to your mind) the 1st or 2nd?

Shyness is a double-edged sword which I came to realize it more or less only when I looked back in time. A guy whom I liked and yet dare not express myself only until the chance slipped by then come to regret, but at the same time, due to shyness, maybe I kinda protected myself from getting hurt from being rejected.

When I wrote that someone into my diary, he seemed to stuck in my mind from then, plus the photo taken when young, the image stuck was an image of his childhood looks. Can't be easily erased lei, dunno how? Even when I don't get to see him anymore since Sec 1 I think.

As for my 2nd plus 3rd, I think is together ba, eh... er... not to say I liked him less but since is ongoing relationship, not much room to compare. Is like only when you knew you don't seem to have any more chance of seeing the person again, then the feelings accumulates and flood you at one shot... so dear, don't upset yeh if you happened to be reading this post. Well, at least you appeared in the right time.

Before I can even buy T650...

The horribly high price doesn't drop and there are so many not so good reviews regarding the phone going on, like the paint easily come off, the phone heats up suddenly etc.

Now then I regret why didn't I buy the K810i when it was selling at $148 sigh...

And now the combination of K810i and T650 arrives... known as K770, aiyo so confused now.
Furthermore as a new phone the price is quite good being on par with an old good phone known as k800i ( Singtel pricing ).

However, the cam is not as good as K810i, hmmm so should I go for good design but not-so-good cam or should I go for not-so-good design but better cam? Consider both prices about the same and my dear have k800i which the cam module is similar to k810... sigh...

ROM sometime back... ;D

Not mine though... my elder sis's.

Nevertheless, still very happy and envious, me and my dear being receptionists.

Tadpole failure

I feeling so sad now, left with four tadpoles after so many casualties. Really have no idea what happened to this batch of tadpoles why the survival rate is so low. I guessed water, lavender tea, glucose and Pu Er tea all not that good after all ba. I will be expecting more deaths to come, sigh. Last time I tried Spirulina drink solution on them, worked quite well lei, 2 out of 9 survived to froglets, would be 3 if counted in one which jumped out and got killed by my naughty cat. However, the drink concentrate ran out and quite expensive to get another bottle. That time happened to have. This time over 30 plus tadpoles left only 4, sad.


This photo was of the past year tadpoles, can't remember which year.
The water is clear, not the Spirulina solution cause they were quite grown up so I thought there wasn't a need to.

The Spirulina solution was pale green in colour.

Closing of the tadpole experiment

The water in the bottle ( control ) was getting so smelly and murky that I cannot stand it any longer. Therefore, the water was dumped along with the bottle, but not the tadpoles. I fished out every single one of them ( I double-checked ) and transferred them to the Lavender tea after I changed the Lavender tea. The worms count increased tremendously in the drain water, from one to about ten? Quite disgusting trying to fish the tadpoles out of the bottle with the worms wriggling around, especially when one small tiny guy refused to cooperate and keep swimming back to the bottle.

Since there was still no casualty, I assumed that Lavender tea could be a good substitute for the drain water. Would update once they grow into froglets, hopefully.

Tadpole experiment - Part 2

Due to the tadpoles in the Pu Er Tea not eating at all, I scared they all starved to death and hence changed the solution to glucose solution. I thought even if they did not eat anything, they can still surivive because it was glucose.

However, after 24 hrs have passed, I noticed half the population inside were dead. Have no idea why glucose was not good for rearing tadpoles, I changed the solution to jasmine tea ( the light brown solution ). Yet, to my deepest regret, the glucose solution weakened the survivors to the state that even they also cannot survive in the jasmine tea and hence, all were dead. The photo was taken in the morning of the third day. The third day night, all died.

The Lavender tea have one casualty in the first day, but thereafter, all survived throughout.

Tadpole experiment - Part 1

This was an experiment regarding which solution was good for rearing tadpoles. The idea came about when I read about a book regarding frogs mutation and how the thin skin of the frog or tadpole interacts with the environment it was living in. The skin actually helped make the frog an indicator of the effects of the environment, that was the water it was living in. All were fed seaweed.

Here it went:
Those in the bottle were placed in the drain water, where they were actually found. It served as the control of the experiment. They fed as normal, here and there.










The darker brown solution was actually Pu Er tea. The effect were such that the frogs do not feed much or at all. Well, it coincided with the fact that Pu Er tea was used for slimming.








The solution with things floating was Lavender tea. The effects were that the frogs ate normally, but they tend to sleep more? They remained more inactive compared to the control. Instead of just feeding on the seaweed, they also like to bite onto the floating lavender parts and floated along.




Please note that before separation, all tadpoles were taken from the same location, the drain, to be put inside the bottle. The situation was horrendous. If the water was purely drain water, very murky, there will not be much to see. However, it was diluted with mineral water and several dead tadpoles can be seen lying beneath while the live ones were feeding on the carcasses. There was also a red worm squirming around.

Independence in small audit firm?

The following is an account of my experience in a small audit firm, auditing one company, how it deviates from what I learned in class. I will not be disclosing the firm's name or the company name, neither will I be disclosing the names of the people involved.

It was my first audit experience. The company was a one director cum shareholder private limited. When auditing, my boss wasn't always around though he said he will guide me.

On the first day in the client's company, he was talking to the staff and director like friends (advocacy threat), while I was doing the work based on his instructions. He did entered into the room and continue guiding me after quite some time. Then i have not learn about threats to independence in my class yet, but the way he presented himself seemed like a PR manager to me. The company also bought lunch for both of us since it was situated in an industrial area (food is not near) and they didn't accept payments from my boss (considered as gifts?). If the lunch was considered as gifts, the time in accepting them did not seem right, that is during the audit.

The rest of the working days I couldn't exactly tell which days what things happened, but here are some things which I observed. While my boss is away to do some other work, I was left in the client's company and having to ask for documents from the accountant (heard from my boss she wasn't qualified) who seemed to be quite familiar with the contents of the current audit file. Doesn't that make her easier to cheat? The boss left the working papers in her office such that need not bring the heavy documents to and fro. I also overheard the director saying stuff to my boss like "Hey, another audit firm quoted me a cheaper price. Maybe I should change?" (intimidation threat). The company was also lending money to another company (opened by the same director) which was not earning any revenue as heard from the accountant that the company seemed to be in a dormant state (for two years?). I thought was against the company interest and furthermore was debited as expenses. My boss then suggested shifting that to the drawings account. Towards the end of the audit, the accountant don't really want to answer me and said to my boss "Your assistant is very 'ti-ti' in a sense 'follow law by law'" and I was like thinking in my mind that "Yeah my boss very lenient, do whatever you like."

My boss asked me "Why does everybody think he has a lot of money?" He remarked that he is not very well-off kind. I guessed maybe, especially lowering the dignity to some extent to earn money. From what I heard from my colleague, the director was very rich, opening a series of companies and all or maybe, most of them are audited by our company. As such, the proportion in terms of earnings should be very large until the audit firm is dependent on the jobs by that one director. The audit firm also undertakes non-audit jobs as well, hence could have "self-review" threat present as well. Well then, how can a small audit firm ever have some independence? Can it even expand itself?

So much fun with photo editing

Mooncake festival celebration

Our Celebration of Mooncake festival also known as Mid-Autumn Festival @ Clarke Quay.

The celebration kicked off at my house, starting with a light dinner of fried chicken wings, seaweed chicken, baby taros with sugar, pomelo, mooncakes and Chinese pu er tea. We proceeded to Clarke Quay for some photo taking session after the dinner. The decorations were glamorous and thanks to the people who took the effort in coming up with such nice creations. Special thanks to my elder sister who did some photo editing to enhance the pictures. :D

My sweet dear dear

Yesterday, I went to my dear's dorm again. Stayed till 9 plus pm and we went to Mac to eat dinner. I merely asked for a fillet-o-fish burger, but my sweet dear dear gave me a pleasant surprise by up sizing his meal and buying the fresh apple with caramel so that I can share. He said I eat too little so order more, scared I won't be full. So sweet of him. :)

Before that he also suggested giving me money to take cab home since it was quite late and he worried, but I kindly refused since don't really wish him to spend so much on transport when I can just take bus. I appreciate the thought though, very nice of him. :)

Super duper cute ( watch last part )

Mount Faber

This was my trip to Mount Faber. The scenery up there was spectacular and i particularly liked the pond with many terrapins swimming and sun-basking. There were many beautiful flowers along the way, accompanied by gigantic red ants (they have this devilish glow).
However, the walk to reach nice sceneries was very demanding, was like so many stairs and stairs and stairs.... :( I so long never exercised and I really regretted, especially when my dear said, "Why you walked so slow?" The picture below was taken HALFWAY up, so you can imagined how many steps more to go... haha.

Sigh... I realized that going to Mt Faber actually need not go all the way to Harbourfront to start climbing, can do it from Bukit Merah which was like sooooo much nearer.