Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Just came back from watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Overall not bad but I feel it can be better. Like Chow should have more appearance and ending should make her together with Harry. Hermione entrance to the ball is not grand enff. Ron and Hermione have no parts in helping Harry this time round makes the movie looks good only on the special effects. I never read the novel so I comment base solely as "a normal cinema goer" point of view.

Sitex

Today I went to Sitex at Expo at around 7pm with a friend. She wanted to get a digital camera and a thumb drive. After many rounds of bargaining, she finally got the Panasonic Lumix FX-9 for $720 plus additional freebies. I helped my boss to get a 1GB thumb drive and a 512MB SD card. As for myself, I got a Acer TravelMate 3213WXMi notebook. Actually getting a notebook is not part of my plan. Any way, this notebook is quite value for money!! I got it for around $1800. The specs:

- Intel Centrino 1.86GHz
- Microsoft Windows XP Home
- 128MB graphic card
- 14.1" TFT LCD
- 80GB + Free 40GB external hard disk
- 512MB Ram
- DVD writer
- Bluetooth
- Wi-fi
- 5-in-1 card reader
- Infra red

All the things I wanted are in and best of all the price is less than $2k!! Not bad! Heh heh.

Bidding...

Today my company is holding an old furniture sale. They are selling away old chairs, bookshelves, computer tables etc... It goes by bidding system and the highest bidder will get it. My boss and I bid a bookshelf for $5 and both of us got it. We paid up today and rush to choose a good one. There are many people faster than us! But ok lah. In the end, my boss and I managed to get a not bad one. $5 only so cannot complain much. Heh heh. Just that now need to think of a place to put.

Not smooth sailing

Today me and my boss went to deserted area in my company to spray some paint. Who knows the door leading to this place is once way access. Meaning the door can be only open from one side and we are stranded!! No handphone with me also. Then we resort to become spiderman!! Climb our way out!

Also, I suppose to watch Harry Potter with my friends but last minute my boss wants me to OT to rush a report. Lucky all my friends are still at home when I told them last minute cancel the outing. A bit pai seh.

And I just saw my supervisor's email that said my PhD thesis is back from review!!! Ahhhh!! Very scare. Dunno review say what. Got a nasty feeling now. Pray pray please let me pass!!!!!!!

IPPT

Today I took my IPPT and I passed!! Yeah!! Lucky my first station is chin-up so I can give out my best peformance. Cos last year my first station is sit up and it affected my chin-up station. For the rest of the 3 static stations, I did quite well. The 2.4km section, I did keep within my usual timing. Heh heh. But I think age really catching up on me. Really feel like dying after the run. Heh heh. Any way, I got incentive to spend for christmas. Ha ha!!

Bad luck!!!???

Today my boss is quite unlucky. Morning when driving to work, he knocked into a rear bumper of another car. Although nothing serious, the victim wants to repair and claim my boss insurance. Then he fell off his chair in the office. Tough luck. Another sad incident is that S700i has been phased out by M1! Sob sob! That means it is fated that I have to save my money or get M900 but only until next year March when my M1 contract is up.

Health and entertaining gadgets

Today I want to tell you some recent nice and not so expensive gadgets I came across lately which I find them quite nice.

1. Toothbrush Sanitizer.
Q: What is it?
A: A gadget using UV to kill bacteria living on your toothbrush.
Get from: Watson - $39.90. 2. i-Dog
Q: What is it?
A: A speaker that comes in a shape of a dog that you can plug your mp3 player in with.
Get from: Vpost - $69.90

Cordless phone

Today just bought a cordless phone for about $95 after a 5% discount using the Harvey Norman card. I dunno if the brand, Uniden, is good or not. I bought it as it is the only model in the shop that supports earpiece. I want a cordless phone with earpiece reason is that I can chat while working in front of my computer. Last time, I bought 1 about 1 year ago and it went crazy in less than 6 months! Hope that this new one dun fail me. Now I am charging it. Heh heh.

Stuff

Today I got a free copy of November issue Stuff magazine from Harvey Norman. I got this complementary issue due to I apply for Citibank Harvey Norman Mastercard. After looking through, I feel this magazine is quite good introducing some of the coolest gadgets out there. It cost $6 per issue. But if I subscribe and pay using Citibank Harvey Norman card, it cost only $3 per issue which is a whopping 50% discount! So now I am considering taking up this offer.

IES Award Certificate

Today IES has hand delievered the IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards certificate to my company. The cert looks quite nice. It is packed nicely into a A4 size black folder. The front cover of the folder has IES logo and title written in gold. When open, you can see the cert in a clear holder. It is very nicely typed and the setting is neat! Going to put somewhere very obvious in my room. Ha ha!

Sony Ericsson

Today just got a Sony Ericsson K300i for my mum. This phone is quite light and nice. It is quite a good basic phone. VGA cam, mp3 ringtones, video recording etc.. All these features for $0! Ha ha! I got it free with Singtel 2 years plan. Then I went to M1 to see Sony Ericsson S700i. Guess what? Within 2 days, the price has fallen for another $100!! Now selling for $298! I confirm getting this phone 2 weeks later. Just to wait for my friend to come back from abroad and we will go together.

Tonino Lamborghini

Today I just collected my Tonino Lamborghini watch which is given to me free by DBS. I have applied the black card and use it within 2 weeks and I got this watch for free. The watch is said to worth $360. But I left look, right look, up look, down look, front look, back look also dun feel this watch worth that much. Heh heh. But who cares. People give me free I take loh. Ha ha! Nothing to lose. No good hor! Too greedy.

Gadgets!!

I have compiled a list of things I feel like buying for the next 1 year. I try to control myself to spend on such things as I feel I always buy them on impulse and dun use them often just like my mp3 player. Ha ha! Any way, now and in future I might post some nice gadgets or things I come across. Some are not the latest stuffs but maybe 1 year old or more products. Just that I feel the price now is reasonable to get.

1. Sony Ericsson S700i. $398 - M1. 2. Mitsubishi M900. $298 - Singtel.

3. Lars & Ivan Bobo designer Hi-Fi. $269 - DBS.

IES Award

Just came back from attending the IES 39th Annual Dinner and Dance. I was invited by Institute of Engineers Singapore to attend this event as my team project has been awarded with IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Awards. It is held at the 6 stars hotel, Ritz-Carlton Singapore. This event requires us to wear lounge suit and my friends all said I look good in suit. Ha ha! This year 4 projects have been selected and the grand prize goes to PUB. The guest-of-honour for this event is the Minister for National Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan. He looks the same as you would see him on TV. No diff except that I expect him to be a bit taller. Heh heh.

Club

Today I just joined 2 clubs. The first one is Safra Club. There is a promotion now which if sign up you will get a 128MB mp3 player. Moreover, the fee is quite cheap. 4.5 years only cost $112.80 which works out to be around $2 per month!! There are 5 club houses and you can go to use the swimming pool for free. Other facilities you need to pay a bit more though. The second club I applied is the NTU Alumni Club. This club is slightly more expensive but affordable. The entrance fee is $800. It is considered cheap as compared to NUS, SP etc.. club house. The monthly fee is around $42. The new club house will not be ready by next year first quarter. But now you can go and use the other 2 club houses.

Flightplan

I just came back from watching the movie Flightplan at Great World City Golden Village. The tickets were given free by Citibank for Dividend card holder. The show was to start at 6.45pm. When I reached there at around 6.25pm, tonnes of people already queuing up at the entrance as it was free seating. I went to the toilet for a while and thinking of joining the queue when I am done. To my surprise, the queue was gone as the door to the cinema was opened. So I quickly rushed in thinking I will be seating at some lousy places. But my worry was were unfounded cos the cinema was so huge and empty. Haha! Any way, the show is acted by Jodie Foster and I feel it is quite nice and exciting except a bit of unconvincing plot. Overall, not too bad.

I-mode

Just got an email from Starhub inviting me to take up the i-mode. They offer me
- free i-mode content subscription,
- free unlimited i-mode data usage,
- free price plan subscription and
- free caller display and international roaming.

So I decided to give it a try although I need to purchase a handphone set for $188 which is the only phone left - NEC N411i.

Credit card

Today I just received my DBS Amex Black Card. Lately I am a bit crazy in applying credit card. I have 3 more cards under processing. The reason I applied so many cards is not because I want to show off or trying to get myself in debts. I just wish to try out the different kinds of card. Also different card has different uses. Since first year fee is free, I might as well take the advantage of trying them out. If really within a year I did not use that card, I will terminate it.

Creative Zen Micro MP3 Player

Today I got the 6GB Creative Zen Micro MP3 player from my friend. After playing it for a while, I feel it is quite a nice product. The features are rather good. But it has a fair share of flaws as well. Firstly. the touch pad is so hard to use! Very frustrated initately. Now a bit better at using it. Next is the FM radio quality. Not clear at all! Lastly would be the software. It hanged on me once. Luckily, the sound quality for MP3 is good. I hope it dun give me any more problems.

Presentation skills

Today I attended a course on presentation skills. This course is a rather interative course where the trainees get to talk most of the time. Meaning I have to do 4 presentations today! Very nervous! My heart beats so fast that it nearly stop. I think until now I still cannot recover from this "excitedness". Tomorrow another 2 more presentations to go. Although it is fun, this feeling is killing me!

After the course, I went to collect my free Swatch watch! Yeah. It is a free gift by DBS as I signed up the DBS cashline services. Oh man, I feel all these things are really encouraging me to spend money! I think I have been a lot of spending money these days. But well, that is the joy of spending your own hard-earned money! Heh heh. My friend is selling me his rather new 6GB Creative Zen Micro MP3 Player for $280. I think I should be buying from him. End of the year me going to change a new mobile phone. Argh!!!! Money no enough!