Marina’s Bloggariffic

Fountain outside Seiyu in Bugis

Ahh … If it werent for the fact that I’m a grown woman, I would have jumped in that fountain in a heartbeat. The weather has been madd hot these past few weeks that even with the rain, it didnt help whatsoever.

I went to Bugis for a couple of hours to print out some of the pictures I took from the beach to be added to my portfolio. I usually printed out my work at “Art Friend” at the Adelphi. It was cheaper and was friendlier (in my opinion) So I went to the third floor and found a music shop there instead. Eh? Maybe I missed a level. So I went up another level. A tour agency. Where did Art Friend go to?

Even the printing corner at Jurong Springs was gone. I used to go there for keyboard classes and I noticed a tiny little shop doing printing services at only $2.50 for a A3 sized printout. I guess, its not easy to make a profit this way.

Anyways, I went off to Bras Basah Complex - it was a place where I used to print my work while I was studying Digital Design. Anyways, the place that I went to was called printe Direct Pte Ltd and the prices there were pretty reasonable. For a full colour print out on a 250 gsm glossy A3 paper, it was $3. Its not bad if compared to regular photo booths.

Anyway, after printing out a few of the pictures, I headed to Coverlooks at shaw towers to talk to the photography director who briefed me through the syllabus for the photography. Looks pretty interesting - I really liked the studio shots that he showed me. I hope to do something similar to that too. We’ll just have to see then.

Got bored at home …

Geri sms’ed me afterwards after the consultation. Its been a while since I talked to her. She’s been awfully busy with her work. I do wonder how she is doing. Not sure if we’re meeting since I wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens tomorrow for a photoshoot. I read from an advert that there were a musical band there and I’d like to have a photoshoot there. Well, we’ll just have to see :)

It was exhilarating! What a rush! I love the feeling when you go down the highway at 70km/h. Whoosh!

For the uninitiated, I’m currently taking motorcycle license. Actually, I’ve been quite the procrastinator in the sense that I’ve been putting it off till I noticed that my enrolment will be ending soon so I’ve been trying to rush it and complete as many lessons as I can. I dont think I can finish it in time though, but I’d like to give it a shot anyways.

I went on the road today for the first time after passing my circuit test on monday. And after getting my Provisional Driving License, it made me a valid rider on the road.

I’ve been waiting to do that for ages. And now that I’ve tried it out, I love the feeling. Its really exciting. I just cant wait to get my license.

Ohh .. I cant wait to get my first bike too. I expect I could (try) to get it in June. Here are a few choices:

The Vespa Granturismo 200

I fell in love with this bike the first time I saw it. I came across this by chance when I was doing research for a presentation and it was love at first sight. I love the shape and how aerodynamic it looked. However, I’m not fond of how heavy it looked. If I cant push it, or lift it to main stand, I dont see the point of getting it though.

The Honda CB1300

Well, I’m not sure what the model is, but it looked something like this. I like Honda’s because its quite comfortable, and relatively light to carry. I dont like big seats. And I wouldnt get a scrambler type of bike as its much too tall for me. Plus Honda’s are more affordable since they are Asian made. I’ll just have to look around :)

Cant wait to pass!

A quick post before I start the day. Mum has been very involved with the resident comittee and organized a picnic for the zone c residents of Taman Jurong at Pasir Ris yesterday. I tagged along. I could snap some pictures too.

Compared to the snapshots from the Japanese Garden, I thought that I’d try more people expression shots this time. So here are a few unposed pictures :)Bigger version of the pictures here Unphotochopped.

Its times like these, I realise that I would like an even more zoom angle lens for my camera. There were some shots that I couldnt take. Like zooming in to a scurrying iguana. Even the macro shot of the bee on the flower that I tried to snap wasnt large enough. Hmm …

Ohhh yeah … compy’s back and I’m back in business! :)

I was waiting for my brother to come back so he could help me lug it to the computer shop to have it fixed. He looked at the cpu, mystically, he whipped out a screwdriver and waved his hands around and tinkered. And a few minutes later, lo and behold, my compy is ressurrected again. I was so amazed. Every. bit. of. data. is. there. I dont have to install everything from scratch again. I was so happy, I could have kissed Naz right there and then.

What happened was that I had two hard disk drives in the computer. One 20 gig and the other one the newer 120 gig. Apparently, the 20 gig one was set to master and the 120 was set to slave. The 20 gig got fried and thus didnt allow me to boot up or reinstall xp. All Naz did was to set the 120 gig drive to master and thats it. Dang. He’s so smart. I’m going to make a dedication for him.

See him in all his majesty. See how when he walks, sun rays just shines though his tanned and sinewy body. He’s a greek god, with laurels in his head. And had the power to command lightning bolts. Oh Nazry, you’re the best brother ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Being offline for a couple for days has its own merits though. Yes, it does have its inconveniences as in I wasnt able to do alot of things, my assignments, my work, email and others but it did give me some time to think about what was important to do. And I noticed that I was able to do my work more effectively at the workplace since I knew that I didnt have any other means to do it except for there. So I was more focused.

Back home, with no connection, and nothing else to do, I was able to pick up the books that I wanted to read. I’m half way to the 55 tips to success now. And reading it, I’ve picked up some sound advice. Like listing out what is important and urgent and otherwise.

It makes things so much clearer when its being written out. The things that I have to fulfill. The list isnt complete, but are just some of the rough ideas that I have at the moment.

For example, the important and urgent are the things that I should be doing immediately as its detrimental if I didnt do it.

Important and not urgent are the things that I should do, but I can put if off for a while.

Not important and urgent might sound strange, however there are a few situations when it is necessary. Like congratulating someone who has a raise and if the congratulations are procrastinated, it wouldnt feel right anymore.

Not important and not urgent are things that will bring fullfillment but arent a must.

Anyways, a few things I have to do at the moment, as night classes progressed, I’ve quite a few assignments to do research on right now. Better start on that before I delay it. I dont trust myself :P

Well anyways, I’m glad to be back online again :) Thank you again, bro! You’re the best!

My computer is spoiled. Again. I’m typing this entry at work at the moment and at the same time trying to complete my literature essay and at the same time thinking of the materials for this afternoon’s IT lesson. Humm …

I reach home after monday’s night class and I found the door to my room unlocked. Strange. I always lock my door when I leave home. And I find my keyboard light on. I always switch the computer off when I’m done with it. I try to switch the computer on to read my email before I head to bed and I found this horrifying message.

Boot disk error

My heart just skipped a beat. Eek!

Then I try to reformat the computer and reinstalled XP.It wouldnt let me! It said

Hard disk may be damaged.

AAAARRRGHHH!!!

I spent practically every bit of my savings for the camera. I cant afford to fix the *&#*&$#* computer right now. Its like every time, I have a little bit of savings, the (#*(#&$*(#& computer spoils and I have to spend money to fix it.

(*&@!!!

I’m really (*#(&*#$(*#& pissed!

Well, here’s a maiden voyage - me and my new canon Eos 350D :) Initially I wanted to go to the botanical gardens, however, I thought the better of it since it was a little far away and I really wasnt in the mood for travelling. I thought I’d just drop by the Japanese garden since its just a short distance from my home.

I’m pretty pleased with the turnout of the pictures - its pretty sharp and fast unlike my older camera. And honest to goodness, I didnt even photochopped these.

I’m gonna get my new camera! I’m gonna get my new camera! I’m gonna gonna gonna gonna get my new camera! Today! Laa laa laa laa laa!

Mum loaned me some moolah a couple of days back. She must have noticed me moaning about thinking of ways to save up. I promised her that I’ll pay her back again. But mum insisted that I write up an official I.O.U to her. I think she has ideas thanks to watching this show

Is a funny show which I enjoyed immensely. I think its almost comparable to “something’s gotta give” except that in I do, I do, is a story about a delivery guy, falling in love with a career woman, who rejects him which stumbles with an almost perfect guy.

In one of the scene career woman falls in love with the almost perfect guy who gets beaten up because he was the guarantor for a friend who couldt pay up and she finally gave the loansharks some money and he wrote up an I.O.U on his computer to her.

Anyway, speaking about shops, I’ve came across some which I will never, ever patronise if I can help it.

No 1 : Cash Converters

Cash converters is a shop which sells practically anything. There’s one a few busstops away from my home and I decided to buy a PDA from this shop two weeks ago after thinking of its benefits of downloading close to unlimited e-books and reading it on the go. I bought me a Sony CLIE PEG-NR70V there for about $295 dollars.

After a few days, I noticed that some of the buttons didnt work as good. So I decided to go to the shop again. The salesman there said that I could either exchange it or send my pda for a fixing. How long does it take for it to be fixed? A week? I shook my head. I looked at the choices of pda’s in the display cases. It looked pretty scratched and in bad shape. So I decided otherwise. I decided to sell it back to cash converters.

The man looked at the clie and asked for my receipt. And he said to me, our company has a policy of selling back of 1/2 the original price. You’ll get $147 dollars. My eyes nearly popped out of my socket. 1/2? Thats crazy! I’d understand if its 10 percent, or 15 percent, even 3/4. But half? What cut throat! And they’ll sell it back for the original price no doubt! That really got my blood boiling. But of course it’s “company policy” and marina’s policy says that I’ll never go there ever again.

No 2 : Local cinemas

When I heard from the radio that cinema tickets will be raised up to $9 my heart sanked. Only in a cinema does one small bucket of popcorn costs $4.50. Heck, I could get much yummier dairy queen popcorn for lower. But what can one do? Cinemas are pretty much a monopoly here - and if they choose what price that they want to charge, either we pay up or dont get to enjoy at all. Its amazing that it was just a few years ago when cinema operators announced that they wanted to charge only $5 per ticket. This is to avoid having piracy problems.

But there are other alternatives to going to the cinema. I could …
- buy a vcd or dvd at that price which was just running in the cinema 1 or two months back
- rent 4 vcds at the rental shop just below my house.
- cook some food which I can share with my family and eat till we go silly
- Go swimming at the deluxe pool with all 4 of my siblings

In economics, this is called “Opportunity costs” The cost (wheter tangible or intangible) of an alternative service.

Anyway, its a tad bit too pricey if I want to bring Haikal and Diana along. I’m sure families wouldnt find it justifiable either.

No 3 : Seoul Garden

Bleh. Misleading price quotes. It might say $16.99 there. But you’d pay at the very least $25 dollars. Sorry. I’d rather make steamboat at home that feeds 6 people. With a tub of ice cream to boot and enough money left to buy a cheesecake too.

Aye, thats all the bad mouthing that I have to say for the moment. I’ll be sure to add up to more later on.

But for now, I’m going to get ready to go out to claim my new camera :)

*saunters out to put on her make up, styling of hair and other vanities*