Just bought a set of measuring spoons... only to discover that the tablespoon is useless. The label had stated that they used Australian standards but I hadn't known what the difference was.
Suspecting a little, I decided to check after buying it. Turns out the Australian tablespoon is larger than the tablespoons of the rest of the world for some (probably historical) reason.
In the entire world but Australia, 1 tbs = 3 tsp = 15ml.
In Australia only, 1 tbs = 4 tsp = 20ml.
Since it's hard to remove 1 tsp of stuff from the tbs all the time, I might as well just convert everything to tsp when I use the set of measuring spoons.
...
But it comes with a 1.5tsp spoon! That should make things slightly easier. Just need to use that twice to get one tbs.
I could have just bought a test tube but I'm not too keen on getting strange looks from my family when I cook. Using sage on my chicken already made my mum question my cooking :\
...
Just tested it. It's fine. I poured in 2 spoons of water into the tablespoon using the 1.5tsp spoon. Fills perfectly.
I blame the Internet for giving me too much information. Good thing I tested it.
So one of my aunts came to Singapore to visit us for a few days. Some of the conversations she had with my mum were rather awkward for me, yet I had to listen and be visibly uncomfortable. No one deserves to listen to anything related to the sex lives of their elders. Since I'm not having lessons or exams for these few days, I have no excuse to avoid her like my bro is doing.
Not that I want to avoid her but I just don't have anything to talk about with her. Yet I have to entertain her or it would feel even more awkward if she's just watching TV. Seriously awkward.
I did consider bringing her to the new casinos but like I said, I have nothing to talk about with her so the journey would be filled with that strange silence that normal people usually prefer to a avoid.
My mum isn't exactly enthusiastic about walking around too much so she doesn't want to bring her there by herself either.
And if we both go with her, we'd have to fork out a whopping S$200 entrance fee. Nobody wants to do that.
If only she brought her husband with her. He likes to gamble like her, so it wouldn't be a problem. I wonder why he isn't here.
And if you've been to HK with me some years back, she's that aunt we stayed with that time.
She's still trying to treat my family. I'm not joking when I say she really turns pulling money out of the purse/wallet into an art. It's like she's got some kind of special technique that allows her to make money appear in her hands when the bill comes.
But I managed to stop her today when we went shopping and eating. Right from the taxi ride I was able to stop her from paying by holding my wallet the moment I had my seat belt on at the start.
XD
She's the only person I know with whom I have to fight with all the time the pay the bills.
Every. Single. Time.
No exceptions.
I have to resort to pre-emptive tactics to stop her from paying for everything. That's how hard it is. Nobody pulls out his/her purse/wallet as quickly as her.
And even after holding out the money to show her I have to keep telling her that I already have the money ready so she doesn't have to take out hers.
Yesterday when she first arrived I didn't do it because I thought my mum would be able to handle it. Apparently she's getting too old to compete with her elder sister. It's strange.
So she paid for the cab fare (with extra peak hour surcharge and airport surcharge) and dinner, even though she's already bought lots of stuff for us (mainly clothes for me since it's getting hard to buy those that fit me here in Singapore).
I still remember during the trip to HK with the BC that she told us that since she treated us for those meals we could treat her when she goes to Singapore.
Now that she's here, she's still trying to pay for everything. I'm not sure if there's anyone like her out there.
And right now her husband's business in China isn't doing very well, so it feels even worse when she does it.
Also reminds me again that it's very hard to do business there. It's not just about knowing people, but also about knowing the right people.
The right people aren't merely the ones who have contact with factories or other businesses, but also friends in the lower levels of society. In China, that is another important group to handle.
For example, one of my mum's friends closed down his bar in China because his imported wine kept getting stolen. At first he believed that he was making losses because his business partner in China sucked her work. Turned out that even though she had a lot of contacts, she didn't have friends in the triads.
Apparently they had offered her a deal while he was back in Singapore - help them steal the wines and get a cut of the profits or be killed. Not much of a choice there. He found out that his wine was really being stolen only after he secretly sneaked to his bar at night and witnessed her opening the backdoor while men went in to take out crates of wine and placed them in a private car. So he confronted her later and she confessed.
There was nothing he could do then so he closed shop to cut losses.
And now my uncle's business is kind of in the same position, except much worse, but that's another story. Suffice to say, even biological brothers can ruthlessly stab you in the back in China, let alone "bros".
So I thought it strange he wouldn't come with my aunt to visit the casinos since he likes to gamble. He's not going bankrupt but he's having a lot more free time. As the kind of guy who is used to working all the time, it doesn't really make sense for him to stay in HK alone now.
It's like history just repeated itself. First my father, now my uncle. I'm getting the feeling that China's market is grossly overrated.
Foxer vs KyrixZenith was an excellent match. I missed the first game but watched the rest on this Taiwanese guy's channel (anfree) where I'm learnt some Chinese terms for SC2 units.
Foxer = 假包
SlayerSBoxer = 老包 / 真包
NEXGenius = 天才
St-HopeTorture = 彩虹
NesTea = 雀巢
NaDa = 那打
Zenio = zhan1 牛
Jaedong = 解凍
Red Alert = 紅色警戒
Hatchery/Nexus/CC = 基地
Vespene gas = 瓦斯
Zerg = 蟲族
Roach = 蟑螂
Queen = 後蟲
Zergling = 狗
Drone = 工蟲
Baneling = 毒爆蟲
Overlord = 王蟲
Mutalisk = 飛螗
Infestor = 感染蟲
Terran = 人類/人族
SCV = 工兵
Marine/Marines = 陸戰兵/陸戰隊 (because land units = 地面部隊)
Reaper = 死神
Banshee = 女妖
Siege Tank = 坦克
Viking = 維京
Thor = 雷神
250mm Strike Cannons (Thor ability) = 雷神炮
Bunker = 碉堡
Marauder = 掠奪者
Protoss = 神族
Pylon = 水晶塔
Void Ray = 虛空
Chronoboost = 超時空加速
Dark Templar = 速隱刀
Mothership = 航母
Colossus = 巨像
Some terms that have acronyms instead of Chinese names:
Observers = OB
Barracks = BB
And finally,
Static noise = 流电聲 = signature of anfree's channel
Disclaimer: I've never played or watched the Chinese SC2 till after posting so some of the words above may not be the correct characters.
I'm getting these only because the Taiwanese guy was giving a commentary in Mandarin and these units were used a lot during the games. I didn't manage to catch some of the lesser-mentioned terms.
When Kyrix kept winning with a giant army of Banelings and a clean-up crew of Zerglings, and especially when his Banelings just blasted a path for the Zerglings through filled bunkers, depots and Marines at the back, I was like
In the fourth round Kyrix underestimated the power of Banshees and couldn't defend against a Banshee rush despite producing defences he appeared to have thought to be enough. Kyrix was able to see Boxer's base for most of the early game and still failed to defend against a rush. It was very disappointing.
Last game was epic. It was the kind of game everyone has been waiting for, the kind of the game that makes all the bad games in the tournament worth enduring for.
Boxer won. He completely deserved his victory in the last game. The way he dodged all those waves of Banelings and Baneling/Overlord drops probably pushed the limits of his micro abilities.
In the interview Boxer admitted that he had been practising with defeating Banelings with Marines. No wonder.
And he's explicitly agreed to changing his nick to Foxer in the future. XD
It's probably the best game of the tournament. Might have better ones though, since it's still best of 8.
Second match was disappointing. The champion of Blizzcon, NEXGenius, lost. No more Protoss left in the tournament. Proof that Protoss needs a buff.
Second interview:
Tomorrow: SlayerSBoxer vs Nada. SC2 match of the year?
Forgot to publish the post. Fuck it. I'll just add the dates in blue.
2nd Nov 2010
She's gone now. It's good since we were running out of things to do. Always trying be the first to take out my money got tiring after the novelty of it wore off.
It's actually possible to shop with her for an entire day and not spend a single cent. Apparently it's been done back when nobody knew she could go that far. It's unnatural and, hence, scary. Her behaviour is antithetical to the norm of the 21st century capitalistic world.
It's not like she's still as wealthy as before and has no problem of her own. She probably didn't even tell us everything.
Watched the GSL on the Taiwanese guy's channel again to help brush up my Chinese (and learn a tiny bit of Taiwanese Hokkien). Updated the list above.
In the match between Zenio and NesTea, NesTea basically outclassed Zenio with a score of 3:0. Interview with NesTea:
The real BoxeR won. Epic games but not as epic as the last game yesterday which Foxer won. It seems in the 3rd match (second victory for SlayerSBoxeR) NaDa wasn't playing very well for his skill level and made mistakes that should have been too noob for him to make.
Oh well, shit happens. He was probably trembling in fear against the might of the Emperor, and that is very understandable. Uncontrollably twitching fingers can make microing units very difficult.
Too bad we aren't going to see a BoxeR vs BoxeR match on Thursday. That would probably be the match of the year for sure. Hopefully both of them will win their way to the finals to make that happen.
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