Rant 701 / If You Think Your Life Sucks, At Least The Thing/Person You Spend The Most Time With Isn't Having Major Issues

Alicafe Classic tastes like those Kopiko coffee candies. It's practically the liquid version of it. I think it's because there's too much creamer.

I'm not sure if the $75 is worth it. Maybe it is for those who shop at Lockerz since they earn PTZ from purchases but not for me.








YET ANOTHER PC PROBLEM!!

So this morning (15 Jan, Sat) I woke up at around 5am. Switched on the computer, did regularly checks (email, forums, etc). Then at around 6am I got to the kitchen to prepare to make fried rice with eggs and luncheon meat.

Beated 3 eggs, added garlic salt and black pepper. Diced half a can of luncheon meat. Then recalled that when I cook it's going to be very noisy. It was 6.30 when I was ready to start the stove. Too early, didn't want to wake up my whole family.

So I got back to my computer. It appeared to be switched off. Weird. I didn't remember any power-saving options that I picked that had anything to do with switching off the CPU in 30mins.

Then I noticed the Numlock LED was still glowing. What was happening? Crash again? Oh shit...

So I tried random keys. No response.

Looked at the power button. The power LED light was blinking once every second.

Never seen that before.

So I pressed the power button.

Nothing.

Reset button.

Nothing.

WHAT WAS HAPPENING???

Switched off the electric outlet and on again.

Restarted computer. Everything loaded normally.

Just when I was about to open Firefox, the computer just... shutdown as if we were having a blackout. It just stopped.

But the Numlock was still on and the power light was blinking.

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?!?

Four more times I rebooted as before.

Once it crashed while Windows was loading, once in the BIOS menu, once in Windows and once while I was risking the computer by googling for help.

So I got pissed and took out my laptop.

Google results point to problems involving the motherboard, PSU and drivers, mainly the first two.

There was nothing I could do about anything since it just switches off randomly.

By the time I was satisfied I couldn't get anymore out of Google, it was about 9am.

So I got out to wait for the housekeeper. Left the computers off.

11am. Got back in, now the PC seems fine. Consciously clicking on "Save" every several lines now. Speedfan is also on in case something was overheating. As of now, 11.16am, the highest temperature I see is only 64 degrees Celsius. AFAIK too high means above 85.

If it crashes again, which I REALLY hope won't happen, I'm lugging it back to Fuwell. Meanwhile my mum is nagging me to buy a new computer. If I get into the habit of buying new PCs every 2 years or less, I don't think I will be able to survive in the future when we don't have her income.

How much it costs to bring it over for repairs, or "troubleshoot" as they call it:

$30 fee.

$25 2-way cab fare.

Total: $55-$80 depending on how long they take. If it isn't serious, they can fix it on the same day, so that's $55. If it's serious like the mobo problem last week, $80.

20mins since I switched it on. Actually 25. Hasn't crashed yet. This is the longest time since the first crash this morning.

Almost forgot to mention that the previous problems are gone. Yesterday was completely crash-free.

Rant 700 / Vampiric Sorcerers

Since I always type the rant number in the title before anything else, I'm going to say here on the first paragraph that I'm surprised it's the 700th already.

Furthermore, the fact that I'm not making a living out of writing after churning out 700 pages of trash in 4 years is proof that a prolific writer does not a good writer make.

Or is it the other way round?

But if I'd wanted to make money by producing literary crap, I'd be typing about sparkly vampire wizards who stalk naive little girls in a school of magic instead.







This morning after I woke up the first thing I did was open my PC and pushed the connectors really hard, especially those that have to do with the hard disk which is my prime suspect.

It's now 3 hours since I switched on the computer and everything is working perfectly fine. Hope this continues indefinitely.

...

22 hours now. Not a single crash! If this goes on it's going to be even better than before. In the past my video card used to crash almost everyday, so if it doesn't anymore, then maybe it was because the card wasn't pushed in properly.







Did some work at mturk.com just now. If they all get accepted I should have made $5 for half an hour of clicking and pressing buttons. The best-paying jobs were probably those psychological tests in which they ask you simple questions like "Would you want a)$5 now or b) $10 in 3 days?". For spending like 20mins answering mind-numbing questions like this, they pay about US$0.50-$1. Too bad they only allow each person to do it once.

Specifically avoided anything that required typing a lot of words even though they usually pay more. For example they could ask you to write a review on a detergent and would pay you a few dollars for it. Not bad but I didn't feel like doing too much thinking.

Been having a headache due to eye fatigue. Probably has to do with my sleep schedule since this came all of a sudden instead of being a gradual thing, the latter being a sign that I need new glasses. Keep needing to close my eyes to rest but didn't dare to lie on the bed. The last time I did that was a few days ago. Fell asleep in minutes. That was at 4pm. Nope, can't risk that. Waking up at 12am may be nice (I like the cooler temperature and tranquillity of the night) but I'm going to have classes in a few weeks' time.

The best was probably the job in which I just pick all the photos that had to do with the concept of "granddaughter". They gave me like 100 pictures and I just looked through them and clicked on every photo that had an old person and a very young girl together. Only $0.07 for that but seriously, I could do it forever. Sieving through crap images to find good ones is something one eventually gets good at if one browses 4chan often enough. Of course if one browses deviantart the effect would be even stronger since it's got even more bad pictures.

AFAIK that's where all the amateur artists go to display their works.









A wireless video card now exists! Unfortunately it still looks like you have to stick it into the motherboard.

But you get to skip that cable that goes to your monitor. Less cables means less mess and you have one less restriction on how to position your computer.

Realistically speaking, wouldn't there be lag or worse... interference?

Now if you have a wireless sound card/speakers, and a wireless mouse/keyboard set, you'll be able to place your computer outside your room, thereby solving the uncomfortable heat problem for those who live in the tropical zone like me.







When I ask anyone what they want, I fucking hate it when they reply," Anything" when the truth is that there are several things that they dislike.

Why do so many people assume I can read minds?

Rant 699 / Blue Spice Of Dune

I got 3 BSODs this morning together with lots of crashes involving Firefox, Adobe Flash Player, Avira Antivirus and etc. I had no idea what was happening since yesterday it was almost perfectly fine other than the single BSOD.

I really don't want to lug my PC back to Fuwell again but I will when I get annoyed enough like the last time.

After those crashes I went to bed for a while. For some reason I felt really sleepy at around 7.30am after waking up at 5. Went to bed last night at 8pm.

Anyway I got back up at 11am, decided to open it up and start pushing all the plugs or whatever they're called. Maybe the technicians didn't connect everything properly.

Now it seems normal again. No crashes. Another suspect was the hard disk. Maybe it was damaged during the entire process of bringing it there, getting repaired and bringing it back. There were a few bumps along the way both in the car and on my way to the road from my void deck. Who knows? If it crashes again like it did this morning, I'll do a disk scan.





Also made some mushroom and chicken cream soup using canned soup plus chicken breasts for me and my bro this morning. Removed the skin and diced the meat. I used cream of mushroom for myself and thought it might not taste so good. But there's fresh chicken in it, so how bad could it be right?

So I threw the skin into the soup before it boiled together with the canned soup. Stirred till everything is boiling and properly dissolved before adding the chicken. 2 breasts worth of diced meat. Then I threw in 1 pinch of salt just because I'm cool like that.

Stirred till it boiled and stopped the fire.

It actually tasted epic. I was surprised. I think the fatty taste of the skin and fats of the chicken dramatically improved the soup. Didn't have chicken in the canned soup so it all came from the meat I added. Most of the it was also not overcooked. I should do this again.






Part of Brisbane was evacuated due to flood. Mr Global Warming is getting pretty serious. I think we should all start to learn to swim... or build canoes.








I'm pretty sure Lockerz is being raided or something. Almost everything in the 24/7 auction page has either hit 16k PTZ or is very close to doing so. Or else, why 16k?

Ok it seems to have ended. Everything that became available for bids 9 hours or more ago are now at around 16k PTZ while everything that came out later isn't. I hope actual people with a lot of PTZ bidded for those items to compete with those bullshit bids so that us normal people with only 10k PTZ can actually get something.







BSOD again. The error in the last one was "BAD_POOL_CALLER". According to google results that may be a driver problem.

The motherboard seems to be different now. Beeps during booting when it used to be completely silent, so they may have given me a motherboard that isn't compatible with the other components.

What do? I'm very sick of PC problems now.

Furthermore, Firefox keeps crashing, especially its plugin manager or something. Not particularly irritating since I can restore all tabs but it might become that eventually.





Found a Flash movie that actually is good. Basically, the creator found some random review of some random Flash game on Newgrounds, got someone to read it and made a movie out of the voice track. The result was epic. Somehow he combined the art of font animation (or whatever it's called) and the use of properly-timed music to create a very dramatic movie.

I rarely mention anything from Newgrounds, but this is one movie I dare call a masterpiece of Flash animation.









IMO the best was the robot dinasaur. It took me a several rewinds to see how it was done. Once I could finally see it as it really is, the head just stopped turning.








Watched last evenings' games on Gom. The earlier Code A games were so bad, I'm sure even noobs will question many of  the decisions made by the players in the games. In fact it felt like they would belong in the Stone League more than the Diamond. Heck, et3000 would have won if it was a 3-player FFA. Half the time I was asking, "WHY?!? Why is he doing that?!?"

The games later were much better, especially when Jinro played against Ensnare. Longest game ever. 47 minutes. Ensnare probably got impatient or tired near the end and made some mistakes, leading to his loss of his armies.

In the game between Jinro and Idra, I actually thought Jinro had lost at one point when most of his units were wiped. Fortunately he was able to minimise his losses by staying calm, and recovered quickly before beating Idra.

The one thing I noticed is that the SQ stream on Gom is actually smooth now, for the most parts.






Deleting Avira. Its scans keep getting in conflict with NOD32. For example, NOD32 always thinks that certain files Avira creates during a system scan is a virus. Since I have to choose one, I'm picking the one that technically requires a paid subscription.

Rant 698 / Rosemary Lamb

For some reason I'm excited about Homefront. Why?








So I've finally got my PC back. Got a BSOD soon after booting but it seems fine now.

Without the shortcut in my laptop's browser to remind me of this, I've completely forgotten about my stocks in the Investopedia stock simulation.

And look at what I found!

I'm definitely selling my Nvidia and Sears stocks tonight. 3k! I don't know what to do with the Baidu stocks though. Petrochina has risen to somewhat decent levels but Baidu is just sinking like a rock.

So by tonight I will have made 3k USD. How long have I been in the game? Hmm... According to the Trade History page I bought my first stocks on the 12th of November. Nov to Dec, Dec to Jan. 3k in 2 months. 1.5k per month average using 100k as capital. 1.5% return per month. I don't think I should be proud of these numbers.

Still, profits are profits. Too bad this isn't real though.

EDIT: Ok I was retarded. The game has already ended. Forgot about the game title.








Today after telling my mum about my leftover herbs (had like 4 stalks of rosemary left) she used it to stir fry with pork.

Now I totally recognize the smell. I think it has to do with it mixing with fats or oil or something.

It smells like the lamb chops from one of the closed-and-gone good western food stalls in one of the kopitiams in the neighbourhood.

So they used it for LAMB CHOPS!

I asked my bro to confirm too. Unsurprisingly, he said he didn't know and all the food from the western food stalls taste the same. So all he confirmed was that he was gustatorily challenged, which I've already said before.

Rant 697 / Games Of 2011

Heroes of Might and Magic... 6!



Developed by Black Hole Entertainment. Unless some of those 3DO guys are part of it, I think we'll see a pretty different game again, just like how HoMM4 was so different from the previous games in the series.





My guess appears to be wrong. This looks more similar to HoMM5 than I expected. But I find that I'm not very interested in the series anymore, probably because I suck at it.










Everybody in the EU seems to need a bailout after the US mortgage crisis.What's up with that?








Made the baked herbal chicken this morning. Marinated them in separate bowls for an hour, half the chicken in rosemary and half in sage. Chopped several leaves and stalks of each and use both the chopped herbs and whole leaves to marinate. One tiny pinch of salt each.

Baked the first batch in two separate aluminium foils for 25 mins, arranged neatly in a single layer, covered and sealed.

Result was that it was slightly too long and the edges of some of them were overcooked. Learnt that the last time I did it, I did not warm up the oven before placing them inside. Didn't mention it then so it's a guess but makes sense.

If the oven is warmed up, the optimal cooking time is between 20-25mins at 100 degrees Celsius. If not, 25mins.

Initially both rosemary and sage seemed to taste the same. Took the entire two batches to find the differences. Sage has a stronger smell while rosemary tasted kind of familiar and reminds me of soap.

After finishing the chickens I ate the leaves consecutively to compare. Rosemary is actually slightly minty but it can only be tasted when the leaves are eaten alone.

I think I may have mistaken rosemary for sage in the sausage in the Big Breakfast. I don't know.

EDIT: Rosemary = 迷 迭 香 [mídiéxiāng]








Here's a very useful list of upcoming games for the new year.

As usual, source unknown.








Accidentally missed the Code A games today because I was busy getting promoted to being a vassal from a mercenary captain in Warband.

Didn't miss the Code S games though.

TSL_Clide beat MarineKingPrime.WE at his own game. Both sides used almost purely Marines and Clide won. The irony is hard to miss.

The other matches between the Code S and Code A players weren't that interesting.

Rant 696 / Pizza Price Per Unit Area Comparison

Following the pizza thing in the previous rant, I decided to calculate the price per sq inch of different pizza sizes.


Since I was looking at Domino's, let's start there. Btw using pi = 3.1416 and rounding prices to 3dp.


Domino's


9" - $22.80 / 63.6174 sq in = $0.358/sq in
12" - $29.80 / 113.0976 sq in = $0.263/sq in
15" - $35.80 / 176.715 sq in = $0.203/sq in

*The only crust available for 15" is New York Crust.



Pizza Hut


Viva
10" - $18.50 / 78.54 sq in = $0.236/sq in
13" - $24.50 / 132.7326 sq in = $0.185/sq in


Pan
6" - $8.50 / 28.2744 sq in = $0.301/sq in
9" - $19.50 / 63.6174 sq in = $0.307/sq in
12" - $25.50 / 113.0976 sq in = $0.225/sq in



Canadian 2 For 1

Standard Pizza
10" - $23.90 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.152/sq in
12" - $31.90 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.141/sq in
14" - $37.90 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.123/sq in


Super Value Pizza
10" - $21.90 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.139/sq in
12" - $27.90 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.123/sq in
14" - $32.90 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.107/sq in






Oishi Pizza


2 pizzas
10" - $22.90 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.146/sq in
12" - $29.90 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.132/sq in
14" - $35.90 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.117/sq in
*Surprisingly, Oishi actually beats Canadian in the 2-for-1 pizza contest unless you order Canadian's shitty Super Value Pizzas, which people order probably just for the sake of eating pizza.

Single pizzas
10" - $15.90 / 78.54 sq in = $0.202/sq in
12" - $21.90 / 113.0976 sq in = $0.194/sq in
14" - $25.90 / 153.9384 sq in = $0.168/sq in






Sarpino's

2-for-1 pizza
10" - $25 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.159/sq in
12" - $30 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.133/sq in
14" - $35 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.114/sq in
*Even more surprisingly, Sarpino's 14" 2-for-1 pizzas are even cheaper than the previous champ, Oishi's. This is getting interesting.


Gourmet (single pizza)
*Every second Gourmet pizza is sold at roughly half price, hence I'm calculating the prices separately.
10" - $18.80 / 78.54 sq in = $0.239/sq in
12" - $23.80 / 113.0976 sq in = $0.210/sq in
14" - $28.80 / 153.9384 sq in = $0.187/sq in


Gourmet (2 pizzas)
10" - $(18.80 + 9.50) / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.180/sq in
12" - $(23.80 + 12) / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.158/sq in
14" - $(28.80 + 14.50) / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.141/sq in


Super Value 5 Cheese Pizza (2 pizzas)
*Doing this just to see if it offers something even cheaper, therefore I'll only calculate the price if you order two. Like Gourmet pizzas, every second pizza is at roughly half price.


10" - $(17.80 + 9) / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.171/sq in
12" - $(20.80 + 10.50) / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.138/sq in
14" - $(23.80 + 13) / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.120/sq in
*Yet again I am surprised. How is this not cheaper than Canadian's Super Value Pizzas??


Cheese Pizza (two pizzas)
*Found on the same page as the above, this better be the cheapest pizza of all because it's just a large cheese toast.



10" - $(14.80 + 7.50) / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.142/sq in
12" - $(17.80 + 9) / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.118/sq in
14" - $(20.80 + 11) / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.103/sq in




Rite Pizza
*Apparently they do 2-for-1 now too.


Chicken/Beef/Seafood (2-for-1)
10" - $23 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.146/sq in
12" - $30.50 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.135/sq in
14" - $37 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.120/sq in

Rite Saver (2-for-1)
10" - $21 / 2(78.54) sq in = $0.134/sq in
12" - $27.50 / 2(113.0976) sq in = $0.122/sq in
14" - $32 / 2(153.9384) sq in = $0.104/sq in
*The 14" Rite Savers may be the cheapest non-plain pizzas in Singapore that isn't made in your own kitchen, but only because they have merely one topping each. You can probably get the same price if you add one topping to Sarpino's Cheese Pizzas.








Pizza de France
*This is in the list only because it offers 3-pizza deals.


Gourmet Table (Triple Treat)
10" - $34 / 3(78.54) sq in = $0.144/sq in
12" - $44 / 3(113.0976) sq in = $0.130/sq in
14" - $54 / 3(153.9384) sq in = $0.117/sq in
*At 14" it matches the price of Oishi's 2-for-1, which is the current reigning champion for the non-budget-pizza category.At both 10" and 12" it is the cheapest in the same category.

Classic Table (Triple Treat)
10" - $30 / 3(78.54) sq in = $0.127/sq in
12" - $41 / 3(113.0976) sq in = $0.121/sq in
14" - $49 / 3(153.9384) sq in = $0.106/sq in
*This menu includes the plain cheese toast, though called "Mozza Classic" here. 








I don't know if I missed any but I think I'm done here.


I'll end this with the conclusion that if you are not on a seriously tight budget, the best value for money can be found in Oishi's menu and Pizza de France's Gourmet Table. In the case that you are on a seriously tight budget, why the heck are you ordering pizza??














The bak kut teh was exceptionally bland. I used the packet of spices I bought in Malacca during the BC trip but my mum refused to follow the instructions. Instead, we used exactly half the spices. In the end she added a cube of fish stock (it's the same as chicken stock anyway) but the taste only improved slightly.


Fortunately due to my still screwed up sleep schedule I just went to bed soon after, before I had to force myself to consume an entire bowl of it.


Now it's 3am and I'm simmering it for 30mins to reduce the soup. Hopefully the slightly thicker version would have a stronger flavour.


EDIT: Yes it was better after I reduced it by about 20% in height, which is a lot if you take into account the amount of solids in the soup.















"Let's" and "lets". They are different.

Let's do it.


He lets the dog in.

The above are correct. The following is wrong.

Lets do it.

I think this explanation is clear and concise enough.

Rant 695 / Global Cheese League

The Kinect sold 8 million units in 60 days. That's an average rate of 103k units per day. It means they're definitely going to make a Kinect 2 someday and expand on this market in the meantime.

It is now likely that the computers in Minority Report will become reality in our lifetime. We're so close!













Today while waiting for my room to be cleaned I was forced to watch Jamie Oliver make gravlax. Was actually watching some Chinese documentary about a group of Japanese supporters who were declared Japanese spies by the Manchurians during the Pre-WWII days.

From a practical point of view, I'd say it was completely logical to want to emulate the Japanese back then. In the final years of the Qing, China was a pretty fucked up place. On the other hand, the Japanese were wealthy, powerful and most importantly, free of European colonies.

Then my bro came out with his gf because his room was also being cleaned and he probably wanted to keep his gf happy or something, so he took the remote and did some channel surfing. Usually he doesn't care what was on TV during the wait.

Anyway, let me go back to the gravlax. The two times I made it, I used only dill, salmon and salt. Lots of salt and just enough dill to cover the entire piece of salmon. This guy, however, also used beetroot, lemon and schnapps.

I'm not sure if I can find beetroot, so if I ever see it I may try it. Then again, I don't really like dill. Just not used to the taste.








Just when I got some fresh rosemary and chicken breasts, I receive this new flyer from PizzaHut promoting their new Rosemary Chicken pizza.

Coincidence? Or are they spying on me?








Recently I came across this rather interesting product. I've seen wrist support for use with the computer mouse but I didn't think they can also come with a mousepad attached.

Now they do, plus something extra.

Kinky.

There's also one with Rangiku and another for Nel.

It's kinda strange though that Orihime is missing.

I'm nowhere close to wanting to buy any of these. I don't like having things that would constantly distract me. Learnt that from back when I had the following pics as my wallpaper (not simultaneously).

And those mousepads cost US$28. Cheap for a pair of fake tits, expensive for a mousepad. I'm still using the C&C Generals mousepad that came with the game that I bought when it first came out. Last time I bought any game soon after release.

Back then, I didn't even know what it was and had never even heard of a "mousepad" before. Simply pasted it on a random spot like a mini-poster and forgot about it till years later when I needed a mousepad.







Some of the deals on Beeconomics are actually quite interesting, especially those for restaurants like the one being displayed there right now.

50% discount for anything only on weekdays at Platypus. I have no idea if the restaurant is good and I don't know any reviewers I can trust. Too bad by the time I get replies from all the BC members it will have ended, so there's no point for me in asking by SMS.

From what I can tell an average meal cost around S$20-30 there, so with the coupons it will be roughly $10-15 each.

The coupons are good for 3 months, so it may be possible to use it during the coming CNY in Feb. On the other hand, there may be even more interesting deals in the near future.

21 hours remaining.






Deathspank! Nothing much to talk about really. It's the same kind of game as Diablo but with humour. In the game, the player is Deathspank, a stereotypical brawny yet brainless hero with a stereotypical heroic voice.

This game is actually quite similar to The Bard's Tale but funny in a dumber way. Not that I mind. If I wanted to think I'd play RTS games instead.

Speaking of RTS I've been missing all the games of the current GSL season due to a very screwed up sleep schedule. Quite disappointed in missing all those great matches but atm I'm more concerned with my body clock.

I managed to keep myself awake yesterday long enough to watch the games between July and some noob though.

There was so much cheese in the first two games of that match (and the beginning of the third), they could have called it Global Cheese League instead!

Why so cheese?

Although it was quite interesting to see a hidden Baneling Nest, of all things. Who would have thought you could hide structures as a Zerg player?








Was ordering Pizza when I noticed something I didn't think of before.

Two 12" pizzas are smaller than a 9" pizza plus a 15" pizza.

Looks the same right? The 15" pizza should offset the smallness of the 9" pizza, right?

Do the math and you'll see the difference.

Significant difference. 4.5pi to be exact. Or 14 sq inch. Or 91 sq cm. That's like 3*30cm.

This makes the current Dominos coupons very stupid. Or at least 1 of them. To be more specific, it's the one in which you pay S$40 for two 12" pizzas with extra cheese. Code PP52. Nobody cares about extra cheese.

On the other hand, I could use the one in which I pay an extra $3 for a 9" pizza when I buy another pizza at ala carte price. If I buy a 15" pizza at $35.80 and use this coupon, I'd get both pizzas for $1 less than the above. Why the heck would I use PP52? For the extra cheese?

Anyway we didn't order pizza in the end. Made bak kut teh instead.