My new broadband connection!

I finally got a broadband connection! I'm so glad that I no longer have to use dial-up, as I'm a very impatient person. (Self-awareness, a must for leader as taught in RMIT's leadership and mgmt, ahem.)

However, installation of broadband is a headache for me - I don't know which wires are to be connected and why my pop-up window didn't open up even though pop-up blocker is disabled. I remembered how "pek cek" I was...I called the Singnet hotline and the call centre girl asked "What's your laptop's brand?" I answered "Dell". She advised "So you should call Dell to check with them what went wrong, maybe it's the security settings." My sixth sense told me it's not the security setting and it's not Dell's problem. I played around with the settings and restarted my laptop for about 5 times, and the same problem appeared. A new problem is discovered - I had to reinstall the broadband connection each time I restart...I searched the website for Thomson Speedtouch to see whether I could install any driver that the software missed out, after been advised by my friend, but nothing was found. So, I checked through Dell's website, but found nothing relevant.

On the 2nd day, I called the hotline again. This time, a knowledgeable guy informed me - "You only need to connect the yellow cable." Oh i see...that solved the reinstallation problem. "You need to check Microsoft website for pop-up problems". Bingo! I found out that my internet explorer 7 got a bug. (Actually, I still don't understand why that problem only appear after my broadband installation) Finally, I solved my pop-up problem by installing another web browser called Mozilla Firefox.

Hopefully, no more problem again....

Free Anti-Spyware software

An IT colleague recommended us to use this free anti-spyware software "Spybot-S&D" -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

But I find the downloading of updates a bit too slow....Maybe I'll try again this Fri after my internet connection is upgraded from dial-up to broadband. :)

Veggie or meat?

Today, I went to an air-conditioned foodcourt at Pioneer Mall to buy my dinner. The signboard wrote "2 veggie and 1 meat $3.20". As someone who don't eat veggie, i picked potato (a harshbrown) as the substitute for veggie. At payment time, i was told that the packet of food cost $3.80. I asked why and they informed me that potato is considered as a meat. Why is that so? So weird. All other stalls I've went to (in foodcourts) considered potato as veggie. It's so embarrassing when the stall lady told me loudly (and there was a long queue): "Xiao Jie, we always charge the potato same price as the meat". (And I was not complaining, was just politely asking why it's $3.80 and not $3.20) I think she could be more polite by excluding the "Xiao Jie" from her statement, as it sounds very sarcastic under her voice tone.

Movies review

My mum rented a few movies and one of them is "Unholy Matrimony" by Leon Lai and Rene Liu. It's so boring (I don't know why, but I always find movies starring Rene Liu boring) and I don't like its ending. At the last part, it shows that the ghost is actually part of a story told by a DJ and the DJ acted as the ghost. So unmeaningful. So, conclusion is don't watch this movie unless you really like Leon or Rene.

"Just follow law" is a really funny & creative movie. It's really "Singaporean". Everything needs black and white, and time to process. (I believe it's a common frustration for those who work in big companies) "CC" = cover "ca cen" (backside) and "BCC" = back cover "ca cen". The xiao mei mei who followed the law by not crossing during the red light (which's faulty) is knocked down by a vehicle, which anyhow u-turn. A really entertaining show that I believe most Singaporeans would enjoy.

Nowadays, movie rental are so cheap - 4 for $10 and for 4 days. That's why we prefer to rent movies instead of watching them in cinema. However, the cinema at JB's City Plaza is very cheap and has great leg space. So, it's a good alternative to renting the vcds, if you live near the Woodland custom.

My Taiwan Trip

Just came back from Taiwan - It's a great trip. I've enjoyed the food (excluding the veggie which i dun eat), the scenery and most of all, moments with my long-time best frens. However, rashes broke out and I'm still itching all over. I guess it's the hot weather that causes my rashes.

Our 1st stop was Hualien. "Stone House" homestay's owner is a very nice and friendly lady. It's a highly recommended accomodation for those who wish to stay at Hualien. The room is great-looking and spacious. (Visit http://www.sutohome.com/ for more details) Our tour guide Mr Chen, a fren of the homestay owner, is very friendly and has excellent driving skills. The winding roads on the hills are so scary, and even more challenging with the fog, but Mr Chen drives his taxi so smoothly like it's so easy. It's so cold up on the hill, even though it's summer. We borrowed jackets from Mr Chen and still, we felt cold. (But I enjoyed the coldness).

There's always something bad with the good to balance off. When we got back our checked-in baggage, I found that my baggage lock was broken. Is it because I put a 830ml bottle of water inside my baggage? Or just spoilt due to accident? Haiz, the lock was only used twice. When we got to Taipei from Sun Moon Lake, we went shopping. Wu Fen Pu has lots of shops, but it's so tiring to shop there. I guess my stamina for shopping is limited. We bought the wrong train tickets (due to the incorrect info from our Taipei hotel's staff), which took us 2 hours to reach the wrong stop.