Happy New Year!

Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!! WOo Hoo!

Its been a very long time already and after browsing through all my friend's blogs, I decided that i had to write something here. Its been a nerve wrecking year for me in 2008 going through school life and all sorts of different things. Most of all, I felt that i have aged...

Firstly, A levels. Its the most stressful and boring thing i have ever done in my life and i really hope that i won't have to do this kind of thing anymore. Going through A levels made me feel how dumb and stupid i can be at times and it has also showed me that with much effort, I can really stuff ALOT of stuff into my head. Stuff that i thought was impossible to go inside my head somehow managed to go inside, somehow.

Life after A levels is confusing. Its a sense of feeling lost after all the routine studying schedule and all of a sudden, "Hey? i don't need to pick up a book anymore?" Hmm... It really feels very very weird. The first few days were terrible. I did not know what to do and how can i pass time. Time seemed to crawl at an amazingly slow speed. Its like the first few days you go to school feeling how time is passing so slowly? Come to think of it, time seems to pass slower when you don't need it and it just speeds through when you really need it. Oh well its all psychological.

Attending 3 chalets in a row was a first for me in my life. Never was I involved in 3 chalets at one go. One sec 4 class chalet, MR chalet and finally SB5 chalet. I enjoyed all of them equally (: Sec 4 chalet was more of a gathering for me to meet up with old friends and catch up with them. Did not stay for the night as i had MR chalet the next day. Although it has been 2 years already, the bonds that we forged during the secondary school days remain strong and i could really feel the atmosphere that reminded me of secondary school days. But oh well, as usual, I don't fit in very well with my sec 4 class. Not that i can't fit in at all, but just not very well. But still, i really like my sec 4 class.

Then MR chalet. It was one heck of a chalet. It was like one big family having a chalet. All the other halfs of most MR members were invited to the chalet and really, it didn't feel wrong at all. We had Charis and Ziyi who joined us even though they were not MR members but they blended in well with us(: Once again thanks for coming(: Although i really hated my buddies teasing about me, i know that they tease me because they care for me, because they want it to happen which is also what I want to realise also. However, sometimes its not very nice to continuously tease and tease cause it really hurts me. Hope you guys can understand how i feel (:

Then it was prom night. I did not attend but i somehow got in =X Saw so many people dressed so pretty and so handsome that i got abit jealous. But oh well i saved some money -_-...Went for post prom party and i can tell you its not my cup of tea. The music is just blasting and piercing that my ears hurts. Me and Shuteng just left at like 3 plus and we walked around trying to find our way in town cause both of us are goon dus when it comes to walking around town. We wanted to find a macs to have coffee and just sit down but no matter how we walked, we lost our way-_- Our initial plan was to find raffles city so we walked and walked from raffles place to cityhall and then somehow we just ended in bugis-_-"' finally found what we want and we just bought food and eat. Slept at the macs till it was like 5+ and we decided to try our luck to catch the first bus. Took 170 and it was a very very fast journey from bugis to my place. I think it took like 30mins the most? No much stop and no much traffic. End of day, Clubbing is not my cup of tea.

Working is fun for me. First time i really work in the real world earning money. first day of work is kind of confusing cause i did not know anything to do with selling. The most confusing thing was each and every products pricing. Just way to confusing. But slowly and surely, i will pick it up. (:

On the last day of the year, I got a very very special opportunity to go behind the scenes of Channel 8 new year count down show. I am really really lucky to have a friend to help me arrange for it. Reached Vivo at like 9.45 and there was like a freaky queue outside. I got the backstage pass and go all the way backstage. Woots! Damn exciting. Saw alot of artiste and sure they are all very gorgeous:D Really was an eye opener on how people run shows. Really an eye opener.

Here's wishing everyone a very happy 2009!

My audio salvation is here!

A's is almost over and finally, after a long time, I've finally got it (:

WOO HOO!!!

Second Repair of GC

Not mine of course :P Haha. Its my friends. His calculator got pretty screwed up and many of the buttons could not be pressed. He told me that some people said that the battery leaked and the liquid caused the calculator's inside to corrode and spoil. So i decided to take a look.

Opened it up and wah it was a mess. All the dried up battery water was inside and it was slimy. Took it for a wash and rubbed it clean. At first i thought it would be a simple thing cause maybe it was just dirt but after washing and trying to turn it on again, it didn't seem so easy.

Spent like 30 mins before I figured out that the battery water has actually corroded the conducting tracks on the PCB to the extent that a few of them are no longer conducting anymore. So i whipped out my trusty soldering iron and some enamel coated wire and began re-routing the tracks with the enamel wire. It wasn't easy and my hands were kind of shaky today.

After around 30 mins, i finally finished re-routing all the necessary tracks. Tried it again but oh bugger, it was even worst. I tried and tried and tried all sorts of method but it just didn't work. Logic was telling me that what i did was correct but i just couldn't solve the problem. I got so frustrated that i decided to give up.

I closed up the thing and screwed the whole thing up till the final cover. It was only then that i realised that i had screwed the screw in the wrong place inside so i couldn't screw the top cover up. Screw it!

So i had to reopen the whole thing again. This made me hand itchy again and i decided to give it one last shot. I desoldered the whole thing, and resoldered the whole thing again but this time in phases so that i would know which track that i re-routed controlled which buttons. This was a better choice as i could see if the soldering was done right. The first one went in and :D It worked! I restored the number zero and some other numbers when replacing one track. Then i moved on to the rest and finally everything was back and working fine.

I tried to neaten my soldering with some solder flux and dang, that was a bad decision. it screwed the whole thing again-_- Now the stupid feeling was feeling up in me and i was starting to feel damn sian about this. At first i didn't know what was wrong again but heck, i decided to just wash it with some water again. WOW! After washing with water and drying it with a hair dryer, it worked again! So happy. And i realised that this thing couldn't had alot of flux lying on the conducting pads cause i think the flux could conduct electricity too. So yea washing away the flux solved the problem. Closed it up and :D a job done again. So happy!

Yea okay i guess about 90% of the people who read what was up there understood nuts about it but in short i repaired another GC.

So anw, yesterday's night was very very clear. I couldn't resist but to take a photo of it. Here it is:

Peering through the clear night sky, I couldn't resist myself but to feel helpless...

College Bowl

Woots! Fun. Haha. Been some time since i posted too cause of prelims which is quite bad. But anw, College Bowl. Shall just post photos cause a picture speaks a thousand words :D