A whole new level of stupidity.

Gender-biased choc

Necessities

I've recently learnt that I can survive a day/week/month without two
things - television and a microwave oven!

After moving to my new flat two months ago, amongst other things I
have tv and microwave in my mind.
The first to pass the time and catch up on my fave shows which
includes documentaries, and the second, to heat up food since I
usually cook in bulk.

I thought about them for the first couple of weeks and the next thing
I knew is that it's been 2.5 months and that I've adapted.

I don't get to watch tv a lot to begin with due to other chores but
when I do I watch tv online through the BBC iPlayer or Rove online.
I've also started downloading video podcasts but funny enough I don't
watch them on my pod.

Food also started tasting better as now I heat them up on the stove
other directly or by steaming. They end up being hotter too unlike the
uneven heated food you get from micros.

So moving to London changed a couple of things (among many I bet).

What will be next? Let's see...since I don't have a tv, I don't have
any consoles either. No dvd player and surround sound system. I don't
have a coffee table. I don't have a car and haven't driven in four
months... No garden but I don't completely miss it.

Actually I haven't thought about any of them until just now.

There is one thing for sure I can do without and that's the Internet.

------------------------
Pogz Unplugged

Hypocrisy or Redemption?

Safety & the Environment

Alienware

Just arrived at my hotel in brussels ... But my room wasn't ready so
first order of business for a digital child is to find a computer/
Internet .

Found a free one I'm the lobby so logged in and started typing my
email but like some kind of weird dream, the wrong words are appearing
on screen.

Look at the keyboard and the keys are shuffled all over the place.

Are you ready for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince?

Random mobile photos

Would be a shame if these photos go to waste. Here are some random photos from my faithful old Sony Ericsson.

A chocolate snack. The stilts in black beside the rubbish bin is Lesley-Ann's (colleague) who, unlike the chocolate snack, is a Filipina. The guys were teasing her with the chocolate..

Fat content comparison between Human, Cow's, and Whale's milk.

Shisha pipe I smoked a few weeks ago.

Spider Cow - completely random. Just saw this through a window one night on the way home from work. I had a few so I took this photo to make sure I am seeing what I'm seeing.

iPhone apps 3/3

This is my useless but fun apps page. I think it is compulsory to have
one.

Scratch - while you are playing your music, run this to do your own
scratch effects.

iPint - Virtual pint of beer. Need I say more?

8 ball - For making life changing decisions like moving to London.

PhoneSaber - choose your saber colour, wave your phone around and may
the force be with you.

The other two are kinds boring. They may not last long on this page.

iPhone apps 2/3

This is my games page. Taptap is like guitar hero. I'll give you one
guess what Bubblewrap is for...

I'm waiting for a free Texas hold'em.

iPhone apps 1/3

My first home page is now full. There wasn't much space to begin with.
Palringo is among the latest I've downloaded from the app store. It
allows you to combine several IM accounts into one single one. It
supports MSN, ICQ, AOL, Google Talk, and Jabber.

Mobile blogging attempt no 2

There we go. I had to attach an image first...saw this 'revolutionary'
jewellery at a Selfridges store today. The lengths some people will go thru...

Mobile blogging

Tried making a post using my iPhone Safari browser but the browser
cannot detect the body text field.

So now I'm trying the mail to blog option :)

Hmm can't attach an image. Maybe I need to choose the image from the
beginning.

Brb!

Sent from my iPhone

Protection

Went to the Tower of London today to get my mind off the iPhone but it didn't really work.

I found the Tower of London kinda boring. But I did find this exhibit there.

This will protect your future in two different levels.

iPhone 3G Disappointment

After weeks of waiting for the iPhone 3G, the week was finally here. I was excited to hear the news that the only two store chains selling the iPhone 3G opened their doors online to allow pre-orders. This was different from the pre-registrations a month ago which the Carphone Warehouse and O2 used to gauge public demand.

So I attempted to pre-order last monday (9th July) but due to high demand, the Carphone Warehouse and o2 Web site crashed a few times. I decided to phone Carphone Warehouse and the lady behind the phone was kind enough to process my pre-order via phone. BUT, they want three years of UK address history and as I've only been here since April, I cannot give her what she needed to process my pre-order.

Somehow it didn't matter that I'm already an O2 customer so surely this requirement can be bypassed.

As I was at work, I decided to wait until I got home. Unfortunately all online stocks were sold out by the time I got home. The sites instructed visitors to come back on or after July 10th, with 11th being the big day.

Three days ago I went back on the Carphone Warehouse site and YES! there it was the pre-ordering is back online. This time I didn't take any chances and ordered online. I received confirmation in the mail that my order was submitted successfully. So I am happy and more relaxed now. The email instructions said my order will be ready for pick the following day if it was ordered before 3pm. My order went through around 3.30pm so I thought saturday was ok for me as long as my order went through. Come friday morning...the big launch day....on my way to work I swung by the Carphone Warehouse store closest to my work. There was a queue of about 2 dozen people. I thought about waiting in line but since I have a lot to do at work I decided to trust the pre-ordering system.

Around mid-morning, I received the terrible news the my pre-order was cancelled! I was furious! I called them up straight away but no one at Carphone Warehouse knew the reason. There is nothing much I can do that day as I am busy at work.

Saturday...hoping....by friday midday all iPhone 3G 16 GB stocks have sold out. But I was hoping that I can walk into a Carphone Warehouse or O2 store and get one yesterday. All bad news except for Carphone Warehouse the 8GB version is still available. I spent the whole day yesterday very tempted to just settle for the 8GB but since I'm getting into an 18 month contract and that 16GB is only 60% more in price, I kept pulling myself back. Today I wake up still considring it.

VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

What I don't understand is why they don't allow current O2 customers to order an upgrade online. I understand there is no stock but at least they can take the order and upgrade orders can be fullfilled as the products get delivered from Apple. All I want to is order mine so I do not have to physically go to a store and queue. We are in a digital world and gone should be the days where we physically queue up! Ok, they have security checks and in-store activation....fine but at least allow online ordering for upgrades and when the time comes I'll go to a store and pick them up! The least O2 can do is take care of existing customers. But then again this is London where you get charged 10% for non-existent service.

I'm still waiting to get my hands on an iPhone! Arrrgghh...

I wonder what Whale's Milk taste like

Movie Cars

Went to Leicester Square yesterday. I'm missing out on quite a few premieres now that I'm working full time. There is one next week which I was hoping to go to and it is for Kung Fu Panda. Although I doubt it, I was hoping Angelina Jolie will be there. But as it turns out I have a company meeting on Thursday night and I cannot go to Leicester afterall.

Three days ago was the premiere for Hancock and Will Smith was here...

Anyway, yesterday there was a festival promoting the West End and there were performers, booths, people in costumes (Batman, Ghostbusters), and movie cars - see below.

Finally connected!

After 3 months of having no internet connection at home and having to live in internet cafes, I'm finally connected back to the digital world. It's been hard and I cannot imagine how we all did it before the digital age.

I would have been connected a month ago if only BT (British Telecom) have done their job efficiently. Those two words together makes the whole thing worse.

Initially I couldn't get and internet connection because the flat I'm living in doesn't have a phone line. I was told that I'm able to get fibre optic connection in my street so I went to Virgin Media to get connected. After waiting 10 days, I still have not heard anything back so I decided to go to a Virgin shop to ask about it. The man behind the counter told me, and this is his exact words, "If you have not heard back from Virgin Media for 10 days then I would say it is most probably not possible to get connected to Virgin Media at your flat." WTF?! Aren't you at least going to call me and tell me that it is not possible so I don't have to keep on waiting? But being British...it seems to be the culture here let's put it that way.

So I have no choice but to go for an ADSL line with BT (and like Telecom their kinda like a monopoly and everyone hate but need them). So I ordered a new BT line on 25th May. I got confirmations straight away so I thought it was good. They've scheduled engineers to come out here to install the line on June 11 only to find out a day before that they "moved" it to the 26th! So I complained obviously...the operator said the order was somehow cancelled. I said fine cancel that and open a new one. I ended up with two accounts with them which I'm still trying to sort out even after talking to 3 phone reps.

Last wednesday the engineer finally came to install the line (you were 1.5 hours late BTW and you left your amplifier!) and last thursday I ordered my ADSL. My ISP is O2 and they are great 90% of the time (only 90% because they keep on barring my mobile phone without good reason but that's another story). A day after ordering I got my wireless router and another day later I'm connected! WOOHOO!

I'm still testing speed. I took out the Ultimate plan which is up to 20 meg speed but the max speed I got to date was 9.7 meg download so I may lower my plan and save GBP5. We'll see how it goes.

Back to normal

Started my new job last week...

First week was hell for a person who prefers to know where things are and how they work. Being a big company, there are strict responsibility boundaries and it will take a bit of getting used to.

My office is in Baker St, not far from the fictional address of Sherlock Homes.

The tube to work is not bad. Only 3 stops and it is not as crowded as the Central line - the line I used to get to my previous work in Clerkenwell. For that you literally become a human sardine.

It is second week now and things a getting to normal levels (I think). I have now moved to a new desk - my permanent one and I'm glad I sit beside a window.

I had a couple of training sessions so far and I have one in about 20 minutes to use a system for time logging or something...

I've met several staff members and my brain overloaded by the end of last week. But most of them are interesting and seem to be good people.

Da police in London

The range of police equipment here in UK seem to be a lot more interesting. They have many types of police cars and are not limited to the Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.

So far I've seen BMWs, Fiats, Renaults, Subarus and other rally cars, and horse transporters.