So it has been announced that Microsoft will be shutting down Windows Live Spaces in a few months time. Lucky I decided to continue solely on Blogger! I had been using Windows Live Spaces for the past 7-8 years so it's a little sad to see it go!
They're trying to encourage Windows Live Spaces users to migrate to Wordpress. I'll have to investigate it first before I decide what to do, and whether to continue on Blogger. I find this a little restrictive sometimes.
Till it goes, you can check out my Windows Live Space here. Some of the older blog posts have more photos on it than this blog.
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Sunday 26 September 2010
Wow They've Grown!
Today my parents, Hamish and I (Aonghas was at work) went to Epsom Girls Grammar School after church to watch a show put on by another church (a Seventh Day Adventist Church I think) featuring some of their church choirs and soloists. Our family friends that we've known since primary school (even though we haven't really seen them in years) were performing in the show, with the mum, son and daughter in the choir. The daughter also performed a piano solo as well.
I have to say their performances were quite polished! They all sang loudly, confidently and in tune! Another choir from the church also performed acapella for most of their pieces along with actions!
Musically it was quite inspiring! Well done!
I have to say their performances were quite polished! They all sang loudly, confidently and in tune! Another choir from the church also performed acapella for most of their pieces along with actions!
Musically it was quite inspiring! Well done!
Pharmacy Ball
Last night was the annual pharmacy ball, the last pharmacy I'd ever attend...as far as I know anyway!
After I got my music classes out of the way in the morning, I got home and mucked around and finally got around to sorting out what I was going to wear which was not hard since I'm a guy...black suit right? I was also going to wear the Tweety Bird tie that I had been given for my birthday earlier this year. The only dilemma was what colour my shirt would be! I didn't want to wear white as that was too plain, and so my mum gave me a red shirt. It just didn't match though, and so in the last minute I changed to a black shirt. It looked much better! To top it off, I had a surgical mask just for the theme - Masquerade! :D
Our church was having a Mid-Autumn Festival shared dinner that night as well, and because my family wanted to eat, I had to go with them to church in my suit! People were wondering why I was dressed so nicely! I jokingly told them I dressed just for the occasion!
After my dad had a chance to eat and I had caught up with some of the guys, my dad took me to the ball at Eden Park. Because there was a lot of construction work going on around the area, we drove around the stadium several times before we went down the wrong driveway and was told the entrance was somewhere else. I just decided to look for it on foot to avoid my dad getting honked at by others! I eventually found it.
When I got inside I joined some of my pharmacy friends at their table before going around taking photos with some people. Everyone looked really...nice! (I can't think of a better word right now!) I also managed to find my dissertation group (or three quarters of it!) to get a photo with them!
The ball finally got underway, with some speeches by members of the APSA (Auckland Pharmacy Students Association) committee, and the class reps. For our year, the best couple award was awarded to Ali and Ibs which was quite funny as they both danced together later in the night! The guest speaker was this accountant.
After all the speeches, it was time for dinner! Dinner was a lot better than dinner at last year's ball at the Hilton Hotel. There was ham, deep-fried chicken, wedges, salad...you get the picture! I hadn't eaten all day so I was really hungry by then. I thought I could handle a second plate, which mainly consisted of deep-fried food, but I was soon bloated by the time I finished it!
Dessert was a bit of a disappointment though. We all lined up to get stamped and receive our one Magnum chocolate ice-block. I suppose it didn't matter too much since I was quite full by then!
For the rest of the night we did a lot of dancing! I was too full to dance well...not that I can dance well in the first place!
I had to take a break during the night by hanging out with some of the guys in the foyer as the music was quite loud! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the music. I like dance/techno music that you can actually dance to, unlike that hippity-hoppity stuff!
People started leaving after 11, and by midnight I had called my parents to come pick me up. They didn't come for another half an hour, and even then we had to figure out how to meet up with all the roadworks everywhere.
I got home at 1am, and because of Daylight Saving, I didn't get to sleep till 4am!
It was a really good night though, and a good way to celebrate the last year of my pharmacy degree!
After I got my music classes out of the way in the morning, I got home and mucked around and finally got around to sorting out what I was going to wear which was not hard since I'm a guy...black suit right? I was also going to wear the Tweety Bird tie that I had been given for my birthday earlier this year. The only dilemma was what colour my shirt would be! I didn't want to wear white as that was too plain, and so my mum gave me a red shirt. It just didn't match though, and so in the last minute I changed to a black shirt. It looked much better! To top it off, I had a surgical mask just for the theme - Masquerade! :D
Our church was having a Mid-Autumn Festival shared dinner that night as well, and because my family wanted to eat, I had to go with them to church in my suit! People were wondering why I was dressed so nicely! I jokingly told them I dressed just for the occasion!
After my dad had a chance to eat and I had caught up with some of the guys, my dad took me to the ball at Eden Park. Because there was a lot of construction work going on around the area, we drove around the stadium several times before we went down the wrong driveway and was told the entrance was somewhere else. I just decided to look for it on foot to avoid my dad getting honked at by others! I eventually found it.
When I got inside I joined some of my pharmacy friends at their table before going around taking photos with some people. Everyone looked really...nice! (I can't think of a better word right now!) I also managed to find my dissertation group (or three quarters of it!) to get a photo with them!
The ball finally got underway, with some speeches by members of the APSA (Auckland Pharmacy Students Association) committee, and the class reps. For our year, the best couple award was awarded to Ali and Ibs which was quite funny as they both danced together later in the night! The guest speaker was this accountant.
After all the speeches, it was time for dinner! Dinner was a lot better than dinner at last year's ball at the Hilton Hotel. There was ham, deep-fried chicken, wedges, salad...you get the picture! I hadn't eaten all day so I was really hungry by then. I thought I could handle a second plate, which mainly consisted of deep-fried food, but I was soon bloated by the time I finished it!
Dessert was a bit of a disappointment though. We all lined up to get stamped and receive our one Magnum chocolate ice-block. I suppose it didn't matter too much since I was quite full by then!
For the rest of the night we did a lot of dancing! I was too full to dance well...not that I can dance well in the first place!
I had to take a break during the night by hanging out with some of the guys in the foyer as the music was quite loud! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the music. I like dance/techno music that you can actually dance to, unlike that hippity-hoppity stuff!
People started leaving after 11, and by midnight I had called my parents to come pick me up. They didn't come for another half an hour, and even then we had to figure out how to meet up with all the roadworks everywhere.
I got home at 1am, and because of Daylight Saving, I didn't get to sleep till 4am!
It was a really good night though, and a good way to celebrate the last year of my pharmacy degree!
Thursday 23 September 2010
Rush to the Finish Line
Our big research dissertation project is due on the 4th October, which is just over a week from now! I can't believe how close that is! Our groups have been working on our research projects all year, and soon it will be over! Actually...we'll still have individual interviews as well as group presentations to do before it is finally finished!
We've been having weekly meetings with our supervisors checking that we're on the right track. I've recently been working on the results section and the abstract. Our results is still a bit of a mess but hopefully we'll get it sorted out by tomorrow so our supervisors can read through our project one final time. It's over 40 pages long!
Today we finally had our exit-test on our Geriatrics module. It was funny in that one girl from our year was running late, and so one of her friends called out, asking for them to wait before starting the test to give her time to arrive! We all cheered when she did arrive though!
What's also equally cool is that one of the guys in our year is organising a leavers' hoodie for our year! See if you can spot my name!
We've been having weekly meetings with our supervisors checking that we're on the right track. I've recently been working on the results section and the abstract. Our results is still a bit of a mess but hopefully we'll get it sorted out by tomorrow so our supervisors can read through our project one final time. It's over 40 pages long!
Today we finally had our exit-test on our Geriatrics module. It was funny in that one girl from our year was running late, and so one of her friends called out, asking for them to wait before starting the test to give her time to arrive! We all cheered when she did arrive though!
What's also equally cool is that one of the guys in our year is organising a leavers' hoodie for our year! See if you can spot my name!
Tuesday 21 September 2010
RIP USB Stick
Last Friday I was in the Pharmacy Resource Room in Grafton working on my research dissertation with my group, when my USB stick just stopped working. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, but the computer didn't recognise it. At the time I didn't think much of it, as that sometimes happens with USB sticks right?
Well yesterday when one of the girls in my research group tried transferring a file to my USB stick, her laptop couldn't recognise my USB stick either, and neither would one of the IC computers! I tried three computers at home and none of them would work as well! They all said there was no media in the drive!
I can't remember how much of my USB stick I had backed up, so I could well have lost a lot of my work from the past year! Arrrgghhh!!!
I ended up buying a new USB stick after class today before my Dessert Club meeting. I was going to buy an iPod Touch (and started to get an urge to buy the Samsung Galaxy S...but...one thing at a time...) but they haven't come in yet!
Saturday 18 September 2010
Music for a Good Cause
All our rehearsals and practices were about to pay off. Tonight was the Med School Fundraiser II, the second such concert in two years. Donations from tonight's concert were going towards the National Heart Foundation.
We had a rehearsal in the Grafton campus cafe in the afternoon, so I had to go straight from music teaching to rehearsal. We weren't too bad although there were some places we were a little shaky in. We rehearsed for a few hours before we finished. By then we only had a couple hours before we had to be at the music school ready for our final dress rehearsal!
I only just had enough time to go home, get dressed and then get taken by my dad to the music school! A few others arrived at the same time as me though so at least I didn't come late!
I set up my camera before joining the orchestra for a run-through of our pieces. We actually didn't sound too bad! We had a few extra people in our orchestra who were roped in, including a bassoonist! They are really rare!
Once rehearsal was over, we had about an hour before we were due to perform, as we were performing in the second half. The first half consisted of solo performances by various medicine students such as David Choi, our concert master last year! I think he was a bit too busy to continue this year.
A few of us decided to go have dinner at this Chinese restaurant called Neighbours. I asked one of my friends to suggest something for me to eat, preferably dry but she accidentally chose soup noodles! That's OK though, because it was nice and I managed to eat carefully enough so as to not spill any on my white shirt!
That all took an hour, and we soon headed back to the music school to prepare for our performance. Once we got our instruments ready, we waited in the foyer where I continued my debate with Tina and Megan, two optometry students who have been dissing pharmacy (because they know how much better it is than optometry!)
Once the first half and interval was over, it was time for our performance! We performed three pieces: 1st Movement of Symphony No. 6 (Pastorale) by Beethoven, Slavonic Dances No. 3 and 4 by Dvorak. Throughout our performance I kept an eye on my camera at the back of the theatre, hoping no one would knock it over! I then started wondering if I actually pushed the 'Record' button!Our performance came off well, or at least we didn't stop or screw up! It was really fun being a part of an orchestra. I'll have to see if they'll let me in again next year!
Growing Some Balls
Teaching music was difficult this morning for completely different reasons!
I was in the middle of teaching a class when a couple of kids came in and just wandered around! I asked them if they were here for anything and they said they just wanted to listen, so I got them to sit on one of the couches and asked them not to touch anything.
I continued teaching, but they got up and sat at the desk group my students were sitting at. I thought...OK maybe I'll try teach them as well, but they kept making noise! One kept going over to the whiteboard and drawing on the whiteboard! I had to ask him to put it down.
The rain started to come down and I saw them rush to the classroom door to lock the door and saw some heads pop up in the window. They had another two friends and asked if they could come in because it was raining. I really didn't want to let them in, but I didn't know what to do as it was raining, so I said they could come in as long as they sat in the back of the classroom, kept quiet and didn't touch anything.
Once the class I was teaching had ended and the rain stopped, I asked them to go outside and have fun out there, as my last class would be big. They did go out, but during my last class they came in again! I had to tell them to sit down in the corner if they wanted to remain inside, but they kept making noise so I had to keep telling them to be quiet, and one of the parents also told them to stop distracting my class as well!
I eventually finished teaching and locked up the classroom before heading off to violin lessons. The bad thing is they came in and started mucking around in the hall during our violin lesson as well! The violin teacher soon told them to leave too.
The annoying thing though is they attend this school, so I really hope I don't have to deal with them again! I'll have to be a lot tougher on them!
I was in the middle of teaching a class when a couple of kids came in and just wandered around! I asked them if they were here for anything and they said they just wanted to listen, so I got them to sit on one of the couches and asked them not to touch anything.
I continued teaching, but they got up and sat at the desk group my students were sitting at. I thought...OK maybe I'll try teach them as well, but they kept making noise! One kept going over to the whiteboard and drawing on the whiteboard! I had to ask him to put it down.
The rain started to come down and I saw them rush to the classroom door to lock the door and saw some heads pop up in the window. They had another two friends and asked if they could come in because it was raining. I really didn't want to let them in, but I didn't know what to do as it was raining, so I said they could come in as long as they sat in the back of the classroom, kept quiet and didn't touch anything.
Once the class I was teaching had ended and the rain stopped, I asked them to go outside and have fun out there, as my last class would be big. They did go out, but during my last class they came in again! I had to tell them to sit down in the corner if they wanted to remain inside, but they kept making noise so I had to keep telling them to be quiet, and one of the parents also told them to stop distracting my class as well!
I eventually finished teaching and locked up the classroom before heading off to violin lessons. The bad thing is they came in and started mucking around in the hall during our violin lesson as well! The violin teacher soon told them to leave too.
The annoying thing though is they attend this school, so I really hope I don't have to deal with them again! I'll have to be a lot tougher on them!
Thursday 16 September 2010
Ratbags!
Tonight my brothers and I went to watch the Rangeview Intermediate School production 'Ratbags' along with two of our church friends and youth group leaders Gabrielle and Tim. We haven't attended Rangeview in almost a decade, but we're still quite close to the music teacher Miss Rai, and Eva, a girl in our youth group was in the production too!
The production was pretty much about a town overrun by rats, and so the town mayor had to hire an army of rats to get rid of the rats. OK I think you get the idea!
The production brought back memories of what intermediate school was like way back ten years ago!
I have to say the production was pretty good! They could sing and the choir and orchestra were pretty good too!
Eva had a bit of a solo part towards the end of the production too!
We also saw a few familiar faces there on the night too. During the break we caught up with our old Rutherford College principal Mr Moore. At the end of the production I saw a familiar face, and realised it was the old deputy-principal of Rangeview Intermediate, Mr Aldridge! He left in the middle of my second year at Rangeview to do some mission work in the Philippines. He was back now and on the Board of Trustees of Rangeview Intermediate.
I was quite surprised that he recognised my brothers and me! We talked quite a bit before I went to catch up with Eva before she left.
On our way out, we caught up with Miss Rai the music teacher and complimented her on her orchestra's performance. She would tell all the passing teachers about us!
It was a good catch-up and once again Rangeview put on a good show!
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Sucked In
So after an early morning law workshop and a long day working on the dissertation project at Grafton, I walked over to the city to find out when the new iPod Touch would be going on sale.
I was walking down Queen Street, which was quite busy probably because of all the school kids enjoying their day off (due to that teachers' strike grrr!) when I was approached by some lady holding a book. She said she liked my yellow shoes and that it was my lucky day because she was giving away a book to people wearing yellow shoes and I happened to be the first one she had come across (OK...)
Anyway, I knew where this was heading and that she would try telling me all about her religion and convert me. Usually by now I would've told her I had a bus to catch, but I was too slow and got sucked in! I thought I might as well be courteous and listen to her.
She opened the book (she said she was going to give me) to the page above, and asked me if I knew what that blue thing was. I asked
"Is that the soul?"
"Very good! You're onto it! Did you think of that yourself or did you read the caption?"
"I read the caption"
I knew what it was anyway, but that was the easy answer. She then just casually chatted to me about what I was studying before she gave me the book and....asked for a donation! By now the book was already in my hands and I felt bad to just give it back and say no.
I did try say that I didn't have too much money, and to my surprise she pointed to the nearest ATM! To get out of this situation the easiest, the fastest way I could think of was to just give her some money and be done with it, so I got my wallet out and rummaged through it to find something, and she happened to see a note or two in my wallet and suggested I donated that. With no choice (well I did have a choice but you know what I'm like..) I just gave it to her and went on my way.
I did feel pretty stupid after that. I ended up paying for a book on another religion to which I don't belong to. I guess I can still read it just to get an idea of what Hare Krishna is all about..
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Honesty
We had lectures on drug misuse and substance abuse this morning, and at the end was asked to fill out an unrelated survey on academic honesty. There were questions on whether we had cheated before etc. and then there was another section where we had to indicate how strongly we agreed with the provided statements, one being
"I have sometimes doubted my ability as a lover"
I won't tell you how I answered that one though!
Sunday 12 September 2010
Making it to the Next Stage
A week after our not-so-polished first go at presenting a practice case, this time was the real deal - the Management Consulting Club (MCC) Business Case Competition!
We had to be at uni early in the morning at 8.50am. I realised it wasn't as early as I first thought, so I caught a later bus but found myself bordering on being late! Fortunately I got there in time!
We were given our case and were then led to a room upstairs in the Business School to start working on the case for three hours.
This time our case focused on a Chinese brewery which had expanded rapidly in the last decade by purchasing over 40 subsidiaries in China. The subsidiaries weren't working together though and they had over 100 different brands. The issue was how to get these subsidiaries working together and more efficiently.
Once again I was the strategy person, who would be talking about why the issues were important and introducing and explaining our strategy. I managed to find time before our three hours was up to practise my bit and ensure I was under my allocated three minutes. In fact, I could recite my part in 2 minutes and 30 seconds!
After the three hours, it was time to present! This time our presentation went quite smoothly. We all didn't rely too much on our slides, and we finished under 10 minutes!
We got asked a few questions by the two judges. This time I didn't answer any as I didn't want to jeopardise the team's chances.
It looks like I didn't though, as we were called into the room about half an hour later to hear the results and get feedback, and guess what? Our team made it into the semifinals! There were four teams in our round and only one team would progress. They said they liked our presentation!
The semifinals are going to take place this Saturday though, so I might have to get Aonghas to teach some of my classes for me!
On my way to the bus, I caught up with my old high school friend Zahir, and as we walked through Albert Park we realised the fog/cloud was so thick we couldn't even see the Sky Tower!
He also took me to this kebab place where I tried a kebab and I have to say it tasted good!
Saturday 11 September 2010
Shredded to Pieces
Today was the Management Consulting Club Business Case Competition Semi-Finals. Because our preparation time was to start at midday, I wasn't able to teach all my recorder classes and had to leave early, so I got Aonghas to take over halfway through.
I got there a little early, so I just did a bit of study before going up and joining the team. Once again we were taken to a small room, given our cases and three hours to discuss and prepare our presentation.
This time though the case was quite tricky! The case was on Al Capone, a famous American gang leader who made millions selling alcohol during the prohibition era in the USA. There was high tension between gangs and he was worried for his safety. He was also spending a lot on bribing the cops and corrupt politicians.
We were having trouble coming up with a strategy for this case and ended up putting together something we weren't 100% confident on.
We didn't have as much time to practise either. By the time three hours was up, we went into the room to present our case. This time our judges were from respected firms like Deloitte!
Our presentation didn't go too badly. We finished just in time. However, question time was quite tough! The judges ripped into us! They didn't seem to agree with our strategy. I managed to answer one question this time though!
I wasn't able to stay to hear the results as I had to get back home to finish...or maybe start...my assignment that's due this coming Monday.
I later got a text message from Alice, my friend who got me into this, that sadly we didn't make the finals.
I feel a little bad that maybe I let the team down. I sure hope I didn't though!
It was a good experience doing something outside of pharmacy and away from science for once though!
I got there a little early, so I just did a bit of study before going up and joining the team. Once again we were taken to a small room, given our cases and three hours to discuss and prepare our presentation.
This time though the case was quite tricky! The case was on Al Capone, a famous American gang leader who made millions selling alcohol during the prohibition era in the USA. There was high tension between gangs and he was worried for his safety. He was also spending a lot on bribing the cops and corrupt politicians.
We were having trouble coming up with a strategy for this case and ended up putting together something we weren't 100% confident on.
We didn't have as much time to practise either. By the time three hours was up, we went into the room to present our case. This time our judges were from respected firms like Deloitte!
Our presentation didn't go too badly. We finished just in time. However, question time was quite tough! The judges ripped into us! They didn't seem to agree with our strategy. I managed to answer one question this time though!
I wasn't able to stay to hear the results as I had to get back home to finish...or maybe start...my assignment that's due this coming Monday.
I later got a text message from Alice, my friend who got me into this, that sadly we didn't make the finals.
I feel a little bad that maybe I let the team down. I sure hope I didn't though!
It was a good experience doing something outside of pharmacy and away from science for once though!
Wednesday 8 September 2010
University of Auckland Slips Again
The latest QS World University Rankings for 2010 have been released, and the news isn't that great for NZ universities:
- University of Auckland drops from 61= to 68th, lying right between University of Texas in Austin and University of Sheffield
- University of Otago drops from 125 to 135
- University of Canterbury drops from 88 to 89
- University of Victoria has risen from 229 to 225 though
The top universities will come as no great surprise though:
1. University of Cambridge
2. Harvard University
3. Yale University
4. UCL (University College London)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
20. Australian National University
23. University of Hong Kong
24. University of Tokyo, The
31. National University of Singapore
37. University of Sydney
41. New York University
50. Seoul National University
61. Monash University
68. University of Auckland
94. Taiwan National University
130. University of Virginia
135. University of Otago
142. Yonsei University
189. University of Canterbury
- University of Auckland drops from 61= to 68th, lying right between University of Texas in Austin and University of Sheffield
- University of Otago drops from 125 to 135
- University of Canterbury drops from 88 to 89
- University of Victoria has risen from 229 to 225 though
The top universities will come as no great surprise though:
1. University of Cambridge
2. Harvard University
3. Yale University
4. UCL (University College London)
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
20. Australian National University
23. University of Hong Kong
24. University of Tokyo, The
31. National University of Singapore
37. University of Sydney
41. New York University
50. Seoul National University
61. Monash University
68. University of Auckland
94. Taiwan National University
130. University of Virginia
135. University of Otago
142. Yonsei University
189. University of Canterbury
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Where's my Dream Phone?
After the announcement of the new iPod Touch, I've been tempted to buy the latest iPod Touch as a stop-gap measure till my dream phone is designed and being sold. I figured I'd just keep using my existing Sony Ericsson K800i that I've had for the past four years and use the iPod Touch to surf the net and for all the other apps.
What has made the iPod Touch even more tempting to buy this time around compared to past generations is that it has both a front and rear-facing camera as well as HD video recording. I could use it as a pocket camera/video camera as well. Today though I discovered that the rear camera is not as good as the iPhone's, or any previous iPhone for that matter!
That led to me to rethink my desire to buy an iPod Touch. Rather than spend the $489 on one and then trying to sell it after (or keeping it) and spending extra money to buy another device. Maybe I should just spend money on one device and not bother buying the iPod Touch.
The only thing...which phone to buy?
These are the specs I'm looking for:
- Touch Screen (preferably min. AMOLED, capacitative and no smaller than 3.5")
- 1 Ghz processor
- Front facing camera
- Rear camera (min. 5 megapixels)
- Flash (min. LED flash, preferably Xenon flash)
- Android
- GPS
- Wifi, bluetooth, 3G
The main contenders I've been looking at so far have been:
iPhone - pretty much meets all of the above, but antennagate makes me feel slightly weary about it. I also don't know about the restrictions and the need to use iTunes. I don't think it has a flash either
HTC Desire - Fulfills most criteria and has HTC Sense which is quite good according to my brother and critics, but has no front-facing camera
Samsung Galaxy S - Fulfills most criteria, but I've heard the camera isn't too good and it has Samsung's TouchWiz which isn't as good as HTC Sense. It doesn't have a flash either
Nokia N8 - Isn't available yet, but apparently has a really good camera. It's also touch screen as well. Only downfall is it runs Symbian which isn't exactly the best mobile OS and it has a slower processor
I know I shouldn't be picky and I probably should decide which specs and hardware is most important to me. I'm just very cautious after I bought my current phone (K800i) and have been having to put up with all these faults, such as the joystick-like button not working properly, the internal memory being extremely slow and the video camera quality being very poor.
I've been keeping an eye out for rumours of new phones supposedly being developed to see if any of them are my dream phone, and so far this HTC phone looks promising. It may be slightly big at 4.3" though, but I guess that wouldn't be too bad if it has all of the above specs!
There is also Windows Phone 7 coming out in the next couple of months, but I'd rather go for a more mature OS like Android for now and wait to see how Windows Phone 7 comes along. We all know what happened to Microsoft's Kin phones...
I don't know whether to wait for future phones (you could always end up waiting for something better in the future and find yourself never getting anything in the end) or to make a decision on one of the phones listed above!
What has made the iPod Touch even more tempting to buy this time around compared to past generations is that it has both a front and rear-facing camera as well as HD video recording. I could use it as a pocket camera/video camera as well. Today though I discovered that the rear camera is not as good as the iPhone's, or any previous iPhone for that matter!
That led to me to rethink my desire to buy an iPod Touch. Rather than spend the $489 on one and then trying to sell it after (or keeping it) and spending extra money to buy another device. Maybe I should just spend money on one device and not bother buying the iPod Touch.
The only thing...which phone to buy?
These are the specs I'm looking for:
- Touch Screen (preferably min. AMOLED, capacitative and no smaller than 3.5")
- 1 Ghz processor
- Front facing camera
- Rear camera (min. 5 megapixels)
- Flash (min. LED flash, preferably Xenon flash)
- Android
- GPS
- Wifi, bluetooth, 3G
The main contenders I've been looking at so far have been:
iPhone - pretty much meets all of the above, but antennagate makes me feel slightly weary about it. I also don't know about the restrictions and the need to use iTunes. I don't think it has a flash either
HTC Desire - Fulfills most criteria and has HTC Sense which is quite good according to my brother and critics, but has no front-facing camera
Samsung Galaxy S - Fulfills most criteria, but I've heard the camera isn't too good and it has Samsung's TouchWiz which isn't as good as HTC Sense. It doesn't have a flash eitherNokia N8 - Isn't available yet, but apparently has a really good camera. It's also touch screen as well. Only downfall is it runs Symbian which isn't exactly the best mobile OS and it has a slower processor
I know I shouldn't be picky and I probably should decide which specs and hardware is most important to me. I'm just very cautious after I bought my current phone (K800i) and have been having to put up with all these faults, such as the joystick-like button not working properly, the internal memory being extremely slow and the video camera quality being very poor.
I've been keeping an eye out for rumours of new phones supposedly being developed to see if any of them are my dream phone, and so far this HTC phone looks promising. It may be slightly big at 4.3" though, but I guess that wouldn't be too bad if it has all of the above specs!
There is also Windows Phone 7 coming out in the next couple of months, but I'd rather go for a more mature OS like Android for now and wait to see how Windows Phone 7 comes along. We all know what happened to Microsoft's Kin phones...
I don't know whether to wait for future phones (you could always end up waiting for something better in the future and find yourself never getting anything in the end) or to make a decision on one of the phones listed above!
Sunday 5 September 2010
Cracking the Code
I had an interesting conversation with one of my youth group leaders on Friday night, who started talking to me about girls before hinting something to me and telling me I should make the first move...hmmm....
We then had a special baptism service on Sunday where I had to mop the guys toilet floors (which was a bit more time-consuming than I thought!). I mentioned my conversation to a few people at church during lunch afterwards and they seemed to agree. They all told me it would be hard to find a girlfriend once I leave uni and so I should do something about it soon! They're all starting to put the pressure on me now!
I then caught up with...I won't mention her name but someone I haven't talked to in a while at church and we were just catching up for a while when she caught me off-guard by asking
"How's Person X?"
Apparently she had noticed something between us for ages but had never said anything to me about it till now! I didn't think I sent out signals! Surely I'm not that obvious...that is if I am interested in anyone?
We then had a special baptism service on Sunday where I had to mop the guys toilet floors (which was a bit more time-consuming than I thought!). I mentioned my conversation to a few people at church during lunch afterwards and they seemed to agree. They all told me it would be hard to find a girlfriend once I leave uni and so I should do something about it soon! They're all starting to put the pressure on me now!
I then caught up with...I won't mention her name but someone I haven't talked to in a while at church and we were just catching up for a while when she caught me off-guard by asking
"How's Person X?"
Apparently she had noticed something between us for ages but had never said anything to me about it till now! I didn't think I sent out signals! Surely I'm not that obvious...that is if I am interested in anyone?
Friday 3 September 2010
Coming up with a Case
I went to uni early in the morning this morning (especially for a holiday!) to meet up with my friend Alice and two other guys to take part in this practice case as part of the Management Consulting Club Case Competition (or something like that).
Earlier in the week Alice had asked me if I'd be interested in taking part as she was looking for another member. Originally I wasn't so sure as I don't study commerce and was afraid I'd be more of a liability than an asset to the team (like that business-speak right there? :D) In the end I thought, why not? I've only got six more weeks of uni left to go. I might as well give it a go and have something else to add to my CV!
So this is how it goes - we were given a case which was maybe over 20 pages long, and given three hours to read it, come up with a strategy to help the business improve sales and then prepare our presentation that we would have to do in front of the judges.
We spent about 40 minutes reading and while I first thought we had plenty of time, we soon had to rush towards our allocated time!
Once time was up, we went to a case room to make our presentation in front of two judges. We didn't do too badly, although I think I talked a bit too much and even missed a few things since I couldn't remember what I had written on my slides! We ended up running out of time!
We had ten minutes of question time. Alice and Kevin, one of the other guys, answered most of the questions, although I did manage to say a little bit!
We got given some feedback from the judges but mainly on presentation. Hopefully we'll be better next week!
I had to go up to Grafton for an MHSSSO (Medical and Health Sciences Students Symphony Orchestra) rehearsal as we're having a performance in a few weeks' time. We did sectionals for the first hour and a half though, which was scary since I was the only viola player there! The conductor kept picking on me!
Afterwards we all joined together to rehearse before we finished by 4pm. I bumped into Chen and just went off for some Subway before catching up with Natalie, one of my pharmacy friends.
Later in the night we had youth group, which we didn't really do much except prepare the Fathers Day presents for the fathers on Sunday, and just talked for most of the time.
Wednesday 1 September 2010
A Lunch that Brought Back Memories
This morning I finally managed to get my mum to give me a haircut after the AA man came to fix our car. She was going to go get the warrant of fitness for the car after I got out of the shower, which meant I'd have nothing to eat for lunch! Yes, yes...I'm too dependent on my mum!
Anyway, fortunately I was saved when Chen texted me asking if I'd like to join him and his girlfriend Rose for lunch today down at Subway. At first I was thinking he meant the one outside the Grafton campus, but it was a relief that he meant the local one not far away (I completely forgot about that one!).
I was just leaving the house when Chen texted me to tell me Rose was waiting outside my house! I spotted her and we walked down to Subway where we met up with Chen for lunch. I tried a wrap for the first time! The 6 inch wrap didn't last very long though!
The wrap didn't completely fill me so we went over to Long John Silver to buy some fries (I should've bought the fish burger! It looked a whole lot yummier!)
We wandered over to the nearby playground and domain to check out this taniwha that was decorated with clay hands that we made way back when we were primary school kids! I haven't checked it out for years! Luckily, way back then when I made my clay hand, I marked my initials CA in it and they're still visible today! I have left my mark!
We just sat around talking while we took turns on the swing.
After a while we decided to head off home, so Chen went one way and Rose and I walked home.
It was a good catch-up and a trip down memory lane!
Anyway, fortunately I was saved when Chen texted me asking if I'd like to join him and his girlfriend Rose for lunch today down at Subway. At first I was thinking he meant the one outside the Grafton campus, but it was a relief that he meant the local one not far away (I completely forgot about that one!).
I was just leaving the house when Chen texted me to tell me Rose was waiting outside my house! I spotted her and we walked down to Subway where we met up with Chen for lunch. I tried a wrap for the first time! The 6 inch wrap didn't last very long though!
The wrap didn't completely fill me so we went over to Long John Silver to buy some fries (I should've bought the fish burger! It looked a whole lot yummier!)
We wandered over to the nearby playground and domain to check out this taniwha that was decorated with clay hands that we made way back when we were primary school kids! I haven't checked it out for years! Luckily, way back then when I made my clay hand, I marked my initials CA in it and they're still visible today! I have left my mark!
We just sat around talking while we took turns on the swing.
After a while we decided to head off home, so Chen went one way and Rose and I walked home.
It was a good catch-up and a trip down memory lane!
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