My Game of Life

Saturday, December 09, 2006

YEAH!! I'm back in action, baby!

Mr Ong finally fixed the computer and delivered it back yesterday evening. And after a little tweaking here and there and a cheque for $290, we are back in business!

And its soooo lucky that Jay partitioned my hard drive, so i still had all my setups for Opera, Firefox, SCO and all the stuff. But updating them takes quite a long time too. =/

The graphic card was replaced, and the new one's much more powerful. When i tried out SCO earlier, i was quite amazed. The graphics were suddenly so stunning (or maybe it was just the shock of not having been able to play it for more than 2 weeks...)

Actually, my father had wanted to take up the SingNet broadband offer where they gave you a free computer for a $63/mth plan, so he didn't have to spend extra money repairing this computer. Right now, we're using a $60/mth one. But the Terms and Conditions were something alogn the lines of "You have to stick to this plan for 24 months, and if you break the contract, you have the pay the prevailing price of the freebies." And there's a lot of hidden costs too, like $42 for "registration fees", and if you want to upgrade/downgrade, you have to pay an extra few hundred dollars.

Being the businessman that he was, my father outrighteously declined it, since broadband subscription rates were set to drop drastically in the next few months/year, with the free Wireless@SG, competition from M1 and all that. And if you signed up from the plan with all the freebies, you'll have to pay $63 every month for 2 years, even if prices drop to like, $30 or something. Do the math, and you find out that you end up paying a few hundred dollars anyway.

In the business world, nothing is free.

So what have i been doing the 2 weeks while the computer refused to work? I've taken the chacne to read like crazy, since that's about the only thing i don't mind spending hours on, other than the computer. (No, i don't watch Kids Central or a dozen assorted murders.) And ive (finally) started reading Terry Prachett's Discworld's novels, and i realise why Yiyong's been egging me to read them. It's amazing how many hilarious synonyms Prachett can come up with for just a single jokes. Not to mention the dirty jokes, which are hidden under the guise of "little jittery things" and "equipment in the sewing basket". Not to mention his creativity in getting a vampire to be a flash photographer (or salamander iconographer, depending on the time-space plane which you happen to be on.)

Nowadays, i always frequent the "PRA" section under "Adult Fiction" (don't get the wrong ideas) whenever i visit the library. Which was once every a couple of days, since i could finish a novel in about half a day without the computer around. And my parents (especially my mother) actually remark that my lifestyle that way without the computer is better. Eh, wait...Lying on my bed reading books is better than sitting in front of the computer, exercising my fingers as they churn out post after post?! (imo they're about the same, only difference is in the Input/Output and which muscles get exercised.)

They may "wish the computer never gets repaired", but i certainly beg to differ.

Only problem is that ill be off (again) from later today until Monday afternoon on a last-minute-ly-planned trip to Genting with my uncle (no, no the one that passed away, doh) and his family. Apparently he has some sort of reward points which are about to expire so he wants to use them up before that. And he has more than 1k points, with each point having a value of 1 buck (im not sure whetehr its SGD or Ringgit) and can be used for accomodation, food, gambling etc. Yeah, he frequents the casino there, which probably explains why he accumulated so many points.

So in these short few hours before i leave, in between mess-patching Messenger and enduring my brother's relentless pleads to let him "play computer" even though his games aren't installed yet, im going to have to do quite a few things:

LZC's PRIORITIES FOR 9/12/06
#1. Get a new tagboard. I'm quite sick of seeing the message "Your Free NeoBoard will be back as soon as new server resources are available," when i'm expecting some sort of comments or spam. Done! But haven't had time to do up the settings and format

#2. Pack my stuff for the trip. Done!

#3. Level up to 57 in SCO!! (and enjoy the great new graphics which i've been deprived of for quite a while already)

#4. Do the sickening Creative Arts programme portfolio. I'm supposed to include 8 - 15 pages of works, excluding drafts and reflections (1 set for each piece in the portfolio), and get it all done by 12 Jan. What a horrid way to end the holidays.

'Twas teh winnar at 12:38 pm.