A while ago, the lunch gang was discussing our first album (cds or cassette tapes). My first album was a cassette tape of a compilation of hit songs at that time, called Mega Hit Vol. 4 (or was it Vol. 3?). I got it when I was in Form 2; so it was in 1991, almost 17 years ago. At the time, everyone at school had a walkman and to stay with the crowd I got my own walkman (for people who really know me, they can really relate to this; I have been known to buy things, not because I needed them, but because someone else had bought them and I did not want to be the one not cool enough to have them! Acer, gimp-styled PDA case, HP hand-held PC, Sony Clio and the list goes on……).
But anyway, back to the album. Mega Hits 4 (or was it Vol. 3?) was the first original (not pirated or dubbed) cassette tape that I bought. It was my first English album and it introduced me to Vanilla Ice, Wilson Phillips, Paula Abdul and the likes.
Somehow during our discussion, we realised that at some point we had the album in our possession, either purchased or borrowed. We all had fond memories of the album and we could recall most of the songs in the album (tho I cannot really remember them now!). When we got back to the office, we set ourselves some tasks to find out more about this album and thought it would be cool to actually collect the songs again. After various searches through Yahoo and Google, we could not find much information about the album. Probably because it was made and marketed especially for South-east Asian market.
Last week, I was talking to this good friend of mine about this particular DJ from Kristal FM who played a lot of old skool songs in her show. We then talked about songs that were released in the 80’s and 90’s. I proceeded to tell him about our frustration in trying to find the Mega Hit series. I was then pleasantly surprised when he told me that he had the first two volumes of the Mega Hit series.
I now have both cds with me. So if you fancy a trip down the memory lane, just let me know. I may be able to lend them to you.
And if you have Mega Hit Vol. 3 or 4, would you mind if I borrow it?
I got myself a new toy, in the form of Sony Ericcson P1i. It’s a touch screen mobile phone, complete with wi-fi, on top of the normal diet of bluetooth, external memory card (in this case a Memory Stick Micro), infra-red and WAP. It also sports a 3.2MP camera; not bad considering just a few years ago the top of the line point-and-shoot digital cameras were mostly 3.2MP cameras. There is also a small camera at the front on the phone, which enables you to conduct a video call (but how many people actually do video calling??). It’s a 3G phone, so when DST finally launches 3G (some time in April I heard), this phone can still be used.
This phone replaces its bulkier and heavier older cousin, the P900i.
The keypads on the phone are something new to me. The letters on the keypads are ‘not alphabetically arranged’, you know abc, def, ghi, and so on. The phone has QWERTY keypads, similar to the ones on your computer keyboard. Trying to input into the phone will need a bit of practice too, as two letters are assigned to one button. So if you want Q, you press the left side of the button and if you want W, you press the rigth hand side of the button. See the picture and you will know what I mean.
(Update: the phone is even more difficult to use while driving; I know it’s a bad habit, but everyone must have done it at least once before. So hopefully, with the difficulty, I’ll drop this bad habit! So the phone is really useful!)
I love the fact that the phone has wi-fi connection. I am not one who would be lugging a laptop around if I happen to join the gang for coffee somewhere with internet access. So this phone will now enable me to do some net surfing while on the go. This will be especially useful as I often now miss the football matches during the weekend and I can now keep up with the football scores via the phone’s wi-fi connection. And perhaps one day I can post my blog from the phone?
I joined the social networking website Facebook around four months ago. When I first started, I really liked the idea of adding applications, where I could poke my friends, throw silly things to them, give them gifts and whatever else my heart desire.
Now, four months down the line, my Gmail (which I used to register my Facebook account with) account is getting hijacked by the various Facebook-affiliated application providers, which sent emails for whatever event. I definitely did not need to know if someone viewed my profile or if someone took a stupid quiz and challenged me to better his/her score. Nowadays, 90% of the emails that I received through my Gmail account are these stupid notification emails.
What else do I hate about Facebook now? I hate it whenever I do some ‘what type of lover/kisser/human being/animal’ kind of quiz, I need to send emails and invite my friends to do the same quiz so that I can find out ‘what type of lover/kisser/human being/animal’ I am. That is spam, isn’t it?? And what irritates me more is that sometimes I need to invite something like 50 friends to get the result, where I currently only have 42 friends! Are they trying to tell me to make more friends??
There seems to be an endless amount of applications on Facebook. After not logging in for a few days, now I have 50 invites for applications. I am just going to ignore them now; I wished there was this function where I could just ignore them all with the press of just one button.
Now I have 224 applications on my profile. I do not know if anyone else experiences this, but somehow my Internet Explorer slows down a lot, or worse still freezes, whenever I go to Facebook.
I think I will sit down properly one of these days and delete all those applications that I do not really need. I do not want to delete my account on Facebook; I agree it’s one of the best place to keep in touch with friends, long-lost or not. I just think I need to manage my account properly.
I am no Barry Norman or Jonathan Ross (for the uninitiated, these two gentlemen were movie critics on ‘Film’, a movie review television program on BBC when I was studying in the UK; I could not find the RTB/RTM equivalent of these men), but I will try to write a little something about one of the two movies that I watched over the weekend.
WARNING: May content spoilers!
My weekend gang and I watched Vantage Point at the Mall Cinema. It starred Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox (he of the Jack Shephard fame from Lost) and Forest Whitaker (Academy Award Winner for ‘The Last King of Scotland’) among other actors that I did not really recognise. The movie revolved around an assassination attempt on the President of the United States of America during an international summit. The story was told from 5 different perspective, each from the different characters of the movie. The movie as a whole was good; I’d give it 7 out of 10. There were a few things that were nagging me till now. I am not a security expert, but having the most powerful man in the world appear on an outdoor stage during a summit to fight terrorism must be a crazy idea. Won’t it be a security nightmare trying to ensure the safety of Mr. President during such event? Won’t you think that the terrorists might want to show their might during the summit? And I think Matthem Fox’s character in the movie is quite insignificant; I even thought he was in the movie to pull the ladies into the cinema.
Because the movie revolved around 5 different perspective of the same event, everytime a new perspective was to be told, the scene went back to the ‘starting point’ of that event. I overheard someone behind our row complaining that she was getting confused with the event getting told over and over again, tho from different perspective. There was also a point when someone shouted a character’s name, as if to guess from whose perspective the movie was to be told.
Go ahead and watch the movie whenever you can. The Americans who spent USD22.8 million watching this movie over the 22nd Feb weekend and sending it to the top of the USA Box Office cannot be wrong, can they?
I got this pencil sharpener from our stationery supply room. I somehow missed the point of the sharpener having 2 holes. Both are of the same size, therefore for pencils of the same size. Apparent–ly it has something to do with the sharpened end of the pencil, i.e. how sharp you want your pencil to be.
Condolences to a good friend of mine, Cookiedough, and her family on the sudden demise of her beloved father. He passed away peacefully in the morning of Monday, 18 Safar 1429 Hijrah/25 February 2008.
I am saddened and shocked on hearing the news. You are always in my thoughts and hang in there, babe.
Here’s congratulating my fellow Bruneians on the occasion of the 24th National Day of Brunei Darussalam.
Remember what JF Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Go here to visit the official website of the National Day Celebration.
Enjoy the long weekend. If you are going somewhere, please drive with care. Do not forget your seatbelts and never use your mobile phones while driving.
On Thursday 21 February, a group of us from the Technical Services Function visited Pusat Ehsan in Kg. Bengkurong. It was part of our monthly healthy lifestyle program (HLP). It was decided that HLP programmes this year will not be limited to sports events. The visit to Pusat Ehsan came under the social responsibility programme where we would try to reach out and do a little something to give back to the society.
After a quick lunch break at MOD Thai Restaurant in Jerudong, we proceeded to Pusat Ehsan. Upon our arrival at the Centre, we were briefed by the Acting Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dato Paduka Haji Alimin bin Hj Abd Wahab, whose brother was the Managing Director of BLNG, Dato Paduka Haji Hamdillah. We were briefed on the organisation, mission and vision, activities, programmes and the aspiration of the Centre. Started in 1999, the Centre currently hosts about 40 special people, undergoing different rehabilitation and education programmes. In short, the programmes are designed to help prepare these special people to live independently in the society. For the younger ones, the programmes are also designed to prepare them for mainstream education.
It was really amazing to learn that the centre operates mainly on donations by companies, social organisations and the public. We also learnt that many kind-hearted Bruneians make regular donations to the Centre, in the form of monetary and non-monetary donations, such as kitchen supplies, computers and furniture among many other items. There are also many volunteers who spent the free time working at the Centre. I am really proud to be part of this caring and kind-hearted society.
After the briefing, we visited the many classes at the Centre, each running their own programme. As most of us were first time visitors to the Centre, the visit opened our eyes to these special people. Many hearts were touched and some people were trying hard not to shed any tears, especially when we saw these special people trying their best to be part of the society. Their determination and will to learn left an impression on us. If these people with some impairment can learn things, why do some able-bodied people just sit down and wait for help to come to them?
One of the classes that we visited was the handicraft class. Here, a group of these special people were making hand-made bookmarks and greeting cards, which would be sold to the public. Last year for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, BLNG ordered 3,000 hand-made Hari Raya cards as the official BLNG Hari Raya card. At the time of our visit, they were busy trying to meet an order of 3,000 bookmarks from one of the government ministries. Armed with scissors, cutters and rulers, we were supposed to help them with the order. Alas, we did not have time to actually help them and this left many of us disappointed.
Many of us decided that the memorable visit to the Centre left a lasting impression on us and this visit will also never be easily forgotten. Some of us vowed to return to the Centre in the future to spend some time and volunteer at the Centre.
If you would like to volunteer at Pusat Ehsan or buy any of the hand-made items (such as greeting cards and bookmarks), please go to the Centre itself at Simpang 66-30-60, Kg Bengkurong, Jalan Bengkurong-Masin, Brunei Darussalam. Its website will be launched on 2 March 2008.
Bulgemeister 