Thoughts from a Techie

(Special thanks to my good friend/ ex-VPE for contributing to this report. And for agreeing that this might be a speed hack.) tl;dr: Not possible. It's just a click-bait title. I was quite divided between writing in Vietnamese and writing in English for this investigative issue. For a start, it's hard to do running terminology in Vietnamese; however the context is entirely Vietnamese so I'll attempt Vietnamese. Be prepared to laugh at running terminology. Vì phải đến giữa tuần trước mới thi môn đầu nên những ngày đầu nghỉ thi mình khá rảnh. Rảnh rỗi thì sinh nông nổi, trong rất nhiều thứ có thể làm được thì mình đã quyết định... mở forum vnntu ra nghịch (forum đã bị khóa nhưng không có nghĩa là nó không vào được. Mình khóa nó mà). Xem một lượt các sub-forum, đến forum past events, nhận ra một điều rất thú vị là sports comp cách đây 7 năm (2009) có một nội dung thi rất gần gũi với bản thân là Campus Marathon =)) Cái sự chạy một vòng quanh NTU cũng không có gì quá thú vị,...

tl;dr: self-checkout Nowadays the weather is rather hot (34 degrees at noon it almost feels like home). Who doesn't want some ice cold drinks in this weather? Enter Prime Supermarket at North Spine. Enter the cold drink section. Take out a bottle. Extra 15 cents charged for chilled drinks? No problem. Enter the self checkout counter. 15 cents saved, because well the scanner simply can't detect what's cold and what's hot. Enjoy cheap, non-terribly-diluted drinks. All the best for exams everyone.

"Thú thật với mọi người là giờ này năm ngoái mình hoàn toàn không có ý định lên làm President. Một phần là nghĩ mình không làm được president vì không có những tính chất mà một typical president cần có (như nói tốt, điều hành tốt, cứng, vv), phần còn lại chắc cũng nhiều người biết là hồi đấy mình "hứng thú" hơn với việc làm CFC, không phải debate mà cũng phù hợp với chuyên ngành của bản thân. Nhưng mà vì cũng có nhiều người biết nên cũng có nhiều người push là đừng có an phận với việc "đếm tiền", hãy làm một cái gì đó lớn hơn =)) Hôm đóng form là test game cho toàn team Camp FOC15, mọi người cũng bàn ra tán vào, rồi đến tối về một loạt tin nhắn, và còn rất nhiều chuyện khác làm mình suy nghĩ lại và quyết định điền form :D Sau một năm thì mình vẫn thấy mình không có những tính chất của một typical president, và vẫn hứng thú hơn với việc làm CFC (ở club mình vẫn làm thôi, không thấy chán)... ... nhưng mà bảo mình không làm được president thì sai, sai hoàn toà...

Today is the second day of the new year. Usually this period is associated with luck; not for me this year, as over the long weekend I brought myself to an unfortunate conclusion regarding my loved Nexus 7. It's more or less dead. The dead process was rather simple: my touchscreen became unresponsive, I did a hard reboot and it never went pass the Google logo. Nothing major was stored inside (documents on Drive, music on Spotify and photos on Google Photos) so it was safe to wipe all data and flash the latest factory image, but the process failed halfway through. It was way back in January, but I had little time to try other fixes (damn you events), until this long weekend. I was really happy to see that I was not alone; the specific failure is fairly well-documented online and people have been suggesting extreme (and weird) fixes - like tapping/ knocking on the back a few times while the Google logo is on ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). Did not work for me. Then people were suggesting ...

Sunrise and cycling are two of my most absolute favorite things. Combining them gives sunrise hunting, and to be honest it's something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. But then life happens and the plans are shelved. Until Christmas Eve.  1600 Left NTU, heading for Pasir Ris, but... 1730 Took a detour and ended up at... Serangoon for dinner. KFC @ nex, $10 voucher for a $9.90 meal sounded really good. 1920 Finally arrived at Pasir Ris, where the planning really started. Supplies ready, routes finalised - do a Pasir Ris - Changi Beach - East Coast stretch, sunrise hunting at East Coast at 0705, then an East Coast - Siglap - Tampines - Pasir Ris stretch for bike return! 2010 Let the ride begin! Initial aim was to reach CBP by 2045, because somebody decided it's a good time to ask me to post stuff at 2100.  2045 . Sorry for the snapchat caption 2130 After I was done posting (and wishing the requester a merry merry Christmas), I rode...

"Presented by Apple Music". Probably the most disgusting 4 words you could find in this honest review. I am not an Apple fan, and asking me to opt in to a 3-month Apple Music trial just to download The 1989 World Tour Live is a crime against humanity. Yet because it's The 1989 World Tour Live, I'm willing to accept that. I am so disappointed with myself. And yes Blank Space is playing It's been roughly 3 years since I last did a written review on anything Taylor Swift; back then the review was probably so biased I had to put a disclaimer (had a good laugh at how cheesy it was. No one read it anyways so it didn't really matter).  Today's review, not that biased. I effectively put my tenure as a fan club manager on hold ever since uni started (that's before 1989). Still a member of the board but no longer actively engaging, which sort of pushed me slightly closer to the edge of the Neutral Zone. There's of course a 1989 World Tour sh...

So once again yesterday in my travels to Daiso, I came across a rather intriguing object. The Germanium ring. Support your life with the power of Germanium! Well as far as I know, germanium is just a chemical element. Nothing special right? Was laughing really hard reading out loud the description and caution to my fellow traveller, until a staff noticed my taking of photos which is not allowed and we quietly walked away. Anyways, I spent an entire day out yesterday with my two closest buddies in uni - double buffet, double movies, extremely bloated and stuff but hella fun. (And did I mention that both the two preceding short stories contain elements of this? Just crazy how much could happen in just a day...) Dated 26 June. Probably our only photo together - just 3am, 3 people, a cat and their bullshit. So now to the most cheesy statement of the day, to end off my series of three short stories: You two gentlemen, you two are my most beloved germanium...