My last exam was on the 17th of May. It now seems like a long time ago where I last touch or read anything academic. It’s been a pretty long time to be sitting around London chilling doing nothing much but just hanging out with friends here. I have decided not to do any travelling this time round simply because I’m too lazy to plan a trip around Europe though I should really have done so with such awesome weather now. But I guess I want to save the excitement of travelling for my next big trip I planned a long time back en-route home.

Anyway, I am getting really lazy in updating my blog. I’ve written some interesting things before, but it really does take a lot of effort to come out with quality, interesting posts and not just a daily rambling of life in general.

I might be considering several option for this blog during summer. It is going to be one heck of a summer this time round with loads of plans coming up. I will most likely be re-designing this website and shall consider changing this blog into a permanent website instead of a dynamic blog. I do not have the time to constantly update this blog and do not really feel comfortable seeing how outdated this blog is. Well I shall consider several options before deciding.

I’m again too lazy to describe more about my life here in detail. But one thing is sure, I’m having loads of fun and I am coming back soon!

When Singapore launched their initiative to build not one, but two integrated resorts in 2005, there was much controversy about the sudden plan to have casinos in the tiny island state. Many people were against the idea of having casinos in the nation, fearing a decline in social behaviour through compulsive gambling. There is also a fear that the casinos will create a money laundering haven. The Singapore government’s point of view was that the casinos are necessary to further improve Singapore’s competitiveness as a tourist destination.

Well for me, I suppose building a brick-and-mortal casino is just the Singapore government’s way of stopping the flow of money of Singaporeans who flood north to Malaysia to get to the only casino there in Genting Highlands. But, I really think besides the two casinos, the government should really consider liberalizing the online casino industry in Singapore. Currently the gambling industry is dominated by one single player, state-own Singapore Pools. Allowing other online casino operators to operate would create more competition and allow for more innovation hence increasing the consumer’s welfare. An example of a liberalized online casino industry is that of Europe’s where the online casino reviews provide details of the degree of competition that casino operators undertake to increase sales and profits.

This short article is pretty much what I have to say about casinos and gambling. Do remember to be responsible if you gamble online. This is made possible by Online Casino Scandinavia.

What a stupid name to give as a title but I have no idea what else to write as the title…So Lalala your way to Lalaland. Blah. Whatever nonsense.

Anyway, I’m going down Singapore this Friday, 29/5 and coming back this Monday, 1/6. I’m gonna fly down to Singapore with Tiger Airways. Woot! They giving out free tickets. Just gotta pay for the taxes and fees. And after everything, it’s about the same price as taking a First Coach bus. So screw the bus and let’s fly to Singapore!

I’m down in Singapore this weekend for College Day. I’m scheduled to collect a certificate/award for service to the students’ council. I missed out on the academic award which comes with book voucher by a solitary A. But nevermind, it’s still more fun spending the weekend in Singapore meeting up with friends rather than another weekend in KL. And good thing that SGC and A-Level certificates are ready for collection. Can collect them all and make certified true copies for submission to UC Berkeley. Doing several things at once. At least a fruitful trip to Singapore. But part of the main reason I’m enthusiastic about going down for College Day is because I want to meet up with my whole Econs Symposium team. Shona, you better make sure everyone will come for this outing. I know how hard it was for you to plan without a definite answer from me on when I’ll be in Singapore.

On other matters, I’ve purchased an unlimited hosting plan from JustHost. Decided not to go for MediaTemple as it is a little overpriced at USD20/month. JustHost is more than half the price of MediaTemple but it is shared hosting and not grid/cluster-based like MediaTemple. I might migrate this blog to the US server in the future but at the moment I’m going to transfer this blog in a few days time to my other hosting plan I have with a local hosting provider, ServerFreak. Actually their technical support is superb but I simply would like a US server to avoid any TMNet reliability nonsense.

And I’ve to say this. I’m mad at PayPal for witholding my USD50. I created a second PayPal account to sort out some other payment issue online. There was some issue in trying to pay for some other stuff I tried purchasing online on my primary PayPal account so I thought I created a second PayPal account to sort it out. It was still troublesome and I had to resort to using my debit card to make the payment online. What the heck is so wrong with the PayPal merchant checkout system? I transfered USD50 to my secondary PayPal account and since I could not use it, I decided that I transfer the USD50 back to my primary account. PayPal freaking deducted USD2 for that transaction. OK I’m mad, but small amount nevermind. 1 day later I got an email from PayPal saying the USD50 (now USD48 gah) is being held for investigative purposes. My secondary account is changed to Limited and my USD48 is being held. I have to key in another credit card on my secondary account and show a proof of address on my secondary account. Argh. Total shit job. PayPal’s call center isn’t very helpful either. I called the Singapore number (I don’t mind calling Singapore on my Digi prepaid line as it is only 18sen/min and is much cheaper than calling my friend in KL at 36sen/min. This is so ridiculous right?) of PayPal, had my called routed to a Shanghai call center who made me hold and hold and hold before having my call lost on transfers. I spent 20 minutes without getting any help. I’m mad at them. Shit job. Now I gotta find a way to unfreeze my USD50 on my PayPal. Bugger, I worked hard to get that USD50 from this blog ok. Now they freaking freeze my money.

And I would like to get myself a new camera. Mom was thinking of exchanging some credit card points with a camera. Went to camera shops to check out the camera. It is no longer in production and the online review sucks. But I was introduced to this Ricoh Caplio R7 camera by one of the shopkeepers. Pretty attractive camera. 7x optical zoom with 1cm macro! The best feature for a compact camera. Not the smallest compact camera around, but it’s still ok. RM699 inclusive of a 2GB card. I want it. I think the price is ok though it would be better if it’s cheaper. How la…Duit bukan banyak gua ada…

I don’t know what struck me, but suddenly I felt that my current webhost will not be good enough for me. I don’t know why I suddenly feel the urge to get a webhost that is good, powerful and reliable that will not shut down or suspend my account when my websites get a sudden spike in traffic. I’m probably dreaming or something, like how on earth will I get a sudden spike in traffic. But I just feel that it is better to be safe rather than be sorry if one of my websites suddenly become popular.

Yes, I own several other dot coms other than this though the others are not fully utilized. I have several other ideas to set up several other web ideas and hoping that they might strike it big. But it ain’t gonna be easy coz I’m no good programmer nor am I a good designer. I just do basics and hack Wordpress to the best of my ability.

My domain and hosting package here is nearly up for renewal and this is the best time to get it all on one good MediaTemple webhost plan. It’s costing me a bomb. I plan to share this webhost with others. Anyone interested in getting a US-based (among the world’s best) non-shared, grid-based cluster server that will not fail at all even with huge spike in traffic? I’m ready to let go a certain portion of my hosting plan for RM10/month. It’s a seriously low price. You can’t get anywhere lower than this.

Yes, I can’t deny you can get cheap webhosting from Malaysia but they are all shared hosting. And Malaysia’s webhosting servers are always prone to TMNet downtime. My blog was down several time in its lifetime although my host promises me 99.99% uptime. What bullshit? Apparently it’s not their fault but TMNet’s and that is not guaranteed.

So I’m done with unreliable service and going US-based. MediaTemple - go google about them. They are among the best.

We can negotiate the price. Might be higher if you need more bandwidth/space or whatsoever. But the basic idea is I want to unload the burden of paying the full thing myself. So anything goes.

If you own a blog on some free platform, it’s time to get a dot com and monetize it in a more efficient manner. I can help with some tips. Also if you have no freaking idea on how to set up your own blog, don’t worry. I can set it all up and help with a little designing too.

Also, get your customised email address. Get your own me@myname.com email address. That will be so much more interesting instead of the typical hotmail, gmail, yahoo email address

Yes, I’ve finally finished what I wanted to do for a long time - rebranding my blog into something that truly represent me. I finished redesigning my whole blog. I personally designed the header you can see at the top. I’m so proud of this feat of mine.

I like the blog header and the colour code. I drew that boy myself. Kinda childish-like, but I like the end effect of it haha.

I spent the weekend designing and hacking Wordpress’ Default theme. Hacking the theme made me want to master CSS by heart and code like a pro.

Anyway I like this funky new blog design. It feels vibrant, fresh and happy. Does it send the same message to you?

I like to be happy and fresh always. Now I feel happy and fresh whenever I look at my blog.
I can start blogging more often
Is the happy aura spreading towards u? Leave a comment. Let me know.

GONG XI FA CAI! In a few hours time we going to celebrate the new lunar new year. It’s going to be the Year of the Ox. Many people are hoping this coming year will be a bullish one, though some astrologers do not share the same sentiment. Nevertheless, whatever the predictions may be, I wish all of you a very very happy chinese new year and may the Year of the Ox bring you good luck, wealth, health and prosperity.

This coming lunar new year should be an exciting one. I am still unemployed, but I am going to go ahead full steam with my online youth portal. It’s going to be insane writing proposals, business plans, contracts, etc. More importantly I’ve gotta assemble my team asap to get my project rolling. Money might be tight but hopefully this project grows large fast and starts generating revenue within one month of launching. I have already secured the domain and hosting rights for my youth portal. Very relieved to be able to secure a pretty suitable name for this. Stay tuned here for more updates. Interested to join my team? Drop me an email or if you know my number, give me a call. We can work something out at a yumcha session.