new phone!!

Whee, after years of waiting, i finally got a new phone!
ok fine, not years, but for quite some time i've been wanting a phone with a better camera. and today i got it!


























Presenting.. the Sony Ericsson C902!
It has a 5MP camera which uses the trademark Cybershot technology of SE. The camera functions are.. well.. plentiful. As a review from cnet.com says:
"Sony Ericsson has thrown nearly every known camera phone feature into the C902."
image stabilizer, flash, face detector, autofocus, what else is there? everything la!

The only downsides are that there is no WIFI, and the memory is M2 unlike the normal microSD. I dont know if that means my max memory space will be lower (i just read somewhere that had the phrase 'up to 2 GB m2 card' .. so max space of m2 is 2gb? cant be so low right? :/ )
but waddaheck! imma slowly explore my phone.

and of course with a new cam phone, i randomly take pics





Ok let me tell you something stupid. when i was fiddling with the phone for the first time on the bus.. i couldnt figure out how on earth the lens cover could be opened! i tugged and pulled and pressed and pushed from all angles but the freaking lens cover couldn't open.
So i got damn frustrated and went to a handphone shop near my house.. then the sales man calmly took the phone, took a quick glance, and said
'got sticker.. must take out sticker..'
-_-
apparently the stupid screen protector holds on to the slide-out portion. quite pointless lidat right? in the end i went home to cut out the top part so that the screen protector still stayed.
but i was so relieved then that i bought this useless pouch from his store. it's oversized for a phone, a phone probably fits only 65% of the pouch.



The box + receipt. i was actually testing how good the 5MP was. i tried zooming in to read the words on the receipt.. it's actually JUST readable! amazing


and i'm playing with the panoroma mode. i've always been fascinated with this. when i am with someone next time i'm gonna get a picture with 3 of me in it.



oops, forgot to off flash. lazy to rotate the pic.




The image refuses to rotate so who cares. im happy with my phone =) lazy to photoshop the pimple . ugh.



fruits which mommy just gave me.



my computer table.

haha ok i promise to rotate all images next time. just so little time now! table tennis finals in 1 hour and i havent even packed or play any warcraft or play my phone or anything!
BYEBYE

p.s. my number hasn't changed.
all go subscribe for a Singtel plan! so that my smses/calls to u will be free!

taiwan photo blog

there'll probably be a part 2 when chet uploads the pics from his cam (which are more cam-whorish. he randomly whips out his camera and goes 'eh let's take a picture'. i like :p ) , these pictures are courtesy of bingxiong.

they are from our 3 days of R&R after our grueling training =X

Pack of 3 condoms courtesy of the SAF. =X

Our first stop - Jian Fu Shan Amusement Park!

Those were some nice shots yea? group photo now in front of the giant ferris wheel!

Before any of the rides, we enjoy some Turkish icecream! Grr im trying to get into the picture. The ice cream is nicer than the normal type, it has nicer texture and seems nicer in general.

One of the 3 main rides .. this one is where you are strapped to the seat and it goes up.. and up .. and up.. for probably 17 stories? or more? then it plummets down rapidly, bounces up to the halfway mark.. down.. up .. then down (gradually slowing down). Really thrilling =)

Ok you need to turn ur head sideways to look at this the right way. This ride is called G5.. it's a pretty short ride but very exciting - the carriage climbs up and up.. then it brings you to the edge of this almost vertical drop.. STAYS THERE for 3 seconds (while a camera takes the group picture) then plunges you alll the way down and there's supposed to be the acceleration of 5G (9.81X5 = around 50m/s!) It was very very fast and swift and the ride was quite exhilirating. i likeed it! =)

There was one more ride that they took.. some roller coaster shti which i refused to take.. i cant take the whirling and spinning rides. i confirm puke/go all dizzy.

There are more cam whore pictures but all on chet's cam. so.. next activity!

We were brought to one of the famous shopping centres in taipei (apparently) - Miramar Shopping Centre

We camwhored abit inside (yes, in chet's camera again) .. but that's about it.

The shopping centre was nothing fantastic.. just like a typical PS or.. any shopping centre la.

On to our hotel accomodation!

Me and my roomie bingxiong.

and a better shot

Our room! it's pretty nice and cosy.. there's even this make out bed (you see the 'couch' on the inside) we joked that it was a separate bed apart from the main king sized one for couples to make out on. ha.

first night of our R&R was spent at Xi Men Ding . Quite a few clothing and apparel shops, some nice food shops too. we went to t his snow ice place to have our final meal.

'Mmm.

I

Day2

ALthough i didnt go clubbing like some of my friends and slept at an early time of 1am or so, i was still super sleepy the next morning! they were all like, rather fresh. guess i'm not a morning person.

We went to another theme park.. this one much less fun than the first and people were bored already.. why go to theme park again.

Inside some Egyptian ride thingy. There are photos of the inside but they're all dark and look very boring so i didn't bother to post them here.

I never sat these before! what are they called ah? i know there's a proper name for them. the horses that go round in a circle. One day i'm gonna bring my future girlfriend to an amusement park and sit this ride! hmph!

From the exterior of the theme park.

Chet act cute worx.

Our next stop was Window on China.. this place where they had miniature models of famous places in China or something like that.

So cool right!! even the miniature people look very realistic cos they all have different clothes and all

miniature cars

This is a joke which you wont understand if your chinese is bad. so i wont bother translating it. It's an actual sign on the floor in the 'Xiao Ren Yuan' (where all the miniature stuff was at)

Our pretty tour guide Mango! seriously she looks bad in this pic, she's much better looking in person. She's got an attractive and bubbly though abit bimboish personality.. but i like her! she was very nice and all throughout our 2 day guided tour.. so i insisted we took a pic with her. ha.

Our beloved hotel of 3 days 2 nights.

Shiling Ye Shi! Very nice place! hell alot of clothes, very cheap bargains, alot of thigns to buy. the food section is a completely separate place. there was one shop that sold 5 dollar tops. So basically T shirts, collared, cardigan, whatever. all 5 dollars.

Have you ever read about street scams? The 3 ball/card monte scam?(that's more of a magic trick but what the heck) This is one of those scams!

The 'game' is simple, There are like 9 hoops or so which you can toss the ball into. You have 12 balls. You just need to score 5 to win a prize.
Sounds easy to win?

NO! cos it's a scam to begin with! you're not supposed to win!
Why? you may ask. If you look carefully at the setup you'll know. The hoop itself is extremely small - it barely fits the ball. (e.g. if the balls goes in, the top third will probably be protruding out as it is stuck)
Thus, the best way to score would be to do an arcing shot which falls in from the top.

However, you notice the cleverly placed tarp on top.. it totally rules out the possibility of any looping shot, forcing you to shoot a relatively low angled shot without any arc. I would say it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to score a shot from such an angle. There is simple no way the ball will go in the small hoop without an arcing shot.
When we watch on at naive people who attempt the game, my suspicions were confirmed. The only way people scored was to just toss the ball randomly in and let it bounce on top of several hoops before luck allows it to bounce into a hoop. The best score was 3 -_-

This is the food place of Shiling. Yes i know it looks like im blowing my nose in this but im actually buried in the delicious 'Ji Pa' (chicken chop)

Day 3

Where we had our breakfast

=) me and burns

This is the railway station which looks like an airport on the inside. Dont know why bx never took any pictures inside.

And to wrap it up,

Yummy lunch @ some jap restaurant place. me and chetchet!

ok buhbyez, i'm tired as hell. almost midnight already. time to sleep.

back from taiwan

whew! i'm back from my first overseas trip alone! haha. i've a ton to blog, though i probably wont put everything down here as it'll bore everyone to pieces, so i'll put it elsewhere. there were quite a few pictures taken but they were with my friends' cameras, so i'll have to wait till they upload them before i can post them here . :/

so the photo post will wait, and then there's the .. diary-post.. where most of it was written during taiwan itself, in my notebook. that comprises of my thoughts and such, and is pretty lenghty.. but it tracks my thoughts throughout the field camp especially. so if you wanna read them, check out http://alantaiwandiary.blogspot.com/ (will be posted later in the evening)

this post will just be.. 10 interesting facts about taiwan. =) (or 10 things you never knew about taiwan.. 10 fun facts.. whatever you call it)


1) Urinals flush before use.

Ok this is one weird phenomenon which makes no sense. In Singapore, when you stand there and pee then the red light comes on cos it detects you right? then you move away it turns green and flushes the pee away right?
In Taiwan, when you stand there, it flushes before your first drop of pee comes out. So effectively, it only washes away the previous pee when the next person comes to it. What's the rationale in doing this?


2) Taiwanese do things the right way.
You alight from the right side of the road (driver's seat is on the left side, unlike singapore's right side driver seat), vehicles keep to the right..
You keep right on escalators.


3) Their traffic lights are hella cool. (at least those in taipei)
Firstly, there are countdown timers at almost every light [road lights included, not just pedestrian lights] This way you know how long you'll be waiting for at the red light. (yes as in countdown timer for the red light, not the green pedestrian light in singapore)

Secondly, their green pedestrian light is actually a running man! yes, an animated running man! it's super cute la! if i had a camera i'll totally take a video of it. Then when the timer gets lower the man starts running faster and faster (not sure about this, could be an illusion as it is flashing.. but i'm quite sure it runs faster)

The traffic is quite hectic there though. quite scary, vehicles swerve around everywhere. which brings me to the next point.


4) The streets of Taipei are littered with motorbikes.
Seriously, yknow in Singapore when we suddenly see a group of motorbikes (group = >4) we go like 'motorbike gang!' (ok maybe it's just me) In Taiwan, they are EVERYWHERE! Alot alot alot of motorbikes. And they dont stick to lanes one, they anyhow swerve in and out of lanes. quite scary.


5) Baseball is Taiwan's favourite sport
Just as the majority of singaporeans like soccer and will watch live matches at coffeeshops and gather at friend's house to watch etcetc, that hot sport is Baseball in Taiwan. There was actually a giant TV screen outside a shopping centre and over 100 people gathered there and sat on the floor to watch a live baseball match being screened. They even had a live MC to rouse the crowd.
On the travel bus, the only channel on TV was baseball too . Imagine the boredom -_- lol


6) 'Robots' in SOGO.
Have you heard of SOGO? it's apparently some mega shopping centre franchise.. used to have in Singapore but now no more and instead got Metro.. Taka.. all these. In Taipei there are 3 SOGOs, and we went to one of them during our R&R.
Now they have this weird ritual which my mom claims Singapore has too.. but i swear in Taipei it's more robotic.

The place opens at 11 la.. all the shops and all. So from 11 to 11.10, ALL the shop owners will stand straight and still outside their shop with their hands behind their back. ALL. And yknow at the bottom of the escalator there's an escalator landing? There're about 8 stories in SOGO, so let's say there are 8 landings.
EVERY SINGLE landing there are at least 6 people (some 8) standing in 2 rows opposite each other in the same position, and whenever you pass them via your escalator, they will bow and give their customary greeting of 'huan ying guan ling' (i think it means welcome, please browse around or SOMETHING like that)

And their bow isn't like the halfhearted that, it's like 45 degree bow kind.
As for the shop owners, when you walk past their shop, they will do the full bow + greeting as well.
So the feeling of walking one round around the shopping centre feels like you're the prince of some palace. Everyone bowing to you. muahaha.

Then at main entrance there are 3 females doing this bow+greeting thing too - the freaky thing is they're EXTREMELY synchronized. Like totally in sync, when they go down and up while bowing it's exactly together.

i swear they're like robots!!!

And practically everyone has to put on pretty thick makeup. even the old aunties. I saw this old auntie with alot of makeup and it was quite gross. imagine.. your grandmother putting on as much makeup as avril lavigne.



7) Taipei Train Station resembles an airport.
When i first stepped into the station.. i was .. lost. It looked exactly like an airport.. the first thing you see is those counters like in the departure hall when you wanna check in. You know the big schedule thing that shows all flights and timings? The train station has that too.
The place was quite confusing though. Alot of different types of trains, different here and there. Had to do alot of asking to find out how to travel to our destination.

8) Permanent Sales Syndrome.
Every single thing is on sale.. as such it doesnt seem to matter whether there's a sale or not. It's like the original price was never the price.. like if i wanna sell something at 50 dollars i just claim the original price is 100 dollars and say '50% SALE!'.
i never found any shop that wasn't having a sale.

9) Lift Operator
SOGO has a lift operator! It's a pretty girl all dolled up and polite and cheerful as most sales staff in Taipei. seriously they're all super polite and nice.
I dont know if i'm lucky or what, but the people i meet all seem very nice and unselfish!
Ok let me sidetrack a bit to talk about the nice people. Ok nvm let's make that #10 cos i dont have a #10.

10) Taipei people are NICE.
This is speaking in general, obviously it's not possible for ALL of them to be nice. But when i say nice, i mean go-out-of-the-way nice. Ok for example there's this shoe shop which i bought from the previous day and i went back again. Then the uncle straight away recognized me and chatted with me. Then cos it was raining, he offered me his umbrella for temporary use! so nice can!

Then an even nicer person was this aunty i met.. cos it was raining right so my paper bag was a little wet and got torn. So stuff kept dropping out. So i was walking then one of my stuff dropped out on the floor. She just happened to be approaching from behind.. and before i could do anything she knelt down and picked it up for me.
Then after realising my predicament, she actually went into a shop ahead to ask the guy for a plastic bag for me!
So nice can! singapore where to find these kinda people?

The cab drivers are also quite chatty.. though i don't know if that's because we are foreigners. Though some can tell we're Singaporean, there was one cabbie that even praised our Mandarin. haha. All the cabbies talked to us and asked us where we were from, what were we doing.. and basically chatted the whole journey. Singapore where gotttt.


ah ok that concludes a long post. i needa go take a nap, slept only 2 hours last night. zzz. bye.