Thursday 20 December 2007
Wednesday 19 December 2007
The KS Bug n more
hmm, here i am in front of my comp juz back from my 3-holiday break. the sad thing is i haf to go back to work on friday. sigh.
nothing much to tok abt phuket n boracay 'cept tt i had a nice break, waking up whenever i want, doin things at snails' pace, not worrying too much. one significant event was the 167 feet bungy jump i tried in phuket. pics r uploaded at my multiply site. another week in boracay proved one holiday too many as we din do much but laze around often.
wat was interesting tho was the amount of travellin i had to do over the past 3 weeks. passing thru causeway checkpoints, international flights, domestic flights, boat rides, van rides, taxi rides, etc. n wat was evident was that the kiasu bug is everywhere.
getting on planes: once ppl see that the plane has landed, they start queueing up. even tho, there would be announcements saying they will be boarding rows 1-15 first but no one bothers, so instead of plowing thru a mob of ppl who's not supposed to be there yet, i'll juz end up boarding at the back of the pack. not that it is free seating but i had to join the rush sometimes coz i realised it is not the seats but cabin space that these ppl were after. some of these passengers were packing like the were moving house. the check in baggage is already so huge, some with boxes n cartons of dunno wat n yet the carry-on baggage is still enormous. there was this incident where one of passengers who had 2 kids with him where his carry on baggage had to be transferred to the cargo while we were already on the plane. then there this other family of four that had to repack coz their check in baggage was over limit, so to avoid paying extra they had to repack everything. so there they were at the side of the line, reopening two big cardboard boxes, 3 humongous bags, 2 backpacks n 2 paper bags. tho one of them was a toddler i juz couldn't believe how much luggage they had. so as i kaypo-ed myself while queueing up, i saw them rearranging clothes, transferring to paper bags which i assume they would now register as carry on baggage, i also saw, one big bag of diapers, two big cans of milk powder, some foodstuff. n there i was thinking to myself, maybe they r trying to save cost by bringing all these stuff is it worth the hassle u go thru?
then i thot to myself. i m sure airlines put a limit to luggage weight for a reason, but often i see they dun check the weight or the amount of carry on that these passengers bring. then in that case wouldn't it be redundant? my only conclusion is that they muz haf a safety factor imcluded in their calculations.
getting off the plane is another issue. once the big flying machine comes to a halt, u can almost immediately see passengers scrambling off their seats to retrieve their carry ons n a minor chaos ensues. so sometimes i'm left waitin for the commotion to die down before making my move. that also means being at the back of the queue at the immigration counter. it helps that sgp airport has the new self-immigration gates n i dun haf to queue.
then there's this other issue of using transmitting devices while on flight. it's like some of these ppl do not care abt safety n all. announcements will be made that no transmitting devices should be on at any time during take-off, landing n the duration of the flight, i can still see ppl smsing at these times. they muz either be thinking wat harm can transmitting one small sms do to the navigation n other plane systems? but i'm not taking those chances. wat is a few minutes? wat is so important that the sms couldnt be made when both feet are on the ground. is the fate of the world resting on that one sms? will that missed message not save the cheerleader n hence new york would blow up?
well, juz some observations. back to work on friday.
nothing much to tok abt phuket n boracay 'cept tt i had a nice break, waking up whenever i want, doin things at snails' pace, not worrying too much. one significant event was the 167 feet bungy jump i tried in phuket. pics r uploaded at my multiply site. another week in boracay proved one holiday too many as we din do much but laze around often.
wat was interesting tho was the amount of travellin i had to do over the past 3 weeks. passing thru causeway checkpoints, international flights, domestic flights, boat rides, van rides, taxi rides, etc. n wat was evident was that the kiasu bug is everywhere.
getting on planes: once ppl see that the plane has landed, they start queueing up. even tho, there would be announcements saying they will be boarding rows 1-15 first but no one bothers, so instead of plowing thru a mob of ppl who's not supposed to be there yet, i'll juz end up boarding at the back of the pack. not that it is free seating but i had to join the rush sometimes coz i realised it is not the seats but cabin space that these ppl were after. some of these passengers were packing like the were moving house. the check in baggage is already so huge, some with boxes n cartons of dunno wat n yet the carry-on baggage is still enormous. there was this incident where one of passengers who had 2 kids with him where his carry on baggage had to be transferred to the cargo while we were already on the plane. then there this other family of four that had to repack coz their check in baggage was over limit, so to avoid paying extra they had to repack everything. so there they were at the side of the line, reopening two big cardboard boxes, 3 humongous bags, 2 backpacks n 2 paper bags. tho one of them was a toddler i juz couldn't believe how much luggage they had. so as i kaypo-ed myself while queueing up, i saw them rearranging clothes, transferring to paper bags which i assume they would now register as carry on baggage, i also saw, one big bag of diapers, two big cans of milk powder, some foodstuff. n there i was thinking to myself, maybe they r trying to save cost by bringing all these stuff is it worth the hassle u go thru?
then i thot to myself. i m sure airlines put a limit to luggage weight for a reason, but often i see they dun check the weight or the amount of carry on that these passengers bring. then in that case wouldn't it be redundant? my only conclusion is that they muz haf a safety factor imcluded in their calculations.
getting off the plane is another issue. once the big flying machine comes to a halt, u can almost immediately see passengers scrambling off their seats to retrieve their carry ons n a minor chaos ensues. so sometimes i'm left waitin for the commotion to die down before making my move. that also means being at the back of the queue at the immigration counter. it helps that sgp airport has the new self-immigration gates n i dun haf to queue.
then there's this other issue of using transmitting devices while on flight. it's like some of these ppl do not care abt safety n all. announcements will be made that no transmitting devices should be on at any time during take-off, landing n the duration of the flight, i can still see ppl smsing at these times. they muz either be thinking wat harm can transmitting one small sms do to the navigation n other plane systems? but i'm not taking those chances. wat is a few minutes? wat is so important that the sms couldnt be made when both feet are on the ground. is the fate of the world resting on that one sms? will that missed message not save the cheerleader n hence new york would blow up?
well, juz some observations. back to work on friday.
Monday 3 December 2007
CSC 2007
well well well, i am back from the Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2007 in Johor. a total of 108 participants, 78 in the Open Division, and 30 in the Masters.
i played in the Open division where they had contestants from, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and USA. made a good start with a win but came crashing back down with a big loss to one of sgp's top players, Yen Nee with a spread of 342 points. then had a mixed first day winning 2 out of the next 4 games.
the second day was quite horrendous where i won 2 games sandwiched by two 3 lgames losing streaks. but ended the day with two straight wins.
earlier today, last day of the tourney began very brightly with me winning all 4 games in the morn but losing the last two games after lunch dampened my spirits a little. so all in all, i had 11 wins out of 22 in the 3-day event. no memorable plays but something to boast about is that i finished higher than amy, my fren who is one of sgp's top 30 players, the one who usu beats me during our games at the void deck, he finished with 10.5 wins. another milestone is that i ended the tourney with a positive spread of 159, neva had i a positive overall spread in all the tournaments tt i have played in.
FYI, the Open Division was won by Tony Sim from Sgp. congratulations to him. the Masters division individual was won by A. Ganesh (Mal), the world no. 1. but in the team event, Sgp emerged champions followed by Malaysia then Thailand. Defending Champs Australia only managed a fourth placing. well done sgp scrabblers.
well nx yr's gonna be a bigger event, 4 days and 33 games for the Open division. for sure i'm not gonna miss it. what with the wonderful food the hotel has.
okay, till another update on my "nerdy" life. tomorrow i'm flying off to Phuket.
i played in the Open division where they had contestants from, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and USA. made a good start with a win but came crashing back down with a big loss to one of sgp's top players, Yen Nee with a spread of 342 points. then had a mixed first day winning 2 out of the next 4 games.
the second day was quite horrendous where i won 2 games sandwiched by two 3 lgames losing streaks. but ended the day with two straight wins.
earlier today, last day of the tourney began very brightly with me winning all 4 games in the morn but losing the last two games after lunch dampened my spirits a little. so all in all, i had 11 wins out of 22 in the 3-day event. no memorable plays but something to boast about is that i finished higher than amy, my fren who is one of sgp's top 30 players, the one who usu beats me during our games at the void deck, he finished with 10.5 wins. another milestone is that i ended the tourney with a positive spread of 159, neva had i a positive overall spread in all the tournaments tt i have played in.
FYI, the Open Division was won by Tony Sim from Sgp. congratulations to him. the Masters division individual was won by A. Ganesh (Mal), the world no. 1. but in the team event, Sgp emerged champions followed by Malaysia then Thailand. Defending Champs Australia only managed a fourth placing. well done sgp scrabblers.
well nx yr's gonna be a bigger event, 4 days and 33 games for the Open division. for sure i'm not gonna miss it. what with the wonderful food the hotel has.
okay, till another update on my "nerdy" life. tomorrow i'm flying off to Phuket.
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