Project Complete

So here we are!

We've come to the last stage of this project, Project completion.

Im happy to announce that Project Will is finally complete!
Not that it was ever incomplete :)

I was gonna yabber on about how life is a continuous project and some other deep psychology stuff, but all I really want to say is that Blogger beta is now full version and i'm doing the move :)

My new home is: http://3rdwill.blogspot.com

This page has been a beautiful diary of my 2006 year and I'm really thankful to those who've become a part of it.

Thank you for visiting my site and sharing with me my experiences.

Merry Christmas and hope to hear from you soon.

Always,
Will

3rd Time Lucky

Welcome to the brand spanking new 3rd Will blog page!

Named so because this is my third blog page, I'm the third child, I like threesomes, my favourite number is three and my name is Will,

Ive done the move because Blogger has evolved and I need a new account to take advantage of the features. What better time to move than the new year right?

You can still enjoy my project site here.

Holy Moley

Following the footsteps of my half Filipino idol Enrique Iglesias, I have undergone surgery to remove two moles on my body. One on my chest and the other on my abdomen.

It was a short procedure (5 minutes?) but it involved the whole nine yards. Anaesthetic, blood, scalpels, stiches and a hot brunette nurse. :)

I have lots of moles on my body. Not enough to play connect-the-dots with but more than my bare-as-a-baby's-bottom brothers. Actually you can count my moles with two hands.

Now apart from the third-nipple competition the two dissected moles were having, I didn't really have any problems with my moles. The mole the merrier right? They were as natural as hair.

I had them removed because they increased my chance of getting skin cancer. Its kinda scary-serious coz Oz land is the skin-cancer capital of the world. Do what you can to prevent the bad thing I always say.

Above: Enrique. A not so moley hero.

But its actually quite normal to have new moles grow until your 30. After that, new moles should be watched closely.

When they start growing the size of a meatball with hair on its tips - then its time to name them :P

I have another mole on my lower lip which I've had since birth. Apparently mole locations on your face says a lot about you. This tells me that I'm intelligent but this tells me that Im overweight and promiscuous!! hahahah. Don't tell my girlfriends :P

Regardless of what they mean, I guess some are just blessed with lucky moles.
Some not so lucky.

Birds of a Feather

Default browser

Sorry for the geeky post. I just want to add my bit to the whole browser war thing (IE7 vs Firefox 2.0)

Please don't get me wrong, I was a big supporter of Mozilla and the open source community. I loved the rock solid Firefox 1.5. GO THE UNDERDOGS!!!

But for some weird reason Firefox 2 keeps on crashing on me. Not just my home PC, but my work one too! And it seems like I'm the only one experiencing this problem. Its so annoying it's prompted me to try the 'dark-side' browser.

IE7 has everything Firefox 2 offers plus they do a rendering thing which makes text look soft. Its pleasing to the eye - which is important for geekomoids who are in front of the PC all day.

Here's a section from the entertainment page of Sydney Morning Herald.

If we zoom at the text you'll see this.

Above: Firefox 2.0 fonts at 800% zoom

Above: IE7 fonts at 800% zoom

It looks blurry - but in normal zoom, its soft and easy to the eyes.

Problems with IE7 is that its 14megs, it doesn't have spell check and that they do a 'authentication' thing during install to make sure you own a legit version of Windows.

But i'm sure we all have legit versions of Windows :P

Hot and Steamy

The little sheep logo has been hounding us for days - subliminally whispering 'baaarr ree meww.. eat heeeerree yooouu fooool..'

For our last dinner in Hong Kong, my friend Sharon and I visited the Little Sheep restaurant.

I was thinking it was gonna be a steak or veal sort of eatery. Who would have thought they served steamboats! Ow well. Who could possible eat lamb with a cute logo like that.

To those unfamiliar, steamboats involve a communal boiling pot of soup and foodstuff are dropped in and later fished out to be eaten. You just need to choose your broth base and the stuff you want to drop in.

Im used to vegetables and fishballs being put in, but I guess theres nothing stopping you from steamboating steak or hamburgers (might get really soggy though, might taste weird as well).

To me the steamboat menu looked more like a lottery ticket. Not very touristy friendly. :(

But thankfully Chun was there to help us decipher the Da Vinci Code of steamboats :P
We ended throwing in all sorts of stuff - including those that we didn't even know we ordered.

We ordered the 50/50 split of the broth. We opted one half 'Mongolian Style' to spice things up.

I swear - it was soo spicy hot, just dipping fishballs in the mongolian soup turned it into fiery balls of death.

And I'm sure if it didn't burn your mouth on the way in, it'd burn you on its way out.

December Sunday

Beads of sweat trickled down my face. My eyes were darting left and right. There wasn't much time left. I had to find it quickly! My breathing had doubled - matching my walking pace. Obstacles left and right. People were coming out of everywhere. I dodged and weaved.
But it didn't matter if I got through the obstacles, I simply couldn't find what I was looking for.

*sigh*

Christmas shopping is such a painful chore.
I wanted to finish all my Christmas shopping today. I only managed to buy one present.

*sigh*

I hate whining like this but if its the thought that counts, why can't I get away with "I was thinking a lot! But....... my thoughts didn't end up materialising.. thats why I didn't end up finding a present..."

*shakes head*

Heres a question - when we buy christmas presents, is it because we REALLY want to give something or is it simply because we're looking after our reputation.

Ba humbug.

Makahiya

The Makahiya is a wild plant found all over Philippines and throughout south-east Asia. The plant is unique because it folds its leaves when touched. The direct english translation of Makahiya is shy or bashful.

Reminds me of a me a few while back. Shy and afraid.

Thats wrong actually.

I'm still shy. I still worry about what others opinion of me and I don't think I'm any more confident than before. It still takes me enormous 'Will' power to do something.

But when I recount the many opportunities I've lost because I was 'shy' or 'afraid' to do something, I get a big cold fish slap from my conscience.
Regret is an awesome motivator.

Step by Step Design Guide - The Perfect Home

We all want the perfect lifestyle, partner, car and most importantly the perfect home.

If only it was that easy…HA! I wish…

Well, I’m only a draftsman but having a creative and being visual minded, I hope to help you design the perfect house, one that suits your budget and lifestyle and all of life’s little expectancies :)

I thrive on the feeling of designing your own house, “bedrooms here, kitchen there, and toilet definitely not here” etc….. it’s a place where you spend most of your time, therefore I think it should be a personal place and well thought out.

A house should be unique and personal, it should let your guest, know who you are and a good sense of interior arrangements and design should achieve this. But before you can pick out tiles, paint colours, carpet, shelves and stuff, you have to have the rooms laid out and visually see what goes where. (but not everyone can do it, hence there are interior designers and architects)

Entry-

The Entry is pretty important; a cramp, small, plain, bad colouring is a recipe for a bad Entry. You should always make your entrances spacious, inviting, well lit, not too ‘in your face” but interesting and a “feature” basically.

A feature light, will win eyes, a good choice and quality tiles will also do the trick. A nice painting or mirror on the wall will also catch your guest’s attention. However DON’T be afraid to spend and always go for quality…”first impressions count”
There is nothing worst then having dull lighting, chipped tiles caused from “average Joe’s tiling service” or a cheap looking painting on the wall. Please do not over crowd your Entry though, doing this will firstly make your room smaller, and importantly detract your guest from the focusing on one/two feature items that you spent a lot of dosh on.

Last tip, some of you may think that it should look like the rest of the house. Personally I don’t think it has too. It can have a different flooring material ie: tiles vs floor boards/carpet to the rest of the house. Even a different paint colour, but like I mention before it’s personally thing and I only can give advice…to have a successful entry you should keep it “simple but interesting”

Happy designing!!!

Karaoke

I think nothing says you're 'asian' more than Karaoke :P Its a pastime we've grown to love (or hate)!

A few years back, I had the pleasure of staying with my grandma who lived opposite a karaoke bar. I ate, slept, drank, and literally LIVED karaoke for a whole month. Oooh the pain! the pain! Make it go away!

Now sometimes the singers were really good. But most of the times I'm wrestling with my brother to get to the rat poison - we'd rather kill ourselves than listen to another round of 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet *shudder*

Hong Kong is serious about Karaoke. They have hotel-like buildings specifically for Karaoke

So from this, I've constructed a Do's & Dont's list to guide karaoke goers. No one should have to suffer the ill consequences of bad karaoke :P

1. DON'T hog the microphone! We didn't come to karaoke just to watch and hear you sing.
2. DO encourage group singing by picking songs that everyone can enjoy.
   
3. DON'T play the same song over and over and over and over and over again. We don't think it gets better with each try.
   
4. DO sing the songs in time. Holding a high note can be impressive, but sending us to a time warp by singing a few words behind the tune can be maddening.
5. DON'T pick songs just because you recognise a song (or its chorus). No one thinks you're any more special because you know lots of songs in the songbook.
6. DO invite heaps of people. The more the merrier!
   
7. DON'T make fun of guys singing karaoke. It takes REAL balls to grab a mic and sing in public. Those who just sit around making fun of people have no balls at all (or have very very small ones).
   
8. DO showcase your talent. If you sound good in the shower - then sing!
   
9. DO join in the singing - even if you don't have the mic. I'm sure everyone could do with backup singers.
10. DON'T laugh when someone sings out of tune. If everyone had a choice, I'm sure we'd all be Celine Dion's and Barry White's. You can laugh about them later when they've gone home.
11. DON'T pick depressing after depressing after depressing songs.
12. DO applaud fellow singers, even if they sounded like cats being skinned. Just think of it as applauding their courage to sing in public.
13. DON'T kiss / lick / suck the microphone.
14. DON'T pick your nose in a KTV bar. Actually, this is a general thing you shouldn't do in public.
15. DON'T pick songs that you can't sing. Just because you can do Mariah Carey's hand motions doesn't mean you can sing 8 octaves.
    
16. DON'T stab someone just because they beat your karaoke score.
17. DO try 'power-oke'. Sing songs up to the end of the first chorus then move on to the next song. This lets you go through lotsa songs and keeps things happening (rather than being bored with the whole song).
18. Do have some alcohol. This calms the nerves when performing in public AND it makes everyone's singing sound SOOO much better :)
    
19. DO leave a karaoke place when you're tired and have no songs left in you. Singing unfamiliar songs will not revive your karaoke powers (did you have any to begin with?) :P
    
20. DON'T take it seriously. Its not idol.