Daily // July 2004

July 31, 2004 | Reflection
Everything comes to an end; so does July. This year I wish to bring up very different reflections on it. I do not wish to talk about how much better I allocated my time than last year or how well my summer job went. I wish to talk about something more important; I wish to talk about how time affects our feelings.

In July last year, I was still a complete stranger to Taft. Perhaps the parents understand how we, the newcomers, feel, so they continued the tradition of holding a dinner for all hk Taft students to share their experiences; or perhaps they don't, cause the welcoming dinner I had didn't seem welcoming at all. Just as I expected, the old students talked actively among themselves, while the new ones generally listened. But I did find myself more acquainted with the school; at least having a less vague idea of what to expect.

A year later, above the coruscating lights of Central, we joined together again, yet very different this time: I played the role of an old boy instead of a newcomer. Familiar faces; new faces. Eat, talk; talk, eat. Surprisingly, time didn't flow as quickly as I expected.. But of course, everything comes to an end. This time I didn't rush to leave, but lingered for a while, hoping to leave better impressions..cause first impressions are lasting ones.

It was definitely an interesting experience, and truly a special one. At this moment, I can only hope that time will shape us not into what others want us to be, but what we want ourselves to be.

July 29, 2004
Just to clarify things a bit: I had no intention of breaking into Kevin's bloody 'buddy' site to see what's going on. It just so happened that some kind of magical urge forced my fingers to type its address, and accidentally it worked; just like 'open sesame'! And, interesting enough, he actually shared his new site with me generously before 'blocking the black spot'.

Meanwhile nothing special happened to me today..

July 28, 2004
Sorry for missing dailys for a few days.. I have been terribly sick since yesterday morning, vomitting and fevering like a feeble child. Our "Mission Hills trip" was forced to end at its climax because of that. We immediately traveled back to hk, and headed straight to the doctor. Feeling much better now. Don't worry, I'll be fine.

July 25, 2004
It will be a busy week.
First we're leaving tmr to stay in Mission Hills for a few days, just for fun. Then sat lessons start on wednesday, Wilson wants to do something on thursday, and the stupid welcoming dinner on friday night. Besides gonig through all these stuff, I still have readings to finish, math to revise, anf french to brush up. Well, let's hope for the best.

Btw P150 was announced. Just google it if you want to know more. I'm too lazy to post pix now.

July 24, 2004
Tennis in the morning,
Rest in the noon, watched a few movies;
Tennis tomorrow morning.
Isn't it lovely,
To live life in tranquility?

July 23, 2004 | Fresco
I'm glad to show you all a facelift of Login U, namely 'Fresco'. This facelift comes with a new water-paint style logo and a few minor color changes. But it's not done yet. I will continue gradually putting more stuff into this theme. Enjoy.

July 22, 2004
Shocked to see what-was-on-my-desk when I came back. My mum bought it today from the bookfair. Isn't it beautiful? To celebrate, I have changed the column bar to match its color.

Btw, it appears that there is an error in the Hotmail storage upgrade program - you can get a 2GB free account if you register an @msn.com account. Well, let's hope that's a permanent feature. Cheers.

July 18, 2004
Having finished reading 'HP and the Goblet of Fire' last night, I have to say that I'm disappointed. The beautiful and touching scenes found in the previous HP series were replaced by waspish and horrific images. The worst was the ending - precisely the last sentence - merely a quote from Hagrid that makes me shiver everytime I reread it.

Then today, I searched pageone for the Scholastic version of the Order of the Phoenix, but no luck. They said they stopped importing it. Well, I can only hope that the beautiful writing of Rowling's will return.

July 16, 2004
Well I have to say that I'm extremely glad to be back yesterday night, having successfully dodged the not-so-impressive Kompasu. Anyway, life is back to normal I guess? But just for two days...

P.S. We stayed in Mission Hills for one night and I played some tennis in the morning. Nice courts, very nice courts.

July 13, 2004 | Summer-job Update
For the past two days, I have been working in my dad's factory as a supervisor. This extremely 'tough' job requires me to watch over a miniature group of eight people in the data-entry-department (which I mentioned before). Don't look down on it: the massive amount of time (8-12, 1-5) to kill lures me into drowsiness. Knowing that I cannot fall asleep in front of those eight ladies, I am forced to torture myself and stay awake.

Fortunately, I find reading Harry Potter books extremely effective in killing time. Recently I dived myself back into 'HP and the Globet of Fire', which I received as a Christmas present four years ago. I am genuinely pleased to tell you my reading speed, which is 30 pages/day. Anyway, it's a pretty damn good summer-job that allows me to catch up on my readings and get paid, ya?

July 10, 2004
Watched HP 3 with Kevin and Martin in mk Broadway today..it wasn't really a great experience since the cinema itself was simply disappointing. After that wandered for a while, and ate at Azakamobo in tst. More shopping afterwards for the two vast money spenders.. Well, good for them.

July 9, 2004
Sad to learn that what I predicted become true. Due to our overall apathy, tickets were not bought at the right time, and now everywhere is fully booked. Please, guys, learn. Never leave things till the last minute.

July 8, 2004
"There are no free lunches."
Yesterday afternoon my dad 'invited' me to his factory unexpectedly. Well, I had nothing specific to work on, he just introduced me to a large scale data-input system/line that seems quite interesting.

So, why did I post that quote? For no specific reason. It just popped out from the back of my head, and I thought that is something all of us should remember on top of our minds.

Cheers.

Addition @ 10:10 pm | Microsoft's new mice

July 6, 2004 | Special Report: "Decision Making"
Believe it or not: we spent two hours deciding when to watch Harry Potter 3. Let's have a look at the situations:

Situation 1
Decision to make: Preordering tickets for Thursday (ifc)
Dilemma: Not sure if everyone is attending
Decision made: Buy later

Situation 2
Decision to make: Watching it on Thursday (ifc)
Dilemma: Consolidation program time crash, Martin's SAT course, ifc's strange time schedules
Decision made: Ruled out

Situation 3
Decision to make: Watching it on Friday (ifc)
Dilemma: Martin's SAT course, ifc's strange time schedules, general preference: Thursday>Saturday>Friday
Decision made: Ruled out

Situation 4
Decision to make: Having dinner with Kevin on Saturday
Dilemma: Subtle request, uniform problem
Decision made: Approved

Situation 5
Decision to make: Watching it on Saturday (ifc)
Dilemma: Uniform problem, prize-giving time crash, ifc's strange time schedules
Decision made: Ruled out

Situation 6
Decision to make: Watching it (ifc), then dinner with Kevin on Saturday
Dilemma: Uniform problem, prize-giving time crash, ifc's strange time schedules
Decision made: Ruled out

Situation 7
Decision to make: Watching it (amc), then dinner with Kevin (tst) on Saturday
Dilemma: Uniform problem, prize-giving time crash, my personal preference
Decision made: Approved and confirmed

Situation 8
Decision to make: Preordering tickets for Saturday(amc)
Dilemma: Thomas' laziness (?)
Decision made: Unknown

July 5, 2004 @ 10:32 am
Sorry for writing but not uploading the previous daily(s). I was downloading some movies on my desktop and since they reached over hundred kb/s, I just didn't want to interfere. But it's all good now.

Finally able to buy House of Sand and Fog from pageone yesterday. That book was out of stock in most stores last week. Besides that I also got a small French dictionary to facilitate my French revision over the summer. After that we had lunch in the old and trusty Sabatini in tst east. The food was still of its great quality, but its astronomic price remained unchanged. Anyway, it was a great day yesterday. "Yesterday, all the troubles seem so far away..."

Addition @ 7:04 pm
Happy Birthday. Happy birthday to the one that makes me believe, to the one who supports, shares, beholds, and devotes behind me, to my silent admirer, and to the one who perseveres.

July 3, 2004
And she did it! With flying colors stunning Serena 6-1, 6-4! See, dreams come true..

July 2, 2004
Stayed at home and finished some French revision in the morning. Watched Duplex after that with my mum. It was pretty interesting. I'll give you something back in return.

Sad to know that Serena won yesterday. Hope that Sharapova can overcome her and become the third youngest to win Wimbledon. Let's pray for her tmr.