Halfway mark, checked

Just popping by to update with some extracts from slides I done up for my speech done today done for Korean speaking class! Had a busy weekend having just finished up a 8 page report on leadership, preliminary research and brainstorming for a group project and the korean speech. Nights like yesterday's I'll always remember, staying up till 4am sitting on my room floor tracing, trimming and cutting pattern paper as well as muslin for my clothing construction homework. Then pricking myself numerous times with the silk pins when pinning the pieces together -__- That feeling of accomplishment when you finally get your work done is really rewarding. But as an after-effect of it all, I'm exhausted right now and am all ready hop into bed at 8:50pm. 

Still left with too much more to complete by next Monday! After then, a week of break before the finals roll in~ I'll be home after exams and about 2 weeks of traveling. Time really does fly!!!

busy times

People might think that exchange students have it easy.... right??? What if I tell you that isn't true? Currently abit swamped with assignments, assignments and assignments. Since whatever grades we get here is only accounted for on a pass/fail basis at our home university, the amount of effort invested in work here is really our own initiative. We have all been trying nothing but our best though- and that is where I confuse myself a little. 

Why put in so much effort then? (1) KU is a prestigious university here and we wish to find out how we stand amongst the local students. Especially since Koreans are known to be extremely hard working. (2) Why do something half-heartedly when you are aware you can do much better? This constantly runs through my mind when doing 5% reading log assignments, 5% quizzes, as well as my weekly clothing construction homework. It's not about the grades here, it's what I want to learn, achieve and experience as a person staying and studying here in KU.

And as for the photo above, it's a reminder to myself that this upcoming week and a half is a challenge and I will get by it!! Once it's over and done with it will be like an exit from being totally brain fried, heh. Plus I miss the girls and the fun we had during #nigusweekendout. But for now,  onward with the assignments, gooooooooo~~

More adventures to come

Have been absent from this space for some time because.... Kings is here in Korea! It's his eleventh day here counting from the day the plane touched down but it sure doesn't feel as long. There's so much to see and do but not enough time to cover everythinggggg T______T We head out whenever there's pockets of free time before/after my classes and usually wind up being exhausted at the end of the day. Our laundry pile had been left aside to grow into a monstrous size. Tiredness and monster laundry pile aside, I can't be any happier. Was feeling quite down for a week or two prior to this so his arrival is a perfect timing. Time to head out for more adventures! Till next time~~

skype perspectives

Just got off skype with my parents and it was our first skype session with me in Korea. I realized that there were two very different of how the skype call went. Here's photo examples:

(1) their perspective; all happy and looking good VS 

(2) my perspective; bad angles and unflattering candid expressions. 

Can you guess which was the one uploaded onto facebook? Hahaha. Luckily my parents are active enough on social media to know only to post nice photos (most of the time). No wonder they said I looked good. The lighting made me glow! The camera of their Samsung tablet on the other hand.. leaves more to be desired. :P 

Anyway, I had a pretty rough day in school today so the skype call was a great mood lifter. Was up late the night before rushing a reading log so only had 5 hours of sleep. The peanut butter and margarine sandwich I prepared for breakfast lasted me till 4pm and it was the only thing I had apart from water till 6.15pm. I was up since 7.20am and was busy with school/work the entire time and couldn't even take a break for a proper meal :/ Thank goodness I had a good dinner and it made me feel alot better too. Well, that's my Monday for you. Busy busy busy.

Words to remember

image source: x

"Make sure you’re thoroughly passionate about what you’re starting so that it doesn't feel like work but more like play. Make sure you work with equally smart and driven people. Care to do the best work possible (whatever you are, be a good one)."

The quote is by Tina Roth Eisenberg of Swiss-Miss on what the top three things someone should consider before starting their own business. This is definitely something to keep in mind! Life should be about achieving the best in terms of one's interests. In the meantime, I shall refocus all my attention to school work to build a better foundation for a stable future. Let's never forget to work towards our dreams :)

my laptop's life story

A story of what happened when my laptop suffered liquid damage, and what you should do if it happens.

First, the back-story! The birth of this new laptop arose from the need to replace my old fujitsu S6510 which has faithfully served me for the past 5.5 years. The old laptop was half a decade old and still working really well- save for a creaky fan whose whirrs where akin to the persistent snores of a person sleeping with a blocked nose. The noise easily creates embarrassing situations, such a third of the lecture hall’s population turning their head towards me the moment the creaky fan started spinning rapidly within the machine’s body when I turned it on. Anyway, the laptop could be considered a grandma in people-age and it was due to be replaced with something that didn’t emit excessive heat, noise and embarrassment. 

After weeks of research, I finally put my finger down (literally) and ordered a MacBook from Apple’s web store. Everything went smoothly enough- the order was processed quickly and I was also happy to get a small student discount! The new laptop was sent to my doorstep within 5 working days, which is really quick. Tinkered with it for several days and then brought it out for its first excursion to school. 

The second time I brought it out, which is just six days after receiving it… disaster struck. I remember collecting my lunch from the Yong Tau Foo stall in Makan Place when Kingsly apprehensively approached me and carefully said, “Don’t panic, but I’ve something to tell you”. The first thing that crossed my mind was that my entire bag got snatched/stolen from our table along with the new laptop nestled within it. It was a plausible fear since my bag was stolen several years back when it was left unattended along with some friends’ when we were jogging at Ngee Ann’s. But that’s a story for another day. 

He then continued, “Your bottle leaked and your entire bag is drenched”. 

• When I returned to the table, my friends were already helping to wipe down all my belongings. This included my new laptop, which they first rescued from the sopping wet backpack. Apparently when they helped to stack up all our bags onto a chair, the cap of my bottle (which was inside my bag) clicked open when the bag got tilted and its entire contents, which is about 400ml of water, spilled out. But because I wasn’t present when the laptop was fished out and cleaned, I had no idea how much water had been in direct contact with it. 

This caused me to make several decisions that could have indirectly led to the damage of the laptop. Firstly, I decided to have lunch first before checking on the device since I knew that I wouldn’t have any appetite if it really ended up being spoilt. And that was precisely what happened after lunch. The laptop was totally unresponsive. That was when my heart sank and reality set in. 

We then sat stunned for a moment and did what regular people would- we googled for help. After reading through several forums, it was then decided that the best thing to do would be to head home and put the laptop in a bag of rice. That’s something I won’t recommend anyone to do, by the way. Unless you’re absolutely sure that all optical ports are covered and safe from the danger of rice bits entering the device. 

After keeping the laptop in a large gallon-sized ziplock bag with about six cups of rice and several packs of silica gel meant for camera gear, we waited. A week. When we retrieved the laptop again and tried to switch it on, nothing happened. The light indicator for the charger had no response when turned on and plugged in as well. The funniest thing is that some rice managed to make their way into the body of the laptop although I made a conscious effort to tape up all the ports on the sides and we could hear it when shaking the device, It was one of those moments where I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

Anyway, I managed to get it fixed by sending it to an authorized service provider (QCD @ Tradehub 21) for repairs. The verdict? Visible corrosion on the logic board that had to be replaced entirely. And the worse thing is that it wasn’t covered under warranty since the liquid contact indicator had changed colour. I tried calling up all the other service providers listed on Apple’s site but the prices they quoted for pretty much the same. Even contacted Apple’s customer service (the call got routed overseas) who couldn’t help me out as well. 

The final cost ended up to be $941.00- a hefty amount for a student who just paid for the brand new laptop and an expensive lesson to be remembered for a long, long time.

TL;DR 

Brand new Macbook Air 2013 suffered liquid damage after unintentional water spill 

Kept it in bag of rice and silica gel but didn't work. DO NOT put your laptop in rice!! 

Not covered by warranty because liquid contact indicator was exposed to the water

Had to pay full amount for repairs 

Tips: Immediately after spill, put laptop on its side to drain out excess water. Keep laptop in airtight bag with appropriate drying agent (silica gel should work). Wait as long as possible before attempting to turn on laptop again. If it's really damaged, pray hard that the indicator wasn't exposed to liquids! Good luck!!

fishnfries.livejournal.com

Hey guys, I'm attempting to clear out my wardrobe so some clothes are now for sale for cheap! Selling mostly because they're too large for me and don't fit well. Gla and I took part in a flea last Saturday which was held at *Scape and I managed to clear some pieces of pre-loved clothing along with my sister's. But sales overall were a big disappointment. The stalls were pretty much squeezed into a small area and there was very little walking space along the aisles, so the conditions weren't ideal. Hopefully luck for online sales will be much better! Please help to take a look and let me know if you see anything you like. Drop an email to limecreme@gmail.com for enquiries. Thanks! :)

Visit my selling post here: http://fishnfries.livejournal.com/41361.html

toy cameras + film photography!

My sister and her bf gifted a silver toy camera to me for my twenty first birthday and I absolutely love it! It's the Silver Kumagin from the Superheadz Ultra Wide and Slim series.

Light, plasticky and shiny, it wasn't my first choice actually. I had first fallen in love with the Usagi Colourful (and still think it's the most gorgeous thing ever) after setting my sights on a couple of these cameras at Page One in Vivocity many months back. That evening, I returned home raving to my sister about the pretty lomos I saw.

Usagi Colourful

But when searching for a picture of these cams online just now, I found out that my Kumajin is a limited edition version with only 2000 sets available worldwide. Oh wow. *Cries tears of happiness* T_____T

Kumajin (Silver)

So anyway, I took the Kumajin along on my trip to Taiwan and it's the first film camera that I have personally owned and handled. It's surprisingly easy to use, which is why calling it a "toy camera" is really apt. To take a photo, you simply point and shoot. There's really no other buttons for you to make use of other than the shutter button. Haha.

As I had brought the film overseas with me, they were subjected to security checks and scanning at the airports. Some of the images (1/4 of them) got affected by fogging and were unusable, which is pretty sad. But I'm sure the next roll I take and develop will turn out a-okay.

Here are some of my favourites from this batch. I think they look better IRL though. Scanning does funny things to the photos and the quality was compromised. Take a look through 'em and enjoy!

At the fishing port in Ye Liu.

Random shrub of grass by a hillside.

Used taxis for sale- spotted while on the local bus!

Manicured grass depicting the name of the area.

Cheap ice-cream in Dan Tsui!

Families taking photos by the Taipei Zoo sign

Candid shot of me using the digicam.

Beloved stuffed llama enjoying the view.