Happy birthday to Andrew

Due to Andrew's birthday, we had a BBQ dinner today. The Turners had also prepared several bottles of beer and going to have a big drink. There's also a DV camera recording the whole scene. During the BBQ, the Andrews played music and dancing and also pursuing Andrew to drink the beer, whereas Andrew insisted that he'd not drink 'em until 8 o'clock. "Are you sure?" I asked Andrew. Actually I doubt it (since he's got alcoholic :P ). Unfortunately, it rained and we had got to move those stuff into the room and keep ...dancing and drinking. I as well drank a bottle of beer. They said it's "the best beer in the world", albeit I couldn't tell the difference from the normal (or whatever) beer. I just know that I'd got a bit dizzy... Looking around myself and found that...Andrew's gonna drink the beer ! Apparantly it's not 8 but just 5 o'clock at the moment. (See? I told you. :P) Anyway, we can't tell birthday without birthday cake, and of course we'd got one for Andrew. It's a small yet somewhat special cake - not special on the cake but on the candles (see the figure). Beer candles? Candle beers? After the party, we all got together and 'reviewed' the scene taken by the DV camera. However, I somehow got dizzy (I'm not sure if it's due to the alcohol or the DV images though) so I didn't watch it all and hit the sack. In a nutshell, the party was good but the dizziness eventually had kept me away from study tonight (and write diary as well). Erm...I suppose I've got headache now... ################ Afterword ... ################ I went to the kitchen for water at 11 o'clock that night, and found Andrew was ...still drinking !? "It's all right. It's my birthday~~." Well...I bet you'll get hangover the next day, Andrew...

Oh ! "Shit" !! -- again

If you're imagining what'd happened when you see the title, then I'd say: Yes, you bet. Charlie - the baby cat - did "it" () again. Fortunately(?) this time he didn't poo on my bed like the last time (see Jan. 21 2005) but in the laundry. But it's still smelly; I feel I can smell it from my room... If I'm not wrong, this has been the third time that Charlie poos at where he shouldn't have done it: my bedroom, the bathroom and this time.

What !!?? They really did it !!

Goodness! Goodness!! Goodness!!! The download numbers of the Opera 8 "had reached 1,050,000 by Apr 23 2005 " !? They really did it !! So what the CEO, Jon, has to do the next is to swim across the ocean ...!? Bless him ...make sure bring a life jacket. (And the Opera company might have got to find another CEO...??) Interestingly enough, Opera has set up a particular page for Jon's Viking journey - on their "swim" page. (what a funny url). I'll check it up frequently.

See you, John.

One of the housekeepers, and as well our good Maori friend - John - is leaving LI today. He has been so talkative and everyone must miss him. To show the farewell, Carol prepared some songs several days ago for us to sing in front of John, and we had practiced them for 3 days. At 12:10, we all gathered in the cafeteria and Carol, on the other hand, invited John to where we had been waiting at. As soon as John showed up, all of us started to sing "For he's a jolly good fellow", Maori song "Po Atarau (On a moonlit night)", and "Auld Lang Syne" - international version (English version followed by Japanese version folowed by Korean followed by Mandarin followed by Thai and then English again). At last the small party was finalized with John's short speech. I could notice that John's eyes had turned red... Ka kite anoo ("good bye" in Maori), John. John, make sure come back to see us frequently.

Any body ever been deceived by their own clock?

Well...I have. This morning. Normally I used to look at the clock on the wall rather than my watch or alarm clock. I walked out of my room at "8 o'clock" (according to my clock) and going to have breakfast "as usual". Somehow I looked at my watch and found that it said ... 8:30... Eh!? Not 8:00!? It looks like the battery had got flat. As the bus had left at 8:20, I had to wait for the next bus (8:50) to go to the LI and of course, I couldn't get to the LI on time today. I should have got more than one clock with me in my room...

Opera8 realeased.

The alternative web browser opera8 is released today. Being a speedy web browser, its release always attracts me. Anyway, I downloaded it ASAP; installed it and took a glant look. Here are some feelings. Feelings: 1. The GUI has changed in some way. 2. The speed of opening a webpage is much faster than the previous version (Opera7.54u2). 3. There is a cross (close?) button on each page tab. (I didn't notice that and once closed the webpage which I was looking at by mistake...) 4. It always crash when I {Tools / Preferences / Web Pages}. Maybe it'll be fixed in the next minor upgrade. I've reported the bug back to the authority. So far not so bad (except the crash while setting). I look forward to the next bug fix. By the way... The CEO of Opera also announced that he'd "swim from Norway to the USA if the download numbers of Opera 8 reach 1 million within the first 4 days" !!(from 2005 Apr 21 press release). Let's see what'll happen...

Today is the anniversary of ...

...finishing my army duty in CGA (Coast Guard Administration). What I can comment about it is that "it is just tough". Actually I still can see several nightmares of that hard time when I'm sleeping; now it's not that often though (I saw the nightmares once 3-4 nights when I just came to NZ). I'd not go back to the "prison" again. Never.

Rugby match -- watch out for falling rocks !?

There's a rugby game at the stadium near LI at night. Andrew and I walked (around 15 minutes) to the stadium after the dinner. On our way to the stadium, we saw many fans wearing the same shirts as the players', and also met Mark (surely he'd got the same shirts too). Obviously the NZers enjoy rugby very much. In the stadium, it was so bright that I didn't have to worry if the light was not bright enough to take the photos. The game was the "Chief" team againt "Cats". Besides the forewords "shouted" by the reporter (?), the audiences also sang a song which sounds like "we~will~we~will~fuck you !" Sounds quite dangerous... Besides that, the players were warming up on the ground. They ran around and kicked the balls extremely high and ......the balls were falling toward us !?!? The stadium really should set up some warning signs something like "Watch out falling rocks " !! ...Am I the only one that feel it's really dangerous ?? ...Anyway, having seen the dance of the cheer leaders, fireworks and sky-diving, the game finally started. Several minuted after start, the team Chief got the first score, and after that even though the Cats also got some scores, the Chief had got much more score than that. During the game, there're some black-clothed-and-fluffy-haired weird yet funny guys dancing and providing the rugby balls (actually toys) in front of us. On their clothes it said "MAFIA"...the Mafia !? It's really odd... During the break, there was a mini-game (?) pushing the 4WDs (see the pictures). It's really strange to me though. There're also some kiss (!) game, which those couples displayed out on the huge screen had to kiss each other! My goodness. :P During the 2nd half, the Chief still kept leading. Maybe because of the high tension, a man sitting in front of me usually shouted extremely loudly. Actually this guy had been shouting during the 1st half, and I could notice that some other audiences had been annoyed by him. Suddenly some liquid poured toward us!! It happened so suddenly that neither Andrew nor I knew where it splashed from. It smelt like beer. Obviously it was splashed from the guy's beer when he stood up and raised his arms. Andrew told him not to pour the beer, and actually he didn't after that. However he still kept shouting, and an old woman finally couldn't stand it and grabbed the guy (well done, madam :P). Fortunately her husband stopped her and thus the further conflict was avoided; otherwise there might had been a big fight. Although the Chief looked tired and performed some mistakes in the end, they still won the game. The game itself was not bad and I enjoyed that night (well, except the bad-behavioring drunken guy). I'm glad there wasn't any fighting (like some football games) and any "rock" falling on my head. Sky diving. Tackle ! "Wanna get this ball? But they're louder !!" "Huh? I can't hear !!" "All right...Here you go." Get ready ! Set... Go ! Push ! Push !! Push !!! Goal !

Happy Thai New Year !!

According to Thailand friends, today is Thailand's new year. It is said that today is the hottest day in Thailand, thus people spray water to each other to cool them down. Fortunately, this is New Zealand, so we don't have to be sprayed.....the sooner or later, Yui (from Thai) sprayed water toward Kun (another from Thai) with a toy pistol !! Not mension all of us were surprised. Poor Kun. Any way, sawatdii pimaï ("Happy new year" in Thai language).

Hamilton lake

Fortunately, the weather is nice today. Thus we didn't have any problem with our trip. While I've been the lake for twice, this is still my first time to go there on foot. Until today I never realize that the lake is such a big one (around 45 min to walk around), and never seen so many ducks and pukekos (I though there were only ducks by the lake). It was 12 o'clock just when we went back to LI. Nice timing!

Ghost press ('Guei-Ya-Chuang' in Chinese)

Someone asked me to tell 'em some superstitions that I know. So this is what I wrote on the forum of this week. Most Chinese must have heard this term - 'Guei-Ya-Chuang'. This is a phonemenon that a people can't get up from the bed; even though their minds are clear, somehow they can't move their bodies by themselves. Some believe that it is because the ghost is pressing their body down. By the way, Chinese sometimes just call ghost 'that'. When I was still being trained in the military, a commander of mine told us that 'Guei-Ya-Chuang' once happened to a soldier in our barracks. ####################################### # Story by the commander ####################################### The soldier said he sometimes can see the ghost. Surely none of the captains believe him. One day he told the captains nervously, "captain! captain! I saw 'that'just now!" "Where?" "In the room!" The captain looked at the room, and there was nothing. "Fxxx!! (<= Well, the language in the military is quite rude, you know) Are you sure you saw 'that'!!" Then the captain went away. Several minutes later, the soldier told the captain more nervously that the ghost showed up again. The captain went to the room and ...still nothing. Surely crash course again. And something strange happened that night. In the military everyone have to go patrol for 3 hours by turn. It was the soldier's turn at 2 o'clock. The previous patrolling soldier came to his bed and was going to wake him up. When he came to the soldier's bed, he found the soldier was very strange: his body was shaking and (freezingly) cold. He opened his eyes largely and was gnashing his teeth. No matter how the previous soldier called him, he never get up. The captains called by the previous soldier came the bedroom and were surprised by what they saw. "Maybe this is the so-called 'Guei-Ya-Chuang'!" They tried everything came to their mind to wake him up, including: called him, shouted at him, patted him, poured cold water, shook him violently, pull his hairs, beat and kick him (yes, literally beat and kick...), and put captains' "leading belt" (Well, another superstition. In the military, leading belt is said to have the function of expelling evils). And all fail. ####################################### # End of the story ####################################### That was the first time that I heard 'Guei-Ya-Chuang' in the barracks. At last the soldier was awaken up with some method. Unfortunately I can't remind how they awoke him at the moment...I'll update this story as soon as it comes to my mind.

Hamilton garden trip...? (maybe)

Because many of my mates are going to leave our class, we're going to have a trip toward Hamilton garden this Friday. Actually we've had several times (the end of the last year, and the end of the last block) of plan to have a trip to the garden, yet it always rain and the trips were canceled... Will it be fine tomorrow? Who knows. Time will tell...

Waitomo Cave

I thought that only three of us were going to Waitomo Cave, and eventually we've got 9 people - 1 Taiwanese, 2 Thailand students and 6 Japanese...somewhat dissapoining (never speak English). Anyway, we still went to the destination with the guide - Ian (from E-Tour). On the way to the cave, we drove throuth a town which most of the building were hanging flowers. The town is called rose something (sorry, I've forgotten). Arriving at the cave, we saw a ...somewhat trivial rock wall (personal feeling). Walking into the cave and found that the inside was much larger and more gorgeous that we had thought. Well, we really shouldn't judge a 'cave' from their looks. We saw the glowworm light on the boat and that was just fantastic. Some said Waitomo cave is boring and has nothing to see, but I think the 'glowworm galaxy' does worth a visit. Unforunately, we also saw the record of suvenior hunters. The screaming of the babies is also obnoxious. After the lunch (the pizza was nice. the bacons were extremely hard, though), we headed toward the kiwi house. In the dark room, there were 2 kiwi birds walking around. Due to extremely sensitive to the flash light, we were not allowed to use flash light when taking the photos. In such darkness, I suppose nobody would be able to take photos without flash. But anyway, the kiwi birds are much bigger and more cute than we'd thought. Some Japanese mates said they'd like to bring back to Japan as a pet. Surely no way. It was about 1620 when we came back to LI, and due to the weekend, we had to wait for the bus until 1715 (i.e. near 1 hr). So we had a boring waiting time after the fantastic rushing time.

Gaim update

Remind that my Gaim hasn't updated for quite a long time, I upgrade it to 1.2.0 today. Hm...somehow the Chinese display is strange: the Chinese characters in the Nickname can't be shown correctly (rectangular symbols are shown instead); sometimes it can't either in the Conversation dialog window. Otherwise there isn't any problem to me. Never mind. I don't use Chinese anyway (the rectangular symbols are annoying, though) .