Received any presents or gifts? Remembered to get something for your loved ones? It isn’t too late for there is still hours before Christmas ends. I love my present from my parents. It is beautiful mummy.

Presents include the wallet and headphone. Bear excluded.

P.S Can’t wait for the next gathering which will most probably be during the Chinese New Year period. Oh well, school is starting. Damn.

Swift World is already a year old and the traffic for the site has increased slowly but steadily during the past few months. Revenue from Google advertisements is still as little as ever, but is seen to be increasing at a really slow pace. The website faced a few problems, major ones mainly hacking attempts and server downtime due to the hackers. After each and every problem occurred, I learnt many things about site security and so on. I believe that in the year of 2009, less of such security lapse will happen. If you have noticed, I have changed the theme and website layout to one that is of styled like a magazine. I believe this will suit the site more for it isn’t just part of my personal diary, but also a platform for me to write reviews, articles etc.

I haven’t been posting much for there isn’t much motivation or anything interesting that inspires me to do so. Though the holidays have started for me, time is rather tight for I currently have a heavy schedule of extra school based activities, class gatherings and events. All that would last till around late November. I would then have the time to actually dish out some quality post once inspiration fills my mind.

That’s all I have to say for now but you sure can bet on me posting another article up real soon. Till then, enjoy your holidays if you are having them if not all the best in whatever you are doing!

Oh and I want a IPod Nano because, I just gotten a IPod TOUCH! What a reason. Greed is present in all human beings, can’t blame no one. When we’re born, we want to cry. And we don’t cry just once, but MANY times (because we are greedy. Ok, this is a joke if you didn’t realise.). Alright that isn’t related at all. ANYWAYS, my parents gotten me an IPod Touch. How sweet of them. (P.S And I’m sorry mum for making you cry yesterday. You didn’t have to. I was just, you know, stating my point and what I truely thought about your actions etc. And I guess it wouldn’t be too late to Apologise for We Are Family).

You bet my bear is loving it. “Hey, it is my turn to listen now dammit!”

I have not been posting of much due to the endless amount of projects which are finally over. Now that the projects are gone, I will be kept busy again, due to the time spent into studying and revision work. However, I would just like to say that there are not much of happenings lately; no games that are worth to talk about, no interesting events that happened, no nothing. Life is as usual but I just cannot wait to say, “LITTLE BIG PLANET is coming out soon!” (During my examination period of course. What a coincidence.) There are several games that I am eagerly anticipating with high hopes and expectations. Still, due to my examinations I have to wait. The painful waiting is what I usually endure and I really hope that the wait would be worth it (the game as well as my results, that is).

For now, I am going to leave and fully rest my last weekend of escapism before finally going back to the harsh reality of life this coming Monday. I wish students out there a happy studying time and all the best for your EOYs (End-Of-Years. Oh well).

P.S Happy teachers’s day.

Term 3 supposedly was my relaxing and fun term in my opinion. However, I was proved wrong and am kind of surprised with the outcome and how current things are going. Nevertheless since this is my first time ever having such a curriculum, I am confident the next time such a term ever comes again, I will be prepared. Cut shot about my ranting and etc about how tiresome and exhausting term 3 is, I’ll touch more about some of the other interesting happenings that had just happened.

Flag Bearer

I am chosen to carry the unit’s honor and status. I am, Legend. Not. I am just a flag bearer who is currently attending loads and loads of trainings and practices after school and is kind of sad about it. Seeing all my friends going home, having time to play, I mean do their projects; I felt that the time spent was extremely tiring and consuming. Nonetheless since I have been given such honor to hold the unit’s flag, I might as well do it to the best of my ability.

Calling from Reporter

This just happened. This post has been written right after the call from some reporter from some Chinese newspaper. I felt kind of guilty that I have participated in the blog competition and haven’t been updating the blog that much. Never mind about that, let us talk about the interview.

She started the call asking me if I was blah and blah. And I was like, uhh ya… no wait are you looking for, oh ya. I always had such hearing problems. Anyways, she then introduced herself. Which again, I could grasp much of whatever she was talking about. I only caught that she was a reporter from some Chinese newspaper. Then she continued telling me how she found my blog blah blah blah and whether I could speak Chinese or not (I said I could, but not fluently)

The crux of the interview was, “what do you think about teachers no supporting their student (a blogger)” I was like, very sad LOR. But I also don’t care about my teachers as I didn’t actually tell them much about my blogging life etc. And teachers ought to give and lend their support to their students etc. “So, if you get rejected by your teacher, how would you feel?” I was like, never mind la, just find other methods lor. The last question was like something about my feelings etc. I only knew that my answer was “I am always a happy person. Yah, so yah. Bye.” Thank you for your time.

Just upgraded to Wordpress 2.6 (huh? So soon? Yes I had the same reaction). Hit the jump for a video done by the official team on the new features etc.

June 08 has been a month that is extremely packed and fulfilling. As most of you know, June has always been a month that students loved. The month of the semester break which means a wholesome 30 days of rest, fun and whatever. I have always had the same semester break for the all the past years. However, 2008 had been totally different. 2008 semester break has been nothing but chaotic, hectic and tiring. Rest? Nah, spent my days and time running around, flying and crossing islands. You can actually read it here at this article: http://www.swiftworld.net/2008/06/17/back-from-nco-camp-and-taiwan-trip/

With that I’ll just shift the focus to what had recently taken place. An NPCC event, yes again. This time it just happen a few hours ago so I can still remember whatever that have had happen vividly. I just participated in a NPCC Monopoly game competition. Monopoly? The board game? Well you can say so, but instead, it is somewhat a life-sized version of the game. Alright, I know all of you will go rolling your eyes already, me too when I first heard it was the monopoly, I was like hell yeah, slack and fun. However, to my surprise, it was a LIFE-SIZED monopoly. My immediate reaction? For heavens’ sake, no way! Still, I went and must say it was alright, not too boring or retarded as I thought it might be.

The monopoly game was held at NYGH (Nangyang Girls High), and obvious the NYGH NPCC was the unit in-charge of the game. We arrived somewhat late for some reasonable reasons and started the game early in the morning. We had to choose a group name and basically write in some crap in a neatly done handbook (our so called passport). The game then started with us throwing puny board sized dices to determine where, we, the life sized players had to go. We then started running around and around passing go around 4 consecutive times for the first few 10 minutes of the game. I seriously felt that it was like Physical Training or even perhaps some fitness re-test.

There were different stations and instead of properties, we had stocks. Stations were stops where we had to stop and complete some kind of task usually related to stuff we do in NPCC. Nothing too fantastic or disgusting etc, just plain everyday expected activities and tasks. Campcraft, brain teasers, drills and of course their favourite physical activities. After playing for around 2 hours we had some boring finale which I would love not to talk about. Got 3^rd and here is a picture of me and the trophy:

Some boring statistics about the site and the month of June:

Traffic Statistics

That’s all from me, for now just enjoy the medal and the bear =)

They contacted those who got through the first selection process by phone. I, being either lucky or a person that is worthy of being selected, had been called up by one of their staff (I think) to inform me about my acceptance into the top, well 10. I guess I felt happy, and excited at the same time upon receiving their call. It was kind of unexpected for them to call. I did not know how the selection process was like, or what or how they chose the top 10 of each category. But nevertheless I am hopeful and anxious to know what the results will be like and for the next few days I’ll be trying to pull votes in.

I hate my icon given to tag on my blog. Just take a look:

Why can’t I have stuff like:

or

Vote me or whatever. My bear wants the phone (Excuses. Heh)

Youth Category Link (I Play fair. You don’t have to vote me. Choose the best for yourself. May the best win I guess. *Shrugs*)

Taiwan Trip

The trip was okay, average to be exact. Nothing too special to set it apart from my other tours I had before. I was there on tour, which means the time spent on moving is much more then the time spent on sightseeing, shopping or simply exploring the different places. We had the usual buffet breakfast, four to three star hotels, bus rides, history lessons, and some tourists trap spots. However, all those are really nothing much to remember. What was most significant in my memory, was two events that took place. Both happened on the same day, and it had to do with some Chinese stuff. Please do not quote me or anything, I am just recalling from what I heard and saw and if I remembered incorrectly, spare me.

You see, the tour group was brought into this Chinese herb shop that sells herbs that are extremely beneficial to us humans. Basically it sells Lingzhi (very healthy and helps prevent cancer etc) and LuTai (some part of the deer baby or something. I think it is the fetus if I am not wrong) and it states that its products are 100% genuine and helpful. Okay, whatever, companies self-praising and making lots of promises are always common. However, the professor there indicated something that seems rather, well not too appropriate. Yes indicated, he did not speak about it directly, instead indirectly through experiment and the choice of words, he brought down the local hong ri pai ling zhi saying that it is not 100% real and that taking one year of their would be equal to the sum of six years of eating the hong ri pai ling zhi. So basically for whomever out there who is a regular buying hong ri pai ling zhi, please do not feel pissed off or anything, that is just what the professor there states. He also says that ling zhi in tablet for is rather hard to believe and that if best, choose the latter (the whole lingzhi instead of tablet form). 1 year is to 6 years. Wow.

Another thing was the funny fengshui masters and their so called apprentices’ words. I went to China before, went to their fengshui tourist spots as well. What was so different was the words from both sides of the fengshui masters. The China said that you should never let people touch your erm that lion thing, as it would mean that all your wealth would go that person who touches. However, for the Taiwan master, he told us ALL to touch his lions so as to get wealth and healthy bodies. Weird. So the next thing was the gender of the lions (not sure but it looks like lions anyways). For the China side, they had different names and if I remembered correctly, the China master’s male was the Taiwan master’s female. Who should I believe? Then followed the incident when the assistants were persuading us to buy their amulets or necklaces. We seriously had them already, so we truthfully and politely told them we had already purchased them before from China. Guess what their reply was? “Na Li Zhong Guo? Ta Men De Shi Jia De, Pian Ren De” (Which part of China? Theirs are all fakes, you got cheated”. And all the faces looked rather pissed and pulled. Kind of weird eh? Isn’t Feng Shui, Feng Shui? I don’t remember having Taiwan Feng Shui and China Feng Shui. Oh oh, perhaps there is also Singapore Feng Shui?

That is basically all of my Taiwan trip that was interesting. Now on to the exhausting NCO Camp.

NCO Camp

The NCO camp was basically created to train and prepare the next batch of officers who are about to take charge of the unit (NPCC in my case). Be it training them on how to teach or spread the joy of being a NPCC Cadet, the different cheers and methods of commanding etc. It is simply everything to make sure that the unit does not fall after you take over. Therefore, it will have to be tough, and not fun. Drills drills, tying of knots and more tying of knots. Some lectures and that is everything. What was most memorable are the hours long of drills with just minutes of short breaks for consumption of water. Of course the day where we are let off from the camp was fun as well. Usually on the last day of the camp, everything will go so smoothly such that you think the camp was awesomely fun and exciting. No seriously the officers will forgive and forget whatever wrong you have committed so on and so forth. Nothing much to talk about just that the camp sure have worn me out and made me drained of energy.

However, if I were to rest and recuperate, what about my homework? Argh, will someone please give me directions. Holidays are about to end.

P.S A new addition to the family, the white tiger. (As Above)

March

Attended a Mega Camp hosted by my Uniform Group during the March Holidays. The whole week was pretty much the camp itself and school practically follows after it. Did not have much time at all but managed still to upgrade my wordpress version to 2.5 without much errors etc.

April

Busy preparing for examinations but still managed to cook up a few reviews (2 to be exact) during the first few weeks of April. After that was mainly studying, revising and sleeping. Of course I took a few short breaks here and there (too many actually) to spend quality time with my PS3. I reviewed the Singapore hosted MMO dancing game, High Street 5 as well as a Anti-Theft Software that received quite a few comments from different users. Learnt a few important lessons that when people pay you to do a review, the review must be positive and not talk about the bad points of their product. Well, not really completely ignoring the bad points, instead the bad points must be brought out in a way that it does not actually matter. Heh, so that is basically my April for you.

May

May has been a month of happiness and grieves. Mixed emotions filled me as the days of the month of May progresses. At first, I felt relived and happy as my examinations are finally over (for now). Played hard but at the same time worrying as the days of releasing of results draw nearer. As I got my results, I felt sad and regretted not spending more time with my text books. No use crying over spilled milk now though, just have to work harder in the future and of course the final term which carries the most marks. Feeling sad is not enough, I had to feel tired and exhausted as well. Following the start of the mid-year holidays, I had a camp at Pulau Ubin; the survivor camp. Yes it is based off the reality show Survivor and we all know whatever happened in the show sure was hellish and tiring. May passed quickly as it was filled with many key events. (Time sure go faster when doing stuff you enjoy etc)

Swift World Traffic Statistics

Earnings and Revenue

Google Adsense: $1.97 (March) $2.93 (April) $2.29 (May)

That’s all. No more Advertlets, instead I tried giving Nuffnang a chance again. Have yet to receive any advertisement at all thus no income from them. Perhaps I might get one or two in June.

Off for Taiwan

I am going to fly to Taiwan tomorrow for around a week. Not going there for business or school related stuff but instead just holidaying there with my parents and grandmother. I will try to blog about some of the interesting happenings or events that might happen throughout the tour when I come back. Till then, adios and have fun if you are currently having your term break or holidays like me!