Here comes my new topic category - iDontGetIt. Lately, I don't know why I started to notice many things I don't get about us people. Maybe I slack my brain too much till it tries to look for sth to think about. So I thought it would be interesting to write them down here for future reference...

So what is the first thing that I don't get? I don't get why some people tell me certain things are overrated when they've never even use it before. On what basis that they can so outrightly claim that it's overrated? Because most of the online reviews say so? or their friends say so? or just simply because they tried their friends' ones and they don't like it as it claimed they would? No idea but whatever it is, I personally think that unless you own one before you're not really qualified to claim that it's overrated.

I started to wonder about this when I was getting opinions from people on whether I should save up for Android, iPhone or Blackberry? And guess what, I have people producing absolute claim for every one of those model.

My friends who use Android said iPhone is just a trend and there are many thing iPhone couldn't do compared to Android especially in term of customization and personalization. They also say everybody is getting an iPhone because everybody else was doing it. When asked about BlackerBerry? They were like "BlackBerry is not even in the equation here. BlackBerry is for working people. There's nothing much there."

On the other hand, some of my iPhone peeps says Android is overrated and iPhone is the only phone you should consider going for. iPhone can do anything you want to do. It can do anything Android can do and more. That's one very very big and dangerous claim they were making there. And yeah again they also agree with my Adroid friends that BlackBerry is not to be compared with the 2.

So what do my BlackBerry friends has to say? They say no... BlackBerry can do a lot of things, at least more than enough for you to not want to upgrade to either iPhone or Android. BlackBerry can go online, can surf Internet, can do email, can use google app, can use google map, and they also have games and entertainment stuff. So why would u need iPhone and Android? Then I said, "I don't know. Because they look cooler and more sleek?".... "No, they're big. You see the later model of BlackBerry. Their designs are also cool and on top of that, they're more handy.".... then I went..." but I think the buttons are too small. My fingers are fat so it won't easy for me to press".... then they were like "No la. After a while you'll get used to it. The iPhone/Adroid on-screen key pad is even harder to press."

After all that, I think I'm back at square one. Which one to get? But the more disturbing question now is why are these people make so absolute claim about each of these brands when they haven't even had extensive experience using the other brand, nor do they have any idea what features I need/prefer, what design I like, and what I other things I can or cannot tolerate about these gadgets. They suddenly appear to me like an unpaid salesmen but again even salesmen leave some room for you to consider your other choices.

So there you go. I don't get it. Why are we being so judgmental about things/people that we don't really know?

My personal answer at the moment would be because we think we know even when we don't.

The past 2 weeks have been a hell of a week. One event after another. Four events running in the a row. It started on Saturday 20 Mar with my company Dragonboat competition. I had to wake up at 6:15 am on Saturday morning! -__- After getting ready we grabbed a cab to the event venue, Lower Seletar Reservoir Park.

It was raining almost throughout the whole event. So we had to race in the rain. A lot of ppl found it suck to rain but I thought it was quite fun to get to row Dragonboat in the rain. I really miss basking in rain. It reminds me of childhood. Anyway, my team had 2 races. 1st race we came last and 2nd last for the 2nd race.  -__- But at least our timing is not the last among all the boats (there 8o+ boats and 7 boats each race). There were many boats that have much worse timing than us. :P After the race, it was time to feast!! We went to grab our free lunch, popcorn, ice cream, and ice milo. *yummy* Then after the feast, we went to join everybody to set record in having most number of people doing the papaya dance. I think I'm really lucky. This is the 2nd time I get to be involved in setting world record. My first was during JC time, which we set a record for the largest mass yoga. And I'm going to be involved in the my 3rd one in the coming weekend. XD

After the Dragonboat event at about 2 pm, I took a cab to go for my 5-day CEP seminar at NACLI. By the way, CEP stands for Culture and Education Programme.  According to the booklet, CEP is an innovative and integral part of the concept of the Youth Olympic Games. SYOG provides all participants with a memorable programme that combines sport competition with a large and diverse range of CEP activities. I volunteered for this mainly because I want  to play a role and contribute to the upcoming YOG and also to get to meet the young athletes from my country and assist them in anyway possible during their stay here. On top of that, I wanna try something new and this is a rare chance to do so.

The seminar was fun and tiring but for the most part, I was too tired to enjoy it. For instance, take the dinner at the 5-star hostel with all the CdM from various country. I was supposed to be all hyped up about being in a room full of representatives from almost 200 countries (supposed to be 205 if all of them were there) and having a 5-star dinner with all of them but strangely, I didn't really feel that excited. I don't know if it's because this is my don't-know-how-many-time attending this kind of thing or I just don't like this kind of very formal and proper atmosphere. Despite all that, I still think it's very worthwhile to be there. I had many takeaways to talk about and share with my peers. I got a lot of free stuffs, which are not really that useful but still it's free stuffs. I got to eat free food for 5 days even though most of the time, the food are pretty awful. I got to sleep in hotel-like room, eventhough it was freezing cold. I got to meet many important people and take photographs with them, even though I don't really know why I should be proud of that since after all, they are also human just like any of us... in fact, they are not even that pretty or handsome like celebrities. So why the heck is all hype and buzz? I have no idea.

After all that, I'm just glad that I can come back to work and sit in my comfortable chair chit chatting with colleagues and fellow interns. Tomorrow, I will be going to for the Singapore Run Around with old friends and I'm looking forward to that. It will my last hurdle for the crazy 2 weeks then I will take it slow for awhile before chionging for more nonsense things. Cheers!!!

I used to play badminton very often during JC time but after graduating from A level I stopped playing for quite a long while. I resume badminton fully in year 2. Anyway, below is the racket that I used and is using.

My first racket: Wilson Dynasmash 500

If I remember correctly I got this on promotion for S$69 . This is my first racket when I was really into badminton. That time I had no idea whatsoever how to choose racket. I didn't even know how to play in first place. So yes I simply bought this because my friends said it's decent and it was one of the cheaper ones in row. Dynasmash 500 is definitely good for smash. You can really feel the power in your smash, if you know how to smash that is. :P But for other aspects, not so good. My main problem with this racket is hitting a high back court shot and picking up a drop shot. The control and power is just not really there. Hence, it's not so easy to use for beginner but again when you're beginner, you can't really tell what's the difference also. As long as can hit and it's light then it's a good racket. But when you know to play, you'd start to see all these problems.

My Second Racket: Yonex NanoSpeed 800

I l♥ve my 2nd racket. I got it for S$89. Decent price for a Yonex Nanospeed series. I did quite  a bit of research before buying to make sure this time I get the right racket for my playing style and I did! XD This racket gives me a lot more control than the first. Hence, I can play more variety of shot instead of just trying to smash my way through. The con is that I have to sacrifice the smashing power and speed but in return, I have more control over my smash. I can now smash to the left or right side line almost at will. It feels good to be in control. (^.^) For net play, nanospeed 800 is awesome too. So in a way, it's a very balanced build racket, which is very well suited for player like me who's not very sure what I'm good at doing but just wanting to be able to do everything reasonably well.

Whoo.. finally I'm back. It's been a tiring 5 days at the seminar. Very tiring indeed. I have so much to write about so I shall start with the most overdue post.

In this post, I thought of listing the items in my wish list that I managed to own so far and those that I'm still saving up for. So here it goes.

My MP3 Player: iPod Nano 3rd Generation

For so long I've been wanting to own one of the Apple product and finally I got one. I bought this at a very good deal. The guy who sold it to me won it from lucky draw and he already has an iPod Touch. So he sold it away at S$150. That time the original price was still S$240+. However, now feel like selling it away and getting the 5th Gen. XD

Apple iPod is definitely an mp3 to go for sound quality, style and design.

My Phone: Sony Ericsson W980

Bought this one because the old one spoil so no choice. I didn't like it that much but it was the best deal I found in the forum. The seller signed plan and didn't want the phone since he's already using the smart phone. So he was willing to let it go cheap cheap and thus, I bought it to make use for the time being till have enough spare fund to get Android and iPhone.

W980 is definitely not recommended. Other than the sleek design and the 8GB built-in memory, which I didn't really use since I had my iPod, there's not many value-added points. It may not look like it in photo but the quality of manufactured material is not good and when scratches on surface it's very obvious. So for a rather careless user like me, this phone get old very fast.

My Hand-held Console: PSP 2006 Slim & Lite

This is one of the best deal I got too. It was only 2 month old when I bought it. The guy sold me at $150 when the original price was still S$360+. I got it for less than half price!!! XD On top of that, he gave me 4 original UMD games!! I didn't play UMD those since I have all of the game in iso file already. Finally, after a long time of daydreaming, I own one. I gave it only 3 stars because I'm not crazy over it like I thought I would. The buttons are hard to press which makes the whole gaming experience drop significantly for me. And after playing the console for sometime, I realize that I'm really a big screen person. I need at least a 22" screen to play my game and I couldn't care if it's portable or not.

My Storage: Seagate 3.5" 1TB & Western Digital 2.5" 320GB

Now, I have two 1 TB and one 320 GB. I use it more like a thumbdrive. And the 1TB is obviously for hardcore storage purpose. XD So far so good, they can still keep up for quite some time. I don't think I will need to a new one any time in the next 1 or 2 years.

My Camera: Cannon Digital IXUS 80IS

This camera is probably the oldest among all my 2nd hand gadgets. It's about 1 year old when I bought. But still almost as good as new because it was hardly used by the original user after he owned a DSLR. I got it for S$200 during the time when the original price was till around S$350+. Not really a fantastic deal for a 1 year old camera but what it make it fantastic was that the guy threw in extra 1 GB memory card and 2 spare lithium batteries!!! Each spare batteries can easily cost up to 60 bucks.

This is probably the last non-pro digital camera I'd get. If I ever go for a camera upgrade, I would for sure get a semi-pro or a DSLR. This just doesn't give a good enough picture quality.