End Of Holidays
Yesterday my mom's friend came over for a Chinese New Year visit; each year they take turns hosting, and this year was my mom's turn. Once we're all married, let's do the same.
Archive
Founder of lesterchan.net, a Singapore tech and gadgets blog running since 2002. An engineering leader by day and a WordPress plugin developer since 2003, with a soft spot for gadgets, smart home, and a good deal.
Welcome to lesterchan.net
As you can see, I've forwarded all requests to www.lesterchan.net, which is my site's home from today. Kindly update your bookmark to www.lesterchan.net or www.gamerz.per.sg if you haven't; both domains will stay with me for a long time. Thanks.
My Brother’s Samsung E700A
Lunch at Sakae Sushi again, courtesy of mom's $40 voucher, then hunting for my brother's handphone. The $888 twelve-month upgrade at Hello@Orchard wasn't worth it, and Mobile Square at Far East Square eluded me.
Silver Hawk
Caught Silver Hawk starring Michelle Yeoh and Richie Ren at GV Plaza, and it was acceptable enough. Yeoh still looks pretty despite her age. Grabbed light snacks at Mos Burger, where Plaza Singapura's outlets were packed.
Site Updates January 2004
Pixel-Junkies' MySQL server suddenly threw errors today after running fine yesterday. Tracked it down to a DISTINCT keyword in the SQL query, and deleting it fixed things. Hopefully nothing breaks, since it makes no difference anyway.
1st Day Of Lunar New Year 2004
Chinese New Year follows the exact same sequence and timing every year. Visited my maternal grandmother first, then her eldest sister, my paternal grandfather, mom's business client, and finally my grandmother's fifth sister, the usual circuit.
Happy Lunar New Year 2004
While driving to my grandfather's place, a taxi signalled its stop early, so I was ready when it halted. The car behind me horned non-stop for thirty seconds anyway, uncalled for once the passenger had alighted.
Lunar New Year’s Eve
Just woke up on Lunar New Year's eve. Heading to my paternal grandfather's place for reunion dinner: steamboat again, as always. We really need new ideas. I wonder whether our generation will even keep reunion dinners.
Lunar New Year Eve’s Eve
Two days to Lunar New Year. Finally started my ITP project, though I've added nothing to the log book yet. SP is lame; work is work, so why must we write a log book? Pointless.
Dinner At Heeren
Spent ten minutes at GMTI Building transferring the database to the live server, then napped and met Charlene at Plaza Singapura. Heading home from Tiong Bahru, I witnessed a funny incident before dinner at Heeren.
Sentosa
Woke early for breakfast at Cartel in Plaza Singapura, where the service beats Suntec's franchise branch hands down. It's the main outlet, run by my brother's table tennis coach. Met friends before heading to Sentosa.
My Driving License Arrived!
My brother woke me this morning to say my driving licence had arrived. I was thrilled but too tired to leap out of bed. Opened the letter to find a short note with the licence attached.
Sun-Burn
Finally got some exercise with my secondary school friends: two laps around Queenstown Stadium's track and a swim at the complex. Did some sun-tanning and now my whole body is sunburnt. Feasted at Seoul Garden afterwards.
Coincidental Day
Transferred my final-year project to the live server at GMTI Building, so it's on the Internet. Bumped into JingWei on the way, meeting Calvin at Bugis. Joined them for CS, then dinner with JunXian and CheeWee.
China Town
First day of my Internship Training Programme, building a smaller-scale e-learning website like Blackboard. Spent most of it designing the database, to be coded in PHP and MySQL, ideally using object-oriented programming. Wandered around Chinatown afterwards.
ITP Starts Tomorrow
Met Jacky and Laily at Bugis and headed to Sim Lim Square. Jacky's aunt wants a high-end computer, so I advised him to pass on. Walked around Bugis Street afterwards when my FYP client called me.
First Day Of Driving Outside
Drove my mom's car to Tiong Bahru Plaza for the first time. Got horned twice, once for not turning right when a van blocked my view, and again while giving way to a crossing pedestrian. Idiots.
lesterchan.net v2.0
A rundown of changes to my site: upgraded from b2 0.6.1 to WordPress 1.0.1, a tableless layout, pages now 99.9% HTML 4.01 Transitional, polls and the shoutbox temporarily removed, and site.php retired except for the sitemap.
I Passed My Driving
Passed my driving test! Back from the chalet, where only six of us stayed the first night, just enough room to sleep comfortably. Returned to school for the ITP briefing, the ICT director's talk was interesting.
School Of Rock
Broke my sleep record, waking at 5pm Sunday after sleeping at 5am the same day. What kept me up? Debugging WordPress 1.0. The b2-to-WordPress importer was one massive headache, riddled with bugs that wouldn't even run.
Musical Fountain
Had my driving lesson with the sarcastic instructor, though he eased off after I corrected what he'd wrongly taught me before. Met Jacky, Serene, Laily and her sister to watch LOTR: The Return of the King.
Happy New Year 2004
Met Hui Juan at City Hall to exchange Christmas gifts, then joined Jacky, Serene, Georgina, Suqin and LiXiang for dinner at Breeks in Marina Square. Around $30 each for decent food in a rather empty restaurant.