Thoughts and Illusions

I finally did it! I solved my first 3×3 Rubik’s cube! Well, my gf solved it first beforehand so props to her =) Man, that took me like forever. I bought the cube in June last year but solved it only six months later. Six months? The world record is like what, 9.55 seconds? My time? A staggering 18,489,600 seconds - although assuming I’m playing with the cube continuously over six months, which if I did, I must really be that stupid. I give up too easily when it comes to puzzles. The longest I could play around with the Rubik’s cube at one time is probably 10-15 minutes before getting puzzled and give up.

Yep, I’ve redone the header image. I just love the picture. You can actually see the flying pigeon on the very right approaching my hand. There were so many of them and they were seriously eager - unlike pigeons in the UK, very shy. At times I got four to five pigeons landed on my hands, shoulders and even on the head - had to shake them off. It was quite an experience for me. This picture was taken at San Marco in Venice, precisely where the Italian Job movie was filmed in the first few minutes, when John (Donald Sutherland) calls up his daughter Stella (Charlize Theron) about a gift he was posting to her, right before Charlie (Mark Wahlberg) first appears. I read somewhere that Italian Job 2 will be in 2009, which will also be known as the Brazilian Job in the US.

Oh, I’m going to Paris this coming Easter holiday! I have just managed to book a hotel today which is located just 500 metres away from the Eiffel Tower! I’m so ecstatic about it and that’s two months to go. =)

Having a long gap between exam papers can sometimes be annoying because I’m a last-minute person and I know that I won’t be doing much until the very last few days. The first few days after a paper is when the boredom and procrastination kick in. I think I’ve watched every single TV show and Movie in my hard drive, hence, I ain’t got nothing to entertain myself. So I went browsing for shows to stream over the internet and Dexter really got me hooked. I know the series has ended. The first four episodes in season one I’ve watched so far were awfully awesome. I love the music on the opening scene in episode three and four, very catchy and I even made it as my ringtone.

I have one more paper to go and guess what? It’s astronomy. And guess what? it’s tomorrow, on a freakin’ weekend! And and guess what? It’s at 4.30pm. Silly eh. I think I better get back to my revision now. Astronomy stuff is really fun. I think Imma be an astronomer.

Later~

1. Apple iPhone

The first time when I said I wanted an iPhone was in February last year (Click here). Now it’s been almost a year and I finally got it!

2. Canon EOS 400D

Just a little hobby of mine which I have yet to explore. And getting this camera would be a start.

3. Optoma HD720X - HD Projector

I figured it would be wiser to get an HD Projector instead of a high definition TV since it is a lot more portable, they are about the same price and you’d get a better home-cinema experience. It’s just that it doesn’t come with speakers but there are many affordable 5-in-1 speakers out there. That should do it.

4. PS3

This is the next thing that I would get after (if) I own the HD Projector simply because it requires HD output. I’m really looking forward to the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, which won’t be happening soon. It was either Wii or Xbox 360 but since my friends have already got them so maybe I should get PS3 instead since the price has dropped significantly.

5. MacBook Air

They say it’s the world’s thinnest notebook. I can’t argue anymore. Even its thickest part (0.76 inches) is still thinner than Sony Vaio’s thinnest bit (0.80 inches). This has made my MacBook look fat and bulky now. How the hell did they manage to put a Mac inside that manila-sized notebook? It’s just amazing and simply beautiful. But, I don’t need a new one right now. Not anytime soon. I’m pretty much happy with my MacBook, although still running Tiger OS. I’m planning to upgrade it to Leopard soon though.

Woohoo! So I got my iPhone about a week ago, and ever since then I have been pimping it =p Well not so much - just adding a couple of cool 3rd-party applications, change some icons and now in the process creating my own theme =P I would’ve never guessed it that modding the iPhone could bring so much joy, provided you succeed everytime without bricking it of course, lol.

My firmware version is 1.1.2 OTB, “jailbroken” and is currently only unlocked to O2-UK SIM =( Rumours say that Apple is releasing firmware 1.1.3 update very soon, which if you have used AnySim to unlocked your iPhone, expect the update to brick it.

I’ve tried a couple of 3rd-party applications and my favourite has gotta be Listen.app. There are times when you’re in the car, tuning to the radio and there’s this song playing and you want to know what song is it? Then this app is perfect. Just hold the iPhone to the music and it will tell you the info including artist name, song and album! It’s freaking clever. I’ve even tried a couple of Malay, Japanese and Chinese songs and I’m impressed at what it can do. It works like a charm! I also like the iFlickr.app which allows you to take a snapshot from your iPhone and the app sends it automatically to your Flickr account.

The iAthan app is awesome too. It works just how you would expect from the Athan program; notify you prayer times. It even gives the direction of Qiblat as well as the dates of important islamic events, for example, Ramadhan shall fall around 1st September this year. The Quran app delivers what it meant to do and I think it’s very handy to have it in my iPhone. You can look up all the Surahs in the Quran and it even comes with pre-recorded vocal recitals as well as translations to English and Malay and a transliteration to alphabets.

A few months back while anticipating for the iPhone release date in UK, I got turned off by the iPhone contract tariff from O2. After seeing all the hype prior to the release of the iPhone, I thought it’s overrated. Well it sucks if you get tied up with the iPhone tariff. At least I’m not on it. And at this stage, I don’t think I want to get any other phone, because nothing beats the iPhone =p I even dumped my N95 lol.