I guess it was not meant to be... I mean... I've given it 2 years. Putting up with the miserable pay and lowly starting position... Sure I gained lots of experience working in a diagnostics lab but as my ex-boss put it during my interview, "One's got to live."
My moment of weakness came when Steph suggested that I go back as the pay would help my financial position and indeed it did. What made the deal "sweeter" was that Steph abandoned me one month back into the job and uncle asked me to take over her position. That's the second time Steph's done that to me... getting me in so that she can get out. Kinda reminds me of the story of Atlas.
Anyway, the new job scope came along with a sizable pay raise (and new headaches) but that's another story.
What I wanted to say from all the crap above was that my financial position was given a big boost.
Now even with my pay cuts the last 2 years, I've not stopped spending. I just spent less but if you look at the proportion of my expenditure with relation to my pay, I'd say it was more or less at a constant rate. Thus with this increased income came (naturally) an appropriate increase in spending.
In my defence, I did spend a lot of it on the house in an attempt to reinstate it to an improved pre-fire state although I did splurge on myself in terms of essential geekware, which brings me to the whole point of this entry. THE GEEKWARE.
Since moving back home after vie renovations, the first major self indulgence was a 32" Samsung Series 4 LCD TV. This, together with a new DVR set-top box (Hubstation) brought about my re-initiation to the world of Cable TV. The Hubstation is now not available for sale but you can rent it in place of a regular digital set-top box for $8 more a month. The remote has also been streamlined and is actually a universal remote that you can configure to operate your TV and DVD player as well.
For my birthday in October, I got myself a PS3 Slim (with the help of my good friends who chipped in) and with it, I was introduced to the world of pseudo Rock Stardom thanks to the plastic guitar and drum set of Rock Band. I actually thought that I could play the guitar until I picked up one while browsing around a music store and realised that the sounds I created with a real guitar, if amplified, could cause people to loose control of their bowels similar to the effect created by The Brown Note.
However, that really piqued my interest in music and that led to Violin lessons. Yes... VIOLIN LESSONS.
You must be wondering... how the hell did this idiot make the connection between Rock and Violins? Well I've always been fascinated with violins. I just love the sound of a well played violin piece. I had a violin that my aunt passed to me years ago after her short-lived interest in it died and I've more or less picked up very scratchy skills through constant desecration of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Unfortunately for me (fortunately for my neighbours), my violin was burnt to a crisp in The Great Fire of '08.
Now, thanks to the enthusiasm of Steph, and the inspiration by Mitch, our ex-part-time Accounts staff, I've bought myself a new student violin and we've enrolled in buddy violin classes at Siglap on Sundays. However, Steph has just started her own business and is now unable to make time for lessons, so I have to find alternative arrangements for lessons as the school we were at charges almost double what we were paying for solo lessons. Still, after 3 months of lessons, I've done "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" some justice and have gone on to desecrate Pachebel.
Artistic talents aside, I then received news last week that I could graduate this year by foregoing the honours portion of my degree (which I totally screwed up) and as a graduation present to myself, I got a HTC Touch HD aka the HTC Blackstone.
HTC BlackstoneI thought I bought it at a steal from SLS till I realized that the jerk called Henry who sold it to me had taken out all the included accessories and sold it back to me at a total which equaled the selling price of a full set at Challenger. Also, when I tried registering for one of the bundled OEM software, I realised that this set was pre-owned. WTFH!!!
Henry you Lousy Piece of Shit, Lying Rat. May your crotch be infested with the lice of a thousand camels and your hands be too short for you to scratch and when you try to seek relief by running into the ocean, I hope you fall into the sea and drown, and may your mother be unable to get any help as she runs barking along the shore.
Niceties aside, this machine is truly a wonderful piece of equipment. It has one of the biggest high definition screens in the smart phone market (3.8"). It is running on Windows Mobile 6.1 and has a Qualcomm processor. It is also equipped with all the essential wireless connectivity options such as HSDPA, Bluetooth and WiFi. The large screen also makes typing easy using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard but personally, I find that I can type faster using the on-screen phone keypad with T9 assist activated. The large screen also makes viewing video clips a real pleasure.
The last Pocket PC device I used was a Dopod and I was pleasantly surprised at how the OS has changed since then in terms of ease of use. The TouchFLO interface by HTC is sleek and oh so BLACK! I absolutely adore gadgets that come in all BLACK and you can't get any blacker than this gorgeous piece of electronic bliss. Everything from the shell, to the cables, headphone, charger and user interface is BLACK BLACK BLACK BLACK. Did I mention that I like BLACK?
HTC TouchFLO InterfaceThe Touch HD is also equipped with GPS and I put it to the test today when I made my way from SGH to a chinese restaurant somewhere in the middle of chinatown on foot. I ended up at a chinese temple a few doors away from the restaurant but it was because I keyed in the wrong unit number into google maps. Otherwise, if I was looking for the temple, it was spot on.
On the downside, I was not too happy that there was no dedicated button for the camera and that you have to touch an on-screen button to take pictures. There is also no flash but the picture quality is decent. The lack of a directional pad or scroll wheel also makes it awkward when using certain applications but the nett effect of these missing items on the overall sleekness of the design makes it bearable.
I'm such a sucker for design.
I was also slightly disappointed with the short battery life initially but after lowering the backlight intensity, I managed to make it last almost the whole day with me using the internet quite extensively though I would definitely pack a universal USB charger for emergency power needs. Since the unit charges via mini USB, all you really need is a retractable USB to Mini USB cable if you have computers around from which you can leech off a quick charge.
Overall, I'd say that I am very satisfied with the phone. I can't stop admiring its BLACKNESS.
I'm a happy boy. :-)
BLACK! BLACK! BLACK! BLACK! BLACK! BLACK!
