This year, Christmas decorations in Orchard Road are so much more beautiful compared to last year. Here are three shots of them. Click for the full size. If you want the original 5 MP image (for wallpaper?), let me know in comments.

Update: Since many of you asked what camera I used to take these pictures, it is my Panasonic Lumix FX-8.


Centre Point (left-hand side)
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We are seeking for individuals with .NET skills. If you or anyone you know matches the below-mentioned skill sets, please feel free to apply/refer.

If you are interested, please send your CV and Resume to jobs@hendrikch.com

Position  : Solutions Developer
Years of experience : Fresh grads to 4 years related experience
Skill Sets  :
• Strong foundation in technology and has deep understanding of .NET technology – C# and ASP .NET
• MS platform skills
• Full lifecycle experience architecting large scale, scaleable applications
• Experience developing, customizing and implementing software solutions
• Internet development (HTML, Active Server Pages, IIS, Commerce Server)
• Strong customer service and communication skills
• Must be willing to work long hours
• Demonstrated ability to build professional relationships
• Must be dynamic and able to articulate
• Professional positive attitude
• Preferred – MCSD Certification

Primary purpose of this role:
Solution development consultants focus on developing solution component architectures, such as .NET to support business processes. Core activities in this area include designing and implementing systems based on the Microsoft suite of products and architectures, such as ASP .NET, VB .NET, C#, Visual Studio .NET, SQL Server, Commerce Server, etc.

It's today!!! Enjoy while it lasts  Who want to meet after work later for Starbucks?
For more information, visit http://www.starbucks.com.sg/promo.htm

Update: Mission accomplished

All of you Gmail users may have noticed that Gmail has changed their "Move to Trash" button to become "Delete".
It's a subtle change, but nevertheless important. We are so used to the word "Delete" and not "Move to Trash". But after so long I've used Gmail, somehow "Delete" seems a bit awkward. Well, I'm sure we all will get used to it in no time anyway.

I have been using Microsoft Office "12" Beta-1 quite extensively the last few weeks, encountered a handful of issues and stability problem, but overall, it's a great product, and this will be one of the most exciting releases of Microsoft Office.

Excel is one of the product that I have used extensively in my work, and knowledge of Excel alone is enough to amaze you how much Excel can do. I'm trying to see how I can share some of these knowledges to all of you, my readers . For this week, it'll be Freeze Panes feature in Excel "12" (probably will be called Excel 2006).

Let's assume you have a spreadsheet like this

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Friday night, is the night to go out hehehe... and yesterday night, I went out with ex-NTU-Indo-School of Computer Engineering students for dinner in Spageddies Italian Kitchen in Paragon basement 1. Ahonk arrived at 7.30 pm to queue, I arrived around 8 pm, Dewe, Titin, Gor, and Nelly arrived minutes later. The queue was long, but the frustrating part is, by the time we are in front of the queue pack, we can't get in, because trying to seat seven people is rather hard in a super-packed restaurant. People behind us who only need two seats, three seats, and four seats are all allowed to get in first. It was until 9 pm, when there are only four people left behind us that we get to go into the restaurant. Frustrating I tell you, especially when we all are very hungry already. Well, the rest actually. I already went to Soup Spoon in Raffles City for a bit of clam chowders soup before I went to Spageddies, hehehe...

We initially thought they had 1-for-1 promotion, but it has already expired 30 Nov 2005. Sad. We only get 15% discount using UOB credit card in the end, not bad. We ordered the following food:
Nelly: oriental crispy chicken salad half portion (salad mix, egg, pineapple diced, tossed with spicy Thai dressing, topped with crispy chicken breast) and fried calamari (with spicy neapolitan sauce for dipping)
Ahonk: lasagne
Gor: chicken caesar salad full portion (wood-grilled chicken & crisp romaine lettuce tossed in our caesar dressing with tomatoes, onions & parmesan cheese)
Dewe: cheese manicotti (twin pasta with herb-cheese filling topped with a hearty tomato sauce)
myself: chicken cannelloni (plump chicken-filled pasta topped with alfredo sauce & mozzarella cheese)
Titin: BBQ chicken pizza (rotisserie chicken with spicy BBQ sauce & onions)
I guess we all tried a bit of other's food, and generally speaking, I like the food there. It's good, I recommend if you have not tried it before.

After dinner, we went around Orchard to take photos, shown below.

From left to right: Nelly, Ahonk, Gor, Dewe, myself, and Titin
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Sorry for the lack of updates these past few days. It has been a busy week for me.

Let's start from Thursday when I had company's Christmas party and gifts exchange. These are what I get, a coffee maker, box of chocolates, body lotion, body scrub, and foam bath. The coffee maker is still here. The box of chocolate is finished. The last three have been given away to someone who can make full use of it.


On Friday, it was King Kong day  I had dinner in NYDC, tried so many kinds from pasta to oven-baked rice to pizza. Too bad couldn't had their dessert because we didn't have enough time. We only started queuing in NYDC one hour before our 9.30pm King Kong show. It's thrilling, it's gory, it's fun, it's recommended, it's King Kong !!! I think I would like to give four stars for the movie. The first hour was simply boring to say the least, but after that it was very thrilling. If you haven't watched, what are you waiting for? hehehe....

Saturday, time to go Orchard. Went to watch my church's choir sang Christmas songs in front of Paragon from 7-8 pm. It was really really crowded Orchard Road. Had dinner in Takashimaya, before heading back home. In the bus that I took home, there were a group of teens, presumably from some choir, started singing (practising rather) their Christmas carols in the bus !!! Not bad, got free live performance in the bus, hehehe... Their voice are good, fortunately

I had my buffet lunch in Greenhouse today. It's located in Ritz Carlton hotel at Marina Bay area. I would say that the food there are really really good. Few recommendations on what to look for if you go there: salad, tomatoes, big prawns, fish, sashimi, sushi, and desserts like tiramisu. Pretty much sums up almost everything they have there, hahaha... But I am not exaggerating, the food there are good, though at $45+++, it's in the expensive range for lunch. Anyone have also tried eating there before?


Me and Alvin

I guess this is my first time in so many years in Singapore left without wallet. No wallet means no cash, no ATM card, no credit card, no access pass to office, no IC card, no ezlink card. Not even a voucher. Small consolation is to know I had another spare ezlink card that as of now left with S$0.24. Just enough to bring me to Clementi tomorrow morning. Well, I have no choice but to borrow some money for these two days. I survived with $4 last night  Really couldn't buy anything else.

OK, here is the rundown to the incident. I left my wallet in office on Tuesday, I walked to Raffles Place MRT, and only realized I didn't have my wallet when I reached Raffles Place MRT. Too much too late. So, I called one of my colleague, Alvin, to help me bring back my wallet. He did. This morning, he didn't come. He took MC !!!! And so my wallet is now with him in Bedok. Hope he will be back tomorrow. And so, when I thought my agony will be short, it extended for one full day, today. I borrowed $50 today, far more than enough to survive today, and to top-up my ezlink card tomorrow. As a matter of fact, I still managed to catch Chicken Little movie today, hahaha.... Super short 90 minutes movie, which is so-so, nothing so amazing about it. Too much hyped. It was just OK.

I believe this experience didn't come by accident. I did learn something, to see and test how much I am dependend on my wallet. Goodness, not much, except for ezlink card and cash with which I am surviving. When I don't have my wallet, The Lion (of Narnia) provides me with all the people around me to help me survive. Thank Him.

The saga continue tomorrow. Let's see how it unfolds. I hope this come to an end already.

Update: Last night my one and only ezlink card left underwent a horrible experience inside my washing machine. Good thing that it still work this morning, hahaha.... So, in the end, everything ended up well. I got my wallet back already from Alvin and life goes on.

Computer disk drive supplier Seagate Technology has agreed to buy rival Maxtor Corp. for $1.9 billion in stock, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The paper said the deal is expected to be unveiled later in the day, with Seagate planning to swap 0.37 of a Seagate share for each Maxtor share.

Under the terms of the deal, as reported by the Journal, the transaction is worth about $7.25 a share for Maxtor investors, a 60 percent premium to its closing price on Tuesday.

Both the Seagate and Maxtor boards have approved the deal, the paper reported, which will unit two big hard drive makers.

You know, I liked Quantum, then bought by Maxtor, and I liked Maxtor since then. Now Maxtor will be bought over by Seagate, I'm not sure if I will like Seagate, as I've had bad experiences with Seagate all my days in NTU. Not to say that Seagate hard drives are no good. Maybe it's just Seagate drives that don't really like me. My next hard drive will most probably come from Western Digital.

Read the official press release here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!!!

Wishing you all to find the true reason why celebrated Christmas in the first place. Like one friend said, the most important part of Christmas is the first six letters. It's His birthday. Make sure you know why you are celebrating Christmas after all.

With that, I would like to wish everyone a very wonderful Christmas, blessed days and years ahead, it's time to share the love and joy of giving, to give back something to someone around you, it's the time when the whole world unites in this Love that made Christmas possible. Oh, Christmas in the heart will make the Christmas in the air.

I spent this year's Christmas in Novena, Lily's place where we had our Christmas celebration with lots and lots of food, fun, drinks, and laughter. We gathered in Lily's place, The Huntington in Novena, from around 7 PM until 1 AM or so.

On the day of Christmas itself, I went to my church's Christmas celebration gospel rally at Victoria Concert Hall where the church's choir sang no less than ten pieces of oratoria Messiah from George Frideric Handel. Wonderful pieces of songs. After that, the message was brought to us by Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong, teaching us why Jesus was born to this world in the first place was to save all of us, sinners, and to reconcile human back to God. Because human can't find God, the only way is for God to reach out to human, which is precisely why God became a man in the presence of Jesus. It's not about Santa Claus (referred by a fat man having nothing to do with Christmas), it's not about the Christmas tree, nor it is about shopping. It's about Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

I hope you found the true meaning of Christmas this year and had a wonderful Christmas.

And as usual, a blog post will not be complete with photos. Here you go, sorted by more or less by the time taken. Click individual photos for the larger version.
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This week, I bought myself a new hard drive, Western Digital 250 GB with 16 MB cache from Storage Studio, Simlim for S$209. My previous Maxtor 40GB can hardly contains stuffs that I want to keep in my PC, such that I have keep burning, like my photos, to DVD every 4 GB or so. In the end, I decided just to get myself a 250 GB, so space would not be an issue anymore (well, not yet at least)

And now, here is how My Computer looks like. Looks very empty now. So happy, hahaha..... Screenshot taken in Windows Vista build 5270. Click for full size image.(Read More)