Our Domestic Helper, Our Son, Our New Toys

I am going to be magnanimous and forgive all who have complained about my lack of posts due to my lack of need to vent as I am not working or studying at this current moment. :O

Today, I bring you updates on the new addition to our family, our son and our new toys respectively.

All the guests who had graced the mmf's humble abode in the last week or so marvelled at the state of cleanliness and more impressively, tidiness of the meowmeow litter. The credit must go to our domestic helper, F. Since day 1, she has taken all the initiative to do the chores around the house without any explicit instructions from me except on how to operate certain electronic products. She even dusts our dvd collection, cleans our wine bottles and shoes, and religiously packs the kitchen after every meal I cook. There were some who were so taken aback by her effectiveness that they thought we got a new shoe rack! Seeing how our current mantra is to avoid buying new things till we move, that was hardly the case lah. I get tired just by looking at her do the chores and doppy think that I am way too nice to her by asking her to rest at every turn. Honestly speaking though, I would not be able to last a day in her shoes. Even doppy admires her strength as she was able to carry heavier groceries than doppy does without breaking a sweat! I feel so pressured by her efforts that even I started to put away things myself when I can. I even remind doppy not to drop crumbs of chips or snacks he eats (which I have never minded in my 4 years of marriage with him!!!!) as I feel bad that she has to always clean up after us. It is indeed really nice to have a clean and tidy home yet I constantly remind ourselves not to get used to it. It is so easy to settle in like this and have someone pick after us but I am still determined to do without a domestic helper the moment I can. But we are definitely appreciative of her when she's here. Now I got to figure out how to give her positive feedback at her first work review. :P

On the pregnancy front, I am officially entering the 37th week of my pregnancy and I could technically give birth any day now. Phoenix was out with me last week and she was quite concerned that she would be at a loss of what to do should XP decide that it's time to leave his mummy's womb. Luckily, none of the three vital signs (show (i.e. bleeding), breaking of water-bag and contractions) did not occur and the day of pseudo-tai-tai posing went without a hitch.

Last Saturday, we went for our scheduled ob check-up and the doc has started monitoring XP's heartbeat and his movements. I had to lie there for 20min while the monitor took the readings and because the doc just came back from leave and the clinic was packed, the receptionist clean forgot that she was supposed to come back for me at the end of 20min. So there we were, doppy sitting in the freezing room while I was feeling comfortable, listening to our son's heartbeat going strong strong for a couple of minutes and then steadying down when he was bored and decided to doze off. I was also supposed to indicate his movements by sending a signal to the monitor and I was amazed that when I kept still and paid attention to his movements, I could even tell when he was fidgeting. 

Doppy apparently managed to see our son's face when the doc did the ultrasound scan. I was not as imaginative as he was and once again all I could see was this blob on the screen. According to doppy, XP looks chubby! I did not put on weight at all for one entire week but apparently, my dear son had put on 0.7kg! He went from 2.2kg from the previous appointment to 2.9kg at this one. Doc said that we would still adopt a wait-and-see attitude. He is growing well but she doesn't want him to grow too big, too fast. We are now both anticipating his arrival though for different reasons. Doppy is anxious to see him whereas I am just tired of suffering from sore ribs (his feet use them as for his taekwando training) and sleepless nights (I now typically only fall asleep at 5am, only to wake up again at 7am to pee and make breakfast). If you stay over at my place, you will hear this low moaning sound coming from my room at night (and no, it is not what you think it is!) which indicates that I am trying to turn to get into a comfortable position. Every tiny shift causes pain in my hips (they have loosened in preparation for the birthing process) and I literally have to grab the steel bars on my headboard to help me turn around. Trust me, you would not want to be sharing my bed at this moment as poor Doppy had to listen to this low moaning sound accompanied by a soft expletive at times every hour or so throughout the night.

Now we come to the most exciting highlight of our weekend, our new tech toys! Hehe.

I have gone from being tempted by the Imate Ultimate 8520, to considering the HTC Touch Cruise (which till this day I have yet to get my hands on a live set) to testing out the LG KS20 (which is super cannot make it for both the feel in the hand and its very slow processor speed and the less-than-sensitive touchscreen). Finally, after much reading up and features-value analysis, I decided on the Samsung i780. We managed to get our hands on a live set at the Samsung outlet at Suntec City and doppy was also tempted to get one. Moreover, his Treo had been acting up too and the battery's shelf-life was also expiring. So yesterday, we finally got our hands on our new smartphones and I have been playing with it ever since. After so many years of resistance, I have finally gone over to the dark side and switched to a Window Mobile (WM) device. The form factor of the i780 is really cool. It is much lighter and slimmer than my Treo and the TFT screen is sensitive enough. The tipping point of this phone is of course the fact that it is wifi-enabled (which the TREO lacks) and it would allow me to surf at hotspots.

Switching from a Palm OS to a WM platform sure takes some getting used to. However, I am also a little more than fed-up with Palm for their lack of innovation and slowness in providing support. The palm desktop for Vista is a regression from their latest version and not to mention the frustrating experiences I have in trying to sync my palm with my PC using the USB cable.

So yeah! I am happy with my new tech toy, anticipating our son's arrival, and enjoying a clean, tidy and neat home.

Back to playing with my phone. :)

Dang! Should I ask for this as my birthing present?

My TREO has served me well but a couple of things are beginning to get on my nerves. First off, it does not have wifi. Though the nation is still a long way from being wifi-enabled entirely, it really sucks when I am at a free hotspot and yet unable to connect to Wireless@SG. Secondly, the fact that it does not sync with my computer really really annoys the hell out of me. I do like reading my news on Avantgo but trying to get my palmie to sync with Avantgo is virtually impossible as the BT connection keeps dropping and cable connection simply does not work.

I have always resisted the other PDA models as I am a loyal Palm fan. I don't quite fancy Window Mobile devices.

However, the Imate Ultimate 9502 is really causing me to have second thoughts.

Hmmm ... diamonds do not speak to me but tech toys definitely do.

Do you think I should ask for this as a birthing cum anniversary present? :P

You asked, "What do we need a MacBook Air for?"

Did you check out EXACTLY how cool it is?!

Watch the video.

Dang! I am such a sucker for advertising.

If only they had launched this when I was contemplating a new laptop!

The MacBook Air - My Birthing Present?

Apple

A number of people have asked me what I am going to ask doppy for a present for giving birth.

I found the idea / concept disconcerting as I thought it was really strange to be asking my own husband for a present for an act that was supposedly the fruit of our love.

Of course, the reasoning went that it was supposed to be a present for doppy to show his appreciation for me. Yet it is not like he has an easy nine months too. No doubt, I am the one who's carrying a huge watermelon around and wakes up breathless with a blocked nose. I am the one who has to give up caffeine and alcohol and watch everything I eat. I am the one who has suffer the kiddo's kungfu stunts inside my tummy which can be painful at times.

But doppy doesn't have it easy either. He has to lead a chaste life for 9 months or more. He has to do all the household chores (he actually knows how to operate the washing machine and dryer now) and take out the trash (which never fails to make him gag). He is also at my beck and call and has to give me back rubs every night. He has also taken to cutting my toe nails for me as I can no longer reach my toes. Sometimes, he even has to give up his beloved bolster to me.

Thus I thought it is really strange to ask my husband for a present especially since I want this baby as much as he does.

However, the MacBook Air is a real temptation. And apart from this monumental task of giving birth, I have no good reason for such an extravagant gift. :P Afterall, he just got me this laptop last year which has improved the quality of my life tremendously and we agreed then that it should last me for 2 years at least. He has also just bought over his old laptop from his company so between the two of us now, we have a PC and 3 laptops. There is really no good reason to get another notebook.

But did you check out the MacBook Air? IT IS SO SUPER DAMN CHIO LOH!

This is why some of our friends are happy that their wives' taste only run to carbon-rocks. For my penchant for tech-toys is sometimes way more expensive than that something that comes in a little blue box.

To splurge or not to splurge, that is the question! :)

2 Useful Widgets + 1 RSS Feed

If you are a movie buff like me and uses post-it notes on your laptop to help your failing memory, read on.

I stumbled on this Yahoo Movies Showtime widget while surfing the Yahoo (Sg) Movies website. It's a handy widget to have as I no longer have to surf to Yahoo's movie page to check out the showtimes. I am not sure how accurate the reflection of the showtimes are (I have a sneaking suspicion that it does not work as well for Shaw theatres but I have another solution for that later) but at the very least, it gives me a generic idea of the cinemas that are screening the shows.

For the first time, Shaw actually beat the rest of the cinemas (or maybe it is just my ignorance as I don't purchase tickets from the other cinemas) in creating a RSS feed for its shows. For those of us who own a PDA or a smartphone which we can either sync or connect via wifi to get the connection, it can be handy especially on those days when you suddenly feel like catching a show. It's a very useful feed for me as I usually catch my shows at Lido. If you are a fellow Lido-fan like me, this should also serve you well.

Last but not least is an utility tool that I cannot do without these days. I used to post Post-it Notes (literally the 3M product with the yellow background) on my desktop to remind me of tasks that I need to KIV. I stumbled on JC Sticky Deluxe which beats Post-It Notes. Not only will it not cause any conflict with Windows Vista (I suspect Post-it Notes did some stuff to my laptop when I first installed it and caused me a few days of grief in righting my system), it is also far more customable (very important for PJ who needs her notes in a particular colour using a particular font). My memory has never been good and what with the pregnancy, the sticky notes have really been useful in helping me keep track of my tasks.

Do check these out if they are useful to you.

9 Ways to Get More Out of Windows Live Writer - lifehack.org

Came across this cool tool while reading lifehack.org. For those of you who are avid bloggers or who blog on more than one site or platform, it should be a good tool to have as it allows you to blog from one interface.

I have yet to fully explore all the features but it definitely makes it seem easier to insert pictures and tables and such.

P.S. I just posted this from Windows Live Writer. Cool!

9 Ways to Get More Out of Windows Live Writer - lifehack.org

Latest Tech Toy!

clipped from www.photographyblog.com Promoted as "the photographer’s IXUS" by Canon, the new Digital IXUS 860 IS is one of the more intriguing models in Canon's Autumn lineup of compact digital cameras. The new Canon IXUS 860 IS offers an 8 megapixel sensor and a wide-angle 3.8x zoom lens equivalent to 28-105mm, complete with optical image stabilisation to help ensure that your photos are shake-free. There's also a large 3 inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels and an anti-glare, scratch-resistant coating. Canon's DIGIC III image processor, which is also used in its DSLR camera range, powers the IXUS 860 IS behind the scenes, and additionally provides the camera's Face Detection and Noise Reduction technologies. There's a new Red-Eye Correction feature on offer in Playback mode, a range of ISO speeds up to 1600 and a new ISO Auto Shift function to help avoid image blur whenever camera shake is predicted.

Yogi is finally back in Singapore and the first thing we did was to meet up for coffee (or susu for me) and dragged him to go camera shopping with us.

He took us to one of the shops that he patronises, John 3:16 (no prizes for guessing the owner's religion!) at Funan and we finally settled on the Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS!

Initially, we were deciding between the Panasonic Lumix and the Canon IXUS series as we like the leica lens for the lumix but we have a canon selphy printer so we thought it might be good to have a canon camera too. Samuel, John 3:16's young boss who is incidentally a really cute ah-beng, recommended the Canon model as he said that the Panasonic's pictures tend to be grainer and have more noise (and nope, he doesn't mean the noise the camera makes when you press the shutter!).

After spending a long time entertaining my nonsensical and completely amateurish questions, he finally sold us the camera for $595 (as I rejected the ugly camera bag that came with it) and 'threw in' a 2GB SD card. He was also nice enough to attach the strap for us, set the time and date on the camera, packed everything nicely (all of which aroused Yogi's jealousy as he did not do all these for him the last time he sold him an 'idiot-proof camera').

I am very excited about our new toy. Of course, I am going to claim $400 of it from the don't-know-what-fund we have and since I am claiming that it's for my work purposes, I shall try to make it a point to bring it wherever I go.

I shall peruse the manual whenever I go to bed (do you know that I faithfully read the manuals of the tech toys I buy just to make sure that I do not miss out on any cool functions that I am supposed to know?) and might even consider signing up for the workshop as Samuel says that there are many functions in this camera that can be exploited.

I look forward to taking more pictures of everyone whenever we meet and posting more pictures on our blog!

It takes GUTS to admit one's mistake ....

clipped from blog.palm.com A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers Because we were nearly at the point for shipping Foleo, this was a very tough decision. Yet I am convinced this is the right thing to do. Foleo is based on second platform and a separate development environment, and we need to focus our efforts on one platform. Our own evaluation and early market feedback were telling us that we still have a number of improvements to make Foleo a world-class product, and we can not afford to make those improvements on a platform that is not central to our core focus. That would not be right for our customers or for our developer community.

especially when one's a CEO.

As a faithful and loyal Palm supporter, I am very happy to read that Palm is refocusing their efforts. Hopefully, I will soon have a new tech toy to buy which will allow me to do mblogging with its wifi enabled and stop envying the dopod users.

Dang! Who has an account and can spare me an invite?

Check it out! It is a really well-thought through software and beats any of the calendar function that current PDA offers right now.

And PJ will love the Paper-sync function!

Check this out!

clipped from www.scanr.com Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera Turn your camera phone into a scanner, copier, and fax. Clean photos of documents, whiteboards and business cards. Extract any text and contact information store, search and share online Try scanR for free now Whiteboards Scan whiteboards into clean legible PDF files. More View Whiteboard Examples Documents Scan documents in to searchable PDF files or send via fax. More View Document Examples Business Cards Scan business cards into your address book. More View Business Card Examples

A cool tool for those times when the ideas are all scribbled all over the board and you want to preserve it exactly the way it is. Or for those secret documents that you stole a shot of and need to transform it into a pdf file.

Check it out!

Check this out!

Did you notice something about my desktop?

That's right! I am actually watching telly on my lappie.

What's the big deal, you ask?

The big deal is, I can access all my cable channels remotely!

Remotely means that I am able to watch all the cable channels I have at home from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection!

Wowweeeee!

And this is thanks to a teeny weeny little box called a Slingbox which I regret to inform you is not available locally.

How did I get my hands on one then?

I will leave you to figure this out!

Yuhhooooo!!!! I can now watch "Judging Amy" when I am stuck in a meeting that I do not want to be in! :P

That's PERSEVERANCE for you!

clipped from mytreo.net 1. installed Palm Desktop 2. Created a user called "test" 3. Skipped the sync 4. Created a directory in c:\program files\palm\users 5. Changed the default data directory in Palm desktop to be c:\program files\palm\users 6. Connected my 680 to Vista which installed the driver 7. Hotsync 8. Hotsync asks "Do you wish to create a new user on this PC" - answer yes. Hotsync did its job with all the info from my 680 without issue 9. Ran the utility "check and repair any corrupted records" in Palm Desktop in Tools, Options - Tools tab 10. Hoysync again Viola a working version of Palm Desktop on Vista After this I cleaned up Palm Desktop, deleted the user called test, deleted the user directory for test The concern for many here is that the user directory no longer defaults to Program Files\Palm\"abbreviated user name" I have been running in this config for 2 weeks now and have installed other 3rd party conduits - AvantGo & Worldmate - and have had no issues since .

I have reinstalled my Palm Desktop THRICE on my laptop and though the hot-sync works, the information does not get reflected on my Palm Desktop.

I had to beg doppy for help but even he was at his wits end. He reinstalled the Palm Desktop a number of times, scrutinised the folders, tried to cut and copy things around and still it wouldn't work.

Finally, he throw in the towel and went into the study to play his game.

I refused to give up.

And so I googled "hotsync treo 680 with windows vista" and faithfully trawled through all the posts that returned a hit.

And finally I stumbled upon the solution on mytreo.net.

And though I don't know anyone reading our blog is using Vista or the Treo, I still insist on clipping the article just so that everyone can praise me for my perseverance.

I may not be the most intelligent tree in the forest but I sure ain't the dumbest either.

My Darling LOVES Me!

clipped from sg.lge.com Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5500 Genuine Window Vista Home Premium 120GB SATA HDD 1.89kg Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5500 Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Chipset Mobile Intel® 945GM Express Memory 1GB DDR2 RAM 667MHz Display LCD 12.1 Graphic Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (up to 256MB) HDD 120GB (SATA) ODD DVD Super Multi Dual Layer (DVD-R/RW, +R/RW, RAM) Communications Wireless Intel® Pro/Wireless 3945ABG(802.11a/b/g)* W-Lan Antenna Dual Hexa-band Antenna Modem 56kbps Modem LAN Gigabit Ethernet Bluetooth *Yes (BlueCore™4) Expansion Slot Multimedia Card 5-in-1 (XD/SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro) PC card slot - Audio Cinema Sound Quality Input/Ouput Port 3USB, VGA, RJ45, RJ11, Line-in, Mic-in, S/PDIF(Headphone) Battery 6Cell(Li-Ion) Software IP Operator, Battery Miser, Norton Anti-Virus, CyberLink DVD SolutionTM, Recovery CD, LG Intelligent Update CD Port Replicator - Weight 1.89kg (with a standard battery)

If you are thinking that I am completely zonked out from my 3D2N UG camp, you are not completely far from the truth. However, the real reason that has been keeping me from blogging is the fact that I am playing with my new tech toy!

Yep, you read it right. We went to the IT show on Sunday afternoon right after I broke camp and faithfully collected all the brochures that were thrust at us, paid homage at every notebook booth of all known brands, picked up each single notebook to test its weight and finally narrowed my choices to one Samsung model and the LG one.

What sealed the deal for me was the nice service I got from the part-time student promoter at the AAAs booth and his sincerity. The Chinese lady at the Samsung booth was only too keen to seal a deal and did not take care to address my needs or questions. PLUS, have you checked out the machine??!!! It's one cool dude man!!!!

Doppy gave up on me when I made a pretense of going through the brochures. He told me to just let him know which want spoke to me and he would get it for me. This was from the same man who didn't think that I needed such a high-end notebook for word processing, internet surfing and blogging. Fact was, he was even willing to get me the Macbook. However after much consideration such as the weight and the additional Mac software I would need to get, not to mention the gazillions types of accessories that I would be tempted to buy, I decided against getting the Macbook. Besides, Windows is still the predominant OS and even the Leopard OS is going to offer the dual OS platform and I figured that it's quite silly for me to get the Macbook with the intention to use the Windows OS.

Anyways, if I have not crowed to you about my purchase face-to-face yet, admire it here.

And know that DOPPY LOVES ME for he would never indulged in his own wants like this.

I love you too, darling!

New Tech Toy?!

clipped from asia.cnet.com Having a serious case of technolust and the cash to satisfy it right after the Lunar New Year? Just in time. The IT Show kicks off the year with some nifty gadgets and bargain buys. As usual, CNET Asia's busy scouts are all over the showfloor to suss out the best deals at Suntec City.

Doppy has decided to get me a new laptop after he witnessed for himself first hand how ridiculously slow it takes to boot up and start up a programme.



We are going to the IT show @ Suntec today after I break camp. hee..hee..

So exciting!

If you were wondering about WHAT Clipmarks are ....

Check it out here.

If you are using Firefox, you can download the toolbar for it.

You can surf the net, clip text or videos, choose to save the information onto the clipmark server (and make it available to others), your blog, print it or email it to your contacts.

Tis a most useful tool for those of us who surf a lot and feel the need to share when we come across interesting things (i.e. this is a perfect tool for doppy!).

:) Try it. You should love it.

P.S. This can be a pretty cool teaching tool too if you have a subject/class blog.

A companion for my TREO

I am not sure if I have blogged about this bargain that doppy stumbled upon before.

In the days of yond, when he used to work in the building where they hang posters teaching you how to ask questions correctly instead of the Singlish way, his favourite haunt was Funan, the IT Mall.

One day, while he was strolling in the ba-da-big Challenger store, he saw on sale for $15!

He rubbed his eyes a few times, took the escalator down to the other stores and checked the price tag for the same product: $149.

Of course he rushed back to Challenger and profited from some poor sod's wrong tagging of price on the keyboard.

Today, I am the end user who gets to benefit from this purchase. As it uses IR to connect with the keyboard instead of bluetooth, I figured that it would save more energy for my TREO.

I simply cannot justify paying $199 for aesthetic and vanity when this one works fine lah. :)

To think that I was so proud of myself ...

I downloaded some songs (some, is an understatement! that woman owns an iPod loh!) from PJ a while back but for some strange reasons, they were all saved as .m4A format.

In order for me to listen to the songs on my Palmie, the songs have got to be in mp3 format.

I first asked doppy for help. He came into the room, did a cursory google for "convert mp4 to mp3", clicked on the first few available links and promptly told me that all the converters are not free and required payment for use.

I refused to give up and continued the search by myself. I stumbled upon "Switch" and nearly couldn't believe my good luck. I promptly downloaded the software and experimented with one song and it worked! :)

So there I was crowing to doppy about my resourcefulness while converting the rest of the songs.

Me: Aren't you proud of me? If it was any of my friends (I shall not mention names lah ...), they would have whined to their other halves till their partners would do the job for them. I actually found the software myself, tried it out and got it to work successfully leh!

Doppy: Yeah. But that's why I married you mah.

....

SLS is an Evil Place

Apart from making me $150 poorer what with purchasing 1x2GB SD Card (how does one resist when the price is only a mere $30???) and another 1x2GB mini-SD Card (just in case the new camera that we'll eventually buy takes mini-SD card mah), a leather case for doppy's TREO (he's been meaning to go the "uncle" way with his TREO clipped to his belt for a while now) and a few other geh-yan accessories, I had to stumble upon the ThinkOutside Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard!

Those of you who knew me from my days of using the Tungsten T would have remembered my sleek portable keyboard which I used to carry it everywhere with me. I used to work with Documents To Go on my palm and the longest project I had worked on was writing my students' testimonials using just my Palmie.

It has been a long long while since I last saw a portable keyboard which speaks to me. The ones on the market are very bulky and I hardly consider them sleek. This one, shouted to me and spoke straight to my heart.

The only catch is the price. It costs $199!!!! The old one that doppy got me wasn't exactly cheap either lah. It was about $145 if my memory serves me right.

Having said that, I have also checked out the websites on the internet and I must say that the price in Singapore's is still the cheapest (after I do all the conversion from USD and UK pounds to Sing Dollars lah).

Hmmm ... I wonder if AAA carries this? I neglected to check yesterday because I was already too tired to walk anymore. I wonder if I could slut myself to Jason and get some discount.

Should I use part of my $400 grow fund to purchase this? Tempting ... tempting.

Check these out!

On a quiet Saturday morning, I was late in getting up and instead getting straight to my readings, I switched on my computer and religiously checked the SPUG form and Treonauts.

Apart from doppy, I do not know of another TREO680 user. However, just in case any of our faithful readers does have a fellow TREO680 user, I thought that the information on the camera update patch would be useful for you.

On another note, did you notice something different on my blog? :P

Ever since I have started labelling my posts, there are times when I am reluctant to post because my thoughts are just so inconsequential. Thanks to Twitter, now you can be kept updated with my most inconsequential thoughts, incessant complaints, lifeless life etc. etc.

Don't you just feel so much closer to me? :)

P.S. This is a sorry of a post. I just felt like I needed to update my blog but there's simply nothing worth blogging about in my life! :(

A New Tech Toy to Aim For?

In the event that you are looking for a new phone, you might want to hold for the iPhone.

Hee...hee.. then you can also let me play with it and for me to consider if I should go over to the dark side ......! hiak hiak