Entries by Joel
Sticky: Please sign the guestbook so that we know you've been here! We'd love to hear from u!


29 Dec 2005 - An "Interview" with a Telemarketer
A lady from some bank called me while I was in the midst of doing last minute revisions for the exam 2 days ago. Being a nice guy (ahem, of coz...), I have always tried to tactfully and politely tell them that I'm not interested. This means 5 minutes of "Ah huh... ok.... no, sorry, I'm not interested... ok.... ah huh.... no, I'm not keen... no.... ok..... ah huh....".

This not only waste my time, waste his/her time, but also eats into my handphone airtime!

That is until I had the shortest telemarketing conversation ever, with this bank lady:


- Phone rings -

Hello?

*A cheerful female voice replies*
"Good morning Mr Teo. I'm calling from xxx bank. You've been specially selected to receive our latest promotional offer of blah blah blah blah...."

*A stressed-out male voice replies*
"I'm sorry, but I'm in the midst of preparing for my exam right now."

"You mean you're UNEMPLOYED???"

"Uh... yes?"

"Ok.... thank you... goodbye...."

"Goodbye!"


It was totally hilarious to hear her voice sink so dramatically when she said the magical 2nd line, heehee! Well, it's not my fault she jumped to conclusion. And I couldn't resist saying "yes" :P

Ok, I'll work to upload the actual day photos as soon as possible.


27 Dec 2005 - I passed!!!
I passed my Microsoft 70-270 (WinXP client) exam! Hurray!! The feeling of jubilation (and relief!) is fantastic! A pretty good score of 936 out of 1000 points too. I'm now a MCP! No lah, not Male Chauvinist Pig, but a Microsoft Certified Professional. :)

The past few weeks (especially the Christmas week!) was sheer torture. Right after the wedding and honeymoon, I only have 3 weeks to prepare from the moment I bought the Study Guide (textbook) on 5 Dec. A chapter a day was my goal and weekdays and weekends were spent studying. Have to give up a Christmas gathering at Andrew's bird farm, and spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day studying! What you believe it? I'm just so happy that it is all over and most important of all is that I passed! This exam sure brought back dreaded memories of my NTU exam days!

Ok, here's my thank you speech, haha! To Lydia, for nagging at me incessantly to study. To Arek (the Microsoft guru and office colleague), for encouraging me to take the exam and for all the help and tips. To Sybex, for producing the excellent Study Guide (and also the distinction of being the first textbook I touched since 2001). And of course to God, for giving me the wisdom and strength to study and pass the exam.

Now I can happily say to you all, "Merry Christmas!!"


13 Dec 2005 - The Wedding Childhood Video (aka LEGO video)
Gee, it's almost a week since I updated this? :P Sorry, but the exam preparation is taking up a lot of my time. Nonetheless, here's a quick link to the video (pls right-click and choose to save target as), until I have time to put it up nicely on the web.

Please note that DivX codec (or player) is required and can be downloaded from www.divx.com. File size has been best reduced to 14MB for a small display resolution video. The high quality DivX video is almost 80MB! May consider wmv format when I have the time.

Let me know what you think of the video in the guestbook. Thanks!


7 Dec 2005 - Reflections
In a twinkling moment, it's already 1 month and 2 days since our wedding! How time really flies. All the months and days of preparation for the wedding over in 24 short hours. In the run up to the wedding, I seriously could not wait for the wedding to be over to bring to an end the exhausting and stressful preparation fever. But on looking back, I really look back with fond memories of the crazy and many detailed things we've done (eg. the LEGO video!) for the wedding. I'm definitely won't forget it!

And although it did not snow during our Europe trip, it was still a lot of fun. It's going to take a while to sort through 1600+ photos to upload to the website. Lydia lamented then that all I do is take pictures while other couples are so lovely dovey. :P For memories dear... :)

Speaking of her, I better get back to studying for my Microsoft WinXP exam which is due in 3 weeks time. I'm not supposed to be online, hehheh.

To Boon Teck and Mr Teh who had requested for the LEGO video, I'll try to upload as soon as possible.

Alright now, who can tell me what does USMT and FAST stand for? Oh we poor techie souls gotto remember a ton of abbreviations...


3 Dec 2005 - Guestbook Spam?
It's unbelievable but true! I've been cleaning out the guestbook for these entries everyday. These guys really do post everywhere in the Internet. Oh well, the guestbook has been re-coded and spammers will have their location and IP address logged for tracking.


30 Nov 2005 - Wedding Album Outdoor Photos
Outdoor photos have now been added to the gallery, available at the wedding photo gallery.


29 Nov 2005 - Wedding Album Indoor Photos
The album indoor photos have been added. It's quite tedious to resize the photos and redesign certain sections of the photo gallery in my few hours of free time after work. Kindly wait for more photos to be added. In the mean time, please check out the wedding photo gallery.


24 Nov 2005 - Back in Hot & Humid Singapore
We're back from our 15 day honeymoon in Europe! After our wedding on 5th Nov, we went for our honeymoon on 8th Nov and returned on 22nd. It has been a really fun experience and made new friends too. Definitely going to miss the weather and scenery there. Can you imagine going from 1 degree to 31 degrees in good ol' Singapore? A difference of 30 degrees! I'm perspiring just sitting in front of the computer even with the fan on.

How was the wedding? It is definitely an unforgetable day of my life! From the morning activities right up to the nite, it was non-stop action. It is indeed by God's grace that the whole event could be pulled off without any hiccups. I'll write a short story on the wedding if I've the time.

Will upload the wedding photo studio photos as soon as I can, plus the wedding actual day photos, honeymoon photos, etc.


4 Nov 2005 - The Nite Before
How time flies! The wedding is tomorrow! It's been a really hectic and busy 2 weeks. So much things to prepare, to do... Well, this is it! Just have to commit everything to God tomorrow. :)


23 Oct 2005 - Wedding Bands & Harddisk Failure
Collected our wedding bands that had been sent for cleaning and polishing and they look as good as new! Platinum was added for free to increase Lydia's ring by half a size.

Would you believe it??? 1 week more before I go on long leave and my company laptop harddisk crashed!! As though it's not busy enough already...


22 Oct 2005 - Facial, Haircut, Movers & Movie Break
It sure was nice to relax for 1 1/2 hours at Body Contours for a Vitamin C facial. I love the part where they put the cold mask on my face and I can just close my eyes and sleep for 45 minutes or so. Good chance to catch up on lost sleep!

Thereafter, we stopped at Reds for our "wedding" haircut. Plus hair coloring for me and hair treatment for Lydia. Unfortunately my favorite white shirt got stained accidentally during the hair coloring! Urgh!!

It's house (or Lydia's room?) moving day! For just $120, these amazing people from Professional Movers got everything done in less than an hour, travelling time included! Thanks Eileen for the contact! Hmm, now my "games" room looks like a storeroom...

To celebrate our 6 yrs 2 mths together anniversary, we had dinner at Kenny Rogers at Suntec City and caught the movie Flightplan. Wow, the movie is really fantastic and Jodie Foster is simply excellent! The storyline keeps you wondering what's to come all the way to the end. So is she really mental in thinking that her child is missing on the plane? Of course the child is.... Ha! Shan't spoil it for u. Go watch it yourself! :D


20 Oct 2005 - Servicedesk Newsletter & Flat Cleanup
Was mentioned in Tetra Pak Global Servicedesk Newsletter for my coming wedding with a link to this website! Thanks Christer and Irene! To my colleagues in Sweden, US and Germany: Hi!!

Oh, I'm afraid there isn't any Stuart-inspired stories in here, heehee!

Annnnnd...... the flat is finally cleaned up! Swept and hand-wiped every inch of the flat. It's such a nice feeling to walk barefooted on clean tiles. My soles used to turn dusty black after walking a couple of steps! Only left with putting up the kitchen bamboo railings and blinds and the flat should be ready by next week. Phew!


19 Oct 2005 - Wedding Albums
Collected our wedding albums from Sophia and pretty happy with the pictures. Better be happy after spending so much, haha! Thanks Ann (coordinator), Lynn (wedding gown designer), Bryan (photographer), and everyone at Sophia!

The photos will only be uploaded after the wedding. ;) Hopefully before my honeymoon. Else you'll have to wait like.. 2-3 weeks more?


16 Oct 2005 - Sleepless in Singapore
Today is the first time in weeks that I slept for more than 8 hours! Almost hesitated to drag myself out of bed to goto church, heehee. A word of advice to husbands-to-be: Listen to your partner and prepare early!


15 Oct 2005 - Cold Box, Conrad & Class
Oops, this is beginning to be like a weekly update. :P Have been busy with preparation and video production.

We finally bought our fridge at a good deal from a neighbourhood shop in Queenstown. But the TV will have to wait a while. No budget!

Met up with Catheryn from Conrad to settle the final arrangement for the wedding: From projectors to table covers to contract negotiations. She was really nice to sign for our lunch at Oscars!

And the last of the four-part series counselling class today. We'll definitely miss the sessions with: Francis & Choon Hwa, Lester & Freda, Victor & Nicole, Adrian & Ruth. Here's the group photo.


8 Oct 2005 - Conflicts, Cat & Peace Talk
This is the 3rd of 4 counselling classes. Today's topic was on how you and your partner handles conflicts. Ironically, today's discussion we were rather low profile.

On the way home, we met the church cat. Oh my! How it has grown! I thought "she" was pregnant until Glen said it was a he. Always have a soft spot for cats. :) See pix1 & pix2

Lydia's meeting her bridesmaids later for dinner. To discuss how to sabo me on the actual day! I better tag along and make peace with them. Gals, don't forget who helped you take photos for your graduation! Me!!


5 Oct 2005 - New Groomsman & WayCoolWeddings
Eric decided to go on a honeymoon tour with Andrew and San San and will be back on 5 Nov only! To be their photographer? Anyway, I thus had to fire him and the new man is Kian Pang! This guy goes all the way back to the days of Quake2 where I first met him, in the virtual world of course. Of course, I was better than him.. ;)

Am having some visitors from WayCoolWeddings website as well. Feel free to sign the guestbook too!


3 Oct 2005 - It's October Already!!
You know how frantic and busy we are when there's no news update for 1 week! Not a day goes by without doing something for the wedding.

Last Saturday we popped over at our flat again and started drilling at about 10am. I hope my neighbours are not late sleepers! :P Managed to fix up the kitchen shelves (it's really tough and tricky drilling through smooth tiles!) and 3 windows curtain railings. I had to modify one of the railing holder due to miscalculation but glad it turned out well. Careless Joe dropped one of the railing holders too and of all the luck, it landed on the only possible side where it will break. And it broke with glee. Now I need to buy super glue.

The mysterious screwdriver has now been found. He was found hiding behind the TV bench. As a punishment, he was abused/used immediately and screwdriver junior can now take a long break.

Saturday afternoon was the 2nd round of pre-marital counselling class. It was another lively round of dicsussion on expectations. Strangely, Lydia and I seem poles apart, haha. But probably we see each other so often everything gets trashed out already and though we're different, we accept each other's unique and perculiar personality and behaviour. ;)

Saturday night was another wedding, this time Gerard and Shir Lin. Gerard's my good old gaming buddy in Quake2 in our hostel days. Seeing him again reminds me of the days of playing through the night till the sun is almost up and with wrists hurting like mad. Tutorial? There's always time for another 40 frags. How time flies and changes a man.


25 Sept 2005 - 40 Days and 40 Restless Nights
A peep at the countdown clock and it's an amazing 40 days left to the wedding! A whole bunch of stuffs still needs to be settled. Lydia's getting a headache thinking about it. I'm probably going to get new sprouts of white hair on my head...


21 Sept 2005 - Andrew's Wedding: A Preview
Attended Andrew and San San's wedding today and it was a very good (and worrying!) preview of what's to come! I won't say more to put ideas into your head. To Cheng How, thanks for your instigating idea and it's a pity you can't make it to our wedding. To my brothers (especially Tzin Mein), don't forget to do your 'job' on my wedding day ya!


20 Sept 2005 - Bedframe Completed!
Finally finish fixing the bedframe! In total took about 3 1/2 hours. It's not as tough as expected and would have been faster if not for the Step 2 error and me misplacing the screw-driver. The mysterious screwdriver is still playing hide-and-seek, somewhere in the flat...


18 Sept 2005 - Church Invitation Distribution & New Stamp Design
Today we distributed the invitations cards to the church. I had always wondered how it would be like! It is indeed quite an experience. My parents were roped in too!

These batch of invitation cards also have a new "stamp" design. 10 different designs in total! :)


17 Sept 2005 - 1st Pre-marital Counselling Class
Had our first pre-marital counselling class today in church, conducted by Pastor Tony. 4 other couples were there as well. I was worried if I could last the 2 hour session but it turned out to be very enjoyable! It kicks off with clarifying your own goals, values, attitudes and personality, and what you gauge your partner's ones to be. The Q&A session at the end was very interesting too!


16 Sept 2005 - Ikea's Bedframe
What do you do when you're at Step 9 of Ikea's bedframe assembly instruction, only to discover that you've made a mistake at Step 2!??

"No way!" These words kept screaming over and over again in my head as I stared in disbelief. Expecting to see holes on the inner side of the bedframe, I found the holes on the outside instead! I couldn't believe it and ran my fingers across the board to make sure there weren't special camouflage holes that Ikea may have made. 1 1/2 hours of work undone...


14 Sept 2005 - Wedding Invitation Card & Firefox
Have started passing the wedding invitation cards to office colleagues and am really happy to know that they liked the card design. Had designed and wanted it to be more than just a wedding card. A card that is also hopefully "keepable". :)

On another note, the website tracker shows quite a number of visitors using the Firefox browser!? Don't you guys like Microsoft Internet Explorer? ;) Downloaded Firefox and checked the website design and asp pages for Firefox compatibility. Fixed the column alignment and Guestbook. Please note that the Photo Gallery is missing the white border effect. You can use MS Internet Explorer 6 with 1024x768 (min) resolution for best visual experience.


13 Sept 2005 - Paint & Pain
Hurray! Finally finished painting the whole flat! Over a period of approx 2 months! The desire to DIY the whole flat, personal achievement and costs were the push factors. Although on looking back, I must have been crazy to even think of it! Whole Saturdays burnt, late night painting and taxi-rides home... It's really super tedious and tiring! I'm just so glad and relief it's all over! If I've the time, will put up the flat photos in the Photo Gallery (see the DIY dual-color door, heehee!)


10 Sept 2005 - Website Officially Ready!
The website is officially ready! Happy viewing! We would love to hear your comments at the Guestbook!


24 July 2005 - Shopping Spree at Ikea
It's furniture shopping day for the flat! We spent yesterday and today at Ikea and bought $2k+ of stuffs, from bed frame to TV stand. Feels really nice to buy so much stuffs from Ikea and running around with a shopping list! :) The pain is going come later when the bill comes, haha.


18 July 2005 - Wedding Photo Shoot
What a day for our wedding photo shoot! It was really interesting, fun and tiring! And thank God for miraculously stopping the rain in the evening! Click here to see the preview.


12 July 2005 - First Draft
Website is finally up! Erm, the basic design and pages I mean. :P It's going to take some time to put in all the information. Stay tuned!