Words to Lyrics Ben Ho's observations from the cloud

29 May 2008

Mufti Day

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , , , , — Ben @ 11:43 pm

Today was mufti day. The Student Council (which I am part of), raises money to put to a cause. Also there is usually a positive vibe around the place, as people can express themselves truly. I’m really tired after counting lots and lots of money.

I was on the train that evening, and saw a few mates of mine at the station. I had my laptop with me, and I showed them photos of a concert yesterday. They were impressed, and we talked about photos for various occasions.

It is through this which I realised that having connections with even the most remote people in the year group, is key to maintaining a good relationship with everybody. Getting yourself known for the right reason is something that is a bit difficult in a large group, but that is what I have done.

22 April 2008

Birthday

Filed under: Attended,Reflection — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 7:08 pm


Everyone and the mascots

Originally uploaded by hohohob

Last Sunday, I had my birthday party. There were five of us to begin with at Luna Park. There, we had fun for a while, before Simon left and the rest of us took a ferry. It went to Circular Quay, and after getting off, we walked to Wagamama, one of my favourite restaurants. Dinner was had, before Georgina left us. The rest of us took the train home.

That’s it in a nutshell.

You know, the party went better than expected even though the other five I invited were away or sick. It was right after a week long camp some people went to, and it rained every single day. Just a small group of people, having a good time.

Now to get on with life.

Flickr photoset

6 April 2008

The dormant writing bug

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 8:25 pm

In my mind, I have many ideas for a blog post. Unfortunately, they don’t ever make it here, because my mind gets lost in doing more important things. It’s like a sickness that you catch, you know you’ve got it, but it doesn’t affect your body. Anyway, hopefully the upcoming school holidays will help.

It has been a long first term of year 11 for me. Results have been good, but they can be better. During the holidays, I will be reading David Allen’s book about Getting Things Done. It should be good. I’m assuming that the geeks who read this are using GTD, how are you finding it?

It’s going to be my birthday during the holiday. Yes, I will be having a party so photos of them will be up the night after.

That’s all.

15 March 2008

After today’s debating

Filed under: Rant,Reflection — Tags: , , , , — Ben @ 12:04 am

Tonight, I had debating at school. The topic was about health, but it was pretty hard. My team put up a very tough case, but the team from the other school, just got the better of us, but not because of how they spoke, but what they spoke about. Anyway, I took the loss fine and we should be doing well next debate.The real story comes after. I was in the common room having snacks and talking to friends. Then this woman comes up to me and asks where is the toilet? I didn’t know, then… well I forgot what I said.  A girl who was chairing the debates took her to the toilet.OK. In all honesty, why ask a guy where the girls toilet is? It is WRONG!!! Guys only know where the guys toilet is. Girls know where everything is. Cool with that?!!Now I have put this rant on paper, I hope I can get some sleep and get up tomorrow to go to work. 

15 February 2008

Valentine’s Day

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 8:42 pm

Thursday was Valentine’s Day, and love was certainly in the air. People were giving roses to others, it was a happy mood. I had always looked upon Valentine’s Day as a big woop.

Until this year.

This year I went through with giving someone a rose. I’m not that rich, so one was enough. As a meticulous planner, I had planned every detail from when to buy the rose to when to give it to her. That plan was thrown out the window on the day, but not to worry.

It was lunch that day, and I had planned to meet at the end. I was held up with a big meeting well after lunch. That opportunity was gone, but I has one more: after school. That happened. She was absolutely surprised that , a geek, would give a rose to her. It had attracted many stares, and many people I knew were surprised that I did the deed.

Even today, people were asking me about it. I wasn’t surprised at all. It reminded me of this xkcd comic. I guess that making people happy is something that I am good at doing.

21 January 2008

An Hour without Power

Filed under: Rant,Reflection — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 3:24 pm

Well, on Sunday morning at about 9:30, the power failed. At first I thought, this is odd, a power outage in the morning! However as the hour went on, this was not an ordinary power outage.

I was cooking breakfast for my parents and I, as I usually do. Suddenly, the kettle stopped working. I stopped and saw that everything else wasn’t working. It has looked like a fuse tripped, so I went outside and checked. The fuse was still on and the safety switch didn’t trip. Ok, so its not only us, it’s the whole street. The power’s out! Now I was only cooking breakfast, but that was difficult now. No power, no stove, no kettle, no fridge, and eventually, no breakfast. Luckily, Dad has a contingency plan, use the barbecue, and so we did.

For about half an hour, Dad cooked on the barbeque. Breakfast was almost ready until, yes, the power was restored. This was when the penny dropped. Our alarm system sounded, and it had ‘forgotten’ the code. Minutes went by, the alarm sounding randomly. Dad eventually turned the alarm off at the wall switch. Even then it still bugged us. There was a battery inside the control box. We took it out and the alarms fell quiet. That was the end.

When we have (rare) power outages, it is hard to imagine life without electricity.

17 January 2008

Jazz Under the Quarter Moon (Cloudy Skies)

Filed under: Attended,Reflection — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 12:10 pm

On Wednesday, I went to Sydney Observatory’s “Jazz Under the Quarter Moon Cloudy Skies”. The clouds rolled in very quickly in the afternoon, so there was nothing to see. There were a couple of demos and shows in place of the moon viewing, but the jazz music was amazing.

A trio called “Music with Panache” played for the night. It was made up of saxaphone, bass and guitar. They were improvising many popular tunes and standards.

Tom and his sister and my Dad were also there. We enjoyed the night really much.

I’ve posted photos on my flickr of the event. Tom also took some pics too. I will post a link when he uploads them.

16 January 2008

Keynote Verdict

Filed under: Reflection,Tech — Tags: , , , , , , — Ben @ 7:31 am

Well, I was up at 4am AEST this morning to follow the liveblogs of Steve Jobs’ Keynote at Macworld. There was a lot of anticipation for many of the rumours to come true. And one did.

There were (as I counted) six new things that were released today. They are:

  1. Time Capsule: A networked storage device and wireless router in one
  2. iPhone Software 1.1.3
  3. iPod Touch update (that costs US$20)
  4. Movie Rentals (Rumour come true) (US only (as usual))
  5. Apple TV Take 2 (New UI)
  6. MacBook Air (Rumour come true!)

This offering of products and software is very good. It brings features that are long overdue and new ones too. Time Machine over the network with Time Capsule is a useful feature. Movie Rentals are long overdue. I (and many other people) weren’t too happy with the $20 software upgrade for the iPod Touch. It should be free. Heck, could you copy the apps over via SSH from the iPhone? The MacBook Air (MBA) is a welcome change and also shows Apple entering another sector of the notebook market.

Gee. I can’t think of anymore to write about. If I have more, I will write more.

11 January 2008

The meaning of XO(XO)

Filed under: I Wonder,Reflection — Tags: , , — Ben @ 10:33 pm

Today, I got another reply to my “Who’s in Sydney???” email. I sent this email out to all the people I know have email addresses to. I mentioned it in my last post! Anyway, this particular person (sorry, no names!) ended the email with ” x x x”. It got me thinking, what does it really mean?

XOXO is common use for the phrase, Hugs and Kisses. Wikipedia also notes, that the origins and meanings of X and O are highly debatable, stating many meanings for the letters. It says that X symbolizes the lips of the kissers, but also the crossed arms of the huggers. O can be seen as the four arms of the hug and the puckered lips of a kiss. The Wikipedia article also goes on to give religious origins of XOXO.

After reading and interpreting the article for some time, I gave up, left the meaning open to interpretation and then read about XO Sauce.

31 December 2007

New Years Eve

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , , — Ben @ 9:15 am

It’s New Years Eve today. The last day of 2007. I must say, there have been many good things about this year. But it is all over, and 2008 is tomorrow. What is in store?

I am having a quiet NYE with my parents this year. I’m not going out to see the fireworks in the city! Besides, many of my friends have gone away this holiday, and so it has become very quiet in town and on the internets.

What are you doing this NYE?

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