Well the weekends are coming to an end and that totally sucks!! its like i so wish the weekends can go on foreverrrr like just sat->sun->sat->sun. hah NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. >:) but hey! i actually started the weekend thinking i can (finally) finish up my 20-card-thick 3d magic card? but nahhh not even close. i didnt even touch it! sad to say. i was busy with driving lessons. seriously this driving this is driving me up the wall! okay i burned friday night studying for the bloody Basic Theory Test, came out with 49/50 for the test on early saturday morning and spent nearly the whole day running around trying to see what to do next and trying to apply for my provisional driving liscence. end of the day, i didnt get my provisional driving liscence as the counter was closed. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz.

so....over saturday, i actually decided to start on a new project! oh wait before i continue, i even wanted to do up a 5-card thick 3d magic card but nahhh didnt have the time to. rather, i spent my meagre spare time playing the piano! lego as well as gaming. :) i know it sounds kinda ambitious to start on yet another new project, but hey i got to plan for it man! my aim is to create the strongest foam blaster i have ever created and am hoping that i can get some materials soon! i dont even know where and how i can actually find some specific materials.. darn darn. cant tell ya much about it yet as i am still trying to get the blaster that i will be working on.. not a 100% i can get and there is only 1 left on the net.

well now onto the "something happened". its a goog thing! no worries :)

On friday, my company had live firing at some secluded area in Singapore and since i have a pretty serious injury causing me to be unable to train, i didnt do live firing. instead, i became a sentry at one of those secluded entry points far away from them, far away from civilisation. so i was all alone in the middle of the forest with just a signal set, my waterbottle and 2 books! one is the driving test book so that's not quite counted as a book. but anyway! strangely i had no weapon with me. =.= i am supposed to prevent any unauthourised entry and i had no weapon! not even a knife. unless you consider the signal set as a weapon :>

so i was all alone, and being a devoted christian, i decided to take some time off the really have a good time praying! best environment to pray in man. just nature and me. away from all the city life and noises~ i remember being really so immersed into praying in that teeny weeny guard house of mine! FYI the guardhouse is smaller than a toilet cubicle. -.- seriously? still, sat down comfortably and started chatting with the Lord! that was just so awesome man~~~ oh but when i woke up, guess what! i ended up getting bitten by mosquitos all over on my hands and face! ZZZZZZZZZZz give me a breakkkkk..... but hey! it was when i ended my prayer did the "something happened" moment come.
now is a ptetty trying period of my life and it hasnt been easy! lots of massive 'problems' as well as decisions need to be made by me and it will affect my future for a long time! never have i ever faced so many big problems before.. still, at the end of my prayer, i just had the urge to end of with a particular phrase and i did: "if God is for us, who can be against us?" coincidentally, the moment i stopped praying, i stood up and faced the wall that i was leaning against and low and behold! the EXACT same verse was scribbled on the wall! freaky i would say! but freaky in a good way indeed~ it just felt so good that i had such great assurance that there was Someone up there looking after me. :D it wasnt the first time i was given thisexact verse.

Despite leading a pretty difficult life now, dealing with so many problems whilst having so little time, i still do feelhappy for myself because i know that these trials and tribulations will make me stronger and these also teach me an important lesson on how to lean unto the Lord! Its all about leaving the things into His hands and trusting him. more importantly, what's there to be upset or unhappy about when i am going to walk THROUGH this deep valley! ^.^

woot! all the while, mum and I have been sourcing around for property as an investment and i am pleased that the wait and searching has finally come to an end! Today, i actually went down with my parents to view the new condo unit that we are buying and it looks nice!

so far, how dad got his car, it seemed like a God-incident and now, this property, it also feels like one! you see mum used to shop at this particular store for clothes and just recently when she went, she saw some nice handbags and she got them! that was when she got to know the seller, who also happened to be a property agent! how they talked until it led to property was because she happened to find out that mum is a christian and then she told her the story on how she actually got saved and stopped contemplating suicide, after the SARS crisis hit her business so badly she lost almost everything and  her husband became very ill. Dont know if he survived but...getting back to topic, that's how it led them to talk about their career and *clap!* just right, she was selling a property at The Bayshore and it so happened met all the requirememnts for mum. Moreover, mum mannaged to get a viewing on the same afternoon because the previous buyer had to cancel the viewing at the last minute! wow what a coincidence eh? Luckily, there was already a tenant so problem solved on trying to get a tenant!

so on to the house itself! it looks really nice, and i love The Bayshore condominium! as in terms of the people there (woot lotsa pretty caucasians O.O) hahaha hey in terms of the facilities? the gym, the tennis courts, the pool is FREAKING AWESOME! you get to swim under arching bridges...mini waterfalls, mini pools connecting to the main lap pool...SO AWESOMEEEE. first thing i look at is always the pool. Talking about the interior of the house, high ceiling? bought all the furniture inside so everything is ours. :)lets throw in some pictures! its a 2 bedroom apartment btw~


this is the entrance to the lobby! i like how everything looks like a bit posh posh~


ze door + 2 property agents


what i am greeted by at first... looks like the apartment is going to be pretty white!


the living room~ really nice and spacious!


bedroom #1?


there are 2 toilets, one in the master bedroom one is located along the corridor.


the view from the window! yeah its just 3 stories, can see lotsa greenery and the kid's pool. Downstairs is the roundabout!


kitchen! its dark in here but camera lights it up. kewl.


hmmm....


oh so there are 3 toilets! this one looks sucky though...


mini balcony at the back? cant see much but oh well~


master bedroom toilet!


and the master bedroom :) looks real simple.

THATS ALL! after that, we headed out to explore a little bit of its facilities...












clubhouse!


the lap pool! the smaller pools connect to this at the left and right :) people can walk over the arc bridges at the sides! love this feature!


that's part of the mini pools~

I am so looking forward to coming to this condo to swim! :D too bad its a little far...but hey! i guess i can swim here with my friends one day!!

hahahah okay! im finally back, been really really busy building LEGOs and spending some 'me' time :) one day, mum bought more LEGO sets and i was like WOOHOOOO finally! all thanks to all the import taxes and currency exchange, lego in Singapore has always been very expensive D: how i wish they can do something about it! plus kids and teens nowadays no longer appreciate the same childhood games i used to play like five stones, or even just simply reading a book! let alone building LEGO models. In my opinion, building official LEGO sets like those that we always see on the shelves is enriching! you actually get to learn some design/architectural skills on why that particular piece has to go there, if not it would _______? however, passion has brought me more than just building such sets. now i am on to building my own creations? (MOCs, that's what we call it in lego terms :) and its interesting on how we can actually apply new techniques or even see a new way in utilising some parts  and hence change the turnout of the entire creation! of course the limitation of bricks might be of a big hindrance to ya but hey! working with just what you have forces you to improvise. I kept running into that "problem" in the past as i had really really very little bricks  to play around with.




HAH all these are the ones that mum bought, aaaaand if you read my previous blog posts, i have been waiting for the republic frigate for almost ONE YEAR! its like waiting for your birthday dude. but hey! FINALLY. ya know, at first i was really hoping for the price of this mammoth set to drop but in the end, after the wait, it only dropped by $10. -___-"' i had to wait so long just for it to be out of season. i expected some massive price cuts actually but oh well!

i straight away zoomed into the building of the much awaited republic frigate and it was so much fun to learn some new techniques that they had!

seriously this set looks like a really good set to buy, just for the parts. i guess i find it really useful because of all the long parts and the flat pieces! makes me be able to create massive ships that way~ and massive ships need massive, trusty infrastructure and supports all around~
oh! thats how i place my lego pieces when i am fixing! surprisingly, mum passed to me this tray from IKEA and it just fits so snugly with my furniture at home! lmao. its like it stacks up nicely on the chairs so that i have like a bottom tray too, and when i am done with it, i can fit it in neatly on top of a box and tuck it into a bottom of the chair and every mess is gone---

the following photos are....the photos for me to record down the interesting finds and sometimes i get my inspirations from these as i get to branch out from the techniques that lego uses. :) from these techniques, i can also introduce more playabilty into my creations!

thats the locking mechanism for the drop pod.

thats the carrying handle. little did i expect how useful it can get~ one can actually use it to create extensions from the creation, like eg.deployable missle pods?

landing gear..ack usual stuff!

UHHHH connecting parts together? LEGO adopts a 'jigsaw puzzle' approach..im not a fan of that. like whats the point? other than it being easier to fix in terms of parts.



these are the interesting parts i found when building the frigate! its like every model, there is always something to learn!


look at the massive parts this set gives man...im sure i can do a lot of stuffs with the parts!

HMMMM APPARENTLY I FORGOT TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THE COMPLETED PRODUCT. NICE JOB MING YANG. HOW COULD YOU FORGET.


okie dokie! now that the republic frigate is done, i am on to expanding my 'base' upwards!

guess what are these! they are actually supports that i am going to use for the upwards expansion~


so far thats how it looks like! well i havent touched it for a pretty long time! all the while, the projects that i have done have been peppered all around the living room after i realised that i have run out of space in the base. andddd at that time, i wasnt keen on channeling money into the expansion of the base. it just felt so troublesome and not to mention, up till now, because i am building higher and higher, the base is starting to get less stable on the higher area because i am using those lego bases that are flat underneath which means...only 1 contact point for support! i got to like "clamp" down the plates at the sides whilst building up the bottom so that the plates dont bend so much.


this is the usual small reinforcement i do to the supporting beams. as you can see, thats how i do stack up those colourful blocks upwards! it makes it easier to also add on extra stuffs at the sides. :) i intend to add probably either more plates at the sides and clamp them, or either just add more supports to make it more sturdy..but at the same time, leaving it empty all the way in the middle gives it the "open concept" spaciousness it man it feels nice to have such a clear view too!


***after spending one whole night on trying to better stabilise the structure, i have finally done it! but its not yet done. i still need more pieces and hopefully in the future i can get to expand it even more! apparently now, i have too many of those small 2 stud pieces.moreover, i also completed the Home One Mon Calamari and integrated into the base.***


yeah! as you can see, the new layer on top is a whole lot higher than the other one because of the other layers that i have at the further end of the base and also, so that i can either slot in more, or branch out with the lego plates in future. big gaps also means i would be able to store taller stuffs eh! i have this idea of integrating like normal houses or shops, like the Grand Emporium LEGO set into the sides of it, so that it sort of gives the base a different side to it? but its gonna be hard given the difference in dimensions..hah not all ideas are possible i think! not yet.

so there are 4 plates on the highest level so far and this is the first! just a usual simple good old plate~

actually i intend to upgrade this part into like some sort of office-lego city looking place? but that will be next time~


that's the home one mon calamari base section. the actual lego product can be split apart, so i did just that! what i like about what i did to this is shown in the following photo..



the feel as though it goes all the way through! like a suspension bridge kinda idea :P i know they had similar things in the star wars movies, so i wanted to create just that.


pretty long way down! :D that's something new..


this one is the hangar part. oh without the ship! apparently i have yet to build the ship! i decided to go ahead and build the things that can be integrated into the base first. i literally built up the whole top layer on the floor, then transported it by sections onto the supports. i always love the idea of seeing the whole base suddenly expand. :P love that shocker feeling!

THEN comes my favourite part! dumping my beloved creation on top! i am still so happy with this creation because it just looks so good! i wanted to get that sleek look and maybe i should get more photos of it..it also has some playability features like bomb dropping and piston-looking engine with walkable space inside! i still remember this model being such a challenge as i had to keep it looking sleek and thin, whilst maximising internal space just in case i want to add on more things internally in future. of which i already have plans!

so now...the final product is this!

really glad the adding on of one more layer is a success, i did have some doubts at first, but after getting hands-on, thats when i realised issues that i overlooked and worked around them! it looks simple of course-but the truth is that it isnt quite as simple. not when you intend to continue going up or expanding to the sides.

EXTRA PHOTOS of one of my previous creations. this thing has no space to be stored man. so does my republic frigate.




one of the many techniques that i pulled off here.
If you see the first photo, half of the hangar area is actually built upside down.
and, the thruster behind is built on a one-stud width. diverging from an even 2stud width to 1stud.
In the second photo, it shows the front. that was built upwards, sideways (the whole thing is tilted 90 degrees) and at an angle. Also, this part is built on 2 seperate 'planes' so its like one is free floating while the other is connected to the main structure. i shall post the photo of the side.


if you notice the front portion, the ship is actually like an arc. so that was what i achieved when i tried the idea of seperating the front structure into 2 planes. :D

geeeez i've been REALLY busy these few days!! :P why? because i am building more LEGO stuffs! super freakin' awesome after mum spent a bomb on me just for my hobby!

so...mum bought 3 sets of LEGO for me, not gonna reveal them yet except for 1, the star wars republic frigate. wohoo! now that it is finally off-season, i thought it would have some price cuts but no i was wrong! :> so all the wait was kinda wasted? nahhh but still no matter what, the set is all fixed up already and its ready to have its photos up! but i shall keep it and post all at one go later on :P talk about me being lazy huh!

so there are a few things i am doing this time round..
1. Build the republic frigate.
2. Build the ....(not telling ya yet!)
3. Build the ....(also not telling ya yet!)
4. Upgrading my 'base' to greater heights!

here is what i intend to do for point 4.
what i previously built for the not-so-long-ago past is already on the base and now what i intend to do is to continuously build it upwards. frankly speaking, i have no idea how tall this thing can go as stability will become an even bigger issue as it goes up! last thing i would wanna have is a baby ramming into it man. the whole idea is that if i keep building stuffs, either original products or my own creations (MOCs), going upwards would cause the base to have somewhat a chronological order :) so that would make lots of sense to actually see how my ideas and creativity evolve over the years!

now that there is army...i am REALLY REALLY REALLY x9999999 missing my schooling days! :( gone were the days when i had total freedom and everything seemed a whole lot more relaxed and definitely, FUN.

 
how could i forget my fellow classmates in lectures huh!

well finally! it has reached the last part....after SPAMMING you guys with all those photos :> well i am so continuing on that rampage for this post too! its just such a good feeling to be out of camp on this thursday morning all thanks to national day :D guess what! i slept at 3...because i drank 1x large milk tea and 1x coffee in the night. GG-fied much! oh and the time i woke up? 0600hours. usually in camp, i got to wake up at 0500 hours. hmmmm....this military body clock of mine doesnt quite fit into my civilian lifestyle. not at all in fact ;) on to the tropical climate conservatory! gonna finish up this post before i get started on Lego~ mum bought a new set for me!



okayyyy for the start of the conservatory, i was totally shocked! first, it was windy, then it felt chilly and then it was all misty! woot it was just so much fun to be in the area! its really cold inside when they combine strong winds and cold air! along with a.....waterfall!!


somehow the photo doesnt capture the sheer height of this massive structure...imma hope some of the others do! :D i was absolutely impressed with this. i was never expecting such a spectacular structure hiding inside the steel frames! bet the architect is super happy by how the whole project was completed. really really well done!


aha thats mum!

thats me!


this is just at the left corner of the structure, the route that leads to the misty adventure up ahead :) i am a big fan of mists! love it when you walk around in the misty area and the tiny water droplets lightly breeze your skin


took this shot from a vertical angle up! thats one of those walkways that arc around the whole structure. if you ask me, throw in a couple of 4-wheel-drive buggies and you are gonna have an awesome rollercoaster ride down from the top! there are more awesome features to this :P




this is the entrance to the structure, the tour starts from the top! so its just a downhill walk all the way. so much easier and friendlier! at least this wouldnt put much strain on my injured knees. take a lift all the way up and climb a short flight of stairs!





THIS is the top of the structure. still a little misty at the top! at least they didnt overload the entire conservatory with mist -_-"' that would be just...weird. and a little irritating. wonder if the surrounding structures or the glass panels will start to turn mossy green! you know...that's what happens to anything that is kept near to tropical plants especially.



following are a few photos of the top before i head to one level lower! enjoy the slew of photos!













from here on, it is a gradual downward trip aaaaaaaaall the way down till you hit basement! pretty awesome eh! its not really basement but sort of basement? *confused*



by late afternoon, it was starting to get a little crowded..junior college school students start streaming in.. mothers with prams... and this is also when i actually noticed that the walkways that stream all the way down are really friendly to pram or wheelchair users! its wide in the middle and it is laid with a strip of non-slip material. :)


hehehe i love this shot! see how those trees become like flowers! =P



that's pretty complicated O.o


aha! this is on the lower level already. so this is how it works. you walk walk walk down the streaming walkway that winds in and out of the structure and you will find yourself back into the structure with some exhibits. :)


as you can see, the water goes all the way down! so when you are standing on the first floor like where i was at the start, the water just plunges straight through the ground, all the way down to the basement! better than it ending on the first floor and you see the water splashing all over. bahhhhhh


so which side is up which side is down! i think these are called staglamites? hopefully i  get the spelling right! so far i only got to see these overseas in caves..no way you can find it in singapore man. but i think they should cordern off a larger chunk of area to keep public further away from these precious stone formations...what i know is that usually we dont touch such things because the salt on our fingers will permanently damage the staglamites...unless they actually sprayed a layer of coating -.-


even a small kid can easily touch it! its good to get a close up view though.


this shot was taken at around the midpoint of the structure? used the super vivid colours function to more easily capture all the different colours of the tropical plants :)


this is at the basement? well before this was a short clip of what would happen if the planet's temperature increased by 5 degrees celcius within the next century. sounds pretty possible and i hope it whacks something into those people who have little care for nature. funny thing is if they didnt really care for Gaia, they wouldnt even be coming to Garden's by the Bay eh? -_____-


look at that teeeny weeeeny water droplet at the edge of the leaves! glittering in the sun :> too bad i didnt have those lens that allows these droplets to sparkle. wonder how they catch such shots.




THIS IS THE END OF THE TROPICAL CONSERVATORY!
in my opinion, this was a WOW factor but the temperate climate conservatory seems more interesting? in terms of the kind of plants you see. :) as in when you go into the temperate one, you dont feel like you are in singapore? but when you enter the tropical one, the waterfall is a massive shocker but yet it doesnt feel like you are in the tropics~ wish they had those really thick forestations like the amazon forest. that would be really enriching! oh by the way, the walls of the structure is peppered with orchids!


not willing to spend a bomb on this. i forsee dust collecting over such models..



guess where this photo is taken from!

its from the OCBC skywalk :)

the skywalk was....unimpressive. to me, it was just walk walk walk then done. nothing special...
for $5 its okay to get the feeling of how its like being up there? but i wont be willing to pay that amount in future. it was a one off thing for me.





its like a one-way thing. frankly speaking it looks as though the idea was shabbily concocted. The idea itself is good, but the way the structure was built - the width of the walkway and the length of it..just wasnt to me liking. if you wanna make it a little adventurous, make it super thin! like the fella got to hold on the handrails for both sides. rather than a not here not there kinda width. put a pram in the middle and no one can pass. and the length is miserably short. -.- next photo is a shot for my mum and she is standing at the end of the skywalk!

its seriously wayyyy too short. it would be really cool if they had more super trees planted around the whole garden, then weave the skywalk around, creating intersections at some points. that will be WOW. of course feel free to charge higher rates!

overall, the skywalk is just a one off thing. pay the $5 for the experience. its way too inconvenient up there. the conservatories however are totally worth every single cent! that i dont mind continuously going for it. its just so relaxing to take a slow walk around and savour the delicious sight of beautiful plants!

Gardens by the Bay is a MUST go. for tourists and locals alike.


i like the supertrees concept!


now that its national day holiday, its time to get building! taking a short break from those precision work of mine. :) those tend to be more on the serious side. LEGO on the other hand...is totally fun and relaxing! i really miss making awesome creations~



This looks really cute! =D
so fast and lego is once again out with another winter collection~