We went to Chinatown to eat Holland Ville XO Fish Bee Hoon Soup?!

Like I have been telling people, Chinese New Year is losing its entire meaning for me. It used to be about hanging out with my cousins, receiving hongbaos ($$) and also eating luxurious food. But now... my cousins have grown up and doing their own things, hongbaos I stopped receiving when I started work, and food? I can afford it myself, so nothing special anymore.

So yesterday, B1 and I went to find the essence of Chinese New Year at Chinatown. Except it was raining like cats and dogs, and only the Caucasians were smart enough to sit under temporary shelters drinking alcohol, while locals dashed and darted under umbrellas and plastic canopies trying to buy some Chinese New Year goods.  There was a street where the wicked stallholders lowered the canopies and tied them with crisscrossing strings across the road so that umbrellas became tangled and people became trapped potential customers. I was hit in the head with a few umbrella spokes, which made me super mad.

I wanted to eat the famous chicken rice or dim sum, but then because it was so crowded and raining so hard, we turned left  instead and ended up at the street where the office gang and I went KTV last CNY. Other than the few stalls open, and amazingly their tables, which lined the street were still filled up with tourists, determined to eat hawker food. We thought about eating at the la mian shop, but when we crossed towards the shop, I came upon this Holland Ville XO Fish Head Bee Hoon Soup (B1 was still staring into the La Mian shop, looking for a table in vain). 

What better way to keep warm, then to eat XO laced Fish Meat Bee Hoon Soup?

As is typical behavior, the uncle labored arduously for the table of foreign tourists, and left his rather unobservant female colleague to miss my frantic waving. Luckily the cleaning uncle spotted me and told his colleague twice to take our order.

 

We ordered cuttlefish with KangKong, their famous XO Fish Meat Bee Hoon Soup and crabmeat with Beancurd. The Kellerin said that the Fish Meat Bee Hoon soup came with big pieces of fish instead of the usual thin slices you find at other stalls. Well, while they were large pieces alright, there were only three pieces apiece for me and B1. B1 complained that the soup wasn't very hot, while I was in love with the soup and drank it all up (I think one of the reasons why I had that severe food allergy later that night). The other two dishes were digusting. Seriously. They should just sell the Bee Hoon soup. Full Stop.

The crabmeat with beancurd arrived with little bits of crab and plenty of ginger. Now crab is a sweet and delicately flavored meat, so why the hell would you smother it with so much ginger? The answer is simple. The crabmeat isn't fresh. And other than the overwhelming taste of ginger, the dish was tasteless. As was the Kangkong and cuttlefish. Too much water in the dish. The cuttlefish was likely just boiled and dumped on top of the equally bland Kangkong.

The meal was cheap (S$33 in all) but extremely dissatisfying. We saw the uncle pander to the tourist table, voluntarily popping at their table to top up their cold tea with more hot water. I had to grab him as he was walking away to top up mine (I was very cold from the rain).

I don't think I will go there again, especially after my stupid experience with the twilight zone.

Testing your Musicality

The wicked B1 sent me this series of links for testing your musicality, which is rather painful for me due to my failing the aural part during my violin exam. It's done by this brilliant Harvard medical grad who is working at its affiliated Brigham and Women's hospital.

The irony is... I scored a 80% on the Rhythm test, which is such a joke, and I decided to quit while I am on the high =P

http://jakemandell.com/tonedeaf/
http://tonometric.com/adaptivepitch/
http://tonometric.com/rhythmdeaf/

A Seeming Nightmare in Twilight Zone

I woke up at 6am this morning, with my chest suddenly feeling  itchy and hot. I felt this incessant urge to scratch myself. Was it a mosquito bite, as I was wont to be eaten alive during my sleep sometimes?

The itch being so unbearable, I wandered into the toilet, hoping to soak the itch in hot water. Only to scream when I looked into the mirror, while bathing. My entire body was covered in a angry red rash. 

Looks scary right? Well, it was all over my body, so you can imagine how freaked out I was.

WTF happened?

The hot water was some relief but why the heck were there red patches all over my skin? Uneven, bumpy, they couldn't be mosquito bites. I nearly cried from fright. Putting on my clothes, I ran back to my room to call B1. He was sound asleep so didn't answer my call. So I dashed to my parents' room because I could hear them talking. I implored my mother to accompany to the 24 hour clinic, and while she was taking her own sweet time to answer the call of nature, I took some photos of this bewildering sight. 

Being a well known hypochondriac (perfectionist, and OCDer) I couldn't resist surfing the Net for clues on what the f I was suffering from. I suspected that I was suffering from food allergy, because the last time B1 and I ate crab, I suffered mightily the night after, my body feeling overheated while I had severe abdominal pains. This time, it was just hot, itchy rash that made me scratch and scratch incessantly. It was all I could do not to scratch so hard that my skin would chafe and not allow me to swim. 

My mother finally came out from the bathroom, she asking me if I wanted to go to Mount A's A&E instead of a clinic. It was raining like mad, as we stood in the rain, me scratching like mad, her looking annoyed because I couldn't make up my mind. I decided that the 24hr clinic was a better call, because I knew that place was never crowded unlike the A&E, and I needed a needle desperately.

Long story short, I got my jab, from a thick needle *Yucks*. There was no instant relief, but I felt very drowsy as predicted by the doctor. Went home, slept it off, and when I awoke at noon, I was surprised to see my skin was back to normal. In fact, it was like it never happened! Until I looked at  my left arm and saw the plaster from my needle jab...

When B1 came to find me in the afternoon, we were trying to figure out what the culprit was. Was it the two biers, the XO Fish Head Bee Hoon Soup or the yucky crabmeat?! He was elated and speculated it was the bier, which means that I could no longer drink. I pointed out I was find after drinking Erdinger the other night with my colleagues. Could it be the combination of the above that did me in? The annoying thing about the whole situation was that B1 who ate the exact same thing as me (and drank most of the beers) was perfectly fine!

Depression shows up in all shapes and sizes

While we were at 8Q, I saw some stamps, colors and colored pencils for the visitors to play with. I was looking at the people around me putting many colors and patterns all over theirs. As for me, I was just content to just keep pounding on the paper with the same red stamp. 

Eh, when I looked at the end result, it kind of made me sad.

Wir trinken Belgische Bier

Chinatown hat ein Tintin Geschäft. Wirklich interresant!

Ich war aufgeregt zu sehen, das es verkauft Belgische Biers. Wir war Chimay und Silly Pils trinken. Ich denke das La Chouffe ist süß!

This is why you are Fat

Lunch. There was another sandwich with a perfect egg, but I think this one looks more Arty Farty

Picross 3D Solutions - Normal Level 2

Ubinuri - Android Distributor with Integrity *Thumbs up*

Some months ago, after I just released BurgerStacko, I received this email from this Korean company, Ubinuri, saying that they are the biggest distributor of Android applications in South Korea. But I ignored them as my usual wont *haha* since I was just coding for fun, and also I googled the company to see if others had actually worked with them before. At that time, I think Ubinuri had just started mass mailing every developer, so everyone was curious but no one took the bait.

Later came this news that all video, computer and Web-based games sold in South Korea are required to be reviewed and rated by the state-run Games Ratings Board, 게임물등급위원회 Geimmul Deung-Geub-Wiwonhoe (GRB). So Android Market had to remove all its games. Then came this email from the same dude from Ubinuri, this time saying he would pay me USD200 to distribute my free game. And I read a google result showed that someone did get paid. Besides my game is free, so I have nothing to lose right?

By then, I had abandoned BurgerStacko because the Android users were too harsh for my fragile ego. I replied them that I would work with them, on the condition that I didn't have to change the code base much.

In the end, I still had to make three changes, two I agree with, one I didn't. But the important part is, the guys at Ubinuri (three of them, S, T and F) whose patience I tried very much, first with my slow coding (very stressed with my new project at work) and then my totally noob job of filling in the wrong bank account number, are very nice guys. I would say it was worth it working with them.

And today, after the totally shit day I had (this bitch cancelled the meeting and didn't tell me, and I was soaked to the skin from the heavy rain, and then waited 1 hour in the cold air-con. I now have a fever of about 37 plus degrees), I come home to find that the banks have processed the payment. 

Nothing speaks better than a photo. GPGT people!

Fantastic.. Except, eh... why so little? JP Morgan took a cut *fuck* USD21.50 and then POSB also took another cut of about S$10 when they already earned from the exchange rate. Fuck man. This is daylight robbery. Next time I will ask the guys to mail me the USD. I'd rather risk the chance of robbery via snail mail then get robbed legally by banks. Not like I asked those stupid bankers to jump through hoops or something. Neighbourhood money changer  is more honest than these bastards!

But I digress. I am going to do my bid for my poor fellow Android developer community and tell them you can trust Ubinuri =D. They have demonstrated integrity, honesty and patience. So if you get an email from the Ubinuri guys to distribute in South Korea, do work with them!

tell us something about yourself that you think we would find very exciting and interesting

What would you say when someone asks you this during an interview?

His reply was, "When people scold me, I am sad, but I will still smile and look happy".

Eh. Is he trying to tell us he is fake? Or hypocritical? Or just a very sad clown who makes others happy?

I was a bit sad after I heard his answer.

Burger Stacko goes Hangol

My preference

Ubinuri's preference

Which one do you think is nicer?! You wouldn't believe it but the one on top was harder to do. The one below was eh... easy. Talk about KISS.

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/jdesktop/swingworker/SwingWorker

Cannot open the stupid draw9patch.bat in your Android tools folder?

Just before you become as cynical as me and think that Android (or Google) hates all developers (well THEY DO. Android used to let unappreciative users download paid apps for 1 whole day before returning! Now it is 15 min. Noch  crap. It's only USD1 to USD5 per app, and yet after all that effort, you see assholes returning your app BECAUSE THEY CAN!!), see solution from  Marco Massenzio(God bless this magnificent man)

(1) Download latest Swinglabs.zip from here.

(2) Unzip and dump the swinglabs.jar into "[your Android SDK folder]\tools\lib" folder.

(3) Double click on the draw9patch.bat folder in your "[your Android SDK folder]\tools" folder.

Voila! It works!

Then you can continue to torture yourself on using 9patch (this is from Google, duh). Use this friendlier tutorial here. I on the other hand, cannot be bothered, as I am in a dreadful rush to deliver what I owe to the nice guys at Ubinuri, whose patience I have terribly abused =P

Btw be careful with the 9 patch. You might end up with a resource.ap error, which happened to me. This is how to resolve the problem, though you will have to delete the 9.png. Yes, me the poor sod. After all that effort.

Tried to satisfy vinegared rice craving @ Senki Japanese Buffet

I had a dreadful craving for sushi rice after my swim today. So I went upstairs to change and then google the best place to go for cheap Japanese buffet.

So B1 and I checked out Senki, because he had eaten at the other place I found, Hanabi, many times (without me!!!) This restaurant is located near the GoMenNaSai restaurant that we found in the area several years ago, and so unluckily closed down just after we visited it twice.

B1's usual wont was to order Sashimi Moriwase, which I don't really like, because I only eat two items, Shake (Salmon) and Mekajiki (Swordfish). While it came tastefully arranged (Sashimi is predictably popular for buffets), I can tell you they are not produced by order. Ich kenne das since I am sitting at the counter, I could see the chef cutting many slices at a go before dumping them in the refrigerator (I could also see him handling the orders with the same gloved hand he used to lift the meat onto the plates). Tellingly the three Japanese men, who came in at different times of my meal, did not order Sashimi. Only one ordered a handroll. I noticed that they also ordered Ala Carte and the waitresses were definitely more friendly towards them, even though two of them were tourists (so highly not repeat customers).

The salmon was not sweet. In fact it was really bland. B1 thinks it's because it's from the lousier parts of the salmon, because it was not fatty nor glossy. No wonder he gave double portions of salmon for every order of Sashimi Moriwase.

I loved the Enoki Maki, which was actually golden mushrooms wrapped in thin slices of pork and drenched in sweet sauce and butter. I would say definitely skip the fried potato soaked in stale oil, mentaiko, and cheese. The potatoes were fried at the wrong temperature, that's why it drank oil and then the oil was not fresh, so you could see brown stains on the potato. I also suspect that it is the wrong kind of potato. It was very yucky, as was the tasteless chawanmushi. The rest of the dishes were ok, not fantastic. But one thing for sure, B1 and I were very thirsty after the meal. Since when do Japanese add MSG to meals?

The service was ok. While they were not as friendly to the locals as they were to the Japs, the service staff were attentive enough.

In a nutshell:

Senki Japanese Restaurant

109 Killiney Road

67345565

I would say not worth it. I wouldn't go back.

This is why I get fined by the Library all the time

If you look at the top of the pile, you do realize that I am intending to switch to iPhone development.

Captain Atas celebrates his milestone birthday @ Peach Garden

We ended the 食字路口 eight hours later at Thomson Plaza's Peach Garden where we celebrated the Captain's 30th birthday and polished off the last dish, Peking Duck with much relish.

The waitress humored me and folded this again for me

I had eaten there for my birthday some years ago with my Grandmother who had not been incapacitated then so I had very precious memories of that place. We had Peking Duck then too, so that's why I could remember that that restaurant had the dish that the birthday boy wanted.

While the restaurant was not crowded for a Saturday night, there were three tables celebrating birthdays on that day. Peach Garden is part of the eponymous chain of restaurants renowned for its service, and as usual of Chinese restaurants, expect to pay more if the service is good. We were rather hesitant about ordering the dishes, even though we had pooled together S$50 each at the start of the day. We ordered on the recommendation of the Kellerin, the homemade tofu with crab gravy and bok choy, Peking duck, mushroom with spinach and braised chicken. 

Preparing the pretty plate of Peking Duck

The Peking duck was truly the Pièce de résistance of the entire meal. What I missed was the old practice of cutting and serving up the duck at your table, so you can see the Kellerinen dash the slices of crispy duck  skin with hoisin sauce before enveloping them in delicate folds of crepe. I also missed their putting the spring onion and cucumber into the folds. Now they give us the option to adding that yourself. Remember to eat with the Keropok (crisp) because it adds another dimension to the texture. As they would call it, a delicious play of textures.

I felt that the chicken and the duck (they took the remainder of the duck back,  hacked it down and served it as a stirfry) were pretty alright, but I especially liked the homemade tofu with crab gravy. The tofu pieces had the beguiling taste of lard and the crab was smooth and sweet (not the usual watery kind from already dead crabs). I think I like Peach Garden more than Lei Garden, which we had for dinner yesterday. Lei Garden charged us for tea service (S$2 per head) and I don't think they served the remainder of the Peking duck that another table ordered.

 

今年的桃花运 Love Luck

Choose a card in the deck and read the analysis corresponding to your chosen number:


[source: My Paper, 20 Jan 2011]



English Translation:
(1) The Hanged Man
It's going to be a bumpy road in love this year. If you were hoping that a new love would appear, then you must completely resolve any previous love entanglements., otherwise even if someone desirable appears, your new love will face a lot of obstacles due to the past and the two of you can only remain in an ambiguous state.

(2) Pentacles
Your opportunities for love are low this year, mainly because you are a workaholic, work OT every night and only sometimes relax at home. Even if there is someone from the opposite sex interested in getting to know you better, he or she is detered by your "hikikomori" attitude. It is recommended that you try to improve yourself, increase your charm and charisma, as this will allow the opposite gender discover your uniqueness.

(3) Chalices
Opportunities in love are extremely abundant this year, especially in March or April. You have a gregarious personality so it is easy for you to attact the opposite sex. Once someone desirable appears, you just need to seize the opportunity and not miss the chance to develop love.

(4) Temperance
Opportunities in love are pretty high, especially in the later half of the year. You have a desirable personality, every movement you make can attract any persons of the opposite gender who are seeking love. If you encounter someone who is as commited as you in the relationship, do not hesitate and do not repeat the errors you made in love before. Try to adjust and be more accepting.

(5) The Chariot
Your love opportunities are abound in July and August this year. However your current luck in love is considered very good, so you should look carefully at the people around you, because you might discover that you already have someone who is quietly protecting and guarding you. The you this year should be able to abandon your single status soon, so look forward to it!

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth - the Captain's Human Reproduction Cake

One of the activities that we were supposed to do for our 食字路口 race was decorate a cake at Jurong Point's Icing Room for our Captain Atas's 30th Birthday *sobs*. We also met our smelly 小天使 there.

4 hands! I was taking photos

Initially the guys were rather hesitant on what to draw so I swooped in to draw a tulip but I decided it was too lame for guys and also because I stupidly drew out of line, so it became the bad guy in PacMan (the guy in pink). To keep in with the theme, I wanted to draw PacMan as well, but the others became inspired (actually they realized they better hurry, or I would cover the entire cake) and were eager to draw as well. Telebtubby wanted to draw the Japanese symbol for a man, but drew it in the wrong direction, his picture ended up looking like a sperm wearing a hat (if that is not a logo for a condom company, I don't know what is *winks*).He tried to cover it up with more chocolate icing. 

The Captain wrote his birthdate upside down from my poor PacMan bad guy, and my poor PacMan ended up at the side of the cake where he was overwhelmed by what looks like human eggs. So it is natürlich that we should complete the human reproduction cake with sperm as well. Check out the yellow sperm swimming towards the egg.

Needless to say it became very embarrassing when the Peach Garden (well known for its service) offered to take the cake from us, and then delivered it, boxless, naked and offensive, to us at the table. But the cake remains utterly delish, more so because it had a chance to defrost, unlike the other time my poor client and I nearly brain-froze ourselves to death.

The Saviour Mentality, alias the Knight in Shining Armor Syndrome

I once became really close friends with this guy whose mother died in very tragic circumstances and his father remarried and abandoned him and his brother. He was an eccentric guy with serious behavioral quirks and somehow I desperately wanted to be his best friend, who would not abandon him and be there for him always (I realize now that I liked being needed). I became obsessed with this thought of rehabilitating him so that he could become whole again, of sorts, and told him that one day when he found someone he loved, I would release him.

He became my intellectual whore (because I was already attached and I felt that he was my kindred spirit, who I could share everything with). And in the end I found that I could not let go.

Well, reading about the article, it kind of reflected my own personal reflections about the situation. The person (A) who helps the other person (B), will become emotionally attached to the other person. I am not quite sure if it works both ways though, since in my case, it was purely one-sided. One thing for sure is that B treats A as a safe harbour. Once B heals or moves onto a newer, better and/or safer harbour, B will abandon A. If B never heals, it is also unhealthy for both of them.

I don't like people destroying my property

I need to cut back on CoH, as B1 and other people have been pointing out. It's a game and I am letting it spill into real life. Stupid me. 

You know how I hate it when people bomb my base and/or church.

Just over New Year's Day, I refused to speak to B1 for one whole day because I thought that he bombed my base and men just as the game was ending. So what happened recently was that this Taiwanese *^%$ used his engineers to burn my church at the also incredibly stupid suggestion of my other friend. They thought it was funny. I did not think so. I was incensed and I wanted to ban him.

But I didn't, on account of my friend somehow being his good friend as well. Ironically it was because this guy asked to be my friend and kept joining my games that's how he got to know the other guy. Too bad my other gang was not around, otherwise I would never have let this guy into my game. This reminds me of something that happened in uni. What a sucker punch.. again. 

So anyway the idiot went to bomb the railing with his rangers, and somehow managed to hit my triage center. Wtf is his problem?! I officially ban him. I don't care if people tell me I should relax and it's just a game. But I am stressed at work, and this is my only outlet for stress, and this guy destroys my property. To think I was magnanimous enough to repair his house after it was bombed. I have reached a point where I even suspect that Taiwanese ^%#@ of being a girl (strange right?). I need help. So as punishment I am cutting back on CoH, and returning to my Android development instead. I am also not going to add any more friends in CoH. 

On the other hand, yesterday I was trying to play PK (need to increase friends in PK), and tried to add a guy. He asked me if I was German (strange, a lot of people has been asking me that, or they think I am American). I said no, but I speak a little and then he told me in German not to take it personally, before rejecting me... Is it because I am not German? or that I speak German??? Too bad for him, because I played an excellent game. Haha. Had the most kills. Of course this also depends on the team. If your teammate sucks shit, you're so doomed.

Some characters cannot be mapped using “Cp1252″ character encoding.

Thanks to burakddd.

Solution:

1. Windows Menu –> Preferences –> General (expand it) –> Workspace (click on it).
2. Look for a box “Text File Encoding”. Default will be “Cp1252″.
3. Change radio to select other and select “UTF-8″ from combo box.

Of course this will not happen, if you dump all your text in strings.xml in the first place. *haha*

[?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?]  (replace the [] with <>)

Having a Cow & Mozzie Feeding Frenzy

Guess what is this?

A cow pat. 

The people at Viknesh Dairy Farm were so kind that I decided that this place deserves a post of its own!

Visiting the dairy farm was one of the activities that we have catered as part of our 食字路口 game. Unfortunately when we got there, the skies opened and it began to rain heavily. While the others were taking photographs, I spoke to the farmer about letting us explore the place. He said ok, as long as we either buy one litre of milk from him or pay S$2 a person for the tour. We chose the milk, since it was also part of the challenge... to drink milk fresh from a cow... 

Cow at the right came from Oz. The cow on the left reminded me of the typical British cow we see in books

Since it was raining heavily and I was wearing white, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the lady at the farm, rush out with an umbrella for me. She was so sweet. I shared the umbrella with Miss Piggy who *winner* aired the umbrella at one end of the pen. By the time we reached the other pen which was opposite the original location, we were both too lazy to grab the umbrella. But no matter, the lady was to the rescue again. She brought even more umbrellas and even thoughtfully brought the one we left behind. 

We got to admire some baby cows (just 2-3 days old) and also some goats, and different varieties of cows. It was very interesting, I had never seen a real life cow, especially one so close up front. They were extremely curious as well, and tried to nip us.

Poor Miss Piggy and Captain Atas were eaten alive by mosquitoes as we kept waiting for a chance to watch the cows get milked. In the end, we gave up. The farmer and the lady were very kind, they let the reckless Teletubby drive into the cow pen, narrowly avoiding the piles of soy and inquisitive cows, so that we would not get wet. It was fun trying to not stick to the car and get wet, while avoiding the cow tongues as well. The lady was so sweet, she offered the biggest umbrella to the Captain, saying that we would need it at our next destination. 

Viknesh Dairy Farm

6 Lim Chu Kang Lane 8A

Open everyday 9am to 6pm


Updated!!!

I just realized I avoided drinking the unpasteurized milk *keke*. The lady did tell us to boil it before freezing it for use.

Don't think I always forget the good stuff ok?

I remember that I had listed this as one of the most romantic things that a guy can do for his girl though it was my colleague's suggestion. Some Wednesdays ago, it was raining after violin class, and he came in to fetch me as usual. And since it was still raining, he took my violin case, opened the umbrella, and  then escorted me to the car, parked some distance away. 

He let me in first before he went over to the driver's side. And all the time I was thinking, great suggestion by  Mommy dearest. It gave me a total doki doki feeling *haha*. I am so heartened by it, that I still think of it now and am even writing about it! Well, he did have tissue in the car, but since I was so pleased, I wiped our faces dry instead *keke*. Must reward good behaviour!

The Great 食字路口 Yummy Race

We were supposed to play this last December, but because Teletubby couldn't rent a car.

Never mind, we are still going to do it next Saturday!

麻署 (Muah Chee)
芝士 (Cheese)
士林鸡排 (Shilin Fried Chicken Steak)

Activity 1: Go to any arcade and win at least 100 points in a basketball arcade game (adult version)

排骨面 (Pork Rib Noodles)
面筋  (Gluten)
金瓜汤 (Pumpkin soup)
Activity 2: Go to Jurong Point's Icing Room to decorate a cake (with the words "食字路口")
汤圆豆花 (Soya Beancurd with Dumplings)
花生粒 (Peanuts)
荔子水 (Lychee Drink)
Activity 3: Go to Viknesh Dairy Farm and drink 1 litre of milk
水仙牌的斋鹅 (Mock Goose)
鹅肝 (Foie Gras)
Final activity: eat the cake for dessert!

Updated!!!

We did play the game, though we ate a different chain of foods, because we invited the Captain and Ximenqing with us. Will be updating about this shortly, after I get all the photos. I realize we forgot to play the arcade game. Haha!!!

Error generating final archive: java.io.FileNotFoundException: xxx\bin\resources.ap_ does not exist

It's a unknown packaging problem.

Delete the error and the "Unparsed aapt error(s)!" error message that you are also likely to see. Then Go to Project-> Clean.

Choose "Clean projects selected below" and the project you are encountering problems in. Restart your Eclipse.

Updated!!!( 24th Jan 2011)
Had feedback from Bin (see comment below) that it does not work. I am grateful for his comment, even though I must admit it was rather grating on my ego. Oh ya, you got to restart your Eclipse. I forgot to mention it. 

I went to do some research on it. Seems like some of the people who cleaned the project like me, could solve the problem, and some couldn't. That is sehr unlucky I would say.

In that case, I recommend that you use the same old Eclipse tricks.
(1)  Undo your last change, esp if you did something to something in your res folder.
(2) Definitely restart your Eclipse. Be extra kiasu and delete the app in your phone or close off the emulator beforehand.
(3) Check that you have the correct Android target (right click on your project -> go to Properties->Android)
(4) Run the app again.

This is interesting, and somewhat ironic. After I typed this in, this stupid error happened to me too.  Again. (Damn you Android!!) This time cleaning did not help immediately. In fact it was because I tried the 9 patch png, which Android could not interpret correctly, therefore screwing  my R.java (I suspect) and all my other resources (which were declared in another layout xml). I would call it bad juju.

Anyway I had to wipe out the stupid png, before doing the above steps. The above cleaning solution then worked fine for me, in the end.

Oh yeah, if it works for you this time, please say so. If not, please also state your solution, so that others  (such as yours truly *haha*) can benefit from thy wisdom. TY! 

Googlers (I am assuming you are since you are coming from Mountain View, California) be a buddy, and provide the solution if you have one. thanks! 

I am extremely disappointed in Google

I cannot believe this. 

I have been faithfully generating huge amounts of content for this blog in the hopes that I can up the traffic in the blog so that more people will visit, and hopefully click on my adverts. All this effort has resulted in a significant ~1800-2000 visits a month.

I have been excitedly telling my colleagues that I am very close to my first USD100 after so many months of effort. This, together with the USD200 that I will be getting from my Android app distribution in South Korea, was going to go into my fund for buying a Android 3 device, so that I can test my new app on a tablet sized device.

And today, I discovered that my Google ad account has been banned. WTF.

Google, see for yourself. See where my traffic is from, and tell me who the fuck has been clicking on my blog so much that my account has been banned. It can't be me, I am so busy with my stupid new project, I haven't got time to update much except to check my blog stats. And if I click on one or two, it's because I am interested in the product. Don't let me find out who you are, arschloch.

I am really damn angry now. My days of being a Googlephile is officially over as of right now.

org.eclipse.core.internal.resources.ResourceException: Resource is out of sync with the file system: '//AndroidManifest.xml'. AndroidManifest.xml does not declare a Java package: Build aborted.

Ignore it, it's fucking bull.

Of course you can try the usual trick, which is to refresh the project... but if it doesn't work...

Most likely you have your emulator or phone up and running. Kill it, then delete the rows of errors in the error log and run as an android app again.

Irritating Android Market spin-offs - mAPPn 先斩后奏

There are many third party Android markets popping up all over the world. While I am open to having my games distributed on different markets, I am extremely annoyed with this Chinese company, mAPPn, sending me a email to tell me that they have already downloaded my game from Google Market and published it in their own market.

"Dear Sir/Madam,

This is XXX from mAPPn Inc.. gfan.com,which lay emphasis on providing localized Chinese Android market and Android technique solution to Chinese users, is a leading Android forum and market in China. Moreover, we are the business partner of Samsung, MOTO, China Telecom etc, which makes us become more and more famouse in Android area.

we have over 1.1 million users in market and forum, with over 300,000 times dowloads.
Now we provide the following service to Android application developers:


1. Application Downloading: developers can register account and publish the application onto our market freely,and update new version, check data, etc.


2. Application selling: developers can publish paid apps onto our market, and share 70% revenue;


3. Advertisement SDK: developers can add our Ads SDK into the application and get the revenue. All the advertisements are localized.


4. Data analysis and statistics;


5. Translation: we can help the developers to translate the application into Chinese.

In order to provide more and more excellent applications to users, we have published the application you published on google market( free version) onto our market. After you register account, you can ask for the escheatage of the application. if you do not agree us to do this, please tell me, we will unpublish your application.
About mappn: http://www.mappn.com


About www.gfan.com: http://www.gfan.com


developers platform: http://www.gfan.com/dev


aMarket: http://apk.gfan.com/Index/Index.html"
 
WTF, they want me to ask for escheatage for my own application?! I was so pissed I sent them a blistering email in Chinese back.
 
"尊敬的XXX，


我对贵公司先斩后奏的行为感到很不满。请立刻把本人的产品下架。
如果公司想邀请开发者加入， 应该先通知我们，不是直接从Google Market下载我们的产品。 即使当时我有兴趣加入， 我现在却觉得反感。

并非你在邮件里所说的， 我到此网站寻找我的产品， 但无法找到。请给我个合理的交代。谢谢。"

Shooting Oysters during a Lazy afternoon at Oyster Bar

I was sure that there was a bar specializing in oysters near the Esplanade waterfront because I remembered my Microsoft vendor telling me before... and ever since I told B1, the oyster enthusiast (when we were first together, the nutcase carried dozens of live oysters to my family chalet,  which is no mean feat, considering how ulu my chalet was, and he had to take many buses. Eating those unshucked oysters was an extremely memorable challenge in many ways) was insistent that we go after the concert yesterday. He didn't have lunch and was predictably in a nasty mood (I have considered carrying food with me whenever I go out with him, to combat his Royal Nastiness but I think the food is not safe around me *haha*), and we were sniping at each other as we stalked along the bridge to the Fullerton Waterboat House, which I had mistaken as the location for the oyster bar.

In the end, we had to consult the Internet which allowed B1 to lord it over me that I was using a primitive ancient Samsung phone (I curse my workplace for this), only to discover that the bar was down the road, from the Merlion, on the other side.  Walk walk walk, into Fullerton Bay Hotel, where a very nice lady concierge came out from behind her counter to offer us directions to the Customs House. It could be because I looked like someone's foreign maid sneaking into the six-star premises for a clandestine outing with my china construction worker boyfriend (this is in retaliation to the evil B1). B1 had been helpfully pointing out the similarities between me and the maids taking photos of one another enthusiastically along the waterfront the whole way. Big sunglasses. Tanned skin. (The irony was when I bought it, I was channeling Audrey Hepburn and Jackie O, when I was actually personifying Foreign Maid *major cold shower*)

No brainer name. But cute. I like it that it tells it like it is.

When we finally reached, we discovered it was literally called "Oyster Bar". Ok, haha.

And it was next to Microsoft's building. Double haha. 

I left my camera in the car. And it was in the Esplanade carpark. Triple haha. The pox is on me.

We deliberated over the menu, especially since the prices were a bit ex for our bourgeois wallets. B1 decided to go for the kill and ordered a wagyu burger (S$38), a Tsarskaya shucked pair (S$18) and a beer (I forgot what beer). I, emboldened by stupidity, chose the Oyster Shooters Trio (S$22) and Smoked Salmon with Greens (S$22), and a coke (chickened out in the end). The Keller informed me that I could choose two other flavours of the shooters, other than the yuzu and wasabi that I had already chosen. Stupid me should have stuck to 3 Yuzu & Wasabi shooters. But as usual, the stupid = = the bold, so I chose Bisque & Grand Marnier and Limoncello & Balsamico.

You consume them from left to right. But in terms of taste, I like the leftmost, then the rightmost. Centre was X

The Keller was so sweet, he told me the order in which to consume the shooters (though I would have tested myself, actually, but wasn't he sweet?!). The Yuzu & Wasabi looked kinda gross, but was sweet and sharp at the same time. Loved it. There was no way I was going to consume the Bisque & Grand Marnier. It smelled disgusting and tasted even worse. I made a face that made B1 laugh and laugh. I refused to shoot it down and cowardly teased the reluctant oyster out of the shot glass (I even offered the shot to B1 if he would drink the whole thing down), and had to chase the HORRENDOUS aftertaste with my coke. 

Given the horrific experience with the Bisque, I stared very hard at the Balsamico version. Yes, perhaps it is due to my pedestrian tastes, despite the so-called much thumped benefits of consuming vinegar, there is no way you are going to make me drink a vinaigrette mix. So I fished out the oyster and tasted a bit of the shot. The oyster went surprisingly well with the marinate (yes, I look upon it as marinate). I feel that the Oyster Bar should cut down on the liquid in the shot glass. I'd rather have a mouthful of the oyster than trying to feel for it with my tongue in the bewildering swirl. Besides it would look much prettier in the glass. But that's just me...

The main courses came in a mesclun salad camouflage with  slices of (I suspect) cornbread on the side. Mine even came with more of that disgusting Grand Marnier swill, and I was conned into thinking that I might be lucky enough to have a oyster hiding in that nasty orange red mix, digging eagerly into the glass... How cruel they were!  

Oyster Bar wraps the lemon in a yellow cloth for you to squeeze the citrus out without dropping any seeds!

The luckier B1 had a oyster baked in a wagyu beef and bacon cocoon. I remembered the Keller telling B1 that the beef would be medium rare (B1 insisted that it was the oyster which was supposed to be medium rare). Anyway the beef was tough, and tasted more like the bacon than of Kuh.

Still it was a lovely way to spend a lazy afternoon (even if I was slipping off the high seat). I enjoyed hearing the pleasing clang of the seashells in the lamp spinning above us. The rest of the place had the ubiquitous industrial design (that is supposed to be very chichi now) with rather uncomfortable high stools (yes, they have cushions, but it wasn't easy clambering on...)