Lego Mindstorms NXT
I don’t know what about you readers out there, but I am personally a big fan of Lego.
Ever since 5(?), when my Dad brought my first Lego set (a fire truck of some kind) while he was in Singapore (I was still in China then), I fell in love with that toy.
After that, when I came to Singapore, I demanded a Lego set every year while I was in primary school. Sometimes, I might get lucky and my parents would buy one of those sets on discount during the annual Lego fair in Singapore every June. (I am not sure if they are still holding it annually). When I was in primary 5, I joined my school’s robotics club (that’s when my passion for programming began) and was exposed to the wonders of the Lego Mindstorms series.
When I graduated from primary school (with outstanding results, if I may add), I managed to:
- Get a Lego train set
- Get a Lego Mindstorms Robotics set!
- Get my dad to quit smoking (Ok, I admit, that was completely random)
Yea, but unfortunately, my busy secondary school life leaves me with barely enough time to play with my Lego toys. And I think 2 years ago, when I last played with my Lego robotics set, I forgot to remove the battery when I kept it in the store room, so all the chemical inside the battery actually leaked out. (I only realised about a month ago =P)
Even though I cleaned out most of the chemicals, I think it damaged the internals of the main brick (what was it called? I really forgot), so yeah, pretty wasted.
But hey! With me earning some extra income from teaching a little maths tuition, I got a much bigger budget to spend on things I want. (My needs are taken care of by my parents). So, at the end of the year, I may just be getting one of the newer series of Lego Mindstorms, Mindstorms NXT. (check it out at http://mindstorms.lego.com/)
That is after my long list of things I want:
- External Hard Drive
- A secondary battery for my Laptop
- Road Bike + Biking equips
- A decent camera
- Leopard OS X
- A thumbdrive
- PSP
Why am I writing about Lego Mindstorms and things I want? Oh yeah, I just remember, because of this article: “Lego Mindstorms NXT to support Intel Macs”
Oh, I just remembered, I got some great news (for me, that is). My school is actually looking into buying UG Portal (you know, my school project). I offered them a starting offer of S$2000 and hopefully they will not play it down. But if they do buy it off me, that will mean a rather busy holiday during Nov and Dec. But $2000 is just about enough to cover all the things I want, plus a little left for a treat to my friends for my success. And I will still have a little savings from my Maths tuition fees. Haha, my economic outlook doesn’t look so bleak now does it? (plus I am entering the blogging competition I mentioned 1 post below)
Ok, I am going to have a long day tomorrow.
Till next time
cheers