-_-|| or genius?

"My Boyfriend, Our Army"

The new slogan of the army here.

My first reaction: "SERIOUSLY?!"

Okay, we have a pretty good army (:D), so let's give credit to most of those guys for being intelligent and physically fit.

But seriously... SERIOUSLY? Using the prospect of becoming a girl magnet to attract guys to join the army is the craziest advertising idea used by the army so far.

Because I'm too appalled to think coherently, here's a link to Mr Brown's blog post. Thank you Mr Brown! For some odd reason, we seem to share many similar thoughts on this.

Quotes from his post:
"Or is this to tell young men, "Hey, SAF scholars get all the hot chicks, man! Sign on now!"

"If you watched this commercial, and signed on as a regular because of it, we are doomed."

Nicely done.

The Ukrainian army recruitment advert at the end of his post promotes the same "army guy=chick magnet" idea, except that it's overly exaggerated. (and therefore, funny!... Even the music is unnecessarily dramatic, haha!)

Who knows, maybe these adverts were meant to create a kind of anchoring effect in our young men, like other commercial products. People tend to buy the stuff they see more often. I don't know why. Maybe humans just like familiarity.

At the end of the day, bad publicity is still publicity. :)

My Non-Portable PSP

Yep, my playstation portable is no longer portable.

Why?

Because it can't charge by USB or by the standard charger. :( In fact, the only way to turn it on is to connect it to the mains while using it. It doesn't even recognise the battery!! Sigh. I hope there wasn't anything that blew up inside. I *really* hope it's just the battery that has gone nuts.

Some forums suggest that a fuse may have blown.

Oh well. One more thing to add to my very short wishlist!

1) 1TB hard disk
2) New PSP battery

By the way, I chanced upon this guy's amazing blog. He hacks and mods video game consoles and other stuff. Recently, he jazzed up his self-made portable xbox 360! I can't believe that I've only found his blog now... Better late than never! :D :D :D

Ben Heck's Official Blog

Premonitions

17 November 2010, Evening
Feeling bored of studying, I decided to take my DSLR out to take photos of my turtles. I don't know why, I just felt like it.

21 November 2010, Sunday, 9pm
Sitting in front of my laptop, this song suddenly popped into my head.


优客李林 - 认错

“我又怎么告诉你我还爱你？”
“是我自己错误的决定。。。”

Yeah it's a really old song (1991) but it's kinda nice. :) (I've never seen the music video, but yes, it's a real cheesy video, so just listening to the song is a good idea.)
I didn't know why I thought of that song.

This morning, I knew why.

Photo taken on 17th November 2010

My favourite turtle, Shun Shun, left the earth this morning. I was about to feed them their breakfast when I realised that she was just laying there, motionless, with her eyes shut, and her hands neatly placed by her side.

She didn't eat much for the past few days, which was kind of odd. Two days ago, the water in their tank started to smell really bad very often.

The other turtle had been attacking her pretty often this week, and I was seriously considering separating them. But I remembered how sad my aunt's turtle was when my mum and I separated it from its violent friend, so I decided against it.

Photo also taken on 17 November 2010. As you can see, nearly half of her tail was bitten off by that crazy turtle.

I don't know whether she died because of her injuries, an illness, or my decision of not to separate them. Whatever it is, my heart still believes that I caused her death. And I feel extremely bad about it, so this post is dedicated to her. Sigh. So here's my message to my turtle.

++++++++++++
Wherever your soul resides now, I want you to know that everyone in my family loves you! I'm really, truly sorry if I did something wrong to cause your departure. We will always remember how adorable you were, how you blew little bubbles in the water for fun, and how you yawned or burped from time to time. You have been the best turtle, ever. We will miss you dearly.
++++++++++++

Not sure if you believe in reincarnation... In either case, just in case there is such a thing, I hope my turtle's soul will enjoy a good life in her next reincarnation.

Sniff. Love my turtle. >_<... May she rest in peace.

I love...

my fantastic family and friends.

my friend's wonderful mum.

the exhilarating sense of release I feel after each exam.

watching movies. :D

good food.

cuddly soft toys.

air-con on a sweltering day.

acts of kindness.

I wish I could attach a photo to each of those things written above, but I guess those warm, fuzzy feelings they can give you is enough. :D

My laptop has a good chance of passing the Turing test!

Trying out last year's cg1101 paper... And I forgot how to read in a text file with the string of numbers "111" such that the 1s will be split up in an array...
My computer laughed!

Here's a closer look!

Cheeky computer.
On hindsight, it must have been tracking what I've typed so far, or it wouldn't have known that colon D is my favourite emoticon. :D

/*EDIT!*/

I finally figured it out, after 1 hour of frustration. And I don't feel any smarter. On the contrary, I think my intelligence today has hit an all-new low. Must sleep by 11pm from now on. >_<

In case anyone had trouble with that too, (I doubt so, but anyway!!) here's the code.

Note the 4. NOTE THE 4.

Bleddy number 4 wasted 1hr of my youth!!!!! To make it worse, I'm gonna be 20 soon.
ARGHHHHH

Have a nice day, everyone. :D

A Sudden Burst Of Inspiration

Creativity struck while I was revising for the final year exams!

My entry for NUSPS's photo of the month. This month's theme is 'destruction'. It reflects how I feel right now. I feel really sick of studying, and I really need a break from all this madness. I need to spend some quality time with my family and friends. And take more photos! (my poor little camera feels under-utilised...) hehe.

This was taken during the basic photography course conducted by NUSPS this year.

Just as how the old adage goes, "You can never know when true love comes knocking on your door", my thoughts run wildly into the very sought-after zone of creativity during the strangest of times.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” - George Bernard Shaw

brain hack!

Just broke one of my own records!

Haven't slept a wink since 5am today... which means that I have stayed awake for nearly 22 hours consecutively.

All thanks to the tutorials. Luckily, this week's tutorials are pretty easy. In fact, I'm stunned by how fast I completed this week's cs1231 tutorial! It usually takes me ages.
But surface integrals for ma1505 is another story. :P It's a different; depressingly melancholic story... That's the way it goes for engineering math, I suppose?

while(student_status=alive)
Practice(paper, ink, a hell lot of time, a hell lot of hard work);

Darn. I couldn't resist typing that. :P


Before I get some well-deserved sleep, here's a really interesting site I found today:
http://dustincurtis.com/index.html

This guy writes about pretty interesting stuff... And meticulously places them in magazine-like templates. His designing skills are really good too! You gotta read it to appreciate how much effort he spends on writing interesting essays, accompanied with equally, if not more awesome website designs which he creates for EACH essay! Now that's unorthodox. :D It really set my imagination ablaze. Whee!

Did you know that it might be possible to 'hack' your brain (not with a blunt metal object, hehehe) so that you don't have to sleep so many hours every night... while still feeling energetic throughout the day?

http://dustincurtis.com/sleep.html

I don't think most of us are in a good position to try this, though. The time schedule which society considers to be 'normal' is way too widespread for us to take so many short naps throughout the day. Nevertheless, it's an intriguing idea.

-----------------------------------------------

The welfare pack from the SoC computer club actually contains a GLOWING STICK!!! Oddly, my mum was the one who found it in the pack. I was oblivious to it until she told me. :P How thoughtful of them to appeal to the inner geek in all SoCians! :D :D :D (i.e. lightsaber substitute, since I don't think anyone has figured out how to stop/break a laser beam in mid-air without blocking it with any visible material??)

My childhood days are long gone, but I just can't stop marvelling at how the liquid in the stick appears to be yellow in light, and glows a very mesmerizing blue when you view it in the dark. No matter how old you are, you just HAVE to admit that glowing sticks are SO COOL! :D Thank you, computer club!

is this the life of a programmer? if it is, then for the sake of my sanity, I'm not going to be one. O_o

cg1101 lab was the terrible-*st* lab, ever.

I was trying to do it since the weekend, but a flu virus took over my nose (and brain), causing me to feel woozy all the time. (teethers and wobbles around...) The medication only exacerbated the drowsiness I felt... and so did my blocked nose, which probably cut off some oxygen supply to my body. :S With all the other tutorials to complete, it felt like my life just hit an all-time new low.

Thanks to the help from so many nice people in my life, I finally got it done last night around 11pm. Even more thanks to my aunt's friend, Jasmin, who took time off her super hectic schedule this week to help me with the recursion qn 1e. :) My aunt also came to my house with loads and loads of nice food, and a much-needed pore pack which I wanted to buy, haha! Thank you all so much! :D
After much trouble trying to print it... (I was so tired that I kept printing stuff on the wrong sides of the papers!!! >_<) Yep. I took my medication, drank a cup of water, replied my aunt's friend, watched big bang theory season 4 episode 6 (damn funny, as usual!) and went to sleep around 1am.

I have no idea why I abruptly woke up at 5am today. I tried and tried to force myself back to sleep, but nooo... I couldn't sleep. This random thought of assigning a different variable name to my blocked nose could cause me to stop breathing forever, because the rest of my bodily program need to have their variable names for my nose changed, too. Deciding that I may be losing my sanity, I replied my aunt's friend again (how nice of her to reply last night!), and started to write this post.

This almost feels like recursion, because my thoughts in this post just went in a big circle, back to this post.

Now, let's read my daily horoscope on iGoogle...

Gemini

By Rick Levine

You are set on having a good time, but you might not be willing to jump into the flow of fun until after you finish tying up some loose ends. Taking care of them today can free you up to enjoy yourself, but ignoring previous obligations could invite unnecessary problems toward the end of the week. Work now and play later.

Generic as it is (who DOESN'T LOVE HAVING A GOOD TIME?!)... I gotta admit the iGoogle horoscope is the most frequently accurate daily online horoscope that I've found so far. Final exams in 3 weeks... Can't argue with the last line! :D

The Oddities of the World.

A sonogram caught this foetus ''rocking out'' in his mum's womb.

Click here to visit the news article.

Rock on, yo! :D

Everyone could do with a little motivation!

The sunrise this morning was one of the most mesmerizing ones that I've seen in Singapore.

An azure sky painted with glowing streaks and patches of clouds. The golden sun rose slowly, casting shadows on the clouds and giving their edges greater definition.

I really like how the position of the sun gave this HDR-like effect to the clouds, thanks to the shadows. :D Just amazing. (and amusing at the same time. whee!)

That makes me feel like 'frying the frag of hwachong high'. Hehe.

this blog template is starting to look boring.

Hopefully, having all the links here in uncomfortably glaring shades of pink will spruce it up a little! :D

I just had a long heart-to-heart talk with my mum about friends, and now I really wish that I could go back in time to become a primary school student. Relationships were so simple back then. One could befriend another for just as long as he/she wished, because a simple proclamation of "I don't friend you!" would quickly extricate toxic friends from one's life.

Now that we're all grown up now, we often force ourselves to dilute the strong emotions we had during our childhood. Now, we can't get rid of poisons from our lives so easily. We have to conceal how we really feel in order to avoid unpleasant situations, and I can't stand doing that for much longer.

It's really sad to think about how many people (other than my family) there are in this world that I can trust and love without any reservations. On the other hand, it's really a great blessing that I have these people in my lives; there are many people out there who live meaningless lives with ever-changing grocery lists of mild acquaintances.

On a side note, I am a firm believer of the old adage, "the more you share, the more you gain". It's a value which has been deeply rooted in me, especially when applied to knowledge. This doesn't mean giving some revolutionary stuff (which you took 10 years to invent) away to the world for free, because I think 99% of humans are not capable of actions like that. If you actually did that, the world would nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The old kung-fu master thinking of 'I'm not gonna share everything with my disciples, just in case they triumph me!' is reasonable in the cut-throat corporate world, but it should not be applied to everything in life. This is the open-source era, people. Google, Wikipedia, Linux, and free apps are just a few famous examples of how sharing has made the world a better and happier place. :)

I can't take down a mountain all by myself; but together, we can.

Nice SEO, blogger!

The above title has been injected with sarcasm. *shows sarcasm sign*

Alright. Those who haven't watched enough of the Big Bang Theory probably won't get that joke. :D

The hits on my blog have curiously jumped by 42 counts today. Why? I just realised why.

At least 42 people have googled for something which includes the phrase "CS1231 Midterm". And by some google/blogger magic, it's the 4th search result from the top. Wow. That was really unprecedented.

So... I guess I'm not the only chronic googler around? :D

I really want to finish off the MA1505 vectors tutorial right now, because of the sporadic pangs of guilt which have struck me. (ever since Pei Yi reminded me about it this evening) Darn, I've spent so much time preparing for the mid-terms that my usual schooling schedule is completely out of whack.

The despicable trait of laziness has, once again, emerged victorious from the magnificently well-ordered depths of logic.

We make really bad decisions when we're tired, don't we?

Off to watch The Outer Limits. Whee!

(Argh. Can't wait for channel 5 to start broadcasting the 3rd season of Fringe!)

CS1231 Midterm: Reflections

I was kinda concerned about the difficulty level of the paper rising, since this was the first open book test for CS1231. (apparently the past exams were not open book)

Finishing the mcqs in around 10mins gave me some confidence, but the structured questions scared the hell out of me..... Even though I had 50mins left. -_-|| Especially the first order predicate logic questions. That made me realise that I had spent too much time on the Relations and Sets chapters. (I didn't understand them very well before the mid-term break)

Prof Bressan was standing next to me; staring at my answers for the predicate logic question. I was feeling so terrible because I was panicking as soon as I realised that I wasn't able to converse in predicate logic after all! All I can do is read them. It's kinda like Japanese. I can read and sorta understand *some* Japanese, but I can't speak or write Japanese fluently. Guess I need much more practice on that.

Having spent so much effort and time on the Relations chapter, I was expecting to breeze through the last question. BUT NOOOO..... The panicky feeling from the predicate question remained, and I took a very long time to understand the question. By some stroke of luck, I somehow managed to prove (contrapositive proof, I think) the first part of the question. (but I omitted the proof to show that there exists an X such that x is related to y. Damn, I just thought of the answer when I woke up this morning, after only 6 hrs of sleep. If only I realised that letting y=x would result in a singleton where xRx!!!)

Sadly, I left the last page blank because I couldn't even understand the question after all that panicking. Sigh. How could I have spent THAT much time panicking?? Strangely, I thought of the answer after showering last night. Maybe it's really true that people are the most creative when they're in the bathroom. :P

Undoubtedly, this paper was much harder than those in the previous years. Maybe I have not prepared well enough. :/ Maybe nearly getting hit on the head by a huge tree branch (while walking to technoedge) before the exam was a bad omen? :P (be careful if you hear a loud crack from above while walking under tall trees! If I had walked a step slower, that damned branch would definitely have knocked the top of my head, spot on.)

Let us all seek solace in the fact that this isn't the paper which constitutes 60% of our final grade.

This means that attaining that A+ (or some variation of A) is not impossible, just kinda improbable if I don't practice even more questions for the finals.

We have about 2 months left. That's a lot of time.

Let's all continue working hard towards that goal! :D

If you want your dreams to come true…

Don’t sleep too much!

Hehe, what an appropriate quote! (especially since this is a long weekend)

=D

The Konami Code, and more cool stuff! (Information overload alert)

(warning: long post with lots and lots and LOTSSS of links!)

If you played a few video games as a kid, you may remember the button-mashing games from Japan... like Street Fighter.

Well, we're not completely honest people, are we?

I know you've used a game cheat code before. ;D

It seems like the gaming nerds of the past have made a silent comeback... in the form of the Konami Code.

It's everywhere, it's even on Facebook! :O

Check out KonamiCodeSites.com for a list of websites which do weird things when you enter the code. :D This is so geeky and wonderfully weird but IT'S SO COOL(!!!) that it's actually keeping me awake at 2am.

Simply enter the following code on your keyboard:
up up down down left right left right A B
and press 'enter'!

The konamicodesites.com thingy will even work on an iPhone. I tried it! :D

Talking about iPhones, this guy owns the manufacturing company that MAKES iPhones. Apparently, many people from his factory have committed suicide. (btw, his company employs 800,000 people. WOW.)

see how he looks like in an arty photo.

To be honest (hehe), I found out about this (and the video about motivation below) on this guy's blog. Linking back eases my conscience.

www.feross.org

He's a computer science student at Stanford, and he created the YouTube Instant thingy as a spoof of the recently introduced Google Instant. Google likes his sense of humour, and so do I.

My psychic abilities tell me that he might be getting a job offer from a company with a name that begins with 'G' real soon.

(ya rrrright...)

Anyways. I like his blog so much that I can't help posting some of his favourite quotations too! Here's a quote that made me laugh:

I may have invented Control-Alt-Delete, but Bill Gates made it famous.
— David Bradley, designer of the IBM PC

And another one:

[To a class of Stanford CS106B students]
You should try opening up the C++ STL header files some time — it will be a very eye-opening experience, sort of how looking directly at the Sun is a eye-opening –err, eye-closing experience.
— Keith Schwarz

Omg, I can't break out of this random-information-posting craze yet!!! Here's a HDR video (!!!) which was found through www.hckr.com:
Watch the coolness unravel before your eyes!

I'm kinda nit-picking here, but I'm not sure whether the people who made the video avoided panning the cameras (on purpose!) because of the rolling shutter effect. Hmmm :/ But whatever. Shooting a HDR video is a brilliant idea!

If you're bored, and you've noticed Google's Easter Eggs, try this out.
http://dotty-dots.appspot.com/
Type in whatever you want, and the flash applet thingy turns it into colourful dots which happily bounce around. Your cursor can even repel them. Really cute. :)

Now it seems like my blog is just a place where I show everyone the interesting sites that I've found in the middle of the night. Hehe.

Looking at the clock, I think I'm going to wake up at 12pm tomorrow. Again!
Good night everybody. :)

What motivates you?

This presentation by Dan Pink will grab your attention like a ravenous lion tearing the raw flesh of another animal with its sharp fangs...

Astronomy Photography

Astronomy is a topic I got interested in about 2 years ago. Photography is a hobby I picked up about a year ago.

Their union is really inspiring!

Here's the audio-slideshow for the 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition (held by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich) which was posted on BBC's site. I guarantee (plus 10 'chops') that it's worth your time!
Click me to view the slideshow :D

That was posted on the 10th of September. Which is actually yesterday (because it's 1am now) but feels like today, because I woke up at 2pm today. That is now my record for waking up late. Anyone managed to beat that? :P

If you feel all astronomy-ish after the slideshow, check out the official Flick group for this competition at http://www.flickr.com/groups/astrophoto. Once again, I guarantee (plus 10 'chops') that you will find something *reallyyy* impressive!

Weird Habits, and Nice Quotes.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
- Aristotle

Go Aristotle! That was spot-on.

I just realised that one of his little pieces of wisdom is one of my innate beliefs:

"A friend to all is a friend to none."

Yep. Those with lots of friends usually don't really know who their true friends are... Or just prefer to maintain superficial relationships. My mum is a living example. She frequently tells me that she doesn't have any trustworthy friends at all, in spite of her magnificent social network which never fails to leave me in awe. (but then again, who cares about friends when you're 20, and you've got a smart AND hardworking boyfriend in NUS who takes real good care of you!!? :D)

That's a sad situation (which the person may not be aware of); but it's also not an unexpected consequence, because a lot of time has to be invested into a friendship before sturdy links of trust build up.

Here is another quote about friendship which you may find very true too.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one!”
- C.S. Lewis

(Just like how I thought I was the only one among my friends to enter computer engineering (CEG)... and later came to know that Pei Yi and Belle were in this course too! Kaypoh note: I think this guy in my CEG cohort was from HCI too...)

In the past 3 weeks, I've had the weird habit of sleeping past 2am on Fridays, waking up around 11am-12pm on Saturdays, sleeping at 3am on Saturdays, and then waking up at 12pm on Sundays. This is really bad. I think it's taking a toll on my alertness... So I'm going to sleep at 11pm today! :D

“When late morning rolls around and you're feeling a bit out of sorts, don't worry; you're probably just a little eleven o'clockish.”
- Winnie the Pooh

Have you ever inspected your work during tutorials and compared them to your tutor's answer, realised that your work is correct, and then suddenly find yourself unable to comprehend your own work? That happens to me pretty often. Oscar Wilde shares our experience too!

“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
- Oscar Wilde

Oh my!!! I don't understand a single thing that I typed above.

Maybe I need to check if I've got amnesia...

In case you were wondering, these quotes were obtained from www.thinkexist.com! :D

The Big Bang Theory - The Friendship Algorithm

This show is really hilarious!
In a highly innovative (and should I say... desperate) attempt to expand the radius of his social circle, Sheldon creates the friendship algorithm... And tests it out on his friend.

Counters are useful. :D

The Pizza Shirt

After completing the CG1101 tutorial, I was in a nerdy mood. So I visited www.thinkgeek.com and saw this great shirt!

Click me! The shirt says pi*z*z*a!

BRILLIANT! :D

Pizza reminds me of KFC. And KFC, in turn, reminds me of my mum, who just told me that she felt like eating KFC after watching their advertisement on the TV. Haha :D

the most epic simplification of a logic formula, in my opinion.

Welcome to Professor Ripley's gallery of Diabolical Logic Formulas!

Today, we present to you the nefarious gargoyle of a logic formula which the project team of the writer of this blog was asked to solve:

Exhibit 38:

This monstrous entity... With countless wriggling tentacles of parentheses, fearsome horns of arrows, and a colossal number of variables was bound to fill the young, innocent hearts of year 1 students in the CS1231 course with ominous clouds of despair...

Fortunately, their tutor had the rare, kind heart to tell them about this monster's only weakness.

It was the ultimate weapon.

A Karnaugh Map.

A group of young warriors thus embarked upon the noble quest of slaying this vicious fiend by the 10th of September.

Terrible mental battles strained the cranial resources of the young warriors, as they relentlessly drew upon their brain power in their attempts to understand the inner workings of the ultimate weapon.

Finally, they were ready. They frantically created a truth table for the monster (with the help of the internet, of course), for the deadline to execute this monster was nearing. Now that they had the truth table and comprehended the Karnaugh Map, they knew the methodical, sure-win approach of slaying this gargantuan beast.

Bracing themselves for the worst, they plugged in the Boolean values for each of the 16 attacks that the monster could possibly unleash upon them into the Karnaugh Map.

The monster stared at them quizzically, for the young warriors possessed no fearsome weapons or bulletproof Kevlar armor. All they had... was a mighty pen and a pathetic, crumpled piece of scrap paper which had seen better days.

As they worked out the simplified logic formula from the Karnaugh Map, the mighty beast disintegrated slowly, but surely.

The brave young warriors stood in shock. The remains of the fearsome creature lay in an inconspicuous pile of dust on the very ground they stood on.

"Wow," they exclaimed delightedly, in unison.

"That is... seriously... all that's left of the goliath which once towered menacingly above us. ".

All that was left, were the three symbols: S^Q.

---------------------------------------------------------

(seriously, this is too good to be true! :D)

I really tested the limits of my imagination (or does my imagination have limits at all?) when thinking of that story. That story is probably as good as my narratives can ever get for an essay of self-entertainment. Hahahahaha :D Have a great week ahead, everyone!

Thanks For The Memories.

That's what I was doing a moment ago. Looking back at my older posts, I have noticed the following phenomena:

1) the number of blog posts made by me has increased over the years.

2) my general mood over the 3+ years since my blog was set up kinda takes on the shape of a cosine graph: from the happy-go-lucky days in TKGS when I wrote about lighthearted topics (cos(0)=1) to the frustrating days in HCI, when I strove to meet a never-ending list of deadlines, questioned if I was becoming a worse person (cos(pi)=-1), and had fun with my team mates while making Ambi (cos(pi+some real positive integer)=some number >-1), and finally to the recent posts about my happiness with NUS (cos(2pi)=1). (or should I say, happi-NUS!)

3) The older posts were more happy-looking because they were so colourful. Are monotone blog posts a sign of old age? :P

That's the nice(?) thing about having a blog. You can go back in time to experience the emotions you felt years ago. Good or bad, happy or sad, they allow me to understand how I have become the person I am today. Self doubts have been clarified: Now I know that my tendency towards introversion is not a bad thing, because it doesn't mean that I'm antisocial. It just means that I need a little more 'me-time' than everyone else in order to keep my sanity intact. I think I've matured a little.

Today, I decided to go brisk walking for an hour three times a week to prevent myself from becoming a 'slackademic'. (in the physical way) The treadmill prompted me to choose a program at the beginning, and then told me to enter my age for it to determine the level of intensity of my workout. I pressed and held down the minus sign button on the treadmill until the number dropped to 19. As I looked at the number to confirm my age, a thought just struck me.

"I'm going to be 20 soon."

20. That's like a symbol of adulthood to me.

I don't know about you, but I still feel pretty much like a teenager. I'm not in a relationship like many people of my age, and in the past, I chose not to be in one; so now, I can do almost whatever I want, whenever I want. (and that freedom is nice :D) I've got no kids, no job, no loans on hand, and almost nothing to worry about... except my studies, of course. If I still looked like a kid, and if NUS is a primary school, I would be no different from any primary school kid.

My personality has changed a little, but my life doesn't seem to have changed at all.

Weird!

Going to finish off my programming tutorial 2, programming lab exercise, discrete maths Karnaugh diagram question for the group project, the second mathematics tutorial, AND the Mastering Physics online exercise. (Plus re-work the questions in the insanely difficult physics tutorial 1 again, if there's time to spare.)

Whew. The programming tutorials may be relatively easy, but they're getting rather lengthy. :P Now, I feel thankful to my JC for drowning us in homework... I've turned into a fish ever since. Bring on the pacific ocean!

geek on the run!

A sudden attack of stubbornly persistent general saltiness (i.e. sian-ness) over the weekend prompted me to get some of my blood pumping today. So I decided to skip the last two questions of my physics tutorial do just that. (wheehee!)

Surprisingly, my usual (ok... not that usual, actually) routine of brisk walking at 6km/h on the 'foothills' mode for 30mins on the treadmill only drained me when I was on the first 'hill', which felt like a 45 degree incline. Oucchhhh.

That's why it's good to blast music through your earphones when you're exercising! (especially cascada's songs) It drowned out the incessant complaints of my whiny legs.

I'm so happy that I could for another round after some weight-pulling (so as to not hog the treadmill for too long)! A full hour!!! :D Plus I didn't feel exceptionally tired after that. It was surprisingly refreshing. Note to everyone: exercise more and you'll start to feel ENERGETIC IN SCHOOL! :D

(But of course, I don't know if my legs are going to hurt like crazy tomorrow. All I know is that my appetite has improved, and I feel unsalted. Like a healthy organic peanut. Mmmm. Crrrrunchy...)

I was wearing the athena faculty shirt while exercising, and while I was watching the TV, I noticed a guy staring at me. (???) This situation is obviously rarely encountered by people like me, so I looked down from the television.

Lo and behold.

It was Brad Pitt.

Ok, no it wasn't. Angelina Jolie would have whacked his brains out of him, yelling something along the lines of "SINCE WHEN WERE YOU INTO GEEKS!!??". (she's right, I don't think I've ever been anyone's romantic interest. hmm. maybe my new laptop?)

It was our dear faaamily member, Ang Wee Hiong. I am not joking here. He just came out of the pool in his swimming trunks. And if your imagination is running wild (I can't imagine why, though), I'm gonna take the chance to fuel it a little. Nope, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Just his very tight swimming trunks..... Which is a rather peculiar choice of swimwear for men of his age, in my opinion.

Since I was oblivious to his presence, (c'mon, I was on my 2nd round!) he walked away. His 90%-10% signature hair parting was in full view. Now, how could anyone forget that? (and now, we all know where he lives...)

By the way, Nina, thank you so much for the little spheres of pudding-flavoured happiness. :D I just took a picture of it, but the file size is kinda big, so I'm lazy to upload it now... hehe. But it really, really made my day. Thank you so much! :)

Because I thought that it was an interesting way to end my day, (i.e. seeing my ex-principal) I'm going to end this post with some interesting nerdy news from the one and only /.!!!

1) Bet you didn't know that there's a US National HELIUM Reserve?!
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/23/1419233/Why-the-World-Is-Running-Out-of-Helium

2) Bad news for terrorists: Bet you can't fake someone's BONES during identity checks!
http://www.physorg.com/news201454875.html

Have a nice school week ahead, everyone! :D

What's Your Type?

I don't mind ignoring the handsome bit. But that would leave me with only one choice...
Life's like this, eh.

(btw I apologise for the use of profanities in the graph, I just happened to find it on a website.)

Our experience in NUS confirms the veracity of this pie chart. (I don't fb during class, yay!)

This is so ridiculous that it's actually funny!

IS THIS FOR REAL?!

You know, I don't regret choosing NUS. I have enjoyed my life there pretty much so far, and I find that I can understand most of the stuff going on in the lectures. I even like most of the lecturers very much for their clear explanations. It's a great place to be in. (and the no.1 place where I get lost in...)

The GEM2901 (Reporting Statistics in the Media) lecturer, Associate Professor Chua Tin Chiu, is a memorable character indeed. He is... quite the funnyman/smart guy, appearing in Lianhe Wanbao and giving his academic opinion on whether numbers related to famous events (such as Huang Na's murder) have a higher chance of appearing in the 4D winning list of numbers.

Well, it turns out that he has done statistical consulting for KPMG (oooh) and some government agencies. I ain't kidding about that.

My CS1231 (Discrete Structures) lecture, Associate Professor Stephane Bressan, has been teaching in NUS since 1998, and graduated from the Ecole University in France (wooowwww) in 1987. In fact, from 1996 to 1998, he was a research associate in MIT's Sloan School of Management. WOWWW!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! (that's my dream school...) Yep. That probably explains why he can make such an abstract topic make sense to a mathematical layperson like me. Pei fu, pei fu.

Talking about abstract topics reminds me of my lecturer for CG1101(Programming Methodology), Professor Tan Keng Yan, Colin. This guy is the opposite of what I expected programming lecturers to be like. (i.e. boring and incomprehensible.) Luckily for us CEG students, he is interesting AND fully comprehensible. My mum could've coded simple C programs with his lectures. I bet I would have understood some basics of C programming from the first 2 lectures even if I'd never gone for the project in NUS's Social Robotics Lab. Plus, he's friendly and hilarious too! For now, this programming course is wayyy better than I imagined. :D And I think it's going to remain this way. He has a few funny websites that made me laugh, too. He is apparently called Polar Bear, due to his sheer size (he's not that big sized... maybe he lost some weight lately?) and love of raw fish. I don't get it. :P But his wedding website is really sweet and hilarious, I wonder which genius of comedy wrote the content.

Why yes, my PC1432 (Physics IIE) lecturer, Associate Professor Edward Teo Ho Khoon (who recently shocked himself accidentally with charged plates connected to a wimhurst machine thingy during a very exciting live demonstration in his lecture) probably has one of the most impressive CVs. (and one of the highest foreheads and penetrating gazes I've seen in my life)

Just take a look at this page. My jaws were gaping so widely that a fat housefly might have found the orifice formed in the process a nice, cosy place to rest in. I mean, this guy is conducting research on "multi black hole solutions", negative energies and STRING THEORY!? He's a child prodigy who obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge at TWENTY ONE years old??? (umm, come to think of it. If he finished his PhD at 21, when did he serve the NS?)

\ /

- - BOOM! - -

/ \

My brain is now exploding, his achievements are too impressive. As the average freshman, I'll only be in year 3 when I'm 21. We are learning physics from a GENIUS! :D Is that cool or what! :D

On second thought, maybe it's exploding because some negative mass from Prof Teo's research came into contact with my head. Oops, watch that bit of my brain flying out from your computer screen. I am truly sorry for dirtying your screen. :(

Dang, I should've been more careful when I was sitting in the front of the lecture theatre during physics. :P

By the way, this is my lecturer for MA1505 (Mathematics).
Associate Professor Leung Pui Fai. And I just found out that he has an English name! He's called Fred, like that popular brand called Fred Perry. (I see so many people with a Fred Perry shirt/bag/shoes everywhere.) Check out his list of publications. Yet again, I am impressed.

Who knows? His research on geometry may have led him to create the logo/designs of the ridiculously popular Fred Perry fashion items. I mean, with a grown-up child prodigy and a guy who did research at MIT in the past teaching me in NUS, I am now mentally prepared to expect anything from NUS. ANYTHING! :D

There isn't a word I can use to aptly describe how I feel about the lecturers who have taught me in NUS so far.
But I know the natural sound that social conventions dictate I should make in such a situation.
It's a resounding WOW.

(and no, I didn't mean for that to stand for World of Warcraft. Has the Starcraft fever gotten to you?)

I hope that most of you in NUS right now think that you've made the right choice too. :)

Trying something different.

Woof woof!
Ribbit. Ribbit.

Every dog has its day. Or maybe, in this case, its FROG DAY. Sometimes, breaking away from the stuff you're used to can be fun.

Just bought the Alienware M11x-R2 with the i7 processor and 8GB for RAM. A big WHEEE for the tech specs! :D And nope, I'm not gaming with it because I'm afraid that I'm going to get addicted. :P Just got reminded of the newspaper report which said that the first guy in the queue for Starcraft2 in Singapore was reduced to tears because he was overwhelmed with emotion. Hehehe!

Not my usual kind of laptop though. It kinda looks like a sports car... and is kinda hefty at 2kg.

I got it from Challenger. (Surprisingly, they offer a better deal than the Dell shops...) They didn't have any more stocks for the silver version... Nevermind. Mummy always says that not all great husbands are handsome. :P Love the keyboard! Posting up more pics when I get it next Wednesday. :D

My dad and I had lunch at the NUS Arts Faculty canteen before we headed for the Funan IT Mall. Seeing so many touchy-feely couples around us made me feel extremely awkward... :S Excessive mushiness aside, I thought that this was an interesting development. My dad dated my mum in the FASS, and now I'm with him in the very same place where he dated my mum. Dad sees nothing odd with that, though. :O Another interesting thing that happened was that the drinks stall uncle in FASS was the SAME drinks stall uncle my dad used to buy drinks from in FASS!!!!! (btw, my dad was the second batch of NUS students. Bet you just felt a lot of respect for this uncle!)

Happy National Day holidays everyone! :D

if you're feeling sick of modern music and dance moves...

this guy might just cheer you up!


Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley

(I can't embed the video here... sigh.)

Dance moves used to be THAT cool! XD

The comments peppered throughout the video are really funny. Happy watching! :D

Know that guy who took a picture of himself, everyday, for 6 years?

Homer Simpson did it too!

http://vimeo.com/776824

Do you like soybeans?

Random Fact:

Henry Ford was obsessed with soybeans. He once wore a suit and tie made from soy-based material, served a 16-course meal made entirely from soybeans, and ordered many Ford auto parts to be made from soy-derived plastic.

Fringe is an interesting show!

Walter Bishop, a highly intelligent scientist (whose brain is often found tethering close to the brink of insanity), said something like this in the show...

'The greatest of minds often converge upon the same idea.

Newton and Leibniz invented calculus at almost the same time.'

:D

Is this scarily true, or scarily true?

Horoscope of the day from my iGoogle homepage:

Gemini
By Rick Levine

A family member or close friend may be relying on you for stability today, even though this isn't normally your greatest strength. However, you can be a real anchor for loved ones now, keeping them from drifting off in a storm of intense emotions. Maybe it's your natural skill of being able to tread lightly that makes you the go-to person of the day. Whatever the reason, don't waste energy doubting your ability to help. Just jump in and do it.

Please refer the post just before this one. THIS IS INSANE!!!

BGRs are so damn complicated.

It's no wonder that psychology can only be found in degree courses and courses beyond that academic standard...

Not that I'm in one, well... I have zero experience in that.

But listening to your problems has made me worried for you. All that I can do to help you is offer you advice, but my inexperience in this field makes me doubt myself.

It also makes me wonder if having a life partner is something that I really want in the future.

decisions, decisions.

Even the doctor doesn't know what I am sick with. He just gave me medicine to relieve the symptoms, and an MC to excuse me from work.


Blocked nose + cough + 38deg fever = ?



Apparently, it has nothing to do with the tonsillitis I just recovered from slightly over 2 weeks ago. He says it's due to a weak immune system, which I attribute to awesome stuff like

THIS

which I ate a lot of during my birthday week. Hehe!

That's a lava cake from NYDC. (ni yao de cai/new york dessert cafe/not your disc compartment)
It pretty much tastes like lots of chocolate and concentrated milo. Ooh.


So during my 3-day recovery period at home, I've been eating more stuff like

THIS

in a last-minute attempt to lead a healthy lifestyle. Hahaha :D

On a normal day, which would you rather choose? Hmm? ;)

This is why I like this guy.

“Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?”

—Albert Einstein

Quoted in an interview with the New York Times, March 12,1944.

Insightful! XD

Touchable Holograms

http://www.physorg.com/news168797748.html

This is really interesting! I've spent so many moments of my TV-watching life with my arm over the subwoofer, just to feel the power of the sound. Kudos to the professors at Tokyo University for thinking up such a great application for this! :D

How is it possible that I have never discovered this website before?!

Pun Intended.

That's right. Whether it's at the office or at home (after working hours), I just prefer some peace and quiet. Chatting and joking is fine, but right now, telephone rings absolutely irk me.

Oh man. I'm already sick of this job, and I can't believe how fast my interest fizzles out. My interest levels behave like a can of coke. The slightest pull on the metal tab just ignites all the little bubbles of interest in me; they're dying to soar and burst into the air. Leave the can out in the air for a mere 10 minutes, and the bubbles are all gone.

Now I know what's holding me back -- responsibility.

In the future, I'll have to either be lucky enough to find a great job, or learn how to stick to a boring job with decent pay for the sake of my family (if I'm lucky enough to have one of my own). My heart is in awe; it's enthralled by how long my parents managed to stick to their jobs.

If I had a choice, I'd like a really exciting and slightly challenging job in a dynamic workplace. I've been pondering over this for a long time. Adrian suggested being a secret agent/spy. Nice. :D Do inform me if you know of any spy agencies. I hope they don't mind someone who can't run very quickly, haha. :)

Here are some jobs I thought of during dinner:
- animator (e.g. Pixar)
- freelance photographer?
- game designer/programmer?
- game TESTER!! :D

"Food taster" is absent from the above list, because 1) I only thought of it because I was really hungry before dinner, and 2) It's not challenging at all, is it? :P

a little bokeh trick.

This is what you'll see when you stand at the balcony in my home.

This is what you'll see if you look through my camera's viewfinder (lens focus ring turned to *nearly* the shortest focal length)


I got this idea from some photography blog I found a long time ago. Get some black/dark coloured paper (to minimise internal reflections), and make something like this. Kinda like a cylinder which fits over your lens.

Make sure that the little fancy hole you cut into the black paper is smaller than the aperture of your lens. And I think this trick only works with lenses with apertures of f 1.8 and larger. (yes Jael, you can use your 50mm f1.8 portrait lens for this! :D )

Slide this over your lens, and you're good to go!

Aim your viewfinder at some distant lights,

and let the fun commence!

For the picture above, I actually pointed the camera at the same direction as seen in the first 2 pictures of this post. Fascinating, huh. :D

Swimming pool lights!

Enough of program mode. Decreasing the shutter speed and setting the aperture to f 1.4 in manual mode... The background magically darkens off.

I was so amused by this that I spent over half an hour at the balcony shooting. Nope, none of these pictures were photoshopped. And nope, I haven't grown up yet. :D

serendipity

Reaching for Sunlight.

This photo was taken in a rush as I was trying to catch up with my parents in the streets of Tokyo. We passed by a shop which was selling LOTS of beautiful plants. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to take a properly composed photo. The irony here is that looking at this photo makes me feel calm, even though it was taken hastily.

I wish I had set the camera to focus on the flowers in the centre... and I wish I had the chance to take the photo from a different angle. Or just include a full flower in the foreground. Sigh. Never mind.

Here's a cute picture I found while looking at the pictures in my external hard drive.

Two orange-coloured tulips in the middle of nowhere. :)

In case you're wondering... I'm posting this at 4.42am because I had a really long nap today from 4pm to 8.30pm. :P Right. I'm going back to sleep! :)

Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

Even the humblest in the league of mentally superior beings can't help but accidentally admit that they're intelligent when they reminisce about stupid things they've done.

Although I feel like I tend to be overly talkative on msn, (especially on days like today, when my mind is blank. hehe) it felt good letting it all out to a good listener. And it was interesting to hear you share your experiences too.

A really important question you asked was, why do smart people do dumb things?

This article tells us why!
http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/feature/why-people-are-irrational-kurt-kleiner/

This Kurt Kleiner guy says that intelligence and rationalism are not just different, they're separate entities. That's why many of us may have done stupid things in the name of love. Hehe.

According to him, a highly intelligent person can be irrational. But a very rational person may not have an above-average level of intelligence.

Do you think you're rational? Try this quiz to find out!

http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/summer-2009/rationality-quiz/

This quiz made me realise that taking the scientific approach to things helps us to remain rational. Interestingly, I think I'm more rational than I really am. wow. Sadly, the scientific approach can't be applied to everything.

Forwards and Backwards - They mean something different.

Reading a quote on this guy's blog (http://lohandbehold.wordpress.com/) intrigued me a little with the idea of changing the meaning of something when you reverse it. Allow me to digress a little...It's because I've been accidentally wearing my shorts the wrong way round for the past few days. I wonder why.

Maybe the quotes below might give you an idea of what I was trying to convey in the badly written paragraph above...

For starters...
There is nothing right in the left brain, and nothing left in the right brain.

An interlude...
The absence of evidence does not indicate the evidence of absence.

And the grand finale:
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. – Theodor Seuss Geisel (this quote is from that guy's blog.)

Playing with words is pretty fun. :D

are we running a losing race?

11.45pm.

There are still 4 people shown to be online on my company email account.

That's pretty much because the edutrust assessor sent us an email at 5.30pm today. It contained a really long list of stuff we have to show him by 9.30am tomorrow. Attaining the certification may be of paramount importance, but sacrificing your health isn't worth it. At all.

I feel bad for not staying back to help. The list of stuff mentioned above doesn't contain anything within my scope of work, but still...

Sigh.

Then again, my common sense is nagging at me. This honestly feels like a last-ditch attempt. No matter how much it's going to hurt my colleagues to hear it... I'm saying it anyway since my close friends are pretty much the only ones who know of my blog - I don't think we can attain the provisional edutrust certification-the highest possible edutrust status the assessors claim to be able to award us with.

Well-written policies alone won't get us through. We've got to put them to use.

And we've got to open several new positions with decent benefits and remuneration; that'll probably start to attract more experienced and talented staff to our company. We don't have to do this because our current management team is inadequately skilled; we have to do this because there's an inadequate number of staff in our team.

We have our merciless verbal assailants to thank today, for we have probably never received a torrential rainfall of constructive criticism before.

There may seem to be a dead end ahead if we don't attain this certification. But we could retrace our steps. Did we go wrong somewhere back there?

We may come back wiser than before, and become capable enough to tread upon terrain where no man has ventured.

Hehe. I think I went overboard with that metaphor. Back to reality. This is an 18 (coming to 19) year-old, inexperienced, and temporary staff member typing on the keyboard right now. Who is going to take my rants seriously? :P Tomorrow, I shall still try my best to help out.
We've gotta finish the races we initiate.

yippee!

Passed the driving final theory test in 10mins, because I didn't want to keep my mum waiting. :P (she couldn't find a place to park the car.) Now I have to practice driving like crazy until I don't make any more wide turns at high speeds... :D

I later found out that she parked the car in the Honda showroom nearby. She was talking to the salesman about the Honda Jazz, asking about the price... etc.

Biggest shock of my life, hahaha.

But then it occurred to me that she was only talking to him so that she could park her car at the Honda showroom. Hehe. :D

Lines and Limits

You're on your way home from work, and you're doing it in style. You're decked out in the latest, trendiest clothes and accessories. A chic black top, skinny jeans, black sandals with a pretty floral embellishment, and the latest Marc Jacobs bag. You're youthful-looking, you have the lithe physique of a model, and you're over 1.8 metres tall.

You take a furtive glance at your watch.
6.40pm.
It's the rush hour.

You manage to carefully step into the crowded MRT carriage, making sure you don't bump into anyone. You stand facing the doors, and they quickly slid close with merciless precision, separating you from the disappointed commuters who didn't manage to enter the train. The train moves off, and you're left alone in the mind-numbing crowd, staring at your reflection in the dark reflective glass panel of the window.

Wait. Was that a dirty look from that guy standing behind you?
You quickly avoid his glance by looking away from the window.
But curiosity got the better of you. You look at the window again. Nearly everyone in the train is staring at you. Some of those faces were teeming with curiosity; they wanted to get a better view of you. Some faces were simply expressing their outright disgust at your appearance.

"This is normal,", you tell yourself. "I'm alright. I'm okay.".
----------------------------

The above was a scene I experienced on my way home from work today, while I was drowsy from the super strong antibiotics the doctor prescribed to me to cure my tonsillitis. (swallowing hurts like mad, but talking hurts less.)

Were you wondering why the girl went through such an unpleasant experience?
I'm sure she has to go through situations like that every single day, wherever she goes.
For some reason, I felt proud for her. She's really brave; she's got the guts and determination to live her life the way she wants to.







And that's not easy, because she's a transsexual.

I guess transsexuals like her pretty much live their lives like the most of us. The initial expression of curiosity at the masculine remnants of her facial features is understandable. But incessant staring, nudging, and commenting is unnecessary and plain rude. Sigh. I feel bad for her. More people could become more understanding of them if they just tried to imagine themselves as that girl.



I've made my point. Now it's time for some little problems of my own.

--------------------------------
"Mind over matter is the way to go, but it's difficult not to believe in emotions."
--------------------------------
How am I supposed to know if I've crossed the line?

For now, I know that you're a great person. Others-centred. Definitely more talented and hardworking than me. And 16cm taller, assuming I haven't grown any taller/undergone shrinking. :P

You're my friend. And vice versa. Not exactly a close friend, for now.

At least that's what my brain is telling me.

Why is the mastermind becoming a matchmaker?

I'm usually not strongly influenced by the opinions of others, but the mastermind is making me confused this time.

Maybe it's because I casually said that it has to be mutual for it to work out. If that quote which says that the truth only emerges past midnight holds true, then I think that we have a problem here. :P
With that message, did I just imply what my brain didn't mean to imply?
With that message, did I just imply what my emotions meant to imply?

A classic situation of "the brain says no, but the heart says yes". All thanks to the mastermind.
Maybe the mastermind just picked up little squeaks of emotions from me a long time ago. I didn't even know they existed; maybe I was hiding them from myself with facts. Now, he could simply be amplifying and broadcasting those little squeaks to you. Who knows what he'll be up to next? To avoid an awkward situation, I'll believe in logic for now. There is a mutual, unspoken agreement that this is strictly friendship.

It's confusing and distracting, as with all conundrums. With our absolute lack of expertise in this..... field, I don't think it's likely to work out in that way. After all, you do expect to lose contact with me once my contract ends, don't you? I'm expecting that too. Oh well. Let's allow fate to take over and ignore this issue.

And I'm only posting this here because I *think* you don't read blogs, do you? :p



Sigh. My throat hurts even when I laugh/yawn...

escalator

At least we have Sundays.

In Prison:
You spend your time in an 8 x 10 cell
At Work:
You spend your time in an 6 x 8 cubicle

In Prison:
You get three free meals a day
At Work:
You get one break for a meal you pay for

In Prison:
A guard locks and unlocks all doors for you
At Work:
You carry a security card, you unlock the doors

In Prison:
You get to watch TV and play games
At Work:
You get fired for watching TV and playing games

In Prison:
You get your own toilet
At Work:
You have to share

In Prison:
Family and friends are allowed to visit
At Work:
You're not allowed to speak to family or friends
(not true in my office. how about yours?)

In Prison:
Expenses are paid by taxpayers and work is not required
At Work:
You pay to go to work and you get to deduct expenses on your taxes to pay for prisoners

In Prison:
You look through the bars, hoping to get out
At Work:
You want to get out so you can go inside the bars

In Prison:
The wardens who are often called sadistic
At Work:
The wardens are called managers

Damn, I can't wait to enter NUS.

what does MLIA mean?

http://mylifeisaverage.com/

Last night I was at a school sporting event where the ref made a terrible call. Amid all the boos and jeers i heard someone yell "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of you, and may your arms be to short to scratch!" MLIA

Yesterday, I read a bumper sticker that said "buckle up; it makes it harder for the aliens to abduct you from your car". Needless to say this sticker will single handedly make the roads much safer. MLIA\

Today in my middle school while me and a friend were walking to class, a boy with a red shirt and blue overalls passed by us with his I Touch, which had a Super Mario Bros. soundboard app on it, walking to the theme song while making jump noises. We then proceeded to follow him straight to his homeroom, which he played the victory theme while cheering. I must make friends with this boy. MLIA

the new emergency number!

Have you ever thought that 999 was too difficult to remember?
Well try this!

Watch the YouTube video!

It's from the British comedy, The IT Crowd.
Absolutely hilarious!
A pity that video embedding was disabled by the uploader.

I've lost count of how many times I've watched this, this jingle is curiously addictive.






0118 999 88199 9119 725.... 3...

That's...

oh one one eight
nine nine nine
eight eight one nine nine
nine one one nine
seven two five...
three...

Brit humour aside,
Thank you, Shi Jia, for the great dinner we had tonight! :D

the science of fashion.

http://news.cnet.com/Geek-designer-wears-tech-well/2100-1041_3-6030370.html

Hitler rants about the Nikon D3X

A video from 2008 that I just found. Late, yes, but still very entertaining. :D

Sometimes, geniuses feel embarassed too.

I like this guy's style of writing! (and Stephen Hawking's honesty, too.)

Stephen Hawking: Time Travel Will Happen

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20003949-71.html

some eye candy (or eye-cheesecake) for everyone!

I'll be in Japan to catch the sakura season from tomorrow till the 21st, so it would be more considerate for me to (at least) leave a nice post (plus new pics on Flickr) behind while I go on a blogging hiatus.

Will take lots of pictures of the sakura in Japan! :D Gonna spend my monthly salary on a fast nikkor lens there. It may sound ridiculous, but hey, fast lenses are gonna be useful for lots of situations. Including my future money making scheme to recoup my investment. heh heh heh.

Thank you for the New York Cheesecake, Nina! Your bro is really a talented baker. :D

And Adrian... You better get well before I get back.

Hehe.

Looking foward to meet everyone again!

don't take life too seriously, and you'll feel happier!

1st April 2010 was a memorable day. I've always enjoyed watching people play pranks on others. But with so much time to spare during the early office hours, malicious thoughts just kept brewing in my head.



Try this as a prank when you're free.



Write "Happy April Fools' Day!" on a post it note.

Paste the note over someone's optical mouse. (the part where there's this red light beaming at you)



The optical mouse will be fooled into thinking that the user of the mouse is not moving the mouse, since the laser and paper won't be moving relative to each other. hehe.

the list of work to complete in the office never ends.

So why bother to work till the sun goes down?

You can always do it tomorrow. Or the day after. etc.

It's demoralising, but honestly, WORK NEVER ENDS!
(unless you tender your resignation, of course.)

I got lost on my way to Centrepoint today to meet my parents for dinner. Sigh. I have absolutely no sense of direction. Being on unfamiliar territory didn't help me find my way either. (I'm a stranger to Orchard)

While my dad was expressing his absolute incredulity at my lack of a congenital Global Positioning System over the phone, I looked upon the sky in utter exasperation.
And I saw a huge rainbow! (I'm serious!) Indeed, there's always a bright side to things... Most of the time. Yup. I still found my way to Centrepoint, although my parents are now extremely reluctant to let me study in a foreign country. Or even wander around in it.

Guess I won't be able to explore Japan by myself over the next 2 weeks. Hmm. I don't have the guts to either, since simple Japanese greetings won't help me to find my way back to safety. :P

The Nikkor 50mm f1.4 AF-S lens I want is going for $839.90 at the Nikon shop in Centrepoint, and around US$300 (!!) on B&H's site. And no, I didn't have S$10,000 notes hanging out tantalizingly from my pockets when I asked the salesman for the price. Wonder how much it costs in Japan.

Happy April Fools' Day, everyone! :D 3 is the new Pi!

o...kay?

For some reason, the counter for this blog has leaped again. In a mere few hours.

coolSTYLE has a point there. Indeed, the Gemini in me just makes me get bored of many things really quickly. Whoever you are...

I'm guessing that coolSTYLE:
1) likes cynicism?
2) has a dark sense of humour, somewhere, somehow.
3) is someone I've talked to before in real life.
4) is a guy.

Welcome to my blog, and tell me if my conjectures are right! :D (and also who you are. hehe.)

ok, wild guesses aside, I really like what 巫启贤 (Wu Qi Xian) said about the lyrics to one of his songs. I forgot which. But he said,
先要有勇气，才能够许下承诺。
(you gotta have courage before you can make a promise. Something like that.)
That's how he remembers the lyrics to that song. Very meaningful, huh.

I guess I'm leaving Abraham alone.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
Abraham Lincoln

Here's another one.

Try to leave the Earth a better place than when you arrived.
Sidney Sheldon

multitasking

I wish that I had two brains, or was born a savant.

Just so that I can watch my detective-themed dramas while reading a story book, or read two pages of 2 different books at the same time.

It's going to be double the fun.

Even if my brain were a computer processor, Moore's Law can't possibly be applicable to it. Or could it?

Nevermind. Let's just hope that reality is just a really persistent illusion.

something's holding me back.

it's definitely not the contract.

With my parents nagging at me to leave this company (almost) every day, plus the crazy workload these days, it's quite tempting to.

I really want to try becoming a photographer. Even if I'll have to start with free projects.

I'll feel terrible for leaving so much work behind, though.

Maybe responsibility is keeping me from leaving. Hmmm.

I guess I'll stick to this job until it gets horribly unbearable. :)




Digressing... My blog's hit counter jumped by 46 hits in 3 days. I wonder who's reading this?

Impulse and Fun

There are alot of things which I do on impulse. For fun. For the heck of it.

Why take life so seriously? Switch on the lights and brighten up!

Talking about lights, my eco-friendly colleague Annie just reminded us that it's Earth hour from 8-9pm tomorrow! :D Get in touch with your dark side during that hour.

Was watching Little Britain after I was done with the scholarship applications. Emily Howard the transvestite stole a dress and got interrogated in the police station by a really stern police officer...

Policeman: Name?
Emily Howard: (smiling flirtatiously, talking in a girly voice) Emily Howard.
Policeman: (skeptical look)
Emily Howard: (deep manly voice) oh all right. It's Eddie Howard.
Policeman: (writes down details in the form) Sex?
Emily Howard: (blushing) oh no, we've just met! (giggles like a girl) [LOL isn't Emily Howard super qian bian?]
Policeman: -_-..... Marital status?
Emily Howard: (girly voice) oh I've got plenty of suitors but...
Policeman: (skeptical look again)
Emily Howard: (manly voice) all right all right. I've got a wife and three kids.

LOL!

one good deed a day

makes the world around you a much, much happier place. :D


Remember those anti-piracy videos you're *always* forced to watch before a movie?
Here's a parody of it! Super funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82Lq2rVB_4

Are we really that dumb?

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.

- Bill Watterson

Nice one!!

the drawback of efficiency in the workplace

If you work swiftly, your superior is gonna be a real happy person.

Your superior would (naturally) delegate more work to you.

But that's likely to make you one severely overworked person.

So, how efficient should you be to avoid burning out?


A big chunk of a pay increment would be nice, though. :D

the unspoken words

how someone says goodbye to you seems to say a lot about how they really think of you.

as a friend or an acquaintance.

maybe I read too much into these stuff. :b

the joy of sharing!

Understanding introverts: (we are not aloof! :D )

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/2696/


How Six Songs Collide - by Norwegian Recycling



One of the best mash-ups I've heard in my life. You can download the song (and many other great mash-ups!) at http://norwegianrecycling.multiply.com/music. Soul of Fireflies is pretty interesting too.

Thanks for all the nice stuff you've shared with me! :D