Real Slim Shady

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 at 1:37 AM | Posted by Juwen
We are fast approaching the new year and it is amazing how fast time flies. One day it is Christmas and suddenly the next day feels like it's the Eve already. With so much things going on, it seems oxymoronic to say that there is nothing much to do. But in fact that is what has been happening the past week or so. Probably the only thing that worth mentioning is the meet up with a few A-levels classmates. In many respects I am far behind in terms of what they are doing (read: work) but it is also good to know that I am not alone in what I am going through. Good times.

Since I got back, there have been numerous comments that I've looked skinnier since the last time they saw me. And not only did I get this from my family but also from fellow friends as well. But strangely, all these comments of my lack of meat on my body all came from one day but not any other day. It was the day where I went to a friend's birthday lunch and my family's dinner. Despite the fact that I still remain the same weight as before, they still say I look skinnier. So I analysed everything that I have on me and I think I have figured out the secret for looking deceptively thinner while still maintaining your weight. It buys you time to actually lose the weight, not that it applied to me. It all boils down to the clothes. I'll demonstrate...

1) I wear black. Black is the universally known slimming colour.
2) The T-shirt fits-ish with a skeletal imprint. Gives the illusion that you're smaller in build than you actually are
3) Semi-grown shaved hair. Like you came out of the army. Or at least that's what they say.
4) Accessories: Apple headphones, Swatch Skin. All things "cool" and "small".

Follow these steps and it almost guarantees a few kilos off by perception and suggestion. Maybe.

I guess this is just going to be a filler post before the obligatory reflection on the year that is 2009 and of course what I think or predict for the coming 2010. Until then, time to unload the news.

20 million useless gifts for Christmas. I've got most of them. Meh.

Triple the alcohol intake. Yeah!

Effectively, they said that gamers are like on the same level as physicists, mathematicians etc to the lay people. Well put.

Two Apple related articles, one that sounds a bit like the cast of Genesis 3 and the other for a $1 salary take.

A blue moon is going to be the end of the year. Cool.

It is amazing what a roasted bird can do among people.

The least understood function in mathematics yet has profound effects on the environment. 8 part series and try to follow them. It is quite worth it.

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Musical Musings

Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 3:23 AM | Posted by Juwen
Merry Christmas to everyone!

Nothing much went on for Christmas day apart from the dinner at my aunty's place on the eve. Was pretty bored most of the time because nothing interesting ever happens at dinner here. Good thing I had my iPod company and my camera.

Went to SIB KL's Christmas musical production and the first thing I have to say about it even before all of it started is that the props and the background scenes were pretty epic. I don't think I've seen any church having props/background as epic as this. And they look pretty good too. But what about the substance of the musical? Surprisingly, it was actually not bad. The lyrics were pretty interesting and the singing were alright. The band was nearly epic in its style with the drums and bass really putting in the groove for most, if not, all the songs. The choreography of the dances with singing and all were pretty tight although there was really random dance-off about half way through the musical.

Now the rest of the criticisms. The main guy character's tone during his dialogue sounded very unnatural and at times didn't seem to fit in with the rest of scene. He did manage to pull it back together after some time but it could have been better. Most of the songs have like a million key changes which I thought was a bit unnecessary. Most of the songs were sung alright with a few off keys thrown into the bunch. Nothing too serious except for the last song. I think the parts were too high for all of those who were singing so it was pretty excruciating to hear that song. That song was pretty much butchered.

I think overall it was a pretty well produced musical with most of the songs being originals, maybe just a little too much for them to chew. Had they have another 2 weeks to refine everything, it would have been stellar. Either that or I should go back in time and prevent myself from not listening to the Wicked soundtrack because after listening to that, I cannot drop my level down to semi-pro level musicals.

Next few days I shall contemplate on the year that has gone by for myself and maybe some reflections of the coming year. But as a heads-up, it is not going to be good. Expect rantings, cynicism and the lot.

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Nostalgic Musings

Friday, December 25, 2009 at 4:49 AM | Posted by Juwen
So I didn't manage to get the pictures up on the blog but anyway they are up on Facebook. Though their compression has virtually killed the pictures.

So what has happened since I've been back home? Mostly nostalgia. Shopping in a supermarket to buy food stuff for the Christmas Eve dinner brought back some taken-for-granted memories. It feels like so much have changed but yet so little actually did. More drama from the family as my cousin's wedding on New Year's Day unfolds. This wedding is apparently going to be epic. I don't like where this is going. I really wish I can not go for the wedding. Anything else is better than mixing with cousins that you hardly know, uncles and aunties that tell really bad lame jokes. Oh, and I really wanted to go for my school's CF reunion on New Year's Day. I need an exit plan.

Christmas has been on a steady decline since I can't remember when. Christmas dinners or opening Christmas presents these days aren't the same anymore compared to the days of old. I feel more distant from family, much like the way that I feel about OCFers. But who are we kidding? Christmas is all about remembering that Jesus came to Earth as a man who will eventually deal with the problem of sin. I mean that is the more important thing for us Christians to remember. But everyone has their own cultural family traditions that we all remember and love as a result of this momentous occasion. Mine has left the building a long time ago.

Oh and as an aside, today we celebrated a friend's birthday. It was good to see a long-time-no-see friend and frankly one of the few people that I can talk to with ease regardless of the situation. There is no such thing as awkwardness or anything conflicting when we talk and I say that very few people can do that. I wish I had more friends who are like that. Anyway, everything was fine until she had to leave early and suddenly I feel like a stranger in the table. I retreated to my iPod, half listening to distract myself and half scanning the conversations for information that I can use if they were asking me a question. On a tangent, though on shuffle, the music seem to come a lot from Kelly Clarkson and Michelle Branch, two singers that I haven't heard in a long while. They are awesome.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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Wait for it...

Monday, December 21, 2009 at 5:20 PM | Posted by Juwen
With just two more days before I reach home, there were a lot of things for me to do. Most of which I should have done earlier, waaaaaay earlier. Anyway, the last batch of people graduating this year is about to commence later this afternoon so the graduations album should be out very soon. Good thing that I have post-processed the previous ones already. On the downside, I will no longer be able to post-process the photos with my beloved Lightroom when I get back. I will miss it dearly. But there is no big loss, I think, since that I am going to embark on a personal project later. More details to come.

For now, time to dump all the news tabs here...
I wonder how many times we are conscious of these behaviours, whether we do it to others or vice versa

The (asteroid) Rock Gods are in space! And they love heavy metal.

If this is an accurate representation of what guys want for Christmas, then it is good proof that I am more like a girl. Like a friend of mine described me.

Should we Christians be this picky about the Christmas season? Is it at all helpful?

If some mastermind were to disable the world's electronic system by unleashing EMP bombs everywhere, would we be able to survive?

How much power does Oprah really have? While she gives up the talk show but gains a television network aptly named OWN, how will this affect the rest of the American household? Or rather housewives? Beginnings of a cult?

Some of the year's business fails.

Would you sign up for a credit card with a 79.9% interest rate?

Some interesting and funny remarks about women by celebrity women

So the global financial crisis does have its upside

Us Melburnians are very much into the whole cofee/breakfast culture. I mean who wouldn't be drooling over perfectly poached eggs on sourdough bread with smoked salmon/trout with mushrooms with a nicely done latte in a very quaint cafe? But is it as healthy as we thought?

Apparently there is a number to the golden ratio for beauty. Please no use of rulers on the girls. Firstly, the number are averages. Secondly, it's so not cool. Third and probably the most important, you can say goodbye to whatever chance you have getting that girl.

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Conversation >> Food

Friday, December 18, 2009 at 3:59 AM | Posted by Juwen
Sometimes.

I've been having a string of events where I regularly trade typically my only meal of the day (aka. dinner) with good catching up or even intellectual topics. The most recent one is a 4.5 hour conversation over coffee and some little tidbits with 3 other people and I traded dinner for that. It's a good trade.

Like I've said last time, I would give up food for good conversations anytime (but obviously not all the time). Food you can always find yourself. Worst case scenario is you just cook albeit at 1 or 2 am but good heartfelt and thought provoking talk is harder to come by especially given the current circumstances.

But sometimes you will have the "Holy Grail" of conversations where you have those and food. Few things can beat that combination. Today I had the privilege of meeting up with Janice and we have a good time catching up + food + coffee and as a special mystery guest present for Tim's graduation. The sister, who is also a schoolmate of mine as well, was also pleasantly surprised by her arrival. Oddly enough, although they both stay in Singapore, they hardly meet each other. So this is the first time in a very long while that they met, on foreign soil. How ironic.

Oh how I can have a day like today everyday. Makes me feel complete. Whatever that means.
The second busiest photographer during graduations apart from Brandon. Me? I am but the wind.

YY

Possibly the one with the most contagious laughter

My guest for today

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Film Preview

Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 1:59 AM | Posted by Juwen
I got my Astia film processed today and I have to say I was quite relieved that everything turned out fine. It would be a huge pity for me to lose a $25 roll of film and not to mention my "client" would have strangled me to death. Although, the scans that came back seemed a bit odd to me. It looked like it was super sharpened till it's grainy looking. Not sure whether someone forgot to reset their scan settings or what but it does look a bit weird. Anyway, my "client" wanted prints but I didn't have time to do it since he is going back tomorrow. So, I gave him the processed film roll so that he can get some prints out back home. Hope people still know how to do prints off film back home.

There is probably going to be more graduation photos to come but I'll wait till everyone's done. Until then, something that came out of my "client's" graduation ceremony...

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FascinaTED

Monday, December 14, 2009 at 2:35 AM | Posted by Juwen
I was going to rant about something but didn't have the energy to write it all out. Maybe some other time. When I'm feeling rant-ish.

I came back home one day checking my usual items: E-mail, Facebook, Twitter etc and one thing led to another and before I knew it I've watched 5 hours of talks on TED (Technology Entertainment Design). Given that most of the talks on TED are about 20 minutes long, you can imagine how many I've actually watched. Topics vary from predictions of the future based on current technological advances in science and medicine to answering some of the most fundamental questions about the most fundamental elements of the universe to human behaviour on why we do the things we do. Very very highly interesting and I encourage all to watch some of these talks.

I'll skip introducing the physics-y side of talks because seriously it is pretty hardcore stuff even though the talks were meant for the general (not academic) audience but if you do know some physics then it is a very beautiful thing. But I'll just present to you stuff on human behaviour and psychology and I will let the talks to do talking and for you to let the information percolate in that brain of yours.

Behavioural economist Dan Ariely on why we cheat sometimes

Dan again on do we really have control over our decisions.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice.

Barry again on why we stopped being wise and suggestions on how to fix that.

How we sometimes get statistics wrong even for some academics which result in dire consequences.

Think the financial crisis was bad? There are bigger problems to come.

A response to Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life. Don't be too quick to write this guy off. There are some things that needs some thinking.

Interesting views from a comedian.

More news:
I smell a conspiracy theory...

Some surprising findings on casual sex and removing a band-aid.

Interesting discussion on colour to sexism.

We are getting more hungry for information that it's starting to get quite scary.

Painful truth on degrees these days.

Paper batteries. We have come so far since they days of AA batteries.

Given a really really really small space to live, it's amazing how people can adapt to it. And we live where we take space for granted.

Interesting idea for those who want to jump off the Facebook cruiseliner.

This. Is. Awesomesauce.

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Thoughtful

Friday, December 11, 2009 at 1:57 AM | Posted by Juwen
This is going was supposed to be a short entry to pen/type my thoughts out but failed. Ok, so only the first one is a real thoughtful thought. Use it as logs to keep the conversation fire going but not to start one. Too chunky to burn. The first one I mean. The rest is the brain going on auto-pilot mode.

Thought #1
We all make mistakes. No one can claim that they are without mistakes (and sin but that's a bit debatable to some groups of people) so there is some form of regret or similiar. So, what if we all had just one chance to rewind to an arbitrary period of time in our past and you can change the course of events from that moment onwards? We carry all the years of hindsight along with the ride but we can only use it once only. Basically, it's the same type of question as "What would you have done differently?" except a bit more general. Note that we not only can use it correct our most regrettable mistakes (thus far as we do not know of more regrettable mistakes later on when we make the decision to rewind) but we can also use it to relive the same moment in time because it was that memorable and would continue to be so even after having the years of hindsight carried along for the second time round.

Enough babbling already. Now the questions...
When would you rewind to, what would you do (if any) and why?
If you don't want to rewind, how would you know if you need to?
Or when do you draw the line and hit the rewind button?

Keep asking this question after several years. I'm sure answers change but it would be interesting to know. Also possible as an avenue for evangelism.

Thought #2a
I'd want to go back for Christmas to non-cliched Christmas music. Exposed to a lot of big band or funky arrangements of Christmas songs so that when I go back home I don't want to hear the pan flute Christmas compilation CD that my dad plays Every. Single. Year. It's not cool. Nor do I want to hear the same old arrangements on Christmas songs. It's been done a zillion times already on a zillion other albums with a zillion squared singers.

Thought #2b
Speaking of Christmas songs, I wonder how would we Asians feel like had we lived the American lifestyle and listening to these songs that only the Americans know so dearly. Being Asian and all, we don't really understand when we hear the lines "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nibbling at your nose..." or
Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it Snow!

We don't know the real spirit of Christmas (so to speak, without religious implications) that these songs tell about. All because of the weather. Mostly. Would we finally connect with these songs?

Thought #2c
Christmas like many other holidays are so universal in its observations but remarkably local about its original atmosphere. Or so the classics say. For example, the songs of Christmas don't change even for people who don't get snow at all. Is it possible to have Christmas songs that give the same atmosphere as it was originally composed yet something that locals in a radically different country can identify with?

Thought #3
Current music style liking, much to the "surprise" of people, math rock. It's like rock but with...math? Not to be confused with the similiar sounding "meth". And it seems like the Japanese are the best math rockers around.

Thought #4
Meh.

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Medicinal Treatment

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 2:02 PM | Posted by Juwen
It's been awhile since the last time I posted and as you can probably imagine, there isn't terribly much to do around here. Apart from the obvious.

On the plus side, I got back my results and I have to say I was a bit stunned at some of them. Just to give you an idea, all 4 of my subject marks have a range of 5% (that means, the difference between the lowest and the highest subject marks is 5%). I've never had marks with such a small spread before. Ever. The second and more amazing thing is that, for all 4 subjects, I lost a total of 25% only. The third thing is that the highest subject mark was a subject that I thought I screwed up the exam a bit. But I really praise God for the results because I could have dropped dead at any moment doing the crazy but fun assignments or just have a brain overload but He sustained me through. He has been merciful at times when I just felt like "Oh what the heck, let's paint the town red today" with 2-3 days left to submission. Not very smart on hindsight.

The next biggest thing to happen was that I got the chance to be the casual photographer for one of my medical friends who graduated a few days back. Another not smart move was that I've decided to take along my film camera and my digital and somehow most of the pictures were in the film. And I bought an Astia for the job. That's putting a lot of eggs in one basket. On the plus side, I feel special since during the "photo taking" time, every 1 in 2 people you see have a DSLR on their hands. I was the only one actively taking photos with this '75 film camera. On the negative side (hehe), it did give me unnecessary pressure in taking the shots which means that Murphy's Law might be creeping around the corner. Oh, and the other good thing was that I got to talk to one of the photographers who was with my friend's housemate (also medical student) all because she spotted my film camera. She's quite an interesting person. She reminds a lot of Lydia Lee, the missionary that OCF is supporting in Singapore but not as hyper. We both started checking each others equipment and chatted from there on albeit sporadically. She was an Olympus user with a Sigma lens. That's something you don't see everyday. And likewise from her now that she knows I'm using a Pentax. But she has apparently 9 rangefinders in her possession and she showed me one of hers, a Yashica model. Can't remember what was the focal length but it was cool. Not as heavy as a friend's Voigtlander. Anyway, yay for another film user. On a tangent, is it just me or are most of the film users Singaporean? I can only name one Malaysian who does film (when he can).

Spent the whole day with my friend's family, whom I've met most of his siblings already but it was an interesting experience meeting them in person. Not to mention some of the other medical students families as well. For one person, when I saw his mother I was at a loss for words. She has quite a good number of years to her name, grey haired and all. But she was like a textbook example of aging gracefully. Normally you wouldn't associate gracefulness or elegance of her age to a person who has probably gone through more than half a century of life experience but she really is the epitome of those qualities. It gives the impression that she has a wonderful character, one that I'm sure my friend's father would already know. It's something we, in our current society, fail to praise such women or even fail to see them. I knew of the story on how his parent's met and he couldn't understand how that could happen because he doesn't see his father doing or saying things to his future wife when they first met. Now I can probably understand how it all happened.

Also another interesting thing, now that this friend of mine just got a girlfriend, she was introduced to his mother and I was being a ninja behind a bush of people and I saw this impression/expression on the mother. It was faint, hardly noticeable to the everyday in passing person but there is no mistake about that when you do see it. It's something that I don't have a word to describe. Good thing there are several (hundred) words to describe it. There is a certain type of glow on her face as she talks to the girlfriend, although it was short in length, but there are many more things going on. For starters, it's the "She's a nice girl" but a bit more than that. It is probably closer to the look of "Future daughter-in-law?". I kid you not, if you were there with me you could have sworn you'd see it too. But there was something else to the impression/expression given her stature. It looked like she was reminded of herself when she was younger. I don't know how true is that but it certainly looked that way. Amazing isn't it how many words/thoughts/ideas can be passed on in an expression that lasts a split second?

And back to my friend's family. His parents were interesting, how they interact with each other, how they interact with us and so on. I've known most of his siblings except one who was quite a fair bit younger than the rest. She looked like a cross between a friend who recently got married and a friend from Adelaide. She's quite hyper but a bit of a slightly unconventional girl. She plays guitar, bass and drums but mostly on bass. The first I said to her when I heard that she played bass is "Keep playing more bass and drums! You're doing a huge favour to bassists everywhere and specifically female bassists". Quite an odd thing to say to a person I've relatively just met on hindsight actually. Despite her age, she does know quite a fair bit about bass which is a good thing. Gave her some pointers when we were chilling out in her brother's place. She's got potential and have it easier than me when I started on bass. First of all I started when I was 18, waaaay older than when she started. Second, I didn't have a person who taught me bass all the time unlike her. I had to figure a lot of stuff out on my own with little or no teaching and with lots of frustrating trial and error on tone-deaf ears. And thirdly, she would have the benefit of more experience by virtue of her age. Youth isn't always wasted on the young.

Went out for some drinks and then went back home to crash.

The following day, I missed church thanks to my sister waking me up early in the morning via noises and bumps downstairs. Basketball and captains ball soon followed but not without meeting up with Lydia and Brandon to do the long delayed physical wedding photo album. I'm clearly the least efficient of the lot but what matters is the final product. Dinner later with a bunch of friends and I was hooked on the specials menu they had because it sounded so good. Risotto with crab, garlic, chilli and saffron. *drools*. Unfortunately, the rice was a bit undercooked and there are no other flavours in the rice making it bland. Crab was cooked great but unfortunately that's the only good thing. So much drool potential on that dish but fails to deliver. Sigh. On the other hand, there was a good conversation going on although I think it was mainly between two people. Quite sad actually. But it was a really intellectually stimulating one but I guess no one either thought that far or would think about it at all. And then drinks at 1806 in conjunction with Yee Meng's birthday. They have really nice drinks there. Should go there more often. And after a few drinks, you really must have McDonalds fries. They are like the awesomest thing in the world.

Game update: 2/3 done with Supreme Commander.

News update:
The integration between man and machine is drawing ever so near.

Some people have no life, yet they are highly respected in their respectively communities for their feats or achievements.

Nice abstract.

Some bold claims on Singaporeans and Malaysians in the political scene in the aspect of news reading and reporting. And Rithmetic.

Interesting statistics on Malaysian citizenship. Or lack thereof.

Sounds like he was predicting his future when he penned that song.

MIT people completed a DARPA $40,000 challenge in 9 hours when it could have gone for 9 days. Talk about thinking light years ahead.

Who knew that wireless technology came from trying to answer a question about exploding black holes?

Something for Christians and non-Christians to think about.

I'm sort of jealous
I wish I had what they have
Mistakes do happen

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Gaming Experience

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 12:54 AM | Posted by Juwen
And so once again, I've finished Half Life 2: Episode 1 & 2. Story line is getting interesting and the pace has started to pick up in the past two episodes. It has been an interesting move for Valve to produce 3 episodes to continue the Half Life stories because Episode 1 and 2 have been criticized for being too short. These episodes can be completed in a slightly longer sitting than Portal but I mean you can't have everything. Valve has already made the choice to to three episodes more evenly spread out content than waiting for another 5-6 years to get another substantial run of content. The critics should cut them some slack. But anyways, I can't wait for Episode 3 to come out. Things should be very interesting from where we finish in Episode 2.

So where to now since I've completed the FPS games already? Time to move to RTS and there is plenty to keep me company. I've just recently bought the Command and Conquer compendium so that's another 12-13 games there already and not to mention Supreme Commander. So much to go through.

And now the news:
This shows that you don't have to be a fancy restaurant with rather exorbitant prices to earn a Michelin star. There is hope yet for the small cafes and restaurants. Hope my LolCafe would be good enough for the Michelin star. Ai gif u bes purrice wif yummeh noms n ai can haz star? Kthx.

Interesting idea but I've got counter arguments for that. My mother loves liver in here noodles etc and I hate it. And I'm pretty sure that she eats it when she was first pregnant. Oh and I don't really like coconut water and apparently she drank quite a lot of it then.

Spirit of Thanksgiving to lead into the Spirit of Christmas?

All by myself
I wanna be all by myself...
Eric Char Men

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Gravity

Friday, November 27, 2009 at 12:50 PM | Posted by Juwen
I've managed to finish Half Life 2 yesterday (or rather this morning) and I have got to say that it was an excellent game. Given that this came out in 2004, the game was ground breaking in including near-realistic graphics and sound and a more polished look. The storyline is your typical rebel group fighting against a huge corporation with a sci-fi twist to it and of course you play the one joining the rebel group. In terms of gameplay, it seems to take on a slightly different pace compared to the first one. For one, the last few chapters weren't as epic in battles compared to the first one but I'm not really complaining. On the other hand the action starts pretty hot from the word go and always starts with "Run for your life!".

What I was pretty impressed about the game (imagine this is 2004) was their physics engine. You throw stuff around or waddle on water and it behaves exactly how you would see in real life. Even when you are under water and the soldiers start shooting at you from above, you can see slowed down bullet trails in the water. With the inclusion of the gravity gun, now anything can be a weapon. From cans of paint to saw blades to even soldiers themselves, they can be thrown about at other people or to remove threats. You can even use it to catch grenades when thrown at you and throw it back at them. It is just crazy physics man.

Some other cool mentions are sound. While stereo or even 5.1 channel sounds are not difficult to implement, you do hear some fairly realistic sounds during the gameplay that are not really present in other games such as when a grenade or a rocket blows up near you, not only you take damage but you will experience hearing loss with slight ringing. If it explodes even nearer to you, that effect will be longer and the ringing is more intense.

There is one downside to the game and that would be its AI. The enemy AI seems to function pretty well and will dodge your shots or will try to stay for cover when being shot at but the friendly AI seems to suck. They don't try and dodge as well and worst of all is that they don't stay put when you tell them to while defusing say a floor turret. I've noticed that when you tell them to take cover while you lob a grenade or two, they will start following you and into the turret fire while the grenades are still being prepped for detonation. And it proves to be a pain when there is a section of the game where you will need to avoid sniper fire. I got so frustrated getting them to safety that I just let them die. Serves them right.

Overall, super good game. Episode 1 is next.

In other news, I met up with a friend to discuss on a project that we are doing over the past week or so and in the end we talked at the footsteps of Europa for 2 hours about life. Some of the more interesting things to come out of the conversation are some of the better arguments for my problems that I've been saying here. They are pretty good suggestions (or rather reasons) why I should move out of OCF and serve elsewhere. I would like to think that he is right but of course I need to think about this more carefully but it seems to suggest a step in the right direction. More about it when I do think about it.

Now for some real news:
Really, if people really want their child's name to be unique and to go through all that trouble to make sure that the name you choose isn't one that is going to be offensive/weird in some other obscure language, then I think it really isn't worth it. And for STR$1000? No way man.

Beginnings of SkyNet? And it's not by the Japanese? Or is it?

After having bad experiences with HP laptops in the past, this is further evidence of my experience. Though I am quite surprised that Sony is the top three. Didn't know that they are reliable. I should say that Toshiba should take the top spot but it is pretty close with Asus. Toshiba laptops/ultraportables are built like tanks.

Too much information, Chesley. Too much information.

I wonder why no one ever thought of doing this earlier.

I'd dare say this only because it is so outrageous. What the hell, BTN?!! What the hell?!!

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A Cubic Problem

Monday, November 23, 2009 at 1:58 AM | Posted by Juwen
So I've managed to install some games from the Orange Box that I bought quite some time ago and I started out with Portal. It is a very short FPS but it was funny yet disturbing at the same time. I love the voice casting in the game while, although there isn't many, provide so much fun to the game with the occasional dark humor inserted here and there. I'm usually quite bad at FPS games but I manage to finish the game in about 4 hours. I'd play the game again just for the dark humor and contemplating how disturbing the game can be. Oh and the ending song is quite cute and disturbing-ish, so much so that I managed to figure out most of the melody when I picked up my bass in about 5 minutes. Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube ftw!

I moved on to Half Life 2 and so far the story line has just been as engaging as the first Half Life game. And the game feels pretty long. After about 4 hours of play I still feel like I barely moved at all though I have progressed a few chapters already. I'm still waiting to get my hands on the fabled gravity gun and that should be a barrel load of fun. Gordon Freeman, the main character you play in the Half Life games is seriously extremely unlucky. He seems to get into a number of "accidents" that just screws up everything. Quite sad this guy but that was the selling point of the first Half Life game and I guess still is.

On more serious notes, I realize that the more people I talk to about some of my problems the more I feel like the "right" decision is to leave OCF in search for other places to serve. Despite them trying to tell me otherwise, some how it ends up with me feeling like that is the right decision. The dilemma is now that I have to discern between what I think normally happens in situations like this, which is that I pre-conceive my solutions and everything I say or justify is skewed in that direction (in a sense, I've already made up my mind and really not open to what other people say) or that it really is the right decision for my life. In either case, I still need to make sure of my choice which I would say will take me more time. I might come up with a time limit of sorts just to help me make that decision. While some might say that I putting God in a box, I would think that at some point you'd have to take action and God already knows about it. If God decides that I should stay or something to that effect, circumstances change to enable me to stay and works the same for the contrary.

I'm beginning to despise people talking about "grown-up" stuff like cars, houses, taxes, boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives, work and so on. Every time. It only serves to aggravate my apparent problems. While it is a fact of life that people move on as they age, but it is starting to feel that you belong to an elite group of people and that you are part of the "club" when you are in the position of talking about these things. So what about people like me who are neither here nor there?

Maybe it is a sign that I should be an academic. I'd rather talk about sciency/maths-y stuff than the above. I had a good chat about some math/science/engineering problems while working on the probabilistic modeling project and that is enough to get me going for the rest of the week. Heck, I'd do them all pro bono if I can escape from speaking of "grown-up" stuff. Seriously, they suck.

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Pretty Windows

Friday, November 20, 2009 at 2:59 PM | Posted by Juwen
After editing wedding photos, I went into the next project...installing Windows 7. After arming myself with loads of knowledge on doing the documented double install I proceeded. Then I hit the first snag. Apparently defragmentation happens on Macs as well and is one of the main causes for Boot Camp not being able to allocate space for the Windows partition. An hour later of searching, there were two solutions and it is one of those classic time-versus-money tradeoff. One is to fork out about $30+ for a defrag program on a Mac (yes, they don't have defrag programs. Normally not needed but is needed for dual boots) and the other is to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD and "reinstall" the OS. Obviously I chose the latter and an hour later, it's fixed.

So the partition has been done and started the Windows installation. 1.5 hours later, all is looking peachy when I hit the second snag. Windows doesn't seem to like running the installation for the drivers needed on some Mac devices and keyboard mappings. A Google Chrome download and half an hour later of researching, managed to fix it and now moving on to the most critical part of the process, the second install. Crossing my fingers while running the second install and another hour later everything seems to be working just fine. No weird messages or anything yet but I'm still going to keep an eye on my Windows account for the next month or so just to be sure that I am in the clear.

I feel such a geek yet at the same time it feels oddly satisfying that you are confronted with a complex computer problem and manage to solve it. Probably the next geekiest thing to do now is to get a second computer by building it from scratch. But for now, everything is looking good. Will probably try to install the games that I've bought later when I finish downloading the driver updates, windows updates and a few more other things.

Windows 7 is pretty so now I have two pretty OSs to use. Yummy. Probably might try to do a triple boot system if I need to use Linux-specific stuff in uni.

Next project: Daylesford day trip, the almost-ages-ago Tasmania trip and probabilistic modeling project.

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Old Photos

Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 3:52 AM | Posted by Juwen
At long last, the photos from Fernando and Onna's wedding has been post-processed and uploaded. Took me a long time to do it with very little skill and experience doing it but I finally got there. Be warned, there are 110 photos on the slideshow, so it will take awhile to go through all of it. Alternatively, I've also uploaded them on Facebook for those who would like to take their own sweet time critiquing my (almost non-existent) skills. And they are very much welcomed. I was also surprised that even though I only kept about 300+ photos from the actual wedding day itself, about a third came back as usable. Thought it was going to be a lot less. Enjoy.

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Quarter-century with Chips, Please...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 2:32 AM | Posted by Juwen
Oh kay, this is the earth...

As some of you may or may not know, the 14th was my birthday. So what happened on my birthday? I got up early Saturday morning to catch a train to the suburbs to tutor a student. Yay for more money. Came back and took a nap and just woke up in time to take a shower and then off to meet a bunch of people at the train station to go to Camberwell to Sofia's for dinner. Fairly big group with about 20 people there for the dinner. It was a good time talking to most of them but it was pretty hard considering a group that big and also how busy that place was on a Saturday. Incidentally, our pastor and extended families were there for another birthday, unknowingly. It's their second daughter's birthday on Sunday and they were there to celebrate as well. But I was soon to discover that I was going to be upstaged by her. When the cake came out for my pastor's daughter, half of my group left and went to their table while saying "Sorry Juwen". I light-heartedly gave the wth-look at them but fair enough. Cute children over smelly old man. That's just the way it is. Anyway, good dinner. Then went to Markov for some drinks (for those who have done probability, no. It's not him or anything related to him) and had a beer and two cocktails. Not a bad place for drinks. And then went to church to clean.

Yeah. Not exactly my average birthday but it's nice. My other birthday's are normally a lot quieter. Waaaay quieter. I was actually trying to have a very very very quiet birthday but obviously it blew up in my face. I glad it did. This birthday marked a few things. For one, this is the first birthday where all my exams were done before the birthday. It is also one of the biggest turn-ups for breakfast/lunch/dinner (probably top 3). Also the first time I had my thunder stolen but it's ok (it's the pastor's daughter we're talking about here). And Sofia's was also the first place I had my birthday dinner when I first came to Melbourne with a failed attempt to get me drunk. But they passed with flying colours to making my stomach feel really painful.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes in person, on Facebook and that one SMS. Also, thanks for making me use more Lolspeak. It certainly trains me to make the LolCafe a reality.

Ok, in other news, I ordered a copy of Windows 7 so that I can get right into playing games. Since I can't really do the download, I'll just have to wait for the DVD to come. So the DVD has been sent by FedEx from Singapore which I was like "Seriously?". Isn't there a place in Australia that would send the DVD? I mean they should have a place right? Anyway, I have been tracking the order and it arrived in the local FedEx office on Friday late afternoon. Thinking that they don't deliver on the weekend, they should come on Monday right? Wrong. Monday afternoon and still no DVD and when I checked back at the tracking, they displayed the status as "Package not due for delivery". What part of "Priority Package" don't they understand? This is beginning to look like the time when I ordered stuff using UPS, took an unusually long and convoluted trip for it to get here. At least FedEx is not convoluted but it certainly took it's time. If it were DHL, they'd be knocking at my door waking me up from my sleep. Not cool FedUp. Not cool.

I've also started doing a side project with a friend on doing some probabilistic modeling of spending habits of customers. It's been quite cool so far and hope that we can do quite a fair bit of analysis before submitting our solution. It's a pretty long shot but hopefully it is worthy of the prize the company is giving out to the most robust solution. By the way, that figure is about US$10,000. Yup. We wantz it, k? It's times like these I sometimes feel like going back to math again but I guess that is going to have to wait. I miss math. Or any math related problem and/or subject.

An interesting article on putting a price on marriage, in particular for the men if one goes sour or the death of a child or spouse. Makes you wonder how true is it that some men who are divorced suffer so much monetarily like depicted in some TV shows or movies. Best example is Two and a Half Men.

But I'm le tired...

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Not me...Him!

Friday, November 13, 2009 at 6:49 PM | Posted by Juwen
Day 25:
I thank God for being the God of all, saving me the sinner, sustaining me the weak, empowering me the timid and gave me the unworthy Grace and Mercy. To Him be all praise and glory.

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I Can Haz Lolz? Plz?

at 12:20 AM | Posted by Juwen
Day 23:
I thank God for my sister though she can be a pain sometimes (like most siblings), she's a great sister. Random but great. I'd blame some of her friends for that.

Day 24:
I thank God for my parents that though I can be a pain (like most children), they still take care of us even after so long and give us every opportunity to do what we like and succeed.

And now the exams are over. The Java exam wasn't as bad as I thought it was but the amount of writing that we have to do was insane. From the word go I have been writing non-stop for 2 hours. I was quite surprised that the answer booklet didn't burn up from the massive friction burns from my pen and I think I broke the sound barrier writing. I think I made a few mistakes because I can't really think on my feet with so much adrenaline flowing through my veins. Ironic really, that I think the more adrenaline I have the less likely I would do anything. I'll just freeze. So much for the "fight or flight" mechanism. Anyway, I'm glad that it is now over.

Now I can go back to the true work, editing photos. Time to process the massive backlog of photos especially the wedding photos. So much to do. But I don't have my card reader. BUT WHEN I DO, I have so much to do =P.

Oh and I've been starting to be adept at Lolspeak that it's not funny. I'm starting to sustain whole conversations in LolSpeak. Quite cool but just shows how much of a nerd I am. K?

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To Defenestrate or Not?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 11:30 PM | Posted by Juwen
Day 21:
I thank God for my primary and secondary school. Some of the best years of my life happen in these two institutions not to mention my education. And all without a care about the real world.

Day 22:
I thank God for the church I'm in. Despite some of the church's shortcomings, we still continue to teach and learn faithfully from God's word which is something that is lacking in a lot of church's today.

It's now approaching the home stretch in the thanksgiving roll call. It's been quite difficult to think and reflect on something everyday but at least it is teaching to put trivial things aside or even some of the worries currently going through.

It's another 2 more days before the last paper and I still haven't touched the Java books yet. I should be starting like now. Speaking of Java, I finally got my last Java assignment marks and I am quite happy of the results. Included in the results is a bonus 1% to the final assessment. But after the Java exam, beware Melbourne University people. The gloating from RMIT students will begin and Facebook flooding will be eminent. I highly recommend you to not read this blog from Thursday onwards until you finish your exams.

What have I been doing wasting time instead of studying or practicing coding? I've been busy plotting my subjects for the rest of my course (aka. 12 more subjects). I was plotting to be able to take all the computer graphics, security and cryptography and network subjects. And I think I have succeeded, with the exception of a possible subject clash. So, hopefully I would be able to do computer graphics, set up security and cryptographic measures on networks. In other words, I would be the cyber cafe uncle/ah beng.

So I was about to get the Windows 7 upgrade from Microsoft's student deal and it is great that I can get the 64-bit Windows 7 Professional for $50. Pretty good deal. But then a thought just came. The deal was on upgrading a previous version of Windows with upgrading from Vista being fairly straight forward while XP is quite annoying but can be done. After reading their FAQs about the deal and of Windows 7, I find Microsoft's push or addressing of the operating system is quite something. It is either that they are so full of themselves or just "capitalizing" on a well known fact. Whenever you read something about getting Windows 7, they will only mention two things. One is to get a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed and two is to get the upgrade software to upgrade your current Windows. Even when reading stuff about installing, they will only mention two things. One is upgrading from the current version of Windows Vista and two is the do a clean install for XP. The stupid thing is that although the upgrade software is meant to just upgrade from Vista it can also do a full clean install (ie. as if you didn't have an operating system). But if you actually didn't have Windows in your hard drive you can't use the upgrade, you have to get the full product which in most cases is another $100++ at least, as far as the EULA is concerned. If Microsoft really wanted to go down this line of having an upgrade software and a full upgrade, they should have done the upgrade as strictly an upgrade and will not be able to clean install the operating system. What they have done now is essentially there is no real difference between the upgrade and the full version. You just pay an additional $100 just for the legality of installing a new OS on a hard drive/computer with no prior Windows in it.

What I'm trying to say is that Microsoft isn't exactly making their stuff accessible to the general public. Just displaying the options of getting a new PC and upgrading from a current Windows AND neglecting the millions of people who would like to install Windows on their current PCs with a blank hard drive just isn't the smart thing to do. If they really want to win over Mac users or even Linux users who have been using their respective OS for yonks, they should be having clear options on getting and installing Windows. By virtue that they are just pushing marketing the upgrade software waaaaaaay more than the full product just says that "We are still the majority OS around. Conform to us by buying a new PC! Or upgrade because we know you have Windows! To the rest of the world, shame on you." It is even worse that, as stated above, there is essentially no difference between the upgrade and the full version of the software as far as installation is concerned.

I guess I can understand their severity of fixing the sins of Vista, but pushing yourselves as an exclusive software isn't going to help you lots. Maybe that is why Microsoft is spending an insane amount of money in advertising to do some damage control. Even then some of their advertising does more damage than actually fixing it (read: Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ads). I sincerely hope that they change their upgrade plans and document their FAQs a lot better otherwise they are not going to maintain the monopoly on the OS market.

O Hai!

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Valuable Perspective

Monday, November 9, 2009 at 1:32 AM | Posted by Juwen
Time for a triple update

Day 18:
I thank God for the many friends that come and go. Through them I have learned a lot of life's lessons, both good and bad.

Day 19:
I thank God for the games we play both in the past and in the present. Games should be called Buy-One-Get-[insert multiplier]-Free packages.

Day 20:
I thank God for OCF that I have learned a lot about the Bible and have a much deeper understanding of it. Also for the opportunity to serve in various parts of OCF that I'd be humble and not self-seeking.

My Database Concepts exam was easier than I thought it would be but it is by no means another walk in the park like the first paper. I had the fortune to finish the paper with about 10 minutes to spare but of course you can't leave the exam hall with so little time left. So I did some "doodling". In the exam, they gave out scrap paper that required us to fill in our names, student number and seat number. Kinda odd if that paper is going to be discarded at the end of the exam and has our names on it so I thought it is going to be used in case you had something right but in the exam booklet you had something wrong. Quite typical when I was in Melbourne Uni and had my first experience marking exam papers. You are given marks on something that you write on the blank side of the exam booklet (which is for rough paper) that is right even if in the lined paged you got it wrong. So I decided to write something in case the exam markers were reading that piece of scrap paper. I wrote something in LolSpeak about being sorry for disturbing the students in the exam hall because I was bored and I promised that I won't do it again. The moment I finished writing the famous "Kthxbai." the exam supervisor called for pens to be down. Quite chun eh.

Anyway, it is good that I have 6 more days before my last paper so I have time to rest. Managed to have pretty much a whole day out on Saturday with breakfast, rowing, napping, drinks and clean church. The rowing was quite something. Took us awhile to figure out how to steer the boat but we learned fast. I rowed for a mere 15 minutes and already I had 2 blisters. I've never had blisters before so you can imagine that I was pretty shocked about it occurring so easily.

Resuming from the few posts before this on the few things that I have been a bit peeved at lately. I think that a lot of people (or at least the ones I know) have a very shallow understanding on the value of goods. Or even the ethics concerning the value of goods. People are unwilling to spend money on a great and polished product just because that you can get it somewhere off the internet for free (and illegal, whether you like it or not). Classic example is of course music but it goes on to videos, games and software. Speaking from a former minor pirate of music and games point of view, I had that same sort of understanding. I think the reason people have this level of understanding is just a matter of perspective. I think that us Christians have been bombarded with the messages from the Bible on not living for the now but live in light of the future, not gratifying the current pleasures of the world because of the promise of what is to come. In some sense I think that same principle also applies when it comes to short changing goods and services.

For example, Photoshop. In light of the affordability of DSLRs, everyone now have access to some sort of professional camera equipment and the need for access to post-processing starts to increase as well. Now everyone (including myself) can take the easy way out, download a cracked version of Photoshop/Lightroom/Aperture and install it in out computers and away we go because we want it now with no strings attached. It is even worse for the students to take on this route all in the name of "It's too expensive" or "Why should I spend money when I can download it?". While Jesus has some things to say about this indirectly (say Matthew 22:15-22) I shall say a few things about the more practical things to look at. Firstly, open source software. While obviously open source software isn't as powerful as the commercial software, there are alternatives (like GIMP in place for Photoshop) which does help out and they get the job more or less done. Best thing is that it is free. With more and more people contributing to open source software there are enough free alternatives to try and you'd be surprised at how much people can develop a program just on their free time with zero monetary demands. Second, for the students there are places to get (legitimate) copies of commercial software at fairly ridiculously slashed prices from the RRP, by virtue of being a student. I got Lightroom for around 25% of the full price and you get all the features, not some reduced functionality half baked program. For those who are working, you have the means to get the full priced ones. No excuse. And thirdly, even after all that you're still thinking that it is too expensive, think about whether do you really need it. Some people just get their programs because it's handy to have around. Seriously, it needs more thought that just mere "Because I can" type attitude. If you really need it, save. We don't do enough of it to be frank.

Also some times I think that people are just so caught up with the issue of price that the forgot about the services the product give itself. Again it is all about perspective. For example, I got a $6 tuner from the App Store. That itself is a turn-off for so many people because it seems that anything more expensive than free in the App Store is too expensive. $6 for a tuner on the iPhone and I must it is a pretty good tuner. It's a great product and because of that I was happy to fork out the $6 which is cheaper than most tuners you'd get and even if you can get it that cheap, odds are that they are not as accurate (this tuner is accurate to 1/100th of a semitone). It is portable and it is not a separate device for you to carry around. Now ask the question again, would you spend the money now? I don't know but hopefully the perspective has been changed. Same goes for games especially on the iPhone. I've known a lot of people who have pages and pages of free games that sometimes don't really do squat and eventually when they do find a game that is off interest to them, spending even $1.30 for a game seems too much. Seriously, you can't spend $1.30 on a game but you can spend like $10 on junk food/snacks? But what about the thousands of people who don't have iPhones but have computers to play games on? When a new game comes out the price of a game can be quite high so what do you do? Of course the easy option is download the whole freaking game because there should be some guy who have cracked it already. But what are the more non-piracy moves? Same as before. You wait for the price to drop or save. It's not about the now. Think about it. Do you really need it? If yes, wait or save. If not, you are doing both.

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Thank God It's Thursday

Friday, November 6, 2009 at 12:12 AM | Posted by Juwen
Day 17:
I thank God for sustaining us despite our lapses in judgment on our health.

Thursdays are always good nights because it is TV night. Starting with Glee, CSI, Burn Notice, Family Guy and American Dad. Normally on most occasions I'm quite happy about it but when you just finished an exam on Wednesday and another exam on Friday with little studying done, it kinda kills your mood a bit. That didn't stop me from acting out my TV binging but it's the aftershock that really gets back at you.

It has been ages since I last ate something from Rose Garden, the best Chinese eating spot. Ever. They still haven't lost their touch.

So today I went to HSA to have a medical since I'm changing my visa from one student visa to another. Yeah, kinda crap but what to do. I'm fine with the medicals but when meeting with the doctor after the urine analysis, I'm left with the same problem as the last time I did my medical a year and a half ago. Blood in my urine. For the second time but apparently larger quantity than the last time. I think. I'm like seriously, wth man. Now I have to get another medical procedure for testing that nothing is wrong with my kidneys or anything else for that matter. This really is very annoying. And may I remind you that medical procedures here are not cheap even if you are under health cover. Now I somewhat don't mind that I get the result saying that my kidney is blown or something like that, at least that something serious is found and I'd be happy to fork out the expenses. But if the results came back like the last time, everything fine, I'll just exploded. Seriously, that would be a complete waste of money and time and if I am going to apply for Permanent Residency under my sister (which surprise surprise has medicals to it) I'm not going to go through this again for the third time. *punches kidneys* Make up your mind dammit!

On a slightly lighter note, I once suggested praying in LolSpeak but after about two seconds I'd withdraw. I draw the line at any prayer that starts off as "O hai Ceiling Cat!..." It's like an episode of American Dad where Francine lost her memory and went out with Jeff to some festival and Stan with Hayley was about to go after them when Stan said "Your mother is going out with your boyfriend. We get should get together to get back at them". Hayley replied "Daaaad!" and Stan said "Waaaaiiiitt...Daddy didn't think this through"

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Market Jam

Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 12:51 AM | Posted by Juwen
Well today it's going to be another double post on the thanksgiving roll thanks to my exam today, or rather tonight.

Day 15:
I thank God for photographs that allows us to capture His creation in all of its glory. As well as the joy of human expression that tells countless stories about another of God's creation.

Day 16:
I thank God for giving us work, that we are not to remain idle and just be that way. We get to do what we like (well most of the time) or at least to do something that we can freely explore our interests and to find contentment in work. I know, it's not something you'd normally give thanks for but think about it.

Well, since the roadtrip Monday I've still been on the irresponsible side. Yesterday we had a jamming session, the first one in quite a long time. But it is somewhat good to know and frustrating at the same time that the same problems still plague us. We pretty soon run out of ideas on what to play apart from our "god" of jamming songs, John Mayer. As usual, like almost all jamming sessions, we start off with a "prayer". That prayer is known as the Prayer of the Burning Room. Then there will be a mixed half-baked set of songs that we will just fairly adequately go along for the rest of the session and then we will end the session with another Prayer of the Burning Room. Good times.

Tonight's exam was quite tricky, probably the trickiest of the past questions. Lecturer said that the exam can be completed in 2 hours although it is a 3 hour exam. The only way you can complete it is that you know everything at the back of your hands but that is pretty hard to do considering it is a programming subject. Anyway, I hope that I've done well. I felt quite shaky when doing the exam because I don't know whether the program on paper works or not. Oh well, that is done and waiting for the next one on Friday.

There's a few things that have been going through my head lately that I've been quite peeved about. Let's start with the problem in marketing. I've noticed for a few years now that we OCFers have a problem in marketing. Seriously. Basic principle in marketing, if you don't believe in the product that you are selling no one is going to buy no matter how hard you try or lie. Like you don't endorse people to go visit some foreign place just because you hear it is good but you have never been there before. There have been many people that have come and gone, taken up the role of publicizing OCF July Camps, Belgrave Heights Easter Conventions, OCF Mission Month and the mother of all camps, OCF Australia Convention. And with all of this, there are people who actively turn up to help with publicity but not actually go for the event. Do you see the problem? We keep trying to encourage people to go for these events so that we get to experience various events, people and of course ultimately learn from what God has to say. But people are just publicizing for the sake of publicizing it. If I may go so far as to say, they don't quite "believe" in it or not interested about it. How can we be effective to get people to go if we have this attitude? Whatever good things you have to say about it, people would at the very least, on a sub-conscious level, think twice about going when they find out that the one publicizing it is not going.

Of course the marketing principles are not so straight forward in the real world but it does serve as a rule of thumb. For example, it may be that there are very very few people are actually free to go. But if you market it properly, the power of passive persuasion can change things around. Another example is also probably from OCF historical reasons that are too deep to go into but everyone sort of knows it is there. Getting people to go for July Camps and the OCF Convention are one of the hardest to get people going for two reasons. They quickly fly off at the first few days after their exams to spend time with family and friends. Or it is deemed as expensive. Again I still believe that when an event is marketed properly with the right people behind it, tables can be turned. Theoretically.

While I can understand they publicizing is an act of service that is something that everyone can do in a Christian body, I think we have to be careful about it when we consider helping out when we have little or no intention of going. At best, you'll get a mediocre effort and in the worse case, you are not going to get anyone convinced and that will give a really hard time for the corresponding committees to try and break even on their expenses. I would suggest, in the context of OCF events, if you have been there and done it, it is probably alright to endorse it. If you haven't, don't take up the microphone doing publicity stints about the event. Few are going to believe you.

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Camera/Lens Fail

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 2:09 AM | Posted by Juwen
Another late update due to a whole day outing to the regional Victoria section.

Day 14:
I thank God for movies that though they blur the lines of morality or the socially acceptable norms, they give us plenty to think, laugh, connect and feel about ourselves and others. Often times, they do sometimes tell our stories.

Yup, despite the fact that I have exams on Wednesday and Friday this week, I went for a road trip out to Daylesford about 1.5 hours drive from the city. It was a series of unfortunate events plus a few plus points along the way but we've had our fun. By the end of the trip, we've all gotten so crazy that we start to think that this is more than our usual self. But only just a little over. As usual, being the super minimalist photographer, I didn't take much. Even less because I'm still using mostly primes. But today was extra painful for me, worse than the Tasmanian trip. I've dropped my camera and all the lenses I brought along for the trip from waist height unto road. Thank goodness that Pentax stuff are built like tanks, most of them anyway. And all of them still work.

Time for shower and a long contemplative session with myself before actually studying (aka sleeping)

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Unresponsive

Monday, November 2, 2009 at 12:22 AM | Posted by Juwen
Day 13:
I thank God for giving us dreams that we can pursue what we are passionate in. Including those weird non-sensical dreams when we are sleeping. Gives us something funny to talk about.

I was actually quite surprised that nothing rowdy (relatively speaking) on Halloween night. I had the "misfortune" to clean church at midnight on a Halloween night. Not a smart move. But yeah, nothing happened.

The weather has been crazy lately with the appearance of thunderstorms for the first in a very very long time. Followed by hot days and so the humidity built up. Anywhere indoors is just absurdly humid. Then today, after a few days of hot sunny humid days, the temperature decided to take a dive in the morning. Plus fog. When I woke up from my 2 hour sleep last night, I felt like I entered the twilight zone. So I proceeded to have my usual "coffee" hit, two cups of Milo. As I was drinking and peering towards the balcony with the blinds down, all of the sudden my neighbour's head just peered slowly at the corner of my eye. That was scary given the current weather of fog and cold temperatures and I didn't flinch.

I think at that time my brain was trying to decide on whether to pee in my pants, drop my cup of Milo or scream. But given the indecisiveness of my brain, the adrenaline had time to drop to normal levels and rational thinking took over the helm. So no matter how scary the incident is like, the most you get is a slight jolt but nothing more. And I've noticed that this has always been the case for as far as I can remember. When I was in London in 1996, we visited Sega City, everything and all things Sega in one building. So there was this attraction called the House of Grandish where people go into this pitch dark room and to sit in chairs with headphones over your head and you place your hands on the globes at the armrests. They take in about a group of 12 people at any one time so obviously some group dynamics will contribute to the scare factor. So they play this ghoulish sadistic scenario over the headphones and they record your heartbeat through your hands placed on the globes as you progress through the scenario. This was more than most of my family and extended family can handle and so you'd hear them screaming around me but I was still unphased. So at the end of it all, they print the recorded heart rate and have a short psychoanalysis based on the readings. Mine was just like a normal heart reading while the rest had serious reactions to the scenario. The staff handling the attraction was also very surprised at my results to see it so steady.

I think maybe I have a very fast cooldown period for scares or events and maybe I'm just unable to respond to external factors. Which may explain a lot of things in my life. I don't respond to a lot of things when the time comes. I don't respond to assignments (who hasn't had this problem?), feelings, people and sometimes even God. Being able to respond to something or someone will get you results, both positive or negative, but not responding is probably the worst thing to be in. Not only will you have missed opportunities but you will sometimes end up losing more than you bargained for. I think I have mentioned before that I am not a gambling kind of man (gambling in the general sense of the word) and because of that I lose out on more. I think it's just me being unresponsive. The only time you will get some sort of an immediate response from me is by poking me with a stick. And even that is not guaranteed. Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any injuries when poking me with a stick or any poking of sorts.

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Intell-actually

Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 3:10 PM | Posted by Juwen
Day 12:
I thank God for giving intellect, that we may understand the things that you have placed in this world but more importantly to also understand your salvation plan through the Bible.

And so for the other extreme. I also like to indulge in most and all things intellectually stimulating. Anything and almost everything under the sun. Topics ranging from the hardcore theoretical physics and maths and to history and to apologetics. Artistic interpretations, psychological impacts on various areas are among some of my weaker subjects but still something I like talking or at the very least, listening.

It's quite funny that sometimes with certain people, they don't take me seriously when I'm in the intellectual mode. Also sometimes I feel unsatisfied that I'm not challenged intellectually. I guess that was one of the primary reasons that I stopped my PhD topic. It has stagnated to the point where I don't learn anything anymore. Having to come back to study something else, it a breath of fresh intellectual air. With a twist of mindless coding.

With a liking towards intellectual talk, there is a price for me to pay. There are things where I feel intellectual, having contributed to the conversation, and yet I feel like I don't know what I'm talking about. Like I don't know the deeper truths of the topic. Those times its when I feel, ironically, stupid. It's a slow learning process for me, trying to pick myself up every time I think I have made a fool of myself. But I guess with things like these, I don't have the necessary experience to talk about such things. Perhaps I should learn to shut up more and listen while mentally taking notes.

On a different note, the drums on the Wicked soundtrack is epic.

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Extremities

Friday, October 30, 2009 at 4:23 PM | Posted by Juwen
I should post something before I go out later and somehow painting the town red.

Day 11:
I thank God for laughter. Best way to feel like there isn't a worry in the world.

2 weeks to go. Not easy this 25 day challenge.

I'm a man with two extremes. Or I'd like to think of myself that way. On one hand, I like to dwell in all things nonsensical. To those who know me for awhile know this pretty much the hard way. Cartoons like Spongebob, Dexter's Lab, Fairly Odd Parents, Rocko's Modern Life and more form the basis of my nonsense. Lemme break it down for you starting with Spongebob. This is almost literally the epitome of randomness. It's so random that it's funny. Who knew that yellow sponge would be such a great hit? Randomness is the answer. I mean you have to be pretty random to envision a sea creature living in a pineapple. And Mr Krabbs has a whale for a daughter. Patrick who's not the sharpest tool in the shed. And a squirrel who lives in a tree under water with a Texan upbringing. Actually come to think of it, sounds like this whole cartoon has somewhat Southern influences. If there is an epitome of randomness, there must be a pioneer. That would be Rocko's Modern Life. This is sort of like Ren and Stimpy grossness mixed with shear randomness. Everything is so exaggerated about everyday living that it just becomes random. A lone wallaby with a bull named Heffer (funny that name was chosen) and a obsessive compulsive nerdy turtle Filbert having annoying neighbours of frogs. Oh, and the ever adorable yet kinda gross dog Spunky.

Dexter's Lab. Which kid who doesn't want to be an evil genius equipped with a lab and coat? Ok, Dexter's not evil but you get the idea. More mellowed nonsense with a touch of evil-genius type humour. Maybe that's why my social skills aren't exactly top notch. And now my favourite, Fairly Odd Parents. Not only is it random but it has some of the best execution of recurring jokes/nonsense in an episode. At some stage I would be in stitches laughing my head off thanks to the brilliance of the recurring jokes. I'd sometimes laugh to myself just even remembering the scene but of course try to suppress that in public. Again, my social skills needs more work.

Bottom line is there is an art to randomness and recurring jokes in stir up humour and/or nonsense. Some of the best comedians know this art and even then few know how to execute it well. I heart randomness.

Tune it tomorrow for the other extreme...

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