听见 冬天的离开 我在某年某月 醒过来
我想 我等 我期待 未来却不能因此安排
阴天 傍晚 车窗外 未来有一个人在等待
向左 向右 向前看 爱要拐几个弯才来
我遇见谁 会有怎样的对白 我等的人 他在多远的未来
我听见风 来自地铁和人海 我排着队 拿着爱的号码牌
我往前飞 飞过一片时间海 我们也常在爱情里受伤害
我看着路 梦的入口有点窄 我遇见你是最美的意外
终有一天 我的谜底会解开
*waits patiently for the responses*
it's a beautiful song. =)
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Happy birthday jxhuang
To the guy who shares my name: happy birthday! Pics from yesterday:
this guy's drunk
this guy's dunked
these guys really love the YMCA
So it's amazing how much chargrilled food we've consumed in the space of the first few months of the year. The food is actually getting better, tho, and amazingly we have stuff we can actually eat now. But food aside, last weekend was loads of fun, what with the song guessing courtesy of jxhuang's ipod. Is it mildly disturbing that chin manages to identify cleardance clearwater revival songs within 5 seconds?
this guy's drunk
this guy's dunked
these guys really love the YMCA
So it's amazing how much chargrilled food we've consumed in the space of the first few months of the year. The food is actually getting better, tho, and amazingly we have stuff we can actually eat now. But food aside, last weekend was loads of fun, what with the song guessing courtesy of jxhuang's ipod. Is it mildly disturbing that chin manages to identify cleardance clearwater revival songs within 5 seconds?
Friday, March 26, 2004
i'm feeling lucky?
The other day i was fetching my sis home from RI (yes it's the first time i've been to RI in the driver's seat of a car, and the first time back there for a long while, how ironic) and she was complaining how she's hungry but there's no junk food in the house, so i should stop by and buy her some.
"You don't need to eat more junk food." (we're talking about the person who can sit down and finish up half a packet of cup jellies here.)
"yes i do"
"no you don't"
"yes i do"
"no you don't"
"yes i do"
"no you don't, infinity" (monkey island joke)
"your debating skills suck"
"phbbbbbt."
"infinity isn't even a real number. it doesn't count"
"so what counts, then?"
"something like googleplex. Yes i do googleplex times googleplex to the power of googleplex to the power of googleplex"
"no you don't, whatever you said plus 42"
"yes i do, whatever you said times 2"
"no you don't, plus one."
"..........."
yea we have really mature intellectual conversations. I put it down to all my brain cells being dedicated to bringing my beloved sister home safely.
oh and i didn't buy anything, coz my mum just made cheesecake that day. ^^
Which i didn't get to eat much of coz i had to go back to camp, but welllll. c'est la vie.
"You don't need to eat more junk food." (we're talking about the person who can sit down and finish up half a packet of cup jellies here.)
"yes i do"
"no you don't"
"yes i do"
"no you don't"
"yes i do"
"no you don't, infinity" (monkey island joke)
"your debating skills suck"
"phbbbbbt."
"infinity isn't even a real number. it doesn't count"
"so what counts, then?"
"something like googleplex. Yes i do googleplex times googleplex to the power of googleplex to the power of googleplex"
"no you don't, whatever you said plus 42"
"yes i do, whatever you said times 2"
"no you don't, plus one."
"..........."
yea we have really mature intellectual conversations. I put it down to all my brain cells being dedicated to bringing my beloved sister home safely.
oh and i didn't buy anything, coz my mum just made cheesecake that day. ^^
Which i didn't get to eat much of coz i had to go back to camp, but welllll. c'est la vie.
Monday, March 15, 2004
Happy birthday, Chin
What a nice condo. Water's such a major feature in this, and everyone knows that it's good fengshui to have nice fountains and ponds and things. (thanks for the tripod, chin)
And even better fengshui to get a shower of good fortune!
And yea here's a completely irrelevant picture of a bird's nest. isn't it fun to have unlimited film?
Chin's BBQ last night was actually pretty well done (no pun intended) with the food actually tasting pretty nice, which is an improvement from "food tasting edible" which was an improvement from "food looking edible" which was yet another improvement from "we actually got the fire started". I suppose this time it's better coz we didn't start the fire, it was always burnin' since the world's been tur.....er, since we got there.
As is customary with parties in the vicinity of a pool, even if it's not exactly within sight, Chin was poised for a wet goodbye, in what must've been one of the largest pool-dunking conspiracies ever. What a pity then, that as we were making our way away from the BBQ pits, the security guard came and said, rather enigmatically "there is no pool." Well i suppose it's all a figment of our imagination, aye?
So after walking around a bit while carrying a very-large and very-heavy chin, we find the pool, and then said security guard appears again to tell us that there's no swimming after 10pm. Which, i suppose, we had to concede, since it was 10:02pm. He must've been a lawyer in his past life or something. Sheeeesh.
So Chin got wet anyway, but in a less fun and less satisfying way. So much for organised anarchy. Why do we always end up getting scolded wherever we go? hmmmph.
Your name.....is mud. Ni!
It's been raining a lot the past few days, unfortunately for whoever decided to hold funfairs in big fields:
It really was quite big. And quite muddy.
The mud. Don't you think it forms nice patterns? Almost like geographical features.
Pour soul.
Just in case you think i'm fixated over the mud, here's a shot of intense concentration! Doesn't it just make you miss being in primary school?
Any and all attempts to reduce mud on my shoes ended in complete futility, so i went for french after that with rather noticably fashionable patterened shoes and jeans. This despite tying plastic bags around both my shoes which i so carefully coerced a parent to give me. It's quite funny when a kid stares at your feet, then at you, then breaks into a grin. =)
Oh and yes, any pictures from hereonafter are taken with a casio qv-r41. Still putting it thru the trials, so my blog will be pretty picture intensive for a while. But i suspect all my readers are on broadband, anyway, so who cares? If anyone's bothered by the loading times, just drop me a line and i'll relocate the pics to an external html page.
It really was quite big. And quite muddy.
The mud. Don't you think it forms nice patterns? Almost like geographical features.
Pour soul.
Just in case you think i'm fixated over the mud, here's a shot of intense concentration! Doesn't it just make you miss being in primary school?
Any and all attempts to reduce mud on my shoes ended in complete futility, so i went for french after that with rather noticably fashionable patterened shoes and jeans. This despite tying plastic bags around both my shoes which i so carefully coerced a parent to give me. It's quite funny when a kid stares at your feet, then at you, then breaks into a grin. =)
Oh and yes, any pictures from hereonafter are taken with a casio qv-r41. Still putting it thru the trials, so my blog will be pretty picture intensive for a while. But i suspect all my readers are on broadband, anyway, so who cares? If anyone's bothered by the loading times, just drop me a line and i'll relocate the pics to an external html page.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Bowling For Columbine
Just watched Bowling for Columbine, about a year? two? after it came out.
What struck me (apart from the horror of the school killings) was the renewed realisation of how deeply the culture around us can affect the mental filters through which we interpret the world. For those unfamiliar with the film, the case put forward is that the reason for the disproportionately high number of gun killings in the US is because of the culture of fear instilled in Americans by the media and various consumer corporations, as opposed to the more popular targets of too-easily available guns, poverty, racial diversity (and implied disparity), broken families, teenage angst from music and violent games etc. etc.
It's a sad reality how people sometimes form opinions based on imperfect information garnered almost entirely from what others tell them, which is likely to be influenced by their own agendas. People believe what they want to believe. The more discerning ones will reject certain hypotheses if they have information which makes it seem absurd, like how most people i know wil reject the violent computer game theory simply because they realise from personal experience why the link between violence in games translating to violence in real life is tenuous at best.
On the other hand, in issues where people have little personal experience in, they're likely to believe something that's logical. So since it's easy to see why readily available guns might contribute to such tragic events as the above, some people take that as the main/sole reason and plonk that in their mindset that such gun laws are bad, because they cause tragedies like these. Stupid liberal Americans with their constitutionally protected rights to arms. What many people fail to do is to go the next step, and ask that if such laws are the culprit, then why is the violent situation not replicated in other countries where it's easy to get guns? In the film, Moore rolls out statistics saying how there're 7 million guns in 10 million homes in Canada but nowhere near as many gun killings as in the US, proportionately speaking. Not knowing such stats, many people think gun control is the way to go, the only way to go, hence all the activists advocating gun restrictions in the US.
I guess my point is that most problems are multi-faceted and not that simply explained, and although many people realise this academically, They tend not to analyse every situation and problem to such a depth, simply because there's no too much information to process and too little time. We probably only think deeply on issues that concern us directly. But even then, our opinions are heavily influenced by the opinions of the people around us, the media, the culture, etc. After all, it's much easier to just hang on to someone else's theory rather than develop your own, isn't it? Especially when it comes to things like government policy. Baaaa.
Recommended viewing: Bowling for Columbine, by michael moore. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a film-documentary about gun control in the US and the culture of fear, focused primarily on the human element exemplified by the victims of the Columbine, Colorado and Flint, Michigan school shootings. Anyone who wants to watch just lemme know.
What struck me (apart from the horror of the school killings) was the renewed realisation of how deeply the culture around us can affect the mental filters through which we interpret the world. For those unfamiliar with the film, the case put forward is that the reason for the disproportionately high number of gun killings in the US is because of the culture of fear instilled in Americans by the media and various consumer corporations, as opposed to the more popular targets of too-easily available guns, poverty, racial diversity (and implied disparity), broken families, teenage angst from music and violent games etc. etc.
It's a sad reality how people sometimes form opinions based on imperfect information garnered almost entirely from what others tell them, which is likely to be influenced by their own agendas. People believe what they want to believe. The more discerning ones will reject certain hypotheses if they have information which makes it seem absurd, like how most people i know wil reject the violent computer game theory simply because they realise from personal experience why the link between violence in games translating to violence in real life is tenuous at best.
On the other hand, in issues where people have little personal experience in, they're likely to believe something that's logical. So since it's easy to see why readily available guns might contribute to such tragic events as the above, some people take that as the main/sole reason and plonk that in their mindset that such gun laws are bad, because they cause tragedies like these. Stupid liberal Americans with their constitutionally protected rights to arms. What many people fail to do is to go the next step, and ask that if such laws are the culprit, then why is the violent situation not replicated in other countries where it's easy to get guns? In the film, Moore rolls out statistics saying how there're 7 million guns in 10 million homes in Canada but nowhere near as many gun killings as in the US, proportionately speaking. Not knowing such stats, many people think gun control is the way to go, the only way to go, hence all the activists advocating gun restrictions in the US.
I guess my point is that most problems are multi-faceted and not that simply explained, and although many people realise this academically, They tend not to analyse every situation and problem to such a depth, simply because there's no too much information to process and too little time. We probably only think deeply on issues that concern us directly. But even then, our opinions are heavily influenced by the opinions of the people around us, the media, the culture, etc. After all, it's much easier to just hang on to someone else's theory rather than develop your own, isn't it? Especially when it comes to things like government policy. Baaaa.
Recommended viewing: Bowling for Columbine, by michael moore. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a film-documentary about gun control in the US and the culture of fear, focused primarily on the human element exemplified by the victims of the Columbine, Colorado and Flint, Michigan school shootings. Anyone who wants to watch just lemme know.
Il pleut des cordes (no i don't know past tense yet)
Gentle readers, it's time once again to update on the completely inane stuff which happens in my life!
So last monday it rained cords from the moment i woke up in camp till the time i slept late late that night, which must have been the longest continuous rainshower in recent months. My sis was rather pleased, because she loves the kind of rain which makes gentle soothing sounds, and isn't heavy enough to obscure vision terribly, or thunderstormy enough to interrupt the usage of our electronic equipment. (read: she hates having to stop using the com during a thunderstorm for fear of a power surge) And then she told me the story of how it was such a waste that they had PE that day, which the teacher spent doing, in the following order:
1. explaining what they were hoping to cover during the next PE lesson (eh, LESSON?)
2. turning a blind eye while they did what they wanted
3. Taking out a small guitar and passing around song sheets so everyone could sing such classics as 'que sera sera'.
How ridiculous. She also has this little booklet thingie which she claims is a PE textbook. It's got stuff inside like why nutrition is good and how to do stretching exercises and stuff like that.
"must you actually read it? is there a test or something?"
"they'll ask questions sometimes.."
"like what, 'have you read the book?"
I suppose this is the result of all those higher educationally qualified PE teachers that NIE trains nowadays. Which i suppose is good in a way, but what a culture shock in any case.
And thus concludes the inane update into my....er.... my sister's life. I suppose the only thing one could conclude from this is that i'm making good my resolution to talk to my family more.
So last monday it rained cords from the moment i woke up in camp till the time i slept late late that night, which must have been the longest continuous rainshower in recent months. My sis was rather pleased, because she loves the kind of rain which makes gentle soothing sounds, and isn't heavy enough to obscure vision terribly, or thunderstormy enough to interrupt the usage of our electronic equipment. (read: she hates having to stop using the com during a thunderstorm for fear of a power surge) And then she told me the story of how it was such a waste that they had PE that day, which the teacher spent doing, in the following order:
1. explaining what they were hoping to cover during the next PE lesson (eh, LESSON?)
2. turning a blind eye while they did what they wanted
3. Taking out a small guitar and passing around song sheets so everyone could sing such classics as 'que sera sera'.
How ridiculous. She also has this little booklet thingie which she claims is a PE textbook. It's got stuff inside like why nutrition is good and how to do stretching exercises and stuff like that.
"must you actually read it? is there a test or something?"
"they'll ask questions sometimes.."
"like what, 'have you read the book?"
I suppose this is the result of all those higher educationally qualified PE teachers that NIE trains nowadays. Which i suppose is good in a way, but what a culture shock in any case.
And thus concludes the inane update into my....er.... my sister's life. I suppose the only thing one could conclude from this is that i'm making good my resolution to talk to my family more.
Saturday, March 06, 2004
No test today i hope
I've finally realised why it is that i enjoy french lessons so much. It's the whole spirit of independent non-graded learning.... of learning what you wanna learn, because you wanna learn. You receive from the lessons as much as you give to them, and the same goes for not-cheating-on-homework. It reminds me stunningly of S econs, where there are these sort of guided lessons to help point you in the right direction, but lots of the actual learning is done by you.
now all i need is for the same thing to happen to my chinese.
now all i need is for the same thing to happen to my chinese.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
Lecon 1
Lessons in life, enrolled in by being receptive and going around with an open mind and an eye which has no coloured filters of bias which screens what you see.
Today's lessons:
1. Appearances often disguise the true nature of things. (From watching the beauty and the beast special edition VCD!) (and after analysing the score to comptine D'un autre ete and realising it's actually not that hard after all)
true and duh as it may seem, it's still a very common unconscious mistake that people make to judge by appearances.
2. There are really a lot of things you can get high on, like the sheer sincerity and profound concern of friendship, coupled with the joy God brings. ^^ (apologies to non-christian readers)
3. Religious logical impasse: Isn't faith a rather circular concept? If i have faith, then i'll start to notice more things around me as being due to God's will, as opposed to mere coincidence. Somehow perhaps the essence of faith is that it predisposes a person to accept the 'faith-related' explanation when faced with a situation, ceteris paribus. And then a sort of positive feedback mechanism kicks in, and faith builds on itself. So how do you tell that what you believe in is really there, and not just a figment of your imagination?
A friend said that flying in an airplane is an act of faith. You trust your life to the pilot, that he'd get you to the destination safely. You do this because the pilot has a past record of being able to fly planes. Is religion similar? Lots of people i know are happy and fulfilled because of the faith and trust they place in God. Is that not good enough, even if there isn't actually a God? hmm.
4. Unity is not equated to uniformity, nor does it result from uniformity.
Yea, irrelevant and rather off topic, but well it's something thought provoking that chanced my way today anyway.
And in other irrelevant news, thai ang ku kuehs are the cutest i've ever seen. fullstop.
P.S. I hate how accented letters don't seem to come out on blogger.
Today's lessons:
1. Appearances often disguise the true nature of things. (From watching the beauty and the beast special edition VCD!) (and after analysing the score to comptine D'un autre ete and realising it's actually not that hard after all)
true and duh as it may seem, it's still a very common unconscious mistake that people make to judge by appearances.
2. There are really a lot of things you can get high on, like the sheer sincerity and profound concern of friendship, coupled with the joy God brings. ^^ (apologies to non-christian readers)
3. Religious logical impasse: Isn't faith a rather circular concept? If i have faith, then i'll start to notice more things around me as being due to God's will, as opposed to mere coincidence. Somehow perhaps the essence of faith is that it predisposes a person to accept the 'faith-related' explanation when faced with a situation, ceteris paribus. And then a sort of positive feedback mechanism kicks in, and faith builds on itself. So how do you tell that what you believe in is really there, and not just a figment of your imagination?
A friend said that flying in an airplane is an act of faith. You trust your life to the pilot, that he'd get you to the destination safely. You do this because the pilot has a past record of being able to fly planes. Is religion similar? Lots of people i know are happy and fulfilled because of the faith and trust they place in God. Is that not good enough, even if there isn't actually a God? hmm.
4. Unity is not equated to uniformity, nor does it result from uniformity.
Yea, irrelevant and rather off topic, but well it's something thought provoking that chanced my way today anyway.
And in other irrelevant news, thai ang ku kuehs are the cutest i've ever seen. fullstop.
P.S. I hate how accented letters don't seem to come out on blogger.
Follow your dreams?
From Computer Times, 3rd March 04
(gooooooo linus!)
Game boy advances
Growing up in small-town America, where his father was posted for a job in the early 1990s, Linus Tan would sit for hours at public computer terminals in supermarkets.
There, the nine-year-old taught himself programming with help from the files of old DOS computers.
When he returned to Singapore at age 12, he wrote simple programs that would make the computer recite spelling and dictation passages for his younger sister.
Now, at 19, the final-year student at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) already owns Praxis Studios, a start-up that markets computer games he develops.
One of his games, a management simulation called iBusiness, is being used by students at a local university.
Now, the budding tech-nopreneur is planning to publish and distribute the second game online. A real-time strategy offering, Teridian Shadow made its debut at a prestigious international conference in France. The game is written in C ++.
His efforts earned him the IT Youth Award at the Singapore Computer Society's annual IT Leader Awards last week.
Instead of opting for a place in junior college, the former student of Raffles Institution chose NYP which offers a diploma in IT with a game development module.
The flexible course structure at NYP gave him room to pursue his game development projects. At the same time, he gained business acumen and exceptional money sense by liaising with game industry experts.
Stepping out
While most game deve-lopers look for external publishers to market their games, Mr Tan wants to publish and distribute Teri-dian Shadow on his own.
His rationale: External publishers may pump in the funds to market your title. But no matter how popular the game becomes, the developer gets only three per cent of the royalties. 'If I publish the game on my own, the royalties are all mine.'
Although he plans to grow his company, the youth has set his sights on his first love - game creation.
'In Singapore, most good programmers are promoted to managerial posts, in which they don't do programming at all,' said Mr Tan. 'There is no maturity in some of the programs because much of the coding is done by fresh graduates.'
So Mr Tan wants to remain in the programming world for as long as possible. 'For a young company, software development is the key. Once you get that right, the rest will follow.'
(gooooooo linus!)
Game boy advances
Growing up in small-town America, where his father was posted for a job in the early 1990s, Linus Tan would sit for hours at public computer terminals in supermarkets.
There, the nine-year-old taught himself programming with help from the files of old DOS computers.
When he returned to Singapore at age 12, he wrote simple programs that would make the computer recite spelling and dictation passages for his younger sister.
Now, at 19, the final-year student at Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) already owns Praxis Studios, a start-up that markets computer games he develops.
One of his games, a management simulation called iBusiness, is being used by students at a local university.
Now, the budding tech-nopreneur is planning to publish and distribute the second game online. A real-time strategy offering, Teridian Shadow made its debut at a prestigious international conference in France. The game is written in C ++.
His efforts earned him the IT Youth Award at the Singapore Computer Society's annual IT Leader Awards last week.
Instead of opting for a place in junior college, the former student of Raffles Institution chose NYP which offers a diploma in IT with a game development module.
The flexible course structure at NYP gave him room to pursue his game development projects. At the same time, he gained business acumen and exceptional money sense by liaising with game industry experts.
Stepping out
While most game deve-lopers look for external publishers to market their games, Mr Tan wants to publish and distribute Teri-dian Shadow on his own.
His rationale: External publishers may pump in the funds to market your title. But no matter how popular the game becomes, the developer gets only three per cent of the royalties. 'If I publish the game on my own, the royalties are all mine.'
Although he plans to grow his company, the youth has set his sights on his first love - game creation.
'In Singapore, most good programmers are promoted to managerial posts, in which they don't do programming at all,' said Mr Tan. 'There is no maturity in some of the programs because much of the coding is done by fresh graduates.'
So Mr Tan wants to remain in the programming world for as long as possible. 'For a young company, software development is the key. Once you get that right, the rest will follow.'
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
Today's post is brought to you by the letters N, S, and the number...
I promised myself i would try not to do this, but:
81 is the special number for today.
quatre-vingt un. hyaku-jiu ichi. 八十一.
I hope i got that last one right.
Recently i've started a life philosophy that goes along the lines of "I should try to step out of my comfort zone more, and try new and different things i've never done, because these new interesting experiences are what makes life worth living, and you gain insights from broadening your horizons."
Of course that philosophy lasted about 1 day or so until my boss called me today and told me i had to go to China for 18 days for some exercise. China? Outfield? Now? Give me my comfort zone please thank you very much.
So i have now modified my philosophy v1.1: "Don't do stupid things if the possible total gain from it (forget perceived gains, that's too defeatist an argument when it comes to widening perception) is really miniscule compared to the perceived suffering."
Please don't shoot that down, i'm trying to rationalise away any remnants of my desire to go to China. I'd like very much to stay out of the wilderness, with people i know and will miss greatly if i go away, and in a place where i can seek out a more comfortable way to step out of my comfort zone. ^^
81 is the special number for today.
quatre-vingt un. hyaku-jiu ichi. 八十一.
I hope i got that last one right.
Recently i've started a life philosophy that goes along the lines of "I should try to step out of my comfort zone more, and try new and different things i've never done, because these new interesting experiences are what makes life worth living, and you gain insights from broadening your horizons."
Of course that philosophy lasted about 1 day or so until my boss called me today and told me i had to go to China for 18 days for some exercise. China? Outfield? Now? Give me my comfort zone please thank you very much.
So i have now modified my philosophy v1.1: "Don't do stupid things if the possible total gain from it (forget perceived gains, that's too defeatist an argument when it comes to widening perception) is really miniscule compared to the perceived suffering."
Please don't shoot that down, i'm trying to rationalise away any remnants of my desire to go to China. I'd like very much to stay out of the wilderness, with people i know and will miss greatly if i go away, and in a place where i can seek out a more comfortable way to step out of my comfort zone. ^^
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