You know Dragon Boat Festival is here when you have to eat rice dumplings for breakfast and lunch! Not that I'm complaining though; they are actually quite nice.
I remember back when I was very young, my aunt used to make rice dumplings for selling, and she would 'recruit' my mother to help remove the non-糯米s from bags of 糯米, and I would help out too, because I found it fun then. Haha. At my aunt's house she would set up big pots outside her house along the corridor to steam the packed dumplings.
Now that my aunt is getting on in years she doesn't sell anything anymore, so our dumplings are all bought from outside, and Dragon Boat Festival becomes yet another normal day.
Kinda sad.
My 大伯公 and 地主公 has a new home! Still in the mood for makeovers, my mother decided that the current altar was old, so she bought a newer and smaller sized one. I like the new one. It has a glass top and the wood looks and feels good.
The only bad point is that because of the smaller size it cannot accommodate as many things as the old one.
With this, what's left now are new curtains, the moving away of the two bulky cupboards from the living room to either the rubbish chute or my father's room, the old fridge, 'new' furniture after my cousin sells off her house in August[they are still newer than those in my house now], and hopefully, my little project to set up a very mini sub standard home theater in my father's room. Hehe.
happy 端午节!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
modern warfare 2
Woohoo can't wait!
As I start to lose interest in gaming these days, the sixth game to the Call of Duty series is one of the few games I still look forward to. So far they have not disappointed me, except for the short length of the single player campaign which many have complained since their first game.
That being said, I wonder if my computer will be able to run it when it comes out. The struggle was already a little obvious in the fifth game. Haha.
As an update, my Indian neighbour appeared today! One Indian man returned to the house, along with a man who painted over the loanshark wordings on the common wall. I still have no idea who the borrower was.
Friday, May 22, 2009
who's my neighbour
We were rather close with our next-door neighbours years ago, until one fine day the wife found out that her husband, in the words of my mother, '养了个小龙女', and subsequently moved out and went their separate ways.
The house then changed owners twice; first a Chinese family which moved out about a year later, then an Indian family, but also moved out a few months later, not too long ago. During their respective stays we did not utter a single word to either of the families.
Nobody had an issue with anything, until today we realised paint was splashed onto the next door, with typical loanshark wordings on the lift landing asking for money to be repaid. On the door too, were some papers, apparently addressed to the Chinese family regarding unpaid utility bills.
We have no idea who the loansharks are after, whether is it the Chinese family or the Indian family, given our zero interaction with them. We don't really care too, but going by recent reports on how loansharks go around harrassing neighbours after the original people whom they lent money to disappeared, I hope they leave us alone. We just repainted our house door!
Interesting how there's a recent campaign to help new immigrants get along with their neighbours.
People were much warmer when I was much younger. When the original neighbours were still living next door, we not only knew the family, but also knew the wife's sister and her family; I recalled talking to the wife's sister's daughter before haha.
My aunt, who lives a couple of blocks from us, visited us rather frequently so the original neighbours knew her too. Vice versa, my aunt's next-door neighbours at her block knew who we were as well, so back then, Chinese New Year visits to my aunt's house would definitely include her neighbour's house as well.
Things have changed.
The house then changed owners twice; first a Chinese family which moved out about a year later, then an Indian family, but also moved out a few months later, not too long ago. During their respective stays we did not utter a single word to either of the families.
Nobody had an issue with anything, until today we realised paint was splashed onto the next door, with typical loanshark wordings on the lift landing asking for money to be repaid. On the door too, were some papers, apparently addressed to the Chinese family regarding unpaid utility bills.
We have no idea who the loansharks are after, whether is it the Chinese family or the Indian family, given our zero interaction with them. We don't really care too, but going by recent reports on how loansharks go around harrassing neighbours after the original people whom they lent money to disappeared, I hope they leave us alone. We just repainted our house door!
Interesting how there's a recent campaign to help new immigrants get along with their neighbours.
People were much warmer when I was much younger. When the original neighbours were still living next door, we not only knew the family, but also knew the wife's sister and her family; I recalled talking to the wife's sister's daughter before haha.
My aunt, who lives a couple of blocks from us, visited us rather frequently so the original neighbours knew her too. Vice versa, my aunt's next-door neighbours at her block knew who we were as well, so back then, Chinese New Year visits to my aunt's house would definitely include her neighbour's house as well.
Things have changed.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
makeover
Mini makeover of my house is complete!
Took one day to change the windows in the living room, three bedrooms and two toilets, and two days to give all the rooms a new coat of paint.
My parents were initially deciding if there was a need to install windows grilles, given that we had already grown up, but in the end they were talked into installing them, so that there would be 'no need to close the window panes when friends and relatives bring their kids over'.
I wanted to say we don't receive many visitors anyway, but never mind.
My mother opted for horizontal grilles, so that we could hang clothes and stuff on them, but didn't want the squarish grilles [with both horizontal and vertical, which I think is the norm now] because they would be a bitch to clean.
The end result looked a little bit like a prison window, and I think the windows would have looked great without any grilles at all, just the panes. But maybe thats just because I have never seen horizontal grilles before.
On the plus side, the grilles in the living room are made up of six separate pieces, each being one 'window unit', while the original grilles were three pieces of two 'window units' each. Also, the new window panes come fixed on three rails instead of the original two. Simply said, we can now push all the window panes and grilles to both ends, creating a very big open space of four 'window units' in between, enough for four people to jump off the building hand in hand next to each other.
The windows panes in the living room are dark enough to block out plenty of sunlight, which is especially important for my house given that it faces the South-West direction, but the downside is that I can never use the heavily patterned panes to look at solar eclipses anymore.
Instead of pure white, which had been the colour of our walls for the past twenty over years, a slight hint of green was chosen this time. The walls ended up nice; the colour gives a slight sense of comfort, but the green is so pale that the walls look totally white under sunlight and strong lighting.
While still in the mood of makeovers I decided to give my beloved desktop a makeover as well. I took out every single key on my keyboard and washed the plastic board, dismantled my mouse and cleaned the gaps, and wiped every single cable that ran in and out of it. Did some cable management too when I assembled everything back today so it looks neater. Occupational hazard from my vocation in National Service haha. It still looks messy to the untrained eye, but its really neater now. Haha.
I'm more worried about the heat issues. The computer table has its back against a wall, and I have the CPU, external hard disk, modem and monitor giving off heat all at the same time, with the living room fan and Mother Nature as the only sources of wind. Hope they won't break down so early.
Spent the rest of the time cleaning up the entire house from the outrageous amounts of dust and dried paint. Swept, thrown, mopped, wiped, vacuumed, washed. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
There's still plenty of things yet to be thrown away; like an old fridge, an old washing machine, and old curtains. I have a feeling they are going to stay with us at least for the time being.
Looks like they haven't lost their sense of fun!
Took one day to change the windows in the living room, three bedrooms and two toilets, and two days to give all the rooms a new coat of paint.
My parents were initially deciding if there was a need to install windows grilles, given that we had already grown up, but in the end they were talked into installing them, so that there would be 'no need to close the window panes when friends and relatives bring their kids over'.
I wanted to say we don't receive many visitors anyway, but never mind.
My mother opted for horizontal grilles, so that we could hang clothes and stuff on them, but didn't want the squarish grilles [with both horizontal and vertical, which I think is the norm now] because they would be a bitch to clean.
The end result looked a little bit like a prison window, and I think the windows would have looked great without any grilles at all, just the panes. But maybe thats just because I have never seen horizontal grilles before.
On the plus side, the grilles in the living room are made up of six separate pieces, each being one 'window unit', while the original grilles were three pieces of two 'window units' each. Also, the new window panes come fixed on three rails instead of the original two. Simply said, we can now push all the window panes and grilles to both ends, creating a very big open space of four 'window units' in between, enough for four people to jump off the building hand in hand next to each other.
The windows panes in the living room are dark enough to block out plenty of sunlight, which is especially important for my house given that it faces the South-West direction, but the downside is that I can never use the heavily patterned panes to look at solar eclipses anymore.
Instead of pure white, which had been the colour of our walls for the past twenty over years, a slight hint of green was chosen this time. The walls ended up nice; the colour gives a slight sense of comfort, but the green is so pale that the walls look totally white under sunlight and strong lighting.
While still in the mood of makeovers I decided to give my beloved desktop a makeover as well. I took out every single key on my keyboard and washed the plastic board, dismantled my mouse and cleaned the gaps, and wiped every single cable that ran in and out of it. Did some cable management too when I assembled everything back today so it looks neater. Occupational hazard from my vocation in National Service haha. It still looks messy to the untrained eye, but its really neater now. Haha.
I'm more worried about the heat issues. The computer table has its back against a wall, and I have the CPU, external hard disk, modem and monitor giving off heat all at the same time, with the living room fan and Mother Nature as the only sources of wind. Hope they won't break down so early.
Spent the rest of the time cleaning up the entire house from the outrageous amounts of dust and dried paint. Swept, thrown, mopped, wiped, vacuumed, washed. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
There's still plenty of things yet to be thrown away; like an old fridge, an old washing machine, and old curtains. I have a feeling they are going to stay with us at least for the time being.
Looks like they haven't lost their sense of fun!
Monday, May 11, 2009
no idea what to put as title
The man who caused me to waste one month of my life away had been caught!
So, a person did something wrong. Then someone came along and fixed the wrong thing right again. And the person who did wrong now said that he helped this someone fixed the wrong thing right, and claimed credit for it.
And then, there was also this teen who got arrested after he whacked a door with a chair; reason why the owner of the door and the chair called the police was because she thought the chair could kill somebody.
You know, when I was much younger, I was always very excited whenever 9th August came. Now as I grow older, I'm not so sure anymore.
Lately I have been watching the 9pm drama on Channel 8, since the television and my computer are both in the living room. The theme revolves around our local education system, and watching it reminds me of my school days. I like the way they portray tuition as a commercial business. It makes me wonder whether there are still people out there who teaches because he wants to help, rather than because he wants to earn money.
I guess teaching a friend is considered helping, whereas teaching a stranger is considered tuition.
In one of the scenes in the drama, the mother refused to let her son join the school badminton team, preferring him to study so he could become the doctor or the lawyer she wanted him to be. She said she would rather her son blame her now for not letting him play, then blame her when he grows up for not achieving good results.
Well personally I am regretting not playing more during my school years. Haha. Somehow there aren't many memorable things I can recall of my school years now. I should have played more soccer, and I should not have appealed into triple science haha. I think I had missed out plenty of fun when I was in the converted library while everyone else were in the container classrooms, and later, when I was on the fourth floor and everyone else, the fifth.
Haha I have the cassette! I was very, very young then when my brother bought this set done by Jack Neo and his team. There were two cassettes, one on National Service, another on various Comedy Night characters. In the cassette tapes were plenty of songs with edited lyrics [like the one above], and alot of jokes and dialogs. Not sure whether they can still be played now haha.
Anyway for those unfamiliar:
CMPB: Central Manpower Base
ITD: Infantry Training Depot, last time's Tekong.
CSM: Company Sergeant Major, some high rank.
No.3: Office attire
No.4: Camouflage uniform.
SOC: Standard Obstacle Course
I didn't understand anything back then. Now I find them so funny. And true. Haha.
So, a person did something wrong. Then someone came along and fixed the wrong thing right again. And the person who did wrong now said that he helped this someone fixed the wrong thing right, and claimed credit for it.
And then, there was also this teen who got arrested after he whacked a door with a chair; reason why the owner of the door and the chair called the police was because she thought the chair could kill somebody.
You know, when I was much younger, I was always very excited whenever 9th August came. Now as I grow older, I'm not so sure anymore.
Lately I have been watching the 9pm drama on Channel 8, since the television and my computer are both in the living room. The theme revolves around our local education system, and watching it reminds me of my school days. I like the way they portray tuition as a commercial business. It makes me wonder whether there are still people out there who teaches because he wants to help, rather than because he wants to earn money.
I guess teaching a friend is considered helping, whereas teaching a stranger is considered tuition.
In one of the scenes in the drama, the mother refused to let her son join the school badminton team, preferring him to study so he could become the doctor or the lawyer she wanted him to be. She said she would rather her son blame her now for not letting him play, then blame her when he grows up for not achieving good results.
Well personally I am regretting not playing more during my school years. Haha. Somehow there aren't many memorable things I can recall of my school years now. I should have played more soccer, and I should not have appealed into triple science haha. I think I had missed out plenty of fun when I was in the converted library while everyone else were in the container classrooms, and later, when I was on the fourth floor and everyone else, the fifth.
Haha I have the cassette! I was very, very young then when my brother bought this set done by Jack Neo and his team. There were two cassettes, one on National Service, another on various Comedy Night characters. In the cassette tapes were plenty of songs with edited lyrics [like the one above], and alot of jokes and dialogs. Not sure whether they can still be played now haha.
Anyway for those unfamiliar:
CMPB: Central Manpower Base
ITD: Infantry Training Depot, last time's Tekong.
CSM: Company Sergeant Major, some high rank.
No.3: Office attire
No.4: Camouflage uniform.
SOC: Standard Obstacle Course
I didn't understand anything back then. Now I find them so funny. And true. Haha.
Attended a birthday party where I saw a huge close-knitted family. How nice to see a extended family where there's so much noise, so much laughter, so much warmth.
My extended family, on the other hand, was about how a cousin's wife called another cousin's children stupid, which ended up with demands for apologies and tea serving ceremonies, or fighting over the use of television, the use of maids, among others.
I think I have terrible handwriting. Capable of screwing up otherwise beautiful looking things. Ha.
Starting tomorrow my house will be having a mini makeover! Besides the kitchen windows which we changed years ago, the rest of the windows in the house are still the original ones from twenty years back. So they will all be changed to new ones. After that the entire house will also be given a new coat of paint, and some old stuff will be thrown away.
Reason my parents gave was that if we were to sell our house next time we will have to do some makeover anyway, so might as well do it now. Whatever.
In order to keep the dust and the paint out, we kept plenty of things into boxes, or covered them in newspapers. That will include my modem. Unless I'm not lazy to take it out of the box, I will be back three days later.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
sit down and shut up!
My initial opinion about the recent events was that in other parts of the world, people are avoiding crowded places to reduce the spread of the H1N1 flu [cannot use the term 'swine flu' because its not found in pigs. Using the term 'swine flu' will affect the entire pig industry.], while in our lovely island of Singapore, we are squeezing ourselves as much as possible into a tiny room fighting over the running of some organisation.
Then again, after following the entire incident closely today, I have decided that it was not a childish act after all; we have shown everyone that we are neither oppressed nor politically apathetic people. We don't keep quiet when something goes wrong; we do fight back when we need to.
Hurray!
The power of new media was also felt today. Traditional media like television news channels and photographers were not allowed into the meeting today, but those outside were kept updated by Twitter feeds from those inside. The foreigners unaware [pun unintended] of what was happening were wondering why the topic was, all of a sudden, more popular than the flu pandemic and the Wolverine movie.
02 x Hurray!
As for myself, all I want to say is, one, Singapore is a secular society, two, homosexuality is a personal choice, and three, one cannot turn into a homosexual or a lesbian simply by attending sexuality programmes.
***********
I recently finished this book about mathematics: Letters to a young mathematician by Ian Stewart. Its a general book that talks about mathematics, not one that teaches. The book itself isn't that bad, but occasionally I find the English a little too complicated for me to understand; other times the book, especially in the early chapters, was pointing out rather obvious facts. Like why and how we should study maths. Hmm.
In an attempt to reach a wide audience some chapters were irrelevant to me. Like how as a graduate student one should not get too close to his advisor, or how one should teach Maths as a PhD lecturer in a university. =S
***********
So many people are going overseas. What a great difference.
Then again, after following the entire incident closely today, I have decided that it was not a childish act after all; we have shown everyone that we are neither oppressed nor politically apathetic people. We don't keep quiet when something goes wrong; we do fight back when we need to.
Hurray!
The power of new media was also felt today. Traditional media like television news channels and photographers were not allowed into the meeting today, but those outside were kept updated by Twitter feeds from those inside. The foreigners unaware [pun unintended] of what was happening were wondering why the topic was, all of a sudden, more popular than the flu pandemic and the Wolverine movie.
02 x Hurray!
As for myself, all I want to say is, one, Singapore is a secular society, two, homosexuality is a personal choice, and three, one cannot turn into a homosexual or a lesbian simply by attending sexuality programmes.
***********
I recently finished this book about mathematics: Letters to a young mathematician by Ian Stewart. Its a general book that talks about mathematics, not one that teaches. The book itself isn't that bad, but occasionally I find the English a little too complicated for me to understand; other times the book, especially in the early chapters, was pointing out rather obvious facts. Like why and how we should study maths. Hmm.
In an attempt to reach a wide audience some chapters were irrelevant to me. Like how as a graduate student one should not get too close to his advisor, or how one should teach Maths as a PhD lecturer in a university. =S
***********
So many people are going overseas. What a great difference.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Earth Day
Its a day that was supposed to remind us to take care of our lovely Mother Earth, and this year's Earth Day seemed to have done its job pretty well, going by the extreme weathers that occurred in a short twenty-four hour period.
It was an extremely warm day today [and the previous few days too], and as the Sun sets, the 6.30pm news on television reported a heatwave in India. At night, there came a spectacular lightning show, after which, all of a sudden, a very, very strong gust of wind hit almost the entire Singapore.
While I closed all the windows I left a gap big enough for me to stick my head out and feel the gust of wind, which immediately blew dust particles into my eyes @#$%!. For a moment I wondered whether my living room windows were going to hold haha; of course they did, but one of the flowerpots outside my house was blown onto the floor by the wind. Luckily it didn't break.
I recall there were very strong winds at the start of the year too, but I don't remember one capable of bringing down my flowerpot. This gust of wind was epic, and very mysterious. It left a barrage of threads in the forums immediately, many forummers surprised by the occurrence.
Recently there were news reports about possible solar flares hitting Earth in 2012, which could potentially damage all our electrical and electronic equipment, throwing all of us back into Ice Age if we are not already dead.
True or not I don't know, although the year does tally with a whole range of prophecies and predictions that 2012 will be end of the world. One thing for sure is that we need to stop destroying our lovely Earth before its too late.
I quite like the wind though; cooling and smells good haha.
***********
Lately the food poisoning case that resulted in a hundred over people in hospitals threw food stalls and the cleanliness rating system into the limelight. So now there is the talk that food stalls should all aim to get A or B for their ratings, with a hint that customers should only buy food from those with As or Bs, and not from those with Cs or Ds. One letter to the local newspapers suggests converting all kopitiams to air-conditioned food courts, and the Health Minister says he doesn't mind paying abit more for the security [which I do].
You know, I have always loved the whole commercial area just opposite my house; the five kopitiams and one food court mean there is a large variety of food I can choose from.
But I, for one, have never bothered finding out what ratings those food stalls have. While I agree that basic hygiene and cleanliness are important, the ratings are not in my considerations when I buy my food. Trust in the stallholders, my own visual judgment, the cost, the quantity, and most importantly, what I want to eat, are what go through my mind when I decide which stall to buy from.
All these news came at a time where the Education Ministry decides to scrap examinations at Primary One and Primary Two levels so students will stop being obsessed with grades and results.
*************
I seriously wonder what the Thais want. Stability of the country by making a big mess out of it?
Friday, April 17, 2009
panorama
After reading an article on photo stitching in the latest issue of Digital Life I decided to try it out myself. During my Wallaby trip last year I had wanted to take panoramic photos of the various waterfronts I went to; but the camera I borrowed from my friend lacked the function. So all I did was take several photos of the places, and now I have the chance to stitch them together.
Tried out one of the recommended software in the papers, Hugin, which is free for download and use!
Had quite alot of photos in sequence, but many didn't turn out nice after the stitching.
[I have a feeling the panoramic images are going to screw up my blog layout.]
The most successful photo! Result of stitching four photos together. Place in question was Freshwater Bay, which was inside the restricted training area.
The second most successful; stitched five photos together. There's a small disconnection of the beach, otherwise it doesn't look too bad. Its a pity I don't have the photos to stitch to the left of the image. This was the beach in the small coastal town of Yeppoon. Great windy place!
Overall the software Hugin is rather easy to use, although it stumped me initially with some of the technical terms. I am quite impressed with the algorithms it uses to manipulate the images; hopefully one day I can learn how to do it hehe.
All these is making me yearn for a good camera; which I have been saying for ages but haven't got down to getting one. Haha. I bloody want a bloody camera!
Tried out one of the recommended software in the papers, Hugin, which is free for download and use!
Had quite alot of photos in sequence, but many didn't turn out nice after the stitching.
[I have a feeling the panoramic images are going to screw up my blog layout.]
The most successful photo! Result of stitching four photos together. Place in question was Freshwater Bay, which was inside the restricted training area.
The second most successful; stitched five photos together. There's a small disconnection of the beach, otherwise it doesn't look too bad. Its a pity I don't have the photos to stitch to the left of the image. This was the beach in the small coastal town of Yeppoon. Great windy place!
Overall the software Hugin is rather easy to use, although it stumped me initially with some of the technical terms. I am quite impressed with the algorithms it uses to manipulate the images; hopefully one day I can learn how to do it hehe.
All these is making me yearn for a good camera; which I have been saying for ages but haven't got down to getting one. Haha. I bloody want a bloody camera!
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
叶子 - 阿桑
叶子 是不会飞翔的翅膀
翅膀 是落在天上的叶子
天堂 原来应该不是妄想
只是我早已经遗忘
当初怎么开始飞翔
孤单 是一个人的狂欢
狂欢 是一群人的孤单
爱情 原来的开始是陪伴
但我也渐渐地遗忘
当时是怎样有人陪伴
我一个人吃饭 旅行 到处走走停停
也一个人看书 写信 自己对话谈心
只是心又飘到了哪里
就连自己看也看不清
我想我不仅仅是失去你
This was the only song from her that I have listened to, but I remembered liking the song alot when I first heard it. Its a pity.
翅膀 是落在天上的叶子
天堂 原来应该不是妄想
只是我早已经遗忘
当初怎么开始飞翔
孤单 是一个人的狂欢
狂欢 是一群人的孤单
爱情 原来的开始是陪伴
但我也渐渐地遗忘
当时是怎样有人陪伴
我一个人吃饭 旅行 到处走走停停
也一个人看书 写信 自己对话谈心
只是心又飘到了哪里
就连自己看也看不清
我想我不仅仅是失去你
This was the only song from her that I have listened to, but I remembered liking the song alot when I first heard it. Its a pity.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
the rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer
After a talk with my parents I decided not to apply for financial aid this year. Looking at the combined monthly incomes of my family there is no way I am going to get any form of help. Oh my god I laugh at my own stupidity. Hopefully I get it.
I can't really say that the person who is earning the most right now is not contributing a single cent to the household.
I can't really say that the person who is earning the most right now is not contributing a single cent to the household.
Monday, March 30, 2009
the 'turbo' button
After my Primary School Leaving Examinations, I bought a Sega Dreamcast gaming console [with the support of my mother but not my father, leading to a cold war between him and me lasting a month]. The console was sold in a package, which included a second controller, because back then when online gaming was not introduced to consoles yet, nobody bought a console with only one controller.
So the shopkeeper asked me, "The second controller, you want the one with the 'turbo' button or without?"
At the innocent young age of twelve, I had no idea how the 'turbo' button was going to help in any games, but since turbo == fast, I thought somehow it must be good, so I got the one with the 'turbo' button.
Later it turned out, that controller was simply a non-original one [which means it was made by a third party and not by Sega]. And the 'turbo' button didn't really had any effect on anything [with the exception of Street Fighter 3 if I remember vaguely, the 'turbo' screwed up the gameplay -.-||]
As time went by I had more encounters with the turbo, mostly in games where a single press of the button gave me a short burst of acceleration that put me far beyond the reach of my opponents.
Then as I grew older and learnt more I realised the 'turbo' function was something unrealistic that existed only in the virtual world; one don't find turbo buttons in real world family sedans; one cannot make himself run at supersonic speeds suddenly, because one can't create energy out of nowhere realistically.
The closest thing that comes to it was nitrous oxide, but the gas runs out pretty quickly and it cannot be refilled unless one is playing the Need For Speed series of games, which are, well, games.
Until this season's Formula One!
With the start of this year's season comes the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery System, or KERS. Basically KERS stores the energy released from braking, usually wasted as heat, and stored it so drivers can use to increase their speed for a short while, at the press of a button, something right out of the virtual world.
I think KERS has already being in existence for quite some time, but the first time it was brought into Formula One. Still its an expensive system, so only the richer teams carry it.
I usually find Formula One boring because the strategies employed by the teams to win are the number of pit stops, the positions on the starting grid, the point system, the safety car, which all had nothing to do with racing at all; overtaking is far and rare in Formula One. And I haven't mention how budget is proportional to the number of wins.
Now with KERS, together with numerous other changes, like reduced downforce, slick tyres that reduce grip, overtaking is much more possible. Already I saw many splendid overtaking maneuvers during the first race of the season, the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Then again, maybe I watch too many dramas or play too many games haha.
Hopefully the rest of the season is going to be as exciting as the Melbourne race, and that the appeal on the diffuser problem will not affect how the rest of the races are going to turn out. I can't wait for the Singapore GP!
One day I should get back to watching World Rally Championship again, still my all time favourite racing event. And how can I forget DiRT 2!
So the shopkeeper asked me, "The second controller, you want the one with the 'turbo' button or without?"
At the innocent young age of twelve, I had no idea how the 'turbo' button was going to help in any games, but since turbo == fast, I thought somehow it must be good, so I got the one with the 'turbo' button.
Later it turned out, that controller was simply a non-original one [which means it was made by a third party and not by Sega]. And the 'turbo' button didn't really had any effect on anything [with the exception of Street Fighter 3 if I remember vaguely, the 'turbo' screwed up the gameplay -.-||]
As time went by I had more encounters with the turbo, mostly in games where a single press of the button gave me a short burst of acceleration that put me far beyond the reach of my opponents.
Then as I grew older and learnt more I realised the 'turbo' function was something unrealistic that existed only in the virtual world; one don't find turbo buttons in real world family sedans; one cannot make himself run at supersonic speeds suddenly, because one can't create energy out of nowhere realistically.
The closest thing that comes to it was nitrous oxide, but the gas runs out pretty quickly and it cannot be refilled unless one is playing the Need For Speed series of games, which are, well, games.
Until this season's Formula One!
With the start of this year's season comes the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery System, or KERS. Basically KERS stores the energy released from braking, usually wasted as heat, and stored it so drivers can use to increase their speed for a short while, at the press of a button, something right out of the virtual world.
I think KERS has already being in existence for quite some time, but the first time it was brought into Formula One. Still its an expensive system, so only the richer teams carry it.
I usually find Formula One boring because the strategies employed by the teams to win are the number of pit stops, the positions on the starting grid, the point system, the safety car, which all had nothing to do with racing at all; overtaking is far and rare in Formula One. And I haven't mention how budget is proportional to the number of wins.
Now with KERS, together with numerous other changes, like reduced downforce, slick tyres that reduce grip, overtaking is much more possible. Already I saw many splendid overtaking maneuvers during the first race of the season, the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Then again, maybe I watch too many dramas or play too many games haha.
Hopefully the rest of the season is going to be as exciting as the Melbourne race, and that the appeal on the diffuser problem will not affect how the rest of the races are going to turn out. I can't wait for the Singapore GP!
One day I should get back to watching World Rally Championship again, still my all time favourite racing event. And how can I forget DiRT 2!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
my little contribution to Earth Hour
Well the song is not exactly about saving the Earth, but since it depicts what everyone is encouraged to do later at night, so here it is!
全世界都停电 - Tank
连你都会残忍隔绝
我的心能要谁了解
眼中烛光摇晃着熄灭
为何把我推向边缘
被砸坏了的一切
卡住了我让我无法往前
囚禁在距离笑声最远的房间
单独隔离 寂寞地盘旋
全世界都停了电 全世界都封了街
我所有窗子外面 被贴上黑夜
我呐喊思念 却没人听见
绝望到极点剩的是疲倦
全世界都停了电 全世界白雪满天
才发觉在我心间 有回忆碎片
一作梦翻身 就刺痛流血
我卷着身体缩成一个圈 像一个句点
连你都会残忍隔绝
我的心能要谁了解
眼中烛光摇晃着熄灭
为何把我推向边缘
被砸坏了的一切
卡住了我让我无法往前
囚禁在距离笑声最远的房间
单独隔离 寂寞地盘旋
全世界都停了电 全世界都封了街
我所有窗子外面 被贴上黑夜
我呐喊思念 却没人听见
绝望到极点剩的是疲倦
全世界都停了电 全世界白雪满天
才发觉在我心间 有回忆碎片
一作梦翻身 就刺痛流血
我卷着身体缩成一个圈 像一个句点
Save the Earth!
全世界都停电 - Tank
连你都会残忍隔绝
我的心能要谁了解
眼中烛光摇晃着熄灭
为何把我推向边缘
被砸坏了的一切
卡住了我让我无法往前
囚禁在距离笑声最远的房间
单独隔离 寂寞地盘旋
全世界都停了电 全世界都封了街
我所有窗子外面 被贴上黑夜
我呐喊思念 却没人听见
绝望到极点剩的是疲倦
全世界都停了电 全世界白雪满天
才发觉在我心间 有回忆碎片
一作梦翻身 就刺痛流血
我卷着身体缩成一个圈 像一个句点
连你都会残忍隔绝
我的心能要谁了解
眼中烛光摇晃着熄灭
为何把我推向边缘
被砸坏了的一切
卡住了我让我无法往前
囚禁在距离笑声最远的房间
单独隔离 寂寞地盘旋
全世界都停了电 全世界都封了街
我所有窗子外面 被贴上黑夜
我呐喊思念 却没人听见
绝望到极点剩的是疲倦
全世界都停了电 全世界白雪满天
才发觉在我心间 有回忆碎片
一作梦翻身 就刺痛流血
我卷着身体缩成一个圈 像一个句点
Save the Earth!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Do you want to win S$200,000 in the OCBC Happy Savings Draw?
The new 2009 MSN Live Messenger.
Fulham 2 Man U 0
New layout; not used to it yet. They reduced the difference between the person's nickname and the actual messages, making the entire conversation window look like one wall of text. The main messenger window too.
There are only four different statuses now; Available, Busy, Away and Appear Offline, differentiated by four different colours.
The "What's New" thingy at the bottom gives updates on everything one's friends have done in their Live.
Quite useless in my opinion; but luckily can turn it off.
An icon will appear at the top right hand corner of the main window when one rests his pointer there, allowing one to change the look of the main window. Again useless in my opinion.
This new Messenger feels more like catching up in the looks department so it looks more like an application in Vista. So in short, no big deal.
Fulham 2 Man U 0
New layout; not used to it yet. They reduced the difference between the person's nickname and the actual messages, making the entire conversation window look like one wall of text. The main messenger window too.
There are only four different statuses now; Available, Busy, Away and Appear Offline, differentiated by four different colours.
The "What's New" thingy at the bottom gives updates on everything one's friends have done in their Live.
Quite useless in my opinion; but luckily can turn it off.
An icon will appear at the top right hand corner of the main window when one rests his pointer there, allowing one to change the look of the main window. Again useless in my opinion.
This new Messenger feels more like catching up in the looks department so it looks more like an application in Vista. So in short, no big deal.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
如烟 - 五月天
我坐在床前 望著窗外 回忆满天
生命是华丽错觉 时间是贼 偷走一切
七岁的那一年 抓住那只蝉 以为能抓住夏天
十七岁的那年 吻过她的脸 就以为和她能永远
有没有那么一种永远 永远不改变
拥抱过的美丽都 再也不破碎
让险峻岁月不能在脸上撒野
让生离和死别都遥远 有谁能听见
我坐在床前 转过头看 谁在沉睡
那一张苍老的脸 好像是我 紧闭双眼
曾经是爱我的 和我深爱的 都围绕在我身边
带不走的那些 遗憾和眷恋
就化成最后一滴泪
有没有那么一滴眼泪 能洗掉后悔
化成大雨降落在 回不去的街
再给我一次机会 将故事改写
还欠了他一生的 一句抱歉
有没有那么一个世界 永远不天黑
星星太阳万物都 听我的指挥
月亮不忙著圆缺 春天不走远
树梢紧紧拥抱著树叶 有谁能听见
耳际 眼前 此生重演
是我来自漆黑 而又回归漆黑
人间 瞬间 天地之间
下次我 又是谁
有没有那么一朵玫瑰 永远不凋谢
永远骄傲和完美 永远不妥协
为何人生最后会像一张纸屑
还不如一片花瓣曾经鲜艳
有没有那么一张书签 停止那一天
最单纯的笑脸和 最美那一年
书包里面装满了蛋糕和汽水
双眼只有无猜和无邪 让我们无法无天
有没有那么一首诗篇 找不到句点
青春永远定居在 我们的岁月
男孩和女孩都有吉他和舞鞋
笑忘人间的苦痛 只有甜美
有没有那么一个明天 重头活一遍
让我再次感受曾 挥霍的昨天
无论生存或生活 我都不浪费
不让故事这么的后悔
有谁能听见 我不要告别
我坐在床前 看著指尖 已经如烟
生命是华丽错觉 时间是贼 偷走一切
七岁的那一年 抓住那只蝉 以为能抓住夏天
十七岁的那年 吻过她的脸 就以为和她能永远
有没有那么一种永远 永远不改变
拥抱过的美丽都 再也不破碎
让险峻岁月不能在脸上撒野
让生离和死别都遥远 有谁能听见
我坐在床前 转过头看 谁在沉睡
那一张苍老的脸 好像是我 紧闭双眼
曾经是爱我的 和我深爱的 都围绕在我身边
带不走的那些 遗憾和眷恋
就化成最后一滴泪
有没有那么一滴眼泪 能洗掉后悔
化成大雨降落在 回不去的街
再给我一次机会 将故事改写
还欠了他一生的 一句抱歉
有没有那么一个世界 永远不天黑
星星太阳万物都 听我的指挥
月亮不忙著圆缺 春天不走远
树梢紧紧拥抱著树叶 有谁能听见
耳际 眼前 此生重演
是我来自漆黑 而又回归漆黑
人间 瞬间 天地之间
下次我 又是谁
有没有那么一朵玫瑰 永远不凋谢
永远骄傲和完美 永远不妥协
为何人生最后会像一张纸屑
还不如一片花瓣曾经鲜艳
有没有那么一张书签 停止那一天
最单纯的笑脸和 最美那一年
书包里面装满了蛋糕和汽水
双眼只有无猜和无邪 让我们无法无天
有没有那么一首诗篇 找不到句点
青春永远定居在 我们的岁月
男孩和女孩都有吉他和舞鞋
笑忘人间的苦痛 只有甜美
有没有那么一个明天 重头活一遍
让我再次感受曾 挥霍的昨天
无论生存或生活 我都不浪费
不让故事这么的后悔
有谁能听见 我不要告别
我坐在床前 看著指尖 已经如烟
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
reduced intelligence
In an attempt to find out why VJC did not win anything in this year's National Olympiad in Informatics, I went to try out the problem set myself.
This year's problem set had been reduced to four, instead of six in previous years. Therefore, instead of giving progressively difficult questions, this time out of the four, only the first was a giveaway. The second problem was a story so long I could not understand; the third was a simplified Traveling Salesman Problem which I tried but had quite forgotten how to code it out :/ The last problem was on ciphers which I had no idea how to solve.
Two years of National Service had had its effect on me; I have become more stupid now. Although I should say I did not have a good knowledge on the various algorithms in the first place. Haix.
The rain is coming! I love rain!
This year's problem set had been reduced to four, instead of six in previous years. Therefore, instead of giving progressively difficult questions, this time out of the four, only the first was a giveaway. The second problem was a story so long I could not understand; the third was a simplified Traveling Salesman Problem which I tried but had quite forgotten how to code it out :/ The last problem was on ciphers which I had no idea how to solve.
Two years of National Service had had its effect on me; I have become more stupid now. Although I should say I did not have a good knowledge on the various algorithms in the first place. Haix.
The rain is coming! I love rain!
Monday, March 16, 2009
看病难，养老难，上学难
Caught a repeat of 焦点, and those were the 三座大山 that many people in China are facing now. Quite an apt description, not just to the Chinese but to everyone too. I remember there was a dumb Channel 8 television drama which I watched in the past, and the character in the drama was saying in Singapore, its better to die than fall sick.
The show talked about millions of graduates in China who could not find jobs. And today's news mentioned tens of thousands of graduates in Singapore who are jobless.
And there were the Singaporeans who put their aged parents in nursing homes in Johor and even Malacca because the nursing homes in Singapore were too expensive to afford.
I loved the watch! Thanks to all yet again. Must have cost quite abit, felt bad that you all are spending money on me. Have not worn a watch for a long time, and still not used to an analog watch. A little too formal. Hehe.
The best birthday wish I had came from my very good friend in primary school. Although since primary school we had both moved on with our respective lives and seldom talk to each other anymore, even on MSN, the birthday wishes to each other still carried on year after year without fail. To 15 years of friendship!
My house is now bright again! Some time back my father decided the original round fluorescent light tubes were too expensive, so switched to the really small type that one normally uses for toilets, and it made the entire living room looked really dark.
I guess my mother complained about it, so now its back to the round light tubes again, but with a smaller radius, most probably cheaper as well. Nevertheless the living room looks like a living room again.
When I was much younger, and when the family was warmer then, the living room was always lit with both lights at night, and I really loved the very bright living room. Now, in the name of saving electricity and the cost of replacing the light tubes, only one light is on at night, and sometimes when I come home at 7.30pm the living room will still be in pitch black. I don't like dark living rooms.
Then again, even if the lights are still there, the noises aren't anymore.
The show talked about millions of graduates in China who could not find jobs. And today's news mentioned tens of thousands of graduates in Singapore who are jobless.
And there were the Singaporeans who put their aged parents in nursing homes in Johor and even Malacca because the nursing homes in Singapore were too expensive to afford.
I loved the watch! Thanks to all yet again. Must have cost quite abit, felt bad that you all are spending money on me. Have not worn a watch for a long time, and still not used to an analog watch. A little too formal. Hehe.
The best birthday wish I had came from my very good friend in primary school. Although since primary school we had both moved on with our respective lives and seldom talk to each other anymore, even on MSN, the birthday wishes to each other still carried on year after year without fail. To 15 years of friendship!
My house is now bright again! Some time back my father decided the original round fluorescent light tubes were too expensive, so switched to the really small type that one normally uses for toilets, and it made the entire living room looked really dark.
I guess my mother complained about it, so now its back to the round light tubes again, but with a smaller radius, most probably cheaper as well. Nevertheless the living room looks like a living room again.
When I was much younger, and when the family was warmer then, the living room was always lit with both lights at night, and I really loved the very bright living room. Now, in the name of saving electricity and the cost of replacing the light tubes, only one light is on at night, and sometimes when I come home at 7.30pm the living room will still be in pitch black. I don't like dark living rooms.
Then again, even if the lights are still there, the noises aren't anymore.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
narrow and complicated
That's how my mind works sometimes.
I finally solved the problem with my MIO router that had plagued me since day one when I gotten it, by a fairly simple method that had eluded me for so long because, as the title says, my mindset had been too narrow and complicated.
As mentioned before, my desktop would be disconnected from the router, and hence the internet, whenever I played games; any game, with the unexplainable exception of Company of Heroes which I could still play. Also I had no problems with other activities like web surfing and MSN-ing. Even my most bandwidth intensive activity, torrent-ing, worked without any problems.
So I tried all sorts of methods to my LAN card; reading up tons of articles, turning off power saving options, updating drivers, disabling IPv6, etc. I reset my router, tried to bridge it to my Asus router :S, installed Microsoft Network Monitor and monitored my network traffic, then installed a Linksys LAN card, just to describe a few.
Couple of days ago I realised, to my stupidity, that besides LAN cable, I could actually connect my router to my desktop via USB cable too. For a long time all I had in my mind was LAN, LAN, and LAN, because that was the case when I used Starhub before I switched over [and then there was my two years of National Service where it was even more LAN]. And people these days don't connect routers to computers via USB anymore, because it requires installation of the router.
Problem solved, at least for now. Tried half an hour of Left 4 Dead and I'm still connected. And there's one more light blinking furiously on my router now. Ha.
Of course that did not come easy. Apparently there was no installation software to get my desktop to recognise my router, so I had to comb the Internet for a while before I managed to obtain it.
Haha I laugh at myself.
I finally solved the problem with my MIO router that had plagued me since day one when I gotten it, by a fairly simple method that had eluded me for so long because, as the title says, my mindset had been too narrow and complicated.
As mentioned before, my desktop would be disconnected from the router, and hence the internet, whenever I played games; any game, with the unexplainable exception of Company of Heroes which I could still play. Also I had no problems with other activities like web surfing and MSN-ing. Even my most bandwidth intensive activity, torrent-ing, worked without any problems.
So I tried all sorts of methods to my LAN card; reading up tons of articles, turning off power saving options, updating drivers, disabling IPv6, etc. I reset my router, tried to bridge it to my Asus router :S, installed Microsoft Network Monitor and monitored my network traffic, then installed a Linksys LAN card, just to describe a few.
Couple of days ago I realised, to my stupidity, that besides LAN cable, I could actually connect my router to my desktop via USB cable too. For a long time all I had in my mind was LAN, LAN, and LAN, because that was the case when I used Starhub before I switched over [and then there was my two years of National Service where it was even more LAN]. And people these days don't connect routers to computers via USB anymore, because it requires installation of the router.
Problem solved, at least for now. Tried half an hour of Left 4 Dead and I'm still connected. And there's one more light blinking furiously on my router now. Ha.
Of course that did not come easy. Apparently there was no installation software to get my desktop to recognise my router, so I had to comb the Internet for a while before I managed to obtain it.
Haha I laugh at myself.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
disappointment
1.
2. So turns out past two days I was not the only one to experience the [very] frequent Internet disconnections; there were a few others who had the same problem too, and we all lived in the same area, meaning something is wrong at the service provider's side.
I sent an email before I realised I was not the only one, so a technician has already been scheduled to come down to my house next week. Its ok, for even without the disconnections for the past two days, I still have other problems [together with tons of evidence to show] for the technician to solve.
How interesting it is that when I was in National Service, I was the 'technician' who went around solving problems that users encountered.
2. So turns out past two days I was not the only one to experience the [very] frequent Internet disconnections; there were a few others who had the same problem too, and we all lived in the same area, meaning something is wrong at the service provider's side.
I sent an email before I realised I was not the only one, so a technician has already been scheduled to come down to my house next week. Its ok, for even without the disconnections for the past two days, I still have other problems [together with tons of evidence to show] for the technician to solve.
How interesting it is that when I was in National Service, I was the 'technician' who went around solving problems that users encountered.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
deception
Another Wallaby 2008 photo. Its the Rockhampton Post Office, which I thought was in use but turned out it wasn't anymore. Obviously the building had been given a facelift; looked new and nice.
Add a film grain and a sepia overlay, and...
Couple of days back, the news carried a report about an economic rice stall that was selling food at $2.20. The stallholder when interviewed talked about a regular customer who could not even afford $1 economic rice, and fell to his death, probably because he was too weak from the lack of energy.
And then there was this organisation that managed to raise $19 million in less than 24 hours, for construction of its new building. 22,000 people donated, which means on average each person gave more than $800.
Again overdone.
And what the hell is wrong with my Internet tonight?
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