Life on One Wheel

How to be a programmer.

2010-05-11T10:38:00.002+08:00

I estimate that, if I really understand the problem, it is about 50% likely that we will be done in five weeks (if no one bothers us during that time).

really means:

I promise to have it all done five weeks from now.

Taken from How To Be A Programmer.

Lots of truths in there.

Pendantic Post

2010-03-15T10:51:00.000+08:00

So there I was. Past midnight and hungry like a hippo since I skipped dinner. Deciding it was a matter of life and a slow starving death, I decided to venture out into the wilderness to look for something to eat. Deciding that since it was a Sunday night, pretty much only Macdonalds would be open.

I headed over to Marine Parade since I remembered seeing a sign there that said that the Mac there would be open 24 hours.

Horror of horrors, it was! But only if it was a Friday, Saturday or eve of a public holiday. Bah humbug.

Close to verge of collapse I crawled back to the car desperately thinking about where I could grab a bite. Vultures circled overhead. It was that bleak.

And then I remembered that there was a drive-through at East Coast Park. Surely this would be open?

Driving fast so that the black cloaked figure would not be able to catch up, I made it to the drive through.

"Good morning, Sir", said the server.

I was delighted. Past 12 midnight and she said good morning! Even more delightful was the glorious food she passed me for free. In return I gave her a bribe to keep her quiet about the whole transaction.

And then she said, "Good night!"

OMGWTFBBQ! Don't confuse me like that! So was it morning or night?!

Insidious Macdonalds servers trying to confuse me! The indignation! I should complain to Macdonalds for that or perhaps write to the Straits Times forum. Cause that's what it's for isn't it?

2010-03-07T18:34:00.000+08:00

Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Taken from Cymbeline.

Jabberwocky

2010-03-06T00:29:00.000+08:00

I was rather surprised to see the Jabberwocky, Bandersnatch, Jubjub bird, vorpal sword in Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. I had previously assumed that it was a separate poem not in Alice in Wonderland canon. However a google search turned up the wiki which shows that it was actually part of the Alice in Wonderland world.

Still my first exposure to it was in the excellent graphic novel Fables, where Blue Boy used the vorpal sword to snicker-snack his enemies away. Hence it was to great delight to see this nonsensical poem get more airing.

I hereby present Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Fun is

2010-02-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

-watching people walk the wrong way onto escalators and seeing their embarrassed faces.
-watching the grimaces and expressions of pain as you watch people climb stairs after a marathon and then realizing that you actually have to do the same.
-remembering the feeling of jumping out of a plane and falling and grinning yourself silly when you think about it.
-looking at the sunsets in Singapore and remembering that even in an urban jungle, you can see the beauty of nature as well.
-eating nutella + peanut butter sandwiches.
-spiking that volleyball after countless attempts.
-seeing the priceless expression on your friend's face when he hits the post when playing "inbetween" despite having an ace and a king.
-drawing a smiley face on a fogged up mirror or a dirty piece of glass.

Brilliant Idea

2009-12-20T23:31:00.000+08:00

It seems Adidas are going to team up with Lucas Arts to come up with some truly brilliant stuff.

For example:

Taken from igeektrooper.com

<3

2009-12-14T13:25:00.000+08:00

42.195km bitch!

2009-12-06T20:07:00.000+08:00

As of now, I am in pain. A whole lot of pain. I am also in a new found relationship. I love/hate relationship. With marathons.

I'm pretty sure I do not want to do another marathon. But the feeling that you get when you run it, well, you have to do it to experience it. The feeling of accomplishment when you complete it. The feeling of camaraderie you have with all the other suffering runners. The "runners high" you get for pushing yourself to the limit. I can see why people would run it again and again.

Shout outs to:
-Girl in pink top and white cap who some how always appears in front of me despite me overtaking her countless times.
-Guy in Santa hat, you made my day.
-Guy with hairy upper arms. I kid you not. I thought they were tattoos until I got close enough to see it was all long curly hair.
-Girl who decided to keep pace with me for the last 500 meters after I encouraged her to "Come On!"

All the other nameless strangers who were there running, walking, cursing beside me for the whole 42.195km.

Also thankful for the conspicuous amounts of powergel that I consumed that allowed me to push all the way to 30km before I hit a wall and had to run/walk/jog/curse the rest of the way.

It better be only half-marathons from now on. Someone stop me if I try to sign up for another marathon.

Running

2009-11-23T00:55:00.003+08:00

It has sort of crept up on me unnoticed. 6th Dec 2009. D-day. Call it whatever you want, but that is the day I will fulfill my 2008 resolution. Yes, it's one year late, but better late then never, yah?

In 2008, I made the resolution to run a marathon. I wanted to do it before I got too old and sort of fell apart. Unfortunately, work dealt me a cruel blow, sending me into exile in Melbourne just before I was due to run the Run.

This year, I'm back and I've set a date for my showdown with the beast. All 42.195 km of it. And I realized I'm woefully unprepared. The furthest I've run is around 16 km. I don't really feel too bad doing it and to be honest it's a little no-kick these days, albeit really really mind-blowingly boring. I plan to do a 20+++ km run next week and then it should be time for the moment of truth.

If you don't see me after 6th of Dec, you will know I have fought the good fight. I will not go quietly into the cold dark night. I will go down fighting. Or I will emerge victorious, and never have to stare down a 42.195km beast ever again.

Optical Illusion

2009-11-23T00:33:00.001+08:00

You all know how this works, but when you see it for that split second, it's seriously freaky.

Taken from here

Nice quote

2009-11-10T13:42:00.002+08:00

"present perceptions of past people are not at all the same as past people's perceptions of their present"

Broke

2009-11-10T11:55:00.002+08:00

I can forsee myself being dead broke in the months to come as I plan for 2 getaways.

One to Europe and another one to New Zealand.

Thankfully the Europe one is where I get sent there on course by my company and hence the tickets will be covered. Taking an additional one week to hopefully tour Amsterdam, Brussels and *fingers crossed* get to catch a match at Anfield. But the traveling within Europe is still going to cost moolah.

New Zealand will be to attend Unicon 15 in Wellington. This one, the tickets will be coming out of my own pockets leading me to come to the conclusion that I will be pretty much broke come Feb 2010.

Ah well at least it should be a blast.

South Park - Pun Hell

2009-11-10T11:54:00.003+08:00

South Park came up with another pun that will send their writers to pun hell.

Firstly, they defined Fag, not as a gay person, but rather an obnoxious person who drives loud motorcycles around, much to the annoyance of everyone else.

Next they said that someone who was just intrigued by loud motorcycles, but had not bought one yet, and instead just checks them out in stores as... wait for it... bike-curious.

In case you haven't got the memo

2009-10-27T12:45:00.002+08:00

My Primary School Teacher

2009-10-21T10:42:00.000+08:00

I have no idea why I'm writing this post, but was just reminiscing about some stuff and my thoughts happened to turn towards my English teacher in Primary school. Her name is Miss Lean. She was pretty much an old spinster that was left on the shelf and probably decided to take it out on children like us.

I still remember her pinching this girl so hard on the cheek that the poor girl started to bleed from the nose. Imagine that, twisting the cheek skin so hard that something tore in the nose and blood started spurting out. But that was old school and teachers were welcomed to hit and beat submission into the students. I can't imagine what would have happened today.

I still remember her expounding her Christian beliefs. About how evolution is a load of tosh. The most distinct one being "Are you telling me that the monkeys in the zoo are going to turn into humans one of these days?!". A sad lack of understanding in evolution.

But still she was my English teacher and without her, I wouldn't have been able to write this about her. She gave me a percious gift, the gift of literacy. But she shall still haunt my nightmares forever.

Irritating Habit

2009-10-12T19:22:00.001+08:00

Find myself replying to emails via phone when my laptop is just in front of me. Gah.

Star Jumps aren't easy

2009-10-05T10:35:00.002+08:00

Mounting

2009-10-02T12:28:00.002+08:00

Sneak Peek At Kota Kinabalu Pics.

2009-10-01T19:02:00.001+08:00

More to come soon.

The universality of performances

2009-09-27T22:45:00.000+08:00

I'm watching this TV show right now. It's a Taiwanese magic show.

Which brings back memories when I went to watch this magic show when I was in Melbourne. The show was pretty good, the performer putting on quite a show. However, there was something about that performance that was pretty interesting.

He did one whole section in Mandarin. He's Australian, so he has to put in quite a bit of effort. Me, being able to understand Mandarin, could tell what he was asking for. However, the majority of the audience weren't able to. And yet every time he did something, he was able to get an appropriate response from the audience.

Which I thought was really interesting as, a lot of it wasn't about what he was saying, it was about his body language. He could be speaking Gibberish and he would still be able to get a response out his audience.

Moon

2009-09-26T16:30:00.000+08:00

Managed to catch Moon yesterday. I think it's going to be taken off soon and I'm really glad I managed to catch this movie. It wasn't really mind blowing, but in a sense, it gets you thinking about morality and ethics.

The basic premise is that Sam is on the Moon. He is working for this corporation that is harvesting stuff from the Moon to provide for clean energy on Earth. He has been here for close to 3 years, with 3 years being the length of his contract on the Moon. After that, he'll get to go home. He struggles through each day, and due to a communications failure, he can only receive recorded messages from his wife, messages that seem to be the only thing that keeps him going on.

On a routine maintainence mission, he hallucinates and sees someone standing beside a harvester. Being distracted by that, he crashes into the harvester.

The next scene shows him in the infirmary, in pretty good condition. How did he get there? Why does he not have any injuries? These questions are answered when Sam gets out of the space station to investigate the harvester. Beside the harvester, he finds a crashed space vehicle.

If you want to enjoy the movie, don't continue reading, just go watch it. If not spoilers ahead.

*SPOILERS*

In the vehicle, he finds a person. That person is Sam. He carries the body back to the space station and struggles with an identity crisis. He's a clone. What he knows are all memories implanted in him. How does he react? What should he do? Why is the company that hired him doing all these? Can he still go back home? What will happen when the other Sam wakes up? Is the other Sam a clone as well?

*SPOILERS*

Suffice to say, I won't be talking too much about the plot but it's really good.

But this movie does raise some interesting thoughts, especially regarding the ethics of cloning. Will there be one day in the future where corporations do this? Built clones and send them out to do work. Are the rights and feelings of clones of no consideration? Sam considers himself a human, but the robot that is working with him says that they're all just programmed. It's a strange moral tale.

Another interesting thing brought up is how much the clones differed from one another. They were all bases on the same person and at the point of creation had the same memories, but at the end of 3 years, they had wildly different hairstyles and mannerisms. It begs the question, if there was a clone of Hitler, but he was brought up in different circumstances, would that clone do what Hitler did?

The acting of Sam was top-notch, bringing out the desolation, isolation and eeriness of being stuck in a space station all by himself. The despair and anguish that he finds himself in when he realizes he is a clone. The overwhelming sadness he feels when he realizes that all the videos he saw were just recordings and that his wife is dead and his daughter is all grown up.

All in all, Moon is a gripping sci-fi tale, well paced and thoroughly terrifying.

Excited

2009-09-25T12:15:00.001+08:00

I'm going Kota Kinabalu!

After another hair brained idea by JH, we entered this contest by Jetstar. In this challenge, we would be tasked to go to Kota Kinabalu and complete 5 things. We will be traveling there via Jetstar light where there will be no check-in luggage and only hand carry luggage is allowed. Using the money saved on what would otherwise be spent on paying for the check-in luggage, we will instead use this money to do 5 things in Kota Kinabalu. We will then have to blog about our experience and the winning entry will get a 500 dollar voucher.

We've checked out some of the previous entries and it seems that everyone just goes to eat. We've decided to be something different. Oh yes, we're going to do the opposite of eating! We're going to exercise! And on one wheel! So many exclamation marks!!!11one11eleven!!

So our plan is to actually try to squeeze a unicycle (20") into a bag that can be carried on. As mention by JH this is probably going to be as fun as the whole trip itself. The next challenge will then be to bring said carry on luggage on board, while simultaneously trying to convince all security we are not trying to clobber anybody with it. Happy days.

This should be lark and hopefully everything will turn out well. In the mean time, I've got a unicycle to disassemble.

HTC Hero - The sequel

2009-09-23T19:20:00.000+08:00

As I alluded to in my previous post, I was eyeing the HTC hero. On discovering the exclusive price that www.singtelshop.com was giving (298SGD), I was ecstatic. However, I wanted to wait 1 day for me to think about it, so it wouldn't be an impulse buy.

When I checked again in the evening, it was sold out. Infuriating. What one cannot have, one wants more. And I was pretty determined to get one as soon as it was available.

A cursory check into various forums, indicated that there would be a restock within the next few days though no one had any idea if the price would remain as such.

Surprise, surprise. On an obsessive, compulsive check today, it was back in stock! I have since placed an order for a white version of the HTC hero that will be delivered on 1st Oct night.

I am beside myself with excitement.

2009-09-23T09:44:00.001+08:00

Taken from here

HTC Hero

2009-09-19T17:36:00.002+08:00

Surprise surprise. The HTC Hero with a 2 year plan with Singtel cost just 298SGD. Think I might get mine tomorrow...

Anvil

2009-09-15T20:47:00.000+08:00

The tribute to 50 years olds in a 30 year old band.

Metal On Metal - Anvil

This is a documentary about Anvil. Who are Anvil? Anvil is the band that toured Japan with some the biggest bands, Bon Jovi, Scorpions etc. Anvil, with the front man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, were one of THE bands at that point of time. While the rest went on to sell millions of records, Anvil fell to the side of the road.

This film chronicles what happens after that.

It starts by showing Lips and Robb back in their home town, now working 9-5 jobs. But they still dream, cause they made a promise to be rock stars. They still play and a manager offers to organize a tour of Europe for them, they jump at the chance. But it's tough and the manager is amateurish. Despite having the heart, she doesn't really make things work and the tour culminates in a hall in Romania that holds 10 thousand and yet only 174 people turn up.

Their disappoint is palpable and it tugs at the heartstrings. You look at them and you see 50 year olds and yet you cannot help but admire their passion. It's been 30 years and they're still fighting on and they continue to dream and to reach for that dream.

They get a break when the managed to get a producer to record their latest album. It cost a lot but with supportive people around them, they manage to raise the money and get the album out. But in a world filled with commercial pop, it was always going to be difficult to find someone to distribute their CDs. And their world comes crashing down when that is exactly what happens.

But their passion shine through, they did it for their fans and decided to sell it direct to them. And a miraculous thing happens. Some one from Japan asks them to go to Japan to play. They are happy yet scared. What if there is no one there again?

And in a really poignant scene they come out to thousands of screaming fans, reminiscent of their heyday when they toured Japan with some of the worlds biggest bands. They have lived their dream.

Wishlist update

2009-09-08T20:26:00.002+08:00

As previously mentioned I've got a couple of things that I've been eyeing.

A trip to Hong Kong allowed me to purchase one of them, the Tokina 11-16 ATX. And it was really much cheaper then what I would have to pay for in Singapore. Had to search almost the whole of Hong Kong island for it as Mong Kok shops just did not carry it at all. But very happy with my purchase if a but burnt in the wallet.

Also, Sony has finally played nice and come up with a new iteration of their gaming console, the PS3 Slim. This means that prices for the PS3 will drop and more surprisingly and interestingly, the PS3 Slim isn't as expensive as the PS3 when it first came out. Need to think about this one, but I might want to get this when I have to go overseas again.

Additionally, the HTC hero was finally released in Singapore on September 4th. Suggested retail price is about 800+++ with suggestions that signing a 2 year plan will drop this price to around 600++. Again another toy to lust after as my phone contract is about up.

My wallet weeps gently.

Up up and away

2009-09-08T20:23:00.000+08:00

Up started positively enough. A short film titled Partly Cloudy brought about giggles as memories of how we used to think babies come from was brilliantly put into animation. Funny yet poignant about how friends stick with each other. It was also interesting to look at how someone has to do the stuff that no one wants.

And then it was onto the movie proper. This was a story that talked of how a child, because of his idol, has big dreams. It talks about how he finds the love of his life that shares the same dreams that he has. But life is rarely smooth sailing. You live life and sometimes you get comfortable with it, so much so that you forget the dreams when you were young. And the next thing you know, it's almost too late. And Carl (the old man) only sees that when his wife (Ellie) is on her last breath.

But if there's a will then there's a way. Adventure has a way of finding people who need to escape. Stuck alone and with the prospect of being sent to a nursing home staring him in the face, he remembers his dreams and follow it. And tying balloons to his house, he goes up in search of adventure.

Along the way he picks up a virtual menagerie of characters ranging from a young and overly enthusiastic Wilderness Explorer (think scout cub), a talking (!) dog and a weird bird. He learns about friendship and ultimately needing to let go and move of to better things. No sense grieving for what has left when there are new opportunities ahead.

Up is a feel good movie that has enough of a story to keep adults entertained and some parables inside to get some people thinking, while at the same time having enough jokes and visual gags to keep the young uns giggling away.

Tram rides

2009-08-19T08:23:00.000+08:00

Was taking a tram home last night and despite it being close to 9pm, tram conductors decided to pop up.

To give a bit of background, in Melbourne city itself, trams are the preferred mode of transport. You have to buy a ticket to ride on the tram. These tickets can be purchased either on the tram, where they are instantly validated or you can purchase them before hand and validate them when you're on the tram.

It's not perfect, and there are numerous cases of people cheating the system. There have been numerous ad campaigns urging people to validate their tickets. But still, the common method is to ride the tram with a ticket but not validate it. If they see a tram conductor, they will then have to try to validate the ticket before they get caught.

So anyway, there was this girl sitting across me in the tram. No kidding that she looked something like this:

which may or may not have been the reason I sat opposite her.

So when the tram conductor popped up, much to her horror, she desperately tried to validate her ticket before he could get to her, Unfortunately, she was sitting next to the door and was stopped by the tram conductor before she could do just that.

The poor girl was then quizzed and asked for her address so that the fine could be sent to her. But since she was from Hong Kong, hence not having a local identity card and address, the conductor was adamant about confirming her address, least she was giving a fake address. She was asked to call a friend so that that person could confirm her address. However, the friend on the phone gave the conductor his own address as he doesn't know where the girl stays.

The conductor was fuming now and inistent that the girl was trying to cheat her way out of a ticket and that it was now TWO offences. 1 for travelling without a valid ticket and the other one for lying about her address. At this point of time the girl was close to tears and trying to desperately explain her situation. Added to that, she was missing her stop. Another conductor had to come along to try to calm the situation down and ask that they get off and settle it off the train.

And that was the last of what I know of that.

Moral of the story? Nothing, though the girl was awfully cute.

Update wishlist

2009-08-07T11:57:00.001+08:00

New toys that I want to get my hands on if I had money.

HTC Hero

Newest Android phone to be coming out soon.

Playstation 3

Being marooned in another country with nothing to do makes me want this so much.

Tokina 11-16mm

I want to take pretty pics.

FML

2009-07-24T13:12:00.002+08:00

The lady that sits opposite me is now singing in a terribly off key voice. My music from my ear phones is unable to drown out that terrible canaphony. FML.

Absentmindedness part quatre

2009-07-14T09:12:00.003+08:00

This is getting ridiculous.

She's now lost her notebook and is looking for it.

Absentmindedness part trios

2009-07-09T15:12:00.002+08:00

And today she has managed to lose her ring.

Just wow.

Absentmindedness part deux

2009-07-08T08:22:00.003+08:00

Update: The lady has just claimed to have lost her phone again and is now searching for it all over the office.

However I hear it ringing in her bag.

Oh my.

Absentmindedness

2009-07-02T11:35:00.002+08:00

This lady in my office managed to lose her handbag and handphone (twice!) in one week.

And all those times she left it in the toilet.

Makes me wonder what the female toilet smells like.

Weird sleep habits.

2009-06-16T07:43:00.002+08:00

I got back from Gold Coast at about 12 last night. The flight was approximately 2 hours, of which I spent the majority of it sleeping.

I think sleeping while sitting up for that period of time really messed with me cause I was having this really weird sleeping pattern that nigh.

I would sleep peacefully, wake up all of a sudden, sit up and try to fall asleep doing that. Some part of me, that wasn't sleeping would shout at me "What are you doing?!"

I would realize how stupid it was to try to fall asleep sitting up on a bed and promptly lie down and fall properly asleep again.

ONLY TO REPEAT IT AGAIN.

Flying is really messing with me.

Overheard today

2009-05-31T17:17:00.002+08:00

"THE TRAM CAN TALK!"

Small boy

After the tram driver used the intercom.

Socks

2009-05-22T08:00:00.000+08:00

I need a new pair, the current one I'm wearing is so small it keeps slipping off such that I'm left with half a foot covered.

Irritating.

Awesome

2009-04-25T20:10:00.000+08:00

2 guys stuck in a browser

So cool

2009-04-25T13:13:00.003+08:00

Velociraptor Trophy

Superpowers

2009-04-25T13:04:00.000+08:00

Darkness.

Icy coldness.

No! I don't want to get out of bed!

Can't I sleep another 5 more minutes?

Stupid clock is not working again. Why's it showing 8.45 when I set my alarm at 7.45 and it hasn't made those god awful noises that literally wake the dead?

8.45

OH FUCK! I need to be at work at 9!

I sit down at my desk.

It's 9.10

I've got superpowers.

RIP the 96. YNWA.

2009-04-15T07:49:00.002+08:00

Learn more at Hillsborough Disaster

Oh what fools we mortals be

2009-04-01T14:54:00.000+08:00

I've been recently hooked on my DS playing this new game called Suikoden Tierkreis.

It's a pretty fun game, with simple gameplay to bring in the younger crowd. I kind of like Suikoden games cause they tend to have pretty good storylines + the OCD in my can't help but want to collect all 108 heros every time.

So there I was playing. As you can see from the box art, it's for ages 12+, meaning it isn't particularly difficult most of the time. Also, the experience system means you can level your characters pretty fast if they're underleveled. I wasn't having any problems with the game till then, happily progressing the story and gathering charaters. Saving was an unwelcome disruption and a severe jerk from the gaming experience.

Which meant all in all, I hadn't saved in over 3 hours of game play.

And then I met it.

It, in this case was some gloriously overpowered monster. It knocked out half my party with one blow. I tried to run.

FAIL.

The next blow came and I was dead.

The dreaded words floated on my screen.

GAME OVER.

I wanted to just curl into a ball and cry right there and then.

How cruel the RPG gods can be.

Footballers can do magic

2009-03-26T07:29:00.000+08:00

Know how they sometimes say that footballers can do magic with their feet?

This one can just do magic, plain and simple. One minute there, the next minute, disappearing into thin air!

I'm going to UniNats2009!

2009-03-23T08:45:00.000+08:00

For those that still don't know, I'm currently in exile in Melbourne, Australia.

And since I'm here, why not take part in a unicycle convention (first ever for me).

I hereby present: UniNats2009.

Signed up for the event, and booked my accommodation. Baring any mishaps, I should be there come Easter weekend.

Woo hoo.

Brain explodes.

2009-03-02T07:59:00.003+08:00

Bah humbug.

2009-02-19T14:24:00.002+08:00

This will go down as a legendary day.

You know how Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky? Never really was for me. Till 13th February 2009. Black Friday for me.

Things didn't start out too well. I was supposed to shift apartments that day, which the operators of the apartments assured me would be relatively painless. All I needed to do was to pack my stuff and leave it in a corner. Well I had more then a few things so I emailed one of the employees telling her that I had left some food in the fridge that I need moving as well.

I waited for confirmation for the whole day but to no avail. About knocking off time, I was starting to get a wee bit worried as there was still no news on either the shifting being completed or what the new key code for the next apartment was. So I sent an email to their general email and almost immediately I got a response telling me that my luggage was too big for them to move. They then asked me to go to the apartment to move it myself.

Being the nice guy that I was, I decided to go over to shift it myself. This despite the new apartment being a 8 min walk away. I reached the apartment block and couldn't find anybody. I ended up calling the apartment people and they told me they would call over and ask what was happening. Just then, a guy how was standing there came up to me and asked if I was the one about to shift apartments. Giving him an affirmative, he told me that the lift had brokedown and the cleaners were actually stuck in the lift. Luckily they had left the luggage up on the second floor. So I had to drag my luggage down from the second floor.

To my chagrin, the actually threw away all the food in the fridge. Sigh.

So I went to meet a bunch of friends to drown my sorrows in alcohol. Idiots ordered way too much (which is kind of the point most of the time I guess) and I ended up drunk and trying to get home. I don't often get that drunk and have to travel back so it was pretty much an alien affair. Getting on the tram and being too drunk to stand, I stumbled onto a seat. Unfortunately it was facing backwards. Things didn't start to well when after a particular violent stop by the tram, I pretty much puked all over myself, much to the disgust of the person sitting next to me. Mumbling a simple sorry, I reached down to grab a Macdonalds paper bag that was lying there, in preparation for the next puke.

It didn't come.

Reaching my stop, I managed to get off and immediately started puking again. Into a paper bag. That is made of paper and gets really flimsy when soaked with water. Which promptly exploded in a shower of alcohol, meat patty, lettuce, tomatoes and god knows what else.

Somehow, in between all that, I managed to get back home, dump all my clothes the washing machine, puke some more, take a bath, brush my teeth and fall into a drunken sleep.

When I woke up, I realized I had managed to lose my denture somewhere along the way. I have no idea where. And thus I am severely unpresentable right now, a sullen husk unwilling to talk least my gap is exposed.

Black Friday indeed.

For those that are wondering

2009-02-09T10:29:00.004+08:00

why I haven't been posting much;

Awesome celebration

2009-02-09T10:24:00.003+08:00

IT WAS A HOAX!

2009-01-02T22:52:00.001+08:00

In case you were living under a rock and had no idea about one of the viral videos of 2008, then I present "Where the Hell is Matt?"

But sadly, it was all a hoax as explained by Matt Harding himself.

Awww.....

Good to see him have a sense of humour.

Beautiful, haunting, touching

2008-12-29T21:28:00.000+08:00

Days with my father by Philip Toledano.

Just for you Mike. Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T08:51:00.001+08:00

Just because you like SFW-porn so much.

Diesel's SFW XXX Party Clip - Watch more free videos

The Bird is the Word! Part Deux.

2008-11-28T13:53:00.001+08:00

It's way fucking awesome. I need to get me a chicken to try this.

The following conversation also defies logic:

(13:53:02) ME: that is fucking amazing!
(13:53:08) ME: i got to get me a chicken to try
(13:53:27) JH: cool right
(13:54:22) ME: i want a chicken!
(13:54:29) ME: damm why are all the chickens in my home dead..
(13:57:12) JH: uh
(13:58:26) ME: if i eat enough chickens will i gain that ability?
(13:58:58) JH: yes you will
(13:59:01) JH: oh yes you will
(13:59:01) JH: eat more
(13:59:04) JH: please
(13:59:29) ME: are chickens region free?
(13:59:49) JH: no
(13:59:51) ME: i'm afraid the chickens in melbourne are not ability compatiable with the chickens from us
(13:59:52) JH: argh
(13:59:52) JH: i mean yes
(13:59:53) ME: *US
(14:00:11) ME: mmm okie
(14:00:56) JH: eat more
(14:01:29) ME: i will
(14:01:38) ME: then you will see my awesome ability!
(14:01:45) ME: but i've been eating chicken for 26 year
(14:02:08) ME: how many more do i need to eat?
(14:02:13) ME: got wiki entry or not?

Know any mathematicians?

2008-11-20T00:01:00.002+08:00

"An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar." The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers.

Posted using ShareThis

Weird dream

2008-11-18T11:14:00.002+08:00

Had the freaking weird dream last night where I was dreaming about googling for the word that means to refine/dilute a substance to it's purest form of water (homeopathy) and to my horror, all the links on google were to SFW porn pictures.

And somewhere in there were a trio of soldiers on a jury rigged cabinet with a machine gun zooming about in the ocean.

This was on the front page of Digg

2008-11-18T11:13:00.000+08:00

It's surprising how people don't believe that this was possible and that there are actually quite a few people who can do it. The misconceptions about unicycling out there are enormous.

When will they ever learn

2008-11-14T23:21:00.001+08:00

After the SPORE fiasco, you would think that companies would learn something.

Apparently not.

I have just bought a copy of Football Manager 2009 and guess what? Due to the DRM whereby I have to autheticate with the servers online, I can't play the game I spent good money on. The authentication servers are down. And while I'm stuck here with an expensive coaster, people who have downloaded the game are happily playing it.

DRM rarely work. It's Murphy's law, sod's law. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

I am just so pissed right now.

Use protection

2008-11-07T23:11:00.000+08:00

That day I learnt a valuable lesson.

Always use protection.

You might thing that you're good and skillful, quick and agile. You think that you can adjust in time. But let me tell you, when you feel that need to go faster, in the throes of passion for what you are doing, you might make a mistake.

And by then it would be too late.

Always use protection or you could end up like me.

Result of not using protection.

Story: I was riding too fast and didn't see a hump on the road thus crashing and burning. If I has used protection like knee pads, I wouldn't be in this state.

HEY!

2008-11-05T15:06:00.001+08:00

Have you heard?

Crap! Gotta run. Need to take a dump

2008-11-05T10:23:00.000+08:00

It's just sinking in, I'm going to run a marathon in 31 days. This is scary. I haven't actually been training as diligently as I like. It's so boring, just running for hours to an end.

That being said, I did go for a run 2 days back, only to meet the most unfortunate of circumstances. You see, I was faced with a need to take a dump while on a run.

The thing is, it was in the middle of no where, with nary a toilet in sight. So I had to soldier on. Unfortunately, the more I wanted to run, the more I felt I was losing control of my bowels.

And thus a dilemma: Do I run faster so I can get back home to take a dump and risk shitting in my pants? Or do I try to take it slow and try to control my bowels but walk as fast as possible home.

I chose the later option and made it home safe and clean.

On a side note, was reading Terry Pratchet's latest book: Nation, and it gave a rather interesting explanation of my previous predicament. Namely, when you are scared, your first instinct is to run. When running away, you want to be as light as possible, and that means letting go off everything that you don't need, and that includes Merde.

Should have done this

2008-10-29T12:42:00.000+08:00

YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS MIKE!

For Neil Gaiman fans. you know who you are

2008-10-26T19:54:00.000+08:00

Scene from Coraline

Coraline and more.

Love/Hate relationship

2008-10-23T10:31:00.000+08:00

I've got this love/hate relationship with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia at the moment. It's fun. But it's also really difficult. Not Megaman difficult, but still enough to make you try quite a few times before you figure out how to beat a boss.

That being said, even the normal monsters are quite a handful.

Wouldn't you say

2008-10-21T22:23:00.000+08:00

that is very ironic for someone doing a "Preventing Sleep deprivation in Singapore" to burn the midnight oil so that he can rush it out?

Word of the moment

2008-10-20T14:40:00.000+08:00

Dichotomy

The Bird is the Word!

2008-10-20T13:44:00.000+08:00

This has got to be one irritating song.

Fun maze game

2008-10-20T11:21:00.001+08:00

Try to complete it.

???

2008-10-16T11:32:00.000+08:00

The problem with company wide emails is

2008-10-15T23:33:00.000+08:00

that the tables literally shake from all the blackberrys on vibrating mode. Not to mention the symphony of ringtones to notify new mail.

You know when someone has been watching too much wrestling

2008-10-14T11:43:00.000+08:00

Recent conversation:

A: Hey, heard about the new movie, Max Payne?

B: Sounds familiar...

A: It's a movie based on the game.

B: Oh?! You mean it's about Triple H?

Cluesless in Singapore

2008-10-10T16:58:00.001+08:00

Standing in the MRT this morning to work, a sudden commotion startled me.

Like any good Singaporean, I ignored it, since it wasn't my business.

However, things became more interesting when the words "fei li" (Mandarin for molest) came up.

Long story short, it was a woman who was claiming that some guy was molesting her my touching her.
My sympathies are with the woman, it's difficult in a crowded train not to get taken advantage off. But sympathies also go to the guy. In a crowded train, you might accidentally touch some over-reacting woman and get scolded for nothing.

So the pair started arguing, with the woman claiming that the guy touched her and was trying to molest her, while the guy was refuting that it was cause it was crowded that.
But things took a turn for the cringe-worthy when the woman started throwing claims that this is Singapore and there are laws here and that this isn't China. She then further claimed that the guy shouldn't try to take advantage of her because she can't speak Chinese.

It was so xenophobic and racist and not to mention shallow, I couldn't help but side with the guy when I heard that drivel being spouted. I wonder if she would not have reacted as such if it was some Chinese immigrant but rather a Singaporean.

*Disclaimer* I'm not siding with the woman or man with regards to the molesting incident, but rather the arguments that were used to justify their side of the story. I will officially state that I do not condone molesting women in crowded areas.

Choices choices

2008-10-09T08:54:00.000+08:00

Mmmmm which one to keep?

Atheist or Agnostic

2008-10-08T16:37:00.000+08:00

Interesting Read

I think there are ninjas in my office

2008-09-30T12:04:00.000+08:00

Despite me sitting facing the water dispenser, I always fail to see who changes the water tank when the water runs out.

There are 3213 ninjas in this picture.

Goodnight and goodbye

2008-09-30T11:11:00.001+08:00

“We must not confuse dissent from disloyalty. We must remember always, that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another, we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.”

- Edward R. Murrow

Plutus

2008-09-24T22:04:00.000+08:00

"Plutus is envisaged by Aristophanes^[2] as blinded by Zeus, so that he would be able to dispense his gifts without prejudice; he is also lame, as he takes his time arriving, and winged, so he leaves faster than he came."

Weirdly, I found this beautiful.

Source: Wikiepedia

Dr Horrible's Sing-along-blog

2008-09-24T21:56:00.000+08:00

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Let me iterate this. Those who have not seen this, should find some means to watch it. It's legend-wait for it-dary!

Almost got me for a moment

2008-09-24T21:53:00.000+08:00

LHC Webcams

Hotel Pic

2008-09-19T16:09:00.000+08:00

Picture of the nice hotel (Crowne Plaza) I was in while in KL.

Growing fat

2008-09-19T11:43:00.000+08:00

I miss Ride the Lobster. It was fun in a "kill myself riding up insanely steep hills" sort of way. But what it did do was that it improved my fitness and muscles to a huge degree.

Nothing was so evident as when I just came back from RTL and could ride up "hills" (there are no true hills in Singapore) that I previously couldn't.

Imagine my chagrin when I tried the same hill yesterday and could actually feel my thighs starting to burn. I'm growing fat.

Nothing would ever be able to replicate the sheer amount of exercise that I got in RTL. 5 days of pretty much non-stop cardio. I miss that.

Things can't get any better/worse then this part deux.

2008-09-16T09:00:00.001+08:00

Apparently, before me, there were only Man U supporters in the office. Wonder if I can convert them.

Things can't get any worse/better then this

2008-09-15T11:44:00.000+08:00

In honor of our victory this weekend, I've deigned to wear my Liverpool jersey to work today. Seating down at my usual seat, I go about my daily work.

I turn to my left.

THERE IS A MAN U SWEATER HANGING ON THE CHAIR.

Wondering if I should change seats just in case the person comes in for work later.

Some thoughts

2008-09-09T20:11:00.000+08:00

I'll be the first to admit that I have a short attention span. My mind tends to wander around quite a bit, especially in a lesson, of which I have been in for the past 2 days.

So while my mind was skipping around in weird places, you can only expect weird things to pop in my mind like:

Searching techniques.
This was partly the lecturers fault where he asked us to flip to a page in the lecture notes and then asked us how we actually searched for it.

I used binary search, while others used sequential search. It doesn't matter if you know how the searches work, it's pretty intuitive actually. But what's interesting is what does this say about your character?

Would me using a binary search show that I'm more left brained? Lazy? Loathe to waste time?

What about a person who uses a linear search? More right brained? Hardworking, doesn't leave anything to chance? (Which brings to mind, DID ANYONE use random search? Holistic view of searching for something?)

Surnames
The Chinese have their surnames in front while the Westerners have theirs behind? Could you view this as the Chinese placing family above (before?) self? While the Westerners view the individual as very important?

International Colleagues

2008-09-03T16:31:00.000+08:00

Add in Thai, French and Australian. It's getting really interesting.

Kuala Lumpur

2008-09-03T15:46:00.000+08:00

I'm going to KL for a week! What's there to do in KL?

Drinks glorious drinks

2008-09-02T16:31:00.000+08:00

I love the pantry at work. On the first day, I wondered why no one bought anything to drink during lunch. It was only when we got back to the office and the glorious and obviously well venerated fridge was opened was I exposed to The Secret.

It was a very well stocked fridge. Green tea, Iced tea, coffee, milo, juice.

Sadly it was lacking in coke.

Well you can't please everyone.

First day at work!

2008-09-01T19:59:00.000+08:00

So far so good.

Got a new laptop (Lenovo T61 which is an insane 2.5kg)
Got a new handphone (Blackberry which I have no idea how to use. I can't even figure out how to keylock it easily)
New colleagues (who all seem friendly enough and not to mention very international, at last count, there was a Chilean, a German, an Indonesian)
Lots of new things to learn (literally a 100+ pdfs to read)

We'll see how this goes. Should be interesting.

Still awaiting:

My email account
Who the hell is my supervisor

I'm alive

2008-08-24T13:15:00.000+08:00

Post

Run

2008-08-24T05:36:00.000+08:00

Just about to embark on a 21km run. Wish me luck.

If I don't post again, you know I didn't make it.

Biggest Revelation EVA!

2008-08-19T21:52:00.000+08:00

From here

This is priceless

2008-08-06T20:23:00.001+08:00

There is something very wrong here

2008-08-05T21:11:00.000+08:00

Taken from here and here

I would say that there is something fundamentally wrong when a social media website advertises their services by showing how insanely fun setting your friend on fire and then posting it online can be. I am so not joining them cause I don't want to be set on fire.

Somehow resigning wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be

2008-08-04T22:13:00.000+08:00

I know I'm not very good at this comic lark. But resigning wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be.

This is insanely cool

2008-07-22T22:12:00.000+08:00

Good to check first

2008-07-14T12:01:00.000+08:00

Stupid SBJ

2008-07-12T10:55:00.001+08:00

I really can't jump if $100 depends on it.

HOLY SHIT! Never take anything at face value.

2008-07-10T23:18:00.002+08:00

Transformation!

RTL reflections

2008-07-09T21:03:00.002+08:00

RTL was tough. Real tough.

Could we have been better prepared for it? It's kind of subjective. The hills were the like we had never seen, but if I can recall correctly, Malaysian terrain is similar. We could have tried to train in Malaysia except we would probably be run over by a speeding truck before we got past the first turn.

Which was one thing I rather liked about RTL. There is a very clear campaign for them to share the road with cyclist of all varieties. They gave you a wide berth. Even when you were riding in the middle of the road, they made a point to overtake you carefully.

However, some of them were a bit too friendly. I know they mean well and were trying to show their support, but when you're riding along and a car blares it's horn at you from behind, it's scary.

Anyway, back to RTL.

Day 1 was tough. I think it was partly due to us not being conditioned for it, partly because we have never rode hills like those and partly because we just did not know what to expect. Our strategy for changing riders was totally off. We were planning to ride 1 hour stretches, roughly 18km per rider. But we got tired too quickly and the hills didn't help.

Day 2 was better in the sense that we were more conditioned to cold, except that it had to rain. Riding in the rain was no fun. Riding in the rain at about 10 degrees Celsius is worse. Riding in the rain at about 10 degrees Celsius wearing only a t-shirt and pants is the stuff of nightmares. But we were more accustomed the the hills and had a better strategy and we got much closer to finishing on day 2.

More to come when I have additional writers juice.

Gah

2008-07-05T23:18:00.003+08:00

Haven't posted in a while. Been really lazy lately.

I'll try to post a bit on my trip, but I really should be starting off by basically complaining about China Eastern.

The whole fiasco started with my friend JH realizing that China Eastern had actually postponed our flight by 2 days. We had bought really cheap tickets from a travel agency for a Singapore to New York flight via China Eastern. It was supposed to take us from Singapore to Shanghai, switching to a connecting flight from there to New York. China Eastern has apparently postponed the Shanghai-New York flight by 2 days without informing us.

We panicked. We didn't want to spend 2 days in Shanghai. So we called both the travel agency and China Eastern to seek a resolution. They both pushed the blame to each other, neither wanting to admit it was their fault. Well, it had to be someones right?

I had to ask to be let off early from work to make my way down to the travel agency to get an answer from them. China Eastern had actually stopped picking up our calls and taken the phone off the hook, meaning we couldn't call them. The travel agency wasn't much help, so I rushed down to the China Eastern head office. Some how they were closed at 4.30pm. We headed down to the airport in hopes that the counter there would be open. It wasn't, only opening at night. It was so frustrating and worrying since we had a very short deadline to get things done.

To cut a very long story short, it was only on the day that we were supposed to fly that they traced down the fault to China Eastern. China Eastern was claiming that they had sent out notices that the flights were canceled. However, it was finally realized that they had sent out the notices after we had bought the tickets and more importantly, they did not send it out to people who had already bought the tickets for that day, i.e. US.

It ended rather happily as they had to send us on the next available plane to New York which was Singapore Airlines.

Unfortunately, we were going to come back to Singapore via China Eastern.

Comparing the 2, it was really sad. The difference in the quality and quantity and frequency of the food was amazing.

SQ left me feeling very very full. I was perpetually hungry on China Eastern. The China Eastern blanket was too small, only allowing me to either cover my upper body or lower body and not both at the same time.

Summary, I'm not inclined to take China Eastern ever again, no matter how cheap the tickets are.

Bloody China Eastern

2008-06-10T21:37:00.001+08:00

I'm never going to fly with them every again no matter how cheap the tickets are.

FUCK!

Will elaborate more when I have the time.