Wednesday, 28 July 2010

If on a Winter's Night A Traveller

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
 ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~

I know I haven't blogged for quite a long time now, my apologies for that, coz Kevin came back. =)

Also coz of the fact that living a life of work, sleep, work, sleep, work, and sleep again, evidently does not help in keeping the blogging spirit up. 

Anyways. Now that I'm back from work feeling pretty guilty about not updating my blog for the longest time ever, I have decided to drop by while waiting for Kevin to come back from work so we can have dinner together and continue episode 4 of Flashforward.

You should watch it. Seriously.

So.

I have recently finished another book - yay! *applause* - this time, it's about some dude (according to the book, that's supposed to be me, the Reader) who reads a book but finds a defect in it, goes back to the book store in exchange for a new one, but instead finds it to be a completely different story. As he tries harder and harder to track down the correct book, he instead finds himself in a confusing adventure of book hunting. On the way, he gets acquainted with the book store owner (which later on proves to be more than that when they have sex later on), who kinda helps him a little in his quest, but not quite. Anyways, she's also Me, the Other Reader.


Then again, I am neither, coz I'm supposed to be the one reading about them, or rather myself.

Confusing much? I suspect that's the whol point of the book.

Halfway through, I got so confused that I gave up trying to understand what the hell the Reader was doing or where he was going - trust me, he went places. Lots of them.

I pretty much just enjoyed the half-written stories he (as in, me, the Reader) read while reading through book after book to search for the correct one.

I think I must have read like over ten different stories with no endings. It wasn't that bad, except for the fact that every single time it gets interesting, the Reader gets cut off by some external event.

You'd think getting interrupted while reading a book in real life is annoying, it's more so even in the fictional world of literature. Especially when it occurs over and over again.

I did come across some interesting parts that I thought would be worth sharing, to feed the occasional reader's thirst for a good piece of fiction.

'...this elderly editor, whom at first glance you define as "a little man, shrunken and bent", not because h is more of a little man, more shrunken, more bent than so many others, or because the words "little man, shrunken and bent" are part of his way of expressing himself, but because he seems to have come from a world where they still - no: he seems to have emerged from a book where you still encounter - you've got it: he seems to have come from a world in which they still read books where you encounter "little men, shrunken and bent."'
-If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, Chapter 5-

*omg I didn't know this book was so famous; I typed the words "if on" and the auto-complete gave the complete book title on Google search.*

Here's another one:

'It is that time of day when droves of employees leave the overheated offices, button up their overcoats with their fake-fur collars, and pile into buses. I blink, and they have vanished: only some scattered passersby can be discerned, far off, in the deserted streets from which I have also scrupulously eliminated automobiles and trucks and buses. I like to see the surface of the street bare and smooth as a bowling alley.

Then I abolish barracks, guard houses, police stations: all people in uniform vanish as if they had never existed. Perhaps I've let things get out of hand; I realize that firemen have suffered the same fate, and postmen, municipal streetcleaners, and other categories that might deservedly have hoped for a different treatment; but what's done is done: no use splitting hairs. To avoid trouble, I quickly abolish fires, garbage, and also mail, which after all never brings anything but problems.
I check to make sure that hospitals, clinics, rest homes have not been left standing: to erase doctors, nurses, patients seems to me the only possible health. Then courts, with their complement of magistrates, lawyers, defendants and injured parties; prisons, with prisoners and guards inside. Then I erase the university with the entire faculty, the academy of sciences, letters, and arts, the museum, the library, monuments and curators, theaters, movies, televisions, newspapers. If they think respect for culture is going to stop me, they're wrong.

Then come the economic structures, which for too long a time have continued to enforce their outrageous claim to decide our lives. What do they think they are? One by one, I dissolve all shops, beginning with the ones selling prime necessities and ending with those selling superfluities, luxuries: first I clear the display windows of goods, then I erase the counters, shelves, salesgirls, cashiers, floorwalkers. The crowd of customers is momentarily bewildered, hands extended into the void, as shopping carts evaporate; then the customers themselves are also swallowed up by the vacuum. From consumer I work back to producer: I abolish all industry, light and heavy, I wipe out raw materials and sources of energy. What about agriculture? Away with that, too! And to keep anyone from saying I want to regress toward primitive societies, I also eliminate hunting and fishing.

Nature... Aha! Don't think I haven't caught on. This nature business is another fine fraud: kill it! A layer of the earth's crust is all that has to remain, solid enough underfoot, and everywhere else, nothingness.'
-If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, What story down there awaits its end?-


And another:

'There, at the end of that strip of nothing I continue to call the Prospect, I see a slender form advancing, in a pale fur jacket: it's Franziska! I recognize her stride in her high boots, and the way she keeps her arms hidden in her muff, and the long striped scarf flapping after her. The cold air and the cleared terrain guarantee good visibility, but I wave my arms in vain, trying to attract her attention: she can't recognize me, we're still too far apart. I advance, hastening my steps; at least I think I'm advancing, but I lack any reference points. Now, on the line between me and Franziska, some shadows can be discerned: they are men, men in overcoats and hats. They are waiting for me. Who can they be?'
 -If on a Winter's Night A Traveller, What story down there awaits its end?-

Right. I must stop myself here, lest I  continue with this foolishness of copying passages off a book until I have unknowingly copied the entire book here - which of course, as unlikely as it may seem, there always exists a possibility, however small it may be; analogous to the fact that as unlikely as I may die tomorrow, I am still unable to guarantee that I may still live -  and I may then bore the reader (in this context, I am referring to you, dear Reader, the one reading my blog) to the brink of death. Not that anyone in their right minds would read this far - I believe most of my acquaintances would much rather read about my real life than to read about me rambling on and on about some boring book. 


Unless, of course, you're an avid fan of exploring the different concepts of literature - sometimes to even believe that there may be a paralel universe within the pages that we flip - and if you are, I am pleased to be of your acquaintance as well. 

Last but not least, I do realise that I have been so much into the mood of literature and such that even my flair of transcribing thoughts into words have flourished beyond my expectations. Never mind that, I'll soon be back to normal.


Kevin is back. Flashforward + dinner time! =)

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

iPad

"the purpose is to make more $ because they have nothing else to market so they took their last recent hit and make it Big, a classical American move take what you have good make it BIGGER and sell it for more $ and squeeze every last bit of profit that you can out if it!


I would just buy a sick notebook for that price..."
-BR5TH, Yahoo! Answers-



So it's finally coming to Singapore this weekend, July 23rd.

Sure, it's a wow, but seriously, what's the point of owning an oversized iPod Touch/less-than-bargained-tablet-like-thingy which, well, does (almost) all things, but honestly, is there a REAL PURPOSE of it?

iPod => Listening to music
Netbook => Surfing the web + a decent OS + a REAL computer with REAL programs that you can install (and not just lame apps)
PSP/DS Lite => playing games
Ebook => carrying/reading multiple books minus the weight
iPad => ... huh????

The biggest problem I have with iPad? It becomes a piece of useless junk when WiFi is unavailable. At least with a netbook, I can still stick a LAN cable into it.

Plus, if I really did want to surf the net via WiFi while on the go, I could do so on my iTouch/HTC.

The way I see it, it's just a piece of over-sized electronic item which, in a way, does all things but never really gives the satisfying feeling of accomplishing a purpose.

Sure, the iOS is great and all, but only when it's used on the iPhone/iTouch. The iOS on something like this? Seriously??

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we already had the Mac OS and Windows OS which works perfectly fine.

It's just gonna be something you flip out and finger around (pun intended ^^) when you're bored waiting for the bus or on the MRT. You're not really gonna use it to surf the net - you already have a real computer/laptop/netbook for that - DUH, and if you wanted to play games on it (with the portability), the PSP/DS Lite has some real games, not just lame apps which, granted, may provide you a few minutes of entertainment, but honestly, who on earth has ever been addicted to an iTouch/iPhone/iPad game apps as much as those games on the PSP/DS?

Sure, you could argue that "well, what if someone wasn't fortunate enough to own all those gadgets like the PSP/DS, iTouch, iPhone/Blackberry/HTC, or netbook/laptop/computer? Wouldn't they need an iPad then?"

Oh please, if I couldn't afford to own any of those gadgets, I'd save up to buy them, and the iPad would be the last thing on my mind.

I wouldn't say I'm entirely against buying it - if you've got the cash, why not? It would be a nice toy you could play around with and show off around for a bit. 

Besides, I could certainly picture myself sitting at Old Canteen A studying my lecture notes on my iPad. *grins*

I'll get it when I have excess money that I don't know what else to spend it on. =)

*Okay, you could say it's a revised/simplified version of a tablet, that, you may be right and I shall keep my peace, you blind Apple fan.*

Sunday, 18 July 2010

save it for a rainy day.

“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window. “
-Steve Wozniak-

I've got nothing much to blog about lately, so as much as I am against copying and pasting stuff into my blog (coz, well, I think blogs are meant for people with their own original point of views, not by copying what others say), I found this interesting joke in a forwarded mail, and I thought I'd save it for a rainy day.

Rainy day being, one of the days when I realize I have gone too many days "unblogged", and despite the fear that people may stop coming here for lack of posts, I still haven't found the inspiration to blog.

Like now.

So here it is:

An old kampung imam had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men his age, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it.

One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table four objects.

1. The Holy Quran.
2. A fifty ringgit note.
3. A bottle of whiskey.
4. And a Playboy magazine.

'I'll just hide behind the door," the old imam said to himself. "When he comes home from school today, I'll see which object he picks up."

"If it's the holy book, he's going to be an Imam like me, and what a blessing that would be!"

"If he picks up the fifty ringgit note, he's going to be a business man, and that would be okay, too."

"But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunken bum, and God, what a shame that would be."

"And worst of all if he picks up that magazine he's going to be a skirt-chasing womanizer."

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's foot-steps as he entered the house whistling and heading for his room..

The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Holy Book and placed it under his arm. He picked up the fifty ringgit note and dropped into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink, while he admired the magazine's centerfold.

"God have mercy," the old imam disgustedly whispered. "He's going to be an Umno Policitian!"


Okay, toodles.

Thursday, 15 July 2010

lil things that go "in between".

Politeness, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy. 
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911

Okay, so there was this incident that happened to me at Pioneer MRT a few days ago; I was contemplating whether or not it was worth blogging about.

I call this one of those"in between"s. 

There are some stuff worth bloggging, some stuff not, and then there are those irritating lil things that go "in between".

Since I'm feeling lazy to recount the incident in proper use of language (and I am so not in the mood to pay attention to grammar, spellings, word prhase, and stuff like that), I shall ctrl+C-ctrl+V my MSN conversation here:

oh ya
dun buy pioneer nasi lemak ever again
stupid old lady 
i bought nasi lemak from pioneer mrt
then hor
 he set meal is only $2 

but i din buy set ma
den after tat, the lady said, add 1 more sausage become set d
den is more "tat"
(as in, more worth it) oso
den i ask, add sausage how much
she say 2.80
den after tat, i ask another malay lady which is packing the food for me, without sausage how much
then she say "two something"
den i tot 2 something
can be 2.20, 2.30,2.50
den i tot nvm la nonid to add sausage  

den after she packet up for me, the malay lady count all the food add up to 2.70
 den i tot might as well get the sausage add another 10 cents nia
den i said i wan sausage
den u know wad she say
"sorry la, i ady keep for u"
she dowan take sausage for me
give excuse dat she ady put inside plastic bag for me
i was like super TL
i reli wan2 scold her d
i regret din scold
or din throw money at her


ZV said I should have just said "Then I don't want the food."

Yeah, I regret not saying that too.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

at least from my non-engineering, more common-sense-orientated side of me

Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not almost one, then it is damn near zero.
-David R. Ellis-

There are so many things to blog about but I'm feeling so lazy to say anything here.

Okay, so today we went for a buffet lunch at some Japanese restaurant at Jurong Point; don't quite remember the name of the restaurant, though I DO  remember the oh-so-expensive cost of $30.90++.

Okay, so maybe it isn't that expensive, but I'm broke.

I spent $300 on Levi's, $200 on my Altec Lansing wireless earphones, and another $85 on my lomo camera. And I haven't even had my first month's pay yet. *ouch*

Anyways. We ate, and ate, and ate. LOL. Sorry. Not much of a food reviewer. In short, it was a decent meal. I wouldn't say it was great - heck, what would you expect from a $30 buffet - but at least they had decent food.

Goofed around with my new lomo camera a bit.
I think I look good with my camera. I should be a photographer. LOL.

After lunch, we went book shopping. Can you believe it - Zhi Vern decides to take up a new hobby: READING!!

LOL-NESS.

So we went to the Popular book store, where we were randomly browsing when I saw this particular book which caught my attention. 


 50 Psychology Ideas You Really Need To Know.

I picked it up, opened up a random page, and there I was, on some chapter about gambling. Something about the 50-50 chance and how people misunderstand it and give themselves the wrong idea.
Here's a simple question to further clarify:

Imagine a fictional town with 1000 families, all of the families have 6 children. Given two scenarios:

Scenario A: 3 of the children are girls and the other 3 are boys.
Scenario B: all 6 of the children are boys.

Which scenario is more probable to occur, when a family is randomly picked out from that town?

I want you to think and give your honest answer before scrolling down.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*


Ready?

According to the book, when this question was posed to some people of higher education, surprisingly, more than 50% of them answered Scenario A.

The correct answer would be that both Scenario A and Scenario B have the same probability. Why? 

It would make sense to think that (heck, if I were in that situation, I would think this way too) if you already had given birth to 10 children whom all are boys, you would think that there should be a 99% chance that your 11th pregnancy would result in a girl.

Many people have made that common mistake. In fact, the chances that your 11th pregnancy is a girl is only a 50% chance.

In fact, in each birth, there is a 50-50 chance that either a boy or a girl would be born, and each birth is individual of all the other births. 

Interesting, huh?

But still. I think - at least from my non-engineering, more common-sense-orientated side of me - its pretty hard to believe.

Ah, the ironies of the world.

Right, I'll have to stop thinking now, it's a Sunday night *gasp*, which means it'll be Monday tomorrow *oh the horror*, and I'm gonna die coz my deadline is supposed to be on Monday but I have not done anything yet.

I'll have to take my job more seriously. =(

Saturday, 10 July 2010

My new toy

"I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me."
-Annie Leibovitz-

Despite my promise to myself never to spend ever again (ever since I bought that other toy), behold, I present to you, my new toy:
Golden Half Lomo camera =)


So what's my take on it?

The way I see it, digital cameras are waaaayyy too common these days (heck, everyone owns one), and if I wanted a camera, I wanted it to be special, which leaves me with the only other choice: DSLR's. 

The only problem with DSLR's is that they're too bulky and you wouldn't normally wanna bring something like that out on normal outings with friends. 

But then, I wouldn't want a normal digi cam either, coz it's too common.

Hence, I thought I'd buy something more eccentric. 
It's so tiny and convenient, ain't it?

It's mechanically operated and uses film. The only difference between this one and the old-fashioned cameras is that this is a lomo.

Basically, lomo cameras gives pictures this special old school effect that makes the pictures look, well, 'old'. 

Aiya, dunno how to explain lah.

Read more about Lomography here.

I tried it out today. My take on it?

I think our current generation take shooting pictures for granted. You hold a camera, and you go snap, snap, snap without thinking, coz "heck, I can always delete the ones I don't like later on."

Having this camera, it's pretty stressful. Films are precious coz once you snap a photo, that's that. You can't delete or undo it. Once the film roll is used up, you'll have to buy a new one, which means you'll have to spend more money. In a way, it makes you think twice before shooting, and you'll learn how to appreciate each shot and shoot with care.

So we were having a group shot, and Li Hui was nice enough to take a picture for us, and I was like "Take carefully okay!! Take wrong cannot delete one you know!! Careful ok!! Take nice nice!!" coz, well, once your hands shake, once you press the shutter by accident, once you blink at the moment he snaps, its gone.

Oh, well. I still think my camera is great.

It's just too bad I'll have to wait till they're all used up before I can develop them and see how I look in those pictures. Hopefully I don't turn out ugly in them coz I won't even be able to Photoshop them if I did.

Rawr.

"I'm in no condition to drive...wait! I shouldn't listen to myself, I'm drunk!"
 -Homer J. Simpson



Aww, ain't that cute.

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

MY ALTEC BACKBEAT EARPHONES ARRIVED!!

No time for words.

Here you go:

Earphones + bluetooth receiver =)

Monday, 5 July 2010

off my Facebook.

happy coz i spent only $160 for two pairs of Levi's instead of original $260 + had a free complimentary iced lemon tea from Deli France coz they took so long to serve my food + i made my ugly pendrive pretty and it glows in the dark too *omg* + just had my daily dose of after-work window shopping + my Altec Lansing Backbeat 906 wireless earphones are arriving tomorrow *omgomgomg*!!!!!! =)
-Rae's current FB status-


There you go. A snippet of my life.  


P.S.: After work, instead of going home, I usually take the bus to the nearest shopping mall. It helps me de-stress.

Sunday, 4 July 2010

3 cheers for Android!

Everyone knows DisneyLand, right? I dreamed I was in AnimeLand. You know what? They should build one.
-Rae da Twit-

Thursday, 1 July 2010

If only I had an ahoge which could do this.

Anyone who can walk to the welfare office can walk to work.
-Al Capp-

This morning, I pinned my hair back and used hair spray to keep it in place. Unfortunately, I got caught in a lil rain this afternoon, the hair spray gave way, and I ended up sporting an ahoge for the rest of the day.


Ahoge|アホ毛, アホげ (//), literally foolish hair, is a visual cue common to Japanese anime and manga. Consisting of a single, often large, lock of hair sticking out from the top of the head, it is most often used to identify foolish, bumbling or carefree characters.
-http://animanga.wikia.com/wiki/Ahoge-

Basically, an ahoge is a single lock of hair sprouting out of one's head because for some reason, some anime characters apparently have this special ability to make their hair "naturally" stick out. 

Let me show you some examples of ahoges:

See that crescent shaped single lock of hair sticking out of Kona-chan's head?

More examples:
 
Edward Eric's ahoge is short and almost unnoticable.

Left: An extremely exxagerated and curled ahoge which spells. lol. Right: Sekai looks cute with a long, thin, natural-ish looking ahoge.

If only I had an ahoge which could do this:

 Lolness.

Back to my point. 

I have always wished I had an ahoge in real life - it'd be so cute (as seen from above examples). Today, I finally - though my accident - had one. Truth be told, I don't think it was as cute as I thought it'd be. In fact, I thought it made my hair look funny.

GAHHH why won't my ahoge look good on me???

*cries*

Oh well, at least my wish came true and I got an ahoge, and I even wore it to my first day of work. 

*grins*

Which reminds me.

First day of work.

Wait, let me add to my list of employers on Facebook.

*dum dee dum*

Okay, done.

Everyone loves a "My First Day At Work" story.

Mine began like any ordinary day. 

....

*silence*

*hoot hoot*

*.....*

Who am I kidding?

Ordinary, Smordinary. I barely slept the night before, and then the next day I was so sleepy, I was so tempted to give myself "ten more minutes" (which of course, usually ends up to be two hours or so).

Then, I took a bath, where the water was so warm and soothing against the coldness of the dawn, I almost wished I could spend forever in there.

Pinned my bangs up, pulled my hair back into a pony tail, and liberally sprayed all over with hair spray, coz I thought it would be nice to look neat on my first day of work. Which I later on regretted. The air conditioning was so freaking cold that I wished I had my hair down as a scarf to cover my bare, exposed, naked neck.

On the contrary, the bus to work wasn't air conditioned, which was inconvenient in so many ways. 

Wanna know?

1. There is no air conditioning. Duh. 
2. The wind blowing through the open windows stink of carbon monoxide and dust.
3. Wind gives me dry eyes.
4. The air from the busy roads are blowing into my hair and face, making my face horribly oily even before I start my day at work, and my hair feels slick and tangled. 
5. Sweat.
6. I HATE SWEAT!!!

Sure, you'd say that there's no way I'd sweat, coz the windows are open and the wind brushing through your hair is like a nice, cool breeze. 

Well, you're wrong. As long as one is NOT in an air conditioned environment, one is BOUND TO SWEAT. No matter how strong the wind is, or how fast the ceiling fan is spinning. Singapore is HOT AND HUMID and no amount of wind can change that.

Air conditioning, however, dries the air up, hence making the air cold and dry. That, my friend, is the ONLY way to prevent sweating in Singapore. 

Point is, the 30 minute bus ride to work was unpleasant. 

Upon arrival at ExxonMobil, the first thing that came to my mind was "whoa, this refinery plant is huuuuuge!!" Being the blur person I usually am, I had a pretty hard time at first, being introduced to lots of stuff and all. 

One bad news: THERE IS NO FREAKING INTERNET!!!

Oh, this 6 months are gonna be great. 

Anyways, later on, I was assigned to my seat and I tried to log onto my computer but I couldn't coz apparently, I had the wrong password. Long story. Never mind.

Lunch was okay, the food was pretty cheap.

For the second half of my day, I pretty much just sat around, reading some stuff given by my senior, coz I had nothing else to do. 

All in all, I don't think my workload will be that stressful, but I can sense some responsibility coming in, and I'm beginning to wonder how people can actually leave work happy and still relax at home although they know there's unfinished business at work.

Coz I don't think I can.

Whatever. Bah.