|
|
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
| |
3:00 am - End of no-meat regime
|
Finally ended the 1 month meat abstinence, with a 1 dinner break that was compensated by 1 extra day. The 1 key reason for doing so is rather irrational. I am afterall, not a person of persisting faith; thus adopting this practice as though it will somehow have an effect on an irrelevant event (as though watched over by one rather powerful entity that I have not project much faith or belief in most of the times), is rather hopeful. At the same time, I am also curious to see if I can actually maintain such a practice throughout. Well, it is not really that bad and difficult considering I am not proclaiming to adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet, thus the places I can eat from is not too limited, though it still poses some degree of inconvenience especially when sharing dinner in a group.
Although the point of the practice is questionable since the limitation I placed on myself is simply not consuming actual meat directly, thus I do consume animal products whose extraction does not harm it, such as eggs and butter. And not shying away from food with sauce or soup been preparedwith meat.
No, there is nothing special felt, nor do I actually slim down or lose any weight, although I kind of avoided further weight increase by not been able to finish up Jiaer's leftovers or having dinner at her place with only 1/3 bowl of rice and just a plate of vegetable.
I guess when placed in very dire situation, a rational mind may occasionally take a backseat.
current mood: accomplished
|
|
|
| Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
| |
12:54 am - It is a stage of life everyone has to encounter...
|
... but to me, this is the first time such matter really affected me that much. It is after an amputation that is complicated by the health concern that had never surfaced previously.
To be fair, the doctors has to state the risk as high and as pessimistic as possible, rather than to be blamed for making empty promises/reassurance. However, I just could not help feeling really that upset, the gloom impending possibility of losing her. There are just so much things we hope to achieve in her lifetime, such as been served at our wedding tea ceremony, hearing my future kid calling her 'Ah Tai', so much so that these will be regrets that I could picture myself been haunted by.
Perhaps at the same time, with all these grievances we just felt the need to find somebody to blame... after all it just started as wet gangrene on the toe which was delayed with initial decision to only conduct angioplasty and KIV, then eventually they decided to carry on the toe amputation. Now it has escalated to a critical infection as well as a bout of heart attack which seems to leave amputating the lower leg the only alternative to prolong her life, despite the risks and complications it carries. Can't help questioning why a proper job was carried out in the first place instead of having to amputate again at a much difficult condition? Sure enough there is risk of infection after the first surgery but shouldn't the doctors give necessary preventive measures? We can't help but speculate that somewhere along the whole chain of procedures something must have been done wrongly, wrong judgement has been made.
All I hope is that it is all just our paranoia ...
current mood:  sad
|
|
|
| Thursday, January 10th, 2008
| |
11:13 am - The 1st 3 days in Taiwan
|
|
Finally I decided to use the slow pc in the hotel to update this dusty journal. Prolly I will do a short description of the places we went so far, though its mainly the night markets. Its been 3 days of walking here and there with abit of eating along the way, though I would like to eat more lol. Our hotel is in the Ximen streets surrounded by shops that seems rather modern and new in comparison to the places we will be going later. Theres Animate nearby, a maid cafe and another anime merchandise shop which sells goods at a rather cheap price. Jiaer had been walking around this area trying to find the Cotin doll merchandise shop in vain.
|
|
|
| Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
| |
12:28 am - Hairspray
|
Just watched the show tonight. Pretty entertaining to watch, as I kind of have a liking for song and dance of that period. Nice beat and tunes, especially those sang by the black.
Watching John Travolta acting as a overly-emotional woman is particularly hair-raising yet funny, combined with the goofy portrayal of the father by Christopher Walken.
Now I am kind of looking forward to get my hands on the OST.
|
|
|
| Monday, September 3rd, 2007
| |
10:52 pm - You might have received this during Comex...
|
which is a flyer titled "Upgrade you PC to Dual Core For Below S$300". At first sight, I was about to dismiss it as some advertisement and throw it away until I took a further look and realise it has the emblem captioned "Xedo Defense.Org".
Under the title "Community Service: Some Interesting Info", a list of Odex-episode related informations were provided.
While it would probably appeal to those of us who were unhappy with the action taken by Odex and the way Singtel responded, some of the contents seems rather far-fetched in terms of possible outcomes and assumptions. For some of the abovementioned incidents, I wonder if they were true or not.
The flyer can be seen at http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/7521/xedodefencepg3.jpg, posted by Roarkiller from sgcafe.
|
|
|
| Monday, June 4th, 2007
| |
9:07 pm - The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum
|
Last week, I dropped by at that place right after the certification test. It was suppose to be 1 day after Vesak day. The place is still filled with visitors eager to view this new and extravagantly built monument.
Grand and elaborate it may be, filled with numerous sculptures generously coated with gold I presume, as well as the 400kg gold plated stupa used to housed the Buddha tooth relic lavished with gem stones. Kind of too extravagant I felt. While I have my doubt on the authenticity of the said relic, I personally felt that the level of luxuries showered on this whole monument kind of contradict the lifestyle preached by Buddhism isn't it? From the free hand-outs distributed, all I can feel is the magnitude of extravagance demanded.
However, at a pragmatic level, this is of course understandable. I do believe the support rallied from the various leaders of the region be it Chairman of Association of Businessman of Chinatown, MP or Singapore Tourism Board, is probably rooted from the desire to portray as one of the latest tourist attraction. Thus, having a shabbily built monastery to house a supposed relic of such importance is unlikely to be acceptable.
Still, what kind of puts me off is still the demanding attitude for such level of extravagance, from some venerable Buddhist monk.
|
|
|
| Friday, May 4th, 2007
| |
1:09 am - Since I was tagged by 2 persons
|
Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little-known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.
1. Even though I like sweet stuffs and desserts, I hate eating them when I am very hungry. Usually I have to satisfy my hunger with salty food.
2. Occasionally I will have this sensation where everything feels unfamiliar or alien to me. Things that i am usually familiar with or taken for granted will become acutely distracting and questionable.
3. 2002 is also the year I own my first handphone when most of my friends around me owns one (and some complain about the difficulty to contact me). It is also the year I did something very mean and stupid which I really regretted.
4. Whenever possible I like to go through 4 phases of enjoying a new food. 1)Enjoy the food normally as itself. 2)Enjoy the food normally with sauce 3)Enjoy the food very slowly 4)Enjoy the food in 1 big mouthful
5. I was a great fan of origami when I was in Primary 6. I had several origami books and will always pester my schoolmates for their origami books and to teach me any new origami skill.
6. When I was a 4 year old ignorant and curious kid, I wanted to try wearing a skirt while I dunno that a skirt is for gals and the way to pronoun 'skirt' -_-
7. Although it is nice to laze around on the bed, I dislike waking up late near the afternoon, especially on weekends. It feels as if the weekend is wasted away.
8. The 1st video game console I got to own was a 2nd hand Sega Saturn during sec 4, which my primary school friend sold to me very cheaply along with all his games.
9. I can't really lie, so if I don't wanna tell the truth, I give partial/incomplete truth instead.
10. I am both a spendthrift and a miser lol
Its damn tough to think up of 10 such things sia...
Won't be tagging anyone since most had done it by now. I bet I am one of the last to finish this. However, those interested and haven't done so should consider doing it muahahaha.
|
|
|
| Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
| |
11:53 pm - Spiderman 3
|
I think the movie is great in terms of the action and the attempt to put the Osbourne family's vengence to an end. The chase scene between Goblin and Spiderman is nicely fast pace and exciting, while the showdown between the 2 unlikely team ups was great. I wont mind watching those 2 scenes again man.
In terms of the portrayal of Peter Parker's drastic change in behaviour due to the symbiote, it gets abit unnatural. So is the extreme actions both Peter and Maryjane had chosen to act in response to each other. The pace gets abit too slow and draggy at the middle part which makes the movie seems longer than it really is.
The effects used for this show is rather fantastic. I loved the animations of the clustering and drifting motion of the sands as well as the viscous yet organic movements of the symbiote (Advancing like a spider yet giving that elastic fluid feel and the devouring-like bonding effects). I guess it requires alot of time and resources to animate these particle effects.
I am simply amazed by Spiderman's capability to hide so many spare masks for use. Despite the damage to several parts of his costume, the spare masks were always intact.
It seems like villains who redeemed themselves were commonly cursed with sad or fatal ends. Either it is to dispose them since they no longer have any value in terms of driving the plot and character development, or to save the trouble of explaining what happens to them later and how they have to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds.
current mood:  satisfied
|
|
|
| Sunday, April 29th, 2007
| |
12:18 am - Interesting stuff
|
Gotten a snow leopard by the name Rire. Seems rather interesting concept and the alethiometer is rather cool. Maybe you can try playing around and see what form the daemon will become in the end?
|
|
|
| Thursday, April 26th, 2007
| |
8:27 am - I usually dont do memes but this seems pretty interesting
|
|
| Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
| |
4:23 pm - Gamebooks and Lone Wolf
|
Instead of studying for my exam tml, I decided to Wiki-surf abit for lots of random stuffs. Went to check up on Lone Wolf in wikipedia, triggered by a line on some game magazine I saw last Friday about a PC game for Lone Wolf.
I was quite crazy over Lone Wolf during my primary school times, around primary 4 when I got introduced to the series from a schoolmate. Back then there were a few gamebooks in my primary school library and I was just exposed to a few, the kind where a common starting story will lead to 2 entirely different 'quests' and multiple endings. Well, it was the time when I do not have a computer or video game console and that became my only means of fantasy RPGing. (Way before I get to see some secondary students play miniatures RPG or card games in my school)
Thus I got hooked onto it. Afterall, unlike most gamebooks in the market back then, Lone Wolf series is releases in a continuous series that allows you to carry over quest items and skills from previous books. Effectively, you can level up by increasing your stats and skills as you progress along. It was fun 'gaming' it and read up on the fantastic skills available.
However, it is only back in primary 6 that I actually spend money to buy the Lone Wolf books. The interest was strengthened when I had another close friend named Timothy back then who likes fantasy books and fighting games like I did. He was an avid fan of Lone Wolf series too, thus the fun is escalated when you get to share such similar interest with someone else. During that time I liked to spend time hanging out at the Popular Bookstore near my home, after school, talking with Timothy and browsing the books abit.
Eventually my interest waned after I have access to video game consoles. Furthermore, the story started to feel draggy and it gets less interesting when there weren't much new skills available. Thus I kinda stopped buying and reading up on it by the time I was secondary 2.
Well, thus I read up in wikipedia and found out that Joe Dever released up to 28 though he had another 4 books planned. In another words, the series ended prematurely and most of the books were out of release. Luckily, he had licensed some non-profitting group to release the softcopy of his works online, including other accompanying books. Thus I can still access his works without going through the pain to look for them painstakingly.
The sense of nostalgia is there when looking back at some interest one had indulged in back in the past.
current mood:  nostalgic
|
|
|
| Saturday, April 14th, 2007
| |
2:49 am - Of Inner Beast, Darkness and Corruption
|
For some reason, I always find the concept of 'a protaganist who taps into his inner darkness/beast for power while often on the verge of been corrupted or consumed' to be rather appealing. It is not simply like having a second form due to something external, spiritual, parasitic or even device, but rather a factor that resides deep within, that is personal to the protanganist himself.
Maybe I find it a more interesting way to explain the origin of one's ability. Maybe I am very influenced by Jungian's concept of subconscious and archetypes. Maybe it goes hand in hand with my liking for doppelganger duels or mirrored self. Maybe I just find it more human to have a hidden dark side, to be able to harness its potential and to be able to suppress the corruption.
That probably accounts for my liking of the portrayal of Ichigo and his hollow self, how an antagonistic relationship is formed and how he learns to tap into it as a source of raw brute power in contrast of a shinigami's orderly and hierachical disciplines, yet at the risk of been consumed by this very chaotic power. And various other 裏 characters from other games, mangas or animes.
It is not just about having some destructive/chaotic/dark/premordial power to lose oneself to, but to be able to harness it and resist it at will. After all, power is nothing without control.
current mood:  refreshed
|
|
|
| Thursday, March 1st, 2007
| |
10:02 pm - Full of misses within this few days
|
First, I had forgotten the date due of the voucher which allows me to collect a 1 pint tub of Haagendaz ice cream of any flavour. Despite trying to collect it today, sure enough the manager declined.
Then, I missed the deadline of a the assignment for Machine Learning and Neural Network as it is on Saturday itself. Such unusual timing. To make it worse, I myself is very puzzled with the things I am suppose to do for the assignment.
Today, I had actually forgotten to do the pop quiz which closes on 12pm every Monday. This is not the 1st time I had missed the pop quiz. Damn.
After that, I did real badly for the Japanese mid term paper, leaving the most blanks than any Japanese paper I had ever done. I don't need a hunch to know I am gonna fail that paper.
Nice start of the week.
current mood:  disappointed
|
|
|
| |
1:17 am - Gonna be at my wits end ...
|
when all the deadlines decided to cram within this month, projects or assignments wise. Makes me wonder why my final semester is such a chore despite clearing the toughest module last semester.
This afternoon had a little steamboat gathering at Zhiwei's place. Its been quite some time since we meet together. Had a short session of mahjong and I was like forever losing until a few 'guerilla wins' and finally a nice 4 tai win. Prior to that every of my attempt to come up with big wins were mercilessly foiled! The apparently one and only track for Confession of Pain gets real irritating when it is heavily spammed in the particular movie.
Friday's Japanese tutorial was interesting when we had a little Sado session within that little room in AS4. Geesh, never knew theres such a traditional looking room hidden among that corridor!! The Okashi was quite interesting in taste and the Macha is tasty. Unfortunately, I am unable to fully comprehend the old lady's little narration of the related history to the Art. What a shame ...
Evil campaign is fun though it is a wonder that why as the villains, we still have to rush into the den of the good, challenge a large crew of higher level good guys and go through all the same shit that the good guys usually have to go through? Maybe, as Wai Leong said, 'Both side receives the same shit but its more publicised for the good guys'. I say, the stories we hear often make the villains' invasion sounds too easy to be true.
Its no wonder the good always triumph when the bad guys are often too self centred to work together and are probably occupied with killing each other off before any goody good paladin in shiny full plates can come knocking at our door. Otherwise, we are probably stirring up more trouble on our own before we can even settle down on adminstrative issues.
The quote of the day: Tower is for good guys, bad guys build dungeons!
current mood:  tired
|
|
|
| Monday, February 19th, 2007
| |
7:34 pm - Becos I am bored ...
|
and also inspired by Drefan's recent entry, I decided to make some Bleach and Organisation XIII characters out of Maple Story's screencap to kill the time in Jiaer's place
     
Damn, by saving it as JPEG in MS Paint, all the colours I had used has been reduced ... sian ...
current mood: somewhat accomplished
|
|
|
| Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
| |
1:13 am - Hence the busy final semester started
|
and I nearly lost the chance of graduating this semester as I absentmindedly missed the deadline to file for graduation. Luckily the email kind of rememedied the problem.
This semester seems to turn out to be more hectic despite most of the modules were mainly UEs or breadth, the ones which unfortunately I chosed were the ones with lots of projects.
Due to the need of the Japanese language module, I have to set up a Japanese blog with a few entries to meet the assignment needs. So do feel free to drop by and comment, despite my crappy Japanese.
Boukenger 42 was rather exciting with all the 3 mechas fighting 1 main enemy, though it will be nicer to have all 4 + Zuban fighting together instead lol.
Tutorials starting next week, so the pace gonna pick up and I better get working.
current mood:  okay
|
|
|
| Sunday, December 31st, 2006
| |
3:17 pm - NHK Ni Youkoso
|
Finally finished watching the series, which ended at episode 24. It is a rather interesting anime whose major theme is on social reclusion. The protaganist Tatsuhiro had resorted to been a hikkikomori when he deduced that his failure, the (imaginary) mocking response of everyone and everything else were all part of NHK's conspiracy. It is through this paranoia that landed him into many hilarious situations, introducing him to a girl Misaki who seems to be very enthusiastic in helping him get rid of the hikkikomori lifestyle, though it ended as a case of the one helping gets help. His constant self-denial also drives the plot.
Japanese sub-cultures were explored in the mini-arcs of the story, such as Eroge otakus, lolicon, Internet Suicide Group, Online game addicts as well as issues such as Real Money Trading(RMT) and Multi-Level Marketing(MLM). Through these events we get to see how Tatsuhiro aggravates his dire situation by indulging in various delusions or unrealistic fantasies/obsessions. Also, the characters around him were in one way or another, in some sort of dire situations that is worth sympathising.
I particularly liked episode 12 and 13 where his unknowing actions were hilarious when he is totally oblivious of the situation he is in, yet making remarks and encouraging things that were just plain wrong. The incohesive mood between the majority's depression and his genki-ness were plain funny.
Unfortunately the plot have to resolve in forging a romantic relationships between the 2 as Tatsuhiro realise his dependance and liking for Misaki and vice versa. Then again, I have no idea what would had been a better and less cliche ending.
I kinda liked the opening song and the second ending song, though the first ending song is relatively interesting, probably a nice piece to sing for the fun of it.
Somehow, the anime kind of raises this panic within me, of ending up as a NEET and resorting to a parasite-like lifestyle. The portrayal of such wretched state and indulgence, for some reason, irks me to some extent.
current mood: accomplished
|
|
|
| Saturday, December 30th, 2006
| |
8:56 am - Soon its gonna be the end of 2006 ...
|
..and the past week had been a busy week given 2 chalets adjacent to each other, separated by none other than Christmas Day itself. Both chalets were quite fun and funny in their own rights. The former full of little cracks and fun activities, the latter filled with hilarious gaming moments and Esca's pre-drunk profanities lol. We even had a visit to David's place where we spent the time divided among admiring his room as well as his pets, enjoying the swimming facilities and having fun with Wii.
Watched 'A Night In The Museum' On Christmas Day. It is certainly an entertaining comedy for everyone, with heavy use of anatopisms within the behaviours of the historical exhibits that opposes our expectations and the contrast in the severeness of phenomenona as experienced by the minis, against what we actually observed. I personally felt that the show is worth my $9.50.
I finally got to see my exam results and though there were minor improvements in my cap score, the individual grades were not up to my satisfaction despite within my own grim expectations. I guess I have to give my last best shot (somehow) for next semester, hoping to at least get a graduation with merit.
As for now, I made little progress in mastering the usage of Flash, given that I can do simple animation but yet to be proficient with it. Actionscript-wise, I manage to get only a rough idea of it but yet to put it to action. My days before the start of school are numbered though...
I am kind of looking forward to Yaodong's campaign so as to experience the goodness of the Book Of Nine Swords, through which I am sculpting a Chinese Swordsmastery Exponent-archetype character based mainly on calm personality, speed and counterattacks. Hope it will end up cool lol.
current mood:  bored
|
|
|
| Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
| |
6:29 pm - L'esprit de l'escalier
|
所谓的” L'esprit de l'escalier“ ，可译为‘梯级的机智’，比喻受到他人的辱骂或非议时无法作出适当的回应，直到事后才想到可能有效的妙语但却为时已晚的一种情况。德语也称之为”Treppenwitz“，就有如在某个聚会中遭受到屈辱却哑巴吃黄莲般地无从回答，就在忍着气离开并走至大门的梯级时才想到一个既可还以颜色，并且能显露自己的机智的回答。可惜，这种时候若要硬着头皮回去卖弄，不但会显得自己反应额外地慢，同时也表现得自己心胸狭窄。若是默默地离开，那种无法形容的不甘就会由心而生。明明自认能够借此争回一口气却又抱持着‘忍一时风平浪尽’的想法而任他人得意，就恨当时脑筋转得不够快，想必在这种情况下应该是感到相当地懊悔以及纳闷吧？
机智，毕竟是按个人知识与联想力所作出的临场反应，单靠预先的准备也无法一侓概括所有的可能性。就算以此提防他人重施故计，也依然无法防备下一着。另一方面，把好胜心放到一边，就像是毫不在乎般地一笑置之，何尝不是一件好事？反正自己并不能像文豪似地妙语如珠，或是厚脸皮的无赖似地完全毫不讲理，说得越多就越吃亏。
然而，话随如此，能够承的住气不作任何的回应，还实在是不容易啊！
|
|
|
| Thursday, December 14th, 2006
| |
8:58 am - An illustration of how an afternoon can be occupied by Wiki-surfing
|
Starting entry: Pierre Simon Laplace
Pierre Simon Laplace->nebula hypothesis, Laplace's demon, Maxwell's demon, Laplace's computer, theory of everything
Laplace's demon->irreversibility, entropy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Total Perspective Vortex
Total Perspective Vortex->Hitchhiker's guide to galaxy
Hitchiker's guide to galaxy->Zaphod Beeblebrox, Heart of Gold,
Heart of Gold->infinite improbability drive, hyperspace
infinite improbability drive->bootstrapping, Bistromathic drive
Zaphof Beeblebrox->solipsism
hyperspace->technobabble, Cherenkov radiation, Dune,
technobabble->Sesquipedalian Obscurantism, dihydrogen monoxide hoax, neologis
Dune->bene gesserit, mentat, fief, prescience, Kwisatz Haderach, weirding way, Golden Path, fremen, melange
Bene Gesserit->casuistry, prana bindu
Ghola->bene tleilax, Axolotl tanks
Golden Path->Geriatrics
Melange->Conspicuous consumption, Invidious consumption
Mentat->Hegemony
current mood:  crappy
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
sarlgus's journal
