Hanged/Hung out with Jasper just now at Ang Mo Kio. There was this kid selling $2 coupons for charity, and he was as accomplished as any outdoor salesman I've come across. You know the kind, concatenating words in an endless stream, whipping up a frantic pace so you'll buy something, that maybe if you stopped and paid attention he'd slow down a little so no one goes crazy. It was for the autistic association of Singapore, I think.
Say Yang's computer is down with some virus. Aaron got off the same train as my mum at Yio Chu Kang MRT, and he saw her clutching her knee in pain, and he thinks it's something called osteo-arthritis. I think.
My granny is still in hospital, they just moved her from a B1 ward (4 people, TV for each bed) to a B2 ward (6 people, no TV). According to Aaron, they do this kind of thing routinely: when she was first moved to the ward, they had no B2 beds available, so they gave her a B1 bed at the B2 rate.
Hari Raya Haji today (Friday), so it's a holiday. I'm taking off on Monday as well, so it's a long weekend for me.
Watched the Discovery Channel just now, featuring military flight technology. They have this stealth helicopter, pretty cool, very slim and compact. Also got all kinds of unmanned aircraft, networked missiles that can communicate and share information for maximum cooperation and efficacy in taking out targets. Submarines launching unmanned planes that fly out of the water for a quick sting then fly back into the water, back into the sub.
Jasper thinks shaving doesn't take long, which I agree, but it's like brushing your teeth, I'd rather not have to do it. At least brushing teeth is important, given that we have organic gums and jaws that are susceptible to bacterial onslaught. Listerine: a holocaust of germs. Imagine that war is raging and you hardly have time to sleep... who's going to shave?!
Jasper doesn't think Chinese New Year cookies are yummy.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
the trick is to chip at it
It's been so long since I've written here. It's kinda like if you stop writing for a while, you have so much you feel you should write, so more and more you feel less capable of doing so.
I'll begin with the mundane and the recent, then perhaps move to the more important stuff that sticks out and that's further in the past. Meeting Jasper tomorrow for dinner. After seeing my granny in hospital. She had a stroke two days before my birthday, so it's been about 5 weeks now. She's much better now, in the general ward, after being in the ICU for 3 weeks, if memory serves. She underwent brain surgery the day she went to Tan Tock Seng, though not immediately. When she first went in she was still conscious, so they didn't actually think she had a stroke until her condition deteriorated.
Met with gz last Sunday. He's doing quite well in OCS, seems like his company is not that crazy, and things are better now for them now that they're more "senior". Boon Tat is in Brunei now. gz is commisioning in April, and says he can play tennis with me when he comes out.
Life at work is still good, been doing some upgrades to my program recently. Discovered a revolutionary new algorithm for moving rows around. Looks promising. Am still working on it, taking some time because it's somewhat complicated.
My dad and I were watching the National Geographic Channel yesterday. It was a feature on the sea; specifically, the deep sea and this creature, the "vampire squid from hell". It's way cool, and simply amazing. It lives very deep where there are few creatures because the oxygen concentration is so low there. It's like the ancestor of the octopus (8 tentacles) and the squid (10 tentacles). It has some fins that move slowly and rhythmically, propelling it forward, and has huge eyes.
But the coolest thing about this Vampyroteuthis is that it has these light-producing "eyes" that are normally hidden, but when there's a predator about, it drastically morphs like Transformers. You see, the thing is like this dark red squid, about the size of a soccer ball, and the tentacles are somewhat webbed together. When it transforms, the tentacles invert like an umbrella in the wind and the webbing covers the body, and its eyes. The underside of the webbing is now exposed, and this has a whitish color. Then it switches on the light-producing "eyes" on the other end of its body, which give off an eerie bright blue glow. It doesn't see through those "eyes", but damn, they look scary! Then it can shrink the glow to tiny spots to give the illusion that it's gone far away.
Speaking of appearances, I've developed this shaving system that shaves approximately 50% of the time I spend shaving. It's a simple concept: just shave the chin area and forget about the area above the lips, which supposedly the SAF doesn't mind. But the SAF minds if you have hair on your chin. I try to get by with shaving once a week, but I'm usually forced to go to twice or thrice.
Bought a red bandanna in the US, when I was in LA hanging out with my lovey, who is the sweetest to me. We watched some movies in theaters (Finding Neverland, Sideways) and rented some movies on videotape (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Before Sunset, Master and Commander). I also caught several movies on my flights. Alas, it was all too short. Her reaction to the magic trick I performed for her was most wonderful.
Will be doing some more interviews for Princeton applicants. Did I already say that one of the candidates I interviewed has got into Princeton? So far there's a total of about 4 early decision candidates from Singapore who've gotten in. Globally, about half the Princeton Class of 2009 has been accepted through early decision.
They were showing American Idol on TV. There was this woman, who got rejected, who might seriously have schizophrenia. I mean, I'm certainly not a mental health professional, but she was saying that she heard voices, and even said that the judges wouldn't want to hear those voices.
And did I tell you that I totalled my linux installation? I trashed it when I was doing an upgrade and in the thick of the action my laptop crashed. Lots of files got corrupted, but thankfully I managed to get into my system. That took some effort because the password file was corrupted, so I couldn't log in, plus before that fsck (filesystem check, like "scandisk") kept quitting and rebooting my system. Fixed all that, but X Windows (GUI) won't start.
So it's like I've got a super-advanced version of DOS installed. Took the opportunity to see the web through Lynx, a "text browser". I can see websites, but they look like text files with color. Links are text colored blue, and to "click" a link, move the cursor onto the text and press enter. I had also installed Amaya some time back, before X died. That's the reference browser by the W3C. Supposed to kinda set the "standard" for the web, and it allows you to easily edit the html of any website.
I'm going to back up my stuff on CDs and squeeze my Windows partitions as much as possible to expand the space available for linux, then do a re-install of Debian. Probably going to try to install the "testing" distribution. Tried to find CD vendors in Sim Lim Square, but no one sells them there. I could either buy the CDs online or burn them from a download. Or go online and see if there's some place in Singapore I could go to buy the CDs.
In the "mind your body" supplement of the Straits Times today, the editorial by Sharon Loh is about body image. I quote:
"Children will absorb the attitudes of their parents. It's not what you say, it's what you do. If you keep complaining about your weight and feel pressured to be thin, kids will learn that these are important concerns.
"If you go from one fad diet to another, they will think these are preferable to sensible nutritional choices. And if you tell your daughter she would be prettier if she lost some weight, well, you know the message she's going to pick up."
Seriously, parents who get slimming pills for their kids (if they aren't excessively overweight) are simply passing poison to them. Poison, poison everywhere. Poison we let seep under our skin, the culture of "garang" poisoning our ability to decide what is reasonable. The commandos that went through shit in their time put others through shit now and someone died tragically as a result, and the trainers got jail time.
If you stay tuned to this space, you might get a poem tangentially related to the tsunami disaster. But that's not written, so more likely than not it's not going to get written.
I'll begin with the mundane and the recent, then perhaps move to the more important stuff that sticks out and that's further in the past. Meeting Jasper tomorrow for dinner. After seeing my granny in hospital. She had a stroke two days before my birthday, so it's been about 5 weeks now. She's much better now, in the general ward, after being in the ICU for 3 weeks, if memory serves. She underwent brain surgery the day she went to Tan Tock Seng, though not immediately. When she first went in she was still conscious, so they didn't actually think she had a stroke until her condition deteriorated.
Met with gz last Sunday. He's doing quite well in OCS, seems like his company is not that crazy, and things are better now for them now that they're more "senior". Boon Tat is in Brunei now. gz is commisioning in April, and says he can play tennis with me when he comes out.
Life at work is still good, been doing some upgrades to my program recently. Discovered a revolutionary new algorithm for moving rows around. Looks promising. Am still working on it, taking some time because it's somewhat complicated.
My dad and I were watching the National Geographic Channel yesterday. It was a feature on the sea; specifically, the deep sea and this creature, the "vampire squid from hell". It's way cool, and simply amazing. It lives very deep where there are few creatures because the oxygen concentration is so low there. It's like the ancestor of the octopus (8 tentacles) and the squid (10 tentacles). It has some fins that move slowly and rhythmically, propelling it forward, and has huge eyes.
But the coolest thing about this Vampyroteuthis is that it has these light-producing "eyes" that are normally hidden, but when there's a predator about, it drastically morphs like Transformers. You see, the thing is like this dark red squid, about the size of a soccer ball, and the tentacles are somewhat webbed together. When it transforms, the tentacles invert like an umbrella in the wind and the webbing covers the body, and its eyes. The underside of the webbing is now exposed, and this has a whitish color. Then it switches on the light-producing "eyes" on the other end of its body, which give off an eerie bright blue glow. It doesn't see through those "eyes", but damn, they look scary! Then it can shrink the glow to tiny spots to give the illusion that it's gone far away.
Speaking of appearances, I've developed this shaving system that shaves approximately 50% of the time I spend shaving. It's a simple concept: just shave the chin area and forget about the area above the lips, which supposedly the SAF doesn't mind. But the SAF minds if you have hair on your chin. I try to get by with shaving once a week, but I'm usually forced to go to twice or thrice.
Bought a red bandanna in the US, when I was in LA hanging out with my lovey, who is the sweetest to me. We watched some movies in theaters (Finding Neverland, Sideways) and rented some movies on videotape (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Before Sunset, Master and Commander). I also caught several movies on my flights. Alas, it was all too short. Her reaction to the magic trick I performed for her was most wonderful.
Will be doing some more interviews for Princeton applicants. Did I already say that one of the candidates I interviewed has got into Princeton? So far there's a total of about 4 early decision candidates from Singapore who've gotten in. Globally, about half the Princeton Class of 2009 has been accepted through early decision.
They were showing American Idol on TV. There was this woman, who got rejected, who might seriously have schizophrenia. I mean, I'm certainly not a mental health professional, but she was saying that she heard voices, and even said that the judges wouldn't want to hear those voices.
And did I tell you that I totalled my linux installation? I trashed it when I was doing an upgrade and in the thick of the action my laptop crashed. Lots of files got corrupted, but thankfully I managed to get into my system. That took some effort because the password file was corrupted, so I couldn't log in, plus before that fsck (filesystem check, like "scandisk") kept quitting and rebooting my system. Fixed all that, but X Windows (GUI) won't start.
So it's like I've got a super-advanced version of DOS installed. Took the opportunity to see the web through Lynx, a "text browser". I can see websites, but they look like text files with color. Links are text colored blue, and to "click" a link, move the cursor onto the text and press enter. I had also installed Amaya some time back, before X died. That's the reference browser by the W3C. Supposed to kinda set the "standard" for the web, and it allows you to easily edit the html of any website.
I'm going to back up my stuff on CDs and squeeze my Windows partitions as much as possible to expand the space available for linux, then do a re-install of Debian. Probably going to try to install the "testing" distribution. Tried to find CD vendors in Sim Lim Square, but no one sells them there. I could either buy the CDs online or burn them from a download. Or go online and see if there's some place in Singapore I could go to buy the CDs.
In the "mind your body" supplement of the Straits Times today, the editorial by Sharon Loh is about body image. I quote:
"Children will absorb the attitudes of their parents. It's not what you say, it's what you do. If you keep complaining about your weight and feel pressured to be thin, kids will learn that these are important concerns.
"If you go from one fad diet to another, they will think these are preferable to sensible nutritional choices. And if you tell your daughter she would be prettier if she lost some weight, well, you know the message she's going to pick up."
Seriously, parents who get slimming pills for their kids (if they aren't excessively overweight) are simply passing poison to them. Poison, poison everywhere. Poison we let seep under our skin, the culture of "garang" poisoning our ability to decide what is reasonable. The commandos that went through shit in their time put others through shit now and someone died tragically as a result, and the trainers got jail time.
If you stay tuned to this space, you might get a poem tangentially related to the tsunami disaster. But that's not written, so more likely than not it's not going to get written.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
projects
I was going to take my "birthday off" on Monday, but changed already, because they need me to do some stuff on Monday morning. Going to have dinner with my relatives tomorrow. Jasper says Clarissa is still the one.
Will be flying to Los Angeles on Christmas day. The politics of having a boss and having a "boss of the boss" has had some effects. The other branch in the department wants to loan my services and apparently my boss said OK but not her boss. But really, they've certainly got people who can do the job in that branch, especially with the recent arrival of Benjamin (gz should know him, he was from Cornell).
Haven't got to talk to Benjamin much; he's probably somewhat of a linux guru, was describing how in "grid computing" you can put a bunch of computers on gigabit ethernet and as a result have a few gigabytes of RAM that can be shared by all the computers, which probably works out to as much RAM as you can possibly need, depending on how many people are using the computers. Said something about needing an OS like linux; Windows probably can't cut it.
I'm close to rebuilding the linux kernel. I've done the config, now reading through the documentation for make-kpkg to make sure I don't screw up too majorly. If the goes well, the next major task would be to make sure my sound system works, but more importantly, I want my USB devices to work. And the most critical of these devices is my Iomega external CD-writer, but it might be that there's no linux driver for it... at least officially it seems like there isn't.
Oh, a POSB branch got (successfully) robbed by a guy with a knife. Heard the news on the radio last night in the car going to dinner (a branch "celebration") at Goodwood Hotel (buffet). The desserts were delicious. Especially the chocolate cake. It was ridiculously yummy.
I can quite safely say that my first programming project is a resounding success. My bosses love me for it, and they want to put it up for an award with a maximum monetary award of $500. Unfortunately, the money won't go directly to me, at any rate. But it's things like these that pay for dinners like those.
In my next project, I think I will be stealing credit for launching a project that was developed something like 4 years ago but for some reason or other is still stillborn.
Will be flying to Los Angeles on Christmas day. The politics of having a boss and having a "boss of the boss" has had some effects. The other branch in the department wants to loan my services and apparently my boss said OK but not her boss. But really, they've certainly got people who can do the job in that branch, especially with the recent arrival of Benjamin (gz should know him, he was from Cornell).
Haven't got to talk to Benjamin much; he's probably somewhat of a linux guru, was describing how in "grid computing" you can put a bunch of computers on gigabit ethernet and as a result have a few gigabytes of RAM that can be shared by all the computers, which probably works out to as much RAM as you can possibly need, depending on how many people are using the computers. Said something about needing an OS like linux; Windows probably can't cut it.
I'm close to rebuilding the linux kernel. I've done the config, now reading through the documentation for make-kpkg to make sure I don't screw up too majorly. If the goes well, the next major task would be to make sure my sound system works, but more importantly, I want my USB devices to work. And the most critical of these devices is my Iomega external CD-writer, but it might be that there's no linux driver for it... at least officially it seems like there isn't.
Oh, a POSB branch got (successfully) robbed by a guy with a knife. Heard the news on the radio last night in the car going to dinner (a branch "celebration") at Goodwood Hotel (buffet). The desserts were delicious. Especially the chocolate cake. It was ridiculously yummy.
I can quite safely say that my first programming project is a resounding success. My bosses love me for it, and they want to put it up for an award with a maximum monetary award of $500. Unfortunately, the money won't go directly to me, at any rate. But it's things like these that pay for dinners like those.
In my next project, I think I will be stealing credit for launching a project that was developed something like 4 years ago but for some reason or other is still stillborn.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
untitled
Jasper says the NASA pillow is a hoax, it's no better than an ordinary pillow. Seems he's all set up with his laptop. Christmas is coming! (I'll be in LA.)
i am a bottle of blood & tears
when i lie down
the tears flow
though the blood should spill instead
i am a bottle of blood & tears
when i lie down
the tears flow
though the blood should spill instead
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
KVM
My boss gave me 3 days off. Actually wanted to give me 10 days off, but that's pretty extravagant, and her boss thought so too. Soon to get another computer at work, and a KVM switch so I can swap the use of the two, using one set of keyboard, monitor and mouse.
We're going bowling this Friday. Jasper, what do you think of me staying over at your place this Friday? I'm thinking I'll go over after bowling, I'll be somewhere in the West, late evening-ish. Fell asleep last night, so really, really need to work now...
We're going bowling this Friday. Jasper, what do you think of me staying over at your place this Friday? I'm thinking I'll go over after bowling, I'll be somewhere in the West, late evening-ish. Fell asleep last night, so really, really need to work now...
Monday, November 29, 2004
chocolates
God I love chocolate. Dark chocolate, please, no other kind will do, just not satisfying and only feeds my craving for a real fix. Had bread and hummus for breakfast today. Incredibly awesome.
Friends is hilarious. I think the best parts are when Joey (or Phoebe) play stupid (or just plain loopy). Simpsons was hilarious. Managed to catch it because got home at 6pm today after the course; usually get back from work at around 6:30. Actually, lots of stuff on TV is hilarious.
Another mandatory death penalty or two for possession of heroin. Wrapped in tin foil amongst chocolates (malteasers) in a tin.
Aaron thinks it's not possible to easily get a complete desktop system (inclusive of CRT monitor, mouse, keyboard) for under $500 in Singapore. Of course, not top-of-the-line stuff, but pretty decent stuff. What do you think?
I think Say Yang is going to be running the marathon soon. It would be nice to go back to work tomorrow and do some programming. But it's a long night tonight...
Friends is hilarious. I think the best parts are when Joey (or Phoebe) play stupid (or just plain loopy). Simpsons was hilarious. Managed to catch it because got home at 6pm today after the course; usually get back from work at around 6:30. Actually, lots of stuff on TV is hilarious.
Another mandatory death penalty or two for possession of heroin. Wrapped in tin foil amongst chocolates (malteasers) in a tin.
Aaron thinks it's not possible to easily get a complete desktop system (inclusive of CRT monitor, mouse, keyboard) for under $500 in Singapore. Of course, not top-of-the-line stuff, but pretty decent stuff. What do you think?
I think Say Yang is going to be running the marathon soon. It would be nice to go back to work tomorrow and do some programming. But it's a long night tonight...
Saturday, November 27, 2004
baby
Couldn't really stand it anymore, so I cut the hair behind my head last night with scissors, then today at work the level 2 boss say I cut until damn funny so got one of my colleagues to even it out for me. So got free haircut.
Was out with Jasper just now. He's moved into the NUS hostel, and hasn't got his computer yet but he'll be getting a laptop soon. He says the NASA pillow isn't all it's cracked up to be. He says the Polar Express is a very nice, inspiring show. He says Clarissa is no longer the one, though the coin always says she is.
I'll be going to the course on Monday in civilian attire and just say that I wear civilian to work. Was tasked to do this thing at work today but didn't do it, and it's needed urgently, so need to do on Monday, but Monday I'm going for course, so in the end Eugene has to do it because he's the only NSF going to be at work on Monday morning. I feel bad, but what to do?
Might be getting a new cellphone. My lovey is about to be an aunt!
Was out with Jasper just now. He's moved into the NUS hostel, and hasn't got his computer yet but he'll be getting a laptop soon. He says the NASA pillow isn't all it's cracked up to be. He says the Polar Express is a very nice, inspiring show. He says Clarissa is no longer the one, though the coin always says she is.
I'll be going to the course on Monday in civilian attire and just say that I wear civilian to work. Was tasked to do this thing at work today but didn't do it, and it's needed urgently, so need to do on Monday, but Monday I'm going for course, so in the end Eugene has to do it because he's the only NSF going to be at work on Monday morning. I feel bad, but what to do?
Might be getting a new cellphone. My lovey is about to be an aunt!
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
RJC's move to Bishan announced on TV news
Excellent, joyous news, news fit for announcing over a Christmas Feast. Jasper has procured a room in the NUS hostel! He's probably going to get a computer, and so I'll probably go with him and help him get a good deal. And that's not it, he's also going to be mentoring some JC students for this math camp! It's a great activity, and an opportunity to meet girls.
He's probably not joining us this Sunday because he's meeting professors for lunch. By the way, I tried to see if I could upgrade my mobile phone plan, but the next higher plan has 700 free minutes (compared with the 100 minutes I have now), which would entail a monthly fee of about 3 times the amount I'm paying now.
Supposed to go for this "course" next Monday, was informed today, and it happens I've got a medical on Monday, and I have to go for the course, so cancelled my medical appointment, and the soonest date I can reschedule is in January. Sheesh. And another thing. I'm supposed to be in military uniform to go for that course, which, as far as I can tell, is just a listen-to-people-talk thing, nothing remotely requiring camouflage. I can't fit into my uniform. I think my waist size was 30 then, and it's about 35 now.
Working on a new project at work now. Web programming.
He's probably not joining us this Sunday because he's meeting professors for lunch. By the way, I tried to see if I could upgrade my mobile phone plan, but the next higher plan has 700 free minutes (compared with the 100 minutes I have now), which would entail a monthly fee of about 3 times the amount I'm paying now.
Supposed to go for this "course" next Monday, was informed today, and it happens I've got a medical on Monday, and I have to go for the course, so cancelled my medical appointment, and the soonest date I can reschedule is in January. Sheesh. And another thing. I'm supposed to be in military uniform to go for that course, which, as far as I can tell, is just a listen-to-people-talk thing, nothing remotely requiring camouflage. I can't fit into my uniform. I think my waist size was 30 then, and it's about 35 now.
Working on a new project at work now. Web programming.
Monday, November 22, 2004
space technology
Jasper has informed me that he bought the "NASA" foam pillow, that's contoured and keeps its shape (like if you pressed your hand into it). One more thing is that it's "exactly" 7 weeks to Clarissa's birthday, but that's a guess.
Haha, Bush just said "nuculear". Geez. It's not nice to laugh at people, but I wouldn't laugh at him if he wasn't the president of the United States. Honest!
Anyway, was out with Jasper last Friday, and Orchard Road is all dolled up in Christmas clothes. I was wondering whether it makes economic sense for shops to actually spend money on decorations, whether that would draw more customers, or might it even be that shops that don't have decoration lose out.
So there was a crystal shop with "Merry Crystal" on the storefront window, and another "Merry Clinique", so you might have guessed "Merry Clarissa", well, perhaps even "Marry Clarissa". We were both somewhat tired and somewhat high on that lightheaded "not-quite-enough-sleep" feeling, as Jasper puts it, "losing inhibitions, gaining exhibitions".
According to him, there was a girl wearing the shortest skirt he'd ever seen in his favorite cafe in Orchard Road, which is not Cafe Revive in Marks and Spencers, but Sun Moulin Cafe, which has a view of Orchard Road (the cafe is on the 2nd floor). I didn't know that. Before that day, I would have bet that it was Cafe Revive.
Hmm... there's something in my notebook about when you're screwed you don't feel like screwing, but I forget why we even talked about this.
Haha, Bush just said "nuculear". Geez. It's not nice to laugh at people, but I wouldn't laugh at him if he wasn't the president of the United States. Honest!
Anyway, was out with Jasper last Friday, and Orchard Road is all dolled up in Christmas clothes. I was wondering whether it makes economic sense for shops to actually spend money on decorations, whether that would draw more customers, or might it even be that shops that don't have decoration lose out.
So there was a crystal shop with "Merry Crystal" on the storefront window, and another "Merry Clinique", so you might have guessed "Merry Clarissa", well, perhaps even "Marry Clarissa". We were both somewhat tired and somewhat high on that lightheaded "not-quite-enough-sleep" feeling, as Jasper puts it, "losing inhibitions, gaining exhibitions".
According to him, there was a girl wearing the shortest skirt he'd ever seen in his favorite cafe in Orchard Road, which is not Cafe Revive in Marks and Spencers, but Sun Moulin Cafe, which has a view of Orchard Road (the cafe is on the 2nd floor). I didn't know that. Before that day, I would have bet that it was Cafe Revive.
Hmm... there's something in my notebook about when you're screwed you don't feel like screwing, but I forget why we even talked about this.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
mobile phone charges
Great thing for free incoming calls! In Singapore they like to implement "free incoming" in such a way that they bill you first, then "discount" the amounts "made free" by the plan. For example, my local call charges were about $316, then they subtracted $261 for the incoming calls. This system works, but it'd be much more sensible to only show charges for usage that's not covered by the plan.
That's how they do it in US, but it's easier for them because the distinction they make between "peak-period" versus off-peak is usually that every minute costs X minutes during peak, but there's unlimited nights and weekends (each minute then costs 0 cents). Then each plan has say 300 free minutes, so when you get the bill, you get charged the monthly charge for your plan, plus any extra minutes you use.
But here, peak period might cost 20 cents, and off-peak 10 cents, so they total usage for the month, say $40, then the plan includes $20 worth of talk-time, but you pay $10 for the plan, so it's $10+$40-$20=$30 that you actually have to pay.
By the way, I was cleaning my glasses, and broke one of those plastic pieces that rest on the nose. So replaced both of these with those from my dad's old glasses. Oh, and in another by-the-way, Olinda's out of the Singapore Idol competition. It's great she got so far, I would have wanted her to win, because she's got an awesome voice, but you know, it's a popularity contest, and Singaporeans being quite superficial, she probably doesn't have groupies to vote for her.
That's how they do it in US, but it's easier for them because the distinction they make between "peak-period" versus off-peak is usually that every minute costs X minutes during peak, but there's unlimited nights and weekends (each minute then costs 0 cents). Then each plan has say 300 free minutes, so when you get the bill, you get charged the monthly charge for your plan, plus any extra minutes you use.
But here, peak period might cost 20 cents, and off-peak 10 cents, so they total usage for the month, say $40, then the plan includes $20 worth of talk-time, but you pay $10 for the plan, so it's $10+$40-$20=$30 that you actually have to pay.
By the way, I was cleaning my glasses, and broke one of those plastic pieces that rest on the nose. So replaced both of these with those from my dad's old glasses. Oh, and in another by-the-way, Olinda's out of the Singapore Idol competition. It's great she got so far, I would have wanted her to win, because she's got an awesome voice, but you know, it's a popularity contest, and Singaporeans being quite superficial, she probably doesn't have groupies to vote for her.
Casino City
There's an opinion piece in the Straits Times today, about the gambling thing, and whether Singapore should develop a resort that features a casino and other family entertainment. The gambling that is currently everywhere in Singapore: Toto, lottery, 4D, that kind of thing, betting on soccer, whether a nuclear holocaust with occur in our lifetime...
There are jackpot machines in some places, but it seems to be only in country clubs, as far as I can tell. So if people get addicted to fruit machines, at least they are somewhat rich. But the thing about Toto and 4D and stuff is that it's also "convenience gambling", just go NTUC can buy Toto, and this type of gambling is done in full view of kids and it can become quite routine that it doesn't even seem like gambling anymore. Not like when you go casino then you dress up and maybe set aside a wad of money to "invest". You just do your groceries and when you've paid for the milk powder you take the change and use it to buy some Toto.
The article quoted some US study about the socio-economic effects of gambling, they somehow managed to get some figure of about $5 billion spent in the US to like deal with problem gambling, and a figure of about $166 billion to deal with problem drinking (in the US).
Should Singapore have a casino? Is it akin to prostituting itself to tourists? The casino will probably make a lot of money, which the government can get a cut of and disburse to the general public, but where will this money come from? Also, casinos and the entertainment industry in general are really really "inefficient", in a sense. They spend so much money making the place look grand and expensive because they have a huge profit margin, so ultimately the people who gamble pay for these excesses when they lose money. Then the profit that comes out is still huge, but probably quite significantly reduced.
In a way it would be better if casinos could be bare-boned and then instead of building fantastic palaces, that money goes to feeding the poor.
I don't think gambling is a good thing, really, because it's not really rational. Basically, the odds are against you, and there isn't really anything you can do to change that. Ideally, people should be educated about things like these, but you can't actually guarantee that educated people are going to be rational, or even want to try to be.
There are jackpot machines in some places, but it seems to be only in country clubs, as far as I can tell. So if people get addicted to fruit machines, at least they are somewhat rich. But the thing about Toto and 4D and stuff is that it's also "convenience gambling", just go NTUC can buy Toto, and this type of gambling is done in full view of kids and it can become quite routine that it doesn't even seem like gambling anymore. Not like when you go casino then you dress up and maybe set aside a wad of money to "invest". You just do your groceries and when you've paid for the milk powder you take the change and use it to buy some Toto.
The article quoted some US study about the socio-economic effects of gambling, they somehow managed to get some figure of about $5 billion spent in the US to like deal with problem gambling, and a figure of about $166 billion to deal with problem drinking (in the US).
Should Singapore have a casino? Is it akin to prostituting itself to tourists? The casino will probably make a lot of money, which the government can get a cut of and disburse to the general public, but where will this money come from? Also, casinos and the entertainment industry in general are really really "inefficient", in a sense. They spend so much money making the place look grand and expensive because they have a huge profit margin, so ultimately the people who gamble pay for these excesses when they lose money. Then the profit that comes out is still huge, but probably quite significantly reduced.
In a way it would be better if casinos could be bare-boned and then instead of building fantastic palaces, that money goes to feeding the poor.
I don't think gambling is a good thing, really, because it's not really rational. Basically, the odds are against you, and there isn't really anything you can do to change that. Ideally, people should be educated about things like these, but you can't actually guarantee that educated people are going to be rational, or even want to try to be.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
footnotes on ineffect
argh, my computer hanged/hung and my post was lost. Anyway, I was talking about how they sold hummus at Cold Storage, in a small plastic container, one of the brands I eat before in US. Not that nice, not thick enough and not enough of that garbanzo flavor. They also had "fresh" hummus, in a deli-like display, alongside pulped olives and a variety of other dips, as well as whole olives and mushrooms and stuff. The catch was that they were out of hummus.
I bought a blender, so should be blending my own hummus soon. I've been rather ineffective at getting things done, see [1, 2]. Work, work, work... Anyway I installed OpenOffice.org on several of the computers at work. They had it available on the network drive for people like me to install and use.
So my computer hanged just now, so my firefox profile was "locked" and I couldn't use it. The solution is to go to your profile folder and delete the file named "lock" (for Unix). Then can use already. I hope it's not my hardware flaking out, and that after I install the new kernel everything should work like a charm.
------------------
[1] the poem I promised a long, long time ago? Still unwritten.
[2] supposed to rebuild the kernel since X-knows when... still not done, but at least I've begun writing my .config file using "make xconfig". Had to install several packages before the xconfig would work.
I bought a blender, so should be blending my own hummus soon. I've been rather ineffective at getting things done, see [1, 2]. Work, work, work... Anyway I installed OpenOffice.org on several of the computers at work. They had it available on the network drive for people like me to install and use.
So my computer hanged just now, so my firefox profile was "locked" and I couldn't use it. The solution is to go to your profile folder and delete the file named "lock" (for Unix). Then can use already. I hope it's not my hardware flaking out, and that after I install the new kernel everything should work like a charm.
------------------
[1] the poem I promised a long, long time ago? Still unwritten.
[2] supposed to rebuild the kernel since X-knows when... still not done, but at least I've begun writing my .config file using "make xconfig". Had to install several packages before the xconfig would work.
Monday, November 15, 2004
firefox!
ooooh, I just installed mozilla firefox using Debian's apt-get! Quite some time ago I tried unpacking the tarball and it failed, well anyway I just did the easy way, and I've got version 0.9.3 with preferences and such imported from mozilla 1.7.3, which I've been using on Debian.
KDE key bindings
Hey the KDE key bindings are real easy to configure. I just chose the "Windows" style global shortcut keys (without the Meta/Win key), and now I Ctrl-Tab to switch tabs in mozilla, as usual. Alt-Left and Alt-Right work for going back and going forward (somehow these latter combinations suffered from some key binding problems in GNOME).
Oh, I always wanted to note this, but haven't gotten down to it yet. To "export" an Excel toolbar (so the custom toolbar is available on another computer), you can "attach" it to an Excel workbook (open the workbook, right-click the toolbar, choose customize, then click the "attach" button).
I think I'm going to sleep.
Oh, I always wanted to note this, but haven't gotten down to it yet. To "export" an Excel toolbar (so the custom toolbar is available on another computer), you can "attach" it to an Excel workbook (open the workbook, right-click the toolbar, choose customize, then click the "attach" button).
I think I'm going to sleep.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
long post to make up for silence
"Surprise" birthday party for Aaron today, which wasn't much of a surprise. For one, our Sunday routine of gym-swim-eat at Bishan S-11 had become so predictable that Jasper asking to go to Bishan park after the swim without eating was tell-tale one. Tell-tale two: Jasper accidentally sent an SMS to Aaron instead of Peiling that "He says can consider Bishan park". Ok, suppose we ignore that, then Aaron asks where we're going to eat, Aaron says got restaurant at Bishan park, and we say ok, eat at that restaurant. Then Aaron speaks to Peiling and tells her he'll pick her up, and she says no need, she take cab, then she change and say she got her own way of getting there, then she say Say Yang picking her up...
Anyway, I almost killed GNOME. I tried to install a newer version, naively agreeing without doing anything special other than "apt-get install gnome-core". Totally killed it, because the newer version did not install successfully, so could not log in. So from a text console modified my /etc/apt/sources.list so that the testing and unstable sources were commented out, and then did "apt-get -f install" and that cleaned it up some, and re-installed the stable version of GNOME from the installation CD I burned several months ago. Now things are back to normal, I think, but I've switched to KDE (because that was not whacked), and this version of it at least (KDE 2.2.2) is much more modern than GNOME 1.4 that comes with Debian Woody. So perhaps I'll stick with KDE, though I'll probably fiddle with key-bindings soon (I'm so used to Ctrl-Tab in mozilla to switch browser tabs, but by default that switches virtual desktops). Also got to get used to 1-click being equivalent to double-click.
I guess I got a little carried away upgrading my software, because I upgraded AbiWord (word processor), and it looked really good. And the upgrade for that was smooth. Really starting to use my computer for stuff other than browsing the web, you see. Uninstalled a lot of stuff that I wasn't using, stuff that are security risks, like ssh, telnet daemons. Installed xscreensaver, but actually KDE has a built-in screen-saver that's "matrix" themed, green characters (glyphs) intermittently written down the screen. Also fired up the GIMP and did the initial configuration. Also wrote a super simple shell script consisting only of the line
su -c "shutdown -h now"
and I saved the executable as /usr/local/bin/shalt
I'm quite glad that I managed to get myself out of the apt-get mess, which might not seem like much, but it's a great feeling to know that I can extract the bullet from my foot. Of course, it's still the mighty apt-get, which is uber-powerful and eminently easy to use. It's not like I was dealing with source code. Starting to use "grep" also for scanning text files. Have quite a lot of things to do on Monday... definitely plan to really really configure and install a new kernel. I think my parents want to go shopping in town also.
Interesting that if you don't really follow Singapore Idol, before you know it there are only 3 contestants left. My room is quite well decorated now. Did some painting with my cousins, abstract art pieces, then I did a few more after they left. The first piece I did was for Aaron, who liked it, and Jasper liked it too.
This is the site my lovey recommended, with statistics on the US election. One part of it really stumps me. It's the part where they ask people who they'd vote for "IF ONLY BUSH AND KERRY WERE RUNNING". Then 1% say they would not have voted, but looking at who they actually voted, it was 29% Bush, 38% Kerry, 11% Nader. This makes no sense. The only sensible statistic should have been 100% Nader, because it's only Nader besides Bush and Kerry who were running!!!
For those who thought honesty was the "most important quality", they report that 70% voted for Bush. For household income less than $50,000, which was about 45% of those polled, 55% voted for Kerry, and for those over $50,000, 56% voted for Bush.
Gurmit Singh on TV telling people to get pets only if they're committed, that abandoning their pet should never be an option. I endorse the message. There's also been quite a lot of ads recently about mental illness, on TV or at bus stops, there was one I saw that day one bus stop away from my house, about Churchill having manic-depressive disorder, I think, and ending with a message that roughly 1 in 5 people suffer from some kind of mental illness (e.g. phobia) in their lifetimes, so it's important to be aware, to be understanding and inclusive.
Found a bottle of tahini in a supermarket, then bought garbanzo beans (chick peas) in a can, and there's olive oil at home, which are the ingredients needed for hummus. It's silly that they don't seem to sell hummus in supermarkets here. The only thing I lack is a blender to grind the chick peas into paste...
Anyway, I almost killed GNOME. I tried to install a newer version, naively agreeing without doing anything special other than "apt-get install gnome-core". Totally killed it, because the newer version did not install successfully, so could not log in. So from a text console modified my /etc/apt/sources.list so that the testing and unstable sources were commented out, and then did "apt-get -f install" and that cleaned it up some, and re-installed the stable version of GNOME from the installation CD I burned several months ago. Now things are back to normal, I think, but I've switched to KDE (because that was not whacked), and this version of it at least (KDE 2.2.2) is much more modern than GNOME 1.4 that comes with Debian Woody. So perhaps I'll stick with KDE, though I'll probably fiddle with key-bindings soon (I'm so used to Ctrl-Tab in mozilla to switch browser tabs, but by default that switches virtual desktops). Also got to get used to 1-click being equivalent to double-click.
I guess I got a little carried away upgrading my software, because I upgraded AbiWord (word processor), and it looked really good. And the upgrade for that was smooth. Really starting to use my computer for stuff other than browsing the web, you see. Uninstalled a lot of stuff that I wasn't using, stuff that are security risks, like ssh, telnet daemons. Installed xscreensaver, but actually KDE has a built-in screen-saver that's "matrix" themed, green characters (glyphs) intermittently written down the screen. Also fired up the GIMP and did the initial configuration. Also wrote a super simple shell script consisting only of the line
su -c "shutdown -h now"
and I saved the executable as /usr/local/bin/shalt
I'm quite glad that I managed to get myself out of the apt-get mess, which might not seem like much, but it's a great feeling to know that I can extract the bullet from my foot. Of course, it's still the mighty apt-get, which is uber-powerful and eminently easy to use. It's not like I was dealing with source code. Starting to use "grep" also for scanning text files. Have quite a lot of things to do on Monday... definitely plan to really really configure and install a new kernel. I think my parents want to go shopping in town also.
Interesting that if you don't really follow Singapore Idol, before you know it there are only 3 contestants left. My room is quite well decorated now. Did some painting with my cousins, abstract art pieces, then I did a few more after they left. The first piece I did was for Aaron, who liked it, and Jasper liked it too.
This is the site my lovey recommended, with statistics on the US election. One part of it really stumps me. It's the part where they ask people who they'd vote for "IF ONLY BUSH AND KERRY WERE RUNNING". Then 1% say they would not have voted, but looking at who they actually voted, it was 29% Bush, 38% Kerry, 11% Nader. This makes no sense. The only sensible statistic should have been 100% Nader, because it's only Nader besides Bush and Kerry who were running!!!
For those who thought honesty was the "most important quality", they report that 70% voted for Bush. For household income less than $50,000, which was about 45% of those polled, 55% voted for Kerry, and for those over $50,000, 56% voted for Bush.
Gurmit Singh on TV telling people to get pets only if they're committed, that abandoning their pet should never be an option. I endorse the message. There's also been quite a lot of ads recently about mental illness, on TV or at bus stops, there was one I saw that day one bus stop away from my house, about Churchill having manic-depressive disorder, I think, and ending with a message that roughly 1 in 5 people suffer from some kind of mental illness (e.g. phobia) in their lifetimes, so it's important to be aware, to be understanding and inclusive.
Found a bottle of tahini in a supermarket, then bought garbanzo beans (chick peas) in a can, and there's olive oil at home, which are the ingredients needed for hummus. It's silly that they don't seem to sell hummus in supermarkets here. The only thing I lack is a blender to grind the chick peas into paste...
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
bank robbery
In the news today, someone robbed a bank in Singapore using a plastic gun replica. He was shot twice by a security guard, and I think he's still alive.
For many people in the office, it's the weekend already. Many taking leave on Friday, and since Thursday and Monday are public holidays...
Stupid advertisement on TV. "Extrim", take 2 pills before a meal and pig out without guilt because it blocks calories. That's an extremely unhealthy message to send out, delivered by an extremely thin model-like model. "So now I can eat what I like", as though previously you can't, and shouldn't.
Why does a footballer get disqualified for taking drugs, if those drugs aren't performance enhancing? Like cocaine? I mean, yes, civil/criminal penalties, but what does the sport have to do with it? I guess they want to have good values in sports. It's not hard to see from watching the news that you see tragedy after tragedy, stuff that makes you angry and outraged if you aren't already hardened and immune, then towards the end they give the sporting results to cheer you up and give you something else to think about, to be distracted with.
Jurassic Park III on TV. Didn't know there was a III already. Think I'll probably watch.
I miss my lovey...
For many people in the office, it's the weekend already. Many taking leave on Friday, and since Thursday and Monday are public holidays...
Stupid advertisement on TV. "Extrim", take 2 pills before a meal and pig out without guilt because it blocks calories. That's an extremely unhealthy message to send out, delivered by an extremely thin model-like model. "So now I can eat what I like", as though previously you can't, and shouldn't.
Why does a footballer get disqualified for taking drugs, if those drugs aren't performance enhancing? Like cocaine? I mean, yes, civil/criminal penalties, but what does the sport have to do with it? I guess they want to have good values in sports. It's not hard to see from watching the news that you see tragedy after tragedy, stuff that makes you angry and outraged if you aren't already hardened and immune, then towards the end they give the sporting results to cheer you up and give you something else to think about, to be distracted with.
Jurassic Park III on TV. Didn't know there was a III already. Think I'll probably watch.
I miss my lovey...
Monday, November 08, 2004
fake milk powder!
This is horrible. In China these distributors were selling "milk powder" with no nutritional value and many babies died and many more are in hospital, from malnourishment.
medical updates
So, it seems the NS medical benefits is no big deal. There's an annual cap of $240, and they don't subsidise if you see a specialist without a referral from a polyclinic. That $240 cap also makes it very unappealing for me to bother with all the claim stuff and the seemingly impossible task of changing from "private" to "subsidised" status...
Anyway, it seems I'm no longer in the immuno-tolerant phase regarding Hepatitis B. I'm now probably in the immuno-clearance phase. Blood test-wise, this means that I used to be
Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: -ve
while now, it's become
Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: +ve
which means that my body is fighting the virus, so dunno what the outcome will be. Will the viruses win? Those wily helical, geometrically symmetric and beautiful creatures that they are? Or will my antibodies prevail, those glob-like things swallowing stuff into their amorphous flesh in acts of mutual destruction?
Just did an "apt-get install xpdf" and I can now view PDFs beautifully on my linux box. Maybe it is an old version, but gv wasn't displaying PDFs quite so properly.
I guess I haven't been updating this much. Well, Bush won, as everyone knows. Nader lost. Oh well. From the news it seems one of Bush's first acts as re-elected president is to work on that constitutional amendment.
There's so much crap on TV, ever since people discovered reality TV and really made it fly. The sitcoms are still good, you know, the stuff like Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond. Reality TV gets all the viewers though, disgusting stuff like 'The Swan', 'Fear Factor' (which isn't all disgusting, only the stuff to do with gross stuff), but there's good stuff of course, like The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, the saner stuff...
Won't be at work much this week. Took leave today, and Thursday is holiday, and next Monday is holiday again! Still haven't built my kernel, maybe on Thursday? Anyway, quite pissed now regarding the NS medical benefits. $240 amounts only to $20 a month on average, and already the "allowance" they give hardly covers living expenses. It's not hard to see why those in poor families would risk going AWOL in order to make money to support their families.
The world is in shambles as usual. Japan has suffered its 3rd quake in succession, I think. Lots of homes destroyed, people dead and injured. Unrest in the middle east. Another major offensive in Iraq. Nuclear threats here and there. Terrorists threatening to kill hostages.
Anyway, it seems I'm no longer in the immuno-tolerant phase regarding Hepatitis B. I'm now probably in the immuno-clearance phase. Blood test-wise, this means that I used to be
Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: -ve
while now, it's become
Hep B e-antigen: +ve
Hep B e-antibody: +ve
which means that my body is fighting the virus, so dunno what the outcome will be. Will the viruses win? Those wily helical, geometrically symmetric and beautiful creatures that they are? Or will my antibodies prevail, those glob-like things swallowing stuff into their amorphous flesh in acts of mutual destruction?
Just did an "apt-get install xpdf" and I can now view PDFs beautifully on my linux box. Maybe it is an old version, but gv wasn't displaying PDFs quite so properly.
I guess I haven't been updating this much. Well, Bush won, as everyone knows. Nader lost. Oh well. From the news it seems one of Bush's first acts as re-elected president is to work on that constitutional amendment.
There's so much crap on TV, ever since people discovered reality TV and really made it fly. The sitcoms are still good, you know, the stuff like Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond. Reality TV gets all the viewers though, disgusting stuff like 'The Swan', 'Fear Factor' (which isn't all disgusting, only the stuff to do with gross stuff), but there's good stuff of course, like The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, the saner stuff...
Won't be at work much this week. Took leave today, and Thursday is holiday, and next Monday is holiday again! Still haven't built my kernel, maybe on Thursday? Anyway, quite pissed now regarding the NS medical benefits. $240 amounts only to $20 a month on average, and already the "allowance" they give hardly covers living expenses. It's not hard to see why those in poor families would risk going AWOL in order to make money to support their families.
The world is in shambles as usual. Japan has suffered its 3rd quake in succession, I think. Lots of homes destroyed, people dead and injured. Unrest in the middle east. Another major offensive in Iraq. Nuclear threats here and there. Terrorists threatening to kill hostages.
Monday, November 01, 2004
broken plates
Anyway, Fear Factor was on TV (quite a disgusting and unwholesome show in general, really), and they were doing something with using their mouths to pick up raw internal organs (of some animal, perhaps even a human?) off plates on a conveyor belt, and the plates smash on the ground when they reach the end of the belt, and my mom was like "they're letting the plates drop!"
Everybody Loves Raymond is funny. I'm supposed to get some exercise in the evenings because there's really no other time when I can. But not tonight; quite tired now... had about 5 squares of dark chocolate after dinner. Yummy.
Just heard this on the news: China is condemning the arrogance of Bush.
Everybody Loves Raymond is funny. I'm supposed to get some exercise in the evenings because there's really no other time when I can. But not tonight; quite tired now... had about 5 squares of dark chocolate after dinner. Yummy.
Just heard this on the news: China is condemning the arrogance of Bush.
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