A Better Title

After almost three years of use (or probably the more proper term is abuse), my battered Badtz Maru keychain finally broke. The Sanrio character broke at the tip of the head, where it attaches to the chain.

The shape has been pretty bad since at least the ‘A’ Levels period. But I didn’t want to change it.

For the simple reason that the keychain has brought with it the memories that I had in JC.

You see, it was given to me by a friend of mine (who shall remain unnamed) when it was my birthday in 2002. Since then, the keychain and I were (almost) always together.

When I realised more than half-a-year later that I was attracted to this friend of mine, the bond between me and the keychain grew. Even though in the end no sparks flew and there was no chemistry (nor physics or biology) between us, the bond between me and the keychain was unbroken.

When the chain broke back in the end of the same year I received it, I got a new set of chain and replaced it. Thus the keychain was back in its rightful place in my pocket. Everytime I left the room. Everyday.

And then there was another time when I accidentally left the keychain at home one fine holiday in 2003. I requested Mum to look for it and send it back when one of my relatives visited Singapore.

Sheesh, so much for being a sentimental person who sometimes overvalues things.

But now that it has irreparably broken, I guess it’s finally time to put the keychain on a permanent rest somewhere in the house back in Indonesia.

I received this set of Rubik’s Cube as a free gift after participating in NTU Mensa’s challenge. It only took a few minutes of playing the Cube that I realised that it is very challenging. I surfed the Internet for clues on how to solve the puzzle.

I found a promising site, and went on to apply the techniques to solve the puzzle.

I realised a few hours later that Rubik’s Cube is very very very exhausting. And as I was trying to solve the last layer of the puzzle, the whole thing was reduced into Rubik’s Bits.

Apparently a screw underneath one of the central pieces of the Cube had gone loose, and the whole side of the cube simply disintegrated. As I found out later, the central piece is the keystone of the puzzle. As it attaches itself to the core of the Cube, it also interlocks every other pieces surrounding it.

Wait. You said the whole side of the cube disintegrated. How come your picture shows the Cube in a much worse state?

Oh yes, that’s right. A whole side disintegrated but not the others. So I was left with a 2×3x3 rectangular block. Being the curious engineer-to-be that I am, I turned and turned and turned the sides until every single piece has disintegrated.

Oh wait… I actually don’t have anything better to do and I counted that there are only 25 Rubik’s Cube pieces on the picture. Shouldn’t there be 26?

You’re right again. Actually when I took the picture, one piece fell off my table and was on the floor. I realised it when I was trying to assemble the whole thing back together and I was missing a piece.

You actually re-assembled the whole thing back together? What the hell?

Yes I did. I’m a curious engineer-to-be, remember? The first picture was actually taken after I re-assembled all the pieces back together. At least I managed to ’solve’ the puzzle.

It’s not only keychains and Rubik’s Cubes that can be broken. Hearts can be broken too, as I mentioned in a past entry.

Yes you are indeed in my heart. You are the only one who can fill the void in my heart. (Since I’m not good in words, please insert assorted romantic sentences here.)

And I love you so. (Ditto above. Make sure they’re slightly different. The sentences here should have a bigger impact on the reader, otherwise it’s not fun reading this.)

But you broke my heart. (Insert expletives here.)

What the hell are you doing? You’re being romantic with the pictures but idiotic at the same time with those sentences you put in brackets!

Sorry. I’m not good in words. ^^;

As if there’s no end to this, I’m also broke. ^^;

I just paid for hostel and miscellaneous fees this semester, and also flat rental for the first month of the next semester. Those certainly left a big hole in my bank account and my wallet.

Flat rental? You’re moving out of hostel?

Oh yes, I’ll be moving out to a flat opposite NTU together with 4 others. The fastest we can move there is in May, after our exams. Do visit me if you have time.

That’s not enough. Not only things can be broken and people can be broke, but things can also be torn. Click on the picture below to view the video.

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Edit: Video has been removed. Search the net for “Torn Stand up Comedian” and you should be able to find it.

(Please let me know if the above no longer links to the page containing the video. I’m currently experimenting with Coppermine Photo Gallery and things may not go as what I had intended.)

Or, if you’re on a slower connection, you might find it better to download the file first. Just right-click here and click on “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…” or something along that line.

So that’s all for today. Broken, broke, and torn. See you another time!

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The week is over, and I’m glad that it’s not as FUBAR as I had expected.

On Monday (when I greeted everyone a Happy Monday) the Materials Science quiz didn’t go as I had wanted to. My performance was just borderline, a very disappointing one. I’d probably either just fail or just pass, depending on my luck. My fault. I didn’t prepare well for the quiz.

In the night, I managed to update NTU SIGGRAPH’s website–albeit only one line change.

On Tuesday (when I proclaimed the FUBARness of the week) I managed to finish the third submission of Web Design course on time. The laboratory experiment for the formal report didn’t go on too smoothly, and I can only hope that I won’t encounter any problems during the collection of references for the formal report.

In the night, I went for interviews for next semester’s GTD (NTU Indonesian Undergraduates Orientation). I applied for the sub-committee positions at Publication (those who do photography and website design), Public Relation (those who fetch Indonesian freshmen who just arrived in Singapore and show them around NTU and Singapore) and Programmer (those who decides what to be done during the events). Along the way, I was dragged on to apply a position as Publication sub-committee member of PINTU (Pelajar Indonesia NTU or NTU Indonesian Students Association) because they lacked manpower.

I found out later in the week that I was selected as Publication sub-committee member of both GTD and PINTU. A big responsibility, I must say. Which was why I stated to PINTU that I may need to quit if I find out that the workload is too heavy.

On Wednesday, I confirmed with the Web Design lecturer that my submissions were alright. This time, she was convinced that I really didn’t use Macromedia Dreamweaver to do the website. I also discovered another student–an exchange student from France–who has the same passion at XHTML/CSS coding instead of sloppy table designs.

In the night, I mugged hard for Life Sciences quiz the following day.

On Thursday, the Life Sciences quiz somehow went really well, much better than Materials Science earlier in the week. The fact that the quiz was a multiple-choice one with questions very similar to the previous online tutorials we’ve already taken really helped a lot in boosting my confidence.

In the afternoon and the night, I worked to finish the Visual Communication slides for the presentation the following day. I checked and rechecked and rerechecked and rehearsed the whole thing that by the time I finished, it was really really early in the morning. I was so tired of the week’s chores by then.

I slept well in the night.

A little bit too well, because when my roommate woke me up on Friday morning, it was 10 A.M.

The timeslot for the tutorial in which I’m supposed to be presenting was 10 A.M.

Shit.

I quickly messaged my friend who is in the same tutorial group, and proceeded to take a shower, eyes still half-closed.

I reached the tutorial room and was relieved to find out I wasn’t the only one late. At least I’m not so bad. Mwahahaha…

When it was my turn, I delivered the best communication skills a sleepy, formulae-infested Engineering brain can deliver.

The presentation was about an advertisement that we can choose ourselves. There’s actually another option, which is doing an analysis of a work of art with regards to the communication process it delivers.

I chose the advertisement option.

So for this one, we were supposed to find out what signs were used in the advertisement and analyse them. From an experience the previous week, I found out that most of the others also touched on the design aspects of the advertisements. That was why I prepared a few slides on this.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts to time the presentation well, I dwelved too much on the Signs part of the advertisement, and thus didn’t manage to go into details on the Design Aspects of the advertisement. In fact, I skipped a lot of slides. So that’s something I still need to practise on.

(By the way, the timer of the presentation was very cute. When a presenter only has 1 minute left, he will wave a card saying “1 minute left”. The same goes when a presenter only has 15 seconds left. The cute part is when a presenter ran out of time. He will wave a card saying “Shut Up” instead of “Stop” or something else. The cards, as I found out at the end of the presentation, were actually done my lecturer. The lecturer is a very nice, interesting person who is also very funny. It’s as if he’s not a lecturer, but just any one of us students. :P)

(By the way also, for the second presentation, I specially requested my time slot to be moved to the first week, since the second week of the presentation–where I’m supposed to be–falls on 11 March, the date when I’m supposed to go back to ACJC for Founder’s Day. And guess where the lecturer put me? The very first presentation of the first week. Well done.)

After Materials Science lecture, I went to Bras Basah Complex with L to look for a Biology book (for Life Sciences). He was looking for guitars, whose shops happen to be in the same building. L is one of those professional guitar players of the NTU Guitar Ensemble–despite him denying it. We didn’t manage to find what we wanted.

We walked back to Raffles City, where we had out dinner, and went back to NTU for our meetings–I was upgraded to become a Publication main committee member of image|reel, an animation screening event that NTU SIGGRAPH is going to hold in May. More details will come later as they become available.

On Saturday, I met ET to get back my SLR, and went to watch the Chingay parade. For the non-Singaporeans: That’s Ching-ay, and not a homosexual Chin. Chingay is Asia’s grandest street and floats parade which has existed for more than 100 years. (I think it’s to celebrate Lunar New Year, but I can’t be sure. I’m very tired now and can’t be bothered to find out the details. Do let me know if any of you guys knows that this is wrong.)

More than 50 colourful floats and performances greeted the thousands of spectators lining Orchard Road this year. The floats and performances vary from the elegant to the outrageous, from ethnic dances to fiery performances.

Photos will be uploaded later if they turn out good–I’ve never tried taking photographs at such lighting conditions.

On Sunday, I went to Changi Airport, both to send L off and to get some photographs to finish the roll of film. I explored new grounds here as I ventured to locations in the airport I’ve never been to, such as the place just outside the control tower and a carpark at Terminal 1. The latter gave me a side view of landings which is only slightly obstructed by Terminal 3 construction works. Again, photos will only be uploaded if they turn out good.

So that’s my week. A FUBAR week which turned out not as FU nor BAR.

But the most important thing is that I’m happy. Happy that the hectic week is over. Happy that it’s now a one-week recess break for us in NTU. Happy that I finally have time to do things that I wouldn’t normally do during term time. (Come to think of it, I’m not very happy that I have so many assignments and projects to do during the break).

So it’s all good. For now.

Gotta sleep. Talk to ya later.

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I just realised that my whole week has gone FUBAR.

Remember I said that I had something to do every day this week in the previous post?

Well, I just realised also that my lectures always end pretty late. What this means is that as of now I either have to sacrifice the Life Science Quiz, or Visual Communication Assignment. Considering that Life Science Quiz is a multiple-choice one, I instantly know which one to sacrifice.

Sigh…

And remember my second Web Design submission? Apparently I put some extra tags (specifically the DTD declaration and Meta tag) which caused the tutor to suspect that I used Dreamweaver instead of coding by hand as we are supposed to. I tried convincing her that I did the coding by hand, but knowing my linguistic and argumentative abilities when under pressure, I think she was not really convinced that my coding was really by hand. Sigh…

Wheeness…

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So today is Monday.

What’s the big deal?

What’s with people sending roses and chocolates?

Oh yes, I forgot that today, 14 February, is actually Valentine’s Day. Hari Valentina. Hari Kasih Sayang. Whatever you call it.

But for people like me (and many other singles in the world) today is actually just another ordinary Monday.

With no special plans. No dates. No celebrations. Just go for lectures and tutorials and do projects and assignments which are due in the next few days of the week.

(Ooh, I’m currently loving my headphones. It’s one of those Creative’s Backphones, which I bought together with the Jukebox 3 at last last year’s Creative Sale. My songs sound so good in one.)

Oh yeah, I’ll be celebrating the day with a Materials Science Quiz. Yayness!

Tuesday will be celebrated with a Web Design Project Submission, Thursday with Life Science Quiz, and Friday with Visual Communication Assignment. Triple yayness!

Yawn. Sleepy. Been sleeping for insane hours this weekend. And I’m still sleepy.

Right-o. Now what?

Oh yes, may I just wish all you couples out there a very Happy Valentine’s Day. Some of us here will be celebrating Normal Valentine’s Day while others Bad Valentine’s Day.

I went to NTU Guitar Ensemble Concert (called Nocturne, which I advertised here long long long time ago) on Sunday. It was great, but there were some mistakes during the concert, and there are certainly a lot of room for improvements.

Yup. I said I had a quiz. And I haven’t fully prepared yet. Yayness…

*part removed*

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I‘ve always trusted my Adobe Photoshop to do image editting.

And then I was introduced to Macromedia Fireworks MX during CS227 Web Design and Management, and, wow! I was very impressed!

Despite not having as many filters (i.e. image effects) as Photoshop, Fireworks has a very intuitive workspace and complete tools which themselves are very easy and natural to use. An impressive feature of Fireworks is its impressive support of vector graphics (graphics made of a set of points which the program connects with lines automatically), something which Photoshop lacks.

I shan’t bore you with the details of how Fireworks handle vector graphics better than Photoshop, since I don’t think many of the readers of this blog do graphics design. But if you do do graphics design, you might want to check Fireworks out.

Here are two of my first works on Fireworks. The first is somewhat a repost from the previous entry, plus an effect. The first image can be produced in Photoshop pretty easily, but the second can’t. Pretty cool, eh?

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In a late Chinese New Year spirit, I finally cleaned up my room. Yayness!

You see, my biological clock is usually not in tandem with the nature’s. So that’s why I only sleep super late in the night and wake up super late in the day. If I don’t have school, that is. And that’s also why I only cleaned up my room now–which means that the clock is, like, 2 days off?

And bloody hell there was a bloody smelly cockroach crawling up inside my T shirt and emerging out of the neck into my hair after I cleaned up my room! Needless to say, I went to shower afterwards.

Gong Xi Fa Cai from The Niners.

Finally I have a photo of myself in this blog. Those who don’t know me yet: Guess which one I am.

I now have 49 freakin’ Gmail invitations left. Who wants?

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Oh yes, keep on forgetting… Happy Chinese New Year to all ethnic Chinese who read my blog!

Shall keep my longer thoughts till another day. Very tired now…

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After three days of toying around, I’ve finally finished the first project for CS227 Web Design and Management. We’re supposed to do a website on a childhood game. My group has chosen the game Hopscotch.

Click here to view the website.

Some of my own comments:

• I hate the use of tables for the layout. After so long of doing layouts using CSS, using tables is just plain irritating. When I need to make a change to the layout of the entire site, I would need to change every single HTML page, as opposed to a single CSS file. While it’s true that tables are supported by older browsers, it just creates so much hassle. My teacher said that a solution to this is using templates in Dreamweaver. Not the best solution, since I don’t use Dreamweaver anyway.
• The banner was done in a haste as it was approaching the deadline of submission. I took about 20 minutes to do the banner, leaving only about 10 minutes to submit the website. Hence it looks rather simplistic.
• I’m pretty satisfied with the colour choice (courtesy of the help of my roommate). However, I have this feeling that it won’t look right on a CRT monitor.
• I can’t find good images on Hopscotch to put under Strategies!

Do let me know what you think.

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My first encounter with Mocca was when I happened to listen to their hit song “Secret Admirer” in the Indonesian Art Festival (IAF) website back in 2002. I didn’t know it was Mocca then. All I knew was that the English-language song was nice.

After a while, I thought that the song was pretty cute. So off I went to search the Internet for the full lyrics of the song, armed by only snippets of the whole song. It took me an hour or so to find the lyrics and to figure out that it was a group called Mocca who sang the song.

In a few days, I found out that Mocca was actually an independent Indonesian music group. I also discovered their website and found out that their songs are pretty good. They also sing their songs in English, giving them a chance to reach the international audience.

When I came back to Indonesia, one of the things that I had in mind to do was to look for their first album, called My Diary.

Too bad that lady luck was not on my side. The album was either sold out in or not carried by the music shops near my town.

It was a chance encounter that united my copy of the first Mocca album with its owner. I found the copy of the album lying there as if begging for someone to take home in a music store of a small shopping mall in Yogyakarta when I was there on holiday with Mum and Sis.

I picked up the copy, paid for it at the counter, and boy, was I not disappointed!

Click on the picture to enlarge

By the end of 5 February 2005, I was a proud owner of an autographed copy of the album, as well as a limited-edition poster, a Coca Cola-spoof Mocca sticker, as well as a face-to-face encounter with Mocca personnel.

From 4 to 6 February, Mocca is performing at the Outdoor Theatre at Esplanade. This was probably one of their attempts to go international.

I went for the 5 February session, and I was pleasantly surprised that they looked and sounded so much better live compared to the recordings. It was also good to see that their command of English seemed to be better than the first album–which was nice to listen to but was pockmarked with grammatical mistakes.

The only bad thing about the concert was that they sometimes used Indonesian language to speak to the audience, leaving those who did not know the language out. While it’s true that most of the audience were Indonesian, it might be something that Mocca would like to improve on to reach more people.

After the concert, I planned to go home straight away to do my CS227 Web Design project.

It remained as a plan as I followed P and L to a jazz lounge at Boat Quay called Jazz@Southbridge.

Within the next one-and-a-half hours, I had Singapore Sling and Black Russian (both of which sucked), parted with SGD 26.50 (although promising myself to save up earlier; screw the two-drinks minimum on weekends!), increased the alcohol level in my bloodstream (without actually getting drunk, of course), almost forgotten about the CS227 project (which is due on Tuesday), observed how people who drink a lot or has low alcohol-tolerance act like (it was interesting when they did funny things), tried to concentrate to keep myself alert and not do anything stupid (I think I succeeded), and thought that the waitress was rather cute (she was).

They said drinking eliminates reasoning. I think it’s right. It was interesting to see how people do things like ordering a new drink when they had no money, asking their friend to play a song on stage, borrowing money from a girl when there was another closer friend nearby, or bloody sitting on our limited-edition Mocca poster.

By the end of the two hour, the fog clogging my mind had lifted and I was very alert. So I came home on taxi with P and L (which blew another SGD 7.50 in my wallet) and started doing the CS227 project.

In fact, I’m supposed to be doing it now, but now there’s another fog in my brain: sleepiness. So I shall sleep now and continue tomorrow.

See ya later.

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I found this fun (but very tough) image puzzle today. I was stuck at Stage 8 out of the total of 15. Can you do better?

BTW, for the weak-hearted: Up to Stage 8 there was no terrifying images popping up. Neither was there any surprising elements like loud sounds or ghostly pictures.

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