A Better Title

Ale3.jpg

Originally uploaded by hendrib.

Heheh, just for fun, this is Ale, one of the participants who won the tug-of-war championship in the Indonesian Sports Week (Pekan Olahraga NTU) from my ex hall. Girls, he’s single and looking. Nyeh nyeh nyeh. I’m so evil…

nxva said:

“Time is on my side”, so The Rolling Stones say. Lately, I’ve started to think if it was true after all in my case. So I started to think about some way to have more time for myself. Einstein’s theory of special relativity states that as you go very fast approaching the speed of light, you will experience time dilation, where from the stationary observer’s point of view, your time appears to be dilated. In other words, if you and the observer each have a clock, then the observer will see your clock to run slower than theirs. Now, of course, if I move close to the speed of light, then I will still perceive the passage of time as normal. In fact, by the time 1 hour has passed according to my clock, the world has experienced more than 1 hour. This is extremely undesirable and defeats the purpose of the attempt to gain more time. So, what can I do about it? Well, the answer is simple. I simply need to make the world move close to the speed of light! Of course, we immediately see a problem here. If the whole world moves while I stay still, then it’s no different from having the world stay still while I move, which leads to the same problem we’re trying to avoid. The solution is, of course, simple. To gain more time, all I need is to make myself the centre of the universe and make the world revolve around me!

… or I could stop procrastinating and get back to work. But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it!

Just like what I feel too!

bcc

PS: And here’s a disclaimer from the same person:

Disclaimer: The post above was made with tongue-in-cheek. In reality, it is practically impossible to accelerate everyday object (lest the whole world) close to the speed of light. Moving objects in circular motion also conjures the centripetal force, which bring acceleration into play and is beyond the scope of special relativity. This is the realm of general relativity.

Today I went to Indonesian Freshmen Night where Joy Tobing, the first Indonesian Idol winner (who subsequently left after a disagreement over contract terms with Fremantle Media) was a guest star.

Being a “Bethany Church Singapore community project”, I should have expected that there would be elements of Christianity being injected into the programme.

Not that I mind the Christianity part–I’m a Catholic myself, although not a devotee.

However, I think that it isn’t fair to those who belong to other religions, because the event was named as Indonesian Freshmen Night, where, according to the flyers and invitation cards, Indonesian freshmen in Singapore can mingle with each other, get to know each other as well as network with the seniors. There was no indication at all that such elements will be incorporated in the event.

Within NTU, this sort of networking is achieved by GTD, which is religiously neutral. I feel that if the next Indonesian Freshmen Night is organised by PINTU, PINUS and SMUKI (Indonesian societies in NTU, NUS, and SMU respectively) the event will be of much greater success.

Now I’m wondering whether I should go to tomorrow’s Indonesian Family Fun Day.

Today’s event was rather boring, so I left in the middle of Joy Tobing’s appearance and went with DPP and YDC to Esplanade. We arrived at 9 and met W, T, A at the Makansutra place.

BTW, just a short sidetrack, Makansutra literally means eat silk in Indonesian. Makan is eat and sutra is silk. I’d rather makan nasi (eat rice) rather than makan sutra!

Anyway… We met up with the freshies, all of whom I didn’t know but get to know afterwards as we waited for three hours for the fireworks to start.

There was a misinformation somewhere because at first we thought that it would start soon. Then we were told that it would start at 11 p.m.

So to kill time, we went for the Singapore Birthday Bash at the Stage@Powerhouse, where Beat Bros, a percussion ensemble and a dance group performed. The highlight was the local pop band Enigma, who played different songs ranging from Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boy, some U2 song (don’t know the title), Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life, some Indian song (don’t know the title also), someone’s Let’s Get Retarded, among others.

Ok, I realise my music knowledge is really pathetic.

Anyway, I was rather impressed by the way they could sing different songs such that they sounded like the original singers.

By 11.20, we realised that there was another misinformation, and we discovered that the fireworks were to be launched as the clock struck midnight.

So we waited another 40 minutes. My dry cough was really killing me then. Oh yeah, I’m currently a bit sick, have been dry coughing since a couple of days ago. I should go to a doctor the day after National Day if it lasts.

Then the time finally came when we started counting down and the fireworks started. I must admit that this was the first time I caught the fireworks during NDP ever since I came to Singapore 6 years ago.

We didn’t realise that this year’s fireworks were being held at the same side of the river as Esplanade. We had expected to see the fireworks at the opposite end instead, where the Integrated Resort is to be erected. And so, when the count down reached zero, we instinctively turned our heads to the opposite end and saw nothing.

It was only a while later that we realised the correct site of the fireworks. We saw the lighted-up sky, but lo and behold, trees blocked our sight. So we rushed with throngs of other people to get nearer to the riverside so that our line-of-sight would not be as obstructed.

Despite in the end still being partially blocked by some trees and the sea of people, the fireworks were spectacular. I liked the part where there were probably 10 or so multiple-coloured fireworks lighting up the sky. It was the brightest moment of the fireworks display. Too bad I didn’t bring a camera with me, otherwise I probably would have wasted a roll in the day.

Anyway… So it’s now the 40^th birthday of the country I’ve been staying in for the past 6 years. And so for that, I’d like to say this to the country and its citizens:

Next week is Indonesia’s turn–17 August is the country’s Independence Day… I don’t know if I’ll join the ‘celebration’, because being in a foreign country, the ‘celebration’ of my country’s Independence Day means an assembly at the embassy, followed by a (usually) simple reception… I don’t think there’ll be any of such partying around…

bcc

Long, long time ago when we were little kids, my brother and I used to play with matches. We assembled the metal foil inside cigarette packs and a match to create a simple rocket. No, we didn’t and don’t and won’t smoke; the foil was courtesy of Dad and our uncle, who used to work with Dad. I can still remember that we used to use the soil inside the orchid pots that the family used to have in the ‘middleyard’* as the launch pad for the rockets.

Many years passed.

The orchids were gone, and so were the pots.

Dad switched to lighters.

Uncle left his job and worked somewhere else.

Dad eventually stopped smoking.

And within these many years, I had forgotten how to create these match rockets.

And so, it was kind of nostalgic when I finally found the link to Matchrockets (complete with instructions to make one, pictures and even a video) on IZ Reloaded’s page. I didn’t know it then, but the rockets are actually a demonstration of some of the basic physics principles.

* I don’t call it the backyard, because this yard is located in the middle-back part of the land that the family owns. This ‘middleyard’ is surrounded by the main house, bathrooms, the kitchen, the rooms for our maids, a water tower, and the new section of the house (fancifully called the West Wing by my brother).

Although interconnected, the land can somewhat be thought of as being divided into 4:

1. Front - The shop (including the storage areas)
2. Middle-front - The main house (bedrooms, living room, dining room)
3. Middle-back - ‘Middleyard’, water tower, bathrooms, kitchen, rooms for maids, new section of the house (West Wing)
4. Back - Backyard, badminton court, chicken coops, storage area for the shop, rubbish dump

Oh, and I just found out that my brother actually has the photos of the house. This ‘middleyard’ I’m talking about is this one:

For more photos around and inside the house visit my brother’s photo gallery.

bcc

linuxfootball.jpg

Originally uploaded by hendrib.

This is a flickr moblog test.

This picture and message have been sent directly from my mobile phone via MMS to flickr, which subsequently posts the entry on this blog.

Quite a cool feature, if you ask me.

Pity that I don’t have a cameraphone that enables me to post live images from wherever I am… Maybe I should invest in one. Or does anyone want to buy me one?

I have 303 GTD photos to trim down to about 10 or 20 to put up on this blog. I was down to 180 at the moment, but I felt so lazy to continue… So, I decided to take a break and translate suhu’s comments on The Tribune into English.

So here it is…

Page 1:
The meaning of the text “incredible indeah!! more on page 10″ is not clear.
Shuttle bus photo is not aligned with the text.
Hotline box looks too crammed. Giving it a smaller font will make it look better.

Page 2:
Editor’s desk should have something to frame it. Not other articles. Why is the border around the article “are you man enough?” coloured red? It’s like a man wearing a PINK SHIRT. [I like Anesia's writing anyway, I just don't like the layout. The article is good.]
The orange box for editorial board is too big.

Page 3:

Editor’s note doesn’t need an underline. The same goes with Hitachi. Pointless.

Page 4:

The resolution of Popular promotion is not high enough. Maybe about 75 lpi, so when printed on the four-colour machine, will not be as good as web-colour. Not the fault of the editorial board anyway, maybe the source was already faulty.

Page 5:
Good.

Page 6:
The main photograph is not hi-res enough. “Bye-bye Uni Ball ….. HELLO WELCOME PARTY 2005!”

Page 7:
Nice. I like the black-and-white photo.

Pages 8 & 9:
Page numbers 8/9 ??
Rule : Stretch a photo without constraining proportion = Unforgivable sin. Everyone becomes short and fat. Sexy girls become bloated, tall guys become dwarves. Text on photograph is too big. Too big. Really too big. If the text is small, I’m sure it’ll be easier to read. [Btw, Korea photo, with Chinese characters?]

Page 10:
Ok. Went for a trip to Indeah.

Page 11:
72 dpi just won’t work.

Page 12:
Good.

Page 13:
CONTINUED TO PAGE 2???? Alamak!!!!
And the diary, somehow I expected more than that…

Page 14:
FIR text is not clear because it’s superimposed on a light colour. Can be given a drop shadow effect on soto soup [photoshop]

Page 15:
Has the article finished yet? Or continued to the next issue?

Page 16:
NTU, SU logos, 72 dpi won’t work.

…..

Geez…. who am I anyway?

bcc

The name tag:

(I feel like collecting all name tags containing my name and creating some sort of a gallery for them. :P)

Being at the wrong side of the camera means that most of the Publication team are not in the pictures themselves. Here’s a rare one of myself in action:

More photos will come later when the computer finishes scanning the hard drive containing them. Reading 3 MB files directly from CD is such a hassle.

bcc

Note: I’ve decided to split this entry into two. The part on CS226 can be found on the next entry. All comments have been moved accordingly.

Do you have any comments on the latest issue of NTU Tribune? I’m very disappointed with the latest issue, because there are really lots and lots of rooms for improvement. In my opinion, the professionality of Tribune didn’t seem to be that apparent–of course unless it really intended to make itself look not-so-professional, which I doubt it did. I think I should be more straightforward: The layout sucks. Totally. Terribly. Horribly.

I said this in my comments to Spectra, but it is applicable as well here: Although the members of a publication may not be professionals, the least that can be done is making it look a little bit professional. Lack of time is not an excuse.

I mean, put it side-by-side with The Chronicles and you’ll see a stark difference between the two newsletters. Really, Tribune’s looks lately absolutely pale in comparison with Chronicles.

People can argue that “it’s the content that matters”. But, as they say, first impression counts. This is where the good layout shines and the bad one doesn’t. Yeah, it’s true that The Chronicles is done by those who are so-called more-trained in the industry (Communication Studies students), but Tribune is still a publication, and so the same thing applies. Present something nicely and you’ll get more people who are interested to know what you’re trying to say. Present it badly and even though the contents are very interesting, some people will simply brush it off.

Examples of such terrible layout (and presentation) include lots of spelling mistakes here and there, layout problems such as awkward empty spaces in most pages, various capitalisations in a single headline, and even the informal use of multiple punctuation marks (examples include “Free Shuttle Bus and more..”, “Bye-bye Uni Ball ….. HELLO WELCOME PARTY 2005!”, “Symphonic anyone??”, “Incredible Indeah!!!”). Yes, those are actual headlines. And why must it be “Indeah” when the writer could have simple used “India”?!?

And the last page doesn’t look like it was printed properly… Its colours are way off. Off as in monochromatic, and even then it looks very dark; you can’t even see the model behind! The text is totally rubbish–no legible information at all.

Oh, and who the heck links an article from page 13 to page 2?!?

I can’t even imagine how these obviously glaring mistakes went through the editors without any modifications at all!

suhu has a detailed page-to-page comment on the issue. Check out the comment section on this post to take a look. It’s in Indonesian… But I might translate it into English one of these days.

bcc

PS: This entry is not written as an attack to Tribune or any of the editors or writers whatsoever. Rather, it is meant to be a comment by a reader. I’m hoping that, should this entry be discovered or read by anyone related to The Tribune, it can be used to improve future issues of Tribune.

Note: I’ve decided to split this entry into two. The part on The Tribune can be found on the previous entry. All comments have been moved accordingly.

I’m gonna learn how to use Mac!

Yay!

I’m gonna be using Apple Macintosh for CS226 Desktop Publishing, which is good because I’m very fond of using an operating system with so many eye candies.

Mind you, these are eye candies with actual functionalities, unlike those that I attempted to install in Linux.

It is good too because after the course, I should know how to use the 3 major operating systems–Windows, Linux (or UNIX for that matter) and Mac.

Oh yes, and I verified first-hand today that Mac was really developed from UNIX. I found out that it uses bash for its Terminal (a.k.a. command prompt) which of course have (almost) the same commands as the Linux version.

Nonetheless, the course is going to be challenging one, because unlike CS227 Web Design and Management, I’ve never really done desktop publishing before, so I have to learn quite a lot of things from scratch. I’ve seen past year works, in which students did an 8-page tabloid, and I must say that they look really good.

The assignments seem to be quite daunting. It’s individual work, and in the final project (worth 25% of the total grade) students are to do a tabloid similar to last year’s ones. One of the assigments include the redesigning of Singapore’s one-dollar note. I don’t even have a one-dollar note to refer to!

But I’m finally not alone in the course. Out of the five modules of CS I’ve taken (CS100 Fundamentals of Communication Studies, CS202 Visual Communication, CS226 Desktop Publishing, and CS227 Web Design and Management) CS226 and CS227 are the ones in which I have at least one friend to start the course with. This time it’s W, who was also in the same team with me in GTD’s PnP.

Oh yeah… CS226 is my last requirement for my minor. So if I don’t fail the course (touch wood) I would have successfully completed a Minor in Communication Studies by mid of this year. Yay! ^^

I’m thinking whether I should take more General Electives after I’ve finished the minor, just for fun. Taking a minor has its advantage in that the General Electives AU requirements are included in the minor (the AU requirement for GE is 9, while one for a minor is 15). To put it in other words, once one has completed his minor, he doesn’t have to take GEs anymore.

I’m thinking of learning new languages such as Chinese, Japanese, German or French; I seem to be taking quite an interest in the languages lately. Not that I’m good at one anyway, I’m just quite interested in learning it.

But of course must see how first lah. Cos if I find that my core subjects and prescribed electives are tough, then I won’t take lah.

Anyway, I still have one semester to think about it. Plenty of time.

bcc

Zzz…

Normally, drinking two cups of coffee is enough to drive me nuts, enabling me to unendingly irritate others.

Today is by no means a normal day. Even with a cup of Canteen B coffee and a can of Nescafé Mocha, I’m still sleepy.

Must be due to the lack of rest I’ve had ever since GTD begun back on Thursday.

Zzz…

I’m so sleepy that throughout the two tutorial lessons I had this morning, I fell asleep for at least 75% of it.

In fact, I’m so sleepy that I won’t be surprised if I fall asleep while walking. Or even when doing my business in the toilet. The droning sound of water falling into the toilet bowl can lull one who is so sleepy into a trance-like state, inevitably ending in a snooze.

Zzz…

Today is going to be a long day. I’ve got another two lectures from 1.30 till 3.30 p.m., after which I’ll have to man the booth for MY SIGGraph, a free-screening-cum-recruitment event of ACM SIGGRAPH NTU Student Chapter.

At 5.30 p.m. there will be a welcome tea session for SIGGRAPH, and at 7.30 another welcome tea session for Photo-Videographic Society.

I wonder if I can survive this day.

bcc, reporting live… zzz… from CITS Computer… zzz… Room for Chann… zzz……