A Better Title

I was doing my tutorial on the benches when I received a call from Inspector Kelvin Ji from the CID, telling me that my previous entry was considered suspicious for national security. As such, I was requested to offer a public apology as well as provide a translation of the entry.

Of course, by the end of the call, I found out that CID didn’t have an Inspector Ji, and it also turned out that Kelvin Ji is my friend.

But anyway, the previous entry stirred quite a bit of curiosity, and for the sake of satisfying the curiosity, I shall translate the post here:

First Post in Indonesian Language

Sometimes I really want to write in the Indonesian Language. After all, Indonesian is my mother tongue, so I’m supposed to be able to write in Indonesian more fluently than if I were to write in English.

But after staying for 8 years in the land of the lion and never once write in good-and-proper Indonesian, it feels awkward to write in Indonesian again. Anyway it’s not as if I often write in Indonesian when I was in Indonesia.

But it’s ok. Like the proverb that English-speaking people say: There’s always a first time for everything or when translated literally to Indonesian is There’s always a first time for everything. So this post will be my first post in Indonesian.

Maybe I won’t be writing in Indonesian too often, because many of the readers of this blog are Singaporeans, who most likely don’t understand anything I say here. They may even think that I’m talking about them behind their backs. Anyway my Indonesian is rusty, so I’ll write with a mixture of English.

Why does this post feel very boring?

***

wah lau, how come when i try to write in good-and-proper indonesian it feels damn funny ah… like write for newspaper or textbook like that. nvm, i try and write again lah, this time using… not-so-good-and-proper language.

sometimes i really really wanna write in indonesian. cos indonesian is my mother tongue what, so i should be more fluent in indonesian than english.

but then after being in singapore for 8 years and never write in good-and-proper indonesian ah, it feels damn funny when i try and write in indonesian. but then again i very seldom write in indonesian even when i was still in indonesia.

but nvm lah. like you know the english proverb: There’s always a first time for everything or when translated it becomes There’s always a first time for everything. so this post will be my first indonesian language post.

but then maybe i wun write in indonesian so often lah, cos majority of the blog readers are singaporeans mah, so they most likely won’t know what i write also. if i suey ah, later they think i talk bad about them. anyway my indonesian is damn rusty already, so if i write i mix english here and there.

this posting very boring hor?

Boring,
bcc

PS: For the benefit of the non-Indonesians who read this entry, the part above the “***” was written in proper Indonesian, while the part below it was written in colloquial Indonesian, which I liken to standard English and Singlish in this translation respectively.

PPS: The Singlish is exaggerated. Yeah, I know.

Kadang-kadang saya ingin sekali menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Toh Bahasa Indonesia adalah bahasa ibu saya, jadi seharusnya saya bisa menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia dengan lebih lancar dibandingkan dengan Bahasa Inggris.

Tapi sesudah tinggal 8 tahun di negeri singa dan tidak pernah lagi menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar, rasanya canggung untuk kembali menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Lagian memang bukannya saya sering menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia selama saya masih di Indonesia.

Tapi ya tidak apa-apa. Toh seperti peribahasa yang orang-orang berbahasa Inggris sering katakan: There’s always a first time for everything atau terjemahan bebasnya dalam Bahasa Indonesia adalah Selalu ada kali pertama untuk semuanya. Jadi posting ini adalah posting pertama saya dalam Bahasa Indonesia.

Mungkin saya tidak akan menulis dalam Bahasa Indonesia sering-sering, karena kebanyakan pembaca blog ini adalah orang Singapura, yang kemungkinan besar tidak mengerti apa yang saya katakan di sini. Malah mungkin mereka kira saya sedang mengata-ngatakan mereka di belakang. Lagian Bahasa Indonesia saya sudah karatan, jadi mungkin saya akan menulisnya bercampur-campur dengan Bahasa Inggris.

Kok posting ini rasanya membosankan sekali yah?

***

Duh, kok nulis pake bahasa indo yang baik dan benar tuh rasanya aneh banget yah… kayak lagi nulis di koran atau buku cetak gitu. gpp deh, sekarang saya coba tulis lagi yang di atas dengan bahasa yang… kurang baik dan benar.

kadang-kadang saya tuh pengen banget nulis pake bahasa indo. soalnya kan bahasa indo tuh bahasa ibu saya, jadinya harusnya sih saya lebih lancar di bahasa indo daripada bahasa inggris.

tapi seudah di singapur selama 8 taun dan gak pernah nulis pake bahasa indo yang baik dan benar, kok rasanya aneh banget yah kalo mau nulis pake bahasa indo. toh saya emang gak pernah sering-sering nulis pake bahasa indo pas masih di indo.

tapi ya gpp deh. kayak peribahasa inggris There’s always a first time for everything atau kalo diterjemahin tuh Selalu ada kali pertama untuk semuanya. jadinya posting ini bakalan jadi posting pertama saya yang pake bahasa indo.

tapi mungkin nulis indonya gak bakalan sering-sering, soalnya sebagian besar pembaca blog ini kan orang singapur, jadi mereka kayaknya sih kemungkinan besar gak bakalan ngerti saya tuh nulis apa. malah mungkin mereka bakalan salah sangka, kirain ngomongin mereka. lagian bahasa indo saya tuh dah karatan, jadinya nulisnya campur-campur pake bahasa inggris.

posting ini boring banget gak sih?

I went to watch the Complaints Choir of Singapore with Theresia on Sunday. Actually we asked Benny and sylv along, but too bad they weren’t free.

It was lucky that we got *ahem* invited (to quote from chillycraps) to the performance, since all public performances were cancelled as the police claimed that foreigners should not meddle in Singapore’s politics.

That means that the foreign members cannot sing if they want to perform for public, which was impossible since many of the members are foreigners and even the conductor himself is a Malaysian. The choir had to resort to performing at The Arts House by invite only for “friends” of the choir.

The choir itself was really good. It was funny and I could relate to most parts of the lyrics (read more to see). Maybe I’ve been staying in Singapore for too long. As you might be able to read in the lyrics too, there are not much mention about Singapore politics, mostly just complaints about daily life in Singapore.

When we were there, they even added a complaint on the banning of the public performance of the complaints choir. Talk about self-reference.

My only complaint (!) is that they sang a bit too fast, presumably because this is Singapore where everyone speaks really fast.

Also read mintea’s, chillycraps’s, rinaz’s and Nicole’s blog posts on the Complaints Choir of Singapore. They went a day earlier, which left me kicking myself for not joining them.

(more…)

Want a MacBook Air but can’t afford the expensive price tag? Get a MacBook Paper instead!

[via Paddy Tan’s Twitter]

(more…)

Currently hooked to this song called “Human” by The Pretenders.

Read more for the lyrics.

Note: Not necessarily reflects what I’m feeling.

(more…)

I’ve got try playing chess on a roller coaster one of these days…

The thoughtful looks. The apparent midgame. The hand on the chin. It’s perfect.

Inspired by this xkcd comic:

More photos

Anybody wants to be my partner-in-crime?

[via Akin]

My heart is closed for maintenance.

Closed for Maintenance by ~hendrib on deviantART

There are times when no matter what have been done by both parties, both come to a realization that the relationship is not meant to be.

At times like this, our hearts tend to be cold and dark. It’s good to take some time off and just let time heal all the wounds.

Based on You Are In My Heart.

The idea for this work struck when I was walking back from NTU today. I did a very quick edit to my old work, and added the sign, the nail, and the string. For a 1-hour work, I’m quite satisfied with the result.

This is one of the funniest TV commercials by FedEx. Those in Singapore would have seen this daily on TV these days.

If there was anything I learnt today, it was that I should always save and close all my work before I lock my FYP PC.

There was this dumbo who used my FYP PC when I was away, even though according to the label displayed, the PC is only to be used for FYP. The label even states which project and who the correct user is.

I was shocked when I saw him, and asked him whether he was supposed to use the PC.

At the same time, I was baffled because I thought that other users can’t access the PC as I thought my user ID was the only one cleared to log on to the PC. Apparently I was wrong. I asked him how he accessed the PC, and he said that he used the school’s STUDENT domain, which means that practically anyone could have used the PC.

Well, at least he apologized and it so happened that before I left, I had just restarted the PC. Imagine if I was taking a break and leave all my work on the PC unsaved, and another dumbo logged on to the PC. That would mean that my account would be logged off, killing all my work in the process.

Save,
bcc

This is NOT a sponsored post.

Just finished with an EndNote workshop…

EndNote centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that puts an end to anyone whose name is written in it.

EndNote is a commercial reference management software package, used to manage bibliographies and references when writing essays and articles. Among the features are automatic styling of references (very useful for engineering students with a multitude of possible citation styles to follow, e.g. IEEE, ASME, AMS, etc.), and automatic numbering of references. The latter means that if I had numbered references from 1-80, and decide to add a reference before number 1, I don’t have to renumber everything all over again.

Other features include direct importing of references directly from databases commonly used to obtain journal papers such as Science Direct and IEEE Xplore. This means no more fiddling with PDF-format journal articles to figure out who the authors are, when it is published, which journal it is published to, etc.

This is going to be super useful for my FYP.

It’s too bad that I only discovered it now, otherwise my research would have been much easier to manage.