[Dude...Where's...my...ZZzzzzZZzzzzz...]
I've been learning driving for a while now. I didn't have a fixed instructor. Instead, I had a group of them. The good thing about such an arrangement was that you're exposed to more than one style of teaching. The bad thing is, you're exposed to more than one style of teaching.
I don't have any problems with most of things I'm required to do on the road, except for starting the car immediately after stopping. Long story, I won't go into it (basically, too little gas and releasing the clutch too quickly). I blame the first guy who taught me. What he "taught" me during my first lesson really screwed me up. Anyway, I figured out a new way and today my engine didn't stall once. Yay me. But that's not what I want to talk about. Something happened today which I've never contemplated and wasn't ready for.
My instructor fell asleep.
The guy today was normally a very chatty fellow, so 5 minutes into the lesson I realised something was up as he was very quiet. Turns out, he was dozing off. I tried clearing my throat, turning corners very sharply, going over humps at a fast speed as well as running over the speed strips quickly. None of that woke him up.
He did, however, wake up a few times near a junction and asked me to turn either left or right. By then, I was too close to the junction to make a turn, so I just carried on straight.
That was an interesting 90 minutes.
I saw this sign on my way back. Here's why I think it shouldn't be taken seriously:
Working from home is a mainstream career in the 21st century? If you're talking about being a maid or a nanny, maybe.
What the hell is "call in time"? That's just bad English.
Why call? If you're organising some sort of e-commerce venture, shouldn't you have an email address?
Why do you have office hours if you're working from home?
I don't know about you, but it looks like a scam to me. Like those websites that promise to tell you the secret of making money online, but first, you need to pay for some "learning materials" or something. Yup, that's a way of making money online...Scamming people looking to make money online.
[Something's pulling my blanket...]
I had trouble sleeping last night. Not too sure why, because there wasn't really anything on my mind. But I was just lying there, tossing and turning but unable to fall asleep.
Suddenly, I realise something's pulling my blanket.
My bed's next to a wall, on my left when I'm in it. I get into bed on the right side and that was where the pulling force was from. It feels like whoever's pulling my blanket was on lower ground, probably on the floor.
The first time round, I was totally unprepared and my blanket went onto the floor. I reached over (eyes half closed) and pulled it back from the floor. I then put my hands under my blanket and held on to it really right.
The pulling continued.
It was like a tug of war, just no movement at all. No jerks, no rest-for-a-moment-and-pull-again, just a constant, uniform pulling force. Shit...What's going on? Was there "something" in my bedroom with me?
For some reason, while I didn't feel fearful, I also did not want to check the source of the pulling. I just laid there, holding my blanket tight and hoping it would go away.
Finally, I told myself, enough is enough. I got up to have a look at what's going on.
At that moment, I "woke up". It was actually a dream. I knew it was a dream when I woke up because I wasn't hanging on to my blanket at all. In fact, one of my hands was above my head. I usually dream only when I'm in deep sleep and I don't think I could actually make decisions in my dreams. This time, it was different. I wasn't in deep sleep. But I dreamt and I was able to make decisions. It was very real, more real than most of my other dreams.
[Irritating and just plain silly...]
I visit lordsofpain.net for wrestling news. Recently, they've got this Flash banner ad on the top of their pages...An ad for a movie (I think) called SkinWalkers.
I found it an insanely irritating ad because it "growls" every time you mouse-over on it. And due to where it's located and my browsing habit, my cursor passes over that area. A lot. And the growls kept coming. What an idiotic ad.
Edit: That ad seems to have been replaced by an ad for the new Simpsons movie. Good riddance.
For reasons to long to get into, I ended up at RMIT's website. Websites tend to have disclaimers and all that at the bottom of their pages in small fonts. RMIT had this warning at the bottom:
"NO SPAM: RMIT University prohibits the use of any email address listed in this page for the purpose of Spam."
Yeah, right. The spammers are going to abide by that.
[New keyboard!]
Went to Sim Lim Square and bought myself a new keyboard today. As promised, no more Logitech keyboards for me.
I bought a Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500. It's one of the low-end keyboards. I don't need any fancy features (I saw one today that had a screen telling you how many rounds, shells, life, etc, you had left, which I presume was for use while gaming...Wouldn't it be easier to just look at the monitor for that info?), just shortcut keys for volume up and down. Good thing I walked around a bit because what I saw at first was bundled with a mouse which I didn't need. Saw one in another shop that didn't come with a mouse and managed to save $10.
I used to really like typing. I don't know why, but I feel good when I hit the keys rapidly and words start forming on my screen. Weird, I know. This sense of enjoyment was completely killed by my previous Logitech. Now it feels natural once again...Except for the six keys at the Insert/Delete/Home/End section. They are arranged differently from other keyboards and I am having trouble hitting the correct keys right now. This should go away once I get used to it.
I also dropped by Sim Lim Tower to get some fans for my fish tank. The ones I had was slowing down due to the accumulated dust. I bought the wrong sized fans. I thought I was using 80mm fans but as it turns out, I was using 92mm ones. Anyway, I managed to get them to fit onto the frame I made, so it wasn't too big a deal.
For those of you who are interested, I saw an accident today. The vehicle number was 1354. If you win something, I expect a treat.
[I hate my keyboard...]
I've been unhappy with my current keyboard since the day I bought it. I thought it was a good deal. Logitech Navigator Keyboard for just $16. It had a whole bunch of shortcut keys although I only use three or four of them.
I wasn't happy that the keyboard doesn't really allow you to hit the keys at a 80 to 90 degree angle. I need to hit the keys at less than 45 degrees for them to go down. This irritates the hell out of me because I type with mainly two fingers, flying all over the keyboard at roughly 90 degrees. I had to change the way I type, the way I sit, even.
This evening, I noticed one of my keys not working. After some investigation, turns out the entire first row of the main section of keys was dead. I could still type the numbers using the NumPad...But I can't access any of the special characters above it. I actually had my sister type the dollar sign I used above on MSN and I pasted it over from there. Yes, I have character map, but I couldn't be bothered. The "End" key isn't working as well.
I'm getting a new keyboard tomorrow, and it sure as hell ain't going to be a Logitech. My previous keyboard was a Logitech as well and both that and my current one both lasted less than a year for different reasons.
[Troubled...]
I've been kinda moody for the last couple of days.
I've been having a lot of problems with my HYP. I won't go into the details because no one would be interested in that (and I don't want Subby telling me my blog entries were boring). What I feel when I'm (trying to) work on my HYP is the same feeling I got when I was in secondary school when I was dealing with my additional maths - numb.
I don't know what to do. The most sensible advice at this point would be to ask someone. Have you ever not known what to do, and at the same time don't know what questions to ask? That's rock-bottom. Not knowing what to do nor ask.
I take comfort in the fact that a friend of mine had a mountain of problems during her HYP, but ended up with a very decent grade. But from past experiences, I can safely say that fairy-tale endings don't seem to like me very much.
Most people aren't all that stressed in their final year/semester. I am extremely stressed because I'm currently at the edge of second-upper, and if my HYP went badly, I could easily end up with a second-lower which makes a world of difference. To be honest, based on my efforts throughout the past semesters, I really feel that I am deserving of a second-upper standing (lest a very weak one).
It'd be hard to swallow if all the effort throughout the past semesters were undone by a stupid HYP that adds no real practical value to my degree.
[More random stuff...]
The RIAA/MPAA has been suing people for a while now. I've been following the developments for a couple of years but lost interest recently because it's always the same old shit.
Basically, these "trade organisations" hire companies like BayTSP, MediaSentry and SafeNet to collect information about the people on P2P networks downloading their material material owned by the record labels/movie studios they represent. They then proceed to sue these people, while at the same time giving them an option to settle out of court. (very clever, I'll explain later)
The way these companies collect information is an absolute joke. Why? Because:
1. They ended up suing dead people. 2. They ended up suing people with no computers. 3. They equate an IP address to a single person. (utter bullshit) 4. They've tried to distribute fake files on P2P networks with hilarious results. First of all, video files are of a...certain size. The files they're distributing could fit on a floppy disk (if you still have one...RAID users might). The naming convention's wrong and they "formed" a release group that no one's heard of. Not to mention the brilliant fact that they probably can't do much with that info, as it's unlikely any court in the world would entertain them trying to sue people for downloading fake files. 5. They opened up a site that encouraged people to upload and share their copyrighted files, but were exposed within a day. They claim it was all a "big mistake". Yeah, right. Nice try at entrapment. 6. Did I mention they sued dead people?
These incompetent acts aside, they were widely criticised for the way they carried out these legal actions. Attacking Universities, demanding the identities of students using a particular IP address at a particular time. Using tax-payer funded law enforcement agencies to carry out raids (although this is acceptable now that copyright infringement is a criminal offense and not just a civil matter). Oh yes, it's a criminal offense now due to RIAA/MPAA lobbying in the US, and FTAs with the US filtered this change to countries all over the world (I wonder how many people saw the connection).
Basically, what happens is this. Someone who had the misfortune of getting his IP address on RIAA/MPAA's radar will get the shock of his life (and probably shit himself) when he gets the legal letter from them. He then thinks..."How did they know who I was?" His ISP either sold him out by handing his information over, or had to if RIAA/MPAA got a court order.
So this guy reads the letter. Typical threatening legal mumbo-jumbo, with extra emphasis on the legal penalties of what he did. Basically, to convince him that he's guilty even before he's considered his next course of action.
He is then given a choice. He could either get sued (in court), or settle for a few thousand dollars, out-of-court. He would be most likely to settle because that's the lesser of two evils.
Ah-ha! Easy money for RIAA/MPAA. And they go on to claim that they've successfully "sued" hundreds or thousands of people, etc etc. Truth is, they haven't sued anyone. (well now they have, since people are fighting back) I wonder where all this money goes to.
More often than not, courts ruled in favour of the "alleged copyright infringers" because the evidence presented were mostly utter rubbish and was easily discredited. Especially if the judges knew a thing or two about this new technology called the "Internet" and how it works. The only problem is when judges don't know technology and don't understand the evidence.
So yes, that's the entertainment industry's strategy. To sue their ex-customers into buying their inferior product (seriously, what's on radio today is pathetic), on the (flawed) premise that if they did not have a way to download what they downloaded, that they would have paid for it. All of it.
So, why this rant about something happening half a world away, 23-hours and one stop-over by flight? Because now it's happening here. Yes, ODEX. The online forums are abuzz about what they're doing. The local anime community is torn apart by what's happening. Some's vowed never to buy anything from ODEX, some's vowed to parallel import. Whatever. I don't really care as I'm not into anime.
What ODEX is doing now in the region is very similar to what RIAA/MPAA has been doing in the US. And I'm pretty sure that most of the people do not closely follow what goes on. What's pretty amazing was that the people on the online forums are voicing views not all that dis-similar from what people have been saying about RIAA/MPAA for years. Cartel-like practices, over-inflating penalties (compared to serious/violent "traditional" crimes), etc.
Technology can change an industry. Any industry. There isn't a single industry I can think of that has not been changed by the Internet. While some industries change their business models to leverage technology, the entertainment industry prefers to use legal means to halt the progress of technology (don't get me started on the ridiculous DMCA - we actually have something similar in Singapore, it's just not widely known).
You can't fight technology. You're just prolonging your own death if you don't adapt but instead stick to old ways of doing business.
My HYP's fucked.
(I don't want to go into the boring details. Let's just say it a potential minefield right now. It's like being placed at the wheel of a car and asked to drive to a place you've never heard of without maps or GPS and with only pedestrians to ask for directions. Splendid.)
Tomorrow's the 100th day since my grandmother passed away, just before my exams last semester. We're going to visit her grave tomorrow. Taoist rituals, and stuff. It would be the first time most (if not all) of us would see her tombstone.
I remember it well. It was a rainy day when we put her in the ground. Just as it was when we put my grandfather in, 9 years ago. There wasn't enough pall-bearers, for some reason. And the oldest generation of grandsons had to help with carrying the casket from the hearse to the plot and then into the ground. While they have a splendid system of logs and ropes for this purpose, it was a challenge for me because of my not-so-good back and the terrain was extremely rocky. I don't know why they made the terrain so rocky. It was just as rocky 9 years ago. Did they want to see if anyone would fall into an open grave while lowering their loved ones into the ground? Because honestly, I think there's a good chance of that happening.
My sister introduced me to a show called Top Gear from the UK. It's a show about cars and I was surprised that my sister would like it so much (girls and cars get along as well as Bush and Osama). As it turns out, it's insanely funny. The three hosts' banter have me roaring with laughter. I don't know why, but it seems that British people can make the most ordinary sentences funny. And they're so polite even when they're angry.
Here are two short clips from the show. There's a ton of them on Youtube. Some are short crops, some are full episodes. It's a mess, really. Which is a pity. They are so enjoyable to watch.
In the clip below, one of the hosts tried to out-run a tank using an off-road vehicle. Being from an armoured formation during my NSF days and having seen what our patheticoldnonsenselousy not-so-advanced vehicles could do, I really didn't think the Range Rover in the clip below stood a chance against the monster they used in the British armed forces. Doesn't matter how fast you can go...4 wheels can't beat the tracks of an armoured vehicle.
It was funny at the end when the host said, "it really is a very, very good off-road car...but if you plan on invading another country, use a tank."
[Random stuff...]
Finally, there's some developments on the HYP-front. My supervisor liked some of my ideas, and we're moving on to the next stage (actually we have sort-of cleared the next stage and are on our way to the one after that). Although I sometimes wonder if my supervisor really liked my ideas or just picked the lesser of two evils and moved on due to the lack of time.
I still don't feel confident, HYP-wise. I have a pretty good understanding of how and what a research paper looks like but there are still many areas I have not yet considered, evident when I couldn't answer my supervisor's questions.
The IPTV paper I'm working on has basically reached a stand-still. When my professor told us that several people in the past has dropped out of trying to get a paper published with him, I asked why because from what he said, it seemed like a pretty simple task. Now I know better.
There are some reasons for it which I don't think I should reveal. What I can say is that trying to edit the same paper over and over takes a toil on you. It's come to the point where I couldn't read the paper anymore. I'm not sure how to say this...Those of you who's ever had to edit the same thing over and over would know what I mean.
I've been wearing glasses since I was 7, and contact lenses since I was 15. With my current (very high) prescription, my lenses (both contact and regular) are pretty expensive.
I placed a new order for contact lenses a few days ago. The pair I am currently using is about 15 months old and I was only supposed to use them for 12 months. Anyway, due to my sensitive eyes, I asked for extended wear lenses for higher comfort. It came to $380. Ouch.
I decided to make lenses for a new pair of glasses and the same shop quoted me Nikon lenses for $380 as well. I nearly fell out of my seat when I heard the quoted price. I decided to return to my previous optician for the lenses (for my glasses). On the whole, the offerings of my previous optician wasn't all that good. Their contact lenses offering was way cheaper ($220) but you get what you paid for - my eyes turn red after four to five hours. The optician there said that "extended wear lenses wouldn't make much of a difference, it depends on your eyes". That's BS because my $380 contacts were extremely comfortable and my eyes doesn't turn red unless I wear them for over 12 hours.
That said, the inferior optician would do just fine for making lenses for my glasses. No one can tell what lenses you're wearing anyway. I was quoted $180 for my lenses. Not Nikon, obviously, but who cares as long as I can see through them.
I go to the more expensive optician only for my contact lenses. If I'm putting something on my eyeball, I want the very best. To think I suffered for 9 years wearing crappy contacts from the inferior optician.
(Boy...I just realised how long, boring, and confusing the above was.)
I'm selling spectacle frames online, together with a friend. I spent most of the evening putting up listings on Yahoo! SG Auctions and on eBay Singapore. If you're thinking of getting a new pair of glasses, have a look-see. They're all S$38 each. Currently I've listed them only on auction sites meant for the local population. I'm going to try listing them on the main eBay site tomorrow. It's not easy, eBay can be quite confusing.
Listing on Yahoo! SG and eBay Singapore is free. Listing on the main eBay site is not. You have to pay at least three times. Once - to get something listed. Twice - a final listing fee when someone buys from you. Thrice - Paypal gets a cut whenever someone pays you. And possibly a fourth time if you withdraw less than S$200 from Paypal.
I'm still looking into it, but I really want to list them on the main eBay site, as that's where the traffic is.
(eBay Singapore takes a few hours before they index new listings. As of now, you can't see the frames on eBay Singapore yet. You can see all 34 designs on Yahoo! SG, plus my sister's wedges. All you can see on eBay Singapore are just my sister's wedges, which I listed last night.)
[The Phantom...] Five Phantoms side by side in the car-park behind SoC. As far as I'm concerned, the Phantom is the only bike that doesn't look like an "uncle bike" even with a box at the back.
Incidentally, I've only been on a bike once, and it was a Phantom.
[So good, it kills you...]
I was at Pepper Lunch at Dhoby Exchange today with some friends.
When we got there, the guy above had his head on the table next to an empty plate. The first thing that came to my mind was that it looked like someone had died after having his meal. What the hell did they put into their food here?
Of course, he's not dead. He's just taking a nap.
Weird. I wonder what would the manager do if he didn't move for a while...
[The 7-day itch...]
In my previous entry I talked about being attacked by mosquitoes when I went outfield. Truth is, whatever bit us probably weren't mosquitoes. Mosquito bites itch like crazy immediately after you got bitten. But they go away pretty quick and don't come back.
When I was in camp, I thought that I didn't get bit much because I wasn't all that itchy. For some reason, I felt the itch only when I got home. For the past 2 days, I've been applying Tiger Balm non-stop and telling myself not to scratch...myself.
The back of my hand has several bites and my wrists are covered in bites. As were the sides of my back and the back of my left calf.
Broken for now. :( If anyone knows of a good way to display tweets without using Twitter's awful looking widgets, please let me know. Preferably something that allows me to retrieve my tweets in plain-text format.
What's this about?
Anything and everything under the sun. I write about my day, my thoughts, things I see in public, things to get off my chest, or sometimes just some senseless rants that make sense only to me.
About Me
30 year old male. Always with too many ideas in his head and too little time. For my 15 minutes of fame, I want to be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Interests
Movies, TV, cycling, computers, planted tanks, cherry shrimps, P2P legal issues, Manchester United, WWE, TNA, UFC, etc...
Disclaimer
Best viewed @ 1280*1024 or above. Views are expressed are mine and mine only, and are not meant to offend or influence anyone. Designed for readers with a sense of humour. If you can't laugh at yourself, you probably won't like my style of humour.
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