*~>.<~* Lost my pencil cases a while back ... yes, pencil caseS! One orange coloured, kinda small and square (capable of holding around 5 pens), and another one is a black netted pencil case, medium size, flat. Anyway, not that I am crying over my pencil cases which got wandered till dunno where and maybe got annihilated or what so ever, but that reminds me of some of the pens that is sitting on my table (yea, i have more than 2 pencil cases of pens), which I think that they are kinda special.
1. Pilot drawing pen
Pilot drawing pen is a simple ink marker with a very fine (when I say very, I mean very) tip and some washable ink (or pigment ink) as refill. The design of the pen is simple, which causes it look like some ordinary marker which you will probably miss while searching for the right pen in a bookstore. This pen comes in various thickness and is best for making quick sketches and drawings on photocopy machine paper or drawing paper. Trust me, I did my D&T folio with this pen (though not exactly the same pen ... I think the one which I've used for my D&T folio is somewhere in a landfill) and with brush on correction fluid, it is ultra effective.
Ever seen a 0.1 tip marker pen? =D
PILOT DRAWING PEN
0.1mm pen tip.
Somehow, there's this message saying "CAUTION: Keep pen cap out of mouth, it can obstruct breathing if swallowed." ... ... ... funny English, but hey, at least it shows that this pen is in fact made in Japan, right?
2. Pilot Timeline
Compared to the previous pen, Timeline kind of more "posh". Timeline comes in 3 different types (and many colours): acrylic, aluminium and red wood. It uses Dr. Grip's refill (some kinda ballpoint pen), and is kinda fat and short in size. You also need to turn the pen twice for the pen tip to appear (the first time is for the pen mouth), and boy it is expensive... SGD$49.90 for a ballpoint pen. Got it from pop@central (the one in city hall).
Went to prat for your ancestors for Qing Ming festival yet? I did that last Saturday. Somehow my family aren't really that superstitious and they would rather avoid the huge crowd than squeezing their way through the huge crowd and all. Anyway, there aren't really much to talk about the huge amount of time they've used to search for the grave (it's a government cemetery, not somewhere remote) and go there and 拜拜 and calling it a day. What I am interested in talking about is, in fact, the train or more specifically, the train ticket. A picture speaks a thousand words so see for yourself. First pic is the train station, 2nd pic is the train cabin, third and forth is the ticket.
For an one hour journey, the train is a bit far too clean and decent, especially in China, eh? Even the train station looks a bit far too clean and post. What's more, look at the ticket. It's made of paper and all but the thing is the mechanism inside is just too out of the world. I've torn the ticket apart, soak it in water, rubbed away the paper on the surface and what is inside is shown in the last picture. The train ticket work just like those magnetic cards you used for normal subway rides (EZ-link in Singapore, Octopus card in Hong Kong, Oyster card in England). The thing is, this is a disposable item (similar to those disposable forks and spoons and paper plates), what's the point? Can't they stick with those magnetic tape version? How much so you think each of this ticket cost (EZ -link cost 6 buck according to mediacorp news, and I've already broken one =P), and don't forget to multiply all these by the number of passenger each day, which comes in thousands. Even though there is a little hole which says "Please put your used ticket here", there are always people like me who would take the ticket back home for experiment and all. Oh well ... China is damn rich alright, and they aren't stingy in showing off =.=
You may be wondering what I am doing in front of my comp this late. Well actually I am reading a book required for a report which is due two days from now, titled "Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control" by Trocki, C.A. I guess I don't have to elaborate on which subject I am cramming this book for, right? Anyway, this book describes Singapore quite differently when compared to the crappy social studies textbook which we have been studying. I will be typing some of the sections of the book which I think all of us should have read that instead of our crappy and worthless social studies textbook which only boast about how good Singapore is and how suckie other nations are. Seriously, don't even go to a Singapore university if you ever want to study social sciences or humanities or government/politics... their textbook are too juvenile and intoxicating. One more thing before I cite chucks from the book, I will only be typing information from the 4th paragraph, simply because the previous 3 are on pre war Singapore, which I find pretty much boring, and the 5th and 6th paragraph are something which I haven't touch on, and the 4th paragraph is mostly on condemning Lee kwan yew. So, enjoy ~ =)
How had Lee and the PAP, a party led by English-speaking Chinese, whom Chinese Premier ZhouEnlai had dismissively called "bananas" (yellow on the outside, but white on the inside) ... (page 108)
Seriously, Lee, for heaven's sake, go learn some Chinese ... before your skin grows black spots and you became a rotten banana...
It was possibly around this time that the PAP began to plan its coup d'etat, known as "Operation Cold Store." The major security agency was the Internal Security Committee, which was composed of three members: one from the Singapore government, one colonial official and one from Malaysia. The last member had been proposed as a measure to woo the Malays into accepting a merger with Singapore by giving them a voice in Singapore's affairs.... ... ... On 3 February 1953, the security forces struck. In one night, nearly 150 journalists, student leaders, labor activists, and opposition politicians were arbitrarily detained. There were no trails. No charges were filed and, in many cases, the detention was not even acknowledged by the government. The top rank of BS and PR leaders was effectively neutralized, and the way was now clear for PAP domination of legitimate politics. The detainees were held in grim conditions at the Outram Road Prison in Singapore for over three months until David Marshall, acting in his capacity as an MP, visited the detainees and publicized their situation. (page 124)
Was this mentioned in the SS textbook and Singapore history textbook? Yes but briefly, very briefly.
The PAP government organized a poll in Singapore that brought objections from a number of quarters. The ballot offered only three choices, all of which were "yes". All offered membership in the Federation, only on slightly different terms. It was impossible to vote "no", and people were led to believe that blank ballots would be counted as "yes"; moreover, they were told that there would be no report on how many blank votes were cast. Singapore voters, in fact, received no real choice in the matter and believed they had no way in which to register negative ballot. In addition to the Barisan, David Marshall and a number of others led a campaign against Singapore joining the Federation on the proposed terms.
... the PAP had launched a massive propaganda campaign to support its preferred option. This ran for nearly a year before the actual vote...
... The PAP claimed a victory of over 70 percent of the vote for its recommended option and noted that less than 30 percent had turned in blank ballots as the Barisan had recommended (Yeo and Lau 1991:142). (page 125)
Seriously, I remember reading only the 70% win part from my history textbook ... where were the rest? Hmmmm ... I wonder ...
The PAP needed their votes to continue to win elections, but it was determined to prevent them from developing an autonomous political or social presence. This meant crushing not only the left, what remained of it in the BarisanSocialis, but every sort of organization that grew out of the Chinese-educated population. This include everything from secret societies, to the SCCCI, to temple and cemetery organizations, to the Chinese-language schools and newspapers. (page 129)
Oh boy oh boy oh boy ... cemetery organizations ... temples ... does the phrase "rest in peace" still exists in Singapore? What a pity ... ... ...
Alright, due to the pair of tired hands of mine, here is the last one, and do I agree with it!
At the same tine as Goh became prime minister, Lee promoted his own son, Lee HsienLoong (the youngest brigadier-general in the Singapore armed forces - he was 32 when he attained the rank) to the post of deputy prime minister and minister for Trade and Industry. It now became clear that "the BG" (as he is known) was in line for the top job in Singapore. Lee was in the process of creating a dynasty. It appears that in Singapore, Asian values also include hereditary succession. On 11 August 2004, Lee HsienLoong became prime minister. Despite charges of nepotism, one cannot deny Lee Junior's competence; on the other hand, one must ask if he would have attained that position had he not been the son of Lee Kuan Yew. Given the examples of dynasties appearing in places as diverse as North Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, it may be that the tendency is a distinct part of Asian culture. (page 136)
Totally hilarious!!! But one cannot deny the possibility of this judgement~ Lol ... now I ask, will you be able to find these kind of fantastic books and articles in Singapore? Surely you can't find all these in your SS textbook =)
As most of you might have known from my previous posts, both of my mice (one USB laser and one PS/2 optical) has malfunctioned. After all the fuss and hassle of reformatting this good for nothing Vista and reinstalling almost every driver and transfering data here and there, my computer is running again, and this time, with a functioning mouse. I have been thinking when I am reformatting my computer... aren't we taking the simplicity of life for granted? The difference between having a mouse and not can almost completely screw your day... or your comp. Seriously, after one whole day of operating the comp with the keyboard (and that means the tab button), trying to surf the web and all, I've seriously learnt to apperciate my mouse much more ... hmm... alright, as an attribution to my beloved mouse, here's a pic of it.
It's only now that I've realized that I can surf the web using my handphone. Well, it is definitely a lot slower when compared to the comp and all, some sites and picture has also failed to load, such as facebook and the comic scripts on onemanga, and typing is a lot more troublesome (the keys are soooooo small ... But hey, won't you agree that this is much more convenient? I can even upload my assignments or download them at my own convenience and without switching on my comp and all~ Anyway, my computer's mouse has gone problematic again... Seriously, anyone knows how to fix the god forsaken mouse?! Its getting to my nerves man ...
Oh and for those of you who aren't in hongkong, it's typhoon signal 3 outside. But with all the rain outside, it looked as if it is signal 80 or something close to it. Alright, I'll end it here this time. My thumb hurts...
Great... now the black rainstorm warning signal is up ... 19:19 19/4/2008
Changed the skin of this blog just now. I am going for a brighter theme this time, as the old one was kinda pessimistic in some ways. I am trying to make the blog look as if it is something written on a manual scrip or something. Didn't really change the structure and layouts because I am too lazy to google css codes and all ... too troublesome =P. Oh and I hope the mouse cursor is working fine =D
It's the first time that I've come across any vending machine with ALL the items being sold out. Seriously, even though this vending machine is situated in a carpark at the bottom of the engineering building, can't they refill something at least? After walking all the way up one seriously need some kind of hydration... Man, I don't want to get a heat stroke or something like that... even plain water will do.
Seriously... nowadays it's hard to even drink a can of coke...
At last, there's something which I like about my modules~ Probability and statistics! Used to love this portion of maths more than anything else. Somehow I feel that Statistics is another thing when compared to pure mathematics or mechanics, simply because there's a story behind every question, and solving the problems seems just like completing the story which was left unfinished by the examiner. Too bad this assignment came when I aren't really in the mood to revise the formulas again, but I still miss Poisson and normal and binomial and all, not the mention the bell shaped dummy~ Sigh ... why can't I just study something which I like and I am capable of? Alrigh alright, enough of snaring. Here's one sample question from the assignment which I believe everyone is capable of solving.
In a certain game, you may roll a normal, unbiased die and receive $1 for each spot on the face which lands face up. a) What is the fair price for this game? b) The game is now modified such that you may chose to have a second throw and use the spots from this throw to receive your prize money. For which cases would you chose to roll again? c) What would be the expected prize money for this game?
Surely, this questions is much simpler than those which I did during A levels (anyone recalled?), and you certainly won't expect such questions to appear in a unveristy assignment... but who cares?I still miss probability and statistics as always~
Answer: a) 3.5 b) 1, 2, 3 c) 4.25 (These are my answers, and they might not be correct)
Met with my personal tutor professor (lame title =.=) today. The meeting isn't what you call insightful, let alone interesting. Well, I've laid it all out on the table moments after I've sat down and all, saying that I am not the very least interested in electronic engineering and all, and that I've somehow lost all of my interest in anything related to maths and science. Alright, the professor didn't get angry or paranoid or anything near that. In fact, he was quite supportive, for the first 5 minutes at least. He started talking about stuffs like you still need something to fall on, something as your safety net ... blah blah blah... and after a while he went on talking about how people aren't studying a major which they are always interested in and all, and that most people are just studying degrees so that they can proof themselves to be capable of overcoming difficulties and all, and that the working world out there is much harsher than that of school life, and some people even have to be enslaved to cling on to their job ... blah blah blah ... Then I was just thinking, is the purpose of university education simply to prepare you for your working life?
After a while of babbling, I've said this to the professor (in Cantonese of course):" True, most of the times we can't be complacent and all, but if you are able to study something of your interest, wouldn't you be able to climb higher and soar further?" Having said this, I've received another 10 minutes of lecture on how not to be complacent before I can shake him off and say bye bye... But seriously, I don't want to stop at just a degree. I mean, who understand me the best apart from myself? I know where my strength and weakness are, and engineering sure isn't one of my strength. Curiosity, analytical and perhaps adequate judgements are some of my strengths which I believe I have. Oh and did I mention that I am pretty good at designing? =P
The songs are kinda laggy and all cause the bandwith is 50kbps max... well, I can't find any better uploader so I guess it'll have to do. I don't really have the complete list of songs here cause I just dumped whatever I think is nice, so root through the songs =P. Oh and I've disabled auto play so people who are complaining about loud music and complaining family members can rest with ease (yes infernusx, that's you).
Had Physical Ed exam today, which is volleyball. Man, sure I did flunked it. The exam was focused on personal skills or crap like that. Well, setting was a piece of cake. 60 times against a wall-pillar. The coach used to make us set against the wall for a few hundred times back in secondary school. But for digging, I flunked it bad. 4 times. I admit it that I suck in digging. I couldn't even deliver any ball properly during my 2 and a half years in volleyball during my secondary days, so I guess it is alright for me not being able to dig the ball to myself for 60 times. The problem now, lies with service. Before anything, please take a look at the following diagram:
Now let me explain the rules. Firstly, all services should be done using upper hand, meaning you can't hit the ball below your shoulder or do something like a uppercut or thing like that. Well, that's fair enough. The real problem now lies with the scoring. Alright, frankly speaking, not many people can target the ball within the 3 meter line, the area with the 2 and 1 point boxes. You need either to hit the net (which no one wishes to) or send a high lop so as to hit within the 3 meter area. As for the 3, 4 and 5 boxes, I seriously think that they should have rearrange them to make the 5 point in the middle. I mean, alright, it's hard to hit the base line and all and u need to be precise and things like that, but why are the sides 4 point boxes? I've seen more people getting 4's and not 3's just purely because their ball aren't willing to fly straight. The worse is, a friend of mine who is in the volleyball team keep hitting 3's just because his service is straight! I think the teacher should really consider swapping the 3 meter box with the base line boxes and side boxes ... It's really ridiculous the way those boxes are being marked, seriously.
Oh well, enough of ball talks. I have to meet my professor-cum-tutor tomorrow. My instructor for my Singapore history module suggested that I should have a nice chat with my faculty about changing majors. Hmmmm, I think I will bring it up tomorrow, just pray hard that there will not be any firing of verbal bullets or hard feelings or something.
One of the opening of One piece, Hikari E, has been dubbed into English by FUNimation, and voiced by Vic Mignogna. Here it is:
Here's the lyrics:
I think back to the time when my search first began
And left behind those shores of sand
For the endless, everlasting world out there.
I know that with this burning passion driving me;
someday, somewhere I'll finally,
See the light I have searched for everywhere!
When the summer sun is shining, shaking the sails of my heart, I know!
(In these long blue seas.) The brand new world that had been hiding, has opened up its doors for me to go!
(In this lone blue Sky!)
Swaying in the troubled waves, from all despair I can be saved,
for the horizon on the other side is ...yay... is what I aim for!
And though I travel far from where my search began
Over seas of green and shores of sand,
through the endless, everlasting world out there.
I know that with this burning passion driving me,
someday, somewhere, I'll finally
See the light I have searched for everywhere!!
Here's the Japanese version, just for comparison purposes (sorry, no lyrics cause I am not a jap):
Great song, especially when you consider that it is a dubbed one, and when I come to think of it, seriously, 4Kids - YOU SUCK! (I'll talk about 4Kids screwed One piece some other time. Remind me)
Crap ... I am addicted to all the crashings from Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 ... lolokok, here's another short clip which I've made showing my RTC3ing. Enjoy.
Oh and by the way, did anyone installed the latest windows vista update, the one dated 9 April 2008? My USB mouse and 小懞恬 stopped working after installing that update ... if anyone of you know what on Earth is happening, please by all means let me know, kay? ... Man, I miss my Razor Habu~~~T.T
Been playing roller coaster tycoon 3 again. This time round I've tried something new. As the title says, roller coaster crashing! Roller coasters banging into eachother, forcing the pedestrains sideways as it speeds pass. Feels kind of like a devil's fantasy came true... XD. Anyway, here the video which I've taken.
Anyone played or is playing Roller coaster tycoon 3? One of the best simulation and design game that I've came across. Like the title suggest, your job is to build a roller coaster. The wildest, funniest, fastest, highest... you name it. This is my first time making a coaster and I didn't use any custom scenery item this time round so ... 請多多指教囖~
Here are the screenshots and the video of the coaster ride. Nothing much to be described as you can see everything for yourself. Called this coaster "Treasure Island" simply because the sun rises after you have found the Mayan treasure. Hmmm, oh and don't end up like this poor dude, stuck on a shipwreck island!
Ever heard of the phrase "生在杭州，食在廣州，住在蘇州，死在柳州"? Basically, this phrase refers to the fact that 廣州(Guangzhou) has the best cuisine when it comes to Chinese dishes. So I'll take this chance to introduce a famous snacks of Guangzhou - 雞仔餅. As the name suggests,雞仔餅 (or little chicken biscuit), is a biscuit made with real chicken meat and dough. Golden brown on the outside, it has an irregular shape, though mostly round or oval, and has a flat bottom which is caused by being baked on a tray, and is around the size of the hole created when you put the tip of your thumb and index finger together. Though it is made with chicken meat, you can rarely find chicken flesh in the biscuit, but rather, condensed chicken fats. Sure enough, the biscuit is dry and oily though rather crispy and a bit salty. Of course, the taste is quite memorable.
Packaging No.1 Packaging No.1
Packaging No.2
Hmmmm, funny. Why is the English translation called "Chicken Pizza" instead of little chicken biscuit? Anyway, we have to trust them, right? Since China's English is supposed to be improving due to the Olympics.
It's only recently that I have noticed that in my school, they would rather cut a portion of the fence so that the tree can be kept as a whole and not with one part missing. Well, maybe this is what you get when your university had to be presentable to visitors and outsiders, especially when it is supposed to be a high ranking one. But the hole in the fence surely looked awkward, not that I don't like the way the tree branch is passing through the fence, but still, having holes here and there and with tree branches poking out and all, it's quite a rare sight. Still, who would have appreciated these stuff? Or even noticed it in the first place? At the very least, it is due to the kindness of the gardener that the tree is able to keep its branch, receive the extra amount of sunlight and flourish even more. Sure enough, the tree is incapable of saying thanks, except for providing extra shelter for people who happened to have walked pass. Come to think of that, how many times have we thanked someone who did small favours for you, so small that it all seemed all too insignificant?
Little efforts which we gave each day might not seem much, but it might be flesh and blood for others. Shouldn't the environment be treated just this way? I mean, if the branch is being chopped so that the fence can look more decent and all, then there won't be extra oxygen provided by the tree, and less gaseous carbon compounds will be filtered off and less carbon dioxide will be consumed. Well, in the end, we are also listed under the parties who benifit from all these. True?
Alright, first post of this month shall be a game review~!
Me & My Katamari
-Basic Info- Name: Me and my katamari (English) 僕の私の塊魂, Boku no Watashi no Katamari Damashii (Japanese) My and My Clump Spirit (English translated) Release date: December 22, 2005 (Japan) March 21, 2006 (USA) Developer/Publisher: Namco Platform: Playstation Portable Genres: Third party puzzle action Ratings: ESRB: E CERO: A OFLC: G (Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_and_my_katamari)
Background: Ever fantasied about town rampages? Ever felt like rolling a giant ball and crushing buildings on the way, just like what happened in James and the Giant Peach? Well, this is what you will get from the game "Me and My Katamari" which I will feature for my first game review here. You start off as a little guy (I don't really know what he actually is, but they call him prince), and a katamari. Well, from what I understand, katamari, or 塊魂, is a ball which sucks anything and everything which crosses it's path as long as it is of the right size. Your mission is to roll up land masses of various sized, which later will be used to create islands for animals on the sunflower continent, in event of which that will be their home. While rolling up island making materials, you can look for various presents (which contains clothing) and your cousins, which are playable characters.
Controls: The controls for the game is pretty easy to operate. Both the D-pad and the four face buttons are the main control, where L and R are for direction changing. This provides a problem though. After quite some time of game play (for like 15 or 20 minutes), your thumbs will start to go sore, or worse still, you might fell the pain in both your thumbs due to the constant pressing of the same few buttons. Oh well, you get this from most of the handheld racing games so there's noting much to complain about, but this game is just a bit worse than the normal D-pad pain (or "nintendo thumb"). Even though they've allowed the usage of thumb-nub for the USA release, still, it feels quite weird and your right thumb still hurts after a long period of game play. Another thing is that turning can provide a problem at times, but I think if you practice more on some racing games it will be fine.
Game play: The game play, or methodology of the game, is a simple one. You roll. The scale varies and you usually start off with rolling a 5 cm katamari, which you will change places when your katamari gradually increases in size. Small objects such as stationary, toys and all the junk which you will normally find on under your bed will be among the first victims of your katamari. As you roll, your katamari's size gradually increase (but you yourself is still that 15 cm guy for some reasons). You will gradually move on to bigger stuff such as fruits, small animals (and later big ones) and eventually humans, which I think its the part of which is most fun. Imagine chasing them and hearing them scream while rolling them up, or watching them scram helplessly. At least, this is something that you don't see in your everyday life (something is very wrong if you do). The size of your katamari will not stop growing there though. It will eventually reach the size where house will be sucked by it, and later the whole of an island or even continent. Well, my largest katamari I believe is 4000+ m in eternal mode (3.9km in normal mode). Though all these sounds perfect, it isn't. One flaw of this game is the concentration of items during various levels. The level for katamari size 20 cm - 75 cm and 75cm - 1.5m is especially hard, which is mainly caused by the uneven and un-densed distribution of objects. You need very high rolling precision if you wish to pass this stage (and even higher precision if you want the presents). Another thing is that there are some tight spots, and quite some dead ends in the game, such as the little cliff in the 10m-30m level, for which its close impossible to roll up the cliff with a 25+m katamari. But other than these two factor, the game play is fairly well-liked, at least by me. One thing I like about the game though, is that there is an 8-bit version of the game provided when you've beaten the whole game, and that's where the credits rolls. Oh well, quite innovatice, i suppose?
Graphics: The theme of the graphics, I believe, is 3D cartoon style (without the black outlines). It is clear that the colour scheme are not meant for the game to look too real, if at all. But on the other hand, the colour rendering and the model skins are well made. They are quite detailed, so much so that you it brings you to a world of 3D cartoon where each skin is pretty well made, maybe except for those of humans. The details of a human skin is kind of lacking, which cause them to look square. But the thing is, you can't be that too detailed or else your PSP will have a screen freeze when your katamari grows to a somewhat 7 or 8 m and a few dozens of humans are running around. Still, I seriously think that the graphics of this game brings out the potential of PSP.
Audio: The game comes with a set of nice sounding tracks, of which most of the titles could be found from 'Katamari' sound-track albums.
Well, together with the great screaming from rolled up school girls, all these do make a great combination, right?
This is a song featured in ME and My Katamari, called Everlasting love. One of my favourite from the game.
Well, all that basically sums up my first little (quite long btw) review here. Oh and before I forget, the scores. Controls: 6 Gameplay: 8 Graphics: 8 Audio: 9 Total: 7.75 Can't afford to give it a low score, cause this game is the main reason why I've got my PSP when I already have a NDS. I'll end it here, and here's some pictures which I've taken from the net, just incase if you want to know more about the game.
Ever seen a 0.1 tip marker pen? =D
PILOT DRAWING PEN
0.1mm pen tip. 
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