Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A change in food. For a change.
Today I had nice dinner withat Delifrance, and they had a new menu to offer. The food was similar to what Swensen's offering, but it's a nice change from campus food daily though.
This innocent looking cupcake is filled with creamy chocolatey goodness once you break open it's contents...
A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y s-c-r-u-m-p-t-o-u-s...
Posted by MK at 10:28 PM
Friday, September 26, 2008
Anti-thesis
The afternoon was taken up yet again for another meeting. I had anticipated another waste-of-time meeting, but managed to contribute some fairly interesting ideas. I gave suggestions, and they were received with incredulity, and even commented that I am in the wrong course...I gave business suggestions for them to get sponsorships, like having Liang Seng to come down and set up a booth during the Sparex, that kind of ideas. Well, I still have no confidence in the chairperson, who seems to have lost her initial enthusiasm and spontaneity, now she seems unsure of what to do in my presence with that slight apprehension when approaching me.
Maybe because I can be a no-nonsense person when the situation demands it.
Still the meeting had achieved several objectives despite it starting late with members absent, it's a start in the right direction and it didn't waste too much of my time.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when my good friends in tkd turned up! Training won't be so boring and lonely after all.
Well, throughout the whole night Jx was exasperating me with his anti-thesis about everything, he was trying to convince me something that may actually seem logically correct, but in reality it's quite different.
Okay, based on what he was saying and the way he believed what he was saying, I can understand the way he thinks even further, his mind has already shut off to external influences and he believes that his decision and choice is the optimal and right one without considering the bigger picture and other more optimal alternatives.
Well it's not wrong, neither is it right, his argument is base on situation and opportunity and past videos that he has witnessed, I can't blame him for that, so I'll just let him think his way.
Well, what I am trying to say is that if you are the type who doesn't accept ideas other than your own, you are really shutting yourself off to external opportunities because of a restricted and constrictive viewpoint of everything.
This is really a no-brainer question.
Between a gun and a knife, which one would you choose?
There's no in-between the lines meaning, no psychological implications, no philosophical meanings behind this question, nothing about ammunition, or length of blade, or quality. Just a simple straight-forward question based on your instinct and the first answer that comes to your mind.
Between a gun and a knife, which one would you choose?
Duh?
Posted by MK at 8:56 PM
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Melamine Scandal
I guess as someone who follows current affairs very closely, I think I should comment on the recent melamine scandal that has rocked the F&B industry. Singapore authorities have given the assurance that the risk of melamine poisoning to Singaporeans is low. There have been growing concerns after three China-made products in Singapore were found to be laced with the industrial product.Authorities said the tainted products will have to be consumed over a prolonged period of time before one gets really sick. That's because the body can safely take in and purge some amount of melamine.
The Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) of melamine as established by the US Food and Drug Administration is 0.63 mg/kg body weight. This means that an adult weighing 60 kg or a child weighing 30 kg can ingest 37.8 mg of melamine and 18.9 mg of melamine respectively, everyday, over a lifetime without any appreciable health risk.
37.8 mg is about the size of a grain of rice. The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) cited an example of drinking about 80ml of liquid everyday for an entire lifetime, before the ill effects of melamine take root.
The Ministry of Health also cited an example of an adult weighing about 60kg who ate 47 pieces of the white rabbit candy everyday over a lifetime and the health risk for this adult will still be very low.
For a child who weighs 30 kg, that's about 400 ml of the Dutch Lady Strawberry Flavoured milk daily over a lifetime. And so there's very little chance that a child will be affected unless his sole source of food is tainted milk. Currently there is no cause of alarm as the amount of melamine found in the products sold in Singapore is too low to cause kidney stones.
Although only three China-made products have been found tainted in Singapore, the AVA said it cannot rule out more of tainted products, as it continues its battery of tests. As to why melamine was not detected earlier, Dr Chua said 300 chemical compounds come into the market every year. So it needs to take a pragmatic approach to its tests. He added that no agency in the world conducts food tests for melamine.
He said: "It is a very abnormal occurrence. It is because someone cheated and intentionally added this into the product to beat the system and nobody could dream of that."
- Source, Channel Newsasia
Well, there you go, to play safe, it's OK if you've already consumed some. Just STOP now. Don’t consume these processed products for the time being.
Posted by MK at 10:17 PM
Sunday, September 21, 2008
About the iPhone
About the IphoneI have been using the iphone for about a month now, and I guess it's time for my take on the iPhone. The MK's review.
For a smart-phone, the iPhone is quite dumb by today's standards. It doesn't allow you to copy-and-paste text, forward sms-es, search through emails, record video, no digital zoom, you can't share files via Bluetooth, send MMS-es, edit office documents and the list goes on.
It has no hardware keyboard, no removable battery, no support for flash files and only a two-megapixel camera.
Some of these deficiencies are startling and enough reason to keep some users away from an iPhone completely But why would thousands of others queue up at SingTel's ComCentre on the midnight of August 22nd, waiting for hours to get their hands on an iPhone?
It's all about style.
There's no other phone on the market generates the same level of attention or recognition from others when you whip it out for use in public.
People will go "omg, that's an iphone..." with instant recognition and that instantly elevates your status.
There is no lack of reviews on the iPhone everywhere. Most of them, however, tend to focus on what the iPhone can or cannot do. But just like the iPods, the iPhone really is about doing things with style. Style is after all the reason why iPods are the best-selling portable mp3 players around despite costing more and doing less than it's competitors.
In the case of the iPhone, style is defined largely by an intuitive and consistent interface: intuitive because you navigate with your thumbs and fingers on virtual buttons sized comfortably for use: consistent because the same swiping, pinching and tapping finger gestures work throughout the entire iPhone operating system and it's third-party applications.
The phone is designed so simply. It's only got one button. Everything else is either automatically detected by the myriad of sensors, or done with the same swiping action of your finger. The iphone has a proximity sensor that turns off the screen when you put the phone to your ear, it has a light sensor to automatically adjust the screen backlight according to the brightness of the background environment, and of course it's accelerometer that makes the iphone so unique.
Style is not about looks and feel: it is really about how things are done. Examining the oft-dubbed “iPhone-killers” for instance, the Samsung Omnia and the HTC Touch Diamond – reveals there are no shortage of eye candies.
Although both phones have attempted to emulate the iPhone by allowing users to scroll through their custom interfaces with the swipe of a finger, such behavior is not consistent throughout the entire phone.
The problem arises when users are thrown out of these custom interfaces, which are no more than application launchers, into native Windows Mobile applications. At which point, finger swiping no longer works and buttons return to their standard miniature sizes that are more suited for pin-point precision of a stylus than for use with fingertips or thumbs.
In contrast, because the iPhone was designed from the start to be used entirely with fingers and thumbs, every aspect of it's interface works well and naturally without the need for additional input devices (the Diamond includes a stylus and the Omnia has an optical mouse.)
It's about what you do.
Web surfing is probably the greatest strength of the iPhone. Several of it's features make surfing on it feasible and enjoyable. First, the large bright and high-resolution screen displays text clearly and crisply; second, the swiping of the pinching finger gestures allow for quick and natural navigation of the web pages; and third, the built-in mobile Safari brower displays web pages accurately and quickly.
The caveats are that the iPhone's browser cannot handle Flash (which locks you out of most web videos, as with the Omnia and the Diamond), and Java (used mainly for internet banking and some payment services).
But for just about everything else, the iPhone surfs the web well as a computer. You can access most of the NTU's web services, such as StudentLink , Edventure and webmail. Outside campus, having the internet available at your fingertips everywhere can save you the agony of wasting money on a lousy movie.
The Keyboard.
The iPhone's keyboard is easy to love and use. I make mistakes on it all the time, but the auto-correction technology works so well that I can blast messages off using both thumbs now. Ironically, for the amount of aversion the BlackBerry-maker has towards the iPhone's keyboard, I found the lack of a real plastic keyboard a blessing in disguise. Because there's no real buttons to press, typing requires minimal effort and results in no sore thumbs after typing a long email.
Finding your way around the built-in Google maps application with the scrolling, pinching and double tapping gestures beats flipping the street directory any day. And when you do make a wrong turn somewhere and find yourself lost, the built-in GPS of the iPhone 3G can locate you on the map most of the time in a matter of seconds, from which you can have the iPhone plan a route to your destination. Surprisingly Google maps can locate precisely whatever address you throw at it, as long as a block number and street name is included. It has a very useful function that allows you to map the place you want to go to, then it guides you there step-by-step.
If the GPS can't detect a signal, it will attempt to identify local hotspots DNS addresses and can then place you within the vicinity of a building.
The iPhone, 3G or not, is far from perfect. Features-wise, the new iPhone continues to suffer from some serious omission of features, some of 'them so basic in hand phones today that the question is inevitably raised of why a state-of-the-art phone can be so primitive in some areas.
Performance-wise, the new iPhone 2.0 software no longer runs as smoothly and stably as its older counterpart. Some parts of the phone now feel sluggish, particularly when searching through contacts. Some applications crash every now and then, and the phone itself hangs or restarts randomly once in a while (mine hung once and, restarted twice in the three weeks of extensive use).
The iPhone 2.1 update released last week promises to fix all these, but until more testing is done, it remains to be seen if all the problems will be fully addressed. For a smart phone that does a lot more, I have highlighted only, three functions that the iPhone does exceptionally well in. These alone, along with the phone (features of course, would have justified the price of the iPhone for me.
The iphone has a whole lot of other features and 3rd-party programs that you can install at your fancy. The entertainment value is endless because of it's built in accelerometer. This nifty sensor is what sets the iphone apart from it's counterparts as well. You can turn your phone into a speedometer, a dice (for board games), a G-force sensor, a labyrinth tilttable game, a leveling bubble, a ruler, graphic calculator, a guitar, a currency converter, and the list goes on for ever.
But for others, it could have been the iPod within-which I also use and like but did not write about in this article-having YouTube on the go, or the many third-party applications that are available to install right on the iPhone. The iPhone is great for people who are literally addicted to the internet, want to get work done on the go and .appreciate good style. For me, the two-and-a-half hours of travelling time daily can now be spent replying mails, or just surfing the web-that and listening to music. Even queuing for food in canteen A becomes bearable. But if you're one of those who are even considering not taking up a data plan with your iPhone, you are better off spending your money elsewhere-the iPhone is about having the internet with you everywhere.
MK-recommended if you can live with the short-comings.
Posted by MK at 2:17 PM
Saturday, September 20, 2008
English Language
English LanguageONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methr en.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England..
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folk who grew up speaking English should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?
I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT IF PEOPLE FROM POLAND ARE CALLED POLES THEN PEOPLE FROM HOLLAND SHOULD BE HOLES AND THE GERMANS, GERMS.
I'll like to thank my mei for this really hilarious email that I got from her. =) Enjoy the paradoxes of the English language!
Posted by MK at 9:08 PM
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Stupid meeting is a waste of time
I had to attend a stupid meeting for an event next year. Everyone was late, the meeting was badly planned by the Chairperson for this camp.I have to cringe, I have to listen to all these white belts with no previous event planning experience, nor was there any proper meeting protocol, and there wasn't even a room booked for the meeting!
Everything was so ad-hoc, I cringe completely under this incompetent management, and the chairperson has the odesity to get irritated just because people weren't listening to her!
No previous event planning experience, no previous cca, no previous management experience.... Useless incompetent Chairperson. And this young, fiesty, 19-year old, white-belt is the ad-hoc chairperson for next year's camp...
I've seen many young enthusiastic leaders screw things up before. I have a feeling this is going to be one of it. Jumping into things head-first over-enthusiastically without giving much thought.
Posted by MK at 1:59 PM
Monday, September 15, 2008
Feeling stupid
There's a nice full-moon out there tonight, but I can't seem to appreciate it, barely glancing at it for a few minutes on the long lonely walk back to hall after buying take-away for dinner.I don't feel very smart recently, just really feeling stupid. I seem to take forever to absorb something simple. My studying efficiency seems to be a mere shadow of my poly days. I can't seem to absorb just as effectively, requiring much more time and effort just for simple concepts.
This is really screwed up, maybe all I need to do is to shake off the damn 3-year rust buildup in my brain.
Posted by MK at 8:01 PM
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Mid-terms are coming
Since I don't really have much to say, my electronic babies in hall are providing me with temporal relief from the daily hustle and bustle I face each day in hall and in school.
The problem with NTU hall life is that cca here is the full-time job whilst studies are secondary. We are full-time committee members, running elections, polls, meetings, policies, investitures, interviews, canvassing and such that studies have taken a back-seat. Full-time cca, part-time student.
Just when you think you have some free time to catch up with your studies, you receive a message that is "URGENT" or "adhoc" or "important!", and requiring you to be present at that meeting.
It's really frustrating
And after yesterday's briefing, I feel really insulted... I shall not elaborate on that, like wth?? Seriously... Stop tell me all the nonsense glorifying the post. You just needed someone to fill in the slot for you because it's empty.
Well I am facing a mid-term next week. I keep saying I am lagging behind my tutorials and studies. Yet people keep joking. It’s frustrating. Nobody seemed to believe me, thinking it’s all a joke. The seniors aren’t helping at all, all citing the same quote saying "it's like that".
I AM lagging behind in studies. I shall not be online for the next couple of weeks to catch up and prepare for my mid-terms.
Posted by MK at 4:52 PM
Friday, September 5, 2008
Damn young punks
Okay, today I was heading home on the mrt. I was carrying 2 heavy bags of stuff, which was fine with me since I am accustomed to carrying loads, what really irked me on the journey home was that I had to sit in this carriage with a several groups of young teenagers.It's really fine if you are in a group and talking loudly, like OGs or just chatting loudly with a group of friends. I can take it, there were 3 separate groups as far as I could identify, what irked me wasn't their volume, but rather their content! There was this plump girl was sitting beside me bitching about how her parents cannot fetch her and she has to take the train.
They are pampered young brats! This girl sitting right next to me with nails manicured bright-pink and yelling loudly on her fake-crystal encrusted Motorola Razr handphone. Normally I wouldn't have minded it at all, but she was yelling into her phone on the damn train right beside me.
From the way she put it, it seems she was complaining and bitching to her friend on the other side, complaining that the parents can't fetch her home and she has to take the train. So she went on and on about how lousy her parents are, why they're so busy they can't even fetch her home and she has to sit on the train with all the smelly foreign workers. – quote.
Like WTH?
Hello, they're busy working their ass-es off at work to feed your fat-ungrateful-ass so that you can paint your nails, carry a Coach bag and complain about them into your Razr phone and then pile on the fats because at the end of the day ferry your fat ass in their comfortable Mercedes taxi by your personal chauffer daddy.
That was one. Okay, then opposite me there was this thin guy wearing an AX shirt and faded levi's jeans bragging to his friends seated next to him that he can get whatever he wants. He was bragging how he doesn't have to buy anything, he gets his dad to buy him this, his mom buys him his phone, and his aunt gets him his laptop and so on and so forth.
Damn kids on the train complaining about everything and bragging about everything, it's very painfully obvious that they don't know the meaning of hardwork and the value of money.
I just wanna slap the girls fat face, kick the guy's balls and throw both of them into a concentration camp in North Korea for political prisoners. Young ungrateful punks.
It's always nice if your parents can give you a lift. But they're not there at your whim and fancy. If they can't, they can't, understand their factors. I am always grateful when my parents give me a lift, because it's a luxury. It's nice to have, and you'll treasure it all the more when you don't have it.
Ever since graduating from poly, I've been financially independent. It's not easy, in fact it's downright hard. You gotta WORK for it, and you treasure every dollar spent or earned.
The papers have reported recently about Singaporeans complaining about rising costs, food, transportation and the works. Yet every time I walk pass a shopping mall, there is an abundance of shoppers, plonking down their cash and credit cards without blinking for that $10.50 movie ticket, or the $30 lunch meal or the $800 Nokia N95.
You complain about the $2 ERP, the 5-cent increase in bus fares, the 7% GSTs and the utilities tariffs increase yet spending even more money on lavish food and electronic products. Don't you think that's very contradictory? I think life has gotten too comfortable for Singaporeans in general that most of them have forgotten what hardship is like. Especially the younger generation.
I am in university now. I am 99.999% financially independent. Everything posted in the last 20 entries are paid by my own pocket. It's not easy, but I can make ends meet, I f***ing work my ass off, with my grades I managed to secure something stable to see me through university.
I know this entry is going to sound very xiaxue-like, however, ever since going into NTU, I seem to have gotten less tolerant. I don't know why, I get irritated more easily. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, the insecurities of the lack of understanding in my subjects, the ever-increasing workload, and the social stresses faced at school that is ruffling my feathers.
Why does everyone say that I can handle university life very well?
Maybe I can't.
Damn ungrateful-young-punks.
Posted by MK at 2:56 PM
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Dead lock
DEAD LOCK! Elderly boss says to secretary: For a week we> will go abroad, so make the arrangements. Secretary makes> call to Husband: For a week my boss and I will be going> abroad, you look after yourself. Husband makes call to> secret lover: My wife is going abroad for a week, so> let's spend the week together. Secret lover makes call> to small boy whom she is giving private tution: I have work> for a week, so you need not come for class. Small boy makes> call to his grandfather: Grandpa, for a week I don't> have class 'coz my teacher is busy. Let's spend the> week together. Grandpa (the boss mentioned earlier) makes> call to his secretary: This week I am spending my time with> my grandson. We cannot go abroad. Secretary makes call to> her husband: This week my boss has some work. We have> cancelled our trip. Husband makes call to secret lover: We> cannot spend this week together, my wife has cancelled her> trip. Secret lover makes call to small boy whom she is> giving private tution: This week we will have lessons as> usual. Small boy makes call to his grandfather: Grandpa, my> teacher said this week I have to attend class. Sorry I> can't keep company with you. Grandpa (the boss) makes> call to his secretary: Back to my first plan. I can go> abroad with you after all. So make arrangements.HERE WE GO> AGAIN!!! CAN IT BE SOLVED? WHO KNOWS
Posted by MK at 2:18 PM
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
New update
Hall life just kills you. Uni life just kills you. I don't have time to update for the past few days. But despite my hectic schedule. I managed to go for an interview to run for an EXCO position.It wasn't pleasant. Wth? Just because you are my senior by one year in uni, doesn't mean anything. Your position is puny, an assistant of the welfare head in a sub-comm... I am definitely older in terms of age, more experience in terms of committee management and club running, and my own rank in externalities out-rank you several times, if we were elsewhere in another place or another club, I'LL be the one grilling your puny guts.
Younger than me, less experience in a small post with a big mouth. Fiesty young punk.
Actually, I am quite cheesed off by the odesity of his remarks. I am tired, have had a long day at school, with overdue homework, nagging issues at the back of my mind and a dozen other things to get done by the end of the day...
I am quite sure the rest of the panel were quite happy with my answers. It's only this one young punk.
If I get into the comm, he's in for a hell of a time with me, coz if I get in, I will become his superior.
But whatever, if I don't get in. I can't be bothered, I've got more important things to do.
Maybe I'll be more elaborate when I have the time.
Despite my incredibly hectic timetable. I managed to pull 10minutes and placed a new laptop skin on my laptop.
I am actually quite happy with my handicraft! No bubbles, smoothen-ed sides, very nicely cut, cleanly-pressed, and looks almost-professional.
This will suffice for the time-being till I build my new rig.
Nice right? A $999 laptop transformed...
Posted by MK at 9:08 PM
Monday, September 1, 2008
More ram
Well, an additional of 2Gb helps turn my laptop into a bearable machine. Yes! Now with 4gb of ram on my lappy, it's significantly turned my laptop from "shit-slow" to "fast-enough".
4Gb of ram on a lappy dudes...
Posted by MK at 11:22 PM
iPhone 3G
Do you remember when the iPhone first came out 2 years ago?
Everyone went "iWant!"
Now 2 years later...
It's finally "iHave!"
