Nationalism... Not?

Both of the contestants I voted for in Sing Idol's Wildcard episode got through to Top 12 by audience's vote. Now that's what I call 60-cents-es well spent. ^__^

I'm surprised they weren't in by judges' choice; I kinda thought they were the better singers. Maybe I wouldn't have voted if I'd known they could get in by judges' choice (me ignorant about the rules lah). Then again maybe the judges thought the same, in reverse. Huaha. Wonder what would happen if their choices coincided with the votes?

First time voting for this season. I've wanted to wait until some Olinda comes to the surface, but Tuesday night I thought at least I wanted to see these people in the weeks to come. Haven't decided the direction for my loyalty though. From the Top 28 I've liked a few who's got nice personalities (as far as I can tell from the shows, eh) but wasn't charmed enough to vote, so. =P

I know some of my friends roll their eyes at the whole Idol phenomenon, music lover or no. I've come out of the closet many blogposts ago so if you're one of them, well... think anything you want but just keep being my friend? Huehuehue...

Now, there's a vast difference between AI and Sing Idol, and some friends who are okay with AI still sneer at Sing Idol's standard. I nod at that but somehow there's just a homely appeal in it, you know? The same way I found local shows like ABC DJ entertaining despite the often poor plots and rich Singlish*. And now that Phua Chu Kang is just before Sing Idol's result show I'm starting to watch it too. Now some more friends including fellow Idol enthusiasts will roll eyes at this. Ahem.

[Edit 07.07.06]
Found this Beng-speak video that I thought suited the occasion. Enjoy!


* My opinion! Don't flame, don't sue.

Nightminds

Got this song from iceball, who adores the singer. I haven't got to that point yet, but I certainly adore this song. Totally beautiful. *sniff*

---

Nightminds
Vocal: Missy Higgins

Just lay it all down.
Put your face into my neck and let it fall out.
I know, I know, I know,
I knew before you got home.

This world you're in now,
It doesn't have to be alone; I'll get there somehow.
'Cos I know, I know, I know,
When even springtime feels cold.

But I will learn to breathe this ugliness you see,
So we can both be there and we can both share the dark.
And in our honesty, together we will rise,
Out of our nightminds and into the light at the end of the fight.

You were blessed by
A different kind of inner view: it's all magnified.
The highs would make you fly,
but the lows make you want to die.

And I was once there,
Hanging from that very ledge where you are standing.
So I know, I know, I know
It's easier to let go.

But I will learn to breathe this ugliness you see,
So we can both be there and we can both share the dark.
And in our honesty, together we will rise,
Out of our nightminds and into the light at the end of the fight.

And in our honesty, together we will rise
Out of our nightminds and into the light
At the end of the fight.

Sound Woes

I was required to make an audio-PowerPoint presentation around a month ago. My labmate taught me how to embed the sound files. Did it, burned it to a CD, sent it all the way to Beijing via registered mail that took 9--14 days since I was feeling pretty cheap, heh. Then the person in charge emailed me yesterday to say that there was no sound when the ppt was played.

Googled the problem and found that filesize limitation caused the sound files to be linked instead of embedded into the ppt. So, played in another computer, it cannot find the files. Riiiight.

*breathe* 'Kay. Bright side, now I know. But still feel the need to blame it on something. =P Like, shouldn't PowerPoint pop out a warning that tells me the sound file has not been embedded as I am attempting to do? Then again, it is on their Online Help, so maybe it is assumed that we've read that. Darn, can't use that excuse then.

Well, this person has nothing to do with this, but just because he is affiliated with Microsoft lab (the recipient, by the way) I felt like complaining to him. =D We're always blaming them, aren't we? On the other hand, some time ago Denny sent an article that made me sympathize with them a little.

Will have to fix the file and burn it into another CD to resend -- what wasted storage space. Yeah, still cheap. Having a constantly filling-fast harddisk does that to you. (You can tell this is another lame excuse.)

Flu

They're having an influenza screening for visitors, over at DSO. I got "caught" when I was passing by on my usual route to campus. Told the guy so but he said I still had to fill in the form, so I complied. Got a thermometer under my tongue while filling it up, then the girl saw the answer I wrote under "purpose of visit", so she cancelled it and told me to just take a detour. Ha. =D

Pretty nostalgic of the SARS time back in Hall when we had to take our temperatures everyday (touchwood, euy). Was pretty ignorant about this, has the bird flu gotten quite serious here in Singapore? The recent frequent rains do seem to heighten the chance of getting sick, so take care, folks.

V Is For Vietnam

There is this lecturer who once tutored a subject I took. Surely he didn't remember me from then, but last year he was an evaluator for a friend's QE presentation, which I attended for moral support. Among the few people in the room I thought he might remember my face, so when I passed by him in the canteen some days ago, I half-smiled at him just in case. Surely enough, he loooked surprised at the greeting.

Then this afternoon we bumped into each other in the elevator. I think he remembered our previous encounter, because this time he was the one who smiled first. He even started a conversation, asking, "You're not going back to Vietnam for holiday?"

My immediate reaction when surprised by the question is to say "Sorry?" -- so he repeated, "You're not going back home for the holiday?"

I answered "No" and was briefly pondering whether to correct him about the Vietnam part, since (1) it would be awkward (with the sorries and stuff) (2) the rephrased question didn't mention it anymore (in retrospect, maybe he'd caught on?) and (3) it doesn't seem so important, hor?

Then he moved on to the next question and I went along with it -- so as of now, my nationality stands uncorrected to him. =D Well, maybe we'll fix that in the next meeting, if any.

Yeaaah, you should know the sad level of my social grace by now.

It All Came Down

Sitting at the window seat of the bus, with rainwater gushing down the transparent window from the other side, it's like a visualisation of the phrase "it all came down".

Quite an awe-inspiring sight. (Does the phrase originate from rain? Will find out later.)

Well, then I arrived at the bus stop, and more than watching, I got to feel it. =D Would actually love to if I'd been in shorts and slippers and collecting the water in buckets *coughplayingwithwatercough* like we would at home... (My townspeople still collect rainwater for assorted daily use.) It all came down to nostalgy, huh?

Fun with FOLDOC

No match for scratchpad memory

Sorry, the term scratchpad memory is not in the dictionary. Check the spelling and try removing suffixes like "-ing" and "-s".

Nearby terms: scratch monkey « Scratchpad I « Scratchpad II « scream and die » Screamer » screaming tty » screen


scream and die

Synonym cough and die, but connotes that an error message was printed or displayed before the program crashed.


cough and die

<jargon> barf. Connotes that the program is throwing its hands up by design rather than because of a bug or oversight. "The parser saw a control-A in its input where it was looking for a printable, so it coughed and died."

Compare die, die horribly, scream and die.


die horribly

<jargon> The software equivalent of crash and burn, and the preferred emphatic form of die. "The converter choked on an FF in its input and died horribly".


Source: Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

P.S.: If this is not enough, go back up and click on the "scratch monkey".

Deathnote

Finished reading Deathnote a few days ago, but was determined to laze offline over the weekend, so it's only now that I decide to blog about it, because, in my obsessed opinion, it really warrants a blogging-about.

(A little clarification for the uninitiated: it is a manga -- Japanese comic.)

So yeah, this is probably belated news, but the series is complete. 12 volumes, 108 chapters. They haven't scanlated the last four chapters, but the raw Japanese scans and text translations are available. (You know, I should be this resourceful when doing my work. Should.) And of course I couldn't wait when chapter 104 ended with [SPOILER ALERT] "Yes. I am Kira." *insert fan rumble*

First got interested in this series because the artist was the one who drew Hikaru no GO -- still my favourite series to date, by the way. The story writers for these two series are actually different, and Deathnote is a detective thriller while Hikago is mostly drama; but both have great plots, so I'll just conclude that Takeshi Obata knows how to pick them.

Like Hikago, it can basically be divided into two sagas, each ended with the death of a major character. I like the first part much better, even losing sleep since I just couldn't put it down -- but I'd say the second part is still above standard.

You can read the summary from one of the links above -- I'll just say here the reasons you should bother to go there at all... First, the battle of wits is impressive. Second, it has a moral message. No black-and-white truths. Third, it is not indulgent. They showed all the ugly sides. They killed off major characters when necessary. And it certainly helped that the drawing was very good -- very expressive and nice to look at.

The only warning is perhaps its dark theme. Not for stress-relieving reading. (For that, go pick up Yoshiki Nakamura or Mitsuru Adachi instead. ^_^)

By the way... for the early volumes (and other manga titles) you can check here where to get them... but of course if you know me personally you can just ask. ^_~

Slack Slacker Slackest

What's the point in slacking if I'm going to feel guilty about it?

Worse thing is, the one I'm trying to fix is the feeling guilty part. =D

Privacy

Was mulling over the itinerary for my U.S. trip on the bus this morning. A guy sitting behind me was leaning forward on his seat and I was half aware that he was reading over my shoulder, but hadn't expected him to suddenly excuse himself and ask what was that written on the paper.

By reflex I answered him honestly and he was about to continue the conversation; then a friend SMS-ed, so I was glad to get busy with my phone instead. Heard him asking, "You're studying in NUS right?" but I pretended not to hear and continued SMS-ing. Whether he thought I was just avoiding him (since my phone was silent) or he thought I was really busy with the phone, he didn't attempt any more conversation. Heh...

Felt like I shouldn't be that bothered, but I was. I mean, the reading over my shoulder part I don't mind, because I do that to other people too sometimes... in short glances of course. =P The getting friendly part I even welcome (usually) because I'm not the type to start conversations myself.

But the question, erm, a little privacy-offensive? If we had continued I might have found out that it was just a conversation starter, but at that time all I thought was "What the..." =D Just not my social moment probably. =P