Tech Trans

So, today's the day I finally left WinXP behind. The free Win7 upgrade (pushed into a partition) didn't make me; hearing about the end of support for XP didn't make me; but now we're developing some Windows library and I figure it's pretty foolish to keep coding and testing on XP, which until today was what my main development PC ran on.

Come to think of it, when XP first came out, I also stuck to Win2K for quite some time. When I first upgraded to XP, I still set the look to Classic. All those square edges looked much neater to me. =D Now, though, they just look old-fashioned. (Or maybe it's the colour?) Which goes to show it was all inertia...

Anyway, I just spent the last few hours installing and configuring stuff on the Win7 partition. It wasn't so daunting as I've installed a number of programs since the actual OS upgrade a long time ago, and some of the other programs can still be run from the XP drive. Migrating Outlook used to be what I hated most about changing systems at school or work, but it's quite easy now that we use Exchange; almost everything stays at the server.

Another recent abandonment, an unwilling one, was iGoogle. This is a greater loss! Now nothing is forcing glimpses of daily news and trivia on me. I checked out a few recommended replacements, but I wasn't motivated enough to create a new account for any of them*. I resorted to bookmarking Google News and Chrome Apps, but then I rarely remember to click on them. -_-0

* It was kind of a wake-up call too, of how much of my online life was hinging on Google and its convenient synchronize feature. Dangerous!

Ah, the nature of technology. Moving on...


[Edit:] I forgot to update that I have since managed to get my paws on The Long War. NLB, you're awesome. (我們永遠支持你!)

[Edit II:] The Long War turned out a rather tedious reading for me, though. =( I ended up not finishing it.

借りてきた言葉

ぶつかり合う時も来るさ　綺麗な事ばかりじゃないだろうから
全てを君と　越えてゆくと決めた

共に歩き　共に探し
共に笑い　共に誓い
共に感じ　共に選び
共に泣き　共に背負い
共に抱き　共に迷い
共に築き　共に願い

ささやかな幸せが　木漏れ日のように　やわらかに降り注ぐ
そんな日々を　描きながら・・・

Reporting In

It's been a long time since the last blog. There's work, and then there're other things... The usual excuse, you know the drill, lol. I guess I just didn't have as many introspective moments as before, or as many mini-epiphanies I think worth sharing.

Something important to me actually happened recently: my first trip to Japan. =) The main purpose was to attend a work-related exhibition in Tokyo, but of course, I didn't miss the chance to go to a planetarium. Two 40-min shows back-to-back. =q I also briefly infiltrated Tokyo University, indulged myself along the Used-Books Street, got a cheap music CD from the famous Akihabara (and got tempted by a new Sony Ericsson / Cybershot model that might not even make it to Singapore), and took really pleasant strolls along the vast gardens / parks / shrines despite the spring season not yet arriving; among other adventures (and misadventures). Facebook photo albums will follow soon, maybe. (For those photos, I definitely still love my Elm.)



The second-last day of my trip coincided with the Sendai earthquake, which was also my first earthquake experience. It was rather frightening when the building shook violently, but having no prior scale to compare, at the moment I had no idea how severe it was and so didn't really panic. =X Everyone around were calm, even though they did say it was stronger than usual. So it was only later when I realized that public transport had all ceased operating, that I started to feel lost and worried about getting back to the hotel and contacting my family.

Long story short, I had a long long walk (and climb) back to my room that day, but still considered myself lucky when I saw the stranded people sleeping on the floor in the hotel lobby / McDonalds / any available indoor space on my way back, and even more so when I watched the round-the-clock TV news on the tsunami-hit areas. The aftershocks continued to worry everyone, but my flight back departed as scheduled, and here I am.

So yeah, I was happy to be there, and also happy to be back. Warm and humid tropical weather that's kind to the skin and a solid ground you can take for granted. Not traumatized, for sure; I definitely still want to visit Kyoto and Nara one day. =) And having a not-so-bad experience of the earthquake firsthand is good for heightening my empathy towards natural disaster victims. (To quote from Les Miserables, "A little drop of rain can hardly hurt me [...] and rain will make the flowers grow.")

Moving on... I'd say it was back to normal life, but there have been some new experiences at work (attending some intimidating meetings) and outside it (trying to impart my half-baked skills to a group of youths with my half-baked teaching competence; contributing to fundraising projects...) as well. There were also catching-up meet-ups which went pleasantly. I think I'm pretty much enjoying life as it is right now, the excitement and the placidity alike.

A reflection to close off: I dropped by Eka's blog where she wrote at one point:

"It's between choosing your heart and your head. The sceptical-in-love me really wondered if choosing your heart will always make you happier."

That reminded me of a review on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Michael Cohen, who said of Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage as

"a marriage [...] that shows us not that prudent choices lead to happiness but that the prudent are happy choosing prudently."

(No full source, but it was quoted here.) I think that is very well put.

Green Beginnings

...which are not so green new anymore, but it's only now that I get the time AND motivation to write about them, so. =D


Roses Are Green


--A new cell phone last August, because I renewed my line subscription (and because I lost my old one around May and had been getting by with a borrowed phone). It's Sony Ericsson Elm, with a 5 MP camera (for all the photos I like to take on the move) and a "normal" keypad (I do not trust touch screens as yet). Loving the camera so far. =)

It's also a green (eco-friendly) model, so I get interesting reminders such as after setting the alarm: "works even when phone is off"; and after charging: "unplug the charger from the socket as well to save energy". =D But seems it's considered an old model in this country because I couldn't find a screen protector for it anywhere (I usually like my gadgets accessory-free, but this one gets dirty easily and more persistently than I can tolerate), until a helpful shopkeeper in City Plaza got me a similar model (G700, note to myself) that works satisfactorily.

And yes, as the image shows, it's pink (or as per the official description, "pearly rose"). ^_^ The customer service guys (seen more than one of them 'cos the process had involved other complications not elaborated here) sounded skeptic when they told me the alternative black was not in stock, but I actually do prefer this colour. (Metallic makes most colours okay!) It's prettier, no?


It's Black, It's Green, It's Not Blinking Red


--A new portable hard disk from COMEX 2010, because the last one, an 80GB Samsung (a case-it-yourself which was still common back then), went puff without warning a week before (good timing?). But seeing as it had lasted five years in my not-so-tender care, I had good opinions about it, so I decided to get the same brand. This time I got a 320GB G2 model, which is also a green product (thus cheaper than the slicker S2 series).

I don't get why the reviews have been keen on the G2's visual design, with the dots and novel colours... I happen to not think it's nice, so I chose the least-offending black (^^0), but otherwise it's been working great -- lightweight and quiet.

On the note of dead hard disks, I have recovered data from a few before, but this latest one was a tougher case as the hard disk couldn't be detected by the PC, knocking noises and blinking red light and all. So I tried the freezer trick. Still no luck after a 24-hour freezing, nor a 3-day freezing, after which I abandoned it in the fridge and went on to dig up old backups. =P Three weeks after, I thought I had to put a proper end to it, so I took it out and gave it a last revival attempt, which, to my pleasant surprise and absolute delight, worked!

I'm not trusting any more important data to it, but it was still working okay the second and third time I plugged it in, so maybe there's life in it yet. =)


The Colour of Magic (Is Probably Not Green)


By DIsk's recommendation I got to know the wonderful wit of Terry Pratchett, whom I first ignored because fantasy was not my usual genre (LotR and HP have been somewhat short-term interests =P). As it is, I think it's more his fresh sense of humour that baited me, though the fantasy setting certainly lends a unique quality to it.

The title of this subsection (minus the bracketed part) is the title of the first book in his Discworld series, which ironically I haven't read (but soon will!). I started from the second book, and have since acquired the National Library membership (which I'd been postponing to do) just so I could start on a quest to consume the entire series. Do try it! It took only one line (conveniently the first in the book) for me to decide I love this author, so I'm venturing to say you won't waste much time testing the waters. =P

(In a semi-fandom clash, the latest release names of the VideoLAN VLC media player (used in my work project) seem to hint that the developers are sharing this interest. =D)


Green with Evil, We're Not


This is a closure to my previous post on Werkz. I have received response from NUS as well as an apology token from the studio, possibly after a follow-up from the university. I haven't quite expected this level of response, and it made me feel a little bad for the "blow-up" of the issue, though I guess it should've been the whole point of making a feedback. =D; Myself may still avoid dealing with them in the future, but I hope this incident has somehow improved things in the big picture...


Green Green Grass (Among Other Things) of Home


"I always say home is where you hang your hat."
"Um, no," said Twoflower, always anxious to enlighten. "Where you hang your hat is a hatstand. A home is--"
-- Terry Pratchett, "The Light Fantastic"

And this is just a notice that in two days I'll be disappearing for a while (not that I haven't, judging by the interval between my recent posts) for a trip back home. =) Back here mid-October, when you'll hear from me if I have anything worth publicizing. ^^

Finality

Fullmetal Alchemist the manga has ended! That's one month of excited waiting since I found out it would be ending. ^^ (I feel little need for me to re-summarize the series =P so please just click on the hyperlinked title for the description.)

The series started (9 years ago) with good humor, interesting scientific angle and cool action scenes, then it grew darker as the serious plot unfolded, at which point I stopped following it closely. ^^0 I picked up again when the climax drew near, and got firmly hooked until the end. The whole thing is really quite well developed, I think, and with a reasonably happy ending -- not "everything is all right" perfect but one that does see to the deserved fruition of the characters' effort.

The [remade] anime has 3 more episodes to go, and I'm still quite looking forward to watching the rapid-fire climax/ending in animation. (That reminds me that I may have forgotten to advertise the ending of Cross Game, the manga as well as its pretty good anime adaptation, although I have felt totally adequate with the manga alone, given Adachi-sensei's delightful story-telling.)

Here's a selected opening sequence to further entice you:




In the past week, I also managed to watch Ao no Honoo (The Blue Flame), a movie I've read some good reviews about. The lead actor is the younger self of one of the main actors in the critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima.

I think the film is good in several aspects, but boy is it depressing. =X I should have anticipated it since the suitably haunting The Post War Dream was playing in prelude to the first scene, but I thought things would be resolved somehow. Instead, the ending left a feeling of despair that made me think of the word "finality" for this entry.

Trailer for those of you who may be in the mood for something angsty and sobering...




On real life news, Commencement is drawing near. In my mind, my student days have been practically over for some time, but there have been "echoes" of it when the School contacted me for something or other... All these will probably be laid to rest once I get through the Commencement. Not that I want to cut off these ties -- I do gladly stay in contact with my supervisors and ex-labmates (and if needed, my juniors), but when those links have to do with my results from back then, it sometimes feels like hanging on to "past glory" (not that it's particularly glorious either!) while I have been trying to pick up speed on my current career. A chapter closed, I guess? =)


This final point doesn't have much to do with "finality" except maybe the winter theme and the fact that I discovered it through Last.fm recommendation, hoh. I just like this song and the vocals that sing it. =D

許

想いに気付くから
ためらった
心に知ってるから
迷わない。

今の私なら
艶物を現実的に書くこと できる
君となら
明日の確実はいらない。

Reminiscing is a Sign of Aging, and I'm Dragging You Down with Me

(...with a truckload of links!)

We had an all-Indonesian lunch today. At one point we started talking about the science syllabus in Indonesia (getting more advanced nowadays than what we experienced in our high school days) and proceeded to reminisce about the early days we came into contact with computers (the 90s).

Oooh, nostalgic. =DDD

To think that back then we were happily using those flimsy 5.25-inch IBM floppy disks whose capacity I couldn't recall because file sizes weren't big enough to be a concern at that time. Nowadays we can hardly find a new PC with a 3.5in floppy drive, let alone those "A drive and B drive"...

Then there was Digger, the popular PC game of that time. (Even thinking about it now I can relive the panic at being chased around by those mice. (Oh yes I suck at action games even now.))

There was BASIC, our first programming language; mIRC, our first chatting experience (
*pops* asl pls
*types* m
*disappears*
). Before Winword and Excel there were WordStar and Lotus 123...

(Incidentally today too I just found this HCI comic about Lotus Notes from the same company.)

But even with these vivid recollections, our lives had (naturally) been so much more detached from computers that they are now, so we went on to appreciate Bobo, the hugely successful children magazine of our childhood. Probably because the memory was shaped during our most absorbent age, we could still recite the names of most recurring characters in that magazine. I have a very good impression about it in terms of being educational both intellectually and morally. I just had this similar reminiscence with my childhood hometown friend, and she said she would probably subscribe to it for her son after he'd grown a bit more. I hope it still maintains the same quality.

Randomly I was also reminded of Sanggar Cerita, the Indonesian version of audio stories that came in cassette tapes. I only owned one that was "Cinderella" by young Ira Maya Sopha (singing "Hari ini, hari ini, Ira ingin ceritera..."). To jog my memory I tried to sing the whole storyline in the shower (they had a summary song and a conclusion song and one at each main event), but I had blanks here and there. xD

There, there, enough reminiscing for now. ^^ I would call them "the good old days" but without undermining "the good nowadays" with all my present indulgences enabled by the technology leap, even if it means I'm constantly on watch for disk consumption while owning a total of nearly 750GB harddisk space...

Three Worlds

Saturday turned out very eventful. Even surreal, if only I'd been more of an imaginative person. =P I was out for about twelve hours and spent the whole time (that wasn't transportation) at one place, the National Library Building.

(1)st there was EOY 2009, the only premeditated event of that day. EOY is an annual "Japanese cross-cultural event" with the main focus on cosplay. I was aware of this event only this year because DIsk took part in the artwork section. Took some photos but I'm not sure about the publishing rights so not posting here..

I'm not unfamiliar with cosplay, but it was my first time experiencing it in person, though only as a spectator, of course. =D I hope people were not interpreting my uncontained grins as any ridiculing gesture. I was simply wow-ed that this thing I'd been seeing in fandom was actually happening where I lived.

It's a pity that I'm no longer that much of an anime fan, so I missed about half the references there. Those I did recognize are mostly the older titles that are still ongoing or have current sequels, and from these some I only know on the surface. Well, there were FMA, Naruto, Tenipuri, Bleach,... Ah, one exception, which was also a nostalgic sight I hadn't expected, was a girl dressed up as Suu from CLAMP's Clover, complete with the pretty wings. I used to love that type of fantastic angst, ahaha. Exception because the manga has ended cleanly (, beautifully, tragically) as far as I know; would love to know if there is continuation of any kind as I'll probably still be somewhat drawn to it...

The most impressive costume I saw was that of Lv Bu from The Three Kingdoms, with his fitting large built and spears in both hands. Also, cute Doumo-kun made an appearance!

Other highlights include the cosplay competition, whose participants were actually only a small subset of total people who cosplayed at the event, and anime music performances, which featured some amazing vocalists. The MCs, while giving me the impression as not being otaku-s themselves when they misread the names in the Bleach quiz questions, did exhibit the entertaining bluntness I've been seeing on Japanese TV by honestly admitting, "OK, it's time for lame jokes, as we need to stall time here while the next performer gets ready!" xD (I don't know, maybe it's an universal thing, just that I rarely watch non-Japanese shows nowadays.)

I found it odd that they delayed the single last contestant until after yet another half-hour break. There were exhibitions and merchandise + artwork booths we could patronize during these breaks, but the most important activity was to go around spotting the cosplay characters and taking photos of them (procedure: ask permission, wait for them to pose, snap, say thank you). The crowd grew larger in the afternoon and it became very difficult to move around, so I decided to leave before the end.

That led to the (2)nd experience of the day whereby I got tempted to venture into the lending area of the library. I'm not a member, so I didn't intend to borrow any book, only browse around to see if I could find any Grisham book I hadn't read. (I used to follow John Grisham quite closely throughout the period of my life when I was attending schools with such accommodating libraries, but have missed quite a lot since then.) Well, the only one I hadn't read that wasn't on loan from the branch happened to be "The Testament", so I settled with that.

Long story short, I ended up staying in the reading area finishing the novel in 5 hours. Would have taken longer if the library hadn't had to close at 9pm. xD It's been a while since I finished a full novel in one sitting! I was too lazy to apply for borrowing rights, so 15 minutes before the library closed I started skimming through the remaining pages, practically reading only the first line of each paragraph. Since I couldn't take the book out (or didn't try to find a way to...) I also skipped dinner and forgot about toilet breaks but did wish I had brought a jacket when the room felt colder as night came. =PP

Since I had also been lazy to hunt for food during the cosplay event, I'd brought three slices of pandan bread along, and had taken two out of those for lunch. xD (Taken another two for breakfast before leaving home, as well.) Now, exiting the library, I was eager to get to the bus stop so I could start munching on the last remaining piece, but--

The (3)rd, last, and strangest adventure happened not far from the exit when an elderly man called out to me, "Do you speak English?" I found it a bit strange since he looked Asian -- I mean, I mostly expect Caucasians to ask that question and expect Asians to ask if I speak Chinese... though come to think of it the Asians I've encountered so far haven't been asking that question but rather just shot their questions directly in Mandarin because I look Chinese. =PP

But I digress. The man introduced himself as a spiritual traveler (forgot his exact term) from Tokyo. At this point my cautiousness about "speaking to strangers" (and the hunger) was overcome by the thought of "oh, might be interesting to talk to him". =D; He said he wrote books and was trying to find publishers for them. He told me the content of his books and asked my opinions about his choices for the titles. Since I'm just as fussy about words and titles, I kind of didn't mind discussing that with him.

My cautiousness returned when he asked if I wanted to buy any of his books. But having some interest in literature myself, I thought it was quite a worthy 'cause' even if he turned out to be a swindler, so I took his short story collection and gave him ten dollars. ^^0 He later 'threw in' a printout of his poems on Hiroshima and several pages of haiku.

Just before I wrote this post I did some Google search based on the name printed on his books, and found this page. That was him all right, Asano Hideo-san. The listing on Amazon also confirmed the books he talked to me about.

The page I linked above has the information and links about him, and I've also left a comment summarizing the conversation we had. Well, 'racist' is quite a fitting description, but I do think most humans are 'racist' in their own way to some extent, though to be fair I happened to be outside the groups he spoke against, so I could afford to be neutral about it. =| He was definitely stereotyping and being rather hard-headed about it, too, though I could mostly comprehend the contributing factors to his opinions.

I'm avoiding sensitive issues here xD so just one relatively safe example, maybe. He was disappointed that the locals he met had not even recognized such names as Hemingway (his favourite author) or Nietzsche or Kant. I happen to know these people from the quotations I like to read, but I did tell him I hadn't actually read their books. He was quite pleased, anyway, and apparently he had also met another Indonesian (from Jogjakarta, he said) who was literature-aware, so he wondered what motivated our thinking beyond money/business that seemed to be the 'theme' in this country. =PPP Well yeah, I told him things might be different if he had asked the locals who majored in arts, and no matter where we came from I guess those with no interest in literature will still not recognize those names? xP I suppose it's just because he has a bias for the field he loves.

All in all, a very interesting encounter. Not sure if I'd be comfortable meeting another like him or having another one-hour conversation the next time I bumped into him... but the 'flavour' of his inquisitive thinking is indeed similar to mine. I mean, there are matters that I simply don't care much about, and when some critical people question this and that about those matters I'd be like, "What's the big deal?" =PP But he was close to a kindred spirit, if maybe rather extreme about it.

And that was how my Saturday went. Twelve hours, five slices of bread, three worlds, one venue. xD (Indulge me, it's big enough for my scale LOL.)

The Sun Also Shines at Night

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! I'm really bad at wishing people these things since I'm not much for celebrations myself. =P Also feeling a little 'delinquent' the past week, I guess, wanting to just take care of my own worries and left with little mental energy to deal with other things.. even though I have time to spare, in the end. Ah, forgive my selfishness, despite this being the season of sharing and all. -_- Well, I still went to gatherings I've committed to and those I chose to commit to and hopefully behaved acceptably sociably? Ahaha.

The above-mentioned worries have also led me to clear my schedules for the long weekends in case I need to take care of them, but I end up free anyway, so I went for a last-minute-planned lunch and second-hand bookstore cruising with DIsk today. The latter itinerary item was again my selfish quest since I've had my eye (and occasional yearning thought) on a book in Bras Basah Complex for two weeks. I didn't buy it when I first spotted it because (1) it was bulky to take to my next agenda, and (2) I needed time to succumb to the temptation and tell myself I could afford to stuff my room with one more collectible item. =)P

There it is, my latest 36x44cm hardcover full-colour baby. ^^ The pic was actually taken at the store that first time when I didn't buy it yet (for reminder mah), hoho. DIsk said it was a geeky purchase, but what seduced me are more the high-resolution, pretty images inside. So much better for drooling and gushing over, while the knowledge aspect could probably be obtained freely and more extensively on the internet, fufufu.

With this event tomorrow, seems I will have a quite eventful Christmas weekend after all. We'll see about the New Year weekend when it comes. There are still issues left to handle but time is really an unbeatable factor right now, and much as I am easily bothered by indeterminately pending plans, I do detach myself quite well... even if I do say so myself, ha. I sense that some are thinking this is 'cold' of me, and I'm still not enlightened enough not to bother about such opinions, but I reevaluate my (saturated) considerations and reaffirm this growing courage for self-expression that seem to come with age, and well... things are okay somehow? xD

In response to Eka's encouragement I said that it wasn't really in my belief to 'pray', but leaving the perspective difference aside, I.. we.. do draw on many sources of strength-- the kindness of people from close friends to gracious strangers, every little thing however silly or earthly that help to lift our spirits, my own faith in life and powers unseen-- a litany of my own definition, maybe?

Woman

Update entry accumulating the several past weeks. =) 'Woman' happens to be a common thread running through the rambling that follows.


-- be an evil woman --

So... I finished watching Yume wo Kanaeru Zou ('Dream-fulfilling Elephant') some weeks ago. It's a comedy about the elephant god Ganesha (ah, ITB mascot!) who appeared to people wishing to change themselves, and taught them how to do so by giving 'tasks'. Some of these tasks felt like the points in a self-improvement book, but there were also some that were pretty thought-provoking. The prelude special starred Oguri Shun as a salaryman who wanted to be successful, while the proper 13-episode series starred Mizukawa Asami (i.e. how I found this drama =3) as a woman who dreamed of a happy (married) life. There were plenty of parodies including one of Death Note I still feel like laughing at, cheesy as it might be. xD


Of all the tasks I particularly remember a rather peculiar one: "Be an evil woman". It certainly puzzled the main character, as she was on a mission to charm men. The task meant for her to say and do what she wanted instead of suppress her true opinions for the sake of being perceived polite or nice. The application in the drama was of course exaggerated for comedic effect, but I think it was a pretty good advice actually, for people with sheepish personality like mine, and also in the context of the Japanese society where one is always careful not to be rude or to inconvenience others. It means acting as oneself instead of merely reacting to the surroundings. It is, contrary to what it may seem, an appeal.

My watch-list then moved on to Majo Saiban ('The Witch Trial') -- that is, the real 'evil woman'. =) Well, deciding whether or not this woman is evil is a major point in this court drama, revolving around the lay judge system that was apparently newly put into effect in the country this year. (Anyone recall John Grisham's The Runaway Jury?) The case is of a woman -- an awe-inspiring one in many ways! -- accused of murdering her lover in order to inherit his wealth. As one of the characters said in the drama, though, "the verdict has nothing to do with the truth", because the judges were manipulated via threats as well as vague evidences. The string of twists was mostly quite intense (though I wished they hadn't played on the 'psycho villain' thing too much), and even the ending was... should I say... riling. =P In Indonesian term, 'geregetan', lol.


-- woman's day out --

As for life off-screen, I had a fulfilling me-outing last Saturday. Ehm, nothing particularly womanly in the activities (in fact, most were rather unwomanly-geeky if we were to stereotype) but... yeah... I'm a woman, and let's focus on the singularity of that noun instead of the gender implication? ^__^

It started with The Blue Mansion movie, which I've been wanting to watch. Eka only wants to know who kills the guy. xD As it turns out, this dark comedy focuses more on the family dynamics rather than the murder mystery. I think it is pretty well done and enjoyable. Being a local movie, it didn't lack the hilarious Hokkian moments, too. =D The only thing I have against it is the paranormal angle in the resolution, but I am quite content to apply my own interpretation to it.

Afterwards, I couldn't find my fave Korean hotplate tofu set in Plaza Sing kopitiam -- did I remember wrongly? -- so I ended up having a Yoshinoya lunch. Somehow I still feel a little insecure eating alone in malls =D; (while canteens are of course okay) but I liked the meal so it wasn't difficult to ignore the other customers who weren't watching anyway, lol.

My errands for the day were to get my watch battery changed [*check*] and to get a gift [*check*]. Speaking of which, I owe the good ideas for the two most recent gifts I've bought to the just-in-time suggestions from Yesie and Eka, respectively. Casual mentions of such things have good results! Thanks, gals.

Quite a number of stores were having 'moving out sales' in Plaza Sing, that I wonder if something is happening.. I took one round each in Fila and Hang Ten but didn't get anything from there. The more tempting one was Sembawang's half-price deal for all their CDs. The store corridors were not wide to begin with, and at that moment they were filled with stacks of CDs as well as (probably many times the amount of their usual) customers, but still I spent an hour or so scouring the title lineup, and honestly, felt kind of a bonding with the people there as we kept excusing ourselves while carefully maneuvering our bodies around each other. xD That and our love for music and our opportunistic kiasu-ness? Ahahaha.

I of course hovered back and forth the Asian pop section mostly, and was considering to get one of the albums by one of my favourite artists just for collection, but in the end decided there wasn't really a point to it. =P Not a very good fan, huh. But I figured I'd save my money to buy more worthy collectibles that they would still be producing. =3


-- girl-talk --

Moving on... yesterday, had a mini picnic at Vivocity with the choir bunch initiated by Rebecca, after the rehearsal. Two guys and four girls, and we still managed to have some women-talk. =3 Well, men-talk too, as Julia, as always, had a lot of gender observation stuff to share, on top of her very unique recent experience. I think I've always been too attracted to gender-defying views to not be skeptical about such categorizations, but as a generalization those are interesting and useful knowledge. And oh, August also linked us to this very funny 'lecture' on men's vs women's brains:




-- lady in red ...or blue? --

Last update... got a new pair of spectacles today because I (accidentally, of course) added one more crack to it a few days ago, and this time it was not quite negligible. =P While choosing the frame I was attracted to a flexible kind with modern-ish design, but it had to go with impact-resistance lens which were costly. For my second choice I hesitated between a red-black one (striking!) and a navy blue one (more 'general-purpose'). Red or blue -- warm or cool -- right or left -- 51 or 244? xD (Ahem, ignore the last one, just my random fandom bit.) In the end, my pragmatic side won, so...


-- masculine-feminine --

To close off! (Woooo, longest post in a while...) Just got this hilarious Rose of Versailles parodying commercial from DIsk (a 'childhood shattering' discovery, to borrow his term, so RoV purists please consider that a warning) and since it involves the all-female musical group Takarazuka, I thought it'd be appropriate. (Come to think of it, the story itself is already a gender-bender, and now that both 'men' are acted by women, it gets even more twisted!) Enjoy!

君へ 私へ 明日へ

苦しみもあったけど
記憶は全て 優しい 楽しい
やはり
最後までも
本当にありがとう。

Hi Lo

Thesis defense was 10 July 2009 10 a.m. Seminar Room 10 (COM1-02-10).

Will join Commencement in July 2010.

One and zero, how appropriate, lol.

A memorial post, so forgetful me can amuse myself next year.

(If I remember to check back, that is.)

Of Friends: Past, Present, and Imaginary

I feel like writing, so this time you'll have to bear with the long rambling plain prose instead of the cryptic poems -- most of which probably only understood by Eka who knows the background story in my life, anyway. xD
>> [INSERT] Voltaire: "Anything too stupid to be said is sung." =3

Met my namesake today -- my high school schoolmate, used to be the president of the student union ('Ketua OSIS' =D). That was one of the qualifiers people distinguished us with back then. Ah, nostalgic. Surprisingly it didn't feel strange referring to her with my own name. ...Well, I do like my name. xD *narcissistic much?* (Mom and Dad, おつかれさまでした! =) *bows*)

She's visiting for the long weekend holiday, and I met up with her together with DIsk. Updates, updates, people's (and our own) marriage status/history, reliving of old nicknames.. We Indonesians are really quite creative (and fearless) in conjuring up outrageous nicknames huh.

Eka joined us for a while since I had a prior appointment with her, and I was glad that all of us had a lively talk despite my usual practice of keeping my different cliques separate from each other (Eka knew DIsk but not my schoolmate). I think the indifferent me should learn from her some of that interest and curiosity about other people's lives. ^^0

Eka and I then set off on a hunting journey for the camera she wanted. It occurred to me that we are quite some geeks, lol, though we fancy slightly different ranges of gadgets, probably. I don't know much about cameras and that plus my natural neutrality has triggered Hady's skepticism over my 'usefulness' in Eka's buying process. I wonder if the need for moral support is a feminine concept that most guys do not practice? xD Even then I think neither Eka nor I have much of this feminine trait in us; she only calls on my support when it's something very expensive and I mostly only ask for technical opinions. (I'm painfully slow in deciding on a purchase, but that's a different issue, right.)

My small reunion has also triggered the talk about our own schooling pasts, and Eka was amazed at how different our lives could have turned out if we had made different decisions regarding our entrance to NUS. I might have known her brother instead of her! Ahaha, I guess we had a very fruitful talk today. Like, on the possible reason that we click well with each other. In Japanese personality terms, I'd be an M and she (as well as certain others I'm close with) would be an S? =D (I do hope I'm not treading on dangerous sub-context here. xD)

In a way, interacting with these 'S' friends has made me work on my laid-back attitude towards issues that are important to them, made me improve personality flaws I wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. And despite the occasional discomfort, it is probably a subconscious appeal that makes the relationship interesting and pulls me further towards them. I could only hope befriending me has something of similar benefit to them, probably to train their tolerance and patience towards laid-back people like me? Ahahaha.
>> [INSERT] Christina Aguilera: "Makes me work a little bit harder... so thanks for making me a fighte~r!" =D

Eka blogged about her tendency towards the negative and I guess I'm kinda the positive polar there (hopefully)... though I'm still not influencing her much. ^^0 I aspire for positiveness, I admire positiveness, and I think I still can't stand people who are too negative, but it's curious that I did find someone close to that ideal but that never pulls me as strongly as other aspects in my less-positive proved-and-tried close friends.

In this aspect, I'm very much a my-pace person -- I do things at my own pace -- even though I think it might not work for everyone's situation. My life has been very, very fortunate. I have my down and distressed moments too, certainly, but they pass soon enough; I cross the bridge when it comes, things come to me in time. Reading Eka's blog about her worries, I do think there are worthwhile worries that we should worry and then do something about... just that these haven't been very difficult for me, with all the help I've been getting and all the 貴人 I've met, bless them. Well, in the same spirit as above, I hope knowing people with serious worries will keep me from getting complacent. =S

Now, some celebrity news, since I find myself caring about them. =))

Ayaka, whom I'm a half-fan of, is now married to Mizushima Hiro, an actor I only knew from Hanakimi drama. I thought she was too young for it, but apparently the boyfriend proposed because she'd been battling a disease she only revealed recently, and he wanted to better support her in the treatment as her husband. She's always impressed me as someone mature, and while I don't know much about the guy, this clarification surely convinced me that she has married a really good person. The sad news is that she'll have to put her career on hold to concentrate on the treatment, after this year. I'm certainly looking forward to the comeback of that talent! Winding Road is now all the more uplifting when I'm down with my own insignificant troubles.
>> [INSERT] ayaka x Kobukuro: "Up ahead on the winding road, the self I dreamed about on that day is waiting for me..."

Then... Good Friday was Tsuyoshi's 30th birthday. Lol, it makes me uneasy to be remembering the birthday of someone I don't even know in person, but he did make it a big affair by releasing a single plus an album and holding a special concert on that day. The album music in general isn't much to my taste, but the single has beautiful (if rather emo) lyrics and the whole sky theme he uses for them easily gets me sold. Oh, the inexplicable charms this man has over thousands of us. xD
>> [INSERT] Tsuyo-shi: "[I] can't say, can't heal, can't erase, [the fact that] I love you..."

Lastly, I've started to follow American Idol again. =D At first out of curiosity for this Adam person firefly has been speaking highly of, and to a certain extent, the need to keep up with the conversations of some close friends, ahahah. Well, I soon think highly of him, too. And of Matt, whose performance I can always appreciate, somehow, no matter what the judges think. I have to stream the show on campus though, since I don't have a TV, and when I graduate this month I'll have to tap on all my leeching skills to find it online, I guess. ^^0

Long weekend, long long post. Submitting my thesis next week and will be moving on to the next stage of my research life. Yosh~

Spring Cleaning, Summer Memories

After sticking with me through 4--5 residencies over 5--9 years, my old lecture notes finally have to go. D: I'm going to move out of our rented unit at the end of this month, and this time to a single room, so 90% of the two boxes is going to the government's recycling program.

The remaining 10% is kept more for nostalgia than for usefulness. XD Well, most of our need for references go to the internet nowadays, so these search-unfriendly notes are never really put to good use. But modeling the fickle romance of Romeo and Juliet as ordinary differential equations is something rather worth treasuring. And I can probably get a good laugh from my first English essays some time in the future when I get over the embarrassment to re-read them (which I couldn't this afternoon).

Most of the similar entertainment still have to go, though:

The doodles on the margin...
(pictorial puns of scientific terms, "very sleepy", manga faces, lecturers' faces, "homework sucks let's party" <-- definitely not me but I couldn't remember who)

The colorful flags stacked to a rainbow sequence...
(up to blue, at least)

The hideous line-printer printout of pages and pages of code...

The tiny handwriting crammed on two-sided three-columned cheat sheets...
(I don't think they were quite useful even back at that time)

The self-commentary triggered while I went flip, flip, flip:
("no idea what this is", "last time got this meh?", "last time took this module meh?" ...ehm)

Some of the notes are not even from a module I took; they are notes passed down from my seniors. Ah, sorry that the inheritance stops at me then. Should've learned from them and passed the burden down to unsuspecting juniors, lol.

Still have quite a lot to get rid of. I am still attached to my novels and CDs so they're going to burden me for a while longer. Original packaging of my various electronic gadgets... hm. Not sure what to do with the printer. Computer table will probably be left to the landlord. Some textbooks will probably go to our unofficial library in the lab if I don't manage to sell them.

Well, let me know if you have any use for the things I'm considering to abandon as mentioned above. =)

ありがとう。頑張ります。よろしく。

以上です。

First of May

From about two days ago I've been humming Bee Gees' "First of May" -- the theme song of a J-dorama I've just finished watching, and which happens to fit this time of the year -- but somehow it escapes me that it is Labor Day, until I came in to lab just now and found only one other student.

Eka was profoundly stunned when I told her, as she and colleagues had been awaiting this holiday for months.

Ah, the hazards of flexible working hours. XD

Where Has All the Sunshine Gone?

I am quite ignorant about the current status of global warming (and virtually all world issues) and I don't know if the recent snowstorms in China (a rare awareness on my part) are a contradicting evidence to it or an orthogonal issue altogether; but as far as I am concerned these days, Singapore is TOO COLD.

(Sorry beforehand to readers currently in four-seasoned regions, as all the complaining that follows will totally ignore the fact that you all have it much worse than I do.)

I don't remember the rainy season lasting quite this long before... although my sense of time is never reliable at the first place. On the other hand, in a closed, windowless, air-conditioned room, my sense of an outside raining event is pretty accurate, if I do say so myself. In fact, in that same room now, I'm typing this entry with wool-gloved fingers, which are STILL freezing.

I was born and raised in a town located on the Equator Line on the globe. I would have attributed my sensitivity to that, if not for the fact that the rest of my family doesn't seem to have a problem with cold weather.

Neither did Eka, who came by the other day when the room temperature was at the ideal one-layered clothing level (to me), and, like some of my Singaporean/Malaysian labmates, thought it was too warm. While her hometown is further away from the Equator Line, its population and activity effectively achieve the same temperature level we have back there, I believe. So why?

Besides, having more body fat than she has, I would think I should be more resistant to cold, too. I'm not on a diet simply because I can't be bothered, not for the purpose of preserving body heat, but not getting it when I need it is still a bit disappointing.

Putting aside housewifey concerns such as sunshine-deprived laundry... I do like rain. I drank and used rain water growing up; I persuaded my mother into letting me help collecting it. When I was small, watching the heavy rain from the window often gave me a warm appreciative feeling of having a home in which I'm safely protected.

Rain will make the flowers grow, says Eponine, and I too will be fine with a little fall of rain, or even not so little of it, if I can just figure out a way to keep myself warm.

The Cosmos Loves the Number Three

I've been a sort-of antisocial brat these few weeks (yes, even through the lunar new year) -- blame it on the amount of things to do, but I always think it is more a mental thing: I cannot multitask well, and maybe because I "know" that, I stay at that.

Then today I came to campus, canceled a meeting with my supervisor, and:

- went for lunch and met Rimbun + Davin at the canteen,

- went to Computer Center to renew my student card and met Christian who was there for the same matter,

- walked back to lab through the Forum bazaar, stopped by the Milo dispenser truck, and was greeted by someone who mistook me for his friend's Beijing friend.

Third encounter was quite amusing. Kiasu-ness led me to take the free Milo. The crowd at the more spacious side of the truck led me to go round to the "back", where only one other student was there. When he greeted me and I didn't recognize him, I approached nevertheless because I thought for a second that he was someone in charge who wanted me to take the glass he'd filled instead. (So far-fetched.)

Upon seeing that I didn't know him, he apologized for being mistaken, but I knew I did forget people, so I tried to extract some explanation. He then asked if I was from Beijing, so I thought maybe I met him (and subsequently forgot him) while I was in Beijing. I said I wasn't, but that I'd been there, and asked if he was from Beijing. (That response would sound very weird if he didn't know my thinking process.)

Then he explained that I really looked like someone his friend (and he, I assume) met at a conference, someone who was from Beijing, that he'd even seen me in SoC before and had been wondering if I was that person.

Some time ago when I registered at the polyclinic, the staff put down my racial information as "Malay" (she didn't ask me about it), maybe because of my name. It would sound more Indian because of the Sanskrit root, but I suppose she took a look at me and knew it couldn't be right.

So, Indian-ish name + Chinese face = Malay? (Surprisingly this is close enough to Indonesian, and she could actually have been well informed in her deduction.) I wonder if I can make use of this nationality-ambiguous identity somehow. =D

But I digress. It so happens that these encounters are related somehow to what came to my mind this morning. I received an email gathering support for the snow-storm victims in China, so I was wondering if the friends I made while in Beijing (one of them from An Hui) and their families were all right.

As for Rimbun and Christian, both of them are my badminton-playing groupmates. The group is in hiatus now, so Rimbun (a regular) asked if we are going to resume, while Christian (a not-so-regular) asked if it was still going on. The topic had also been in my mind this morning because Denny emailed me about jogging plans and I in turn tried to recruit him into the badminton group.

Coincidences make the world go round, don't they. For the many times that my thoughts never lead to anything happening (though when in doubt I would sometimes superstitiously think of all the worst possibilities so that they won't happen) I don't think those thoughts have been strong enough to induce the above events, but I'll be my usual diplomatic self and say, who knows..

Endangered Resource

Dish once told me that the Singapore transport system is such that we can get (almost?) anywhere within one hour, which is a nice property. The downside of that is, one hour is also the average time we need to travel to (almost?) anywhere.

Shortage of time recently (more than usual, I mean) -- research work + commissioned job + moving out + Soracco concert -- and so I've started to try buying time with taxi fares.

But I once took a taxi from Outram to Vivocity (there are somehow no direct bus from these seemingly close locations) and ended up taking more time combing the Pasir Panjang -- Telok Blangah Road compared to if I had just made that trip to the MRT station and taken the train.

While some of us tend to associate taxis with faster journeys, I guess they really are in the service of providing convenience, not time saving. Time still cannot be bought -- most of the time, anyway...

...But but but, L the movie coming up! I will make time to watch you no matter what! *maniacal stare* Anyway, seeing as it'll be released in Japan in February, we won't get it so soon here.

Saw the poster on the MRT station when I was walking with Yesie and went all excited, which prompted her to ask, "You like that guy?" (referring to Matsuyama Kenichi) in a rather... innuendo-ish... way... huaha.

Haven't dug much into him to properly appreciate him as a person (rather than a character) yet. I even missed him totally in Gokusen -_-0 because, ahem, another Matsu- there is kinda too charm-spreading... huehehueh.

Teman Seperjalanan

It was a long ride to Changi, and I didn't remember to bring something to read nor my mp3 player. Caught glimpses of Scar and Colonel Mustang on what a schoolboy standing beside me was reading, but from my position I couldn't tumpang read without being obvious, and it was a crowded train. Staring would be rude, wouldn't it?

But I started to think that perhaps some people actually wouldn't mind. If I were the one reading my favourite comic book in a public place, strangers would indeed be very welcome to preview. (We folks who aim for world domination are eager to share like that. To think other people need to pay to advertise, eh.)

Of course, as long as they don't invade my personal space lah. Otherwise can get quite scary.

As it was on my ride back, when I managed to get a seat. A guy sat down beside me with a bag on his lap, and proceeded to sleep. After a while there was a movement inside his bag, at the side that was facing me. It made a scratching sound as whatever it was came into contact with the fabric.

Somebody's phone happened to be ringing at that time, so at first I thought it was his cell phone vibrating, but then I saw more movements at another region, so that couldn't be it. The thing wriggled for a while, stopped for some time, then started again. I kept eyeing the bag every time that happened, while the guy continued to sleep.

Could there be an animal inside? Maybe he just returned from taking his puppy for a walk? Kaypo lah, I know, but somehow I felt quite intimidated mah.

Anyway, I finally alighted with relief and walked home. Another person caught up with me near the red light crossing, when his phone started ringing -- definitely was a ringtone this time, and whaddya know, I heard, "Di daun yang ikut... mengalir lembut..."

Ola, I know that song heh. I turned to look at him (this one without bothering to be discreet) but couldn't be sure if he was an Indonesian or not, and I didn't catch what he said into the phone. (Now that would surely be rude.)

Maybe I was overreacting ah? Many Indonesians here, what. And as we could see from the various local talent shows that I no longer take interest in, many non-Indonesians also know Indonesian songs, rite (this spoken -- or rather, written -- with rare nationalism).

Ah well. There wasn't really a point in my relating these encounters, just that it has been an amusing journey after all. ^__^