IN holidays

Well, A levels has long been over, but I still have not been blogging lately...

First, extremely busy trying to see things for my graduation night. No. I don't have to buy as much stuff as the girls but I still do have a problems getting shoes. The shoes I see seems to hit the 200 mark. Not to mention a pair of pants was 400 bucks. Thank goodness I already got mine and didn't have to look twice at that crazily priced piece of cloth.

Secondly, I am brainstorming for 2 websites.

Number 1 : a website project for my school. Yes, I've graduated, but this project was assigned to me in mid of this year and according to my initial timeline and plans, it should have been finished by now. However details are being delayed and not so forthcoming as I would have liked. As such, development hasn't started.

Number 2: I intend to move to a self hosted server BUT I'll still be keeping this blog. Especially so since I am applying for a free hosting account and my experience with free hosting account is that they can suddenly disappear. So, I'll still keep this blog.

On a sidenote, went to parkway parade newly opened borders today with some friends. I must say, the layout is so much better now... However, spent a longer time at parkway then expected as we were caught in by a thunderstorm...

As some may know, I recently obtained Windows Vista too. The experience is less than optimal. Almost all my current software can't be used. Things like Norton systemworks 2004 wouldn't be safe to run in Vista. Although I have shifted my focus on open source software, which was a good move as most of it are supporting Vista now, those old close-source software aren't doing so. This reminds me why I like Open-Source Software.

End of school and D-Day

School ends. D-day in the form of the A levels in 2 weeks. Can't be more stressed than now.

Anyway, yesterday celebrated belated (1 day) as well as advance birthday for lin' and jess respectively. Forgot all about the way Fish and Co celebrates. So naturally, we all got "clowned". Haha.

On a side note, I guess I'll be able to attend the Prom aka. Graduation Night..Yeah!!! "Muchas Gracias!"

Next Tuesday is the farewell concert as well as the Sportsmen appreciation ceremony. Guess we'll finally know who took over as the 2 Captains of the bowling team.

Don't really have much mood to update actually. This post is so fragmented and without a theme. Oh never mind!!

Ciao.

A negative programming

It seems like I've been involved in quite a few school related web stuff this past months. From the bowling blog to the school's anniversary website to the current alumni website which I have no time to complete till the end of my A level.

Talk about work.... The bowling site aren't that much a problem as its blogger based. However the other sites are quite an insomnia causing.
I can't believe I am going to say this, but I am starting to feel tired and nauseated from seeing codes.

Probably have to take a break from programming. coding a fully-fletched content management system, databases, maintenance tools as well as doing the graphics aren't a small feat. Especially when I have to do all those single-handedly with no one to turn to for help.

Stepping down doesn't mean totally abandon one's responsibility. I've wanted to relinquish all thoughts of intervening, but looks like I succumbed to temptation and stepped in.

Though I was asked to recover the pictures after the bowling team site mishap earlier this month, I've decided to contribute a final gift to the team, in the form of a brand new look for the site. I've given the site a "web 2.0" make-over, bringing that site up to be in line with the current trends in the web-design committee.

The theme, titled "bowl-a-lution" would add on to my list of XML templates to my collection, that would be my fifth, including all my works done on this blog (Risen Against Gravity).

Anyway, here is a screenshot of the site:


Or you to see the real thing, you can visit it at http://tjcstrikeforce.blogspot.com

Sigh.

On a sidenote, I've also decided to add a tagboard on this blog also.

Cherios.

Site Headaches

Many websites multiple headaches.
I can't list it here due to nature of these projects which are commissioned by certain parties....

My design juice just ran out. No inspiration for any design at all....

On top of that, the bowling website just got all the graphics, JavaScript removed. I don't know how will the current committee settle that. Don't say I didn't warn them on the impending deletion the other time. Too bad it wasn't heeded.

However, since my websites are designed for the LCF (Lowest Common Factor), the bowling website will continue working. Just that at a very basic level.

I really need a design inspiration. And also something to jump start my studying engine...
sheesh.

Stress-sify in Poems

Talk about stress... I can't believe I actually acceded the request. I don't even know if I'll gain something about of it. A recognition perhaps? but is it even worth it? Was I out of my mind to accept even though I aren't even sure that the prize dangled in front of me is going to materialize.

I just aren't sure about anything anymore.

What used to be my good subjects seem to be going in the opposite direction. I just aren't good quality of a sponge anymore. It seemed to have reached maximum capacity... The days when whatever I put in there usually stays in there. But that reality seems eons ago. It has become a new reality that things just flows out. Facts become hazy, and this is even before the haze season comes.

"The battle cry sounded. Cries for help ensues.
The future seems lost, deep within the forbidden forest.
Prayers are made. It looks as if in vain.

The light of dawn breaks, casting light in the shadowy realm,
Hopes must be rekindled amidst the coming battle.
The clangs of helmet, the sound of swords...
Onward we shall go. Into the battle for hope."
(GenSephyr)

A deprivation

Not the usual deprivation, but with the release of Book 7 of Harry Potter, I had to steer clear of forums and similar channels due to the spoliers that are posted all over the place.

Sighz. Still have to wait. People like me without pre-orders have to wait. Some stores didn't even display the book on the shelves.

That aside, this is really one bad weekend. Was incapacitated by PE lessons the other day. My left arm, which was fractured before, was rendered unable to bend fully or straighten fully. That came after after holding in "push-up" position for 2 over minutes, 60+ push-ups and 20 chin-ups/pull-ups....

One more day of rest before needing to return to school.

Anyway, to wrap up this post, here is a quote a found quite amusing and interesting...

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools" Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

A pain in the OS (operating system)

Put my thoughts into action. Finally ditched Windows XP. Ok.. I didn't really fully ditched it yet. However, I finally got my long awaited dual-boot system.

Installed Ubuntu. Actually was planning to use fedora. However, without an easy way to configure internet access, I turned to Ubuntu instead. However, Ubuntu is not without woes. Sadly, it doesn't support WPA well as I'm using a USB wireless adapter and the linux driver doesn't support it.

However, the results have been quite satisfying. Other than the occasional freezes, usually due to the keyboard malfunctioning as the driver support isn't that fantastic. However, I don't mind pressing the power button to reboot again as unlike booting into Windows, it doesn't take eons just to see the desktop. In fact, it takes me about 15 minutes to boot into Windows, waiting for all the services to fully load. Compared to that, Ubuntu loads in under a minute. This is probably due to the lower level of requirements to just run the base system.

Moreover, from my point of view, my Ubuntu installation seems to have more desktop effects, especially since I installed beryl, which emulates some of the Windows Vista features like ALT-TAB preview switching, thumbnail preview when you have minimized applications and also a 3D desktop with as many virtual desktops as you want.

Currently still learning how to use as most of the things, even some common things need to be done in the console/terminal (command prompt in Windows). However, security is and has always been higher as you don't get root access to system folders, a feature Windows recently adopted in Vista. I don't think I ever felt safe to enter the net without a firewall and anti-virus.

Anyway, here are some screenshots:

Main Desktop


Desktop 3D effects (desktop cube)

Weeks

Exams are over and we get a 4 day break until Monday which is erm... youth day? Yeah.. Something like that...

Finally got my website up and running.. Manage to get two domains... my main one at: http://fusedthoughts.x10hosting.com and a secondary one at http://fusedthoughts.googlepages.com. Althought currently, the x10 one doesn't work. I assume that the uptime for the googlepages one would be better although, it lacks full server benefits.

I never thought my computer had so much files. My C:\ Drive, which has 40Gb now has only 15GB left.. And thats when most of my files are on another partition. I desperately uninstalled over 10 programs and my free space count didn't improve much. I concluded that its all due to the every increasing number of updates for Microsoft Windows and Office... Its really getting out of hand. A base install of XP can take up so much space....

I've been thinking of dual-booting my system. Windows XP and Ubuntu or Kbuntu. I've haven't decided what I like better. The GNOME desktop environment. or K desktop environment (KDE).... Moreover, I'm a bit hesitant as one wrong installation move would require a re-installation of not only the Linux OS but Windows OS as well....

On a sidenote, yesterday was the last day of June and also the last day when Goods and Service Tax (G.S.T.) was at 5%. Starting today, G.S.T. is increased to 7%.

I went Vivocity yesterday. Got a programming book. My only programming book in like 5 years... Been always borrowing from the library. Its on Adobe Flex 2. Wanted to know it as it is integrated tightly with the upcoming Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) and I thought it would be interesting to get to know more about it. Got a 24% discount on the book. So I don't think its such a bad buy...

Oh wells. 2 more days of bliss before going back to school....

"There Is No Explanation" is an explanation

I was replying to a thread in STOMP forum when these thoughts suddenly came to me in my reply.

The phrase "There Is No Explanation" is, in itself, an explanation (GenSephyr)

Sounds weird? After thinking about it, you'll come to realize that it is quite true.
In one's life, there are countless experiences and sights we have seen, smelled, felt, heard etc. However, with each of these, a reason is sought. Questions like "why is that happening?" is always asked, especially by the young ones.

Whenever that question is asked, whether to ourselves or someone, the explanations given comes from one's experiences. More often than not, these explanations have scientific or religious backgrounds. However, what about those that aren't explained either by our religious or scientific reasonings or, taking it further, can't even be explained when you Google it or put it through some other search engines like Yahoo or Windows Live Search?
At that juncture, the answer to yourself would be "there is no explanation (for now)".

Let's take this out of context and give an example.

For example, in a Mathematics question. The teacher tells you that "a x b = |a||b|sinӨ" (its in the topic of vectors). You ask, how the formula came about. The teacher answers that it is too complicated to answer.
At this point, in order for you to accept that formula, the explanation behind the formula (for the student) would be "its too complicated to know".

Take this case above and put it in the previous context, wouldn't the phrase "there is no explanation" which is similar to "its too complex to know" be the explanation for the unexplained?

Don't know if I make sense here but, I'll just end here with you in thoughts (or maybe not)...

Milestones: Passing the baton

Its been a few days, (3 days to be precise), since the last training. Been enjoying myself these few days.

Yep. Thats right, I had my last training last Wednesday, May 30th. It marked the end of 6 years in bowling. Memories aplenty. I don't know to feel happy or sad.

May 30th, has, with it, another significance. It was the stepping down of the 2006-2007 Executive Committee of Bowling. I relinquished my post as the Secretary and the Webmaster of the Temasek JC bowling events and announcement website.

It seems not too far ago when I was propelled into the team, blur and all, not knowing many of my team-mates and I still remember my reluctance to go back into bowling after my stint in secondary school. However, I still don't know what enticed me back into it. Ok... Maybe I do know the reason... buried somewhere in my mind.... Its just that I don't want to admit it =P

Since that fateful first training, many things has happened...

Over 2 years, (slightly over 1 year to be precise), I've made some good calls, made some bad calls too.
Came up with a id system for attendance filing as well as my personal database for attendance (for my use only though).
Designed, implemented the website, brought most things online etc.
Although some were scrapped later, looking back, it wasn't really how effective it was, but rather, the process which was required before finding a suitable method was the part which was enjoyable and filled with learning points...
On top of that, there are also other learning points (HR and social for example), that just can't be put into words here...

Fast forward to last week, I've already been through another 2 National school's competitions, National Age Groups, other mini tournaments and stepped down from the competition scene for good (at least for now).

Its been days.. and I still don't know what to think.

Starting 31st May the new committee (2007-2008) has already taken over. All I can say is, congratulations to Darryl, Chris, Marcus, Yixuan, Natalie and Petrina, in forming the new committee.
May you bring the team to greater heights....

Migraine or is it?

Migraine. Or is it not. I don't know.
All I know My head is spinning in a circle as big as earth....

Probably due to a disturbed sleep pattern yesterday, when I woke up almost every 20minutes to half an hour.
Situation was exacerbated by staring at the Overhead Projector (OHP) and the PowerPoint projections during tutorial and lectures respectively. Much better now though. My eyes are like 20 times more tired when I stare at an OHP or projected screen as compared to using the computer.

I really dislike them. Nothing I can do though.

Hope tomorrows tournament goes well.

Anyway, lets end with a quote shall we??

Fighting isn't good. But if you must fight, WIN!

Cherios.

Ruling in favour of no blogs | Coding New Layout

Main

We've been banned.. or rather, discouraged from blogging anything related to the current ongoing tournament by the teacher in charge. So for now, nothing of that sort.

I don't usually blog anything about the Sport anyway... haha..

New Layout/Skin

On top of that, I'm working on a new skin. The drive for the layout/skin is different than the current one.

The current one, titled Primero(1st), is my first XML layout and also a trial to see what the new Blogger could do. Moreover, I wanted to see how a layout will look like, using just one image for the entire site. And the result was Primero(1st).

The new layout/skin will be of a less serious style than this one, based on the above banner picture which I put it there as a preview.

Its gonna be titled: "Desires: Secundus..."

Till the end of the tournament.

LOST: phone

What a week. I would say I attended my most expensive drama at VJC.

Ok. The drama is 8 bucks. However, the total cost to me incurred was, to be exact, over 600 bucks.

That value comes about from the lost of my W850i handphone in the cab. It was my error and mistake to actually drop my handphone in the cab. I didn't manage to get the Taxi car plate.

But from that I found out a few things.

1. The Taxi company, or to be precise, the Cab Driver, was quite unhelpful. Probably my luck to get one who was sighing loudly all the way from VJC to my house. The company sent a mass radio out to all the cabbies but got no reply. Wonder if he was the one who pocketed my phone.

2. I guess there are still many people who are dishonest and are greedy a**holes. The person who picked up my phone has the cheek to call, remain silent when I said hello and put down the phone and switch it off.
The person must have sold my handphone for a fat 300 bucks (I went to my Phone Provider to find out the trade-in price).

I have since disabled that line and got my Phone Provider to replace my SIM card and deactivate the other one before re-enabling my line again. Now I'm only worried about the data in the Phone and Memory card.

To make matter's worse, I got a phone call from an indecent Chat line which I slammed the phone down at.
(Figure of speech. I can't risk destroying my old handphone that I'm using now - from 6 years ago, or I'll have none left to use)..

I have already reported the lost of the phone as well as the phone's IMEI number to the Police. The person better not try anything funny.

Cur*** that person who found my phone and didn't return it.
Hope that person gets struck by lightning or something.
Or better still, lose all his/her money.

I know I'm harsh here... But I just too heartbroken and angry.

On a side note, my National Schools tournament begins tomorrow.
Hope I aren't too affected by this....
For the sake of myself and my school, I must "Get My Head In The Game!";

Lesson learnt: Sleep properly.

One lesson learnt: Sleep properly.

It wasn't fun to have to move around the place with a sprained neck. Feels like a robot. Made things worse when I went for P.E. in the morning. Left my neck almost paralyzed on Friday. Had to skip school.

No choice. Can't escape forever. I must be out of my mind, but went for training today. Bowled close to six games in 3 hours. Now my neck hurts like crazy.

Ouch...

Project Work

Project Work results are out on Friday.

The word Project Work somewhat bred enthusiasm in me last year.
However, after Friday's Result release I only have one word for it: Unjustified.

In all fairness, I didn't do that badly. Some say I should be happy with it. However, the fact that it wasn't an A still resonates. In fact I feel quite unjustified that our entire group no one got an A. The time put in just wasn't reflect in the final results.

Sigh.. all the unfairness of the world...

Powerpoint woes

I guess many may have read, in the recent Digital Life (Straits Times April 10 2007) a study done by Australian researchers show that the use of PowerPoint Presentations, is actually making it harder for students to process information.

The above findings is contrary to the previous stand of many that PowerPoint Presentations are helpful and thus aid students in studying. This is due to the research finding stating that the "human brain retains more information if digested in verbal or written form, but not both simultaneously." (the quote was quoted ad verbatim from The Straits Times, Digital Life, Page 27)..

This finding is in support of what students have already feedback to teachers. The use of PowerPoint exacerbates what is already boring. It makes interesting lessons boring and boring lessons worse.

The situation is made alot worse when the presenter already dumped all the information on the PowerPoint slides and is just reading from it. This coupled with the fact that every other PowerPoint presentation looks the same as it comes from the same set of templates is just unbearable.

To be fair, PowerPoint can be a good supplementary tool for teaching. However, the use of PowerPoint for everything is simply distasteful. In my opinion, it should not be used as a main medium for teaching. It really cuts out the interaction and excitement of a lecture.

But what really marvels me is that why does it need to take a study to prove a point? I believe by now, many students would have complained about excessive use of PowerPoints in school. So the question becomes "Why wait so long for the study?"... "Are things going to change now that the study is out?"

The answer to those questions lie outside my scope...

One Errr... Week

Its one err... week. Can't find a word to fit in there.

It wasn't fantastic, neither was it so horrible. Probably next week will be worse with all the tests cramped into that space of 4 days (Friday is good Friday).

No handphone now as it is in the Repair center. Went to get that Service Provider customizations out. So troublesome. Wished the service provider didn't customize the phone in the first place. The Service provider replaced the Menu button with a shortcut to GPRS button.. So irritating. Always end up having to pay for data charges at the end of the month because of accidental access. Especially infuriating is when u finish a call and hang up, if the other party hang up faster than you, there is a chance that u will access GPRS because the end call button is the GPRS button after the customization. Really was a dis-service.

Got some interesting views to post... But too lazy to complete it.

I set up a satellite blog, which is aimed at documenting interesting technology (software) finds and useful tips among others... it is located at http://tech-no-borders.blogspot.com/

Thats all for now.. ciao.

New Week

This is the start of a new week... And darn. Our timetables have changed like countless times.. lets just hope it is now confirmed...

Anyway, just recovered abit from the last bout of sickness... Hope it stays that way.. Don't want to miss school again....

Anyway, I am thinking of starting a tech blog documenting new software finds, website or other useful tips I found... haha..

Can't be online long... got Biology SPA tomorrow...

Chinese Results

A Level Chinese results are out yesterday. Shan't comment. Did relatively well.. However, still not happy with it.

Well, I've found some topics to write about for my new blog posts... some of them are from the show, The Arena. However, commentaries are quite long.. taking sometime to write it out as well as ensure that nothing can be misinterpreted...

Thats all for now...

Paradox

There are always somethings which is just paradoxical

Like the sentence on Wikipedia: “This sentence is false” (The liar paradox).

A paradox is an apparently true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox)

There are many experiences that results in a paradoxical situation that one may not be able to describe or put in words. It just seems so awkward and sometimes confusing.

Another example would be: “If truth does not exist, the statement ‘truth does not exist’ is a truth, thereby proving itself incorrect.” (Nihilist paradox taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes)

Sidetracking.. ok.. actually still on topic....recent events followed by a reflection lead to me to conclude with this quote....

“We have to (learn how to) Let Go in order to Hold On (to something)....” (GenSephyr)

Paradoxical? Ironical? But quite true if you think about it... Many of these quotes depends on how you see it, or from what “angle” you look at it.

(N.B. and disclaimer: If you find any quote here in this post anywhere else (which is recognized to have been said by any person long time ago) but not cited properly, ... inform me so I can do the relevant citation or changes to include proper citation to the correct person... but for now, I take credit for the last quote about Letting Go... )