tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-286399482012-01-25T09:11:50.415+08:00An eclectic mix of thoughts and views on life and life-at-large, and interesting observations both in real life and in cyberspace, as well as other sparks of inspiration. Take things here with a pinch of salt, for they might be truth, yet at the same time, they are less formal than they seem to be…The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.comBlogger7511100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-48461992298285834762012-01-25T09:02:00.002+08:002012-01-25T09:11:50.424+08:00

I know that this entry is definitely too late compared to the usual time that I put this up, but bear with me. This time period has been quite difficult. The year that just past me was one that was fraught with many difficult decisions that needed to be made, and really, I am still in many ways trying to get to come to grips with all that I have to deal with.But as always, I think that I have

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-72647677509702399752012-01-11T04:25:00.003+08:002012-01-11T04:30:48.040+08:00

I think... that time has never been on my side. I have known this for a while now, but I think I have been living in denial for a little too long. Running, hiding, trying to escape the inevitable.The time to confront it is now.The time for change... is now.It's time to discard that fake-happy side of me and sink back to that morose persona that had served me pretty well for quite a long time,

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-7897096844519064432012-01-02T13:06:00.004+08:002012-01-11T04:24:58.667+08:00

Alright, now that I am feeling sufficiently light-headed from reaching that partially awake/asleep state, it is time for another round of automatic writing where I end up ranting whatever that comes to mind without actually trying to preprocess of censor it [much].It has been a strange fortnight. Even though there are no classes, there's always research to be done, where I spent my time reading

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-43666330927546831082012-01-02T02:23:00.002+08:002012-01-02T02:45:23.598+08:00

So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2011:70 poems posted here79 essays/rants posted here6 prose/stories posted here1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available hereAnd thus the grand total here is 156 articles, down from the 214 articles in 2010.That's an average of 0.43 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.59 last year. Again, we see a general downward trend in the amount of leisurely writing

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-67058925066325857202011-12-23T00:09:00.002+08:002011-12-23T00:14:51.059+08:00

``A rolling stone gathers no moss.''I suppose that's why I am the way I am now. While many might be happy with the lot of life they are given, I'm never one to accept my fate as is, always wanting to fight upwards and onwards, even if this means that I have to leave behind communities of people just to take on the next step of my journey. Maybe I'm more mercenary than I thought, maybe I'm more

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-88961811074654816932011-12-21T00:59:00.005+08:002011-12-21T01:37:43.099+08:00

Alright, the inspiration for NaNoWriMo 2011. Unlike the previous two stories (A Slice of Life with a Twist of Lemon and Towards Cacophony) that formed a series on their own, this one is of a completely new flavour. The major difference here is that there is only one very obvious protagonist, as opposed to the two different people (Heng Kar and Kah Hao) of the previous novels. I have kept the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-24334856688771121232011-12-21T00:52:00.004+08:002011-12-21T01:03:31.859+08:00

It feels like a while since I wrote anything here, and so here I am now.This month is strange, in the sense that in the beginning of the first half of the month, I was rather existential, wondering about a lot of things regarding why I was here and all the usual things that being existential entailed. Then when things seem Worst, a light shone upon the path that I should take, and now here I am,

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-72289213601228213482011-12-12T13:16:00.003+08:002011-12-12T13:33:04.796+08:00

Funny how when I'm ``trapped'' in my apartment/room I actually have so much to talk about on my blogs. Actually, come to think of it, it isn't really funny but quite sad, and is probably systematic in terms of what it entails. It is not that I don't want to be in the office/lab to get stuff done---it's cold out, I'm running out of clothes because of a lack of laundry time and I have a nice set

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-834745388379756752011-12-11T04:38:00.002+08:002011-12-11T04:48:17.561+08:00

It has begun:粉雪------レミオロメン粉雪舞う季節はいつもすれ違い人ごみに紛れても同じ空見てるのに風に吹かれて似たように凍えるのに僕は君のすべてなど知ってはいないだろうそれでも一億人から君を見つけたよ根拠はないけど本気で思ってるんだ些細な言い合いもなくて同じ時間を生きてなどいけない素直になれないなら喜びも悲しみも空しいだけ僕は君の心に耳を押し当ててその声のする方へすっと深くまで降りてゆきたいそこでもう一度会おう分かり合いたいなんて上辺を撫でていた（なでていた）のは僕のほう君の悴んだ（かじかんだ）手も握り閉めることだけで繋がってたのに粉雪ねえ永遠を前にあまりに脆くざらつくアスファルトの上染みになってゆくよ粉雪ねえ時に頼りなく心は揺れるそれでも僕は君のこと守り続けたい粉雪ねえ心まで白く染められたなら２人の孤独を包んで空に返すからLyrics courtesy Anime

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-5057870254668470442011-12-11T01:06:00.002+08:002011-12-11T01:23:03.329+08:00

What a week of self-doubt. I can never understand why I am such a walking paradox---on the one hand I have a pretty good idea of what I want to accomplish, yet on the other hand I find myself seemingly faltering and failing at every opportunity. So awkward and weird.At times I start wondering, am I really as smart and as hardworking as I think myself to be? Are the methods that I'm employing

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-7469992772557897532011-12-04T13:44:00.002+08:002011-12-04T13:56:59.490+08:00

Of course history's patterns are starting to reveal unto themselves once more. Maybe I'm too cynical, maybe it is an early onset of SAD, but whatever it is, I am somewhat rudely reminded about things that happened here and there.Today was a nice day out, I met up with the Champaign-Urbana group of NaNoWriMo-ers for lunch at a nice TGIO party before heading for Jujitsu training for the belt test.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-42719067796585843752011-12-02T22:34:00.002+08:002011-12-02T22:39:06.215+08:00

Ah the cold. Having previously lived in Morewood Gardens the last time I was in the US, the internal temperature had always been kept at a toasty 75 degrees Fahrenheit (~23 degrees Celsius). Now that I'm living on my own, the cost of the heater is starting to sink in. At the current rate, the cost is roughly 0.618 per thermal unit, and for the last month, when the external temperature is

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-1654734266482160902011-11-30T12:01:00.004+08:002011-11-30T12:21:16.020+08:00

Ah. Now that the tyranny that is NaNoWriMo is finally done for me for this year, it is time to relieve a little stress from it all by bitching a little bit more about life here.So, what has happened in November other than NaNoWriMo? Lots of things. I came to several realisations about my own nature, and have come to terms about some of these rather startling properties. Being the curious l'il

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-86752730605779508552011-11-30T10:50:00.001+08:002011-11-30T10:52:32.067+08:00

65,502 words later, I am done. Had a good momentum doing it this year though personally I think the story line might be a little bland.As usual, grab the manuscript from my domain. I'll fill in more details here some time in the future when I have a little more time on my hands.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-89254730486718337222011-11-26T23:33:00.002+08:002011-11-26T23:53:31.004+08:00

At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, I realise that sometimes, it is not about how powerful a device you have, but how you actually use it.I was thinking about this from several perspectives for a while now. Slide rules were of a different power class than electronic calculators, and lots of good work have come out of those (remember the space race? That was fought with slide rules). In a

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-49173487642328062842011-11-17T02:00:00.003+08:002011-11-17T02:02:42.486+08:00

Suppose that you are writing a piece-wise function in LaTeX. How do you go about doing it? The trick is to make use of the \begin{cases} ... \end{cases} environment within Math mode. This particular environment acts like a n-row by 2-column array generating a big `{' on the left side for the grouping of the piece-wise function parts. Since this environment acts like an array, don't forget to

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-2776973504401683812011-11-15T10:05:00.002+08:002011-11-15T10:18:19.217+08:00

To the few folks who still ardently follow this little blog of mine, I humbly apologise for the general lack of updates in a while. You see, this is the month of November, and traditionally (for the last two to three years at least) it is the time where I go on that suicide mission known as NaNoWriMo. Some of the more astute among you will probably ask the question that I sometimes ask myself:

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-86877977046145011722011-11-11T21:41:00.004+08:002011-11-11T21:52:57.923+08:00

I first talked about ImageMagick some time back here, but I think it is cool to talk about it once more.So I'm currently using LaTeX as a means of keeping an electronic research journal. I like using LaTeX because of two advantages:Everything is text, so I can make use of a version control system to track changes.I have the full expression of equations and the what-not in the same manner as I

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-85126409086453174372011-10-30T23:00:00.004+08:002011-11-14T13:01:32.545+08:00

Apparently I have a penchant of dealing myself really really hard hands and running with it. This comes from the decision to take part in this year's NaNoWriMo. Due to their site change, you can track my progress here instead. I'll update the widget counter when it is available.It's going to be yet another slice-of-life with a little bit more action than the last two novels. I think I will

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-2575723620803787432011-10-28T00:15:00.002+08:002011-10-28T00:19:59.836+08:00

So let's see. I've been in the US since Aug 13, 2011, and for all practical purposes and intents, I haven't really been mingling with the local Singapore populace. I suppose being a graduate student means that one's priorities are different as compared to when one was still an undergraduate. That and the fact that as a graduate student, I have an office to spend the day in to get some thinking

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-73394659151780920562011-10-24T23:12:00.003+08:002011-10-25T04:00:55.088+08:00

November is coming, and I'm still debating with myself whether I should take part in this year's NaNoWriMo, considering everything. I mean, I have Eiko with me now, and should serve as an incentive to help push things forward, but somehow I am scared that I might just run out of time to get all things that need to be done while doing NaNoWriMo.Oh choices, choices.I do have a story to tell for

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-58453256695163434092011-10-17T22:25:00.005+08:002011-10-17T22:31:41.665+08:00

Having weird ``infinity'' symbols for bullets when opening some PDF on some flavour of Ubuntu? It turns out it has to do with a bug with the symbol.ttf font. Here's how to rectify it (as gotten from here).If you don't have fontforge, install it first withsudo apt-get install fontforgeOpen up symbol.ttf in fontforge. On my system, it is located at /usr/share/fonts/truetype/

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-23551755320665481092011-10-09T13:44:00.002+08:002011-10-09T13:58:08.478+08:00

在美国的读书生涯中，我几乎从来没有特别想家的感觉。不过在这两个星期内，我不禁回想着家。或许是生活太复杂吧，还是最近的种种错则而导致我出现想家的念头。家是个很奇怪的一个组织：当你和家人在一起时，有时会出现种种默察，而这会导致你觉得你的家人似乎在整你。不过，一旦你离开了家，不久后你就会产生想家的念头。可能是人生常情吧，每个人都需要有一种归属感，而家就是能产生个人归属感的一个东西。当你最需要人关怀的时候，你就会想起家。或许在这深造的生活方式太紧张了吧，也可能是因为我最近又受了伤之类的，所以我会想起家。以前的我简直不把家的重要性放在眼里，如今我觉得除了家以外就再也没有设么重要的东西了。有个家的归属感的感觉最好。好了，我累了，错别字好像有要重出江湖了。我看我因该去休息一下，这么一来我就有精力来挑战未来。

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-41762030691551633732011-10-09T13:12:00.002+08:002011-10-09T13:36:17.830+08:00

Ahem.I lay there within my half-opened casket, serene as a man can ever be. Right there next to my glass-covered top, my aged but still lovely wife weeps to herself. Oh the sorrow, the pain! Yet she maintains her dignified poise, melancholy notwithstanding. Comforting her with an arm around her shoulders is my eldest daughter, lovely, tall and dressed in the deepest black that one could think

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-42736865887078406552011-10-08T21:43:00.003+08:002011-10-08T21:49:47.595+08:00

It's yet another Saturday morning, and again I'm sitting at my study desk next to the window, the only time that I can get decent illumination from this desk. That corneal abrasion episode took away a good chunk of my time as I shuttled to and fro doctors, instilled eyedrops like clockwork, worrying about how scary the final bill will be, worrying about how all these down time is affecting my

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-53438054274599387362011-10-07T06:43:00.001+08:002011-10-07T10:49:01.335+08:00

The nightmare of 2+ weeks is just reaching the end, and none too soon I might add.A day-long travel out to Bloomington, Illinois is nothing to scoff at, considering that it is a 60-mile journey one-way from Champaign-Urbana. Factoring in the fear of the unknown meant that I added a generous buffer to the overall time that I was willing to spend out here in Bloomington before hopping on the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-51860057459903090602011-10-04T23:11:00.003+08:002011-10-04T23:26:59.785+08:00

There are some days in my life that I wish I were dead or non-existent, and it seems that today is the day.I went back to the optometrist today expecting good news. Well in some senses, I did, as the wound is healed at 99%. Except that 1%, that lousy last 1%. Something wrong with that 1%---it wasn't healing fast enough; that 1% was at the periphery of my corneal flap. Maybe some epithelial

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-62344339381995527622011-10-03T22:47:00.002+08:002011-10-03T23:09:51.967+08:00

Break my arm and I can still work with the other one, albeit slowly.Break my leg and I just limp about, working mostly unimpaired, though I probably need to watch my weight from lack of activity.But bust my eye and my spirit is broken, having neither the will nor the ability to actually see what I'm doing and thus get things done in a smooth fashion.That last statement is basically how I have

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-33741111197736471662011-09-25T00:39:00.003+08:002011-09-25T01:01:58.863+08:00

In the office/lab on a Saturday morning---not my kind of weekend morning, but it suffices given the situation that I'm in. I'm kind of delayed by a few days of work this week because I had to deal with the pressing issue of a right corneal abrasion that I think I sustained from a rather vigorous training session on Monday evening.It's funny how one doesn't really care about something before

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-22109293960771983682011-09-15T12:42:00.002+08:002011-09-15T12:59:25.973+08:00

While on the one hand I'm really glad to have gotten my driver's licence in Singapore, I'm still tardying a little with regards to getting the state licence in Illinois. Well, I technically still have around 60 days to get it, but that's not a major problem---it's not a problem at all. Driving is of course a most useful skill, but the maintenance and usage of the car is something that needs to

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-53430243187350359542011-09-12T12:53:00.003+08:002011-09-12T12:55:37.781+08:00

If you are on Windows 7, and after performing some update, suddenly realise that you cannot see any of your non-Latin characters in your applications when you once could, try this out. Use Win+F2 and type "C:\Windows\Fonts" and press enter. Under "Font settings", make sure that the option "Hide fonts based on language settings" is unchecked. Then, reboot. Things should work okay after that,

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-20705227934996369002011-08-28T11:05:00.000+08:002011-08-28T11:06:05.048+08:00

Phew, the first week of classes are finally done. I really wanted to write this entry a couple of days back, but somehow things always cropped up and I find myself having to abandon the various attempts on writing a decent entry here. Of course, I have Q10 handy for the ``just write'' type of writing that I seek, so this entry gets done that way. The first thing that one notices when one is in

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-2867312839970374472011-08-18T12:26:00.002+08:002011-08-18T12:40:25.053+08:00

So, okay, while it may not be obvious at all here, I am actually in UIUC right now. That's right, my PhD journey has finally started officially, and I am now settling into my apartment and getting back the whole groove of studying once more. A PhD programme is different from that of the BSc---the whole purpose is to emerge from the programme being a much better researcher than what I once was,

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-90563319223583346152011-08-18T10:13:00.003+08:002011-08-18T12:26:35.225+08:00

Ah driving. It is a very liberating feeling to finally have the license to operate a motor vehicle. Having had my license about a month ago, I took the opportunity to rent a car for about a month to drive around and get used to the road experience. And this entry chronicles the sights, sounds and experiences that I had from that little foray. Driving in Singapore is a rather mixed bag of

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-20998859086456317432011-08-14T02:17:00.001+08:002011-08-14T02:18:16.713+08:00

Earlier on Saturday, while waiting for some friends for geocaching:The mere fact that there are multiple entries under this SMS musings tag should be an indication that I'm spending a lot of time waiting for people to arrive. What I mean is that the only reason why I write these entries is merely to pass the time a little faster during the wait, so that I don't get too bored to the point that I

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-40689906120992898432011-08-11T14:20:00.002+08:002011-08-11T14:20:35.425+08:00

While waiting outside a building...Sometimes one cannot help but feel helpless in the face of things, especially when it all seems ready to overwhelm oneself. There is just too many variables that we have no control over, yet somehow life must still go on. Even the few things that we seemingly have control over turns out to be mostly a sham. If all of us do not really have true power over our

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-84164258462646614952011-08-09T00:42:00.000+08:002011-08-09T00:43:39.328+08:00

While at Zirca earlier today for an exhibition:It is kinda strange to be sitting on the top floor of a club and penning this down as a heavy beat is going on from the dance floor below. I suppose it would be a little odd to claim that the music is putting me to sleep, but it is true. The only reason I'm even still awake is all thanks to ConnectBot on the Android, which allows me to connect via

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-12750021799705429332011-08-06T11:00:00.000+08:002011-08-07T23:56:25.299+08:00

While waiting at the carpark of Venus Drive prior to a MacRitchie Reservoir Park hike/geocaching trip:At the risk of jinxing myself, what was supposed to be an easy 25-minute drive became an hour of horror as I kept making one wrong turn after another to the point that it was fucktardly stupid. How the blazes did I screw up so badly in spite of having read the gorram map multiple times? I think

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-47519797146895571092011-07-26T09:25:00.004+08:002011-10-08T01:27:26.885+08:00

I'm starting a new series of articles labelled ``funereal''. It sounds morbid, but really it is one of those ``start with the end goal in sight'' kind of things. Each time an article is tagged with the ``funereal'' tag, it represents my vision of what happens at my funeral at that point in time. Might prove to be an interesting psychological experiment.Ahem.There was muted silence all about as

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-81372832658846238422011-07-24T23:36:00.001+08:002011-07-24T23:38:10.952+08:00

While on the train, I just had that inclination to write something that occurred recently, and so here it is:You would think that by now I would be used to the whole idea of going it alone, but I suppose I'm still human after all. These few days I have been interacting with one too many couples and it has a somewhat negative effect on me. I find myself a tad more anxious than usual, and

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-65694566787830567072011-07-12T14:58:00.002+08:002011-07-12T15:06:29.490+08:00

Funny how things end up. Here I am about to embark on another leg of my life's journey, and instead of feeling excited, I feel tired.Tired! For goodness sake, why am I feeling tired? This makes as much sense as the cow that refuses to eat grass, or the eagle that doesn't fly, or... well you get the idea.Maybe it's the cubicle I'm in. It's too restrictive, too cramped. Or it could be the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-80425805845194282352011-06-26T01:35:00.002+08:002011-06-26T02:09:25.195+08:00

Once more I find myself writing yet another blog entry on a late night session. There is clearly something different about the night as compared to the day that makes updating my own blog a little more intimate, even though I don't really do much editing in either case. But as usual, I digress a little.I think that one thing that I'm starting to get used to is the flux of life. Life is

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-9431493434564972402011-06-23T00:44:00.002+08:002011-06-23T01:06:47.493+08:00

What if today you stopped and attempted to validate that your life was indeed worth living. What kind of conclusions would you draw?So up to this point, I think that life for me, in general, has been worth living. At the very least, I can claim that I have loved and was loved, possess some non-trivial talents, and have a decent looking future-that-is-not-über-boring---pretty good deal, really.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-26153704592024023532011-06-19T23:25:00.003+08:002011-06-20T00:06:31.739+08:00

Man, what a week. You know that you are having the time of your life when you start to lose track of how time flies. And of course, by what I said, I don't mean just the fun stuff---I do mean the work stuff too.Previous Saturday was grand, I went out with a couple of fellow geocachers to do a few geocaches in the middle of the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve region. Man, that one was a blast, since

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-51437439960882133472011-06-04T23:05:00.004+08:002011-06-04T23:24:53.103+08:00

Well, well, well, it is a Saturday night, and it's just me and Mr JD here chillaxin' in the summer heat.*takes a sip*Some might say that it is a terrible day to be drinking any form of hard liquor, but I'm known to make some rather irrational decisions from time to time as part of filling up my quota of ``erring to be human''.*takes another sip*On the way home today, I realised a sad truth---I

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-44344619548080094692011-06-03T00:23:00.003+08:002011-06-03T00:50:38.334+08:00

You know something? It is really strange that people who don't talk to you for long periods of time are still somehow keeping track of you, if only in a cursory manner. But what annoys me the most is that these people will still happily click on that spammy ``invite all your friends'' link to add me to their social network.Eh, why the hell do you add someone to your ``social network'' when you

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-70633756024314611942011-05-30T23:47:00.003+08:002011-05-30T23:57:01.147+08:00

And I now have yet another reason to avoid imbibing too much caffeine and alcohol. I swear that my demeanour changes pretty drastically when either concoctions are taken beyond a certain level, and more often than not, it is one where I become more morose and maudlin. Well, it is not to say that my usual manner is very jovial (it isn't that jovial), but at least it is something that is passable

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-28454095018677073932011-05-30T13:03:00.002+08:002011-05-30T13:26:32.164+08:00

I think that my tolerance to caffeine is at an all time low. I'm actually pretty light-headed at the moment, considering that I had only taken about 200ml of strong coffee at around 8am in the morning, which is a good five hours ago. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but it seems to have the same effect on me as alcohol, in the sense that my brain feels less grounded in reality and more ``

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-86414293986650405222011-05-30T08:42:00.002+08:002011-05-30T09:19:46.404+08:00

I'm not much of a fan of sleeping a lot, but there are times where I actually appreciate a good night's rest just so that I can feel a little more rested than usual. Of course, one of the side effects of having enough sleep is that I dream, and we all know my views on that matter (I don't like dreaming since I can remember most of the dreams that I have, and since dreams represent to a degree

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-44055718773163524562011-05-28T00:53:00.002+08:002011-05-28T01:19:59.841+08:00

It's late at night, and looks like it just me, an imaginary tequila, and my trusty Eileen with which I use to write all these things here. To be had, I have actually been doing a lot of observing in between all these posts, and I suppose it is time to just unload the entire barrage of words here to cleanse it out of my mind.V guvax V nz fgnegvat gb unir n cubovn gbjneqf gur ragver pbaprcg bs

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-30485004521661681822011-05-27T13:02:00.004+08:002011-05-27T13:16:05.543+08:00

With little delay:Koop Island Blues—​⁠—Koop featuring Ane BrunHello my loveIt's getting cold on this islandI'm sad aloneI'm so sad on my ownThe truth isWe were much too youngNow I'm looking for youOr anyone like youWe said goodbyeWith the smile on our facesNow you're aloneYou're so sad on your ownThe truth isWe run out of timeNow you're looking for meOr anyone like meNa na na na...Hello my

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-27758468254088835022011-05-27T00:20:00.003+08:002011-05-27T00:31:41.174+08:00

If there is one thing in the world that I allow myself to hate, it would have to be the idea of being maligned.I hate being maligned. I have said this before a good four-ish years ago, but things have a strange way of repeating themselves in cycles, whether or not we realise it. Being maligned is one of the most annoying and asinine acts that people can do to me. I can tolerate anger, I can

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-31156312084777985692011-05-26T11:04:00.001+08:002011-05-26T11:05:33.218+08:00

One day while waiting for someone, I started writing a fragment on my cellphone using the SMS interface. Here it is:And some days you wonder if life were a dream, and that everything that you ever knew were merely illusions. It becomes hard to decipher what truly is real and what isn't, and slowly, you learn to just accept whatever is present before you. But each time a deja vu strikes, you

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-1168683623334415092011-05-23T15:10:00.003+08:002011-05-23T15:24:47.664+08:00

What can be the most annoying thing that one has to put up with in real life?The answer is surprisingly simple---it is the waiting. Waiting can be thought of as an unintended break; a break because while waiting, there is little else that one can do, and unintended because most of the time, it is the circumstances that dictate we end up waiting.It does not help that in this time and age that we

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-66917122330113103132011-05-18T10:10:00.002+08:002011-05-18T10:27:21.376+08:00

For a person who has been largely confined to a mostly indoor existence, it would appear quite strange that I would partake in a large variety of outdoor activities. While I'm not an extreme outdoor activities person, over the course of these few months, I realise that I am actually more sporty than I realise I ever could be.Circumstances back in the day dictated that I had to refrain from

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-69142842596108795822011-05-16T16:53:00.003+08:002011-05-18T10:10:26.502+08:00

As I was sitting in the food court having a spicy meal of mutton curry, my mind drifted to and fro and in and out of consciousness. And then, something struck me as being odd.The current system of democratic elections as practised by most of the civilised world seem to bias itself towards a local optimum as opposed to a global optimum system, what with the need to first elect members of

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-38288589237314282742011-05-10T00:11:00.005+08:002011-05-10T08:22:17.928+08:00

*cracks knuckles*So, not too long ago, Singapore just underwent yet another General Election. This time round, there were a few surprises, and quite a few upsets, and the overall activity level relating to this has been on a high. When it comes to politics of course, everyone has something to say, and I am of no exception.However, I am just going to say a few general observations here about the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-12740657339911838882011-05-09T00:58:00.003+08:002011-05-09T01:08:20.999+08:00

It's strange that when I had an official opportunity to do lots of jungle bashing, I wasn't able, and now that I'm off the whole NSF system, I'm actually actively picking jungles to bash.No, that wasn't a mistake---I have been picking jungles to bash through just for the sheer fun of seeking some geocache that is located right in the middle of the said jungle.Jungle bashing from a civilian

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-83332950929231889582011-05-03T16:48:00.003+08:002011-05-03T17:18:16.377+08:00

Heh. I know that my blog isn't a very famous one, but it's still a good conduit for me to vent out my thoughts on issues that I see these days.One of the questions that some teenagers might be thinking about is this: which scholarship should I go on for my further studies? In a somewhat tangential method to address this questions, let me try to debunk some myths that people might have about

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-45387790013142564702011-04-24T15:31:00.003+08:002011-04-24T15:49:15.107+08:00

Twenty days have passed since the last entry here, and while I don't know who is really following this blog, I think I might owe my hidden audience an update or two ever so often.Much can occur in twenty days, and it is of no difference now. Over the last twenty days, I have done the following (in no particular order):Met up with the ``new generation'' geocachers at an eventBought a new 箫 and 笛子

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-87487396593398918392011-04-02T08:01:00.006+08:002011-04-04T16:16:59.473+08:00

What is the taste of failure? Is it completely bitter, or does it taste of forlornness as well? Is there any other thing that ``tastes'' worse than failure? Does anyone know?Failure is something that most people strive to avoid, just because it is the representation of a lack of an achievement, and that it is also the manifestation of the supposed inability. Such a notion is so ingrained in

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-55244693129121590742011-04-02T08:00:00.000+08:002011-04-02T08:01:38.080+08:00

If you have any problems with downloading any of the digital download versions of Blizzard Entertainment's games, try to use Internet Explorer for a change instead of Firefox.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-21505545490079904892011-03-27T21:03:00.002+08:002011-03-27T21:30:59.776+08:00

I swear that I'm not that moody a person, and that each time I choose to update this by writing an article or two, it's only because I have something nasty to get out of my mind so that it can recover. Oh, and I swear that being half-deaf is the most annoying thing that one can feel.And why is it that I'm now half-deaf? All thanks to the middle ear infection that I have had to deal with over

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-48808310789304144872011-03-16T13:51:00.003+08:002011-03-16T14:53:32.953+08:00

So, instead of working on my slides for a presentation that is due some time in the morning of tomorrow, I find myself thinking about really random things as I try to focus my thoughts on the order of presentation that I am striving to attain. And among all the random things that come to mind from being part sleep-deprived and part sick is this simple question: why am I always attracted to the `

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-70898394452013343202011-03-14T17:31:00.003+08:002011-03-14T17:40:34.323+08:00

Okay, so this is a mostly unplanned entry (not that the other entries are any more planned), but I suppose I just feel like talking random things today.I think as a whole I'm just getting very very tired about a lot of things. Everything seems to be coming in large droves, and at times, it does feel a little overwhelming, though it hasn't gotten to the point that I feel like crying for help yet.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-68540164302583489392011-03-14T01:59:00.000+08:002011-03-14T01:59:00.304+08:00

Oh, and happy Pi day!

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-86040093275090298172011-03-14T01:52:00.002+08:002011-03-14T01:54:16.371+08:00

To work around the bug where all you can see are shadows and the ``sky'' in Neverwinter Nights 2, use ` to get to the console, and then type the following:debugmode 1sky 0debugmode 0This will switch off the sky box rendering and allow the normal textures to show. Don't worry, you don't really miss much by removing the sky box.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-1836267365037264602011-03-14T01:03:00.003+08:002011-03-14T01:41:08.638+08:00

So today as I sat in front of Eileen, my new portable gaming rig, a thought came to mind---just what was it that drives people to do the crazy things that they do ever so often, and more importantly, why they sometimes end up turning away from the very thing that gave them the biggest pleasure in the first place to work on something that is, comparatively speaking, more mundane?Of course, this

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-24684924080517768702011-03-03T00:34:00.002+08:002011-03-03T00:45:53.469+08:00

You know it is wonky when I start to write in such a hurried manner at this time of the night on a week day evening.``Drained'' probably doesn't quite start to explain the general affect that I am feeling these days. Over the past two to three weeks, I have started on an isolationist quest of sorts, removing myself steadily away from most of the semi-coerced social interactions. It is quite an

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-34144967806361209302011-02-23T00:01:00.002+08:002011-02-23T00:14:05.559+08:00

情为何物？人与人之间，非需要情不可？父子与母子情又如何解释？人间为何那么多苦？人为何不知足？好人为何无好报？我心为何打烊？爱为何不长久？结了婚为何又闹分离？爱情难道无法长久永恒？天为何戏弄百姓？世界政治为何那么零乱？天灾又为什么有增加的趋势？我为什么孤独一身而过？钱真得那么重要吗？我为何整天觉得自己笨手笨脚的？我为什么又哭了？男人真的不可以落泪吗？我是否疯了……

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-32763588933482348862011-02-20T22:27:00.004+08:002011-02-23T00:01:08.146+08:00

I have been debating about writing this entry for quite a while now, but I suppose the feeling innate me to write something has prevailed after all. And so, a depressing entry awaits you, the intrepid reader (no more of that ``blogder'' nonsense).This world has no such thing as mercy. The very essence of mercy is a human created concept, just like the ideas of justice and generosity. If the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-51755543673095544212011-02-16T15:24:00.002+08:002011-02-16T15:31:40.176+08:00

I tried looking for this version of the song online, but the best I had was by a different singer.His version is very different from what ​蔡辛娟 sang---I prefer her version better since there's that strong wistful feel that he seems to be lacking. The lyrics themselves are meaningful on their own too, something that seems quite ripe for the season.《望天》⁠⁠——​

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-18415461442477359982011-02-14T17:15:00.002+08:002011-02-14T17:18:19.866+08:00

As I said, the only friend you can rely on is yourself, and in this case, your memories.《他的名字叫回忆》⁠—​⁠—​千百惠我有一个好伙伴他的名字叫回忆他是一个诚挚不变的朋友不管黎明到黄昏或是黑夜到白昼常会为我捕捉往日的快乐他是如此的执着他是这样关心我始终住在我心深处的角落不论我走到哪里他就跟我到哪里让我一点也不觉得寂寞每当别的朋友都离去他却会自愿留在我身边给我安慰填补我空虚他是我最好的朋友回忆Lyrics courtesy www.inkui.com.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-10482116381495945852011-02-05T15:11:00.002+08:002011-02-05T15:30:46.438+08:00

Today, another thought struck me: fealty... feverish fervour for foolishness?While it is an obvious alliteration, the ideas that come from its utterence is something that I have been pondering about for quite a while. ``Fealty'', to the uninitiated, is the idea of loyalty or faithfulness, while ``feverish fervour'' refers to the concept of being in a state of near blind support, without the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-80216950995737698632011-01-31T03:46:00.002+08:002011-01-31T04:18:13.709+08:00

And today I remember why I didn't really like sleeping seven hours.Dreaming, in a certain sense, is a most wonderful thing to be had. It allows one to explore the subconscious, to experience things that do not occur that easily (if at all!) in real life, all with the innate safety of it being merely a figment of one's imagination.It is also a great source of false hope, disappointment, and

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-25816013745507014842011-01-23T01:09:00.000+08:002011-01-23T01:09:00.625+08:00

If you see this post, it means that I have aged by a year. Note that I have written this post about 2 days earlier, since I'm foreseeing that the things that I need to deal with over the next two days will probably preclude me from actually having the time to write an entry.So, 26 years have passed since I first came to this planet. It can be said as a miracle, in a certain sense, due to the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-90577050201016166072011-01-10T15:03:00.002+08:002011-01-10T15:04:35.142+08:00

Something by Regina Zeng again:随风而逝——曾庆瑜走过春和冬 雨和风 花开和花落我已经尝到这人生的痛究竟要追求什么 能偿还什么这一切我还在迷惑梦已经太多 不可说 也不愿承诺我终于看出你心里的忧纵然有再多失落 不让泪滑落让记忆陪自己去过如今随风而逝 随风而逝岁月 它编织着曲曲折折的梦随风而逝 随风而逝我又何需频频回首梦已经太多 不可说 也不愿承诺我终于看出你心里的忧纵然有再多失落 不让泪滑落让记忆随自己去过如今随风而逝 随风而逝岁月 它编织着曲曲折折的梦随风而逝 随风而逝我又何需频频回首如今随风而逝 随风而逝岁月 它编织着曲曲折折的梦随风而逝 随风而逝我又何需频频回首我又何需频频回首

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-92028856189120435292011-01-09T23:11:00.002+08:002011-01-09T23:42:56.597+08:00

又是另一年的开始，而我自己也不知道前途如何。2010年的过去是充满着悲伤伤感的事件，而我又对2011年的期望也不是说很大。今天的我，心事重重，仿佛有解不开的心结。不，我不是又有了感情上的问题——这是我已经下定决心不要去理睬它；凡是随缘吧。记得我曾经说过，“不在乎天长地久，只在乎曾经拥有”，但日子久了我才发现这是一个自欺欺人的谎言。这句话的含义，根本就和我的个人处事态度完全不符合，尤其是对于用情之类的事务。如果这句话为真，那么我又为何为以前所交过的女朋友而伤心掉泪，念念不忘呢？我总觉得自己是属于用情比较深的人，也就因如此现在的我对爱情之类的东西都尽量的疏远些。这不是因为我害怕又受到伤害，而是因为我发现自己的心还没有到能够为一个人付出一切的痴心作风；换句话说，我本身认为自己对“爱情”的认识不够深。以前的我可能认为自己已成熟了，可以学上如何爱一个人了，但是现在的我发现事实是刚好相反的。也就这样

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-69963074522583459692011-01-07T08:44:00.002+08:002011-01-07T09:10:00.856+08:00

As I was thinking about the various conversations over lunch/dinner yesterday that I had with some of my colleagues, a curious thing came to mind: what does it mean to be cruel? Put in another way, what does ``cruelty'' actually entail?Pulling up a dictionary, I found the following definitions:cruelCausing pain or sufferingHaving or showing a sadistic disregard for the pain or suffering of

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-23541662008215083812011-01-04T00:23:00.003+08:002011-01-04T10:01:01.062+08:00

I'm either one troubled monkey or this is really a good day to be writing stuff. Three posts less than 12 hours between them---something must definitely be up.So anyway, there's lots of doom and gloom about my life ever since last year, but I hope that it won't be the case this year. Things are going to kick into full gear very soon, and it may very well be the case that I get swept off my feet

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-12425008205165988042011-01-03T17:03:00.003+08:002011-01-04T00:03:24.723+08:00

Heh. Looks like it's double post Monday. No matter actually; it's my blog and thus I can choose when I want to write anything.It just so happens that I'm in an angsty sort of mood today, wanting to rant and whine about more things.So the new year just passed us by. All in all, it was quite a quiet event, since I basically just hung out with a close friend of mine and we just sat at a quiet

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-43856416259109867972011-01-03T16:14:00.002+08:002011-01-03T16:52:48.422+08:00

In a previous post I had promised to write down some of the thoughts and ideas that made Towards Cacophony the way it was.Since this is a loose sequel for A Slice of Life with a Twist of Lemon, we see a return of some very familiar characters. The two protagonists of the previous novel are back, but this time they are about ten years older than they were, and are joining the university. As

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-48216224343007086562011-01-02T00:45:00.003+08:002011-01-02T01:09:11.208+08:00

So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2010:113 poems posted here90 essays/rants posted here10 prose/stories posted here1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available hereAnd thus the grand total here is 214 articles, down from the 286 articles in 2009.That's an average of 0.59 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.78 last year. The general lack of writing is not really due to tardiness about my

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-4518714683076372992010-12-26T09:53:00.003+08:002010-12-26T10:08:18.110+08:00

And so ends another Christmas, which to me, is just like any other day. Mostly.I'm starting to get really apathetic towards most of the holidays that I am facing. To me, these holidays are just days in which I can spend on catching up on sleep, an enterprise that seems to be getting more and more relevant as time goes by, in spite of the various assurances that this would not be the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-60513310042104075822010-12-09T09:11:00.003+08:002010-12-09T09:24:55.902+08:00

You know how some days you just feel like crap, and some days you just feel completely awesome?Well, today is one of those days. I am actually feeling awesome, even without having imbibed any caffeine (which I still ended up doing anyway just in case things go awry). It's a strange form of empowerment to feel awesome, especially during times where more often than not, one feels anything but.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-20661680465326009272010-12-05T21:22:00.003+08:002010-12-06T06:37:47.586+08:00

It's a Sunday.What's so special about this day, you might wonder. Nothing really, except that I spent most of the day sleeping in, recovering from the sleep debt that I had incurred over the last few weeks.It's a most strange thing though, to be sleeping for so many hours at a stretch. My mind feels as though it has been living in the dream world more often than in the real world, what with the

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-1707127163925633822010-11-28T23:03:00.002+08:002010-11-28T23:20:27.515+08:00

It is sort of a strange thing to realise that a year has passed on by once again. This is the second year that I am spending in Singapore after my undergraduate stint, and to a large degree it would seem to be the case that I have more or less fallen into the pattern of life here once again, this time from the perspective of the part-time student who doubles as a full-time researcher. Life is

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-29272970991485703492010-11-27T14:25:00.003+08:002010-11-28T23:25:03.386+08:00

54,206 words later, I am done. Proved to be a little harder than last year, because I had to compress all my writing in the first half of the month and I couldn't do much for the second half due to all the work commitments.As usual, grab the manuscript from my domain. I'll fill in more details here some time in the future when I have a little more time on my hands.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-39879954618384870422010-11-21T16:52:00.002+08:002010-11-21T17:05:11.646+08:00

I suppose it has probably gotten to the time in life where one is starting to get more ``boring'' as a general rule of thumb, because I find that I have less and less interesting things that I really want to talk about over here, or even on my other blog. I'm a little less pensieve than before, partly because there's just so much that needs to be done that I have little time to be worrying about

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-47692933277261203802010-11-12T11:22:00.003+08:002010-11-12T11:25:09.725+08:00

It seems that even I am not completely immune to what goes on in society. Anywhere, here's something I've been hooked on to for the last few days:A very catchy hook; can't resist. Also, the lyrics are rather saddening too...

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-38867204712906622212010-11-10T22:41:00.001+08:002010-11-10T22:42:47.601+08:00

To change the words to be of initial caps, first get to the beginning of the word, then type gUl. To continue for other words, just use w to get to the next word, and . to repeat the action.Tip from here.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-55279150190513636842010-11-08T14:39:00.002+08:002010-11-08T15:00:05.557+08:00

I am the Pariah, the Ishmael of the microcosm that I was once a member of. Amongst peers, I am peerless, not because of my irrefutable ability, but because I was a non-conformist. I yearn the closeness of a fellow human being, but abhor the vulnerabilities that come with the association. I wish to be loved, but have forgotten what is like to love. I am the abomination of humankind, the very

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-13971183156514035842010-11-06T01:06:00.002+08:002010-11-06T01:29:42.113+08:00

If you have some metal stuff with light tarnish, consider using toothpaste as a light abrasive to bring back the shine.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-27374699973360551162010-11-02T17:47:00.007+08:002010-11-04T09:46:54.814+08:00

Some useful tools for NaNoWriMo:Use http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/NanowrimoGraph/yourid.png for a nice breakdown chart.Link to http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/ProgressReport/yourid.html for the detailed numerical breakdown. See this for my own breakdown.Material partially from here.[Ed: Forget these links for now... there's something wrong with the hosting side on NaNoWriMo.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-15837580988982936332010-11-01T12:41:00.002+08:002010-11-01T12:42:46.191+08:00

And so it begins again. Current working title is ``Towards Cacophony'' with a tentative genre of ``Young Adult & Youth''.Track my progress over here (it's the same link as before).

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-43584583402823317532010-10-25T02:47:00.002+08:002010-10-25T04:03:24.754+08:00

I know this sounds clichéd, but time really does pass in a blink of an eye, especially when there are lots to be done. Work has been plentiful and is reaching the stage where it is actually beginning to be intellectually fulfilling, not that it wasn't so earlier, it's just that right about now, it does feel more fulfilling than before. In some senses, knowing the direction that I am taking does

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-9340825109231627112010-10-11T00:18:00.003+08:002010-10-11T21:36:29.984+08:00

To alter the starting number for any enumerate counter, use the following\setcounter{enumi}{n-1}where n is the starting number you want your list to show.Note that there are enumi, enumii, enumiii and enumiv to handle the four-level nested enumerate environment.

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-74250499565676979512010-10-10T23:20:00.002+08:002010-10-10T23:29:23.625+08:00

If you want to use underlining (standard or wavy) or strikethroughs in LaTeX, consider adding \usepackage[normalem]{ulem} to your LaTeX source file. This opens up the following useful commands:CommandDescription\uline{foo}Underlines foo\uuline{foo}Double underlines foo\uwave{foo}Underlines foo with a wavy line\sout{foo}Strikesout foo\xout{foo}Crosses out foo with `/'And don't forget that you can

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-72229177241832589652010-10-03T21:33:00.003+08:002010-10-10T12:14:30.996+08:00

Once upon a time, when I was much younger and full of ideals, when I was mostly segregated from the rabblement that comprised individuals too haughty about their ways to listen to or even pay attention to someone who looked a little different from them, I believed in altruism. From the many levels of education that I was receiving in those days, my conviction towards altruism was strong,

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28639948.post-87132242751263508692010-09-30T00:03:00.005+08:002010-10-03T01:34:30.813+08:00

Mm. Just the right time to be writing things once more I suppose. But what shall I talk about today?The thing about writing a personal blog such as this one under the kinds of NDA requirements that I have with regards to my job means that I can't really talk about the things that happen to me during the 12+ hours that I spend at my workplace, not unless I want the proverbial fine-toothed comb

The_Laptophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18037547226709087574noreply@blogger.com7