Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #51

Went for archery last sunday for the first time in 6 months. It's good to know that I haven't totally lost the ol' skill, though it needs polishing. The equipment there was really crappy though... try imagining a bow that you're afraid will break if you draw it and it causes the fletches on the arrow to scratch your hand with every shot and you get a rough idea what they were like. Still, I managed to find a bow that was semi usable and I had to pull the ol' phone card trick on it. (If any of you reading this were ever at the Marina archery place with me you'll know what that is)
So here's the task list that I had set up for myself before I came here back last August:
Find juggling club (Done)
Get my dream computer (Done)
Find an archery club (Finally done)
- I need to clarify, though, that the place I found with the help of a fellow ROC member isn't exactly a club, more like an open-to-all place where any Tom Dick or Harry can come and shoot if they're willing to pay the range fees (Which was about $9 per hour plus $4 for equipment)

On another note, regardless of how hard I have been trying I still can't get a good 5 ball juggling trip going. The most I can get is a good 5 ball flash (throw all 5 balls and catch all 5 balls) or maybe seven or eight catches before the whole cascade starts to look like balls in a blender (which is pertty much what it looks like most of the time anyway).

I got bored a few days ago and started fooling around on the internet. I found this site where people make videos of them trying to complete classic nintendo games in the shortest possible time. Sure, it's damn impressive, but I wonder if they've ever asked themselves if they've got anything better to do. Anyway click here if you want to check out that site.

Dunno how many of you ever played this game called Gradius on the Nintendo... It's a really simple game; you'd have to be a complete doofus if you can't figure it out in about ten seconds even if you've never played it before. There's this time attack video that I found that I think was the most impressive of the lot. Check it out here. WARNING: This is a 42Mb file. Download it over lunch or something if you need to but I guarantee that it's worth the wait.

Hope you have been entertained by my banter this time 'round.
BTW, Does anybody know what the acronym RDOC stands for?

Posted by: Kai / 9:20 PM

RDOC #50

A friend of mine came up with a new meaning for IOE. (Usually used as an acronym for Industrial Operations Engineering) He called it In and out Easy, cos' IOE was supposed to be one of the easiest engineering disciplines. BAAPP.. wrong. It's a fake engineering school (it's more like a mix of econs, business and management) but that doesn't mean it's easy as pie. (Well, at least for me it isn't. I couldn't understand a statistics book unless it hit me in the face. And statistics are a HUGE part of IOE)
So along comes yours truly who comes up with a totally different meaning for the phrase "in and out easy"... I shan't spell out the details here but one of the terms used here to describe a really hard exam was "ass raping"...

This week was a so-called lull between storms... I actually had time to set a new high score on Crimsonland and fool around with my juggling. I got this book called the Encyclopaedia of ball juggling by this guy called Charlie Dancey who's somewhat a hobo inhabiting a caravan house who busks for a living. He's obsessed with juggling of any type and sort and there's thousands of tricks in his little book of his. Anyway one of the things to think about is that juggling gets exponentially easier the better you are. A year ago it took me a week to learn a new trick, now it takes a day or two, depending on how hard it is. (and of course how hard I try)

Had a math exam yesterday; which wasn't too difficult unless you count the bonus questions they put at the end of the paper. Think S paper back in JC and you'll get an idea of what those questions were like. Differential Equations are boring... all plug and chug and there's no variety involved. And I hear that at the end of the term the last chapter they teach us renders all the other solving methods that we painfully studied obsolete. Kind of makes me wonder why then they're teching us all this stuff in the first place.

I ordered a new Digicam a few days ago. It's a Canon S50 that came highly recommended by Eugene. And I got it in the nick of time too, cos' I have a sudden need to take lots and lots of pictures of the campus to bring back to Singapore. Courtesy of the orientation '04, where they will be compiled into a nice slideshow so the newbies to the University of Michigan can ogle at them and remember once again what a nice place it is that they're coming to. And of course, we also need to educate them on the way of life here so that we don't have Singaporeans here next term being as blur as week old recruits in the army.

RDOC #49

Argh.. life is really starting to suck right now. The homework they're giving out is BAD... as in big bad spanking by bullwhips BAD. I must have spent more time on it this week than in the previous two weeks put together.

A little update: I've volunteered to be on the Orientation '04 council, which has been tasked to plan the orientation for the incoming batch of freshmen this year. As expected, I was thrust into the IT man job, which I guess is what I'm best at. I've got to plan a nice slideshow-cum-video for the freshies to "give them an idea of what life here's like and make them proud to be here in the first place". My my.. the insidious Singapore standards and style of doing things permeates even here.

Ring of Steel practice has been pretty fun lately.. they've been making makeshift windows and we've been diving through them, ala Trinity Style in the Matrix, duel handguns included. We've added some variety with swords and knives, and of course, no staircase (which would be seriously painful to roll down, padded mat or no padded mat). Kinda makes me want to try some of the wilder stunts I have in mind...

I'm coming to understand why some people really hate meetings. I was at one committee meeting yesterday and they spent half an hour debating whether to have a short 10 minute mentor-mentee interact session during our formal presentation in Singapore, and whether we should drag chairs out for them or not. Basically, when people start heated discussions about little things it's pretty irritating. Especially since they're eating into valuable computer gaming time.

Was reading this article on my brother's blog that's extremely amusing. Check it out
Seems Apple had something going for their Ipods after all.
And the biggest irony of this whole thing is that my brother just got his girlfriend an ipod for christmas last year.

RDOC #48

I'm seriously pissed off with this idiot in the computer lab who decided "hey, I've got free printing in the CAEN Lab. I'm going to print out a few hundred fliers to give out to people who will most likely throw them out 5 seconds after getting them" Now, what happens when you print out a ream of paper? You create a backlog of print jobs, screw up the printer and basically make a lot of people unhappy. Not to mention that the average maximum going rate in the labs is about 20 pages per print job.
It's true we get free printing in the lab and I have taken advantage of it once or twice. BUT I at least have the decency to come at 10 o'clock on a friday night when the place is deserted and do my printing, not during lunch hour when the lab is filled to capacity with people like me trying to get some last minute printing done before class.
Funny, the first thing coming to mind is the fact that this idiot exhibited remarkably Singaporea-like behavior with the printer.

RDOC #47

Argh.. spring break's over and now they're getting insane with the work. Either that or I'm experiencing the inertia of spring break. Yeah... try pushing a bowling ball with a pool cue and that's how it feels like to start work again...

Was playing touch rugby last weekend in the Palmer Field here in about 5 degree temperatures. It's great cos' you don't sweat at all but then your hands get cold you then the ball seems to have suddenly developed a coating of oil or something really slippery. Most of the time I just played the defender and chased after the guy with the ball. That doesn't involve having to do something akin to trying to catch butterflies with a teaspoon.

It's getting cold again. The weather here can get really warm one day and then be freezing the next. I'm kinda missing Singapore weather, where the only thing you have to worry about is rain and not snow, ice and (very cold) rain.

I've volunteered for the Orientation Committee '4 for the incoming Singapore students. Basically we just plan stuff for the newbies so they know each other and what to expect when they get here next term. If you remember my evil genius back in JC, you can imagine (or maybe not... I've become a lot more sadistic after the army) what's in store for the freshmen. Heh heh.. *Rubs hands in glee*

I actually made an effort to cook dinner one night... I think it was a pretty successful endeavor, considering that the spaghetti turned out at least mostly edible and nobody got food poisoning. The stove in the dorm is really pathetic... It takes 5 minutes to melt a few drops of wax so you can imagine how long it takes to boil a few gallons of water. I swear, electric stoves are simply a waste of time, energy and money. Similar to golf courses. Except, of course, golf courses waste a lot more stuff than that.

argh.. work work work...
I almost fell asleep in the lab today watching the milling machine carve out my candle holder base from a block of brass. Not good when I also have to make sure that the machine doesn't also mill out parts of itself in the process...

I'm going to take a nap.