Realm of the Imponderable

RDOC #87

My Baby just came home!
After I travelled 1.5 hours to get it and it survived the 1.5 hour trip here in the boot of my car.
heh...
Now, hopefully it works after I wire it up and switch on the juice, otherwise life will be very miserable here.
hheee

Having to live without a computer is not an experience I'd like to have.

I just emailed those buggers at Dube about my devilstick and why I still haven't gotten it yet after 1.5 weeks. Know what they said?
Nothing...
Now, life without a computer AND a devilstick would be suicidally miserable so lets not talk about that prospect..

House is getting set up fine. Just got some kitchenware in and setup my chair. And of course, my computer. I hope those people in the furnature store send up our beds soon because if it doesn't come before my room mate comes we're going to have problems with sleeping space. We'll have to share mattresses or something (eeek!!)

RDOC #86

I just realised how much rubbish I have to pack and that I may have to apply some creative brute force packing procedures similar to sardine packing but without regard to the taste of the contents.

Lessee... 3 CD cases, one Devilstick, 3 home made juggling clubs, 13 balls, 4 textbooks and a crateload of clothes. I think it's a wonder if my suitcase doesn't explode when I send it to the check in.

Seems I also brought home alot of stuff that I was planning to use but didn't get around to. Like watch 14 seasons of the Simpsons, or Band of Brothers. Or learn how to use Maya 5. Well, truth be told, it's a fiendishly difficult program to master and I don't think I could do it without some professional training. Or a two inch thick book which unless you read about ten times seems to be an offering to the infinite sea of didactic obfuscation.

Whatever.

On the bright side, I have had wonderful times with all my friends who are in Singapore, as well as those who aren't but came by for a short holiday from the wherever they have been. (Eg; Wee Seong from the Down Under, Lewis from the "Land of the Free" and Caleb from Trinity)
Oh, and beyond my wildest imaginings there's a juggling club here that as vibrant and flamboyant (though in a pretty different style) as the one in Ann Arbor that I have become familiar with. Come to think of it, the first time I saw fire stunts live and not at a circus was in Singapore, at a busking session I was involved in. Apparently one of my friends here in the club does fire breathing among lots of ther things.

Also gone through an internship at the NUS and I've got a taste of what research work is like. Probably it's nothing like what it's really like in a prefessional lab research facility but there's a place to start for everything. Personally I think I'd like to go into that. As Joanna put it: "Head in the clouds and in my own little world". When you're researching something, you'd really be hard pressed to find somebody else who knows what the hell you're talking about. And then when you come out you're like the boss in Dilbert who suddenly discovers that he's got a family at home, which he finally realises is the explanation for all those people in his house.
I think I should go see what else a robotics engineer can do instead of R&D.
You're right about one thing Jo: I'll be needing a masters before I can really start getting down to business and probably a PHD if it's research. Well, that's still a long way off, and for now I shall put the decision off and just work on:
1) Undergrad studies
2) Devilstick
3) Flash and Dreamweaver
(and not necessarily in that order)

haha

Seriously though, it's probably high time I started looking for a direction in life.

RDOC #85

I'll be going back to Michigan in a week!
*sigh*

Feels like another chapter's gone by, though there's plenty to show for it. I just handed in my report in the NUS lab today, the culmination of 2 months of partial hard work and partial random chances and slacking. Basically it was really start and stop, with really intense bouts of work when the inspiration comes along, and intense idling and downloading of jugging videos when there's no inspiration. Either way I figure it's productive, one way or the other.

Just watched AVP today. Another brainless action flick. Zero character development... I can't even remember the protagonist's name... In fact, they developed the Predator's character better than the lead actress, and at the end I'm kind of sorry that the Predator had to die... whoops.. did I say too much??
What the hell, you know the outcome already. The movie's so damn predictible. You know the hunting code for the predators. You know the life cycle of the aliens. The only thing you don't know is a little of the history that they inject. Still, there's the nice fancy killing gadgets and a little "clash of the titans" that was a novel idea everyone wanted to see and now they've seen it the novelty's going to wear off. It's an excellent idea and it's sad to see that the director pretty much botched it up with creative fancy special effects and not much else. The plot could have been much better....
K enough of that. I'm not a movie critic. The show's worth watching. Once.

Was at Jo's church CG meeting just now. Seems I'll have some mental beef jerly to chew on for a while.

RDOC #83

keke just had a pretty fun week again. It's my last week at NUS!
Was at Sentosa last thursday with the UMICH freshies and taught them how to play Ultimate Frisbee. It's a really fun game but you're super shack after playing it for like 15 mins. Had a huge passing audience for my devilstick routine which I was having fun with at the beach. Apparently one passing tourist on the monorail managed to pull out his videocam and shoot a couple of seconds before passing by...

Also got highly scandalized when Joanna started making weird messages to people from my ICQ. I won't say what.... humph. Those involved will know and I trust they'll keep their mouths shut....

Just watched Collateral and a little two word phrase used by JJ comes to mind:
MIND FUCK
well, it's actually a pretty simple plot but told in a very circumspect way and I don't really feel that I understand the character of the guys played by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. And Jada didn't appear enough in the film. Sad....

RDOC #82

Well, that was a REALLY fun weekend. Went to Sri Buat with Hui and showed her all the sights of the island.
Basically we went through the complete Sri Buat experience, and the only thing missing was sitting out a thunderstorm when there's no shelter except one little tent that (hopefully) won't blow away.

Lesseee... we went snorkelling at Finger Rock (A name given to a rock outcropping which very much resembles a rock sticking out of the sea and pointing its middle finger at you) and saw some pretty rare sights. Like a Moray Eel and an Albino Stingray (you can tell by the white tail). And I realised how much my diving mask likes to give me a headache whenever I wear it.

Went fishing in the swamp (well, it was a half hearted attempt, cos' I didn't really feel like doing it but I thought I should show Hui the swamp and let her see what it's like) and yeah... she caught the only fish that day (among the people in my canoe.).. teeny little garoupa that we decided was too little to end up on the dinner table, so we let it go.

Went to Remis island (so called because that's where we go to dig up these little shellfish which are pretty good fried in a little butter). We also dug up some clams and an oyster which I think was eaten on the spot. Apparently Uncle Ben is more fond of oysters than he's afraid of getting food poisoning... I personally haven't tried them before but I generally don't like shellfish so...

where else?... oh yeah. went hiking up the little mountain behind the camp site. Going up was easy, coming down was a little tougher because firstly it's harder to go down steep slopes with loose rock and also because I hor-landed on the way back and had to double back once. Well, apparently the navigation exercises I had in the army didn't stick very well...As always, the view from up there never fails to put me in fantasy land at least for a few seconds.

Well, that was a really fun trip.. Hui, you're not the only one who enjoyed it imensely. Actually I've only seen the stars like that once before in my life, and that was back in 1998. Usually we don't go to Sri Buat at that time of the year so we don't see the milky way like that. It's beautiful. Sorry I was tired out on the second night; couldn't really stay awake to talk coherently... hheee

So, operation Sri Buat was mostly successful, except Uncle Ronnie now has a bone to pick with the boat man who accidently fumed his canoe and burned a nice big hole in it with the exhaust pipe on his boat.

RDOC #81

Well, that was one really happening weekend. Started on friday with a 12 hour juggling marathon, then saturday with an 8 hour clubbing stint and then sunday with a nice BBQ at Kim's place (kudos to the cook for inventing the Reverse Banana Fondue)

Yeah. Was at NTU helping a friend advertise for his soon to be established NTU juggling club which hopefully will have sufficient members for it to be considered an official ECA. Typical to all ECA fairs where we did our advertising and signing up, it was crowded, the food was expensive and hard to get (because of the ques and also because to get to the stalls in the first place you almost need to do a Corcodile Dundee over the crowd..) AND I almost lost a ball in the mess of people and baggage. Luckily we managed to carve up a little space to do some club juggling behind the counter and I kind of pissed off a girl in the next booth by repeatedly dropping clubs on her. Yeah... and I just realised that I said all that two posts ago...

Devils Bar: Well, what is there to say? By about 2:30 only the staff were sober and the rest of the people there were on the verge of keeling over. (ie. Highly drunk and happily downing Tequila shots like water.) But as Caleb put it, people go to the states and when they come back they can happily drink like fish and still walk straight. I think other than the driver, I was probably the second most coherent person in the car on the way home.

Kim's house: err... HorLan-ded on the way there. But then again, I owe it to Kim's remarkable ability to differentiate right from left that I managed to get to her house before midnight. And silly me forgot to bring the BBQ starting equipment. Argh... But it was good to see everyone again, AND I finally go to see Kim's house (Kim, you should feel proud of yourself).