Because I feel like it.

Chuck vs The End

2012-01-28T00:49:00.001+08:00

This is a story about a girl. This is a story about a girl who started watching a TV show one day and fell hopelessly in love with the TV industry. It is also a story about how that show managed to start the process of turning the girl into a TV addict.

I am that girl, and Chuck is the show. So let's get started.

It was the summer of 2008, the writer's strike had just been lifted four months ago, and I was working at Diner's Club as an admin office worker, waiting to enter college.

YouTube had become popular about a year ago, and many shows were subsequently uploaded onto the site, and then deleted after it was found that they infringed copyright laws. As a result, many similar sites were spawning up all around the Internet - sites on which those shows were uploaded to.

So a dull combination of having a boring job and no goal in life at that moment led to me looking for new shows to watch. I wasn't really into TV at that moment, the only two shows I could recall watching on a regular basis were Heroes and The OC, which had just ended that spring.

I started watching Chuck because a friend had recommended it to me, and long story short, I saw the first episode on Megavideo, finished the first season of 13 episode within 2 days and then started obsessively reading up on every piece of news about Chuck I could get my hands on.

So in between ending the first season and waiting for the 2nd to premiere, I read excessively. I learnt about the regular TV broadcast season, about Comic-Con, about press tours, about TV ratings and the TV industry in general. I found TV critic's Alan Sepinwall's blog and became an immediate fan of his episodic reviews and also grew to trust his judgement in choice of shows.

Indirectly, I would say that discovering Chuck and subsequently, Sepinwall's blog has brought me even higher up into the throes of TV addiction. In fact, 90% of the shows I watch now - irregardless of whether they still uphold to the standard they had when I first started viewing them - were through his blog.

By the time school started, I had already caught up to around 8-9 shows that I was eagerly waiting for the premiere in September. Shows that I've mostly stopped watching because of the drop in quality (case in point: House, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives) - or because they got cancelled (case in point: Pushing Daisies, Ugly Betty, Heroes). But never Chuck.

Through all the crazy number of TV series I got addicted to and then fell out of love with, Chuck was always there. It has never been as good a drama as Mad Men has been. It's not as good a comedy as Parks and Recreation is. It's not even in the same genre as Bones and Castle or White Collar - shows that I enjoy watching for kicks, but often falls short of quality. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Chuck has been mediocre at times, but that has never faltered me.

No, what I like about Chuck is that above all else, Chuck is fun. From the absurd premise to the comic relief minor characters, I don't think you could find a show that is more fun than Chuck is. It has other things that other good shows have too, good relationships between characters, funny pop cultural references, good character development, but the degree of which the producers and directors put into making the show fun has always been its strongest suit.

From the exaggerated parodies of other shows, to having Sarah kick ass in all sorts of weird surroundings, to having Jeffster perform an over the top rendition of Mr Roboto, to having Chuck himself just punch the living daylights out of all his opponents by using the Intersect, nothing bores you and everything entertains.

And that is one thing I have to give credit to Chuck for - it is never lazy when it comes to fan service. True, the story might have fallen short somewhere after season 2, and the graphics along with it. But with the creators unafraid to pay tribute to shows like Die Hard, James Bond, the pride they held in their work was evident.

Which is why when I sit down on my bed to watch the final season tomorrow morning, it'll be with a tinge of reluctance because I don't want this wonderful journey to end. I am eager to see where the beloved characters end up and how will the latest conflict resolve itself. But I can't imagine what it would be like for this show to end.

So for the rest of my life, I will forever be grateful to Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak, Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin and the rest of the Chuck team for giving me and the rest of the world this show.

Plus, you know what? Chuck made it okay to be nerdy. Chuck played Final Fantasy when he was young and loves Star Wars. He still got an awesome job and a hot girl.

And if I ever miss it, it's okay. I have the DVD box sets after all :D

P.S. Please continue eating Subway. Thank you Subway and the wonderful Chuck fandom for saving it from cancellation, to give us 3 more unlikely seasons of this show.

Happy new year, pull your ear

2012-01-02T00:23:00.000+08:00

I haven't had much motivation to blog. Blogging is like doing a school assignment or cramming for exams. When you're just bumming around the house, you don't really feel like getting started on work. But once you start working you can't stop...

...

Or maybe that's just me. Probably just me, and other weirdos around. So I hope once I start blogging for this year I won't stop. That shall be one of my resolutions this year! The other resolution is to be nicer, because I think I have been bitching about other people behind their backs far too often, and I really need to tone down my sarcasm and snarkiness. Maybe then, and only then, can I start winning in mahjong.

I lost roughly 20 dollars in mahjong over the past week :( ALL to the same person :((. He doesn't read this, and will probably never, so he doesn't know how upset he's made me. I'm just kidding. I believe gambling is like a sine wave, you may be losing a lot at one point, and continuously winning at another, in the end, the average value of your winnings/losing will still be zero.

That's the only thing I remember from one of my modules this semester, Navigation and Aircraft Control. It is by far the worst module I have ever had to take, and it is incredibly boring. I got an A for it, due to my skills in manipulating mathematical equations. I still feel like my grades this semester do not reflect what I learnt, never have I crammed so much and scored so well.

This just goes to show that exam wiles are not equivalent to real life knowledge. I got a 4.9 by the way, the best that I've ever gotten. While I am exceedingly happy/relieved to have done so well, I know that next semester will be a real challenge for me, because I now aim to get my first class honours and will have to work really hard at my final year project and the rest of my modules.

It just makes me reluctant to end my holidays, because these holidays are pretty fun, and my first one since January 23rd last year. Working consecutively for 7 months, studying for another 4 is no fun. But what is this compared to all the working people, am I right?

In line with being reluctant to end my holidays, I'm somewhat pissed at my immune system for deciding this is the perfect time to break down and allow a flu virus to attack my body. I've spent all day yesterday and today playing Final Fantasy XII and watching Frasier when my fingers want a break. What's more, I just donated blood on Friday, which is all but one day before I came down with a flu. I hope my efforts weren't futile and my blood can still be used to save 3 lives.

Oh oh oh, when I went down to the blood bank in Woodlands, they told me that it was my 6th donation!! I had no idea I donated so many times! I think it was twice during my SAJC days, and 3 times when the NTU blood donation drive was being held. And so, I got a medallion for it!!! I think the idea of achievements really motivate people.

Like in doodle jump, there are some really stupid achievements like "jump 200 times on a static platform" OR something like that, which is RIDICULOUS because I could spend that time actually jumping up to progress my score. But I still want to do it, someday. It's how video game trophies work as well I guess. And now, apparently, blood donation marketing strategies.

And I have nothing else to update anymore. I'm going back to play FFXII!!!! Some pictures because each blog post is obliged to have pictures:

Lunar eclipse on the 10th of December!! Yeah it's not a very awesome shot but it's the best that I could get given that I only have a lousy digital camera. I think it's pretty good given that fact!

Some pretty bug I found in my house one night long long ago.

I love it when it's so cold I can draw on my windows! This was 5 days before Christmas. After Christmas, the weather in Singapore automatically switched back to 99% humidity mode. My dog is emo.

This is how my sister arranges her soft toys. Now let's pray she never sees this because she'll be angry at me for going into her room. I think. I don't know, we don't talk.

My teddy bear makes a good iPod stand.

2011-11-21T01:19:00.000+08:00

Back from the dead

2011-11-09T23:00:00.000+08:00

It feels so weird to be typing in this little box again!!

I AM BACK, during exam period, of all times. The things I would do to procrastinate from studying, after so many months of putting off blogging in preference of other things. Interestingly enough, "other things" refer to TV shows, reading and doing school projects.

This semester is the first time where the ratio of projects/assignments/presentations/reports outnumber the number of tests by a factor of 13:1. You read that correctly, I only had one test the whole of this semester, and in contrast to that: 6 presentations, 5 assignments, 1 moderately sized report, 1 gigantic 160 page report.

Anyway I only wanted to upload a picture today. Didn't feel like doing so on Twitter, so here goes.

My wall is pretty much filled up. It's time to strip it down and see what I don't need instead of pinning everything I can't bear to throw away up there. And that Takamine there is my broken guitar head. I have yet to find time to get a new guitar, I've a feeling it'll only be accomplished after exams.

Until the next time then!

Short update/Photos!!!

2011-07-31T00:36:00.000+08:00

Hi I've been too busy working, but at the same time I'm having a lot of fun so... It's a conundrum. Fun time or free time?

Anyway I was thinking of updating all about my stint at The New Paper once I've ended, and that won't be for another three weeks so happy waiting dudes. This entry is going to be short and meaningless. Like my life. What up.

That was super unlike me, and I apologise. I'm just feeling a little bit under the weather because two of my good friends just graduated today. The time is now people, we're all on the threshold of the next major stage in our lives, and I have no idea what do I want out of life.

All I want to do is just cherish the last year of my education (unless I want to further my studies, in which case I have to find something I want to study.. Probably not engineering), and I have decided to make the most out of my last year in formal education by doing something different.

So. No longer will I be a boring old mugger, purely concentrating on my studies and rushing home the moment classes end. I want to participate in more activities, go out more and have fun! I mean, I have a four day week dammit! I must see to it that I make the most out of it.

I feel rather foolish for so over the moon with my four day week when all of the arts students I know have a one day week. That's just crazy, and also, unnecessary. We all pay the same amount of school fees, and in an attempt to look on the bright side of things, I shall say that I get more value for money than them. So there.

I'm really hungry now, and thus shall also take the opportunity to show you what I came across at a random coffeeshop in Yishun just now:

WA KU KUEH as my dad calls it, or COLOURFUL CAKE as I call it!!

So happy to have stumbled across a stall still selling them, though in all honesty they did taste a bit weird, like they've been sitting on the shelf for quite a period of time.

Okay digression over, I wanted to say I feel like...

1) Joining at least one club during my final year.
2) Going back to SAB now that Brando is conducting SAS!!!

Haha I can't believe I want to go back to play in a band! It all stems back to one fateful day when I had to find people to survey and started chatting with a junior on Facebook. He praised my cornet playing skills, and then... I started missing it. Yes I was being self indulgent, no I don't care.

Well I'm going to end off here. Random thoughts over the past few weeks include!

1) Being super happy about the Emmy love for Prex and Friday Night Lights
2) Venturi effect doesn't apply to traffic because it's already beyond choking point
3) I'm really liking my current job.
4) I saw a Juicy Couture car the other day

5) Cabbing is awesome. I never ever want to walk out of my estate anymore. Especially not when the weather has been crazily hot, like the past few days.

Centre of attention

2011-07-06T23:19:00.001+08:00

I LOVE THIS PHOTO!! I think it's because, I'm like, in the centre.

The centre of attention.

Yeah right. That was taken when the gang went to the airport to send Huijeen and Sarah off to the United States of America!!

Anyway they're there now, and I'm here. In my new job.

I'm currently interning at SPH, writing for The New Paper. It's a job with very long hours, so I think I probably won't be free to go out for the next few weeks or so. Anyway, it's not like I have such a vibrant social life, so it's fine I suppose.

This is just a quick update to say... I might not be able to continue my one entry a week stint for the next few weeks. I'm just too tired, and I don't want to stare at the computer screen when I come back home after doing the same thing at work the whole day!

But nevertheless, I shall try. Like now, see? I'm updating aren't I?

Despite being really busy, I've gotten the chance to start (and catch up to) a new series!! Let me present to you, White Collar!!!

So gorgeous right?! Zomg, it isn't a really good show if you're talking about story and mythology. But Matt Bomer's in it and I watch it just for him.

Which I am really embarrassed to say, because I generally don't watch shows for the guys! I mean my favourite show right now is Parks and Recreation, and I definitely do not watch that for any guys... Well maybe Adam Scott, but he's not the main reason I watch that.

Speaking of Prex, the Emmy nominations are coming out next Friday! (Thursday in the USA, wherever you're reading this from). Last year I was all about supporting Modern Family in the comedy categories, but this year I'm all for PREX!!!

I gotta say though, I might be supporting them, but pragmatically there's no chance Prex is going to get nominated for anything. Even though by my standards they should have at least one nomination in 4 of the 5 major categories.

Ah well. I'm currently waiting for the latest episode of White Collar to load, which is why I'm even blogging. I suspect this will be the case for the weeks to come (at least for the next 3 weeks - explanation below), I will blog while waiting to watch White Collar.

The explanation is this! I'm going to delve into TV talk now, so here goes.

There are many ways to categorize TV shows. One of the ways to do so is by the network that produces them.

The big 4 networks (maybe 5 if you want to count The CW) are Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS. They are the free to air channels in the USA and air shows such as Gossip Girl (CW), Glee (Fox), Prex (NBC), Castle (ABC), and HIMYM (CBS).

Usually, their seasons run from fall (September) to the start of summer (May). The regular length for a season is around 22 episodes, subjected to adding or subtracting a few more episodes. If a show is only meant to run in the fall - winter, or winter - spring, then they may only have 13 episodes. But these shows are in a minority, and the stable secure shows usually have a standard 22 episode season.

Then you have the cable networks. These can be further classified into 2 categories. You have small networks such as AMC, FX, and DirecTV (this is more a satellite channel than cable.. but never mind). Their shows, like Mad Men (AMC), Sons of Anarchy (FX) and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (DirecTV) run for a typical 13 episode season.

They usually are run in one shot, meaning no hiatuses, no preempted breaks, and generally are of a higher standard than the network shows. Haha. The last point was my own opinion. Also, the shows run on these networks attract a more niche and specific audience.

Now we come to the bigger cable networks like USA, where White Collar is broadcasted on!! Other shows include Covert Affairs, Burn Notice and Psych.

As far as I know, USA is the only channel I know who runs 16 episode seasons typically. Not only do they do that, the 16 episode season is broken down into 2 parts.

So say White Collar, which had its 3rd season start at the beginning of June, will run until August, when the 10th episode has aired. It will then take a hiatus of like, 1/2 a year, and probably come back in January. SO LONG RIGHT?!?!!

Yeah. I took such a long time to explain it, haha.

Anyway I should probably go. I'm really tired, so I'm just going to slack around and wait for White Collar, yay.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is coming out next week! I don't know if I should feel sad, being the huge fan I am? But you know what, the series ended for me back in 2007. July 21st 2007 to be specific. The movie series was never anything more than a simple supplement to placate the fans.

Ah well. I'll still be watching it anyway, and my fingers are crossed in the hopes that it'll be good.

(Side note, I'm very irritated. Couldn't Hollywood/Bloomsbury/whoever is in charge for all these release dates have ensured, at least once, that the films or books were released on the 31ST OF JULY? Which as we all know, is J.K. Rowling's as well as Harry Potter's birthday?!)

Is this what they call love on a Saturday night?

2011-06-26T01:25:00.000+08:00

What do you think of naming all of my posts after lyrics in a song? Anyway, it's a Saturday night, the first after the end of my 22 week attachment with Company-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and instead of watching shows like I usually do, I was just mindlessly surfing the net.

Topics of my surf include!

The state of NY legalizing gay marriage, which directly leads to all the tweets of celebrities sharing their joyousness at the decision of the NY state senate.
POTTERMORE, the interactive website initiative that J.K. Rowling had been working on for more than a year and still is working on to provide her fans with and even more immersive experience into the Harry Potter world.
Tumblring in the day, Tumblring in the night, what else. Tumblr is an awesome place, and words cannot express my disappointment about how so many people I know have a Tumblr now!

Alright I'm adding a read more cut here because the ensuing portions of the post have gotten a little too random and ridiculous if you're a normal person, unlike me.

OKAY for the record, no one in real life actually knows my Tumblr address. I got a Tumblr (I now have 2) like almost a year back I think. Back then, everyone I followed on Tumblr was all "I hate real life, Tumblr rocks", and "YOU NEVER EVER EVER TALK ABOUT TUMBLR IN REAL LIFE. IT IS AN UNASSUMING SANCTUARY WHERE YOU NEED TO BE AWESOME TO ENTER" or something along that line.

But now everyone has Tumblr! For the record I think my main Tumblr is very boring, so it's no loss if you don't follow me. If you think this blog has too much pop culture/TV/media/movie related stuff, wait until you see my Tumblr - which you won't, because I won't ever reveal it. My 2nd one is just a music Tumblr where I post mp3s for people to enjoy.

Anyway, my point was that everyone I know has a Tumblr now. When they ask for mine I just create an excuse not to give them my address. Also I hate it when people link their Tumblrs to their Twitters. Do you know how freaking irritating that is?! EVERY SINGLE TWEET OF YOURS WILL GO "Photo: gsgsdfsd http://tumblrfdfsdfsfds" or "Quote:^%#^#%#@" or something like that that has no substance at all but a stupid link.

Maybe you guys just got Tumblr, I don't know. But if you get addicted, you can reblog/blog up to 100 posts a day and that is too much for my Twitter feed to handle. I don't want to be flooded with meaningless links I NEVER CLICK. There. That's the truth. No one on Twitter cares about your Tumblr, except people on Tumblr who follow you. Why do they follow you? Because they've checked out your blog and decide it's worth a follow. That, my friend, is a great honor. Don't dilute that honor by forcing your Tumblr posts down your Twitter followers' throats m'kay!?

Same goes for YouTube videos that you liked, and blog posts that you have done. I only really link stuff when I find them interesting, and more importantly, when I think others will find them interesting.

Yeah. Rant over. Look what I did!!!! HAHA.

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

I'm in Ravenclaw woohooooo~~. I was telling Deb the other time that if I were to be in a Hogwarts house I would definitely be in Ravenclaw and she agreed immediately! Like, if I had that conversation with anyone else they would ask why, and I would explain because I'm intelligent and witty, and they would go like "really? How obnoxious!" in their minds. And then I would withdraw into my hermit shell never to be seen by the world again.

Yeah I know. I'm overthinking. It's an unfortunate byproduct of intelligence alright?!

The reason I did it was because you get to be sorted into houses in Pottermore!! And I really want to be sorted into Ravenclaw! Actually according to J.K. Rowling you have to answer a few questions before the "Sorting Hat" decides, which frankly is kinda stupid. Because as all of us Potterheads know "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities" - as the late great Dumbledore said.

So if I want to be in Ravenclaw then I should be in Ravenclaw. There. I cannot believe I spend so long talking about this topic.

Anyway I was on Tumblr, and there was this post sorting the late night comedians into Hogwarts houses.

The only thing running through my mind was "where is Craig Ferguson! HE SHOULD BE IN RAVENCLAW!" because Craig is by far my favorite talk show host. His intelligent rants, the little things he does to show he's against the status quo, and obviously the hilarious interviews with his guests. Next up would be Jimmy Fallon, who is the dude in Hufflepuff. I have absolutely no feelings about the rest.

The original poster said Jay Leno was a Slytherin but Jay was more of an Umbridge kind of Slytherin whom everyone despises and therefore not in the picture at all. She also said Conan was a Gryffindor for braving through the entire NBC-Jay-Conan fiasco a few years back and came up smelling like a rose. I know you guys didn't understand a word of what I just said so sorry about that. I just found it quite apt, and therefore, amusing.

Back to Craig! He's the best talk show host ever! Now we've come to the part where I embed a video and call it a complete post. Or in my warped mind, I call it the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The best part is the last part people :)

This is an awesome rant by him. He figured out Why Everything Sucks and it is quite genius, honestly. Other things I find hilarious (every single time) are his email/Twitter segments, and all of his rants. Celebrities on his show whose interviews I find hilarious are mainly Ewan McGregor, NPH, Kristen Bell and Lauren Graham. You can find more videos of him on www.youtube.com/TVsCraigFerguson which contains every single episode that airs. I don't know how far it goes back because I've never been able to finish viewing them - new videos appear almost every other day.

What's even better is that the full episode is uploaded every single time, so you don't miss out on any part at all. Furthermore, I don't think it's illegal at all because Craig himself endorses this channel even though C?bs doesn't own it I think! I think it's because his is a Late Late show, and it airs Late Late at night (har har) so having all the videos on YouTube makes it more accessible for people who sleep at normal hours. It also makes it more accessible for people like me who live like, 16 time zones away :)

Well, I'm gonna sleep now. What a weird entry. By the way I've completed Zahada phase 3 so I'll upload the hints in my Zahada post soon!

Parks and Recreation is bleeping awesome

2011-06-22T23:08:00.000+08:00

It is so f*cking awesome that every single word in this sentence links to another article talking about how awesome this show is, be it a news article stating how many nominations P-Rex has claimed yet again in some awards show, or opinion pieces on why you should watch Parks and Recreation, or even countdown lists that have included P-Rex in their respective lists.

As you can tell, that was an extremely long sentence. It took a lot of effort to source for those articles. All this effort, is a sign of my affection of this show. However, people around me prefer comedies like Modern Family or How I Met Your Mother or... Well, that's all I can think of now. Now, I know you guys won't click on ANY of the links but I did it anyway, just to show 1) How many articles are there proclaiming the awesomeness of this show, and 2) How much I love this show...

It's going to be a very long entry, so click on if you wanna read.
Firstly, if you have clicked through, I presume you already watch P-Rex, or want to start watching. If you belong in the latter group, then I have something to say. Whatever you do, please do not start from the first season. The first season might just very possibly turn you off of the rest of the seasons, something you do not want to happen.

So just in case you're scared you're going to miss out on something, I will kindly summarise all 6 (yes only 6) episodes of season 1 here. Initially, I was going to type out the description of all the characters but that would be too stupid, when I can just copy and paste from Wikipedia!! YAY!!

Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, an mid-level bureaucrat with a strong love of her home town of Pawnee, who has not let politics dampen her sense of optimism; her ultimate goal is to become President of the United States.
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse and political outsider who gradually becomes more involved in Pawnee government through her friendship with Leslie.
Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Leslie's sarcastic and underachieving subordinate, who eventually begins to consider leaving his city hall job to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests.
Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, the parks and recreation director who, as a Libertarian, believes in as small a government as possible. As such, Ron strives to make his department as ineffective as possible, and favors hiring employees who do not care about their jobs or are poor at them. Nevertheless, Ron consistently demonstrates that he secretly cares deeply about his fellow co-workers.
Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, a cynical and disinterested parks department intern who eventually becomes Ron's assistant.
Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz, a city planner who entered the field with a sense of optimism, but has since become jaded and disillusioned.
Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, a goofy and dim-witted but lovable slacker, who starts of as Ann's boyfriend.
Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, a competent but socially-awkward government official trying to redeem his past as a failed mayor in his youth.
Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger, an excessively positive and extremely health-conscious government official.

Okay now you've probably not read that, let's move on to the plot synopses for season 1!!!!! I'm not even going to talk about the B-story here. I'm just going to tell the main story of what happened in season 1 so that if you, my dear reader ever wants to watch this show, you can just skip to the good part, ie season 2 and beyond. Please skip the next part if it's too boring alright! It's just rote summary and reiteration.

So. In the pilot episode, besides introducing all the characters that work at the Parks and Recreation department of the town of Pawnee, Indiana, it also shows Leslie and Tom holding a forum for the citizens to air their views and problems. Considering how much this is a source of hilarity for the ensuing seasons, it was really boring here. Anyway we meet Ann, who was there to complain about a large pit (abandoned after a construction company went bankrupt) next to her house that her boyfriend, Andy, broke his legs when he fell in. Stuff happens, and Leslie tries to get approval to build a park from the pit from her boss, Ron. Since he's such a laissez-faire person, he of course rejects the idea. Leslie confides in Mark the city planner - her one night stand 6 years ago and friend* - who then cashes in a favor with Ron and asks him to build the pit.

In episode 2 - 5 nothing substantial really happens. They do the normal thing you do when you try to get a project done. Get approval, get exposure, and get feed back from the citizens about the new park. There isn't really any development here except Ann realizing Andy treats her like a crutch.

But in the season finale, there's a bit more development. Andy gets his cast off and his band puts up a show and invites the parks department to attend. Leslie has a date with some old politcian (which she thinks is a meeting) that her mum set her up with so she couldn't go. Ann finds out Andy delayed his cast removal in order to get Ann to wait on him for a few weeks more. Mark spirals into depression realizing his work is insignificant and he has no companion to turn to. Leslie and Mark end up getting drunk and talking, ending up near the pit. During this time, Ann and Andy were fighting about the cast issue. It ends when Leslie and Mark kiss, she rejects him and he stumbles into the pit. Ann and Andy take a break from their relationship... And... Season 2!

To be honest after watching it, one of the things I was surprised at was how little April and Ron were used. Those 2 are the master of minimalist comedy and provide plenty of laughs in the coming seasons, but they were severely underused here. Most of the stories in these 6 episodes had plenty of Mark, Ann and Leslie. Since Mark and Ann are best used as straight man/woman, it's no wonder season 1 was a big disappointment.

Despite the promotion P&R has gotten, which isn't a lot, the ratings have been mediocre at best. Part of the reason is because people tuned in for these first 6 episodes and were turned off by it. That just goes to show how important the first few episodes are. Another 2 reasons I can think of are, P-Rex is always going to be unfairly compare to it's bigger cousin The Office. And it will lose, because people don't like new things. Finally, it might be because people don't like the government, so it wouldn't make sense for them to watch a show about the government...? I don't know, just some of my thoughts.

Finally, because videos speak so much more than words, I'm going to leave you all with my favorite and most hilarious cold open of season 3. Don't worry there aren't any spoilers! I affectionately call it: Ron Swanson has a toothache. Enjoy!

Super late post of the week

2011-06-19T00:01:00.001+08:00

Yeah, I know. Sorry, I have no excuses other than I'm kinda tired of my industrial attachment and all I want to do when I go back is WATCH PARKS AND RECREATION + CASTLE.

Emmy season is coming, and since I've decided to change my Twitter background to whatever I advocate at that point in time (ie Star Wars on the 4th of May), my Twitter background has just been changed to a Parks and Recreation cast shot to celebrate their perfect 3rd season.

Seriously, Parks and Recreation is like, one of the best shows out there right now. It's awesome and everyone should watch it, starting from the 2nd season. The first season sucks. In fact, I feel so strongly for it that my intended post of the week was all about P-Rex (I'm gonna call it that now since P-Rex sounds surprisingly badass, like T-Rex only more modern). But it required too much effort and I didn't have much time this week.

Why? Well on Monday I watched X-Men First Class after work (more on that later), and then Wednesday was spent sending Huijeen + Sarah off to the States, where they'll be having the time of their lives for 4 months, catching Kungfu Panda, and welcoming my parents back from China!!!

Thursday was the most epic s07 gathering ever. I shall not reveal why. TOO BAD IF YOU MISSED IT, unless you're Eileen, then good for you because if you were there we would probably have tortured you.

Friday I rushed home from work because the OpenNet people were coming to install the optic fibre cables, like finally, and I wanted to understand exactly what does installing it entail before they actually did any installation. If you recall, I live in a landed property, so... the rules are a little different? Anyway the point was that I didn't trust my father la, lol. I love him and all, but technology isn't his strongest suit.

All these activities culminated in me sleeping 15/19 hours from 6pm yesterday to 1pm today. I only woke up because I had to get to tuition, and when I came back, I slept AGAIN, from like 6 to 8pm. I think there's something seriously wrong with me? Why do I sleep so much? My eye bags are never going to go away I think, and I feel very sad about that. I have a look of a haggard individual, what with the constant shadows beneath my eyes and all that.

I slept so much, that when I was taking my bath just now I realised FYP selection is closed on 19th June, MIDNIGHT!! Which is like 20 minutes away! Alright, it could have meant like midnight tomorrow but I'm not taking any chances! I mean I already have chosen the topics I want to do, I just have yet to input them into the system. So whewwww~.

Okay so let me talk about X-Men: First Class. IT WAS SO GLORIOUS. I think it was the best of the X-Men films so far? I loved that there wasn't much action and that the producers chose instead to focus more on characters. To me, character focus is the one great aspect of film/TV that wins over all other aspects. And the fact that there was so much backstory in the film, just made me love it even more.

Because I'm not a big comics fan, I had this nagging question all along about why doesn't Professor X just control the minds of all of Magneto's accomplices? I mean, what is a villain without anyone to control right? So yeah, this film answered that question. It's because both of them respect each others' choices and viewpoints, even though they do not totally agree with the methods employed by the opposite parties. But they have the same goal in mind, a better life for all mutants. And that adds a sort of wonderful depth to the universe of X-Men I think, rather than arbitrarily having a good guy and a bad guy and have them battle it out.

Additional points: I thought Emma Frost was a terrible Emma Frost. LOL. Okay from what I can see, I think she was supposed to have a professional, icy, unyielding, chilling feel... Kinda like Dakota Fanning in the 2nd Twilight film, weird example but that is all I can think of now. Short appearance but big presence? You know, the type that's suppose to suck any live out of the atmosphere and make the focus entirely on her?

Maybe my interpretation is wrong. Maybe it's because I do not like Emma Frost's portrayer (January Jones) because I watch Mad Men... But I just didn't like her. Ah well.

You know who I do like though? MICHAEL FASSBENDER! I would gladly watch a movie just based on him, chronicling his journey from the little boy at the Nazi camp to Magneto... A more detailed movie that is. Anyway I don't know why, but while watching it he kept on reminding me of Don Draper (again, from Mad Men). I suppose part of the reasons lies in the fact that they are set in the same era (1962 circa the Cuban missile crisis).. And therefore dress the same. And have the same hairstyle. (Especially during the Nazi killer portion of the film).

Seriously. Fedora, check. Tight fitting polo tshirt, check. Tucked in shirt into khaki pants, check. Tortured past, check.

DON'T THEY LOOK ALIKE?!?!?

Anyway yeah. That's all for this week. This entry took all of 30 minutes to write, yay me. I WILL DO A PARKS AND RECREATION ENTRY NEXT WEEK, if only for you all to see how much effort it took, and then be impressed by my passion for it, and then start watching it. That would make me a very happy person :)

I think the idea of priority seats are stupid

2011-06-08T22:13:00.004+08:00

I think this week's entry is going to be a very opinionated one, and it is also one that will have me sounding very unreasonable, and pissed.

Oh well. My blog, too bad.

So before I start my entry, I have a disclaimer/confession to make: When there are no other seats available in the morning, I always sit on the reserved seat. There. I said it. Judge me. Reasons will be given later, but I feel the need to say this out loud first so everyone will know what type of a heartless person I am before they decide to click the read more button!

So first things first, the root of all evil. The main reason why I hate the idea of priority seats, from which stems the plethora of other reasons I think it's a stupid idea, is because the accusatory finger always points at those sitting in the "priority seats", and in doing so, automatically vindicates anyone sitting anywhere else.

Why on earth should someone sitting on a non priority seat be excused from having to give up their seat to those in need? What gives them the right to see a person in need of a seat and instead of graciously offering it, go "Oh it's okay I don't have to give up my seat, the people seating in the priority seats should do it" and then continue on their commute as if they haven't done anything wrong?!

Think about this situation: An middle aged woman, not exactly of "priority seat age" has just ended work. Exhausted, facing a long commute of 1 hour from Boon Lay to Tampines, she manages to get a priority seat. On the other hand, a teenager who has just finished watching a movie and is on the way home isn't in need of time, so he sits the train to Joo Koon (end of the line) and back just to get a prime seat - which isn't a priority seat. So in this situation, why on earth should the hardworking breadwinner of a family give up her seat instead of the teenager in the prime of his youth?!

It's PROMOTING APATHY, that's what the whole idea of the priority seats is doing. The concept of a priority seat is nothing more than a means to an end, a way of coping with an aging population not by tackling the root of the problem, but by trying to alleviate the symptoms. There is a Chinese saying which means to treat the symptoms and not the root cause - something we shouldn't do - 治表不治本. And that's exactly what the priority seats are doing. Sure, it gives the elderly and needy a seat on the train, but does it really make Singapore a more gracious society?

Which leads me to my next point, because Singaporeans are innately bitter, we like to point out the mistakes of and in the process, embarrass people around us. Thus, STOMP is formed. Stomp stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print, a portal for citizen journalism. Although by the looks of it, it looks more like a tabloid newspaper more than anything else. I guess that's what you get when you give us the freedom of press via STOMP?

Anyway, STOMPers as they shall now be called, like to sneakily take photos of people occupying these priority seats, then post it up on STOMP, claiming that all Singaporeans are heartless and incapable of a simple act of kindness. HELLO? Why do you only take pictures of people sitting on the priority seats? Are the people sitting on the other seats guilt free? Do they not see the person in need? WHY AREN'T THEY GIVING UP THEIR SEATS TOO? Is it because if YOU, who are standing up, had a seat on the non-priority seat, you wouldn't even bother giving up your seat for a needy person?

Again, it all boils down to the apathy aspect of introducing this evil idea of "priority seats".

In fact, let's dig deeper shall we? Why are you even taking photos at all? Chances are, no one knows this person sitting on the priority seat. I mean, how many people actually bother to troll STOMP.com.sg? Straits Times will only report it on a slow news day, and your contemptuous act will only last for all of... 1 day, probably. Because by the next day, someone else would have sat on a priority seat, oblivious to people in need, and another derisive person would have snapped a picture of that heinous act.

You would be doing the entire world, as well as your karmic life, a huge favour should you decide to politely ask the person, or any person for that matter, to give up the seat to the person in need.

GOD. This is exactly like stupid trending topics on Twitter like #prayforjapan or #prayfor*insertlatestcountryaffectedbydisasterhere*, where people are retweeting non stop but doing nothing other than that. Can retweeting do anything? Can trending a stupid hashtag do anything? It can't! If you really want to contribute to the problem please donate. Or you know, fly there to do some charity work.

Anyway, I'm not saying that the people who are indeed on the priority seats are not at fault. My issue lies with 1) The people occupying other seats without a care in the world, and 2) The people who like to point out the faults of others without doing anything about it.

Finally, I also have an issue, albeit a lesser one, with people who need the seat, but do not ask for it, instead, just standing there and suffering. All the while making the people who do have a seat look like they are evil. Why can't they just ask for a seat if they need it so badly? I don't think anyone is going to deny them a seat. I certainly will not; and it has happened to me before. I was sitting down in a priority seat (I think), and dozed off. After being awoken by someone tapping on my knee and gesturing that she wanted the seat, I gave it up.

I get that in an Asian society, we are supposed to respect our elders and give them everything we have in life without even questioning why. But I also get that Singapore is increasingly becoming westernized. Maybe there is a bit of a generation gap where this is involved, where the younger generation feel that they do not owe their elders anything whereas the elder people feel that piety towards them is a given, not a privilege.

Usually, for me, if I see someone in need, I will definitely give it up - regardless of whether I'm sitting in the priority seat or not. But you and I both have to admit sitting down on the MRT isn't exactly a consciousness boosting activity, which means that, we tend to doze off sooner or later. Even if we do not sleep, we usually have our iPods with games and shows to keep us occupied. All this means that people - especially for the technologically attuned younger generation - DO NOT pay attention to their surroundings.

Never mind where I'm sitting, the fact is that if someone who is in need of a seat walks in, I would not have noticed if I'm playing games or sleeping. Which I tend to do a lot. However, I would like to maintain that when I do snap out of my reverie/stupor and see someone in need of a seat, I would definitely give it up without hesitation.

But in between the time when the needy person walks in, and when I finally notice the person - no one makes any move. Does that make me a bad person? If it does, does it mean that people who managed to snag a revered seat on the MRT have to be on their ~~toes~~ butts throughout their entire journey, watching out for people who might need a seat?

Food for thought people, food for thought.

Yeah. I've come to the end of my rant. I'm going to say why I do occupy the priority seats early in the morning when I don't have a choice. Congratulations if you managed to survive my self indulgent rant until the very end.

Actually, the main reason is that... I don't think there is any harm in occupying priority seats during rush hour. You mean we're all supposed to stand up and leave those seats unoccupied? There already is a shortage of space on our MRTs and people boarding at the stations towards the end of the line have problems getting on board. Not occupying those seats seem like a big injustice to people who are cramming on board.

Also, the likelihood of needy people taking the same train as I do (7:10am to 8am) that early in the morning is somewhat unlikely. It backfires sometimes though, because when I really do want to give my seat up to someone in need, they might be standing too far away to navigate over. I feel bad, but hey, it's not like if someone else were sitting on my seat, the needy person would be able to navigate through the squashed can of sardines we call a peak hour train anyway. The question is why aren't people who are sitting near the doors giving up their seats?

Yeah. So before I go, I would like to say, I don't think I'm unreasonable at all?! I think I'm very justified in feeling the way I do, but I'm really sorry if you feel offended. Such is life. Too bad! I'm also having a flu and am very tired now so off I go. Watch some Castle before I sleep because I can. Muahaha.

Attachment is coming to an end!!

2011-05-31T22:43:00.001+08:00

Those of you who watch Bones, might recognise this guy:

That's SWEETS from the hit Fox show, Bones. One of those shows that hit its stride 3-4 seasons ago. I still watch it regularly, but I can feel my love for it ebbing away, as it did for House. That isn't the point... The point is that, in the show, Bones and Booth tease him regularly for looking like a kid - a kid way too young to be holding a position in the FBI as a psychologist.

Personally, I didn't find that he looked just like a baby boy or whatever, although it did seem baffling at the time that a 24 year old (in the show in the 2007 season) could become a certified psychologist, even though he was supposed to be a child genius. Anyway, my point is that, I just found out he was only 22 when given the role of Dr. Lance Sweets. And that, 8 years prior to his career on Bones, he looked like....

THIS. This is a screencap from Freaks and Geeks, a way-too-short lived dramedy on NBC 12 years ago. Wow, I feel young. John Francis Daley was one of the main cast members, portraying a geeky insecure freshmen in high school. The moment I saw him in the show I wanted to pinch his cheeks to death; he was so goddamn cute in the past!!

Despite the show being a mere 18 episodes, I thought it was quite a perfect season. You know how a Great American Novel is described as a novel which accurately captures the spirit of America? Freaks and Geeks is the quintessential "Great American High School TV Show" - because it accurately portrays what the spirit high school is really like for the "middle class" students. Not the jocks and the cheerleaders, not the losers who by some sudden stroke of luck transform into a dashing young dude, but really.. Just the Freaks and Geeks.

Of course I can't say much, because I'm not a product of the American education system. I'm from Singapore, where uniformity and equality is enforced, and individuality is suppressed. I sound so bitter about the system, and in some ways, I am. But you know, you have to admit that Singapore's share of youth delinquents and teenage pregnancy is lower than the global average. I think. God knows what are the statistics like now. Also, I can't ignore the fact that the Singapore education system - a pressure cooker though it might be - produces really clever people.

SO yes, I shall stop rambling on about TV shows - ohhhh ok by the way I'm watching Firefly! Another great short lived show - and tell you guys what I'm planning!

I'm planning my dream/ideal graduation trip!! HAHA! Yes I know right, whuuutttt?! WeiQin you're graduating in a year's time, why the hell are you planning it now? The fact is that I'm very jaded by work, and also by the fact that I will have no real free time to enjoy myself until after year 4 semester 1 - assuming FYP doesn't take its toll on me, which I think it will actually. All around me, everyone has already flown off overseas for an extended period of time, or are currently overseas, or will be going overseas.

What about me? Not only am I stuck in Singapore - maybe I can bear with that - but to have no break at all from January 24th of this year all the way to (possibly) 2nd December, is a thought I can hardly bear to think about. I know that something exciting is coming up in my life, it's just that the thought of no time for myself is very depressing, to be honest.

SO, in an act of desperation, I've started planning my ideal grad trip. You know the old adage. If you can't do it, plan it. Okay fine, I came up with that on the spot. It's a pretty good saying, no?! If you can't do it, you plan it - someone will see that you're so serious about doing it, and then offer you a chance!

Anyway the location is North America. Duh, as if you'll expect anything else from me. I'll most probably be going - if I get to go - myself! Or with my dad, but he can only join me for 4 weeks. Ideally all my friends will have the time and money to spare, but no. Only I will be willing to spend an exorbitant amount of money on my grad trip because this is important to me. And also, I don't want to do what most people do on tours (party? shop? suntan?), I want to visit historical sites and great sceneries. You can say that my priorities are not in check, but whatever.

I'm just mapping out places I want to go to and routes I want to take without caring about the money first, because... that's more fun. So far I've gotten quite a lot of places, and I intend to strike some off due to practicality sake when I start planning further.

This is all I've got so far. I'm just basically putting down stuff I remember people saying that it's a must-go, and also I'm googling searches like "places to visit in the USA" etc. Anyway I have like 10 months to plan, and I gotta say I think planning is a very exciting part of travelling itself. The other parts are shopping for travelling, and finally, obviously, seeing your plans come to fruition :)

I shall update soon! I gotta say, I'm sticking quite admirably well to my blog once a week schedule.

Random thoughts about TV

2011-05-24T22:24:00.000+08:00

So this week's entry shall be about TV, which I think I haven't blogged about in a long time!! Mostly random thoughts, that were running through my head when I was attempting to sleep on the MRT this morning.

Speaking of which, I seriously hate that sometimes, I'm unable to get a good nap on the MRT - yeah I always get seat, I don't sit on the reserve seat either! Want to know how to get such good luck? Work at NTU, stay in AMK, and attempt to reach NTU around 815 everyday. I always close my eyes but only manage to drift off in the LAST TEN MINUTES. I really hate that, I wish I had an on and off button. Together with an alarm clock.

Anyway so yeah, I couldn't sleep so I had a lot of random thoughts running through my head. I'm the only person I actually know personally that will care so much about dramas and comedies so I'll make a page break here, and feel free to click through. There will be no structure, just me rambling on and on incoherently, a lot like the thoughts that formulate in my brain soooo yeah!

Recently, I started watching Hawaii-Five-O. Or however you write it. Is it Hawaii 5-0? That is irrelevant. I watched it solely for the purpose of Grace Park, because I was a great fan of her work on Battlestar Galactica. I watched 7 episodes, majority of which I just let the video run and continued playing Hen House on my iPod (I'm at 34.41 seconds!) while intermittently looking up to the screen. Yeah, I can multitask! *puts on sunglasses and smiles smugly*.

After those episodes, I just didn't have the mood to carry on the series regularly because it didn't interest me much. I think it's because there aren't any romantic stories and it is too much of a procedural. It's not that I only watch shows for the romance, it's just that in the procedurals I watch, the show seems to revolve around the central characters and their interesting jobs, rather than actual police cases. Case in point: Bones and Castle, I couldn't for the life of me pinpoint any single case which stands out, unless you are talking about the cases which involve our characters personally.

I get that H5O is a show of mass appeal, I don't hate it or find it particularly dreadful, it's just really meh~ to me. It still is an alright show though, Alex O'Loughlin is REALLY hot. REALLY REALLY hot. And Hawaii (they shoot on location) is really beautiful. Like, makes me want to fly there just to swim in the Pacific beautiful. It's just that the characters are so stereotyped and typical and not given much deep stuff to do, that I just feel bored by it. It's all such a typical show! Okay maybe that's because it's a remake - so I can't expect too much. Maybe the producers main aim is to keep it in line with the original 5-O which is like, from 40 years back, so how original can it be right?

But Grace Park is so nondescript in it. She's a cop. She can kick ass. When asked to act as a damsel to be a bait, she does it. She's hot. 7 episodes into Battlestar Galactica I was already invested into her entire Cylon existence, and where her relationship with Helo would go, whether or not she would betray him etc... Whereas here, it's like okay whatever. By the way, it wasn't like she was the central character on BSG, and yet I got so much more invested in Boomer than I ever will in Kono.

The blame shouldn't be shifted to Grace Park because she's a fantastic actress. So I can only point the finger at the producers/directors of the show. And it's not just the first time an actress/actor from a much more acclaimed show ends up in a new show that's unworthy of the previous one. I think as a TV viewer, that's the really sad part about saying goodbye to shows that you are really in awe of.

Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, and Friends are examples off of the top of my head where some fantastic acting and/or comedic chops were displayed. But the subsequent jobs of actors from said shows have failed to give them substantial material to work with, and it is such a pity*! Even for Courteney Cox, who maybe has the least problem in all the aforementioned shows, I find that she doesn't make the Cougar Town show for me - Laury and Bobby do instead. In fact, I'm not sure I even like Jules as the main character, she is really insufferable.

*Okay I'm aware that this doesn't apply for everything. I'm just saying when watching a good show, it's more likely than not the actors will not get something as good as what they're doing in that moment again.

Which leads me to my next point. I realise that a lot of the time, I do not watch shows for their central characters! Okay apart from like Bones and Castle, as I stated before. I watch HIMYM for Barney, I watch Cougar Town for Laurie, I guess I watch Prex for Ron who isn't the central character - although Leslie Knope is pretty much awesome. I watch Fringe for Walter, and especially in the later seasons of Chuck I feel that Morgan and Casey have been more entertaining than Chuck. The list goes on and on but I really don't know why I feel this way.

Is it because all possible storylines have been exhausted for the central characters? Is it because TED IS SUCH A DOUCHE ON HIMYM? Yes he is. I don't like him, I don't care about the mother, I want more of Marshall. Or Lily. Or Robin. Or Barney. Anyone aside from Ted is fine by me.

Aside from that, I think it is because during the casting process of a show, the writers have in mind clearly the personality of a central character. They then center the show around said character, making it very hard to change the character without changing the show. Whereas with peripheral (okay I'm aware that it's not a good word to use since I'm still talking about the main cast, just not the leading actors) characters, it is much easier to discover what the strength of the actors are and shape their following storylines accordingly. For the leading character, you can't exactly do that without changing the show fundamentally.

All the above being said, I still do appreciate the art of creating and maintaining a TV show.

It is a terribly competitive industry - hundreds of pilots made a year, only 20 or so picked up by the major networks, and of 20, maybe only 4-5 survive the first season and even less down the road. Not to mention the vulnerability of your job being subjected to ratings, renewal of your show being uncertain... I guess that's why I don't really mind actors being paid so much. Their jobs are so uncertain, and you never know when they'll get a new job, so whatever they earn from an episode might have to tide them over for a while...

It's terribly hard coming up with stories 22 times a year, and repeat the cycle all over again the next year - while keeping it fresh, original, and true to your show. It isn't like a movie where you can just formulate a plot for 2 hours and wrap it up nicely at the end. For TV shows, it's inserting filler episodes, it's working around the tight budget, it's not knowing if the network will cancel your show after 13 episodes, or add another 5 episodes to the initial order of 22 episodes.

It's a lot of unpredictability. Because of this uncertainty, when you start a season of 22 episodes, you are writing maybe 3 episodes ahead of the filming, which is around 5 episodes ahead of airing? You have no idea how the audience is going to respond to any possible storyline cock-up and by the time you view their response, you are 8 episodes down the line and the audience would have to wait 8 episodes (which is like 1/3 a season) to wrap up or close the storyline, and that's 8 weeks of continuously dropping ratings of the audience is that impatient. And if the network is fickle with the amount of episodes they want, how will you decide how to neatly arch your storylines to ensure they make sense and have proper pacing? You can't!

It's also a big headache keeping track of everything that has happened, especially as your show grows older and older. Inconsistency pisses some people off. What if something you do in season 6 directly contradicts what the character said in season 1? People will give you flak for it, but too bad, it is done and there's no going back to undo it. It will be there like a gaping hole staring you straight in the face, but there's no turning back.

WHEW. I feel tired just typing all the above, imagine the stress the showrunners go through when they do their jobs. Respect, really. But when they do their jobs right and everything clicks, the shows the show runners end up with are really amazing. They work on every level, and it's just hard to imagine anything better. Examples include... Parks and Recreation!! Friday Night Lights!! And maybe, just possibly... Parenthood?

Gawddd I really love TV. I wouldn't mind making this my life if I could.

I HAVE TO STOP SPENDING MONEY.

2011-05-19T21:44:00.000+08:00

$85.85 COTTON ON

$75.00 LION KING

$25.90 HAIR DRYER

$25.00 JIGSAW PUZZLE

$31.92 SWISS ARMY KNIFE

$81.21 2ND ORDER FROM AMERICAN EAGLE

$50.16 1ST ORDER FROM AMERICAN EAGLE

$449 - TV

RANDOM MISCELLANOUS FOOD, MOVIES, HEALTHCARE/BEAUTY PRODUCTS, ETC... ?!?!?!?!

For a grand total of 794.04. Or 800 dollars. Okay actually it isn't a lot, given that I spent it over 4 months, it's just that recently I've been spending a lot, so I kinda feel a little bit guilty. Yeah, just a little bit.

So in order to be more disciplined, I SHALL NOT SPEND ON THINGS I FEEL ARE UNWORTHY OF MY HARD EARNED MONEY. Such items include movies that I don't have to watch, snacks when I feel like munching, McDees delivery when I feel like shaker fries...

Especially now that everyone has ended exams so I suppose I'll be going out more often. Okay short entry this week because I'm super tired. From going out. I think I go out too often all I wanna do these days is just to eat at home more often :(

Qin vs The Jigsaw Puzzle

2011-05-09T23:04:00.001+08:00

WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME (and also, pretty long entry)

Last week, my good friend Alan and his girlfriend, bought a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle in a vain attempt to try to complete it in a day. You can read all about their failed conquest here! So yeah, as you know (from my usage of the word failed, duh), they didn't complete it. Since it was a couples activity they didn't want to do it anymore because neither of them were going to be free in the coming weeks.

So Alan messaged me and asked if I wanted to buy it from him:

Alan: I paid $27 for it, I'll sell for whatever you're willing to pay!
Me: Why are you selling it? Lol do once then don't wanna do already?
Alan: Well because I don't have the patience to do something as mad as this by myself! It was a couple activity for funzies.
Me: But did you finish it? Haha I dunno leh I don't really like cartoon jigsaws.
Alan: No we finished the cartoon part left the scenic part lol. Which is all clouds and skies.
Me: 10 bucks? Or we do a challenge if I finish in one day you gimme for free. Hahahaha!
Alan: LOL! OK CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

So there you have it. Part 1: The formation of this challenge. For the continuing parts, and to see whether I actually achieved this incredible feat, you must press the button and read on!!

By the way, this entry can also serve as a jigsaw puzzle guide for first timers who want to start a new hobby!!!!

Or you can just go to my Twitter, I did mention whether or not I completed it!

Anyway I feel quite bad for Alan, because unbeknownst to him. sitting in the depths of my house's storerooms are the following items:

Yeah, you are all thinking: WOAH so many! Are you sure you did all of them before?! Anyway they're all only 500-1000 pieces! Doesn't mean you can complete this challenge alright?

My answer is: I have done all of them at least once. The one with Dan Foley's Pub? That was the first puzzle that belonged to me (the earlier ones are all under my dad's "ownership"). My dad chose it cause it had very well defined lines and colours which made it easier, and I was eight when I first did it. Refused to have him help me too.

The one in the maroon box is my 2nd favourite puzzle amongst all that I have but I did it so often some pieces are missing :(. Anyway, yeah, what you see above are only 500-1000 pieces, but it's not the end!!!

Tadahhh! Here are more! Okay some here are still uncompleted as evidenced by the shrink wrap. Like the ugly glow in the dark ones, it's those lousy quality $2 per box kind, don't know what I was thinking when I bought them. There's one of Yuna from Final Fantasy X too, LOL.

Anyway! WOAH look at the bottom! 2000 pieces!! I only did it once cause it wasn't as nice as my favourite ones and took a bloody long time.

This one here is my favourite! I'm obviously talking about the puzzle okay, not the Cluedo game. It is one of Schloss Neuschwanstein, a castle I had the privilege of visiting when I went to Europe in 2009, and also one I had the privilege of hearing all about since young thanks to my father who kept on talking about it when we did this puzzle

And I was in awe when I saw it in real life. There's just something about visiting places you've heard of all your life, you know? Anyway you can see it completed here!

Luckily for me, none of the pieces are missing (yet) and I intend for it to stay that way. Okay enough of showing off my puzzle collection, let's get to the challenge.

So, despite sleeping at 245am the night before (election results came out, if you remember), I woke up at 915am, checked my Twitter feed, went down to prepare myself a cup of coffee and took the puzzle box + a hugeass piece of cardboard to my family area:

Yeah, customary shot of the puzzle I'm going to attempt. I started it in the family area because it has the biggest windows in my house and I like as much natural lighting as possible when I do puzzles. But since the family area is literally a cosy little area, there were no tables, so on the floor it is then!

9.52 am: Sorting!

Sorting is probably the 2nd most important step in the entire jigsaw puzzle making process. The reason being you don't want to plough through all 1000 pieces again and again just to find pieces, it's a complete waste of time. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most boring!

Since there weren't many sections in the puzzle I just separated it into 3 piles: sides (left), sky (right) everything else (middle). The pile at the top are the unsorted pieces.

10.05am: Done with the sorting!!

Anyway when I was young I used to sort a few times, like I'd go through it once to find all the side pieces, then go through it again to find all the sky pieces. It wasn't until a few years back when I realised it would be better (albeit more boring at the beginning) to just sort everything immediately.

10.37am: Sides almost all done!

If you can see there's one missing piece at the left hand side. Another important thing to note about missing pieces is that - you shouldn't plow through your unsorted pieces just to find one missing piece because it isn't that crucial to have that piece there, and it's gonna turn up some time later anyway! But luckily for me, I stumbled across the piece while shifting the "everything else" pile - in the top right) back into the box because I had to make way for....

11.05am: The sky pieces!!!

Yeah, there's more sorting to be done here - I sorted them into shapes if you can't see it. And I displayed them out nicely in rows, all of them at the exact same orientation.

Remember when I said sorting is the second most important step? Arranging them to me is the most important one. It allows you to view each and every piece at one go, so you can see their individual shape and colour.

It's like this: You look at the unfinished puzzle, see what kind of a pattern/colour you need and what kind of shapes can fit into that lock. Then with that in mind, you look at each and every row, noticing each and every piece that could possibly fit into the puzzle.

I'm not going to lie, I have a pretty good sense of judging whether a particular piece or not is suitable. It's not very uncommon for me to be right on my first try (I'm so humble I know).

Anyway because the sky is so massive, I decided to start on small part instead of attempting the entire sky first:

11.11am: A small little "side project" away from the main puzzle.

It's actually the bottom of the cloud that cloud-Pooh was standing on! I chose it cause it was big and could serve as a good starting point for the rest of the puzzle.

12.18pm: My dad's passport photo

Yeah, I got interrupted to help my dad take his passport photo (using my camera), since he's going to China in June and his passport expired 2 years ago LOL!

Also, as you know, it was also mother's day and we traditionally don't celebrate it in my family. But my maid had an off day, plus my mum's wrist hasn't recovered from being fractured, so throughout the entire day I had to run around doing errands like sweep the porch, wash the dishes etc - because I would have felt bad if I didn't do it. It was Mother's Day afterall!

Not that I was complaining or whatever, I was just worried I wouldn't be able to finish it in time.

Anyway halfway through the afternoon it got too hot in the family room (it gets the afternoon sun), so I shifted downstairs to the dining room. Plus, my butt was aching quite badly from being on the floor since the morning. And also, the light in the family room is orange so it would have been really hard doing the puzzle there at night.

5.01pm: Around 1/3 the sky done

Okay at this point I was really worried I couldn't finish it, because I still had the characters + grassy parts to do! And it was already 5pm in the afternoon! Look at it! Still so many pieces left!

The weather didn't help either, when I was staring at the pieces, more often than not I was grumbling to myself about the weather, which was So. Bloody. Freaking. Hot. But I just went on normally, even stopping for quite a long time to eat dinner and read the Straits Times with all the election news inside, LOL.

I kept on telling myself, "Never mind la, the rest of the puzzle will be freaking easy", even though I only half believed it because I wasn't sure that it would be. But I knew that as time wore on the sky portion would get easier because you have less and less pieces to fit in, so.. *shrugs*, I just went on.

9.13pm: Sky almost completed!!

I say almost because there were a few missing pieces, and also a few loose pieces. For the missing pieces, I'm going to reiterate my "theory of missing pieces" - they'll turn up sooner or later so no point hunting for them.

As for the loose pieces, it'll be the opposite - they'll fit somewhere sooner or later so if you only have a few left, no point struggling to make them fit. Just place them aside for easy reference.

Okay at this point I went to bathe, and after that I sorted through the "everything else" section again to get all the partial-sky pieces out. This means pieces that have a bit of the sky in them, like some of the character pieces, the butterfly portion, the ones with the distant forests etc. I'm sure you know what I mean. Anyway this was probably around 9.40pm.

No pictures of this part though, sorry! But if you look carefully in the next few photos you can see that they're actually done! So yes, I started on the characters, by far the easiest portion, and the time tags in the following photos are the ACTUAL time I took the photos.

10.39pm: Tigger on his bouncy tail.

I started on Tigger first because he's my favourite character!!

10.41: Piglet!

Next, I did Piglet because he's Deb's favourite character!!! Haha!! I think so la, assuming it hasn't changed.

10.46pm: Pooh!

Then I did Pooh because he was next to Piglet and also cause I already had quite a few parts of him done (refer to the Piglet photo).

10.50pm: Rabbit!

Rabbit was next because he was all the way on the other side of the puzzle, so I could just sit besides the cardboard instead of staring over the middle portion to do Eeyore and Roo.

Also because once I had done Pooh, I knew the remaining yellow pieces definitely belonged to Rabbit, whereas Eeyore and Roo were generic natural colours like grey and brown, which made it harder to identify their pieces. Note that at this point my eyes were like super tired, so even if I can usually differentiate between Eeyore pieces and rock pieces, at that point in time I couldn't!

11.05pm: Eeyore and Roo done

I forgot to take a picture of Roo (probably because he's so tiny LOL). But here's Eeyore with one missing piece, which I didn't care for (theory of missing pieces at work again here!).

Yep, so with the characters out of the way, it was time to move onto the rest of the foreground.

11.28pm: Foreground done!

Foreground includes all the stuff like the bright green grass, flowers, the fence etc. So at this time not a lot of stuff left but the forest parts, which constitutes for very little. And remember, the lesser pieces there are the faster it is to do, so basically I did the remaining parts pretty quickly.

11:50pm: DONE!

HAHA I was so happy at this point and quite amazed I finished the 2nd half of the puzzle in like 2 hours and 10 minutes! Seriously! I whipped out my phone, and snapped a picture to tweet about it! If you click on the link you can also see my Star Wars background in commemoration of Star Wars day last week!

I think the above shot isn't very nice actually, my camera's focus couldn't get a focal point (it sucks that way), so...

Nicer shot of it with the puzzle more in focus and everything. So 9.40am - 11.50pm is 14 hours and 10 minutes. Minus maybe 2 hours and 40 minutes for meals, breaks, snacks, errands for my mum, and I daresay I completed it in 11 hours and 30 minutes!! Of course, nothing compared to the people on this site where some say they completed a 1000 piece puzzle in an hour.

It's currently in my family area, because usually when I complete a puzzle I refuse to destroy it, at least for a few days. When it starts to collect dust then I'll crush it up - and it's a very vindictive feeling actually!

Anyway I was super tired at that time, and I still had to wake up at 615am the next day - today - to get to work. GAWD. Not to mention my butt muscles were aching, probably from sitting on the floor. So today at work I couldn't concentrate anymore and left at 4pm to come home and sleep. It's okay because sometimes I stay back awhile when I'm too early to meet my friends for dinner or something!

So this was the conversation Alan and had after I completed it:

Me: Hello!! It's completed!!!
Alan: omg
Me: It's on my twitter if you wanna see, I tagged you!
Alan: How did you do it?!?!? Wasn't the sky difficult?!?
Alan on Twitter: @qinrawks WHAT. PHOTOSHOPPED! lolol #badloser IMBA! IMPOSSIBLE! (my RT because his account is private)
Me: The sky took me from like 11am to 930pm... With breaks la... But the rest was much easier.
Alan: WHAT. So you finished the sky first?
Me: Yeah...
Alan: You're mad.

Anyway I'm going to pay him for it in full, I just wanted the satisfaction of beating him at something. Although he says I beat him at a lot of stuff, I beg to differ. And also he played the "I'm very poor card" and the "My computer just spoilt card".

So since I'm having my attachment + giving tuition + still receiving allowance I'm gonna pay him for it la. $27 bucks for a Clementoni puzzle is normal anyway! Although I do prefer the Ravensburger brand!!

Before I end off, I'm just going to say I was serious about the "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" warning. I mean that you shouldn't attempt to complete it in a day, it's not going to be easy. It's only because I've been doing puzzles for most of my life that's why I thought that I could accomplish it.

When you start a puzzle, be prepared to be bored while sorting, and frustrated when you can't fit anything in. It isn't just a one day thing, it's a dedication you have to be willing to commit to for a few days at least, especially if you just started doing puzzles. Of course you can rush through it, but the best way to do it is just to work on it at your own pace, maybe around few hours each day - that way you get maximum enjoyment and minimal frustration :)

Okay. Going off to watch Friends and sleep, since I'm still really exhausted. And because I totally pwned that puzzle and the challenge, I'm going to insert an obligatory, celebratory Tumblr gif here!

May the 4th Be With You

2011-05-04T22:07:00.007+08:00

It is a great day for the universe, my friends. Today, we celebrate STAR WARS DAY! Why? Well, just read out the title of this post, it should be obvious enough.

Sad to say, I cannot call myself a Star Wars fan because I didn't even know about this day, until today, when I saw it as a trending topic on Twitter. That's right, Twitter! *takes a moment of silence to contemplate and be grateful for the fact that Twitter is so integral to my life right now*.

So to repent, I'm going to do a Tumblr Star Wars 30 day challenge - ALL CRAMMED INTO ONE SINGLE ENTRY for your entertainment. Okay, I won't have like wordy explanations, I'm just going to give one word answers because it's 30 freaking questions, no way am I going to finish it in time. And to further repent, I'm gonna change my Twitter background to a Star Wars theme!!!

1. All-time favorite character in Star Wars
R2D2. Resourceful, witty, superbly skilled in just about anything - AND HE DOES ALL THIS WHILE COMMUNICATING WITH BEEPS AND BLOOPS!

2. Favorite member of the Rebellion
Han Solo. Cocky, cool suave - yet fights for a cause close to his heart.

3. Favorite member of the Empire
Boba Fett. Speaks barely 2 lines in the original trilogy but is widely known as the most bad ass bounty hunter ever.

4. Favorite Jedi
Obi-Wan Kenobi. Love that I have seen him progress from a Padawan to one of the best Jedi Masters out there. Wise, with immeasurable wit especially in the prequels.

5. Favorite Droid
I answered R2D2 to the first question. So I have to choose another one? Obviously C3P0 for his wishy washy motherly character! But I'd go with the Magna Guards from episode 3 because I like their weapons.

6. Favorite type of ship, or specific ship
The Naboo Royal Cruiser for it's sleek design and silver coloured exterior. Sorry to fans of the original trilogy fighter ships. Look at it!!

7. Favorite planet
Coruscant. Reminds me of New York City. Although I have not been to NYC, that's what I'd like to think of it as.

8. Favorite movie in the original trilogy
The Empire Strikes Back

9. Favorite movie in the prequel trilogy
The Phantom Menace. I know I know, WHATTTTT? But it was the first movie I ever watched, and you always remember your first more fondly than you ought to!

10. Favorite photo that’s related to Star Wars
Was going to go with a parody photo or one of those funny caption ones, but well... I have loved this photo since I was young, it really spooks me out actually, how someone so young and pure minded could be manipulated to become Darth Vader.

11. Favorite battle
Space battle or lightsaber battle? The Rebellion destroying the Death Star I for the former, and Anakin versus Obiwan on Mustafar (the final battle).

12. All time favorite scene in any of the movies
The Endor moon chase on the speeder bikes. OK I don't know why! It just is!

13. Favorite quote
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. - Yoda to Anakin when he first met the Council in Episode I.

14. A scene that makes you happy
The Ewoks celebrating Threepio as their god in Return of the Jedi.

15. A scene that makes you sad/angry
Anakin slicing the hands off Mace Windu, Palpatine killing him, then Anakin proceeding to slay everyone in the Jedi Temple.

16. Photo of your Star Wars related things (books, action figures, posters, shirts, etc.)
I don't really have anything Star Wars related other than the DVDs for the prequels and a few books:

17. Your favorite moment in The Phantom Menace
Since we're talking about mere moments... Anakin defiantly stating "I'm a person, and my name is Anakin" when Padme asked if he was a slave.

18. Your favorite moment in Attack of the Clones
Obi-Wan falling from a height when Anakin zoomed by just in time to catch him in the cruiser... Obi-Wan then said "What took you so long?", as a form of unspoken thanks.

19. Your favorite moment in Revenge of the Sith
Definitely not favourite per say, more like most chilling... Anakin had just turned over to the dark side and walked into the Jedi Temple. A little Padawan of like, 5 years of age asked him "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?", and he just stared at them and activated his lightsaber.

20. Your favorite moment in A New Hope
Luke staring at amazement at his father's lightsaber.

21. Your favorite moment in Empire Strikes Back
SO MANY. The beginning when Luke stuffed Han inside a tauntaun. The pivotal moment when Luke finds out who his father is. Oh My Gosh I LOVED Luke and Yoda meeting for the first time on Dagobah and the training that ensued! And finally Cloud City where you have the famous "I Love You... I Know" scene from Leia and Han!

22. Your favorite moment in Return of the Jedi
When Darth Vader killed the Emperor. Again, because it was significant, a father's love for his son that could somehow erase all the brainwashing the Emperor did.

23. Something you wished was different in the series
I wish there was a longer time gap between the two trilogies, and also, I wish they never introduced the stupid midichlorian concept to explain The Force.

24. A character you didn’t like in the series
Jarjar Binks.

25. Your favorite book/series from the Expanded Universe
Jedi Quest (Anakin's Padawan years) an Jedi Apprentice (Obi-Wan's Padawan years).

26. Your favorite Obi-Wan Kenobi quote
"Only a Sith deals in absolutes." and "A more elegant weapon from a more civilized age."

27. Your favorite Yoda quote
"Do or do not, there is no try." (other than the one above)

28. Your favorite Darth Vader quote
As Anakin, other than the one above: "Well, I should be! Some day I will be... I will be the most powerful Jedi ever. I promise you. I will even learn to stop people from dying." - because it speaks volumes about how much he fears the people he loves leaving him.
As Darth Vader: "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." - just because.

29. Best Star Wars related story/incident you’ve had
We were playing Taboo and the word that came up was "Steven Spielberg". Huijeen hollered "WEIQIN'S FAVOURITE MOVIE!!! STAR WARS!", and someone else shouted "Steven Spielberg!"

Well you can imagine how indignant I was. It isn't the best story ever, but it is the only one I can think of right now.

30. Why you love Star Wars
Because it tells a story of love, redemption, balance, duty, justice and religion amidst a backdrop of futuristic gimmicks like spaceships and lasers. I love that it plays to my literary side as well as my geeky side. While I love the lightsabers and the ships, there's also a part of me that revers the faith the Jedis have, and the cause for which the Rebels fight for. And I know that the Anakin/Padme relationship was doomed from the start, but that didn't stop me from loving their tragic romance.

Anyways...

Yeah, the elections are in 3 days and surprise! I've not blogged a single thing about it. I'm quite sick of all the mudslinging and name calling and analogy driving actually. I know who am I voting for, and I'm not going to influence anyone or anything. All I have to say is vote wisely, this is your country.

Random thoughts: Even if PAP loses a GRC, nothing will change. No way WP's policies will be implemented with just 5 or 6 of their voices in Parliament. Same goes for the other opposition parties.

Also, I've read that you shouldn't vote according to your GRC, like what kind of logic is that I don't know. I want some opposition voices in Parliament too, but I want those opposition voices to come from the WP. In my GRC, RP is contesting against PAP. Whether or not I vote for the PAP will not influence the results of any other GRCs, just mine.

And finally, once a minister is voted out he is out. That means if Aljunied is lost to the Workers Party, there will be no more Foreign Minister George Yeo. I believe the PAP has to be prepared for such a situation to happen and that we will have a back up Foreign Minister......

Which will not be from the Workers Party might I add. As long a party gets the majority of the seats (SEATS NOT VOTES - overall votes don't affect how the parliament is "arranged" for want of a better word*), they are the ruling party. The entire Cabinet will come from that party, since it will be the leader of the ruling party who appoints the cabinet. So I think (and I want) the PAP will still get at least 90% of the seats at the elections.

*I'm not saying it won't affect the thinking of the government, or any party. I'm sure the PAP are not so stupid as to ignore the bare facts that only 66% of eligible Singaporeans voted for them at the last elections. I'm sure it'll affect their future policies if that number falls to 60%. So if you want for vote for the opposition as a scare tactic, go for it. But keep in mind that if everyone thinks your way, the system will be royally screwed. We will not just have change, we will have an upheaval. A tsunami + earthquake + volcano eruption kind of a change.

(So much for finally, I'm so freaking tired at this point I'm sure to have some grammatical errors here and there; forgive me).

Simple bills in the parliament require 50% of the votes to be passed, and amendments to the Constitution require 66%. You do the math - do you think with the current slate of opposition party members we can have at least 35% of our MPs not belonging to the opposition party? Which is why I say, to me, the purpose of having more opposition in the Parliament is just to literally have more diverse voices - something I think our Government should wholly support seeing as the whole point of the GRC system is to have minority (and therefore, diverse) representation in Parliament. Albeit I'm not talking about the same type of diversity here... But you get my drift, no?

Before I go off to watch Star Wars to celebrate May the Fourth (be with you), I just have to add one last thing... The beautiful thing about democracy is that it gives you a voice and lets you have an opinion. Which goes to say that my opinion may not be your opinion, but that doesn't mean any of us are wrong. It means that we agree to disagree, and instead of us throwing insults at each other trying to prove the invalidity of each others' views, democracy allows us to translate our particular feelings for whatever issues onto the piece of paper called the voting slip on polling day, thus eradicating the need for dirty name calling and anonymous bashing.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU! LONG LIVE STAR WARS! OBIWAN FOR PRESIDENT! THE REBELLION FOR RULING PARTY!

YODA FOR SUPREME RULER OF THE ENTIRE GALAXY!!!!

Rube Goldberg Machine

2011-04-25T23:05:00.005+08:00

So, last Thursday, instead of heading down to NTU for a normal work day, DSO very nicely organised an IA retreat to Sentosa for the interns! This includes about 20 of us, 1 from NUS, some DSTA scholars, and the rest from NTU.

Initially, I went there with the expectation to have fun playing on the beach, like you know, beach volleyball + Monopoly deal (or some similar card game) + tanning. I miss those days where the gang would just go to Sentosa for the fun of it, to slack with the surf and sun :D. Too bad we don't do so these days, everyone's busy. But hey, at least we still get to have dinner quite often, I guess? Anyway I'm digressing. It totally wasn't what I expected at all, it was more of a leadership training course, something like OBS but only for one day.

So, you're probably thinking, what on earth did your retreat have to do with this thing called a "Rube Goldberg Machine?". Yeah, be patient! I'm getting to it!! We had 2 challenges throughout the day, the first one being some sort of GPS navigation sort of treasure hunt, which my group won! I think my group is damn zai, cause we had 3 DSTA scholars who are like, geniuses or something. Something like that. The second challenge was to construct a rollercoaster out of raw materials like newspapers, straws, the likes.

Which is where I should start explaining why that challenge reminded me of a Rube Goldberg machine.

So basically, I learnt about such a machine from Mythbusters. Yes, that show is a treasure trove of useless but very interesting information. It's basically an extremely complex machine designed with loads of stages that's meant to accomplish a task that could be done simply. There are plenty of videos on YouTube, so I'm gonna embed only one here, because you have to watch it; it's seriously awesome and addictive.

LOL at Adam describing all the various cause and effects of the Rube Goldberg machine! I love Mythbusters! Seriously, used to watch it at 1pm on Discovery everyday during the holidays, but that can't happen this year since I have no holidays until like, December. Yeah. That's sad... Anyway, I showed the Mythbusters one because I have absolute confidence in them that it was taken in a single shot, that there's no cheating whatsoever, which in my opinion makes it more amazing.

But moving on~! Each group was tasked to make a rollercoaster each, which was pretty alright. My group, being the winning group of the morning had the most materials, and also we had the smartest guys (aforementioned 3 scholars), so it really wasn't a problem. And our roller coaster worked like, 95% of the time, so yay :)

The hard part was combining all 4 roller coasters from 4 different groups together, each roller coaster either continuing it's track on the next one, OR triggering some mechanism to make the next rollercoaster start it's journey. And so, that reminded me of the Rube Goldberg machine!!

First, let's take a look at the entire thing. So the flying fox belongs to one group, the one after the flying fox belongs to my group!

Okay so this is how it goes. The flying fox ball hits the ball at the top of my group's roller coaster. It's easier said than done because we had to adjust the angle and trajectory to make sure the flying fox ball doesn't hit my track after it sets off my tennis ball.

At the end of my track comes the jump down to the next track. It might look like we were just relying on luck for the jump to connect to the next track, but it really jumped well, had a success rate of around 85% I'd say!

The 3rd group's downward track:

This group also had some sort of turn and derailment to add more excitement to their ride lol. If you can see there's a sheet of newspaper on the outer edge of the swerve. It worked pretty well in pushing the ball back on track.

Clearer view of the turn:

Okay so after the turn it supposedly hits the sticks there to set off the next ball. I don't know how it works because I was working on the earlier part of the coaster.

A clearer shot of the 3rd-4th rollercoaster triggering mechanism, whatever you wanna call it. Anyway I think it was some really delicate system. A slight nudge would have set the 4th coaster off immediately. Also because it was so unstable, it was really hard to place the ball exactly right so that a small movement would set it off.

The ball then rolls down the final slope into this white transparent bag!!

Another angle:

So then, I guess you could say the entire purpose of our Rube Goldberg machine was to package spherical items. LOL. Just like the Mythbusters' one was to knock poor Buster off a chair, hahaha.

I have a video, it isn't mine, I ripped it off Facebook. Yeah you can do that! Just use FIREFOX ADDONS! Firefox rocks my world, seriously. You can't really see it clearly, but it worked, and we were plenty happy about that.

Sources are: The Wikipedia entry for the Rube Goldberg Machine, and also YouTube where you can find plenty more examples of Rube Goldberg machines :)

For when you're bored

2011-04-20T22:27:00.000+08:00

Some people believe that being bored and doing nothing is a waste of your time. I am one of those people. Some people also believe that sleeping is a waste of time. I am not one of those people, because sleep is necessary, to stop zits from breaking out, to replenish your cells, and so on and so forth. But that isn't the point of this entry!

Today's entry will be a list of interesting websites I've compiled over the duration of, uh... Let's just say my university life, because lessons in college are that boring. So anytime you feel bored, when your Twitter feed is not being updated, or when your Tumblr dashboard is stagnating because people on the other side of the world are asleep, head on over to one of these sites because, THEY ARE AWESOME.

Let it be known that they are not particularly informative; not all of them are anyway, some are humourous, some interesting. Actually very little of them are useful. But, hey, better than stoning and scrolling through Facebook. That's right! Twitter/Tumblr = awesome. Facebook = not.

Back to the topic, and click on to read more! (Yes this means you Khai and Serene and Alan and a lot of random people who I never knew read my blog so regularly! So that's how my counter keeps on rising. Thanks guys :))

Oddee

Who is it for: Everyone, but some articles require a strong stomach.

Oddee, on its website description, says "A blog with over 5 million visits a month, it features the odd, strange and bizarre things of our world. Be amazed!", and it is amazing! Okay to be honest, I don't really like ALL of the articles on Oddee. Some feel stupid to me, particularly the ones that feature some sort of pervertic theme to it.

But as I said, it is suitable for everyone. I'm a nerd, so I like the science categories, the technology and the random ones like Signs and Places etc... Like this page for example, they tell you that it actually rained BLOOD and WORMS somewhere in the world before! And just by saying that, I know I made you interested, so click on it if you wanna. I know I would :)

The rest of the site is littered with gems like this, don't be fooled by the most popular column on the right, with all the NSFW (not suitable for work ie there is nudity) indications. Most articles, the really interesting ones I feel, are in the lesser known columns (the unfunny ones). I mean, you just have to do some digging around. One of my personal favourites is this one: 10 people with unbelievable medical conditions, mostly because it features a girl who can only inexplicably only eat Tictacs. Why can't I have the same type of condition! My choice of food would be... Eh. Forget it, it's a hard decision to make. But at the same time, it is an interesting discussion! See see, this site is such a good conversation starter, and you have me to thank for it.

College Humor

Who is it for: Young people, who don't have kids

It's a wildly popular site among American college students, because it's funny and it's true. Besides their regular comics and decision making flowcharts about college life. Like "What Late Night Snack Should You Get?" or "Should You Skip Class Today?"... Which aren't particularly helpful in decision making, but dear lord they are so true! As I followed the Should You Skip Class Today chart, all I kept on thinking was, "wow this really makes sense, this is exactly what goes through my mind all the time!"

But that's not the fun part about College Humor. The best part about College Humor are their suggestion columns, largely drawn from the style of Reader's Digest features such as Life's Like That, or A Day At Work... The even better-than-best part about it is that there are so many of such columns!

Roommate Confessions. This is my least favourite because you will not believe the disgusting things roommates do to one another. Like using each other toothbrushes to scrub the sink, like WTF? Some of these really make me want to puke. Occasionally though, you'll get something really funny like how a guy peed in a pan, FROZE it, and slid it under someone's dorm room door. I mean, that's just plain genius!
Dating, It's Complicated. Mostly about embarrasing yet funny dating stories. My favourite is one where a boyfriend pissed his girlfriend off before flying off to some other country. She then gives him a present and told him to open it on the plane. Turns out there's a Qu'ran and a pocket knife inside LOL. Okay it's mean, but funny! ;)
Parents Just Don't Understand. This is about parents/older people and their aversion/ineptness at technology. There's nothing much to say about it, because we all know how much hilarity can idiocy at technology cause. This is a great quote from one issue: "I was sitting in class using a computer when suddenly the power went out. Immediately my current teacher graciously corrected us by saying: “Class, the power is NOT out, my Laptop is STILL on.”" Self explanatory.

Actually, there are like 4-5 other columns but those three are my favourites. I think I've read through ever single issue now. They're oddly addictive, just like reading jokes on Reader's Digest, except that they come once a week instead of once a month, and that they're free. So, do read it if you have time!

By the way: College Humor also has an affliate site for nerdy video gamers like me, Dorkly. But my games are pretty limited to Japanese games, so I don't understand a lot of the jokes. At any rate, gamers are but a small fraction of society so I didn't feel the need to put it into this entry. If you're a gamer you might wanna try it, it's pretty funny. Especially the Pokemon jokes :)

Cracked

Who is it for: Everyone who likes to learn stuff

I first found out about this awesome site through Facebook, where my friend posted a link "5 ways Inception ripped of Donald Duck". I don't like Inception and I love Disney, so naturally I clicked on the link, expecting it to be some stupid list without much explanation. I was greatly surprised at the length and the information contained in the article. I was very impressed as a matter of fact. The fact that the author spent such an amount of time researching everything is really worthy of my admiration. And it's not some stupid humour article either. The wonderful thing was that it made total perfect sense, and really gave me a sense of amazement. It is that good!

So I clicked on some other articles, and the amount I learnt from this site vastly exceeded the amount I learnt so far in my 13 weeks of attachment. I kid, but you get my drift. It is so well detailed and explained, I really feel like I'm learning something, even though whatever I have just absorbed will probably be useless in life.

Like, take this example: 8 Movie Special Effects You Won't Believe Aren't CGI, there are plenty of screenshots, explanations of how the cameras are positioned, and size of the props to aid you in the understanding of your process. It is the only site I know of that tells you interesting things, makes it humourous while actually informing you of stuff you wouldn't otherwise hear of at the same time!!!

It's quite obvious that this last site is my favourite, but all three are really worth a read. So yeah, I'm a strong advocate of "good things must share", so all three sites above are good things, and therefore, I'm sharing them!

Internet Privacy

2011-04-13T21:39:00.000+08:00

Hello, this week's (or last week's) entry is a little late, because I didn't really know how to approach the topic of Internet privacy. Mainly because I'm not very private on the Internet. In fact I'd go so far as to say, people whom I do not know in real life but read my blog might have a better idea of what kind of a person am I, compared to some acquaintances I know in real life.

There are a few reasons for this I suppose. Firstly, I don't really like to get to know people well. Meaning, I am a pretty social person, I talk a lot, and I ask even more questions. But putting the effort into forming a friendship? That I do not do, and while I think I do know quite a number of people, I do not know them well. Secondly, I have always liked writing. That is not true. I hated writing fictional compositions and such in school, but I have always kept a journal. In fact, in primary school I used to keep a journal, Harriet the Spy style, and would get incredibly pissed if anyone so much as touched it. As a result, I'm more comfortable expressing myself in words. Now, that's true.

So you can imagine me hopping onto the bandwagon when the blogging craze came about 7-8 years back. And also, you can imagine me staying on the now rickety wagon all by my lonesome self, despite everyone moving on to new age microblogging fads such as Twitter and Facebook. To be fair, I do use Twitter and Tumblr, but I maintain this blog still, despite the allure and convenience of using other platforms to express myself.

But the truth is, when I started blogging, I never thought I'd still be doing so 7 years into the future! Yet here I am, a year from graduation, still trying to update this space regularly. Now, recently, I have started to wonder what will happen to this blog when I graduate next year. It is all very well for me to blog as a student, about anything under the sun as I deem fit, because I am not accountable to anyone except my parents. But when I graduate and start working, I'm worried that some snarky comment in a past entry might adversely affect my career next time.

The thing that got my mind stuck on this issue is the upcoming Singapore elections. A young candidate of 27 years of age with plenty of questionable photos on Facebook (I think?) has sparked some furious objection to her running for the elections. While I'm most probably not going to go into politics, I can't help but think... What would happen if someone gets offended by a past blogpost and calls me out on it? I'm now super worried that it'll affect my life somehow in the future.

And the thing is, the Internet is cruel. It's relentless, and unforgiving. It doesn't care about your feelings, it doesn't care about the truth. That is why seemingly harmless comments can be taken wildly out of proportion and blown up to epic levels. The thing is, I'm not worried about my recent entries. As I grew older, I think the content of my posts have somewhat improved in standard. But what if someone finds my lack of proper grammar and spelling during my sec3 years insulting?! Do people really care about what type of a person I was 7 years back?

I guess the solution is simple: Delete the blog, delete the older entries, start a new blog, or lock the blog. Same applies to my Twitter account. In fact, I think the problem will be even worse on Twitter! Not only do I have more than 3 times the amount of tweets compared to blogposts, but my tweets are often used for me to let off steam and vent! Add in misintepretation and I'll be in a hot mess.

Let's take this recent tweet for example: "Managed to get the last bus home, but not cabbing = have to walk in! :(".

Okay there are so many possible things that can be interpreted out of the tweet. The few I can think of are:

I have to take the last bus. This means I go out late and I'm such a havoc person! Later next time she's late for work because she went out until so late the night before how?!!
"But" not cabbing. This means I always cab! What a waste of money!
Have to walk in :(. Clearly, I am unhappy about walking in. This means that I'm a spoilt person who likes to waste money cabbing everywhere and am too lazy to walk short distances.

Do you see the possibilities here? AND THAT IS JUST ONE TWEET!

Or we could look at my twant (tweet rant? LOL.) about Jacob Lusk not going home on American Idol. That implies I am racist?! Or me saying I love Kristen Bell. DOES THAT IMPLY THAT I'M A LESBIAN? And does my typing the previous sentence in all caps imply that I am against homosexuality?! Oh god this entry was a bad idea. My mind is now swarming with the possible interpretations of each and everything I do online, all open to the scrutiny of the public.

As I was saying before freaking out (which implies I'm easily stressed): I should just privatize my Twitter account and blog, set up a new, more professional account for each and keep the possible fodder material to myself and my close friends. It's going to take some time I guess. To be honest, I haven't come to a full decision yet - I still have a year after all. But I am seriously contemplating wiping any potential embarrassing material off the face of the Internet. Or at least, hide it such that it'll take a bona fide genius to hack through everything.

So... Ideas? Suggestions? I think I'm currently leaning towards deleting/drafting some old posts from this blog, and making sure the more professional sounding ones stay. As professional sounding as a casual blogger like myself can get anyway. Doing this will also allow me to reorganise all my posts and give them appropriate tags.

Regarding my Twitter account, I'll probably privatize it, but set up a new one for commentary sakes. It'll also be the one where I announce all new blog posts, probably. In addition, I can talk freely about movies, TV shows, games, books etc without worrying that my friends will find me too bothersome.

A year left, that's all I have before I ruin my life for good by forgetting to delete some embarrassing sentence I might have made wayyyyyy back. Sighs. The Internet giveth and the Internet taketh. Don't let it ruin your life.

Singapore is happening!!!!

2011-04-02T23:53:00.004+08:00

Being someone who is at work waiting for my solutions to converge on the computer most of the time, I have quite a bit of free time to search the news for scandalous information, and I came to this conclusion:

THE SINGAPORE INTERNET COMMUNITY IS SERIOUSLY SO ENTERTAINING THESE FEW DAYS! I don't mean that it is bustling with activity about serious stuff like the elections, I mean really juicy gossip that everyone likes to sink their teeth (and claws, from the looks of some of the comments online) into! Since when did we have so much interesting news to share? It's so interesting that I'm more fascinated by all the ongoings in Singapore than say, the news of a morbidly obese guy who got himself fused to a chair after not getting up for 2 years.

If I knew earlier that so many debacles were going to happen I would have gotten my popcorn and chips ready to munch while enjoying all the entertaining news!

I know I don't usually do posts that have much to do with my country, but I thought I should go ahead and join in the party and provide a few, albeit useless and pathetically insignificant, thoughts on all the, uh, issues, for want of a better word.

So let's start! I'm only going to cover 3 issues here, all of which I had some sort of a reaction to it. There are plenty of other pieces of news I'm not going to touch on because I can't care enough for them. Too bad. So let's go!

Holland Village is for cultured citizens only

So for those of you living in a hole, here's the entire summary. Last Friday, a girl named Samantha called into a 91.3FM radio show. She aired her grievances about uncultured heartlanders stepping foot into the sacred elite ground of Holland Village. After a few insults thrown the way of heartlanders like yours truly, a Bedok resident called to rebutt. A debate ensued, only to be cut short by the DJ due to time constraints. Nevertheless, it caught on as a Singaporean Phenomenon on the Internet* and it went viral over our little island the next day.

*From here on forth called SPI, which coincidentally stands for Singapore Paranormal Investigators as well. How apt, because it is paranormal for so many controversial issues to break out in Singapore.

Samantha then called back the following Monday, to apologise! Oh My God! She regretted her words! NOT. She called to say that she was sorry that other people felt that way (insulted) about her comments. Yeah. That has got to be the most veiled insult ever. It's like you're telling someone "I'm sorry you are so fat." (but you are still fat), or "I'm sorry you suck as a person" (but you still suck). Worst type of apology ever, you just insulted us, stop trying to act like you're sorry to garner sympathy.

Barring my thoughts on whether the entire apology call was staged or not (I mean, REALLY, the radio station didn't have her number and she could get through to the show a second time in 4 days? How come that never happened to me when I tried to win Harry Potter tickets last year?).

Well sweetie, I'm also sorry. I'm sorry that you have such a microscopic view of the world. Really, I am. I am sorry that you think certain areas in Singapore are restricted, that we should not have integration between citizens of different income brackets. I am sorry that you're a coward for calling in to air your grievances but not come out and say directly who you are. I am sorry for feeling righteous anger towards your discrimination towards your fellow citizens. I am also sorry that you are one of the rich people whom my friends and I like to bitch about.

But I'm not sorry for feeling all those things above, no. Also, as per your exemplary example, I am sorry but I won't retract my words. Too bad! Sorry doesn't seem to be such a hard word to say now does it, Samantha? Sir Elton John got it wrong I guess. Oh well. *shrugs*. A cultured person should know what I'm referring to, no?

Maid carrying NS man backpack!

The next SPI I'm going to talk about hits closer to home actually, since Holland Village isn't my home and will probably never will be, since I'm so unwanted there by the residents. *cries crocodile tears*. It shows a photo of a maid carrying the big, heavy looking field pack of a soldier dressed in army fatigues!

You know how army boys aren't allowed to show public display of affections to their girlfriends when they're dressed in uniform. Well, it looks like they're going to have to update their rule book with a new rule, that no one is allowed to let other people carry their field pack.

Putting the issue of spoilt Singaporeans aside, I'm shocked at the uproar over this photograph. You mean you don't know that kids nowadays have maids at their beck and call? Come and sit down for a coffee with me man, let me walk you through a day in the life of WeiQin, and how my maid does everything for my sister. I will not elaborate here because this issue is a very sensitive one for me, and if I start rambling on about it there's no telling what I'll say or do. Some things are better left unsaid and buried deep down.

But yes, as our society progresses and we start hiring maids, you have to expect such a change. I'm not saying that it is right, I'm just saying we can talk all we want about how Singaporean kids shouldn't be spoiled but that's the way our society is headed. You can teach kids all about social responsibility and independence but because they (we?) have already grown up in such an environment nothing is going to change.

It's like telling people, "Oh we should use less water, not drive cars, recycle more because our earth is dying!" While everyone agrees, who will actually follow the advice? We have been so used to the level of comfort in our lives now, can you imagine giving up electricity, water and private transportation just to save the earth? Similarly, telling youths to, "be more independent and experience more hardship or our country will go to the dogs!". will not work. Yeah. Times have changed. People are selfish, there is no point in suffering for the good of others. Insults aren't going to stop kids nowadays from ordering their maids around, expecting them to lay out their clothes every morning and make them snacks after school.

I don't think I'm qualified to judge whether what the NS guy did was right or wrong. I think he's seriously quite a pussy for letting his maid carry his backpack, but really, who am I to judge? I grew up with a maid, and despite our mutual dislike for each other.. My clothes get folded and I get dinner cooked everyday. I really wish my parents hadn't hired my maid all those years back though, I really do. I'd give just about anything to not have a maid for the past 17 years. It goes way deeper than my independence, and if you know me at all you'd know what the issue is and why am I so affected by it.

On a lighter note, can you imagine the thoughts going through the poor boy's head? It's like, he knows that it is him in the photo, but all his army friends are probably poking fun at "the boy in the photo" - without knowing that it is their friend they are talking about! If I were him I'd be way too embarrassed to admit that it was indeed me who acted like such a pussy, so I just have to act along poking fun a "the boy in the photo" WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY MYSELF! LOL! I laugh just thinking about it. Ah well, he brought it upon himself afterall, the boy who cannot carry his own backpack.

ST sent out a vulgar tweet and yours truly screen capped it!

Actually after typing out the earlier part of this post I now know what was @STcom referring to when they said "fuck you all. seriously". Obviously the person was pissed at Samantha from Holland Village and the boy who asked his maid to carry his NS backpack. Therefore, fuck them, seriously.

In all seriousness, although my initial yfrog caption was "HAHAHA LOOK WHAT I CAUGHT BEFORE STCOM DELETED THEIR TWEET", I'm actually very understanding of the misunderstanding (ha). People make mistakes, I myself have deleted more than one tweet, usually due to grammatical errors or what not. So while it was a hilarious matter, it ultimately can be written off as a human error. In fact, it isn't so much as a SPI than a fleeting entertaining moment amongst many in the past few weeks.

The fact that they rectified it immediately, and didn't try to cover up their asses regarding the mistake also makes it more forgivable. Here are some of their tweets in the aftermath of that slip up:

Before I wrap, I have one more link to share. This link talks about how Straits Times edits their letters to the forum page to give a pro government twist to the letters. As we all know, Straits Times belongs to SPH. Stomp is a SPH website, and the STcom Twitter page is also under SPH......... so we cannot actually trust anything I have stated in this post since everything might have been edited and warped from the initial submission. So thank you for reading until this part of the post; it has been a pleasant 2 hours, trying to waste 10 minutes of your time!!

But seriously, thank you Singapore for injecting so much excitement in my life. Much love, Wei Qin.

What's the story, Morning Glory?

2011-03-29T00:32:00.000+08:00

I had the opportunity yesterday to catch Rachel McAdams' latest film, Morning Glory with Joanne yesterday. I know it came out in the rest of the world like, last year, which also points to the fact Singapore's movie schedule is a bit... weird. For chrissake, the DVD is already out, so all of you can go and illegally download a perfectly good HD rip of the movie rather than paying $9.50 to watch it on the big screen. Like I did.

To further elaborate on how weird it was of me to watch a movie on a Sunday evening when the ticket prices are at their most exorbitant levels, you have to know that there are only 3 scenarios when I head down willingly to a cinema with the intention of paying and watching a show.

1. When my friends ask me out on a group outing. Usually I'll hate the movie of choice. This is exactly how I watched some lame vampire show last year (not one of the Twilight saga movies though, it was so bad I forgot the name), it's how I watched Tron last year, and also how I watched I Am Number Four this year. All bad movies, but well... Money spent is money spent, and I did derive some sort of entertainment value at being amazed at how could a movie be so bad... that I enjoyed it.

2. When I've read really rave reviews about a movie and am dying to see it. There isn't much to elaborate, but most of the movie outings I've initiated fall under this category. Slumdog. Black Swan. The Social Network.

3. When I'm geeking out over a particular franchise. Nothing much to explain, this is why I wasted money on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and why I'll be going to see Cars 2 later this year!!

Morning Glory however, is a totally different story... I flipped the newspapers one fine day, as I'm prone to do when I'm bored at work, saw the ad for Morning Glory and had this thought running through my mind, "OMG Rachel McAdams! I wanna watch! Oh and there's Harrison Ford too!". Yes, I think I've found my equivalent of an idol. People watch Brad Pitt movies because he's in it. Ditto for Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp and Adam Sandler etc etc. Apparently, my reason to watch movies is Rachel McAdams.

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie. Actually, my psyche works in such a way that it convinces me to enjoy movies as horrendous as they might be because I have already paid money for it. I have to enjoy it or it's a waste. Kinda like when you splurge $80 on some steak or $2000 on some branded bag and tell yourself it's nice even though it isn't. Yes. But I enjoyed it, but throughout the movie 3 thoughts kept running throughout my head...

It is so predictable for movies nowadays to be predictable.

There was not a single point in the show where I felt surprised by any sudden unexpected twists. There were none. I don't think it is a fault per say, a show in the modern day comedy genre would never ever dare to break out of the mold and have the main character (dare I say it?) fail at anything.

This is why when you first saw the scene between Adam and Becky in the elevator, you knew they would end up a happily ever after couple. When you saw that the ratings were dying slowly but surely on Daybreak, you just knew Becky would by hook or by crook find a way for them to inch up in the demos. And when Becky was at the interview at NBC*, it was so obvious something big was about to happen on air that would cause her to ditch her interview and go running back to IBS. Even when we first met Mike, we knew how his story would play out: He would act like the colossal jerk he is so used to being, and Becky would slowly peel his protective layers off and show the world what he really is like on Daybreak.

*I assume the interview was somewhere in Rockefeller plaza. Is it really that grandoise (and honestly, intimidating) there?

I mean, really? All of the plot points were reminiscence of about a hundred other movies in the same genre. I guess it is expected of such movies. It didn't really bother me, like I said, I paid for it, I damn well am not going to let a small flaw let me down. It's just, a little unexpectedness has never hurt anyone you know?

Why must movies always fit cliché, yet unnecessary stuff in?

I didn't think the boyfriend or her mother was necessary. Seriously, I understand the purpose of both of those characters fully, but I still didn't think they were necessary. All they did was take up precious time in which Harrison Ford or Diane Keaton could have been shown more.

Let's take the boyfriend for example. I suppose a movie without a love interest would be out of the ordinary, after all, the greatest stories in the world are centered around love, aren't they? WELL. In this case the introduction of the boyfriend didn't do shit for the movie, it was really very redundant. The love story introduced other storylines that I wasn't really invested it, like Becky and Adam arguing. Because we didn't see enough of them on screen together, when the time came for them to argue, it didn't feel like it really mattered to me. Investment in a relationship, it's important! And if there's no time to portray a satisfying relationship, don't, especially when it isn't integral to the story.

Similarly for her mother. I get that it is to show that Becky isn't really all that alone in the world - despite having insufficient time to have a social life, having no friends or a boyfriend - she still has her mother. But her mother doesn't come without mommy issues, her mother doesn't believe that she can actually succeed in the competitive world of morning news shows. And so her mother plays a role as the discouraging elderly, and OF COURSE Becky has to prove her wrong, go against all odds and come out smelling like a rose at the other end of the movie. This also applies to the previous point, predictability.

Anyway this point also leads to the fact that a lot of characters I wish I could see more of and get more invested in aren't there... But well, I recognise that it's hard for movies to squeeze everything into 120 minutes. It's impossible, which is why compromise has to be done I guess. Nevertheless I still have one last point to make:

Despite all of the above shortcomings, sometimes all that makes or breaks a film are the stars of the film, which I thoroughly enjoyed in Morning Glory.

I love Rachel McAdams, and who doesn't love Han Solo? I didn't know much about Diane Keaton but boy was she entertaining. Sometimes, when the story just fails you, it is amazing what a talented cast can bring to the show. In this case, the cast totally redeemed everything for me. They were hilarious, believable (although Becky was too believable to a point where I found her really irritating), and you know, emotional in the right places.

Kudos to the cast really, because I would have hated the movie if not for them. So catch Morning Glory if you want to. I'd recommend catching it on a weekday though, for the lower ticket price. If I weren't working I definitely wouldn't watch it on a Sunday night. To end off this post...

"What's the story Morning Glory" is actually an Oasis album. Oasis' most successful album IN FACT. I'm very disappointed in the fact that there isn't one song from the soundtrack by Oasis, despite providing the namesake for the movie itself.

Life

2011-03-19T23:38:00.000+08:00

I was talking to an acquaintance the other day, who didn't know about the drastic changes NTU apparently is about to undergo, despite being a student of our college. Bless him. So anyway, I went through some of the main points and summarized some of the changes for him, like: We're going to have a movie theatre! We might have our own LRT line! We are changing into a more dynamic and interactive campus! Our syllabuses are all going to be revamped!

So after I made a point about the syllabuses being changed into a more liberal and holistic education that is designed to include more cross faculty modules, including one compulsory module about the environment, he had a comment to make, which was "All these modules are just designed to lower our GPA."

To which I replied, "Well the school honestly doesn't care about our GPA. They care more about a holistic education I guess. Anyway, GPA isn't everything." Believe it or not (we were on the bus out of school), he shut up until we got down the bus and I made a passing comment to him about taking the elevator instead of the lift.

But that isn't the point of this entry. In fact, I don't even know if this entry should be a rant or like, an essay about how apathetic Singaporeans are. However, I don't really like to talk about the faults of Singaporeans because: 1) I am one, and by default, a victim of the very faults I might talk about, and 2) It feels like nothing will get across anyway, so there's no point in doing so. Ahhh I knew there was a Chinese idiom suitable for describing it and so I posed that question to my friends on Twitter. Here it is: 对牛弹琴!

This kind of reminds me of another incident back when my brother was in Singapore that made me pretty mad. He said, "I have too much homework to do to be doing things like reading the newspaper and keeping up with current affairs!" I don't know what was worse, him making that comment, or no one finding it a big deal that he made such a comment when I was ranting to other people about it. Which translates to the fact that EVERYONE around me finds it okay that people are like that, EVERYONE thinks that it is the way we should act.

I guess when we were young, okay fine, no one really expects you to care about stuff other than homework, cartoons and computer games. But we're older now, we're adults, as a supposed elite bunch of society here (especially the 2 people I have already mentioned in this entry, both first class students etc etc), but it's such a sorry state we are in. People only caring about studies and getting good grades and pulling up their GPA.

How on earth will your GPA do you any good in the future? It's like, now, no one cares about how you did for the O levels; why should it be any different 10 years later? Employers won't care about whether you got a 4.99 or a 4.7 or a 4.4 in the future. I'm at least 99% sure of that. I'm not saying we shouldn't try our best during exams, I'm just saying, we shouldn't let our lives revolve around our GPA.

Anyway, not a very quality post here, because it makes me so damn frustrated that people I know are all like that. I really hate it, it didn't use to bother me, maybe because I was one of them, but somewhere along the journey called an Undergraduate's Life, I've learnt that academic results aren't all that important. What used to be the core of our existence throughout our 12 years of public education should not be the core of our lives now. There are far more important things in life: friendships, enjoyment, character, self fulfillment etc.

But who's to say I'm right - right and wrong are just different perspectives afterall. If I proceed into the working world and find out, employees are really so superficial as to only care about my GPA, then I'll be really disappointed. I will also be even more frustrated than I am now, because I don't want to change my outlook in life into something so ridiculous and meaningless.

This is just one of the many reasons I'm contemplating moving away actually. SIGHS. So much to ponder, and life just isn't long enough for me to ensure I'll end up doing something I like. It takes too long to succeed, too long to try out every single thing to find something you love, it just, really is too long. That's why there's no time to waste man. Take the leap of faith, trust that life has something awesome planned for you, don't be afraid to just live life to it's fullest.

Speaking of life...

Go do it. You know you want to!

Busy weekend

2011-03-14T23:02:00.000+08:00

Yeah, it's Monday and I said I'd update every weekend. Or did I? I can't really remember whether I said "every week" or "every weekend" specifically. Anyway, I must apologise to myself, because I like to keep to the goals I set. I must say I'm quite disappointed in myself for not finding time to even do a short update over the weekend, despite being busy. But I think blogging on a Monday - a weekday, where time is scarce and precious - more than makes up for that!

So yeah, I had a very busy weekend, and since there's nothing that defines a blog entry more than an old school diary-esque entry, so here goes!

I had tuition on both Saturday and Sunday. Usually both my tuition sessions are on Saturday, one after another, in the west part of Singapore. They're both classmates, and this arrangement was made so that I didn't have to spend a large amount of time travelling. But one of them cancelled today, and I was left with no choice but to travel on both days. Oh alright, I had a choice, but I wanted to go to the IT fair and I didn't want to cancel, because that means sacrificing a quarter months' pay. So yes, imagine travelling to the west twice in a weekend! Sucks, I totally hate the west.

Yeah. I also went to the IT fair because I wanted to purchase... *drumroll*... (It's no surprise if you have read my tweets)....

A TELEVISION! Yeah, I got a television for my room. I got this exact model too, for $449 at the IT fair. I don't know if it's a good deal or not, but I did look around the other booths, and visited a few electronic chain stores before the show itself. It seems like a solid deal. I got a TV because, I wanted to watch shows in the comfort of my room, and because I recently acquired 2 Playstation 2s.

I feel like I must explain. Yeah, it's like the 4th year of 7th generation gaming consoles, what on earth am I doing with old Playstation 2s?! Firstly, my brother's Playstaion3 is not backwards compatible and there are plenty of wonderful titles I have yet to discover on the Playstation 2 (and PSX). That was the reason I bought a 2nd hand slimline PS2 off a forum. I planned to put it in my family room (a sort of living room except smaller and on the 2nd floor outside all our bedrooms) so that my sister and I could use it.

The 2nd one was originally my family's. We lent it to our cousins, never expecting it back, but they returned it all of a sudden, and here I am stuck with 2 consoles. Both working perfectly, despite my original PS2 being around 8 years old. Kudos Sony, I'm really impressed. So buying a TV, putting one console in my room, with my sister being able to put the other one wherever she wants. Yeah~! Besides, this arrangement allows me to play games/watch shows at whatever damn time I want without being afraid I'd wake my parents up.

I haven't even mentioned the best thing about this TV yet! It has a USB port that can just read all types of movie/picture/audio files off my hard drives! So I have no need to turn on my laptop just to watch an episode or two of Friends, it's just, plug it in and play it on the TV! What's even better is that, if I have high definition movie files, I can play it in high-def! Awesome!

Yeah, I have rattled on about my TV enough. Other than that, I also got a haircut, went grocery shopping with my dad, celebrated my sister's birthday - she's 17! Seriously, I feel that I have failed at being an older sister. I really, I mean, my sister doesn't even talk to me... You know what, I really shouldn't spoil the blog entry by mentioning this because it just depresses me everytime.

I also tried to clear up my old desktop. My dad's a Luddite and he refuses to get a new laptop for himself. So he's stuck with using my 7 year old desktop. I turned it on yesterday and took around 7-8 hours clearing all unused programs, deleting unnecessary documents. Gosh, it was so therapeutic! It's a lot faster now, I hope it'll last for at least 1.5 years more, when I start working because you bet that'll be the first thing I get him. I have faith in Dell and Windows XP.

American Idol Finalists!

2011-03-06T01:05:00.000+08:00

Well as promised, I'm going to try my best to blog at least once a week, so here's my weekly entry. I'll be talking about the MALE American Idol Finalists this week. I'm not going to talk about the females because most of them don't strike a chord within me, I forget their performances as soon as they're over, I'm not impressed by them... I don't know, the guys seem so much more talented this year, no?

Anyway, a brief history of my obssession with American Idol, despite me not being, uh, American. I haven't been a fan for that long. In fact, despite being 21 years of age I've not been watching American TV for that long; it was only with the advent of Internet streaming that I even began being so absorbed into Hollywood. As such, the only full season of American Idol I've watched was the previous season, which apparently, sucked by comparison. I did, however, catch up on season 8 (ALISON IRAHETA AND KRIS AND ADAM! So talented it hurt!) via EW's Web series Idolatry. Thanks to that, and thanks to various daily recaps around the web, I've become a victim of American's most popular broadcast program.

I have become so caught up in the whole craze, that I find it completely justified for me to dedicate an ENTIRE entry to just the guys of the Top 13 alone. I'm also so obsessed that I RANKED the contestants according to who I like best. so click on to read more!

6. Scotty McCreery

Why hello there, one hit wonder "Baby Lock Em Doors And Turn The Lights Down Low" Scotty! It is very safe to say I had a very bad impression of you all throughout Hollywood + Beatles week. Forgetting the lyrics to every single song sang, with the exception of the aforementioned one hit wonder, as well as Hello Goodbye by The Beatles. By the way, Hello Goodbye doesn't count in your favour, even a 3 year old kid could memorize that song, with no difficulty. I'm serious. The song goes something like this: "You say yes, I say no. You say stop, I say go go go! Oh no! You say goodbye and I said hello. Hello hello! I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello! I love the Beatles and all, but this was one of the songs where they displayed anything ingenious about their lyricism. I typed out the lyrics by heart, if you were wondering.

With all due respect though, I have to say Scotty can play to his strengths. He knew what song to sing at the auditions and at the first round of Hollywood week to advance (I don't know the name of the song so lets just call it the One Hit Wonder). That was enough to propel him to Beatles week despite forgetting lyrics during the group round AND the 2nd solo round where he (tried) to sing Lee Ann Womack's I Hope You Dance. Such a wonderful song, with such beautiful lyrics, and he screwed it up. It was then I really started disliking him. To give him props, it is a hard song to memorize, really. Go give it a listen and see for yourself. And for the Sing For Your Life round, he sang a country song he knew well (by the same artist as the OHW), knowing all he had to do was display his deep unique baritone to the judges.

By this time, Scotty and his indistinguishable voice had already carved a niche in the minds of all the American citizens, so all he had to do was do the exact same (boring I might add) thing at the semifinals in order to secure a spot in the top 13. And so he did. He played it safe and he's in the top 13. To be honest, I'm really interested to see how on earth would he tackle themes. I mean, can you imagine him doing R&B? Metal Rock? Broadway? Movie? I can't.

One last comment: Check out his half stooping half squatting posture in the video embedded below. WHAT UP WITH THAT?

4/5: Stefano Langone and James Durbin

If I typed this post before the semifinals week, James would have easily been number 5 and Stefano would have been number 4. There would also be a huge gap between numbers 4 and 5. But somehow, James managed to claw his way into my good graces this week. On the other hand, despite Stefano's amazing wildcard performance, I have trouble forgetting his terrible out of tune note during the semifinals itself.

On the other hand, I was very pleasantly surprised by James's semifinal performance. Not only did he manage to find a song no one has ever done before*, he managed to tone down his screaming as well, he didn't seem nervous at all, had good movements, and was not awkward at all. In fact, I would go so far as to say he's such a good performer, good stage presence, trying to engage the audience, making use of the stage space... And all that shizz! I was seriously impressed! Before that, he was all scream and no substance. That bandana and tail also just seemed to me like he was screaming for attention. While the rest of the contestants had semifinal performances paling in comparison to what they did before, James had one a cut above the rest. And come on, on American Idol we don't want someone who cannot sing well live, we want a performer!

*And we all know how hard that is. See: Hallelujah, Against All Odds, etc.

One last comment about James: At the beginning of the semifinal show, the contestants were all standing in a row when Ryan was introducing them. The other 11 were all grinning and clapping politely, while James was turning all around, waving to the audience, as if he was the star of the entire show. Geez, that really just rubbed me the wrong way. But his performance more than made up for it.

Next, Stefano... I like him, because he's very good looking. There, I said it. I'm not proud of it. To give me credit, and to give him credit, he can sing! I mean, there's no denying that he's not a Tim Urban from last season who was only good for his looks. Unfortunately, his bum note must have offended a few people and so he wasn't voted in by the public. Thank God for J-Lo choosing him as a wildcard and Stefano's wonderful heartfelt version of "I Need You Now" - embedded below. I mean, there are people with nice singing tones (ahem Scotty I'm looking at you), and then there are people with nice singing tones who can sing with emotion!

One last comment about Stefano: Dear lord he's so charmingly good looking.

3. Jacob Lusk

Because I'm not such a big fan of gospel music, Jacob has not made as big an impression on me as some of the other contestants have. Nevertheless, I was slightly taken aback by his Hail Mary version of "God Bless The Child", just like everyone else watching, I'd probably imagine. But I have a much better impression of his soulful rendition of "A House Is Not A Home" during semifinals because of how much restrain he showed. I mean, total respect man! I think I have to explain this a bit, so bear with me.

On American Idol, because it is a competition where each week could be your last, contestants have this over tendency to give it all they got. Now, this is by no means a bad thing, in theory. But in reality, when you have week after week of contestants testing the upper limit of the audible frequency range, giving every note an unnecessary vibrato, dramatically changing the song to sound nothing like an original, it just gets too much after awhile. Also, to see it from a much more technical level, it is actually a lot harder to restrain yourself and give a memorable performance, than just scream everything out. It really is.

So which is why while I'm not exactly rooting for Jacob to win American Idol, I have to say I did respect his choice of song and style. He could have had a similar performance to his Hollywood week, which everyone was talking about, and will be for a long time. But he didn't choose to play it safe, and in that aspect, bravo man, really. Bravo.

2. Paul McDonald

Paul has one of the most beautiful voices in the competition. It's one of those voices, that if accompanied by a acoustic guitar, could lull me to sleep back when I used to get 10 hours a sleep a day and had trouble falling asleep at night. Such a beautiful tone, I can't even find appropriate words to describe it. If he were some obscure indie singer I'd be all about him at once. I'd listen to his songs over and over on replay. But that's the problem. I think I can only listen to him, because it is really painful watching him!

He has this really weird habit of flailing his arm around when he sings. It just really disturbs me, because it makes him look so fickle and wishy-washy! And I really would love to get over this obsessive compulsive tendency of mine, because his voice is so so so beautiful. To top it off he's a really good musician as well (check out his band The Grand Magnolias). But sadly, I can't. It is such a pity that I cannot get over his flailing arm. The only time I can bear to look at him is when he brings out the guitar to play, because then he has something else to do with his hands. For this reason I embedded his final Hollywood week performance here, because while it wasn't his best vocally, I can actually watch it without cringing.

One last comment: I think the rose jacket is awesome. Not many people can pull it off and he can :D :D :D

1. CASEY ABRAMS!!!

YEAHHHHH CASEY ABRAMS FOR AMERICAN IDOL GO GO GO GO GO!

Has there ever been a contestant that is as musically talented as Casey? Has there also been another contestant this season that is half as endearing as Casey? Those were rhetorical questions, because the answer is too damn obvious. I simply cannot encapsulate the phenomenon that is Casey Abrams in words, so I'll embed all his videos so far... And highlight 2 points from his Q&A at www.americanidol.com:

He would love to perform with Wynton Marsalis and other professional jazz musicians. Wynton Marsalis, the world famous trumpet player whom I saw live when I was 13 and whom I considered one of my inspirations back when I played the trumpet. I think my nose bled a little when I read that.
His dream song to perform is Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen. This is, in my opinion, one of the best rock opera songs ever. I'm crazy over this song. I'm crazy over the 3 movements, I love the opera part, it's just... I can't believe it's his dream to perform this song! GO FOR IT, I say. I'll be looking forward to his version of Bohemian Rhapsody!

In a show where half the contestants had never even heard a Beatles song before in their lives (true story, check out the episode during Beatles/Vegas week), you have Casey Abrams. Not only exceptionally talented musically, but also well versed and familiar with music legends from way before his time and outside of the usual pop music bubble. Did I mention he plays the double bass? +9999! And he's only 19! +9999 AGAIN!

Enjoy!

Austin Auditions

Hollywood Week - Georgia On My Mind, this was really good.

Las Vegas/Beatles Round - Hard Day's Night

Sing For Your Life round - Why Don't You Do Right.

Semifinal Performance -I Put A Spell On You

That's it! One last comment: I'd gladly pay to have someone in the States vote on my behalf for Casey. That's how much I'm supporting him. Of course it wouldn't be ethical seeing as I'm not even American, but yeah. Whew. I'm tired, I took around 3 hours for this post. Congratulations if you made it this far, stay tuned for more posts in the upcoming weeks!

Working life is bad.

2011-02-26T23:00:00.000+08:00

This is why I haven't been blogging much. Obviously, as you all know, being a year 3 student, I'm currently on my industrial attachment!!! What this means is that, I get to be attached to a company for 22 whole weeks, supposedly to get a feel of what the industry is like. I'm attached to Singapore's defence organisation, but as luck would have it, I'm actually in NTU's Energy System lab most of the time. Most of the time meaning about 95% of the time.

I don't know if I'm actually allowed to talk about what I do or what do I not do on the Internet, so I'm gonna refrain from it. Just know that I don't feel like I'm working in a company at all. I don't even call it "going to work". I call it "going to school". I feel like I'm doing a very important Project consisting of 10 Academic Units. And getting paid pretty well for it, of course :)

But back to the topic...

Since I work in UluNTU, I wake up at 615. Every. Single. Day. I wake up at 615, get a lift from my mum to the MRT station, and arrive at school at 830. Every. Single. Day. I also get home at around 7pm, taking ~90-105 minutes to reach home. Every. Single. Day.

Essentially, I'm trying to get to the point that I have very little time to do any other stuff. By the time I rush through dinner and a bathe, there's only around 4 - 5 hours for me to do everything I want to, and that is allowing myself only a meager 6 hours of sleep.. This includes (and is by no means exhaustible):

Playing games. PS3, PS2, PS1 (on the PSP), and the PSP, you name it. Now that I don't have tutorials to do or band to go for my love of gaming has come back.
Watching all my current TV shows (all 10 of them, including American Idol which can run for up to 4 hours a week). While my love for gaming has come back, it has in no way replaced my passion for TV shows.
In addition to watching currently airing shows, there are also shows which I'm catching up on. Like Fringe which I have yet to complete despite starting the series at the beginning of January. It is the end of February. It's safe to say, I have not taken so long to complete a show that has only 2 1/2 seasons so far.
Playing the guitar and piano. This is also due to my love for gaming coming back, which has also ignited my interest in game music. AGAIN.
Read books. There's this book, called "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman that has been sitting on my bookshelf since, erm, December last year. I have only read through about 1/8 of it so far.
GOING OUT. This is very important because I still want a social life. I know I'm a nerd and my passions run wide and deep, but I don't want to be a social recluse that just stays at home the whole day.

There you have it. My list of things to do.

Even as I'm typing this I'm alternating between the guitar and the keyboard (qwerty, not piano), which is why it has taken me about 1 hour to type everything up until this point. I wonder how do working people stand it? Of course in most cases, they, uh, don't commute so far each day. But still? I feel so exhausted by the time I reach home, the only thing stopping me from sleeping immediately is because I'm well aware that if I do so everyday, I have no alone time.

In all honesty, this is the first time I ever felt sleeping was a waste of time. I'm the type that considers 10 hours of sleep sufficient. I cannot believe that a working environment has led to me sacrificing sleep. Furthermore, working in a lab, that is so far from the canteen, and doesn't allow food anyway, has had a very detrimental effect on my appetite. Everyday I eat the bare minimum of 3 meals. I eat cereal in the morning at 630, but by lunch time at 1pm, I AM NOT HUNGRY. That is how bad my appetite has gotten. To make things worse, sometimes if I had a big lunch (despite not being hungry then), I can barely eat my dinner.

All in all, I think my health is suffering :(

Sighs. So I have come to the conclusion that I need to find a job that caters to my interests. How? I don't know, I highly doubt engineering is the way to go for me. I also need to find a job that has less than 1 hour of commute. There's no way I am ever going to travel from one ulu place to another in the future every single working day of my life, unless I have a car or something.

Or unless I move out. Which I really am thinking of doing, I know it is highly unorthodox in Singapore, but seeing my sister and my maid being so close and having my sister not bothering to answer me when I talk to her is very grating on my nerves. I think it's even more detrimental than having no sleep or having a bad appetite. And hey, if it's highly unorthodox in Singapore, who the hell cares? The world is my oyster man!

ALRIGHT. I have wasted enough time typing this. Although blogging isn't stated in the list above, I would very much like to blog more often, say, once every weekend! Of course, in this case I don't think time is a problem as I do have time during the weekends. I think the content is the problem, since right now there isn't much going on in my life. I cannot write about how boring and tiring life is week after week. Oh well, I'll think of something. Such as blogging about Final Fantasy or American Idol or well... That's the only 2 things I can think of. See what I mean by content is the problem?

Evolution of the main players in Final Fantasy

2011-02-09T22:00:00.002+08:00

The title is what the title says, but before I start I feel like I should apologise for not updating at all. I forgot when's my last update. I don't even remember the content of the previous post. Yes; it has been that long. Anyway, while I'm pretty sure no one comes here regularly anymore, I still feel like I owe the webpage that my blog resides on an apology. So, sorry!

I've been busy playing Final Fantasy XIII. After I completed the main story part, which was really underwhelming, I itched for a more classic Final Fantasy, one with more fun and humor in the game, and so right now I'm playing Final Fantasy IX. Which I have to say, is so refreshing even after all these years as compared to XIII which I doubt I'll be playing through again. Unless I'm that bored in like, 10 years to come or something. I'll probably just keep my save file and go back to do hunts + try to achieve 100% completion.

Sighs. I'm making it sound like such a bad game aren't I? It was a good game, I enjoyed playing it, I just... I don't know, it just didn't feel as gleeful or as fun as IX or VII, or as absorbing as X. I miss the open world, I miss the fun sidequests, I miss the "choices" to be made, however minimal their effect on the game. I miss talking to random people... But I really enjoyed the characters (with the exception of Snow) though, which is something to be said. The story was also pretty alright, it hit a point at the end where I was quite confused but I was satisfied by the ending nevertheless.

The true gem of FFXIII was the awesome battle system. I could go on and on about ages, but that's for another post, which I'll do soon?! Ahahaha. I'm planning to compare the 2 games I'm playing - 9 and 13, just to make you see the difference. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about the change in character design of the main controllable characters* from games 7 to 13, excluding 11 cause I don't play MMORPGs and probably never will. Yeah. I noticed a weird pattern and I just couldn't help but point it out.

*Main controllable characters refer to the characters who you control most of the time. I refrain from using main protaganist because from 9 onwards, the stories focused on everyone else instead of just the main character.

So without further ado, read more after the jump!!!

This is Cloud Strife. He's probably the most well known player in all of the RPG world. I'm serious. Or at least, he's the most well known lead. He's cool, he wears shades, he rides motorbikes, snowboards, and carries a sword that's almost as big as him. Above all that, he's a mysterious being in the game. These factors only add up to a fact: he's very manly! Look at that gravity defying spiky hair! Look his blue glowing eyes (or rather, google it, I'm sorry; I love this picture of him and I didn't want to put anything else). He's hot! The hottest guy in this list, it just goes downhill from here.

This floppy brunette goes by Squall Leonhart. I have no idea why he isn't called Squall Loire, after his dad, but what does it matter? I never finished the game anyway. I know what happens (YouTube does wonders), but after some convoluted plot twist I couldn't stand playing anymore (GFs causing dementia *rolls eyes*). Anyway, I can't stand his antisocial qualities, he's cold, rude, his favourite words are "whatever" and "none of your business". He also likes to think immature and bratty thoughts to himself, and doesn't care about anything but himself. Seriously? And just look at that picture, does he or does he not just look like a lost little girl?!

Zidane Tribal, the main protaganist of Final Fantasy IX, my favourite installment for all it's humor and job system, and for it's throwback to the classic FF. He's also my favourite character in this entire list, but there's no denying that with each and every installment, Squaresoft took one more step to making their guys look more and more androgynous. I mean, Zidane's eyes? I wish I had them. Yeah. Despite his long hair and girly eyes, he's still a lot like a typical guy. In fact, I'm thankful Squaresoft decided not to continue with their brooding angsty breed of heroes. He's crude, he flirts, he jokes around all the time, he wears his heart on his sleeve, never questions when people need his help, and he gives really good advice. Like I said, he's my favourite character on this list, and that's not without reason.

And this you probably know. Tidus (no last name), of FFX fame. He had the most awkward laughing scene in the history of Final Fantasy, he loves to cry and whine and geez... He's just like a little girl with Daddy issues. He might not look as girly as the heroes of the previous 2 installments, but gosh his personality sure fits. And he actually cries in the game. He cries in the game because he hates his dad. He cries in the game because he hates his dad who thinks he's like a woman.

So there you have it, even his dad thinks he's girly. And don't even get me started on his exposed chest, is that supposed to be attractive to girls? Guys don't expose their chests! And by the way, GamesRadar rated him number 7 in the Androgynous Male Video Game Characters list. He's the only FF character on that list! (It must have been before XII came out, I hope).

And finally, speaking of exposed chests:

This is his outfit throughout the game: Vaan of FFXII, which I didn't play through. I mean, I played probably like 2 chapters and gave up, so I don't really know Vaan that well as compared to the other 4 above. Besides, he was added as an afterthought to the whole game, so he really isn't that important. But I don't need to play the game to know that out of all the guys listed, he's the most androgynous. At the very least, with Zidane, my first impression was "Ooh look monkey tail!!". My first impression of Tidus was "his sleeves are wayyy too uneven". But with Vaan, all I could think of was "THIS IS A GUY?!" and stare at the picture in horror.

There's nothing to talk about Vaan, so I'm going to present you with a hypothesis. Well, actually 2.

Square Enix (or Squaresoft) has only male designers. This explains why we have such, uh, well developed girls. There really isn't a lack of them. Tifa's boobs, Dagger's ass, Yuna's entire virgin disposition, Rikku's lack of clothes, Serah's school girl tendencies, Lightning's BAMF-ness. There really is something to cater to every category isn't there! There is even a game (FFX-2) that seems to be just for fan service sake. They sure do pay a lot of attention to making the girls as hot as possible, whereas girl fans like me, are left behind. In the dust. Pining for the good old days when the main protaganists could look as hot as Cloud.
Somewhere along the way when FFXIII was in production, they found that try as they might, they just couldn't do it. They couldn't bring themselves to design another androgynous looking male lead, and so here is what Toriyama, the director of FFXIII said, "Well, since our characters have been looking more and more sissy-like each iteration, let's just do it. Let's just jump across the fine line dividing the sexes and make our main character, A GIRL!"

And there and then, Lightning (real name Claire) Farron was created.

They did a hell of a good job might I add! She's very pretty here, is she not! Technically, this is a Final Fantasy XIII-2 (sequel) picture, but I like how she looks here. Besides, it's not like her pink hair or facial features changed that much, the only thing that changed (as far as I can tell) is her outfit.

Anyway, just in typing this post, I realized another thing: I love the main protaganist in the odd numbered iterations, the even numbered ones, not so much.

But back to the point! I like Lightning, and I don't know why. I suppose because I love the idea of the strong female personality. Just look at the TV shows I watch: Chuck, Castle, Friday Night Lights, all of them have some iteration of a strong female personality. And being a not-so-traditional girl like myself whose main goal in life is not to settle down and have babies, but to make my mark in the world and become successful, these characters just appeal to me.

In the game, Lightning tries to rescue her sister from being in eternal crystal stasis. She admits her own faults, and is self aware of trying to escape from the realities of life. Best of all, she actually punches Snow. Twice. And she willingly takes on the task of saving the world (blablabla insert your typical Final Fantasy plot here), no doubts about her leadership, her skills or whatever. It's awesome.

People say she resembles Squall and Cloud in being cold and stoic, but at least she has a believable background that made her this way. Besides, she does open up to Hope, willingly, might I add, in the first half of the game, which is more than I can say for Squall who needs to be poked and prodded at by Rinoa before saying something substantial. As for Cloud, I have never thought of him as stoic and angsty anyway, I think it was the PTSD he went through shown in Advent Children that made people think so.

I've probably babbled on enough. Meanwhile, I have a saved game of FFIX waiting for me to play, so I'm gonna go off! I would like to update soon, but you know me, and I probably won't. Heh.

Battlestar Galactica

2011-01-08T16:48:00.000+08:00

I've been watching this show over the past few days, which explains my lack of activity in, uh, all areas of life. Seriously, I've been stuck in front of the computer trying to finish all 4 seasons of it. I haven't been going out, save for Thursday afternoon, in which I had to go out, I haven't been blogging, tweeting much, or Tumblring.

But I don't really regret it though, because it's a damn good show, and if I could, I'd erase my memories just to experience the wonderful show all over again for the first time. This series was a remake of the short lived, original Battlestar Galactica back in 1978. The premise is somewhat the same (I think). Literally a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away (heh), the Cylons, robots created by humanity, had an uprising and rebelled against their creators, wiping out practically all of the human race on the 12 colonies. The 50000 or so that remains of the human race, flee their 12 colonies in search of the home called Earth, as specified by their scriptures. Of course, this all comes with the Cylons still hot on their tails, looking for the chance to complete what they started - the destruction of all humanity.

Despite it sounding like such a typical science fiction show, it's not. It has plenty of larger ideas at work, ideas so relevant to the state of our current society it makes you reflect and ponder about humanity in the larger sense of the world. After the jump I'm going to elaborate more on the various reasons why it's such an awesome show, so uh, if this is too geeky for you, feel free to not read any further.

Good acting
I think this is imperative in any show that I watch? To be fair, none of the shows I watch really have bad acting per say, but the acting in BSG really just blows my socks off. People like Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, they really make me feel the severity of the situation, you know? They make me despair over the future of the human race, and I feel like I'm just there, on board Galactica with them. It's not just the 2 aforementioned, established talent in the Hollywood industry. This show has opened my eyes to so much more talent. Practically everyone in the cast, even the minor characters are given their own chance to shine, and I really enjoyed that... Which also leads to my next point.
Very good characterization
Out of all the characters, I probably like the characterizations of Athena and Helo the best, but that's not saying I didn't like the rest. All of them, from the President, down to like, one of the guest stars, - who if I remember correctly only appeared in around 5-6 episodes - get back stories, all of their stories are explored on some level. So much so that as an audience, it is hard not to get invested. And to see them grow and mature throughout the run of the series, I have to say, that's the best part. One of the criteria of any show I watch is character growth. It's the reason I've given up on series like House, and BBT, but still continue watching stuff like Chuck, and to a certain extent, Grey's Anatomy. That people change, this is true in real life, and I like my TV shows to reflect that. So to see Roslin becoming a soft spoken secretary of education, to what some might consider a totalitarian dictator, it's very interesting. To see Lee's rise from CAG to becoming a righteous politician that stands up for the people, to see Starbuck becoming this messenger of the Gods from being such a self destructive pilot, it's one of the reasons that on retrospect, I love the show so much now.
Relevant ideas
While the initial concept of the onset of the destruction of humanity, leading the survivors on a journey to find Earth is compelling, it's the issues that the writers have put into the show that made me continually intriguing from start to finish. You name it, the writers have tackled it. And they've tackled it well, which I suppose is inevitable. When humanity has shrinked to as small numbers as the Galactica's fleet has, the problems become exacerbated and magnified. So you get a very valuable look into the creator's insight of issues such as politics, religion, economics, terrorism, and just, you know, the general issues of right and wrong. All of them are debated, and all sides of the story shown.. And it's just a really good portrayal on our modern day society.
The storyline itself
There are a lot of mythical and religious aspects to the main storyline itself. I won't elaborate much here, but let's just say the mythos of the entire thing kept me interested. Who the Cylons were, why they wanted to destroy humanity, and a lot of other plot developments along the way were all very grappling. Not all of them were resolved, but I was more or less satisfied with the story. To be honest, it still confuses me a little, but I guess I'll just have to go back and watch it again, won't I?
The geekiness of it all
So, I can go on and on about how it isn't a typical sci-fi show, but when it comes down to it, it is still one. And it's a darned good one! For a geek like me, ahem ahem, who's into Star Wars and all that shit, this is exactly the kind of genre I would like! Epic space battles, with such gorgeous graphics, fighter spacecraft, faster than light travel, robots that look like humans, and so on. At it's core, it's still a science fiction show, and at my core, I'm a pure geek, so it makes sense that I would enjoy this show.

I'm going off right now to contemplate if I should get the soundtrack or not. If somehow you survived until here, and I honestly don't know why would anyone read this, you should totally watch the show. It starts off with a 3 hour miniseries showing the fall of the 12 colonies, then you can start watching the 4 seasons. They consist of 13, 20, 20, 20 episodes. Not all are of standard length though, and I wouldn't recommend sprinting through everything like I did. Sighs, I totally wish I didn't now. Watch 2-3 episodes at a go, listen to the BSG podcast for each episode (I didn't), read the Battlestar Wiki for analysis on each episode (I did), and from season 3 onwards, read Alan Sepinwall's analysis on each episode (I did). It'll be a good insight into the story. Who knows, I might just do that when I think I might have the time to do so again.

New Year Resolutions - A review

2010-12-31T17:50:00.000+08:00

Yeah I take resolutions. I also try to keep to them, if I remember... So if you want, the list of my new year resolutions for 2010 can be found here, and I'll review them after the jump.

I shall not complain about my awful timetable or about school.

Epic fail! Lol. I'm really just kidding, I do complain about school still, but underneath it all I appreciate what I learn cause in the end, I really do quite like it. As for my timetable, despite complaining about the terrible timetable I had in year 2 sem 2, I think my year 3 sem 1 timetable was pretty decent (for someone taking 22AUs), so half achieved!

I shall take care of my stationery and not displace them anymore.

YES YES YES. Although it seems like I displace it more or complain about it more... I have actually displaced my erasers/highlighters/pens less! As far as I can recall I only left my eraser at Becky's house once, and I lost one highlighter but that is it! YAY.

Travel at least once this year

Yeah. Not initially where I wanted to go but I did go to Pulau Redang, home of the best coral reefs in Malaysia. Honestly. I'm not kidding.

Organise more outings with the gang

Eh, no. And it's not my fault. I figured only a few people can organise outings where everyone will turn up, and I'm not one of them. In my defence I have rejected less outings from the Gang, so, a pat on the back for Weiqin!

Have more dinners at home

Well judging by the fact that I ate at home practically every single day of this semester... And the fact that my 4 month holiday was spent terribly depressed about my exchange I didn't go out, yes.

Continue working hard, and at least maintain my results

WELL, I did work hard, my results improved (although I'm not too sure about this semester), but I'm still beating myself up over forgetting to take the S/U option for my biology elective, for which I got a C+ for.

Read more books, and collect more books.

I present to you: my bookshelf when I first bought it one year ago:

And look at it now!!!

Wheeeee. I'm very proud of my bookshelf okay, I bought it, it has a lot of my prized possessions (my ukelele, my Chuck DVDs, my Harry Potter books), and all my useful everyday items are there too, like my deodorant, hair bands, a/c remote control, tuner for my guitar... I sound like such a materialistic person!

But yeahhhh, if they were to be destroyed in the fire (touch wood), I would be terribly depressed! That's all for now, this was a rubbish post. I'm sorry I don't have anything substantial to post up, I'm mostly on Tumblr these few days. Nah, scratch that. I'm mostly OUT these few days, so I don't even have time to go on Tumblr. But I'm enjoying myself the last few days of 2010, which has mostly sucked, so I think I deserve a break.

Bye 2010, you sucked, hope you perish in my memory soon. Here's to 2011, and hopefully a torrent of good things to come :D

Thoughts on Tron: Legacy

2010-12-25T22:45:00.000+08:00

So exams ended 2 days ago, and as part of our bi-annual end of semester celebrations of which this is my 5th, a group of friends and I went to watch Tron: Legacy! It's a movie I have wanted to watch since seeing the trailer for it back during... uh well, I cannot really remember, but there's only one reason I was so excited for it.

BECAUSE I'M SUCH A HUGE NERD. Chuck from Chuck, the TV show, had a Tron poster which instantly made me interested in the whole franchise. Yeah, that's how I roll. So anyway I got my hands on the original Tron which was... Well, I can see how the animation was state-of-the-art at that time, and also how interesting the entire concept of playing games in a virtual world was. I wouldn't go so far as to say I hated the movie, it was actually really good, I just feel like I'm too young to appreciate it. It's for a cult audience that maybe I'm not part of; why would I be? I was born 7 years after it came out. Maybe what I need is for a new movie to spark my interest, much like Star Wars, which I'm a huge fan of.

Anyway, it sort of worked. I was pleasantly surprised with the new movie, and I'm looking forward to discovering all things Tron, and maybe, just maybe becoming a new Tron fan? Just yet another fandom I would become a part of, and no geek can ever have too many of those. So read on to hear my thoughts on the latest Tron movie.
First, I'm going to get the bad out of the way, because I'm generally a very nice person and don't like to insult shows or people or anything, as a matter of fact. But if I am to be objective I suppose, yeah, that's what I have to do.

First off, the acting stunk. I was so turned off by Sam's character, and I don't know whether to fault the writers or Garrett Hedlund himself. I get what the movie was trying to pull off. I get that he was meant to be this cocky free spirited live-by-the-day type of guy who is like that only because of his insecurities with his Daddy issues. I get that the entire movie was, in essence, a coming of age story for Sam Flynn, although I felt 27 was too old an age for it.

I'm not just talking about Garrett's acting, it's also Olivia Wilde's acting I wasn't such a big fan of. Again, I understand she was supposed to pull off the innocent rogram that wanted to see the wonderful world, but the way she does that, sometimes, it came off as cringe inducing. Ditto for Garrett's acting, it just felt unnatural, like the 2 leads were trying too hard.

2nd thing I wasn't such a big fan of was the storyline. DEAR LORD was it confusing. Why were they even fighting? In the first movie the MCP (Master Control Program, the villain then), had the programs who didn't want to join him fight among themselves to the death. Here? Why were they fighting? For survival?

Then there's the whole issue with Tron (the program) itself. He was still "alive", I get that, but we weren't even given any evidence that he switched sides or not. And were we supposed to have noticed him throughout the film? I didn't even know how he was supposed to have looked like! So when Kevin first proclaimed "Tron is still alive", I was all okay, cool - HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT? Finally, during the chase to the portal at the end, Kevin asked Tron "what have you become?", I was really confused again, because what has he become? He didn't even play a big role in the film, even if he did, I didn't recognise him at all!

Yeah. That's about all I hated. It really was a gorgeous film though, I was completely in awe by all the lights and the action sequences. Particularly the light cycle battle, I was really, wow. I mean, you know, this is the kind of thing I geek out over, amazing action sequences and fantastic battle sequences. Watching Tron really is somewhat of a treat for the eyes.

That's about all I liked about the film. LOL. Okay I do have like a few random thoughts on it, so I'm just going to bullet point them cause I'm exhausted from exams and Christmas and everything, and here goes:

Computers will never be better than humans, they don't evolve. We're creative, we improvise, we look outside the box. That is a fact both in this film and the first one, which was about overcoming the Master Control Program
Our world > digital world. I suppose this was to cultivate appreciation for our universe, which is really amazing by itself. There is no way a digital world could ever substitute for that.
Manifestations of ISOs - something greater than anything humans could ever come up with, and I suppose this is a metaphor for the world itself. The best things and solutions, you just cannot duplicate it. It just, happens.
Kevin created Clu. Literally "in his own image". If only programming were that easy. And I thought it was interesting how Alan after all these years was loyal to Kevin and the original Encom... Similar to how Tron (Alan's program) still fought for Kevin after all these years.
Throwbacks to the original film: Dillinger's son, still a douche. Like father like son. When the door opens "now that is a big door"

And that's about it. I really do need my rest so I'm going to go off now, sorry for the abysmal level of writing this review was.

EXAMS ARE OVER!

2010-12-23T23:59:00.001+08:00

So all you people following me can heave a huge sigh of relief because it'll be a long while before I start complaining about exams again. To be exact, it'll be slightly less than 11 months because that's when my Year 4 Sem 1 exams start. Dear lord I'm halfway through Year 3. I just feel so old, about to join the working world and everything!

Speaking of joining the working world, coming next January I will be starting my industrial attachment! I'm going to be attached to the Defence Science Organisation (DSO) for the entire 5 months, working on the development of a mini-jet engine. It's also the reason why I won't be complaining about exams until next November, yeahhhhh! Anyway, although in name I'm attached to DSO, in actual fact I'm working under a professor from NTU, so I will be in NTU most of the time instead of Buona Vista, where DSO is located.

Am I excited about this? I guess? After all, research is my number 1 interest in the field of science, and to do research in one of my favourite areas of propulsion and aerodynamics, it is a very good opportunity. But recently with all my career management classes this semester, I have started thinking about what are my real passions in life, something that I will not mind doing for the rest of my life.

I did come up with something, but I'm too scared to say it here. I love my choice of course and all, but if I knew how much more I would discover in the coming years, I wonder if I would have taken the leap of faith and applied for another course. I mean, engineering is safe you know? It is needed, it will never go out of fashion, and it is stable.

Yet on the other hand, I don't want to become one of those typical Singaporeans who go through the education system blindly, graduate, get a job to support their lifestyles, start saving for a car and a house, get married and have children. That sounds so boring, no offense, but it does. I hate that, but I have been living it so far, and I really do want to take control over the course of my life and do something differently. Especially what with so much stuff happening recently, and me realising over and over again that life is fragile.

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do at the present moment. I'm already in my 3rd year, and I do like what I'm learning, so I just have to make the most of it!

On a lighter note, here is what I plan to spend my holidays doing:

Exercising. Geez I really do need exercise. I'm going to get my bike tires replaced by this weekend, and I'm going to swim next week! I'll also be teaching Khai, one of my friends from university, how to swim, so quite excited about that! Wonder where I can get a float though.
Learn how to use Photoshop! I got inspired by the pretty posts on Tumblr.
Develop my Tumblr! I have 2 Tumblrs, a personal one that "Thee shalt not talk about in real life", and a secondary one which I am developing as an appreciation blog for music! It's on the rise now and getting increasingly more notes and followers, so I'm very happy about that! I call it my pet project.
Watch a few new series: Battlestar Galactica, Fringe and... well that is about it for now. I am always happy to take suggestions.
Find new tuition assignments! I'll be in Singapore the entire year, I have had 2 years of experience teaching JC Physics and Chemistry, and I haven't got fired yet, so hire me!
Blog more.I have a Tron review in the drafts that I'm simply too tired to work on now.
Play more ukelele and guitar!

That's on top of going out and having fun! Alright I'm going to end here because my mind is exhausted. I can't even write eloquently, plus I have to be up early to prepare Christmas gifts. That's it for this update. 7 papers in 14 days, I feel like I deserve some sort of a marathon medal. Let's hope my results are good! I can honestly say I don't know how I will do, all my papers felt super uncertain and a lot depends on the bell curve!

GOOD NIGHT. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!

Tangled (Or Rapunzel, whatever you call it).

2010-11-29T23:04:00.003+08:00

So today, I had a 4 hour break like every other Monday, and us wonderful slackers decide to take a trip down to the mall and catch Tangled (or as it is called in Singapore, Rapunzel, A Tangled Tale), despite exams starting next Friday for us! The audacity! However would we survive in the working world next time?!

Right. Anyway, it was such a good movie, I wanted to cry the moment I stepped out of the theatre. Disney has given us dud after dud* when it comes to it's CGI animated movie franchise** for the last 10 years, I mean really? Chicken Little - yucks, Bolt - meh, Meet the Robinsons - so-so. The last movie I genuinely was excited about and loved was Brother Bear. After a while, Disney Movies got so bland that I only watched the Disney Pixar* movies - which I love a lot.

*Just to clarify, I think of Disney Pixar as a seperate animation studio. Rightfully so too, since the quality is a big cut above Disney Animation Studios. Think of Disney Animation as the cash milking monopolizing monsters, and Pixar as the tiny independent film maker. Also, if you want to rebut me, just think about this: Would you ever associate the Disney Channel cash cows of High School Musical/Miley Cyrus/Selena Gomez with Pixar? You wouldn't!

**Stuff like Princess and the Frog/Aladdin is hand-drawn animation, all the Pixar + most of Dreamworks movies are CGI.

Furthermore, this movie was part of an even larger brand - the classic Disney Princesses brand. I was really terrified they'd screw it up and I was so prepared for them to ruin the entire Disney Princess franchise, but I was elated that they didn't, and I thought Tangled was one of the best movies I've seen this year (better than Harry Potter/Inception, worse than Toy Story 3/The Social Network).

So yes, a lot of thoughts on the movie. I had so many I was taking out my phone and typing it into a note more frequently as the day wore on and I grew increasingly bored with the lectures, so click on to read more! (Spoilers though, so proceed at your own risk).

First things first, the "prince" or thief, whatever you want to call him, I'm just going to call him Flynn here, was so devilishly good looking!!! At first I didn't think so, cause all the promotional posters showed him with that irritating smirk, which just made him look over confident and super smug (which was his character I guess), but he's actually the best looking when he's normal or when he's just talking about serious stuff!

And to get a rough idea of how hard it is to find a decent picture of him - I didn't actually get this from any promotional pictures, I had to search YouTube for the trailer and pause at regular intervals to find a decent photo. And to compare, let us look at the rest of the sissy, namby pamby Disney princes:

I mean seriously?! The Beast (as in Beauty and the Beast, bottom right) looks so sissy, and urghhhh I think maybe only Prince Edward (top left) from The Little Mermaid looks decent. But he was also pretty much useless in the film, hoodwinked by Ursula and all.

Of course it doesn't help at all that Flynn was voiced by the ever adorable, charismatic, cheeky, nerdy, Zachary Levi of TV's Chuck whom I have a huge crush on! Not just because of all the aforementioned qualities, but because he's so humble and grateful to his fans, it's so wonderful to see a Hollywood star like that.

Anyway as I was saying, every sentence Flynn said, the phrase constantly running through my mind was "Zachary Levi is perfect for this role.", just like he's perfect for the role of Chuck! Kudos to Disney not choosing big names stars (*cough*Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey*cough*) but instead choosing people that are perfect for the role. Plus he sings really well, as does Mandy Moore. I'd have to say Mandy Moore was even better as the role cause I totally bought her as Rapunzel.

Finally, the characters break out of the traditional Disney mould and I am so glad they did. They added some back story to Flynn, made him accessible to the little boys around the world that would watch this, and I'm so freaking glad they made Rapunzel stand up for herself, again, unlike those traditional princesses. In fact in this aspect, I would say the story is most like Aladdin. Anyway, the original Rapunzel had a Rapunzel that could sing very well and the Prince was drawn to her voice, I mean seriously! Sheesh.You can read the original story here.

This movie has made me convinced that everything John Lasseter touches is gold. He's the executive producer of Tangled, and it was just such an amazing looking movie! Rapunzel's hair- beautifully done, the dam bursting was awesome, the lantern scene - AMAZING, and again when Rapunzel healed Flynn's hand and her hair just glowed, I was really in awe. Very good animation all around, which is no mean feat especially with the hair!

Overall, it was just a big throwback to classic Disney, no reference humor, just magic, witches, princes, village folk, funny village hobos... And amazing music. I liked the classic love ballad, I See The Lights, coupled with the amazing lantern scene in 3D, the animation was just gorgeous! I also liked the first song Rapunzel sang, something about a typical day in her life (which was sort of pitiful), which reminded me of Cinderella's A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes.

I was part of a generation which grew up with Disney (Yes, as I did Pixar, Harry Potter, and all sorts of other stuff), and I enjoyed them immensely. They made me understand love, friendship, love little animals, not to be greedy... And I sincerely hope little kids all around the world feel the same way I did when I was watching Beauty and The Beast (my favourite all time Disney Princess flick). Thank you Disney for such a perfect 50th animated film (the full filmography can be found here).

Some random thoughts:

The pub song really reminded me of the "Gaston" song from BaTB in the pub where they were throwing around eggs singing how great Gaston was. It's just something... about the entire sequence. The fountains of beer maybe?
That's 3 Disney Princesses movies I have compared Tangled to. To add to the list: The Little Mermaid for the theme of dreaming and breaking out of her comfort zone, Sleeping Beauty for being trapped in a little house in the middle of a forest.
The frying pan gag while hilarious, only served to strengthen the Chuck connection - Ellie smacked Casey with a frying pan when he sneaked into her house, knocking him out cold, in the later part of season 3.
Funny scenes I loved included: the whole reel after Rapunzel finally left her tower and was deliberating on whether it was a good decision of not. The whole montage of her deciding between going back and pressing on was hilarious. So was the scene when she first met Maximus (the horse), the pub scene before the song, and the scene when Flynn first climbed up into the tower.
It wasn't all hilarious too, the king's face clearly expressed the tragedy of them losing their daughter at such a young age. Most of all, I was so devastated when Flynn died! Then I realised, oh come on it's Disney, it's for kids, they wouldn't let that happen.
When Rapunzel cried and her tear drop brought Flynn back to life, I was all "What a gaping plot hole? Don't tell me she has never cried before?!". But then I realised, that's exactly it! She was so happy cooped up in her ivory tower, oblivious to the outside world, thinking her "mother" was a good person, that she has never known sadness or anguish before, and therefore, hasn't cried before!
The moment Flynn called Rapunzel "Blondie" (which is what Lester calls Sarah Walker in Chuck), I was all, "Zach really has some sort of affinity with blonds doesn't he? First Sarah Walker and then now Rapunzel.
To talk about Chuck EVEN more, Maximus's grunting reminded me so much of Casey!! Hilarious!

And... That's it. I'm glad I watched it, although the reason I wanted to was mostly due to Zach Levi being Flynn, but I got so much more in return. Sorry for all the Chuck references, but hey, what can you do, I'm a Chuck fan! THANK YOU DISNEY and KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

2010-11-18T03:20:00.002+08:00

As many of you all know, especially those who have been following my Twitter, I was really excited for the first of this final installment in the franchise... And I wasn't disappointed!! I mean, I'm not entirely over the moon because I didn't think this was the best movie out of the 7 that have come out so far, but as far as Harry Potter movies go, each one really is astonishingly good. You'd expect the standard to plummet somewhere along the course of 8 films, but it doesn't. Not yet anyway, since there's one more film, but I highly doubt the quality will drop.

Anyway, my thoughts on the movie can be found after the jump break, wouldn't wanna spoil any of the goodness for you!

So let's start. Where to start, though? I'd really like to thank David Yates, who directed each Potter film from the 5th onwards. I didn't really like the 5th film, but that had more to do with the chunky book than the film itself. I loved the sixth, and now I really have to thank him for doing the 7th book justice. Nothing too important was left out, and there wasn't any unnecessary footage. I suppose a few die-hard Potter fans (not me) would want to nitpick on every detail possible... Such as *takes a deep breath*

The fact that Bill Weasley met Harry for the first time in this film
How they found out how to kill the Horcruxes, because Hermione figured it out in the film, she didn't summon any books from Dumblebore's study. Then that unnecessary scene where they all shoot spells at the Horcrux.
The lack of Phineas Nigellus. How are they gonna explain that Snape KNEW where to find them in the next installment?
How Hedwig died. For the record, I thought the film did it better than the book did.
The lack of a goodbye scene for the Dursleys.
The Slytherin locket (the Horcrux) looking NOTHING like the one on the cover of the Deathly Hallows book.

And a lot more. Some aspects of it I mind, and I will elaborate upon later, but those above, I didn't really care for. So let's get started on what I did love!

Firstly, it really was a beautiful film - one that maybe the most casual of fans would appreciate. Since it's a road trip, we visit the most scenic places of the British countryside. I mean, I totally wanna go there after viewing the films. Seriously, it's like Lord of The Rings all over again! I find myself breath taken by the landscapes and views. Then there was the entire animation scene in which Hermione read out the tale of the Three Brothers. That was really some fantastic animation work done there!

And other than the direction and the visual imagery of the film, there were some great scenes all around. I loved the opening scene, which alternated between our three heroes, with a voice over by the Minister of Magic. It really encapsulated the despair and the current state of the world, and Hermione's scene in particular shows how much they are sacrificing, leaving their childhood behind to save the wizarding world. The Ministry of Magic scene, while funny, was really bone chilling in a Nazi Germany sense, what with all the Magic is Might, Muggles in their rightful place, flyers demonstrating how evil Muggles are.... I was seriously quite disturbed by that, being a Muggle myself, haha.

But of course, there are also other aspects of the film that I liked. I loved that the core trio has improved in their acting better than anyone has ever anticipated. Rupert Grint (as Ron) really holds up the comedic side of the show. I mean, seriously, just one look and he sends the whole cinema laughing. But that's not all he does too, far from being a comic relief, he does get some good intense moments. And I was very glad that he got to show off his chops during the scene where he slayed the Horcrux (which totally exceeded my expectations), and also when he walked out on the gang.

I did find it disturbing at the sight of Harry and Hermione kissing, it has nothing to do with the film, it just felt so darn wrong! And can I just say, the entire scene in the Forest of Dean was amazing! Nowhere in my imagination did I expect the image that came out of the Horcrux to be so frightful!

Then there was this scene where he was telling Hermione and Harry how he managed to find his way back to them. I didn't find it funny at all while reading it, but when Rupert told the story about hearing Hermione's voice come out of Deluminator, and then having the pulse of light from the Deluminator go into his heart, that was really some hilarious acting! I couldn't stop laughing in the cinema - Rupert Grint really has some great comedy chops.

Hermione was awesome in this film as well. Other than being such a kickass character*, her emotional scenes really got me. By that I mean, her scenes with Harry really got me (not the kissing one though). The best scene in my opinion was the dance between her and Harry, after Ron left and Harry tried to cheer her up. I hate that some critics think it's a sign of a blossoming romance between them, it's not. To me, it was just a dance of friendship, a sign that even in the midst of the doom and gloom that enshrouds them, there's still simple happiness to be found in the company of each other. Then there was the whole Godric's Hollow graveyard scene, which also had me in tears.

*I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hermione Jean Granger is the MVP of the entire series. The number of times in the 7 books she has saved the other 2 from the skin of death, I can't count. And also, while pertinent to the plot, if Harry had listened to her, Sirius would never have died. Without her, Sirius would never have been saved from the Dementors either.

I think I could never forget her blood curdling screams in the Malfoy Manor, I had chills up my spine, again, something which never happens when I read the book cause I'm a speed reader and tend to skim over stuff that doesn't get a very long wordy paragraph in the book. But now I think if I read the book, the memory of Hermione's screams will always come back to haunt me. I have a lot to say on the topic of Emma Watson being such a talented actress, but I don't have all the time in the world... So yeah.

Dan Radcliffe was okayish I thought. He's already very good, but there wasn't a single outstanding moment I could pinpoint. One aspect of the book that really struck a chord in me, was Harry despairing over his dead headmaster; how little information he had to go on, how much Dumbledore expects of him, and the fact that he had to just willingly take on the insurmountable task of killing Voldemort without asking any questions. That really made me ache for Harry, but it wasn't present in this film! To be honest, I thought they downplayed the importance of the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore. I wouldn't say it is a key plot point, but it does provide further depth of the book without just concentrating on the exciting parts.

Which is what the film doesn't do! This next part won't really affect casual viewers, so I guess you can just stop here if you're not a reader of the books. I mean, the next part doesn't even have much to do with the final film, it's more of me evaluating the entire film series.

At any rate, I think casual viewers won't understand the film anyway! It's too darn complicated. Some critics are saying that the film was made entirely for fans since no explanation is provided to the preceding developments from the earlier books. But what they didn't say, was that, at this point, the books were also written purely for fans. If you were a first time reader, you have to start from at the very least the 3rd, where J.K. Rowling still took the time to explain why Harry was an orphan etc etc.

Without drifting away from the topic, I'm going to talk about why I love the series so much, and how the movie failed in so many ways, but none of which are pertinent to the central plot. So, yes, Harry Potter, to a normal person is just a fantasy story about a boy wizard. But strip all of the wonder and excitement down, you find 2 very central themes to the story - how love transcends everything, and how prejudice is never good.

The movies as a whole, have neglected those 2 main points. It's not anyone's fault, movies are after all meant to be more visual than wordy. Besides, in Hollywood, who really cares about the reasons behind a story's motivation? People want to watch movies with as much action as possible, and so the movies often ignore the larger aspect of the story and just tell the bare minimum.

But there's so much more to the story than that! All throughout the books, Dumbledore has emphasized that Harry's ability to love and understand love is his most special trait, and it's demonstrated again and again the books. I'm not going to list it out here, but in the books, whenever Dumbledore gives a great speech to Harry, it's really one of the reasons why I read the books at all. He emphasizes that the sole factor driving Harry is Harry's ability to love. It's this ability that will drive Harry to the ends of the world, not only to avenge those that have fallen at the hands of Voldemort, but also to protect the friends he has left. And this is his sole motivation for hunting down Voldemort.

I'm really sorry for saying this, but they really don't emphasize this enough in the films. It's more like, oh he's really the Chosen One cause of the prophecy and everything. But they fail to expound on the fact that, it's Harry's choice alone to do whatever he is going to do/has done. He could just as easily walk away, and leave someone else to do the fight. But he doesn't; despite all the fears and doubts he has about himself, he presses on, and that is why the story captivates me so much. You know how they say in the book, "Their daring, nerve and chivalry sets Gryffindors apart?" Well, Harry's daring nerve and chivalry sets the HP books apart.

Next, the importance of prejudice in the films. Dobby, the house elf, was a comic character in the 2nd film, and he didn't even appear in the 4th film. Kreacher was only put in the 5th film because J.K Rowling said that he was quite a major character in the final book. Even then, the film didn't do justice in showing that Kreacher is only loyal to whoever is nice to him. The films however, only showed the persecution of Muggles by the new order - which is very ironic, because:

Isn't the very action of omitting the prejudice of house-elves, giants, centaurs, and goblins from the films very ironic, as it just goes to show the film makers don't really give a damn about these "lesser beings"?

I cannot even begin to start on how central this theme is to the story. Even way back in book 2, when the first signs of hierarchy in the wizarding world started showing, Harry's humane treatment of Dobby would have much deeper impacts later on in the books, particularly the 4th, 5th and most importantly, the 7th book. But because Dobby in the films only appeared where necessary, which is to say, the 2nd and the latest film, his importance is under emphasized. Ditto for Kreacher, and to a certain extent, Griphook the goblin (although this might still have some redemption in the 2nd part of the film.)

This isn't one of the reasons I read the book in the first place, but by the end of the 7th books, I dare say it has been one of the most important lessons I have taken away from the book. Never ever underestimate someone because of the type of blood in their veins, or their species (although in the real world sense this is only applicable to races). It's one of those factors that made me appreciate how J.K. Rowling had the entire series planned from early on, from the introduction of the goblins at Gringotts in book 1 to the start up of SPEW in book 4.

Prejudice is so important to the story, because there is such a clear correlation between those who are blind to differences, and those who think were superior precisely because of that difference. Wizards who were sitting atop a pedestal, mired in the archaic view that the wizarding species were dominant met their downfall because of their blindness to the feelings of others, and people like Dumblebore, and Harry who treat other species with a certain amount of respect got to benefit from it.

Don't worry. I don't hate the films. In fact, with regards to the HP films I do love them, it's just that I find it a tad irritating when people just watch the films for entertainment, without ever really wanting to read the books. Because there is so much more to Harry Potter than the flashy spell work, or the flying creatures. As far as I'm concerned, people who watch the films and liked them, should take some time out to read the books, since they are so much more rewarding than the films will ever be.

Whew. I'm done. I'm going to end here but I do have one more thing to mention: THE FINAL FILM HAS A BIT OF REFERENCE HUMOR!! It went something like this when Hermione started reading the Tale of the Three Brothers:

Hermione: "There were once three brothers who were travelling along a lonely, winding road at twilight..."
Ron: "Midnight, our mum always told us"
Hermione flashes him a look of annoyance
Ron: "Or Twilight. It's fine. Twilight's better really, I like it."

LOL. No Ron, Twilight isn't better. Harry Potter will always be the best. I don't know if anyone in the theatre got it, but I did chuckle at that line. I'm sorry for the extraordinarily long entry, but I really do have a lot to say on the topic of Harry Potter. In fact, I might just do a post or two (or 435345242) if I had the time soooo yeah.

Hope you liked the film, if you're a fan, you will. If you're not, well then, bring someone who is a fan and has read the books with you. You won't regret it, it really is a breathtaking piece of film.

Laboratory Woes =(

2010-11-14T00:37:00.001+08:00

Looks so pretty doesn't it?! LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING. I hate lab! It's not that it's hard, it's that it is useless and irrelevant.

The project is to analyse stress patterns around possible stress concentrations areas (in this case the "aircraft window") and come up with a window that has as little stress as possible.

As if we all don't know what a normal a/c window looks like?! And it stands to reason that the normal shape being used now is the best, if not aircrafts all over the world wouldn't be using it! Urgh, I hate lab, I have tests to study for, programmes to run with regards to my other projects, papers to write, you name it I have it. And yet I have to find time somewhere, somehow, just to do this lab report which constitutes so little.

At any rate I have this feeling that the professors don't really grade our lab module. I have been getting random A/A+/A-s for lab, and I have this feeling the professors really just put any old random grade out of the 3 down! Cause there's no one I know who got a B+ or below, not that it really matters cause it's one pathetic academic unit.

Oh I shall elaborate more on the disadvantages of lab since I'm here.

You know, besides the fact that it's pathetically insignificant to our GPA, there's a major flaw I feel our laboratory module in NTU has. So to understand this, I'm going to do a bit of background explanation here.

In my course, there are various areas of specialty:

Aerodynamics, dealing with lift and drag on the aircraft. Very interesting cause we learn about shocks and hypersonic flows this semester. Love it.
Propulsion - studying the jet engine. Another one of my favourites and it's what I'll be doing in my attachment come January next year, I'm super psyched about it!
Structures - how to build the frame of the aircraft to ensure like, it doesn't fail due to stresses, or that it will not vibrate too much and get damaged due to resonance
Materials - a more micro perspective than structures, basically looking into what materials can stand high stresses or temperatures, how light it is, where can it be used on the aircraft

So we do like, maybe 1-2 lab experiments on each area of specialisation. However, because of a lack of facilities, we are split into groups and we do each lab experiment on a rotation basis - somewhat like a round robin system.

All is dandy and fine if magically, your lab experiments and your coursework match up perfectly, and you only do lab experiments after you have learnt about what you are doing. Sadly, this is not the case!

In week 1, my experiment had something to do with heat exchangers (like in aircons etc), and how the temperature difference or the direction of the flow affected the efficiency of the heat exchanger. I was lucky cause I did the year 3 heat transfer module last year. But the rest of my cohort would only have JUST learnt about heat exchangers now! (Like literally now, around this time; it was one of the last chapters in the syllabus, and I don't think the syllabus has changed).

So in week 1, they were all struggling over the experiment, having no idea what was happening, putting down stupid discussion ideas because they haven't even learnt what the hell was a heat exchanger!

And that is my point - people don't learn anything from lab. They never will if there isn't a good correlation between what we are learning in our core modules and what we are doing in lab. I know there is a lack of facilities and what not, but if other colleges elsewhere in the world do it, why not NTU?

I do know for a fact other colleges do it, cause when I was supposed to go for my exchange, they had no lab module over there. Instead, each individual core module had a designated lab session for them, and whatever they did in lab would have tied in with what they have already learnt in lectures. This, I suppose, cause I haven't experienced it, really fosters one's understanding of the content, doing experiments to support the theories we have learnt.

Unlike over here, where we do stuff in lab way ahead of when we actually learn about them in lectures, such that I have no idea what I'm doing at first. Also, by the time I actually learn about them I would have forgotten almost everything I did in the lab session way back when...

So... to conclude, the NTU, Nanyang Technological University, system sucks. I'm currently in my 3rd year, taking a Bachelor's Degree of Engineering (Aerospace). I sincerely hope some PR people from NTU consistently Google and troll the web for complaints and stumble across here, because I feel that I'm speaking on behalf of all students in NTU when I say what I have said above.

This week in TV

2010-11-13T01:55:00.000+08:00

Because it's Friday, and I have just finished one quiz and got back really awesome results for another... I've decided to blog! About the TV shows I've watched this week. To be honest, I have wanted to do a weekly entry where I just talk about the shows I watch and then no one will read it.

Unfortunately, as a university student time is just not available. But today, because I'm running some iterations on my computer, I have nothing else of urgent need to do, I'm gonna blog!!! And also because there was a lack of shows to talk about this week - no Chuck, no Modern Family, no Cougar Town.

Shows I'm talking about, are (in chronological order according to the date they aired): How I Met Your Mother, Friday Night Lights, Community and Bones!! No Castle this week cause I wasn't too psyched about this week's episode, next week episode looks funny though, so we shall see. So click through if you're that bored!

How I Met Your Mother - Natural History S06E08

This was by far the best episode of the new season. The best episode of the last 2 seasons as well, actually. The thing I love about the original HIMYM is the heart and emotion that the stories tell, that set it apart from being a traditional sitcom. The writers sort of went off tangent so much last season, and the episodes became stand alone episodes that were irrelevant to the main story of finding Ted's future wife.... I got a little bit irritated.

I suppose this season has had better episodes - Subway Wars was good, but not season 2 standard. This one, however, was so classic! We got running gags about sandwich eating, College Marshall. We got the HILARIOUS Barney + Robin story, them and their sizzling chemistry, and their funny antics. That was enough, but the twist at the end just made it all the more better, and NPH killed at the last scene. Finally, we got the sweet Lily and Marshall story - and I thought it resolved in a very real world sense, which was so bittersweet.

I wasn't psyched about Ted and whats-her-name (sorry she'll always be Cameron to me).Okay her name is Zoey. I would be turned off if the writers decide for Ted to start having an affair; I would be disgusted. But at this point, I'm still withholding my judgement of the whole storyline. Nevertheless, despite the icky married woman thing, it's the first time in a long time I'm excited for the next HIMYM episode.

Friday Night Lights - The Right Hand Of The Father S05E03

A lot of things going on in the latest episode- Julie sleeping with her married TA, Tami trying to correct kids gone wrong, Jess becoming equipment manager... They were honestly all pretty random, and I really dislike the fact that Julie has some sort of judgement flaw that makes her go for wrong guys all the time. The only storyline that stood out, that gave me the chills up my spine I've come to associate with something only FNL can do, was Vince's storyline.

Here's a guy, without his dad, having to support his depressed mum, and along the way becoming somewhat of a juvenile delinquent before Coach stepped in and gave him something else in life - football. I know it sounds very cliche, but believe me when I say FNL makes you care too much about their characters. Seeing how far Vince has progressed has made me proud, and my heart all but went out to him during the scene in Coach's office. At that very moment, and other moments throughout the series that had the emotional depth like this, and I thought to myself - this is what FNL is. Dear lord, I love this show.

Tears came to my eyes during the scene in Coach's office, a grin as wide as anything came to my face when I saw how well Vince was playing, and tears again at the final scene when Vince talked to his dad and realized that there was still hope.. All in all, a very good storyline. Michael B. Jordan can act, and wow. I was totally blown away!

Community - Cooperative Calligraphy 2x08

This is one of those shows like FNL - nobody watches it, I cannot understand why, because it's one of the best shows on TV. It's consistently funny, not just because of the writing, but I swear, the cast is one of the funniest EVER... But I shouldn't go too deep into the overall gist of the show here, and talk about this episode instead.

Community usually plays too much on reference humor, so an episode like this, a "bottle episode" which was the source of meta humor this week, was actually a nice step back. The plot was just something thrown together, simply to get the cast in the study room together and act goofy. Just like HIMYM, it was funny and had a good emotional/dramatic side as well. The awesomeness simply cannot be expressed so I'm just going to say what I liked about both sides.

The funny side: Annie screaming NOOOOOO, the gang getting naked and jumping behind tables to see if anything hidden on their bodies would come out, all the pens stuffed down Pierce's cast, Troy's reaction to Shirley maybe being pregnant, all of their indignations at being accused of hiding the pen.

The dramatic: The indignation of everyone, while funny, exposed so much more - especially true for Abed and Shirley. I loved Jeff's speech about how he would rather believe a ghost took the pen than mistrust his friends. Also loved the ending when Troy started making up a story about the ghost that haunts the room...

It was just a fantastic episode all around, which is saying a lot for such a great show.

Bones - 6x06 The Shallow In The Deep

I think Bones is a show for clever people, because Brennan's way of describing everything anthropologically/scientific are really hilarious. And I relate very well to it, so yeah. There was plenty of it in this episode, coupled with Booth bantering back.

Also another aspect of Bones I love - the sensitive side of Angela, how she connects with the victims and makes an attempt to humanize them instead of leaving them in their skeletal remains. Plenty of it again, as she draws faces for all the slave victims, a task I'm sure was no mean feat.

As always in a normal Bones episode, the case took a backslide and I don't really dig the procedural part of the show, but I did love Hodgins being so excited about pink fuzz on the bones, and wow. He's happy! Compared to the angsty Hodgins in season 1, and then in season 4, he really is truly satisfied and fulfilled in life now, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

WELL that's about it. Believe it or not I'm still running iterations on my computational fluid dynamics programme, sighs. I shall just put the number of iterations until 10000 and head to bed then. It's the weekend, so have fun =)

The final film

2010-11-07T00:10:00.000+08:00

I've been indulging myself way too much into Harry Potter these past few days, re-reading the books, getting all my facts straight before I go and watch the movie, which is coming out in 12 days!

I cannot wait =). Apparently it's going to be really good, they've stuck to the facts as much as possible - and the production team has even included scenes that WEREN'T in the book. Normally I'd hate it, like in movie 6, when The Burrow burnt down? Hated it. In movie 4 when they spent such an abnormally large amount of time on the stupid Hungarian Horntail chasing Harry around the ENTIRE Hogwarts? Hated it.

But I'm really interested to see some stuff now - particularly the scene where Hermione erases her parents' memories, and Hermione and Ron destroying the 4th Horcrux (Hufflepuff's cup) in the Chamber of Secrets.

Usually I'll go into a Harry Potter movie with very low expectations, especially after the 5th one which I thought really sucked. But Half-Blood Prince was really surprisingly good, I mean, I thought it was excellent and put across everything in the book so nicely into 2 1/2 hours... Now that it's also David Yates directing the film, I kinda have faith in him to do the book justice. Plus it's divided into 2 movies, so it means they'll really include all the important scenes.

Yeah. Not a long post today, I just wanted to show you this:

Seriously?!!! The make up team is damn good!!But Voldy's eyes are supposed to be red though. Yeah I call him Voldy, it's much easier to say than "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named", or "The Dark Lord" or "Lord Voldemort" or "You-Know-Who (Or U-NO-POO hahaha)".

But yeah, I can't even tell it's the same person!

(No jump post today cause it's a short entry, there's no suitable place to jump the post I guess.)

Geek out

2010-11-05T01:26:00.001+08:00

Hello all, I've changed my blogskin to a default decent blogskin cause I was getting tired of tampering directly with the HTML, and also cause it was a really childish blog skin!

Perhaps I've changed, whatever. It's so much more user friendly just editing the layout itself instead of delving into the indecipherable code. I hate codes, you'd think that I shouldn't and wouldn't being an engineering student. But computing has always been one of my downfalls.

Anyway, yes, I've also decided to use jump breaks to make my main blog page less cluttered. I'm still working on customising my blog to be a little more personal, but you have to give me some time, cause I have school and and loads of TV to watch...

Now that that's out of the way, I can start on my real post, which is about something I seldom address here - my inherent geekiness. Click on to read the full post (gee I feel so professional typing that!)...

I cannot remember a time where I wasn't a geek. When I was young I grew up with an older brother, so that accounts for plenty I guess. Lego sets were my favourite toys, we used to build an entire empire from underwater bases right up to pirate ships, and urban landscapes. I've often fantasized about just starting up a whole collection again, but it's so expensive (pity my parents last time), and I don't have the space for it!

Then when the gaming revolution came about, I begged my dad for a Gameboy, just so I could play Pokemon. Further interest in gaming developed when I heard of the Final Fantasy series, aka the best gaming series anyone could ever ask for. Until today, I still get excited thinking of next year when my brother goes abroad for his attachment, and I get the PS3 to play FF13. Of course, my email address - ffrulez@hotmail.com - is an ode to how deeply into the series I am.

The real event that actually catapulted me into this world, that actually drew the line defining me as a geek or not, was the premiere of Star Wars Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. Again, I have my brother to thank for this, he brought me to see the film with him, despite me being a 9 year old tagging along with her 11 year old brother. It was eye opening. I know the original fans hate the prequel trilogy and all, but I don't. I have mentioned it before I think - how the lightsaber duel between Darth Maul and Qui-Gonn/Obiwan captivated me, how entranced I was by the sleek designs of the Naboo Cruiser and later the Naboo Fighter...... Which explains my choice of major in university.

And then I was mostly on my own, I read all the books I could get my hands on regarding Star Wars. I discovered Harry Potter, and am now the proud owner of all of J.K. Rowling's books on Harry Potter (including the supplements). I discovered the one thing apparently all geeks have in common - obscure indie music. I watch TV shows like Chuck and obsess over the geekiness of it all. I love physics, and I will never hesitate to boil down all phenomena in real life down to its basic principles.

I love it and all, but some times, it's just hard. I have never spoken of this, but some times expressing my interests and geeking out over the geekiest stuff ever makes me feel judged by the people I'm with. Cause I have a tendency to just speak bluntly, and stuff just slips out! It's very torturous to me to have to control what I'm saying lest something geeky slips out and I get judged for being some crazy nerd.

Because, believe me, I hate it when people respond to whatever I say with an "okayyyy..." cause I can literally see the wheels turning in their heads thinking "oh my gosh she's such a nerd!". Maybe I'm paranoid, but whatever, it's really what I feel!

And so because of that, I've really become accustomed to being alone, I just assume no one shares my interests and so I really just discover everything alone. I don't really mind it at all, but some times I really do wish there are more people who have my mindset and everything here in Singapore. Which is why sometimes I think about moving to the States, where I keep on reading about people wearing wizarding costumes to Harry Potter movie screenings and shouting out random spells.

FUCKING. WIZARD. COSTUMES. THE NERD IN ME WANTS ONE AS WELL! I wanna shout and cheer during movies as well!! But to do that here will just garner unwanted attention and be labeled as crazy, so there you have it. The power of peer pressure, sighs.

Anyway, I'm done. I just wanted to say, it's very hard to be a full blown not-in-the-closet geek in Singapore. Hahahaha. But I think I'm managing just fine, just keep to myself and not let people know I secretly wanna invent the first lightsaber. Or that the first car I wanna drive is a Nerd-Herder from Chuck.

Bones VS Castle

2010-10-24T22:13:00.002+08:00

One fine evening last week, I came across a fine show on Starworld (CH501 on Starhub), and because I was so bored, I sat down to watch it from start to finish. It's none other than ABC's Castle! I enjoyed it quite a bit so I decided to check it out, since it's my mid term break and I have nothing else to do (yeah right).

Well it turned out to be a pretty bad decision cause I got hooked and didn't do much. I only did 1 assignment and read a lot of notes... But that's about it, and I go back to school tomorrow, so... Sighs.

Anyway, before I saw the show, I honestly did not know it was about crime fighting! It's about this writer, Rick Castle, who suffers from writer's block and so he kills off his main character in the book. During his latest book launch, a Det. Kate Beckett comes to find him to aid in an investigation, due to a series of copycat murders based off his book. So he assists in this murder, and finds himself very intrigued by her. From then on, he starts shadowing her under the pretense of writing a book based on her (there really are 2 books out under the name of Rick Castle), but he's actually just interested in her.

So there you have it, the premise. And once I saw the first few episodes I thought to myself, wow this is really something like Bones. Cause for those who watch Bones, you know Bones is about Brennan and Booth solving grisly murders from reading the skeletons, and all about the sexual tension underneath their crime fighting.

Sure enough, plenty of articles comparing the both of them... I can see why though. There are so many similarities! Brennan is a best selling author, so is Castle. Brennan's mother was killed when she was young, so was Beckett's mum. Booth is a single dad; Castle is a single dad...

And the list goes on, and fans of both are kinda arguing online about which one is better. Well, my take? If you love one, you're bound to love the other! However, if you look beyond the initial premise, you'll find such distinct differences, and that's the main point of this entry.

Because Castle is such a light hearted show, you don't really feel that invested in the lives of the characters. Like, you'll never really expect them to die. Of course they only had like 1 1/2 seasons to build up their audience, so it's pretty understandable. Whereas Bones is in it's 6th season, and the stories the writers come up with to put their characters in mortal peril.... It's nothing short of nail biting.

And also, I know the characters in Bones a lot better. There are 2 other detectives in Castle I don't really care much about... But in Bones it's a whole other story, their camaraderie and chemistry, I just feel more connected with them as a viewer, and it's this aspect which really wins me over.

On the same side of things, the cases in Bones strike a deeper chord with me than any of the cases of Castle ever has. How they affect the individual characters - it's the whole reason why I started watching Bones in the first place, despite having no love for procedurals at all. It's the human connection that makes Bones so special to me, despite them dealing with gross bodies the whole time.

But like I said, Castle is a lot more light hearted, and that's where it gets entertaining. It's a lot like House in the sense that even if you stripped away all supporting characters and just have a show based on the title character, it would still work. (And you add in Beckett to the mix too as well, just cause the UST is so fun to watch).

The show leans so much on Nathan Fillion's (Castle) charm... And usually I wouldn't say that's a good thing, but it really works! Every time I laugh on the show, it's cause of him... And he's just, well, charming! So even if I'm not as invested in the characters, and the cases are kinda generic, I'm gonna watch it just for Nathan Fillion. Him and his chemistry with Beckett, his interactions with his daughter Alexis on the show, it's just really good. He's really talented, and I gotta say, it's my only times watching a show just purely for one character.*

*The other being, House, of course. I can't think of any other shows off the bat now.

I'm going to end here, cause I have to be up early tomorrow... And I just wanna say, I kinda like this blogging thing. Not about my life, not about updates on what I did today or yesterday... Just about TV, cause it's really a big passion for me I guess? Never thought I'd get so into it when I started watching my first show wayyy back when. (It was the OC). So I guess I'll keep up with this, I'm blogging for myself anyone, not anyone reading this.

Friday Night Lights

2010-10-21T12:51:00.002+08:00

Because I haven't blogged in ages, I figured recess week is a good a time as any other, and so here am I. Also because the events in my life are either too depressing to talk about, or just plain boring (I spent 3 full days on a very satisfying Flight Mechanics assignment, hahahaha), I've decided to turn to a topic I think everyone who reads this blog (yes, all one of you) is probably familiar with...

TV shows!!!

Yay!! Cheers!!

So today, I'm gonna talk about a new show that I've recently got into, and it has jumped the charts to become one of the best shows I've ever watched. Sadly, not many people have heard of this show, due to the reasons stated below:

NBC marketed it as a cheesy teenage drama
NBC also marketed it as a show all about American high school football
The second season sucked so bad in comparison I think it threw off any potential viewers
It now shows first on DirecTV (a satellite channel, which only like, the rich or the passionate have)...

And... that's about it. Fortunately, DirecTV made a deal with NBC that kept the show alive for 3 whole seasons beyond the 2nd season. The 5th season is slated to air next week, and it will be the show's final season. The deal is that DirecTV gets exclusive rights to air it first, without any online content or anything, and NBC gets to air it wherever they want during the summer.

So, that's the introduction. I'm here to tell you why I love the show, not the long and battered history of this little show that could.

The story that kicks everything off is when the star quarterback of a small town Texas high school football team makes a bad tackle during a game and ends up as a quadriplegic. And that's where it all starts.

Firstly, you get taken on the story of TV's most realistic marriage ever - Coach and his wife. Where the conflicts rise from differing opinions on how to raise their daughters, supporting each other through tough decisions to be made on either part, and arguing over the most realistic things in a marriage!

I mean how often do you get to see a real working marriage without any ludicrous TV plotline thrown in just to make it interesting? (Read: Murder, cheating, embezzlement, bankruptcy... you get my drift.)

And also, this show has done to me what all other shows have failed to do. In fact, it has done the exact opposite, it makes me feel thankful I'm living in a big city where I can get all the opportunities I want, and be whatever I want to be. Because what FNL does is show you the struggle of all the high school students dying to get out of Dillon (the town's name).

But like all places you grow up in, you really attached to those who you've come to care for and those who care for you, there's a struggle between leaving everything you know and embracing what has yet to come. And FNL does that so well! It really displays the comfort one derives from familiar surroundings, and what it actually takes to get them out of it.

The way the show does that, you practically feel no boundaries between the characters and yourself, there's no barrier. You feel what they feel, and because of this, maybe that's why not many people like the show, but for me, it's what makes the show.

Then there's the football itself. Apparently, it isn't very accurate, cause the new Lions team played without a quarterback for the whole first half of the season and I don't know football at all... So I have no idea if that can happen?! (The centre just snapped and they had 2 running backs who just ran and passed it backwards to each other). But the glee you feel when a QB's pass is caught beautifully, or when the defense intercepts... or when the punter gets a successful kick, it's just so satisfying!

Not to mention Coach's words of encouragement, or the team players praying in unison before the match. That gets chills up my spine every single time. And I'm surprised to say this, but I'd definitely pick this show over any other drama I watch (House, GA, The OC, Bones... etc etc.) Comedies are a whole different matter cause they're in a different genre, one that I enjoy a lot more than dramas... but without getting out of point...

There's the acting and directing itself. The quiet nuanced looks that the show has. It's actually a very quiet show, with the music also being very soothing and certain characters (Riggins, Lyla) being so much better when they're not speaking. But yet, whatever they convey with looks and glances is so much more than what other shows can achieve.

Anyway, when I rewatch FNL, I tend to skip the 2nd season, which sucks. I tend to blame this on NBC wanting FNL to reach a wider appeal, but they failed of course. If anything, they managed to scare away the people who fell in love with it during the 1st season. Anyway, skipping the 2nd season makes the characters' ages seem less ridiculous and adds a bit of believability to it. Haha.

Also because of the writer's strike, the season was left hanging just before the playoffs, which... I don't know. Feels so weird. When I watch the 3rd season, I don't feel like I missed anything in the 2nd season soooo yeah.

I don't really have a reason for blogging about this, other than the hope that some bored TV fan comes across my post and starts watching it. Trust me, you won't regret it. I do have all 4 seasons, and it's going to be hard to find an online streaming site cause it's such an obscure show.

I'm gonna goooo. But I will blog soon! Already thought about what to blog about, Castle vs Bones, another TV post. I think sooner or later everything will be about TV. So yeah, in the mean time, I have to write a paper for school, sighs.

This is why I haven't been blogging

2010-10-03T00:08:00.004+08:00

It's also why I haven't been listening in class. And why I need to constantly charge my iPod....

(Beware, picture spam from now onwards, no words at all)

(I cannot wait for the updates. And then more updates. And more and more and more!!!)

Yes, I got ALL 15 Golden Eggs and completed the stages too :P. Many thanks to www.playhaven.com for their awesome guides, as well as iAddict00 on YouTube for all the 3 star videos!!!

Then there's Doodle Jump which never gets tired!! And I keep on playing it even now!!! But I'm not as awesome as those on the leaderboards, who get like....... I don't know, around 2 million?

That's crazy. Until next time then, which might be a while since I keep in playing Doodle Jump. This is exactly why I don't want to buy Final Fantasy I & II. It's seriously detrimental to my results.

20 and 364

2010-09-20T22:36:00.003+08:00

I'm turning 21 tomorrow!! ANYWAY I'm just trying to keep this blog alive, cause it really does seem pretty dead. I've been busy with school and what not.

So here's just a quick (maybe not, I still wanna talk about TV later on in the post) update. Year 3 is... Well, on one hand it really is fun, I'm laughing a lot and generally enjoying the company of all my friends. I guess it's because I know it's the last 2 years I'll ever get to study and hang out just like that. So I'm just trying to cherish it as much as I can. NTU is not that bad afterall, even though we have been the subject of a lot of negative news recently.

But on the other hand, year 3 stuff is so hard!!! See, my course is full of really clever people, so when we take courses only exclusive to our course, it is kinda competitive. And not to mention, everything just seems harder. But when we take courses combined with the mechanical engineering course, everything just seems easier. But now, I don't have anything in common with the mechanical engineering people, and I'm suffering!

To be fair, it was also like that the previous 2 semesters. In fact, it was even worse. Despite that, my grades have been getting better (except for that cursed forgot to S/U C+ I got for Bio). So I hope it'll get better.

At least I'm not getting much of a culture shock. I still remember I was so traumatised by Aerospace DIEnamics. And circuits, I really panicked as I considered the prospect of failing a module for once in my life. Then semester 2 came, but Aerodynamics I was not much better and each lecture was just SHOCKing (pun intended, but you won't get it).

Anyway there's a difference between Aerospace Dynamics and Aerodynamics. The former is like, study of particle motion and rigid body rotational motion. The second one is one of my favourite topics, and it deals with the 2 main forces on an aircraft - lift and drag. And we also learn about how the air over the plane varies from point to point... And we also learn about shock waves, and therefore the pun.

So as I was saying, it's not much of a culture shock this semester, cause I'm mostly learning more in depth content of the same fields I learnt last year. Like propulsion now, which is specialised thermodynamics, Aerodynamics II which is just more complex than number I, and... you get the idea.

Yep. That's just my life now. Tuition, travelling and school. Super boring, but after the whole of year 2 being like that, I'm very used to it now. Oh oh oh and I'm applying for my attachment!! Very excited about my first choice. Before I entered this course, I thought to myself that this wasn't what I really wanted to do, I really wanted to do research, and so I've applied for a research facility.... None other than..... I'm so not going to say.

I hope I get the interview and ace it, cause I'm quite excited about it!!

Yep. And last week, Parenthood returned!! It's not like the show I am most crazy about, but it does signal the start of Fall TV! Which always always coincides with my birthday, so I always say that's the best birthday present.

But this week, CHUCK, HIMYM, MODERNFAMILY, COMMUNITY, AND BONES are all returning and I'm so darn excited!!! Totally can't wait =)

And to make the day come faster, I'm gonna sleep now. Super tired. Nights!

David Choi in Singapore

2010-08-25T22:15:00.004+08:00

As everyone knows by now, since I've been gushing about it for ages, David Choi is in Singapore!! I went to 2 of his shows, and I'm very happy now, since I've been a fan for such a long time and FINALLY got the chance to meet him.

Yes so anyway, when I found out he was coming to Singapore from the States, my initial reaction was, "DAMMIT" cause I would have been in Canada. So in a way I guess it's kinda a good thing, but whatever la, it's not like if I went I wouldn't have seen him; he has a show in Toronto in October.

But anyways, here are some videos and some pictures!

So there were 2 performances of his I went to, I went to Baybeats (at the Esplanade) on Saturday evening, and check out the crazy crowd man:

WTF?! I was so shocked when I stepped in! Again, (and I have wondered this to myself plenty of times), how did he become so famous?! I couldn't even make my way to my friend so I just stood by myself.

But I think some people there don't really know who he is... Cause I overheard a few conversations telling me such. Like "oh I didn't expect him to be so good." and like "he's quite cute hor?!"

Ya. He's quite cute. I'm glad he's getting so much attention and all, but it really hindered the performance for me cause everyone was so noisy and the cameras were beeping all over.

Anyways, it was quite a short set with only 6 songs? Or was it 5, but it was a real pleasure to see him live and he was very good - which was what I expect someone as talented as him to be.

HE SMILES! Haha, yes, back when he wasn't so famous he would NEVER smile in his videos. But it's really a lot more pleasant when he does smile though, haha.

I must say, despite the crowd I actually got really good pictures, aided by the very nice lighting!

That's the power of zoom and my determination. I knew people would get hot and eventually escape the crowd, so I just stuck it out. Other than that, my arms REALLY ached from holding up my camera for so long.

Yep. Apart from that I also went to this impromptu meet-and-greet at Timbre Old School yesterday. This time I went myself cause I just knew if I went with other people I wouldn't get a seat. And yayyy I got a seat despite being far back in the queue cause I just requested a bar seat.

AND NOT ONLY DID I GET MY CD SIGNED, I ALSO GOT A REALLY NICE PICTURE WITH HIM!!!

Very happy!!! This picture might just get developed and go onto my display board or something. Ahhhh I can't stop smiling just looking at this. It's like, the feeling of getting to meet someone you have admired for such a long time and having a conversation with him!! Very fulfilling =)

And he had this trivia session, I think cause he was too tired to sing a lot and wanted to meet the fans anyway - which is awesome of him. I mean, I'm not gonna elaborate but you can really sense his sincerity and dedication to his fans. Aka me.

Him doing the trivia - the loudhailer thing was the prize. The questions were quite standard, like, what's the capital of New York, what team does Kobe Bryant play on... Come up and do a dance, come up and sing etc etc...

And I won a prize!!

I won a little cute owl for answering "when's Hari Raya?" I only know it cause I take note of the public holidays during semester time so... I know when I have breaks and such. But ya, I won!!

It's one of the best prizes anyway, after his CD. But I already have his CD, so... Yeah. The other prizes were like, lame stuff (from Daiso I think). This is a pretty cute decorative item!

Yeah. I'm done, and I'm tired. So here are a few videos - I think the sound is awesome, despite all the noisy people and cameras around me. And despite the noisy Esplanade announcements and warning bells. The one at Timbre had random waiters walking in front of me though, ah well.

At Baybeats - By My Side

At Baybeats - Won't Even Start

At Baybeats - That Girl

At Timbre - YouTube, A Love Song

Redang!!!

2010-08-24T11:25:00.005+08:00

Well, because I was slated to leave for Canada last Wednesday, I decided a quick getaway will do me good so that I'll be so busy and exhausted to think about what would have been had I gone for exchange.

So after a very quick chat with my friend Kaye, who lives in Malaysia, we decided to go to Pulau Redang on a super impromptu decision!! So I flew off for KL on the 17th, and spent a day around there. Left for Terangganu at 11pm at night, and arrived at Redang next morning!! We stayed at Redang Kalong Resort.

It was damn beautiful! It was mostly a snorkelling trip, had 3 different destinations to go to. There was a lot of marine life, and I may have just reduced my fear of fishes a teeny tiny bit. Haha. The creatures I saw included, but aren't limited to...

Baby sharks! (Until now I'm not sure if it's a species called baby shark that'll never grow big, or like they are really baby sharks and somewhere further out there are crazy ass big sharks). They swam damn fast. Not towards me though, away from me.
A huge moray eel, I think maybe as big as me.
Little mudskippers near the shore, leaping around... Looking sort of like lizards actually. Lizards that can swim.
There this coral that closed up whenever you touched it. Of course you had to swim down to touch it, but it was quite cool. All sorts of colours too, most commonly purple but there were blue ones also.
I ruffled the sea anemone to get the little Nemos to come out, that was really cool. And the sea anemone felt really... Like jelly like thick stranded hair. Haha.
Sea cucumbers. There were really a lot of these, and the guide would just pick them up and place them in our hands. Felt a bit squishy.
A lot of of other corals and plenty of fishes. Gives you a whole new perception of what does "plenty of fish in the ocean" mean.
SEA TURTLES! The water was so clear, when we were on the boat back from the snorkelling trip, you could look down and see turtles swimming side by side your boat!

And above the sea there were plenty of other animals too, the scary ones being huge monitor lizards, and the cute ones being little kittens and plenty of squirrels.

My greatest regret is not getting an underwater camera cover so I can show you what exactly I'm talking about, together with the REALLY CLEAR WATER. So I only have like above sea level (literally) pictures to show you.

So... I stayed at this resort which was pretty secluded - it was a 15 minute walk away from the main stretch of beach where most of the resorts were, but anyway, it was really quiet and there weren't that many activities going on. People mostly sunbathed or slacked away. When I wasn't snorkelling I just slacked at the deck chairs or the hammocks provided, listening to music and reading (To Kill a Mockingbird).

But the Caucasians there (of which there were plenty, from France, Netherlands, Germany... and some other unidentifiable ones) would rather literally sunbathe. Don't they get burnt? Don't they know that their skin is more susceptible to skin cancer?! Really crazy how they can stay in the tanning chairs the whole day!!

We walked over to the neighbouring, much more expensive resort on our first day to sneak into the pool, which was all very nice and all... But take a look at the water in the pool...

And the water in the ocean. Not much difference! It was really quite an experience la, amazing corals and such clear and cool water! Felt very clean too, and I didn't feel the need to bathe once I stepped out. Felt much cleaner/healthier than the pool water actually.

Fishes fighting for bread. The guides would bring out a huge loaf of bread each trip for us to feed the fishes, and as a general rule, I waited until the bread was gone before jumping in. At the marine park where we swam in from the shore itself, the tiny anchovies came all the way up to your toes at the shore, which... was really daring of them. What if the wave washed back before they ate the bread?

Actually when you're in the water you can actually discern the various levels of fishes. The long swordfishes existed just beneath the surface, the schools of smaller zebra and rainbow fishes just below you, and therefore CAN touch you =x.

Anchovies were about 1.5m below you so you could view the entire school at once, and appreciate the beauty of their single-mindedness, and the larger fishes (the ones like garupas and angel fishes) all the way near the corals. And of course, among the anemones, the clown fishes la.

The picture above are mostly the zebra print fishes, if you look closely you can tell.

And there was a lot of nature to appreciate as well, like the rock forms. In the cracks exist a lot of mudskippers and clams which are permanently stuck there (the guide tried to prise one off but failed).

That's one of our guides... But I didn't talk much to him.

I talked much more to this one, who very nicely showed my friends and I around the sea and guided us quite far away from the ship. Something I wouldn't have done if I were by myself. And I didn't bring my life jacket down too so, I guess it was good there was someone there cause the currents were really strong the second day.

Superstar Virgo in the distance!! This was this other beach,with a lot more activity and people. Which kinda explains the numerous people in the picture actually.

My resort on the other hand, was really secluded and more laidback. The rooms were basic, with only beds and a toilet. You had to go to the dining hall to watch some TV (they showed Mythbusters on the first day there!). But it was very cosy!

Despite the secluded location, there wasn't a lack of stuff to do as well. Plenty of boardgames, table tennis, darts, volleyball (all free). At night if you wanted there was a karaoke room, so that was pretty cool too.

That was the jetty at my resort. It's so small that we couldn't even enter the big snorkelling boat, had to transfer via a smaller boat (shown above).

And that's all. I WILL UPDATE ABOUT DAVID CHOI TOMORROW! The videos are taking forever to upload on Facebook, so yeah. I might be going to a meet at greet tonight as well, so I'll update everything together.

Here's one final picture:

Run down old jetty at a deserted beach. Kinda makes you wonder how did it come to be there?

2 more weeks

2010-08-15T22:56:00.003+08:00

To the start of Year 3. Year 3 sounds so freaking old, can't believe I'm going to be 21. But I'm actually quite excited, cause I really like what I learn and year 3 stuff sounds really interesting actually. Now if only school would start immediately so that my exams don't end 2 weeks before Christmas.

Anyway I know I haven't been updating much, it's just that I want a lot of time to myself and nothing interesting really happens when I'm by myself. Next week should prove to be more exciting though!!

First things first, look whose album I just uploaded into my iTunes!! I didn't download it, no no, I borrowed it from Deb's drawer when I was there yesterday. A lot of classics! Can't wait to listen to the whole thing with lyrics at one shot.

Elvis Presley!! Only listened to the more famous songs like Blue Suede Shoes, Viva Las Vegas... It doesn't have like Love me Tender, Can't Help Falling In Love or Jailhouse Rock etc etc though. Shall scour the Internet for them one day.

His album is called 2nd to none, which explains the number 2. The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Okay.. So The Beatles have an album called 1 and Elvis has one called 2?"

Right. Anyway I'm headed to REDANG on Tuesday!! That's not really true, I'm headed to KL on Tuesday, gonna spend a day there with my friend Kaye, and then at night we're departing for Redang!!

She's my Aerospace friend and we just caught up with each other on MSN last week and randomly decided to go to Redang with each other!!! Yes, very weird and very random but whatever! I've decided I need it because this holiday hasn't been that great. It's just getting better now, but even then, I want school to start!

Right, anyway, because of the Redang trip, I'm unable to see DAVID CHOI at Timbre on Tuesday and Wednesday... So that leaves his Baybeats gig on the 21st!!

And I know JY and Eric are both celebrating their birthdays on that day, but it's not like I'm missing out entirely on their birthdays. Besides, how often will David Choi come to Singapore? Unless he meets like his love of his life here and moves here I really doubt he'll be back.

It might even be me. HA!

So therefore, I have to go. His gig is only like 45 minutes long anyway, and after that I have to track him down, make him sign my CD, take a picture if possible, scream like a fangirl and then head on to Eric's BBQ. I'm just kidding, doubt I'll be able to get close to him, for some reason, he's really well known.

I don't know why he's so well known! I'm one of his longtime fans, been listening to his awesome covers wayyy back in 2008 probably, when he was still not that big on Youtube. Now, it seems like a lot of people know him, and goodness knows through what means? Is he on radio? TV? I have no idea cause I'm very isolated from the mass media (not social media)!

I'm getting super excited just thinking about his gig so I'm gonna go and satisfy myself with his old music videos and maybe his new album!!! Damn exciting =)

Shall update tomorrow with more DAVID CHOI and then I'm off to REDANG!

Look what my guitar gave birth to!

2010-07-30T21:48:00.004+08:00

A baby guitar!! Don't they look cute side by side? Ha, obviously it didn't give birth, where would my guitar find a male mate? Ya, they're both girls. Right...

But isn't my new ukelele (sorry I know it's originally ukulele but I like to spell it the British way) so tiny and cute!!!

I bought it during my lunch hour (or lunch 2 hours, haha) today, which incidentally, is my last day of work! Rushed down to City Hall despite the rain and stuff cause I've been wanting one since... Very long ago. Around 1 year ago maybe?

I went to the only guitar shop I go to, and that's Davis Guitar which ROCKS. Affordable EVERYTHING and very good consultation and service.. Please go there for all your guitar needs. Like me, I bought my wonderful acoustic there for $214 and I still feel that it's a very very good deal cause it sounds so awesome and it hasn't spoilt or anything, the strings are still intact.

Takamine (my guitar brand) for the win! And today I went there, they only had 2 ukeleles for me to choose from. They had 4, but one was a Hello Kitty uke (ew) and the other one was a V-shaped black uke. I tried both normal shaped ones and I preferred this one, so I just bought it, at $75. The other one was also $75 but I liked this sound better.

Okay to be very honest I didn't do much research on the prices or what cause I really trusted that shop. What's more online they tell you like, what wood it's made of, how many frets are there, like I care? Can play and have nice sound can already right?!

So yes, bought it, was very happy, and when I went back to the office I did some research and found out that it's actually a VERY GOOD UKELELE WITH A LOT OF POSITIVE REVIEWS!! Haha very happy! What's more it's like USD$45 online, so even if I bought it online and had it shipped, it would have been more expensive. First time buying locally < buying online.

To be honest, I thought I would spend around a hundred, so when I heard $75 I was very happy, and it didn't occur to me that it's the normal price for a ukelele. It's normal for a beginner's uke I guess but of course there are professional ones that costs like, in the thousands.

Anyway, I'm trying to get used to it now la, it's really tiny. Check it out:

Normal guitar, heavy, need strap.

Ukelele. My arms look like they belong to giants, and I feel like I'm holding a little baby. I can just grip the entire hollow part with my hands, haha! Which is good! Can carry around!

The most obvious difference is that it only has 4 strings, tuned to GCEA. And that the G-string is higher than the C and E, unlike the guitar where the strings are arranged in order of pitch.

The other differences are much more major. For one obviously, the sound. The ukelele sounds very hollow and chillax... Lol. There's no other word to describe it I guess? Okay there are 2 different words to describe it, chill and relaxed. HAHA.

It's not really a sing along instrument song I feel cause when you strum it, you don't really get a full sound out. But it's beautiful in solo pieces!!

And this is just for my ukelele but I really love the colour!! OMG IT'S DAMN NICE PLEASE! I wanted a colour like that for my guitar, and just the raw wood, without any varnish or what.. But I couldn't find one within my budget (I mean, that was like at the beginning of j2 and I bought it using my bursary money) so I settled for the varnished spruce wood.

It's not bad looking la, and I still love my guitar to death despite it but I really wanted one with a colour similar to my ukelele now more mahogany or nato wood like. This uke is made ENTIRELY out of nato wood and the grain (which you can't see in the photo) it's very pretty!

Okay I think that's enough. Oh, it is from Lanikai, and a beginner LU-11 model. Going to play it somemore!! Very happy now =)

New post

2010-07-18T23:56:00.000+08:00

Okay I think it's high time to move than very depressing, super angsty post down. Not that by any means I'm like a happy little rabbit frolicking in the fields now. So I was thinking of stuff to blog about, and I couldn't come up with anything...

And thus I'm going to fall back on my safety net which has always been.. blogging about music. Besides, now that I'm so bored at work I've been listening to my iPod like, 8/5. As in you know, 8 hours 5 days a week, the working equivalent of 24/7. Haha okay not funny, whatever.

SO HERE GOES!! Feels like I haven't blogged about music in ages! So I have had a lot of "iMoment" songs, which are what I like to call my song of the moment, taking a leaf out of Apple's naming strategies.

First up is a soundtrack theme, the main theme to Disney Pixar's Up, called Married Life. I think it was this song and this montage that singlehandedly won the movie so many accolades and I can see why.

Few weeks back in my Pixar craze, which has since died down but is still there, don't worry, I found this song and haven't stopped listening to it since. It's damn awesome la, I got the whole soundtrack actually, but this takes the cake.

Married Life from Up composed by Michael Giacchino

Next up is Bohemian Rhapsody by (I think) one of the greatest performing bands EVER, Queen!! I first heard it on the Glee (more on this later) finale and I didn't really like it cause it was interspersed with Quinn giving birth and Puck looking so helpless.

I think I mentioned somewhere before that I really hate the Glee storylines, so yeah, I didn't think much of the song. Then Melly kept on tweeting that the song ROCKS and so I checked out the original and I TOTALLY LOVE IT. OH MY GOD QUEEN ROCKS! From the videos I have watched of them, I really think they are one of the greatest live performers of all!!

They kinda remind of Muse, so dramatic and all, and true enough, one of Muse's strongest influences. AWESOME STUFF MAN. I will check out their whole discography when I end my job. Totally!

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen from Night at the Opera

Yeah anyway I want to comment on something. I really cannot stand all the comments on the Glee videos saying "this sucks, the original is so much better". One of the reasons Glee exists (as much as I think it's overhyped) is to widen the mainstream exposure of music, and I think it has done that very well.

Sometimes the cover is actually better, depending on what type of music you like. For example I hate rap music but when Glee covers it I find it acceptable cause they remake it more to suit my taste. But regardless, true fans of the original artiste would be grateful for the exposure it brings as well as the increased sales on iTunes.

And I'm one example of a person who has largely benefitted from Glee's range of music. There are so many songs and songs related to songs they covered that I discovered through them, and I think it has really expanded my horizons. You know, instead of like all the indie folk stuff I'm so used to.

And on the other hand from the point of view of a person who really listens to a lot more classic songs than an average person, I'm glad they're covering all these songs so people can realise what they are missing out from.

So in that respect, Glee is good, and that in a nutshell is one of the few reasons I enjoy it.

The other reasons being... Chris Colfer and Brittany's (don't know what's her real name) bimbotic one liners. I shall totally do a post on this another day.

Okay that's it for Glee/Queen. My last song today is... Model Homes by In-Flight Safety.

Firstly, In-Flight Safety is very important, I can tell you that as a budding Aerospace Engineer =) Please put on your seatbelts.

And secondly this played during a very emotional/powerful scene in Chuck when Sarah was duelling with Chuck... Okay never mind you need to watch it and get invested in the show to understand what I mean.

It's also a VERY EMO song that goes "I need to be alone" which pretty much sums up my mental state right now. Because while being with friends is fine, having company around one whole day yesterday and having to explain repeatedly why am I stuck in Singapore again is so not fun.

But whatever la. Sighs.

It's also a super nice and easy song to strum on the guitar, so yay for me when I feel too lazy to learn something more challenging!

Model Home by In-Flight Safety from the album "We are an Empire, my Dear" (although it's classified as Chuck Soundtrack in my library).

And that's it for today. Hope this post is long enough so that by the time anyone reads to this point will just forget about reading onto that damn emo post. Have a fun time people, I'll join you when I can!

Emo Nemo, Fucking Angsty

2010-07-13T21:50:00.005+08:00

WARNING: ANGSTY POST.

Well for my faithful Twitter followers, you already know this. But for the rest of you, here it is: I'm not going for any exchange program whatsoever. Not to Canada, I'm going to be stuck in bloody Singapore for the rest of my life. THE REST OF MY FUCKING LIFE.

Okay that's like a gross over exaggeration but the news couldn't have come at a worse time.

I mean, I'm working at this job purely for the money which I took up at the end of June. Barely 1 plus week into the job I got that piece of terrible news that I can't go for exchange, which means that I'm stuck in the stupid job!

And everyday when I'm bored, be it at work, or when I'm traveling to and fro work, my mind wanders. What does it wander to? It wanders to the bitter fact that I'm stuck here, that I'm STUCK IN SINGAPORE FOR GOODNESS KNOWS HOW LONG.

It fucking sucks. To be very honest, it really does. I'm like so full of bitterness and depression nowadays although I really don't show it. Words cannot express the devastation at being doomed to sunny Singapore. But I can't act like the whole world is about me (except for here) so yeah...

So I'm not actually doing anything to cope with this terrible fate of mine. I have way too much money than what I need which is weird, cause really, who has too much money? But I'm slowly making a list of everything I want so that I can slowly spend my money and in the process gain some retail therapy.

Unfortunately, this list has also somewhat become my birthday wish list, which I will have to make since I'm stuck in Singapore during my birthday and people will buy me gifts. Because, unfortunately I have to organise meet ups and dinners to celebrate my birthday. It's not that I hate such things, it's that I so badly wanted to spend my birthday away, in some strange new place, meeting new people discovering new cultures and seeing new sights.

And that's not even it, MY EXAMS IN NTU END 2 DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS? FUCK YOU YOG. First you start school on 30th August, making me have 1 extra month of holidays in which I will bum around for ONE MORE MONTH. One more month in which to bitterly mourn the fact that I'm stuck here.

And now you take away my wonderful lead up to the Christmas party I assume the gang will hold.. The one good thing about staying in Singapore. Now I have to rush and prepare all my gifts within a day. What the shit. As if it's not bad enough I'm actually studying for 1 more semester, 1 more semester of non stop revision, catching up with tutorials, trying to compete against the insanely competitive guys in my course.

Finally, I CANNOT BELIEVE I'M STUCK WITH THE WORST SHITTIEST LAB GROUP FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER! This I think, really took the cake for me. I was just depressed when the news came along but when I realised that I'm stuck with the 2 idiots for another semester, I really... I don't know, I really just hated my life from then onwards.

I've always lived my life by looking forward, and to be honest there's nothing to look forward to now. Year 3 Sem 1 starts, and then I end and it's Christmas, and then my attachment starts, by the time that ends I'm only left with ONE MONTH which isn't long enough for me to do anything before the dreaded year 4 and FYP.

After that it's byebye NTU and hello working life. In which I'll never ever get the experience of staying overseas for an extended period of time.

I might not even get the experience of travelling on a budget to different places, backpacking across a country and so and so because life fucking sucks in Singapore. You cannot just take 2 months off work and travel. You just can't. And even if you can, which is a very low likelihood, there is NO ONE I know willing to go around the world with me and spend money doing so.

I really cannot, for the life of me believe what a year I am having. The Killers cancelled their concert, Deb left for good (I know she started studying abroad last year but this year will be the year I remember when DownUnder becomes her real home),

I fucking forgot to S/U my bio module and it's bye bye first class. Now that I'm here for year 3 sem 1 I doubt my GPA will ever go back up.

And now this stupid exchange thing. Why couldn't they just reject me from the start? Maybe then I wouldn't feel so terrible. All that excitement about the STATES, which for me going there is like a dream come true, now put to waste. No more NYC, no more Niagara Falls, no more going to Disneyworld, and that's not the worst part. It's not even not seeing the famous landmarks that make it so sad...

It's the fact that since young, I grew up with western culture, I read their books watched their TV and found it all incredibly fascinating. I've been hearing all along how wonderful a country the States is, from my father or from the mass media. And now I won't get to experience that, that's what makes the reality of it all so harsh.

All these typing and ranting has made me feel:

1) very incoherent and apathetic about the state of my english grammar in this post
2) very tired and I'm just going to go off and wallow in my sorrow.

I expect I'll get out of this mood. To be honest when I'm with other people obviously I can't act so bitter and resentful. I just act like it doesn't really bother me that much. So logically then, shouldn't affect YOU, the reader, reading this.

I'm just ranting here cause I need an outlet for all my anger. You can't possibly expect me to snap at every passing stranger I see.

Quick update

2010-06-30T21:54:00.004+08:00

Hi I've been pretty busy the last few days and haven't had time for any update, so this is going to be a quick one.

I've been so busy cause...

I finally restarted tuition with Becky, so that's Saturday afternoons gone (seeing that I wake up at like 1pm anyways).
My printer spoiled last night, and I've been trying to no avail to solve the problem. There's nothing physically wrong with the computers at home or the printer itself, it's just that the connection through the USB cable cannot be established. And I've tried everything!!!
I've been watching the world cup. I usually leave the computer on and then play some game and do my own stuff. But I haven't been watching the 230am matches though, this is because...
I got a job. My agent woke me up at 10am on Monday telling me that the company wants me down immediately, and that the pay was SUPER GOOD. So of course I couldn't resist, and it's pretty near my house too - at Toa Payoh, so I usually sit the bus all the way and sleep. I'm working at UOB and it's a very stressful job, I'm intimidated by my boss, but the job comes with the money I suppose. I'm also a loner, cause I don't see the point in making friends since it's only until the end of July, so yeah. Good think that it's short term, though, wouldn't wanna work for so long. And I suppose I do need the money... Which leads me to my next point.
I've been busy planning for my exchange, meeting up with the rest of the people, researching on banks, telco plans, travel places, accomodation. HOWEVER, today I got a piece of bad news which, leads me to the next part of my entry...

I have a lot of courses rejected. Either they're not offered next semester or I don't fulfil the prerequisites. If I'm allowed to take those courses without prerequisites then I suppose it'd be find, but I don't know. SIGHS. I hope the university gets back to us quickly or else even if I can go, I might not be able to cause all the seats on the plane are taken up.

All that planning down to waste. Now I have too much money too. Maybe I shall go buy shares or something.

Oh and if I really am not going the 1st thing I shall do is buy a all-in-one printer/scanner/photocopier/(fax machine?)! Then maybe I shall upgrade my phone plan to a data one and so I can TWEET and blog the whole day! And read nonsense articles online.

So... That's it! I'm very tired, and there's no match tonight, so I suppose I'll sleep early! Another day at work tomorrow, sighs. Repeat to myself: I'm doing it for the money and it's only for one month and even if I stay at home I do nothing the whole day.

Besides, even though I can't access my email or MSN, I still can go onto Twitter and Facebook! So it's not that bad, I can slack a teeny weeny bit I suppose. And working in a bank is apparently very impressive so yeah. I'm working on a big project some more, so yeah, again.

C'mon Weiqin, only 4.4 weeks more!

Toy Story 3 (After)

2010-06-22T16:11:00.002+08:00

HAVE YOU WATCHED TOY STORY 3? Because if you haven't, you have to! You don't even need to know the 1st 2 stories to appreciate the third. Although, you'll miss a lot of the running gags and when the emotional part comes, you might not feel the impact as much as I did.

Anyway, the movie has been out for 5-6 days or so, and it's already turning out to be one of Pixar's strongest, with a $110 million opening in the States (it's largest ever) and a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.*

The Tomatometer shows the percentage of critics who recommend you to go watch it, not that it's average score is 9.8/10. Which means that 2% of the critics who review the show recommend you not see it. The thing is, I don't understand why though.

It was a far from perfect movie. I can think of a number of things off the top of my head which weren't satisfactory to me:

It was wayyy too long. Of course, I don't mind it, you can give me a Toy Story that's 3 hours long and I would still have loved it because I can never get enough of the characters. But I think it's really quite long, and for the kids it's aimed at, I don't get how they'll manage to conjure up an attention span lasting the whole 103 minutes.
It was so dark and scary! Again, another problem for kids. I was really quite terrified at one point where I thought the toys were all going to die!
I wasted money on the 3D. There wasn't any pop out effects that made me feel it really was a 3D movie. It just felt like a normal movie, then made into a 3D one (much like the 1st 2). But kudos to Pixar for being more about the story than about the special effects.

But honestly, I don't understand why there are critics who recommend that people don't watch this movie at all! The faults were minor, it was still such an enjoyable 2 hours in the theatre, again, not perfect, but still... I can't think of any reason I would ask people not to watch it.

Unless those minor fault are a major pet peeve of yours, and you cannot find it in yourself to overcome those minor irritations and thus you have to miss out on one of the best movie going experiences you've had, in years.

So yes, before the movie I was confident that (despite knowing quite a lot about it since I have read spoilers and reviews and what not) it would deliver. I wasn't wrong, it didn't just meet my expectations, it surpassed it.

I think, if the characters in animated films were given a chance to run in the acting categories of the Oscars, some of the characters (Andy, or Woody, or Buzz) might actually be nominated! I don't know how the artists did it, but they really did surpass themselves and throughout the film, as you looked at the toys, I think I really felt what the creators wanted me to feel.

Their expressions were so life like and heart wrenching! Especially at the end, where I cried. That said, I didn't cry at Up's opening montage... so if you want to compare it that way, yeah, this was much better.

Anyway the synopsis goes something like that: Andy is going off to college, and his mother has asked him to clear up his room. Either put stuff he's not bringing with him in the attic, or throw them all away. Through one misunderstanding or other, the toys end up in a daycare centre, Sunnyside:

Despite the jovial name that is Sunnyside, it's not what it appears to be, and the toys find out soon enough. They're at the bottom of a hierarchy and they'd rather not be at such an unfortunate position. After realising that it's a terrible place to be in, and that Andy was at home looking for them (which was realised by Mrs Potato Head, who conveniently misplaced her right eye in Andy's home), they set out for a perilous journey back.

That's the gist it of; it's actually much more complicated than that. And scary. Did I mention that before? It's really scary.

And also, there were plenty of laughs too. I know a lot of people find Ken the best new character, and while he was maybe the most hilarious, I like Mr Pricklepants much better! I don't know, it's probably his stiff British accent, together with his dramatic thespian self. The part at which I found the funniest was the gag reel when he was putting on a play and the Lime Green Martian (LGM) said his line.

That said, I think the gag reel was really useful in cheering you up, especially after the final scene was so damn sad!

That's Mr Pricklepants the hedgehog above!! (It's obviously the one that's not Woody, the unicorn or the triceratops).

Other stuff which I LOVE, includes:

MR TORTILLA CHIP!
Spanish Buzz. In fact, delusional Buzz, I love that.
Anytime the LGMs said "The Clawwww" which is a reference to Toy Story 1.
The scene of Woody escaping the bathroom, and the entire prison break scene. One thing which I love about the TS films is that they always make it seem like everything is at stake, but when you look at the larger picture, they are just a bunch of toys, which makes the whole thing quite ridiculous - but yet you can't help loving it.

Sadly, Rex didn't get much to do this movie! Sighs, never mind, I still like him.

Anyway yeah. That's about it. One last thing though, I'm really quite surprised Andy would (SPOILER) choose to give Woody away; I was under the impression Woody was a gift from his dad who isn't present in the films and whom I assumed dead or something. This is because Woody is from the 1950s, too old a toy for Andy's generation, and also cause during the yard sale scene in TS2, his mum says "Sorry this toy has been in the family for a long time" or something to that effect. I always thought that Woody would end up being a family heirloom of some sort. For now, I'll be content to think that when Bonnie is all grown up she'll give the toys back to Andy's son or daughter to play with.

Okay. I wanted to get this Toy Story 3 review out of the way so that I can blog about other stuff! Right now my connection is wonky so I shall save the other blog entries for next time, but please, GO WATCH TOY STORY 3!

Toy Story 3! (Before)

2010-06-16T22:06:00.002+08:00

I was so excited today, that the entire day has been spent reading about Pixar, catching up reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com, watching trailers on Youtube and rewatching Toy Story 1 and 2.

I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a film. Really, no, I can't. Maybe Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince? But by then I knew the Harry Potter films were a crapfest and were only made to milk money out of the global boy wizard phenomenon.

Oh scratch that, the last time I've ever been this excited for ANY release was probably Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows back in 2007.

Anyway, I'm sure Pixar will amaze me yet again, if not, at the very least, satisfy me. Yes.

And here's a little bit of trivia: For as much as Apple haters love to bash Apple for whatever reason... Please remember that Steve Jobs is the first owner and CEO of Pixar, and up until today, is Disney's single largest stockholder at 7%, which is great since he advocates and defends all of what Pixar has done, which until today, is pretty damn good.

I found out that fact like, yesterday, and now I really respect the guy. Bash Mac products all you want, but there's no denying that you have to respect Mr Jobs too. And I'm not even an Apple fan.

And speaking of Apple, talk about the weirdest collaboration ever! The Toy Story toys discover Google, which leads to a pretty funny Search Story (which is a collection of stories told entirely by Google Searches).

It doesn't really spoil anything about the movie - practically all the lines were stitched together from the previous 2 apart from Hamm's EBay comment - that was from one of the TS3 trailers.

The only part it spoils is that...

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

ANDY IS GOING TO COLLEGE AND THE TOYS ARE LEFT BEHIND. Honestly if you don't know this by now, then either you haven't been watching TV or you're just not that interested in Toy Story.

But the Search Story wasn't done by Pixar I think, just someone who had too much time. I love it! Can't stop watching it.

Which I don't really care about. I myself find it weird that amongst all the World Cup mania, I'm more psyched about Buzz's and Woody's return to big screen, in 3d!

So yes, I'll be catching it tomorrow at The Cathay! Super pumped up about this, and I'll definitely do another post about it.

I shall update soon!!

That's Rex. He's my favourite character (besides the 2 leads)! By the way, it says 18th June on te poster, and that is indeed the release date over in North America. Which I find very unsettling, since I'm so accustomed to them getting TV shows ahead of me. But this time around, I'll be watching TS3 1-2 days (if you factor in time differences). Weird.

Weird. But SO EXCITED!

Jabba The Hutt!

2010-06-15T21:41:00.002+08:00

Say hello to my current ringtone:

EVERY TIME they go "Jabba the Hutt", I really laugh out loud!! Can't stop watching it over and over... and over...

Anyway, it's a parody of the opening credits of Parks and Recreation - a NBC comedy that just finished it's 2nd season. It's DAMN hilarious, especially in the later parts of the 2nd season. The first season sucks, and it's only 6 episodes, so don't bother with it. If you want to watch it, just catch up with the story on Wikipedia or something.

I would say Modern Family is funnier, and this is more of a deadpan, less obvious, not too BIG kind of humour, but... still, great.

Anyway I haven't talked about TV shows on this blog for a very long time, cause I set up another journal for me to freely talk about TV shows so that people reading here won't feel too bored with me. Haha.

Alright, off to play with my phone some more!

"Jabba the Hutt"!

Gadgets!!!

2010-06-13T21:30:00.002+08:00

Almost a year ago, I bought the Nokia N82 from Singtel. Yeah, it's very ugly, but you all know me - I'm not one to care about classiness or looks. I bought it purely for functionality.

It had a decent music player complete with 3.5mm headphone jack. It had an AWESOME CAMERA complete with Xenon flash, I mean really, all the pictures from my Eurotrip were taken using this phone.

And it was an upgrade from my old phone in every sense. RAM, memory, wireless surfing enabled, can read PDFs and office files, email syncing applications, etc etc... To be honest I don't think I fully utilised it to it's potential. But that's not the point.

I lost it somewhere in February, and right before that I had already purchased 2 other gadgets. The iPod touch 3rd Gen 32 GB (It's a very long name wth), and the Casio Exilim Z90.

The point is that, I'm actually quite lucky I guess. Right before losing my all in 1 media device which is the all powerful N82, I bought 2 "replacements". The camera for the camera, and the iPod for the music player + wifi surfing and games replacement.
When I tell people that I bought a Casio Exilim camera, they oogle at me in shock cause supposedly, Casio sucks. But I neither care or pretend to act like I care a lot about photography. The thing is, I don't. So far the camera hasn't failed me, and I LOVE the HD videos it takes, so yes. Don't really care about anything else.

The iPod touch!! I think just alone like that, it really is quite a thing of beauty, without terrible silicon cases over it. It's also one of the best 400 dollars I've spent, and... Well. That's all I have to say about it. It has it's faults, but it also has great functions, and the pros far outweigh the cons.

Yes, the point is, after losing my phone and getting the camera and iPod in replacement, I have yet to get an actual phone. I have been using Joanne's phone in replacement, but I didn't want to lug it around Canada cause I don't want to damage it further... I'm not very careful with my stuff.

So because of the IT fair that has just ended, I got myself a Red Nokia E71!!!

Ok first of all it looks DAMN NICE HERE. The red version looks like shit on the Singtel website (which is where I ordered it from, cause I didn't want to go all the way down to Suntec), and I wanted the silver version instead.

Yea, but I forgot to opt for the silver version, talk about being absent minded. First I leave my phone at an MRT station, then I forget to s/u my bio module and now this. I can't cancel the order without having to pay either. But I say, it really does look quite nice here doesn't it? Not that I know how it looks - it arrives at my house tomorrow morning.

I'm very excited about using Nokia messaging, and the free Nokia navigation, among other things. Anyway yes, this phone is damn old, there's like E73 coming out ALREADY and here I am just purchasing an E71.

Not to mention the better phones out there like the BB bold, and it's accompanying expensive plan.

But seriously, I have no money. I haven't had enough money since this time last year when I was saving for the Europe trip. The phone only cost me $118 - $75 (for the free 3 months subscription I was granted) = $43.

This is entirely another issue, but I really feel like I'm quite in a funk. Ever since before the trip last year, I had to save and save for that trip and so I really didn't do much. After the trip, I had no money so again, I had to save and save so that my savings reached an acceptable amount.

Now I'm going on exchange again, and because no one wants to employ me (even if they didn't it wouldn't make a difference), and I don't want my dad to pay entirely for my exchange, I'm also just staying at home and making money through tuition sessions, oddjobs and basically, not spending my money.

And I've been in this state for SO LONG, I literally don't like to go out anymore. I refrain from eating at expensive places, I feel VERY sian when I have to pay for 21st birthday gifts - and this is for a very selfish reason. It's cause I won't get any gifts back since I'm not even in Singapore during my birthday...

And nowadays I just spend my time at home reading, watching shows, sleeping, the works. It's not very fun, but as I said, I want the money and not entirely from my parents... So I stick to this routine in the hopes that when I actually go abroad for exchange, I'll have enough money to spare and have fun!!

You know, do stuff like go whale watching (haha) and ice skating during the REAL winter or something. Yes, can't wait! So until then, I'll be at home, whiling my time away and looking forward to escaping from boring old Singapore!

Pixar is ridiculous. Ridiculously Amazing.

2010-06-04T15:56:00.004+08:00

I think everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I'm a HUGE HUGE Starwars fan, and I'm also a fan of really good TV shows. But I'm also a mega Pixar fan, although I speak about it to a much lesser extent than the former 2. So let me say it: I love Pixar.

When I was young, my dad brought my brother and I to watch Toy Story in the cinema, and I have been hooked since. In fact, I'll never let my dad cancel our subscription to Disney Channel simply because of the Pixar movies they show pretty often.

To date, I think I have watched Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo more times than I can count.

I tweeted yesterday that I think it's very amazing that Pixar keeps up it's ridiculous level of quality through each and every film they made. I mean, even the lousier Pixar films (Cars... Eh I can't think of anymore, I thoroughly loved the rest) are pretty stellar when compared to other animated films.

The thing is, despite their mega success, I love the fact that they refuse to cash in on their successes. If this were some other movie franchise, you would have seen sequels and maybe prequels to movies like The Incredibles, A Bug's Life, and definitely definitely Finding Nemo, Pixar's highest grossing film to date.*

But no, they choose to just work on something entirely new, and come up with a whole new story (which is always incredible), new characters, new technology.

*Okay that's not really true, seeing as Toy Story has had 2 sequels, and Cars + Monster's Inc have an upcoming sequel. But Toy Story 2 was amazing also, so I have faith that whatever they're producing will be as good. If not, I'll be very very disappointed. Just like I was in Starwars when that terrible Clone Wars cartoon series came out.

And if you've seen the numerous interview packages I have, you'll know that it takes so many man hours to perfect what Pixar has been doing. How long did they have to research on the movement of fishes for Finding Nemo, how long must they spend envisioning a talking rat, how realistic can they make each and every hair strand look (I really saw this on some background footage of The Incredibles)...

Then you'll appreciate that for each new film they do, they devote so much time and effort into all this research. If they just did sequels, then they'll have a lot less to do since the character designs are already up and they can recycle a lot of past effort.

Even with sequels, it's probably not easy as well, since new technology is coming up all the time. Toy Story 3 in 3D, I guarantee, will obviously have much better animation that the first ever full length Pixar animated film which is Toy Story, accomplished.

But another thing Pixar gets right is that, they know it's not how flashy your gimmicks are on screen, it's not how many explosions or action sequences there are - it's the story that ultimately matters. And time and time again, they always get the story right!

I mean when you think of the different scenes in the all the movies, the ridiculously touching (opening montage of Up, where "When she loved me" played in TS2, when Boo left in Monster's Inc), the hilarious (any scene in the dentist's office of Nemo, any scene with the circus troop in A Bug's Life), and the mix of both that makes it so darn heartwarming (WALL-E and Eve dancing using a fire extinguisher...), it's just unbelievable how many times the creators of those films hit the nail on the head.

Sometimes, they even do so with limited dialogue (Wall-E, which has like 6 Oscar nominations). Which is another thing I'm very amazed by. The fact that Pixar films are, well, animated - it means that you don't get to see the actors playing the voices. A lot of the time, box office successes are successes because fans of that particular artiste will see the film, regardless of the quality.

Pixar has had one box office success after another, despite people not caring who voiced their characters. It makes even an even more genuine hit based on the quality of the film alone.

The reason I wrote this is because I saw Wall-E yesterday on Disney, again, and the phrase "Pixar is ridiculously amazing" popped into my mind. They really are. They've out performed every other animation company in both critics' approval and box office earnings.

And for me, I just feel very fortunate to have grown up in a time when Pixar was around. I was 6 years old in 1995 when the 1st Toy Story came out, and 10 films later, I'm 20. I don't think I'm too old to appreciate all the Pixar has done. Hopefully, when I do feel that I'm too old (doubt that day will ever come), I will have kids who will then bring me to the movies and make me appreciate the magic I fell in love with back then.

I am going to the Pixar exhibition at the Science Centre before it closes on 27th June, and also, I'll be catching Toy Story 3 in 3D whenever it comes out. By hook or by crook I will, even if I have to go alone.

I know that it's impossible to maintain each movie at the standard that Pixar has, so I suppose it'll decline one day. When that day comes, I'll be a very very sad girl. Until then, you bet I'll be faithfully watching every Pixar movie that comes out, and once I can afford it, buying all the DVDs for my entertainment.

Results

2010-05-29T22:21:00.003+08:00

So yes, this semesters results are out. I actually did a lot better than I expected myself to. I got like, 2 A+, 1 A, 3A-, 1 B+ and a C+. I did really really well, by my standards.

Yes. The stupid C+ looks like such a thorn among the roses and I feel very very stupid for getting a C+ cause it's absolutely my fault. It's not even cause I didn't study. Let me explain.

We all, at NTU, have our core courses that we have to take. This takes up the bulk of our courses. Other than that, there are courses called electives that have absolutely nothing to do with our majors. Because we are forced to take this, we are then given this s/u option (stands for satisfactory/unsatisfactory) to exercise, on a limited amount of our electives.

So if we exercise it, that module gets a pass/fail grading and it's not counted into our GPA.

The C+ that I got belongs to a module called Principles of Genetics, and it's an elective. I have not seen a stupid single word of biology since secondary 2, and it's against my better will to take this elective.

But I did so because I wanted to, you know, widen my scope, and learn more about stuff other than physics. Which was the point of an elective in the first place, so that you won't limit your learning to one field.

I have already decided to s/u that module since week 1, but somehow, I think I must have forgotten to s/u it, or did it in my dreams, because that C+ is there. It's supposed to be an S!

I can't find any proof that I actually did exercise the s/u option, so over the past few days, I'm forced to conclude that I really forgot to do so, and in the process, having this stupid blemish on my degree audit.

Which means that any hopes of a first class honours are gone, thanks to this semester's GPA dropping from a possible 4.69 to a 4.38, and overall from a 4.43 to a 4.35.

Yes, I feel terrible, and I spent the past few days just... rolling around being snappy at everyone. And I fully expect this to go on for quite a while longer. I'm just, not in the mood to do anything or see anyone right now.

What great results, gone to waste. I feel damn pissed at myself. So, if I've been moody on my Twitter lately, you now know why.

Until I feel better again, see you then.

EID Open House

2010-05-21T12:20:00.002+08:00

I have been working on this project for the entire 2 semesters. A lot of it was junk la, basically learning new programs. Like computational fluid dynamics, finite element methods, and computer aided design.

But the main point of the project, which stands for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design, was to come up with a product and a business plan for it. Oh, and you actually have to make the product.

Then, there's this event after everything is over to showcase what you've done over the year. This was held last week, and, I'm just glad everything is over la.

Pictures!

Our booth. It was literally thrown together at the last minute. The middle thing is supposed to be something like, a rubbish explosion of fast food. Quite cui, yes?

My group! My group is the type of group that literally wants everything done ASAP at as little effort as possible. But, when we work we're pretty serious about it, so all's fine in the world. I guess it's the best type of group to be in, because you don't spend much time on the project but get the job done still.

Anyway, there were judges invited from ST Engineering, since it's essentially a competition. We won third prize!! 500 cash!!

Yay. Anyway our product is a tray dispensing machine. You can see how the prototype works in the video below. If I had time to develop it I would think it could hold like a lot of trays at 1 time and then with the press of a pedal everything would be cleared.

I tried uploading in Blogger and it took FOREVER (as I type this it's like 12 hours and not uploaded yet), so I'm going to embed the Facebook video here. Don't know if you need to log in or what not, but I doubt anyone cares!

Anyway yes. I haven't updated this space for very long, cause I was busy with this other blog of mine. I think my holidays are going to revolve around TV shows and my thoughts on them. Having quite a lot of fun with that other blog.

But after all the series finales are done and things slow done in TV land I'll be back here! Have to update on my Europe trip which was like, 1 year ago. Ha.

And finally, I need a job. I have been sending out SO MANY resumes but got no reply. I even applied to HMV just now. I was there to buy a CD and they were hiring, so, might as well. I'm hoping I get to work there actually, I really want to!

Have a fun summer, people =)

A thing of beauty

2010-05-13T16:13:00.002+08:00

There you go, all ready to be hung up, just need to drill a hole into the wall. The string is also already attached, just not visible from this picture.

Anyway, I do have one more poster but I can't find a board big enough! It's 61cm by 91cm so I suppose I need a board that's around 66cm by 96 cm. I shall make a trip to Art Friend one fine day when it's convenient.

It's not that easy carrying a hugeeee board around you know! Haha.

Chicago was amazing too. Melly and I managed to get our seats upgraded to one of the best and most expensive in the Esplanade, what a stroke of luck!

Anyway, the musical itself told less story than the movie, but since I already watched the latter I had a pretty good idea what was going on. But it was way more hilarious! And I did enjoy the casting of the characters in the musical much more.

New books that I haven't read finish. I'm about 2/3 of the way through Black Swan Green, but haven't started on Gone With The Wind Yet.

I don't even know what I bought it la, probably cause it's a classic and I've heard of it. And it was on a buy 1 get 1 free discount! Who can resist!!

Anyway, yeah I'm currently slacking at home now. The desire for a job has faded away and I'm just going to wait for one with reasonable pay. Other than that, my stupid acceptance package hasn't even arrived yet!

What if I don't even get to go to Canada? Yeah, so I'm happy slacking at home for now. The only shortcoming is that it's mainly all outcome and no income. Although that's not entirely true la, I still have tuition and whatnot.

So yes. Shall update soon! Have a great summer =)

5 of my current favourite iPod Touch Applications

2010-05-11T11:52:00.005+08:00

Well, it has been about 1 1/2 months since I got my wonderful entertainment device that keeps me occupied on the go, despite it's dismal battery life, and I thought I'd share with you guys what are my favourite apps of all!!

Mainly, my favourite applications only have 1 criteria to fulfil - what do I use the most. However, it doesn't include stuff like Twitterific or Safari or Opera cause even if they were sucky I'll still have to use them to surf the web, or check my Twitter.

And by the way, I HATE that without buying Twitterific, I can only get maximum 99 tweets/100 tweets updated at once. Is there any better application for me to use?

Yeah, sucks. So here goes!

This is the most "intellectual" (so to speak) game of all. It's a lot like a game I used to play online, but I forgot the name of. Anyway, letters are scrambled and you're supposed to find the 6 letter word(s) that can be made to progress onto the next level.

Yeah it seems very simple but I don't know why I'm so addicted to it! Haha. Geeky old me I guess.

Wikipanion, which is just like Wikipedia except it's an application just for all your Wiki articles. It's much more user friendly that going to Safari and accessing en.wikipedia.org then searching for what you want.

Besides, the pagination is very good, I mean, it's exclusively for the iPhone/iPod Touch so correspondingly, the articles are aligned just to fit that screen.

I've been reading it a lot, like while watching TV shows at night, I'll just randomly access the article for any term I don't understand. Not to mention, it has helped a lot in studying too, especially when my notes are sucky or don't explain a certain term.

I love this application!! Haha.

When I first started playing this, I found it super hard to beat, then I found out the secret!! Don't care about hitting the puck as much as you do about reflecting it!

Hitting it just makes you waste time, and reflecting it does the job just as well. AND, when it's out of control, put your paddle over the puck directly and you can move the puck to wherever you want!!

Haha, ok that's a bit of a cheating method, but who cares. I usually play with the goal I'm guarding at the biggest size, and the opponent's at medium size. First to seven goals wins!

One of the best purchases ever! USD$0.99, which translates to SGD$1.41, you get like, 116 levels (with at least 30 more to come), 6 types of birds to kill your pigs, and a few bonus levels too!!

The bonus levels come if you complete a certain task eg. killing a certain number of rubber balls, or breaking open a certain number of treasure chests. I've only gotten 1 bonus level so far, so yeah... Will have to replay the 116 stages again!

Besides, the replay value is super high, due to the need to obtain 3 stars for all the levels, and discovering all the bonus levels. Oh, and the updates come fast, with new levels all the time! Best 0.99 cents ever! It's like, at the top of the app store list, so it just proves I'm not the only one crazy about this game!

This is the ultimate time waster, and it'll be the downfall of my exam results. Haha, okay I'm just kidding, it's just that I'm pretty much addicted to this game. It's so simple, but so addictive!

Basically you just jump higher and higher while avoiding all the obstacles (like monsters, UFOs, blackholes, broken ledges etc...) and then just try to break your high score.

Another well spent USD$0.99 - the time I spent on it alone is more than enough to make up for the money.

Yeah, that's it! I know people have been telling me to jail break it but I feel very bad!! Haha, like everyone I do my fair share of downloading but I think I do more than my fair share of buying stuff too, so that my guilty conscience doesn't eat away at me.

So I rather buy apps, and might I say iTunes makes it VERY VERY easy to buy applications cause it's literally just a click of the button. I hope Singapore has ITUNES STORE FOR MP3S AND ALBUMS SOON!!! OH AND VIDEOS OF TV EPISODES ALSO!!

That would be awesome =)

Summer!

2010-05-09T21:56:00.003+08:00

Was chatting online with one of my Xinmin juniors when I mentioned that I need a job for summer, to which she replied puzzledly, "Summer? Are you overseas or something?"

Yeah I realise that summer refers to a season, but to me, it refers to the season in which school is out, cause that's the way they do it all over the world.

Anyway yes, so summer has started, I need a job, and I think it's going to be boring.

Haha. The past few days have been alright la, what with going out with university friends on Friday, Melly plus the gang on Saturday.

I was supposed to have tuition the whole day today (sian!) but it was cancelled! Both! Yay! Haha. So I slacked at home and caught up on House, and helped my mum with her essay.

Exams were terrible so I'm not going to talk about it, not even when the results come out. Byebye any possible hope of a first class. I'm so done with you, I shall be contented with a second upper class honours.

Anyway, I'm starting a new blog! I'm not going to be deleting this one, I'm just going to talk about certain things less. And my LJ shall still remain cause I use my user account to order my spree stuff, if I do spree.

(Speaking of spree, I have no idea who reads this blog, but it you do, I am linking my friend's Huijeen's spree blog here, so please do spree with her! I feel like doing a seperate post to promote her spree page!)

Yes okay anyway, my new blog. It's going to be on wordpress, I'll probably link it, but it is going to be mostly about music, TV shows, and to a lesser extent, books and movies.

Yeah. Cause I would really like to talk about such stuff here, but that just doesn't seem right. This feels more of a journal and a social place to me, not a place to express my comments and views about the latest HIMYM episode or whatever.

So yes. qinrawks.wordpress.com by default should be the blog address, I will link it up as soon as I get something on the site, and yea. Have a great summer!

The new blog will be somewhat a summer project of mine I guess, so as not to make it seem too boring. And if I get to Canada, all the more better to continue that blog cause I'll be watching everything live. After my exchange, I'll be pretty free too since it's my industrial attachment and everything.

Have fun with your life people, and good luck if you haven't finished your exams! Shall update if there's anything to update about, cause life is set to be pretty boring!

Long time no see!!

2010-05-03T12:35:00.000+08:00

One final hurdle to go, and by that I don't mean 1 final paper, I mean like 4 papers in 4 days in which the entire stretch is a hurdle.

I suppose I should mean one final marathon to go. Then freedom, FREEDOM, FRREEEEEDOOOOMMMM! (To Aretha Franklin's Think).

Anyways, yeah. Wanted to make a list of things I wanna do after the exams!

I want to go kite flying, was at Sengkang West the other day with the dozens of kites in the sky, seriously pretty!!
Finally frame up my 2 posters sitting in the cupboard growing mouldy.
Get a job...
To start planning for USA!! USA!! USA!! Dream country, ha. Hope they aren't racist though.
Recover from the flu
Watch all the TV series I haven't been watching
Clean my room. Okay very random, but I think my maid hates me and she doesn't do a thorough job of cleaning my room so I've decided to clean it thoroughly twice a year, like really every nook and cranny of it.
Exercise, hang out more with the gang, visit the Helix and MBS and RWS and what not etc etc etc...
Just slack, I can't wait.
Go out with S07! *Chicago with Melly on Saturday =)

Actually, with everything considered, I'm not as excited about this holidays as I was about about the December one. Maybe it's cause I have to work.

I think though, it's more due to the fact that I have no one to spend the holidays with! I mean yea the gang and everything but it's such a big group, and I'm not really accustomed to asking 1/2 of them out individually.

So really, I'm looking forward to not studying anymore, but not really to the stay at home and save money if I got nothing to do, or work and have not much of a life.

Bleah, but hey. Anything is better than 4 papers in 4 days, no?

Are you sure it's that exaggerated? Part 2

2010-04-22T22:40:00.004+08:00

That's (one side) of my cheat sheet for Aero Design & Manufacturing!! All 3930 words squeezed into that bottom wordy part. Am I awesome or what!! Haha!!

Okay off to study business finance (Btw, if you want to you zoom in on the picture - all the words can be read).

Are you sure it's that exaggerated?

2010-04-22T00:38:00.003+08:00

Okay the title of the post actually means "you na me kua zhang ma?" in Chinese, and I directly translated it to English, why? Cause I don't know how to write kua zhang in Chinese.

Anyway yeah, I just completed 3 tedious full days of Aerodynamics and this is the product of my hard work!!!

Yeah. It's an open book exam and I stuffed all the information on the notes onto post-its and stuck them near their respective topics/graphs and then tagged the pages.

I also wrote everything in the chapters that are not included in the book and pasted the post-its on pages that are irrelevant (like content pages, references, etc.)

I used to despise note taking as a form of revision cause it's pointless to write everything out. Oh well, it's quite useful I suppose, but such a waste of time! But I'm still quite proud of myself for managing this feat, plus redoing all the tutorials in the past 3 days. Finally can continue revision for next week's papers.

The 2nd half of the book is still untagged cause those are the chapters for Aerodynamics PART II. Can you believe the atrocity of this? As if part 1 wasn't enough. Oh well, hopefully I'll be in Canada!

I'm so excited about the exchange that I've been finding hostels and cheap transportation around the States so that I can tour north east USA. Yeah. I'm that lame, and that free too apparently.

So exciting =)

And here's my favourite Alexi Murdoch song: All My Days. Here's to more songs from him I have yet to discover that I'll like even more!

Okay off to watch the latest Glee and then sleep! Nights, and all the best for exams!

Year 2 Sem 2 Week 13 Day 5

2010-04-17T02:25:00.002+08:00

So it's the end of yet another semester, my fourth in NTU. The counting system you see above was established by Feline, one of the better friends I have in my course, during Year 1 Sem 2.

Yay! If everything goes perfectly fine without any obstacles whatsoever, I shall not study in NTU ever again until Year 4 semester 1!!! AND I CAN'T WAIT!

Although I have to admit the sentimental side of me will miss the place one teeny bit. I was looking around the lecture room during my last lecture on Thursday, and it hit me that I still do not know all 90 people in my course. I mean, I know them by sight, but I have never spoken to some of them yet.

Okay, only some. I have probably exchanged at least a "hi" with most of them.

Anyway that's not the point of this entry. I've started studying for my exams already, and it's not exactly depressing, but I feel so mundane and robotic. Wake up, study, eat, study, eat, study, bathe, sleep.

Besides, in order to save money for traveling during my exchange I'm saving as much money as I can so I don't go out to study right now. If I could I'd probably be at the Esplanade everyday. Or Sengkang West's Macs, haven't been to either place in ages.

The feeling for exams to end is not so desperate now, but I'm already excited for a few stuffs! Mainly catching up on about.... 10 or so series during my holidays!! As well as planning for US trip!! Exciting eh!

Okay yeah I'm done. I spent quite a fair amount last weekend and this week getting the complete album artwork for my whole music playlist. All 2593 songs. I even put those unclassifiable ones such as band songs whom I don't know the artist of, together under 1 album and put a random shot of sousaphones as the album artwork!

And for all my band concerts I took a photo of the program booklet and uploaded it as album artwork. Am I dedicated to the perfection of my music library or just crazy!

Yay. So I want to show you all my 5 favourite album covers from my library!!

Elliot Smith's self title album. Kind of reminds me of Mad Men's opening sequence, people falling down from buildings... Couldn't find a better version that was this size online though, but I quite like it.

From one of my favourite bands, DCFC. I LOVE this album artwork! I think because it looks so pixelated and patchwork quilt-like, and that there's no HUGE FONT anywhere proclaiming it's from them.

And it has no picture of the band, which I don't really like bands to do!

And really, any one of the 6 OC mixes, besides the Christmas one. All so orange-y and California like. I realise that I'm really quite thankful there are such shows like The OC, and Chuck because no matter how crappy they get, I can still rely on them for good music.

Here's to hoping Josh Schwartz never stops making such TV shows!

This is quite possibly, my favourite out of all the 596 albums I have in my library. First of all, I love this band, the Shins. To me, their songs are just very playful and cute and funloving, and this album artwork depicts that! Unfortunately I only have like 2 songs from this album so I don't get to see it often when I put my music to shuffle.

And one of the songs from this album is Young Pilgrims, which I love and have not gotten sick of since... I first heard it. Which is I don't know where or when, completely forgot.

Finally, Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City. They have a bit of the punk/electronic sound and I think of that whenever I look at this album cover. It's like, you can imagine, you're in the car, alone, the city backdrop behind you, and it's raining heavily... yoiu're speeding... That kind of music...

Okay I'm clearly way too tired to think straight. I just wanted to get this post up. It's like 3am now! Other honorable mentions include!!!

All of Oasis's (Oases?) albums, all of Iron and Wine's albums, some of Ingrid Michaelson's albums, and... well that's all. I seriously have to get some shut eye before continuing the mugging tomorrow.

ALL THE BEST FOR EXAMS PEOPLE!

Don't let the silence get you down, though you've been sitting here for hours.
Hoping a voice could soon be found, that speaks much louder than this music.

- lyrics to Once More, With Feeling by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. First heard it on (where else) The OC! Awesome show =)

Random thoughts

2010-04-07T22:48:00.004+08:00

I'm very disappointed in the Star Wars franchise

Seriously, I think anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a huge Starwars movie fan. I'm not a very big fan of the spinoff books about the new Republic, or the prequels about all the Jedi-Padawan partnerships.

But at least, to me, they have been somewhat decent and quite deserving to be labelled as part of the Starwars franchise.

Recently, the news that George Lucas has decided to make a Star Wars sitcom series, it's just really disappointing to me. That's really not what Star Wars is about, and I really wish he would stop trying to milk so much money out of the franchise.

I mean, it's a sitcom?! Can you imagine Jedi Knights behaving in a HIMYM , or even worse, BBT style?! SO STUPID! Urgh. Why couldn't he just have stopped at the movies, instead of all these Clone Wars crap for kids?!

Lennon-McCartney are the best songwriting duo ever

I just watched the latest episode of American Idol on TV, cause it was the Lennon-McCartney songbook theme today!! Usually I stream it on my laptop and then just do some other thing while letting the show run through.

I mean, if the music is good I'll naturally pause whatever I'm doing and just watch it - but sadly that hasn't happened often this season.

But I think Lennon-McCartney should be quite wreckproof in the sense that their songs are so accessible and there is such a wide range there's no way the contestants could have screwed it up.

Which they didn't, but that's besides the point. I'm still amazed at how talented and ahead of the time The Beatles were. Will I in my lifetime ever have the chance to witness a band as phenomenal as the Beatles?

As my dad said, the 1960s were the Golden Age for arts and music in the USA, and he's right. All the great music started breaking out then, the hippie movement, and all the civil rights movement, it's a great age. Again, will I ever have the chance to live through such momentous occasions?

Why wasn't there a mention of Kristen Stewart in Adventureland in today's Today newspaper?!

They did a special on child actors who made it or crash and burned somewhere in the teenage years, and they highlighted K. Stewart. Of course they did, who wouldn't, what with all the Twilight Mania.

They also talked about her current movie with Dakota Fanning, the Runaways, and mentioned some notable movies she acted in. They failed to mention Adventureland (2009)!! I don't think it was released in Singapore, but I caught it online and I really liked it!

So simple, pure and honest. Sometimes you don't need flashy stuff to make a movie work, you just need good story telling, and that's really what I like. It actually made some top 10 best movies of 2009 throughout the Internet, that was how I found out about it.

Okay doesn't hurt that it's very indie and has awesome 80s music, which I love!! But if you have time and are really bored, yeah. Try it out!

Sometimes I find my perseverance amazing!

I don't know how but I managed to sit at old canteen A from 8am to 4pm today, doing heat transfer and maths. MY GOD. I'm becoming a crazy person. It's just the beginning of exam revision period, but I really hope this will continue all the way until May 7!!!

Cross-promoting shows, and product placement.

Recently I've been noticing that shows on Fox like to promote each other shows!! Like there was this Simpson themed week a couple of months back to celebrate their 20th season was it? Or something!

Then today on Idol the judges were talking about Glee, and the Bones stars made an appearance to promote the highly anticipated (and I'm really excited about it too!) 100th episode tomorrow!!

Okay never mind. And the next thing I want to talk about is product placement in TV shows. The shows that I watch have a lot of PP, like Chuck which constantly promotes Subway, and Bones has promoted Toyota quite a number of times if I remember correctly.

Anyway, I think it's because nowadays people just watch the show online, or they DVR it and just fast forward through all these advertisements. So product placement is the way to go man!!!

It's actually pretty smart, but irritating. Sometimes it's not so obvious, but when they shove it in your face, oh man, they REALLY SHOVE IT IN YOUR FACE.

Not that I'm against it, but it's really quite noticeable and takes your attention away from the story itself. But if it helps the show, and it helps Bones come up with more gory stuff and cool forensic effects, or if it helps Chuck get a 4th season (and I really want it to!), then I'm happy about it.

Speaking of Chuck, how awesome was last nights episode huh!!! OMG! I'm so happy Chuck and Sarah are finally together, but that's not what made the episode! The whole end-of-Shaw thing, I'm very happy about. No offence to Brandon Routh though.

And Morgan spouting a Star Wars quote which I immediately picked up on! Season 3 hasn't been as awesome as the back half of season 2, but it has been improving, and if the pace of improvement stays constant, I'll be one happy girl!

Okay I have to sleep. Been getting only like 5-6 hours of sleep each night for the past few days, and today is my one chance to make it back up. I'm ending a bit abruptly here, but hey... An update is better than none!