Tuesday, January 31, 2006
| You Are 28 Years Old |
Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.
13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.
20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.
30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!
40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax. |
Maybe I am 28 years old!
5:45 AM
Monday, January 30, 2006
There's so much work to do! Anyway, throughout the whole week we've been working on our report and presentation and it's finally done. The whole week has been an all time low on the emotion stock-market. We're all drained in every physical and psychological aspect of ourselves.
Friday was the project final Review! When it came to my group, we probably presented the longest because our project covered so many areas and so much work was done. They surprisingly didn't ask us any questions and I think our presentation went quite well. Some got really "shot" at by the panel but we're left relatively untouched. Just as we thought it was all over, we were still required to do a demonstration of our project, everything worked, the alarms and the Bluetooth transmission worked.
My final project.
The lifesaver watch.
Has Bloodpulse sensing, Temperature sensing, motion sensing, 8-bit CPU and bluetooth transmission.
But overall it was okay because our project had done a lot of work, and some of the lecturers were impressed by it. One lecturer was especially awed by the small dual-layer PCB dummy board that I had created saying "you must be very brave to attempt this". But still we're glad it's finally over, its time to focus on our other projects.
My final report. a whooping 98 pages with giat graphs, hardware designs, software codes and the works.
But it's not completely over.
7:29 AM
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
When a new soul is born into this world, the baby cries and everyone rejoices. However, when the soul leaves this earth, the soul rejoices and everyone else cries.
Death is a new beginning it's not the end. It's the realm where we cross over from being a mortal to an immortal.
"When as a child I laughed and wept, Time crept.
When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time strolled.
When I became a full-grown man, Time RAN.
When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW.
Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time gone."
Poem from the front of the clock case in the North Transept of Chester Cathedral, attributed to H. Twells (1823-1900).
7:11 AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
I am still busy with my FYP project and no time to post further updates. Will try to update soon.
Meanwhile one of my bio-practical lessons. We created some collagen. (That protein found in muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue), I'm sure ladies have heard some of this stuff in cosmetics. It's supposed to make your skin more radiant eh?
This is raw clinical grade.
8:13 AM
Monday, January 23, 2006
Some Jesting
Did you know that CGH (Changi General Hospital) was once called NCH (New Changi Hospital)? But it was renamed because it was thought NCH stood for (Never Come Home), but CGH means (Can Go Home)! And now it's doing so well. However SGH is the best with (Sure Go Home).
Of course, there's the old-time jest about Polytechnics as well, with SP (Sure Pass), NP (Never Pass), NYP (Not Yet Pass) and TP (Tio Pass), RP (Really Pass?)
The NKF Saga, NKF = Now Kena F**ked. But I thought this was really good, TT DURAI (Tell That Durai U Reveal All Income).
Anyway, there's some about the Army. SAF - Serve and Fuck Off. SISPEC - Suffer In Silence Plus Extra Confinement OCS - Only Cows Survive.
I spent the rest of the day rushing my project report till I was too tired and hit the sack.
8:55 AM
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Memoirs of a Geisha
This movie is based on the bestseller, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA written by Arthur Golden and directed by Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall (Chicago).
The film opens in a remote Japanese fishing village in 1929, where two sisters, Chiyo and Satsu, are sold by their troubled father to people who place Chiyo in a classy geisha house known as an okiya in Gion and Satsu in a much more vulgar and dangerous district. Chiyo becomes a maid to Hatsumomo, a cold, controlling, and calculating geisha who is instantly jealous of Chiyo's unusual, beautiful eyes and childish innocence.
Chiyo is befriended by Pumpkin, another maid at the okiya, but the two are soon driven apart. Chiyo is shown compassion by the Chairman and another, more successful geisha, Mameha, who takes her under her wing as her "little sister," furthering the battle between Chiyo, now called Sayuri, and Hatsumomo.
As Sayuri is trained in the art of being a geisha, learning how to walk, talk, dance, and serve (up to a point) in order to please and honor her distinguished male clients, World War II looms on the horizon, threatening to upend Japan and its old ways.
Great cinematography, sensual plot, quasi-accurate background, excellent acting. Somehow Michelle Yeo seemed too sophisticated for her role and she didn't fit into this movie. This movie is 2hrs 30mins long! Still worth every minute of it.
Excellent movie 4/5.
9:01 AM
Friday, January 20, 2006
I was doing my project the whole day, I really feel like giving up. Only one week left, and I am coming to terms that I may never finish my project. I'll never really see the fully functional watch that I've so optimistically and ambitiously envisioned. But I am still trying to do my best and produce some boards so that I am not entirely empty handed when I go for the review.
Then it rained cats and dogs throughout the week and people left early. Ok so for my CT I scored best for one paper at 94, my other two papers barely scraping past 76. No one else even crossed the 90 mark, but considering how poorly I did for the other two papers, I didn't feel the usual elation.
After all in BME, if you get too high, it's a taboo and everyone looks at you differently and you always try to defend yourself by saying that the marks you got isn't that great after all and you bring out all the bad points that you have so that you "lower" your image to their level and become "normal".
It's all screwed up. I don't know why there's this pathetic mentality in poly that students are proud when their results suck. Students compare how low each one got for each of their papers. You don't see this happening in JC! Where students are actually worried on how low they get and are actually shameful of a poor grade. Anyway, CT aside; I haven't been updating because I have been busy with my project, I know many people have asked me on the progress of my project, so I took some pictures. The final review is coming up.
To all those who have supported me mentally, psychologically, this is what we have all achieved together. Basically my project is to design a watch as a health-monitor with alarm functions.
It has a Bloodpulse sensor, a Motion-sensor, a temperature-sensor, a 8-bit microprocessor running at 26kHz, Bluetooth module and Panic alert.
These are the individual boards, From top left clockwise, the first bloodpulse sensor, the accelerometer/temperature hybrid board, the current bloodpulse sensor with improved IRphototransistor sensitivity, the Op-amps used and the largest board is the motion-sensor filter-processing board. I won't be showing the processor and bluetooth here, they're on separate boards.
Soon there'll be a project exhibition and you'll see everything that I've done then.
All the components are to be integrated into a WATCH. it's about 4x4x1.5cm. I think it's already an achievement to reach this level of integration and miniturization. I wanted to tear my hair out as I designed this board. It was like designing a mother board for ABIT.
So you can see the watch chassis, and the boards that are to be integrated into it. Soldiering of the components have not be completed.
The top layer is the processor, you can see the processor chip, it's about the size of a 10-cent coin. Several SMD alert buttons.
The improved Bloodpulse sensor module.
See all the components on the right? I have to find a way to squeeze it into the chassis on the left.
1 more week left. See what I can do. Been working 20 hours a day trying to complete this project. Another update soon.
Back to work
6:23 PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
The day went by badly today. Real bad. And as usual I was one of the last few to leave. Without accomplishing much anyway. I thought I would be eating a forlorn dinner and writing a depressing entry by the time I get back. But surprisingly, it wasn't so bad after all.
It wasn't so bad after all.
7:16 AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Maggie Feller (Cameron Diaz) is a stunning male magnet whose reading disorder has made it impossible for her to hold down even a minimum wage job for longer than 3 months. Maggie's older sister, Rose (Toni Collette), is a Princeton educated attorney at a top Philadelphia law firm whose non-stop work schedule and constant weight struggle has left her dating life virtually non-existent. After a calamitous falling out, the two sisters travel a bumpy road toward true appreciation for one another - aided along the way by the discovery of the maternal grandmother (Shirley Maclaine) they thought was dead. It is through their re-connection with their grandmother that Maggie and Rose learn how to make peace with themselves and each other.
Excellent. 3.5/5 Watch if you can.
9:08 AM
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Today I spent the whole day doing my project. Staring at 3 computer screens doesn't help the immense amount of information that I have to assimilate and co laminate. Boards to design, reports to write, projects to do, meetings to attend, presentations to prepare and circuits to draw. Only 1 week left. Can I make it?
More sacrifices have to be made.
5:16 AM
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Today was NP's SOE Superstar 06 events where students came around to pit their singing skills to the exhuberant crowd. It was a blast. But I left early.
Mind the lousy resolution. This was taken from a great distance.
A very nice picture I could'nt resist taking.
7:34 AM
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The weather today is as gloomy as ever. 26.4 degrees outside, cold and the constant pitter-pattering of the rain brought little comfort to my fatigued soul. It's been raining steadily ever since and shows no signs of letting up as the newspapers reported record-low temperatures all around Asia.
It's a public holiday today but the dreary mood brings little drive to work on overdue assignments and piled up projects.
8:05 AM
Saturday, January 07, 2006
I guess it's time to give my meandering blog a fresh new direction in one of my old loves since secondary school. photography.
Today is a long and busy day and a crossroads in one path of my life! So after the event, we went on a road-trip haha, and here are some pictures for your pleasure.
A few Beautiful singapore quilts on display at the HDB hub.
Next we went to Chinatown to view the fireworks and have dinner...
But alas, the incredible throngs of people blocked everything.
So i had to be content with taking some random shots of the lion floats.
And random lighted lanterns.
A new year banner on the bridge.
Some chinatown nightlife and shopping.
Lights.
A "god of prosperity" campaign selling tiger beer haha.
A really beautiful shop and lights.
Then we walked down towards Raffles place and passed by some nice buildings.
Hmm no comments.
Passed by Boat Quay nightlife
The parliament building.
The supreme court.
Past Funan IT mall.
Esplanade tunnel!
Some local performers.
My coke drink.
Of course, to close this entry, On the Waterfront...
8:02 AM
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Don't believe the hype
The truth hurts. Technology stories are often filled with new and shiny things, and we want to believe the hype even when the reality is not so exciting or revolutionary.
Since the season of Christmas goodwill is over, I will be brutally honest and highlight what I think are overrated.
Professional Gamers
Computer games are great entertainment and a few gamers have even managed to turn their hobby into a profitable career. But something is wrong when the media starts calling professional gamers "rock stars". Excuse me, I'd pay to see a rock star like Robbie Williams moon the crowd and rattle the house with his raw showmanship.
But you would have me pay to listen to a scrawny gamer mumble on about his long hours of staring at the computer screen. Gaming rocks when it helps you to unwind after a long day at work or school. But if it adversely affects your sleep, social life and studies, it is time to go out and get some fresh air.
In our drive to build a local gaming industry, I hope people remember that gaming poses as many risks as it provides fun.
Blogs
Blogging is old news. Individuals have been creating homepages for over a decade now. Blogs are no different, just prettier and easier to use. But some people keep harping on about blogs, and worse, treat prominent bloggers like wise gurus, hanging on to their every word or antic. Blogs are a great way to share ideas, digital content and complaints, but they could fade away like all internet fads.
Technically speaking, the oldest blogs in the world would be newspaper columnists who have been dishing out opinions for centuries.
The only difference is that we actually get paid for our trouble.
Tech Awards
Do you know why we usually never give out awards to our favourite tech products? Because the tern "award winning product" has become a joke in recent years.
Pick up any consumer electronics magazine and, chances are, most of the geatured gizmos have been conferred an important title.
"Best value", "best innovation", "silver", "gold", and maybe even "Platinium".
Give me a break. Awards are precious when they are difficult to garner, like those given out by Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker prize committees.
If gadget-makers think that having many flashy awards will help them sell their products better, what about the competitor who has a few dozen accolades from the same publications too?
Recently, a public relations executive from one of the world's biggest tech brands ranted to me: "I have a problem".
"This magazine always gives us awards for our products and now my boss is asking me why we did not get any in this month's issue!"
Source - Reuters.
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Maybe that's why I stopped buying magazines when I realized all that they do is feature the latest gadgets each month. I get more than my fair share online. =)
A blog no matter how liberal or conservative the person is, is still based on a single-minded thought, it is usually biased, inaccurate, sometimes defamatory and mostly instigates thought from others which may or may not be positive.
Whenever you read a blog commenting on a current affair issue, always take it with a pinch of salt.
Even this.
1:13 AM
Monday, January 02, 2006
Since a recent newspaper article stated that research findings show Singaporeans are not the most whiners in the world. Normal blogs will either state the days events or bitch about something that displeases them. Which is evident in most local blogs, then again I am encroaching on dangerous territory here. Let me bitch myself. I have always thought that our local men where whiners. Me included, you know NS, the government, everything there's something to complain about. So since a "research article" found out otherwise. Here's some bitching to supplement the demand.
WHY IS THERE NO BLEACH THIS WEEK!? Argh, I am suffering from Bleach withdrawal symptoms. I need bleach! Bleach rocks! (for the uninitiated, it's a Japanese anime series.)
I need bleach, re-watched several episodes again today, especially when Ukitake Jyuushiro shikai his "Sougyo no Kotowari" and Kyouraku Shunsui released his Zanpaktou, "Katen Kyoukotsu". Argh. Need more bleach.
Anyway, as for the new year. I'm living in self-denial. I spent the New Year studying, or trying to study. So many people asked me out, but I had to turn them all down. I look through the blogs, seeing all the happy pics that others took and the pathetic new year that I had. It's nostalgic.
When I message "Happy New Year" to some friends and they message back, "who r u?"
I lost 3 friends on NYE. I didn't bother to reply anymore. I mean, what's the point? They've forgotten you. Probably have a good reason to, or probably it's deliberate. Either way it doesn't matter.
Oh well, it's going to increase in frequency in the near future. Friends who were close once will forget their old friends when they make new friends.
It hurts. But that's they way it was meant to be.
New Year Resolutions.
1600x1200
I'm trying to be lame here. According to one of my topics, a resolution is the quality and size of the pixels in an image. Hur hur. It says SIZE of pixel, not Number of pixel.
Life is contradictory.
But nevertheless.
What I want for this new year? Get good grades, get good project results. Graduate honorably. End the chapter of my poly life and move on to NS smoothly.
Actually, that's not really a resolution isn't it?
A resolution is something like, "lose more weight", or "Be kinder", or "Study harder".
So based on this observations, I assume that a resolution borders on self-improvement. Actually I have a few important self-improvement resolutions on my own.
I guess, that's really for you to find out. If you want to find out that is.
Back to hit the books, or is it?
I think I spent more time day dreaming, watching videos, twiddling with my stationary, checking my emails and reading other people's blogs than actually really studying.
2nd last exam in poly. Maybe I'll screw it up so well people will be amazed.
Oh hell. This entry is so filled with broken English, it can't get any worse.
6:25 PM
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Happy New Year to Everyone!
May 2006 be a blessed year. Forget all the woes from 2005.
Yeah Right...
5:56 AM
