Ah, another lazy Tueday afternoon. I can't really recall how much work I did today, but yeah it's mostly wasted time once again. I think I shall ban myself from running anything else other than winamp on tuesdays.
It's fun to see that, for my IT1001 tutorial, I'm basically going in with quite a few people I know already (all 6.5 of them). This might turn out to be a pretty fun tutorial, except for one thing: it does seem that our tutor sounds a little... strict, to say the least. Let's hope he's not how he sounds like. He does seem to be taking nice steps to make sure the group knows each other, but I wish he didn't put my "testimonial" right at the top. It's... scary. Especially with that shit-ugly photo of myself. Egads. But, I must strive to get noticed, and perhaps get a good testimonial this time: small tutorial groups help ensure that I hope.
At least I'll feel comfortable, and not lonely and isolated. It hurts. Suddenly just one or 2 days back, the very feeling of being totally out of it just suddenly fell over me. A miasma (lousy philo reference). I don't really know what brought it along, sadly. It's not a great feeling, but I know it well. I think I might be too caught up in all this, but yeah, it's all fine now. Maybe I've spent too many days without Sam (yes I know it wasn't even a week). Maybe it's how I suddenly feel out of everybody's loop: that suddenly everybody's off to do their own thing and I'm still standing where I was waiting to continue doing stuff I thought I was doing with them. Maybe I shouldn't even feel that way, but it's just an impression I get, nobody telling me anything. But that's over now. One thing I know is to stop waving my arms and ranting and shouting each chance I get. It's not working.
One think I know is that I think I've found something to look out for: Biology. Biodiversity is great fun. It truly makes you want to sit down and just inspect specimens the whole day, trawling the sees, triapsing through the Amazon... things like that. Nothing but the shirt on your back and some water. And a guide, preferably. Just exploring, and maybe finding something new. The missing link. Or a leech for a pet. Chasing an animal across the plains, the hills and dales, or in the desert rain.
I wonder if that's what's going to happen. I can't see my future, no.
One thing I can see is silly emails. Not silly silly though, rather, an interesting fun kind of not-silly. Maybe this belongs closer to the IT paragraph, but here it is: people emailing people to join their IT group. Fun, isn't it? Of course I do have my own group, but we'll have to see the group size too. Interesting turn of events.
Watching Dogma today, other than providing one big laugh at a point I forgot, reminded me of philosophy... when Chris Rock mentioned something along the lines of "Why did thay have to make a good idea into a belief?" I'm quite sure I phrased it very wrongly... but... yeah. Not a bad film, not at all.
Life looks fun. Keep it coming!
EDIT: I got a rant up at slackers... but it's nothing much, really.
The direct hit you suffered occurred because one set of your answers implied a logical contradiction. The bitten bullets occurred because you responded in ways that required that you held views that most people would have found strange, incredible or unpalatable. At the bottom of this page, we have reproduced the analyses of your direct hit and bitten bullets.
You've just taken a direct hit! Earlier you said that it is justifiable to base one's beliefs about the external world on a firm, inner conviction, regardless of the external evidence, or lack of it, for the truth or falsity of this conviction. But now you do not accept that the rapist Peter Sutcliffe was justified in doing just that. The example of the rapist has exposed that you do not in fact agree that any belief is justified just because one is convinced of its truth. So you need to revise your opinion here. The intellectual sniper has scored a bull's-eye!
You've just bitten a bullet! Many people cannot accept what you have just accepted; namely, that a loving God - a God who possesses great power and insight - has created the world in such a way that people need to suffer horribly for some higher purpose. There is no logical contradiction in your position, but some would argue that it is obscene. Could you really look someone dying of a horrible flesh-eating disease in the eye, and tell them that their suffering is for the greater good of themselves or the world?
You've just bitten a bullet! In saying that God has the freedom and power to do that which is logically impossible (like creating square circles), you are saying that any discussion of God and ultimate reality cannot be constrained by basic principles of rationality. This would seem to make rational discourse about God impossible. If rational discourse about God is impossible, there is nothing rational we can say about God and nothing rational we can say to support our belief or disbelief in God. To reject rational constraints on religious discourse in this fashion requires accepting that religious convictions, including your religious convictions, are beyond any debate or rational discussion. This is to bite a bullet.
-- Basically I did this a while back, but since everybody's doing it I'll just y'all see my results. Nothing much to say, really, except their disclaimers also make the whole thing make more sense: that answers have to be yes and no instead of shades of grey, and that their world view might be different from mind.
You know, it's really, really unsettling when you have an awfully awesome dream when someone comes up to you and says, "hey, I think you should use -insert url I forgot- as your url. We've been discussion it and hey it's cool." No, it wasn't subtlethought or even anything on the list, but now it's never going to be on the list.
Of course, the problem is compounded when you spend your time dreaming about how you're going to be missing a lecture cos you just can't download the notes for them (downloading, might I add, from a stand alone terminal just for downloading notes on the NUS campus).
Upon completion of getting said notes, one has to then proceed (while discussing the state of the url) to go down a very tricky escalator sequence! Remember to hop from one escalator to the next, or be waylaid to utter doom! (Not sure where doom leads, maybe it's to the physics department).
Of course, to actually go to a lecture, you also need to pass through the requisite fear factor segment: sitting in a vat with a corpse for a few mintues (but I'm late!) and after that eating entire intestines (pig I surmise) raw from a vat full of them without using your hands. Of course I refuse to sit in that vat with a corpse (in which the tub next to mine has somebody, quite happily, discussing something with me, like maybe how the water's warm so jump right in.) Since I refuse, however, I wake up.
Argh! Pure animal angst! The failure to remember a perhaps winning url! And then not getting notes for my lectures! And a dream! Dreams return! What does this mean?
a) We need url.
b) School starts tomorow.
c) I might be having enough sleep, hence the return of dreams.
d) I need to read emma. <--- insight not gained from dream.
Waking up early, on a cool saturday January morning, is never a good idea.
Not being informed of sudden changes in plan, also not good idea.
Then being awake and not being able to fall back asleep and resorting to, instead, reading irc channels and getting mighty depressed with people teaching other people illegal terminology 101. That, not a good idea.
It's sad, sad indeed. Need more sleep. That is good idea.
After all that buzz, it feels rather quiet. I mean... it was really hectic, alarms blaring away, the constant maneuvering and combat... all over. All that talking. Emotional highs and lows all happening within minutes. Over. All 12 hours of it, finito. It sure ended really fast. Sure, I could have gone ahead and tried to get all the pearls and all the photos, but... well... not as much replay value as KOTOR. Still, Beyond Good and Evil was a fantastic game, very very beautiful, and once I get a new video card I'll play it with everything at max just to enjoy the graphics and the action once again.
And the story. That's what makes a game, IMO. Story. It isn't about the rag doll physics all the amount of blood you can spurt. If your story doesn't engage me, I'll stop playing. For example, look at Never Winter Nights. Now, some may say that I need to give the story time... but with already somewhat sucky gameplay, there's no time, sorry. I'd rather fire up some good old adventure.
In other news: There's a fine line between confidence and denial it seems. Sadly, sadly, some people just don't get it. Anyway, this American Idol doesn't seem to have a real underdog I'd like to support, unlike Clay from the last one (until he got popular then I got bored)... but we'll see. Maybe I'll support jazz singer dude.
From a week back: The New Paper had a 2 page report on oral sex. One thing which bugged me was the girl who was against it: Not because she was against it, that's perfectly acceptable, but the fact they she'd unfriend her friends if they ever did such an act. Not only that, she goes on to say she's ok with homosexuals cos it's a personal choice. So... oral sex isn't? And I wonder... what do homosexuals do to get their, let's say, fix? Well, maybe one day she'll figure it out. Maybe she's homosexual herself. Sad little thing, this girl from a JC in the west. I suspect it's near Ghim Moh. Really ah, some people... they need Socrates to spit in their face.
And now, the time ticks away... it's time to choose a new URL. Now, I haven't been blogging for a while (hence the rather short scattered blogs, of which I carry some thoughts forward until I decide to blog)... in wait for a new url for one thing... and the other thing being Beyond Good and Evil taking up a sizable part of my time. I hope to have a decision by tomorrow, with the 4 of us.
Mark your dates: March 2004. By then, the Syberia II's demo should have been released. Since the full game is slated for a Q1 2004 release... there's not much wait left!!!
A-T: "Tell our readers in three words why they should buy Syberia II."
Cédric: "Magical - Jaw-dropping-graphics (1 word) - Emotions" full article here
Perhaps (and I hope), that's why Syberia will work for me. If it even lives up to it's predecessor's totally awe-inspiring scenery and that little sense of magic captured in a game, it'll already be quite a good game. I do know some people complained the previous game was a little too lonely: all you had to talk to were automatons and perhaps a person here and there, many of which do appear kinda out of nowhere. People as plot devices. But somehow that loneliness echoed what Kate Walker would have felt: being totally alone in a strange land, surrounded by machines she didn't even know could exist, and the subsequent *spoiler removed*.
What makes it even more fantastic for the little fans of the adventure gaming genre is Sam and Max: Freelance Police, returning in Q3 2004 and looking absolutely great. I think I'll go buy pc gamer just to hold that page in my hands and know that it is a top10 game of 2004. Well, I hope it will be, but at the very least, it's LOOKING great. It looks way better than the next Larry Laffer game, and I'm not so looking forward to that, but I think I'll give it a shot.
Of course, my gaming timetable for the moment is filled with Prince of Persia (if I get it to run on my fanless video card) and Beyond Good and Evil, but I also will be accompanying George and Nico around various locations, discovering greater secrets, and then latter following Gabriel Knight, one of the Schattenjagers, or basically a hunter of shadows. I like that word. :)
Things are looking great, if not in the general front, at least at my front. I shall be surrounded by adventure games for a long time, and I like that. Yes, it's all about feeling that little bit of magic, suspending that little bit of disbelief (that you have to drop flower pots to get stuff from mud in Runaways) or just being caught up in that adventure yourself. I know nowadays that rpgs and even FPSs have very engaging storylines, but something is just different about the adventure genre that sets it apart in my eyes.
I hope it will go on. If anything I know I love the feeling of wide-eyed wonder each time I step into a new screen in Syberia or Arcadia, and the great big fat laughs I get tripping into the mystery vortex or bumping into Largo LeGrande. Maybe it's how I save the rainforest, or even the world. Sometimes it's also the smaller, littler journeys, one man's quest to save his girl or to get the girl. It's finding a new metal, or a whole new alien civilisation. It's all magic. Mostly.
Giovanni Trapattoni might be joining Spurs. I would love to hear this confirmed. I might not know much italian football, but one thing's for sure: It'll be better than Pleat, for the sole reason that now the players know that they're really at risk. Seems that he comes with some respect too.
Ok, first things first, the whole ignorable part of the blog slightly below was in some sense a reply to Dys' blog about basically well yeah whatever. I don't know. I went out, and I still did some thinking, some of which made me feel emotions. Now, of course, I'm actually a softie at heart, but yeah. I mean, it's these kind of people, holding their Rushdies (urgh, could anybody so lauded be more unreadable?) and what have yous, waving them in the air, and then later deciding that in no way should a comic ever win a World Fantasy Award again. That might have been a few years ago, but it sure pisses me off. It sounds like the parents who wave the Silas Marners (I'll read this one day) and the Thus Spoke Zarathustras (this one maybe not) at their kids, asking them why they while their time away on their Sunday Funnies or waste their time by trying to draw Superman in some new-fangled costume, or Wonder Woman in some new-bangled one. It might not exactly be the same thing, and I'm quite possible just putting 2 rather far out things close together cos they piss me off in the same way. I have been surrounded by quite many people so happy and willing to show off their intellectual superiority that... it just really irks. Yes, I must admit that I can be a showoff, I can be an ass. But at least I know it when I do it. Those moments bug me, whether I admit it or not. There's no such thing as equality, never was, but I pity the fool with the high IQ and the low EQ. You might grow up pretty successful, probably more than little me, but at least I might just turn out to be more socially acceptable, flawed as I am. I sure don't wanna die like Socrates.
No, I wasn't insulting Clay. I wanted to see if you would notice. Ok, I was just making jibes.
I mentioned wanting to dance, and then I get this. Now I am enlightened and shall dance forever. (The "this" is a link)
Peter Pan. I'm amazed how many people decide to pan it. Yes, it is, at it's very roots, a kid's movie. But I sure heard more adults laughing than the kids screeching. LOTR, is already so much more gay, but yet the moment I mention Peter Pan it appears that I have become both gay AND paedophilic at the same time. It suddenly seems as if watching a "Kid Movie" is suddenly way less respectful than watching Cameron Diaz in The Sweetest Thing or American Wedding or even Scary Movie. I bet some people would rather watch Underworld again, for it is for adults, than even stand near the queue for Peter Pan. It appears as if for a movie to be good, it now has to be sei, and not only that, it must appear sei from the beginning. It has to have blood and violence or large armies marching at each other. Well, a one-handed pirate and his jolly crew fighting off a barely dressed boy is not sei, then. No, it wasn't sei sei, but it was cool.
And let's look at one thing I forgot to mention: The special effects. The point when the kids start flying is already gazillion times more realistic than the third installment of The Matrix and it's dragonball fights. The point where Hook spins makes so much more sense than Gandalf's little jiggy on the floor of Saruman's chamber. It's good to see them making sense of technology, using things at the right moment, and never, ever zooming in on a cg of a human being. I know there's not one big wow moment in the movie, but it is a series of wows, little, smaller ones, but so, so amazing. Oh! And Jason Isaacs as the villian... from Lucius Malfoy to this, he's sure trying to give Gary Oldman a run for the money. But still a little far from Christopher Lee, at least in sheer volume.
You don't have to watch it if you don't want to. It's alright. But I'll probably catch it again.
Summary of super long blog post which is necessary on hindsight so now you can don't read the below:
1) Blogged on plam, ok but slow
2) Enjoyed Philo, Emma, Emma film( but not as much)
3) Forgot to mention that watching the Company by Altman seems like a good idea, but not impt.
4) Wasted some time
5) Lotsa good movies coming out, Jim Carrey featuring in many.
6) Peter Pan is a FANTASTIC film. Go watch.
Everything seems blurry now. It's not my vision, no, that's just lack of sleep, rather, it seems to be my memories, my recollections, hazy, muddled miasmas, ever ready to fade into oblivion, into a the thick mist, until the very moment I least expect it, I trip over what was not within sight, or has been lost, and remember once again. But happy thoughts float to the sky, sometimes offering glimpses, tantalisingly out of reach, and sad thoughts sink, always, to the ground. If only I could see, choose, select what I want to remember, if only I could fly.
But I'm no superman.
[Palm blog] It has, once again, been an interesting day (yesterday), as some days have been. It also goes without saying that I should refrain from ever starting my blog this way again, for it does nothing, achieves nothing, wastes our time, both you and I, and surely impresses nobody but the simplests of souls. I should go on to add that I'm not trying to impress anybody, and that I'm blogging on my palm.
My palm needs a new screen protector.
First, about school. Philo. once again (gah) was fun. Monty Python made an appearence, that's always good, but couple with that still feeling somewhat out of my league, my brain was not built for such high functions. Still, lessons go on. I hope for debates in tutorials.
Writing is awfully slow, almost the whole 197 bus ride is done.
And next, my gem... I watched Emma! And learnt more about film technique and all that, that's always a joy.
[/Palm blog]
(Palm blogging IS really slow, especially since I underuse the writing option, the bus is really shaky, I'm really sleepy and as you formulate them words you write them down... suddenly the whole process is drawn out, slower. But I think I can improve.)
Douglas McGrath, now, that's some kind of madman. I'm not sure what else he's ever done, but his approach to filming a movie, even without me actually studying either the texts or film technique, would have just led me to groan anyway. It is at times heavy handed, and at times utterly underwhelming. Almost every little scene somehow manages to hit you with the strength of Obvious-man, you know, just in case you don't realise it, and woah, the way he tries to connect scenes. That was painful. I've seen times where sound bridges were used to great effect... maybe once, at most twice in a movie. He manages to use it about ever 10 minutes, and by then I was just about ready to hammer nails into concrete slabs with my head. Not a bad movie, but I guess with adapting Austen and trying to stay true to it yet somehow condense all that (internal monologues included) into a movie slightly less than 2 hours long... is not a great idea. But perhaps! He forgot the only people actually going to watch Emma were (a) the purists who love Austen (b) the poor students studying Austen (c) Girls who don't know it's not exactly Titanic and (d) the boyfriends who get pulled along (or the gays... basically (d) is Guys, of all flavours) Perhaps he could have somehow stayed truer to Austen's "vision"? Maybe, maybe not.
Still, having watched how conventional editing is done just makes me want to do one great big mind-screw of a film. To try to destroy all these conventions just for the sake of destroying them, and hopefully, just hopefully, have a story to back it all up. To confound people and destroy their views and expose them for being conventional themselves when they should be rewarding great new visions in this realm we know as film.
Ok, so maybe not a "great new vision". Especially not if it turns out to not even be filmed.
I'm now free of all debt. At least, I hope so. I think I still owe wai for Beyond Good and Evil, but it really just slipped my mind yesterday in the midst of monty python and philosophy and how randomisation is our friend. (Our friend!) Maybe it slid out of my mind as we gave Wai new names, like Brandon or Billy-Bob or Yuzhan or Basil (from Grace) and Gaylord. Maybe it kinda sneaked away when Jack showed that he was the true Gaylord, or when later I was accosted by one. Of course, Jack has returned to being Doom and maybe we should call Wai Woffles. At any rate, I still only owe a little bit of money. I am a free man.
Dance. Maybe I view dance as something fluid, something expressive. It surely isn't, to me, the square dance or something out of the gentleman's ball, and that dance, when accomplished, can be truly something to behold. But then again, come to think of it, aren't most performance arts like this? Sometimes I wonder if I could set my own achy, breaky body free, probably not, but at the very least sometimes my mind is free of it's shackles of this world, dancing, singing, acting freely, on it's own accord. Then I have to do things like Stats.
[Ignore this it doesn't make sense and I just wasted time on it] It's interesting to see how people can actually hate the New Paper, and then read through entire articles of it so prove how much one hates it. It's kinda... weird. It's somesort of masochism, to stare at an accident with eyes wide opened, wishing they were shut, and then taking down the 4-d numbers cos later then you can have just that little something to boast about. "I survived the New Paper". It's no more about surviving the big walk, it's about the paper itself, now, isn't it? I buy the paper everyday, if I can get my hands on it. It is, other than the internet, one of my good sources for football news, so it's importance is never in doubt. Sometimes I get really funny and odd entertainment news, or news one wouldn't consider news, but hey, it's there, I flip thru it. It's almost as close as we'll come to some tabloid with a naked girl on page 3, at least one that I can read (English, thank you.) I don't see why one looks down on the New Paper, then Clancy, Eddings, Jordan and Grisham (all of which I don't read either, thank you very much) and then has so much to say about xiaxue, who's blog I read about 2 lines and quit. Some things are truly unreadable, but I guess since that mindless drivel is free, hey! Why pay 60 (soon to be 70) cents on a paper which is so full of sports? If one read what one likes to read, and hence only that which he likes to read (the way I feel Mieville is actually just a guy with a dictionary throwing words together without actually deciding on a plot, and being unable to create one from thin air unlike Carroll, who does, and succeeds most of the time), complaining that one has the right to choose what one will read, then why does one complain about what others read? If so distasteful, get away from the common-man, get away from the man on the street or the heartlander, and just go away. It's interesting to see how intellectualism has become such a high form of itself (I used to call myself intellectual, back in secondary 2, when all I saw was drivel on the IRC), but hey I guess it takes all kinds of people, and yes, making money is important. It is interesting to see how it has become the reading of the absolute elite, the return to the point where the novel in general was considered the trash (kinda like chick lit today) and that somehow they do nothing but say how everything else sucks. Not much in terms of improving the world there. In the end all that happens is losing touch with the common man (but oh! what drivel, why should I associate myself with such... trash?), getting that little bit alienated (but oh my! who needs friends when I have books AND fellow intellectuals) and probably losing touch with reality. (I lost my point here somewhere). I have no right to say what I just said, actually. Ah well. Erm, my point is that, erm, hey, read what you want, let others read what they want and why begrudege what others read what they want when you read whatever you want or something like that want want want want. My IQ just dropped a few points. Ah, Carnegie, save me from debates which I muddle myself in and am not sure where to go. I am misunderstanding everything. Channel through me your inherent stepping away from everythingness.
[/ignore]
I don't think I've been so excited about movies in a while. Hellboy is coming, so is Spiderman 2 and Big Fish, the Last Samurai and Kill Bill Volume 2. Jim Carrey (my favourite actor) is not going to appear in Eternal Sunshine, but he's also going to be Count Olaf from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I am very, very excited. And then he's also going to be in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and from what I'm reading it's like a modern day Don Quixote and it's directed by Steven Spielberg. Jim Carrey, it's good to have you back. I haven't seen you properly since the Truman Show. There's so many other movies to be excited about, but hey, speaking of movies...
Peter Pan. It's truly wonderous to see how much of J.M. Barrie's tale I remember, if not from actually having watched the cartoon before, then it must have been owning the Audio-books. Now, this Pan is no Disney confection, actually being produced by the Al-Fayeds, and it is only now that I know that basically the script has stayed the same all this while, that Peter Pan was originally something people would stage, or at least had a certain script.
It is whimsical, ethereal, magical. It is beautiful. It is, for sure, one of the must watch movies of the year. I'm not sure what else I can say. It's truly amazing to see child actors do really so well (as compared to the abysmal Episode I: Dennis The Menace) and it is delightful to see the adults, along for the ride, being able to once again channel their inner child, the emotions we know we once felt that isn't childishness, but childlikeness (I think I've gone thru this many a time).
And there I am, getting caught up in the exitement, reliving my youth (left so far behind) again, laughing not because it is funny, but because I am truely, utterly enjoying myself (the last time was probably Pirates of the Carribean). I am making a fool of myself, finding images which I remember from days of yore, treasuring them as they were back then, and then seeing, as they get unveiled in their new skin that they are better, newer, but still hold within them the enternal youthfulness.
One complaint: Jeremy Sumpter is a great Peter Pan... except of some speech problems. I think he happens to have a strongish lower jaw which affects his speech. And a bit of his smiling. Small, small problems. I could probably go into the film in more detail, but do go for yourself.
This film isn't about how MJ should be acquitted, or how he should be allowed to never grow up. It's not about seeing Jeremy Sumpter's nipples (if you're so inclined) or how pretty some boys can look, or how we can compare this with Disney's old musical version or Hook and see which one's better. It's about belief (no Plato, thanks). It's about seeing the world, once again with new eyes. It's about spending time next to the person you love, looking at it with the same kind of eyes and enjoying that link (quite unlike, say, watching Adaptation and enjoying it while loved one goes: Ah? Similan?" or something like that). It's about how it's perfect for basically everybody but the most cynical and lost. It's about being a child once again, but being on the cusp of adulthood, knowning what you can and cannot let go, and then flying up, and feeling the fairy dust. It's about believing in fairies.
Ok, I've decided to not tack on any more edits on the poor little post below, it's going to get lost.
It's time for celebration. Unlike last semester (of which I blame Japanese), I've managed to get the first 4 choices for my tutorials. Yay! What a stroke of luck. Which also means most of my tutorials will be with people I know, so there ya go, a less lonely (during school hours) me. And of course... I don't think I chose the very popular timeslots this time.
But it also leaves me a 3 hour break on thursdays. :/ But that couldn't be helped, rushing from science to arts would have been killer, and I've done it more than enough last sem, so no more for me, thank you very much. And it also means Tuesdays free! Woot!
I type this as I am in the midst of my stats tutorial 1. I type this not in frustration at how thick this module can be, nor do I type this as I bang my head against the wall or the monitor. Definiately not the monitor, my LCD is fragile. It does not deserve the damage I render unto my head.
I type this as I totally enjoy using R. R, the statistical programme we're using now in our stats module, in lieu of last semester's MiniTab and expensive and professional SPSS (which I've tried using before, once at work, and then the programme kinda died on me and the computer then proceeded to be infected by a virus, hence causing the machine to be only able to run CM3 and Diablo2, which kinda works out in the end, for me) can be seen, in a sense to be inferior to MT and SPSS in a certain way: it lacks a proper GUI.
It runs like a heady mixture of Unix and Dos, and more Unix than Dos actually, for it is only like Dos in it's command prompt interface, of which Unix has, and hence it's runs like a heady version of Unix. Now, I've only touched unix once, about 7 years back and I can't say I remember much, but yeah, it's very like unix. And it's like programming. It's like some obscure version of C which evolutionists forgot to do something about.
Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but one thing for sure is that it's too easy. All these command prompts probably look like gibberish to majority of the students, but it's actually very simple and logical. R, in flight, is a marvel to behold. It is in fact deceptively simple to use, barring the lack of nice little text boxes for us to fill in like Excel, but hey, who needs them? And I suppose, if lucky enough, some people might be able to find a GUI add-on to R, if it's even been programmed.
I like R. You all should like R too. This tutorial is the easiest stats tutorial I've ever done ever.
I wish the rest of the semester would be like that. Except that, well, everybody's going to do this tutorial well.
EDIT: Oops! Heh.. made 2 mistakes. Good thing I checked... finishing a tutorial in 20min not a good idea.
Another Edit (Making it a habit): Tutorial 2 just came out fresh! 5 min ago it couldn't be accessed and now... SO FRICKING FUN!!!!! Will do some programming, my lab report and then this. WOOT!
Once again, I feature a comic I just love to read.
Somehow this run was really funny to me. It's either the flatulence... or just the idea of wearing glasses...
(it's a little squished, if you wanna read it properly do pay the main site a visit)
Edit:
Your element is Earth. I hate to say it but you are down to earth. Stubborn and loyal. You tend to want to nurture others and you are the one person friends always come to for awnsers. Without people like you others would be flying over the edge because, whether you know it or not you keep a steady beat to your life and will end up where you want to in the end. There is a sureness about you that is hard to match that draws people to you. No matter what happens the Earth keeps turning.
EDIT: I'm not sure what I was thinking when I said I was sleepy earlier. I think it was the lack of sleep talking, but no, I'm not sleepy.
Furthermore, looking at the latest Fantastic 4 comic coming on.. I'm am wowed, indeed. 2004 must be the year of the FF (No, I shall not call them F4!! Grrr... friggin flowers), what with ultimate FF already being published, and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo sticking on the main title. I'm no FF fan, but hey, with all this, it's easy to see where things can go. Scott McNiven (of CrossGen fame, as was Josh Middleton) is doing a SOLID job, and in the preview pages I've seen online I'm amazed. Add the fact that professionals came by the thread by the dozens (dare I exaggerate? yes.)... I think I'll be watching this title.
Not too late to prepare for the FF movie, is it?
And Tom Hanks as Iron Man! Is it just a rumour?
EDIT EDIT!!!!!: Did I say Tom Hanks? I meant Tom Cruise!!!
And yeah, those who did that relax thing feel free to enter your
Oh, the nerve! The audacity! How dare a lit student presume to tell me about lit! Why! The sheer presposterousness! (no offence really, the rest of the post proceeds to just show how ignorant I am.)
Ok, I'm no expert on genre definitions. When I read, say, Tom Clancy, I'd probably shelve it under political thriller / books I don't read. When I read Jonathan Carroll, I'd shelve it under defies definition / fantasy horror. When I read Romeo and Juliet, I'd shelve it under movie adaptations. So, as you can tell, I'm no expert.
So here's the story of Emma, succintly put. Girl falls in love in the end, swooning involved. Now, that probably happened in quite a few stories, such as Star Wars and various movies in the same genre or with Harrison Ford involved. I mean, when I pick up the book Emma, and see the name Jane Austen, I think of what the target audience would be. Obviously, chicks, or men very in touch with their inner female / male lit students without a choice. When Austen wrote the book, it would obviously sell, for that was the period where literacy, especially amongst the middle class (women), was on the rise, thanks to the printing press. Novels, back then, were considered trashy. Poetry and drama were still something to be revered, and the novel something like the bastard child (the same way film was, before they invented Kurosawa). Let's say Gentleman A, of good repute, goes to buy a nice book to read. Placed next to each other is Emma, by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (again), and The 50 Greatest Horse Carriage Explosions Caught By Pencil, by Really Q. Artist. If he was shopping for a lady of the house, he'd buy 1 or 2 books (depending on his budget / how much he loved the woman or wanted her to read and hence shut up), by Jane Austen, but if he were to enjoy a good read (in his own opinion, and probably mine) he'd get the book with nice carnage involved.
Things haven't really changed. Now we have cars, of course. I'm not saying that Austen is entirely chick lit, no, it's no way like Fabio Does France and Fabio Does France Again (After not being able to think of other places starting with F), or even any of those stories with very chiseled men on the cover carrying a lady off to the sunset. It's also nothing like the slightly more modern variation, where they have sex for fun (yes! not only guys do that!) and/or discuss Manolos. But still, the target audience is still female, it involves a very engaging/simple love story which is the whole aim of the book and well, yeah.
So, in my general opinion it's chick lit. That's not to say it's not a classic! No siree! Jane Austen is rather ranked up there, if not by me, then by thousands and millions of other people. It is a classic.
I'm trying to answer the philo questions. Feel free to copy my points of view, that makes me more correct and hence superior.
1) Since this is all about personal preference or something along those lines, for me I'd protect the close family member to the best of my ability. Should the scenario would come up that my parents (or one of them, or a loved one) would be guilty of a transgression punishable by death, a degree of selfishness would definately enter the picture. Yes, the law is supposed to be equal for everybody, but then again, nobody mentioned that I had to be a law-abider. Of course such an anarachic viewpoint won't serve the discussion as much. Putting myself in Euthrypro's shoes or a close approximation to it, however, would appear to have me indict my father whatever the cost, even at the end of the "debate" with Socrates. Then again, to talk to someone whose debates are irritatigly simple and later simply irritating would probably provoke one to refuse to budge even more. The moral rule of everyone having to be equal doesn't actually appear in my head, inasmuch as it's an altruistic position, and possibly a good position to take.
Perhaps one basic point we can see is how, inasmuch as we'd like to be rational beings, most of our thought processes are irrational, especially when we jump quickly to defend our own position, whether or not the foundation we stand on is shaky or non-existant.
How many crimes go on in the house that is unreported? How many children steal from their parents, and all that they receive is a sharp word or a slap? The person at the top of the household sets the rules, and perhaps this is their law. Sadly the murder of the helper was not as simple as that.
2) Another thing is how right and wrong are in fact in the eyes of the beholder. Does what the Greek gods do become a standard to live by? Especially as, as Socrates would probably mention, that their stories are written by the hand of man, and they are hence also given very human attributes. What then, allows the people who pen the myths the ones who can set the difference between right and wrong? We also see how the line between the other may not even be an obvious one, that what is dividing the 2 is fuzzy at best, such as what is holy and unholy. It would appear simple, as it is to Euthrypro, that it is something simple to come to conclusion to, but of course Socrates manages to totally destroy that thought. That is probably not to say Socrates is atheist, he possibly thinks the gods the Athenians look up too are basically too human to hold as examples to live by. I shall have to learn more about Socrates tho.
3) How would one deal with Euthrypro? It may sound defeatist, but yet quite possibly it may involve someone doing the same unto him, as he had done unto his father, then would he be able to see something from a different light. He currently stands on a higher moral ground (in his opinion) and to suddenly be brought down by Socrates, who even goes to the extent of professing to be "simple minded", would be a great shock to someone who feels his is of a great mind. What's holding it up? The belief that oneself is right, especially since Euthrypro does not one to look like a fool in front of everybody, especially after being chided, and then continuing to stand his ground.
One good thing one might want to do is to try, as Socrates did, to work out everything before coming to a conclusion. But then again, that would probably involve the ability to see things from all angles, and being human (a great excuse for doing wrong) we're prone to having our vision occluded by family or love or hate. There sometimes is no right view or the "wrong views" can somehow be rationalised, just by virtue of being thought up in a mind different from yours.
Debates can be good exercise, but it can also go out of hand. Sometimes the best way would be to step back and allow the dust to settle before trying to continue. Conceeding, sometimes, might be the best path. Of course, that may also invovle being utterly gutless. Still, we have Socerates digging holes in everybody's thoughts... not everybody likes a smart aleck.
In other news, I am now a proud owner of From the Teeth of Angels by Jonathan Carroll. I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!! Ah, Jonathan Carroll, I shall read! Jane Austen: I have to read you first. Boo.
Also, I've been listening to Funeral for a Friend's Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation. Somewhat metal and a little bit rock (don't get me started on defining genres), once again, I love the nice little acoustic-like track Your Revolution is a Joke, the one that just goes a little bit slower after all that head banging. Sure, there's the pre-requisite angst, and some screaming, which I think can be really dumb (that's not singing) but the melodies really just hook you there. Why did I choose to listen to this band? Look at it's name! PHWOAR!!! It was either this or try Elbow, and Elbow's just this thing connected to your arm parts. I might give Elbow a chance later.
Before I go on any further, let me proclaim that this, yes, THIS! Has been a Wednesday. It's now Thursday tho, but as I was writing this in my head - as I am prone to do, it is in a sense, of course, good form and perfectly fine in my own view, of which occurs in my head - it was a Wednesday. Hence, it has been a Wednesday. Do not refute that, it will do your no good to argue against my perfectly perfect point of view for arguement's sake.
A day of 3 (count them!) different lectures, of 3 VERY different teaching styles, and of a wild dumbass "Hi I'm being a jock/ass" once again. Of course, I'm not a stupid asshole, other people (person) are.
First things go second, so the second thing now comes first. The second lecture of the day was the very interesting and intimidating PHILOSOPHY, also known as (aka) Reason and Persausion. After 2 hours of mind boggling text, I now totally realise why I never had the philopsical persuasion. It is over my head, and my thought processes are only suitable for something as complex (preferably less) as KOTOR.
Speaking of KOTOR, it is good. Go play KOTOR. Do not pause to wonder what it is, you know what it is. It is KOTOR. Go play KOTOR. Or not. It depends on you, I guess. I won't force you to play anything, well, maybe, other than KOTOR. Go play KOTOR.
Onions have layers. And parfait. Kueh Lapis too.
Now that the second "major" occurance has been split, I shall go back to being conventional again, by all means necessary. That, of course, involves, talking about philosophy. Now, imagine going thru a lecture about Socrates, and each time his named (and his Satyr-goat face) is mentioned, to think about him being THE FRIEND OF HEMOCRATES. Now, if you get where "Socrates, the friend of Hemocrates" is from, GOOD FOR YOU. Hint: It's from a game. Want more hints? Orichalcum. Now go think about it, and do not google it. Really, everybody should know this. IT IS NOT FROM KOTOR. Did I get waylaid again? Anyway, I think it's going to be good going, other than too much reading. And yes, I should look past Hemocrates. Begone! Friend of Socrates! Maybe you voted against him! Or did you veto his thoughts? And to that guy who laughs at every single joke the lecturer makes, funny or not, yes, you know who you are, I know who you are, and "You are out friend", PLEASE STOP DAMMIT. Slamming the door... ah... so, utterly, Jockish. Good way to tell the lecturer to end the lecture too (not my lecturer). But why does Holbo have to walk around in headphones? Interesting. What's he listening too? The extracts of Plato? The spice girls?
Next up: What went first: Stats. This Kuk dude, from New Zealand, the most beautiful land in the world, is very sadly... lacking in New Zealandish, in my point of view of course. This, being my blog, allows me to be open to such persuasions, and of course to ignore all other forms of reasoning. That and that comments box is smallish. And it seems only I blog on comments. Anyway, he should lighten up a little. Really. He's not boring, but just extremely strict and totalitarian. Like a mini police state. We WILL make noise, and grumble about R language (our seniors got the excel and SPSS-like minitab... SPSS is quite fun, btw. Tried it before for work and then destroyed it)... But anyway R seems rather simple to use, somewhat like a mixture between unix and programming, which actually kinda works hand in hand if you think about it. Comparisons with DOS are wrong, since.... it's wrong. It's totally unDOS. Maybe qBasic, but not DOS. (Disk Operating System, i.e. pre-Windows, and not Denial of Service, internet freaks.)
And then: Popularising the Classics. About 20 people showed up for the lecture (which was planned for 120)... intimidating indeed. Still, Dr Edna Lim, while looking rather waifish or even elven, is a great lecturer, especially since the small group size does allow for better interaction, in a sense. One or 2 things to note is that she's rather young (but a Dr) and she seems to be looking at it from a lit person point of view while I'm like doing mental thingamajigs by thinking very filmish. I shall shoot an email down one day just for fun... try to do a little reasoning and persuasion. But really, I felt my day in NUS ended really well. Next on, of course, is chick-lit country, the mother of mills and boon, Jane Austen. Gah. Something about her makes me think she's from RGS. Or something.
Then, off to ACJC. Today was campfire, and I sat in ACJC, walked all over the place, reminisced a bit, and read Emma abit, saw how ugly the new smiley was abit and basically stayed there, lost in my own thoughts, from 4 to about 6. Good stuff. A stranger in a known land, and it was fun. Dinner proceeded, nothing much there, and after that it was back to school, and watching VERY PAINFUL SKITS (or please save me, Singapore English Language Theatre) and VERY BAD SINGING (too bad no Sound of Music) and of course "DON'T WASTE MY TIME". It's my favourite tee-shirt, but I must give it a rest for a while before I totally wash the thing to shreds. It's really quite funny when the (VERY BAD) emcee asks us to read our tee shirts and feel what it means: The noobs had ACS: Our hopes or something I kinda forgot, and me had: Don't waste my time. So cool! I feel like a jock. And of course, good thing we sang the school anthem in the end... otherwise it would be a waste of time.
Don't ask me how I write this in my head. Or actually plan it.
Home, once again, on a school day. But of course, that's not to say I have no school, rather, I just have no lessons today. That's going to change tho. Tutorials are coming, and philo has a rather interesting nuts and bolts thing... which I may or may not go for. That depends.
Been, of course, trying to read my reading, and if I get what they imply correctly, actually mean I have to read them to have a semblance of a passing mark. At least. I'm somehow stuck between printing out the entire reason and persuasion right now, or buying it from the co-op, which should be cheaper, but might take time. And I like my paper. I'll think about it as I mull over Plato's Euthryphro. Fine reading indeed, I hope. It's really interesting to be reading things I'd thought I'd never be reading: Plato (philosophy in general) and Jane Austen (chick lit in general). Don't get your arms up, I'm sure Jane Austen did something for women's liberation, but I don't really care. That, and philosophy is really too... difficult for me. I'm not sure there's a point anyway, all this philosophising when you could be better off reading comics or playing football or just listening to good music. Why think so hard? Were the Greeks so free as to be inclined to think about stuff? Philosophy is lost on me. Maybe I'm just too much of a jock, you know?
I'm not sure where my point is leading tho. Except for the fact that yes, I have found the gatsby adverts online, it took me only 5 mins. But it took another half an hour watching through all of them, and remember, downloading them might be a problem unless you have the requisite software. Viewing is also a problem unless you have quicktime, of which not all the adverts are converted to, and wmp, which I believe sucks (the net backs me up) and hence I don't have. One thing for sure is that I cannot believe that they even have storyboards for your viewing pleasure. The ads, by themselves, are pure insanity at the very least.
Oh, and they're in Japanese. Nobody's singing "clap your hair" in a language most of us understand.
I think I'll go cycling once more, today, to clear my mind. It's really windy, which is a good thing... as I mentioned, that's what it's all about. That odd semblance of freedom.
Speaking of other blogs (about 2 blogs ago), I was visiting another one, from some person I've known, not very well, for quite a bit of time. I've roomed with that person before, for a short while, but that was it. Of course, you, being the person, should know who I'm talking about, but I think you don't read over here, so I can say what I want, and furthermore, it's my enemies I'm making, so it's my perogative. But basically whatever has been happening has been interesting at least, and I'm glad to have a bit part in the general stupidity of it all. Happy stupid.
Just wondering: when I was doing my KOTOR blog, (a) what did Peter think I was talking about and (b) Didn't you all catch the very very stupid hint that would actually reveal what the blog was about without reading the end of it?
Thinking: If you want to blog, however, always, always, just write. Maybe take some time to formulate those words, but the moment you start censoring, then you'd better be prepared, cos that's the way it's gonna be from then on. Don't regret it later. I feel great odium and disgust when somebody whines about how their blog isn't what they wanted it to be. Don't be a dumbass. You made it that way. Unless you have utterly no control over cognizant thought, then I BLAME YOU. So don't be silly. If you wanted to write, write. Write unabashedly, if that serves your purpose. Occlude the truth if THAT serves your purpose. Pretend to be somebody else if you so want to. Don't regret it later. Do not ever feel pressured to write because people are clamouring for an update... that just dilutes things. If you don't update, maybe there's good reason "readers" don't know about you know. Of course, since I don't always practise what I preach, I will tend to bug anyway. Sometimes I worry that people gone incommunicado have actually died.
Modules are, for all purposes, kao timmed. Kao tim oh! Kao tim, kao tim, kao tim.
That, and uni's going to start. It's scary, really, once again doing some modules all alone, but with a class size of 18, you're more than likely to be alone. It's a good thing to be able to bid 1 pt for every single module other than the hotter than an angry Hottentot IT1001, which cost a pretty penny circa 1775. Still it's interesting to think about the whole applying for a minor and then dropping it method o spend 1 pt on IT1001... it would have been... possible. I guess.
It's been a rather interesting time to live in, the past few weeks or days. People dying by the tens of thousands and the new airbus. What next? It's interesting how the death of a single Cantopop singer can evoke more public opinion (and more newspaper articles) than the quake in Iran. And in all this, we see how some things never change, like the refusing to accept Israel's offer for aid. We also see how some people, in all their fear, also refuse to accept aid closer to home, turning to other means, and in the end, damning oneself. Would Anita Mui have died if she had accepted treatment from the beginning? Sometimes we are all very human (as we all are I guess), with fears we cannot shake or prejudices we cannot look past. It's a tragedy, but there is almost nothing we can do about it. It's also interesting to note that a naked politician probably got more attention than the quake in Iran too. Being human, we are also very stupid.
Ah, the new airbus. To enjoy that leg room... I must......... LEG ROOM!!!!!
I've been reading a few random blogs here and there, mostly sombre affairs, some very very sad indeed. Some of them looking up from their (self-written) abyss up to the shimmering gleam presented above, and some of them constantly looking down instead, hoping to find solace in familiar footsteps, or no solace at all. It's disheartening to see people redoing their blogs entirely after the sudden realisation that they've unleashed a monster they've failed to control, perhaps while pandering to popular opinion ("You should blog cos it's funny!") or just losing sight of oneself, perhaps portraying oneself in a light very different from what you think you should be, in the vain hope you do not reveal too much for the passersby to suddenly come up with a whole picture of what should have been a very enigmatic blogger. Is it losing, or losing track of oneself?
One of the reasons for this blog, other than utter nonsense and keeping up with a trend 3 years passe already, is to just try to write down the sudden utterly odd thoughts which pass through my head. Ask yourself, or anybody who knows me properly. They come by the bakers dozen.
So, for your delight (or not), here's one of them.
Remember when there was first Flowers for Algernon? Then Tears for Fears, Requiem for a Dream, Bowling for Columbine and their copycats like the Centre for Disease Control and the cheap imitation, Three for 1 Dollar. And now, in the vein of all that, here's my very own: Carrots for Shadowfax.
Gandalf: See ah, I blow whistle.
Across the valley the sound of thundering hooves echo, and far away, along the horizon, a white speck appears.
Gandalf: Darn it.
Gandalf proceeds to wipe the white speck from his glasses.
The sun begins to cloud over, shy for being embarassed but the utter lens flare surrounding Shadowfax. In it's gleaming white coat, the king of all mares appears replendent in it's ethereal pearl white beauty.
This first day of the new year is barely even over. It's quite far from it, especially if you're living in, say, Alaska? Alas, I'm not too good with timezones. I guess it has really been a fun night, of course, rather different from the ones preceeding it, even in venue alone, but no way am I going to nitpick and compare, for as long as we had fun in familiar company, that was good enough already. But since we're in the mood for comparison (I can sense it), compared to the last say, 2-3 years, this one was better, where you feel no urge to create light conversation out of nowhere with some people while wanting to just kick back and relax with the people you do actually know. You don't actually have to waste words. Anything before 3 years ago... am not too sure, can't exactly place all the occurances for sure. But I quite believe the first 1 or 2 were the beautiful ones too. Maybe the lack of alcohol helps?
And yes, the first day isn't even over, but yet the first tears of the new year have been shed. Twice. It's not that I couldn't bear the over-sentimentalism of leaving the past behind (I should be rather used to it by now, except it does come over to pay me a visit once too often), or that you're in the comfort and pleasure of friends, and not common flavour Johnny-acquaintence. It's not even because of the great overwhelming influence of a grand countdown, shouting out loud, outdoing the neighbours (and your friend's little kid shouting in your ears all because of some obscure challenge you were never privy to) and just watching the previous year cumulating into pure arithemtic and champagne. It's not the sadness of leaving on a roller-coaster, a jet-plane, a horse-with-no-name or being left behind, away from the past and the people you wish would never feature again, except as guest stars in the tragi-comedy where they spill hot tea on themselves.
Twice the tears were shed, and both had very different reasons. WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
WWES:HCTP - Playing multi-player with friends is always funny. It can't not be funny. But this time, the work of one (mad)man made things really bad. It's interesting to see how the create-a-wrestler function can be used to create such horrific violations of nature. I bet Michael Jackson uses it to come up with his new looks, but seriously, I can't write it out to say how dumb it was, except I was tearing to the point of crying, and my abs were spasming. It was that bad.
GITS:SAC - I should have been very prepared for this. I had been warned, far ahead, for perhaps a month or 2. But of course, for sentimental old me, that was never enough. Perhaps some of you might still be tempted to catch this rocking series, so I shan't reveal what exactly happened, but then again, knowing what would happen still caused me to go "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" like Batou going "MOTOKOOO!!!!!!!!!". It's a little sad that the last episode seemed a little too tidy so that the next season mostly starts on a new slate.
Okok, back to programming. Nerds and geeks love programming!
