Bought a Kindle Touch

Bought an Amazon Kindle Touch together with YC today. He was buying it for a friend, using his account. I am tagging onto his order (and I'll pay him when it arrives in Singapore). 

At present Kindle touch can only be purchased on a pre-launch basis, and only in the United States. It will only be released on 19 November 2011. I was a bit hesitant on buying it, because we will be leaving the UK on 18 November. In the end we decided to go ahead with it anyway. 

YC paid Amazon.com, and I will be in charge of paying a forwarding company called comgateway.com to get the product shipped over to our office in dneg Singapore. After this we will both split the cost.

I have lots of ebooks that I read when I travel, before I sleep, and when I am doing work, for referencing stuff off books. I do have my 4.3" Galaxy S II smart Android phone, and the 6" Galaxy Tab smart phone/tablet that have kindle application and ebook reading applications. However they are LCD based, which are not too easy on the eyes. LCD displays drain battery faster, and they tend to turn off after a while. Kindle has very long lasting batteries, and its e-ink display guarantees the same reading experience as reading from printed paper.

I hope this can be a huge convenience booster for me. 

Tune in to Yourself, Tune out the World

Just saw this neat piece of animated GIF getting re-blogged by somebody on the daily articles update on http://headliner.fm.

It's a fun image :)

What do you think of when you see this?

I can think of a few:

- just shut up, I don't need to hear your talk

- don't listen to what people say, believe in yourself

- broadcast (or the media) makes the world a smaller place (brings people together)

The first thing that came to mind, for me, is the title of this blog: 

When you tune in to yourself, you tune the world out

Sure we all need to get in touch with ourselves some time. Be honest with ourselves, sort out our feelings -- have a little "me time", as I once heard a friend say.

However, there are some people who are constantly plugged-in to themselves, and the result is that they tune out what's happening to the people around them, and the world around them. In the end they get so self absorbed with their own issues that they get left behind and disconnected with reality.

Another image from the same page:

This is part of a huge collection of images called "y u no [xxx]" visit http://knowyourmeme.com for more details

I am guilty of this more times than I am willing to admit. I believe many of us are not even aware when it happens. Of course we may burn out when we become tired or when we care too much. Thats when we need a break, go to a place where its just me and myself.

Then of course there are the people who just don't bother. It is an attitude, a way of life for them. So what does that make them? Permanently disconnected? I am sure some of these people are aware of things happening. That does not make them disconnected, but most of the time they simply choose not to respond to them, and just withdraw into their own world.

I pray that I will not develop an attitude of indifference and a hardened heart. That does not make the world a better place, I am only a single person. But it will make things better for people around me. Then I can reach out to the world.

I am... Captain Woo

 

When I was coming to London in June this year, I had the chance to sign up and credit my KrisFlyer account. I made a mistake in the Salutation section, and now I am known to them as Captain Woo!

I noticed my mistake immediately after I made it, but I've clicked "next" in the particulars sign-up page, and I found no way to amend it thereafter (yes, I really did try to change it back!)

TedTalk

http://www.ted.com/

This was introduced to my by Tiffany a month ago. This site is a huge treasury of people giving inspirational talks, and people in the peak of their careers sharing their precious insights. All these video clips now available to us, to stream over the internet. Amazing!

I shared it with my sister and now she's hooked

These are a few of the clips I've watched so far:

and this:

New Follower to my Blog!

My sister just became the follower of this seldom read blog! :)

Looks like she is impressed by all the strange, incoherent and random stuff that I wrote. She is now thinking whether or not to start one of her own.

All the best sis!

FL Studio Fruity Edition

I've finally done it. For the first time ever, I've purchased an original music creation software all by myself.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a software pirate. :)

I've owned music creation software before. But those are either lite editions, packaged in a bundle with other things (like a hardware MIDI interface); or educational versions that somebody passed to me. I've also owned  (and still own) Sibelius, which was an educational version jointly acquired (and co-owned) between 5 people from church. Church use is considered to fall under acedemic licensing. 

In the end it was about 84 Euros after tax, and I ended up paying about £73 after tax.

Of course with the software I can do more music, and have posting access to the forums on the Image-Online website.

Arrival of Another Purchase

Another of my purchases arrived today.

I bought this together with the Klipsch Image S4 from ebay.co.uk. This was a  case for the Klipsch. I am going to use that to house my Klipsch Pro-Media ear-phones now that I've sold the Image S4. Anyway the Image S4 came with its own tin case, so I was going to use it  on the Pro-Media anyway.

The amazing thing about this guy is that it costs only £1.65. When I bought it, they were shipping it from Hongkong, China. They said to give it about 11-26 days for delivery. Now it is in my hands, on time. I am wondering how much it costs for them to make this together with the delivery. It does not seem that it is worth the effort to price this item at £1.65. They must be making some money.

Of course I am not complaining, but it is still amazing, how low they must have produced stuff like that.

A Stella Surprise

I never ordered this!

Today's Monday, start of the week.

I arrived at my table to a huge surprise!

I thought it was someone else using my table as a temporary storage, or someone's stuff wrongly delivered to my desk.

Then there's a note:

A personal note from "Le President"

Wow. In all those times I was conscientiously "checking-in" to Foursquare places, (to the irritation of my wife), I never thought anything like that would come out of the illogical obsession of tapping and declaring your location.

Here are the rest of the pictures I took, a closer examination of the surprise gift!

This is very new to me, that product branding would make use of the new social media to publicise their brand. I can tell you it certainly works, because I cannot see myself drinking all 7 bottles of cider. So I've given them out to my room-mates at work. That's certainly spreading the joy and the good name of the product! 

Cheers, Stella Artois :)

To end this on a mysterious note, there is one thing quite puzzling about it all. I am currently the mayor of my own office at Double Negative, but I am also the mayor of the Golden Gate Dessert House across the street. On top of that, I am also the mayor of the 3 mobile store down the street beside Curzon cinema. So how did they know I was working at Double Negative and not at the other places where I also have mayor-ship in?

Perhaps they did travel to all the places dishing out complementary cider to mayors who happen to really be the resident employees or mayors who happened to be the on-site, at the location they frequent. So they just walk up to the reception and asked for my name. If the reception finds me in the staff list, then they know they've got the right person. If not, they move on to the next location.

There is another chilling possibility. They could have gotten my details from somewhere else. I've linked the Foursquare account to Facebook. They could have checked my details on Facebook and "tracked" me down too. Well maybe I am just thinking too much. Haha.

If you are really new to Foursquare and don't know what it's about, read up on the Foursquare site! In short, it's a mobile application that lets you tell your phone where you are, and "check-in". Its like making a mark that says you were here. 

So wherever you go, whenever you check-in, your check-ins are remembered by Foursquare. Every check-in earns you points. You can add friends from Facebook or from other Foursquare users. There's a ranking chart that compares your points to your friends'. This resets every week. 

If you check into a place more often than anyone else, you become the Mayor. If you stopped checking in after a while and somebody over-takes you in the frequency of check-ins, he/she becomes the new mayor.

Also, there are badges (or achievements) to unlock and collect. Just using these non-accurate examples, if you check in enough times at pubbing spots, maybe you'll unlock the drinking badge, if you check-in at work on weekends a certain number of times, you'll unlock the workaholic badge, so on and so forth.

Sometimes this year, new features appeared in the application in the form of "nearby offers". These are shops that tie-up with Foursquare and give certain discounts or freebies when you show them you are checked-in there, or if you show them you are the mayor of their shop (which means you hang out there really frequently).

I was really active in  Foursquare, in Singapore. I checked in without fail. Of course there were many of my friends who are checking in faster and more furious than myself. There's this chart that shows the ranking between you and your friends. A few friends like Sherwin and Caleb are consistently in the lead. I wonder how they do it.

When I came over to London, I started checking-in on places here. Slowly I began to lose Mayor-ship of places back home, but I gained Mayor-ship of quite a few places here. 

It seems to me that people from Singapore are more hard-core in their frequency of Foursquare Check-ins. Here in London I can grab a mayorship by just checking in few days in a row. In Singapore it would take weeks of consistent check-ins.

I've slowed down my check-ins in the recent month. I still do it when I remember. but not very much now.

 

A Tribute to Steve Jobs from Dyn

Since the announcement of Apple co-founder Steve Job's death on 5-10-2011 at age 56, there has been a huge wave of media coverage. I've received and read loads of links from many different sources. Some were articles, some were videos.

All of them about Steve passing away and his great contribution to the betterment of our society, the enabling of technology that affect our lives, including the way it's shaping the society and bringing people closer to each other, and, his contributions to the animated feature films and music industries.

http://dyn.com/steve-jobs-1955-2011-our-employees-pay-tribute/

This morning, (it's a Sunday!), from the Facebook page of Dyn (Dynamic Network Services), my free web host service provider, I came across an article where their employees pay tribute to Steve Jobs. It was full of sincere admiration and appreciation for the man who has a great part of his life trying to make our world a better place.

It is something else, because these tech guys actually know what they're talking about, and they actually see the influence and change from a professional perspective, and it sounds so different from the general public and media.

It also helps us see Steve Job's from yet another perspective and understand him just a little bit more.

Give it a read if you have time. :)

Klipsch Reply to my Query

Yesterday I sent an email to query Klipsch if they can do some service and parts replacement to my Pro-Media earphones.


It is a valentine's day gift from my wife earlier this year. Cost about $159 (read my blog here). About 2 months ago, I accidentally left the earphones in my jeans pocket while I put it in the washing machine to wash.


After it came out from the wash, the phones were still working, to my amazement. The play-button that triggers the music player on my phone works too! The down side is that the mic had stopped working. The rubber that cushions the cable entering the body of the earphone has also split on the left side.

Therere I wrote to Klipsch international to ask if it was possible for them to do a parts replacement or maintenace for me, they gave me a short and absolute email saying they do not have repair set up for these.

I will go back to Singapore and enquire from their service centre again, see if I can get a different response from them.

24 September 2011, Saturday
Life in London - Take Two - The Day I Was Truly Blessed


Today I woke up at 12pm and went to work. Had a shot that I need to get out by Monday. Reached work at 1.30pm. Mengdi and Francis were at work. Francis said he went to St Paul's Cathedral and so just dropped by back at work to "fool around". I think he was reading up and trying to familiarise himself with lighting pipeline, getting ready to move onto his new show.


At the end of the work day, 8.30pm I still had not finished the shot, but I did leave a good deal of simulation jobs for the farm. Tomorrow I'm going to have to go back and check on the results.


I had dinner with Skeel Lee and Alvin Yap. We went to a Spanish restaurant called Andalucia just behind Leicester Square.


As we were walking back to Oxford Cirus tube station, something very fortunate happened to me. I did not realise it but somehow it must have rained while we were having our dinner. Because of that, the roads were wet and there were puddles of water. 


We were walking along Oxford road, and there was this guy walking in the opposite direction, him closer to the road, and myself on the inner side. He walked very close to me when he passed, and just when he passed me, I felt him push back in my direction. It happened quite fast, I thought he misjudged the distance between him and myself, or lost his balance. Then I heard "ooh!" from other passers-by behind me. Skeel and Alvin were looking at me in disbelief. 

It was at this point when I felt a bit of wetness at the tip of my hoodie and at my heels. What had happened was that a passing vehicle drove by at a considerable speed and splashed a huge wave of water in my direction. At that point in time at the precise moment, the guy got caught between me and the splash, and of the water had hit him full-on, instead of me.


Skeel told me that guy had unknowingly took the splash for me, right at the critical moment, at the precise position. It seemed like an accident, but it was such perfect timing, that it is hard to think it was just a coincidence. Of course I would sound stupid if I said the guy meant to shield me.


Now as I write I am somehow lead to be reminded of the cross where Christ Himself paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and died for us, so we do not pay and suffer the wages of sin (romans6:23), but have eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. 


In my case, I did not even realised that I needed the protection until after it happened. This is the same for many of us. We do not realise that we ourselves are in sin, thus we do not see the need to be rescued. But God so loved the world, that even when we do not yet know His goodness, He reached out to us first, and give up his Son for our salvation. We need God's forgiveness and redemption because we cannot be righteous by our own strength. It is like trying to clean an oily pot with greasy rags. We will never get the job done. 

Personally I am going through some uncertainty, thinking about my job, my giftings and how these things will play out in my future, career and otherwise. Some things have happened that made it look like other people are getting undeserved favour while I am left behind. It just happened that I was talking to Christina about this, hours before this incident.


I think God uses things like that to make us think about how He is in control, and He sends help in His own time, and that He has a plan for every one of us, if we trust Him  with submission, and let him carry out His perfect plan.

3D-Coat

http://3d-coat.com/what-is-3dcoat/

3D-coat is an application that works on the principle of voxel-sculpting. It can take your model from the first bit of digital clay up to the textured, sculpted state that is ready for production. In other words you can create your model, sculpt, displace, and re-topo, create UVs, texture and even render your model, all in the one single application.

It is interoperable with Adobe Photoshop, preserving layer information on textures and transparency. It runs on all popular OS platforms (Linux, Windows and MacOs). It allows you to reorganise the topography of your sculpts, and even supports Disney's Ptex system. It also supports rendering with multiple lights (including area lights / ambient occlusion) right in the application.

There are professional node-locked and floating licences available, Non-commercial licenses, educational licenses as well as non-professional (hobbyists, elderly, unemployed) licenses.

There is also a friendly community and a good pool or learning resources on the website.

I'll definitely keep an eye out on the development of this product.

Interestingly enough the creators of this product has really strong Christian beliefs and principles. It is really encouraging to see Christian professionals successful where they are in their fields, and at the same time professing their beliefs in Christ.

Here's the write-up of the creator of the software: http://3d-coat.com/company/about-us/andrew-shpagin/

09 September 2011, Friday

Life in London - Take Two - Self-amusing statement


I sent an internal message to the Singaporean guys: "Guys, I have a lunch appointment today, so I have to dis-appoint you by not being able to join you for lunch today".


You can call it lame but I thought it was quite witty ;)


As I expected, nobody caught it. YC said intellectual jokes are not funny. Stupid jokes are. Hahaha... What can I say?

With the purchase of my new wireless Blue Track laser mouse, I was interested to find out how optical and laser mice work.

While going through this topic on How Stuff Works (http://www.howstuffworks.com/mouse4.htm), I learnt that CMOS stands for complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor.

09 August 2011, Tuesday

Life in London - Take Two - Going back to Singapore for a Week!

Finally the day is nearing, when I'll be flying back to Singapore the next day! Going to see my wife! :)


The company is extending our visa to November, so we need to exit the country and return again for the extension to take effect. 

So I'll be flying back to Singapore for a week, before going back to London again, till November.

The Meaning of "Sekali" and the Singlish Language

Today I happened to think of the word 'sekali', and wanted to look it up on Google. ;)

It's a malay word, but its crept into the Singlish vocabulary. I do not know if it's used in Singlish the same way its used in Malay. So I decided to find out.

So my search led me to Wikipedia's article about the Singlish language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish_vocabulary

The word is pronounced as scar-ly, and I believe a lot of Singaporeans (especially non-Malays) wouldn't know its correct spelling.

The way 'sekali' is used in Singlish is to give the same meaning as: Lest, what if. Eg, "Sekali he dunno what to do then press the wrong button."

Christianity and Fengshui

For some reason I went to search the internet on apologetics. I came across topics of apologetics regarding cults, superstition, theories. 

This led me to think about Fengshui. I searched for "Christian and Fengshui" on Google, and here's a site I stumbled upon: http://journal.equip.org/articles/feng-shui

It gives a very detailed overview of Feng-shui, the origins and how it became widespread in the present day. Then it goes on to give a reason why the fundamental belief system that Fengshui is based on, is opposed to the biblical principles of God in the Bible. 

It is definitely a good read for people who want to find out whether Fengshui, as it is very widely believed, to be part of the chinese culture, a science, a practical set of guidelines for harmonious living, tradition or something else. It is also a good place to read it from a Christian context.

I remember thinking about this because I was reminded about a conversation I had with a few of my fellow Singaporeans who came over to London on this working trip with me. 

It looked like things were not going very well with me. Being genuinely helpful in their own way, they suggested many things I could do to "change my fortune", or "alter the course of my luck". Suggestions like "Don't continue to wear the dark-coloured clothings all the time, change to something bright and auspicious", or "re-arrange your furniture", etc.

They seem to think of bad aura or bad luck, are real forces, and doing things to change the outcome of circumstances with these tips are tried-and-tested to work. One of them is a Catholic. I asked to confirm if he was Catholic. He gave me a ridiculous look and said, "This whole thing about Fengshui, aura and luck is a totally different and separate. It has nothing to do with whether you are Christian or Catholic". He said it as if it was the simplest truth that even a child would know. I think he means that practising Fengshui and observing the principles of luck and practices to bring good fortune to oneself, is not a religion, and thus, not mutually exclusive to any existing religious beliefs that a person already holds.

Now I am not a Catholic (but my wife was, my parents-in-law still are). I cannot say I understand the Catholic teaching, however similar or different from Christianity it is. If they base their faith on the Bible, which is the Word of God, it should be opposed to luck, auras and Fengshui as well. I really pray that this person can get to understand the truth about the concepts of "luck", "good fortune" and the religion that he holds. 

Like many other practices we Singaporeans get involved in, many people (and Christians) attribute them to being part of tradition and culture, and are reluctant to stop practising them, even if they go against the principles of the word of God.

In the case of my friends genuinely trying to give good advice for my situation, I get the general idea of what they were saying. I think they mean that the way things were turning out unfavourably for me, was due to how I operate. Hence the logic of, if you keep using the same formula, you will keep getting the same result. That I can agree with. I believe that a more practical approach was to examine myself and see if there are things I can change about myself, to bring about a more positive result to my work and my life. 

Of course the most practical thing to do for Christians, but we always use it last, is to submit our anxiety to God, and give up our burdens to Him, in exchange for the peace in knowing that He guides our paths, and He is in control, at any point in our lives.

Dear Lord please help me be still and know that you are God. Quiet my anxious heart and raise my eyes to You. Remind me that You work all things for the good of those who love and obey You. Help me see through the eyes of faith, and see how You look at circumstances. Let me be satisfied in Your presence alone. Amen.

05 August 2011, Friday

Life in London - Take Two - A Response Message to a Situation


About a month ago, Raymond began to mention that he'll bring a French guy that he knew, to stay at our place. We figured it was just an acquaintance to him. 


Raymond did not ask us, but rather mentioned how he was going to accomodate the friend. He told us he was going to buy a bed for him, or some mattress. So some of us were wondering why Raymond did not ask us. Afterall the house is the company's property, and a person who is not a close friend staying in the house is a potential security risk.

Now we have 5 people staying in the house. Mengdi is going to move out this weekend, to stay with Skeel. However, a month ago, we didn't expect to have anybody moving out.

Last evening before he left the office, Raymond sent a message over our office machines, to the rest of the Singapoeran guys telling us that his friend will arrive at this day, and please say hi to him because he is a friendly guy.

At that point it looked like nobody was going to say anything despite all the worries we were having by ourselves, so I sent the following message to all of us, but addressed to Raymond.

"Mr Raymond, we must tell you that your friend, if he comes, you must remember we are living in company property. If anything he does intentionally or accidentally, results in any damage or loss to our personal property or the rented house which translates to company property, we are going to hold you accountable since you are vouching for him.

This is taking into account that all our doors do not have locks on them. It means if you let him into the house there is absolutely no way we can protect any of our belongings.

If we are not comfortable with any of his behaviour at any time, we will tell you and you must convey that message to your friend. If he does not agree to conform, then we reserve the right to stop him from staying at the house at any point.

You know that property was acquired for the purpose of housing dneg staff from Singapore so we can work here in UK. So the opinions and consensus of dneg staff (namely the 5 of us sg people) are very valid and will carry weight in decisions like setting house rules and such. You can let him conduct himself in any way you like, when he is in your room. However, if we are uncomfortable with any of his behaviour within any other parts of the house, we will expect you to keep him in check and make him conform.

This sounds like a nasty message. But we must have a baseline of agreement. You know we are not nasty people, and we are friendly. But we need to agree on worst-case scenario, when things happen. You can now laugh laugh say everything 'will' be alright. But we need to agree what will happen if he accidentally sets fire and burn half the kitchen away. Who is going to pay for damage. If he runs off with YC's and my laptop, fly back to France, forever uncontactable, who can we hold accountable? He is your friend after all, and we know NOTHING about him. You vouch for him, you pay for consequences.

Of course we hope for the best, but we must be prepared for the worst.

So are we in agreement with the above?

Patrick"

Raymond replied something like, "Yes, I agree. I will keep him in check if he misbehaves".

The message did sound a little formal, the way it was worded. But I believe it was necessary to bring home the worst case scenario, if things go wrong. That's to give Raymond something to think about.

Happens that the same morning before I wrote that message, YC and Francis have already been talking to Raymond about that. So my message was in fact reinforcing whatever they told him that morning. According to Francis and YC, Raymond insisted that he told us he had this friend who was coming over. The difference is that he told us by mentioning that the guy was coming over, but he did not ask if it we were fine with that idea.

24 July 2011, Sunday

Life in London - Take Two -Cast and Crew Screening of Captain America: The First Avenger

On Friday, 2 days ago, in a surprising announcement, we were told that there was to be a cast and crew screening of Captain America at the Empire Theatre at Leicester Square. So we got ourselves tickets for 5 of us from Singapore. 

The actual film will be released on 29th July 2011, but we get a cast and crew screening 5 days ahead of time. How awesome is that?? :)

The screening will start at 10am, but they will start letting people in from 8.30am. They said there would be security screening for people who enter the theatre.

YC, Francis and I arrived at Leicester Square at 8.15am. Mengdi left the house later than us. There were a few familiar faces hanging out in front of the Empire. Still too early to admit people, so we went to grab breakfast, at Macdonald's Leicester Square.

My breakfast: Sausage egg mcMuffin meal

The queue

I've gone to cast and crew screenings before, on Hellboy and 10,000 BC. So it wasn't new to me, but I still felt the same excitement. I am sure YC, Francis and Mengdi felt much more excited than me! :)

Everybody was given a pack of popcorns an a bottle of mineral water. We were still early when we entered the cinema. They had asked for us to surrender any device that was capable of recording images and sound. These were put in a zip-lock bag, tagged and a corresponding tag given to us. Just before entering the theatre, there was security with a hand-held metal detector to make sure we did not have electronics on us. After we were seated, we had to wait about 40 mins before the film started.

The show was quite entertaining and the visuals were quite well done. My name was on the credits! :) I was doing a bit of TD work for the film. The thing that surprised me, was the huge number of studios that worked on the film. If I am not wrong, Double Negative was the main vendor for visual effects.

From Facebook, I knew Alvin had gotten himself tickets to the screening as well, so I asked him for lunch after the show. We met up and decided to go Bodeans for lunch. This place was known for ribs, but we decided to go for their Prime Beef Burger.

Thats the Prime Beef Burger

Alvin's hotdog with all-beef sausage

Me and Alvin with a monkey painting behind us

More photos from the same week here: 

Finally, here are some more pictures of me and the movie posters at a tube station. (I think it was Balham tube station)

Helping to hold up the shield ;)