Personality test

Another personality test, stolen from PF as well. From http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx

 

Get to know yourself better

Your view on yourself:

Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:

You like to flirt and behave seductively. The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms. But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?

Your views on education

You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:

You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

 

 

Revamp

Did a little revamp on my site. Divided the interesting links at my sidebar into different sections plus changed the background. Now my site looks infinitely more lively! I'm very please with the new theme - it makes people feel happy. But underlying this background bears a more serious message (to myself):

 

Time to wake up! 

 

 

Game game game!

Has been playing games found on the internet. The most enjoyable of them all are:

 

Crimsonland from www.reflexive.com -

Classic shoot'em dead. Terribly exciting. Bring out the violence within you.

 

Heavy Weapon from www.shockwave.com -

Another classic shoot'em dead. Very exciting also. I got stuck at level 9 though.

 

Insaniquarium from www.gamehouse.com -

You've got a fish tank. You feed the fishes, grab the coins and shoot the aliens. The game that's taking Hall 11 by storm! (I started it!)

 

You can trial these games on the net itself or dl them and play for one hour. To play the full version you will have to pay. But there are always ways to get around it though... =P

 

 

Seniors

Browsing through my friendster page a couple of weeks ago, I felt a sudden longing to see my HC senior class seniors. I remembered that seniors had taken very good care of us and we were quite close during our JC days. However, it has been years since we last saw them and we kind of lost contact.

 

Coincidentally, recently, a week or two after the day I browsed through my friendster page, I saw one of them on TV! He's Daniel, the one who's always joking around. Funny that he was then on Channel U's《有话就说》talking about how to take care of one's own personal finance.

 

Today, I saw another one of them at Woodlands Civic Centre! She’s Huiyi, my publicity team leader last time. We were surprised, exclaimed hey(!) and walked passed each other, all in a matter of seconds. Thinking back, it seems strange that we didn’t stop to have a good chat.

 

Perhaps we were too intended on our own respective destinations. Not only today. We had been too intended on our own respective destinations ever since the seniors graduated four years ago...

 

Yet another coincidence: When I reached home, my mom showed me last Sunday’s papers which featured Daniel.

 

It has been years since I last saw them. Out of a sudden I 'saw' them three times. And HC MAF celebration is next Saturday. A day when every Hwa Chongian reunites back in our home for 2 years traditionally. 

 

Omens? Signs? Maybe they tell us that our  缘分 with senior class is not up yet. I believe that no matter how stupid our school name became, no matter how rude and 不见人情 our school's teachers were when they chased us out of our 黄城 after school events (inflow from TCHS), the spirit that connects each and every Hwa Chongian together will never ever die.

 

  

Happiness

Just ate a Swenson Ice Cream Cake in hall for no particular reason.

 

This entry is not about the ice cream cake. It is about the dry ice  in the cake box.

 

Dry ice always mesmerise me. It's really fasinating to watch them bubbling in hot water and produce tons of smoke. And it reminds me of the our hall production in DBS Repertory Theatre when I was year one. The play's title is 简单快乐, and it's about a wise old man going around selling 'Happiness' for one cent. Strangely, many people didn't buy it though. Some dismissed him as senile. Some didn't have the exact one cent that he wanted.

 

One scene that I remembered most is when the old man slowly took a handful of smoke from the box of 'Happiness' and pass it to the loving couple, telling them:

 

"快乐，握得住，握不住，就掌握在自己手里 。"

 

The play ends with the old man saying:

 

"什么不是快乐 ?"

 

And it sets us thinking...

 

What is Happiness in the first place? It's nothing more than smoke. It's in every single small little thing. Like eating a Swenson Ice Cream Cake together with friends for no reason. Like finishing a very difficult Circuits tutorial. Like surprisingly got friend buying back pizza to treat us. Like hearing the news of a friend who didn't have enough points to stay suddenly got a room in hall. Like being able to breath in fresh air. Like suddenly got an opportunity to play with dry ice. Blah blah blah. 

 

What is not happiness? =)

 

 

Chew on it

Just read this in God Emperor of Dune :

 

"Wealth is a tool of freedom.  

But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery."

 

 

Can we ever escape from this?

 

 

Heh heh

 

 Here is another one:

 

 

 

Numerology

Got it from http://www.paulsadowski.com/Numbers.asp 

Sounds quite true, but somehow I'm quite skeptical. Anyone heard of 'cold readings'?

 

 

There are 10 letters in your name.
Those 10 letters total to 54
There are 4 vowels and 6 consonants in your name.

 

Your number is: 9

 

The characteristics of #9 are: Humanitarian, giving nature, selflessness, obligations, creative expression.

 

The expression or destiny for #9:

The expression that you exhibit is represented bythe number 9. Your talents center in humanistic interests and approaches. You like to help others as you were intended to be the 'big brother or big sister' type. You operate best when you follow your feelings and sense of compassion, and allow yourself to be sensitive to the needs of others. You work well with people, and have the potential to inspire. This suggests that you could successfully teach or counsel. Creative ability, imagination and artistic talent (often latent) of the highest order are present in this expression. It's possible that you're not using or developing all of these capabilities at this time. Some of your talents may have been used at an earlier time in your life, and some may still be latent. Be aware of your capabilities, so that you can make use of them at appropriate times.

If you are able to achieve the potential of your natural expression in this life, you are capable of much human understanding and have a lot to give to others. Your personal ambitions are likely to be maintained in a very positive perspective, never losing sight of an interest in people, and a sympathetic, tolerant, broad-minded and compassionate point of view. You are quite idealistic, and disappointed at the lack of perfection in the world. You have a strong awareness of your own feeling as well as those of others. Friendships, affection, and love are extremely important.

Undeveloped or ignored, the negative side of the 9 expression can be very selfish and self-centered. If you do not actively involve yourself with work that benefits others, you may tend to express just the opposite characteristics. It is your role to be very involved with other people and their needs, but it may be difficult for you achieve this role. Aloofness, lack of involvement, and a lack of sensitivity mark the low road of this expression.

 

Your Soul Urge number is: 8

 

A Soul Urge number of 8 means:

With an 8 soul urge, you have a natural flare for big business and the challenges imposed by the commercial world. Power, status and success are very important to you. You have strong urges to supervise, organize and lead. Material desires are also very pronounced. You have good executive abilities, and with these, confidence, energy and ambition.

Your mind is analytical and judgment sound; you're a good judge of material values and also human character. Self-controlled, you rarely let emotions cloud judgment. You are somewhat of an organizer at heart, and you like to keep those beneath you organized and on a proper track. This is a personality that wants to lead, not follow. You want to be known for your planning ability and solid judgment.

The negative aspects of the 8 soul urge are the often dominating and exacting attitude. You may have a tendency to be very rigid, sometimes stubborn.

 

Your Inner Dream number is: 11

 

An Inner Dream number of 11 means:

You dream of casting the light of illumination; of being the true idealist. You secretly believe there is more to life than we can know or prove, and you would like to be provider of the 'word' from on high.

 

 

Black

Black. Darkness. Unknown. Night. Quiet. Candlelight. Romantic. Relaxing. Peaceful. Tranquility. Excitement. Magic. Mesmerising. Mysterious. Sleep. Dream. Surreal. Subconcious. Unconcious. Memories. Coffee. Rich. Aromatic. Bar. Beer...

 

Strolling along the beautiful Singapore River at Clake Quay at 1am in the morning after Dinner and Dance. Chilling out, chatting, drinking beer with a bunch of friends at a quiet Japanese bar until 3am. Everything took on a curious surreal quality at this time of the night, where everyone is semi-concious. How more relaxing could life get?

 

An oasis in a desert of worries...

 

 

Democracy don't work (sometimes)

I'm f*cking pissed off during the online discussion for our Technical Communication project last night. Here's what happened.

 

The idea of our project is inspired by the Plaza Singapura's carpark, which has an electronic display boards telling drivers which level which section of the carpark has empty lots. We apply this idea to the library, with empty tables instead of empty parking lots. Basically we just attached a small light sensor to each corner of all the tables in the library. If the sensors are covered with something, say, book or bag, it means that the quarter of the table is occupied. All these sensors are linked to a display board at the entrance of the library, telling the students which tables at which sections are empty, thus making it easy and convenient for the students to find empty tables.

 

I personally feel that although the idea may not be the BEST, it's good and simple enough. HOWEVER, when I proposed the idea two weeks ago, I met surprisingly strong opposition (In fact, all the rest of my group opposed it!).

 

Reason 1: "Just not good lah."

 

...

 

"Elaborate please."

 

Reason 2: "Not flexible leh."

 

............

 

"Can you further elaborate?"

 

Reason 3: "Even if they occupied the seat, they may not cover the sensor."

 

(I was trying to keep my calm.)

 

"Surely they can find something to cover the sensor. Things like bags, books, wallet etc. Even if they are naked, they can grab a book from the shelf and cover the sensor right?"

 

Reason 4: "They die die don't want to put how?"

 

(I was trying VERY hard to keep my calm.)

 

"We can put some posters to remind the students to cover the sensors. I'm sure NTU students won't deliberately sabotage their schoolmates."

 

Reason 5: "Hmmm... But I still think it's not good. Power failure how?"

 

(This paragraph has been censored by the management of MSN Spaces due to the vulgarity of the language. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.)

 

 

Anwz at that time I totally gave up. But after they considered all the other ideas that we brainstormed, somehow they decided to use back my idea, idea of a Simplist. This brought us to the meeting last night, where we were supposed to come out with a proposal. Problems soon arosed. It was 11pm.

 

"What if people put their bags over the sensors and leave, thus hogging the table?"

 

To this I suggested we state in the scope of our project that we won't be addressing this problem, since the objective of this project is just to help students find empty tables. Simple and elegant solution to a problem - just ignore it. My style perfectly.

 

"The project seems incomplete this way. Not very good. What about putting extra body sensors such as heat or motion sensors?"

 

We were already hard pressed with dealing with problems (such as pple who die die don’t cover sensors and power failures?) of the existing idea. Now someone came up with a solution that increases the complexity of our project twofold. Of course I objected strongly:

 

"How do we justify the cost of the additional sensors? Is the problem really that severe?"

 

"Yes, it's really severe during exam periods." (So what?!?)

 

Fine. I called for a vote. Who want the body sensor? Who don't? Being already irritated, seeing the following reply after waiting for 5 minutes didn't help:

 

"Sorry I didn't really catch what you all are saying."

 

Five minutes later another group member said the same thing. Now was already 12am and people were still bloody multitasking and wasting everyone’s time.

 

After all the explanation, all of us voted. Three against one, one (the girl who was supposed to write the report) remained somehow undecide, and again I lost. I think I am too stupid to understand what the hell they were thinking. Maybe they had something against me.

 

Well never mind. Then I suddenly thought that a BODY sensor can’t be that small. So I asked them whether they know how big is the body sensor. Suddenly people kept quiet. Then I realized that my group mates only know how to talk. They were absolutely incapable of action, ie. do research on the net and write a proposal of what they proposed. Then the guy who came out with the idea of body sensor came out with another brilliant idea –

 

Install camera at every table.

 

It was 1am, we were supposed to complete the proposal by this meeting and yet people still came out with such CREATIVE ideas. Why can’t people see the point of this project? This is a Technical Communication module and the project is meant to train our communication skills. This is not bloody FYP!!! Why the hell do we have to solve very single problem under the sun?! And why the bloody hell people come out with more and more complex ideas??! I guess I’ve to reconsider my opinion of NTU students won’t sabotage their schoolmates. They not only sabotage their schoolmates, they sabotage even themselves!!!

 

I gave up. If not for the fact that I've so many ECAs I would have volunteered to write the proposal myself, my way, and finished it within one hour.

 

 

PS.

In the end the girl who was tasked (by the guy who suggested installing cameras) to write the proposal decided to adopt my suggestion of limiting the scope of our project and write the proposal herself.

 

PPS.

Btw, if any of you in my group read this, I apologize for being harsh, but I really hope that you can see my point. Next time please back up your suggestions with actions.

 

PPPS. I guessed I was not very polite or helpful that night either. I apologised. Perhaps I need some anger management too.

 

 

Points planning

FOC counselor - 10 pts (from last year)

WSC CURL subcom - 10 pts (from last year)

 

Photosale head - 30 pts

Production props head - 16 pts

Appreciation Dinner logistic main com - 10 pts

Inter-Block Games - contract bridge, c.chess, carrom, darts, boogle, weiqi, othello - 11 pts

Inter-Hall Games - contract bridge (captain), c.chess, weiqi - 18 pts            

 

Sea Expedition logistic main com - 10 pts (for next year)

 

Total: Around 100 pts (Hmmm... Should be enough.)

 

Seems like I'm very active in hall nowadays. Got another gold medal for othello today. Woohoo!

 

But I'm very tired. 

 

 

Imagined reality

It was a peaceful night in an imaginary realm.

 

Under the bright full moon, evil looking Black troops were spotted at the edge of the Great Plains. Their number was not big, but it’s slowly but surely increasing, like ants around food. White was alarmed. They quickly deployed their troops on the opposite side of the field, matching the Black man for man. Both sides maintained a respectful distance, waiting for the inevitable war. Tension mounts.

 

Out of a sudden, Black struck, sending multiple elite forces deep into various part of White’s territory, trying to gain a foothold. Skirmishes ensued. First blood was drawn. No advantage gained by both sides though.

 

White’s turn to counterattack. They employed a different tactic, concentrating and keep sending reinforcements to one spot. Black responded in kind, and it quickly turned into an all-out war spanning one eighth of the field. There’s only one objective for both sides: To gain as much territory as possible.

 

Back to reality (after so much crap)…

 

It was a Friday night. I was facing a China guy in the Inter-Block Weiqi Finals. My opponent obviously knows what he’s doing. My blockmates were sitting around me relaxing and talking cock. Meanwhile I was locking in a life and death combat of the mind with the opponent, my heart beating twice as fast. With growing number of seeds on the board, the situation had become very complex. One wrong move means an area of 20+ seeds would be eliminated, ie. Half the game is lost. Tens of computations went through my head every second.

 

Number of qi of White Section A = 5

Number of qi of Black Section B if I put in position 14H = 3 - 1

Number of moves before I eliminate Black Section C= 3

Number of moves before White Section D is eliminated = 4

What happen if opponent put in position 15J? Countermeasures?

What about the bigger picture? If I lost the East side, can I grab the Center?

 

Etc etc etc…

 

Make a decision.

Put seed.

Press clock.

 

All in less than 10 seconds.

 

Then I talked cock to my blockmates, trying to calm my overworked heart and mind.

 

After a few tens of rounds, the opponent lost the entire East side to me, to my relief. (The alternative would be me losing the entire East side to him!) Then he made a half hearted attempt to grab the center, but it was thwarted by me also. In the end, he conceded.

 

I won. The designated ‘cannon folder’ won. My teammates were shocked. I was shocked. Seems that everyone had underestimated me. Even I had underestimated myself. Weiqi was never my strong point. But the fact is: I won and my block won (by 3 to 2)! =P

 

Moral of the story: Never look down on yourself. Others may not be better than you even if you knew you are not that good.

 

 

jie jie

Hahaha!

 

 

Five Levels of Visual-Textual Analysis

This is another 'for my own reference' entry, additional reading material for my ADM431 - Western Art History.

  

Five Levels of Visual-Textual Analysis

 

1) Descriptive Or Pre-iconographic Level

 

Descriptive mapping--basic recognition of things—a tree, a landscape, a naked man.

 

Which are the key icons in this image?

 

How do they relate to each other in terms of form, space colour?

What is in the foreground, what is in the background?

If a person is featured, from what perspective are they being shown?

 

What gender, culture, class, age, religion, sexuality does the person appear to have?

 

What are the main colours in the image, how do they clash or contrast, dominate or complement each other?

 

Others:

• 
  
  Form, composition volume, mass.


• 
  
  Material and Technique


• 
  
  Line


• 
  
  Colour & Light Additive Subtractive


• 
  
  Texture


• 
  
  Actual space


• 
  
  Illusional space


• 
  
  Perspective Foreshortening,


• 
  
  Proportion & Scale: (relative)


• 
  
  Carving & Casting Subtractive Additive

 

2) Iconographic Level: Preferred Readings

 

Identification of Meanings and Symbols otherwise known as Preferred Readings--No critique or larger contextualized analysis —internal to codes premises of image attributes: Internal to the Image/Text;
eg. Christ beard.

 

What are the main symbolic contrasts and/or binaries--in operation in this image/text combination?

 

What do you understand as the preferred reading of this image/text?

 

What do you think that the image/text is intended to convey?

 

How does the image/text do this?

 

Are there aspects of the image/text that contradict the intended/ preferred reading?

 

Who do think are the intended receivers/readers of this image/text?

 

3) Iconological Level: Larger, Critical Analytical/Interpretive Context (Oppositional/Negotiated Readings)

 

Eg. Te Pehi Kupe tattoo egs from Gardner Chapter 1

 

Content & Context

Larger meanings and analysis: including artist’s context, discourse and ideology.

 

What sort of assumptions are being communicated about gender/race/class/sexuality/religion/age in this

image/text combination?

 

What sorts of ideological tropes are at work here?

(An ideological trope is similar to a stereotype, but it is a little more “detailed” and is directly connected to a particular ideological--political perspective of the world)

 

Eg:

• 
  
  The “unkempt but golden hearted working-class” is a trope pertaining to class ideology,


• 
  
  The Oprah Winfrey  spiritual “Mammy” with advice for all, is a trope pertaining to race/class/gender ideology,


• 
  
  The blonde bombshell is a trope pertaining to gender/sexuality ideology,


• 
  
  The sensual native or “noble savage” is a trope pertaining to colonial, sexual ideology,
  etc.


• 
  
  What sorts of binaries are at stake in these representations and how do they serve to stratify/hierarchise the visual/textual universe of the examples chosen?


• 
  
  EG Young/old


• 
  
  Male/female


• 
  
  Occidental/Oriental


• 
  
  Cerebral/Corporeal


• 
  
  Man/animal

Any other codes you find of critical importance?

In an iconological analysis, Oppositional Readings or critical readings often come into play—reading an image against the presumed intentions of the maker/patron/painter.

 

4) Iconological & Inter-textual Level

 

Iconological readings can also mean intertextual Contextualising/ Critiquing the Image/Text Oppositional Readings

 

How do your responses to level 3) connect with a wider “matrix” of power politics and ideological assumptions about for example

gender/race/class/sexuality/religion/age

1. 
   
   At the time at which the image was produced


2. 
   
   In contemporary visual culture

Can you think of other examples from visual textual media, or indeed, from every day life where the ideological tropes, binaries and visual inequalities at stake in these images are reproduced?

 

 

5) Reception Analysis—The Meanings being Made of an Image by a Particular Audience.

 

A fifth way to analyse visual/textual data is of course to conduct reception analysis amongst a controlled focus group, in order to attempt to understand the sorts of meanings different groups of people are actually making of visual/textual media and comparing these to your own critical analysis.

 

This is a little difficult to do with Greek classical sculpture!

 

However, its also pretty difficult to do today.

 

Reception analysis has a number of pitfalls. Images (and text) operate upon us on a whole series of conscious and unconscious levels.

 

And we are none of us able to completely formulate how these work upon us. The ways in which we decode visual/textual information is mediated by time (sometimes we make meanings out of things we have seen only years after we have seen them), by space and inter-textual context, (sometimes if we are distracted--we might be thinking of something totally other while supposedly looking at a painting or watching a tv ad).

 

This makes reception analysis a very inexact practice.

 

Moreover, it is dangerous to over-emphasize the viewers “freedom” to make meanings of media in whichever way he/or she chooses:

 

Its kind of  like the way how consumers in a supposed “free-market system” are never truly free to consume whatever they want, there will always only be mundane, generic monopolies starbucks, Giordanos, CNN and Hollywoods to chose from.

 

Similarly, there is no such thing as “free will”, “free association” and “free interpretation” of visual culture—including fine art.

 

The very way we interpret images is in turn part and process of the images and ideologies through which we have moved every day since childhood. And these representations are monopolized by the structuring “dream makers” of our societies—those with the power to define/inscribe the ways in which we dream, think, understand speak, visualize, and perform our daily life

 

 

For the artistically inclined

Here are some nice websites devoted to design, art and paper craft. Feel free to take a look.

 

http://www.joshuadavis.com

http://homepage2.nifty.com/papercraft/gallery/index.html

http://www.mocoloco.com/

 

 

Timeline of Western Philosophy

Came across the timeline of western philosophy in our NTU public folders recently. Put here for reference purposes. Will do some research on these remarkable thinkers and schools of thought when there's time.

 

Timeline of Western Philosophy 

     ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

          The PreSocratics:
               Ionian: Thales, Anaximander, Diogenes of Apollonia, Anaximenes, Heraclitus
               Pythagoras
               Eleatic: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno
               Pluralists: Empedocles, Anaxagoras
               Atomists: Leucippus, Democritus
               Sophists: Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Prodicus
          Socrates and Followers
               Megarians: Euclides Stilpo
               Cynics: Antisthenes Diogenes of Sinope
               Cyreanics: Aristippus
          Plato and Followers
               Academy: Carneades
          Aristotle and Followers
               Peripatetics: Theophrastus
          The Hellenistic Philosophy
               Epicureanism: Epicurus, Lucretius Diogenes Laertius
               Stoicism: Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Epictetus
               Skepticism: Pyrrho, Timon, Aenesidemus
               Eclecticism
          Roman Philosophy: Cicero, Neo-Platonism, Plotinus


     MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

          Early Middle Ages: Origen, Augustine
          High Middle Ages: Anselm, Lombard, Aquinas, Scotus
          Late Middle Ages: Eckhart, Ockham


     RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY

          Humanism: Pico, More, Erasmus
          Reformation: Luther, Calvin
          Scientific Revolution: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Newton
          Skeptics and Fideists: Montaigne, Gassendi, Bayle, Pascal


     MODERN PHILOSOPHY

          Continental Rationalism: Descartes Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibniz
          British Empiricism: John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume
          Deism: English Deism, French Deism, Herbert of Cherbury, Bolingbroke, Pain
          French Enlightenment: Encyclopedists, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, Helvetius
          Natural Theology: Paley
          Modern Political Philosophy: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Mandeville, Rousseau,
          Beccaria, Wollstonecraft, Burke, Godwin
          Modern Moral Philosophy: Clarke, Cudworth, Cumberland, Shaftesbury, Butler,
          Hutcheson, Price, Bentham,
          Scottish Common Sense: Kames, Reid, Beattie, Oswald, Stewart, Brown, Abercombie
          Kant


     19TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

          German Idealism: Hegel, Jacobi, Schopenhauer, Von Hartmann, J.G. Fichte, I.H. Fichte,
          Lotze
          English Idealism: Hamilton, Caird, Sterling, Hodgson, Ferrier, Stephen, Bradley
          American Idealism: St. Louis Hegelians
          Evolutionists: Huxley
          Late European: Nietzsche, Marx, Kierkegaard, J.S. Mill


     20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY

          Early American Philosophy: Peirce, James, Dewey
          Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Moore, Reichenbach, Carnap,
          Hempel, Logical Positivism, Berlin Circle, Vienna Circle
          Russian Philosophy: Bakhtin, Solovyov, Shpet
          Continental Philosophy, Phenomenology, Existentialism: Husserl, Freud, Heidegger,
          Sartre, Camus
          Recent Moral and Political Philosophy: Ross, Toulmin, K. Baier, Rawls, Nozick
          Recent Metaphysics and Epistemology: Quine, Ryle, Kripke, Putnam, Davidson

Harry Potter and other ramblings

Spoiler Alert! - There'll be NO spoilers about Harry Potter in my entry. (Der...)

 

 

Finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince a few days ago. The book is absolutely well-written, mavelous, hilarious, incredible and 'unputdownable'. Well, this is the most expensive novel I've bought to date (S$40!!! Almost as expensive as my thousand over pages textbooks!), to say otherwise would show that I'm as stupid as a pig! (Sorry to pig lovers out there! =P)

 

But truely speaking, most of what I've said is true, and I just can't help but mavel at the ingenuity of J K Rowlings, one of my favourite authors, who single handedly create the most interesting and fabulous magical world of Harry Potter. And I especially love some of the things we can found in that world bcoz it shows great creativity and humor, for example:

 

 

U-NO-POO (A joke shop product):

 

'Why Are You Worrying About You-Know Who?

You SHOULD Be Worrying About

U-NO-POO -

the Constipation Sensation That's Gripping the Nation!'

 

Patented Daydream Charms:

 

'One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable (side-effects include vacant expression and minor drooling).  Not for sale to under sixteens.'

 

Felix Felicis  (Liquid Luck - Potion):

 

"I must give you warning that Felix Felicis is a banned substance in organised competitions ... sporting events, for instance, examinations or elections. So the winner is to use it on an ordinary day only ... and watch how that ordinary day becomes extraordinary!"

 

etc etc.

 

 

  

Even muggle magic tricks are mentioned in the book (George and Fred sell them!). A really nice book to read. Just saw a very beautiful sentence in Dune :

 

'The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up on the fact that life can surprise you.'

 

How true! And Harry Potter's world is full of such little little surprises. I was thinking: if all of us create some little little surprises for one another and for ourselves, our lifes will be more beautiful.

 

 

 

Ok, back to the topic, and something frustrating. =( Actually before I read the the HBP I already know who's going to die in the end. Why? I remember it's some blog I read (claiming no spoilers most probably) that refer me to some website whose URL is www.<soandso>isnotdead.com (substituding the <soandso> with the actual name of the wizard who died).

 

Argh! The most ironic thing is that the soandsoisnotdead.com site's main page write in big letters - WARNING! This web site contains SPOILERS about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! Erm... webmaster, so you know that your site's URL is already a spoiler, despite that you said he's not dead??

 

But well well, even though I knew who died in the end, the story isn't spoiled by the spoiler. I throughly enjoyed the book. Highly recommended.

 

 

 

Moving on to ramblings... Just feel that I'm abit down on luck recently - sometime i've the feeling that anything that could go wrong went wrong. (The only thing that didn't go wrong is that we clinched the gold medal for bridge and chinese chess in the Inter Block Games. Heehee. =P). Also suffering from constant fatigue these days. Maybe I'm getting burnt out from hall life, ie sleeping at 3 every night. Going to take some time to nurse myself back to health and catch up with my school work. 

 

Btw I've decided to turned down an offer to do reseach project for $8 per hour and 10 hours per week. Wondered if I made the wrong choice. My dad always tell me never choose a soft option. But given now that I already almost buay tahan le... I think health is more important. This reminds me of a survey - although health is not the number 1 factor in what makes people most happy, lack of health ranked first in what makes people most unhappy. 

 

Hope that I won't regret my choice and my luck and 精神 will be better for the rest of the sem. 

 

Hmmm... and a bottle of Felix Felicis will be good =)

 

 

PS. The link to <soandso>isnotdead.com is at my sidebar. Feel free to take a look after you finished HBP. If you haven't finished the book, please don't put your cursor over the link since the URL of the site will show up on your status bar. You've been warned. 

 

 

SMS

I've a question: What will you do if you receive an SMS that's clearly not for you, ie. sent wrongly?

 

I think a normal person (like me) will ignore the message, or, if you are good-hearted, kindly inform the sender at once that he had sent a message to the wrong person. 

 

Guess what kind of msgs I received when I sent a wrong message to 2 jokers?

 

Anwz this's what happened. As the captain of blk 54 chinese chess team for the Inter-Block- Games (for my hall) today, I was organising a selection for the players yesterday. This's what I sent to all those who expressed interest in joining the competition.

 

' Morning! This's 54 chinese chess ic Jiefeng. Chinese chess trial will be tonight 10pm at canteen. Cya there! '

 

These are the replies I received:

 

CASE 1

 

This reply came after 1 minute:

 

' Morning! This's 54 chinese chess ic Jiefeng. Chinese chess trial will be tonight 10pm at canteen. Cya there! <- ?? '

 

...

 

How do you reply to such a msg?? I was thinking very hard that which part of the message this fella don't understand. Maybe this guy don't know that 'cya' means 'see you'. After much thought, I sms him back:

 

' See you in canteen tonight at 10pm. '

 

And this's what I get:

 

' I think you msg the wrong person. I've no idea what you are talking abt. '

 

WTF! WHY CANT HE SAY SO EARLIER??!

 

Despite what my intense irritation with him, being a nice person that I'm, I still reply him:

 

' Sorry then. Have a nice day! =) ' 

 

 

CASE 2

 

This reply from another person I received after 15 minutes:

 

' Sorry who r u? '

 

OMG! What a thought provoking question!

 

DOES 'Jiefeng' IN MY MSG LOOK LIKE A WORD IN OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY???

 

Then I've a gut feeling that people who play chinese chess won't have an IQ of less than one. I check for the number in my list. It turns out that today is my lucky day. I msg wrongly... to 2 jokers in a row!

 

What a day! Haha!

 

Hmmm... Maybe next time when someone sent me a wrong msg I'll exchange 10 msgs with him before telling him, "Sorry, I think you msg the wrong person. Oops."

 

 

网上漫游

Feeling a little bored. Surfing around for nice sites. Just came across http://bloggersaremorons.com (linked from http://kennysia.com) - a charity blogathon by Malaysians bloggers. There's this story called Starry Starry Night  that's dammmn hilarious.  =P Take a look!

 

There're a also few sites that are quite interesting and innovative like http://postsecret.blogspot.com and https://www.ecotonoha.com/.

 

Did a little research about coffee on Starbuck's site. There's quite a bit of infomation there. There's even a quiz to see which coffee most suit you -

 

http://www.starbucks.com/ourcoffees/tmatcher.asp?category%5Fname=Coffee+Taste+Matcher

 

Have been visiting games sites like www.miniclip.com for some entertainment. Lastly, went to the www.romnation.net for quite a few times these 2 days to satisfy my nostalgia for old games. (Thanks PF for the link!)

 

At the time I wrote this sentence, it's 30 minutes to 12am, 9th Aug 2005. Happy 40th Birthday Singapore!

 

 

Western art history lesson 1

A relaxing Wednesday evening, 5pm. I leisurely strolled into the 300-sitter lecture theatre with a Mocha Freeze in my hand from Coffee Club Express. This is only the 2nd time I frequented the stall outside Nanyang Auditorium throughout my 1 year in NTU. Anwz the LT is mostly empty, with only about 30 people inside. The lecturer wasn't here yet. I looked around for familiar faces. None. I sat down, enjoyed the aircon, took a sip of the aromatic coffee, and pulled out my novel to read.

 

This is life man.

 

The lecturer was fashionably late for 30 minutes. She's a westerner, around 25, quite beautiful and artistically dressed - long robe, scarf around her head, blah. She laughed alot, a bit hysterical I would say, a bit 'siao' I thought. Understandable though, since she had been teaching for the past 3 hours and will be teaching the same thing again for the next 3. If I was her I would also be hysterical.  

 

(In fact I'm a bit siao now since just now the whole entry disappeared when I clicked 'Publish Entry' and I'm typing the same old thing again! Hahahahaha...)

 

Anwz, she's a very nice lady and her lecture was enlightening. Here's the summary:

 

 

~ Art, by Garder's defination, is material delibrately manipulated.

 

~ Why? 2 reasons.

• To embody the power/ spirit of the absent object.

Imagine how will you feel if somebody tear up the photo in your wallet or delete the photo in your hp. A photo is not merely a photo.

• To make an impression, to make one's presence felt. To leave something (spirit) behind.

This's just like why we delibrately leave footprints in the sand. And I think this's also why we write blogs.

 

 

~ Art does NOT reflect reality. All art forms are Representations.

• All objects in art are not what they really are. They are presented in a way the artist sees it.


• Even a simple photo of a horse does not really really show a real horse.

 

~ History is a battleground of claims and counter claims, stories and counter stories.

• However that doesn't mean one can tell any story one like. One must say a good story.


• Or if one wants to tell a bad story, one must have a huge army behind him, just like a certain US president.

 

~ West (as in Western art) and East classification are not there naturally.

• This classification is a political construction as a result of the clashes of civilisations


• It's actually a project to create a western/eastern identity.

It seems that elective lecturers love to unplug us from the matrix - show us that things are not really what it seems. Our Chinese Cinema lecturer also told us something along this line about patriarchal society, binary culture etc etc. Anwz, let us go on to the last and most interesting point.

 

 

~ Any story is as much about Erasure or Absence as it is about Presence.

• Imagine a beautiful oil painting with a nude Turkish lady lying on the bed, eyes gazing somewhere out of the picture - our lecture example.


• To appreciate the picture, we do not only look at what's in the picture, but also what's outside the picture. So what's absent?


• Obviously, her clothes were not there. Why?


• A deeper step: the person/thing she's looking at is not in the picture. Who? What?


• Think out of box: the reason why artist drew this picture is also not in the painting. To whom did he paint it for? Why? Does it show the power of western countries over Turkey? Or does it show westerner's impression of Turkey as an exotic country?

Actually this is similar to the way we were taught to appreciate (and write) chinese calligraphy. Calligraphy is not all about how nice the words are, but also about how the words are positioned such that the white empty spaces are as nice as the black words.  

 

One learns something new everyday.

 

An enlightening and enjoyable evening.

 

 

Filmographies of chinese directors

Compiled the filmographies of some of the more famous chinese directors during my chinese cinema module last sem. Put here for reference purposes.

  

Filmography of Wong Kar Wai

 

As Tears Go By (1988)

Days of Being Wild (1991)

Chungking Express (1994)

Ashes of Time (1994)

Fallen Angels (1995)

Happy Together (1997)

In the Mood for Love (2000)

2046 (2004)

 

Filmography of Zhang Yi Mou

 

Red Sorghum (1987)

Codename Cougar (1989)

Judou (1990)

Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)

To Live (1994)

Shanghai Triad (1995)

Keep Cool (1997)

Not One Less (1999)

The Road Home (1999)

Happy Times (2001)

Hero (2002)

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

          

Filmography of Lau Wai Keung

 

Ultimate Vampire (1987)

Young and Dangerous I ~ III (1996)

Young and Dangerous IV (1997)

Young and Dangerous Prequel & V (1998)

The Storm Riders (1998)

A Man Called Hero (1999)

The Legend of Speed (1999)

The Duel (2000)

Sausalito (2000)

Young and Dangerous VI (2000)

Dance of a Dream (2001)

The Wesley's Mysterious File (2002)

Infernal Affairs I (2002)

Infernal Affairs II & III (2003)

Initial D (2005)

 

Filmography of Tsai Ming Liang

 

Rebels of the Neon God (1992)

Vive L’amour (1994)

The River (1997)

The Hole (1998)

What time is it over there? (2001)

Good Bye, Dragon Inn (2003)

The Wayward Cloud (2005)

 

Filmography of Peter Chan Ho Sun (Chen Ke Xin)

 

He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994)

Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)

Three (Going Home) (2002)

 

Filmography of Joan Chen

 

Xiu Xiu （天浴）(1998)

Autumn in New York (2000)

 

Filmography of Stephen Chow

 King of Destruction (1994) （破坏之王）

From Beijing with Love (1994)（国产零零七）

God of Cookery (1996) （食神）

Forbidden City Cop (1998)（大内密探零零八）

The King of Comedy (1999)（喜剧之王）

 

Filmography of Liang Zhi Qiang

 

That One Not Enough (1999)（那个不够）

Not Stupid (2002)（小孩不笨）

Homerun (2003)（跑吧，孩子）

The Best Bet (2004)（突然发财）

I do, I do (2005)（爱都爱都）

“Fifth Generation Filmmakers”  - directors such as Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuang Zhuang

 

“New Wave” directors - Allen Fung (Fang Yu Ping), Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, John Woo, Stanley Kwan

 

 

Movie Review - Stealth

Watched Stealth in Prince (Shaw Tower) with my dad yesterday. Didn't really have any high expectation of the show. Afterall, it's the same old AI turned against humans story again, just like Terminator and I, Robot . And it's worst this time - what can a single stupid plane do?? Anwz we still chose to watch it since my dad loves action films and fighter planes, and there's no other movie with suitable timing.

 

But surprise surprise! The plot turns up to be much much better than I thought. If Terminator and I, Robot  type of story is in the Classical stage in Henri Focillon's Theory of Evolution of Style, then Stealth is in Baroque stage. It went further, making us wonder if we really can't cooperate with a sentient AI. The plot is quite unexpected, the ending quite touching and the scenes are quite exciting. Shall not reveal the story in case someone's going to watch the movie. But even though it isn't exactly a 4-stars movie, my dad and I truely enjoyed the film. If you're planning to watch it, you didn't make the wrong choice.

 

PS. Actually I wanted to watch War of Worlds. Why does it stops showing?!?

 

 

Dune

I have been reading Dune  by Frank Herbert these days after I found that I can find (and borrow) the whole set of Dune Series from the new National Library in city area. The book has been termed 'Science Fiction's Supreme Masterpiece' on its cover page. Well, I've just read 69 pages out of 500+, so it remains to be seen. But it seems like the Dune universe is immense since the book comes with appendixes, glossary, map and even cartographic notes! Even Tokkien's Lord of the Rings don't have cartographic notes. I guess Harry Potter will have to wait. Hopefully the book price will drop by the time I finish with the Dune Series.

 

Anwz I just came across this passage from the book. It's a Bene Gesserit  proverb:

 

"Any road followed precisely to it's end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."

 

How do you apply this to life?

 

 

PS. From the glossary, Bene Gesserit  is 

the ancient school of mental and physical training established primarily for female students after the Butlerian Jihad destroyed the so called "thinking machines" and the robots.

Wah!

 

 

Hall life

Had been having lots and lots and lots of fun in the past week. OG dinner to canteen 2, entertainments by our hall cultural groups on Welcome Night, KTV at Chinatown (or rather playing pool in Parklane =) , BBQ at the rooftop of Nanyang House, ice skating 'til 12 am, supper at Geylang 'til 3 am, not to mention DOTAing and Diabloing together with my hall mates everyday and night til 2+ am.

 

The most notable event is that during the BBQ night, the juniors suddenly gathered everyone in the OG together and presented each and everyone of the seniors with a token of appreciation. It's a 30 cm length (quite big!) dark brown star-shaped wooden board with our name written big on the top, a very nice angel drawn on the bottom left and 'Zekkeil, Best OG' on the bottom right. Behind were the signatures by all the freshies. I heard that they did this through the night 'til morning. I never expect they'll have a gift for us on that night and I was really quite touched. Many of the seniors showed their Stars off to other OGs' seniors.

 

It was really quite comical that after receiving their gifts, all the seniors panicked that our presents for them are not ready yet! (Just as slack as ever.) Nanyan, our GL, made the decision immediately to summon all the seniors to her room on that very night to do the photoframes for them.

 

It was so much fun for the past few days.

 

My dad once told me, "青春不留白". People said, "Live life to the fullest". But how exactly do you do that?? Is it

 

1. Play, going overseas, have fun, and do all sorts of activities with all your friends and family until you are dead tired. Then you sleep, wake up and have fun again and do this for everyday. Or


2. Work, gather experience, teach tution, earn money, learn new things, and study for future happiness?

 

Fallacy of answer 1:

You based your happiness on others. Once they are not around, you feel a sense emptiness. I don't like the notion that you've to depend on other people to be happy. It's like drugs. And of course, if you keep doing this, you'll be unhappy in the future (when you da bao!).

 

Fallacy of answer 2:

Why'd you gamble away your chance to have fun now for future's happiness? (Assuming play creates more fun than work.) Afterall, it's highly arguable that these things that you do will give you REAL happiness anyway.

 

 

So what's the answer? It's obviously a balance between answer 1 and 2. But is there an answer 3? Maybe it's the Buddism's way - 涅磐寂静 ? Anwz for me myself, I lean towards answer 1. Why? Simple. If you're going to die next week, what are you going to do in this week? Life is really unpredictable you know. (I'm not saying I'm going to die next week!!! But... who knows?)

 

A cliche: Live everyday as if it's your last.

 

 

Btw, it was during the BBQ night when a thought suddenly strike me (The side effect of answer 1). There's only one more year before wonderful seniors like Subin, Joann etc etc graduate and leave us. How time flies. It was like yesterday when they lead us through our own FOC. Now we've led our juniors through their FOC.

 

Life is short. I'm going to enjoy it.

 

But first, I'm going to do my tutorials.

 

What an irony.

 

 

PS. I think I think too much.

 

PPS. For those who don't know what's DOTA, it stands Defense Of The Ancient. It's a custom map of the game Warcraft III, to be played by at most 10 players. They are divided into 2 teams, and each player controls a hero (each hero has different abilities). Objective of the game is to destroy the other team's main building. It's a game which requires much skill, strategy and teamwork. Competitions are held for this game. 

 

 

FOC

School has started. Welcome back to the real world.

 

It really seem strange when for everyday in the past month you were playing games, having fun, making new friends, meeting up with old friends, going out, went overseas, cheering, chalet, sleeping at 4am, visiting other people's rooms, living in a dream world and then PHAMM! You've to go lecture later at 1330 in the afternoon and worry about how to apply for the extra stupid Prescribe Elective that was required for your programme.

 

Not that studying is not fun. It's just different.

 

Anwz the hall FOC was very fun. Get to know a lot of wonderful juniors and more seniors. And expectedly, my OG got the Best OG award. Not that I want to hao lian by saying 'expectedly'. Looking at the way those juniors worked together, I really find the spirit overwhelming. When they cheer they cheer with their heart. When they play games, they do their best. When they run, they won't stop. All I can do is to try not to pull their spirit down by slacking too much. *guilty* Many of the seniors wants them to win, even when they are from other OGs. Our group is just like Griffindor in Harry Potter. Really feels very very proud of them and I'm truely glad to know such a bunch of wonderful juniors.

 

Btw, to be honest, there are also some negative feedbacks for my OG.

 

Programmers said that Zekkiel's seniors are too slack.

 

Well, we still won, ain't we? Haha.

 

K, change topic. Yesterday on the walkway to esplanade I saw one interesting picture. Took a photo of it. What does it show about Singaporeans?

 

 

JJ Outing

Had a little JC friends outing with 3 BEAUTIFUL gals Steph, Shirong, Xinying (Haha, I know u all will be reading) and with Jiehan as a bonus yesterday. Knew them during the CIP project in Thailand during JC 1 and somehow or another the 3 gals together with Shuhui become part of my Jiak Jua Family despite my strong protest (like real =). Anwz those were the good days we had together and suddenly, 5 years have past. How time flies.

 

All of us has changed since we meet up a year ago. Not a lot, but changed nonetheless. All of them have became more professional in their specific fields of studies.

 

Our ermei, Steph has just graduated from UK and is going to be a occupational therapist. The 1st breadwinner of our family! *Clap* All our meals will be her treat whenever we meet until the 2nd breadwinner emerges. Work hard, earn more money har Steph!

 

Our sanmei, Shirong is now working on a project that examine the effects of bacteria on cancer (wah!). But she's still growing bacteria (chey!). One more year to go, 2nd breadwinner! Btw she changed her name to 湜镕, pronounce as shi2 rong2. Record down here in case I forgot. All the best on your project! 

 

Our xiaomei, Xinying, is the most juai3 one. Haven't become doctor already talk to us using sentences like "I'm having a pharyngitis." Her blog even worst. "Im having a pretty bad pharyngitis with odynophagia & rhinorrhea..." Win liao lor. Now only understand 7 words out of 10. What'll happen after 2 yrs when she graduate?? But, well, jiayou ah Xiaomei! Dun forget to open a clinic in Woodlands k?

 

(Btw the sentence when translate to english: I've got sore throat, pain on swallowing and a common cold.)   

 

I'm last breadwinner. 3 years to ORD.

 

Jiehan, our special guest, 4 yrs. Future architect.

 

But no matter how professional we become, our old crappy selves will never change. The 5 of us had a really nice time together talking cock. Really glad to see my sisters all 出人头地. (Free meals for 3 years! Wow! =) A toast to our friendship!

 

 

Btw now I'm really tired. Ganna sabo to become freshie. I thought 2 times in JC is enough le, never expect in U also ganna. Wah lau, can become professional freshie le. Sianz. Hopefully wont ganna tekan until too jiak lat. Actually I was assigned to (actually I volunteered to) be the photographer for my OG. Already thought of all sorts of responses to all sorts of situations.

 

"JF, help me carry things!"

"Paiseh, me carrying camera!"

 

"JF, you must play the dirty games!"

"Dun wan lah, wait dirty my camera."

 

"JF, go somewhere do something for me can?"

"Cannot lah, me have to take photos of u all!"

 

Just one outing with my Jiak Jua family and all my jiak jua traits are back! The perfect example of the saying: "The only way to avoid responsibility is to assume responsibility." But now... Haiz... Best laid plans of mice and man.