nap.

Hadn't had a Power nap in a while. From 6.30pm to 9.53pm.

Wasn't feeling very well after having the whole day in air-conditioned rooms and with very little to eat the whole day.

All started with waking up in the morning, 44 minutes later than usual. Didn't have time for a real breakfast, but fortunately, my guardian made some sort of oat + milk mixture.

E Math was first on the Intensive Remedial Schedule. Because the teacher held us back, I only had a short time for recess, and I wasn't able to have much for recess - just a waffle.

After SS, I had to help the Chinese Teachers with the testing of the sound system for the Listening Comprehension, even though I was supposed to be out of PA already. Furthermore, the key was missing, so there was more delay, so I didn't have anything for lunch... Sigh...

After Add Math, I had Art.

By the time all these are over, It's 12 hours into the day, spending 6.5 hours in an air-conditioned environment, with 1 200ml cup of oat + milk, and one peanut butter waffle. Finally, after Art, I ate lunch. This was around 5.30pm.

And as a result of sleep depravation from the previous night, the lack of nutrition, and the long hours in the COE [not my favourite place], I'm semi-sick.

That's the bad part.

Now the good part.

Well, for starters, the dude whom I haven't talk to since, like, this year's Sec 1 Orientation Camp, is finally semi-willing to talk to me. Well, yeah, the context is in terms of studies, but hey. At least he's opening up a little bit.

Also, Kevin Chiam gave me his Combined Humanities, with the deal that I'ld help him in Physics. Mutual benefit! Thanks man!

K, gtg. Need to study.

Now that's 3D demonstration!

I don't know why, but I can't get enough of this video. It just makes Singapore look so kick-a** as an F1 night-race street circuit venue.

Or maybe it's just the Aussie accent of M. Webber.

Oh, notice how accurate the 3D rendering this video is, compared to the actual track? That's why I have no complaints about this video. It's just so awesome!

Talkin' about myself! OMG!

Ok, I'm being warned that Blogger's having an outage in 5 hours' time, so I'll make this post real quick.

Been having intensive remedial programme in school these few days...

My Art 'O' Level Coursework is finally completed and the stop-work deadline finally came and past. Which means one slab of 'burden' off my back.

I originally planned to 'chiong' on my Combined Humanities and Higher Chinese, but judging from current circumstances, with the stack-load of E Math and Physics Paper not yet completed, I may only be able to start on the above subjects next weekend. Oh, did I mention there's Art Paper 3 [Study of Visual Arts] to worry about? That's my first paper, which happens on 15 October.

I might as well post my projected targets for the 'O' Levels here, based on what I got for my Prelims... [This is assuming I can only get better and not worse for everything in terms of grade]

EL - A1

HMT - B4 [I have a feeling this is actually do-able]

E Math - A1

A Math - A1

Phy - A1 [A2 is unacceptable.]

Chem - A1

Bio - A1

Combined Humanities [SS/Hist] - A2 [C5 is TOTALLY unaccpetable]

Art - B3 [B4 is not acceptable, and I wanted A2 for this, but judging from the Coursework mark Ms Chua gave me, A1 is impossible, while A2 is unlikely unless I score full marks for Paper 3, which has the same probability as me scoring 10 goals alone in a soccer game against a professional football team. A Sports reference on my blog, that's rare.]

Total Grade score [out of 9 subjects]: 15

L1R5: 7 - 4 [2 for CCA, 2 for HMT] = 3 [OMGWTF?! I can go to RJC / HCJC!]

L1R4: 5 [i.e.: le minimum. l'OH mon dieu!]

Yes, My Français is crap.

My only worry lies in Art, HMT, EL, Phy, Chem, Bio, Combined Humanities. In other words: Everything except the Maths.

Like I said: if I get above 85% for a subject in prelim, then I am gold. If not, I am doomed. That explains my worries and concerns.

Well, time to get back to making notes for my blog, eh?

Oh, speaking of notes, Mrs Huang was talking funny again during the EL Intensive Remedial Class. Not gonna elaborate too much here, but somewhow, I sense that she is biased in favour of the 'SA' classes, and she speaks in this British accent, plus she thinks highly of the 'SA' classes, and she is less strict / less willing to scold. Maybe it's just me and my observation, but I may just be right. Not that I have a problem with favouritism to my favour, but I kinda felt pity for the other classes in that Auditorium who were side-winded for the entire 1h session with her. Awkward.

Oh, is it just me, or am I typing in a more profound manner? Kind of freaky.

Oh, also, just now, Ian Ng, Jonathan Phang, Theodore Koh and I were like sneaking inside the hall, and we were trying to harmonize 'The Stand' together while Teddy played on the piano. It was so hilariously cool... Should do that more often with other musicians in our school. Perhaps Ernest, Matthew Ho, Abraham? Start a band? lol... oh, wait. That's SFC, right? I forgot.

Oh, if you've been seeing my Last.fm charts for the past two weeks, yes, I love 'Came to My Rescue - Be Lifted High'. Great song, especially to attempt harmonization with.

Genius!

I have this bad habit of listening to only songs from the past 2 years, + any special artists that I just love [Nelly Furtado and The Corrs are the only ones with this honour.].

So just now, I was fooling around with the Genius feature in iTunes, trying to get a playlist starting from songs that I normally listen to, like, in one case, Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". One thing I like about Genius is that it also adds songs in your playlist that you may not always hear, but actually goes well with the starting song or the previous track in the playlist.

It was through this music discovery process where I rediscovered a pretty old song in my playlist that I've not heard in years.

I heard it, and I started liking it. And I never really heard this song since I got it.

Rob Thomas - Streetcorner Symphony

Hope you like this somewhat upbeat blue / jazz track!

Also, I forgot to mention: I got this track off iTunes' Single of the Week, and I'm liking it. See if you like it too.

Lenka - The Show

And while we're talking about iTunes, have you guys tried the new iTunes visualizer in iTunes 8? Looks magnificent!

oh, couple of tips [source]:

While inside visualizer mode:

1. ?: Toggle Help Screen
2. M: Change Visualizer Mode
3. I: Display Track Info
4. C: Cycle Through Available Visualizer Mode (ON/OFF)
5. F: Freeze Visualizer
6. N: Show/Hide Nebula Gas
7. L: Lock Down the Camera Movement

Oh, I wonder... How many posts have I done this year?

Hint: I met my initial new year's resolution.

Yes. Any guesses?

Another hint: There's the same number of posts as the number on a certain movie title. This movie was about spartans. And there was a few parodies of this movie, including one with a bald Britney Spears imposter.

Last Hint: Three hundred in oh-eight.

A Prayer for the examinations

A Collection of Personal Prayers, originally uploaded by ronaldLIONG|.

Adapted from the School Hymnal, Page 48.

O Father of wisdom,

we pray Thee to bless the coming days,
on which we will be having a major examination,
keep us free from all pride, fear and self-concern,
and help us to give our best,
for Thy sake and to Thy glory.
Through the power of Jesus Christ our Lord,
without whom we cannot do it.

Amen.

urband

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Why Microsoft shouldn't bother advertising Windows.

Ok. Let's face it. The only people using Windows are those who have no choice. I'm talking about most gamers, enterprise who run legacy software, system modders, server environments who depend on ActiveSync [a Microsoft Technology], and the casual users who want a familiar interface.

And mind you: that's about 90.66% of the market. That's ubiquity that even the iPod hasn't achieved, after 10 million units.

So, with such ubiquity, why are they having the 'I'm a PC' ad campaign?

The answer lies in one of their main competitor: Apple. Their 'I'm a Mac' ads have tarnished the Windows brand name to a new low, so much so that Windows' market share has been on the decline.

So, to tackle the bad press, you inject good press. Simple as that.

But unfortunately, I think Microsoft may want to reconsider focusing on improving their product before advertising the nuts out of it.

Exhibit A: Malware vs Antivirus software. Many professionals mentioned that Macs do not need antivirus software because they do not get major viruses, so much so that there's only ONE major antivirus software for the Mac [oh, I don't have an antivirus software on my system. I'm a living proof.]. Nobody has complained of having to reformat their Mac once every month to keep their system speedy. This was in the times of the PowerPC, pre-2006. Now, no difference. Macs do not need regular reformats. On Windows, things are different. There's tons of antivirus software products, with exponentially higher numbers of virus and malware programmers. Why? Windows has a higher number of users, and higher number of corporate users.

Exhibit B: Crapware. I wouldn't blame Microsoft for this point. But I must say, I've never seen a clean install of Windows, except when I installed Windows on a Mac, and when my brother built his own PC. What is up with the PC manufacturers, like Sony, Dell, HP, and Acer? Why must you bundle so much crap with the product you are selling? Has any of the managers of these companies used a Mac? You only get the important stuff, and non-intrusive trial & softwares, like iWork, Office for Mac by Microsoft, and iLife. I understand having more crap cuts costs, but when is it too much? We don't need screensaver and wallpapers that advertise your product, or a Yahoo! toolbar.

Exhibit C: Ignorance to the press. Microsoft needs to deliver perfect products if they want to get rid of Apple once and for all. Why is there a virus on a PC on the International Space Station? It is fortunate the computer was not responsible for control of the station, but if it did, what would happen? And by the way, Microsoft, you can run Windows on a Mac. Don't say that you're locking yourself when on a Mac. No, you're getting the best of both worlds. Dimwit.

Oh, for the creative types, Microsoft lets you enjoy quality media and make phony video clips with Movie Maker. Macs let you create exam-quality videos [proof: me, with my 'O' Level project. 50% done on iMovie '08, 50% done in AE CS3, Premiere Pro CS3, Soundbooth, and Aperture 2, 100% done on a Mac] that looks professional, and enjoy quality media, both made by you, and those you bought.

Why do you think so many people in the Media industry, such as Marketing & advertising, Studio production, Music, Movies, and also celebrities, use Macs?

And don't even get me started about Windows Vista. Apple has poked fun at the many versions of Vista, and what's up with Aero? Is Windows 2000 and XP so bad that you guys need to put on a new mask? and is the GPU so underutilized and not powerful enough, you guys need to whip it?

Microsoft should not advertise Windows. Microsoft should just clean up their product, and then prove to people the usability. Otherwise, Snow Leopard, combined with the new low-margin 'product transition' Apple has been hinting at, may just be a chance where Apple could turn the tides.

Get Windows 7 / Vienna right, Microsoft. Don't do a Mojave II. And don't do a 2nd Windows ME [Millennium Edition].

tummyache

not feeling very well...

could be because some fixatives went into my alimentary canal... been pooping hourly since dinner. the excretion was solid and not semi-liquid, though.

must go to school tomorrow, to finish up my prep, and get books to study over the weekend.

planning to go on another 10K run on Sunday. anyone?

Homework! meme

I want to challenge you to complete the following 10 questions. Theme: Multi-national Food chain restaurants.

1. Who does Taco Bell like?

A:

2. What would you do without A&W?

A:

3. If A&W were to be mistaken for a celebrity, who would it be?

A:

4. Does MacDonald's make you hot?

A:

5. What was your first impression of KFC?

A:

6. Do you miss Mos Burger?

A:

7. If KFC were to be mistaken for a celebrity, who would it be?

A:

8. Who would win in a duel, A&W or Sushi Tei? And what kind of duel would they pick, anyway?

A:

9. If KFC and KFC teamed up, what would they most likely accomplish?

A:

10. What's Taco Bell's opinion on cheese?

A:

Let's see what kind of answers you guys come up with! Just post your answers on your blogs, so you have one more post for the record! Or, just post it in the comments [not tagboard].

Submittery!

meme: Tanned edition

I realised that I knew 12 Tans.

So, just to make things interesting, I chose 10 of them and did a meme!

The 10 [in alphabetical order]:

Bart Tan, Brendan Tan, George Tan, Jeremy Tan, Jerome Tan, Luke Tan, Paul Tan, Tan Choon Zhe, Tan Yi Lei, Tan Zexun.

Here it goes!

1. Do you trust Jerome Tan?

Yes [citation needed]

2. Can George Tan be bad influence?

Yes [citation needed]

3. Describe Tan Yi Lei in five words.

egoistic, effervescent, jocular, athletic, witty [citation not needed]

4. Can Tan Zexun be bad influence?

Yes. He influenced me to splurge on a flash. [citation: my Speedlite]

5. What is one thing Jeremy Tan isn't exactly made for?

Well, I have 3 options: High Jump, Playing the piano, and playing DJMax. If it has to be one, I'll choose 'playing the piano' [citation: Teachers' Day, 2007&2008].

6. Super fun fun adventure amusement park marathon with you, George Tan and Luke Tan! How will it go?

Whoa. Unlikely duo, but I know I'll be insane by the end of the marathon.

7. What is or would be a good nickname for Tan Choon Zhe?

Well, everyone aroung him's calling him 'Boss', and I don't wanna offend him [in case he reads this blog. Probability of that [when I was assessing and calculating in my mind] is 1/4. Not too low, considering the benchmark highest, which is Ren Yuan, is 1/2. Anyway, enough E Math. I'll say ... [word replacement and clean-up needed]

8. What's your fondest memory of Jeremy Tan?

The time he tried to follow me to my house. He walked all the way with me home, because he had so much free time. And btw, my house is a 5-10 minute walk from the MRT, and he walked both ways. [Google Maps image needed]
9. Had you ever slept in the same room as Jeremy Tan?

Yes. 5 times, in fact, yes. It was a fun night. We even got to play cards before we tucked inside this air-conditioned room. Quite big and spacious, but there was not much amenities. They have a bit of light refreshments, though. Oh, even though it was quite big, it felt like a little refuge camp, because we all slept in sleeping bags. Choir camp, Music Room, 4x, + 1x in A310 for Sec1 Orientation Camp. Yeah. Oh, he slept in the PA Room in the hall! [invalid citation]
10. Ever slept in the same room with Bart Tan?

Erm, no. Maybe except for the Sec 1 Orientation Camp. Other than that, I can't recall. What's with this "Sleeping in the same room" type of questions? Have you ever slept with all 6.6billion people in the solar system, including those in the ISS? Well, theorically, yes, since we are in the same place, which is the solar system. So, what's the point in asking if I slept in the same room as someone else? I slept in the same room as my parents, my bro, etc. Are you some sort of stalker? Sheez. Stop it, meme! Who are you, anyway?[citation needed]

cite!

Movies in 30s, re-enacted by bunnies!

http://www.angryalien.com/

got this link through Tekzilla. [Thanks Veronica Belmont!]

Don't wanna spend 2hours and $20 on a DVD, but still wanna watch your favourite movies reenacted by little bunnies? Or maybe you wanted to watch Borat, but couldn't do it in your home or at the cinema without getting stares from your parents... [HINT!HINT!]

This is the site for you!

Check it Out!

Oh, btw: Guess what these phrases are referring to:

-Turning Heads

-Furry Animal

Ans: No, not the action of twisting heads of furry critters. It's Dramatic Chipmunk

"Let's Rock" Report Card...

1. Steve Jobs will appear with his usual black turtle-neck and Levi's.[Levi's and MAROON turtleneck. darn it!]
2. Steve will share some stats about iPod sales [and very briefly, iPhone sales.]
3. Steve will talk about iPod nano, and unleash a redesigned iPod nano
4. Steve will talk about iPod classic, and then announce that there'll be new models which use SSD. [this has not been circulated in the rumor mill yet, so you heard this here first!] [120GB-only HDD model, same design as 80GB model]
5. Steve will announce a redesigned iPod touch: thinner, more tapered edge.
6. Steve will poke fun at Redmond. [Quote: "Nice job, Microsoft", referring to Zune.]
7. Steve will release new shuffles. I'm going out on a limb by saying the shuffle will have tapered edges like the MacBook Air and iPhone 3G. In fact, this is true for all the other iPods released at this event. [nano and touch only. that's 50% of ipod line-up, and half of the prediction correct. so, that's 0.25 points!]
8. iTunes 8. 'Genius', HD, NBC returns, Russia and Singapore gets store along with many other. [haha. loophole. I didn't say 'music store'.]
9. Apple TV price drop. [nope]
10. NO MAC UPDATES. That's probably in January 2009. New design of MacBook, MacBook Pros, iMacs. Juiced-up Nehalem processors on all the Macs, DDR3 for Mac Pro, new GPUs for all Macs [Intel GMA X4500 HD for Mac Mini, X4500MHD for MacBook, ATI HD3450 / 3850 or Nvidia Geforce GTX260 for MacBook Pro and iMac], Blu-Ray option for Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and highest-end iMac, LED for all screens + Cinema Display.

Score for simple guesses: 6.75/10

my guesstimates are so bad, I'm not going to compare the prices I estimated...

So, yeah. 6.75/10. Not too shabby...

UPDATE: It was a black turtleneck. So +0.5, My score will be 7.25/10! A2!!!

Coz an ordinary sandwich is never enough for me.

2 Recipes...

The First

The not-unordinary sandwich

Ingredients:

• 2 Loaves of Plain Gardenia Bread
• Chunky Skippy / Peanut Butter
• 2 Bananas, peeled, and sliced into HALVES.
• Optional: a coloured object, like strawberry leaves or milo powder.

Steps

1. Spread peanut butter over one loaf of bread
2. Fan out the bananas over the other loaf, such that they loaf is covered as much as possible on one side.
3. Stack the two loaves of bread together, with the banana and peanut butter stuck together.
4. Heat the sandwich, until the banana turns darker, but NOT completely black as carbon.
5. Garnish with strawberry leaves or milo powder over the bread.
6. Enjoy!

The Second

The Garnished Ice-cream

Ingredients

• A bland, non-frutty-flavoured milky ice-cream. This could be Chocolate, Vanilla, Cookie&Cream, Macadamia, or anything around this.
• Milo Powder!
• A biscuit, sandwich, or cone

Steps

1. Scoop enough ice-cream to whet your appetite on the sandwich / bread or cone or plate.
2. Garnish away! Sprinkle milo powder FROM THE SPOON over the ice-cream.
3. If you have, get a biscuit through the ice-cream.
4. Enjoy!

Supper doesn't need to be boring. It can be dun to make, and it can help to de-stress you while you study!

Increase your G33k Cred!

Do you know what Processor you are using now?

No, I don't care if it's an Intel Core 2 Extreme.

No. Give me the Preocessor number, Codename, and some specs!

Can't?

Well, see if these can help...

oh, they're Intel PC CPUs only. Sorry if you're on a laptop, AMD, or some other processor that's older than the Pentium P5 from 1992.

Hey! 1992!

Thanks to ArsTechnica for the heads-up.

Understanding Chrome.

Read this Comic if you haven't already,

and watch this Press Event Video.

Top 10 apps to install on your new Mac.

Well, seeing how Isaac got a new iMac, and since I thought of getting my own soon, I thought I'll create a list of ten apps you should add to your new Mac. I hope this gets on Digg!

1. Webkit [Webkit.org]
   It looks and feels like Safari. Well, actually, it is, but it's the development version, meaning all the new advances gets onto Webkit before getting on Safari! It's faster, and it's sufficiently stable! Only problem: they update every night, so this will make your Time Machine bloat in no time.
2. smcFanControl [eidac]
   Your Mac CPU gets hot after a while. Especially your MacBooks. Apple refuses to kick up the fan speeds, but you want coller laptops. This app lets you manually control your fans so that they can speed up faster, or slower.
3. Microsoft Office for Mac [Microsoft]
   You know you need it. Doesn't matter if you want it. Well, fortunately, it supports the new Office XML standard, as well as the normal Office documents. Furthermore, you can save to PDF! This feature has saved my buttocks umpteen times while I was doing my O Level project because the art room iMac doesn't have Microsoft Office, but can open up PDFs in Preview and Adobe Acrobat. Oh, by the way, for the MSN Messenger users, there is Microsoft Messenger for Mac. And it is free, even if you didn't buy Office for Mac.
   
4. Countdown Widget [c3images]
   Here's a common fact: when you hit F4 on your new Mac keyboard [F12 on older ones like my MBP], you enter an alternate desktop called Dashboard. Here's where your widgets belong. Widgets are little apps that may be useful, or just for fun. Amongst the many widgets out there, this is definitely one of the must-haves. A countdown widget, so you won't have a problem counting down to your O Level paper. For example: Mine starts in 39 days, since my first paper is on 15 Oct [Art Paper 3].
5. OnyX [Titanium Software]
   I'ld say this is one of the more technical stuff on my list, but it's definitely one of the most useful. In short, it's a mixture of different utilities to maintain your system. It gets rid of caches and files on your system that you may be unable to locate, and it verifies your partition, something you may not understand but should regularly do. [Don't ask. I don't understand what verification means in this case]
6. Audacity [Sourceforge]
   As if GarageBand is not enough for your music editing needs and ringtone-making for your iPhone [GarageBand lets you make iPhone ringtones for free. Yes.]. Well, everyone else who needs to do more advanced music editing will like Audacity. Same as PC version. No difference.
7. VLC [VideoLAN.org]
   Same as the PC and Linux cousin, VLc lets you play back almost all the video formats you can possibly throw at it. I find this app a bit unstable at times, which made me hate it more.
8. FlickrUploadr [Flickr Tools]
   Unless you use Aperture [for which I'ld recommend a plug-in that lets you upload straight from within Aperture to Flickr], you'ld prefer uploading photos to your Yahoo! Flickr account using this app. Drag the photos from the Finder to the app logo in the Dock, type in the tags, and click upload!
9. Last.fm [Last.fm]
   Not much to say about this app either. If you like a music recommendation service, I say 'Last.fm'. If you want to see what other friends are listening to, even if they're on a PC or iPod, this app helps you with that too. It also 'scrobbles' your songs so that people know what you've been listening to. Just look at my chart!
10. Flip4Mac [Flip4Mac]
    3 words: Windows, Media, Video. If you often find yourself watching WMV files or streams, you'll need this extension for Quicktime. Sure, it won't allow you to watch DRM WMV files, but at least you get the basic codec!

I wanted to add one more app here, but it's not here yet. That's Google Chrome. I've yet to try it, but I think it'll be awesome if it can live up to its promise of being able to close only one tab when a tab gets unstable, rather than the entire browser app [glares furiously at Webkit, which happens to be a parent of Google Chrome!]

Let's play the bingo game: Apple Event!

September 9th: Let's Rock, 10am GMT-0700h.

That's 1AM September 10th in Singapore...

I'm probably going to stream the event on my mac while I sleep and refresh MacRumors on my iPhone / iPod touch...

Put before the event begins, let's predict what's going to happen during the event!

1. Steve Jobs will appear with his usual black turtle-neck and Levi's.
2. Steve will share some stats about iPod sales [and very briefly, iPhone sales.]
3. Steve will talk about iPod nano, and unleash a redesigned iPod nano
4. Steve will talk about iPod classic, and then announce that there'll be new models which use SSD. [this has not been circulated in the rumor mill yet, so you heard this here first!]
5. Steve will announce a redesigned iPod touch: thinner, more tapered edge.
6. Steve will poke fun at Redmond.
7. Steve will release new shuffles. I'm going out on a limb by saying the shuffle will have tapered edges like the MacBook Air and iPhone 3G. In fact, this is true for all the other iPods released at this event.
8. iTunes 8. 'Genius', HD, NBC returns, Russia and Singapore gets store along with many other.
9. Apple TV price drop.
10. NO MAC UPDATES. That's probably in January 2009. New design of MacBook, MacBook Pros, iMacs. Juiced-up Nehalem processors on all the Macs, DDR3 for Mac Pro, new GPUs for all Macs [Intel GMA X4500 HD for Mac Mini, X4500MHD for MacBook, ATI HD3450 / 3850 or Nvidia Geforce GTX260 for MacBook Pro and iMac], Blu-Ray option for Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and highest-end iMac, LED for all screens + Cinema Display.

Guesstimates of new Prices of iPods in US$

iPod shuffle: [2x capacity for same price]

2GB $49,

4GB $69

iPod nano: [price cut; new 16GB model]

4GB $89,

8GB $139,

16GB $189

iPod Classic: [new, more expensive SSD model ; price cut for existing capacities]

64GB SSD $399,

80GB HDD $199,

160GB $ 299

iPod touch: [price cut, phase out 8GB model]

16GB $199,

32GB $299

Apple TV: [price cut]

40GB $169

160GB $ 269

Wacky links...

I'm not going to talk much about them, except to say,

• I won't be using this[1],
• humanity may end because of this[2],
• I like the looks of this thing[3],
• I wish I could test this[4] for review,
• I don't understand this ad[5],
• nor do I trust this marketing initiative[6].

1: Pink Browser

2: Large Hadron Collider

3: Large Helical Device

4: Google Chrome

5: Microsoft Seinfeld + Bill Gates Ad

6: Mojave Experiment

yeah, 6 links, in one post. That's a record, right?

Hurricanes, Arts, Macs, and Math. Oh, and Segway.

HAMM. ok. seems as if there's no link, but you'll see, as I segway* myself between and through the 4+1 topics.

During Art, I kiddingly told a few people that my Mac makes a 'chainsaw' / hurricane noise for almost one month every year, and almost all of them seem to fall around the Hurricane season.

Also during Art, while my Mac was not making the hurricane noise, Kevin, Jasper, Cleon, and I were figuring out how much larger should cleon print each side of his 'cube' structure, and how much larger will the volume be. That means for every n times you increase each side, the volume increases by n^3 times. I did some Math on y mac as to see the volume increase if the length increased by 1.5X. The answer: 3.375. Who knew?

And speaking of Math, I've been so tied up with Art, I barely have time to practice / prepare / study for Add Math Prelim Paper next Monday. Sigh.

My mind's a hurricane right now, as I try to get myself to do prep work for Art, as well as to study for Add Math. And yet, I'm still blogging on my Mac. Double sigh...

Hah! See? I Segwayed*!

*Segway*: to segue, to transition from one topic / idea to another in a conversation, speech, or in this case, a blog post.

*Segway has the same pronunciation as segue. Realised that, phonetics professionals?

What I want for Christmas 08?

Well, since it's my O Level year, and I don't want to think of a list later in the year [or do I?], I thought I should make a list of what I want, ahead of Christmas 2008.

In order of 'wantedness'...

1. Adobe Master Collection CS4, Student Licensing Option, Macintosh Edition.

I admit. I want Adobe Master Collection. And yes, I want CS4 when it's available. I want I want I want! At least get me the Production Premium edition, if Master Collection costs a bomb...

2. A New MacBook Pro running on Core i7 / Nehalem.

Probably not coming till post-MacWorld, but I can dream, right?

3. An iPhone 3G dock.

This one's just for fun. I'm so tired of holding my phone to watch a video...

4. Sony PSP-3000

The newly-updated PSP with less-glossy screen... Like, forget iPhone games if I need to pay for them by Visa. I don't own a Visa!

5. A pile of PC parts, left for me to assemble and install!

I've been reading up a little bit around Anandtech and ExtremeTech. I think I know what I want...

• An mATX mobo
• An Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 OR Intel Core 2 Quad Kenstfield QX6600
• ATI Radeon HD4870
• A ≥650W Cool & Quiet Power supply
• An LG Super-Multi Blue BD-R drive
• A 640GB SATA HDD
• 4GB DDR2 RAM, or DDR3 if the Mobo supports it
• a nice CPU cooler
• A Creative X-Fi sound card [any, as long as it's internal]
• A floppy drive [just for fun, and in case of emergency]
• An internal media card reader
• if the mobo doesn't have it: Wifi 802.11n, please! [no need for Bluetooth]
• If I can't get an mATX mobo, and must get an ATX, then I'll pick a Centurion 5 as my case, please!
• Lots of cable ties, cables, and screws.
• A few PC games. I wanna try Spore, Mass Effect, and MIRROR'S EDGE!!! I WANNA PARKOUR! [really, as well as virtually]
• Oh, how could I forget! A copy of Windows XP Professional. If not, I want Vista Home Premium, or Ubuntu, or Leopard + the not-so-legit OS-X-on-a-PC hack. Heck, I'll have XP, Linux, Leopard, and Ubuntu ALL on 1 HDD. 200GB for each OS, except Linux, which gets 40GB.

6. Mirror's Edge [PC]

I love Mirror's Edge! I love Parkour! I can't do it in real life, so why not virtually?

Lost the lodestone? Get a cow!

Well, if cows can't do Math, at least they know their cardinal points and magnetic fields...

Reports have shown that when in generally good weather, cows point North-South.

You have probably seen how cows will tend to face together in the same direction in a field, usually to face head on into a wind (reduces heat loss) or sideways to the sun (maximize heat gain), but because the photos on Google Earth are so widespread and taken in generally good weather, it appears that cows have a "default setting" of north-south orientation when local conditions don't override it. [Source]

Yeah. Odd.

Oh, by the way, check out the names of storms and hurricanes done by the World Meteorological Organisation. Yes, the Hurricane names are coined up AHEAD of the storm itself, and they're recycled. Oh, they're in alphabetical order.

Storm names

The following names will be used for named storms that form in the North Atlantic in 2008. Retired names, if any, will be announced by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 2009. The name Ike was used for the first time in 2008. The names not retired from this list will be used again in the 2014 season. The list is the same as the 2002 list except for Ike and Laura, which replaced Isidore and Lili, respectively.

Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gustav (active)

Hanna (active) Ike (active) Josephine (active) Kyle (unused) Laura (unused) Marco (unused) Nana (unused)

Omar (unused) Paloma (unused) Rene (unused) Sally (unused) Teddy (unused) Vicky (unused) Wilfred (unused)

[source] (active: as of 3 Sep 08 1.33am GMT+0800h)

meme: Teachers!

Meme

noun Biology

an element of a culture or system of behavior

1. What's Mr Desmond Soh's opinion on cheese?

He probably likes it, since it's pretty tasty. Come on! I like cheese too! So should everybody else!

2. Have you ever been in Mrs Raj's house?

Nope. But I did get a ride to school from Mrs Singh once, and she is a History Teacher as well. But, nope. Never to a History teacher's house.

3. What's your fondest memory of Ms Chua Xin Yuan?

Erm, there's 2 possibilities. The first: Her taking care of me while I was ill on my way from Italy to Singapore. The second: Her pinching people's ears.

4. What do you think about Mr Desmond Soh?

He's sarcastic, and he doesn't like to show emotions, but he can be a nice guy, who's also a Math teacher. Yeah. That sums everything up.

5. If Ms Seah Kui Hua played in a movie, what kind of character would they play?

Erm, either a teacher [duh.], or an indie musician [she did say she wanted to play the drums, but she's tone-deaf. So, Indie it is.].

6. Can Mr Desmond Soh be bad influence?

Yes, but so can anyone else. And I say he can be a bad influence, not because he directly makes people learn bad things, but that people may lean towards doing evil things [Exhibit A: that dude in my class who used to fail Math often. No names named.]

7. What would you do if Mr Gordon Goh and Mr Koh Yong Mong were going out?

Going out, meaning? Well, Both of them have their own wives, and Mr Koh has kids, so, it better be a 'Men's night out at the club' kind of thing...

8. What's your fondest memory of Mr Koh Yong Mong?

His jokes. Because somehow, I almost always laugh at them, even when I think it's lame.

9. Have you ever been in Ms Chua Xin Yuan's house?

Nope, although I saw pictures of her house messed up for her birthday on the Saint2.0 blog. [ad!]

10. Who would be a better superhero sidekick between Mrs Raj and Ms Chua Xin Yuan, and why?

Ms Chua. Because she knows acupuncture. But Mrs Raj can probably help in stopping conflict by applying lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Peace, everybody. Peace.

Happy belated Teachers' Day!

Supper recipe so crazy, it's good.

Name of food: Hot Grape Yogurt Sandwich

Serves 1.

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of plain bread. Oatmeal NOT recommended.
• 1 slice of cheese.
• grapes preferably 9 to 10 pieces, seedless. Green would be nice, but because I don't have any, I used purple grapes.

Utensils & materials needed:

• a Microwave oven or toaster oven
• a small plate
• If too hot, get tongs to grab your food from the oven.

Steps:

1. Lay a piece of cheese on one slice of bread.
2. Place this slice in oven. Heat for 30s in the microwave, or until the cheese melts.
3. Cut up the grapes into halves.
4. Remove bread w/ cheese from the oven
5. Lay the grapes over the cheese.
6. Lay 2nd slice of bread over the grape.
7. Consume!

Yum.

E Maths Practice!

I used to enjoy pretending to be a teacher, teaching real-life school stuff. That was when I was in Primary 2, 3, and 4. Things have changed since then. I went on to do Math Buddy, then I'm not doing any forms of 'teaching' anymore.

Well, seeing that it's Teachers' Day, plus the fact that O Levels are coming, I decided to give a little E Math Question for people to ponder upon!

Here it goes. a 10-mark question on Statistics. Enjoy! Happy Teachers' Day!

Name: _____________ Index: ____-____ Date: 1 September 2008

A blogger kept track of the number of posts he publishes over the first 8 months of a year. The results are as follows:

• Aug (19) Jul (58) Jun (42) May (48)
• Apr (42) Mar (28) Feb (20) Jan (19)

• Find
• a) the mean number posts over the 8 months. [1]
• b) the standard deviation of the number of posts over the 8 months. [2]
• c) the median number of posts over the 8 months.[1]
• d) the average number of posts over the remaining 4 months of the year, if the average numbers of posts per month for that year is given as 40. [2]
• e) the maximum number of posts for the month of September, if
• (i) the mode for the first 9 months is 19. [1]
• (ii)the median for the first 9 months was 28. [1]
• f) the interquartile range of the first 8 months. [1]
• g) the range.[1]
• 
  

• 19 19 20 28 42 42 48 58 Solution
• (a) 34.5 (b) 14.1 in 3sf (c) 35 (d) 51 (e) (i)19 (ii)28
• (f) 25.5 (g) 39
• So, how did you do? [ / 10]
• Oh, if you'ld like an extra question, here's one.
• Let's say another blogger also tracked his blogging frequency for the first 8 months and calculated the following:

• standard deviation = 4.2
• mean = 30
• Lower Quartile = 24
• Interquartile range = 8

a) calculate the upper quartile. [1]

b) Comment on the frequency of posts of the two bloggers in two different ways. [2]