sentosa//tomorrow  


I will be going to Sentosa for class outing tomorrow. Sentosa is an island located in the south of Singapore. I go there quite frequently in the past. Now I am returning to this place.
Crazy Riddle
Question: What is full of holes yet can still hold water ?
Answer: Sponge
I never understood Sentosa's appeal, if there's any. To me, it's a boring place. Right now, it's even worse with so many things there aren't construction.
We supposed to meet at 11. Zhi Yuan suggested that we go there earlier to play volleyball [and check out the girls in bikini].
But, you know, I am not interested in playing volleyball. I don't like the game. I rather kick the volleyball like a football or use the beach volleyball court to play badminton. I can imagine myself being hit by the damn volleyball now. Balls always have an affinity to me. They always come flying my way and I have to find all ways to avoid it.
Pei Shan, Zhi Yuan and Yong Liang were even practising volleyball at school so as to perform better in Sentosa beaches. They're so enthusiastic.
I hate to disappoint them. I doubt many will be there. I imagine around 8 people to be there only. I think some will leave early too.
The last time I been to Sentosa was a year ago with the Chemical and Life Sciences Club people. It's more like an ice breaker activity. We're just there to get to know our friends better. The only thing I can remember is Ming Hao being enthusiastic about eating in Burger King. So I went there with him and settled our lunch there. And then.. We left shortly.
I wonder if I'll end up leaving early this time too. If it's boring.. I might. [Wait, there's peer pressure that'll make me stay.]

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/28/2004 10:02:00 PM
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studying//initiated  


It wasn't a good day to begin with in the first place. I woke up at 6 in the morning and start to read through my Basic Immunology notes.
Did you know?
A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.
Yesterday, I was right in front of my computer doing my formal report. I haven't even complete now. Apparently, I have no idea what's going on in school. I read the experiment worksheet from the front to the back and then back to front. Still have no idea. And Yong Liang, my practical partner, is needing my part of the work before he can further his part. [The formal report is pair work.]
There is a 5 hour break in school and it'll be a good time to study for my Basic Immunology test. It didn't happen as I plan. My clique suggests to book a discussion room to study in the library. Having heard that suggestion, I knew I wouldn't be able to study.
It would have been nice being right, but I wish I weren't this time. Zhi Yuan is surprisingly noisy in the discussion room. Joking. Laughing. Talking. Writing on the whiteboard. A rather active person.
How the hell can I study under such unfavorable conditions? It is not inducing me to study. I am just in the discussion room in order to not be a wet blanket. I suffered because of that. If I were to say I don't want to see them while studying, it would have sounded mean and unfriendly.
I can't study with a group of people talking about other things other than my studying subject. Zhi Yuan was talking, and the only time he is quiet is when he is listening to his music. He blasts the ear piece that everyone can hear his songs. Shawn was trying to study too. Yong Liang was half-asleep already. And Ben.. He needs to read aloud to study.
It wasn't long that I found myself chatting. I should just delete Zhi Yuan and Ben from the picture, it'll be quite perfect. Yong Liang is half-asleep so he doesn't talk. [Oh, now that Ben know the presence of my blog: Well, Ben is a nice fellow. He just needs to not read aloud when studying as a group.]
When the judgment hour is nearing, I really need to study. I fail to do that still. I went into the lecture theatre where the test is at.
Mr. Foo gave out the papers. I was shocked. I knew I was going to fail. Fail badly this time. I was angry with my friends. Frustrated, I reached for my bag and retrieve Mr. Foo's notes.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/26/2004 07:21:00 PM
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day//initiated  


I plugged the ear piece into my ear [well, it's not called "ear piece" for no reason] and set off to school. It's a routine thing.
Humorous Quote
"Without self-confidence we are as babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself."
     - Virginia Woolf
I left my home 40 minutes before school starts. Unlock my gate and start wearing my foot wear [I suppose you know where these goes to now]. I even lock my gate the exact same way. I left my home, blasting my music.
I walked a short distance and start to review what I'm supposed to bring for the day. Usually, I end up heading back home because I forget to bring something out. Yesterday I forgot my Visual Basic .NET textbook, sometimes I forget my lap coat. There are times I wore sandals out of my house when there's practical lessons in the bio laboratories. [You have to cover your foot fully while working on experiments.]
It depends on the music I'm listening to. If it's slow, I walk slowly. If it's fast, I walk fastly [okay, "quickly" makes a better word]. I learnt not to listen to Misia on the way, because I always feel the world is such a nice place and I would like to walk slowly to enjoy it. I listen to people like Shiina Ringo. She makes me feel motivated and she seems to be screaming "you should up your gears and move faster".
My 15-minutes walking journey ends at the train station. I took the train to school and it takes around 15 minutes too. I like taking the train, squeezing and getting squeezed in the train. Watching the people who can't board sadistically from the inside of the cabin of train, thinking I'm so lucky.
The morning is all about rushing. At least in Singapore. Everybody squeezes and pushes just to get in the train. I do the same.
After 15 minutes, I'll reach Dover station, that's where my school is. I look around for Shawn, sometimes for Ben. I used to only wait for Shawn when he messages me to wait. So one day, I didn't receive his message. [You see, I always receive his message to wait.] I didn't wait for him, and did not inform him. I went to class straight. And then I receive a call starting with the question "Where are you?".
Opps.
The call ended with "Fuck you lar".

On a side note, I was nominated for Silent Fear Awards for the categories:
- Best Site Name
- Well Designed
- Best Layout

The voting is up again, it was down previously. Please do support me by voting here, since I egoistically nominated my own blog, lol. Do check out the other nominees too.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/24/2004 10:36:00 PM
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duplication//initiated  


Yong Liang passed me the SPEED album last Thursday. I didn't ask for it, I am quite skeptical about SPEED doing a come back. SPEED is a popular Japanese girl group that broken up so as to further their studies. [Rumor says there are disagreements in the group that cause it.]
Did you know?
The term "Blue Chip" comes from the color of the poker chip with the highest value, blue.
I secretly owned one of the SPEED compilation albums called "Dear Friend 1". It's one of the two compilation albums released moments before their split. The second album was cleverly titled "Dear Friends 2".
I really liked that album of mine, but I didn't share with anybody. Nobody suspect I was listening to this type of music as I listen to English music mainly.
Enough of that, so Yong Liang offered to lend me the album. I'm quite surprised because no one offered to lend me their CDs before, lol. Then he told me it's copy-controlled.
Great. Can't copy. [He previously asked if I want him to burn a copy for me, I turned him down as I prefer it in WMA format, my portable CD player reads WMA.] I announced to him that I have my ways to get it ripped into my computer.
My method:
Place the copy-controlled CD into scorching hot water.
Put a teaspoon of pepper and 2 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce.
Stir well and put some strawberries inside.
Put everything in the oven and set the oven at 200 degree Celsius for 20 minutes.
Remove it from oven and it's ready to serve to the CD drive's tray.
Anyway, I didn't do my method, I just popped the disc in my CD drive and Windows Media Player (WMP) just popped up. I commanded WMP to search for the names of the tracks. The search is successful, WMP auto-fills in the names and even the composer too.
I clicked on the "Copy Music" button. I was in for a surprise.
Not that WMP explode [boom!] or something.. It copied! There was no message whatsoever, it just copied. So much for a copy-controlled CD.
The same thing happened for the Blue CD - Guilty. It supposed to be copy-controlled but I did a CD-to-CD Copy and the CD worked fine. The same thing happened to 5566's new album, I copied and ripped. It allowed me to. [I am not into Blue or 5566, it's my brother.. I want more Shiina Ringo.]
So what's this copy-protection about, can anyone tell me?

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/22/2004 11:47:00 PM
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bang//not  


It's several weeks after that I wanted to make a comment about William Hung. Being a civil engineer student, William Hung tried the impossible to battle against fellow contestants in the American Idol audition. As expected, the impossible is indeed impossible.
Inspirational Quote
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing."
     - John Powell
There is no doubt that William Hung is brave. I mean, who would dare to bang in front of national TV; what's more, in America which has something like - correct me if I'm wrong - 300 million people. William has been a great sport frankly. There is nothing bad about his personality.
However his innocence, courageousness and humble beginnings backfired. He appeared naive, silly and more silly. The narrator even told him to bang somewhere else. What has the poor Chinese did to deserve these embarrassing moments?
Everything.
He should have watched a couple of episodes of American Idol and think hard: is my singing of any standard? He tried hard, he probably knew he'll be the joke of the town, correction: world.
He sang Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" in front of 3 celebrated judges. One of which is Randy Jackson, who spend more than half the time covering his head with an A4 size paper. Judge Paula Abdul is probably thinking what to say to make that poor guy feel encouraged. The last judge, Simon Cowell, swallowed much of his sarcasms and didn't say much bad things for once.
I laughed in front of my 34-inch television. I told myself he's going to make it big. Not in the music field, but in CNN, CNBC, BBC, Fox News and all other news channels.
He became extremely famous. My local television channel, Channel 5, telecasted American Idol 3. Part of the screen shows distracting SMS-es, where the nothing-to-do home viewers sent in, claiming that they want William Hung to be back in American Idol to participate.
That is totally unacceptable, at least to me, likely to Fox too. It's sad to see William being laughed upon, but there's no need to make William into the American Idol. That itself is unrealistic. It is absurd and plain stupid. I wished the others can just wake up. Stop this William Hung crap, don't support him. It's not worth it at all. I see nothing good in him except his entertainment in the rather boring audition.
Show business is a harsh world, not for innocent kids like William. He makes a good comedian and a good sport. He belongs to Saturday Night Live (SNL), not American Idol! Just knock the door of SNL producers, he'll be part of the show in no time.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/21/2004 09:35:00 PM
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music//finish  


I won’t be posting Japanese music lyric translations for a while. I sort of ended my run too. I planned to post 10 of these. I post every Friday until the there are 10. The feedback has been quite positive so far, but last week, I posted number 10.
So this week, there’s nothing. I decide to post some credits instead.

I listen to some Japanese songs, some of which have rather strange lyrics, so I posted them. I never did translations, I do not understand Japanese. I took lyric translations from fan pages etc. Sometimes, the web fails me and I ended up typing the lyrics out by copying the subtitles from the video clip.

The songs come from different sources, I shan’t talk much about it, lol. Some came from video clips. I use m&g Software’s AVI to WAV extractor 3.5 to extract out the sound from the video. [The software is free by the way.]

For song cropping, normalizing of volumes and fading in and out, I use either Ahead Nero Wave Editor or Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. Both are good programs, I use the latter more though.

Songs are encoded in Windows Media Audio 9 for smaller downloads at a quality loss. I use Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Series to encode all my music. [This is a free software too.] Windows Media Audio sounds best at lower bit rates as compared to other formats.

Some posts include still image captures, these are captured by Microsoft Windows Media Player 9 Series. [This is another free software.] Images are later cropped or edited by Macromedia Fireworks. [Photoshop committed suicide, great..]

These are the past postings [Most of the music are removed already, sorry.]

  1. music//ichi [Ayumi Hamasaki – Real Me]
  2. music//ni [Yukino Satsuki – Densetsu no Onsen GAME (Legendary Hot-Springs Turtle)]
  3. music//san [NICEGUYJIN – Hai, Irasshai! (Hello, Welcome!)]
  4. music//shi [Funta – Wake Up Angel ~ Negaimashite wa Mugen Nari ~ (Wake Up Angel ~ Wishing for this is unlimited ~)]
  5. music//go [Aoi Tada – Wo Qui Non Coin]
  6. music//roku [Yuuichirou Sakuraba – Hitoribocchi no Haburashi (Lonely Toothbrush)]
  7. music//shichi [Gackt – To build a fire (To feel a fire)]
  8. music//hachi [Judy and Mary – Kujira 12 gou (Whale #12)]
  9. music//ku [Maki Goto – Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube! (An Authentic GAL Should Be Bold)]
  10. music//ju [MiniMoni – Okashi Tsukutte Okassui (Making Sweets: Strange)]

I enjoyed posting these. I’ll do these weekly posting thingy in future too.
Yesterday, I posted a quote that has been posted a day before. I forgotten to change it to a new one in my template. Opps.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/20/2004 11:54:00 PM
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interesting//fellow  


Some people coin new terms. [I was refering to George W. Bush, he coined some rather amusing ones like "misunderestimate".] My classmates instead amended existing ones.
Bush Quote
""They misunderestimated me."
     - George W. Bush (Nov 6, 2000)
[What? Is this misunderstand plus underestimate? He coined a new word..]
It is purely sarcasm, I tell you. When someone says "you're so interesting", it actually means "you're full of shit". A quarter of my class seemed to agree that Ben is the most "interesting" person. Ben must be quite disappointed.
Zhi Yuan says things like, "It's Ben. Expect the unexpected". Ben is pretty much a gamer. He plays lots of games, especially adventure and RPG [Role Playing Games] ones.
"I am level 99, H.P. 999," he reported to me when I requested for his status.
To Ben, everything explodes. His favorite word is "boom", the sound of explosions. The water fountain can go boom, the computer can be boom, and even the school can go boom. Boom!
Ben's favorite phrase is "dot dot dot", used to suggest the other party is speaking of something rather corny. It's like I am chatting with him over MSN Messenger or something. He literally says "dot dot dot". I used to say that in secondary school, but not often. I said it differently from Ben, mine is "dot <pause> dot <pause> dot", well, basically I pause longer.
Sometimes, Ben exclaims "question mark" when he is confused. [I never exclaim that before.] It's really amusing when I first heard it.
But these amusements fail to amuse me now, I'm tired. He does tell some jokes too. Most of his jokes are downright lame and corny. I can't help but to feel a sudden discomfort when I hear his lame jokes. 2 types of lame jokes, one of which is lame and funny, the other is lame and lame. Ben speaks the latter.
But people are starting to make fun of him. Calling him "interesting". Sometimes I say that he's "interesting", he'll say "shuddup lar" [Shut up]. Oh, he's angry. I'll be quiet.
He's rather gullible too. He went on a basic theory test for driving. Zhi Yuan insisted that the road sign for train tracks refers to the airplane zone. Yong Liang nods and agrees. Shawn starts to laugh at Ben because he doesn't know that road sign refers to airplanes.
Believe it or not, but Ben believed that it's the airplane zone road sign!
"Interesting" fellow, lol.
[Ben is a nice person. A person too nice in fact, to end up being joked upon. And why is he nice? Well, he never owe me money more than a day. Shawn still owes me 6 bucks..]

On a side note, I was nominated for Silent Fear Awards for the categories:
- Best Site Name
- Well Designed
- Best Layout

Please do support me by voting here, since I egoistically nominated my own blog, lol. Do check out the other nominees too.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/19/2004 10:30:00 PM
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it//sucks  


My crazy father returned home with something extra today. He unpacked the box and he revealed to us what is known as a vacuum cleaner in modern days.
Bush Quote
""They misunderestimated me."
     - George W. Bush (Nov 6, 2000)
[What? Is this misunderstand plus underestimate? He coined a new word..]
What I saw is this huge vacuum cleaner that probably has industrial-sized power to vacuum the water from the Singapore River. Hey, wait a minute. He did buy the damn vacuum to suck up all the water.
That vacuum cleaner looks bad on the exterior. It is bulky and I can't seem to think of any place to store that machine. Basically, it totally sucks.. Well, which is good in a way especially when I wouldn't want to get a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck.
My father place it in our balcony. It's already quite messy there and we don't have a big balcony. The last thing we need in the balcony - something that sucks.
Carefully, I plugged in and switched on the vacuum cleaner. I watched from afar hoping that it works well because it seriously looked as if it's going to explode anytime. I can imagine Ben doing that "booom!" sound effect really.
It works like a beauty and sounds like a frustrated beast. The sound is still ringing in my mind. The sound is enough to ward off mosquitoes and all other evil creatures. It sounded like those electrical insect repellent with a lot more decibels.
I found alternate users for it. When a guest requires an extra stool, the vacuum cleaner can certainly help. It can be improvised into a stool. And look ma, it even comes with a set of wheels! If my mother can't reach the clothes in the balcony, she can also step on top of the vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner looks strong enough to support my 55 kg mother.
The actual reason that my father bought a vacuum turns out to be quite an alternate use too. He wanted to suck the water from our air conditioners. That's so stupid. He has been grumbling since years ago. He claims our air conditioners are noisy because "the water is stuck in the pipe".
I tell you, it's crap. I have been in school for 12 years, I know my stuff. I don't see what has the air conditioner generator's noise level got to do with obstructions in the pipe. [The repairmen came a number of times and my father is very rude to them. It never got repaired.] And he bought a vacuum cleaner just like that. As in, he went out, and returned with it. There is no discussion whatsoever. I told you he's crazy.
Life is like a vacuum cleaner I guess..

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/17/2004 07:34:00 PM
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five//hours  


Early at 8, I reached school. I walked to school with Ben, James, Shawn and Yong Liang. [Just to digress: I have this thing with sorting things alphabetically, lol.]
Strange Quote
""If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now."
     - Woodrow Wilson
I walk to school from the train station, it's a short distance. It used to be quite boring, but my wonderful polytechnic has done some landscaping to it. Now there's waters running down beautifully like a waterfall. I suspect the reason they construct it is to show it off to our dear so-call elected president. You see, he won because there are no candidates..
As we were walking towards the lecture theatre, I saw Pei Shan and her boyfriend leaving the school.
[drum rolls] Drum rolls not for Pei Shan but for the fact that the lesson is cancelled and the fact that we are going to be idle till 1 in the afternoon. That's 5 hours of break.
So we merrily talked in the food court. I was munching my Sausage McMuffin with Egg while talking and laughing. Then I ate the harsh brown. McDonald's made good breakfast. That's the only thing I like - breakfast. I tried the KFC one and I start to I'm-Lovin'-It McDonald's more.
We proceeded to the library and booked a discussion room. Well, it's a discussion room. We were discussing anything that is not related to school. Ben, Shawn and Zhi Yuan were discussing about Pokémon. Right, Mewtwo is better than Mew. Okay, got that noted down.
Yong Liang let me listened to the new Speed CD. [Speed is a much loved Japanese girl group; they recently released that come-back album - Bridge.] I didn't quite enjoy the songs. I am going into more unique sounding songs nowadays.
It was the last hour that we remember why we booked this discussion room for. We have a test later. And we haven't study finish.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/16/2004 11:24:00 PM
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music//ju  


This has got to be one of the silliest songs I heard. I especially like the bass of this track. It's rather "rockish" in a childish way.
Strange News
NEW YORK, NY. A man was knocked down by a car and got up uninjured, but lay back down in front of the car when a bystander told him to feign injury in order to collect insurance money. The car rolled forward and crushed him to death.
     - Associated Press, 1977
The song is called "Okashi Tsukette Okassui". [I searched and found several similar Romanized names like "Okashi Tsukette Okkasi" and "Okashi Tsukette Okassi".] I can't find the title translation for this song so I translated the title myself to be something like "Making Sweets: Strange" or something. I don't learn Japanese so I may be wrong. Can someone tell me the correct translation of the title?
MiniMoni members - Mari Yaguchi, Nozomi Tsuji, Ai Kago and Mika Todd - starred in the movie - MoniMoni The Movie: The Great Cake Adventure a couple of years back. I first heard that song from this film.
The movie's about MiniMoni members running a confectionery that does wonderful cakes. Just hours before their shop's anniversary, an evil queen sought to destroy the cakes they made. Just when things go bad, their sizes got reduced. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all.
I have encoded 56sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 48 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people. This is the best quality I have encoded again, at the expense of file sizes again. :)
Download the sample from here (355 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 23.]
Okashi Tsukutte Okassui
 [Making Sweets: Strange]

Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo!
 [Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!]
Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo! Oide yo!
 [Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!]

Issho ni okashi!
 [Together: Sweets!]
Issho wa okassui~!
 [Together: Strange~!]

Okashi wa itsudemo SHAI dakara
 [Because sweets are always SHY]
Hotondo kaiwa mo nai keredo
 [They don't really have very much to say]

Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okassui~!
 [So strange~!]

Okashi wa itsudemo mirokuteki!
 [Sweets are always fascinating!]
Shotaimenna noni oishisou
 [They look so good at just the first glance]

Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okashi fushigi!
 [Sweets wondrous!]
Okassui~!
 [So strange~!]


Source: The movie itself
After I watched the film, the words "okashi fushigi" still rings in my mind. I watch it last time by the way. So it proofs how addictive this tune is to me. Okassui, isn't it?
The thing about this movie is that it seems to be a satire of the actual MiniMoni group. In the end of the movie, Yaguchi left the confectionery she started and appointed Mika Todd to be the manager. Takahashi then joined the lovely cake-making crew. Yaguchi left to take care of the 4 kids as part of the story.
Yaguchi indeed left MiniMoni. With the addition of Takahashi and a new leader, MiniMoni also changed their styles. Yaguchi went on to manage Hello! Project Kids.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/14/2004 07:44:00 PM
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fucked//up  


"Fuck you!" he scolded. Right, he scolded me that. He should just fuck off because the whole incident is his whole damned fault.
Famous Quote
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
     - Albert Einstein
School has ended for me and I was merrily walk out of school. [I always drag my feet to school.] I was walking on the pavement with Hua Ming, Shawn and Yong Liang.
That is when I met with an accident. With a damned bicycle.
There is this fucking middle-age man riding a bicycle. I so fucking hate bicycles right now by the way. He was riding his fucking bicycle on the pavement. It is illegal to ride a bicycle on the pavement in Singapore. All bicycles go onto roads with cars unless otherwise stated.
So as I was saying, he and his fucking bicycle come charging towards us. I didn't notice it because I was listening to Hua Ming talking about some stuff.
His fucking bicycle's fucking handle got hooked by my bag. He fell.
I apologized to him several times. I shouldn't have done so.
"Fuck you!" he scolded. He is totally fucked up, trying to get back to his feet.
The last thing I want to hear after apologizing is the word "fuck". I am sure he is furious. So, I thought for what to say.
Before I can open my mouth, Hua Ming opened his.
Hua Ming [spoke in Mandarin angrily]: What are you saying?
Fucking Middle-age Man [spoke in Mandarin angrily]: You never look while you walk!
HM: It's illegal to ride a bicycle on the pavement.
FMM: Bullshit. You aren't looking! Walk on the pavement without looking.
What did I say? Nothing came out of my mouth. I was angry when that fucking middle-age man scolded "Fuck you!", but after Hua Ming opened his mouth, my anger subsided. My anger was totally gone. Hua Ming's mouth does miracles!
Anyway, I don't feel sorry for the fucking middle-age man now. He and his total fucked up bicycle. I did felt it's my fault that he fell. But he has broken the law, scolded me "Fuck you!". I understand his feelings when that fucking middle-age man fell, but I don't like anger being vented on me.
I returned home cursing every single bicyclist I see that's cycling in the park. It is illegal to cycle in parks too, unless there are special bicycle-only tracks.
I just turned my blog to a not-for-children-below-15 (NC-15) page. Just to let you know, my mood is quite relaxed and amused when I typed this. The not-so-nice words are used for amusement purposes. Did I mention that he looked so stupid when he fell? lol.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/12/2004 07:54:00 PM
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science//magazines  


Please don't say I'm mad, Feng Li. Truth is that, last Sunday, I borrow two issues of Scientific American from the library. I never read Scientific American much.
Proverbs
""Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
Scientific American is a magazine from America, judging from its name. Judging from the first word "Scientific", I suspect it's a science magazine. Now I am sitting on my blue chair, swirling around in circles and typing a sentence after each clockwise turn. I was excited about it. The magazine has a nice cover, plus my chair's quite comfortable.
You see [of course you can't see], the magazine is only inches from me. I looked at the bottom left hand corner of the magazine. It has got this vertical lines, with a somewhat gothic feeling. It's black and white too, very gothic. I like gothic art. It's well portrayed. Look, it even has got numbers. It's both gothic and The Matrix combined. Excellent.
Oh, sorry, that's the barcode.
I didn't borrow these magazines for no reason you know. All my good pals know I always borrow things for a reason. I mean think about the last time I borrow Shawn's pen just because I didn't want to reach my bag for a pen. What could a better reason be than that?
This time round, I really need these magazine. I am getting bored of these biotechnology things. I feel I'm in the wrong course now. I would have done much better in some computer course trying to figure out what does "VbCrLf" stand for in Microsoft Visual Basic .Net.
Quit? Hell no. I am not going to quit. I can quit the habit of going to toilet more often then I go to classes, but not this. I am going to continue.
As biotechnological terms, my biotechnology interests are repressed and I need an inducer to free that damned repressor from my biotechnology interest operon. [In layman's term: I need something reactivate my biotechnology interests.]
So I borrow Scientific American. I told you there's a reason. I was hoping it'll "induce" [motivate] me to be interested in biotechnology.
I'll let you guys know of the results. Meanwhile I'll get started on the book.
Oh, letters. I love the letters page.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/09/2004 11:33:00 PM
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music//ku  


I am a day late again. Maki Goto started her career in Morning Musume, now she has gone solo. [Still under same record company.] I featured Maki Goto before in one of my themes in the past.
Humorous Quote
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian."
     - Dennis Wholey
I listen to her album PAINT IT GOLD some time back and really like this track - Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube!. Without knowing the meaning of this song, I went on to listen. It's a good walking song ya'know, it's fast so it kinda sets a pace for me to walk fast too.
I tried to find the translation of Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube! for some time. It was until a couple of days ago that I chance upon it on the very site I'm viewing. Even so, I have difficulty understanding which English translation belongs to which lines. If the translations are incorrect, it's likely that I have pasted the lines wrongly.
The translations seems generally accurate but some phrases are rather strange..
I have encoded 1min 06sec sample in WMA file proprietary (Windows Media Audio 9; 40 kbps, 32 kHz, stereo 2-pass CBR) for you people. This is the best quality I have encoded, at the expense of file sizes. :)
Download the sample from here (343 KB). [In Internet Explorer, right click on the link and choose the option "Save Target As...". Download it quick, as I'll remove it on February 16.]
Genshoku GAL Hadeni Ikube!
 [An Authentic GAL Should Be Bold)]
Lyrics & Music : Tsunku
Arrangement : Takahashi Yuichi

Hitori no shuumatsu tte shinnjirannai hodo; Maji yabaissu!
 [A weekend alone is so bad that you won't believe it!]
Kedo kono toki to bakari onna wo sora migaki makutte (Maji yabaissu!)
 [But in this time I polish the woman in me]
"Kareshi ga dekita toki" Sonna yume ga
 ["When I get a boyfriend" That's the dream I have]
Dome no gobaibun
 [It's five times the size of the Tokyo Dome]
Kitto mawari ga hiichau kurai LOVE LOVE ni nacchau mon!
 [We'll be in love so much that the people around will take a step away!]

Tomodachi ttara
 [All my friends,]
Nuke kakeshite ikachii koi
 [they all stole away to have romantic relationships]
"Watashi ga saigo no kareshi nashi!" kka
 ["I'm the last one without a boyfriend!"]
Iinda mon Naite nai!
 [I don't care! I'm not crying!]
"Eeeeeen"
 ["Eeeeeen" *cries*]

Genshoku gyaru wa hade ni ikube!
 [An authentic gal should be bold!]
Shumi wa ryouri de ika ga?
 [Is it okay if my hobby is cooking?]
Genshoku gyaru wa hade ni ikube!
 [An authentic gal should be bold!]
Otsuke mono mo hade yo!
 [My pickles are also bold!]
Supootsu taipu mo hade ni ikube!
 [The sporty type should go bold!]
Michibata taipu mo hade ni ikube!
 [The side-of-the-road type should go bold too!]
It's a rather kawaii [Japanese for "cute"] song, isn't it? Goto singing about her not having a boyfriend. I guess I just have to sacrifice myself to be hers. I'm very noble.
I first saw Maki Goto is Morning Musume when they are performing Mr. Moonlight. She really stood out that time, partly because of her wardrobe. There is no wardrobe malfunction during her performance though, lol. [Tribute made to Janet Jackson's left breast. Justin wants to "get you naked by the end of the song".]
Some phrases are rather strange as I said (before the lyrics). I wonder what's "my pickles are also bold". In fact when "Genshoku GAL" is translated to be "Authentic GAL", I don't feel it's right. Maybe it should be "Real GAL" or something. I can't decide, I can't read Japanese.
I captured from screens from the promotional video too:
Goto on stage view from afar
Goto gets the crowd ready
Goto smiles showing teeth
Goto looks pissed
Goto "Eeeeeen" [crying sounds]
Goto slight smile
Goto jumps with guitar
Goto looks scary [too scary that I removed, lol]

[removed after March 12]
She looks pretty, doesn't she? This song reminds me of Ayaya [same record company]. My favorite picture? I like the pissed look, she looks best when she's pissed, hahaa. Having said that, I wonder if Goto will be pissed when she reads this.

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/07/2004 10:08:00 PM
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not//basic  


My Basic Immunology test came eventually. I prepared a hell lot for it. I was absolutely ready. Mrs. Mak walked in. Damn. She's going to force us to do that alternate sitting plan thingy. That means I can't copy.. sorry I meant to say that I can't perform cross-referencing of my work with my peers'.
Humorous Quote
"God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it."
     - Carl Sagan (1934-1996), Contact
Yesterday, I returned home at four. I sat in front of my beloved computer and clicked on several items to download and went to bed. My mother forced me to wake up at 7 to have dinner.
I was getting all ready to studying after dinner I tell ya. I sat in front of my study table, experimenting with various positions [on the chair of course]. It wasn't long that I decide to moved to my computer desk.
I unlocked my computer and logged into MSN Messenger to check my Hotmail account [there's some integration so I don't need to type the password, I'm lazy]. The cheery blue notification popped up on the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Shawn and Zhi Yuan was initiating a conversation with me. You know, I've got to entertain my friends, even though they are my classmates and I see them so frequently.
A computer, being a computer, has loads of functions. Let me demonstrate: You can click on this icon with a play sign and it launches Windows Media Player. I inserted Initial D Stage 1 VCD 6 inside and voila, it started to play the VCD. How helpful.
Takumi was going to race with Mako. Mako is willing to give Iketani-sempai her virginity if he fixed a race between Takumi and her. Mako was playing on her home ground. Will Takumi emerge as the winning on first try? Will the Akina Speedster's suffer their first defeat after 3 consecutive victories obtained by Takumi's Hachi-Roku [it's a car name. Treuno, AE86]. I got to watch it! It took 4 episodes to play out the stories and the race itself. Great, an hour and a half gone.
Yawn. I was tired. My bed looks so inviting. It wasn't long after that I slept.
Today, my classmates booked a discussion room at school to study. I was there. Looks like there's a reason why a "discussion room" is called a "discussion room".

posted by Mr. Dew on 2/05/2004 08:51:00 PM
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digression//within  


My first test in this semester is coming. Basic Immunology. I like the word "basic". I assumed it to be very basic, common sense level of immunology. For the first few weeks, I didn't listen in class.
Humorous Quote
"My evil genius Procrastination has whispered me to tarry 'til a more convenient season."
     - Mary Todd Lincoln
It's a boring class. Mrs. Mak and Mr. Foo took us. Both Basic Immunology teachers have a similar trait. It's probable that it's in their genes and the penetrance and expressivity levels favors that trait. It's coded in the X chromosome, nucleotide number 308 counting from the 5 prime end. Huh? Both sides ends with a 5 prime end on either one of the strands? Er.. Just make a 50-50 guess. Their common trait it that both teachers love to digress.
Mrs. Mak's digression:
Your body may reject an organ transplant. There isn't something like 100% compatible. You will need immuno suppressors.
Just to digress, you know, Singapore has this Organ Transplant Act that states your organs can be removed from your body after you die? Last time, you can sign a form to say after you die, you want to donate your organs. Few came forth. The Act is hence updated. Now, by default, your organs can be removed from your body unless you choose to opt out.
Okay, that's an interesting bit of information, I am not aware of it. I wonder where can I sign that, lol.
Mr. Foo's digression:
There is a man who was playing golf. Suddenly, he felt the urge to go to the toilet due to a stomach upset. He panicked and searched around for the toilet. He found a female toilet but not a male toilet. He went in immediately, given no choice.
He closed the cubicle door and sat on the toilet seat. Unknown to him, there's a snake in the toilet bowl. The snake opened his jaws and bit the man's buttocks. The man jumped up immediately, crying in pain.
He was sent to the hospital. He was bitten by a poisonous snake. So the doctors got the serum from.. blah blah blah.. [He went into telling how the doctors save the poor guy's ass using words like "antigens" and "serum".]
Okay sir, I get your point. But what the hell has it got to do with a female toilet?! He is assuming that the male toilet is free from snakes.
A bit of digression is good. Mrs. Mak digresses too much. Mr. Foo? Well, some of his digressions makes no sense.
posted by Mr. Dew on 2/02/2004 10:31:00 PM
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I am an 20-year-old guy, currently studying in Singapore Polytechnic, Biotechnology (Bioinformatics). Currently in second year. I am interested in web design, and hopes to be interested in Biotechnology.

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