Sunday, August 31, 2008
3:06 pm
I haven't been blogging much, I know, but what's the point in noting down "I did this, I did that, I went to *insert name of a place* and ate *insert name of something edible*, blah blah blah" just for the sake of it?
Pointless. 'Nuff said. Besides, that's not how blogging should be done.
Anyways, I'm typing this entry through FireFox because somehow, I can't access the Internet on my Internet Explorer.
Tried to install it again- didn't work. Uninstalled and installed it again- didn't work. Uninstalled and installed IE8 Beta 2- didn't work. Uninstalled IE8 and installed IE7 back- DIDN'T BLOODY WORK.
Well, it was just another excuse to not touch anything that required me to use HTML because for some reason, when I toggle between full style text and HTML coding on FireFox, it gets messed up and adds SPAN codes when I don't need it. Plus, I always check the coding after typing in full style mode because I can make sure that the code shows what I want it to show (yes, I'm anal that way).
Imagine the number of times I need to edit the codings each time I toggle between input styles.
The reasons why I keep IE when FireFox works perfectly fine for me are because it doesn't distort my codings, AND, certain China websites that host manga scanlations don't work in FireFox. It's just my luck when only those websites have series that other FireFox-friendly websites don't.
Pfft.
Anyway, my degree classes started just this week and we've already got article readings to do, notes to print and assignment plannings to submit in the very near future.
Speaking of which, I miss note-printing in Temasek Poly. The whole "Bring your own paper and print for free" thing is sorely missed, now that we need to pay 10 cents per piece in PSB Academy.
Shall be heading back to TP for cheap printing. And for BizPark's chicken chop.
*Salivates*
To the horror of all Windows-users' horrors, we have to use iMac for at least 2 of the current semester's modules. It's my little personal nightmare, frankly.
Mac is okay to use, but when you have lots of windows opened, it gets confusing about going where to restore them again.
And I can't use the Shift-Home/-End shortcuts to highlight text. Darn.
At least we have an amusing lecturer/tutor for our Intro to Media Production module:
He wears skinny jeans to class.
Yes. Skinny jeans. Add on to the obvious visual fact that he is quite slim?
*Guffaws*
Even I have more meat in my legs than him.
It's the single most darnest, entertaining distraction, because the moment you really took notice of him in skinny jeans, it is impossible to pay attention in class anymore.
I dissolve into a snickering, giggling mess every time I dared a look.
The one frightening thing about him is that he's only graduated about 3 years ago from his own course.
He is a musician of sorts (which he admits, and one newly-made friend found his MySpace page), which is fine because he knows his way around the media software, but when it comes to the theories behind it? It's an absolute train wreck. You can't bear to watch him attempt to explain things, and yet there's a perverse enjoyment in seeing him struggle to make sense while subjecting yourself to listen to what ends up being more confusing when he's done.
I half wanted to take over the class when he got to the part on frequency, amplitude and decibels. And I almost launched into a detailed answer for another coursemate's question pertaining to that area when minutes later, our lecturer still could not figured out what was actually being asked.
Hey, my Physics may have been the one subject with the worst grade in my O' Levels result slip but I did pay attention in class when frequency and amplitude were being taught.
Difficult not to, when during then we had a better Physics teacher. Who was a little psychotic and a tad sadistic. Then again, almost all our teachers in my secondary school are like that, and he was better at teaching Physics as compared to all the incompetent trainees and substitutes we had afterwards.
All right, work to do.
Have to force myself to be more conscientious this time, which, I can foretell to be quite a feat to achieve.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
6:49 pm
We're just animals, howling in the night, 'cos it's better than silence.
- Suzie Costello (Indira Varma)
Torchwood, Series 1: Episode 8
Yes, I have finally started watching Torchwood. I have a very long backlog of shows to watch and I could started on this show only because I've finished the old Season 3 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
If you don't take Torchwood too seriously, it's actually a very good show.
I mean, it is sci-fi after all.
There are aliens, immortals, time-travelers, cannibals, a glove that resurrects people for a maximum of two minutes for a limited one-time-only... And a pterodactyl (specifically, pteranodon) called Myfanwy that lives as a pet in the Torchwood headquarters.
What's there to be picky about?
There are serious parts too, where humanity, existence and death are questioned. But hey, the deciding factor for me to watch the show was that there's on-screen slash.
It isn't "outright smut" sort of slash, but it's CANON. Nothing beats that.
:D
Plus, it's a British series. Have I mentioned my love for British accent?
Now, when I think in my mind, I hear words in that accent. Probably because I've been watching the show for the better part of the day today. Tsk tsk.
The only thing I don't like about the show is the main female character.
One very obvious reason was because for most of Series 1, she gets in the way between the slash couple. Yes, I am superficial and no, I haven't reached the part where the slash relationship is admitted to the audience.
All right, to delve into said female character, she is always making mistakes that she should not make, she doesn't really have much sense, and she just feels plain dumb to me (how can she not know how to use a gun when she was an ex-police officer?). That gap between her two front teeth annoys me too.
Also, there are things she did and decisions she made that my morals wholeheartedly disagreed with.
Simple put, the mere existence of her character irks me.
Not to mention that she only has one facial expression:
The "Shocked by something I have seen/ Shocked because I have committed yet another mistake" wide-eyed look.
It was kind of reminiscent of the Harry Potter movies where all Daniel Radcliffe could do was to look shocked at every single thing.
Or perhaps I'm just being pissy about her because SHE'S MESSING UP THE CANON!SLASH COUPLE!
Grr.
Labels: Torchwood, TV shows
Monday, August 04, 2008
8:32 am
I don't need to psycho-analyse myself to know that you are the ones who have made me the way I am today.
So don't try to pin your faults on me.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
9:27 pm
Work has finally ended after all these months. Well, precisely it was over on Thursday but I am- like many know- lazy. Not to mention that procrastination is one of my many negative habits that I have a lack of shame for.
And I need to plead for forgiveness because, dear Mother Earth, I have sinned.
Let me back up a bit.
I was asked to join the department lunch on Friday (yes, technically, I'm not an employee anymore but hey, I'm well-loved. Hah) to reward ourselves, sort-of, for the good P&L (Profit and Loss, for those who knew nothing about accounting) of the previous financial year. It was a pretty prestigious Chinese restaurant, Man Fu Yuan, at the InterContinental.
And as Chinese restaurants go, if it's a supposedly good and definitely expensive meal, shark's fin soup is almost mandatory.
I felt so guilty having to eat it.
It was my favourite dish since I was young, back when I was terribly spoilt by my grandparents and my grandmother will order one serving for me on almost every trip to any good Chinese restaurant.
When I began to understand what it meant for an animal species to be endangered, I told people around me that I would never ever willingly eat anymore shark's fin soup.
It was also around that time when the cruelty of finning was brought to the attention of the Chinese in Singapore. There were television shows that interviewed the public's opinion on the issue, clips that showed what finning was like, and ultimately the fate of the finned sharks. It was sad and downright revolting, to cut out the single part that was needed and throw the shark back into the water to leave it for dead.
It further solidified my stand on not wanting to eat that dish.
Sure, there would be people who argue that they are just food, like beef and chicken. But hey, those livestock can be reared in huge numbers. And those meat, like beef, has its own taste.
Shark's fin is tasteless.
Imagine if a group of sentient beings decides that human tongues are a delicacy and goes around cutting everyone's tongue out, leaving them to bleed to death, just so the tasteless organ can be cooked in a big pot of soup with dozens other random foodstuff for many hours so that the piece of meat can absorb enough flavour to be eaten.
How pointless is that? And, the soup is practically good enough on it's own with (or without) other usual everyday meat, without the shark's fin.
Back to Friday's lunch.
I had no choice to eat the dish because it will be just SO awkward when the meal has already been paid for and suddenly I announce that I am not eating one strand of shark's fin because I feel the need to protect this other animal that shares our living space, that it's inhuman to encourage the need for this food and then reminding everyone at the table about the sadistic nature of how it is obtained.
Which is why I could only complain to my mother about needing to eating the dish that I've long decided never to have again.
Finning should be illegal.