The Prancing Dino

I'm going down to LA from the 2nd to 4th of August for Siggraph! This is exciting since I was originally supposed to go with my research group but ended up cancelling it due to my current job. However, I just found out that my company is sending me down anyway which is awesome(since I am in the division which does research implementations). It'll be an all expenses paid trip + hotel accomodation :) Plus, it will be nice to meet up with people from my lab and see the paper I worked on get presented at the conference. Definitely something to look forward to.

And the quarter has started....
--------------------------------------
I can't believe how fast everything is going. Ski trip was amazing. Lots of playing in the snow, snow ball fights etc. And of course
drinking games.(Can you say Kings?) I'd like to say the Dave Chapell show is incredibly wrong and incredibly funny. Reeks of pure awesomeness.
In other news, the work for this quarter has kicked in already. Damn operating systems. Although I have to say, the OS course is
insanely cool. We get to write an OS and implement the Solaris Scheduler. Ha.

"Dear Dave, why didn't you cancel your show? Well, they ran out of episodes of Reno 911 so I'm back bitch!"
Oh yeah, and Chinese New Year next week. Right on the day I have to turn in my OS assignment. Bloody Hell.

2003... things to know...and not know
-----------------------------------------------------

Global Stuff(a.k.a Worldly matters)

1) Weapons of Mass Destruction. (see also: Lies, Deceit and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman")

2) Donald "America will piss all over the goddamn world" Rumsfeld

3) George "I want to piss on the goddamn world coz Rumsfeld said I can" W. Bush. (see also: Why literacy is
a good thing, Texas is bigger than God)

4) Hu "Taiwan will bust their own asses since their economy is going down the toilet" Jin Tao

Local Matters

5) Lee "Me and my father will rule the galaxy together" Hsien Loong

6) Lim "3 in one" Boon Heng

7) Ng "You're getting the ultimate bargain so shut the Fuck Up and bend over" Eng Hen

8) Rethinking the U-Turn

9) Superb government business sense (see also: EZ-Link, How to screw up when you have a monopoly, NEL, LTA)

10) SIA Unions (see also: The French Revolution, "Let them have cake")

Make your new year resolutions now people :) Hope you have a happy 2004.

Another post on LOTR
--------------------------------------------
You know, it's all about the hobbits. Don't believe me? Here's more evidence.

Merry Christmas and some ranting
----------------------------------------------
Merry christmas to one and all. It's been a decent christmas so far I must say. I also noticed that I have only a couple more days before I leave my country for school . I had a discussion about country, self and other things that seemingly matter to me with Kai the other day during street football/soccer.

Kai, like many middle to upper -class citizens, has always been kind of adverse to Chinese culture. (not a sweeping statement I think) Which brings me to an interesting point. When our country folk step into foreign lands like where I am studying, they become just as FOBBISH(read: fresh of the boat) as the next person from say, China or India. It bothers me because a lot of these people, when they go back, tend to proclaim that they studied overseas, immersed in the culture bla bla bla. The truth of the matter is they really didn't participate in any of that at all. Till this day, I still have people from my country not understanding the difference between a Conservative and a Liberal even though they have lived here a lot longer than I have. What normally happens is this: a group of such people starts hanging out only with themselves(or allow some strange person who normally is shunned by the local populace to join their group because he/she is deemed agreeable to their values). While the Chinese and Indians no doubt do the same thing, the are different in another aspect. Many of them don't claim to be as "westernised" as our people. And rightly so. They have their own culture background to fall back on. Our folk on the other hand tend to look down on them as low-down/uncivilised at times(don't tell me that I am making a sweeping statement. I am not. You know who you are). However, why shrink away from the "western culture" that you can now immerse in and shrink back into your (tiny) social circle? Have you just discovered that you really aren't what you were after all? What is it, difference in mentality and culture? But didn't you not want to associate with your own asian brethren in the first place? There is a difference between watching and reading about a foreign culture from all forms of the media and actually immersing in one. It is unfortunate that some of our people are unable to tell the difference between them. I am proud of Chinese culture. It is nothing to be ashamed about. Much better than the void culture that exists for many of the middle-to-upper-class citizens: a culture that is a poor representation of another country(s) foreign culture... and in the end accumlates to nothingness.

Christmas Eve and the meaning of AMBER
------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, indeed. It's Christmas Eve and I am turning right on a junction when the light is still flashing yellow. The moment I turn, it changes to red in like < 10ms. Bloody Hell. I've gotten so used to driving in California that I've forgotten the lights here don't understand the meaning of amber. They should just make the lights have 2 colors then: red and green. That way, motorists won't be confused by this weird hybrid color called yellow. Goddamit. This is so stupid. Oh and merry Christmas good people.
And yes, it is Christmas Eve here. We're ahead of you American folk by a day. Go figure.

My spiffy new desktop
-------------------------------------------



Redhat 9 + KDE 3.2b + NVidia Drivers = W00t!