a beautiful mind. .

Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Performers:...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:38:00 +0800

Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Performers: Denis Bouriakov (flute), Tokyo Wind Symphony Orchestra.

This song is The joy of life by Kenny G. A couple of day ago,...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:12:00 +0800

This song is The joy of life by Kenny G.

A couple of day ago, also on the same sunday afternoon, I got a call from a friend.

He asked if I would be able to perform for the next saturday for a cultural night, I hesitated for a split second. I had known about this event a few days before, but had no clue as to what to play if I am going to do it.

In my mind, I started to look for excuse, time constraint, will be busy, no pieces to play, too lousy to play etc, although, I really want to play. I was told the rehearsal would be on tuesday.

I began to search for playable music the next day. “Playable” because I was actually considering playing piazzolla’s bordel 1900 with a friend which would be next to impossible in two days. Another friend suggested that I do some chinese pop song with karaoke accompaniment. Definitely a good idea, this will be the easy way out I guess.. Playing classical music to them just doesn’t seem right..

Youtube is certainly my source of inspiration! After an hour, I have several candidate, girl from ipanema, desafinado, gary’s 背叛. Well I listened and listened, it certainly will be hard to come out with improvisation in a night (I had school the next day), but playing pop song always have a pause in the middle which I would not know what to do.

And so I searched even more, some how, from bossa nova flute, I was looking at Jazz flute then jazz saxophone. So what if I played another instrument’s part? Not too sure if it would destroy the song. Then, Kenny G’s “breathless and forever love” caught my eye. The problem was if it would fit the occassion. It would fine if I am driving home on the expressway listening to kenny g, not too sure about a mini concert though.

Anyway, I dug up more of kenny g performing and other videos, it seems that Kenny G is a really great guy like all other musicians. I opened almost all his available youtube videos, and listened to them one after another. Well, come up tops is actually “The Joy of Life”, which fits the theme of positive energy, value creation and happiness, I think.

Now the real problem starts, had I chosen pop music, I would have gotten the backing music really easily, but I don’t see Kenny’s lying around. I spent about an hour figuring how the hell I was going to have my accompaniments. I tried muting the saxophone part from his mp3 by restricting the frequency of the mp3, but it just did not turn out so good. Or should i have a duet with kenny g? Might be really fun. Well the worst was playing by ear, I could not get the difficult parts right, or count how many notes was there when he runs..

Then it dawn upon me that, I might be able to get a midi file version of his solo. Indeed, I manage to get some from ringtone or midi websites. Deleting just the saxophone part from the midi and you get your own minus one!! I think this is such a great idea, I will be able to play any songs now!! haha!!

The next step was getting the notes. After a thorough search, I found a software which is shareware, and converted the saxophone midi into sheet music! How cool is that?!?! Suddenly I am able to play with the cool Kenny G.

This entire process allowed me to respect musicians or artists even more. More often than not, the audience only view the finished product of many hours of practice, effort and thought. Its easy to take them for granted as they appear on the stage, music “flows through” and you think, “what talent this guy has!” Well, he must have worked his ass out!

For me, I am only feeling the tip of the iceberg of what most musicians out there are experiencing. We all want to play the best for the music that we can. I was surprised by myself when I was actually editing the sheet music here and there, thinking would it sound better if I did this and that?

The entire “journey” although lasted a couple of days, but this feeling would definitely be helpful in the coming days. Its a pity there wasn’t much time to duet or trio with another person..

This song is Bordel 1900 by Astor Piazzolla for flute and...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:38:40 +0800

This song is Bordel 1900 by Astor Piazzolla for flute and guitar.

Recently I have began enjoying playing my flute even more. It seems that it is harder than I thought to get a devoted partner which I can play music with. Nowadays, people are always busy with something.

Busy: The impression that we are working hard with time factor being very constrained, although, it can also be misused as an excuse to reject someone politely, or maybe not.

Well, after a month, I still couldn’t anyone to play with.

Ideally meeting at least once a week to practice some music. I miss the old school days where we spend time with other bandmates, learn and advance in music together. It can get rather boring practicing so much on one’s own.

Anyway, I have heard of Piazzolla’s music quite some time to go. His style is very unique and I am sure appeals to a lot of people. It was until recently that I got my hands on some of his music. Its certainly a joy playing the music we have heard so much!

I remember embarrassing myself twice on the same day, when I practiced this particular song for about 20 minutes just last Sunday. I immediately phoned two guitar friends whom I thought had more chance of playing together and played for them. Alas, really on impulse, what was I thinking. They both sounded puzzled and I can feel them thinking “what the..” Haha. Well, in the first place I didn’t play it quite right or good at all. Hopefully they would forget the incident, or I would be doing mr Piazzolla a great injustice.

His music compositions have a great and mysterious energy surrounding them and have a little uplifting feeling to it, well, hope you enjoy it if anyone is listening.

Subtle online presence and digress

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:23:00 +0800

I want a subtle online presence. All this while, I have been stamping my name on everything, ‘this is me, this is me, this is by me, this is written by me, this is made by me’. Up to a point, I realized I have deviated greatly from why I had started blogging. I did not know why I want people to subscribe to my feeds or why I want people to visit my site.

Why am I blogging about interesting things? Why do people do relinks and reposts of others? Is there a social obligation to blog about things others want to read once a blog is started? My blog turned into an information site. I used to write, subconsciously thinking if online readers will appreciate it more if I present it a certain manner or write about a certain subject. Is this a problem? No, but I want to write what I am really thinking about.

I remember when I first started blogging, I was a little hesitant about talking about anything, or too conscious about revealing of my identity. Subsequently, I began to write freely as I would if it would my diary. However, when facebook came into existence and entered my life, or the matter, lives of many other young adults around the entire globe. I do not know why, but I started to “research” onto my own past history and how I came into being. There was the thought of uploading every single photo that I possess with my face on it. It was called facebook for a reason.

While I held that thought only in my mind, around me, youths already began their movement, mapping their two decades of lives or more on facebook. I had the urge to do it too, sharing with people some ‘interesting’ or not places I have been to or things I have done.

This phenomenon was not restricted to a country or just facebook, there was a frenzy to upload their private information in profiles in friendster, facebook and the likes of it. This is really fascinating and curious trend. What is the drive behind this?

Just a few decades earlier, finding out the residential address of someone, knowing his education history and also family tree is the business of the private eye. Now anyone can do it with a few clicks on the net as “private” information is already floating around on the internet. Somebody just needs to organize the data a little, and you can know the whereabouts of the person, his medical history, education history etc.

As time progresses, human social ideologies and trends changes rapidly. In my parents’ time, someone would be shocked if you knew where he studied or stayed. He probably thinks of you as a stalker, and there is no way you knew or would find out if you did not have an ulterior motive. On the contrary, present times, people expects that you already did some digging on him, if not, probably after the meeting.

The radical change in human behavior is probably the result of the influence of internet and advance in technology on people’s everyday lives. People also emphasized more on being efficient and instant gratification. You are supposed to check your emails and reply within the day, handphone messages within a couple of hours, handphone calls immediately. Nobody gives a second thought to not bringing your handphone with you when you are out, just bring it.

People are born to socialize, and to be connected to others, after all humans, like monkeys or any other mammals are social beings. However, we bring this to the next level, socializing both online and offline. This is no different from magic or telepathy in some man-fantasized ancient race, where they know how each other are doing across miles of desert. We will be amazed by how they can achieved it, but we are already doing it.

I remember when twitter was launched, I scoffed at them. Who the hell would want to let people know what they ate for lunch or for the matter, who in world would want to know what you ate. Well, I was still young then..

Looking at how much society have changed and in which direction, I would not be surprised to know if there is a real group of social trendsetter organization or some conspiracy behind the veil of the internet. Shaping peoples’ mind or nations to their advantage and benefit. Or was it the users that shaped how internet was used, or the existence of a tool caused the users to evolve to use it.

It isn’t really hard to manipulate people’s mind, if you think about it. In the past, it would be really difficult, I thought its a miracle hitler got Germany to do his bidding, but now, if a movement is began, you will bound to get some supporters or “fans” in facebook terms. And it will be even easier and easier. The younger and not borns would be connected to internet at a even sooner age. They will know a bigger and more expansive world. And the world they will know and live would be by information that they are allowed to access.

The way human thinks diverges or converges?

Which world are people refering to when they quote the saying, when you are not connected to the internet or don’t know it, you are cut from the world. I suppose its how you use the internet or what you use it for. Well, youtube has educated me that americans are pretty uneducated when it comes to their country’s own current affair. I hope that’s not true. Then some will argue, so what? Does it matter?

Since when does the world greatest democratic nation produce the world greatest army of zombie voters. How is it the public get to decide what the country does next or what is good for the country when they are not sure what’s going on in the real world. How they get to decide to invade Iraq or Afghanistan, and decide they own mass weapon of destruction when they know not the name of their president. This has to be blind faith in the government and the administration. Is this how democracy works?

And I digressed.

The fact is that I am amazed with how the way I think and act has changed so radically but subtly that I had not noticed only after a couple of years. Although, technology has always been around us, I have not noticed it creeping into my life at all. There are so many things being taken for granted. People around just accept new things, without much thought if it is really needed, or if they really want it.

We are now flowing in a pretty fast streamed river, the currents are strong, and water is flowing in a single direction. Are humans the one in the water, trying to get out, or are we the water, single-mindedly, moving towards our destined future?

Chez Jacquet by the Cook Trios

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:45:00 +0800

Chez Jacquet by the Cook Trios

Our home, Earth at night

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:16:00 +0800

Our World At Night

World Map

It took me quite a while to figure out that our world was never always night time. So they must have done some photo stitching or something. Nonetheless, this is a great image of our world, in fact it is quite famous, by NASA. Right click, view image to enlarge.

Here are some observations. If unsure, you can refer to the world map.
You can see:

the bright spots are generally near shorelines.
the difference between North and South Korea (the latter looks like an Island)
Singapore is a bright white dot at the tip of Malaysia
disparity in wealth
disparity in energy consumption
roughly the road network from western Europe through Russia to China (people congregate at main transportatioin routes)
the entire of Japan very well lit
why Canada sells USA power
Africa being very dark although it has 900+ million people (Europe has 300+ million, USA has 700+ million)
Australia disappointingly dark
India suprisingly bright
why we cannot see stars at night (it has to be seen from outside in)
where the most light polluted areas are
insides of Brazil very dark (keep it that way!)
the whole Earth at night at the same time
how people like to stay near river nile
how Aliens find Earth
how beautiful light pollution is, but you haven’t seen the night sky yet, without the light pollution
why ice are melting at the two poles and everywhere
your house
who to blame for wasting energy and pollution
something being scribbled at the bottom
how people and countries are connected somehow
one of the most popular destop image and wall poster
where the waters are in Europe and Middle-East
where the economic activities are
that this is definitely not Earth Day
where to retire if you are more on the dark side
only Indonesia’s main island (where are the remaining 7000+?)
why greenland is the world’s greenest country

Do you see something I don’t? Please tell me! Add to the list.

The magic echolocation can do to change one's world.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:54:00 +0800

Everyday, I wake up on my bed in the morning. Instinctively, I would open my eyes. I do not have to look out of the window to know if its morning or night, the surrounding which is pretty bright would have already gave me obvious clues. Many of ask take many things for granted and our sense of sight is just one of them.

Ben Underwood is one of the a group of people who has lost his sight at a very young age due to a cancer called retinoblastoma. At 3, when he was just a toddler, he undergo a 11 hours long surgery to have his eyes removed, due to a tumor at his sinus cavity. However, instead of looking through his eyes, he has created for himself a unique way to navigate and see the world in front of him, that is “seeing” with his ears.

At the age of just 5, he has learned by himself echolocation, which is done by clicking his tongue and then listening carefully to the sound waves that bounce of the surroundings or any objects. The extent of his ability went out to help him identify objects in his path to the remarkable standard of identifying and describing the object’s shape, size, texture, etc. Although it might seem incredible to be able to echolocate, the majority of us can to, but definitely not to the extent of people like Ben, who has been practicing every single moment of his life.

An experiment was conducted by Eric Schwitzgebel and Michael S. Godon of University of California, Riverside, in which blind people and sighted but blind-folded ones were made to go through a series of test to compare how developed their echolocation skills are. The full experiment can be found here. From it, we learn that in fact, everyone is able to echolocate with some practice and they can do it to the accuracy similar to blind people. Even in their daily lives, people do echolocate, but these do not happen on the conscious level.

For Ben and many others like him, the ability to echolocate has definitely brought new hope and perspectives to their lives. When Ben came round from the surgery to remove both eyes, he was crying, saying, “I can’t see you anymore mommy, I can’t see you,” and his mother Aquanetta Gordon said, “You can smell me, you can hear me and you have got your ears, nose and mouth.”

Now, Ben is very positive in his life and could serve as a role model for others who are like him. He does not see himself as a handicap at all and insist upon joining the normal school and not the handicap one, even to the extent of not using a cane. This will change as he learns through Daniel Kish how limited echolocation can be and how with the cane the loopholes can be filled. Despite his disadvantage, Ben is a very active person, often running, rollerblading, skateboarding, playing basketball, football, and videogames.

There always so many people that encourage us through the amazing feats they do as they continue to live courageously despite being disadvantaged. The next amazing person to hear about would be how a person overcome and live his life despite being blind and deaf. It would be the greatest misfortune.

(whisper) You got the big prize, Mr President.

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:24:00 +0800

8-) : Obama got the nobel peace prize recently!
#-) : wow.. I thought its a really hard award to get? What did he do exactly?

8-) : hmm.. I am not too sure too, he hasn’t even served a term as president yet. Well he did sort of ease tensions between Muslims and the west.
#-) : how did he achieve that?

8-) : by not doing what bush did?
#-) : haha

8-| : I hope the nobel prize would not be tainted by politics so much.
#-/ : Well, i don’t think there is much you can do about it.

8-⁄ : If that happens, I would really remove “getting the nobel peace prize once” from my to-do list.
#-( : That would be so sad man.. anyway, who would you nominate for it?
8-) : There is so many peace champions who spent decades doing what they do, Daisaku Ikeda would be such an individual.
#-) : That’s a nice choice.

8-) : Its gonna be hard for the old fellows too, sitting round a table deciding who contributed the most in the past year. Also, Obama certainly did get quite a media coverage all year. Its hard not to know what he did or said.
#-) : true!
8-| : It would probably be unfair to past recipients, Martin (L. K.) might make some noise, not sure about Teresa though.
#-) : one thing is for sure, Obama would have to get his act together, get down and dirty and do a lot less talking.
8-) : I will be watching 'you' *_*, Mr president. Good luck and no stress.

Inspirational Speech by Dr. Randy Pausch On the Oprah Winfrey...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:15:52 +0800

Inspirational Speech by Dr. Randy Pausch On the Oprah Winfrey Show: The Last Lecture. Dr. Pausch Passed Away On July 25, 2008

a beautiful mind..

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:02:00 +0800

“Look at me, look at me, a beautiful mind is what you should strive for.” My lecturer would occasionally say after making a point, padding his bald forehead with both hands then stretching them out into the air.

Without fail, the comical action will be followed by numerous giggles and laughter from the attendees as he rants on about the latest nobel laureate, Elinor Ostrom, who proved “with her beautiful mind” that common resources does not necessary need privatization or government intervention to have it managed and utilized efficiently.

Although I am not to sure how many do take what he says seriously or for the matter got what he was trying to say.

I think I might have heard of a similar term somewhere. He left me thinking, what exactly is a beautiful mind?

Might that be a hardworking one? A determined one? Intelligent? Courteous? Respectful? Its so difficult to really pinpoint what makes a mind beautiful.

On the street, if you were asked the question of who is the most beautiful, most likely your mind would get flashes of some slim figured, smooth skin lady, whom you saw through medias but never met. Nonetheless, you will have an answer and a name.

I would have definitely thought the same thing, not until I know about the term “a beautiful mind”. It would be truly flattering and honorable if someone did praise that I do have a beautiful mind. But who really has a beautiful mind?

Really, I have no idea. There is so many to choose from the past century, but at the same time, I cannot be sure if that would be the right one. I guess it would really depend on one’s definition. My lecturer, on the other hand, have no qualms about naming a few at one go. I suspect he consider himself having a beautiful mind too.

I believe that there already existed many great people with beautiful mind, but what exactly constitutes it?

Again, no idea. Is it a way of life? A philosophy? Or simply an amalgam all at once and then would come to represent the epitome of humanity or the meaning behind our existence.

So, this would be start of a journey of self-discovery and awareness. It would really be amazing if I could do everything with a single question in mind, “Is this something someone with a beautiful mind would do?”

The pure thought of this just excites me!

2nd most intelligent beings

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:02:00 +0800

I did not see the movie “cove” but I have read about it briefly from the net. As intriguing as the entire filming process might be, it seems the issue at large was still not resolved.

Recently, I had a little discussion with some friends about the very broad topic of relationships between people and the natural environment. I cringed as the conversation took a little detour. Although we had agreed on the basic underlying issue, some points, justifications of fisherman, just did not sit well with me.

“You cannot blame the fishermen for what they are doing, after all they are doing this for their livelihood. In their own way, they are doing what they think is right and natural for them to survive. The defense was that the dolphins have been eating so much fish that it has jeopardized the fishing activities of Taiji.” The fisherman had passed the slaughtering of dolphins as pest control.

These few words just didn’t sound with me. First of all, I think it would be naive not to doubt what the fishermen were claiming. Japan is one of the world foremost leading and developed country. If any country to understand the repercussions of one’s action on the surroundings, it has to be them. Globalization would certainly have raised their awareness for their environment. Not to say the role the country played during the second world war. There is a marked difference between being clueless about how far reaching one’s action can be on the environment and knowing something that is wrong but feigning ignorant about it.

The Japanese are certainly the latter case. This is pure evil, with even the local government attempting to cover up this “little secret”. It simply absurd! Its the same with Hitler, killing one man is bad enough, but mass killing is really just pure evil.

One might forgive the tribal Africans if their tradition for manhood was to obtain the horn of a rhinoceros, but they can be taught how their actions are actually endangering the rhinoceros population. However, it would be hard to drive into a twisted educated person what is right or wrong.

The second comment was more disagreeable, as he explores the prospects of dolphins being the one depleting the fishing stocks, affecting the fishing industry. I cannot comprehend how this is worth considering. If we are to embrace the concept that humans are indeed sharing this place call Earth with many other lifeforms, how is it that we not analyze the matter in question from the dolphins’ perspectives.

The staple of a certain species of dolphins would be the fishes that exist in a particular part of the sea. And the dolphins only eat fishes to survive. So here comes humans, storming and demanding that dolphins eat less fishes so fishermen can sell more. Its plain weird.

Human have so many alternative food sources, rice, poultry, vegetables etc, compared with dolphins whom had none. How is it they eat less? Although, its true that demand for fresh fishes in Japan is very high, but, its a totally different issue altogether. People should in fact eat fishes less frequently to allow the fishes to replenish. Not kill dolphins and then extract even more fishes. Otherwise, it would be like US, spending tomorrow’s money to have gratification today. Both would be broke pretty pretty soon.

Another surprising point I heard was that there were organizations offering to support some of the fisherman financially to discontinue with the dolphins killings. This idea may seem fine on the surface, but if put in perspective, something is very wrong. Would you reward a burglar with a nicely furnished apartment and some cash to stop him from continuing his crimes? Would you supply a rapist with a supply of what not to quench his pervert thirst?

To uproot this entire operation, the government should help redevelop the area with a new industry, maybe eco-tourism. However, the funnier thing is that the local authority actually participated in the covering up of the entire act.

Perhaps, the whole affair would be a non-issue and not such a big hu-ha had the dolphins not been scientifically proven as the second most intelligent lifeforms on Earth after us.

Then again, what’s the point of arguing if eventually nothing would come out of it. Dolphins would still get killed and I would still continue eating fishes.

Maybe this entire thing was only for the sake of satisfying my own selfish human ego.

I don’t see many people complaining about the very efficient and systematic killing of poultry and farmland produce. Then again, that’s another argument for another day..

Audio of youtube video by “Jayesslee”. The song is...

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:01:00 +0800

Audio of youtube video by “Jayesslee”. The song is officially missing you by Tamia. Its a wonderful version sang by twin sisters, Sonia and Janice.

This is in mp3 because I listen to it when traveling.

about

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0800

8-)

Hello.

I am a guy.

Student, I am.

I don’t own a car.

I want to own a bike.

Born in april as an aries.

Wanted to study architecture.

End up reading about Adam Smith.

I like playing the flute when I have time.

Well I wanted to learn guitar and piano too.

I happen to like milk chocolate, but hate mango.

Chicken, beef, pork, lamb, I am a hardcore meatlover.

Hamachi, Tai, salmon, shrimp, these are my daily snacks.

Youtube has showed me many great people around the world.

Made me want to visit Asia, Europe, America, Australia, and Africa.

Barcelona, Japan, Korea, New York, London, Paris, Sydney and Venice.

I want to go to Mount Kilimanjaro to see the leftover ice at the top.

I like the sounds of flute, cello, french horn and human voice.

I hope to buy a piece of land by a beach to build my own

house with a pool and basement, naturally ventilated.

Initially planned to win lottery to become very rich,

end up trading stocks and become not so rich.

Have no dogs, cats, goldfishes or hamsters.

I have one elder and younger brothers.

I enjoy photography as a hobby too.

I will share some photo next time.

So nice of you to visit my blog.

Let me know if you visited.

So I can drop by yours.

Share experiences.

Exchange ideas.

See you again.

Thank you.

Bye Bye.

Cya.

kx.

My really bad habits

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:57:00 +0800

After two decades of living out my life, and enduring much nagging from my mother, it would appear that my lifestyle have finally taken a toll on my body, which is the shell for our spiritual being. Many a times, when meeting friends in the afternoons, the meal which we would have would most likely be our first meal of the day. Meaning that, like me, many youngsters actually skip their breakfast, or another probability is that they woke up in the late mornings or early afternoons.

This is actually the life of many people, and one of them is me. I usually sleep at 12am to 1am, usually surfing the net, chatting, or watching TV, and wake up at around 8am to 9 am. My younger brother who is worse would not sleep till its in the wee of the mornings and wake up in the afternoon at 2pm or later. From this we know that we would have had supper late in the night or breakfast would be skipped totally, sometimes together with lunch. Luckily or not for me, my bio clock seems to maintain itself, waking me up in the morning although my eyes shut only a few hours before. However, I still do not eat breakfast as its just not in my habits.

Quite long ago, I read an article about the possibility of getting cancer is higher for those working class or people who did not have a breakfast or a good one in some case. Now this really scares me quite a bit. Cause, I am right smack, fitting the exact profile. Also those who sleep less or work through the night tend to die earlier, from what I understand. If there is a check list or some sort for bad life habits or how destroyed is your body, mine would be almost all checked.

Feeling sick?

Another bad habit is stuffing myself when its already late at night. If you have stayed up late, you will realise that your body is out of energy, and your stomach would growl. The right thing to do would be drink a warm glass of milk and go to sleep. However, being the stuborn me, I would ravage the fridge for noodles, meat and more meat and cook up a big bowl of delicious noodle, alittle on the saltish side, something to warm my stomach up. This is also bad.. if you know why..

oh gosh.. I don’t feel good..

As the saying goes prevention is better then cure.. I guess its about time I watch what I do to my body.. As another saying goes, its never too late.. Once you understand and see the big picture, you would realise that the bad habits are all interlinked and would make up the so call bad or unhealthy lifestyle.. It all begins with the little things.. Change something today!

Extreme Unction.

Really.. how did they communicate?

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:54:00 +0800

Yesterday, i was just watching a documentary on the local television network. They happen to be broadcasting the documentary, Planet Earth: Future. Although the issues the show talked about was very intriguing, my attention was diverted somewhere else. However, of course, it does not mean the documentary failed its purpose, it certainly raised my awareness and understanding of the world that I live in, on a macro scale. I just realize there are so much effort and work done to save the Earth and now they are saying that its not enough. Earth would eventually wither, so we just need to slow it down instead of accelerating the rate.

Anyway, back to the topic of animal. I saw in the midst of all the beautiful scenery, the waterfalls, endless forest, migrant birds covering entire land.. There was one particular footage showing a school or group of dolphins. It wasn’t featuring dolphins or anything at the moment, its just a footage of one of beautiful animals or scenes that exist on Earth but might not be there anymore in decades to come.

Now the group of dolphins are just swimming in unison, occasionally one or two would jump out of the water and glide through the air. I wonder if they have the mental capability to actually enjoy the moment of flight in the air. If they do.. wow, I want to be a dolphin.

And so they swim towards the shore and just then a huge wave crashes above them, BAMH! And.. they all turned in unison! Wow.. now I can’t express how in awe I am of that single harmonious move by the group of dolphins. The same degree of turn all at the precise same time in the same direction. Now I can see the dolphins pretty clear, cause the water is pretty clear. Its the most beautiful move. Looking at this really brings shame to the athletics practicing acrobatics in the water.. It just can’t be compared. Its just not fair. I know. You have to know dolphins spend their lives in water not number of hours. There are many things which Humans create or build with their intelligence which is great but the things or events that nature allows or create simply takes your breath away..

So how did they do it? This was the question that puzzles me.. Of course I know how they communicate to each other by making that squeaky and clicking sound in water. But, really how did they communicate? Telepathy? The move looked like it was done instinctively, but then again, who reacts the same way when they touch a boiling kettle or jump up the same way if they sat on a cactus. I was thinking like it might not be such a smart question to ask after all.

Woah.. Shark attacks!

Really.. Just a school of dolpins having fun! haha..

Thinking back, in hopes of finding similar case, I found another case. Whales. Not whales exactly, but the fishes in the whales’ stomachs. Unlike sharks, who like to bite a chunk out of you whether you are aware of it anot, whales operate differently and in some perspective, can be scarier. Imagine, if you are a shark man and you are on a busy street feeling hungry. The thing to do would be to run up to someone and grab a person, of course the person will run and scream and stuff, and try to escape. However, if you are a whale man and you are feeling hungry. Imagine again. A peaceful town, with everyone minding their own business, suddenly, the ground cracks and the town is split in two, with everyone unable to escape and is being sucked into the crack..

This is the kind of life the little fishes have been living.. Mind you, fish do feel pain like we do.. Even if there is a little fish rights organization, it would be gone in a moment, when the whale opens its mouth.. I guess it can be really troublesome replacing its president or committee everyday. Anyway, some whales, yes not all whales, feed by getting themselves in a huge school of fishes, and at the right moment, open their mouth. The difference in the pressure would have caused the water to rush in, which would contain some of the poor fish. Its something like a blackhole in the water for fishes. That’s my theory anyway, meaning, its what I think is happening but might not be true. I think the more correct one is called bubble net by the humpback whales.. haha.

Ok, what I really want to talk about is how the fishes escape the whales. It is impossible for a whale to swallow an entire school in one go. If you have seen footages, you will know. Even as the fishes are trying to escape, they are moving in unison yet its chaotic. Its like the fishes form several bodies and each have a leader which brings the group and try to escape. Putting many groups together, you have a rather chaotic scene. However, on a closer look, you realize that the school turns left right or up down together, even if they decide to scatter, they do it together. Maybe its really just current. Water current manipulating the movement of the sea creatures, making look like they have some telepathic ability to move or separate together, or decide which way to go.

Maybe water current is my answer. I guess I will never know.

It may look like the whale is jumping out of the water and turning to fly, but its actually three different whales breaching (jumping out of water, splashing). They weigh 40-50 ton..

blogging and me..

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:25:00 +0800

After the closure of the affairs regarding my grandpa, my mom seems to be feeling better already. Occasionally, I still find time in the wee of the nights to go check my mails or to chat with anyone online..

As I go on to my own website, I am really amazed to see people still subscribed to my feeds. A few days ago, it was 12. Maybe due to my lack of activity or good content, it fell to 8. Today, I took a look at the meter and was really appalled by what I see. Yes.. It was only one. If I count back the number of days that I had not blog, it will be around five days. I guess my last supporter might be one who either is busy or simply have not found the time and gotten down to unsubscribing me. Worst still, my feeds could have been buried under the rest of the heaps of feeds from mashable.com and the likes of it.. Actually, its even possible that there are people who sort of “specialize” in subscribing to people’s feeds..

It is just inhuman or maybe impossible to blog everyday regardless of what happens around. That is why I could never be a pro- blogger, and why mashable.com work in teams. I can imagine that if a blogger is met with an accident, he might be sitting up the next day, typing away on his laptop on how his car got smashed by a truck and spun till it hit a tree. And if you visit him, you see bandages all over him, except his fingers.

This kind of blogging might be a little too obsessive. I guess its not so important as to satisfy everyone. Just relax man..

At least now I know what will happen if a relatively new blogger like me stops writing for about 5 days, he is in real danger of losing his readers. How often do people really blog?

You might think that how much time do blogging actually take and grossly underestimate it.. Just remember to do anything in moderation, cause obsession kills. Especially in todays world, even drinking too much water can get people killed, and recently, there is a blogger who died due to lack of rest as he had spent his day and night blogging away..

If you like blogging about stuff like me, do it in moderation. Maybe a few post a week or even one a day.

Blog about your life.. don’t spend your life blogging..

So what is the difference?

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:36:00 +0800

I was just thinking about this question one fine day, when applying for university. The local university simply did not offer interior design, but just architecture. So I was thinking like maybe, the course in architecture would be all encompasing, but was not sure. My mindset was that an architecture education would be more superior to a interior designers’ one due to the fact that the former undergoes a more rigorous training. Just browsing through the net, brought me some light on the issue. What exactly is the difference between architects and interior designers? Is it really just one who specializes in exterior and another in interior?

The term architect is very specific and regulated strictly in many countries. This means that it is agreed that unless you attend and graduate from an archictectual school, you cannot call yourself an architect. This would be some sort of protection for the architects and prevent abuse of its title. This is different from designers that it is loosely governed and anyone who graduated from some sort of design school or attended a design course, would be able to use the title designer.

I don’t think its really comparing between architect and interior designer, but rather that they would actually need to work with each other. So, its not really architect versus interior designer. In the entire designing to construction process, both would handle roughly different areas or stages. However, at times these would definitely overlap, maybe in these circumstances, the architect would have more authority. I have no idea at all.

Of course, the designation isn’t that important as compared to what the individual actual capabilities are be it that they are architect or interior designer. Both of them daple roughly in the same area, but at the same time, it can also be very different. For me I think it is important to be clear on the exact differences between the two professions. For example, if you want to revamp or renovate a shop or anywhere, indoor or outdoor, who should you approach?

Architects
Architects are primarily driven by the creative manipulation of mass, space, volume, texture, light, shadow, materials, program, and pragmatic elements such as cost, construction and technology, in order to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional and often artistic. This distinguishes architecture from engineering design, which is driven primarily by the creative manipulation of materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

Architecture as a profession is the practice of providing architectual services. The practice of architecture includes the planning, designing and oversight of a building’s construction by an architect. Architectural services typically address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well as function and aesthetics for the user.

An architect must thoroughly understand the building and operational codes under which his or her design must conform. That degree of knowledge is necessary so that he or she is not apt to omit any necessary requirements, or produce improper, conflicting, ambiguous, or confusing requirements. Architects must also understand the various methods available to the builder for building the client’s structure, so that he or she can negotiate with the client to produce a best possible compromise of the results desired within explicit cost and time boundaries. The idea of what constitutes a result desired varies among architects, as the values and attitudes which underlie modern architecture differ both between the schools of thought which influence architecture and between individual practising architects.

Interior Designers
Interior designers plan many different spaces including, but not limited to; offices, airport terminals, theatres, shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, and private residences. Interior design is not to be confused with interior decoration which is focussed on choosing color palettes with complementary furniture, flooring, window coverings, artwork, and lighting. Today, interior designers must be attuned to architectural detailing including: floor plans, home renovations, and construction codes. Interior design draws on aspects of environmental psychology, architecture, and product design in addition to traditional decoration. An interior designer is a person who designs interiors as part of their job. Interior design is a creative practice that analyzes programmatic information, establishes a conceptual direction, refines the design direction, and produces graphic communication and construction documents.

Interior designers can specialize in a particular interior design discipline, such as residential and commercial design, with some developing expertise within a niche design area such as hospitality, health care and institutional design. In jurisdictions where the profession is regulated by the government, designers must meet broad qualifications and show competency in the entire scope of the profession, not only in a specialty. Designers may elect to obtain specialist certification offered by private organizations.

There is this blur or grey area that arises, thus emerge the use of terms like interior architect in the 1970s. At a more pragmatic level, the use of the term ‘interior architecture’ is a response to the uncertainties inherent in the title ‘interior designer’. Its growth was due to a perception that by employing the rigour of architectual thinking together with the sensory understanding of interior design, a synthesis could be produced that was both intellectually and humanistically satisfying and which overcame the narrow specialisms of facade- driven architecture and context- free interior design that were prevalent at that time.

Interior Architecture bridges the practices of interior design and architecture so that professionals working in the field have a structureal and load bearing education with an emphasis on interior spaces. The field is similar to architecture in that it deals with structures and load bearing walls. It is similar to interior design in that it focuses on interior spaces.

Many references from wikipedia, The Fundamental of Interior Architecture, more reads from DL.

Not a green horn in a green world..

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:21:00 +0800

With global warming and also natural resources being sucked almost dry, there has been a movement, coming in a big way not just impacting the small me and you, but also how future buildings would be designed, built and function. The Singapore government’s take on this is remarkably clear, with the introduction of the BCA (Building and Construction Authority) Green Mark Scheme in 2005. In line with Earth Day on the 22th of April, BCA announced its gift to mother nature that from April 15th onwards, all newly constructed or refurbished buildings would need to meet the criteria of the Green Mark Scheme. From this the local green buildings has tripled and now exist 61 buildings with the green mark.

This scheme was to help the construction industry become more initiative in making their buildings more environmentally friendly and at the same time be sustainable. As a building project would most likely involve many people at different stages of the project, awareness could also be raised from the very start when conceptualizing and designing the project with the developers and the architects to the implementation stages, where contractors and builders get involved and at last, on the long run, when the building is functional and open to public. Maintaining a green building would most definitely be different from maintaining a non green one.

There are five main criteria, which the BCA looks upon to assess applicants. Generally, the applicants are categorized into buildings which are new or are existing. If they are new, the scheme will provide the opportunity for developers to design and construct green, sustainable buildings which can promote energy savings, water savings, healthier indoor environments and adoption of greenery for their projects. While for existing building, it will enable building owners and operators to meet their sustainable operations goals and to reduce adverse impacts of their buildings on the environment and occupant health over their entire life cycle.

The Green Mark assesses five key environmental areas:

Energy Efficiency
Water Efficiency
Site/Project Development & Management (Building Management & Operation for existing buildings)
Good Indoor Environmental Quality & Environmental Protection
Environmental Innovation

The award itself is also catagorized into four levels, Platinum, Gold Plus, Gold and Certified. This actually enables the benchmarking of a building’s performance and also allows comparison between buildings. Below is the rating system base on points.

Green Mark Rating Green Mark Points

Green Mark Platinum 85 and above

Green Mark Gold^Plus 80 to <85

Green Mark Gold 70 to <80

Green Mark Certified 50 to <70

The Treelodge at Punggol is the first public housing to be awarded platium by the authorities and many units have already been snatched up. There is a reason why so many buildings are going green, this is because ultimately they understand that they would be the one saving the money. If on the long run, more energy is saved and with the rising cost of energy and water, future expenses would also be saved. Being certified green would also provide a meaningful differentiation of buildings in the building and real estate market. This can have positive effect on corporate image, leasing and resale value of buildings. Benefits of having a Green Mark building include:

Facilitate reduction in water and energy bills,
Reduce potential environmental impact,
Improve indoor environmental quality for a healthy and productive workplace,
Provide clear direction for continual improvement

Even MNCs have been going green for some time already. When they do business, they have a “Triple Bottom Lines”.

Ensuring Economic Growth
Environment Conservation
Social Responsibility

Locally, companies do care if their buildings meet the green mark or not and an interview with financial leaders worldwide, the majority think that having green buildings is indeed very possible.

One reason that green buildings is feasible is because the returns from the savings on energy or water etc. would be fast. Although expenditure on green buildings would exceed the usual by 1.1%, this is justified as the savings in energy consumption goes as high as S$500,000. So it would take from 2-8 years for the it to break even, depending on how much money is allocated for developing the green aspect. Another reason is that green buildings tend to value add on the customers’ or consumers’ experience.

These concepts are relatively new in Singapore, but will set to change in the near future. This is evident in that the BCA organizes courses on technical issues of environmental architecture and also training for the management of such buildings and the responses has been overwhelming with vacancies only available only in June.

Learn more today, visit the Green Mark.

What exactly is a job?

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:01:00 +0800

I started another job recently being an admin staff at a major media corporation.

To be honest, I still can’t say I know about how things work in the world in terms of salary increment and all that stuff, but reading and hearing many stories of people feeling enslaved towards their job, really set me thinking again. Just how perfect can this world get?

I had an experience several years ago, when I was part-timing a few short term work over a few months when I graduate from high school awaiting for enlistment in national service. One particular job was being a promoter for a company that sells cookies.

The job was simple. A stall was setup in a busy corridor of a shopping mall. As it was the new year festive season, in addition to the great location, the sales was naturally good.

I remember being naive in a good way. Why do I say that? Because, I had work hard for them, Since I was paid a fixed rate per hourly, to earn money, the simple logic of going early to help setup the stall and leaving late to pack up came to my mind. I had wanted to clock the maximum numbers of hours.

I do not know when I started thinking this way, but I remember feeling something in my gut that I am definitely worth more than the six bucks they pay me per hour. Besides, lunch was only twenty minutes.

Although its understandable that every corporate would want the biggest cut of the pie for themselves, it just isn’t fair for the worker ants. Especially now, companies like to “prey” on energetic young people who are in the phase of waiting for results, enlistment or further studies. This group of people are educated, energetic, young and more importantly, they have no preconceived ideas of what job should be like and how should they be rewarded.

That’s why so many people are working by the clock, because they think that they benefit and because companies benefit more by paying less. As weird as it sounds, it is we who let ourselves down by accepting the jobs in the first place. So many that it has become a standard. Now it only gives companies another excuse to not raise your paycheck by saying that its the “market” standard, although, more than half the time they are able to do so.

This is why I always flavor jobs which deals with commissions and not simply selling my life for that few meagre dollars by the clock. Your pay should be decided by your effort and performance and not the clock. Having said that, I am ashamed to announce that I am still tied down on a hourly paid job..

Buying of soul for time is a common practice everywhere. Whether you have a elementary certificate or a degree. The only difference is the starting salary. Period. The piece of paper simply does not guarantee any thing except being accepted or not. However, that is still not to say I am undermining it, its just that its not safe to pin all your hopes on the paper.

Now if you are thinking that a degree would be your pass to break away from this social vicious cycle, I can only say, it depends. I’m sure you have heard stories of people with high school education striking it rich. The truth is that nothing is certain now in this society.

Although I have no prejudice of any sorts against the Americans, I have read so many reports of office people clocking the hours all their life, arriving early, finishing their work, play solitaire, surf porn till their own demise. And they leave to start the routine all over again the next day. Perhaps for this kind of people, they really do gain more, or possibly over payed.

Most likely they might never be promoted. Their fate might be summarised below: 

Probably they remain stagnant till the end of time

What I am saying is not just to quit your 8 to 5 daily job, but simply making your effort count. In Singapore, although protests are not allowed, the system is more or less balance. However, no matter how balance or if there were to be protests, the fundamental problem would not be solved but just stowed away temporary as you can see below. The system is the same, the outcome would be the same. Nothing changes.

As you can see, initially, it might seem like a good idea and plan, but your effort does not always follow in sync with your effort or responsibility. This can apply anyone, not just the typical office guy.

The way to break from this, might be to simply have your own business. Again, this can take many forms and you would face a different sets of difficulties and it would take lots of time, passion and determination to see it through. However, most importantly, it would be making your effort count. If you are determined and patient enough, the following might just happen.

If this happens, you might also start recruiting innocent youngsters to help manage your business. If all this does not sit well with you, there is of course the other route, which is to sit it through and wait to get a percentage of your company’s profit. You never know, everyone can start dreaming to get rich. Just a thought.

Then again, working and evaluating the company does not just lie on the single monetary factor, sometimes, there are things to learn and experience, and the power of youth is the advantage of choice and time.

Climbing the ladder to limitless future

Embracing Consumerism

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:40:00 +0800

Recession rampant everywhere, job loss has been ever increasing, people can’t even to finance their homes now. My maturity value for my insurance plan just decreased by 15%. How bad is this crisis? I wonder. It seems for now this disaster is not affecting the general population much, except the super rich or those working in banks and financial institutions.

The world economies are built upon capitalism which the Americans have been propagating for decades. The beginning was imperialism when the European powers began carving the world up to fuel their economy, at the same time to export what they started to produce during the industrial revolution. The capitalists wanted to have more profit, thus produced more, which increased jobs, however, there needs to be an import country, these would be the asian/ african economies. Free trade would be a formula for success for capitalists, as they are able to grow their economies more by exporting.

The Americans took over from the British and became center of the financial world and transformed imperialism to capitalism, beating communism, fascism on the way. As capitalism spread, countries started trading beyond their boundaries at an unprecedented level. Belong long the whole world is connected in one way or another. Soon local capitalists would grow to be powerful transnational capitalists, with some earning more than countries.

As the story goes, unfortunately, this also meant one economy importing less would affect the other exporting country. For economies to continue to grow, people have to spend, spend, spend! The culture of consumerism certainly did help with fattening the capitalists’ pockets, and it did not help that values of society are changing too.

Success is now achievement-related, depending on definition, this can be materialistically or not. Although current trends would point to the former. People are now defined as what they have, instead of who they are. Does a common wage taker have less self-respect than a businessman? Can the boss be rude to his employees just because they worked for him?

Coming back to the point, capitalist works and can continue to function only when consumers consume, and this philosophy is just perfect for the never ever satisfied humans who just wanted more and more.

Fully embracing consumerism, I would need to spend too. Thus, I am going to throw some hard earned money at getting a Macbook and also an Audioengine 5 speakers.

Economy, recover already.

Maybe I should be calling the banks instead.