Firefly MMO

Okay, personally I never liked the idea of MMO. I think it's a big time waster, not to mention I just don't see the point to pretend to be someone online when I have a life in this thing called Real Life. Then I heard the news via Penny Arcade (I'm slow, I know) .

Seriosuly, that is very tempting. Especially if it's free. Heh. (I'm dead broke, see my previous post. :))

I wonder how it'd be set up though: will we be playing the characters? Or, more likely, other creature in the Firefly universe? And who/what would I be? Kaylee all the way? (Chick Geek == Chic Geek :D) Or a Kung Fu fighting companion? Or I can even be flying a ship myself? :)

Oh the possibility!

Now, here's the million dollar question: having said that the potential is there, will they make a good job of it? They say that Firefly can translate well into MMO, but we love the plot dammit! Yes the fact remains everyone has a story, and that translate well to MMO... right? I'm not too sure now actually. Will there be just a bunch of quests? Can we pick what back story we have? What's the deal?

Still, majorly excited about the news. I think I'll at least give it a try before I decided it's sucking up too much of my time. :)

Happily in our first major debt: Mortgage :D

And yes, Pete and I have purchased a house!! :D

So this is the outside of the place. Nothing too fancy. It's a 3 bedroom bungalow, more than enough for the two of us. But we got the place for a good price, not to mention we also just fell in love with that place! We've been through a few other place before we came ot this one.

At first when we drove passed, we didn't think much of it. We just thought ah well, it's in good condition and got potential. And then we stepped in...

Pete and I pretty much just fell in love with the place. It's everything we what it to be. It's a charming little bungalow. All the art deco details are there, right down to the art deco brass door handle. Hard wood floor just begging to be polished and unveiled from those aged carpet. The back yard is a decent size yard, with enough space for BBQ and our usual socialising. But best of all: TWO fireplaces! I've always wanted a place with a fireplace, and not only do I get a gas fire in dining (nice and efficient and pretty much hassle free), I also get a real wood fire in the lounge! How funky is that?

Don't worry the mint green exterior is going soon. Just a matter of time. Pete and I are still deciding what colour to paint it. He wants lavender, I want to paint it chocolate! But I think so far we both think it's still possible we'll paint it in another colour all together. Right now white with dark green trim is actually winning too. We shall see.

It took me all the self retrain I have to wait til it's finalised to post this entry. :) We just went unconditional this afternoon. Move in date is set at 15th Feb at the moment (after consulting the Chinese calendar and all. Dad is really excited about this palce too, but he said since it's a big step, he wants us to do it properly... the Chinese way. :))

Those in Auckland: house warming will be soon after that. I can hardly wait!

Backto reality...

Yup, theory didn't work, back in square one. Yadda yadda.

Just kinda down again, especially since I have just another 2 weeks here to try to get as much done as I can... and I was hoping I can finish the meat of my research here. No such luck...

At least by process of elimination I now know what doesn't work and just focus on the rest of the gizillian possible solution.

Hopefully something will surface soon... fingers crossed.

Breakthrough!

Okay, yesterday I was all hyper because of my brilliant idea... which work to SOME extent but not really... but it's all good: it also proves that time frequency is more flexible that Gabor logons in matching pursuit... kinda. :P

So, this week (today and tomorrow really) I'm trying my best to try to get as much coding done as I can... I think I'll stick with my idea of actually using the blobs, but with some changes (like trying to take advantage of the fact that TFD is more flexible)...

Wish me luck. I'm hoping by this weekend I have some pretty good looking results. :P But then again I say that week...

Updates from the Gateway City

Sorry for not updating for a while... heck I haven't even written in my personal journal since I left NY. That's how busy I've been lately. Either that or by the time I finish watching the Daily Show on TV I just get too tired...

Nothing much, swarmed by work, done some shopping and touristy things. Finished reading Thud! (the latest Pratchett) and Making History (by the ever so brilliant Stephen Fry) while I'm here... so I'm back to reading about murders now. :P (3rd degree, James Patterson, in case you want to know) Bought some new items of clothings, and basically trying to soak as much information as possible while I'm here...

No internet at the palce I live in and that really suck big time.

I've started my next sketch, which I still haven't finished. It's one of Jon Stewart (*sigh*. Doesn't he just have the cutest smile ever?) and I finish the face, but not the hair. I still haven't decided whether to make his hair more like how he has now... the picture's a couple years old, when his hair's still jet black.

Oh yeah, I also developed this freaky and unhealthy obsession with Jon Stewart and Hugh Laurie (from House... not Blackadder. Although you gotta admit after seeing House you have to admire that guy's acting ability when you see him saying Bravo as Prince George :P)... See my cheesecake blog/column for more on Jon. I think I've finally grown up enough to appreciate older guys and stop liking girlish looking boys.

Okay, I lied. I still like Kelly Jones from Stereophonics. (I don't think he looks girlish at all.. Pete thought so though :P)

Right, I'll try to update this slightly more frequent than I do right now. Although I do find that if I DO feel like writing, it'll fit in better with my cheesecake blog. :P

4 more weeks here... After I go back home I'll have to watch The Departed with Petey. (For those doesn't know, that's the Hollywood movie based on Infernal Affair. Yes the day finally come when the role reversal happens and Hollywood is copying movies from HK... I'm not too sure whether that says more about HK movie industry or Hollywood to be honest.) And then decided whether to get a Wii first or upgrade my desktop (and if the latter: whether to go duo core or not. And AMD vs Intel.. seeing apparently Intel's Duo 2 is actually pretty decent. o_O)

Oh, and Petey's book launch will be soon after I go back home. :) Yay!

Big Apple

This is my last day here in NY, and I'm actaully having fun.

Now, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the NYC. :P

The GOOD:
- Wireless access everywhere. I'm staying a one of the really budget hotel even THAT provide free wireless in the lobby. Compare that to NZ...anyway.
- Subway gets me everywhere.
- The shopping! (Engineers may want to skip this point and read the next) If I'm richer I might spend a lot more money, but honestly, I got myself a very nice pair of Diesel jeans for US$30... so I'm happy. :D
- The conference actually went very well and I found out at least I'm on track... even if it's the wrong track :P One Canadian prof told me their team did almost the same thing because they read the same few papers I read. And then realise that they too can't really replicate their results and decided to for for wavelets instead and got really good results. Now I just have to convince my supervisor... (wish me luck huh...)
- There was a Nintendo World here, and I got myself Trauma Centre. One of the most frustratingly cool game. I too now can become a surgent.
- Hotel is just a hop from the subway, right in Times Square which means it's very safe since there's people everywhere all the time.
- All the blinking lights in time square makes me dizzy :P It strangely reminds me of HK.

The BAD:
- I couldn't sleep for the first day or so thatnks to jetlag and time differences. At the end I had to get sleeping aid to help me sleep
- I got called a "corn" (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) in Chinatown right in my face coz the people in the shop didn't realise I understand Chinese. o_O
- Everything's so expensive here it's not funny. o_O

The UGLY:
- I never believed it's THIS polluted, but it is. There's this strange smell from the streets wherever you are. Strange smoke/steam substance come out of the drains on the street and I really don'y want to know what it is. Come to think of it, I wonder if it's the pollution that reminds me from HK.

Anyway, for the whole trip I do miss Pete a lot. And I've been listening to Bic Runga a lot.. it strangely fits (especially whenI couldn't sleep, listening to get some sleep was cool. maybe she was jetlagged as well when she wrote that)

Take care folks. will write more in St Louis. :)

One sleep to go...

Am I stressed? Hell yes. But yup, I'm finally flying out tomorrow.

I've kept every type of liquid out of my carry on, even gave up my beloved minty eye drops. (Those are great.) Apparently I'm allowed up to 4oz of essential non-prescription liquid medications, which apparently include KY jelly.

Dude, seriously. I don't want to know.

Alright, I'll update this when I'm in the Big Apple. :)

Engineering Solutions

I had a grand total of 4 hours of sleep, thanks to the guy from Telecom coming over to fix the land line (and I was told that he'd come around sometimes between 8am to 11am...), and I've been waking up at noon for so long my internal clock is pretty much in another time zone.

I thought I'll get some decent research done. Well, when I say research I really meant just picking bugs in my code and plugging holes in my logic. And lo and behold: my computer's monitor won't display anything. Judging by the noises it makes though, it sounded like everything's going fine.

This is the point where I should point out Geoff let me borrow his graphics card to play Dreamfall before I head to the states. (I really don't feel like buying a new computer before I'm off.)

After checking that the cable's plugged in and everything, I've decided that the fan's also getting rather noisy again, that's when I realise Geoff might've fixed that while he's putting the card in. I opened the box, card's sitting well.

So, decided to go online to bug Geoff, and found out that the toothpick I saw inside the box wasn't me going insane: it was used to jam the fan. Hense fan making loud noise again.

At the end, I finally found the problem: cable's stretched so far the connection at the back on the monitor is almost out.

The solution? Move computer backward to make sure cable isn't stretched too much.

Between that, the toothpick, and me plugging holes in my code, it sums up the engineering education pretty well I think...

Countdown begins...

25 days til the trip.

I still haven't decided what books to bring. Although I thought re-reading Sophie's World might actually be a good choice.

Am I excited? Somewhat. I'm still very nervous about the trip though. I'm hoping that this will ease soon. It's probably because it IS the first time I'm travelling alone. But then again, it's not like I can't speak English, and people are generally trying to be helpful.. right?

Right...?

Major decisions concerning the trip

Okay, I havne't update for a while coz I was kinda busy with getting things done with the trip. Now that the ticket and accommodation (and things like insurance) are sorted, I need to REAL issue sorted out. How to survive ona trip for 2.5 months on my own.

What books should I bring?
I need a book that'd entertain me perferrably for about a month. I usually only read at night but seeing I don't think I'll be going out at night on my own in St Louis, I'd probably want to read...

Hopefully a book that's not too heavy to carry either. I carry enough junk as I do around all the time already.

What DS game to get?
Or should I get an NDS at all? I do like the DS Lite, but Locoroco doesn't come out on DS does it? :( I'm thinking possibly a puzzle game, and an advanture game on DS maybe? Possibly Nintendog as well, but I'll think about it.

What else can I do there?
IN NY I'm thinking I have to at least do the touristy thing. Having a conference on would probably help as well. So hopefully I can get some sight seeing done, and possibly see whether there are other students there who wants travelling buddy. :P

St Louis on the other hand... I don't know. I think I'll figure out things to do each weekend, and just cook and read and shop online when I don't have much else to do. Heh.

Yeah I'm still stressing. :( Eek.

I hate bureaucracy

Okay... MORE battle with bureaucracy.... I just found out I need to get the US university to write a petition to get me into the country.

WHY is it so difficult really? *sigh*

Anyway, please pray for all this to go smoothly and that everything will be sorted before I'm off to US. This stress thing really isn't helping my health.

*sigh*

Things I rather be doing than work

• Baking cookies


• Baking a marble cake


• Make that a RICH marble cake


• Updating my blog


• Practise my Calligraphy


• Plan my wedding


• Plan my funeral, even


• Reading about maths not involved with my research


• Bake more cookies


• EATING the cookies I baked


• Hmmm... cookies

Ah well, look at the time, I think I'll give up working for the day...

/and another unproductive day gone by...

Holidays! :)

Yup, I've just submitted a "final" version of my paper, and if all goes well that's pretty much all I REALLY have to do before the end of this week. (There will always be other things to be done, of course.) The I can take Friday off and head down to Pete's bach for the weekend again. Yay me!

In other news, planning for a long trip is majorly stressful. But it's getting there now. So again, yay me.

So tired this week though. I thought brother not being home means I get more sleep in, but I happen to have to go into uni almost everyday this week.

*yawn*.

A few productive days...

Yes, I actually had a few productive days for the past few days. Although I still get my sleep in, I actually did some decent work. (If you have to know: I added an algo to detech multiple ridges in a 2D distribution, as well as, in theory, finding the BW of a given ridge.) Once I plug all these in my GUI, I can start the SOM part.

Baggy: I was complaining to Geoff about my PhD (as I do always) and he actually recommends you to be the person to talk to :P Since I'm complaining about whether to use SOM/CBR/HMM... fun time, fun time. :P I dunno whether CBR or SOM is my best bet actually... there's some thought in trying to use entropy as a feature, ah well.

Since I've had... like... 3 or 4 productive days in a row, I predict today won't be very productive at all :P We shall see...

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I spent a whole day writing this algorithm that I've been putting off for a while. Thought I finally got it all sorted. And THEN it dawns on me, after writing the whole damned thing out, that there's a MAJOR logical flaw in it.

I hate thinking on Friday afternoon. *sob*

Battle with Kalman Filter part 2

Yup, after all the excitment about plannign the trip to US and whatnot, I'm back to battling with Kalman Filter. And I'm just getting really sleepy reading about maths really.

Also wondering whether I have asthma. Been having shortness of breaths A LOT lately.

Ah well, green tea is all good at the moment. I'llmuck around a bit longer than back to reading about maths. *sigh*

The Numbers in LOST, as seen in the eyes of a psuedo-maths geek

Psuedo, becasue I'm not crazy enough to do a maths degree. :P (No I'm not bitter about not being able to make it to Maths Olympic when I was in high school)

Now, I stopped watching LOST (along with most engineers) because it's fallen as a victim of "Americanitis". It's dragging on without resolving plot, although Geoff did mention the finale for season 2 wasn't half bad, I'll have to see it to judge it. Still, as I always said, if it's been an anime, ALL the mystery would be shown and this season we'll have an even more fantastic story. All hail anime!

Now, back to the topic, I was looking at the famous "numbers" on series (being 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42), and I'm seeing the fact that, maybe, just maybe, the writers aren't morons. (It's only the producers. Grr.)

• Let's start with a no-brainer: 4+8+15+16+23+42=108. Every 108 minutes, these numbers needed to be entered.


• 4 = 2+2, 2*2, 2^2... not to mention the smallest composite number. Also a square number. How nice. There's also four classical element (well, not counting quintessence) Bonus cool points


• 8 = 2*2*2 = 2^3. Not as neat. But it's a Fibonacci number. Also there are 8 trigrams in I Ching. So it claims cool points.


• 15. This is trickier, but still. 15 is the sum of any row, column, diagonal in a 3x3 magic square. And magic squares are always cool.


• 16 = 2*2*2*2 = 4*4. You know what that means right? It means it's 2^4 as well as 4^2. Not to mention it's the base for Hex numbers.


• 23. NOW we get interesting. It's a prime! Not only is it a prime, it's the sacred number of Discordian. (Yes I'm reading the Illuminatus! trilogy. Fun read, fun read). Made of even (2) and odd (3). all hail Eris. Yadda yadda.


• 42 = The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. End of story.


• 108 = 1^1 * 2^2 * 3^3. Also a cool number. Not to mention it's a sacred number in Hinduism.

Well, other numbers that I'm disappointed not seeing on the list (possibly because it doesn't add up to some cool number) include 5, 11, and my favourite number of all, pi. Prime is very under-represented (Granted, I don't like primes...), and irrational numbers aren't represeted at all! (heh) The again imagine typing pi in every 108 minutes.

Does that neccessarily means the writers have all these in mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if they actually put some thoughts into what numbers to put in. 15 and 16 is a wee bit of a stretch though. Maybe there are some other meanings in 15 and 16 that I don't know of. And what about 3: the holy Trinity in Catholism? You have classic Greek, Tao, Hindu, Discordian, and Douglas Adam-ism even, where is Catholism in all that?

And I like 12. Why not 12? It's highly composite as well as being the number of Zodiac, 12 stations of the cross, yadda yadda. And no perfect number either! (unless you count '6', which is the number of numbers there)

Ah well, I wasted another afternoon...

Weird songs deemed "possibly inappropriate after 9/11"

Interesting things you can learn from wiki . I was having yet another research block, so I've decided to "surf" on wiki (an activity I made up which involve clicking on links after links on wiki. Great fun.) I was reading on Black Hole Sun, and then found out it's been put on the "list of possibly inappropriate songs" after 9/11.

Interesting. I can see how some song might be a wee bit inappropriate, so I've decided to have a look at the link. Some of the songs are pretty much a no brainer: Great Balls of Fire, for example. Then you get some interesting entry:

Louis Armstrong – "What A Wonderful World"
The colours of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shakin' hands, sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really saying "I love you"

That, apparently, is inappropriate.

Ok, move on to other songs:

John Lennon – "Imagine"
I still can't see how that's inappropriate. If anything that's a very nice song for reflection really.

Rage Against The Machine – all songs
OKay, that one made me chuckle a bit. Maybe they just hate the band. Heh.

But here's the worst one:
The Smashing Pumpkins – "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"

Bloody hell! That's my favourite Smashing Pumpkins' song!

Seriously: I can understand some people, especially those who lost love ones on that tragic day, would not want to hear anything with "flying" and "wings". But I still find it somewhat odd that any song that promote racial harmony is deemed inappropriate. This is fueling racim. And for what?

I have my laptop back :)

After all these times, I have my laptop back! At the end I have to deal with the IT manager. But he was actually really nice about it. So hey!

I also finally decided to buy the Calligrapher's bible using my 20% off Borders voucher. Yay me!

Anyway, Now I can install various things and try to get everything to work. wish me luck :P

Slowing gathering pieces together...

I'm slowing getting all my working bits and pieces together :) Yay! Hopefully before the end of the month I can start looking at the data from the database. :)

I'm actaully being semi-productive. That's very scary. :P

Short entry again I know. But not much happening in life for me to write much. I might update my cheesecake blog sometimes soonish...

Inertia is an annoying thing

Gosh if I smoke I'd be smoking right now and writing this, and be all Film Noir like. I'm in that kinda mood.

Didn't really do too mcuh today. Last night I couldn't sleep so I started the GUI and today I'm just filling up the code and debugged it. That's about it. It's the inretia. I just can't really get going. Once I do it'd be good, but right now, I just really can't start anything new.

Perfection is an illusion, yet curse my stupid soul I have to be a goddamn perfectionist. I don't think I can be bothered with it today. I'll just let some bugs slip by. I really can't be bothered looking at all those little bugs and think what the heck's gone wrong.

Haven't updated my Lucifer's Cheesecake for a while. I have to think of the next thing I want to rant about.

*puff... breathing out smoke ring* A glass of melancholy for everyone, on the house.

Another case of self induced insomnia

I didn't sleep til around 2am this mroning. Didn't want to sleep. I was in bed, almost absolute darkness around me, and just try not to sleep. I think I was afraid of the fact that once I wake up, I'll ahve to face the day worth of work, and trying to actually achieve something. That stress me out.

I woke up at 12:45pm this afternoon, when dad's back from his English classes and charge into my room thinking I was sick. That gave me such a shock that I had to wait til my heart stop pounding before I got out of bed.

It's getting rather silly, the whole anxiety attack thing. But I can't really help it. If I can, I really would rather sleep. When I rather trade my sleep time with JUST that little more time before I have to greet reality with my open arm, I know I'm not feeling right.

I can only comfort myself all that much you know.

Anyway, at least today I made some code. I don't think I can make the code to do the testing and display for the new stuff I've done just yet. Need to think about how to make it all show. But for now, I'm happy with the fact I've done some work today.

*sigh*

A strange nightmare last night

This one is odd...

I was dreaming I was lying in bed, in my room, and I'm trying to get up. Only I found that there are hundreds of bugs (spiders, giant ants, and the lot) on the ceiling, right by where the door is. They fill up this neat square around the top frame of the door and on the ceiling. I couldn't move (since I'm scared of bugs), and hope to get the courage to jsut rush out.

And then, I look down. And there are bugs everywhere, all in these neat square formation. were were all moving but the square they form stays there. I couldn't even get down!

And then I look up again, right on top of my bed was another bug square. I decided staying in bed isn't actually safe anymore, and jumped down, avoided all the bug squares, pull the door open and rush outside.

Only to find that outside, there are bug squares everywhere too.

*sigh*. I for one welcome our new bug square overlord...

Anyway, I still don't know what the dream means. I'll try to figure it out later. :P

Trying to pull myself back together...

It hasn't been easy, but I'll damn well try.

So far I've made a few goals that I would like to achive by end of this week. It doesn't look TOO difficult yet.

I might just take the rest of the day easy and try to make some sense of the Kalman filter. I have to do it sometime anyway...

Holiday...?

Okay, one more sleep to go and I'll be heading to Pete's bach. I'm kinda looking forward to it. Well, I would LOVE a holiday away with Pete. But knowing how friggin' stressed out I am at the moment, I'm just not too sure whether it'd be a holiday at all.

I don't really know... I mean, I know it's silly to be that stressed out because of something that's not really my fault (I would've been close to finishing on feature extraction by now has it not been my supervisor keep on pressing me on the segmentation part. *sigh*) but I do feel somewhat like a failure. It's silly, I know.

I'm tempted to buy one of those wrist guard thingy just so I'll stop looking at my wrist really. It's kinda getting worst. It's getting kinda hard to stay sane sometimes, I just don't understand why I can't really do as well as I think I should be. Pressure is the last thing I need at the moment, yet I've been getting pressure aplenty.

I'll just have to push on I guess. Try my best to do as much as I can today, and try to actually have a break over the long weekend. *sigh*.

I'll survive. I'll have to. *sigh*

Easter Monday Madness

I have to be really bored to do this (or just stalling coz I can't really work... :P)

Not only does this rather pointless exercise gives me (and hopefully you) some laughs, it also gives you a peek of my music collection that is my current playlist...

Instructions: Go to your music player of choice and put it on shuffle. Say the following questions aloud, and press play.
Use the song titles that come up to answer each question.
NO CHEATING.

How does the world see me?
Dry? - Janne da Arc (Oh dear... this is off to a great start...)

Will I have a happy life?
Something - The Beatles

What do people really think of me?
Make it all okay - REM

Do people secretly lust after me?
Hello - Paul Anka (It's the Paul Anka swing version... bloody brilliant btw)

How can I make myself happy?
"Rubbish" - Eason Chan

What should I do with my life?
Hello - John Butler Trio

Will I ever have children?
Human - Pretenders

What is some good advice for me?
Who will save your soul - Jewel

What do I think my current theme song is?
Your Song - From the Moulin Rouge soundtrack

What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Au Revoir - Malice Mizer (o_O)

What song will play at my funeral?
Peachers & Cream - John Butler Trio (That's a slightly freaky song to play for funeral...)

What type of men/women do you like?
A Message - Coldplay

What is my day going to be like?
Love Song - Luna Sea (I love them... *sigh*... anyway)

Why am I here?
Booker T - Twinset (Yes, a Jazz piece with no words explain perfectly...)

What will people remember me for?
What you want - John Butler Trio

What song will I get stuck in my head tomorrow?
Case - Dimmer (I will if I have my speakers here o_O)

Are there people outside waiting to take me away?
Auf Achse - Franz Ferdinand.

What will this year be all about?
Act Naturally - The Beatles


... Yup. that was pointless. Ah well. :P

How I stop worrying and start loving bureaucracy

The amount of paper work has made me realise that bureacracy is the system's way to make sure we're not over working ourselves. Think about it: each time you need someting to be done, you'll have to wait for about 3 days, at least, to make sure the paper works are all done and everything's sorted, sent, and waited to be signed by various people. Sometimes, before that piece of paper is signed by about 5 different people, there really isn't much you can do, but sit and wait. It's the system's way to make sure we do have time that we're not over-worked, and think about other philosophical issues such as "why mst we fill in the forms" or "this shouldn't be nearly as complicated".

Of course, it could also be the other way, it's just there to create more stress, because no matter how early you want to start, you'll always be cutting close to the deadline.

Remember: if you die, they don't have to worry about paying you anymore.

Adventure of getting a travel quote

Applying for funding is an absolute pain in the butt. (More about that in my Lucifer's Cheesecake blog today. I'll update that later). Not only do I have to jump through hoops to defend my rights to have some funding to go to a conference, I also have to get some quotes for the travel, from the uni's preferred supplier.

Except I can't find just exactly WHO this "preferred supplier" is.

After bugging a friend who've applied for the fund before, I found out who they are, except no one knew the email address to send to to bug them. Their website didn't quite help either. So I've decided to call them up. (Which is quite something, considering I have an irrational fear towards using the phone.)

So I called them, and was on hold. (surprise)

After about 3 apology voice messages, I got to a human, who told me I just have to email a consultant. And finally got hold of a consultant's email address. I sent an email to them asking for a quote, and said that I need it by the end of the week, if possible.

Half an hour later, I got a reply. Here's the reply. Word for word:

Hello Lisa
Thank you for your email.
we will reply soonest possible

Thanks
name deleted

I'm giving up. *sigh*

Absolutely wasted

I don't know how my brother does it. 3 days with just 5 hrs sleep a day and I'm already wasted. He does it 5 days a week... mind you as he pointed out I was no better when I was in 4th year.

I'm not too sure how I'm going to survive this week really. I've got movie tonight, a birthday for tomorrow, flat warming tomorrow night, I'm supposed to go through my old harddisc, read the text book (I have to return it on monday), and other various work related things to be done this weekend.

What did I do this morning? I surfed the web. Stupid.

Well, it's not so much that it's stupid of me to surf the web I guess. I'm extremely tired, I can't really read about Kalman's Filter right now. But I kinda have to. I think. It's stupid anyway, I'm supposed to have finish the whole segmentation stuff. But then again I suppose if I can do some sort of state modelling it'll help.

Grrr. That probably mean I'd have to redo the whole damned thing, not to mention start a completely different branch of literature review of Hidden Markov Chain and Kalman Filter.

And people wonder why I'm depressed. o_O

Here to redefine "blowing it out of proportion...

Grrr...

This morning dad had a go at me for drinking Earl Grey and he was hoping we can stop buying Earl Grey... It's not liek we don't have other tea you know... I was like "err... you know i do liek my earl Grey every now and then. Why can't we have both of them at home?" He went on saying that I don't know what I'm talking about and refuse to talk about it. WTF? Apparently mum bought some more after we finished the last batch and dad didn't like that... how expensive is tea for crying out loud? And it's not like we buy A LOT of it... *sigh*

Honestly. If someone can tell me the significant of NOT drinking Earl Grey (besides the fact that it smells like soap according to some) let me know. o_O

For now, I'm just gonna kinda sulk and be annoyed at the world. o_O

I really do need to move out sometimes soon...

Swing like teen spirit

Gosh... I thought I like Tori Amos' version of Smells like teen spirit... I was channel surfing, and hear Paul Anka's version of Smells like Teen Spirit in swing! After the intially "WTF?!" reaction, I actually thought it's quite cool, especially the fact that there is absolutely no point whatsoever in doing a swing cover of the song. It's a lot better than the disco verison I heard before though, That I can tell you.

Apparently (this is all thank to wiki, as usual) he has a whoel album of swing version of rock songs, include things from Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson (yeah I know... ) and REM even! Everybody Hurts... in swing!! Not to mention he also have a swing cover of Wonderwall. (I'ms till trying to figure out how that could work...) I'm actually tempted to get that album. If not just to annoy Toby coz I got music even stranger than his.. (well... ok I lie. He got Dokaka... and nothing is QUITE as strange as Dokaka).

Now I just need to find a cheap version of it. :P Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Warehouse sometimes. :P

Auckland's traffic problem

We woke up at a quarter to 7 today, got into Mt Eden at 8am, and NO CARPARK!! Honestly! How early does one have to get out to get some free carpark?? And we got into city at 8:30 and got one of the back parks.

Honestly, taking out the parks out doesn't solve the traffic problem. What it does is just forcing everyone to get out at the same time (bloody early) and create more traffic jam. People who could get out late won't because we won't get parks. There's a reason why the morning traffic jam is so bad.

Don't give me the crap about I can take the bus. It cost about $10 to and from uni and if my brother and I both go into uni, it's cheaping to park for $10, even. (Right now if we DO pay, it's $6 car park for a day.) Not to mention the fact that the bus service isn't exactly what you call reliable. There's about one bus every half an hour, up until around 6pm when it switch to liek once even 90 minutes... and hello? Engineers work til then anyway.

To solve Auckland's traffic problem, we need a few thigns to happen:

1) Affordable and available publich transport: I'm thinking a network of trains and buses maybe. So I can, for example, take a train from Botany to around Panmure, and get on the central line from there to CBD (Or to Newmarket even. I can get to CBD by bus or something).

2) Park and ride system: If you aren't going to bring public transport to where people actually live (i.e. the suburbs), then have a big carpark for people to park their cars and you can get onto public transport there. It's easier to find park in Botany than City, and you can still charge in you want, just not as much. It'll go well with the trains/buses system.

3) Carparks in city: This might go against intuition, but it does make sense. People all go into city at the same time because we need to fight for hte carparks, and people are heading in earlier each day to get to that carpark. Then why don't we provide MORE carparks, and people who CAN head in later during hte day will head in later during the day, and sitll get a park. You can still charge them anyway! More income for the council!

4) Student carpark: This is the big one. As of right now, both Auckland University and AUT, two bloody big universities, are both located in CBD... and we need to get there somehow you know? Tamaki campus is a good idea: parking for students, therefore they don't have to take over other's parking, everyone's happy. In the city campus, not only are we in CBD, they also took away the student carpark. Becasue public transport is crap, we have to drive in. And there we have it: massive traffic load into city. And because of the reason I've pointed out in point (3), all students drive in at the same time (i.e. bloody early). Some of us don't even have class until the afternoon!! I like to wake up at 10 and head into uni to work. (morning is overrated) But I can't do that because I can't get a bloody carpark at 10 in the morning!

I should draft a report and send that into the Ministry of Traffic to get them to take my advice instead of just making us pay. It doesn't solve the problem, and it just force more people to pay. You can't just give us road toll without any alternative. This doesn't solve any problem. o_O

Sleepy, as usual.

Woke up WAY too early today... or maybe I went to bed too late last night. Tried to help my brother to debug this program but alas... I couldn't figure out what's wrong with it. Not to mention it was 12 at night...

Meeting with my supervisor today. I don't know WHY I'm so stressed out about meeting with him. At least I got it figured out what need to be done for the next two months.

Speaking of which, I really should factor in the fact that I'll be taking one long weekend next month. Probably the weekend after Easter. I'm hoping to go away that weekend, and possibly take the monday off (seeing that tuesday is Anzac day... if we do that we can take off on friday and come back on the tuesday)

In case the bach's already booked for that weekend... maybe we can head to Rotorua or something :) (Or somewhere else with nice stuff)

Anyway... I think I'll probably try to get something done before I head to meet with my supervisor. Wish me luck.

Strange sense of melancholy

Yup. It's back.

I don't know... I think it's just that now I've just gone past the whole stress and depression, what's left is just this elusive sense of melancholy, nagging me and sucking all life essence out of me...

Bob (my car) passed the WOF today though. So he's good to go for at least another 6 months. I bet he's happy. For an old car he's aging very gracefully. It helps, of course, that I still have this fear of driving most of the time.

Gosh I hate being in a city where you have to drive to get to bloody anywhere.

I think I can finish writing the paper I've been working on today, and get a rough 2 months plan ready to keep my supervisor happy for another two weeks. Plus getting some of the segments ready. I hope. But I'll be happy if I can finish the first two task I've listed for today done.

It's hard to work when you just lost motivations on everything.

Fleas, fleas everywhere.

Stupid cat. I bet she's the reason why I'm covered with flea bites. And why just ME?! Of all people in the house I'm the only one that's covered with flea bites!!

I'll write something once I stopped scratching and stressing o_O

I'm being eaten alive... by insects!

I honestly don't knwo WHERE all these insects came from. Pete thinks that most likely they're from my cat. And well, I think so too. Maybe besides the mossies, which I doubt has anything to do with the cat...

Other than that, I'm still stressing about everything. And not being able to sleep doesn't help either. You try sleeping while both of your feet are itching. Grr.

Stupid insects! I'm tempted to put on insect repellant on before I sleep to avoid them. :\

Update...

I haven't update my blog for a while, mainly because life has been absolutely chaotic for the past week or so.

I've decided not to go on any page that would distract me today, just so I can get some work done. Even THAT isn't looking too hopeful. :P

Anyway, I've figured out why I'm getting headaches more often, and why I've been dizzy a lot lately. The former was because I'm cutting down caffeine, and the latter was because it's axiety attacks. *sigh*

In other news, I've decided what I'll draw next: I'm going to move towards improving my skills, hopefully in both pencil sketches and pastels, and I'm hoping to move towards drawing nude (as in drawing nude figures, not drawing while naked. o_O).

And of course I have to find some times to do a few paintings too. :)

Anyway, that's it from me today. :P Now I got a lot of papers to read... :\ Eek

A cold remedy, Hong Kong style

Boil Lemon Ginger Coke

Take one lemon, sliced, put in a pot. Pour in coke (Doesn't have to be flat). Add a lice or two of ginger. Before you put in the pot, smack the ginger slices with the flat part of the knife, to let out the flavor. Put in the pot. Bring to boil. Serve while hot.

Yup I'ms till sick. But I'm having lemon honey at the moment. Too lazy to boil anything you see. But I'm slowly getting better I think :P

Sickie...

Again? Why yes. I KNEW I should be wearing a jacket on Saturday. But did I? No. *sigh*

Yes I'll try my best not to stress and get better soon without trying to force myself to work and stress about it. *sigh*

stupid cold. :(

Engagement party: and LOTS of pressies!

The party was a blast! And we got so many presents that I was almost embarrassed. :P But there are some very cool stuff there. And now, the awards for the presents:

The most personalised award goes to the Baradene girls for their towels with "Lisa" and "Pete" embroidered on it. :) They're VERY cool, and I can be sure Pete doesn't use my towel... teheheh.

The they must be in it together award goes to Richard and Ursh and her boyfriend for the identical sushi set. They're sushi set for two, just when I thoguth how I'd love to have another set so I can have guests over with match sets, I opened the other set. That was cool :D

The sweetest present award goes to Kathy for the big box of Devonport Chocolate. :D

The they know Pete too well award goes to Pete's silbings and his Aunty Annie for the sets of knives. Pete is still drooling over it.

The they know me too well award goes to Toby and Katie for the giant candle that I won't have an excuse not to burn. :P

There are so many other pressie that I want to list here but it'll go on for way too long. I'm just SO glad everyone can make it and made it into the memorable night that it turned out to be. :)

Party all ready to go. :)

I'm at Pete's place at the moment. Spent the night setting up lights for the engagement party tomorrow. It's actually looking pretty good. :) I'm quite happy with it. Probably hard to capture it on photos but we'll try our best. :)

Anyway, work wise: I'm slowly getting all the things back by actually codinh them again. I got one file back, still need to debug it later, and supervisor wants me to try one or two other things anyway. So my next week is going to be... well busy.

Okay... a bit more rest and then I'm back home. Should be uploading photos here when I get them. :)

Computer Rescue...

Baggy, here are the details for the laptop rescue.

The Beginning of the End
Friday night, I thought I'll turn on the laptop to watch a DVD. Windows refused to boot up. Restart in save mode: nothing. Restart in save mode with command promt: nothing. Try to reinstall windows: the windows install disc doesn't recognise any preexisting windows install.

Something is VERY wrong...

Day 1: Roller Coaster
It's great to have a friend who knows what he's doing and have rescued data from a dead harddisc before. So I took the laptop to his place. We tried using a Linux live CD... can't see the directory. We tried almost everything: can't see the directory. We got the harddisc out and plug it into a USB HDD case: Windows can't even see the disc.

We've decided to use a file recovery tool to get data out. The took got almost everything else... besides anything from my PhD folder.

*bang head of wall*

We then decided to recover any lost files (or lost segments of files). and estimated time was 600 minutes... We've decided to leave it for the night, and see what happen the next day.

Day 2: The situation sinks in
So all the files that it pulled out was the Matlab help file segments... NOT helpful. And after we gave up, we try to reformat the drive to reinstall Windows... That's when it happens: the disc won't even reformat.

Yup. That's when we realise the harddisc is deader than we thought.

So... we gave up. Completely.

The End of the Beginning
So, that's the beginning or a battle to try to get a decent laptop. I'll have to go into work today, tell them what happened (and report on what I've found as well), and talk to my supervisor to see about getting the laptop fixed (hopefully: a new harddisc. And fix up a whole lot of other problems with it)

If all goes well: I want a week of stress leave. *sigh*

Overwhelming sense of stress

It's happening again: I'm getting axiety attacks, again. Which means going back to rescue remedy and try to calm myself down. *sigh*. I think the past few weeks have really taken a toll on me, What will all thoe socialising and whatnots. I barely have a day to just sit and chill and do nothing. It's kinda bad, and somewhere along the line all the stuff that needs doing just builds up and I'm panicking again. *sigh*

Anyway, once my head stop telling me I'm dizzy, I'll probably just wrap up for the week and try to get some relaxing time... *sigh*.

Rescue remedy is a very very good thing.

Slow progress

I've done nothing today, again. :( I've looked at my graphs, and decided that that the algo is actualyl go enough as it is. But it's still hard to justify the lack of progress. *sigh*

Geoff told me that I should just accept that some days there WILL be no progress. 'Tis true I know, but it's just kinda... discouraging.

I might do something with the feature extraction tomorrow or so.

:| I'll get productive again sometimes.

Naaa na na na na na na Valentines no Damashii

Sorry, all through this morning it's basically Katamari time over here. My brother's absolutely hooked. :P

Anyway, I hate to admit it, but I think I've just realised the algorithm I've decided to base my work on isn't actualyl the one I shoudl've picked. Back to square one. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee *sigh*

And while I'm trying to start a new investigation, here, have a snow shaker:
http://www.pixelthis.co.nz/club/game.php?code=SHAKER

Knock yourself out. :) It's got a penguin in it!! Yay! :D

And here's the mushy part that you don't really need to read, unless you're (a) Peter or (b) likes to read sickeningly sweet things directed to someone else :P

Thank you my darling, for making me the happiest and luckiest girl in the world. A most happy Valentine's day to you, and I'll try to make everyday just as happy for you, for the rest of our lives. :)

And now for a bit of art appreciation

Came across these beauties: Polish poster for Hollywood films. They're so wonderfully wierd and beautiful at the same time.. I wish we had these posters here. :P

I was gonna upload some but brother's downloading... *Sigh*. Personal favourites are the Gandhi one, the Aeroplane one, and the muppets. :)

More polish poster goodness here. There's a link on that site for shopping too. :)

In other news: my work is still stuck... *sigh* :(

I lost a wee bit of weight though :) Yay! :)

Baggy's leaving :(

All of a sudden Baggy said he has to leave the country in as little as a day's time. :( I do hope it's nothing bad bro!

Today's been spent changing my paper to be more about biomedical signal. It's not going too bad so far.

Been walking a lot lately too. That's also good. I think if I keep walking and moving I should be able to loss some weight. Fingers crossed.

In the wake of all the destruction around us...

I was reading this piece written about the riot of the Islamic community in Demmark. What got me is that it was saying how Hindus don't cause a riot when we sell beef on a sale, and how other religions don't use violence to push their belief onto others, so muslim is the only religion that use violence on people who are different.

Wow wow wow hang on there! I thought Bush went into war to "free" other contries because they don't comform to the Christian way (or the American way, whichever way you see it).

I'm not really saying good for the muslim for rioting (I think there are more civil way to deal with this. From what Pete's dealing with looks like writing angry letters is the way to go.). But I'm sick and tired of people saying "They're rioting and destroying things because their muslims". For crying out loud we (the "Western" world) bombed their countries! You can't say "All Christians are pro war"!

There is a fine line between being humourous and being offensive. From the sound the things I think, as a newspaper, those cartoon has crossed the line. (Remember the emails that say there's a play that involve a "gay Jesus" and all the Christian email forwarding?) There is also a fine line of standing your ground and being unreasonably violent...

There is also a fine line between comdemning people because of their action, and condemning people because of their religion.

Okay, let's try this exercise: DON'T just automatically assume all muslims are violent and suicide bombers. Get to know someone with that belief. And learn the true meaning of "love thy neighbours".

In the words of the wise Franz Ferdinand: "I only have a problem when people insist on taking their hate and placing it on your name".

French Women Don't Get Fat

I've finally bought the book and read it last night. It's actually really good. I've started doing part of it (the early part)... will let you guys know if I lose any weight. :P

Lunch was good though. I was going to ask my friend Ursh to have lunch with me, but then she slept in and couldn't make it. I went by myself and just and a nice lunch trying to be french :P It's pretty cool. Quite relaxing too if I may add.

Oh, right, work. I'm going to read today. On Pattern recognition. :P It's not really what I SHOULD be doing. But it's related and it's the only thing I can be bothered with. So there. :P

Sick... :(

ARGH! I was just getting productive, now I'm sick again. :(

Today's blog update was brought to you by the HOPE of revisiting code and a lot of "relaxing" (Pete's order)...

Stomach still feels funny :(

Progress report 010206

Task: summarising books on pattern recognition and features extraction.

Progress: Not too bad. :) Could be better but not too bad either. :)

Considering it's still way too hot to be working, I think I'm doing pretty well that I'm working at all :P So I'll call this a productive morning.

I'll see whether I can stretch this to being a productive DAY. :D

Note to self: Need COLD drinks!!!

What I need to do...

A quick list of things I need to do, and would be commenting on in this blog from now on until I finish them:

• Revisit code for segmentation, varified that it's correct


• Start reading on feature extraction


• Engagement party guest list


• Engagement party Invites


• Wine and Cheese for the party


• RELAX. (Don't knwo HOW I'm supposed to do that)


• Eventually: write a paper on segementation

Today's special is Revisiting code for segmentation. It's served will a lot of green tea, and a side of the stepping machine when I can be bothered with it.

So far, I havne't done jack. Again. *sigh*

The Year of the Dog

Yesterday was Chinese New Year. I ate A LOT. :P So that's a step back from my weight loss plan... *sigh*

Anyway, year of the Dog... now I'm no astrologist, so I'll just guess what it'd like.

Dogs like meat, so I assume year of the dog would be one with lots of meat. I assume that also means the vegetarian fad will be phase out too. Atkins will be back in.

They like digging bones as well, so I suppose that means that we might make a break through in archeology and... err... whatever that big word is that means people who study fossils. :P

In terms of finance: you'll be wise to save up. Dogs always do. They dig a hole and hide their precious... stuff. So subtitute "a hole" with "bank" and "precious stuff" with "money" and it's not hard to see that you'll be wise to start saving.

In terms of romance: start sniffing butts.

Okay... I guess I should keep my day job as an engineer. Astrology wasn't really for me.

A "non-working" day

Spent this morning lookign at translation of the game Cageling. It's a Japanese flash game that really reminded me of Myst. It's a bloody good game, go play with it if you have time. (Pete lost my saved game)

After this I should be looking at how to extract features from those nasty distribution I was working on. I might even update my other blog. :P

Hopefully I won't be feeling as "stuck" as I was... Hopefully.

Two things to say...

My brain refuse to think today

So far I've stared at a few papers and none of the words are making sense. If it does make sense, I can't see how it's relevant to my project.

Then again, if it's relevant to my project, it's already been done. I can, of course, try to replicate that and try to get something out of it. But it's so different from my idea that it's almost pointless to do it.

Just don't tell my supervisor I said that. If he heard I call something pointless he might give me a lecture on how everything can help. *sigh*

Stupid brain strike.

I'm too nice

It's true. I'm trying to give others excuses to be nasty. Yesterday I caught myself justifying why some bus drivers are bastards! Honestly! I always know I can get over-epathetic sometimes, but I think I should be able to be mad at someone or something once in a while. Instead I just feel bad beause I'm mad at others, and trying to justify it.

Yes it seems like a very good idea, btu it does tends to make me feel kinda depressed. :(

*sigh*

VERY slow moving day

Okie, look, I've just realised I don't fit into a dress I wore 2 years ago, and it's raining outside, AND I'm listening to jazz... you can't possibly expect me to work!

I'ms till having problem trying to wake up my brain and work. Having a VERY slightly headache, but if it get worse I can always take a panadol I guess.

*yawn*... I hate rainy days... just makes me sooooooooooooooo sleepy...

Yeah I might write more when I wake up a bit...

Reality TV

Dr Phil isn't on, and I thought I need to watch SOMETHING when I wait for my noodles to cook, and I ended up watching the Bachelor.

ARGH!!! How could that thing be showing when they cancelled Firefly!!!! *outraged*

If they want to see the worst of human nature, just look around. WHY make it into a TV series and deprive me of good series like Firefly?

The world's goign insane. That much I know...

Sad day. :(

Those who travels from my side of town (Pakuranga/Howick, even) to town would no doubt be familiar with the rooster on the on-ramp. It's almost like a mascot for the Pakuranga on ramp. Every morning, when you're stuck on the on ramp trying to get onto the motorway, the rooster would be on the bit of grass between the on ramp and the motorway, sometime it'll seem that it's trying to get food.

This morning, to our horror, instead of our lovable rooster, we found a bloody mess that could have been the rooster.

Very VERY sad.

My brother has vowed to revenge for the rooster. I'm still hoping that it's some other biggish bird. It's weird. We seem to be growing attached to the rooster. It's one of those little things that make traffic jam. And what has that bought him? *sigh*

Very sad indeed.

Whoever's done it better hide from my brother. He's not at all happy. Then again, I'm sure we weren't the only one who are saddened by the loss.

RIP, the Pakuranga on-ramp rooster.

Big Day Out 2006!!

Yay Big Day Out is tomorrow!! Yay yay yay yay yay!! :D

So far looking at the list of acts, here's what I'd most likely be seeing:

11:30 - 12:15 - Steriogram ('Coz I like them)
1:00 - 1:50 - Pluto (YAY!!!)
3:30 - 4:20 - Blindspott (Maybe)
4:20 - 5:15 - Elemeno P (Pete likes them...)
5:15 - 6:15 - Kings of Leon (They rock!!)
6:15 - 7:15 - Shihad (Need I say more? :D)
7:15 - 8:15 - Franz Ferdinand (and the day ends here if I can follow them home. :P j/k)
8:15 - 9:15 - Iggy & The Stooges (well, I have to don't I? :P)
9:15 - 10:30 - The White Stripes (HOPEFULLY with some older stuff)

Acts I'd most likely have to miss:
Concrod Dawn: Clashes with White Stripes... plus it's in the boiler room.. :(
Autozam: clashes with Blindspott. I might take them instead of Blindspott though. Depends on my mood. :P
The Brunettes: Clashes with Kings of Leon. I'm sorry but this is Kings of Leon!

So now I just have to pack my bag (VERY small bag) for the day and I'm sorted. I'm SO excited!! :D

Everywhere you go, always take the music with you

I like my new toy!! :D I can listen to music anywhere! :D The only problem is I still haven't got a protector there to stop the screen being scratched. But other than that (which is the only reason why right now i have that ugly stik-on thing there) it's all good. :D

Productivity has reach a record low. *sigh* But I'll try to force myself to work this afternoon. I hope.

I'm just going to enjoy the steak and cheese pie, and my lemon and lime bitters, and THEN I might eventually get back to work :P

EXTRA: Photos from the PS2 Modding!

I've finally got the PS2 modding photos from Geoff. :)

Debugging the PS2: Wanna see the inside of a PS2?
Here, we've pulled the PS2 apart, and connected the thing without the case, so we can check the voltage on the chip. As you can see here, we actually need to wire the power supply to the motherboard, because where the power supply is normally plugged into the board is directly on top of the chip.

It's amazing what you can do with a bit of wires and some insulations tapes. :P

Let the hunting begin!
Behold! Me debugging the hardware board, trying to see why it wasn't working the first time. At the end I've found two pins shorted together, and a loose wire.

Bonus point to anyone how can point out 5 safety hazards in this photo. :)

I'm still not too sure whether I'll do it again. *sigh*. If I do, I'm hoping it's not going to be as tedious as this time. :P

2 years...

Yesterday marked the 2 year anniversary of me and Pete. :)

I always ask the quesiton "I wonder if I'm just imagining all this being perfect". And it's hard to find an answer to it, seeing that Love is, indeed, blind. And I've seen quite a number of case where people really can't see the problems in a relationship when they're in it.

Heck, I was in a few relationships like that myself.

Then I just realise how different it is to be with Pete. It was so natural, and I am completely at ease when I'm with him. Sure at the very beginning I still try to dress my very best when I see him (and who doesn't?). But even then, I didn't feel like I have to watch what I say so I don't sound stupid, or watch my every move so I don't look stupid. Right now, he's my best friend. I can share everything with him, and I don't feel the need to pretend to be someone else to keep him, or myself, happy.

I think that must be the point I was missing before: that I need to be myself to be happy. And when I finally found someone whom I can be entirely comfortable with, I guess what's what make me know that this isn't just some illusion.

Here's to many more anniversaries to come. :) Y <-- cocktail glass. :P

Quarter Century Rambling

As of yesterday (technically it's today at around 5am) I've been on this plane of existence for a quarter of the century.

Scary thought.

Although I have a VERY good birthday though. :)

Birthday Activities
We packed a picnic and headed to One Tree Hill. Really good weather for it, and I'm lucky Pete's not back at work yet, so I can take the day off quite easily. :P Lovely weather for a picnic, and we bought too much food, as usual. :P

Did a wee bit of shopping, I bought some crafty things (I've been interested in starting various crafty projects :P), it's all good. :P Pete bought the Evil Dead game. It's not my type of games but hey.

Dinner with the family was unusually good. Dad actually liked some of hte food there! That's unheard of!

Pressies!
Pete got my Big Day Out tickets!! I'm going to Big Day Out!! He was gonna get me tickets for the Franz Ferdinand gig, but that's sold out... Then again, Now i get to see Franz Ferdinand, Pluto, White Stripes, and Iggy Pop! I'm happy. :P

And I'm getting a Creative Neeon! That's from my family, and it's going to arrive either tomorrow or Saturday I think. It's in pretty red... I'm happy. :D

Non Birthday Related Stuff
I've proved my theory that "happy people are selfish people". I seem to be pissing off a lot of people lately, without trying to do so.. :< I'm been trying very hard to keep everyone happy, but it's kinda hard. Although my mate wrote an emailand said he's actually okay with things and no hard feelings, I can't help but to feel a bit bad you know.

Besides generally pissing people off, I'm also trying very hard to solve this little problem I've been looking at for my research lately. Looks like I pretty much have to go and put the signal under 4 different filters and pray that it's going to work... ARGH!

Ah well. I have my jelly beans with me. I shall be fine. :P

In other news...

I just ralise I've scratched the inside of my engagement ring... bad.

How the hell did I manage to scratch a titanium ring?

I can't possibly have scratched it while I'm modding the PS2. :( I've very annoyed now.

*sob* I want my shiny ring back! :(

What I've learnt from Modding a PS2...

Dekita!! We finally finish modding that thing and tested on it. It's ALIVE!!

Anyway, Grant (the coolest lab technician in the world) asked what I've learnt from this (meaning now I'm more like a real engineer, rather than a sig pro one :P) and I just said I "Never buying my brother Christmas presents again, and brothers are overrated". But then, I think this call for a reflection.

• Production boards are made to be a royal pain in the ass if you want to mod it.


• Never trust the "no reset needed" line in the mod chip description


• I still remember enough of my hardware stuff to debug a mod chip isntallation.


• $65 isn't a lot for mod chip installation fees


• ... although, given you can careful enough with the process, it's not THAT easy to screw things up.


• I owe the robotic guys big.

Well, at least it's working so far. Time to order in my Katamari Damashi!!

/naaaaaaaaaaaaa na na na na na na, na na na na na na

Modding PS2 is REALLY not much fun :P

I've solder every wires in, and behold: it's booting up, but not reading the disc from a different zone. *sob*

More hareware debugging is needed, and I do hope it's nothing too major.. hopefully it's just a connection or two, or wires not stripped properly.

And I still can't quite believe I'm turning 25 in a few days...

Eek.

Modding PS2 is NOT fun.

Grrr..

I swear I was going mad by the 5th or 6th wire! Those things are EVIL!

Anyway, other than that, 2006 has been to a good start. :) I'm hoping that I can get a break to actually work on my research soon though. I've been so busy with things it's not funny.

Well update more when I have more time to write. :P Meanwhile, I'm just still extremely happy, and I'll float back to earth sometimes :P (liek when I'm soldering that damned mod chip onto the PS2. Grrrrrr)