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visit me at jhender.ignisaqua.net

so i finally got tired of blogger, and want to switch to a proper web host. (or rather i am planning to, whether it comes through is another matter)

finds out that Movable Type has a free version, so does Expression Engine. Wordpress is free. Typepad isn't. anyhow MT and EE have great looking interfaces and WP has a theme i like alot.

so does that mean WP wins the day. hai i dislike their ugly interface and website though

Bluehost and Dreamhost recommended by WP look cheap, but i wonder about their reliability.

Self-hosting has been somewhat successful on xp. I wonder how to port it over to Ubuntu.

which reminds, is anyone interested in sharing webhost? =]

i apparently forgot to post a lot of pictures while i was obsessed with Lotro, haha

my old room, at the end of Sem2. actually i was packing stuff


my notice board of photos


sometime during the year




NDP07 floating ghosts on the river


nah this wasnt one of those things


havent seen any nice fireworks this year


Today! i got a new bag. my deuter ac lite 25. surprisingly/unsurprisingly it's also orange/silver/grey




my 2-3 week old shoes. i finally got shoes from Pedro, been eyeing that shop for the entire year. liking it more and more

Spent the greater part of the day checking out blog programs and server programs, and trying to install Apache webserver and Movable Type, and MySQL, and Perl. to no avail. and IIS7 too. it only works abit. sigh.
does anyone have any recommendation on whether Movable Type or Wordpress is better? =]
or does anyone know how to host =p

anyway today's Sunday Times had this decent article on LKY. quoted out from the book The Modern Prince, by Carnes Lord.
i like this para

"A final lesson, however, is that the autocratic temptation is difficult to resist, even - indeed, particularly - for leaders of the stature of de Gaulle and Lee. It is easy enough to understand why. Both men were far from ordinary politicians; and their greatness threw into relief the littleness of the political competition.

Aristotle observes that in a situation where the virtue and political capacity of a single individual is so great that is is no longer commensurate with that of others, there are only two choices: to exile such a person, or 'for everyone to obey(him) gladly, so that persons of this sort will be permanent kings in their cities'. "

Struck me as a nice thought. Sounds rather true too. Extremities are always unbalancers, and can never be properly accepted into society.
There was also another point that "autocratic temptation is difficult to resist". I like this book for it's indepth and causal analysis of LKY and his government's actions and decisions, the situations and conditions which prompted them to react and decide Singapore's future the way they did. In some ways, we can see that certain parts of his background and Singapore's state influenced decisions. When we look back in history, and analyse everything to bits, we find that in all ingenuity lies a certain obvious decision which we were not aware of.
An old man's memories are never perfect.

anybody else going for Singapore Marathon? finally decided on 21km half marathon.

link to site

but something is wrong with their registration link, so here's the correct one
www.singaporemarathon.com/en/regs

i just can't get the tune for the "I, wannabe" song out of my head. or rather, the "there's no place i'd rather be"

not good. i can't forget the wannabe thing. would we, 10-20 years into the future, say that we are true-blue singaporeans, like true new yorkers, haha.

ages ago there was this piece of writing:

Keeping Things Whole

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

Mark Strand

I do not know if it is still familiar to you. Another thought came to me today, the thought that I would rather be missed/noticed when I am missing, than to be noticed when I am present.

It is easy to notice what is right in front of you, it is far more difficult to notice what is missing.

just one of the little different ways in which I live, in which I see things, in which I am me.

do you live?

was at Bugis Street, shopping for a bag, had an odd feeling, of "Ah Beng" salespersons being very polite and attentive. there was one rather commendable shop attendant, i was rather surprised. he wasn't that skillful at sweet-talking or recommending items, but the effort was laudable.
i was rather put off by the noise-blasting shops and the smokers, almost made me decide not to buy anything there because the place wasn't my style.

there was another shop at wiwocity, i walked in and the staff were talking. i overheard one of them who was speaking rather loudly "i think butch and lesbians no fun. ... i mean, they can only finger. ..." dah.

after weeks of hearing the NDP song "There's No Place I'd Rather Be", i finally caught on today to the pun of "I, Wannabe". It's in the lyrics. It fits, doesn't it. This song, talking about all the top cities of planet earth, comparing them to singapore, trying to link us to them in one sentence(song).
it comes across to me as pretentious, narcissistic, wannabe.

such has National Education evolved over the years.

by chance, or not, recently a minister was encouraging ppl to study overseas but return to work in singapore. and some blah-blah nonsense. and then it was also mentioned this person who went overseas to study and returned to realise that singapore had become a land of opportunities. granted our economy is doing fine, but, as the cynic in my horribly realises, all these are but a figment of our imagination. all these one-sided views, one-sided reports, one-faceted conclusions. it is oh so easy to forget that there will be many other silent ones, who to say whether they prefer to "return" overseas.
the media is but a little limited resource, driven to publish, and no matter what they do, cannot tell the whole story about anything, cannot properly explain somebody's life. it is rather sad, extremely sad, that we live in a world so heavily influenced by so limited a resource.

what do i wannabe

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction fools despise. Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching. For the self-will of the simple kills them, the smugness of fools destroys them." - Proverbs 1: 7,8,32


am i a fool, am i simple?

omg now they introduce this referral program. why only now!!? dahz. well whoever wants me to refer them, just tell me =]

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=78285

We’re proud to announce the Turbine Referral Program, a great way to earn free game time by introducing your family and friends to The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™! It's so easy an orc can do it!

The Turbine Referral Program lets paying subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ refer friends to play the game and receive free game time for successful referrals, subject to certain terms and conditions (see myaccount.turbine.com/referral/rules). Each of your referred friends will be sent a Guest Key to try the game for free for ten (10) consecutive days!

For every friend that buys the retail edition of the game, registers a retail product key at myaccount.turbine.com, and subscribes to the game, you'll get a referral credit that can be redeemed for 30 days of FREE game time to be added to your subscription for the game! If you're already a Lifetime Member we'll issue you a 30 day game card key to give to a friend who is a game subscriber.

If you have Founder's pricing, you can also offer Founder's pricing to your friends! The first 10 friends you invite can take advantage of the special Founder's pricing plans offered through the Founder's Program. See www.lotro.com/founder for more details on the Founder's pricing terms.

Finally, to celebrate the launch of this new referral program we're proud to announce a special offer: For a limited time (ending on September 30, 2007), you will receive a referral credit for every retail product key activation! That's right, you don't even need to wait for your friend to subscribe before collecting your free game time! So get started today by visiting myaccount.turbine.com!

driving, to me, is like being trapped. being obliged to stay at the wheel, having to pay attention to the road, the traffic, the other cars, the traffic lights.

it's like having to stay in the lane, having to follow the rules, having to watch out for other people, moving at the same speed (or slower) than other fat old people who cannot walk as fast as me

it's about having no freedom from the lanes and kerbs. it's about forever being on tar, and never being able to get off. (perhaps it's a city thing)

above all, what i've come to realise, i can't do an Crazy Ivan, if you know what i'm talking about. i've always loved the twist of the ankle, the long second of time where i hang in the mid-air and glance back, and the next twist back forward. lovely. the elegance and exquisiteness.

zero degrees celsius, is it?


Scenario:

A quantity of water, perhaps in a glass. It's inside one of those imaginary environments, zero energy transfer with the outside world, isolated. The environment has an atmosphere, at exactly zero degrees celsius. [side question: is all the water in the air gone? condensed? just to check. but it's not important to me]

So this glass of water is at zero degrees too. yeah. But it's a glass of water, in liquid form. Everything is at exactly zero degrees.

Question:
Will the water freeze?

[I'm serious]

i think i would miss the lovely thunderstorms in singapore

如果 ．爱

每个人都想明白
谁是自己生命不该错过的真爱

i guess Mr. Jacky Cheung really likes this theme. I recall there was another song along the same lines or title. someday when we are old enough we will understand

still don't have the energy to think deep thoughts. haha.

it's been a difficult and also a nice week. ah well, at least some things are over.

nice things:

wednesday. nice jap food dinner. i like the noodles at waraku. at least i actually had interesting things to choose between instead of standard boring "fast-food" jap outlets. it's like western-food = chicken cutlet, chicken chop... jap-food = normal boring food. so unlike what real western (european) food should be, and what real jap food should be.
it's rather silly that european food is commonly referred to as western food. each individual country should be classified separately.
ok so nice jap food. The Central has nice shops. I shall go explore it when it's fully up.

friday. nice class gathering. although half of it was discussing medical stuff. goshness. seems like this class will never get away with bio stuff. it's obsessive. but it was a nice grown-up stay-home round-table dinner-talk loungey-home setting. very nice.

saturday. 14 July. Bastille Day. ze french national day. haha went for little celebration at The Pichon restaurant at Boat Quay. free flow wine and pastis(zis alcoholic apertif) and orangina and perrier. and also some nice sausages and other tarts. nice!! the restaurant is on my hit list.

Phrase: "the sun makes the shade cool"

Question: do you agree, and why?

imagine this as part of a larger ficticious conversation

Phrase: "I assume that my assumption is correct"

Question: How many assumptions were made in the above phrase, and why?

Scenario:

We have a Cup, a normal cup, filled to the brim with ice cubes. Square ice cubes, let's say 3 cm long on each side, for details sake. The ice cubes do not protrude out of the top of the cup, but are fully packed in. The ice cubes are frozen from distilled water, with no air bubbles in them.

Next we pour in distilled water at zero degrees Celsius, such that total volume of ice-cubes + total volume of added water = total capacity of the cup. Which means (and also does not mean) fill the cup with water.

The Question is: What will you observe upon the end of adding in the water?

-
i hope you can give me some answers

-
Remark: "Square ice-cubes" is such a stupid phrase. I shall blame it upon those manufacturers who produce rounded ice 'cubes'.

biggest boss i've seen so far. still many levels to go before i get to come here properly...


Summer Festival drinking game. starts off with a sober mind, 6 beers per station


getting fuzzy


48 beers later...the screen shifts around, i can't see nothing, i can't walk straight


smoking time. this pipeweed gives 2 smoke rings. each kind a different animation. so fun


discovered that i can lie down underwater. blub blub. i can also set campfires in shallow water and whatnot. tsk.


Summer Festival fireworks. what a way to waste our coins


now u can see the smoking pipe


and more


somebody already playing with the chickens, maybe that's where they got the idea for the new chicken roleplaying feature


dead ghost. this one loses it's head. hm.


highlight of last night. a surprise encounter with a tortoise. ridiculously big. but so easy to kill

nus stuff is driving me crazy. i hate anything to do with modules. .

woo i like transformers. great pace of action, bewildering battles, cool transformations, rather realistic stuff. and i like Industrial Light and Magic. yupz.

i still don't see what's the point in a Simpson movie.

i still can't get over the insane transformations and the funky camera angles and the non stop 2+ hrs. wowz.

oh and nobody kissed, no romantic hugs, no soppy moments, nobody declared their love for anybody. and the guy and the girl din really get into it. finally someone realises that any decent testosterone-filled guy watching such a movie would be more interested in the slug-pumping than irksome romance side-stories.

watch the movie on DVD, in Slow-Motion.

some movie info:

Bay: "The Generation One robots were very blocky which would have been like using the unarticulated marshmallow man from ‘Ghostbusters.’ Our Optimus Prime® has 10,108 parts, each of which move." (Rep, love the G1 but have to agree).

Bay: "These robots are the most complex modules ILM has ever made. We couldn’t have accomplished this two years ago.

Script secret during shoot with actors only receiving pages for own scenes.

Hardware "borrowed" included CV-22 (combo helicopter and airplane), F-117, C-130 cargo planes, C-17 (Bay: "spooky gun ship"), and F-22 Raptor (Starscream I think).

- It takes ILM 38 hours to render one frame of movement. Generally I think it takes 24 frames for one second of footage. Usually there are render farms (basically a building full of servers) for this so not sure if it means that value is X computers times taking Y minutes = 38 hours per frame or if it means one huge render farm working took 38 hours.

http://transformerslive.blogspot.com/2007/06/eni-transformers-articles.html

astounded by the number of orchids in the botanic gardens. and student price is only $1!

and squirrel!, which are always so cute

and nice carnivorous Venus fly-traps and pitcher plants

and jx showed me tadpoles

*gwinz*

joyeux anniversaire

it feels nice to use my laptop! it looks nice, the interface looks nice, i like my black black windows theme. i like my black background. i like the black laptop. i like having a touchpad and thinkpad red button (whatever it's called), i like not having to shift my hand to the mouse. i like the way Office 2007 in black looks right here. It looks better in blue on the desktop. i like being able to use nus vpn to use Outlook to access emails. web email is so unwieldy. i like having all the programs already installed. because im too lazy to reinstall everything on the vista. it does take me months to do everything. and i found out that nus vpn would not likely be implemented on 64bit vista. drats, should just have stuck to 32bit, itchy fingers. not of nus' fault, but cisco's. and now i gotta figure out if WinSSHD's SSH server runs on vista x64

Lord of the Rings Online
Book 9: Shores of Evedim
2 more days to go

*gwinz*
more stuff to play! not that i have much time to play these few days.
whopping 500mb to download.
i pity those poor satellite internet users in US who have a cap on maximum traffic and who will take forever to download. i am very impressed with their resolve to play on such a connection. and also to those ppl running on really old computers, i mean, older than my laptop. wowz.

i can't wait to start farming, or cooking

and the europe LoTRO has introduced more lifetime subscription for !150pounds. i am so glad i decided to get it early.

i suppose it makes up for my sis not being able to buy/play Battle for Middle Earth 2 coz the old computer wasn't really up to it.

i think i have supported enough games recently, financially.
but there's GTA San Adreas and The Sims 2 + all expansions and Rainbow Six dunno what version, and alot of other things that i feel bad for not installing. dah.
nothing much to torrent these days.

Libellés : lotro

i finally got to the right person at UPMC after trying out 4 email addresses and obtaining this one from someone else who went there for SEP.
incidentally he/she didn't mention that this person was the magic door, who can produce the Application Form for exchange students. somehow i couldn't find the exchange section on the website. but this fantastic form is in English, hm.

sigh

this was amusing. talking about women and SAF, and how technological advances allow them to play a greater role.

"There are privileges to being a woman in the SAF. I think one of the things you see is that the way people respond to women in the SAF.

"I have been told many a times that the culture on board the ship changes for the better when the woman comes on board. The ship becomes neater, the men are more polite. You know, things like that".

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/280201/1/.html

after many encounters with the problem of installing .Net framework 1.1 + SP1 on Vista, finally a workable solution, although i have no idea how it works. i suspect it just runs a different installation procedure. hell it works great.

Vista + Lord of the Rings Online installation = trouble.
if you are already aware of this problem, try to download .NET framework 1.1 and 1.1 SP1, install them first before even attempting lotro installation. might avoid complications and wasted time.

else:
1) download .net framework 1.1 redistribution package and 1.1 sp1 as usual
2) renamed them to be dotnetfx.exe (if different) and dotnetfxsp1.exe
3) go to command prompt (I escalated to administrative)
4) from the folder where you put the two exe files above,
do: dotnetfx.exe /c:"msiexec.exe /a netfx.msi TARGETDIR=c:\dotnet"
5) do: dotnetfxsp1.exe /Xp:c:\dotnet\netfxsp.msp
6) do: msiexec.exe /a c:\dotnet\netfx.msi /p c:\dotnet\netfxsp.msp
7) then just install using the netfx.msi

got it off lotro forum, which was from some website, i can't remember which coz i saved it as text file. just be sure to type it all correctly. involves Administrator command prompt in vista which needs to be specially opened.

Libellés : .Net framework 1.1 SP1

all i did was take an afternoon nap, and i had more nightmares than the whole of this year so far.
dah
and they were very real
and i woke up many times
pah.