I guess I should count myself lucky that so many dear friends and nice people are getting married and that I'm playing music for them. Well this time all I have to do is compile music CDs for Paul and Alison's wedding, which is today. The music is generally jazzy with quite a few classics thrown in. I'll enclose the full song list as a Comment (see link below). Cheers.
September 2002 Archives
The Chinese government denies hacking into the Dalai Lama's computer network and spreading a virus via email, to his supporters.
Even web gurus make boo-boos. Well, more like their editors did. Check out the erratum for Zeldman's book, Taking Your Talent To The Web. A book I intend to purchase, BTW.
And before I forget, here's something on the new XHTML 2.0.
{ url } There was an earthquake in the British Midlands, measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale. While the source originated in Dudley, the tremors were felt by my friend Demetra who's still studying in Bristol (gawd how I miss the place). No major damage, thank goodness.
I'm currently working on conforming this website to W3C standards. Unfortunately this will penalise users of Netscape 4 and below - but since they're using a browser version that's becoming increasingly irrelevant in this day and age, they might as well be encouraged to upgrade.
But there won't be any major changes to the look of this website as yet - in fact I'm working from the outside in, on a new section which will cover (what else but) web issues. I hope I'll get to study that topic next year >;-)
In other news: I donated to Movable Type. After a couple months of running MT, I have come to the conclusion that there is very little more I'd want in a personal publishing system. And it looks good to boot. I have yet to try out their tech support but maybe one day I'll be daring enough to install all the upgrades... and probably do something really dangerous.
And I can see that posting new stuff gets me on the front page of movabletype.org. What a cheap thrill ... It took all of ten seconds before this website was displaced from the top position. That's how many people are blogging right now. I thought those Americans would be too busy watching the Emmy awards.
For those interested, I also donated to K10K. Aren't I an angel?
I was much taken in by this story of a female black singer who was often undermined in the music business because of the colour of her skin. She refused to mimic the rest of the singers in her genre in the way they dressed and behaved. She is now the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize.
Up to recently, her career plans didn't include becoming a pop sensation. She somehow made it through school with 9 GCSE's and 3 A-levels but felt sidelined by the 'brighter' children who had tuition and received more attention from teachers.
At an urban music seminar, an overweight, bespectacled girl asked her idol if she could make it in the music business despite her looks. The singer replied, 'You're beautiful ... Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a problem with the music industry, where labels dictate what female artists should look like ... So don't let anyone tell you that you're not pretty.'
Has anything struck a chord with you yet? It has with me. Read the full article.
After admiring the innovative and chic home accessories at the lifestyle shop on the 2nd floor of Ngee Ann City, I couldn't believe my eyes when I read about the CEO who spent US$2,200 on a wastepaper basket that didn't do anything extraordinary.
However I do have my eyes on a very intriguing timepiece, the Tissot T-Touch. It has an in-built alarm, thermometer, barometer, compass, altimeter and stopwatch. Which doesn't sound very different from my old Casio ATC1110 - except that you touch its face to activate a feature, and the dial slides to where your finger is. It also has a classier stainless steel finishing... at a quarter of the aforementioned wastebasket's price. Hmm...
Today is my very good friend Vanessa Heng's birthday. She's flown off to Italy today with her parents, the lucky girl. Since she speaks Italian and studied in Florence for half a year, she should have no problem showing them around.
In the meantime, I'll just hang on to what's left of my leave.
It's Denyse's birthday today and we celebrated it at 8 on the Bay, the restaurant near the Indoor Stadium. Well, since the booking was for 8pm, it was literally at 8, at 8. Hahaha. OK bad joke.
Everything was fine until we got to the birthday cheesecake, which tasted more like quiche to me because it was salty. The chef came out to speak to us and we found out that it was the sour cream that was added into the cake, for the sake of variety. Anyway to make amends we had a huge fruit platter as well as tiramisu and creme brullet. The cream in the tiramisu was to die for and XL was making ecstatic meefy noises [to the Bristolians reading this: you'll understand what I mean].
However the cream seems to have done my guts in once again. Oof.
Anyway, on a different note, this was my mum's reaction to my GRE scores:
Mum: Mm. (continues playing computer game)
Me: Erm, aren't you happy for me, mum?
Mum: Of course I am! But I don't want to celebrate too early ... until you get a place in that university ...
And my dad's reaction?
Me: Dad, did you get my SMS?
Dad: Yes. Erm ... you passed right? (continues clicking mouse)
Me: Er ... I guess you could say that. *sigh*
Just took the GRE this morning. Let me just say that I had less than 7 hours of broken sleep (nerves!) and diarrhoea. Got my results. Sent them to USC, Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Columbia. Did okay. Top quartile for all three papers, which is probably just average for most Singaporeans. Whatever. I can't think right now. Goodbye.
My computer's been offline for over a week but today I finally had time to sit down and reinstall the home server, so everything's back to normal.
I also installed the { Opera browser }, the third player in the browser market that's often been sidelined by the battle between Microsoft ... and what's left of Netscape. True to what I've heard, Opera loads really fast - and while the interface is a little gimmicky, it's highly customisable. And it opens new windows automatically in tabs - which is what Netscape 7 does now (refer to my Web Watch column).
My GRE progress: I've finished the Arco book, it's nothing outstanding. I'm reading through the Princeton Review book right now, and it is so much better. They know exactly what you need to do, and even tell you what you're going to see when you walk into the exam room. Everything is so well-explained and thorough, I wish I started off with this book. I bought the last copy from Borders a week ago - when I first went to that bookshop a week before that, there was still half a shelf full of them.
A message from nekada.com:
"meet in a nice restaurant
(istanbul, 18 19 20 october)
is an event which consists of three dinners. goal is to connect people who are related to new media. so far event took place two times in milano, once in montpellier and once in roma. from 18th until 20th october it is moving to istanbul. if you are a new media artist, designer, programmer, manager, teacher, student, user or thinker and you wish to participate please contact nikola@tosic.com:
1) name?
2) position?
3) company?
4) email?
5) url?
6) contact phone?
7) city?
8) country?
location and prices of dinners and information about other activities will be announced later to ones who register. "
Sigh. Wish I was there.
If you've noticed, I've altered the name of one of my favourite bands, to express what came to my mind - after attending my introductory Alpha course at St George's church this evening. Nicky Gumble (the guy who started Alpha) is an amazing speaker. He raised this question: do you possess everything good in this world, and still feel empty?
After watching the video, we bowed our heads in prayer after my vicar, Loren Fox (an American), looked at his watch and reminded us of the significance of the moment. I then realised that this was about the time that the two planes crashed into the WTC. A chill went through me as I realised that EXACTLY a year had just gone by.
[So I guess I do have something to write about Sep 11.]
Anyway, my first Alpha course begins next Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be able to meet up briefly before then to run through the latest developments in the church website with the web team and vicar.
I feel obliged to post something on the anniversary of the attacks, but don't know what to write. I'm sorry it had to happen at all, but what's done has been done. More importantly, instead of indulging in hero-worship or finger pointing, the parties affected should try to understand the problem at its source, and not try to contain or exterminate it by brute force themselves.
My home network is down, so I won't be too responsive with the emails and such. Which may be just as well, because I should be revising for my GRE and not surfing the web. Cheers.
It's official: weblogging is now a topic of study at UC Berkeley.
Interesting discussions abound about how blogging (as it's otherwise called) is actually the antithesis of journalism, what with the press being subject to various influences which produce biased reporting. Bloggers, on the other hand, are seldom if ever influenced by profit motives because they write from a personal point of view.
The Online Journalism Review explores weblogs as a new form of journalism.
The Best British Blog competition is being organised by the Guardian, whose own weblog, dedicated to 'noteworthy reads online', has been running for two years and contains relevant links to other news websites. Magnanimous.
A couple of noteworthy blog books are out, more will definitely follow.
We Blog
Essential Blogging
I'm so tired of hearing Dubya blabber on about how the US must attack Iraq, yadda, yadda, yadda. Just because Daddy wasn't able to finish the job, doesn't mean that Junior has to.
But as for telling US allies that their 'credibility is at stake' as they contemplate joining forces, I agree - only an idiot would take more than ten seconds to realise that it would be foolishness to embark on yet another war in the Middle East.
If the US really wants to fight 'terror' (the most overused and misunderestimated word in the English language at the moment), I suggest it resumes its search for Osama bin Laden.
But I don't think terrorism can actually be 'fought'. It is a way of life for those who have little else to live for, and it perpetuates because the powers that be, often fail to understand why people resort to violence to liberate themselves from oppression.
Also, before the US points fingers at its all-time favourite bogeymen (Castro, Gaddafi, Saddam...), it should take a good look at itself and its own infringements on civil rights and other nations' sovereignty. Think slavery. Think Vietnam. Think Bay of Pigs. And hey, who thought it would be a great idea to fund the Taliban in the first place?
And even if Iraq's a suspected threat to world security, the Bush administration is already a threat to the global environment.
A parting quote:
"We can't let the world's worst leaders blackmail, threaten, hold freedom-loving nations hostage with the world's worst weapons," said Bush.
How frightfully true.
Well folks, I've registered for my first GRE test which will take place two weeks from now. I'm prepared to re-sit if I feel my scores aren't good enough to get me into the grad school of my choice. Anyway, scores are valid for five years, so it's worth getting a good one.
So far my top choice for Communication studies is USC's Annenberg School. I am still looking around for alternative schools with a safer campus, greater accessibility to amenities and the city, lower cost of living and most importantly, a syllabus which includes New Media studies.
Studying at USC is terribly expensive, so I was glad to hear from my old friend Andrea this evening that some students may qualify for scholarship (or 'half-scholarships'). Naturally this also depends on the kind of grades you get, so I really have to leave a good impression with the faculty.
But at this point in time, I don't think I can pass up the chance to study in the land of Hollywood AND Silicon Valley - bastions of freedom and creativity.
[additional note: as we got up to leave Starbucks this evening, 2Pac's hit, California Love, started to play. Lisa said this was a sign :) ]
Ironically, I'm willing to leave my job to get better qualifications (which should create better prospects and allow me to change my occupation), and to study a subject I've always been interested in. But at the same time, to help finance my further studies, I'm clinging on to my existing job. Even though we don't get raises or bonuses. Actually, I can't wait to see if the promise made to me, will be kept, come my second appraisal this October.
{ url } And the winners are ...
If you've ever worked in a corporation before, chances are your company has a website, and perhaps even an intranet. A good intranet enhances employee productivity, encourages communication between different departments, and keeps everybody up to date. Read the article to learn about what makes these intranets the best in the world.
I'm staying up to catch the last set of the Venus Williams and Chandra Rubin match. My support's behind Chandra (who's fully a head shorter than Venus). Considering that she's had to recover from a number of physical problems, she's doing pretty well, making up for her (relative) lack of brute strength, with guile. She actually won the second set, which is nearly impossible to do when you're playing against a Williams. Go Chandra! :-D
[post match: oh dang ... well, it was a good effort anyway ...]
Brendan Dawes, one of our foremost Flash experts, has just written a very relevant article on how content and ideas still prevail over the technology which is used to convey the message.
What is heartening to note is his down-to-earth attitude towards work. Like he says, know your target audience, the client, the brief ... before you even think of the design. Don't take technology in itself so seriously, but use it as a means to an end.
I know this sounds pretty trivial, but after months of searching, I've finally found a new cover for my Nokia 6510 mobile phone. It's light silver and has a slightly rougher texture than my original dark blue cover, which gives it a better grip. So hopefully I won't drop it anymore.
I felt a little guilty the first time my new phone fell out of my pocket - and onto the main road, just as the lights were about to turn green. I dashed out and retrieved the phone, but alas the monitor and sides were scratched.
This evening I was walking along Holland Village with Min Yen, and found a roadside stall selling phone covers. This one was fairly expensive - S$38 - but it's a Nokia original so it fits like a glove. I feel like I've got a new phone.
Now if only the darned thing would stop hanging!
Comdex is still the same as ever - hordes of Singaporeans (and their families in tow), trudging along in various directions, shoulder to shoulder, a few carrying huge boxes which got in everyone else's way. After bearing with the occasional whiff of B.O. and a frequent elbow in the chest, I decided to call it quits. People were filing up and down the escalators, nobody noticing the 'Healthy Eating' exhibition which was being set up, just a floor below.
But I did manage to speak to the boss of an Apple retail shop. Now I'm wondering if I should trade in my G4 400 MHz Mac for S$900 (minus the monitor), or just add more RAM to my system when I finally set up my music studio proper. At least someone still takes in second hand Macs.