I'll be off to Perth in an hour's time and will be back on Feb 3. I don't think we'll be visiting any cybercafes. So until my next post: Have a Happy Chinese New Year! :-P
January 2003 Archives
In an amazing turn of events, our biggest client has changed their minds and signed us on for another year to design their new website. Hurrah!
The church website is about to clear its last hurdle or two. I'm restructuring lots of content off the existing site for uniformity. The content was obviously accumulated by different people over the years. And the code is vintage Frontpage, with font tags galore. *squint*
Today I created an alternative stylesheet for printing, so the more traditional churchgoers can make legible copies of it on paper. This would be handy for sections which have lots of info like the sermon notes, which people might want to carry along with them.
Ricky will be coming over tomorrow morning to sort out the pages with me. Then Dad and I will be off to Perth in the evening to visit my mum and sister.
President Bush makes an official visit to an elementary school and is invited to sit in for one of the classes. They are in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asks the President if he would like to lead the class in the discussion of the word, 'tragedy'. So the illustrious leader asks the class for an example of a tragedy.
One little boy stands up and offers, "If my best friend, who lives next door, is playing in the street and a car comes along and runs him over, that would be a tragedy."
"No," says Bush, "that would be an ACCIDENT."
A little girl raises her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove off a cliff, killing everyone involved, that would be a tragedy."
"I'm afraid not," explains Mr. President. "That's what we would call a GREAT LOSS."
The room goes silent. No other children volunteer. President Bush searches the room.
"Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"
Finally, way in the back of the room, a small boy raises his hand and says, "If Air Force One, carrying Mr. & Mrs. Bush, was struck by a missile and blown to smithereens by a terrorist like Osama bin Laden, that would be a tragedy."
"Fantastic," exclaims Bush, "that's right. And can you tell me WHY that would be a TRAGEDY?"
"Well," says the boy, "because it wouldn't be an accident, and it certainly wouldn't be a great loss."
Good morning. It's 3 am and I'm trying to stay awake. I'm still uploading my old Eyeball files to the server because people have been asking to see my entire portfolio. Not that many of my works were superb, since I was a fledgling designer and most projects had to be done in a matter of hours, but it's got me all nostalgic again.
Those were the good old days when I could afford to drive to work, because parking was cheap, sometimes free (if the security guard was nice), and the pay was much better. In my last days at Project Eyeball, I was sent for training to be a news producer, and edited a couple of videos.
Ironically, my first job paid me far better than what I'm earning now, one and a half years later. I hope this isn't a trend. Anyway I'll keep on learning and improving my skills, because you can never learn enough about web development.
[yawn]
It's still uploading. It's probably all those flash files and high quality images from my fashion galleries. I loved doing fashion galleries because I could be more outrageous than normal, and get away with it - just like haute couture. Alas, I'm pretty much a corporate designer now, as someone's recently pointed out. I'm trying to finish the church website. Lots of itty bitty details to amend, bother.
[STILL uploading] Now I'm really bored. I've got dancy MTV music videos playing in the background so I don't fall asleep and wake up with keyboard marks on my face.
Ah. The FTP bell has rung. It is time to sleep.
Until I read Kristen's blog today, I didn't know that the Bloggies (equivalent of the Oscars for weblogging) had become so controversial.
Frankly, until I started blogging half a year ago, I hadn't heard of the Bloggies at all - just the Webbys. And I've stopped keeping track of the winners. I don't care if you've won an award or not; it won't affect my surfing habits as long as I like what I see.
I started blogging for fun - more than for anything else - and I'm very happy to let it stay that way. Awards may be nice to have, but they're not essential. Instead I appreciate the new acquaintances I've made on my weblog, and the friends who bother to visit and post comments. Particularly, when old friends whom I never expected to hear from again, send me a message - well that's better than winning an award.
(I admit I probably wouldn't have said this a few years ago. Let's blame it on nostalgia and age.)
So... I don't use webrings and I don't believe in linking back to someone unless I truly like what I see. Neither do I expect people I link to, to link back to me unless they find it appropriate to do so.
I'm antisocial, grr, and proud of it! >:o)
Els (right, in light green shirt) looks on as Zhang (left, in red) celebrates, just seconds after his final putt. The Chinese national scored a total of 10 under par to win the title, to the South African's 9 under.
This morning after sending my sister off and going to church, I watched Martina Navratilova shoot her winning return at the mixed doubles finals. Then I rushed off with dad to the Caltex Masters, and followed Ernie Els and his two closest rivals around the course, in the sweltering heat. We caught them at the final hole in a good position, so I took some photos of the two gridlocked players.
Now we're home, freshening up before going to our own club's driving range, newly inspired by Ernie's Easy Swing (tm?).
I have a spare ticket (or two) for the Caltex Masters this Saturday. My dad and I are setting aside our Sunday afternoon and evening for it, but he's busy tomorrow. I have a few things on as well, so I'm not sure if I can make it on Saturday.
So I called up the best possible person for the ticket: Karen Seow, Laguna club member with a decent handicap - only to find that she is already slated to help out this weekend, and has a good chance being Ernie Els's scoretaker! Gaaah. *jealous*
She'll let me know if I can help out on Sunday, and follow Els around. Me, a lowly PC holder and a non-member of the club. We'll see :)
I've been subsisting on 4-5 hours of sleep every day because I'm trying to complete the church website, as well as my new portfolio. It's tricky doing a portfolio when most of your best works happen to be top secret / currently being developed / intranets. I think I will be forced to display tiny screen captures.
My profuse apologies to those who have been writing in to me and not getting a proper response. I received an influx of spam at my free email account, causing me to miss some important enquiries that didn't have the usual subject headers which you can select on my Contact page.
Now, if I can just get this darned Nigerian official to shove off ...
Bruno called today, asking if I was interested in accompanying a jazz singer who's performing at Takashimaya next month.
I was excited but naturally apprehensive. While I've been playing piano / keyboards for most of my life, I have no formal jazz training, and my uncle (a jazz drummer) said he could tell from my technique that I was classically trained. Eep. Anyway, the date clashes with my mother's birthday, so I guess I'll give this one a miss.
Nonetheless I am looking out for good books on improvisation and jazz chords. So if anyone has any titles to recommend, let me know and I'll add them to my list the next time I visit Yamaha.
There might be a collaboration or two in the pipelines.
The presentation went well this evening, better than expected. However the church team has a few technical issues to clear up, before they decide whether or not to adopt the system we've built with Coldfusion, or stick with a purely static site. We'll leave it at that, and in the meantime continue to fine-tune our engine.
Currently the church is hosting with Antioch, who have been charging them about S$80 a month for 5 MB of web space, several email addresses and aliases. No CGI-BIN folder, no PHP, just plain HTML. Antioch is a non-profit organisation.
The church IT team was also looking into Lotus Notes for emailing and scheduling, but frankly with less than 20 office staff, the system would've cost several thousand dollars, and required an administrator. Our system does both of those things, keeps track of equipment and books, sermons, members' details, and updates web pages - for less money - with more customisation to come.
Anyway, we are marketing this to other churches who wish to upgrade their IT systems as well, so if anybody wants a demo, let me know.
I'd like to assert that this is NOT a profit-making project. We're doing it because our boss decided last year that we should give something back to society. So we've put together an engine that would've cost commercial clients hundreds of thousands of dollars, but have tailored it to the specific needs of churches, which are more people-oriented.
However, we have to pay our expert Coldfusion programmer - who, incidentally, completed most of the system in one working week.
Whatever the decision, the new (static) church website should be launched soon, courtesy of yours truly.
Today my company will be presenting the management system we've been working for on the the past few weeks, to my church.
I've decided to put the matter entirely in God's hands. So this afternoon, let the best decision be made. Whatever it may be.
Take the Bloginality test to find out what kind of weblogger you are.
I don't think that several questions are enough to determine your personality type, but anyway ... I'm an INTJ!
What are you?
Yesterday we celebrated her first birthday. Isn't she adorable?
Yes, I know I look absolutely idiotic.
One of those obvious things which nobody's pointed out before: Information Architecture and journalism have similar objectives and they can learn much from each other. Read the article.
It's everywhere in the news: Public domain petitioners lose 7-2 to Congress, over the extension of copyright. Eldred v Ashcroft is a US case which has just been laid to rest by the Supreme Court. Respect, anyway, to the lawyers who donated their time fighting for a cause they believe in. Majority opinion here; dissenting opinions here and here. No, I haven't read them all... yet.
This decision is good news for recording and entertainment companies as well as publishers, but will no doubt impede the proliferation of free information on the Net.
Woo-hoo! I just received a reply email from USC, acknowledging receipt of my application package. Of course that doesn't assure me of a place as yet, but at least I can put the matter to rest.
You see, this is what's been happening at home for the past month:
Two days after sending my packages via UPS
Mum: So have you heard from USC yet?
Me: Muum, I only just sent the applications off ... they should be receiving it today.
[exit Mum. Enter sister Vicki]
Vicki: Jie, any news from USC?
Me: No, I only just sent the forms a couple days ago. They can't possibly have sent me an acknowledgement so quickly!
Every week thereafter
Mum: Eh it's been some time already...
Me (slightly irritated): I'm SURE they've received it / The office is on Christmas vacation. I got an autoresponder when I emailed them / They've extended the deadline and they're probably flooded with applications / (Aaargh!)
They've been awfully sweet about this, I know. Eventually I did get a little concerned about the forms after a month had gone by. At least everything's out of my hands now.
A conference will be held in Austria on corporate weblogging. Find out more about the event at Blogtalk. Many bloggers are preparing papers for this event, including the creators of the ever-so-wonderful Movable Type.
This morning's best discovery: Full As A Goog, an all-in-one resource weblog for Macromedia applications.
Go geeks, go geeks...
Should Mother Teresa remain on the fast track to sainthood? The man charged with playing the role of Devil's Advocate (i.e. the odious task of objecting to the appointment of sainthood), has a few things to say about her.
Apart from the usual suspects (Singapore and unnamed Networks), these are the countries hitting on my server so far this month, in descending order:
US Commercial (Old friends and relatives?)
Australia (Bailz and random people, I guess :)
United Kingdom (lots of friends still working there, lucky bastards)
US Educational (friends studying in the US. And the admissions staff at USC? :-)
Japan (people who are looking for the VANTAN design school, no doubt)
Netherlands (people who like to go dutch)
Greece (no idea)
Estonia (really no idea)
Canada (ex-colleagues and a relative, perhaps)
Non-Profit Organization (no idea. UN? I wish.)
International (this is as vague as it gets)
France (a couple of acquaintances but I doubt they'd bother visiting)
Malaysia (friends?)
Sweden (no idea. like your meatballs btw)
Belgium (no idea. love your chocs)
Brazil (no clue. maybe I write about soccer too much)
Cyprus (a few good friends there)
Germany (I hope it isn't one of our clients)
South Africa (no idea)
Austria (hmm)
Italy (maybe it's because I rave about pasta)
Pakistan (no idea)
New Zealand (colleague? wandering hobbit?)
Seychelles (no idea. sey sells sey chelles on the sey schore.)
[ go to bed, dammit! ]
Years - decades? - ago as a child, I'd sit, my eyes glued to the telly as I watched my favourite singers win awards. I'd exalt in their triumphs and get all smug about it the next day in school. Now, all I do is I gloat over Premier League scores.
I just watched a re-run of the American Music Awards. I don't know many of the new artistes, and I don't dig all their music. The rock bands all sound the same. Granted, a few of the newbies (such as Ashanti) stand out well, but others will probably fade into a boy-band-esque oblivion. Veterans like Sheryl Crow and Eminem are still going strong.
To be fair, there were a few American artistes I really liked when I was young[er]. There was Aaliyah. And Ephraim Lewis - who died in a crash years before her. And 2Pac - well I couldn't believe he really died, thug-style.
Anyway. In happier news: my British childhood heroes are coming back with a new album after over ten years of separation. Roland [official website is down] and Curt, with a deal at Arista Records. Now that's something to look forward to.
I just sent off my USC scholarship application form, fixed a few bugs on this site, learnt some more new things about CSS - and should be going to sleep right now. Zz.
Went to church. Drove grandma to hawker centre. Had lunch at Bistro Cameleon (sister's most favourite restaurant of the season). Went to the new SICC driving range. Had a lousy dinner there. Now watching The Sixth Sense. Maybe the spooks in the house will get something out of this. Choi choi choi!
More news, around the world:
Bee Gees singer dies. Maurice Gibb, 53, passed away after an intestinal operation in Miami.
1205 Roman Catholic priests investigated in sex scandals involving over 4000 victims. A cardinal sin and a crying shame. 4 out of 5 victims are male.
Saddam's son uses Yahoo! and Microsoft mail accounts. Now: if they monitor Uday's email, would that justify the breach in US trade law?
My PC's finally repaired. It didn't even cost me one ... million ... dollars. [Dr Evil laugh] Bwaharharhar. I'm back to just 512 MB RAM, which is apparently the maximum amount Win 98 can take without going bonkers and starting in Safe mode. Strange, isn't it? You'd think that the more RAM you add, the greater its capacity to handle more applications simultaneously. That's how a Mac would work, anyway. Doh!
According to my dad's friend who builds our PCs, and the good folks who've replied to my previous post, we should upgrade to Win 2000 or XP for better memory management. If only I could do that to my own head.
Anyway, I'm just happy to get everything back.
In other news: My mum, sis and I attended the opening of a new ballet school for girls, at Robertson Walk. Specifically, young Japanese girls (nothing kinky here, please). This is because the teacher is a Japanese lady who used to be with the Tokyo Ballet Academy. Local students may be taken in at a later stage, if business goes well.
After that, we proceeded downstairs to Mamma Lucia's, a new restaurant featuring a genuine Italian mother's recipes. Let's just say the pasta was properly cooked and drained, not like the soggy, congealed slop you get at many other restaurants claiming to serve Italian fare. The bolognese sauce, for example, tasted EXACTLY like what I had many times over in Rome.
What amused me was that suave-looking owner also runs a fashion chain, so he was all dressed up as he served our food, complete with sunglasses over his head. He looked like he had just jumped off the Milan catwalk 8:-D
In the afternoon, I met up with my Alpha group to watch the Sleeping Beauty pantomime. Yeah, we're just a bunch of kids at heart. I brought my sister along and she seemed to enjoy herself. I've found that hanging out with friends distracts me from my growing disillusionment with work. Until I hear from USC, I won't make the decision to quit yet.
My General manager just called. I've been told to hand over my source files to our most important client.
Which probably means we're losing the account, which accounts for a good portion of our paychecks.
After over a year working on their regional account, I never managed to revamp their website officially (due to factors beyond my control). That was a pity because I actually completed 90% of the new site, only to be told to put it on hold. It looks like my work will never see the light of day.
I just don't know what to say.
A Scottish rugby game for yer laddies, courtesy of the good folks at Limonemedia.
Apple launches deliciously new 12" and 17" notebooks - with proportionate price tags.
If you're hankering for an old computer game you used to play as a child, but can't seem to find it at the shops anymore, try this site called The Underdogs (thanks to cousin Sean). Its mission is to promote underrated game designers and their products, which are archived.
Hurrah. My database is working again.
My new PC is still not working. I want my old machine back. My sister needs more practice.
Backlogged for Jan 7: To celebrate my dad's birthday, we had an excellent Japanese dinner at Kuriya, then watched a movie, 2 Weeks' Notice. Granted, it's typical Bullock with a Hollywood happy ending. We didn't exactly roar with laughter although there were many amusing scenes. The toilet flush prank reminded me of the British plumbing I had when I was in university and all the nasty things I did to Simran when she used my shower.
During the downtime, I came across Pepys' Diary. It's a clever way of presenting the writings of Samuel Pepys (17th century diarist), allowing readers to post 'Annotations' to each entry. Here's the BBC review.
Computer update: Vicki (with the help of our cousin Bryan, hardware guru) has assembled my new, souped-up computer. However the metallic CPU case I chose seems to be too tall for my existing CD player cables to connect properly. Along with a configuration problem, I can now only start my new PC in Safe mode, and it cannot connect to the Internet. How tragic.
We changed the processor from a Pentium IV 2 GHz to an AMD 2600. We doubled the amount of RAM (which was 512 MB) meaning that I should now be able to open all my web design programs at the same time, without strange, wordless alert boxes popping up on my screen.
Hopefully the hardware problem can be resolved today so I can continue with my work on the Church website. In the meantime I'm hijacking my mum's computer to check my email - and post this message.
And to think I was only browsing around for books :o)
I'm still alive, really. We were at the driving range from 6 pm to past 8 pm, and I hit over 150 balls. This time I think my arms are going to ache because Scott corrected my swing and I wasn't used to the new strain on my wrists and arms.
Before that, we were at Sim Lim, buying computer parts. Dad decided that Vicki, who just completed a computer building course, is to build my new computer as an early birthday present for me. Now that's a surprise, because my birthday isn't until May. But I'm not complaining. She needs some practical experience and I more RAM.
After returning home, I updated a few pages on the church website, then got hooked onto the Wolverhampton v Newcastle match. Now while I think pretty highly of Alan Shearer, the Wolves were deserved winners. They overcame their inexperience with sheer determination. Pity that a couple of Newcastle shots at goal actually crossed the line, but nobody noticed thanks to zealous defending.
Also if you read the Straits Times this Sunday you'd notice an article on the Alpha course on page 31 of Life!. After recently attending all 15 weeks of the course myself, I can say it is an excellent programme, and you won't feel like you're an outsider at all. You won't be judged for not knowing the Bible or Christian practices. In fact Nicky Gumbel is so eloquent and witty, I split my sides laughing almost every week. I too was an unbeliever, just half a year ago.
Funny that detractors (according to the paper) describe his church as 'gins and Jags'. Even if so, what's wrong with saving the yuppies? Wealthy people need just as much spiritual guidance as the poor - if not more.
"Hey Martha, going to church? Tut tut, better take the bus - you shouldn't be seen in a sports car." How ridiculous.
And if the church is rich I see it as God's blessing for having a flourishing ministry which has attracted many people - not as the result of coercion or corruption. I wonder if the same people could similarly criticise the Mafia and rogue governments for wealth accumulation.
I finally got my act together and took Vicki for golf lessons this morning. My instructor Scott is one of the most easygoing guys I've ever met. I'm sure it's partly because he's Australian. Anyway, he fixed this problem I had with my driving, and now everything's falling back into place, which is an immense relief.
He asked me to tell my mum, What happened to her New Year resolution (to get her Profiency Cert)? And what's her resolution this year?
My mum laughed and responded promptly by booking him for a lesson tomorrow evening - after he's done with my sister and me. Let's see how long this new-found determination lasts!
We just had our fill of XO Fish Noodle soup and were heading back to the office when I spotted a new digital camera shop at Pagoda Street.
The Panasonic Lumix LC40 was going for S$830 (cheapest), which isn't too bad for 3.9 megapixels and a Leica lens. I've had my eye on the higher-end Panasonic Lumix LC5 for some time, but alas the price hadn't fallen much in a year - $1299.
I decided to renew my research on the model to see if it was really worth a few hundred bucks more. Strangely, while there was a decent site for Lumix in the UK, lumix.com didn't exist. The Panasonic HQ's branding department is a little screwed up I say.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Panasonic site had a useless Flash intro and was one of the most difficult sites to navigate - because their products were listed as small animated gif buttons instead of words, so I couldn't tell where to go, and once I guessed my way to the consumer page, the links were black and not underlined, so they looked like ordinary text. Bleah!
However I found my way to their Lumix site, which BTW didn't turn up in at least the first 50 search results for "Panasonic Lumix Singapore" using Google. I was treated to another pointless Flash intro and disclaimer, and when I selected a model, I was taken to what looked like a normal static page - only it was a huge spliced-up image, listing bare information and nothing more.
I don't think they pay their local designers too well.
And maybe I'm better off with the independent camera review sites instead.
Just one year and two days ago, as I came back from Gwen's new year party, I found my parents had typed out New Year Resolutions for everybody.
As I recall, everyone was to lose a certain amount of weight, my sister and I had to have better phone manners towards each others' friends, and mum and I had to get our PCs for golf. Dad had to get his handicap.
None of us met our weight targets. I got my PC around April. Nobody else took any tests in 2002 although dad played several games. My sis and I are more polite on the phone now, even though one of my sister's friends still irritates me for some reason (maybe it's because she never says 'please').
This year I have no definite resolutions yet. All my plans are hanging in the air, and whatever happens to the company next week will determine the rest of our future. Some might leave. Some might stay. I'm still waiting on news from USC. Frankly I feel like a wild card at the moment.
While these aren't exactly resolutions, I will probably do the following:
1. Join a Bible studies group
2. Get baptised in March
3. Finish the church website soon
4. Lock myself up in the music room and record something new
5. Throw out a lot of junk cluttering up my room
6. Exercise more. Gym is good and I can do better than two times a year!
7. Visit the dentist. Too much coffee and tea.
8. Buy 4D for the first time in my life.
As for everything else - well, the Best is Yet to Be.
[ update: Check out the top ten resolutions for your PC ]
Egad, it's the end of another year. The last twelve months have been very meaningful year to me - my first full year working in a company which hasn't closed down yet, my first year actually feeling my life is changing, and my first year not just warming the pews in church.
Other things in my life haven't changed much. Like, I'm still the same weight and height (no surprises there). Some things haven't developed much at all. There's music for one. I hardly wrote any songs this year. Which is not good. Maybe it's because I'm so busy with web stuff now. Yeah.
Well, have a happy new year and may all your resolutions come true - this time.