I exceptionally love the ones where Andy (Jason's mum's nickname) supervise Jason playing games. Parental supervision is something that we didn't cover much in our course.
Monday, April 25, 2011
I LOVE FOXTROT!!!
More foxtrot to de-stress. Credits to Bill Amend, the God of comic strips! HAHAHAHA
I exceptionally love the ones where Andy (Jason's mum's nickname) supervise Jason playing games. Parental supervision is something that we didn't cover much in our course.
I exceptionally love the ones where Andy (Jason's mum's nickname) supervise Jason playing games. Parental supervision is something that we didn't cover much in our course.
Examination Stress Reliever
Once again, it is the end of semester, the start of finals. Once again, we bury our heads in our books and bully our brains into working overtime. This year, life has been kind - I met a lot of fantastic people, had a lot of wonderful lecturers (yes, that definitely includes you sir!) and learned a lot of new stuff. I made quite a lot of new friends in every single module I'm taking. For instance, for COM 125, all of my project members are actually people I have never worked with before. And I had a really great time learning about how easy it is to infiltrate another person's email/facebook account when that person is not careful. All I have to do is download a script, run it, and it will give me a list of 'lucky winners' who are not securedly logged on to their accounts.
As usual, credits to the all-time fabulous Bill Amend.
In another module called UGC 111, which has the reputation of being the most daunting module one will ever take at UB, I met a lot of new friends too. The lecturer for this module is an extremely enthusiastic and competent educator - I learnt a lot under his guidance. However, his ideal of an average grade is C and I am definitely not too keen on being average in his class. So a couple of us took the responsibility of presenting the chapters so we can share notes and study overnight. While they were asleep, I violated their privacy by taking a video of them being dead to the world. The alarm rang since 7.15am and snoozed 6 times till 7.45am yet they did not hit 'off' button even once. They just let it ring till it stopped for the next 5min interval. This is just for fun and laughter - it is really good for killing examination stress! They saw the pictures I took and had a really great time laughing too.
Sorry for the unstable shooting - I kept giggling so my hands kept shaking.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Sharing Fun Stuff
I've got quite a few nice websites that I visit regularly to share.
This website was set up slightly more than two years ago and it remains as a bit of an unknown to most Singaporeans. What the creator does is that he will draw pictures on little post-its with inspirational quotes on them. He then pastes these post-its at various locations all around Singapore so that people may chance across his work and become more motivated. I've been looking around Marine Parade because this seems to be the place that he frequents most but I haven't been lucky enough to find his work yet. His quotes are usually reminders for some of the things that we tend to forget when we are too buried in our work or overly concerned with ourselves, neglecting others around us. In my opinion, some of them are quite pointless - I don't get them at all. However, there are some pretty amazing ones which make me keep going back to the website again and again. He actually made one of Steve Jobs!
This other website is managed by a Samaritan, Frank Warren, who wants to give everyone an opportunity to confess their secrets without revealing their identity. Every Sunday, he will select some of the secrets that are posted to him on a postcard and he will upload them to the website. Quite a number of secrets that I've read are extremely compelling. Some are full of joy but some are extremely poignant like those written by suicidal people. This website was introduced to me quite a few years back so I've been following it for quite a while and I've thought of posting something to him as well. One of the most compelling ones that I've read is someone about how girls think having sex on the beach is very romantic but she doesn't think so - because she has been raped on the beach before. And there was another one from a mother who said that she could not bear to tell her son that Santa Claus had sprained her back this Christmas and might not be able to pay the bills, much less to buy him his toy train. The really heartening thing is that many other followers of the website will step in to either counsel those who are depressed or extend financial help to those in need. It makes the world a better place, honestly.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Future of the Internet
Honestly, I am not sure what to predict of the future of the Internet because there are just too many possibilities. Some of the clips that we saw in the lecture were pretty amazing and it reminded me of a few things Mr Abel Choy said. One of the was "[E]verything is created twice - the first time is in your mind and the second time in reality." That statement got me thinking for quite while. It once again made me realise that the virtual and real worlds are overlapping more and more. Maybe, just maybe, whatever we see in Avatar will come true. Judging by the incredibly rapid speed at which technology is developing, maybe people will be able to connect to their laptops by inserting a finger into some high-tech port in their computers. They will have it taped to their nails using ever-lasting glue or have it surgically embedded into their fingers.
As usual, credits to the greatest cartoonist of all, Bill Amend!
For me, one of the issues I am most concerned about is still security. I'm really bad with technology but tonnes of people out there are extremely tech-savvy. The community of hackers will most likely increase as more people are using the Internet. Although I am not sure if it will happen in my lifetime, I am indeed quite curious about what the North Koreans will do when they are exposed to the wonders of the Internet. They will probably try and take over the world via the cyber world so the international fear of their missiles will also be translated to the virtual world.
Credits to Reporters without Borders. They are an organization that look into various issues and studies with regards to journalism freedom in all parts of the world. And, yes, they don't think very highly of Singapore. I don't think I need to explain why.
I was searching for images on 'North Korea Internet' and I came across some really interesting results. For some really odd reasons which my dense mind is incapable of formulating, they showed me tonnes of Justin Bieber images as well. LOL
Since I am not part of the Bieber Fever, please forgive me for making fun of him. Because I think I've finally discovered the biggest reason why North Korea refused to allow the Internet - to deter his quest for world domination. You think Kim Jong Il will ever allow that to happen? No way.
Google VS Apple
My favourite comic mentioned the Windows software so I cannot help but share this on my blog, credits to Bill Amend as usual. People either talk about Apple VS Windows or Apple VS Google - it seems that people like to compare with Apple the most.
Honestly I don't know what to say about them since I usually compare Microsoft with Apple. However, with the rise of smartphones, more and more comparisons are being between Apple's iPhones and Google's Android phones. I personally favour Apple's one more because of the variety of applications - Android has a lot too but not nearly as cool as Apple's. Moreover, Apple's OS is more closed (that's what my bro said) so it is less susceptible to viral infiltration like the more open platform of Android. That being said, it does not mean that iPhones will never 'kena virus' ok? Still must be careful about what we download and try to not jail break the phones.
Journalism & Internet
There is a new Communications module offered this semester that is about Journalism. Due to clashes in timetable, I can only choose between Journalism and Health Communication. I have great interest in both modules but I settled for Health Communication and one of the reasons is because Prof. Lance Rintamaki (my favourite lecturer because he is so nice and awesome!) mentioned that the lecturer for Health Communication is pretty good. Although it is regretful that I cannot take Journalism, but I do like what I am learning from Health Communication now. Another reason for not choosing Journalism is because I think Singapore's publishing industry is not just repressed, it is also going downhill. You may think I am making unsupported claims here but let me show you exactly what idiocy they are capable of. Below is the link to a letter that SPH released, in response to their publishing errors.
Any sane human being with basic analytical skills will understand that the SPH has made editorial mistakes so simple that even my little Primary School student can rectify. They have failed to uphold the basic principles of journalism, such as honesty and accuracy in their reporting. Lacking basic integrity in their work, I will no longer rely on The Straits Times as my major source of information. Since the start of the Tin Pei Ling fiasco, I have been waiting for them to say something more neutral about the issue. However, all I have read so far shows me that they are not even capable of neutrality - their reports only spoke of how the cyber citizens have been unforgivingly harsh and how she has 'grown' from the criticisms. Why did they not publish information regarding her lack of worthiness to represent us? I refuse to let such a frivilous character represent young females in Singapore and I absolutely will never acknowledge her us our MP. The criticisms that she has received does not even rival one tenth or even one hundredth of what Sarah Palin received. Yet she is grumbling about the netizens being too harsh - it just shows that she still has a loooooooooong way to go. Her fiasco just makes me feel more disgusted with the political party that endorses her nonsense. And all these events will not only reduce the local publishing industry to a pile of joke, it will also give the false impression of what idiots constitute Singapore. I definitely do not want to be part of this idiocy so I refuse to subscribe to the ideology of both SPH and PAP.
All in all, I am glad for online news and opinion platforms like the following below:
- 1) Though not as objective as I like, they are pretty up-to-date and accurate. In my opinion, this website is by the students, for the country. If anyone wants to have an insight into the way a varisty student may think of local and global issues, this is your best bet.
- http://kentridgecommon.com/
- 2) They represent the voices of many who are only allowed to pen their thoughts on the cyber platform. They are as objective as the cyber world can get because their writers criticise not only PAP, but all the other political parties as well.
- http://theonlinecitizen.com/
- 3) This one is a bit of a joke because even though the events they write about are facts, the commentary is not always very sound. But they are pretty entertaining if anyone is into political tabloids.
- http://www.temasekreview.com/
Politics & Internet
I think we've seen quite a lot of how the Internet helped various political groups and candidates reach out to the cyber community. I was exceptionally impressed with Obama when I saw his speeches online because they were tremendously inspiring. The change that he advocated and promised was truly alluring and the fact that a non-White could progress so far into the elections made me in awe of his capabilities. With Barack Obama, the results are definitely encouraging and so far, with the exception of the Saturday Night Live TV programme video, what we have seen in the lecture are mainly positive effects of the Internet on politics. There are actually a lot of cat-fights and with the upcoming General Elections in Singapore, our little world is also being messed up with all the 'scandals' published online.
There is a particular website, The Temasek Review, is a little like the Taiwanese tabloids. Sometimes, they have excellent pieces but most of the time, they just churn out gossips and stuff like that. They poke fun at the major political party, PAP, most of the time. Although their literary skills are not as compelling as the speech written by Obama's office, I do gain quite a substantial amount of information (or misinformation) from them.
There is a particular website, The Temasek Review, is a little like the Taiwanese tabloids. Sometimes, they have excellent pieces but most of the time, they just churn out gossips and stuff like that. They poke fun at the major political party, PAP, most of the time. Although their literary skills are not as compelling as the speech written by Obama's office, I do gain quite a substantial amount of information (or misinformation) from them. I have never been very interested in Singapore's political arena because I think it is just stifling and all based on propaganda. When I was a relief teacher in a Primary School, it made me realise how the government is trying so hard to brainwash kids nowadays. Most of the Civic and Moral topics are on Nationalism, which is both a good and bad thing, depending on what perspective you look at it. Good because it makes the students understand how fortunate they are to be born in Singapore. We have one of the highest literacy rates in the world and most of us know at least two languages. I am grateful that I received elementary and secondary education locally because it gave me an opportunity to master both English and Chinese fluently. However, when I moved on to JC and looked at the differences between our freedom in speech as compared to other countries, I felt disheartened. Anyways, here is the link to a note that one of my friends from JC wrote. Although a little biased against PAP, the facts are irrefutable. He is an excellent writer since the first day I've met him and he actually convinced me to not vote for PAP. HAHA
Entertainment & Multimedia
This is a video that I took when I was in Okinawa, Japan. It was the dolphin show at the Aquarium Park. I think that my video creating skills have literally diminished because as compared to what I made when I was in JC, this one is really nothing much.
This link to Youtube is for the video I made when I was in JC. I was in a couple of CCAs like Chess Society, Librarians Society and Science Society. Really geeky right? I know. I really love reading a lot so being part of the Librarians Society was quite a fun thing for me. We had to do some promotional stuff for our Society and I was pushed to be part of the 'Library Awareness Week' promotion video. It was really embarrassing but I had a really fun time when I was editting the video. Of course I did not do it alone. There was another member of the IT staff who gave me a lot of guidance. The quality of the video resolution is relatively low but it is cute. HAHA http://youtu.be/uQq-ol-GWKQ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)