Travelling

So I'm back in Nebraska and the stuff is up and running. So that's good news. The bad news is the true pros who know the system inside and out are leaving this weekend. Which leaves the rookie, i.e. Me, to run the system with another engineer. Hopefully, we'll get all the bugs worked out before they leave tomorrow and Friday, but... I'm kinda doubtful. So No Pressure. Haha. Oh well, I guess I've gotta get a list of things that need to be looked at and just plug away. Just keep working.

其实，现在已经不是这么烦了。虽然客人还是不能让我们增加我们的生产力可是现在已经不是我们的问题了。哈哈。只省我们的100%的生产力的production run了。真希望那能顺利的进行。

Travelling here was quite an adventure. I went home over the weekend to tidy up some stuff and on my return, I was slated to fly from Chicago to Omaha and then take a puddle jumper to the Central Nebraska Regional Airport. I made my Chicago flight on time, but then due to delays, I was sitting on the tarmac for 1.5 hours... And so I missed my noon connection. The next flight out of Omaha was at 830pm. So my options were to wait for 7 hours (I arrived at 1pm) for the next flight or drive. I ended up renting a 1 way car and drove 3 hours to get here. So at one point in time yesterday, I had 3 car keys. One for a Corolla, one for a Grand Prix and one for a Piece of Shit. Seriously, that Kia Rio ('05 model) that I got was an underpowered, poorly engineering moving heap of junk. The windows were hand operated and could not be sealed properly. Whenever I exceeded 40 mph, the windows would start rattling in the wind and you could hear whistling from the windows. Also, the RPM exceeded 2000 when I went over 50 mph. I was truly amazed that the car survived the 160 mile journey. And I got so ripped off by the rental company. For a 1 way trip, it was $2 per mile AND they charged me $50 for that piece of shit. Sigh.

In other news, here's a super uber cool video of Transformers cosplay, complete with ACTUAL TRANSFORMING COSTUMES. OH MY GOD COOLZORZ!!

战争

人的一生就是一串的争斗。为了自己的利益，享受或生存而斗。最近，我在Nebraska出差。已经出差了连续三个礼拜。出差的确是吸收新知识的最好，最快的方法，可是在这里三个礼拜，我已经开始不耐烦了。如果我们工作有进展的话，还算OK.可是现在应因为客人的设备不足，我们不能实现我们公司的合约。结果，又延长我须留在这鸟不生蛋的地方的时间。Si Bei Sianz.

可是,没法子,只能珍惜这个学习经验,而趁机用公司的信用卡来吃几个好餐.我真的希望明天会有更好的消息...

And just so it's not so depressing, here are some quotes I've heard from these Mid-westerners.

1. We're off like a prom dress (first time I've ever heard that, but I can see why people would say this)
2. Let's make like a tree and leave ( I was laughing quite hard at this one)

And lastly, I wanna dota!!!!!!!!!! Sianzzzzzzzzz.

Edit: Fixed typo. Thanks to Lemonteh.

Hypnotic...

As you might well notice, there's a new thingamajig on the top right hand corner of my blog. It's a very unique (as befitting of it's uniqlock title) clock. I can spend hours just listening to the trippy, jazzy music, watching the psychedelic medley of colours and dancing (kinda) girls, but why don't you try it out for yourself?

Power of rot, obscuring truth, What once was old restore to youth!

If anyone can tell me where that title came from without googling it, I'd say they know their 80's cartoons pretty well. And that they'd probably feel nostalgic about it now too.

Anyways, I'm still in Nebraska but I'd like to point out a couple of things.

1. I've moved to Flickr cos Yahoo Photos was going out of business (I presume). And I've uploaded 2 new albums there. Seattle 07 and Cubs Game. The link is on the right.

2. Ah Seng has a new post. 6 months after his last one but a new post nevertheless.

3. Bob has a new blog now. And he has some pretty cool stuff about modding your car (Corolla S). Go check it out.

4. The Simpsons is a funny movie, if you appreciate that kind of humour. I watched it for 6 USD in Nebraska. What a steal eh.

Awesome Video

Wow. I can recognise like maybe half the games shown here. But the blend of Kung-fu, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Mario is irrestible. A bonus is the white dude in the background when Sylvia walks around that says やらないか. That's how someone asks for sex (with prostitutes) in Japan. And who says video games aren't informational. Enjoy!

Rants

I feel that the internet here is stable enough to try to blog now. First off, big props to E.B.O.F. for hosting my previous rant. (A bit of incestuous cross self-linking there).

Anyways, aside from all the sentiments expressed there, I really wish I could be done with this place and go home soon. But the odds are good that I'm gonna be here till early August at least. That's... umm... gonna suck. A lot. But what can you do? A job's a job and you have to do your best, regardless of what kind of (mis)management and (a severe lack of)communications you have.

Lastly, I'm really looking forward to going home as I can finally start living in Chicago proper. Hopefully I can go jog/bike around the lake and meet new friends and just soak up the bustle and energy. 最后想说的就是算了吧，她不值得我烦. And that's the word.

Beer Song

What could be better than a song that exalts the virtues of "liquid bread"? And to top it off, it's done in stop-animation lego style. With a chicken!!

Interesting Video

The following is Rip Slyme's latest single. I find it fascinating for a couple of reasons.

1. There are 11 girls in the video.
2. Allegedly, 6 of the 11 are AV stars (aka porn stars). (Courtesy of www.japanprobe.com).
3. That dance routine looks damn gay. Even when the girls do it, it doesn't look good.

Enjoy.

Random Stuff

Ever been to Vegas? Seen the Bellagio fountain? Even if you've never been to Vegas, if you watched Ocean's 11, you'd have seen it. Now see it again, sweeter, more calorific and definitely more home-made. Kudos to Mei for that video.


So I was traveling back from a job site today. When you drive for more than an hour, chances are, even with a 6 CD changer in the car, you're gonna listen to the same song a couple of times. I was listening to Eason Chan's Bai Se Qiu Xie (White Sneakers). It's a really nice song, I wish I had memories like that. Here are the lyrics. Taken from baidu.com.

歌曲：白色球鞋
歌手：陈奕迅 专辑：认了吧

LRC歌词 HOT
• 搜索 "白色球鞋"mp3
打印预览
到一定年纪总算明白
美好的事物
好像大部分都在青春时候发生
那天无意中翻出了那双发黄的白色球鞋
依然还有心跳温度
和她一起走过这城市许多的路
她总低着头听我的梦和心事
那一天笑着对我说
随我的白球鞋的脚步好像可以走到幸福
忽然她让我感觉
自己已不再孤独
可以在未知的明天去天竺
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处
这保留却又忘了的初恋纪念物
在经历几次恋爱后重新回顾
爱还依然清晰在梦中
让当时的街灯和书
有许多已不知去处
想起来我然感觉曾经自己不孤独
你是否已走到你要的幸福
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处

当年的我还懂保留失落的爱情遗物
究其爱情现在想起来却面目模糊
却相信去感触
美好青春的爱情和曾经走过的路
年轻城市换成另一种面目
如今大了那样感动难重复
幸福和那双球鞋放记忆最深处

Here is a video. It's not a single, so there aren't any good vids of it. Just a concert footage.　It's about 4:23 into the clip that the song starts. Enjoy.

Man Vs Wild

I never really did any true survival skills training in the army since I never really was expected to charge hills in the forest anyways. However, recently, watching the Discovery channel show Man Vs Wild, I have an urge to train up and see what's it really like. Although I failed once during the adventure race in that park in the middle of Indiana, I think I would like to try again.

In any case, that show is so cool. The host even has a kick ass name. Imagine a survival show host called Bear? How awesome is that? And he shows you all kinds of neat stuff, from escaping quicksand to building a shelter in the snow. I just spent the last 3 hours of my life watching back to back to back episodes of that show when I should have been doing my laundry. Oh well, at least doing laundry is easier than eating maggots for lunch.

To people who have Discovery, I say give it a shot. I think you'll find it fascinating.

How to Build Your Own Rock Band (Or How 5 People Can Look Good Doing Nothing)

So how was my vacation some people might ask. And I can honestly say it was a heck of a good time. I managed to meet up with my cuz, E.B.O.F. and my friend from home. So it was really enjoyable.

One particular part of vacation that really stood out was when we went to the Experience Music Project (EMP) near Space Needle. It was there that I realised how manufactured bands are produced. Let me share some of the insight I gleamed from that place.

First, when starting a band, you need someone with passion, or at least someone who looks like they have passion when the camera flashes. So I present to you the Siao Zhar Bor Ardent Drummer Girl. She's literally ready to burst with fury.

So after you settle on the passion, you then need the flair. To accomplish this, you need to have a pretty face lead singer (who can sing, preferable). As they need to look good, most of the time, a female is selected for the task. In our case, it was simple. The girls simply looked better.Hence the SuperStar Wannabe Lead Singer.
Ideally, you'd want to have more than a single sex front the good looks section. If the best looking guy isn't much to speak of, then you transform the ordinary into the extraordinary by sticking an electric guitar in his hands. Thus creating Flair Number Two (For Female Eyes version). Or as I like to call it, the Act Seh Guitarist.

So after you covered cool, you now want to spin a little humor into your group. To do this, they employ the "Act Blur" persona. In this case, it was done by the a Koteh Back Up Singer. Incidentally, a male with a tambourine is the latest "hot" image with all the chicks. Or at least according to the population (me) surveyed. So I shall hear no arguments about that.
Lastly, after all that commercial appeal, you have to "keep it real" to give your band that edge. To that effect, you need a "homey"ish kind of band member. We decided to cast our keyboardist into that role. And the Homey Keyboardist was born.
Although each individual element might seem very "meh" at the moment, a rock band is truly greater than the sum of it's parts. Combined, the aforementioned members form a fluid, melodious and totally happening band. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present "The Engineers and Psychologist". And yes, no one had a better name at the moment of inception.

My apologies for the cropped picture but the poster was too big for my scanner.

I hope my readers have learnt something from this tutorial about how to create your own musical experience. And I would expect acknowledgements when anyone of you make it big. Till then, live long and rock on!

More Moving Appendum

So I'm moving my stuff bit by bit over time and I've come to the realization that moving heavy stuff after dinner is not really the best of ideas... I was moving a book-filled box (NEVER, NEVER, EVER[!!] FILL A BOX WITH JUST BOOKS) into my apartment today after a sumptious Vietnamese dinner. In accordance with Murphy's Law, all doors were locked, all elevators were on the furtherest floor and the there was no one around to help me open doors. I thus lugged/kicked/dragged/pushed this 20Kg Box the 500 feet or so from my car to the apartment. Upon reaching my apartment, I promptly felt like visiting the bathroom. Note to self, move big boxes BEFORE eating...

Anyways, I think I can move everything I have left in one more trip, so that's good news. Gonna enlist the help of my colleague and his truck to move the big stuff. That's even better news.

Kinda nervous about going to work tomorrow. I believe that since I'm going against traffic, it should only take me about 45-50 minutes to travel the 45 miles or so to work. I'm kinda betting my late nights on this hypothesis. Else I'm gonna have to wake up at 6am everyday. Which is even worse than secondary school... and jc... and army... and university... Which would suck. A lot.

Oh well, we'll see if I can get to work on time tomorrow!

Moving

Is such a pain in the ass... Especially after you settle into routine at home,it takes so much effort to overcome the inertia. But I think it's gonna be worth it. The new neighbourhood is decidedly more up-scale. My new place is 10 minutes from downtown and it's in the midst of a whole bunch of restaurants, shops and other ideal people watching locations. Also, it's next to the lake and park and even close to the zoo (how relevant is that, I do not know). So hopefully, I'll have moved most of the stuff over this week and then I can relax. So if anyone is considering vacationing around my area, you're more than welcome to stay over at my place. It's actually worth showing off now. Haha.

It's one of the things I have control over so I'm gonna concentrate on that. Other stuff... not so much, all I can do I hope and try my best. 时期快要到了。。。到底会怎么样呢？

Video Overload?

For your viewing pleasure, the Nintendo Short Film Top 3 Finalists.

#3. See the previous post.

#2. Koopa Force!


#1. Good vs Wiivil.


Also, what would you do if you had 1,000,000? Maybe you can understand this song better than I do, but you don't really need a deep understanding of hokkien to enjoy it's idea. Kudos to E.B.O.F. for the vid link.

For Those Suffering in Cubicles Out There

If you think you have it bad at work, try comparing your day to a day in the offices of Nintendo. I'm pretty sure the fireballs, piranha plants and thwomps will have any of the your office jerks/bullies beat flat. Although I can imagine the Boo's being the annoying co-worker that hovers around you while you work. And then when you confront them, they just disappear.

Congratulations are In Order

To the dude who suffers from "Tourette's", a hearty congratulations. You are the first among equals (for now anyways). May you be empowered in your future and overpower all obstacles with a primal roar. And if you do have the time, help this poor Zu31G set up an assist with a (fiend's) grip on some unsuspecting target please. Haha.

Seriously, you the man. I just hope my life can be as joyful as yours soon. Best wishes, and here's something I whipped up for you. Hope you like it!

Winds of Change...

You don't need to go to Africa or California to experience the desert. Just go to Nebraska. With it's 70kph(50mph) winds, vast plains of uncovered dirt, you'll be eating dust and cleaning your ears for dirt in no time flat.

I think this summer is gonna to be a period of change. I'm moving my apartment from Ulusville to downtown Chicago. Hopefully the change in scenery will improve my doldrumic life. Also, I'm going on vacation in July so I can't wait for that to happen either. Getting a chance to see some friends from SG then as I go Washington (State). An opportunity to get out of the wind and sand. And hopefully then, I'll have some good news.

I really wonder, why do people live here in Nebraska?

Invisible Mario Kart

Ah Mario Kart, the purveyor of many a good times. And now someone has done a stop-motion video of a real life attempt at mario kart. Enjoy.

Who's afraid of the rain?

So as some of my readers know (or have inferred from the post and comments), my car window was smashed last week and someone stole my GPS. The vandalism cum theft occurred during my japanese class and I was totally unprepared for the sight of glass shards all over my driver seat and floor. To make matters worse, about 5 minutes after I reached the car, it started to rain. It wasn't any kind of spring shower, the raindrops were the size of your fingertips. It was a localized storm.

So I scurried about in the rain trying to clear the glass shards (by dumping them onto the ground beside me) from my car, to restore some semblance of order to my suddenly chaotic vehicle. When it was somewhat cleaned up, I decided to seek cover in the backseat of my car. The rain was pounding the car and I had to wedge an umbrella into the driver seat window to try to keep my car dry. It was truly a sorry sight I think. An orange umbrella trying to shield a gaping hole. Why me? I already have to deal with being sent to the middle of nowhere and now THIS? Those were the only thoughts I could muster as I sat, soaked and feeling sorry for myself, in the midst of the pouring rain. But after a while, as I surveyed the interior of my car, I felt calmer. It provided an (imperfect) sanctuary from the howling rain. And I realized that I could only control so much in my life. I don't have any say in whether someone will break my window, but I can reduce the odds of that happening. I can sit around and bemoan my fate all day long but the glass isn't gonna magically disappear (sonic attrition perhaps?). You can bitch but bitching and taking action is so much more efficient at getting yourself back on your feet. And the hopelessness of the situation kinda receded. It was a $650 lesson in life that I don't think I will forget anytime soon. This was not to say I wasn't depressed nor that I didn't bitch about it as I drove 40 miles home with the wind blowing past me on the highway.

When I got home, I thoroughly cleaned up that mess and now my car is actually cleaner than before the incident. The next day, I went to get a replacement window and life resumed as normal (sans a GPS - anyone know about any deals?).

I think that the ordeal was made that much more bearable because I have good friends (a shoutout to R & Y & all the people I bothered on my drive home). And I think that the same applies to life. Even though I'm a semi-vagabond right now, it's not something I can control. What I can do is maximize my own skills and improve my fitness. And I'm thankful that I have good friends that I turn to when things like this happen.

So really, who's afraid of the rain? Not me. Not anymore.

You Know What They Say...

About doing things irrationally under duress, so I really shouldn't be doing this but...

FUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK. I HOPE YOUR BALLS ROT AND DROP OFF WHOEVER YOU ARE.

I think balls are ambiguous enough to cover both genders. I will update again when I am rational. And poorer.