Random update

EDIT : I HAVE FIVE - NOT FOUR - FIVE!!! MIDTERM EXAMS THIS WEEK!!! PLUS TWO PROJECT DEADLINES!!!!!!! *cackles maniacally*

Hmmmm. Just felt like updating. Probably cos I don't see myself updating next week. Four midterms in a row for which I have done something of the order of 0 preparation. It's friday now. Saturday is tomorrow, and I still have to go out somewhere to bank in a cheque and more importantly try get my phone fixed.

Which brings me to my inexplicable string of bad luck with electronic devices lately. It started with me encountering problems with my laptop. Yes, even with the mighty Ubuntu, which appeared to be hanging on startup. After running a series of clumsy (manual) diagnostics on the yet unfamiliar system, I found out Ubuntu was perfectly fine. It wasn't hanging, an application program simply malfunctioned and lagged the whole computer for a few minutes everytime I log in. Oh well, gotta fix that sometime but for now disabling that program solves the issue. Also, somehow, there was a problem with Vista's NTFS partition, and I had to dig out instructions and run CHKDSK to fix it. So far so good, but then the unfixable, unTHINKable happened.

My damned NEW phone died.

Like died, flipped over, disintegrated, conked out, fizzled, mati'd, shi-ne'd.

Reason? Completely unknown. Last night it was perfectly fine. After a night in the train, I woke up to find it deader than a dodo bird. Oh the wonderful mysteries of the polymorphic universe.

So how in blazes does one live on this sacred island without the holy guidance of the mobile phone?

---

On a brighter note, I picked up a new favourite anime! Well, perhaps picked up isn't the correct word here, since it suggests that I am just beginning to watch it. Truth is I've finished the 14-episode series.

And I must say, I really like it.

Here's the background : ever since the beginning of this semester (ok, perhaps even before that), my taste in anime has redshifted towards the light-hearted genres of comedy/romance/slice-of-life. Perfectly natural of course - if you spend most of your days tango-ing with truckloads of work and with your poor neck always a couple of hairs away from the guillotine of some deadline, you'd want to spend what little free time you have laughing or appreciating quiet things too. And so it was goodbye to the likes of emo Gundam Seed (which my brother recommended to me) and hello to these cute, short and sometimes naive little series like Ginban Kaleidoscope and To Heart.

And then, there was The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

First episode gave off the impression that I'd stumbled upon a pretty original and interesting branch-off of the typical high school comedy anime genre. Well, suffice to say this anime proves that first impressions tell you nothing. Only 14 episodes in total, and while I at first felt rather like a little sailboat getting tossed around in the furious plot-twisting turbulence, it was one hell of a ride.

And on top of all that, the episode order is achronological. Like is that cool or what?

?

Oh wow! So I CAN churn out a long random post when I actually sit down to do it. lol. Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading my trash. As I mentioned, I probably won't be updating next week.

So consider this... my last ditch attempt at a chance to mooch donuts

xD

Not quite here, not quite.. there

Like a puddle.

Shaded,
So marring the reflection
Of what lies without.
Muddy,
So veiling the clarity
Of what lies within.

Always aspiring,
But dwindling by the minute
in the unforgiving sunlight.






... I wish I could write better.

My cryptic post, lol

There are decisions. Some, I guess. Decisions made where you can convince yourself, your mind soul and body and all the entire universe for that matter that the decision you made was the best one. You can examine it from every objective angle and believe, with absolute confidence, that you made the right choice.

And does that stop you from regretting it? Quite quaintly, quite appallingly, and in fact quite naturally, no.

We worship Reason as the monolithic ruling entity in our thought process, and we make decisions based on Reasons. As we live and grow we are taught and conditioned to weigh every element of a choice given to us for the gravity and strength of the reasons backing them. We decide on something when we perceive it as having the soundest case, the strongest backing, the best reasons. And if we ever need to ask why, quite naturally, we could answer : "So I won't regret it".

But there come these times when a few strands of our disarrayed threads of thought, by a random feat of chance, strike a resonant chord that inadvertantly broadens the reaches of our perception. Awakening a vague but unshakable realization. And causing us to wonder, if only very briefly, if perhaps life is about taking chances.

Ubuntu!

Zzzz linsien's cryptic blog post made me forget what I wanted to blog about -.-

Oh wells, while I'm here let's brag about my uber new operating system! That's right, folks, I have finally and officially begun my great exodus away from the oppressive, autocratic rule of all-powerful and horribly lousy microsoft software. I hereby announce that I am now running



:D

Of course I still have vista home basic lurking around in another partition, since transferring to another operating system inevitably involves a learning curve (and also because some of my modules *cough cs2301* still forces us to use windows software). However! I have already grown completely attached to my new desktop environment and have immediately developed an intense condescending loathing for Vista basic's lousy user interface (linsien's xp desktop looks better T.T). Anyways, I hope you'll excuse me, but what's bragging without abit of advertising?

So! Why Ubuntu?

1) Cause it's LINUX!! Speaking from the point of view of a previous (ok, and to some extent current) user of Microsoft's loudly dubbed "most secure" Windows system, I'd say vista was nothing. The few new security features in vista that drew my grudging approval turned out to be only a part of the stuff that has been sitting in UNIX systems for ages. If that's not enough to convince you, consider this. I strode my merry stride into the Ubuntu with no user guide, minimal external help, and not an inkling of how to get stuff done. So in typical yuenhoe fashion I went about trying to get lotsa stuff (mostly to do with eye-candy elements, I'll admit) installed and working, hitting about doing lots of random stuff. And get this : ubuntu has no system restore. Undeterred, I rambo-ly crashed around the supposedly sacred system files in random newbie fashion, and managed to make lotsa things go horribly wrong, including completely shutting down my graphical user interface. AND HERE'S THE IMPORTANT BIT : my system is now in perfect, stable, beautiful working order. I didn't reformat, didn't reinstall, didn't REPAIR install, didn't even use any form of recovery tool. I could undo all the mess I made just by interfacing with the system's configurations and settings. TRY DOING THIS WITH WINDOWS AND NOT END UP WITH PERMA BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH!!

2) Cause it ain't microsoft. Self-explanatory.

3) Cause its Open Source! Hence it's free. It's legal. It's stable. And it sure as hell works too! Besides, open source also means that stuff can be added into the system ad libitum. So you basically get all the good stuff the operating system is able to offer for free (though at some installation effort on your part), unlike horrible microsoft who refuses to give me aero unless I cough up huge mountains of cash.

4) Cause the desktop environtment >>>>>>>> windows -.- Ever since getting familiar with Ubuntu I can never go back to vista without wincing. I mean, how can I remain content with Vista's single desktop, when on Ubuntu I have EIGHT :



Besides, on Ubuntu I get nice glassy stylish themes :



Mini screen-shots for my alt-tabs :



Cool water effects :



And lotsa other cool, customizable window effects, including the all-important mac-style window switcher :



5) Besides, the linux system back-end also seems alot more friendly than that of windows, making linux alot more customizable and programmable...

Oops, I guess that's enough bragging for one post :D Gotta go for class now, so brag more next time ^^

Not memory, Remembrance.

I walk along the darkened path
The shadow of hills they haunt me
But as always in these tormented times
I look up, love, and find thee

Yea though I ask that these trials be swift
And you always nod, and call my fears cease
Today I ask of you, love, your wisdom
To fathom this soul's incurable disease

And as all of humanity, I ask why?
(For "why" is proof of our enlightenment and our inadequacy)
Why is it, that I remembereth not
Before, when yet I dwelt amidst greenery

Why is it that only now I see
That before, I trod unfeelingly on my days
That absently I wandered the fields of sunshine
And never thought to taste the rays?

Yea though I ask that these trials be swift
And as always you nod, and call my fears cease
Today I ask, love, another gift
Of constant gratitude, through the times of peace.

Internet woes

And Jason is, right now, in a foul mood.

Right smack in the middle of the great and mighty NUS itself, global knowledge enterprise, world class campus, touted for incredible IT facilities. Right smack in the middle of it all resides Jason. And lo and behold, speedtest.net gives him a 12kbps reading. For those who are unsure what this entails, this is slower than streamyx. Much slower. Dialup-style super-slow snail pace internet.

-.-

Nevermind. Nice people like Hoa recommended getting nus vpn, which apparently stabilises the connection. All right! that should be easy! Just go right to the computer centre website and look up vpn client for windows and ~~

The thing dies on vista.

Like hell MULTITUDES of goddamned people use vista in NUS. How long has the thing been out? No new version? No workaround? Not even a friggin NOTE at the website that says "Oh yea, doesn't work on vista. We're workin on it"? And so I spent hours and hours trying to get things to work in Vista, using suggestions like using a webvpn service, and was amply rewarded with blue screens of death.

Sigh.

And then there was Ubuntu! Yay! Wonderful operating system, with lotsa cool stuff and a load of free, legal open source software. And guess what?

I can't get the friggin client to work on Ubuntu either!!!

Like freakin GAH!!

W00t more hours of work. Like hello! I'm supposed to be working on my mountain of assignments so why the hell is NUS' fantastic IT facilities makin me go round and round in happy little circles wrestling with speeds that make me bang my head against the keyboard doing simple stuff like browsing Wikipedia?

Alright, downloaded vpn-client source for linux. Followed installation instructions. Some weird error indecipherable by linux noobs like me occurs. Jason slams his head into his desk. Retry, after installling some packages here and there. Same problem. Jason contemplates the tempting prospect of flinging his laptop out the window then doing the same to himself. Decided to try webvpn, tumbled around Ubuntu and a very slow internet looking for installation instructions, then wrestled with installing JRE under the breakneck speeds (downloading file, estimated time left 2hrs 39mins) Finally done. Firefox crashes at webvpn login. Well no surprise, activeX controls always suck anyway. After going around in more random circles, decided to try downloading a different version of the nus vpn client. This time compilation and installation actually worked! Wow! Uber! Now... what? Go to nus vpn web page. Read something to the effect of "Guess what? We're providing this thing but we ain't givin no support cos we're all windows people and linux people can take care of themselves while linux noobs like you can just get caught in the middle and consider suicide".

By now my brain was hovering somewhere between completely shutting down, blowing apart scattering brain bits everywhere, and commanding me to do something random like eating my speakers. Nonetheless, the show must go on! And after more google hunting on the usual fantastic connection speeds, I finally found out that you could connect to nus vpn using a program called vpnc. Brilliant, except how the hell do you use it? And so, after more shuffling and piecing information from various outdated websites together, I finally, finally managed, after several tries, to get on nus vpn.

This, had better, be worth it.

Sigh. NUS. NUS. What are you doing with your IT facility reputation? Speeds have been terrific before. You've got the friggin infrastructure, now start making it goddamned deliver!