Citation du jour

Calling DSL ''broadband" is like calling two plain crackers a "sandwich"

Chris Pirillo

Beijing and China

The opening ceremony was a visual feast, there is no doubt about that. It was all like a Zhang Yimou production of epic proportions with unbelievable effects. The floating olympic rings, the beautiful scrolls and the couldron that was hidden until the very, very last moment. There was tai chi, clay drum performance with the most wonderfully choreographed light arrangements and a host of other firsts. But i was particularly interested with the comment made by one of the American political analysts.

While an Olympic Historian claimed it to be arguably the best opening ever witnessed in the olympics, the political analyst thought it was passable with moments he thought boring, with mentions of China's human rights policies. When the olympics can stop wars and bring conflicting countries together for weeks of peace and sports, it irks me that people fail to put political differences aside for rare moments of peace.

Happy Olympics!

[update] - Ha! It really was Zhang Yimou?! It felt like it but i didn't know Zhang Yimou actually directed the opening ceremony. The parts that made me think so was the short paper-making movie (the colour palette) and the costumes used. Yay to me.

Herba Centipedae

I remembered someone once told me that he wrote the contents of his blog before he thought up the title. That was so long ago, and that person is no longer around anymore. I remember it like it was only a few days ago, yet my friend has gone for more than a year. Reminded me of the story book analogy i had for life. People come and go around you, and you think that you are all connected up to the very last page of the book. Then a character dies and you realize it isn't so fictional anymore. You may feel like your parents would be with you every page of the way, then you realize that when their pages are up, you still have a good long read left. You get slapped in the face again. At least it woke you up more than any splash of cold water would. And the sting lasts longer than you hoped.

Finally submitted my lists of preferred final year project titles. I thought it funny that my 3rd choice was something i wanted more than my 2nd choice. I think i am starting to get my priorities all mixed up. I guess everybody except the lady who sells bun in the cafeteria had the same 1st choice as i did. Combined effects of photodynamic therapy on cancer cells. The lecturer said he would line us all up under the scorching sun and let the unmelted one have the privilege of his hot-cake of a title. 

A torrent of assignments is behind the floodgate for me. Better get around to finishing my 20-page literature for cytotoxicity in some weird plant from Johor soon. This is not the place to rant lest the object of my curses happen to read this. It is easy enough to Google 'hodilun', 'hates', 'me' and be directed here. I would be risking my last 2 semesters here. And i anticipate to graduate with my head still attached.

Atarashii Sekai Ka?

Sometimes, similar people have different lives. One could only wish he could live as the other. But know all too well that it is beyond the realms of possibility. He could never earn it. He could never alter anything to remotely resemble it. He could only watch. From behind a heavy mortar wall. Never in this life to be able to scale it and drop on the other side. Even a plunge face-first into the other side would be a luxury he would never savour on the tip his tongue. Even if he did, it would be nothing he could possibly comprehend. Fortunately, he would never need to. Or rather, unfortunate, in his case. Life. Similar people with different lives. That's how they deal you a shitty hand and say "Tough luck, kid." while spitting a stream of betel urine. 

Tweeting Gravity

Oh Twitter, what's up with your servers? Instant Messenger tweets i post seem to disappear into the abyss, so where did my binary go? 

Assuming that gravity is caused by the distortion of the plane by a large body such as a star, how does it distort the plane?

Mermaid

Haha! Click for a larger image.

Twitter

I'm playing with the idea of making Twitter feeds my main blog entries. Posting on Twitter has, i admit, seriously impaired my ability to blog properly. Well, actually i am just plain lazy. Which reminds me of my Cell and Tissue Culture lecturer who announces that she wants to put us in petri dishes and transform the Lazy Gene (she calls it lzy) the hell out of us. That occurred every lecture, and i guess the fact that i am still lazy meant that she did not secretly fed me colchicine or i simply wasn't part of her plans. Anyways, yeah, Twitter as my main posts. I'll look into that.

Life Before Death

Life before death is a striking installment of photos taken of people before and after their deaths. It is a hauntingly beautiful collection with accounts from each of the subjects; their thoughts, ideals and regrets, all recorded before their time came. 

When reading through the accounts, a few remarks stood out. I was struck by how at peace some of them were with death. How some were asking for more time. How some felt that their work was incomplete. And how some lived a safe life free of vice and still fell into the indiscriminating trap of sickness especially cancer. 

Here's a very poignant collection and interesting read by German photographer Walter Schels.