Its good for you!

i checked. the mag i was reading all the time was hifi news. a far cry from the "stereo something" title that i initially thought.>_<  anyway, i realised one common occurence in all these UK hifi mags. they seem to give fantastic ratings to their own homegrown products.

A LOT.

Sure, there is the occasional mention of Chinese brands such as Shanling, Consonance and stuff, but its more like to create an appearance of impartiality amidst the sea of British products. I see the same thing in those Japanese car audio mags. The japanese speakers and amplifiers always seem to get fantastic reviews ALL THE TIME.
now i can't really read japanese(know only a bit of it) but i could tell that you don't give 5star ratings to duds. and it seems none of the duds are Japanese in nature. ditto for the UK mags as well.

What i find strange is that some of my friends really lap it up. they believe what they read wholeheartedly. Its like "woah, this person knows stuff, if he says so, then it must be true". it seems strange to me that they don't seem to believe that there is always some sort of vested interest, especially in any media that needs advertisers. Actually, i think this sort of thing happens everywhere. Everybody's telling you something's good for a reason(except your best friend.lol).

i remembered about 2 years ago i was looking at car amplifiers. every time i asked about the availability about the one i was interested in, the sales guy will almost immediately start to extoll the merits of this other model. it seems that suddenly that one has become the one to get. well, long story short, i guessed i got suckered into the deal. >_<
later on, when i became a bit more savvy about the subject, it dawned onto me(yeah, i know i S-L-O-W) that that model is 'good' cos the dude has got only 1 left and he needs to clear it. what he doesnt carry=>not good. simple as that. i guess thats still the way it works.

its very easy to see this for yourself. Just wait for any IT show or something to come along. and then take a walk down all those laptop counters. suddenly you'll see Acer>Toshiba>Fujitsu>HP>Acer>NEC and so on. everyone's suddenly better than everyone else.lol. you should hear some of the sales pitch some of the part time promoters use. i know, cos at one point, i was doing that too. though i would like to think i live on the moral highground. i never really succinctly imply competitors' products are 'bad'. sometimes, i even reccomend people to buy from my competitors. lol. i guess that wouldnt seat too well with my employers,if they knew.(which they don't ^^)

anyway, no changes for me for the past week. been spending most of my sane hours trying to study(keyword:trying). the times when i am not trying at all, i am reading above-mentioned mags or spider solitaire! damn, it is addictive!

One down

Well, finished my first paper today. i'm guessing the prof reads my blog. Today's paper consists mainly of questions that we've done at one point or another, in tutorials or past year papers. And it was literally word for word. for some questions, i literally know the answer before i even start writing. it was more like a contest to test who could remember more of what has been done and reproduce it in its entirety as faithfully as possible.

Having said all these, I would expect me to ace the paper. Unfortunately, that is not the case. while i do think i did enough to pass(i hope), i don't think i'll get an A. i guess exam anxiety got to me. it took a while to 'unscramble' my thoughts and get fired up to do the paper. i guess that probably costed me.
i din't really have enough time to finish everything. i was still scribbling away when it was time to stop.

Oh well, any grade is fine by me as long as they don't fail me.

Spent the whole afternoon after that mindlessly browsing through what the net has to offer, as well as spider solitaire. don't know why, been playing this game quite a bit recently. its simple and hard at the same time. also have been reading some audiophile magazine. Stereo news or something. can't really remember the title. really enjoyable read. really convenient too that they're available as big consolidated issues in one big binded book in the library. one book has about half a year's worth of issues and its like about 3 inches thick. woot.

i guess i've pretty much forgotten all about the paper now.^_^

Anyway, thats one down and two more to go. i've got about a week's worth to go over them all over again and to make notes for the Adv Data paper. would be a good idea to get back on the case again tomorrow. i really do hope the papers stay the way they do today. heh.

in the meantime, gotta get back to my weekly fix of CSI.

do youtube?

well, i spent almost the whole of yesterday surfing youtube.com. time spent on revision? zilch.
well, not really, since i did do some questions but i was really intrigued by the wealth of old music videos i can find, some of which accompanied me through my NS days, though i only heard the music, never seen the videos. and it's strange that the loading times of the clips get longer and longer the more i watched.

there were the visual kei stuff, one genre of music that i was really into during around 1999/2000. music from lariene, malice mizer, dir en grey, etc. looking at these music videos now, i can't help but feel really amused by the choreography. some were quite nicely done, though most were just visual excuses for people to dress other people up in gaudy clothes doing some weird incomprehensible actions. some videos have no flow at all! just everchanging scenes with people singing, etc. i don't know about you but i always prefer music videos that adopt some sort of a skit or plot.

was really into the shibuya-kei electro-pop movement too. stuff from fantastic plastic machine, pizzicato 5, towa tei and so on. found two clips on youtube that really brings back memories. listening to the very same music waiting for the bus, booking in. lol. how reminiscent.

Take me to the disco

Tell Me

I'm sure most people will find these music videos,especially the first one, kinda cool for its day. i especially like the second one though. girls in sihoulettes can be soooo alluring.lol.
actually, i'm kind of a FPM fan, bought a few of their albums, would have bought the Sound Concierge series if HMV wasn't selling them at such cutthroat prices and there is that little issue of the pathetic SAF NSF salary.>_<

seems like today's post is more like a mindless rambling of lost youth. lol
oh well, i guess i had better get back to hitting the books.

One week to D-day

The past week has been very sedate. spending almost every day couped up in the library, trying to study. Instead i find myself thinking of loads of nonsensical things. I always sit facing the library entrance at one of those computer terminals and i noticed there's a new librarian(i think). She's kinda cute, so i find myself looking at her every once in a while. and that sort of got me thinking. what does a librarian do, actually? i mean, she just sits there, looking at the computer screen, sometimes she giggles to herself, and thats pretty much it. the only time i see her getting up is when she's going for lunch/dinner, going to the bathroom(i think) or when she's going home(i think). else she just stays glued to the lcd screen.

sounds like a really laidback job. i think the pay must really suck.lol.
I've got a neighbour who used to be a librarian. Maybe i should ask him what exactly did he do at his previous job. arrange books all day? hit on all the female students?

now, its time for a rant.

[rant]
i'm sick of people misinterpreting someone else's comments. its mind-boggling how paranoid people can get when one innocuous comment can serve to stir up a hornet's nest. its strange why people would rather harp on the negative aspect of something instead of thinking of the good part. i mean, its always a good thing to be positive right? if there's nothing you can do about it, being negative doesnt help much does it? going all out to voice your dissent aint helping matters too, isnt it? especially when the remarks in question are bitter in nature. i especially hate it when people make their opinions known in such a way that it looks like they're spoiling for a fight, knowing full well the other party is not the sort to back down in such a situation.

its amazing how insipid and ridiculous people can become when they're not thinking rationally.
[/rant]

Ok, now i feel a little bit better letting that out. i hope someone out there feels the same way i do.

Anyway, its about slightly more than a week left to my first paper, and judging from the responses i have garnered from a few people who had some papers already, it seems that some of the examiners are getting experimental with their papers. this is not a good thing. Some understanding of the student's psyche is necessary here. don't innovate. don't try something new. We do not like that. We prefer to expect exactly what we expect. better yet, we prefer to know what to expect. Don't lead us up one end only to pop up from another. At this point in time we need all the help we can get. A surprise is when u come home to a birthday party. it makes you happy. Exams do not make us happy, therefore it should not be surprising. We do not appreciate that. Thank you.

Quote of the day: Why can't we work out our differences? Why can't we work things out? Why can't we just get along?

Robo is easy

At long last, my Final Year of Pain is over. had my final oral presentation cum demo to my supervisor as well as examiner on monday. man, i was stressed out when i reached school in the morning. ten million questions were going through my mind; stuff like, am i gonna stutter? are they gonna hate my shirt? is the OHP gonna work? will the examiner hate my guts? why is the sky blue?etc..

my nervousness was at its peak the moment the two professors sat down in the tutorial room and looked expectantly at me. i wasnt sure how to react so i smiled at them and they look blankly at me. i dint really know what to do and there was a really long and pregnant pause before the examiner raised his eyebrows and gestured for me to begin.

geez, after all the preparation, i forgot i actually had to START the presentation in order to end it..>_<'

well, the examiner wasn't really that satisfied with my presentation in the end. i wasnt privy to their discusson after i concluded, but my supervisor let on that i'll most probably pass. both of them don't have the habit of failing people at this point, especially when its something as major as this. he told me that the grade is as good as mine and i can effectively take my mind off this and concentrate fully on the final hurdle. well, that was a load of my mind. i think i am probably the first person in the entire faculty to get the FYP over and done with.^_^

Now i have 3 weeks to revise for 3 subjects. that means i have an average of one subject per week of revision. i spent one whole day with robotics yesterday and i realised the prof was right. two days is all that is needed to master this subject. of the entire day i spent in the library, i covered 4 out of 7 chapters. and i wasn't actually studying half the time. the subject wasnt that hard to understand either, its all quite methodical, not much avenue for change. Now i know why my peers kept on saying this subject is a "die-die must take" subject=)

Anyway, just finished the Simulation lab, meeting my groupmates tomorrow for the Robotics lab. hopefully all the labs can be concluded come end of the week. although i have quite a bit of time for revision, it never pays to be complacent. i've still got to settle the little matter of the ICE. all my settings are screwed up now and i'm not sure whether a change in equipment is warranted and justified.=(

Quote of the Day: There can never be enough Time.

Monday= D-day

well, its been quite a single-minded week for me. i've been trying to come up with a decent powerpoint presentation for my FYP. spent quite a lot of time nit-picking instead of doing it though. in fact, i even spent about a day or so deciding what backdrops to use for what slides. hahaha. I even rehearsed the presentation. TWICE. i went back to school on saturday and talked to an empty tutorial room. never been this serious about a presentation before. i hope it's all worth it and it all works out.

anyway, had a JC reunion dinner on Friday. turnout wasnt that great, since there were only 7 of us, and it seems we only seemed to want to meet up whenever Shannon comes back from overseas. and most of the time, she always seems to be the organiser.>_< i guess the rest of us guys need to be more proactive. anyway, we had quite a blast talking about old times. i learned that my Chemistry teacher in JC is now the vice principal of my secondary school! wow. he's one of the teachers i have the deepest impression of, since everyone loathes going for his classes. he likes to ask alot of questions and the way he does this is very unnerving to me. maybe its cos he's from Hongkong and there's this wierd accent('tape' water?? covalent 'bounds'??wtf??). but i think its his whole demeanour that did it. he's like a smart Simon Corwell who knows the difference betwen ionic and covalent bonds, if u get what i mean.

anyway, we talked about loads of stuff and at one point, it was starting to get pretty tiring for me. haha. thats when i realised it was past 2AM. we were talking for, like, close to 6 hours. the amazing thing is, one of the girls had stamina to rival that duracell bunny, she just kept on going and going and going. it was like she was fully capable of chatting for days. i don't mean that in a bad way so i think i had better not identify her, in case she ever reads this entry.

anyway, my final oral presentation is tomorrow. feeling kinda nervous. not because of the presentation itself, but because i cant decide what to wear, what colours goes with what, should i wear a tie, bla, bla, bla. strange eh? its a good thing its gonna take place in the morning, so at least i can start the day's lessons without a heavy heart.