Nathan

Live from office! Just taking a 10 minute break before I tackle a 'not-so-easy-to-listen-to' recording, lol... Nicole kidnapped.. I mean 'catnapped' my cat sculpey, don't know what she's doing to it now in the other room, sobz... T__T

On a side note, I want to show you Nathan's personal website (He's my nephew, btw.. My cousin's first-born whose whole family are also currently living in sg). He's not even 1 year old yet and he has a homepage already. Power, siah! Dun play play, hor XD His website basically contains his diary, progress, family pics etc. It's a cute website, so do drop by there and take a peek: http://nathank.mytinybaby.com/

I've also added his website to my links section at the side. Ok la, back to work! =P

Simple and Clean

The title above is not referring to the song 'Simple and Clean' by Utada Hikaru, but rather my latest blog template, kekeke... Yes, again I changed it! And this time it's just a simple one, currently without any beautiful graphics as header etc. Why? Well, although I liked the previous skin's header, I felt that the whole layout itself was too narrow (or maybe it's just me, lol). So for now, this is the layout that I'm using =P

Time really flies, and very soon it'll be the weekends again! While continuing to work as usual, I've been making more preparations for my booth in Cosfest 2007 finale this Sunday. Gotta make more of my cat sculpeys. Oh, and I've found a way to improve it's stability, so that they can rest on more types of surfaces without sliding too easily, wheee~ A few friends have also shown some interest in them, so I have to make them even nicer than the previous batch! (^0^)

The project that I'm involved in, which is the voice collection and transcribing, is going to be wrapped up very soon, hopefully by early next week. The initial plan was to complete everything by this Friday, but we have to verify the voice samples again for the last time before submitting them, that's why it's necessary to extend... I was hoping that we could enjoy the rest of the holidays next Monday onwards, but oh well... Gotta make sure that we've done a good job before saying, "It's a wrap!" - So hang on, ppl~

Aiya, look at the time! I'd better hit the sack now if I want to wake up on time for work, lol... Tata for now, then (^_^)V

210 Gathering & Cosfest 2007 (Day 1)

A very busy week, yes it was! Lots of stuff happened, had to run here and there everyday, but all of the happenings were good things, hehehe... Won't be blogging about every single day of this week, though, too much to write about =P

I spent most of today just relaxing at home and watching Live Earth, a 24-hour concert held in 8 cities - namely New York, London, Sidney, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai & Hamburg. This concert's part of the move to create awareness about the crisis in our dear Earth, which will get even worse if all of us don't do anything about it... sad but true... Lots of great performances, interesting short films... really enjoyed myself watching them, and was reminded again of the crisis, at the same time. You can find out more in http://www.liveearth.org, and you can also view the concerts if you missed them in http://liveearth.msn.com . I do hope that more people have opened their eyes and became more aware of the crisis; OUR crisis - Answer the call!

The rest of this entry would mainly be about my class gathering a few days ago and day 1 of Cosfest yesterday. Therefore it will be divided into 2 sections, plenty of pics XD


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 5 July 2007

This evening 'flew' straight from my workplace to Marina Square, to have a dinner gathering with my dear friends from JC. After having the gathering canceled quite a number of times for the past month, we finally had one today, hehehe... Not a bad turnout, it was - a total of 9 of us went for the gathering (this is considered not bad, lol). Those who appeared were (in alphabetical order): Farid, Kama, Nas, Lorraine, Pat, Sham, Shad and last but not least Shiva ^_^

After walking around in search for a place to eat in, we finally settled down in Swensen's. The prices there are rather 'ah-hem'... but once in a while I guess it's ok =P All of us just chatted away, catching up with what we all have been up to these days, joked and laughed like crazy! Especially Kama, he made us laugh and (almost) barf so much, haha... Farid has to fly back to Perth tomorrow and the next time he's back in sg would probably be end of this year... we gonna miss ya~ (especially Shiva, ohohoho... *hides*).

So it was a great and fun night, hope that we'll have our next gathering soon. Took a lot of pics, too, and here are some of them =D

Pat, Shiva, Sham & Shad

The only guys this evening: Kama, Nas & Farid

Kama thinking extremely hard to make the right choice...of food XD

The OOHs and AAHs~

Me & Lorraine

I wonder why Shiva's looking at Kama that way =\

Pat & Shiva

Shad & I

Nas & Farid - my ex-bodyguards (...nah, they bullied me a lot, too)

The cute Lorraine & the oblivious Kama

Me & Mommy Shiva

Settling the bill...

Now, a group pic~

Me & Sham, my pet parrot =P

This pic's spoiled because of Kama's tiny muscle, haiz..

Me, Shad & Kama

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 7 July 2007

07/07/07 - a unique day, it is...it might be even cooler if it's a Sunday, too (get it? XD). Definitely there are couples who had chosen today for them to walk the aisle, duh... Today we are also witnessing the start of Live Earth concerts. Hundreds of music artists performed brilliantly in all of the 8 cities (I missed most of the first part of the performances on TV because I was in Cosfest, sobz).

And yes, today also marked Day 1 of Cosfest 2007 at Takashimaya! The event was also part of Tanjong Pagar GRC Fiesta, in which the guest-of-honour was none other than MM Lee Kwan Yew, thus the security was particularly strict for such an event. I had to let the police scan through my bags before I could go in and find my table, lol... It's rather warm this afternoon, so I decided not to wear my unusual outfit and put on a t-shirt and pants instead, hehe...

The number of cosplayers that I saw today are not as many as I thought it would be... but I'm sure the number will explode sky-high next week! XD Today, other than the cosplay competition, there were also dance performances. I also managed to catch a glimpse of MM Lee giving his speech, but it's quite far from my booth which was right at the other end... As for the booth? The sales were definitely great for SS's artworks, while I sold a few (I mean very few) of my clay figurines, which is quite expected, lol.. at least now I understand better about what people wants and know I have a better idea of what to bring next week =P

By the end of the event, we got to know a few other artists and booth owners. I even got to trade 2 of my clay figurines with another artist's artwork, yay~ Another fun day have passed and I'm looking forward to the finale next week ^_^

Now for the pics, enjoy~

Our booth

Overview of the crowd

Lelong lelong~

MM Lee Kwan Yew giving his speech

We have long hair, whee~ (what kind of comment it that? XD)

Other booths near ours

Kitty drooling at Cloud Strife *slurp*

The only cosplayer whose picture I took today (will take more next week, hehe) =P

Precioussssss

A salsa fiesta to end the day with

Cosfest VI - The Golden Experience

COSFEST is finally here once again!!!!

This year it's a 3 day event: 7th, 14th and 15th July 2007 \(^0^)/

For those who're not familiar with it, Cosfest is an annual cosplay event organized by SCC Square. People of all ages (mostly youngsters, though) would dress up in their favourite anime, manga or even movie characters, be it to participate in the competition, or just to join in the fun and meet other cosplayers. Selections for World Cosplay Summit (Singapore) will also be held, so the competition would be a more intense one. Furthermore, there would be music and dance performances, anime karaoke competition, as well as several booths selling various merchandises - like original artworks or fanarts, cosplay-related items, second-hand animes, mangas, collectibles, and many more! Even if you're non-cosplayers, I guarantee that you'll still have a lot of fun taking pictures of the cosplayers and enjoying the whole event. It'll be a fun experience for all, and thus you shouldn't miss it =P


Below is some info about the dates, times and venues for all 3 days. Check out the official website for more detailed info (including the programmes): http://www.cosfest.com

7th July 2007 (Saturday) - "World Cosplay Summit SemiFinals"
Venue: Ngee Ann City, Civic Plaza
Time: 4.00pm - 6.00pm (Cosplay Competition)
5.00pm - 9.30pm (Booths)

14th July 2007 (Saturday) - "Cosfest Showday"
Venue: Downtown East, D'Tent
Time: 12.00pm - 8.00pm

15th July 2007 (Sunday) - "Cosfest The Golden Experience"
Venue: Downtown East, D'Marquee and D'Tent
Time: 12.00pm - 7.00pm


I won't be cosplaying there (might be wearing something that I don't normally wear to blend in though, hehehe...) But I'm setting up a booth with my friend WP aka SS (check out her deviantART page for her beautiful artworks). We'll be selling some artworks and sculpey figurines on the 7th and 15th, so your support would be greatly appreciated, hehehe... SS will be selling plenty of her artwork prints as postcards and posters, while I'll be selling sculpey figurines and some of my older artworks. Unfortunately I may not be able to complete my new artworks for this Saturday, but they'll be ready for next Sunday ^_^; I'll post some pics of our items hopefully 2 days from now, so you'll catch a glimpse of what we'll have in our booth.


In the meantime, here are some pics of last year's Cosfest at Downtown East, D'Marquee. I also have pics of the previous year's but it'd be too many to post here, lol... The event is getting bigger and better so far, so do attend the event this year and have lots of fun there! And remember to bring your camera and/or video cam along, or you'll regret it =D

The big crowd... the gorgeous, the scary, the funny, the crazy ones... all in Cosfest XD

And once again, looking forward to see you all there... and remember to support my booth, ok! Ohohohohohoho..... PEACE!!!

The Office

Now I'm back working in the office, normal 0900-1800 working hours. The first day was spent heading to the research centre in the morning to get a briefing on how to use the improved transcribing software. The first thing that came to my mind when the window opens: "Waaaa... so many buttons~" Hahaha, yup! Compared with the software that we used last year, this one's interface is filled with more & more buttons. But we didn't actually have to touch all of them except a few essential ones, so it's just a matter of getting used to staring at the window full of buttons, lol... The rest of the day and today were then spent on getting familiarized with the new interface and functions. My progress has been very slow so far, also due to some technical problems... but all is well now so tomorrow I'll be able to go full speed, ohohohohoo..... XD

Mainly in this entry, I'd like to share with you a music video that my sister showed me last week...or was it 2 weeks ago, hehehe... The song's titled "I Eat Cannibals". I find the lyrics sooooo funny, that I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed for quite some time!!! The melody kinda got stuck in my head for a few days too, though, lol... So here's the video that my sis found (watch the video to also see the lyrics):

Then I found the original MV for this song. It's actually performed by Total Coelo, a British new wave vocal group formed in the 1980s. The hit single "I Eat Cannibals Part 1" actually reached the Top Ten in UK back then =O Check out the original MV:

Somehow the first video is more entertaining, I think... maybe because of all the colourful dancers, haha... And after a closer observation, there's another funny thing about this song - if the woman's actually so attracted to the guy that she wants to eat him, won't that make her the cannibal here? Then, shouldn't the title be something like "I am a Cannibal" instead? Hmmmm... =/

The Aftermath of the Adventures at IMM

The adventures at IMM finally ended last Thursday! We didn't actually reach the final target, but it was really close... Oh well, we did our best and were quite satisfied with the final turn out. Definitely a rewarding 2 weeks experience - got to learn new skills, made new friends & know them all better, worked with great and fun people, interacted with strangers in a good way (including with kids, lolz). I definitely have gained more things now to be carried through my future endeavours (pardon me if this sentence don't make much sense, because I myself don't know how to express it, meheheheee~).

Of course I've got the chance to take a few pictures when we worked there, kekeke.... So here they are:

Us at work

The 'forever-modified' banner

An admin table, just for moi =D

Some shots taken using my laptop ^_^;


The latest form of the modified banner XD

The crew~

And thus from Monday onwards, we'll be back working in the office to transcribe all of the voice samples that we've collected. Will it be fun? Will it be boring? Gonna find out soon enough ^_^

My Programmer Personality Type

A week has passed working at IMM, and we haven't reached our target yet! Still short of voice samples of English-speaking Malays and Indians, so most probably we'll have to extend the collection to Thursday, haiz... The statistics looked quite bad last weekend... but the past 2 days has been much much better and looks more promising. I'm quite positive that we'll finally reach our target by this Thursday, whee~ After which is a short break, before we start transcribing all of the voice samples from next Monday, then another 'headache' will begin, lol XD


Today when we all chatted a bit during work (got time to chat because almost no one pass by our booth at that time), Nicole suggested that we take the 'Programmer Personality Test' online.. said she has done it but never post the result in her blog, haha... I don't actually code much except at school during labs, but thought I'll just do the test for the fun of it (and my hair's still wet so I can't go to sleep yet, hehehe...). Got the link from Hendri's blog, and here's the result...


Your programmer personality type is: DHTB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.

You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.

You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.

You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.


Hmmm, the result's rather true... not so sure about the Doer part, though, haha... If you want to try it out as well, you can find the test at Doolwind’s Game Coding Site.


Have fun~

And the Results are.....

Finally the exam results are out!!! Tried my luck to check slightly after midnight, and my grades for the semester just appeared on my monitor - I passed all of my modules, whee~ So that means I don't have to repeat anything & am promoted to year 3!!!! I'm so happy now that I couldn't sleep, although I have to wake up early for work later, hehehe... If I didn't calculate wrongly, I've done better than last sem, so it's a great great great relieve, phew~ ^_^;


And yes, my part-time job also finally started from last Monday, it's been 4 days already now. For the next 10 days, I'll be stationed at IMM to collect the voice samples every day, including this weekend *sobz*. So far it's been a very interesting experience. The first day started off a bit slow due to the first time setup on site, and also was rather shy & afraid to approach passersby in that mall, hehe... We were supposed to get people to record their voices for the research for 10-15 minutes. After all the jitters and hiccups, everything went very well. The response was much better than I expected, lol... Indeed, the $10 compensation for the participants is a very attractive offer.

Many many people agreed to spend their time recording their voices for us - students, office workers, aunties, uncles, tai-tais, grannies, grandpas... People from all walks of life were there! Interacting with them has been very interesting, too. I've learnt many new things like how to approach people, how to convince them to participate, how to pull in the groups of people that we're targeting at, thought of new strategies to improve the response from time to time, a bit of admin skills... and I think the way I speak has improved, maybe just a bit, hahaha... As usual, I'm experiencing something that proved to teach me several new skills that could be useful in the future =)


There are quite a number of interesting observations on the way people behave or react so far. Unfortunately, I have to head to my bed now because, as I said in the first paragraph, I have to wake up early, and need to conserve my energy to survive through the rest of the week camping at IMM, lol... Ah, but before I leave, I'd like to take this opportunity to do a bit of an advertisement:

"Get $10 cash in just 15 minutes at IMM, level 2 (outside Kopitiam). All you have to do is let us record your voice while you read several short and simple sentences, and the $10 is all yours! Only for Singaporeans above 25 years old, until 13 June 2007 (everyday including weekend, 1230 - 2030 hrs). Only left 200+ voice samples needed out of the target of 500, so come on down before it's too late! See you there~"


Oh and by the way, the voice samples are to be used to develop a voice recognition system (which could recognise Singaporeans) and the research is conducted by a local research centre. Currently we really need especially more Malays and Indians' voice samples (but still need the ones from the Chinese community as well, hehe). So your support in this project will be greatly appreciated (^_^)