10:01 PM
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
This week's been filled with Communication Theories and History classes. Not to mention meeting with professors to discuss potential research projects I can take up for URECA. It's a real privilege that I've been given this opportunity but I'm just quite concerned with the fact that I'll have to put in an additional 10 hrs a week on average. I guess Bee hardly gave ma a choice. Or rather, she made the decision for me by handing me notes to read and a thick book on Bilingualism to familiarise myself with the topic. I kind of feel obligated because of the high expectations she has of me and I don't want to disappoint her.
This really makes me reflect on myself though. Just like what Jemin said,
I'm always leaving the major decisions in my life to be made by others. Haiz. I'm such a people-pleaser, and I feel as if my human identity has been reduced just by that thought of my inability to make decisions of my own.
Anyway, thought I'd discuss something about the first written texts.
The first texts were religious texts and they were hand-copied by monks in monasteries. When one ponders about it, the significance is really great. It just goes to show how sacred, how important religion was to people in the past.
Spirituality was often the top priority. And, we really owe it indirectly to religion that people have literacy today. It's all because people in the past placed such a great value on spiritual things that they so very much wanted to read the Bible and other religious texts. Hence, Gutenberg's Bible sold like hot cakes and it motivated him to continue printing other types of books. This
hunger for knowledge is a human attribute. It is what drives the education system today. It is what the greatest research institutes of our time are built on.
One historian well noted: “
Intellectual pleasures give only a brief satisfaction, unless directed to a practical end. . . . Never should we stimulate the intellect merely to feed upon itself. Unless intellectual culture is directed to what is useful, especially to the necessities or improvement of others, it is a delusion and a snare.”—Beacon Lights of History, Lord, Vol. 5, p. 299.
Really, I can't help but agree with the forementioned statement. Many a times, I study and study and then pause to wonder why on earth am I studying os hard? How practical is the knowledge I'm gaining from my education? Does it really help me lead a meaningful life? Often, the answer is no. Thank God I have with me the oldest book of all time (and the very first that was printed too) - The Bible. In it contains the most valuable truths one could find - The truth that leads to everlasting life - John 17:3.
“
If you keep seeking for it as for silver, and as for hid treasures you keep searching for it, in that case you will understand the fear of Jehovah, and you will find the very knowledge of God.”—Proverbs 2:4, 5.
The knowledge of God... how seemingly unreachable... how easily obtained.
5:53 PM
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The past week has been super hectic, having seen the doctor 3X for the irritating itch that I've been having since I came back from Malacca. Initially, I got a
scabies scare but lucky, that's been tested negative. Seems my skin is just so sensitive that I was allergic to some insect bites in the dirty Hotel room.
That's what you get for being on a budget trip.The weekend has been relatively relaxing and tiring. Parents have gone to KL for a wedding. They'll only be back tonight. So I managed to do a little bit of practice on my piano, some reading, saw a bible study and got half of my packing for Korea done. Being a girl sometimes can be quite troublesome, albeit the interesting parts of life, when it comes to dressing... Can't believe I spent more than an hour trying on clothes in front of the mirror. Well, actually I can.
That's what girls do! Haha..
Oh yea, I was a good girl today...actually mopped the house. I tell you - having a dog really teaches one to be responsible. So I guess, next time when I have kids, I''ll learn as much from them or just by having them as they will from me. Or even before that, when I take care of my soon-to-be-born nephew!
A first in my life this weekend:
Ordering Home Delivery from Sarpinos.One tip: their pizzas are way better than their pastas.
And a wonderful sales technique I just realised: they actually require a minimum order of $20 for home delivery. Which is great for their business but doesn't that kind of
discriminate against singles? I mean if I wanted to eat by myself since I was alone at home, then why would I need to order so much? Making Maggi Mee would be so much more cost-effective. But then again, that just has associations with a pathetic loner and it's such a cliche solution. At least, eating alone at home wouldn't be so bad if I had a feast, it has the ability to lift up my mood.
9:53 PM
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Walking into school this first week of a new semester felt like the floodgates of the heavens just opened, drenching me in a tsunami of workload. Besides that, I'm starting to stres over missing weeks 3 &4 of school when I visit Korea for a Christian Convention.
Anyway, to get my engines started (especially since edveNTUre won't let me post.. stupid technology), I'm going to discuss a few thoughts on Media Effects today. Yeap, not surprised, it's COM256, this module I'm taking. Plus lots of new fanciful jargon that the communication discipline has introduced to me.
For one,
Hagiography. This brings to mind, besides Wilbur Schramm and today's communication history class,
Michael Jackson. Way more interesting character, huh? Honestly, I can say I am quite a fan of his because I admire & respect his talent, sympathise with his plight and numerous accusations by others, as well as feel touched by his meaningful songs and childlike innocence of Never Neverland. Ok, I'm digressing.
The point is the media (TV/Radio/News/Internet/New Media, etc) has actually engaged in the practice of Hagiography
after his death.
They have not only re-conferred Royalty upon him, as the title King of Pop clearly shows, but also shone the limelight on him for a considerable period of time. ALL types of media, literally, have not neglected covering at least a teeny aspect of Michael Jackson, his death and his life. So far, it seems that he has left behind a legacy to be continued and passed down for generations by the media. This makes me wonder -
leaving behind a legacy would be next to impossible if not for communication, if not for media. This
halo effect, as the Evolutionary Psychology discusses, just goes to show how media has the power to skew the image of a person to 1 end of a spectrum, almost for eternity. This ties in with History, a subject that if not cautious, could easily slide down the slippery slope of hagiography, saying nothing wrong about a person.
And for the first time this year, I think that the international masses actually
wanted the media to cover a specific news story - the death of Michael Jackson, to shed light on his life story. This time, I think it quite safe to say, that the people got more out of media than they usually do - it was more of using media as a tool to communicate to the advantage of the public, than of newsmakers using media as a money-making machine (of course, they did make a substantial sum by cashing in on the opportunity to feed the appetite of the people). As David Hinckley,
Daily News TV critic reports, "
It does remind us, though, that networks can't ignore News Viewers Actually Watch. It also underscores the impact of stories that generate a passionate emotional investment. "
9:47 PM
Monday, August 10, 2009
Haiz. I was initially going to write a
wonderful, happy, uplifting post after 3 days in
Malacca attending a spiritual banquet - Keep on the Watch. Was also going to tell you all about my delicious
Nyonya Asam Laksa and
Chendol that I slurped down at
Jonker Street amidst the crowd and haze.
Unfortunately, returning back to Singapore was equivalent to jumping into a pool of workload and upcoming stress. I can't believe the notes and readings for tomorrow's lectures are already up. Just 1 module's readings for tomorrow have used up more than 20 sheets of my printing paper. How is global warming ever going to end with the amount of paper we print each day in the name of
Education, I wonder.
Oh well, I guess I'll just share a bit of the spiritual food with my audience today. To be frank, I'm hoping this review daily will be able to remind me of spiritual things so I do not get pulled into the whirlpool of school and this system.
"Keep your senses, be watchful. Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone." - 1 Peter 5:8
So the word
devour as used in the Greek scriptures actually has the meaning of
to swallow down. The Devil really wants to swallow us down, to break our integrity to God. To do that, he makes our faith
weak, soft, soluble so it's easy to devour us. In order to avoid being a victim, I really need to maintain
strong and solid faith. Hope I will be able to continue keeping my faith strong even with the upcoming stress and schoolwork. After all, it concerns my life and future, much more than school.
10:54 PM
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Today was a hmm... how do I describe it... normal day? Well, more or less, except for a few unusual incidents.
Firstly, I wore a cap when I went out today! Haha.. it's the cap I got from Alaska. The short kind. Finally I found a type of cap that suits me. Most hats/caps don't, you see.
My Alaska Cap
Guess what was the only thing I was thinking of this morning? Ok, to be truthful, it wasn't the only thing. There was this
other thing... ANyway, the more interesting and less confusing of the 2 was:
He Who Can't Marry! Yes! Haha... if you're still clueless, it's the altest K-drama I've been glued to. Actually slept at nearly 2 last night watching it. It's so funny! And the lead guy is so weird but cute... And both he and the lead actress are almost 40. Made me wonder if I'll still be single when I'm at that age... I guess it's not a bad thing, as long as people around me don't pressure me, or I at least have another single friend to accompany me.
Anyways, that wasn't the 2nd unusual thing that happened today. After running some bank errands for my mum, I went to have lunch at West Mall. While I was eating my minced meat ramen by myself and people-watching, this old
grandma bent over in front of me (
I guess cos she couldn't get my eye-contact with my cap covering the line of sight and my head buried in my bowl of noodles). Without speaking, she gestured at me to look after her bag and she just left to order her food! Well, I didn't mind cos she had a kind smile and warm happy eyes. But the weird thing was there were quite a number of empty tables around and other people too. So I was wondering.. perhaps she was feeling lonely? And wanted company? After some time, she came back to the table with her food and started eating. Oh and she sat facing me even though it was a 4-seat table and the other 2 seats were empty. I so wanted to strike up a conversation but my noodles were finishing and I didn't want to have to leave halfway while we were talking. So I didn't, although I do feel a tinge of regret, especially after I saw her praying before her meal.
Subsequently, I headed to Orchard to meet my mum for mani-pedi appointment. But I was more than an hour early and so had a chance to look around the new ION Orchard. Not that consumer-friendly for the general public since the high-end shops were expectedly filled with pricy items exceeding the budget of the average Singaporean. The only store I personally found accessible was the Artbox. By the way, they're hiring (just in case any of my audience is looking for a job). The store was filled with lotsa cute stuff and Korean music playing in the background.
The last and most unusual thing was I had to walk around Taka in disposable slippers even though I was dressed up. All because I forgot to wear open-toe shoes and didn't want to spoil my neatly-done pedicure. By the way, I painted my
nails blue...heheh.
The things a girl would do for the sake of beauty.... endure terrible pain for some and in this case, actually willing to embarrass myself in public. Here's a look at the slippers, just to show you how unsightly it was:
10:30 PM
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
My cousin just asked me to help him find 100 girls to work at the upcoming F1 Event. And, I don't know why, but even though he said I won't be getting anything (apparently, he's not either since he asked me to fwd the contacts and e-mails to some Caucasian), I actually got excited and have advertised on FB, even sent an e-mail to my Prof to fwd to the rest of the CS population in NTU. I must be nuts, doing such things
for free.
Seriously hope that they will appreciate my help and give me some benefits. Well, he did ask me to also work. I would if I didn't have to wear a mini-skirt/shorts and stand in the sun for 13 hours. I mean the pay is good, $15 an hour! And the experience, must be great. But, I'm selling clothes, for goodness sake. Not selling myself. Although people do say that
a good salesman sells himself, his image. Well, that would be easy for me... but why can't I just wear jeans?
Jeans can look sexy too!And now, I have to even reply all the e-mails I'm getting, and queries too. I guess the only benefit is I get to see pictures of those who apply.. haha... I'm sure Daniel would love that. He loves commenting on photos, right Daniel?
Anyways, here are some pics of my 2nd cousin!
11:11 PM
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Pictures of my
cute cousins!!!
11:10 PM
Monday, August 3, 2009
FINALLY!
Handphone pics have been uploaded to my Toshiba Portege Laptop...
I was never an ardent fan of technology but these past 2 days have just cemented my belief that
Technology is not only
tedious and
troublesome, but also
time-consuming (
yes, it is. Especially when they don't come with user-friendly manuals; so much for efficiency and convenience) and
tiring (
after losing my precious sleep and energy on trying to figure out technology). All the associations with technology start with "
T"! Even Toshiba!
LG PC Suite is just abundant with problems and hiccups. Tried for hours to get my phone connected to my PC so I could upload pictures but it was only successful on the 1st attempt. After that, even advice from other LG Users from the internet just didn't seem to work. Uninstalling, re-installing, plugging in, plugging out... it's a miracle I didn't give up.
Well, at least I didn't give up on my ultimate goal - which was to upload pictures onto my laptop. So trying to be flexible, I tried out different means and decided on using the bluetooth connection. Even that didn't work for at least 2 hours. Toshiba Portege laptop (a Satellite model) is quite complicated when it comes to setting up bluetooth connection. Just Google the issue and you'll see the number of forums and questions that consumers of this Satellite model have raised.
But, as the saying goes, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Perseverance paid off. So did thinking out of the box and giving every possible means a chance. I clicked on Toshiba Assist program (have no idea why but the icon suddenly appeared out of place on my desktop, as if there was another force giving me a hand at this) and turned on the bluetooth on my phone, clicked paired devices and searched for a device on my PC and phone simultaneously. Hooray! Found Samantha PC on my phone! First step to success! Well, actually, the 100th, if one did not count the numerous failures before that. You know what people say: Failure is the first step to success. Then, I entered a Pass code (a simple on so I could rmb) on my LG phone, then on my TOSHIBA laptop. And ta-da! Sent an image through!
This is the 1st picture I took to upload onto my computer for the 'trial run': the Toshiba laptop... they should thank me for advertising for them even after the trouble they made me go through.
Ok, I will upload more tomorrow. Just packed my luggage for Malaysia. Pretty exhausted and late now, gotta turn in. Sweet dreams~
10:56 PM
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Oh dear, it seems that the latest news I've been reading has got to do very much with teens. And they're not all that good either.
The first one I read reported by
BBC was about
how social networking sites (SNS) actually threaten community life - according to the Archbishop. Well, I've got agree to a certain extent that facebook, friendster, myspace... they're really all about the superficial. More often than not, people add friends just to widen their social circle. It's not how deep the relationship runs; it's about how wide the pool of
so-called friends are, some of them whom you've never even met in real life before.
Of course there are those who say they have no intention of adding people they do not know as friends. But really, who can tell? Intention is one thing; temptation and curiosity, a totally different story. Up till now, I've ignored people I do not know a couple of times. Yet, there are times when I've accepted people who are friends of friends just for harmless fun. And later, discovered that I actually know them, not as a friend, but an acquaintance. From there, our lives are intertwined once again and a friendship begins. So, sometimes the story does have a happy ending.
Not brushing the risks under the carpet, we have to take note that whatever we put up, pictures and what not, will be accessible to many who are not even our friends. Sometimes I wonder how tight the security of Facebook actually is... for a simple computer noob like me, it would suffice. But what about a computer geek, IT intelletual, or worse, a cyberstalker and hacker? Technology is ever-evolving. What's the frequency of security updates on these SNS, I question.
In fact, recently, my elder brother added me on Facebook. And he's going to be a father now. (
By the way, it's confirmed: I'm getting a nephew!!!) Imagine him playing Happy Farm or whatever childish application on FB.. haiz, I give up, my poor nephew's future is at stake. Then, even more recently, my mum added me on FB. If that's not enough, my dad too! Oh man! I suddenly feel as if my personal space has been
intruded. It's not like I'm doing anything wrong or playing any silly games or posting erotic pictures of myself. But somehow, I always felt like FB was a youngster thing (
even though I know teachers use them and old ladies too), a secret world of my own, and my friends. This just goes to show that despite the knowledge that such sites are available to anyone with internet access, regardless of age, most of us still go ahead and take the risks of putting up information of ourselves.
Children, take note, our parents are no longer old-fashioned and outdated as we think they are. They are very much as hip and trendy as the boy with headphones who's playing PS beside you on the MRT.