Geek

Wonder if this is a common occurrence among ethnic Chinese around the Lunar New Year period. A Facebook event list filled with CNY events – anyone?

(I’m sure it could be longer, but my Facebook social life isn’t particularly happening)

Observed about 5 weeks into my Project 365 – I don’t go to the west of Singapore much, huh? Anything worth doing/seeing?

I’ve decided to do a redesign – it’s not really all that sudden, considering it’s been about 11 months since the last one, but I wasn’t really all that bothered about layout until a few days ago. In the course of recent mucking about with Wordpress (hoping to make use of it more fully in my classes this year) and discovering Facebook Connect, which I’m hoping will increase student discussion on an English blog, I suddenly felt inspired to update this blog as well.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly how this all works, but in the meantime, do feel free to knock yourself out logging in via Facebook and leaving a comment or two ;P

(edit: I’ve decided to disable the feature ultimately – the inability to get notifications via email is kinda a deal-breaker for me. oh well, maybe next time, when better integration is available!)

I said goodbye to Victory Saber today.

For years, it had been the jewel of my (relatively small) Transformers collection. Even when I’d decided to scale down on the size of my (rather costly) vintage collection, this was the piece I’d decided to keep, and hadn’t expected to let go of… well, ever.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but my sudden desire to purchase old toys during my JC days was probably fuelled by a longing for the simpler childhood days, of happier days when black was black and white was white; or perhaps they weren’t, but I hardly knew otherwise. A time when everything seemed so whole and complete, when leisure was watching the Japanese version of Transformers on Malaysian TV channels. It sounds rather pathetic now, but in essence… I purchased vintage toys as a distraction, to comfort myself with the idea that it was possible to buy objects to replace what was missing in my life.

I guess I’ve outgrown toys now, though. I’ve learned to deal with what life throws at you, and that material things can never, ever replace love. Special as they used to be to me, these items have ended up merely gathering dust in my house, and I’ve figured that with expenses looking to skyrocket this year, I may as well let go of them for some extra cash.

Farewell, Victory Saber. I never planned for this, but it’s just as well, I think.

Just had some fun with fontcapture.com, creating a font from my handwriting. I’d stumbled upon the site quite some time ago, but was lazy to do the printing/scanning thing. I’ve recently been issued a new tablet PC for work, though, so that simplified the whole process quite a bit – I managed to come up with this within 5 minutes, I think.

I could probably spend some time adjusting the alignment of my written characters, but for a font I’m not planning to use too frequently, I can’t really be bothered. Still, fun stuff!

I really shouldn’t be spending money when I’ve got big expenses looming on the horizon, but I figured that since my old machine’s selling on the second hand market for nearly the same price as a new (entry-level) iMac anyway, I might as well upgrade (downgrade?) now while  I have the time to spare to mess with it (and sell my old stuff).

I lose the mobility, but I figure I can use my school-issued Windows laptop if need be. For a 40% increase in screen space, this is pretty sweet! Processing/graphics power has actually taken a hit, but with the recent Xbox purchase I don’t really need a powerful computer for gaming, anyway.

ZOMG IT’S HERE!

My home, as photographed by Google

So Street View has finally arrived in Singapore. To play with it, go to Google Maps and zoom in on a location (or drag the yellow man icon onto the map).

It’s relatively fun (and probably creepy) checking out your friends’ houses, if you know their addresses, but you can do the same for miscellaneous famous (or not) spots, too.

Mandai Zoo area – View Larger Map

Rear view of Merlion – View Larger Map

The creepiness that is Haw Par Villa – View Larger Map

I wonder how this makes money for Google? Are businesses able to pay to list their details on Street View, perhaps?