Just doing my part

If you want to learn more about the movie Expelled, please go to this site.

Censorship, dishonesty, plagiarism, it has them all!

There is a point to make here, and i am going to make it.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

to be continued..

Good days (midnight disjointed typings)

When you are young and happy, you thought the world will last forever.

In those days, the all-important exams would loom up maliciously. But everything is okay, because we'd form a study group. Every day we'd meet, and till night we'd stay. What is the pain of studying when you are with friends? In the shadow of exams we'd fraternize, the group in the corner.

throwing paper planes and snack wrappers at each other, testing out understandings and acronyms. The work is tedious and dull, but plodding through it is easy. Students we all are; where and when better to form fast bonds than during exam time?

We've been successful.

We're doing what we wanted, but seldom meet anymore. Should i throw myself into my work? Can I?

Bittersweetness is such an ambivalent emotion to have.

In awe

You know how much i like science. I'm a bio geek. So i really take offense when IDiots (can't spell idiot without ID) decide to strawman well working theories like evolution. Hence why i am in total awe at people who manage to make videos like these:



This parodies one of the common failed arguments against evolution, the so-called microevolution not macroevolution argument.

In a strike against Paley, the same person made a vid where a clock is evolved. It is in silica, of course, and you have to imbue to the clock certain characteristics that organic molecules normally have. But watch it for yourself:



Back to studying for me. Should be easy. I'm in such a good mood cuz these videos just made my day.

Some things should never be brought into this world

A few notes.

Yes, i am alive. Alive and kicking. Kicking and screaming in agony and frustration even. Everything is so hectic now. Honours applications, end of semester tests, reports, personal issues. I can't even summon up the energy to be half the smarmy bastard i once was.

A few notes:

• No, ChangYang. No more cheesy memes. No more taggings that has such contentless content. I'm a nerdy biology geek, not a bimbo. Send me another book meme or something and we can talk =P

• Someone told me that my blog is the most random one she has ever read. I think this largely comes from me being a geek. So, to further cement that viewpoint, here are some little somethings:
  How to pick locks
  Brainy man Steven Pinker on why we swear
  Dynamic Periodic table

• I spent the last couple of days obsessing over paper airplanes. Found a couple of sites and started folding away with last years lecture notes. Then i threw them off the balcony. I must have spammed the whole Citygate area with 9-10 pieces of random biology by now. Hopefully the people who get it will be so entranced by neuronal firings and stomach lining secretions that they won't complain. Paper plane websites here and here.
  The second link is a step by step flash instruction on how to build a paper plane that was perfected by a bunch of young scientists. it won a competition i think. Nice to think of scientific inquiry applied in a very relevant area. This will completely overturn cellulose aerodynamics. The first site has a lot of fun paper plane designs, including a paper Zepellin and a paper helicopter (not as cool as it sounds). The paper helicopters stay afloat for ages. I threw one off the balcony and it flew all the way across the road over to the Carlton Gardens where i lost sight of it. Try it on a windy day.

• I am very very glad that the birthday season is over. I managed to survive the September Swarm with moderate damage to my expenses. Like locusts descending on the green notes, they are.

Thats it for now. Maybe there will be more stuff coming along. Maybe there isn't.

Late night madness

My flight is later at 3pm, its now 5:46am, and somehow, for some inexplicable reason, i find myself watching this:



Lets hope that i get so plastered from lack of sleep that i'll finally be able to get some rest on the plane. And lets hope that this vid won't last long enough to scar me in my sleep.

Heres a picture from the resultant topic i had with Wolf after showing him the vid.



Hell, i think i'm already screwed. Might as well take anybody i can down with me.

Cheers.

Ipoh Mali

I can't believe i missed this.

I'm not usually for hip hop and rap, but i think this deserves a special place in my heart *grins*




Oh yeah.

Animaris Kinetic

Sometimes you see something so awe inspiring, that you can't help but say "That is too fucking cool to exist." But it does.

Meet Theo Janson. For the past 15 years or so, he has been making a new life-form. Fashioning beasts from innocuous materials like plastic sticks, rope, and plastic sheets, Theo crafts creatures that harvest the wind in to roam the plains. Like a modern day DaVinci, his contraptions resemble the highly ingenious sketches of wood and paper machines featured in DaVinci's notebook.

Armed with sails and a multitude of legs, Theo's strandbeests creak to life, taking shaky but unhesitant steps, moving forward with mechanical precision. His creations have over the years evolved beyond simple movement, you can find plastic bottles acting as pressure valves, a series of locks that open and close, acting as logic gates, giving them a primitive nervous system. Some of them have the ability to detect strong winds with their sails, unleashing a strapped on hammer and start bolting itself down. Some are larger than a bus, the creaking contraption looks like part dinosaur part insect. Theo christens his inventions with the genus name "Animaris", such as Animaris Percipiere, Animaris Ventosa.





There was one part of his creation process that really appealed to me as a biology student: Theo uses the computers to make a code for his creatures, which roughly translates into a rough DNA analogue, and uses them to configure his beests. Using these codes, he'd use the computer to generate variations, and he'd select the best ones out in an odd homage to the theory of evolution. Racing his strandbeests on the beach, he would pick the fastest ones and combine their traits together. In an interview with Theo, he states that he would like to make herds of these things and eventually release them into the wild, letting them live their own lives.


For more pictures of Theo Janson and his works, you can visit his website.

Happy bidecade

Lugging the luggage past the stairs and past all the doors, i come to the door labelled T15. Putting on a smile, i opened it. No one was in there. But the nodding fishing orange blob at the window seems to be content to see me, i wonder for a moment what sort of person my roommate is. Looking over at the occupied desk, i was pleasantly surprised to see an english name i had never encountered before. "Keegan Bow".

"huh, weird name."

***

I glanced at the bed, amused. The three girls trying to settle themselves on your bed seems to finally manage an ill fit, what with you being in one of the corner. Chattering incessantly about not letting you sleep till 3am, i wonder what sort of life would i have with a bunch like this.

Seeing as i didn't know them that well, and i haven't managed to make much headway in friendships, i was content to be ignored, as i tried to focus my attention back to the biology textbook.

Perhaps i should tell them i need to sleep as well? Nah, this is too interesting not to see to the conclusion.

***

We beamed with pride at the wall. I raised a skeptical eye at you.

"Isn't that soft porn? two girls kissing on the bed."

"no, its called "Kiss", and its art."

I go back to looking at my iceberg.

"Ok, so i'll put my rug in the middle of the beds, and my drawer can go to the middle too. You can put your lamp on top."

"Wonderful, coziest room in Albert House."

"No shoes allowed?"

"Yes."

***

"I'm thinking about starting a blog."

"Seriously? that sounds kinda fun. Maybe i should start one with you. But.. i dunno.."

"Yes, yes start one with me. It'll be good for you."

"Hmmmmm."

***

"Heh, i'll bet we're the only rooms to join the beds in this place."

"Nevermind, it'll be cozy! Unlike Jon's room. Its like, there is this hole in the middle of the room."

***

"Haha, so i'll put the cookie jar way at the top of the shelf, so Steph can't get at it. Nor Sarah. Mwahahahaha."

***

"Nooo, the net is gone!" I wring my hands up in frustration. "Yours is going to be gone soon too!"

A second later, sounds of dismay from your side vindicated my claim.

"Its like a wave, see. I have the crappier card, so when the system goes out, it hits mine first, then it hits yours a second later."

"Crap."

***

"Church bells on sundays and no bread in the freezer,
Derek standing there making us feel short,
and these are some of our most hated things!"
*chorus*

***

"Keegan, i'll most definately beat you today in Foosball."

"Bring it on!"

***

"I just felt that.. somebody else should have been responsible for his birthday, when we all have exams to deal with. That somebody else shouldn't have just spent the whole day playing RO with jon."

I didn't look you in the eye. There was nothing i could say, and i hadn't thought about planning anything at all, even though i should have.

***

"you know, you always say what i want to say 1 second faster than i can."

***

"Your thoughts are just too acidic."

"So what would be normal thoughts then?"

"Basic ones."

"ROFL, brilliant."

***

Some memories, dredged up from the recesses of my mind. Perhaps these impressions largely differs from your. But they are my impressions, nonetheless, and are uniquely mine, i hope. Uniquely mine, as a tribute of sorts.

Thanks for the memories. Happy 20th birthday, Keegs.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

Its that time of the year again.

The time when exams, assignments, promises, commitments all comes to a head. Sometimes i wonder if deep within our psyche we all planned it this way. Subconsciously we must know that things are due right about this time, right? Why the hell do people put their deadlines to this date? Do we take perverse pleasure in squeezing all the work into one singularity of academic time?

My core subject presentations were due last week, on a Friday. Before that, there was a midsemester exam on tuesday. Right after that, there is another student presentation on tuesday. The core subject presentation has, tagging along with it, a 1,500 word summary assignment due this friday (ie, tomorrow). Due on the same friday is also a microbiology wikipedia style entry on a specific topic that we had to assemble. Come next wednesday, lab prac books are due. Tables need to be filled, graph needs to be drawn, and data assembled. A week of study break later and its the mother of all deadlines, the examination period.

Predictably, my body broke down and i started coughing and hacking. Its been that way for 3 weeks now. My body took the cue from all the stress and i came down with the annual flu. At least i know i wont get sick again this year. There is a huge huge irony out in the universe that my core subject's presentation was about the Influenza virus, and i was struck down by influenza right in the middle of it. If there is a god, i don't think s/he/it is a force for good. I don't even think it is a force of external evil.

No, if there is one force out there that is everlasting and eternal, its gonna be Irony. And its progeny called Sarcasm.

You won't hear from me much these few days. I predict to drop quite dead on sunday. Expect some pretty wild behavior from me on that day. I deserve it.

Nihilism

"He ain't Heavy, He's my Father!" or, why you should help me with my quota

The Chinese Theater Group cantonese production will be starting their show, "新难兄难弟" or "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Father!" will be hitting the Union House Theater on the 4th (friday), 5th (saturday), 10th (thursday) and 11th (friday) of May. Each show starts on 7pm, while the 5th has 2 shows per day, one of them on 2pm and the other at 7pm. And before you ask, no, i'm not appearing on stage this time. I was supposed to cameo as a butcher, but that somehow flopped. You can get tickets from me (and only me! mwahaha). The price is 11 dollars for C-group members, and 13 dollars for normal students.


Despite my ringing endorsement, i have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, i've not exactly been coping with the demanding time commitments one has to shell out for a production like this. Granted, i should have known it when volunteering myself to be the Sets assistant. Somehow i didn't expect every weekend to be gone, devoted to the theater production. I haven't been a good assistant leader. I have to admit that halfway through the production, i got fed up about my weekends being not my own. I discovered that i can be quite a private person, i need time for myself. Which is the reason why this will be my last production. Its a nice show, but i didn't get a good experience out of it.

But, on the other hand, the production is good. I've seen the rehearsals, seen the costumes, the props, the make up. As for the sets, i know they are good, because i had a hand in making them. Given what we had, the stuff we made are bloody good. If you watch the show, you might want to know that we made the bloody double decker bed, the street sign, and we slaved away at the various backgrounds. I may not be happy about my lost time, but i can appreciate what we did. Take the praise with a grain of salt, but i genuinely think it is a good show. This is reason number one why i am trying to sell tickets.

Reason number two i am selling tickets: I'm a Malaysian, and this show practices the Malaysian National Pasttime: Piracy. We basically stole the plot from a hong kong movie, revamped it a little, and bring it to you in flesh and blood. Its like, "新难兄难弟-3D". I highly approve.

And the third reason is: The ticketing manager is breathing down my neck. Seriously. Heres an advice to all production groups (coughCMGcough): get an angry looking , persistant and evil person as your ticketing manager (evil is optional though recommended). I know the ticketing manager before, but she seriously scares me when she goes into Ticketing Manager Mode.

On another note, i feel this sadistic thrill whenever CMG asks CTG for advice on production stuffs. Just proves how much more superior we are. Bwahahahahahahahahahaha. Ahem. You didn't hear that.

Arachnia on Acid

Now, for the record, i have tremendous respect for wildlife. I really love nature, and i appreciate that animals and other living things should be given their their dignity. But, the person who first came up with idea of drugging spiders and letting them build webs is a friggin genius, man.

Check this out:


There is also this website with pictures, though it is rather lacking in commentary.



Moral of the story: Just say No to drugs, kids!

A day of silence

A Human Enterprise

I have struggled for a while now, looking for the best way to express what i feel about religion.

PZ Myers here did a wonderful job.

We turn to religion when sad, when happy, when angry. After all, there is something almost transcendent about emotions. It is inexplicable yet so very strong. Everyone has it. Most people must have, at some point, wondered if all our memories and our emotions, our utter sense of self will be preserved when we die. When that happens, however, we run into a blank wall. Its easy enough to imagine ourselves in someone elses shoes when they are angry, or when they are happy, or sad. Its at the root of empathy to put ourselves in others positions. But how do we empathize with someone who has died? How does it feel like to be dead? Though the body is dead, we have memories of their minds. I think we can't help but think that their personalities have ended up somewhere else. Thus religion is born.

Since we project our very sense of self into the afterlife, religion takes on a very personal meaning. It embodies our most optimistic hopes, and our most gruesome fears. Most people don't see religion as a cultural artifact. Religion is literally a part of them, the lifeline to immortality. A religion that comprises a large amount of people reflects the attitudes of that particular society.

Taken as a whole, religion itself becomes a blank canvas for the human psyche. Our most touching dreams, our greatest hopes, our darkest deeds, all reflected upon this entity known as religion. Wantonly, we splay ourselves unto this medium, laying unto it our subconscious desires (and not so subconcious ones). Instead of transcendence, it is belies a foundation that is so human, so down to earth. It really is just us, hoping for the best.

Parting words:

Religion is the greatest human enterprise. Like anything truly human, it is capable of the greatest deeds but also the most abominable horrors. Let that be a lesson.

Where the hell is Matt?

For those who who do not know what to do when traveling, i have a suggestion:



I'm sure it'd appeal to all of you travelophiles out there ;)

Birthday Blues

March is a month of merry making, birthdays and hotpots, housewarmings and cold puddings. Every week you hear the joyous tidings of another birthday, friends have reunions, old times are reminisced over cake, and wishes are made for a better future. So it may come as a surprise to some when i declare that i am fucking sick of it all. Nothing against those people whose date of birth lands on this month, but couldn't you all had gestated for another month or something? I am so broke now its no joke. At roughly 30 dollars per birthday (dinner + gifts), this is an expensive period. And of course, my birthday lies sometime before people come back, so no one celebrates mine. Oh the humanity.

After 4 birthday celebrations, with a fifth one coming up, it has come to my attention that parents have a lot of unprotected merry making in the months of January and June, leading to an unusual concentration of people celebrating birthdays in March and September. Yes, my dear peers, i am holding your parents accountable for my current state of impoverishment.

March was bad, but September promises to be even worse. If my memory serves true, last september i had 8-9 friends who had birthdays, which is almost twice as much as march. At this point in time maybe the smart thing to do is to save up and start severing off ties.

On another note, when would be the best time to have spawn-inducing sex then, if you were to be a parent? There are several things to consider. Firstly, you want maximum benefit per birthday. That would mean no holidays in the vicinity distracting people from spending money on your kid. We would also have to make pretty sure that your kid does not have to share birthdays with someone else. Secondly, you want a time where nobody is off for trips so they can claim absence. Our candidates:

January: Januaries suck. New year happens on january, and there will be the impending chinese new year (if you are chinese) and the inevitable school reopening to distract people. There will also be those rich bastards still holidaying somewhere in Honolulu. So don't have sex in April.

February: February is not as bad as january, but not perfect either. By now school is nearly in full swing, the assignments are out, and nobody gives a damn about birthdays. Plus its still new in the academic year and the new people don't know your kid that well to care about when he popped out of the oven. Use that condom on May.

March: March is the worst. Everyone's having birthdays. March is when people run screaming away for mercy when someone mentions birthdays. Moderate your fun on June, please, for the love of god.

April: April is when mid-semester exams are due, assignments are due, cocurricular activities are due, mentioning birthdays will just make the crowd go "diu!", so perhaps lets just talk about a movie for July?

May: Happy Semester exam. Nobody cares about your kid's birthdays. They will sooner look at an incredibly dry textbook first. Bad month. If you want to be a good parent then don't have unprotected sex in August.

June: This would normally make a good month, but june is when we get the semester break, and so a lot of people won't be around. Still, its pretty good. Go for it.

July: Whee school just started. People just came back from hols and are in a bad mood. Who cares about spending money on someone else? Your kid will get mediocre presents!

August: August, is, i believe, the perfect month for birthdays. Its the at the early middle stage of the second semester, people have somewhat accepted the realities of studies by now. There are no celebrations going on in august, and the monotony is quickly sinking in. A birthday now would cheer everyone up, and they'll thank your kid by spending on her/him lavishly. So pump up that chocolate, drink that tongkat ali, and have fun on November. Your kid will be thanking me for this 2 decades from now.

September: Septembers are worse than march. Septembers are the worst. Septembers blow. 50% of colleged age kids celebrate their birthdays on september. Why let yours be the sheep? Be original! Lay off that tiger whip soup for December.

October: The final year exam is coming next month. Assignments are due, like, NOW. Only 4 more weeks till the big one. Some will party to let off steam, but most won't. Not a good month overall.

November: wow, end of year exam. If your kid has friends that party at this time of the year it means s/he is in bad company.

December: December would have been perfect, if not for christmas. People will be sneaky and just combine both christmas and birthdays into one. Plus there are those rich bastards starting to leave for honolulu.

So in conclusion, August is the best time for your kid to have a birthday. November should be ideal to "make the beast with two backs", to quote Othello. Be a good parent. Give your kids the best birthdays you can. Do the right thing.

Atheist nightmares

In a splendid show of unreasoning, someone has made the case, concerning god, with a banana. Yes folks, this is the famous Argument From Banana. I assure you this is not parody or satire. The folks in there are serious.



Someone please tell the guy miming fruity fellatio that the bananas we eat are domesticated ones that reproduce asexually: they grow like potatoes, with the old plant growing a new one at its roots. Farmers then pick the ones with potential and grow them. In short, bananas are what they are today because they have been under human selection. Bananas in the wild come under all shapes and sizes, and a lot of them are so chocked with seeds that you can't bite a mouth-full without choking.

In an effort to one-up this ridiculous exercise of proving deities through foodstuff, someone presented the Argument From Peanut Butter, with courtroomy background music. No, really, i kid you not.



Assuming new life does spontaneously appear in peanut butter, how would he expect it to look like? a 3 footed bug with jaws and an ugly face? In the event that new life can occur in peanut butter, it would be more like a chemical that can somehow catalyze its own reaction, thus making more of itself, using resources that are already present within the jar. At the most he will notice is a bubble of mushy stuff in the middle of his peanut butter.

But go ahead and watch it anyway. I had some good laughs out of this one. I hope you will too.

Random flash files.

I've been listening to this for the past 20 minutes, with no sign of stopping. To those who play RO, thats a female lord knight, and she is swinging the sword into an infinite stream of rybios. For what reason i don't know, but the music is so catchy i'll soon go mad. Yet i can't bring myself to switch it off.

For a nice dose of psychosis, there is also this: AAAAAAA
Simultaneously horrifying, spasmic, absolutely disturbing, there was somehow something unbearably funny about it. I was caught by surprise and had to spend 5 minutes laughing my ass off helplessly at the weird dissonance caused by the picture and the sound.

While we are at the topic of looping songs, i might as well let you amuse yourselves with the badger song. Someone told me his friend listened to it for 4 horus straight trying to see if something different will finally happen. He hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'm waiting to see if he is now nodding to himself somewhere in an asylum.

Disappointment

Regarding the dinner, XXL (another friend who was also in the same boat as me) pursued jon, and his replying sms was thus:

"Oh, i think my friend has cooked for me already leh. So how?"

So you might forgive me for getting a mite pissed off. And feeling vastly insulted.

Jon, if you are reading this right now, don't you think its a bit uncouth and ill-mannered to ask people out for dinner, and then calling it off because you found another source of food? Isn't it even more impolite of you to not even tell me when you have called the bloody thing off? The least you can do is to apologize and tell me about it so i can stop waiting for you till 6:45pm.

This feels like a slap in the face. It seems like i misjudged you as a good friend after all.