moved

Have moved to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. Do move on to louistify now! Update bookmarks as needed. I think I've redirected this site's web feed so it's automatically loading updates from there, but you might want to switch the feed URL too to be safe.

MWBS Wiki guide status update

So it's been about a month since the MWBS Wiki first went up, with a limited trial audience, but I've recently released it for public consumption, and so far readership has been higher than expected (I was expecting something in the range of ~50 per day).


Stats for MWBS Wiki

It's also slightly depressing to know that a website detailing the mechanics of a game involving little animated flying ships receives like 400% more visitors than this blog does.


Stats for this blog

Then again I don't advertise this site much. But, well, ego aside, it's nice that my little project seems to have taken off relatively well, hopefully it gains even more popularity in time to come?

Crazy

I'm not really a fan of Simple Plan, nor do I usually listen to lyrics in songs, but somehow this song just jumped out at me while I was listening to (iTunes) radio today. It's not particularly complex or impressive, but serves as a simple commentary on today's (Western) society, I think.


Crazy (Simple Plan)

Still alive

Here's a shot from Miyajima, just to let everyone know that, well, I'm still alive. =D

I think I'm done with travelling around Japan for this trip (not that I've done very much of travelling - just a weekend trip to Hiroshima, and more recently another busy weekend going to Yokohama for a Jack Johnson gig). It's been exciting enough, but I think I'm kinda drained from it all (Old already, no more stamina for all this moving about).

Plus, I really need to get working on my project...

So, guess I'll just be bumming around (and hopefully doing some readings and statistical analyses) in my remaining two weeks in Japan. Doesn't sound too bad, really.

#%!$ scammers

So i got a call from +868712249705 recently. Forgetting that I'm overseas (and thus paying roaming charges), I instinctively answered the phone and lo and behold, a Chinese started speaking on the other line. I've been getting quite a lot of this crap lately (on my Singapore line), so I just said "What? Sorry? Can you speak English?" and hung up.

On retrospect, I think that was being too kind, that idiot probably wasted nearly a dollar of my calltime.

In the future, I'll just keep in mind to ignore all calls from +86 (China) numbers, and to feign inability to understand Mandarin should I accidentally pick up any such call, especially with so many scams floating around.

Hope I stop getting so many scammy calls, I'd hate to change my phone number. Have had it for seven years now, after all.

Dell support 2

Say what you will about inferior build quality, but Dell's customer service is truly excellent. So here's what's happened in the past few days, with a rather amusing mix up.

Tuesday - Dell Japan called me. They arranged for on-site service, the engineer needed to speak with a Japanese-speaker to arrange for a time for servicing, so I directed them to Ailin who got help from a colleague.

Wednesday - I receive a package with the new HDD inside. I'm a bit confused since the engineer's only supposed to come the next day, but I decide to replace it myself anyway.

Thursday - The engineer arrives, is a little surprised that the problem's fixed already (though he looked relatively pleased that he didn't have to do anything), fills up a few forms and picks up the spoilt HDD.



How was I supposed to know that a replacement part addressed to me was meant to be put aside for the engineer to use, right? =P

In fact, Dell's customer service has been so wonderfully efficient I'm actually a little sad to be switching back to Apple. If only Dell sold Apple products and provided their own follow-up service, haha. Oh well.

Back to Mac?

Hmm managed to get contacted by Dell Japan, but the process of changing HDD seems to be somewhat troublesome. I might just get a HDD of my own here and get the old one fixed when back in Singapore...

But it seems so sian to restore everything fully, I'm thinking of asking a friend to get a MacBook Pro for me. It's something I'd been considering recently, I thought I'd wait till next year when my Dell warranty expires, but now that I've got a dead HDD, the USD is cheap, and I've got friends in the USA, I'm really considering it. At US$1799 (with education discount), it's not really that costly either, given the current exchange rate...

Decisions, decisions...

Disabled

My notebook's hard disk has apparently crashed. On the very first day I arrived in Japan, no less (it died on Saturday night). There's no HDD detected when it boots up, and it makes a clicking noise while (apparently) trying to access the disk.

I've emailed Dell Singapore and hopefully they're able to arrange something with the technicians like they did when I was back in the UK, but I'm not too hopeful given language barriers and all.

I guess in the worst case, I'll just buy a new HDD myself and get the spoilt one replaced when I'm back in Singapore (thus ending up with one extra HDD). Maybe I'll buy a casing and have myself an external HDD at last? Who knows? Maybe I'll even use it to boot OSX haha. Wonder if my notebook supports booting from a USB device...

Sushi sights

Spotted at kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi.


Whale meat, apparently. First tipped off by the strangely red colour of the meat ("ey that kinda looks like beef huh?"), we later realised that the kanji contains '鲸', which is... well, whale.

I'm not the whale protector type or anything, but I'm not really a fan of putting raw mammal meat into my mouth. It's probably just the way we were brought up - as Ailin'd pointed out, a French person would probably not have had any problem giving it a try. I am rather curious how it tastes, though. Hmm.


Oyako sushi, literally 'mother-and-child'. It's not too clear in the picture, but that's salmon meat and salmon roe on the sushi. Funny stuff. It's also helped Ailin realise where oyako-don gets its name from. The Japanese have a wicked sense of humour! =D

When in Rome...

Do as the Romans do! Which is a really weird saying to use when not actually in Rome, but hey - I didn't design the English language, ok?

Anyway, here's today's dinner - homemade Omurice! It didn't turn out that great since my egg wasn't all that thin, but it does look quite pretty. Haha.

Oh look I'm back to procrastinating. Dum dee dum. Stupid literature survey.

Project 365, 2007

It is done.

Phew. At last. My life doesn't seem exciting enough to sustain a picture a day. I've cheated on quite a few occassions, actually. Heh. Don't think I'm about to start a p365 for 2008. Sticking to Facebook for random events might be easier after all =P

I guess this replaces my annual New Year reflection post, then. A picture speaks a thousand words, after all... here's my 365,000-word essay, then!

日本の形 (The Japanese Tradition)

So it all started with Yiwen sending me the link to this video on how to use hashi (chopsticks). I thought it was really funny so I searched for more in the series (apparently there're quite a number, although I've only found a few that are subbed).

Since I'm in Japan and all it seems only fitting that I watch (and blog) about this, though watching them all has effectively killed about an hour of my life. Haha.

They all start relatively seriously (I actually thought it was a real documentary at first), but get progressively ridiculous and funny. Watch them if you have time - they're really quite a hoot!

This is a list of episodes and links to the few subbed versions I've found online, hopefully I'll be able to see them all one day ([J] links to the unsubbed versions I've found, you can try watching if you're bored or if you actually understand Japanese).

The Japanese Tradition 「日本の形」
Hashi 「箸」
Origami 「折り紙」
[J] Obon-Yasumi 「お盆休み」
[J] Natsu Yasumi 「夏休み」
[J] Onigiri 「おにぎり」
[J] Ocha 「お茶」
Shazai 「謝罪」
Utage 「宴」
[J] Tejime 「手締め」
[J] Dogeza 「土下座」
Sushi「鮨」
[1][2][3][4] Kosai「交際」

Amazon MP3

Amazon's launched its own mp3 store, which (legally) sells music in non-copy-protected mp3 format. I've resisted buying files via iTunes because it's relatively expensive (in the UK anyway) and usually comes in copyprotected aac format, which I get quite annoyed by, but now I might actually start buying music again! =P

Singapore's upcoming IRs

After my recent visit to Tokyo Disneyland, and also reading kennysia's experience at the Venetian Macao, I've been thinking about the upcoming IRs in Singapore and doing a little research on dear ol' Wikipedia.

(As background - kennysia was awarded a free trip to Venetian Macao as part of a publicity review thing, making me wish (for once in my life) that I was a celebrity blogger. The Venetian is a hugeass casino resort that recently opened in Macau, owned by Las Vegas Sands, which happens to be the company that is working on the IR being set up at Marina Bay in Singapore.)



I've not been keeping up with the IR plans, since I'd initially regarded them as a distant project that caters mainly for foreigners, but after reading about the grandiose plans for Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa (the latter of which is going to include a Universal Studios theme park), I find myself quite excited, really. Sure they're meant to draw tourists in - but what's stopping locals from visiting them too? Domestic tourism in Singapore, at last!



There are social costs, of course, involved in setting up a casino, true, but compared to the potential economical benefit? I can really imagine the two IRs being a major draw where tourism is concerned. Moreover, Singapore is small. We already have a (pretty effective) police force in place. Along with the planned restrictions for locals in entering the casinos (something I don't personally have a problem with, since I'm not particularly interested in that part of the IR), it seems like these costs can be kept to a minimum.

Of course I might be terribly wrong, but at this point in time, 2009/2010 (when the resorts open) seems to be an exciting period ahead for Singapore.

Homosexuality, Christianity and Singapore

I've been thinking about the issue of the legality of homosexuality in Singapore for some time now, especially more so every since Otto Fong, a teacher in RI, published his 'open letter' declaring himself homosexual, and the Ministry of Education apparently pressured him into taking it down.

As I'd commented somewhere on LiveJournal, I can totally understand why a Christian might disapprove of homosexuality - the bible practically explicitly instructs us to do so (to kill them, more specifically).

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Lev. 20:13)

Personally, I don't believe that every word of the bible is infallible or should be taken as an instruction to be applied in everyday life, but I know many people who do, and yes - if the almighty God your creator has told you that homosexuality is wrong, it is altogether sensible that you should do your part to stamp it out. Encourage your homosexual friends to 'turn over a new leaf', if you sincerely believe that will be better for them - fine. Form support groups for homosexuals who want to 'change' - alright, I guess. Have campaigns to educate the public on the evils of homosexuality (whatever those be) - I'm a little dubious about that, but hey, it's (theoretically) just exposing others to your viewpoint, so I guess that's alright.

But where I draw the line is when church groups vocally lobby to retain section 377 of the penal code, that part of Singaporean law which makes it illegal for homosexuals to have sex with one another. It's not a law that is actively enforced (even if they were able to), but it silently signals the government's non-acceptance of homosexuality in Singapore.

Civil law is civil law, and unless every citizen is a member of a certain religion (and even then, perhaps not), there is no reason why religious viewpoints should be mixed in with deciding how to maintain secular social order. As Christians we have no right to force our beliefs upon others, just as the Muslims have no right to make us eat halal food (though as a sidetrack, a lot of Malay food is seriously tasty and hard to avoid eating =P).

Purely from a secular point of view, I fail to see how homosexuality makes a detrimental impact on society as a whole - arguments about the 'breakdown of traditional family structure' and stuff don't quite cut it, for me. In fact, I don't see why homosexuality should be regarded as a greater ill than smoking or alcohol.

I'm not particularly supportive of homosexuality (am personally slightly homophobic, no particular reason - just not particularly comfortable with the concept), but I don't see why they should be discriminated against either, and I am tired of Christians being broadly labelled as 'anti-gay' when really I think it's something we have no business poking our noses into in the first place (on a national legal scale, anyway).

Photoshop magic

+ =  

Elite Silver!

Looks like my mileage woes were for naught - my Thai Airways miles were accrued on a 1-to-1 rate for KrisFlyer, so I've actually already achieved KrisFlyer Elite Silver status! The silly travel agent apparently quoted the miles for one-way flight, so I don't even need to bank on the return leg of the journey to get my miles.

In this case I guess I'm quite happy with the outcome, but if I'd decided to buy the (more expensive) SIA ticket just to get Elite Silver, I would be really annoyed... Oh well. Good thing it's turned out the way it has, then. =)