BioDarkness

Update Win

2010-03-04T16:48:00.003+08:00

We fixed the problem. No, really.

What, what.

2010-02-27T10:41:00.000+08:00

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is my favourite play so far. Short, smart, sweet and quirky, and definitely an easier read than Othello or A Streetcar Named Desire.

Oscar Wilde, you da (gay) man.

Modern Warfare 2

2010-02-20T09:47:00.000+08:00

I just purchased Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 after three months of deliberating and drooling over it. I have always been a fan of the Call of Duty game series, and will most likely continue to be, even with the supposedly ‘betrayal’ towards the pc community by Invision Ward.

Some of the things that I have noticed about MW2 compared to CoD4 (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare) after half an hour of multiplayer gameplay:

Sniping has been made easier, quick-scoping even more so.
You get killed faster even in normal mode.
Noticeable lag, though not as ‘unplayable’ as often mentioned in reviews.
Knifing has been made easier too.
Getting injured does not entice the same dramatic tension as it used to (heh).
Process of launching the game till entering a lobby seems so… linear.

That is all.

Philosophy and Blood

2010-02-16T17:59:00.002+08:00

The Dexter series continues to amaze me, but I think I should not have watched it at one in the morning. Blood and gore and screams do not fare well with the mind of someone trying to sleep.

I started reading a book I recently downloaded – The Absurdity of Philosophy by Jeff Smith-Luedke. I have not been exposed much to philosophy; there are numerous technical jargon that I have no knowledge of. Particularly there are several schools of thought or philosophies which are often quoted and assumed to be common knowledge by the author which I am ignorant of. Plato’s cave often crops up in philosophical arguments, perhaps I should start from there. Likewise ideas on absurdity (by Albert Camus) and nihilism (by Friedrich Nietzsche) form the very basis of the book – I should study up on these before I proceed further.

I have another book titled Introduction to Philosophy which is basically a introductory picture book for philosophy. But even in this book, the concepts stated are often beyond that I can comprehend. It definitely garners a second read though I had given up on the first read through.

Philosophy may be a derived science, a social science, a field of science I have no intention to study, but it seems interesting, challenging even. Rather than continue be bored by familiarity, it is better to dabble in the unknown and see where it takes me. Whether I would find myself unable to stop fiddling with philosophy or get fed up mere hours into it, I do not know.

Mind and Thoughts

2010-02-16T17:52:00.002+08:00

I realized today that I do not want to live to an old age; I find the process of losing one’s mental faculty slowly and steadily to be highly undesirable. One may say that this process is gradual and would be indiscernible to the aging person, but that is what makes it all the more frightening. I would not want to be one of the ancients, being unable to think clearly nor act with a perfectly rational mind. Better die early than suffer an existence with an unclear mind.

On an utterly different note, I just had an idea for a website:

I am thinking of creating a collaborative news website; a combination of Twitter and Wikipedia perhaps. Instead of having news articles written by seasoned journalists and compiled from major sources, this website would have user-generated articles – snippets of what they have observed on a daily basis. Moderators should be selected to allow them to monitor the traffic of input; filters should be in place of course, but human-based control should still exist to override default actions and allow certain exemptions.

One feature of this website would be a real-time search engine operating parallel with the text input field. This would allow keywords to be identified and compared with other articles recently contributed by users which would then in turn allow accurate categorizing of the new article. This categorizing method would result in all of the articles being collected into a single page whereby individual entries are shown and sorted based on legibility and user-approved ratings. A master entry would then be created and edited by moderators.

Of course, this idea would be to waste unless I implement it, or at least find someone to help me create it. Research has to be made in order to ascertain whether similar websites have been created. Most importantly, I have to start planning.

How to exterminate drug users

2009-11-16T09:25:00.006+08:00

Background reading:Cocaine and pepper spray - a lethal mix?

Now we have a quick and effective way of weeding out the dredges of modern society -- just spray them with pepper spray!

Intriguingly, the combination of pepper spray and psychostimulants is fatal for humans (and other mammals). By spraying drug users, we do not just identify them. We kill them off at the same time. Of course, to many people the mere idea of killing is controversial and not altogether pleasant. To please the squeamish and humanitarians, spraying drug users with lower doses would just render them comatose. This is not advisable because cleaning up the mess left by dead people is usually easier than working on paperwork regarding the comatose people.

In order to have a higher margin of success with such a method, spraying stations have to be implemented at certain checkpoints and a new policy/ruling be drawn up to make it mandatory for all citizens to be sprayed at such checkpoints. Actual patients taking legal drugs may be exempted but should be subject to further cross examination. All non-conforming citizens would be arrested and sprayed. All after-effects of the spraying on survivors will then be medically taken care of by the government. This will in turn be financed by the assets left behind by the filthy, dead drug users.

Since psychostimulants are also widely used as prescription drugs, collateral damage may be unavoidable. If patients cannot justify their prescriptions, their sacrifices for the greater good will not be in vain.

Why is this idea even contemplated in the first place? Well, we know from our life-long brain-washing that taking illegal drugs of any form is harmful to our bodies and to society as a whole. While we cannot destroy such drugs, we can get rid of the users if we try hard enough. Agreed?

Rah-oom

2009-10-01T16:56:00.000+08:00

flicker of a hint;
descent of bitter darkness-
regretful freedom

Hah-oom

2009-09-22T23:06:00.001+08:00

feel the subtle caress
o'heartless monstrosities;
hush perched nightingale

Blaaarghoem

2009-08-10T22:44:00.000+08:00

It was to be nothing

but a trip;

simple, relatively pleasing.

Caution was

for a single moment forsaken

under the gleaming, vast

velvet.

Yet as cycles were retrieved,

a hesitation was regarded;

alas, a nudge and a prod

prompted a secret.

It was dark indeed,

for one seeks to ride swiftly

in the absence

of knowledge.

Book Reviews

2009-07-29T21:49:00.003+08:00

With the remaining holidays but a meagre few weeks more, I came to realize that I have not written any decent English articles as a means to maintain or even to improve my grasp of said language. In order to prevent myself from slowly sliding into the abyss of procrastination, I have decided to write reviews of books, novels or short stories as often as possible.

Tales of Heresy is one book I acquired recently and one that I had looked foward to reading. It contains stories by established canon Warhammer 40K series writers such as Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, James Swallow and others. Unlike other books in the series, Tales of Heresy does not bear the Warhammer 40K logo on the front cover. I have to admit, the art cover is very well done indeed.

For those unfamiliar with the Warhammer 40K universe, Tales of Heresy is part of the canon series chronicling the infamous Horus Heresy which was the singular event in which one of the Emperor's son -Horus - betrayed, waged war upon and in the ensuing final battle crippled him, which lead to the ongoing struggle between mankind and chaos.

The stories included in the book are as follows:

Blood Games by Dan Abnett

Wolf at the Door by Mike Lee

Scions of the Storm by Anthony Reynolds

The Voice by James Swallow

Call of the Lion by Gav Thorpe

The Last Church by Graham McNeill

After Desh'ea by Matt Farrer

I have yet to read any of the stories, but will do so and review them soon.

New Books!

2009-07-25T21:05:00.003+08:00

Its been a really long time since my last post. With the finals going on and me procrastinating all the time, I let this website to rot till now.

Well, I just bought Romeo and Juliet (in preparation for next school term) and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Húrin from MPH and ordered a few more books. In the meantime, I am also re-reading The Lord of the Rings, since the last time I read it was five years ago, and being the kiddo I was then, I did not make much sense of the language and literary quirks.

I love books, especially those of epic fantasy themes (LotR being one). e-Books just do not give the same satisfaction that real ink and paper do. Maybe I am being traditional, but being able to touch and feel and have at hand a book is a pleasure in itself; reading from a digital monitor screen makes it moot and impersonal.

Oh well. One more month of holidays to go!

Revert to Mother Tongue Instead

2009-05-13T20:40:00.003+08:00

There are plenty of arguments in favour of using English or Bahasa Malaysia or both as a medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science. But why not use the students’ own mother tongues?

Instead of just English and Bahasa Malaysia, there should be a wider choice for students. Let Chinese students study Science and Mathematics in Mandarin; let Indian students study Science and Mathematics in Tamil; and so on. If students are forced to study in a language they do not fare well in, they would feel frustrated and eventually hate both the language and the subject and just give up. This does not only apply to Science and Math. When I was studying in secondary school, I was terrible in BM, and as a result scored poorly in Pendidikan Moral, Sejarah and the likes. However, I aced all the subjects that were taught in English and Mandarin. On the other hand, my friends who enjoyed BM but disliked English and Mandarin fared differently- they aced subjects in BM and did poorly in the rest.

Now, with reference towards Ronin Tay’s letter “Look at the world and revert to Bahasa”, I would like to say that we cannot just compare our country’s education system with those of other more developed countries. We as a whole are not mature enough. How long has the proper education system in Malaysia been established? 60-70 years perhaps? Compared to countries such as France or Japan, our standard is still not up to par. We do not have full scientific recognition in the international level.

Sure, we can use Bahasa Malaysia as a medium in teaching Maths and Science, but only if the student chooses so. This should also be true with the other languages of the major ethnic groups in Malaysia. Why deny the Chinese the right to study Maths and Science in Mandarin? After all, China has some of the best mathematicians and scientists in the world. The famous Pythagoreas’ Theorem came centuries after it was first thought of in China. The Olympiad Mathematics in China is also arguably the toughest in the whole world. Mandarin is also the most used language world-wide. Also, why deny the Indians from learning Maths and Science in Tamil? Mandarin, English and Tamil rank higher than BM in terms of number of speakers and users internationally. Therefore, there has to be the freedom of choice for students.

Rather than just debate endlessly on the pros and cons of teaching Maths and Science in the respective languages, why not focus on improving the national education system itself? As mentioned by Ronin Tay, examinations just test the students’ memory, and I agree. I skipped Form 5 and the SPM examinations to enroll in a pre-university course in an international school. Although I did decently in my previous school, I had trouble adjusting to the new system. Everything was taught in English, except for second languages which were optional. The teachers encouraged independent, dynamic and creative learning; text books are secondary and no one is expected to memorize facts and just regurgitate them in class. For projects, guidelines were given and we had to work hard on our own or as a team. Students are also encouraged to take part in constructive discussions and debates. Although it seemed hard at first, I gradually got used to this system, and found that I enjoyed it. Back in my old school, there was little room for creativity. The syllabus does not allow students to question it.

It is unfair to just criticize the current implementation of languages used to teach subjects in school. It is merely the product of an unstable education system. We need a revision of the system, or future generations of students will suffer even more.

Sweet Flash Video

2009-05-04T23:28:00.004+08:00

For all of you Flash loving peeps out there, here's one brilliant gem:

Ghost Fight: The Battle of Swords 1

Click here to play this game

Here, we are presented with an utterly marvellous fight scene, one which we can subtly control with its ingenious settings. The fight can be paused at any single moment without a hitch and even the background, angles of the fight and the quality of the video can be changed on the fly.

The animation is flawless, with the duelists transitioning between full blown sword fights, aerobatic moves and special powers effortlessly.

For those who have sufficient pc power, you can watch the video in full High Definition glory right here.

Ghost Fight: The Battle of the Swords 1 HD

Note that the video is roughly 5.3mb in size, and may take a while to load.

Erm

2009-02-20T20:07:00.003+08:00

Thérèse Raquin

Write a narrative poem, in which you describe the lovers’ plotting, planning and execution of the ‘removal’ of Camille. Try to imitate Zola’s style in terms of the physiological needs and effects that surround the lovers in the text.

Thérèse and Laurent are in essence
A compound so reactive, so singular
To be separated, unconceivable!
For black voids will form, reality will collapse
To be together, to bring hope to life
An obstacle must be annihilated, a bug squashed
A wall must fall, yes, Camille must die!
For wealth, passion and lust Camille must die.

A dagger? Too messy. Poison? Too obvious
Small guts overruled, demanded caution!
To sate their perversion, obsession, addiction
A plan must be made, so flawless, so secret
No one must know, no one must suspect
For the lovers to escape the blade
To retrieve the forbidden fruit, to reach the crescendo
To be love reincarnate.

In a flash, it came to him
Laurent, mad now- the perfect crime
No one around, no witnesses; perfect, perfect!
No one, except for Death lurking in the river, awaiting
A creature condemned by his wife and friend
To a wet demise.

Poor, poor Camille, never understanding
Never suspecting
He thought his time was up for a very fun ride
Until too late did he manage
To see the fury, the insanity, the lust
And with his final burst of strength, he bit
Savouring human flesh and blood
His last souvenir
Thus, off he went to visit
The fishes down below.

Reflections

2009-02-14T18:26:00.003+08:00

It has been a month since I left - technically, an early graduation - from my beloved Chung Ling High School. As it were since the dawn of time, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I had taken my friends from Chung Ling for granted, fooling around and not appreciating the time spent with them.

Now that we are apart, do I realize how important they are to me, friends who helped me grow up, who taught me many marvelous things, even those whom I am not too familiar with. Equally important are of course the teachers, mentors who dedicate their lives to educating us.

None of them can be replaced. Memories of them will be cherished forever.

Life must go on, but to look back with satisfaction, is blissful.

Starting CAS!

2009-01-16T23:06:00.003+08:00

CAS is awesome.

Especially when your entire IB Diploma depends on it.

CAS, short for Creativity, Action and Service is a compulsory part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. It's basically just a dignified version of what local high schools call extra-curricular activites.

We have to use a CAS website to record all our activities, and we're expected to write reports and reflections based on them (Blogs count, somehow). Though writing part is definitely not fun.

[ My CAS Reports Page ]

RandomStuff~

Do you love pop-ups? If you do, please visit this page:

[ LovePopUps ]

Its definitely worth looking at. Really.

Workload

2009-01-15T19:54:00.002+08:00

Procrastinating is such a marvellous way to relieve stress and forget about all your worries.

Of course, it'll work only up to a point before everything piles up and comes crashing down upon you.

I really need to start remembering that.

Left 4 Empty

2009-01-06T21:19:00.000+08:00

Goodbye life, and hello to IB.

o_O

2008-12-18T17:22:00.001+08:00

-gone to Beijing-

Oooh. Party!

2008-12-11T00:07:00.007+08:00

-update in progress-

In the meantime, check out the photo gallery here.

Oh. My. Gawd. What are they doing?!

The birthday boy!

Cake. Cake. CAKE.

Birthday girl! Sweet Sixteen, CYong!

Erm.. another birthday girl? xD

Line up... and mug shots, everyone!

Why is he standing there carrying a little kid? o_O

Guess who this is!

DEAD SPACE

2008-12-08T19:39:00.005+08:00

My obsession with Dead Space continues to a fever pitch. Behold my drawing of the Dead Space game cover using Pastels, Colour Pencils and Sandpaper!

I've even recorded myself playing Dead Space. A lovely example can be seen on the right or here. It would have been HD if Youtube was using Flash 8 software. Oh well.

In the meantime, I've updated my Youtube Channel page with more videos.

Game On!

2008-11-12T21:36:00.002+08:00

Now that we are approaching the end of the year, many blockbuster games are making their way to the stores, both original and pirated. Some of the game of the year contenders are:

C&C: Red Alert 3
Far Cry 2
Dead Space
Quantum of Solace
Call of Duty 5: World at War
Fallout 3
Crysis Warhead
Spore
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Left for Dead

Out of these 10 games, I have not yet played Far Cry 2, Call of Duty 5: World at War and Left for Dead. For the other 7 games however, I personally recommend all of them except for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, which is really a dreadful game.

From Downloads

For those who remember and liked C&C: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, Red Alert 3 will definitely be a fine choice. For the record, I think that this game is both stupid yet awesome at the same time, which is what made Red Alert 2 such a perfect RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. A must play, this is.

From Downloads

Dead Space, on the other hand, is definitely not for the weak of heart. It is a survival-horror-on-a-space-ship game, way more fun than the Resident Evil series and one of my favourite games. The interface and gameplay is just plain gorgeous.

Must play games. Go get them!

Quantum of Solace

2008-11-06T15:27:00.003+08:00

The examinations have almost come to an end, and I believe most of us have already plans of their own. Some of the first few things to do, of course, is to enjoy the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Pure Bond.

Due to my parents' restrictions, however, I can only sate my wants with the Mythbusters Bond Special showing on Discovery Channel tonight at 10pm. I dislike watching television shows, with a few exceptions, one of them being Mythbusters. Knowledge and explosions, all in one series! Awesome.

A Tide of Change

2008-11-05T14:31:00.007+08:00

The election of Barrack Obama as the first black president represents one of the many changes to come not only for the citizens of the United States of America, but also for the people of the whole world. Whether this may be better or for the worse, that remains to be seen.

This can be reflected by the change in the examination schedule of Chung Ling High School. Due to technical errors occuring before and during the Chinese Paper 2, we Form 4 students have to retake the paper on the 7th of November 2008, which is just the day after tommorow.

By 'technical error', I meant the leaking of the paper and cheating, of course. It seems that most of the Form 4 students have some how laid their hands on exact copies of the comprehension articles in the Ancient Chinese Literature section. How these copies emerged I do not know, but it shows just how resourceful or desperate we are. As a result, that particular section of the paper has proven to be a breeze for most of us. Only those hardcore role students do not care about these leaks as they are truly well prepared. As such, everybody is happy.

Woefully, according to some anonymous sources, the stupid actions of a particular class of students have resulted in the decision for us to retake the test. To the aforementioned people, I'd like to say, "Screw you all."

On a side note, I would like to refer to this particular post:

Moral Integrity vs Harsh Reality

Think about this for a moment. Would you rather have a clean conscience but end up being cast aside to the bottom of the food chain? Or would you accomplish your goals no matter what the moral cost is?

This is one of the side effects of the implementation of a harsh system where only achievements are counted.

This is a dilemma I have only faced recently. That is, since Form 4. Before Form 4, I was pretty much a follow-the-rules student, where morality was always a first for me. Nowadays the current state of the school and even society and country has led me to think more regarding this matter.

As always, I regard morality as one of the few things that makes us human. Religions especially encourage us to do everything morally. I may be an agnostic, due to personal reasons, but I believe in morality. Therefore I try not to cheat in order to gain an advantage over others. This is actually something I can implement in real life especially exams due to the fact that I am already doing well in my exams. I have felt disappointed, because most of my friends had in fact cheated. They do not study as hard as I do, but their results are not far from mine. This is why I enjoy subjects such as Mathematics and Additional Mathematics, where cheating will not be much of a help. However, for this examination, the standard of the Additional Mathematics Paper is ridiculously easy and quickly finished, thus allowing some students to use this to their advantage by cheating.

Remember kids, cheating is never good. You may do well in a short term, but on the long run, you yourself will be the one left behind.

Graduation Ceremony

2008-11-01T17:17:00.003+08:00

Yesterday was the combined Graduation Ceremony of the Form 5 and Upper 6 students of Chung Ling High School and Chung Ling Private High School. Suprisingly, I had to participate in it too, and ended up being the only non-graduate student participating in the hall. Technical staff are not counted, hah!

Everyone had to gather in the hall at 8:30am, but the VIP guests just stroll in at around 10! Arghh. I bloody hate those people. Then came the speeches, which was somewhat annoying. The CLPHS spoke right after our headmaster I felt that the CLPHS headmaster was trying to show off his school's achievements even though they pale in comparison with our school's achievements. His speech was more than 20 minutes long, just imagine the sheer horror of it. Gah!

All in all, I had to endure roughly 4 hours of grueling boredom just to get a stupid pen in recognition of my getting the PMR Excellent Candidate Award end of last year (I have to admit, the pen is quite nice though XD). And congratulations to Hobart Lim for getting the Best Graduate Award!

In the end, Mr. Lye and Mr. Yeap actually praised everyone for performing so well doing the entire ceremony. Now that is suprising.