Driving License

Sarah, being only 15 months old, doesn't have a driver's license yet. So, naturally, this is how she parks her car. Over her favourite Cookie Monster. Tragic, yet funny.

Update: Sarah's running over everything! Stuffed kittens, flowers, feet.

Maybe I played (and enjoyed) Grand Theft Auto a bit too much...

First Words

I've been putting this off for far too long. I'd better post it down before I forget.

Sarah's first words.

The first simple mono-syllables

• Car - first word ever, spoken when she was a few weeks old.
• Cat
• Star
• Nak (short form of "want", in Malay)
• Mak ("mum", in Malay, despite the Mrs' attempts to get Sarah to call her "Mummy")
• Tree
• Yes
• No
• Whee!
• Where? (a new word spoken today! - She was looking for the neighbourhood cat)

The next level

• Daddy
• Flower
• No more

Of course, most of the time, she sounds like the lead from the movie: The Gods Must Be Crazy. I'll try to decipher her babbling and pick out the proper words.

Anime Festival Asia 2008

Sarah's 2nd convention thingy! And again, saw lots of cosplayers, toys, and robots. Sarah doesn't like being in the BECO much these days and I had to hand-carry her throughout our wanderings on the convention floor.

The highlight of the day? Giant miniature robots! And the new series, Gundam 00. Here's a pic of the Exia - the lead character / mech. I still haven't decided which of the new Gundams I like best. None of them really seem my style.

My First Yes

Whenever I'm having trouble with Twitter, I check this URL. I was never sure if it's a joke URL or the real thing.

Today, I'm having trouble with the big T, and lo behold. a big, red Yes greeted me.

I wonder how long I gotta wait this time.

http://www.istwitterdown.com/

Capistrano on Ruby

Suf gets experimental!

Read http://www.capify.org/ about Capistrano and discovered that it requires Ruby 1.8 upwards

Ok.

Head on down to http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/ to get the "one-click" installer. For Windows. (I got 1.8.6)

Confirm the existence of RubyGems using "gem -v" on Windows' command-line.

Type in "gem install -y capistrano" to download / install Capistrano

Didn't work? Need to update the gems.

Type in "gem update --system"

When that's done, enter "gem install -y capistrano" again.

Should work now.

Another Way To Die

I'm just rocking the new James Bond song now.

"A door left open, a woman walking back, a drop in the water, a look in the eye, a phone on the table, a man on your side, or someone that you think you can trust, is just, another way to die."

The Simplest Complex API

Just a quickie here:

Playing around with Google's Chart API and honestly astonished at how simple it is to use and also amazed at the amount of complexity of customization options it offers.

Just a simple link:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=600x300&cht=lxy&chd=t:1,1.370,5.137,10.111,53.780,65.369,92.584,100|1,25.2554,22.2512,22.2405,24.58504,25.3351,25.459,25.6906&chm=s,115511,0,-1,5,0&chxt=x,r&chxl=0:|2008-10-23|2008-11-03

Can generate the chart image attached.

Check it at out on http://code.google.com/apis/chart/

Caucasion Tots on Channel U

Caucasion tots on Channel U? On one of those Hong Kong / Taiwan variety shows.

Anyway, the kid sings a catchy tune:

1 elephant went out to play
Upon a spider's web one day
He had such enormous fun
He called another elephant to come

2 elephants went out to play
Upon a spider's web one day
They had such enormous fun
They called another elephant to come

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Rice, Rice, Baby

Got tired of carrying her around at the supermarket yesterday, so I put her down and took a pic.

Geolocation

Playing around with Google Gears Geolocation API... and well, it's not rocking in Singapore.

I suppose to have a high degree of accuracy, they'll need to have the coordinates of every public Wi-Fi to triangulate from.

Which brings another question.. how to identify a unique Wi-Fi router? Via a MAC address? That's an intensive task by itself.

I foresee... Router manufaturers rolling out firmware to place lat/long information for the routers to broadcast (along with their name, ID, etc...)

Hmmm....

Geolocation is the future. And here's my lat/long: 1.327797,103.859749

I wonder what they'll call the vertical coordinate. The z-axis. Azimuth? My router's placed approximately 18 metres above ground. I should calculate how much that is in local sea level.


Wait. Didn't I study this already?

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First Haircut

I missed Sarah's first "official" haircut.

The Mrs and my MIL had a day out today and somehow they managed to get Sarah into a chair to have her hair cut.

Honestly speaking, I didn't notice at first. She did seem tidier but I thought it was the trick of the wind.

My first reaction was, "What?! Why?! Her hair was so nice and long!"
Then came, "Did you manage to take a video?"

Alas, the answer came back negative.

Oh well. Better luck next time.

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Blueberry Cheesecake v 2.0

Haha! I'm trying my hand at making blueberry cheesecake again! Why? The Mrs has been feeling down the past week. Exhaustion at the hands of baby Sarah, no doubt.

Same ingredients, but less thought went into it. Not enough sugar went into the mix, and well, the biscuit crumb base was totally ill-conceived.

However, I did manage to control the Mrs' intake.

Instead of making 1 big tub of cheesecake, I made 6 little serving-sized bowls. Ought to last a week at least.

The Busyness

Been a tad too busy to blog recently and now I got to resort to this.

Moblogging.

TGIF.

Hope I manage to stay offline all weekend.

Macross on NES

Remember this?

Started humming the "theme song" for the game today for no apparent rhyme or reason. Decided sometime during the day that it would make a kick-ass ringtone.

Also as a way to detect fellow fans / die hard nerds on your public transport route.

Sure, tons of people have the Super Mario Bros ringtone... Or maybe even The Legend Of Zelda. But Macross? No way...

Fired up the ROM on my NES emulator, recorded it (along with some Zentraedi missile fire and an explosion). After getting into the battleship, couldn't resist mechamorphing into Battloid Mode and shot the self-defending Protoculture matrix to smithereens.

No idea what I'm talking about? Read Jack McKinney's Robotech. ;)

If you're interested in the ringtone, drop me a line and I'll email it to you... Just a bit over 1 MB...

Surprising Results of a Twitter Hunt

I've been hunting for active Singaporean Twitterers and came up with very little results due to my laziness.

Tonight, I just thought I'd crawl through search.twitter.com

Most of the search results are from tonight's F1 night race... and surprisingly, the 2 Twitterers I did find are 2 ladies. Twittering about the coming Hari Raya.

Feeling quite perplexed as they seem to be the unlikeliest of users. How'd they come across Twitter?

Or am I just being a male chauvinist pig who thinks girls are tech disinclined?

SIGG Rolling Pin

The Mrs is using my SIGG as an improvised rolling pin! It's all greasy now...

The multi-purpose SIGG.

Get yours now.

Pineapple Tart Math

suf starts to help make pineapple tarts at 11pm. for every batch of 25 tarts, suf eats 2 before they go in the oven. how much weight did suf gain when he got tired and went to bed?

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Fortress Key

I'm in the middle of another stint of NS Reservist - something new. It's the 5th Shelter Specialist Course. Apparently, it's an all officer course with LTAs making the bulk of it.

First week's full of theory - it's back to CIFE basics like structural, civil and mechanical engineering. Boring.

A little bit on group dynamics, psychology and a bit more on weapons effects, explosives. Cool stuff.

Second week is where the sweat comes out. And night training. When the world's asleep, we play "Worst-Case Scenario" involving large expanses of real-estate, manpower and equipment. Somehow, we manage to keep our brightly painted red and white vehicles in the shadows and execute large exercise operations quietly so as not to alarm the general public.

It never ceases to amaze me whenever I get to participate in this large ops.

Probably the coolest sounding terminology I've heard this past week and this coming week is the "Fortress Key"

What is it? Well, it's a key that turns your world into a fortress. Safe refuge.

'nuff said.

The Math Tutor

As the saying goes, life is full of irony. A comedy of errors. Chaos theory.

If they were dead, I'm sure ALL my past math teachers would be rolling around in their graves causing a level 9 Richter-scaled earthquake if they somehow heard the news.

I've become a math tutor.

Hahahahaha... Me... Math...

Does not compute. Bad command or file name.

Anyway, it was a direct request for help from my wife to rescue her beloved niece from a bad graded PSLE result in Math. And who am I to refuse a cry for help?

Seriously. Ok, PSLE Math I can cope with. I can do it, understand it (most times). But how do you teach math? I know I shouldn't be saying, "Ok, you see these numbers? Do this, this, this and this"

That's just handholding and spoon feeding. I should be teaching and the kid should be learning. And it should all be done within a kid's attention span. Before they tire and zone out and get distracted.

Sigh... I ought to pick up some Primary school math teaching skillz by next weekend or all this effort is just going to go down the drain.

Anyone reading this? Any hints? NIE-ers?

Strange Random Thoughts: Marshmallows

Here I am, sitting on a bus, happily moblogging away.

Thinking about the movie I have yet to finish watching: Be Kind, Rewind

Specifically, the hilarious Ghostbusters scenes...

"Are you the Keymaster? I am the Gatekeeper."

Then thinking about the Ghostbusters movie itself.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
Mmmm... Marshmallows.

How do you toast them?

Soft, sweet, chewiness.

Rocky Road ice cream has them, right? Ice cream...

Ben & Jerry's...

Mmmm...

Guitar Hero

Currently moblogging on a long train journey to camp.

Suddenly recalled a dream I had last night.

Dreamt I just picked up the guitar back in the office and strummed the guitar randomly. And what came out was actually music. Haha.

In amazement, I played at least 2 tunes. Too bad I can't remember what they are now.

Must be my suppressed genes acting up.

Still, I ought to try to pick up the guitar in the office and learn while I got the chance.

It's free anyway, besides picking up a brand new Guitar Hero set.

Renewed motivation.

Lights

As a self-proclaimed nomad, I haven't had a solid place to call home since... well, years.

Every year, when Hari Raya came, I'd just look and admire the pretty lights people would decorate their home with.

Envious.

I didn't realize it was such a big deal to myself.

Now that Sarah's out, I would wish none of the hardships that I've gone through on her, of course.

And one of the smallest steps towards that is the lights. The really pretty Hari Raya lights.

I put them up myself, in the middle of the night, while everyone was sleeping. I couldn't wait to see them. White and blue. To follow the colour theme of our living room.

Our home has the pretty Hari Raya lights now, this year. And every year afterwards.

Just for Sarah. And the nomad that has finally found a home.

News

Last night, I recieved some news and as I lay on the floor, overwhelmed, was deciding if it was good or bad.

My wife, on the other hand, had retreated to the kitchen - the laundry area - and was putting up a brave front, sniffing away whilst ironing my uniform.

Something told me to be near, so I sat on a footstool behind her.

She started to cry, so I pulled her towards me and hugged her from behind as she sat on my lap.

For some strange reason or another, this song popped into my head and I've been humming it since, for 2 days...

I'll Be - Edwin McCain
The strands in your eyes that color them wonderful
Stop me and steal my breath
Emeralds from mountains thrust towards the sky
Never revealing their depth

Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

Rain falls angry on the tin roof
As we lie awake in my bed
You're my survival, you're my living proof
My love is alive and not dead

Tell me that we belong together
Dress it up with the trappings of love
I'll be captivated, I'll hang from your lips
Instead of the gallows of heartache that hang from above

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

I've dropped out, I burned up, I fought my way back from the dead
I tuned in, I turned on, I remembered the thing you said

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

I'll be your crying shoulder
I'll be love suicide
I'll be better when I'm older
I'll be the greatest fan of your life

The greatest fan of your life

The greatest fan of your life

http://www.lyrics.com/edwin-mccain-lyrics-i-ll-be.html

Proximity

Suddenly recieved a message from an unknown, overseas number starting with +97.

Don't even know where that is.

Turns out, it's Zul, a buddy from the 28th BOC.

Isn't it strange that those so far away try to keep contact, while
those nearby can vanish?

Sarah's Day Out

Sarah's first birthday is coming...! And everyone's excited! Not many people were when MY birthday was nearing. But what the hey, you only turn one once. Grandma Wan has arranged for a late lunch at Mad Jack's Cafe (which was supposed to be for MY birthday). Oh well, I suppose since our birthdays are so close, people will lump them together and emphasize on Sarah's more. I ought to get used to that.

Let's start the day with Sarah's first taste of chocolate! Ever!

What's that outside the window?

Sarah is still strangely terrified of Grandma
If she doesn't cry, she'll just zone out whenever Grandma carries her
Psychological defence

Sarah was looking very sleepy by the end of the meal. However, a last minute decision to go to Fidgets changed that.

Mummy's got a nervous smile on her face
She's worried about all the other kids playing rough around Sarah

That two-toothed smile was totally worth the trip

Sarah still needs some help climbing

Enthusiasm - She's got it

She's got balls too

Ball rooms were my favourite places when I was a kid; Hope Sarah likes it too!
I tried to bury her in balls but she managed to crawl away

Sarah gets pushed around in a red topless car!

Sarah is one tired baby by the time she got out. Fell asleep within minutes of being in the BECO

It was 8pm by the time we got home. Sarah grew increasingly cranky throughout the night and Mummy put her down to sleep easily, to no surprise. I still got Sarah's smiles, laughter and excitement in my head. Love Fidgets. We should go again. Prepared.

Why is it when kids have so much fun, it's the parents that are shagged out?

Say Cheese

Master Chief...
Spartan-117...
John...
Sir...

Whatever you wanna call him, he looks good - better and better with every render

Sarah's Fever: 38 Degrees C

Sigh... If it's not one thing, it's another.

Sarah's gotten a fever today. Currently maintaining a temperature of 37.9 degrees C. Luckily the Mrs has just recovered from her serious case of food poisoning / diarrhoea.

She suggested going to KKH once the fever hits 39. Reasons that if we go earlier, the 24hr ER would just take a look, prescribe meds and send us home with instructions to return if it gets any worse. Lucky thing she has siblings with feverish baby experience.

Keeping the baby cool in an air-conditioned room with the fan and a fever strip on her head. The 3rd one today, as she keeps peeling it off.

Previously we kept her in a cool water tub, splashing around. I'd better get back in and make myself useful

Blog From A Bus

Stuck in a jam. Thought I'd try something with mobile blogging.

I think I see LTA Segar. He's in civilian. Uncharacteristically quiet
relative to his buddy. Talking about fire stuff. He must have left the
Force too.
Let me try to take a pic.

Work From Home

Working from home... A nice thought; to be away from office and still be productive.

The problem is: you gotta have one heck of a disciplined mind to actually do any work.

Scenario:
Rain falls. The house cools down. The bed looks cosy.

What hot blooded mammal can resist catching some zzzs in dry,cosy shelter in a cool environment?

In any case, I did manage to do some work in between juggling the sick baby and the sicker mummy.

I really thought I could do it: being a stay-at-home dad. I really have to hand it to my wife. Been doing it for over a year now. Me? I'm thoroughly exhausted by 1600hrs.

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Yahoo..ooh!

I've been a long time fan of Yahoo! and I just can't help but do this tonight before I go to bed.

First Post!

Heh. I've always wanted to do that.