LAW FAIL.
LAW FAIL.

It’s been an extremely long week. Funny how when I’m busy, the week seems to just crawwwwwwl. Mehh.
The Boy is officially a National Slave now. And
. Yea,
. This marks the first major hurdle we’ll have to overcome together.
I’ve had a lot to say, but they got lost somehow. I’m SO GLAD IT’S FRIDAY.
It’s the band’s last gig before Baybeats tomorrow.
Sunday will be my first paintball experience!
Also, I’m very proud of all the Lock-in Nite 2008 committee members!!!
Bye.
I can’t post videos, so click here to watch it.
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
So this week I’m taking it back to a study published in Nature in 1976 to tell you about a freaky auditory illusion called the McGurk effect. However, it also requires some visual input, so I’ll have to send you to a video at http://snipurl.com/sciam-illusion (or simply click to play the video posted below this transcript.)
If we watch a video of a person mouthing the word "ga," but have a synced voice-over of that person saying "ba," what we end up hearing, is a third variation that’s never been said! That word is "da".
And even though you now know it’s an illusion—you will still, when you see the video, think you are hearing "da". But if you close your eyes, and do not see the person’s lips forming the word "ga," you’ll hear what they are actually saying, which is "ba".
We think of speech as dependent on auditory perception. But this study eerily shows just how important visual input is.
From this, it’s clear that our senses did not develop in isolation, but rather, they work in tandem to form an accurate perception of our world. Here we learn that the position of the lips is key in accurately hearing what someone is saying.
To experience the McGurk effect, please go to: http://snipurl.com/sciam-illusion
I (sort of) pounced onto my colleague’s Mac mouse and declared it mine — for now. He’s on long leave, so I conveniently borrowed it. At least I’m nicer than my CD. He took the 23" monitor in exchange of his 17" other-brand monitor. My colleagues and I were like -___-'’.
Anyway, I’m using my personal laptop which is a PC. Which poses a slight problem because there’s no right-click on Mac mouse-s (’mice’ just doesn’t sound right in this case). Or is it really?
Well, after trial and error and a stroke of genius (haw haw), I’ve figured out THE SECRET.
There IS a right click on the Mac mouse!
All you have to do is imagine that there is a right-click button and voila! The right-click menu appears!
I googled for solutions after my amazing breakthrough (ha!) and realised that some desperate souls have actually created applications for the purpose.
Not that anyone’s REALLY going to use Mac mouse on a PC, but whatever.
Cheap thrills hoo!

"YAWA? is playing [sic] the Ballyhoo Album launch!!
Time: 19th April, 7pm
Venue: Playden, The Arts House
Price: Pay as you please or buy the CD."
If these darned gastric pains aren’t going to give me such bloated stomachs resulting in stretch marks and a pmsed-preggie look, I don’t know what else will.
Ok fine, maybe the serious lack of exercise. Pfft.
Awesome friends. Thank you for lighting up my otherwise-drab weekend, Inch.
Also: The Boy drove me home for the first time ever. I excites! He’s a good, safe driver. I’m impressed. (Thanks too, Bern!)
I have an EXTREMELY talented friend, and I have to plug her here.
Check out her portfolio and get her services if she has what you’re looking for. If not, do enjoy her works and talent. =)
I’ve been nursing bouts of migrane for almost a week now. It’s affecting the front of my forehead — I feel like I’m in a permanent frown — and somewhat like a certain famous fictional character with a lightning bolt on his forehead. Maybe I’m feeling the rage of the JI escapee!
This morning, it got so bad that I thought the veins in my head were going to rupture and I’d die. I’m not exaggerating! I actually teared in pain. It was THAT bad. I managed to pop some muscle relaxants (apparently for headaches too), prayed like mad, and slept.
And when I did wake up, I felt so thankful that I was alive.
I can’t diagnose this. I’ve never had migrane much, nor anything like this before. Sinus? I can breathe with ease leh. Mom took the opportunity to tell me to ‘change my lifestyle’ and tried to brainwash me into joining her in her morning exercise with her fellow B.W. (auntie-killer ex-972 deejay) fans.
NO WAY, HOSAY.
First and foremost, happy 21st birthday to Bonk the Frontman (16 Feb)! It seemed like such a quiet affair, his 21st, but that probably suits his lepak character hur hur. His birthday gift is still somewhere in the air freight, and I wonder what is taking so long for it to arrive. Been 2 weeks since I ordered it! It better not get lost in transition. Gah.
Valentine’s Day was a nice, (albeit forcibly) quiet affair too. Why? Adam brought me to Prego’s at the Swissotel and we had their V’s Day set meal (duh). Our reservation was at 6.30pm. There was nary a soul there, but they HAD to place us beside a table that was occupied by a mother and her young son. It was that awkward. And others got to sit at some place that wasn’t near anyone else. Bleh. Atas food = small portions = nothing awesome. The Boy was still very hungry after that. So we ordered hotdogs and caught CJ7, then went to look for his mom who had a V’s Day show at the NLB to go home together. Chi chi time, yikes. (I only like to observe these straddling-between real-and-reel-life characters. Disclaimer: Doesn’t apply to his mom!)
Today, I recorded all my drum tracks for the upcoming YAWA? EP in almost 6 hours. Got a bit stressed midway because I was tired and screwing up. It was the exact feeling I had when I was young: I practiced piano for almost 2 hours, doing the same thing over and over and not being able to take a break until I got that particular crazy part flawless 5 times. I will now attempt to salvage my self-efficacy levels by claiming that my musicality confidence issue is better after today. Anyway, we’ll continue doing the EP at Snakeweed, and probably be done by end of May. If all goes well, our little album would have quite a bit of clout on its credits… Heh heh.
Another interview tomorrow. Will this be the one…?
Mupdates are self-indulgent and mundane updates.
I’ve finished Howards End by E. M. Forster. It’s a classic, so saying that it’s a very well-written book is an understatement. I liked the way he explores humanity through the characters of the book, and even seems to make self-discoveries, both disappointing and heartening ones, as he pens his thoughts into narration. This book is also one that many say is the closest to his real, personal views, so it’s no surprise that Howards End reveals Forster’s rhetorics on being able to connect and reconcile the poetic with the practical.
Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd is the next journey I’m embarking on. It’s quite a thick book, but for now, its writings seem far simpler than Forster’s almost-poetic Howards End.
I’ve almost forgotten where reading takes me, and it’s a nice feeling to be able to soak up the imagination of the author, to step into his shoes (or the characters’) and view the novel through the eyes of a sensitive, intellectual soul. I’m too easily influenced, yes, and as you can already see — my sentences are much longer than what I’d use to type. My train of thought has somewhat been romanticised by Howards End. Connect. Practicality has too long been holding me down, and I’m surprised to find myself a little ashamed to identify with the practical sensibility of the Wilcoxes. I wish that my senses and thoughts can once again run wild into the abandoned forest growing at the back of my mind. Of course, not yet without caution; thistles, wild animals and insects will bite and sting.
I laugh at my sillyness. Perhaps I’m not ready to put practicality away. Or maybe, not ever. Oh well.
For the love of recognition. The yearning for fame and fortune. Societal acceptance. Reaching your hand into the air, trying to be noticed and admired, wildy grasping around for the rope that will lift you up onto Man’s safety net. There, will mankind fight to see this Being they have hoisted onto the pedestal. Will you, then, still be you? When you have become yet another figment of what the world dreamt you up to be. You, are entertainment. A human sacrifice.
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? - Luke 9:25
The Brother has once again created breaking news. He does a ‘double’ in his school’s sports meet, taking the Table Tennis and Billiards (pool, whatonearth) titles. Then we receive a letter that he’s on the Dean’s list in his faculty.
That sneaky one! Whole day keep quiet only. Then drop bombs on his family. What will be next??
So I’ve been pretty domesticated, staying home or running around doing groceries. I actually enjoy seeing the flood of labels and foodstuff assail my eyes each time I step into a supermarket. That aside, I haven’t been helping much around the house, so that’s double damage from the Mother. Being a housewife really isn’t as free as it seems, you know.
Anyway.
It’s a strange deja vu, even in the hospital-like 2nd floor of Fairprice Finest. Don’t mind me, but the sterile design (shiny white, c’mon) of the supermarket never fails to bring out the irony that most of the foodstuff there are um, dead.
I seem to find one after another activity that’s more appealing than looking for a job. Have I ever mentioned that I detest calling up people whom I’m not familiar and asking for something? Sigh, I underestimated my abilities to withstand the disease of being free and lazy. It’s a disease, I say.
Only that being absolutely broke doesn’t make it feel any better.
Like what the Boy says, I’m very very busy for a person who’s jobless. I wanted to make a nice pictorial sum-up of 2007, but I don’t think I have the patience or discipline for that now. I’ll just do a quick one and throw in my 2008 resolutions.
This year:
Eeeeee, I can’t believe he actually looks (a bit) INDIE. But the dirty, dishevelled, yak-ky kind. Ignore the hairband, I bet it’s my cousin’s. Anyway, glad he’s doing well in school. Aced the first sem, I heard.
Now what do I ask for… He asked Ickle Sis and I to think of something we want from US/UK. Shrugs. Now that my mom’s $900 Vitamix 520012132391 Mixer (blame a certain DJ.) is here…
I’m back from a reflective mission trip from Thailand. It was quite a whirlwind of activities, and I’m only greeted with more when I’m back. Doesn’t help that I’m trying to catch up on my rest and am on the brink of falling sick, bleh. Anyhow, I wish all a very blessed Christmas! +)
This year’s sermon at Church pointed out that Christ’s birth actually holds much more meaning than simply a ’saviour coming down to earth’ — He, God, being a foetus in a mere mortal’s womb. A weak and helpless child that was subjected to the harshness of the earth, when He could have easily made a grand entrance as King and force us to become His slaves. But He chose to become man to be a servant, friend, teacher and saviour to mankind. A human of compassion and emotions, yet He remained in the Father and was sinless.
Awesome!
Quick updates:
We are also one of the 30 bands pre-selected for Baybeats 2008 auditions. Hopefully we’ll get to play in Singapore’s largest Indie festival next year… =]