Ready Player One playlist

I enjoyed Ernest Cline's Ready Player One a lot. And I mean, a whole lot. Here's a Youtube playlist of the various music referenced in the book. A perfect soundtrack for the book.

Making a choice

As cooling off day moves into polling day, I sit here thinking about many things.

I think about what will happen on the 8th of May. I think about the high possibility of a 87-0. I think about the milestone that will be, if the groundswell of support for the opposition parties is transformed into actual voices in parliament.

I look at the polling card with my name and address. I imagine how this piece of pulp will be exchanged for a piece of paper where I can exercise my right. The mark that I will be making will mean something, even if the outcome does not go according to my heart's desire.

The last ten days were enlightening. They were inspiring. They made speeches that were from the heart. Even for the weakest of the lot, their hearts were in the right place. It seems that many have found the courage. And hopefully more are inspired.

I have thought hard. I have done some soul searching. And before the end of the day, I will know what I need to do. I will not be afraid.

I will vote for the future that I want.

iPad 2 in the wild

- Posted using Mobypicture.com

Using BlogPress

Bought BlogPress when it went on sale some months back. Only got to test it now. I suppose the blog is not a favored method of posting and sitting down to write something is more cumbersome than using Facebook or Twitter.

Anyway, here goes a test post. Probably too long for a test anyway.

Farewell to an old friend

30 years. Other than my own family members, I’ve not known anybody for such a long time. That means a lot. A whole lot.

Frankly, I don’t remember exactly when you came into my life. I only remember that acquiring you was probably not easy. At that time, I don’t think my folks were really able to purchase you, unless they made some sacrifices. It was probably the selflessness of parent’s love for their child, for wanting something better for their child, that led to you coming into the household.

Of course, my folks were not equipped with the skills to choose you. I remembered a trip to a music instrument shop (City Music, in fact) with my piano teacher. It was my teacher who picked you. Strangely, I’ve never been able to remember your name. In fact, throughout the 30+ years together, I’ve never really remembered it, even though it’s starring at me every time I sat down to practice.

You’re not one of those popular models. Not a Yamaha or a Kawai. You are a Tchaika. I’ve always known that you were born in Russia, but it was only now that I found that your name meant ‘seagull’. I’ll never know which part of Russia you were from. But regardless of where you were from, you were good enough for me.

The wee lad that I was saw playing you as a novelty. Sometimes even a chore. I had to practice at least for an hour every day. Perhaps longer if exams were coming. Some of the most terrible memories were when I was scolded for not practising, and as a result my piano teacher will call up my folks, and disciplinary action followed. But with all the distractions that were around for a child, sometimes spending time playing with toys were more important than spending time with you.

I guess the love for music came slowly. You were there with me all those times as I grew. From Grade 1 to Grade 8, to when I took up MEP (Music Elective Programme), to playing in the school’s band, to playing in church, to performing with friends on stage in JC, to jamming in a band with friends, to writing my own tunes. Even though you may not be the one I performed on, you were what I came back to. You were the base which I returned to. A rock, for practising, for experimenting.

I remembered when I moved out, and wanted to bring you with me. Mum was really emotional seeing you leave. Now that I’ve to part with you, I now know how Mum felt.

I look at you now, covered in scars and damage from years of use. I saw the paint job on the sides, there because Dad had to do some DIY salvage job on you due to wood rot. I saw the blutack stain on the inside of the cover, which was where I stuck a handwritten scales and arpeggios chart to help me practice. With recent years of inactivity, your keys are also now in an unusable condition. I can’t really sit down and properly play a piece because some of your keys will get stuck.

As I had to move on with my life, I guess I’ve also to say goodbye to you. Where I’m going, I don’t really have the space for you. For me to grow and get back to playing, I’ve decided to replace you with a digital counterpart. I know that it’ll not be as good as you are, but life’s like that. Sometimes you can’t always have what you want, and you just have to make do with what life throws at you. I’m sorry that I have to give you away.

I’m giving you away to my godsister and hopefully she is able to at least restore you to a playable condition. And perhaps bring joy and music to someone else.

Farewell, my old friend.

Remember the good ole Palm days

Remember the good ole Palm days
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Review: World War Z

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book takes an interesting approach to tell the story of the Zombie War. It uses interviews with multiple characters to paint a picture of the history of how mankind fought and survived the zombie attacks. In many ways, this approach is a success because it allows the reader to see the war as a global event, and the many sacrifices made for mankind to survive. The unusual approach to storytelling is a thumbs up in my book.



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Review: Bitter seeds

Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I found out that this book pits British warlocks against Nazi superhumans in a WW2 tale, I had expected a more action-packed war story. But this was quite unexpected. The story was absorbing and did not cast anyone in a heroic light. What was most compelling to me was the idea that the sacrifice the warlocks had to give to achieve their aims. And for the superhumans on the German side, they're not folks that you really want to be, even with their superpowers. The story ends on a cliffhanger and I am certainly eager to find out what happens in the next installment.

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Digitised all these into PDFs

Digitised all these into PDFs
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Setlist for the Belle & Sebastian gig in SG

Setlist for the Belle & Sebastian gig in SG
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

This has probably got to be the best gig I've been to this year. Beats Slash hands down, sorry.

Review: The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Took me a little while to get into, but once you get past the rather unusual alternate universe, the story takes over. What I like about it is the South East Asian ecological dystopian future setting. Coming from this part of the world, I find the setting to be futuristic, yet immediately identifiable. There's also a military coup which makes the story quite intriguing, especially when you consider Thailand's history. The wind-up girl as a work of genetic tech is interesting. A worthy Nebula winner and a totally absorbing book.

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Not a bonfire

Not a bonfire
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Pocket Expresso, complete with drinking straw

Pocket Expresso, complete with drinking straw
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Review: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pretty fun book to read. I've not read a kids book for a long time and picked this up because of the Star Wars theme, and it's a surprisingly funny book. It's about a kid in school who folds a Origami Yoda and it dispenses wise advice even though the kid is kind of a loser in school. It even comes with instructions to fold your own! With plenty of references to the movies, this is certainly a non-Star Wars book for the young, and young-at-heart Star Wars fans.

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Reminded me of someone...

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Dodo's here

Dodo's here
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Review: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is not a book that you can easily get into, simply because Doctorow invents so many different concepts that it takes a while to wrap your mind around them. But once you understand the setting and the terms like Whuffie, deadheading, etc, you start to enjoy the story. In that sense, it is quite a progressive and enjoyable novel. Overall, to me, the key to the story is the concepts and the settings rather than the characters.

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Yummy dreamy burger time

Yummy dreamy burger time
Originally uploaded by Gremlink.

Review: The Bug

The Bug by Ellen Ullman


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Bug is a tale about a programmer's search for an elusive bug. It is also a tragedy in which the obsessive search for the bug parallels the breakdown of the programmer's real life relationship. What is so absorbing with the novel is the amount of detail and description of programming a software that's in the book, giving it an authentic and geeky feel. A certified geek novel.

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MobileRSS HD brings me RSS love

Ever since I got my iPad, I've been looking for a suitable RSS reader. I've tried the free Feeddler, Netnewswire, and Bulletin XL, none of them feels right. Since MobileRSS on the iPhone is my fave reader, I was hoping that the folks at NibiruTech would be able to bring their RSS goodness onto the iPad.

With the release of MobileRSS HD, my prayers were answered.

Just like the iPhone version, MobileRSS HD is feature-rich, fast, and perform superbly on the iPad. Syncing with your Google Reader account is fast. When your feeds are downloaded, navigation is nice and intuitive. All the features that you want in a RSS reader are here. You can sort your feeds by oldest or newest, you can navigate to webpages, you even get a little thumbnail next to the feed listing if there's a picture attached to a particular post.

Like all good iPad apps, MobileRSS works well in landscape mode. The design of the user interface is clean and functional. It may not be the most flashy and pretty RSS reader out there, but it works as a good RSS reader and in that area, it works great.

The standard features that you find on Google Reader are available here. You can Star, Keep Unread, Share, write a Note on each entry. You can also make use of the services like Twitter and Instapaper. If you really want a spartan reading experience, you can also opt to use the Google or Instapaper Mobilizer when you read the feeds.

Although I really love this app, I think there are some things that can be done better. If the interface can be made prettier, that'll be a good thing. That said, I'd prefer a spartan, speedy reader than a pretty but cumbersome reader. I also miss the left-right swipe navigation method of Feeddler, although the up-down swpie of MobileRSS still works as well.

Overall, I am really glad for the release of this reader. I've found RSS heaven here. Having used MobileRSS on the iPhone since its early days, I know that the developer made vast improvements to it. I have no doubt that the developer will also continue to improve this app. And I look forward to future improvements done to the app.