Don't copy...

Don't try to copy the master...

Back to practice...

Singapore F1 weekend

It's the Singapore F1 weekend, the race just ended, and the haze is back.

Lewis Hamilton came in top for this year's race. Leading the race right from the start.

PSI went above 100 into the unhealthy range... there is a burning smell in the air.

Preparing for the exhibition

After a whole week of practice.

After writing around a hundred pieces.

 

Hopefully this is good enough for the coming exhibition.

Getting the hang of it

After a week of practice, writing 53 pieces, I am getting the hang of it.

I started out with this, before the week of practice.

But it wasn't good enough.

So I practised and practised and practised.

And I finally arrived at this.

I am finally getting there!

Lucy (film)

I watched this film, "Lucy", the other day. It is a science fiction movie, a big monotonous since the heroine more or less became invincible a third into the movie. And then it is just a whole series of powers that she has.

Still, the way the heroine was transformed into superhuman reminded me of the Bene Gesserit and their spice agony. The scene of the heroine touching fingers with primitive man (woman) is trying to recreate the scene from "The Creation of Adam". And in the end, when humans use up to 100% of their brain capacity, they become gods. Man and God are the same.

Okay, getting into theology and philosophy...

Just watch the movie for the fun of it. Don't think too much. Good way to spend one and a half hours if you have nothing better to do.

Calligraphy is an expensive hobby

Practice...

And more practice...

Calligraphy is an expensive and time-consuming hobby. All that time spent writing on paper (which cost money!) that will only be thrown away because they don't make the mark. More money (paper) down the drain...

Practice practice practice

That was what I was told. That I needed more practice before I can even create a piece suitable for display at an exhibition.

And so, I am back to practice.

Paper is not cheap. Calligraphy is an expensive pastime.

My smiley B*)

Back in the BBS days, when I was on Lothlorien BBS, I used to use this for my smiley.

B*)

Back then, I wore glasses. It was in the days of offline mail readers, like BlueWave. Fixed width characters, 80 characters per line, 25 lines per page. ASCII text, ANSI art. Those were the days.

Metamorphosis

The door is closed, the windows shut, the blinds drawn down.

Outside, the sun is out, children are playing, flowers are blooming. Colours aplenty, a rainbow in the sky. A world awaits.

Inside, shades of gray.

Outside, the children's laughter, mothers chatting, birds singing, the roar of car engines. A world awake with life.

Inside, still silence.

In this dark room I now await, slowly changing, slowly waiting, for the day when I can step out again and partake in this wonderful world.

Until then, shades of gray, still silence. A long wait.

声声入耳，事事关心

风声雨声读书声声声入耳
家事国事天下事事事关心

Something that I came up with about 20 years ago.

Inkling - Being limited

Just as giving something shape limits it, our thoughts may well be limited right from the start. For our thoughts are formed in languages and words that we understand. Yet these very words, these languages, become the boundaries that we cannot transcend. Because we cannot think of something that cannot be described by the languages we speak, the words that we know.

Language, then, is the enabler for thought creation. Thoughts can be formed when there is a language to describe it. And when there is no word for that thought? Create that word to describe it, and the thought is created. The word, and the creation that is described by the word, are one and the same.

Something to ponder on. Something I am pondering on, even though I have a headache the whole day.

The tap is dry

The tap is dry.
Why?
Fire,
About to die.

When there is no up, no down, when life is a boring single tone, there is nothing to write about. When one simply exists because one exists, when existence is meaning itself, there is nothing to write about.

Small steps

We are taking small steps towards change.

For better or worse, no one will know, but we will find out. But I guess it will always be a mixture, some things will get better, some will get worse. That's life, you can't have your cake and eat it.

Small steps towards big changes.

吾意已决

吾意已决。

If something is causing so much unhappiness, over such a long period, it is time to move on. Stress may be self-induced, but sometimes, the best way to get rid of stress is to remove the source if you cannot manage how you feel about the source.

Time to try a different path. It may not be a better path, but you never know unless you try,

Asus G550J

The other day, I saw an advertisement for a new Asus laptop, with Nvidia GTX graphics processor. It was tempting but I told myself I got a laptop about a year ago. Yes, I got the Lenovo Y500 a year ago. But a few weeks ago, the display starting showing signs of problem... There would be specks of static and sometimes the entire screen would have a gray tint to it.

Then, a few days ago, after a reboot following Windows update, the Y500 booted up into a black screen. And when I tried to install a new version of Linux Mint to try and recover the Y500, I overwrote the entire disk... losing my data. And still, the laptop won't boot. I guess it was the Y500's way of telling me to fall to my temptation and get that new laptop.

And so now, I am with a new Asus G550J, with i7 processor, 8Gb RAM, Nvidia GTX850M (4Gb video RAM) and almost S$2000 poorer. And that is not even counting what I have to pay to get my data recovered...

Still, it feels good to have a new laptop. ;)

Note: The Asus G550J has a gigabit Ethernet port, but it seems that the Windows driver, when set to auto-negotiate, will only use 100 Mbps. The way to solve this is to go to Device Manager, locate the device Realtek PCIe Gbe Family Controller, then under the Advanced tab, look for the property Speed & Duplex. Change its value to 1.0 Gbps Full Duplex. This will allow it to use its full speed.