dated oct 2, 2014

in June of this year, Apple released its tenth version of its world class computer operating system, OS X Yosemite. One of the key features of Yosemite is Continuity, a feature that allows Mac users to seamlessly transit from, say, sending an email on their iPhone to completing that same email on their MacBook. Continuity works subtly - a little pop up appears at the left of your Dock on your MacBook, informing you of that email.

More details on Continuity can be of found here, or on Apple’s website.

I am slightly pessimistic towards this concept, and my views are expressed in the sentence/paragraph below:

i think Continuity might be overhyped - when the long-awaited feature is finally released in October, users will find that the fluidity that is ostensibly the crux of iOS 8 and Yosemite is not as fantastic as Apple claims to be.

[edit] the reason why I feel this...

last sunday was the double episode season premiere of Homeland.

it began with an extended tune of Terminal 7, the series’ opening music, performed by the one and only Tomasz Stanko quintet.

the camera pans and meets our protagonist, Carrie Mathison, played by actress Claire Danes. She sits in the back of a nondescript black vehicle, driven by military personnel.

the first few minutes: carrie looking out from the car, as the quintet plays the song. she’s in afghanistan.

she asks to walk on the streets. she hasn’t been out of the embassy in days.

that’s it. that’s the opening.

i get this feeling - homeland is back.

i actually wanted to write about weeds, after finishing all eight seasons of it. then i wanted to talk about louie.

i’d reference amy schumer’s Inside Amy Schumer and Inside Llewyn Davis, two very different productions, but these are the two things that came into my mind if i were to describe something similar to louie.

louie is this whole stripped down, bare, simple version of a man’s life. it is scripted, of course, and there are instances where it’s not scripted. but the reason why i like it, and why it’s received critical acclaim among viewers worldwide, is, i believe, its simplicity.

the show is basically this guy, wearing a black shirt and a pair of pants, with a scruffy goatee or beard and he just goes around doing stuff, doing comedy. but that’s just it. it’s the simplicity. it’s how simple the idea is, the realism and naturalism that it exudes. the opening and closing credits...

my friend wanted to go to a place to get a haircut. i drove him there.

when we reached, he went into the store while i stayed outside. there were a few couches and a short table with drinks on it. martin sheen was sitting there.

we made eye contact. he must have known who i was, because he stood up and walked towards me. he called me (but i forgot what my name was) and we shook hands. i was so excited. i called him jed bartlet. and he joked, saying, have you been binging on the west wing. i said yes. we were still shaking hands. until i pulled away and then he said he met another person who couldn’t stop shaking his hand.

then he had to step away to take a phone call. all this while he was smiling. he looked presidential. he was wearing a suit.

after i woke up i tried to relive the moment again and again.

i met martin sheen.

a teacher introduced this game in february of 2010. it’s been four years so there are a couple of game details i don’t remember. if you remember feel free to comment because i’m very interested to find out about the details, i.e. 9 and 10 and the K thing.

materials needed: a pack of cards, drinks, food
when the game starts, nobody is allowed to go to the toilet.

each person draws one card from the deck in a clockwise fashion.

Ace to 4: “drink”; red - you pass on the drinking to someone else, black - you drink. the number represents the amount of cups you have to drink.

5: rule card. the person sets a rule, any rule. for example, every time Alice drinks, Barry also has to drink.

6: list. the person will set a category, for example, fruits. the listing will go on in a clockwise fashion, and will continue until one person is unable to continue and has to do a forfeit.

7: toilet...

i was told once that i write good recounts. they cover almost minute-by-minute aspect of the events that occurred. it’s as though you were there, peeking into the situation as my words tumbled off into your brain. you would be able to imagine the events in your head, acting out as you absorbed the words that described the event oh so vividly, minute by minute, second by second.

no. maybe not. it is inappropriate for me to set such high standards since i may end up falling short of them and whoever is reading this might be very disappointed. i guess it is very subjective. the following is written without much editing - they just came out of the brain.

1.
this began on november 28th. it actually began a few months before, but i think it really began on november 28th. i know this because i went back to check on my skype records, and this was the day that we began discussing about our...

When I was young, I was a sick kid. There were many visits to the doctor. I was hospitalized twice or thrice every year. Most of the issues involved my lungs, so I would get bronchitis and related problems like sinusitis.

before my parents found a pediatrician, I visited my mother’s general physician, of whom she had began going to since she was young. Doctor tan is in her fifties, about five to ten years older than my mother. She has a classic get up. She has a bob haircut, pale skin and she is always wearing her white doctor’s coat. Ten years passed and you can go back to her clinic and everything about her seems the same. She hasn’t changed at all, I tell my mother. My mother says she has wrinkles and she had white hair. I say she has jet black hair. My mother says doctor tan probably dyed her hair.

I stopped going to doctor tan for a period of time in my childhood because I went to...

I was just reading this piece on medium called “your brain on mobile” on my mobile. there was this section about appointments and it reminded me about something that someone told me a few days back. it was something similar to what was written in the piece.

She (which she? it doesn’t matter) was talking about how technology had changed the way she went to the market with her aunt (not the supermarket, a wet market - do you even know what this is?). in the past, before the advent of technology and mobile phones, she would make an appointment with her aunt, who lives one floor below her flat, by walking downstairs and talking to her face to face, the night before. Say the time fixed was 8.00am. The following morning, she would most likely be on time. her aunt would be too.

However, given the pervasiveness of mobile phones, a trip to the market with her aunt has never been as simple as...

1. i met derrick ho
2. i love to talk

i met this guy at a journalism talk called derrick who works as a digital news editor at the straits times. he is the one who co-wrote and covered the death of the two youths, run over by a cement truck.

twenty minutes into his talk, i felt that i was like him. he watches the newsroom (he hasn’t reached season 2 and says he wouldn’t like it because it discusses too much about american politics), he uses an iPhone 5s, he uses a macbook, and he covered the launch of the iPad Air at apple’s cupertino headquarters last year. additionally, he speaks candidly, and doesn’t hesitate to speak without censorship, despite what we think about reporters of local news outlets.

i watch the newsroom. i use an iphone 5s. i use a macbook. and i would love to have covered the launch of the ipad air. some might say that this isn’t enough to liken me to this guy. that’s...

i wanted to write about two things but then i kept delaying it, so now i’ve forgotten about one of them.

the first thing i wanted to write was that i realised over time that i’ve grown gradually fonder of isac. it’s an acquired taste, i feel. i remember there was a period of time when i questioned myself for joining this cca but recently, i find myself leaving cca with a happy face. there’re a lot of funny things that happen and it makes me laugh. like today mr Chan just said something like “come auntie mei help you” in the hong kong accent and it was just so hilarious. ko ko suddenly laughed and i also laughed because it was so funny.

it’s about 20 days to dhap and previously i looked forward to it only because it meant that would finally be the end to isac (and i can finally step down/etc) but now i seem to look forward to it because i really want to make it a good one. what’s...