Little-Wonder.Net

09 September, 2008

Yay for code.

00:10:39 | Daily Life, Little Things | writebacks (6)

I’m so happy.

I managed to complete coding a nifty little program for one of the modules in my FYP. It features adorable little coloured blobs with numbers attached to them, and you can adjust the numbers and in turn, the blobs grow bigger (or smaller).

Wheeeeeeee.

(Yes, yes, yes I know. It seems weird that here I am, seated at my desk at almost midnight, going gaga over a program I coded. The epitome of geek?)

I love coding.

Even though I’ve picked up Actionscript 3.0 only barely three months ago, it wasn’t as much of an uphill struggle as I initially expected it to be. Yes, the initial learning is tough but sooner or later, it gets better and one will start enjoying the coding process more.

More people should learn how to code. (Haha.)

—————-

Oh and yes, there was the cardiologist visit last Saturday which I’ve yet to speak about.

Well, the same issues are back after a short period of calm. The giddy spells and the occasional fainting spells are coming in waves now and in addition to these, I suddenly find myself having extremely strong heart palpitations.

I find my heart racing and seemingly threatening to thud right out of my chest after climbing up a mere two flights of stairs (I used to be able to climb up ten at one go), when I reach up to get something from my shelf, or when I bend down to pick up something I’ve dropped.

First, those palpitations, followed by the fainting spells. They come in pairs.

And one particular day last week, I experienced the same strong palpitations even when I was seated at my desk, reading a textbook.

In lieu of this, the cardiologist wishes to rule out arrhythmia. As such, I’m going to be hooked up to some portable ECG monitor (Holter) coming Friday for about a day or so - and I’d be concealing everything with a big, baggy sweater as I go around with my daily activities.

Am soooo not looking forward to it. :(

05 September, 2008

Cousins united, and double birthdays.

23:31:08 | Daily Life, Events, People | writebacks (5)

Gee, it’s been such a long time since the four of us took a proper photo together. (Okay, I lied. Our last photo had been early this year - but this is the first one in a long time where all of us look decent.)

Sticking together since young - the awesome foursome.
Clockwise from top left: David, me, Jeremiah, Matthias.

I look really tiny here.

The above was taken during a double celebration within my extended family - the 65th birthday of my Uncle Jimmy, and the 1st birthday of his second grandson, Joseph. (More pictures here.)

As usual, I came face to face with so many people I didn’t know. But then again, since when do we attend a large family gathering and not find any faces we don’t recognize?

Apart from the usual members of my extended family who meet on a regular basis - there were vast amounts of people from what I call, “the other extended family” - namely, the extended family of my cousin’s wife.

Smart alec kids
Boy, “the other extended family” really did know how to reproduce! Look at all the KIDS.

They ran around the living room, screaming their lungs out, shoving toy guns and all sorts of thingamajigs all over the place. They fought over balloons. They pushed each other. They threw themselves on the floor and kicked and screamed.

One kid crawled under my legs while I was seated - which made me jump up and yelp.

And another stepped on Jeremiah’s foot - which was recuperating in a huge cast after a recent operation. (Props to him for not jumping and yelping, though.)

And boy. Not only are they rowdy kids - they’re a bunch of smart alec rowdy kids.

There was one occasion where I shouted (to make myself heard over the din) at them to play outside the house instead of around the living room where plates and cups are precariously stacked, and the adults struggling to watch television.

The response I got?

“YOU WANT US TO PLAY ON THE ROAD AND GET KNOCKED DOWN AND DIE, IS IT?” - Kid in the orange sleeveless tee.

?!?!?!

Pfffffft, never heard of the garden and the backyard, is it?

More babies on the way?
Oh, and I received news that another cousin’s wife, Jeslyn is expecting her second child. (Which makes the fifth kiddo from the newest generation on the way.) I’ve another expecting cousin as well - although I’ve learnt of her pregnancy much, much earlier.

And it seems that my reactions towards each pregnancy are becoming more and more varied.

Eight years ago, when I received news that my first nephew (Jeslyn’s first child) is on his way, my response was an enthusiastic “Oh my gosh, that’s fantastic!”

Two years ago, upon receiving news that the second nephew (Cousin Dawn’s first child) is on his way, my response was a mere “Mmmmmph!”

Last year, when I learnt that the third nephew (Joseph, who turned one today) is coming along soon, my response was a sharp squeak - “Another boy?!?”

A couple of months ago when I learnt that Cousin Dawn is pregnant with her second child in two years, I reacted with a … “WHAT?!? You mean they’re so bored they have no other form of entertainment at night?!?”

And after tonight’s news? I leaned towards my mum and whispered “Whose condom broke?” Needless to say, my speechless mum couldn’t garner any response.

Later on, Jeslyn confessed that she decided to have a second child because Little Joshua (her first child, now seven years old) wanted her to.

I immediately had mental images of Little Joshua approaching both parents and asking - “Mummy, Daddy! Can you two have sex? Pleeeeeease?” and couldn’t stop cracking up after that. Hehehehe.

—————-

I’ve another cardiologist appointment in about twelve hours’ time, which means that I ought to be heading off to lalaland soon. The fainting spells and the usual bouts of giddiness are still plaguing yours’ truly, this time accompanied with strong(er) heart palpitations - which means I should get my sorry ass down to a doctor soon to find out what’s wrong, and why I am getting worse instead of better.

Until then!

04 September, 2008

My take on ST701

17:00:47 | Web Stuff | Comments Off

ST701 was recently launched by Singapore Press Holdings (the dominant controller of Singapore media) as a medium for users to buy, sell and trade goods - ranging from second hand clothes and bags, to even electronics and textbooks in a secure environment, emulating the eBay and Yahoo! Auctions business model.

Out of curiosity, I decided to sign up for it today - since I wanted to expand my sales exposure beyond just Livejournal communities. After playing (or rather, struggling) with the system for almost an hour, my final verdict is - I am not impressed.

Let me delve into the issues I faced, shall I?

1) Repeated account activation is tres’ annoying!
So, I have an ST701 account. Righty. Typically, this means that I can access every single section of that blasted website, as it is with other similar web portal services, aye?

Noooo, not in this case. Instead, ST701 chooses to force the user to activate his/her access to every single dog’gone section of the website.

Which means that I have to click a darn ‘Activate access!’ link once when I enter ‘ST Shops’, another time when I enter ‘ST Sprees’ and so on. Pray tell, what’s the rationale for that?

2) Adding/editing listings is such a hassle!
Five separate sections (in separate pages) to fill just to add a listing. Now, that’s way too much. Back in the days of yore where eBay used to be free, the most I had to go through was just two pages. Here, I have to load five! And the fact that the server is slower than the pace of a turtle makes the whole experience even more painful.

It’s a similar situation when one tries to edit listings. Instead of providing the capability of completing all the required edits in one page and then pressing a big fat ‘EDIT!’ button - the system forces you to go through all five pages all over again.

Now I know what it means by costly mistakes - with regard to time. It took me five minutes just to make a simple correction on one dog’gone listing when it takes me less than a minute in eBay, and under ten seconds in Livejournal.

3) Inability to add multiple listings at a time.
I have the ‘Place ad’ (i.e. add listing) page loaded on one tab in my beloved Firefox, and another loaded in another tab - with the intention of uploading two separate listings at one go. (MULTI-TASKING. That’s the way to go in today’s fast-paced society - especially when I have a class to rush for in less than half an hours time.)

So, I proceeded to add two different items in each respective tab. As I pressed ‘Next’ in each tab to proceed on to the next section to fill - both pages suddenly loaded identical items.

Woe is me. The system just decided to mix up both items!

The same thing happens when I try to add a new listing on one tab, and edit an existing listing in another tab. Suddenly, I find both tabs displaying the same blasted thing.

4) The server is slow.
Need I say more? Efficiency, dude. Efficiency! And it is not as if this site has a large enough user base yet, considering how it’s still a startup. But, if you can’t handle such a small capacity with passable loading speeds, I seriously wonder how you’re going to cope when the influx of late majority users start coming in.

And this is just one section I’ve gone through so far. Thus, I seriously wonder how screwed up the rest are likely to be.

FAIL.