Very Sad Nightmare, blog to destress!!!

Today when I was having a short nap, I had a very bad nightmare. I was dreaming that I was in a car, and my parents were outside talking to other people. I heard my father cry sadly and said to another guy outside the car that I have cancer and I have only 2 years to live. The cancer is due to an implant that is put into the back of my brain, and the implant can only last for 2 years before my end is coming. I was very sad and keep punching my parents in the car. I also remember that there were policemen in my nightmare, they were looking for someone but I dunno who they were looking for. I was also reading some sms in my car, can't remember the details though.

I woke up with some tears flowing down my face after the nightmare. Now I can better understand the real pain that those people with those diseases that shorten their lives significantly can go through, and the sadness that they go through. I still remember the uncle that was staying in the bed beside me in the ward. He was bald and he must be having cancer I suppose, but it is not known to patients that are around him and is known only to him and his family because this is rather a very private matter to his family. There are some things that I have observed about the uncle and his family during my three plus month stay in hospital. At one point, when the doctor talked about some private matter to his family members, some of his family members broke out sobbing very loudly. Also towards the end of his stay in the hospital, he insisted on going back home. I heard he said that he wanted to die in his home. He wanted to die siting in the chair and lying in the bed in his house and not in the hospital. He died soon after he was discharged from the hospital, my family told me after I was discharged.

Also there was this other patient uncle in the hospital. He is supposedly coming from a rich business family, I think he's a high employee in some big oil company. He had a very serious accident after he had retired from his job. He went to holidaying and skiing in Hasaka, which is a city in Syria. But he had a very serious accident during the skiing that injured his upper spinal cord. His wife also supposedly injured her leg I heard. As a result he is paralysed from the neck downwards. In the hospital I always see him being ferried in and out of his bed using a kind of special machine because he is totally immobile, it is like a construction machine that can ferry some stuff from one place to another. This uncle is very strong willed, even though he can't move, and I have never spoken to him, he tells my father that we have to be strong and optimistic no matter what happens. Even though he is in such a condition he always keep thinking that he will be able to move some part of his body in future, which is the same wish that Christopher Reeve had. Also this uncle helps to advocate for patients' rights, even though he can't speak very loudly now and cannot turn his head sideways due to his injury, he helps to fight for the patient's rights. When he saw that the nurse asked me to wrap up my own stuff after I have finish doing my own business in the ward, he told them that it is the nurse's jobs and not the patient's jobs to do those chores in the wards. The nurses are paid to do these kinds of things. When I first become warded in AMK hospital, my bed was just only beside the uncle's bed. During the nights he has some nurses that come specially to help to massage all the parts of his body that cannot move so that the blood can move around his body smoothly, I keep awake and cannot sleep but I also feel sad for the uncle. He also chats with the nurses during the night.

There are other lots of interesting things that I learned and observed during my stay in hospital. I have stayed a total of 3 months plus from march 2003 to june 2003 after my accident. Maybe in future when I have time I can blog more about hospital stays in Singapore. By the way, my hospital stay during this period was very lonely. Because it is also the SARS period!!! At the beginning, I had lots of army friends coming to visit me but after some time when the SARS rules keep coming in that not even 1 person can come and visit me, I felt completely lonely. Not even 1 visitor can be allowed to come into wards and visit patients. That's why maybe I also want to discharge from hospital faster. My father protest against this rule and he still find time to bring me stuff like food everyday, even though he cannot come into the ward personally, he still pass the stuffs to the nurses to pass me. This is very noble!!


This very strange dream I can't really make out what is means. But it's a very enlightening dream.

Silence

Silence has traditionally been ignored except for its boundary-marking functions, delimiting the beginning and the end of utterances. The tradition has been to define it negatively - as merely the absence of speech. (Saville-Troike 1985:3)

Finnish proverbs and sayings on silence

Listen a lot, speak little
One word is enough to make a lot of trouble
One mouth, two ears
A barking dog does not catch a hare
A fool speaks a lot, a wise man thinks instead
Brevity makes a good psalm
One word is as good as nine

(cited in Lehtonen and Sajavaara 1985: 193)

In Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, Silence is a spell cast and owned by the dark ranger hero. This spell stops all enemies in a target area from casting spells.

Beyond The Axis Of Truth II

This Singapore series is going to start airing on Monday on Channel 8 at 9 pm.

Starring Jeanette Aw, Julian Hee, Jacelyn Tay, Ivy Lee, Guo Liang, Qi Yuwu, Wang Yuqing, Nick Shen, Roy Chiu, Stella Ng, Zhu Houren, Jamie Teo, Joey Swee, Lin Meijiao, Chen Shucheng, Huang Yiliang, Rayson Tan, Zheng Geping, Zzen Zhang, Priscelia Chan, Edmund Chen.

It's a story like X files, but Singaporean version. There are 6 segments of stories in the series.

Some of the segments are: Reborn, Red Current, etc.

Looking forward to the series.

More On Shinobi

According to the review at filmacco, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade is supposed to be adapted from the anime called Basilisk.

The sypnosis for "Basilisk" is as follows:

Koga and Iga were ninja clans that had been fighting for 400 years. Gennosuke of Koga and Oboro of Iga, loved each other and promised to break down the cursed bond of conversion. However, they were destined to kill each other.

It was Keicho Era 19 (A.D. 1614), 73-year-old Ieyasu was wondering which of the brothers he should choose as a successor, Takechiyo or Kunichiyo. Takechiyo was the elder but he was stupid, while his younger brother Kunichiyo was clever. In order to choose the successor, Ieyasu decided to make Koga and Iga fight against each other. Both clans would choose ten best ninja to fight. If Kouga ninja survive, Kunichiyo would succeed to Shogun. On the hand, Takechiyo would become the next Shogun if Iga ninja win. Because Hattori Hanzo the first made them achieve a truce, they hadn’t had an apparent fight for years. Therefore, when the truce was broken, they went for fights as if they were unleashed hound dogs. The only weapon they use were their own bodies. They had special abilities that men could hardly imagine.

Now that, the battles of twenty ninja including old, young, men, and women began. They made most of their special abilities to fight. During the harsh battles, they were killed one by one. Which would win, Koga or Iga? Who in the world would survive? Then, what would become of the love of Gennosuke and Oboro, who were separated by the battle.

Shinobi: Heart Under Blade

I've seen this movie info, and it seems to be quite a stunning Japanese Ninja movie, with the likes of Azumi.

Release to theaters on 17 Sep 05 in Japan.

Here's the official website
http://www.shinobi-movie.com/index2.html

The theme song is from Ayumi Hamasaki entitled Heaven...
Trailers....
Shinobi Movie Trailer

http://www.apple.com/jp/quicktime/trailers/shochiku/shinobi/

This movie main cast are Joe Odagiri and Yukie Nakama
When you enter the official website, you'll find more trailer...
The theme song, HEAVEN by Ayumi Hamasaki.

Her single will be released on 14 Sep 05.

Google Earth

This is really the coolest device that I have ever seen!!

Google Earth. It lets you view anything on planet earth. I feel like I'm playing Sim City again. But this time for real.

http://earth.google.com/

Google Earth is a free virtual globe developed by Google. It is available for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows and versions for Linux and Mac OS will be released in fall 2005. Google Earth overlays satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS information over a 3D model of the Earth.

Overview
Google Earth uses U.S. public domain, chartered flight and Keyhole satellite images to allow customized use of Google Maps with, for example, map images with town and street names overlaying satellite images. For some areas, these overlays are available even though Google Maps by itself does not provide them.

The location of some overlay information--for example, the railways in the Netherlands--is available with little precision, giving odd results when zooming in. These kinds of errors are due to underlying errors in the GIS data describing each point. Such errors are gradually being reduced as the technology progresses to additional decimal places of accuracy, especially as higher-precision and denser benchmark points are established and the target points triangulated and correlated.

The images, which have been photographed almost vertically, can optionally be viewed as if looking at a selectable tilt angle: with "far away" at a smaller scale than "nearby", and with smaller scale in forward/backward direction than in left-right direction. Terrain elevation data are also processed.

It also incorporates Google Local and directions. See also KML (Keyhole Markup Language).


3D Buildings
A feature implemented by Google after its acquisition of Keyhole is a 3D Skyline for (as of July 2005) 35 Cities. This data is provided by ITSpatial as part of Google's license of Sanborn's Citysets data suite. This feature is limited to displaying grey overlaying "blocky" buildings, while the full-version of Citysets renders buildings with significantly more detail.


Specifications

Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects, seabed and a simplified planetariumBaseline resolutions
U.S.: 15 m
Global: Generally 15 m (some areas such as certain oceanic islands are in extremely low The Blue Marble resolution, e.g. [1])
Typical high resolutions
U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge, Ma.)
Global:
Altitude resolution:
Surface:
Seabed: Not applicable (the seabed is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Usually less than 3 years old.
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:

Windows 2000, or XP
Pentium 3, 500Mhz
128M RAM
400MB disk space
Network speed: 128Kbits/sec
3D-capable video card with 16Mbytes of VRAM
1024x768, "16-bit High Color" screen
The most likely mode of failure is insufficient video RAM: the software is designed to declare failure if 16 MB of video RAM is not available. The next most likely mode of failure is Internet access speed. Except for the very patient, DSL is required. Again, resolution is not uniform. Compare the resolution of these older B&W data:

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=17&X=3284&Y=20743&W=1
versus what is currently available with Google Earth in color

View with Google Earth
In this case, the TerraServer-USA data can identify individual trees but its data is structured in cumbersome tiles. As with much GIS data, the utility of the data is application-dependent for the purpose of determining if resolution is sufficient. Also note that from a usability point of view, TerraServer loses its center point when one zooms in and out where Google Earth browsing is smooth; a clear benefit, but at the price of the somewhat demanding requirements imposed upon the video card.


Google Earth Plus
Google Earth Plus is an individual-oriented paid upgrade to Google Earth and adds the following features:

GPS integration – read tracks and waypoints from a GPS device.
Higher resolution printing.
Customer support via email.
Annotation – adds draw/sketch tools for richer annotations (can be shared as KML).
Data importer – read address points from CSV files.

Google Earth Pro
Google Earth Pro is a business-oriented paid upgrade to Google Earth that has even more features than the "Plus" version. The Pro version is capable of running additional add-on software[2]..

From Wikpedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth

Modus Ponens

If I don't study hard, then I will not get a degree.
I don't study hard, therefore I won't get a degree.

Therefore I must study hard.

If I don't have willpower, then I will become addicted to every little useless things.
I don't have willpower, therefore I will become addicted to every little useless things.

Therefore I must have willpower.

If I plan myself and organise my time, then I will have lots of time to do fruitful work.
I plan myself and organise my time. Therefore, I will have lots of time to do fruitful work.

Therefore, I must plan myself and organise my time.

Philosophy of the day:

1) I must study hard.
2) I must have willpower.
3) I must plan myself and organise my time.

Real And Virtual World Converges

I read an article on the blurring of the real world and virtual world yesterday in the Straits Times. The article is titled: Seeing Dis-believing.

The article tells us that advances in digital media technology has advanced so much that the real world and vitual world are brought so much closer together. There are merits and demerits of this. Advances in digital technology will enable us to be able to retrieve, store and view videos and images in ways there our forefathers cannot. For example, we are able to playback a video instantly or at our own leisure real time, when watching a soccer show due to digital technology. Digital technology makes it easy for us to edit video files such that we can import "fake" things into the videos. For example, in movie making, creating totally digital characters in the movies. One example is star wars. Yoda is a completely digital character in the movie.



There is another article in Straits Times today that talks about players playing World of Warcraft. Some players are obsessed with playing it and wants to level up their characters faster, so they use real money to pay others to play the game for them. Or they use real money to buy for virtual items or experiences, etc. This is another example of blurring of real world with virtual world. But they are also people of sound judgements who refrain from using real cash for paying for virtual items as reported in the articles. They don't feel it worth to buy such virtual items with their real money.





Hence, in today's highly digitalised world, we must be of a sound mind and have to deal with virtual and real worlds accordingly, not mixng the two up. If not our real world and virtual world will merge into one. This is in a sense not really healthy because the virtual world is in a real sense "just" a fantasy world. Hence, it is better to get "real" with our lives and not indulge in fantasies.

Zeno's Paradoxes

Some philosophical puzzles that are devised by Zeno of Elea to support Parmenides' doctrine that "all is one" and that contrary to the evidence of our senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion.

The Paradoxes of motion

Achilles and the tortoise
"You can never catch up."

"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead." (Aristotle Physics VI:9, 239b15)

The dichotomy paradox
"You cannot even start."

"That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal." (Aristotle Physics VI:9, 239b10)

The arrow paradox
"You cannot even move."

"If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is therefore motionless." (Aristotle Physics VI:9, 239b5)

From Wikpedia