The AznGeek

Posted by azngeek at October 31st, 2008

I swear. I’m addicted to this song right now.

And the lyrics:

I think some of the lyrics are pretty meaningful ahhah. I’m a sap sometimes. Pffbt.

This time
I wonder what it feels like
To find the one in this life
The one we all dream of
But dreams just aren’t enough
So I’ll be waiting for the real thing
I’ll know it by the feeling
The moment when we’re meeting
Will play out like a scene straight off the silver screen
So I’ll be holdin’ my breath
Right up to the end
Until that moment when
I find the one that I spend forever with

‘Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
‘Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There’s gotta be somebody for me like that

‘Cause nobody wants to go it on their own
And everyone wants to know they’re not alone
Somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There’s gotta be somebody for me out there

Tonight out on the street out in the moonlight
And dammit this feels too right
It’s just like Déjà Vu
Me standin’ here with you
So I’ll be holdin’ my breath
Could this be the end?
Is it that moment when
I find the one that I spend forever with?

‘Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
‘Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There’s gotta be somebody for me like that

‘Cause nobody wants to go it on their own
And everyone wants to know they’re not alone
Is there somebody else that feels the same somewhere?
There’s gotta be somebody for me out there

You can’t give up!
Lookin’ for that diamond in the rough
Because you never know when it shows up
Make sure you’re holdin’ on
‘Cause it could be the one, the one you’re waiting on

‘Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Someone to love with my life in their hands
There has gotta be somebody for me
Ohhhhhh

Nobody wants to go it on their own
And everyone wants to know they’re not alone
Is there somebody else that feels the same somewhere?
There’s gotta be somebody for me out there

‘Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares
Is there somebody else that feels the same somewhere?
There has gotta be somebody for me out there.

I’ve been studying for one of my exams, and most of this paper is pretty okay except this one bit which is driving me insane, I even almost snapped at someone when they were talking to me. : / I’m sorry.

This semester I’ve been neglecting certain aspects of my life. I wish to rectify it after my exams. Haven’t talked to any of my old Malaysian buddies for yonks. Hmmm. I guess just a little half arse update by me : P

Azngeek

Posted by psych at October 31st, 2008

It’s almost time for me to wake up, and I really want to sleep,

But I can’t.

Haven’t a clue why. Lack of sleep for a few days running have left absolutely no trace during what is to be considered (but no longer applies to me recently) normal waking hours.

Sports, studying, everything fine. I just can’t fall asleep and stay asleep for more than 3 hours at a time. Some freaky kind of selective insomnia.

Since I’m up I’ve been wanting to share something here but it kept slipping my mind.

Human society the world over has relied upon authority to feel like things are going the way they should be. Early on it used to be people who were naturally stronger, better experienced in certain things or just respected for some reason or other. They were the chieftains, oracles, leaders of their day. How did they get to, (pretty much) the top of the food chain of the world they knew.

I doubt the very first ones were forced by their (at the time) equals to take up the position because nobody knew what to do and he was the one with the awesome biceps. AFAIK thats what could have transpired but it seems like that would have spelt the end of humankind there and then. He would have needed to know that it was him and nobody else, want to advance his people, know it was possible, know that he was ready. So on and so forth.

I’m not going to research this much but I hope ancient humans weren’t the one alpha male with twenty women under his belt kind of society. Doesn’t make sense since more men would have made more sense to protect it, gather food, etc.

I digress. About the leader-person, I was just wondering. Who are the real leaders today? Politics has brought a whole dimension into picking a leader and has messed up the whole point of the process. Money, politics, evil. Amazing how corrupt countries all over the world are and even more amazing is how they dress themselves up in banners, goddamn flags, tattoos, everything just screaming democracy. Democracy is not just a word, it needs to be acted upon.

I’m worried that among all the so called world leaders today, none are actually qualified to furthur their country or the human race as a whole. After all, they were probably chosen for their affiliation to something related to money which would benefit Tom, Dick, and Sally. T,D,S here are not the people, just rich people who want to get richer.

Its finally sleep time =) That was the best remedy ever.

nite,
pSyCh

ps-just realized that google chrome does not handle this page well. categories will have to come later. =)

Posted by azngeek at October 29th, 2008

I see people in these relationships. As a bystander, as one who is not trapped within such a situation, it’s easy to see how stupid things can be, and how I would never let myself be in such a situation.

I know the hurt. How it can feel so one sided. How sometimes you are never good enough. And you ask yourself “Why won’t he/she reciprocate? Am I just not good enough? What did I do wrong?” The abuse. So profound. It shakes the values of even the strongest willed person.

I’m not talking about sexual or physical abuse. I’m talking about my relationship with this quaint little café that I’ve now become quite the regular.

I remember in my younger years, my mom used to head off on Friday afternoons to share a cup of coffee with some of her friends, to catch up on gossip, to check up on how everyone else is doing, to check if everyone was okay. I never really did get her need for heading out on Friday afternoons for coffee. And then she’d briefly describer her fantastic afternoon over dinner on Friday night, and I’d be astounded how such a boring and dull place would be able to hold the interest of a human being for more than 10 minutes.

Of course it’d be to establishments like Starbucks or Coffee Beans, establishments which today I still frown upon. Mass produced, without a soul. But I understand now, that was the Malaysia equivalent of a café. They wouldn’t know better.

What are cafés? They serve coffee beverages, usually they don’t serve alcoholic beverages, if they do they have some, and usually they serve English breakfasts, and other little tidbits. They aren’t restaurants, they serve some food, but you go there primarily for the warmth and comfort of a hot cup of coffee, and the familiarity of faces, sounds and smells. Of course there is always the adventure of the lack of familiarity when you make your way to new cafés, but that is where part of the excitement lies, to see if it’s good or not so, and then finding your comfort zone.

A bit older, maybe a bit wiser, I’m in love with this quaint little cafe, la café crema (Español for The Cafe of Cream) The early mornings I make my way there for my usual bowl of mocha and sometimes some breakfast -bacon and eggs, or the whole shebang with everything on it. I sit there, familiar with the owners and the waitresses that have been there for a little over a year. On my days where I have a bit of free time, I like looking around. Some call it smelling the roses. I call it smelling the coffee beans. And I observe. I observe the people that come and go. Some people returning multiple times within the hour, talking bashfully about work or other extracurricular activities, some I rather not know, but still find interesting nonetheless. Couples holding hands. Not so conventional couples having public displays of affections. Students frantically working on some assignments or projects ( I for one am a guilty one in that respect).I soak it all in.

It’s very much romantic.

In cafés you can be whoever you want. You could be a private investigator trailing a cheating husband who is on rendezvous with his mistress. You could be a mad scientist who has just come up with the cure for cancer. You could be a movie star trying to get away from the paparazzi. Like being in a new city. Paris. Rome. London.

It’s always exciting.

But then you have people who ruin it all. Cafés in my set of café etiquette does not allow for business to be conducted. Businessman with their expensive suits, their cologne that they were too heavy with in the early morning, and their contracts and their briefcases. Bah. Not in my set of café etiquette. It’s a place for freedom. To escape it all. I think it’s alright for students to work on projects and assignments. Something not so formal. Not so rigid. I dislike business being conducted in my cafés. With the exception of artist of course. Creativity flows with coffee beans. Of course everyone would have their own café etiquette and beliefs. What’s yours?

But of course cafés are not all just rainbows and beds of roses. When her doors are full. I just scout out the tables, and then leave. She turns me a way sometimes, which does make me sad at times. But at other times, the experiences have been so wonderful. Sitting their for hours on end. Thinking through problems of my life. Or less meaningful but still important ideas that I just couldn’t get my head around but need for my next lecture or a test or a project. And she keeps me warm and lets me write frantically away at a question I just had a small epiphany over and would rather have it on paper lest I forget. And sometimes when there are too many people, I take my thinking elsewhere after a short sit. But I think it’s a right to sit their for hours to worry about the little or bigger things in life. A cup of coffee be your hall pass.

Maybe our relationship isn’t so abusive afterall?

Taken from http://hilton.org.uk/facade/paris-cafe-noir.jpg

Posted by Morpork at October 26th, 2008

The end of university this year. My uni project turned out ok. It had all the features on the specification list (barring the hidden one). The animation and picture parts of my program was sloppy and contained hard coding. If I had another week without distractions, I would have made the small changes necessary to properly implement them. I think I will make it a point to do that after the exams.

C++ has quite the focus on objects. I think it is safe to say the University of Auckland’s Object Oriented Programming course has failed its objective because most students will not have used objects as they are intended… This is kind of my personal opinion and I have no way of knowing for sure but I think this is a fairly accurate estimation from the attitudes of many people I have met in the course.

On to the topic of this post… LF and CR are the (usually) hidden symbols denoting a newline. Wikipedia explains better so suffice to say LF is used by Linux and LF CR is used by windows. The result is code that is not portable to other systems. Only code that writes/reads text files though. Code itself is fine since Mr.Compiler discards them. Or was it Mr.Preprocessor?

For the time being this shouldn’t pose too much of a problem for me. Except that I’ll have to get Ubuntu or something to finish off the uni project because windows will eat my text file alive.

So many things to learn. Gotta start somewhere y’know…

Posted by psych at October 24th, 2008

I know of people who hate dental drills. They hate the whirring high speed buzz. They despise the even louder buzz and vibration that accompanies the drilling of their teeth.  They hate it especially when the dentist/dental nurse neglects to anaesthetise the area and pain starts to build with the same intensity as the drilling.

Probably due to the amount of times I’ve had cavities when I was a kid(and then some), I pretty much love going to the dentist. I’m sure every kid has that fear to start off with, but the lucky ones who need plenty of treatment and visits (extractions, scaling, braces, root canals, you name it) get over the hill that is odontophobia or dentophobia pretty fast (I’m assuming). The amount of odontophobia support webbies/ forums/ etc. etc. that cater to this group of people (20% of Americans if I read correctly) is mindboggling. This much support for dentist-fearing-people? Seriously??.. o0
I am confounded by the number of people who fit into this category although I do kinda sympathise with their plight. I can only imagine the feelings that they feel while on that chair, or waiting their turn. Probably the same thing I felt when I was a wee child and had just discovered the joy of snorkelling. Trying to locate the beach after swimming so far out while looking down the whole time is a pretty damn terrifying experience. Scarring.

Then again, people who are afraid of dentists seem to me to be totally without sense. Their fear is not as explainable as my lost-at-sea experience. Not as valid as, say, fearing death or bungee jumping. So I surmise that they don’t realize that the dentist is not crazy, will not kill them, and is not sadistic. Paranoia FTW =P

Ramblings brought on by my virgin exposure to the simulater. Here’s to the hours upon hours that I will have to spend with Bob during the next year(s).

Sexay hand with a handpiece. Good for spraying water at people… and drilling…

My tray with the bur on the bottom right.

Sexy hand holding 500,000 rpm goodness. Part of Bob’s head.

Bob lying down. My workplace.
Tired. ~~ need rest.

Ciaoz,

pSyCh

Posted by Morpork at October 18th, 2008

Ahem. I do believe I know what I’m talking about… But this being an act of indulgence at the end of the uni project, it is customary to let me blab and flap my jaw and you sit there being a wonderful audience. Real work on the side project begins… after I deal with the exams. But I might sneak in a few sessions of hot sticky/sweaty coding. Eww. But the lab really is hot and the keyboards are sticky. Yuck.

Time to bore you all. A log I wrote in a fit of boredom. EnjoyDespair.

Log for computer programming in C++ for MECHENG 270, UoA.

Animation was part of the specifications, so the impulse decision was made to have the main() loop and do so indefinitely till a specific quit command was passed. At the end of this loop, SDL_Flip() refreshes the screen. Very useful for animations. Another reason for adoption of this code structure is because it is the first I was exposed to. (Lazy Foo Productions)

Concern: SDL_Flip being called several times a second can’t be a good thing. But then again the computer doesn’t seem to mind. There is no indication that this shouldn’t be done but perhaps a regulated framerate would reduce whatever phantom threat I am perceiving.

Regulating framerate? A timer class using SDL_GetTicks() should be used. It will record ticks at one time and another. Subtracting these two ticks will give you the time it took to get from that point to the current. If it is less than a certain arbitrary threshold, you can ask SDL to SDL_Delay(), effectively doing nothing for a specified amount of time. More accurately, freeze the program for that duration. The duration should be set as (1second / FRAMERATE) - TimetoGetHere.

Objects. The benefit of objects are hard to see and examples where this is obvious are not easily available apparently. Dynamically allocating memory to objects is good and returning after using them is a must. But for a project this size, (small, relatively speaking) declaring objects right off the bat is a lot easier and you won’t have to manage Scope and memory. Further more, doing away with inheritance but expanding the base class’ functionality will mean only a few base classes are needed. Not entirely proper object oriented approach but differences between some classes are so small the work needed to create extra classes will be much more counter productive. Instead, the similar answer types required NO extra lines of code to handle differing number of answer choices. And the significantly different answer type, input, had almost nothing in common with the multichoice one that inheriting from the other is practically unnecessary.

That said, it would be good practice to try using the new and delete commands for objects because that also does away with needing to manage Scope. I can (sort of) also see how this would greatly benefit a much larger program. In short, declaring all the classes you ever need in the beginning and not being able to let them go out of scope can only spell a disastrous program that is best described as BLOATWARE. On the other hand, new object can be tricky to use. Or at least I haven’t learnt, experimented and studied the nuances of this method.

In the user’s hands: Waiting between levels is annoying. Any sort of waiting is to be frowned upon. The program should dance and die at the user’s whim. It is unfortunate to force the user to wait in between screens and allow no mouse events. Unacceptable. But given time constraints, not one I am at liberty to type away.

Posted by psych at October 16th, 2008

That block of wax is now this… Without assistance mind you. Look ma, no hands! I’m flying this one solo. The added element of heating the blade using the burner adds something to the process, though for the life of me I fail to find the word(s) to describe it. Something more exciting than excitement yet less interesting than interesting… My distal root broke once. Felt my heart break a little with it. =) Reattachment wasted me at least 15 minutes.

*update* finished it up. managed to sneak into the tech lab during my free time after lunch. amazing resemblance eh =) no pic taken after details and polishing. cos of time constraints.

ps-i love posting pic posts. they take so much less time. and i get more posts under my belt =P

Ciao,

pSyCh

Posted by azngeek at October 14th, 2008

Stumbled across this, haha. Wrote this about 6 years ago…

The Dance
I see her walking down the aisle
Looking so perfect, hoping for a smile,
Time has frozen, it’s been framed,
All I can think bout is that special person’s name.

We danced through the song,
It wasn’t very long,
But that moment I still cherish,
And I hope it’ll never perish.

Posted by azngeek at October 14th, 2008

If personalities could be bought off the shelf, life would be many times more interesting. You could jump into the shoes of people you’d never have thought of being. You could be sassy with a whole lot of lip, a quiet one ( you know what they say about the quiet ones though don’t you, they are the naughtiest ones haha) or you could be a serial comedian who wasn’t too funny, but the enthusiasm oozing out of your pores and just the whole act would have people in fits.

Man o man. Think of the possibilities.

Azngeek

PS. Promise to update once I get over this whole mess I’m in… Uni work and all

Posted by Morpork at October 10th, 2008

Between the computer failing to start up, washing machine breaking down and general clogging up of the schedule, progress has really gotten hampered.  Curiously, this began so soon after an announcement for a semi-goal oriented project begun spontaneously. It’s like the digital equivalent of people carrying glass panes and crossing the street.

Anyhow, I’d like to share a few bits of things I learned exploring SDL. A game loop is divided into three processes. The first is Input and takes care of user input. Basically setting flags and this equals true that equals false. Next, Logic takes these flags and use them to determine what to do. For example, if user hit fire weapon key, the create ball of plasma block of code runs and sets the projectile to have direction set to the facing of the player and with velocity of a plasma_projectile_initial_vel or something like that. Oh and Logic also takes care of what position of everything is. Finally, Display will show the user the red dot that is a plasma ball and refresh the screen. As the name game loop implies, this gets repeated over and over, with user input changing what logic does.

So what’s so good about adhering to these three steps? I think it just makes things easier to keep track of. If you had refresh screen somewhere up in logic, things can be messy on screen and things just won’t be in one place when debugging the code.

One last lesson is do not use two SDL_PollEvent() functions in one game loop. Each call flushes the event queue and renders the second one useless. This function is used in while() loops so just remember to put an if() conditional behind the while() if you have to use two of them. Or more. Because the while() needs to run the stuff in the brackets before checking the status to be true or false. Not that I’d make a mistake like that.

¬_¬

Posted by psych at October 8th, 2008

Finished my central incisor carving today. Stoked. Polished Wax is Silky Smooth MMmmmmm. All the tooth pics are bad. Im not gonna lie. Crappy focus.. Dont feel like typing much. Pictures get processed by your brain at a faster rate anyway. I dont want to be held responsible for causing you to think o0. The tooth are all missing the awesome minor features cos its blurred. Outlines still there tho.

Next project- that annoyingly hard to carve cusped tooth..
Signing off (yet again)

pSyCh

Posted by psych at October 7th, 2008

Went home briefly for one of those I’m-In-Freaking-Kedah-And-Need-To-Go-Back-Home-As-Often-As-I-Can binges. Ended up not doing much and it became a pseudo holiday (aka study break with actual studying).

Sis bought a new gadget. Wish it was mine. I can’t even afford the subscription fees. Why would I need to be online on MSN 24/7 anyway? Emails? I only use those for forum/site registrations. I barely use MSN on my lappy as it is. Enough about why I dont need it..

So.. its good. Nothing really new/special about it I guess compared with the majority of similar phones in the market. I like the sweet mouseball/tracker thing in the middle. Smooth as hell. keyboard imo needs a tutorial thing cos my fingers keep hitting one key to the left <- when i try to touchtype.. So

My Dear Santa Claus Please Give Me A Bag Of Gold Ive Been Real Good This Year       -turns into:-

Nt Swar Sabra xkayss okease fuve ne a vaf id fiks uce veeb rwaj fiid rgus twar

or something like that. I get some keys right but its just so odd. the "home key" to put your fingers on are neither F nor J asfarasicanremember. Keyboards are not meant for phones PERIOD. No matter what other people think. I dont care if youve mastered yours. it still doesnt belong on a phone until they make it big enough (that idea using a projection of a keyboard with invisible sensors so you can project a full sized keyboard on a flat surface is a good way to go). Guess that was my rant. Cant complain more. Its a sweet phone overall.

Nice front. Sexy hand.

Nice back.. Omg sexy hand..

Main menu thing. Reflection from light. Shows how smooth and curvy it is =) kinda.. Notice the clear rubber condom it has on. Forgot to take it off. Much slimmer without it.

Thats it folks.

Signing off (literally)

pSyCh

Posted by azngeek at October 5th, 2008

Life has been a mish mash of everything for me lately. The distinction between being awake and asleep now has sometimes been dulled just by the lack of it. A lot more hectic lately though things have begun to settle down considerably as the semester approaches another end.

So I’ve decided what better way to escape my problems than a long non-nonsensical rant, something I’ve not done for eons. And I’m sure the many(one) reader out there would highly appreciate a pseudo update. Not really quite an update. But a filler. Kinda like those annoying fillers in animes. I digress.

Well as I was saying. Non nonsensical rant. Growing up, I used to think beards were the coolest things in the universe. Like bad ass pirates that have been out at sea for far too long who have neither had the chance to shave or get laid. (Because of the latter they became quite a lot less bad ass) Or the manliest of guerrilla fighters hanging out in the jungle going all holier-than-thou-I-have-a-purpose and attacking the villagers for supplies in the name of freedom. Man. I remember when the careers advisor at my school was having a talk to us at school about career paths. The first thing I blurted out to the poor poor lady (god rest her soul after her talk with me) was I wanted to be a samurai. You know. Connect back to my roots and all. Have honor. A big shiny sword. And a cool mask and armor head to toe to boot. Man. That’s what I’m talking about. But she was trying to convince me how I was a confused individual and asked me to consider something abit more down to earth. Practical she said. Never did she once consider how her lack of consideration for my feelings has scarred me for life. That’s beside the point though.

So as I was saying. I thought about it. And got back to her the next day. I told her I wanted to be a guerrilla warrior and fight for freedom in some obscure location in the amazon. I was trying to convince her how it was practical and how bad ass it would be. With the beard and all. (I wasn’t considering the fact of not being laid for a while as all women love guerrilla warriors that have a bushy as beard, I’d have been rewarded handsomely at the end of my long hard fight. Battle scars and all. Man. I’d be a chick magnet). And she convinced me how that was not practical either, and pointed towards two careers considering the grades that I had and the subjects I was doing. Medicine or Engineering. Bah. She crushed my little soul with her pudgy hands. The bitch.

From then on, I’ve hated beards and all forms of facial hair. Gone are the days of coolness if you looked like wolf-boy (I wanted to be wolf-boy too : <). And now. Now, the act of shaving just pisses me off. I hate getting scruffy in the morning. I got so pissed off. I felt like ripping my face off ( I kid) . What I’m trying to say. The need to shave to look presentable is not bad ass. It’s a pain, and it hurts me so. : <

I’m an angry confused individual.

When I wake up from my confused state I will not have a recollection of this.

Azngeek

Posted by Morpork at October 5th, 2008

And so begins my first stab at having a side project that has nothing to do with normal curriculum. I am writing this under the category Projects with the ’s’ and hopefully I can keep this going for some time.

…Okay, I lied. I will probably start off writing code for a university assignment but I do have some plans to make a game after I deal with that. I have some “design docs” sitting around and I can picture the very very simple game in my mind. Mainly because I played it before when I was young.

As an amateur, I am free to make stuff up as I go. One of the things that I will end up doing is probably creating some “artwork” for the interface. Bless the souls who have already twisted the meaning of that word. Next, it’ll be reusable code. One use discard code is frowned upon but until I gain experience (and level up) there is no hope for me recognising what I can reuse and cannot reuse. I don’t even know all the tools in the toolbox yet.

Right now, I have created one button which behaves much like a standard button found everywhere. It doesn’t do anything yet and I am not sure if it is totally reusable. Note that the source code is written in C++ and uses the SDL graphics library.

Again, as an amateur, I’ll figure out how to distribute working .exe files before I consider uploading them to this site. Since the button is still a work in progress, I’ll also upload that after I tweak it some more.

Endnote: I received a morale boost when I noticed Star Control… erm, the Ur-Quan Masters uses SDL. There’s magic right there.

Posted by azngeek at October 3rd, 2008

I lent my camera to my sister. Never got it back. So with no other alternative I’m forced to put up photos from my phone *upside down smiley*.

I swear it was a lot neater when I first pimped it out, now it’s just a shadow of its former self : <

There you go, the pictures i promised a while back.

Ah. What else. Hmmm.

I’m seriously busy busy busy. : / 8 projects. 3 down, another 2 almost done, 1 just started, 2 to go. : / I have a reason why I’ve been idle : P