It's kinda like that

To grow old is inevitable; to grow up is variable. Besides, old-fashioned grown-upness is a deprecated measure of a man; the measure of man is the hardness of his core and the oldness of his school.

派手に暴れようぜ！

If sleep debt can be traded

Who're going to get rich, those who sleep a lot and sell tons of sleep credit or those who buy them up so they don't have to sleep and can work some more?

Penguin, I'm making this kind of thing up instead of _not_ putting off all sleep debt to weekend.

Four Wheel Drive? (out of six)

I find that some double deckers here have 3 pairs of tyres, one in front, two at the back. When such bus turns, the front wheels turn, and the first pair at the back turn too. I never knew.

Pokey

Was having an adventure in the Indonesian capital the past week.

Gaming nine-to-five, in the evening; the kind of vacation I go for.

Organ Harvesting

Been a while. No, I'm not dead yet.

I had a USB gamepad lying around. It mostly worked, but if I remember correctly one of the shoulder buttons went bonkers sometime ago. It hadn't been used for months that I guess it's about time it'd have some kind of existential angst.

Being a good person I am, I dusted it and opened it up, perhaps there'd be things of interest inside. My response to quite a lot of things I saw inside: "Hey, I can use this!". So I heated up the soldering iron, wetted the sponge, and began working. Sometime later, my small haul:

This might've saved me a couple shopping trips. That's pretty nice, considering the grocery store next door doesn't carry ferrite beads. Notable things:

Small electronic components, resistors, ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, ferrite beads, and transistors.

DC motors! They have each a half-circle metal stuck to the shaft, the vibration from them spinning is the rumble pak. The transistors were used to drive these motors, maybe I should put them to similar use.

They don't have model number printed anywhere, but I tested them on 5V/650mA power supply and they work. They'd serve as good toys.

Potentiometers! I got two of those, from each analog stick. Actually four in total, as one of those has a pair of potentiometer -for left-right and up-down.

Remember that you usually can press the analog stick in most gamepad? (They're usually called L3/R3 in PS gamepads). There's a push button attached to the case of the potentiometer. That's the button you push when you press the analog stick. I pried one off and here it is:

It fits on a breadboard and would make ideal general-purpose button when I'm testing a program for a microcontroller.

Now, harvesting organs from a working gadget is an entirely different thing from doing the same from a healthy person. I like to think that way because that's easier for my conscience.

...at least before the robot overlords began writing the law.

Katamari Life Lessons

A warning: this is going to be long and (_perhaps_) educational.

A little intro for penguins not familiar with Katamari Damacy, or refresher for penguins who are familiar:

One crazy evening, The King of All Cosmos was drunk. In his majestic drunken frenzy, he destroyed all stars in the sky, plus the moon. Citizens of earth got confused. Being a good king, The King of All Cosmos mandated his son, the prince (of all cosmos) to descent to earth and roll things up to be made into stars. It involved intense struggle and unrelenting willpower, but the prince finally returned the starry night sky (and the moon) to rejoicing citizens of earth.

Yes, that picture on the upper left is The King and The Prince (small). Don't you wish to have a king as fabulous as that?

Wise as he is, The King didn't let his son roll around quietly; he provided soundtrack for his entertainment, and to impart some life lessons for passing by earthlings to ponder upon.

First lesson: sanity is overrated. Listen to this:

Katamari On The Rocks

In the beginning, it was just about someone learning to roll things up. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, roll this, roll that, sing all the while! Then the rolling went out of control and he began to question "Why must we roll things up? Can't we just leave them be, maybe it's better to just let them be". Of course, normal rational people would think that way.

But then he got ideas: maybe it's fun rolling things up. Few minutes later he's singing proudly that he can roll like a pro! That's a message from The King, roll your sleeves and begin rolling, no point questioning, no mind can escape the temptation.

*

Second lesson: Keep your heart in the Starlight Jamboree. But what is Starlight Jamboree? This:

Starlight Jamboree

In Starlight Jamboree, evaluation equals much rejoicing, examination equals festival. When things are going tough, play the drums in your heart 'pam-pam-pam-pam', then start the jamboree inside 'Staaaarlight - Staaaaaaarlight -Staaaaaaaaaaarlight - STAAAAAAR-LIGHT!' Nothing to be feared, the jamboree's raging inside!

Repel all exhaustion and worry with the jamboree. It's easy, it's just 'Staaaarlight - Staaaaaaarlight -Staaaaaaaaaaarlight - STAAAAAAR-LIGHT!'Don't panic if it gets stuck in your head, it's not because it's a catchy tune, it's because the jamboree has just began in your mind.

*

Third lesson: Look forward to the future. Don't be chained by yesterday. Keep on trying new things, be a challenger. Challenger to the death, challenger forever. The King wouldn't agree to make a star from a katamari made by someone who doesn't have it in him to challenge himself, because such star wouldn't shine!

Tsuyogari Katamari

Bluffing Katamari

I was defeated by the magic of alcohol
it was such a sweet spell, and I couldn't resist
but that's all in the past now
I don't need it anymore
no more, ain't needing it anymore

I'm gonna change from now
refresh  re-fresh
I'm not gonna turn back, I'll press on forward
I wanna do new things,
things I never see, things I never hear
I'm always a challenger
my rival is myself

I used to long for strength,
the power to reduce everything to zero, such strength
but that's exactly what weakness is
and I don't need it anymore
no more, ain't needing it anymore

I'm gonna change from now
refresh  re-fresh
I'm no gonna lose anything, I'm making things
I wanna do new things,
things I never see, things I never hear
I'm always a challenger
I can go anywhere

But when I look around,
nobody's there, I'm alone
anxiety spins 'round in me
let's sing with words I've never heard before
la-la-la-la-ma, la-la-la-ma-ma
I'm not gonna worry
la-la-la-na-na-na-na~
anxiety's kinda fun
my heart's pounding, flutttering
I'm always a challenger
boredom is my enemy

I'm gonna change from now
refresh  re-fresh
I'm not gonna stand still, I can keep on walking
I wanna do new things,
things I never see, things I never hear
I wanna keep being a challenger (I wanna keep being a challenger)
when I die, I'll die a challenger (when I die, I'll die a challenger)
I'm a challenger forever (I'm a challenger forever)

*

Fourth lesson: and final lesson for today. I can't possibly catch all lessons The King of All Cosmos was trying to say, and it'd be unwise to just unroll them all in one go; it'd make me run out of material. The lesson is:

• love nature,
• eat properly,
• get enough sleep,
• go outside in the sun sometimes,
• seriously, be nice to people

Then shine bright as a constellation. Surprisingly sane, considering it's from The King of All Cosmos? Maybe, look at the video:

Katamari Love

Sunset

In one of my past expeditions, I tried to capture sunset from Nanyang House; thwarted by weather. I mostly forgot about that until last Saturday. I was near one of the libraries and there it was: the sky glowing orange in the distant. Good thing I had my camera with me.

One thing: sunset is really an ephemeral thing. During the time it took me to walk along the rooftop walkway to get a better view, most of the sun had been below the horizon. By the time I'm finished keying in some settings to the camera, it had practically sunk under the horizon of trees.

Still, wasn't it beautiful! Click through to see the photos in its original size, these small ones don't do it justice.