Saturday, June 30, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Ray Bradbury's words
In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back.Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.
Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.
I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.
If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.
If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.
If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder.
Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.
Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.
Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.
Love is the answer to everything. It’s the only reason to do anything. If you don’t write stories you love, you’ll never make it. If you don’t write stories that other people love, you’ll never make it.
Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.
Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance – the idea that anything is possible.
Touch a scientist and you touch a child.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Eco Action Day 2012
Do you know that it's Eco Action Day in Singapore today?
Even as an individual, there are some rather good tips on the website which you can use at home. Do take a look!
I think Eco Action Day is a wonderful initiative! Considering how we seem to have a tendency to want to waste resources in the office simply because we don't pay for them, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. It's like standing at the top of the river which is your water source, peeing in it and then saying, "Oh, it's OK, my house and my friends' houses are at the bottom of the river, so it doesn't affect me."
Imagine there's a huge water tank in the middle of your neighbourhood where everybody comes to get water from. There are rows of tap all around the water tank, linking to the same water source. Everybody is assigned a tap to use so that everything is more orderly. At your own tap, you make sure you close the tap properly after you've collected water. One day, your tap is spoilt, so your neighbour kindly shares his tap with you. After you collect the water, you simply leave the tap open and water flowing. The water finishes more quickly that day and some people end up with no water. When somebody asks why you did that, you say, "Oh, but it's not my tap, so it's not my water and it's not my fault."
It doesn't matter where you are! Simply remember, if you won't do this at home, then don't do it at the office!
Eco Action Day is an annual energy saving campaign held in Singapore to encourage office participation nationwide, in commemoration of World Environment Day on 5th June.
---Eco Action Day website (http://www.ecoaction.sg/)
Even as an individual, there are some rather good tips on the website which you can use at home. Do take a look!
I think Eco Action Day is a wonderful initiative! Considering how we seem to have a tendency to want to waste resources in the office simply because we don't pay for them, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. It's like standing at the top of the river which is your water source, peeing in it and then saying, "Oh, it's OK, my house and my friends' houses are at the bottom of the river, so it doesn't affect me."
Imagine there's a huge water tank in the middle of your neighbourhood where everybody comes to get water from. There are rows of tap all around the water tank, linking to the same water source. Everybody is assigned a tap to use so that everything is more orderly. At your own tap, you make sure you close the tap properly after you've collected water. One day, your tap is spoilt, so your neighbour kindly shares his tap with you. After you collect the water, you simply leave the tap open and water flowing. The water finishes more quickly that day and some people end up with no water. When somebody asks why you did that, you say, "Oh, but it's not my tap, so it's not my water and it's not my fault."
It doesn't matter where you are! Simply remember, if you won't do this at home, then don't do it at the office!
Monday, June 4, 2012
e-Symphony Studio
If you're into the idea of making your own electronic music on an online platform, you can try e-Symphony Studio by Panasonic Asia. They're currently holding a competition with some impressive prizes (think TV, camera and home audio system). Deadline's on 23rd July 2012. Go check it out!
Basically, there is a collection of sounds in the studio itself and it is up to you to put these sounds together to create music. There are 3 background tracks for you to choose from - techno (track A), pop (track B) and classical (track C). A timeline with tiny boxes runs across the bottom of the screen and that's where you insert the sounds. Each square box represents 1 second - trust me, it's very useful to remember this small piece of information! The sounds are found below the timeline in the form of cute pictures. Click on each picture to hear the sounds.
But, (aha!), guess what, you do not have all the sounds! See the lock images, there are a lot more sounds hidden behind them. To unlock the sounds, you have to answer certain questions or fulfill certain criteria. If you are having difficulty answering the questions, I have in my hand (actually, on my table right now) a whole lot of hints which you might find useful and yes, I am going to list them here. After I've finished explaining how to play it in my usual long-winded style.
After you've finished creating and saving your work (remember to SAVE! It is very important!), you need to PUBLISH to Panasonic Asia's facebook as well in order to be eligible for the competition. After which, you may get your friends to vote for you at the "Collections" page, or to listen to others' creations. Here's another video with more explanations:
Some tips:
And now for the hints!
#1: Earth day first started 5 years after Singapore separation from Malaysia.
#2: The highest energy consuming items are normally located in your kitchen!
#3: 20% of a gaming console power for a Fridge.
#4: The average home uses about 300 liters of water every day!
#5: The number of plastic bags produced per day is almost 20 billion!
#7: Almost 30kg of pollutants can be filtered by a tree every year.
#8: "Changi Fast Chicken" hasn't been incorporated yet.
#9: The average family consumes over 100 liters of juice, almost 400 liters of milk and 100 liters of bottled water each year.
#10: Be environmentally friendly. Better a shower than a bath.
#11: Remember the Panasonic Evolta range!
#12: Lights left on do have an impact on surrounding air temperature.
#13: Typically more than 2/3 or waste from this pressed cellulose pulp.
#14: Almost 450 british barrels of water for 2 cooling showers a day, over a year.
#15: You could fill quite a few buckets with this dripping tap.
#16: Almost 576 km-sq of forests are being cut down every day.
#17: Be processed now, come back in a month!
#18: Close to 70% of office waste, it makes up for about 40% of general waste.
Ans #19: Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution.
Ans #20: Yes! Actually between 12 and 15.
Ans #21: Ag Clean technology by Panasonic uses the anti-bacterial effects of silver to keep foo fresh by inactivating 99.9% of mold and bacteria in the refrigerator.
Ans #22: Yes: In 1970, 2.2 million Sydney residents and more than 2,100 businesses participated.
OK, I have to admit I do not know which questions the hints addresses, but you can scan through it and something might just jump out at you. I hope this helps! And hope you learn some new facts from it too, just as I did!
For one, use less plastic bags!
Basically, there is a collection of sounds in the studio itself and it is up to you to put these sounds together to create music. There are 3 background tracks for you to choose from - techno (track A), pop (track B) and classical (track C). A timeline with tiny boxes runs across the bottom of the screen and that's where you insert the sounds. Each square box represents 1 second - trust me, it's very useful to remember this small piece of information! The sounds are found below the timeline in the form of cute pictures. Click on each picture to hear the sounds.
But, (aha!), guess what, you do not have all the sounds! See the lock images, there are a lot more sounds hidden behind them. To unlock the sounds, you have to answer certain questions or fulfill certain criteria. If you are having difficulty answering the questions, I have in my hand (actually, on my table right now) a whole lot of hints which you might find useful and yes, I am going to list them here. After I've finished explaining how to play it in my usual long-winded style.
After you've finished creating and saving your work (remember to SAVE! It is very important!), you need to PUBLISH to Panasonic Asia's facebook as well in order to be eligible for the competition. After which, you may get your friends to vote for you at the "Collections" page, or to listen to others' creations. Here's another video with more explanations:
Some tips:
- Have a piece of rough paper and pencil with you. Watch the timing of the background track as it plays and note down the time at which you think you want to insert a particular sound.
- Always, ALWAYS write down on your paper the latest mix of sounds you want (write the sound and box number, which is also actually the time) because sometimes it doesn't save the way you want it then you might have to re-insert sounds, and imagine the horror at finding out that you've forgotten what sound you want and where. Also, I find it easier to start on a new timeline than to delete sounds I've randomly inserted.
- You may want to insert a few sounds at one time because it takes some time to save. You may be surprised by how sometimes randomly (or wrongly) inserting sounds can give you some interesting combination!
- To insert sounds, click on the box in the timeline and then click on the sound you want. When you click on the next box, you might realize that the previous sound inserts itself into the box. Don't worry, simply overwrite that box with the sound that you want by clicking on the new sound, or click delete.
And now for the hints!
#1: Earth day first started 5 years after Singapore separation from Malaysia.
#2: The highest energy consuming items are normally located in your kitchen!
#3: 20% of a gaming console power for a Fridge.
#4: The average home uses about 300 liters of water every day!
#5: The number of plastic bags produced per day is almost 20 billion!
#7: Almost 30kg of pollutants can be filtered by a tree every year.
#8: "Changi Fast Chicken" hasn't been incorporated yet.
#9: The average family consumes over 100 liters of juice, almost 400 liters of milk and 100 liters of bottled water each year.
#10: Be environmentally friendly. Better a shower than a bath.
#11: Remember the Panasonic Evolta range!
#12: Lights left on do have an impact on surrounding air temperature.
#13: Typically more than 2/3 or waste from this pressed cellulose pulp.
#14: Almost 450 british barrels of water for 2 cooling showers a day, over a year.
#15: You could fill quite a few buckets with this dripping tap.
#16: Almost 576 km-sq of forests are being cut down every day.
#17: Be processed now, come back in a month!
#18: Close to 70% of office waste, it makes up for about 40% of general waste.
Ans #19: Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution.
Ans #20: Yes! Actually between 12 and 15.
Ans #21: Ag Clean technology by Panasonic uses the anti-bacterial effects of silver to keep foo fresh by inactivating 99.9% of mold and bacteria in the refrigerator.
Ans #22: Yes: In 1970, 2.2 million Sydney residents and more than 2,100 businesses participated.
OK, I have to admit I do not know which questions the hints addresses, but you can scan through it and something might just jump out at you. I hope this helps! And hope you learn some new facts from it too, just as I did!
For one, use less plastic bags!
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