Post-It Animation

Watch this amazing video, made by some creative guy who has too much time...

'Deadline' - A Post It Stop Motion @ Yahoo! Video

Happy Turkey Day!

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. If you don't celeberate it, then... happy weekend :)

TVs & Movies

Well, I've cut my cable service for a while and opt watching things online. And I'm so happy because of a lot of things:
1. By watching things online, I can watch it whenever I want. I can even pause it to receive a call, answer the door, etc.
2. Online TV has much less commercial, so overall, the time spent to watch a programme is shorter, so it gives me sometime to do something else.
3. I'm saving my money by cutting my tv bill.
The list can go on and on, but those 3 reasons are just the most obvious ones for me. During this economic mess, it's never hurt to cut back on spending. So this leads me to my next point. Movies.

I love watching movie, but the price to watch a movie is just too much for me. Before it was $7, now it's as much as $12. I'd prefer to just wait until the DVD comes out and I'll go ahead and rent it out. If I really really like the movie, then I'll go buy the second hand DVD (same movie, same quality, and but at a fraction of the price of a new DVD). Yes, I know sometimes I'm just itching to watch the movie at its opening week (like the upcoming Madagascar 2, love the first one so much). But I don't know if that satisfaction worth the price of ticket. I think I'm willing to spend the money to watch something that's really moving or much better to be watched with theater's surround system. Other than that, I'd rather watch the movie 3 months later at the comfort of my own sofa.

Funny

A friend sent me this on email, so funny I gotta share it.



I don't know if it's a real photo or it's photoshoped, but it's evilishly funny.

Going Green

Global warming and environmental movement have been active for the past decades, but the buzz of going green has never been louder before. More people are becoming aware of the crisis that our beloved planet is facing now. Climate changes, natural disasters, animal extinction and behavior change are obviously happening more frequently and radically.

The common perception of going green for some people are recycling and organic products. Yes, those two things are fairly easy to adopt on our daily activity. Recycling is simple yet powerful in reducing the amount of trash that will buried on landfill. Moreover, the papers, cans, plastics, and bottles that we recycle, it can be used again for something else. So those products have more than 1 lives to serve us, and by using more of recycled items, we can reduce the production of papers, cans, plastics, etc. I am really glad that more and more teachers and parents are teaching their kids the importance of recycling. Once recycling becomes part of their daily life, they will do that for the rest of their lives.

Organic food, I think this movement is great, but I am not really fond of it. I understand why organic food is more expensive, it requires different kinds of treatement to plants and animals to grow them organically. Maybe once government rules out that everything should be organic (like they do to digital TV), the price will be cheaper and everyone will be healthier. But until then, only little percent of population is actually consuming and growing organic food. Moreover, some organic products require special packaging, which is more plastics are used during the production, shipping, and storing.

I know plastic is a big part of our lives nowadays. From food storage container to diaper, from shampoo bottle to hanger, from supermarket to hospital. Have you ever seen plastic ads, where it shows the importance of plastic in medical producedures? I know some of plastics' usages are irreplacable. But, there are still a lot of things that we can replace plastics with. To put simply, stop using plastics when you don't need to. For example, stop using straw. Don't use straw when drinking soda from can, don't use straw when drinking water from cup. It's just that simple. By reducing the consumption of straw, the production will go down, thus less plastics are produced. The next one is stop using plastic forks, plastic spoons, paper plates, and paper/plastic cups.

Another idea: reduce limousine usage. Limousine is usually used for parties, special events, or just showing off. But the thing is, limousines have very low mpg. So I propose use limousine only if you have enough people to maximize the capacity. Don't use limousine for 15 mins ride and only 2 people in the car.

Next idea is a little radical, and some people might hate me for saying this, but racing should be banned. I am not a big fan for race (F1, NASCAR, GP, etc), nor I know much about them, but I know one thing for sure, they are burning massive amount of fuels. Imagine how much gasoline can be saved without those racing cars and motorcycles. As I said, this might upset some people who love race sports. But I just can't help to say my opinion.

Why Do People Study?

I come to a point in my life when I start to doubt formal education. These few days I had some experiences that got me thinking about the point of learning things, that we know we don't like, we're not familiar, and/or we'll never use e.g. GE courses.

According to University of Illinois: "In order to be a well-educated, successful, and valuable participant in our rapidly changing global community, students need more than a professional or vocational training. When they graduate, they will enter a world in which they can expect to hold different jobs, and indeed even work in a succession of careers over the course of their lives. In order to prepare for this exciting, challenging future, they need during their college years not only to specialize in a major and train for a career, but to become more broadly educated, conversant with at least some of the many rapidly changing disciplines. They need to gain a sense of our past achievements, present developments, and future possibilities."

The thing is, if we never use/re-cite/talk about things that we learn, we'll eventually forget about it. I know that because I just had an experience with it (for complete story read my other blog). I feel that I've wasted my time and money in learning something that I won't use.

I know that some of that stuff might come up someday, somehow, when talking to someone, but....if I can't recall what it is, it won't make me look or sound smarter.
Example conversation:
Buddy: "We need to save paper more dude. If we keep on wasting paper, the trees that help sucking carbon dioxide from atmosphere will be depleting. You know, global warming will get worse."
Me: "Since when trees can suck carbon dioxide?"
Buddy: "Photosynthesis dude. Remember? From biology? Trees breathe carbon dioxide and produce oxygen during photosynthesis."
Me: "I guess I've heard something about photosynthesis from somewhere..."
Buddy: "..."

At another time, sometime after conversation with Buddy. In a group meeting to discuss ideas to reduce global warming.
Me (enthusiastic with his "brilliant" idea): "You know, I think we should build an Air Conditioner-type of machine that can convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. So, we reduce carbon dioxide and produce oxygen at the same time!"
Group member: "Dude... it's impossible, the energy required to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen is huge. And to produce that energy, we'll burn more fuel and produce more carbon dioxide than we can convert."
Me (thinking): "Was it taught in biology class too?"

These conversation are just made up, and honestly I don't really know if it's actually true or not. It's just a sample conversation I made up, so don't sue me.

Back to my point, I see the point of having to learning something that you don't know you'll use. I know my Flash class makes my Resume looks great, but if I'm offered a job in Flash, I'm sure I'll be fired on the next day.

I have talked to several people about this, and they say that knowing more make them feel better about themselves. I can understand that, and sometimes I feel excited in learning something new too. But for me the "feel good" is only temporary. And eventually, the knowledge will be rotten somewhere in a corner of my brain.

So to sum up, I'll put a quote by Don Akchin: "The more you learn, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why study?"

Leap Year!

Today, I'm going to write about leap year. This year (2008) is a leap year, which means there's 29th day in February (I'm sure you all should know by now). Even though it's a few days late, but it's still fun to talk about.

I get an inspiration to write about this because on the bus I rode, I "accidently" evasdropped 2 ladies that are gossiping about their friend who's birthday is on February 29! I never thought about this, but then I realize that people whose birthday are on Feb 29, can only officially celebrate their birthday once in 4 years!

Once I came home, I researched about leap year, and found some interesting facts:

1. This one is from wiki: leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing one or more extra days (or, in the case of lunisolar calendars, an extra month) in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical or seasonal year. For example, in the Gregorian calendar, February would have 29 days in a leap year instead of the usual 28. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected.

2. Leap year is needed keep our calendar in alignment with the earth's revolutions around the sun.

3. Below are the rules how leap year is determined: Every year that is divisible by four is a leap year; of those years, if it can be divided by 100, it is NOT a leap year, unless the year is divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year. According to the above criteria, that means that years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are NOT leap years, while year 2000 and 2400 are leap years. (timeanddate.com)

4. Those who were born on Feb 29 are called Leap Year Babies or Leaplings. And there's a Worldwide Leap Year Festival to celebrate their birthday in Anthony, New Mexico/Texas, the Leap Year Capital. (leapyearcapital.com)

5. Superman is a Leap Day Baby! An article in TIME magazine, March 14 1988, proclaimed Superman to be born on February 29. He is a comic book character, so he can have whatever birthday his creator decides to give him.

If you have any more interesting news and facts about leap year and would like me to add on this post, please let me know! Comment away and tell me what you think about leap year. :-)

Stumble It!