Today is my father's birthday and we just came back from a dinner celebrating it. It wasn't anything fancy, just some simple but good food at my aunt's eating place. My father is not someone great but he's great at taking care of his family. I wish him a happy birthday and grateful for the fact that he's healthy and fit.
This morning I also had the fortune of sharing a table with the cute girl from my work place while eating breakfast. It was certainly eye candy sweeter than the tea I was drinking with enough sugar to last me throughout the day. Don't be mistaken, I am not some sort of a pervert. I just appreciate the little things in life that make me happy daily.
Just like the national day song of old, it is the little things that matter. I don't need to chase after riches, just enough money to survive. I don't have to take elaborate vacations, just quality rest now and then. I don't need powerful alliances, just a few good friends. But then again, who doesn't want the best the world can offer?
Friday, July 29, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
《只因为是暗恋》
望着天
我仿佛看见你的脸
露出美丽的笑颜
伸出你那柔云般的手
示意让我过去
看着地
我愿给肩膀你依偎
在把你拥入怀里
握住彼此的心与手
告诉你我的意
就是说不出口
我的爱 已在心里好久
这份情 并不会有花开
只因为是暗恋
面着海
多么希望你会走来
不再远瞧你倩影
每当你出现于眼前
没了所有烦扰
背着山
鼓起勇气和你搭讪
很想跟你有个约
一起到海边看日出
共度美好时光
就是说不出口
我的爱 已在心里好久
这份情 并不会有花开
只因为是暗恋
我仿佛看见你的脸
露出美丽的笑颜
伸出你那柔云般的手
示意让我过去
看着地
我愿给肩膀你依偎
在把你拥入怀里
握住彼此的心与手
告诉你我的意
就是说不出口
我的爱 已在心里好久
这份情 并不会有花开
只因为是暗恋
面着海
多么希望你会走来
不再远瞧你倩影
每当你出现于眼前
没了所有烦扰
背着山
鼓起勇气和你搭讪
很想跟你有个约
一起到海边看日出
共度美好时光
就是说不出口
我的爱 已在心里好久
这份情 并不会有花开
只因为是暗恋
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Commencement
Today is my graduation ceremony and I want to share with you all my joy.
http://picasaweb.google.com/nghianja/Commencement?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHdg9nmt7vFrQE
Note: back-dated post!
http://picasaweb.google.com/nghianja/Commencement?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHdg9nmt7vFrQE
Note: back-dated post!
Saturday, July 9, 2005
[Review] The Rule Of Four
Authors: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
The Rule of Four is a way of hiding a message within a grid formed by another message. It consists of a set of four directions and their distance values. Given a message arranged into a grid and given a starting position on the grid, one can find out the hidden message by following the stated Rule of Four. A point on the grid is a letter and by following the Rule of Four letter by letter, one gets the message.
What is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili? According to the historical note given in the book The Rule Of Four, it is one of the most treasured and least understood books of early Western printing. Scholars continue to debate the identity and intent of the Hypnerotomachia's mysterious author, Francesco Colonna. Only in December of 1999 did the first complete English translation of the Hypnerotomachia appear in print. Google points me to the Wikipedia site with more information on Hypnerotomachia Poliphili which you can read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili
The Rule of Four is about two Princeton University undergraduates, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, whose lives became entwined because of the Hypnerotomachia. It talked about how their obsession (one as influenced by his father) in deciphering the Renaissance text affected their relationships with each other as well as with the people around them. Their quest to unravel the secret that lies within the ancient book was a long and tedious one that had threatened to stall until the appearance of a long-lost diary. Then what seems to be just an absorbing path to discovery became dangerous when their lives were punctured by a murder of a fellow researcher of the Hypnerotomachia.
The Rule of Four is an intelligent book, with it being based on another extremely intelligent book, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The older book is definitely a work of art in the domain of cryptography. It encompassed techniques such as steganography, ciphers in different languages, and riddles to keys to unlock the hidden messages. The messages were hidden using the method of making the first letters of some words the letters from the plain-text. Understanding this method in fact is how the name of the author is known. The riddles themselves requires in-depth and multi-disciplinary knowledge of Renaissance art, math, and literature. Other suspected methods of encrypting the author's secret messages included using maps or geographical directions though all puzzles ultimately are of the use of words. The encryption is usually two-fold, one for the keys and another the cipher-texts using keys. You have to admire the writers of The Rule of Four for telling one of the best work in crypto-analysis.
The writers also injected many philosophies ranging from Renaissance to their own. It is also one of the themes for the characters of the story relied on their philosophies to decide their paths in life which eventually tore them apart. Friendships are hard to maintain when friends start to drift away from their views on life.
However, to say that The Rule of Four is better than The Da Vinci Code can be an overstatement. Though it excels in the presenting of a fascinating breakthrough and the process involved, it fails in being a thriller. The pace of the story is far too slow. The first 10 chapters are about the background of the two undergraduates and their lives in Princeton. There is also a lot of descriptions of the university that are hard for a non-Princeton student to visualise and leave no impression on a foreign reader like me. The fictional part simply just doesn't add much value to the book.
The book also uses present tense to narrate the story from Tom's point-of-view. I understand that the writers wanted to involve the reader, to make the reader feels like he/she is part of the story. The use of 'I' as the pronoun in the narration makes it as though the reader is either repeating the story or reading someone's diary. However, this doesn't appeal to me but may work for you.
The use of present tense does however serves another purpose. The book contains many flashbacks by Tom and the present tense helps to differentiate the differences in time. But there were still times where I lost track and became confused. IMHO, having a time-stamp on the switch of events will be better for the reader.
So in all, the book is intelligent as well as philosophical. If you have the patience to overcome the initial slow pace of the story, I am sure you will not regret reading The Rule of Four.
[Ultimate Spoiler]
Paul Harris, with the help of Tom and others, managed to decrypt the message hidden by Francesco Colonna and found out that Francesco had hidden a treasure of priceless items in a secret location. The treasure included artwork and literatures by Renaissance artists and scholars of the Italian city Florence. He hid them to prevent the preacher Savonarola from burning them. Savonarola, a fanatic, had burned numerous precious artworks and books in the name of God to purify people's souls. Francesco tried to save as many of Man's beautiful creations as possible from Savonarola. And this is the story within the story of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. As for the Princeton murders of Bill Stein and Vincent Taft, they were committed by Paul's mentor, Richard Curry, to prevent them from stealing Paul's research. Different people in different times but same motive with the same result.
[/Ultimate Spoiler]
The Rule of Four is a way of hiding a message within a grid formed by another message. It consists of a set of four directions and their distance values. Given a message arranged into a grid and given a starting position on the grid, one can find out the hidden message by following the stated Rule of Four. A point on the grid is a letter and by following the Rule of Four letter by letter, one gets the message.
What is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili? According to the historical note given in the book The Rule Of Four, it is one of the most treasured and least understood books of early Western printing. Scholars continue to debate the identity and intent of the Hypnerotomachia's mysterious author, Francesco Colonna. Only in December of 1999 did the first complete English translation of the Hypnerotomachia appear in print. Google points me to the Wikipedia site with more information on Hypnerotomachia Poliphili which you can read at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili
The Rule of Four is about two Princeton University undergraduates, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, whose lives became entwined because of the Hypnerotomachia. It talked about how their obsession (one as influenced by his father) in deciphering the Renaissance text affected their relationships with each other as well as with the people around them. Their quest to unravel the secret that lies within the ancient book was a long and tedious one that had threatened to stall until the appearance of a long-lost diary. Then what seems to be just an absorbing path to discovery became dangerous when their lives were punctured by a murder of a fellow researcher of the Hypnerotomachia.
The Rule of Four is an intelligent book, with it being based on another extremely intelligent book, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The older book is definitely a work of art in the domain of cryptography. It encompassed techniques such as steganography, ciphers in different languages, and riddles to keys to unlock the hidden messages. The messages were hidden using the method of making the first letters of some words the letters from the plain-text. Understanding this method in fact is how the name of the author is known. The riddles themselves requires in-depth and multi-disciplinary knowledge of Renaissance art, math, and literature. Other suspected methods of encrypting the author's secret messages included using maps or geographical directions though all puzzles ultimately are of the use of words. The encryption is usually two-fold, one for the keys and another the cipher-texts using keys. You have to admire the writers of The Rule of Four for telling one of the best work in crypto-analysis.
The writers also injected many philosophies ranging from Renaissance to their own. It is also one of the themes for the characters of the story relied on their philosophies to decide their paths in life which eventually tore them apart. Friendships are hard to maintain when friends start to drift away from their views on life.
However, to say that The Rule of Four is better than The Da Vinci Code can be an overstatement. Though it excels in the presenting of a fascinating breakthrough and the process involved, it fails in being a thriller. The pace of the story is far too slow. The first 10 chapters are about the background of the two undergraduates and their lives in Princeton. There is also a lot of descriptions of the university that are hard for a non-Princeton student to visualise and leave no impression on a foreign reader like me. The fictional part simply just doesn't add much value to the book.
The book also uses present tense to narrate the story from Tom's point-of-view. I understand that the writers wanted to involve the reader, to make the reader feels like he/she is part of the story. The use of 'I' as the pronoun in the narration makes it as though the reader is either repeating the story or reading someone's diary. However, this doesn't appeal to me but may work for you.
The use of present tense does however serves another purpose. The book contains many flashbacks by Tom and the present tense helps to differentiate the differences in time. But there were still times where I lost track and became confused. IMHO, having a time-stamp on the switch of events will be better for the reader.
So in all, the book is intelligent as well as philosophical. If you have the patience to overcome the initial slow pace of the story, I am sure you will not regret reading The Rule of Four.
[Ultimate Spoiler]
Paul Harris, with the help of Tom and others, managed to decrypt the message hidden by Francesco Colonna and found out that Francesco had hidden a treasure of priceless items in a secret location. The treasure included artwork and literatures by Renaissance artists and scholars of the Italian city Florence. He hid them to prevent the preacher Savonarola from burning them. Savonarola, a fanatic, had burned numerous precious artworks and books in the name of God to purify people's souls. Francesco tried to save as many of Man's beautiful creations as possible from Savonarola. And this is the story within the story of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. As for the Princeton murders of Bill Stein and Vincent Taft, they were committed by Paul's mentor, Richard Curry, to prevent them from stealing Paul's research. Different people in different times but same motive with the same result.
[/Ultimate Spoiler]
Sunday, July 3, 2005
"War of the Worlds"
Just came back from watching this latest production by Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg and I only have a three-letter word to sum it up: B-A-D. The story didn’t represent the original version whereby humans exploited the flaw in that the aliens could not breathe our air. Hence there was no war between the two worlds. The movie simply concentrated on Tom’s character hiding and running with his children. The ending was so crappy that it left me with a disgusted feel when the credits rolled. I at first thought that it was a joke on the audience by the director but hell no. It was a waste of my money as the movie is definitely a Tom Cruise showcase rather than a story-telling. And he didn’t even act! In all, I will say the the movie is worth at most two stars, one for Dakota Fanning and one for the special effects.
Fortunately I was able to reach home in time to catch the TV telecast of A.I. to restore some of my faith in Steven Spielberg;
Fortunately I was able to reach home in time to catch the TV telecast of A.I. to restore some of my faith in Steven Spielberg;
Saturday, July 2, 2005
Off-site meeting
I have just reached home about two hours ago, having been in my company's off-site meeting held in Sofitel Palm Resort, Johore Bahru, Malaysia. We arrived there the day before to stay overnight in order to start the meeting early the following day.
The meeting was an annual affair for employees, especially 'blur' ones like me, to listen to the management talk about the company's current status, future expectations, and strengths and weaknesses. There was also a session on motivation of individuals in a team.
Though the off-site meeting was held on a weekend and was exhausting, it was nonetheless necessary for the company to communicate important information to the employees. Besides, we were rewarded with an environment away from the office that was conducive for the employees to bond.
The meeting was an annual affair for employees, especially 'blur' ones like me, to listen to the management talk about the company's current status, future expectations, and strengths and weaknesses. There was also a session on motivation of individuals in a team.
Though the off-site meeting was held on a weekend and was exhausting, it was nonetheless necessary for the company to communicate important information to the employees. Besides, we were rewarded with an environment away from the office that was conducive for the employees to bond.
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