"i will keep flying"

The past weeks had been very tough, and it still is. I've taken more and more responsibility on my shoulder. But now, with me falling ill i can hardly get anything done, my blocked nose and coughing are really bothering me. Regardless, all i want is to make this world a better place, i will do all i can, i will keep going...

"O Lord, i count on You. To remind me over and over again of the strength You will always provide, the countless blessings and miracles that have kept me hoping, going."

Join Hands!

In a world where rarity is of great value, competition has become the main basis of actions. Everyone is trying to outwit each other, trying to be as different as possible. Everyone wants to be the rare commodity: being the one and only one with such and such skills.

For some, this has become the only way to feel their own value, and make a statement of it to the public. To be outwitted will mean a lost of self-esteem and changes the way at which one looks at his/herself; with expectation of similar consequences from the eyes of public, on which one has long places his/her self value.

Not wanting this to happen, many seek to preserve their 'uniqueness', regardless of the means adopted. Hence born the various methods for keeping oneself abreast of others, while at the same time, keeping the rest where they are. The conclusive result being hindrance of development for all by all.

There is one word for Healthy Competition:
Cooperation

a letter to you

Dear everyone,

Please accept my apologies. The number of 'requests (join this join that), actions (poke, hug, etc), etc.' on my facebook is just personally overwhelming. I can't respond to each and everyone. Hence, i will not respond to anything from facebook at all, with exception to 'messages'.

Among the reasons i signed up for an account at facebook was to research into its system, seeking on clarification of the term 'facebook life-style' that i came across in my readings. I came across the statement being in its negative implication, and so is my impression after being on facebook for some time.

Pardon my difference, but i was baffled upon receiving 'a hug' from someone who could as easily give me a REAL hug considering our vicinity! I'm not surprised then as to why some have portrayed how facebook lifestyle can be so detrimental. I appreciate the variety of connectivity features on facebook, yes, they're really good for connecting with friends who are no longer within hand reach, but for the others, please...

And look at the innumerable (to me) applications on facebook that kept many hooked online. The most annoying of all are those applications that require you to invite more and more people to join in. Thus my almost daily email inbox fuss from facebook. Clicking and clicking on each of those newly added applications in response to requests can be a substantial consumption of precious non-renewable time. The time which, if you ask me, i'd rather use to do something REAL.

I want you to know i'm really happy that online community and networking application has helped many to keep in touch with their otherwise long-lost acquittance, friends, and relatives. I share in this part of the experience and am reaping the benefits of it. My thank you to the developers and community. But i beg your consideration that some things ought to be real and sincere.

The same goes to friendster.

I seek your understanding.

Sincerely yours,
Ronald Chua

me studying "quantitative methods"

Final exams coming in less than two weeks, and this is my last attempt at the "quantitative methods" paper. It's my 4^th retake (which is the max limit) and if i don't make it, good bye HUC!

art, life, computer

Sifu showed me how to draw portrait during our lunch about 2 weeks ago. I had only the opportunity to test if i've really learned yesterday. Took less than 2 hours to draw the above, It's not perfect, but there's really a dramatic improvement in my drawing, to my own awe!

Also, when u think Linux can't get any better, it just did! I'm now running on Xubuntu. It gives me drop-shadow and real transparency effects without lagging my machine at all! And i'm running an old laptop: 32MB S3ProSavage video, 640MB RAM and 1.4GHz AMD Athlon. It even sped up my machine performance ^_^

IE stinks (again)

Read here.
If you do web-design and coding, you will know how heart-wrenching it is whenever you see your hard work get deformed in IE, which means you have to go through your codes and fix what IE is not rendering, which means tonnes more unnecessary work and time, and sometimes settling for less-than-what-i-desire design and coding.

So there goes... I can't wait for SitePoint to finish their CSS Reference, so i will know where not to step on the poop, it stinks...

ien wallpaper #01

http://iensstory.blogspot.com/

A pre-release wallpaper, 1024x768. Leave comments / feedbacks please please... (especially sifu!) ^^

PS: ah yes, it hatched much quickly than i thought it would, hehe.

*made purely with Inkscape and GIMP in Ubuntu