kenif's Xanga

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:54:17 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClhNPb3mmpI

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Manchester (2005-2009) Part 2

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:26:30 GMT

One of the things that was memorable during the Orientation Programme was Ceilidh (keylee) -- Scottish social dance involving everybody dancing in a circle. It was just F-U-N, even for a used-to-be-shy guy like me. It is definitely one of the things I haven't done for years that I totally miss. If you throw some Ceilidh music and the ugliest girl in the world in front of me, chances are, I won't hesistate to invite her to dance with me. I just won't look her in the face.

I'd noticed that whenever people were new to a place, they were unusually sociable because they were insecure about the lack of friends. I didn't have this problem for the first week in Manchester, because I was spending most of my time with Hong Kong people like Kathy, Stephanie (whom I knew before Manchester), Kenix and Cathleen (born in UK, but grew up in HK). In fact, I had no idea why I only mentioned girl names in the last sentence. Maybe after spending 15 years in St. Joseph's I found other guys quite different. It was weird because I couldn't speak in the same cocky and sarcastic way we Josephians spoke to each other. Regardless, Patrick and Edward were 2 guys that I hung out with a lot in the first few weeks.

It was saddening because the Orientation Programme was notorious for giving you short-term friends that you wouldn't speak to for the rest of your life. It was either that or I was bad at maintaining friendships, you could say. I am lucky to be still in touch with some of the aforementioned people. But what about Sam(uel), the Malaysian guy, or Rosanna, the dark-skinned girl, or Ernest? Because of great variations in country of origin, culture, course of study, halls of residence or even a lack of mobile phone numbers, these people were never seen again. Maybe everyone was hit by culture shock and wasn't capable to adjust to that yet, and decided the best way was to forget.

When everyone parted after the Orientation Programme, insecurity started to hit me. In Hulme Hall, there weren't many Hong Kong people, or Asians, for that matter. I took every chance to talk to every human being in the most random ways possible. In the queue in the dinning hall, in the laundry room, in the loo you name it. The worst part was, I had never been good at memorizing faces or names, leading to some who-the-hell-are-you moments. As if that wasn't bad enough, I asked everyone for their MSN just like what we did in Hong Kong. I think if there was ever any vote on who the most awkward guy was, I would probably top the list with around 56 votes (60 residents in my block).

At the beginning, I would go to the dinning hall with my British hallmates, but I hadn't been in the UK long enough to hang out with them. (Not to mention that most of the stuff I was interested in was American, not British.) I felt that I was trying to be something I wasn't. Gradually, I turned to my fellow Asian friends like JJ, Anita and Le Suen, Esther and Edward (whom I met at Orientation). While I was sad I couldn't make many British friends, I was more comfortable with Asian people. At least, they wouldn't refuse to have Dim Sum with you.

At my course, it was pretty much the same. With a self-given mission of trying to learn about foreign culture, I tried talking to every foreigner. Similarly, since I was always talking about American stuff, the British people were probably not too impressed. Perhaps they thought I was being racist. Anyway, I also turned to my Asian coursemates like Jasley, Sebastian (whose name confused me at the beginning, asked him to spell it about 3 times), Alvin, Vincent and Leanne. We had lunch together almost daily. Cooked food was still much better than a mere sandwich or baguette. Tai Pan was our weekly gathering point.

My British-less life came to a halt in the 2nd semester when next-door hallmate Helen realised I was Christian and invited me to her church, Sale Salvation Army. With homemade British meals weekly and just one Chinese person among 100+ people, I abruptly learnt a lot about British culture and perhaps more surprisingly, food. There was actually British food! I mean, British food was rarely found anywhere but Britain. It was weird considering the British Empire covered one-fourth of the world.

Since then, I started joining the Christian Union at Hulme Hall, and met more British people. I found out that Christian people were more likely to talk to you if you were a Christian. This is probably one of the things I disliked, because non-Christians weren't bad people. Thinking about how I wouldn't know those people if I weren't a Christian, sudden disappointment clouded my mind - it's just like falling out of love.

Not quite sure whether I'm talking about the past or the present now.

(to be continued)

Manchester (2005-2009) Part 1

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:41:57 GMT

So, here I am in 2009. New residents for the next academic year are starting to fill Oak House. It spells ending for expired students like me. Due to a mistake, the housekeeping at Oak House has twice broken into my room, thinking that I've moved out. Well, I guess expiry is inevitable. Ten days later my student status will be gone.

When the end comes, one usually thinks about how it all began.

"Look at that smile on your face." My mom said at the departure hall in the airport. "Excited to finally leave us?"

While I wasn't sure how to respond to the above question, I guess it was more because of a dream come true than anything else. I have no idea why I started having this dream of studying abroad in primary school. It might be because I never found studying fun I wanted a change of atmosphere.

So me and my sister flew to Manchester safely, where we parted and I joined a gang of people in the Mancheter purple top. We were taken to a place called Owens Park where all the international freshers stayed.

I still remember one of the first surprises in Manchester. It was when Stephanie Law told me not to speak Chinese when foreigners are around because "it's rude".

I was also surprised when there was a talk about the "toilets in Britain". They were telling people how to flush and how to use toilet paper to wipe, since obviously, only Britain was civilised enough to use toilet paper and all other countries were in stone age. Maybe it was a comedy, but I must've missed the part where it was funny.

There was a lot of talk about the free lunch that we were going to get at the Orientation programme. To our disappointment it was a sandwich, a fruit, a juice, a bag of crisps, and a bar of chocolate. It took us (or just me) a while to get used to not having cooked food for lunch. You know, BBQ pork rice, sweet corn and fish rice, fried noodles, steak in black pepper with rice, minestrone and the like. Nope, not sweet and sour chicken.

On one of our first days, we got bored with the official programme so we walked to town and back, which took us one hour and fifty minutes. Walking through the Curry Mile, our feeling was "Is this Britain? What's going on?". Like a bunch of tourists, we took pictures of everything.

There was also a coach tour which took us to Salford. It was just amazing because otherwise you wouldn't go there. Unless you're a medic who needs to go to Hope Hospital or something.

Despite the lack of hugely exciting activities, the feeling of being new in a city was incomparable to anything. Surely, I felt a little nervous and insecure because of the uncertainties, but the discovery process was mind blowing - just like falling in love.

Not quite sure whether I'm talking about 4 years ago or the present now.

(to be continued)

P.S. The author is embarrassed by the level of immaturity of the entries he wrote 4 years ago.

Manchester (2005-2009) Part 0

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:54:10 GMT

My time in Manchester started in Owen Park, and loosely speaking, is going to end right there (as Oak House is literally in touching distance). It's a strange feeling. Every time I walk past the Owens Park reception scenes of the Orientation happened exactly 4 years ago flashes into my mind. It was then 2005 but, in the blink of an eye, here I am in 2009.

(to be continued)

Last Night on Earth :(

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:59:55 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHGmRcNlT9g

(Green Day)

I text a postcard, sent to you
Did it go through?
Sending all my love to you.
You are the moonlight of my life every night
Giving all my love to you
My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you.

With every breath that I am worth
Here on Earth
I'm sending all my love to you.
So if you dare to second guess
You can rest assured
That all my love's for you

My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
I'm sending all my love to you.

My beating heart belongs to you
I walked for miles 'til I found you
I'm here to honor you
If I lose everything in the fire
Did I ever make it through?

There's No Solution - Sum 41

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:27:15 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB2IY0DsYeE

Maybe nothing else will ever be so clear
Or maybe that's only my fear
If just for one day I wish I could disappear
Just take me far from here
Maybe I'd find out nothing new
Maybe I'd end up just like you

There's no solution (no solution)
Give me truth to my conviction
Is my own confusion (my confusion)
Reality or fiction
Am I out of my mind?

The constant pressure that keeps hanging over me (hanging over me)
It makes me feel so empty
It's more than anything that I could ever be (I could ever be)
What else could you take from me
It's getting harder to relate
Don't want to make the same mistakes

There's no solution (no solution)
Give me truth to my conviction
Is my own confusion (my confusion)
Reality or fiction
Am I out of my mind?

It took me so long to find out it's right
there in front of me
Too close to see
What I thought was true
I see right through what's killing you

There's no solution (I can see)
Give me truth to my conviction
Is my own confusion (that I feel)
Reality or fiction
Am I out of my mind?

So maybe nothing else will ever be so clear
Or maybe that's only my fear (Am I out of my mind?)
If just for one day I wish I could disappear
Just take me far from here (Am I out of my mind?)

I have swine flu

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:55:03 GMT

flatmate. Had. A.

I had a "swine flu" flatmate, who was next door to me.

I apologise for causing over-excitement, nervousness or nausea. But this is how you resurrect a dying blog. Actually, the news of having a swine flu next door neighbour is enough to cause the above symptoms. For some. Those paranoids are probably too scared to use the Internet so it is beyond my scope of concern.

Yesterday, I was trying to work on a rectangle detection algorithm for my Speedy Sketching application. I was quickly annoyed that one of my flatmates was listening to his phone on loudspeaker in the hallway. For quietness's sake, get a room, I thought. It wasn't long until I needed a cup of English tea so I threw open the door in a quantum of annoyance. Cool, I could also find out why the heck someone had to speak in the corridor when reception was undoubtedly better in one's room.

"Alright?" I said. To my surprise, it wasn't any of my flatmates, but his dad, listening gingerly on the phone. His arm was propping xxxxx's door open, but he looked as if he was trying to stay away from the room. While walking past his room, I had a peek into his room and xxxxx murmured something, probably saying "Alright, Ken?" but I didn't hear. He was lying face down in bed, meaning he was probably ill, but with his mom standing behind his dad and his brother living upstairs, they'd probably got this, I would imagine. I went upstairs to get my cup of tea and moments later, his mom appeared in the kitchen.

"You need to be careful, cause your flatmate might have swine flu!" His mom said.
"What? Really?" was my usual surprised response.
"Yeah, xxxxx." I knew it was him, so it didn't help at all. But it wasn't like I asked a very good question. Two questions. Anyway, I just wanted to get back to my room as soon as possible. As his entire family was there and they were probably on the NHS helpline, it would be stupid to assume this would not be sorted by the time I made my next cup of tea. Xxxxx would go home or something. He'd probably be fine. I'd be fine. Not so much about my project though, so I'd better concentrate.

An hour passed and I needed another cuppa. His mom was there so I asked, "Is he just a 'suspected' case or what?"
"Well, he's probably got it."

At about 7, his non-identical twin brother was in the kitchen so I questioned, "do we need to let them know or something?"
"They're not coming anymore." his Asian girlfriend answered, but sadly that wasn't the answer to my question.
"Xxxxx is getting the tablets." He added.
"So, is he gone?" I asked.
"No, he's downstairs."
"I'm not going in there!!" His Asian girlfriend was quick to add excitement.
"Is he just gonna stay in his room or what?" I was surprised he wasn't going to go home.
"Yeah, but he's not coming out!"
"Not even to the loo?"
"Well, he would need the loo!"
"Just give him one of those bottles!!!!" The girl joked.

Since my intended question was never answered, I said, "So, have you let them know yet? Like the reception?"
"Argh, I don't know..." his twin brother said. Still half-focused on my project, I worked on another 10 lines of code. But actually, I couldn't concentrate because it seemed his parents, twin brother or himself hadn't taken the responsibility of notifying the halls of residence staff or even, his flatmates. I knew about it only because I was walking down the hallway! There was a saying that if you knew something, you were partially responsible. I thought, if his family had done nothing, then as his next door flatmate I would be the next in line to do something. Somebody had got to do it. It was just disappointing it had to be me.

I walked to the Owens Park reception and the staff promptly reached the desk.
"Erm, there's something I think you need to know...one of my flatmates has swine flu"
"Oh, really! Oh, wow, where do you live?"
I provided my details as well as the patients' and all of a sudden it felt like I was an eye-witness in a criminal case. The warden was soon notified, and more questions were asked.
"So... are you okay about you reporting this to us?" the Warden asked.
"Well, someone's got to do it....if I did it, then I did it! "
"Well surely we can use the excuse of..." [probably talking about anonymity but I didn't hear]
"I'm sure he won't mind. There's only 5 people in the flat anyway...it has to be me" I interrupted him mid-sentence, beause really, there wasn't anything to be afraid of. Also, I was always the guy who was working his ass off in the flat all day, and it just had to be me if the flat suddenly exploded in a plume of flames. No questions asked.
"I'm disappointed even though his mom was here, they didn't make an attempt to tell us!"
"Well, that's why I had to do this" I smirked.
The warden spoke to Xxxxx directly, and then gave me the keys to a new flat. The Spanish girl, whose name remains a mystery to me because it's Spanish, moved without hesistation, and that took her 10 minutes. I was kinda annoyed I had had to move twice in less than 2 months time, but hey, it was time to leave my flat and breathe some fresh air. This might seem a funny joke but truth be told, I had only left my flat for groceries for the past month. This is how busy I trully am.

The warden did mention a "false alarm" incident in our residence recently. Whether Xxxxx was also a false alarm would remain a mystery unless he was tested, because swine flu symptoms are the same as seasonal flu. I would take no chances though. Not when you were 30 days from finishing your education once and for all. I have been desperate to kill it off, and I wondered why many of my friends are applying for a masters.

When I was just starting my evacuation, Xxxxx left the loo, said "Alright, Ken!" and went straight back to his room. No hands were washed in the process. He'd probably not touched his "Wii remote", I thought, or anything for that matter. Abruptly I knew I solved the biggest mystery of the flat - The mystery of the wet toilet seat. Swine flu or not, it was essentially the best excuse ever to change flat.

Get well soon.

I Did Something I Didn't (contains strong language)

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:10:47 GMT

Game: Counter-Strike: Source
Played 9.8 hours past 2 weeks

My university supervisor, my parents and even myself won't be too happy about 10 hours of game playing in 2 weeks when I should be doing my dissertation. Anger and disapproval are totally acceptable -- if the above person was me.

On 12 July 2009 23:46, I received the following e-mail:

Dear xxxxx@xxxx.com,

This email message confirms that your Steam account password has been successfully changed. We are sending this notice to ensure the privacy and security of your Steam account. If you authorized this change, no further action is necessary. If you did not authorize this change, or if you need additional help with your account, please follow this link to the Steam Support site and submit a request for assistance:
[truncated]

At that moment, I was indeed doing my university dissertation and I abruptly realised my account had been stolen. It wasn't like I cared about Counter-Strike as much as 4 years ago, and surely losing 3 games and a 6-digit steam ID was no big deal. But I had to take back what was mine.

Providing my credit card details to the Support staff I managed to reclaim my lost account. In relief I logged on to my account and it wasn't long until someone talked to me:

oneLove #ne0nc0re: wtf
oneLove #ne0nc0re: who is this
DABEARS ! <3: well, i have no idea
DABEARS ! <3: my account was stolen earlier
oneLove #ne0nc0re: how did u get my account!!!
oneLove #ne0nc0re: WTF
oneLove #ne0nc0re: BRO
oneLove #ne0nc0re: I BOUGHT THAT
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !!!!!!!
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
oneLove #ne0nc0re: !
DABEARS ! <3: what, lol
oneLove #ne0nc0re: i bought your accoutn from some kid
oneLove #ne0nc0re: and you fucking stole it back
DABEARS ! <3: whats my account?
DABEARS ! <3: username?
oneLove #ne0nc0re: dude
oneLove #ne0nc0re: xxxxx@xxxx.com [censored for spam reasons]
DABEARS ! <3: yep
oneLove #ne0nc0re: i was on your acccount
oneLove #ne0nc0re: i bought it
DABEARS ! <3: where did u buy it?
oneLove #ne0nc0re: on steamtraders
oneLove #ne0nc0re: please give it back :'(
DABEARS ! <3: i was wondering how this kid took my account
DABEARS ! <3: well, not my problem
oneLove #ne0nc0re: please give it back
oneLove #ne0nc0re: ive had it for a while
DABEARS ! <3: LOL
DABEARS ! <3: like 24 hours
oneLove #ne0nc0re: like
oneLove #ne0nc0re: no
oneLove #ne0nc0re: like a week
oneLove #ne0nc0re: why all of a sudden did u steal it bacl
DABEARS ! <3: so u didnt change the password until yesterday ?
oneLove #ne0nc0re: no
oneLove #ne0nc0re: someone tried to hack me
DABEARS ! <3: woot
oneLove #ne0nc0re: why wont u give it back
DABEARS ! <3: it's mine
DABEARS ! <3: ask your seller to refund
oneLove #ne0nc0re: lol im jk
DABEARS ! <3: ..
oneLove #ne0nc0re: You're bot netted kid
DABEARS ! <3: how? :o
oneLove #ne0nc0re: Your internet wont be up
oneLove #ne0nc0re: for a week or two
oneLove #ne0nc0re: then ill resubnet you and botnet you again
oneLove #ne0nc0re: You little cunt
DABEARS ! <3: o..k
oneLove #ne0nc0re: You will laugh when your internet goes down
DABEARS ! <3: :D
oneLove #ne0nc0re: Whats funny.
DABEARS ! <3: so u were pretending to be da bears , if it was u who took my account
DABEARS ! <3: THAT was funny
oneLove #ne0nc0re: I am DABEARS
oneLove #ne0nc0re: kid
oneLove #ne0nc0re: get good
DABEARS ! <3: proof
DABEARS ! <3: if u can prove ure da bears, how about i give u this account back
DABEARS ! <3: plus any game of your choce
DABEARS ! <3: chouce
DABEARS ! <3: choIce
DABEARS ! <3: on me
DABEARS ! <3: anyway, whats the seller's name?
DABEARS ! <3: how much is this acc. worth :o ?
DABEARS ! <3: $50 ?

Note: "Da bears" is the alias of a professional gamer.

Well, the lesson of the story is really to take good care of your computer. As a computer scientist, I have the following suggestions:

Install anti-virus/anti-spyware software and scan at least once a week with the latest definitions
Keep your operating system updated
If anything suspicious happens (e.g. if you see a pop-up when you're not doing anything / if your computer is extremely slow), backup your information, format your computer and change all passwords (this is the fastest way. Moreover, most malicious programs are NOT detected by anti-virus software so you're better off formatting)
Use a secure Internet browser - Firefox. Keep it updated
Clear browser cache regularly
Do not open random files, especially .exe files ( .jpg is also infectable ). Scan anything you download.
E-mails are unencrypted so refrain from sending sensitive information over them

I did all of the above and still managed to have my Steam account stolen. If you never do any of the above, please do yourself a favour and refrain from using Internet banking.

Finally, for people who have a Mac, please stop saying there is no virus on your system. This mentality will actually make you more vulerable. So, do you think Macs are a different type of computer made of a different type of silicon? Criminals have less incentive to make viruses for Mac because it is less popular. Simple as that.

71.875%

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:39:16 GMT

(Computer Science) Computer Animation 71%
(Computer Science) Computer Security 87%
(Business Management) IS Strategy and Enterprise Systems 64%
(Business Management) IT Trends 73%

(Computer Science) Project Initial Report 71% x 2
(Computer Science) Mobile Computing 67%
(Computer Science) Advanced Machine Vision 71%

BSc1: 60.666
BSc2: 61.750
BSc3: 63.250
MSc: 71.875%

Will require 66.25% in disseration for 1st class
Edit: Dissertation needs 70% for distinction
Undergraduate dissertation: 66% :[

In seat 484...

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:57:45 GMT

... sits Kenneth "KeniF" Lam. Apparently, only 483 seats were allocated at the Armitage Centre today.

The university were notified of my change in module a month ago but still they were unable to assign me a proper seat. This is ridiculous.

World-class university still? How can they accommodate a world-class student like me? :D

In related news, my undergraduate dissertation has been cited by a Spanish Research Group:

Some people have tried to extend SodaRace to enable other ways of competition, like Pak's [Lam's] SodaSumo (2008), a sort of wrestling game for SodaPlay creatures.

P.S. Being too humble is not good for one's confidence - I've been there before.