Wonderfully Simple

Trudging through this week with many questions in my head, I need to get through this week at least, as do my peers. All the best, everyone.

It's terrifying to speak to someone who's pissed off.

If you don't like to argue, don't. Don't do it while you're angry, especially.

When you speak, don't ever speak like you're the superior. Everyone is equal. People don't like to be talked down to. Everyone deserves an opinion.

If you start to get agitated, clench your teeth, and say friendly things. Think positively. Walk away if you have to.

And never give up on keeping your cool and keeping things amicable.

Specifically, when someone says "just my opinion. not here to argue =) your way's fine," It could be that he/she's just offering his take on things, but accepts the other party's methods. He/she's could be trying to assuage any hostility, and keeping channels open for further discussion. Heated arguments = Very Bad™.

That depends on context of course. But give the person the benefit of the doubt, when you can. Especially when you don't know the person well enough.

A statement like "if people are getting confused over this... i think something's wrong" can very easily be misread. It would be prudent to rephrase it as "I think we should look at this again and see if we can make things clearer."

Just some thoughts and recent lessons.

The one word far on top now. There's things I could say but I don't want to, not anymore, because it's pointless.



Here I am, wondering if my words carry any weight anymore.

Games Convention Asia Conference.

This year they made it free for students on the 20th, so I grabbed the opportunity to go, along with some of my friends from school. The talks provided a lot of insight to the games industry, from what it takes to get and stay inside, to the trends of the industry.

The panel at the end of the day was unequivocally the most fruitful, though. Titled "What companies look for in Fresh Graduates", it served to answer many of the questions before I had even thought of them. Hearing all the input from the panel made me think about which area I was truly interested in, out of all the aspects of game development, or whether my niche was in game development even. It gave me this sense of conviction that I needed to start off some really serious thinking about the future. I'm still looking around for more information, and reflecting on what I can or should do before I graduate.

Right now I'm thinking of what to do next summer break - to go on an internship, or to help out in FOCC again. I'm a little torn, but I think 2 years in NUSSU might be enough already. This is still far away, so there's plenty of time to consider.

Anyway, recess week is here, which is going to be followed by 3 midterm tests, and approaching project deadlines. It won't be much of a rest, because of CCA stuff, and the pile of undone work.

Wall.

The process of exchange of information - Communication. It is represented in myriad ways, but perhaps, the mode we most often associate communication with is the spoken or written word. Ironically, according to some sources, less than 10% of information is actually communicated via the words in speech. The rest goes to the vocal aspects (pitch, tone etc.) and to a larger extent, the body language of the speaker.

Nevertheless, without the written word, you wouldn't be seeing this short, non-academic treatise here today. I just want to talk about interpersonal communication, and in particular, my take on it's (obvious) relevance in relationships.

With the advent of the Internet and the handphone, as well as innovations like IM clients and SMS, some boundaries have been broken, and the world has shrunk. But at the same time, people are also hiding behind veils now, and people are sacrificing the personal touch in favour of the convenience that technology has brought. At times, talking on the phone or chatting away on MSN just doesn't have the level of, for the lack of a better word, connectedness that sharing face-to-face has.

But why is this so? I mentioned that a vast majority of information was conveyed via non-verbal communication - and this is, in my opinion, the prime reason for the difference. The smallest nuances of movement (the widening of eyes, the knotting of eyebrows, for example) in reaction to what's being shared is at times more telling than whatever verbal response that can be mustered. Of course, our interpretation of such bodily movements is in itself an assumption, and that is the next point I'll be going on to.

When we see or hear things, we deduce logical conclusions based on facts - and some assumptions. The formation of these assumptions often comes from patterns that we've observed, and since we're talking about people here, it is in the behaviour of an individual. Some assumptions are safe to make, while others are poisoned. The unspoken assumptions are the ones that always bring about mayhem and confusion when they are wrong. "Some things are better left unsaid," people say. How I disagree with this. I like things crystal clear and without doubt. I'm not sure how many people are comfortable with this, because some people are just anaemic to cold, hard truths. Some also, aren't "cruel" enough to bring down such dreadful words, in case they shatter the fragile hearts of those that they care for. The chinese saying "苦口良药， 忠言逆耳" has a lot of meaning in it. Bitter pills are a must for growth, both for the individual's character and soul, and for the relationship between the two parties.

When we refuse to utter the aforementioned truths, a wall of silence is often created. However, this wall isn't very high. The lofty, less meaningful chatter often goes unimpeded, while the down-to-earth honesties are kept in. As a result, things don't seem like they're as dire as they actually are. That is, until a hurricane comes along and shears all the mist away, leaving the multiple ignored fractures obvious. It is hard to recover from such a state.

That's not to say that silence doesn't have its uses. Silence is the best remedy for anger usually. The time off allows people to reflect and rethink their likely irrational decisions.




I've always believed that communication is key for a relationship to survive. Honest communication. The kind where both parties are not afraid to speak what's on their mind, no matter the consequence. Because, if some matters are going to sunder the relationship, it must've been so serious that the other party has a right to know what's going on. "What doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger." Yet another anecdote that makes plenty of sense to me. In this context, trials by fire will only serve to test and temper a true love.

This incoherent diatribe is nothing more than personal rambling from yours truly. It's not a GP essay, and while some examples here and there would've done well to reinforce my points, I was just plain lazy =)

I realised I haven't given an account of daily happenings in some time now. Right now I'm quite satisfied with what I sought out to do and accomplished today. Skipped a lecture in the morning, but I made up for it later in the day by copying notes (Thanks Shu Ann!).

So my first lesson was the tutorial for the same module as the lecture - Reading Visual Images. Crudely put, it's picture comprehension - on steroids. Yeah, do you remember the daunting oral examinations back in primary school? Now imagine having to describe a work of art... and every sliver of background information related to it. That's the module for you. Well, it's interesting for sure, but I think it's a little heavy on the memory.

Anyway, I'm also doing a module that requires me to draw stuff, to understand the Principles of Visual Communication. Another interesting module, but the grading is purely continual assessment. I just finished an assignment that required me to take an object, and simplify it to a pictogram, in 5 stages of abstraction. It should appear on my blog for the module soon.

Apart from academic stuff, I also confirmed the Mid-Autumn Gathering for 05/03 - a yearly tradition we've been having since our JC days heh. It's been 5 fabulous years and still counting now. Time has passed inexorably, but we're still very much in constant contact with each other. Once again, a toast to this uncanny group of friends - 05.

There's a reason to everything.

Anger and exasperation are emotions that shouldn't be repressed. If something made you angry, then it must have penetrated right through you and hit a raw nerve. If it didn't, then it didn't mean anything to you to begin with. Situations do require some level of tolerance, however.

It's a time bomb waiting to go off, and I fear for the day you get scarred playing with fire. Because then, I would be mortally guilty for not having been able to counsel you.

Uh, the song is to illustrate a point in general. Don't read into the context.

I re-read this short rant on a friend's blog, and it reminded me of some lessons on life, and on interacting with people. Lessons which I should heed, I guess.

Thoughts in our mind, and feelings in our heart are not crafted from words. If anything tangible, they are pulses of electric current swirling in our brains. Words are just an approximate description of them, and with all approximations, there is inevitably a margin of error. Sometimes, this deviation can be severe enough to spark off a misunderstanding.

It's always useful to take some time off The Daily Routine™, and take a step back to observe everything in a detached state, just so we don't lose sight of the big picture - the things that matter.

It's time.

...But not out?

I caught WALL-E last Thursday, with a close friend. In all its layers of themes, it's presented in a very simple, understandable and delightful way.

The first, most obvious plot device is the love story between WALL-E and EVE. It's pretty much a love-at-first-sight, one-sided love affair at the start, with WALL-E having preconceived ideas about affection and love when EVE appeared in his mundane and lonely life as the last surviving mobile trash compactor on Earth. In short, EVE gave WALL-E a reason to strive for greater things.

In an ironic analogy, I'm perhaps currently feeling like how WALL-E did. But that's besides the point. WALL-E did what he could to try and impress EVE in ways both hidden and plainly obvious, with the latter not having much of an impact at all. In reality, I feel that this is usually the case. The unseen things can sometimes matter the most. However, the interaction between intention and action needs some equilibrium and restraint at times, given the circumstances.

Next is the idea about pollution, and saving the Earth. In the show, Earth has become a desolate wasteland, a giant landfill. This is slowly becoming a reality, till we individually take measures to slow the process down, and allow technology to reverse the flow of things.

And then we have the notion of human degeneracy and decadence. 700 years in the future, the humans on board the Axiom have all become rotund mockeries of our present frames, both physically and mentally. Being in space does cause gradual loss of bone mass, but it's hard to imagine that all of them did little to combat the fats aka exercise.

Related to that is their dependency on machines. Technology in the show has become so advanced that it governs every physical aspect of their lives, from getting around, to obtaining their daily needs. Everything has become as simple as a voice command. And therein lies the poison: The comfort has lulled them into a sense of complacency. People need to be put through the grinder to better themselves, and that holds true for every situation. When you stop doing something, you lose the ability to do it after some time. Just like how you need to practise on the piano or violin ever so often to at least maintain your aptitude at handling the instrument.

Since we're talking about machines, there's also the plot arc about sentient machines imposing their superiority on humans, a la The Matrix and I-Robot. Auto (the Axiom's main computer), determined that it had to follow some dumb directive, and the captain of the ship was powerless to stop the machine's actions. Auto eventually did things in a forceful manner to exercise control and dominance over the captain and the rest of the inhabitants of the ship. This perhaps is still a faraway dream, because artificial sentience hasn't been achieved yet, and I think it'll take many years of research to even come close to it.

A minor theme was the prevalence of the mass media to innoculate people with opinions about things. WALL-E got his perception of love from watching Hello, Dolly!. Similarly, many people nowadays have, bluntly speaking, watched too much TV and formed unrealistic and usually exaggerated concepts about many things. At the core of things though, the finer points still hold true. E.g., love is a mutual feeling, as shown in the musical. All around the remaining Earth and on the Axiom too, you can find loud billboards advertising the many Buy n Large products, enticing them to try things out.

In the technical sense, WALL-E was marvellous. Compared to the earlier CGI films, there has been such a monumental leap in depicting photorealistic scenes, and it sort of excites me to know that I'll (hopefully) be working on similar things in the future. But the path there is still riddled with many twists and turns, of course.