#2: Fly Me To The Outer Space

20th January, 2011

We had a space shuttle in our world. Strictly speaking, it was not exactly a space shuttle. It was some kind of commercial plane, but with a rather sleek body shape. The plane was capable of flying to an altitude so high that you could exit the atmosphere for a very brief view of the outer space. I was lucky to be one of the passenger of this plane.

The plane could only fly past the thin blue line, the line that separates the Earth's upper atmosphere and the outer space, albeit for a very short period of time - less than 5 minutes. I boarded the plane along with other passengers, and we prepared to take off.

The take-off was pretty smooth, unlike those of conventional space shuttle. To exit the Earth's atmosphere, the plane needed to thrust forward into the sky for about 10 minutes. The plane was equipped with state-of-the-art life support system and an artificial gravity system, so that when we exited the Earth's atmosphere, and thus the gravitational pull, we would not float around in zero gravity, nor would we run out of oxygen. So it was very safe for untrained personnel to board the plane.

After about 10 minutes, the sky slowly turned dark. We exited the Earth's atmosphere, to which I was greeted with an indescribable breathtaking view. I saw the Moon, with my naked eyes, for the very first time, hanging against a dark starry space backdrop. I saw Mars, too, with its unique red hue surface. Then there was Saturn with its trademark ring of debris. It was stunning. Absolutely stunning.

I quickly took out my camera phone to take a snapshot, but before I could do that, I heard a beeping sound. I turned around to find out where it came from, but my vision started to blur. Before I knew it, I felt a hard yank from my back.

I opened my eyes, I was lying down. Alas, it was nothing but a dream.

Back To Normal Life

The final product, wireless LED light!

Now that almost all the stress are over, finally there is time to get back to blogging. I have been busy for the past month, doing coursework and projects and reports, but now, finally now, they are all over. Project went smoothly, at least we managed to make a wireless LED, successfully demonstrated the wireless energy transfer. Though our original goal was to make a wireless handphone charger, in the end we could not make it. The voltage in the receiving side is sufficient, but there is not enough current.

An analogy would be: A ball is lifted up to a height of 1 meter (potential difference, voltage) in Moon, but the gravity is too low, so the ball drops gently down on the ground (current), as opposed to a hard smack back in Earth.

Reports, though mostly last minutes effort, are done and submitted too. For the past couple of months, we finally feel... free.

Now all that is left is an over-difficult calculator. We are to design, build, and program a simple calculator by the end of this semester. Sounds simple, but we were wrong. The microcontroller unit (MCU) we use is a very simple 4-bit processor, which means it does not have the ability to digest all the information and data needed to make a over simple calculator, one that does only simple arithmetic calculation (+-*/). And we thought of adding the sine cosine tangent function into it at the beginning. How foolish we were.

I picked up Java programming out of curiosity and fun in the mid of this semester, but I had not have the time to practice it. I stopped somewhere in the month of November 2010, and I tried to pick it up in January 2011, only to find that I had forgotten almost everything. Java is a very powerful programming language, able to write web applications, games, and maybe some practical applications like face detection.

Hello World!

My ultimate goal is to make a simple 2D game, maybe something like a Tetris or PacMan or maybe a scrolling RPG game. I will try come up with a new idea if I managed to make one. A new genre.
So far I still have not managed to make a simple comparison program. -.-"

I have learnt a bit of C programming language back in first semester, so it was not very difficult for me to pick up Java, which is mostly based on C. Hasif has been asking me to join the university's robotic group to build an intelligent rescue robot, but I rejected.

Sure it sounds fun. Sure it may be useful for my future. But I realized that I am not very interested in that. I realized that I will not do things I am not interested in. I like programming, but not this. I prefer to work alone.

So now what is left is:

1. to build a simple calculator before Chinese New Year.
2. to brace through the Taylor's Engineering Fair 2011.
3. to do well in the final examinations.
4. to celebrate a happy and joyful Chinese New Year.
5. to get well soon. And I mean it.

And so, back to my Java programming! And study. And projects.

By The Time I Close My Eyes

By the time I close my eyes, I see the past.
I see the wrongs I had done.
But I cannot see the good I had given.

By the time I close my eyes, I see the present.
I see the people around me.
But I cannot see you.

By the time I close my eyes, I see the future.
I see what will I become in the next ten years.
But I cannot see where am I going.

By the time I close my eyes, I see you.
I see you so clearly.
As if you are in front of me.

By the time I close my eyes, I see myself.
I see me hiding in the dark.
I see me running away.
Away from everything.
Away from life.

By the time I close my eyes, I see us.
I see us walking together, towards the sunset.
I see us smiling.
I see us happy.

By the time I close my eyes, I feel happy.
Yet I feel sad.
And lonely.

By the time I close my eyes, I feel fear.
I wished I hadn't closed them.
I fear of losing my sight on you.
I fear of not being able to see.


By the time I close my eyes, I wonder.
Will I ever open them... again?

New Year, New Resolution, New Wishlist

It is year 2011 already, and I am still living in 2010. So it is time for Duno to update this blog. :)
Apart from visual updates, of course. :D

I remember on 1st January, I heard something on the radio. The deejays were discussing about long- and short-term resolution. It is a very common thing to hear someone says, "My new year resolutions are...", or "This year I'm going to...". These are examples of long-term goal; you made yourself a promise to lose weight in this whole year. One of the deejays argues that this long-term goal will not do you any good as you will not be motivated to do the same thing the whole year. Come to think of it, how many times have we heard other people ranting about unachieved resolution at the end of the year? "Oh ya, I told myself to lose weight this year, but in the end it's the other way around."

Short-term goals, on the other hand, are little achievement we accumulate throughout the year. I set myself a target this month, a target of getting a good result. Then I will be motivated to work towards it and achieve it at the end of the day. Personally I think this is a better way to set goals rather than planning way ahead in the beginning of the year. The short-term deejay made this good point here.

In Chinese, there is a saying that goes, "Plans will never beat changes." Whatever we planned ahead may have a chance of something changes. Someone planned to lose weight, but his lifestyle changed some day in the future. Suddenly food price dropped, and food came into his life like ants converging towards a candy. Or someone planned to travel overseas, but on that day he had something important to do. These scenarios are way too common.

So I will be setting myself some short-term New Year Resolutions instead. And here is the list, unsorted:

1. Get a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of higher than 3.20 (Currently at 3.00)
2. Complete the application of credit transfer to RMIT or QUT (80% done)
3. Get fat (again)
4. Do well in the coming final exams (Before Chinese New Year. Argh!)
5. Stay healthy (seriously)

Staying healthy will be my top priority. Ever since I moved into university life, my lifestyle changes drastically. Now I do not have my meals regularly. I drink less water. I seldom eat breakfast, due to my laziness to prepare. I seldom exercise, because either there is no partner to play with or no time. I skipped dinner a few times. And I keep having this unrecoverable flu and sore throat and cough. The CGPA goal will be the second priority.

And how does a New Year be completed without a wish list? :P

1. XBox360 or PS3 (Optional)
2. Digital video camera (Yeah!)
3. New RC Helicopter (Big Lama is down)

A rather short one because I do not want to request too much. I wanted the video camera quite a long time before already. It must be fun to go around record what I see everyday, taking a "montage" to the next level. ^^

Hope my wishes can be fulfilled, at least one. :)