Friday, August 29, 2008

CO2Stats - Making websites green

An interesting situation our world is in.

On one hand, you have massive technological innovation, which often results in massive environmental depletion - and on the other, you have large groups of people banding together to fight for the environment, and fight for a turn in the direction our technological innovation takes us.

On one hand, you have huge globalisation, connecting people together in every manner possible - and on the other, you have huge growth in the power of the individual; individualism, if you will; fighting for the belief that each and every one of us can make a difference.

Enter CO2stats, a fusion of the 2 fights above. Based on the theory that a website has a carbon footprint, measured by the servers that power it, computers used by visitors and the amount of data that it moves, CO2stats is setting out to "neutralise" that by making sure that that amount of energy comes from renewable sources. Yeah, complex stuff.

Ultimately, it boils down to this: people nowadays are pioneering ideas to make this Earth last, and to make sure that it lasts well. Are you interested in contributing to this phase of testing out what works or what doesn't? If so, sign up and tell me how it goes.

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Talking The Winner's Way

The full title of the book is actually Talking the Winner's Way: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Business and Personal Relationships.
I bought this book about 5 years ago, I think; and on a whim (for toilet reading, if you must know), I decided to flip through it again. It pulled me in instantly - I promptly finished it cover to cover again in a few days.

An incredibly easy read, full of little anecdotes and simple-to-remember guidelines, it's an excellent book for anyone who's interested in improving their communication skills. After all, without effective communication you can't get too much done - you're limited by your own constraints, be it physical or mental or time or whatever. It's also filled with ways to improve your leadership skills and general people skills (technically, that's all "communication" but whatever).

Highly recommended. I love books you can easily pick up for a quick glance and pick up a few useful things. Make shitting educational!

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Acro-Yoga

The first time I ever got wind of such a thing was through Teresa Chian, founder of Living Arts Dance Studio and fellow performer for the recent match. That's her on top:As its title suggests, Acro-Yoga is a fusion of yoga and acrobatics, but isn't quite as challenging as it sounds. In fact, it's amazingly easy to start and let me tell you that once you start, it gets addictive.

A big part of the fun of it is that it involves partner-work, which doubles the enjoyment (and you can even get more people involved to form some amazing shapes!). The founders of the movement (for lack of a better term) also incorporate Thai massage into it, which makes the whole thing very healing-based. Also, they've designed sets of poses that flow into one another which means that you can both work together to 'yoga' together-gether (imagine the sun salutation, but with a partner).There are more pictures of stuff we've done in Acro-Yoga in my Facebook, but I still daren't log in so take a look if you've time. If you're up for it, I highly recommend it - go see Teresa, I believe that she's the only one doing it in Malaysia. If you're elsewhere, look up the website.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Mad about Bleach

It's hard to pin down my first exposure to anime. For those who have no idea, anime is what Japanese call animation, and is pronounced as en-ee-meh (as in the first 3 syllables of animation). It refers to cartoons, really, though they really outclass what we know as cartoons. For a little more trivia, they call comics manga, and make many anime based on manga (usually because they have decent storylines and artists already there).

I remember Akira was kickass, though a little too deep for me to understand (I think I saw it in my early teens).Then came Ninja Scroll many many years later (about 8, I think), which is another kickass anime movie and sealed my love for fantastical sword fights.It was quickly followed by some Gundam series, but I can't remember which one (sorry KF). Good stuff though. Another hiatus (6 years), then F introduces me to Samurai Champloo (a series instead of a single movie), which really blew me away. Gila samurais set in feudal Japan with a hip-hop element? Kickass!Now, a year later, I'm hooked on Bleach. Thanks to D, I've watched 130 episodes of this anime series that has endlessly amazed me. Again, samurai-based. Reading the wiki taught me a new word: psychopomp - which is what one of the main group of characters in the show are. It's brilliant in terms of storyline and completeness of the universe they've created, as well as sheer entertainment value and education on how the Japanese see things.Watch it if you can. But skip a middle chunk of episodes (64-109) as it is some rubbish story they had to do to fill in between 2 story arcs in the manga, which was still in the works. Trust me, it drove me nuts watching it as it was so badly done - poor breakdown of overall storyline, terrible sub-plots, mediocre animation, uninspired voice acting and worst of all, going against facts established in previous episodes. Ugh!

The main stories more than make up for that though. Check out AnimeNuke to download it for free.

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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Match in Singapore

Match ran in Singapore as part of a triple-bill organised by the Singapore Drama Educators Association (SDEA) last weekend - on Fri 15th Aug and Sun 17th Aug, to be exact. The venue was The Play Den in The Arts House, which sits 120 people.
What's particularly awesome about The Arts House is that it's situated in the old Parliament house of Singapore. Talk about very historically arty-farty. We even had a rehearsal in The Chamber, which is where they used to have their Parliamentary debates - there are seats with plaques with names of their old cabinet and their position! Heh some of us were jostling to get our photo taken in Lee Kuan Yew's seat.

The Play Den is an odd-shaped stage though - a thrust layout, but very thrust-ed. There are only 16 seats at the front, with 52 seats on either side; so the majority of the audience is on either side of you. They're well equipped though - very nice tech room overlooking the stage, with cameras pointed at the stage feeding monitors located backstage and at front-of-house. Check out the Virtual Tour on The Arts House's website.

The whole event was generally well-organised, with the singular exception of a miscommunication - we had to censor our show a bit for being too sexually explicit (and having a homosexual element too, if you can imagine). To be fair, they were concerned about the youth of their audience (younger teenagers) and their religious beliefs, and they were worried about what their chaperones / teachers / parents would have to say about our show. Which was introduced as done by "a professional, international theatre company" - wahey!

I had a great time working in Singapore, and I must say I was impressed. I'll readily admit that it was the first time I had a very positive experience of Singapore, and I'm very seriously contemplating the possibility of working there. Will be researching the possibility of casting there soon - online, if possible. Doesn't make sense to travel down regularly just to cast, fun as it may be.

Of course, the Saturday off meant a good walk on Orchard Road. Paradigm Infinitum is amazing, so many new games but not enough clones of myself to play them all all day every day. Bought Okko in the end, which is pretty damn cool. Still learning to play and working out the intricacies. Kinokuniya's awesome, as usual. That CD Shop has a great selection, especially their High Society compilations. Got introduced to the joys of MOS Burger, which I would never have tried unless someone recommended it - check out their Natsumi Fish burger, it's really delicious and healthy! Well, not counting their cheesy mayo-like sauce. But it's wrapped in lettuce instead of buns! Okay okay maybe not so healthy. But it's damn good.
Here's to more work in Singapore.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

match

Currently occupying my time:
Running in Singapore this weekend - we're part of a triple-bill on Friday evening and Sunday matinee. Come if you can. Details on the SDEA (Singapore Drama Educators Association) website, under Celebrate Drama! (that's the name of the event running this weekend) 's programme section. Also on the TOS website.

Alternative poster:
Yes, it's physical theatre, and we've got Teresa Chian of Living Arts Dance Studio as one of the performers as well as the choreographer. Which means some really interesting and funky moves, and very achy bodies! We're planning a Malaysian run, but I'll have to keep you posted on that. Come watch if you can!

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