the blog of the blogger of ping pong tong's ping pong

Instructions for HTK Toolkit

2009-10-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

Initialise HMM

HInit -T 1 -i 100 -M ./Initial hmm1 -S seqSet2

Parameter Estimation
HRest -T 1 -i 100 -M ./trained hmm2 -S seqSet2

Parameter Re-Estimation
HERest -S seq.txt hmm_list.txt

Create Word Level Network
HParse grammera.txt lattica

GrammerA.txt File Format

(hmmEX | hmmBV| hmmVF)

Dict.txt format

hmmEX [EX] hmmEX
hmmBG [BG] hmmBG

Recogniser Command
HVite -T 1 -i label_fileSet2 -o TWM -w lattica_fileSet2 -S seqSet2 dict hmm_listSet2.txt

I'm bored

2009-08-03T07:16:00.001-07:00

Buy cheap mobile phones with loads of free gifts.

Click to sign up!!!!

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/refer.aspx?refer=cust839999

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

2009-01-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

I did not realise that my lost blog entry was on the 3rd of May 2008. Meaning to say it is nearly 7 months since i last blogged. Very interesting. hmmm...

Okay, lets see what are the major "landmarks" from May 2008 to January 2009.

1. Darl's Graduatation!

2. Successful transfer from MPhil to PhD!

3. Darl's 22nd Bday?

4. my 27th Bday? HAHWHAHAHA

5. OH OH! My face appearing in Department newsletter!!!!! HAPPP!!!!

bye!

shackadoooo

2008-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Hello to all, especially to my buzee wuzeee Melissa and Mae Chew who claims that i am boring because i do not update my blog.

Surrey hills is no joke boy.. REAL HILLS in Surrey. The super steep slopes down and the super steep slopes up. The best part was "buuuu, i cannot take it already, my legs cannot take my body" :-| and the part when she went "YEEE!! Got soil on my shoe" and another part where she went "this is so not my tea of cup". Yeap! no typo error, "tea of cup". And and and... "this is so not super model like"

Presenting super model hot buzeee!

Crazy Chap no.1

Crazy chap no.2

Overall, the date was rather happening. And i am shackadoo now. Sleepy and my bleeeding legs are bleeding nua....

Night bus?

2008-04-30T00:43:00.001-07:00

Night bus?, originally uploaded by seals81.

Was just looking at my flickr account and saw this photo... still love it everytime i look at it.

Daily Conversations

2008-04-25T02:08:00.000-07:00

Dar: Bu, actually this week pass damn fast right?

Me: Erm.. but its only monday today.

Dar: oh.

RE: BORED

2008-04-10T12:46:00.000-07:00

Its 8.46 and i am still in the office trying to get some annoying results so i can boast to my supervisor about some results i got.

I been waiting for 16 bloody minutes. Yes 16 mins just to render one stupid image. What the hell... and at the end of the day! The results are still crap. Hmm.. maybe i didnt train enough samples. Afterall, i only trained 120 samples for a 576*768 pixel images. So maybe that is the cause. I used multiple classifers to train my data and the data are used are the same, just different feature sets. HmmMmmm... but i think the results are better than just using a single classifer.

HmmmMMm... i wonder how i wonder why. I wonder why i am stuck in this position. I wonder why i took decided to take a Phd.. i wonder why... i wonder why... the world is full of uncertainies..... blah i am bored.

A young man with a huge burden

2008-04-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Around this time 2 years ago, i was a happy young man about to graduate with a Bachelor of Science (First Class Honors). For most of my life, i was a dumb little kid, only managing to pass my exams. Getting screwed by my chinese tuition teacher were common sights, getting C5, C6, F9s were also damn common in my report books. Never in my life did i ever though of attaining a good degree, not to even mention a first class honors. Needless to say, i was over the biggest moon ever known to man kind.

Getting a good degree, gave me bigger brains, bigger ego. Probably a big enough one to even contemplate applying for a PhD. But the big question is, am i even capable to do a PhD? Do i have what it takes to graduate with a PhD? Or am i just getting ahead of myself? Now, all i feel is being a lost kid looking for directions at a junction with 100000000 crossings.

My mum always say i have no confidence in myself. She says pray more to God and god would help me. I do that all the time when i am in the shits, it calms me down but the results are still the same. I am soooo afraid of failing, after all the hard work i have put in over the last year and a half. Now i totally understood what Royston meant by saying "Its not me who is not hardworking, i cannot stand it when people get in the way of what i need to do". Well said Royston. I totally understand what you mean.

Everytime, mum and dad says "How are your studies? Can you cope?". I can only reply with a very weak and uncertain "yes". I cannot bear to say "no its not good. I have no idea what i intend to do for my phd" for fear of disappointing them and failing them. Everytime i talk to mum about money and studies, i just feel like crying my heart out saying "i dunno what i am doing for my phd, and i am so scared of failing".

I am willing to pray to every god asking for guidance of any sort for peace, calmness and guidance as i cannot afford to fail. So please help me god.

Tiramisu with honeycomb

2008-02-24T06:54:00.001-08:00

Tiramisu with honey, originally uploaded by seals81.

Home made, Gordan Ramsay style.

Char kway teow

2008-02-21T13:57:00.001-08:00

Char kway teow, originally uploaded by seals81.

Delicious looking char kway teow by Mel & Jon!

Pimply boy

2008-02-12T07:11:00.001-08:00

12/02/2008, originally uploaded by seals81.

My darling is bored.
So she looked at my face and draw this thingy on my much beloved disgusting looking writing pad..

I am bored and i want to show off the capabilities of my shiny new nokia n82 to the rest of the world.

Lunch for today!

2008-02-12T05:23:00.001-08:00

Lunch for today!, originally uploaded by seals81.

Kim chi fried rice!!

Flickr

2008-02-12T05:18:00.001-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Next Friday

2008-02-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

Hmm... someone says my blog is boring. And she keeps asking me to update it. So today, I will update it.

There! Its updated.

Just kidding.

Right. I think this February is very a fulfilling month. First Chinese New Year, then Valentine's Day, then another special day with that special one after V-Day. That special one... oh that special one. One can i say about her? Tons. Which i will not bother to state here. Why? Because its too mushy, THATS WHY!

Rather, i would say about how this special one actually made me a better person. Previously, i was this kind a guy. Bloody impatient.

Scene 1: Stuck behind the wheels in a Traffic Jam.

Me: Wah lau eh! Jam again! Shit! %^&*()!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darl: Relax la... its only a jam. You got me to accompany you what.

Me: Thats not the point!!! *Black Face*

Scene 2: Stuck behind the wheels missing the turning even with a GPS

Me: Wah lau eh. ^&*(!!!!! I missed the %^&*( turning!

Darl: Nevermind la. Just turn back on the next round about lor

Me: *gets damn man chang looking at the damn GPS for the new route*

After staying with this girl for months, i must say that i became a more patient old chap. I reckon it was those arguments we had that made me know of the word "consequence". I think i tend to take things easier and see things more broadly rather than get frustrated over it. Might be the house work too. It trains a person's patience!

When i watch TV and see those billionaires having a hard time spending their money, i get bloody annoyed. Bill Gates earn 4 million every night, even as he sleeps!!! But i wonder whether are these people really really happy even with all that money. Do they have special memories?? I definitely know that even 100 million dollars cannot buy memories. Memories like, having takeaways at 1 am at night. Or seeing her happy face when you surprise her with a bear. I know these are simply and safe gifts darl. But to me, its capturing your happy face as a photo and embed it in my memory which can never be lost, unlike my Macbook. Hearing you go "mon chi chi, chi chi moooonnnn" can never be captured on a device can it? But that audio file is always embedded in my memory.

Next month will be our first year together. I know you can hardly wait for the day to come. Because firstly, you dissertation should be due by than. You can shout out loud "GRADUATE LOR!" Secondly, it will be our first year together and i know it means a lot to you just as it means a lot to me.

Check out my next blog entry in May or June, or July, or maybe October or till the time she starts complaining about my boring blog :)

Salzburg

2007-12-26T03:35:00.000-08:00

Back from lovely Salzburg. The best feeling in the would would be going on holiday with your loved one, being stuck together in the really really really cold weather. Someone always saying she is "Posh spice" with me always saying "yah, pok spice". Wiping our nose on our gloves. Her wiping her nose on my 17 pounds primark jacket. Eating in the cold... drinking the soup!!

The country was lovely. The scenery was beautiful, the alps, the frozen lakes. Chocolates were like heaven. That Sacher Torte thing is solid, the Hot chocolate from there was like the best hot chocolate i ever had. No aftertaste! I would have put a picture of me looking realy ah tass drinking my hot chocolate from Hotel Sacher and my cuppacino from Furst, but its not in my computer :(

Photos!

Panaroma View from the FortressChristmas Market

The foood!!!

Pok Spice and Backsideham

The alps

The lake
Pok spice enjoying herself on the Sound of Music Tour
This is the place where Maria ran along singing "I Have Confidence"
Lake frozen enough to skate
Just a damn beautiful setting
Another damn beautiful scenery
Another another damn beautiful scenery
My darling pok spice
A huge christmas tree
Our 12 euros dinner
Map of Salzburg
Night shot of the FortressAnother night shot

Loving this honey buns of mine

so bored so sick

2007-10-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here i am, 11 months into my PhD and i am bored , tired and sick of it. I guess it is one of the highs and lows of doing a PhD. The only HIGH i got from the PhD so far is when i won best presentation at the 5th Annual PhD Conference. The rest are just low, low and really low.

It has come to a stage where i don't know what to do. Stuck at a junction would be a proper sentence to use. At a 3 way junction with me at one junction scratching my head thinking should i go left or right knowing totally absolutely well that a wrong decision could ruin finishing my PhD in 3 years. Funny enough, i didnt get this big scratching head thing when i was deciding whether to take the Singapore or British Citizenship, knowing THAT would change my life forever.

Last time when i first started my PhD, i remember sitting down at this desk thinking whether i made the right choice doing a PhD. Now i hardly think about it, it is definitely a good experience and good decision to undertake a doctorate. But now, i just sit down at this stupid desk thinking whether i am good enough to attempt this.

Maybe i should weigh the pros and cons of this.

Pros:

Giving back society state of the art technology to help in the screening of Diabetic Retinopathy

Gaining vast experience in self organization and project management

Learn self discipline in working alone

Changing title from MR to DR

Cons:

Waste of bloody time if i fail

I cant really think of any cons really... except the fact that if i fail i am totally screwed.

I know its tough..

2007-10-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

Deary,

I know it has been a tough year a so for you. You say that everyone thinks you are strong but you say there is a limit for everything. Fair enough. But you should know that the human mind is built in such a way that by passing your limit, you will only become stronger and stronger.

It does not matter how many times you break down because i will always be here every single time that happens, to listen and to keep you close to me. I will also remind you that you are never alone and will always remind of you happy memories that you had and will have in future. That is a promise that i would never break. And hey hey hey! I have not broken any promise i made you eh?

Citroën C5

2007-09-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

Airwick

2007-09-08T15:15:00.001-07:00

The product that was sprayed up my arse. Yeap, up my arse.

A tad fat?

2007-08-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

I dont care if you are a tad fat, neither do i care whether you have a face that is "expanding like sideways, horizontally". You are what you are and i love you for that :) and i think you look lovely here.

ISSPR'07: Day 5

2007-07-27T12:33:00.001-07:00

Today is the last day of the workshop. I decided that i should take pictures of the place where we have our meals!

Dinner: Babbage Building

Breakfast: Robbins Conference Centre

Too bad i didnt take any photos of breakfast. But i have a damn good reason for it, because every morning i am bloody hungry. So what happens everyday is, i tell myself i must take a photo of breakfast. But when i set the food onto the table, go back to get some tea, and when i come back to the table i start eating and obviously everything about taking the photo just flew out of my mind.

Right, i usually post the topics for the day. But it was the last day, and i only attended the first few lectures. Reason being, i didnt want to miss the train and get stranded in Plymouth. So i went to take photos before take the 2nd last train back to Guildford.

University of Plymouth

Radnor Halls: Block 9, Apartment2, Room 3 (9.2.3)

ISSPR'07: Day 4

2007-07-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much the same as Monday. Because Prof. Joseph Kittler couldnt make the lecture on Wednesday, his lecturer was postponed till today, 4.15 - 6.15pm. So yeap, it was a rather long day.

Topics today were Re-inforcement learning, Hidden Markov Models as well as Feature Selection. I think all were interesting. But i wonder would i ever be using them... hmmm...

ISSPR'07: Day 3

2007-07-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Cant believe it. No dinner. And they did not inform us of change of venue or anything like that. I feel that there was no proper flow of information were given to the participants. The organiser failed to gather all the participants before information all of us about the schedule for the afternoon.

Dinner was therefore... subway.

The only lecture worth mentioning was the one about Data Dimension Reduction. Basically, it tells us to reduce the data size before inputing them into Pattern Classifiers. An example he gave us was one about his ex student, a student that was not very good.

Lecturer: "Let me give you an example. A while ago, i had a student, not a very good one i must say." *Looks around* "Good, i dont think he is here. Yeah he is not. Anyway, he was suppose to classify face images which had 10,000 features. He did not perform any form of data reduction and his computer died."
Class: "hahahahahaha!"
Lecturer: "As i read his report, it just got sadder and sadder. He was reporting that he did this and did that, but it just did not work. And finally, he reported that his processor burnt out."

ISSPR'07: Day 2

2007-07-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

One thing i cannot complain about this workshop is the food. The desserts are damn good, they have this Banana Caramel with Cream thingy that is super uber good. I had 1 last night and 1 this afternoon. I had this chocolate thingy this evening and yes, its uber good. See photo.

The food!

And this is the name of the hall i am staying at. Looks good and it is good!

Radnor Hall

Name tag for each participate attending the workshop. Looks damn cool wearing one of those MICROSOFT RESEARCH lanyard thingy. For some reason, everyone here is damn courteous to us. Maybe they think we are some genius or something...

Name Tag

Now i better blog about the topics today. Todays lesson was from 9am - 6.15pm, definitely a lot better than yesterday. Today's topic was about Chaotic Neural Networks, String Matching, Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines.

I think the most hi tech one was Chaotic Neural Networks. For example, our brain works in a way where we learn. For me, i learnt Mandarin and English. Therefore, say i am in an Airport and some guy starts speaking Frence. My brain would be in idle mode. However, if some chap starts speaking in Mandarin, my brain would register than language and set itself to eavesdrop mode. That scenario where the brain goes from idle mode to eavesdrop mode is called a change from Chaos to Periodic mode. I think. Something like that.

ISSPR'07: Day 1

2007-07-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

It felt like ages since i attended lectures. And lectures starting from 9 - 7.15 is totally no joke. I believe the sentence to use is "Really can die ahhh". And the worst thing is, i dont really understand a lot of stuff. I think the first few were okay, still can catch the ball. After lunch, losing the ball. Late afternoon, lost the ball.

Lecture Theatre

I think the highlight of the lecture was the one from 5.15 to 7.15pm. The lecturer wore bermudas and a yellow t-shirt with sneakers. I seriously though he was a construction worker. Too bad i was too tired to take a photo. But it was really quite hilarious. And because he needed to leave by 7.15, he was rushing through his slides. Either way, i wouldnt have understood anything since my brain was already scattered by then.

Portland Square

Today's topic was Data description, Latent Variables, Mixture Models and EM, Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning, Clustering and visualization of high dimensional and structured data and Introduction to Evolutionary Computation. I think the only one i understood was Data Description. Frankly, to me, that is the most useful topic of the day.

I would post a few images up, but i dont know why i cannot close the image ICON when i use IE. Probably a backdated version of IE. And the internet in the accommodation is really hard to set up, we have to set up a VPN network and all. I cant even use set it up using the MAC, but thats probably because i dont know how to set up VPN using a MAC. But oh well... at least i got the net up and running.

5th International Summer School on Pattern Recognition 2007 (ISSPR'07)

2007-07-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the ISSPR'07, i think i should start blogging about the trip to Plymouth first. From Guildford to Reading, the train ride was great. From Reading to Plymouth, i looked like i was a beggar, without having a ticket. I had to sit outside the toilet on the floor. Bloody well done.

My Poster

A Day After the Presentation

2007-07-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Scene: Outside the bank

Guy: *waves to me*
ME: *looks back, thinking if he was waving to me*
Guy: *waves again, walking towards me*
ME: *thinking do i know this guy?*
Guy: "hi!"
ME: "aye, hi! where u going?"
Guy: "office"
ME: "Oh, are you are PhD student?"
Guy: "Yes"
ME: "Than why i never see you before?"
Guy: "Different office u see"
ME: ".........."

My dearest

2007-07-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to the dearest person to me. Although i know you only for 6 months plus, and of the 6 monthns, we been together for only 3 months. But somehow, it feels like known you for ages. I really thank god for allowing me to know you, a person who is ever lovely, bubbly, caring, no attitude, no temper and best of all REALLLY REALLLLYY patient with me. Thank you for being beside me when ever i am frustrated with work. Thank you for telling me to chill, telling me i am not dumb and most importantly, constantly reminding me that a PhD is not easy and that i got to keep focused.

The one month back in Singapore was just solid. Although we did have our minor arguments because of the hot Singapore weather. The wedding was cool, did i mentioned to you that you looked beautiful that day? The birthday was brilliant, although i spoiled your surprise. But like they say, its the though that counts :) and i have not even mentioned the ever sweet, well documented book that you gave me for my birthday. You are the first girl who gave me such a thing and you are really truly sweet to me.

I want you to know that I am always here for you, to shower you with care and concern and loads of love.

Macbook Pro VS Dell Inspiron 6400

2007-05-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Which is a better laptop?

Apple Macbook Pro	Dell Inspiron 6400
2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400	2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400
1GB Ram	2GB Ram
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB SDRAM	256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 TurboCache
120GB hard drive1	120GB hard drive1
Resolution: 1440 x 900 pixels	Resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels
SG $3,288.00	SG $2,534.70

Which one should i get?!

Wonderful weather

2007-05-04T06:10:00.001-07:00

Photo0069, originally uploaded by seals81.

I took this photo on the way to tescos yesterday. I really like this photo a lot. I think its really nice..

Oh. I spend 5 pounds = 15 dollars on bacon and 2 pounds on eggs which is er. 6 dollars...

My heart is bleedinggg....

Times reallly flies................

2007-03-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

wow.. its already the 31st of March and I have been in England for 2 and a 1/2 months already. Its been a wonderful 2 weeks since my last post.

The next few months are going to be rather harsh i suppose. Loads of readings that needs to be done by end of May before i go back for my 1 month break. Hopefully, the literature review can be finished by then.

Literature that needs to be done.
1. Optic Disc
2. Exudates
3. Blood Vessels
4. Microaneurysms

What a aimless day

2007-03-14T05:21:00.000-07:00

People say man's best friend is a dog, to me, i think it is my computer. Since a computer is sooooo dumb, it will definitely listen to what I want to say. A dog cannot reply to its owner, neither can a computer. So i think its the same. I cannot have a dog anyway, cannot afford it anyway. So here goes my dearest computer.

0101010101010000011111000010101001010100011100101010101000010100111110001011110000
100001011000011111000010001111100001001000010011000011111000010010100000001000111
1100001001000111110000100100001001100001111100001001010111110000100011000111110010
100

That totally sums up how i feel.

Current Topic: Active Contour Snakes

2007-03-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

I really should be doing some work... even though its a Sunday. Time is of the essence. But i just feeel.....................................................................

Anyway current topic i am reading on is Active Contour Snake. Using just normal image processing techniques, we wont be able to get a fully closed boundary of the object that is to be detected. However, by using Active Contour also known as snakes. The snake would first be initialized over the object, then it would work its way towards the object and obtain a tight fit onto the object.

Looks easy, it is but really hard to implement. There are so many things that we have to look into in order to implement this algorithm. We have to take note of the initial points of the snakes, updating the points towards the object as the snakes grow towards them. We have to take note of the shape of the snake, in the likely event of the snake collapsing and finally the points where the snake has to grow towards.

Example of Detecting Optic Disc using threshold method

Notice that although he full optic disc was detected, the boundary of the object was not detected. And the threshold value of the object varies from image to image.

Example using Snake Method

The location as well as the boundary of the optic disc was detected perfectly with the Snake method.

To Do List
1. Understand algorithm behind Active Contour Snake
2. To implement algorithm
3. Initialise Initial Snake points automatically

Image Processing 102: Adding Brightness to an Image

2007-03-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered how the those slider bars that control the brightness of an image work? The more you slide to the right the brighter the image becomes?

Here is how it is done. Since we know that 0 is the darkest, and 255 is the brightest pixels in an image. So, by adding a constant (can be any value) to each pixel in the image, this would effectively cause the the pixel's intensity value to be increased by that particular constant. For example, if the constant were to be a 100, the operation would be like the one below:

where f', is the resulting image that is brighten by a constant of 100.

Image Processing 101: Understanding a gray scale image

2007-03-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Did you know that an image up of an 2-Dimensional array? Think of an 2-D array as rows and columns. So if your image is of resolution 640 by 480, u have a 2d array of 640 columns by 480 rows.

Now, for a grayscale image, you could have a 2-D array like the one presented below

where X and Y are the co-ordinates of the intensity values in the image, f. So technically speaking, images that you see are made up of intensity values, ranging from 0 to 255 (with 0 being the darkest and 255 being the brightest).

Digital Image Processing: Chapter 7: Wavelets & Multiresolution Processing

2007-03-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

Here i am, 55 days into my latest academic adventure. Yeap, this is what i am currently reading, "Wavelets & Multiresolution Processing" in this book called Digital Image Processing. And i have no idea what it is talking about, because i only started reading the 2nd page of the chapter and i feel like sleeping.

There is this weird thing here about reading. I think for most people, the more u read the more you understand, for me, the more i read, the more my brain get saturated. No idea why. It just happens. Very weird. It reminds of this helluva bitch tutor telling me "Most people read once and understand, you have to read 10 times in order to understand". Yes. That is engraved in my memory. Did not forget. Never will forget.

What have i done in my 55 days here? Read read and read. What have i read?

1. Computer Vision and Image processing
2. Digital Image Processing Using Java
3. Feature Extraction & Image Processing (Dont understand the maths)
4. Artificial Intelligence (The Neural Networks bit)
5. Digital Image Processing (Half way through, without understand the maths)

What else have i done in my 55 days? Program maybe? What have i programmed?

1. CSM16 Visual & Information Systems Coursework
2. Normalisation of images (Image independent)
3. Histogram Equalisation
4. Histogram Specification

I think i gained more knowledge in the 55 days here. I also know i became more sleepy after these 55 days. And i need to do something about it.

This is my to-do list for the next 3 months before i go back for a short break:
1. Implement Active Contour (Snake) algorithm on a Retinal Image to detect boundary of Optic Disc
2. Implement detection of Exudates using Histogram Values
3. Implement detection of Micro Aneurysm
4. Read more on Pattern Classification

Finally, to the person reading this blog. The Telly only gets opened if you agree for it to be opened and for your wires to be adjusted. You can always electrocute them as they are adjusting your wires :) Everything is always in your control. Be strong and be firm, Agent L.

People

2007-03-04T17:43:00.001-08:00

Why are people so bloody nosey?!

Fringgggg

2007-02-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Damn solid piece of software for the Symbian 9 series.

If you are an crazy MSN, Skype or GTalk fan and you are using a Nokia Nseries phone, this is the software to get. It works over 3G or Wifi networks, supports p2p voice calls and chat services for Msn, Skype and Gtalk. Currently no software in the world supports P2p communications on a Symbian OS. And the best things, its free!!!

Check this out at http://www.fring.com/

You wont be disappointed.

Stress! =)

2007-02-08T12:49:00.000-08:00

Such a stressful world!! Even on blogs!! All the bloggers i know write like loads and loads of stuff on their blogs. No idea why! Maybe their life is just more interesting than mine!? Is it possible that people do so many things in a day? Or do they just type a lot based on one event?! Or maybe they just put photos into their blog entry to make their blog look longer! Well, i do not have the answer that this question...

But i think i do have quite a boring life. I wake up, have something to eat, go to the office, read read and read more, until my stomach growls at 12. Go back for lunch. Go back to the office and read read and read more until my stomachs growl again. Than i leave the office for the day. I think my happiest days are Tuesdays, when the new episode of 24 Season 6 and Prison break is out. Oh and Fridays too, because i get to watch CSI and Prison break with good company :)

Its been nearly a month since i came back to do my PhD. I dont think i blogged about how i feel so far about this. Well, doing a PhD is definitely not fun. Its bloody stressful! Imagine all you ever do is read and read and read! And its worst when you do not understand what you are reading, and i end up pulling out my hair. I think i better get smarter soon, otherwise i will have no hair by the end of 3 years. People do expect a lot from you, but i guess that is normal since you are a PhD student. The fun thing about doing a PhD is you have the ability to help undergraduate students. It really is quite a treat to see their contented face when you help them to finally get their program running. But also, the stressful part comes in when you cannot solve their problem!!!!

I was just told that in reality, no PhD student finishes his course in 3 years. The earliest someone can finish is in 3 and a 1/2 years or maybe 4 (just to be safe). I wish to finish my education in 3 years but at the end of the day, this whole PhD is something that i want to do. I chose to do it not because I want to be a Doctor, but because i want to succeed in my Research to create a Prototype System in the Automated Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy. My wish is to use my education to return something back to society. So, the next 3 - 4 years will definitely be tough but it would also be an experience that i know i will not forget. Pressing on is the only advice i have been getting and it seriously is the only thing to do when the going gets tough. But I never was a quitter and will never become one. Hopefully, at the end of the day, i would be able to change my title to Doctor. Dr Jonathan Goh.

But the question is.... DO I LOOK LIKE A DOCTOR?!?!?!

07/02/2007 Dead in the cold

2007-02-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

07/02/2007 Dead in the cold, originally uploaded by seals81.

Yeap! Thats me! 26 years old but lying in the snow like a little kid. Well, thats only because this is my 4th year in Surrey and this is the first time it really snowed like this. So last night was a very memorable night.

It was really truly fun, throwing snow balls and people making a snow man and just dropping ice on people. All in the name of fun. Real fun.

University of Surrey Library

2007-01-25T10:37:00.001-08:00

University of Surrey Library, originally uploaded by seals81.

This photo was taken using my Nokia N93 which broke down within 2 weeks of getting it. I meant to make a review about how good it was and stuff, but i cant really be bothered now, since it broke down once already. I dont think its worthy of the review!

But having said that, i do think the photo quality for dayshots are excellent. Look at the colors of the sky, if the library wasnt in the way, i think it would be an even better photo! But that defeats the purpose of snapping the libary... hmmmm...........

My office at 2BB0

2007-01-25T10:34:00.001-08:00

My office at 2*BB0*, originally uploaded by seals81.

This is my desk at UniS where i undertake my PhD in Computing.

Yeap. This is my second home for the next 3 years of my life. The place where i would spend most of my time reading, coding and dreaming. Its rather empty, but i prefer it that way, i reckon its easier to keep it neat and tidy when i leave for the day. I also think its really embarassing when my table is in a mess at the end of the day. But then again, messy people do the most work.......

Budget Terminal - Boarding Gates

2006-12-12T03:57:00.001-08:00

Budget Terminal - Boarding Gates, originally uploaded by seals81.

I was amazed when i saw the Budget Terminal. It looks just like a warehouse! Think Singapore Expo kind of warehouse and thats what the budget terminal would look like on the outside.

On the inside its just the usual Check-In Counters, then straight to immigration control. Than right after immigration you have the usual Duty Free stuff then its the Boarding Gate!

Really simple and really fits the budget!

~ Blogged from Flickr ~

Flickr...

2006-12-12T02:01:00.000-08:00

I was just looking around the internet and saw this FLICKR thingy that seems to be the hot topic since its on most Nokia phones, N73 and N80 etc. So i went to check the software out.

I must say i am impressed. All along i was looking for a host that would allow me to upload my photos to share with my friends and family without too much trouble. And i think i found the right service. Flickr has tools that enable you to drag and drop photos into the program and upload it straight to your account. Flickr goes one step further, it even allows a user to take a photo using your mobile phone and send it to your account.

My flickr URL is http://www.flickr.com/photos/seals81

I intend to upload all my photos i taken onto my flickr account, and this will be my own online album!

Flickr

2006-12-12T02:00:00.001-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.