Scotland!
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal
Finally found some time (and mood) to blog about my Scotland trip. It was really beautiful! Scotland is the northern part of UK, and is actually a pretty long drive. We set off at around 9pm from Liverpool, heading to Inverness.
Inverness is at the northern tip of the famous Loch Ness lake. The lake itself is very long-ish and after sitting in the car for such a long, long time, we stopped to take some pictures by Loch Ness at around 6am.
Lai Kuan’s Convocation
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal, Photography
Lai Kuan had here Bachelor’s convocation at Liverpool Cathedral on Monday – the day the tall ships were supposed to set sail! Since no photography was allowed in the cathedral, I decided to go see the tall ships, then come back in time to take a few pictures for her outside the cathedral. Sigh, but the tall ships didn’t set sail together, they went out the river Mersey one by one! So all I got were crap like these:
So after about an hour of boredom at New Brighton, I took the train back to Liverpool Central and headed to the cathedral.
Lambananas
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal
It all started with this fella here:
Every time the University staff comes to Malaysia for a briefing, we’re sure to see this fella.
Now, part of the European Capital of Culture thingy going on, there are another 125 of them around Liverpool!
I have yet to catch them all, but seems like these cute lambananas are attracting lots of attention. Me and Eu Hua were heading to the Liverpool Cathedral for some evening shots, and we passed by this green lambanana outside St. John’s, facing Lime Street.
While we were taking a few shots of it, we can’t help but overhear 2 ladies talking:
“Hey, here’s one of ‘em..”
“Yeah.. it’s the superlambanana.. and it’s a complete waste of money..”
“No it’s not.. see this one’s plants in it..”
Well, at least the British don’t spend millions just to send one of their citizens for a ride in space, doing things like eating fish ‘n chips in space.. then bragging everywhere as if they built the rocket/space capsule themselves..
William H Gates
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal
In last year’s TARC Imagine Day, we had the privilege to meet Joe Wilson, Senior Director of Academic Initiatives at Microsoft. Most unfortunately, we couldn’t have met him in a better circumstance. We were all tired, and worried about what’s going on downstairs in College Hall. We were all quiet, and didn’t ask him much.
But he did say something about Bill Gates – which is of his mental capacity. During an event (Imagine Cup finals in Redmond I think), Joe prepare a speech for Bill. Bill read the script once through, just moments before his cue. Bill went on to deliver the speech, reciting Joe’s script, word for word. At that point, Joe got a little worried – he was afraid that if he made a mistake in the script, Bill would just read it right out!
Yeah, that be the mental capacity of the world’s richest man. Perhaps that’s a tiny feat, compared to what Joel Spolsky remembers of Gates:
Then Bill turned to me. I noticed that there were comments in the margins of my spec.
He had read the first page!
Not only that, he had read the first page and written little notes in the margins. Considering that we got him the spec only about 24 hours earlier, he must have looked at it the night before
It gets better..
He was flipping through my spec! (Calm down; what are you, a teenager?) And there were notes in all the margins! On every page! He had read the Whole Darn Thing!
The spec that Joel’s referring to is of Excel VBA at it’s infancy.
After finishing Joel’s article, I had to say, I was kinda inspired. It’s just amazing when you look at Gates’ mental prowess. It’s a peek into what it takes to be one of the world’s richest. I must get off my ass and start working harder!
See also: Gates’ Tech.Ed 08 keynote, also his last public speech. Jump to about 4 minutes into the video for a “director’s cut” of how his last day at Microsoft may be. There’s also a video interview on Channel 9 – Bill Gates: Transitioning into the Future.
Who Said Anything Bout Suffering in UK?
Posted by Jonathan Ng | Filed under Personal
Many would think that life as a student in UK sucks, especially when it comes to food. The only thing economical and convenient is spaghetti, with some heated bolognaise or even baked beans.
Funny thing is, my life here seems pretty enjoyable, especially when it comes to food! Yeah, sure enough I have friends who survive on spaghetti, fried rice and sandwhiches, but me and my housemates… we’re living the life.
My first lunch at UK was none other than spaghetti. Of course it wasn’t just some heated bolognaise.. some minced meat, onions, herbs and ta-daa! Oh, and with Eric around, most of our dishes are nicely decorated with lettuce =)
I also tried frying spaghetti. Well, simple frying with some cili-padi is nice. I also tried frying spaghetti with bolognaise, not too bad I’d say, that is, if you’re not using Tesco’s bolognaise.
