If you played this little game called Tropico (by TopPop), you'll start to appreciate facets we face in this current political landscape.
In the era of military dictatorship, the only thing that the dictatorship needed to do is just simply keep a strong and loyal army, and the people can't do anything. The only difference on how they are perceived deal alot with how they deal with their subjects which range from benevolent leader into bloody tyrant.
At the moment, we can see alot of people have moved from the central figure such as dictatorship into a more democratic type of government - as along with our country Thailand, in which we have a parlimentary system that is similar to Britian.
With the rise of democracy, and our charter reform, there is high hopes that democracy can solve alot of our problem. What has happened over the years has been less rosy.
If you played tropico, you can issue edicts such as TaxBreaks, arrange carnivals, or do other flashy thing to gain votes just directly before your election. I like to reckon that the Carrot and Stick approach in democracy - in which politicians vow to give something in return to the people as long as they have their votes - which is a more subtle version of direct bribery or the old school democracy where vote buying was rampant. When they go to office these politicians make their promise true, but then later spend their time enriching themselves and their henchperson in various means.
With IT and media playing a larger part in our modern society, alot of politicians have mastered the art of PR or public relationship in which makes them appear good in the society though they have contributed little or actually damaged our country through various means of corruption.
I remembered distinctively our PM promised 1 million baht for every of the 80k villages across our country to develop products for sale. That election promise was part of the reason why they won the last election in a landslide - and is a policy with dubious benefits. As the new election approaches, with more NGO, academic circles, and government advisory agencies are complaining about policy corruption, I've found it interesting our PM has stated directly that the corruption was caused by low ranking government officials, and the way to erradicate corruption was to raise all the income of government officials. Strangely enough, he got angry when they asked him what the PM has to say in rebuttal of the allegations and research stated by the government advisory panels and brushing them off.
Looking through all of this, I just found it funny. Lower rank officials follow ranks from higher-up - the corruption is in the whole system and giving more income to lower ranked officials will not solve corruption unless the highups set a precidence- which sadly is lacking in all levels.
The increase of income is in my conclusion a thinly-veined carrot stick, and I'm very certain many donkeys will take the bait.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Picture: Dried Faith
Picture: Dried Faith - This picture is a dried lotus that was left on the altar for a long while - forgotten. Much like when there is no faith left, there is little to hold on.
Entrance Examination Tweaking
I remembered a few months ago our Educational Minister was talking about tweaking the public government entrance examination to be changed in which the CGPA of the student would have effect on the placement. He claimed that the students are too stressed out from cramming for the entrance examination and that they should relax more and rely less on cramming schools. His initiative was to add CGPA is the grading criteria for the entrance exam.
Though on a hindsight this may look good on surface I do want to point out a very big pitfall on how this measure will backfire and ruin the whole secondary educational system. The first point that I want to mention is that parents select secondary schools from how famous they are, and which universities their graduate go to. As the list of universities they attended is one important criteria in selection of schools, we can see that many schools will be pressed to make sure their students enter the best schools as possible. What happens in return with this new policy is that schools will go to the process of what we call "grade inflation". Grade Inflation is a phenomenon that we are seeing of the late in educational circles - and in this example we can see that by lowing the grading criteria to improve the GPA of all the students, the school can inadvertedly promote the chances of their students to join better universities. Now that would self defeat the process of the evaluation system itself that has been a major problem. We can see that in our schools there are no standardized test that are validated or accepted in Thailand. Due to that void, there is no way that we can measure quantitatively the quality of GPA from different schools. This is a major reason why I would say polling the GPA with the entrance exam would be a very bad idea to implement due to the earlier constraint. Though it might be argued that the setup of an agreed standardized test for secondary level could be used as an weight in the entrance exam, as noted our own education minister's henchman, was accused of stealing entrance exam papers for the daughter of a very influential person in the government.
I wanted to point out though the person was proven not guilty by a biased panel and proof of wrong-doing could be tampered to the point that an acquittance is impossible, the very shock from the events could continue in the earlier point - the standardized test would not be sacred as there would be someone who will attempt to steal the paper for some influential person's son/daughter - and make this criteria useless again.
Sigh... Useless, Clueless, and Moral-less...
Though on a hindsight this may look good on surface I do want to point out a very big pitfall on how this measure will backfire and ruin the whole secondary educational system. The first point that I want to mention is that parents select secondary schools from how famous they are, and which universities their graduate go to. As the list of universities they attended is one important criteria in selection of schools, we can see that many schools will be pressed to make sure their students enter the best schools as possible. What happens in return with this new policy is that schools will go to the process of what we call "grade inflation". Grade Inflation is a phenomenon that we are seeing of the late in educational circles - and in this example we can see that by lowing the grading criteria to improve the GPA of all the students, the school can inadvertedly promote the chances of their students to join better universities. Now that would self defeat the process of the evaluation system itself that has been a major problem. We can see that in our schools there are no standardized test that are validated or accepted in Thailand. Due to that void, there is no way that we can measure quantitatively the quality of GPA from different schools. This is a major reason why I would say polling the GPA with the entrance exam would be a very bad idea to implement due to the earlier constraint. Though it might be argued that the setup of an agreed standardized test for secondary level could be used as an weight in the entrance exam, as noted our own education minister's henchman, was accused of stealing entrance exam papers for the daughter of a very influential person in the government.
I wanted to point out though the person was proven not guilty by a biased panel and proof of wrong-doing could be tampered to the point that an acquittance is impossible, the very shock from the events could continue in the earlier point - the standardized test would not be sacred as there would be someone who will attempt to steal the paper for some influential person's son/daughter - and make this criteria useless again.
Sigh... Useless, Clueless, and Moral-less...
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Picture: Cake Galore
Picture: Cake Galore - This picture here is a quick snapshot from a digital camera when I visited a very good cake shop called Saffron which is around Ta-Pra-arthit.
Pre-Rant Q&A Madness
Yesterday, I've received a call from a work colleague. He told me, that our Q&A committee (which one of the member includes me), has to finish up the new KPI (key performance indicator) document by the end of this month. 2 years ago, our department completed a big file of the old Q&A 5 year and yearly plan, and we had to work overnight just to finish this. Coupled with that, I had to create 160 pages of lesson planning on the same semester, which is a big hassle. In the latest episode, I have to finish 40+ pages of questionaires (all written).
Right now I'm alittle bit upset about the excessive Q&A madness, and just a short precursor to my full rant on this madness which should be the next post.
btw. the picture taking at Chula yesterday was done quite well, I'm interested in seeing the pictures soon :)
Right now I'm alittle bit upset about the excessive Q&A madness, and just a short precursor to my full rant on this madness which should be the next post.
btw. the picture taking at Chula yesterday was done quite well, I'm interested in seeing the pictures soon :)
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Nation Pride Discipline Bravery Tolerance
When I was an army reserve, during 3 years of training(60 hours a year), I've learnt to march with the following march chant:
Nation Pride Discipline Bravery Tolerance - We are Soldiers in Training
Reflecting back on that chat, I remember well the drill instructor who always preached alot about Discipline and the love for the Nation as the key point.
On a related topic, I remembered very distinctly about the military reshuffle a few years ago, in which the reshuffle has pushed alot of people who were close with the government up to position of power. One of the main mover was a relative of the PM who had the position of the commander of the army. When he was appointed, he claimed that he had the ability to serve the country, and he would serve it on the best interest, and it has nothing to do with the bloodline to the skeptical media and academia. To be exact, I did find that a big case of cronyism, though there wasn't much to write much yet at that moment. His phrase was, "Don't judge me before I work".
Forward a few years, and with all the fiasco with the reprogramming of Channel 5 that the army chief has done numerous shady dealings that benefited his henchmen, that I would summary in a list as the follows:
1) Using the Thai Military Bank to procure loans in an illegal channel
2) Reprogramming Channel 5(that is owned by the army) to benefit a newly established media company that is close with the army chief
3) Transfering of debt from the new media company identity into Channel 5
4) From point 3, we can see that the army chief is helping a private company dump bad debt to a government owned organization that ultimately has to be payed by the public taxes
5) Changing concession details for Channel 5 which is grossly undervalued - as we can see to support the private media companies that come to manage the programming.
With all of this scandal, the army chief, Chaisith Shinawatra, has the nerve to come out and say that what he is doing is good for the army and that the public should not interfere as they know nothing. That is a complete farce! The interest of the army is not to serve themeselves but to serve the people :-/
I would like to remind our army chief about one of the first vow we did in army camp - Nation Pride Discipline Bravery Tolerance, which sadly I don't see anything coming from our army chief at this moment. After waiting to see for a few years, I have no reason to believe our army chief is capable of serving our country, and is only a self - serving bigot only interested in serving himself and his henchman to the expense of this country.
Though the PM has mentioned he would go to the bottom of this deal, and suspending the action of his cousin until pending investigation. I've heard from a number of people that they are happy that the PM has stepped up to stop such irregularity to happen which is in line with his "Think New Do New" slogan of his Thai Rak Thai party, but I have to say I'm very skeptical. Our PM does not escape without blame. To make it simple I'll outline what has he done wrong and is a very important part why this fiasco has happened:
1) The PM has deliberately shuffled his government on the forming of the NBC that is an independent body to forsee all the affairs of the media.
2) An observation why that is not pushed is because of several media companies that are close to the government has alot to gain with government support and without an independent council to oversee - note the previous observation on his relative, and another one I won't want to mention.
3) The modification of the army reshuffle behind the scenes to get relatives, classmates, and supporters in position of power that reflects cronyism than visionary tactics. I do applaud that he has taken the military coup out of the frame by essentially having placed his supporters in all quarters of the military which is visionary in another sense. Notice the person we are talking about is in charge of the army.
4) Manipulation of the media which we see the ITV takeover, and its progressive dumbing down, and now we see more in Channel 5 and later in Channel 11. All media is in a semi noozle, and maybe someday, my random rambling would be closed - who knows?
5) The movement of the government under our PM on media issues seems to be moving progressively towards allowing a person with the intials of PTT (go figure) to play an increasing role in controlling all of Thai Media.
6) The sudden U-Turn by the PM on his cousin's decision has been a basis of the PM's political game. One recent example, an unknown source said the PM was going to use public funding to buy Liverpool FC. Now after an outcry, we can see the PM saying someone invented the news, and he was creating a special lottery fund. What the PM did was test the water with the media, then make an official note later when the water has been figured. Look back a few years, notice the pattern, and go figure, I'll leave that for our readers.
Sigh... I'll leave my rant today, before I get too depressing and jump off a bridge. Talking on related news, I'm going to Chula tommorrow to take pictures of the graduation ceremony there, hopefully I can get some good pictures :)
Nation Pride Discipline Bravery Tolerance - We are Soldiers in Training
Reflecting back on that chat, I remember well the drill instructor who always preached alot about Discipline and the love for the Nation as the key point.
On a related topic, I remembered very distinctly about the military reshuffle a few years ago, in which the reshuffle has pushed alot of people who were close with the government up to position of power. One of the main mover was a relative of the PM who had the position of the commander of the army. When he was appointed, he claimed that he had the ability to serve the country, and he would serve it on the best interest, and it has nothing to do with the bloodline to the skeptical media and academia. To be exact, I did find that a big case of cronyism, though there wasn't much to write much yet at that moment. His phrase was, "Don't judge me before I work".
Forward a few years, and with all the fiasco with the reprogramming of Channel 5 that the army chief has done numerous shady dealings that benefited his henchmen, that I would summary in a list as the follows:
1) Using the Thai Military Bank to procure loans in an illegal channel
2) Reprogramming Channel 5(that is owned by the army) to benefit a newly established media company that is close with the army chief
3) Transfering of debt from the new media company identity into Channel 5
4) From point 3, we can see that the army chief is helping a private company dump bad debt to a government owned organization that ultimately has to be payed by the public taxes
5) Changing concession details for Channel 5 which is grossly undervalued - as we can see to support the private media companies that come to manage the programming.
With all of this scandal, the army chief, Chaisith Shinawatra, has the nerve to come out and say that what he is doing is good for the army and that the public should not interfere as they know nothing. That is a complete farce! The interest of the army is not to serve themeselves but to serve the people :-/
I would like to remind our army chief about one of the first vow we did in army camp - Nation Pride Discipline Bravery Tolerance, which sadly I don't see anything coming from our army chief at this moment. After waiting to see for a few years, I have no reason to believe our army chief is capable of serving our country, and is only a self - serving bigot only interested in serving himself and his henchman to the expense of this country.
Though the PM has mentioned he would go to the bottom of this deal, and suspending the action of his cousin until pending investigation. I've heard from a number of people that they are happy that the PM has stepped up to stop such irregularity to happen which is in line with his "Think New Do New" slogan of his Thai Rak Thai party, but I have to say I'm very skeptical. Our PM does not escape without blame. To make it simple I'll outline what has he done wrong and is a very important part why this fiasco has happened:
1) The PM has deliberately shuffled his government on the forming of the NBC that is an independent body to forsee all the affairs of the media.
2) An observation why that is not pushed is because of several media companies that are close to the government has alot to gain with government support and without an independent council to oversee - note the previous observation on his relative, and another one I won't want to mention.
3) The modification of the army reshuffle behind the scenes to get relatives, classmates, and supporters in position of power that reflects cronyism than visionary tactics. I do applaud that he has taken the military coup out of the frame by essentially having placed his supporters in all quarters of the military which is visionary in another sense. Notice the person we are talking about is in charge of the army.
4) Manipulation of the media which we see the ITV takeover, and its progressive dumbing down, and now we see more in Channel 5 and later in Channel 11. All media is in a semi noozle, and maybe someday, my random rambling would be closed - who knows?
5) The movement of the government under our PM on media issues seems to be moving progressively towards allowing a person with the intials of PTT (go figure) to play an increasing role in controlling all of Thai Media.
6) The sudden U-Turn by the PM on his cousin's decision has been a basis of the PM's political game. One recent example, an unknown source said the PM was going to use public funding to buy Liverpool FC. Now after an outcry, we can see the PM saying someone invented the news, and he was creating a special lottery fund. What the PM did was test the water with the media, then make an official note later when the water has been figured. Look back a few years, notice the pattern, and go figure, I'll leave that for our readers.
Sigh... I'll leave my rant today, before I get too depressing and jump off a bridge. Talking on related news, I'm going to Chula tommorrow to take pictures of the graduation ceremony there, hopefully I can get some good pictures :)
Friday, June 25, 2004
Picture: Very Cheap (Pizza Hut Salad Bar)
Picture: Very Cheap... This picture was sent in a chain mail about about how some peoples invent ingenious ways to get the maximum amount of salad per serving (hint this is Pizza Hut) which I find to be rather distasteful, though very logical. Can't say much. I'll leave this to ponder for our viewers.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Sundown Over Chao Phraya River
Sundown Over Chao Phraya River - This picture is a strange picture I took with another digital camera I had from my big bro. I think its a Cannon Power Shot 330A, though I don't remember well. In this shot, I took a picture against the falling sun, which is not really recommended in photography as the picture will turn dark. However since its a digital camera, we all know that we can waste as many pictures we like (unlike film :P). The picture was very interesting, as you noticed the sun is radiant in such a strange way when I went back to check the picture. Maybe I should try to take the picture of sundown with my film camera someday ...
10k Word Celebration
Nothing much. I just noticed I've just broke the 10k word barrier, so just thought it would be good to add some more completely random stuff!
10k Word Celebration!!!! Yeah baby!
10k Word Celebration!!!! Yeah baby!
Picture - Ta Pra-Arthit
This picture was taken from Ta Pra-Arthit area. I've took the picture with a digital camera and used a technique called framing the picture by using two light posts in the foreground to highlight the bridge in the back. Looking through it again, I think I should have got closer to the lamp post to frame more of the bridge.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Social Injustice and Patchy Human Rights Record
As living in Bangkok and all its pampering of the big city lights, sometimes it is hard to notice about the extreme social injustice and poor human rights record in our country has been on the increase of the late, which is becoming an increasing worrying trend. Just yesterday, one of more prominent environmental activist, Charoen Wataksorn who was one of the leading activist fighting against the Bo Nok coal power plant that was to be built in the Prachuap Kiri Khan area, was assasinated. Chareon has been campaigning against the project for over the decade against the power plant to be built, in which many irregularity has been unearthed in which his movement has managed to obstruct local influential figures from gaining title deeds for public land, and from under the table money involved in big governmental contracts. After reading the news, its sad. Much like the disapearance of one prominent lawyer, Lawyer Somchai, who has been representing people who are repressed by the government has mysteriously disappeared over nearly 4 months at this moment of post, these events point that our Police has been apathetic against activists - in which both these cases are people who represent a small mass that are oppressed by larger influences - whether they are local mafia, politicians, or big bunsiness - in which the police will supiciously turn a blind eye on.
It just makes me wonder, how safe are we really are? Are we only safe because much of us are naive - only caring about our daily existance and being brainwashed by the illusions of the mass media and their daily bombardment of pop culture? Are only the rich, famous, and powerful protected? In all the events and my own personal dealing, I do find that this has been the majority of cases at this moment, and a worrying trend - not only in Thailand, but all over this world.
It just makes me wonder, how safe are we really are? Are we only safe because much of us are naive - only caring about our daily existance and being brainwashed by the illusions of the mass media and their daily bombardment of pop culture? Are only the rich, famous, and powerful protected? In all the events and my own personal dealing, I do find that this has been the majority of cases at this moment, and a worrying trend - not only in Thailand, but all over this world.
Started Drawing After A Long Absence
I've used to do alot of drawing and illustrations during my highschool years. I remembered very well that we started our own manga drawing group in highschool and there were like 4 members - though only 2 actually did any drawing which there was Nick who was the president of the local club, and I who was the dictator for life :P
What we wanted to be are aspiring manga artist, but somehow it never really worked out that well, we all managed to get some degree of art aptitude but it wasn't enough to get in the professional league. After some more short dabbling - it ended up as a hobby that I did right up until the university years. However after graduation and work and etc., I haven't really been doing much more artwork, and something which I wonder myself why not. So after some short deliberation, I decided to day to pick up a pencil and start sketching a very quick portrait of myself :P p.s. Can't find any model so the best model is yourself ;)
The self-portrait was done in manga style which was a little different from what I usually did which was a little more murky, but anyway its posted on the title of this blog. After the quick sketch was done, I scanned it and did a very quick CG (computer graphic) illustration. In CG technics, I'm used to the quick airbrush technique, in which focuses on speed. The whole picture from the sketch until the illustration took about 2 and 1/2 hour which is alot less than my friends who takes days to week to finish a picture.
Anyway as you noticed the picture is more of a color sketch than a color painting - in which I'll probably attempt the next time out. The next time plan to work on a rather more complex illustration, probably the draft of the planned character design for my next computer game project that is in the planning stages. Hopefully I won't get too rusty then :P
What we wanted to be are aspiring manga artist, but somehow it never really worked out that well, we all managed to get some degree of art aptitude but it wasn't enough to get in the professional league. After some more short dabbling - it ended up as a hobby that I did right up until the university years. However after graduation and work and etc., I haven't really been doing much more artwork, and something which I wonder myself why not. So after some short deliberation, I decided to day to pick up a pencil and start sketching a very quick portrait of myself :P p.s. Can't find any model so the best model is yourself ;)
The self-portrait was done in manga style which was a little different from what I usually did which was a little more murky, but anyway its posted on the title of this blog. After the quick sketch was done, I scanned it and did a very quick CG (computer graphic) illustration. In CG technics, I'm used to the quick airbrush technique, in which focuses on speed. The whole picture from the sketch until the illustration took about 2 and 1/2 hour which is alot less than my friends who takes days to week to finish a picture.
Anyway as you noticed the picture is more of a color sketch than a color painting - in which I'll probably attempt the next time out. The next time plan to work on a rather more complex illustration, probably the draft of the planned character design for my next computer game project that is in the planning stages. Hopefully I won't get too rusty then :P
Photo - Basketball Field
Basketball Field - I took this photo of a basketball field I've used to play while I was still a student. During my student years I've played alot of basketball, and even had my own team in which we played in a number of different tournaments - which was fun, though something that was long gone - but never forgotten.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Random Personality Tests
One personality test on which leader I closely resemble. The results aren't that surprising :P
Rose
This is a picture of a rose I've taken with my film camera and then scanned into the computer. I've done a number of retouching in Photoshop, using radial blur out of the rose, exageerating the pink in the rose to make it look rather strange. Hope you liked it :)
Euro 2004 Fever and Vices
Euro 2004 has started for a few weeks. During these weeks I'm sure a big majority of the viewers in our country will be glued to the television set from 11:45 PM to 4:00 AM nearly everyday watching the live broadcast from Portugal. As being a football player myself (Captain Football Team in the Sports Day in HighSchool Grade 10-11, Left Back/Winger at my Faculty at the University Level, and currently playing as a GoalKeeper), I am naturally interested in seeing football games, though I've been rather selective in my matches. This Euro competition I've been cheering mostly the underdogs - Latvia and Greece which are the team I've been looking on. Greece is an interesting team, and if you noticed they qualified ahead of Spain in the qualification making them a probabaly dark horse that could proceed to the later rounds. At the time of this blog, Greece has already proceeded to the next round. Regarding Latvia, I know a few players in their team, with Marian Pahars being the most famous - as I remember distinctively during the Saints (Southampton FC which I'm a fan) great escape. Latvia plays a defense and completely counterattack team. Though I don't think their team is technically the weakest team in the competition they have produced a few shocking results by nearly winning Czech (though losing at the end), and should have won against the fangless German (Latvia had 2 good penalty situations turned down).
Anyway back from all this, I wanted to go back and review a few things in perspective before ending this rant.
Gambling
Just a few days ago, my little brother, who was supposed to meet up with me in the Ratchada area, told me about a story that reminded me when I was in HighSchool. He said he say a student handing in an envelop a wade of cash to a group of people at a garage of a famous department store in the Ratchada area. That is a very typical scene at this Euro Fever. People gambling and losing. In this case my brother recalled that the mechanics were angry with the money - as it seems that the student that gambled did not pay all his dues - and own them some more money. As we know, Euro 2004 has produced numerous upsets which is an ideal situation for the bet receivers.
As we see here, this is a social problem. I know alot of my friends how have fallen to the vices of gambling - as they see it as an easy way to make money. Many of them engage in this type of activity, "Gamble with what they have not" assuming they would win and get cash for free. Now this is a problem, once they lose, they don't have any money to pay the dues and have to resort to different measures - such as loaning money from close friends. Some students intentionally withdraw subjects they register from University to pay gambling dues. Some students resort to worse things such as stealing. As we see the lack of self-discipline and the illusion of get-rich-soon by gambling is a big social problem.
Though it would be easy to say let's make gambling illegal, we see that gambling is part of human nature and it would never be possible.
Anyway back from all this, I wanted to go back and review a few things in perspective before ending this rant.
Gambling
Just a few days ago, my little brother, who was supposed to meet up with me in the Ratchada area, told me about a story that reminded me when I was in HighSchool. He said he say a student handing in an envelop a wade of cash to a group of people at a garage of a famous department store in the Ratchada area. That is a very typical scene at this Euro Fever. People gambling and losing. In this case my brother recalled that the mechanics were angry with the money - as it seems that the student that gambled did not pay all his dues - and own them some more money. As we know, Euro 2004 has produced numerous upsets which is an ideal situation for the bet receivers.
As we see here, this is a social problem. I know alot of my friends how have fallen to the vices of gambling - as they see it as an easy way to make money. Many of them engage in this type of activity, "Gamble with what they have not" assuming they would win and get cash for free. Now this is a problem, once they lose, they don't have any money to pay the dues and have to resort to different measures - such as loaning money from close friends. Some students intentionally withdraw subjects they register from University to pay gambling dues. Some students resort to worse things such as stealing. As we see the lack of self-discipline and the illusion of get-rich-soon by gambling is a big social problem.
Though it would be easy to say let's make gambling illegal, we see that gambling is part of human nature and it would never be possible.
Monday, June 21, 2004
Poster of ROX on Press Launch - an MMOG I've Designed
Here is a picture a friend took of one of my closest friend, Phot on the first press release of ROX - an MMOG played over the mobile phone. On the background is the poster for the game ROX which is an MMOG that I've designed for the company Game Yuppie, and Phot did the programming of all the backend - server-side part of this game.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Self Portrait
Here is one old self portrait I took of myself about 5 years ago. I don't like how people like to make themselves lighter (whiter) in portrait shots, so I've used Photoshop to exagerate the colors making it intense.
This method has been my primary choice in making portraits - though a little strange, I do like it alot. What do you feel about it?
Friday, June 18, 2004
One Man Band
One Man Band for this World!
As I was looking through my backups for some files, I found many interesting things in my archives in which I decided to upload up just for fun :)
The picture you see above is like a logo of my odd one man music production group which I called this project the One Man Band. In this project I've done a number of odd composition ranging from many themes from odd experiments with DSP (digital signal processing) to new age to rock to pop to electronic music to DJ to all the odds things I could think about. Odd stuff I know is that I can't play any musical instrument properly but it didn't stop me composing ;)
I hosted my music at this site called MP3.COM which was taken over. MP3.COM used to be the mecca of indie artist without contracts as numerous artists all around the world host there music there for an international audience. One Man Band was part of that trend, until the whole website was bought and taken over earlier this year.
Talking about it, it feels nice to know that I've an international artist with over 10k songs downloaded ;)
Blast - 2nd Online Album.
This is the cover of my 2nd online music album. The album is called Blast and it contain 10 electronic DJ music tracks, and it was hosted on MP3.COM, which I explained about in the above post.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Old CG Work
I was looking through my old archive CDs with old backups from junk that I've done a while ago. I've just noticed one of my old CG works, a picture of an Asuka Like character (From Evangelion) I've illustrated and drawn back in 1999 (5 years ago :P). Its been a while since I've done these things...
On an illustrator's note, this was when I initially started out with CG type of illustration. I didn't do very well with the pic scans, and you may have noticed the lines of the corners are rather jagged, which is caused by scanning the black and white scanlines too small, and expanding it - causing it to pixelate - which caused numerous problems later.
Ways to Revolutionize the Thailand Football League
After our latest setback in International Football - where our national Thailand side was drubbed 4 - 1 by the visiting North Korea team - there has been lots of talk about how we can revolutionize how the direction of Thai Football should go.
After hearing alot of things, here are my observations and recommendations:
The observation why our state of Thai Football is down sums up to the following:
1) Lack of proper football league in Thailand (our best players usually play in Singapore/Vietnamese FC leagues)
2) Lack of Passion from our Fan (no association with support for our football leagues)
3) Lack of Direction from our Football Authority of Thailand(FAT)
4) Throwing money where it should go. e.g. Money as prize money for winning tournaments, but not investing on infrastructures
5) Lack of qualified coaches
6) Cronyism in selection of team members
7) More focus of fitness based training
My suggestions to fix the following are:
1) Set up proper leagues in Thailand. Right now we have 2 leagues - a provincial league that no one watches due to second/third tier players, and a main league which has teams that are sponsored by big corporations. The main problem is the lack of money in provincial leagues, and the lack of fan passion of teams in the main league. I don't associate myself to teams such as Thai Farmer Bank, Port Authority, BEC Tero, etc. but I associate myself to province. In this example, the FAT should seriously think about how to fix this main underlying problem. Combining the leagues, set up a draft, find sponsors, are just some of the part that should be done. To be exact, instead of doing a swansong with the PM in trying to procure Liverpool FC, the money would best be placed in placing the infrastructure of a strong league here.
2) Hire consultants from Vietnam (yes I'm not kidding) Football League to help figure how to set up our fledging Football League. As Vietnam are in the early stages of Football development, but have place good initial infrastructure on club level and competition in their country we can learn alot from them. Later we could step up with assistance from more successful football leagues later.
3) Change diehard habits - cronyism should be thrown out the window. Fitness should be placed on higher priority - weknow our national team cannot keep up with 90 minutes of football action.
4) Find more qualified personnel in coaching and other football related fields. I don't think we have good physio-therapist nor good nutrient advisor, and I highly suggest we need to start to instill some right habits to the team.
I hope someday soon I can see our Bangkok FC taking out those bastards from the Chiang Mai FC some day. p.s. the last statement was just a joke :P
After hearing alot of things, here are my observations and recommendations:
The observation why our state of Thai Football is down sums up to the following:
1) Lack of proper football league in Thailand (our best players usually play in Singapore/Vietnamese FC leagues)
2) Lack of Passion from our Fan (no association with support for our football leagues)
3) Lack of Direction from our Football Authority of Thailand(FAT)
4) Throwing money where it should go. e.g. Money as prize money for winning tournaments, but not investing on infrastructures
5) Lack of qualified coaches
6) Cronyism in selection of team members
7) More focus of fitness based training
My suggestions to fix the following are:
1) Set up proper leagues in Thailand. Right now we have 2 leagues - a provincial league that no one watches due to second/third tier players, and a main league which has teams that are sponsored by big corporations. The main problem is the lack of money in provincial leagues, and the lack of fan passion of teams in the main league. I don't associate myself to teams such as Thai Farmer Bank, Port Authority, BEC Tero, etc. but I associate myself to province. In this example, the FAT should seriously think about how to fix this main underlying problem. Combining the leagues, set up a draft, find sponsors, are just some of the part that should be done. To be exact, instead of doing a swansong with the PM in trying to procure Liverpool FC, the money would best be placed in placing the infrastructure of a strong league here.
2) Hire consultants from Vietnam (yes I'm not kidding) Football League to help figure how to set up our fledging Football League. As Vietnam are in the early stages of Football development, but have place good initial infrastructure on club level and competition in their country we can learn alot from them. Later we could step up with assistance from more successful football leagues later.
3) Change diehard habits - cronyism should be thrown out the window. Fitness should be placed on higher priority - weknow our national team cannot keep up with 90 minutes of football action.
4) Find more qualified personnel in coaching and other football related fields. I don't think we have good physio-therapist nor good nutrient advisor, and I highly suggest we need to start to instill some right habits to the team.
I hope someday soon I can see our Bangkok FC taking out those bastards from the Chiang Mai FC some day. p.s. the last statement was just a joke :P
Lack of Direction
Double standards is a word that directly affects our country's ruling party - and cronies.
The latest cronism that was leveled was on the handling of the Liverpool Purchase by the Thai Government. I wanted to point our PM first of all said a group of private investers will buy Liverpool FC. Later one anonymous spokeperson leaked news that the money would be used from Tax money drawing a chorus of disapproval before he reverted to using a special lottery for that means.
The lottery was later scrapped due to strong opposition from many sources that included a petition at Sanam Luang a while ago, and only scraped with Chamlong, our PM's political teacher asked him not to. He claimed he listen to the people, but as we see, the masses and the academia were all ignored which is a clear example of ears behind the back.
What I want us to know from all this is the a complete lack of direction from our government. Whereas our PM is promising riches and the glory of Liverpool FC through the means of lottery (which is a form of gambling), our Ministry of Education and our Ministry of Culture both are campaigning against it.
There are more cases I want to raise my point on, but that would be another day in my random ramble, when I get some more time to compose myself :)
The latest cronism that was leveled was on the handling of the Liverpool Purchase by the Thai Government. I wanted to point our PM first of all said a group of private investers will buy Liverpool FC. Later one anonymous spokeperson leaked news that the money would be used from Tax money drawing a chorus of disapproval before he reverted to using a special lottery for that means.
The lottery was later scrapped due to strong opposition from many sources that included a petition at Sanam Luang a while ago, and only scraped with Chamlong, our PM's political teacher asked him not to. He claimed he listen to the people, but as we see, the masses and the academia were all ignored which is a clear example of ears behind the back.
What I want us to know from all this is the a complete lack of direction from our government. Whereas our PM is promising riches and the glory of Liverpool FC through the means of lottery (which is a form of gambling), our Ministry of Education and our Ministry of Culture both are campaigning against it.
There are more cases I want to raise my point on, but that would be another day in my random ramble, when I get some more time to compose myself :)
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Computer Notebook Galore!
Just a few days ago, we had a few guests coming over to my home. We all had one notebook so we decided to take a quick cheap snapshot with a digital camera just for the heck of it. At the moment ont his picture there are 4 notebooks, 2 desktops on the background, and one computer in the first floor of my home. Strangely enough, we could start our own office here X'D
The photo is rather low quality with my digital camera rather underpowered for night shots making this photo a litter darker than it should be. Got to save up for a new Digital Camera - a manual model is in my sights :)
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Photos from UnderWater World
A few months ago I went to an aquarium called UnderWater World. This aquarium was located convienently on the outskirts of Pattaya. I took my camera to take a few photos which was rather difficult considering many of the fishes swim rather fast, and also due to poor lighting and refraction of light issues. However I did manage to capture a shots of a few creatures from the sea on my trip which is posted in this website. Since I'm not very accurate with biology, I think I forgot most their names, but anyway, here are a few snapshots there.
Monday, June 14, 2004
Sundown at Pattaya
I was in Pattaya the last weekend and I took a photo shot at sundown over Pattaya where the fishermen go out to pry their trade.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Film Studio to Develop B&W Photo
This is where put our developed film, and use this equipment to make copies on paper. Its mechanism is similar to a camera - which works like a slide projector.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Memories
Last Tuesday, I woke up out of bed, in one of my early morning stupor. I had a quick shower, and dragged myself to work. As usual, when I reached my workplace, I was as groggy as any person can get, and I resumed my early morning routine.
Around the same afternoon, I've finally figured that I've lost my PDA and a digital camera that I kept on my small black harddisk case that I usually carry around. After much deliberation that day trying to figure where I left it, after many hours of searching, it was all fruitless and I ended up having to go home empty-handed.
The value of the items were rather expensive. The digital camera was a Casio Exlim - a miniture digital camera that would cost about 12000 baht on the local market. My PDA was an older PALM, Zire 21 which should be around 4000 on the market value. The combined value was 16000 baht which was close to $400 worth of electronic equipment that was a huge lost that day.
After I reached home I tried to reconstruct my daily activities of that day and planned to retrace it the next day on all the places I've been to.
Early the next morning I repeated all my daily routine to the exact minute, but in the afternoon I given up hope figuring that the booty was too valuable - and someone must have pocketed it and gained a quick windfall from it.
Dishearten, I've went to my next class to teach, and just out of the blues, I've finally noticed that the bag that I was looking for was on top of the speaker system - well camoflaged (both are black). After looking around, I picked up the bag and examined the contents inside. Everything was intact - there was my camera and my PDA.
With a sigh of relief, I could breath easier to know that my stuff is still around. As mentioned earlier, memories are a fleeting thing, cherish them - before there are no memories no more.
Around the same afternoon, I've finally figured that I've lost my PDA and a digital camera that I kept on my small black harddisk case that I usually carry around. After much deliberation that day trying to figure where I left it, after many hours of searching, it was all fruitless and I ended up having to go home empty-handed.
The value of the items were rather expensive. The digital camera was a Casio Exlim - a miniture digital camera that would cost about 12000 baht on the local market. My PDA was an older PALM, Zire 21 which should be around 4000 on the market value. The combined value was 16000 baht which was close to $400 worth of electronic equipment that was a huge lost that day.
After I reached home I tried to reconstruct my daily activities of that day and planned to retrace it the next day on all the places I've been to.
Early the next morning I repeated all my daily routine to the exact minute, but in the afternoon I given up hope figuring that the booty was too valuable - and someone must have pocketed it and gained a quick windfall from it.
Dishearten, I've went to my next class to teach, and just out of the blues, I've finally noticed that the bag that I was looking for was on top of the speaker system - well camoflaged (both are black). After looking around, I picked up the bag and examined the contents inside. Everything was intact - there was my camera and my PDA.
With a sigh of relief, I could breath easier to know that my stuff is still around. As mentioned earlier, memories are a fleeting thing, cherish them - before there are no memories no more.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Gamers' Zone - ROX - Saturday 16.30 - iTV
Gamers' Zone - Saturday 16.30 - iTV
The link above links to The ROX a game that I designed for MFEC (Gameyuppie - http://www.gameyuppie.com). The game is a MMOG game that is played through your mobile phone.
This game was recently featured in TV in a local game show called Gamer'sZone.
Unfortunately the article is in Thai, so it may be hard to read for our international audiences unfortunately :(
The link above links to The ROX a game that I designed for MFEC (Gameyuppie - http://www.gameyuppie.com). The game is a MMOG game that is played through your mobile phone.
This game was recently featured in TV in a local game show called Gamer'sZone.
Unfortunately the article is in Thai, so it may be hard to read for our international audiences unfortunately :(
Blue Screen - An Application :)
As we noticed the next picture, I've used it as an avatar. Notice how I took off the colors, but left a small purple mask to add color to it, and added a hand to balance the picture. Interesting isn't it ;)
This is an example of a blue screen method. I've used pink paper (ironic its call blue screen)as a background, and took my photo on it. Later its easy to use this picture and superimpose it on any background except the problem is that the glasses, if you noticed - part of it disappeared also - making it rather difficult to use it straight away.
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
The Political Compass
The Political Compass
This website I've linked to is a very interesting website that will explore more about what type of person you stand on political issues.
In modern society, we usually use the terms left or right (conservatives, or liberals) to describe political viewpoints of many groups of people. One of the problem with this classification is from its inadequatcy in portraying people of different viewpoints mainly on two major issues - social issues and economical issues.
The political compass address this by measuring our viewpoints on both this areas making our viewpoint more multi-facet and accurate than the typical left and right.
On a personal note, I got -4.41 on economical issues, but neutral on social issues with a score of -0.41.
What about you? How do you stand on the political compass?
This website I've linked to is a very interesting website that will explore more about what type of person you stand on political issues.
In modern society, we usually use the terms left or right (conservatives, or liberals) to describe political viewpoints of many groups of people. One of the problem with this classification is from its inadequatcy in portraying people of different viewpoints mainly on two major issues - social issues and economical issues.
The political compass address this by measuring our viewpoints on both this areas making our viewpoint more multi-facet and accurate than the typical left and right.
On a personal note, I got -4.41 on economical issues, but neutral on social issues with a score of -0.41.
What about you? How do you stand on the political compass?
Photo: Contrasting Trees
Notice the barren tree in front, in contrast with the tree with leaves in the back. Makes you think about the have and the have-not - a contrasting picture.
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Photos from Wat Arun
A picture from where we are to the top of Wat Arun. This temple was created from taking old porcelin from Chinese Junk that sunk in the Chao Praya river to make a significant part of the exterior decoration.
Safety Shoes
To work, I usually have to wear leather shoes. Problem with leather shoes is most of them are rather not very durable, and I myself am an avid walker. To be exact I usually go through a sole of a normal leather shoe in about 4-6 months - which isn't really good. I just decided to try to buy safety shoes that are very durable (enough to be used in the construction yard), and I find it to be quite good :) Anyway here is a snapshot of the shoe bought the last weak :)
Monday, June 07, 2004
Picture Taken from A Strange Place
If you were imagining that this picture was talken at some resort or some far off place, then you're totally off-mark. A few weeks ago, while I was walking to a friend's house I passed by a Caltex Filling Station, and I found this statue in the corner of the station, in which I took out my camera and took a snap.
Notes for PhotoBlogging: Hello - Beta Build 553
After trying to find a workaround with the old build of Hello, in which I figured that using a different ISP works, I was contacted by Mike, the forum administrator of Hello, informing that he wants me to test the new build (beta) version of Hello.
One of the major problem of Hello is that it doesn't work if we are behind a proxy server. Due to many people using proxy servers, as me in the case it doesn't work in many of the computers that uses Hello. In my case, even by turning off my usual proxy and firewalls, it still doesn't work. Anyway, I figured that Hello works on another ISP so there are likely a few reasons for it, the first one I thought that it was due to the automatic settings in which some ISP will configure our connection to go through their Proxy was the cause. However after talking with the good fellas back at Hello, they mention another possibility in which the ISP may have been closing a number of odd ports which makes it impossible for Hello to connect.
On a short note, Hello connects on port 4060 which may be blocked by the ISP, so in this case, other ports such as 443 and 80(which is for HTTP) are allowed to be used as a fallback if the first port fails. I've tried testing this with both my ISP and I finally figured that it was likely my main ISP blocked port 4060, so that is why I wasn't initially able to connect to Hello with my default dialup connection.
With that problem out of the way, I was able to connect into Hello without any problem and finding the PhotoBlogging a real enjoyable experience :)
Thanks for the crew back at Hello for helping me out!
One of the major problem of Hello is that it doesn't work if we are behind a proxy server. Due to many people using proxy servers, as me in the case it doesn't work in many of the computers that uses Hello. In my case, even by turning off my usual proxy and firewalls, it still doesn't work. Anyway, I figured that Hello works on another ISP so there are likely a few reasons for it, the first one I thought that it was due to the automatic settings in which some ISP will configure our connection to go through their Proxy was the cause. However after talking with the good fellas back at Hello, they mention another possibility in which the ISP may have been closing a number of odd ports which makes it impossible for Hello to connect.
On a short note, Hello connects on port 4060 which may be blocked by the ISP, so in this case, other ports such as 443 and 80(which is for HTTP) are allowed to be used as a fallback if the first port fails. I've tried testing this with both my ISP and I finally figured that it was likely my main ISP blocked port 4060, so that is why I wasn't initially able to connect to Hello with my default dialup connection.
With that problem out of the way, I was able to connect into Hello without any problem and finding the PhotoBlogging a real enjoyable experience :)
Thanks for the crew back at Hello for helping me out!
Self Processed - Black and White Photo Gallery
This is the last photo I've done in that session. This picture was taken at World Trade Center - Bangkok Thailand, in front of one of the cornerstone shrines of a picture of one of my photography buddies taking a photo.
Big problem with this photo is the lack of contrast in the colors and also some scratch marks because I accidently fumbled on the darkroom staining the mid of the picture with my fingers - as I dropped the photo while was on the processing. Didn't have much time so can't make a redo.
Zzz...
Today is a bad day. Got alittle sick, and before the day got started it was already all over.
I figured its best not to code when you are kind of sick or nearly dead.
Going back to Zzz... and hopefully something new happens tommorrow that would be a new development.
Otherwise just talked with the Hello creator (Mike) regarding about the problem with Hello with some ISPs and seems that I would be in the beta test of the new version of Hello soon.
Yummy, not I don't have to switch ISP all the time :)
I figured its best not to code when you are kind of sick or nearly dead.
Going back to Zzz... and hopefully something new happens tommorrow that would be a new development.
Otherwise just talked with the Hello creator (Mike) regarding about the problem with Hello with some ISPs and seems that I would be in the beta test of the new version of Hello soon.
Yummy, not I don't have to switch ISP all the time :)
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Solving Mystery of Hello Mysterious Network Error
The following article here is from the following url:
http://forums.picasa.net/viewtopic.php?p=5305
If you are interested in Photoblogging, the article says we have to download a program called Hello to allow us to upload the pictures to our photoblog. However there were lots of complaints about the pesky network error that plaqued the program.
In some cases, the recommendation such as turning off Proxy, Firewall, and AntiVirus doesn't work - I've suggested a way that can help solve that problem which is quoted below that could be of use:
http://forums.picasa.net/viewtopic.php?p=5305
If you are interested in Photoblogging, the article says we have to download a program called Hello to allow us to upload the pictures to our photoblog. However there were lots of complaints about the pesky network error that plaqued the program.
In some cases, the recommendation such as turning off Proxy, Firewall, and AntiVirus doesn't work - I've suggested a way that can help solve that problem which is quoted below that could be of use:
I've been receiving a number of error which is the following error:
'A network error occurred (0x0000274d)' when I tried to use Hello for my Photoblog.
I've looked careful at the support pages, and I've discovered the problem was annouced in this forum address:
http://forums.picasa.net/viewtopic.php?t=1454
The problem says that I've been behind a proxy server. Since I use a local proxy on my computer, I've disabled it, and used direct connect.
However I found that the problem still persisted even though I turned off the proxy on my computer. Later I've also turned out all the firewall and then the antivirus hoping it would work. None of then did and still have the same error.
However, when I was about to be very very frustrated with the program, I've finally found a solution - though not very elegant. I happen to use a second (backup) ISP, and this time, Hello works perfectly!
This has made me conclude that - some ISP have proxy server connection - which as end users we may not know about it - which causes trouble when we log in. Other ISPs, may not use use that, and it allows us to connect to Hello without any problem.
As in my case, switching the ISP may allow you to connect to Hello if you tried to follow all the steps here but with no avail as explained briefly above.
It may not be elegant but it works - just have to juggle around with ISP which is somewhat irritating - but using Hello for Photoblogging is well worth the effort "
Template Changes
I've just got the time to look through the Template Code and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that are in my blog, and tried to play around with it. If you know basic HTML, some common programming skills, then editing much of this would be easy to understand and change.
Like in this instance, the template title was changed, but as mentioned, I like things plain and simple - remember unique interface is not always the best. Some unique interfaces that look whoa! at first may turn very grating as proven to be hard to navigate. Human Computer Interaction talks alot about that, and if you are inbetween the geekish computer type - and parly artist, it would be good to take alook on this subject - a real interesting read ;)
Oh my gosh, got out of topic again :-/ Oh well, there goes a minor template change, and probably in the course of this small adventure, will be playing around with it to create more of a personalized representation of myself finally ;)
Like in this instance, the template title was changed, but as mentioned, I like things plain and simple - remember unique interface is not always the best. Some unique interfaces that look whoa! at first may turn very grating as proven to be hard to navigate. Human Computer Interaction talks alot about that, and if you are inbetween the geekish computer type - and parly artist, it would be good to take alook on this subject - a real interesting read ;)
Oh my gosh, got out of topic again :-/ Oh well, there goes a minor template change, and probably in the course of this small adventure, will be playing around with it to create more of a personalized representation of myself finally ;)
13?
The last post was number 13.
Posts a new number to make it 14.
To some people 13 is a bad number in the christian principle. In some other places, they adopted the practice and also considered 13 to be a bad number. Just a few months ago, someone jumped off the building in the 13th floor adding alot to the rumors of the unlucky 13.
However on the other side, some peeps consider 13 to be lucky - one of the most famous is Gary Kasparov our current reigning chess champion who considers 13 to be a lucky number.
Strange eh?
Posts a new number to make it 14.
To some people 13 is a bad number in the christian principle. In some other places, they adopted the practice and also considered 13 to be a bad number. Just a few months ago, someone jumped off the building in the 13th floor adding alot to the rumors of the unlucky 13.
However on the other side, some peeps consider 13 to be lucky - one of the most famous is Gary Kasparov our current reigning chess champion who considers 13 to be a lucky number.
Strange eh?
Traditional Film Photography
In this era of digital photography, I've been doing alot more of traditional film photography. Today I've been processing and developing my own B&W photo at a darkhouse which is a new and rather bewildering experience.
Since I can't really upload the photo unless I use a new ISP, I'll write more details once I have the photo up and will discuss about some interesting things that were done then :)
Notice the paradox, computer specialist using traditional film photography - strange isn't it ;)
Since I can't really upload the photo unless I use a new ISP, I'll write more details once I have the photo up and will discuss about some interesting things that were done then :)
Notice the paradox, computer specialist using traditional film photography - strange isn't it ;)
Official OfficeBoyz Futsal Team Poster
This is the poster of our futsal (five a side) football team, in which we competed at a district level. We lost all the games, but we won over the hearts of the fans :)
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