Pisal's Secret Parma Ham Pizza

You might find it odd, but I usually cook in my free time, usually on weekends. One of my favorite dishes that I regularly make is pizza in which I make my own dough. After experimenting for a few years, I've finally honed into my favorite pizza that I usually make to impress my first time guests at my home.


The pizza that I make right now is my own dough which is made into extremely thin crust (which I usually do after some flying pizza tricks :P). The topping that I like the most currently is Parma ham. As noted Parma Ham idoesn't come cheap, but its delicious and gives a rather fine salty taste. To cover up the excessive saltiness, there are two things I've used. First is a layer of tomato sauce (could be made but tomato quality here is too low to make good sauce). The second is the layer of mascapone cheese (the one you use in tiramasu) is used below the parma ham to give a smooth cheesy taste after biting.The whole thing is covered up with some classic mozzarella cheese which is standard in any pizza. If you noticed the topics, this pizza isn't cheap, but its great for any home party :)

The only thing at the present that I can think that can help my pizza is a better oven. I fancy a coal driven pizza oven, but that is pretty too expensive, and won't fit a home kitchen that well doesn't it?

Thai Computer Game Museum

Just thought you might be interested in a few things I've been up to. I've just finished the first edition of Thai Computer Game Museum, and you can view it at this address http://museum.thaigamedevx.com

My Own Custom Music Program

I was asked to submit a research paper to a conference by my future PhD advisor. Due to the lack of time, I've decided to pick up a topic closely related with one of my hobbies. As noted, I'm studying music, and have been playing with a number of instruments including the saxophone and the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). One of the things that I figured that might be interesting for me is to actually work on a type of application that could be useful when I play with the instruments. As the EWI is an electronic instrument, I selected it as a topic to work on.

If you noticed the following random pictures below, it is actually part of the application I've worked on. If you looked carefully, you can notice the picture are basically extracting information from me playing with the EWI finding which part of the frame in the camera feed I was in. This information is then relayed to the software mixer that could change parameters such as the panning effects.




The application worked out pretty well, and it allowed me as the musician to change panning without having to be at the mixer which could be useful in certain situations. One example would be creating sound effects that uses lots of panning. That is one area that I could save alot of time.

Anyway, after much work on the topic, a a few ideas struck me. If I used two cameras, I could actually plot my position in 3D, which wasn't that difficult to do. Another brilliant idea that popped up my head was using motion sensor tools (e.g. Nintendo WII remote anyone?) to help in music playing.

The lesson I've learnt in the drafting of the paper was quite fun. To be exact, playing musical instruments is fun, and making programs to add to that doubles the fun! You might want to try something like that if you have the time ;)

The Root Cause of a Bad Computer

After struggling with my new computer for a year or so, I've finally found the root cause of the problem that causes unscheduled rebooting on occasional basis and lots of artifacts when playing hi-end games. After fudging around, I removed my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum sound card (with a front panel) out, and it turned that all the games worked perfectly without the artifacts and the computer stopped rebooting at random intervals.

I believed the problem has to do with the inadequate power supply that came with the case. I reasoned that the power wasn't simply enough to power all the electronic devices installed in the computer. Though I'm not completely sure on the conclusion, it does sound plausible enough.

Thinking about all of it, this is both the joy and the angst of having a PC. You just have to have a little knowledge or that PC is going to make you completely frustrated.

New ID Card

I just got my new ID card from the district. In Thailand, there are two types of ID cards. The first type utilizes a simple magnetic strip. The newer type that was supposed to replace the first was a Smart Card version. I got the old version during my update because the new Smart Card type was not shipped to districts due to a myriad of reasons.

No matter what, I'm happy with my old ID. Let me explain you why. First of all, the Smart Card ID (which was implemented a few years back) is more expensive. Also the implementation of the Smart Card had a number of flaws, as reported by a number of developers, which would make it easy to have your confidential data compromised.

As noted, I'm not always for new technological advancements, especially when they offer nothing better than the original system.

Day Plan on my Birthday

Tommorrow is my birthday. Here is the log of activities that I plan to do tommorrow.

1) Wake up
2) Eat Breakfast
3) Go to the district to get my expired ID card renewed
4) Go to the Bank and deposit my fixed monthly account
5) Get home to cook lunch
6) Take a short nap
7) Wake up
8) Continue reading one of the many books on my backlog
9) Eat Dinner
10) Watch TV
11) Browse the Internet and answer emails
12) Continue reading one of the many books on my backlog
13) Sleep

That doesn't look like a special day at all does it? Hmm... I need to do something with my life LOL

The Not So Forensic Science of Computing Habits

As teaching computer programming, one of my duties is to proctor my own programming exam. To make things as fair as possible, I have a routine that before every exam, I have to clear and purge the files from all the computers in the room.

During my purges, I have to admit that at times I am surprised at the amount of junk I find in the computers. In most cases, you would see that a number of students would be installing games, especially in the far off ends of the lab. Some of the students browse the Internet in class - both for academic and leisure. One of the programs that I hate are instant messaging clients such as MSN which is regularly used to submit answers to each other.

One of the things that I find amusing is at times some of the people setup their messaging client to automatically log in, which is extremely dangerous in a public lab. Another interesting topic that could be picked up is the log of received files in the lab. Most of the files transfered are assignment files and in some cases other trivial stuff. Once going through hundreds of computers, I can say its easy to see a pattern emerging from observing all the excessive files, logs, and mis-configurations of people previously using the lab. Try doing the same thing. You'll be surprised at some of the things you might learn from that.

Bizzare Abbreviations

It is known that many people like to give abbreviations to long names and subjects to make life easier for them. In most cases, these abbreviations make perfect sense ang logic, but in other cases, these abbreviations will sound extremely bizzare. Let me show some of them.

Macroeconomics -> Macro
Makro the wholesaler?

Business Law -> Bus Law
We need to learn the laws of riding a bus?

Game Design/Game Development/Game Programming -> Game
For students not studying in a game development major, it is typical that they abbreviate the different subjects as the same one.

Information Technology -> IT
Sounds like a cheap C grade horror movie :-/

Computer Architecture -> Come Arc
Sounds like Com are belong to us !? Bad grammar isn't it?

Analytical Chemistry -> Anal Chem
Hmm...

Elevator Tale

During my ride down the an elevator to the ground floor from one of my office, my ride was interrupted on the 2nd floor. A student peered inside the elevator and asked timidly as the elevator was going up or down.

I looked at her and replied that it would certainly be a better choice to walk down the stairs. She looked surprised before deciding to stepped in the elevator seeing that the elevator was going down. It was a few awkward moment before the elevator reached the ground floor, and we gone out with our own different ways.

Hmm... Did I do anything wrong? I certainly think I was rude, unabashed, but I do believe it was an extremely small but worthful gift for this world.

New Weapon to My Home Studio

My little home studio just had a new weapon yesterday. I was a little upset with my old midi keyboard. I had an old Creative MP3 Blaster keyboard that I bought with my Sound Blaster Live! Platinum version on my older computer. It was quite useful for simple midi input, but the keyboard lacked many features and doesn't work well with other devices other than the original SoundBlaster Live soundcard. What I found out a few days ago was that since having a new computer I decided to try to link the Blaster keyboard to my new computer. I had a creative Audigy 2 soundcard Platinum on it, so I thought I would be able to play. However I found that the MP3 Blaster keyboard requires a joystick input (which was obsolete) to supply power to it. Without the port, there was no way to get the keyboard to work as there were no other ports to supply it power, not even a AC port :(

It took me a while, but I've finally figured that I must be more careful with buying decisions. If I am going to get any new electronic device, I had to make sure that it would work well far into the future. As the old Midi keyboard is practically a deadweight, I decided to go find a new Midi Controller. After much deliberation, I decided to pick the following Midi Controller:




Basically what I just got was a Korg K61P. Instead of a simple Midi Controller, this keyboard has an internal sound module that could output audio directly to a connected speaker. I decided to pay a little extra for this because a midi controller requires the computer to be on all the time. Its not quite a good thing considering that to practice, you just can't do it at the spur of the moment. Another bad point is that it takes time to setup the computer, and it isn't that fun to do when you just want a quick jam session.

Oh well, since I haven't really used it that much yet I can't really say much more about it, except that I'm happy to replace my other midi controller.

Saxophone Influences

After doing some browsing yesterday, I've somehow stumbled into a few websites of musical artists that I like way back. The first few albums of jazz that I listen to were from two artists - T-Square and Malta. If you have been listening to jazz in the far east, you might know more about these two artists. T-Square is a modern fusion jazz band, and this band introduced me alot of fusion jazz, synthesizers, and a big influence in getting myself an EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). Malta is another modern jazz player that I stumbled upon and liked tremendously. Malta is a saxophone player and he usually composes and play smooth and upbeat jazz numbers that fit well especially if you are in a long car drive. As I usually spent most of my weekends going to different provinces with my friends (during my studying years), Malta was our favorite artist during the rides.

In Thailand, T-Square information is easy to find. As there is an easy to access website and many other fan sites, you can find lots of information on the WWW. Also with a large number of listeners here, there are regularly many albums that end up being sold in the market here also. However in the case of Malta, you'll be hard pressed to find an album or any information in the WWW due to having a name similar to a popular tourist resort. Strangely enough, as being in a extremely bored mood, I decided to browse around, and due to luck, I've managed somehow to stumble into the website of that artist:
http://www.malta-jazzclub.com/

Might be worth a look as there are many song samples that are available for download.

My Life Sucks

To my own opinion, the fine threshold between being a perfectly happy person and a totally rotten and downcast person is so small that I keep wondering if I'm happy or unhappy with my life. I don't really think anything is seriously wrong with my life. I've made some decisions, some of them turned out well, some of them turned out badly, but at the end of the day, I'm still around, I'm still alive, and I'm doing pretty well compared to many other people.

The issue that bugs me however is that in normal circumstances, I would be perfectly happy person. I have no problems keeping a positive attitude when the world seems to turn against me. However during the last weeks I think I've been severely tested - in which my life seems to be completely rotten. I'll chronologically list out all the events that happened the last week.

Day 1: Got caught in the thundershower after trying to rush to the weekly basketball meet. Found out during my travel that it was cancelled.

Day 2: After cleaning up my room, my recently bought computer didn't work. After a long diagnostic, I found out the display adapter was broken and I needed to claim it

Day 3: Went to work, found out that the connection to my webserver was broken, and I had trouble getting the material to my classroom. The cause was a broken router in the building.

Later went to claim my display adapter, which will take me two weeks to complete the process. Thought about either buying a new display adapter or computer. Decided to be cheap and get back home to retrieve my old notebook to use. Found out that the harddisk was broken after a few hours of usage. Guarantee was over, so I had to install an older harddisk and reinstall the whole system

Day 4: Found out that my keyboard Midi Control (Creative BlasterMp3 Keyboard) will not work without a Sound Blaster Live! card. The only computer that could use it was in my office, not at home. I brought the keyboard home because I wanted to practice at home.

Lost a few documents, and had to look around all over the office for ages before I found it.

Day 5: Went to go eat at a great japanese restaurant. Found the shop was closed. Later was pinned between the subway doors. Later played video games at home. Did extremely badly.

Telephoned the shop where I ordered a case for my musical instrument. The person in charge was not in the shop, so I never figured out if it was finished or not.

Day 6: Needed a file from my computer that I didn't have the display adapter. Since I don't have any spare PCI-Express cards lying around, I couldn't get it. I didn't feel like opening and removing the Harddisk so I had to live without it.

Day 7: As having a bad week with little positives, I decided to stay home so that hopefully I won't get into another streak of bad luck.

As being home alone, decided to order delivery dinner. Found out the shop I planned to order does not allow delivery any longer. Since I didn't want to eat Pizza again, I decided to go outside to eat. Tried a new shop. It sucks...


Honestly with all the bad luck happening, somehow I wonder if My Life Sucks...

Don't know. Hopefully things would be in the upturn soon. Hope it does :)

Why Not Fiction!

When I started to appreciate reading, quite earlier on my life, most of the books I've read were fictional stories, mostly about Fantasy (e.g. Lords of the Ring, Narnia, Conan), and Sci-Fi (e.g. Isaac Asimov, Dune). After growing up and maturing, I've found that my taste has changed dramatically.

A quick glance through my current list of reading shows a huge slant towards biographies and non-fiction. What I've figured out that the reason why I read much more non-fiction these days is because I found that Life is indeed much stranger than fiction...

A paradox indeed!

Thinking Retrospective About Pranks

There was a matter that happened during my high school years. During high school, all students were required to pay a monthly activities fee. I didn't particularly like paying the fees especially when you are constantly reminded by a picky treasurer who wasn't the most friendly person in the world. After having many arguments (I had cashflow problems), I decided on the fee payment period to change all my monthly fee into coins. It was fun to see the expression on her face when I placed all the money in front of her.

Thinking back on that little prank I pulled out, it kind of gives me the shiver when I read the following story:

Back in the day, we had a pissed off taxpayer and his wife bring in several thousand dollars in pennies. At the time, we had real teller functions in most cities and they took their money-handling chores seriously and by-the-book. All cash payments were *required* (no exceptions) to be counted out twice in the presence of the person paying.

The manager saw the situation, got approval to put a teller on overtime, and started counting. They stressed to the taxpayers that they *must* remain present during the count. This was fairly early in the morning. After a few hours, some things began to change. Everytime the taxpayer needed to go to the bathroom, the count had to stop and everyone left the room. No lunch. No breaks.

Asshole taxpayer got bored. Then he got tired and cranky. Then he and his wife got into it. A screaming match ensued with the wife berating her husband for his stupid idea. "Yeah, you really showed them, didn't you?!" By that evening, she ripped the car keys out of his hand and left, telling him he could get a cab home. This was in a large, non-compact city with poor public transport and, at the time, only a shell of a taxi system. Telling him to catch a cab home was the equivalent of telling him to burn in hell.

Around midnight, the count finished. The jerk was shellshocked. He called a cab and proceeded to go stand out by the highway and wait for it. I don't know if it ever came.

I feel certain, however, that Mr. Idiot never tried another stunt like that.

On a short note, it seems that I was lucky that I didn't end up like the Idiot as in the story :P

Kicking the Habit?

Have you ever felt you have an addiction you want to quit, but somehow could never? I heard people had trouble to quit smoking or drinking alcohol. In my case, I'm addicted to softdrinks like coke, and I just can't seem to get rid of it. I nearly quit a year back, but after living a rather active lifestyle with more work and sporting activities, the need of sugar just simply got me back drinking sugary drinks as the body needs more energy. Been thinking on and off this issue, but can't seem to figure whether I should go one way or the other.

Hmm... I wonder if that this trivial matter, should be a huge issue, or simply something that I should just put as the least of my concerns?

A Parallel Story about Web Censorship in Thailand

One issue that I find rather funny is about the state of Web Censorship in Thailand. Just to rewind, about 6-7 years ago in the university I teach in, there was a web censorship program set up, in which numerous websites were blocked. Topics that were blocked included Pornography, Games, Diversions and Hobbies, and Audio/Video streaming. As being in a private university, policies like these could be dictated and implemented without consultation and consensus. I myself was rather caught by surprise by the implementation when a number of sites related with computer games that I usually read are no longer assessible. I usually like to prowl around a few local game development sites and an international site called gamaustra, which was the world's best site providing news about the game industry.

Initially I was rather somewhat annoyed, but life goes on as usual. After a few more weeks, more website were banned, including anti religious, political, and the most surprising of all was sourceforge which was the place you have to go for open-source software. That was the last straw. I found the censorship implemented to be over the top, and I've decided to start my own subversive activities. To be exact, going around internet censorship is easy if you know how. Anyone with intermediate computer knowledge will know that the use of proxy servers is the simplest form of getting around the censorship. To be exact, all you have to do is to set your browser to retrieve information that is banned from another server (proxy). So without much more thought, all my browsing in the local university net has been done with a proxy.

However after a few weeks, there were rumblings from a number of other staff and lecturers which were complaining about the sites they want to visit where censored. After comparing their list, there were many valid reasons to complain. One good example would be the banning of the CNN video/audio streaming which was completely banned. Another example would be certain programming tutorial websites. After much consultation, I decided to act by contacting the University Administrator to discuss about how the Internet Censorship in the Internet was completely out of hand. After much discussion, the administrator still refused to take down the voluntary censorship, but mentioned that he would be willing to allow reporting of websites that should not be censored. I also mentioned that the censorship was useless as it was easy to go around the system with proxies. Unabashed, the adminstrator said he can't stop the computer elite to get around it, but he said it is worth it to cut access to the majority of illiterate that are browsing websites that are inappropriate. The initial talk was unsatifactory, though I managed to get consessions that websites that are are useful could be unblocked by reporting them to the administrator. As I've already talked with numerous other sources, I had in my own hand a few pages of sites that should be unblocked along with its reason.

The system worked well for a while, however after a week, things were revered again. It seems that the adminstrators updated the list of blocked sites by keyword, and due to this reason, all the sites that were sent to unblocked, were blocked again. As the follow up discussion with the administrators was unsatisfactory (they refuse to update the list we submit them every week), so I reverted to slowly educating how to get around the censorship. After a few more months, the system was no longer in place, and all sites were available for view.

The reason why that was stopped because implementing Internet Censorship is expensive (especially if you set up a rather large amount of sites), easily subverted (with proxies), can usually end up being counter productive (censoring sites that are useful), and usually provides a negative vibe (especially in the user's view against the system).

What is strange is that the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Thailand has actually started a implementation of the censorship much like what my university did many years ago. The system that the MICT used was the usage of a large number of computer personnel to browse around and individually add websites to censor which is extremely expensive to maintain. The sites that were blocked initially were immoral websites, which is later extended to counter revolutionary websites. When looking at this situation, it seems that it closely parallels what has happened in the case of my university. How long the system would be maintained would either depend on the people's persistence in demanding the system to be scrapped, or either the maintainer's organization finding that the cost is expensive and decides to scrap it.

New Changes to Blog, but Much the Same Old Stuff

The last few minutes, I've just decided to go over blogger and see some of the features in Blogger, mainly in the templates setting. Been a huge while since I've last changed the template, and I was pretty surprised in a good way on the new changes with the template system which is certainly much more helpful than the previous template system which requires extensive HTML and CSS knowledge. Not that I don't know about those technology, but as blogging just a diversion, I do think on a personal opinion that I shouldn't waste too much time on blogging. Due to that attitude, I do have to agree that it isn't surprising that this blog is a sparsely visited with very few visitors :P

Anyway, the new changes are, quite underwhelming I reckon. I prefer bland websites, which is rather like my rather spartan life-style which is quite devoid of eye-candies and things other than bare necessities, and maybe too much luxury on my books. After all of that, I've just found one picture that fits the template quite well, which was a cactus flower picture I took a few years back which was interesting. Haven't been doing much photography of late due to the lack of going into trips. I don't like taking photo of people, and without going to trips, there isn't much chance to take many. The other problem is that since having a film camera (instead of a digital one), it makes me rather too cost conscious, and partly makes me rather reluctant on taking photographs of common things.

Just to leave things off, my little brother got married, so I think I'll just post a few pictures of the wedding (p.s. as being the usher, I didn't have the chance to take a single picture).

Before the wedding ceremony

The Bride and Groom with the MCs

A view of the banquet room

Cutting the cake

A portrait of some of the relatives on our side of the family with the bride and groom

Interesting Job Description

Since my little bro was getting married, I was kind of amused when I got one email from one of my old friends. As the world becomes increasing commercialized, it seems that a lot of things are influenced by it. Take this job description for example. Utterly crazy in a funny kind of way :P

MOM - JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE:
Mother, Mom, Mum, Mama, Mommy, Ma, Mater

JOB DESCRIPTION :
Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities. Travel expenses not reimbursed. Extensive courier duties also required.

RESPONSIBILITIES :
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs money. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and janitorial work throughout the facility.

POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT &PROMOTION :
Virtually none. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :
None required unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a continually exhausting basis.

WAGES AND COMPENSATION :
Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent. When you die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you could only do more.

BENEFITS:
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and free hugs for life if you play your cards right.

Forward this on to all the Moms you know, in appreciation for everything they do on a daily basis, and let them know they are appreciated!

On Reading

Being an avid reader, here is one addition caution that should be added:

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
-Mark Twain

As Fate Takes You...

Its been quite a while since my childhood years. One of the things that I've remembered well then was about wild dreams of a future there to be conquered. Some of those things dreamt where plain silly. Some of them were plan audacious. However after every passing year since childhood and as adulthood approaches, it seems that the window of opportunity seems to close little by little as reality sets in. What grandiose dreams were then changed, deemed too unrealistic to be true. Though the goals has been set from the sky down to just a jumping height, somehow it is quite funny to look back today and figure that all that most of my immediate goals were accomplished.

This is the problem of aiming too realistically and maybe in a sense too low. Once you do that, somehow when you reach the goal, it makes you kind of less fulfilled. In the hindsight if I did aim too high, the sense of anxiety from not being able to fulfill your potential is another bad feeling that is hard to get rid of.

So what does the future hold? Hard to say. At times it sounds like a good idea and just take a short step backwards to think and reflect on all that is done, reevaluate goals and just keep walking forwards to whereever fate takes me. It will be a fun and exciting road this year it things go as it is. Once more things are finalized, I will promise to write a little more about myself - though as you notice I hardly do that - being as emotionally detached at times as I usually am.