Archive for June, 2007

Resetting the Sleep Cycle

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 28, 2007
in Sleep
. 0 Comments

I remembered reading about sleep in the Sembawang library. The book mentioned that in a test to see if American nato soldiers can be deployed in Europe in 2 days, the group that received physical training reaching there shortly showed themselves adapted and was less affected to jet lag than another who didn’t.

My previous commander taught us “not to suffer with our leaves”, an advice to some soon-to-be-operational ready personnel not rot when they became too free during their block leave. Somehow I cultivate the attitude to make full use of the offs I had, even when its tiring during a half-day off, I would usually try to go out, play sports, exercise, run errants, or just do something meaningful instead of sleeping. This feel more satisfying that the “off” had been worth, taking a break from the routine work.

Somehow deep sleep can still imprison me. Previous day I didn’t need to return to camp, “‘Z’ Monsters” keep me accompanied for 18 hours. Imagine the horror to look at the clock when the eyes pry open, and the mind started preparations for “mealtimes” and “daylight” adjustments. Fast forward to the time tiredness crept in, there was only 1 hour before I had to get ready for set out.

From my late night projects experiences, I usually found it easier to survive forgoing the 1 hour sleep than to drag the mind out of the sleep. For excitement this time I took the 1 hour sleep. The challenge starts right after the 1 hour, when the dazed mind needs to negotiate with the body to move like a puppet.

Getting out of the house always cure the zombie state. The sun and walking seems to condition the mind and body for a new day. Having something to work on and talking to friends seems to make tiredness disappear but for a moment.

Towards the evening is critical on the perfect sleep reset. Going to sleep to early may offset the cycle. So to feel in any idle time for sleep, swimming before dinner and cycling after. Waiting times was occupied listening to music. By night, the body is shacked, and sleeps comes in at the calculated moment.

In order to prevent the disorder coming back after the “operation”, alarm in the morning preps me for a morning jog, and set heart beating healthy like a pacemaker.

p.s. Do not attempt what I did without consulting a trained physician. Neither did I actually, but my advice really about resetting the cycle is “make hay while the sun shines”, keep hydrating by drinking lots of water, (salt water and bananas if you wish to prevent cramps), and sleep at the correct time.

Last Guard Duty

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 24, 2007
in Memories, NS, Stories and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

“How are you feeling now that you competed your duties?”

“Should be feeling good”

“I would be flying if it were my last duty”

A little talk between a superior of mine and I after my last night duty. Though I don’t really know him well, the previous occasion we had duty together, we talked about life, and past and future of our camp. The past was a little of history lessons, as we recall the people and culture way before I came. The future as we foresee how the people and system were like, and he mentioned I would be missed like a couple of NSFs who served their time well with him.

Frankly, I wasn’t feeling much, yet- there seemed to be a little vacuum, not much excited happiness nor sadness. Perhaps I had been numbed.

I recall vividly the commotion and consequences my “upper study” had after getting into trouble on his last duty. I myself wanted some simple routine stuff, perhaps “slow and steady”, perhaps a “just get over and done with” attitude. No steamboats, no celebrations, no sabotage, just plain routine stuff with a handful of less exciting personnel. At least it ended with a round of applause for me as we fall out.

Now I recall, a year and a half: 18 months with take 6 duties each would sum up over 100 duties. Through the duties I rose through ranks and appointments, from simply carrying out orders to carrying responsibilities.

Imagine 24 hours 100 days, but just take 10 hours, I would be 1000 hours. Actually as the days past, you wouldn’t feel the huge amount of time, but now 1000 hours is not too little either.

In no particular order, during the “spare time”, I..
Slept - Probably huge amount of time
Played games - Chinese chess, Sudoku, Risk, Uno, and other “team games”
Read - Newspapers, Magazines, Browse the Intranet, Novels, Books
Talk - Share some jokes and quizzes, getting to know each other better and stuff
Watch - TV, some CDs and DVDs occasionally

When I started out, I was perhaps more “garang” or ambitious.. did exercise when I had the time, brought a couple of books (esp. non-nonfictional war books).. and did some planning and learning for work related stuff and others.. over time the drive seemed to vanish, and there are certainly things I thought I could have do better - finish a couple of uncompleted books, getting to know others better and sort of stuff, pass down more of my skill and so on…

Anyway that’s for looking back, time pass quickly. I mark the end of my duties, finishing reading the war(ww1) story “Four Weeks in the Trenches”, by Fritz Kreisler (a composer and violinist) and writing this.

What to do on your DS and how to do it?

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 14, 2007
in NDS
. 0 Comments

Or the “Zz85 Guide to Good NDS HomeBrew” or maybe “My guide for making the most out of the DS”.

My idea is sketchy but here is it:
I wanted to create a list of homebrew software for the DS
In a sense, I wanted to be organised because there are so many out there
While some of these compilation already exist, I find they could be better
I intend it to be in a faq, wiki style
In a way beginners or even experts could find what they want easily
This will be different because it focus on how and what you can use rather than going through a list of stuff then finding out the features of the software

I have specially setup a wiki for this.
Continue reading ‘What to do on your DS and how to do it?’

DictionaryForMids needs Publicity

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 13, 2007
in Midlets, NDS and Technology
. 1 Comment

DFM, the short form the developers use for DictionaryForMids is need of publicity.

I did thought about it and mentioned before but it seems others on the new DFM forums feel the same.

Like what I mentioned in my first impressions in email and internal discussion, I found DictionaryForMids very good except it was a software perhaps too difficult to be found easily. Perhaps the bible and dictionary are the 2 most important java midlet I have used on a handphone, or Mobile Information Device, if that’s what MID stands for. It was perhaps also too difficult for anyone who wanted the features of DictionaryForMids as a dictionary or translator to find it on the search engine because perhaps there’s very little awareness and the link would never show up unless the term “DictionaryForMids” was search specifically.

It was interesting a friend was telling me he wanted to go into the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) field like Google Ad-sense.

Anyway back to the topic, bt-ocean was mentioning keywords like “dictionaryformid”, “dictionary”, “dict4mid”, “dictionary mobile”, “translation mobile” in the search engine will in no way point to dictionaryformids.

My suggestion was that
1. A better name for the application be used.
2. Place keywords in the meta tags of DFM’s homepage.
3. “Advertise” DFM on other webpages. This would create more awareness in the j2me community, the linking the project from other webpages esp blogs & forums, would give a higher page rank in the search engine.

Someway this post issn’t really a request for help nor complaining about DFM. Just trying how much a post on my blog would affect the search results over time. Its a little scary how searching my nick or my name actually brings this blog on the top results in couple of search engine too.

And 1 last thing if you were interested enough to read this post, I had just post a build of DFM 3.1.1. with the file browser and loadable zipped dictionary support. Would appreciate if anyone could try it and feedback if its working or not, before I commit the code to the CVS.

Additional sidetrack: (Sorry not last yet). Something which had been attracting my attention recently is a Chinese Homebrew Dictionary for NDS call NewDICTs which uses StarDict dictionaries files. I believe it got its inspiration from the commercial Korean “Touch Dictionary” and Japanese “Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten” software for the DS, perhaps one of the best and most valued stuff (imagine the cost of a electronic dictionary) for the DS.

How many alarms does it take to wake me up?

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 11, 2007
in Sleep and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

In the mocking style of “how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb”.

Clocks

I bought a new alarm clock from Ikea for $12 which was labeled with 2 years warranty. I bought it as in mind I thought of a replacement of a super loud alarm clock I had which broken down.

Alarm
What’s interesting it doesn’t operate on electricity but on a spring you need to wind for the alarm and the clock.

But it didn’t take long to figure out that these were not the only alarms present at home.. I had alarms in

Handphone
Watch
Computer
Radio
Cordless DECT phone
Biological body

..too