Vol.11(4)

I am sure people do need a break in between their works. Moreover, my work was stucked at a problem of which I am still waiting for my boss's answer. So, I rented a few DVDs from the shop in Dover that I haven't had visited for a long time. How nostalgic^^ Hoshi no koe (2003) (English: Voices of a Distant Star) is the short film that I wanna talk about here. It depicts love that transcends across space and time. I am not going to put up the trailer here, as the whole film that runs for 25 mins is already short enough. Two things that had come across my mind: the japanese are really good at making "beautiful" animation, and that the kind of love which is so innocent and too much of a fantasy is only attainable during high school. Animation from the Western has very distinct characteristic compared to Anime. On technical aspect of 3D animation, Pixar animation may well surpass their japanese counterpart, though the japanese might be the first to create 3D CG in animation production, I am not sure. However, I find that anime always has the extra spice in their stories being presented by characters and events that are beyond normal perceptions and imagination. Pixar films have always been made by sticking to reality as much as possible (the furthest they could go maybe in Monster Inc.), and they always have to tell about some morals and family values, which is why their stories are as predictable as one-dimensional walk.

The second thing is about beautiful innocent love. Well, I always think that high school is the golden time to experience such kind of love, as students have no worry about adult's responsibility or perhaps, money. Even though that beautiful first love may not last forever, we may never able to get one after we have grown up. Hence, I always have this regret, and of course, I will make sure my son or daughter will have a better luck.

We can also learn from the experience of people who gain success through their interests and talents. The director, Makoto Shinkai (新海城), was working in a company with access to CG softwares back in 2000. He won the grand prize in a CG competition by his 5-min monochrome work, She and Her Cat. So, he thought he might be able to fulfill his teenage dream of making an animation. Cellphone sms was already popular back then. And he started his idea from a sketch of a girl holding her cellphone in the cockpit. The progress was slowed, and he posted his sketches online. Then, this company called Mangazoo contacted him, and he immediately quitted his job for the project. There is a very encouraging quote that goes something like this: "Opportunities are everywhere, but we have to prepare ourselves well for it when one comes." He took seven months full-time to complete Hoshi no koe, of which he claimed was very difficult as he lacked certain techniques on manipulating those CG softwares. Well, I will definitely agree. A weeks ago, I attended a intro session by the NTU Visual Arts Club. (In fact, there are many interesting clubs in NTU.) I was really impressed and fascinated by the arts they presented then. Of course, those are works from professionals around the world, and not from them. After that, they taught us some drawing skills in Photoshop and CorelDraw, after which I thought I am already well-equiped and able to draw anything, but it came out the converse. There was a logo design competition with first prize that worth S$2000 offered by the newly "upgraded" Center for Quantum Technologies in NUS. I was very enthu and tried to draw it in Photoshop, and of course, I failed. So, my last resort was to sketch on paper and then scan it into softcopy. I was very fortunate that WeiWei was studying for her exam in sps that evening, and YenKheng told me that she is very good at Photoshop. With her help then was I able to color the logo and touch up so that it's more presentable.



Why "upgraded"? I suppose it just means more money have been pumped in. Hence, they are now called the Cluster of Excellence. Hmmm...this term sounds so familiar. Yes, in order to promote competitiveness, the Germany federal government have been devising a scheme to pick the Universities that are doing well and award them with more grant and a title of recognition. As a result, some groups that are excelling in their research are granted "Clusters of Excellence". But I don't really see the point of it in Singapore. How many quantum groups are there in Singapore? Regarding the level of research as well as its recognition, Germany is likely on its way uphill, and the same can been seen in Australia. As told by my friends, the ranking of Australian universities by Times has climbed, which is with solid reasons. Recently, I have seen a few really ground-breaking research published by the Australian groups, in medical science as well as optical field in physics. Plus, the Medicine Nobel Prize laureates two years back are both working in Australia.