6 February - Butterfly Effect (Day 19)

After trying 3 cubicles, I finally found one that had hot shower so I took my own sweet time to bathe. Later, the entire morning, I was conducting an experiment for my work. I was not being particularly diligent; I was just bored. My work required me to simulate the zooming of the disc when climbing the slope. Anatole said that besides coming up with the algorithm, I had to find out whether the radius increases arithmetically or by a scaling factor. So I took out some papers and created a Gaussian slope on my table. Then I tried to find something round. Initially I was using the coin but found that from the top view, the coin actually changed its orientation and as it eventually reached the peak, you would see its side. So to be accurate I had to find a ball. Where to get a ball? In the end I took out my packet of medicine and use one of the “Bao Ji Wan”.

Then I used my Pentax and position it exactly on top of the ball and as I moved the ball up the slope, I took its pictures. Later I loaded everything into my laptop and using Photoshop, I tried measuring the size. But I found that the result wasn’t good because I didn’t get the ‘change in radius per change in height’ relationship accurately. So I thought why not do away with the slope and just statically increase the height by adding more papers. So in the end I conducted a 2nd experiment and every time I added 20 pieces of papers (approx. 2mm) I would take a picture. In the end, the change in radius was very small and the result was no good again. But I could conclude that the radius do not increase by 1 every time a fix amount of height was added. It must have increased by some scaling factor or some function, maybe exponentially. But as long as it is not arithmetic progression, I would have to make big changes in my code and needed the help of Sebestian because he contributed to a large part to the program too. He wrote an engine called “MEZUL” which would display my cursor, bumps, holes, texts, etc on the screen.

So it seemed I had wasted my Sunday morning but that was ok, because I had nothing better to do anyway. After lunch, I played one of the VCDs that I brought. I began to feel time passes quite fast now because it seemed like I just watch “Timeline” yesterday but in fact it was last Saturday. Today’s show was “Butterfly Effect”. The male protagonist had some psychological problem and a traumatized childhood. The beginning of the story was quite scary with the children being very violent. But when Evan (the lead actor) grew up, he wanted to go back in time to change things so that his life now would not be so screwed up. His childhood love, Katleigh (can’t remember her name so just call her Kat) committed suicide because he reminded her of her unhappy past during which she was sexually abused by her father. So he went back in time (apparently by reading the journals that he wrote during that time and while reading, he would have a seizure) and tried to change things. So many times after reading his own journals, he would wake up in a different world with his nose bleeding. Because he went back to change things, his present was different. But the result would still be the same. A tragedy. First time he did that, he went into jail. Second time Kat became a prostitute in his present. Third time he lost both his arms in the present and his mum was dying from lung cancer because she was so upset about her son that she became a chain smoker. And Kat was with his best friend and not him. The last time he had Kat killed on the spot in the past. So it seemed no matter what he did, he would end up losing Kat.

In the end, he went back to the very first time he saw Kat at age of seven. He walked up to her and told her this: “I hate you and don’t you ever come near to me or I will kill you and your family.” Kat cried and ran away. In the end, Kat’s father never abused her, her brother didn’t turn into a psycho, and her path never crossed Evan’s again. So back in the present, he still lost her in the end but at least she had a normal life. And many years later, they brushed by each other on the street but he never dared to acknowledge knowing her before. This is really a very good story. The plot of course was crappy but it was something new. And the lead actor was not only handsome but he put up a good performance. It was a touching story. I wondered what would happen when I read all these journals again years later? I wondered whether I would keep on writing journals everyday when I returned to Singapore.

After the movie, I decided to do some area cleaning. As I did not have a broom, I took out some rags that I brought and began wiping the floor. My room was really very small so it wasn’t a tough job. I just took the wet rag and slide across the room liked those Japanese do to their floor as on TV. So I just slide around and after half an hour or so, I rewarded myself a packet of biscuits. Then I took out those brochures that I got yesterday and started to plan my outing for every Saturday. There are about 50 or so places of interest in Rennes and I planned to visit 3 or 4 every week. I would group those that are within walking distance together. In order to make everyday a bit different then the previous one, I also had a plan. On Tues I would go to the mart (not Wed anymore). On Wed I would watch the DVD that I would borrow every week from IRISA. On Fri I would watch the VCD “Band of Brothers” which should last me until April. On Sat I would go “gai gai”. And on Sun I would watch 1 of my own VCDs and do area cleaning. By end of March I hoped to finish most of my work so that in April I could conduct the actual experiment of my research. And in April I would start to plan my tour as I probably had mentioned a thousand times. I really wanted to plan everything nicely and to the finest details like how to take the bus, train, which direction to go, etc. I had experienced a chaotic first day in France before; I would not experience it again.

For everyday chores, I would do exercises in my room and read my San Guo Yan Yi. I was tempted to buy a book from the mart because I wanted to finish reading the San Guo Yan Yi faster. Now I am reading only one chapter per day because I don’t want to finish it too fast and have nothing to do later. But it is really getting more and more interesting and I can’t wait to finish it. But buying a book would be foolish because I already had luggage weight excess problem. Anyway, after doing all this planning, I went on to play a new game Mech Warrior 2 (which was in fact an old game but new in my laptop). Thanks to Jon who lend me the game. It was very entertaining and easy game but I am finishing up the missions way too fast. By end of the week, I would have completed that. If only I had internet, I would be able to have lots more entertainment. Now, even my songs were played until they “lan diao” already. Next week would be CNY and I was wondering if I should just try my luck and go into town to see if there are any activities going on there. I don’t know, we shall see then.