Antarctic Gentoo Penguin Webcam Online

Mellow

There's a world's first penguin webcam online in the Antarctic. It shows the breeding colony acitvities of Gentoo Penguins from October to April next to the German Research Station Bernado O'Higgins.

What's interesting is that there is a prominent link back to the Gentoo Linux main site.

And yes, I saw a few penguins going about their daily activites.

Initial D - Saturday Night Fever

Those Who Ride The Lightning

Exhilarated

Just finished Smallville Season 4 Episode 5. Superb episode. As expected, a Flash from the Flash Legacy made an appearance in the form of Bart Allen / Impulse / Kid Flash. The scenes were awesome. The ending incredible.

The difference in speed is highlighted very well with the special effects. When we see Clark go superspeed, he's just a blur. But when Bart takes off, he can take off in an arc of red and golden flash of light. After that, nobody keeps up. That's exactly what he is, a Flash!

Of course, in the DC Universe, Superman and the Flash are supposed to be evenly matched, with the Flash being slightly faster. But hey, it's Clark and Bart here. This is a new race!

Sad Goodbyes

Broken

Our hero has left us once again. But this time, nothing in the world can help us bring him back. Christopher Reeve's battle was long and hard but he still pressed on. Like a Man of Steel.

Superman was buried under tons of shattered concrete. He had a finite amount of energy, and it was slowly being depleted. He had never been in a fight like this before. What would happen if his energy ran out?

What seemed like hours but was really only minutes later, Superman shove the rubble aside and staggered to his feet. He looked around dismayed.

Main Street was destroyed. And Doomsday was gone.


Lex reached out a hand to stop her before she could fly off into the air. "Listen to me, Supergirl," he said. "Superman can handle that monster!" Trust me. But if Doomsday does break free again, he may come this way. Superman would want you to stay in Metropolis, to protect the city that he loves."


He tackled Doomsday, tumbling him through the wall and into the parking lot.
News choppers circled overhead. In the lead chopper, bearing the Daily Planet logo, Jimmy Olsen pointed his camera at Doomsday. "Wow, he's a big one!" said Jimmy.

Very big! thought Lois. Please, Clark, be careful, she prayed.


As Superman struggled from the wreckage, he knew that Doomsday had recognized the word Metropolis from the commercial. Doomsday would reach the city in six leaps. And there was no way Superman could stop him in time.


At the Kents' farm, Martha and Jonathan Kent watched the battle between Superman and Doomsday on television.

Martha was angry. "That's our son," she said. "He's being beaten to a pulp and those reporters are treating the fight like it's a sporting event."

But Jonathan reassured her. "Clark is our boy, but to the world he's Superman. The reporters don't mean to be cruel. They just don't think anything bad can happen to him."

As he said those words, he thought to himself, I only hope they're right.


The battle raged through Metropolis. Although Superman was tiring, he continued to fight Doomsday. But again and again, the creature slammed him to the ground.

Henry Johnson, the construction worker Superman had saved, stood on the girder high over Metropolis. Looking down, he saw Superman was in trouble.

With no thought for his own safety, Henry swung to the ground. He owed Superman his life, and he meant to repay him. He snatched up a sledgehammer and raced towards the combatants. But he feared it would take more than a hammer's blow to fell the monster.

The explosion blew the combatants sky high, destroying the construction site and burying Henry Johnson in its rubble.


Doomsday raked Superman with his arm-spikes, ripping a gash in the Man of Steel's powerful chest.
Superman gasped in agony. Until now, his energy aura had protected him, and he had been victorious in the battles he had fought. He had confronted Doomsday, almost certain of his eventual truimph. Now he wasn't sure he could stop the creature.

Doomsday raised his fist and smashed Superman with a shattering blow that hurled him unconcious t
o the ground.
Doomsday roared with victory.


As this second explosion rocked Metropolis, Superman, broken and bloody, staggered to his feet. In the distance he heard gunfire. Gathering his waning strength, the Man of Steel leapt into the air and flew towards the sound.

In front of the Daily Planet building, amid a rain of cannon fire, Superman and Doomsday fought toe-to-toe. Doomsday's fists were like hammers, pounding Superman into the pavement. Superman's arms felt as heavy as lead, but he braced his feet and concentrated on returning blow for blow. Even if it kills me, thought Superman, this is where I hold the line.

As Doomsday grabbed Superman by the throat and slammed him against the pavement, Lois Lane held her breath. Superman is battered and bleeding, she thought. She had never seen him like this. How could he keep fighting when he could hardly stand?

Suddenly, the monster flung Superman into the air, slamming his body into the Daily Planet helicopter. The chopper began to spin out of control.
Alarmed, Superman spun around and grabbed the helicopter. He steadied it as he lowered it to the ground.

Lois leapt from the chopper and ran to Superman. She begged him to retreat, to wait for help. But Superman knew that if he hesitated, more lives would be lost.
Hidden by obscuring smoke, Superman kissed Lois as if for the last time. "Just remember, " he said, "no matter what happens, I will always love you."

Then, with a roar of anger and resolve, Superman leapt from Lois's arms. He tackled Doomsday headfirst, smashing him into an abandoned bus. But again Doomsday slammed him back. With fury and determination, he pounded Superman into the street, burying him in the rubble.

Lois saw Superman driven into the ground. "He's in trouble," she cried. "I have to help him!"

Up through the rubble, Superman launched himself at Doomsday. "Lois, get back!" he warned. Desperately, he slammed Doomsday, first with his weakened fist, then with the blazing force of his heat vision.

Superman had sworn never to take a life. But could he stop Doomsday without killing him? Or could he kill Doomsday, he wondered, even if he wanted to?

Superman knew that he had enough strength left for one final blow. With every ounce of his remaining energy, he slammed Doomsday, even as Doomsday raked him with an uppercut that snapped his head back.

Doomsday staggered and fell. Then Superman swayed and fell beside him.

Lois ran to Superman. She threw herself down beside him and gathered her loved one gently into her arms. "Please be alive," she whispered. "Please, please be alive!"

Half the country away, Lois's prayer was echoed by Clark's parents, who stared at the television with tears rolling down their cheeks. "Please, please let our son be alive!"

One by one, people began to creep from the building, staring awestruck at the defeated monster and their fallen hero - the man they had always thought was invulnerable.

As Jimmy Olsen snapped the final photos, Lois Lane clung to Superman, begging him to hang on until the paramedics arrived.

"Doomsday . . . is he . . . is he . . . ?" Superman whispered hoarsely.

"He's down. You stopped him!" Lois clutched Superman to her. "You saved us all."

Metropolis was saved. The victory, Superman thought, had been worth the sacrifice. With a sigh he closed his eyes. Then the last spark of a life that had burned bright with heroism flickered and died.

Arnold Vs. Norman. Roomie Vs. Roomie

Smug

So my roomie was checking out http://www.tamilmatrimony.com/ just for fun when he decided we could have a little contest. We would each take turns to choose a girl by looking only at her profile. The person with the prettiest choice wins. Here are the results!!

Round 1
Arnold: Yes!! Beat that Norman!!
Norman: Argh!!
Arnold: Loooooooooooooser!! Ahahahaha!!!
Norman: I can't believe it! Again! Again!!
Arnold: Fine!

Score: 1 : 0

Round 2
Norman: I get to go first this time!
Arnold: Fine!
Norman: Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
Arnold: Ahahahahaha!!!
Arnold: Let's see...
Arnold : Woohoo!!

Score: 2 : 0

Round 3
Arnold: Hmmm... I wanna abstain. There's nothing promising at all...
Norman: How can you abstain?
Arnold: But there isn't anything good I tell ya.
Norman: I know this site. I have been clicking here for a long time and I haven't seen a nice picture yet! You will definitely win.
Arnold: What about those 2 I chose?
Norman: ... Fine.
Norman: I choose this one!
Norman: It's not that bad!
Arnold: I win if they aren't any pretty ones in this whole page.
Norman: Let's see...

Score: 3 : 0

Round 4
Norman: I wanna abstain too! I have been to this site! I want to abstain!
Arnold: Fine. I choose you.
Arnold: Eeeek!!

Score: 3 : 1

Round 5
Norman: She's pretty!
Arnold: My turn.
Arnold: I WIN!!!!! Ahahaha!!!

Score: 4 : 1

Norman shakes his head in resignation. I laugh hysterically.

Tackled A Few Nagging Problems With The Help Of A Bit Of Good Luck

Light

A lot of unrelated stuff to jot down tonight. Here goes.

Firefox refuse to start last night. It happend just 30 minutes before my ride home turns up. Turns out it was because sun's java had a bug that made it crash if Firefox's user agent was set to report MSIE 6.0. I changed the user agent because I had to access my univerity's page that is designed for IE only. Lousy bastards. Manually edit my user's ~/.phoenix/pref.js. Added a simple # and all was well.

Phew.

Had to collect something today. When I finally reached the place, I was told that the cashier was closed. There was no way I could pay. Please come back tomorrow.

It must have been my lucky day because the lady attending to me suddenly decided to help me out by asking the cashier if she would be willing to make an exception. She peered out of her cubicle and I shamelessly gave my best smile. She agreed.

Phew.

So I sat down to wait for her to process my transaction. Then another guy turned up at the cashier. He was told to pack up and come back tomorrow. So was another pair of father and son pair.

Phew.

Thanking my good fortune, I peered around the room. Then I saw the back of the flip sign on the glass door at the entrance. "We are closed on Saturdays. Sorry for the inconvenience". My eyes widened in amazement. I had wanted so much to come back on Saturday to collect my stuff. I had no idea why I even turned up today. My eyes went skywards and my mouth started to mouth holy phrases of praise for gods I don't know.

Phew. Amen.

Went to the mall near my home to do some shopping and to buy a flat cell battery replacement for my Swatch Chronograph. It had been telling 6:48 am/pm for almost 2 weeks. I had to forfeit one weekend to rush a Database project. Popped into the Swatch shop and cheerily asked for a replacement. The lady naturally took it for a buff too. Now my watch tells the time again. And it's shiny again too.

Yay.

Back home, Firefox also started giving me problems. Took longer than usual to resolve the urls. Changed the DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf to the the secondary DNS my ISP provides. A slight improvement. Wonder what's up with my ISP. Maybe I should follow in the footsteps of a friend and lodge a complain and make 'em give me a free gift as appeasement. I can still remember the day she took out KFC.

Wow.

Finished Smallville Episode 2 too. My roomie probably hates me.

Clay Aiken - The Way

Smallville, Season 4 Premiere

Excited

Just finished watching the season premiere of Smallville Season 4. Lots of interesting new characters! There was Lois Lane, Lana's new boyfriend and Doctor Swann's assistant. I can still recall the Eiffel Tower scene where she was hainging under the elevator, mouthing "...captial N, a little o, b, e, l. Nobel." I understood the part about them being in another lifetime. Made me feel a little nostalgic and old actually. Lots of new and currently unexplained developments too. Read somewhere Bruce Wayne is gonna make his appearance mid-season too. Don't want to reveal too much since I have got friends whom haven't watched it yet. Well, people. I beat ya to it. Ha.