Servbot? What's that?

As you guys have already known, my online nickname is 'servbot'. I've started using it since almost 10 years ago when I developed a liking for servbots. This entry can probably tell you why I chose to use this nick, and how servbots are such lovable 'creatures'. I don't really see them as robots since they are so animated, and have a mind (though simple) of their own.

But first of all, play this video and pause to let it load first. No need to watch the entire video since I'll be referring to certain parts only.



So basically servbots (aka servant robot or legoman) originated from a video game called 'Megaman legends'. You know Megaman? That blue-armored boy. The game shown in the video 'The Misadventure of Tron Bonne' is a spinoff from the Megaman series. Used to love playing these games. ^_^ In 'Megaman Legends' Megaman faces a group of villains called the Bonne family. Within the family, there is a girl named Tron Bonne, who has the image of a spoilt girl - keeps complaining and such.

The Bonne family specializes in creating gadgets and machines, to deal with Megaman of course, as well as to fulfill their evil plans in taking over towns and cities. To aid in their efficiency, they developed minion robots as assistants that will help out in several aspects, from missions to maintenance to even household chores. This is how servbots come about. =)

Servbots work for everyone in the family (actually only 3 siblings) but are mainly managed by Tron Bonne. Servbots call her affectionately as 'Miss Tron'. Tron isn't a very kind and patient master but the servbots don't seem to mind at all...

Now back to the video:

At 0:15, you can see the headquarters of the Bonne family. Fully operated by servbots. Tron just has to give them instructions for various tasks. There is even a gym for servbots to exercise?! As if they have muscles to train and fats to burn...

At 2:33, it shows the full list of servbots available. There are 40 in all, and each of them has a serial number. Furthermore each has a different personality and vital statistics (attack, health, etc). Somewhere in the game I was asked to choose my favourite servbot, and I chose #28. I remember he (it) works in Tron's bedroom and has a good caring personality. =)

3:30 - Mission briefing. You can bring up to 6 servbots along for the mission. In this case the plan is to rob a bank haha. So sad that servbots belong to the bad side.

4:20 - The servbots made a blunder and were scolded by Tron. In fact the servbots are often punished by Tron because of their silly mistakes. Sometime I feel they deserve to be scolded too haha. But it can't be helped since their brains are too simple. What I like about servbots is, at the next moment after being scolded they become cheerful and motivated again. Really short-term memory I guess...

This shows that scolding servbots are useless actually, since they don't really mend their ways haha. I'm sure Tron knows that too. Just that sometimes she needs to vent her frustration. In some cases she doesn't even know how to respond to their brainless actions.

4:55 - Mission Start! To command servbots to investigate something, you have to aim at that object (or place) and shoot something called the 'beacon bomb'. Look at how the beacon bomb is used to send servbots to rob the houses. Upon stealing something, the servbots will cheer happily while scurrying and delivering their loots back to Tron (inside the mech). How cute. =p

Later in the mission the servbots will make another blunder. (And get scolded again). But this time they could think of a clever idea to save them from the situation...

So that's all for my introduction to servbots. Hope you all find them adorable too. =p Watching this video really makes me want to play the game again! (Though this isn't a very good time to do so...)

Japanese shows are so interesting =)

Lai lai lai, come and watch stuffs that you probably won't ever get to watch in Singapore TV.

Frightened Cub



I know it's a bit sadistic but the little bear cub is really cute. Anyway the zookeeper has already apologized for such unethical treatment but then this clip is still being well-watched by many people. (Look at the poor monkey at the end...)


So much effort for so little work

This programme focuses on unique domino projects created by various teams. I think this is one of the better teams (set up in a school compound). The dominoes will pass through several zones with different themes, and it gets more interesting towards the end. What a grand finale!



Here's another good one. Such mechanism only works once and that's it lol.




You can try it at home

Some useless but amazing trivia:

- Obedient Ping Pong



- Ballet Garlic




Goodbye Pan-kun

Due to ethical reasons, Pan-kun has to be returned to the zoo. So this is the last episode of the variety show featuring him. In this episode Pan-kun will get a parting gift for his owner. He will also attempt to take a photo with the bulldog James for memory sake. When Pan-kun was reminiscing about the good old times he had with his owner, something happened...



Quite touching at the end when Pan-kun was so reluctant to leave his owner. Some of the guests even cried.

Like that also can?!

Probably some of you have already seen this popular video which was circulated some years ago:




This genius monkey, Pan-kun, will face another challenge - cooking. This time its 'pet dog' is not involved though. With a little more training, I think Pan-kun will be able to become a chef haha. Hmm, I wonder how the udon will taste like... Would you like to give its cooking a try?



Many other video links about Pan-kun and the bulldog can be found in Youtube. You guys might want to take a look (if free and interested). No, you don't need to know Japanese to understand these videos...

Meaningless Experiments, Useless Results

Sometimes I do really feel that Japanese have too much time on their hands by performing large scale experiments that do not yield any useful, constructive results. I wonder how much time and money/resources were spent on such meaningless stuff. But then, I also applaud their determination and perseverance in trying their very best to present things fully to the audiences. Though useless, these experiments can be quite interesting to watch haha.

These clips are from a Japanese variety show 'Trivia no Izumi', which seeks to discover and provide interesting knowledge and trivia. Astonishing facts may be uncovered through the process.

Observation: We can shoot a rubber band to a distance many times greater than its own length.

Question: How about shooting a giant rubber band of 10m diameter? Can it travel much much further?

Hmm, let's see...



The clip is entirely in Japanese, but the images and subtitles should be easy to comprehend.


Observation: A fire extinguisher can generate a strong surge when the pressurized gas is released.

Question: Can this surge of gas propel or lift a person off the ground? How many fire extinguishers will it take for sufficient energy required to lift?




Observation: Releasing pressurized gas dissolved in a bottle of water produces enough energy to propel the bottle.

Question: How many bottles are needed to propel a person?




Observation: A skier is projected into the air upon skiing up a ramp at high speed.

Question: How far will a tyre land after rolling up a ramp? How will the size and weight of tyre affect the results?




Observation: When you release an object from a moving vehicle, the object will travel at the same speed as the vehicle.

Question: What happens when a ball on a lorry, moving at 100km/h, is launched in the opposite direction at 100km/h?




Observation: A bullet has strong penetrating power.

Question: How many sheets of tissue paper does it take to stop a bullet?




Observation: When you stand in between 2 mirrors, countless images of yourself can be seen.

Question: What do you see if you are put inside a spherical mirror (equivalent to infinite mirrors in all directions)?




Other non-scientific experiments includes:

- Out of 50 single female newscasters, how many will agree to date a guy whom they meet for the first time, when being confessed by him?
- Same as above, except that the gender is switched. (the difference in results is actually quite huge!)
- Does a dog feel jealous upon seeing its owner fondling with another dog?
- How heavy a fish can a cat carry with its jaws? (don't underestimate cats)
and many more.

A final food for thought: When you mix salt and sugar in equal proportions in water, how will it taste like?

Is this how the world is going to end?

An exclusive scene from the upcoming '2012'. The fateful day.



Wow...isn't that a little too catastrophic?

It would probably be a good movie for those who enjoy watching ships sinking, meteorites crashing onto Earth, raging floods in the city and turning into ice, alien invasion...

Here's a HD trailer on what to expect this coming November:

The Huge Family Tree

Saw the obituary notice of my grandpa and was surprised by the long list of names present. All along I knew that my maternal-side extended family is huge, but it's only this time when I realised the sheer size, and exactly how big it is. The list contains a whopping 104 names! My little name is hidden somewhere around the middle.

My grandpa had lived till a ripe old age of 93. He was labelled as 五代大父 in the obituary though I could only count up to four generations. My grandpa has:
- 13 children (6 sons, 6 daughters, 1 adopted)
- 29 grandchildren (one of them is deceased but I've totally no idea who is he...)
- 24 great-grandchildren

Counting in all the sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandsons-in-law, granddaughters-in-law, whatever-in-laws, the entire family tree easily amounts to almost 100 members.

That means, from my perspective, I have (maternal side only):
- 22 uncles/aunts (叔，舅，姨，婶，丈)
- 26 cousins (out of which 15 are already married)
- 24 second-cousins once removed (aka my cousins' kids)
(in other words I'm an uncle to 24 kids...I feel so old)

The funny thing arises when I try to look from my 6-year old sis's perspective. She's an aunt to 24 kids, who have around the same age as her and some many years older than her. No matter how I think it just doesn't feel very right haha. It's like having a nephew or niece much older than you. And that older person has to call you uncle or aunt...

My oldest once-removed (one generation down) cousin is of the same age as me. (thankfully) If they are older than me, or even married, or even have kids already, then the relationship will indeed become extremely skewed...

Btw one of my cousins is almost the same age as my mum...go figure.

It can be rather a spectacle when this whole big group of family come together. In the first major ritual, everyone was told to line up according to their 'rank' (son comes before daughter, internal comes before external). The person-in-charge was calling out the numerous positions in order: 孝男，孝媳，孝女，女婿，内孙男(+媳)，内孙女(+婿)，外孙男(+媳)，外孙女(+婿)，内曾孙男，内曾孙女，外曾孙男，etc and the list goes on.

*Through mathematical thinking, you would know that the number of 内 will drop by a degree, while 外 will increase by another degree, as you move down from 孙 to 曾孙 level (and to 玄孙). I've learnt a lesson regarding heredity...*

And thus the line became really really long. Stretching until the extent that I couldn't see what was going on at the altar clearly. It seemed like I was 'out of action' though I was supposed to be part of the prayer. As for the group of kids, trailing right to the back of the long line, they were playing among themselves within their own world, not knowing what was exactly going on at the front. Oh ya, they looked like some bunch of kindergarten kids lining up for class...lol. But very cute lah haha.

I belong to 外孙男, and so my 'queue number' was somewhere near the median. Then we began to walk in circles around the altar. A huge circle had to be formed to ensure that the line doesn't entangle itself.

This is when I started to observe who belongs to which side, and had a better understanding of the entire family structure. Before this, most of them seemed like strangers to me. Of course with such huge extended family I can't possibly identify each and every one of them, especially my cousins, most of which already have their own family. We rarely talk to each other too. I don't know their names, neither do they know mine.

Thanks to my hardworking mum, who is the planner for this funeral, I hope my grandpa can rest in peace, and feel blessed with having such a huge family. And hope my grandma can live long enough to see her great-great-grandchildren (though it's not very likely).

The Time of the Year

I know it has been a week or so already, but thanks to everyone again for all your wishes, either by person, by SMS or by Facebook. With so many things happening recently, I regret to say that it's not a very enjoyable one this year.

There are 365 days a year and there will be many other days when I could be much happier. Maybe I should stop putting my stakes onto this time of the year and thinking that 'I must be nothing but happy', 'I've the right and deserved to be happy', 'It's unfair because it's supposed to be an happy occasion and yet I'm not'. After all there are only 24 hours in a day, and phew..., everything will be over in an instant. It's just another normal day, except that people will send more messages to you than normal.

Like 2 years ago, I'm once again surrounded by grief and sorrow. Before you start being curious and bugging me about what has happened, check my archives around this period 2 years ago and you'll know why.

I'm not particularly sad or anything, so need not console me or whatsoever. I just dislike being engulfed in such an atmosphere and existing in the state where being cheerful is deemed to be wrong and inappropriate. When everyone is upset, I've to follow suit. When everyone is feeling down, I've to make myself feel down too. No choice of emotions.

Apologies for any inconveniences caused. Stay at your normal style and tone please. I hope you get what I mean...