The Duriany Blog Of FatYanDao: Field Trip

Last Friday....

The only free exhibit, at the entrance, the many types of ball propellers

Went to Singapore Science Centre with Peter... Well, I'm MC, and there's really nothing to do at home, thus the educational trip.... The main thing was to visit the Star Wars Exhibition, and take a look around the Centre itself.

$18 dollars.

There must be something worth of so much money, so I brought my digital camera along for the ride, and take some photos while I'm at it.

Here are some photos:

star wars model

white soldier

dead star

Hell, disallowing photography with flashes can be a pain in the ass, and my film exposure rate cannot be set to a longer time... So I gave up taking the pictures, well, except for one..

reaction game

Peter got a high score of 48, but he couldn't get any higher than that.... As you can see, the highest score is the maximium of 99.

"One light spoilt lah~"

haha... okok ok I know, it's just a game....

fat x wing

On another note, do you know about the game, X-Wing VS Tie-Fighter? It actually got me thinking it's a spinoff of X-Men VS Street Fighter!

Now you see that I'm oh-so-not a Star Wars fan?

There are some photos that I could have taken, but the irritating phone calls are already distracting me... Really regret man..

Boring stuff
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Then there are the commentaries on the tiny LCD monitors whispering its way out on the tiny speakers....

Do something about the volume man... I had to lean near the monitor, and people were thinking I'm actually paranoid...

I can't believe I paid that much money to look at a bunch of 100 : 1 models.

But yeah, of course, there ARE some stuff that is interesting...

Foley Studio
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Foley -- Machine used to generate sound effects for movies, the effects nowadays usually prerecorded or electronically synthesized but originally created using mechanical noise making devices such as springs, flapping cards, beaters on wood blocks and cloth, etc. Named after Jack Donovan Foley (1891-1967) who pioneered the art of adding sound effects to movie soundtracks.

Basically, it's a studio where improvised sound overwrites the movie sounds that actually happen.

In scenes where massive amounts of people are interacting, it's simply impossible to position a microphone right above the action. Well, that's when objects are used as noise instruments to substitute for the sounds that are needed.

A simple foley act would require:

-1 ang moh rustling leaves
-1 ang moh banging the hot plate with it's wooden base
-1 young man stepping on a foot pump lookalike
-2 young men and a school girl making 'war cries' on the mike
-3 other school girls carrying two sponges in place of swords, as well as pieces of stone from a broken spice pounder to encourage the war cries from the school girl

-1 big guy making solid claps on mini cymbals (reducing the resonance/echos)
-1 big guy banging the hot plate with it's wooden base

-A scene where tons of rebels are fighting tons of white soldiers in the forest

And we make the noise.

The school girls started throwing the stones at the school girl who started shouting 'Ow', one of the young man making a donkey ass sound near the end of the scene, and the rest make their sounds at their own pace.

What's surprising:

-Whatever sounds we have made, actually hits a note with the whole thing!
-The actual sound, is actually some kind of music playing in the background, as well as the director giving word that they fight more seriously, and vague, vague sounds of plastic clashing against plastic...

Woo........

Ball Game
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ball game

Like a concentration game... where two players relax, sleep, daydream to get a tiny ball along a line, moving their their way to either end.

The relaxed ones will emit some brainwave that the headband will pick up, and cause some kind of response to the ball.

Peter and I were trying to get a deadlock, but it's freaking impossible... I was way way too excited, and Peter seems to be damn relaxed.

*Laughs Out* I think in the end I lost, as the ball ended up on my side.

But funny lah, the game say, whoever is the most relaxed will get the ball on his side, and the person taking care of the station said that Peter won, and he's the most relaxed.

Wat Da Fark?

The Force
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Oh and there's this screen game, where you make movements with your hand, getting rid of the baddies on the screen, and getting some lame quotes out of it.... the losing quote wasn't so bad.... it's quite creepy in fact.

YOU LOSE
I sense much fear in you

Reeks of Gollum...

But when you win:

YOU WIN
Already reached your highest level (it's something like that for the first part)
No more further training that you need

Wah Lau! The winning part is so, so lame.... doesn't sound victorious at all loh!

The Science Centre itself
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And after which, we went to the Science Centre to take a look at the existing galleries... Well, to see if there are any new stuff...

I've got free access to the place, but not Peter, because his entry to the exhibition was a hush-hush matter, and no tickets were involved.

So Peter, with no tickets nearly lost the chance to enter.... until I smoked the counter girl that he had free access...

Peter also joined in on the smoking.

Hahaha... the girl seemed to relax the whole thing, and let us enter.

Ah, the Singapore Science Centre.... a place where no one will really pay to enter.

Luckily, there are some stuff that are actually catches my eye:

peter pixelated

This image of peter, is made up of many many images. trying it best to blend in. But it fails, ultimately looking like the crystalized version of him.

me before

Oh well, it won't hurt, but I forgot about the 'after' photo.... wah kaoz

hydro power

splosh

The splashing power of the block will cause an increase in water pressure, causing the dynamo in the tube to move, creating electricity! wow... amaze me man...

circus stuff

me this time

Peter and I getting turns to try out the hammer.... old circus thing you won't really see in singapore amusement parks.... lol

dunes

Dunes! Another one of the exhibits that caught my eye.... wooo... nice sand.. so that's how dunes are formed... now let's try directing the sand at one side to create a tornado!

Now the interesting part... the water playground! interesting crap...

Now there's one part where there're these boxes, with questions about water on the front covers.

Don't open it! If you do, water will spurt out from the insides, and the box will make sounds of baby giggling. People will take notice and look at you, and children will laugh out at how you fell for such a simple thing. Later on, passerbys will think how the hell you got so wet on your pants.

On my scientific attraction of the day!