Weblog of Quests

A Song of Ice and Fire

On September 3, 2012

Now that I have just finished “A Dance with Dragons”, the last book of A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by American novelist George R. R. Martin (which incidentally has been on TV since last year), I am not sure if I can live with the cliffhangers for another 3-4 years before the next book comes out!? This is a fantasy series comprising of numerous characters (whom the author is unafraid to kill off, I might add – even the likable ones!) and in my opinion rivals in its breadth with Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” which I didn’t manage to get through even one third of Book 1… However, given that the first three books were published in a 5-year span (1996-2000) and the next two in the following decade, I hope for his sake that Mr Martin remains in good health to complete the remaining two books he has promised.

Through eyes of children

By Louis

On August 31, 2012

In Off Beaten Track

On my way to work yesterday, while absent-mindedly looking out the train window, it suddenly hit me that despite travelling along the same route for close to two years now, it seemed like ages ago since I last paid attention to what I saw!? Too long, in fact. When did I stop seeing the crispness of morning air, or the subtle light changes as clouds moved past overhead, I wondered? When did I stop seeing things anew, fresh as if to a child? When and how did I become oblivios to the place I have been living for the past few years, even if it is not my country?

Amazon Web Services

By Louis

On August 17, 2012

In Internet

Looks like it’s time to clean up the posts here (as in, reorganise them, not remove past posts) since what I post these days seem quite different to what I used to write.

Anyway, for the past week, I have been drawn to using Amazon Web Services (AWS), or specifically EC2, as a potential candidate to host my blogs in future – once my contract with webfaction completes. Webfaction has been a fantastic host by the way, but I see AWS not so much as a cost-saving alternative given that the costs involved in shared hosting really really are very low these days but more as a learning experience to take advantage of the flexibility of cloud computing. So far, I have managed to

deploy a copy of the low-traffic WordPress-based site (PHP, Mysql and lighttpd),
learn to increase the size of a disk image.

Process to the truth

By Louis

On May 30, 2012

In Inspirational

We can be told the truth about many things
but they do not have any value
until we realize them by ourselves.
There are no shortcuts.
Each step of the way has to be walked.

Nahsti

Premature

By Louis

On May 3, 2012

In Faith

Found out about a friend’s husband’s passing two days ago. Apparently the illness was only discovered a couple of months ago, but it was already at a very late stage. So little time to prepare, so little time to mull over things undone, perhaps many things yet unsaid. She is brave and strong and I hope that she finds peace to replace the grief and loss…