In My Humble Opinion

Start of Final Year

2011-08-14T18:14:00.000+08:00

It did not feel much like the start of anything new. It just felt like a continuation of an ongoing project. Since I have been working in school for my FYP for the entire of this summer holiday already, being in school is no stranger to me.

Well, life still goes on and I continue to be rather 'unobsessed' with studies. But I am taking 6 modules by the way, realised that life is sadly going to be quite difficult for me this coming semester. Sigh...I was wishing to put in mediocre effort and summon the powerful SU options! Hwa hwa!

Body building continues and yes, my lack of updates does not spell an end to that quest for the muscle. It is just that I have not been as consistent in updating as I should have been.

We shall see how this semester goes....

Numbers and Figures

2011-08-07T00:06:00.001+08:00

I have never understood the significance of SBS and SMRT's allocation of bus numbers to specific services of these routes. They do not follow a logical pattern, yet are reasonably memorable although random in every sense.

Does anyone out there know the purpose of their allocation?

Self Knowledge

2011-08-03T23:46:00.000+08:00

It took me a relatively long time to phrase this question within my head, but as time passed - words came to me and the question that revealed itself yields more confusion that it does clarify anything.

I had puzzled over the fact that, though marvellous the whole Earth is and all the living creatures in it, no living creature knows exactly how itself functions. With maybe the exception of humans but even humans do not fully comprehend their own physical, let alone mental bodies.

It is amazing and strange for a creature to function healthy and well, yet also know completely nothing about how and why it does the things it does, totally independently from it's own body. To illustrate this puzzling scenario, think about evolution for a moment and wonder why on earth it did not decide to let the mind and the body evolve as one but as separate entities totally. If survival were to make sense, one should make the body be aware that it had a mind and vice versa. At least then it would ensure that the body knew what it was made of and what it needed to do to progress and preserve it's own kind.

I can already think of a few counterpoints to this argument. For one, animals and humans do know how to heal themselves, they know how to hunt for food, some creatures know which parts of their bodies are more vulnerable to attack and how to nurse their young. But that is not what I am exactly referring to...things like knowledge about their cell structure, genes and other functions are supposed to be known. You may frown upon this thought but pause for a moment and think...it really does not make sense that you...yourself, your body and you do not know much about how it REALLY works. It seems to run very well even when you do not take good care of it. Studies claim this and that is not good for you and if you have an 'unhealthy' lifestyle you definitely will die young. Is this true? Of course not. These studies are not even sure of themselves, study after study reveal contradicting find after contradicting find and are never really sure of themselves. Can we really say we know everything there is to know about ourselves?

The argument I am trying to put forth here is a contradictory one. However it would make sense that we should know ourselves if we did come about from evolution. There is one hypothesis I want to propose but before that, it is important that you get an illustration:
You create a robot toy. This robot toy does every movement a human can do and performs tasks well. This robot however has no working knowledge about itself - only you know. Lets say that even if this robot had self awareness, it would not know why it could do certain things. It wouldn't know what made it tick - only you would.

This illustration points towards a creator who has evidently designed us. Hard for me to take in but yes, indeed there is a highly intelligent being out there who has created all things the way they are and apparently designed it too complex for even creatures like us can fully comprehend.

Money Yah, Time Nah

2011-07-30T23:18:00.000+08:00

"Oh sorry, got other things on for that day. Sorry!"
"I'm already booked for that day yeah."

When it comes down to parting with money for charity, I notice Singaporeans find it relatively easy to do so. That isn't a bad thing at all, just that when it duty calls for time to be given to helping people personally, I would think only a handful would go all the way to shift other priorities out of the way for the sake of helping strangers.

Perhaps Singaporeans have this pre notion that charity with money is good. Again that is not a bad thing at all, it is just that they believe money does the rest of the job done when helping people. Of course it doesn't, because money in itself has no value until exchanged for something that one desires. When one needs help, people and not money are the ingredients required.

I am curious about the thought processes of most Singaporeans when it comes to the idea of helping out in charity work with solely altruistic desires. I guess that - since they do not want to be seen to the public as selfish people, they would part with their cash. But in truth they would rather not spend time with old people or children too often because it does not 'reap economical or personal tangible benefits' so to speak. To help people means going out of one's way in order to make another's better and by doing so, it may not feel to them like much personal benefit has been derived from that. I hope that is not the case with most Singaporeans.

It seems that according to statistics, the amount of hours put in to community work is rising steadily. Does that mean that more people are starting to care for others? We must remember that some penalties in the Singapore justice system requires that you perform a certain mandatory hours of community work, that also includes some school requirements to graduate. Community work also earns you cca points in some schools and that would translate into tangible benefits for people who like those things. Of course I am taking the pessimistic view.

I would think they vast majority of Singaporeans would want to care for others but the system here just ensures that you are already heavy burdened with work such that in your free time, all you can do is think of personal rest time or leisure and charity work becomes lower on your priorities list. Being busy is a Singaporean thing and don't even start talking about holidays....even in holidays we are packed. Or rather...we pack ourselves with things to do.

It is not always this scenario in other countries and I think this is something also unique to the island of Singapore. Not a really good trait... favouring to give money over time. it does say something about us, through such actions.

The Final Word

2011-07-23T23:57:00.002+08:00

This day marks the end of something that I have left hanging in the air for a relatively long period of time. For a long time, I had considered her to be someone I truly liked. Every other time I was with her - I was happy. But somehow, I had noticed that she has been changing quite a bit and seems relatively more cold in nature and it saddens when I think about it. Perhaps it was work, perhaps it was the sophistication of modern society and living in Singapore. Maybe it is just me and how we always somehow just can't get along in that way I would have wished. I have admittedly been looking for signs that somehow she had similar feelings toward me. There are evidently none.

So yes, today was an internal decision I made to end it with myself, a relationship that never started and never even had a proper classification in the first place. It can be likened to a story board that was scraped before materialization, I would have liked something more to come out of this friendship (as I always wished for many many years) but it seems that we are just going to remain normal friends. Friends that meet occasionally.
I hope I can clear this situation with myself because my mind and emotions are my greatest enemies...

Living On A Cloud

2011-07-23T00:16:00.000+08:00

Here is one more thing I have established from my years of experience in life itself. It is that I have a tendency for vast amounts of inspiration after stimulation. By Stimulation (do not ...go there....I Mean iT!), I refer to the watching of an inspirational movie, drama serial, piece of music, experience. I find that the post effects of such events are not as profound on other people than it is on myself.

I find it half a curse and a blessing. For one, it helps me create things and compose things that I never would have been able to do in 'normal' mode. However, it always brings me up to a point where I just get over obsessed with it and its really distracting. When I have the inspiration, waiting is simply impossible. I have to get up and make it or compose it right away.

Usually it would take a few days for the inspirational feeling to die down and my normal mode will resume. For example...I remember after watching Predator, I would go all crazy and imagine myself in the predator suit, my behaviour will resemble predator for a few days. Then there was heroes, same thing....then there was 24! Wow, I really loved the character of Jack Bauer and my behaviour tended to mimic him almost everyday for almost a week after the whole series finished! Point is...it seems whatever show I am emotionally involved in, I would have this huge urge to do something about it.

The case in point here now is this: Secret Garden. While I am not usually the one to fall head over heels in love with romance shows, this one has been really interesting and surreal. where perfect boy meets perfect girl and all that cheesy nonsense. But somehow after watching it, I seem to be behaving strangely like the guy in the show. It's so irritating, yet amusing to catch myself in those moments. I just wonder why I am like that.

Yeah, so now I am living on a cloud - a cloud of a fantasy world that will last for at least another week after the show finishes. Its more or less the same thing that happened when I had finished watching boys over flowers, but this one...has somehow more impact...yeah, definitely it should have....it was rated higher than boys over flowers...or at least soon will be...haha.

Immaturity

2011-07-22T23:52:00.000+08:00

Random

2011-07-22T23:47:00.000+08:00

LOL...what if someone disturbs you in the office? What would you do?

My iPhone

2011-07-20T22:46:00.000+08:00

The iPhone phenomenon in Singapore goes without saying. The success story of the iPhone in other countries however has yet to make its mark. Yes, no doubt it has sold millions worldwide, but percentage of the population wise, Singapore has undoubtedly got to be the highest. With everyone either carrying the iPhone gs or the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4 white (which just came out recently), the market for phones here has been obviously dominated.

Now I have been pondering this trend for a while and tried to come up with some reasonable explanation for it. I can only come up with one theory and it goes like this:

I believe that the iPhone has become a social status item. To put it more clearly, it sort of is something you can live without but would sure as hell feel inadequate if it weren't there. The densely packed population of Singapore has a role to play in this theory.

As I have said sometime back, I am quite convinced that the MRT is a trend setting arena. Everyday, one would go to work on the public transport and unconsciously or consciously observe trends, be it the latest gadgets, clothes, accessories, hair-do among other things. This is the perfect environment to place pressure on people according to my theory of why iPhones are becoming social status items.

When iPhone was first starting out, it was no doubt cool due to the multitouch screen which just seduced the user into a whole new interaction between man and machine. The screen rotation with orientation was just cool, the form-factor was cool, the wi-fi was cool, the 3G was cool. These were the first things which attracted users over to the new phone giant.

The difference with Singapore and the rest of the world comes here: because Singapore is so small, news spreads fast. People are just crowded together and in their free time just curiously look at what others are doing ( last time it used to be looking at someone else's newpaper ). People started to notice that more and more people were starting to get iPhones, naturally one would become curious as to how come such a gadget is so infectiously popular, and if that is so, something definitely must make it stand out! So...why don't I go check it out myself? Or I would go ask my friends!

Then the process of the word of mouth begins, and the cycle continues as the new iPhone convert starts sharing about the phone, becomes a new person on the train with an iPhone, who gets observed by a brand new stranger who wonders what's so special about the iPhone and yeah, you get my point.

We fast forward to now, where almost 1 in 1 people on the train have iPhones. Think about the people who initially hated the phone, or knew nuts about it. They would feel really left out! Middle class people have it, Rich people have it...oh come on! Even the old man has it! The grandma across the street at the coffee shop has it! I should get one or I would just feel left out and lower class than them.

What the iPhone has done in Singapore is that it has successfully created a 'iPhone class' to establish a certain level in society you obtain when you get one, or rather...a level in society you remain in...because if you do not get the iPhone, you just get left behind in the dumps.

But of course, that's my theory. I have many theories. Some stupid, some do explain certain types of behavior. Who cares really...it is just my way of understanding the world little by little one step at a time.

Tired

2011-07-20T00:54:00.000+08:00

I am supposed to be asleep at this very time. However, since my body temperature is still relatively high from just returning from a class reunion gathering at cafe biz @ trader's hotel and I am unable to get myself to sleep, so hence here I am. Dang, that reminds me of something I watched relatively recently. The song 'here I am' was sung by 4men, the acoustic version sounded really beautiful in one particular scene. The series is a korean drama titled 'secret garden' I was coaxed into downloading it by ming hoe who recommended it some time ago. Never really got down to watching it till about just last week actually? Its quite nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8hX8kIjbA

Anyway, that's not the point. My point in coming here was to update on personal matters. I am going to reclassify my blog tags properly. There would be a bit of house keeping going around in this blog so perhaps it would be a good time to see where I am headed with this increasingly unread blog. It may become a diary of some sort while also being a thoughtPAD of some sort where I discuss world issues and things people do not usually talk about in meal conversations. There may also be a technical information tag and who knows what other tags. To label all 367 posts to date would be quite a challenge I'd say...

The trailer video I have done for the contemporary dance is complete and now on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8KV5ng2NfU

I desperately want to improve my filming and editing skills but equipment and experience frequently elude me and I continue to slowly learn from others by perhaps leeching off their knowledge and skills. I do want to aim to produce a few movie trailers, perhaps a short film and many interesting short amusing clips/parodies. Its what I really enjoy doing now. Not studying...but I know whatever I like to do somehow has no economical application here in Singapore. So...dreams are just dreams.

My final Holidays are coming to an end. I wouldn't count the December holidays as much of a holiday, judging by how I would still be going to school for all my lab work anyway, so ... wait... a minute....this holiday isn't even a holiday at all! I'm working aren't I? oh man...I have already bypassed my final true holiday of my study life...that was last December....ah well. I am not too keen to begin studying again. Motivation to improve is gone. I can't get my honours, not even third class so whatever...I don't really know if I should even push that hard any more to climb any further in these final semesters.

Well, I guess It's time to try and sleep no matter how 'untired' I feel...have gym, among other things important like lab work. Gosh...tiring.

Saranghe

2011-07-18T23:52:00.001+08:00

Here is a nice... but no link title to start of this post. Time has indeed flown since I left this place for more than a week now. Since then, gym still goes on, work still goes on, occasional outings still go on. As these things pass me by, I wonder what really is the meaning of life - should there be no god.

With more and more people embracing the idea of a godless world and more and more evidence finding favour in the theory of evolution, the way seems set and geared towards a godless world, powered by the one religion that has followers in every country and continent - Science.

What is life? These are the questions we ask ourselves sometimes and just shrug it off, thinking that it is ridiculous. But really, is it that stupid to be thinking about such fundamental questions? Are we mad at questioning our existence? Why suppress the very thing that distinguishes us from animals? (ok maybe not...since detractors are now finding some proof that dolphins may possess such abilities.) If life was a product of evolution, can we totally rule out the possibility of an intelligent being such as God? Does Creation and Evolution have to be on two sides of the battle line?

Ok then let's say that yes there is a God - Is he the God of the bible? Is He the Allah of Islam? Who is he? Did he create the Earth in 7 days? What days? How were days defined back then? Was it figurative? Did it mean a thousand years? Favouring the side of evolution now: so the universe spawned perhaps just one or two unique lifeforms and these grew in complexity and shape and function over millions of years. Is that chance really that probable? There are many clear lines of evidence that mutations occur in humans and these mutations cause a change in appearance and behaviour when observed over a short period of about a few decade. Does that make evolution true? So if Evolution is true, does it necessarily still oppose the Bible when it said that everything was created as it is? Do we really understand creation and evolution as it is? Not really.

So back to the question of what is the meaning of Life? As I was brought up with religion, I cannot imagine how a life without a supreme being in command can be. Well, there are many people in this world who do not know God, and do not seem to have any problems with this life either. The bible did say that if you do not know God, you are going to hell. Is life really that tragic? How many people are Christians just because they fear going to hell, rather than because they love God? I have pondered these thoughts knowing they were sort of taboo...because its just like, its just really unsettling when you have been living a peaceful nice life and suddenly someone comes up to you and shouts at you saying that if you are not Christian, you are going to hell!

I have been trying to understand non-Christian perspectives for quite some time now and I realise that yes, sometimes life is without assurance, without comfort. Their mere existence purpose is to serve their family, obey the law and country, contribute to the economy - then die. If somewhere along the line, they lose their loved ones, they find no reason to live and proceed to take their own lives. When a non-Christian comes into a church and hears all the messages, to them it seems to be biased and one sided especially when the pastor starts saying things about non-Christians and apparently attacking them.

It is sad how sometimes through our efforts to bring people to a gift, the one free gift of God - the gift of salvation. We push people further away and even make them hate us. The idea seems simple and almost laughable when we reject it....to illustrate my point...you have a need, someone comes to you and gives it to you. But you get mad and push him away. That's exactly what we are, that's exactly what sin made us to be, it defies logic because one should be happy when one is given the solution the problem, but that isn't what's happening in the world today!

This rambling is without a conclusion and people can continue to talk about this for ages and will never arrive at any reasonable end. Why? God cannot be proved, his existence cannot be proved by pen and paper. Things may seem to prove it, but it will never be so. God wanted us to have faith, that is why faith is so hard. God already said the world will hate him and deny him. It is sad to realise that....to imagine a life without God in it.

Late Post

2011-07-05T23:41:00.001+08:00

I am here, to just state facts - then I'll be gone again for a few days. I am pretty busy now during this period I must say...for the past weekends I do remember filming with the NTU students for their upcoming august concert and spent the past days editing the footage. Also in the line are my usual body building program (which is painfully slow in its progress ) and my internship, which is taking the lesser spotlight in my endeavors here...

Admittedly I am losing interest in studies in general, my study energy is wasting away and I doubt research work will be anywhere in list of future prospects. Voice acting and the media industry are my visions, but they do probably come with a price I guess, (if I even manage to get in) being in the media always means constant attention which can slowly wear you down and drain you dry. People just cannot get enough, and they love news of anything going on. It eats away at your chances for solitude and your chance to regain sanity of some sort. So those are the trade offs I guess...

So yes, for the next few days I may be MIA but yeah, my mind is still constantly bursting with things to share but just not right now. I would also like to do a review of transformers 3, but that will have to wait as well...

Back from the future

2011-06-26T00:19:00.001+08:00

Here I am, back to lament about how pessimistic I feel about the world and what it is right now and what it is about to become. The way I see it, the world will have to end very soon and very possibly within this next century I dare say...and my predictions do not come with little evidence. Yes, sure there will always be counter arguments and optimistic views, but that's not my point, so let me talk here!

There are a few major reasons why the world must end soon. First thing I have noticed is that the world population can only go one way - UP. And when I mean up, I mean exponential up, in just a matter of years the 6.5 billion will eventually reach breaking point of about 9 billion and then it can only increase further. Through the mathematical model I have seen and following the normal population trend curve, the logistics population model:

indicates a population maximum, a theoretical population maximum a certain environment can successfully maintain without the eventual devastating decline. Sadly to say though, I think that point has either been reached or is going to be reached soon. I have my own mad theories as to why this is the case and I will continue to explain:

In the past, a certain plot of land would support a certain number of people living there. As the population grew, more resources would be drawn from the plot of land to sustain the growth of the people. When the population started using more resources than the land could support, people would start to have resource scarcity, population growth would slow to a halt and even start declining.

In modern times, the same thing is happening! People are using up far more resources than the earth can sufficiently sustain. We have one distinct 'advantage' and that is our technology. Technology allows us to push our resources to the limits - allows us to cheat nature - at least for a while. Our technology does wonders for us, it makes desert land into irrigated edens of pastures and farms. Allows more people and more people to be crammed into an ever smaller region of space than ever before (skyscrapers). What I find remarkable as well is that technology also allows us to obtain food in more and more synthetic ways rather than natural.

What I am trying to illustrate here is that technology has come to delay the symptoms of our severe resource crisis. To use an analogy, imagine a pyramid made up of individual blocks, the base represents the resources we have and anything placed on the top is our demands. The resource base always has to be higher (larger) than the demands placed on top of it or else it will topple over. In our case however, we cheat by using technology, perhaps call it glue or something, to hold the blocks together and forming a pyramid the bottom side up, with more demands placed on it than it can handle.

Of course this type of model can remain stable for a while, but sure enough...it would collapse someday because this model is simply not viable enough.

Now enough with population and resource scarcity, other things that can result in the downfall of the world is war. With regards to war, I am thoroughly convinced that wars are an integral part of human history and there was never really peace on earth as you would like to call it. Even when there is peace, people fight over petty things in their own countries and neighborhoods and families. War will always be with us to stay, but the thing I am worried about is that with the past, we did not have weapons of mass destruction. We say we won't use nuclear weapons in war, but are we really that sure? We also say that we won't shoot medics in war and never torture prisoners, do we?We could very well wipe ourselves out in that way.

Disease is one thing that I fear as well, the spread of a new mutant form of virus. Already there are minor ones running about the world creating trouble but I say the big one is yet to come. The last time it came (Spanish flu which killed 15 million), it took people by surprise and last time, populations weren't so interconnected as we are now. We just managed to create a perfect setting for the spread of disease through transport by aircraft and through the subway. The next pandemic will be literally disastrous for the entire planet if it occurs and stopping it will be virtually impossible.

Our short term thinking is one thing that will force us into crisis as well. I find that true of many people including myself, even if I had plans to save the world - I still like my bed, I still like my lavish way of living, savings, leisure and games (even if it costs the environment something). I just do not want to sacrifice my standard of living so that the world will have sustainable living and all. Truth is, when family matters come along and other more important things come into our lives which demand attention - the environment saving plan becomes far from secondary and may even be forgotten.

Governments could set laws to regulate how people behave, but can only be useful to a certain extent. Short term thinking is so powerful and has shown itself over and over again through time how it had led to the demise of people. The people who mocked at Noah were such people, civilizations like the Mayan, Roman Empires also had relatively short term thinking and all led to their untimely fall. I really treasure visionary Lee Kwan Yew and his team of leaders during the early days of Singapore and the incredible power of foresight.

Since foresight is not in the mind of the common folk like us, it is hard to convince anyone right now to stop eating beef because it would lead to eventual flooding of the world. It is also difficult to convince someone to turn off the lights because it could lead to eventual global warming. Hard also to imagine how people would find it more useful to take a public transport to hospital or to get somewhere in a hurry because more cars equals more greenhouse gas.

Short term goals cloud our minds and prevent us from dealing with an imminent future problem at hand. We aren't ignorant to the fact that we have a global environmental problem at our footsteps. It's just that this world is too complicated and we just cannot say: hey change to alternative fuels now! and expect everyone to implement it tomorrow, just doesn't happen that way. You need to convince them its more economically viable, make it simple, make it cheap. Make them upgrade and maybe it'll work. Its sometimes even more difficult than this...

Our world is in peril. Gaia ...the spirit of earth can no longer stand its terrible destruction.
She sends five magic rings to five special young people.

That excerpt was from the start of Captain planet, a childhood tv show geared towards environmental awareness for children. I guess it worked for me because I am indeed more environmentally aware, but that doesn't change my nature and how I still would like to live in a nice house, drive a nice car and have leisure - all that while still contributing to global warming and all. There is a limit to how small your environmental footprint can be.

With the population only set to go higher and higher in the next few decades, I really fear for the future. Especially when I know probably I will live to see it come to past.

Let's Get It Started...

2011-06-24T12:24:00.001+08:00

Projects come and go and holidays continue to be consumed at a pretty prodigious rate indeed. To date, already half of the holidays have been spent and when I looked at one of my emails I was reminded that my Korea University International Summer Program was supposed to happen about now. It was far too expensive that was why my parents recommended I pull out of the already successful registration. I was pretty hyped about it of course, but life is life and you can't always get everything you want (the cost for the entire 6 weeks all inclusive was over 7000SGD).

Right now, I am embarking on two rather ambitious projects, one has already been started and would continue to become more and more time intensive and that is my pumping iron program. The other is a video project which I have volunteered to help with, now this is a rather interesting experience and I get to work with the NTU contemporary dance group and produce a few videos for them. These are all promotional videos or half-music-videos as I would call them. They call for a huge leap in quality of my video editing skills, I realise after looking back on the productions I have made and admit that they really fall short of music video quality. Switching video editing software would also be a good idea and adobe premier seems like a viable alternative.

Elsie's wedding is tomorrow. One by one all my cousins are getting married, haha and its funny to observe how it actually goes by age! Like from oldest cousin to the youngest. Theoretically, my turn is about 1-2 years down the road. But the thing is, I am a guy...all my other cousins are girls...so not counted. Haha...

What is Learning?

2011-06-17T22:55:00.001+08:00

What does it mean to be a fast learner? What does it really mean to learn something?

In university, I dare say I have learnt the least academic knowledge but have learnt more life and communication skills. The learning process is still something I am trying to understand. Because if we actually do know how well or how fast we can learn something, it would really be a major battle won in our lives. So many people go out into the working field thinking that they have learnt something from school or university - only to be let down when they realize they have not learnt anything at all.

Let me tell you what learnt is not. Learning isn't cramming, that is memorizing. Learning is not reading and recalling, that is also memory work. I dare say that learning is not even how much experience you have, because if you have been in something for a long time, your learning process has probably dulled to a certain extent.

Learning is a continual process which requires internalization and reflection. You definitely can gain knowledge during a class, but very often the real learning takes place as you think about what you learnt in class and apply it yourself in a certain situation that requires it. In that way, learning never takes place within the day. It should take weeks or even months to really 'learn" something and fully understand it.

Afterward, the learning process may dull due to prolonged exposure or when boredom sets in. To further enhance or reignite it, taking the problem from another point of view or a change of perspective is required. Changing of perspective in my opinion is one of the hardest things humans can do. The wall of perception is notably what makes the greatest minds stumble and arguments and debates to occur. To stubbornly maintain a certain perspective makes one blind to the real situation and progress in that area will be greatly hindered.

Learning is a really difficult thing. I have asked myself, if I have learnt anything in this life...what are they?
They tend to be things that I have reflected over a long period of time. Academic stuff really take the minority, and that is the hard truth - that studies are minor and should take up a small portion of your life. Skills are what you can learn and never forget. Knowledge can be attained faster, but it is lost easier as well.

Truth Of Touch

2011-06-13T22:22:00.001+08:00

I did promise a while back that I would dedicate an entire post to discussing the importance of touch to the human body. To a typical person, touch would just be one of the 5 (or 6 ) senses which are used by our brains to collect information from around us. Touch is useful for us to send or receive information - it is frequently relied upon to convey certain emotions to people and for us to be aware of things that are in contact with our bodies.

Now the secondary function of touch is relatively uncharted ground, no one can say for very sure you cannot survive without another human's touch. Research has been done with link human touch at young age with bonding and good emotional and mental health. "touch deprivation' as some people coin the term, can lead to low self esteem, ill-health and isolation in the long run.

I wonder if any of you have ever experienced such a thing. Just try and remember a not so distant past where you have not been hugged, been pat on the back or massaged in a few weeks or months. Think about your health back then, was it good?

Touch directly stimulates the central nervous system and its seemingly endless array of nerve endings. These nerve endings when relaxed can be stimulated in the right way to produce a feeling of happiness and peace. It makes one feel almost on cloud 9, such can be achieved by going for a massage. Usually you will get it from family or loved ones, but nowadays in our socially declining society and the faster and faster pace of life, distances develop within these family ties and touch is frequently overlooked as a source of bonding.

It is no wonder now that people turn to massages and therapies for help to improve their mental and emotional health. I used to think that a massage once in a while has its effects lasting quite a while. This however is not true and the body seems to need touch almost on a daily basis. It signals for 'help' with nervous stimulation after your short afternoon nap or when you are relaxed on your bed watching tv or playing your game. It starts off with your hands or feet asking to be touched by something, then when you perform a self massage, you actually feel a wave of nerve tingling sensation all over your body and soon, your feet or hands will also feel it. The whole process is actually amazing and it helps you appreciate that the body's entire nerve network is connected.

Hope this helps enlighten you a little on the importance of touch in our lives. Now on for a massage?

Mental Fitness

2011-06-13T00:52:00.001+08:00

Now this post doesn't exactly come at the most effective time of the year when we all are having exams and need the best of our minds to perform tasks. Nevertheless it will be a piece of useful information for us to always keep in handy.

I like to think of our minds as a muscle. Mean to degrade a wonderful piece of design into a mere cell, but to make an important analogy here. Just as you do not exercise or workout 8 hours a day, so you do not study continuously 8 hours a day either, simple as that. We can get tired mentally and when we do, the frightening thing is that we may not even realize it.

I first appreciated the existence of mental fatigue when I was preparing for examinations one year ago. At that point I was really studying almost 8 hours a day including weekends and really wonder how anything managed to get absorbed after all. The mundanes of doing the same studying over and over again, day after day just crept in and soon, I found myself stapling my notes, filing them and going home on the bus. By the time I reached home, I had learnt nothing, remembered nothing. At that point I knew what was happening. Over studying

After taking numerous exams, the realization came to me that you may actually be reading, copying and thinking you understand during your revision period, but the thing that really counts towards answering questions in your exam was your effort put in during the school term itself and NOT in the few days spent mugging.

That is not to say I do not mug a few days before the exams, just saying that the amount of stuff you really learn tends to be much less. I am sure most of you have experienced the feeling of seeing an exam question and struggling to remember something that you had heard the professor emphasizing in class, however you were too busy typing that sms to your friend. Classic experience and excellent example of how important continual effort is.

Why I say all this is to hopefully prevent the scenario of week after week of cramming. Which will eventually lead to mental fatigue. Studies have shown that cramming is very much less effective than continual effort during the semester. To bring in the muscle example, to achieve a certain health condition you do not exercise a muscle everyday, seven times a week for 8 hours a day do you? You put in about some hours every day over a period of time. In that way, your muscle gradually recovers and becomes stronger. Same with the mind, every night when you sleep, memories are reinforced, things you learn and emphasized after class during your revision will stick better in your head. Your memory and hence your learning will be much better boosted.

I hope these tips go a long way towards helping you understand mental fatigue. Never ever underestimate mental fatigue...it is the greatest barrier towards any learning goals. Rest well, eat well and develop good study habits!

Blue Skies Smiling At Me

2011-06-12T14:45:00.001+08:00

Everyone at some point of their lives should (hopefully) look up at the sky and wonder why it is blue. Well that answer should be obvious to you now. If it isn't... google it up :) I have wondered however why clouds look the way they look in the sky. I had tried looking up why they were white and came to the conclusion that water vapour has to condense on certain 'condensation nuclei' in order to form clouds. They look white because they they reflect all colours of light. The mysterious thing came when I was thinking why clouds looked black/dark. The answer according to the internet was that they were so thick that they managed to absorb the light that penetrated them from the top, hence appearing dark at their bases. So according to this explanation, big and thick clouds should look white at their tops and progressively darker towards the bottom. This photo challenges this theory. I saw it on my way back home from the bus.

The existence of thick white pillars of white cloud and the presence of relatively smaller dark clouds along side it just defy logic. They can't possibly absorb all the light to appear dark right? Since they are so thin and small! Something about the previous explanations just do not click. Perhaps this is something you can ponder about....

Life Update 101

2011-06-11T22:55:00.002+08:00

I meant to post this yesterday but I was just too much in a rush for time. If I were to put yesterday in present tense it would go like this:

I am very very excited about today. What began as a small comment by graham for the conception of a night games torture chamber grew in size, scale and complexity to become the full scale battlefield of logistics and creative inputs that we have before us.

It is the first time I have been so hyped up about such a thing in a long time. Perhaps its because organising a torture chamber has always been something I liked. Something interesting, fun, scary for the youth campers of the retreat. New bold daring plans have been set on the table, things that have never been tried in previous camps. On my side, my chamber was divided into 4 major sections: one for girls/noobs XD...two for medium core and one for hardcore. The names of the stations were: reception, physical, fear cell, alley way and gas chamber. Of all, I was the proudest and most excited about the gas chamber. Using dry ice (which was the biggest spending point! $66 for 10kg!!! )as the gas of the chamber, it aims to turn the dark stairwell into the most frightening place on earth. The music was epic, taken from the horror film: mirrors. There would also be a figure from scream the movie over there to scare the wits out of every soul that enters it.

Now for the one in present tense:

Its been a long day. Games ended at 4am today. In the end, people were tired but happy. Nothing was more satisfying than hearing people say that the chamber was scary, created the mood and was fun. Although I conceived the idea of the chamber, the thing that really counted was the help I received from Chris, Nicky, Ivan and Zhi Xian. Even they agreed the whole place looked eerily scary after it had been set up. There was one massive downside though, it was terribly hot. A fan would have been good, just one.

Some things didn't go as well as planned in theory. First of all the lights in the reception went off and could not be turned on. It may have been a good thing, but considering that it was pitch black and we had already put cellophane tape on the lights to change the colour to red...it was sad. The next thing was that the gas chamber dry ice failed. The flow was terrible...If I knew better, I would have read up abit on how to effectively make the dry ice melt and smother the whole floor full of it. The place was too hot and victims were too hot to be scared at all...sometimes it was scary but all in all, it was a big fail.

After games was over we realized that even a small globule of dry ice could emit a epic cloud of gas. It needed maximal surface area and maximal hot water! Both of which were not achieved in the gas chamber and therefore contributed to the failure. It was funny and we learned from the many mistakes that occurred in the chamber and hopefully in future ones would make the logistics simpler and make the entire chamber more scary and fun!

Today I woke up at 1pm. Great. Now my body clock is permanently screwed up my biological clock will only want me to sleep today at 4am??!?! I hope not that terrible but lets see how it goes. Anyway I had a great time again today, like right after today's games, there was a nerf gun competition that was held in pasir ris. I loved it to the max, it was with primary school friends and the atmosphere was pretty fast paced and adrenaline was pumping through my veins.Wei Xiu, Say Koon and I formed TRIPOD! Just 10 minutes of competition divided into two rounds of 5min each with half time. That 10 minutes seemed like literally eternity! It was more fun than it looked to be! Shooting targets was more difficult than it seemed to be as well! I loved how the competition had a commentator who provided the funniest comments ever.

The competition began and the rules were in our mind:
tag two dart boards to allow entry into the opposing team's territory. Shoot one more board to enable our defense person to use the mega blaster to defend our flag. Once done, we could either capture the opponent's flag or we could proceed to shoot more targets at the opponent's base. We could also choose to shoot the opponents themselves! Which would result in them having a 10s detention in their base before they can return out to shoot.

The blaster we were using were the worst I have ever played with in my life! They kept jamming! The most embarrassing moment I would say happened during the very start of the game when the horn was sounded. I ran lightning speed to the front to shoot the enemy dart board and realised I couldnt fire! I searched frantically for the gun cocking mechanism but it continued to elude my senses! I looked hopelessly at the referees... who were standing right beside me, probably thinking what a noob I was...and asked for help. They showed me and I said....ORH!!! I actually knew how to cock the gun, but at that point just simply forgot...lol....the funniest thing was right after I was about to reload the gun again, I forgot how to cock the gun again!

The game was so fun and so exciting I wish I could join yet another one. I hope to join the one next year when the opportunity arises. Meeting up with primary school friends was a fun experience and these events are just some of the activities of my holiday weekends.

Pumping Iron week 3

2011-06-08T13:05:00.002+08:00

First of all, sorry that I have not been updating on how my program was progressing. I was just too caught up to actually write about it. It has been going rather well with nice progression made during the first two weeks of proper training. The training schedule looks like this:

Day 1Major

Exercise	Sets	reps
Lat pull down	3	8-14
Pec Flyes	3	8-14
Leg presses	3	8-14
Shoulder front press	3	8-14
Close grip machine Seated rows	3	8-14
Ab crunches and leg raises	3	8-14

Day 3 Major

Exercise	Sets	reps
Military press	3	8-14
Inclined bench press	3	8-14
Close grip cable Seated rows	3	8-14
Underhand Cable extension	3	8-14
Ab crunches and leg raises	3	8-14
Lat pull down	3	8-14

Day 5 Major

Exercise	Sets	reps
bench press	3	8-14
Leg extensions	3	8-14
Lat pull down	3	8-14
Shoulder front press	3	8-14
Ab crunches and leg raises	3	8-14
Close grip machine Seated rows	3	8-14

Day 7 Minor

Exercise	Sets	reps
Inclined bench press	3	8-14
Lying triceps extension	3	8-14
Underhand Cable extension	3	8-14
Dumbbell curls	3	8-14

For now, I am still on the moderate intensity, moderate volume regime. Within a few more weeks, I will be switching over to a new high volume, low intensity program. Apparently, studies have shown (and i am thoroughly convinced that this is the way to go towards good muscle growth) it is also known as the german volume training (GVT) and it involves high number of sets and high number of reps with low weights. There are a few examples I can think off right away that proves that high volume exercises work to encourage hypertrophy much more than low volume, high intensity. So yes, I am working towards that goal.

For now, sadly I have done a few errors in my training. I have made the mistake of deviating from proper form for some exercises just to get the reps up. I have also assumed progress to be too slow and jumped weights too fast. I will be watching out more for these errors and correcting them as I go along.

In the meantime, I will keeping strict records of my training schedule and hopefully post it up someday for reference.

Core 2 Duo

2011-06-01T23:50:00.002+08:00

Random topic title just to get into the mood. Yes I know the processor model is outdated but that's not the point and you get what I mean...

In recent days, my activities have just simply taken a turn for 'skyrocket' (lousy English there) adequate planning would be required in order for everything to run on clockwork schedule and yet still have some nice free time in store.

For starters, there is Elsie (my cousin) and Chris's wedding, and being in the family I definitely cannot shy away from much responsibilities. I would be glad to be of any help to her though and it no doubt will be another interesting fun-filled experience.

There is of course my regular gym schedule which is almost set to turn killer full-time in just two or three more weeks. I find myself getting more and more hyped up about going to gym. It's now become a hobby to me. The hype has certainly built many times upon itself since the start of this February when I started gyming for the first time in a few years.

Of course we cannot neglect the other friend catch up outings. I would rather maintain fewer closer friends than many acquaintances. A balance of both are good I would say and you really cannot have all close and no acquaintances. They (acquaintances) actually play an important part in our lives, without them we lose our ability to casual talk in my opinion. Too many acquaintances can also be bad when we cannot delve into personal issues and cannot be informal in the way we speak. So my point is, do not forget your long time friends, other than the fact that some day you never know when you need help, it is always nice to have friends who care for one another.

Holidays are really beefing up and spicing up! Wasn't that what I always wanted? A well-planned eventful holiday? Or would I rather have had an uneventful, slack, rejuvenatory holiday? I really do not know...

I have also one more thing I have to just let go...

these past few weeks since my emotional state of love that I should not have been, I have since recovered and have not thought much about it. I have been thinking very objectively about my feelings toward her though, like why do I even like her? What really draws me to her despite her obviously having no romantic interest in me whatsoever? I am battling an emotional war between thinking that she may have feelings for me and on the other hand knowing so crystal clear that she does not! I have also considered that it isn't good to really go into a relationship now and also leave the friendship nice as it is. So the conclusion of the matter is that I am going to keep the matter firmly to myself, not pursue, let go basically. It would be sad story for me in the long term (3rd person perspective) seeing how I have actually liked her for so long yet not really done anything, and would never do anything and eventually seeing her get attached and eventually married to another person. Its really 'romantic drama' like if you will...

'I can never have you'

That also happened to be the title of the song in which I have composed for her and not yet given a bridge for but rest assured I will be completing it soon and hopefully get some music penned down. Anyway, since that is now out of the way, let life continue!

Results Day

2011-05-31T23:10:00.001+08:00

Okay, yesterday was results day and not today. During the course of this semester, I knew my priorities had shifted, I knew that studies were not taking the front seat anymore. It should have been quiet time and devotionals but no, it was another thing. It was my gym program. Now that it is the holidays, that gym program has now become almost full time. So yeah, this semester my effort was honestly rather mediocre.

Nothing could have surprised me more. First surprise, I woke up at the same time that that the sms was sent to my phone. The interesting thing is that the phone was off. I looked at the sms and did a nervous scan through and thought...WHAT?

My results were almost described as awesome! (if you compared it with all my other semesters results) I had scored 3 A-s! I had 2 Bs and one B-. Now what had I done to really deserve this? I couldnt help but compare my effort to the previous semester in which I mugged very hard for the better half of the whole semester and this semester - in which I was gyming. I had dreamt the previous night that I would get a C in my physics and I was more or less prepared for the possibility but when I looked at it and saw it was a B I was glad.

What is God trying to tell me with this results? I rather not interpret really...I will just continue what I always want to do, just stay healthy, study well and leave the rest to Him.

The rest of the day was pretty anti-climax to say the least. Here I was, on my way to work and monitoring the background concentration of particles in the lab (as I have been doing for the past week) and met the rest who also did very well. After some discussion, we finally agreed that because the smarter people left for industrial attachment, hence the happiness was there to stay. Haha...which also implied that next semester it would be business as usual, no more triple A anymore.

I can live with it actually. I don't really expect any grade to top this semesters grade. Would not ever have dreamed that in a whole university life where only one A- was acquired...that in one semester I would get three in one go.

The most anti-climax thing was my dad really, who had almost no flinch whatsoever when I broke the news to him. What?? My mum was the really more happy one for some reason. For that same reason, I think I decided that results weren't that great a deal afterall, which was true to a certain extent. After everything was settled I felt that the day just went on anyway.

Now that results are out and everything is more or less back to normal, I guess I can safely return to my holiday mood and back to whatever I was always doing.

The Sun vs our Technology

2011-05-26T23:03:00.001+08:00

Here's something that did not make it to the headlines of any newspaper around the world, although it should very much have deserved that place in my opinion:

On the 15th of February 2011 this year, a massive solar flare erupted on the surface of the sun, it was an X2.2 class flare, one of the largest ever recorded. The charged particles from the flare reached the Earth on the 17th of February.

I hope you all know what solar flares are at the very basic level, but yes they are relatively simple to understand. A solar flare occurs basically when the sun's magnetic field lines rupture suddenly, now I'm sure you can't get hold of your table magnet's field lines suddenly exploding! But it happens, read more about it and what causes it...

Now this flare, also known as a Corona Mass Ejection, flies through space at nearly the speed of light. It consists of electrons and protons that travel and collide with the earth's own magnetic field. The particles then channel nicely towards the poles, but in the process connecting with rare gases such as helium, neon and the likes. And you heard of neon lights? Same principle applies here. You apply a current (in this case a stream of moving particles) through a gas and it will emit light. So that's how your auroras form.

Solar flares do much much more damage when they overpower the magnetic field. When occurring on a billion tonne scale, solar flares can send out humongous amounts of charged particles and when they collide with the magnetic field, they cause overwhelming disturbances and hence (according to Faraday's law) induce currents almost everywhere in the atmosphere and on the ground. It will trip sensitive switches, cause power outages due to blown transformers and cause lots of electronic failures.Up in space, our precious satellites will have their chips fried. If there were astronauts doing some random space walking, they will receive a frying as well. The wonders of modern technology at the mercy of the Sun.

Google the Carrington Event. It was the most powerful solar storm in recorded history. It did not cause much problems when it happened back in the 1800s but a much more recent event that occurred in Quebec actually caused problems and damages for more than 9 hours. There are several programs attempting to prevent such occurrences of power outages from ever happening again but I would think that the time for a super flare is coming soon.

In fact, if the world were to meet its next big apocalyptic natural disaster, it would be from the sun, not from Earth. Nothing the Earth can churn out, be it the next big earthquake, super volcano from yellowstone park, super tsunami from the collapse of the island of la palma in the Canary islands into the sea, can match the power of the sun's ability to wipe out the Earth. Afterall, who is bigger?

The latest news now is that Scientists are predicting a massive solar storm coming in 2012. Problem is...what people can't see, they don't know. They don't care! Well, we'll see how bad the ramifications are...

Girls in the family

2011-05-26T22:26:00.001+08:00

I have, after much self debate and observation come to the conclusion that girls help gel a family together and keep it in good communication. By saying 'girls' I refer to females in general.

Why so? You might ask? I will reply by saying that I find that talk a lot.

Before you kill me or slap me for being rude, let me explain myself and the logic behind that statement. It is not a condescending statement at all. It just amazes me that females really do communicate and speak much more than us males. Our [male] ability to just keep to ourselves and remain silent can sometimes lead to our utter downfall when it comes to relations.

You always hear about mothers nagging incessantly, you hear about how girls gossip. These are some 'side-effects' if I may say; about their uncanny ability to keep on talking about anything and everything. Statistically, girls talk more than guys and that is undeniable. It just puzzles me greatly as to why this is so.

Now onto the more important part of this discussion. Why do I suggest that girls gel a family together? The answer is simple. Communication maintains human relationships. I have one analogy for human relationships/friendships and how they can be likened to brain neural networks which are strengthened by constant stimulation, the more stimulation the networks get, the more reinforced they become. The same is with human relations, once a communication breakdown occurs, you get broken relations.

In day to day family living, we take each other much for granted. That's where the problems and conflicts usually start and they must be resolved through effective communication or else misunderstanding occurs. Girls are more effective communicators of their emotional states and it is really important to show someone how you feel when conflicts occur, if that does not happen the other party may think you are not really angry when in fact you are fuming. So I would say that since girls express their emotions better, arguments and disagreements get resolved easier (most of the time).

Other areas include talking about one's day. Many guys I know (including myself) can keep the entire day's events to themselves without any form of outlet whatsoever. I do not know the exact repercussions from doing this over the long term, but it is definitely bad in the long run. When emotions are bottled, they can only get stored for so long till breaking point. Girls obviously have no problem at all when it comes to talking about their day, it allows for a good laugh, some reflection and more bonds forged.

Girls also like hugging and touch, this subject of touch is so important that I will be dedicating another entire post to this topic. Touch and hugs, no matter how childish it sounds, are essential to the emotional and YES, physical wellbeing of a person. I never really came to appreciate how important touch is till I actually read that touch deprivation can make a person emotionally disturbed, reduced physical growth/health and even reduced immunity. Without delving too deep into the topic, I would say that yes girls hug a lot and hold hands. This emotional connectedness is healthy and maintains healthy social bonds between friends and family alike.

The next time you mock some girls hugging each other or looking in disgust upon their behaviour, think again...girls indeed gel a family together.

USB 3.0 vs Lightpeak

2011-05-19T23:23:00.001+08:00

Here is a rush of tech stuff! It is a real bummer to keep up with the latest technology due to the constant improvements. Things that you knew just 1 year ago (or maybe now even a couple of months) may become dreadfully outdated.

I am intrigued by the immense potential that USB 3.0 and Lightpeak have to bring into the IT arena. First of the players is USB 3.0, long anticipated and of great potential. It has significant advantages over the older USB 2.0. The most important of all being faster transfer speeds; up to 4.8Gbps! mind you that the small 'b' is bits not bytes. 8bits =1byte for those of you who need a reminder. Which still adds up to an impressive 0.6Gbs per second! A whopping 600Mb per second! A whole movie in one second! A whole level up from 480Mbps ( 60 Mbps ) of USB 2.0 But that's not the interesting fact. USB 3 comes with an added bonus, it is able to simultaneously read and write and the same time, where previously you could only write OR read.

The next player in the field is intel's lightpeak (now called thunderbolt). Whatever they want to call it I don't really care, but I do support it's rather simplistic, yet neat idea. It proposes one single cable to replace all the different cables connecting your devices ( hdd, rom, usb, graphics card) to your motherboard. And that's not all, it proposes a killer speed of transfer to seal the deal: 10Gbps for the first generation cables. One cable to rule them all, they say. These cables were originally conceived will optic fibre technology, however costs allowed for a copper version to be developed first but still maintaining the promised 10Gbps transfer rate.

Now, the real problem with lightpeak a.k.a thunderbolt is, it cannot really match a few peripheral devices data transfer requirements even with that massive 10Gbps bandwidth. One clear example would be your HDMI, which transfers 10.2Gbps (HDMI 1.3) but yeah anyway thats only a small bit off. The next one, PCI-E is the big one, it is the wire that talks stuff from your graphics card to your motherboard. Basically, the first generation wires will not be able to replace everything. But intel is highly certain that the next generations within the decade will surpass the 100Gbps mark, a remarkable achievement and could very well be on its way to making it the 'one cable to rule them all'.

My takes on these technologies are: I love both! But I am more excited about USB 3, because it would bring about more immediate benefits for people like me who just loathe the slow transfer of 480Mbps, not that its really slow, but more because the transfer files are so terribly big! Lightpeak should be close on my list because it provides the potential for a clutter free IT system where every device communicates via just one mode; the lightpeak cable! Makes life a whole lot easier, plus it enables the less technologically savvy peeps to still understand this simple concept.

USB 3 and Lightpeak devices are actually here in the market already! Apple has released its macbook pro recently with the thunderbolt interface, which has a cool 't' or 'f'...I dunno, but it certainly looks sleek. The market however seems rather slow in catching on! I sure would like to get my hands on a USB 3 thumbdrive soon!

Learning How To Sleep

2011-05-14T22:18:00.001+08:00

Now this, is an interesting topic. Everyone sleeps, everyone talks about sleep. Yet many of us take sleeping for granted. In fact, there are two things in life that you cannot force, love and sleep.

Sleep is essential to all of us, and getting to sleep is a skill to be learned, yet I realized to my horror that many people I have met have not really consciously considered getting to sleep a technique in itself, they just say, 'let it happen'. Knowing how to sleep in this modern fast paced world is in fact a much greater challenge than it was just a decade or two ago. Being sleep deprived is the more common case you usually see around nowadays.

Now, you could look up Google on how exactly to get a good sleep and there will be whole lists about how to sleep. Most common things I do see are sleeping at regular hours, that one we all know very well. Things like not exercising too much just before bedtime (that one I can agree fully, I tried exercising and got a bit too hyped up to sleep after that). Not drinking coffee or tea less than 6 hours before bed. With regards to the coffee issue, some people do claim that they can drink coffee and sleep right away. Yes of course I agree with you! I have done that so many times before when I was in secondary school, I would just drink coffee with the intention to study to afternoon later and just go right to bed and knock out. What's my point? Back in my secondary school days, I was sleep deprived (like who wasn't?) and coffee does not really work too well at a certain point after you are sleep deprived. Coffee has it's most prominent effect when your sleeping hours are regular. To illustrate that example, just try downing a cup of coffee right before bed when you have started sleeping regularly. See if you can sleep. More tips with regards on how to sleep are things like avoiding long naps in the day. By long naps, I strictly refer to the ones that exceed 15min because that is the threshold of when the body starts entering into stage 2 deeper sleep, at which point, waking up from it will not only make you feel groggy but also jeopardize your nightly sleep. One more important thing to note about nightly sleep is to not expose yourself to too much light as it will affect the circadian rhythm which takes its cues from lighting conditions.

More unusual tips include the sleeping posture, things you drink before bed to help you relax could include soybean milk, dairy, yogurt and basically anything that contributes to tryptophan concentrations in the body. Tryptophan apparently helps produce seratonin, a chemical in the brain that aids with relaxation.

Now comes my part of the theory, in a way you could call it the 'advanced' method of sleep. I have used to countless times to great success. Now, there may be times where you know you have to sleep because of an important presentation tomorrow, you are very anxious and desperate to get to sleep. However you just can't! You start tossing and turning and eventually come to the the frustrating realization - you can't sleep.

Now that is was a scenario with a couple of major mistakes which I will carefully outline in my technique I use to get to sleep. Not all may work for you, but I hope it would help in some way or another. The first mistake is: worrying that you cannot go to sleep. The moment you go to bed worrying that you cannot sleep, you have already committed the #1 mistake of sleep. The moment you start worrying, your body starts producing adrenaline, which will make your mind run faster, think more, your heart rate increases, body temperature rises. Boom, you're awake. To visualize this happening, have you ever went to bed tired, attempted to sleep, worried and worried and eventually gave up sleeping 30min later and jumped out of bed feeling super energetic? That's the adrenaline talking.

What you really do not want to do is to make your body 'aware' that you have a busy day and need to sleep urgently. You will proceed next to relax and tell yourself out loud: "Gee! I'm Sleepy..." then carry on to lie on your bed thinking about the great day you will have tomorrow. This technique is simply active diversion away from your worries and it is essential if you are going to get to sleep. The whole point of going to sleep is to hand over control of the brain to the subconscious or right creative brain, which has no logic. If you find yourself thinking about your day systematically, you are using your left brain. That is BAD. Thoughts you do want to embrace during this period would be illogical totally random thoughts. Just let the thoughts come naturally and follow them to their wonderful end.

Now for the environment, it is very important that you identify what are your final sleep positions. By that, I need you to remember the last posture you were at just before you went unconscious. it will usually be the same set. Your body isn't totally random and it loves to adopt a few favorite positions and it will definitely vary from person to person. For me, I find that turning to the right, hugging my bolster works. Now that you have identified that final position, DO NOT adopt that position immediately when you hit the bed. Just feel free to calm down wait for your body temperature to cool down. The usual cue to start adopting your final sleep position is when you feel yourself going drowsy. Now how do you get drowsy in the first place? Sometimes, I try this unusual thing, I listen to soft soothing music, so soft that I can't listen to it, but I can hear it. In that way, my mind isn't engaged in it. Then, I would time to music to switch off at a random time. At that point when the music ends, my eyes somehow just feel relaxed and I become drowsier. Another way is to lie face up, then tilt your head to the right or left slightly. It does seem to induce a drowsy effect. The reason is still unknown to me.

Now that I have told you most of the techniques that I have used, they should work. This method will not work in these cases:

1. You don't sleep regularly

2. You didn't follow everything I said

3. You are just too worried sick.

There is one more back up plan should you encounter the 3rd point. I do experience it sometimes. You should attempt a sleep 'restart'. Meaning you start the whole getting to sleep process again. Yes, really. If you find your thoughts just failing to become random and meaningless, your left brain is just too active. Just try a restart again. Switch on some relaxing music (through your iphone or ipod NOT your earphones), think about nothing in general. Do not for once worry or think about what is going to happen tomorrow as it would only hinder your chances of falling asleep.

And that is all. I have outlined the general more advanced sleep technique. I have not really experienced any sleepless night since which has been attributed to worry or insomnia. Unless of course you drank coffee or exercised or whatever...I hope you all enjoyed this article and I also hope you all get a good night's rest from now on. Till next time!

Pumping Iron: Week 2

2011-05-11T23:03:00.001+08:00

Hello there again guys. Welcome to Pumping Iron post week 2. I have one piece of bad news to begin this post though, it is the camp that broke the usual sleep, diet and workout routine. It certainly did take a toll on my overall performance at the gym this week I must say. But yeah, anyway this week my objective is to enlighten you on the exact workout routines I am performing and how frequently.

Last week was not the official week 1 of the project. I had many many plans prior to that. However, they all resulted in extreme undertraining because I worked out each body part no more than once a week. This is really asking for nothing but no growth. Anyway, the new plan I have isn't exactly a killer plan, but it does get me started on a 1-3-5 major (fullbody) workout day and a 2,4,7 minor (arms/misc) workout day. I have yet to see how this really goes because I have not exactly done the full cycle even once!

What I have achieved previously is on the 29th April, I started on the Pumping Iron workout plan:

*note my considerations:
- muscle in tension always in between reps, no rest.
- 40-60s rest between sets.
- 2-3min rest in between exercises

Major:
Hack Squats, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Bench Press, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Lat Pull Down, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Military Press, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Calf Extensions, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Crunches/Leg raises, 4 sets, 20-30reps/6-15reps

Minor:
Cable Triceps Extension, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Bicep Curls, 4 sets, 11-15 reps
Lying Triceps Extension, 4 sets, 11-15 reps

I plan to do the complete 1-3-5 and 2-4-7 plan for about 4 weeks straight. This will hopefully get me ready for the deadly Visual Impact Programme which I will follow faithfully from then on for about 2 months. That monster of a programme will consist of 3 phases and approximately 2 months for each phase. So Let's just see how much progress I will make in these 7 months total.

My diet will also have to change. Right now, I am stuck at a good 75kg. I have absolutely NO idea how I managed to keep such a perfectly rigid number which just has not changed for the past 3 months. Diet is "80% of what body building is about, the rest is exercise (20%)" according to various internet sources.

Well, I will update you starting next week on how my first official week of training will begin. Till then!

I'm Back!

2011-05-10T23:44:00.001+08:00

Hello Guys! I am BACK! Yeah I know no one really comes here anymore, but whatever...

I actually came back on Sunday night from camp, and now it's tuesday night. Well, the past few days have not been exactly wonderful because I still have not caught up on necessary sleep time from what was lost during camp. Camp was really good by the way, and I have made new fun friends (hee hee), watched the general elections till early early in the morning, and most importantly been edified by the word of God. The study was on the book of Esther and after this whole camp is over, I feel like I can remember the book of Esther quite well now.

On Monday, I started work. Not in the really sense of work, but it seemed more like going to a really long lab session. Sure there were couple of things to learn, but Suresh ( my mentor) went easy on me and for that I am grateful. Everything so far has been fine and I do think Suresh would be a good person to work with for the next 3 months.

I am just far too tired to discuss anything intellectual here at the moment. I have been gyming since I last posted the Pumping Iron programme post, trust me. So stay tuned and I will give you the weekly update you all need. Till tomorrow, more things coming up.

Term End

2011-05-05T23:11:00.001+08:00

We come to the point in time again, where I would become emotional about the end of yet another term in university. As each term draws to a close, reflection upon things that should have been or could have been will start to occupy my thoughts. This term for me has been a really smooth one. The smoothest yet. For some curious reason or another, an unexplainable calm and lackluster (if those two actually go together) have taken resident evil in my quest to attain a third class honours. Even if I am the best optimist, I would actually say right now: even that is impossible now...

Today was a first, a real tragic first. I have never ever studied just one day for a final exam. Never ever in my entire life. Not even for year 1 semester 1! I have crossed the line many times in my academic life. But this one totally blows my chance of getting even a fair grade. In fact, I would not even count it one day of revision. It would be more like less than 3 hours of work? What am I thinking....

And yet, here I am blogging, spending time that would otherwise have been better off spent studying. Also, why am I looking so much forward to the coming holidays? I wonder whether I even deserve it! When my results come out, there will definitely be a shock awaiting me. I do not want to think about it right now because it would spoil everything.

For a heads up, this holiday would be a real packed one. I have many many aims. lon9b3an productions supposedly desires to come up with at least one new video this holiday. I have many new skills I want to learn, for example - adobe photoshop, adobe illustrator, adobe aftereffects and perhaps adobe premier. rather ambitious in my learning here. That is not including the learning I definitely will be having when taking on the Vacation Internship Programme with my faculty. It would be something along the lines of nanotechnology. Sounds cool right? but sorry to burst your bubble there...I personally do not have great interest in it. But who knows...maybe something cool will come along.

Also occurring during the holidays, I hope to meet up with many long lost friends. Perhaps get a little shopping done, get my little make over that I always wanted. Touch up on my habit for quiet time, and also maintain the pumping iron programme that I have been talking about. There are miscellaneous things to do as well, such as start playing the starcraft 2 campaign...something I always said I'd do but never got down to doing so, its been a good one year since. Also, its really good news that crysis 2 is out! I am really excited about this game because its prequel was really mind blowing in terms of visual effects. The story and AI may have been criticized for being below standard, but in my opinion, its wonderful! I am definitely going to want to own that game.

To jump start the holiday season however, tomorrow would be a whopper day. It threatens to drag me right into the holiday mood instantly. There would be my exams in the morning, I plan to gym and complete some other stuff before I embark on a three day camp. Directly after which my work would start. How quick is that! I can't wait.

I probably would not blog during these few days during camp. But rest assured, I am back in the habit and you can be sure for more posts when I return. Over and out.

Pumping Iron: Week 1

2011-05-04T13:24:00.003+08:00

Politics and exams aside, from the start of the new year I have been embarking on a personal quest for pumping iron. It is a fairly ambitious project of self-improvement as I would like to call it. It's not exactly life essential, but It would be highly beneficial for me to gain some decent amount of weight and adopt the less twig like figure that I have always been.

For some biological history, I was born lanky. When I say lanky, think this: 188cm in secondary 1 (12 years old) and 53kg. If you know what is BMI, you would find out that the calculation will lead you to this amazing number: 14.9

I have been sick prone for a long time since primary school. Flu would come often, ulcers, nose bleeds, injuries and stuff. These are major problems indirectly and directly linked to being underweight. Of course I would'nt have known it back then because I was so young. I thought I was fine to say the least!

Well, I am now 194cm and 76kg now. Still relatively skinny actually. BMI standing at around 20.1 means that I am about a few kilograms to being relatively proper proportioned. But funnily enough as you would expect, people like me are GREEDY. I want muscle and not fat. I could follow the typical advice and eat way over my usual limit. But I would not gain fat evenly, If I could choose, I would allocate exactly where I want that fat located, but as biology would have me do, it would allocate it at my abdominal area. Which isn't exactly the most attractive area to place it for a skinny guy, trust me on that.

SO...the only way out is hard core pumping iron. This journey is already 3 months and counting as the time of writing. So why am I still so light? Why haven't I magically ballooned into the Taylor Lautner that I should be? Gaining muscle is one of the most complicated, variable and least understood YET most heavily used practices in the world. There are so many ways to exercise, so many ways to eat, so many variables to control that almost anything could go wrong.

I have been a terrible victim of all these mistakes. With any beginner, I can firstly tell you that I have done my research. What research exactly? I can tell you, numbering in the thousands. There are THIS many articles on how to gain muscle FAST! but it is just THIS CLOSE to gaining FATS.

Being the engineer that I am, I decided that I would be entirely scientific on this and break down the problem. Not go with my gut feeling. The facts that I have gathered are astounding amounts that I will share for future body builders out there. Of course I will not share them all right now, but as time progresses, I aim to show you my mindset, my exercise methods, my routines, diet and finally and most importantly, the results. I will in fact show you all photos of my progress in 3 months time. It is exciting and a patient learning process as I learn from my mistakes, after correcting some things, I progress to yet another level. Each time getting more and more serious about it.

I hope that from this story ( be it success or failure ) you would be able to learn something from it. It goes beyond much more than just looks and health. It really does come with other important learning experiences of patience, research, discipline and endurance that can be carry-over skills in many things that you do in future.

This is post number 1: Introduction.

Stay tuned for many more.

The Circadian Rhythm

2011-05-03T22:56:00.001+08:00

I am sure most people are aware that their daily sleep follows a very important biological cycle called the Circadian Rhythm. What they may not know however, is that their digestive system is also governed by this same process.

For a bit of a background regarding the Circadian Rhythm, it is a 24 hour cycle that governs the biological processes in most living organisms. Even Fungi and bacteria! The daily cycle manages various activities of the body such as the core temperature, cell regeneration, hormone levels, etc. This 24 hour cycle that we very much take for granted (and sometimes abuse to the point of it collapsing ) is the crucial link between our inner bodies and its relation to time. Otherwise, our systems would be in an utter mess, it creates an apparent order for everything to function in proper sequence. It is well known (yet not well documented ) that disruption of the circadian rhythm can lead to poor health and lowered immunity levels in the body.

To be honest, these aren't cold hard scientific facts, but they are in a class of pseudo-science which I heavily credit. To deviate a little bit, science is still relatively young, yes it explains some things, but It can't explain everything. Not because it can't! but it its heavily limited to what the human mind can engineer science to be. Science is a human system of understanding the world, and because of that, it has limitations. Science has not proven that Circadian Rhythms and all that can directly lead to poor health, but it makes perfect sense! and you feel it! when you deprive yourself of sleep or sleep irregularly for a week or so, what happens? you get sick!

Now for the main course, the digestive system also follows this 24 hour cycle. For starters: starting from an typical wake up time of 8am. The intake cycle begins at around ideally 12pm and ends approximately at 8pm. The assimilation cycle goes from that time till 4am in the morning. The remaining time is utilized for the waste removal (now you realise the importance of daily bowel movements). Now these three phases are NOT strictly regulated at these clockwork points. I want to emphasize that these cycles may probably overlap at some point and the body is flexible. It definitely can be seen in the way you sometimes eat a dinner late, but do not immediately get sick? This cycle clearly marks the points of where energy is spent by the body in finding food, taking in the nutrients then getting rid of the wastes. A simple yet profound system.

The problem here with society is that it doesn't follow the system. Why? Obviously people lack discipline OR they may not even know straying from the rhythm can cause health problems! Either way, many people do not follow this cycle regularly. You ask me if I follow this cycle? Yes I do. It has taken a good 2 months to set up the new healthy habit. But trust me, I am the first testimony to promote this healthy way of eating. For example, I have not fallen sick in a long time. I stomach is not bloated every morning anymore. I have lost some body fat! Best of all, I have not gotten sick in a very very long time. Is that sufficient to get you started on this?

Singapore General Elections 2011 (part 2)

2011-05-02T23:14:00.002+08:00

As of the time of writing, rallies may have stopped for the holiday but the activities of outreach by the various parties have shied away from the limelight during the labour day break. What I observed happening throughout the neighborhood was decorated vans/lorries/trucks of the PAP and the Worker's Party driving up and down the estate proclaiming their presence to all those that even till now are not aware that elections are coming. Or perhaps trying in a desperate hope to garner every single precious voter. I noticed that the PAP's van was more brightly decorated, more powerfully equipped to broadcast than the ones of the worker's party. This however, will not in anyway please the public if I may say so. using tax payer's money to decorate your vans to look superior to the opposition party's ones is not going to get you anywhere near the voter's hearts.

You would think that after yesterday's long entry and discussion about politics that that's the whole story. Nothing could be further from the truth. The post just merely scratched a thin layer of the political ice that runs deep down. So many issues are still left undiscussed, there are simply too many. In fact, the issue is so huge that any random small talk about the elections happening throughout Singapore now ( definitely large scale ) would not adequately address all issues being debated now.

MM Lee Kwan Yew has always been my figure of respect. He is regarded the founder of modern successful Singapore as it is today ( Or rather, responsible also for the state of apparent decline it is now ). His track record has been wonderful, a visionary and a person who made things happen. His pride is now obviously getting away. If there is anything in common with successful politicians, it is this: none of them. Absolutely NONE of them like to let go of power. Let's not just focus on MM Lee, think Margaret Thatcher, think Mahatir. These prominent figures of power have indeed led their countries in astounding and respectful ways. They have also been notorious for being reluctant to relinquish their power. They definitely must have a say even when they retire/step down. Same here in this case of the general election and I think MM Lee really crossed the line with Singaporeans this time with his harsh and almost thoughtless remarks: "Let them repent..." I am sure all of us should be familiar with this defining statement. No doubt would this statement be cast to the gallows to be hung, framed up on the infamous wall of terrible political errors of the decade. How could someone actually say such a thing? Don't the people have a right to decide their own government? What is there that MM Lee feels he needs defend so badly? It is almost as if he had something all too precious in Aljunied GRC to give up or something? Unthinkable in the least.

Nothing much MM Lee can do about his own words now. The damage has been done and votes have almost certainly been lost. I agree with netizens when they voice their opinions about MM Lee's objective to be the slave of the nation rather than making slaves out of the nation. His sweeping remark about Aljunied GRC really dealt a massive blow to PAP reputation and it almost looks set right there to turn the tide of PAP supreme power over Singapore. It may take a couple of years more to occur, but my early prediction would be this is the beginning of the end of the PAP, the new will eventually take over. It may come a point where there would be two equally powerful opposing parties, which at this point is too early to say so. But I can say with certainty, the PAP is slowly and surely losing favor with the citizens.

The major issue of foreigner influx, coupled with the lowered purchasing power of Singaporeans is really getting on people's nerves. People have been awfully quiet about it I must say, aside from the little complaints here and there amongst small talk, there really has been no hoo hah all the way till now during the elections.
It is really sad to watch the PAP go down, as there has been quite a fair bit of propaganda that I have been influenced by as a child studying for Social Studies and the history of Singapore, I had grew fond and proud of our government. But, like every powerful organisation, it will someday have to meet its demise. It is now really up to the PAP to rethink it strategy for regaining the people's trust albeit difficult. Should it still remain stagnant and let the current issues escalate, then I guess the end is near for it.

All that being said, it is important to note that none of the parties are subpar or corrupted or dangerous in anyway. I would agree all parties are worthy competitors. Yes, the parties are large and the spread of talent ranges from the very good to the subpar. But in a nutshell, all parties want what's best for the country ( I hope ).

The Singapore General Elections 2011

2011-05-01T23:20:00.004+08:00

Yes. Hello once again people, I am back and this time...I am much much happier than the previous day. Things just went so much better today, and I can directly attribute it to excessive social interaction. It just takes the focus away from yourself and directs it outwards. Which Is why I think people recover from depression or other forms of sadness, like lost of a loved one or something along those lines, by simply directing their attention outwards.

Something peculiar has happened to me over the past few days which I still cannot explain though...I can no longer study very efficiently on my own for the whole day at a time. I did use to enjoy studying alone during my first year in university and in other institutions before that. However, come to just recently, it's just not not possible anymore! I have to talk to people or at least be around some company. It is really so interesting how personality and individual needs can change. Perhaps I am now more of the extrovert kind? This is really weird. I have never ever thought myself as that in my entire life!

Well, on to more important things that I really wish to discuss. The Singapore General Election is coming and even though it's not the first in my life time, it is certainly one in which I am finally eligible to vote! Oh feel the power!!! Haha...The democratic system gives power to the people to elect in their desired government and indeed it's hard to initially be handed this power, abit akin to a teenager being handed his first car. It does take maturity to rise up and finally say, 'enough of this ignorance and apathy towards the concerns of the country and start gathering information about the happenings of the election.

It honestly started from her actually talking to me about it...funnily enough. But it did get me started on the hype though and I began probing into the various parties and their members, I can say I am fairly well informed now and I could make a decision. But before I go any further and tell you my point of view, you have to respect first and foremost that every voter is entitled to his or her own opinion and that is final. I will share these points of views, but you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

The way things are going for Singapore, it seems that the aljunied GRC is going to be the most highly contested GRC rallies going on there have been fierce and the opposition is really giving its all, criticizing the lack of true democracy in Singapore and not forgetting also the unnaturally high pay of the cabinet ministers, housing issues, mas selamat among other things. The list goes right on and on. These views aren't flawed, but they are not really long term either.

The main idea I believe the opposition is trying to accomplish here is towards setting up an accountability system where at least the PAP would be able to remain in check due to the presence of a watch dog. Current issues that need addressing are obviously the terribly overwhelming influx of foreigners into Singapore. Judging by the natural growth rate of Singapore, a few years back, it was a mere 3.xx million, it could not possibly have baby boomed into a 5.xx million population in a blink of an eye, that would have required mass adoption, or otherwise now known as foreign influx.

Now this is greatly bothering the citizens, whose very jobs and academic positions are being taken over by more talented outsiders, which in effect, is prioritizing economic growth over the needs of the people. The locals are obviously furious as this idea and no one can stop the ruling party from doing something like that anyway. So hence the idea of a watch dog in parliament.

The flaws here come when we consider that the contested GRC is home to our Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo, ironic isn't it? Speaking of foreigners. Should the Worker's Party actually succeed, ( and I really think it has a high chance of doing so ) it would mean that George yeo will indeed lose his position, and so would the other 4 Members of parliament together with him. Now this is a big, if not almost unworthy trade off because we lose a valuable and very successful foreign diplomat. The loss would not exactly be irreconcilable but in my opinion, Singapore would lose that forward momentum as the worker's party implements their members into the cabinet. Chen Show Mao, being the super qualified and highly respected person he is, looks set to meet the charge as future foreign minister, I don't doubt him. I just doubt their real intentions behind this strategy.

In the end, the worker's party would not really be able to strike a blow into the PAP through gaining several GRCs, but the stage is set for future elections where the opposition would be even more daring, and I foresee even more GRCs being contested due to the almost certain success of this current campaign.

But then, what would be the future of Singapore? Would it head towards a welfare state as it is hinting to become by the constant demands of the people for cheaper housing and more cash handouts? If the government keeps bowing its head to the citizens in favor of being in power, then I should think the worker's party is leading Singapore into a cycle it does not want to get itself into. Recall the days of the UK, and it's dependence on the welfare system.

The government wanted to serve the interests of the people, but never really intended for the people to keep coming back year after year asking for more. The argument towards the welfare system is that it makes people less inclined to work and just makes citizens dependent on the system. It may not be entirely true in the sense that there has been no real concrete evidence of this happening in current welfare states, but yeah, it does manifest itself in subtle ways.

I wouldn't want to live in a generation of welfare citizens, but I highly doubt this would happen in the next few years, or perhaps even the next decade, it would be a slow but sure change as the old gives way to the new. Yes the old (PAP) is tried and true, but of course, there is no reason to doubt the new and fresh.

I just hate it though that some people would be the 'follow the crowd' people and go with their emotions during the polls. If there is one thing politicians do very well, is that they know how to wreak havoc with your emotions and dispel logic from your head at that crucial period of time. Emotional issues are touched on, such as our jobs and our housing. Ministerial pay is also thrown into the spotlight ( and it is my opinion that high pay is there for a reason to make people want to stay in politics and to prevent corruption ). These issues really can instill anger into citizens when manipulated and presented properly. To put it simply, majority of people get serenaded by the enticing power of the speakers, and with regards to that matter the worker's party has plenty of it. People are all about the speeches it seems and the PAP just pitifully lags behind this time when it comes to this type of stuff, and that is gaining very little support from locals.

What a pity really, because despite how forward looking we want to be, our sudden impulses may lead us to cast a vote that may just damage us in ways we may not be able to see now. But whose implications can only be felt very far down the road, perhaps even after two more GEs. This is fact, that political change and its resulting implications do take time and their full scale of impact can only be felt years later.

We can only hope that we all remember that we keep a cool head and not let emotions take control during that day. Let us also not be too conceited and think only for short term personal gain. We are after all, citizens of this country, the government serves us, but we are also responsible for our own future and no one in the world, not even the welfare system should spoon feed us.

Nostalgia

2011-04-30T20:41:00.003+08:00

I do not feel very energized today. For reasons that I will elaborate on later, I found it actually a chore to study and very irritable. What a real pity to start of the 'new-beginning' like this. As the situation would have it, I couldn't help but look back at my very first posts of this blog. It is now my 312th post since 3 years ago.

The frequency at which I have blogged has decreased really exponentially. Funny thing is that as I was reading what I wrote, I actually laughed at myself! What a funny life I had in the first semester. I looked back at the legendary defining moment of my entire university life, the infamous 0.8 score. Life has come a long way since then and three years does fly.

Well, to tell you the truth, I am sad. It's something I have not felt in a long time. This time, its because of someone. How do I put this? I was in love again. I went down a path that I should have threaded lightly, it really sickens me that I have told myself so many times that I have full control over my emotions. But for this particular person... I have a weakness a very special weakness. I had fallen for her over three times in the past.

The difference with now and previously, is that my logic is still functioning. In times of love, we don't think straight. I nearly didn't and I caught myself this time before anything happened. But sadly though, my emotions did not get away with it so easily. It will take a while...and I felt a familiar urge to compose a song about her as I have done for someone in the past. Funnily enough, I was trying to search for it just now because it is in this blog somewhere...

Maybe when I am fully done with the song, I shall post it up here and maybe get a tune composed for it or something. It fully describes, without actually giving away too much detail, the way things went. Trust me when I say I will get over it. It's just a matter I have to deal with on my own.

This matter aside, I am actually looking forward to the end of the exams coming very soon for this term. So many things to do during this final summer holidays. I have so much more to discuss in the following days, so in the meantime, I shall just get some rest and get over it.

Its been some time...

2011-04-29T23:33:00.004+08:00

I arrive back after a really long hiatus. Over that period, I have craved to blog. I am born to blog...Nah just kidding. It's just I feel that I am bursting onto facebook to express my views a wee bit too often now that I do not think I want to just blare it out to the whole world to read.

Afterall, I am not that sort of person really. I just like people who are genuinely interested in what I discuss about to come here in search for more knowledge and insights. Hopefully you can share some of them with me too. I am still willing and my window of learning has not closed just yet.

In these few days, I will be visiting to blog about various topics, be it about health (which I am rather enthusiastic about) about the human mind, about so many other things...I can't wait to share them with you readers anonymous as you maybe...oh well...

Mobile Blog: Degenerative Affulency

2010-11-11T22:39:00.003+08:00

I have realized that since the arrival of my ipod, I would be able to just type notes and somehow blog while on the move, when I am free. I will give this a go. Today's post is one such mobile post which I have done entirely while on the move.

Affulency can only lead to slow and sure degradation of motivation amongst the population.

Referring to a recent article in the straits times, a meeting with senior minister goh chok tong and a group of young people revealed the utter lack of drive among the next generation of the workforce. In the meeting, it was found that singaporeans are satisfied with 'doing' good but are not driven towards excellency.

It is a sad find, but not all that surprising when we consider that there is really no real drive in life when everything is good around them, when society is stable and everything they want is provided for. Hardship plays a role in human motivation, to appreciate good you have to first have experience the bad.

The new generation (which includes myself) are born into a world where hardship is over and we are cradled by our parent's labour. No real poverty has been experienced. This peace produces complacent individuals whose sole purpose of working hard is to satisfy material wants. Not much thought put into how society can be improved, just thoughts on how to further advance one's career.

Affluence and technology can also have a profound effect on our faith. People tend to become self reliant with increasing knowledge. In the past, when we did not have science, natural disasters and phenomena were attributed to the anger of God and the supernatural. Now we simply lose our fascination with these things. Knowledge can work two ways, either to help us appreciate God more or to decrease our reliance on him. It's like a magic trick, and how you lose your awe and fascination for it when you discover how it's done.

So where do we go from here? Do we ask for a war? A global pandemic? Attack from outer space? Anything to basically make people think less of themselves and experience a tribulation? ( for we know that without hardship, we do not mature ) The answer isn't as simple as that but we can start off definitely by realizing this trend early. We will then be able to catch ourselves in the act of simply being in our comfort zones, in hot pursuit of money and materials. Where nothing much else really concerns us anymore.

No Rest for the Wicked

2010-10-29T23:06:00.007+08:00

No.

I am not dead yet.

This blog is not sitting here being dead yet. Priority just shifted to more important things. The rule is always simple. The more free time I have, the more I blog. Although there have been many counts of laziness on my part.

To start off, I would wish to recall the major events that transpired from September the 8th all the way till now - nearly two months later. When I look back, its really hard to imagine that ONLY two months have past. The feeling university gives you, with its non-stop hits...never a dull moment. Its almost like a camp where time just drags on, yes you're enjoying yourself but you also marvel at the fact that yesterday seemed so long ago.

The first noteworthy thing that occurred after September 8th was the Project Makeover. I had been intending on this for a really long time already, all the way since 2009 began. I just did not have the money and so finally I was able to buy exactly almost everything I wanted in a a short span of two days. I also dyed and permed my hair, which was frankly quite retarded since my previous hair was apparently fine. People's sentiments about the new hairdo were mixed. There were a fairshare of fans and antifans alike. The biggest of the anti-fans being my mum. Haha...

Anthony's wedding was one major thing that occurred on the September 12th 2010. That day was so memorable in many ways: firstly, it marked 10 years of friendship with the crazy bunch. Secondly, a good friend of my age has now married, making him the first of the 87ers. The Setting was interesting, it was held at Hort Park. It was great to see so many secondary school friends reuniting with one another. The moments were simply delightful. It was an honor indeed to play the piano for him on that day.

Then here comes the reason to my perpetual absence from the blogger world. I looked back to my timetable after the wedding happened and I saw something that really shocked me. The next week was the only 'normal' week left. By normal I mean a week with no special events happening. After which, recess week came, and the two midterm weeks. To add on to that, after midterms came the horror biology labs which took up the entire week's worth of time.

We also had a ESE3201 presentation in the middle of the midterms, it was fun working with the same team that brought together the ESE2001 presentation earlier this year. I like this team because of its lack of rigidity. The team is just so creative and carefree that its products are so contagiously good that just leaves smiles on everyone's faces when the presentation is over. That's the feeling everyone relishes after the whole thing is over..."we made the people and the tutor happy."
The week after the labs was the one big event that, to me, was a once in a lifetime experience. A concert that I actually looked forward to. SNSD was coming to Singapore! It may only have been 20 minutes of performance, but it was sure worth the excitement. Here in front of us, was the girl band that we've been looking so much at in pictures and talking so much about and lsitening to so many of their songs. That night was just a night of high. I almost could not sleep the whole night. My friends who went and had first category seats suffered insomnia in a good way. SNSD waved back at them! *faint*

The following week was actually...this week. Haha, the week that has just past was almost equally as hectic. The amount of assignments that poured in was just enough to kill us all. yet, I am surprised that we pulled through and actually still managed to pull off yet another presentation with the same group that brought ESE3201. This time, the presentation was on hazardous waste and it was the biggest improvement to our performance yet.

I do not know what is in store for the future. However, I do wish that I could blog like this more often but I can't. I just wished school would break faster, yet I want school to carry on because school is the one thing that gives us the memories we'll keep for the rest of our working adult life. For that, through it all, I still give thanks for the little things in life.

I rant (no...not another apple product)

2010-09-08T23:11:00.007+08:00

What am I doing here...I should be studying...but I guess sheer fatigue and need for complaint and rationality has led me here to shout out. Its almost as if the previous few weeks did not exist at all and this is the second week of real school. The feeling is almost one of being left behind at the station platform when the train of 'school work' has just whizzed past you at the speed of light and there is almost no way to catch up. My last hope is to somehow try and jump onto one of the carriages and somehow clamber back to the front.

For this semester I really think I am involving myself in too many things for my own good. Its very ridiculous when last semester I had established that good grades can only be achieved with almost full focus on studies and here I am in this semester stretching the limits of my time management. Why must every semester just keep bringing non-stop hits with no rest for the wicked?

And why am I starting to complain again? Always not being satisfied with the situation I have been given. I was reminded last Sunday during the message about the secret to contentment. It made me seriously reconsider my materialistic desires for more and more. I am thoroughly convinced that having new things wouldn't truly make me happy or satisfied for very long but I am still going to pursue them anyway...I just don't know...I feel tempted to compare with others and tell myself that 'hey...he has this and that...I'm not so bad afterall compared to him...' But of course that's not the way to go.

SO...what is the purpose of this random nonsensical progression of thoughts? Nothing. You know...the world is not all about structure and absolute reason all the time. People are the ones who create the rules and create structure to things in this universe so that they can be understood by themselves. Only those who know and can understand it manage to fit in. The rest...just are cast away and considered as mad or...social misfits. There does not have to be a logical reason to why people do things sometimes.

Its really times like these that you realize dependence on God is always top priority and perhaps start shifting focus. I guess for people in Singapore or other well-developed countries, God is not required because people are self-sufficient or think they are self-sufficient. Which reminds me also of a verse:

Mark 10:25 Again I say unto you, It is easier than a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

This rather harsh sounding verse simply should be interpreted as what I said earlier. As affluent people in a well-to-do society, people like us are used to earning what we deserve, creating our own future and basically being dependent on self. There is almost little to remind us of how much God is still in control and how much ultimately we are subject to his care. People in poorer places know that God is the only thing they have and they depend fully on him. This verse has really so much wisdom in it.

Perhaps this random shout out did some good in helping me clarify what was kept deep in the recesses of my mind and hopefully from here, a more rational post would appear. Hey that rhymed..

KPOP Night 2010

2010-09-04T23:41:00.009+08:00

SNSD and other kpop bands are taking Singapore by storm. And by storm, I mean hurricane force. Ever since one week ago when the news was announced that Mammoth names in the kpop industry were making their way down to the little island, the whole population has started going crazy.

It also isn't surprising that there are far too few spaces in the concert and just way too many people who want get a share of their kpop fever this year. Kpop fans spread the word like wildfire. Every SNSD or Big Bang fan occasionally dreams the idea of their favorite band coming to the little island of Singapore. Never knew that the day would really come on the 23rd of October.
Proof label has taken on the challenge as the ticketing sales distributor in Singapore. It has done a terrible job frankly and even they admitted it. They definitely did not expect a crowd of that size and magnitude queuing up even before midnight to get tickets. But how could they not?? Is this the first time we are seeing this behavior in Singapore? Surely not! People would queue overnight for the apple store to open to buy the iphone 4 or the ipad...a non-living thing! What were the organizers of proof label thinking?

Many people have voiced their unhappiness and I agree that sistic should have been given the task. They have more experience, at least, in this line of work of handling large crowds and showing more professionalism in the conducting of ticket sales. Friday and Saturday reflected precisely the desperate struggle by fans to grab any ticket available. The rush was crazy as shown below.

I for one would have wanted to attend the concert, but at the rate in which things are going, no amount of queuing is going to help. Maybe one day these great kpop bands will return to Singapore and hopefully the next time, they will have another more competent organizer to manage the crowds.

Last Day

2010-08-28T21:02:00.003+08:00

The Singapore Youth Olympic Games have finally reached its wonderful conclusion. What began as a story several months ago when I answered the phone call from p-serv has evolved from a need for money (lots of it) to a time of really good and wonderful experiences. Never really thought that I would enjoy myself so much when I applied for the job. At least for since the summer holidays till this day, I can say that two jobs that I really enjoyed were the waitering and this one. Its in those periods of free time that friends can be made and work becomes something you look forward to, rather than something you dread everyday when you wake up.

Today was check out day and it was a time of clearing up the rooms, taking things that were discarded within the rooms. Sometimes we find treasure and other times we find things like rotten pears and apples (which are terribly soft and smelly by the way). Work was fun and quick today, with a whole lot of free time on our hands which we used to just relish the last few hours of being together as a team-gradhall. Staff work shifts and hence not everyone had worked today and were not able to say their final goodbyes, which was quite sad.

To me, the athletes have been really really friendly and respectful towards us, the housekeepers. It is perhaps in their culture to respect those who serve you. I do wonder why it isn't so in the asian culture though. The volunteers in our location also deserve a round of applause for their dedication in round-the-clock service for the sportsmen.

The senior supervisors and the main management however, have much more room for improvement I still think. When one thinks on how this whole thing could have turned out better. Something comes to mind immediately...why did they choose part timers as senior supervisors? Its bad enough they chose young and inexperienced supervisors for the staff. But now even the senior supervisors, who are next in command are also new to this line. Lastly, the management themselves have almost no experience whatsoever in managing the housekeeping line. The result of the fact is inefficient running and mostly arrows of responsibility being shot from person to person.

The opportunity to participate in the Youth Olympic Games and play a part, no matter how small the role may be, is a great honour. Not one part of the Youth Olympic body can function fully without the diligent work of everyone who put in the extra effort before, during and finally after the games. Good Job Everyone.

You are...NOT the one Singapore

2010-08-23T21:56:00.005+08:00

In view of the scores for the youth olympic soccer event where 'under-17' Singapore youths faced off with the Haitian team, I have to express my disappointment, yet it is to be expected of Singapore and I'm not surprised at the result at all. I do remember attempting to bet that Singapore would not score and that the match would end in favor of Haiti in 0-1. I had hoped I was wrong.

It may not be pleasing to read this. However It is my opinion that Singaporeans just do not have what it takes to excel in the professional arena of sports. Exactly what is lacking, I do not have the answer to that question, but its a question even the Singapore government is trying to answer as well! Their remedy to the siuation almost a decade ago was to build the Singapore Sports School. There you have it! A team of aspiring young atheletes being trained from young to play sports and surely something should come out from it! Surely some of you have heard of soldiers which are hand picked from young and gruelled from a tender age to become rock hard war veterans. I guess that was what Singapore had hoped to achieve through the implementation of the Sports School.

The most upsetting thing about it is that almost every single one of the young atheletes that played on the field that night were from the school! When I watched the game, I do recall the moments where Singapore came so close to scoring that ellusive goal through very good manuvering. People just shout 'awww man!' when they see the Singapore team fail time and again. When I put myself in the player's shoes, what I find is that, at the point of the pressure from the crowd of spectators and the thoughts of glamour of winning a goal for Singapore floods my mind, even for the split second moment, the focus is off and the chance is lost.

Something other country's players can do is focus better. That may be one of the many sad reasons that Singapore failed to score a defining goal. But of course I am not even in the sports discipline so I have no right to a professional opinion. We can only wish that come next games, the Singapore team would be able to learn from lessons of failure and perhaps prove that indeed Singapore-born Singaporeans can indeed make it big on the world's professional arena.

LOL

2010-08-23T21:53:00.003+08:00

One of my friends uploaded this photo once and it sparked some amusement back then. It really tickles you to imagine what expression that person is carrying when he is typing a words relating to laughter. However, I do believe it tells us something about ourselves and how we behave when we're by ourselves and the way we react in social situations.

Remember the time when you were sitting at home and watching a comedy? And how you just do not laugh at things that are even moderately funny? But somehow things change when you are with people, you do take the effort to make a polite laugh even if something really was not funny or when you have nothing good to say in response. A laugh seems to be a good way to end most conversations, in fact it is the way most conversations end! With exception of the redundant 'goodbye'.

Take this in to the virtual world where you are chatting with friend on messenger. You simply see text being written to you and somehow are able to translate it into a real-time conversation in your mind. Hence the result will almost always be reacting in the same way you would when conversing with that person face to face. With one exception. Our fingers literally do the talking. Its amazing how the abbreviation 'LOL', which was conceived when messenger was still in its infancy, has now materialized into a real world word that is sometimes even used in the same way as a laugh would be used.

The fact that we find this photo even amusing is that this fellar who bothered to create this photo actually realised this social anomaly in the modern age. An anomaly where we do not really do as we say, or to be more precise: Laugh when we type LOL. We find it worth laughing at because we do it ourselves many a time and we understand that messenger are changing the way we interact with people and revealing how we often display our' polite side' to people. At home when our social ettiqutte isn't needed, we just do not use it at all.

Take a Bow

2010-08-12T23:43:00.004+08:00

School has started, so has work.

This week has shot by rather quickly to me, partially due to Monday being national day I guess it just seems to cut our full week by another day. I am currently working for the Youth Olympic Games event, playing a small part in a big big project.

My part just so happens to be in the Youth Olympic Village itself, where I go behind the scenes with the athletes, serving them as a housekeeping supervisor. The name sounds...I don't know...the 'supervisor' sounds glamorous while the 'housekeeping' sounds really terrible. The uniform looks terrible, mind you, we're not wearing those nice purple and orange purple tees made by crocodile. The ones we're wearing are like...white...and to to top it up...there just had to be this word to spoil the whole look: 'Housekeeping'... I mean, COME ON! Don't go ruining our image by writing this stupid word there! We have to tolerate time where we spend in public transport with people just staring at you from head to toe, "OH, this guy/girl is from housekeeping...ewww...". To make matters worse...the supervisors and the staff wear the same uniform with virtually nothing to distinguish between the two.

Complaints aside, the pay is great! Shall not disclose it here. But its wonderful and I am happy with my job and colleagues. Met many many new people, they come literally from all walks of life, young poly students and aunties and uncles as staff, university students as fellow colleagues. Me being the only NUS student there ( the rest were all from NTU). I really did wonder why they chose very young people to work as cleaners, I just assumed that since it's the Youth Olympics now, we need a youthful workforce...but that's just being cheesy really.

Day one at work was a period of lost and found, by that I mean that I was lost and I found my way gradually into routine and soon enough, I liked what I was doing. Not really bossing around per se, but was in charge of ensuring the number of rooms cleaned per day was met, ensuring food is taken care of, bringing additional staff in, planning the next day's roster, running errands for the senior supervisor, counting linen...really mindless but fun jobs, because its in those mundane moments where you get to talk to your staff and colleagues. The experience with speaking to a group which all communicate differently is definitely a challenging one.

Come night time, since I was working the PM shift, my working hours were from 12pm-9pm. Really clear skies and cool weather. Cleaning services terminate at 6pm so from then till 9pm, not much to do. That time was spent writing communiques (love letters) to our next staff shift.

About school, when I returned to school today, I did not really feel like it was a new school term. It felt much like I was in school all along. Of course...that was just a feeling. The fact was that my brain had stopped functioning already from all the brainless work and holidays that when I went there, its like...school is not new to me, but I do not know what is going on. Nevertheless, juggling work and school for the first time in my life is a new experience. So yes I do feel mutual comradery with those who work and study. Except that maybe most work in the day and study at night. At least I work 2 days and study 2 days.

In the meantime, life goes on and I might blog if something interesting comes up in the line of duty.

Things You Should Never Say At Work - Or to any new friends

2010-08-09T00:18:00.005+08:00

Came across an interesting list in a magazine which gave me a few tips on what NOT to say in your first few months in the new workplace. I found that, after reading it through, the tips actually are very general things you should never say to people whom you just met with not too long ago. Its basic social etiquette that's being taught right here and you will realize that most of us actually conform to that sort of behavior naturally. Some of us on the other hand are 'a bit special' and cross the rules at times. But that does not mean the end of the line for us either, we can always learn from our mistakes and cultivating good social skills will take us very far in life.

"My last office ran so much more smoothly." That may be true but making comparisons to your old company is poor form.

"My salary is..." It's indiscreet to discuss money. Besides, if your salary is higher than what your peers earn, you'll instantly become Public enemy number 1. And if you discover that it's lower, you'll feel like a complete chump and resent the boss for hiring you on the cheap.

"I'm going to Paris for Christmas this year." Don't discuss your lifestyle. Those less fortunate than you will be irritated at best.

"It's not easy working with this bladder infection." No one needs to know about your medical history (or your sex life either).

"Just watch, I'll become president of the division before I'm 35." Ambition's great, but going public with your goals will just make you a big time threat to your peers and even your boss. Play it cool or they may freeze you out of the loop.

"The overtime policy stinks." Newcomers aren't entitled to bitch about anything or anyone. (including the boss)

'A New Beginning'

2010-07-31T23:16:00.005+08:00

A New Beginning.

The MSN nick or new year resolution that many people use. Its a fresh way to start, the feeling's good and new beginnings are always fun. A new beginning may signify the start of a new relationship, a new career to pursue, a new car, a new year resolution, basically something new and hip that you are excited about.

It is rather sad to know that very few things we set out to do...ever go into completion. I would think that a more fitting nick or resolution would be 'A Wonderful Conclusion'. Not really catchy yeah...basically because this is probably the first time you ever heard of something like that or rather because no one really envisions the end of a project that he or she has started.

Its precious and rare to really have a strong desire to finish something to its end. To list it down as a complete achievement. I could give you countless examples of unfinished projects, unfinished pipe dreams only started because of a hype or because of the love for trying something new. That language class you began, that driving class you started, that new year resolution you made this year ( do you even remember it? ), that commitment you made to your loved one.

I look to more examples of 'unfinished business' like talking about the past. How you almost finished something or participated in something big and when people ask you what happened next...you can only say you left or some other excuse to hide the fact that you did not see it to completion. I appreciate things being finished, it gives an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. Have you ever heard songs that are incomplete? They sound really bad...meaning...the feeling they give...you are just dying to know the ending but you do not. Similarly, to say you are going to do this and that...and in the end nothing ever finishes...people just start losing their respect for you because you are a starter and not one who completes. In resumes, you do not include lists of incomplete achievements do you? Everything inside was completed.

Do remember the next time you think of 'a new beginning', while you enjoy the initial excitement of embarking on something new, remember also that finishing well is far more prestigious than starting well.

Singaporeans Can't Be Praised

2010-07-31T22:34:00.005+08:00

I heard this phrase about two months ago, found it pretty amusing and true and hence started using it rather often from then on. It wasn't until recently that I became puzzled as to why this rule only applied to Singaporeans. Why was it so?

Well, how did this phrase even come about in the first place? The person who first coined this term is unknown to me. The people whom I have told this to have mostly agreed its true. But are we really sure it is just confined to Singaporeans? Isn't pride something that can affect anyone?

Perhaps this phrase could explain why we just do not have any world class athletes who are truly Singaporean? Or world renowned scientists? I do applaud visionaries like Lee Kwan Yew and our first generation fathers of Singapore. They were a motivated and smart group of individuals who were not obstructed by pride. But somehow...somewhere something when wrong and now we hear things about ourselves that we can't be praised.

Have you ever experienced it? You are doing some working on a problem or playing a game of soccer. You are playing very well...perhaps scored a goal or something...then out comes a comment of praise: "GOOD ONE!" or "HEY THAT'S REALLY GOOD!" and suddenly you magically fail in your performance and you wish that person did not say anything at all.

Here's what I think. The problem is not with us Singaporeans. It is a human thing, praise simply distracts and and makes us lose focus. It makes us momentarily stunned, so to speak, and we just do not pay attention to the thing we were supposed to do but divert it to drowning in our own pool of self worth. Everyone will experience it at some point or another and we have to learn to really compartmentalize or turn a deaf ear to praise and not let it distract us. I do not believe Singaporeans cannot do this. It is a human thing after all and it depends largely on the individual to be able to control his or her emotional response to praise and not let it get into their heads.

Now, if Singaporeans seem to be unable to control their minds and focus, it does say a lot about our culture. Our culture of technology where everything desires our attention that it reduces our attention span or makes us unable to focus hard on something. Every single time we get praised, we become elated and start forgetting what we were doing in the first place. It really boils down to the individual, how each person manages his or her pride and not let it get in the way of the goal they are trying to achieve.

Inception

2010-07-23T00:41:00.007+08:00

This movie written by Christopher Nolan is so rock hard solid that I have decided after watching it two times to give it a firm review. Its not very often that such a show with such beautiful complexity of plot, mind blowing visuals and breath taking pace actually makes the three aspects blend in so well with each other. It does deserve a place in the hall of fame or 'movie greatests'. I will go on to describe some trivia about the film before delving into the plot and some spoilers.

It really seemed as though Christopher Nolan keeps on producing better and better scripts as he progresses. But that isn't entirely true, in fact, Inception was actually conceived more than 10 years ago in 2001 when I was in secondary 2. Quite hard to imagine actually...at that time he presented it to warner bros and it was turned down because Nolan wasn't quite too experienced in producing movies yet. As you can remember, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight became critically acclaimed films and after rewriting the script several times, Inception finally had a chance to materialize with a 160 million dollar budget. It is also worth knowing that Inception, although it has many stunning scenes that we pass off as computer generated, Nolan has claimed that most of the entire movie was shot using practical methods. Inception has only 500 scenes which are visually enhanced by software. Compared to thousands in other epic movies of the same scale. Quite respectable I must say.

********************************SPOILERS*******************************************

After watching the movie twice, I still have questions about Inception. Plot points which are open to debate and among other things. Which makes this a really good movie which I still think dwarfs the matrix in terms of intellectual depth. This movie talks about the concept of dreams and it was excellently imagineered by Nolan when he was just a teenager. The story goes like this:

A team of people specializing in the art of mind extraction, which involves extracting information from the mind while it is asleep and uninhibited. Apparently a guy called Saito is the victim of this extraction and the movie starts off (i'm skipping the prologue for now) by depicting Saito in a dream within a dream. The extraction attempt is successful and the team (Cobb and Arthur) escape.

Subtly though, Saito is actually 'auditioning' for the perfect team available to take down his company's energy rival. It involves planting an idea in his rival's sons mind to dismantle his father's empire. Cobb and Arthur had proven their worth during the 'train scene' where they ultilized two layer dreaming.

The story further develops and introduces Mal, Cobb's deceased wife who has clearly stopped him from creating/engineering more dream worlds because his projections for her are too strong. The concept of the dream world is simple, there a set of rules...in the first dream state, everything is relatively stable and time of 5min in the real world gives 1 hour in dream land. The next layer of dreaming compounds that time into weeks and the following into years. Each level becomes more and more unstable and prone to collapse through outside stimuli. Sedation is required to keep the dreamer in the deeper levels of dream states. Pain is felt like its real in the dream world and when the dreamer dies in dreamland, he returns to the lower dream state.

Rules involving dreaming are also laid out. A person called the architect creates the dream space and the dreamer populates the dream space with his or her consciousness/subconsciousness. People and things around that populate the place are the subject's projections and people can talk to the projections to obtain information. Projections are also defensive and when they sense a disturbance, they will look for it and attempt to neutralize it, in most cases, it would happen to be the person trying to extract the information. The subject's projections can eliminate the extractors very quickly which is why the knowledge of mazes to slow the projections from reaching them is imperative to a successful mission.

*************************************************************************************

The chunk of text above are just abstract concepts required in the understanding of the plot of this movie. I wouldn't describe the whole thing here because it is just too long and draggy to read. The main thing here is simply to lay out the foundational concepts in this movie which I think are really intriguing and something that did not apparently take just two years after the dark knight to create. It was pure hard work and genius that is of Christopher Nolan who made this all happen and for viewers all over the world to be nodding their heads in approval when the credits are rolling and say to their friends:

I give Inception 10/10.

New Chapters

2010-07-18T22:03:00.007+08:00

A serious jolt of boredom has made me 'accidentally' click the blogger post for a reason still not yet known to man. To be honest though, after deserting this blog or 'newspaper' or whatever this webpage is for over two months, thoughts inside me are screaming to be heard but holidays are in full swing and have not permitted me, so to speak, from updating.

But now that I am at it though, I also wonder where to begin. The only clue to the myriad of events that have taken place this tremendously enjoyable holiday lies in my event planner. Which I will refer to from time to time to keep track of memories past.

First of all, the highlight of this holiday was the OCIP trip to Cambodia, it was a relatively long one which spanned almost 3 weeks and mind you...3 weeks is enough to immerse yourself totally into their culture and way of living, okay not so much their way of living but oh well...some what get used to life there. I will not elaborate too much on Cambodia because the facebook photos do speak more than what I can describe. The experience was a once in a lifetime, it was really a holiday, a camp, a workshop all mashed up into a colossal trip that was Project Greenheart. When I look back at the trip, I am reminded of how fortunate here we are in Singapore, yet also how simple the people in cambodia are. We might pity them for their living conditions but they might very well be pitying us for allowing modernism to eat its way into our lives.

I do realize that entries stopped on the 31st of May, which was the same day my exam results were released. They were, as usual, lower than expected but I am thankful on the overall for my grades. To get a picture of what the month of May was for me, it was dotted mainly by activities related to desperately finding a job...by saying that, I really meant DESPERATELY. My holiday allowances isn't exactly very high and I do go over budget every week so I had to work to sustain my lavish way of living ( is that being too harsh on myself? ya...maybe...) What transpired from there has led to the whole lot of interesting job experiences.

The very first job I took on was right after the exam finished. I still remember that exact day as the day my friends watched IP man 2 and I wasted my life away by jumping off a cliff. What do I mean by that? I mean MLM (Mulit-Level-Marketing). Pardon my utter ignorance but yes...in my utter desperation, I had been hooked in by this stupid little advert that I saw floating around in a job website. It had these catchy catchy idealistic words:

want to learn & earn at the same time? we are looking for part time sales assistant. age 18-25 years old.

assist in simple sales & free training given!

payout $800 in two weeks. working hours flexible.

(pay & working hours will be discuss during interview.)

sms your name, age & gender to 9069XXXX for a interview for more details.

Familiar with these words? I guess I could blame my desperation at landing me a job at some 'waste-your-life-away' job. But yes...it happened and anyways, it gave me an 'inside' experience into what MLM is like, so at least haha...I walk away from this job with a story to tell.

The story goes like this...the first day was an interview with 3 individuals, I wondered why on earth there were 3 individuals being interviewed at first but whatever...The company name was Venture Era and It was screaming cheesy Ace Ventura all over my mind. The kid interviewing me was 18 only! Well, her air of confidence sure did conceal her true age, she sounded like she was 20+. The demonstrations were cheesy at best ( By the way venture era deals with health products). By whatever crazy force of nature...I still have no idea till this day why I decided to stay on and attend the training sessions the next day. Perhaps it was because the boss came and showed us how much money we could potentially make? Or maybe it was I was free the following day? Whatever it was...the other two guys were turned off immediately (from what I derived...). I was talking to the guy after the whole session was over and he was telling me that he wasn't keen. Oh well...I thought I would just go for it myself. How stupid of me...

That night I went to google Venture ace and came across a number of forums attacking it. I decided to read abit more in depth and the more I read, the more troubled I became about this job. I was seeing how they cheat your parents first by convincing them to buy the products, then they spread it out to relatives. The thing is...these guys aren't lying! They have thoroughly convinced themselves that the product works or something...then they just use their highly honed coaxing skills to make you buy it. Quite sad really, being a science based fellar I am not one who is highly convinced at their health stories or claims that magnetic therapy can do wonders to health and stuff...and I don't really like the idea that your profits from your own sales go up the ladder first before you get a small share back.

Whatever it is...the second day saw retardedness in full swing. They wanted me to try out the Magnetic mattress for real. it felt really really stupid at best? I was made to do some stretching tests and lie on the mattress for 40 minutes. Then made to go through more stretching tests to somehow prove that the therapy had worked...errr...-_-...what? Like which human being wouldn't be less flexible after resting for 40 minutes you tell me? Sigh...common sense...

The third day was when they almost wanted me to start listing down all the names of people I knew since primary school...I was thinking...wow...dangerous. They were teaching me some theory of marketing where you start from your family then spiral outwards from there. I left the place without giving them the contact numbers. So in the end, time wasted but no permanent harm done, which was what was most important.

Like a hero in a role playing game, I continued on my quest to find the perfect job and now stumbled upon surveyors. This weird job was short lived...and by short lived I really did not even get started upon the job at all! It was mainly after realising to myself that one piece of survey for 60 cents just wasn't going to be worth it...adding all the hussle and penalties for fake contacts given by the people doing the survey. The pay would be seriously peanuts without a basic salary.

On the 4th of June, I actually applied for a job as a waiter at Novus restaurant. It was fine dining and was a really interesting experience. The pay was average $6 and we only worked for 5 hours which totaled to a poor $30. But It was the experience with meeting new people that really made the whole trip worth it. You see...prior to finding the job I had been blindly sending out resumes and just gaming so at times things can really start to get mundane. Being a waiter was a good way to keep getting out of my comfort zone because every event was different. I enjoyed working with various temporary staff as well as the perm staff there. Sham, Eddy, Joyce, Renee really made good supervisors. For a long time, fine dining always amused me in the way that the plate is always heavier than the food, which can sometimes be simply a pathetic speck at the centre. The one that I went for yesterday had the bill placed at $268 ++ per paxx.

Well, I wonder why I am here just simply talking about different work experiences. I guess its just interesting and I have been kept in a dark well that was my own comfort zone for too long and its about time to step out and see the world and experience everything I can. I will be giving more entries now just to fill this website with some text or something so you guys can enjoy and stuff...In my opinion...blogs are just a thing of the not so distant past but I guess its worth spending time entertaining just a few readers anyway.

Church Practices and Debates

2010-05-31T13:55:00.003+08:00

To worship God and enjoy the fellowship of believers.

That's the centrality of the christian faith and all too often we get caught up with petty arguments as to how we should go about 'worship' or how we go out our 'practices' . In fact the the many denominations of Christianity we see today stems from this fact that we refuse to accept other forms of worship and practices.

Examples of such would include method of baptism, how we should go about the holy communion, how we should sing, what we should sing and the instruments used. If we looked at other Christians from a non-christian perspective, we would notice that these things almost seemed childish but they are in fact unavoidable.

But the fact of the matter is, regardless of the practices, as long as they serve the fundamental purpose of worship and honoring God, It is my opinion that it is acceptable. Some churches do not condone immersion in water as baptism and some wave a flag over your head and you are baptized. In the eyes of some, it as long as you do not follow exactly as the people of the bible did, you are wrong. Some people take communion by real wine, some decide blackcurrant. Some take it from a jug, some pass little cups around. The dangerous part of this whole petty argument comes when people claim that you forfeit your salvation because of these errant practices.

Now who is to ultimately judge church practices? Obviously God himself and we should not be condemning each others practices simply because it does not match our own. Now I trust that most of us are not like that and it does help a lot when church members of different denominations come together to worship or pray. In fact it could be interesting and fun to learn the origins of different denominational practices. As long as we do not criticize them and keep in mind that church practices are only put there as rules as to how we should go about glorifying God.

For an illustration, it is not wrong to worship with drums or in fact from the ancient times where there were no instruments at all. Imagine if a group of people from the olden times came and saw even the most conservative of worship services today, they would not be able to comfortably worship because that is not the style they were accustomed to. They are not wrong, and neither are the believers of today wrong. The only thing that has changed is technology and as long as we do not abuse technology, I would think that most styles of worship and practices are acceptable.

When we open out eyes and actually start exploring the different practices of churches, we get to appreciate the reasons behind them and it might make us sad to think why couldn't all Christians have just one denomination but we know that is human nature and everyone is comfortable with a certain style of worship. But the main thing to remember is that we are all God's family, the church on earth is not perfect and will never be until God returns.

Resume

2010-05-29T23:43:00.005+08:00

Address: Ephesians 1:20
Phone: Romans 10:13
Website: The Bible
Keywords: Jesus Christ, Lord & Savior
My name is Jesus - The Christ. Many call me Lord! I’ve sent you my resume because I’m seeking the top management position in your heart. Please consider my accomplishments as set forth in my resume.
Qualifications:
• I founded the earth and established the heavens (see Proverbs 3:19).
• I formed man from the dust of the ground (see Genesis 2:7).
• I breathed into man the breath of life (see Genesis 2:7).
• I redeemed man from the curse of the law (see Galatians 3:13).
• The blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant comes upon your life through me (see Galatians 3:14).
Occupational Background:
• I’ve only had one employer (see Luke 2:49).
• I’ve never been tardy, absent, disobedient, slothful or disrespectful.
• My employer has nothing but rave reviews for me (see Matthew 3:15-17).
Skills & Work Experiences:
• Some of my skills and work experiences include: empowering the poor to be poor no more, healing the brokenhearted, setting the captives free, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and setting at liberty them that are bruised (see Luke 4:18).
• I am a Wonderful Counselor (see Isaiah 9:6). People who Listen to me shall dwell safely and shall not fear evil (see Proverbs 1:33).
• Most importantly, I have the authority, ability & power to cleanse you of your sins (see I John 1:7-9)
Educational Background:
• I encompass the entire breadth & length of knowledge, wisdom and understanding (see Proverbs 2:6).
• In me are hid all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (see Colossians 2:3).
• My Word is so powerful; it has been described as being a lamp unto your feet and a lamp unto your path (see Psalms 119:105).
• I can even tell you all of the secrets of your heart (see Psalms 44:21).
Major Accomplishments:
• I was an active participant in the greatest Summit Meeting of all times (see Genesis 1:26).
• I laid down my life so that you may live (see II Corinthians 5:15).
• I defeated the archenemy of God and mankind & made a show of them openly (see Colossians 2:15).
• I’ve miraculously fed the poor, healed the sick and raised the dead!
• There are many more major accomplishments, too many to mention here. You can read them on my website, which is located at: www dot - the BIBLE. You don’t need an Internet connection or computer to access my website.
References:
• Believers and followers worldwide will testify to my divine healings, salvation, deliverance, miracles, restoration and supernatural guidance.
In Summation:
Now that you’ve read my resume, I’m confident that I’m the only candidate uniquely qualified to fill this vital position in your heart. In summation, I will properly direct your paths (see Proverbs 3:5-6), and lead you into everlasting life (see John 6:47). When can I start? Time is of the essence (see Hebrews 3:15).

World Without Strangers

2010-05-17T23:57:00.005+08:00

Looks familiar? Giordano has a way with producing shirts with weird meanings but sell pretty well. Another example of such is the 'Cheer You Up' Shirt that many youths are wearing these days.

The phrase "A world without strangers" could actually be quite devastating in some sense and not a meaning of one-world-unity as Giordano might have wanted to convey. Just imagine you knew everyone...absolutely everyone on the planet earth. This would lead to implications that you and I can only begin to imagine. Both good and bad.

For one thing, knowing everyone means you have to say hi to everyone you see on the streets because you know them. In our current world, we are used to saying hi to some people and comfortably ignoring strangers. Although it seems weird at first to say this, but strangers form an integral part of our lives. Without strangers, I dare say we will surely die from all the social stress. You will constantly be having to interact with someone whether it be on the train or walking on the street or even eating at a mall. It would be so awkward because there would no no such thing as a friends outing. Everyone knows each other and therefore each cinema will be filled with friends who know each other. You can go to other countries and somehow they know you and vice versa.

Your sense of privacy is gone. Who needs facebook (connecting people) with 10 000+ friends when everyone knows everyone? news spreads extra fast since everyone is in constant contact with everyone. No more saying sentences like: ' My friend's friend...' , 'My aunty's cousin' ... you already know ALL of their names! No more such terms such as second degree friend or third degree friend or whatever.

Conversations will be just weird. Talking on the train with your good old buddy can be likened to a massive social gathering seen on weddings. Everyone is a rock star or maybe even the real rock stars will cease to exist. No more such terms as famous...or notorious...well known...who needs these terms anymore?

The implications of a world without strangers is just too difficult to imagine. Deep and complicated. Can you think of a few of your own?

3 IP

2010-05-16T00:00:00.006+08:00

This is the new phenomenon in Singapore, maybe not just Singapore but the world. Everything is just about I...the 3 IPs I call them. Apple just simply has a way with things, the sexiness, the alluring curves and smoothness of the gadget that entices even the most steadfast miser to indulge. I be taking some time to explore the power of the three gadgets that have just wrecked havoc around the world or took gadgets to the next level. I will not be touching on the macbooks, although they are part of the growing breed of style amongst the younger generation. Yes they are cool, but that's another story for another time.

The first and most classic of those is the ipod, really classic little thing that appeared around 2001. At that time critiques simply bashed the ipod and its unconventional wheel system of navigation. Some predicted the downfall of the ipod and assumed that It will never make it. Now you know the rest is all history. The ipod has become a household brand name and even made it to movies. Simply iconic piece of equipment, even t-shirts with 'ipood' are selling well. One thing I don't get is...maybe people think the 'i' prefix has some magical effect or something...that perhaps placing 'i' in front of your product name or store would suddenly bring success to your company or something like that. 'iluv', 'isteak', 'icute'...seen these before? They're real!!!! Here in Singapore! The rise of the ipod touch has been very fast. It completely revolutionized the touch screen interface. Never before has interacting with a screen been so interesting before. Yes, touch screens have been around for ages...but the differences here are that the screen can handle multi-touch - a feature many other touch screens fail at. And one more thing is the sleek and catchy user interface which is undeniably the winner that distinguished the ipod touch amongst its many competitors.

As for the second guy...let me just start with an illustration. For those of us who take the subway or any form of public transport, we would understand how in the last year, iphone ownership has soared...so much so that it is almost completely wiping out the individual personality of phones! Ok how I would describe this is like that, you walk into a train. The guy next to you is typing an sms to his girlfriend on his iphone. The woman next to him is watching a video on her own iphone. The parents nearby are letting their baby play with their iphone. A couple is happily indulging in a game of tap tap on their iphone and of course there are people using their iphones for calls, almost every phone on the street is turning into an iphone!!! and for that I am actually starting to hate it! Not because its bad...but because of how it has single handedly destroyed individuality! Ok, you may say HEY! I use a green phone protector and he uses a blue one! You know how lame that sounds?? I do remember back in my NS days, the first iphone appeared in the US and sparked a frenzy. In quiet little Singapore, one of my crazy rich friends got his iphone imported from the US, for over a thousand bucks. At that time, no one CARED whether you had an iphone...it was like this alien thing. Looking back, it has taken 3 years since 2007 to reach this level.

Now a new competitor is on the scene. His name is the ipad. The name is often poked fun at. I also poked fun at it a lot but like many other people out there, I am going to get one. Its just a matter of time before it hits Singapore stores and I am very sure it will be a success here like it has been in the US. Yes, we all agree it has its pitfalls...the biggest of such being the flash incompatibility, making it unable to view certain web pages that utilize this software, and multitasking among other things. But I am still planning to buy it (although I know the 2nd generation will definitely be much much better) why? Simple. Its stunningly beautiful, long battery life that exceeds 10 hours even with wireless and watching videos!!! Its a true tablet PC that is so suited to a student's needs. I did wish it had microsoft office though. Some people have done horrible things to the ipad on its opening day in the US. This video shows a bunch of punks destroying it.

Reloaded

2010-05-14T09:52:00.003+08:00

This blog would almost have died. I would have thought that since exams have finished that entries would return to normal and be more regular. I could not have been more wrong about it...

For a status update, I am now 1 week into holidays...renovation of the house is now in full swing and has led to the air inside being very sickly and giving a feeling of high whenever you smell the paint or glue or whatever concoction they got brewing in there. They are even doing it right now and hopefully it would end on Saturday.

Well, I have not the slightest clue what to talk about now but I guess that my senses will return in some time? Or if not, the blog will just continue to sit here rotting. I have read that there has been a general decreasing trend in the number of blogs around. One reason being 'lazy' and with the rise of twitter, who on earth needs to share such a long entry? Just sign in anytime just to give your thoughts, which might be just a few lines long, then you go back to doing what you were doing. What a new convenient way to share!

When I get back into full swing again, maybe I will talk about some interesting topics, but yeah...we'll see...

Hiatus

2010-04-08T23:42:00.009+08:00

Its been almost a month.

Well, I certainly couldn't have been more caught up in school work. But here I am again, feeling funny as I type this out because it feels so unnatural to be finally typing something that isn't a school lab report or a project report or something related to school work. Finally its a time where I just let my mind free itself to think what it wants. Its good to be back...In that one month of so-called rest from blogging, a few thoughts have come to my mind, but I would not talk about them just yet, maybe give it a while and I will give a few posts about them.

For now, I would just say that I encountered a most amusing sight this evening...

Now we have all seen other cars go furious over an irritating taxi driver who just follows the "Time is money" doctrine and as a result, do not stop for pedestrians, over charge expatriates, zoom past traffic lights and indiscriminately stop anywhere along the road to pick up or alight passengers...But what happens when that "other car" is another taxi? This evening was such a case. It all began on a two lane road which was divided by a concrete slab as illustrated by my art. A taxi had stopped after the zebra crossing for a passengers to alight (marked by T1 on the picture). It was closely followed by a second empty taxi (marked T2) just behind it.

Now the drama unfolds, the passenger just took super long to pay the driver of the taxi...which made T2 really angry, but no horns were heard yet surprisingly. The relative silence was broken by a WRX which came in full turbo down the narrow lane (quite ridiculous actually) and upon seeing the stationary taxis, came braking noisily to a halt just behind both of the vehicles (marked by the enormous random fish in the picture). It could not overtake due to the concrete divider separating the two lanes. It then unleashed the loudest and most pissed off horn that one could make.

That horn blast set off a tower blocks chain reaction which led to T2 also launching his horn blasts. Finally, the passenger(s) did scurry out like cockroaches being exposed by the light. One ran across the road almost getting knocked down by another car...it was really silly, the car had to brake quite hard to avoid hitting her...while the other passenger could not have been more non-nonchalant about what had just occurred and just stood by the roadside packing her bag slowly.

T1 finally started accelerating off and when the concrete divider had come to an end, you could almost hear the raw engine of both T2 and the WRX as both drivers stepped on their accelerators ( or jet engines if you'll like) to overtake T1.

However, T2 just slowed down directly after overtaking T1 and that angered the WRX even more...he jammed his accelerator again and sped off into the darkness...never to be heard off again.

I was left chuckling to myself at what an amusing sight I have seen of a big fish eat small fish and a bigger fish just owning the rest. But it was definitely one of a kind. Just proves that taxis do not work together to piss us off with their behavior. It does seem that they frequently drive each other crazy as well. Could almost say that they were giving one another a taste of their own medicine.

As I walked up the slope to my home though, I saw a taxi come by my way. Curious, I looked to see who the driver was and sure enough it was T2! It was hilarious to think he had just overtook T1 not too long ago...drove down the street and turned the WRONG WAY down a one way street to come through my lane and went down again back to start...what was he thinking???

I thought to myself how sometimes, its not the drivers fault at the way he seemingly blocks your way when he stops at a traffic junction to pick up a passenger or alight one...the passengers are often the ones to blame with their totally dumb choices at alight/pick up points. It is almost as if they own the rights to the road, which really makes others infuriated. All the driver wants is the business, but passengers themselves are the problem. In fact, to continue the story, I had observed the nonchalant woman after she had finished packing her bag in the most relaxed manner and strolled down the street. She was heading to her house which was a few blocks down the road...HNEH??? Why doesn't she stop in front of her house??? Sigh...

You get my point...

What....

2010-03-09T22:28:00.003+08:00

This day's happenings just simply screams to be put into words to be kept forever. The twist to this however is that I mean it in a bad way. A very bad way.

If there is any use for doing past year papers to me...it is simply to prepare very hard for something that will not come out during the exam. This is really sickening, and its not the first time this has happened in the past 2 years. This paper however was like no other I had ever seen, perhaps not doing a past year paper would have been better...

Terrible terrible. This is a real blow to my morale and at a critical moment in this semester as well. Well, the night heals many thoughts...

I'm In the Subway Club

2010-03-01T23:19:00.005+08:00

My conversion happened on week 5. On that fateful day after a concert at the esplanade, the backstreet boys decided to have a quick dinner so that I would not bypass my curfew timing. They had burger king and I decided to have something else, and that was when the Subway Cheese Steak called out to me from afar. It cost a whopping $9.90 and I was quite shocked actually, oh well...

To say quickly, this is definitely not the first time I am trying Subway, it is just that after eating the Cheese Steak, I have just "0 " resistance to this healthy expensive treat.

But since then I have finally found out what is this semester's craving list. I was over the waffle craze since my food poisoning last year in december so this year needs another craving, just so happens that the craving item is abit on the expensive side...but yeah...a craving is a craving. School simply has the best offers for Subway sandwiches. With a 20% discount, this craving will be limited only to school...no way will I ever buy Subway stuff from outside school again.

Reality Check

2010-02-25T23:18:00.003+08:00

I do realise that my posts these days seem rather impersonal. In fact, you could easily pass this off as an informatory website where you just visit from time to time for news. I'm fine with that actually. I have kind of departed from the style where I would just tell you about the happenings of the day. Because I am tired of just telling you the same stories over and over again. University will be university and its just that boring. Okay, maybe not that boring but,...yeah you get the picture.

Its week 6. One week away from the determining week 7. Where I have mentioned that after this week, you are more or less always in deep trouble some way or another. Things usually go down hill from there at least from my experiences. I do think about my university life sometimes. For my total lack of IQ in comparison with all the other massive chunks of gray matter I am competing with, it makes me work twice or thrice as hard and put in more time and effort for a certain topic than others would have to. As a result, the others always have more time on their hands to do other enjoyment things while the less smart just have to catch up. I think its the sad reality of university and competitive life.

I must say the real working world is also all intelligence biased. Intelligence is perhaps the only thing that people have a reason to be concerned about you, the number one thing they look for on your resume. Being in NUS has been a humbling experience in many ways and makes you wake up of your idea if you always thought you were a very smart individual. Intelligence, the way I see it...has almost no limits.

The past few weeks of school have been filled with various activities. Some of which are actually worth recording down as once in a lifetime experiences, however I usually do not find the time to actually write about these things. They are of course soon forgotten as well. I guess there will will continue to be sporadic updates from time to time when something comes to mind or when something interesting happens. But other than that, life goes on you know...

Music

2010-02-22T19:27:00.004+08:00

I think that these days, we take our music pretty much for granted. Back in the early 2000 days before the advent of the mp3, It used to be so hard to even get to listen to something you craved, like your favorite song or you ear worm. I do remember how tormenting it used to be when a tune would play over and over again in my head. Yet, even then I knew that I could not listen to it until I reached home because I had no mp3 player with me back then.

Mp3 players have now become common place. They have now made their way into the "valuables" category. Where we place them just alongside the wallet and our hand phone as the 'must-haves" in our pockets. Nowadays, we just have to whip out our mp3s and earphones and bingo, we have instant pleasure! No need to wait painstakingly until we get home before we yank out our bulky discman or hi-fi sets to listen to the song.

Music has not yet been classified as a drug. I am not sure if it should be called one, but it really does show signs of being one heck of a widespread openly used drug. Everyone has an mp3 player and has to listen to something when he or she is on the move. Gone were the times where we would sit in solitude during bus rides and gather our thoughts and address our sanity (errr....ok...). But I do think it is important once in a while to stay away from our music...maybe perhaps for one day. Unlike our wallets and handphones, our mp3 players are one thing we could do without, but modern society has just made it seem like it is a necessity.

Somehow with music, I feel that it blocks out our thoughts. Engages our brain into thinking about nothing and just concentrating on the music. It makes you zombified in some sense to the world around you. Just imagine yourself going on the bus home. You enter the cabin just to see a whole load of cyborgs with wires stuck in their ears and staring blankly into space or closing their eyes in some sort of a trance. I feel that music just suppresses thoughts and on those occasions that you just decide to just take a "silent" bus ride home, your mind actually does have a rest and has time to catch up with whatever it has been through for the day.

Maybe we can try this out and ignore our mp3 players ( leave them in our drawers for one day). See if you have things to think about on your bus ride home.

Pride

2010-02-09T22:56:00.004+08:00

(For your information, I recently posted about snsd. However the post was done late so hence it got pushed down. If you're an snsd fan or anti-fan...or whatever...just read it. )

_____________________________________

It is one of the 7 deadly sins. It is found in all of us whether we like to admit it or not. It is always said to come before a fall. Yes we all know it...Pride is our biggest enemy in the world, it blinds us to our own faults and makes us think the world of ourselves.

It is strange that we can see pride easily in others but not ourselves, which also makes it dangerous because people around do not always tell you straight in the face that you are being haughty. This makes it very hard for us to correct ourselves if we start becoming proud. Ironically though, if someone did tell you straight in the face that you were being show-off...that same pride in you will make you deny that you ever behaved that way in the first place.

Pride does have interesting characteristics. Ever took pride in finishing a difficult question by yourself? Well, to be quick...I will say that there is nothing wrong with that. The problem only comes during exams, where we just don't want to give up on a question simply because we know we could finish it. This refusal to seek help can also lead to disaster when we think we can handle something ourselves. Although I don't know for sure...I have once theorized that many deaths caused by running could be indirectly linked to pride. Let me explain, many of us would not like to "lose face" in front of others by stopping halfway during a race, totally unacceptable. Once again, pride is at work here - "face" is so important to the point that we would push ourselves unconditionally beyond our physical limits. As a result, some people's bodies just can't take it. But yes, that is merely a theory and at least you get my point.

Pride may be one of the number one reasons why people start well but do not finish well. They are just so satisfied that they managed to have "gone this far" in something, then overlook something due to complacency and as a consequence - finish badly. I personally find it very hard to keep on at something successful for a long time without feeling prideful or something. To put this into example, just imagine yourself in a tournament where you are winning the opponent move after move. You are completely thrashing him so to speak. What do you do next? Respect him? Play harder because you deem him a worthy competitor? No...completely the opposite, you drop you guard, you relax and tell yourself that you are better than him and that the reward will soon be yours. In the next game, you lose miserably due to stupid mistakes that you start hating yourself for. Pride is the reason. It cost Li Jiawei the gold medal during the Olympic Games. She was in the finals and almost about to win, however, she lost and in the end did not even manage to bring back a silver. She later admitted to being distracted by the thoughts of the gold medal and the prestige it will bring her.

Pride is so subtle in its ways. No better way to illustrate this than with an example. Look at the list of questions below and HONESTLY answer either yes or no in your minds.

Do you consider yourself to be better than other people?

Do you refrain from doing things that would be embarrassing?

Do you let what others may think about you hold you back from doing things?

Do you have trouble admitting when you are wrong?

Do you consider yourself to always be right?

Do you get angry when someone doesn't agree with you?

Do you look down on others because of their race, gender, creed, education, position, personal hygiene or appearance?

Do you find yourself habitually interrupting people in conversations to give your comments?

Do you enjoy being the center of attention at parties?

Do you enjoy talking about yourself in front of others?

Do you find it hard to be impressed with what other people have done?

Do you feel that you have an answer for everything?

Do you frequently respond to other people's stories with "I know," or "that's nothing"?

Do you strive to impress others with your wealth, your possessions, how you drive, body appearance, athletic ability, professional ability, or humor?

Do you find yourself criticizing others?

Do arrogant people really annoy you?

Do you like to always be first or at least near the front of the line?

Is it important to you to always win?

Now that you have finished answering those questions...here is the last one:

Do you take pride in being able to answer "No" to all the above questions?

It is really difficult to admit to ourselves that we are proud, we would actually be foolish enough to take pride in being humble! Ridiculous as it seems, we scorn upon the pride of others and think to ourselves how good we are that we aren't like them when in fact we very much are. It has been said that the bad traits we manage to see in others may very well be in us too.

Pride was what made Lucifer the arcangel become Satan in the first place. Pride was his downfall. Pride makes us do things for compliment, for the good praise of others. It feeds off our desire for self-recognition and for self-promotion. It is easily visible in what is popular in the world today. Virtually anything that gives people power is an instant hit. Take youtube for example: Broadcast what? Yourself! Another example is...______space? MYspace...FACEbook. Its all about you and what you have to offer. Individuality, breaking free and everything about self. In fact one day, if you ever wanted to set up you own business or online venture, just remember that anything that gives power to the ordinary person will become a hit.

Pride is invisible to us when it is in us, but crystal clear when other people display it. Lets hope that we can judge others lesser for their faults because in fact we aren't any better when it comes down to pride.

Black Angus Beef

2010-02-05T19:19:00.004+08:00

With the recent introduction of the coveted Angus beef into the burger market, I thought I shed some light on this mysterious (yet awesome) piece of meat...Gee I'm hungry already.
Beef: It's what's for dinner, according to advertisements. But not all beef is quite the same. When you look through your grocery store's meat counter or talk to your local butcher, you learn there are all kinds.
Angus Beef, also known as Black Angus or Certified Angus Beef, is a specific brand of beef. Maybe you've seen Angus cattle out in the fields (if you live near farmland). Or maybe you've seen it advertised on restaurant menus and grocery store windows. The question is: What's different about this type of meat? What makes beef enthusiasts herald Black Angus beef as high quality, if not the highest?
The Black Angus club is very selective in many ways. Not only do the cattle have to pass several tests to qualify as Black Angus cattle while they're alive, but once they're reduced to market food, the meat must qualify as high quality meat as well. Black Angus cattle make great cattle for the farm because they adapt easily. Many characteristics of these cattle make them different from other breeds. As you continue to read the following pages, you'll learn a little more about the life of Black Angus cattle. Black Angus meat must pass rigorous tests to mark it for quality. Only the highest quality Angus meat is given the designation "Certified Angus Beef," and just because some meat is called "Black Angus" doesn't mean it's the same quality as the certified brand. The best Certified Angus cattle are raised naturally and fed a grass diet.
Black Angus cattle are definitely unique animals when compared with a traditional cow or bull you might see hanging around farm pastures across the United States. They're hardy and simple to rear, and can be sold for market purposes after two years.
To be Certified Angus, the cattle and those animals that are the result of cross breeding must have solid black fur covering more than half of the body. The dark color of the Angus cattle's skin not only looks sleek and smooth, but it also ser
ves to protect the cattle from cancer eye and snow or sunburned udders.
One problem that lurks with this cow breed is the birthing process. Some cows have trouble birthing their calves, especially first calves. When cows with have Angus bull blood breed with Angus bulls, they usually have a much easier time calving. Farmers who use Angus bulls to breed and produce offspring will have a greater birthrate success on their farms. They also have less to worry about because the calves have no horn s. Horn removal can be time-consuming and expensive.

Angus-crossed cattle provide other benefits too. Female cattle with Angus lineage have good maternal instincts and don't necessitate a lot of upkeep on the part of the farmer. Another benefit of having Angus-influenced cattle is that they don't need as much food as other breeds of cattle. Angus cattle can still produce quality meat without as many days on feed since they're so efficient in the food room.

So you know Angus cattle are special in comparison with other breeds, but how does the meat compare to the meat from other breeds? Let's see if Angus beef is really worthy of the hype.
Certified Angus Beef standards were developed in 1 978 in order to indicate a particular level of marbling, tenderness, age and color for the meat that qualified for the Angus Beef label. Angus Beef is known for its finely marbled meat, which means that the fat is dispersed evenly against the actual cut of meat. This marbling trait of Angus cattle typically creates a more tender, juicy and flavorful meat than other breeds There are different categories and labels for the quality of Angus beef, which shows that not all Angus Beef is created equal. For instance, Certified Angus Beef is the highest quality because of all the rigorous standards it must pass to earn the label. W ithin this realm of definitions for beef quality, there a re United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards. The terms for these are: prime, choice and select. Prime is the highest quality meat, therefore the best cut of meat you could get would be "Certified Angus Prime".

Now you really understand what all the Black Ang us hype is about. Next time you mosey over to the meat counter of your local grocery store, you'll b e able to decipher which meat is best.

Oh! ... dear ...

2010-01-30T23:08:00.006+08:00

It has been some time since I have blogged about anything related to SNSD. It has been almost 4 months since I have been enthusiastic about this girl band for producing very good music (although actually its all due to SM entertainment's musicians). This was a delayed post and should have been up just 2 days after the release of the album. I just decided that I'd be lazy.

This post will be nothing more than a stern review of the girls' latest album Oh! As the title of this post suggests, it was more of a disappointment to be honest. We can tell that anticipation for Girl's Generation's Third album was incredibly high, whether it be from the success of their previous albums or be it just their spreading inferno of popularity, the statistics cannot be denied...150,000 preorders for the album were placed and on the first day of the release, over 30,000 copies were sold. Amazing statistics indeed. Several of the album tracks went on to top various music charts all around...maybe the world, maybe just korea...no idea...but it merely reflects people's initial interest in the 3rd album release.

I admit firstly that I was one of the first to download their album online, got the full album on the release day itself and listened to the lead track Oh! A few other track titles caught my attention like star and forever.

Here comes the criticism. Upon looking further, I was wondering whats up with the last three tracks having the exact same names as previous snsd track releases. Were they the same? I gave them a listen and sure enough...they were...what a disappointment! Where is the effort man? SM actually had the cheek to recycle previous hits? What is this? No new albums should have recycled songs except dedicated compilation albums like say...BEST OF SNSD...but its NOT...so why they chose to recycle the songs I wonder...and for your information, Day by Day had its lyrics changed a little bit...but how could it be a brand new song? They already did it once with Himnae (Lets go!) from Haptic Motion... but at least, they added an intro and turned it into a full length enjoyable song. This one had been completely "plagiarized" so to speak.

Delving abit further into the original tracks themselves, through a few listens...you realise that you come to a certain conclusion as a casual listener...the songs are not great...they just lack the grip that the previous album tracks used to have. They are not bad........but they aren't good either! Even their lead track Oh! took abit of listens to get used to...it was not the mega hit like Gee and Genie used to be...its not even going to compare. The lead track has also come under fire for sounding too much like rihanna's "Shut up and Drive"...for that I personally disagree that the tunes sound alike...yes the rhythms are the same, but it happens with alot of songs these days, where tunes sound all too familiar or use the same chord progessions...no one complains when a pop song uses the chord progression of canon in D right? I think that is being too harsh on snsd.

This album on the whole did not quite cut it...it may have been top on many charts and sold lots of copies...but the fact remains is that the music was lackluster...a testament to SM's money making quest. Depleting snsd just as america is depleted britney spears. (there is even a funny video on that...will post at the end...) Churning out too many albums has led SM to compromise its quality, its unavoidable. Perhaps the whole reason why I even decided to post an album review was because I expected so much more from Girl's generation, I heralded them as being one of the bands in which almost 90% of their songs were nice. This album has sadly decreased that percentage. All in all, I give this album 2.75/5 stars.

Music and the Church

2010-01-23T22:52:00.004+08:00

Today's churches, in Singapore at least, are being plagued with false impressions. At least where the worship of God with music is concerned. There is really a misunderstanding that Christianity is about music, which is not true at all! If that were so, Christianity would be the most shallow religion on earth!

When one thinks about Church worship in Singapore, almost immediately big names like City Harvest and New Creation come to mind. These churches have grown large in number indeed, with congregations easily exceeding a thousand. They have indeed gained much publicity and spotlight due to "Sexy Pastor" Ho Yeow Sun being a pop star as well as a pastor. If you have been to one of these "Mega Churches" you would have noticed it actually resembles a concert more than a church of worshipers. I would fully agree with you.

These churches have perpetuated the myth that Christian worship is all about Songs, "feeling the spirit of God wash over you", that God is some kind man who is kind, loving and always forgives. There is no sense of reverence for God, there is no mention about sin and punishment, no mention of self-denial and repentance and the need for forgiveness of the sinner. Important Christian doctrines are left out in these churches. Indeed, this is clearly evident in the fact that alot of the songs these churches sing are shallow in lyrical meaning. Lots of cliche rhyme attempts and its really all the emphasis on music and the instruments to make you "feel" spiritual. If you are with me on this you would easily visualize the worshippers holding out/up their hands, closing their eyes and singing intensely.

Do not get me wrong here, I am not condemning the church's practices. I am in no position to judge. Coming from a more conservative Bible Presbyterian denomination, I just do not fully feel at ease with the way they worship because it places too much emphasis on the songs and feeling. So if you can't sing, you cannot worship God? of course you still can! These churches make it seem that singing is the only way of worship when it is not.

I am also not saying that people worshipping in these churches are all wrong and should be condemned. I worry more about the foundation of their faith. Whether it be built on the word of God or be it built on song. Strip away the music and the instruments, can they still be called Christians and live a different life? The only problem comes when one worships in the church and walks out of it living the exact same life of sin he led before. It really gives non-christians a really bad impression of what the Christian faith is all about.

Music is not neutral. It can invoke huge feelings and emotions within the listener and it is that reason that many people are stumbled. All too often, a worship session of song is so captivating with awe inspiring music that a person raises up his hand and accepts Christ as his personal saviour in that moment of emotion. When the music fades and all is stripped away, he somehow feels empty and thinks to himself: "What did I just do?"

My point of emphasis is not about the correct style of worship. It is still being argued over even today. Instead, what I am trying to say here is that the Christian faith is more than just the songs we sing. There are doctrines that even song cannot fully express without the Bible. Whats the difference between a good church and a faltering one? Well, take away the music and song...one will be empty and the other will have the word of God to take the center piece.

First Day Of School (what a brag)

2010-01-11T23:02:00.004+08:00

It is not often that I decide to ramble on about what happened in my day, but today I shall make an exception because it was rather unique. It also happened to be one of those days where I meet people whom I have not seen for a good long time already.

Well, the day started off with drowiness-unlimited. The feeling of sleep deprivation really sucks. But of course, its inevitable. All attributed to trying to reset myself to sleeping at 11pm all the way from the usual 2am. Not easy at all...

First person I met along the way to school was David from NYJC. I have been meeting him often in the previous semester already, just that I don't usually mention it. He used to come early to JC and would sit by the piano and hear me play, one of the regular listeners haha. Then I didn't see him all the way till last semester. Did not know how he managed to stay so elusive for so long...jia hui and another rather talkative punk sat behind us...and for once...jia hui was earlier for class than expected.

The whole class was terribly crowded, but there was a twist to this...the "lecture hall" was simply just an expanded tutorial room since our cohort size is no larger than 60. Brunch followed where the brotherhood caught up and we got to see those people who are only visible during the main semester period, after which they somehow disappear.

We went up to the computer labs later on to have a short ballot of the modules then proceeded to facebook and watch videos, including the sorry sorry recordings in which views are slowly going up! Thanks for supporting! Lecture was next and held in yet another similarly sized tutorial room.

I had to rush off for my 2.45pm appointment but stopped by clementi to buy my text books. It was there that I bumped into MAXXXIIMMUMMM SPIDDDERRR....erm...jst Max Aw from ESE! He was like the stealthiest person on the planet! I was like browsing through the books and he just appeared in front of me...anyway he we discussed about the prices of textbooks and how possibly overrated the bookstore could be. I managed to get hold of the last textbook ( courtesy of max who allowed me to have it. ) That particular textbook looked like a DVD game box. It had a hologram of originality of some sort...as if to prove that it were a genuine copy of the textbook. Wouldn;t be surprised if I turned to the back page and saw some minimum requirements section...for laughing out loud...

Shortly after Max left, I recognized someone whom I had not seen since NS ended...it was my junior Flight Simulator Operator in the F5...Fernando...oh how could I forget his name...his name was literally a song...by ABBA. We had a light lunch at ANANAS cafe, the budget place and talked about school. He's currently studying in SIM and it seems that final exam weight over there is a mere 20%?!!?!? I got to find out alot about how the Flight Sims had changed over the years since we've left and among other things...

By that time we ended of course, I was already late for my appointment...1550pm I reached...great...to make matters worse...I walked up stairs of the building I thought was correct and bashed straight into ward after ward of patients...-_-... I went all the way down and realised I went by the "back alley" way of the same building. What I found stupid later on was the fact that the main entrance was heavily fortified against visitors...so I had to register before being able to use the lifts...how ironic...that I had already breached the main patients ward and could have planted a bomb there if I wanted to and could have just strolled out while those innocent idiots at the counter slowly registered. Flawed...

Then came my turn for appointment, it was a heart echo scan and this event would nearly have been skipped in my account of the day if not for something weird that happened...
It was routine, I would lie on the bed and the nurse would just do some artery measurements and monitor blood flow and stuff. This nurse...while I thought I have never seen her before, was abit more cheery than what normal nurses would be. Started off with her first realising that she had done the scan for me before in 2007, back then I was in NS so of course how would I remember who did what scan for me...ah come on...she joked that the results would be terrific since it was going to be done by the same person. Conversation would have ended there if not for her asking: So where do you study?

Once she heard the reply, instantly she became a different person, I didn't know whether it was a nurse attending to me or a excited school girl. She started asking about the faculty of study and when I said Engineering, she replied with: " The Mcdonalds there arh?" I was quite amused at the reply...here was a nurse...supposed to be doing a "silent" scan...suddenly showing off her avatar...the fact is that she was an outsider and knew so about NUS, so curious me asked her how she knew? She then said that her boyfriend studied at Science Fac and took various modules, graduated last year already, he brought her along to eat the food at NUS. Oh...now I see....No wonder she knew...

She also said that the Engineering module that her boyfriend took a module at Engineering! Wow...the answer to that was...Construction Project Management! That's the module I am taking now! The conversation gradually shifted to stingy welfare packs in NUS and then her seemingly favorite topic...food....haha...well if anything unites men in Singapore...its NS and dota...if anything unites everyone in Singapore...food may just be the answer. She really amazed me at the amount of places in NUS which she had eaten at, courtesy of her boyfriend...and a really adventurous one at that...a few recommendations that I will record here are: Grinning Gecko - Spaghetti. Science Canteen - Avocado Milkshake. Megabites - Breakfast set. I can't believe this...being owned by an outsider in good food in NUS. But well, only by trying out can we discover whether her taste is really good.

She also knew Chomp Chomp for its good food, that's the only way Serangoon Garden is famous anyway... our food discussion led us all the way until we talked about Bedok 85. When I mentioned it, I was quite sure she wouldn't have known about it. So I was pretty surprised when she knew and told me she stayed one block away from it. Her knowledge of good food was really impressive. Other things I learned was that she was from Singapore Poly and she recommends the food there too. She mentioned something about the library...which was kinda weird actually, she mentioned that its security is quite relaxed and visitors could just go in anytime and that the book selection there is wonderful.

What was more amazing though, was that in that whole one hour of scanning, she managed to multi-task both the scan and the conversation. Half-way through, her buddy popped in to see what all that laughing and chatter was all about. Turns out her buddy regularly went for food outings and supper times too. My Doctor came in soon after and also joined in the conversation at least a little before speaking in jargon to the nurse.

The whole experience was just weird...never before have my appointments been so lively. It would really be nice if all nurses were as outgoing and cheerful as her. Really helps liven up the patients. Sort of like the movie Patch Adams. But of course we cannot forget that some nasty patient experiences can dull the cheerfulness attitude as well.

The day does not end there however. I was on my way home when I met a puntat sitting with his friend on the train. Choon chuan, first met him in Special Semester before entering school. In fact he was the first friend, other than Ming Hoe, that I met in school. The strangest coincidence though...was that Choon Chuan knew Ming Hoe through NS- Guards...
His friend was from science and we talked about the school email system and spam emails from our respective departments...haha...

I realised I have bragged an awful lot today, feels good. I rarely ever do that but yeah, feels good...lol...I reached home and started reformatting my desk. Sweeping my floor and tidying up the place. What an interesting start to the second semester...

World Record Guitar Player

2010-01-10T16:04:00.004+08:00

170BPM? Ah come on! Hows that fast at all!? And the song title! Flight of the bumble bee? Its so overplayed! Especially with stars like Maxim coming along the piano scene...

BUT! This guitar guy here takes this to another level...notice how the video is 5:28 long...now we all know Flight of the bumble bee isn't that long. He will up the tempo to a staggering rate...you can only watch in awe-struck amazement.

Count Down To Stress and Fun

2010-01-09T22:56:00.006+08:00

1 more day. Life is full of countdowns isn't it? its been a short holiday indeed, but with much needed rest and recuperation. I do not know what to expect as I enter a brand new semester. All I know is that there are even more modules with projects than last semester. Just hope that the past does not repeat itself and that I would not be living in the fear of results.

Past few days since the 3rd have been filled with good food servings after another. I can truly say that I have never tasted Singapore like this before...and at this awesome value for money!

One thing I can't wait for is the opening of universal studios theme park. It would be the first time something more exciting than the escape theme park would be built in Singapore. After the opening of universal studios theme park in Singapore, I can safely assume that NO ONE will ever go back to the escape theme park...for all the sadness it brings...(but please keep the go karts!!!)
Universal Studios theme park will boast about 20 rides, some of which are found no where else in the world!

The Battlestar Galatica...whatever man...I don't usually bother with the names of roller coaster rides, they are usually over cheesy...man...can't they just keep it as...ROLLER COASTER? But of course...cool is fun and you'd probably laugh at the name of the roller coaster called: ROLLER COASTER. Anyway, the Battlestar Galatica is the world's largest duel roller coaster...whatever...but what gets me excited is that there is finally a decent roller coaster ride in Singapore! Usually when people speak about cool and fun roller coaster rides, they talk about the USA where there are so many varieties of roller coasters...the ones I've sat on so far are only in Malaysia and its like...sit until bored already. Can't wait for this one to come...but I also wonder how much the entry fee would be...or would you need to pay per ride...sick...

Well, on with life as a student and I'll keep these dreams till later...

Cyber Social Life

2010-01-03T19:57:00.008+08:00

All of us undeniably need friends to keep us encouraged, to influence us and to play with. But friends cannot always be there physically with us.

Social networking sites and cyber chat rooms provide the solution to this problem. There are so many of these sites around but no matter what they are, they all perform more or less the same function - feed off humanity's need for socializing. We all enjoy logging in to our accounts, checking up other people's statuses, commenting on photos and adding new friends ( not counting the retarded games we play there ) or simply chatting online. So what can be so wrong with this? Anyway since all of us do it.

The question here is: Are you a better Facebook/MSN friend than a Real friend?

I believe the relationship is inversely proportional. If you are good at one, you are not going to be as good at the other. We all treasure face to face conversations, it is what we were genetically engineered for! Conversation is much more than merely speech, it also involves reading social cues and body language. Not possible in facebook or msn (smilies don't count). Somehow, msn conversations have twisted the reality of conversations - where one moment you can be typing something to someone and then the next moment, you just walk off from your computer to take a drink of water and leave the other person there hanging. In real life that could be considered totally rude but that's how its become in the virtual world anyway.

Which makes me say one more thing about cyber chatting, it really disembodies conversation. You know you're talking to the person, but you can't see the person's face. You also cannot tell a person's true mood from msn chats which can sometimes be misleading. Some words or sentences sound okay in a normal conversation but somehow turn rude or unpleasant when typed out. Hard to give examples but it does happen occasionally.

It is surprising sometimes to see a quiet person by nature go suddenly all alive on facebook or msn. Somehow that inhibition is gone because they no longer have to make eye contact with the person they are talking to. Or it could just be that they are more comfortable at home or something. This phenomenon still puzzles me.

What I find about facebook and all other social network sites is that all of them seek to earn revenue. How they earn it is through advertising. The more visits to the site, the more revenue it earns. The reason behind the success of sites such as facebook and myspace is because of the method they employ to attract people to keep visiting their site. They deploy narcissism.

Lets face it, we like talking about ourselves. We like people to always be praising us, commenting good things about us and so on. Facebook is the perfect place to show off and not be criticized. Status updates are visible to all friends and if you had scored full marks in a certain exam or bought a new shirt or gone somewhere good to eat or had a makeover, you can simply update it in your status and enjoy people going Ooo Ahh over it. Especially with facebook applications making its way to blackberries and iphones, it becomes so much easier to update your status live. Facebook - in trying to reap in as much revenue as possible - taps into our inner desires to stay connected with others. It may also bring out the inner narcissist in all of us if we are not careful.

There was a study made by students in the University of Georgia and they found that the more 'friends' and wallposts a user had, the more narcissistic he or she was. They also found that people who are narcissistic, tend to use facebook in a more self promoting way rather than a connective one. Its quite a painful discovery, but not really surprising one, considering that we are all selfish by nature and only thinking about ourselves most of the time. Facebook almost made me forget friendster and how people would write testimonials on your wall. The more testimonials one had, the more popular or well liked he or she probably was. Hence everyone wanted that recognition and even resorted to exchanging testimonials - you write for me and I write for you!

Now perhaps we want to be more aware about what facebook is all about. I am not condemning facebook mind you...I use it a lot too and I enjoy its features. Just being weary about what it can do to your real social life out there and also about what character change might result in us through prolonged usage of it.

2010

2010-01-01T01:07:00.003+08:00

It is the time of the year again where we have to pause and reflect on the past year. Curious me decided that I would go back and refer to what I wrote last year at this exact same day. I had received my results around this time because my school fees were not paid up yet. Hard to imagine that one year has past since then. Come to think of it, 2009 has been a year of academic reign. Parents have played a part in it as well - what parents desire, their children are expected to deliver.

The first part of the year was pure grueling study, despite the overwhelming workload, God helped me through everything. I still remember telling myself that I will not be able to get through that sem. Somehow with God's help I did and I was so happy. 2009 saw the last combined church camp? Ok thats what they all say, but I think there is still a combined this year. Fun and memorable with Pastor Chris as our interesting and unique speaker.

Then there was the long holidays. Which were not so memorable since it was too long and spaced out. Only thing I remember doing was watching a whole lot of serials like 24 and prison break and heroes. Games were never ending as well. Later part of the holidays could be remembered a abit easier since there was an interesting event - year 4 graduation night dinner. The backstreet boys helped the committee by producing a skit and a dance for the graduating students. It would have been my first cruise this year, but that of course was not to be, a bit too good to be true as well though.

The school term started again and before long, education was again taking up too much time. Projects, tests, assignments...things we are used to hearing so many times. These stupid things kept repeating themselves all the way till the exams. But of course there were memorable moments during the years with the stupid power rangers video and the many other ESE stuff we did.

I guess it would not hurt to think about others this new year, to allow our thoughts to reach out to those who aren't so fortunate to have a nice and peaceful start to the new year. Those perhaps in prison, those in regions of constant violence. Those who lost loved ones on new year's day, the list goes on. We usually only think for ourselves so let us start this year keeping these people in mind.

Another thing we could do is remember that ending off something is more important than the start of something. Starting something new is easy and fun, finishing it is the process that requires patience, yet reaps the most satisfaction. Nothing is achieved if something you started is left hanging and unfinished.

No matter how you have spent the new year, be it at home, with friends or counting down at parties, blessed new year to everyone.

Yet another complaint about school and the education system

2009-12-31T00:34:00.005+08:00

I am sure we have all heard numerous complaints about the inherent flaws in our own country's education system. Forum posts sometimes address this, people have small talk about it. MPs debate it in parliament. Not that I am not grateful for the high standard of education that Singapore offers. Its good! .... Just that ... (continues grumbling)

Something is obviously different and lacking in our way of educating students. Students in Singapore are largely without a dream, without a goal - a sudden realization that HEY! This is what I want to grow up to do - and then work fervently towards that goal. There are two symptoms of this "lack of a Singapore dream" so to speak.

Firstly, studying during the holidays to most students is retarded - weird ... almost to the point of repulsive. If you study during the holidays, you are a social misfit...the nerdy boy or girl and made fun of. This is what the education has done to us - forced the learning process on us, rather than making us love learning. As a result, during the long holidays, most of us just totally go cold turkey on our books and study materials. That we all know is not the way education should be! We know it in our minds but somehow it has developed into some kind of Singapore norm that we should not touch school stuff during the holidays. Well I know some of us do, kudos to those fellars, but then again the question to ask is...whats the motivation behind studying during the holidays? Do you like it? Or were you forced to? Is it due to competition? Do you really love what you are doing?

One other symptom of this 'lack of a dream' is the go-with-the-flow mentality. Taking whatever comes. Doing whatever, studying whatever. Not really giving much thought into your future. very few students actually sit down and contemplate about something as important as your future job, something that you spend about perhaps one or two years to realize and will spend almost 30-40 years doing. What could be causing this? education system or just the individuals? Could it be due to the younger generation having a more pampered lifestyle?

My idea of education is a bunch of students who firstly have a future aim in mind, then selecting a proper course of study. This is how it is in other countries which do not have compulsory education enforced upon their citizens. For Singapore, I understand, people are our only resource and therefore we have to make every individual count. Well, that is what we have to do to ensure that our economy does not fall behind. But is the education system crafted by the government producing a whole army of suppressed individuals? By that I mean, people who really just study because they know they have to earn a living and as a result come to hate it instead...yet they have no idea what else they want to do with their lives, no real dreams or goals to achieve.

I often think about why Singapore - having one of the most coveted education systems in the world - has yet to produce a nobel prize winner. Two reasons actually. Firstly, the population is too small and the probability of having a smart genius is lower as compared to places like the US. Seondly, I attribute it ironically to the education system itself which makes us inflexible learners. The trend of a whole lot of renowned scientists is that most of them are self motivated and self taught. They probably aren't limited by right or wrong answers so they aren't afraid to explore or so-called "get the wrong answer". We on the other hand...are just more rigid and prefer to play safe. Scientists in other countries are inventive, I dare say that scientists in Singapore are just innovative.

Of course, this is just generic and highly debatable. We often form judgments based on the world I observe, I personally have not been to the far reaches of Singapore to tell you what all the youths are thinking about the current system. Are we prepared to accept whatever the government throws at us? Such as new syllabus changes every 3 years or so? Have we no backbone? Have you ever thought of how you would remodel the education system if you could? I do really hate the lecture and tutorial system - whoever created it ... I seriously wonder...what the heck was he thinking?? I have thought about introducing the classroom system back into uni, but is that what we would really want? To be non-independent learners? We could just keep arguing more and more about this...

ESE productions

2009-12-30T01:49:00.003+08:00

First Video

Second Video

The videos which took so long to actually become reality are finally on youtube. Please bring the views up...haha.

Yawn a more roman way

2009-12-26T00:46:00.003+08:00

The title is a palindrome, not really much of a link to what this post is about so pardon the lack of creativity. I have been neglecting this blog lately, be it because of being afraid to brag about my own day or simply because I have nothing interesting or meaningful to write about...no idea, I just could not bring myself to log in for these few days.

Since the exams ended, I had been pretty reserved about enjoying myself too much for fear of a sudden plunge in mood which happened last year around this time as well. I still remember that day. It was terrible, although now I constantly use it as a joke - It wasn't very funny back then and it had serious ramifications that are still felt even today as I struggle to pull up my CAP. My results came out on the 22nd of December after a heart wrenching hour of waiting. In the end, although my results had improved, it was not as I would have hoped. It was in fact way below what I thought I would get. Sure there were surprises, but there were disappointments as well. I decided that I would still stay at home for one day to recover from that horrible feeling.

Now though, I might be prepared for yet another grueling year ahead, where competition is fierce and people are just too smart. But at the same time, I shall be looking for alternatives, seeking what with God's help, what I should do with this life. Should this coming semester fail my expectations, I must definitely be prepared to choose an alternative.

On other matters, the sorry sorry dance which had been going on for over three weeks now has finally come to an end three days ago on the 23rd. It was a satisfying feeling, other than the fact that I was happy that we actually achieved what we set out to do, it also taught everyone an important lesson, that is hard work pays off unexpectedly. The video was great, and it was a truly unique experience this holiday. Probably also brought ESE people closer...haha.

Christmas outreach was another event in which hard work paid off. It started with just a handful of people in the church office and some paper and daring imaginations to come up with something so radically different from what the church usually produces every year, "cheesy musicals". This production used a totally different approach and hoped to reach to the non-believers in a more personal way. All in all, I was glad that everyone was deeply edified by it.

Choir presentation during the christmas service was the longest singing spree yet achieved by the church. I had no idea that they had cut short alot of message time and other things in favor of the singing and skit by the children ( which turned out pretty funny by the way ).

All these things that I have just regurgitated out are just a few of the events that happened since the exams have ended, small little outings here and there were really fun as well. I hope everyone has had a wonderful christmas, in each and every special way I hope you've been blessed.

Children

2009-12-13T15:43:00.005+08:00

There's one thing about children. They are a reflection of an uninhibited mind from a long time ago. They say the darnest things, they do the darnest things. If they had an opinion about something, they would say it out loud, irregardless of whether it offended you. Their questions and responses are more often than not, unpolitical and seemingly insensitive. Have you ever been embarrassed in front of a kid? Or have you ever found yourself becoming suddenly all defensive when a kid points out a certain personality trait about you?

But when you cast your own wall of pride away, you start to realise how much you sometimes treasure a straight-forward answer. In a world full of adults and conflicting interests, it is hard to say the politically correct answer to please both parties. A child is thought off as cute when he gives his honest opinion on a subject, no matter how foolish it sounds. Try doing the same thing when you are an adult and all you get is weird frowns of disapproval.

What is the key difference here? Other than the obvious change in maturity, there is something we all lose when we leave childhood. I guess its something like inhibition. It may come from many sources, whether it be from parent's scoldings, teachers or friends. These outside factors slowly suppress our childish expressions and we become molded into society and how it expects us to behave, the beauty of childhood and and all its inhibitions are all but lost.

Now I wonder which world I prefer...the world where everything is crystal clear or the complicated world.

Sorry Sorry

2009-12-03T21:18:00.003+08:00

Well, exams are over...here comes the dancing! today was the first in a series of dance lessons where 11 of us would be learning the choerography of the super junior- sorry sorry dance. Interesting and fun stuff.

The day started off with my dad and sis going to NUS, so I took a lift from them. The only problem with this lift was that it was at 8am, so I was in school by 9am! practised by myself and had some fun until shawn came at 11am. Cheryl, shu yi, chee fung and jun chyi came shortly after that.

It was a pity that many could not make it that day. Which also proved difficult becuase the dance involves alot of pairing, in which many had so called "invisible pairs" which never came today. All in all it was fun and tiring though. We had dancing all the way from 1pm to 730pm. Now that I think of it...6 hours of study does not seem as long or eventful as 6 hours of dancing. Somehow I felt like I spent 11 bours dancing. Well, very tired already. Tomorrow is our next practise...go go go...

Meteor Sighting

2009-11-29T21:30:00.006+08:00

Something just caught my attention, I have never ever seen a meteor this big or for that matter, this bright streak across the sky in my entire life. Ok, being in Singapore does have its perks, but its position on the Earth also makes it rather "unauspicious" for catching events such as solar eclipses and stuff. I am largely skeptical of this video, but if you searched up this video and other sites, many people apparently recorded this event which occured on the 21st of November.

Singapore has major light pollution and that does not help especially when you are an astronomy fan. No event occuring in the cosmos could ever be seen right here in Singapore, ok very few at least.

To clear away some common terminology associated with these space rocks, lets list the common ones...meteors are the streaks of light caused when a piece of space debris enters the earth's atmospehere. A meteoroid is simply a piece of this space debris that never gets to see the ground. When space debris is large enough to survive burning up in the atmosphere though, when it reaches the ground it is called a meteorite. An Asteroid is the term given to space objects that are bigger than meteroids but smaller than planets. You would be dazzled if you knew that the largest asteroid in the solar system, Ceres, is about the size of the texas, over 1000km across.

Ok, some interesting facts to note for those of you who think that earth travels a long lonely elliptical orbit through space every year without event. In fact, the Earth's orbit crosses the paths of several comet paths every year as it drifts through space. The comet dust trails are given names and its in these names that we get the names of the meteor showers. There are the Perseids, Orionids, Leonids and Geminids. The earth is now currently passing through the Leonids. If you are sharp enough, you would correctly notice that they are named after constellations. This is where the meteors seem to originate from when you look into the sky. This is actually an optical illusion becuase in fact the meteors are coming in parallel towards the earth, but from the perspective of the viewer, parallel lines meet at infinity (like a long road stretching towards the horizon).

How usually the lights from the leonids meteor showers aren't this bright, which is why this video is rather intriguing...I still think its fake, but we'll see how things go.

Near Death Experiences

2009-11-29T14:17:00.004+08:00

Near Death Experiences really shocks people into reality, to what matters most in their lives. It clears away the curtain of material wants and treasures that the world puts over you. Born into every human being is a need for love and acceptance, a need to worship (which is to give all our time and effort into something). Well, in search of these things we start meeting lovely material things that satusfy us, that seek our full attention. Immediately they start taking precedence in our lives and we often look no further.

The greatest irony of it all is perhaps that God, who gave us the one and only true gift Jesus is always considered religion and frequently considered "not related" or last on priority. He was the one who created in us the need to worship, the need for love and acceptance so that He alone could provide these needs to us. We have simply subsituted it with material things.

The curtain of security that the world provides is frail and undependable. Sometimes all that is needed to clear our eyes to the truth is a Near Death Experience. I have certainly not experienced something as traumatic as this, but I have seen the amazing transformation it brings about in people. All that we learn about in religion, about being a good testimony, about faith, about love. It seems to come naturally to people who have suffered a Near Death Experience.

These people finally realise what really matters in life. Things that matter to us such as studies, work and recreation. They suddenly no longer seem like things of value anymore. Pale in comparison to the love that God provides. People who have experienced death and almost always report seeing a light, a bright glorious light and overwhelming peace. Peace that is more fulfilling than any other earthly thing. When they revive, many of them live life differently, old ways are past and they live life with a new boldness and certain hope that they would be experiencing true joy someday. It is the hope we always talk about but never ever internalise. It is like knowing the end game. These individuals have experienced it and they know that whatever happens here is finite and short as compared to what awaits them in heaven.

Below is an excerpt of a study by a foundation that does research on this still controverisal topic, to us christians, it is easy to relate and it helps reinforce all the teachings we have recieved through the bible:

As expected, the highest two categories of belief and life changes are those pertaining to religion/spirituality, and concerning the continuity of life and lack of fear of death. The categories of answers can be further reduced to certain areas of changes. The largest sections being categorized as the "reality of our external world" and consists of such answers as religion, spirituality, increased belief in God/Jesus/Supreme being, the continuity of life, lack of fear of death, interconnectedness, oneness, disconnectedness, fragmented, not part of this earthly world, and altered states. The category of "life in general" consists of changes in lifestyle, embracing life, life is precious, sense of purpose, look at life differently, and the NDE is a catalyst for change. Personality changes consisted of the "qualities" of accepting self, and learning to love, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion, gratitude, appreciation, learning, being a student, self-knowledge, relaxed, non-materialistic, the attitude that things of this world don't matter, a greater awareness, empathy, wanting to help others, freedom, more to life, choices, giving up drugs/alcohol, fear or lack of fear. The second to the last category consists of changes regarding people. These are that "people" and friends matter, the importance of relationships, family, some changed their relationships or careers. The last category is that of "other" where the NDEr did not know or was too young to determine if the NDE caused the changes.

A few key things to note from the above is always a massive change in character. The individual is transformed from the inside out. He or she is always dead to his or her past self. She realises what matters most in her life now has no more fear of death. Indeed how much this is in line with the teachings of the bible, which continually stresses to us that to truly live, we have to be born again.

Now we should not wish a near death experience to someone or wish that it would happen to us either. Instead, we should treat this as thoughtful inspiration and let it further strengthen our faith in God becuase he is the one Soverign God.

A little humour through it all

2009-11-26T23:10:00.005+08:00

Here is a collection of "oh shit" photos...I thought some of them to be really intruguing...just like the one below. I wonder how on earth the man became to be on the top of that stadium roof.

Exams have taken a toll on health, not just mine but I guess alot of my other friends. It would be selfishness to think that only I am going through such a difficult time now. I find it a pity really,...I started off the sem telling myself that I would learn from last year and not revise so late...when in fact...poof...it is exams again and the pattern is repeating itself...this year is even worse...not that I didn't remember to revise...I couldn't! No one could! Projects and assignments just refused to let us!

Well enough about exams for now, I am taking a break for today, there is only one paper left. Three papers have passed within 2 days and another one today. Hydraulics is next week...I seriously don't know how I am going to go about tackling such a monster of a module.

Urgh once this is all over, I will definitely return to normal at least for a while. One thing I am worried about is the fear that I will not be able to stay in NUS after this semester. I have seen the power of brilliant minds and the hell that is in for me if I continue to stay for the next two years. Its a constant struggle between what I need to do and the limit of my capacity. I just recently experienced it a few days ago where I just broke down after the three papers. Took me till today and I am still recovering. I just cannot keep this up, if this semester's results are bad or below the recommended level, I will have to consider applying for another university, which also means starting another new life. Sigh, whole new process all over again...but well, neccessary evil. Working in Singapore requires honours, not just basic degrees, I jolly well may be getting a basic degree or less after this semester, but that will all depend on hydraulics...well, if any paper carried so much weightage...here you have it. It may hold the power to whether I carry on staying or not...

Life's Not Fair Is it?

2009-11-23T22:22:00.005+08:00

It is really frustrating how despite the amount of effort put in this semester...still going to be down in the dumps because NUS just seeks to kill its students.

It is officially day 1 of the worst two days of the year. I mean yes really the worst two days of the year. Never before, (since last sem's maths) was I so panicky about exams before.

To give you a clearer picture, I could not sleep last night again, just could not calm down for some reason. To make things worse, just when I tried comforting myself down with thoughts that it might not be so bad afterall, my worst nightmare came true! But to add some salt to the wound, the exam was worse than what I thought! Every single ounce of things that I dreaded came out.

Reminds me greatly of the acronym NUS, which means No Use Studying. How true sometimes. Well, I was not the only one who felt like that, plenty of others shared the same sentinments about how unreasonable the paper was. Chris gave me a message later that read:

"Paper easy ah...easy until surely get A+."

I was thoroughly amused at the sarcasm, but I wanted to test it out so I replied that if I got any lower than an A, I would kill myself. He replied:

"I wanted to put him thru a table. Really"

What he meant here, I am not so sure myself but oh well...our prof really took death and destruction to the next level really.

Day 2 is in a few hours time. Only prayers and hardwork...oh yeah and sleep will get me through the next few hours. Past that and at least I have a breather...

The Mona Lisa

2009-11-20T11:19:00.010+08:00

Here is something really interesting. Look at all the people who have gathered around the huge painting of the Mona Lisa!

Hey wait, somethings not right here! Lets take a closer look shall we?

Notice something wrong with the painting now? It seems rather pixelated doesn't it? Or rather "encirclated". Lets drive in for an even closer look...

Amazing stuff isn't it? This whole "painting" is in fact made up of 3604 coffee cups! An amazing amount of precious caffeine to sacrifice...Just look at the intricacity of this work of art...the shades of the coffee were made with adding varying amounts of milk into it. Really interesting stuff.

Vaffles

2009-11-18T17:23:00.004+08:00

With every new semester, some new craving must surely be added to my list. For this one, it just so happens to be waffles. I remember last semester as the point which I started liking sundaes. I have tried about every single waffle from every store in NUS that sells such stuff and I have decided to personally rate each and every faculty's standard. By far, Olive cove sells the best quailty waffles for the price, followed by Science (although abit pricey, the waffles are nice and crisp!), Prince George's Park and lastly, Arts...ok for arts I do not know whats up with the aunty over there but for some reason she always decides to manufacture the waffles in advance...by that I mean, so early that most are cold or soft and she's also not really generous with the toppings either. (does not fill half the waffle)

Exams are coming, 5 days. But if I decide to look on the bright side, it is 13 days to the end of it all.

Generalisations

2009-11-01T23:07:00.006+08:00

I have started to realise that generalising things is one thing I like to do. To understand this complicated world through a series of very general statements, of course with added exceptions to those generalisations. Somehow with organised thoughts, I can better relate to the world and live in it with false sense of security. Bluntly put but yes its true.

It is interesting how when we were young, we always wondered why adults argued about seemingly trivial matters and when we tried to give our own say into the solution, they would shake their heads and give us the most ridiculous look ever, telling us eventually that "its not that simple". The most ironic thing is that I actually find myself telling children that exact same thing.

Everyone has his or her own way of trying to take in the world around. All its joys and sadness, mystery and wonder, unfairness and cruelty. We seek to find reason to these things and as a result either embark on a quest to understand it more intimately or simply generalise it as one other phenomenon here on earth.

What I have managed to do in some of the posts since july was to discuss about trends or certain behaviours. What has effectively been done is a generalisation attempt of sorts, of course I was not aware of it until recently. I had not known that I sought to classify things, much like the basic human nature of naming everything or making a system out of nature. Why do I even talk about generalisations when that is the essential thing almost everyone does?

Well, for one thing, it is dangerous. Nature...or the World for that matter is indeed complicated - that fact I have come to accept - gone was the mentality or the blissful thought of world peace. Nature is more complicated than even we understand. Mankind has tried very hard to understand it through science. We have come very far indeed, or have we?

How much is there that we not yet know? How much is there we not yet understand enough of to manipulate to our advantage? Lets start with the good stuff, we do know enough of science to take advantage of nature's laws to achieve powered flight, produce electronics, cure diseases and make manned missions into space. Yet how much of nature is still yet to be understood? We claim a certain drug cures a certain problem, yet have no idea why it causes a certain side-effect. We develop new technologies without knowing the full extent of its future implications. It is dangerous indeed if we generalise nature, devise rules that describe how it is supposed to behave and come up with solutions based on those generalisations. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

We claim to have advanced very far ahead in technology. But really, how far is Far?

Breaking Free

2009-10-30T00:03:00.004+08:00

How should I start? Should I begin by giving excuses to why I have not been updating anything? Or should I tell you everything that has gone on since the 3rd of October? I shall leave that question hanging.

Anyway, for those of you who have been looking at this blog from time to time, hoping for a post or something to miraculously pop out, you have gotten your wish. Unfortunately, this will not be much of an interesting post, much like I would prefer it to be. Instead, it would just be about what has happened after the 3rd of October and the sequence of events that led right up to today.

To open this post, lets have a time check. It is now week 10, only 24 days more to the start of the examinations. Which also means the coming of the holidays, something to look forward to? I hope so! School has been taxing, real taxing. Year 2 seriously demands a high level of discipline to handle the seemingly insurmountable workload, there has been presentations, essays to write, assignments to submit ( speaking of which, they never seem to stop coming ), tutorials to cover.

As I have mentioned previously, week 7 is the turning point in one's term life, where one finally succumbs to the arms of death which mercilessly drags also the unsuspecting or over confident learners into oblivion. Just miss one day of work and you are behind time. There is a twist to all this though, there must be room in everyone's game plan for rest and recuperation R&R, overestimate your capability to work and you suffer greatly the consquences.

Like social energy, everyone of us has a pool of learning energy which must be wisely spent, it is not unlimited and one can run out of steam pretty quickly when he or she decides that everyday is study day. I experienced that in week 7. The first most obvious symptom is simply the loss of will to even look at your books. Kind of the feeling of when you are physically exhausted and do not feel like moving from your comfy chair or not being able to wake up in the morning - exhaustion. Mental exhaustion is subtle, most of the time you do not even know when you have crossed the line. The challenge here is knowing what is just pure excuses for laziness and when it is really mental exhaustion.

Studying efficiently is one of the other lessons I am trying to incorperate. Time spent on studies is not neccssarily quality time. People say, no pain no gain. I say, pain in the wrong areas...also no gain. Making the best use of time available is what seperates the people able to spend more time on leisure and the people not able to. Of course, much much easier said than done, if it were that easy, most of us would already be having multiple ccas and have ample time for anything else on our schedule.

Something else has cropped up during these few weeks, and that is the commencement of a project which is screaming to become reality. A group of daring students have decided to come up with a rendition of Super Junior's : Sorry Sorry dance. So far, 7 are finalised and will begin practise right after the exams are over. We aim to eventually have 9 for the actual recording. This so called "project" is really ambitious and if successful, it will be recorded, edited and eventually posted onto youtube, myspace, facebook...and about almost every other video streaming webiste available on the net. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this group called Super Junior, its about time you knew, they appeared in the local newspapers not too long ago.

The challenge would really be the organisation of the choerography. It has been deemed as one of the most challenging ones yet. I would be having the honour of directing the choreography, hopefully all will go well.

In the meantime however, reality of work is still looming in the air. Enjoyment will come later. Updates will come sporadically, as promised at the start of this term, and although I have stuff to share and discuss, I shall leave that to another time and place....erm...I mean just another time. Well See you.

Day By Day

2009-10-03T23:08:00.003+08:00

Once again it has been a long time since I last updated, however I don't really feel that being the case, time is passing so fast and . Week 7 has just past, which means my mid terms are officially over. That isn't really the thing worrying me now though. It pales in comparison with the amount of assignments I owe my Architecture Module. I also fear the project workload of the Infrastructure module together with Maths Lab assignments and Hydraulics laboratory session.

When I look back on the previous two terms, week 7 tends to be the point where you just lose orientation of what you are doing and have to come up with some radical new plan to tackle the challenge ahead because Uni is winning the battle and you are on the losing side. Its just 52 days to the exams. We are exactly halfway through the syllabus now and it is only a matter of time before I become all different towards people. Good or bad, any one's guess.

I feel like discussing about things, but I just do not feel any energy to do so. Things are just getting so hectic. I sometimes find myself sitting down and wondering if I even should continue with Engineering. Sure it is essential, but If I am not cut up for it, why should I just keep staying on to suffer so much only to get mediocre grades? Discouragement is hard to fight when you know that no matter how much you study, you are only going to reach a certain satisfactory level and never better than it. Well these are times where, even more, I should not depend not on my own strength but on God to show me what plans he has for me. Perhaps its in this precious thought that I can retain my comfort.

Invasion!

2009-09-26T23:07:00.004+08:00

Had a cosy time today, morning time was spent in the outreach meeting until perhaps 1200 before we went for lunch. Turns out that Estee and Chris were there studying also, after the meeting we had lunch together, together with some of the committee members, Elsie and Merissa were there during the meeting today.

Crazy me had already decided to go to school to study today, while I was under the impression that there wouldnt be many people in the library today. How wrong I was! In fact I also met Aaron from my OG last year. So people still wanted to study in the library on Saturday! And I thought I was crazy. The library was no less crowded in fact, there seems to be no rest for the wicked...erm I mean...hardworking muggers.

On other matters, I have been thinking about human discord and harmony. We notice how external events can affect closeness of groups of people. For example, group projects can bond team members together, community projects can foster closer bonds among people in a neighbourhood, National Serivce helps all men in Singapore bond better, threats of terrorism strengthen a nation. All we need now to bond the whole world together is an attack from outer space...erm yeah...I didn't type that wrongly. Perhaps an alien race attacking us would be able to wake us up to the reality that we are all human beings and start uniting as one. Something like 'Independence day' the movie. Wouldn't that be all good? Then we can all be united for a while...until the next alien attack. *Make a better place for you and for me...*

Mcdonalds - I'm Laughing It

2009-09-26T00:59:00.004+08:00

A couple of funny things occured today. One of them being Mcdonalds itself, while I was considering what to order for my lunch, I observed a cheesy tagline for the Mc wings...this is what it said: On the Mcwings of Love. I went literally -_-" and I had to get out of the queue to laugh to myself for a while, It was that stupid! It is so frail an attempt to be stylish when you just rip off song titles just like that. Or for that matter, use simlies like "The apple pie of your eye", *jitters*. I wonder whats up with the Singapore Mcdonald's management branch...

Another thing I noticed was two grown ups having quite a heated conversation. Curious me stopped looking at my notes and listened in...turns out that they were professors discussing about a tutorial question! At first I dismissed it as grown up talk, but I noticed that the indian man was a bit more assertive than how a professor would usually talk. The chinese man then lost his cool after some time and started talking rather loudly, the conversation argument was just weird...it was like "I am telling you, espilon is a function of cosine tetha, you don't have to deal with the current." The indian would then interrupt and retort, " I know, I know!" then begin his own set of arguments. It then occured to me that the indian was indeed not a professor at all! He was a student having a lunch date with one! And my my...was he irritating the crap out of the professor. I chuckled to myself at the ridiculousness of the arguments...I never heard such heated debate between a student and a professor before!

To fill you in on what I did during the week, most of the time has been spent in school, from 1100 to 2100 daily. Its interesting what this type of life can do to you after a week. For that, I have managed not to see my sister since Sunday, which is quite weird actually because I am always back when shes asleep and She's gone when I wake up. Its as though she left overseas again or something.

I have also managed to figure out something about being alone for this one week of vacation. It shows that through isolation, thoughts are clearer becuase they are not hindered by tiredness of school and social activity through interaction with friends. I have managed to catch up on sleep this week and for once... I can wake up everyday fresh (like marigold). When you are quiet, your subconcious can rest and your wellbeing is restored, something like replenishing social energy so to speak.

The recess week is coming to an end, I dread Week 7. Last year, week 7 for me was full of complaints and grumbling, I might even go back and look at it for myself. This year seems abit quieter for some reason. Somehow exams aren't screaming as loudly as they were last year, but yeah, they are still there alright...waiting with a vengeance.

Concerning Hobbits

2009-09-24T23:30:00.003+08:00

I came across an article written by a teacher recently. It stated something rather true, this is what it said.

Students feel more stressed about work when thinking/worrying about work than while actually doing it.

So may this be a source of inspiration to you to get you moving on with your work rather than worrying about it. Procrastinating is not going to help either. I also like another saying. It says that worry is the misuse of the imagination, I actually got the saying off someone's T-shirt.

Rethink

2009-09-24T14:34:00.007+08:00

I thought I might spend some time rethinking through a few day to day objects that can have their designs re structured. Strange in a way that certain designs are the way they are despite all their design flaws and limitations.

One of these objects is the laptop. When it was first invented, the laptop was ultra portable and very well received. It involved just a fold-design in which the screen and keyboard were separate panels which came together when shut. This simple design was since adopted by virtually all laptops today. This design does have its shortcomings though.

Firstly, I have observed laptop users frequently straining their heads forward to look at the screen which is placed so low below their heads. Of course we are all familiar with the images of
The ideal laptop posture we all should adopt, but isnt this posture difficult to maintain? Especially long hours of work with the laptop can be very strenuous on the neck if the proper posture is not adopted. Most of us resort to buying a laptop raising platform of some sort or simply use our batteries as added height. Couldn't the manufacturers of the laptops rethink the basic design of the laptop in general so that we wouldnt have to source out all of these remedies?

I suggest that the laptop be made in this way, note that the design modifications are mainly tailored for ergonomical purposes.

1) The screen and the keyboard will be separate from each other, yes, just as a desktop.

2) The keyboard will be as thin but rigid as could possibly be. This is to keep the typing surface cool. A lot of laptops are hot to the touch and the sweat from our palms will stain the laptop surface.

3) The screen will house all the main components of the laptop such as the processor, memory and motherboard. With the advent of cloud computing ( as with my previous post ), perhaps thats all that would be required inside the laptop. The key feature of this design is that it should feature an extender at the base of the screen to elevate its height to suit the individual user seating posture. It will be supported in a similar way to a photoframe on a desk.

4) To aid portability, the laptop screen will house a small compartment for the keyboard to be taken out when required. It will also have the ergonomical features built into the main frame. The final laptop look will still resemble a rectangle. Only that when it is deployed, it will resemble a desktop.

Small changes yes, perhaps you could think of a few more ways to improve it. The design below is called the roller desktop. When compact, it resembles a roller. Very portable indeed and also reasonably ergonomical in deisgn. Not quite what I had in mind but good nevertheless.

The second thought would be that of the reinvention of cup. Two major problems here associated with it. In modern society when we want to take away a drink from a stall, we are given a plastic cup that we throw away right after consumption of the drink. Obviously a horrible waste of material which spent almost 10 hours in the plant and adding a few more hours of processing only to be used for a mere few minutes before ending its life cycle. How do we cure this problem? Bring our own cups obviously...however we run into yet another problem that is actually bringing the cup from home. Our mugs or cups are heavy and bulky, they are rigid and occupy alot of volume. To carry them around everywhere we go is really a chore.

To redesign a cup that would fit into your bag, is light weight and durable is quite a challenge. I have not quite thought through this but here's what I think so far. Why not create a foldable cup which is made out of a suitable plastic material, of course that is easier said than done, considering that its hard to make a water-proof foldable deisgn. In that way, the cup would be light, durable and also fit easily into your bag everywhere you go. If it is actually invented, I would imagine a world where you brought your cup along with you in your pocket? haha...or at least in a small pouch. In that way, store-owners will just ask you for your cup. Hopefully the material will be rather insulating as well, to handle hot drinks.

There are probably hundreds and thousands more innovations that could be made to improve the deisgn of existing equipment to better serve us. All we need are people to start identifying the need.

Too Much Free Time

2009-09-23T23:26:00.004+08:00

I would like to make a stand on this commonly used yet rather trivial statement. "You have too much free time on your hands." I would retort with this statement, "What would you do with your own free time?

Lets see why this statement is made in the first place. When something out of the norm is produced or performed by someone or a certain organisation, people tend to raise their eyebrows in curiosity. The curiosity gradually fades away but not before people either praising it for its inventiveness or being totally the opposite and criticize it.

The only response that is not even worth mentioning is that the producer has too much free time on his hands. For that response I give it a firm thumbs down. Reason being that the person probably lives such a mundane life perhaps just working and living life as a robot where everything follows a strict routine. When the routine is broken or when they witness the routine being broken...they just comment "You have too much free time.". Perhaps implying that you should be better off spending time doing mundane things. Serious! I really wonder whats up with these people. Are they trying to make themselves feel better because they have not achieved something themselves? Or are they trying to discourage creativity or what are they up to I wonder. What would these people do in their free time?

I have asked some people what they do in their free time and their responses vary, some stone, some go out watching movies, club, dance, drink. Tell me, are these the only ways you must spend your leisure? Has our society bounded and written our leisure book such that we only can do a certain amount of things? When a few individuals decide to create a company called Just For Laughs, there were people who commented that "Those dudes over at the company have too much free time". We should ask them back a question, "Is your way of spending leisure time any more fruitful?"

If the world was full of people who follow routine, the world would certainly not have gone very far. We all can breath a sigh of relief because despite the number of people who just have nothing better to say than to criticize our works, there are certainly those among us who would stand out and try something new. It is these daring few individuals who, although are intially ridculed, have their ideas gradually accepted and sometimes become great success stories. Can you think of a few right now?

I am glad that creative people are around to liven up society. Creativity can come in many forms not just in the scientific world but also in the city, these people add spice to our mundane routines and show us that there are many perspectives to view a certain situation. Cherish them and not ridicule them, especially with the ridiculous statement: "You have too much free time."

Can You Hear Me

2009-09-23T00:24:00.006+08:00

I don't care whether this post in random or unrelated, we all are random at some point in time. This time, I just need to share a song by SNSD's leader, Taeyeon. When I heard it on mp3, It was sounded nice and pleasant. However in the video, although she sings with the same voice, the effect was there. I truly admire singers whose voices are not edited to sound better in the recording studio. It makes fans really feel cheated at times. This is so especially with a growing number of western artistes lately. I hope the same doesnt follow with the Korean singers.

Very moving song despite me not knowing the lyrics. The music and the voice came together to stir up quite touching emotions. I also admire the fact that Seohyun could play the piano very well. One thing I can actually draw from this, songs can stir up emotions although you have no idea what they are talking about. The music chord progression combined with a good voice can move you to tears. The same with Sunday worship, do not let emotions from the beautiful song distract you from worshipping God.

Taking things for granted

2009-09-21T00:16:00.004+08:00

Ok since I have quite sometime on my hands and am personally taking a break from studies, I have decided that I would give another post. Recently, I have felt myself detesting studies. I did feel rather tired and mentally exhausted. I am not going to bother with work at least until tomorrow. I had taken a good break to prepare myself for the midterms. I am now fully aware about the consequences of just going on and on from day one of school. The result is total disinterest in studies, also known as mental burn out. Ok whether it is a burn out or simply pure laziness I wouldnt know. But a break now is better than not.

Its in our nature to take things for granted. How is it possible that we wake up in the morning, give thanks for everything around us like our parents, food, friends shelter and the various other things? I would blow our minds apart. Occasionally though, it would be nice to take some time off to appreciate someone or something we have not been paying too much attention to.

There is this saying that goes, 'You dont appreciate something as much until its gone'. As such I believe sometimes after all the effort we put into a certain piece of work or for someone, the lack of appreciation we get can be rather discouraging and as a result we tend to say: thats enough, I am never going through so much effort for this person again. Even fishing out for a compliment from people can be rather difficult without appearing to be haughty. Do we sometimes wish we could disappear for a while so that we could see how much people really treasure us? I wonder how many of us have actually been through that.

Lets not forget that we are all humans afterall and every single one of us wants to be appreciated sometimes. Even the mr and mrs nice, who are always there and ever-willing to help us, need to be appreciated. I find it unfair that the nicest, most hardworking people are always the ones being 'abused'. By abused I merely mean taken for granted. They are so efficient, so reliable that all of us treat them as machines who would never fail us, always deliver on time. Of course thats not the way to treat them but we do, and after a while these mr and mrs nice start to question why they are even doing all this in the first place.

How then do we not take people for granted? Do we tell them we love them everyday? Gee...that can be kinda sickening by the time it reaches the third day. Well, I guess there can be more subtle ways like being genuinely concerned or showing compassion when needed. Opposite sexes have different ways of showing compassion so this is left up to you to decide how. Well, I guess thats enough for today. I might blog abit during the week should there be an issue I would like to discuss about. Till then...

Cloud Computing

2009-09-20T23:17:00.004+08:00

Sorry everyone but this post is for the geeks. I will talk mainly about this new futuristic ( maybe not so futuristic since its going to be implemented soon) system called cloud computing.

I trust most of you IT people out there already know about the existence of this new form of computing. It seems set to be the future of computing becuase the promises seem almost limitless.Ok, a short introduction anyway just to clear any doubt.

In cloud computing, applications and files are stored in a large centralised supercomputer network. The end user accesses his or her files using computers that are more streamlined but less sophistcated than today's typical machines. To imagine this, just picture a low cost computer on your desk, probably much cheaper than most of the computers on the market today. It would be ultra-light due to the absence of a dvd-rom drive or hard disk drive. Battery life would be much longer as a result. The machine will be hooked up to the internet and it would be linked to a supercomputer which would host all your files and media.

The potential prospects of such a method of computing certainly cannot be overlooked. With more and more people now having access to a computer and the internet, and with surfing speeds becoming greater for more affordable prices, cloud computing seems to be the way to go.

But is it? The greatest drawback of this system is perhaps most obvious. Security over the internet has always been an issue. For one thing, companies wanting to adopt the cloud computing method will depend alot on the internet and would expose their data infrastructure to external attack. People also wouldn't feel comfortable with their information being hosted on soem third party super computer where people could sabotage.

Who then will be the host of this massive infrastructure? Which company in the world would be so generous as to provide a platform for almost the whole world's data? It seems a daunting task to store millions of terabytes of information and organise it for individuals to access and edit it. Is it even possible? Actually yes, the company already exists. Its name is Google. Through the years, google has been doing its homework, building vast structures of super computer network centres all over the world.

Google and Apple have been talking about a partnership that will help implement this cloud computing concept. With Apple's software development and Google's hardware support, perhaps this dream could be realised.

Korean Music

2009-09-19T00:43:00.005+08:00

Ok I have recently been dragged in and temporarily distracted by korean music lately. It has flooded my morning ear worms and has even postponed me listening to yanni's new album. Something that has never happened before in my music life...if you could say I had one in the first place. I am waiting to see if this is just a two week addiction spree or will it develop just like my liking for chinese songs until my vocab of songs expands till it is from 10 songs that I have now till its about 4GB worth ( thats the size of my chinese music folder ).

Korean music has this catchy feel. Music is simple and keeps to the singable and listenable chords, not the highly complicated rythmns of the western pop. Singers are talented and they look good, they can sing and dance, unlike alot of western bands which just reveal their dull true colours in concerts. Well, at least for now, all the korean bands I have seen so far, whether it be the male or female bands - are terribly good.

The music industry in asia has only just started to grow big. They were not really bad to begin with, they just did not recieve as much media coverage as their western counterparts. Cpop started gaining popularity, gradually so did Jpop and joined shortly after by Kpop. I do have a prediction that soon the asian music industry will mature and it will develop in the same way that the western industry did. Its all the same really. In the 90s, songs like Tarzan and Jane, Best Friend, Barbie Girl and Calcutta caught our attention with cheesy lyrics and upbeat tunes. Although I must say that there wasn't much dancing at all. Just lots of cartoon like backdrops.

Watching Korean Pop bands makes people want to dance. I agree to that, it makes you need to move. Just like King Julian, I like to move it move it. Their style vaguely reminds me of Step up, the movie which featured lots of modern pop dance styles. Similarly, Korean bands do know how to capture the young audience. The only thing I fear is for the future of these bands.

Some of these bands are big, and their appeal is in their looks, dances and singing. They do not have other appeals like Cold Play, Take that, Michael Jackson or John Lenon. Its highly unlikely they produce their own songs. My fear is that after a short hype, these bands lose their youth and will fade away as younger more appealing bands take the lead. Its mean in that way and sad that after such a promising but short career, you are forced to do other things because the industry doesnt want you anymore.

Other than that, I would bask in the enjoyment of listening to Kpop and more Kpop. My current favourite is obviously SNSD. With so many nice songs, good dancing and good looking girls, everyone just wants them. Including other girls...how weird actually.

Lets show you their cutest song - Gee. The previous post showcased their first hit, "into the new world". This video is the pure dance version, definitely worth a watch, the moves are just unique.

SNSD Into The New World

2009-09-18T00:38:00.005+08:00

SNSD Into The New World

Jeonhaejugo shipeo seulpeun shigani da heuteojin hu-eya deullijiman
Nuneul gamgo neukkyeobwa umjigineun ma-eum neoreul hyanghan nae nunbicheul

Teukppyeolhan gijeogeul gidarijima nun apeseon uri-ui geochin gireun
Al su eomneun miraewa byeok bakkuji ana pogihal su eopsseo

Byeonchi aneul sarangeuro jikyeojweo sangcheo ibeun nae mamkkaji
Shiseon sogeseo mareun piryo eopsseo meomchweojyeo beorin i shigan

Saranghae neol i neukkim idaero geuryeowattteon hemae-imui kkeut
I sesang sogeseo banbokttoeneun seulpeum ijen annyeong
Sumanheun al su eomneun gil soge huimihan bicheul nan jjochaga
Eonjekkajirado hamkke haneungeoya dashi mannan na-ui segye

Teukppyeolhan gijeogeul gidarijima nun apeseon uri-ui geochin gireun
Al su eomneun miraewa byeok bakkuji ana pogihal su eopsseo

Byeonchi aneul sarangeuro jikyeojweo sangcheo ibeun nae mamkkaji
Shiseon sogeseo mareun piryo eopsseo meomchweojyeo beorin i shigan

Saranghae neol i neukkim idaero geuryeowattteon hemae-imui kkeut
I sesang sogeseo banbokttoeneun seulpeum ijen annyeong
Sumanheun al su eomneun gil soge huimihan bicheul nan jjochaga
Eonjekkajirado hamkke haneungeoya dashi mannan uri-ui

Ireoke kkaman bam hollo neukkineun
Geudae-ui budeureo-un sumgyeori
I sungan ttaseuhage gamgyeo-one
Modeun na-ui tteollim jeonhallae

Saranghae neol i neukkim idaero geuryeowattteon hemae-imui kkeut
I sesang sogeseo banbokttoeneun seulpeum ijen annyeong
Neol saenggangman haedo nan gamghaejyeo ulji anke nareul dowajweo
I sunganui neukkim hamkke haneungeoya dashi mannan uri-ui

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

I want to tell you, even though the sad times have already past
Close your eyes and feel, how you affect my mind, how you attract my gaze.

Don't wait for a miracle, there's a rough road in front of us
with obstacles and future that can't be known, yet I won't change, I can't give up.

Keep your love unchanging for my wounded heart
Looking in your eyes, no words are needed, time has stopped.

I love you, just like this. The longed end of wandering.
I leave behind this world's unending sadness.
Walking the many and unknowable paths, I follow a dim light.
It's something we'll do together to the end, into the new world.

Don't wait for a miracle, there's a rough road in front of us
with obstacles and future that can't be known, yet I won't change, I can't give up.

Keep your love unchanging for my wounded heart
Looking in your eyes, no words are needed, time has stopped.

I love you, just like this. The longed end of wandering.
I leave behind this world's unending sadness.
Walking the many and unknowable paths, I follow a dim light.
It's something we'll do together to the end, into our new world.

Feeling alone in this dark dark night
Your soft breath,
This moment, warmly entwines me in your presence.
I want you to know all my tremors

I love you, just like this. The longed end of wandering.
I leave behind this world's unending sadness.
Walking the many and unknowable paths, I follow a dim light.
It's something we'll do together to the end, into our new world.

Alarms

2009-09-17T22:43:00.006+08:00

I am suspicious of this email that has been circulating recently.

I wonder what would happen if you click on it. The email is suspicious because it does not follow the usual facebook convention of a plain email. This one is so colourful. Recently more and more people have been sending this to me.

If you have felt the same way, remain safe and do not click. I bet its a worm, it will tell you to sign in and it will have your password and account. Then you become another zombie in a whole army of slave computers, helping to send out spam mail or conduct remote attacks on other servers.

Be careful.

Moments in time

2009-09-15T22:34:00.005+08:00

Leisure in the midst of cramped schedules. Sunday was a unique day, a day for a change in routine. It threw my orientation way off but It was a good experience nevertheless.

Attended the service at bishan today. Charissa was getting reaffirmed early due to her study trip to London, as a result there was no sheet of paper in the bulletin since she was the only one...awww...Pastor David preached about how familiarity breeds contempt and how a change of routine is occasionally required. How often are we as polite or willing to help our family as compared to strangers or good friends? I have a feeling, how we treat our family now, is the exact way we will treat our spouses in the future. Frightening thought?

Met up with the CE2184 team at SMU later consisting of shaun, heng wee and ming hoe. We discussed a good lot about our project presentation till about 7pm before leaving for dinner at dohby ghaut. Ice-cream at swensens was good, I think Ming hoe and I ate a good too many for one night. I nearly got sick of ice creams for a while. Paid only $4.50 for 6 scoops.

Yesterday was a busy day indeed, meeting for another project to finalise the design for the I-Beam that we built today and more lectures.

I take the opportunity to rest now after another hectic day. The killer was really the 5 hour long beam manufacturing, which turned out pretty well. We were under quite abit of pressure but at least the team got to become closer. A good way to make friends or make closer friends is to go through a tough experience together.

The weeks are getting tougher, term break is coming but so are the mid terms. Gear Up.

Let's Strategize!

2009-09-14T22:53:00.003+08:00

I amuse myself over the abuse of strategization in our lives. With time on the line, and large amounts of money at stake...Yes I do see the need for good and efficient strategies to solve problems. Strategizing helps break down a problem into smaller bits for us to digest and it also helps us to gain an edge over people who do not do as such.

To cross the line into obsession is when every aspect of life becomes a strategy. Think about it, every aspect of life can be optimized, strategized and energized. Ok the last term was redundant. People would usually associated strategies with games, project planning and problem solving. These seem like natural and obvious things to strategize about. What is weird is when some try to compete in the social arena ( If you could even call it that ), education, talents and even love life!

Friends are what everyone needs. Some may have one, some may have tons. Bottom line remains that all need company...most of us are equipped with different levels of social skills that we pick up along life's journey and we get the friends that way. But some will stop at nothing just to get more friends than you. Afterall, fame and popularity is what all of us secretly like. There are books to guide you to become more popular, teach you the ways to be better than others. While that may seem reasonable, I strongly feel that the world is just breaking life down into a step-by-step guide to follow. "Take this path! It worked for me! Its the way to success." It encourages rigidity by the virtue of the fact that no one wants to fail.

Another aspect we are familiar with is our education. In Singapore at least, education is a must. No education, die. To be honest, we have no choice, Singapore's resources are its minds, therefore the more intelligent you are, the more valuable you are in a sense. Parents realise this and will drive their kids mad just to satisfy themselves that their kid is intelligent. Lets not forget the many tuition companies out there with the classic "ALL As!" slogans. Various study guides are out there to aid students to foster more efficient time management and achieve better grades. Once again it points to competition being the culprit of welcoming strategization into our lives.

Who doesn't love talent? Everyone is taught from young to realise their talents ( In which everyone has at least one ) Talents make you well loved, appreciated and envied ( Once again, another human craving ). If you meet a guy who is handsome, can play the guitar, piano, can act, sing, dance and is highly intelligent...highly likely that the guy is popluar and has tons of friends. He wouldnt even need friend-making skills. Everyone wants to know him! Can you train a talent? Perhaps so...at least thats what the media is suggesting. Learn piano in 24 hours! Teach yourself Japanese! Master the art of Badminton! Steps to becoming a world class Golfer! Familiar titles?

I feel uneasy when I talk about strategies in a love life. Is there really a way to strategize for a good love life? To become attractive to get all the girls or melt guy's hearts? To becoming a good dad or mum? Apparently there is! You can look up the internet for plenty of advice and 10-step plan to becoming the best ________ ever! ( Fill in the blank with the appropriate ideal ) How on earth did straegies enter the family and love life? Shouldnt love take its course? Perhaps I am too conservative or rigid, blame it on ideals, but I really think that love should be left alone...no one...not anyone should be telling you how to court a girl or to please a boy or how to have sex for that matter....eeek.

Competition, the need to be the best at everything and absolutely everything is the root cause of this 'abuse' of strategization. Careful you do not let this cause subtly creep into every aspect of your life. Before you know it, over a competitve spirit will engulf you and make you terribly miserable.