Thursday, September 29, 2005

Scary

There was quite a big hoohaa recently about students writing defamatory remarks against teachers in blogs and getting suspended.

 


 

Well, as I said, don't play play with any organisations whose name starts with 'S'. School is also an organisation you know.

 

Scary writing blogs nowadays.

 

Big Brother is watching.

 

 

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

What is my religious philosophy?







You are Agonistic


 



 


You're not sure if God exists, and you don't care.
For you, there's no true way to figure out the divine.
You rather focus on what you can control - your own life.
And you tend to resent when others "sell" religion to you.


 



 

 

Totally true.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Haiku

Language is an abomination, especially grammatical correct language. It put a structure to normally messy unstructured thoughts. The essence of the thought is lost when put into words.

 

Therefore I usually try to express what I'm thinking in as few words as possible. Who cares when MS Word says my sentences are fragmented? (Ok ok, I admit my english is lousy!)

 

This makes me think of something I learnt when I was in primary school - Haiku , one of the oldest literary forms. It's traditional japanese poetry, with only a total of 17 syllables (5-7-5), making it short and sweet. It's supposedly written when the poet experienced a moment of enlightenment (or satori  for the Zen inspired). Here's a masterpiece written by one of the masters:

 

 

I'm damn f*cking bored.

Trying to write a Haiku.

People's head - three lines.

     

                                                                                ~ IW

  

Haha!

  

 

References:



 

 

Friday, September 23, 2005

K.O

Almost died.

 

Hall life is EXTREMELY draining. Activities everyday. Sleeping at 3 or 4 every night. Being a photosale head isn't as zuo bo as expected. It feels good to have a team of girls working with you though. =) Chess training. Bridge training. DOTA 'trainings'. 

 

School work is not slack either. Tutorials piling up. Doing notes. Preparing for exam. One week break flies. Stress.

 

HAVING FOUR TESTS IN A WEEK DON'T HELP AT ALL! 

 

Trying to cramp four tests worth of things into your head is madness. Brain exploded.

 

Since my brain exploded, naturally I didn't do too well for some of my tests. Failed one. Depressed.

 

Finally struggled back home. Sleep and recharged. I'm saved.

 

What doesn't kill me make me stronger.

 

 

*******

 

 

Just received a phone call from a friend. The fourth and final test is VERY VERY difficult. He just passed. (The good thing is: It's good to have make a lot of friends in hall. Friends help each other.)

 

 

*******

 

DOTA is a drug. It makes you high when you are playing, but it leaves you extremely drained and tired when you stop playing. And like a drug, it's addictive. I'm addicted.

 

 

*******

 

MCQ: Have you ever think about what language the word "gostun" came from? ("Gostun" as in reverse, when you are driving.) Have a guess.

 

 

A. English

 

B. Chinese

 

C. Hokkien

 

D. Teochew

 

E. Cantonese

 

 


(Btw this's not a 欠扁题.)

 

 

The answer is english. It came from "go astern".

 

Interesting huh? Heard it from Shirleen. You learn something new everyday. =)

 

 

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

欠扁问答题

Here are some 欠扁题 to make you tu lan.

 

Qn 1. 第十一本书

 

 

Qn 2. 蓝色的刀,蓝色的枪

 

 

Qn 3. 马穿短裤

 

 

Qn 4. 一只熊走过来

 

 

(全部猜成语)

 

 

 

想一想 ...

 

 

 

再想想 ...

 

 

 

Answers

 

Ans 1. 不可思议 

 

 

Ans 2. 刀枪不入

 

 

Ans 3. 露出马脚

 

 

Ans 4. 有备而来 or 来势汹汹

 

 

Haha! Can you understand why?

 

 

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Skip Lecture Project (SLP)

Introduction

Have you ever waked up at 7 in the morning and felt like smashing your alarm clock? Have you ever wanted to zao lesson but did not dare to for the fear of missing something important? Have you ever wondered if attending lectures is futile? 

 

If you have, you are not alone. (If you haven't, well... subconsciously you have.)

 

Let us introduce you to SLP, the Skip Lecture Project!

 

Hypothesis

SLP has an hypothesis -

 

Attending lectures have absolutely no correlation with the grades you get. (Therefore, you might as well don't go lectures.)

 

Aim

The aim of the SLP is to prove that this hypothesis is true so that all students don't have to attend lectures anymore!!!

 

Background

As professional students after 12+ years of education, we have observed some very strange phenomenon. Students in lecture tends do things like chit chatting, eating, sleeping, drooling, doing homework, smsing, playing with handphone's games (personal favorite), staring at the wall behind the lecturer etc etc. Every single thing except... listening to the lecturer. This is absolutely waste of time and students can make better use of their time studying (or sleeping) at home or in hall.

 

Then on the efficiency of lectures. Most lecturers read off directly from their slides, which is usually exactly the same as our lecture notes. We might as well read it on our own time own target (OTOT).

 

Lastly on the efficiency of human beings absorbing the materials taught. Research shows that a normal person's attention span is around 30 minutes tops. Yet, the duration of lectures are more than 2 hours most of the time. In addition, many lectures are after lunch breaks, when our body is spending energy digesting food and therefore can afford less energy for listening, ie. our attention span becomes shorter. (Do you feel sleep sooner in lectures after lunch?) From these, we can clearly see that it is not very efficient for students to sit 2 plus hours in a Lecture Theatre listening to lectures.

 

Base on the above evidences, SLP strongly suspect that lectures are useless.

 

Test

To test the hypothesis, SLP recruits professional students to skip lectures for an entire semester. If the grades he or she gets at the end of the sem are as good as or better than the other sems when he or she attends lectures, it proves that attending lectures and grades are totally unrelated.

 

Progress Report 

Currently we have ONE volunteer in our project. He is in NTU EEE year 2 and he has been skipping lectures for 4 consecutive weeks. (Although he attended lectures for the first 3 weeks of this sem, it doesn't invalidate the experiment since he was playing with handphone games most of the time during lectures anyway.) We have been constantly monitoring his progress and... well, he's not doing so fine right now. However, we do NOT think this is the consequence of him not attending lectures. Anw, we will have a conclusion after his examination result is out.

 

 

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!!!

 

We need a larger sample size to make our project more valid! Your effort (or lack of) will contribute to our grand and ultimate aim of abolishing lectures from every single country's education system! So don't hesitate, sign up today! PLEASE (join) SLP NOW!!!

 

 

Related Studies

Another project that is closely linked to our project is the Play Dota Project, PDP (also stands for Please DO Play). It investigates whether playing DOTA everyday will affect examination grades. Infomation on PDP will be out soon. Please return to this website regularly for further updates.

 

 

P.S. A senseless piece of crap written just the night before the most-feared and most-hated math common test. Haha!

 

 

Monday, September 19, 2005

Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children

Never have I watched an animation that's so visual stunning, fighting scene so beautifully chronographed, characters so perfect... A moving piece of art. And it brought memories of the game that i had played so many years ago. 

 

Fantasy... I'm a daydreamer... but never in my deepest fantasy can I think of something as spectacular as this. The animators are genius!

 

Must watch.

 


 

 

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Quotes

Quotes from Dune Chapterhouse:

 

"Law to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security." - Bene Gesserit Coda

 

"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it." - Darwi Odrade, BG Mother Superior

 

"We should grant power over over affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase the reluctance." - Darwi Odrade

 

"To know a thing well, know its limits. Only when pushed beyond its tolerances will true nature be seen." - The Amtal Rule

 

"Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake." - Bene Gesserit Commentary

 

"Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen." - Darwi Odrade

 

"Avoid giving orders. Once you gave orders, you have to keep on giving it." - Duncan Idaho

 

 

Friday, September 16, 2005

My Birthday







Your Birthdate: January 21



 


Being born on the 21st day of the month (3 energy) is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life.
The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental.
There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, "couldn't care less" attitude.

You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression.
Good with words, you excel in writing, speaking, and possibly singing.
You are energetic and always a good conversationalist.

You have a keen imagination, but you tend to scatter your energies and become involved with too may superficial matters.
Your mind is practical and rational despite this tendency to jump about.
You are affectionate and loving, but very sensitive.
You are subject to rapid ups and downs.


 



 

 

"Natural ability to express myself in public"? What can be more untrue?!

 

But others more or less true lah. =P

 

 

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Ten horses

My favourite 欠扁题:

 

Part 1

There are ten horses in a farm. Five are black, four are white, and one is red. How many horses can say they have the same colour as another horse?

 

A. 0

B. 9

C. 10

D. 11

 

 

DON'T SCROLL !

 

Simple question, think for a while before you see the answer.

 

 

 

You think it's nine? Think again.

 

 

 

The answer is zero! Horses can't talk! None of them can say anything!

 

 

Part 2

(Continue from the previous question.) What if the horses can talk? How many horses can say they have the same colour as another horse?

 


A. 0

B. 9

C. 10

D. 11

 

 

STOP SCROLLING !

 

Ponder!

 

 

 

The answer is not nine horses...

 

 

 

The answer is ten! All the horses can say whatever heck they want!

 

 

PS. This question may be 欠扁, but it teaches a very simple truth. Dedicated to PF =)

 

 

Monday, September 12, 2005

一个 authority hater 的无奈

每个人都有自由选择的权利,

没人可以要他们做这个,做那个。

 

但就算没有人要他们做这个,做那个,

人,真的有自由选择的权利吗?

 

...

 

人,已经没有自由选择的权利了,

就别再要他们做这个,做哪个了。

 

让他们有自由选择的幻觉吧。

 

 

Saturday, September 10, 2005

胡言乱语

梁智强说:“读英校的是精英,读华校的是... 精华 (endangered species)。”

 

I came from traditional chinese schools and studied chinese in JC. I'm 精华. Haha!

 

...

 

There are four types of knowledge.

 

1) Things you know you know.

2) Things you don't know you know.

3) Things you know you don't know.

4) Things you don't know you don't know.

 

I discovered that for me, there are tons of knowledge that belong to category four,ie.

 

I know there're lots of thing I don't know I don't know. (Is it a paradox?)

 

...

 

"难得糊涂" - 郑板桥

 

"难得不糊涂" - 许杰峰

 

...

 

Current Affairs (Moral of the White Elephant story)  -

 

Don't play play with any company or agency or organization whose name start with 'S'. 

 

DON'T!!!

 

 

Friday, September 9, 2005

Random thoughts of a lazy swimmer

It was a lazy sunny afternoon at Woodlands Swimming Pool. One lazy swimmer was breast stroking relaxingly through the crystal clear water, occupying the entire lane to himself. With nothing to do except moving his arms and legs, his thoughts started to wonder. Lets us zoom into his head and take a look at the electric signals that’s flashing through his brain’s pathways…


 

 

A relaxing day… feels so good to find an almost empty swimming pool… (no ‘scenery’ though)… what a good way to start the one week break…

 

Finished two laps… finally some exercise after seven weeks… had the weird feeling of muscles disintegrating for the past few weeks… integrating… maths… arghhh… I hate maths… have to brush up my maths during recess…

 

Sixth lap… swimming so relaxing… everyday can swim so good… no worries… blue water… clear sky… light waves at the bottom of the pool… the world is so magical… life is beautiful… I'm getting closer to Lao Tse's Way of Tao... Be one with nature...

 

How many laps have I swum… eight or ten? … posted a question to Ask a Philosopher two day ago – ‘What’s the meaning of life? Why on earth do we exist?’… Will I get an answer? Is there an answer? ... Could it be that our life has no meaning at all? … Why the hell are we slogging like hell? … Can’t we swim everyday? …

 

Fourteenth lap… the pool getting more crowded… I want to write something different for my blog… something that may be reader-unfriendly… but I don’t care… I’m going to write about me swimming… ‘Random thoughts of a lazy swimmer’ will be a nice title…

 

The nineteenth, second last lap… feels like stopping… not that I’m tired, but just feeling too lazy to continue… no, I must persevere… not that it’s very difficult, since I’m not that tired… why the hell is that bugger cutting into my lane… I know you swim very fast, but you can’t swim straight ah?! …

 

Last lap… OMG! The same mother fu*ker see me coming still swim towards me head on! Wah lao eh! …

 

 

… Finally the lazy swimmer reached the other side of the pool. He got out off water, bathed, and cycled happily back home.

 

 

Moral of the story: Do NOT swim zig-zag in the swimming pool!

 

 


 

 

Personality test

Another personality test, stolen from PF as well. From http://www.quizbox.com/personality/test82.aspx


 



Get to know yourself better


Your view on yourself:


Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:


You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:


You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:


You like to flirt and behave seductively. The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms. But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?

Your views on education


You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:


You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:


You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career and nothing will stop you from trying.

What are you most afraid of:


You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.

Who is your true self:


You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

 

 

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Revamp

Did a little revamp on my site. Divided the interesting links at my sidebar into different sections plus changed the background. Now my site looks infinitely more lively! I'm very please with the new theme - it makes people feel happy. But underlying this background bears a more serious message (to myself):

 

Time to wake up! 

 

 

Game game game!

Has been playing games found on the internet. The most enjoyable of them all are:

 

Crimsonland from www.reflexive.com -

Classic shoot'em dead. Terribly exciting. Bring out the violence within you.

 

Heavy Weapon from www.shockwave.com -

Another classic shoot'em dead. Very exciting also. I got stuck at level 9 though.

 

Insaniquarium from www.gamehouse.com -

You've got a fish tank. You feed the fishes, grab the coins and shoot the aliens. The game that's taking Hall 11 by storm! (I started it!)

 

You can trial these games on the net itself or dl them and play for one hour. To play the full version you will have to pay. But there are always ways to get around it though... =P

 

 

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Seniors


Browsing through my friendster page a couple of weeks ago, I felt a sudden longing to see my HC senior class seniors. I remembered that seniors had taken very good care of us and we were quite close during our JC days. However, it has been years since we last saw them and we kind of lost contact.

 

Coincidentally, recently, a week or two after the day I browsed through my friendster page, I saw one of them on TV! He's Daniel, the one who's always joking around. Funny that he was then on Channel U's《有话就说》talking about how to take care of one's own personal finance.

 

Today, I saw another one of them at Woodlands Civic Centre! She’s Huiyi, my publicity team leader last time. We were surprised, exclaimed hey(!) and walked passed each other, all in a matter of seconds. Thinking back, it seems strange that we didn’t stop to have a good chat.

 

Perhaps we were too intended on our own respective destinations. Not only today. We had been too intended on our own respective destinations ever since the seniors graduated four years ago...

 

Yet another coincidence: When I reached home, my mom showed me last Sunday’s papers which featured Daniel.

 

It has been years since I last saw them. Out of a sudden I 'saw' them three times. And HC MAF celebration is next Saturday. A day when every Hwa Chongian reunites back in our home for 2 years traditionally. 

 

Omens? Signs? Maybe they tell us that our  缘分 with senior class is not up yet. I believe that no matter how stupid our school name became, no matter how rude and 不见人情 our school's teachers were when they chased us out of our 黄城 after school events (inflow from TCHS), the spirit that connects each and every Hwa Chongian together will never ever die.

 

  

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Happiness

Just ate a Swenson Ice Cream Cake in hall for no particular reason.

 

This entry is not about the ice cream cake. It is about the dry ice  in the cake box.

 

Dry ice always mesmerise me. It's really fasinating to watch them bubbling in hot water and produce tons of smoke. And it reminds me of the our hall production in DBS Repertory Theatre when I was year one. The play's title is 简单快乐, and it's about a wise old man going around selling 'Happiness' for one cent. Strangely, many people didn't buy it though. Some dismissed him as senile. Some didn't have the exact one cent that he wanted.

 

One scene that I remembered most is when the old man slowly took a handful of smoke from the box of 'Happiness' and pass it to the loving couple, telling them:

 

"快乐,握得住,握不住,就掌握在自己手里 。"

 

The play ends with the old man saying:

 

"什么不是快乐 ?"

 

And it sets us thinking...

 

What is Happiness in the first place? It's nothing more than smoke. It's in every single small little thing. Like eating a Swenson Ice Cream Cake together with friends for no reason. Like finishing a very difficult Circuits tutorial. Like surprisingly got friend buying back pizza to treat us. Like hearing the news of a friend who didn't have enough points to stay suddenly got a room in hall. Like being able to breath in fresh air. Like suddenly got an opportunity to play with dry ice. Blah blah blah. 

 

What is not happiness? =)

 

 

Chew on it

Just read this in God Emperor of Dune :

 

"Wealth is a tool of freedom.  

But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery."

 

 

Can we ever escape from this?