忙与盲

歌曲: 忙与盲      歌手: 黄立行

 

曾有一次晚餐和一张床
在什么时间地点和哪个对象
我已经遗忘我已经遗忘
生活是肥皂香水眼影唇膏
许多的电话在响
许多的事要备忘
许多的门与抽屉
开了要关关了又开如此的慌张
我来来往往我匆匆忙忙
从一个方向到另一个方向

忙忙忙忙忙忙
忙是为了自己的理想
还是为了不让别人失望

盲盲盲盲盲盲
盲得已经没有主张
盲得已经失去方向

忙忙忙盲盲盲
忙得分不清欢喜和忧伤
忙得没有时间痛苦一场

 

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

 

I just read a friend's blog. I just realised

 

I am so busy that I forgot to watch HuangCheng.

My friends are so busy that they forgot to ask me to watch HuangCheng.

 

Well well...

 

 

MSN nick

“以古为镜，可以知兴荣。”

 

This is my friend's msn nick. My first reaction:

 

"Wah Kao!"

 

I think she never read my blog, so it doesn't matter. Anyway she's my JC CCA mate. She is a very good friend of mine, once. But we almost never contact each other any more. She has her own life, I have mine. I guess it's inevitable in all friendships. I am glad to know such a nice girl like her though. =)

 

However everytime I think of her I just can't help comparing between she and I. Heaven is so unfair.

 

She's very pretty. She's cultured. She knows dance, practices chinese calligraphy etc etc. (Note: even our president also practice calligraphy.) She has a boyfriend. She's about to graduate if not graduated already. She joined PAP. She can think of such a chim nick. She is not from LEP, that means chinese is not her strongest forte. (In fact I won't be surprised if any of my LEP friends have this nick.) She has a bright future.

 

 

(And she's typical of most of my female JC friends from my batch.)

 

I'm not pretty. (I didn't say I'm not handsome though.) I'm not very cultured. I know how to scold bad words, and stop practicing calligrapgy years ago. A girlfriend don't have me. I have still a long way to graduation. I joined SLP. I can never think of a chim nick. I only know 天将降大任于斯人也， 必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，空乏其身。And it is too long to be a nick. I studied A level higher chinese, yet my chinese also buay zai, england no nit to say le. Lastly, if I "以古为镜", I can foresee I will do tutorials until I die.

 

Haiz... Life... Sianz....

 

 

See stars

Look at this formula that appears in my lecture notes:

 

i_D = I_D - i_d

Somehow I just can't help but feel du lan.  I find it hard even to compare whether it is the same formula as this:

 

i_d = i_D - I_D

 

Is it the same??

 

 

A new look

Just discovered this fiery theme and I think it looks very nice. Therefore I'll keep it around for a while. In case you noticed, I've changed the title of my blog also. In case you never noticed, the old name was called 'Random Ramblings', which is quite cliche I think. So I've decided to change the title to an example of a random rambling - hence 'What are the Orcs?'. You guys don't know what it means right? It's ok, you are not alone. Me also dunno. As I've said, it's random and it's a rambling, so it doesn't necessarily need to mean anything. This also applies to the philosophy of my blog also -all the entries here are just ramblings (synonym: crap) and I guess this particular entry demostrate this very well.

 

But well, who care anwz?

 

Btw this fiery background can be associated with the very popular comic that  I'm reading now - Fire Phantom Patient Guy (loosely translated from 火影忍者), also known as Naruto. Heheh. Those who are interested can read it from this website:

 

http://manhua.fzdm.com/1/

 

Highly recommended... It's a 5 star comic man!

 

Here's another link to another: http://manhua.fzdm.com/7/

 

Nice comic also. Bleach.

 

That's all folks.

 

 

A cok nightmare

The background was the busiest city of China, Shanghai. Everywhere was full of people. It was a free and easy tour and I entered Shanghai's equivalent of MRT. The first strange thing I saw my dad and his colleague was squating on the train, concentrating on repairing something. (My dad was not a train technician, and definitely not in Shanghai.) I was surprised and walked happily to him. Then an announcement was made through the intercom:

 

"We'll be conducting a simulation of a terrorist bomb attack now. We want to know what is the reaction of people when the train is overturned. Participation is compulsory. Please do not worry, it's only a simulation."

 

The doors went shut. 

 

'Wah lan eh, na beh so suay!!! '  is my first reaction. I quickly braced myself against the overturn of train by leaning with my back against side of the train. Luckily there's no one else on the opposite side so no one will fall on top of me when the train overturns.

 

Suddenly there are 2 cars driving into the train and stop right in front of me! Then the train starts to overturn...

 

ARGHHHHHHHHH.....

 

I woke up.

 

 

 

Anyone can decipher the dream??

 

(Hmmm... cock is forbidden to use as a title??)

 

 

 

Interesting Articles

10 Ways MMORPG Will Change the Future 

 

Gamer Manifesto

 

Top Ten Sci-Fi Film That Never Existed

 

The Suicide Guide

 

 

From: www.pointlesswasteoftime.com

 

 

The Wiki History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less

Quantum fluctuation. Inflation. Expansion. Strong nuclear interaction. Particle-antiparticle annihilation. Deuterium and helium production. Density perturbations. Recombination. Blackbody radiation. Local contraction. Cluster formation. Reionization? Violent relaxation. Virialization. Biased galaxy formation? Turbulent fragmentation. Contraction. Ionization. Compression. Opaque hydrogen. Massive star formation. Deuterium ignition. Hydrogen fusion. Hydrogen depletion. Core contraction. Envelope expansion. Helium fusion. Carbon, oxygen, and silicon fusion. Iron production. Implosion. Supernova explosion. Metals injection. Star formation. Supernova explosions. Star formation. Condensation. Planetesimal accretion. Planetary differentiation. Crust solidification. Volatile gas expulsion. Water condensation. Water dissociation. Ozone production. Ultraviolet absorption. Photosynthetic unicellular organisms. Oxidation. Mutation. Natural selection and evolution. Respiration. Cell differentiation. Sexual reproduction. Fossilization. Land exploration. Dinosaur extinction. Mammal expansion. Glaciation. Homo sapiens manifestation. Animal domestication. Food surplus production. Civilization! Innovation. Exploration. Religion. Warring nations. Empire creation and destruction. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation without representation. Revolution. Constitution. Election. Expansion. Industrialization. Rebellion. Emancipation Proclamation. Invention. Mass production. Urbanization. Immigration. World conflagration. League of Nations. Suffrage extension. Depression. World conflagration. Fission explosions. United Nations. Space exploration. Assassinations. Lunar excursions. Resignation. Computerization. World Trade Organization. Terrorism. Internet expansion. Reunification. Dissolution. World-Wide Web creation. Composition. Extrapolation?

Copyright 1996-1997 by Eric Schulman.

This piece was the inspiration for the book A Briefer History of Time and led to the Annals of Improbable Research Universal History Translation Project. Reprinted from the AIR, Volume III, Number 1, January/February 1997, page 27.

 

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3fs8i/hist/histwiki.html

A quote from Kong Zi

A JC classmate told me this while we are chatting about how to improve one's charisma on the MSN:

 

“诚其心，正其意，修其身，齐其家，治其国，平其天下。”

 

Think about it...

 

 

A black device

Has been thinking/dreaming of inventing a small handheld device that can provide infinite knowledge/ideas/stimulations for the mind. I imagined it to be a 5cm black cubic lump of metal mass with a few buttons, and it is strange, magical and exotic. What can be the basis for such a device? 

 

Food for thought... Hmmm...

 

 

My Johari Window

Arena (known to self and others) friendly, happy, intelligent, introverted, quiet	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, accepting, adaptable, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, complex, confident, dependable, extroverted, giving, helpful, independent, ingenious, knowledgeable, logical, modest, organised, patient, reflective, relaxed, searching, self-assertive, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, trustworthy, warm, wise, witty
Façade (known only to self)	Unknown (known to nobody) bold, brave, dignified, energetic, idealistic, kind, loving, mature, nervous, observant, powerful, proud, religious, responsive, self-conscious, spontaneous, sympathetic, tense

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dominant Traits

52% of people agree that Jiefeng is friendly

All Percentages

able (4%) accepting (9%) adaptable (4%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (28%) caring (4%) cheerful (14%) clever (28%) complex (4%) confident (4%) dependable (14%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (9%) friendly (52%) giving (4%) happy (14%) helpful (28%) idealistic (0%) independent (9%) ingenious (4%) intelligent (19%) introverted (9%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (23%) logical (23%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (4%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (19%) patient (38%) powerful (0%) proud (0%) quiet (19%) reflective (9%) relaxed (33%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (4%) self-assertive (4%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (14%) sentimental (9%) shy (14%) silly (4%) spontaneous (0%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (23%) warm (9%) wise (4%) witty (9%)

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Description Breakdown (21 people)

Michelle Liang thinks: helpful, patient, shy, trustworthy, knowledgeable.
shuhui thinks: calm, clever, logical, sensible, introverted, helpful.
Song'en thinks: friendly, relaxed, logical, happy, accepting.
yv thinks: calm, friendly, shy, patient, relaxed.
Justin thinks: helpful, friendly, relaxed, independent, searching.
manda thinks: clever, friendly, dependable, helpful, relaxed.
denice thinks: calm, organised, dependable, sensible, knowledgeable, accepting.
Jienan thinks: helpful, clever, knowledgeable, able, relaxed, quiet.
jiamin thinks: patient, knowledgeable, calm, intelligent, logical, friendly.
Yi Hui thinks: witty, cheerful, caring, logical, clever.
jiahong thinks: ingenious, witty, trustworthy, friendly, knowledgeable, silly.
xiangbin thinks: relaxed, intelligent, cheerful, organised, shy.
weiling thinks: clever, calm, patient, modest, trustworthy.
xiao mei thinks: relaxed, helpful, organised, dependable, clever, friendly.
peifang thinks: cheerful, giving, trustworthy, intelligent, reflective.
Kim Sim thinks: extroverted, friendly, patient, sentimental, confident.
zhijian thinks: introverted, quiet, calm, independent, patient, complex.
CHRISTINA thinks: friendly, warm, trustworthy, organised, patient.
sheena thinks: intelligent, self-assertive, reflective, quiet, logical.
ny thinks: happy, quiet, patient, warm, wise, friendly.
HealthyG thinks: extroverted, sentimental, adaptable, friendly, sensible, happy.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Conclusion

My most dominant characteristcs (other than friendly) are patient (38%) and relaxed (33%), followed by calm, clever, helpful (28%) and logical, knowledgeable, trustworthy (23%).

 

Not bad i guess, and quite true also. I must be really relaxed and calm in order to stack my undone tutorials until so high. =P 

 

 

Mage

This guy has occupied most of my time for the past 2-3 month. But it's time to say goodbye. Farewell my little level 45 mage in the World of Warcraft, for now.

 

 

Horoscope

Aquarius, AB+, Dog

性情多变，直觉敏锐，但与人不能友好相处。 水瓶AB型的人很会察言观色，分析市场能力强，直觉敏锐，是做生意赚大钱的好苗子，但属狗虽然诚实，与人的合作关系却比较差，不善于处理好人际关系，生意场中也时常会出现一些分歧，通常都会不欢而散。 不过，直觉灵敏的市场分析让你在生意场中也站有一席之地，你的诚恳也让生意场中的伙伴感到信任。 如果与人相处上能稍微改变一下自己的态度，能与生意中的伙伴做到更友好地相处，那么生意就会越做越大，钱财也就会越来越多。       速配：水瓶座，A型血，属鸡   http://astro.lady.tom.com

Birthday

If there's any friends who wants to wish me Happy Belated Birthday, you can do so here. =)

 

Anwz, I had a kind of 'strange' birthday yesterday (21 Jan). A long long never contact JC classmate of mine suddenly suddenly called up and asked me to do a transaction with his friend at Woodlands MRT station. He told me that the transaction involve exchanging a bag of some ink cartridges, a hp, some dunno wat and some money with some bags of textbooks, a camera and many dunno wat.

 

A question mark immediately pop right up my head: WTF??

 

Then he told me that he had some misunderstanding with this person, and then she lives near Woodlands, and I happened to live in Woodlands also, and that's why he asked for my help.

 

So I agreed to help him (since he's my friend, it is a 'she', and the whole thing sounds interesting), despite I was wondering whether he's asking me to smuggle drugs...

 

We met at the void deck before the 'operation', and he gave me my mission briefing.

 

The story goes like this: My friend and her, whose name is L, contacted each other using email. And he is a 'she' whose name is P in the email. Then it happens that  P (he) 'get' chicken pox recently. However P thought she is well enough to meet L, but it turns out that she is actually NOT well enough to meet her. So Me, who is P's brother, takes P's place and do the transaction for her last minute (and L doesn't know).

 

Then my friend let me see L photo and told me that she will be wearing yellow and waiting at the ticketing machines. Lastly he told me she doesn't speak chinese. (Sian diao...) 

 

Then I went to the train station carrying the goods, she's not here yet. So I sat down and waited and looked around... then I saw a girl standing a few metres away in front me, wearing yellow, carrying 3 bags of stuff, back facing me, looking at the train gates.

 

I thought to myself: It isn't very often that a girl wear yellow, carry 3 big bags and waiting for someone. This must be her.

 

(And I felt grateful that I am borned smart so that I can reach such a difficult-to-reach conclusion.) 

 

So I walked the shortest distance (straight) towards her and kind of 'pop' up right in front of her,

 

"Hi, are you L?"

 

First impression: She looked chio.

 

But she looked stunned too.

 

"Err yes..."

 

"I'm P's brother. She asked me to pass you these."

 

So we exchanged our goods and I left right away since I don't know what to say (bcoz my angmo buay siu). The whole transaction took less than a minute.

 

She still looked stunned even as I left.

 

I took the goods back to my friend who was waiting at my void deck. Then he left after checking the goods. Luckily it's not drug... And that's the end of the story, an interesting episode on my birthday. =P

 

 

Moral of the story: 

 

Never approach a chiobu from behind.

 

Or

 

Never approach an angmo-speaking chiobu when your angmo is buay siu.

 

 

Production

Quote from my previous entry:

 

"WHY IN HELL do I agree to join Production, which requires me to work like shit, burn my Sundays, yet still have to canvess (pay) $250, and sell 10 tickets? (This won't happen again.)"

 

Actually despite all my complaints, somehow or rather, I found that I've been joining productions throughout my school years since I first joined HuangCheng in JC. And the answer to the above question is...

 

... Everytime when I look back at the 3 productions I've joined, no matter what post I was in (J1 as Publicity Member, J2 as Publicity Leader, Uni Yr 1 as Props Member), I'll feel the deep sense of satisfaction of a job well done, even up til now.

 

And that's why I decided to help my cock roomie when he agreed to become the Props Master when he don't know anything about props. Props... Haha... I can still remember that when I first joined HuangCheng in JC, I first joined as Props... for ONE day, before I deflect to Publicity, after I found out how xiong Props is. To think now even though I know there's a shit hole in front of me, I still step right into the middle of it... not once, but twice! (Last year and this year =)

 

Now that we've found most of our props, it's not that stress anymore, and so it's ok now. And I was actually quite touched by some of the subcommers and producers and directors for actually helping us to find the stuff we need. 2 of the girls even carry empty boxes from as far as SRC back to hall to give us. This is the one thing you won't found in most other ECAs: a sense of commradeship - people helping each other to make the thing a success. If you guys (as in all my subcommers and producers and directors) are reading this, you have my most truely heartfelt thanks.

 

I hope that this year's hall production will be a success. And lastly, I got TEN tickets to sell (arghhh!), PLEASE BUY TICKETS FROM ME!

 

http://www.geocities.com/up2w/hall11production/

 

  

Bridge Theories

Law of Total Tricks (by Larry Cohen)

 

The total number of cards in opponents' suit and your partnership's suit =

The number of tricks you will make playing in your suit +

The number of tricks your opponent will make playing in their suit

 

Eg. If your opponents have 8 card fit in hearts and you have 9 card fit in spades,

 

the number of tricks your opponent will make playing in hearts + 

the number of tricks you will make playing in spades is 17

 

That means

if you make 10 playing in spades, opponent will make 7 playing in hearts,

if you make 9 playing in spades, opponent will make 8 playing in hearts and so on...

 

 

So how do we use this law? To be continued...

Questions

Some mysteries in life...

 

Why are there always more outings/gatherings in January than December?

 

Why do people (like me) who are busy in December always mistaken that they will be less busy in January?

 

Why do 1/12 of the people who are busy in January have their birthdays fall on the same month?

 

WHY IN HELL do I agree to join Production, which requires me to work like shit, burn my Sundays, yet still have to canvess (pay) $250, and sell 10 tickets? (This won't happen again.)

 

Since when do people in logistics do video?? (No way man.)

 

When will I realise that though friends are friends, there is a limit to the amount help I'm willing to rendered? (About now.)

 

Is playing computer games a way of escaping from reality? (I'm quite far away from reality now =)

 

Sianz...

 

 

Oxymoron

Thanks Chioboo for your concern! But I feel that feeling emotionless is better than feeling unhappy or stress...

 

Anwz, talking about oxymorons, I saw a friend's nick (advertisement for our hall bash) on the MSN -

 

Zouk this sat, $16 for 2 free drinks!! anyone?

 

Hmmmm...

 

Btw, school is starting this coming monday, everyone jiayou!

 

An interesting typical conversation that happened a few times last week -

 

Friend: Today you no lesson ah?

Me: This week I no lessons.

Friend: How come?

Me: This week no tutorial wat.

Friend: ......

 

Haha!

 

 

Bridge Scoring

 

DUPLICATE BRIDGE SCORING TABLE

If Trumps are:		Clubs	Diamonds	Hearts	Spades
For each odd trick bid and made:
Undoubled:		20	20	30	30
Doubled:		40	40	60	60
Redoubled:		80	80	120	120

AT A NO TRUMP CONTRACT:		Undoubled	Doubled	Redoubled
For the first odd trick bid and made:		40	80	160
For each additional trick:		30	60	120
A trick score of 100 points or more, made on one board, is GAME. A trick score of less than 100 points is a PART-SCORE

PREMIUM SCORE:			x
For making a Slam:		Not Vulnerable	Vulnerable
Small Slam bid and made:		500	750
Grand Slam bid and made:		1000	1500

OVERTRICKS:		x	x
For each Overtrick: *tricks made in excess of Contract		Not Vulnerable	Vulnerable
Undoubled:		Trick Value	Trick Value
Doubled:		100	200
Redoubled:		200	400

PREMIUMS FOR GAME / PART-SCORE FULFILLING CONTRACT:		x
For making GAME, vulnerable:		500
For making GAME, not vulnerable:		300
For making any PART-SCORE:		50
For making any doubled Contract:		50
For making any redoubled Contract:		100

UNDERTRICK PENALTIES: *Scored by Declarer's Opponents if the Contract is not fulfilled			x
**Not Vulnerable**:		Undoubled	Doubled	Redoubled
For each Undertrick:		50	100	200
For each additional Undertrick:		50	200	400
Bonus for the 4th and each additional Undertrick:		0	100	200

UNDERTRICK PENALTIES: *Scored by Declarer's Opponents if the Contract is not fulfilled		x
**Vulnerable**:	Undoubled	Doubled	Redoubled
For each Undertrick:	100	200	400
For each additional Undertrick:	100	300	600
Bonus for the 4th and each additional Undertrick:	0	0	0

 

Happy New Year!

Actually I've been feeling quite emotionless (hmmm... feel emotionless??) these days. New year? New year new year lor, what's there to be excited about?? Maybe I finally attained the state of Buddism's 'emptiness'. Anwz, if there is anything I want to wish for in year 2006...

 

1. Get more As to decorate my Bs in the upcoming sems, and no Cs please.


2. Me, my family and my friends stay healthy and happy. 

Has been thinking of my HC friends recently - classmates, seniors, juniors, angels, mortals, cca friends etc, esp those I haven't seen in a long long while... wondering how have they been. I guess I'm too lazy to call them up or to organise an outing or something. Hopefully we'll have a chance to meet during CNY eve. Anwz hereby I sincerely wish them to have a Happy New Year. Take care friends. =)

 

 

Butterfly Effect

A butterfly flapping its wings in South America can affect the weather in Singapore.

 

- Chaos Theory (paraphrased a bit by me =P)

 

Loitering around the VCD rental shop today, suddenly thought of one movie mentioned in my Chinese Cinema module that doesn't follow the Aristotelian narrative structure. So I rent the movie and watched it just now.

 

I was absolutely impressed. If you think Sixth Sense is good, Butterfly Effect is better. Highly recommended if you like story with a very good twist.

 

 

PS. Btw a story with Aristotelian narrative structure is simply a story with the following characteristics in order:

 

1. Introduction


2. Exposition


3. Development


4. Conflict


5. Climax


6. Resolution

Basically it's very very very hard to find a story WITHOUT Aristotelian narrative structure, especially a good one. Watch Butterfly Effect!

 

 

Holiday

Time ......... Gone.

 

What the hell have I been doing this holiday? Do you guys sometimes have the feeling that sometime time just past by without you doing anything meaningful? Have I been living my life in vain??

 

Better let me make a summary of what I did in the hols. (Roughly in chronological order)

 

1. Went KL and Genting. Tried paintball.


2. Did ACCA invilgilaton for 4 days.


3. Bridge trainings.


4. Assembled 2.5 Gundams. (The other 0.5 finish by today.)


5. Did $50 worth of data entry.


6. Lead my hall bridge team to win the fifth place. (Almost got a fourth. Lost to Song'en's team.)


7. Rejoicing my B of a kind exam results.


8. Bring my cousin's and their kids (from Malaysia) around Singapore. Science Center is a fun place. Damn shag playing with 3 kids for 4 days.


9. Assembled 3 Lego toys for my cousin's kids. (The suitable age on the toy box is not accurate.)


10. Watched 'The Promise' with my family. Everyone, please don't go and watch that show. Dunno what happened to Chen Kaige.


11. Won a Weiqi game in the Interhall Games. (Out of 4.)


12. Finding props for my hall production. (Who got airport chairs and park bench?? Help!)


13. Done one full day of stocktaking in Carrefour, Suntec.


14. Introduced to some new interesting award-winning board games from French. Quarto, Gobblet and Quoridor is particularly fun. www.familydiy.com


15. Trained my Mage in World of Warcraft to level 24. He ganna fatal error and died yesterday. RIP.


16. Plan timetable and registered subjects. Very satisfied with my timetable. No lessons in the mornings and on fridays... err... well, no tutorials actually.


17. Meet up with my HC ChiangDao CIP friends. Long time no see! Played Quarto with them. Fun!


18. Watched Wallace and Gromit. The penguin cartoon very funny. Overall ok. A bit boring in the beginning. 3 stars.

Seems like I've accomplished quite alot in this holidays... Hmmm...

 

 

Skip Lecture Project Conclusion

Results The long awaited outcome of our Skip Lecture Project, launched on 20 Sep 2004 (details below), is out! From our one and only volunteer's exam results, we've reached the conclusion that lectures has ZERO CORRELATION with exams results!    Raw data: While his numbers of As decreased drastically by 2 (66% decrease) compared to his previous sem, he got no grades below B- in this sem. Though he may not be able to stay in ABP (Accelerated Bachelor Programme) any longer, but all in all, he is quite satisfied with his results. The slight drop in performance may be due to his heavy involvement in PDP (Play Dota Project).     There's some drop in grades compared to his previous sem, but this is NOT the results we should see from one who has been SLPing throughout the sem, if there is any correlation between lectures and grades. Therefore we conclude that attending lectures is...   U S E L E S S .

************* Skip Lecture Project  (launched on  20 Sep 2004)

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.

Trapped

The forest is thick. Predators all around me, roaming here and there. They haven't seen me though. I'm well hidden.

 

What the hell am I doing in this place?? I'm dead tired, tired of doing neverending quests... I want to get out! I want my life back! Where's the exit??

 

Shit! I'm spotted by a black strips white tiger (aka Moonstalker)! Flight or fight? I can't outrun the ferocious cat. Focusing all my internal energy, my hands burst into flames and, in a few seconds, I released a ball of fire which sped towards my target.

 

It's going to be the Xth tiger I killed in this cursed place. And I'm sick of it.

 

Just another day trapped in the World of Warcraft.

 

 

Annual camp

AC is ... fun?

 

You know, some trips are fun because the place is exotic. Some trips are fun because the activities are interesting. Some trips are fun because the people going with you are fun.

 

AC definitely does not belong to the first category. KL is one place I go about once every year. Genting is one place I go about once every other year.

 

AC might have belong to the 2nd category if trekking at Mt Ophir hasn't been cancelled, if our bus hasn't broken down, if we wasn't stranded at the roadside for 2-3 hours, if we wasn't stranded at Afamosa for another 2-3 hours (without our dinner).

 

Luckily AC belong to the third category. How can a trip be not fun when you are going together with a busload of friends? We have TONS of laughter while we were playing Asshole in the hotel room and at the side of a road in Malaysia. 

 

Can't forget the chua sai look on Alvin's face when Alda scold him 'chio4 lan3' when he laugh at her for having a bad Ti Di hand. Can't forget Vincent's stunned expession when his roomie pointed finger at him saying he stepped on dog shit. Who's the one who stepped on dog shit is still a mystery up til now, but poor Vincent has been outcasted by all of us (wrongly) the entire time we smelled the dogshit smell. =P  

 

However, though the trip was fun, somehow I have the nagging feeling that something was not quite right when the highlight of an overseas trip is the playing of card game in a hotel room or... erm... at the road side.

 

Well, at least the trip was fun. And not many can boast that they had played cards at the side of an expressway, not to say in Malaysia somemore. Photos will be up soon. =)

 

  

Does God exist?

I read this from a book called The Philosophy Gym - 25 Short Adventures In Thinking  by Stephen Law which I feel is very interesting. Hereby pen it down to see if anybody has anything to say. (Though I doubt anybody who will have anything to say will get to read this.)

 

Lets begin: Does God exist?

 

For: The Design Argument (Telelogical Argument) by William Parley (1743-1805)

 

While walking on a beach, you discover a watch lying on the sand. How did it get there? It's unlikely that the watch came into existence without a designer.

 

Now consider a human eye. The eye is far more complex than any watch. Isn't it likely that the eye has a designer too? Since the design and production of the eye is quite beyond us, its designer must therefore be God, who's far more intelligent and powerful.

 

Against: Natural Selection by Charles Dawin

 

Organisms contain within their cells DNA. When they reproduce, their DNA is copied and pass on. However, through chance, there may be some slight changes in the DNA passed down - mutation. These mutations may either help of hinder the organism's chance of surviving. Those who survived will pass on their 'successful' mutated genes to their offsprings. Gradually a species will evolve and adapt to their environment.

 

Natural selection explains how the eye came about. It's the result of evolution over millions of years to help the organism survive its environment. It doesn't need a designer, ie God.  

 

DNA must come from somewhere, right? 

 

DNA is a comparatively simple mechanism. It's possible for DNA to come into existence spontaneously. (It has been proven in the lab.)

 

For: The Design of Natural Law

 

The world is governed by natural laws. There are many different ways in which thesee laws might have been set. Only a very very very tiny percentage allows for a stable universe capable of producing and sustaining concious beings like ourselves. Therefore, it's highly plausible that this is purposely designed by someone so as to yield this highly improbable result, and that someone is God.

 

Against: Lottery Fallacy 

 

You have a 1 in 10000 chance to win in 4D. You bought the number 4444. Yet still you win. It's highly unlikely, yet there's no reason to think the 4D is rigged in you favour, just like there's no reason to think someone purposely designed the universe such that we can be produce and sustain. You (we) are just lucky! To think otherwise is to commit the Lottery Fallacy

 

Against: The Problem of Evil (This is interesting!) 

 

Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept that the universe is designed by some sort of intelligent creator, the evidence points very strongly away from that creator being God.

 

God is supposed by Jews, Christians and Muslims to have 3 characteristics: Omniscience (He is all knowing), Omnipotence (He is all-powerful) and Supreme Benevolence. But it seems impossible to reconcile the existence of such a being with the fact that there's a great deal of suffering in this world.

 

God is supreme benevolence - He can't want us to suffer.

God is omnisciencient - He knows we are suffering.

God is omnipotent - He can prevent us from suffering.

 

But... Why didn't he?

 

Either He is not all-powerful - He can't make a better universe.

Or He is not all-knowing - He don't know we are suffering.

Or He is not all-good - He knows, but He didn't much care.

 

(If so, then why are we worshipping Him?)

 

But God, if He exists, has all these characteristics.. Therefore God does not exist.

 

The 3 most common defenses are:

 

For: God Punishment

 

We have sinned, so God punish us.

 

Counter:

What about new-borns that contacted diseases such as HIV?? What have they done?

 

For: God Made Us Free

 

Our suffering is not God's fault, but ours. God gives us free will. We act in ways that causes our sufferings.

 

Counter:

What about natural disasters? What did we do to cause, say, the volcano to erupt, or the ground to shake???

 

For: Suffering Makes Us Virtuous

 

God wants us to suffer so as to make us better people.

 

Counter:

Since He is omnipotent, why didn't he make us 'better people' in the first place. Even if it's unavoidable, why some people suffer more than others?

 

Against: Ockham's Razor - William of Ockham (1285-1349)

 

Suppose there's no more evidence for God's existence than there was against (This is clearly not the case - there's pretty good evidence that He doesn't exist.). What would it be rational to believe? Most would say suspend judgement, but the correct answer is:

 

Believe God doesn't exist.

 

Why?

 

Ockham Razor - when presented with 2 equally well supported hypotheses, choose the simpler one.  

 

Example

 

2 hypotheses:

 

A. There are invisible, intangible, immaterial faries flying all around you.

B. There are no invisible, intangible faries flying all around you.  

 

Everything I obseved fits the 2 hypotheses very well - I would observe everything normally in both hypotheses. Should I suspend judgement?? Of course not! The rational thing to believe is that there's no faries because that's the simpler hypothesis. Why introduce unnecessary faries??

 

The same applies to God. 

 

 

***********

 

Even if the book say it's logical to believe that God doesn't exist, I personally would suspend judgement. Why? There's no other better explainations on how the universe is created. (Hmmm... maybe I'll write something on this topic.) However the creator I believe in (IF I believe) definitely don't have the 3 qualities mention above. That's why I don't believe in Chistianity. Period.

 

Now, anybody has better arguments for the existence of God?