AJAX test

Ok.. one major outfield down.. several to go.

2008-09-27T11:27:00.002+08:00

Well, I finally endured ATEC which wasn't as hyped up for me compared to some of my platoon mates.. Yea, cos I was relegated to guarding a couple of 5-tonners, that no one would really want to attack. So it was pretty relaxing for me in a way, my duties including mostly of sleeping..

Well, without going into the full details, ATEC is supposed to be an assessment of a unit's fighting proficiency, kinda like a exam. How accurate is it? Oh well, like ALL exams in S'pore.. not very; in my opinion that is. Exams are after all set in different conditions compared to the real thing. The whole thing is scripted, and therefore comes with goals and expectations. Like all puzzles, they have a key, a shortcut. Cause you see, puzzles are constructed from rules and are therefore rigid. And all rules, can be bypassed.. You just need a little reasoning and creativity.

For example, I was told that our vehicle was supposed to guard a certain entrance, because they think the enemy was gonna attack somewhere in the middle of night. Well, me and my sergeant took turns to stand watch.. When it was my turn to look, I admit it, I was pretty nervous. After all, the enemy was more experienced in this kind of raids..There was only 2 vehicles and 1 pathetic infantry sentry of 4 men, guarding 2 entrances. Then, after all, the whole ridiculousless of the situation cam upon me as a reasoned it out. Why would the enemy divert forces to attack this location which was pretty out of way from the rest of the main force? Perhaps there was some crucial supplies that they wanted. Ok, that granted, how to conduct this attack? How much forces to bring? Where are they? So you need to scout out the location.. And if the enemy are really that good, they would accurately know what is the strength of the defending force. And they would correspondingly bring just enough to match it. Or they could really use quick surprise tactics. While armored forces will crush puny infantry on the battlefield, armored forces are no match of the swiftness of infantry units when close quarters. Because the armored units are slow and bulky once they are stationary. On close quarters.. infantry can probably get in close enough to at least disable the vehicle's operation before the vehicle can bring its firepower on that guy. Feasibly, one lone commando could take out our logistics. If that's the case, then our sentry is really futile against the determined enemy.. So why fret so much? As it is, I reasoned that they won't come to attack us, because we are just not worth the time for them to come for us. And we're proved correct, the whole night passed without any enemy forces ever coming, because all the enemy forces were concentrated on wiping out the main force.

Oh wells, it was a difficult 4 days, mainly because there was nothing to do, and I sat on that hard driver's chair for almost all the way.. Because if you get out of the vehicle, you are really vulnerable.. so why not just stay inside..? I think my butt now in some pain, from sitting down too much.. The food was horrigible, i survived mainly on biscuits.. Yea, the moments, where I was just sitting there doing nothing, watching the seconds go by, from morning to dusk, to night, watching the night sky fly past to give way to dawn again.. it was pure torture.. I took to anything, to keep myself sane, like trying to think about some math problems to solve, hum some music to myself, relive some of the moments with friends, think about the memories of some people.. I guess that is how life is for people in jail..

There is going to be more to come.. because next month is EX Wallaby. A whole f***ing month in Australian forests, who treat us like aliens invading their space, possible contaminants. I hope I don't go lose my mind over there. Please preserve me so that I get to see S'pore soil again on 31st Oct.

New toys everyday.. getting fancier and fancier

2008-09-07T17:42:00.004+08:00

Well, army capabilities are forever getting better and better. We have incredible defense systems that aim to shoot down inter-continental ballistics missiles from outer space, not mentioning the amazing feat that those missiles could even cross such a big range.. And there's those new pixelised suits that from far, appears just like part of the background exactly how a picture would look like if you zoom out from the pixels on the computer screen. What rifles that shoot around the corner, cloaking mechanisms, communications between the separate units within the army..

Well of course, they are cool just like the toys that guys play with when we're younger.. But hey whats the point in their innovation? To deter and boost one's capability to take over and subdue other people. I guess thats something to boast about, being powerful and having the pride.

Incredibly, weapons and defense capabilities innovates themselves extremely rapidly for a organisation that is the epitome of monopoly. Otherwise, a military organisation is extremely inefficient. Why? Because the structure within is arranged by rank. And rank is earned through experience, which is in turn earned through age. Oh, there's nothing wrong with age-old wisdom, but then we become more and more unlikely to use imagination and creativity as we age, being more and more resistant to change and ideas.

Being the only organisation in the country, the army is effectively a monopoly, and the biggest example of one that is most un-profit driven. Defence sucks a big part out of our budget, with hardly any returns except for one word called 'Deterrence'.

Mercenaries would likely to be more efficient, but there's where the oft-heard reason in American debates comes in, 'oh, but these are crucial national interests that we are talking part.. surely we must protect them from external competition..' Admittedly its one of the drawbacks of the market-driven system. The service/good goes to the richest guy. Somehow we always are jealous of any guy thats rich. But part of being rich takes effort too.. even though it could be through very unpalatable means.. surely the the bandit would also be expending effort on his part to rob. He would be extremely calculative in the way he is spending his effort to get cash..

Show me how the use of force could ever be fully justified. Because I'm still waiting to hear it.

I want more quality time..

2008-08-24T22:43:00.003+08:00

Think I'm getting obsessed with trying to make my life meaningful for myself. Do I suppose that I am afraid the there's too little time to do so many things? Maybe its because I'm wasting time right now by having to serve 2 years in the army doing absolutely pointless stuff. Or maybe because there's alot of things I want to do. Like completing games, reading books on different interesting subjects, thinking about several puzzles in science and math, chess theory too, making I get my weekly dose of TV and cartoons.., badminton workout in reflexes, hanging out with friends, need to spend a lot of computer time downloading so many things( for my psp), just thinking about life, the list goes on. And I want to do all this preferably within 1 day, so which means I am terribly shortchanged on time..

Oh man, after I've booked out, I really want to sleep, like 12 hrs one go. But then, if I sleep so much, I would be further wasting time, which I could do all sorts of useful things like anyone of the items mentioned above. So I end up usually sleeping later than I like on a weekend, and waking up earlier than I like. That's the obsession in trying to make my life more meaninful for you. Kinda makes me think what if I start having the burden having to go out with a gf..which by right should not be a burden if I've found Ms. Right, but unfortunately I dun think most girls are that sensitive. Its usually the other way around, cos guys gotta do the comforting and time investing to maintain the relationship thingy.. Ihave seen ugly sights of bunkmates who called to tell their gf that they couldn't meet up over the weekend because they were confined.. only to hear their gf shout back them for attempting to neglect them.. Nice guys would wimper quietly in silence, not so nice guys would shout back. Which then would illicit the classic response from the girl: cue the tears and the soft sobbing. Makes your heart melt instantly, and you end up comforting the girl, when it should be the other way around, cos you're the one who is confined in the camp..

Sigh, makes me wonder when the right time would ever come. So little time, so much time. Little to do what I want, too much, for what I don't want to do.

Armored warfare

2008-08-16T11:49:00.003+08:00

Not sure what those people up there are planning, but I'm pretty sure they've got it mixed up and wrong.. What are they thinking, using armoured vehicles for slow tactical strikes? Slowly observing and moving.. What a mistake. Ah well, guess those tactical geniuses did not read enough on the theory, nor do they have alot of common sense.

Well, common sense tells you that you have a loud, noisy and prominent piece of technology that is able to move rapidly. So..? You would use it to attack agressively and swiftly. That is how traditional calvary charges are carried out. Through speed and instant action, leaving enemy troops with no time to reorganise or even have the opportunity to start an attack.

Therefore, the natural style of attacking with armoured vehicles, is blitzkreig. When fighting in closed spaces, divide up and move rapidly through several open paths, to reach the objective and then concentrate fire and take down that particular point rapidly. It is ideal if that objective is some important choke point with which the enemy got to move through that particular point. Penetrate swiftly through enemy defenses. Rush. In panicky situations, the enemy would be left breathless and unable to think clearly about how to counterattack. Moving swiftly means you are not sitting duck to anti-tank attacks.

Tanks are vulnerable to rocket propelled grenades, and thus when encountering one, you can't just rush straight at it. Lousy enemy would of course panic and run, but what about more proficient ones? They would keep their cool and reason out that if you're going to die no matter how since the tank is rushing your location and can shoot you down faster than you can run, why dont you just blast the tank anyway. It is coming at you in a straight line. Just aim and shoot. Aim for in front of the tank. Then blast consecutive shots. Complete annihilation. The tank should instead rush in a slightly zig-zag pattern.

Thus, I am more than baffled to find people practicing slow moving patterns, the kind where you observe and move, observe and move. Understood that we are trying to be wary of airstrike, but rapid movement is likely to achieve more in shorter time, besides the casualty rate would probably be as high anyway, even in slow tactical movement.

Ah well, all these is ultimately pointless anyway..

Brief respite

2008-07-12T13:37:00.003+08:00

Its outfield again, doing war-like stuff, pretending that there's some sort of enemy entrenched somewhere, and you gotta react and neutralise the threat-- that kinda of thing. Oh wells, support platoon had a nice early bookout, probably after lunch, while I was stuck out in the nice green forests of S'pore. I suppose thats good and bad. Good is that i dun hafta see the bunch of them sitting in the training shed doing nothing and sleeping the whole day away, while I am sweating myself out trying to do 5 things simultaneously in face of an impending attack. Bad thing is that they freaking booked out damn early. And their specialist still got the cheek to send a sms to my PS, teasing him over whether the weather outfield nice or not.

Worked till 12+am, and reached back camp like 1am. Then the good news came from my PC that we get to book out at 6 am in the morning after breakfast. So we slept like 2+ after having a good bathe to wash out all those sian-ed green camouflage cream of our faces, and then woke up like 5.30 am to fall in. That's like 3 hours of sleep?

But then again, without the stupid support platoon there doing slacking off, I think our platoon got a little closer to one another, thanks to the forces of unity arising from collectively being ultra pissed off with support platoon.

Oh well, at least I'm at home now, enjoying a little material comfort, having staggered back home at around 8 am. Bad news once again: gotta go back at 9pm.. to prepare for more outfield tml- yes, a sunday. Zzz..

Wonder why would anyone want to go to war? If you had to remain as a uber low ranked soldier.. would you like it? Like the job the rubbish collector, its an essential job, but no one wants to do it. Given a free market situation, demand for such services would be quite high, but supply would be low. In terms of wages, a person willing to do such a job would be able to secure quite a good wage. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be the case that such jobs are paid enough, and as such no one wants to do it. Afterall, the service that you provide has negligible benefits to yourself..

Incredible how so many people are so short sighted.. in spite of the path in front of their feet, leading clearly to the desired goal.

Btw, happy 19th birthday joli.

6 months alr..

2008-06-27T22:02:00.002+08:00

Sighz, been sometime since I updated about life.. Well, there's gonna be another ops soon with another infantry regiment. Haiz, there's 1 more month of slave driving. Plus another weekend burn. Zzz.. on that particular weekend too..

How to describe leh.. Life's can be considered slack, relative what other guys in other units are experiencing. But that said, its more 'shiong' than outside civilian life. Its stupid in my opinion, if you got something to say to everybody, and that everybody is there, but you just simply have to appoint one 'IC' and whisper to him what you want to say, and then get him to reconvey the message. But then, its the bureaucratic structure.

Or how we when we see anybody approach, the first thing that we look at is the beret colour, followed by the collar(to see if the word 'Singapura' is there, and how many 'crabs' or 'bars'), followed finally by the sleeves, by the stripes. Higher ranking ppl, must shrink away and remain as low profile as possible. All of us are well-practised with the familiar upwards flick of the eyes, followed by the quick downward sweep, and stop finally on the floor, pretending that you've never seen anything.

Or how we got to drink at least half a litre of water, after dinner. Or how we gotta run in a group, under the pretense it helps everyone to improve. -_-. This programme got as much chance of prospering as the command economy under Stalin/Lenin.

But on happier note, at least I can do 3(!!!) pull-ups now. Soo gratifying. Thanks man to ppl out there who have encouraged me, pushed me, trained me in one way or the another. Definitely, my sergeant would claim credit for having produced a 'student' that improved within 1 week of going to the gym. But I know better. Its not the last blow that finally cracked the stone, but the accumulation of all the hundreds of hammering that have gone before. So, thx Mr. Lee.. If you happen to read this, that is. Passing IPPT seems to be in reach finally. All that remains is for divine miracles to point the way to allow me to jump further and let me pass finally.

Bad policies

2008-06-08T16:24:00.003+08:00

Sighs.. why can't I just be a driver.. gotta go for a operators' maintenance course next week, and that means they are teaching me how to be a better mechanic when it comes to servicing the armored vehicle. Ok, I hope it is not too a dirty job, I certainly don't envy the hands of those professional mechanics.. but the physics to be learnt maybe interesting. Sighs, its like 6 months since the start of my service to the government, still got 3 6 months duration to go. Other people are definitely getting a more fruitful life out there, socialising with people. In here, what's there much to socialise? The hierarchy of ranks is heavy, a flatter organisational structure with people working more like a team would be better.

Moving to another home soon, to some EC known as La Casa; basically still remaining in the same region: Woodlands. Well, when the renovation is over after July I think you people are free to come over, something like that, when I'm free enough, say during my longer breaks.

On a more serious note, looking at the newspapers these days, people are complaining everywhere about price hikes. People in Malaysia and Indonesia are close to rioting. Why don't they understand that the move is necessary? I think if the government was more open in explaining why, people might be able to understand. But the thing is, I think the media is not reporting the right thing. People must be under the impression that the government has plenty of money to support fuel subsidies. I'm not clear about the taxation structure in these countries, but maybe the feeling is that the citizens are already paying alot in terms of taxes and public utility bills, so why shouldn't the government continue to pay for them?

The government should not have in the first place implemented fuel subsidies. People become dependent on cheap fuel, and when prices suddenly increase they are 'not used to it'. It is understandable that energy is crucial to the economic functioning and growth of a nation. Subsequently, for a poor nation to consume expensive fuel.. well, its hard. Therefore, a poor nation remains poor because it simply cannot consume the energy that it needs that is required for economic activities.

Well, fuel is definitely expensive. But then again, many things are expensive, like so many of the capital the firms need to use. So what to these firms do? They raise money from other people who do have the money, by promising to repay them a percentage of future profits. Other countries can loan money to allow poor countries to buy expensive fuel to good use. A percentage of future national income is remitted back to the countries whom have invested in these poor countries. If a country squanders its loan through corruption, then that government has no business to remain on the international stage.

Sadly its up to these governments to ask for loans. If they want to implement things like a fuel subsidy, well, its only a matter of time before the whole thing collapse and they are pushed out from the system by disgruntled citizens, at great cost like riots. Its high time that governments understand that theirs is the hardest job in economy, for they have to guard the interests of a whole nation. The best way to do this, is to compete of international basis. Laissez-faire.

Leaders

2008-06-01T14:03:00.002+08:00

I think I have perfected the arguments for the ineffectiveness of command system in the army.

The best sort of discipline is self-discipline. That is, without being told, one practices self-restraint. Clearly, for anyone to do anything without being told, he must be believe what he is doing, and is willing to do what he is about to do. Therefore, the way to do this, would be to persuade people about your ideals, and vision.

You can of course, impose your will upon others through force. But what would that achieve. People will never be convinced of your ideas. To follow you, they must have reason to do so. For they are giving up some of their own ideas, their own freedom, to follow yours. If you impose your will on others, then they will only feel resentment. Trust and respect is to be earned, and you earn it by proving it. By sincerity of actions or persuasive arguments, or just pure dangling of incentives infront of others.

When your ideas are the entire peoples' ideas, anybody who tries to fight against you, will not just have to fight you, they will have to fight your ideas. If your peoples' belief in your ideas is firm to begin with, anybody who tries to fight your ideas would have a hard time, for there is a lot of people to persuade otherwise.

If in the first place, your followers never had full belief in your ideas, or were never fully persuaded by you, then you are all that is holding them together, either by force or by circumstances. Clearly, such a following is weak; all the enemy have to do is to target you. If you fall, the entire group falls. But if you had fully persuaded everyone about your ideas, the enemy would find that targeting you the leader is not enough. For another one would step forward to continue your ideas. And another, and another.

The art of leadership? Sincerity of actions, and your ability to persuade. Surely there natural leaders, born with the gift to easily persuade people, or just do great things. For the rest of us, we will have to train it ourselves. I am certain your average command school does not teach you this.

Heyzz, now's nt the time to complain- about the price rise.

2008-05-26T15:35:00.004+08:00

Well, after 3 weeks, the exercise with the infantrymen is finally over. Lucky they have some conscience, and gave us a week off, so here I am with a week ahead of me.. free with little to do, except to try and fully immerse and enjoy civilian life. And that means going out once in a while, reading, playing computer, good bed, absence of the need to wake up at obscene hours, absence the need to do saikang. Sadly the rest of the guys are in camp now, even the guy that was awarded leave for dunno wad reason(that means you, yh) is now back in camp starting his jog for the 3rd chevron stripe.

In the span of these 3 weeks, alot of things have occurred in the outside world. There are things that have remained status quo. Things that have changed are the occurrence of the natural disasters. Things that have not changed is that prices are rising, and growth is slowing.

Raising money to aid disaster relief is undoubtedly a nobly affair, if the money goes to whoever that needs it. Except there really isn't any effective mechanism to regulate this. More than likely, the money is being very inefficiently used, and may even end up fattening certain private pockets. I dunno how to we regulate this charity money, maybe we need a set up an independent institution to watch over the institutions the receive these charity, but that sounds like more bureaucratic inefficiency to me. Besides, who will watch the watchers? Quis Custodiet ipsos Custodes..

It was not very long ago, that a very rosy picture was painted for the economic growth rate. Indirect taxes were raised (7% GST), and the reasoning was well explained. After all, the govt. is entitled to a little fruits of the labour. The timing could not have been 'better'. General price level rose a little, but it was considered to be ok. But the winds started to change, for several things are to happen at the same time, with the result of gaining momentum. US economy started to slide, after taking a hit from a credit crisis. The weakening of the US economy meant that demand for US dollars has dropped*, leading to a weaker US dollar. Oil, which is priced in US dollars, is now rising in price. Thanks to the weaker US dollar. Enter the stage, the rapidly growing China, with its rapidly rising consumption(inefficiently) of energy. And this serves to bump up the prices. Now, the with the oil price gaining momentum, enter the speculative tendencies of investors, who further pushes up the price of oil.

Result? We have the start of an inflation. Pile on the fact that US economy growth is slowing, it looks like we are facing a double whammy on both sides. The only outlet is to hope that China's and India's economic growth remains strong, and that the Euro Union's economy remains stable. But the stock markets are hot enough already. It looks set to cool off already. At that means lower money supply. And maybe the Chinese are then less willing to consume.

It looks like a damned if you do, and damned if you don't-kinda situation. The best that we can do, is to take the price rise more astutely, and reduce unnecessary consumption, and hope that incentives to attain greater efficiencies are finally here.

1 of the 13- Death Eaters

2008-05-17T13:21:00.002+08:00

Sucks man.. I'm most 'privileged' to be selected as one of the 13-membered fighting platoon tasked to ferry fighting infantry troops to battle, while the rest of the 20 odd people get the slackest job ever - support platoon.

UNFAIR UNFAIR UNFAIR UNFAIR. But since when is life ever fair?

Its most dulan to see that when you are sweating under the hot sun, or in the rain, carry heavy stuff up and down the tank, carrying a rifle that you dunno how to use and gets in the way of you trying to do things, and that your face is covered with camouflage cream, and that less than 10 m away, people(from you same batch), slacking, laughing, sleeping(whole day, only waking up for lunch or dinner).

And this 13 of us is doing saikang work all the way. Some of us are even more unlucky to have our commanders holler for them every so frequently to do more saikang work. Barely time to catch a breather. I think we should are brand ourselves with the Dark Mark la, so that when your sergeant needs you, he just presses on the tattoo, then we will all instantly, 'disapparate and apparate' in front on them, ready to cower before the latest orders.

...zzz...More saikang to go next week, some more burn my Vesak day.. they better pay me back the holiday.

Gift of the Goddess

2008-05-02T21:16:00.002+08:00

When the war of the beasts brings about the world’s end
The goddess descends from the sky
Wings of light and dark spread afar
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting

Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess
We seek it thus, and take it to the sky
Ripples form on the water’s surface
The wandering soul knows no rest.

There is no hate, only joy
For you are beloved by the goddess
Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds

Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul
Pride is lost
Wings stripped away, the end is nigh

Three friends go into battle
One is captured,
One flies away,
the one that is left becomes a hero.
If we were to enact it,
would I be the one to play the hero,
Or would You?
Indeed
After all, your glory should have been mine.

My Friend, the fates are cruel
There are no dreams, no honour remains.
The arrow has left the bow of the goddess.

My Soul corrupted by vengeance,
Hath endures torment,
To find the end of the journey in my own salvation.
And Your eternal slumber.

Now what i want most...
is the 'Gift of the Goddess'...

Legend shall speak
Of sacrifice at world’s end
The wind sails over the water’s surface
Quietly, but surely

Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return
To become the dew that quenches the land
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies
I offer thee this silent sacrifice.

Who are we to judge?

2008-04-18T18:18:00.003+08:00

A lot of arguments and wars can be said to be attributed to reason that we are much to quick to judge others. Its the basic mistake of drawing a conclusion on the basis of a small sample size that is not representative of the whole of facts. My past few months in the army living close to other people has shown the acuteness of this problem.. Criticising that the in-charge is lousy, or laugh at the way other people talk, speak, make decisions, actions, etc. Sometimes, I find myself falling into the same trap of hasty judgement.

Who are we to judge? If you were one day given the same mythical ring of Gyges, a ring that grants its user the power of invisibility, would you be able to resist the temptations of power? Is it wrong if the user is corrupted in this case? If you say yes, that means you understand that the idea to steal or do other such activities is wrong. Or you believe yourself capable of withstanding the lure of the power. You who have never been tried in the same circumstances, will never know whether you truly is capable of remaining free of the temptation. Should you one day be presented the same ring, perhaps its a little too late now to reject it. Perhaps its even a greater pity that you cannot use it. Once you use it, it is only a fine line between moral usage and immoral usage.

It is precisely the same point here about judgement. How are you to know whether you can do better? Even if you really can do better, it may not be under the same circumstances. We tend always to think to ourselves too highly, and therefore, we are not as flawless as we seem to think ourselves. We overestimate ourselves, and thus we will make definitely make mistakes, if not the same ones, when it is our turn.

Our tendency to classify and dichotomize things into good and bad fails to take into account that there is really no solid definition for good and bad; nothing to compare against at all, except for cultural norms, and these have often proved to change fluidly with time. Certain things may be both beneficial and harmful, in different aspects, in different measures. If I might go further, I would say that all such things are like that, there is nothing that only consists of positively goodness, or 'badness'. Since there is no solid measure to say something is either good or bad, then why judge at all?

Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other; no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a God among men. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right.

Endless road ahead

2008-04-12T14:02:00.002+08:00

Its been a fairly routine week for this week. Wake up early, whole day of training, with lots of waiting time in between, and going back to camp extremely late like 12 am. Sleep. Then wake up. Endure guys, endure..

The environment outfield here is really sian. No matter what the weather is, its bad. If the day is dry, then its likely to get blisteringly hot and humid out here. The tank hull heats up and that makes clambering up and down the tank difficult. When the tank moves around, a sandstorm is raised, sufficient to induce bronchitis to everyone nearby. A fine layer of red sand(clay) settles on everything around here.. If the day is wet, then the sand becomes mud. While there is no more sandstorm around, the wet weather seriously inconveniences movement outfield, with mud being distributed around here there everywhere. Not to mention that due to the heavy weight of the tank, a surprisingly large number of mud pools are formed out here. While tank movement is not impeded by mud pools, poor infantry people walking on 2 legs as the occassion demands suffers. Oh yea, the mosquitoes out here comes in platoon sizes, all commando quality. Imagine it, a platoon of army guys, brought down by a section of red beret mosquitoes. Despite the fact that we are covered from head to toe by our long 4 uniforms, these moquitoes come equipped with extraordinarily long needles, capable of piercing clothes.

At night, without the usual comfort level of light to illuminate the darkness, chaotic movement sets in. The nightlife of insects buzz, including mosquitoes, which now bring out a whole battalion in search of fresh blood. However, when all in quiet, cruising at the back of tank, feeling the fresh after-breeze of a rainfall, with clear skies full of stars, I can find a refreshing sense of solitude. It would have been a nice situation if not for the fact that I had army training to carry out.

Seeking solitude amongst the starry nights.

The other blog

2007-02-06T21:18:00.000+08:00

Taking the advice of others that complain that my blog has entries written in ultra small font, and in such a small box, plus ultra long entries, I have opened another blog. This blog is going to be clean and open, with much much bigger font, and well as a more mundane background. Fear not for this current blog though. This blog will remain as an exhibtion blog, a blog that I use to write about daily school stuff, and when I design a new blog, this blog will be used to exhibit that.

For longer thoughts, some times bordering on abstract for some people, then I have the other blog up for you. If you want to test yourself, or feel like up to a reading challenge(just kidding), then it will be nice to step on the other blog. The link is provided in the other box. Opposite to this one.

Purpose

2007-02-03T13:48:00.000+08:00

In my opinion the academic system has a flaw in it. The long years of schooling, plus hectic activities has started to instill a sort of 'complacency'. Students learning in Singapore certainly have it different from other countries. While the content taught is of high quality, yet something is being missed.

Perhaps you have wondered about the future. You know, like what you would do, what kind of house you would live in, what kind of cars will you drive, etc. But the future is uncertain, we all know that. And then your thoughts might turn back to current life, current situation. You see yourself, oh dear, I have failed this test again, for the 10th time. And you look somemore and see, ahya, school is getting busier, cca until 7 pm. Go home late, tons of homework to do. Must mug harder. Yet you never find time to do it. When you do find time, you tell yourself, aiya, work so hard for this week already, must have a well-earned rest. And you sit down and sleep.

See the flaw here? Perhaps not. After school, you take out your homework, looks at the benzene ring in disgust. You think, sighs, what has the benzene ring got to do with the future? I want to be a psychologist. You take out your next homework. Omg, what has quantum mechanics gotta do with reality around me. Totally irrelevant, and abstract too. So difficult to understand, you think. You look at your pile of notes. Tml is maths test on CnR, and calculus. And you think, wads the use of this stupid topic. I dont need to do integration next time as a nutritionist.

See the flaw? Lemme tell you. The school system while having the best interests at heart for your development and education, has missed a certain point. That point is where is the relevancy? The school has never really shown you how this subject might be helpful for what stuff later. You dont see the link between real life and the subjects that you are taking. Or you dont care about the link. You think about the future, sigh, look at the present, and you forget about the future fast. Because the present has so many pressing matters, stress, etc, you just want to take a step at a time, and dont think too far ahead. And because you dont want to think too far ahead, you forget to question where exactly are you headed to, and what exactly it is that you want, and why is it the you are doing all this for.

And if your answer is just to earn tht cert so that you can get to a job that can get lots of power and money, then you are too short sighted. What if suddenly one day, you question yourself where exactly are you headed to, and what exactly it is that you want, and why is it the you are doing all this for; you might come down with an identity crisis, and its very easy to fall into Depression. The later that you try to answer this question, the easier it is to fall into a greater crisis. Better to answer that question early than to answer it later.

Invariably, the school becomes a maze of sorts for some people, and those people become lab rats running blindly inside. Not that everyone must plan very far ahead, or work very hard towards a certain goal in mind, but if you can just answer those questions yourself, then you find that life is suddenly a lot more purposely. Without consciously working towards your goal actively, you are subconciously moving towards it. Your mind, would direct nudges in the right direction to your goal, and all you need is to walk towards it. Suddenly you become more purposeful when studying for subjects. Benzene rings look a lot more relevant in life. Quantum mechanics is happening right before you. And subconciously, you are doing Integration all the time.

Think about it. What do you want to do next time? Why do that in future? Why exactly are you doing this now?

2007-02-02T20:15:00.000+08:00

JC2 life is certainly more time consuming than JC1. Then again, I suppose I cant complain so much, after all the homework is definitely more challenging now, and that everyone is more or less bogged down by similar subjects, where I have a definite edge(>< hehe).

Responding to choo's blog entry for love being not possession, I would like to offer a bit of insight. See ah, the true essence of love is to be selfless, therefore, to truly love the person, you would continue to love the person even though your love may not reciprocated. But of course, humans are not that noble. We are rational beings, and many consider love devoted to be some sort of marginal cost. Love not reciprocated, is like zero marginal benefit. Obviously quite a lot of people, wont continue this action at all. Also, everyone cant afford to selflessly love someone that is quite unlikely to reciprocate.

But love is not rational action at all, to apply rational analysis on it is futile ultimately.
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It is curious how having a certain knowledge in an area of active application can be extremely enlightening. Its like having a lens placed before your eyes, and suddenly a whole new world of new spectrum is available. For example, after micro and macro economics, even computer games features economies.

One very good example is MapleStory. Other than whacking monsters, players actively engage in trade of items and money. The mechanism for such trade between individual players is of course determined completely by standard demand and supply. Because there is scarcity of resources(time and rare items), a system of trade eventually occurs.

This game illustrates the free market system. There is no 'government intervention' in this game. However due to lack of government intervention, one certainly sees major problems like inflation, and the bubble economy. Because money in the game is constantly being 'printed' with no govt to regulate, inflation invariably occurs where everyone has more buying power.

And the prices of certain rare items can get really high. This is opportunity for the bubble economy to form. Prices of items get ridiculously high, but eventually the bubble burst.

But in this game, there is no systems of loans and credits. So I think thats why financial crisis do not occur. You need real hard cash(mesos) if you are to buy anything.

Gtg for dinner. More on this intriguing topic tml.

A life I hope would never end

2007-01-26T20:34:00.000+08:00

Not so recently i saw this ridiculous article on the Straits Times. I had almost all but forgotten about it until I saw the article again while xtin was flipping through her GP file.

This man wrote in to the Forum to say that since there were programs like IP, thru'train, etc, JC was completely redundant. He advised the Education Ministry to rethink about the concept of JC, says that the syllabus thought during JC was redundant anyway.

After reading that article, I feel that this guy has got all his assumptions wrong. Either he was a complete nerd during JC, or else he must have pon school a lot of times. First of all, if JC was just about the idea of studying, then he must have a very sad life then.

First of all, JC is about the intoxicating mix of friends, CCA, and academic. Its like taking a cocktail of drugs, booze, driving, just more safe, and more sociably acceptable. Obviously, one does not spend all day mugging, neither does one spend all entirely with friends and nothing else. Its this exciting mix of mugging and friends, that is what JC is all about.

JC is also a time where everyone gets out the little kids mentality and be more independent. Make decisive choices, because the school lets you to do so. Its the open concept of studying, not mope in a small corner and memorise like crazy.

JC is also a time to try new stuff, experience new things. You know, if you have been dying to try something, then JC is the best time to try it. If your experience has been enriching, you can even write it down for your testimonial.

JC is also the last academic institution to wear uniforms. After that, no more uniting under the same banner.

I have been dying all my life to reach JC; primary was so superficial, homework so easy, naive thinking; secondary was slightly better but still a lot of restrictions. JC allows that freedom never before felt. And also when the homework starts to get more challenging. Whats the fun of easy homework? I am finally in a CCA that I actually have interest in, not some boring CCA that was a big mistake. Whats more, its the experience together with friends that add a lot of pluses to the whole thing.

So many good stuff, and this guy says 'Abolish JC' ??!! Go boil his head la. JC is the crucial bridge between university and secondary school. Destroy that bridge and..and I just dunno wad to say.

I hope this would never end..2 years is too short. Another year would be nice.

Problems and more problems.

2007-01-20T15:22:00.000+08:00

Pardon me for being pessimistic, but I see lot of problems of the world nowadays. One can almost start to classify the list of major problems that can lead to world breaking down.

1. Political Problems.
The political situation between America and Iraq, Iran. The situation between China and USA. The situation between Singapore and its neighbors. These are like walking along a fine thread, war could break out anytime soon. Political instability is one problem that we are not going to get rid of anytime soon.

2. Environmental Problems. Thanks to human greediness and selfishness, we are suffering from the effects of several things. Destruction of habitats, species of flora and fauna going into extinction. Changes in weather patterns, scarcity of materials becoming more and more acute. This is not good at all. Perhaps we are not too late. But at the rate we are going, there’s no pulling out and turning back so fast. So maybe its too late after all.

3. Weather Problems. This follows from above. The world is suffering from a situation approaching that illustrated in “The Day After Tomorrow”. Freak weather patterns that are being observed all over the world. We have severe floods in Malaysia, and some minor(but considered very severe by our standards) floods in Singapore. In Europe, there are some very severe storms. My next prediction is that Europe is going to experience a very severe heat wave in March. By June, Australia bush fires will be stronger then ever experienced. And the forest fires in Indonesia is going to be all the more bigger during July. This means a haze problem even more severe than last year’s.

4. Energy Problems. This is one thorny problem. Energy consumption is rising without limit, at the rate we are going. But tappable energy on Earth is finite for the moment. Unless we have a major technological breakthrough that will bring the prices of alternative energy down drastically, we are facing a Malthusian nightmare. Until then, expect more quarrels, between Russia and Europe over oil, and be prepared for oil prices skyrocketing.

5. Viruses. Sars was just a few years back only. Bird Flu is an all time persistent problem. For ‘organisms’ about the length of a nanometer, it sure is capable of causing a hell of havoc, bring economies down. As birds are being massacred, prices of chicken and eggs are sure to go up. During this rainy season, a lot of bacteria and viruses are going to thrive in a lot of water logged areas, causing a breakout sooner or later.

6. Natural Disasters. Earthquake, tsunamis, have devastating effects. Capable of uprooting an entire city, or bringing down the Internet. We should relook our telecommunications. The Taiwan earthquake is one good lesson. How can we continue to depend our economic activities on the Internet if everytime there is an Internet, the regional connections breakdown?

7. Economic problems. With so many of the above problems, it is likely if anyone of the above worsens, then the world economy might take steep plunge.

Being a president or prime minister at this times is not easy at all. Its a wonder why would anyone still fight to strongly over such position.

Choice

2007-01-19T20:10:00.000+08:00

Spending almost everyday in the school library has me reading a lot of new an interesting stuff. One, I am reading up on the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis; you know, to try and prepare and see if I can take a shot at writing that massive essay on for the MAS competition. About what I learnt in that crisis? I learnt that speculation on the economy tends to be self-fulfilling. And that Adam Smith's invisible hand can break down. Adam Smith says that each individual, acting in their own self interest would collectively, unconciously, act for the greater good of the society. It is as if there is an invisible hand guiding the economy. But, there can be times where this invisible hand can cease to work, where sound economic principles apparently break down.

It is not difficult to see a similar situation in game theory. Some times, everyone doing the most rational act, result in an irrational solution, in large groups of people. The most common example is the Prisoner's Dilemma. Each person, doing the most rational thing to do, ends up with the worst result. That's where the invisible hand cease to guide anymore.

On another note, we have been studying moral ethics for GP. In a way, moral ethics involve the same idea, making choices, how do you make choices, based on what principles, blah blah. It is incredible how everything links up together, like a gigantic web of links.

Choice, is the most difficult thing to decide in the world.

OG OG Oh Great Lala

2007-01-06T14:41:00.000+08:00

Looking at the new J1s having OG stuff kinda brings back some nice memories about my own OG. I still remember exactly 1 year ago, i came into school with a certain degree of apprehension.

Back then, the first 3 days were the most fun of the orientation. Cos the first 3 days were arranged to let you acquaint yourself with the school and get to know other people outside your little circle. So, lots of time were dedicated to talking, playing nice small games. (Not those muddy muddy dirty stuff). Well i still remember playing murderer, mafia, whacko. Yea man, was I good at being murderer or the mafia. No one beats chai at the innocent face. I still remember some people rubbing their arms after getting whacked by me in Whacko. Ahaha, ruthless me back then. Hey, blame me for ungentleman acts, but I should say that when I play, I play 100% hard. Just the same with studies.

No pressure there, just play your way through, get to know people. Nice people. People whom 50% became OGLs themselves to pass on the delightful experience to the next batch.

"Summer days driftin away, to uh-oh those summer nights..uh well uh well a hur..Tell me more Tell me more.."

2007-01-04T18:27:00.000+08:00

Ah I have firmly decided that quiet teachers shouldnt teach quiet classes. The deathly silence is too much to bear. Pressuring on us, pressuring on the teacher, plus the overwhelming urge to fall asleep.

Today, my chem teacher spent almost 2 hours on doing just 3 tutorial qns. Woo, even slower than my last chem teacher. -_-. Spent 45 min recapping old stuff, which is a very good idea, except that she covered nothing new, except to copy out stuff from the chem notes; which I think we can read ourselves. More than once I got lost half way, and didnt know which question she was at. Because she tend to wander a bit, and wandering in a soft voice is not a very good idea.

She asked us halfway whether we knew what a reflux was, whether we have seen a setup before. Silence for 1 min. For god sake, how could anyone not know what reflux is, if we have been writing it for exams for the past Promo exams!! Ok, maybe everyone knew what reflux is, but is just keeping quiet. Which is waste of time. The teacher was trying to elicit a response from the class, but the class was observing a moment of silence. Oh man, that is precisely why our old CT got chased away. So, I think either we speak up, or the teacher gives up trying to elicit a response and just plows on throughout the class. No need to ask a question and try so hard to a get an answer. Easier on us too. What the some teachers dont understand is that different classes have different needs. For our class, we are conditioned to listen quietly to the teacher and hurriedly copy tons of notes. We are not conditioned to ask and question and engage in a discussion.

And then, she asked about about the purpose of using a reflux. Hmm, I should clarify that the purpose of the reflux is to prevent the volatile organic substances from decomposing because you want the little molecules to be heated for some extended time. Once you understand that this is the purpose, you will see that to do this is to let the organic molecules evaporate and recondense back. So you need a Liebig condenser with a cap at the top. This way, you can both heat the molecules for extended period of time and still not decompose them.

Quirks of education

2006-12-31T16:40:00.000+08:00

So passes another year..Today, this post marks the last entry of the year. Somehow I am nt looking forward to the new year at all. Boredom and dread awaits.

Boring topics.
Next year, physics would include electricity topics and modern physics. In my opinion, they dumb down the modern physics topic so much, tht it is arguably the easiest to learn among all the physics topics. Just memorise and spam during exam. C'est annoyeaux

Chemistry is an excpetion, having taught all the boring topics first, and covering the interesting ones in year 2. Though people find physical chemistry difficult, I think it is interesting, more bangs and results.

Maths, having finshed the important part, which is calculus, the only topic left to teach is combinatorics. Another boring topic in my opinion.

Econs, nothing to say, not my area of specialty, but i can say its going to be pretty boring too.

GP.. they are expanding the period of lessons next year. All i say is that i will be spending more time stoning.

PE, here comes the real pressure next year. Will they give up like their predecessors? Haiz

I wonder how i will survive next year. Next year would come and pass in a blink, and then after that, its hell time.

Happy New Year guys, for those that took time to read this.

2006-12-18T15:19:00.000+08:00

北方有佳人，

绝世而独立，

一顾倾人城，

再顾倾人国，

宁不知，倾城与倾国，

佳人难再得。

2006-12-17T16:19:00.000+08:00

Hmm..they say that passion is infectious. Showing your interest in something could potentially spark others with the same passion. Ah well, here I am then, do present you with more thoughts on science, maths and life.

Ever noticed that while waiting for buses at the bus stop, you tend to wait a long long time for buses? Then, suddenly, 2, wait, 3(!) buses come one after the other. Perhaps you have never seen this phenomenon before. But I have. YH was incredulous that there was such a thing happening. But I showed him that phenonmenon in a life demonstration, and I think he was stunned after that.

We all know, that buses arent scheduled to do that. They are scheduled to move along at regular time intervals. But somehow, along the way, they seemed to have bunched up! There is an explanation for this, and I think you can find it on the Internet. But unfornately, the math explanation involved was a bit too complicated. And I have got an easier one.

Lets say buses move out from the Bus Interchange at 30 min intervals. But, you know, bus drivers arent all robots. Not every bus driver drives at a uniform 70 km/h. They are bound to speed up and slow down. Therefore, all it takes for the phenomenon to occur is 1, yes 1, bus uncle to drive slower than normal. This particular bus is going slow, and therefore the time it takes to reach the bus stops are longer. As a result, people have to wait longer for the bus to come. In this time period, more people would have accumulated at the bus stop. When the slow bus finally do arrive, a huge bunch of passengers board the bus. They take time to board. The bus becomes much heavier in mass and have to drive slower.

Now, the second bus that drives off from the interchange would catch up with the first abnormally slow bus. Being almost right behind the first bus, it would not pick up any passengers. Hence, it would be light in mass, and has a tendency to travel faster, since there are no passengers to drop off and pick up. So now, we got 2 buses that follow one after the other. Since the second bus is fast, it services all bus stops quickly. But the 3rd bus going out from the bus interchange is not going to set out earlier. It has to adhere to its timetable. So to the people waiting at the bus stop, the time gap between the 2nd bus and the third one is longer. During the lengthened time interval, lots of people gather at the bus stop..When the bus finally do come, alot of people board the bus. Thus creating another slow bus.

See now? 1 slow bus, creates many pairs. One slow, one fast. Each following each other. This is self perpetuating. Sometimes, instead of pairs of buses, you see triplets. Its much the same explanation too.

Think this phenonmenon is one of its kind? Wrong. I see the same thing occuring in superconducting materials too. The quantum phenonmenon is called Cooper pairs, where pairs of electrons team up just like the buses to travel through metal.

I hope you would spend some time next time, while waiting at the bus stop, to observe this curious phenomenon! The advice still stands: If you have been waiting for very long for a bus, and when the bus finally comes but it very full, wait for the next one. It should come shortly.

Cheerios,

2006-12-15T16:28:00.000+08:00

2006-12-11T16:28:00.000+08:00

New blog design.. One that has took me 1 month to complete. Had to settle for this one, because orginally my design was too complicated, and when loaded on to Blogger, it took a darn long time for blogger to download all 12 parts of my images. The result was a super pixellated version. Therefore, I opted to change my design, one that is simpler. This is the one that you see now.
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I am bracing myself for another Great Sale in Singapore. If you ask me, discounts are the world's most evil economic ploy. Especially for Singaporeans in particular. Due to innate nature. we tend to go completely berserk when we see a price tag that say "50% off". We tend to buy a lot more than we intended originally. As a result, we actually spent more money than we would have spent if there was no Great Sale. Ah, human nature I suppose. Another dark side. Though not as dark as to be evil I suppose.

Meanwhile, I am following Terry Brooks 'Shannara' series obsessively. Buying one book every weekend. There's 7 books in all in the series and I am lapping up every single one of them. Currently, I possess: The Sword of Shannara, The Elf Stones of Shannara, The Scions of Shannara, and The Adventures of Jerle Shannara. It seems like every fantasy tale must have an old man that wields impressive magical powers. In this case, we have a 500 year old Druid, Allanon, who walks about hooded, a tall, dark, and impressive figure, with eyes that shot right though you, laying your very soul bare.

Hmm.. in the book I encounter duality nature again. Sometimes truth can encompass all, for teh safety of others, one may have to decieve to hold true. Sometimes I wonder if its the same for science. Perhaps, its best to leave sciences to white haired old men who have genuine interest than to leave it to people who find no use in it and are not interested in it. Why force it to tons of kids who find it a bore and fail it regularly. Let them study other more interesting subjects. Seems like knowledge is not intended for everyone.

2006-11-30T14:03:00.000+08:00

The following are some of the thoughts that I have been thinking about for the past few days. It concerns the analysis of forces. A lot of people look at the equations of gravitation and equations of motion and see nothing extraordinary about them. More often than once, we equate both equation and go on to solve without thinking what is actually happening.

Firstly, the equation of motion F=ma. From this equation we see a cause and effect relationship. A force is a cause. What does it cause? It causes a object of mass m to accelerate.

Next, we look at the equation of gravitation. F= GMm/r^2. Looky, looky, what do we have here? Now, the cause is 2 objects of masses M and m respectively. And the effect? Why, yes, the force F.

So we see, 2 equations, different causes and effects. Aha, when we equation the 2 equations to solve for acceleration, we are actually linking 2 cause-effect chains. Masses cause a gravitational force, which in turn cause another mass to accelerate.

There might be a question now, for the gravaitational equation. What if Mass isn't a cause? But an effect? Ooo, unthinkable consequences. Gravitational forces generate mass? Worth furthur thoughts perhaps.

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

Obsessiveness.. Funny how love closely models the other emotion..that of, insanity. That's the defining mark in humans i suppose.

2006-11-14T15:08:00.000+08:00

Here I am to blog again, not because I have blogged yesterday before, but because I am just bored. Was just thinking about the class affairs. Is it for better or for worse? Hard to tell. After a year, I would say its better and its still bad. Better because I think there is better mixing between cliques. Still bad because I am just like starting to get to know some of the people better. Eh like tianju rightly puts in a lightly amused manner, "Is this a get-to-know-me session?", I find even after 1 year, I hardly know much about the newcomers.

Oh, lets not talk about the fact I already know the RVians in the class pretty well. Knew 3 of them since Sec2, knew 2 of them since Sec 3, knew 1 of them because she's in the same cca as my bro. But overall, almost all rvians have the pretty the same 'cultures'. Influence from rv I suppose. In that respect, I know them better than frens from other sec. sch.

Haha, perhaps it is fate that the class was endowed with clumps of people with differing mindsets and interests. Naturally, cliques and 'gangs' of differing interests appear. And perhaps its due to high concentration of rvians in the class, that the class guys and girls are largely immiscible. They dont mix that well together. So much so, that even the CIP trainer can tell that there is a very obvious gender segregation in the class.

I suppose our class is slightly better off because there are still people who are actively trying the pull the class together. These people have never given up hope that the class might be strongly united one day. Perhaps we are trying to do this so hard is because we have experienced an alike situation, and do not want it to happen again. Obviously, united-ness can only be achieved when all participate. Its like a collection of molecules in solid state; every molecule participates in exerting a strong intermolecular force on all its neighbours. A few guys trying to pull everyone else together can only act like a catalyst. Facilitate but cannot take the place of the intermolecular bind.

One more year to go I suppose. I dunno whether I am sad or happy for this.

情为何物， What is this thing called love? Non-comprehende

2006-11-13T19:29:00.000+08:00

Looks like everyone is spending excessive times at home being bored, stoning or just plain staring-into-space. At least YH isnt, he is spending every day outside, 24hrs almost.

So, my turn to spam my own blog. My spend my waking hours nowadays, in such a manner. Wake up at 9, eat breakfast, stone my way till 2.30pm, eat lunch, play Dota till 8.30pm, eat dinner, watch DVDs till 11pm then sleep. And so I have been spending my days as such.

....Any one fancy going out say for bball or soccer or badminton during one of these weeks? sian..

2006-11-08T19:57:00.000+08:00

Haha, its been so long ever since the last time I have updated my blog.. PW is finally over..nothing between me and relaxing anymore, at least not for another month or so.

Class chalet was held during Nov 1-3. Some wondered whethered it was a flop. In my experience, all chalets are almost like that, mostly spontaneous stuff, on-the-spur of the moment. Instead thinking of the result, what the chalet has achieved, think instead of the process. After its all about company, and I think i enjoyed the company of friends during that period, and that in itself is more important than what the chalet has achieved(practically nothing).

Immortals are boring creatures, because with a snap of the fingers they can achieve anything they want. Therefore, they alone understand truly how important the process of doing things, over the result. Contrary to what we think, immortals envy us in this aspect. I suppose sitting in the clouds day after day just brooding about philosophy and twiddling your thumbs is an extremely boring prospect. It is funny how mortals yearn to be immortals, and immortals yearn to be mortals.

Knowledge, in the respect, is like immortality. You are curious, and therefore you hunger for knowledge. After achieving that knowledge, you realise that having knowledge is not any better than those innocent blissful people.. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Dota-ing now, signing off till then.

2006-10-28T19:11:00.000+08:00

Finally the academic year is over, and I can finally not care anymore about academic stuff..and devote myself fully to reading other books and playing dota and going out with friends. Time to relax.

And so pass another year.. one more year together as a class..perhaps the class situation ain't so bad.. Things are getting better between cliques, and I think perhaps by next year the class spirit will be much stronger. Pity that by the time the class is well bonded, we will have to part again.

Who wants to watch The Inconvenient truth and DOA? I might sponsor half your ticket fees, depending on my mood and generosity.

2006-10-15T14:57:00.000+08:00

Being naturally stupid is not a sin. No one is gonna blame you for being stupid naturally. Even naturally stupid people can be cultivated to a certain level of intelligence.

Now, it IS a sin, when you are graced with intelligence and the abilities to reason, and you choose to be stupid. Ironically, it is an extreme act of stupidity to act stupid when you are not, just because you are lazy to think.

For god sake, some have PSLE score better than mine, and a O Lvl score that is way better than mine, but for sheer laziness of the mind, are acting as if they are more stupid than me. I understand that not everyone is born a genius. Even I concede I am not one. But logic and reasoning is something that can be cultivated and learnt. Once learnt, then use it! More than once, you can solve a problem with just logic and reasoning and some contextual knowledge, instead of sitting down there and stoning.

That being said, it is also understandable that logic is slightly different for each person. Some people's logic is that logical consequences do not follow logically from logical sentences. But that is the minority. The 1% of the population. The rest of us share a common base of logic. From this logic, we can reach similar conclusions. All just with a little effort from the mind.

I just dunno whether people act stupid for the fun of it, or out of sheer laziness. Perhaps I will never know. I am almost past caring.

Two words : Depressingly Stupid.

2006-10-07T22:15:00.001+08:00

An undispellable gloom seems to have settled itself over the country. The nation woke up overnight to find itself shrouded a by very thick layer to haze. Thanks to the forest fires, the latest PSI index is 150. Yes, unhealthy levels certainly. Surprisingly, the moon is beautiful tonight, full moon with a copper colour. Almost like a lunar eclipse. Well, well, at least the moon is bright red today. Could be a real lunar eclipse or could be the result of the the haze.

The haze looks gloomy to me. This morning while I was outside, I noticed that the sunlight filtering through the shrouded skies, was diffused. Hence, every object on the ground appeared not to have a shadow. Most unsettling. It gives the place a very unatural feel. Not just that, it looked like the entire place was being shrouded by the fog of war.

The consequence of this haze is that Games Day on Monday might possibly be called off.

2006-10-07T22:15:00.000+08:00

2006-10-04T15:41:00.000+08:00

Exams over..another annoying series of tests bypassed and neutralised.

Class outing I should say, does not leave up to its name..Should be renamed as clique outings..By and large, its not a wasted one, as I improved on bowling. Not too bad. At least there's less gutterballs now. All the physics knowledge in the world, and I cant do shit about it. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that people usually do not take out pencil and paper and start calculating whenenver they want to aim a basketball through the hoops, or when playing billiards. Its just pure instinct. In this type of games, if you let your brain rule, you are gonna be a second late in making critical decisions. Instead, you let your heart do the job. Pure instinct. Take a deep breath, the critical moment stretches to infinity as you aim and shoot. You release, and you turn away, knowing that you have just aimed correctly. As if on cue, 3 secs later, you hear the sound of all the pins falling. Bingo. The moment is vast.

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Heart confusion. I have better control now, able to think more clearly. Still, there are moments, I can not control anything. What's more, there is a certain urge not to do anything at all. To just let go and not try and control anything. I suppose I lack experience. Just like YH said, all the theory in the world, but no practical situations to rely on. Burnout, so weary, so weary. Half of me wants to retreat completely to inside my brain, the half wants to open up..

Next move? One step at a time.

2006-09-24T14:52:00.000+08:00

Mugging and craving for dota has left me little time to post any new entries recently, but here is the latest post.

I haven recently looking into several problems in Maths, one pertaining to game theory and the other is number theory. Ok, playing 'Chopsticks' with some friends and my brother reignited a mathematical interest to the game. That is, is there a optimal strategy by any player, and what is the outcome when both players play optimally. First of all, lets have a recap on the rules of the game. The rules have been restated in symbolic form, to avoid all those material confusion.

1) Both players start with 2 piles, containing 1 object each.
2) When its the player turn, there are 2 legal operations.
-Lets label this player's piles as C and D.
-1st operation: Where x < (C or D); the player can move so that (C-x, D+x), or (C+x, D-x)
-2nd operation: The player can move so that: (D+C, C) or (C+D, D)
3) After each turn, update your hand, by taking modulus 5.
4) If both piles having nothing left, the player loses.

A bit of experimentation can reveal that there can only be 3 results from this game; either player A wins, or player B wins, or both players are trapped in infinite loop such that the game is a draw. I think when both players play optimally, the result is a draw. The reasoning is as follows. A starts first. A has a winning strategy that prevents him from losing. So the outcome for him is either win or draw. When its B turn, B knows for him, the outcome is either draw or lose. So B will choose his strategy such that he can minimise his losses. In this case, B will opt for the draw. So ultimately, both players will be locked in a infinite loop and be forced to concede to a draw.

Of course this says nothing about the optimal strategy itself. I am currently still searching for it. The best way to do this is to do an exhautive tree search, but this is proving tedious due to the great amount of possibilities. When I have the strategy, I will post it up here.

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I am also occupied somewhat with the problem of the Collatz Conjecture. This conjecture goes like this: Take any number, if its even, divide by 2. If its odd, multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat the above steps with this new number. The conjecture states that all numbers eventually lead to the steps, 4,2,1,4,2,1, ad infinitum. Try it yourself.

First of all, we need to see that this involves 2 rules, a lengthening rule, one that makes numbers bigger, and a shortening rule, one that makes numbers smaller. It is impossible to predict on the outset whether a combination of lengthening and shortening rules lead to a specific number or lead to inifinity.

Next observe that all number of the form 2^x lead automatically to the loop just by dividing by 2. In other words, if you somehow hit on to this branch of numbers, there is no escape for you.

A bit of experimentation shows that starting with any number, you use more shortening rules than lengthening rules. I cant proof this, but I think it has to do with the property of the numbers itself. Still investigating.

In the meantime, we will all have to cross our fingers and hope for the best for Promos. Be sure to remember to study smart. No us spending 12 straight hours memorising everything, and not comprehending anything at all.

2006-09-12T20:03:00.000+08:00

Lol, in reference to the previous post, I now explain my own rationale for mugging.

I myself cannot care less for mugging. I look only at the process and hardly at the result. Sure its great joy to see oneself getting A for the subjects. Gives me a kick to think about it. But that's not the reason why. I prefer to see friendships as more important than results. I study for knowledge sake because I appreciate beauty in Nature and its Laws. I can hardly care less for the cert at university. I get it only because for passion in the subject that I am studying and not because I memorised everything that I can find in the textbook. Probably why I managed to DSA my way into NJC in the first place.

I learn loads everyday in school, not just from lectures and tutorials, but also from esteemed friends and classmates, even though they themselves are hardly aware of the wealth of knowledge they hold that are unique to themselves.

Perhaps some of you do not see this rationale yet. But never mind, knowledge will open your eyes one day to appreciate knowledge in its beauty. Then you will see that when one has everything in his life, its not the result that matter, but rather the process by which one has achieved.

2006-09-10T15:23:00.000+08:00

Ever searched yourself why mug so hard? Study blindly, no actual appreciation for knowledge, no actual use to the knowledge. So why still study? Search yourself for that answer.

Some people pride themselves being ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. Many would not care a hoot whether hydrogen combustion forms water or not, or whether a pendulum is simple harmonic. After all what revelance is there do their lives?

Some people feel that this is ultimately boring, some stage that they have to slog through as part of their lives. Then what is the meaning of even doing this? No meaning at all. No wonder the increasing rate of people who commit suicides.

Search yourself. Search deep.

2006-09-02T14:50:00.000+08:00

Ahaha, I found this by accident while solving a problem for a physics olympiad problem. Actually, the curve arose because I did not put my brackets in the equation properly..Imagine by surprise when i plotted the curve with the GC... Haha, one may go as far and say that this is the Equation of Love..Lol..Serenpidity favors the prepared mind.

Here's the equation again: e^(ln(sec x + tan x) * cos x) =y. Note that this should be plotted in polar coordinates. Hence you can see the wierd circular coordinates in the picture..

Haha, if only the real McCoy is so simple. If only the essence of love can be expressed so simply. Ah..the quirks of life it is. Possession is meaningless ultimately in the world..only thoughts and emotions..However we need to be wary of falling into the trap of immersing oneself in the emotion for the sake of the emotion...It can create all sorts of falsity, false realisations, false emotions..

Promos in 3 weeks..the 4C dota gang have a tendency of engaging in games just before a major exams..

2006-08-26T15:19:00.000+08:00

What is IT?

Newton did IT while the apple fell from the tree.
Pascal did IT under pressure.
Hertz did IT frequently.
Faraday did IT while rotating.
Maxwell did IT under magnetism and electricity.
Boltzmann did IT randomly.
Thompson did IT while shooting particles.
Rutherford did IT with an atomic model.
Bohr did IT excitedly.
Heisenberg did IT abstractly.
Schrodinger did IT realistically.
Pauli did IT but excluded his friends.
Feynmann did IT jokingly.

2006-08-23T21:25:00.000+08:00

Weakling. I gave in to my fears, I surrendered to my desires. I tell myself no, but yet I cannot control it. Failed in the test of wills. Rarr..I must not give in..I must not give in. Train myself in my mind I must.
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Its funny how decisions made a long time ago come back to haunt you with a vengeance. Future activities all decided by past decisions. One wrong move, you lose the game devastatingly.
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On happier sidenote, floorball is FUN! Even though it leaves me completely drained out physically after it. Haha here is something that I can do better than in soccer I think. Though I feel that the match that we lost to the IP was not exactly in taste. We did not lose gloriusly. We lost because the judge felt pressured by all the arguments from the IP side. I still don't see how they could have claimed that point though. The bloody net is inelastic, any ball that went in would have been caught inside it. Yet the ball bounced out with all the hallmarks of an elastic collision. Such a collision could have only occured if it hit the rock solid sides of the goalpost. Bloody hell.

But still I liked badminton the most. Its good that our class guys have warmed up to this game.

2006-08-15T19:52:00.000+08:00

We contemplate whether we can are ever free. I think it has extremely strong correlation to randomness. Think about it, predictability makes one think that everything has been predestined, that is, all the events were afore-decided by a Supreme Being. Whereas non-predictability or randomness is what defines choices. Surprised to hear choices are what define randomness? Perhaps you are skeptical that the outcome of a coin toss, a throw of the dice is decided by choices. Well, yes, the coin toss and the throw of the dice are not controlled by choices, but that is because these events are not completely random. In fact, if you could had information of the conditions such as air flow, force of throw, shape of dice/coin, angular momentum, angle of force application, you could theoretically calculate exactly how the coin would spin, and how exactly in would land. In other words, if you knew enough information, you could actually calculate the outcome of coin toss. In other words, the outcome of the coin toss is no longer random. It is predictable. The only reason why it appears random to us is because no one alive or dead has been able to calculate this. Because so many minute factors are involved in the physics of the flight of the coin, there would be so many calculations involved that even the fastest supercomputer on Earth would blow up.

On the contrary to what other people think, I believe choices truly defines a random outcome. Consider 2 piles of carrots that are equidistant to a donkey, one on his left, the other on his right. The donkey could either choose the pile on his left, or choose the pile on his right. Both piles are equally tasty to him, and hence he has no extra incentive to favour any pile over the other. So we set up this situation and we observe that the donkey chose the left one. In this case, the outcome will be truly unpredictable, because it is up to the donkey to make a choice. This test would be even more reliable than a coin toss for randomness. If we set up the situation again, the donkey could have chosen the right one this time. One could conceivably conduct this a hundred times, or a million times and still cannot predict accurately the next outcome.

That is of course assuming that the donkey has no directional favourite. And so we proceed to define a free choice. Because our choices are most of time affected by factors such as emotions, desire, and personal purposes, we are no longer unpredictable. We become predictable. I could predict with almost 100% accuracy if I whack kyan hard on the head, she would hit back with 3 times the force. We know she has the choice of either not hitting me or hitting me. But we already know what is her choice because, her choice in this case is coloured by her emotions. Revenge or just irritation in this case.

And so we discover that we are actually imprisoned by our emotions. We are no longer free under influence of our emotions and we are easily manipulated by other people. Though we continue to make choices, our choices are already predetermined. Slaves, in other words, to our fears and desires.

We come at last to defining free choice. Free choice is only possible when we free ourselves from our fears, our desires and our personal purposes. We are spontaneous when we make free choices because the outcome is random. No one will then able limit us, for they cannot predict what comes next.

Cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.

2006-08-08T21:30:00.000+08:00

Today, the class had a wonderful class outing..the kind that we have not seen for a a very long while. It was at least heartening to see the class getting to gather like this.. Went to watch "Click" at old place, orchard cineleisure. Wonderful show, in my opinion. You laugh your way through the show, but at the end of the show, you find that the director of the movie have been laughing at you all along. This show is similar to the situation where God gives you infinite riches, and asks you what do you want to do with it. In this case, God gives you infinite control of time, and asks you to make your choice on how you want to use this power. The character in the story chooses to fast forward less enjoyable parts of his life. In doing so, he misses some of the most integral parts of life. He fast forwards for the most part of his life, till in the end nearing his death, he realises that he have missed half of his life.

When you have everything in life, the result does not matter anymore, only the process matter. Imagine you have godlike powers; initially you would use this to great effect to achieve results instantly. One snap of fingers, gold appears in front of you. Another snap of fingers, food and luxury appears in front of you. True, you would enjoy this initially. But after while you would get tired of this. There would be no meaning in life this way. In a sense, when you have godlike powers, you would value the process more. The process of getting the result.

Perhaps we are starting to realise that what is the meaning of education. More genereally, what is the meaning of life then. Recently I myself have begun to lose confidence in what I am learning. People gain knowledge in view of a better future. But once you gain enough knowledge, you see it is much better off not to know anything, "Ignorance is bliss". You begin to doubt what you are learning. But the answer to this seeming paradox, is that what matters is not the result, but the process. The process of learning. It may have been enjoyable, it may not have. You might have sweated and cried over countless exams. You might have gained innumerable friends during the process. You could have picked up other skills. Why bother about the results? You have enjoyed yourself in the process, and that is all that matters.

Finally, a proper class outing for the new S18..

2006-08-04T19:15:00.000+08:00

Ahaha, I heard this marvelous problem that I want to include here for everyone's laughter, and to remind that physics is not some useless subject, but a subject about common sense.

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student: The instructor and the student agreed to submit this to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.
I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question: "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."
The student had answered: "Take a barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."
I pointed out that the student really had a strong case for full credit since he had answered the question completely and correctly. On the other hand, if full credit was given, it could well contribute to a high grade for the student in his physics course. A high grade is supposed to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this. I suggested that the student have another try at answering the question I was not surprised that my colleague agreed, but I was surprised that the student did.
I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute he dashed off his answer which read:
"Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop that barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then using the formula S = ½at², calculate the height of the building.
At this point I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and I gave the student almost full credit.
In leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said he had many other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were. "Oh yes," said the student. "There are a great many ways of getting the height of a tall building with a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer and the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building and by the use of a simple proportion, determine the height of the building."
"Fine," I asked. "And the others?"
"Yes," said the student. "There is a very basic measurement method that you will like. In this method you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method."
"Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of 'g' at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference of the two values of `g' the height of the building can be calculated."
Finally, he concluded, there are many other ways of solving the problem. "Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: "Mr. Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer."
At this point I asked the student if he really did know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think, using the "scientific method," and to explore the deep inner logic of the subject in a pedantic way, as is often done in the new mathematics, rather than teaching him the structure of the subject. With this in mind, he decided to revive scholasticism as an academic lark to challenge the Sputnik-panicked classrooms of America.

Hmm..We should of course ponder too about such situations where the answer is technically correct, but is not what the examiner wanted.

Unveiling my new blog!

2006-07-31T20:16:00.000+08:00

Ok, here marks the start of my new blog officially. The background was painstakingly done over 2 weeks, effects all being done by hand, I created the water drop, the ripple, and the Matrix background. Oh, and the crystals at the lower right hand corner is done by hand too. Hmm, a note about the matrix background. If you look closely, you can see the entire class names up there. Ok, a guide to navigating around the site(surprise how you can get to this page if you do not know how to read). The fire dragon leads to my entries. The ice dragon leads to links of friends. The title leads to a description about myself. The water drop leads to the tagboard. And the crystals lead you to interesting quotes, though the quotes arent up yet.

Post your comments about my design on the tagboard! I want to hear how you all think of my blog, as long as you dont flame it.

4th try

2006-07-17T21:32:00.000+08:00

This is the 4th try. Testing the font size and everything

Test

2006-07-16T20:32:00.000+08:00

3rd test: He who bends like a willow triumphs

2006-07-16T19:57:00.000+08:00

Second post, to test the font

Redesigning my blog

2006-07-16T19:54:00.000+08:00

lol, i am redesigning my blog, this is a test post.