Amalgamation of results

For all the hard work and sacrifices made over the past 4 years, everything boils down to a number: 4.26.
An insipid way of putting an end to my undergraduate life? Maybe. But that's exactly what I felt as I opened the website to check the results of my last semester in NUS -- nothing to look forward to now, no more next semesters to strive harder.
That number appears like a divider that separates the me inside with the real working world out there, and at the same time, it works like some sort of a password that opened up a sieve from which quantum of realities seeped in.
In other words, I just don't feel prepared. Perhaps I should pick up a master or PhD course to avoid the world out there? Perhaps I'm just being the usual persimist that I am?

Am I satisfied with that number? With some permutations, I managed to derive 6 numbers out of the original 3, and made a TOTO bet. Needless to say, from the outlook of this post, I didn't win. Not even by a margin -- not even one number pops up.

But I digressed.

This semester's results, a mixture of jubilation and disappointment. Ecstatic over the A that I bagged from Economics ("ooh, you took Econs? That is reserved for A level Econs students! You'll never get A!"), dampened over the B+ that was given for my FYP (all the sweat and blood and sacrificed EPL matches..) and EE4218 (the only B I've got for a technical module). That A+ from Operating System was sheer luck (SoC students you suck!).

In retrospect, I aimed to be a small time engineer (little responsibilities, job stability, quality work-life balance) when I first joined NUS. Then I had a slip in year 2 semester 1, which made me looked bad. For subsequent semesters, I strive hard to prove myself, that even if my ambition is small, I still have the intellect. Then I got addicted in bagging As for modules. I don't have any idea that competition and striving for excellence can be that addictive. Just like breaking the second wind while one jogs, you'll have to experience it to really understand how I feel.

EE2001

There is this major project where all NUS EE and CPE people must go through. It is like the JCC course of the infantry, the hell week of the navy, and whatever nightmarish course you have for the air force.

This is EE2001, and when I did it, it was one hell of a semester (and it was my best semester too). EE2001 sort of like wraps up the entire year 2 syllabus -- in other words, when you reach this project, consider yourself to have reached a milestone. Give yourself a pat, and then prepare for year 3 and beyond. For those people who had done this before but hadn't noticed, EE2001 is the first of the many projects where tutors literally 丢你去死. Very little help was given. Tutors ignore emails, there's no lecturers to consult, objectives are vague, schedules and deadlines doesn't make sense -- much like the world we live in right now.

That was like 2 semesters ago when I did the project. Anyway, something to share with the younger NUSians (or whatever you called NUS people):

Ta-dah! The end product. The exterior walls can be removed to reveal the inside. We planned to do a transformer-like style of auto-transforming this part -- that would be spectacular. Then someone with the heart went to spoil it , saying it can't be done.

Note the plastic wall. Pretty eh?


Rocks! Can you even imagine?? Anyway the whole thing became so heavy, that the base wraps and dents


The lateral view


Interiors


The plastic walls again!


Bird-eye view of interior


Sick attention to details: we've got doors for the model


The aftermath


Everyone pretending to be busy for this shot

By the way, EE2001 is about envisioning the future of smart homes and then translating these visions into real working models. Our home consists of many modes of operations, each mode activates accordingly to the mood of the current user. Of course, to detect the moods, we use the MOTT chip (MOTT == mood-O-thematic-translator?) that was taught to us in an earlier module. However, the MOTT chip uses a lot of power. It jumps to 12A whenever the module is attached to the other circuit boards. We had to buy a $100 power supply just to install this MOTT chip into our home.

Another interesting feature of our home is the "earthquake eliminator" feature that we built with the zero-gravity drive. The ZGD is actually pretty useless for anything heavier than 5kg. In fact, we went through a lot of trouble to fit everything under 5kg. Once we complete that part, you can actually see the house floating on air, pretty cool actually.

The ZGD leads to another problem: we had installed the ZGD too early during the development phase. Whenever we fix new things onto the house, the ZGD couldn't decipher the new weight-points and cause the house to wobble whenever we switched it on. In the end, we have to spare manpower to tweak and configure it whenever new stuff are added. Consequently, our house is actually slightly overweight, at about 5.5kg, and hence wraps when the ZGD is switched on.

Finally, one last eye catching feature is the "room with full LCD screen". Imagine walking into a room that is fully clothed with LCD screens on all walls. The idea is to transport users to environment that suit most to the user's current mood. E.g., beside the seaside when the weather is hot, right beside the lava pit when the weather is treacherous -- you get the idea. We fitted one full room with Sony PSP LCDs. Surprisingly, PSP LCD is the cheapest source of small screened full-colored LCD. Normally one would cost near $1k. The hardest part of this is to join the few LCD screen to the controller chip. Thereafter, the programming is straight forward, although interfacing with the MOTT chip is quick tricky again.

In the end, we managed to bag an A from the hard work we put into this project. Simply saying "hard work" is really an understatement. I remembered sleeping just 3 to 4 hours a day for a week to rush for a deadline. Before EE2001, we were just another student lurking around, you know, just lurking around thinking its great to be in college. After EE2001, we grew up, became more responsible, experienced the threats of deadlines, tasted the bitterness of trials and failures, and moved one step closer in becoming an accomplished engineer.

(Double) Glory! Man United!

OK, my heart haven't beat this wildly watching soccer since Liverpool bested AC Milan in 2006 -- not especially so this semester as most EPL times are actually spent doing my FYP.

My heart skipped a beat last night as John Terry slipped while he took the fifth penalty from the 12 yard spot. For those who weren't there (Kiam and Law who put aero plane..), Ah Niao's expression by the way was priceless.

Last night was history, and this post makes me part of this history. (Years later, when Earth is reduced to nothing but piles of rubbles and trash, aliens from outer space who came to scavenge will pick up this piece of post and recognize my part in this earth-breaking history.)

Yet when asked if this is Sir Alex Ferguson's best team yet, he answered with a simple "yeah" and quickly turned around, disappearing into the pitch.

Better than '99? Not so. But it feels great to be King of Europe once again, especially when I'm part of it.

Heroes aren't Born. They're Built.

I should post more often. As a start, let's do this Iron Man review.

I remembered Iron Man, with its Proton Cannon super move, is my favorite character in Marvel Super Heroes game. His great arsenal of weaponries and wonderful sense of dexterity (and simple button combinations for super moves) makes him an easy choice. Then I saw the cartoon. As a kid, I don't really like moustached guys. And when Iron man removes his mask, he also revealed the hideous stripes. The bottom line is, Iron man is cool, his controller is not.

Yet, after seeing all the raving reviews from the critics in RT, I was rather hyped up. The trailer, which is a reminisce of the starcraft2 Marine trailer, is done in great taste and style.

However, 126 minutes later, I left the Cathay cinema rather unsatisfied, feeling rather distraughted for not following my gut instincts (of being wary of moustachioed guys) that this will just be another average comic adapted film.

The problem I had it is this: too little action, too much talks. And Gwyneth Paltrow is one unbelievable bimbo, which got on my nerves many times throughout the show. So the great Tony Stark will eventually fall for this gal -- I'm just not sold.

The built up to the final show down with the main villain (Jeff bridges) is too predictable and unimaginative. Jeff bridges had got the words "Main Villain" etched onto his forehead. After the triple-villain showdown in Spider-man 3, come on, Marvel, you got to SURPASS this! And when the suite wore by Jeff bridges was revealed-towards the end, that was one big anti-climax -- that's one big ugly suite.

And the jokes, mostly one-liners whispered by Robert Downey Jr while he works on the suite, are actually quite dumb. The jokes became quite cold apparently when the whole cinema wasn't laughing.

Lastly, the guy who sat next to me during the show had this really bad breath. I wondered how his girlfriend can endure his breath.

Final verdict: 6/10 JJ RT meter: OOOOOO****

31102002

March 14th 2003. The post on march 14th 2003. That post holds a date. An important date: 31102002. Not the day I bought PS2, but the day I met her again at Marsiling MRT. The heart stops a beat. If you are reading this (which as chances goes by, chances are none), I really like you then, and shall we spare a moment just to ponder and wonder, how you and I would be today, if I grab the chances of those yesteryears. But time flies and days were gone -- too quick I'll say.
Then tonight, many days after the yesteryears, I chanced upon this one desolate post, the post that was created by its creator to serve him a reminder (and indeed it served well!), a reminder to an important date.
Met you only once in school (at McDonald remember?) after that fortuitous meeting at Marsiling MRT. You seemed lonely and unhappy. Thereafter I buried myself with work, and never again we did meet. Stopping to wonder and ponder. Rising my head above the mountains of work. If I grab the chances of yesterdays, where would you be? Where would I be?

ORD LOH

On May 6th 2008, 11 am, Singapore time, I'd completed possibly the last examination paper of my life. Just for memorial sake -- and for the sake that a part of my legacy will be stored in bits and bytes forever and ever in cyberspace -- that paper is EC1301 Principles of Economics. Coincidentally, I'd dropped this module in favor of Evolution of a global city state when I was freshman in year 1. So in effect, I had made one big round trip.

Realized I haven't posted.. since I'm in year 2???

That's pretty frickin long.

Modules taken this semester:
EC1301 (Principle of Economics) : Easiest module this sem, but spoiled by the fact that a lot of the contenders are A-levels grad with S-papers in Econs

CS2106 (Operating System) : The only computing module that I haven't enjoyed in NUS is this one. Partly because of tremendous workload (Labs + Tut + Lecture + project + mid term -- how do they add up to 4MCs you go figure out). but nonetheless got one super dedicated and cute lecturer -- Dr Roland Yap

EE4218 (Embedded Hardware Design) : most worthless level 4 module I's ever took. I don't understand why Dr Le had to digress and talk about video codecs all of a sudden. The project was, albeit, interesting, but the subject matter of the module (its a level 4 mod for god sake!) was rather shallow and yawn-inducing.

quarterly update

Great!! The monsoon season is here again! It was raining none stop since last night. Office corridors, cluttered with umbrellas and wet shoe prints. Policemen, wearing bright yellow water-proof wind-breakers. Taxi everywhere, splashing water pools onto pedestrains. Me, missing the sun, get drenched by water everywhere I go.

Right now, I'm working part time in Institute of Infocomm Research, a subsidiary of A*STAR. Kind of cool when you think of it, since everyone there is like at least a master graduate or something. Anyway, my job is to program C++ applications to run something.. something which i shouldn't say here.

How have I been this past year? I got great results in year 2 sem 2. Semester CAP is 4.4. I got greater result this sem: 4.71. How did I manage to get the result this early? https://integral.nus.edu.sg/ui/exam2000a.Homepage. Anyway I think they took the link down. Lots of As on the report card. Feels great to be a student.. Then again, the part time job makes me realised that results aren't everything. I come to realise that I kinda suck at C++, eventhough I got an A in CS1102C. NUS doesn't really equip its student with what they need in the outside world. In the outside world, the geek that sits next to you -- the one that kept talking about hardwarezone, what makes a wonderful web page, programs in some obscure languages, but averages only a B -- wins. He's the guy that knows everything and anything my boss wants to know. I'm the guy who knows everything and anything the exam script wants me to know but know nothing about what the boss wants. What's the world coming to? Look what NUS did to me!

Why Singaporeans are stupid

After 4 and a half sememsters in NUS, I beginning to wonder if there is any bit of intelligence in a singapore student. Let's face it, Singapore is not known to be exporting highly knowlegeable people to the world. Take a look at the list of Nobel prize winners. Anyone of them from Singapore? We are not exporting any arts -- be it movies, music (the few exception ones make it big in Taiwan or China, but come on, that's 2 or 3 from a population of 4 million), bands (yes bands! how many times you heard of a successful band in singapore?), etc. The few that got international acclaim are either so esoteric that only a few came to understand and lauded for their arts, or is really over-publicised by our local news network. Its like winning your high school science quiz and then repeatedly publicised by a loud mouthed teacher. And for those who think Singapore is alleviating their average IQ already because we are importing the so called high tech industries or doing those big funded researches, please lah.. we are the production line workers in Electronic wafer fabs. We are the test tube cleaners in science reseaches. Our engineers got no right, no say over any matters, and those business people with their bloated ego oppressed our every thoughts and views.

And arts students, please, don't think that can talk, act handsome/pretty, act you are enjoying yourself in a group discussion means you are some clever tertiary student contributing to the overall intelligence level in our society. Don't know how many times I was confronted by bimbos or dumbheads debating about questions that goes round and round with "right or wrong" (means it ain't going to conclude) answers. No right or wrong doesn't mean your flukking views are correct ok??!!? BEFORE YOUR TUTORIAL PLEASE AT LEAST FLUKKING READ THROUGH THE LECTURE NOTES. don't think good language can mask your stupidity lah; and can please don't write chiminology essays that requires a good common folk needs to flip the dictionary 10 times over every sentence you wrote. Please lah, we know you used theasarus. And finally, will lecturers in NUS FASS please please please define all those super bombastic technical terms that are used only in your module as you teach or not?

Singaporean students think can talk means clever. Please go to some reading, use the brain to process, then talk, then that's clever.

TK!

Its 6:12 in the morning now. I just watched Tokyo Godfather by Satoshi Kon.
5/5!!!


原来垃圾也可以很美

Remembering the old times

Was listening to Michael Jackson's.. His songs bring back old times..

I remembered..
The time we went to the zoo with Riyang and friends. We were listening to "Will you be there" by Mariah Carey. Then he told me it was sang by Michael Jackson before. I acted cool, and said i knew it all along, even though i don't. I always taught MJ was a rapper

There was one time when I was around seven, I love toys, especially those hang downstairs at the minimarts. I gave $20 bucks to my sis and brother, who were six and five respectively, snucked them out, and told them to buy a $19.90 toy. Mama discovered it, and when they both returned, she had a cane prepared.. Immediately, I pushed all the blame to my young brother.. hahaha.. He was locked up in the toilet and caned.. I can still remember him not able to speak properly yet, trying to explain with his da.da.daa.da. Arghhh.. I regretted that even till this day..

Then there was another time I lost our sega game gear at school, in primary six. When we were home, I just told my bro i lost it in school.. He cried and I acted non-chalent. Big regret number 2.

When i was primary 3, my bro turning primary 1, he bought a new bag. Some branded bag that cost aorund $20 I think. There were many pockets. Then I told him you can secretly take away your friend's wallet and snuck them into these pockets. Brother who was just waking up from his sleep, tell me off to mama, and I get a mouthful..

When I stayed late in school for soccer. Around primary five. Just when i was about to leave, Miss Goh the principal kept calling out my name from my back. Guess she thought i left without permission from school.. (in my days, we have morning and afternoon sessions) I acted blur, acted not listening to what she shouted. finally she caught me, and I explained. Used alot of thens

That I really like this girl from primary school and her name is Chen Qiu Yan. Yes! I said it!

..and another girl from kindergarden and her name was Ruo Xin. Gasp I can remember..

That I was a goody goody boy in kindergarden and when teacher scolds, I blush. And I didn't cry on the first day. And I feel I'm the brightest boy in the whole class.

That I love music, wanted to pick up piano, but it was damn expensive to learn. That I gave up on violin also when its $80 for the violin and $40 for the lessons.

That I don't bear grudges on teachers when they treated me badly. Like Tan Fock Neo. F&N. Haha. And Mrs Wong.

That I thought Diablo was damn cool when my friend shown it to me. That was Ding Wei, but in actual fact, I only like his home.

That I discovered mondays and tuesdays come back, as do may and june, but not 1988 or 1989.

That life will never be the same in JC. Life will not be as good as in Secondary..

That why are the girls crying when we split in sec 2? We are like next doors to each other.

牡丹江

牡丹江
彎成一彎的橋樑
倒映在這湖面上
你從那頭瞧這看
月光下一輪美滿
青石板的老街上
你我走過的地方 到不了的
都叫做遠方
回不去的 名字叫家鄉

鳴誰在門外唱
那著牡丹江
我聆聽感傷
你聲音悠揚
風鈴搖晃輕脆響
江邊的小村莊
午睡般安祥
誰在門外唱
那首牡丹江
我腳步輕響
走向你身旁
思念的光 透進窗
銀白色的溫暖
灑在兒時的床

牡丹江 彎了幾個彎
小魚兒 甭上船
咱們不稀罕
撈月亮 張網補星光
給爺爺下酒
喝一碗家鄉 牡丹江
彎了幾個彎
小暇米 甭靠岸
咱們沒空裝 撈月亮 張補星光
給姥姥熬湯
喝一碗家鄉
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haven't been touched by a song for a long long time. With a beat like Jay Chou's and deep lyrics of 方文山's, what's not to like about this song?

Song's about a guy who's missing his home, which is most likely am old village of sort. But I think the problem is not that the guy coudn't go home -- not that he's stranded in some foreign country or something.. but this old home of his now exists only in his memory..

Worrier me

Ok.. Been a while since I posted. This blog thingy is suppose to be some online diary that's open to everyone.. Somehow this blog seems to be rather lonely..

Time passes really fast when I'm in school. Its sememster 3 in a blink of an eye. NUS wasn't what I had expected it to be. Still, no girlfriend, and my bulge is returning to me.. Sianz.. Going to be the old Ah pui again.. Must jog!!

Ever since the last paper taken on Sem 2, that is CS1231, I developed this lethargic feeling towards studying. A few times i stopped and pondered, why the hell am I studying so hard for? I got no girlfriend. I will become one of the thousands of engineers in the market. I have no goals, no great body, no passion (yeah this lack of passion thingy is getting ahead of me lately. I feel lethargic even while playing soccer! WTF!). Plus, something happened in my family recently, that made me lose confidence in my parents.. I guess I had stepped onto this crossroad of my life, in which I still wasn't mature or prepared enough to handle it.

Sometimes I think that I think too much.. Worry too much. I had been a worrier all my life. I remembered vividly the few occasions my father would bring me out to kai kai when I was a small kid. On board of a crowded bus, me and father have to sit separately on different seats. i always sit the seat in front, so that my father can see me from where he was sitting. Then, there I was, turning my head every few instances or so, to check that my father was still there, that he didn't abandon me, or he dropped off some bus stop forgetting about my existence and stuff.. Worrier me.

Then when I grew older, i worried about my exams, friends, soccer skills, relationships.. Worried about where i will stand in this pragmatic meritocratic city state. Zhishun says I think so much. So do I. What the fuck, i am thinking that I think I think too much. My life is in a mess.

My third sem is fucked up. That EE2012, i knew I wasn't good at it, but i did nothing at all to savage the module. I was in a fucking daze, just worrying how bad I gonna get for the mod. That wasn't me! that wasn't the old Junjie. The old Junjie stood up against his Geography teacher, telling her "That's my answer, take it or leave it." The old junjie is about attitude. Full of vigor and passion. Unafraid. Full of energy at soccer, studies, anything. What had become of me?

Things to ponder:
1) Maybe its because I reversed my bio clock. sleeping during the day, study at night is not good for the body and brain.
2) not enough water
3) not enough excercise. Feeling lethargic all the time.

Remedies:
1) Reverse my bio clock. Make it right. Scrap all late night soccer
2) Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day
3) Go gym 3 times per week, go jog everyday, 5km
4) Get a life, go get a girl!
5) Quit online gaming. That's harmful and unbeneficial anyway

By the way, that's a picture of me in RF online. nice cheap online game, but its in chinese.. Its the first pic I put in this blog.. so watch it while it last

the last quater post for the fiscal year

Named this post as the last quarterly post of the year.. If you haven't noticed, I haven't post for a long long time.. Not that I don't have the time to do so, but this blogging thingy haven't become part of my habit. i mean, the whole idea of "remember to blog!" was tucked way back in some berefted corner of my memory lane.

Exam sucks. And I going through one now. Sianz. Sianz. Sianz.
This morning had that EE2005 paper. Thought its going to be an easy paper. But buang it. GONE FARKED HONG KAN liao.
FNA1002 was ok -- good candidate as an exam starter, boosted my morale really.
2005!! 2005!! Sianz. Was hoping to get an A for this.. now happy to live with a decent B. This sem, my CAP confirm guarantee chop chop chop, drop drop drop. There's also that frickin 2012 which I completely couldn't understand the basic drift of it.. Now all my hopes on 2004. Please dont' disappoint me!

Next sem Jia You!

Found on "Lost" threads..

Lengthy, but read and ponder..

If you drop a buttered piece of bread, it will fall on the floor
butter-side down. If a cat is dropped from a window or other high and towering
place, it will land on its feet. With this in mind, if you attach a buttered
piece of bread, butter-side up, to a cat's back and toss them both out the
window, will the cat land on its feet? Or will the butter splat on the ground?

In theory, even if you are too lazy to do the experiment yourself you should be
able to deduce the obvious result. The laws of butterology demand that the
butter must hit the ground, and the equally strict laws of feline aerodynamics
demand that the cat can not land on its furry back. If the combined construct
were to land, nature would have no way to resolve this paradox. Therefore, they
simply do not fall.

That's right, you clever mortal (well, as clever as a mortal
can get), you have discovered the secret of antigravity! To expand on this
theory, a buttered cat will, when released, quickly move to a height where the
forces of cat-twisting and butter repulsion are in equilibrium. This equilibrium
point can be modified by scraping off some of the butter, providing lift, or
removing some of the cat's limbs, allowing descent.Most of the civilized species
of the universe already use this principle to drive their space ships while
within a planetary system. The loud humming heard by most sighters of UFOs is,
in fact, the purring of several hundred tabbies. Larger craft use the Maincoon
breed and a long ways sliced sourdough loaf.The one obvious danger is, of
course, if the cats manage to eat the bread off their backs and they instantly
plummet.

This, as you all know, happened in Roswell 50 years ago. Of course the
cats will land on their feet, but this usually doesn't do them much good, since
right after they make their graceful landing several tons of red-hot starship
and bewildered aliens crash on top of them.

Tired / childhood

I'm so tired of this life now.. Hope I can find the reset button and start everything anew. Something happened last night which reminds me of feelings I had during my childhood. Ah, good old childhood. When holidays are really holidays, and no one gives a hoot on your opinions. Lovely childhood.
Am working in Pokka now. In one big twisted circle, I ended up working in pokka again. Got to interact with that lobo Jimmy guy. So he's not the ultimate villain I thought he was after all. Anyway, whilst I was working, the sun was beating down on me, then this cool breeze blew. That, reminds me of childhood. When the sun beats, it produce this sepia-yellowish hue or tint on places around me. When the wind blew, everything comes back so naturally to me again. Forgotten memories, forgotten lines I used to chant when I was a child.
How I wished money wasn't invented!
Wrote the following when I was very stressed:
When Pandora opened her box, all the diseases, sorrows, vices, and crimes ever escaped onto poor humanity. Hope was with them, and it came out, last. Don't you think hope is evil too? How could it not be, when it's with them for so long? In fact, it could be the most evil; it clings onto us unsparingly, sends us the jitters when events twist and turn. Hope, is the mother of all evil. It is one evil that spoke to humanity; humanity felt attached to it. Hope brought about the catastrophe humankind wrought to itself. If there is ever one conclusion that hope can thus bring, it is that humankind is doomed to have no hope.

Working at Apple Inc Part II

WTF!!
Reported for work at 8 this morning. Open the door, and there goes the alarm.. What I learnt in army, an alarm doesn't mean shit in real life. No police will come; everyone will look at everyone, thinking who's going to fix that annoying noise that is reverberating inside the warehouse now..
Yet.. About half an hour later, some gal showed up, asked why the door was opened. Then some rude fat ass showed up, demanded who and how the door was opened. Thomas explained. Fatty ass continued to be rude.
WTF.
Then we realised the door wasn't supposed to be opened. It will trigger some alarm. Of course we were suppose to know that, since some obscured sign was pasted saying not to open the door (which we couldn't find even in the aftermath). Fucked up security, and fatty ass is blaming us for that? Why the door's not locked in the first place? And why paste a pathetic piece of warning to warn others not to open the fucking door?
This vacation, I'd learnt something: 1) Admin department is made up of fatty assholes with no proper academic credentials and only pretend to know they know something. Back-stabbing is inevitable, and no one will be by your side when trouble brews.
2) And that this " army's spirits" I had grew to accustomed to is quintessially seen everywhere. Army boys thinking only about ORD, you haven't seen the real world. Fuck. I think army is better, since the job is to cover the ass of the guy next to you when trouble brews.
3) And Security is a synonym for "futile-ineffective-worthless" piece of shit.

Working at Apple Inc

Was actually working at Jessen & Jessen packaging, packing Apple keyboards. But Apple Inc sounds posh right??
The work is alright, except the damn temperature that is around 38 celsius I guess.. No fan, no breeze. Plain hot.
Talking of hot, saw this hot malay girl on the job this morning. Super tight mini skirt, dyed hair, sweet makeup. Looks like a chinese girl at first glance, but her english gave her away. And I thought malay girls are supposed to be religious??
Nowadays, teenage boys have no respect for other people. Our boss was one amiable folk, who did his best to accomodate us to the working environment. All the young boys did in return is to ask and ask for more.. Wonder what they are teaching in CME classes nowadays.. Pissed me off they all..
Felt a bit sick. Could have caught the cold.
More updates later

Went swimmin

Today, I went swimming. Initially, suppose to swim with Yee soon, but too bad, he can't make it in the end. Come to think of it, I haven't been swimming in a pool for quite some long time.. My $70 goggles was covered with dust when I retrieved it from some ancient box in the attic left berefted eons ago.. And the army trunks weren't any better as it was covered with some sticky goo..
Nevertheless, I swam 34 laps. Gasp! That's 1.7km. Kinda impressed myself. My limbs felt so weak as I leave the water.
Anyway there was this couple in the pool that really digusted me.. One times male caucasian, balded; one times plump phillipino-look-alike gal, short. Damn they were simply frolicking and teasing each other in one corner of the pool. You called that swimming, I call that taking up precious space. Before you think I was jealous, you have to see it for yourself. In one disgusting scene, the gal was carrying the man's legs and moves in" f***ing" motions. Sick. Moreover there were like 5 or 6 hot-blooded teenage boys stationed about 5 or 6 meters away from them. Sic.
Tomorrow. Another 34 laps. I'll be as slim as a stick in time to come.

No sitting on fence. Its acceptance, or not. Your choice.

There's this book.. Ok. There's this famous book by Yann Martel, which based its plot mainly on religion, zoology and whether to "choose a better story" to describe this reality. Religion explains reality in a somewhat hodge-podge manner. It has loop holes that postulated more questions than answers. Then there's science. Logic, math, phyic -- stuffs created by people to make people understand more about this universe. In both cases, they left me bewildered.
However, Martel blended these 2 worlds together so well, at some points, that these 2 ideologies seems to complement each other.
Then the choose the better story part.. Example:

I can well imagine an atheist’s last words: “White, white! L-L-Love! My
God!”—and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to
his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might
try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, “Possibly a f-f-failing
oxygenation of the b-b-brain,” and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss
the better story. ~Life of Pi chapter 22

Thought provoking huh? There's more to come. Follow the link and read it. 100 chapters in all. A story that will change your perspective on God.

Interesting Stuff on Pascal's Wager

I was wondering if philophers day-dream about stuff that I just might have thought about before. Then I came across this blog, talking about some Pascal's Wager. Pascal, as in the Mathematician that brought us the Pascal triangle, presented this funny rant, and then his somewhat logical conclusion that: we have all to gain and nothing to lose when we believe in Him.

"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide
nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being
played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn
up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see
which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good;
and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your
happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason
is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of
necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in
wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose
nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

My $0.02 worth: Wow, that was exactly what I had deliberated about on some previous lazy afternoon. Talk about great thinkers think alike.
But then, with so many choices, there is the problem of which God should you choose? If we follow Pascal's proposition, let's put the chance that He exists as 50%. Then the chance that we just might hit the jackpot and receive eternal bliss will of course be significantly lower than this 50%. Say, considering the major religions around the world, which includes Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Taoism, etc, etc, you may get something close to 10% as the final straw. Anyway, I guess that is the point of Pascal's argument. Believe, you may get your 10% chance. Don't, you get zero.

Then, there's these paradoxes that intrigues me. The one about Schrodinger's cat is by far the most interesting, followed closely behind by Zeno's paradoxes on motion.
In Schrodinger's cat, it involves a thought experiment that includes a cat that's put into a box. A small sample of a radioactive material is then put together with the cat into the box, as well as a detector that detects whether or not atoms are emitted by this piece of sample. If it does detect some stray atoms, it will break a vial of cyanide gas inside the box, that kills the cat.. Kinda cruel, but then its only a thought experiment. Come to think of it, great thinkers have somewhat twisted minds.. So, if the chance that atoms are emitted by this sample is 50%, then, without opening the box and inspecting the content, at any instant the cat will be, literally, half dead and half alive. Thus, the paradox.. How to have some kitty dead and alive at the same time?

My other $0.02 worth: The point about this experiment is that quantumatically, you cannot be sure what will be the physical outcome of particles or atoms, until you observe them with your own eyes. That is, you wouldn't know whether the cat is 100% dead or alive, until you peek at the box. Before you peek, you can only guess, and hence before you see, the cat is half dead, half alive. The use of a cat, or the cyanide gas, or the box is totally insignificant, I think. The experiment can jolly well proceed with any other animals, or any other methods to kill the cat.. So if you really can't find any cat around, a dog will also do..
The cruelty of this experiment is probably the mental impact Schrodinger wanted to instill to its audience. Since the novelty of quantum mechanics is hard to grasp and even more harder to accept, an interesting anecdote will keep the interest in his audience, and do the job better.
Actually, to see how the cat is doing is not the correct word in the quantum sense. Since light will be reflected from the particle into your eyes in order for you to see the particle, the momentum light photons possesses would have displaced the particles from its original position. Hence, what you see now is not the position of the particle at this instant.. In fact, if you had studied quantum physics in college, most likely you'll know that on a quantum scale, you cannot know exactly where a particle will be at a specific instant. Instead, PSI functions are used to find the probability at any instant a particle will be. Thus, my guess is that the cat here resembles the particle. You cannot perfectly know whether the cat's state, that is, whether its alive or dead at any instant; you can only use probability to guess. Then again, it will be meaningless when you use your eyes to see whether the cat is alive or dead, since state of this cat may not be its state at the instant you had peek.. Thus the paradox is not why the cat is alive or dead, but that one can only guess whether the cat is alive or not.
Chim right? Anyway, don't quote me.. Its Junjie the philospher at work.. and I'm only a year one Uni undergrad.. Engine student some more..

The one about Zeno's motion paradoxes.. They deal mostly with relative motion, and the what's if and what's not. Its discomforting to know that people long ago, through mathematical logics, had already grasp the concept of relativity, space-time and all those Einstonian thoughts. Clever right? Someone says, if people had pay more attention to Zeno's thoughts, we now could have nuclear weapons in stock at the Seven Eleven near you.

All these great thoughts about life aside, I'm working in Sony factory right now. Not a tough job, but mentally shag.. Imagine a job that is 12-hours shift, in which you only work 7 hours and idle the rest. The idle part is the mentally shag part. Anyway, here's a paradox of my own: Working inside a Sony factory so that I can earn enough money to buy a Sony PSP.. Heck, I can jolly well steal one while I'm at it.. But then I could have be a great philsopher in the future.. Cannot let such details taint my eulogy right??
Also bought Tao Ze aka David Tao's latest.. Wasn't as strong as his last.. He shouldn't have reprimanded Jay Zhou's albums, when he himself couldn't make breakthoughs. Also bought Love Phychodelico's "best of" album. The tunes are great, but the lyrics.. crap. Japanese should stop inscribing english words or phrases into their tunes.. It ruins them..
The last time I count, school is still eons away. Let's keep it this way. Anticipation is half the pleasure, as I always said.